Observations placeholder
Jili, Abd al-Karim - Al-Kahf wa al-raqim - 070 Section 6
Identifier
013455
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Multiple layers of meaning. The easiest is that
dot = atom
A description of the experience
ABD AL-KARIM AL-JILI: Tawid, Transcendence and Immanence – Dr Nicholas Lo Polito [University of Birmingham] - The Cave and the Inscription
SECTION 6
(39) The Alif has been freed from the limits of the dot and cleared of the bindings of subordination that could follow it in the same way as the joining of some letters with others after them. So it has no connection of its own essence (‘Ayn) with anything [else]. Because of this, in writing, the Alif is not attached to any of the letters. It is effectively physically in all the letters like the dot. It has been established at the beginning of every determined noun among God’s names - may He be exalted Who manifests Himself as the Truth, is confirmed in the Truth, and yet no other is the Truth.
And the dot is its measure by which it measures itself. [The Alif] is included in all the things in which the dot is included, as if the dot were nothing else but its principle, regulated [- as it were -] by [the dot]. Instead [the Alif] is truly identical to the dot – thus one dispenses with [the risk of] dualism. Then there is no existence for what is called “Alif” except from the perspective of the dot. Indeed [the Alif] is a composite dot and it is the letter that is made manifest by the dot according to its appearance; for it has no other appearance except for what we mentioned earlier about the stretching of all the letters and the fact that every word and letter is made of it. What emerge in [the Alif] then are multiplicity of the body and unity of the soul.
(40) [This is] because the Alif is made of many dots one next to the other. Actually the dot - being whole - cannot be divided or multiplied. It is found in all its parts without plurality in itself. Likewise the Truth - may He be exalted - is found in the hearing of the person who approaches it by supererogatory works, and in his/her sight and in his/her hand and on his/her tongue. However, He - praise Him - by being the hearing of this servant is not multiplied in his/her sight. Thus, He exists in His fullness in all things that make up the whole of the world but He is not multiplied by the plurality of things. Likewise the Alif, present in all of the 28 letters, is not multiplied by their plurality because in their totality the Alif is one. About this someone said that the Alif is not one of the letters, claiming that “The Perfect Human Being” is not one of the [other] creatures. May you understand [this].