LECTURE – 7 : VICEGERENCY AND DEPUTIZATION

The spiritual sciences are classified into three chapters. The first chapter consists of acts and deeds, set up and the creative formulae pertaining to the individual life. The second chapter comprises of creative formulae for the species and the third chapter deals with the Will of the Creator. Man or any species or an individual of a species is bound to live his life in two states of wakefulness and sleep (dreaming). The two states have been mentioned as the Day and Night, in the sacred books. We this thing is taken into consideration, it is found that ultimately the senses are the one and same but they just keep on alternating. When these senses enter into the Night, they become the dreams and when these are operating in the Day, they form wakefulness.

God says, “And, We make the Day to enter into the Night. The Night is drawn out from the Day.” And, this also is the statement of the Creator, “We peel off the Night from the Day and the Day is peeled off from the Night.” Actually the man, who is nothing else than senses, keeps on wearing the diurnal and nocturnal senses alternatively. When he enters into the diurnal senses, the senses become limited and confined and, when he enters into the nocturnal senses the senses become liberated and free.

When we refer to the spiritual sciences, the knowledge of the Unseen Realm or the Invisible World, actually the nocturnal senses are discussed.  Whence the grant of Old Testament is mentioned in the holy Quran, God says, “ We promised Moses for thirty nights and completed in forty.” It is worth noticing that Moses stayed there on the Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights. It did not happen that Moses stayed only at night and in the day he would have got down from the Mount but God refers to this as nights only. It means that the nocturnal senses prevailed upon Moses for forty days and nights and it finally ended up in the form of grant of Holy Scripture.

The night is also mentioned in the event of the Ascension of the Holy Prophet of Islam (PBUH). “Glory upon Him, who took His servant in a Night, from holy Kaaba to the sacred mosque of Doom of the Rocks.” This, too, means the same that the Unseen realm was opened up for the Prophet and God granted him His Company when he was in the nocturnal senses.

After this brief description of the senses now the muraqba would be discussed. Muraqba, in fact, is the name of such an activity in which the mental concentration touches that level whence the diurnal senses transform into the nocturnal ones.

Every type of knowledge, whether it is acquired or gifted, is based upon profound deliberation. Ever-new philosophies keep on emerging with the expansion of research and explorations. This very thing is true for the advancement of the present scientific era. Every thinker reaches a conclusion because of his deliberations in a particular direction and the people who follow his doctrines get involved in disseminating that knowledge.

The more a conscious gets familiar with the expositions or takes lead from the hints and signs contained therein, the deeper it plunges into understanding and comprehension. God has invited the human beings to learn knowledge by giving various examples and parables in the Scriptures of all the religions. For instance, “God is the Light of the earth and the heavens”, is a statement that defines God in an allegorical manner.

The Presented knowledge is like three leaves of a book. Each leaf has two sides or pages. Thus making them six pages in total. The first page contains the reflection of the Beatific Vision of God and the second page is inscribed with the expediencies and the secrets of creation. Third page contains explanations of these secrets and the fourth one is inscribed with the cosmic features. The fifth page is the record of the commands and the sixth page contains the details of the activities collectively.

The whole universe, the Beatific Vision, Preserved Scripturum, High Throne and the seat of Authority, the Realm of the Souls, Heavens, Erebus, the material world, Purgatory, Dooms Day, the Day of Judgement, Hell and Paradise, Eternity and the Final Abode are all preserved in these three leaves of the Dive Book. When a spiritual associate learns to peruse these pages, is acquainted with the secrets of the universe. Muraqba is the basic lesson for having the ability to study these pages. The life stream or the electrical charge flowing through the mind becomes stronger and powerful enough to enable a person to explore the Unseen Realms.

Summery of all these details, is that, the whole knowledge, which God bestowed upon Adam so that he could perform his duties as a vicegerent and a deputy of the Creator. This knowledge, which has also been declared a Sacred Trust, is stocked in three leaves, vis-à-vis, The Great Soul, Human Soul and the Animal Soul or sabita, aayan and jowiyah.

TADDALLA

If a spiritual associate, who possesses the knowledge of the Elohistic Appellations or the Attributes of God, wants to see the whole program that has been chalked out for the existents and the universe for all times of the past, present and future, he can witness it on the screen of the Preserved Scripturum. And, if he intends to see the program pertaining to different species only from out of the whole collective cosmic program, then it can be witnessed on the Second Scripturum i.e. in the Ethereal Realm. The Collective cosmic program is inscribed upon the Preserved Scripturum and every individual has been provided with a link to the Preserved Scripturum thus making the Preserved Scripturum accessible for every individual from within.

The cosmic program, upon its descent, divides into three parts.

