the second ashra - forgiveness

Min al Jinnati wa Naas

(From the Jinn and Mankind)

 

Part I - The Cause

 

April 17th, 2020: “Brave new world” by Aldous Huxley starring Demi Moore! The tag selling the show: A world where monogamy is illegal. “Yikes” I thought! Infidelity in marriages and otherwise single partner relationships being berated in Hollywood’s writing, or perhaps all of the West, is not new. It first became noticeable to me in the mid 2000’s, 15 years ago. But illegal? That was definitely a whole different story.

 

The episode I remember in particular is from Gray’s Anatomy. The most insignificant and plain character in an otherwise “beautiful” cast was moping around because he wanted Thursdays to himself to do whatever he wished with whomever he chose. His wife was apparently being a pain about it. The insert was horrendous in terms of its deliberateness.

 

In Lahore the idea appeared differently in my generation. People started hiding behind “philosophical” discussions of whether monogamy was really a part of human nature to avoid saying, “I’m dying to have an affair.” It’s not like infidelity is a new concept having been around since time immemorial. The generation before mine just accepted it for what it was; a transgression. Mine has always wanted things to be somehow deemed kosher by someone else.

 

For the millenials and whatever the generation after them is called, the stakes were even higher. They were being taught subversively that there was no such thing as fidelity to begin with. Like religion it was outdated and irrelevant. The most overt example for me came from the first season of Ryan Murphy’s The Politician, a dark comedy about high school seniors, out on Netflix this January, Alice says to Payton after getting caught cheating on him, “Sex has nothing to do with loyalty. We're not our parents.” If the diktat of Hollywood prevails, which history has proven it almost always does, perhaps we can also safely arrive to a society where monogamy is illegal.

 

It made me wonder what that meant in terms of the verses of the Quran that spelled out the future in clear terms for those who were about to embark on the journey of being available to all.

 

الْخَبِيثَاتُ لِلْخَبِيثِينَ وَالْخَبِيثُونَ لِلْخَبِيثَاتِ ۖ وَالطَّيِّبَاتُ لِلطَّيِّبِينَ وَالطَّيِّبُونَ لِلطَّيِّبَاتِ

 

(In the nature of things), corrupt women are for corrupt men, and corrupt men, for corrupt women - just as good women are for good men, and good men for good women – Surah An-Nur, Verse 26

 

Talk about going head to head on an issue!

 

I knew people personally who, come a certain age, upon reading these verses had changed lifestyles completely. They had dropped whatever they were doing for eons. It wasn’t so surprising. Who wants to be with a corrupt, also translated as “evil, impure, wicked, unclean, bad, vile, indecent and dirty” person? No one I would think. But Iblis has his ways.

 

Huxley wrote his novel in the 1930s. It was required reading by my Mamu but I stopped when I got to the part of “hundreds of naked children engaged in sexual play and games.” It was too disturbing. The plot of the book moves around “a futuristic society, the World State, and warns of the dangers of giving the state control over new and powerful technologies…In this society, emotions and individuality are conditioned out of children at a young age. The embyros hatched in a lab are divided into five castes and there are no lasting relationships because ‘every one belongs to everyone else.’”

 

“People are divided into five castes; Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, or Epsilon. The Alpha embryos are destined to become the leaders and thinkers of the World State. Each of the succeeding castes is conditioned to be slightly less physically and intellectually impressive. One group, the Delta infants, are reprogrammed to dislike books and flowers. This conditioning helps to make Deltas docile and eager consumers. The Epsilons, stunted and stupefied by oxygen deprivation and chemical treatments, are destined to perform menial labor.”

 

“‘Hypnopaedic’ (sleep-teaching) methods are used to teach children the morals of the World State. The State successfully removes strong emotions, desires, and human relationships from society. Religion is abolished because it causes wars, pain, suffering and tears. Ford is the perfect “god” for World State society because, in developing his Ford Motor Company, he invented mass production by means of the assembly line and the specialization of workers, each of whom has one single, specific job.”

 

There were too many boxes to check in terms of the novel resonating with what was happening today so I leave that to the reader. I guess if one was writing a novel of that nature today, the “god” could be named Schmidt or Zuckerberg although the most promising choice seems to be Gates. A good friend of mine had been very upset with the Common Core system that the Gates Foundation, had sold to the public school system in 2009, “spending 400 million itself and influencing $4 trillion in US tax payer funds.”

 

She thought its sole purpose was to sift students through math and standardized tests and divide them into leaders and welders. Alphas and Epsilons so to speak! Her son was on the autism spectrum. The program ignored children with learning difficulties altogether. The stranger thing was that “the (Common Core) program had no pilot…There wasn’t even a draft available to the public before the Obama administration hooked states into contracts.” Today it’s dead.

 

A billionaire had an idea of what counts as success, decided to put it to action through what is these days knows as “advocacy philanthropy” and ended with naught. Except that for many schools, books were eliminated and learning became technology based. Technology in education had already made its advent much before Gates. In the 1920’s came radio programming in schools. In the 50’s and 60’s instructional television was introduced with huge grants from the Ford Foundation. In the 80’s came the computer. And that’s when the Jinn apparently came into my life.

