"Prayer is the weapon of a believer." - Muhammad (saw) Prayer is the act of actualizing one's wants through the divine powers present within. There is of course a scientific explanation to this act. Essentially prayer is 'guided brain waves.' Just as the dimension of knowledge transforms into energy and the quantum field to form the universe, the wants and desires of consciousness emanate from the dimension of knowledge to reveal themselves as the wants and desires of man and become actualized through the densification of guided brain waves. Due to this, the stronger the concentration level, the faster the response will be to the prayer. "And he who turns away from My dhikr (the absolute reality of which I have reminded him), indeed, he will have a restricted life (limited by the conditions of his body and mind), and We will resurrect him as blind in the period of Doomsday." Quran 20:124 Since only a very small percentage of the brain is employed while a large part of brain capacity remains unused, dhikr allows the activation of this larger percentage. The bio-electrical energy produced in specific regions in the brain via dhikr spreads to other regions and activates the dormant cells thereby increasing brain activity. Whatever the dhikr is about, the frequency corresponding to that meaning is emanated to the cells and thus brain capacity relevant to that particular meaning is increased.

Why not just Allah? Why Muhammad's Allah? This unique book explains that Allah is not a god (deity) and that this god-concept we have all come to embrace, as a result of misleading information and conditioning, is not the Allah expounded by Muhammad (saw). Everyone, from the most learned to the most ignorant, has a concept of God. A God that we love, get angry with, judge and even accuse, at times, for doing wrong by us! We imagine this God, who sits on a star in the heavens or dwells somewhere in space, to be like a benevolent paternal figure or a majestic sultan! Those with broader views (!) are well aware, of course, that such a God cannot exist and claim they do not believe in a God, proudly declaring themselves as atheists. Whereas, neither the aforementioned believers who postulate a God with their hearsay knowledge and conditionings, nor the atheists who deny and reject the idea of a God, have any awareness of Allah as explained by Muhammad (saw)! So what is the reality of Allah revealed by Muhammad (saw)? Muhammad (saw), who articulated the Quran to us, taught us there is no God, that there is only Allah; that there is a System present within life, by which those who fail to comply, are led to suffer the consequences of their own actions. If we live with the awareness of the existence of an afterlife, our primary concern should be to know Allah and the life awaiting us after death, so that we may prepare accordingly. Taking this into consideration, let us now try to understand the One denoted by the name Allah disclosed by Muhammad (saw).

In this incredible age of increasing awareness and the rise of consciousness, where the intellect is craving to find the answers to the place and purpose of one's existence, we often find ourselves at an intersection of ancient texts and modern science, falling into an array of dichotomies. Decoding the Quran is a unique interpretation, which shows the integration of the two ways, highlighting non-duality of existence, and more importantly how the human being is an integral factor of this Oneness. It employs a holistic approach to the seemingly disconnected events, laws, edicts and commands of God, integrating this miraculous knowledge, to define how and why it is a concern to humans. What is the reality of a human being? Why is mankind reminded of their reality? What does the narrations of past events mean to us in our everyday? How should we understand the metaphors of the Quran? What is awaiting us after death? The answers to these questions, along with how man should understand the One denoted by the name Allah, are the most important and prominent topics covered in the Quran... Since the Quran addresses the whole of humanity throughout all ages as guidance to the truth, this particular construal has been done in the light of the realities of today.

The Essence of Man is a re-evaluation, or perhaps a renovation, of what has for centuries been indisputably accepted as the fundamental teachings of Islam. By deconstructing the outer conventional meanings of the many religious or, more specifically, Islamic labels and concepts, the reader is taken to explore the underlying universal meanings of the symbols and metaphors of their faith, and hence the essence of their self. What is the purpose of religion? What is Sufism? What state of existence lies beyond death? Who or what is referenced by the name 'Allah'? What was the ultimate reality Muhammad (saw) wanted to share with mankind? Why does one have to engage in certain practices and comply with the sunnah? How can one escape 'duality' and advance to higher states of consciousness? And, most important of all, what is the essence of all of these 'essential teachings' man has been advised to follow? Through a compilation of various writings and talks, Ahmed Hulusi takes his readers back to the core and redefines what it means to be a Muslim.

It is an overwhelming experience of perfection and beauty to witness the "oneness," i.e., the "reality," perceived as intuition or "revelation" by those in the past and relayed through allegories and metaphors, arriving at the same truth with scientific findings.. As exquisitely and descriptively as one may talk about "What beauty is," ultimately its meaning can be as diverse and numerous as its admirers. Yet no matter how infinitely various its expressions and experience may be, the concept of beauty will always remain one. In a much similar way, although God can be defined in as many different ways as His manifestations, by essence He is One. It is this Oneness, expressed in diverse ways, hence bringing about the seeming multiplicities, that is denoted by the title The Observing One. In other words, the Observing One is the essence of all the multitudinous manifestations in the corporeal world, and His infinitely various expressions is His act of observing Himself. This act of observing, according to Ahmed Hulusi, is what each individual should strive to experience. That is, to experience God, one must realize the illusionary nature of the constructed self and disable its interference, thereby becoming a conduit of God's interminable acts. Ahmed Hulusi profoundly deconstructs both the idea of a God up in the heavens, and His representative deities on earth, and urges his readers to embark on an inward quest to discover "God within." Compiled mostly of recorded conversations made in 1989, this book is a notable example of the author's ingenious and unconventional construal of classical religious teachings. Anyone, who has a spiritual yearning and an appetite for mysticism and who at the same time is an unfaltering intellectualist, is bound to enjoy reading this book. Integrating Islamic theology, in particular the esoteric teachings of Sufism, with the findings of modern science, this book enables the reader to observe the universe within. A few things the reader should take into consideration while reading this book: 1. Although God transcendentally surpasses any gender, the masculine pronoun 'He' has been employed in this book, not only because using 'It' would be inappropriate and disrespectful, but also because 'He' is the closest realistic translation of the Arabic word 'Hu', which has no connotation of gender when used in reference to the Divine. 2. The Names of God referenced throughout the book should not be understood as titles of God, but rather as the intrinsic qualities of the Essence of existence from which the infinite modalities of the manifest world are derived. Allah, being the Supreme Name, encompasses all of these qualities and attributes -both the manifest and the unexpressed- and is used in this book to denote this reality, rather than "a god" out there that is separate from the cosmos. In this light, the word God is deliberately avoided in this book and the original name Allah, as mentioned in the Quran, is used instead. However, just as it is true for the word "God," the word "Allah" also holds predetermined notions of "an external god" and this is inescapable for many people. Due to this, the author frequently uses phrases like "the existence that is denoted by the name Allah" to draw the readers' attention to the fact that Allah is merely a name indicating an infinite existence beyond all preconceived and preconditioned ideas. Thus, it is this existence that the reader is encouraged to contemplate, in reference to the name Allah.