KEYS TO THE KINGDOM
–
Commentary on Chapter 67: Surat al-Mulk
from
"Living Islam – East & West"

By: Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri

Part I

As we all know, each ayah of the Qur`an had a specific reason for which it came during the Prophet's life-time. If the ayats do not have reasons and meanings which are valid for the time in which we live, then we may as well consider the ayats useless. If, for instance, we say Surah Abu Lahab which is about Abu Lahab, a contemporary of the Prophet, does that mean that there have not been others like Abu Lahab since the Prophet?

Along with history of the revelation of the ayats, there is another matter which is very important, and that is the knowledge of those ayats which were abrogated and those which abrogate. But these two aspects of the Qur`anic science is best left to the scholars. With the short time at our disposal it is best to dive into the Qur`an in such a fashion that it is immediately usable as a practical manual even without much knowledge of Arabic.

In order to display what I mean, Surat al-Mulk has been chosen. Allah says in the first ayat:

Blessed is He in Whose hand is the Kingdom, and He has power over all things. (67:1)

In other words, 'Exalted be He in whose hands is all sovereignty.' Mulk, meaning kingdom, is anything that is owned, anything that can be discerned. It may designate something physical or it may represent a concept such as sovereignty. Mulk is from the verb malaka which means 'to have power, to control, to possess'. So, whatever you possess, for instance your life, is mulk. Along with the thing possessed is implied its value. Generally speaking, mulk implies a piece of land or a house because this is the most obvious possession.

The Qur`an says tabaraka, Mubarak, a derivative of tabaraka, is that which is blessed. Recognizing His blessedness and His mercy and that the entire Creation is in His hands means that I recognize my nothingness. The phrase 'the hands of Allah' implies action, manifestation, and visibility. As you know we have two hands and, in our traditions the right is for enjoying what is correct while the left is for forbidding the wrong. In conformity with that, we encourage our children to eat with their right hands.

Our life and every life is His. The Qur`an tells us the most important trade is the selling of ourselves to God Alone. If we give ourselves up to Him, then whatever problem that remains is God's. Having truly surrendered ourselves, we recognize that all is in God's hand. The reality of the situation is that we are in -time while He is not. Time is encapsulated by Him. Through this limitation we have to discover the Unlimited. This means that we must leave the possibility open for anything to happen. What we call a miracle is actually an event about which we are completely ignorant. It is unseen to us but, as far as God is concerned, the unseen and the seen are connected. For us, because we are caught within time, the seen and the unseen are separated.

He is the Knower of the Unseen and the Knower of witnessing. (6:73)

We recognize that He is All-Powerful over all things, but sometimes this leads us to rationalize that Allah will change whatever we wish to be changed without any effort on our part.

Every event is according to perfect laws. If it were not so, there would be chaos and no mercy. If every one of us were born with a defect causing our hearts to stop for twenty seconds, can you imagine what chaos we would experience? We want to know if our health is going to last and we are concerned about the immediate future because we hope to unify our intentions with our actions. We want tawhid (unification). We love the One and only One, the One on whom all depend, but we do not know Muhammad, the Prophet of God. Many people say "There is no god but God," and accept this ayah. But this is not enough. If they do not move from "There is no god but God" to "Muhammad is the Prophet of God," and find the keys to the Muhammadi way, it is not good enough. Having accepted that Allah is All-Powerful over all things, it is our duty to unify our destiny with His will. If that unification occurs, then we are safe in the house of Faith.

