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