Preface VI

Our aim has been to express in the language of Sufism some of the universal truths which lie at the heart of all religions. Each chapter serves as a Commentary upon some verse or verses of the Qur’an. The book is also based on various sayings of the Prophet, and to a certain extent upon a Quranic commentary attributed to Muhyi ’d-Din ibn Arabi. As regards other influence, the reader will notice that many points of doctrine are introduced simply with the words ‘They say" or ‘It is said’. These words are to be taken quite literally, for it must be remembered that a great part of Sufi teaching is unwritten and even anonymous. The same truths have been passed down from Master to disciple for generation after generation; IX

1 The Truth of Certainty 1

Qurʾān 27:7-8 1

IN EVERY esoteric doctrine there are references to three degrees of faith, and in Islamic mysticism, that is, in Sufism, these three degrees are known as the Lore of Certainty (‘Ilmu ‘l-yaqīn), the Eye of Certainty (‘aynu ‘l-yaqīn) and the Truth of Certainty (haqqu ‘l-yaqīn) The difference between them is illustrated by taking the element fire to represent the Divine Truth. The lowest degree, that of the Lore of Certainty, belongs to one whose knowledge of fire comes merely from hearing it described, like those who received from Moses no more than ‘tidings’ of the Burning Bush. The second degree, that of the Eye of Certainty, belongs to one whose knowledge of Fre comes from seeing the light of its flames, like Moses before he reached the Bush. The highest degree, that of the Truth of Certainty, belongs to one whose knowledge of fire comes from being consumed by it and thus becoming one with it, for this degree belongs only to the One. The realisation of this Oneness is here implied for Moses in that he is summoned into the 1 Divine Presence with which the Bush is surrounded. Entry into that presence is the equivalent of entering into the fire. 2 1-2
Qurʾān 20: 11-12 2

Qurʾān 21:10 2

Universal Man 2

Qurʾān 3:31, 45 2

Qurʾān 4:171 2

Identity of Universal Man with the Divine Truth 3

‘I am Ahmad without the letter mim. I am an Arab without the letter ‘ain. Who hath seen Me, the same hath seen the Truth. 7’ 3 Cf.

7 The letter mim is the letter of death, that is, of ending, and the letter ‘ain is the letter of the source of creation, that is, of beginning, and in the Truth of Certainty all that has to do with beginning and ending has been reabsorbed, leaving only That Which has neither beginning nor end, namely ahad, One, and rabbi, my Lord. 3 Alpha (Α or α) and omega (Ω or ω) and Om (ॐ)

This Remainder is the Real Self 3

The Self is All that is left to Universal Man in whom the veils of the self which hid it have been utterly consumed by the Truth. 4

Qurʾān 2:285 4

The Self, Which is the Truth of Certainty, is One; but It is not one with the oneness of a single thing among many, but with Oneness Which Eternally annihilates all duality, and nothing can be added to It so as to make more than One, for It is already Infinite. This Infinite Unity (al-ahadiyyah) is sometimes called He (huwa) or the Essence (adh-dhat). The Garden of the Essence is therefore the Highest of all the Paradises, or rather, in the Truth of Certainty, It is the One Paradise, the Paradise of Him, and nothing may enter It since Everything is already there. Thus if it be said that one has entered the Garden of the Essence, the meaning is that his self has been reduced to nothing and that he has thus been changed from one into nought, since only nought may enter It. This knowledge of the nothingness of oneself is what is called poverty (al-faqr), and it is implied in the utterance of Jesus: ‘It is easier for a camei to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.’ 4

Qurʾān 17:55 5

Qurʾān 46:38 5

poverty is the key by which alone one may have access to the Infinite Riches of the Truth; and yet since the being is utterly extinguished in the Truth he cannot be said to have gained possession of Its Riches, for in Reality He has never ceased to possess Them. 5

