¶ Door Number Twenty-Three
¶ The Reality of Memories
¶ “Memory is the scribe of the soul.”
We are all born into this world without memories of who we were in previous incarnations, but it is possible to retrieve those memories. Many people do in fact retrieve memories from past lives, and there are many incidents that have been recorded of children who would remember past lives in a dream or after seeing a particular object or photograph, or incidents of people spontaneously regaining memories of past lives. Where are memories from past lives stored? And how do we access them? What is the benefit of accessing these memories? When did Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) remember his past lives? These are the questions that I discussed with my Father Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace). One day, I was talking with the Imam (From Him is Peace) about some older pictures of him from when he was in university.
Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) said, “You know my son, in those days I never thought my profession would have anything to do with religion. In fact, at that time, I didn’t even know there was such a thing as the Mahdis, I only knew that there was Imam Mahdi (PBUH & His Family) like the rest of the people.”
I said, “You didn’t remember who you were? You didn’t know you were a Mahdi?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “It never even crossed my mind once that I was a Mahdi.”
I said, “Me too, it never crossed my mind ever that I was a Mahdi. It was actually one of the hardest things to accept on my whole path with you.”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “It was only when your Grandfather (Imam Mahdi) reminded me of myself did I remember.”
I said, “If we reincarnate into new bodies with new brains, where is the memory of previous lives stored?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Memories are stored in the soul. After every life they are compressed, like you would compress a file on your computer, and you would have to unzip it to restore the memories in a new life.”
I said, “So what does the brain have to do with memories? Sometimes when people damage their brains, do they lose their memories?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “The brain is like a fax machine which receives and interprets memories from the soul.”
¶ Accessing Memories Through Objects
Remembering memories from a past life is just like remembering a memory from your current life. Scientific research on reincarnation shows how memories of past lives can be independently verified with tremendous detail. For example, Dr. Jim Tucker shows how children’s recollection of past lives could not have been acquired through experience and proves beyond any doubt that these children have memories of previous lives. Sometimes one forgets about something which took place years ago and when they see an object or sense a smell, the scent causes their brain to be flooded with memories of that event. One small thing can trigger buried memories to resurface.
True memories for the one who remembers are vivid, clear, and lucid. It is like recalling traumatic events like a heart attack, a stroke, or the death of a loved one. A person who remembers does not doubt the memory. Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) gave me something to help me remember vividly who I was.
One day the Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “I have something which I will give you and when I give it to you, keep it.”
I said, “What is it?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “It is a gift from me, your Father.”
I said, “Glory be to God.”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “It is something old that used to belong to you.”
I said, “God is Great! What is it, my Father? Please tell me.”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “I want you when you see it to be honest with yourself and tell me if you remember it.”
I said, “Yes, I will for sure do that, God-willing.”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “And if you remember it my son, know that you shall begin to remember everything and if you remember it, it shall open doors to knowledge that you used to know very well in the past. And if this knowledge becomes known to you and you work by it, the Companion of Egypt shall start emerging to the world even if it shall be against the will of everyone, and the far and the near shall hear your name and the people shall start to come around you, and you shall have a fan base that shall not be taken lightly, God-willing.”
I asked the Imam (From Him is Peace), “Is it something that I wrote when I was Joseph?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “I shall not tell you until you see it with your own eyes.”
¶ Déjà Vu: Memories Trying to Resurface
I said, “My Father, when I see someone in a true dream, are we actually sharing the same dream? Is the other person whom I saw having the same dream?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Yes, but one remembers and the other doesn’t.”
I said, “Glory be to God, the High, the Great, Glory be to God, the High, the Great, Glory be to God, the High, the Great.”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “And perhaps both of them would remember the dream, but neither of them mention the dream to the other. And if they do tell each other the dream, they would actually be completely convinced that it actually happened in real life [and that it wasn’t a dream] and life would go on as if it were an event in real life. I will give you a small example. Did it ever happen that you and your friend or one of your relatives or any person with you went to a place or to a mall, for example, and you had never been to that place or mall before and yet you say: ‘We are sure that there was such and such store here.’ ”
I said, “Or we feel that we did the same thing before, the feeling of Déjà vu.”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Yes, that means that it took place in a dream and sometimes it would have taken place in your previous life.”
I said, “Glory be to God.”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “You have reached what was intended. This thing that you feel you have done before, but are unable to concentrate on what it was (Déjà vu), there must come a day when you’ll remember everything.”
I said, “Glory be to God.”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Then at that time you shall strike this world with your foot and see it as a dead corpse and see how insignificant it is and you shall not care about it for the remainder of your life.”
