moments under the guise of the same phenomenon. At every moment one universe is annihilated and another similar to it takes its place. But he who is blinded by these veils, to wit, the constant succession of similar phenomena and like conditions, believes that the universe constantly endures in one and the same state, and never varies from time to time. The glorious God, whose bounty, mercy, grace, All gifts soever unto God are due, Yet special gifts from special "names ensue; And one creates all outward things anew. The proof that the universe is nothing more than a combination of accidents united in a single essence, i.e. the "Truth" or Very Being, lies in the fact that when one comes to define the nature of existing things these definitions include nothing beyond accidents". For example, when one defines man as a "rational animal"; and animal as a "growing and sentient body, possessed of the faculty of voluntary movement"; and body as a "substance possessing three dimensions"; and substance as an "entity which exists per sé and is not inherent in any other subject"; and entity as "an essence possessed of reality and necessary being "-all the terms used in these definitions come under the category of "accidents", except this vague essence which is discerned behind these terms. For "rational" signifies an essence endued with reason; 'that which is growing" signifies an essence endued with the faculty of growth; and so on. This vague essence is, in fact, the "Truth", the Very Being, who is self-existent, and who causes all these accidents to exist. And when the philosophers allege that these terms do not express 3 the differences themselves, but only the invariable marks of these differences whereby we express them, because it is impossible to express the true differences otherwise than by these invariable marks or others more recondite still, this assumption is inadmissible and undeserving of serious attention. And even if we admit it as a hypothesis, we affirm that whatever is essential in relation to special substances is accidental in relation to the Very Truth; for though this alleged essential quality is part of the essence of a particular substance, it is extraneous to the Very Truth upon whom it is dependent. And to say that there is any substantial entity other than the One Essential Being is the height of error, especially when the spiritual intuition of the men of truth, which is borrowed from the lamp of prophecy, attests the contrary, and when their opponents cannot cite any proofs in favour of their own view. ["God saith what is true, and directeth man in the right path." 2] 3 Truth is not proved by terms and demonstrations, If at each Stage" thy course diverted be The sun of Truth will never 'Rise" for thee.5 1 Cf. 1 Cor. ii, 15, "He that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. Or, as Hegelians would put it, the deliverances of intuitive reason are not to be tried by the canons of the discursive reason (verstand). 2 Koran, xxxiii, 4. A blank is again left for the text in this manuscript. 3 Quyūd. 4 Alluding to four famous works of Ibn Sīnā (Avicena), Shifā, Qānūn, Nijāt, and Ishārāt. 5 Alluding to Mawaqif, a theological work by Al Iji; Maqāṣid, by Al Taftāzānī; and Maṭāli, a work on logic by Al Ormawi. See Otto Loth, Catalogue of India Office Arabic Manuscripts, pp. 114, 460, and 143. Strive to cast off the veil, not to augment The germ of love to God grows not in books; The completest mask and the densest veils of the beauty of the One Real Being are produced by the manifold limitations which are found in the outward aspect of Being and which result from His being clothed with the properties and effects of the archetypes indwelling in the Divine Knowledge,1 which is the inner side of Being. To those blinded by these veils it seems that the archetypes exist in these outward sensible objects, whereas in point of fact these outward objects never attain a particle 2 of those real archetypes, but are and will always continue in their original not-being. What exists and is manifested is the "Truth", but this is only in regard to His being clothed with the properties and effects of the archetypes, and not in regard to His condition when bare of all these properties; for in this latter case inwardness and concealment are amongst His inherent qualities. Consequently, in reality the Very Being never ceases to abide in His Essential Unity, wherein He was from all eternity and wherein He will endure to all eternity. But to the vulgar, who are blinded by these veils, the Very Being seems to be relative and phenomenal, and wearing the form of the multiplicity of these properties and effects, and He seems manifold to such persons. 66 Being's a sea in constant billows rolled,3 Sped from within, they rest upon the sea, 1 A'yān i thābitah dar ḥazrat i 'ilm, the Ideas or archetypes in Plato's Intelligible World” (see Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits, x, 65). 'Ain has the double meaning of "eye" and "essence", and its derivatives A'yān and Taʻayyun are used to denote the reflections of the One Being; in other words, His emanations which constitute the existences or substances in the world of visible and sensible phenomena (‘Ālam i ‘Ain), 2 Literally, "smell.” * See Masnavi, p. 42. Being's the essence of the Lord of all, This is the meaning of the Gnostic phrase, 1 [When one thing is manifested in another, the thing manifested is different from the thing which is the theatre of the manifestation-i.e. the thing manifested is one thing and its theatre another. Moreover, that which is manifested in the theatre is the image or form of the thing manifested, not its reality or essence. But the case of the Very Being, the Absolute, is an exception, all whose manifestations are identical with the theatres wherein they are manifested, and in all such theatres He is manifested in His own essence. They say, How strange! This peerless beauty's face All mirrors in the universe I ween The “Truth”, the Very Being, along with all His modes. His attributes, connexions, and relations, which constitute the real existence of all beings, is immanent in the real existence of each being. Hence it has been said, “The All exists in all things." The author of the Gulshan i Rāz says: "If you cleave the heart of one drop of water There will issue from it a hundred pure oceans."3] Every power and every act manifested as proceeding from the theatres of manifestation proceed in reality from 1 The following passage in brackets is omitted in this manuscript. 2 In the Gulshan i Rāz, 1. 134, Very Being is said to be reflected in the mirror of not-being. 3 Verse 146. the "Truth" manifested in these theatres, and not from the theatres themselves. The Shaikh (may God be well pleased with him) says in the Hikmat i 'Aliyya:1 "Outward existence ('ain) can perform no act of itself; its acts are those of its Lord immanent in it; hence this outward existence is passive, and action cannot be attributed to it." Consequently, power and action are ascribed to the creature ('abd) because of the manifestation of the "Truth" under the form of the creature, and not because such action is really effected by the creature himself. [Read the text: "God hath created thee, both thee and the works of thy hands "2], and recognize the fact that thy existence, thy power, and thine actions come from the Majesty of Him who has no equal.3 Both power and being are denied to us, The lack of both is what's ordained for us; Make no wry faces at this wholesome truth "Build the wall ere the fresco is begun.” Why vaunt thy "self" before those jealous eyes? 4 Why feign to be existent of thyself? Down with these vain conceits and foolish lies! Flash XXVII Since the qualities, states, and actions manifested in the theatres are in reality to be ascribed to the Very Being manifested in those theatres, it follows that if a certain 1 The Shaikh Muḥiyi-ud-din Ibn al 'Arabi. The "Hikmat i ‘Aliyya” is the first section of his Faṣuṣ ul Ḥikam. 2 Koran, xxxvii, 94. A blank left for the text. The Sufis call God the "One Real Agent"-Fa'il i Haqiqi. Determinism is a necessary corollary of Monism. Cf. the Hadith "God is more jealous than Sa'd" (Masnavi, p. 29, note). Self-assertion is presumption towards God. |