“This is good as well”

While reciting, “Endless blessings and endless peace be upon you, O Messenger of God!” in the tesbihat following the prayers, I saw from afar a subtle point which gradually  unfolded.  I was unable to grasp all of it, and shall recount one or two sentences by way of alluding to it.

I saw that the world of the night is like a newly opened dwelling of the world. I entered it during ‘Isha, the prayer at nightfall. Since man is connected to all the world, through an extraordinary expansion of the imagination I saw the mighty world that night as a dwelling. Living creatures and men became so tiny they were invisible. I observed with the  imagination  that the only thing that inhabited the dwelling and made it familiar, and filled it with light, was the collective personality of Muhammad (UWBP).  As  a  person  greets  those   present  when  he  enters  a  house,  I  was overwhelmed with the desire to say: “Endless peace be upon you, O Messenger of God!”1  It was as though I was greeting him to the number of all men and jinn. That is to say,  I offered  greetings,  meaning:  I renew  my allegiance to  you, accept  your mission,  submit  to  the  laws  and  commands  you  brought,  and  state  through  the greetings that they will be safe from our assaults, and making speak all the parts of my world and all jinn and men, all conscious beings, I offer greetings in their name. As  he  illuminated  my  world  through  the  light  and  gift  he  brought,  so  he illuminates and fills with bounties the worlds of everyone in this world. In grateful response  for the gift, I exclaimed: “Endless blessings be upon you!” That is, “We cannot  respond  to  this  goodness  of  yours,  so  we  show  our  gratitude  to  you  by beseeching that mercy be bestowed upon you from our Creator’s treasury of mercy, to the  number  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  heavens.”  I  perceived  this  meaning  in  my imagination.

-------------------------------------------

1   The divine mercy received by Muhammad (UWBP) looks to the needs of all his community through all eternity. For which reason, endless greetings are appropriate. If someone enters a vast house like the world, desolate and empty and dark due to heedlessness, how frightened and dismayed he will be. Then suddenly the house is lit up and a familiar, friendly, lovable and beloved Lieutenant appears

in the forefront. If he describes and makes known the house’s Compassionate and Generous Owner through all its fittings and furnishings, you can understand what joy, familiarity, happiness, light, and ease it will give. From this you may appreciate the value and pleasure of the greetings for the Messenger (UWBP).