Plato’s Allegory & Matrix: Seeing Beyond Shadows via Near-Death Experience Q&A
From the Realities of Mawlana (Q) as taught by Shaykh Nurjan Mirahmadi.
A’uzu Billahi Minash Shaitanir Rajeem
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the rejected one
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
Alhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘aalameen, was salaatu was salaamu ‘alaa Ashrafil Mursaleen, Sayyidina wa Mawlana Muhammadul Mustafa ﷺ. Madad ya Sayyidi ya Rasulul Kareem, Ya Habibul ‘Azeem, unzur halana wa ishfa’lana, ‘abidona bi madadikum wa nazarekum.
Question 1: Sayyidi what is the best du’a (supplication) to ask on the Night of Desires as it is one of the night when Allah (AJ) accepts all prayers? Please forgive us and dress us with blessings of Laylatul Raghaib (Night of Desires).
Shaykh Nurjan Mirahmadi: InshaAllah Allah (AJ) bless you, your family and all your community. And the du’a that we recited at the beginning of the event – Du’a al Mathur [Muhammadan Way App: Duas>Du’a al Mathur]. That this is du’a from Sultanul Awliya (King of Saints) Mawlana Shaykh Abdullah Faiz ad Daghestani (Q). They say it’s kamil (perfected). It’s for the intention of these Sultanul Awliyas that, ‘Ya Rabbi as muhibbin (lovers of the way) and ‘ashiqeen (lovers) of these awliyaullah (saints),’ they’re our fathers, they are our spiritual fathers. That, ‘Grant us an inheritance from their reality,’
As we recite as what they gave to us like the child who wears his father’s shoes. What du’a you’re going to make that has any significance? But when you go home and you see your child is wearing your shoes and imitating you, wearing your clothes and imitating you, it’s a sign of love and respect.
That they give to us and say, ‘Recite what I sent to you and gave to you. That’s enough for you!’ And when you recite it and you know that what we started off with, ‘We’re da’eef (weak), we don’t know anything. But Ya Rabbi these are big awliya (saints). We’re reciting, this is the inheritance they gave to us on these apps and these du’as and these books. That with their intention, not mine, with their intention grant us.’ They immediately intercede as you’re making that du’a. And they begin to make the du’a in Allah’s (AJ) Presence and in the presence of Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ because ‘You’ll be with whom you love.’
[اَلْمَصْدَرْ: مُسْلِمْ:. ٧٥٢٠ ]”عَنْ أَنَسٍ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ: … فَقَالَ (رَسُولُ اللهِ ﷺ): ” أَنْتَ مَعَ مَنْ أَحْبَبْ”
“‘An Anasin (ra): … Faqala (Rasulullahi) ﷺ: Anta ma’a man ahbabta.”
“Narrated Anas ibn Malik (ra) that …the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said: You will be with whom you love.” [Source: Muslim 7520]
As soon as you love them, and then it’s given, ‘Oh, we love them.’ Look, you came all this way for love, it’s given now! Anything you do out of that love, they are with you. ‘You’ll be with whom you love,’ it’s established, that love becomes established. It means they’re always with you. As soon as you start to make the du’a, your tongue is fumbling, your heart is maybe not so sincere about it, but they’re there. And they immediately begin to make that du’a. And that du’a is different when they’re making it in Allah’s (AJ) Presence and in the presence of Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ. These are the ni’mat and the blessings of reciting from holy people, Allah (AJ) tanzil ur Rahmah (descending mercy).
عِنْدَ ذِكْرِ الصَّالِحِينَ تَنْزِلُ الرَّحْمَةُ
“Inda dhikres Saliheena Tanzilur Rahma.”