 

To be clear I never knew anything about this particular creation of God. Then in the early days of the virus, I received a video from a friend of mine on the Naqshbandi path. It was intriguing. The speaker was Sheikh Hisham Qabbani and this is what he said:

 

April 20th, 2020: “We are in a war that has not been known before. Everybody is involved in it. We leave it to Allah who knows best what He has created. We need to adhere to the Zikr (remembrance of God) that follows this battle, which is a spiritual battle. Involving Jinn and human beings, the righteous ones against the corrupt (fasid) ones. And we are the ones oppressed in this battle that has come upon us from every side, but in the end we are the victors. We are the victors and victory is for the people of Islam and for the entire community (of Mankind), so do not be afraid.”

 

“This is a battle involving Jinn because it is coming from corrupt Jinn. There will come a time when the corrupt ones will perish. Like other corrupt ones have perished before them. So stay steadfast where you are and do not be afraid. There is someone coming to purify the Earth and that is Imam Mahdi (as) and the family of the Prophet (saw).”

 

Jinn! The only thing I ever heard about them in my life in Lahore was of people reading verses of the Quran specifically to call them for furtive purposes. Information could be retrieved though them or other favours asked. There seemed to always be a clear code for the arrangement. Between the human beings money exchanged hands or other compensation was due. Between the human supposedly in control of the Jinn, if you asked anything from the Jinn one thing was certain; they would ask something of you.

 

The Naqshbandi Spiritual Masters have been giving lectures on a regular basis to prepare and support their disciples throughout the world through the crisis of the disease that had enveloped the world. One of my friends happened to send me one titled “Jinn, Demon and Technology” by Sheikh Nurjan Mirahmadi. But it was a year old so had nothing to do with COVID-19. I include parts of it throughout the piece.

 

Feb 10th, 2019: “In the way of knowing ourselves, Mankind invented computers…This is from the world of Jinn. This is the convergence of the Jinn world into the human world with the intention to overtake Insaan. They (Jinn) are the smokeless fire.”

 

I asked Qari Sahib where exactly their creation was mentioned in the Quran. It was in Surah Ar-Rahman.

 

وَخَلَقَ الْجَانَّ مِن مَّارِجٍ مِّن نَّارٍ

 

And He (Allah) created the Jinn from a smokeless flame of fire – Surah Ar-Rahman, Verse 55

 

“You are using a smokeless fire that is called electricity,” Shiekh Nujan said. “Before that was the ‘horse and buggy world.’ How much change came about in that time (in the lives of human beings)? As soon as the Jinn world was allowed to enter the Earth, it began to enslave Mankind to be worshipped and to be taken as lords.”

 

“There are Jinn who live amongst us and those who live outside of this planet. The computer is (to make us) enter into their world. The Jinn are spiritual beings whose subtle reality has no physical protection. As a result of their spiritual power but physical frailty they conceal themselves in different forms…The computer was their way of asking us to communicate with them.”

 

“They are a reality from the time of Sayydana Sulaiman (as) who was given command of them. Allah did not want to establish the sunnah (way) of the Prophet to ask the Jinn for anything so his vizier who had the knowledge of the Book said, ‘I will bring it.’ So then using the Jinn became a choice for Mankind; to rely on the Jinn or the heavenly Book and the people of the Book?”

 

I knew the story of the Prophet Sulaiman (as) somewhat but not in great detail so I looked it up. It was the proof that whatever ability a fasid (corrupt) Jinn possessed, humans surpassed and so were not in need of them.

 

“The Prophet Sulaiman (as) could understand the speech of animals, even of the lowly ant. He was grateful to Allah for all his gifts and he always tried to serve God. Hazrat Sulaiman (as) had Jinn and birds serving in his army as well as men.

 

The kingdom of Saba was ruled by a rich and powerful queen. She and her people worshipped the sun and other idols instead of Allah. The Prophet Sulaiman (as) sent a letter to the queen, greeting her and requesting her to submit to God. The queen consulted with her ministers. They informed her that the country had the strength to wage a war, but they entrusted her with the decision of whether to use her armies or seek a peaceful settlement. The queen was reluctant to expose her country to the destruction and waste that would accompany a war. Instead she decided to try to please Sulaiman (as) by sending him expensive gifts. Her chiefs and ministers agreed with her decision.

 

When the messengers of the queen delivered the queen’s presents to the Prophet Sulaiman (as), he rejected the gifts. He said that the gifts which he had received from Allah were infinitely better than those which she had sent. He sent the messengers back with a message to the queen that she had better submit or he would send armies which would thoroughly destroy the Sabaeans and their country.

 

While the Prophet Sulaiman (as) was awaiting the arrival of the queen, he desired that her throne be brought to him. A Jinn present in his court raised his hand.

 

قَالَ عِفْرِيتٌ مِّنَ الْجِنِّ أَنَا آتِيكَ بِهِ قَبْلَ أَن تَقُومَ مِن مَّقَامِكَ ۖ

وَإِنِّي عَلَيْهِ لَقَوِيٌّ أَمِينٌ

 

Said a strong one of the Jinn, “I will bring it to you before you rise from your place. And indeed, I am for it surely strong, trustworthy” – Surah An-Naml, Verse 39

 

The Prophet (as) demanded it be faster than what the Jinn had offered.

