Have you ever been lost in a dream? When a dream is so vivid, isn’t it difficult to tell what’s
real? Dreams can evoke powerful emotions like happiness, longing, and fear. Sometimes, even after
you wake up, a dream feels almost like a memory. And who’s to say it’s not? A dream is true to the
one who has seen it. But the dream state is shattered when you open your eyes and switch to the
reality of waking life. And when we are awake, we consider the dream world to be an illusion.
But what if the dreams we experience when we sleep are simply dreams within dreams? What if our
waking life were nothing more than an illusion? Imam Ali (pbuh) compared life to the shadow of a
cloud, the dream of a sleeper. And he was not the only one to poke holes in the facade of this world.
Ancient Hindu tradition teaches that this world is a fantasy. The Vedic scriptures call it Maya, a
word which means both nature and illusion. Maya is the inescapable condition of mortal life. The
body itself is a creation of Maya. So is the mind. Both act as the prison house of the self and do not
let it go, until one is completely freed from it.
According to Hindu scripture, the one who unleashes this deluding and distracting force is
Mayavi, the creator, the grand wizard of illusion. They say he casts his net of illusion and draws the
unsuspecting souls into the field of Nature and then sits back and lets her do the rest. Could it really
be true? Is the life just an elaborate illusion, the greatest deception ever orchestrated, the work of
the great deceiver?
Life feels like it lasts for years and years, and yet, according to the Quran, on the day of
judgement, it will seem more like the length of a night’s rest. “(God) will say, “How many years did
you stay on the earth?” They will say: “We stayed a day or part of a day…” (Quran, 23:112-113).
Imam Ali (pbuh) confirmed this when he said: “People are asleep when they die they will wake
up” (Tabaqatush Shafi’iyyah, vol. 6 pg. 357.) How deep does this deception go?
Have you ever asked yourself, “who am I?” Undoubtedly, there are many ways to answer this
question. We all have a name, a title, an occupation. Our body looks a certain way. We were
born at a specific place and time. These are usually the things that come to mind, when we think
about identity. But these are all just details - variables, which are dependant on the world.
A lot of our self-perception is shaped by our families. Think about it. You are born unto a mother
and a father. Your mother carried you within her body and took care of you when you were helpless.
Perhaps you have siblings, maybe they even look like you. Then, when you grow up, you
experience familial bonds on a whole new level. You get married and fall in love and this love bares
the fruit of life. The day your first child was born, and you held that sweet baby in your arms, your
life changed forever. Your heart had never experienced such affection. In your children, you see all
the beauty of your beloved. If you are a father, you passed on all the best of yourself to your
children. And if you are a mother, your body was their home. Nothing moves your emotions like
your family. They are like a part of you and you can’t imagine a life without them. There is only one
problem. The family, which you love so much, exists in this world, which is the world of Shaytan.
And, in this world, true love does not exist. It cannot, because Shaytans are not capable of love.
Although it may feel real, the people who you call family in this world are not your family at all. It
is an illusion, and you have surely been tricked before. Think about all of the different lives you
have lived. The soul returns for rounds and rounds and rounds. And in each of these rounds you had
a mother, a father, a husband or a wife, and children. And in each of these lifetimes, it felt real just
like it feels real to you right now.
You may be wondering by now, if anything we experience in this world is real. And the
answer to this question is yes. Love is not of this world, but some people can experience it here.
Imam Ahmed Al Hassan (pbuh) said, however, the love we feel here is entirely separate from the
body.
When a loved one dies, do you keep the body? No, the body is buried beneath the ground. If
the body was worth anything, surely you would never would let it go. But, on some level, we all
know the value of the human body. The book of Genesis states: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou
eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto
dust shalt thou return.” When a body dies we throw it away. But, curiously, the love we felt for that
person does not die. So where is it coming from and what is it directed to? Imam Ahmed al Hassan
(pbuh) said: true love comes from a higher place. It comes from the soul.
Love is inseparable from the religion of God. Prophet Jesus (pbuh) once said: “A new
commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so also you must love one
another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples…” (John 13:34-35) Love is one of
those words that people use so often, it becomes almost devoid of meaning. Perhaps this is why it is
so often misunderstood. Imagine a couple. The woman is beautiful and the man is strong. They utter
those three little words to one another - “I love you.” But pretty soon, the story takes a dark turn.
