Irfani (Gnostic) Tafsir (Exegesis) of Surah Al-Fatiha
By Baha' Walad
Sections from Ma’ārif
ISBN  964-6414-33-8 vol.1


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See Also:
http://www.untiredwithloving.org/tafasir_basmala.html  
http://www.untiredwithloving.org/rumi_tafsir_fatiha.html 
http://www.untiredwithloving.org/qurtubi_1_1.html 
http://www.untiredwithloving.org/ansaari_tafsir_1.html 
http://www.untiredwithloving.org/tafsir_ibn_ataa_1.html 
http://www.untiredwithloving.org/itqan_tongues.html 





Note: The standing phrase “In The Name of Allah The Most Benevolent The Most Merciful” is called Basmala by the Arab for abbreviation.



Section 72

I was reciting the Basmala, I became cognizant that it is all because of Allah’s respect and nobility and because of Allah’s eternal fame and legendary good name that every component of the universe and every dimension of the universe extract their needed provision from the instrumentation of causalities. When Allah calls ITself Rahman or Rahim it means “Do call me by the name of Allah with infinite hoping”. But you all have become ‘hard’ in this life and thus suffering much and completely forgot the antecedent primordial spiritual happenings (that happened to you prior to your biological formation); like unto a broken branch, once a verdant blooming part of a huge ancient tree, now adrift the sea of daily life, every wave throws it from one place to another, each wave harms it and hurts it even more. 

Section 16
1:5 ‘Iyyāka-Na’budu (You we serve) and/while ‘Iyyāka-Nasta’inu (You we seek aid from)
 
There is no conversation between two entities unless they are both present. And when Allah glances at me I fade and disappear (like the evaporation of a drop of water by the incredible radiation of a powerful light source). Unless I say Na’bud (we serve You), I have no presence to say anything! Therefore professing my ‘Ubudiyat (Servitude) for Allah gives me being-ness or existence. Then, given the availability of my presence, I can say ‘Iyyāka (Towards You, For You). Else I could not say a word. (Dara: In the language of the Arab ‘Iyyāka is a vectorial directional way of saying You or By You or For You or Due To You)


Section 53

I was saying: Allah you have opened my eyes given me such skills and abilities to manage the life of this world, please do open my eyes to manage my affairs for the life after, so that I shun away from the life of this world. As you have given me biological eyes to see the beautiful faces of this world, give me spiritual eyes to see the beauty of those in the other universe, and so by seeing these beauties of both worlds let me gravitate to serve You diligently.  From the courtyard of ‘Adam (Non-Being) You spring the fountains of knowledge(s) in both worlds. My Lord! Which springs did you guide your prophets towards, guide me to the same gushing waters to satiate my thirst. And then I recited:

1:2 Al-Hamdu (All Perpetual Praise) Lil-Lāhi (For Allah) Rabbi (The administrator governor) Al-‘Ālamina (The Multiverse i.e. infinitely many universes indicated by the endmost Fat-ha 'a')
O Allah only You can nurture and administrate and govern these worlds, therefore please do nurture and administrate my affairs in the other world.

1:3 Al-Rahmani (The Benevolent Endower of both realms) Al-Rahimi (The Merciful Endower of the spiritual realm)
O Rahman You poured gushing the condensed syrup of love and mercy within this world, brimfill, to the point that my heart cannot let go of it, therefore O Rahim do pour in the syrup of Divine Love and Divine Mercy of the other universe within my bosom so that I will be in love with the other spiritual universe and its habitants.

1:4 Māliki (Owner King) Yaumi (The Day of) Al-Din (Judgment or accounting)
O The King The Auditor The Owner of the Day of Judgment all my yearning is but to serve You.

1:5 ‘Iyyāka-Na’budu (You we serve) and/while ‘Iyyāka-Nasta’inu (You we seek aid from)
I only see Your aid and cooperation to open an opening in my vision to the spirit of the other universe so that I will be in love with you, but as an inevitable lover i.e. uncontrollably in love with You not as a coerced lover who is dragged to realize Your loving.

