Question 493 - The Enlightening Answer Across the Ether, Vol 5

Ahmed al-Hasan Response:

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers upon Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, the Imams and the Mahdis, and grant them peace. May Allah grant you success in every good. The vision concerns completion of the intellect and the universal Seventh Heaven. When the angels wish to explain a matter to you, they explain it using symbols from this world that you know and can perceive. These symbols are also imprinted within your souls, making it easy for the angels to show them to you. Primary education, for example, symbolizes outward knowledge of doctrines and acts of worship within religion. Secondary education-the six years following primary education-symbolizes the six heavens of the Kingdom, through which a person ascends and rises by applying and acting upon what he learned, so that he may know the realities. That is, he acts according to the acts of worship and struggles against the self, Satan, this world, and its adornment. The result of action is therefore ascent through the six particular, imaginal heavens of the Kingdom. This is exactly like what you did after finishing primary education: in secondary education you used what you learned there-how to read and write-to read books, solve problems, become acquainted with sciences, and obtain information from them. At college, however, you studied for application. That is, through learning at college you prepared yourself to teach others or benefit others in matters they were unable to perform. This corresponds exactly to the knowledge the prophets acquire in the universal Seventh Heaven so that they become prepared for being sent. This likewise corresponds to what a college graduate does: when the prophets are sent, they teach others or benefit them in matters they are unable to perform. The prophets teaching others is known. As for their benefiting others, this may also become clear to you if you consult the economic work of Joseph (a), or his political and social work and that of other sent prophets (a). Regarding your vision in particular, its meaning is that through your sincerity to Allah and Allah’s granting of success to you, you are among the people of the universal Seventh Heaven. The vision gives you glad tidings of completing it through Allah’s favor upon you. As for death, Allah willing, it carries its true meaning: devotion to Allah and the Hereafter after knowing the reality. Ali (a) said: ‘I was only a neighbor whose body lived beside you for some days’ (^[66]). Muhammad (s) said: ‘Whoever wishes to see a dead man walking upon the earth, let him look at Ali ibn Abi Talib.’ I will explain the matter further for you: First: Earth = primary school. What you see with the eye, hear with the ear, and so on does not extend into the Kingdom without action. The person remains earthly; his knowledge does not extend beyond this earth, and his understanding does not extend beyond this worldly life, even if he reads a million million books concerning religion, doctrines, and acts of worship. Look-may Allah direct you and grant you success in every good-at His words, the Exalted: ‘They know only an outward aspect of the worldly life, while of the Hereafter they are heedless’ (^[67]). Those addressed by this verse were not merchants distracted by commerce. Rather, they were religious scholars occupied with studying and teaching religion. Yet Allah tells them: You know nothing; your knowledge is merely worldly and has no connection to the Hereafter. When a person learns, he must act, and action must be sincere so that the person may ascend and his knowledge become real. If you learn to read and write, as in primary school, but do not act upon what you learned to increase your knowledge, what is the difference between you and an illiterate person who cannot read or write? Indeed, the illiterate person may be in a better condition than you if he listens well to the teacher. Are stones not sometimes better than hard hearts that do not hear? ‘Then your hearts hardened after that, becoming like stones or even harder. Indeed, among stones are those from which rivers burst forth, among them are those that split and water comes out, and among them are those that fall down from fear of Allah. Allah is not heedless of what you do’ (^[68]). Second: The Kingdom = secondary school. I will place it for you in equations so that the reason the six secondary stages symbolize the six heavens of the Kingdom becomes clearer. Six years = six heavens. Six stages, one above and after another = six heavens, one above and after another. Applying previous learning to increase knowledge = acting according to previous knowledge to increase knowledge. For this reason, you find it natural that the angels symbolize the six heavens of the Kingdom, ascent within them, or completion of ascent within them through secondary education or the six years of education following primary school. Indeed, it is utmost wisdom for them to symbolize these heavens with this symbol. They wish to make them known to you, and wisdom requires that the symbol for them be close to them, so as to make them known clearly. Also, so that the extent of the symbolic closeness becomes clear, notice that during secondary education you used the instrument you acquired in primary education-reading and writing. But were those alone sufficient for success and advancement from one stage to a higher one, or did you need to concentrate and understand what you read and wrote? You certainly needed to concentrate in order to understand; otherwise, knowledge would not be acquired and there would be no success or advancement to a stage higher than the one you occupied. The same applies to ascending the six heavens of the Kingdom. Acting upon what you previously learned is not alone sufficient for advancement to a higher stage or to a heaven higher and more elevated than the one you occupy. Sincerity is essential. Action without sincerity has no value and does not increase knowledge, exactly like reading without concentration. For example, you may one day hold a book in your hand and read from it while your thought is occupied with a family problem. After closing the book, you find yourself as though you had never opened it. Notice the symbolic closeness between the two and the extent of the wisdom when the angels symbolize ascent through the six heavens by secondary education, for example. Third: College or higher university education = the universal Seventh Heaven. Here, the symbol rests upon correspondence in the name. The Seventh Heaven is a universal heaven, not a heaven of particulars, contradictions, and compatibilities. Likewise, higher study after secondary education occurs in a school commonly called a kulliyyah-college. There is no problem in the name’s origin not being Arabic; what matters is that this is the recognized name of schools dedicated to higher education. Also, as I explained previously concerning education at college usually being for application in external reality: a person comes to college from human society to study there, then, after completing his studies, returns to the society from which he came to teach or benefit human society through what he learned and came to know. At the very least, we say he has become prepared for this matter after graduating from college. Likewise, after a person ascends to the universal Seventh Heaven, he becomes prepared to teach others and benefit human society in a manner that leads to its perfection and rectification. To make the matter clear, I say: the graduates of the universal Seventh Heaven are prophets who may be sent to the people or may not be sent to them. In either case, they will benefit and reform human society, and in either case they will be callers to Allah. Yes, there is a great difference between an unsent prophet and a sent prophet, and this can become clear to you by reading the book The Seal of Prophethood. A question remains that may come to any person’s mind: Can every human being, whether male or female, be a prophet-in the sense of possessing the station of prophethood, ascending to the universal Seventh Heaven, and acquiring the knowledge Allah has made easy for the children of Adam to acquire? The answer is yes. Prophethood is not restricted to men; only being sent is restricted to men. The door of ascent is open to everyone, with no difference between one human being and another: no difference between male and female, Arab and non-Arab, or white and black. The door is open to all within this law: all of this world is ignorance except the places of knowledge; all knowledge is a proof except that which is acted upon; all action is showing off except that which is sincere; and sincerity is in tremendous danger until the person sees how his end is sealed. Everyone is equal under this law. Blessed are those who hear and comprehend through Allah’s granting of success to them. May Allah grant you success and direct you. Please remember me in your supplication. May Allah reward you with good. Peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you. Ahmed Alhasan Safar 1431 AH