Al-Ba’ith
The Awakener
Exalted and Glorious
And surely, the Hour is coming, there is no doubt about it; and certainly, Allah will resurrect those who are in the graves. (22:7)
This name is an attribute of Allah, it means One Who Awakens, Allah has also sent messengers with glad tidings and warnings. Allah is called the Awakener because He shall indeed raise His creatures after their death.
By reciting this sacred name of Allah 100 times every night before going to sleep, divine enlightenment will lead its way to your heart. If a person has been wrongly accused, reciting Ya Ba’ith 7070 times may save him.
‘Abdul Ba’ith is the one who has died before dying, and through his knowledge, he is able to revive dead hearts, which have been killed by ignorance.
Al-Ba’ith is the Arouser – He who will awaken the creation on the day of resurrection. He Who is the Dispatcher of His messengers to His slaves, and Who is the All-Giving to them, and the Awakener of their help. So if Allah informs you of your arousing after your death, then act in awe of that day.
From: The Meanings of the Names of Our Lord by Shaykh Muhammad Sa’id al-Jamal ar-Rifa’i Head of the Higher Sufi Council in Jerusalem and the Holy Land Teacher at the Dome of the Rock (al-Aqsa)
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He is the Raiser of the dead. Allah al-Ba’ith will give life back to all of creation on the Day of Judgment. He will raise people from their graves and bring out all the actions, thoughts, and feelings that occurred during their lifetimes on this earth. This attribute of Allah is so important that recognizing it is one of the seven affirmations of faith, its last condition for the faithful must declare their belief that they will be brought back to life after their death. This is true. It is real. It will certainly happen. Allah has made this Truth known in all the books He has revealed and through all the prophets He has sent. In the Holy Qur’an, almost all the chapters have some mention of it.
And the Hour is coming, there is no doubt about it; and Allah will raise up those who are in the graves (Surah Hajj 7)
From it [the earth] We created you, and into it, We shall return you, and from it raise you a second time (Surah Ta Ha 55)
Allah is He Who created you, then He sustained you, then He will cause you to die, then bring you to life (Surah Rum 40)
How are we to realize the meaning of al-Ba’ith while we think that we come into this life from nothing and nowhere, and go after death into nothing and nowhere? Death is not “nothing,” neither is the revival after death like our birth. After death, there is the life of the tomb, which is either a pit of the fire of Hell or a rose garden from the rose garden of paradise. The dead are either tortured beings in misery or blessed beings in bliss: they are not extinguished into nothingness.
The Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.s.) stood on the edge of the pit where the enemies of Allah who had fought him at the battle of Badr were buried, and said in a loud voice, “I have now seen that [victory] which my Lord promised me. Are you also seeing that [punishment] which your Lord promised you?” When his followers asked him, “How could you talk with those who are dead and gone?” the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.s.) said, “They hear what I say to them better than you can, only they are not able to answer.”
And Allah, addressing the martyrs of the battle of Uhud, revealed the following verses:
And think not of those who are killed in Allah’s way as dead. Nay, they are alive being provided sustenance from their Lord. Rejoice in what Allah has given them out of His grace, and they rejoice for the sake of those who, [being left] behind them, have not yet joined them, that they have no fear, nor shall they grieve (Surah Al ‘Imran 168-169).
The revival after death is not like birth. Neither are coming into this world and returning after death the only instances of receiving life. That is why Allah says,
Were We then worn out by the first creation? Yet they are in doubt about renewed creation? (Surah Qaf 15)
Within this life are many deaths and revivals. How often the soul loses its control of the flesh and again regains it! It even happens medically: people die and are revived. Within your body, cells are continually dying and new ones are being born. Don’t you see that in all these cases what dies and is revived is only the flesh? The soul is eternal.
To deny things that we have not experienced, that we do not know, is in human nature. Because in this life we have not experienced the Hereafter, nor the returning to life after death, we do not believe in them. A child who has not come to the age of discernment and who has not yet burnt his hand will refuse to believe that fire is hot. If he believes his mother and does not touch the fire, he is a happy baby. To have faith in things we have not experienced here and cannot understand is to have faith in the unseen. This is the key to bliss.
Do not be of the unbelieving, like Ubayy ibn Khalaf, who crushed decayed old bones between his fingers and threw them in our Master’s face, saying, “So you claim that He will revive these rotten bones?”
The Holy Prophet said, “Indeed, so will He recreate you, so that He will put you in His fire.”
On that occasion, the following verses were revealed:
Says he, Who will give life to the bones when they are rotten? Say: He will give life to them, who brought them into existence at first, and He is the knower of all creation (Surah Ya Sin 78-79)
Allah’s promise to bring you back to life on the Day of Judgment is sure. You are going to die the way you lived, and you are going to be revived the way you died. Whatever you sow here, you will reap in the Hereafter. Choose the seeds of good deeds. Till the ground with your efforts. Water your seeds with your tears of love and compassion and warm your fields with the divine light reflected upon the mirror of your clean heart. Do not forget that Allah in His Holy Qur’an likened ‘ilm, knowledge, to hayyat, life, and jahl, ignorance, to mawat, death. Whoever revives himself from the death of ignorance into the life of knowledge, or whoever helps another to be reborn into knowledge from the dark tomb of ignorance, will then see the manifestation of al-Ba’ith and truly believe it.
‘Abd al-Ba’ith is the one whose egotism, lust, fleshly desires, and love of the world have been killed, and whose heart has been purified and revived into eternal life. He has “died before dying” and is able to revive, through his knowledge and wisdom, dead hearts which have been killed by ignorance.
If a person is able to recognize that he is heedless and loose in living according to Allah’s prescriptions, and knows that he does not fear Allah’s punishment, but still suffers from this state and wishes to change, he should recite this Name often. Then he will fear, love, and hope for Allah’s compassion and change his ways.
If someone is wrongly accused, reciting ya Ba’ith 7070 times may save him.
From: The Name & the Named by Shaykh Tosun Bayrak al-Jerrahi al-Halveti
