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Allah
ordered Adam:-
‘O Adam!
Reside here in Heaven with your
wife, and eat and drink happily from whereof you
like but do not come near this tree or you shall be amongst the transgressors’
Until
Adam and Eve did not commit disobedience they enjoyed Allah's blessings in
Heaven. When they committed disobedience the atmosphere of Heaven could not
tolerate them anymore and refused them. They got thrown into the ‘lowest of the
low’ (Earth):
‘And We created man of the best stature and
then We reduced him to the lowest of the low’ (Sūrah Tīn, 4)
There
are two minds operating within man. One is the
heavenly mind; that status of Adam before he
committed disobedience and the other mind
is the one that came into
existence after disobedience. Adam, who was given authority by Allah to
exercise his free will, had only one
mind operative in him whose
characteristic was to spend life in obedience. When Adam using his
choice of free will committed
disobedience, a second mind came into existence which was based upon
disobedience. Until Adam and Eve spent their life
within the sphere of the heavenly mind they were free of time and space
restrictions. When they acted against the order of Allah, time and space restrictions were imposed upon them and
the free mind became imprisoned and
confined within difficulties and hardship. To spend life after becoming restricted in
time and space Adam had to devise new methods. For example, in order to fulfil the demand of
hunger and thirst he had to set up a
cultivation system and carry out hard labour. As
well as this he had to
undergo a lot of wait, whereas in Heaven there was no such thing as wait. Adam admitted his
mistake to Allah and pleaded for forgiveness. Allah said to Adam:
‘We will
be sending our chosen people who
will guide you to the straight path
and those who act upon the guidance of those prophets will be permitted back in their home; Heaven once again’
When
Adam disobeyed Allah the link between him and Allah was broken. Because this
link was temporarily broken the heavenly mind
refused them. There is an
Arabic proverb that says, ‘Everything
yearns to return to its source’.
Therefore, to achieve the mind that is free of time and space restrictions we
will have to employ the same method
that we used to lose it. Using our
choice of free will we will have to reject
this mind in which we are enclosed
within, the mind that caused us to move away from our liberated mind and lose the link which we had with
Allah in Heaven. To search for this
connection and to retain this
connection has been termed as ‘Qiyām Salāt’ (establishment of Prayer) in the language of the Quran. Allah orders
us to ‘establish Prayer’ in other
words, to establish a link and relationship with Allah
-
such a
relationship that stays firm and established in
every state and situation in life.
When we
want to achieve something we usually have to negate ourselves, in other words, give less importance
to ourselves. We also have to sacrifice our time and our mental and
physical health. Success in our
mission will be in proportion to
this sacrifice or negation. The more we sacrifice or negate the more success we
will achieve.
KHWAJA SHAMSUDDIN AZEEMI
Mehrāj means to enter the world of the unseen. When a believer attains Mehrāj through prayer, Angels appear in front of him. He travels through the Heavens, and through the blessings of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) he comes to know his Lord.
