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Man has
two states of mind: the conscious
and the subconscious. Conscious is the
name given to the mind which operates
during the state of wakefulness and subconscious is the name given to the
mind that operates during the state
of sleeping and dreaming. According to the
teachings of Allah, the senses of the
wakeful state and the senses of the
dreaming state are the one. The only difference is that when we are in the
wakeful state, time and space restrictions apply whereas in the state of dreaming there are no restrictions of time and space. To liberate ourselves from time and space
restrictions we have no other way
except to suppress the senses of wakefulness and to settle our life upon
the senses of dreaming. The current
situation is that the senses of wakefulness are predominant upon us and
the senses of dreaming are suppressed. We are
continuously changing between these two states of wakefulness and sleep.
Sometimes we are in the state of
wakefulness and at other times we are spending our life in the senses that are
free from time and space
restrictions (dreaming). In the Holy Quran these senses have been mentioned in
the name of day and night. It explains:-
‘We enter the night from the day and We enter
the day from the night’ In another place it states:-
‘We take
out the day from the night and take out the night from the day’
In other
words, the senses are the one. It is only
a matter of which one is governing
at the time. The senses of the day are bound within time and space whereas the
senses of the night are not. It is the
senses of the night that are the means of travelling in the unseen world. With these senses man can witness the realm of the
souls (Burzukh), purgatory (Arāf) and the realm of the angels. Referring to Prophet
Mūsa (Moses), Allah tells us:-
‘And we promised Moses thirty nights and
completed them with ten more and so were completed your Lord's forty nights’
Allah is
saying here that in forty nights He granted the Torah to Mūsa (by revelation).
This statement of Allah must be contemplated upon deeply as it is very
important. Allah is not saying that He completed the promise in forty days,
only the night has been mentioned. Obviously Mūsa stayed on Koh-e-Tūr (Mount Tūr) for forty days and forty nights, it means
then that for forty days and forty nights the senses of the night were
functioning within him.
Relating
to the Holy Prophet's Ascension (Mehrāj), Allah's words are:-
‘Pure is He who one night took His servant from
Masjid-e-Hiram to Masjid-e-Aksa so that He could show him His signs’
When we
are in the senses of the night (the state of sleep) we do not eat, nor do we
talk and nor do we deliberately use our mind for worldly issues. This is the
state that the programme of establishing Prayer (Qiyām Salāt) orders us to take
on. During the state of Prayer nearly all those senses come upon us which we
call night.
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.
