1
4. TEN DEGREES OF GUIDANCE (3) The eighth degree of guidance mentioned by Ibn alQayyim al-Jawziyyah in his Madārij al-Sulūk (Steps of Divine Seekers) is Ismā‘ (اإلسماع, “to make listen”). There is distinction between “hearing” which is by ears, whereas “listening” is “hearing through heart.” It is the heart that listens. Similarly, there are two kinds of “seeing”: through the eyes, and through the heart. The kuffār, those who deny the truth of Islam do hear its message, but they do not listen to it, because their hearts are closed. Allah says in the Qur’an: )42 : آن أَ ْم َع َلى قُلُوب أَ ْق َفال ُ َها (محمد َ ُْون ْالقُر َ أَ َف َل َي َت َد َّبر Do they not then think deeply in the Qur’an or are their hearts locked up (from understanding it?) (Q. 47:24) It is a command from Allah to reflect upon the Qur’an, but their hearts are locked up, so that they cannot understand it. They have eyes, ears and hearts, but they do not use it spiritually, as if they are blind, deaf, and heartless. Allah says about them as follows: ْ ُون َ س لَ ُه ْم قُلُوب َل َي ْف َقه ِ اإل ْن ِ ْ َولَ َق ْد َذ َرأ َنا ل َِج َه َّن َم َك ِثيرً ا م َِن ْال ِجن َو ِك َ ُون ِب َها أُولَئ َ ُون ِب َها َولَ ُه ْم آ َذان َل َيسْ َمع َ ِب َها َو َل ُه ْم أَعْ يُن َل ُيبْصِ ر )971 :ون (اْلعراف َ ُ ك ُه ُم ْال َغا ِفل َ ضل أُولَ ِئ َ ََك ْاْلَ ْن َع ِام َب ْل ُه ْم أ And surely, We have created many of the jinn and mankind for Hell. They have hearts wherewith they understand not, and they have eyes wherewith they see not, and they have ears wherewith they hear not (the truth). They are like cattle, nay even more astray; those! They are the heedless ones. (Q. 7:179) Ibn al-Qayyim gives an example of a person who hears but does not listen to the truth, mentioning the following verse: ِين َ ِك َقالُوا لِلَّذ َ ك َح َّتى إِ َذا َخ َرجُوا مِنْ عِ ْند َ َو ِم ْن ُه ْم َمنْ َيسْ َت ِم ُع إِلَ ْي َّ ِين َط َب َع وب ِه ْم َ ك الَّذ َ أُو ُتوا ْالع ِْل َم َما َذا َقا َل آ ِن ًفا أُولَ ِئ ِ ُ ّللا ُ َعلَى قُل
2
)91 : َوا َّت َبعُوا أَهْ َوا َء ُه ْم (محمد And among them are some who listen to you (O Muhammad) till when they go out from you, they say to those who have received knowledge: “What has he said just now?” Such are men whose hearts Allah has sealed, and they follow their lusts (evil desires) (Q. 47:16) Allah said to the Prophet that among disbelievers were people who listened to him, but without paying enough attention, so that they did not understand anything about what the Prophet had said, because they were, according to the commentators Qatādah and Ibn Zayd, the hypocrites. When they left from the Prophet’s presence, they asked the companions what the Prophet had said. Their hearts had been sealed for following their lusts. In order to receive guidance through ismā‘ Ibn alQayyim said that a person has to pass three degrees of hearing: hearing with his ears )( َس َما ُع اْلُذن, then hearing with his heart )( َس َما ُع ْال َق ْلب, namely with understanding, then to the last degree, hearing with acceptance and with response ( َسما َ ُع ْالقُب ُْو ِل )اإلجا َبة َ و.َ ْ Inspiration, The ninth degree of guidance is ilhām (اإلل َهام, instinct). It is a gift from Allah to believers in general based on the quality of their belief. Some examples are mentioned in the Qur’an, as follows: ت َع َل ْي ِه َفأ َ ْلقِي ِه فِي ْال َيم َو َل ِ َفإِ َذا ِخ ْف,َوأَ ْو َح ْي َنا إِ َلى أُم مُو َسى أَنْ أَرْ ضِ عِي ِه )7:ِين (القصص َ َت َخافِي َو َل َتحْ َزنِي إِ َّنا َرادوهُ إِلَيْكِ َو َجاعِ لُوهُ م َِن ْالمُرْ َسل And We inspired the mother of Mūsā (Moses) (telling): “Suckle him, but when you fear for him, then cast him into the river and fear not, nor grieve. Verily, We shall bring him back to you, and shall make him one of (Our) Messengers.” (Q. 28:7) ُ َوإِ ْذ أَ ْو َحي ين أَنْ آ ِم ُنوا ِبي َو ِب َرسُولِي َقالُوا َ اري ِ ْت إِلَى ْال َح َو )999:ُون (المائدة َ آ َم َّنا َوا ْش َه ْد ِبأ َ َّن َنا مُسْ لِم
