The Servant’s Path to Knowing the King

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ALLAH

We human beings are born into this world as insan who know nothing.

White.

Pure.

Clean.

Like a plain canvas.

The ones who first shape our colours are our mother and father. After we grow, we are the ones who shape ourselves.

We are given the senses.

From there, we know what light means.
From there, we know what sound means.
From there, we know what taste means.
From there, we know what aroma means.
From there, we know what heat means.
From there, we know what wound means.

Whatever we know from the experience of our life in this world makes us aware of the existence of a power.

A power that governs something.

Failure to see and recognise the source of power causes the act of glorifying and venerating power to be turned in the wrong direction. That is why there are men who worship idols. There are those who worship the sun. There are men who worship mountains. There are those who worship their ancestors, and others besides. All of that is a veneration of the existence of power.

Man knows nothing except what he sees, understands and analyses after it has been known through the senses.

Therefore, the Creator would not leave mankind in this world bewildered and without direction. He sent prophet after prophet, messenger after messenger, to carry out the duty of conveying His message.

Then various scriptures were sent down so that we may know Him. They are guidance that assists us, so that we do not merely analyse through the senses. The Book is the guidance by which we come to recognise the existence of power.

Existence must be spoken of according to the way He introduces Himself to us, not according to the way we attempt to understand who He is through the senses and the intellect alone.

Allah knows that we are always observing the world He created. Yet He is not to be placed together with us inside the world of His creation, because He is not equal to anything whatsoever that He has created.

So He teaches us. He is Allah, the One who is istiwa’ above, outside all His created beings.

He is Allah, a Name that is not fitting for us to think of through the manner of the senses.

He is One.

He has no mother or father as we do.

He has no children and descendants as we do.

His existence is not the same as our existence.

He is singular, distant, high, mighty, majestic, powerful and He is the Supreme King.

We do not see Him because He is too far beyond us.

As far as the greatness of the universe He created.

From this, He teaches us how He created all His creation, so that we may know the existence of power behind everything.

He is Allah, the Creator of us.

He exists in His own manner, not like us, not the same as us, not comparable to us and not equal to our existence.

He is Allah, the One who introduced the existence of Power.

He is the One who must be made the source of all things, and we only need to believe, because we live in this world to be tested through misguidance, so that we may return to Him in the truest return.

Allah.

That is He.

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MALIK

In this world, we always love to have power.

We desire the ability to possess authority over every matter.

It is not desire alone. It is the fitrah of our creation.

We love to eat, and we need to eat.

Because of that, we control the hand to scoop, to pour gravy, to mix and to bring food to the mouth.

We control our hand.

We are the malik over our hand.

When we wish to walk, we prepare ourselves with clothing, then we step out.

We go to whatever destination we desire.

We control our feet.

We are the malik over our feet.

When we wish to watch a story, we take the television remote, turn it on and choose the channel we like.

We are the ones who control the light that enters our eyes.

We are the malik over our eyes.

Light may be too dark.

Light may be too bright.

We are the ones who control the eyelids, so that the measure of light entering the retina is neither too bright nor too dim.

We are the malik over our eyelids.

We love to smell fragrances that bring delight.

We choose perfume. We also choose to smell the flowers we love in the garden.

We meet the aroma we love, and we flee from the aroma we dislike.

We are the malik over our nose.

Whatever we are able to control, we will try to control.

That is the quality of malik that our Creator placed within His creation, namely us.

We are a world.

There are things we control, and there are things we are unable to control.

Over every matter that we control, we are the ones with authority. We are high. We are distant. We are fragrant. We are strong. We are beautiful. We manage ourselves according to our will and desire.

So we are al-Malik, the king over our own self.

Yet sometimes, while we are strong, we become weak when we fall ill.

It turns out that we have no control over fever and sickness.

It turns out that there is another power within us, namely al-Malik, Allah, our Creator.

The Lord Allah whom we once knew as being istiwa’ outside His creation, it turns out, is present in us through His governing power.

He is the One who controls the antibodies.

He is the One who controls us, so that we may recover as we were before.

We grow into adulthood, then we desire a spouse.

We want one whom we love, beautiful in our eyes, fair and perfect according to our own perception.

Yet not everything we want is fully obtained.

He is the One who arranges us. He chooses what is suitable and fitting for us.

We are malik, but He too is Malik, more powerful in arranging our spouse and our meeting.

When we are on the road, we want to reach our destination quickly.

We press the accelerator pedal, and the car moves faster than usual.

