بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

إِذَا زُلْزِلَتِ الْأَرْضُ زِلْزَالَهَا {1} وَأَخْرَجَتِ الْأَرْضُ أَثْقَالَهَا {2} وَقَالَ الْإِنْسَانُ مَا لَهَا {3} يَوْمَئِذٍ تُحَدِّثُ أَخْبَارَهَا {4} بِأَنَّ رَبَّكَ أَوْحَى لَهَا {5} يَوْمَئِذٍ يَصْدُرُ النَّاسُ أَشْتَاتًا لِيُرَوْا أَعْمَالَهُمْ {6} فَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ خَيْرًا يَرَهُ {7} وَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ شَرًّا يَرَهُ {8

 

A`oodhu biLlaahi min al-shayṭaani l-rajeem

Bismi Llaahi l-raḥmaani l-raḥeem

1 idhaa zulzilati l-arḍu zilzaalahaa 2 wa akhrajati l-ardu athqaalahaa 3 waqaala l-insaanu maa lahaa 4 yawma’idhin tuḥaddithu akhbaarahaa 5 bi’anna rabbaka awḥaa lahaa 6 yawma’idhin yaṣduru l-naasu ashtaatan liyuraa a`maalahum 7 faman ya`mal mithqaala dharratin khayran yaraahu 8 waman ya`mal mithqaala dharratin sharran yaraahu

 

By the one who is denoted by the name Allah (who created my being with His Names in accord with the meaning of the letter ‘B’), the Rahman, the Rahim.

1. When the earth (the body) is shaken with an intense quake;

2. And the earth discharges its burdens,

3. And man (consciousness panics and) asks, “What is wrong with it (the body)?”

4. That is the time it will report its news.

5. With a revelation from your Rabb.

6. That day the people will go forth in groups to see the results of their deeds!

7. Whoever does an iota’s weight of good will see it,

8. And whoever does an iota’s weight of evil will see it.

  

The external meaning of chapter Zalzala is what I have mentioned above. However, to confine the meaning of this chapter to this much is like seeing the one-seventh observable part of an iceberg on the water and assuming it to be only that much!

In hope of presenting an example, I have decided to talk more about the inner meaning of this chapter…

The word earth is usually interpreted as the body in the Sufi tradition. So, if we try to discern this chapter in this light, we may instantly recognize the difference between the external meaning presented above…

Based on the truth ‘When a person dies, his Doomsday will have taken place,’^[1] this chapter, which talks about the state of Doomsday, can be construed as talking about the individual’s Doomsday, i.e. the death of the body…

1.    When the body is shaken with an intense quake due to the termination of the bioelectrical power in the nervous system and thus begins to near its end

2.    And the body discharges its hidden point of burden, the Spirit, i.e. the holographic radial body

3.    And man, feeling no difference in his consciousness, becomes aware of the change that’s occurring in the body, begins to identify with the spirit body, and asks in great shock and panic, “What is wrong with it (the body)?”

4-5. With a revelation from its Rabb, the body begins to disclose all of its properties, its system, state and consequence, what the person could have done with it and now that it is disconnected from it, what it is deprived of achieving without it, and how much of a blessing the bodily life was to the person in the past, etc…

6.    So, those who experience death, disconnection from their bodies, will live their Doomsday through death and then be resurrected into new bodies so they may see the results of their deeds…

7.    Whoever does an iota’s weight of good, that is, a good that results from a thought or action that is seemingly insignificant, will find it inscribed in their book and see their products…

8.    And whoever does an iota’s weight of bad thought or action, they will also find it in their book and before them, formed by the waves of their very brain!

 

This construal was in light of the person’s physiological-biological make-up and its Doomsday.

The following construal is in regards to the experience referred to as ‘dying before death’:

 

1.  When existence is shaken with an intense quake and begins to lose its meaning in your sight… When you realize the essence and origin of existence is the Names of Allah and the seeming external world is shattered in your view…

2.  When the meanings of the Names of Allah comprising the essence of existence become apparent and the secrets therein begin to reveal themselves…

3.  When man sees what he thought existed disappear like a mirage and realize that in the sight of Allah everything is an illusion, he will say in great shock and panic, “What is happening to these things? Why is everything disappearing and only that which pertains to Allah is eternal…”

4.  Existence will begin to explain everything to the person whose insight will now be active and open… They will inform him of which unit manifests which name of Allah… And man will understand that everything he thought was other than Allah was actually the manifestation of His Names!

5.  All of this will occur with the revelation of the Rabb, the judgments of the dimension of Rububiyyah will become disclosed though existence, and man will become aware of this!

6.  These people who have died before death will now see clearly what and why they have done things in the past, and become aware of the secrets pertaining to them.

7.  Whoever does an iota’s weight of good shall see its results

8.  Whoever does an iota’s weight of bad shall also see it.

Surely there are deeper meanings than this, but this isn’t the place to extrapolate them. I pray that Allah enables us all to go further than the surface meanings and observe the inner and deeper aspects of all of the verses…

It is inadequate for us to merely recite the Quran in Arabic without knowing at least the general outline of what the verses are saying. So, in any case, we must take advantage of a translation to at least grasp the main theme.

There is a verse in the Quran stating it has been revealed ‘so that it may be understood’… Surely, not everyone may be able to acquire the deeper meanings, but it is more appropriate for those who claim they believe in the Quran to know at least the general meaning of what they claim to be believing in, for clearly it goes against logic to claim one believes in something they have no idea about.

 

As for why ‘Kul huwallahu ahad’ is equivalent to one-third of the Quran… If we were to divide the Quran into three general categories, it would be: the Oneness of Allah, life after death and the practices that are recommended in preparation for life after death. In this case, chapter al-Ikhlas correlates to the first of these.

There is actually a lot that can be said about this short chapter, but here I would like to share as much as the scope of this book allows…

I have tried to comprehensively explain the meaning of the chapter al-Ikhlas in Muhammad’s Allah so I shall not repeat it here, I shall only share a memory of mine regarding this little chapter.