-last modf 1446 AH, 2024-11-18 17:48 +0100, bit.ly/_501ak [501] index
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The Sufi Path of Knowledge, by William C. Chittick[1]
The original text - slightly edited, footnotes by the web editor.
Knowledge can be acquired through reflection, unveiling, or scripture[8]. [11] The human subtle reality (al-lat.īfat al-insāniyya), also called the soul, knows in a variety of modes.
When it knows through reflection (fikr), the mode of its knowing is called reason (ʿaql). When it knows directly from Allah (God)[2], the mode of knowing is called the heart (qalb), which is contrasted with reason.
Whatever the means whereby the soul acquires knowledge, the knowing subject is one. There are not two different entities known as reason and heart, though there is a real difference between the modalities of knowing.
As we have already seen, reason knows through delimitation and binding, while the heart knows through letting go of all restrictions.[5]
ʿAql as shown by its root meaning, is that which limits the free and ties down the unconstricted.
Qalb means fluctuation, for the heart undergoes constant change and transmutation in keeping with the never-repeating self-disclosures of Allah (God).
…and they are not equally valid or exchangeable!
01 - The Rational Faculty (reason - ʿaql) 159
02 - Reflection (fikr) 162
03 - Consideration (naz.ar) 165
04 - Following authority (taqlīd) 166
05 - Unveiling (kashf) 168
06 - Kinds of knowledge ranked according to excellence
07 - This is what we call self-disclosure tajallī
”Reason” or the ”rational faculty” is one of the fundamental powers of the human soul.
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Spiritual beings may also possess the faculty known as ʿaql, but then it might be more accurate to say that the spiritual being is itself and an ʿaql. In such contexts, the word can be better translated as ”intellect.”
As a human faculty ʿaql almost always implies restriction and confinement, though on occasion that the Shaykh will employ the term in a sense which suggests that it has transcended its limitations and become identical with the heart, in which case it might be better to speak of man’s ”intellect.”
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By it’s very nature reason perceives (idrāk), whether through an inherent, intuitive knowledge that needs nothing from outside, or through various instruments, such as the five senses and ”reflective consideration” (naz.ar fikrī).
”Reflection” (fikr) is the power of thought or cogitation, the ability of the soul to put together the dated gathered by sense perception or acquired from imagination in order to reach rational conclusions.
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”Consideration” refers to the specific activity of reason when it employs reflection. It is the investigation of phenomena as well as the thought processes whereby reason reaches conclusions. In this meaning naz.ar is practically synonymous with fikr. SPK159
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Reason has a second, closely related meaning which plays an important role in Islamic moral and spiritual teachings. It is the opposite of passion (shahwa), that is any desire which has an object not sanctioned by the Law.[6] in itself passion is positive, since it is one of the constituent faculties of the animated soul, through which all animals, including human beings, remain alive.
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Shahwa is a synonym or near synonym of the term (hawā), "caprice" (or "appetite"), which is the tendency in man which turns him away from divine guidance.
Muhyiddīn ibn ʿArabi writes:
Allah (God) created the faculty named ”reason,” placing it within the rational soul, to stand opposite natural passion when passion exercises control over the soul (nafs) by diverting it from the occupation proper to it as specified by the Lawgiver. (II 319.13) SPK161
Inasmuch as reason rules over passion and caprice, it leads man on the path of his felicity, which is the path of the Law. In this respect it plays the positive role.
