| The Highest Council Al-mala� al-a`la |
| According to Hazrat Shah Wali Allah (ra) this term is found in Qur'an 37:8, 38:69. This group contains both angels and developed human souls. The Highest Council is composed of three categories: |
| � The first constitutes purely angelic whom God has designated the authority that regulation of �good� depends upon them.
� The second are intellectual mixture of subtle vapors of elements, requiring emanation of the lofty souls, which strongly reject the contamination of the bestial (meaning containing selfish attributes of lower soul). � The third are those human souls who by their nature are in close proximity to the Highest Council. They continue to perform acts of salvation, which keeps them attached to the angels until their death, and after that they join them. |
| Their task is contemplation of their Creator with such devotion that nothing can distract them. As Allah The Almighty says in Holy Qur'an: �They extol the praises of their Lord believing in Him�. (Qur'an: 40:7) The lights of excellent among them conjoin together that they interpenetrate each other at spiritual level and become one. Hazrat Muhammad (saw) has described it as �having many faces and tongues� and they are called Holy-Enclave or �Hazrat al-Quds�. |
| Holy Enclave |
| Hazrat Shah Wali Allah (ra) has used the term �hazirat� meaning Enclave or Fold of the Holy to indicate that area of the heavens where the highest angels, joined by a few select human souls, convene to assist the future course of human affairs. |
| According to Imam Ghazali, �Allah has an angel who has 70,000 faces with 70,000 tongues in each face; with all of them he praises God.� (Mishkat al Anwar: p.52) |
| When in the Holy Enclave a consensus is reached to establish a means of saving human beings from disasters of this life or the next world through the perfection of the purest man of age and through causing his command to be implemented among the people. This (consensus of Holy Enclave) requires inspirations in hearts of those people prepared to follow and to constitute a community brought out for human kind, and it requires the representation in his heart of branches of knowledge which will make the people righteous and guide them. It is accomplished through revelation, dreams, visions, or voices from unseen. The members of the Holy Enclave may appear to the person directly and talk to him. This consensus essentially requires the victory of the righteous and their ultimate drawing towards �the good� and cursing of all those who impede the path of God and their being thrown to pain and suffering. This principle has clearly established itself in �prophet hood� and is still continuing by the consensus of this council of angels called � support by the Holy Spirit� (Qur'an: 2:87; 2:253). The blessings of the Holy Enclave appear not as normal happenings but are known as miracles. |
| The Lower Council |
| Below The Highest Council are souls The Lowest Council. Their disposition requires them coming into being of a balanced combination among the subtle vapors. (They are intellectually and emotionally harmonized and enjoy best attributes of creation in their character and being) They are not as blessed as the angels of The Highest Council and wait for the commandment from the highest order. |
| Whenever something is dawned unto them from above, they duly indulge themselves to carryout that orders according to the quality of their receiving and the ability of carrying it out. In their enthusiasm of carrying it out they are completely heedless of what is of personal concern to them and abide by what is revealed to them from above. |
| They can influence the hearts of men and animals so that their wills and their inner motivations are transformed and become congenial to and harmonized with what is being required of them. Such souls are supported spiritually by the angels from Holy Enclave: as the fighters at Ghazwa Badr were supported by creating visions of courage and perseverance. Countless examples are being quoted. Each time the influence of The Highest Council is not positive and facilitating; it may include pain and suffering as well.
Reading exposition of Surah Kahf (Qur'an:18) may enlighten one on this subject. Opposing these (angels) is another group possessed of fickleness, inconstancy, and thoughts contrary to the good whose origination was made necessary by the decaying of dark vapors, and these are devils who unceasingly strive against the efforts of angels, and God knows better. |
| Adapted from Chapter 3: The Highest Council (pages 43-48) from Hujjat Allah al-Baligha by Hazrat Shah Wali Allah (ra) (1703-62). The Conclusive Argument From God: trans. Marcia K. Hermansen. Islamic Research Institute: International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan. (2003). |
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