Chinese Gleams of Sufi Light investigates the 1400 year tradition of Islam in China, and how through mutual cooperation between Islam and the Three Classics (Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism) commonalities on the level of First Principles were realized. Sachiko Murata’s work mentions how traditionally within Islam, a sign of knowledge and understanding was the ability to explain religious-spiritual concepts in the language of the immediate cultural context. In doing so, it actually enables us to explore those concepts more deeply. This post summarizes some of the Principles of Islam with respect to the Far-Eastern traditions, and in doing so, articulates the essential qualities of Islam that have been all but lost in the contemporary context of modernity and post-modernity. Today, as modern people, we do not realize that our approach to pre-modern traditions such as Islam are not done so objectively. Often we attempt to compensate through puritanical approaches, but those do not amount to much more than mere slogans and empty platitudes because these approaches are still byproducts of modernity. For this reason, a referential approach to pre-modern commentaries and language can enable us to analyze and become conscious of our own unconscious lenses by which we approach religion.

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, or as the Daoists and Confucians who learned of him called him, 聖人 (shèngrén), the Utmost Sage, awakened to and taught the sacred knowledge of  ٱلل‍َّٰه‎ (Allāh). This knowledge was the conveyance not of a concept per se but rather the immutable reality beyond concept, the very source of concept itself. This knowledge was conveyed through the entirety of his ﷺ Being to be experienced by others, for it is said that the reified human being, possessing profound consciousness, is the universe’s modality of knowing. That, in order to travel from the created speech to the reality of the uncreated speech behind it one must have معرفة‎ (ma’rifa), direct experience of transcendental Truth, or, the uncreated Ultimate Reality. Then the universal actualizes in the particular, constituting Awakening. This is analogous to what the Greek mystical philosophers called gnōsis, direct knowing, as the mode of true knowledge.

Upon the direct perception of Truth, a person has الذوق (dhawq), a taste of higher reality. Just as the one who has tasted the sweetness of a drink alone knows its sweetness, as a subjective experience of an objective reality, the one who has tasted of higher realities alone knows those realities. The type of knowledge that we bring back with us following الذوق (dhawq) is called یقین‎ (yaqeen), certain knowledge. What all certain experiences of Enlightenment entail is this: The centrality of Oneness, or what in Islam is called توحيد‎ (Tawhid), which demands that all of existence be governed by a single Supreme Reality – which the Chinese scholars had no objection calling by the Neo-Confucian term 理 (lǐ) or Principle. And of course, this is reminiscent of the Hindu and Buddhist concept of śūnyatā (Emptiness). Everything comes from this One, Real Principle and everything returns to it. Indeed, the basis of worship is توحيد‎ (Tawhid), which literally means “making one” or “making into one”, or as it is sometimes translated into Chinese as “practicing one”. This essential understanding of worship is why monotheism necessarily eschews idolatry, for in order to return to Oneness, multiplicity must be effaced. As stated in the Qur’an, the Heart may have only one master lest it be torn asunder. For this reason, we see the commonality of the Principle of Oneness at the center of all revealed religious-spiritual traditions, from the mystical systems of Pythagoras to Confucius to Socrates to Jesus to Muhammad to Dekanawida, the Great Peacemaker of the Iroquois Nation, peace upon all of them. The realization of non-duality however is a progressive process, which is the basis of the spiritual path.

A unifying theme of Islamic and Confucian thought is the balance that is established between the two complementary Divine Attributes – Knowledge and Power – whose mutual activity brings the universe into existence. As Sachiko Murata explains, Liu Chih’s book, “The Philosophy of Arabia”, has in mind the Yin-Yang complementarity that guides Chinese depictions of the universe to describe the manifested Acts of ٱلل‍َّٰه‎ (Allāh) as the 道 (Dao). The Realm of Power in Islamic cosmology, called عالم الجبروت (alam al-jabarut), represents the Divine Acts of ٱلل‍َّٰه‎ (Allāh), which manifests the Divine Attributes through the agency of the Supreme Intelligence from which the realms of existence emanate. It is even beyond, and thus informs and directs, the عالم الملكوت (alam al-malakut), The Realm of Dominion, described in the Qur’an as “The Heavens and the Earth, and all that is between them”, or in the language of the Tao Te Ching, “Heaven, Earth, and the ten thousand things.” This realm includes all of existence, from the transcendental dimensions of the Seven Heavens down to the immanent world of Earthly minerals, the world of the ten thousand things, the kingdom, the الملك‎عالم (alam al-mulk) in which humans live. The transcendent realms, in relation to the immanent realms, represent Knowledge in relation to Power, and Divine Attributes in relation to Divine Acts.

