The Spirit (ar-Ruh) and the soul (an-nafs) engage in battle for the possession of their common son the heart (al-qalb). By ar-Ruh is here to be understood the intellectual principle which transcends the individual nature’ and by an-nafs the psyche, the centrifugal tendencies of which determine the diffuse and inconstant domain of the "I’’. As for al-galb, the heart, this repre- 19 sents the central organ of the soul, corresponding to the vital centre of the physical organism. Al-qalb is in a sense the point of intersection of the "vertical" ray, which is ar-Rug, with the "horizontal"? plane, which is an nafs. Now it is said that the heart takes on the nature of that one of the two elements generating it which gains the victory in this battle. Inasmuch as the nafs has the upper hand the heart is ‘"‘veiled’’ by her, for the soul, which takes herself to be an autonomous whole, in a way envelops it in her "‘veil"’ (hijab). At the same time the nafs is an accomplice of the "‘world" in its multiple and changing aspect because she passively espouses the cosmic condition of form. ‘Now form divides and binds whereas the Spirit, which is above form, unites and at the same time distinguishes reality from appearance. If, on the contrary, the Spirit gains the victory over the soul, then the heart will be transformed into Spirit and will at the same time transmute the soul suffusing her with spiritual light. Then too the heart reveals itself as what it really is, that is as the tabernacle (mishkat) of the Divine Mystery (sirr) in man.
In this picture the Spirit appears with a masculine function in relation to the soul, which is feminine. But the Spirit is receptive and so feminine in its turn in relation to the Supreme Being, from which it is, however distinguished only by its cosmic character inasmuch it is polarised with respect to created beings. In essence ar-Ruh is identified with the Divine Act or Order (al-Amr) which is symbolised in the Quran by the creating word "Be" (kun) and is the immediate and eternal "ennunci- 20 ation" of the Supreme Being : "... and they will question you about the Spirit ; say : The Spirit is of the Order of my Lord, but you have received but little knowledge." (Quran, XVII, 84). In the process of his spiritual liberation the contemplative is reintegrated into the Spirit and by It into the primordial enunciation of God by which "all things were made...and nothing that was made was made without ‘it.’’ (St. John’s Gospel).1 Moreover the name "Sufi" means, strictly speaking, one who is essentially indentified with the Divine Act: hence the saying that "‘the Sufi is not created"’ (as-sufi lam yukhlaq), which can also be understood as meaning that the being who is thus reintegrated into the Divine Reality recognises himself in it "such as he was" from all eternity according to his "‘principial possibility, immutable in its state of non-manifestation’"’—to quote Muhyi-d-Din ibn ‘Arabi. Then all his created modalities are revealed, whether they are temporal or nontemporal, as mere inconsistent reflections of this principial possibility.
. . .
2. If it is legitimate to speak of the principial, or divine, possibility of every being, this possibility being the very reason for his "‘personal uniqueness’’, it does not follow from this that there is any multiplicity whatever in the divine order, for there cannot be any uniqueness outside the Divine Unity. This truth is a paradox only on the level of discursive reason. It is hard to conceive only because we almost inevitably forge for ourselves a "substantial" picture of the Divine Unity. 21 19-21

the domain of the soul (an-nafs) is a priori governed by the egocentric illusion which itself presupposes a blind spot.1
. . .
1. All the same man always has a certain awareness of the falsity of his attitude. even if his reason does not take account of It. It is said in the Quran: ‘"Assuredly man is conscious of himself (or: of his own soul) even if he offers excuses." (LXXV, 13). The man who desires to realise Divine Knowledge while despising virtue is like a robber wanting to become righteous without restoring the product of his robbery. 39

47

The totality of time, its full cycle is "the day (for payment) of the debt," (yawm-ad-din) the words equally signifying "‘the day of religion’, for religion is like the recognition of a debt.1
. . .
1. ‘‘ Debt "’ is also one of the meanings of the Latin word religio. 51