Muhyiddīn ibn ʿArabi writes:
A king said to one of his sitting companions who used to offer sound opinions and considerations when he sought council from him, "Whom do you think I should place in charge of the affairs of the people?" He replied, "Place in charge of them a man of reason, for the man of reason will go to great lengths to acquit himself. If he has the knowledge, he will give rulings according to what he knows. If he does not have the knowledge of the ruling for a given occurrence, then his rational faculty will make him ask the person who knows the divine ruling revealed in the Law for that situation. Once he comes to know it, he will rule accordingly. This is the benefit of reason. "Many of those who desire religion and exoteric knowledge (al-ʿilm al-rasmī) are governed by their passion. But the men of reason is not like that, since the rational faculty refuses everything except qualities of excellence (fad.ā'il). For reason delimits its pocessor, not allowing him to enter into that which is improper. That is why it is called 'reason,' from 'fetter' (ʿaql)." (III 333.20) SPK161
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According to Muhyiddīn ibn ʿArabiyiddīn ibn ʿArabi, all created things know Allah (God) through an inborn knowledge (fit.ra), with the exception of man and the jinn. They alone were given reflection in order to gain knowledge of God.[7]
Allusion to this inborn knowledge:
{ الَّذِي جَعَلَ لَكُمُ الْأَرْضَ فِرَاشًا وَالسَّمَاءَ بِنَاءً وَأَنزَلَ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً فَأَخْرَجَ بِهِ مِنَ الثَّمَرَاتِ رِزْقًا لَّكُمْ ۖ فَلَا تَجْعَلُوا لِلَّهِ أَندَادًا وَأَنتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ }
{˹He is the One˺ Who has made the earth a place of settlement for you and the sky a canopy; and sends down rain from the sky, causing fruits to grow as a provision for you. So do not *knowingly* set up equals to Allah ˹in worship˺.}
knowingly:
(intuitively, that He alone is capable of creating these objects and affecting these changes). Everyone is endowed with this intuitive consciousness.
Tafsīr-ul Qurān, Maulana Abdul Majid Daryabadi, p.16 fn95
Reflection (fikr), as we have seen, is one of the six instruments by which the rational faculty gains knowledge, the other five being the senses. īf reflection is employed properly, it will aid in the acquisition of right knowledge of Allah (God) and thereby lead to felicity. If it is employed improperly, it can be one of man’s greatest obstacles.
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Like other tools, reflection (fikr) can be used for good and evil ends. But human beings possess no higher tool, since all other tools are controlled through it. ibn ʿArabi calls it an ”affliction” (balā’) that is, a test and a trial which may very well lead to man’s ruin. SPK162
Muhyiddīn ibn ʿArabi writes:
Allah (God) afflicted man with an affliction with which no other of his creatures was afflicted. Through it He takes him to felicity or wretchedness, depending upon how He allows him to make use of it. … Then God prescribed for the rational faculty that it should come to know Him, in order that it might turn to Him for knowledge of Him, not to other than him. But reason understood the contrary of what the Real meant by His words, { أَوَلَمْ يَتَفَكَّرُوا - Do they not reflect?} 7-184; {كَذَٰلِكَ نُفَصِّلُ الْآيَاتِ لِقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ}{Thus do We differentiate/ explain the signs in detail for people who reflect} 10-24. Hence reason supports itself by reflection and makes it a leader which it follows. It remains heedless of what the Real meant by ”reflection.” For He addressed reason in order that it might reflect and come to understand that the only way to know God is for God to give it knowledge. (I 1225.33) SPK163
The fundamental function of reflection is to lead man to the understanding that he cannot reach knowledge of Allah (God) through his own resources.
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Through reflection reason can grasp God’s incomparability . But to gain any positive and affirmative knowledge of God, any statement about what God is rather than what He is not, it must have recourse to revelation.SPK163
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This knowledge of God’s incomparability can be attained by reflection without revelation. But there is a good deal of knowledge about Allah (God) and the next world that can only come through a revealed Law; and again, there is no way to actualise the felicity of the next world without following the Law.SPK164
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For the proponents of Kalam, consideration (naz.ar) denotes the process of investigation and reasoning whereby conclusions are drawn, or in other words, the specific kind of sophisticated rational thinking indulged in by the learned.
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Those who depend upon consideration are misled when they deal with things which should be left, for example, to faith. The possessor of consideration (s.āh.ib al-naz.ar) he’s not wrong to consider. He is wrong to depend upon consideration in all domains. SPK165
Muhyiddīn ibn ʿArabi writes:
Reason is full of meddling because reflection governs over it, along with all the faculties within man, since there is nothing greater than reason in following authority (taqlīd).
