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WHAT
ARE THE FRUITS AND BENEFITS OF THE ASCENSION?
Out of
numerous fruits of the Ascension, which is like an elaborate tree
of Paradise in meaning, we shall mention only five as examples.
First fruit
The vision
of the truths from which the pillars of faith originate and the
seeing of angels, Paradise and the Hereafter and even the Majestic
Being, became the cause of such a treasury and an eternal light
and gift for the universe and mankind that it has freed the
universe from being seen as a disordered heap of things doomed to
destruction and showed that, in reality, it is the harmonious
collection of the sacred ‘writings’ of the Eternally
Besought-of-All and lovely mirrors where the Grace and Beauty of
the Single One are reflected. It has pleased and rejoiced the
universe and all conscious beings. Again, through that light and
gift, it has freed man from the confused state of misguidance in
which he was seen as a wretched, completely helpless and destitute
being entangled in innumerable needs and hostilities and doomed to
eternal annihilation, and showed that, in reality, he is of
fairest composition and the best pattern of creation, one who,
being a miracle of the Power of the Eternally Besought-of-All and
a comprehensive copy of the collection of His ‘writings’, is
addressed by the Sovereign of Eternity, and one who is His private
servant to appreciate His perfections, His friend to behold His
Beauty in amazement, and His beloved and an honorable guest of His
designated for Paradise. It has implanted infinite joy and
enthusiasm in those who are truly human.
Second
fruit
The
Ascension brought to men and jinn as a gift the essentials of
Islam, including primarily the prescribed five daily prayers,
which contain all the things pleasing to the Ruler of Eternity,
Who is the Maker of creatures, the Owner of the universe, and the
Lord of the Worlds. People must be so curious about perceiving
those things pleasing to Him, and the perception of them brings so
great happiness that it cannot be described. For everyone is
desirous of knowing the wishes of a renowned benefactor or a
benevolent king to the degree that he says: ‘I wish I had a
means of communication and talked to him directly! I wish I knew
what he asks of me! I wish I knew what things of me are pleasing
to Him!’ God has the possession of all creatures, and the grace,
beauty and perfections shared by all creatures are but a dim
shadow in relation to His Beauty, Grace and Perfection. You may
understand to what degree mankind, who need Him in infinite
respects and receive His boundless bounties every moment, should
be curious about and desirous of perceiving His wishes and the
things pleasing to Him.
It was as a
fruit of the Ascension that having left seventy thousand veils
behind, the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings,
heard of the things pleasing to the King of Eternity directly from
Him with absolute certainty and brought them to mankind as a gift.
Mankind are
extremely curious to know facts about the moon and any other
planet. They desire that someone will go there and tell them about
it. They are ready to make great sacrifices for this end. But the
moon travels in the domain of such a Master that if flies around
the earth like a fly. The earth flies around the sun like a moth.
As for the sun, it is only a lamp among thousands of other lamps
and functions like a candle in a guest-house of the Majestic
Master of Kingdom. Thus, such are the acts and qualities of the
Majestic Being, and the wonders of His art and the treasuries of
His Mercy in the eternal world, that the Prophet Muhammad, upon
him be peace and blessings, saw during the Ascension and then told
mankind about. You may understand how contrary to reason and
wisdom it will be if mankind do not listen to that person with
utmost curiosity and in perfect amazement and love.
Third fruit
The Prophet
Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, saw the hidden treasury
of eternal happiness during the Ascension and brought its keys to
men and jinn as a gift. Through the Ascension he saw Paradise with
his own eyes, observed the everlasting manifestations of the Mercy
of the Majestic All-Merciful One, and perceived eternal happiness
with absolute certainty, and then he brought to men and jinn the
good tiding that there is eternal happiness (in an everlasting
world).
It is
indescribable how great happiness it aroused in the mortal,
wretched men and jinn who had regarded themselves as condemned to
eternal annihilation, that such a good tiding was given to them at
a time when all creatures were giving out heart-rending cries at
the thought of being in a flux amidst the convulsions of death and
decay in an unstable world, going into the ocean of non-existence
and eternal separation through the flow of time and the motion of
particles. Consider how such a tiding delights a man if he is
given a palace by the king in the vicinity of his residence just
when he (the man) is about to be hanged. Add together the
instances of joy and happiness to the number of all men and jinn,
and understand the value of this good tiding.
Fourth
fruit
As the
Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, himself
received the fruit of the vision God’s Beautiful ‘Countenance’,
he brought it to men and jinn as a gift that every believer may be
honored with the same vision. You can understand how delicious,
fine, and beautiful that fruit is when you make a comparison like
this:
Anyone with
a heart loves a beautiful, perfect and benevolent one. This love
increases in proportion to the extent of beauty, perfection and
benevolence and mounts to the degree of adoration and
self-sacrifice. It even increases to the degree that one may
sacrifice whatever one has and one’s life for the sake of a
single vision of the beloved one. Whereas, when compared to His,
all the beauty, perfection and benevolence shared by the whole of
the creation cannot even be like a few flashes of the sun in
comparison to the sun itself. You may understand from this what a
pleasant, beautiful, rejoicing and blissful fruit it is that one
deserves in the abode of eternal happiness the sight of a Majestic
One of perfection, Who is worthy of infinite love, the sight of
Whom deserves to inspire an infinite eagerness.