Qurʾān 112:1-2 5

The Truth is One, yet Its Unity implies, for the believer, no fear of any loss, since . . . That which is taken away by extinction is restored in Eternity according to the Infinite measure of Its Real Self. The different beings are extinguished in the Truth as different colours that are reabsorbed into the principial whiteness of light. Yet as it were on the other side of the Whiteness are the True Colours, Each incomparably more distinct in the Eternal Splendour of Its Reality, as revealed in the Light of the Whiteness, than ever it was in its illusory self; and yet at the same time there is no duality, no otherness. 6

Qurʾān 50:16 7

The Divinity, Immutable and Indivisible, is the Truth besides Which all other truths cease to exist. One such relative truth is that of the religious Law, and it is said that this truth may be expressed in the words; ‘I and Thou’, whereas the 7 Truth of the Path, that is, the direct way of return towards God. may be expressed; "l am Thou and Thou art I’. But the Truth Itself is: "There is neither I nor Thou but only He’.
Universal man realizes eternally in the Truth that he is nothing and yet that He is Everything. 8 7-8

this separate existence is in Truth no more than an illusion. 8

the two natures might be called the perfect self and the Perfect Self, the former corresponding to Ahmad the Arab, and the Latter being the One Lord. 9

Universal man with his two natures is figured in the Seal of Solomon, of which the upper and lower triangles 9 represent respectively the Divine and the human nature. In virtue of this duality he is the mediator between Heaven and earth, and it is owing to this function that he is sometimes referred to as "the isthmus’5 (al-barzakh) as in the Chapter of the Distinct Revelation: 10 9-10

Qurʾān 25:53 10

Qurʾān 95:4 10

As in the Seal of Solomon, his central function as mediator is also figured in the Cross," which is another symbol of Universal Man in that the horizontal line represents the fullness of his earthly nature, whereas the vertcal line represents his heavenly exaltation; 10

15 The isthmus, which has the same symbolic meaning as bridge, recalls the ancient Roman title of Pontifex, ‘Bridgemaker’ (between heaven and earth).
16 ‘If Christians have the sign of the Cross, Muslims have its doctrine.’ This saying of the Sheikh ‘Abd ar-Rahman ‘Alaish al-Kabir is quoted by René Guénon, The Symbolism of the Cross (London, 1958), chapter iii: note 2. 10

Qurʾān 25:1 11

2 The Garden of the Spirit 12

Qurʾān 40:46, 62, 66, 68 12

Qurʾān 53:13-18 14

The pomegranate, which is the fruit of the Paradise of the Essence, is described as ‘that which containeth enjoyment and medicinal balm in the station of Union, in the Paradise of the Essence. It is direct consciousness of the Essence (ash-shuhid adh-dhati) through pure extinction in which there is no individuality to be fed but only unalloyed delight and the cure of the sickness of seeming to be left over (apart from the Truth) in a state of insecurity.’ 15

20 The difference between the Eye of Certainty and the Truth corresponds exactly to the distinction made by the Taoists between the degrees of "True Man’ and ‘Transcendent Man’. For a full definition of these rerms see René Guenon, The Great Triad (Cambridge, Quinta Essentia 1991), Chapter 15. 16

3 The Eye of Certainty 17

Qurʾān 2:34-35 17

The creation of Adam and his adoration by the Angels is taken to refer to a period when man was born with consciousness of the Self, that is, with the Truth of Certainty. The creation of Eve thus augurs a later period when man would be born in possession of the Eye of Certainty only, that is, in the state of merely human perfection: in the beginning Eve was contained in Adam as the human nature 1s contained in the Divine, and her separate existence foreshadows the apparently separate existence of the perfect human nature as an entity in 17 itself. Finally the loss of this perfection corresponds to the loss of the Garden of Eden, which marks the end of the Primordial Age. 18 17-18

Qurʾān 6:77 18

He alone whose Heart is lit with this Moon may be called the true man, for not only is it normal for man to possess the Eve of Certainty but it may be said that this third Eve is his most characteristic feature whereby he is best to be distinguished from al] other earthly creatures. 18

