The Lives of Man
A Guide to the Human States: Before Life, in the World, and After Death
This 5 session course covers the famous text by the 11th/17th century sage of Arabia, Imam al-Haddad. Through verses of Quran and Hadith of the Prophet, the text provides a brief but profound overview of the various phases that the soul passes through in its journey from the Divine Presence in the pre-earthly realm, into the life of this world, and through the stages that follow this dunya. This course will cover the foundational teachings of Islam on the soul’s journey, the nature of this world, and the path of the prophets and saintly ones who conveyed the way of peaceful surrender to the Ultimate Reality. It will cover the Quranic and Prophetic descriptions of the realms before and after this world in order that we might attain right relationship to this world and free ourselves of heedlessness and fleeting attachments in order to awaken to that which is Eternal and Absolute and return to Allah in a blessed state.
Session 1: Introduction
Session 2: The Pre-Earthly Realm: Life Before Conception
Session 3: The Dunya: The Lower World
Session 4: The Barzakh: The Intermediary Realm
Session 5: Yawm al-Qiyama: The Day of Rising
Session 6: The Garden, The Fire, The Vision of God & His Overwhelming Mercy
From the preface by Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad:
“No culture since Adam has lived in deeper ignorance of what man truly is: a symmetrical, noble form enshrining a soul, an organ capable of such translucence that it can, when the senses and passions which distract it are stilled, form a window onto that Reality of which this world offers no more than a distorted reflection. For those human beings who have been granted this state of awakening, the real world which they survey is truer than anything they had known here-below. All of us will see the real world, the ākhira, at death. But only the Prophets fully know of it before they die, and hence can warn their contemporaries. The revelations which God gives them, and which they give to mankind, are thus the only sources of meaning and understanding which will ever be available. To hold to them is to cling to a rope let down from God, while to let go is to fall ineluctably into chaos.”
No prior knowledge is necessary. All ages and backgrounds are welcome.
Taught by Baraka Blue
When: Sundays 7pm. Starting 9/26.
Where: Rainier Arts Center
3515 S Alaska St, Seattle, WA 98118
Space is Limited. Register wearewasat.org