Living Between The Lines

Surah ikhlas

1-“Bismillahir Rehmanir Rahim”

Simah means to put a mark of Allah on yourself.(In At-Tawheed, quoting Imam ar-Rida (as) it is stated that when he was asked to explain the bismillah , he said: " When one says "bismillah" [in the name of Allah], he means: I put on myself a simah [mark] of Allah's simahs, which is worship". Asked: "What is simah?" He said: "It is the mark" )

The mark above the body shows this.

2-“Say: He, Allah, is One,”

A straight vertical line that means Oneness.

3- “Allah, the Eternal,"

(The word Samad has such a vast meaning that it cannot be explained here in simple words. Explaining the meaning of it, Imam Hussain(as) wrote:

“..Yes, Allah is 'samad' Who is not from anything and is not in anything or on anything; He is the Creator of everything and all are from Him by His Power; what He has created to perish will perish at His Will, and what He has created to remain will remain in His Knowledge. This is Allah; al-Samad"

A continuous horizontal line to show no start and no end.

4-“He begets not, nor He is begotten.”

A single dot to show He alone is One.

5-“And there is none like unto Him.”

Filled box shows that the whole world is Him. Nothing other than Him and nothing like Him.

Now summer is gone. And might never have been. In the sunshine it’s warm. But there has to be more.

It all came to pass, All fell into my hands Like a five-petalled leaf, But there has to be more.

Nothing evil was lost, Nothing good was in vain, All ablaze with clear light But there has to be more.

Life gathered me up Safe under its wing, My luck always held, But there has to be more.

Not a leaf was burnt up Not a twig ever snapped

Clean as glass is the day, But there has to be more.