Assalamualaikum,
Peace be with you and Ramadan Mubarak.
Welcome to the University of Sufism's reading of Rosina Fawzia al-Rawi's book,
The Call of Allah,
A Companion to the Holy Month of Ramadan.
Today I am sharing the last day,
Number 30,
And the topic is As-Samad,
The Eternal.
Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim.
In the name of the One,
The Most Merciful,
The Singularly Compassionate.
The Absolute,
The One who is forever independent,
From whom everything depends and to whom everything in creation turns,
Seeking refuge.
The Messenger of Allah,
Peace and blessings be upon him,
Heard a man say,
O Allah,
I beseech Thee,
I bear witness that there is no god but Thou,
The One,
Al-Ahad.
He to whom human beings turn for help,
As-Samad,
Who has not begotten and who has not been begotten and to whom no one is equal.
And he,
Peace be upon him,
Said,
You have supplicated Allah using his greatest name.
When he is asked with this name,
He gives,
And when he is supplicated with this name,
He answers.
Allahumma inna as-saluqa inna as-shadu anqa anta lahu la ilaha illa anta al-Ahad As-Samad alladhi lam yulad wa lam yakun lahu kufuwan Ahad.
As-Samad means absolute,
Independent unity,
Free of all needs,
To which nothing can be added,
From which nothing can be taken.
When we believe and understand in our heart that God depends on nothing and no one,
But that everything depends on Him,
That He is the One who fulfills the needs of everyone and everything,
Then it becomes obvious for us to turn to Him and to set our hopes on Him alone.
Quran 51 ayats 57 and 58.
Allah tells us,
But withal,
No sustenance do I ever demand of them,
Nor do I demand that they feed me.
For verily,
God Himself is the Provider of all sustenance,
The Lord of all might,
The Eternal.
Allah is As-Samad,
The One,
That everything and everyone depends upon.
In their need of air,
Water,
And food,
All creatures depend on Allah.
We depend on Him for everything.
When we are tired,
We need sleep.
When we are sick,
We need health.
When we are hungry,
We need food.
When we are freezing,
We need warmth.
We can experience Allah's name As-Samad whenever we need something,
And He gives it to us,
Thus showing us His caring love.
Ramadan is associated with the divine name As-Samad,
Because it is especially during that month that we realize how much we live through Allah's mercy,
Love,
And care.
As-Samad is the one to whom the hearts turn in longing and reverence,
Yearning to experience the overflowing goodness and praiseworthiness contained in Him.
This name indicates the divine essence.
As-Samad is the One who contains dignity in its highest form,
Completeness in its absolute form.
As-Samad is the everlasting,
The simultaneous,
And the timeless.
As-Samad comes from the root Saad,
Meem,
Daal,
Which contains the following meanings,
To turn to,
To hold one's ground,
To defy,
To endure,
Dense,
To lead,
Eternal,
Everlasting,
Lord who needs no one,
Persevering,
A cliff in a soft ground.
It is difficult to find a proper translation for the divine name As-Samad.
As-Samad is a clenched fist,
Like a cliff,
Dense,
Strong,
And full,
Without any gaps or empty spaces.
Whenever we reach for something other than Allah,
We are basically clutching at thin air.
Only when we reach for God can our soul and our spirit be fulfilled and content.
Metaphorically speaking,
Whereas Allah is whole,
We are nothing but holes.
As-Samad is existence through and through,
Untouched by time or space,
Subject to no changes.
As-Samad cannot be divided,
Nor is it composed of parts.
As-Samad is the completeness of all potentials.
As-Samad is eternity,
Constant,
And everlasting.
Ibn al-Arabi,
1165 to 1240,
Explains,
As-Samad is the universal support and the universal refuge.
Everything flows towards As-Samad and aspires to As-Samad in a continuous process of return and connection,
Like the fish swimming to the ocean in which it lives.
As-Samad helps us overcome our isolation and embed ourselves in the surrounding unity,
On the river which leads us all to him and in him.
When you experience the divine name As-Samad,
The certainty arises in your heart that you are cared for.
By knowing your neediness,
The taker that you were turns into a giver.
Do not seek protection from anyone or anything that can come to an end.
Always ask protection from him alone.
When we are not aware of our essence,
We start to feel that something is missing and a hollow develops.
When we lose touch with our own value,
We feel empty,
Inferior,
Incomplete,
And we need to fill this void from the outside in the form of praise,
Agreement,
Or recognition.