4 The Lore of Certainty 20

Qurʾān 2:37-38 20

one may say that the Fountain of Immortality which springs from the centre of the Garden of Eden is the counterpart of the Eye of Certainty in the centre of the true man’s soul, or rather that this Eye is itself the real Fountain of Immortality, of which the fountain in Eden is as an outward reflection: and so when it is said that Adam was driven out of the Garden of Eden, theemeaning is that man 1n general had lost the inward Paradise of the Eye as well as the Paradise of the outer world. 21

But although today men are so far from the Paradise as to be almost beyond the reach of any reminder of it the men of old were still near enough to be keenly aware of its loss; and indeed it is no exaggeration to say that most of what the ancients have left behind them 1s stamped more or less clearly with the consideration of how a man might return to the Paradise and become once more the true man. It was for the sake of this return that the Lore of Certainty was given to man by means of the religions, 21

Qurʾān 56:10

5 The Gardens of the Heart and the Soul 23

Qurʾān 55:46, 50, 52 23

THE GARDEN OF EDEN, which for primordial man was the macrocosm, corresponds to the inward Paradise of his soul. But since his soul has in its Heart the Eye of Certainty which transcends its other elements, it may also be said to consist of two Paradises. The higher of these, the Garden of the Heart, will then correspond to Eden’s innermost precinct where flows the Fountain of Immortality, while the lower, the Garden of the Soul, will correspond to the rest of the earthly garden. 23

Now water, in virtue of its transparency and its spontaneous motion, is parallel to light as a symbol of spiritual knowledge; 24

Qurʾān 10:5 25

The line of continuity between the Gardens of the Spirit the Heart and the Soul, represented by the unbroken flow of water between them, is none other than the Intellect. 26

6 The Fall 28

Qurʾān 20:120 28

IN THE CENTRE of the Garden of Eden there is said to be not only a fountain but also a tree, at whose foot the fountain flows. This is the of Immortality, and it is an outward image of the inward ‘Tree of Immortality which grows 1n the Garden of the Heart, bearing as its fruits the universal and strange objects of perception. These are the objects of the perception of the Eye of Certainty, which is the Fountain of the Heart. 28-

Qurʾān 17:65 28

Qurʾān 102 30

24 According to the Hindus, and also the ancient Greeks and Romans, each great cycle of time 1s divided into four ages, to which the Romans gave the name of Golden, Silver, Bronze and Iron, each age being spiritually inferior to the one which preceded it. The end of the Primordial Age (which 1s beyond the cycle) corresponds to the Fall, and the beginning of the Golden Age to the Relenting of God towards Adam. The end of the Iron Age, that is, the present age, which the Hindus call the Dark Age, is marked by the overthrow of the Antichrist by Christ at his second coming. As regards the intervening period, however, the correspondences are less obvious: the Hindu perspective is objective and historical, whereas the Islamic perspective is subjective and ‘practical’. Instead of considering the great divisions of the cycle, the Qur’an only mentions those few civilizations which were known to the Arabs by name. Moreover little or no distinction is made between the qualities of the different civilizations; the attention is always concentrated on the fact that after flourishing for a time each one of them came to ruin. For the Muskim, history is chiefly of value as evidence of the perishability of all earthly things.
The Hindu doctrine states that there are many great cycles, each one being made up of four ages; thus the end of the Dark Age 1s followed by a new Golden Age. According to the Jewish, Christian and Islamic perspectives, which consider 30

Qurʾān 95:4-5 31

time almost exclusively in its ruinous aspect, the whole span of the earth’s ‘existence is compressed into one cycle, so that the final ruin at the end of the present age is usually identified with the final ruin at the end of the world. But the tradition is strong, none the less, in these three latest religions, that the Messiah at his coming will rule for a certain time over the whole earth as king; and this is in accordance with the Hindu belief that Kalki (he who rides on the white horse), whose coming marks the end of the present Dark Age, will inaugurate a new Golden Age. 31