In God alone do freedom, action and truth coincide,1 and that is why some Sufis say that at the Last Judgment being, will judge themselves in God; this agrees with th Quranic text which says it is man’s members which accuse him.
. . .
1 Freedom being everywhere what it is, that is, without inner constraint, it may be said that man is free to damn himself, just as he is free to throw himself, if he wishes, into an abyss; but as soon as man passes to action freedom becomes illusory in so far as it goes against truth : to cast oneself voluntarily into an abyss is to deprive oneself by the same act of freedom to act. It is the same for a man of infernal tendency: he becomes the slave of his choice, whereas the man of spiritual tendency rises towards a greater freedom. Again, since the reality of hell is made of illusion—the remoteness from God can only be illusory—hell cannot exist eternally beside Bliss, although it is unable to conceive its own end, this inability being, as it were, the counterfeit of Eternity in the states of damnation. Thus it is not without reason that Sufis have insisted in the relativity of everything created and have affirmed that after an indefinite duration the fires of hell will grow cold; all beings will finally be reabsorbed into God. Whatever modern philosophers may think, there is a contradiction between freedom and. the arbitrary; man is free to choose what ts absurd, but inasmuch as he chooses It he is not free. In the created freedom and action do not coincide. 52

It can equally be said that for man there is only one essential tendency, that which brings Him back to his own eternal Essence: all the other tendencies ate merely the expression of creaturely ignorance and will moreover be cut off and judged. Asking God to lead us on the straight way is thus nothing but aspiration towards our own pretemporal Essence. According to the Sufi exegesis the "straight way" (as-sirat al-mustaqim) is the unique Essence of beings, as is indicated by this verse of the surat Hud: "There is no living creature which He (God) does not hold by its forelock ;2 verily my Lord is on a straight path."3 Thus this prayer corresponds to the essential and fundamental request of every creature; it is granted by the mere fact of its utterance.
. . .
2. This recalls the Hindu symbolism in which a being is linked to the Principle by the medium of the "solar ray’’ (sushimna) passing through the crown of the head. 3. Verse 55. 53

Ultimately the words : It is Thee whom we adore" correspond to "extinction" (al-fana) and the words: "with Thee we seek refuge" to " subsistence" (al-baqa) in Pure Being. Thus the verse just mentioned is the "isthmus"’ or barzakh between the two "oceans" of -absolute Being and relative
existence.1
. . .
1. Cf. the Quranic verses: " (God) produced the two seas which meet ; beiween the two is an isthmus which they do not pass " (LV, 19 and 20).

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In a sense all the virtues are contained in spiritual poverty (al-faqr) and the term, al-faqr, is commonly used to designate spirituality as a whole. This poverty is nothing other than a vacare Deo, emptiness for God; it begins with the rejection of passions and its crown is the effacement of the "I" before the Divinity. The nature of this virtue clearly shows the inverse analogy which links the human symbol with its divine archetype: what is emptiness on the side of the creature is plenitude on the side of the Creator. 110

110-111

We have only to look at the modern world with its artificial character devoid of beauty and its inhumanly abstract and quantitative structure in order to know the character of thought when given over to its own resources. 118

119

Individualist thought always includes a blind spot because it is unaware of its own intellectual essence. As for meditation, although it fails to grasp the Essence directly, it does at least presuppose it. Meditation is a "wise ignorance," whereas the philosophical ratiocination which arises from mental individualism is an "Ignorant learnedness." When philosophy scrutinizes the nature of knowledge it is inevitably in a dilemma. When it separates the subject from the objective domain and attributes to it a wholly relative reality in the sense of individual "subjectivity,’’ it forgets that its own judgements depend on the reality of the subject and its Capability of affirming the truth ; when, on the other hand, it declares that all perceptions or intellections are merely "‘subjective,’’ and therefore relative and uncertain, it forgets that by this very assertion it is in fact laying claim to objectivity. For thought there is no way out of this dilemma. The mind, which is only a particle of the universe, only one of the modalities of existence, can neither embrace the universe nor yet define its own position in relation to the whole. If it 138 none the less attempts this task it is because there is in it a spark of the Intellect. and the Intellect does embrace and really penetrate all things. 139 138-139

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