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Benjamin Haljevac
(SA). Allah (JwS), replayed that He had
got already all gifts, previously given to
others Prophets (SA). Hadrat Peygamber
(SA) had been chosen as His Habib as
Hadrat Ibrahim was His Khalil. Allah
(JwS) spoke to Him directly as to Hadrat
Musa (SA), and finally Allah almighty
said, “I opened your breast, took away
the weight, which ached your back and
elevated your name”.
When Hadrat Peygamber (SA) was
asked about the meaning of such ayat
and what was the “breast opening”, He
said: “It is a light, which Allah bestows
on the heart”. When He was asked what
it was the sign of such light He said:
“leaving the illusion and returning to the
Eternity, to be ready to death before it
comes”.
The Arabic verbal root from which the
word “opening” comes (sharh) is sha-raha, which means to cut, to slice; one of
its derived names may also indicate
relief, dilatation, and expansion. Among
the several meaning of the word sharh
there is also that of text explanation or
book commentary, this because the
meaning of commentary is to ease the
understanding of a book opening what is
inside, revealing all the hide expects.
Literally the meaning of the word in relation of the human breast points to “opening” and “enlargement” as synonymous
of relief and serenity, as opposite to the
“contraction of the breast” (dayyiq al
sadr), as synonymous of distress and
grief. As the Holy Quran says “We know
We that thy bosom is at times oppressed
by what they say” (Quran XV: 97).
Most of the great scholar of tasawwuf
explains that Allah (JwS) opened the
breast of Hadrat Peiganber (SA), so
He was able to carry out His Prophetic
mission. Allah opened and enlarged
His breast through His Light so He
could hold the manifested and not
manifested worlds (’alam al ghayb
wa-l-shahada). This because the limitations and the boundaries of the body
world could not distract Him from the
inspirational lights of the spiritual
40 ^xÄtÅâËÄ [IFA’
kingdom, to set Him free from all the
perceptions of the sensitive world and
from all attachment to the created
world, annihilating in Him all the
human weakness under the light of the
Prophecy.
Considering the single ayat or the couplets, we will here summarised the most
relevant commentaries.
Have not caused thy bosom to
expand?
As Shaykh Ruzbehan Baqli Shirazi (QS)
said in his commentary: “The True one
directly opened His breast, for Himself,
without no other in between, e this
occurred spontaneously as He manifested His Pre-eternal essence (qadima) and
His pre-eternal attributes (azaliyya) within the inner conscience of the Prophet,
making it extended and broad accordingly the amplitude of His Essence and
Qualities. Such opening exalted Him for
the eternity, because the Majesty of the
True one is endless, thus His breast
became the locus of the manifestation
(tajalli) of the Truth. Then He persisted
with the True one in the valley of the
divine superiority (kibriya’), where there
is not where, or time, or space, but only
the light of the Essence under the light of
the Attributes and the light of the
Attributes under the light of the Essence.
Thus He was between two lights, with
the lights of the Haqiqat, which veiled
him from the illusion of the creatures
(khaliqa)”.
And eased thee of the burden
Which weighed down thy back
Several authors of the exterior sciences
have emphasised the word anqada of the
second ayat, fourth form of the verbal
root naqada, which means exactly the
noise emitted from the back and the ribs
and camel overloaded. Here for the word
wizr or weight they understood the sins
of the Islamic community, which He
(SA) had to carry the weight; until the
“opening of the breast”. Whose sins has
been granted the intercession, others
commentators read here the Sins of the
whole mankind previously of the manifestation of the Haqiqa Muhammadya.
Other possible interpretation is considered the weight of the revelation for itself
and of the Prophetic mission, with its
tasks and its tests, which carries a sort of
“terrific” aspect. As recites the Holy
Quran: “For We shall charge thee with a
word of weight”. Such heavy aspect of
the prophetic function was the source of
the disarray and shock at the first meeting with Hadrat Jibrail (SA). The weight
was so heavy that He was near to throw
Himself down from the Hira mountain.
Very different the interpretation among
the masters of the inner sciences and
tasawwuf, here the weight is the human
tendency towards anything except Him.
The deliverance from which, it is the
cessation of any contentment out of
contentment of His will, which implies