Qurʾān 36:8-10 32

Qurʾān 49:14 33

This rare virtue is none other than what is sometimes called excellence (ihsan);27 it implies the hope of regaining all that man has lost throughout the ages, and without it the traveller could never even begin his task through seeking by means of fear to make room in the centre of his soul for the return of the heavenly desires. But with ihsan he will have patience to attempt this, and also patience to seek by the same means to detach these desires from the counterfeits of spiritual truth which have been forged for them in the outer part of his soul; and sooner or later he must pass through a phase complementary to that of fear, and this is the phase of love, since it is through spiritual 33

27 For a fuller definition of this term, and also of the terms imdn and ssiam, see Frithjof Schuon, Sufism, Veil and Quintessence (Bloomington, Indiana 1981), pp. 129-30. 33

love alone that the heavenly desires may actually be recalled to the centre of the soul, there as it were to await the opening of the Eye of the Heart. Moreover, this second phase may also serve indirectly the purpose of the first, since it is said that with the return of these higher desires to the centre the earthly desires retire’’ as if of their own accord into the outer part of the soul These two phases may be more or less distinct or simultaneous, though in general that of fear precedes the other. But however they may take place, varying from one soul to another in accordance with the saying that there are as many different paths to the truth as there are souls of men, it is at least certain that until both phases be complete, that is, until the true hierarchy be entirely restored to the soul, every element having been brought back to its proper place, the state of human perfection with its two Paradises cannot be regained. 34

28 Very relevant to this is the saying of an Arab dervish, ‘It is not I who have left the world; it is the world which has left me’, quoted by Frithjof Schuon, The Transcendent Unity of Religions (London, 1952), p.74 note. 34

7 The Symbol 35

Qurʾān 14:24-25 35

the least particle of certainty that can be had about the next world must necessarily have come down from above; it does not belong to horizontal remembrance but to vertical remembrance which is nothing other than intellectual intuition or—what in a sense amounts to the same—spiritual love. We can thus add to what was said about love in the last chapter that the initial act of this way is to awaken, in the erring faculties of intuition, the vertical remembrance which ts theirs by rights and which alone can draw them from the outer part of the soul to its centre, where the vertical is to be found in all its fullness, that is, in the Tree of Immortality. It is such remembrance" that is meant by the Arabic world dhikr, the general name given in Islam to all the different means of reminding man of his original state; and in every dhikr it isa symbol which is used to prompt the memory. 36

29 This recalls the words of Jesus at the institution of the rite of the bread and wine: ‘Do this in memory of me.’ For his body, represented by the bread, is the fruit of the Tree of Immortality, just as his blood, represented by the wine, is the water of the Fountain.

Qurʾān 2:20 37

Nor is there anything which is any more than a shadow. Indeed, if a world did not cast down shadows from above, the worlds below it would at once vanish altogether, since each world in creation is no more that a tissue of shadows entirely dependent on the archetypes in the world above. Thus the foremost and truest fact about any form is that it is a symbol, so that when contemplating something in order to be reminded of its higher realities the traveller 1s considering that thing in its universal aspect which alone explains its existence. 37

Qurʾān 2:25 38

What is true of earthly objects applies also to acts: an earthly act is the last of a hierarchy of corresponding shadows which spans the whole Universe. . . . The traveller may thus sanctify all his acts30 in seeking to remember, through them, the Divine Qualities in which they are rooted. 38 Cf. Eliade, The Myth of the Eternal Return

Such is the ladder winch appeared in a dream to Jacob, who saw it stretching from Heaven to carth with Angels going up and down upon it; and it is also ‘the straight path’ (as-siratu’l-mustaqim), for indeed the way of religion is none other than the way of creation itself retraced from its end back to its Beginning. 39

The images of the tree and the ladder may help to explain why the Revealed Books, which have been sent down directly from Heaven, necessarily admit of several different interpretations. These are in no sense contradictory, each being right at its own level.31 Ranged in hierarchy like the rungs of a ladder, they are what might be called the vertical dimension of the Book in question.