“In mentioning the names of the pious people, Allah’s Mercy descends.” Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)
Anytime you mention holy people, do the wazifas (spiritual practices) and awrads (daily practices) of holy people, those holy people are with you. And immediately they begin to make that du’a with their sincerity, with their station because you imitate a people you’ll be from them. Just like if you imitate bad people, you all of a sudden you’re getting all the badness of that person’s actions. But the same is if you imitate a good people, you’ll be with them. And those good people begin to pray for you, begin to intercede for you – and this is our belief system. And that’s why we do all of these actions and we recite whatever they gave to us. InshaAllah.
Question 2: Please forgive my ignorance and bad adab (manners). Could you please expand on the meaning of nur ‘ala nur (light upon light).
Shaykh Nurjan Mirahmadi: Nur ‘ala nur – Light upon light. Thank you for the question. It’s a bit, yeah, it can go in every direction. There’s no end to it. So light upon light is a dress in our lives. It’s like somebody says that, ‘I showered’, and they shower only once in their lifetime. ‘I showered, it’s enough’. But the concept is, ‘No! You have to wash all the time.’ So Allah (AJ) gave us that concept through wudu (ablution), ‘Continuously wash!’ Because Western people, they say, ‘I took a shower I can just go pray now’. Said, ‘No, no. Your shower, it doesn’t mean anything for us.’ Well, wash again! Because you’ve made yourself dirty from that time to the next time you want to pray. Wash and wash and wash and Allah (AJ), Prophet ﷺ describe that every time you make wudu is a light upon light.
That the water when you make a intention to wash, it’s a light. You see water, Allah (AJ) is dressing with light. Because by means – everything is a means to something. So how somebody is going to know what light is, is enough for you put that water all over you; wash your hands, your face, wash your feet. Make sure that your body parts are clean and washed. Why? It’s a light and if you have doubt that your wudu is good, it’s light upon light, go do it again.
So means the concept for us that Prophet ﷺ was giving to us is that hold water like it’s light. Dress from it, wash with it, drink from it. And everything you do has immense barakahs (blessings). So once they become familiar with wudu it psychologically prepares them in the realities of light; they want to be clean, they want to be glowing. And light takes away darkness. So every time there’s a bad energy, put more light on you. How are you going to put light? Allah (AJ) gave the secret in water. Then later awliya will come and explain mai – water is a tremendous power because Allah (AJ) said, ‘My throne is upon mai – upon water’.
وَهُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ فِي سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍ وَكَانَ عَرْشُهُ عَلَى الْمَاءِ لِيَبْلُوَكُمْ أَيُّكُمْ أَحْسَنُ عَمَلًا ۗ (٧)
11:7 – “Wa huwal ladhee khalaqas samawati wal arda fee sittati ayyamin, wa kana ‘arshuhu ‘alal maa ye liyabluwakum ayyukum ahsanu ‘amalan…” (Surat Hud)
“And it is He who created the heavens and the earth in six days – and His Throne had been upon water – that He might test you as to which of you is best in deed…” (Hud, 11:7)
So there must be an immense power in H2O. Right? What about H2-OO? It must be a power, immense power. But that’s a different subject. So there’s a secret in mai (water) and it’s angelic. So anytime you put this on, it’s an angelic reality. And it becomes for us light upon light, light upon light.
First thing you do when you wake up is you drink water and it sort of replentishes all the organs. Before you do anything else drink water and give the body, the organs, everything a time to capture that light and to heal. So it means it has many, many different realities. Once they become familiar with the system of light upon light, light upon light, then everything they begin to subsequently add. ‘Oh, I should make more zikr (Divine remembrance). Oh, because that’s a light too’. But you became familiar with that light when you were using water and understanding the concept of water.
But everything we do has light over light over light. That’s why make as many salawats (praises upon Prophet Muhammad ﷺ) as you can. It’s a light that as soon as you say, “Allahumma salli ‘ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ‘ala aali Sayyidina Muhammad”, it’s a beatific green light that comes back onto the servant and you can never get enough light especially in this very dark world, inshaAllah. Allah (AJ) gives us all these opportunities to illuminate our reality, inshaAllah.
اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ، وَعَلَى آلِ سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَ سَلِّمْ.
