The Inner Qur'an

I seek refuge in Allah from the evils of the accursed satan. In the name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate.
May all the peace, the beneficence, and the blessings of God be upon you.1 Brothers and sisters in Islam, no matter what changes occur throughout the ages, the Qur'an is one thing that never changes. It is immutable. It offers an explanation appropriate for every period of time and for every level of understanding. All the meanings it contains could not be written down even if all the oceans of the world were made into ink and all the trees were made into pens. To comprehend the Qur'an, first we must establish our absolute faith, certitude, and determination;2 then we must acquire wisdom; and finally we must delve deep inside and study it from within. If we look into the depths of the Qur'an, we will find the complete neverending wealth and grace of Almighty God.3 We will find the light of Allah, the resplendence of Allah. We will not find racial or religious prejudices, battles, or fighting of any kind. We will find only the benevolence of all the universes. The Qur'an appeared as the beginning, the emergence of creation (Awwal Muhammad), as the eternal life, the emergence of the soul (Hayah Muhammad), as the food, the nourishment for all creations (An 'um Muhammad), as the innermost heart (Ahmad), as the beauty of the face which is a reflection of the beauty of the heart (Muhammad), and as the plenitude, the light which became completeness within Allah and then emerged (Nur Muhammad). The Qur'an is a treasure which continually speaks to our faith. Its verses were sent to Muhammad one by one, according to the needs of the people, the difficulties they were undergoing, and the questions they asked. These verses and chapters were sent to bring clarity to man, from the time he appears as a fetus, as the mim,4 to the moment he reaches the shore of the hereafter. They cleanse man stage by stage. Whatever state he is in at one time of prayer,5 the Qur'an explains the state he should achieve by the next prayer time. In this way, the Qur' an lifts man up, causing his wisdom, his beauty, and his divine knowledge6 to grow little by little. The Prophet said, "Even though I depart from the world, I leave you the Qur'an. That is your evidence. Please keep it close to you. The Qur'an will be a teacher and a learned one to the innermost heart." That is why its verses were sent to mankind. Step by step the Qur'an elevates man; chapter by chapter, it cuts away all the things within him that need to be discarded. That is the purpose of the Qur'an-to eliminate the four hundred trillion, ten thousand degenerate qualities and actions which oppose the truth of God, and to show man how to develop, how to beautify and improve himself. The Qur'an has the capacity to cut away this birth, to cast out arrogance, karma, illusion, and the sexual energies of the three sons of illusion.7 It can dispel man's love for earth, sensual pleasures, and gold. It can drive

away lust, anger, miserliness, attachment, bigotry, envy, theft, murder, falsehood, and the effects of intoxicants. To rid himself of these evil qualities, a true human being must sacrifice and purify his heart for Allah. He must perform the ritual sacrifice called qurban8 for the sake of truth and justice, for the sake of righteous action, duty, equality, peacefulness, unity, and for the love of the one human family. If he does this, he will acquire the qualities, actions, and beauty of Allah. This is the state which the Qur'an depicts, the path of perfect purity.9 This is Allah's kingdom, and He is the only One who protects it, conducts its affairs, and rules over it with total justice. Anyone who acts according to that justice and understands Allah in completeness becomes His slave.10 Such a man owns nothing of his own, and so Allah protects him and looks after all his needs. If a man progresses to this state of purity, if he succeeds in cutting away all these evil qualities, then he becomes a true believer,11 living for nothing other than Allah, and having nothing other than Allah in his thoughts or intentions. He does not concern himself with seeing or hearing others, because no one else exists for him. He sees nothing other than Allah. He speaks to no one other than Allah. He has closed himself off to the sight and sound of everything but Allah. That is why he is called an ummi, an unlettered one. And because he has no words of his own, Allah's words and sounds come through him. He becomes the hadith12 which explains the inner and outer aspects of Allah's revelations. In that state, his body or form is the holy book and his innermost heart is the Umm al-Qur'an. What does Umm mean? It means "mother." The mother who raises the true believer is the Umm al-Qur'an, the mother of justice and faith, the mother of man's wisdom. The Umm alQur'an is the essence of the Qur'an, the eye of the Qur'an. If man will only open that eye, he will know Allah, and knowing Allah, he will hear only His sounds and His words. This was the state of the Prophet, Muhammad al-Ummi. He was unlearned, and therefore, the words that he received could only have come through God's revelation.13 Allah explained to Muhammad the meaning of Iman-Islam, prayer, worship,14 and everything He had revealed to the earlier prophets. Through Muhammad, His Final Prophet, Allah clarified everything for mankind. Of all the prophets, only Moses and Muhammad attained the state where they met and spoke directly to God-Moses on Mount Sinai, when God revealed Himself as a resplendent light, and Muhammad once face to face during his mystical journey to heaven,15 and also in the many direct revelations he received.16 Moses and Muhammad also shared another distinction. They were the only two prophets whose names began with the letter mim. The mim was what Allah created first, and from it He made all of His creations. The letter mim covers the universes of the primal beginning, this world, and the hereafter.17 It penetrates the essence and the manifestation,18 as well as good and evil. All creations begin with mim, and as long as they continue to appear, that mim, the pearl of creation, will exist. It is endless.

