From Adam Safi Allah to Jesus Christ,
only the knowledge pertaining to reaching God and obtaining God’s love was dispensed.
However, when Prophet Muhammad (s) arrived,
he brought the knowledge of the person.
The knowledge of the person commenced with Prophet Muhammad (s) and culminated with Imam Mehdi (a).
Now, what is the knowledge of the person?
Knowledge of the Person: One Introduction
The knowledge of the person is,
for instance, there is the Lord up there,
and that is what we have heard and read, that there is somebody up there.
Neither have we witnessed it nor do we have any direct experience of it.
And, according to spirituality and Sufism, not everyone shall be given to witness the divine splendour.
Those who are chosen by God to witness his divine splendour are one in a million.
There is the Lord up there in the Divine Empyrean about whom we have only heard,
we do not have any firsthand experience about him.
So, only belief can be established even without seeing God.
What is belief?
Someone tells us something and we believe it.
Now, if the one who tells us is trustworthy and never lies,
we would trust him and believe what he says.
So, you end up believing in God.
Now, let’s say one person out of millions is selected to witness God,
what about all the others?
They shall only have belief in God.
Prophet Muhammad (s) made mention of three stages,
the first is imaan (belief),
greater than this is iqaan (faith)
and the third stage is ihsan (seeing God).
The majority shall be those who acquire imaan.
Among the Sufis.
Because not everyone is going to reach God.
Now, if one out of one million reaches the stage of witnessing the divine splendour,
he sees and converses with God,
and the remaining people shall only acquire belief.
They will not reach God as it is not in their destiny,
therefore, whether it is the prophet or the spiritual guide,
they possess the divine manifestation
and they are accessible to such people.
Only one in a million reached God up there
and the spiritual guide on earth,
he also possesses the divine manifestation,
so you could go to the spiritual guide whenever you please, look at him, touch him.
So, to identify the Lord in your prophet or your spiritual guide is the knowledge of the person.
This is what Bulleh Shah said,
'Love is a great trial.
The countenance of my beloved is the empyrean of God.
I declare my spiritual guide is God, even if this angers God'.
This was about the knowledge of the person.
Now, the path that leads to God begins with Sirat ul Mustaqeem.
Which path is that?
The path of the heart.
The name of God enters the heart and generates divine energy.
Hindus and Sikhs practise the same method, as do Muslims. Why?
Because there is only one God and he has provided the same method to everyone.
Sikhs also do this.
There are three things Sikhs practise.
The first is Satnaam.
What is sat? It is like the word ‘haq’ used in Urdu and Arabic.
Haq (the truth).
And haq indicates the Lord, towards God.
So haq means sat in Hindi - satya.
For instance, when they die - what happens when a Muslim dies, what do we say?
We recite the Kalima e Shahadah.
And what do Hindus recite?
‘Raam naam satya hai! (The Lord’s name is the truth!)’
So satya means the truth and the truth alludes to God.
So, Satnaam - this means ‘God’s name’.
This is one point: Satnaam.
The second is Satguru.
Who is a Satguru?
It’s like what we say in Islam, a true spiritual master.
A true spiritual master is one who has the divine presence.
Similarly, the Hindus and Sikhs have a Satguru -
- a guru who possesses satya.
And then, the third point is Satsang -
- a truthful companionship.
As far as what we have seen - we have gone to many temples and spoken the-
re, we have been in the Sikh community, and spoken in the gurdwaras,
especially in Sacramento, California, there are so many Sikh brothers who have joined us.
So, a Satguru is one who has satya in him, meaning God.
These are the three points.
And Hindus call it Naamdan -
- dan means to grant and naam means name.
So, the first step to God - because you do not know where God is,
so we have to bring God’s name into our hearts so that his name generates divine energy.
So, we continue to generate divine energy with God’s name
and then we have to enlighten all the ethereal spirits with the light of God’s name.
You read the shloka, the Gita, the Torah or the Guru Granth Sahib
and you read them to earn rewards because it’s a good deed,
the Lord will be pleased with you and that is why you do it.
But that is not the only purpose for it.
Recitation of the Qur’an, recitation of Bhagavad Gita, recitation of the Torah, the Bible and the Guru Granth Sahib has a purpose.
The purpose is for the words of the scriptures to collide with each other and generate divine energy
because that divine energy is the diet of our hearts and our souls.
The diet of our body is lentils and rice, vegetables and meat, right?
However, the diet of our soul is the light of God.
Now, for the name of God to settle in the heart is not possible through human effort.
For this, we need a Satguru.
We need a divinely ordained spiritual guide.
We need someone who is connected to God,
who has been appointed by God for the guidance of his creation.
When, through his spiritual attention, benevolence and grace, the name of God settles in the heart,
the name then continues to collide with the heartbeats and a steady production of divine energy is generated
and our souls continue to be enlightened with the divine energy.
This is how we embark upon the path.
We have seven souls in our body; one in the head, five in the breast and the lower self makes seven.
