Translation: Presence of the Friends of Allah in Multiple Places at Once
Question: Can the Friends of Allah (awliya) be present in multiple places at the same time?
Answer from Ahmad: If they will, they can accept invitations in ten thousand cities at once, appearing in ten thousand places in the same moment.
Question: This seems to imply that the “bodily images” (ajsām mithāliyyah) from the “world of images” (‘ālam al-mithāl) are subject to the Awliyā’, therefore one individual is seen in multiple places at one time.
But if this is the case, then it raises a doubt, because a mithl (likeness or image) is something other than the original thing. The existence of an image is not the existence of the thing itself. So would not the presence of those bodies be something other than the presence of the actual body?
Answer from Ahmad: If these are amthāl (image-forms), they are of the body. But their pure soul becomes connected to all of these bodies and acts through them. Therefore, by way of the soul and the inner reality, it is the same single person who is present in each place. This is an explanation suited to outward understanding.
But in Sabʿa Sunābil Sharīf, it is written that our Fath Muhammad, was physically present in ten different gatherings at the same time. And someone once said to him, “You have promised to be present in ten different places at the same moment. How is this possible?”
He replied, “Krishna, the son of Devaki, appeared in hundreds of places at once. So what wonder is it if Fath Muhammad is in several places at the same time?” (Sabʿa Sunābil Silsilah Shasham, p. 170)
After mentioning this, it is said: “Do you think the Shaykh was present in one place and that the rest were just images?
Never! Rather, the Shaykh himself was truly present in each of those places. The secrets of the inner realm are beyond outward understanding. Mere surface thinking is misguiding.”
Malfūẓāt A‘lā Ḥaḍrat Page 167-177
