Spiritual Letter 20 - Original Version About Spiritual Letter 20 Title: "The Three Sons of Abraham (peace be upon Him)", Date: July 1, 2002 Written by: Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Louie Beutler) Written to: Mr. M. Stanton Evans, a writer of books Note: For an earlier version of this letter, that was not sent, see Spiritual Letter 9 Home Page-Spiriutal Letters Go To Spiritual Letter 21 Letter 20: Expanded Version Library Navigation Tree Go To Spiritual Letter 19 Letter 20: Outline & Summary Related Material 1. Opening Prayer Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim. In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. Al-salam 'alaykum wa-rahmat Allah wa-barakatuhu kulluh - May all the peace, the beneficence, and the blessings of God be upon all of us. 2. Introduction - what separates us from each other is what separates us from God My love you my dearest brother, God has brought us together for His purpose, not our purpose as separate from Him or as separate from each other. This is the great learning of our life, a learning which you have certainly understood and pursued for the last 30 some years. During the last Holy Month of Ramadan, which is celebrated as part of the Islam religion, which occurred last year during the month of December, this child saw a television program where you were being interviewed by Brian Lamb of C-Span, for the program "Booknotes", about a book that you had written. The television program was a rebroadcast of an earlier show, which was recorded on February, 5th,1995, about a book you had just published, a book called, "The Theme Is Freedom: Religion, Politics, and the American Tradition". Like you, this child has also been on a journey for many years, looking for the deeper meaning of life that somehow we always knew was really there, if we only had the determination to keep searching for it, and we did, always asking the question, "but why", to everything that the world handed to us as a "given", as you mentioned in your interview. As a result of watching your interview by Brian Lamb we started to research you, and your search, reading over the transcript of your interview, and reading some of your new book. And the outcome was a long letter to you investigating your search and sharing aspects of the same search by this child, though a search with many different twists and turns, yet always the same search. This original letter to you from this child was finished in December, 2001, on the last day of Ramadan, but was never sent to you. Only God knows why. And yet for this child it became the summation of our joined search, the search for the truth of our life by these two brothers of the heart, because that is where the search really goes on, in the heart of each of us, not in the illusory world that we see as existing "outside" of us, a world that we "searchers" have in one way or another discarded as of any real value in answering our deeper questions concerning life, or in addressing the more important matter of life. Don't you agree? We are sure you do. At this point you may want to read this original letter to you, which is now a part of an on-line library of letters by this child, all written as part of "the search". You can do this in this wonderful age of computers and the internet by simply signing onto the internet, using American Online (AOL) or any other internet provider, and clicking on the following title, Spiritual Letter 9 - The Theme Is Freedom, which has a URL or internet address of: www.SpiritualLetter009.homestead.com. We have been working on making this letter available through our on-line library, during most of the month of June, 2002, with the intent of finally sending it to you, but that was then and this is now, and all we seemed to be doing while putting the original letter on-line was changing everything in it to the new clarity that keeps growing within this child, within your brother of the heart. And since the original letter was a beautiful moment of our coming together, in the heart, of our joining our little searches so to speak with the Big Search of God, we decided to keep the original letter unchanged, put it in the on-line library as is, and write you a new letter which was more up to date, one that better reflected the wonderful progress that has been made in "the search" since writing the original letter. Also, we have added this letter to you to our on-line library, which is called the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Library, which you can access on-line by clicking on the following title: Spiritual Letter 20 - The Three Sons of Abraham (peace be upon Him). When completed, this on-line Hypertext version of this letter will also provide a Table of Contents for this letter, as well as additional versions of this letter beyond the original version, which you are now reading. This includes an Outline & Summary Version, an Expanded Version, and Related Material. Please check it out. Thank you. So that is about it, for the introduction that is, between this child and my new brother of the heart, which in a way that only God knows and understands, is not really new, since we have been together all along, which is probably the truth of all of us, if we could only get rid of what separates us from God. For a very wise and holy man told this child one day, who's name is Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him), that, "What separates you from God is what separates you from each other, and what separates you from each other is what separates you from God." 3. God is One - and in truth so are we The major theme of the search of this child is the Unity of God and True Man, which in the Islam religion is called Tawhid, which is defined in the Glossary of one of the beautiful books by His Holiness, Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him), a book called, Islam And World Peace: Explanations of Sufi, in the following way, on page 155, "Tawhid (A). The affirmation of the unity of Allah, the principle tenet of Islam." This is why you and this child have been one all along, even if you are older and wiser, and even if we have not yet met in the world, in the dream of separation and differences, that we all currently see as existing "outside" of us, because God is One, and we are all of God, not of the dream. It is so very simple. Don't you agree? 