The Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship

Greetings to my children. Bismillähir-rahmänir-rahïm, in the name of God, most merciful, most compassionate, the creator, sustainer and nourisher. We say this when we start any piece of business or any kind of work. When God was by Himself, alone, when He was unmanifest in the darkness of anäthi before äthi, in the beginningless beginning before the primal beginning, at that stage this word known as the bismin came from Him. When He was by Himself, alone, worshiping Himself, when He was not yet manifest and everything was contained within Him, He was enchanted with what He saw in Himself, worshiping Himself, alone, by Himself. He was there alone, worshiping Himself, He was unmanifest, in darkness. This continued for eons and eons, and during that period a light appeared from within Him. His qalb, His heart, opened and the completeness of the Nür radiated within His qalb. A complete light, the Nür emerged, and the word that resonated then from this perfect Nür was the bismin which made this happen.

"Bismillähir-rahmänir-rah ïm, yä Allah, You are by Yourself, You are alone. Everything is within You. You have everything, everything in existence within You, every atom is within You, every living thing and every creation is within You. You have everything within You, and yet You have closed Your ears to all this, You have closed Your eyes to this, You have closed Your mouth to this, You have closed Your nostrils to this and You have closed Your qalb, Your heart, to this. You have closed every part of Yourself, remaining there in this state of darkness, but all those beings within You praise You alone, they are all doing tasbïh, remembering You, praying to You. They see You, they are agitated, every atom is moving within You there. You exist oblivious to all this. O God look at it, look at what has manifested from You! Bismillähir-rahmänir-rah ïm, You are its creator, You are its ruler and nourisher; the acts of creation, protection and sustenance exist within You. Bismillähir-rahmänir-rah ïm, You are the One who carries out these three functions, You are the One who must do these three things, yet oblivious to this, You exist alone, without hearing or listening to the resonance, to the meaning and prayers of these lives. O God look at this, look at Yourself, look at the beings within You."

Then He saw all the universes within Himself, He saw all the living things within Himself, He saw all the power and the grace within Himself. He saw every little atom within Himself, He saw all the sciences, all the maya and the ignorance, the spurious wisdom within Himself. He saw all the sciences, the arts, the businesses, professions and every beauty. He saw all the shapes and forms of birds, of reptiles, He saw the colors of everything, He saw that.

"O Ändavan, O God, all these atoms are praising You." This word, this bismillähir-rahmänir-rah ïm was pronounced at that time.

Then Allah asked, "Yä Nür, who are you? Who are you?"

"O Ändavan, O God, as long as You have existed You have had me within You. Your grace has existed within You, and that is the Nür, the completion. This completeness which is Your light is what You called Nür. Nür Muhammad is the name You gave to Your completeness, the hundred faces merged in completion. If the beauty of all the universes is brought together, if the essence of all that beauty is polished and made into a face, it would not compare with the millions and millions of beautiful things You gathered to completion and transformed into the Nür. Your beauty resembles this beauty You made complete. This plenitude is Your beauty, the beauty of Your face, of Your grace, this is completeness, Your qualities, Your wisdom. This is within You. It dawned within You and emerged from You, this is what answers You now. O God this completeness is there in Your plenitude as one of Your qualities. One form of Your beauty is this Nür, one of Your names is this name, the Nür, one of Your words is this wisdom, this consciousness, and one of Your powers is this grace. That is the beauty You have named the Nür. You named it, You, Yourself, look!"

This is the explanation which came from His qalb, His heart, then Allah saw all the lives, all the atoms moving in their different colors. He saw each of these atoms praising Him, He saw the countless ways each atom moved in worship of Him. Observing this, He spoke, "Yä Nür, you addressed Me with bismillähir-rahmänir-rah ïm. What did you mean by that?"

"O God You made everything complete, this name means to create, to protect and to sustain. Now You will create all lives. Bismin means to create the world, the creatures, living things and all the beings. Rahmän means You are the king, You provide food for all lives, You are the protector, You are the nourisher and ruler of every kingdom, that is rahmän. Rahïm means You give them undiminishing wealth, You sustain them. This is Your task, the task You will undertake now, that is what You will initiate with this word." That is what the Nür said.

