The Journey of Life
Before and After
By Riad Nachef
Ramadan 1426AH
I begin with the name of Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. I praise Him and I seek His generosity and forgiveness. I humbly ask Him to raise the rank of Prophet Muhammad and protect his nation from what he feared for them. I profess that no one is God except Allah, and I reaffirm my belief about Allah as beautifully stated by the famous Shafi^iyy scholar, Shaykh Fakhrud-Din Ibn ^Asakir, who died in 620 AH:
Allah is the only God in His Dominion. He created the entire world, the upper and lower, the ^Arsh and Kursiyy, the heavens and earth, and what is in them and in between them.
All the creation is subjugated by His Power. No speck moves except by His will.
He has no manager for the creation with Him, and has no partner in Dominion.
He is attributed with Life and His Existence does not come to an end (al‑Qayyum). He is not seized by somnolence or sleep.
He is the One Who knows about the unforeseen and what is evidenced by His creation. Nothing on earth or in heaven is hidden from Him. He knows what is on land and in the sea. Not a leaf does fall but He knows about it. There is no grain in the darkness of earth, or anything that is moist or dry except which is inscribed in a clear Book. His Knowledge encompasses everything. He knows the count of all things.
He does whatever He wills. He has the power to do whatever He wills.
To Him is the Dominion and He needs none; To Him belong the Glory and Everlastingness. To Him are the Ruling and the Creating (al‑Qada‘). He has the Names of Perfection. No one hinders what He decreed. No one prevents what He gives. He does in His dominion whatever He wills. He rules His creation with whatever He wills.
He does not hope for reward and does not fear punishment. There is no right on Him that is binding, and no one exercises rule over Him.
Every endowment from Him is due to His Generosity and every punishment from Him is just. He is not questioned about what He does, but they are questioned.
He existed before the creation. He is not attributed with a before or an after, an above or a below, a right or a left, an in front of or a behind, a whole or a part.
It must not be said: When was He? Or Where was He? Or How is He? He exists without a place. He created the universe and willed for the existence of time. He is not bound to time and is not designated with place.
His management of one matter does not distract Him from another. Delusions do not apply to Him, and He is not encompassed by the mind. He is not conceivable in the mind. He is not imagined in the self nor pictured in delusions. He is not grasped with delusions or thoughts.
{لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَىْءٌ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ}
This ayah means: [Absolutely nothing is like Him and He is attributed with Hearing and Sight.]
I profess that Muhammad is the slave and messenger of Allah and I confirm my conviction about Muhammad and the prophets before him, may Allah raise their ranks, as profoundly elucidated in the Mutamimah of Ibn ^Asakir:
Know, may Allah be merciful to you by guiding you to the acceptable deeds, that our Master Muhammad, the son of ^Abdullah, the son of ^Abdul Muttalib, the son of Hashim, the son of ^Abdu Manaf, the son of Qusayy, the son of Kilab, the son of Murrah, the son of Ka^b, the son of Lu’ayy, the son of Ghalib, the son of Fihr, the son of Malik, the son of an‑Nadr, the son of Kinanah, the son of Khuzaymah, the son of Mudrikah, the son of Ilyas, the son of Mudar, the son of Nizar, the son of Ma^add, the son of ^Adnan—is the slave of Allah, His Messenger, His Prophet, and His Khalil.
He is the best of the entire creation, and the leader of his followers who will have shining faces and illuminated upper arms and lower legs on the Day of Judgment. His Lord sent him to the humans and jinn as a luminous lantern—giving good tidings and warnings, and calling to worship Allah by His Will.
He received the Revelation through the entrusted Jibril who is the head of the honored angels. Allah created them from light. Obedience is inherent in them, and Allah gave them the strength to obey. They do not sleep and they do not get tired. They do not eat or drink. They do not disobey Allah, but rather they perform all what Allah ordered them to do.
His Book is the Wise Dhikr.[1] His laws are straight, truthful, and easy. His nation is the best of the nations. No human has a higher status than his, and no creature can attain his status.
He is the last of the Prophets and their leader, the most knowledgeable among them and the highest in status, the most articulate and the strongest, the most beautiful, brave, courageous, and generous. He had the most signs among them and the most outstanding miracles.
All the prophets were people of merit and patience, belief and certainty, truthfulness and religiosity, chastity and impeccability, intelligence and brilliance, trustworthiness; and conveyance of the Message. The prophets were numerous—the first of them was Adam, peace be upon him, who was created from clay as an unimpaired human in the best of forms. After him among his progeny are: Shith, Idriss, Nuh, Hud, Salih, Shu^ayb, Ibrahim, Lut, Isma^il, Ishaq, Ya^qub, Yusuf, Musa, Harun, Yusha^, Yunus, Ayyub, Dhu-l-Kifl, Ilyas, al-Yasa^, Dawud, Sulayman, Zakariyya, Yahya, ^Isa, al‑Khadir, and many others.
