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Face that is both Personal and Impersonal 

My Lord is such a wonderful Lord

That if you call Him, if you remember Him,

If you drown yourself in Him - with Him

Then a day will come,

Yes a momentous day shall dawn

When every where you go

Every place you sit,

Every person you meet

You shall remind them of the wonderful Lord

In you, by you, through you.

For the Face of the Impersonal Lord is closer to us than who we are

And the Face of the Personal Lord is never absent or far

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from where or what our beautiful faces are.

~ Sadiq M. Alam

7th November, 2012

 A quick note on the Personal and Impersonal Aspect of the Divine 

God, Ishwar, Allah, Brahma, Heavenly Father, Amitabha - no matter what name we call Him, the Divine - the

Real - is beyond all names and forms remains "I Am Who I Am." While God is Transcendent beyond the idea

of beyond - this transcendence of God is the Impersonal Face, the Creator Lord and the Destroyer Lord, the

Giver of both Life and Death. This is the Impersonal Lord Whose Glory fills the Heaven and Earth to such

extent that we weak human being with our weaker yet mind can never even grasp His Being.

This Impersonal aspect of the Divine can be so overwhelming that illuminated beings like Gautama Buddha

became silent when he was asked about God, for what words can really explain that Reality? My Buddhist

friends still have not recovered from the shock and thus Buddhism very carefully avoid the subject all together

because for them the personal aspect of God which other faith tradition holds very central, sounds alien and

confusing.

On the other hand the Personal aspect of the Divine can be painfully beautiful, so beautiful that God become

the Beloved, Mahbub - to such intense extent that the Sufis would chant, La Mahbuba illa Allah - there is no

other beloved but Allah. This is most sublime aspect of the Personal Face of God.

While Buddha's response in falling silence is the inevitable and highest possible expression for someone who

realizes God's ultimate transcendence that no words can do justice to; Muhammad's ascension to the Divine

Throne where the habib and the Mahbub create a complete circle, (at a distance of two bow lengths or nearer.

the Qur'an 53:9), symbolizing the ultimate nearness.

The phrase Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim - can also be seen as carrying two Great Names and hence reality

aspect namely, Rahman and Rahim. While Rahman is translated as Universally Merciful - which is the

Impersonal aspect and Rahim is translated as Singularly Compassionate or Exclusively Merciful - which is the

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Personal aspect of the Divine. Towards the end of the poem shared above, God's intimate closeness to our

being, God being the very fabric and the provider and sustainer is the Impersonal aspect because even though it

is communicated, yet it is extremely subtle, al-Latif. The Impersonal aspect operates through His Command

and His justice does not discriminate but like sun which shines on all, like physical laws that is true both in the

farthest galaxy and here on earth and within each atom. On the other hand God's love, mercy and exclusive

attention to each of us, where God is the Answerer to every petition (al-Mujib), God is the Sole Guide (al-

Hadi) is from the Personal Face of God.

The both aspect of the Divine, both Impersonal and Personal become beautifully sketched in one of the

passage of Bhagavat Gita which I quote here partially:

Those who realize true wisdom rapt within this clear awareness see Me as the universe's origin Imperishable.

 All their words and all their actions issue from the depths of worship, held in my embrace they know Me as a

woman knows her lover.

Creatures rise and creatures vanish; I alone Am Real, Arjuna, looking out, amused, from deep within the eyes

of every creature. I Am the object of all knowledge, Father of the world, its Mother, Source of all things, of 

impure and pure, of holiness and horror.

 I am the goal, the root, the witness, home and refuge, dearest friend, creation and annihilation, everlasting

seed and treasure.

 I am the radiance of the sun, I open or withhold the rainclouds, I am immortality and death, am being and 

non-being.

 I am the Self, Arjuna, seated in the heart of every creature. I am the origin, the middle, and the end that all

must come to. I am justice: clear, impartial, favoring no one, hating no one, but in those who have cured 

themselves of selfishness, I shine with brilliance.

 Even murderers and rapists, tyrants, the most cruel fanatics, ultimately know redemption through My love, if 

they surrender to My harsh but healing graces. Passing through excruciating transformations, they find 

 freedom and their hearts find peace within them.

 I am always with all beings; I abandon no one. And however great your inner darkness, you are never 

separate from Me.

 Let your thoughts flow past you, calmly; keep Me near, at every moment; trust Me with your life, because I Am

 you, more than you yourself are.” 

We pray that Allah opens our heart and increase our capacity to know Him as He deserves to be know. Rabbi

zidni ilman - O Lord, please increase our knowledge

Rabbi zidni hikmah - O Lord, please increase our wisdom

Rabbi zidni marifah - O Lord, please increase our gnosis.

 Amen. 

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How to know, "What is my station with God?" - someone asked

Someone asked, "I feel this restlessness in the heart and I so long to know what is my position with God?

 How am I in the eyes of God?" 

Generally to understand what is your condition with God, the Divine Informer, may abundant peace and

blessings of Allah be with him, has transmitted this knowledge of the Unseen through the sacred tradition

where the Divine voice speaks: "I Am with My servant as he or she perceives Me."