Through that mim Allah gave Moses the Ten Commandments and the explanations of the Torah, showing him what was permissible and forbidden19 according to God's law, and what was good and evil?20 With the grace of that mim, Moses was able to perform miracles and to deliver his people from Pharoah. And it was to the mim in Muhammad that Allah revealed the 6,666 verses of the Qur' an. The Sufis say that it is impossible to give a complete explanation of the mim; it can only be grasped by those who search deeply with perfect faith and an open heart. How then is it possible to explain who Muhammad truly is? How can we say when Muhammad was created or when he appeared? Only if we understand the real Qur'an completely can we understand Muhammad. Until a man reaches that state, he will continue to say that Muhammad is the son of Aminah and 'Abdullah. The Sufis call Muhammad the light of the innermost heart. In Tamil muham means face and aham means heart. When the Ahmad, the state of the heart, becomes Muhammad, then the light of the innermost heart is revealed in the beauty of the face. The Sufis also say that only when man comes to a realization of himself and dives deep within the inner Qur'an, drinking from its essence, will the truth of Muhammad be revealed to him in his meditation. Only when he reaches the state where he speaks to Allah alone, can he be said to truly exist in Islam. When he attains that state of communion with Allah, he will understand that the Qur'an and the holy books are his own body, the inner mystical form of a true human being. Such a man will understand the inner meaning of al-hamdu lillah,21 which is the praise of the inner form of man. Understanding the history of the One who is all praise, he will glorify Him alone. Only then can he see this history as one continuous study, an endless ocean of divine knowledge. Otherwise, each book he reads will explain a few points and then refer him to another book which will then refer him to yet another book. As long as he continues reading only those outer books, he will never reach his freedom. My brothers, we must consider how the Qur'an came from Allah, and we must delve deep within it. In order to understand its true meaning, we must be in the same state as that original Qur'an was when it emerged from Allah. It came as a resplendence, a radiance, a resonance, and a grace. Then it came as a light to Gabriel. And when it came to Muhammad, the Messenger, it came as the grace and attributes of Allah. Next Muhammad brought it to us as a revelation. Then the sound of these revelations was transformed into letters and formed into words. What was revealed in those words ultimately became public knowledge and part of history. The interpretations of this knowledge later gave rise to religious differences, divisions, and bigotry, which in turn gave rise to prejudice, fighting, and wars. This is the state the world has come to. We, however, must delve into the depths of the Qur' an; we must experience each step of the way as it originally came from Allah. As we look deeper and deeper, we will see the Messenger of God, and once we see him, we will know how Gabriel came to him and how he received that grace. We will see the light, and if we look through that light we will experience the resonance of Allah within the Qur'an. As we understand that resonance, we will

