Fusus al-Hikam (Bezels of Wisdom)

and for Wajhullah—the perfect man,—the position of glory is reserved. An yabathaka Rabbuka mugaman mahmuda. (Sura 20711 : 79.) “Your Lord will raise you to a position of great glory’. As time passes on, the Prophet is rising to higher and yet higher heights of glory. With the. view of raising him to higher and yet higher stages, each Muslim or Muslima utters Sadat wa salam “(peace be on him)”’ in his. or her prayers, and whenever he or she mentions his name; just as God Himself has said and ordained on men and angels, Jnnallaha wa malayakatahu yusalluna alan nabiyyi ya alluhal ladhina amanu sallu alayhi wa sallimu taslima (Suratul Ahzgab XXXII: 56.), “ Surely God and His angels bless the Prophet; O you, who believer, call for Divine blessings and salute him with a salutation”. The uruj(spiritual ascent) of every prophet results in the 277 of those have who have accepted him, “And I, if! be lifted up from the earth” said Jesus Christ, ‘ will draw all men unto me’ (St John 21:32 “Maqum-i-Mahmud (Bani Israel xvit: 79.) i.e. the glorious station” says Abu Uuraira (according to Baidawi), “is the station of the intercessor.” Complaint to God does not militate against the attribute of patience in the banda. God involves him in calamities, when he forgets Him; so that when he reverts to Him, with a complaint He relieves him from them. This does not necessarily imply previous sin, as the comforters of Jcb, viz Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar made it out to be—involving the doctrine of Karma which is quite a different thing from Qismat, the doctrine of aptitudes of banda in the knowledge of God.

To abanda who realizes his nearness to God, a calamity is nO morea calamity forthe ghariyat-ztibart (suppositional estrangement) from God disappears. He feels Wa hua maakum aynama kuntum (Al Hadid LV: 4). “He is with you whereever you are.” Such a banda is in the station of Reza (willingness to submit) to the Qaza (command) of God, according to the Qadr, that which is in his

tHe wIsbOM OF jos (FAsI-i-aAvvUBIyvaH) 13 ayan-i-thabita (realities in the knowledge of God)—although he may not be agreeable to what isin the ayan themselves. Such disagreeableness does not militate against his patience. If one does not complain for the removal of his calamities, says the Shayk, he makes himself equal to the wrath of God. 124 : WispoM oF THE PROPHETS THE WISDOM OF JOHN THE BAPTIST (Fas-i-Yahuwiyyah) God called Yahya by the name, Yahya (reviver), as the name of his father was kept alive by him; no one was called by this name before. In this, God centred in him both a name and an attribute. The name, Yahya (reviver), gives'a taste of life by way of ilmt-dhogt (knowledge obtained from taste, like the knowledge of sweetness obtained from honey) i.e., this proper name itself shows that he wasto keep alive something; which was the remembrance of his father. Secondly the prophets before him, who had left sons behind them, had their names remembered in virtue of their sons. Seth kept the remembrance of Adam alive; Shem kept that of Noah alive, and so on with other prophets. Zachariyyah said Hab min ladunka waltyyan (Survatu Maryam xix :5) “Grant, Thou, a successor to me from Thyself’’ Thus he gave priority to God’s name over the mention of his son; just as Aasiyya—the wile of Pharoah—had given priority tothe mention of the name of ‘neighbour’ (God) over the ‘house’ (paradise); when she said Radéi-cbni i indaka baytan Jul jannatt (Suratul Tahrim txv1: 11) “ 0 Rab, build a house for me with Thee in the paradise’. Zachariyyah wanted the perpetuation of the remembrance of God’s name after him. Sonis the secret of the father, and so Zachariyyah said Yarrithuni wa varithu min aalt Vakuba (Suratu Maryam xix : 6) ‘Make this son my inheritor and the inheritor of Jacob”, so that he called the people

THE WISDOM OF JOHN THE BAPTIST (FAS-i-VAHUWIvYAH) 125 to God. Inthe case of the prophets, there is no inheritance handed down except the ‘duty of calling people to God.’ When Zachariy yah showed his inclination towards the duty of calling people to God, God gave him the gospel that ‘the day will be blessed, when the son will be born to thee, the day when that son will die, and the day when he will be resurrected”. In resurrection there is the element of life. Life is a name of God, Fazaa 862 stfatil hyvati wa hiya isma hu “God brought in the attribute of hyat (life) and that is His name”. Christ also said Was salamun alayhi youma walida wa youma yamutu wa vouma yubathu hiyyan (Suratu Maryam xix: 15) ٠ Peace on me on the day in which I was born, on the day on which I shall die, and on the day on which 1 shall resurrect”. Note: The word Yahya is derived from hyat, (life) and means “ He shall make alive’”’. This Fas relates to an ism-ijalali (glorious name) of God, for Yahya was always in fear of God. This attribute of God is realised from the name of Yahya, only by zlm-i-dhowgi (knowledge derived from taste); and Yahya perpetuated the name of his father, although he was an ascetic and did uot enter upon married life. (The latter half of this Fas has been suppressed in translation, as it contains a comparison between Jesus Christ and John the Baptist, which appears to be of controversial character).

CHAPTER XXI THE WISDOM OF ZACHARIAS (Fas-i-Zachariyyah.) The grace of God permeates everything in virtue of His existence and its qualities; even the existence of God’s wrath is in virtue of His grace; for the grace of God takes precedence over his wrath. Every ayn (reality) was in knowledge and prayed for its externalization—God granted the prayer out of grace, and the ayn externalized itself with its inherent tendencies. If it is objected that the reality of grace does not exist outside, that is, it is non-existent; and the non-existent can have no influence on the existent, | have explained in my book Futuhat-i-V ackkiyah that what is non-existent externally and existent internally can exert influence on external objects. This can be realized only by people of imagination. Whatever object is permeated by grace, it becomes blessed; and there is no object in existence that is not permeated by grace ‘Thus whatever is existent is blessed” /Fakullu mowjudin marhumum. Everthing owes its origin to grace—whether it be the calamities and pains of this world or of the next. Thus inspite of calamities and pains, everything is blessed, for it has had its stimulus for manifestation in grace. Calamities and pains will not be lessened on the day of judgment from those who deserve them, for these are the apex of their perfection. Calamities and pains came into being by God’s act of bestowing grace on them. Grace has two effects, first personal (dhattiyyah). This originates ayan (realities of objects in knowledge) and it has no purpose in

view, viz, that of pleasantness and suitability or otherwise of ayan to themselves; for in this stage the Dhat sees that the ayan are Itself. ‘‘The created is the Creator Himselfis the belief with some” لك‎ Haggal makluga fil aetigadat. \n the bestowel of this grace which is ‘the free gift of God” (rahmati imtinant), no condition of action is attached Rahmati wasiyat kulla shavin (Suratul Araf vu: 156.) “My grace extends over all things’. In virtue of this grace, God told the Prophet, Livagh fira lukullahu ma tagaddama min dhanbika wa ma taakhhara (Suratul Fath xin: 2). ‘God may rectify for thee, whatever is of thy past faults and of thy future faults” Aemal ma shayta fagad ghafartu laka ‘‘Oh my banda (servant), do whatever you like, I have pardoned your faults ’’. The second kind of grace isa conditional gift, (vahmati-rahimtyyah), which is bestowed through prayer made by the ayan, after they are stabilitated as knowledge-forms. People of kashf (spiritual discernment) pray for grace from the name Allah, and God grants them His blessings according to their beliefs. asa ره‎ tubuha lilladhina yattaguna wa yutunaz zakat (Suratul Araf v1: 156.) [1 am about to write down my blessing for those who fear Me and give out zakat ”.

Thus this grace is conditional on the performance of certain duties. NOTE :—In this Fas, the nature of calamities and pains is discussed, and the Fas is made applicable to Zachariyyah who suffered calamities, so much so, that when he was sawn in twain, he never said a word of complaint, although he was one whose prayers were readily granted by God. He considered calamities to be from God; and as such a source of rest and consolation to his heart. God showed His grace to ayan (our realities in His knowledge), and granted them the externalization (from His knowledge) that they had prayed for, Thus grace takes priority over every thing in existence which itself isthus grace. The © aptitudes of ayan(realities) are subordinate to existence Rahmati wastyat kullu shayin (Suratul Araf 1711: 156) “My grace extends over all things’’ ze grace gives impulse towards existence to all calamities. It is the personal attribute of God. The origin of jalal (glory) is the want of manifestation of attributes 2.2. it isthe state in which the attributes of God recede into internality, which the Shastras call jfaralaya, and which is the suppositional adum (nothingness). The qualities of this adum are the absence of the qualities that pertain to the Dhat of God.

Shah Kamal, a Deccani poet has said:— Miyn houn asam sbunwa hay Haqq, Miyn bay basar bina hay ووه‎ Miyn ghung houn goya hay Haqq, Miyn nayn houn وه‎ mowjud hay. I am without hearing, God is hearer; I am without sight, God is seer; I am without speech, God is speaker, I am nought, God is existing. Jalal (glory) therefore is the absence of the manifestations of God; the attribute of Jamal (beauty) consists in their manifestation. Jalal is necessary for the jamal to display itself. Gushan-t-Raz says : Wa lay Hagg ra na manand wu nid ust. Manifestation comes about through contraries; God has neither His similar nor His like, The primary attribute of the jamal (beauty and love) of God predominates in the nature of woman, and lack of the same viz jalal (the blank left in the trail of recedence of attributes into the Dhat) predominates in that of man. Allahu jamilun wa ya hibbuj jamal. God is beautiful and He loves beauty; so God is also love (vide p. 15 “ Studies in Tasawwuf”’). The asma (names) of God inthe stage of Ahdiyyat are known to God alone. They first make appearance in His knowledge which process is called Faiz-i-Aqdas (the most sacred benevolence); and then demand manifestation in externality, which process is called Faiz-i-Muqaddas (the sacred benevolence); and this latter process is also called the ‘Breath of God,’ which is Nafasi Rahmani (the Breath of Grace) ofthe Sufis, or the Holy Ghost of the Christians, the Mulaprakriti of the Vedantin, the prima matrix of the Greeks. The forms of asma thus appear in matter or in this Nafasi Rahmani. The personal name Allah is the conglomeration of all asma (names) ; multiplicity is indicated in this name.

When they are considered, each apart and separately from the name Allah, multiplicity arises; as also in the case of separatedness from one another, like Rabman (the merciful), Guffar (the pardoner) Qahar (the wrathful); although they finally merge in the name Allah. | Grace is an internal reality and has no existence in externality; it is only the internal aspect of existence that moulds its external aspect. The internal aspect as the Shayk has explained in his Futuhat-i-Mackkiyah, is the Dhat of God. In this internal aspect, the Dhat is “Independent of the world,” Adlahu Ghanyun anil alamin; (Suratu Aali Imran 1 : 96) and in Its external aspect, the Dhat is dependent on asma for Its manifestation. Sifat (attributes) have no existence in externality; are merely relationship between Dhat and Its aptitudes. Man is a composite of aptitudes or capabilities which are latent or hidden in the Dhat. When the Dhat shows inclination towards any one of them; It forms a relationship with it; and this becomes an attribute; and this relationship has no separate and independent existence. Just as Dhat is existence itself, Its relationship with Its own aptitude is also existence in this sense ; and sifat (attribute) have no external existence. God’s existence is extension; and attributes are states, which appear inthis extension. All sifat (attributes) are Dhatin the stage of Ahdiyyat; and are separate in that of Wahidiyyat. Take the attribute of mercy in man. It has no separate existence. It is only a _ relationship between his ego and an inclination towards an aptitude; which manifests itself in a certain state or mode of his behaviour, The reality pertains tothe man and not to mercy, which is the name of his state, and as such has no existence in externality.

“The grace of His Lord remembered His servant Zachariyyah ” ; Dhikru rahmati Rabbiha abdahu Zachariyyah (Suratu Maryam X1X:1). Whomsoever God’s grace remembers, He becomes blessed. All things are blessed in this sense, as they have come out of grace; Zachariyyah is, however specially mentioned as blessed ; because he considered calamities to have.had their origin in grace. Grace is of two kinds-Personal grace, which is the personal ‘attribute of God (Rahmat-t-Dhattiyah) and the grace of blessing (Kahmati Rahimiyyah). This latter leads the supplicant to the goal of perfection which he seeks. Hence tajjalli (illumination) dawns ona person according to his belief in prayer, whether that prayer be in words, or in aptitude or in attitude. (Vzde Fasi-Sethiyya p-18 ante) THE WISDOM OF ELIJAH (FASI-I-ILyAsIvyAH) 131 CHAPTER XXII THE WISDOM OF ELIJAH (Fasi-i-Ilyasiyyah). He is the same prophet as Enoch, who had lived before Noah and whom God had lifted up and who resided in the centre of the skies i. e. inthe sky of the Sun. God sent him down again to the city of Baalbeck. Baal was the name of the idol and Beck was the king of that city; and this Baal was the particular deity of that king. To Elijah it appeared that the mountain of Lebanon burst forth, and a fiery horse with tiery accountrements merged out. When he mounted on it, his desires disappeared from him, and he became an embodiment of pure intelligence. The word Lebanon is derived from Lubanat which means ‘necessity.’

in the stage of pure Intelligence, God is qualityless (munazzah), hence Elijah had only half the gnosticism (martfat); for he had no gnosticism of God’s qualityedness (éashéch). When full gnosticism dawns upon a man; he possesses it both in tanzihand tashbih (quality lessness and qualityedness). He realizes God to be immanent in all forms of elements; and no form remains whose reality (ayn) is not considered by him to be the reality (ayn) of God; and this realization gives him perfect gnosticism which the shariats (laws) of the prophets brought into being. In the composition of man, imagination dominates over intelligence; imagination creates a form, to which pure intelligence gives a tangible shape. By the aid of the former, tashbih (qualityedness) is recognized in tanzih (qualit ylessness) and by the aid of the latter, tanzih is recognized in tashbih. The former is not devoid of the latter. God has said Laysa kamith Lhi shayun (Suratus Shura XM * 11). “There is nothing like Him” Thisis tanzih. Wa hua samiul bastr (Idem.) “He is the hearer and seer’— This is tashbih. This is the most weighty verse in the Quran that was revealed in respect of tanzih In the first part of the verse, if the letter £a/ is taken to mean 7/76, it means He is not like the sample of anything and this adds to the force of tanzih. Again God has said Suédhana Radbbika rabbil izzati amma ya stfum (Suratus Saffat xxxviu:

180). “Pure is your Lord—the Predominent Lord—from the qualities that are ascribed to him (by the people of reason)”. God has made His tashbih in the tanzih attributed to Him, for the people limit Him to tanzih alone. There is in reality tanzih in tashbih and tashbih in tanzih. I here drop the curtain before the eyes of the people; although, both these are the tajalliyat (illuminations) of God which dawn on forms according to their aptitudes, which demand the tajalli (illumination) at a particular moment e. g. the vision of Godin a dream. Now one can deny the vision in which the aptitudes of God become suited to the form. A man of kashf (i.e. one with a capacity to peer into the invisible world) does not bring in pure tanzih here, but combines it with the tashbih of the form he sees. In fact, here the shan (potentiality) of God appears in the aspects both of the effector and the effected (i.e. cause and effect), the effector being the aspect of God and the effected that of the world. Love is a relationship between the effector and the effected; and it is obtained by the

THE WISDOM OF ELIJAH (FAs-I-ILvasivyAH) 133 state called-Qurbi Nawafil, in which God becomes the hearing, sight and other faculties of abd (the limited or servant). In this state, the prayer of abd is granted; for God has said Udwuni astajib lakum (Suratus Mumin x_: 60). “Pray to me and | will accept your prayer’; for the self of the petitioner is the self of the one to whom the petition is addressed. Both these are the two aspects of the same one. The aspects are like the organs of the same one individual, and the individuality becomes multiplicity on account of them. God will make His tajalli (illumination, appearance) on the Day of Judgment ; and He will be recognized by each man according to his own aptitude. He will be like a mirror in which appear different reflections of Him. The believer will see Him in the shape in which he had believed Him to be. The mirror is one dhat, and the faces reflected in it are many ; although there are no separate faces existent. Thus you look to the mirror as one and disregard all faces; for “‘God is independent of the worlds” Adahu gahny un antl alamin. (Suratu Aali-[mran 11: 96). The asma (names) are many, and are reflected in the mirror. To the on-looker in the mirror, only the ism (name of the named) will appear of which he is in quest. Do not therefore lament and do not fear, for ‘‘God loves valour although it be in the killing of a serpent.” /x2allaha yuhibbush shajaata wa lau ala gat htyvatin. This serpent is your own nafs (individuality), which will ever- and everlastingly live as an individuality and reality in its own form.

