Forty Sessions
 
The Vastness of Human Heart
 
 
In another session (Sheikh Semnani) said:
 
These kings who boast about pittance i.e. pompous & grandiose setup of their rule over the little city or province that was captured with deviance and tricks, and they conduct themselves with such arrogance & grandeur that is beyond comparison. These miserable creatures do not comprehend the measure of the Lord’s Dominion and they do not comprehend the vastness of the human heart! (Semnani then continues with the known measurements of the earth and Sun at the time and concludes that 360 planet earths fit within the Sun. Not a bad estimate for a little man in a village hundreds of years ago)
 
If 360 planet earths fit within the Sun, then how can these petty kings boast about the size of their kingdoms!? Now add to Sun & 360 earths, fantastic cosmos and the estimate would be even more minute: Like a ball in a desert or a seed in an ocean and this entire cosmos compared to the Lord’s Throne like a ring in a desert. Messenger of Allah Peace Be Upon Him has mentioned that all the above that was mentioned next to the human heart is like a seed in a desert or less i.e. the human heart is far vaster that anything we can imagine or anything we can observe, “So blessed be Allah, the best to create” (Koran [23:14]). (Shebly said, “Anyone that can grasp even a bit of the Tawhid (Divine Oneness) cannot grasp the rest, due to its immense weight” and some other time he said, “Even if someone grasped a bit of Tawhid (Divine Oneness) it is as though carrying the entire earth & cosmos on eyelashes”. That is why Allah forbids killing people because each human being is a fantastic creature within the heart though to our ignorant eyes look like some skin on few bones!)
 
Allah has created all hearts vast as such. But some people struggled with much effort thus entering that fantastically large realm of human heart and some others added even more veils to cover the path to this vastness and their minds cannot even fathom any passageway to this enormous space of the heart. Allah Almighty in every place has shown me the nature of this situation (without words):
 
Allah Almighty made the Human Qaaleb (Matrix, Mold) like a pool of water underneath a spring flowing from the Realm of Qayb (Transcendental Divine Absence or Unseen). Five canals stretched out of this pool each corresponding to one of our senses. Each canal goes from the pool that is filled from Qayb (Transcendental Divine Absence or Unseen) towards the Realm of Shahaadat (The Observable Universe), therefore the benefits from the Divine Unseen Realm pours into the Physical World of our senses. These days people have lost the water that once flowed freely through these canals. 
 
It is the Divine Sunnah (Tradition) to bring forth Kamaal (Perfection) in a gradual manner and often by perfecting the mixtures of things. So the Lord immixed a Transcendental mix of Qayb (Unseen) & Shahaadat (The Observable Universe) by means of powers from out of this universe and the physical forces on this earth thus guided the composite combination towards a unique perfection which was previously unattainable & impossible in either Realm i.e. Qayb or Shahaadat. The goal of this commixture: So there is cognizance about Its Divine Holiness by looking at either the detailed (via reasoning) or surface information (e.g. faith) of this new commingled creature. Meaning the inhabitants of the Realm of Qayb (Unseen) e.g. the angels have “a general overview” for their specific Ma’refat (Divine Gnosis). (They are free from the details of knowledge and reasoning e.g. angels see the Lord and worship It without any need for reasoning or proof or full understanding they just do it given an overview of the Lord, Semnani calls this “general over view” i.e. detail-less reason-less belief)
 
But the composite nature of the Realm of Shahaadat (The Observable Universe) as viewed by its inhabitants is neither in “a general overview” nor in full dense details. (Human beings do look at some details and delve deep to see what is going on and reason & rationalize as they go. At the same time they cannot grasp all the details and therefore they develop some general overviews of objects around them as well e.g. theories and explanations which are mostly based on intuition or faith. Man does not worship without question he must rationalize & analyze and explain as a part of his belief. Man also can worship with blind faith. Man can commix the last two as well.)
 
Within the human body the Lord immixed these two, Qayb (Unseen) with general overview and the Shahaadat (The Observable Universe) with some degree of detail & reasoning, and then shone upon it a ray from Its Divine Light so with the aid of this light the human being can see his Self and can behold the rest of the creatures. Therefore empowered to know & understand the Creator of all things by means of detailed investigation & rationalization, though by means of the “general overview” of Qayb (Unseen) had some previous innate understanding of the Creator however with the composite combination of reasoning & rationalization of Shahaadat (Physical World) human being has additional instruments for understanding the Lord. In summary, the above said combination is devised to bring human being to (gradual) Kamaal (Perfection) of understanding.
 
Mother & father (A part of these instruments to perfect the human being) are likened to construction workers who work on the pool & the canals to perfect the flow of the water from the Qayb (Unseen) to the Shahaadat (The Observable Universe) i.e. nurturing their child. They take the water and make mud to build additions to this pool by means of their own physical instruments & mental faculties. Often rocks and mud fall into the pool during the construction filling it up and even after the construction workers are long gone the pool is still loaded with much debris. (Nobody there to remove the mess)
 
This pool, a paradigm for the reality of human being, is now dry or badly muddied so the owner of the pool starts looking for more water to fill up the pool again. This is where Satan comes to play, he whispers to the ears of the owner of the pool that indeed the canals (our senses) carried the water to the pool and it is dried up now because these canals need more water from the physical world flowing into them to fill up the pool i.e. indulging the senses by lusts & desires. (Basically Satan tells the owner of the pool that the original water came from the physical world into the pool or the more senses are indulged the more water into this pool)
 
Now that the owner of the pool is completely blinded by the Satan, he works hard on his desires & lusts to bring the water to the canals (senses) to fill up the pool. The harder he tries the drier the pool becomes, even what little mud there was now is completely dry. The owner of the pool is parched and thirsting with misery and failure for long time to come.
 
Finally the pool is ruined and the construction workers long gone so the owner of the pool wonders: Perhaps if I found someone else who has his pool in order I can learn from him how to fix my own. This way I follow their instruction and will not fall into error, like did so with Satan that dried my pool without any benefits. Therefore he sets out to find a teacher!
 
He looks for a teacher to inform him how to fix the pool by removing the mess and showing him where is the true source of the water is to bring in more and refill the pool. Upon the Sohbat (Companionship) with such a good teacher he learns that the water he seeks is not out there, it is all flowing within his own Self as a part of his own nature. Furthermore he learns that to open this pool requires skills & know-how and this art is the same amongst all human beings without exception. You follow the person who knows how to manage the pool therefore you can open up the source of the water and refill the pool or ignore what he says and you will fail again & again by yourself.
 
The owner of the pool ought to be taken to the valley of Shariah (Divine Law) to follow the Gentleman of the Universe Mohammad Peace Be Upon Him and at this point he finds sweetness of obeying the Prophet. The debris & mud are removed and much water gushes into the pool and the original source of the water becomes plain.
 
No matter how much the owner of the pool understands and manages the pool and its source of water and keeping the canals clear and so on, from time to time debris fall into the pool and again lots can go wrong. Therefore he needs a living teacher, someone to help him to manage the pool.
 
The teacher gives him the shovel of Dhikr (Divine Remembrance) and slowly helps him to dig up some dirt & debris—it is hard to use this shovel at first—and let the water come out where he drinks from it to satiate the thirst, gaining some more strength teaching him more how to use the shovel—more & more gets easier & easier to use the shovel of Dhikr (Divine Remembrance). Once he learns the craft he can manage the pool and keep the access to the original source of the water clear and let the water flow non-stop with the right pressure through the canals and this is to serve as an example of how the human Qaleb (Matrix, Mold) has been created in conjunction with the senses.
 
End.




© 2004-2001,  Dara O. Shayda