In the work, “Lata’if”, composed by Ma Lian-Yuan, a member of a famous scholarly family from Yunnan, the Islamic conceptualization of the cosmic origins of the universe is depicted in a way that is reminiscent of the Neo-Confucian worldview and broader Chinese thought. The first chapter is called “Explaining The Descents Of The Macrocosm.” In it he describes the twelve levels of reality. The theme of the book then incorporates the ontological depiction of the human being as being created in twelve levels that coincide with the twelve levels of the macrocosm. The two Divine Attributes – Knowledge and Power– join together to issue the أمر (amr), the creative “command”, which is كُن (Kun), or “Be”. This in turn gives rise to the first Being, the كون (kawn), or sometimes translated as “Universe”, but it is none other than the Supreme Spirit (al-‘aql al-awwal), the First Intellect, also called the Supreme Intelligence. It contains the traces of Knowledge and Power, with Power representing the Divine Masculine Principle and Knowledge representing the Divine Feminine Principle.

The Supreme Spirit is mentioned in the Qur’an as the single Soul from which all particular souls come from [4:1]. While many assume that this only refers to Adam as a physical being, the metaphysical dimension of this Adamic reference points towards the spiritual reality that Adam is a manifestation of. But because of this assumption, the topic remains fascinatingly mysterious and largely unexplored in Islamic circles today, even though it is central to its Enlightenment project by means of the return to our فطرة‎ (fiṭrah), our primordial nature as the Adamic Soul. One will find this idea of the Adamic Soul or the Supreme Spirit in Islam as perhaps analogous or similar to the concept of आत्मन् (Ātman) described in the Vedantic school of thought in Hinduism. Ātman is the ontological First Principle of Being. It is the True Self of an individual beyond identification with phenomena as the imagined self, beyond the particular soul, and thus pertains to the essence and true nature of an individual. But ultimately, just like in Islamic spirituality, it represents the door to God.

Imam al-Ghazali explores this concept in his various works. In his Mukhtasar Ihya’ ‘Ulum ad-Din, under the first chapter heading On the Intellect (the Mind) and its Nobility, he says about the Supreme Spirit:

It is the spring of knowledge; and testimony to its nobility is his ﷺ saying, ‘Intellect was the first thing God created. He told it to approach Him, so it did; then told it to retreat, and it did. So He said: “By My Majesty and Might, I have not created a creation more generous to Me than you – by you I take, and by you I give; by you I reward, and by you I punish.” And he ﷺ said, ‘I asked Gabriel what is the su’dud? He said ‘The Intellect.’

Mukhtasar Ihya’ ‘Ulum ad-Din – Page 40

Power and Knowledge are the dual aspects of the Supreme Spirit. The traces of Power gives rise to the Universal Intellect (al-aql al-kulli), which represents the metaphysical dimension of all inanimate beings, such as the celestial spheres and planetary bodies, and the traces of Knowledge gives rise to the Universal Soul (al-nafs al-kulliyyah), which represents the metaphysical dimension of all animate beings; the prior represents action while the latter represents conscious awareness. It is through their mutual cooperation that brings about two sorts of spiritual realities, one centered on activity and the other on awareness. The Universal Soul and the Universal Intellect are therefore the Yin and the Yang to the spiritual realm, the Divine Masculine and the Divine Feminine Principles. This relationship between the two polar energies as creative Principles is indeed reminiscent of the Yogic traditions cosmology which explains the duality of Shiva and Shakti as the energetic personifications of the Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine Principle by which existence unfolds.

Al-Ghazali describes the Prime Universal Soul (al-nafs al-kulliyah al-ula) as “[present] in the incorporeal, prime, pure substances in relation to the First Intellect (the Supreme Spirit) like the relationship of Eve to Adam.” With Eve being drawn out from the innermost center – or the Heart – of Adam, Eve was always present as residing in the essence of the first creation, representing the bringing forth of the transcendent into immanence through a perpetual process of emanation. It shows how the higher manifests into the lower thereby perpetuating or manifesting itself. This of course references the Divine Acts as the means by which the Divine Attributes, which transcend the Divine Acts, unfold in and as creation. That is, through the interactive expression of the Male and the Female Principles, the Principle of Power and Knowledge, of action and awareness, of Acts and Attributes, there descends from the innermost dimensions of reality an unfolding of existence that culminates in the individual soul that may comprehend all of this. That is, through the individual soul, there arises the universe as a multiplicity of subjective experience. It is through activity and awareness that there is this subjective experience of the universe within the Mind, and thus, that there is consciousness.

