Tweet
Seven thoughts. I hope they connect. Salams.
And He taught Adam the names of all things; then He brought them within the ken of the angels and said: “Declare unto Me the names of these, if you are true.”
They replied: “Limitless art Thou in Thy glory! No knowledge have we save that which Thou hast taught us. Verily, Thou alone art all-knowing, truly wise.”
Said He: “O Adam, convey unto them the names of these.”
And as soon as Adam had conveyed unto them their names, God said: “Did I not say unto you, ‘Verily, I alone know the hidden reality of the heavens and the earth, and know all that you bring into the open and all that you would conceal’?”
And when We told the angels, “Bow yourselves before Adam!” – they all prostrated themselves. Not so Iblīs, who refused and gloried in his arrogance: thus he became one of those who deny the truth. (2:31-34)
One.
Adam had knowledge (lets say connaissance as opposed to savoir) of all things. He was well acquainted with every single human being alive. He was entrusted with the care of the Earth.
It’s interesting to notice that for humankind, regardless of the long passage of time (“How far we’ve come!”), the Adamic example still resonates very closely with people. Regardless of persuasion, our societies generally endeavour to know and understand the world we live in, in order to make the best of it. If pursued correctly, this pursuit of knowledge and understanding is a search for Adam’s names. Islam is about returning to one’s Origin. The journey from self to Self: back home to Eden. We are born once and none has more than one birthplace. Similarly, our end in this world is solitary in our graves. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust - Adam to Adam*. And what blessed dust! It’s this odyssey in the middle that’s complex.
“Life’s tough.”
But God taught Adam all the names. Adam knew the names of everything.
*In Genesis, the word Adam (meaning “Adam”, or “man”) is related to adamah - “earth, dust”
Two.
Dunya is the commonly used word in Arabic for this phenomenal world. Dunya is an adjective, the feminine form of Adna – the lowest; furthest. However, the root verb dana has connotations not just of lowering and distancing, but also of advancing towards an object (Quran 53:8 – Thumma dana fatadalla: “Then he approached and came closer.”) The Dunya-world is continually oscillating.
Classic Muslim literature sometimes referred to a mysterious bird called, in Arabic `Anqa’, and in Farsi, Simurgh. An enormous, beautiful heron created by God with all the attributes of perfection, and posessing the knowledge of all ages – but then later it fell from beauty to profanity, becoming a plague which had to be killed. Stories go on; however, and say that after its death, a small worm feeds off of the remains of the creature, and thus slowly starts to acquire its beautiful wings; this small worm eventually develops and emerges again as a new `Anqa’. Abdal Hakim Murad postulates that we are currently in the midst of the Third Fall.
The Arabic word for world is `Alam – something by which one knows or knowledge is obtained. A tool. And depending on how we treat the knowledge we receive, we can make our experiences therein either rise toward fullness and perfection, or lower it toward plague and corruption.
Whereas Dunya changes all the time, `Alam remains the same.
Three.
There’s a story of the first Christian missionaries who came to the area of what are now the British Isles, when her people still followed ancient Druidic religions. At the time, the main centre of community and living was a long house called the mead-hall. In it, people were married, they feasted there, and the chiefs would govern therefrom. The story has it that one such chief embraced the new faith, along with all of his people. When asked about what they had gained from it, he simply stated: “We were a people in the mead-hall; there were no windows, only one door at each far end. It was storming outside, and we sat huddled around our fire, scared. Suddenly, while we were in this state, the wind blew open the doors of the hall, and a beautiful bird flew in one end, through the hall, and out the other. We don’t know where the bird came from, or where it went, but we know it came, and we know it went somewhere. And that has made all the difference for us.”
They met the Simurgh.
