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SUPERNORMAL
PHENOMENA
The
spirit issues forth from the world of
unconditioned existence, where Divine
commands are carried out instantly and
directly. However, like energy requiring
cords or bulbs to function, the spirit
needs matter to function in this world,
although matter restricts its activity.
So, to make the spirit more active and
less confined within time and space, we
can follow one of three ways:
The
ways one can make one’s spirit more
active and less
confined within time and space
The
way of the Prophets and saints
Every
person has the innate ability to give
the spirit more room in which to act.
This goal is accomplished by firm
religious belief and spiritual
development through regular worship and
asceticism. The more refined matter is,
the freer and more active the spirit.
Eating less food, frequent fasting,
sleeping less, refraining from sin, and
regular and more frequent worship help
you reach this goal. If you use your
innate ability to develop your spiritual
faculties, you can transcend the limits
of this world, travel in the spirit in
other dimensions of existence, and, to
some degree, establish contact with the
past and future.
Consider
the following analogy: When you are in a
room, you see that which is confined by
the four walls. When you go outside,
your viewing range expands and includes
your immediate surroundings. You can see
even more from the top of a hill. The
higher you ascend, the more you see. It
is the same with time. The freer the
spirit is from the prison of matter and
the body, the broader the realm of its
activity with respect to time and space.
This
way is usually the way of the Prophets
and saints. Either through traveling in
spirit in time and space or through
being taught by God, the Knower of the
Seen and Unseen, they penetrate into the
depths of time and space. Just as
sunlight is in innumerable places
simultaneously, although it is a
material body, so a Prophet’s or a
saint’s spirit, especially one of the
“substitutes” (abdal), can be
present in many places at once in his or
her body’s immaterial or energetic
form. The Quran points to this: She
(Mary, the mother of Jesus) placed a
screen to seclude herself from them.
Then We sent to her Our spirit, and he
appeared before her as a man without
fault (19:17). Many interpreters of the
Quran say that this spirit was the
Archangel Gabriel. Such accounts also
are reported in many authentic
narrations.
A
saint’s spirit, if it has acquired
sufficient enlightenment or luminosity,
encounters symbols or signs of past or
future events while traveling in time.
Saints interpret these visions and tell
us of certain past or future events.
This is comparable to dream
interpretation. Saints may sometimes err
in their interpretation. However, a
Prophet, since he receives Revelation
and is directly taught by God Almighty,
the Knower of the Unseen, cannot err in
his interpretations and predictions.
Whatever Prophets predicted always came
true. For example, Prophet Muhammad,
upon him be peace and blessings,
predicted numerous future events, among
them the martyrdom of ‘Uthman and ‘Ali,
the Battle of Jamal (Elephant) between
‘Ali and such leading Companions as
Talha and Zubayr, and the Muslims’
conquest of Damascus, Iran, and
Istanbul. Most of his predictions have
already come true; others are waiting
for their time to come true.
Muhyi
al-Din ibn al-‘Arabi, a Muslim saint
who died about 50 years before the
founding of the Ottoman State at the
beginning of the fourteenth century,
predicted numerous important events of
Ottoman history. His Shajarat al-Nu‘maniya,
manuscripts of which are available in
libraries in Edirne and Istanbul, is
like a symbolic history of the Ottoman
State. For example, he predicted that
his grave would be discovered when Selim
entered Damascus (it was), that despite
9 months of siege Hafiz Ahmad Pasha
would not capture Baghdad (he did not),
that Sultan Murad would conquer it in 40
days (he did), and that Sultan ‘Abd
al-‘Aziz would be dethroned and killed
(he was).
Similarly,
Mushtaq Dada of Bitlis, who lived in the
first half of the eighteenth century,
predicted that after a war someone named
Kamal would make Ankara the capital of
Turkey (all of which happened). His
Diwan, a book of his poems that contains
this prediction, is still available.
Such
beloved servants of God, whether
Prophets or saints, make predictions
only if He allows them to do so through
His permission and power. He declares:
My servant can draw near unto Me in no
safer and better way than performing his
obligatory religious duties. He becomes
nearer to me through supererogatory
prayers. Once he becomes near to Me, I
become his eyes with which he sees, his
ears with which he hears, and his hands
with which he holds.
Following
the guidance of the relevant Divine Name
or Names
The
second way to travel in spirit in time
and space, or to penetrate into further
and deeper dimensions of time and space,
is to follow the guidance of the
relevant Divine Name or Names. All
existence depends on the manifestations
of the Divine Names. We can see only
because the manifestation of His Name
the All-Seeing enables us to see. We
continue to exist because of the
manifestation of His Names the
Self-Subsistent and the
One-Causing-to-Subsist allows us to do
so. If He no longer manifested His Name
the One-Causing-to-Subsist in connection
with existence, the universe would cease
to exist instantly.
