Ancient Egyptian Monotheism
In the previous chapter we had outlined from different religious orders from East to West and seekers of truth such as Plato and Gandhi the true aspect of monotheism that permeates these doctrines. Before we delve into the comprehension of monotheism as taught from Ahmed al Hassan from him is peace in his divine revelation for today let us also reflect on the religion of Ancient Egypt which precedes and predates the Abrahamic faiths to realise the universality of the true doctrine.
Although stepped in legend the aspect of truth is overwhelming in Egyptian theism. The Ennead of the gods of Iunu (Ain Shams - Heliopolis) in creation, tells of the story of an eternal God, a creator, who created His own self. Therefore like the God of the Abrahamic faiths, He was not begotten nor did He beget, known as Atum, translated literally as ‘complete’ or ‘perfect’.
Before Atum began the creation process, the universe consisted of eternal waters, ruled by complete darkness, until a bright white primaeval mound emerged from the middle of the ocean, the emergence of light in the midst of the darkness. Upon this mound, which they called ''Ben Ben'' settled the creator God, Atum, He was alone, in the form of a pure-white Phoenix, thus He began creation of the heavens and the earth, and the human beings. This legend bears similarity to the origin of the creation story from the Torah and Genesis.
Another doctrine is that of "Ptah", the eternal creator and lord of "Memphis". In this doctrine, "Ptah" is an eternal creator who manifested all deities and creatures and life by the will in his heart and with the word on his tongue, thus he thought from his heart and spoke with his tongue, and creation emerged. The two elements of creation here are "Hw" corresponding to "the command or word pronounced by the tongue" and "Sia" corresponding to "the will which is in the heart" as inscribed in the "Memphetic doctrine". It says; "Very great is Ptah the bestower of life to all deities, he created with the (will) in the heart and by the tongue as the image of Atom"
This story makes us think about the diverse faiths, such as the opening verse from the book of John by which it states In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1
And from the Quran in Islam "Verily his matter is only that if He wants something He says to it Be and it is." Ya Sin v.82
It is clear how through these stories at the core of monotheism the heart manifests a will or thought which later develops as a word or vibration which leads to creation.
Like in many religions those that came to represent God in creation such as Jesus or Bouddha became virtual secondary deities in the eyes of the common people as we know and were worshipped as such. Yet the reality was they were actually sent as doors to the absolute creator God and as a manifestation of His power. The reality of monotheism from Egypt is indeed the same eternal truth we have been outlining that God is only One, clarified from a papyri in a supplication: "You are the Almighty God, One and only God, Ra-Horakhty. He has no equal/There is nothing like him."
Incredibly, It is nearly a literal translation of Surah Al-Tawhid from the Holy Qur’an:
"Say: He is God, the One. God is the Eternal. He has not begotten and has not been begotten, and there is none equal to Him." Al Ikhlas - Chapter 112
Book of Monotheism inspiration from Ahmed al Hassan peace is from him
Today we have a book written by Ahmed al Hassan pbuh who is the promised and awaited reformer for all religions, the ‘Book of Monotheism’. Within the pages He reveals the universal message of monotheism to a modern generation. Here we will attempt to share some of His revelations so the reader might also reach something of the truth about monotheism. The key question might be what really is at the heart of the eternal message of monotheism? It seems a clear understanding of Chapter 112, or ‘God’s unity’ of the Quran, leads to a broad spectrum awareness. From the outset it is clear God is one and everlasting and was not created nor has He any offspring and therefore no partner with Him. Whilst the next part reveals He is unique and therefore nothing of the creation is comparable to Him. In order for the created beings to seek their own perfection they must face God, but none of them are His direct offspring. His perfection is therefore expressed by names that describe Him, these names are not separated from His magnificence, human beings need such examples to develop their true comprehension of God.
There is none like unto him from the creations and He is eternal and everlasting who is sought in order to fulfil those who seek to attain perfection. Therefore no one gave birth to Him and he does not give birth to anyone.
