The Five Trees of Paradise

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” - The Holy Bible, Book of John, Chapter 15, Verses 1-2

These were the words spoken by Jesus Christ, the son of Mary. Throughout the Gospels he would call the people to God, the Father, yet simultaneously he would call people to himself, not out of a desire for fame, fortune, or prestige, but because it was in the best interest of the people to do so. Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said:

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” (Bible, Book of Mark, Chapter 8, Verses 34-38)

Yet we find Jesus at times speaking in parables, symbols, and metaphors.

“I am the bread of life.” (Bible, Book of John, Chapter 6, Verse 35)

“I am the bread that came down from heaven.” (Bible, Book of John, Chapter 6, Verse 41)

“I am the light of the world.” (Bible, Book of John, Chapter 8, Verse 12)

“I am the gate.” (Bible, Book of John, Chapter 10, Verse 9)

“I am the good shepherd.” (Bible, Book of John, Chapter 10, Verse 11)

And as we read earlier, he describes himself as “the true vine”. It’s clear that the knowledge Jesus was calling people to was foreign and disturbing to his people; however, his sayings and teachings were preserved by those who desired to have them destroyed, secret sayings which have survived the test of time.

“These are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas recorded. And he said, “Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death.” Jesus said, “Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all. ” (Gospel of Thomas, Sayings 0-2)

The Church had sought to destroy the Gospel of Thomas along with many other manuscripts and writings attributed to Jesus Christ, in the deserts of Upper Egypt in a town called Nag Hammadi, in December 1945, this ancient Gospel along with many other ancient manuscripts would once again see the light of day and challenge the mainstream narratives of Christianity. Jesus said,

"Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden from you will be disclosed to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. [And there is nothing buried that will not be raised.]" (Gospel of Thomas, Saying 5)

Jesus mentioned that if we find the interpretations of these sayings, we would not taste death. And the only time we see Jesus mentioning it again, he tells us exactly where to look and what leads humanity to salvation. The disciples said to Jesus,

"Tell us, how will our end come?" Jesus said, "Have you found the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is. Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death." Jesus said, "Congratulations to the one who came into being before coming into being. If you become my disciples and pay attention to my sayings, these stones will serve you. For there are five trees in Paradise for you; they do not change, summer or winter, and their leaves do not fall. Whoever knows them will not taste death." (Gospel of Thomas, Sayings 18-19)

According to Jesus, we are not saved by his death on the cross, nor through grace by belief in him alone, rather, there are five trees that we need to know about. In Christian scriptures, there is no way for us to identify those trees, and there exists no unanimous agreement regarding the interpretation of the five trees. To this day, the Christians and Gnostics have been perplexed regarding these words. However, we do find a major hint within Islam. There is a book called Umm Al-Kitab, it is an ancient manuscript which showcases a very secretive and esoteric conversation which takes place between the successor and grandson of Prophet Mohammed, the Fifth Imam, Mohammed Al-Baqir and his Companion Jabir Al-Jofi. Imam Al-Baqir reveals those five trees with five beings upon those trees in the highest heaven, the original pure world:

“In branches of the trees the royal phoenix sat, and in its shade were young men and boys. The white falcon, Duldul, Boraq, and the lion adorned this white sphere.” (Gnosticism in Islam, Heinz Halm, p. 112)

We now see there is a link between the secret sayings of Imam Al-Baqir, the successor of Prophet Mohammed, and Jesus Christ taking place in front of us. We have these five creatures upon these trees. It doesn’t stop there, as we went over before, Jesus referred to himself as a vine, the true vine; just as he is using a plant to symbolize himself, could it be possible that the trees and creatures which Imam Al-Baqir and Jesus spoke be symbols or reflections of people? In Islam we have many narrations that point to that fact. Jesus clearly asked his disciples “Have you found the beginning?” Therefore, let's go back to the beginning, let's go where all Abrahamic faiths agree with, the story of Adam and Eve. In the Garden we see God forbids Adam and Eve from eating from a particular tree, mainstream thought would have it that this tree is a literal tree. However, knowing what we know now, it’s safe to say that such an assumption needs to be verified. Imam Al-Hassan Al-Askari, the Eleventh Imam said regarding the verse of the Qur’an:

“ ‘And do not approach this tree.’ It is the tree of knowledge of Mohammed and the Family of Mohammed.” (Exegesis of Al-Imam Al-Askari, Attributed to Al-Imam Al-Askari, p. 221)

Imam Al-Ridha, the Eighth Imam also confirms that this tree is not what people think, he said:

“It is not like the trees of the world.” (Bihar Al-Anwar, Al-Allamah Al-Majlisi, Vol. 11, p. 165)

In one of the prayers narrated from the Ahlul-Bayt we read:

“We are the tree of Prophethood and the location of the message and we are the place that the angels return to...”  (Nahjul-Balagha, Sermons of Imam Ali, Vol. 1, p. 215)

Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq revealed in his book “The Goal of the Wise” the interpretation of the word “tree”:

We also see that in reference to the tree in the Qur’an, God states: “Have you not considered how Allah presents an example, [making] a good word like a good tree, whose root is firmly fixed and its branches [high] in the sky?” (Qur’an, Chapter 14 (Ibrahim), Verse 24)

“It is clear that the word “tree” is a metaphor for words, and the complete words of God are Mohammed and the Family of Mohammed. Furthermore, the Holy Household of the Prophet interpreted the good tree to be Mohammed and the Family of Mohammed, and they interpreted the cursed tree in the Qur’an to also not be like the trees of the Earth, but rather, they interpreted it to be the Umayyad dynasty. Therefore, we may conclude from all this that the tree which Adam approached and which he was forbidden from was not a literal tree at all, but rather it pointed to a person.” (The Goal of the Wise, Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq, Door 1, p. 3)