Nothing is annihilated in its reality, although its sensible form may be effaced. This immortality of forms isa grace from God. Although one may be killed, his form remains with its delineations in thoughts. God has said Wa ma ramayta idh ramayta wala kin Allaha rama (Suratul Anfal vu: |7). ““ Thou didst not throw pebbles (O, Muhammad), when thou didst throw them but God threw them”. To all appearances, it was the prophet that did throw. God threw the pebbles being in the formof Muhammad. God is the effector and ““ He descended in the form of Muhammad ” (Wazalal Huggu fi suratin Muhammadzyatin) and informed His servants accordingly, God brought Elijah into existence for a second time. He was a prophet before the time of Noah; and was lifted up, and sent down again with prophetship. Thus there are two ranks. Inthe second, salik comes down from the rank of pure intelligence to causal world and becomes an irrational animal, so that he sees what an _ irrational animal sees, and what no rational animal and Jinn can see. He gets into two states; one in which he sees the ‘dead person alive in the grave, castigated or rewarded as the case may be, and the other in which he himself becomes dumb-founded so that he could not speak, even ifhe tried to. 1 myself got into this state in which I could not utter werds to express what [ saw. This is Llm-t-dhowgt (knowledge such as one gets from relishing); in which Nature becomes the reality of the

breath of God and salik sees every thing as the reality of God. NOTE. Ilyas or Elijah, the Tishbite of Gilead, flourished in the reign of King Ahab (I King 17: 6). Heis one of the four prophets, who are still bodily alive viz Enoch and Christ in the sky, )2 ره‎ Alam-i-mithal or world of forms); Khizar and Elijah on earth. In the Mithal world (world of forms), Elijah saw a fiery horse with its fiery trappings and rode away on it towards the heaven “by a whirlwind” (as II King Chap-II verse 1 puts it.) The horse denotes carnal desires,; and when it became one of fire, Elijah’s desires were burnt up or to put it in Indian parlance, he performed tapas and became an embodimont of Pure Intelligence which is a direct reflection of Aqlai-Awwal (the first reason) or Aql-Kul (Absolute Reason) or Qalami Aala (the Supreme Pen) or Haqiqat-i-Muhammadi (the reality of Muhammad) , as the first devolution (tanazzul) of God, viz, the stage of Wahdat is called. There are ten devolutions one below tbe other, which are allied to Udqul-i-ashariyyah (the ten intelligences or angels) of the Grecian philosophy, or the twelve steps in the the theory of Dependent Origination of the Buddhist theory (a) The horse emerged out of the mountain of Lebanon. The word Lebanon means “necessity,” 2 ¢., the necessity of accompaniment of Alama-i-Mithal (world of forms) with Alami Ajsam (world of matter).

In the view of Elijah, God is qualityless. Noah called his people sometimes towards tashbih and sometimes towards tanzih. Elijah called his people towards tanzih alone. Philosophers believe in pure tanzih, and materialists in pure tashbjh. Irfan or gnosticism, however, does not become complete unless qualtyedness (tashbih) and qualitylessness (tanzih) are observed at one and the same time; and this is done by the prophets who see unity in diversity and diversity in unity, 2. ¢., unity in manifestations, and manifestations in unity. The Quran bears this out in the verse quoted by the Shayk, Laysa kamith liht shayun wa huas simiul basir (As Shura Xu: 11) “He is not like the sample of anything. He is the hearer and seer, ; and also the verses Warajal bahvaini yadta kiyan bayna huma barzakhun la yabghtyan. “We have let loose two oceans to flow, freely (so that) they meet; between them is a partition that is never passed” (Suzvatur Rahman Lv : 19-20). The two oceans are tanzih and tashbih ; 7u/z7ul layla fin nahari wa tuliyjun nahara (a) J. N. Farquhar “ A Primer of Hinduisim ” .م‎ 55, nnn

fil layli wu tukhrij ul hiyya min al myyati wa tukhryul myyata minal hiyyt (Suratu Aal Imran 1 : 26). “Thou makest the night pass into the day and Thou makest the day pass into the night. Thou bringest forth the living from the dead, and Thou bringest forth the dead from the living’. The night and day also refer to tanzih and tashbih, the living andthe dead are existence and _ forms-in-knowledge in the stage of Ahdiyyat (one-ness) of the dhat of God. The tajalli of God is according to the aptitude of each form, so that the oneness of God may be established in the oneness of things. God is the effector in each form, there is attraction between tanzih and tashbih. The reality appears in multiplicity Ay drather nughs ra uagghas dan “‘O brother consider the engraving as the engraver himself’’. Since the one in © form prays, the Reality grants the prayer. Allforms are like “the parts of one stupendous whole.” As a matter of fact, an on-looker is different from the mirror; but in the case of Dhat, the on-lookers are the ayan (realities of the limited in God's knowiedge) and they have appeared in the mirror of God's existence, and have no separate existence of their own. When the effect of appearance is referred to the mirror, the figures become Asmai-Elahi (God's names); and when it is referred to ayan themselves, they become asmai-kiyani (mundane names or names of the “ limited.’’ The fact of this point of appearance having two aspects has been described by the Persian poet Urfi thus :—

Salma-t-hudusazt tu wa Laylat-qidam ra The fate has placed two litters on one camel, The temporality of your own Salma and the eternality of Layla. (These were two heroines in the love literature of the Arabs). The figure-in-existence is a reflection of the figure-in-knowledge, that is, existence brings the figure-in-knowledge into manifestation. Since inthe stage of Ahdiyyat (oneness), exis- THE WISDOM OF ELIJAH (FASI-I-ILYASIyyAH) 137 tence, knowledge, light and observance (wujud, tlm, nur, and shuhud.) are one and the same, the object becomes the same as the subject itself, (to use the language of psychology). Dhat does not come within the ken of observation; just as mirror does not, when one gazes into it. God is qualityless, so far as dhat is concerned; and He is qualityed, so far as His asma (names) are concerned. When, therefore, salik (gnostic) annihilates his own limited attributes and reaches up to his own ayn (reality), he lives permanently in the knowledge of God-with the attributes of God, and this is called immortality or eternallife. Hence the hadith quote by the Shayk “God loves valour though it be in the killing of a serpent’; the serpent here is the nafs or desire-faculty or the separate dhat of the salik. God preserves the form of banda (the created) in Alami-Mithal, before he could reach his own ayn; and in this intermediate state, he reaps what he has sown in this world. The serpent that tempted Adam and Eve was their own nafs.

The ‘son of man,’ )2. ¢., the perfect man) ‘bruises the head of this serpent (Gen- 3-15). Ifman does not do this, it ace companies himtothe Alam-i+Mithal; says the Quran Man kana fi hadhihil ama fahua fil akhiratil ama wa azallu sabila (Suratu Banti-Isvael xvii: 72) ‘And whoever is blind in this world, he shall be blind in the nextand more erring from the way’. One who does not attain self-realization in this world, does not do the same in the next Won arafa nafsahu faqad arafa Rabbahu” One who understood his nafs understood his God.” One who does not do this, gets stuck up in the Almi-Mithal in the form that his attributes and actions in this world had worked up for him, in advance, in the next, e.g. of dog or cat or scorpion sr tiger (a). This puts him into a state of bewilderment which is called hell (or barzakh or hades).One who has negated his own sifat (attributes) here and attained the sifat of God, according to the hadith 7ukalliqu bi Aklag illah ‘Cover yourself up with the attributes of God’’

(a) Vide “ Studies in Tasawwuf” p. 87. negates his own sifat in the higher reaches of ريه‎ (ascent) also; but preserves his form; for Alami Mithal which is the stage ex route, does not obliterate forms, but preserves them. He reaches his own ayn (form) in the knowledge of God, wherein it is preserved with all its definitenes; when, however, he reaches Hagqiqati-Muhammadi (the first form in the knowledge of God, God's own wajh or face), he becomes annihitated (fani) in Rasul and permanent (baqi) in God, for the Rasul is baqi in God. The Methnawi says : Kullu shayin halikun juz wajh-t-wu Everything is to be annihilated except His face, If you are in His face, do not search for existence. Covered up with the attributes of God, he performs miracles, for his instrumentalities become supra-natural. A child with a sword in hand is more powerful than a strong man witha stick. This state is called Qurb-i-Nawafil, which is the result of God's love. Itis not therefore to be supposed that God as a separate being descends into man, as the words of the Shayk Nazalal Hagqu fi suratin Muhammadiyyatin “ God descended in the form of Muhammad,” might lead one to suppose.

This is not avatarism or Incarnation. Itis the stage of Qurbi-Nawafil, as the Shayk previously explained. Sometimes, the form being in the knowledge of God, makes appearance on earth by way of duruz and not by transmigration or re-incaranation just like Izrael, the angel of death, being in his own place, appears at one and the same time in different places, to take away the souls of people. Such a duruz, Enoch had in the form of Elijah. Enoch was only a Nabi (from Heb-Nadéz, one whose breast bubbles forth with inspirations, or from Madu, one exalted or prophet.) Elijah was Nabi as well Rasul (messenger with a book). In His second form, he descended to the state of irrational animals from the state of pure intelligence, He then THE WisboM OF ELIJAH (FAS-I-iLyAsivvaH) 139 destroyed his carnal desires, and became pure intelligence, when he could speak to animals and see what was going on in barzakh or the state between causal body and the soul. When he was in in this state, “the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening and he drank of the brook” called the Cherith—(I Kings 17: 6).

CHAPTER XXIII THE WISDOM OF 45012 (Fas-i-Luqmaniyyah) Idha shaa allahu uridu rizgan Lahu falakunu ajmaahu ghidhaun Wa inshaa allahu yuridu rizgan Lana fahual ghidhau kama nashau. When God wishes to combine His intention with the giving of food to Himself, The whole world becomes His food. When He wishes to combine His intention with supplying food to the whole world as He wishes, Then He becomes food to the world such as we desire. God said ‘‘Wa lagad aatayana Lugmanal hikmatan. (Suratu Lugman Xxx1 : 12(. Wa man yutil hikmata fagad wutiya kharan kathira (Suratul Bagarahu: 269). ‘We have given wisdom to Luqman” and “to whomsoever wisdom has been given, great blessing has been given.” Thus Luqman was a man of blessing, as he was a man of wisdom. Wisdom is of two kinds :—spoken and silent. The spoken wisdom is like what he spoke to His son : Ya buniyya innaha tntaku mithgala habbatin min khardalin fatakun fi sakhratin au fis samawate au ful araht vatt bthallahu innallaha lateefun khabir, (Suratu Lugman xxxi: 16.) “0 my dear son, surely it is the very weight of the grain of a mustard seed, even though it be in (the heart of) rock or (high above) in the heaven, or (deep down)

THE WISDOM OF SOP (FASI-I-LUQMANIYYAH) e141 in the earth, Allah will bring it (to light) ; surely Allah is subtle or knowing”. This is the spoken wisdom, which says that God brought things into externality. The silent wisdom is understood from the context; Luqman was silent about the person for whom the نا‎ seed is brought out, he did not say to his son, that God would bring it out for him or for others. God said this to prove Wa hual lahu fis samawati wal ard. (Suratu Lugman Xxxt: 26). ‘He isin the heavens and in the earth”. Luqman was silent on the point that God is the reality of everything and therefore /aéef (subtle, immanent). That is, He is known by a particular name in a particular aspect, thus one aspect is said to be sky, another earth; “the reality is the same in everything :—Wal aynu wahidatun min kullt shayin: just as the Ashairrah say, who maintain that essence the same and extensions are different. The reality appears multitudinous, on account of its aspects and their relationships, e.g. manis the same as horse in reality or essence ; but different from it in its aspect or temperaments. God is also ‘knowing’ (khabir), Luqman taught his son; this knowing is by trial and experiments, as God has rate

Walanablu wannakum hatta talamal Se minkum (Suratu Muhammad xivii: 31.) “We will try you, until We have known those among you also exert hard.” This knowledge is dhowgz - i.e. experimental; and this, inspite of the fact that God’s knowledge is azalz (original) and mutlag (absolute). His dhowqi knowledge is restricted by physical and ~ spiritual limitations, for God has said that He is the ‘reality of the powers of banda, “I become the hearing and sight and the tongue of banda and also his hands and legs, Kuntu samahu wa basrahu wa rylahu wa yadahu. Banda is nothing more than organs and faculties. God is the reality of that person, who is a combination of faculties and organs. The instruction of Luqman to his son consisted in the two asma of God /atees and 6/2627, and he forebade him against shirk (giving a partner to God), La tushrika billaht innas shirka la zulmun azim (Suratu Lugman Xxx1: 13). “Do not create partner with God in existence ; for shirk isa great 2a/m; for this shirk is the division of existence into two in God-head. In this stage there can be no division, for here faces or aspects play on one single Reality; shirk is the identification of an aspect with the Reality itself, or the identification of one aspect with another. In this process, the mushrtk allocates a place to each aspect, where there is none for it; the aspects do not ‘share places with each other ; but occupy the same point, in which sense alone God said to the Prophet (peace be in him) Qu/idullaha auid ur Rahman, (Suratu Bani-[syvael xvu: 110). “Call upon God or call upon Rahman”.

