O Thou whose sacred precincts none may see, Thou and we are not separate, yet still Moreover, the Absolute requires a relative of some sort,. not one particular relative, but any one that may be substituted for it. Now, seeing that there is no substitute for the Absolute, it is the Absolute alone who is the "Qibla" of the needs of all relatives. None by endeavour can behold Thy face, Of accident or substance Thou hast naught, Thou canst replace what's lost, but if Thou'rt lost, It is in regard to His essence that the Absolute has no need of the relative. In other respects the manifestation of the names of His Divinity and the realization of the relations of His Sovereignty are clearly impossible otherwise than by means of the relative. In me Thy beauty love and longing wrought : Thy beauty into evidence is brought. Nay, what is more, it is the "Truth" who is Himself at once the lover and the beloved, the seeker and the sought. He is loved and sought in His character of the "One who is all";" and He is lover and seeker when viewed as the sum of all particulars and plurality.3 1 Faiz i azal. Maqām i Jam'i Aḥadīyat. Note the change of phrase. * Martaba i tafṣil wa kithrat. O Lord, none but Thyself can fathom Thee, Flash XXII The substance of each individual thing may be described either as the epiphany of Very Being in the "intelligible world", according to the particular facet whereof such thing is the monstrance, or as Very Being Himself made manifest immediately, in the same intelligible world and according to the same facets. Consequently, each existing thing is either an epiphany of Very Being with the colour imparted to its exterior by the particular properties of its substance, or the Very Being Himself immediately made manifest with the same colouring. The real substance of everything always abides, though concealed in the inner depth of the Very Being, while its sensible properties are manifest to outward sense. For it is impossible that the Divine "Ideas "3 in the intelligible world should be susceptible of evanescence, as that would involve atheism. [God is too exalted for such evanescence to be ascribed to His "Ideas".]* We are the facets and the modes of Being, We're hidden in the cloak of non-existence, [Consequently, everything is in reality and in fact either Being made manifest or an accident of Being thus 1 Ta'ayyun i wajūd. 3 Suwar i 'ilmiya. 2 Wajud i muta'ayyin. Blank left as usual for the Arabic sentence. 3 i.e. the ‘Ålam i ‘ilm, the intelligible world of the Divine "Ideas". Omit the second dar in line 2. 6 Plotinus and the Gulshan i Rāz make not-being the mirror of Very Being. Jāmi here inverts the metaphor. 7 The following passage omitted in this text. It is probably a gloss which has crept into some manuscripts. manifested. The manifested accident is a quality of the manifested Being, and though in idea the quality is different from the thing qualified, yet in fact it is identical with it. Notwithstanding the difference in idea, the identity in fact justifies the attribution.1 In neighbour, friend, companion, Him we see, In Union's cell or in Distraction's haunts," Flash XXIII Although the Very Being underlying all existence communicates Himself to all beings, both those in the intelligible and those in the sensible world, yet He does so in different degrees [some superior to others]. And in each of these degrees He has certain names, attributes, and modes, applicable to that particular degree and not to the others; e.g. the names Divinity and Sovereignty [are not applicable] to the degrees called Subordination and the Creature-state. Consequently, to apply the names "Allah" and "the Merciful", etc., to created beings is sheer infidelity and heresy. And, similarly, to apply the names suitable to grades of created things to the Deity is the height of misconception and delusion. O you who deem yourself infallible, In certitude a very oracle, Each grade of beings has its proper name : Mark this, or you'll become an infidel. Flash XXIV 5 The Real Being is One alone, at once the true Existence and the Absolute. But He possesses different degrees. i Haml, affirming a predicate of a subject. 2 See Flash II. 3 So Gulshan i Rāz, 1. 883 : "See but One, say but One, know but One." Siddiq, veracious, like Abu Bakr “ 5 Zindiq. as-Siddiq ". "See n. 2, p. 12. In the first degree He is unmanifested and unconditioned, and exempt from all limitation or relation. In this aspect He cannot be described by epithets or attributes, and is too holy to be designated by spoken or written words; neither does tradition furnish an expression for His Majesty, nor has reason the power to demonstrate the depth of His perfection. The greatest philosophers are baffled by the impossibility of attaining to knowledge of Him; His first characteristic is the lack of all characteristics, and the last result of the attempt to know him is stupefaction.1 To you convictions and presumptions wrought How can one prove your own reality To such as you who count all proofs as naught? However great our heavenly knowledge be, Saints blest with visions and with light divine Our love, the special grace of souls devout, The second degree is the self-display of Very Being in an epiphany containing in itself all the active, necessary, and divine manifestations, as well as all the passive, contingent, and mundane manifestations. This degree is named the "First Emanation "3 because it is the first of all the manifestations of the Very Being; and above it there is no other degree than that of the "Unmanifested". 1 Ḥairānī. In the Mantiq ut-Tair, Hairat is the last valley in the Şufi pilgrim's progress. To know God he must rise to ecstasy. 2 Rūmi describes love as spiritual clairvoyance. See Masnavi, Introduction, p. xxviii. "The first Ta'ayyun i awwal, usually called 'aqli kull, universal reason, i.e. nous or Logos, as by Jāmī himself in Salāman wa Absal. thing created was reason" (Hadith). The third degree is named the "Unity of the Whole Aggregate", which contains in itself all the active and efficient manifestations. It is named the degree of Divinity"? " The fourth degree is the manifestation. in detail of the degree named Divinity; it is the degree of the names and the theatres wherein they are manifested. These two last-named degrees refer to the outward aspect of Being wherein "necessity "s is a universal condition. The fifth degree is the "Unity of the Whole Aggregate", which includes all the passive manifestations whose characteristic is the potentiality of receiving impressions, i.e. passivity. It is the degree of mundane existence and contingency. The sixth degree is the manifestation in detail of the preceding degree; it is the degree of the sensible world." These two last degrees refer to the exterior of the intelligible world, wherein contingence is one of the invariable qualities. It consists of the revelation of the Divine Mind to Himself under the forms of the substances of the contingent. Consequently, in reality there is but One Sole Being, who is interfused in all these degrees and hierarchies which are only the details of the Unity (" Singleness")." Very Being" in these degrees is identical with them, just as these degrees when they were in the Very Being were identical therewith. ["God was, and there was not anything with Him."]8 Aḥadiyat i Jam', usually called nafs i kull, universal soul, pneuma. Ilahiyat. See De Sacy's note in Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits, x, 77. 3 Wajub. It belongs to the sphere of "Necessary Being ". 4 Martaba i kaunīya i imkāniya. 5 'Alam. The object of this distinction is to keep God from contact with matter. Contingency is not found in the immediate reflections of Being, but only in the reflections from the intelligible world of Divine Ideas. 7 Wahidiyat. See n. 1, p. 16. A saying attributed to Muḥammad. A blank is left for it in this manuscript. |