3
And when I (Allah) inspired al-ḥawāriyyīn [the disciples of ‘Īsā (Jesus)] to believe in Me and My Messenger, they said: “We believe. And bear witness that we are Muslims. (Q. 5:111) This kind of guidance are also given to inanimate beings, usually called “instinct”, for example, mentioned in the Qur’an, as follows: ال ُبيُو ًتا َ َوأَ ْو َحى َرب ِ ك إِلَى ال َّنحْ ِل أَ ِن ا َّت ِخذِي م َِن ْال ِج َب ُ َوم َِن ال َّش َج ِر َو ِممَّا َيعْ ِر )16:ون (النحل َ ش And your Lord inspired the bee, saying: “Take you habitations in the mountains and in the trees and in what they erect.” (Q. 16:68) Ibn al-Qayyim makes distinction between ilhām and firāsah (الفراسة, intuitive knowledge of human nature), which takes place rarely, whereas the former takes place often. Each of them is divided into general which takes place many times and particular which takes place rarely. Ihām is purely a gift, whereas firāsah is attainable through acquisition and learning. Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah divides ilhām (inspiration) into three degrees: (a) an important information given as definite inspiration accompanied with hearing; (b) an inspiration that takes place clearly which is general and inevitable where it is unavoidable by the heart; and (c) an inspiration which purely clarifies the essence (substance) of conviction (verification), and genuinely talks about the essence of eternity. The details are as follows: A. The important information gives as definite inspiration accompanied with hearing.1. It is divided into three categories: 1
If Allah talks directly to a person, it is the highest degree of inspiration and we call it revelation which occurs only to prophets, such as Prophet Moses a.s. and Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. in his ascension to heaven (mi‘rāj) as mentioned earlier.
4
(1) The inspiration where the angel partially talks to somebody who is not a prophet, like ‘Imrān ibn Ḥuṣayn. It is said that the angels shook hands with him.2 It is either it is heard by ears which is rarely occurs among believers, or heard by the believer’s inner ears, namely, the angel talks to his soul. But at the same time Satan could also inspire him. The Prophet said: Verily, the angel has a call in the heart of the son of Adam, and Satan has also a call in the heart of the son of Adam. The call of the angel is threatening with good things and confirming Allah’s promise, whereas Satan’s call is threatening with bad things and denying the promise. Then the Prophet s.a.w. recited: َّ ال َّش ْي َطانُ َي ِع ُد ُك ُم ْال َف ْق َر َو َيأْ ُم ُر ُك ْم ِب ْال َفحْ َشا ِء َو ّللا ُ َي ِع ُد ُك ْم َّ َم ْغف َِر ًة ِم ْن ُه َو َفضْ ًل َو )416:ّللا ُ َواسِ ع َعلِيم (البقرة Satan threatens you with poverty and orders you to commit evil deeds; whereas Allah promises you with forgiveness from Himself and bounty, and Allah is All-Sufficient for His creatures’ needs, All-Knower. (Q. 2:268)
2
‘Imrān ibn Ḥuṣayn embraced Islam lately, in the year of the campaign of Khaybar in the 7th AH. After he made a pledge with the Prophet s.a.w. with his right hand, he said that he would only use it for noble deeds. One day while he was present, the companions of the Prophet asked him, “O Messenger of Allah, what will happen to us, when we are with you our hearts become tender, and we renounce our pleasure with worldly things, as if we see the Hereafter with our eyes, until we go away from you and we meet our family, children and the world, then we denies ourselves?” The Prophet replied: “By Allah, in Whose hand is my soul, if you keep being like when you are with me, you would clearly shake hands with the angels now and then.” The classical Qur’an commentator Qatādah said that ‘Imrān ibn Ḥuṣayn shook hands with the angels until he became pressed, and so they withdrew.”
