The "Truth appears in all; wouldst thou divine See the wine-froth the wine in froth is froth, 'Tis the bright radiance of Eternity That lights Not-being, as we men may see; Deem not the world is severed from the "Truth": In the world He's the world, in Him 'tis He. Flash XXV The Truth of truths", which is the essential, most exalted Divine Being, is the Reality in all things. He is One in Himself, and “unique” in such wise that plurality cannot enter into Him; but by His multiple revelations and numerous phenomenal displays He is sometimes presented under the form of substantial independent entities,1 and at other times under the form of accidental and dependent entities. Consequently, the One Essential Being appears as multiple by reason of the numerous qualities of these substances and accidents, although in point of fact He is "One", and is in no wise susceptible of numbers or plurality. 2 Rase the words "this" and "that"; duality In all this fair and faultless universe Naught but one Substance and one Essence see.3 This unique Substance, viewed as absolute and void of all phenomena, all limitations, and all multiplicity, is the "Truth". On the other hand, viewed in His aspect of multiplicity and plurality, under which He displays Himself when clothed with phenomena, He is the whole created universe. Therefore the universe is the outward visible expression of the "Truth", and the "Truth" is 1 Haqaiq i Jauharīya i maṭbū‘a. the inner unseen reality of the universe. The universe before it was evolved to outward view was identical with the "Truth"; and the "Truth" after this evolution is identical with the universe. Nay, more, in reality there is but One Real Being; His concealment [in the Divine Mind] and His manifestation [in the sensible world], His priority and His posteriority [in point of time], are all merely His relations and His aspects. "It is He who is the first and the last, the exterior and the interior." 1 In the fair idols, goal of ardent youth, 2 And in all cynosures lies hid the “Truth”; 4 Flash XXVI The Shaikh (may God be well pleased with him) says in the Faşș i Shu'aibi, that the universe consists of accidents all pertaining to a single substance, which is the Reality underlying all existences. This universe is changed and renewed unceasingly at every moment and at every breath. Every instant one universe is annihilated and another resembling it takes its place, though the majority of men do not perceive this, as God most glorious has said: ["But they are in doubt regarding the new creation." 5] 1 Koran, lvii, 3. Cf. Rev. i, 8, "I am Alpha and Omega.” 2 Literally, "horizons," i.e. objects of aspiration. * i.e. the grade of plurality in Unity, or Universal Soul. • Muḥiyi-ud-din Muḥammad Andalūsî, commonly called Ibn 'Arabi, died 638 A.H. Wrote the Fasūṣ-ul Ḥikam (Haji Khalfa, iv, 424). Each section is named after some patriarch, e.g. Shuʻaib (Jethro). 5 Koran, 1, 14. See Gulshan i Rāz, 1. 670. Text omitted in this manuscript. Among Rationalists1 no one has perceived this truth with the exception of the Asharians, who recognize it in certain departments of the universe, to wit, "accidents," as when they say that accidents exist not for two moments together; and also with the exception of the Idealists,3 called also Sophists, who recognize it in all parts of the universe, whether substances or accidents. But both these sects are in error in one part of their theory. The Asharians are wrong in asserting the existence of numerous substances-other than the One Real Being underlying all existence-on which substances, they say, depend the accidents which continually change and are renewed. They have not grasped the fact that the universe, together with all its parts, is nothing but a number of accidents, ever changing and being renewed at every breath, and linked together in a single substance, and at each instant disappearing and being replaced by a similar set. In consequence of this rapid succession, the spectator is deceived into the belief that the universe is a permanent existence. The Asharians themselves declare this when expounding the succession of accidents in their substances as involving continuous substitution of accidents, in such wise that the substances are never left wholly void of accidents similar to those which have preceded them. In consequence of this the spectator is misled into thinking that the universe is something constant and unique.* 1 Ahl-i nazr, as opposed to ahl-i shahud, men of spiritual intuition. 2 The followers of Abu-1 Hasan al Ashārī, died about 330 A н. (Ibn Khallikan, ii, 227). The Hasbaniya. ♦ This is the Heracleitean doctrine that all phenomena are in constant flux, issuing from the " Fiery Breath" (Pneuma) and remerged in it every moment. Jalāl-ud-din quotes the saying of “Arqlitus” that "Contraries are congruous", the first suggestion of the Hegelian doctrine that contraries always involve a higher unity which embraces both. See Lumsden, Persian Grammar, ii, 323. The ocean does not shrink or vaster grow, The being of the world's a wave, it lasts In the world, men of insight may discern may learn. As regards the Sophists, though they are right in asserting the ideality of the whole universe, they are wrong in failing to recognize the Real Being underlying it, who clothes Himself with the forms and accidents of the sensible universe and appears to us under the guise of phenomena and multiplicity; likewise in denying any manifestation of Real Being in the grades of visible things under the guise of these forms and accidents, whereas in truth these accidents and forms are only manifested to outward view by the operation of that underlying Real Being. Philosophers devoid of reason find But the men gifted with spiritual intuition see that the Majesty of the "Truth", most glorious and most exalted, reveals Himself at every breath in a fresh revelation,1 and that He never repeats the same revelation; that is to say, He never reveals Himself during two consecutive moments under the guise of the same phenomena and modes, but every moment presents fresh phenomena and modes. The forms which clothe existence only stay 1 See Masnarī, p. 24. Koran, lv, 29. The root of this mystery lies in the fact that the Majesty of the "Truth" most glorious possesses "names" opposed to one another, some being beautiful and some terrible; and these names are all in continuous operation,2 and no cessation of such operation is possible for any of them. Thus, when one of the contingent substances, through the concurrence of the requisite conditions, and the absence of opposing conditions, becomes capable of receiving the Very Being, the mercy of the Merciful takes possession of it, and the Very Being is infused3 into it; and the Very Being thus externalized, through being clothed with the effects and properties of such substances, presents Himself under the form of a particular phenomenon, and reveals Himself under the guise of this phenomenon. Afterwards, by the operation of the terrible Omnipotence which requires the annihilation of all phenomena and all semblance of multiplicity, this same substance is stripped of these phenomena. At the very moment that it is thus stripped this same substance is reclothed with another particular phenomenon, resembling the preceding one, through the operation of the mercy of the Merciful One. The next moment this latter phenomenon is annihilated by operation of the terrible Omnipotence, and another phenomenon is formed by the mercy of the Merciful One; and so on for as long as God wills. Thus, it never happens that the Very Being is revealed for two successive 1 Lutf and Qahr, or Jamāl and Jalal, the opposite Divine attributes of mercy and vengeance, beauty and terror. The Divine economy is sometimes represented as effected by the eternal struggle between these two opposite phases of Deity, as manifested in Adam and Iblis, Abraham and Nimrod, Moses and Pharaoh, etc. (see Masnavi, p. 301), a daring Monist hypothesis, which, needless to say, is not pursued into its consequences. 2 These "names", like the Stoic logoi, are sometimes spoken of as ideas, sometimes as forces or energies. 3 Ifazat, production by emanation. Sée Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits, x, 66. + Sein evolved into dasein. |