Its one of the most fundamental human questions – Where do we come from; where are we going? And they used to have the belief of “Life’s tough, and then you die.” The Quran talks exactly about that belief:
“Does he promise that when you die and become dust and bones, you will be brought forth again? Far, very far is that which you are promised! There is nothing but our life in this world! We die and we live, but we will never be raised up again!” (23:35-37)
Have you seen him who takes his own vain desire as his god?……they say: “What is there except our life in this world? We die and we live, and nothing but time destroys us.” But of that they have no knowledge: they merely conjecture. And when Our Clear Signs are rehearsed to them, their argument is nothing but this: They say, “Bring back our forefathers, if what you say is true!” (45:23-25)
We can claim that we’re just evolved apes, and to this Allah can tell us, Kounou Qiradatan: “Be apes!” We can say that we’re just recycled parts in the Circle of Life, being made and destroyed only by the passage of time, and it will not give us much more to live for… But imagine that one day when suddenly “the Turk of the Morning, with sabre and golden buckler, cuts off the head of Black Night, so that the world of illusion bathes in the radiance of the Sun“: that day when I come to a realization and acceptance that I am the son of Adam or the daughter of Eve! (Yes! It merits an exclamation mark!) What a difference it makes; we have noble and prophetic origins, we were born in the gardens of Paradise. Likewise, if we are going to be inheritors of Adam’s lordship, and if we are to rejoin him back home, then we must give proof of our lineage.Have you seen him who takes his own vain desire as his god?……they say: “What is there except our life in this world? We die and we live, and nothing but time destroys us.” But of that they have no knowledge: they merely conjecture. And when Our Clear Signs are rehearsed to them, their argument is nothing but this: They say, “Bring back our forefathers, if what you say is true!” (45:23-25)
The believers have won through… It is they who are the inheritors. (23:1 & 10)
What do they inherit?“…the ones who will inherit Paradise: they will live therein forever.” (23:11)
Four.Adam knew everyone on a personal basis. He was the trusted custodian of the planet.
I haven’t come across any other wording that so perfectly and exactly demonstrates the sentiment, so I will allow our teacher Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad speak:
The modern world is in a panic about its departure from nature. The seas, air and rivers are rendered impure by industries which are the expression of human greed and the hatred of simplicity. Alzheimer’s disease, asthma, AIDS and male infertility are spiralling hints of the collapse of the species. The Rio conference urged a reduction in emissions, and hence of certain forms of production, but failed to explain how the forgotten virtue of zuhd* might be made attractive again to people whose religion has lost its appeal, and who hence worship their pleasures and themselves. Ordinary people indicate their unease by buying organic produce, using aloe-vera shampoo, and shunning the synthetic wherever they can. And yet this is a return to form, not to content. It is idle to recommend a ‘natural lifestyle’ if one adopts it only as a style rather than as a significant affirmation of a cosmos that has a source and a destiny, and has been created to support humanity in its life of worship and affirmation of the Real. (Abdal Hakim Murad, The Sunnah as Primordiality)
I am currently reading a book called On Love in the Muslim Tradition by Rusmir Mahmutćehajić. In the portion I read today (from what I understood), he talked about how “evil” does not have by itself any primary nature. The act of self-transgression which I perform puts me in a situation given to me by Allah, and shows me where I stand in relation to Him. The true believer is ibnu waqtihi–son of his moment. My father always reminds me that Allah’s Quranic principal of khalqun jadeed (“new” or renewing creation) is that at every moment, the world is in continuous re-generation and re-creation. Each moment, in some respects, is a new life. I must decide now on how to react to this state. My misdeed may open my eyes to recognize a gulf existing between myself and Allah, acting as a catalyst for my approach to Allah, returning to Adam’s path. My return flight. Crisis is a catalyst. We say Alhamdulillah in states of sin and purity. Our beloved prayed, (salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam): Abu’u laka bi ni`matika `alayya wa abu’u bi dhanbi, fa’ghfirl li. – “O God! I return to you by means of your blessings on me, and by means of my sin; so forgive me, please!”Thus, just like the Simurgh rises back to glory from a decaying corpse, perhaps we will see that the disconnected condition of hearts from God – blinded from Oneness, and from Adam – has lowered the human household into conflict, economic exploitation, deforestation and domestic issues. It will become evidently manifest that we can not survive like this, and the only way of change will be through sharing from each other’s wisdom, traditions, and moral inheritance. A return to the Originator (al-Badi’) and to the Spirit (to Self, fleeing from self) is the only solution. Some people have noticed this, and it is getting progressively clearer.