5
(2) Inspiration from exclusively from the jinn (demons), either a Muslim jinn or Satan, and either heard by ears, or heard by heart. For example, Allah says in the Qur’an: ُيه ْم َو َما َي ِع ُد ُه ُم ال َّش ْي َطان ِ َي ِع ُد ُه ْم َو ُي َمن )941:إِ َّل ُغرُورً ا (النساء He (Satan) makes promises to them, and arouses in them false desires; and Satan’s promises are nothing but deceptions.(Q. 4:120) If someone claims to be inspired, he has to verify, whether the inspiration comes from a Muslim jinni or from Satan. Satan would inspire somebody and talk to him, and the man would say proudly, “I have been spoken”, but by whom? When Ghaylān ibn Salamah who had ten wives converted to Islam, the Prophet told him to keep only four of them, and he did. But in the time of ‘Umar who became caliph he divorced all his wives and distributed all him wealth to his children. When ‘Umar r.a. heard this, he told him that “…Satan might have stolen information and heard about your death, so he inspired you and told you that you will no longer live long…”, and therefore, ‘Umar asked him to take back his wives and wealth. (3) An instant address originally from man’s mind, and return to his mind, but he thinks that it comes from outside. This happens many times to divine seekers, and therefore, they make a mistake by thinking that the address comes from Allah. The reason is that the subtle signal )(لَطِ ْي َفة3 attained by man if it becomes pure by means of spiritual exercise, and his mind ) ( َع ْقلis cut from massive distractions, its judgment becomes in virtue of the control of soul and heart over the body as well as the 3
The definition of laṭīfah is as follows: كل إشارة دقيقة المعنى تلوح للفهم ل تسعها العبارة. It every signal with subtle meaning which appears to our understanding but it is beyond our expression.
6
outcome of their (the soul’s and the heart’s) judgments. Then the concern of the soul and the heart will move to purify the ideas (thoughts, senses) into spiritual mental speech and address in virtue of tradition, and will agree with the freedom of the soul, so that these ideas (thoughts, senses) form by the power of hearing as heard sounds, and by the power of sight as seen entities, so that he sees their images, and hears their speeches. All of these are within himself, and nothing outside of him at all, but he may swear that he hears, sees and that he is right, but all these are not from outside of him. In the next khutbah, in shā’ Allah, we shall continue with the remaining ninth and the tenth degrees of guidance, as mentioned by Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah in his Madārij al-Sālikīn. (CIVIC,29January, 2016) :المراجع المكتبة الشاملة ( ه120 .تفسير الطبري )ت ( ه112 .تفسير القرطبى )ت ( ه119 .تفسير ابن كثير )ت . مدارج السالكين.ابن القيم الجوزية Muhsin Khan, Dr. Muhammad. Summarized Sahih Al-Bukhari. Riyadh: Darussalam, 1996 Asad, Muhammad. The Message of the Qur’an. Gibraltar: Dar al-Andalus, 1984. http://jamharah.net/showthread.php?t=22172#.VpycPlLIWpY http://www.nabulsi.com/blue/ar/art.php?art=2999&id=150&si d=734&ssid=753&sssid=754 http://www.alhiwar.net/ShowNews.php?Tnd=26462 http://www.ahlalhdeeth.com/vb/showthread.php?t=231339 http://www.almaany.com/ar/dict/ar-ar/%D9%84% D8%B7% D8%A7%D8%A6%