|
ON 52_Wahdat-al-Wujud
Look for instance at the article by Nuh's wife, Umm Sahl, which you had referred*. She has cleverly re-interpreted wahda al-wujud and deflected all criticism from Nabulsi. When she came to a matter she could possibly not reinterpret, she acknowledged her inability, "As for Sheikh ʿAbd al-Ghani "taking his information from the Preserved Tablet of Allah", what could he have meant by this? I honestly don't know..." I praise her for her honesty. But it reveals the manhaj (methodology) of later Sufis like herself.
* @: livingislam.org ... and @: masud.co.uk ...
Al-Nabulusi meant an unveiling of knowledge (kashf). In these states of unveilings Allah discloses to his Friends
whatever He wishes, and this is quite easy for Him. Such an occurrence is not against the Shariʿa. We should not feel
jealousy towards them nor harbor suspicion towards the Sufi shaykhs who speak in complex terms.
Many
knowledgeable ones in fact never open their mouths because they do not want to hear the objections of materialistic
people or shock them. "man zada ʿilmuhu kalla lisanuhu" He whose knowledge increases, his tongue falls silent. Do not
be the enemy of what you do not know but accept that for every knower there is a greater knower.
An earlier "later Sufi" -Ibn Taymiyya- wrote: "It is established that the awliya' possess spiritual communications
(mukhatabat) and unveilings (mukashafat)." In al-Furqan bayna awliya' al-shaytan wa awliya' al-rahman, 2nd ed.
(Beirut: al-maktab al-islami, 1390/1970) p. 52. And success is from Allah alone.
GF Haddad ©
[06/01/1999]
On Ibn `Arabi - and so-called 'wahdatu-l wujud'
| 
