Suhrawardi - Three Treatises on Mysticism.pdf - Platonic Philosophy

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CHAPTER TWO ON THE MORE LEARNED ONE is THE
MORE PERFECT HE IS.
There is a well known tradition of the Prophet saying :
44
Never has God created an ignorant Wall". The Master
of the great
Shar'ia, with all his perfection, was commanded
to increase [his] knowledge and
; God, the Almighty, orders
him " : And say, O my Lord, increase me in knowledge. "*
One of his blessing sayings is,
"No morning will come for
any day of yours in which knowledge
is not increased".
So, when such is the case with the Prophet what will be the
case with others ?
For this knowledge which comes to the gnostic through
revelation it is not necessary to deal with divorce, business,
taxation and transactions because this is an exoteric
science; rather, it comes through discovering the affairs of
the selfexistence and [Divine] Majesty and Protectorship,
and the arrangement of the organisation of existence, and
the world of angels, and the hidden secrets in heaven and
earth; as He said: "Say [unto them, O Muhammad]
:
He Who
knoweth the secret of the heavens and the earth hath
revealed it." 2
To find out the secret of predestination and to divulge it
is
forbidden; as in prohibiting it the saying of the Prophet
distinctly commands : "Predestination is the secret of God t
so do not divulge
it."
The People of Reality are all of opinion that divulging
the secret of predestination is heresy. Also all that
is within the knowledge of the Men of is
Reality not
put into expression, lest all people practise because the
it,
beauty of the Majesty of [Divine] Oneness is above this
1. Quran XX, 113.
2. Quran XXV, 7,