Similarly,
this practice also allows angels and
jinn to assume animal and human forms,
provided that God allows them to do so.
Especially jinn can enter an animal’s
body and govern its actions. They can
also control people. So, by discovering
the Divine Name that allows one to
penetrate such dimensions and then
following Its guidance in a particular
affair, we can travel in time and space,
and see and hear certain things that
others cannot.
Supernormal
phenomena such as telepathy and
spiritualism
Such
supernormal phenomena as telepathy and
spiritualism are widespread. Millions of
people who seek peace and happiness to
counteract the domination of their
worldview, min, and spirit by technology
and materialism, attend seances for
so-called transcendental experiences.
Some people are more inclined to and can
perform supernormal phenomena. For
example, a female medium by the name of
Madame Gibson predicted the partition of
India in 1947 and the murder of John
Kennedy. Likewise, Fenni Bey from Ordu,
Turkey, who fought at the front of
Madina during the First World War,
relates:
We
were under siege in Madina. I was
unable to communicate with my family
in Istanbul. One night in a dream I
saw fire and smoke in my house. In
the morning I sent for a private of
mine, who was a medium. I told him
to go into a trance and, traveling
to my house-I told him where it was
situated-describe to me what he saw.
He did what I told him and began to
describe: “I have reached the
house, I have knocked on the door
and an old woman in a head-scarf has
come out with a child in her arms.”
I told the private to ask the woman
if there was anything wrong in the
house? He related to me: “She says
your wife died yesterday.”
Spiritualism
is very widespread nowadays. Before
further explanation, I should point out
that I discuss such things only to
emphasize that existence is not
restricted to matter. Rather, as in the
case with a book or a piece of writing
whose main existence lies in its
meaning, that which is metaphysical,
spiritual, or immaterial is the
essential part of existence. Matter, on
the other hand, is accidental and a
changing means for the manifestation of
the immaterial. Great saints like Muhyi
al-Din ibn al-‘Arabi communicated with
the spirits of the dead and even of
those who had not yet been born; modern
spiritualists and mediums communicate
with unbelieving jinn or devils who
appear as the dead person with whose
soul they wish to communicate. Also,
mediums who predict future events
usually make contact with jinn and then
report what they are told.
Jinn
live longer than us, are active in
broader dimensions (realms) of time and
space, are much quicker than us, and can
see things that we cannot. However, they
cannot see the future and we should not
believe their predictions, even though a
very few of them do come true. It is a
known fact that the American and Soviet
intelligence services competed with each
other in using supernormal ways of
communication like telepathy. As will be
explained later, in a not too distant
future, world powers will be using jinn
to communicate with each other,
especially in secret intelligence
activities. However, it is dangerous to
seek to contact and communicate with
jinn or devils, because it is easy for
such beings to bring these seekers under
their influence and control them.
A
psychiatrist friend of mine relates the
following account:
I
was invited to a necromantic event
in a house in Samsun (a province in
northern Turkey). The youngest
daughter arranged cups and letters
on a table. One of the friends
present invited the soul of his late
grandfather. After several calls, a
man appeared. When we asked him
insistently who he was, he answered:
“Satan.” We were greatly
astonished. A while later, I asked
him why he had come although we had
not called him. He wrote on the
table with the cups: “So I come!”
I asked him whether he believed in
God. He wrote “No!” When I asked
whether he believed in the Prophet,
again he wrote, “No!” I began
reading to him some passages from a
book concerning the existence of
God. When I read: “A factory with
such and such features points to the
engineer who planned and built it,”
he wrote: “True”; but when I
read: “So too the universe with
all the planets and particularly the
world with all plants and animals in
it indicate God,” he wrote, “No!”
This continued for some time, and I
began reciting to him from Jawshan
al-Kabir (The Great Armour), a
collection of supplications to God.
While I was reciting, the cups were
moving on the table. Meantime he
wrote: “Give up that nonsense!”
When I continued to recite, he could
not endure listening and
disappeared.
Like
such supernormal experiences,
observations of some doctors at the time
of death also prove the existence of the
spirit and spirit beings. What Bedri
Ruhselman reports in Ruh ve Kainat (The
Spirit and the Universe) from a doctor
is in complete agreement with the
observations of a group of doctors from
Holland, which were published in the
newspapers. A doctor narrates:
My
wife was ill. When she went into the
pangs of death, two things
resembling two clouds descended into
the room and hovered above her head.
Meanwhile a form appeared, which was
connected to my wife on the nape of
the neck with a cord and was
fluttering. This continued for five
hours. In the end, the cord broke
off and the form, the spirit, rose
away. This was the end of my wife’s
life.
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