If you say that God is one, you are right; but if you say that He is two, this is also true.If you say no, but He is three, you are right, for this is the real nature of man.[171:1]Theperfect man, then, is the joining link. On the one hand he receives illumination from all the Essential names, on the other hand all Divine attributes reappear in him. These attributes are:—1. Independent life or existence.2. Knowledge which is a form of life, as he proves from a verse from the Qur’an.3. Will—the principle of particularisation, or the manifestation of Being. He defines it as the illumination of the knowledge of God according to the requirements of the Essence; hence it is a particular form of knowledge. It has nine manifestations, all of which are different names for love; the last is the love in which the lover and the beloved, the knower and the known merge into each other, and become identical. This form of love, he says, is the Absolute Essence; as Christianity teaches, God is love. He guards, here, against the error of looking upon the individual act of will as uncaused. Only the act of the universal will is uncaused; hence he implies the Hegelian Doctrine of Freedom, and holds that the acts of man are both free and determined.4. Power, which expresses itself in self-diremption i.e. creation. He controvertsShaikhMuḥy al-Dīn ibn ‘Arabī's position that the Universe existed before the creation in the knowledge of God. He says, this would imply that God did not create it out of nothing, and holds that the Universe, before its existence as an idea, existed in the self of God.5. The word or the reflected being. Every possibility is the word of God; hence nature is the materialisation of the word of God. It has different names—The tangible word, The sum of the realities of man, The arrangement of the Divinity, The spread of Oneness, The expression of the Unknown, The phases of Beauty, The trace of names and attributes, and the object of God's knowledge.6. The Power of hearing the inaudible.7. The Power of seeing the invisible.8. Beauty—that which seems least beautiful in nature (the reflected beauty) is in its real existence, beauty. Evil is only relative, it has no real existence; sin is merely a relative deformity.9. Glory or beauty in its intensity.10. Perfection, which is the unknowable essence of God and therefore Unlimited and Infinite.FOOTNOTES:[102:1]"Tidings have reached us that Valerian has been defeated, and is now in the hands of Sapor. The threats of Franks and Allemanni, of Goths and Persians, are alike terrible by turns to ourdegenerateRome." (Plotinus to Flaccus; quoted by Vaughan in his Half hours with Mystics, p. 63.)[103:1]The element of ecstacy which could have appealed to some minds was thrown into the background by the later teachers of Neo-Platonism, so that it became a mere system of thought having no human interest. Says Whittaker:—"The mystical ecstacy was not found by the later teachers of the school easier to attain, but more difficult; and the tendency became more and more to regard it as all but unattainable on earth." Neo-Platonism, p. 101.[107:1]Sura 2, v. 146.[108:1]Sura 2, v. 2.[108:2]Sura 51, v. 20, 21.[108:3]Sura 50, v. 15.[108:4]Sura 24, v. 35.[108:5]Sura 42, v. 9.[109:1]Sura 17; v. 87.[109:2]Sura 88; v. 20.[110:1]Sura 16; v. 92.[110:2]Weber makes the following statement on the authority of Lassen:—"Al-Birūnī translated Patañjalī's work into Arabic at the beginning of the 11th century, and also, it would appear, the Sānkhya sūtra, though the information we have as to the contents of these works does not harmonise with the Sanskrit originals." History of Indian Literature, p. 239.[113:1]Mr. Nicholson has collected the various definitions of Ṣūfīism. See J. R. A. S. April, 1906.[114:1]Mathnawī, Jalāl al Dīn Rūmī, with Baḥral ‘ulūm's Commentary. Lucknow (India), 1877, p. 9.[114:2]As regards the progress of Buddhism Geiger says:—"We know that in the period after Alexander, Buddhism was powerful in Eastern Iran, and that it counted its confessors as far as Tabaristan. It is especially certain that many Buddhistic priests were found in Bactria. This state of things, which began perhaps in the first century before Christ, lasted till the 7thcentury A.D., when the appearance of Islamism alone cut short the development of Buddhism in Kabul and Bactria, and it is in that period that we will have to place the rise of the Zarathushtra legend in the form in which it is presented to us by Daqīqī."Civilisation of Eastern Iranians Vol. II, p. 170.[115:1]Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 8b.