NOTE.—Some think that Luqman is the same as the ancient Greek Alsop; and some like Luther deny his very existence. Aésop lived in the latter half of the sixth century B.C. Re was a slave of the island of Samos, and was commissioned by the inhabitants of Pishisitratis to distribute some money among the citizens of Delphi, he refused and was thrown over a precipice. The writer of the articleon ‘ Asop’ in the “Chambers’ Encyclopaedia” (vol. I) says that “the resemblance between some of the fables and personal peculiarities attributed in common to ‘sop and the Arabian fabulist Lugman have led some persons to conclude that the two are identical”. The Arab writers (according to Sale) say that Luqman was the son of Baura, who was the son or grandson of a sister or aunt of Job ; and he lived several centuries and to the time of David with whom he has conversant in Palestine. He was deformed and of black complexion, whence some call him an Ethopian. The generality of Muhammadans hold him to have been no prophet, but onlya wise man. As tohis condition, he wasa slave, but obtained his liberty by having eaten a bitter melon offered by his master, for “he accepted a bitter fruit from the same hand from which he had received so many favours.” His -repartees agree so well with what Maximus Planudes has written of رمدم‎ that he is identified with the AXsop of the Greek. Mawlavi Muhammad Ali thinks that he was an Ethopian (Suratu-Lugman—Note on p. 800), and that the word AXsop is a corruption of Ethopian.

The wisdom of Luqman like that of Malebranche, who observed all things in God and God in all things (a) consists in his observance of God in all things it is the wisdom of what is called Ihsan by the Sufis. The Archangel Gabriel visited the Pro. phet (peace be on him) one day, in the form of an Aerabi (bedouin of the desert), and propounded five questions to him as set forth in the opening Hadith of the Mischat. (b) One of these was, what isIhsan? The reply was An tabud Rabbika kaannaka tarahu fa in lam takun tarahu fa innahu, yaraka “Pray to your God as if you see Him; if you cannot do this, pray to Him as if He sees you’. Such observance (skuhud) in prayer and otherwise is called Ihsan. The wisdom of Luqman consisted in this Ihsan. Hesaw everything as the reality (ayn) of an ism (name) of God, and “‘in such a wisdom, there is great blessing; Wa mon yutal hikmata faqad wutiya 2 kathiva. “He said to his son that it is God alone who brings out a mustard seed, even though it be, inthe heart ofa rock. Mus- (2) Schwegler His. of Phi. p. 167. (2) Vide for details, ‘The Philosophy of Islam” b ,p. 52.

tard seed is an article of food. The forms of things are His food. When asma (names) and sifat (attributes) are apparent, the forms (ayn) disappear from the sight of saliki.e. in the words of the Shayk, are eaten up,—annihilated. God manifests His asma and sifat in forms, without which He cannot manifest Himself. Conversely, when asma and sifat disappear, ayan are apparent, (i.e. asma and sifat become the food of ayan) ; food is in any case what gets hidden in and supports the body. This isa course metaphorical, though, aterse way in which the Shayk has expressed the idea that when the world is hidden from the sight of salik, God is apparent (Huaz zahir) and displays Himself, and when God’s asma and sifat are hidden (Hual éatin,) the world is apparent. When God makes His tajalli: banda becomes fani (annihilated). In response to the Prophet's request to Gabriel in the night of mairaj not to stop short at the great Fig tree (Szdratul munitaha, symbolic of the stage of Humanity,) the latter said (to put it in the words of Sadi): Agar yek sart-mot bar tar param, Faroghi-tajallt bu sazad param If I advance upwards by a hair breadth The tajalli of His glory will singe my wings.

When tajalli dawns, banda is in a state of annihilation. We are His Zahir (apparent externality) at times ; and He is our Zahir at times ; and this is the idea the Shayk starts with, in the opening poetical lines of this Fas. God’s asma in the view of Luqman were Lateef (subtle or immanent) and Khadr (knéwing). He is immanent in the minutest atom as in the biggest mountain, as a Deccani poet (Mawlana Bahrj) has put it! Ay rup tyra 7212 rati hay, Parbat parbat pati pati hay Parbat mi adtk na kam pati min Vek san rahi vas aur rati min O Thou, Thy form (rupa) is in each atom ; As in mountains, so in leaves ; Neither big in mountains nor small in leaves, It is the same in a heap as ina grain. God is khabiri.e. one who knows by experiments, Wala nabluwanna kum hatta nalama“ We will try you till we know you’. Although God is omniscient, and His knowledge is from eternity, one of the hypostases (zt#barat) in the stage of Wahdat being //m (knowledge) ; the experience of mundane affairs )21,1 dhows2) gives him knowledge in limitation, as Mawlana Rum says:

Ishq bazi mi kunad ba kish tan Shud bahana dar miyan-i-mard wu zan He plays love with Himself, Becomes a pretext between man and wife. The advice of Luqman to his son was to refrain from shzrk, which consists, according to scholastic theologians, in considering “another one worthy of adoration,’ to have existence ; according to the Sufis, it consists in considering God as other-than-God, or in considering a manifestation as God Himself. Since Existence is one, how could there be room for shirk? Existence is one but it is manifest in many forms. To raise any ofthe forms to the dignity or stage of Dhat is shirk, In devolution (tanazzul) ,forms have appeared in the knowledge of God. These were the creatures of His name Al Badi (the Wonderful Originator). In wv (evolution upwards) of the salik, the forms are annihilated, so much so that his final goal is a state of wonderment. The Chistiyyah Order of Sufis have prescribed the stages of Mana-fis shayk (annihilation in one’s preceptor), Mana fr rasul (annihilation in the prophet), and then Fana fillah (annihilation in God), The Pir shows his face to his murid end goes tothe length of saying” Keep this in view”. The Prophet (peace be on him) bad no forms before him in his meditation (muragaba) in the cave of Hira. The keeping of forms was more or less a practice borrowed from the countries east of Arabistan, where it was considered that meditation upon nothing is inconceivable; and that a positive idea or nama is

always necessary ; and as nama cannot exist without its rupa (form), a namarupa or an image of what is meditated upon, is necessary. In contrast to this, Mawlana Rum says :— Lab bi band wu chusm band uu gosh band, Gur na bint sirrt Hagg bar ma bt khand Closs your lips, close your eye and close your ears, If then you do not see the secret of God, laugh at me. The practice referred to by the Mawlana is called Sultanul-adhkar (a) (premier cogitation—T am not, God is) and was practised by the Prophet (peace be on him). The Shayk, however, says that in the highest stage of Ahdiyyat (Oneness), oneism (name) is the reality of another; and the Divine command to the Prophet (peace be on him), was Quid ullaha awid ur Rahman ayyan ma tadwu falahul asmaul husna. “Tell them to call upon God or upon Rahman ; whom you call upon, He has the best names.”’ (Suvatu Bani-Israel Xvi: 110), (a) Vide The Secret of Anal Haqq .م‎ 5 CHAPTER XXIV THE WISDOM OF AARON (Fasi-i-Harooniy yah). The prophetship of Aaron was from the world of Blessings, min hazrat tr Rahmutt: for God has said Wa wahabnua lahu min rahmatina aakhahu Haroona nabryya (Suratu Maryan xix: 53.) ‘‘And we bestowed on him, (2. ¢., Moses), from Our blessings, His elder brother Aaron”. Hence Moses said Ya téna umma “O son of my mother”; for blessing is connected with the mother rather than with the father;

mother is more connected with the upbringing of the child and more kind towards it than the father. Aaron said “Do not catch hold of my beard and do not shake my head and thus make a laughing stock of me before my enemies. These words of Aaron were out of his love ; for Moses said ‘I was afraid you would create a split amongst the Israelites.” The worship of the calf had already created such a split ; some of them had already become the followers of Samiri and some had waited till the return of Moses from the mcuntain and had asked him about the calf ; for God had said “Do not worship any one but Himselt” (La ‘abudu wlatvyahu) and had not said وما“‎ not worship any thing” (Wa ma hakamallahubs shayin).

The wrath of Moses arose from a disclaimer of responsibility on the part of Aaron,and because his mind was not expanded enough to realise what every aariff (gnostic) realizes that ‘‘God is the reality of everything” (fa zunal aarifa mon yarahu ayna kullu shayin). Moses said to Samari ‘‘What is your answer Samiri that you disobeyed God and reverted from the Absolute God to a form and made that image from the ornaments of the people, and put the people’s heart into it”? for #aZ (property) has its derivation in my/ (inclination); as Christ said to Israelites ‘‘Lay not up for yourselves treasure upon earth; But lay up for yourselfes treasure in heaven, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be’’(a). There is no permanence and eternality informs; there is the desire of it in the hearts of men. Moses burnt the golden calf and threw the ashes into the ocean, and said to Samiri ‘look at your 7//q (god)’’, Anzur tlatlahtka, for Moses knew that the idol was a manifestation of God. Moses burnt the idol as the animal power of man overwhelms the animal power of beast ; for God has made beasts subject to man and they accept this degradation; just as one man acceptsthe subjection of another man owing to his desire of help and power. Hence God has said Wa rafana bazuhum fowga bazin (Suratul Anam vi: 161.) “We have raised the ranks of some of them over those of some others of them.” One man becomes the subject of another man on account of these ranks and desires, although he is the like of him in humanity:

Two things which are alike or similar معط‎ come opposed to each other. This subjection is of two kinds— One like that of a slave to his master or of the subjects to the_king; the other is the subjection of a king to his subjects, as the former has to attend to the business and interests of the latter. Some kings attend to the promptings of the desires of their own Nafsi-Ammara (b), and some understand their own duties and

(a) Math. VI: 19-21. (b) “Studies in Tasawwuf” p. 88. THE WISDOM OF AARON (FAs-I-HAROONIVVAH) 149 responsibilities. God awards merit to these latter, just of the same kind ashe awards to ulema and gnostics, who understand the realities as they are, for God is in the working and business of his banda, as He has said Kulla youmin hua fis shan (Suratur Rahman wy; 217). “Every day He is in a different manifestation”. God alone is worshipped in every manifestation, hence He named Himself, Rafi-wa-darajat(a) “‘exalted in ranks—” (and not in one rank). Hence God said ‘Worship Him alone” (La tabudu illa yahu) in different ranks, in higher and higher gradations, the highest grade being the desire of Nafs. This latter is worshpped for its own sake ; even God is worshipped by the promptings of desire. The worshipper is always under the influence of desire. : The true gnostic is, therefore, one who sees every worshipped as a manifestation of God; hence every worshipped gets the name of z/a (God), inspite of its own name ofa stone, or a tree or an animalor aman or an angel. This latter name is the individualization of that manifestation in Uluhiy yat (Divineness)—which is the’ particular manifestation of all the ranks of God. Those who said Ma nabuduhum ila uyu garribuna waht zulfa (Suratuz Zumar xxxix:3.) “We do not worship them exceptthat they take us nearer to God.”; did not realize that they worshipped only one out of several and innumerable manifestations. They raised only one manifestation to the rank of Uluhiyyat. They said in the case of the Prophet (peace be on him) هرك‎ lal aalihata tlahan wahidan inna hadha la shayuu wyaba. (Suratul Sad xxxvu1:5.) ‘He has converted all

(a) Studies in Tasawwuf p. 93. gods into one God. This is a matter for surprise.” These people had taken their stand on the multiplicity of forms. The Prophet asked them to give out the names of their gods, (Qu/ summu hum). They gave out the names, and each name had a reality behind it. Gnostics ignore forms in accordance with the faith they have brought in the Prophet, although they realize that idolators worship the one God in all these forms. ل‎ kuntum tuhibbunalla fattabt wunt yuhbibkum allahu (Alai Imra 11: 30.) “If you love God, follow me ; God will love you”. God's dhat is imperceptible, La tudrekuhual absar'wa hua yudrikul absar (At Anam v1: 104) “sights do not see Him, and hesees the sights,” (as He is immanent in them), just as sights do not see the souls. God is latecful khabir (Al Anam vi: 104.), “Subtle and knowing.” Hisknowledge is dowg2, and such knowledge is an illumination in forms. Forms are essential for His illumination ; and illumination is essential or the manifestation of forms. Thus one who sees an _illumination worships the form in which he sees it, being actuated by his own desire. NOTE :—In this Fas (bezel), the Shayk takes occasion to discuss the subjects cf Idolatry, the social and political question of the ranks of men, and God’s working in the world.

It is not known who Samari, tha maker of the golden calf was. Some consider him to have been the ancestor of the tribe that in later years inhabited Samaria and were known as Samaritans. (a) Some consider him to have been Aaron himself ; for he was the keeper of the children of Israel or the vizier (burdenbearer) or Imam of Moses, duting the latter's absence on the mount ; the word Samari having its derivation in the Hebrew verb shamar, to keep. But this is inconsistent with the Quranic ver- (a) Sir Saiyid Ahmed’s Tafsir-ul-Quran Vol. I, p. 252. sion, for it was Samari alone that was punished, obviously by ostracism and treated asa leper of the society. His name is said to have been Moosa ibn-i-Hansar ot the tribe of Samaritans. Rabbi Geigers (a) says “This was perhaps Samael, supposed by the Jews to have been helpful at the making of the calf’. Rabbi Jehudah (b) says “Samuel entered into the calf and he was loving to mislead Israel.’’ Moses was angty with Aaron because he had not seen the unlimited tajalli (illumination) of God in the limited golden calf. He had not realized the unlimited in the limited. Gnostics see the immanence of the unlimited existence in every limited object. To them the limited is not the eh#azr (other) of God. The worship of idols is made aram (prohibited) by the shariat, because idols are considered as the ghair (other) of God, Gushan-t-Raz says.

Brahmin gar bt 04112512 ki bat chist Na danisti ki but ghatr az khuda nist. If the Brahmin knew what idol is, He would have known that it is not the “other” of God. Even if they are considered as the ayn (reality) of God, it is Aavam in the shatiat, because all other innumerable manifestations of God are ignored in view of this one manifestation ; God is Hual-kul; the Totality in the totals, as Abdul Karim Jili has put it. Hence Prophets taught the worship of One Absolute God only. In worshipping an idol, the idolators worship the individuality of the object and not tl« Isness of God that pervades it. Hence when the Prophet (peace be on him) taught La z/aha il Alla (there is no God but God), the Quraish were taken aback “what has he (Muhammad) turned all gods into One God” (Suratu’'s Sad XXXvi: 5.) The plea of the Quraish that their gods take them nearer of God is unacceptable ; for their gods stand in need of help, and “God is independent of the worlds” (a) “Judaism and Islam” translated by,F. M. Young p. 131. (b) Canon Sell’s ‘The Talmud, Mishnah and Midrash” p. 48.

