MEEM - THE ARABIC LETTER

PART 1

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:

Ahad is spelled

Ahmad is spelled

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!

FROM ALLAH TO MUHAMMAD

This article is about Allah's completion of the circle of Messengers (peace and blessings on them all).

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.

Maryam
Meem

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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