Fifth fruit
It was
understood through the Ascension that man is a valuable fruit of
the universe and a darling beloved of the Maker of the universe.
This understanding is one of the fruits of the Ascension, through
which man, who is outwardly an insignificant creature, a weak
animal and an impotent conscious being, has risen to a position so
high that it is the cause of pride for man above all other
creatures. The joy and happiness it must give to man is
indescribable. For if you tell an ordinary private that he has
been promoted to the rank of field-marshal, he will feel infinite
joy. While being a mortal, helpless, reasoning and articulating
animal that had been continually receiving the blows of decay and
separation, man was told unexpectedly through the Ascension:
‘In the
inner and external dimensions of God’s dominion and in an
everlasting Paradise, enveloped by the Mercy of an All-Merciful,
All-Compassionate and All-Magnificent One, you may succeed in
realizing all the desires of your heart and in recreation, in traveling,
to and fro with the speed of imagination and in the broad sphere
of the spirit and the mind. You may also succeed in seeing His
Most Beautiful ‘Countenance’ in the abode of eternal
happiness.’ You may imagine what great joy and happiness one who
is truly human will feel in his heart on hearing this.
Now,
turning to the one in the position of listener, we say: Tear apart
the shirt of atheism and put on the ears of a believer and the
eyes of a Muslim. By means of two comparisons, we will show you
the degree of the value of one or two of those fruits.
For
example: Suppose you and I are together in a land. We see that we
have chanced upon an unfriendly environment; everything and
everyone is hostile and strange both to us and to one another.
Everywhere is filled with dreadful corpses. Whatever we hear is
either the cries of orphans or the laments of the oppressed. While
in this state, if one gets a good tiding from the king of that
land, through which all those hostile to us become friendly,
enemies change into friends, those dreadful corpses emerge as
worshipping beings occupied with praising and glorification in
veneration and humility, the cries and wailings are heard as
shouts of approval or acclamations, and deaths, killings, and
robberies change into acts of discharge from the duties of life,
and if, together with experiencing ours, we share the joy and
happiness of others, then certainly you will understand how joyful
that tiding is.
Prior to
the light of belief, which is one of the fruits of the Ascension
of Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, when considered with
the view of misguidance, all creatures in the universe seemed to
be strange, harmful, troublesome and frightening objects, and such
bodies as mountains seemed like dreadful corpses. Death cut off
the head of everybody and threw it into the well of non-existence.
All the voices heard were cries of lament coming from deaths and
separations. Having come just at that time when misguidance
presented everything to the mind thus, the truths contained in the
pillars of faith, which are a fruit of the Ascension, show you
every creature as a friend or brother to you and something which
mentions and glorifies its Majestic Maker, and death as discharge
from the duties of life, and voices as praises and glorifications
of God. If you want to comprehend this truth perfectly, you may
refer to the Second and Eighth Words.
Second
comparison: Suppose you and I are in a place like a big desert.
Caught by a sand storm in the midst of night, we cannot see even
our hands. While in this wretched state (hungry, thirsty, hopeless
and without protection) if someone appears unexpectedly with a
car, and picking us up, takes us to a Paradise-like place where an
extremely merciful lord welcomes us and takes us under his
protection, where our future has been secured, and a banquet has
been prepared for us, you may guess how we will rejoice and feel
happy.
So, the
desert is the world, and the sands stand for helpless men and
other creatures tossing about in the violent disturbances of time
and events. Every human being is anxious about his future, at
which he looks with the view of misguidance, and sees it in a
thick darkness. There is no one he knows to hear his cries. He is
extremely hungry and thirsty. But thanks to God’s wishes and the
things pleasing to Him, which we come to know as a fruit of the
Ascension, the world is the guest-house of an extremely Generous
One with men in it being his guests and officers; when, in such a
guest-house, the future appears to you as beautiful as Paradise,
as lovely as mercy and as brilliant as eternal happiness, you may
understand how lovely, pleasant and beautiful that fruit is.
We
conclude:
O brother!
I congratulate you. May God Almighty include us in the
intercession of His noble Messenger, upon him be peace and
blessings. Amen.
O
God! Bestow blessings from the beginning of the world until
the end of the Day of Judgement, on him by whose sign the
moon split, and from whose fingers water gushed forth like
the spring of Paradise; who made the Ascension and whose
eyes did not waver(our master Muhammad, and on all of his
family and Companions.
Glory
be to You! We have no knowledge save what You have taught
us. Surely You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.
O
Lord! Accept from us (our prayers and all other forms of
worship); surely You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. O
Lord! Do not call us to account if we forget or make errors.
O Lord! Do not make our hearts swerve after You have guided
us. O Lord! Complete our light for us and forgive us. Surely
You are powerful over all things. The last of their call is
all praise to God, the Lord of the Worlds.
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