On ruh and the senses

Bismillah

I will always remember this one 'trick question' from my dear Ustaz Shamsul Mohd Noor (my first guide): "How did you come here?" he would often ask the class. Most people naively answered, "By car." No that's not the right answer. "The correct answer is you came here with ruh."

How true. Even if we had a car, without ruh we wouldn't be able to go anywhere. A similar question was posed by Shaykh Muhammad Al-Yaqoubi in his lecture on 'Purification of the Heart'. He asked, "Who is seeing in you? Is it the flesh and blood? Or the nerves and veins? Or the soul or the combination?"

Shaykh Al-Yaqoubi said when we die, our flesh and body would still be intact but we can't see or hear. All of our faculties will be gone. They will have left the body together with the soul (ruh). If our seeing faculty had been combined with the body, there would then be some remnants of sight in the dead body. Obviously, this is not the case. It is your ruh which sees, hears, etc. And the ruh, according to the shaykh would continue to acquire knowledge even after death. The pleasure of seeking knowledge which one has had in dunya would continue, whereas other bodily pleasures shall become obsolete. And Allah knows best.

Anyhow, there's no denying the importance of acquiring knowledge. Why did you think the first command of Allah as conveyed by Jibril to Rasulullah s.a.w was "Iqra'!" (Read)?

May Allah give us a high himmah to acquire knowledge. May Allah increase our knowledge and understanding. May Allah make us practice our knowledge and make us share any beneficial knowledge sincerely. And may Allah show us things as they really are. Ameen.

The holy maqam of one distinguished companion of Rasulullah s.a.w
Salman Al Farisi
Who can fathom what this blessed ruh is occupied with now?
Al Farisi the Imam, the Flag of Flags,
the Inheritor of Islam, the Wise Judge, the Knowledgeable Scholar

Photo credit:
Sidi Shamsul N.A.
@ Mount of Olives, June 2012