The Dala'il al-Khayrat (Guide of Blessings): 1. The prophetic light
Taken from the book Le guide des bienfaits et le lever des lumières by Hinda Boudiaf-Agrinier (Marsam). The Dala’il al-Khayrat is a collection of prayers upon the Prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, and upon the Messengers, composed by Muhammad al-Jazuli, a great fifteenth-century Sufi master: it is commonly read as part of the ritual practices of the Sufi brotherhoods.
“The whole cosmos is darkness, says Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah al-Iskandari, but it is illumined by the manifestation of the truth within it.” Light, in the Qur’anic text as in the hadiths (prophetic sayings), is connected with creation, as attested in the verses of light: “God is the Light of the heavens and the earth…” (Qur’an 24:35).
The first manifestation of light was, a hadith tells us, the starting point of the cosmic manifestation. The hadith describes the process of creation as follows: “It was reported to us by ’Abd al-Razzaq, through his chain of transmission, a hadith which he himself held from Jabir ibn ’Abd Allah, may God be pleased with him, in which the latter said: ‘O Messenger of God, by my mother and my father, tell me about the first thing created by God, exalted be He, before all things?’ ‘O Jabir, God, exalted be He, created the light of your Prophet from His own light…’”.
It is for this reason that theologians such as, more recently, al-Sha’rawi, attest that one of the names by which the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, is designated in the Qur’an is that of “Nur”, light: “A light has come to you from your Lord, and a manifest Book”, says the Qur’an (5:15). Another verse designates the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, as a universal mercy: “We have sent you only as a mercy for the worlds” (Qur’an 21:107).
From the very beginning of this Guide of Blessings, dedicated to prayers upon the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, we find a chapter devoted to the names attributed to him, which are so many spiritual qualities characterising the Muhammadan Reality or prophetic Reality. It is to that Reality that reference is made when the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, says of himself in a hadith: “I was a Prophet while Adam was still between water and clay.”
It is therefore to the Personality, or spiritual reality, of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, that reference is made here, and not to his historical manifestation. And it is precisely to that spiritual Reality of the Prophet that the prayers of this Guide are addressed, responding in this to the divine injunction: “God and His angels pray upon the Prophet; O you who believe, pray upon him and greet him with a full greeting of peace” (Qur’an 33:56).
These qualities of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, are, according to the commentary of the exegete al-Hafidh Ibn Hajar, in a state of permanent exaltation and magnification on the part of God and His angels. The prayer of men consists in invoking God to ask Him “to increase”, in a perpetual and unlimited manner, that exaltation and magnification. Now, this prayer, performed under numerous forms by believers, has an immediate return effect upon them: “He who prays upon me once, said the Prophet, receives from God that same prayer ten times over.”
Evoking this divine prayer, the Qur’an says: “It is He who prays upon you, together with His angels, to bring you out of darkness into light” (Qur’an 33:43). The very practice of the prayer upon the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, thus has an effect of progressive illumination, exaltation and magnification, and so, in the end, of spiritual knowledge.
Faouzi Skali
Continued: the Dala’il al-Khayrat, part 2: prophetic intercession.