Allahu ghaniyun anil alamiu. The Dhat of God does not come within the ken of observation, Itis known by internal enlightenment and intuition. La tudrikul absar wa hua yudrikul absar (Al Anam VL: 104.) “Sights do not see Him, He sees the sights”. Tajalliyat (illuminations) are, however, to be seen in all grades from causal to soul-worlds, and even up to Ahdiyyat (i.e. Hagigat Muhammadi). The tajalli in its unlimitedness is, however, to be worshipped and not in its form. When Abraham saw tajalli after tajalli in limitedness, he called each tajalli His God, and when it disappeared, he rejected it saying La uhzbbul afilin (Al Anam vi:'77.) “TI do not like that which sets” (a). God is manifest in all grades of Asmai-Kiyani (mundane names), which are the counterparts of Asmai-ilahi. His name Rafiud darajat (exalted of ranks) and not Rafiud-daraja (exalted of rank) is the last grade of the latter The ism-i-kiyani that is the outcome of this name is Insan-ul-Kamil, (perfect man), the one who recognises His tajalliyat in all ranks. Hence the Prophet said “If you love God, follow me, and God will love you’. The ashes of the burnt calf were thrown into the ocean, in as much to say we have to observe the ocean and not the particles that are init. This calf had its origin in gold. Gold is maal (property), that which draws your my/ (inclination) towards it. It become our object of worship, if we allow it to draw us towards it.

Wama min dabbatinilla hua akhizun bi nasiyatiha hadha rabbi ala stratin musiagim (Suratu Hud x1: 56.) “There is no creeping creature, whose forelock is not in the hands of its rab (god) and that rab is in the right path.’ No man becomes subject to another man, unless there is defection in one and perfection in the other in a particular aspect. Hence the Quran has said Wa vaffaa bazukun ala bazin darajat. ‘We have exalted some over some others in ranks”. And this occurs amongst those who are of similar kind. The subordination of the subjects to the king, and the subjection of the latter to the former are a

(a) Studies in Tasawwuf p, 81. result of want on one hand and perfection on the other. If the king discharges his duties perfectly, he gets the same merit in the sight of God, asa gnostic does in his zvfan (spiritual knowledge). Like His creatures God is also working in the world, Kullu youmin hua fis shun(Ar Rahmanv: 29.) “Every day declares His glory.” Kar kun dar kargah bashad nthan, Tu birow dar kargah binush ayan The worker is hidden in his factory, You enter into the factory and find him at work. The world is not xatura naturata; the clock wound up to run out its course; nor is it zatura naturans—the clock going of itself. Nature is the third ism (name) in the asmai-kiyani(mundane names—which have creature aspect) and is the name given tothe observed course of working the jawhar-i-Haba or the root of the five elements (or of matter in mainfestation aspect). It is the workshop of God. “God is godding or ruling” in his Kingdom, Tabarak al ladhi bi yadihul mulku wa hua ala kulli shayin gadir (Suratul Mulk LXVM: 1.) Kar sawz-t-ma darunt kart ma, Fikri ma dar karima azari-ma The providence is in our work,

Our anxiety in the work is only a tribulation to us. ulla “the shadow of God,’ as he is doing his work after the manner of God. CHAPTER XXV THE WISDOM OF MOSES (Fasi-i-Moosawiyyah) The wisdom in the slaughter of the infants of Bani -Israel by Pharoah consisted in the souls and faculties of the slaughtered infants helping the soul and faculties of Moses; for each of these infants was killed under the impression that it was Moses himself—and these were pure souls in the way of submission to God (Islam). Thus was Moses the composite of all these souls. Such was the peculiarity of the soul of Moses, which was not found in any previous prophet. A smaller object exerts influence and control over a Jarger object ; an infant has control over his elder, who plays with him and descends to his level ; this is owing to the station of the infant in life, the infant being fresh from and nearer his rab than the elder. The Prophet (peace be no him) used to uncover and expose his head to fresh showers, as they were recent arrivals from God. Rain had captivated the Prophet on account of its nearness to God; and also as “‘God had made every thing alive out of water” Wa jaalna minal mar hulla shayin hiyyin (Al Anbtyva xxi: 30). The wisdom in the mother of Moses launching the ark of Moses upon water, consisted in the ark representing his causal body; and the water, the knowledge which his nafs was to acquire through that body. God acquires rest through this ark of the body. Thus God acquainted Moses that soul does not work up the body except through the body; and so also He does not work upthe world except through the world itself or through the forms of

His names (asma), e. .ع‎ Hebrings out the offspring through the parent. So also effects depend on causes. Therefore God said in the case of Adam that he is a composite of all His ‘beautiful names’ (asmaz-husana); and that he was created in His form, Khalga Adama ala suratiht; and the realities that are outside him and that form Alam-t-kalir (macrocosm) are the details of these asma ; the perfect man is the soul of the world; and he controls the materials and spiritual forces of it. Wa sakkhara lakum ma fis samawati wa ma fil ardht gamean minhu (Al Jastyah xtv : 13). ‘He has placed under your control whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth, all from Himself.””. Whoever understands this by intuition and ecstasy is a perfect man; and whoever does not understand this isa man in form and animal in reality. The throwing of the ark inthe river was obviously for Moses’ destruction; but in reality it was for his safety. Thus was Moses saved, just as souls are saved from the death of ignorance, Awa ma kana mtyyatan fa ahyaynahu wa jaalna lahu nuran yamshi bthi finnas (Al Anam v1: 123). ‘Whoever was dead (i. e., by ignorance), We revived him, (i.e. by knowledge) and sent along with him a light by which he walks among men.” This light is right guidance, which leads him to a state of blessed wonderment; which is a state of agitation of life and has no rest in it, and no death in it. This is that existence of God, which is manifest in the multitudinousness of asma, and which is transitory in nature. God is one; homogeneous in Dhat, and multitudinous in His asma or faces; just as noumenon is one and displays several phenomena. This display of faces is

called a tajalli; and God is manifest in these faces. When the wife of Pharoah rescued Moses, she gave him the name Moses, from the Coptic words Mu water and se, tree; since the ark of Moses was held up near atree. Pharoah conceived the idea of slaying him, but his wife dissuaded him under inspiration, and said /nnahu gurratul aynin li wa laka “He is the coolness of mine eyes and of yours” He became the coolness of the eyes of Pharoah, in as much the latter brought faith in God, and became free of shirk before he was drowned. God took him away when he was of clean heart and had no opportunity of committing further sins. Submission to God (Islam) blots out all sins. Thus both Pharoah and his wife were benefited through the instrumentality of Moses. The heart of the mother of Moses became free from grief, as God had made the milk of wet-nurses Zavam (prohibited) to Moses; and he took only to the breast of his mother. The real mother of a child is only the woman who suckles it, and not the one who gives birth to it. The child in the womb feeds on the menses of the female, without the latter’s will and intention. If the menses are not thus utilized, the female would become sick and suffer. Thus the child in the wombisa source of blessings to the mother; not such is the case of ج‎ wetnurse, who intentionally suckles the child to give him vitality and permanence.

Moses got relief from the ark of the body, in as much as he tore off the veils of darkness by the knowledge (water) to which he was consigned. God tried him in several ways. (a) First, the slaying of the Copt عم‎ (a) Vide Suratul-Kahf XVIII verses 71 to 77 for details. THE WisDOM OF MOSES (FASi-I-MoOsAWwiyyaH) 157 (Egyptian), in which fear did not enter into his heart. All prophets are free from sin in their hearts. Thus also, Khizr slew a boy and Moses questioned him about it, and did remember his own act. Khizr reminded him about his slaying of the Copt, in as much as to say that prophets’ acts are inspired by God and donot emanate from themselves ; so also the making of a hole in the boat by Khizr was a design for its safety and not for its destruction, like the app:rent object of launching the ark of the infant Moses; which was really for its preservation and not for its destruction. Moses fled from Egypt out of fear This fleeing too was a motion for the preservation of life. Lifeisa display of motion from quiescence, which is adum (nothingness) towards external manifestation. God has made us aware of the fact in the hadith uttered by the Prophet (peace be on him) Awntu kanzan mukhfian fa ahbabtu an ourtfa “\ was a hidden treasure and loved to be known” If there were no motion of love, the world would not have come into being from adum (nothingness).

The world came out of its station in the knowledge of God into externality. This motion is of love ; so that God knew Himself bothin His eternal aspect as well as in His transitory. In the first aspect, ‘“‘He is independent of the world” Wa hua ghaniyun anil alamin, (Suratu Aali Imran 11: 96). His knowledge becomes perfect by both these aspects; so also is the case with Existence. One aspect of it is eternal, and another non-eternal. The first is the existence of Dhat, and the second is the existence in the forms of the world, which are stable in knowledge, This latter is named non-eternal; and in this, God manifests Him-

self as forms of the world. God removed the restlessness which the asma had owing to the non-manifestation of their effects, by manifesting them ; for God loved the removal of this restlessness. Moses loved his safety by his motion of flight, as he explained to Jethro of Median, to whom he was introduced by his two daughters, whom he had helped at the well, by drawing water for their sheep without taking any hire from them. Khizr explained to Mcses that the repair to the wall, without receiving hire for it, was for the sake of the repair itself without any further object. Pharoah asked Moses Ma vabbul alamin (Suratus Shuara xxv: 23). ‘Whatis the reality of the Lord of the worlds”? This question was not out of ignorance, it was a question of test, for Pharoah knew what a prophet was expected to answer. Moses did not answer him in terms of genus, species and differentia ; but said—A/ ladhi yazharu fiht suwarul alamina min ulawin wa huwas samat wa stflin wa huwal ardu wa ma baynahuma in kuntun muginin— ‘‘He is the Lord of the world, in whom become manifest the forms of the highest, which is the heaven and the forms of the lowest, which is the earth; and whatever is between them, if you are true believers”

Then said Pharoah /uxahu la mujnun (Lbtd: 27). “This is a mad man.” Then to shew his additional knowledge, Moses added Rabul mashriqt wal magribi wa ma bavnahuma tn kuntun tagilun (As Shuara xxv1: 28). ‘The Lord of the east and west” i. e. the Lord of the things manifest and of the things hidden and whatever is between them, if THE WISDOM OF MOSES (FAs-I-MOOSAWIvyAH) 159 you are men of reason. Thus Moses first appealed to the spiritual discernment (£as//), and then to the reason of his audience. Pharoah said Wa ana anta bil aynit wa ghayruku bir rutbatt “| and you areone so far as reality is concerned, and different so far as rank is concerned.” Then said Moses ewalauzituka 62 shayin mubin (As Shuara xxv1: 30). ‘‘What even if I bring to you an obvious sign (i. e. a miracle)’ Then Moses threw down his rod, which immediately turned into.a serpent. This was the form of the sin of Pharoah in having rejected him. When the enchanters of Pharoah threw down. their ropes, which became serpents, the serpent of Moses swallowed them all ; as his serpent had then assumed the form of the nafs of Moses, (which was Va/s-2-mut-

mainna (a) which swallows up Vafs-z-ammara): for God > 1 5 ١ ا‎ . ai turns sins into goodness” yubaddi lullahu styyatihim hasanatin (Al Furgan xxv :70). The enchanters brought faith in the God of Moses and Aaron. Therefore Pharoah addressed to them and said Axa rubla kumul aala (An Naziat Lxxtx : 23). “I am your supreme Rab” i. e. although all (men) are rabs in some respect or other, lam your supreme rab, in virtue of my having rulership over all other rabs. The enchanters said ‘‘you are supreme in the life of this world, so do what you please’. Although so far as reality was concerned, Pharoah was the reality of God in the stage of Ahadiyyat, yet outwardly his aspect was the face of Pharoah. The cutting off of the hands and legs of the enchanters was already therein their ‘‘realities (a) Note :—Vide Studies in Tasawwuf pp. 87 and 88 for a detailed account of these terms. stable in the knowleqge of God” (ayvan-z-thabitz). These realities acquire their outward realization in the same state in which they are in knowledge; for ayan-t-thabita are God’s words; and in God’s words there is no change’ La tabdila li kalimat tllahi (Suratu Yanus x: 64). The outward objects are the words of God in their outward expression. They are eternal, so far as their stability in God’s knowledge is concerned ; and they are transi-

tory, in their own existence and manifestation. Faith at the time of death is of no avail, so far as this world is concerned. It was specially of avail in the case of the followers of Jonah as recorded in the Qurani-Shareef, for in their case an impending calamity was averted by faith. It is, however, of avail for the next world. Therefore Pharoah was taken away immediately after he had brought faith. Pharoah was not sure of ¢ his own destruction; as he had seen the believers (i. بع‎ the Israelities) pass dry-shod through the sea, by the way, which was opened by Moses having struck his rod, His salvation in the next world was_ secured, though his destruction here was inevitable. His body was finally discovered, so that his people knew that he had not hidden himself. God does not take away the soul of anyone until he or she has brought faith in Him ; except in the case of sudden death, in which the outgoing breath does not return, as in the case of one whose head is suddenly struck off from behind, and whose soul is wrested away in the condition in which it was either of faith or of infidelity. That one will resurrect in that very condition; while a man who dies a natural death sees the state of the next world before his death and becomes a believer.

THE WISDOM OF MOSES (FASI-I-MOOSAWIvyAH) 161 God spoke to Moses irom fire, as Moses was in search of fire. If He had spoken from anything else, Moses would have turned away from Him. NOTE :—When Pharoah ordered the slaughter of the newlyborn male children of Israel, he was under the impression that each male-child was Moses itself i. e. the child that was to bring about the destruction of his nation. The destruction of the powers of these children added to the power of Moses in strength, knowledge, will etc. Since the weak influences the strong as a child controls a big man, the souls of these children influenced and added to the powers of the soul of Moses. Such influence is technically called duruz; it is not tanasukh or reincarnation, in which a departed soul is said to assume a fresh body on earth. On this principle, the ceremony of agzga is performed in the Islamic world. When a child is seven days old, two sheep are slaughtered in the case of a male child, and one in the case of a female child (vide Weshcat ul Masabth xvi C. 3). The ark of Moses was laid on water i.e. his body was laid on the knowledge, which it was to acquire by means of that body, i. e. the practical knowledge of the world.