God's will manifests itself in the consensus of opinion. If all of us here were to want goodness, goodness would prevail. But if the majority of us wanted something rotten and hypocritical, and only one person wanted goodness, what would prevail? It is obvious that the one desiring good would be overpowered. He would be a believer amongst disbelievers or hypocrites. Then it would be his duty to try to change the situation, failing which, he should do the next best thing, which is to leave. Even a prophet of Allah would be distressed by an environment of unbelief. The Prophet Moses was not spared the afflictions of the plague of blood. Similarly, during the Battle of Uhud, the blessed Prophet Muhammad was not protected from the laws of gravity which guided the arrow to his teeth. These events occurred within Allah's laws. While the Prophet's inward self recognized the Perfection of Allah, and therefore was content with the loss that the Muslims suffered, his outward self wanted to continue fighting in order to save them. Yet the two aspects of his being were totally united. Inwardly, he was content with the decree of God; outwardly, he was a slave of God. "God is All-Powerful over all things." We see the signs of this truth everywhere, although we are remote from this glorious reality. The Muhammadi way is to do our best at each instant according to our capacities and to move on. The rest is God's business.

Who created death and life that he may try you – which of you is best in deeds; and He is the Mighty, the Forgiving. (67:2)

The Surah began with "Glory be to the One Who has it all," that is, He has all of the Kingdom, the mulk. Now Allah points out a subtlety concerning the manifestation of His Glory in the Creation. Look at the Qur'an. We have to question it in order to fully comprehend what it is offering. We have to ask why He put mawt (death) before hayat (life) in His statement: "Who created death and life."

One of the many ways of approaching an answer to this question is to begin with the premise that the Creation has a purpose. If you were trying to design something you would first form a model or an idea of it in its completion. You would then move towards meeting your goal within a specific time. Concerning our own end, it is death, and it is towards that that we are all working.

In a sense, we are programmed to fear death. While the believer has it always in front of him, the unbeliever seeks to keep it behind him so that he may deny it. When God says: "He created death," He means to indicate that our lives begin at what is ultimately going to happen to us, which is death. It means that we are as good as our state when we leave this world. God promises that this is what will ultimately count.

One of the meanings of bala (to try) is 'to make something old'. It means 'to test'. We see, therefore, that the aging process is a series of tests to prepare us for the ultimate end. Afflictions are not against us, but rather for us. Allah tests us so that we may acquire discrimination which will give us the appreciation and knowledge that will cause us to grow worthy of our origin which is the Command of Allah. Allah says:

And they ask you about the soul. Say: the soul is one of the commands of my Lord, and you are not given aught of knowledge but a little. (17:85)

With sound discrimination we would be worthy of being called Bani Adam (the sons of Adam). We would know what is right and what is not, recognizing what is lasting and what is not. Once we have put our priorities in order, we will become men of wisdom and intellect ('aql). The head gear of the Arabs is called the 'aqal a word related to 'aql. Before the Cadillacs overcame the camels in the Arab world it had another function. It was tied around the legs of the camel to make him sit. 'Aqala means to 'become tranquil, still'. In Arabic you say 'iql! (Be quiet! Sit down!) By implication we see that the faculty of tethering originates within us. If agitation ceases, consciousness arises. 'Aql is generally translated as 'mind' or 'thought'. Allah says in a Hadith Qudsi: "One of the first things I created was 'Aql."

"Which of you is best in deeds?" How do we discriminate between actions except by what gives rise to consciousness through the `aql? The worth of an action is according to the purity of its intention. If the intention behind our action were service to God Alone, then we would permit the outcome of the action to fall completely into God's hands. Although our judgment may have been wrong in the application of the action, still, God will take care of our intention. If our intention was correct, He will save us. He will determine:

Which of you is best in deeds; and He is the Mighty, the Forgiving. (67:2)

'Aziz (Mighty) is one of the names of God and means 'Precious'. Often, when God's attributes are mentioned at the end of an ayah, they reveal its meaning. 'Aziz here refers to the Creator of death and life which are most precious to us.

Ghafur is the forgiver of our actions. Ghafara in Arabic means 'to protect, to cover'. Ghafara and kafara mean almost the same thing in on outer sense. Kafara is 'to cover, wrap with something'. A kafir is someone who 'denies, covers up, denies the mercy of God'. Ghafara means to cover faults. We ask Allah for ghufran, His covering of our faults.