Activating and enlightening these souls one after another and producing divine energy from them
is Sirat ul Mustaqeem (the Straight Path). This is the spiritual path.
Once all our ethereal spirits are enlightened through Zakooriyat, there are further stages beyond this.
The extraction of the sub-spirits, then delivering the sub-spirits to their respective realms,
and finally, the Latifa e Ana remains.
This is the spirit through which you witness the divine splendour.
However, activating the Ana is not enough.
After the Ana is activated, it is also taught the knowledge of witnessing the divine splendour.
It’s not like once the Ana is activated with zikr, you will automatically witness the divine splendour.
It is one thing for the Ana to engage in zikr and witnessing the divine splendour is another.
In order to witness the divine splendour, it is important for the Ana to receive the knowledge of witnessing the divine splendour.
And for one to be taken to God, to witness the divine splendour is not done through Shariah or Tariqah.
For that, you need a spiritual guide of Haqiqah.
There are four types of knowledge: Shariah, Tariqah, Haqiqah and Muarifah.
It is not possible to bypass Shariah, Tariqah, Haqiqah and directly jump to Muarifah.
This is a step-by-step process.
First, the lower self is purified through esoteric Shariah,
then you attain the knowledge of Tariqah;
after activating the heart and the ethereal spirits,
you reach the stage of witnessing the divine splendour.
Tariqah is responsible for preparing you to witness the divine splendour.
Then the stage of Haqiqah is the actual witnessing.
So, all this effort is to witness the divine splendour.
Now, if a personality comes who also possesses the knowledge of the person -
- because the question was: how can we attain the Person of Sarkar?
So if there is a personality who has been given the knowledge of the person by God,
how are we to reach such a personality? You do not have any method of reaching such a personality.
However, if the spiritual master observes that you are inclined towards him and he wishes to bless you,
he will lift some of the esoteric veils from himself,
your soul and your ethereal spirits will come under the influence of his manifestations and they will be dyed in his colours.
When they are dyed in his colours, they no longer belong to anyone but him.
Now, for instance, I was impassioned about establishing a connection with Sarkar.
I wanted to belong to Sarkar
and I wondered if it was in my destiny,
it was written in my fate that I would establish such a connection with Sarkar.
No, it was not written in my fate.
When I spent time in Sarkar’s blessed company and Sarkar removed the veils off of their ethereal depth,
I came under the influence [of their true essence] and was dyed in Sarkar’s colour.
When you are dyed with Sarkar’s colour, you will become Sarkar’s.
When our Sikh brothers talk about Satsang -
- they recite the Guru Granth Sahib with music
and say such a gathering is ‘Satsang’.
This is not Satsang. When the Guru keeps your soul in his company, that is Satsang.
Satsang means to be with the Lord.
If you consider a gathering of Naatkhwani or recitation of the Gita or the Guru Granth Sahib to be Satsang, it would be a grave mistake.
That is not what Satsang means.
Although, this is what they call Satsang but where is the satya? It’s all about the gathering, where is the satya?
This is what Mevlana Rumi meant when he said,
‘Yak zamana sohbat e ba auliya behtar az sad salataat bereya -
- a single moment spent in the company of a saint of God is greater than a hundred years of fruitless worship’.
What is the reason? It is because the divine theophanies are showered upon a saint of God.
One theophany burns away seven great sins.
So if you acquire the company of a saint when he is under divine theophanies,
even a single divine theophany would burn away seven great sins.
Whereas, you wouldn’t be able to burn even one great sin through a lifetime of worship.
Therefore, Satsang means that
even if you are sitting alone at home,
your heart and your soul are connected to the spiritual master, and you are in perpetual Satsang.
And if your heart is not connected then you are heedless even in the presence of the spiritual master.
Data Ali Hajweri made a statement
in response to which I sent a query to the ethereal realms.
Data Ali Hajweri wrote in his book that when you are present in front of your spiritual master,
you are not permitted to engage in Zikr Allah.
So, I asked, ‘What if the spiritual master is with you at all times?’
Because we do not believe in any spiritual master who does not stay with us at all times.
Death is not predicted and if the spiritual master is not with us, we may die without faith.
What did Bulleh Shah say?
‘Sho asaan te wakh nayi par wekhan ali akh nayi -
- My master is not apart from me,
however, there are none to witness this’.
So, we understand that what Data Ali Hajweri said was regarding a spiritual master of Shariah
because a spiritual master of Tariqah is always with [the disciples].
So, a perfect spiritual master - if you come under his spiritual attention,
then it doesn’t matter whether you are sitting in front of him or thousands of miles away, you are still in his company.
One who understands this secret
understands that there is no difference between the spiritual master and God,
and he understands that seeing God through God is the official method,
and for that, you need an appointment, there is a waiting period
and a protocol,
whereas, the very same manifestation of God can be witnessed in the spiritual master at any time.
This is why people become more inclined towards the spiritual master. Do you understand?