1:6 Ihdinā (Guide us (towards)) Al (The) Sirat-Al-Mustaqim (The Straight Path)
(Guide towards) The passage towards the place of springs of ‘Adam (Non-Being), that stretches directly towards the other universe.

1:7 Sirāt (Path) Al-Ladhina (Those) ‘An’amta (You Blessed) ‘Alaihim (them, send blessings over them)
The place of springs of the Divine Knowledge of the prophets, where they were guided to drink from, endow me waters from those springs.

Therefore, now dear friends, strive hard, each one of us to break the shackles off each other’s ankles, to be emancipated from this world, we are indeed from the dust of the crust of this earth and we shall return to the same dusty crust. (Dara: Therefore escape time is now, let's help each other escape from this dust once and for all while still alive, for our end is this dust)


Q: Where does this concept of spring or fountain and drinking come from?
A:
Lisanul Arab
Ibn Manzour Afriqi

Shara’a: Arriving upon a place of water and drinking water through the mouth.
Shari’at: Place for lowering or bending down or sloped to drink water. Laith said: By the latter what Allah offered to the servants is rendered as a place for drinking water e.g. prayers and fasting and so on. (Dara: The servants are parched and they need water to continue their spiritual life and thus Allah gave them a place for drinking spiritual waters of Divine Gnosis and that drinking place is called Shari’at)

The Arab would not use the term Shari’at unless the water flows without interruptions and has other words like Kara’a for (intermittent) flows of water e.g. rain.

Dara: Always the word Shari’at is translated as Divine Law, this is incorrect translation. Shari’at is the place the prophet of a nation gave them the waters of Ma’rifa (Divine Gnosis) and Ilm (Divine Knowledge). And this watering place has always a passageway guiding to it, which is the mannerism and tradition of that particular prophet (Sunnah). If you read the above words of Baha’ Walad you see the proper and timely usage of the word of spring which really he refers to Shari’at in the above sense.

لسان العرب  ابن منظور 
شرع
شَرَعَ الوارِدُ يَشْرَعُ شَرْعاً وشُروعاً: تناول الماءَ بفِيه.
وشَرَعَتِ الدوابُّ في الماء تَشْرَعُ شَرْعاً وشُرُوعاً أَي دخلت.
ودوابُّ شُروعٌ وشُرَّعٌ: شَرَعَتْ نحو الماء. والشَّريعةُ والشِّراعُ والمَشْرَعةُ: المواضعُ التي يُنْحَدر إِلى الماء منها، قال الليث: وبها سمي ما شَرَعَ الله للعبادِ شَريعةً من الصوم والصلاةِ والحج والنكاح وغيره.
والشِّرْعةُ والشَّريعةُ في كلام العرب: مَشْرَعةُ الماء وهي مَوْرِدُ الشاربةِ التي يَشْرَعُها الناس فيشربون منها ويَسْتَقُونَ، وربما شَرَّعوها دوابَّهم حتى تَشْرَعها وتشرَب منها، والعرب لا تسميها شَريعةً حتى يكون الماء عِدّاً لا انقطاع له، ويكون ظاهراً مَعِيناً لا يُسْقى بالرِّشاءِ، وإِذا كان من السماء والأَمطار فهو الكَرَعُ، وقد أَكْرَعُوه إِبلهم فكَرَعَتْ فيه وسقَوْها بالكَرْع وهو مذكور في موضعه.




Section 5

Slept a little, and when woke up tried to choose which one of the Tasbih (Sanctifications) to recite in my heart, for I view these as a sun rising above a lofty tower i.e. my soul returns to my (darkling) body. Then I remembered the Basmala, which means my soul diffuses and scatters through my body parts only by the name of Allah to give them life again (after the temporal death of the sleep).