Who created the seven heavens one above another; you see no incongruity in the creation of the Beneficent God; then look again, can you see any fault? (67:3)

In the first ayah we were informed that the entire Creation is Allah's territory, the mulk. In the second ayah we are given a short description of the Creator. A Hadith Qudsi says: "I was a hidden treasure and I wanted to be known so I created." The dispersion or separateness apparent in the creation is only to spur us on to recognizing His Oneness. The secret of the Oneness is hidden within what appears to be separateness. Allah says: "I am closer to you than your jugular vein." Wherever you look is the face of God – Wherever you look there is Oneness. The Qur`an says:

O man! Surely you must strive (to attain) to your Lord, a hard striving until you meet Him. (84:6)

Where do you go to attain the vision of oneness but "(the One) Who created the seven heavens... ."

This ayah of Surat al-Mulk is a more detailed description of the expansiveness of the Creator's manifestation and can be viewed in many ways. According to Islamic science, there are outward seven heavens and seven inward heavens. The present day science of physics describes the atom as containing electrons which occupy seven energy levels. Linguistically, the Arabic language implies by the word 'seven', 'many'.

Tabaq means 'layer upon layer'. The implication is that there are layers one on top of the other, all intimately connected. In one sense this may be interpreted to mean a hierarchy of levels beginning at the grossly physical extending to the less physical and subtle. For example, the air which surrounds our planet is found to be most dense at the surface and most subtle as we leave the gravitational pull of the earth.

Within this ayah we are given an aspect of the Mercy of Allah. "You do not see in the creation of the Merciful (Rahman) any deviation, any imperfection." Tafawut means "incongruity' or 'deviation', and comes from the verb fata which means 'to escape'. You will never see such a state of affairs in the creation. It is perfect from whichever direction you look at it. If you ever suspect that there may be some incongruity in the events that have taken place within your life, look back at what happened, you will find it was perfect – even though you may not have had success. In whatever happened there was mercy in it for you.

Know that whatever was taken away from you can be replaced by something as good or better. From the child in the womb is taken away the wonderful protectiveness and security. The security is robbed from him in order that he may grow to witness this world in its magnificence and perfection. Contemplation on Allah is not possible without giving up something. You have to give up something to obtain something else. It is mathematical, a perfect balance.

Futur is 'a fissure', 'a crack', and comes from fatara which means 'to crack, or to split'. Would we ever expect to find a crack or discontinuity within this creation? If we do see any discontinuities in the creation, it is because we are discontinuous and cracked within ourselves. Then we are discontinuous on our path of knowledge of God.

One of the many courtesies we practice in our approach to the Qur`an is the reciting of the phrase "I seek protection with God Alone from the accursed Shaytan." The development of our discrimination begins by our recognition of what is not correct. We know, in our existential life, what is not right before we know what is right.

Shatana  the root of Shaytan in Arabic means 'to be far'. We do not wish to be near what will cause us to be far from Allah. If it were not for our appreciation of being distant, we would not appreciate being near. If it were not for the fact that we have suffered from falsehood, we would not be able to approach the truth. Excluding what is not, as expressed by "la ilaha", is the right form of courtesy. In this way discrimination and 'aql (reasoning) grows, the faculty of higher consciousness is fed.

Another courtesy shown towards the Qur`an is keeping oneself in ritual purity (i.e. in wudu`). If the beginning is right then the end will be right; if the beginning is wrong then the end will be wrong. We must ask ourselves 'Is our ablution real? Have we washed off all bad actions? Given up everything that the left hand does and made sure that the right hand will do what it is supposed to do? Have we wiped out all the senses?' Shaykh al-Alawi, who is one of our great masters, explains quite a number of the inner meanings of wudu`. There are many traditions indicating the inner meanings of our outer actions.

If we do not unify the inner and the outer, we shall miss the sweetest, deepest nectar. According to many great men of knowledge and reality, the ayah "In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful" belongs to every surah except one. "In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful" should never be neglected because it is the most important, the most blessed, the most perfect, the most loved ayah. Each "Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim" is specific to its surah. There are many men of `ilm (knowledge) who say that if, while performing the prayer, one recites "Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim" without already having chosen the surah one is about to read, the prayer is not correct. "Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim", as the first ayah of Surat al-Mulk, means that barakah (blessedness) is in the hand of the One and Only Controller. It means here that it is the decree of Allah that "Blessed is He in Whose hand is the kingdom".

