"So which of your Lord's blessings do you both then deny?"

Question: "So which of your Lord's blessings do you both then deny?"

(Surah ar-Rahman)

Ibn al-Banna of Saragossa said in his poem:

Do you know why you are? And how would you know?

You have isolated the intellect.

Shaykh Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn 'Ajiba al-Hasani commented in his book the Basic Research pg. 274-278):

'Isolated' here means he has occupied it with position and desires until he is far from the presence of his Lord. This is from him, may Allah have mercy on him, as a warning and an awakening to the forgetful, and a reprimand and punishment for the ignorant. He says to him, 'Do you know who you are, O man, and why you were created, and what is expected of you? You are the pinnacle of existence and in reality the Pole of the time. You are the greatest one who is sought, in all existence. If you reflect on the matter of your self, you will know the greatness of your Lord. You would hurry towards him with your body and your heart. But the intellect refuses to reflect and to consider so you busy yourself with curiosity and deceit. No wonder that yourself is in the house of ruin.' If you reflect on the wonders of your self, you will realise the gnosis of your Lord. Allah, the Exalted said, 'And in yourselves, do you not see?' So reflect upon your first creation, and the building up of your form.

Look, may Allah have mercy on you, at your source, when you were a drop. Allah the Exalted has turned the vein of menstruation into a support for you inside the womb of your mother. And after being a clot you were a lump of flesh, and then Allah, the Glorious and Exalted divided that lump of flesh into bones, flesh, nerves, veins, blood, body, nails, hair, and he gave to everyone of them a wisdom, otherwise the body would turn upside down. The bones are the scaffolding of the body, and He joined the bones with joints and locks of muscle and nerves. It is not just one bone, because that would make man like stone or like a piece of wood, which cannot move or sit or stand or go into ruku' or prostration to his creator, the Living and Self-Subsisting. He, glory be to Allah, gave man a certain number of nerves. If it had been more than that, the movement of the body would not have been proper, and would not be of benefit to man. Then He created within the bones a soft marrow that softens the hardness of the bones. The bones get strength from this softness, otherwise they would weaken, and the structure of the body would fall.

He created, glory be to Him, flesh and put it above the bones and made it even all over the body. The body became as if it were one lump of flesh, so it is even. Then, praise be to Him, He created veins all over the body like rivers to take food to all the body. For every limb of the body there is a certain number of veins, small and large, so that the large and small are served. If the veins were greater or smaller in number than what they are now, or arranged in a different manner, the body would not be there. Then he made blood flow in the veins. If the blood was dry, or just a bit thicker, it would not flow in the veins. If it were thinner then it is, the limbs would not move by it. Then, Glory be to him, he clothed flesh with skin. He protected all the body with it as if it were a container. Otherwise it would be raw outside, and that would bring him destruction.

Then he gave him hair, as a protection for the skin, and beauty in a certain of the parts. And for the places where there is no hair, Allah created clothes. Allah made the place of the roots of the hair in the flesh, and he made these roots soft, not like pin-heads. Had they been like that, it would be impossible. He created eyebrows and eyelids as a protection for the eyes, otherwise dust would destroy them. He also made the eye easy to open and close, according to the desire of the one who sees, and if he wants he closes in order to withhold from seeing when to see would be of harm to a person's Deen or to this world. He made the eyelashes in a line, that one may look from behind them. The he created, Glory be to him, two lips which form the mouth and protect the throat and the mouth from winds and dust. The open easily when needed. They also have perfection of beauty. Then Allah the Exalted created the teeth so that man may cut his food and grind it. He did not give him teeth at the beginning so that he does not hurt his mother when he is still being breast fed. He does not need teeth at that time because Allah the Exalted gives him soft milk from his mother instead of thick food, warm in winter and cool in summer. When he grows up and is ready for other food, Allah the exalted gives him teeth. If food is put in the mouth in one bite, it is very difficult to swallow - it needs a grinding machine to grind it.

