Quranic Style

 

تیرےقلب  پر جب تک نہ ہو نزولِ کتاب

گرہ کشا ہے  نہ رازی  نہ صاحبِ کشاف

 

 

According to Allama Iqbal, the secret bearers (Mystics) cannot reveal secrets upon seeker if his heart does not have an effect of Quran and does not have the spiritual state in which his soul and inward blends with him.

One day Allama Iqbal was reciting the Quran and his father advised him to recite the Quran as if it is being revealed to him or as if it is talking to him.

Two important things are mentioned in this advice:
First: To be a reciter of the Quran

Second: Talking of the Quran with the reciter

Revelation of Quran means to contemplate over every verse and understand it in its true and real meaning. As Allah says: 

اَفَلَا یَتَدَبَّرُوۡنَ الۡقُرۡاٰنَ

Translation: Do they not contemplate over the Quran. (47:24)

Contemplation over the Quran reveals its exoteric and esoteric meanings upon the reciter who has enlightened inward.

Allah explicitly says about the exoteric and esoteric meanings of the Quran:

• He is the One Who has revealed to you the book comprising some firm and solid verses; they are the foundation of (the commandments) of the book. And other verses are figurative. So, those who have deviation in their hearts follow only its figurative verses under the urge to create disruption and with the motive to supply them self-seeking interpretation instead of their true interpretation. But none knows its true interpretation apart from Allah. And those who are perfectly firm in knowledge say: ‘we believe in it. The whole (book) has been revealed by our Lord.’ And direction of guidance is the share of only those who possess wisdom and insight.

Types of Ways Allah Talks

Quran is a fountain and source of guidance for the Mohammadan nation. There are three types of people in this nation and so Allah talks to this nation in three ways:

1. The Mysterious Letters

2. Ambiguous verses

3. The clear verses

The Mysterious Letters

Let us elaborate the meaning of these mysterious letters with the following sayings:

The mysterious letters in the beginning of surahs is a secret between Allah and His beloved prophet (pbuh). (Umar Farooq)

• This is Allah’s secret do not seek it. No one other than Saints know the secret after Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) because they are the successors of Prophets’ knowledge and only they know it. (Mahmud al-Alusi)
• 29 surahs in the Quran start with mysterious letters. Some of these letters are even like Haa-Meem, Yaa-Seen and some are unusual like Alif-Laam-Meem, Suaad, Noon, Qauf. Only Allah, the Holy Prophet (pbuh), his spiritual successors and the heirs of Faqr know their meanings. Or whomever Allah chooses to reveal the meaning. (Mirat-ul-Arifeen)

The Ambiguous Verses

Allama Ghulam Rasool Saeedi quotes Allama Abdul Aziz Bukhari:

• When meaning of a verse is ambiguous and there is no source to resolve the ambiguity even though we know that it is true. Such a verse is called the ambiguous verse.

Those verses are also called ambiguous where Allah talks about His attributes. For example یَدُ اللّٰہِ فَوۡقَ اَیۡدِیۡہِمۡ (Allah’s hand is over their hands), وَ اللّٰہُ سَمِیۡعٌ عَلِیۡمٌ (And Allah is All-Hearing and All-Knowing).

In short, verses that have complex meaning and many different explanations can be given, are called ambiguous verses. To understand, we can say that these verses are the hidden knowledge in the Quran that Allah gave to the Holy Prophet (pbuh) through revelations and disclosed in the inwards of Saints. The Holy Prophet’s following prayer proves the disclosure of these verses in inwards or in simple words reaching the spirit of Quranic words. The Holy Prophet (pbuh) prayed for Abdullah ibn Abbas: “O Allah! Bless Abdullah ibn Abbas with the understanding and logic of Islam”.

The Clear Verses

Abdullah ibn Abbas says the clear verses are those which annul the previous order. These verses are about halal, haram, limits, duties, who to have faith in and who to follow.

We come to understand that the mysterious letters and the ambiguous verses relate exclusively to the inward. And only people of inward and insight can know their meaning by grace of Allah. Even the people of inward can only absorb the meanings according to their spiritual ability or level because everything in the universe has a certain level (whether it is spiritual or physical). The clear verses relate to the physical human on whom all orders by Allah are compulsory through Shariah. According to Fakhr al-Din al-Razi as well, Allah talks to or invites His people in three ways. He says, “‘invitation through wisdom’ is for the sages, ‘invitation through exhortation’ is for the pure-natured, ‘invitation through warnings’ is for the deviated.”

Allah invites through wisdom the seekers of hereafter who want to reach heaven by doing good physical deeds to please Allah. He invites through exhortation His close ones and bestows upon them His hidden secrets (the mysterious letters) through His love. No doubt His close ones are those who have His desire. So only those can bear His secret who have His desire. And Allah warn those people who think of this physical world as everything. Neither do they understand the life of hereafter nor do they try for the betterment of their hereafter. They desire only and only the world.

Any conversation has three aspects whether it is two humans talking or Allah talking to His people. Those three aspects are as follows:

1. The Ambiguous
2. Glad tiding
3. Warning

The Ambiguous

The ambiguous points to the close ones. Allah converses with them in an open, clear way with spiritual meaning. Like when someone talks to someone close to them they tell them all of their secrets which they hide from others.

If word of Allah includes good news or gifts then it is called glad tiding such as the glad tiding of heaven. 

If Allah scares a disobedient person with His orders then it is called warning.