I said, “I ask God that the day where I remember is close.”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “God-willing. You will say, is this the world that everyone is running after? What a heartbreak, the life that I wasted chasing after it and making my Lord, the Lord of the Worlds, angry in it.”
¶ Some Questions on Remembering
I shall list here in this section a series of questions that I received from believers as well as answers from Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) concerning the topic of memories and remembering.
I said to Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace), “Someone asked me to ask you a question, why do we not remember the Atom World and the Covenant taken upon us? Are we able to remember it?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) replied, “You can remember it quite easily, whenever you will and whenever you get close to God and make all your works for God and eliminate your existence and believe that there is no power nor might except by God.”
I said, “Someone is asking whether all the Mahdis remember their reality, and are the Mahdis the same as the Chieftains (Nuqaba’) or are they other than them?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “The Mahdis are not the Nuqaba’ and there are two Mahdis only who remember who they are.”
I had also raised to the Imam (From Him is Peace) many questions from people who claimed to have remembered incarnations as Prophets or Messengers or remembering lives of theirs from certain time periods, almost always from the time periods of Buddha, Jesus and Mohammed (PBUT). The Imam (From Him is Peace) almost always denied those memories and labeled them as wishful thinking and imaginations based on love for those characters rather than actual memories. We must be able to distinguish between what is a true memory and what is a wish. A memory from a past life must be dealt with exactly as a memory from this life. When you remember a matter that happened to you many years ago or last week or yesterday, some details may be foggy, but you have no doubt that it happened. The same applies here. Memories of previous incarnations leave the person without a doubt that he remembered what he remembered. Here is one example:
I said to the Imam (From Him is Peace), “My Father, today someone asked me a question, he said that they had a memory that left him feeling that he was the Prophet of God Talut. He was ashamed to ask the question.”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “No, this is untrue.”
¶ A Conversation With Michael (PBUH) On Memory
One of the peaks that a person can reach during their journey of spiritual development is a station called The Cave. The Cave is a reference to a Chapter (Surah) called the Cave in the Holy Qur’an. It tells the story of the Seven Sleepers. They were youth who abandoned society and their families, and left every material thing behind to take refuge in the Cave. There they found safety, security, and peace with God, away from the disbelievers. Many narrations from the Holy Household (Ahlul-Bayt) make a connection between Surah Al-Kahf and Imam Mahdi (PBUH & His Family) or the Seven Sleepers and the companions of the Imam (From Him is Peace). The Cave is an allegory for the Imam. Whoever reaches the Cave, reaches a station so close to the Imam that they essentially have reached an opening with the Imam (From Him is Peace) to where he communicates with them, grants them a certain level of infallibility, full memory, and other spiritual gifts. To enter into the Cave is to become one with the Imam by dissolving one’s self, ego, will, and existence. Essentially, it is like the Night Journey (Al-Isra and Al-Mi’raj) that Prophet Mohammed (PBUH & His Family) took, in which he dissolved his ego uniting with God.
One day I was speaking to Aba Michael (PBUH), who is one of the twelve who first entered into the Cave, and I said, “Someone asked me to ask you a question, when you entered into the Cave, did you remember the Atom World?”
Aba Michael (PBUH) replied, “Yes, you remember everything, and you hate looking at the world. When my Master wipes on your head, you shall remember all things.”
I said, “When memories come back to you from your incarnations, do you remember everything from your past life?”
Aba Michael (PBUH) said, “No, not everything.”
I said, “So you remember only some things?”
Aba Michael (PBUH) said, “When I get closer to God, I will be able to remember (more) by (using the key): there is no power nor might except by God.”
I said, “In your incarnation as Abel, do you remember Adam (PBUH) and Cain? And the Prince of the Believers (PBUH)?”
Aba Michael (PBUH) said, “Yes, and I remember the place that I used to live in and sometimes I forget as well.”
