The Arabic letter Meem
is equivalent to the letter 'M' in the English alphabet. It is
the first letter in the name of our Prophet Muhammad .
Meem in Arabic numerology which is known as Abjad, has the value
of 40. What is the significance of the number 40? "Life begins
at forty". Where does this saying come from? From the Quran
of course:
From the physical point of view: At the age of forty, a person should reflect on his/her life. On average, two thirds of the persons life is already passed and only one third remains, if Allah Wills. It is a time for a new beginning. It is a time to turn to Allah and seek his forgiveness if we have not already started. It is a time to start thinking of our own death often and be prepared for it. It is not for morbid reasons, but to abstain from evil and turn towards good. It is a time to turn a new leaf and start learning Islam properly because at that time our children are growing up and we have to set an example to them. We cannot put all the responsibility on another persons shoulder, for example the Imam who teaches the children Islam. If we are not aware of Islam, ourselves how can we distinguish whether the children are being taught Islam according to Ahl-as-Sunnah or Islam according to the Ahl-al-Hadees depending on our preference. If we cannot read the Quran, now is a good time to learn. There is no shame in asking what we do not know about Islam. It is never too late to turn towards Allah.
Form the spiritual point of view: the number 40 is also explained by Allah in the Quran:
Musa (Moses ())
spent 30 nights in seclusion hoping for guidance from his Lord
on the Mount Tur. It was not enough. He had to wait for another
ten nights in order to complete his spirituality. And then Musa
(
) conversed with Allah. And Allah
blessed Musa (
) with a divine
Message for his people.
Muhammad
received the divine Message at the age of forty. Again to receive
this message Muhammad
also used to go
into seclusion in a cave on Mount Hira. Both these Messengers
of Allah have the first letter Meem in their names. Musa (
) had to complete forty nights
of seclusion in order to understand the Meem of Ahmad (another
name of our Prophet Muhammad
). The
Spirituality of Muhammad
. Once
he understood the Spirituality of Muhammad
the Beloved of Allah, then Allah spoke to him. If anyone thinks
Musa (
) could not have known about Muhammad
, then read What the Bible says
about Muhammad
(by Ahmad Deedat).
The Old Testament is based on the Torah.
Why did Musa ()
have to know about the spirituality of Muhammad
?
Because Allah says:
The Fountain Kawsar is
heavenly grace and knowledge. This knowledge has been granted
to Muhammad . He is the fountain
of knowledge of Allah. No one can attain spirituality without
acknowledging Muhammad's
superiority
over all the creations. To believe in Allah and not acknowledge
Muhammad
, a person cannot be considered
a Muslim. Think about it.
What an incredibly high
status that is for a Messenger of Allah which no other Prophet
holds apart from Muhammad . If
a person ignores Muhammad
, then
not only is he/she insulting him but he/she is also insulting
Allah by insulting His Beloved. In ignoring Muhammad
,
the person is insulting the Prophet. If a person insults the Prophet
Muhammad
then he/she will be cut off from
any goodness in this life or the next life.
Some readers may say
that the Quran and Muhammad came
after Musa (
). So how can the
Chapter Kawsar apply to Musa (
). This
is true in respect of time as we know it. But Muhammad
is the First and the Last Messenger. Allah created his Light First
before any other Messengers and Allah sent him Last as the Seal
of all the Messengers. The Quran is part of a Book from which
all the previous Books have been revealed (the original Zaboor
(Psalms), Torah and Bible). Therefore we are told by Allah in
the Quran to Believe in all the Books that He has sent (the original
ones that were revealed and not the modified versions of the Zaboor,
Torah and Bible that are in circulation). Hence the Fount was
already given to Muhammad
according
to the Book from which the Quran has been revealed.
Muhammad had to attain the
age of forty to receive his Message. He was born in Makkah
and emigrated to Yathrib which changed its name to Madinah.
He is also called Muzzammil and Muddassir,
in the Quran.
What is the mystery of
the Meem in Ahmad? The Meem in Ahmad
is the door that leads to Ahad which is the Oneness of Allah.
He has no partners. That is Muhammad's position in the creation
must be acknowledged before Allah will allow anyone to get close
to Him. Looking at it in Arabic:
The difference between
Ahad and Ahmad is the Arabic letter Meem also written as . It
is not a coincidence that Allah revealed the Quran in Arabic without
the Arabic language having some mystical superiority over the
other languages. Who invented Arabic or any other language? Is
it the people? No.
We can interpret Adam as the first human creation of Allah or as every human created by Allah. Both the interpretations stand up to the test. Allah has stored the knowledge of every thing, that is going to come into existence, in all the human beings regardless of the persons religious orientation. So when the Arabic language had fully developed the Quran was revealed.
