Video: Divine Names of Creation & the Senses

Journey through the Heart: Divine Names of Creation & the Senses

Video Transcript:

So let’s take a short. Look at al -Alim .A-L-I-M with the ayn as the first letter. Is the All-Knowing and the omniscient? And this name symbolizes God’s omniscience and absolute knowledge since time immemorial. Al-Alim knows the secrets which lie in the heart and that which is expressed through the tongue. It knows both the visible and the invisible. So the whole of existence is eternally present in al- Alim’s knowledge human knowledge is born of the things that exist. And existence itself is born of Allah’s infinite knowledge. Human beings who carry the quality al-Alim have been granted knowledge without learning anything from anyone. Without studying without thinking it’s a knowledge that’s born purely of the clear light out of which we were created.

The next Divine name is al- Murid.The one who Wills or who wishes to do something is spelled M-U-R-I-D .Now al-Murid is not one of the traditionally repeated Define 99 Divine names.In our tradition we talk about the 99 beautiful names of God. And early 99 names you usually recited or repeated together and but of course God Allah is infinite and has infinite qualities and infinite Divine names. And al-Murid is one of the less commonly recited Divine names as I said, it means the one who Wills who wishes to do something. And and this name comes from Allah’s attribute of will.Now this name is also used.to describe a student on the Sufi path But a particular kind of student, so you’ll hear the name you read applied to Suf students that you meet. Students of Sufism but these are students that have reached a certain stage. These are students that have reached the stage where they’ve stepped over the threshold and their will is strong to stay on this path. A beginning student is actually known as a Talib which is an Oscar.and then a little further along the known as mubd. Which is a beginner, but with a student named Murid his will as clear and you can’t take him or her away from the from the path at this point.So again, it really is carrying the meaning of will.

And then the fourth Divine name for creation needed for creation is al-Qadir. This is spelled Q-A-D-I-R. This is the one who is capable of everything the powerful.This name shows a quality of Allah which manifests unlimited capacity and Power. Everything in the universe is connected with this power. This name contains the following meanings. to decree to ordain to decide to possess strength power or ability.To be master of to have the possibility to do. and to be capable so these are the four names that are known as the mother of the names that are needed in order to be And these are divided names of course, and we’ve been referring to Allah’s creation of this world and the universes. But we human beings can experience these names ourselves in creation because God has given the human being a limited ability to create we’re able to create wonderful things actually the human being amazing things that we’re able to create in both Science and Technology music art,you know, all of these creative Enterprises.

But of course we don’t have the unlimited capacity to create that that God that Allah has But as human beings when we create something, we also need these four qualities within us. We need to be alive. We need the knowledge of what we want to create and how to create it. We need the will of wanting to express it and create it and we need to have the capacity the ability to do so now when we’re thinking about creation and this world.

We also add three Divine names for the senses.And these three Divine names are important in creation also.So typically all seven of these names spoken about when we speak about creation. The first name is al-Mutakallim. M-U-T—A-K-L-I-L-I-M this Divine name is the speaker. Now this is also not typically among the 99 commonly recited names that typically recited together. but it’s a very important Divine name the speaker because as we know creation came about by this by the speaking of the command “Be”.

In Arabic that word is “kun”. And so it’s in Christianity. Also we have the same idea Christians will be familiar with the phrase in the beginning was the word. And so, it’s Sufism. We we also have this concept that Allah God spoke the command “Kun/ be “and it’s often expressed as Allah’s power is expressed as the command ‘Kun faya kun”.be and it is and so this particular sense of speech is critical to creation, of course because this word is what set the creation into motion.

Now the second sense that is important in creation is as-Sami, S-A-M-I This is the Divine name the all hearing. And hearing is needed because they needed to be the command be needed to be heard in order to be responded to. So as-Sami is needed for response to the command.Be which brought which brings everything into creation and thirdly the third sense that is important is al-Basir B-A-S-I-R which is the All-Seeing. And sight of course is needed to see what has been created. And in this physical world, of course, the sight of seeing is very important.

There are two words for seeing this al-Basir, which is actually seeing through the eye of the heart and then there’s al-Basar which is the seeing through the physical eyes. So these seven Divine names together? Al-Hayy, Al-Alim,al- Murid and al-Qadir a;Mutakallim ,as-Sami and al-Basir, are unknown as the seven Divine names needed for creation. And actually when the Muslim goes on Hajj. And begins to circumvent the Kaaba in Mecca During that they make seven circumambulations and our guide Sidi Muhammad al-jamal recommended to as to his students on the Shadhiliyya way Sufi path. That with each circumambulation. We recite one of these Divine names of creation. To help us to really experience the creation as we’re walking around the symbol of unity of God’s unity in this world.