31 In general only one interpretation of what is quoted from the Qur’an is given here, the one most in conformity with this book’s perspective. But it goes without saying that this interpretation is not exclusive of others.
As an example of different levels of interpretation, let us consider the story of the three messengers who were sent to a city. to preach there the Truth (Qur’an XXXVI, 13-29). According to the literal historical meaning, the city is Antioch and the messengers are Peter:and two others of the companions of Jesus. Also macrocosmic, but higher in virtue of its universality, is the interpretation according to which the city represents mankind, whereas the three messengers

Qurʾān 14:26 40

are Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. Higher still is the microcosmic interpretaton— that of our commentator: the city is the human soul, its inhabitants the different psychic elements, and the three messengers the Heart, the Spirit and the Intellect. 40

8 The Four Worlds 41

Qurʾān 17:44 41

THE NUMBER of the worlds is in reality beyond all reckoning; but for the human being there appear to be four main divisions in the hierarchy, so that it is often said that there are four worlds.32 The lowest of these, the material world is named the World of the Kingdom (‘alamu ‘l-mulk); next above it is the world of psychic powers which is the World of the Dominion (‘alamu ‘l-malakut); the third, which includes all the different Heavens, is the World of the Domination (’alamu ‘l-jabarut) and the Highest is the World of the Sovereign Power (‘alamu ’izzah), Which is also the World of the Unmanifest (‘ alamu ‘l-ghaib). The first two of these really make up one world in the ordinary sense of the word, namely the state of human existence, whereas the third contains in itself many different worlds, those of the different Heavens. Similarly, if one considers the microcosm, the first two will be the world of the body and the world of the soul which together make up the human being itself, and which correspond in the true man to the Garden of the Soul. The Garden of the Heart thus lies as it

32 The four worlds are mentioned also in the Jewish Qabbala. The three worlds mentioned in the Hindu doctrine correspond to the three lowest of these, bevond which lies the Unmanifest (see René Guénon, Man and his becoming accoraing to the Vedanta (London, 1945), p.56, note 2). 41

were between the World of the Dominion and the World of the Domination which is itself the Garden of the Spirit. As to the Highest World, It is the Divinity itself, apart from Which there is nothing at all, and of Which the other three worlds are as a series of reflections growing less and less distinct. 42

In contrast with the World of Reality, the three lower worlds may be considered all together as one world which may be named the World of Symbols; but this name applies especially to the material world, the World of the Kingdom, which is the most familiar and accessible, and which contains the symbols not only of the Highest World but also of the intermediary worlds. 42

9 The Waters 43

Qurʾān 11:7 43

THE FOUNTAIN in the centre of a Paradise may be said to represent the pure original substance from which the Paradise came into existence and from which it still continues to draw its existence. But 1f the pure substance be considered in itself as it was before the Paradise was actually created, it will not be represented by water in the form of a fountain flowing amidst already created objects, but by water in the form of a sea which contains in itself the undifferentiated seeds of the world in question. 43

Qurʾān 21:30 44

Qurʾān 25:48-50 44

Qurʾān 25:54 45

10 The Creator of the Pairs 46

Qurʾān 36:3646

APART FROM the symbolism of each separate thing as a created unit there is also a double symbolism to be considered, the symbolism of pairs, that is, of two things or aspects which are complements of each other, the one being relatively masculine and active and the other relatively feminine and passive. 46

Moreover the word pair may be taken to refer not only to two separate things which are the complements of each other, but also to each single entity in so far as it is considered as having two aspects. Indeed everything has an active and a passive asepect: a woman, for example, is passive in relation to her husband and active in relation to her child. 47

two terms of a pair need not necessarily be on the same level of existence, and one of them may be in this world and the other in the next. In fact this world and the next, represented by the two seas, are themselves just such a pair; so analogously, are the Spirit and the soul, which together make up the Saint with his two natures, heavenly and earthly; 48

11 The Symbolism of Marriage 49

Qurʾān 97 49

OF THE ‘KNOWN PAIRS’, the highest is the human pair, and he union of man and woman is particularly symbolic of mutual harmony, above all between the complementary Aspects of the Truth, 49

