¶ Door Number Fifteen
¶ Light and Darkness
¶ “The powers of light on high confuse all demons of wrath.”
Mani called himself ‘The Messenger of Light’ and Jesus (PBUH) had called himself ‘The Light of this world.’ Mani (PBUH) had taught that in the beginning, God created the world of light and that the realms of darkness desired the light. God sent a Messenger of light to darkness but he was consumed and his light was held hostage in the realms of darkness and was spread across all things. So all existing things contain both light and darkness, or else without the light, not a thing would exist and without darkness, it would be absolute light, and there is no absolute light but God. Light is necessary for creation. Mani (PBUH) taught that the creator of this world is evil and he created the physical world through stealing the light from the upper worlds of light. This exact teaching was secretly taught by the Imams (From Them is Peace). In one secret narration, in the book, Umm Al-Kitab, Imam Al-Baqir (From Him is Peace) discusses with his companion, Jabir, the creation of the world and says:
The High King lent Azazel light, and using this light he shaped his creations. In his image he made spirits. The King shouted about what he had done. Azazel shouted his creation of place, aeon, and spirit into being, and no one but the High King knows how many. The High King said to Azazel: “Old being, tell me who you are and what I am and what all these creatures are.” Azazel answered: “You are a god and I’m a god, and all these spirits both of us have made.” The High King said: “There cannot be two gods. You’re my creation. I’m the one who’s made these spirits, in fulfillment of god’s word; {I will create a person out of clay.}” Azazel said: “What I’ve made is more than yours; yes, I’ve made ten times more than you. How can you dare claim your divinity?” The High King captured Azazel’s light, saying: “These creatures you have made I made also. If I withdraw the gift I loaned you, how will you create?” He took from Azazel the light He’d loaned him and the creatures that had been made with it, and from it He made a dome of a white sea a thousand times larger than the blue dome of the earthly sky. He made 124,000 lamps, flickering candles, and brightly burning lights appear, and painted palaces and castles out of white crystal in 100,000 colors, and He adorned them with the flowing rivers of the water of life and [He adorned] the riverbanks with the Tuba tree. In branches of the trees the royal phoenix sat, and in its shade were young men and boys. The white falcon, Duldul, Boraq, and the lion adorned this white sphere. On branches He created the wood pigeon, turtledove and nightingale, beautiful beyond description. {Nothing had been made like him. He is the one who hears and sees.} After the High King fashioned the white dome in all its beauty, He told Azazel: “Make another sea equal to the one that I have made.” After the High King said this, Azazel was shocked. He could not make such a creation. And as it is written, {Those who won’t believe are doomed to nothingness} and {God doesn’t lead those lacking faith in Him.}
I asked Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) about Iblis (God’s curse is upon him), “Did Iblis challenge the authority of God wanting to go to war with Him while he was a believer in Him, or rather were Iblis’ actions due to his love for God and jealousy of Adam (PBUH)?”
Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) said, “If I told you that Iblis knows God’s ability the most out of all of creation, do not be surprised. It was out of envy, son. Envy is a great evil that does not leave anything except that it eats it. Envy in addition to love of power, authority, kingship, and the ego all caused Iblis to fall.”
I asked him (From Him is Peace), “What was his rank before he fell?”
He (From Him is Peace) responded, “Do you know what the meaning of the name Iblis is?”
I said, “Despair from the mercy of God?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “No, it is written like this (Ib-Lis) and not like this (Iblis), ‘Ib’ means fatherhood, ‘lis’ means creation, father of creation.”
I asked him (From Him is Peace), “Did Iblis create creation?”
He (From Him is Peace) said, “No, this was a name which the angels gave to him out of the extreme love which they had for him.”
I asked him (From Him is Peace), “My Father, increase me, why then was Iblis called the father of creation, is it he who created physical matter?”
So he (From Him is Peace) responded, “Let me ask you a question, what is the meaning of Gabriel?”
I responded saying, “The might of God or ability of God.”
So he (From Him is Peace) said, “Good, what is the meaning of Shaytan/Satan?”
I said, “I do not have any knowledge except that which you teach me.”
