Original published in
Makátib-i 'Abdu'l-Bahá, vol. 3, pp. 354-358,
and Min Makátib-i 'Abdu'l-Bahá, pp. 274-277.[1]
He is God!
The preeminent leaders of the Sufis who have instituted the belief in the
unity of existence (wahdat al-wujúd) did not
intend by that existence this universally predicated existence which is a
mental projection, for this general existence, which is a mental projection, is
an accident among accidents inhering in the realities of contingent beings
(mumkinát). The realities of the contingent beings are the
substance (jawhar),[2] while this
existence which is a mental projection, i.e. the universally predicated
existence, is an accident which inheres in the realities of all things. The
intention of the leaders, however, is an Existence with respect to which the
realities of things are accidental; in other words, that Existence is
preexistent and the things are originated (hádith).
Therefore, what they meant by the word "existence" (wujúd) is an
indescribable Reality by which all things come into existence. The meaning is
that all things subsist by It, while that Reality is self-subsistent above all
in the heavens and on the earth. The verse, "He is the Self-Subsisting, the
Ever-Living" bears witness to this truth.
That Existence by which all things come into existence is one. Therefore,
there is oneness of existence, but the generality of the Sufis think that the
indescribable Reality has penetrated (hulúl) into
innumerable forms, as it is said:
"The sea is the same sea it hath ever been from eternity,
the created realities are its waves and images,
the creation is naught in likeness but ice,
and Thou art the water which is its source."
In other words, although the indescribable Reality is
sanctified above any description, they were forced to explain it; hence they
explained it by recourse to [the concept of] existence.
To summarize, the generality of the Sufis thought that that Existence which is
indescribable and cut off from our understanding is like the sea and the
realities of things are like the waves. The waves are continually appearing and
disappearing, but the sea is permanent and eternal. But for the people of
Truth, the Bahá'ís, that hidden and unknowable Being is like the
sun, which sheds its radiance upon all created things. All the creatures,
whether mineral, plant, animal, or human, are illumined by the light of the
sun; that is to say, its brilliant rays shine upon all things, and all things
faithfully reflect the sun's light. If you look upon the stones, clay, trees,
animals, and human beings, you will see that all are receiving the bounty of
the sun. In the same way, the realities of all created things receive the
bounty of the Sun of Reality, but the Sun of Reality does not descend from its
sanctified station, nor does it penetrate into the created beings. "There is
not a thing except it hath a sign pointing to His oneness."
The mystics, in general, believe that existence is limited to two
conditions: one is God (
al-haqq), and the other is
creation. They believe that God is the inner reality of things and creation the
appearance of things. As for the people of Truth, existence has three degrees:
God and Command, which is the Primal Will, and creation. The Primal Will, which
is the world of Command, is the inner reality of things, and all existing
things are the manifestations of the Divine Will, not the manifestations of the
Divine Reality and Identity. "His is the Command and the Creation" (Qur'an
7:54). As to the station of the Godhead, it is independent and sanctified from
the understanding of created things, leave alone that it penetrates into their
realities.
His Holiness, the Báb, may my life be a sacrifice unto Him, states that
the meaning of the verse: "The sea is the same sea it hath ever been from
eternity, and the created realities are its waves and images," is complete in
the Primal Will, not in the Essence of God.
Moreover, the generality of the Sufis think that the indescribable Reality is
like the number one and all creation is the repetition of that one. One has
repeated itself and produced a second, and, similarly, one has repeated itself
again and become a third. In like manner, consider all of the numbers. The
numbers are a relative thing. They are established (
thábit) [in
the mind], yet they have no objective existence.
The question of the fixed archetypes (
`ayán
thábita)
[3] of the mystics is like that of the numbers.
Although they are mentally posited, they have no actual existence. This is a
relative matter. As they say: "East and west, north and south, are posited, but
they have no objective existence. The fixed archetypes are the [intelligible]
forms of God's knowledge (
al-suwar al-`ilmíyya
al-ilahíyya) and they have mental being, but they have not inhaled
the fragrance of actual existence." God forbid that it should be so! Were we to
conceive them in this way [as forms of the essential divine knowledge], we
would be making the preexistent the created, and the created the preexistent,
and then it would become necessary for the Universal Reality to descend and
penetrate into infinite forms in the realities of all things.