An Arabic word is usually formed of a three-consonant cluster. That cluster will form many adjectives, verbs and nouns which sound similar yet have specific meanings. For example, wafa. When an Arab hears the word, he immediately associates it with the concept which in English would mean 'loyalty, honesty' etc. But when wafat is heard, the concept of 'death' comes to his mind. The many other words related to wafa when conceived together act as a kaleidoscope which creates new higher-order meanings, serving to enhance the specific word and its meaning.

When we translate the Qur`an, we must give each word a specific meaning according to the situation. At first the heart should remain open to the reality of the field of tawhid, the unified field, picking up all of the vibrations of the words closely related to it. At last, seeing the panorama of interrelated meanings, it should anchor itself on one specific meaning, already established within our traditions.

We cannot do ta'wil (interpretation) in our own way. It is inspired and the activity of the Inspired Self is very dangerous. Nafs al-ammarah (the Commanding Self), which is considered a lower form of self, is in fact easier to overcome. The Inspired Self is the heart of an artist. It is attractive because it projects the impression of having freedom, but it is dangerous and may lead to disaster. The Commanding Self and the Self-Accusing Self are terrible but they are easy to identify. Typically, they would say, 'I will not budge'. If they are not appealed to intellectually, spiritually, mentally, they will not give in. Whereas the Inspired Self says, 'Never mind, why not, we are open minded, etc.' It is the worst type of self, especially where teaching is concerned. It is an arrogant, egotistical self, possessing no discipline. The man who is under the sway of the Inspired Self, when he takes to the path, has no discipline and is like jelly. For this reason we cannot do our own interpretation, following our own inspirations. We let our hearts wander but in the end we must anchor ourselves. The Qur`an addresses the human being as follows:

O soul that art at rest! (89:27)

The Qur`an does not address the Inspired Self.

Ism (name) in the ayah "Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim" leads the mind of a person, who is familiar with Arabic, in the direction of another word, sama, which means 'higher'. Ism specifically means 'that which points towards a direction, a name, a label'. The label of a thing is not the thing. Everything in this existence points towards its Creator and, therefore, how many names has Allah? Where is it that Allah's name is not, because where is it that Allah is not? When we say, "In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful", we mean, 'By the permission, by the direction, by the pointer which can be recognized through His beneficence and mercy.'

Allah is Ism al-Jalal (the Majestic Name). He is pure and cannot be described because no sooner does the consciousness becomes conscious of something than the thing conceived becomes impure. No sooner do we think of an attribute but that attribute will be colored by time and place. When we say, "In the Name of Allah" it must point necessarily in a particular direction.

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. Say: He, Allah is One. (112:1)

"Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim" at the beginning of Surat al-Ikhlas means 'By the power of life and discrimination that is in us to say the truth' which is "Allahu Ahad (Allah is One)." Every declaration of 'In the Name of Allah' has its own specific meaning: it is part of a surah and cannot be separated from it. It is the decree of Allah that this is the way it is, whether we like it or not.

Blessed is He in Whose Hand is the kingdom. (67:1)

When "Bismillah" is used at the beginning of Surat al-Mulk it means, 'The name of Allah is stamped on all of His creation, on all of his mulk (kingdom).'