It follows from all this that certain features of the spiritual journey may be more truly expressed if the Spirit be represented by the woman, as indeed it must be according to the symbolism of marriage, if the traveller is a man, whence the structure of numerous ancient legends and stories, such as those of a prince who wishes to marry a princess and who has to pass through many adventures and overcome many difficulties before he is able to do so. 50

12 The Sun and the Moon 52

Qurʾān 10:5 52

Qurʾān 41:53 54

It must be remembered that the correspondence of symbolism is analogical; in other words it is not between two things of the same kind, but between two things which are at different levels in the hierarchy of existence. Consequently there appears sometimes to be a break in the correspondence, particularly when the symbol and what it symbolizes belong to two entirely different worlds which are subject to different conditions. 55

Qurʾān 55:33 56

This death, whereby the traveller gains possession of the inward Moon, is what the Sufis call ‘extinction’ (fana‘); this first extinction anticipates other greater ones which lead to still higher blessings. Three extinctions, corresponding to different degrees of certainty attained by Abraham, are mentioned tn the Qur’an:

Qurʾān 6:122 57

Qurʾān 6:75-8 58

The consciousness of night’s darkness is, relatively speaking, an illumination when compared with the previous unconsciousness, and it denotes the beginning of the Lore of Certainty. 58

Qurʾān 36:38 58

13 The Seal of Solomon 59

Qurʾān 2:30 59

Qurʾān 40:16 61

The active perfection of the true man as King of the Earth is the result of his passive perfection; for in the amplitude of his soul are reflected all the different possibilities of action, and from these he draws his inspiration to choose the one act perfectly suited to the particular circumstances. The fallen man, whose soul does not directly reflect the transcendent archetypes, has not this same possibility of inspiration, and is forced to rely too much on past experience. Thus his actions inevitably bear the traces of previous actions of the same kind, which means that they have a certain uniformity, being prevented by the fetters of habit from varying in proportion to the variation of the circumstances. The true man, on the other hand, has little need for memory of the past, which may be called "horizontal’ memory. He is inspired by ‘vertical’ memory in the sense of the word dhikr, and has the power to bring forth actions according to the process of the creation itself in descent from their spiritual source. Such an action is indeed a new creation specially made to fit particular circumstances, without the need to refer to previous actions, of which in its spontaneity it bears no trace, as if it were the first and only action of its kind. 64 Cf. Eliade, The Myth of the Eternal Return

Just as Destiny is Passive towards the Free Will Which is Its Cause, the true man is passive in the face of Destiny, and this passivity, represented by the upturned base of the lower triangle, is precisely what is meant by islām in the highest sense of the word, that is, not merely submission to the Law—the islām which contrasted with faith (imām) and spintual excellence (ihsān)—but fully realized submission, that perfect acceptance of Destiny which is in fact a mark of sainthood, not to be attributed to the fallen man. As to the downturned apex of the lower triangle, it will represent the true man’s relative freedom in action as the King of the Earth; and what was true in general of his activity in relation to his passivity is also true of this particular aspect of his activity; for by the law of inversion whereas the Absolute Free Will is entirely Active with regard to Destiny, the true man’s relative free will is the result of his passivity in the face of Destiny. By reason of his extreme passivity towards Heaven he is far more free than any other earthly creature; and since this perfect passivity springs from his spiritual knowledge, that is, his vision of the Divine Qualities, one may see here an interpretation of the words of Jesus: ‘Get knowledge’, for knowledge will make you free’.39 Indeed, the greater a man's knowledge, the more keenly he senses, beyond the purely human notion of good and evil, the Transcendent Beauty of the Divine Necessity and the harmony of the Universe which is Its shadow, and the more he shows his own relative freedom in giving thanks that everything is as it 65