understand our life and our death; we will understand the Day of Judgment, the Day of Questioning, and the ninety-nine attributes22 of Allah. Once we have this understanding, we will see that all men are our brothers, just as the Qur'an teaches us. To truly see all people as our brothers is Islam. If we see anyone who is in need, we must offer him the water of the mercy of all the universes, the water of absolute faith, and the affirmation of that faith, the kalimah. That water must be given to everyone who is hungry or thirsty. We must embrace them lovingly, quench their thirst, and wash away their dirt. We must offer them love, compassion, patience, and tolerance, just as the Prophet did. This is what will satisfy their needs and dispel the darkness in their hearts. My brothers and sisters in Islam, if we offer peace, then justice will flourish. Love will cut away all enmity. Compassion will cause God's grace to grow in this world, and then the food of faith and the mercy of all the universes can be offered. When that food is given, hunger, disease, old age, and death will be eliminated, and everyone will have peace. Allah and the state of a true human being are right here within us. It is a great secret, hidden within our hearts, within the Umm al-Qur'an. Only if we can study this divine knowledge can we attain our freedom. All who have faith must reflect upon this, understand it, and teach it to those who have less wisdom, to those who have no clarity of heart, to those whose minds oppose us, and to those who have no peace of mind. We must teach them these qualities, give them this food, this beauty, and this nourishment of grace and absolute faith. Every human being in the community of Islam, everyone who has faith, all those who are learned and wise, all the leaders of prayer and the teachers, all those who know the Qur'an-all must understand this. This is what I ask of you. Amen. Allah is sufficient unto us all. Footnotes 1.al-salam 'alaykum wa-rahmat Allah wa-barakatuhu kulluh 2. iman 3. The rahmah of Allah ta'ala 4 mim, the Arabic letter (M ) which correlates to the English consonant 'M.' Its shape is similar to the sperm cell. 5 waqt 6. ilm 7. tarahan: the pathway for the sexual act, the birth canal or vagina. singhan: the arrogance present at the moment of ejaculation. suran: the illusory images of the mind enjoyed during the sexual act. 8. Externally, it is the ritual slaughter of animals to make them permissible to eat. Inwardly, it is to sacrifice one's life in devotion to God and to cut away the beastly qualities within the heart of man. 9. Din al-Islam 10.'abd 11.mu'min 12. The traditions of Prophet Muhammad, often the words and commands of God. In this

context,man becomes Allah's words and sounds. 13. wahy 14. salah and 'ibadah 15. mi'raj 16. hadith qudsi 17. al-awwal, dunya, and al-akhirah 18. dhat and sifat 19. halal and haram 20. khayr and sharr 21. All praise is to God! 22. wilayat SPACE There is not air in space!.. Neither is there water!.. Nor gravitation! Space is dark!.. Cold!.. Senseless! Space is alive"!.. Conscious".. It has "waves"!.. It envelops the hell; which means nothing at its sight!.. It embraces heaven, feeds it with Its milk and watches Its wonders!.. Space is comprehensive It makes ins, jinni and angels existent within Its own existence Watches Itself in them all All that is in the air, in fire, in earth and in water... In all beings that come to being from those It makes all things "alive" with Its own being!.. We survive on air, water, earth and fire!.. Space is our fifth element! We come from space and go to space, if only we can go! Space is "esma"! Space is mazhar-I sifat (exposition of attributes)!.. Space is an illusion (khayal)! Space is silence, peace and tolerance! You cannot live without a cocoon in space! You cannot merge into space and stay without a cocoon! You cannot come to face the reality of space! Because you are a human from earth!.. You were created from mud, you are fed by earth, nurtured by water and you are alive with fire! You are eating, you are being eaten and you carry on your life within a vicious circle! You, the fifth element Do you know yourself?.. Do you know your selfness that is beyond water, earth, air and fire? Do you know your roots in space?.. Do you know the undivided, unbroken singularity of space? You assume that space is an emptiness without air!. Is dark! Is a lifeless and unaware dull being! Space is actually the breath (nafas-i) of Rahman, is the sultanate of Subhan!.. With It exist all dimensions; in It placed are all the worlds! Within It do all the endless, limitless lives abide! Your heaven is with It, your cocoon is with It!.. Your food is, your water is with It, your love is with It!. If you can save your fifth element from the restrictions of the other four, you will perceive that space is your everything! Everything stands upon (qaim) Its waves All things unfold from within Its waves! It watches through Its waves.. With waves that It becomes "I" and It subsists in Itself alone! How can we know space from our cocoons, at all? Yet we know the water! It sometimes runs out from a spring, emerging to the surface coming out from depths. Sometimes it becomes a geyser, gushes out hot to the earth's surface from depths! Or it flows down along with a path, spreads out life; becoming a river it gets together and becomes a lake, sprouts lives and also sends water to people It collects sometimes to become big, big seas, it becomes oceans and nurtures so many lives that we are not familiar with at all and make them survive in different worlds Sometimes it becomes an artesian well, comes up to the earths surface within a disposition, and becomes a healing power for humans! Traveling overseas beyond oceans, some of them