Then we are solely aware of our own wishes and needs.
I want this and that.
I want to be successful.
I want so-and-so to love me.
I want this help and that recognition.
The ego takes the lead and our essence fades more and more into the background,
Into the unconscious.
Each of our hollows is filled with a psychological issue,
With ingrained beliefs,
Specific experiences,
Traumas,
And negative interpretations of our life.
The ego identifies with those experiences,
Ideas,
And pictures from the past so that we end up being not in this world but of this world.
Praised be Allah for his many gifts in the form of conflicts,
Problems,
Crises,
Challenges,
And limitations so that we can develop inside,
Uncover our true being,
And find a knowledge which is essential for us and will remove us from exile and take us back home.
Allah does not expect us to be perfect.
When we take our poverty,
Our neediness,
And our nothingness to God,
We experience his capacity and his love to satisfy all needs,
A samad.
The only thing that Allah wants from us is to open our hearts to him,
Just like we open the curtains in our rooms to let the light flood in.
As our ego suffers,
Our personal hollows open to the water of eternity,
And we mysteriously partake of the infinite in our finite form.
Is our whole existence not a mere reflection of the light of God's mercy manifesting in different forms?
Is not everything that exists a manifestation of God's names?
May our isolated basin undergo cracks and breaks through which the water of the ocean starts flowing in.
Then the basin will start tasting the ocean,
And it can bravely surrender to the great water.
By discovering his rhythm,
By hearing the sound of his love calling,
The basin becomes whole and a part of the whole.
Let yourself be touched every day by the water of the ocean through your prayers and your dhikr.
A samad helps us turn around.
It helps us invoke the winds of unity and lets them blow through all the pores of our existence,
Shaking the ground of our being while the barriers of separation collapse.
A samad,
The eternal,
The omnipresent,
Who is closer to us than we are to ourselves and who we can be aware of,
Provided we bring this bustling self of ours to relax.
A samad also comes bearing a promise because this name helps us become who we really are.
A samad makes us knock at the gates of our subconscious and of our higher consciousness until the dams become porous and we are flooded by the waters of unity.
He,
A samad,
The inscrutable,
Makes us wide and boundless,
Sweeping away all fear and doubt.
The divine name,
A samad,
Only appears once in the Qur'an,
Namely in Surah Al-Ikhlas,
Qur'an 112,
Which is the declaration of faith in divine unity.
A man heard another man reciting Surah Al-Ikhlas.
Say he is Allah,
The One,
Repeatedly.
The next morning he went to Allah's messenger,
Peace and blessings be upon him,
And informed him about it because he thought that it was not sufficient to recite this surah alone.
Whereupon Allah's messenger,
Peace be upon him,
Said,
By him and whose hand my life is,
This surah is equal to one-third of the Qur'an.
When the skeptics asked the Prophet,
Peace be upon him,
Who is this God you are worshipping?
Surah Al-Ikhlas was revealed as an answer.
This whole surah is derived from the name Al-Ahad,
The One.
Man huwa Allah,
Who is God?
Qul huwa Allahu Ahad.
Say he is the One God.
Mani Al-Ahad,
Who is the One?
Al-Samad,
The absolute,
Independent unity which is in need of nothing.
Mani Al-Samad,
Who is Al-Samad?
Al-Ladhi lam yalid wa lam yulad.
He begets not,
And neither is he begotten.
Man Al-Ladhi lam yalid wa lam yulad.
Who is the One who begets not,
And neither is he begotten?
Al-Ladhi lam yakun lahu kufuwan Ahad.
He with whom nothing can be compared.
The Prophet,
Peace be upon him,
Started every day by reciting Surah Al-Kafirun,
Quran 109,
In the first rakah,
And Surah Al-Ikhlas,
Quran 112,
In the second.
They are also called the two surahs of the Ikhlas.
The first surah is the negation,
Nafi,
And the second,
The confirmation,
Ithbaad.
Many Muslims recite these two surahs when they perform the two greeting rakat,
Tahiyyat al-Masjid,
After they have entered the mosque.
Practice suggested for today.
Ya Ahad,
Ya Samad.
Today,
Use these divine names to fill your heart and to support your fast while cleansing your heart and thoughts of everything but Him.
Praised be the Most High.
Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Thank you for joining us for this reading of The Call of Allah,
A companion to the holy month of Ramadan,
With the permission of Rosina Fawziya al-Rawi.
