To the Sufi, creative expression which results from participation
mystique - that is, a state of being one with nature, although not conscious
of the Divine Presence - is an expression of one's vision of self
within self. It is an expression which is not reflective, not polished,
not aware of the total possibilities inherent in the nature of things. It
is only through conscious expression that one has the more perfect vision
of self reflected in the qualities of something else. The only way that
expression can serve in its full capacity is when it is reflective; it becomes
reflective only when conscious of the Divine Presence. The reflective surface
now reflects something which is contained, a Spirit which is not only
one's own. this is the Spirit which is universal to all things; to the Sufi,
it is the 'desire' which exists within things 'to be known'.
The Breath of the Compassionate. The preparedness within a thing, it's
inner Archetype, is actualized in an intelligible form at the moment when
its Name flows into it through a Word. The Divine Spirit or Logos flows into
a thing through the process of the Divine Breath, the Breath of the
Divine name 'Rahman', Compassionate. The Name of the Compassionate manifested
through the Divine Breath, is just one of the many symbolic processes which
the traditional craftsman emulates. By blowing or chanting the Divine
Names upon the form to be transformed, the creative process of the breath,
which contains the Divine Presence through a Name, transforms the object
in hand. The creator participates as active agent and the object participates
as passive recipient.
There is a Tradition of the Prophet in which he says, 'God created the
universe through the Breath of the Compassionate.' The Compassionate
'Rahman' is the higher of the names, Ideas or ARchetypes. "Where was your
Lord before creating the visible Creation? someone asked the Prophet. His
answer: "in a cloud. There was no space either above or below'. This cloud
which the Divine Being exhaled, and in which it originally was, receives
all forms at the same time as it gives beings their forms. It is the act
of making things to exist. The Absolute, appearing in the Name, Compassion,
overflowing with goodness, gives existence without limit and without end.
When the desire to be known, the preparedness, arises within a thing,
the Divine in Compassion extends Itself as Archetype to the thing and becomes
its receptivity, its ability to receive the theophany. This receptivity is
actually what the Archetype, in its state of concrete essence, desires.
Therefore, the actual effect of Compassion is to give a thing the possibility
of receiving sensible existence. Compassion is given without any discrimination;
Mercy, the complement, is given only for an act done. Compassion, in a sense,
is the universal form of Divine giving; Mercy is the particular aspect.
Through the Name of Compassion, the Absolute breathes out upon the
other Names or Archetypes. This breathing out is a means of being things
into existence. By means of the Command 'Be!" the Absolute through
Compassion sends into the external, phenomenal world that which has been
compressed within it.
This Divine Breath is Nature itself, just as the Breath contains all the
forms of the universe in a potential state and actualizes them by exhaling,
so Nature holds all forms of expression in a potential state of preparedness
in which they await the appearance of the Breath of the Compassionate, the
Spirit, the Logos, in order to be known.
This breath is essentially the initial act of the metaphysic of love.
Love is the cause and secret of all creation and thereby the principle of
all motion from desire to being known. the creation of the world, in this
sense, was the motion of love towards perfection and completion. The absolute
loves to be perfect in both types of forms intelligible and sensible.
Ultimately, one who wishes to know the Breath of the Compassionate need
only know Self, for Self is the Lord who is manifested in the form. One's
innermost being is most directly expressed through speech. Speech on the
human plane reflects the Divine Word or Logos; it was the Word that create
the universe and it is through the Word that it returns to God. Invocation
(zikr) is the means of reaching the very substance of things within us.
Everything contains the Presence of the Divine. The ideas of intellections
in our minds are like those Ideas in the mind of the Absolute. A word
contains both a meaning and the thing itself, which has a form. the meaning
is permanent, the Divine Idea; the form the thing takes is but a shadow,
transient. The Ideas are made temporal through the Breath of the Compassionate.
In Sufism, christ symbolizes the particular Divine Quality of the Breath
of the Compassionate, for it is through the Breath that all things receive
life. When the Word of God comes into the hart of anyone and the Divine
Inspiration enters his heart and soul, its nature is such that there is produce
in him a spiritual child having the breath of Jesus that revives the dead.'
(R. Nicholson, Mathnawl.)
The Universe, in the Sufi view, is being re-created at every moment. At
every moment what appears to be a time-connected universe returns to God.
There is continuous, instantaneous expansion and contraction.
The manifestation of actualized individual things occurs continually,
as in successive waves. At every moment creation is annihilated and
re-created. Wtih each heartbeat we die and are reborn. the world is in intense
motion, ascending towards the vertical axis within all things to meet the
descent of the Absolute in manifested forms. The flow occurs in such an orderly,
successive manner, according to definite patterns, that we are unaware of
it, and the world appears to us to stay the same. This ever-new creation
is a process which only the human form endowed with consciousness of Self
can come to know.
The wonder of wonders is that the human form and all other created things
are in a perpetual process of ascending. And yet one is not ordinarily aware
of this because of the extreme thinness and fineness of the veil (when one
looks at something through a very transparent veil, one does not become aware
of the veil between oneself and the object) or because of the extreme similarity
between the successive forms. How splendid is God's description of the universe,
and of its perpetual renewal with each Divine Breath which constitutes an
ever new creation in one single entity!
But this is perceived by only a few, as the Quran says: "Nay, they are
in utter confusion regarding the new creation." (50:15) These people
who do not perceive are in confusion because they do not know the constant
renewal of things with each Divine Breath." (T. Izutsu.)
Taken from: 'Sufi Expressions of the Mystic Quest' by Laleh
Bakhtiar |