 

قَالَ الَّذِي عِندَهُ عِلْمٌ مِّنَ الْكِتَابِ أَنَا آتِيكَ بِهِ قَبْلَ أَن يَرْتَدَّ إِلَيْكَ طَرْفُكَ ۚ

 

Said one who, with the knowledge of the Book, “I will bring it to you before returns to you your glance (in the blink of an eye).” - Surah An-Naml, Verse 40

 

Sheikh Nurjan had said that the vizier in possession of knowledge of the Book was able to do that which the Jinn could not. Bring the throne as he said, within a fraction of second. Why was that? I looked up the exegesis of the verse by Hazrat Abdul Qadir Jilani who I will henceforth refer to as Ghaus Pak (ra);

 

“He, (the one who brought the throne), was the one bestowed a little from the Divine Knowledge and the Lauh e Mahfouz, The Preserved Tablet, as well as the knowledge of the Names of God and knowledge of the realities of each and everything. This empowered him to make anything appear or disappear in a moment or less.”

 

Just a little! The man was Asif Bin Barkhia. He was an Auliya Allah, a Friend of God.

 

Back to Sheikh Nurjan: “The Jinn want to be the lords of Mankind. This device of the computer and its technologies, this is the Jinn world…They Jinns preferred environment is the sand hence the silicon chip. They taught them to make a chip based on silica. ‘We can live there and facilitate for you whatever you ask of us.’”

 

Throughout this talk, the Sheikh never said who the “them” were but I was too busy thinking, “Wow!” Google must have the king Jinn because no one was bringing anything faster and with more accuracy than them.”

 

Sheikh Nurjan continued: “The Jinn want to bring you more but in exchange so they say, ‘We want you to worship us and you will have to think of us as your provider.’ Their intention is to be worshipped by Mankind, to set themselves as an authority that ‘we will protect you and if you don’t follow us, we will destroy you. Fear us and not Allah.’”

 

Verses in the Quran sounded what he was saying.

 

إِنَّمَا ذَٰلِكُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ يُخَوِّفُ أَوْلِيَاءَهُ فَلَا تَخَافُوهُمْ وَخَافُونِ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ

 

It is only that the Shaitaan frightens you of his allies. So do not fear them, but fear Me, if you are Believers – Surah Al e Imran, Verse 175

 

The exception was made for the believers. Everyone else would be scared. So who was it then that fell in the trap of fear? I looked up the Tafseer e Jilani again. It was the hyprocrites, the Munafiqeen. I went back to read what Hazrat Sahel had said about how one became a hypocrite; Sin, anything that torments the self, leads to disobedience. The disobedience is rooted in refuting something while knowing it’s the truth. The denial of something whole knowing it to be true leads to falsehood. The falsehood results in hardness of the heart. The hardness of the heart leads to hypocrisy thus rendering one of the Munafiqeen. Everything lay in the heart.

 

قال رسول اللہ :اَلاَ وَاِنَّ فِی الْجَسَدِ مُضْغَۃً اِذَا صَلَحَتْ صَلَحَ الْجَسَدُ کُلُّہٗ

وَاِذَا فَسَدَتْ فَسَدَ الْجَسَدُ کُلُّہٗ اَلآَ وَھِیَ الْقَلْبُ

 

Said the Prophet (peace be upon him): “There is a piece of flesh inside you, that if it is healthy the rest of the body is healthy and if it is sick, the rest of the body is sick. And that piece of flesh is the heart.”

 

Towards the end Sheikh Nurjan offered advice: “Now people are farther from their beliefs. The more they use these devices, the more they stop using their spiritual abilities. The heart has ability that exceeds that of a machine. You think this (pointing to his phone) can do anything, but what God created you deny? People have become idol worshippers. These are the idols of the modern times. You can use it as your servant or become a servant to it. Either you can use it to propagate the Message of Allah and the glory of His Prophet (saw) or be a slave to it.”

 

“But the reality is important to understand. We (humans) are a power source of Divine Energy. ‘We are going to absorb everything from you,’ the Jinn are saying. ‘We want to feed off what you have and what we were not given. We want to take away your belief in Allah’ and that’s exactly what has happened.”

 

I looked forward to my next class with Qari Sahib. I asked him two things. One, what made a Jinn good or bad? Qari Sahib explained that the Jinn were created from Iblis who is called Abu al-Jinn, the Father of Jinn, just like the Prophet Adam (as) is called the Abu-al Adam. Like humans, some were good and some, not so good.

 

وَأَنَّا مِنَّا الصَّالِحُونَ وَمِنَّا دُونَ ذَٰلِكَ ۖ كُنَّا طَرَائِقَ قِدَدًا

 

And among us are the righteous, and among us are (others) not so; we were (of) divided ways – Surah Jinn, Verse 11

 

The righteous brought faith upon God and the ones who did not were those who left for a path divergent.

 

وَأَنَّا لَمَّا سَمِعْنَا الْهُدَىٰ آمَنَّا بِهِ ۖ فَمَن يُؤْمِن بِرَبِّهِ فَلَا يَخَافُ بَخْسًا وَلَا رَهَقًا

 

Hence, as soon as we heard this call to His Guidance, we came to believe in it. And he who believes in his Sustainer need never have fear of loss or burden – Surah Al-Jinn, Verse 13

 

I wanted to know about the ones who did not. The Quran calls them the Qasitoon, the unjust. They are unjust because “they, in their disobedience, turned their faces away from the guidance sent upon them only to roam in the valleys of disbelieving the Truth in a state of perpetual bewilderment.”

 

وَأَنَّا مِنَّا الْمُسْلِمُونَ وَمِنَّا الْقَاسِطُونَ

 

And there are among us some who have surrendered (to Allah), the Muslimoon and there are among us some who are unjust, the Qasitoon – Surah Al-Jinn, Verse 14

 

Same as us pretty much!