He created two jaws from two bones and brings the teeth out of them. He arranged the molars, upper and lower, so that they grind the food. Food sometimes requires breaking and sometimes cutting, and after requires grinding, so he created, Glory be to him, teeth in three categories. Some of them are large like the molars, some of them are sharp and used for cutting, like the front teeth and some may be used for breaking like eye-teeth. Then He, Glory be to him, has constructed the jaws in such a way that they grind with the motio9n of the grinding machine. Were they not like that, it would be impossible to set the teeth on top of other teeth. Also, he made the lower jaw move in a circle, and the upper jaw fixed without motion. Suppose now, that you have put food in your mouth, can it move in your mouth to come under the teeth on top of other teeth, Also, He made the lower jaw move in a circle, and the upper jaw fixed without motion. Suppose now, that you have put food in your mouth , can it move in your mouth to come under the teeth, and how could teeth attract food by themselves, or would it be possible to use the hand inside the mouth? Look at how Allah the Exalted has created for you the tongue. It goes around to the sides of the mouth, it brings back the food to the middle and to the teeth, according to need like a spoon that brings back the grain back to the mill. And this is in addition to its capacity to taste, and the wonder and power of speech. Suppose you have cut the food, and have ground it, and it is dry - you are still not able to swallow it until it is moist and slippery. Allah has given you a spring in the mouth, flowing forever, sweeter than sweeter thing, so the tongue steers the food and mixes it with that water. The food becomes slippery and goes down the throat without any instrument. This is why, if Allah the Exalted removes that spring from the one who is sick, he cannot swallow anything, and if he does, it is only with tremendous pain. One of the wonders of this spring in the mouth is t hat it flows continuously, yet it does not fill the mouth so that a man needs to empty his mouth. It only flows according to benefit. Blessed is Allah, the best of creators.

Since you needed to handle the food, and to put it into your mouth, Allah created for you two hands. He did not create you like those animals which only use their mouth. Allah the Exalted was generous in giving you hands. They reach for things, and they encompass many members, so that they move in all directions. They stretch and fall back to you, and are not like stretched pieces of wood. Then He made the head of the hands wide, and He created the palm of the hand. He divided the head of the palm of the hand into five, and they are the fingers, and He created them on two levels. Were they all gathered, you could not get what you want with them. He made them in such a fashion that if you stretch them out, they are like a fork, and if you cup them, they become a spoon, and if you gather them all they become an instrument for hitting. If you stretch them and then gather them, they become the instrument for grasping. Allah the Exalted also created your nails, and he laid them over the tips of the fingers, to strengthen them because of their movement and so that they are not destroyed, and so that you may pick up fine things with them, and so that you can scratch your body with tem. Also, hair and nail may be allowed to grow long for benefit to some people sometimes - or one may cut them off at other times. He removed pain from the cutting of them. Look at these fine blessings. Are you grateful for them?

Then look at food, how the throat attracts it and swallows it and it moves to the stomach, and how the stomach cooks it with the heat that is in it, and when it is cooked and ready, the heart takes the core of the food that rises to the surface of the stomach. Look at how this food flows into the veins connected to it from your head to your toes. Look at the blessing of your feet, and how you use them to walk where will. You find yourself drowning in blessings. Allah the Exalted said, 'If you count the blessings of Allah, you cannot number them.'

These are the sensory blessings not even the inward blessings, like the blessing of Islam, Iman, knowledge, gnosis, and so on which cannot be limited by the intellect. Qur'an: 'So remember all the gifts of Allah.' (7:74) This is why the worship of reflection is of great worth to Allah the Exalted. You may not arrive at these wonders except by reflection. In the hadith we find, 'The reflection of one hour is better than seventy years worship.' And Ka'ab said, 'Whoever wants the nobility of this world and the next should reflect a lot.' And al-Junayd said, 'The best sitting is sitting in reflection in the fields of Unity.' And in the Hikam it is said, 'Reflection is the sun of the heart, if it goes, the heart has no benefit.' The benefits of reflection are many. Al-Ghazali has spoken amply about it in the Ihya. And Allah the Exalted knows best.

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