Fourth Principle
What are the fruits and benefits of the Ascension?
The Answer: By way of example, we shall mention only five of the more than five hundred fruits of the Ascension, for it signifies the tree of tuba.
First Fruit
The Ascension brought to the universe and humankind a treasury, a pre‑eternal light and post-eternal gift, which is to see with one’s very eyes the truths of the pillars of belief and to behold the angels, Paradise, the hereafter, and even the All-Glorious One. It raised the universe from an imaginary state of wretchedness, transitoriness, and disorder, and, through this fruit and light showed the universe’s reality, which is its consisting of sacred missives of the Eternally Besought One and being a beautiful mirror to the beauty of the Single and Unique One. It made happy and pleased the universe and all conscious beings.
Furthermore, through this light and sacred fruit, the Ascension showed that man is not merely bewildered, wretched, impotent, impoverished, with endless needs and innumerable enemies, ephemeral and impermanent, for that is the state of misguidance; it showed man in his true form: his being a miracle of the Eternally Besought One’s power on ‘the most excellent of patterns,’ a comprehensive copy of the Eternally Besought One’s missives, an addressee of the Monarch of Pre‑Eternity and Post-Eternity, His special bondsman, an admirer and friend of His perfections, a lover bewildered at His beauty, and a beloved guest appointed to His eternal Paradise. It filled all human beings who are true human beings with infinite joy and infinite longing.
Second Fruit
The Ascension brought to jinn and humankind as a gift the fundamentals of Islam, and first and foremost the prescribed prayers, which constitute those things pleasing to the Sustainer, the Ruler of Pre‑Eternity and Post-Eternity, the Maker of beings, Owner of the universe, and Sustainer of all the worlds. To discover the things that please Him brings such happiness it cannot be described. For how eager is everyone to discover, from a distance, the desires of a powerful benefactor or generous king, and if they find out, how delighted they are. They say longingly: “If only there were some means by which I could communicate with that personage directly. If only I could learn what he wants of me. If only I knew what would please him that I could do.”
You should understand then just how necessary it is to be desirous and eager to discover the Ruler of Pre‑Eternity and Post-Eternity’s wishes and pleasure. For all beings are in the grasp of His power, and the beauty and perfections found in beings are but pale shadows in relation to His beauty and perfection, while man, being needy for Him every instant in innumerable ways, constantly receives countless numbers of His bounties.
Thus, as a direct fruit of the Ascension, Muhammad (UWBP) heard with absolute certainty from behind seventy thousand veils what it is that pleases the Monarch of Pre‑Eternity and Post-Eternity, and returning, brought it as a gift to humankind.
Indeed, how curious are human beings to learn the conditions on the moon. If someone were to go there and return bringing news of it, what self‑sacrifice he would display, and, if he were to understand the conditions there, how he would be overcome by wonder and curiosity. But the moon is merely touring in the domain of a Lord of such dominion that it encircles the globe of the earth like a fly, and the globe flies round the sun like a moth, while the sun is one lamp among thousands and is just a candle in a guesthouse of that Glorious Lord of All Dominion.
Thus, Muhammad (UWBP) saw the works and wonders of art and treasuries of mercy in the everlasting realm of the All‑Glorious One, and he returned and informed humankind. And so, if humankind does not listen to him with complete wonder, curiosity, and love, you can understand how contrary to reason and wisdom is their attitude.
Third Fruit
Muhammad (UWBP) saw the treasury of eternal happiness, obtained the key, and brought it as a gift to jinn and men. Yes, through the Ascension, he saw Paradise with his own eyes and witnessed the eternal manifestations of the All‑Glorious and Merciful One’s mercy; he understood eternal happiness with absolute and utter certainty and brought as a gift to jinn and men the good news of its existence. If wretched jinn and men imagine themselves and all beings to be in a soul-searing situation in an unstable world amid the upheavals of decease and separation being poured with the flood of time and motion of particles into the oceans of non-existence and eternal separation, just how precious and enheartening is such good news in the ears of ephemeral jinn and men, who thus supposed themselves to be condemned to eternal annihilation. If, at the moment he is to be executed and sent to non-existence, a man is pardoned and given a palace in proximity to the king, what great joy this would cause him. So, gather up all such joy and happiness to the number of jinn and men and then evaluate this good news.
Fourth Fruit
Just as Muhammad (UWBP) himself sampled the fruit of the vision of divine beauty, so did he bring to jinn and men the gift of this fruit’s being attainable by all believers. You may understand from the following how delightful, pleasing, and exquisite a fruit this is. Everyone of fine perception loves a person who possesses beauty and perfection and is benevolent, and their love increases proportionately to their degrees; it reaches the degree of worship and a pitch whereat they would sacrifice their very lives. On seeing such a person only once, their love becomes such they would sacrifice his own world. However, in relation to the beauty, perfection, and benevolence of Allah the Most High, the beauty, perfection and benevolence of all beings are not the equivalent of even a few tiny sparks in relation to the sun.
