Shedding Light on the Possibility of Seeing Prophets and Angels pdf download

Shedding Light on the Possibility of Seeing Prophets and Angels

Tanwīr al-Ḥalak fī Imkān Ru’yah al-Nabī wa al-Malak by Imam Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyū ṭī

Translated by Talut ibn Sulaiman Dawood

SHEDDING LIGHT ON THE POSSIBILITY OF SEEING PROPHETS AND ANGELS

The author says:

We have received numerous inquiries regarding people in spiritual states observing the waking vision of the Prophets.

 Indeed, a party of the people of this age, among those who have no foothold in knowledge, vehemently denied the possibility of that.

They are astonished by it and claim that it is impossible.

 So, I have written this short work and named it ‘Dispelling the Darkness Regarding the Possibility of Seeing Prophets and Angels’ [Tanwīr al-Ḥalak fī Imkān Ru’yah al-Nabī wa al-Malak].”

We begin with the ṣaḥīḥ hadith narrated regarding it. Al-Bukhārī, Muslim and Abū Dāwūd narrated that Abū Hurayrah (raḍiyallāhu

¢anhu) said, ‘The Messenger of Allah s said, “If someone sees me in a dream, he will soon see me while awake. Satan cannot imitate my form.”’ Al-Ṭabarānī narrated something similar from the hadith of Mālik ibn

Abdullāh al-Khathamī and the hadith of Abū Bakrah. And, al-Dārimī narrated the same from the hadith of Abū Qatāda.

The scholars say that people disagreed over the meaning of his words, ‘He will soon see me while awake.’ Some said that its meaning is, ‘He will see me on the Day of Judgement.’

However, they are rebuked by the argument that there would be no benefit to such an allotment, because all of his ummah will see him on the Day of Judgement, regardless of whether or not they had seen him in a dream.

It has also been said that the meaning is that if someone believes in him during his life, despite the fact that he has not seen him due to his being hidden from him, it is a glad tiding that he would inevitably see him while awake, before his death.

However, another group said that it is understood according to its apparent meaning. Thus, whoever sees him in a dream, he will without doubt see him while awake, meaning

his physical eyes. It is also said that such a vision is with the eyes of the heart. Both positions were reported from Qāḍī Abū Bakr ibn al-Arabī.

Imam Abū Muḥammad ibn Abī Jamrah said, in his comments on the hadiths that he selected from al-Bukhārī:

This hadith indicates that if anyone sees him s in a dream, he will see him while awake. However, does it indicate both during his life and after he has passed away? Or, is it restricted to those who lived during his lifetime?

Also, is this [benefit] for anyone who sees him without exception, or is it restricted to those who are deserving by following His Sunnah s?

The wording indicates that it is a general and unrestricted statement. And, those who claim that it is restricted, without any indication of that restriction from him s, are transgressing their limits.

Some people had fallen into [the trap of] not confirming its general meaning, saying, according to the conclusion of their intellect, ‘How could someone who has passed away be seen in the physical world by those who are living?’

Such a statement is perilous from two important points of view. The first is that it contains a refusal to confirm the words of the Truthful Ones, who does not speak from a place of desires.

The second is that it indicates ignorance of the power of the Almighty and a belief that His power is deficient. It is as if he has not heard the story of the cow in surah al-Baqarah, how Allah (taālā) said ‘We said: Strike him with a part of it. In such a way, Allah will give life to the dead person’ (al-Baqarah 2: 73). Or, the story of Ibrāhīm (¢alayhi al-salām) and the four birds, or the story of Uzayr.

For, the One who made the striking of the dead person with a piece of the cow a means to bringing him back to life; the summoning of Ibrāhīm a means to giving life to the birds;

and the astonishment of Uzair a means to his death, the death of his donkey and to reviving them both after one hundred years, is certainly able to make seeing him s in a dream a means to seeing him while awake.

It has been narrated about one of the Companions, who I believe to be Ibn Abbās (raḍiyallāhu anhumā), that he saw the Prophet s in a dream. It caused him to remember that hadith and he kept thinking about it.

 Then, he entered upon one of the wives of the Prophet s, who I believe was Maymūnah, and he told her what had happened. So, she got up and took out the mirror of the Prophets. He (raḍiyallāhu ¢anhu) said, ‘I looked into the mirror and saw his image and I did not see my own image.’

And there are many people among the Predecessors and the following generations, and all those up to this time, who have been mentioned as having seen him s. They were among those who were truthful about such events and they saw him after that while awake.

 They asked him about matters about which they were confused and he informed them of the solution and of the different ways to arrive at it (the solution). And, they corroborated the solution in the manner described without any addition.

The negater of this [vision] is either someone who con- firms the karāmāt of the Saints or denies them.

If he is among those who denies them, there is no need to discuss the matter with him, because he has denied a matter that the Sunnah has confirmed with clear evidences.

However, if he is among those who confirms their karāmāt, this vision is from that category because the Saints are unveiled, by way of preternatural events, to various matters concerning the upper and lower realms and this vision cannot be denied while confirming such unveiling.

His words explain that it is a general statement, not restricted to those who are deserving of it or who follow his Sunnah s more closely.

This means that the vision while awake, which was promised for those who saw him in a dream, will occur – even if only once – as a confirmation of his noble promise which is never broken. For the general believers, the least that will occur is that when his death draws near, he will see him before his spirit departs from his body.

He will see him as a fulfilment of this promise. As for others, they will receive the vision throughout their lifetime, either many times, or a few times, according to their efforts and observation of the Sunnah. However, neglecting the Sunnah is a great impediment to this benefit.

Muslim narrated in his al-Ṣaḥīḥ that Muṭarraf said, ‘¢Imrān ibn Ḥuṣayn said to me, “I was being greeted with peace until I used cau- terization. When I abandoned cauterization, my greetings returned.”’

Muslim narrated from another chain of narration that Muṭarraf said, ‘¢Imrān ibn Ḥuṣayn sent for me during his final illness. He said to me,”