[115:2]Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 10b.[115:3]Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 23b.[116:1]Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 3b.[116:2]Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 15b.[118:1]Whittaker's Neo-Platonism, p. 58.[118:2]Whittaker's Neo-Platonism, p. 57.[119:1]Dabistān, Chap: 8.[122:1]Vol. I, p. 367.[127:1]Sharh Anwāriyya—Al-Harawī's commentary on Al-Ishrāqī's Hikmat al-Ishrāq, fol. 10a.[131:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 11b.[137:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 34a.[142:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 57b.[142:2]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 60b.[145:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 92b.[147:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 82.[147:2]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 87b.[148:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 81b.[150:1]Maqsadi Aqsā; fol. 21a.[150:2]Maqsadi Aqsā; fol. 21a.[152:1]Insān al-Kāmil, Vol. I, p. 10.[155:1]Insān al-Kāmil; Vol. I, p. 22.[157:1]Insān al-Kāmil, Vol. II, p. 26.[161:1]Matheson'sAids to the Study of German Theology, p. 43.[163:1]This would seem very much like the idea of the phenomenal Brahma of the Vedānta. The Personal Creator or the Prajāpati of the Vedānta makes the third step of the Absolute Being or the Noumenal Brahma. Al-Jīlī seems to admit two kinds of Brahma—with or without qualities like the Śamkara and Bādarayana. To him the process of creation is essentially a lowering of the Absolute Thought, which is Asat, in so far as it is absolute, and Sat, in so far as it is manifested and hence limited.Notwithstandingthis Absolute Monism, he inclines to a view similar to that of Rāmānuja. He seems to admit the reality of the individual soul and seems to imply, unlike Śamkara, that Īśwara and His worship are necessary even after the attainment of the Higher Knowledge.[167:1]Insān al-Kāmil, Vol. I, p. 40.[169:1]Insān al-Kāmil, Vol. I, p. 48.[170:1]"We cannot kindle when we willThe fire which in the heart resides".[171:1]Insān al-Kāmil, Vol. I, p. 8.
If you say that God is one, you are right; but if you say that He is two, this is also true.If you say no, but He is three, you are right, for this is the real nature of man.[171:1]
If you say that God is one, you are right; but if you say that He is two, this is also true.If you say no, but He is three, you are right, for this is the real nature of man.[171:1]
Theperfect man, then, is the joining link. On the one hand he receives illumination from all the Essential names, on the other hand all Divine attributes reappear in him. These attributes are:—
1. Independent life or existence.
2. Knowledge which is a form of life, as he proves from a verse from the Qur’an.
3. Will—the principle of particularisation, or the manifestation of Being. He defines it as the illumination of the knowledge of God according to the requirements of the Essence; hence it is a particular form of knowledge. It has nine manifestations, all of which are different names for love; the last is the love in which the lover and the beloved, the knower and the known merge into each other, and become identical. This form of love, he says, is the Absolute Essence; as Christianity teaches, God is love. He guards, here, against the error of looking upon the individual act of will as uncaused. Only the act of the universal will is uncaused; hence he implies the Hegelian Doctrine of Freedom, and holds that the acts of man are both free and determined.
4. Power, which expresses itself in self-diremption i.e. creation. He controvertsShaikhMuḥy al-Dīn ibn ‘Arabī's position that the Universe existed before the creation in the knowledge of God. He says, this would imply that God did not create it out of nothing, and holds that the Universe, before its existence as an idea, existed in the self of God.
5. The word or the reflected being. Every possibility is the word of God; hence nature is the materialisation of the word of God. It has different names—The tangible word, The sum of the realities of man, The arrangement of the Divinity, The spread of Oneness, The expression of the Unknown, The phases of Beauty, The trace of names and attributes, and the object of God's knowledge.
6. The Power of hearing the inaudible.
7. The Power of seeing the invisible.
8. Beauty—that which seems least beautiful in nature (the reflected beauty) is in its real existence, beauty. Evil is only relative, it has no real existence; sin is merely a relative deformity.