1.  The Great Soul.

2.  The Human Soul, and,

3.  The Animal Soul.

The basis of every science is the Knowledge of Appellations. Where the granting of vicegerency of Adam has been mentioned in the holy Quran, it has been elaborately stated that Adam was granted the Knowledge of the Names, which has not been given to any other creature in the universe. And, on the basis of this very knowledge, the angels prostrated before Adam. The Knowledge that God bestowed upon Adam is also called Taddalla (The Inclination).

Man’s supremacy is because of the fact that he has been appointed vicegerent of God and he enjoys the powers that God has bestowed upon him. When a person enters the administrative set up of the God’s Kingdom, he is informed that he enjoys the powers to deputize his Lord and, for exercising these powers, he is given this knowledge that every Appellation of God is actually an Attribute of God that was given to him in the Beginning of the creation in  Eternity. Here man is to include all the individuals of the mankind. This means that the grant of Knowledge pertaining to the Names (Appellations) for acquainting Adam with the Creative Attributes of God is not for one person, named Adam, rather it is a heritage of the whole mankind so that every human being could be an instrument in the Divine Scheme of implementing the Will of God.

In order to get this knowledge in practice and to use it practically, regular performance of muraqba is suggested. Muraqba is not only an exercise to be practiced for the sake of knowledge but there are different types of muraqbas, which are performed for different types of knowledge. As far as I (Khwaja Shamsuddin Azeemi) know there are seventeen types of muraqbas, which are performed for the development of faculties of equal numbers.

If a person wants to explore the powers delegated to him because of the vicegerency conferred upon Adam in Eternity, he has to develop this certitude in him that God is the Most Merciful of all and God has created this universe by the activation of this Attribute of Mercy. And, that God transferred the Attribute of Appellation related to it, too, to Adam. When a spiritual associate performs muraqba of Ism-e-Raheem, the Appellation of Merciful, that is, he concentrates wholeheartedly on this one point that he is an integral part of the God's Attribute of Mercy, the knowledge concerning creation and the creative process gradually transpires upon him.

This very faculty has been mentioned in the holy Quran in the context of the miracles of Christ. Christ could make a bird made of clay to fly after he had blown his breath into it or he could cure a lepers or give sight to a born-blind, in actual effect, Christ implemented the Attribute of Mercy according to the God given powers to him. A creative formula has been disclosed by mentioning the miracles of Christ.

This creative formula basically relates to the fact that the Soul of God is operative in man and if this soul is not there in a person, he cannot be mentioned as an existent being. When God breathed His soul into Adam, the senses started functioning in him. God has stated, "O, Prophet! They ask you about the soul, tell them that the soul is the Edict of the Lord and the knowledge given to you in this

regard is limited and insignificant". It is evident that the knowledge concerning the soul is the knowledge of God and the knowledge of God cannot be labeled as limited, small or insignificant. A part of the unlimited is also unlimited, therefore, it will not be wrong to construe that the knowledge granted about the soul is limited as compared to the Knowledge of God in this regards but this is not true that the knowledge about the soul has not been bestowed or that man cannot have it.

Soul is the Edict of God and the God's Edict is that when He wills something to happen, He tells it to be! And it simply happens. God says, "Man was not worthy to be mentioned the, We breathed our soul into him". The very same thing is told about Christ that he would made a bird from the clay and then, according to leave and the granted knowledge to him, he would blew his breath into that clay and it would become alive. It purports to the fact that when Christ would blow upon a clay bird according to the creative formula, or to say, the Attribute of the Appellation of Merciful, the bird would started flying and when a lepers or a born-blind was blown upon he would be cured.

When God, uttering the word kun ("Be!"), created the universe, the powers of the Appellation Merciful became functional and shaped all the individuals, components and particles of the universe, into their respective forms. His Divine Grace, Qalander Baba Auliya, has termed this very stage as Ism-e- Itlaqiya (the Implied Name). The word itlaq is a derivative of the word 'mutliq' meaning, absolute. After descending, this Appellation entered into the stage of aniya (substantiality) and under the influence of the Attribute of Mercy the Knowledge came into action.

In the stage following the utterance of Kun, the creatures were oblivious of their identity or whereabouts, i.e. they did not know who they were, what they were, from where did they have come and where were they heading. They were just in a state of bewilderment, which is called aniya. And, when God intended to put an end to this state of bewilderment He addressing the existents of the universe inquired, "Am I not thy Lord?" The existents replied, "Yes, indeed Thou art our Lord." When the souls of the creatures acknowledged the Lordship of God, the Attribute of Mercy by descending another step become the Ism-e-koniya (the Controlling Appellation) from the previous state of ainiya.