So he (From Him is Peace) said, “Shay-Tan, Tan means clay, something from clay.”
I asked him (From Him is Peace), “So then, Iblis created the physical bodies and Mohammed and the Family of Mohammed (From Them is Peace) are the ones who created the light bodies?”
So he (From Him is Peace) said, “Exactly, this is it son, and Iblis at this moment is happy that we are talking about him, he sees and considers that he has done something great.”
I asked him (From Him is Peace), “What is the cause or reason why he, out of all creation, had this power?”
So he (From Him is Peace) said, “Because he had the most faith of them all, and as you know, God rewards that, regardless of what he hid within him.”
I asked him (From Him is Peace), “Since he was the one given authority and responsibility over the entire physical creation and all of the physical world, who took the place of Iblis when he fell?”
So he (From Him is Peace) said, “I shall tell you the truth, perhaps you shall be shocked, no one has been able to take his place. I wish that creation understands the amount of danger there is in mistakes, mistakes that take away good deeds. How serious are mistakes, a creature like Iblis and his extremely high rank, and just look at how he fell from the highest of peaks to the lowest of lows. Think about it and you shall find it a very great and serious matter.”
I asked Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace), “So no one, not Mohammed nor Ali nor anyone was able to replace him in his position?”
So he (From Him is Peace) said, “Not a single creature. He was extremely great, and he turned into a clear enemy.”
I asked the Imam (From Him is Peace), “Does he think that he can defeat God?”
So Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) replied, “No, he knows that he cannot and he knows this better than any other creature. Do you know that he cries every night, he cries in fear from the punishment that shall catch up to him. His pride led him to this, speak to the people about this, make them understand it.”
So Mani and the Family of Mohammed (PBUH & His Family) taught that Iblis created the physical world, and the physical world is divided into the children of light and the children of darkness. The children of Adam (PBUH) and the children of Iblis. Since this realm that we are in is the realm of darkness in which light is trapped, it is our mission to save as much light in it as possible, in order that it may return to its source. Otherwise, light would be trapped in the darkness forever. Prophet Mohammed (PBUH & His Family) said:
“The world is the prison of the believer.”
It has been the goal of all religions, whether Judaism, Christianity, Islam or other religions such as Buddhism or Hinduism to release the soul or the light within us and return the light to the higher realms of existence, whether it be called paradise, jannah or nirvana.
Prophet Mani taught that salvation comes through knowledge and through the victory of the good light over the evil darkness. The material world is dominated by evil powers and the forces of darkness which must be overthrown. Mani also taught that one could obtain more light through the consumption of things which have more light, thus increasing the light within us. And vice versa, through the consumption of things which have more darkness, we would increase the darkness within us. Therefore, he was very careful about what he ate and established a strict dietary regime for his followers. The light of the soul could be increased through virtuous acts, while eating plants increased the light of the body. Consumption of animals was not beneficial as they only contained small amounts of light.
¶ “Darkness Does Not Exist Without Light”
I asked Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace), “Mani (PBUH) had written that the juice of fruits was water or matter mixed with light, and that water alone was only matter. I have found some Alawite narrations in which they call wine ‘Abdul-Noor’ . And wine is from fruits. Is it true that it contains light?”
Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) replied, “Yes son, it is correct.”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) further added that all things must contain some light in it in order to exist and said, “Darkness does not exist without light.”
Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) said,
Everything around you emits a certain amount of energy. Some of it is negative and some of it is positive, but in general the negative won’t affect you unless you are constantly exposed to it. My son, for example, the crow and its nest, the crow carries a certain kind of energy and it secretes a bit of this energy from its body without it being aware of it. The crow does not benefit from these secretions or energy but human beings do benefit from it. Owls are the same, this energy concentrates in the nest of the bird and remains settled in the nest itself. Through touching the nest in a certain way or by keeping the nest the human being can take some of that energy, thus allowing certain parts of the mind or the edges of the soul to be released from its prison for a few minutes or perhaps a few seconds. During that time the person might be able to see some creatures or worlds other than this one and then once the energy would run out, everything would return to normal. My son, I will tell you something which no one knows except for the Prophets and righteous ones and whoever God willed that they know. Marijuana, heroin, hops, as well as other plants are thought by people to be intoxicants and they do not know the reality of these plants. These plants carry great amounts of energy, some of them carry negative energy, others carry positive energy that can carry a human being to other worlds that are superimposed with ours. People will look at a person who was under the influence of these plants as being intoxicated or that he is unconscious or unaware, while in reality, he traveled to another world. The people around him think he is drugged up or drunk, but in reality, it is not the case. And when a person dies from an overdose it is because he actually traveled so far out to distant worlds that he cannot return from.
