Lives of Human Beings

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Event Name: Lives of Human Beings
Transcription Date:Transcription Modified Date: 5/1/2019 2:46:37 PM
Transcript Version: 2


Transcript Text

The topic this morning is "The lives of man" and it's actually the title of a book by a very famous Yemeni scholar named Shaykh Abdullah Haddad.  It's available through Killingham Press and a lot of what I'm going to cover is actually derived from that book directly.  but I'm going to do some other things as well, but the actual topic is this man.  He was a brilliant scholar from the Yemen who lived almost about 200 years ago

The topic is a is a very old topic in the Islamic tradition there and there are several books in the history of Islam that deal with this tradition of the lives of man and the book is is published by Abdul Hakim winter in England who does not like the politically correct American English and so uses man and I know some people in America now don't like having man inclusive of women but it's interesting that the word the original word which is a Germanic word Minch means the male and the female it's the idea of a human being and the woman is a man with a womb right so the the woman is a man who happens to have something that the man doesn't have which is a womb and so having said that the lives of a human being have been defined  as five according to a core onyx presentation

His name is Shaykh Abdullah al Haddad.   A Mujaddid who revives or renews this Deen this tradition and he's considered one of them he had an extraordinary impact on on Yemen as well as all over the Muslim world his books have spread all over so the five periods the first period is a pre worldly period and the phenomenal existence and Numan all existence in Islam are there's a dyad here called mulk and malakut the mulk is what we can see anything that you can see feel touch the sensory world and most of our scholars would include in

