بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
و الصلاة و السلام على أشرف المرسلين
و على اله و اصحابه أجمعين
Allah ﷻ says: “O children of Adam, We have bestowed upon you the clothing to conceal your nudity and as adornment. But the clothing of righteousness; that is best. That is from the signs of Allah that perhaps they will remember”.
[surah al a’raf, verse 26].
Imam al Baqili (rahimahu Allah) said in his tafsir:
“Each group has its own clothing. The Knowers (‘arifun) wear the Knowledge clothing. The Lovers (Muhhibun) dress the Love clothing. Those who are nostalgic (muchtaqun) wear the clothing of the divine nostalgia. The monotheists(muwahhidoun) who fulfiled the Tawhid, wear the monotheism clothing. The ascetics (zahidun) wear the asceticism clothing. Those who fear Allah (mouttaqqun) wear the piety clothing (Taqwa); the Saints wear the sainthood clothing; the Prophets wear the prophecy clothing and finally the Messengers wear the clothing of those who bring of a divine revelation. Each of those clothings have hidden and visible part. The hidden part is made beautiful for the Divine Look while the visible (external) part is made beautiful to be the shelf of the Divine Law (shari’a).
In each clothing, there is a part for mankind but the piety clothing has no part for ego (nafs). The common clothings are for common people, while the divine clothings are for those who were extinguished in Allah and were dressed with His Attributes. And All clothings always finish by extinguishing itself in the divine clothing.
This is why the Messenger of Allah ﷺ makes reference to His Maqam which gives Him the right to dress the Attributes of Allah and His Light, in the hadith: “He who saw me, he has seen the True One (al Haqq).”
The words youwariy saw’atikum [to conceal your private parts] show that according to the reality of the preeternal Lights, we are all undressed as it would be for your carnal envelope if you do not cover up. It is therefore appropriate that you cover up your carnal enveloppe with the preeternal clothing, your ignorance with the Knowledge clothing and your state of servitude with the Seigneury clothing.
Imam al Wasiti (rahimahu Allah) said that the word saw’ah which is translated as “Nudity”, refers to ignorance and the words “as adornment” refer to the servant who dresses the piety clothing, because the piety clothing is a protection against the ruse of The Jealous One. Taqwa is the clothing of the heart and its sign is the virtue. Taqwa is the Adab, the good manners regarding Allah, which is seeing nothing except Allah.
Some people said that the clothing of good guidance is for common people, while the piety clothing is for the elite. The clothing of divine fear (hayba) is for the the Knowers (‘arifun), the refined clothings are for the people of this lowly world (duniya), the clothings of The great Meeting and of the Vision are for the Saints, and the clothings of the divine Presence (hadra) are for the Prophets.
Al Ustadh said that the clothing of the heart is the piety clothing, which indicates the sincerity of the intention of the person through the total abandonment of all worldy (society) desire. The clothing of the soul is a sanctified clothing (taqdis) which consists of leaving and erasing ererything connecting us with this lowly world. The clothing of the Secret (sirr) is made of piety (liban min al Taqwa) which is deniying any cohabitation or existence besides Allah and remembering Him continuously.”
[Tafsir ‘aimra’is al bayan fi haqa’iq el Quran / Imam Baqili]
Choose the dress you want to wear in accordance with your divine aspiration, with your Love for Him, with your Proximity with Him and watch out to pay attention to common people: the contenment of the creatures is totally unattainable. Choose what is lasting over what is destined to disappear. Prefer truth to falsehood. The Muraqqa’a is the heritage of our father Adam (‘alayhi salam), it is the basis and the origin of all clothing. It is the first clothing he wore.
Sayiduna ibn ‘Ajiba (qadassa Allah sirruh) said in his Tafsir about this verse:
“And when they tasted of the tree, their private parts became apparent to them, and they began to fasten together over themselves from the leaves of Paradise.”
[surah al ‘araf, verse 22].
They stitched together the leaves on top of each other to cover up their nudity. It is said that it was leaves coming from a fig tree. Adam (alaihi salam) is the first man who wore the Muraqqa’a.
[tafsir al bahr al madid fi tafsir ilQur’an al Majid]
Furthermore, the Muraqqa’a takes away the one who wears it from places and things which cause Lord’s anger. The Muraqqa’a is for the mureed as fervor and enthusiasm are for the ill person looking for recovery. It prevents the one who is wearing it to enter in places where people give themselves over to their passions, where people are distracted from Allah. So it prevents he who is wearing it to stay with people talking about pointless things.
The Muraqqa’a is the emblem of he who follows the good way and ‘AbdulLah ibn Sarjas al Mazaniy narrates that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Good way, continence and good orientation are one of the eighty parts of Prophecy”.
[Jami’ Tirmidhi, hadith n°1930].
“good way” can have a lot meanings in this hadith.One of those meanings is to allow you to resemble and to follow good and pious people.
What a great Honor to serve one of the ninty parts of Prophecy, to be in this way linked to one part of the blessed words of Tawhid and to be affiliated to one letter of La Ilaha ila Allah, Muhammadan Rassulu Allah which is composed of twenty four letters.
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ wore all the colors. So, Apply yourself and gather on you the sunnah of the Beloved! O you who want His companionship, He will only come to you by you, so stand up and walk to Him. Stop to dither.
Ibn ‘Ata ilLah al Iskandari (radiAllah ‘anhu) said in one of his Hikam: “If you were to be united with Him only after the extinction of your vices and the effacement of your pretensions, you would never be united with Him! Instead, when He wants to unite you to Himself, He covers your attribute with His Attribute and hides your quality with His Quality. And thus He unites you to Himself by virtue of what comes from Him to you, not by virtue of what goes from you to Him.”
So Cover your attributes with His Attributes, cover your ignorance with His Knowledge, cover your debasement with His Honor and Greatness, cover your non existence with His Existence. Cover your darknesses with the Lights of his Attributes, manifested through the colors which compose the Muraqqa’a. In this way, You will access to His proximity and you will reach His Contenment.
