The Mysteries of Bismillah

The Fourteenth Flash – Part II

Indeed, just as there is a seal of mercy and ahadiyyah on the face of the earth, so too on the face of the human being’s spiritual nature there is a seal of mercy no less than the seal of mercy on the earth and the greatest seal of mercy in the universe. It possesses, as it were, a comprehensiveness that forms the focal point of the manifestations of His thousand and one Names.

O human being! Is it at all possible that the One who gave you this face and placed within it such a seal of mercy and stamp of ahadiyyah would leave you to your own devices, attach no meaning to you, not observe your actions, and make the entire universe directed toward you meaningless—thus turning the tree of creation into a worthless tree with spoiled fruit? And would He allow His undeniable mercy, clear as the sun, and His incontestable wisdom, visible as light, to be denied? No, never.

O human being! Know that there is a ladder to the throne of that mercy, and that ladder is Bismillāhir-Rahmānir-Rahīm. If you wish to understand how important this ladder is, look at the beginning of the one hundred and fourteen sūrahs of the Miraculous Qur’an, at the opening words of all blessed books, and at the beginning of every blessed deed.

And the most decisive proof for the exalted value of Bismillāhir-Rahmānir-Rahīm is this:

Great mujtahidīn, such as Imām ash-Shāfiī (r.a.), have said:

“Although Bismillāhir-Rahmānir-Rahīm is a single verse, it was revealed one hundred and fourteen times and included in the Qur’an.”

The Fourth Mystery

Within infinite multiplicity, the manifestation of wāhidiyyah is so extensive that not everyone, when saying

اِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ

can comprehend the worship of this countless multiplicity and present it to Allah as its representative; the mind becomes dispersed. To perceive, behind the Divine unity manifested within that multiplicity, the seal of ahadiyyah, and thereby say

اِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَاِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعٖينُ

requires a heart as vast as the earth.

Because of this secret, just as Allah clearly displays the seal of ahadiyyah in every individual existence, He also places a seal of ahadiyyah within the seal of rahmāniyyah, so that within every species He may manifest the seal of His ahadiyyah and make Himself known. Thus everyone, with ease and according to his capacity, can say

اِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَاِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعٖينُ

turn directly to the Most Sacred Essence and address Him.