The Divine asma (asma-i-ilahi) were in agitation till they got their manifestation in mundune asma (asma-i-kiyana) ; and thus found their sakzna (schkena) or resting place. The marbud (the manifested) are the resting ground of their avad (plural of rab, the manifestor). Thus the asma of God found rest by manifesting the world i.e, bringing out forms from the internality of knowledge (of Himself) into externality of observance (shuhud) of Himself. The Dhat animates the world just as the soul animates the body. The Dhat first animated the sifat (attributes) by which process, the latter assumed the forms of asma-i Hahi (the Divine names) ; this is called Faizi-Aqdas, Then the Dhat animated the asma-kiyani (mundane names) through asama-i-ilahi, ie. by this process the latter to reach their own perfection manifested the forms of asmai-kiyani. Thisis called Faiz-i-Muqaddas (the holy breath). Thus God planned the world, through the forms ofthe world itself which were the forms of the sifat and asma of Dhat; asin the hadith. Jznallaha khalaga Adama ala suratiht “God created man in His own form.” The ayani-thabita are within Dhat in one respect and out or It, in another. In the latter aspect, as asmai-kiyani they are liable to obliteration and in the former as asmai-ilahi, they are eternal Kullu man alayha fan wa yabga wajhu rabbika dhul jalali wat tkram (Ar Rahman LV : 26) “Whatever is on It, is to be annihilated; Eternal is your Lord, with His glory and beauty”.

Moses fled from Egypt. Motion signifies life. He fled from destruction towards life. Eternal life means eternal motion for the soul. ‘‘Those who are killed in the way of God, are not dead but alive”. La tahsaban al ladhina qutilu fi 5272 27 amwatan bal ahyaun (Alai Imran 1: 168). Abdulla-ibn-i-Masud has related the hadith “‘that the departed believers live in the crops of green birds, which fly about among the green trees of the Paradise” Thus those in paradise will have eternal life moving about from magam (station) to magam of spiritual elevation. They finally reach the magam of blissful wonder (Tennyson's transcendental wonder) as opposed to those who will be in the wonderment of darkness Mon kana قز‎ aama fa hua fil akhiratilamawa azallu sahila,’ (Bani-tsrael XVII:72) ‘Whoever is blind here, will be blind inthe hereafter, and in a still worse way” i.e. will go down from darkness to darkness as the author of Shar-i-Muwafiq explains. Ax man kana mtiyyatan fa ahyaynahu wa jaalna lahu nuran yamshi bthi finnas. (Al Anam vi: 123). “We gave life to that man who was dead, and gave him a light by which he walks amongst men.” When Moses reached the region of light in the valley of Tawa, the command to him was Fakhla naliyka innaka bil wadil

mugaddas-t-tawa” (Ta Haxx: 12). “Remove your sandals, for you are in the twice sacred valley (towa)” i.e. remove your wordly encumbrances. Some say that the sandals of Moses had straps of leather ofa goat that was not slain in the name of God and ceremoniously ; and hence unclean. Moses did not take to the breast of wet-nurses, but took to that of his own mother, Yakid (Jochebed of Exodus 6-20). This is an indication that his shariat (laws) was to be original and not one derived from that of any previous prophet. The woman who suckles a child is really a greater benefactor to it than the mother herself, who does not suckle it; and who herself was benefited by it, so long as it was in the womb, Muhammad (peace be on him) had therefore an intense grateful regard for his fostermother Bi Bi Halima. Moses possessed knowledge of the external world, and Khizr that of the internal. Hence the meeting of Moses and Khizr as mentioned in Suratul Kahf xvii: 65 to 82. While in this journey, Khizr made a hole in a boat, slew an innocent boy, raised a wall in a town which had refused hospitality to both of them. Moses had no patience and asked Khizr question after question on these subjects ; and finally there was the parting between the two. By these acts of his, Khizr wanted to remind Moses of his slaying the Egyptian, of his coming out of the ark and of his not demanding hire for watering the flock of sheep of Jethro’s daughters at the well. These acts of Moses were from inspiration from God, although he was unaware of it; so were theacts of Khizr. Prophets are sinless, and whatever proceeds from them has no personal motive at its back.

Jesus Christ said “I came not tosend peace but a sword” (Matt. X 34 & 35). He senta herd of swine into the sea (Matt. VIII 28). St- Paul wrote to the Galatians that Christ “was made a curse for us (Gal. 111 1-3) ; Sri Krishna urged Arjuna on the battle-field of Kurukshetra to fight and kill, Muhammad (peace be on him) fought his ghazwas and saariyas. When in the battle of Ohud, his forces killed the enemy, and he threw a handful of dust at them, it was said Falam taqtuluhum wala killannallaha qatalahum, ma ramayta tz vamayta was la kinnallaha rama *‘‘When thou slew them, thou didst not slay them, it was God who slew them ; it was not thou that didst smite them, but it was God that smote them” (Al Anfal vil: 17 They were in the state which the Sufis called Qurbi-Farayad, in which they are the agent and God is the actor. Sometimes when an act emanates out of their forgetfulness, the prophets feel sorry for it م‎ as in the case of the Prophet (peace be on him), and Ibni Ummi Muktum (Abdullah son of Shuraih) ‘He (the prophet) frowned and turned his back because there came to him a blind man”. (Suvatul Abasa LXXX). Prophets are internally sinless and their acts proceed from God. The slaying of the youth, the drilling of a hole in a sound boat etc., were apparently acts of sin, as they were acts of destruction,); but in reality they were for the safety of others. When one improverishes his nafs by prayer and fasting, the goal is the safety and enlightenment of the very same nafs.

When Moses appeared before Pharoah, the latter asked him Faman rabbakuma, ya Moosa (Ta Ha Xx: 49). “And who is your Lord, O, Moses ?” Moses said Kabbus samawati wal ardi wama baynahuma in Runtum mugzinin (Suratus-Shuara XXV1: 24). “The Lord of the heavens and the earth, if you are believers”. Here in this book, the Shayk has added the word suwar (forms) which is not in the Quran ; but which is his interpretation of the text; such interpretation has enabled him to construct his doctrine of Tanazzulat (emanation) explained in the chapter on his life. Pharoah said to those around him Ala tastamoun (XXVI: 24). “Do you not hear.” Then said Moses Rabéul mashvrigt wal magribt wama baynahuma in kuntum tagqilun (Suratus Shuara XXV1 +23 to 28). ‘ The THE WISDOM OF MOSES (FASI-I-MOOsAWlvyAH) 165 Lord of the East (things mainfest) and of the West (things hidden), if you are men of reason.” Pharoah asked Moses about the nature of God, not through ignorance but to transfix him on the horns of a dilemma. If Moses had attempted a definition of the Dhat (or Reality) of God by giving out His attributes, then Pharoah would have said that Moses was mad; and if he had given a definition, he would have said that he was not a vasu/ (messenger); the reality of God is sud generus and cannot be brought under genus, species and differentia. Moses gave his reply by referring to the signs and actions of God in the world i.e.

He isthe rab or nourisher of the sky and the earth, and whatever is between them, and that He is manifest in the objects heavenly and earthly, which are forms in His knowledge or that He is one inwhom objects manifest themselves. Pharoah understood this, his audience did not; Moses thus first appealed to their intuition, and then to their reason, when he said “‘He is the Lord of the East and West,” that is, He is Huaz zahir, (Al Hadid LV: 3)‘ the external,’ and Hlual batin, the internal : the east and the west are where the sun rises and sets respectively i.e. where objects become manifest and get hidden i.e, The manifest world is the east and the hidden world is the west.

This is the very same idea as was expressed in Deuteronomy 33-2. ‘‘The Lord came from Sinai and rose up from Seir unto them, He shined from the Mount Paran”, and was sung by Habakkuk (Haba. III: 3). ‘‘God came from Teman and the Holy One from Mount Paran; Selah, His glory covered the heavens ; and the earth was full of His praise’. Then retorted Pharoah ; “If the world is the external aspect of God, 20د‎ 1 am of this externality, ]am the external aspect of God and the reality of God, and I shall send you to prison i.e. 1 shall hide you from men and send you to dust, 47114 kumul ala (An Nagiat LxxIx : 24). “Iam your Supreme Lord”. ie, the reality of God is in each and every one. “Ye are gods” said Jesus Christ (St. John X: 35( 1.6, Ye are asma, of which God is the reality. Butsince I have rulership as well, I am your Supreme Lord” said Pharoah. This was as much as Caesar had said “I am your unconquerable God”. When Pharoah was obdurate, Moses resorted to his miracle. ammara or sinful nature (Suratu Yousuf) xi:53) of Pharoah; and then showed itself as 2a/s,-2-mutmaina of Moses (A/ Fajr XxXIX: 27), the higher state of this nafs, when it swallowed up the serpents of the enchanters. Some consider this to have been a visionary state and some, like Ibni Khaldun, take it as an aid from the spirit of God (a).

Pharoah had salvation in the next world; forAasia, the daughter of Mikahem, and wife of Pharoah, said under Divine inspiration when she found him in the ark Qurvratul ayni liwa laka (Suratul Qasas 22557111: 9) ‘‘ He is the light of your eyes and of mine’? When a person brings faith in the Unity of God with his or her consciousness intact before death, that person becomes Moumin or Moumina, and his or her sins are foregiven. But when a person is killed all on a sudden and loses consciousness, without having had an opportunity for repentance, the sins stick on. Hence the Muslim before giving up the ghost, repeats the Kalimat-Tawhid within the hearing of two witnesses. When Pharoah saw the children of Israel passing dry-shod through thesea, he brought faith in the Lord of Moses and became a believer and his sins were forgiven. Repentance is not, however, of any avail in this world in the case of calamities that come over one on account of sins. The body of Pharoah (Ramases II) was finally washed ashore (Suratu Yunus x:92),to show that he had not hidden himself, but was punished for his sins in this world, although he obtained salvation in the next. Muslims are prohibited from

(a) Sir Saiyid Ahmed’s Commentary on Suratul Araf, 216. calling any one a “ man of hell’, for we are unaware of his last moments. In this case, the hadith of the Prophet (peace be on him) finds its justification. In the rather early part of his mission, the Prophet ordered Bilal, his Negro slave, to announce in the streets of Mecca, Mon gala latlaha 11 Allah dakhalal jinna. “Whoever says there is no God but Allah will enter the Paradise” Once a man announces this faith inthe unity of God with a contrite heart, his sins are washed away, and he enters the paradise, if he dies immediately. If he remains alive to commit further sins, they too are washed away with a sincere expression of repentance every time; as a Persian Poet says :— Baz aas baz aa unchi hasti baz aa, Gar kafir wu ghabr wu butt parastt baz aa. Aein dargah ma dargahi na ummidi nist Sad bar agar towba shikastz baz aa. Come back, come back, whatever you are, come back, If you are kafir, fire-worshipper or idol-worshipper, come back. My kingdom is not a kingdom of despair, A hundred times, if you have broken your repentance, come back.

Moses saw God in the form of fire, for he was in search of fire; and so people will find in the paradise the things that they are in search of, in this world—ouris (beautiful female-servants) and ghilman (handsome male-servants) or Deydar (vision of God), as the case may be, according to the object of their search CHAPTER XXVI THE WISDOM OF KHALID (Fas-i-Khalidiyyah) Khalid, the son of Sanan laid claim to the prophetship of barzakh (hades), which consisted in his coming back to this world to reveal the secrets of that state after his death. He esserted that he would reveal these secrets, with a view to corroborate the statements that the former prophets had made, if they dug out his corpse after he was buried and questioned him whether the affairs of the hades were conducted after the manner of this world (as the prophets had described). His object was to become a source of blessings to the whole world, if the whole world brought faith in all these prophets. He was a herald of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him), although he was not a prophet himself and had no mission of his own, but wished to have a share in the blessings in store for “the Seal of the Prophets.” His nation did not however, turn him or at least his advice to good use. Here the questfon arises whether or not, God would recompense him with merit for his intention.

There is no doubt that he would get the merit of his intention ; but would he get the recompense accruing from the realization of that merit, of which there are instances in several places in the shariat of Islam? e.g., a person goes to mosque to perform namaz along with the congregation; he misses the latter, does he get ¢hawad (recompense from God) for this? A poor man has the intention of doing good to others. He has not the wherewithals ; does he get the ¢Zawaéd (recompense)

both for intention and action, as if the action has actually happened? The Prophet (peace be on him) has not definitely stated whether such an one gets the merit of both intention and action or only the merit of intention” (Wa lam yanussan Nabiyyu alayhima wa la ala wahidin minhuma), Obviously the merit of intention cannot be of equal weight with the merit of realization. Khalid bin Sanan had the intention of solving this problem, and therefore wanted to enter the hades and come back to his nation. Nore. This Khalid is not the same as the Khalid, the renowned Muslim general, who fought with the Persians and Romans. He was a seer who lived in one of the villages of Aden, shortly betore the time of the Prophet (peace be on him). The story connected with him is as follows: Once a fire emerged out of a mountain cave near Aden, and burnt down the fields and cattle of the villagers. Khalid drove hack the fire, and himself entered the cave, telling the villagers that if they called him out after full three days, he would come back sound and healthy. They, however, had not sufficient patience, and called out after two days. He came out, but with a bad head-ache caused by their premature call, and gave out that he was doomed to die ; and that forty days after his burial, a flock of sheep headed by a tail-cut’ ass would approach his grave. He also said that they had to wait till then, and re-open his grave; when he would rise up and give a description of things in the hades—a state said to be between ajsam (material-bodies) and amthal (thought-bodies) i.e., a state in which thoughts appear in forms.

Man after death, appears in that state, in the form of the thought he constantly and habitually indulged in, in this world, e. g. a greedy man assumes the form of a rat; an avaricious man, the form of a pig ; a violent man that of atiger (a). This is refer- (a) Studies in Tasawwaf. p. 87, red to in the hadith, Mon tashabhuhu gowmin fa hua min hum, ‘“ whoever assimilates the characteristics of a tribe becomes one of that tribe’ This isin the lower arc of alam-i-mithal (thoughtworld) bordering on alam-i-ajsam (causal world). This was the hades into which Christ descended to preach to the spirits in prison, (a) with a view to reclaiming them, through the influence cf his holy mithali body, trom their prisons i. .ع‎ their unhuman forms and restore them to the original form of ‘the image of God’; and to enable them to ascend to the next higher arc of alami-mithal bordering on alami-arwah; and then to enter alami-arwah itself, wherein soul-bodies dwell. Christ's causal body itself had become his mithali body and then his soul-body Arwahina ajsadina, ajsadina arwahina, “Our souls are our bodies and our bodies are our souls’ in this stage, as Mawlavi Mahibulla of Allahabad would say. He had what the Sufis call Kashful quour (illumination of the state of the dead in their graves). The Prophet (peace he on him) met in the night of mairaj (ascension) with Abraham, Moses, and other great prophets in the non-spatial (the fourth dimensional) region of arwah, (wava ul waraa) The lower arc of alami-mithal is called, alami-sifli (lower region i.e. the hades) and the higher arc, alami-ulawi (the upper region). (b)

When what Khalid had foretold actually came to pass, the people wanted to renpen his grave; but his sons stood in the way, as they did not like to become known to the world as the descendents of one, whose grave was reopened ; his behest was not thus carried out; and he was not ableto come back and explain how far a mere intention could secure a reward in the next world. When a daughter of Khalid called on the Prophet (peace be on him), he said Marhaba ya 027:12 nabiyin zaah qowmahu, “Praise to you, daughter of a nabi, whom his nation turned to waste.” (a) Galatians IX-9 and | Peter JII-19. (b) Saiyid Shah Husain’s Zow-us-Shams, p. 14. CHAPTER XXVII THE WISDOM OF MUHAMMAD (Fasi-i-Muhammadiyy ah) This is called the wisdom of Individuality, as Muhammad (peace be on him) was the most perfect man in the species of mankind. His mission began with nabuwat (prophetship) in the spiritual world, as per Hadith Fa kana nabiyan wa Adamu baynal mae wat tin ‘| was Nabi, while Adam was yet between Water and mud,” and it ended with nabuwat in the material world, as he is the exponent of all the asma- (names) of Adam. His existence displays a triuneness of self and of existence in the beginning and of manifestation at the end. Hence he said in the matter of love, Hubbiba tlayya min dunyakum thalthun bima fit, minath thulasi, thumma dhakaran nisaa wat tiyba wa ju-elat gurratu ayntht fis salat ‘‘Three things of your world have been made beloved to me, and of these three, he mentioned women, and fragrance ; and said the “coolness of my eyes has been caused in prayer (salat).”