As a summary of the three ayats of Surat al-Mulk we have covered, we can say that the first ayah is an acknowledgement of the Mercy of Allah and that He is in control. "He has power over all things." Then the creation is informed that it is He "Who created death and life." Death is the set target from life's inception. We have come into this world in order to find its opposite. All knowledge of existence, as we know, hinges on the recognition of opposites. We cannot recognize wakefulness unless we sleep, knowledge unless we are ignorant, right unless we have understood the meaning of wrong within us. We cannot recognize the value of good health unless we have suffered from ill health. The access to one attribute is through its opposite. It is well known that everything which goes beyond its boundary becomes its opposite. If we are completely divested for Allah's sake, we will become ultimately rich by Allah. If we want something we have to go to its opposite. If we want to rule, we have to be willing to be ruled over. But first we have to know how to rule ourselves. Ultimately, we should have no wish or desire for ourselves, otherwise, we would not be qualified to rule. The Prophet appointed Usamah, the youngest of his companions to command the Muslim army and take control of a country. There were other companions who were much older, wiser and much more knowledgeable. One of them came to the Prophet to say that he was better qualified than the young Usamah. But the Prophet said: "You may well be better qualified; you both have many similar qualities, but he has one which you do not. He does not want to rule and you do."

If a person wishes to be a successful ruler, one of the necessary qualifications is its opposite, not wanting to rule, that is, not wanting to rule for ourselves but for God alone. We will rule to bring joy, to open other people's hearts. By taking advantage of the opportunity in this life to attain tranquility of the heart, stability of the system, a moment of emptiness, we will move inward toward the discovery of the inner cosmos. Allah says:

So when you are free still toil. (97:7)

In other words, we should remain steadfast and expand our hearts.

Imam `Ali has said the following:

"Your remedy is within you but you don't know it.
Your illness is self-inflicted but you do not see it.
And you are the evident book. By its signs appears what is hidden.
And you imagine yourself a tiny planet or a tiny entity and in you is folded up the entire cosmos."

What the Imam is saying becomes romantic pseudo-Sufism if we are not careful. We must start correctly, properly, and with the right courtesy. We cannot jump ahead to gain inner delights without first attending to outer responsibilities. Everything has its turn. The Prophet said: "The path, in its entirety, is courtesy." Our courtesy towards the Qur`an, towards these ayat, is to take what comes out of them clearly and with cause and then to pray for greater, deeper clarity which will manifest the connection between the outer and the inner.

God's Creation, whose purpose is for man to come to know Him, is based upon various layers, manifestations or stages which have no separation between them. Each stage is part of a continuum. There is nothing in it that we can improve upon because it is based on a perfect oneness existing in non-timeness. God says:

Wonderful Originator of the heavens and earth, and when He decrees an affair, He only says to it, Be, so there it is. (2:117)

The creation of the world is not a clumsy act put together by in-time beings such as men, rather it is a perfection created by Allah who exists in non-time.

The next ayah of Surat al-Mulk is a challenge to Allah's creatures.

Then turn back the eye again and again; your look shall come back to you confused and fatigued. (67:4)

There are many different interpretations of this ayah. If we spend time on it, we will discover them for ourselves. Some of them we may be able to reveal to others, some of them we may not be licensed to. We are not certain of our inspirations. How do you know if they are absolute in truth? Occasionally we receive openings, but it is discourteous to inflict them upon others.

Very recently, a man of great knowledge warned me that because he had had a certain vision, such and such a situation might arise. Desiring to maintain personal tranquility, safety and health, all prerequisites for witnessing the cosmic balance, I heeded his warning. But in doing so, I found myself lacking in courtesy. I was admitting that there was nothing that I could do and therefore I was being negative. Besides, it was possible that his vision was not true and was the result of bad indigestion. We do not know. Imam `Ali said: "Enough of that knowledge (inspirational knowledge) does not exist and the little of it that you receive will be of no use to you."

I have yet to find a master who is absolutely certain of his visions. Still, if I see something about someone and I can do something to help him or her, then it is my duty to do so. Suppose I have a dream that a person is walking and then falls into a well. It would be my duty to come to him quietly and walk beside him to assure him, when we get to that well, that I am there with him to guide him to the other side. I may find that there was no well at all. It was only my own imagination.

