The Eighth of nine Discourses on Tawhid,
22nd May 2004,
Al-Jami’a Mosque, Claremont, Cape Town, South Africa
Each week we have been pursuing a path to gaining a stronger and deeper knowledge of Tawhid. We have emphasised through all this that there is a dimension of this knowledge which is in itself the reality of your fear of Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala. “Fear Allah and He will give you knowledge.”
It is very important that you remember during all of this that this is something to be approached by reflection and by inwardly achieving states and arriving at certain stations. There is the fulfilment of the true knowledge of Tawhid which is, in the language of the Sufis, the ‘Tajrid of Tawhid’. This is the stripping away of your consciousness of self before the Presence of Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala.
We are now going to look at something which may seem a little complicated but it is not. Be patient, and just let the first stage of it flow over you, so to speak. We are going to look at a technical framework, and you must understand that we are now speaking as Muslims sitting in the mosque, talking about Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, and there is not anything in this that is similar to the way we talk about objects and things in the world.
We are trying to get at an understanding of Tawhid which also has in it this adab without which there is no path to this understanding. It is edged in with all kinds of conditions and inhibitions to prevent you having a wrong kind of thinking about Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, because these are the deviations and the things which anger Allah that are referred to in the Fatiha.
We are going to look at something in this technical language which you must all know, because you must go into the world with a secure Tawhid which cannot be shaken and which cannot be swept away by modern innovations, or by philosophy. It is not the proper business of philosophy. This term is called ‘Tanazzulat’. Tanazzulat is like the unfolding descent from the Essence of Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, into the process by which He makes the creation. Again, bear in mind the detailed care with which we have confirmed that Allah is exalted above anything associated with Him and that He is not connected to anything, He is not dependent on anything, He has not come from anything and no thing has come out from Him.
We are going to describe the amazing process which results in our being here and results in the enormous vast creation of the universe of which He is the sole Creator, and exalted above it. We could say that it is something in reality but the description does not fit it, or it is something in description and this does not attain to the reality of it.
This descent is called the Tanazzulat as-Sita, the six-staged descent or unfolding of these stages by which we are able to understand the amazing reality of Allah, Creator of the universe. Shaykh Muhiyuddin Ibn al-‘Arabi said: “You are not going to understand Allah, but you may reflect on the universe.” It is by your reflection on the universe that you understand the majesty and power of Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala.
This unfolding of the power and majesty of Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, is divided into six. Three of these ranks are utterly to do with Allah, and the other three are to do with how Allah manifests in the creation, the things to do with the world. The first are the ‘Murati billahi’, the Divine Ranks, which are three. Ahadiyat, Wahdat and Wahidiyat. These terms, which sound very forbidding to begin with, are all part of the enormous adab of those men who have been given the gift of unveiling by Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, who have come back from that illumination to speak about Allah in a way which fills us with awe and increases our fear of Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala.
The first stage is Ahadiyat. This represents the Essence. The Essence is pure, disconnected from all forms and indeterminate. It is Allah in His unique Oneness, with nothing associated with Him, and with vast and tremendous powers hidden in this Oneness. It is also called the ‘Mist’ because someone asked the Rasul, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam: “Where was Allah before the creation of the world?” which is not a correct question, but Rasul, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said, “He was in the ‘Amma’, the Mist.” In other words, it is unknowable. This is a term which we will come to in more detail in a moment.
So Ahadiyat is the Essence. Wahdat is the Unity. These are all ways of speaking about Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala. We have not yet looked at the manifestation of the creation. The third term is Wahidiyat which is Unity which has in it the knowledge of plurality – Allah’s knowledge that there can be the many myriad things.
The worldly ranks are called the Murati bil-Kawni, the ranks of the created forms. These are three: Ruh – which is the spirit, Mithal – which is the likenesses, the metaphoric capacity for form to take place, and Jism which is the body itself. These are the six ranks and then below this comes Insan, man.
We are going to look at this in detail. After Ahadiyat which is Essence, you have from Wahdat to Wahidiyat manifestation, not yet in the creation, but in Allah’s, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, knowledge of these potentials of His own majesty. From the ruh to the mithal, to the jism to the insan – the spirit to the likenesses, to the body to man – these are the external manifestations. These are when this enormous majestic power of Allah unfolds itself in the creation of the forms.
We will look at Ahadiyat. Ahadiyat is the absolute Being of Allah, unknown and unknowable. It is what Rasul, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, warned people not to contemplate because it could destroy them, because it is not possible. Sayyiduna Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, radiyallahu ‘anhu, made the famous statement on it which is used and referred to by all the Sufis and considered the final statement about it: “Your incapacity to know is all that you can know.” Shaykh Ibn al-‘Arabi said that this tremendous statement was not a negative statement, it was illumination. To know that you do not know is a kind of knowing. This is the adab on which this matter is dealt with.
