In 1972-1973 when we first encountered Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, there was one book available and it was called “The Divine Luminous Wisdom That Dispels the Darkness: Man-God, God-Man”. Those lines Man-God, God-Man are very intriguing; they sort of pull you in and make you wonder, “What is this all about?” And what we began to understand is that the essence of Allah is within the entire universe, and we are also within the universe, so in a very real way, we are also part of the essence of Allah.
The world is made up of elemental forces and elements. In the shorthand that Bawa uses, he calls the elements earth, fire, water, air, and ether. These elements are all subject to dissipation; they fall apart. They come into being, and then somehow they end their being; they have a span. The non-carbon-based creations have a longer span than the carbon-based creations. In other words, living things don’t last as long as rocks. But everything has a time limit and it goes through changes.
What is it that doesn’t have a time limit, and what is it that’s stable and doesn’t go through changes? Well, of course, that’s God. And what are we told about God? We are told that He has ninety-nine distinct qualities that are mentioned in the Quran, and thousands of other gracious attributes. But let’s deal with the ninety-nine qualities first.
What is it that we’ll notice as soon as we begin to study the qualities and begin to have an understanding about them? They’re non-elemental. They’re very powerful, but they’re non-elemental. Mercy and compassion aren’t elements, they’re qualities. Yet the power that they have is incredibly strong and you can feel it. Love is non-elemental yet it has a power that’s incredibly strong.
The main meditation that we were given was “La ilaha illa Allah.” This is the core meditation in existence. It essentially translates, depending on your spectrum of elements to non-elements, it translates as “There is no other God than Allah,” or at the other spectrum, “I do not exist; only Allah exists.” So the formalists differentiate between Gods. The non-formalists, the Sufis, acknowledge one God and that that’s all that exists…