see and experience the diversity of worlds, and they realize that there are quiet different understandings and lives beyond deep waters While some others remain in their villages or areas of district as blind, deaf and as pretenders being unaware of the worlds beyond deep waters, at all... Waters separate people of different worlds from each other! Water married to the earth and you were born! Don't you know that earth has been your mother, water your father? Your body is the earth, and inside is water! You survive with earth; water gives nourishment to it! How come that fire was born out of earth and gave you health with fire! Kept you alive with its heat in your organs and vessels! Flowing through all your cells from your brain, it carried news to their master again! Radiating out from your brain, it made you come to face with your inner face! White fire, black fire; they balance each other! We will see which one of them will finally eliminate the other! Air! The object that saves the world's life Your cells survive with it, your brain with it, also! Your fire is burnt with it, your water is found with it, also! It is air that you love and show passion and that also becomes your enemy and you escape from! It is that you are either not aware of, or you worship! Earth comes to being from it, fire from it, water from it, your being also from it. Your earth will go into earth, your water into air! Where will you go when your air is gone to air? It descends ( tanazzul) and becomes air, it descends and becomes fire, it descends and becomes earth, and becomes water, it descends and becomes "you"; where you the fifth element, where will you go? Will you keep the earth as your locality (residence), or water, or air, or fire? Or else, will you reside in space, saying, "I reside in nonlocality"? Oh you! The fifth element You, the substance of fifth dimension, that was born out of matter Know that the love of country comes from faith (iman).. Come back to your country! To the residence of nonlocality, to the presence of the FRIEND! Find life with the "Life" Find Spirit (ruuh) with the "Spirit" Know yourself; overpass your body, if you love "I" that is your essence. Recognize space; know space! Space is Rahim, space is Haliym, space is Karim, space is Azim!. Reflected on a mirror, It took the name of "space", created the creation and left Itself separate by Its "name" only. Come on my friend; carry out ascension! Make your life a "miraaj". Carry out salaat, carry out salaam, carry out rahmat with salaat!.. It became a geyser with Its Jalal (Majesty) It became a spring with Its Jamal (Beauty) in its ocean of Qamal (Perfection), It spread out ilm (knowledge) and irfan (awareness) to us. If we fail to make best of this blessing (nimat) and this breath that we take, all the ornaments of our world is then entirely sin to us tomorrow! Come on souls; let us be one "soul"! Let us be haaq (soil) in Haqq (the Truth)! Letting our being go into space, let us be a wave in an ocean! Let us love and be loved; let us please and let us share, life is for Hu, let us contemplate with Hu at all times! Do not nourish hatred, do not backbite, keep your hands off what is not yours, do not look with stranger eyes and do not receive the wrath of your essence - the space!. Do not assume your body as your dimension, do not seek for your place in the sky, "you" are a nonlocal being; take off your clothes now! Rasul has come from his space, gives information from his Beloved, but you say you need the world, that you have nothing to do with the Beloved... Listen my friend, the intend of all these words is that All hearts may be ONE Relations of Space are the rosarium (gardens) of HAQQ! Its attainers are budding roses. Do not assume that space is separate! That Haqq is separate, and so is space, also Unless you know yourself, HAQQ is then separate in your assumption! The intend of all that word is: One who

does not know the ONEness and does not give ear to RASUL, and does not turn toward the Koran, is not to know what the space is, at all. The Purity of the Heart The One without sorrow is the One who can ease our sorrow, who can eliminate our sorrow, the One without sorrow is the One who has the capacity to end our sorrow. This purity has the capacity to ease our sorrow and suffering. A'dhu billhi minash-shaitnir-rajm, I seek refuge in God from the evils of satan, the rejected. Bismillhir-rahmnir-rahm, in the name of God, the most merciful, most compassionate, the creator, sustainer and nourisher. May all praise and praising be given to Allah alone, the one mighty God. Since He alone is aware of that state He does not put great value on praise or praising, nor does He put less value on ridicule or debasement. He puts the same value on praise and ridicule, taking to His heart, as the same, those who praise Him and those who ridicule Him, accepting to His heart, as the same, those who are charitable and those who are not. This is His state, His intention, He is without fault. Later, on the last day, on Judgment Day when good and bad are investigated, when He reckons what must be meted out to each person, only then a person is told, "Because of the things you have done this is your place, because of what you did this is yours. Very well, is this what you were working for, is this what you have chosen? You certainly are My child. Very well My son, if this is what you want you may go there." Then God turns to the next one saying, "Now is that what you wanted? Very well My son, have that because you wanted it." This is the way He decides, but only at the end. And similarly for ourselves, we who are God's devotees, how should we deal with the responses we receive, whether they happen to be praise or blame? No matter if people elevate or slight us, we must treat them equally in our hearts. We should not find happiness in praise or sorrow from something which is not praise, because if we do we have to accept whatever is being given out: if it is praise and we accept it, we must also accept blame. We have to be equally happy with both because God does the same thing, He treats both sides equally. He does not have the qualities of anger, hate, bitterness or enmity. He does not feel hostility nor does He hold one person in higher esteem than any other. He behaves the same way with everyone, He treats everyone with equality. The One who creates, the One who provides nourishment, the One who protects us without divisiveness does not treat anyone differently from anyone else. He makes every life, exalted or debased, as precious as His own, He trusts every life as He trusts His own and He offers love equally to all living things. This is the kind of compassionate heart we must have, and for that reason we must rid ourselves of the dirt lying within ourselves. My precious children, jeweled lights of my eyes, suppose you wear a very clean, very white piece of cloth and one tiny particle of dirt or a tiny drop of ink falls on it. This stands out quite clearly, the dirt or the black dot of ink is very visible, very evident. Now suppose there is a black cow, any mark which is darker black, or even a tiny dot of white is not very noticeable, you don't talk or wonder about it much, but you can't make the cow white. And so in our hearts, in hearts that are perfectly pure, if there