One day, the man sees his wife talking to another man and a jealous rage consumes him. It makes
him wonder: how could his wife speak to another man when she belongs to him? The rage turns to
physical violence as he beats his wife for her transgression. He tells himself he acted out of passion,
out of love. But this is not love. Many people confuse love with a desire to possess another person.
It extends to all types of relationships from husbands and wives to parents and children to
friendships. But true love is selfless.
A passage in the bible defines the concept: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it
does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily
angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It
always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there
are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is
knowledge, it will pass away.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
These are the attributes of the perfect world, which the almighty God created. And if true
love comes from the soul rather than the body, it means love comes only from God. And this is the
love which the prophets and messengers taught to spread in the world. This is why Aba Abdillah
(pbuh) said the Ahlul Bayt (pbut) consider love of the family a matter of the hereafter. He said:
“Indeed We love dunya…I marry from it, make pilgrimage, spend on my children, support my
brothers and give alms…This is not from the dunya, this is from the hereafter” (Bihar Al-Anwar
volume 70 page 106.) Pure love is from the next world because it comes from the soul.
The soul is not bound to the body. Imagine that your child dies and in the midst of this tragedy you
witness a miracle. You see, with your own two eyes, his soul as it exits the body and enters into the
body of another child. Would you love that child the same? If you saw it yourself and knew, without
any doubt, that the soul of your child was in a different body, you would. But, in this world, matters
of the soul are not visible to the eyes. We only see the physical reality. And in this reality, death is
guaranteed.
The body is not made to live forever and from the moment of birth, life is just a race against
time. Now, we can finally identify the underlying cause of this world’s flaw. A creation always
reflects its creator. You can learn a lot about an artist simply by viewing his work. And this world is
the work of the devil. His limitations are reflected in the finite nature of all thing. The Holy Quran
clearly distinguished this world from God’s creation: “And this worldly life is not but diversion and
amusement. And indeed, the home of the Hereafter - that is the [eternal] life, if only they
knew.” (Holy Quran 29:64). Bodies die but souls do not. The almighty God, like his creation, is
infinite. And God, who is the most merciful, wants us to be infinitely happy. But, in order for us to
be happy, we must break free from attachment to this world because it only leads to heartbreak.
Imam Ali (pbuh) said: “He who trusts the world, the world betrays him.” And surely, anything you
cling to in this world, will not last. Think about the body, itself. As a child, you can’t wait to grow
up. Then, finally, the day comes when you look in the mirror and like what you see. But just as the
body reaches its physical peak, it is struck with an onslaught of ailments - wrinkles, grey hairs, hair
loss, weight gain, pregnancy, stretch marks, you name it. These things are really
just reminders of the body’s mortality. And most people try desperately to stop the clock, or reverse
the signs of age, to no avail. Beauty is like a carrot, dangled in front of your nose, that you can
never quite reach - in this world, that is…
The difference between Paradise and this world is so vast that we can’t really comprehend it.
Prophet Mohammed (pbuhahf) said: “The life of this world compared to the hereafter is as if one of
you were to put his finger in the ocean and take it out again then compare the water that remains on
his finger to the water that remains in the ocean” (Sahih Muslim 2858). You may think you know
what beauty is, but the beauty in this world is but a drop in the ocean compared to the world, which
God created - the world of light. In the world of light, ugliness does not even exist and the beauty of
the least radiant person there is a million times greater than that of the most beautiful person here.
And beauty, in the world of light, corresponds to faith. Everyone knows the rank of everyone else
by their beauty. The more faith a person has, the more beautiful their light becomes. And in this
infinite world, the creation is infinite.
An old woman once came to Prophet Muhammed (pbuhahf) and made a request, “O
Messenger of Allah make Dua that Allah grants me entrance into Jannah.” The prophet (pbuh)
replied: replied, O Mother, an old woman cannot enter Jannah. That woman started crying and
began to leave. The prophet (pbuhahf) said, “Say to the woman that one will not enter in a state of
old age, but Allah will make all the women of paradise young virgins. God says, Lo! We have
created them a (new) creation and made them virgins, lovers, equal in age.” (Description Of The
Joking Of Rasoolullah, Book 35, Hadith 230).