4. The Three Sons of Abraham (peace be upon Him) - which have become the lineage of the three ages of man, with the lineage of the third son, Isaac (peace be upon Him), providing the lineage of the first old testament of the Jewish religion (2000 BC to 0 BC/O AD, and with the lineage of the second son, Ishmael (peace be upon Him), providing the lineage of the second old testament of the religions of Christianity and Islam (0 AD to 2000 AD), and the lineage of the first son, Iman, the state of Abraham in the pit of fire (peace be upon Him), the state of absolute faith, certitude, and determination that God along exists, providing the lineage of the true new testament, of the religion of Iman-Islam (2000 AD to 4000 AD) So why the title, The Three Sons of Abraham (peace be upon Him). Because that is the source and the beginning of all searches, whether you are a Jew, a Christian, or a Muslim, or claim to following any other teaching, it all goes back to the Prophet Abraham (peace be upon Him), and His children, it all starts or ends with the gift of God given to all of us called Abraham (peace be upon Him), and the children of Abraham (peace be upon Him), that came into the world called Ishmael and Isaac (peace be upon Them). For the lineage of the Jewish religion is through the second son of Abraham (peace be upon Him), the son called Isaac (peace be upon Him), which leads us to the Prophets Moses, David, and Jesus (may God be pleased with all of His Prophets), and the lineage of the Islamic religion is through the first son of Abraham (peace be upon Him), the son called Ishmael (peace be upon Him), which leads us to the Prophet Muhammad, and the Qutb of God, Qutb Muhaiyaddeen Abdul Qadir Jilani (may God be pleased with Him), and to our Father, Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him). And the relationship between these two beautiful traditions, between these two sons of Abraham (peace be upon Them) and their lineage, and how in truth they are One, is the whole point of our life, and of the religions of the world that have grown out of our experience of this Oneness of God and True Man. Everything else is craziness. My love you my dearest brother, you are such a good child of God, and you have made a wonderful contribution to the understanding of the truth behind the American Experiment, the truth about what God is doing, not about what man is doing, for in truth man is not doing anything. God is the both the cause and the effect in our life, in all life, and we are merely about what He is doing. This is why the first question that must be always in our mind is, "What is God doing?", and never, "What is man doing?". This is the point of our life, to keep it focused on God, and what God is doing, to make "our knowing that He knows enough", like Abraham (peace be upon Him) did in the pit of fire, before He met His wife Sarah and before He had His two sons, Ishmael and Isaac (peace be upon Them). This leads us back to our title for this letter, "The Three Sons of Abraham (peace be upon Him)". Who is the third son of Abraham (peace be upon Him)? This is something we must know, my dearest loving brother, this is something the whole world needs to know, if we are to be successful in our life, if we are to live a life without fear, without looking over our shoulder, without fear of death and our destruction. Let us explain a little. The answer is simple, if we start by lining things up correctly. We are of God, not of the Creation of God, unless we choose to be of the Creation of God, not of God. The choice is ours, not God's. We can go either way. We can go directly back into the Oneness of God, a life that is "one with" God, "one with" each other", and "one with" the Creation of God that God has personally and lovingly placed within each of us, before we came here, to learn what we do not know, to learn about who we already are, or we can choose to go the way of living a life that is "separate from" God, that is "separate from" each other, and is "separate from" the Creation of God within us. This gets us back to the third son of Abraham (peace be upon Him), which was really the first son of Abraham (peace be upon Him), the son that Abraham (peace be upon Him) gave birth to within Himself before He married Sarah, who the daughter of Nimrod, the evil king of the time of Abraham (peace be upon Him) who tried repeatedly to kill Abraham (peace be upon Him) because Abraham (peace be upon Him) reject the god of fire that the king and the people of His time worshipped. In this way, Abraham (peace be upon Him) had the following three sons, which we have summarized in the following way: a. The First Son of Abraham (peaces be upon Him) is Iman, the state of Abraham in the pit of fire (peace be upon Him), the state of absolute faith, certitude, and determination that God along exists, providing the lineage of the true new testament, of the religion of Iman-Islam (2000 AD to 4000 AD), which is set to manifest in our age. b. The Second Son of Abraham (peace be upon Him) is Ishmael (peace be upon Him), providing the lineage of the second old testament of the religions of Christianity and Islam (0 AD to 2000 AD). c. The Third Son of Abraham (peace be upon Him) is Isaac (peace be upon Him), providing the lineage of the first old testament of the Jewish religion (2000 BC to 0 BC/O AD Let us look at each of these three sons of Abraham (peace be upon Him) in