is even an atomic particle of envy or doubt, an atomic particle of divisiveness or a sense of differences, an atomic particle of anger, even if it is so tiny, just as small as an atom, it is readily seen, as a tiny black dot is clearly evident on a white cow. In the same way, this tiny stain on the heart is very evident to God and His justice, it is readily seen there, even though you have to look intently at other people to detect what is there. This is the reason why God immediately notices the slightest thing that happens to any of His devotees and says, "That is not good for you, get rid of it at once, there is a tiny thing in you, throw it away." This is the way God cautions them. He warns them, telling them to wash it away and rid themselves of even such a tiny stain, bringing them to a good, clear point. We have to think about this and make every point in our heart perfectly pure, we must always keep it clean. Precious jeweled lights of my eyes, consider the ocean. Many, many gales and storms push silt to the shore along with the water, and sand is also washed up there. Now people go to the seashore for the air and sit on the beach saying it's healthy, this salt water, the salt air and sand are good for rheumatism and several illnesses. Although there is so much dust, there is so much dirt in the ocean, once all that is pushed ashore the dust disappears, the sand on the beach is very clear. Although all that dirt was in the sand we can still sit there and come away without any of it sticking to our clothes. No matter how much dirt we sit on or lie around in, we should be like the sand at the seashore and make sure none of the dirt sticks to our hearts. Whether we live among sinners, among those who do good or those who do evil, no dirt will stick to us provided we keep our hearts clean. This is a way to make our lives perfectly pure. As the sand at the seashore is so clean and free of dirt, we must make the hearts of our children perfectly pure. No matter where they go to play, no matter what they sit around in we must make sure they grow up with perfectly clear hearts. The lessons we teach them, the way we bring them up depends on what we do because they emulate our actions. They try to imitate the words we use like parrots, they try to do what they see us do. If we become angry a child will demonstrate anger in his or her own way; if we swear, no matter what we do, a child will repeat this. A child learns what we teach him or her and then teaches that to his or her own children this is what follows. We are teachers, we are teachers for the life of our child from the time he is born right until the end. Whatever we teach a child is what he teaches others, a child copies what he sees. If we can present good words, dignified words, beautiful words, words filled with love, with wisdom to a child, he will grow on the path of truth. And if we want to do this, we ourselves must be transformed this is the greatest teaching for a child. A cow or a goat grazes and eats grass, then if it yawns the smell we have is the smell of the grass or leaves it ate. If a dog eats fecal matter the smell which comes from its mouth is the smell of excrement. The odor which comes from our mouth when we open it is the smell of something we ate before. A poisonous snake lies in its hole and it yawns too, when it does we identify the stench easily and say, "O, it's a snake!" We know immediately there is a snake close by when we notice the smell. In the same way, as any animal opens its mouth revealing an inner quality, human beings also reveal what is in their hearts and their intentions when