Their religion is one—Islam. They are the best of Allah’s creations. They are alive, praying in their graves. They are al‑wasilah, they intercede on the Day of Judgment, and the intercession of our prophet is the greatest.
The summation of all what was mentioned is included in the hadith of the Messenger of Allah, sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam:
<< الإيمان أن تؤمن بالله وملائكته وكتبه ورسله واليوم الاخر والقدر خيره وشره >>
<<The belief is to believe in Allah, His Angels, His Books, His Messengers, the Day of Judgment, and destiny—what is good and what is evil.>> This hadith is sahih, related by Muslim.
The Story of the Creation
Allah, the Exalted, existed in Eternity without a beginning, thus was never non-existent. He is the only one whose existence is without a beginning. For many wisdoms Allah willed to create the universe and did create it masterfully.
Allah ordered the Original Water to be and existent it became. It began to exist after being non-existent—without an origin. From this Original Water Allah created everything else, alive or innate. Along with the Original Water Allah created the Time and Place.
The first thing Allah created was the ceiling of Paradise, known as The Throne (Al-^Arsh) and it is the largest creation in size, the limits of which are only known to Allah.
The next thing that God created is the High Pen. It is similar to light in form and as tall as the distance between earth and the first sky. After this Pen, God created the Guarded Tablet, in the form of one giant pearl surrounded with rubies.
The Divinely order was given to the Pen to write on the Guarded Tablet all what occurred and will occur and happen until the Day Of Judgment. The Pen submitted and wrote for 50,000 years.
After the Pen wrote 50,000 years without any one holding it, Allah created the heavens and earth and what in between them in six days, each equivalent to 1000 of our years. Masterfully Allah created seven skies and seven earths. Each sky is separate from the other sky by a vast distance, without pillars, and each earth is separate from the other earth by a vast distance.
The sun, the moon, the planets and the stars embellish the first sky—the blue color we see when we look up, and are underneath it.
God created light, darkness, Paradise, Hellfire, and the Chair known as Al-Kursiyy. Under the seventh earth Allah created Hellfire. Paradise is above the seventh sky and its ceiling is the Throne– Al-^Arsh. The Chair’s location from the Throne is similar to the location of the foot stool from ones bed. The Prophet described the size of the seven heavens compared to the size of the Chair— Al-Kursiyy as like the size of a ring compared to the size of a vast open land. And the size of the Chair— Al-Kursiyy compared to the size of the Throne Al ^Arsh as like the size of a ring compared to the size of a vast open land.
On Sunday and Monday, the first two of the six days in which Allah created seven skies and seven earths, Allah created the Earth. On Wednesday and Thursday Allah created the seven skies. On Thursday and Friday Allah created the mountains, rivers, trees, valleys and the other landmarks of the Earth that we live on. There are no humans living on the other six earths, but jinn, insects, beasts and animals.
Close to the beginning of Friday Allah created all the angels from light. During the day Allah created Satan (Iblis) who is a jinni and the head of the devils from the pure flame of fire. Toward the end of Friday the first man, Adam, was created. An angel was ordered to gather from every type of soil, the soft, the hard, the smooth, the rough, the red, the white, the black, the yellow and the soil was taken into Paradise and was mixed and kneaded with water from underneath al-^Arsh. The shape of Adam was molded and the soul was blown into it. Adam sneezed and the first thing he uttered was al-hamdulillahi rabil^alamin—I praise the Lord of the Worlds.
The Purpose of Creating the Jinn and Humans
Allah, the Exalted, created the humans and jinn for the purpose of ordering them to worship Him. The entire universe, including humans and jinn, is in need of Allah for its existence, continuity and ending while Allah needs none. Allah granted us life and the faculty of mind so we may acquire the knowledge with which we can properly believe in Allah and properly worship Him. The faculty of mind is capable of deducing that this universe has a Creator who needs none and is unlike anything in His Self, Attributes and Doings. However, the mind is not capable of deducing on its own how to worship the Creator. Allah did not leave the humans and jinn stranded not knowing what to do and what to live by. Rather Allah sent Prophets and Messengers to teach the people about Allah and about how to worship Him and what to live by.
The first of The Messengers and Prophets sent by Allah was Prophet Adam.
[1] Dhikr here refers to the ayahs of the Qur’an.