And when I recite the Basmala I observe how she seeks every part of the body made from dust of this earth. Think: how Allah made the sobbing tears to flow through the eyes of the mother who just lost a baby, moaning at the child’s grave. (Dara: Mother, the dead child, the grave and all on this planet are made from the dust of the minerals and how could a bit of dust sob with such vehemence and sorrow? And do so for another life-less patch of dust?  Dusts do not weep, but they can once the Divine Love and Mercy interjected into them! The sobbing sorrowing mother is the epitome of Divine Love, not the artifact of minerals of this earth.)

These are all seeking after Allah while within the mother there is Divine Mercy from Allah (as a gravitational source to attract all seeking). (Dara: Allah seeks after Allah and the sobbing mother, an entanglement, signature of the Divine Seeking of Hu appreciating Hu, Hu loving Hu, Hu viewing Hu's Divine Beauty.)

Basmala gives life to the body parts, and yet the tearing eyes of the mourning mother and the flares of her bosom the eyewitness for the Divine Mercy.

I said: My Lord! How does Allah have ‘Ishq (Unrestrained Love) for these unloving substances? Sometimes nurtures these unloving minerals into living forms, and some other times gravitates them via the pull of the Mahab-bat (Divine Love), while brim-filling them with love, takes their lives!?

And again I said (to reply): Don’t you see the cat, because of Mahab-bat (Divine Love), grabs the kitten clutched firm at her teeth, while filling the kitten with loving? (Dara: Seemingly pulls the kitten as though wanting to eat it, but the purpose is solely and exclusively for loving protection of the kitten and nothing else. Seemingly bitter circumstances and events of the life are the vortex for the injection of the Divine Love within each and every one of us, if you cannot see it in your life see it in the life of the motherly cat. Those who see IT they see IT and those who do not, do not.)

So now be sure that the true Talib (Seeker) and true Rahim (Merciful) are both Allah and know that Allah leaves no one for dead, ever!

And I looked  again and again saw the artifacts of similarities—between what Allah does and what happens here—and yet no servant has ever the courage the audacity to claim any similarities:

42:11. No object like unto IT

لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ



Q: Does Allah mean a deity? What does Allah mean?
A:

Lisanul Arab
Ibn Manzour Afriqi
Allah

Al-ilāhu means deity identified by the identifier Allah, ‘That Which’—The Sublime—is worthy of worship.

لسان العرب

الإلَهُ: الله عز وجل، وكل ما اتخذ من دونه معبوداً إلَهٌ عند متخذه، والجمع آلِهَةٌ. والآلِهَةُ: الأَصنام، سموا بذلك لاعتقادهم أَن العبادة تَحُقُّ لها، وأَسماؤُهم تَتْبَعُ اعتقاداتهم لا ما عليه الشيء في نفسه


The origins of the word Al-ilāhu is from Aliha/Ya’lahu meaning bewilderment when the slave is perplexed by the Divine Attributes and his mental faculties fail him to understand, loathes people’s presence until such limit where he desires nothing and no one within his heart—loves no one but Allah the Singleton deity worthy of love/worship.

وأَصله من أَلِهَ يَأْلَهُ إذا تَحَيَّر، يريد إذا وقع العبد في عظمة الله وجلاله وغير ذلك من صفات الربوبية وصَرَفَ وَهْمَه إليها، أَبْغَضَ الناس حتى لا يميل قلبه إلى أَحد

Some others said the origin of the Al-ilāhu is Wilāhin meaning the creation seek IT/Him for all their needs, and they complain to IT/Him for all that hurts them, linguistically as every child goes to the mother for all needs for all complaints.


وأَصل إلَهٍ وِلاهٌ، فقلبت الواو همزة كما قالوا للوِشاح إشاحٌ وللوِجاحِ وهو السِّتْر إِجاحٌ، ومعنى ولاهٍ أَن الخَلْقَ يَوْلَهُون إليه في حوائجهم، ويَضْرَعُون إليه فيما يصيبهم، ويَفْزَعون إليه في كل ما ينوبهم، كم يَوْلَهُ كل طِفْل إلى أُمه




Section 1

1:5 ‘Iyyāka-Na’budu (You we serve) and/while ‘Iyyāka-Nasta’inu (You we seek aid from)

I said: O Allah let every part of me to reach a happy location, journeying with comfort, and open a thousand gates of beatitude and the true straight path is to reach such happy locality and being off the path means to reach unhappy locations.

