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Seadet-i Ebediyye - Endless Bliss Sixth Fascicle

Halâl, harâm, and the doubtful,What is harâm to eat and things that are harâm to use, Wine, and alcoholic beverages. Is tobacco-smoking sinful?, Isrâf (wastefulness), fâiz (interest), and tobacco-smoking, Manners (âdâb) that must be observed when eating and drinking,(Siblings through) the Milk-Tie, Nafaqa, and rights of neighbours,Islam, and the woman...

Halâl, harâm, and the doubtful,What is harâm to eat and things that are harâm to use, Wine, and alcoholic beverages. Is tobacco-smoking sinful?, Isrâf (wastefulness), fâiz (interest), and tobacco-smoking, Manners (âdâb) that must be observed when eating and drinking,(Siblings through) the Milk-Tie, Nafaqa, and rights of neighbours,Islam, and the woman...

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Answer: The a’râz, [i.e. states and attributes,] can not stay in<br />

existence on their own. They have to be with something else.<br />

Because physicists construe this togetherness as integration, they<br />

look for a place for the a’râz. They say that the a’râz cannot state<br />

in the absence of a place. However, existence in the meaning<br />

where we use it does not require a place. We understand that<br />

everything exists with the Dhât-i-ilâhî in a manner that does not<br />

involve integration or a location. Physicists may or may not believe<br />

what we say. Their denial can not change what we see and know.<br />

We know that this is the case. Their scepticism cannot obliterate<br />

our knowledge. Let us explicate our argument with an example:<br />

Conjurers show unusual things. All the spectators know that the<br />

appearances being conjured up do not exist on their own. They<br />

know that they stay with the conjurer and yet not at a place. They<br />

know also that they have not united with the conjurer. It is only<br />

with him that they exist. In a similar manner Allâhu ta’âlâ has<br />

created the things at the level of perception and imagination. Only<br />

with Him do they stay in existence. He has made eternal torment<br />

or infinite blessings dependent on these creatures of His. These<br />

things do not stay in existence on their own. They stay with the<br />

Dhât-i-ilâhî without integration or union. A second example<br />

would be the image of a mountain or the sky in a mirror. A person<br />

devoid of mind will look on such images as real objects. He will say<br />

that they exist on their own in the mirror. However, if someone<br />

looks on the images as attributes, says that they exist with the<br />

mirror, and looks for a place for them, he must be a stupid jackass<br />

who denies his own obvious knowledge for the sake of following<br />

others. For, any person with reason knows that these images do<br />

not have a location, that they do not need a location. Likewise,<br />

people of kashf and shuhûd see all things as if they were images in<br />

a mirror. Allâhu ta’âlâ has given power to these images and<br />

protected them from ceasing to exist. And He has made the<br />

eternal activities in the Hereafter consequent upon (the doings of)<br />

these images. Nizâm, one of the superiors of (the branch of<br />

knowledge termed) Kalâm and a scholar in the Madhhab called<br />

Mu’tazila, deemed everything as an attribute and denied (the<br />

existence of) matter. He was too short-sighted to know that these<br />

attributes stayed in existence with Haqq ta’âlâ. He was censured<br />

by people who had reason. For, an attribute has to stay with<br />

something else. The author of the book Futûhât-i-Makkiya, [i.e.<br />

Muhyiddîn-i-’Arabî,] ‘quiddisa sirruh’, one of the great Awliyâ<br />

and profound scholars called the Sôfiyya-i-aliyya, said: “All things<br />

– 351 –

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