Seadet-i Ebediyye - Endless Bliss Sixth Fascicle

the opposites of reality, are in this case causes that make an
existence real. For, the image in the mirror would not be real if we
did not add the phrase “with respect to fancy and imagination.” A
second example is the nuqta-i-jewwâla, [i.e. a dot turning fast with
a circular movement.] Fancy and imagination see it as a circle in
the outside. In actual fact there is not a circle. There is a dot. Yet,
with respect to fancy and imagination, existence of a circle in the
outside is real. However, whereas the dot’s existence in the outside
is real in every respect, existence, in the outside, of the circle,
which is consequent upon the (rotation of the) dot, is real only in
respect of fancy and imagination. By the same token, the wahdati-wujûd
is real in every respect. Plurality of creatures, on the other
hand, is real with respect to fancy and imagination. Of the two
existences, the former is real ‘in all respects’, while the latter is so
‘in one respect only’. There is no contradiction.
Question: Why doesn’t something that exists with respect to
fancy and imagination cease to exist when fancy and imagination
cease to exist?
Answer: Why should that wujûd-i-wahmî cease to exist
together with fancy (and imagination), while it is not something
that has come into being from fancy (and imagination)? Allâhu
ta’âlâ has created them, (i.e. creatures, which are wujûd-i-wahmî,)
at the level of wahm (fancy and imagination). Yet they have been
(created so as to be) established and perpetual. They have been
called ‘wujûd-i-wahmî’ because Allâhu ta’âlâ created them at the
level of wahm. Whatsoever the level (they have been created at),
even if it is the level of unreal beings, it is real that they exist at that
level, since Allâhu ta’âlâ has created them. To say that Allâhu
ta’âlâ has created those things at the level of perception and fancy
means to say that the level at which He has created those things is
such as exists only in perception and fancy. It does not exist in the
outside. For instance, a conjurer pratises tricks whereby things that
are actually non-existent appear as if they existed. He conjures up
ten objects in the place of one. The ten objects do not actually
exist. They exist only at the level of perception and fancy. There is
only one object actually existent. If those ten apparent objects gain
strength and perpetuity owing to the endless power of Allâhu
ta’âlâ and under His dominant protection against evanescence,
then their existence will become real at that level. Now the ten
objects will be both existent and non-existent, actually. This
ambivalence, however, ensues from two different settings
considered. Accordingly, if the level of perception and fancy is not
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