they open their mouths, what is inside emerges. Now if the heart is in a good state there is a good fragrance, there are good words, we find words of love, compassion and mercy coming out. For others, for those who are filled with aggression, filled with anger, very harsh words might come out. What is in a person's heart comes out in many different ways. Coming from some hearts we find sabr, inner patience, from some shakr, absolute contentment, from some tawakkul, surrender to God, from some al-hamdu lillh, offering all praise to God, and from some hearts we find peace. This means whatever we think inwardly is seen by others outwardly. We have to think about this. My very precious children, jeweled lights of my eyes, our life is no better than the glowworm we occasionally find glittering along the way, an insect with a tiny light on its backside. That light has a kind of phosphorescent material, a point which glows brightly when light shines on it. There is a similar point in man's life which shines without his knowledge, the soul shining between the points of birth and death is also like that, one aspect of the seven levels of consciousness or wisdom. Now there are certain birds, a kind of oriole, which catch these glowworms for the nests they build, nests with one room for the husband, a bedroom for the husband and wife, a restroom, some space to store food and other rooms for their children. They collect paddy and grains in the nest, then when the eggs they lay are hatched and the little fledgelings emerge, the husband is sent to his own room while the mother bird comes to the nursery to feed the babies with bits of grain. The male catches a glowworm and brings it to the nest, sticking the head of the insect to the wall with a little clay as the tail keeps flickering, giving off a greenish light. And so the insect is a lamp for the fledgelings. When wisdom grows in a human being God's power increases in him, when a man grows from infancy his wisdom increases until he reaches the state of son-God, that is, when the soul merges with the radiance of Allah. His wisdom reaches the resplendence of the sun as he is transformed into light, a state in which he is not to be seen because he is transformed into light, God's resplendence. This is the goal of man's life which we cannot say is ordinary or insignificant. Just as a child grows from infancy to a greater size, wisdom also grows that way in us, starting off like a small child, growing within us. Truth grows in us the same way. God, devotion to God and trust in God grow the same way too. There are children of gnnam, children of divine wisdom growing inside man; wisdom is one child, truth is another, God is also a child. Similarly, there are three flames, three lights growing within us this way, three Arabic letters, alif, lm and mm that become the triple flame within ourselves when we make these three children grow. Then we can see them speaking to us inwardly, offering comfort. In addition to that, a state which is serenity and tranquility emerges within ourselves giving us peace, giving peace offered with compassion and love to everyone around. This is the state of celestial beings, of God, of heavenly beings and those with wisdom, this is the state of the prophets. When earth was gathered from the four directions to create Adam (RAL.), God made this one fistful of earth, and as Adam (RAL.) was created He pressed the light of Nr Muhammad on his forehead. The Nr is plenitude, completeness, that light. All the prophets are just one fistful of earth, the whole world is just one fistful of earth, all this is only one fistful of earth to God. For us, of course, it has become a thousand fistfull, for us it is countless fistfuls, but for God it is only a single handful. Within the scope of God's vision, each prophet is only a tiny

ray, atomic in size. He split the prophets into millions and millions of tiny atoms which He has nurtured. When our wisdom, our abilities, our qualities and actions grow inwardly, our actions, qualities and our beauty flourish proportionately. Precious jeweled lights, think about this, if a man is destroyed or ruined by his own actions, what can the annvi do? Annvi means teacher, a teacher of wisdom, of mantras, of good qualities, a teacher who shows his student how to make medicines and herbal remedies while teaching him different things about his life. But if a student chooses to push all this aside, if he decides to say, "All right then teacher, I've done everything you told me to," he is foolish. When a guru or a sheikh tells us something or when a physician gives us medicines we have to try them out, at any rate, to a certain extent. But if a student says, "I am right, I know," he is like a man who ruins himself with his own actions. What can a man of wisdom do, what can God or a physician do? No one can do anything, the teacher can't do anything. And so before we do something, first we have to reflect inwardly, we have to think somewhat about our own life, and also about living our life for the sake of others, for the sake of bringing peace to others. We must show compassion, we must try hard to wipe away the tears of someone who is crying, we must try to pour at least a little water into the mouth of someone who is hungry. We must try to give someone whose heart is suffering at least a little love, soothe that heart and comfort it. If a man is weeping lull him to sleep, comfort him until he sleeps, until he rests. This is the way we should try to uncover the difficulty of every brother and sister. Try to give them the right kind of comfort and peace, this is the way we too, will have peace. But if we are obstinate, if we are stubborn saying, "I can do it, he must come to me," this is not a good idea. God sets out to give nourishment to everyone equally whether they ask Him for it or not. He does this, after all, by Himself, providing everything with His compassion because that is His duty. That is the duty of the One who performs this duty, but a man who is arrogant and claims, "I am capable, I am the one doing it," is not doing that duty. Suppose there are stones on a road, stones which make holes in the tires of thousands of cars, or hurt the feet of those who are on foot, or even cause accidents. Now suppose a bullock pulling a steamroller flattens stones on the road awhile, then leaves it there to lie down in the shade of a tree. Because it's dangerous to leave a steamroller sitting there on the road, whoever takes care of the bullock must come now to comfort it, soothe it, feed it, give it some water, bring it back, harness it and make it pull the roller once again to smooth out the stones for everyone's sake. God goes on His own to the people who are stone-hearted, makes them yield and do what they have to do. This does not mean that God is diminished when He entices them, makes them do their work this is, in fact, a great achievement. A man who makes the bullock work gives comfort to a few people who can walk now with ease. And then suppose we say, "Do we need a person, do we need a bullock to do such things? Can't God do all this?" He can do this Himself, He certainly can. In less than the blink of an eye He can create and destroy, He has all that power to create, to protect and take everything back. He certainly has that power.