this what we now know of the unseen

phenomenal world which would be the

world of x-rays light waves sound waves

gamma rays this world that we can't see

but it's palpable we can we can measure

it we have access to it the Mallicoat is

a realm that we cannot see we do not

have access to it there's some inner

penetration because the angelic world

can move into the angelic world is in

the matter coot and yet they can move

into the MOOC so the MOOC is impact

the malakut is impacting the milk and

the milk impacts the Mallicoat in that

things that are done in the milk are

either pleasing or disturbing to the

Mallicoat and that has to do with things

that are done with the the moral

component so when people are doing

righteous things the matter coot

actually is is happy and rejoices about

it when they do foul things then the

opposite occurs and I'm going to go into

that now the the importance of knowing

about these according to the Islamic

tradition is that unlike 20th century

man who in a lot of ways has removed him

or herself completely from the unseen

experience if you go into traditional

cultures you know vibra would call this

the the magical realm the the realm of

enchantment the pre-industrial realm

that people existed with a sense of

magic and they looked at the world

because it was not understood they

looked at it in a way that caused them

to experience an unseen explanation for

so much of what was happening around

them so whether illness all of these

things that happened right now if you

look just to take for the example of

illness in most cultures illness was

often attributed to evil spirits

attributed to the evil eye

obviously as medicine became more

advanced and you can see the Greek

attack on this centuries ago I mean you

know the Greeks moved into a rationalist

mode

many of the Greek philosophers did not

like those explanations and and they're

there conspicuously absent from a lot of

their texts which is interesting given

that that was a popular belief in their

culture but if you look at modern man

we have unseen explanations but they're

no longer magical so bacteria is not

something that we see it's it's an

unseen realm I mean you can see it on

the microscope but most people the

doctor says you've got a virus it's not

something you saw right he doesn't bring

out a slide and you know show you a

microscope and there it is but it is

something we understand and people have

had biology classes so they do have an

idea so we we have identified many of

the things that are impacting our world

and given them material explanations and

those material explanations caused a

disenchantment with the world so we no

longer are enchanted by what is around

us when we look at natural phenomena

many of us have some basic explanations

for it

so when weather strikes us we have

scientists that tell us this is El Nino

phenomenon and when drought comes they

explain the reasons for that and yet in

the in the ancient world and still in a

lot of places on the earth these things

are seen as coming from the unseen world

in other words drought is still

understood in most parts of the world to

be from displeasure so for instance the

Muslims still believe that drought is a

sign that blessings have been removed

and it's seen as a reminder and that's

why the Muslims will go out and do a

rain prayer and they bring their animals

out they bring their children out and

the Prophet Muhammad sallallaahu celeb

said

that if a people begin to cheat in their

buying and selling and have unjust

weights and balances the rain is

withheld from them and then he said had

it not been for dumb animals they would

have gotten no rain at all in other

words it's not the humans that are

worthy of the rain but it's the animals

that aren't doing anything wrong

so this is still part of the Muslim

world and you will find this also within

the indicator within the scenic culture

you're going to find this in many many

cultures and certainly amongst

traditional Christians in in American

culture you will still find that many of

them when they read the newspaper you

know they will see these as signs right

what's happens from God so introducing

at an early age the unseen world is

introduced to Muslim children and they

are made aware of the unseen world and

so of the five lives of man only one of

them is what we're going to experience

in this realm the other four are in

another realm and this is an indication

that the majority of creation is

actually hidden from us the Prophet

Muhammad sallallaahu said I'm said that

the likeness of this dunya and the other

world is like somebody who puts their

finger into an ocean and pulls it out

what is on his finger in relation to the

ocean is like the unseen world in

relation to this world and he also

reported that he saw the angel Gabriel

in his original form and he fill

the entire horizon of a desert landscape

so if you could imagine looking out

towards Santa Fe and seeing an angelic

being fill the entire horizon right

having an experience that was a

spiritual experience that took place for

that human being and giving him an

insight into the relationships

quantitative relationships of this world

to the other world and there are many

examples of that in the tradition

so the second realm and I'm going to go

into each one more is the period of life

from birth to death so the first one is

the pre worldly realm and this is called

the period I had to me that which I'll

get into in a second the meth up the

second is dunya now in Arabic the word

dunya comes from a root word dunya and

it has a few meanings one of them is

reaching out for graves that will they

every time you you get near them they

move a little further away from you so

it's the the idea there is that the

phenomenal world is that we as we

attempt to grasp it we're moving away

right Paul Simon has a song called slip

slidin away right the near you are to

your destination the more your slip

sliding away right and it's about death

is that you know you

and and and that that idea is captured

in a wonderful hadith of the Prophet

Muhammad's Eliza time in which he drew

in the sand a box and then he drew a

line and he drew a line up here he

didn't write it but he drew a line here

at the top of this line and then he drew

a line out here and he said that this

was a man's journey in life and these

lines were the our table

they were the vicissitudes of his

journey at each stage things will happen

to him if they don't do him in he moves

to the next one until he reaches at this

the agile is your appointed term and it

could be at any point because people are

different it could be at any point along

the way but there for people who go all

the way through they reach old age and

what gets them is known as Haram and

there's a tradition in which the Prophet

said peace be upon that the children of

Adam God has given them the ability to

do all things except conquer harem they

can't conquer old age and he also said

that anxiety was half of harem right

that having a lot of anxiety will will

actually cut your life in half so as

you're moving up through life you reach

this edge um but then he had a line

outside of the box

and he said this was a man's Emin which

is his hope so a man's hope is always

beyond his time and it's this is a

really important motif there's a verse

in the Quran that says that home yet

could away a tomato well you will hear

him am elohim leave them these people

that reject what you're telling them

about the inevitability of the next life

leave them to eat and enjoy themselves

and to be entertained and Iulia means to

preoccupy themselves with their hope and

indeed they will come to know in other

words their edges will come and then

they're going to realize that the edge'