The great Sufi, Jili said: “The Essence means the absolute dropping of all modes, all adjuncts, all relations, all aspects.” In other words, it is the Creator before one talks of Him as the Creator. It is the Almighty in His Essence, the Dhat of Allah which in Qur’an is the Wajh, the Face, face being the indicator of the essence of the person.
We will look at Surat Al ‘Imran (3:28 and 30), which we have looked at before and which we have to look at again in order that we are correct in our adab about understanding the Essence of Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, and which defines the understanding we have of Allah:
Allah advises you to be afraid of Him.
This is the Qur’anic injunction which contains the same message. The being afraid of Allah and the being aware of Him – you cannot go beyond this understanding of Him, you cannot contemplate the Essence, you cannot understand the Essence and you cannot know the Essence. At this point He is hidden, He is unknown, unknowable, all His power is hidden. It is the unattainable absolute which is the Ahad of Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala.
The Sufis have given this different names because they are so anxious that it has to be preserved before they contemplate the astonishing reality which is His creation. The Sufis have called this the Ghayb al-Ghuyub – the Unseen of the Unseen, and they have called it the ‘Ayn al-Mutlaq – Absolute Essence. A very beautiful name the Sufis of the East have given it, which is in Hujwiri, is ‘Aynal-Kafur – the Source of Camphor. Whatever enters into camphor becomes camphor, it has not any otherness. This is a beautiful and poetic expression for this absolute nature of Allah. That is the first stage of this Tanazzulat.
The second stage is Wahdat. The ‘Arif recognises that Allah is One, knows Himself, is aware of all His potentialities and that He alone exists and has the power of manifestation. This is the first determination. The Sufis name it Al-Haqiqat al-Muhammadiya. We will look into this and find that this is a pure statement and does not contain any wrong thinking, but has to be understood.
So this second unfolding of Allah’s power that we are able to understand is called Wahdat, Unity. These are pure potentialities of the Essence without any implied multiplicity. We are not talking yet about multiplicity, about creation, we are still within an understanding of the Divine Reality. We recognise four aspects: Wujud – which is existence, ‘Ilm – which is knowledge, Nur – which is light, and Shuhud – which is witnessing.
Then we are able to say: Allah exists, knows His Being, His Attributes and His Actions. He is self-revealing and self-manifest. He witnesses His own Being, because the knowledge is in His witnessing of His own Being. All this is Essence itself. Identical with it, it does not proceed from the Essence and it is not prior to the Essence, thus it is Essence. Therefore Essence itself is Existence, Existent, and conscious of its existence. Essence itself is Knowledge, the Knower and the Known. Essence itself is the Light, the Lighter and the Lighted, and is itself Observance, Observer and Observed. We are still not talking about the creation but about how Allah is.
This stage of our understanding of Allah’s Essence, in fact, contains all the Attributes of the Divine and the worldly Names, and all the created things destined for the creation, as the whole is included in the inwardness of the Essence. The knowledge of it, the existence of it, the light – and by that light that it is self-observing. The metaphor of this is that the whole date tree is hidden in the date stone – it is not there, but the whole tree is there.
The Sufis name this Tajalli al-Awwal – the first manifestation. It is the first emergence, as it were, for us to have a sort of knowledge about Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala. They call it Wujud al-Awwal, the first existence.
Jawhar al-Awwal – the first jewel form. But the great Sufis have named this station of the speaking about Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, “Al-Haqiqat al-Muhammadiya.”
This is because the human manifestation is above that of the things in the creation. So he, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is the highest manifestation among men. Follow this carefully to the end because it could look like something that we cannot accept, and this is not possible. Rasul, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said, “I am the first of the sons of Adam,” and we also have that he is the last of the Messengers, he is the Seal of the Messengers.
To understand this the Sufis say that the materialists say that the function of the fruit is to produce the tree. But the ‘Arifin say that the reality of the tree is that it is the fruit which is intended. Rasul, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is intended with the whole creation because he is the perfect manifestation of man in his being the first of the ones who praise Allah, and he recognises His Attributes and His Power and is able to bear the Message that is sent to him from Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala.
We have to understand that the dhat, the essence of Muhammad, is not the Haqiqat al-Muhammadiya. The Haqiqat al-Muhammadiya belongs to the Knower and Allah is the Knower. The dhat of the Messenger is what is known. The ‘abd is not the Rabb, the slave is not the Lord. His dhat is that of the slave, but his Haqiqat, his reality is with Allah. There is no association.
So what is called the Haqiqat al-Muhammadiya is not the essence of the Rasul, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, because this would be shirk and it would be kufr.