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Sometimes God might see a blazing re, He might just look on and let it burn: if there is evil before Him, He keeps looking at it and the evil burns by itself. God created everything, He created each thing for a particular reason, to do a certain thing. It was not His intention to do everything Himself, but He has the ability to control it all, to make things happen that cannot otherwise occur. He shows us anything is possible, He is the master because He demonstrates that what is impossible is possible. He is a Father who says, "You do the work." This is the way God teaches everything and protects us all. It is impossible to describe the splendor, the majesty of the One who is alone, the One who is omnipresent, omnipotent, illallhu, the One who gives peace and tranquility to everyone, the One who rules alone. We must try to foster these very exalted qualities, peace, tranquility and unity, and through this blessed achievement He will know our worth, we will be among the fortunate. My brothers and sisters, God has no form yet He has spoken to all these prophets, to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Moses, David, Jesus, Idris, Isaac, Job and Jacob, peace be upon them all, giving them His admonitions and the commandments which have led us to accept God. We are the children of Adam (RAL.), all of us, and for faith in God we are the tribe of Abraham (RAL.) because true faith in God is exemplified by Abraham (RAL.). For the unity of our birth Adam and Eve (RAL.) are our primal father and mother, we are all the children of Adam (RAL.). For faith, for true faith in God, we are the tribe of Abraham (RAL.). Ishmael (RAL.) is the example of dedicating ourselves, cutting our attachments completely by offering ourselves in qurbn, in sacrifice, to God. Moses (RAL.) came to release us from slavery, Moses (RAL.) came to release people from Pharaoh's slavery. Now what was this slavery? Do you think the Ban Isr'l, the tribe of Israel, were only Pharaoh's slaves? No, every child of Adam (RAL.) is a slave, slaves to everything, slaves to wealth, slaves to woman, some are slaves to gold, to property and land, slaves to satan, slaves to desire, slaves to everything. This is the slavery Moses (RAL.) came to free people from. The Ten Commandments were given to release people from the slavery to all these things, not just Pharaoh's slavery, because man was enslaved by the earth and everything all around. David (RAL.) came for unity. There are the four religions, Zabr, Hinduism, Jabrt, re worship, Injl, Christianity and Furqn, Islam. Now three of these religions existed before the time of Mummad (SAL.), and he united these religions by putting them together on one lap, in unity. Jesus (RAL.) is the soul. God is One, He has neither form nor shape, He is the One who creates and nourishes everyone. L ilha illallhu 's rhullh, there is no god but God and Jesus is the soul. The soul exists as light. L ilha illallhu Muhammadur-Raslullh , there is no god but God and Muhammad (RAL.) is His messenger. As five fingers are united to make a hand, Muhammad (SAL.) brought unity, all religions became one, we all became the brothers of one family. Muhammad (SAL.) came to say there is one God, one father, one mother and one prayer. He brought everyone together praying only to that One in unity, a prayer which brings all living things into a single brotherhood and treats the hunger of everyone as our own, treats every brother and sister as our own. And there is only one truth, one love for everyone, there is one kind of justice we must all have. This is the way Muhammad (SAL.) created a brotherhood of unity. God has neither form nor shape, but He has ninety-nine wilyats or powers which are His qualities, His actions and the conduct He resonates with, revealing the way He created. Who