¶ Memories of the Imam (From Him Is Peace)
One day I asked Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) about some narrations, “There is a hadith from Prophet Mohammed (PBUH & His Family) that says: ‘And a king named ‘Ham Hawl Amsi’ (The meaning of his name is Al-Hassan) ruled, but he betrayed the Jews and spoke to them with earnestness and goodness, he was cautious about a war and he endorsed a war, and he appeased the East and the West, and his guards were the ones who assassinated him, and they were evil and they were merchants.’ And then there is the following narration about the Arab rulers; from Imam Al-Sadiq (From Him is Peace): ‘Whoever guarantees for me the death of Abdullah, I guarantee for him the Riser.’ And also: ‘The Mahdi does not rise except after greed, trials and tribulations that are as dark as the night. The night of the family of ‘HASIB’ becomes dark until there comes no morning upon them, and the family of ‘DOSAA’ differ among themselves, so their kingship falls like the falling of pottery from the hands of an absent-minded, distracted person, so it vanishes suddenly from them, and their matter becomes dispersed, so there is no ‘Saud’ for them when the ‘Ankis’ enter, and the Knight of Al-Sufyan emerges with lies, and the banner of the Yamani rises fast behind him soon, and it is a banner of guidance because it calls to the truth and to the straight path. And the keys of Egypt go to the hands of the Mighty Warrior, he paves the way for the Mahdi with many voices from the sky of Egypt, he reclaims Jerusalem, and there shall be great disagreements in all the Earth, and blood spilled in the land of God all over, and the people of the East and the West differ amongst themselves, yes and the people of the qibla, and people will be in great distraught from the fear that befalls them, so they remain upon this condition until a Caller calls out from the sky, so when he calls, the people march, by God it is as if I’m looking at him between the Rukn and Maqam, people pledging allegiance to him upon a new matter and a new rule and a new judgment and a new sunnah that is difficult upon the Arabs. Verily, no banner of his will be rejected until he meets God.’ The family of ‘DOSAA’: They are the House of Saud ruling over Hijaz, when the letters ‘DOSAA’ are put together in the right order [in Arabic]. The family of Sabah is the family of ‘HASIB’. And the following is from the Prince of the Believers (From Him is Peace): ‘And from them shall be the imams of misguidance and the callers to hellfire. Kings and princes shall follow in their footsteps. They were made into rulers by them, [ruling] upon the necks [of people], so they devoured the world through them. If I willed, I would name them by their names, and the family of so and so, and the family of Nun, and the family of Oud, and the Mutabarik, and the Muta’arif, and the Mutayamin and the Mutamassir, and the one who strikes with words (Al-Qathif) and the one who shocks with fire (Al-Saddim) and the one who causes discord (Al-Fatin). And from them is the king and the chief and the amir (prince) and the head and the governor and the leader.’
The Striker (Al-Qathif) is Gaddafi.
The one who causes shocks (Al-Saddim) is Saddam.
The family of Nun is the family of Nahyan [House of Nahyan].
The Mutamassir is who?
The Mutayamin [from Yemen] is Ali Abdallah Saleh.
And who is the family of Oud?
The Mutabarik is Hosni Mubarak
And the Muta’arif?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Yes.” Then he went silent for a few minutes and then he said, “There is no God but God.”
I said, “What is there?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “You reminded me of something that I did not like.”
I said, “What is it, may my soul be your ransom?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “May God protect you, O light of my eyes. In one of my incarnations, someone asked me about this same thing which you asked me.”
I said, “Glory be to God, and what did you answer them with?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “When I answered him, he mocked me and so I left him and turned my back to him and so he hit me with a rock on my head and made me fall on my face to the ground.”
I said, “There is no power nor might except by God! He struck you with a rock?! Who is this cursed one?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “He is the Qathif (the Striker).”
I said, “Gaddafi?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Yes.”
I asked the Imam (From Him is Peace), “He was with you in an incarnation? God is Great!”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Yes.”
I said, “So you told him that the character in the narration ‘Al-Qathif’ was him, God curse him, and he mocked you?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Yes.”
I said, “Glory be to God, who was he in that day, Father?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Al-Ashaaf ibn Ishaq Abu Yazdri.”
This was the reason why Muammar Gaddafi was killed by a bullet in the head. It was Karma for striking the Seventh Imam Musa Al-Kathim (From Him is Peace), which is one of the incarnations of Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace), with a rock in the head. Although Abu Yazdri (God’s curse is upon him) did not kill Imam Musa Al-Kathim (From Him is Peace), the Karma and punishment for hurting an Imam from the Holy Household, a Prophet or Messenger, or a believer is much more severe. Hence the hadith:
“Fatimah is from me, whoever harms her has harmed me, and whoever harms me has harmed God, and whoever harms God upon him is the curse of God, a curse which fills the heavens and the earth.”
On another occasion the Imam (From Him is Peace) pointed to the picture of me as a child and said, “In this picture of you as a child, there is nothing missing except for the green clothing and you would be Abdullah the Infant” (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Abdullah “The Infant”
I said, “Glory be to God.”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “If you want to see the face of the infant then look upon your picture.”
I said, “You were thirsty on that day for water, and I was crying, and you carried me, and you were with me on that day. I shall now not leave you on this day and I shall carry you above the entire world, God-willing.”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “God is Great! When I carried you and walked with you towards the people to ask for water for you, I tripped and stumbled twice.”
I said, “Glory be to God. What was the reason for that?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “It was a sign that you were going to die.”
