Journey of the spirit, Lesson 2, The test on the EARTH, spirit in the body

When was this trust given? وَإِذْ أَخَذَ رَبُّكَ مِن بَنِي آدَمَ مِن ظُهُورِهِمْ ذُرِّيَّتَهُمْ وَأَشْهَدَهُمْ عَلَى أَنفُسِهِمْ أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ قَالُواْ بَلَى شَهِدْنَا أَن تَقُولُواْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ إِنَّا كُنَّا عَنْ هَذَا غَافِلِينَ [7.172] And when your Lord brought forth from the children of Adam, from their backs, their descendants, and made them bear witness against their own souls: Am I not your Lord? They said: Yes! we bear witness. Lest you should say on the day of resurrection: Surely we were heedless of this.

The meaning of return to Allah (SWT) أَوْ تَقُولُواْ إِنَّمَا أَشْرَكَ آبَاؤُنَا مِن قَبْلُ وَكُنَّا ذُرِّيَّةً مِّن بَعْدِهِمْ أَفَتُهْلِكُنَا بِمَا فَعَلَ الْمُبْطِلُونَ [7.173] Or you should say: Only our fathers associated others (with Allah) before, and we were an offspring after them: Wilt Thou then destroy us for what the vain doers did? وَكَذَلِكَ نُفَصِّلُ الآيَاتِ وَلَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ [7.174] And thus do We make clear the communications, and that haply they might return.

When did this happen? Based on some interpretation of the verse (of the testimony before our existence of bodies) mention that this incidence happened some where or in sometime between the creation of AQL or our soul and the creation of our bodies. So if the above is true, then it means that the human being’s first knowledge was about Allah (SWT) being our Lord. And that knowledge is trust in our soul and AQL, and we will be asked about how we handled it on the day of judgment.

Life on earth in the Material Body After the creation of the soul, God created the Human on Earth, and the human intellectual life began on earth by the creation of prophet ADAM (AS), and God taught him the knowledge he needed, and tested him. His knowledge was then taught to his decedent.

The Prophets (AS) were reminders After Adam’s (AS) guidance to his descendents about knowing Allah (SWT) or Ma’rifat, which was Islam in its basic form, people started to get drowned in their desires and started to forget the essence of Islam, and deviate from it. So God sent Prophets (AS) and Imams (AS) or the successors of the Prophets (AS).

Duty of the Infallible (AS) Guide The infallible (AS) (Prophet or Imam) had two main duties: 1-To remind them about Allah (swt), Ma’rifat, which they have forgotten. 2-To teach them how to become close to God, by teaching them the duties and responsibilities which makes them obtain that purpose.

The contamination of the spirit The spirit does not get contaminated, but there are covers and veils to this intellectual being within us, and those covers get contaminated with the pollutants surrounding us, and creates a barrier between the light of the spirit and the brain, the more it becomes contaminated the more it gets darker, until it blinds the person from the light of the spirit. The challenge is to continuously clean the spirit or the covers from such contaminations.

Degrees of contamination The infallibles (AS), due to their high awareness they always keep them selves clean and pure from the contaminations, and so the pious ones who do the same. That is why they are Infallibles (AS) or close to the infallibility. (No Contamination) Mild contamination, like the white cloth which can easily be cleaned once contaminated, or the plant which can easily be treated with the pesticides.

Degrees of contamination: 2.Moderate contamination: where the white cloth requires more detergent and whitener, but still it can be clean, and so the plant which requires more pesticide and strong treatment, i.e. lot of work is required. 3.Severe contamination: in this case the contamination is very strong that nothing will help, the white cloth needs to be discard into the trash and the plant uprooted, that is the case where Allah says that Allah has sealed their hearts (KHATM), and nothing is benficial.

How to check the contamination? The heart is an indicator of the degree of the contamination, so if the contamination is zero, a person will always love to be close to Allah (swt) by doing what ever makes him close to Allah. And if he has contamination he will be sloppy and lazy in doing the things which makes him close to Allah, the more contamination he has, the more he will be sloppy in fulfilling his duties and doing things which makes him close to God. If he is completely contaminated then he will hate what ever makes him close to Allah, and do what ever makes him away from Him.

Salaat is the “Geiger” detector For checking the radioactive contamination, they have the Geiger detector, salaat has dual purpose, it checks the contamination and it cures it also, if a person waits eagerly for the time of salaat, then he is free from any contamination, but he must keep on the good work to keep him self free from any contamination, and the more sloppy a person is towards his salaat, the more contamination he has, and if he does not offer his salaat, then he is completely contaminated (KOFR) as a disbeliever.