Now the darkness and torpor within Him receded. All the darkness which had been within Him at the time of anäthi before äthi, the beginningless beginning before the primal beginning, all that darkness left Him. He Himself had been in the form of darkness, now He was transformed into a light which became resplendence. He was complete and resplendent everywhere, seeing everything within Himself before He began to create all the beings. At that moment when the Nür, that beauty and grace emerged from Him, He understood Himself. The period of time before this happened is called anäthi, darkness. The period of time when this grace emerged from Him is called äthi, and the period when He understood everything, when creation began, is called awwal, the beginning. Äthi refers to the time when the grace within Him emerged, and anäthi refers to the period when He was in darkness. When the darkness within Him receded He continued as light, while the darkness which left Him is known as maya, as illusion darkness and torpor are called maya. As long as there is darkness, maya is there and the torpor of darkness is also there. God, light, maya and darkness are eternal, maya will be there forever, darkness will be there forever. Until the world ends darkness and maya will exist, yet God and the light of God will also exist.

God tells us the completeness of His light will always exist, but what difference can we say is there in God before the darkness left Him and afterwards? When darkness and maya left Him He was named God, then the three thousand gracious qualities emerged within Him while the qualities of selfishness, of racial prejudice, blood ties to a wife and children, the qualities of anger, sin, hell, hastiness, impatience, the sense of difference between 'you' and 'I' left Him. Color prejudice, religious prejudice, all the prejudice of caste, race and religion, all selfishness left Him. Hunger, disease, old age, death, maya, illusion, desire, torpor, mind, karma, evil, sin, hell, all these qualities left Him, and He acquired the name God. When birth, death and maya completely left Him He became the king of God's kingdom with three thousand gracious attributes, with His asmä'ul-husnä, the one hundred divine names, His perfect light and the compassionate qualities of tolerance, peace, patience, justice and truth. He is God, the One who has neither form nor shape. When His shape left His form changed and He became light. His form had been maya, it had been night and desire, what left Him was the form of torpor. Now He is light in completion.

In the same way, if these qualities leave us, what remains is God. God tells us that His power and maya do not die, but maya cannot appear in the presence of God's power, His light. Torpor, karma, sin, doubt, satan, darkness, maya and selfishness do not appear in His presence, neither do anger and sin, none of these things can appear in His presence because He is a power who controls, who rules them all, a power who eliminates torpor. Because this power exists in Him He is called God, He is called my God. Because He has no selfishness He is God. He has no hunger and therefore He is God, He has no wife and therefore He is God, He has no children and therefore He is God, He has neither birth nor death and therefore He is God, He has no desire and therefore He is God, He has no selfishness and therefore He is God, He has no pride and therefore He is God, He has no anger and therefore He is God. He has none of these qualities and that is the reason why He is called the sustainer, He is called God. The qualities which left Him at that time are called maya, whatever left Him is called karma, whatever was eliminated from Him is called darkness, maya, satan, devils, demons, hell, all that is known as hell.

Then God said to the Nür, "Yä Muhammad, yä Nür Muhammad, what you have said is true, you say all praise belongs to Me. You who are My light gave Me that explanation when I was in darkness, is that not so? In the same way, a light will emerge from whoever controls himself, forgetting the world, discarding everything, concentrating on himself. A light will emerge if he understands himself. That is the completeness which will emerge from man giving him an explanation of his birth, his death, his maya and his torpor. Every explanation will be given to him in the form of vibrations which are the grace, the resonance of wisdom. This is the explanation of the Nür, this is the resonance of grace, this is My explanation." God said, "The understanding of this treasure will come to your family of mankind alone among all My creations, it will resonate giving this explanation to whoever reaches that state. Just as I understood and eliminated these things, whoever knows this will eliminate all the darkness, the maya and torpor within himself. If they leave him, I am he, he will attain completion, he will attain light, he will attain plenitude, this plenitude is his." God said this.