[4] Whereas descending and ascending, entering and exiting,
penetration, and mixing and combining are characteristics of bodies. Even the
incorporeal beings are freed and sanctified from these imaginings, how much
more so the Universal Reality. These attributes that we have mentioned are the
attributes of spatial phenomena (
mutahayyiz), not of the incorporeal.
In brief, the intention of the preeminent leaders of the Sufis is this: the
meaning of "existence" (
wujud) is that by which all things are realized,
and that Existence is one. It is exalted beyond all description, invisible,
inaccessible, and cut off from human understanding. But they still believe in
two levels: God and creation, and they say that God has two levels: one is the
state of absolute sanctity and incomparability (
tanzíh) ("nothing
is like Him"), and the other is the state of similarity and resemblance
(
tashbíh) ("He is the Hearing, the Knowing"). As Rumi says:
"O Pictureless One with so many forms, over Thee
both the anthropomorphist and the transcendentalist are headstrong.
At one time Thou makest the anthropomorphist a transcendentalist,
at another Thou causest the transcendentalist to be struck in bewilderment.
In Thine Essence, Thou art neither this nor that.
Beyond all imaginations from beginningless beginning, Thou!
Even `Ali calleth Thee in his ecstasy:
`O Young of Age, O Tender in Body!'"
His meaning, in brief, is this: that God has two manifestations
(
tajallí). One is without an intermediary, and one is with an
intermediary. When God reveals Himself without an intermediary, i.e. without
reflecting places and mirrors, to the one who has made comparisons to Him [the
anthropomorphist], He causes him to become like the one who testifies to His
unity [the transcendentalist]. And when God reveals Himself to the latter,
through the intermediary of mirrors and reflecting places, He causes him to
become like the former, to such an extent that the transcendentalist addresses
Him: "O Young in Age, O Tender in Body!"
The truth is this: the reality of the Sanctified Essence cannot descend into
the world of creation. For Him there is no entrance or exit, no descent or
penetration, no mixture or composition. He is sanctified above all limitations.
For example, it is the brilliance of the rays of the sun that shine upon the
creatures of the eart
h All things become visible and are nourished by
the light of the sun and faithfully reflect it. [Similarly,] in the height of
sanctity He subsists holy and purified above all conditions, determinations,
and distinctions; ever beyond the understanding of all created things. Rather
it is the Primal Will, which consists of the rays of the Sun [of Reality],
which is the cause of the manifestation and the appearance of beings. "This is
the truth, and naught lies beyond the truth but error." Upon thee rest the
glory of the All-Glorious.
Notes
[1] I would like to thank Nader Saiedi for his
kind assistance in providing alternative translations that better captured the
meaning of certain technical terms in the following text.
[2] Substance (jawhar) is roughly
equivalent to essence (máhíyya) and reality
(haqíqa), which refer to "that by which a thing is what it is."
Substances, as Aristotle explains, "are subjects for all the other things [i.e.
accidents] and all the other things are predicated of them or are in them"
(Categories 2b.15). An example of a substance is man or horse, whereas
the predicated accidents, according to Aristotle, consist of quantity, quality,
relation, where, when, position, having, doing, and being affected. So if we
say: "Socrates is existing," existence, in this case, is a predicated quality
of the substance Socrates.
[3] The term thábit (f. thábita) is
notoriously difficult to translate in this context. William Chittick, an
authority on this subject, had formerly translated it as "immutable" in his
Sufi Path of Knowledge (1989), but translates it as "fixed" in his more
recent work The Self-Disclosure of God (1998). I have translated it as
both "fixed" and "established" in this article to maintain its primary sense,
but thábit also has the technical meaning of "posited" which
would more accurately convey the fact that the archetypes (`ayán)
refer to the essences of things in themselves and not as something existent.
They have mental being, insofar as they are established or posited in the
created divine knowledge, but they do not have concrete being, since they are
not actualized existents.
[4] 'Abdu'l-Bahá consistently refutes
the idea that the fixed archetypes are present in the essential knowledge of
God (as opposed to His created knowledge, which is the Primal Will). For
'Abdu'l-Bahá, as for Shaykh Ah.mad and the Báb, this is incorrect
since at the level of God's Essence His knowledge does not depend on objects of
knowledge.