While saying that I saw Allah letting the taste of the good ones to reach me and all my parts, immixed all good ones and good things with me and my parts, flowing in every possible form e.g. beauty or perfection or Mahab-bat (Divine Love) or  happiness. And you might say all these goodness came from the Dhat (Divine Essence) of Allah, effusing in all my parts and dimensions. Like unto a person who is garbed by a garment which has varied designs and colors, as such Allah shows thousands of shapes and forms within me.

By sensing and feeling Allah the shapes and forms of all good ones and their love and loved ones, intellectual shapes and forms, the Hur, the castles and the flowing waters and all the other mysterious wonders, I view without an end in sight (like unto a panoramic view). And all these beautiful shapes and forms (projected or rendered) within me. And I see Allah sprouting a thousand meadows and orchards and gardens with yellow jasmine with white jasmine and thus forth makes all my parts into meadows as well.

Dara: Here Baha Walad talks about the Spiritual Nexus of humanity, linked inexorably, by the unbreakable Mahab-bat (Divine Love), those living, those passed long ago, and the unborn. We view the world of the living as the only realm for human connectivity and yet there is an entire continuum wherein we are all connected in non-cognitive pre-linguistic fashion. And if you could make a perfume, an elixir, out of this continuum then you have the Gardens of Eden.

Then Allah took all those verdant meadows, squeezed them turned them into perfumes and from this perfume created the Hur in the Paradise, and immixed my parts with them; and when I looked closely in reality all these are the shapes and forms of fruits that Allah has gardened.

All comforts are from Allah, come from Allah to me.

If I am asked “Can you see Allah” or “Can you not see Allah” I only can respond: by means of my Self I cannot see Allah: Lan-Tarāni (You Cannot See Me [7:143]), but if Allah manifests ITself, what can I do but seeing—(And Allah knows best).

لَنْ تَرَانِي


Q: Where did the perfume making concept came from?
A:

“Allah created the Hur from the Safran” or in another Hadith (Prophetic Narration) created from Musk, other botanical spices and fragrances and or their combinations.

The nature—Divine Verbiage—of the genesis of the Hur is botanical! (Not sexual)


الجامع الصغير. الإصدار 3,22 - لجلال الدين السيوطي
المجلد الثالث >> باب: حرف الخاء
3934 - خلق الله الحور العين من الزعفران
[وفي رواية ذكرها الثعلبي في تفسيره أنهن خلقن من تسبيح الملائكة (كما ورد في الحديث 3855)، وفي رواية أخرى من المسك. وقد يجمع (بين هذه الروايات) بخلق بعض من زعفران وبعض من مسك. وفي شرح البخاري لابن الملقن عن ابن عباس: خلقت الحور من أصابع رجليها إلى ركبتيها من الزعفران، ومن ركبتيها إلى ثدييها من المسك الأذفر (انظر شرح الحديث 3650)، ومن ثدييها إلى عنقها من العنبر الأشهب، ومن عنقها إلى نهاية رأسها من الكافور الأبيض. قال ابن القيم: هن المنشآت في الجنة، لسن مولودات بين الآباء والأمهات، وإذا كانت هذه خلقة الآدمية التي هي أحسن الصور (في الدنيا) ومادتها من تراب (الذي هو تربة هذه الدنيا)، فما الظن بصورة خلقت من مادة زعفران الجنة (التي هي تربتها، كما ورد في الحديث 3650)؟
(وانظر شرح الحديث 3854)]ـ
التخريج (مفصلا): الطبراني في الكبير عن أبي أمامة
تصحيح السيوطي: حسن

Section 4

I was reading Al-Hamdu (All Praise for Allah) as if sitting by Allah, reciting one hundred thousand praises and adorations, invocations and admirations, while sobbing and moaning in unrestrained most flaring loving; as though all these were musical instruments playing them for my beloved no matter where I went.