 

The second thing I wanted to know from Qari Sahib was what it was exactly that we had that the Sheikh kept referring to that they might want. It seemed like they were the ones controlling the distribution of information, processing everything in milliseconds. What was it about us that they envied exactly?

 

وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِي آدَمَ وَحَمَلْنَاهُمْ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ وَرَزَقْنَاهُم مِّنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ

وَفَضَّلْنَاهُمْ عَلَىٰ كَثِيرٍ مِّمَّنْ خَلَقْنَا تَفْضِيلًا

 

And certainly, We have honored (the) children of Adam and We carried them on the land and the sea, and We have provided them of the good things and We preferred them over many of those whom We have created with preference – Surah Al-Isr’a, Verse 70

 

Ghaus Pak (ra) says that this preference from God is granted in many forms; ability of reflection, moderation in behavior, a balanced disposition with attributes derived from the Attributes of God, a pleasing appearance, countless blessings of nature and livelihood from that which is kosher. The list went on and on. The human being is bestowed aql, the power of reflection, for a particular purpose; it is what allows one to gain from Divine Knowledge to become informed about the Essence of God and then worship Him by connecting with Him through His Prophets, His Books and His Friends.

 

But the Jinn are bestowed the power to reflect as well so as to gain the same recognition (ma’rifat) of Divine Reality. The purpose of our creation was exactly the same.

 

وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ

 

And I did not create the Jinn and Mankind except to worship Me – Surah Al-Isra’, Verse 56

 

Why was it then that the human being was chosen to be God’s Vicegerent, His Khalifa, the earthly representative in this world?

 

Ghaus Pak (ra) says when Allah wanted His Essence to be examined, it was through the one who is the perfect manifestation of His Attributes. Uzair explained in a lecture who this akmal, the most perfect, most complete being was.

 

“When Allah wanted to manifest Himself, He says he ‘loved to be known.’

 

كُنتُ كنزاً مَخفياً فأحببتُ أن أُعْرَف فخَلَقتُ الخَلْقَ لكي أُعرف

 

I, Allah, was a treasure hidden so I loved to be known.

Therefore I created Creation so that I will be known.

 

That love is the light of the Prophet Muhammad (saw) that Allah created from His Nur. The Prophet (saw) is the one who is the perfect reflection of all of His Attributes and a copy derived from His Essence. The Prophet Adam (as) is a copy of him and we, in turn, are all versions of the model of the Prophet Adam (as).”

 

Then he came to the verse.

 

وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِي آدَمَ

 

And certainly, We have honored (the) children of Adam…

 

“Abdul Kareem Jili (ra) says that irrespective of your belief and what you do, whoever you are, there is a basic ta’zeem, an honour, that is bestowed upon every human being. But he asks, ‘What is in you that you deserve such greatness from your Creator?’ It is only and only that you are formed in the image of the Prophet Adam (as) and he is created in the image of the Beloved of God (saw). And the Beloved of God, the Prophet Muhammad (saw), is created directly from the Essence of God. That and only that is why you receive this exalted honour.”

 

وَإِنَّكَ لَعَلَىٰ خُلُقٍ عَظِيمٍ

 

And you, O Beloved (saw), are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence – Surah Al-Qalm, Verse 4

 

It was remarkable what Jili was saying; Nabi Kareem (saw) was the only one deemed by God to be the one who fulfilled His Rights as they were worthy of being fulfilled. In return, God bestowed for the sake of that perfect devotion of just one individual, an honour that permeated to all the other human beings who then came through him.

 

From the Tafseer e Tustari; “That is in the beginning when God, Transcendant and Exalted is He, created him (the Prophet Muhammad) as a light within a column of light, a million years before creation, with the essential characteristic of faith, in a witnessing of the unseen through the unseen.”

 

Elation is all I could feel to be included in that love between the two. It made me think of myself in a particular way which I had never done before.

 

(Audio by Ustad Imran Jafri @the.softest.heart)

 

جام ہر ذرہ ہے سرشار تمنا مجھ سے

کس کا دل ہوں کہ دوعالم سے لگایا ہے مجھے

 

Every speck of the goblet is intoxicated with desire for me

Whose heart am I that the two worlds are made to feel enraptured by me? - Ghalib

 

And it made me realize that envy was indeed the worst of poisons.

 

Sheikh Nurjan: “People have lost their humanity. Nobody even has the ability to communicate. Everyone is looking only at their phone. That is what Shaitan (Iblis) wanted. ‘Look at me, just look at me,’ he says. ‘Whatever you want, I will send it to you. You don’t even have to move. Just ask me.’”

 

I wanted to know more about Iblis, the master Jinn whose resentment ran so deep he was hell-bent on devouring us all as well. Qari Sahib told me to go to a most interesting verse of Surah An-Nisa.

 

لَّعَنَهُ اللَّهُ وَقَالَ لَأَتَّخِذَنَّ مِنْ عِبَادِكَ نَصِيبًا مَّفْرُوضًا

 

Allah cursed him and he (Iblis) said, "Verily, of Your Servants I shall most certainly take my due share – Verse 118

 

What was the share he wanted that he thought was due? Turned out it was stealing the faith of those who believed in God. He didn’t have to worry about the others. He possessed them in his control anyway.