We go to Surat al-Ma’ida (85:17 and 18). This explains exactly what we mean:
Those who say, ‘Allah is the Messiah, son of Maryam,’ are kafir.
Say: ‘Who possesses any power at all over Allah
if He desires to destroy the Messiah, son of Maryam, and his mother, and everyone else on earth?’
The kingdom of the heavens and the earth
and everything between them belongs to Allah.
He creates whatever He wills. Allah has power over all things.
The jews and christians say,
‘We are Allah’s children and His loved ones.’
Say: ‘Why, then, does He punish you for your wrong actions?
No, you are merely human beings among those He has created.
He forgives whomever He wills
and He punishes whomever He wills.
The kingdom of the heavens and the earth
and everything between them belongs to Allah.
He is our final destination.’
Here we have the explanation of how what is being said does not have any shred or implication of identification, of joining or linkage, of connection between the presence of Rasul, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, and the Essence and the Reality of Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala.
“Those who say, ‘Allah is the Messiah, son of Maryam,’ are kafir.” So much for all these calls for the Muslims to have ‘dialogue’ with the christians! All we need to do is to put that in an envelope and send it to them.
Those who say, ‘Allah is the Messiah, son of Maryam,’ are kafir.
These are Allah’s words.
Say: ‘Who possesses any power at all over Allah
if He desires to destroy the Messiah, son of Maryam, and his mother, and everyone else on earth?’
The kingdom of the heavens and the earth
and everything between them belongs to Allah.
He creates whatever He wills. Allah has power over all things.
The jews and christians say,
‘We are Allah’s children and His loved ones.’
Say: ‘Why, then, does He punish you for your wrong actions?
No, you are merely human beings among those He has created.
He forgives whomever He wills
and He punishes whomever He wills.
The kingdom of the heavens and the earth
and everything between them belongs to Allah.
He is our final destination.’
Sometimes this stage of unfolding of Allah’s majesty and power is called Nuri Muhammadi. If we look at the Diwan of Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib, radiyallahu ‘anhu, and the Wird which we have just recited:
“The first of the lights emanating from the oceans of the sublimity of the Essence.”
That is a reference to the Nuri Muhammad, the Haqiqat al-Muhammadiya. It is very important for the one who takes the journey of Ma‘rifa to understand this aspect of the Divinity.
We will see later when we look at the Diwan where Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib, radiyallahu ‘anhu, gives his definition of Tawhid and defines how part of Tawhid is contained in proper knowledge of Rasul, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. Again, this is not in any way to deify him yet to recognise his high spiritual place. Remember the very important thing which Mawlana Rumi said about Abu Jahl: when he looked he did not see the Rasul but the son of ‘Abdullah. There is a spiritual rank which is not the property of Rasul, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, but that a light has been put into him which gives him the rank so that he said, “I am the first of the sons of Adam.” He does not say that he is not one of the sons of Adam. Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, reminds us in Surat Al ‘Imran, referring to the Prophet’s future death (3:144-145):
Muhammad is only a Messenger
and he has been preceded by other Messengers.
If he were to die or be killed, would you turn on your heels?
Those who turn on their heels do not harm Allah in any way.
Allah will recompense the thankful.
No self can die except with Allah’s permission, at a predetermined time.
So Allah’s confirmation of this is the absolute impossibility for the Muslims to think about Rasul, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, in that way. At the same time, in this modern age, we have had a denigration of Rasul, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, and a bringing-down from his high position as the first of the sons of Adam and the Seal of the Messengers – by Egyptian scholars and the shayateen from Arabia who have been like Abu Jahl and have tried to say that he is merely the son of his father.
Without any shirk, without any kufr and without any crossing of this line that we will never, never cross, you have to recognise the high position which the Rasul, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, has and the high position he has been given by Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, in the ayat of the Salat an-Nabiy (Surat al-Ahzab 56):
Allah and His angels call down blessings on the Prophet.
You who have Iman! call down blessings on him and ask for complete peace and safety for him.
To go back to this confirmation of Allah being exalted above everything, every form and every human being, Dhun-Nun al-Misri speaks of the Essence in this way:
Knowledge of the Essence of the Haqq – ignorance.
Definition of the reality of Ma‘rifa – bewilderment.
Indication by an indicator – shirk.
You cannot even make an ishara on this matter! Shirk. The line is drawn and the mouths are silent.
The poets of the Sufis use the Anqa’, which is a mythological bird, to speak about the Essence, and one of them said, “Do not try to catch the Anqa’, you will only be able to catch air.” This is the knowledge of the Essence of Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala. Inshallah we will continue with these six terms having done the first two of the three Divine ranks. Then we will move to the three worldly ranks, inshallah.