I said, “Glory be to God. May the curses of God be upon Harmala and the nation.”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “God’s curse is upon them, Joseph, my son. May God protect you, my son, and grant you the best of rewards.”
I said to him (From Him is Peace), “Perhaps on that day I bothered you with my weeping and today, I am now bothering you perhaps with my weeping. I apologize for that.”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Never apologize. I knew that you were going to say that to me one day. You had to say it to me. May God protect you, my beloved.”
¶ Beginning to Remember: The Crucifixion
My journey began with me not knowing anything about myself. I had no memories of my past lives. However, I did have many dreams that turned out to be memories of past lives, and I shall share those in the Door on Dreams. It took Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) to awaken me initially from my slumber and remind me of who I was. The same happened with him (From Him is Peace). He also was unaware of who he was. He did not have access to his memories until his Father, the Twelfth Imam, Imam Mohammed ibn Al-Hassan, Al-Mahdi (PBUH & His Family), awakened him. Memories can be accessed through dreams, meditative states, through looking at objects, hearing familiar sounds, or smelling a particular scent, or they can just happen spontaneously.
One day I asked my Father (From Him is Peace), “When will I remember?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) responded, “Perhaps you just wake up one morning and remember everything. Patience is the key.”
Indeed, I was patient. Suddenly one day, a memory flashed before me. It was my first memory that clearly came back to me. It came in the form of one scene. It is as if one is looking back at a highlight reel of their life. When a person remembers an incarnation, they will remember vivid segments of that life, not every detail. I saw myself dead, laying in the arms of Mary, the Mother of Jesus (PBUH), who in this day and age is Norhan, my wife. I was in the spirit, and I saw her holding the body of Christ which I had just left, and she was holding it, weeping. I could see the cross. I could smell the air. I could feel the rain. I could see the Roman soldiers. I could see everything as clearly as I see waking life. I felt a rush of emotions and I felt as if I was in that moment. I told my Father about it.
I said, “I had my first memory, Father. I saw the Crucifixion scene. I saw myself, I saw Norhan carrying me. I saw the cross.”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) responded, “It was painful, wasn’t it, my son?”
I said, “Extremely.”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) responded, “That is why we forget.”
I said, “I can only imagine now what you felt when you described remembering Karbala, how do you live with all these emotions? Will I remember Karbala?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) responded, “That is one incarnation that you might not remember as you were so young.”
After that, I went through intense experiences with my Father, some of which I will cover over the course of the remainder of the Book. These experiences and keys led me to remember my other incarnations, specialized knowledge, and many other things. It took me several years to remember, and as such the process of remembering is different with each person. Some people have taken years to remember, others remembered from the very first day. Remembering is a continuous process. It seems like every day we are recalling memories. Like Imam Ali (From Him is Peace) said:
“Knowledge is not in the sky in order to come down to you, nor is it in the earth that it rises out of it to you, but knowledge is within you.”
As Plato (PBUH) recounts the words of Socrates (PBUH) in the Meno dialogue:
“We do not learn, and what we call learning is only a process of recollection.”
¶ Sources
- Return to Life: Extraordinary Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives (2013), Jim Tucker, M.D.
- Before: Children's Memories of Previous Lives (2021), Jim Tucker, M.D.
- Déjà vu - a feeling that one has seen or heard something before (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).
- This dialogue took place in 2015.
- The Holy Qur’an, Chapter 18 (Al-Kahf)
- The Holy Qur’an, Chapter 17 (Al-Isra), Verse 1
- Al-Mahdi Al-Monthathar ‘ala Al-Abwab (The awaited Mahdi is approaching), Dr. Muhammad Isa Dawud, p. 122
- Asr-Al-Zuhur (Age of Appearance), Al-Shaikh Ali Al-Korani, p. 261
- Al-Mufaja’a (The Surprise), Dr. Muḥammad Isa Dawud, p. 247
- What Imam Ali said concerning the End Times, Al-Sayed Ali Ashoor, p. 241
- Bihar Al-Anwar, Al-Allamah Al-Majlisi, Vol. 43, p. 54
- This is the picture of Abdullah Hashem, Aba Al-Sadiq (From Him is Peace) which the Imam (From Him is Peace) is speaking about. The Imam (From Him is Peace) is stating that he looked exactly as he did on the 10th of Muharram 61 AH (680 CE) during the Battle of Karbala. This is Abdullah the “Infant” also known as Ali Asghar, the youngest martyr on the day of Ashura.
- Mausuat Al-Aqaed Al-Islamiah (Encyclopedia of Islamic Beliefs), Mohammed Al-Reyshahri, Vol. 2, p. 22
- The Collected Dialogues of Plato, edited by Edith Hamilton, Huntington Cairns, p. 364