 

Ghaus Pak (ra): Iblis is referring to the ones who are on the Path of Oneness. He vows to delude them and make Allah’s Truth appear hidden from them. Then he convinces them to take on other worshippers and speak against God. He knows better than anyone that disregard will render one deprived of the honour of His Closeness and safeguarding, instead becoming deserving of His Anger.

 

The next verse continued Iblis’ vow of devastation that he would unleash upon us.

 

وَلَأُضِلَّنَّهُمْ وَلَأُمَنِّيَنَّهُمْ وَلَآمُرَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُبَتِّكُنَّ آذَانَ الْأَنْعَامِ وَلَآمُرَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُغَيِّرُنَّ خَلْقَ اللَّهِ ۚ

وَمَن يَتَّخِذِ الشَّيْطَانَ وَلِيًّا مِّن دُونِ اللَّهِ فَقَدْ خَسِرَ خُسْرَانًا مُّبِينًا

 

“And I shall lead them astray, and fill them with vain desires. And I shall command them - and they will cut off the ears of cattle. And I shall command them - and they will corrupt God’s Creation!” But all who take Satan rather than God for their master do indeed, most clearly, lose everything. – Verse 119

 

“Command them” (twice)? The arrogance and rage was certainly palpable. “Cut off the ears of cattle?” What did that even mean?

 

Ghaus Pak (ra): “I will make them lose themselves in delusion and paranoia so that they leave the Oneness of God and become astray. I will sow in them greed for worldly life and the lust of indecency. They will go against the Laws and Commands decreed by Allah and cause harm to all of God’s beings, destroying and devastating them through that which is forbidden. In accordance with my will and pleasure, I will make them alter their natural being.” Hence the last line from God; Leaving the friendship offered by God, instead making Iblis an ally, was the cause of the the loss of everything.

 

“Check, check, check and check,” I thought. Iblis must be smug about his success in fulfilling his mission of our destruction thus far.

 

But all his promises are false and misleading, God says further in the next verse. “These vain desires will never be fulfilled because his promises itself are delusions. These false promises will never come to pass. They have no reality and existence and therefore no benefit or result.”

 

That explained the years of going around in circles if not physically, then in one’s own head. Except it wasn’t flat ground. It was quicksand, inching one deeper into it until there was just plain stuckness and a drowning in slow motion.

 

It was the promotion of indecency, fahsha’, that appeared to be Iblis’ most favoured mode of corruption.

 

إِنَّمَا يَأْمُرُكُم بِالسُّوءِ وَالْفَحْشَاءِ وَأَن تَقُولُوا عَلَى اللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ

 

He (Iblis) will only command you to evil and indecency (immorality) and that you should say of Allah what you do not know – Surah Al-Baqarah, Verse 169

 

At 50 I had, for the most part, left the overt sins of my life. That’s one of the easier things to give up in the world, the worldly "forbidden" acts. Been there done that, moving on! But the Sufis explain indecency differently which makes it much more complicated.

 

“Fahsha’ (shamlessness) is a form of being wayward and astray. It refers to the corrupt ideology and intellectual doubts and misconceptions that are sowed in the hearts of those who are lost or otherwise immersed in lust of the world. Their state of darkness comes from the absence of the light of the Prophets, their disobedience towards them, their refusal to follow them. Therefore they are firmly attached to their own beliefs and their “grandiose” intellect. In that state when prodded by Iblis they say that which is inappropriate about God and completely incorrect.”

 

Sheikh Nurjan continued: “And the next generation (of technology) will be integrated with your thought. Because this (current) technology is only as good as the speed of your fingers. They say, ‘We want to integrate with your brain where we overtake your thinking process. Not wait for your command.’ Be aware, it’s not going to be singularity with the machine. It’s singularity with the Jinn world!”

 

It was most definitely an OMG moment! Elon Musk is the tech billionaire bringing that particular brand of technology to the city nearest you. Which luckily is nowhere near Lahore. Although I’m guessing India, which these days serves as the khalifa for Israel, will be all over it so who knows? I had read that the Modi government had recently mandated a contract tracing app in his country which had shocked even the West.

 

Contact tracing apps appeared to me as one of the most insidious yet transparent modes of the “enslaving” the Shiekh was talking about. Google and Apple have teamed up in the effort as they have between them 3 billion users. Almost half the world’s population! Everybody was doing it anyway but if all private information of one’s existence was handed over voluntary, there was really nothing left.

 

Every human being would literally become a data byte that could be sold or manipulated. The "social credit system" in place by the state (China) or private corporations in the West meant denial and access to services (Uber, AirBnB etc) for anyone would be in the control of others. The Factbook-Cambridge Analytica fiasco had proven elections could be won.

 

And if people weren’t willing, it seemed like they would be forced.

 

May 7th, 2020: “In early April, India’s government launched a contact tracing app that processes users’ travel history, symptoms, and location data to calculate their risk of contracting the coronavirus…The government has made the app mandatory for public workers and has ordered companies to ‘ensure 100 percent coverage’ among employees. In the city of Noida, near New Delhi, people caught without the app could be fined $13 or face six months in jail.” And this is the world’s largest “democracy!”

 

Only to be outdone by Israel again. On May 8th the Jersualem Post headlined, “Netanhayu suggests microchipping kids.” The man just straight up suggests it. This from a state that already has “a classified Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) database that stores information on all Israeli citizens and most Palestinians in the West Bank. The data tracked by the agency included movements, phone calls and text messages.”