39 In their highest sense these words refer to the Absolute Freedom which can only be regained by extinction in the Truth’s Knowledge of Itself. 65

must be, his own destiny included, and in saying with all his soul: ‘Praise be to God, the Lord of the worlds!’
It is the true man’s relative freedom, the full desire to do what he must do, which brings his activity to its extreme effectiveness; and this spontaneous activity, which in its emanation from unresisting passivity is symbolized by the lower triangle of the Seal of Solomon, is also symbolized by the element water, of which the inverted triangle is a figure; for just as water flows with irresistible penetration into a hollow in the rock, perfectly filling up every crevice down to its minutest detail, even so the true man perfectly fills the hollow of each moment of his life, while in his outlook towards Heaven he remains like a calm and level surface upturned to the sky. Thus it is set down in the Book of the Way and Virtue (Tao-Té-Ching), revered by the Chinese as the most sacred of their scriptures: "The highest good is like water’,40 and again: ‘The weakest things in the world can overmatch the strongest things in the world. Nothing in the world can be compared with water for its weak and yielding nature; yet in attacking the hard and strong nothing proves better than it.’41 Water has these qualities because it is a direct reflection in the material world of the virtue of islām, which in its extreme passivity is the most penetratingly active of all earthly things. 66

40 Tao-Té-Ching, translated by Ch‘u Ta-Kao (London, 1959) chapter 8 .
41 Ibid, chapter 78 66

14 The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil 67

Qurʾān 2:35 67

THE QUR’AN does not mention the name of the forbidden tree, but in the Old Testament it is named the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The fallen man is in fact guided in action by memory of past experience, and from such ‘horizontal’ memory is derived a general sense of what is desirable in action and what is to be avoided, which is none other than the knowledge of good and evil. But the true man’s certainty enables him to go beyond this knowledge and to choose not merely a good action but the perfect action; thus when it is said in the Old Testament that before eating the fruit of the forbidden tree Adam was without the knowledge of good and evil, this does not imply any ignorance in him but on the contrary the possession of a higher knowledge in the synthesis of which the general sense of expediency remained undeveloped. 67 Cf. Eliade, The Myth of the Eternal Return

Qurʾān 5:48 68

Qurʾān 5:69 69

The law of a religion is for a particular place and period, asa torch given to man to guide him on a moonless night; and to meet the fallen man’s subjection to the knowledge of the forbidden tree, it makes a distinction between good, which corresponds to the narrow circle of light which it casts, and evil, which corresponds to the outer darkness. But the true man has no need of this torch; for him the circle of light which it casts is merged into one with the outer darkness by the light of the full moon. It is true that his spiritual vision enables him to see far more clearly than others the beauty of the religious laws as manifestations of the Will of Heaven, and thus his submission to them is quite spontaneous. 69

Qurʾān 18:1 69

15 The Narrow Gate 70

Qurʾān 94:5 70

Qurʾān 6:125 70

Thus if the lower triangle of the Seal of Solomon be turned so as to point upwards, it may be taken to symbolize the opposite of the Muslim, namely the infidel, for the upward contraction towards the apex will then correspond to the narrowing of the breast of one whose activity is turned upwards against Destiny as if he were climbing heaven—a tendency which took visible shape in the outer world with the building of the | ower of Babel—while the down-turned base will indicate passivity and weakness with regard to the world. 70

King of the Earth 70 Cf. Guénon, The King of the World

Qurʾān 95:4-5 71

Since the true man is far more conscious of the higher realities than is any other earthly creature, he is far more passive towards them, and far more fully reflective of them.The infidel on the other hand is not merely unconscious of these realities but unlike any other earthly creature he even goes so far as to deny" them. Thus, being the least passive towards them, he is the least symbolic thing on earth; and since things only exist in so far as they are symbols, one may say that the infidel 1s the least real of earthly creatures, being as it were upon the very verge of non-existence. This applies not only to him in himself but to all he produces, since his arts and sciences are based on the supposition that this world is independent and that the things in it, far from being symbols, are themselves the highest realities. 71