In the light world, the creation is not bound by time. In fact, in many ways, the light world
and this world are opposites. Anger, jealousy, shame, all the negative feelings we experience here
do not exist there because all of these things come from the body itself. Likewise, certain things
exist there but not here like love. And some things, we yearn for here, only to be disappointed.
It is a human instinct to crave the love of a family - the warmth of a mother’s embrace; the joy of
conceiving a child; and the support of a companion, who is like your other half. But think about the
reality. Each soul returns to this world again and again and again. And every time you have a
mother, a father, siblings, spouses, and children. And every time, they are different. The way you
love your mother now, you loved others before. And your children, were once not yours but
someone else’s. It is innate within us to want these things, but we don’t necessarily get them in this
life, at least not the real version.
The Holy Quran states: “And, O our Sustainer, bring them into the gardens of perpetual bliss
which Thou hast promised them, together with the righteous from among their forebears, and their
spouses, and their offspring—for, verily, Thou alone art almighty, truly wise” (Holy Quran 40:8)
Your true family, the soul family, is waiting for you in the next world. And, in that world, you will
never lose them. True love has a magnetic pull and sometimes members of the soul family
reincarnate together in this world as members of the same physical family. This applies to romantic
partners as well.
Many people spend whole their lives in search of their one true love. They do not want to
settle for anything less. Imagine a person who knows what’s on your mind and what’s in your heart
without you even saying a word; someone who understands you like no-one else. But does this exist
for everyone? The Holy Quran states: “And of all things We created two mates; perhaps you will
remember.” (Holy Quran 51:49) It is true that every soul has a mate. And soul mates live together in
the world of light, in eternal bliss. Sometimes love draws soul mates together in this world. In fact,
you incarnate with your soulmate is the person who you incarnate with during your last round in
this world.
People chase after a fairy tale ending in this life, but contentment is hard to come by. Have
you ever noticed, how difficult it is to be happy in this world? Prophet Muhammed (pbuhahf) said:
“If there were for the son of Adam a valley full of riches, he would long to possess another one like
it. and Ibn Adam does not feel satiated but with dust.” Sahih Muslim Book 005, Number 2285:
s1413. The human being is never satisfied with what he has. As soon as he attains one thing, he
wants something else. Like a person drinking seawater, cup after cup, and it only makes him more
thirsty. It seems as if the human being has an infinite hole inside, which he is always trying to fill,
but nothing in this world can suffice because the infinite can only be filled by the infinite. And, in
the infinite world, the world which God created, everyone is in a constant state of contentment.
Perhaps, now, it makes perfect sense why Prophet Muhammed (pbuhahf) said: “The world is a
prison for the believer and a paradise for the disbeliever.” Sahih Muslim 2956. The believing soul
hates to be imprisoned in the shaytanic body. Jesus (pbuh) said: “For all that is in the world—the
desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from
the world.” (1 John 2:16) And Imam Ali (pbuh) said: “[for me] worldly life is not better than the
sneeze of a goat.” (Nahjul Balagha, Sermon No.3.). In fact, every single one of the prophets and
messengers taught to reject this world, own nothing, and be attached to nothing, including your life.
Imam Ahmed Al Hassan (pbuh) said: “I didn’t find death fleeing except from those who request it,
and I found it vigorously requesting those who flee from it.” (Sermon of Hajj) Whoever is attached
to his worldly life will surely lose it, but death will never affect the person who does not fear it.
Death is the number one fear for many people and this fear comes from the body itself. Without a
soul, the body functions like an animal. An animals lives in constant fear of being killed because
this life is all it has. So survival is the number one priority. They put themselves first and even
sacrifice others so that they might live. It is the animal instinct and human nature is not so different.
In fact, people who fail to fight their animalistic nature are punished in a fitting way. The Quran
states: "Say, "Shall I inform you of [what is] worse than that as penalty from Allah? [It is that of]
those whom Allah has cursed and with whom He became angry and made of them apes and pigs
and slaves of Taghut. Those are worse in position and further astray from the sound way.” (Holy
Quran 5:60) Those who behave like animals reincarnate as animals. The human being is capable of
greatness, but it requires one to fight against the animal nature. Jesus said: “Anyone who wants to
be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” (Mark 9:35) The prophets and messengers
taught people to fight their primal instincts because the believing soul has something much greater
in store.