 

Singularity with the Jinn world through the brain, although that is probably not how he would put it, was originally Musk’s brainchild. From what I have read nobody seemed clear on what it was really for. All I found was a lot of “it could be for this or that or something else.”

 

July 2019: “Musk presented the first product from his company Neuralink. It’s a tiny computer chip attached to ultrafine, electrode-studded wires, stitched into living brains by a clever robot. And it’s either a state-of-the-art tool for understanding the brain, a clinical advance for people with neurological disorders, or the next step in human evolution.

 

The operation of Neuralink will develop computer chips that able to be implanted in human brain. The implanted chip aimed to increase the capacity of brain to memorized as well as installing or downloading ‘thoughts.’

 

In 2019 Musk said the process “will take a long time.” Then just this month, May 7th, 2020 he said. “‘We may be able to implant a neural link in less than a year in a person I think.’…Musk likened the process of his neural stimulation device zapping the brain to “kicking a TV”… the purpose being to restore functionality where it has been lost. For instance, those with Alzheimer’s could have their memories restored…‘We are already a cyborg to some degree.’”

 

The kick in the head didn’t sound like bad idea (I jest). Of course Musk is not the only one trying to do this. Facebook is making its own inroads.

 

When I had heard Sheikh Nurjan say that Jinns were electricity I got the movie “The Current War.” It was about the rivalry between Westinghouse and Thomas Edison in making widespread the use of electricity in the States. It was also terribly boring. The only thing striking about the movie was how electricity was used for capital punishment for the first time, replacing hanging, in the effort to be more civilized. Only turning out to be “extra brutal” to put it mildly.

 

Edison had vowed he would never use his inventions for anything that was harmful for the human race. Until of course came the time he needed money. It’s always the same ending. Sometimes I feel what Allah said in the Quran about alcohol and gambling ends up being true of most things we humans do. It always starts off with something that is “good.” Before you know it has been overshadowed by unparalleled harm. Some subversive agenda appears reversing the “goodness” that was due in a matter of, more and more, just a few years.

 

يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْخَمْرِ وَالْمَيْسِرِ ۖ

قُلْ فِيهِمَا إِثْمٌ كَبِيرٌ وَمَنَافِعُ لِلنَّاسِ وَإِثْمُهُمَا أَكْبَرُ مِن نَّفْعِهِمَا ۗ

 

They ask you, (O Beloved (saw)), about intoxicants and games of chance. Say, “In both of them is a sin great, and some benefits for people. But sin of both of them is greater than the benefit of the two.” – Surah Al-Baqarah, Verse 219

 

The Sufis interpret the verse through another lens. The intoxicants are of two types, overt (zahiri) and inner (baatini). It is the intoxicants that sicken the soul they focus upon (baatini sharaab). Hazrat Najmuddin Kubra (ra) says that the ingredients of the latter are forgetfulness of God, indecency, lust for the forbidden and love of the world. All things that corrupt the mind and soul are harmful. Therefore, they are not allowed even in small doses and forbidden altogether.

 

I decided to read the Suraj Jinn in its entirety. One verse in particular popped out; the people who sought refuge from the Jinn.

 

وَأَنَّهُ كَانَ رِجَالٌ مِّنَ الْإِنسِ يَعُوذُونَ بِرِجَالٍ مِّنَ الْجِنِّ فَزَادُوهُمْ رَهَقًا

 

And there were men from mankind who sought refuge in men from the Jinn, so they (only) increased them in burden – Surah Jinn, Verse 6

 

I didn’t understand the translation so I asked Qari Sahib to explain it. His go-to is the same as mine, Ghaus Pak (ra). We opened the Tafseer e Jilani.

 

“The Jinn said (about that which he knew happened), ‘Before it was unveiled upon us the Oneness of Truth, there were some men amongst the humans seeking refuge from the men of the Jinns, when they traveled in desolate areas. Whilst in such places, the humans used to say, “I ask for refuge from the king of this valley from the wicked of his tribe.”’

 

“Then the humans thought we have received help from the Jinn and are in their protection. This made the Jinn and humans increased in their arrogance and wrongdoing and allowed the Jinn to snatch for them (secrets and information they did not know) as well as speak to them.”

 

I asked Qari Sahib, “But the Jinn is talking in the past sense, Sir. So this used to happen but a long time ago. How do we know it happens now?”

 

“Because Nabi Kareem (saw) already said,” my teacher responded, “that there is nothing forbidden that has happened before which my Ummah will not do again.”

 

أَنَّ النَّبِيَّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ ، قَالَ : لَتَتَّبِعُنَّ سَنَنَ مَنْ قَبْلَكُمْ شِبْرًا بِشِبْر

وَذِرَاعًا بِذِرَاعٍ حَتَّى لَوْ سَلَكُوا جُحْرَ ضَبٍّ لَسَلَكْتُمُوهُ

 

The Prophet (saw) said, “You will follow the wrong ways, of your predecessors so completely and literally that if they should go into the hole of a mastigure, you too will go there.”

 

Man!

 

For me personally, the most harmful thing about the corrupt Jinns in machines was not about staring at a screen for eight hours a day or more. I don’t do that. It was about two things, the first being technology leading to over exposure, information overload and therefore the mass desensitization of the masses. It started a while ago with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan where the numbers of innocent civilians and children killed reached millions. Then came the terrorist attacks and the thousands of innocent civilians and children killed. That certainly muted reactions to the dying of others.