9. Glory or beauty in its intensity.
10. Perfection, which is the unknowable essence of God and therefore Unlimited and Infinite.
FOOTNOTES:[102:1]"Tidings have reached us that Valerian has been defeated, and is now in the hands of Sapor. The threats of Franks and Allemanni, of Goths and Persians, are alike terrible by turns to ourdegenerateRome." (Plotinus to Flaccus; quoted by Vaughan in his Half hours with Mystics, p. 63.)[103:1]The element of ecstacy which could have appealed to some minds was thrown into the background by the later teachers of Neo-Platonism, so that it became a mere system of thought having no human interest. Says Whittaker:—"The mystical ecstacy was not found by the later teachers of the school easier to attain, but more difficult; and the tendency became more and more to regard it as all but unattainable on earth." Neo-Platonism, p. 101.[107:1]Sura 2, v. 146.[108:1]Sura 2, v. 2.[108:2]Sura 51, v. 20, 21.[108:3]Sura 50, v. 15.[108:4]Sura 24, v. 35.[108:5]Sura 42, v. 9.[109:1]Sura 17; v. 87.[109:2]Sura 88; v. 20.[110:1]Sura 16; v. 92.[110:2]Weber makes the following statement on the authority of Lassen:—"Al-Birūnī translated Patañjalī's work into Arabic at the beginning of the 11th century, and also, it would appear, the Sānkhya sūtra, though the information we have as to the contents of these works does not harmonise with the Sanskrit originals." History of Indian Literature, p. 239.[113:1]Mr. Nicholson has collected the various definitions of Ṣūfīism. See J. R. A. S. April, 1906.[114:1]Mathnawī, Jalāl al Dīn Rūmī, with Baḥral ‘ulūm's Commentary. Lucknow (India), 1877, p. 9.[114:2]As regards the progress of Buddhism Geiger says:—"We know that in the period after Alexander, Buddhism was powerful in Eastern Iran, and that it counted its confessors as far as Tabaristan. It is especially certain that many Buddhistic priests were found in Bactria. This state of things, which began perhaps in the first century before Christ, lasted till the 7thcentury A.D., when the appearance of Islamism alone cut short the development of Buddhism in Kabul and Bactria, and it is in that period that we will have to place the rise of the Zarathushtra legend in the form in which it is presented to us by Daqīqī."Civilisation of Eastern Iranians Vol. II, p. 170.[115:1]Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 8b.[115:2]Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 10b.[115:3]Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 23b.[116:1]Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 3b.[116:2]Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 15b.[118:1]Whittaker's Neo-Platonism, p. 58.[118:2]Whittaker's Neo-Platonism, p. 57.[119:1]Dabistān, Chap: 8.[122:1]Vol. I, p. 367.[127:1]Sharh Anwāriyya—Al-Harawī's commentary on Al-Ishrāqī's Hikmat al-Ishrāq, fol. 10a.[131:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 11b.[137:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 34a.[142:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 57b.[142:2]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 60b.[145:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 92b.[147:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 82.[147:2]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 87b.[148:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 81b.[150:1]Maqsadi Aqsā; fol. 21a.[150:2]Maqsadi Aqsā; fol. 21a.[152:1]Insān al-Kāmil, Vol. I, p. 10.[155:1]Insān al-Kāmil; Vol. I, p. 22.[157:1]Insān al-Kāmil, Vol. II, p. 26.[161:1]Matheson'sAids to the Study of German Theology, p. 43.[163:1]This would seem very much like the idea of the phenomenal Brahma of the Vedānta. The Personal Creator or the Prajāpati of the Vedānta makes the third step of the Absolute Being or the Noumenal Brahma. Al-Jīlī seems to admit two kinds of Brahma—with or without qualities like the Śamkara and Bādarayana. To him the process of creation is essentially a lowering of the Absolute Thought, which is Asat, in so far as it is absolute, and Sat, in so far as it is manifested and hence limited.Notwithstandingthis Absolute Monism, he inclines to a view similar to that of Rāmānuja. He seems to admit the reality of the individual soul and seems to imply, unlike Śamkara, that Īśwara and His worship are necessary even after the attainment of the Higher Knowledge.[167:1]Insān al-Kāmil, Vol. I, p. 40.[169:1]Insān al-Kāmil, Vol. I, p. 48.[170:1]"We cannot kindle when we willThe fire which in the heart resides".[171:1]Insān al-Kāmil, Vol. I, p. 8.
[102:1]"Tidings have reached us that Valerian has been defeated, and is now in the hands of Sapor. The threats of Franks and Allemanni, of Goths and Persians, are alike terrible by turns to ourdegenerateRome." (Plotinus to Flaccus; quoted by Vaughan in his Half hours with Mystics, p. 63.)
