What is oneness of presence?
To know that one is always in the presence of Allah
Oneness of presence is a fruit of investigative belief; it means to know that one is always in the presence and under the observation of Allah, Allah Almighty opens windows in all incidents and not to be heedless of Allah any moment. We can understand the meaning of belief of presence better by making a person with belief of presence and a person with imitative belief travel imaginarily in certain places as follows:
Suppose that a person with belief of presence and a person with imitative belief are watching shadow puppetry. The person with imitative belief is engrossed in the play and watches it joyfully by forgetting Allah. The person with belief of presence thinks as follows: These acts change all the time. The characters on the stage are lifeless and unconscious things. It is not possible for a lifeless and unconscious thing to act properly, to speak and to show the manifestation of knowledge, will and power. Then, behind these changing acts, there must be an unchanging hand for these proper scenes to occur. This unchanging hand must have life, knowledge, will, power and other attributes. It is not possible to explain the proper system on the stage without the presence of such a hand. We might not see that hand but we cannot deny its presence because what it does is visible.
The person with belief of presence who reaches the unchanging hand from changing acts flies to the universe from there and thinks as follows: This universe always changes like the shadow puppetry and it is administered regularly during the changes. In fact, some of the beings in this universe are lifeless and some are unconscious like the characters in the shadow puppetry. It is not possible for those lifeless and unconscious beings to do such wise activities on their own. Then, there must be an unchanging being behind the veil of the universe. This wise activity cannot be explained by anything except His existence.
The person with imitative belief that watches the same show is unaware of Allah but the person with belief of presence reaches the unchanging hand from the acts that change systematically in the shadow puppetry then the changing universe and then to Allah; and he meditates on the wise activities of Allah. Two different thoughts on the same stage! One of them is heedless and the other is learning lessons and meditating on the divine activities.
After that, these two friends leave the shadow puppetry and go to a funfair. The person with imitative belief is also heedless there; the person with belief of presence is meditating again. He looks at bumper cars, thinks and finds a door leading to Allah as follows: When the control is in different hands, there is a mess. Everything crashes one another and the order is broken. It means, order can take place when one person has the control. When another hand intervenes, things get messed up. Since there is no disorder in the universe, there are no extra hands in control. This universe proves the existence and oneness of Allah with its order. If there was an extra hand, stars would hit one another like those bumper cars.
When the person with an imitative belief is in heedlessness, the person with the belief of presence is in meditation again.
Then, these two friends leave the funfair and go to Dolmabahçe Palace. They look at the chandelier that weighs five thousand tons. The person with imitative belief thinks of its maker and congratulates him by saying, "He is a real master." However, he does not think of Allah and the art of Allah. The person with belief of presence looks at the chandelier and says, “Even this chandelier cannot come into being without a master. Even if the whole world came together, they could not persuade us that this chandelier was fixed in this palace coincidentally on its own. If such a chandelier cannot come into being without a master, can the sun, which is like the chandelier of the world, be without a master and owner?”
That is, while his friends see only the chandelier and its master, he looks at the sun, the chandelier of the world, after the chandelier and open windows from the sun leading to Allah Almighty, thinks about Him, meditates on Him and knows that he is in His presence.
These imaginary friends go to a supermarket after that. The person with imitative belief is still in heedlessness; he is looking around by forgetting not only Allah but also himself; on the other hand, his friend, who has belief of presence, looks at the orderly design and perfect storage of the goods and says, "even this small shop indicates a being with the perfect arrangement and storage of the goods and nobody can deny the existence of this being, whose activity is before our eyes; do the orderly arranged creatures and stored mines in the world not indicate their Maker? Do they not introduce Him to us with His names like the designer, the arranger and the knower of all?
These imaginary friends go to a supermarket after that. The person with imitative belief is still in heedlessness; he is looking around by forgetting not only Allah but also himself; on the other hand, his friend, who has belief of presence, looks at the orderly design and perfect storage of the goods and says, "even this small shop indicates a being with the perfect arrangement and storage of the goods and nobody can deny the existence of this being, whose activity is before our eyes; do the orderly arranged creatures and stored mines in the world not indicate their Maker? Do they not introduce Him to us with His names like the designer, the arranger and the knower of all?
Consequently, the person with an imitative belief is still in heedlessness but the person with the belief of presence is meditating.
It is possible to make these two imaginary friends go to different places. This is what matters: The person with the belief of presence is always with Allah; he thinks about Him and opens windows to Him in everything; he feels that he is always in His presence; in fact, he believes with absolute certainty that he will never be away from his knowledge and control. This is a great rank and can be obtained only by attaining investigative belief.
May our Lord give all of us such belief of presence! Amin!
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