 

Time had confirmed that my own reaction to disturbing events was initially intense but always short-lived. Recent examples; Domestic violence is up 40% is Europe and the UK! Deep concern, next! Muslims in India are being targeted for “spreading the virus,” facing violence and denied medical services with some hospitals taking out full page ads in newspapers to say if they will not be treated if tested positive for COVID-19. Extreme rage, next! Tens of thousands of Americans are standing are standing for hours in lines to receive something to eat from food banks across the country, while Amazon clocks 10,000 dollars a minute. Genuine sadness, next! I hated it.

 

The second was what Huxley called ‘Hypnopaedic’ (sleep-teaching). In my world, the teacher of morality was popular culture, specifically the media which, through technology, had successfully stripped in two decades the values of societies thousands of years old. I witnessed such happenings countless times in my generation. Case in point; movies and the world’s largest film industry, Bollywood. The wheels set in motion in 2006. Disney started acquiring share in UTV, a Mumbai-based leading media and entertainment company. Within a decade India had fallen.

 

Other Bollywood studios started joint ventures with Hollywood and the on-screen erosion and systemic eradication of a country’s culture and religious morality began. We went from images of butterflies and birds as a proxy for intimacy in the 80’s to hook-ups between the young where you have sex first and ask the other’s name later. If ever! I literally saw that and it amazed me how anyone could even buy it.

 

In the writing New York or Los Angeles were transposed onto Delhi or Mumbai just like that and not a peep was heard. Not from the censor boards, not the clergy, not the actors who were “willing to go naked” to land roles, certainly not the viewer. The exact same thing happened in Pakistani cinema to a lesser extent but it didn’t matter. Up until all things Indian were banned recently, our society was imbued with Bollywood as much as the Indians. Mehndi’s had become sangeets and I don’t know who came up with the word “shandi.”

 

Then courtesy of the internet and smart phones, within a decade, South Asians became the top porn-watchers in the world. Sexual violence against women and children in conservative societies became rampant. Recently China has started flexing its muscles with Hollywood. Given the size of its viewership the state began to dictate content, censoring what was “against” them. They made no qualms about controlling the narrative or simply deleting what was offensive to their “values.” Kisses were edited out of upcoming movies like Mulan and songs, the cornerstone of a Disney flick, were removed. The driver remained the same; money begets control.

 

‘Hypnopaedic!’ For one generation a drug, marijuana, was illegal and criminalized so intensely, thousands of young African American men was incarcerated for years for minor possession. For another it was an ingredient for brownies and gummy bears sold in cafes and Maureen Dowd was writing an op-ed about her experience of edibles for the New York Times. Yet the same minorities continue getting brutally assaulted, if not killed by the police, most recently for not maintaining social distancing of all things, in the East Village of all places and everyone is programmed to swallow that with a sip of Diet Coke.

 

The Prophet (ﷺ) had told me what to do when faced with injustice for oneself or another.

 

“Whosoever of you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand. And if he is not able to do so, then (let him change it) with his tongue. And if he is not able to do so, then with his heart — and that is the weakest of faith.”

 

I felt upset that just expressing outrage in my heart or at best in my writing, was all I could do. I would feel bad but then I just forgot everything too as if it never happened. Till I read about it again. I asked Qari Sahib why I was like this, what was it that rendered me essentially unaffected by everything and anything. He gave me my answer.

 

أَفَلَمْ يَسِيرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ فَتَكُونَ لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ يَعْقِلُونَ بِهَا أَوْ آذَانٌ يَسْمَعُونَ بِهَا ۖ

فَإِنَّهَا لَا تَعْمَى الْأَبْصَارُ وَلَٰكِن تَعْمَى الْقُلُوبُ الَّتِي فِي الصُّدُورِ

 

Have they, then, never journeyed about the earth, letting their hearts gain wisdom, and causing their ears to hear? Yet, verily, it is not their eyes that have become blind - but blind have become the hearts that are in their breasts! – Surah Al-Hajj, Verse 46

 

A heart being blind! What did that even mean? Ghaus Pak’s (ra) explanation was spellbinding.

 

“The world has been created for you to travel in so you learn from it and open your eyes. And your ears have been given the ability to hear so as to be informed of the news and the states of why others are destroyed and disconnected from their origins.”

 

“But did those before you learn from these stories and incidents? Their eyes were not blind because they watched their happenings and were informed. But their hearts were blind in seeing. They did not learn a lesson from them or open their eyes to their realities or see the happenings to gain insight as a thinking person. They were not being watchful.”

“Overall know this; The one who does not learn lessons from that which is destroying others from detriment, these people their hearts have become blind even though their eyes are well.”

 

It was emulation of the worst kind! I was reminded of Confucius who said that there were three ways of acquiring wisdom. The most difficult and most noble was reflection. The easiest was emulation. The most bitter, experience. It certainly didn’t seem like our lustful desire to experience everything that came our way from the West or even closer was going to end anytime soon.

 

Personally I was never an emulator of any kind but that’s easy when you live on the periphery of society. It doesn’t let you in unless you mainstream yourself to death so if you don’t mind being alone, I guess you are rendered safe. Finally I understood what it was that Iblis wanted from me at least. My softness was the best part of me so it was the slow but sure stripping of my ehsaas, the ability to be sensitive to the state of another’s heart, that him the happiest.