Every moment Allah pours into and brim-fills the goblet of my eyes, and I drink it when I sob, and whether I look at my parts or another’s beauty, this drink is immixed with existence, as though all my parts bloom (by this drink). Such glances are indeed the true health, and looking at other than Allah’s handicraft only handicapping and miserable slow death; so I wipe off all these imperfections of looking at other than Allah and drink some more (poured into my eyes)…

I was looking at the universe from the outskirts of Allah’s Qahar (Subdual Compulsion) and saw unnumbered heads severed and limbs cut off, and in the opposite direction saw unnumbered many rivers flowing, unnumbered many instruments playing, unnumbered many ghazals versed, unnumbered many servants and dancers with strong consciousness for Allah waiting at every physiological body to serve the bouquets of spirits from the meadows of ‘Uns (Divine Intimacy).

All I saw was all these souls indivisible parts of one entity, all flapping their wings flying off Allah, flying back towards Allah, anxious and restless basking under the effulgence of Allah.

Again I saw the physiological bodies are like unto orchards where Allah waters them, gives them air and much color and wonderful scents, and yet these bodies are nothing but wide-eyed beggars anxiously waiting to see where Allah sends the next comforts. (Allah knows the best)


Section 12

1:6 Ihdinā (Guide us (towards)) Al (The) Sirat-Al-Mustaqim (The Straight Path)

While during the Dhikr (Remembrance) of Allah saying Ihdinā (Guide us (towards)), it requires a presence on the part of Allah i.e. I bemoan and give up all thoughts and imaginations or dogma with regards to Allah and await guidance from Allah to guide me towards ITs Divine Presence (free of how-ness or what-ness or why-ness).


Section 4

1:6 Ihdinā (Guide us (towards)) Al (The) Sirat-Al-Mustaqim (The Straight Path)

The Straight Path is that direction along where Allah shows my soul how to be a servant and to incline my soul towards the mannerisms of the prophets, may Allah be pleased with all of them. And if Allah directs to any which way, in good times and bad times, know that I am to be a guide for the people, only Allah knows this wisdom and the guidance of that wisdom is my happiness (and Allah knows best).


Section 163
1:6 Ihdinā (Guide us (towards)) Al (The) Sirat-Al-Mustaqim (The Straight Path)     

I know nothing! I am perplexed please show me the way, please give me comfort and halt the suffering. For my physicality is the feedbag of sorrows, hanging around my neck, to constantly feed me sorrows (like horses)—sobbing facing the Divine Presence.

Basmala is read when reading Qur’an, Basmala is read when eating i.e. all these pleasurable wines I drink in fond memory of You (Allah). For anyone off the Path, finds himself within endless trials and tribulations.



Section 177

1:6 Ihdinā (Guide us (towards)) Al (The) Sirat-Al-Mustaqim (The Straight Path)

These words tell you to ask Me (Allah) to make Me your guide and do not guide me (the reader) to somewhere else or someone else, for I am only happy with You (Allah).

Someone was boasting about Ishq (Unrestrained Love) and called his beloved to visit him in the night, the beloved came and they met and after their tryst the lover simply fell asleep. The beloved placed three walnuts in this lover’s pocket and left him for good never to return. When the lover woke up and saw the walnuts and his beloved gone forever, understood that he was told: you are still a child and there is no loving possible out of you so instead do play with these walnuts for fun, for Ishq (Unrestrained Love) you will have to ponder an eternity sleepless restless until such time arriving at the beloved. (Allah knows best)

Dara: Al (The) Sirat-Al-Mustaqim (The Straight Path) is the locus of all points on a path towards That Divine Beloved, upon which you love sincerely ceaselessly. Intermittent loving is for children i.e. play with this toy for a few minutes then play with another toy. But if you are on this Sirat-Al-Mustaqim (The Straight Path) then your love is intense, permanent and unwavering.




© 2009-2002,  Dara O. Shayda