Prophet Muhammed (pbuhahf) said: "The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said,
“No one who enters Paradise will like to return to the world, even if he could have everything on
earth, except for the martyr. He will wish to return to the world and be killed ten more times, due to
what he sees of dignity.” Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1877. The believer longs to free his soul from its prison of
the body and return to the light. The Holy Quran says: "Don’t consider those killed in the way of
Allah as dead, rather they are alive with their Lord being provided with sustenance”(Holy Quran
3:169). Those who gave their lives for God’s purpose couldn’t wait to get out of here, for this is the
world of devils.
Consider the cruelty of this setup. Say, you are a mother. You carry your child in your
womb, you give birth to him and love him with all your heart. But, try as you might, you cannot
hold on to him. At any moment, the devil can come and end his life and there is nothing that you
can do to prevent it. If this world is all you have, it is a lot like being trapped in a bad dream or a
horror movie. And there is only one way out.
The Quran states: “Everyone shall taste death. Then unto Us you shall be returned” (Holy
Quran 29:57). The after life is eternal, whether it is filled with happiness or torment, and souls
which repeatedly do bad are destined for endless punishment. It is difficult for us to imagine what
heaven and hell are life because our experiences are limited to this world. Here we are bound by the
natural law of karma. Whatever actions we take inevitably come back to us. In hell, the same law
exists, except it spans each and every lifetime. Whatever wrong you have done in any of your past
lives will come back to you, intensified. Your own actions determine the torment. And that’s
not all. In hell you remember everything. Every bit of suffering you went through in every lifetime.
Imagine the anguish of reliving every single bad thing that ever happened to you in each and every
lifetime. You wouldn’t be able to function and happiness would be impossible.
Paradise is the opposite. Paradise is like a fresh beginning. In order to start anew, the
memory is wiped clean. This may come as a surprise, but forgetting is essential to eternal happiness.
Maybe you have had some good experiences in your life, but this is the world of duality. Inevitably,
along with the good, comes the bad. How could someone be truly happy whilst remembering all the
pain and trauma and heartache from every life? In paradise, you will know people but it will be as if
you are meeting them for the first time. And in paradise you will be with the ones you have loved.
One day, a Bedouin came to the Messenger (pbuh) of Allah and asked, “When will be the Hour (the
Day of Resurrection)?” He (pbuh) said, “What preparation have you made for it?” He said, “I have
made no significant preparation with regard to prayer, fasting and charity but I love Allah and His
Messenger”. Then Messenger (pbuh) of Allah said, “You will be with those whom you
love.” (Muslim) Those who you really love, you will see again. And those who you don’t, you will
forget… Clip from Vanilla Sky: https://youtu.be/2ax9BqkjiPM
Imam Ahmed Al Hassan (pbuh) said: “without love there would be no life.” Perhaps, now
we can understand this statement a little better. True love comes only from God. Only those with
life inside, in the form of a soul, can experience it.
The soul is the greatest mystery of all time. The Quran states: “And they ask you about the
soul. Say: The soul is one of the commands of my Lord, and you are not given out of knowledge but
a little.” (Holy Quran 17: 85) But the riser from the family of Muhammed is here and the narrations
state that he will come forth with new knowledge. Imam Ahmed Al Hassan (pbuh) has fulfilled this
prophecy by revealing many secrets about the soul. In fact, his revelations are a proof of his
Imamate.
Imam Jafaar Al-Sadiq (pbuh) said: “Verily Allah chose between the souls in the shadows and
then made them enter the physical bodies. So when our Qaim emerges, he inherits the brother
whom Allah chose in the shadows. And he does not inherit the brother from the physical birth.
Know him from that, and whoever does, there remains no further proof.” Al Haft Al-Shareef.