‘Woman’ has been placed before ‘prayer,’ for woman in respect of manifestation is a part of man, and the understanding of one’s self is prior to the understanding of God whicb is the result of the understanding of self. on arafa naysahu Jagad arafa Rabbahu “Whoever understood his self understood his God” says-a hadith. From this, you may infer either that since you cannot understand your self, you cannot understai.d God, or that every particle of creation is an indication of the reality which is the existence of God. When women were beloved to the Prophet (peace be on him). he showed kindness to them; for the whole always tends towards its part. By this are expounded the doctrine of Nafakhiu fiht min ruhi (Suratu Sad xxxvi1: 173.) “Breathed unto him (Adam) from My breath,” and the mystery of death; for God intensely expressed the desire of meeting those who are fond of Him, and said to David in respect of them. Ya Dawoodu innt laash addu showgan ilahim yant hl mustagina wlayhi “ Oh David, | am very fond of those who are fond of me” This by way of special meeting with them. The Prophet in the Hadith of Dajjal has said [nna ahadakum lan yara Rubbahu hatta yumuta “None of you will see God, until you die” The position of man in this world thus stands in his way of Divine vision 3 God therefore is irresolute in taking away the breath of a believer; as man abhors death and God abhors to do a thing abhorrent tohim. He hastherefore given out the pleasantness of meeting Him as the goal of man’s life, and not the termination in death, since God has said Wa labudda lahu min ligayi ‘the believer has finaly to meet Me.”

When God breathed His breath into Adam, He loved His own self, for He made man in His own image. ‘he creation of man is from the four elements, which in his body appear as four humours. When the breath entered into this ccmposition, a light appeared init. Since there was dampness in the body, the light of the soul of man appeared to be of the nature of fire. This is why God talked to Moses from fire. Owing to the aptitude of the body, the light became fire, the breath of God therefore appeared as fire. THE WISDOM OF MUHAMMAD (FAs-I-MUHAMMADIYYAH) 173 God took out of Adam another image which He called woman. When she appeared in his own. form, Adam showed inclination towards her, just as one shows inclination towards one’s own self; and the woman showed inclination towards him, such as one shows towards one’s own self and one’s own native land. Woman was, therefore, beloved of the prophet (peace be on him), just as one made in His own image (i. e. Adam) was beloved of God. And God caused the angels of light to bow before Adam, although they were higher. in rank, having been created out of light. Thus the relationship of form was established between God and man, and man and woman. Man became the couple of God, and woman became the couple of man: Thus three individualities appeared : God, man, and woman. Man showed inclination to God, his original, just as woman showed it towards man; her original. This love of man towards woman is thus really his love towards God. Therefore the Prophet (peace be on him), the perfect man, said /udécba dlavva. The women “were made beloved to me” and did not say Ahbabtu min nafsiht. ‘| did love by myself” Thus the Prophet was qualified with the attributes of God.

When man loved woman, he become desirous of copulation, which is the real adhesion in the world of elements. By copulation, lust spreads throughout the organs and fibres of the body. This is why bathing is enjoined after this act; the purification of the body is to be the purification of it as a whole, just as man at the time of copulation had become /av7 (annihilated) as a ‘whole. God is jealous that His banda (created) should not derive pleasure from other than Himself. Bathing cleanses the banda, so that he reverts in imagination or in sight by such cleansing to Him, in whom he had really become faz (annihilated) at the particular moment. Such reversion is considered very necessaryWhen banda observes God in woman, his observance is of passive character; when he observes Him in his own nafs (individuality), that nafs having produced the woman, his observance is of active character. When he observes Him in sucha way that the face of the woman disappears from his sight, his observance of God is of passive character without a mediary, but his observance of God in woman, as emanating from himself is of more perfect character; for then banda observes God both in His active and passive characters, he being of active, and she of passive character ; this is far better than the observance of God in one’s self without the face of woman.

Therefore the Prophet (peace be on him) loved woman. God cannot be observed without the medium of matter ; as He is azz (independent), and does not care to show Himself to the people of the world. When such is the case, the observance of God in woman is more perfect than in any other material object. The principal way of observance of God is Mickha —copulation, which is the favour bestowed by God on the creature who was made in His form and appointed to be His vicegerent on earth. This creature is also the mirror in which He saw Himself—one in whom He breathed His spirit. The externality of this one is named the * created’; while its internality is Himself. For this reason the internality of this creature moulds its externality, just as God moulds all forms from the THE WISDOM OF MUHAMMAD (FASI-I-MUHAMMADIYyaAH) 175 heaven to the earth, which are the highest and the lowest manifestations ; woman being the lowest manifestation. Hence the Prophet (peace be on him) used the word Visa (women), a word which is always used in the plural number and which has also the significance of ‘‘being later” ds she came later into existence than man; and he loved women, as they were thus lower in the ranks of manifestation. They have the same relationship with man regarding rank, as nature has with God. God manifested the forms of the world in Nature, by His attention which is called Nickha in the causal world, and will-power in the spiritual world.

Whoever loved woman in this sense, loved her with divine love; and whoever loved her out of lust, is debarred from this knowledge ; and to such an one, she becomes a figure without soul. Such an one does not know from whom he is deriving pleasure; he loves the place of love, and not the reality of it. Just as woman is lower in rank, for God has said wali tir ryalt alayhinna darajatun (Suratul Bagarah 11: 228.) As for men, they are higher in rank thanthey (women)”, man is lower in rank than God, who made him in His form; this owing to the devolution of Dhat. God is the first active principle, and form, the second and ayan-i-thabita (realities of the world in God’s knowledge) come next, and they are differentiated from each other. As Muhammad (peace be on him) loved God, he loved women, God's forms in His lower rank. Nature is nothing else than the breath of God, into which forms lower and higher have been made immanent, and made to appear as the phenomena of the world.

The Prophet (peace be on him) brought in ‘fragrance’ next to women in the hadith. In -women there is the fragrance of creation, the proverb is <Atyabut 11102 enagul habid ‘the sweetest fragrance to the lover is the embrace of the beloved.” When God created the prophet (peace be in him), the prophet stood before him in passivity ; and the world was created out of him; and God breathed His breath into him, which was fragrance itself. Hence the Prophet loved fragrance and gave it the place next to women. Since fragrance was the essence of creation, which is God Himself, it became beloved to the prophet, who found fragrance in everything. Evil odour is not evil in its own nature. It 15 fragrance itself to itself. The reality of everything is sweet; evil is an aspect of the reality’s manifestation. A thing becomes evil, when it disagrees with one’s temperament; or when it causes injury to one or when it is contrary to the shariat- Good and evil cannot disappear from the world, God’s grace is in both. An evil thing is good in itself, and regards good as evil from its view-point ; just as a dung-hill beetle regards dung as fragrance, and dies when it is exposed to the sweetness of a roseflower.

The third thing that signified individuality is sa/a¢ (prayer). The prophet, (peace be on him) said ‘‘the coolnese of my eyes is secured in saat (prayer)”, which is the observance of God; it is a dialogue or -communion between God and man. God has said /adh kurunt adhhurkum (Suratul Bagarah 1: 152.) “You remember Me, I remember you.” This salat is divided between God and man into two halves; one half for God and the other for man” as mentioned in the hadith Ousimatis salatu bynt wa byna abdi nisfant, fa nisfuha li wa nisfuha liabdt, When the banda says Désmzllah hir Rahman nir Rahim—‘\n the name of God whose grace is universal and also particular.” God says “My banda has remembered Me.” When banda says Alhamdu wlahil Rabltl alamin (Suvatul Fatthah 1:1) “All praise to the Lord of the worlds.” God says ‘“‘My banda has praised me.” When banda says Maliki youmiddin, “Sovereign of the day of judgment.” God says ‘“My banda has left all his affairs with Me.” The above half relates to God. Aeyyaka nabudu wa tyyaka nastiyin. ‘We serve Thee and seek thy assistance.” This verse is participated between God and man. Lhdinus strat al mustagim, “Teach us the right path”

These are things prayed for by the banda. Thus the recitation of the Suratul-fatihah in salat is wazzd (necessary) ; its omission vitiates the prayer. When prayer is communion between God and man, God becomes the co-sitter (comrade) of man, as stated ina hadith sahih, Aza zalisu mon dhakarnt. “| am the co-sitter of one who prays to Me.” Whoever becomes Co-sitter of God, he sees Him, if he is one with keen vision (4as7-2-hadid), Thus salat is the vision of God. If one does not possess such vision, he does not see Him. If one in salat does not see him, he must at least have the faith that he sees Him. At the time of prayer, he must attend to his Q7é/a (point in front of him) and see what conditions dawn on him. In salat, he is the leader (imam) of those who pray behind him or in their absence, of the angels who take their places(as stated in a hadith); and thus he becomes a xvasul (or messenger) of God and His spokesman; for when he says sawz-allahu li mon hamida “God has heard the praises of him who praised Him,” he apprises his self or those behind him that God has heard the words of those who praised Him. Then His followers or angels say Kadéana lakal hamd “O our Protector, the praise is entirely due to you’—the great excellence of salat consists in God uttering through the tongue of His banda, the words Samit-allahu i mon hamida ٠“ God has heard the praise of one who praised Him.” Whoever does not have this beatific vision, has not reached the goal of prayer and has not obtained the ‘‘coolness of eyes.” There is no ordinance of shariat of the same kind as salat, for in salat attention should not be diverted to anything else, even of a compulsory religious nature;

so Jong as it lasts; God has also said /uzas salata tanha antl fahshat wal munkar (Suratul Ankabut xxix: 45) “Salat (prayer) stands in the way of all shameless and abominable acts”. The remembrance of banda by God is, however, a much superior grace, Wala zikrullaht akbaru.’ This dhikris when God answers his banda, as already explained, when the latter praises Him in his salat, “for God knows what you do (in your salat)” Wal/ahu yalamu ma tasnawun (Suratub Ankabut xxix: 45) and “ whether you have lent your ear and have been observant” Aw algas samaa wa hua shahidun (Suratul Qaf L: 37.)

Salat indicates the rotion of the world from ‘adum’ towards ‘external existence’ This motion is of three kinds:—straight, when the bands stands up in gzyam (standing posture in salat); horizontal, when he bends in 7zku (bending posture); reversed, when he reverses his body in sajvd (prostration), The first posture refers to his existence as man, the second, to his existence as beast; and the third, to his existence as vegetable. A mineral has no motion of its. own, it requires an extenal impact. The Prophet (peace be-on:him) said Tuelat QUIT Atul ayni fis satat ‘The coolness of my eyes has been secured in salat” That is, God’s tajalli (illumination) on banda is bestowed by Him as a gift and not obtained by the banda as something due to him. When this tajalli Gliumination) is a gift from God as a favour, mzshahada (vision of God) is also a gift from Him of the same nature. And this vision of the beloved brings coolness to the eyes. If you derive the word gavva from estigra ‘steadiness, it means that at the time of vision, the banda’s eyes: become ' steady and concentrated, The banda sees Him either in a thing (as Moses saw Him in afire, and the Prophet, ina’ ‘beardless youth’) or in other than-thing (in ones self); and his eyes become steady ; hence the diversion of attention to an extraneous object is prohibited in salat. Satan tries to divert his attention in salat, so that he loses sight of his beloved ; and ‘‘man knows his own internal condition best, although he may put forth excuses” عل‎ dali/insanu ala nafsihi basiratun wa lau alga maadiara (Suratul Ovvamuah Lxxv: 14).

God has also informed us that He is 9 in salat (prayer) towards us. He becomes prayer-sayer (musalli) in His name ‘Akhar’ (‘the last’), for this ism (name) of God comes in after the existence of the prayer-saying banda ends, and behind the entity of God whom the banda has created in his contemplation—or in his imagination. The imagined God is what banda has created for himself; Junayd has said Lawz ul maz fawnal ina-e-hi, ‘‘the color of the water is the color of its vessel.” This is a very correct explanation of the above doctrine. This tajalli (illummation) is the God who prays and shows His tajalli, when we are at prayer. We will be nearer to God, according to our conception of Himi.e. He shows Himself in the form we conceive of Him; and every thing is praising the all-patient and forgiving God, who is not quick in dealing out punishment. The form proclaims its own praise, as the Quran says Wa im min shayin dla yusub bihu bt hamdiht (Suraim Bant-[srael Xvu: 44.) ‘There is no thing that doesnot proclaim its own praise’ — The pronoun here refers to ‘thing’ (4az zamirul ladhi fi gowlht bihamdihi yawoodu ilash shav). The man who proclaims the praise of God proclaims the praise of the one in his own conception, ‘‘the praise of the constructed is the praise of its constructor—’’Mon madah has saniyata fa innama madah has sawni—The beauty and want of it in the constructed has reference to its constructor—the thing that proclaims itself, proclaims its Maker. If people understand this dictum of Junayd, they will accept the God of every believer, and observe God in every form and in all forms—every one’s conception of God is according to his own idea and not out of his knowledge. God has therefore said through His

Prophet (peace be on him) Ana inda zanni abdi bi '“ [1 am near the idea which my banda has of Me” “That is, | appear to him, in the form, which he has conceived of Me.” The banda may thus conceive of Him as limited or absolute—” the limited God is the one whom the heart of the believer contains” Wa hual lahulladhi wastah galbu abdihi. But in the heart of the believer, His tajalliyat (illuminations) dawn one after another, and not all at once- The Absolute God cannot be contained in anything, for He is the reality of everything, and it cannot be said that the reality contains its ‘ own self.’ God alone shows the right path. NOTE,—This is called the wisdom of individuality, as Haqiqat-i-Muhammadi (the Reality of Muhammad—peace be on him) is the point in which all asma (or names) and sifat (attributes) of God are immanent, and from which they spread out like rays from the sun. Muhammad (peace be on him) is the manifestation of Ism-i-Azam, ‘the great name’ - the Shemhamphorash as the Jews called it—that was to be referred to, in silence amongst the Isaelites and not talked out. God individualized this ism in His knowledge—the very first individuality ; and from this all other names emanated, as Gulshan-i-Raz says.