Reason imagines it has God-given proofs, but it only has proofs given by reflection. Reflection's proofs let it take reason wherever it wants, while reason is like a blind man. No, it is even blinder in the path of Allah (God).
The folk of Allah do not follow the authority of their reflections, since a created thing should not follow the authority of another created thing. Hence they incline toward following God's authority. They come to God through God, and He is as He says about Himself, not as meddlesome reason judges.SPK166
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The rational thinkers from among the people of consideration imagine that they know what consideration, sense perception, and reason have bestowed upon them, but they are following the authority of these things. Every faculty is prone to a certain kind of mistake.
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Nothing can eliminate this incurable disease, unless all a person's knowledge is known through Allah (God), not through other than Him.
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Since we see nothing but following authority, we have preferred to follow the authority of him who is named ”Messenger” and that which is named ”The Speech of God.” SPK167
We followed their authority in knowledge until the Real was our hearing and our sight[3], so we came to know things through Allah (God) and gained knowledge of these classifications through God… SPK167
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Since this is so, occupy yourself with following that which Allah (God) has commanded you:
- practising obedience to Him,
- examining murāqaba the thoughts that occur to your heart,
- shame h.ayā' before God,
- halting before His bounds,
- being alone infirād with Him, and
- preferring His side over yourself,
until the Real Al-Haqq is all your faculties, and you are upon insight[4] in your affair… SPK168
True knowledge is bestowed or unveiled by God, without the intermediary of reflection or any other faculty. According to a saying often cited in Sufi text, "Knowledge is a light which God throws into the heart of whomsoever He will." SPK170
More on "Unveiling" @ Living Islam - Islamic Tradition[12]
- the science of reason
- the signs of states
- the science of mysteries
SPK169ro
Muhyiddīn ibn ʿArabi writes:
Hence denotations have two faces, though they are one in entity. Their affirmation (thubūt) denotes the temporal origination of the cosmos, while their negation denotes Him who brought the cosmos into existence.
When man considers with his consideration, he says, "I have come to know (maʿrifa) God through the denotations which He has set up for us to know ourselves and Him. They are the signs (āyāt) set up on the horizons and within ourselves that it may become clear to us that he is the Real, and it has become clear to us." [see below Sura 41-53]
This is what we call "self-disclosure" (tajallī)[9], for self-disclosure is put there in order to be seen. It is referred to God's words, 41–53.
In other words, the self-disclosure which they come to see is a mark. It is a mark of Himself, so it becomes clear to them that he is the Real who is sought.
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It was a single denotation which went back-and-forth between negating knowledge of God and affirming knowledge of the cosmos. (II 305.12) SPK164
{ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ }
{ سَنُرِيهِمْ آيَاتِنَا فِي الْآفَاقِ وَفِي أَنفُسِهِمْ حَتَّىٰ يَتَبَيَّنَ لَهُمْ أَنَّهُ الْحَقُّ أَوَلَمْ يَكْفِ بِرَبِّكَ أَنَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ شَهِيدٌ }
{ We will show them Our signs in the universe and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that this is the truth. Is it not enough that your Lord is a Witness over all things?} Sura 41-53
Tafsir, Daryabadi a o :
- Our signs: that is evidence of Our Might and Majesty.
- in the universe: of the earth, everywhere.
- and within themselves/ in their own selves:[10] if we only care to reflect on the marvellous structure of the atom and on the still more marvellous nature of the human mind, we are inevitably, inescapably led to the truth of an All-Designing, Omnipotent, Omniscient Being.
- this is the truth: that the message of the Quran is the truth
- that your Lord is a Witness: for you, O Prophet!
We believe Islam is the answer and the way - and there is no god except Allah (God), the Lord of the universe - no reality, but the reality of the Real (Allah), and Mohammad is certainly His Messenger (may His blessings & peace be upon him).
- Islam - The Way of the Prophets
- Islam the Natural, Easy Religion
- The Sum Of Islam
Footnotes
-page from 2024-10-21 1446 AH 