The full version of this tradition is: "I Am as My servant thinks I Am. I am with him when he makes mention

of Me. If he makes mention of Me to himself, I make mention of him to Myself; and if he makes mention of 

Me in an assembly, I make mention of him in an assembly better than it. And if he draws near to Me an arm‟s

length, I draw near to him a fathom‟s length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him running."

(transmitted by Abu Hurairah, collected in Bukhari and also found as hadith qudsi)

The creation is a mirror of Divine Qualities (sifat) and nothing can contain God except the heart of the faithful.

Thus God manifests in the heart according to the capacity and ways the inner heart within the breasts of man

perceives the Divine, Glorious is Hu.

Thus the great sages of the Path have always advised to have sound knowledge of God (gnosis), to have good

and pleasing opinion about God.

In order to have gnosis, one must humble one's self and ask God to remove Her veils so that the heart can

perceive Her in Her Infinite manifestations, in this very world, in this very life - for the disclosure of God isonly granted those who are guardian of faith and who comes before God with humility and devotion. The

disclosure of God is not something which is granted just like any other object or phenomena in the world - it is

from pure grace and only those who have purified themselves and strive to purify themselves are blessed with

such vision.

A practical means by which the Sufis train their pupil to come to the unveiling of the Divine while living in

this world is by knowing, understanding, contemplating and internalizing the Divine Attributes. These Divine

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Attributes are transmitted through the Asma-ul-Husna, the Beautiful Names in the sacred tradition of Islam.

The Names are like ladder with many rungs and each helps the seeker reach higher and higher in his or her

own unveiling of the One Who is Ever Manifest (az-Zahir), yet Ever Hidden (al-Batin) from ordinary

consciousness.

The Beautiful Names, about which the Divine Informer has informed us that he or she who internalizes them,

enters the Paradise. Which is to say, those who internalize the Names shall reach the Divine Presence. The

Names take one to the Named, for Allah encompasses everything, including the Names and nothing

encompasses Allah. And Allah knows the best and unveils according to the servant's station of walking upon

the Path.

Wahiduddin.net, a beautiful Sufi site has the a list of  the Beautiful Names and the practice of Wazifa (the

remembrance practice of the Sufis using the Names) which can be useful for seekers (click here to access).

You may read the Names according to their Numeric order.: Allah, ar-Rahman, ar-Rahim, al-Malik and so on

until the 99th one, which is as-Sabur (here is the list). Also Sufism.org also has the Beautiful Names and

relevant verses from the writing of Mevlana Rumi and Quranic Signs (ayah) concerning such disclosures (click 

here to access).

After or parallel to the practices of knowing God through His Unveiled Names, the seeker should always

always have good or lofty opinion of God. And one of the best way to achieve this way station of the heart of 

having good opinion about God is to know in every state and every affair that God is the Beloved (al-Wadud)

Who is the Most Merciful, Most Compassionate (ar-Rahman ar-Rahim) and also that God is the Most Tender

(al-Latif) and the Most Generous (al-Karim) and One Who is Ever Forgiving (al-Ghafur) and like a mother She

is the Ever Concealer of the faults of Her Servants (al-Gafir). As God promises, "Remember Me and I will

remember you," remembering Him with lofty opinions about God also invoke lofty opinion about the servant

in the Kingdom. God also commands, "Be thankful to Me" and God admonishes saying, "Do not be

ungrateful."

We have sent among you

a Messenger of your own

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to recite Our revelations to

you, purify you and teach you

the Book and wisdom, and to

teach you what you did not know.

So remember Me;

I will remember you.

Be thankful to Me

and do not be ungrateful.

You who believe, seek help

through patience and prayer;

surely, God is with the steadfast.

- The Quran 2:150-153 

God is the jealous Beloved and every beloved wishes to be held in the heart of his or her lover with beautifulreflections. In the same fashion, manifestation of divine attributes within happens according to the reflections

with which God is held in the heart. The duty of the seeker is to have always and if that is difficult, to have

good opinion about God as much as possible. Human vision is myopic and hence his opinions based on the

events of very small scale often lead to lose hope, to become ungrateful. This is because the grand mercy of the

Most Merciful sometime is concealed within the trials and tribulations and it is the right of the Creator to test

and try Her creation. But those who are steadfast and who abide at the station of faithfulness (mu'min) never

rush from contentment to denial, from thankfulness to ungratefulness - for their faith is stable, by Allah and

they know that their Lord is the Most Generous and the Most Tenderly Loving to the believers.

So even if temporary trial and tribulations befall them, they know that they are still in the Ocean of Mercy and

the agitating waves are only but temporary. Whenever hard times befall them, their heart utter, "Indeed we areGod's, and truly to God is the final return." (inna li-Llahi wa inna ilaihi raji'un). They thus rest in the embrance

of divine reliance (Tawakkul).