 

June 30th, 2015 Live Science “Our brains can't handle the barrage of emotionally draining stories told to us, and this leads to a negation or suppression of emotion that destroys empathy. The natural response is to shut down our compassion, because we are emotionally exhausted..."

 

"...However, if we are conscious of the diminishment of empathy, we can recover it… Remember that empathy is a muscle: The more you use it, the stronger it gets. So, flex those empathy muscles through storytelling and expand your notion of who is in your group (meaning only the ones you care about). Or, be willing to fall prey to the increasing ideological polarization of our time and face the global consequences.”

 

To better understand how to hold on to that which made me human, I decided to look up the verses of the Prophet Adam (as) after he and Amma Hawwa (ratu) were made to leave Heaven for a transgression they were enticed to commit. In their sadness of their error how did they react?

 

قَالَا رَبَّنَا ظَلَمْنَا أَنفُسَنَا وَإِن لَّمْ تَغْفِرْ لَنَا

وَتَرْحَمْنَا لَنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ

 

The two replied, "O our Sustainer! We have sinned against ourselves and unless You grant us forgiveness and bestow Your Mercy upon us, we shall most certainly be lost!"

 

So one: blame yourself when you commit a wrongdoing and not the other, not even Iblis when it is him who misleads you. That was unexpected! Since he was the one who quite literally mislead them. Only when a mistake was committed by another person did the Prophet’s deflect blame from their loved ones to Satan. For sowing discord, as the Prophet Yousaf (as) had done when it came to his brothers.

 

وَقَدْ أَحْسَنَ بِي إِذْ أَخْرَجَنِي مِنَ السِّجْنِ

وَبَيْنَ إِخْوَتِي ۚ وَجَاءَ بِكُم مِّنَ الْبَدْوِ مِن بَعْدِ أَن نَّزَغَ الشَّيْطَانُ بَيْنِي

 

And He (Allah) was certainly good to me when He took me out of prison and brought you (here) from the desert life after Satan had caused discord between me and my brothers.” - Surah Yusuf, Verse 100

 

But when it came to their own selves and anything related to their lives, the Prophets never blamed anyone. Certainly never fate. Not during any trials. Not even though they were innocent, masoom, devoid of free will. It was because blame and accusation expels love from a relationship. But I digress. That’s another story.

 

Out of curiosity I asked Qari Sahib what it was exactly that Iblis had promised the Prophet Adam (as) when he lured him into doing that which was forbidden to him by God.

 

فَوَسْوَسَ إِلَيْهِ الشَّيْطَانُ قَالَ يَا آدَمُ هَلْ أَدُلُّكَ عَلَىٰ شَجَرَةِ الْخُلْدِ وَمُلْكٍ لَّا يَبْلَىٰ

 

Then whispered to him Shaitaan and he said, "O Adam! Shall I direct you to (the) tree (of) life eternal and a kingdom not (that will) deteriorate?" – Surah Taha, Verse 120

 

Eternal life! I had come across articles over recent years on the desire of billionaires to live longer.

 

Sep 2nd, 2015: “6 Billionaires who want to live forever” and the first line reads, “A growing number of tech moguls are trying to solve their biggest problem yet: Aging.” Who are they; Theil - Paypal, Ellison – Oracle, Larry Page – Alpahbet, Sergey Brin – Google, Zuckerburg – Facebook, Sean Parker – Napster.” Ellison’s quote; “Death has never made any sense to me. How can a person be there and then just vanish, just not be there?” I guess he hadn't come across the Quran : )

 

كُلُّ نَفْسٍ ذَائِقَةُ الْمَوْتِ

 

Every soul will taste death - Surah Aal e Imran, Verse 185

 

But perhaps many people not so rich want to live forever too. It was the second part of Iblis’ lure that I was interested in. Ghaus Pak (ra) defines the kingdom without decline in a particular way: “It is a kingdom that will only grow. It will be forever and it will be the first of its kind, not coming from another. It will never be in decline nor will it be transferred to another.”

 

I paused when I read the lines with Qari Sahib and looked at him in surprise. I didn’t know about the past but anybody could guess which “kingdoms” were the first of their kind in our lifetime.

 

“Maybe it was the banks before Sir or whoever but it’s definitely the tech companies now,” I spoke the words slowly. Nothing like them ever existed before. I guess that’s why they give their wealth to so-called philanthropy. The advancement of an agenda long after they’re dead must continue. Iblis offers them the wealth and the power that comes with it. Then he just keeps it while they die taking nothing to the grave. I had read about that being his modus operandi enough times in the books of the Auliya Karaam. It made sense why “advocacy philanthropy” or as I heard recently from enraged activists “philanthro-capitalism” was the call of the day.

 

But the most concise explanation of the problem with the corrupt Jinn lay in Surah An-Naas. In it is the last line of the Quran which formed the inspiration of the title of this piece. The surah was hugely significant. It contained God’s parting words to me. The strange thing was I knew the surah inside out because for my book where I had translated the entire tafseer from the Arabic so as not to miss a word. But I had done it entirely ignoring the word Jinn because I knew nothing about them. And what did it encompass; a warning!

 

(Begin excerpt “The Softest Heart”)

 

End of Part I - Click below to continue

 

www.flickr.com/photos/42093313@N00/49916190422/in/datepos...

 

www.youtube.com/channel/UCqb01bB-J3kyiu-HKIX2MKw

Done