Coming back to Ahad and Ahmad, the difference between the two
words is the Meem of Muhammad. To realise Allah's Oneness a person must
send blessings to Allah's Beloved
because he is the door and no one can pass that door without realising
Muhammad's
position in closeness
to Allah.
Only by acknowledging
the superiority of Muhammad can
a person have his/her prayers answered. This is achieved by loving
Muhammad
more than any other person in
this world. Loving Muhammad
more
than his/her parents and/or children. In order to have his/her
prayer accepted by Allah, a person must send blessings (Darood)
on the Prophet
. He is the key
to Allah's door. Knowledge comes from Allah through Muhammad
. Not without Muhammad
.
Muhammad's
position in this life is the Seal of the Prophets or The Completion
of the Prophets. His position in the next life is Makamam Mahmood (the Highest Station).
How is the Prophet Muhammad
the Seal of the Prophets? What
does it mean? What is the Makamam Mahmood? See the next article.
Only Allah Knows Best!
Mawlana Abul Noor Mohammad
Bashir of Kotli Loharan, Sialkot Pakistan has written a few books
on Islam which are highly recommended reading for most people.
The Urdu is kept simple so that someone like me who is hardly
proficient at reading Urdu can easily read the book and understand
about 97 percent of the content without too much difficulty. May
Allah bless him for his effort and contribution to Islamic literature.
He writes in his excellent book Jibreel Ki Hikayat (Stories about
Jibreel ()) :
..... Allah started the circle of Messengers
from Adam () and completed it with Isa
(Jesus (
)) and our Prophet
the Master of the Messengers
is
blessed with the completeness and fulfilment of the circle. It
is a requirement for Prophethood that the person is not a woman.
It must be man. A woman cannot be a prophet. Allah says:
That is why the circle
of Messengers was started with a pure man and from that pure man
a pure woman was created. Which is Adam () is the pure
man and Hawwa (Eve (
))
was created from him. And on completion of the circle of Messengers,
from a pure woman, a pure man was created. Which is from the pure
Maryam (
), pure Isa (
) was created without a father
so that the circle of Messengers beginning and end is joined together.
Because Adam ()
was created from dust, he was sent down from heaven to earth.
Since Isa (
) was created
from the Word, the Spirit, he was lifted from the earth and taken
to heaven. This is how, before Allah, creation of Isa (
) is similar to that of Adam
(
). [Jibreel Ki Hikayat]
Now I want to take this
point a little further. It is related in a Tradition that Allah
created the Light of Muhammad before
any other creation including the angels. The Messenger of Allah
said: I was a Messenger
while Adam was between clay and water. This
makes Muhammad
the First Messenger.
Then Allah created Adam (
). Allah
completed his circle of Messengers starting with Adam and ending
with Isa (
) of pure birth
from Maryam (
). Each of these
Messengers were sent to their own communities. Their mission was
limited to their own people. After completing the circle, Allah
then sent our Nabee Muhammad
as
the Seal of all the Messengers of Allah. Muhammad
set the seal on the circle of Messengers of Allah. And he also
surrounds that circle of Messengers. A circle is a limitation.
What surrounds the circle is not limited. Muhammad's Message is
not limited like those of the earlier Prophets to just one community.
Muhammad
was not sent just for the Arabs,
not only for mankind, not only for jinns, but for all the creations,
however many creations there may be and wherever they may be only
Allah and His Messenger know best. As Allah is the Lord of all
the worlds, He has sent Muhammad
as
a Mercy to all the worlds.
All the Messengers from
Adam () to Isa (
)
borrowed their Prophetship from the Prophetship of Muhammad
. Muhammad
is the
Imam of all the Prophets. Every Muslim should know that on the
night of Ascension (Miraaj) Jibraeel (
)
took Muhammad
to the Furthest
Mosque (Al Aqsa) in Jerusalem. There he entered and found all
the leaders of angels of heavens and all the Messengers of Allah
from Adam (
) to Isa (
) assembled, waiting for his arrival,
so that they may greet him and follow him in the prayers. Those
who say that the Prophets are dead, how can they explain this
assembly? If they say Allah sent them, then why did He have to
send them after they were supposed to be dead? Why did they need
to assemble for the prayer at the mosque? Once a person is dead,
he/she cannot perform any further prayer because then the person
is already aware of the Reality. It is too late after death to
do any good deed. So, why did Allah send back all the Prophets
back in human form?
Jibraeel after making
the call to prayers, answers this question: "Ya Muhammad ,
Most Honourable of beings in the sight of Allah, proceed to prayer".
That is lead the prayer so that they, the Prophets and the angels,
may all follow him. So that each one could meet and see the Beloved
of Allah of whom each Messenger knew about (see the previous article).