a little more detail. It is very important if we are ever to find peace in our life, and through that peace guide the world back into the peace of God, which is the next world, the hereafter, which this world must become, if it is ever to come. 5. The First Son of Abraham (peace be upon Him) - is Iman, which is the state of Consciousness, the fourth level of wisdom, known as Judgement or Estimate The first son of Abraham (peace be upon Him) is Iman, which is defined on page 149, in the Glossary of the book, Islam And World Peace: Explanations of a Sufi, as follows: "Iman (A) - Absolute, complete, unshakable faith, certitude, and determination that God alone exists; the complete acceptance that God is One." Iman, which within the life and teaching of our Father, Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him), is the dawning of the divinity of man, the fourth level of wisdom within man called Judgment or Estimate, and without it you cannot go on the journey back to God. For as His Holiness teaches in the beautiful Song, "The Kalimah Song", which He sung to us on April 26, 1772, "If you do not have the Iman of Kalimah you cannot follow the Causal Muhammad, you will have to sit alone and cry." And the term Kalimah is also defined in that same Glossary, on page 150, as follows: "Kalimah (A). Affirmation of faith, La ilaha illa Allah: There is nothing other than You, O God. Only You are Allah. The recitation or remembrance of God cuts away the influence of the five elements (earth, fire, water, air, and ether), washes away all the karma (veils of thought) that has accumulated from the very beginning until now, dispels the darkness, beautifies the heart, and causes it to resplend. The Kalimah washes the body and the heart of man and makes them pure, makes his wisdom emerge, and impels that wisdom to know the self and God. Lit.: the word. See also, dhikr, and la ilah illa Allah." My dearest loving brother, this is the true first son of Abraham (peace be upon Him), not Ishmael (peace be upon Him), but Iman, or absolute faith, certitude, and determination in God, which dawned within the life of Abraham (peace be upon Him) as a small child, allowing Him to rely on God and God alone to live, not relying on what the world was showing Him to live, to live in the world, and doing this by living within His own heart trusting in God within Him, and God alone, and in this way, living properly in the world in a state of purity and clarity. This is the first son that each of us, as seekers of truth, must give birth to within ourselves, like our mother gave birth to us, and like Abraham (peace be upon Him) this is the first son that will save us in the world, from the first pit of fire that we all encounter while living in the world, the pit of fire known as the earth world, for everything appearing on the earth is maya or illusion. And what was the reward that Abraham (peace be upon Him) received from the world for living in this way, with Iman, for having given birth to His first son known as Iman, or the state of wisdom known as Judgment or Estimate, the fourth level of Consciousness or wisdom, for living within His own heart trusting in God within Him? What was His reward for living in the state of Iman? His reward was that the world tried to kill Him in every way possible. First by making Him drink the poison of 1000 snakes. Then by trying to get wild elephants in sexual frenzy to trample Him, and finally by trying to burn Him in huge fire that had been burning for six months. Such was the work of King Nimrod when Abraham (peace be upon Him) gave birth within Himself to His first son known as Iman, when the consciousness or wisdom of Abraham moved from the third state of Intellect to the fourth state of Judgment or Estimate, and in this state the young Abraham (peace be upon Him) rejected all that the world had to offer, and embraced God as His only truth and reality. This is our current life, my sweetest loving brother, this world that is always trying to kill us, first deceiving us with visions of happiness and comfort, all the while drinking us dry like a spider kills is prey by gradually sucking the nourishment out of it, then openly attacking us when we shift our focus off of the world and what it is doing, and onto God within us and what He is doing within us, when we shift our focus onto the pit of fire that we are now all burning in, which is the one-span stomach, as we have made filling this one-span stomach the priority of our life. And the only thing that will save us from this life of hell is God, not us, as "separate from" God, getting better, or smarter, or wiser, or younger, or older, or more tolerant, or more powerful, or more weak, or more or less anything, but us becoming again "one with" God, but this time with an understanding of this Oneness, so it will never leave us again. In this way, the first son of Abraham (peace be upon Him) is the death of the selfish self and the birth of the selfless self within Abraham (peace be upon Him), as the true first son of each of us must be, of us "seekers of truth". Until that son of Iman, of absolute faith, certitude, and determination in God, that "selfless self" is born within us, nothing that we do, as "separate from" God, as the life of "selfishness", has any relevance, to us, to God, or to anyone or anything living in the world. We must realize this without the slightest doubt. May we both come to this conclusion, my dearest brother. 5. The Second Son of Abraham (peace be upon Him) - is Subtle Wisdom (In process, more to come. Please come back later. Thank you. End of Spiritual Letter 20 - original version - ........................ or Go To Spiritual Letter 20: Expanded Version Outline & Summary Version Related Material or ( a top-down version of the Library Home Page) (a bottom-up version of the Library Home Page) |
This page was last updated on: July 1, 2002
