Why the Prophet Muhammad only was Favored with the Ascension?
What do you mean by saying that the Prophet Muhammad is the seed of the universe? You also say that the universe was created from his light, and also that he is its farthest and most enlightened fruit. What does that mean?
Answer
The truth in understanding of which you have difficulty, is so elevated and profound that the mind cannot comprehend it; it can be discerned only through the light of belief. However, we will try to make it understandable through comparisons.
When considered with regard to the wisdom in its purposes, this universe appears to have the meaning of a mighty tree. Just like a tree, this world, has branches, leaves, flowers, and fruits: the elements are like its branches, the plants its leaves, the animals its flowers, and human beings its fruits. His Name the All-Wise requires that any law of the Majestic Maker which is prevalent in trees should also be prevalent for this greatest tree. So it is a requirement of Wisdom that this tree of creation would have to be formed from a seed also; a seed which would, besides those of this world of corporeality, also have to encapsulate the models and foundations of other worlds. For the origin and essential seed of the universe, which comprises thousands of different worlds, cannot be a dried, inanimate piece of matter. Since there had been no other trees prior to that tree of creation, for sure, it is again the requirement of the Divine Name the All-Wise that the meaning or the light which constituted the seed or origin of that tree would have to be clothed in the covering of a fruit. Since a seed cannot remain naked for ever, and since at the beginning of creation it was not clothed in the coat of a fruit, and since, as was previously pointed out, among human beings the most well-known and illustrious fruit is the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, who has attracted the attentions of all mankind to himself, who has caused the attentions of, in particular, half of the globe and one fifth of mankind to be fixed on himself, and through his spiritual beauties and personal virtues made the world consider him with the view of either love and amazement, then, for sure, the light which constituted the seed of the universe would be clothed in his body and appear in the form of the final fruit.
O listener! Do not deem it unlikely that this amazing, mighty universe was created out of the particular nature of a man. Why should the All-Powerful One of Majesty, Who creates a huge pine tree, resembling a world of some sort, from a seed the size of a grain, have not created or have not been able to create the universe from the light of Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings? The tree of the universe being, like the Touba tree of Paradise, upside down, with its roots and trunk upwards and branches downwards, there is a link of light, a link in meaning, between the position of the fruit below and that of the essential seed above. The Ascension is the form of that link, that the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, opened up that way; he went through sainthood and came back with Messengership, leaving the door open to it, to some sort of ascension. The saints among his community travel in heart and spirit on that highway of light under the shadow of the Prophetic Ascension and rise to the elevated stations each according to his capacity.
Also, as argued previously, the Maker of the universe has made the universe in the form of a palace for the purposes pointed out in the answer of the first difficulty. Since the means for the accomplishment of those purposes is the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, prior to the universe he would have to be under the eyes of the favor of the universe’s Maker and receive His Manifestation first of all. For the result or the fruit of something is considered first. That means the latest in existence is the first in meaning. So, since the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, is both the most perfect fruit and the means for the value of all other fruits and the cause for the realization of all the purposes (for the creation of the universe), then his light would of a necessity receive the first manifestation of Divine creation.
Question
In your foregoing explanations you say that he made his Ascension in order to rise to the elevated realm and to see the machinery and workshops whose produce or works are exhibited in the realm of the earth and the storehouses where the results of the earthly lives of those works are kept. What does this mean?
Answer
This is so comprehensive that narrow-minded people like us cannot understand it. We can only have a glimpse of it from afar.
The life of this material world and the laws to govern it are pre-determined in the celestial worlds. The results of the actions of the innumerable beings living on the earth, which is the place teeming with all kinds of creatures, and the consequences of the deeds of men and jinn take on form also in those worlds. Together with the testimony of numerous indications and many Prophetic traditions, the wise Qur’an suggests and the wisdom in the universe and the Divine Name the All-Wise require, that the good deeds of men and jinn take on the forms of the fruits of Paradise, while their evil deeds take on the forms of the bitter, poisonous fruits of the tree of Hell.
Indeed, creatures exist on the earth in such abundance and creation has been divided into so many branches that the groups and species of beings and divisions of creatures are to be found on the earth in much greater number than all other creatures in all other parts of the universe. These beings and creatures are constantly replaced by newer and newer ones, the world continuously filling with, and being emptied of, them. All these particular, multiple beings and creatures have their sources and origins in the universal laws and universal manifestations of Divine Names, which are first of all reflected in, and received by, the heavens. Simple to some degree and pure, each of those heavens is like the roof of a different world, and it represents a center or an aspect of the Supreme Divine Throne (from which God administers that world), and regulates its affairs. One of those worlds is the Garden of Abode, an apartment of Paradise, which is beside the Lote-tree (Lotus Tree) of the farthest limit. The Truthful Reporter, upon him be peace and blessings, informs us that the praises and glorifications of God performed on the earth take on the forms of the fruits of that Garden. That means, the storehouses where the results or fruits of the works done on the earth accumulate are in those heavenly worlds; the harvest obtained on the earth is sent there (to ‘reap’ on a pre-determined day.)
Do not say: Now does a single utterance of mine, All Praise be to God, which is lost in the air, become embodied in a fruit of Paradise? Because, sometimes you utter an agreeable word while awake in the daytime and have it back and ‘eat’ it in dreams in the forms of a delicious apple. A disagreeable word you utter in the daytime is returned to you at night as a bitter thing to swallow. If you backbite someone, they will make you eat it as decaying flesh. That being so, whatever good or bad words you utter in this worldly sleep, you will eat them in the forms of fruits in the world of the Hereafter, which is the world of being awake. You should not deem that unlikely.
This article has been adapted from Risale- i Nur Collection.