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is God? He is the ninety-nine qualities, He is only to be known through His ninety-nine qualities. His qualities are what we can know as God. The qualities of God, His actions, His conduct, His duty and that truth must be alive in a human being. If they are alive in a human being, if a man puts those qualities into action within himself, this is God. When God's qualities operate in man those duties and qualities are the form of God, He has no other. The three thousand gracious attributes of His ninety-nine qualities are the gracious attributes protecting every living thing, helping every living thing with that compassionate grace, God's grace which soothes every life, which protects and comforts every life. The action emanating from those qualities which are the light of God, the beauty of God and His majesty, this is the form of God who is without form or shape, this is the quality that gives God form. We must cultivate those qualities in ourselves, and if we do, we can perceive that value, we can recognize God within ourselves, we can see the light, we can see the beauty and color within the light, we can perceive joy. This is certain. We must make God's qualities grow within ourselves, we must foster that truth and make it grow because this is unity, this is the highest ideal for mankind, an ideal which will bring us peace. My precious jeweled lights, each of us must think about this. May God help us all, may He guide us on a straight, true path. May He protect us here, both here and hereafter, may He reform our hearts, transform our hearts in every way. Make my children live in unity, O God, and take me to You, make them live with the highest ideals, make their good hearts shine like crystal. My precious jeweled lights, O God, may You unite them and accept all my precious children as Yours, may You accept all responsibility for my children, O God, and protect them. mn, mn. Bless them with a life free of illness and free of want. May these prayers be heard, may they be fulfilled. mn, mn, as-salmu 'alaikum wa rahmatullhi, may the peace and blessings of God be with all of you. 71st,72nd or 73rd In addition to the five-times prayer, God Almighty ordained the five obligatory duties for the Muslim community. These too are weapons of Islam which help us to overcome hell, satan, and evil qualities. The first obligatory duty is to surrender to Allah with absolute faith. For those who do this with perfect certitude, the second duty is to worship Allah alone, without thinking for a moment that He might have any equal or any partner. Those with such faith glorify the name of Allah in every one of their 43,242 breaths inhaled and exhaled daily. Their focus is on Allah alone. Allah is their grace, their soul, their food, and their wealth. Such people are known as the seventy-third group. Of the seventy-three groups of mankind who are the descendants of Adam, only that one group with perfect faith is in a state of pure Islam. Of the other seventy-two groups, seventy have no faith in Allah.

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The two remaining groups do accept and worship Allah, but they also have a selfish desire for the world and a love of earth, gold, and sensual pleasures. Allah addresses these two groups in the Qur'an: "You who have accepted perfect faith! Whatever wealth you have does not belong to you, it belongs to Allah. Therefore, give charity to those who are in need, feed the hungry, take care of those with difficulties, share the food and nourishment of Allah with others." This is the third duty, that of true charity, which was made obligatory for those two groups of people, so they would recognize the lives of others to be as valuable as their own and comfort and care for them as they would for themselves. But for those who did not observe the third duty correctly or understand its full significance, Allah ordained the fourth duty of fasting so that they might come to a realization of the suffering of others. Allah told them to undertake a compulsory fast of thirty days in succession and an optional fast of ten more days. The purpose of fasting is to become aware of your own hunger pangs and your own suffering. That is true fasting. If you understand that, you will share your food and wealth with your brothers. But because this duty was not observed or understood correctly either, Allah ordained the fifth duty of pilgrimage. True pilgrimage is to enter the state of dying before death. For the poor, who cannot afford to go to Mecca, pilgrimage means gathering together for the traditional Friday noontime prayers in their own town or city. For the rich, pilgrimage means going to Mecca and Medina. Before making this journey the pilgrim must give away all possessions, return his wife's dowry, distribute his wealth, and be dead to the world. He is even clothed in a white shroud like a corpse. Charity, fasting, and pilgrimage-these

three duties were made obligatory for those who had not fully comprehended the first two duties, to have faith in God and His Messenger and to worship only God .
However, those in the seventy-third group have nothing to give. The only things they receive from Allah are His grace and the wisdom and comfort of the Qur'an and the traditions of the Prophet. Since these are all that they receive, these are all that they can give as charity.

The seventy-third group goes directly to heaven without any judgment, but the other two groups will have to face the Day of Questioning. For them there is a Judgment Day. For the other seventy groups there is the hell of the world. The Qur'an and the traditions of the Prophet give evidence of this. My brothers in Islam, beyond these five outer weapons, Allah has also given us six inner weapons, which the Sufis have explained. If you go deep into Allah with the certitude of unwavering faith, you will see that within this eye of yours is an inner eye, which can gaze upon Allah. Within this nostril is a piece of flesh, which can smell the fragrance of Allah. Within this ear is a piece of flesh, which can hear the sounds of Allah. Within this tongue is a piece of flesh, which can taste the beauty and the divine knowledge of Allah and know the taste of His wealth. Within this tongue is also a voice, which converses with Him and recites His remembrance in a state of total absorption. Within this innermost heart is a piece of flesh where the eighteen thousand universes, the heavens, and His kingdom are found. And there

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the angels, the heavenly beings, prophets, and lights of Allah prostrate before Him. Allah's throne, His gnostic eye, His justice, and the divine pen are there in His palace, where He rules and passes judgment. And in that palace is an inscription saying, "There is no god but God. He is the One who rules the universe, the world of the souls and all of everything." This piece of flesh within the heart contains the wisdom, which can discover that palace of Allah.

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