The engine roars so that we may arrive sooner, because we know that the journey time becomes shorter if we increase our speed.

Yet whether we arrive or not is not within our power.

We are the malik who controls our foot and the speed of the car.

But there is al-Malik who is more powerful, determining whether we arrive or whether we are delayed.

A time will come when we grow older.

The lines on our face increase, marking that we are ageing.

Our knees grow painful, marking that the joints and muscles are losing strength.

The desire of our malik remains, but Allah al-Malik withdraws, little by little, the capacity of our malik.

A time will come when we are lying on a bed, able only to look at the clock and count time.

The eyes can see, yet whether they have the strength to close and open is no longer certain.

There is breath, yet not enough oxygen, until an additional oxygen tank is needed.

The lungs are there.

Air is inhaled.

Yet breathing no longer brings ease.

We are malik, but we are no longer king.

He is Malik.

We, in turn, become more aware of ourselves.

There is al-Malik who is more powerful than us.

Only then do we know.

We are malik and king over our own self, but we must obey the King who is more powerful.

The King who is the Lord Allah, our Creator, who appointed us as temporary malik to manage the body while we are in this world, only to the measure entrusted to us.

We feel that we are powerful.

Yet there is power above power.

A time will come when only we and our world remain.

We will be alone.

When we are at the edge of death, only then do we know that after we have lost control over our limbs, there is another power.

It is unseen by our eyes.

Yet its existence is there.

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RABB

It turns out that there is another power.

We do not realise it, yet we are able to think with the power that exists within us.

Long ago, when we were in our mother’s womb, we had made a covenant with Him, but we have forgotten.

He guided us from the sperm cell until we became a baby with complete limbs.

While we were in our mother’s womb, our mother was malik over us.

Whatever she ate, we tasted.

Whatever she drank, we shared.

Every breath of our mother was our breath.

At that time, we were pure.

He was there with us in the womb, accompanying us.

He was that Power, our Creator, whose existence was certain while our coming into this world was not yet guaranteed.

He was the Rabb who gave us life.

Because of Him, we lived in our mother’s womb.

When the time was complete, we were born into the world.

The moment our nose inhaled air, our lungs began to open.

We came to know the meaning of breath.

Then we cried.

We cried because of two matters.

Before that, we had Him, our Rabb, and He had bound a covenant with us.

Yet after we inhaled oxygen for the first time, we lost Him from our awareness.

So we cried for the first time.

We also cried because we had no strength and no ability.

Everything depended upon our mother and father.

Our parents were the ones who cared for us.

They were malik over us.

Allah al-Malik also cared for us in the matters our parents could not care for.

In truth, Allah is the real Malik over us.

Until a time came when Malik slowly gave us power.

Our hands and feet could be moved.

We went from crawling, to tottering, to walking.

Our world became far larger than it had been in our mother’s womb.

Our mother and father were Rabb for us.

They were the ones who shaped us, whether to follow them or to follow our own will.

They shaped us from whiteness into light.

From knowing nothing at all, until we became able to distinguish.

Until the time came, until the age of maturity was reached.

Before that, all responsibility belonged to our parents.

After that, all responsibility over our actions became ours.

Our mother and father remained our Rabb, but we became freer to choose whatever we wished to do.

Before this, mother and father were malik over us.

Now we became more powerful, and we became malik over ourselves.

Yet the Rabb with whom we once made a covenant in our mother’s womb, when He gave us life, never left us alone.

After we were released from the responsibility of our parents, in our heart there remained only us and Him.

He is our Rabb who watches over us at every moment.

In everything we do, He is there.

In everything we perform, He is there.

Everything we desire, He knows.

In truth, He is the King enthroned within us, having His palace upon the throne of our qalbu.

Yet He is the One who gave us power and allowed us to become malik, ruling over ourselves as we please.

Perhaps we forget.

Every night, He takes our soul.

Then in the morning, He returns it.

We return to being malik, possessing power over ourselves and power to enjoy the world.

He remains there, because He is Rabb within us.

A time will come when we feel empty.

We may have everything we love in this world.

We have family, a car and possessions.

Yet we are empty.

Our soul has no meaning.

If that happens, then it is a sign that our Rabb still loves us.

Sit in reflection.

Look into the chest.

Seek Him.

Speak inwardly with Him.

Then we will encounter many voices.

He is not many. He is One, when all others are gone.

To annihilate ourselves is not easy work.

It is not the work of a day or two.