"Yä Nür, I now make My completeness, My light and My beauty your form. Because you came from My form, because your beauty came from My face, from My qalb, My heart, because that completeness came from Me I name you Nür Muhammad. This is who Nür Muhammad is, it is the beauty which came from My qalb, it is My grace. I will make you a messenger for all My creations, I will make you perr arivu, divine luminous wisdom, I will make you the jöthi, the radiance of wisdom, I will make you plenitude, I will make you completeness, I will give you one hundred names, one hundred qualities and My beauty. This I will make My face, this I will make My body, this I will make My face. The name I give you is Nür Muhammad, I will make you My messenger and send you to live in the qalb, the inner heart, of every human being. When a human being understands you, makes you shine and understands this explanation, on that very day maya will leave him just as it left Me. All the qualities which left Me are the creations of maya, of illusion, they will leave him. Whoever has qualities like these which leave him as they left Me is good, he is God. Tell the people to rid themselves of this state of maya.

"What you told Me, what you said to Me, that bismillähir-rahmänir-rah ïm is the beginning of a human being. When he or she sees you after that, in proportion to his intention, his vision and the state of his qalb, the period of his birth ends, the period of maya ends, the period of darkness ends, his time of anäthi is over, the time of his ignorance is over. The time of torpor ends, the period of silence ends, the period of desire ends. That period ends and he is at the beginning, he becomes äthi, the light, he becomes man when man appears he is the äthi, the primal beginning. When understanding and light emerge and maya disappears, he becomes awwal, the time of creation, he becomes the beginning of the beginning of all creation. He must understand the meaning of this. Tell them this, I want you to teach it to each qalb, each inner heart. May you say the word, this bismillähir-rahmänir-rah ïm to each qalb."

This Arabic word was recited at the beginning, and that is the reason why you should say the word as you begin to do anything. This is the origin of the word. When you start something you say bismillähir-rahmänir-rahïm I don't know why people do say it, but this is the meaning of bismillähir-rahmänir-rah ïm You are the creator, the protector, the sustainer, may You protect and nourish me. In the beginning, now and in the future, at my death, now, in this life and in the beginning when I first appeared, may You protect and sustain me in these three worlds, bismillähir-rahm änir-rahïm. And so whenever you begin something, say this word, that is the reason to say the bismin. There is so much more to explain about it. Just as maya departed and light appeared in God, when the qualities of maya leave our qalb, when they leave our consciousness and our truthful ïmän, our absolute faith, then wisdom, light, the Nür and completion appear within us, then our birth is cut. Illusion is destroyed, satan is destroyed, hell is cut, anger leaves us, sin leaves us, selfishness leaves us, hastiness leaves us, the distinctions of 'you' and 'I' leave, all the prejudice of race, sect and color leaves, that sense of my race, your race, my religion, your religion all leave. Then God is God, God worships God, God's qualities are known as God. This is the meaning of the bismin.

To have certitude in this is called ïmän, absolute faith, and the light of that ïmän is known as ïmän Islam, as purity. This Islam is His completeness, this completeness proclaims there is nothing other than Allah, nothing can be compared to Him, He is infinite, everlasting, eternal. This is that completeness, this is Allah. To say nothing exists but Him is ïmän. Everything dies, everything disappears; every creation dies, everything dies. That One is the only One who never dies, who is eternal, who beckons all lives, who pronounces judgment on all lives, who sustains all lives, who embraces all lives and comforts them. This is the treasure who controls all living things, who pronounces judgment, who creates, who protects, this is the treasure who does everything, a mysterious treasure who shines without form. This is light, but unlike the light of the sun or the moon, it cannot be discovered by an atom or a non-atom, it can only be discovered by insän's love within love, by true man's love within love. God can be found only in God's qualities. God's beauty can be found only in God's beauty, God can be found only in His wisdom, God can be found in His grace, His tolerance, His patience, His equality. This means that you will only understand Him when you gaze intently into His qualities. If you do not have that point, you cannot detect Him with atoms or currents or instruments, with science or magnets, He cannot be known with any of this. He can be understood through His qualities, He can be known through His qualities, that is the mystery. If you can understand it, this is what is known as the bismin. This is the beauty of ïmän, of faith, certitude and determination.

Ämïn, ämïn, yä Rabbal-'älamïn, O Lord of the universes.