A Commentary on the Hamd Surah

A philosophic research

Do know that Allah’s ownership is not the same as the ownership of the servants, nor is it like the kings’ ownership of their kingdom, as these are conventional annexations, while annexing the creatures to Allah is not of that kind, although to the jurisprudents this sort of ownership of Allah is longitudinally confirmed. This, however, does not contradict what has been observed in this respect. Nor does it resemble man’s owning his own organs and limbs, nor his internal and external powers, although this latter ownership   is   nearer   to   Allah’s   ownership   than   the aforementioned ones. It is also not like the soul’s owning its own self-action, which is of the soul’s affairs, such as creating mental images, whose contractions and expansions arc somewhat under the control of the soul’s will, nor is it like the ownership, of the intellectual worlds, of what is of lower ranks, even if they were effective  in  those  worlds  through  annihilating [i‘dam]  and creating [ijad], for all the beings of the world of possible realization, on whose foreheads the humility of poverty is marked, are bound by limits and restricted by measures, even to the extent of the essence. And whatsoever is bound by a limit is isolated from its act, in proportion to its limitedness, and it enjoys not a true existential inclusiveness [ihatah al-qayyumi].

But concerning the ownership of Allah, the Exalted, which is by illuminative annexation and self-existential inclusiveness, it is the true real self-ownership [malikiyyat-i dhatiyyah], in which there is not the least of any defective contradicting isolation in His Essence and Attributes with any one of the beings. The ownership of the Sacred Essence of all the worlds is the same, without treating the beings with dis crimination at all, or being nearer to, and more inclusive of, the abstracts and the invisible worlds, than of the other worlds, as otherwise it would require limitation and isolating disunity, accompanied by need and potentiality; High Exalted is Allah, the Great, above all that! A reference to this is perhaps in the saying of Allah, the Exalted; “And We are nearer to him than you,”‌ “And We are nearer to him than his jugular vien,”‌ “Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth,”‌ “And He it is Who is God in the heaven and God in the earth,”‌ and “Allah’s is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth.”‌ The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) is quoted to have: “If you are lowered down with a rope to the lowest of the earth, you will down onto Allah.”‌6 Imam Sadiq (A.S) is also quoted to have said, as in al-Kafi: “No space can confine Him and no space can accommodate Him, and He is no nearer to a place than to another.”‌7 Imam ‘Ali al-Naqi is quoted to have said: “You must know that when Allah is in the lowest heaven He is, at the same time, on the Throne. All things are equally known, controlled, owned and encompassed by Him.”‌

Nevertheless, although the ownership of His Sacred Essence covers all things and all worlds equally, the noble ayah says: “The Owner of the Day of Judgment.”‌ This specification is probably because the Day of Judgment is the day of gathering. So, the Owner of “The Day of Judgment,”‌ which is the day of gathering, is (also) the Owner of the other days, which are dispersed, and “the dispersed in the visible world are gathered (collected) in the invisible world.”‌ Or may be it is because of the appearance of the Ownership and Omnipotence of Allah, Glorified be His Majesty, on the “Day of Gathering,”‌ which is the day of the return of the possible to the threshold of Allah, and the ascension of the beings to the Court of Allah.

Expanding on this brief as to suit this paper is that as long as the light of existence and the sun of the truth is descending down from the hidden places of invisibility towards the world of visibility, it tends to occultation and being veiled. In other words, in  every  descent  there  is  a  specification,  and  in  every specification and limitation there is a veil. And as man is the composite of all specifications and limitations, he is veiled with all the seven dark veils and the seven veils of light, which are the seven earths and seven heavens, according to interpretations.

Perhaps returning to the “lowest of the low”? means being wrapped in all kinds of veils. This occultation of the sun of existence, and the mere light in the horizon of specifications can be described as the “night”? and “The Night of al-Qadr.”? And as long as man is wrapped in these veils, he is deprived of seeing the Beauty of the Eternity and of eyeing the prime light. When all beings, in their ascending march from the low stations of the world of nature, with the natural movements” which are deposited in their innate constitution from the light of the attraction of the divine disposition, according to the determination of the Holiest Emanation in His Knowledge” return to the original homeland and the real place of promise ” as is frequently referred to by the noble ayahs” they once again rid of the luminous and dark veils, and the ownership and the sovereignty of Allah, the Exalted, are manifested, and He appears in Unity and Sovereignty. Here, where the last returns to the First, and the Outside connects to the Inside, and where the rule of the appearance falls and the government of the inside is manifested, the absolute owner addresses” and there is no addressed except His Sacred Essence” Whose is the Sovereignty this Day?, and as there is no answer, He says: (It is) Allah’s, the One, the Almighty.”?

The perfect man in this world gets out of these veils according to his journey to Allah and migration to Him, and the regulations of the Resurrection, the Hour and the Day of Judgment appear before him and are proved to him. So, Allah, with His Sovereignty, appears to his heart through this salat ascension, and his tongue becomes the interpreter of his heart, and his appearance becomes the tongue of his internal seeings. This is one of the secrets of confining the Ownership to the Day of Judgment.

Source:

A Commentary on the Chapter of ‘Praise’ 

Witten by: Imam Khomeini(R.A)

Translator: Bahram Afrasiabi

Other Links:

A Commentary on the Hamd Surah: part 9

A Commentary on the Hamd Surah: part 10