There are many people who have lived many centuries ago, but they have opened doors for the humanity from  the unknown world  and they have told about the facts which never fail.
Socrates and Plato are most probably the most important ones among these...

It is being said that during his time Socrates had a more creative and powerful mind than Plato and had great influence on the young generation, but on the other hand he had attributed Plato’s ideas to himself .
The closeness in their ideas had torn down the wall that exists between two people and had melted the two in the same pot. For this reason it is possible to find in Plato the traces from Socrates.

There has always been a  great interest  for the philosophy of Socrates which is accepted as the beginning point in putting forth the humanly ideas.
 Socrates had spent all his life by talking with the young people who were arround him. His objective was to make the people with whom he had talked doubt (to become uncertain)  about the things that are being known and believed by everybody.

He has two statements  that have reached our time and that are being used by some of  us. One of them  is ‘’The only thing that I know is to know that I don’t know anything’’ and the other statement is ‘’Know yourself’’.    These slogans that were valid in those times are  still important  today. 
As can be understood from these famous statements of  Socrates, he has based his philosophy on ‘’doubt’’ (being doubtful). In this philosophy the underlying objective  is to search for the truth until one finds it, to know and understand the objective and the system of existence.

Socrates invites the humans to perceive the stars and to bring out the meanings that are inherent in them.
He had spent his life not among the politicians, but among  the Greek mystics.

For Socrates the important thing is the human being and knowing the secrets and the limits of  the human being is much more important and meaningful than knowing  the mystery of  the world.
Socrates is one of  the rare people who thinks about the love for  the death in parallel with the love for life and who greets death with a smile. In all of his speeches he had emphasized that lives are  not eternal, but temporary.  His advise was ‘’Please get hold of this philosophy like me ‘’
Plato, who was a friend of  Socrates and who had been a mirror for him  was the son of  a wealthy family, he  had a very good education and he had dealt with mathematics as well as poetry.
He too had been famous with his careful and  simple style of  speech like his master 

These two people have  progressed to certain levels  by  their own free wills. In their lives it is possible to see the traces of  Shams and Mawlana.   Shams had educated and brought Mawlana upto a certain level and in a similar way it was Socrates who had educated Plato.

Following the death of  Socrates the first thing that Plato had done was to leave those people who made everything fall into the hands of  corruption and go around the world.    For twelve years he had got lost in the true sense and  returned  back to Athens as a mature person. Afterwards he became a teacher who had been appreciated and accepted by all.
When he had a conflict with the King Dionysos  he turned his back to the stage of  politics and the society and he went back to his own world. From then on he  spent his life alone by himself. 
According to Plato it is possible for a believing person to find the signs of existence in himself.

Plato had set off  on his path by saying ‘’The ones who give importance to little things are the ones who are not capable of  doing anything’’ and he indeed played big. He has a very peculiar aspect which can be taken as an example in myticism.
This hidden situation had been revealed by Hz. Abd al Karim Jili who was the Universal Man of  his time and the grandson of  Hz.Abd al Karim Gilani.

Before going into the details about this subject we have to give  some little   information.
By means of philosophy (with the help of philosophy) an individual who does not have the light  of  faith may still abolish his conditionings and the veils created by his  habits and his nature. However, abolishing the third veil which is the veil of  the nafs/  the ego and  which is accepted as the principal veil is not within the limits of  his own free will. This veil can only be abolished by  the influences coming from Chiron and received by the  individual on his/her  120^th day  in the mother’s womb.  A person whose self/ ego veil has not got  abolished will go to hell.  This  process of  going  to hell is  a proof showing that the knowledge  that the individual has acquired during his whole life  has been left only at an informative level. 
It can be said that an individual who has the light of  faith will get the returns of   his studies and practices that he has made during his life on earth as a form of life.  On the other hand, an individual who does not have the light of  faith (who has not received the light of faith on his 120^th day as a fetus) in other words  who goes to hell will not be able to get the returns of  what he has done no matter how hard he tries, because they would be left only as knowledeg or at the level of knowledge.

Meanwhile, I  couldn’t go any further in my writing before answering  the following question:
As in the example  of Plato are there people who go to heaven without having made the necessary studies/practices  for knowing themselves, in other words are there people whose veils of  nafs have been abolished?
If so, then what is the condition that they are  in?
It is necessary to tell that such people go through certain purifications in the dimension of  barzakh (isthmus) and enter heaven as an angel, because in heaven there are only angelic structures. However, the purification in the isthmus is  for abolishing the bad  habits only and not for knowing oneself. Therefore, these people will enter the heaven as an angelic structure, but regarding their level of conscious they would still be knowing themselves as humans.  Hz. Rasul of  Allah names  such people as  ‘’Bühl’’ (being unaware, incognizant) and he states that  the majority of heaven would be full with the people in this class.

It would be more appropriate to evaluate the things that have been told above with respect to the  dimension of  plurality.
The aspect of  oneness is  quite  different. The point of  view is  different.  The point of   Hz. Abd al Karim Jili is in a way confirming what has been said.
In his book named as Insan al Kamil (The Universal Man) , in the section of  Suret-I Muhammediye (The Mohammedian Aspect) he says ‘’the ones in hell have countless states of  being  all of  which  are very astonishing’’.
Then he tries to tell about the ones who have fallen into the hell:.
‘’Among these there are  believers and  they have fallen into hell even though they have not  committed  a visible  crime in compliance with the following verse 8/25  that says
‘’especially beware of  the mischief/ the intrigue that  would splash over you from the cruel ones’’.
He then continues ‘’apart from these if we had tried to tell you  about  the ones who are within the dimension of  hell, but by means of  the divine power they have found the truth in a such a way  that even the believers in the world life could not attain it, then many  many volumes would be filled’’ (as there are so many things to tell about them).
As a matter of  fact I have met Plato who is considered as an infidel in the visible realm and I have seen that he has filled the invisible/hidden  universe with light, with brightness.
His position was such that  I have not seen in any  of   the saints    such a position.
I asked him :
-Who are you?
He said ‘’I am the pole (axis) of  the time. I am the first  among the times’’.

As can be seen the statements and explanations about Plato regarding the visible and the invisible aspects are astonishing.
The statements for both aspects have been made by individuals who know the subject well and who are at the  peak. 
One of  them from the point of  the visible aspect says that Plato  has gone into  hell because he could not receive the light of  faith and the other says that he has met Plato in hell. By a more deeper and permanent expression he says that in the circumstances of  hell not all the people who are experiencing the troubles and the burdens  are suffering. On the contrary they shed light to the dimension in which they are in . He says that  even among the saints he could not see any one who had a position like that of Plato’s.  

In such a case we can reach the following conclusion:
The Absolute Being, within the framework of  the verse ‘’İnna külle şey’in halaknahu Bi-Kader’’ Al Kamar/ The Moon/ 49 (We have created everything with a destiny)  surrounds/ covers  everything and there isn’t a place for a god to be worshipped in the meaning of  the name Allah.   Therefore, the Absolute Being watches the circumstances of  hell through  the structures that Hu wishes by decorating them with the meanings that are suitable for  such circumstances.
So, we can say that Plato is  a person chosen for such circumstances. He did not go to heaven  because of  the decree of  destiny and he stayed in hell.  In order for this situation to become  true,  the influences of  the light of belief  had not been  reflected on him  due to the decree of  destiny, and he had to go to hell as a sinner .

I know that the things that I’ve told above  cannot be evaluated immediately. However, I feel that it is necessary for us to think once more about  the  kind of  life  that Plato has in hell ….

Istanbul, February 26th 2002 
http://sufizmveinsan.com