Suhrawardi - Three Treatises on Mysticism.pdf - Platonic Philosophy

42
The discourse about the affirmation of relish means the
acquirement of perfection with regard to a thing and
the knowledge of the acquisition. When perfection with
regard to tilings is acquired and the acquirer
is unaware of
it, it is not perfection. When the eye acquires perfection
with regard to things it consists of the sight's vision of subtle
things ;
and it discovers that, and is relished thereby.
The
sense of hearing has a relishment, and that is perception of
the subtle hearings of pleasant voices. The sense of smell
perceives subtlities of pleasant smells : and like-wise in the
same manner it is with all other faculties. Perfection, with
regard to the rational soul, is the knowledge of Truth and
comprehension of realities. So when the soul acquires that,
its perfection with regard to supreme things comes from the
illumination of the light of Truth, and rises to perfection
with regard to God, of which the relish is greater still,
because its
comprehension
is nobler.
The human soul is
the noblest of the Seekers and Truth
is the greatest of the u known. " So relish must be more perfect
;
but the impotent man has no sense of the pleasures of
copulation, though he hears that men it
enjoy to their full:
and that old man has said well :
does
not know,"
4
'0ne who did not taste,
This story
is the affirmation of relish and affection. In
the days of Junayd peace of God be upon him the SAfls
were reported against. Ghnl&m Khalll 1 and a number of
Mutakallim&n and Fuqah&' scandalised the Brethren of
1. Ghulam Khalll (died 275) whose full name is Abti 'Abdallah
Ahmad h. Muhammad b. Gh&lib b. Khalid al-Basrl was a Hanbalite
Tkrtkh Baghdad V, 78; Nafaljat ul-Uns
faqth, traditionalist and ascetic, cf.
and Abu l-Mahasin, Nujftm, Vol. II, 79. He urged the Caliph to put
Junayd, Nurl etc., to death since they were freethinkers and heretics cf.
Tadhkirat al-AwliyA' II, 48. See also Kashf ul-mahjub, Transl. p. 191
and Massignon, Textes p. 212.