A case other than these three is that a person’s inward takes effect of a verse depending upon how strong his relation is with Allah. And then the person slowly acts on the verses, ascends and becomes one with Allah. The best example of this is Allah, the One who talks to all humanity, and the Holy Prophet (pbuh) who listens to Allah through his inward.

Allama Iqbal says in Javid Nama:

چون بجان در رفت جان دیگر شود

جان چو دیگر شد جہان دیگر شود

Meaning: When this (Quran) gets embedded into someone’s inward, it changes him. And when someone’s inward changes, his whole universe is affected by the change.

So if the Quran does not affect the inward, or Allah’s orders do not embed into one’s inward and become action, Divine light does not enter one’s inward and this light is guidance. But alas, people contemplate on its physical form instead of its spiritual form. The reason is that if we look at explanations of different scholars, we shall notice that every scholar explained the same book in different ways. Because scholars explain the Quran according to their own understanding. As the Quran holds its own spiritual and physical meaning in itself, one would understand it as much as he would immerse in it. 

The Qurans is Like Sea:

The Quran is like a sea and the reciter is like a swimmer. One would gain from it as deep as he would dive in its depth. And to measure this ocean Allah has divided it into levels and these are the levels through which faith is complete. This completion is in fact Quran.

The levels are following:

1. Shariah (Physical orders like prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, zakat, etc)
2. Tareekat (Spiritual orders like patience and gratitude, submission and consent)
3. Marifat (The spiritual journey towards Allah’s recognition)
4. Reality (Disclosure of Allah’s secret upon man)

All these levels are directly or indirectly connected to Divine closeness. Whoever ascends in these levels because of Divine closeness, Allah will disclose the knowledge in Quran deep into his inward. But the disclosure of this knowledge is related to pure actions. Whoever practices upon his researched knowledge will gain even more knowledge.

An example is when a scientist practices upon any field of knowledge he discovers various new fields of knowledge. If he does not practice this new knowledge then it deforms. 

Abu Bakr said that action without knowledge is useless and knowledge without action is useless.

Sultan Bahoo says while explaining the importance of action upon knowledge:

علمِ حق نور است روشن مثل او اتوار نیست

علم باید باعمل عل ش کہ بر خر بار نیست

Meaning: The knowledge of Allah is the light, no light is brighter than it.  However, one ought to act upon one’s knowledge. Knowledge without action is just like a burden put on a donkey.

Allama Iqbal about the Quran

When the reciter makes Quran’s knowledge a mirror for his actions, Allah makes the reciter a mirror of Quran by His grace. Allama Iqbal shows this reality very beautifully in his poems:

یہ راز  کسی کو نہیں معلوم کہ مومن

قاری نظر آتا ہے حقیقت میں ہے قرآن

He says in “Armaghan-e-Hijaz”:

 

بمصطفیٰؐ برساں خویش را کہ دیں ہمہ اوست

اگر بہ او نرسیدی، تمام بولہبی است

Explanation: You must take yourself to Prophet Mohammad as he is the complete and perfect faith. If you do not take yourself to Prophet Mohammad (pbuh), your whole faith is like that of Abu Lahab. 

Mohammadan Assembly

The only way to recognize the Holy Prophet (pbuh) is to get to the Mohammadan Assembly. Invocation of Ism-e-Allah Zaat and Ism-e-Mohammad is the sole way to reach his assembly. Provided it is gained from a spiritual guide whom the Holy Prophet (pbuh) has given permission i.e. the perfect spiritual guide. When seeker invocates Ism-e-Allah Zaat with sincerity, on the first day he can determine whether the one he got it from was the perfect spiritual guide or not. Actually the perfect spiritual guide blesses the seeker with a pure and truthful inward with his spiritual attention. And then he blesses him with presence in Mohammadan Assembly through invocation of Ism-e-Allah Zaat.

It is very important for the inward to be truthful for presence in the Mohammadan Assembly because the Quran is the inward of Prophet Mohammad (pbuh). And one cannot understand the Quran or the Holy Prophet (pbuh) without having a truthful inward.

In short, whoever wants to understand the Quran must take himself to the Mohammadan Assembly. And whoever wants to reach the Mohammadan Assembly must know that it is impossible without a clean inward. Sight of the perfect spiritual guide is very important for the cleansing of the inward. It acts as a burnisher for the rusty inwards and fills it with Divine gnosis after removing the world and its darkness.

The perfect spiritual guide of this era, Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen is blessing thousands of seekers with presence in Mohammadan Assembly with his perfect sight. May Allah grant him a blessed long life.

 

What is the Quranic style?

Ans. Quran is a fountain and source of guidance for the Mohammadan nation. There are three types of people in this nation. Allah talks to this nation in three ways:

1. The Mysterious Letters
2. Ambiguous verses
3. The clear verses

What are the three ways Allah talk to His followers?

Ans. Any conversation has three aspects whether it is two humans talking or Allah talking to His people. Those three aspects are as follows:

1. The Ambiguous
2. Glad tiding
3. Warning

 

 

Note:

This blog is English translation of an Urdu article of the magazine “Mahnama Sultan-ul-Faqr Lahore” for the month of March, 2022. The title of the Urdu article is:

Quran e Majid ka Asloob (قرانِ مجید کا اسلوب).

Originally penned by Masnar Azma Shakeel Sarwari Qadri from Lahore is presently in English by Mohammad Bin Moghees Sarwari Qadri, exclusively for websites.