Observations placeholder
Jili, Abd al-Karim - Al-Kahf wa al-raqim - 120 Section 11
Identifier
013470
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
This is partly alchemical as some of the metaphors refer to mystical masters who, “can transform the base material of the novice's soul into pure gold,” red sulphur being “the mysteriously working substance in the alchemical process.”
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 11
(59) You [should] know that since the Alif [denotes] transcendent unity and the Sin is its visible mystery, the Mim is expression of what exists, which is the universal reality of [things] invisible and visible.
(60) Don’t you see the hollow in the head of the Mim, how it is the abode of the white dot? [The concept] has been dealt in depth for you of the dot being the hidden treasure. So [let us] say that the circle of the hollow in the head of the Mim is the Truth Who in Himself manifests this hidden treasure. Don’t you see His words “I was a hidden treasure and I desired to be known. I created the creatures and I introduced Myself to them so they recognised Me”? This is where the [divine] name Full of Majesty and Nobility [comes] from, in the words [of God], “Blessed be the name of your Lord full of majesty and nobility.” Because if [the word Name] had been an adjective of Your Lord it would have been in genitive case and Full of Majesty in nominative case, agreeing with the [word] Name, not with Your Lord.
May you understand [this].
(61) You [should] know that the Mim is the soul of Muhammad - may God bless him and grant him salvation - because the place where the hidden treasure appeared is the world, and Jabir mentioned in the Hadith that the first thing that God created was the soul of Muhammad - may God bless him and grant him salvation. He [then] created the whole world from it in the order [described] in the Hadith.
The white dot in the hollow of the head of the Mim is the essence of Muhammad - may God bless him and grant him salvation - the hidden treasure, the universal reality of the sublime Being and the sapient Qur’an in the fashion that we have explained.
Regarding this conceptual significance [of the Prophet] I have composed a poem:
(“The Face of Creation” of the year 799)
(62) Messenger of God, O manifestation of the Divinity
O the one whose being is the pure being
You have manifested yourself in every sublime way
By intuition you conceal yourself from the eye
Through the attributes, “seven [oft-] repeated [verses]
And the Qur’an” - [that] noble being.
You were exclusively gifted with it; you deserved it;
Your reality similar to the sacred one [of God].
You inhabited Hind’s dwellings even though they were exalted
And sublime and they wore the dress of concealment
The [divine] attributes are ever healing happiness
And through them you have glanced at the Divinity
Because you were there in principle before all
And your being is the intelligible [essence] of beings.
(63) There was a reason why I recited these verses. Namely, that one night in the year 799 we gathered in the mosque of our sheikh, our lord and world teacher, the greatest authority, the “red sulphur,” Sharif Al-Din Isma_il Bin Ibrahim Al-Jibrati, to listen to a blind person. This was in the mosque cemetery, at the presence of the sheikh our brother the jurist Ahmad Al-habbani. He read the Word of the Exalted One, “We have given you the seven [oft-] repeated [verses] and the sublime Qur’an.” Then the Truth - may He be exalted - called me to contemplate the appropriation by His prophet Muhammad - may God bless him and grant him salvation - of the seven precious attributes which are life, knowledge, will, power, hearing, sight and speech (to the pertinent degree). Beyond this appropriation of the attributes I saw that he - may God bless him and grant him salvation - is the essence (‘Ayn) of being (Dhat) concealed in the nature (Huwiyya) of the invisible [realities]. This is what I referred to in verse [by saying], “The sublime Qur’an,” since there is no end to its recitation, and each time the heirs, the true people of the Qur’an read [in it] of the essence (Dhat) of God - may He be exalted – they read of Muhammad - may God bless and grant salvation to him and his family. To this refers the Hadith in the words, “The people of the Qur’an are the people of God, His [own] property.” Let one ponder.
He is the transcendent nature (Huwiyya) of the oneness and of all the messengers and the prophets and the heirs who recite the nature of Muhammad - may God bless him and grant him salvation - in God. This is the meaning of him being mediator between the world and God, and to him refer his own words, “I am from God and the believers are from me.”
May you understand [this].