No one is equivalent to Him or therefore comparable to Him, thus His creations are below Him in every aspect. This is even the case for His holy messengers and family of Muhammad pbut
(...O you who are One/Indivisible without an opposite, O you who are Sole without a rival, O you who are Everlasting without a defect .... O you whom are described without a likeness) - Supplication, Al-Jawshan Al-Kabeer
He is evidently the one we need to turn to as we are in spiritual poverty without God and through Him our needs are fulfilled. In Islam this name is referred to as ‘Allah’ which means the one you need. If we worship the name without the meaning we have disbelieved and not worshipped anything and if we worship both the name and the meaning we fall into association with God and this again is a failing. Thus we must worship only the meaning without the name and this is ‘Tawheed’, unifying God or true monotheism.
If God has 99 names and they were the same as the one who the names were given to then each would be a God. ‘Allah’ or ‘Atum’ is therefore clarified by a meaning the names indicate towards, but the names are all different from him. Just as bread or olives are the name of foods we eat, and water or juice, drinks that we consume.
In clarity we should comprehend the meaning of the verses as much as we possibly can because if we have no real knowledge of God and His divine essence our worship risks being devoid of any meaning. On another level without awareness we risk falling into the trap of following predatory fake scholars who seek to line their pockets with gold for the sake of empty platitudes and their false claim to offer a seat in paradise to their loyal adherents. If we ultimately struggle to make sense of the meaning of these verses, especially the allegorical ones, then in this day and age who would you rather turn to for truthful knowledge, your self appointed leaders of faith or God’s chosen supporter in creation today?
The following verse clearly reveals the oneness, omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence of the absolute creator. There are indeed a multitude of names which indicate towards the absolute and although they do not deny the oneness of God they lead to the risk of association with God.
{He is Allah , other than whom there is no God, Knower of the unseen and the witnessed. He is the Merciful, the Intensely Merciful * He is Allah , other than whom there is no God, the Sovereign, the Holy, the Perfection, the Bestower of Faith, the Overseer, the Exalted in Might, the Compeller, the Superior. Exalted is Allah above whatever they associate with Him * He is Allah, the Creator, the Inventor, the Fashioner; to Him belong the best names. Whatever is in the heavens and earth is glorifying Him. And He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise } [Surah Al-Hashr 59:22-24]
Imam Ali pbuh clarified this aspect and the sublime truth about monotheism in his profound speech: (..The beginning of religion is knowing Him, and the perfection of knowing Him is admission to Him (believing in Him), and the perfection of admission to Him (believing in Him) is unifying Him (Monotheism), and the perfection of unifying Him is the dedication/devotion to Him, and the perfection of the dedication/devotion to Him is denying all of the attributes from Him, in testimony that every attribute/description is different than the One being described.”
So in reality we also realise by turning to God to fulfil our needs this type of worship is not totally pure as we turn to Him in order to fulfil a need when in truth we should move away from the ego or character itself. Once we realise that this is still self-seeking to some degree we must aim to become a pure vessel for God and to desire to fulfil His will alone. Thus in sincerity we should seek to dissolve all the names of God into the divine essence itself and then into the truth and reality as well. In this state of being and submission then none will remain but the unseen, absent observer which is indicated by He or the ‘Howa’ therefore this methodology is moving towards the truth and reality of worship. ‘Howa’ is not an absolute unknown, the pronoun of the absent, despite the mentioned details, indicates towards the absence of the Absent and the proving [His] existence.
Here we are able to go beyond the excesses of our own negative character traits such as anger, frustration, envy, lust, greed and debilitating personal attachments to money, power and fame as we seek to work purely through the will of God. In this tranquil state of divine submission a force pulsates from the inner depth of the human being and this is what true Monotheism and Surah Tawheed, calls us towards. Hence this chapter is recited commonly in most obligatory and supererogatory prayers and thus it becomes a firm reminder indicating the primary goal of the sons and daughters of Adam on earth. In other words the pursuit of the closeness to God, as clearly noted in the following verse , {I have not created the jinn and humans except that they may worship [Me]} [Surah Al-Dhariyat 51:56].
So if we zoom directly into the ‘Unity of God’ chapter itself and peer through the rarefied optical lense of Ahmed al Hassan pbuh, one verse at a time, surely we are bound to reach even more clarity.