*Zuhd is the Islamic term referring to a way of life emphasizing temperance and moderation, the freedom of the heart from being bound to worldly attractions: being in the world, but not of it.
Five.
The human race is all continually trying to arrive back at its Adamic source. Their Fitra dictates it to be so, however obscured their path may be. “Others are our fellow-travellers, even if they have lost the road.” (AH Murad) However, whether through technological advancement, New Age movements, or aloe-vera shampoo, and fair-trade coffee, we will not cure our hysteria and panic about the fate of the human race, nor will we set the planet aright without a total return to Adam’s Path. Narcissistic spirituality only provides personal fulfillment and contentment at best, but by itself has a very restricted peripheral vision. While allowing individuals to positively alter mindsets and lifestyles, there is no set standard by which to determine and discern between ethical principles, which are left for the greater part to the disposition of the individual. Justice can not be left to the changing passions and whims of people acting on their inclinations based on individual and collective limits of understanding.
Six.
Adam knew the names of everything. God taught Adam all the names. Adam was the trusted guardian of everything on the surface of the earth. And this responsibility to foster and minister the world was delegated to him by God. This guardianship which the human holds over the planet sets the human apart from other animals. Accordingly, he must know his whole planet in order to fulfill this role. His knowing must not be a scientific, taxonomical knowlege, but rather an intimate connaissance of the value of every person, object, resource, situation, matter and creature. Adam was not taught simply the words of everything, but their names, indicating underlying meaning and worth.
What does it mean for Adam to be the first human? And likewise what does it mean that we ourselves are such? I am not my actions, nor am I my thoughts which wander and change 200 times every minute. I am not even the soul which is weak, forgetful, and follows the sway of passions. To declare any of these is to make the human naught except another animal. The human being on the other hand, is of noble origin. There are a few lines of Arabic poetry which express this:
Ya khadim al-nafsi kam tashqa li khidmatiha?
A-tatlub al-ribha mimma fihi khusranu?
Aqbil `ala al-nafsi wa ‘stakmil fada’ilaha;
Anta bi ‘l-rouhi, la bi ‘l-jasadi insanu.
Slave! How long will you wretchedly serve your soul?
Do you seek fortunes from one who is bankrupt?
Engage your soul and perfect its virtues;
You are a human by the Spirit, not because of a body.
Not being thought, nor feeling, nor a soul’s passions which slips, (or “thinking meatbags”) who then are we? This question has the Modern World in a frenzy, but without an attachment to Adam and thereby to the Lord of Adam, we will never find a suitable answer. In the Quran, it states, “we have ennobled the progeny of Adam.” (17:70) Karrama Allahu Wujuhana. May God ennoble our faces. We are created as humans to know God.A-tatlub al-ribha mimma fihi khusranu?
Aqbil `ala al-nafsi wa ‘stakmil fada’ilaha;
Anta bi ‘l-rouhi, la bi ‘l-jasadi insanu.
Slave! How long will you wretchedly serve your soul?
Do you seek fortunes from one who is bankrupt?
Engage your soul and perfect its virtues;
You are a human by the Spirit, not because of a body.
Man Arafa Nafsahu faqad arafa rabbahu. Whoever knows his nature shall know his Lord. (Hadith)
Ahhha!
Seven.
The only way that humans will be able to save themselves from their downward state is to return to Oneness, and to Fullness, as was gathered in the Master, Adam, peace be upon him… The children of humanity are the Simurgh.
Allah calls Himself by two names: al-Qabid, al-Basit: The Expander, and the Constricter. Likewise, the our hearts are systolic and diastolic. Their two states are constriction and expansion: all the same with the function of the communal heart. The more constricted one is, the more potential that the expansion will be Great.
When the believer comes into the Divine Marketplace, he says “I want everything.” So he pays everything.
Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller once said to us a few years ago, in Toronto: “The bad news is that you trashed the planet. The good news is that Allah is still Allah.”
Allahumma salli `ala sayyidina Muhammadin an-Nouri wa Alihi wa sallim.