So who was this person who cost Adam and Eve their residency in Paradise? Could it have been someone from the Family of Mohammed? It was narrated from Ibn Abdus who narrated from Ibn Qutaiba who narrated from Hamdan ibn Sulaiman who narrated from Al-Harwi who said: 

I said to Al-Ridha: “O son of the Messenger of God, tell me about the tree that Adam and Eve ate from, what was it? People have differed regarding this; some have said that it was wheat, others have said it was a grape tree, and others state that it was the tree of envy.” So he replied: “All of that is true.” So I said: “What does it mean that all the plants and trees that I mentioned are similar even though they are different?” So he said, “O Aba Al-Salt, the trees of the garden carried different types of fruit, so it was a wheat tree and it had in it grapes and it was not like the trees of the Earth, and verily when God honored Adam by commanding the angels to prostrate to him and by making him enter the garden, Adam said to himself: ‘Did God ever create a human being better than me?’ And God knew what fell into his heart, and so God called upon him and said, ‘O Adam, raise your head and look at the leg of my throne.’ And so Adam looked up and found that it was written on the leg of God’s throne: ‘There is no God but God, and Mohammed is the Messenger of God, Ali ibn Abi Talib is the Prince of the Believers and his wife Fatimah is the Mistress of all the Women of the Worlds, and Al-Hassan and Al-Hussein are the Masters of  the Youth of Paradise.’ And so Adam said: ‘O Lord, who are those?’ God responded, saying: ‘They are descendants of yours to come and they are better than you and better than all of My creation and if it were not for them, I would not have created you nor would I have created heaven or hell nor would I have created the sky or the earth. Do not ever look at them with the eye of envy or else I shall remove you from My side.’ But Adam envied them and he wished for their rank and position and so the devil went against him and lured him until he ate from the forbidden tree. And the devil lured Eve because she envied Fatimah Al-Zahra so she ate from the tree like Adam did, and so God expelled them from His Garden and made them go out to the earth.” (Bihar Al-Anwar, Al-Allamah Al-Majlisi, Vol. 11, pp. 164-165)

We can see in this narration that the reason why Adam and Eve were cast out of Paradise was not that they ate a piece of fruit, but rather it was because they envied Fatimah Al-Zahra, who was the tree. Now, many might think to themselves that Mohammed, Ali, Fatimah, Al-Hassan and Al-Hussein did not come into existence until the 7th Century. So how is it possible that they were created? However, such a concept is not foreign in the gospels:

“Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” (Bible, Book of John, Chapter 8, Verse 58)

So if people believe that it is possible for Jesus to have existed before Abraham only to incarnate in the world much later, then is it not possible that those five trees in Paradise would also incarnate into this world in the flesh as Jesus did? Mohammed ibn Sinan narrated from Ibn Abbas who said: 

We were with the Prophet of God and Ali ibn Abi Talib approached. The Prophet said to him, “Greetings to the one whom God created before the creation of his father by forty thousand years.” So we said: “O Prophet of God, was the son before the father?” So he said: “Yes, verily God created me and Ali from one light before the creation of Adam by this time period, then God divided that light into two halves, then He created everything from my light and the light of Ali, then He made us abide to the right of His throne, and we glorified Him and then the angels glorified Him, and we praised Him and so they praised Him, and we worshiped Him and so they worshiped Him, and thus all those who praised and worshiped Him learned how to do so from Ali.” (Bihar Al-Anwar, Al-Allamah Al-Majlisi, Vol. 25, p. 24)

The Ahlul-Bayt also include Fatimah in the equation and reveal that not only did Mohammed and Ali exist before creation, but that Fatimah pre-existed them both. In one hadith God says to Mohmmed:

"O Ahmed (Mohammed), were it not for you, I would not have created the celestial spheres; were it not for Ali, I would not have created you; and were it not for Fatimah, I would not have created you both." (Al-Asrar Al-Fatimiyyah, Shaykh Muhammad Fadil Al-Masudi, p. 231)

Now with all that being said, let's go back to those beings that Imam Al-Baqir revealed upon the trees of Paradise, the Falcon, Duldul, Boraq, Phoenix and Lion. Who are these five that if we know them that we would have eternal life? Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq revealed in the episodes of the Hall of Mysteries titled: “The 7 Heavens Are Not What You Think”, the names of those five trees in paradise.

He revealed that the Lion is a reflection of the light of Fatimah Al-Zahra, the Boraq is a reflection of the light of Mohammed, the White Falcon is a reflection of the light of Al-Hassan, the Mighty Phoenix is a reflection of the light of Al-Hussein and the Mule Duldul is a reflection of the light of Ali.

The interpretations of the words of Jesus have finally come through the Mahdi, these five trees were Mohammed and his Family, the five trees whose knowledge grants life. To know them is not merely to know their names, but to recognize their right, their pre-existence, and their authority as the vessels of God.

Adam fell not because he ate a fruit, but because he failed to uphold the proper recognition of those greater than himself. Humanity repeats that error whenever it denies and rejects those trees from paradise. For over 1400 years, the Muslim world has done nothing except violate the sanctity of those trees and cut them down. Today, there is only one that calls to those trees and to the path of their knowing, Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq, the promised savior and Mahdi as mentioned by the trees of Paradise.