Ascension

Bismi-llahi ar-rahmani ar-rahimi, In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. And I beg for forgiveness from Allah for whatever sin that I have done in the past and to show me the right path. Ameen.

Assalamualaikum / Greetings dear readers.

This post takes on a more batin (underlying knowledge) side than a zahir (external knowledge) view.

Whatever written is based on explanations i get from people with knowledge and i regard highly of. Also from reliable sufi websites, eg naqshbandi sufi order.

The quran and hadith hold many knowledge. What we normally look at is the external part of it. Meaning, we read and we understand just from there and fullstop we carry on to the next ayat or next hadith. But, be aware that Allah has many secrets kept in all these, because all these came from the skies above and there is more than meets the eye.

The Prophet is reported to have said: “Prayer is the mi`raj or the ascension of the believer.”

How do we understand the above? Many of us will say its to indicate that in every prayer, we concentrate ourselves as if we're travelling up the seven layers of heaven to meet Allah SWT; or rather we pray as if Allah SWT is just in front of us.

But there are more secrets to this, and those secrets can only be passed to us if Allah SWT wills.

It is true that we pray as if Allah SWT is really in front of us. But not many of us know that the mi'raj carried out by Rasulullah SAW on that night, allowed him to meet Allah SWT without any veils. Meaning, "face to face". That means, in every prayer, we MUST be able to achieve that "face to face" contact with Allah SWT because Rasulullah SAW declares so. Who dares say that the prophet SAW is wrong?

This may be out of the world. Well, it is. Because in that hadith, Rasulullah SAW mentions ascension. Meaning, climbing upwards. We may be on a prayer mat on earth, say our bedroom. But when we stand in prayer, we're literally, not on earth. We are in a totally different realm, where our veils are taken away just for us to MEET ALLAH SWT in that "face to face" contact.

Mi'raj is also the journey of the prophet SAW going up from one heaven to another to the very top. Meaning, he climbed up the rank from the lowest heaven to the highest and above it. This, in deeper meaning, shows that when we pray, we CLIMB UP the ranks too. We evolve from one prayer to another prayer to a better person. And the ultimate that we can evolve to is? Rasulullah SAW.

There was a hadith i came across in which Rasulullah SAW is the best example to follow. If there is someone at work or in school who is very good, he/she will lead by example and surely the hardworking ones who want a success will follow the exact footsteps to achieve or BECOME like him/her. This is exactly what i mean by evolving. We want to BECOME like Rasulullah SAW, because he is the best example in all aspects. Therefore we climb up the ranks to become like him.

However readers, all these are not possible if we are doing this climbing ranks alone. Because our iman is weak, what more our spiritual guidance. That is when tariqah comes in, where the syakhs are rightfully from the prophet SAW's family tree and we are able to receive that spiritual guidance to be like him. Insya'Allah.

If there's any error, I'm open for rectification. None is perfect as perfection only belongs to Allah (God Almighty). All good things come from Allah and all the bad things are from my side and the side of Shaiytan the accursed.