That is to say, if you are a true human being, you may understand how delightful and fine a fruit it is and what happiness and joy it brings to receive in eternal happiness the vision of the All‑Glorious One of Perfection, Who is worthy of boundless love, infinite longing, and being gazed upon eternally.
Fifth Fruit
The fact that man is the precious fruit of the universe and the petted beloved of the universe’s Maker was understood through the Ascension, and Muhammad (UWBP) brought this fruit to jinn and men. This fruit raises man, an insignificant creature, a weak animal, an impotent conscious being, to an elevated rank of pride above all the beings in the universe. It gives man indescribable pleasure and joyful happiness. For if it is said to an ordinary private: “You have been promoted to the rank of field marshal,” how delighted he will be.
But wretched man is an ephemeral, impotent rational animal who constantly suffers the blows of decease and separation. If then he is told that he will make excursions and tours with the speed of imagination and breadth of the spirit in an eternal never‑ending Paradise within the mercy of One Compassionate, Generous, and Merciful, and journey in the mind in accordance with all the desires of his heart in both the outer dimensions of things and those dimensions that look directly to their Creator, and moreover that he will behold the vision of divine beauty in eternal happiness, you can imagine what a profound joy and true happiness a human being who has not fallen from the level of humanity will feel in his heart.
Now we say to our listener: Tear off the shirt of atheism and throw it away! Listen with believing ears! Look with Muslim eyes! We shall show you through two short comparisons the great value of one or two more fruits.
For Example: You and I are together in a country. We see that everything is hostile to us and to each other, and is strange to us. Everywhere is full of ghastly corpses. The sounds that are heard are the weeping of orphans and the lamentations of the oppressed. So if, when in that situation someone were to go and then reappear bringing good news from the country’s king due to which those strange subjects of his assume the form of friends and the enemies turn into brothers, and the ghastly corpses are seen to be worshipping, praising, and glorifying in deep humility and submission; and if the piteous weeping becomes praise and exaltation and cries of “Long live the king!”, and the deaths, plunder and pillage are transformed into demobilizations and a release from duty; and if we join the general joy to our own joy, you will certainly understand how joyful and happy that news is.
Thus, when the beings in the universe are considered with the eye of misguidance, as they were before the light of belief, which is one fruit of Muhammad’s (UWBP) Ascension, they are seen to be strange, menacing, troublesome, dreadful, terrifying corpses the size of mountains, while the appointed hour is severing heads and casting people into the pit of eternal, never‑ending nothingness. Where misguidance portrays all the voices as lamentations occasioned by separation and decease, the truths of the pillars of belief, which are fruits of the Ascension, show you that just as beings are brothers and friends to you and praisers and glorifiers of the All-Glorious Maker, so are death and decease a demobilization and discharge from duties; in reality the voices are all glorifications of Allah the Most High. If you wish to study this truth in its entirety, you may refer to the Second and Eighth Words.
The Second Comparison: You and I are in a place resembling a vast desert. A sandstorm rages in the sea of sand and the night is so black we cannot see even our hands. If suddenly, when we are without friend or protector, are hungry and thirsty, despairing and giving up hope, a person were to pass through the curtain of blackness and approach us bringing a car as a gift; and if he were to seat us in it, and then instantly install us in a place like Paradise where our future was secure, food and drink ready prepared, and where we had a most kindly and sympathetic protector, you can understand how pleased we would be.
Thus, the great desert is the face of this world. The sea of sand consists of beings and wretched man, who are tossed around within events by the force of the flood of time and the motion of particles. All human beings look to the future with the eye of misguidance, enveloped in terrifying darkness, and their hearts are harrowed with anxiety. They know no one they can make hear their cries for help. They are infinitely hungry, infinitely thirsty.
However, when this world is seen in terms of things pleasing to Allah the Most High, which is a fruit of the Ascension; that is, it is seen to be the guesthouse of an exceedingly generous Being, and human beings are seen to be His guests and officials, and the future to be as delightful as Paradise, as sweet as mercy and as shining as eternal happiness – when it is seen thus, you will understand what a delightful, exquisitely sweet fruit this is.
At this point, the one who is listening says: “Never‑ending praise and thanks be to Allah the Most High, for I have been saved from atheism and now affirm divine unity. I have attained a complete belief, I have gained perfect belief.”
And we say: “Brother! We congratulate you. May Allah the Most High allow us the intercession of His Most Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace). AMEN.”
Allah! Grant blessings to him at whose sign the moon split, and from whose fingers water flowed forth like the spring of Kawthar, the one who made the Ascension and whose eye did not waver, our master Muhammad, and to all his Family and Companions, from the beginning of the world to the end of the Great Gathering.
Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All‑Knowing, All-Wise!
O our Sustainer! Accept this from us; for, indeed, You are All‑Hearing, All-Knowing! ❋ O our Sustainer! Do not take us to task if we forget or unwittingly do wrong! ❋ O our Sustainer! Let not our hearts swerve from the truth after You have guided us! ❋ O our Sustainer! Perfect our light for us and grant us forgiveness; for, indeed, You are Powerful over all things!
And their call will close with, ‘All praise is due to Allah, the Sustainer of all the worlds.’