“Allahumma salli ‘ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ‘ala aali Sayyidina Muhammadin wa Sallim.”
“O Allah! Send Peace and blessings upon our master Prophet Muhammad and upon the Family of our master Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)”
Question 3: Please forgive our ignorance. Can you please expand on the understanding of Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ in all universes? Does it mean there’s always Sayyidina Adam (as) to Prophet ﷺ?
Shaykh Nurjan Mirahmadi: Well didn’t we answer that when we started the talk? You know, when you’re too busy trying to ask a question, it’s nice, thank you very much. But what did we start the talk with tonight? Where are all the universes? They’re in Muhammadun Rasulallah ﷺ. What are we talking about then? Any universe that comes into existence from now to the end of time, where does it come into existence? Muhammadun Rasulallah ﷺ. He’s the sultan (king) then. Everything is under the dominion, Bahrul Muheet – the all-encompassing ocean.
The meem of Muhammad is the all-encompassing ocean in which Allah (AJ) put every reality within that reality to keep it in tawheed (oneness). If not, it would have been, let’s say, a billion creations. Then where Allah (AJ) would be? Inside a billion of them? Then that would be a billion Allahs (AJ). Right? So it has to be one circle, one ocean of creation, and which is the ocean of creation anciently Bahrul Muheet – the all-encompassing ocean and Allah (AJ) is the Creator of that existence. It comes into existence like one cell.
So how we came into our life? Because you see it on the large, you’ll see it on the small. So, look at a cell. A cell starts one. Power comes then all of a sudden that same circle breaks into two, breaks into four, breaks into eight, beaks into six. It’s the same circle, but inside is breaking and it’s still the same circle. That Allah (AJ) is describing for us that when you look small or you look large; then you look large you say, ‘Okay, I see this planet, I see these galaxy.’ Then they zoom out into this Milky Way, they zoom out again and they see all the universes are all within a circle. And there’s a center power, a center star. So that they taught that everything and the awliya would sing it, ‘Everything is in the nuqt (dot).’
اک نقطے وچ گل مکدی اے
“Ek Nuqtay Vich Gal Mukdi Aey”
“The whole universe and all its understanding is contained in nuqt only.”
It’s just one cell. The nuqt hits the dot, the qalam (pen) put a nuqt and if you put the nuqt under a microscope, it expands. And the secret of a circle has infinite expansion. Right? But the center is always one; tawheed (oneness). It can expand infinitely and the center is one. Why? Because the points on the circumference are expanding. And they all have an equal access to the center point. So means they found when they zoomed out of our galaxy, it looked like one cell. When we look at it, it looks crowded, but as soon as you zoomed it out all of a sudden all of it came down to looking like one cell. And then when they looked at one cell was the same image. So wherever we go, the secret is in the circle and it infinitely expands.
So no matter how many Adams, how many universes, but how many galaxies, it’s still that one dot – one nuqt and all of this creation is in one nuqt known to you as ba. Where’s the nuqt? It’s in the ba. One center. It means that whatever aliens come, whatever planet they came from, whatever they claim, there’s nothing but La ilaha illAllah. Whatever they tell us, want to tell people, nothing. It’s under the dominion of La ilaha illAllah and all exists within Muhammadun Rasulallah ﷺ and what they call ‘Insan al Kamil’ (The Universal Perfect Being) – he’s the perfected reality of creation, inshaAllah. But it goes deeper, that confuses people. But, that’s good. One cell, one nuqt.
Question 4: Sayyidi what is the reality of philosophy? Is it okay to read and learn from or is it haram (forbidden)?
Shaykh Nurjan Mirahmadi: You can’t say haram, because that’s so vague. Because according to my son, everything is philosophy. Every talk I have, he says is yours philosophy. I say, ‘It’s my philosophy’. But philosophers are always giving a hypothesis and this is where the danger is. When people don’t have a strong spiritual belief in which we described that there are also truths.