The All-Comprehensive Nature of Worship

The underlying cosmic nature of worship can be understood more deeply based on Ma Lian-Yuan’s work “Explaining The Descents of the Macrocosm”. It depicts the human being as being created in twelve levels or dimensions of reality that coincide with the twelve levels of the macrocosm. Human beings, as manifestations of Knowledge and Power, bring together all the characteristics and qualities of reality, from the Highest Heaven down to the lowest Hell, and all that is between them. Then by means of their own all-comprehensive nature, returns to One through the act of worship. The Heart, as the unitary Principle of the twelve realms, as our innermost Being, is therefore transcendentally connected to all dimensions of existence. What this seems to imply then is that when we return to the Heart, when we enter into a state of perfect mindfulness, watchfulness, and presence, then we become connected to the universe; in other words, in connecting to the microcosm of the Heart, we become connected to the macrocosm of the universe. In this way, the reality behind the words of Imam ‘Ali becomes unveiled to us, that “the human being is a small universe, and the universe is a large human being.” This state of harmony between the microcosm and the macrocosm, in terms of consciousness, pertains to harmony with nature, and thus we have returned to our فطرة‎ (fiṭrah state) of Oneness. It is through this state of Oneness that we perceive the world through non-duality. As a reflection, the world is utterly and existentially dependent on ٱلل‍َّٰه‎ (Allāh), and thus lacks ontological reality in the sense that it lacks inherent reality as a self-existent and independent entity. In other words, it cannot explain itself. In this realization, there is the recognition of the illusory nature of our sense of an independent self, understanding that it lacks inherent reality also. And so, the underlying perception of the universe is reflected in our underlying perception of the nature of self, and vice versa. One cannot have a spiritual vision of existence if they perceive their imagined self as existentially real. But to see through the illusion of the self is to see the reflected light of ٱلل‍َّٰه‎ (Allāh) within the eye of the Mind, which is to awaken to the reality of our essence as the Supreme Spirit, beyond egoic identification; in this knowledge of the True Self, the imagined self of the ego perishes completely. But this state is reserved for the Awakened Ones. For other than them, there is a weakened sense of being an independent self, and thus, a weakened pull by the material world.

Ego death is therefore the means by which one is able to have الذوق (dhawq), a taste of higher reality. From this taste, from this experience, one has معرفة‎ (ma’rifa), gnōsis, True Knowledge through direct experience. In the Islamic tradition, as in all other spiritual traditions, this is based on the saying of the Prophet ﷺ where he said: “موتوا قبل ان تموتوا”, which means: “Die before you die”. Mevlânâ Rūmī had understanding of this wisdom through direct experience, and he articulates in his poem his experience of this reality as a commentary to the Qur’an and to the Prophetic instruction:

O Generous Ones,
Die before you die,
even as I have died before death
and brought this reminder from Beyond.
Become the resurrection of the spirit
so you may experience the resurrection.
This becoming is necessary
for seeing and knowing
the real nature of anything.
Until you become it,
you will not know it completely,
whether it be light or darkness.
If you become Reason,
you will know Reason perfectly
If you become Love,
you will know Love’s flaming wick.

– (Mathnawi VI: 754-758)

The letting go of one’s imagined self and its multiplicity of identities to which it is affixed is the process of “making one”; “making one” is to be in a state of “returning to One”; to be in a state of “returning to One” is to be cultivating harmony with nature, and to be cultivating harmony with nature is for the Heart to be in a state of submission and surrender to  ٱلل‍َّٰه‎ (Allāh) alone. All together, this is worship of ٱلل‍َّٰه‎ (Allāh). The effacement of one’s ego is thus the essence of worship because the essence of worship is the attainment of Oneness. It is how we align ourselves on a vibrational level with the frequency of the Divine. All contingent phenomena are in this state, from the creatures in the natural environment to the greatest of celestial bodies to the atoms. It as as Rumi says:

The atoms are dancing, thanks to God, the universe is dancing, overcome with ecstasy;

All the atoms in the air and in the desert are dancing, puzzled and drunken to the ray of light, they seem insane;

All these atoms are not so different than we are. Happy or miserable, perplexed and bewildered, we are all beings in the ray of light of the Beloved

Poem of the Atoms – Jalal ad-Din Rumi

As the imagined self begins to vanish, so too does the sense of separation from the Divine. And as this sense of separation declines, our intuitive awareness of ٱلل‍َّٰه‎ (Allāh) continues to manifest more powerfully within us, expanding our referential position in existence beyond mere isolation. We have an increasing sense that, just beyond the veil of perception, ٱلل‍َّٰه‎ (Allāh) is near. The dual spiritual aspects that govern animate and inanimate forms, the Divine Feminine and the Divine Masculine Principles, merge as one within us, and we increasingly feel a sense of becoming enveloped in the Divine Embrace. The ground of our Being becomes illuminated by the Light of ٱلل‍َّٰه‎ (Allāh). What this symbolizes is the Divine Attributes, represented by الرحمن (al-rahman), The Compassionate and the Divine Acts, represented by الرحيم (al-rahim), The Merciful, becoming one, actualizing within us as knowledge of the Divine Essence itself. In relation to our awareness however, knowledge of the essence manifests as The Supreme Self, and thus the ground of individual Being begins to disappear also. This bears resemblance to the awakening of the Crown chakra, sahasrara, in the Yogic tradition where the Divine Masculine Principle, represented by Shiva, and the Divine Feminine Principle, represented by Shakti, unite. Because the interaction of duality forms the basis of the ground of Being, with the dual aspects of existence becoming one, we enter into non-duality and thus transcend duality.