So you can see, we cannot do our own interpretation of the Qur`an guided by inspiration. We must be careful and courteous. The most we can say about each of the openings that we do have concerning the Qur`an is that it is one opinion. If linguistically and traditionally there is nothing wrong with our interpretation – nobody has objected to it – and it fits into what the rest of the Qur`an says, then you may conclude that you have come upon one way of looking at the meaning of the Qur`an. Many of the interpreters of the Qur`an pay attention to the outer surface only. Explaining the Qur`an at a superficial level is safe, but we want more than a superficial understanding. We are greedy for knowledge. We must ask Allah to give us the right qualifications because we have to tread gently and be willing to withdraw our foot at any time. It is Allah's business, Allah's knowledge, Allah's model. We have to treat it with the greatest deference.

'Return the sight twice' is a challenge. We have looked at the existence and contemplated. If we are Believers, it is not possible for us to look back for another moment without concluding that the creation is in a perfect balance. The events of creation may not be perfect for our pocketbooks or our relationships with our sons but that is because we have had an objective not in line with the overall destiny of creation. We may have been in a state of ignorance (jahal) or we may have been clumsy. When we decided to build a high-rise building, we may not have known that half a dozen other companies were doing exactly the same thing. Even though we are very pious and our actions were dedicated to God alone, we may still find, after finishing the building, that we have many debts, an empty building, and the bank manager chasing us. Can we blame God? If our actions were pure and simple fi-sabilillah (completely in the way of God Alone), then why should we care? It is God's business. Often, of course, this is not the case; we did not act purely for God Alone. This matter is very subtle because we are usually not aware of our own inner motives.

When we 'turn back the eye again and again' we have the chance of not projecting ourselves, thereby having a better opportunity of seeing the perfection of creation and its cause and effect.

Looking back, the believer finds the perfect hand behind all events and so is able to take immediate cybernetic remedial action to get back into synchronization. It is to God's laws that we are connected and subjected. Within a small arena we have the ability to act freely. If the two are not enmeshed in total harmony along the conveyor belt called time, then sparks fly and then, of course, we blame our loss on someone else.

"...Your look shall come back to you confused... ." If we see imperfection, it is because our vision is imperfect. The disorder that we see is our own. Looking back again and again gives us the possibility of rectifying our interpretation. This is why the hadith says, "The believer will not be bitten from the same hole twice." Committing the same mistake twice, as all of us do, indicates that our faith is faulty. Faith has degrees. Where does it end? Wherever there is a fault in our faith, we will tend to fall into it repeatedly because the believer trusts that all is well. But on the other hand, if he trusts that all is well, and his trust is well placed, all will be well. For the believer there is no way out, he is caught. Without complaint, he does whatever is necessary with unified sight, intention and action. The believer is not negative nor does he complain. He is not passive towards his environment like the television viewer.

Then turn back the eye again and again; your look shall come back to you confused and fatigued. (67:4)

The meaning of this ayah is that the being who tries to see a fault in the creation will not be able to, rather he will become exhausted, without success. Still our common experience leads us to believe that if we want to find fault with the Creation, we will. If we want to find fault with a people, no matter who they are, we will find it because perfection belongs only to Allah. Likewise, if we want to find goodness in a person, we will find it. If we are looking for people of sound heart, we will find people who are kind-hearted. Even in the worst criminal, there is some goodness. Someone who has killed five hundred people may occasionally show kindness towards a cat.

God says:

O man! Surely you must strive (to attain) to your Lord, a hard striving until you meet Him. (84:6)

We will toil in this life. But often, because we are not on a path, our toil is merely chasing our own tail in circles. Our efforts may not be on the sirat al-mustaqim, the straight path, the path of righteousness. The definition of a straight line is that which is the shortest distance between two points. We imagine there are two points, God and ourselves. The man of real insight will change his view of the two points so that they are lined up on a straight line towards the Ka'bah. He will no longer see two points but one. In that way he will see nothing other than the One. When we change our attitude we will see the One, and we will be reborn. Then we shall be like toddlers when they begin to become aware of their ignorance; the more we see, the more we know we have not seen. Then all we shall say is:

There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.