You can hypothesize, and that’s when we gave the story of the people of the prison where the… Who was it? Plato? The story of the prisoners that they had a fire behind them, they’re all chained up. And all they can see on a wall is shadows and they spent their days and nights locked up because they’ve been tortured with a fire behind them and all they see in their life is shadows on a wall. And they have so many interpretations, so many stories of these shadows, and they become experts in shadow stories. But they’re locked up staring at a wall. One of them gets out. He’s released on the prison. He goes up the stairs and all of a sudden it’s a beatific garden with sunlight and beatific views and whole different reality; oceans and streams and he’s mesmerized, ‘I was spending all my life interpreting shadows. We didn’t know anything there. Look at what I’m seeing. This existence is beyond imagination!’
So all awliyaullah had the same story. That it was a prison, it was a cave, whatever it is. It means when Allah (AJ) opens His heavenly kingdom and expands their horizon and their vision they realize whatever they understood here were shadow stories. Philosophers are good at that. They tell a lot of shadow stories, and they don’t believe anyone has gotten out. Right? They don’t have the element of belief.
So in in Islam, the belief in awliya is that Allah (AJ) can make many of them get out of this prison, what they call their ‘matrix.’ Right? By seclusions, mawt al qablil mawt (death of desires before physical death) and Prophet ﷺ trained his Holy Companions and they achieve that. If they reach a state of death, Allah (AJ) opens for them, ‘I see your and I hear your footsteps in paradise.’ And all of these signs that Prophet ﷺ was giving to us of the Holy Companions that they walk in paradise. So they saw these lights, they saw these realities, they’re no longer talking about shadows, they’re talking about haqqaiqs (realities).
عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ رضى الله عنه ـ أَنَّ النَّبِيَّ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ لِبِلاَلٍ عِنْدَ صَلاَةِ الْفَجْرِ “… فَإِنِّي سَمِعْتُ دَفَّ نَعْلَيْكَ بَيْنَ يَدَىَّ فِي الْجَنَّةِ …”
“Narrated Abu Huraira: At the time of the Fajr prayer the Prophet (pbuh) asked Bilal (ra), “… I heard your footsteps in front of me in Paradise…” (Sahih alBukhari 1149)
But a shadow talker, that’s like philosophy. It’s all from this to this, this to this and if you ask them, ‘Have you seen anything? Do you train with anything?’ Say, ‘No, no, no! None of that matters.’ It’s just from one hypothesis to the next until somebody proves them wrong on something else.
So on certain topics, it’s okay. But in spirituality where there are actual truths where Allah (AJ) opens for the servant the world of light, the world of seclusions, the world of the punishment of the grave. They can have a philosophy that, ‘There’s no punishment in the grave and that this is just to scare people. And the concept of God was to scare and to regulate and control people.’ And then a shaykh will talk about he was put into seclusion, and he had 40 days of torment in which he saw in his grave like a grave. And that every action he brought into that khalwah (seclusion), into that locked room, everything of his character he brought into that room it began to manifest and attack him and come after him.
So he understood then energy is very real, and what you bring into the grave of your energy and your actions, God will make it to come alive and each will begin to manifest to come after you.
So no, it’s no longer a philosophy. It’s real. It’s true. But you know, they’ll say, ‘No.’ Because they don’t believe it. They don’t want to train. You come with us if you’re a philosopher, train for 30, 40 days, and you’re going to see hell and you’ll understand exactly what we’re talking about. It’s not a philosophy anymore, inshaAllah. We have still the khatm (Zikr of the Masters of the Naqshbandi Way) to do, inshaAllah.
Subhana rabbika rabbal ‘izzati ‘amma yasifoon, wa salaamun ‘alal mursaleen, walhamdulillahi rabbil ‘aalameen. Bi hurmati Muhammad al-Mustafa wa bi siri Surat al-Fatiha.
Special thanks to our transcribers for their help with transcribing this suhbah.
Original Date of Suhbah: January 26, 2023
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