[102:1]"Tidings have reached us that Valerian has been defeated, and is now in the hands of Sapor. The threats of Franks and Allemanni, of Goths and Persians, are alike terrible by turns to ourdegenerateRome." (Plotinus to Flaccus; quoted by Vaughan in his Half hours with Mystics, p. 63.)
[103:1]The element of ecstacy which could have appealed to some minds was thrown into the background by the later teachers of Neo-Platonism, so that it became a mere system of thought having no human interest. Says Whittaker:—"The mystical ecstacy was not found by the later teachers of the school easier to attain, but more difficult; and the tendency became more and more to regard it as all but unattainable on earth." Neo-Platonism, p. 101.
[103:1]The element of ecstacy which could have appealed to some minds was thrown into the background by the later teachers of Neo-Platonism, so that it became a mere system of thought having no human interest. Says Whittaker:—"The mystical ecstacy was not found by the later teachers of the school easier to attain, but more difficult; and the tendency became more and more to regard it as all but unattainable on earth." Neo-Platonism, p. 101.
[107:1]Sura 2, v. 146.
[107:1]Sura 2, v. 146.
[108:1]Sura 2, v. 2.
[108:1]Sura 2, v. 2.
[108:2]Sura 51, v. 20, 21.
[108:2]Sura 51, v. 20, 21.
[108:3]Sura 50, v. 15.
[108:3]Sura 50, v. 15.
[108:4]Sura 24, v. 35.
[108:4]Sura 24, v. 35.
[108:5]Sura 42, v. 9.
[108:5]Sura 42, v. 9.
[109:1]Sura 17; v. 87.
[109:1]Sura 17; v. 87.
[109:2]Sura 88; v. 20.
[109:2]Sura 88; v. 20.
[110:1]Sura 16; v. 92.
[110:1]Sura 16; v. 92.
[110:2]Weber makes the following statement on the authority of Lassen:—"Al-Birūnī translated Patañjalī's work into Arabic at the beginning of the 11th century, and also, it would appear, the Sānkhya sūtra, though the information we have as to the contents of these works does not harmonise with the Sanskrit originals." History of Indian Literature, p. 239.
[110:2]Weber makes the following statement on the authority of Lassen:—"Al-Birūnī translated Patañjalī's work into Arabic at the beginning of the 11th century, and also, it would appear, the Sānkhya sūtra, though the information we have as to the contents of these works does not harmonise with the Sanskrit originals." History of Indian Literature, p. 239.
[113:1]Mr. Nicholson has collected the various definitions of Ṣūfīism. See J. R. A. S. April, 1906.
[113:1]Mr. Nicholson has collected the various definitions of Ṣūfīism. See J. R. A. S. April, 1906.
[114:1]Mathnawī, Jalāl al Dīn Rūmī, with Baḥral ‘ulūm's Commentary. Lucknow (India), 1877, p. 9.
[114:1]Mathnawī, Jalāl al Dīn Rūmī, with Baḥral ‘ulūm's Commentary. Lucknow (India), 1877, p. 9.
[114:2]As regards the progress of Buddhism Geiger says:—"We know that in the period after Alexander, Buddhism was powerful in Eastern Iran, and that it counted its confessors as far as Tabaristan. It is especially certain that many Buddhistic priests were found in Bactria. This state of things, which began perhaps in the first century before Christ, lasted till the 7thcentury A.D., when the appearance of Islamism alone cut short the development of Buddhism in Kabul and Bactria, and it is in that period that we will have to place the rise of the Zarathushtra legend in the form in which it is presented to us by Daqīqī."Civilisation of Eastern Iranians Vol. II, p. 170.
[114:2]As regards the progress of Buddhism Geiger says:—"We know that in the period after Alexander, Buddhism was powerful in Eastern Iran, and that it counted its confessors as far as Tabaristan. It is especially certain that many Buddhistic priests were found in Bactria. This state of things, which began perhaps in the first century before Christ, lasted till the 7thcentury A.D., when the appearance of Islamism alone cut short the development of Buddhism in Kabul and Bactria, and it is in that period that we will have to place the rise of the Zarathushtra legend in the form in which it is presented to us by Daqīqī."
Civilisation of Eastern Iranians Vol. II, p. 170.
[115:1]Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 8b.
[115:1]Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 8b.
[115:2]Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 10b.