preceded the hope and he also said that

people two things never grow old in

people desire for life and desire for

more write in and it means here it

doesn't mean all people it means people

that are deluded so the this this desire

for extended life and and the

interesting thing is the longer a person

is here the more accustomed they get you

know you get up every morning you've had

your rituals your coffee your breakfast

you go to work you see the same people

you get accustomed to being here and we

we get we were in this very interesting

experience of the permanence and every

once in a while there are things that

happen that kind of shake us a little

bit like one day you come to work and

so-and-so was in an accident or so or

you get a phone call and your mother

just died or a good friend or something

there are these reminders and they kind

of shake people a little bit but most

people brush themselves often and just

go along get on with it right so we we

have this really and this is all about

this lower world the dunya because it's

like the grapes we're always reaching

for it and it's always moving away

because the moment we came into life

into this dunya realm our death we're

moving inevitably towards our death one

of my teachers in the desert when I was

leaving and it was a camel journey of

about a day the last thing he said to me

he said this journey that you're taking

this morning is like your life you're

moving towards a destination and every

step that your camel makes takes you a

step closer to that destination and he

said every breath you take is a step

closer to the termination of your

breaths so keep that in mind along the

way and I was with a West African we

arrived at a airport and he'd never been

on one of these moving not the the

escalators but the actual sidewalks yeah

and we got on it and we were standing

there moving along and he said this is

amazing this is just like our lives we

think we're standing still but we're

moving towards our deaths and then it

was really interesting because at the

end of the of the sidewalk there there

was a sign that said caution the end

comes abruptly

so there's that is the metaphor right

and this is the point that unlike that

escalator where you know where it's

going to end the the you know this this

walkway of life that we're on the end

can come at any point and so keeping

this in mind is something that's really

important I'm going to go a little bit

into that and then the third stage is

known as the buzzer and a buzzer is a

space between two places like in the

Quran it says about the two oceans that

between them is a butter sock

the the sweet water and the salt water

between them is a interspace and if you

if you've ever seen where big rivers

meet the ocean there's an admixture of

the sweet and the salty that has a

completely different ecology it has a

different the water is not the same that

is that's what a butter sock is it's an

interspace that's not this or that it's

neither this nor that and so when we die

there is a place that is neither this

world nor is it the next world you're in

this interspace and and this is where

people are in their graves and and we'll

get to that also chalma and then the

fourth place is the gathering place

where the hash out and the nut shot

takes place and this is going to be

final judgment takes place in this realm

what's called the day of judgment and

then the fifth is the final

abode either divine presence or

alienation from divine presence it's one

or the other now to look at the word in

Arabic for a life is called an AMA and a

Kuwaiti term of endearment a wife will

call her husband or the husband will

call the wife only my life and if

they're just getting to know each other

they'll say Bardo Omri part of my life

so Omar is a it's not an entire life it

is a part of life

so for instance in the Quran it says

that the prophets is the Quran says to

the place that the Prophet says to them

I dwelt among you a lifetime before this

revelation in other words the first 40

years so this is an omen right the first

40 years is a lifetime and some say

there's a version the Quran that

mentions that God gave people a full

life and it said that it's 40 years that

if you've had 40 years on the earth then

you've had a full life right and

whatever comes after is just bounty

right that you should be grateful you

made it to 40 so human beings within

this dunya realm have stages also and

and we'll get into that so that's what a

neuroma is it's a it's a life now the

first life was the life before

conception and there's a verse in 7 172

in your translations in the chapter 7

172 when it says

is that when your Lord brought forth

from the children of Adam from their

loins their seed and made them testify

of themselves the Veria that all of

adam's progeny every human being that

would ever exist was brought forth on a

plane in this pre worldly stage and they

were told by the in the divine presence

i'll estuviera become am I not your Lord

all every soul that has ever existed is

existent now and will ever exist was

brought into this divine presence and

said am I not your Lord and those souls

replied in the affirmative bed a Shahid

'no we indeed you are our Lord

and we testify to that truth now this

truth is buried in the soul and there's

not a lot in the Quran or in the Hadees

about this pre worldly there's only one

other event that we know of which is

another contract was made with the

prophets that they would all tell their

peoples of the last prophet that's the

only other indication that we have about

this pre worldly realm now from this pre

worldly realm there is a downward

descent from this divine presence

the human being descends into the womb

after a hundred and twenty days at a

hundred and twenty days the this soul

that was in the Divine Presence enters

into the womb of its mother so for the

first hundred and twenty we're dealing

with a biological phenomenon that does

not have spiritual life right it has

biological life that is actually the

mother right the biological life is the

mother the individuation of that soul

does not come until 120 days at a

hundred and twenty days it enters into

the womb and begins to experience and

it's interesting because this is about

the tonton well there were some scholars

who felt that before 120 days abor