So here Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) further clarifies that the light or energy within certain plants or substances can transport our mind and soul to other realms. It is therefore no surprise that a human being consuming light from certain plants or substances can also transport their minds and souls from one reality to another. It is also the energy or light in these different plants and substances that has the ability to cure or cause benefit to a human being. We are not encouraging people to use any of the aforementioned plants or substances, but rather we are talking about it from our religion’s perspective. We are saying that while people believe them to be intoxicants, they are not, but rather the altered states of consciousness which the plants and substances produce allow the person to travel into other dimensions and realities. A person is not required to consume them as part of our religion, nor is he forbidden by God from doing so. But Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) did emphasize that taking them is dangerous and potentially lethal as it can result in the soul not being able to return to the body, after leaving to another plane of existence. It is also true that a person under the effect of these substances and plants can attain higher understandings if done in a proper way. We encourage all those who read this Book and know these truths to act responsibly.
And although we are not promoting anarchy or the breaking of laws, we must say that the so-called criminals of society will have a very important role to play in the religion of Imam Mahdi (PBUH & His Family).
One day I was talking to Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) and I said to him, “As such are my people, many are former drug addicts, people that have done strange and bad things…”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “All of them are welcome, and I did not come for those who grow their beards long and prostrate at length and pray all night and fast all day and make tasbeeh [glorify God]. I came for the drunkards and fornicators and for the killers and criminals. It is through them that I shall raise the religion.”
And all praises due to Allah Lord of the Worlds.
“The disbelieving chiefs of his people said, ‘We see you only as a human being like ourselves, and we see that no one follows you except the lowliest among us, who do so ˹hastily˺ without thinking. We do not see anything that makes ˹all of˺ you any better than us. In fact, we think you are liars.’ ”
¶ Sources
- Gnosticism in Islam, Heinz Halm, pp. 111-112
- Bihar Al-Anwar, Al-Allamah Majlisi, Vol. 78, p. 194
- Abdul-Noor in Arabic translates to ‘Servant of Light’.
- From Bashar Al-Shairi who said: “I asked my Master Al-Sadiq (From Him is Peace): ‘Is wine permissible or impermissible?’ So he said: ‘O Bashar, as for wine, it is a light from our lights, so drink from our lights and eat from our fruits, and speak about our news, it is permissible for you amongst yourselves but impermissible for you amongst others.’ I said: ‘O my Master, clarify it for me so that I may hear it from you and not from anyone else.’ Imam Al-Sadiq (From Him is Peace) said: ‘O Bashar, as for wine, it is a light from our lights, if you see a man drinking wine and his face brightens and his color shines and his angels calm down and there appears from him compassion and love and prayer for his brothers and speaking goodness and thankfulness for his Master, and he glorifies (Tasbih) and magnifies (Tahlil), then light would have met with light, because wine is light. And the light of that man is light, so be friends with him and seek him, for in him is some knowledge.’ ”
[NOTE: The Imam (From Him is Peace) is clearly not advocating getting intoxicated, inebriated, or promoting gatherings of debauchery. He is talking about controlled and disciplined gatherings with fellow believers engaged in a state of love, remembering God, and sharing divine knowledge and wisdom that will fill you up with more light. We see the centrality of wine usage in previous Covenants. For example, the use of wine as part of the Sabbath dinner, and the consecration of bread and wine in the Eucharist. There is also mention of ‘heavenly wine’ in the Qur’an. The prohibition of debauchery and drunkenness under the Mohammedan Covenant was discussed in Door Number Seven of this Book.] - The Holy Qur’an, Chapter 11 (Hud), Verse 27