"Indeed we are Allah's" - behold this statement of Truth. Enter into it and make yourself completely soak in

the truth encapsulated in that very Sign: inna li-Llah, "Verily we are God's", "Indeed we belong to God". What

a lofty maqam, what a lofty station to be exclusively for God's!

Ya Shadhdhuli,

when shall you be

solely for Me?!

Verily everything and every object in the heaven and the earth belongs to God and human being who submits

to the Divine is the pinnacle of creation and is the most desiring to God. Allah says, "I have created everything

in the cosmos for Man and I have created Man for Myself, so be for Myself and for nothing else."

In our forgetfulness, our negligence of our true nature, every human being time to time wrongs themselves and

whenever we wrong ourselves by committing mistakes, by deviating from the Path, from Truth, Beauty and

Harmony - our spirit hides gradually from the Self-Disclosure of God. Like the primal story of Adam in the

Garden, when Adam became conscious of his mistake, his disobedince; he hides. Similar tendency we have

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inherited from our original father. Whenever we wrong ourselves (zalamtu nafsi) we instinctively hide from

the Mercy of God. And this causes the light of God become more and more veiled from the heart to the extent

that we no longer abide in the bliss but run around like mad touched by afflictions who have forgotten what is

peace, what is happiness and what is contentment.

Even then the servant must have good opinion about God, for Beloved awaits ever patiently for Her lover.

Inna-Llaha Ghafurur Shakur, wa Allahu Sabur. Indeed God is Ever Forgiving, Ever Grateful of Her servants

turning (tawba) to Her and Allah is the Most Patient through Her Divine Patience (as-Sabur).

But from those who repent

and mend their ways and make

known the truth, I will certainly

accept their repentance: I am

the Ever Relenting, the Most Merciful.

- The Quran 2:160 

So returning to the original question of the seeker, may Allah increase her iman and islam and may Allah

perfect her ihsan, of how to know one's situation with God, how is one in the eyes of God - to find the answerone has to ask, "How is God in the eyes of your heart," "What opinion do your heart beholds for your Maker?",

"Is your heart with God or with the things other than God / objects veiled from God." "God is Nearmost, closer

to us than our own being, but are we close to God, is our heart in intimacy with God?"

Was bir li hukma Rabbika

Fa innaka bi a'yuninna ...

So be patient with your Lord's judgment,

for indeed you are

in Divine Eyes.

- The Quran, 52:48  

Another way to know the station with the Khaliq (Creator) is the reflection from the makhluqat (creation).

What and how is the opinion of people around you, is a Sign of how your condition is with God, but among

this "opinion of people" the best indicators are those who are the nearmost, one's own family, after than one's

own friends and circle of influence and finally those who know you in the society. The beloved Master of the

mystics, Sayyidina Ahmed has thus said, "the best of you is the best to his wife and family."

Also the validity of creation's attitude being the reflection of that of the Creators can be understood again from

another sacred tradition (hadith) where the Prophet transmits, “When Allah the Most Glorious, loves someone,

he calls the archangel Gabriel and Allah then says, „Ya Jibreel! Inni uhibbu fulan! (Oh Gabriel! Verily, I love

such and such a person, so love him!)‟” 

And Allah names that person and then Jibreel loves that person. Then Jibreel calls out to all the angels of the

heavens and he says, “Allah loves so and so, so love him!”and so all the angels love him. And then Allah

 places pleasure in the hearts of the people towards this person (and that person is loved by people on earth)!” 

So the ones who are loved by people who know him or her is a Sign of Allah's love for him and this love of 

other people are not for the material wealth or worldly fame or temporal power but for the quality of his or her

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heart, character and disposition. Indeed successful is that person who has a pure and sound heart (qalbin

saleem).

Again in another hadith we find, "Allah is pleased with that son, upon whom his father is pleased." This is also

another indication that the nearmost family carries the Sign of how we are with Allah. May we be among those

who are given a perfumed heart so that everyone who come in contact with us is perfumed with the beautiful

qualities which are again qualities borrowed from the Most Beautfiul (al-Jamil). May we be generous and

magnanimous and loving to those who are near us, specially that of our closest family, our parents, our partner

and our related ones. So be it, ameen.

May we strive to find means and strive to find people of remembrance (ahlel zikr) who are possessor of 

tranquil heart, for they know the secrets of heart that is perfectly content with God the Most High. May we ask 

for removing every preoccupation of the world from our heart so that it can only behold the attributes of the

Most High - and indeed Divine Mercy is the most foremost and the most overpowering attribute of Allah. Thus

we begin and touch everything that we touch with that beautiful quality as we say,  Bismillahir Rahmanir

Rahim: We begin with the Name of our Most Compassionate Lover.

May Allah grant us the vision necessary to know and love Him. Indeed Allah is the Hidden Most Treasure of 

the Heaven and the Earth and Allah longs to be known and longs to be loved. May Allah include us in the

circle of His lovers who are pleased with their Lord and Allah is well pleased with them.

And salutation of peace and blessings to the Praised one and his spiritual heirs and to every men and women

who walk upon the path of surrender.