THE FLASHES

The Twenty-Eighth Flash

Indeed, one who speaks of wahdat al-wujūd, if he can ascend in thought from the earth to the Pleiades, leave the universe behind, and direct his gaze towards the Arsh, may, in a state of spiritual ecstasy, regard the universe as nonexistent and, through the power of his īmān, perceive all things directly from the perspective of the Wāhid-i Ahad.

But one who remains behind the universe, gazes upon it with causes before his eyes, and looks upwards from the earth runs the risk of drowning in causes and sinking into the swamp of nature.

One who ascends in thought to the Arsh may, like Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, say:

“Open your ears! In the words of everyone, you may hear the speech of Allah, as though they were natural gramophones.”

But if you say to someone who cannot rise to the heights attained by Jalāl al-Dīn, and who does not perceive the beings between the earth and the Arsh as mirrors:

“Listen! You can hear the Word of Allah from everyone,”

then, as it were, he will fall spiritually from the Arsh to the earth and become entangled in erroneous conceptions contrary to reality.

قُلِ اللّٰهُ ثُمَّ ذَرْهُمْ فِى خَوْضِهِمْ يَلْعَبُونَ

مَا لِلتُّرَابِ وَلِرَبِّ اْلاَرْبَابِ

سُبْحَانَ مَنْ تَقَدَّسَ عَنِ اْلاَشْبَاهِ ذَاتُهُ وَتَنَزَّهَتْ عَنْ مُشَابَهَةِ اْلاَمْثَالِ صِفَاتُهُ وَشَهِدَ عَلٰى رُبوُبِيَّتِهِ اٰياَتُهُ جَلَّ جَلاَلُهُ وَلاَ اِلٰهَ اِلاَّ هُوَ

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