Muhammad
advanced to the front and led
the prayer. All the Messengers of Allah knew Muhammad
and his followers will be the first to enter heaven. Then their
communities. By following Muhammad
in prayer, all the Messengers of Allah, they themselves have become
his followers, but their communities have not. He was then taken
to the heavens and he met all the Prophets again. It is clear
from this that the Prophets of Allah are free to travel as they
wish like the martyrs. They are Allah's guests not His prisoners.
There are no constrains on them because they have pleased Allah,
and they are pleased with Allah.
What is interesting here
is that prayer (or Salah) has not yet been given by Allah to our
Prophet. Yet Muhammad performed the prayer
before going to heaven. How did he know that was the gift which
was going to be bestowed on him for his followers by Allah? How
could he LEAD the prayer if he did not know how
to pray?
After the prayer at the
Furthest Mosque, Muhammad was
taken to the heavens which is the Ascension or Miraaj in Arabic.
(For the purposes of this article only the names of the destinations
will be mentioned here.) He travelled to:
1. The first heaven,
The Place of Peace - Dar as Salaam.
2. The second heaven, The Place of Constancy - Dar al Qarar.
3. The third heaven, The Place of Eternity - Dar al Khuld.
4. The fourth heaven, The Sheltering Garden - Jannat al Mawa.
5. The fifth heaven, The Garden of Beauty and Joy Jannat al Naeem.
6. The sixth heaven - The Garden of Eden - Jannat Aden.
7. The seventh heaven - The Garden of Firdaws - Jannat al Firdaws.
8. The Furthest Boundary - Sidrat ul Muntaha.
From there, Muhammad
travelled onwards until the angels
Jibraeel (
), Mikaeel (
) and Israfeel (
)
stopped in succession at their stations beyond which they dare
not pass. Then he passed the station of the Spirit. Still going
further. He reached the place where Allah placed in Muhammad's
heart the knowledge of the First and the Last, heaven and earth,
then a voice was heard "Ya
Muhammad! I have made you the intercessor for everyone." He
was placed in the Fields of Allah's
Eternity and Endlessness. In the first he found no beginning and
in the second he found no end. Then Allah revealed to him: "My
end is my beginning and My beginning is my end." The Prophet
knew that all doors were closed except those that led to Allah.
Allah cannot be described within the confine of a place, He encompasses
everything everywhere. This is the Secret of Secrets, that cannot
be described. This is the place of Makamam Mahmood. The Highest
Station.
There are a few interesting
points to be noted here. First there was Allah, then He created
the Light of Muhammad . Allah's name starts
with the letter Alif (
) or 'A'.
The first letter
in almost all the major languages (I do not now about Chinese
or Japanese to comment). He finishes the first creation with Muhammad
whose name starts with the letter
Meem (
) or 'M'. Then Allah creates the first human Messenger Adam
(
). Again Adam's name starts with
the letter Alif or 'A' (
) . Allah then completes
the first circle of Messengers with Isa (
)
whose mother's name is Maryam. The Messengers start from
Alif (
) and complete from
Meem (
).
I know what you are thinking....
It is Isa () who is the Messenger
of Allah and not Maryam (
). That
is true! Read the last sentence of the last paragraph again. The
circle is completed FROM Meem not by Maryam (
). It
is Muhammad
with a Meem, who came after Isa (
)
and set the Seal on the Messengers of Allah. How does Maryam (
) fit into this? Look at the name
Maryam in Arabic and compare it with the letter Meem which is written as pronounced.
The difference is the
letter Ra (in Arabic )
which stands for Rabb or Lord. Remove the letter Ra
and you are left with the letter Meem.
Here Rabb (Lord) created
Isa () from Meem.
What is the significance of all this? Think about what has just
been covered in the last few paragraphs. Is it a coincidence that
everything starts from Alif and finishes with Meem. Starts with Allah and finishes with Muhammad
.
Allah has to exist for
all this to have happened. He had to make sure that Adam () was named Adam and not with any
other name. He had to make sure the mother of Isa (
)
was named Maryam and not with any other name. He had to make sure
that Muhammad was named Muhammad
and
not with any other name. To do this Allah shows us that His plans
are perfect. There is no flaw in them. He is in complete control.
Allah was existing at the time of Adam (
).
He was existing at the time of Isa (
)
He was existing at the time of Muhammad
.
How old did that make Him? And Allah still exists. He is the Living,
the Eternal. If there is any doubt in the readers mind that there
may or may not be a Supreme Being then this proves the Existence
of Allah, without an End or Beginning beyond a doubt. He IS, as
He WAS. Time does not change Him. One of His attributes is Time.
If there is any doubt
about the finality of the Prophet Muhammad
then read the article again and see if there is room for another
Messenger of Allah. The answer has to be, NO. Because then Allah's
plan would be imperfect. The rule about Start with Alif and ending at Meem would break down. To prove it one
more time, look at the name Adam (
). That also starts
with Alif and ends at Meem.
Coincidence? NO!
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