Gah az Moosa padid wu gah 22 Adam. The light of the Nabi is the great sun, Sometimes it shone through Moses, and sometimes through Fhe ayn or reality of Muhammad (peace be on him) appeared first in the knowledge of God , which process is called Faiz-iAqdas (the most holy benevolence); and the realities of the world appeared in this reality, which process is called Faizi-Muquddas (the holy benevolence) ; thus this reality is immanent in all realities of forms and specially prominent in those of the prophets ; like number one being immanent in all conceivable numbers in the world. The prophet (peace be on him) was the first form in the knowledge of God as referred دن‎ in the Hadith quoted by the Shayk, Kuntu nabiyyan wu Adamu baynul ma wat tyn “I was nabi while yet Adam was between water and mud” and he was last in the manifestations of prophets, Khatem ul nabsyyin. Mr. J.C. Molony(a) says “Muhammad preached the doctrine of one true God to the idolators of Arabia; his words have been the life guidance of a hundred and eighty millions of men these twelve hundred years. ‘There is no God but God, Muhammad is the messenger of God.’ This is the faith of Islam. If I accept the first article, 1 do not see how I can deny the second. Only I would say a messenger, not the messenger.”

Muhammad (peace be on him) is ‘the messenger, at least in the sense that the truth he taught partially permeated in some way or other, the teachings of the other prophets who appeared from the beginning of the world, like number one in other numbers, and fully realized itself in his own teaching Ma badi nabiyyan “No prophet after me” said the prophet Al youma akmultu lakun dinakum wu atmontu alaykum niyamatt (Suratul Maida V:3). “This day have I perfected for you your religion, and given you the full measure of My favour.” Again, the Kalima of Islam is (a) La tlaha il Allahu Muhammadan rasul-wlahi “ There is no god, but God ; Muhammad is the messenger of God”. These sentences are taken out of different places in the Holy Quran, Suratu Muhammad XLvu: 19 and Suratul Fath Xivitt: 29 and placed in juxta-position, without an ‘and’ connecting them; thus showing that the one idea flows out ofthe other, as a matter of course. The Dhat, (a) A book of South Indian pp. 120 and 121. (a) Vide for details “ Studies in Tasawwuf” .م‎ 23 and “The Secret of Anat Haqq’’ p. 12, ° the Unknownable, was absorbed in Itself. When It instrospected into Itself, which implies a descent in Its own knowledge, It found Itselfin a form; and in this form, It is known as Hagigat-i Muhammadi (the reality of Muhammad) or Qalam-iAala (the Supreme Pen) ; and circumscribed in this form, It sang the praises of the Absolute Dhat, as Mir Hasan in his Methnawi has put it.

Karun pahli tawhid-1-Vazdan ragam, JShuka jiskay sajday ku awwal kalam ; Sar-t-lauh pa rakh bayazt jabin, Kaha dowsra kowyi tujsa nahin. . Let me begin with the praise of Yazdan, Before whom the Pen first bowed ; Placing its forehead on the tablet, It uttered the words ‘ there is none like unto Thee ’ While the people of his time, and subsequent times, had to say “Muhammad is the messenger of God,’ the Prophet himself said Ana rasulullah ‘I-ness’ is the messenger of 00 * ie. the first “taiyyum” or limitation of God. Wa fianfustkum afala subsirun (Suratul Dhartyat 1 : 21) “ He is your individualities, you do not observe” Lagad jaakum vasulun min anfustkum (Suratul Barat 1x-128) “ Certainly a messenger has been sent to you in your individualities ’ This messenger is the ‘I-ness’ that manifested itself in the first limitation. It has two aspects, one towards the Dhat; and the other towards the lower stages of the Dhat in devolution. In his Uruj (ascent journey), the Prophet reached up to this stage; but had his “eye turned towards the Dhat and acknowledged himself during his prophetship as Its aéd and rasul (servant and messenger) ; while Mansur-i-Hallaj and others of his ilk in their Uruj had their eyes. turned towards the lower stages and exclaimed ‘ Anal Haqq (Iam the truth). It is like two people ascending a mountain; one approaching the peak, says ‘‘I am still far off, though

in the bosom of the peak; I have no full idea of the mountain Ma arafnrka hagga marifatika “ Thave not knowledge of God to the extent that I should have had,” said the Prophet ; and the other turns his eye downwards and says “I am on the peak, I have reached the goal”. In his Uruj (ascent), Muhammad (peace be on him) realized the first aspect of Dhat (the I-ness) as the first explorer of the mountain referred to. At times, but only during his ecstatic moments, he is said to have given out AnaAhmadun bila min “ [1 ممح‎ Ahmad without a mim ” that is “Iam Ahad ”: Ana Arabun-btla ayn (1am Arab witheut ayn); that is I am Rab (vide Introduction to the Secret of Ana Haqq .م‎ XxYII for details). To him, the Dhat was still higher up and inscrutable. Thus in the Kalima, the I-ness is brought out as the first limitation of the Dhat in knowledge ; the first messenger or ray of light that streamed forth. Out of this stream, other streams issued; hence the akhadis (Hadithes) Ana min nurallaht wa kullu shayin min nurt, “YT am _ from the light of God, andall things are from my light” Awwala ma khalag Allahu nurt.“ God first created my light.’ This light or‘ I-ness’ is termed Nur-i-Muhammadi—the light of Muhammad ‘the stage of Wahdat,’ which directly influenced the soul of the Prophet (peace be on him); whereas inthe case of other prophets, it influenced through asma ; as the Shayk has worked out in his Fusul Hikam.

The Kalimi of the Israelites was connected with hearing— Their Shema-Israel was “ Hear, 0 Israel, Jehovah our Elohim is one Jehovah,” (St. Mark x1 : 29). The ‘ being’ (of Parmenides) displays itself as ‘ becoming’ (of Heracleitus) in form by the process of love. God loved to be known, and ‘ He became’i.e. displayed Himself to Himself in form. Love is the origin of all things. Therefore the prophet loved three things viz women, fragrance and prayer, as the hadith has stated it. God created man out of one nafs (self), and created his spouse out of him. You canunderstand nafs from its attributes you cannot understand its reality ; just as you cannot understand God, you can understand only His attributes. This is the point of the hadith Mon arafa nafasahu fagad arafa Rabbahu ‘He who understood his nafs, understood his God’; otherwise God is beyond the ken of our senses, La tudrikuhul absar wa hua yudrikul absar wa hua latifun khabir. (Suratul Anam vi: 104) “Sight cannot see Him, He sees the sight, He is subtle and prescient (of the future of things)”. A spark of the light of God got embedded in the internality of man, and became the spark of fire of his nafs. Just as God saw His spark of light in man, or to use a metaphor, saw Himself in thé mirror of man, man saw himself in the mirror of woman.

There is a custom amongst Muhammadans in India, according to which the bridegroom looks on the face of his bride for the first time in a mirror, as if she is his mirror. God cannot be seen without the medium of matter. God's knowledge of Ayan-i-thabita (realities of the world) is eternal and everlasting. He did not see the aspect of their transitoriness till He saw Himself in man. The knowledge of God is eternal, so far as the ayan-i-thabita (realities in His knowledge) of men are concerned; and it is non-eternal so far as the manifestations of asma and sifat (names and attributes) are concerned ; and He is called latif and khabir, one immanent in all stages of His devolutions, one prescient of how these devolutions will be brought about, although He may not have experience of them till they have actually appeared. Hence it was said above, that His knowledge is eternal in eternal and ~ transcient in transcient. To explain this from a simile from the Relativity of Einstein. A man ata railway station only sees a train approaching, but a man on the top ofa hill not only sees it approaching this station, but also knows its future course, and from.its speed, the time at which it will be at the succeeding stations; but this knowledge of his, will only be inferential until he has actually seen this process. God's knowledge of the aptitudes of ayan is thus eternal, but His knowledge of their manifestations is transcient. A spark of the light of God

flashed-in Adam. As the humours out of which Adam was created, gave a damp back-ground, the light became fire. Thus was light breathed into Adam Nafakhiu ft hi min ruhu (Suratu Sad xxxvil: 72.) 4“ Breathed unto him out of Our breath” This is known as Ruhi-insani (human-soul). The fire or heat in man is known as Ruhi-hywani (animal-soul); which is known as “the command of God” Qul 27 ruhu min amri Rabbi (Suratu Bant-Isvrael xvi : 85) :—Thus Tafriga dar ruht hywanzi buad, Nafsi wahid ruh-z insani buad. One-ness is in human-soul. On account of animal soul, carnality appeared in man, which he can burn up by the light of God in him. Woman appeared in the form of Adam, and therefore Adam _ was inclined towards her. Man’s love to woman 15 his love to his own image, and his love to God is the love to one whose image he is. Hence love to woman is the love to God. This love is therefore all one. ا‎ ‘Love of God and the love of one’s neighbour’ was inculcated by Jesus Christ (St. Mark x11: 30 and 31); and since God is love (I. Johniv: 8), God is manifest as Jove in the multitudinous forms of creation. Mowlavi Nazir Ahmed has said :

Ham mutagid t dawayé batel nahi hotay, Stney me kist shuks kay du dil nuhi hotay We do not submit to the ill-founded assertion That man has two hearts in his breast, Which is a translation of the Quranic verse Ma jaallahu li rajulin min galbayne (Suratul Ahzab xxxi:4) ‘God did not create any man with two hearts.” One should therefore love his wife as a manifestation of God, as the Methnawi says :— Chist dunya az khuda ghafil shudan Nay kumash wu nuqra wu farzand wu gan What is the world, it is the forgetting of God ; And not property, gold, wife and son. The perfect-man’s love of woman is the love of God; and this love is realized by copulation. In this act, lust spreads throughout the body, and he becomes /anz (annibilated in his sell), but he thinks he is deriving pleasure from woman and has become fani (annihilated) in her. Since this annihilation in other-than-God was throughout his body, the bathing of the whole body is enjoined as farg (compulsory) in the shariat, semen being an abstract of the whole body. An ariff believes he is taking pleasure from God, who is the internality of woman, and not from ghair (foreigner), as the Mathnawi says.

Ishq bazi mi kunad ba kishtan, He (God) plays love with Himself, Through the screen of man and woman. Man breathes into woman to see his self (his likeness) reappear; just as God breathed His breath into man to see His self re-appear. Although an Ariff's belief is that he is taking pleasure in God in the stages of devolutions, he is outwardly taking pleasure from woman; hence bathing is also compulsory on him to free him from shirk (conjoining another with God). The best observance of God is therefore in the form of woman. In the manifestations of asma also, there was a copulation. In the diagram (appended to this book), badi is shown as the first Ism-i-elahi. It prayed to its Rab (creator) for a partner ; and Aql-i Kul, its counterpart, came out, of itself. By the copulation of these two asma, Baith came into existence. It also prayed to its Rab, for a partner, and Nafsikul came into being and by the conjunction of these two, Batin was the offspring; and so on with all the remaining of the twenty-eight names, and Insan-ul-kamil was the final result. Thus conjunction began with the spiritaal Adam and Eve called Badi and Aql-i-kul; and

ended with the material man and woman. This doctrlne was current amongst the Greek philosophers by the name of Gamahza—Thus conjunction is the root-principle of the being of the world; and the Prophet (peace be on him) showed his love towards it. This is why he haid Az nzckahu min sunnati fa monraghiba an sunnatt, filaisa minni, “ Nickha is my sunnat (path); whoever is inclined towards my path, is of me” although such conjunction is fromthe beginning. It was “zs sunnat, inas much as it originated from the very first form in the knowledge of God (Haqigat-i-Muhummadi)— of which he was the full embodiment. Prayer is an attempt to observe unity in diversity, to ignore the imaginary diversity, and realize the underlying and hidden unity; and it is notto ask for something, Al hagqu mahsussun wal khalgu makulum ‘God is what is realised and the world is what is inferred’. This realizationis always from behind a screen, although the screen be the forms of the realities of the causal world or the mithal world or of the soul world; whether it be in this world or in the world beyond the grave ; and whether it be by the instrumentality of the bodily eye or by that of the soul’s eye.

Hence Jalaluddin Rumi explains this thus :— Dar guzar kun jumla tanra dar nazar, Dar nazar rau dar nazar rau dar nazar. Drop all bodies from your sight ; Go into sight, go into sight, go into sight If your eyes become light itself, they will realize the God who is light. A Deccani poet has put it thus ;—— Nur ho rah nur ho rah, nur ho ; Dar par diydar kay Mansur ho. Become light, become light, become light. Turn into Munsur on the gallows of vision. THE WISDOM OF MUHAMMAD (FASI-i-MUHAMMADIVYAH) 189 People of this keen sight get their vision in this world itself, and have not to wait for it in the next world. ‘Those who are blind in this world, shall be blind in the next also,” Mon kana fihadhthil aama fa hua fil akhiratil aama (Suratu Bant-Israel XV: 72). The vision of Hazrat Ali was inthis world itself, for he said Ma raaytu shayan tlla raaytulla. “I do notsee anything, but I see only God.” The’ sight of Dhat-i-bahath (Absolute Dhat) is onpossumus. Even the angels that bear the throne of God (Zamzlanz-arsh), and those who surround it to carry out His commands— the cherubims—(urrudtyan) are searching for Hlm in vain. Observation of His tajalliyat (illuminations in forms) alone is possible. Such illuminations in salat (prayer) bring coolness to the eyes (gurratul-ayn). If these tajalliyat are notseen, one should pray with the idea that God sees him as Hazrat Umar puts it.

Ax taabudullah kaannaku tara ‘‘Pray to God as if He sees you” If the word gurra is derived from gara, it means that salat brings steadiness and comfort in the observance of unity in diversity. In the case of the prophet, it was said Wa zchagal basaru wa ma taga (Suratun Najm Li: 17) “His eye did not turn aside; not did it exceed the limit,” Salat is the mairaj of believers”, As salat matrajul mouniinin ; in which they get their peep into the unseen world.