[115:2]Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 10b.
[115:3]Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 23b.
[115:3]Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 23b.
[116:1]Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 3b.
[116:1]Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 3b.
[116:2]Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 15b.
[116:2]Nasafī's Maqṣadi Aqṣā: fol. 15b.
[118:1]Whittaker's Neo-Platonism, p. 58.
[118:1]Whittaker's Neo-Platonism, p. 58.
[118:2]Whittaker's Neo-Platonism, p. 57.
[118:2]Whittaker's Neo-Platonism, p. 57.
[119:1]Dabistān, Chap: 8.
[119:1]Dabistān, Chap: 8.
[122:1]Vol. I, p. 367.
[122:1]Vol. I, p. 367.
[127:1]Sharh Anwāriyya—Al-Harawī's commentary on Al-Ishrāqī's Hikmat al-Ishrāq, fol. 10a.
[127:1]Sharh Anwāriyya—Al-Harawī's commentary on Al-Ishrāqī's Hikmat al-Ishrāq, fol. 10a.
[131:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 11b.
[131:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 11b.
[137:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 34a.
[137:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 34a.
[142:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 57b.
[142:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 57b.
[142:2]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 60b.
[142:2]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 60b.
[145:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 92b.
[145:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 92b.
[147:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 82.
[147:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 82.
[147:2]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 87b.
[147:2]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 87b.
[148:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 81b.
[148:1]Sharh Anwāriyya fol. 81b.
[150:1]Maqsadi Aqsā; fol. 21a.
[150:1]Maqsadi Aqsā; fol. 21a.
[150:2]Maqsadi Aqsā; fol. 21a.
[150:2]Maqsadi Aqsā; fol. 21a.
[152:1]Insān al-Kāmil, Vol. I, p. 10.
[152:1]Insān al-Kāmil, Vol. I, p. 10.
[155:1]Insān al-Kāmil; Vol. I, p. 22.
[155:1]Insān al-Kāmil; Vol. I, p. 22.
[157:1]Insān al-Kāmil, Vol. II, p. 26.
[157:1]Insān al-Kāmil, Vol. II, p. 26.
[161:1]Matheson'sAids to the Study of German Theology, p. 43.
[161:1]Matheson'sAids to the Study of German Theology, p. 43.
[163:1]This would seem very much like the idea of the phenomenal Brahma of the Vedānta. The Personal Creator or the Prajāpati of the Vedānta makes the third step of the Absolute Being or the Noumenal Brahma. Al-Jīlī seems to admit two kinds of Brahma—with or without qualities like the Śamkara and Bādarayana. To him the process of creation is essentially a lowering of the Absolute Thought, which is Asat, in so far as it is absolute, and Sat, in so far as it is manifested and hence limited.Notwithstandingthis Absolute Monism, he inclines to a view similar to that of Rāmānuja. He seems to admit the reality of the individual soul and seems to imply, unlike Śamkara, that Īśwara and His worship are necessary even after the attainment of the Higher Knowledge.
[163:1]This would seem very much like the idea of the phenomenal Brahma of the Vedānta. The Personal Creator or the Prajāpati of the Vedānta makes the third step of the Absolute Being or the Noumenal Brahma. Al-Jīlī seems to admit two kinds of Brahma—with or without qualities like the Śamkara and Bādarayana. To him the process of creation is essentially a lowering of the Absolute Thought, which is Asat, in so far as it is absolute, and Sat, in so far as it is manifested and hence limited.Notwithstandingthis Absolute Monism, he inclines to a view similar to that of Rāmānuja. He seems to admit the reality of the individual soul and seems to imply, unlike Śamkara, that Īśwara and His worship are necessary even after the attainment of the Higher Knowledge.
[167:1]Insān al-Kāmil, Vol. I, p. 40.
[167:1]Insān al-Kāmil, Vol. I, p. 40.
[169:1]Insān al-Kāmil, Vol. I, p. 48.
[169:1]Insān al-Kāmil, Vol. I, p. 48.
[170:1]"We cannot kindle when we willThe fire which in the heart resides".
[170:1]
"We cannot kindle when we willThe fire which in the heart resides".
"We cannot kindle when we willThe fire which in the heart resides".
[171:1]Insān al-Kāmil, Vol. I, p. 8.
[171:1]Insān al-Kāmil, Vol. I, p. 8.