Inspiration from Chapter 112 of the Holy Quran 'Unity of God'
{Say, ‘He is Allah, [Whom is] One. Huwa [“He”] is the pronoun for the absent, which refers to the Greater Greater Greater Name or the Reality and the Truth. So, what is meant here is “Say to them if you desire to know His truth and His, the Glorious, the Almighty, reality, thus, He is known by knowing the One Indivisible Essence.” This Essence, representing ability and mercy, is the veil for ‘the Reality and Truth’ and you will not know what is behind the veil, except by penetrating the veil, and you will not penetrate the veil except by knowing. The divine names dissolve within the indivisible Essence of the Oneness of Allah and if you looked within it and through it and considered it the veil of the reality and the truth, then you would realise it is clearly the inability of knowing the Truth and Reality of Allat swt, the all capable and wise. Allah the glorious and all mighty is complete and perfect hence the seeking of perfection by facing His directive and authority. Only Prophet Mohammed pbuh has reached such a level of closeness, as we know from his holy ascension when he oscillated between existence and non existence, and in this rank was described as “the servant/worshipper” {And he revealed to His Servant what he revealed.}{The Holy Qur’an Surat An-Najm (The Star): 10}.
Allah, the Eternal, Absolute: This indicates to the Perfect [One] without any shortcomings or deficiencies, meaning we are able to glorify His Absolute Divinity and clarify its Absolute Perfection. And Consequently, Huwa [“He”] The Glorious, the Almighty, is Whom the creation seek for fulfilment of their shortcomings in the pages of their physical existence and in the Realm of the Kingdom of Heaven and in the Absolute Light in the Seventh Sky or [the sky of] the Intellect/Mind, Ahmed al Hassan pbuh.
This alludes to the abundant shortcomings within the creation, who therefore seek Him and turn to Him, the Glorified, the Exalted, in order that He may pour upon them from His preference. All such attributes or names are only a representation of an aspect of Perfection, which is sought by the creation which is thus poured forth upon the creation. All of the Names such as mercy, subtly, redemption, wisdom, patience and other Attributes are included under this attribute or name, meaning, the Eternal, Absolute. Thus, to prolong the matter we could mention all the names gathered in Du’a Al Jawshan Al Kabir. Imam Al Sadiq (pbuh) said: “It is only upon us that we drop upon you the origin, while upon you is to stem out [from the origin].” So of course for further details we can discover and meditate on all the divine names of God within the sacred books and try to encompass them within our daily lives. As we said in the previous article ‘God in creation’ in order that Howa is better known He sends a manifestation of God in creation to humanity to act as a door to the Absolute such as Buddha, Socrates, Mani or Mohammed pbuh.
It is critical though that we highlight the difference between these doors or pure vessels of light that manifest in creation such as Jesus, Lao Tzu and Moses who deliver the divine message to their people and the absolute one true God. ‘Howa’ is the Eternal, Absolute, and thus ultimately Allah is Light which contains no Darkness within it. And it is thus a description that none of the creation shares with Him and [it is not as] the Hearing and the Seeing and the Creator, for verily, the creation shares descriptions with Him. Therefore, you may say that Muhammad (pbuh & his progeny) is Light, however, within him there is a degree of darkness and it is the Ego and the “I”, and otherwise, there would not remain for Muhammad a name nor [would there remain] an image, and there would not remain except Allah, the One, the Powerful, the Glorious, the Almighty. With such divine wisdom from Ahmed al Hassan pbuh if we apply this logic without emotion or bias we should be able to accept and follow a divine messenger from any time or place such as those named above to be fulfilling a particular role for his community as divinely inspired by the absolute creator. Previously the inspiration mainly would come through dreams and visions such as with Abraham, Issac or Joseph. The following verse clarifies this also occurred directly with Moses through a medium such as the burning bush or tabernacle or ‘dwelling house.’ Ultimately the spirit of light would descend upon a holy vessel for the messenger to become an embodiment of God. This happened in a partial sense with Jesus hence the concept of ‘rising’ and a complete sense with an ‘appearance’ through Mohammed pbuh. This is also a subject discussed in much greater detail through ‘the God in creation’ article.
“And through Your Glory, which appeared on Mount Sinai, and through which You addressed Your slave and Your Messenger; Moses, son of ‘Imran, and through Your rise in Sa’ir and through Your appearance on Mount Faran near Rabawat, which are clean and holy places, when troops of heavenly angels were in rows, and with the submissiveness of the angels praising You…?”