We are the king over ourselves.

It is truly difficult to remove the crown and become a common subject and a servant.

There is no other path for us except to lower the head, with the face lower than the chest.

Repeat it again and again, until we no longer recognise quantity, until we no longer wish to count and calculate.

Do it as much as we are able, until we no longer even think of reward.

The world is preserved. We, al-Malik, remain king.

Yet with people, we continue to preserve our relationship.

We see every person around us.

We know their names, each one from among our relatives and companions around us.

Yet if we still see only human beings in them, then we will not see Rabb within ourselves and within them.

We must know, be aware and believe.

They are a world, and they too are kings over themselves.

Yet within them there is Rabb, Allah, for all of us.

Therefore, we must look at them.

We see that they are indeed human beings, but we also see Allah who arranges them.

If outside ourselves we see everything as Allah, al-Malik and Rabb for us and for them, then when we look into ourselves, we will begin to see light.

It turns out that He was never far from us.

Yet since the first time we cried in this world, there have been thousands of veils separating us from Him.

He is closer than our jugular vein.

If throughout our life we are able to lift one veil after another, the veils that separate us from our Rabb, then we will become the most successful of people.

Those who meet their Rabb while still living in this world.

A time will come when He wishes to take our soul, after our test in this world has ended.

Then, when only we and He remain, when sakarat descends upon the whole of our body and our ruh, surely we will be pleased.

Because we had already met our Rabb in this world.

He will meet us.

He will guide us to die.

To move from the realm of insan into the realm of the grave.

Therefore, as long as we are in this world, seek our Rabb.

Not merely to know, not merely to be aware that He exists.

Seek Him with all our strength, so that we may meet Him and that He may speak to us.

His kalam, if all trees were made into pens and all seas were made into ink.

Then we become united with Him.

His breath becomes our breath.

His kalam becomes our kalam.

His pleasure becomes our pleasure.

His act becomes our act.

Yet we are aware, with the fullest awareness, that He is Malik and King, while we are only servants and slaves who obey Him.

He is Allah, our Creator.

We are malik with no power.

He is within us.

He is Rabb, the One who nurtures us.

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ILAH

Every day, at every moment, especially when people are asleep, we must remain awake.

Let us become servants who arrange our steps with discipline and worship Him alone, coming into tasyahud before Him from standing, intention, rukuk, i‘tidal and sujud, until we sit facing Him with our face lower than our chest.

It is a pillar by which we speak to Him.

Let us rise, then recite:

Attahiyatul mubarokatus salawatu ttoyyibatulillah.

Our utterance to the King of all kings, just as our Prophet uttered before Him when he met Him above.

Indeed, all honour, all glorification, all salawat and all that is pure are centred upon Him alone.

Allah, who is our Ilah.

Let us send salawat upon the noble Messenger.

As-salamu ‘alaika ayyuhan-nabiyyu wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

Peace be upon you, O Prophet, upon whom Allah has bestowed mercy and blessing.

Our love for the Prophet is because he is the beloved of Allah.

Allah’s love for us is when we love His beloved.

Then say:

Assalāmu ‘alainā wa ‘alā ‘ibādillāhis-sōliḥīn.

Peace be upon us and upon the righteous servants of Allah.

Our self is a world.

We are khalifah and malik over ourselves, yet we prostrate together before Rabb.

The world within us will be peaceful and safe if we lead that world toward peace and safety.

Then let us bear witness before Allah.

Ashhadu an lā ilāha illallāh.

I bear witness that there is no ilah except Allah.

I bear witness to the existence of Allah who is istiwa’ above.

I also bear witness to the existence of Allah over the whole universe and within myself as al-Malik.

I also bear witness that He is Rabb, the One who guides me until I take Him as Ilah, in a manner most worthy of Him, and in the proper place for me as His servant.

We are His servants.

He is the King.

We are owned.

He is the Owner.

We are commanded.

He is the One who commands.

We ask.

He gives.

We are guilty.

He forgives.

We are weak.

He is powerful.

Worship Him.

He is our Ilah.

If we do not worship Him, the loss is ours, not His.

He remains King even if we do not prostrate to Him.

He remains Malik even if we behave as though we own the world.

He remains Rabb even if we run away from His nurturing because we want to follow our own head.

He remains Ilah even if we do not worship Him.

We remain servants even when we act like kings.

We remain created beings even when we boast with pride.

We remain weak even when we gather every form of power.

We will still return to Him, even if we have forgotten the path of return to Him.