The Hidden Matters

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

The following is extracted from Fi Riyadh at-Tafsir li al-Qur’an al-Karim by Shaykh Ibrahim ibn ‘Abdullah Niyas al-Kawlakhi (q.s.). 

On the ghayb, he wrote that there are two types of hidden matters: That which is hidden from us; and that which we have hidden ourselves from. 

As that which is hidden from us, is the Paradise, the Hellfire, the angels, the damsels of Paradise, the act of Resurrection and that which comes after it.  All of those things are hidden from us, and we believe in them. 

The second type of hidden matters is that which we have hidden ourselves from, and that is the Hadhrah, Presence, of Allah (s.w.t.).  The Hadhrah of Allah (s.w.t.) is not absent; it is Omnipresent and closer to us than anything else.  If you fail to find this Hadhrah, then we are the ones who are absent, not the Hadhrah.