In this day and age we know that it is prophesied Imam Mahdi pbuh will eventually rule the kingdom of earth just as it is in heaven to fulfil the divine promise. The magnitude of the situation is made clear when we realise that faith and dedication to His light is sufficient for all of creation to bring about Divine justice and harmony on earth in this day and age. {And the earth will shine with the light of its Lord,} [The Holy Qur’an Surat Az-Zumar (The Troops): 69], he (pbuh) said: “The Lord of the Earth is the Imam of the Earth.” It was said: “If he emerges, what happens?” He said: “The people at that time shall give up the light of the sun, and the light of the moon, for they will have the light of the Imam (pbuh) and it shall be sufficient for them.” - Mustadraq Sufiana Al Bihar, Ch. 4, P. 47.
{He did not give birth nor was he given birth}
Here we turn again to the wisdom of Ahmed al Hassan pbuh to reveal the reality of the depth of this verse. He clarified that there is no doubt that what is meant by birth in this verse is not a physical birth. There is a group of people who were led astray by illusions and ignorance and decided to embody the Divine Essence thus giving the physical attributes of man to Allah (SWT). Such an act is beyond sensibility. Thus, what is really meant here by this verse is denying Birth, or the separation from a source for the Divine Essence, or, an origin, or a branch which has been separated from the Divine Essence. And this rebuttal of such shaky ground based on no foundation is also of course a response to those who said that Jesus or Ezra were the sons of God or to those who believe in the Holy Trinity or Dualism, in fact it is all clarified by the previous verses. The Divine Essence, or God, gathers within it all of the Divine Names and Attributes. The names are the eye of the Essence, so to further understand you would say; He is Able and Ability is His Essence, and He is Knowledgeable and Knowledge is His Essence.
Another important distinction to understand is between the Divine Essence, or God from Reality and Truth, "Howa '' (He) or The Greater Greater Greater Name. The Divine Essence, or Allah, is infact the manifestation and appearance of the Truth and Reality, by which Allah, the Exalted, faced His creation. So, since the identity of the creation is with a need and poverty, then the facing must be with richness. Thus, The Glorified and The Most High faced darkness and non-existence and shortcomings, with light, existence and perfection. The Divine Essence, or Allah, is the eye of the Truth and Reality, as mentioned by Ali son of Musa Al-Ridha (PBUH) who said: (Verily, Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Raheem (In the Name of Allah the Merciful the Intensely Merciful) is closer to the Greater Name of Allah than the closeness of the blackness of the eye to its whiteness) - Oyoun Akhbar Al-Ridha (PBUH) - Sheikh Al-Sodouq, volume 1, page 8
Thus, The Reality and Truth appear through the Divine Essence or God due to the need of the creation to have their shortcomings sustained. The aspect of Knowing God was a treasure, therefore, He created the creation in order that He may be known. So worship as we said before falls short of fullness without knowledge of truth. And Knowing shall not be except with knowing the Divine Essence therefore through the Names and Descriptions. The Divine Essence dissolves into the Truth and Reality, which is what is the destination in worship. Therefore the Divine Essence, or Allah is not detached from the Truth and Reality, rather, it is a manifestation for the Truth and Reality. As for knowing the Truth and Reality, it shall not be except by knowing the inability to know them. With such a sensible awareness we do not go stabbing the dark beyond reason and will find ourselves delving into a world of conjecture and illusion.
nstil the following divine verse in our hearts, as serving the will of God in all sincerity, humility and submission is the primary goal to achieve our souls ambition, and this is at the heart of the call of ‘Monotheism’ today. There is no sitting on the fence; we either work to bring peace and justice to the world under the command of the Riser or sit idle and fall under the sway of darkness that tries in vain to obscure the light. The clock is ticking and the fall of the reign of Satan’s, may God curse him, darkness over earth is near at hand, which side did you want to be on in the final reckoning God or the Devil? In the end only God’s not the Devil’s will shall be done, that is a given.
'I want [something] and you want [something else], and verily only My will is done. Therefore, if you submit to what I want, I will suffice you in what you want. If you do not submit to My will, however, I will exhaust you in your quest for what you want, then only what I want will be.' - Bihar al-Anwar, v. 82, p. 136, no.
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