It is when we have entered into non-duality that here, in this world, our existence becomes aligned with the فطرة‎ (fiṭrah), our primordial nature. Our sense of self, as a functional concept and not one of identification, now has expanded to include all of nature, corresponding to the concept of anātman, or, non-self. It is not a self per se, but rather, it represents the particular as the locus of the universal through the comprehension of Emptiness. By attaining balance within, between the dual aspects of the Knowledge and Power, we awaken to a deeper and more empathic sense of connectedness to nature, perceiving all sentient creatures as if part of a single body. From the plants to the animals, to the Earth itself and to each other, we see all as one rather than as a composition of independent self-existent things. 

We begin to see Beauty in our experience of nature as a reflection of the Beauty of our Soul, which is a reflection of the Beauty of the Supreme Spirit, which in turn is a reflection of the Beauty of  ٱلل‍َّٰه‎ (Allāh). Again, there is the upward movement through realization from subjective multiplicity towards objective unity within the realm of the experience of Beauty; that the infinite variety of subjective experiences of Beauty, which represents the multiplicity of the world Ten Thousand Things, are all in fact one Beauty in the same way that all of the variety of colors, while apparently different, are all the same in that they are all color. This process of essentializing represents the faculty behind worship, where “making one” or “practicing one”, is the essence of worship and the spiritual life. For this reason, the world, not as دُنْيا‎ (dunya), not as the projection of a conceptual illusion, but as ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ (al-‘aalameen), is understood to be an instrument of knowledge by which the Supreme Spirit, through manifested beings, comes to know ٱلل‍َّٰه‎ (Allāh) once again. This is what it means to know one’s own Soul, as the Prophet ﷺ instructed as the means by which knowledge of  ٱلل‍َّٰه‎ (Allāh) is to be acquired. That by perceiving Beauty on the horizons in nature, we are in fact perceiving Beauty as the signs of God on the horizons within us. Realizing this experience as a reflection of the Beauty of  ٱلل‍َّٰه‎ (Allāh) leads to the realization of Divine intimacy and nearness, that ٱلل‍َّٰه‎ (Allāh) is closer to us than even our own jugular vein because the spiritual, as the basis of existence itself, is more fundamental and essential than the body.

The spiritual project of Islam and of all traditions is precisely about this; realization of Oneness through self-knowledge, which causes awakening from دُنْيا‎ (dunya), from entanglement in the illusory self and its projection of the world. But this requires a meditative and contemplative approach to living and to practicing. One cannot live, perceive, think, act, and be just like everyone else. One cannot, in the words of the second Caliph, ‘Umar, graze on the illusory world, for to graze on it is to become like it. But by cultivating a clear mind and developing our capacity for spiritual discernment, we may engage in perpetual non-attachment which allows us to navigate the illusions of the imagined self and its fabricated realities that we otherwise cling to so desperately. And so into the deep of the Mind we must go, confronting The Great Abyss that lies just beyond the gate of death. We must not flinch as the darkness stares back at us, for then we may only cascade more deeply into egoic-Being. Rather, we must traverse its darkening depths with full faith in ٱلل‍َّٰه‎ (Allāh) as a child waits expectantly for its mother. That is a light, and it is when the orientation of the Mind’s eye remains fixed on that light that deeper experiences of reality unfold inexplicably as we cross the barrier between this world and the next. To prepare us for this journey, we must engage in the meditation of death. As instructed by the Prophet, you must موتوا قبل ان تموتوا, “Die before you die.”

It is the Heart which rejoices in proximity to Him and prospers when man has purified it and it is the Heart which is disappointed and miserable when man has defiled and corrupted it…

Ihya’, Vol. 3, pp. 2. 17; cf. al-Ghazali. Jawahir al-Qur’an. Cairo, 1984, p. 14

References

[1] Al-Ghazali’s Views On The Heart, The Spirit And The Soul: A Comparison Between Ihya’ ‘Ulum Al-Din And Al-Risalah Al-Laduniyyah

[2] The Universal Tree and the Four Birds: Ibn ‘Arabi

[3] Mukhtasar Ihya’ ‘Ulum ad-Din: al-Ghazali

[4] Chinese Gleams of Sufi Light: Wang Tai-yu’s Great Learning of the Pure and Real and Liu Chih’s Displaying the Concealment of the Real Realm. With a New Translation of Jami’s Lawa’ih from the Persian by William C. Chittick