The matter of the riser from the family of Muhammed is different from everything, which came
before. This includes the method of determining vicegerency. From the time of Adam until now the
succession of God’s vicegerents has been based on the father. Often times, a father passed the
vicegerency to his physical son. It was always a matter of physical kinship. Take the 12 Imams
(pbut), for example. Each Imam was succeeded by his physical son. But that time is now over.
Imam Ahmed Al Hassan (pbuh) was once asked to explain a hadith which states that Al-
Hussein (pbuh) comes out with the Imam who does not have a lineage. So Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan
(pbuh) replied: "The narration is true, and it is about Imam Mahdi Muhammad son of Al-Hassan
(pbuh), and he does not have a lineage from his seed.” But he does have a lineage from his soul.
Imam Ahmed Al Hassan, the reincarnation of Imam Al Hussain (pbuh), is the son Imam Al Mahdi
in the soul world. And his vicegerency marks an important shift.
The successor to Imam Ahmed Al Hassan (pbuh) is not his physical son but his soul son, Aba
Alsadiq (pbuh). The imam has introduced us to his soul children - Moses and Zainab (pbut). He is
restoring knowledge of the true family. And you may not realise it but this puts an end to a lot of
suffering.
Long ago, an event took place, which established this world as a battleground. It all goes
back to the fall of man. We know that the creation of Adam corresponds to Satan’s banishment from
paradise. But what happens in the beginning of Adam’s story?
Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil. God forgave them but
they still faced punishment. They were banished from Paradise, and sent to the world and made to
wear human bodies. The book of Genesis states: “The Lord God made garments of skin
for Adam and his wife and clothed them…So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden
to work the ground from which he had been taken.” (Genesis 3:21,23) But they were not the only
ones admonished for their actions.
Also in the book of Genesis, God tells Satan: “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you
above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the
days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring
and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Genesis 3:14-15
What, exactly, does this mean? Although God forgave Adam and Eve, they were sent to the world to
inhabit the bodies. Same as the devil. Satan and his children were sent to the world in human form.
This event kickstarted the war between good and evil here on earth. This means, since the very
beginning, the soldiers in this war have been blind.
Imagine you are part of an army and you get dropped into a war zone. You and your comrades all
wear a uniform and hold a gun. But then you notice the opposing force is wearing the same
uniform, and holding the same gun. It is impossible to tell which side anyone is on because
everyone looks the same.
The children of Adam and the children of Satan inevitably mixed with each other and this is
what the Quranic verse means, when it says: “He brings forth the living out of the dead, and brings
the dead out of the living” (Holy Quran 3:19.) And this is why families are a test upon each other.
Consider this verse: “O you who believe! Verily, among your wives and your children there are
enemies for you; therefore beware of them!“ (64:14)
Imam Ahmed Al Hassan (pbuh) has revealed that reincarnation is real and we come to this
world many times. The body is made to feel affection for its relatives, and this is where things get
tricky. Perhaps, in one life, your family members are believers but in another life you are
surrounded by the children of Satan. Maybe they are so bad, they come back in their next life as a
lower life form. That is what Imam Ali (pbuh) meant when he said: “I swear by the Lord of the
Great throne! If I wished I would inform you of your fathers and all your predecessors as to
where they were, and from whom they were and where they are now and how they came to be
where they are! How many of you are eating the flesh of his brother and is drinking of the head of
his father and yet he longs for him and wishes that they were with him! O would that you knew! O
would that you knew! When that which is hidden be manifest and that which is in the chests were
attained and conscience were to disclose its hidden things, I swear by God you will have returned to
clay, and you will have had your “returns,” and how many signs there are between these “returns”
how many those that have died or that have been slain. I know those that are in the craw of birds
and those that are in the belly of beasts and all mankind are between those that have already gone
and those that are being urged on” The Sermon of Tatanjeya.
In this world, you don’t know who is an enemy and who is a friend. Not only is the body the
handiwork of the devil, but on top of that, the majority of the people wearing these suits of the body
are, in fact, the devil’s children. Only a tiny fraction of the people in this world are truly good. That
means, we are surrounded by the adversary at all all times. And odds are, some of the people who
you have known, been close to in your life, maybe even people you have been intimate with are the
children of Satan.
Maybe now you will heed the words of God: “Let not then this present life deceive you”…
(Holy Quran 35:5). You have been warned…