The mussali (prayer-sayer) is prohibited from turning to the right or to the left till the salat is finished. This is to enable him to concentrate his attention on a point in front (qibla) ; otherwise ‘‘God is wherever you turn your attention to” Fa ayna ma tuwullu fa thumma wajullah. (Suratul Bagarah 11: 115). It has been stated by the Shayk that God also says His salat to his banda, Hual ladhi yusalli alaykum wa malayakatuhu liyukh rijakum min az zulumati elan nurin wa kana bil muminina rahima. (Suratul Ahzab XXX: 48). His prayer consists “in taking away the believers from darkness into light, as He is merciful towards them all’ When ‘ba nda starts on prayer, God is after him, with blessings in His name, Akhar (the last), and runs a race neck and neck with the banda, showering blessings on him, as the words Musalli (win-horse) and Mujalli (place-ho1se) used by the Shayk indicate. Abdiyyat (slave-hood) which is the essence of salat indicates humility, which is the condition of mwsaliz (prayer-sayer) in all the attitudes that he assumes therein. A slave annihilates himself in his master,—he is a mere tool in his hand. When he thus becomes the hand of his master, he realizes that he is a part of him. In salat, the musalli practises self-effacement. Humility and prayer-fulness are the attributes of abd and not of Rab. Unless one realizes his own adum (nothingness), his pseudo-self does not vanish, and the Real self shine in him. Hence the Methnawi has said :—

Jihad kun dar baykhudi khud ra biyaé, Zhoudtar wallahu aalam bis sawab. “Try in your self-effacement to find yourself, Quicker than in other ways, God knows the right path.” (A detrtled explanation of some of these terms will be found in App. 777 of‘ Studies in Tasawwuf.’’) 1. AASHAIRA (plu. of Ashari)—A sect founded by Abul Hasan-Ali ibni Ismail-al-Ashari born A H 260 (A.D. 873- رك‎ held that 000:5 attributes are distinct from His Essence “not ayn nor ghayr’ (2) TheWord of God is eternal, vocal sounds are created (3) God's will is eternal; from which good and evil proceed— (4) He has power to convert will into action. When man desires to do a thing, good or bad,. God so orders matters that action corresponding to the desire is there, created by God and fitted as it were on the desire. Abu Bakr-i-Baqilani, Imamul-Haramayn, Abu Ishaq-al-Isfarani were some of the exponents of this school. 2. ABD.—The first abd is the First Limitation or Hagqiqat-i-Muhammadi. In its aspect towards Ahdiyyat or the Unlimited it is Ahdiyyat itself ; and in its aspect towards the lower devolutions itis abd. It is the stage of Ana,‘I’. When these aspects drop, the Dhat aloneremains. At Tawhidu hagiqatun la vabba wu la abd, “‘ Tawhid is a Reality in which there is neither Rab nor abd.” Wahdat or Haqiqat-i-Muhammadi is the partition between these two, Marajal bahrayni yaltagiyan bayna huma barzakhun la y.rbghiyan (Suratur Rahman LV-19 and 20), “ He has made the two seas flow freely, (so that) they meet together. But between them is a barrier, which they cannot pass.”

3. ABRAR.—Virtuous men; sufis are the people called in the Quran by this names as well as by the names of Muqarrabin, Sabirin, and Zubhad. The name sufi did not come into vogue for two hundred years after the Prophet's death according to the book Awarifu’l Maarif. 4. ADUT.—Respect in keeping up the distinction bet- -ween Divinity and Humanity. * 5, AFAAL.—Actions, works, (Plural of Fail.) 6. ALIDIYYAT.—The first stage in which there is nothing but Wonderment. The word Allah here indicates Wa/a, wonderment ; and in the 3rd stage of Wahidyyat, it indcates one who _is deserving of worship (Elah). 7, AHAD—Oneness; sameness. A heap of grain of the same sortis Ahad, in so faras its species is concerned ; it is Wahid, in so far as its oneness is concerned. 8. AHLI-MUSHAHADA.—People of Observation, (i. e.) those who are accustomed by Practice (Mujahada) to the observance of the attributes and asma of Dhat in every item of creation. 9. AKHYAR.-—Good people;aterm applied to sufis— vide Abrar. 10. AJSAM.—Bodies ; Alam-i-ajsam is the causal world. 11. ALIF.—The first letter of the Arabic alphabet. 14. ARSH.—The throne (of God.) 16. ASHGAL (sing. SHAGAL).—The practices of sufis, e.g. sitting ina particular posture, drawing breath out with Za elaha and re-directing (beating) it towards the heart with آل‎ A//ah &c. In Sultanul ashgal, the Prophet attended to his ear, in the cave of of Hira for six years, and heard voices till the angel Gabtiel appeared before him.

17. ASMA. —Names (with the ‘named’). Singular Ism 19. ASMA-I-ELAHI.—-The ‘creator ’ names. 20. ASMA-I-KIYANI,—The created or mundane objects, 21. ASMA-I-THUBUTI.—Names (with the named) showing positive attributes, like ‘ powerful, ’ ‘ knowing’. 22. ASMA-I-SALABI. Names showing lack of attributes like Pure, Holy. 23. AYAN.—Thought-Forms of His own potentiality in the knowledge of God. 24. AWLIYA.—(sing. Wali). People who have obtained proximity to God. The plural is used forthe singular by way of respect. 25.2 AYNYYAT.—Sameness asofice and water, waves and sea. 26. BANDA.—The limited; that in which sifat or attributes have appeared in limitation ; creature, 27. BATIN.—The internal aspect of a thing. 28. BARZAKH.—A barrier of separation between two things or states whether allied or not. 29. BARZAKH-I-JAMI—The stage of the Reality of Muhammad. 30. BAQA.—The state of permanence, after annihilation of self, with the retention of reminiscences of visions of higher planes viz., Amthal, Arwah, Wahidiyyat &c. 31. BAQI.—One who is in the permanence of baqa. 32. BANDAGI.—Servantship ; derived, from Banda- 33. BISMILLAH.—“ In the name of God.” The heading of each and every one of the 114 suras of the Quran except one, viz. Suratu’l Barat. 8 34. BATIL.—Anything that does not exist, Maya. 35. BURUZ.—The influence of one soul upen another, both being where they are.

36. BAY’ AT.—The act of showing allegiance, as toa pir or a king or a military commander. 37. BAYSHARA —Those Sufis who do not punctiliously observe the shariat of Islam. 38. DHAT.-—‘ That which displays sifat.’ It is an undefiinable reality. Some consider Dhat to be the same as Existence ; but Existence is reckoned amongst the four hypostases of Wahdat viz Ilm (knowledge), Nur (light). Wujud (Existence) Shuhud (cognizance of these three); so Dhat must be above these hypostases. 39. DHAT-I-ZAHIR —The manifest Dhat Dhat-i-Batin comprises Ahdiyyat, Wahdat and Wahidiyyat; and Dhat-iZahir comprises Arwah, Amthal, and Ajsam. 40. DHIKR.—lIncantations; repeating the names of God. 41. DHAKIR.—One who who repeats the names of God. 42. EMAN.—Belief. 43. ELAHI.—‘Divine’ as in asma-i-elahi; the Divine names that manifest asmai-kiyani (mundane names). 44, FAOIH.—One who is acquainted with the jurispru- dence of Islam; a canon. 45. FUQAHA.—Plural of Fagih. 46. FAYZI-AQDAS.—The manifestation of Dhat te Itself. Here ayan are appreciated, but are merged in Dhat-ibatin and Dhat alone is cognizable. 47. FAYZI-MUQADDAS.—Manifestation as per ayan in externality, as result of the operation of Asma-i-Elahi on Asmai-Kiyani. 48. FANA.—Annihilation of self. 49, KANI.—One annihilated in self. 50. FARQ.—Differentiation of abd from Rab in the

journey on the downward arc of suluk. 51. FARD.—A Salik who has attained the stage of Jam, which is the highest point in the journey on the upward arc of suluk ; he comes down again with experiences—When he goes up once again, that stage is called Jamul Jam (maica)j). 52. FAIZI-RAHMANI.—The inflatus or breath from Asmai Elahi, which gives manifestation to Asmai-Kiyani. 53. FIKR.—Contemplation on the sifat and asma of God. 54. GHAYR.—Foreigner—‘Other than God’, which does not exist. 55. GHAYB.—The unseen. GHYRIAT.—The ‘Otherness’ 56. GHAWTH.—Technically called Qutb-ul-aqtab ; one who attends to the wants and petitions of people. He is the chief of the awliya in their hierarchy which governs the world. Next below in rank is qutb—who number four at any one time. 59. HADITHI-QUDSI—Revelation expressed in the Prophet's own words. God spoke to the Prophet in the latter’s Causal form, in his Malaki form, andin his Ruhi form. In the first, God spoke in the language of words, in the second in the letters prefixed to certain suras, (hurufii-muqattaat) and in the third, in spiritual language. The first forms Ordinary Hadith, the second, Hadith-i-Qudsi and the third, the Quran. 61. HARAM.—The forbidden thing. 62. HALAL.—The thiug allowed.

63. HADI.—One who guides in the right path. 64. HAL. State of ecstasy. 65. HAHUT.—The highest stage from which tanazzulat begin corresponding to Ahdiyyat. 68. HUYYUYAT.—‘He-ness’ ; the stage of Hahut. 69. HIJAB.—Screen ; veil. 70. IBLIS.—The fancy of‘ otherness’ from God. From “blas,’ a wicked person. 73. ISHRAQIN.—The Realists of Plato. 74, ITIBAR.—Hypostasis, supposition, (plural, being Itibarat.) : 75.—ISM—Name implying the ‘named’ hidden in it— plural, Asma. j 76. ITTIHAD - Union in thes sense that things are nonexistent and their existence is God’s ‘77. IRFAN—Gnosis. 78. JALAL—Glory Disappearance of sifat in Dhat. 79. JAMAL—Beauty Manifestation of sifat. 80. JABRUT—The stage below Lahut and above Malakut. 81. JIHAD—War for the spread of truth 82. KASHF—Spiritual discernment. It is of two kinds: the lesser one like the kashf of graves, the alami-mithal and alami-arwah, heaven and hell The greater one is the discernment of Dhat in the creation. 83. KHATRAT, i.e. Khwatir. Plu. of Khatra. Affectations of the heart-Whatever descends onthe heart from the. unseen world, by way of suggestion or instigation. 84. KARAMAT—Supra-natural acts done by awliya spontaneously and withwut the exertion of will. 86. KAFIR-—One who hides the truth. 87. KHIZR - —He is supposed to be one Baliya ibni-Mala- can, and to have drunk of the water of life. The sufis understand by this term—‘ expansion of the heart,’ just as by the term Ilyas they understand—‘ Contraction’ of the same.

88. KALAMI-DHATI—Same as Kalami-nafsi—speech without words or sounds. 89. KALAM-I-TAFSILI—Same as Kalami-lafzi—speech 90. KITABUL-MUBIN—The preserved tablet (LawhiMahfuz.) 91. KHATUM—One who concludes. 95. LAHUT-—-This is one of the stages on the upward arc. Nasut is the stage af corporeality; Asma is the stage of mithal ; Arwah, of Malakut ; Sifat, of Jabrut; Ayan, of Lahut; Dhat, of Hahut. 96. LAWHI-MAHFUZ—The Preserved Tablet. 97. MAIYYAT - Accompaniment of Rab with abd; which is like that of ice with water, or of clay with jug. 98. MASIWALLAH—‘ Other than God,’ which does not exist. 99. MAHIYYAT—Aptitude. 100. MALUMI-MADUM—The ‘known non-existent,’ like a point. 102. MUTAZILITES—The Seceders ; the sect that seceded from Hasan al Basri. They were the followers of Wasil ibn Ata (d 131), who seceded from his master on the question whether one who committed ‘a great sin’ wasa believer or not. Before the master could frame a reply, Wasil broke out with the assertion of an intermediate position—He left the circle of his master, and formed a school of his own, when Hasan _ said Itazala ana ‘He has seceded from us.’ They declared that God is known by His Essence; whoever declared eternal attributes declared there were as many gods ; the word of God was created by absolute predestination, they also believed in the deydar or vision of God being by the corporeal eye and in God being the author of evil.

103. MUTAKALLIMIN—Scholastic theologians; ‘those who disputed’ as opposed to those, who accepted the word of God without asking, how? (Bila kayfa). 104. MURID—Disciple. 105. MASSHAYIN—The Peripatetics; the followers of Aristotle, who used to walk about (mashi) while delivering his discourses. 106. MUJHULUN-NAT—That which is beyond description, the stage of Dhat. 107. MURAQABA—The process of freeing the heart from the khatrat of Masiwallah. 108. MANQATUL ISHRAT—The stage of Dhat in which all indications are blotted out. 109. MUHAQOQAQIN—Those who make researches in esoteric knowledge. 110. MASHAYK—Plural of shayk, used in a singular sense for a theurgist. 111. MAQAM—Station. Each prophet has قلط‎ station in a predominating sifut by way of kashf ; and when he gets confirmed in it, that station becomes his maqam. 112. MALUMAT—The known (things), 113. MARIFUT—-Gnosis ; which is to know God by God (Araftu Rabbi bi Rabbi). 114. MOUMIN—Believer ; one who believes after conviction. 115. MITHAL—Alam-i-mithal ; the world of similitudes. 116. MUJAHADA—The process of striving against nafs 117. MAHJUBIN—‘The screened’—Those who do not see the sifataad asmaof God in the manifestations of the universe, 118. MAJDHUB—The absorbed; one absorbed in the deydar of God. 119. MULHID—One who ignores shariat and contents himself with explaining it on a rationalistic basis ; a heretic.

120. MUSHRIK—One who believes that. the ‘ ghayr’ exists. 121. MUBDA—Origin—It is Ahdiyyat or the Dhat of God. 122. MAAD—The future world; the terminus of the career of ascent (uruj) in the case of each salik according to his upward progress. 123. MAIRAJ——The highest ascent of abd towards Rab— The ascent of the Prophet towards God. 124. MASHIYAT—Providence ; the granting of outward expression to the ‘aptitudas’ of ayan, just as they are—along with their characteristics and peculiarities. 125. MUSHAHADA—To see illuminations without the mediation of objects. 127. NAMUD—Appearance ; phenomenon ; as_ opposed to 600d, noumenon. 128. NAFS—Individuality—Ruh, Dil and Nafs are the successive manifestations of the Dhat in Zahir-ul-wujud, (manifest existence) —Its characteristic is desire, as that of Dilis knowledge; and of Ruh, sight. 129, NAFSANI—Adjectival form of nafs; pertaining to nafs. 130. | NUZUL—Descent, devolution. 131. PIR—Spiritual guide. 132. QALIB—Body. 133. - QALB—Heart. 134. QADAR—Aptitudes of ayan; their measurement. 135. QAZA—The time and circumstances in which ayan are commanded to be. 137. QALAM - Pen. Aqli-kul is known as Qalam-i-aala, 139. QURBAT—Nearness ; God is near to his abd, in the sense that water is near to ice. 140. QIYAMAT—The time when the realites of his ayn will dawn on each person. 141. RUH— Vide Nafs.