world that now is, or in that which is to come. The final Cause1 of all this process is the realization or manifestation of the perfection of the Divine names, which is termed jalā and istijlā. Jalā signifies their outward manifestation according to their various modes; and istijlā their display to the Deity Himself, according to these same modes. Jala is a visible and intelligible manifestation or representation, just as the whole is represented by its parts. Contrariwise, the perfection of the Divine Essence is the manifestation of the One Real Being to Himself, for Himself, without relation to anything beside Himself. This is a secret and intelligible manifestation.

Absolute self-sufficiency is a quality involved in Divine Perfection. It signifies this, that in a general and universal manner all the modes, states, and aspects of the One Real Being with all their adherent properties and qualities, in all their presentations, past, present, or future, manifested in all grades of substances, Divine and mundane, are present and realized in the secret thought of that Divine Being, in such wise that the sum of them all is contained in His Unity. From this point of view He is independent of all other existences, as it is said, "God most glorious can do without the world" 2

The robe of Love is independent, free
From need to soil, with dust its purity;

When Actor and Spectator are the same

What means this we" and thou"? There is

"sensible world of phenomena apprehended by the senses—‘ālam i 'ilmi as opposed to ‘ālam i ‘ainī.

1 In Aristotle's language the end (telos) of a thing is its

i.e. the reason of its existence.

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2 Koran, xxix, 5.

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final cause

3 Cf. Omar Khayyām, Quatrain 475, and Gulshan i Rāz, p. 15, l. 143.

"He [God] is at once seer and thing seen."

All modes and attributes of Very Being
Are realized and present in that Being;

To see them He needs not contingent beings :
'Tis the contingent needs the Very Being.

2

He needs not to see good and ill set out,
The One needs not to count its numbers out;
The Truth can view all things within Himself;
What need, then, to review them all without ?

Flash XVIII

1

When you abstract the appearances and characteristics of the individual which constitute the various species included in the genus "animal", the individuals are gathered up into their respective species. When, again, you abstract the characteristics of each species, i.e. their "differences" and "properties", all such species are gathered up into the reality of the genus "animal ". Again, when you abstract the characteristics of the genus "animal" and those of all other genera included in the higher genus "growing body", all such genera coalesce under that genus "growing body". So when you abstract the characteristics of "growing body", and all other genera included along with it under the higher genus "body", all such genera are united in the reality of the genus "body". Furthermore, when you abstract the characteristics of "body" and those of all other genera included therewith in the higher genus "substance", to

1 Contingent being is opposed to necessary being. It is, so to speak, unreal matter permeated with Real Being. "It thus is, and is not, and partakes both of existence and of non-existence," as Jowett says.

2 So Manṣur-i-Ḥallāj: “The numbers of Unity are only the counting of Unity."

The controversy of realism and nominalism raged among Moslems as well as among European Schoolmen (see Schmölders, Documenta, etc., p. 3). Jāmī was evidently a realist. He holds genus and similar general terms to be actual realities (ma‘nī), and not mere names. The whole argument in this section rests on the assumption that these genera are real entities.

wit, the "intelligences" and "souls", all such genera will be united in the reality of the higher genus "substance"; so when you abstract the characteristics distinctive of "substance" and "accident", these two genera are united into the [reality of the genus] "contingent". Finally, when you abstract the characteristic distinctions of " contingent" and "necessary ", these two are united in the "Absolute Existence", which is the veritable Being, existing of Himself, and not through another being beyond Himself. "Necessity" is His external quality, and "Contingency His internal quality-i.e. they are the "archetypal ideas "1 generated by His self-revelation to Himself when assuming His "modes".

are

All these distinctions, whether called "difference" and property" or "appearances" and "characteristics", are "Divine Modes", contained and involved in the "Unity of the One Real Being". First, these modes represented under the form of the "archetypal ideas" in the stage called the "Divine Thought" (or knowledge);2 in the next place, in the stage of the "sensible world", when clothed with the properties and attributes of external existence-which is the theatre of manifestation, a mirror reflecting the inner Divine Being-these modes assume the forms of external objects.

It follows, therefore, that in the external world there is only One Real Being, who, by clothing Himself with different modes and attributes, appears to be endued with multiplicity and plurality to those who are confined in the narrow prison of the "stages", and whose view is limited to visible properties and results.

1-Aʻyān i thābitah, the "Ideas" of Plato's "Intelligible World", the archetypes or patterns of all things in the external and "sensible world". In the system of Plotinus these ideas are all contained in the first emanation, reason (nous). Jāmī expresses intelligible world" by ‘ālam i ‘ilm, and "sensible world" by ‘ālam i ‘ain.

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2 Martaba i 'ilm, i.e. ‘aql i kull, nous, or Logos, the first epiphany or emanation.

Creation's book I studied from my youth,
And every page examined, but in sooth

I never found therein aught save the "Truth
And attributes that appertain to "Truth".
What mean Dimension, Body, Species,
In Mineral, Plant, Animal degrees?

The "Truth" is single, but His modes beget
All these imaginary entities.

Flash XIX

When one says that the multiplicity of things is comprehended in the Unity of the One Real Being, this does not mean that they are the parts contained in an aggregate, or as objects contained in a receptacle, but that they are as the qualities inherent in the object qualified or as consequences flowing from their cause. Take, for instance, the half, the third, the fourth, and other fractions up to infinity, which are potentially 1 contained in the integer, one, though not actually manifested until they are exposed to view by repeating the various numbers and fractions.

1

It follows from this that when one says that the Truth" most glorious comprehends all beings, the meaning is that He comprehends them as a cause comprehends its consequences, not that He is a whole containing them as His parts, or a vase containing things within it. God is too exalted above everything which is unworthy to touch the threshold of His holiness.2

These modes 3 are in the essence of the Truth",
Like qualities which qualify the "Truth";

But part and whole, container and contained,
Exist not where God is, who is the "Truth".

1 Potentiality and actuality are two of Aristotle's forms of thought, dunamis and energeia (quwat and fi'l).

2 God pervades everything, but everything is not God. Thus the strict Monism of some previous statements is considerably toned down. 3 Sha'n. The "Modalists" used the term "modes" to indicate differences of form appearing in the One Substance (Harnack, On Dogma, iii, 53), and thus to avoid ditheism.

Flash XX

The manifestation or concealment of the modes and facets-in other words, the circumstance that the outward aspect of Being does or does not clothe Himself with them

-causes no change in the "substance" of such Being or in His essential attributes, but only a change in His connexions and relations, which, in fact, necessitates no change in His essence. For instance, if 'Amr gets up from the right of Zaid and goes and sits down on his left the relation of Zaid to 'Amr in respect to position will be changed, but his essence and his inherent qualities will remain unchanged.

Thus, the One Real Being underlying all outward existence does not become more perfect by clothing Himself with noble forms, nor does He degrade Himself by manifestation in inferior theatres. Although the light of the sun illuminates at once the clean and the unclean, yet it undergoes no modifications in the purity of its light; it acquires neither the scent of musk nor the colour of the rose, the reproach of the thorn nor the disgrace of the rugged rock.

When the sun sheds his light for all to share,
It shines on foul things equally with fair;
Fair things do not augment its radiance,
Nor can foul things its purity impair

Flash XXI

The Absolute does not exist without the relative, and the relative is not formulated without the Absolute; but the relative stands in need of the Absolute, while the Absolute has no need of the relative. Consequently, the necessary connexion of the two is mutual, but the need is on one side only, as in the case of the motion of a hand holding a key and that of the key thus held.