Archangel Gabriel

A section from John Renard’s book All the King’s Falcons, Rumi on Prophets and Revelation concerning the Archangel Gabriel, his position, and a description of him.

Since the Creation, the angel Gabriel has been God’s emissary to earth.  When God commissioned the angel to go and collect a handful of earth for Adam’s body, the earth dissuaded Gabriel from his mission by telling him he was meant for greater things.  He was, said the earth, the greatest of the four angelic Throne bearers because of his superior awareness.  He would become the messengers’ messenger for he was the “life of the spirit of revelation,” possessed of knowledge from the tablet of divine decrees.  Because he was a “mine of reverence and respect,” Gabriel honored the earth’s plea in God’s name not to embroil her in human affairs.  God then sent Michael in his place (V:299, H.317, 1556-80).

Gabriel’s next task, that of ushering the fallen Adam from Paradise (V:962-6), was not a pleasant one; but thereafter Gabriel became for all the prophets a bringer of “apples from paradise” (V:2540) in the form of revelation (III:3583).  If a prophet felt, as Abraham did, that the angels intermediacy was unnecessary (III:4215-18; IV:H.2173-77), or where there was simple no room for him between the prophet and God, as during Muhammad’s Ascension, Gabriel withdrew (I:2953).  The angel escorted Jesus and Idris on their heavenward journeys (VI:2964ff.), put power into the incantation of Jesus and Moses (D:738:4), and Jesus was “produced from the breath of Gabriel” (V:3982).  Mawlana’s most remarkable description of Gabriel occurs in two texts in which the angel visits Mary.  So beautiful that Joseph himself would have cut his hand, Gabriel “blossomed from the earth like a rose before her- like a fantasy that lifts its head from the heart” (III:3705-6).  The angel describes himself in a later text as the “trusted” of the Lord and a “king and standard-bearer in nonexistence.”  Rumi continues the heart image as Gabriel addresses Mary:

O Mary, look (well), for I am a difficult form (to apprehend): I am both a new moon and fantasy in the heart.

When a fantasy comes into your heart and settles, it is with you wheresoever you flee-

Except an unsubstantial and vain fantasy which is one that sinks like the false dawn.

I am the light of the Lord like the true dawn, for no night prowls around my day.

To Muhammad, Gabriel was a comforter on Mt. Hira (V:H 3535-41), deliverer of wahy and of the Qur’an (F 171/163; I:2539).  He ministered not only to the Prophet, but to others on behalf of the Prophet, as in the story of the suckling infant who addressed the Messenger.  When the child’s mother scolded and asked whence came its verbal proficiency, the following dialogue ensued:

“… God taught (me), then Gabriel: I am Gabriel’s accompanist in (this) declaration.”

She said, “Where is (Gabriel)?”  It replied, “(I see him) shining above you like a perfect full-moon.

He is teaching me the qualities of the Messenger and delivering me by means of that sublimity from this degradation.”  (III:H.3220-23)

Gabriel’s power, derived from his vision of the Creator, was such that the dust from his horses’ hoof could make the golden calf low at Sinai.  His wings are the prototype of saintly “reason.”  Reason alone, however, is limited.  There remains a truth that even Gabriel does not know, and that would singe his wings (I:1732).  One who does know that truth, the ‘arif, is a thousand Gabriels in human form (VI:4584).  Gabriel longs to carry off even the tears of such a knower’s eye and rub them on his own wings and beak (IV:2645-46).  Unfortunately for the angel, once the spirit of Ahmad has “bitten the lip” of a knower, Gabriel can come no nearer lest he be lost in the flames (IV:1888-90).  Many more images of Gabriel in the Diwan fill out Rumi’s picture of the angel in essence and in action.

The last paragraph of the quotation reminds me of the late spiritual master of irfan/tasawwuf, Ayatollah Muhammad Taqi Bahjat (q.s.) who recently passed away on the 17th of May, 2009.  May God preserve his heart, bless him, and raise him with those whom he loves on the Final Day.

Some wisdom from Mawlana Rumi

From the book Sufi Path of Love – The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, written by Prof. William Chittick.

“May He who brought all the causes of the East and the West into existence cause us to meet again.  For He provided causes to make us from a drop of sperm.  It had neither ears, nor awareness, nor intellect, nor eyes, neither the attribute of kingliness nor that or servanthood; it knew neither heartache nor joy, neither abasement nor greatness.  He gave that unaware drop a home in the womb and made it into blood through a subtle process.  Then He coagulated and congealed that blood and, in that private house, made it into new flesh without hear or organ.  He opened the door of the mouth, the eyes, and the ears.   He provided a tongue and then, behind the mouth, the treasury of the breast.  WIthin it He placed the hart, which is both a drop and a world, a pearl and an ocean, a servant and a king.  Whose intellect could have comprehended that He would bring us forth from that lowly and unaware region to this one?  God says, “You have seen and heard from whence to wher I have brought you.  Now I tel you that I will take you out from this earth and heaven to an earth finer than raw silver and a heaven that cannot be contained in imagination or description because of its spirit-augmenting power and subtlety.  The revolution of that heaven makes no young man decrepit or new thing old; nothing rots or decays, nothing dies; no person awake ever sleeps, since sleep is for the sake of rest and the xpulsion of fatigue, but ther no fatigue exists, nor any weariness.

If you do not believe God’s words, then think about that drop of sperm:  Suppose you said to it, “God possesses a world outside of this darkness, within which are a heaven, a sun and a moon, countries, cities, and gardens.  In it are His servants, some of whom are kings; some are wealthy, some healtyh, some afflicted and blind.  So fear how you leave this dark house, oh drop of sperm!  Which one will you be?”  That sperm drop’s imagination and intellect would not have believed this story.  How could it accept that other than darkness and bloody nourishment another world and food exist?  So be sure that it would be heedless and deny.  Yet it could not escape.  It would be pulled and dragged outside.  (MK 39: 43-44/99)”

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Absolutely stunning perception by Mawlana Rumi.