Whereas the true man is always strikingly unique in his earthly aspect, the infidel tends towards uniformity with others of his kind. In fact, what has already been said about the fallen man to contrast him with the true man may be applied to the infidel in an extreme degree. Since he is as remote as possible from any vertical remembrance of spiritual truths, everything about him is as it were borrowed horizontally, and he is thus so lacking in spontaneity and originality that he can scarcely be considered as an entity in himself apart from the general mass of his fellows. He has almost ceased to be the microcosm and has been absorbed by the world about him in which he is simply a representative of the human race in its last phase of corruption and decay. Through this function he appears as the opposite of the true man even with regard to the freedom which he, the infidel, claims to possess above all. For it is precisely through acknowledging that he is not free that the true man has relative freedom in such a high degree. But the infidel, while maintaining 72 that he is independent, is the least free of all creatures. 73 72-73 Cf. Eliade, The Myth of the Eternal Return

16 The Covenant 76

Qurʾān 48:10 76

Before he can even start upon the Path it is necessary that on to his degenerate human nature there should be grafted something of the ancient royal humanity. This grafting ts often represented as an adoption of the fallen man into the family of primordial men, and the novice is sometimes given a new name which corresponds to his true nature and which serves as a reminder to guide him towards it. Without such an adoption the fallen man would be quite unable to overcome the influence of his degenerate ancestry; but by the change he really does acquire a new and primordial ancestry; and thus it 1s that in legends and old stories the traveller is always represented as being of very noble birth. 77 Cf. LDS temple endowment

This attachment is brought about by means of a covenant (ahd) between the fallen man and a representative of the Saints, and it is often symbolized by a joining of hands. Such is the covenant referred to in the opening quotation from the Chapter of the Victory. The same chapter also refers to the first occasion when such a covenant was made by the Prophet with some of his companions, and it is significant that he received them under a tree: 77 Cf. LDS temple endowment

Qurʾān 48:18 77

17 The Caravan of Winter 79

Qurʾān 105 79

Qurʾān 106 79

Qurʾān 2:120 80

The Prophet said: ‘Seek lore, even if it be in China’. Now in all parts of the world there are legends and stories in which there lies hidden, beneath a very simple outward form, the deep lore of the mysteries of the two caravans. 81

51 The Caravans of Winter and Summer correspond respectively to what vere called, in the religions of ancient Greece and Rome, the Lesser Mysteries and the Greater Mysteries. 81

81-82 hero’s journey/monomyth

Qurʾān 18:60 82

Qurʾān 6:59 83

18 The Caravan of Summer 85

Qurʾān 89:27-30 85

Qurʾān 76:5-6 85

Qurʾān 83:25-28 87

Qurʾān 56:19 87

they that are brought nigh distinguish between the Qualities, and indeed none but they can truly be said to distinguish; for though the righteous make distinction between them, they have not sufficient light to see clearly, in that the Qualities are as veils between them and the Light of the Essence, whereas they that are brought nigh are on the other side of those veils. Thus they alone may be said to see the Extreme Majesty of the Majestic and the Extreme Beauty of the Beautiful, nor is the one hidden by the other as in the case of the righteous, or rather one can no longer speak of anything as ‘other’ since they have passed beyond all otherness. 87

God is the Light of the Heavens and the earth. The symbol of His Light is as a tabernacle wherein is a lamp. The lamp is in glass. The glass is as it were a gleaming planet. The lamp is kindled from a blessed tree, an olive that is neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil well nigh blazeth in splendour even though the fire hath not yet touched it. Light upon light!
[Qurʾān 24:35] 88
The tabernacle is the earth, that is, this world or, in respect of the microcosm, the soul, which in itself is dark. The first part of the spiritual journey may be likened to the placing of the lamp, as yet without oil, within the tabernacle. The glass of the lamp, gleaming like a planet with reflected light, is the Heart, and thus the soul is lit with the light of the Eye of Certainty. The second part of the journey may be likened to the filling of the lamp with the oil of benediction, and the blessed olive tree from which the oil is taken is the Spirit itself. It is neither of the East nor of the West in virtue of its centrality and its exaltation, for this olive tree is an aspect of that of which the lote-tree of the uttermost boundary is also an aspect; but in the fruit of both, as in the fruit of the date palm, ‘the kernel of the individuality remaineth’. There is now light upon light, the light of the oil upon the light of the glass, the light of the Sun of the Spirit upon the light of the Moon of the Heart, and such is the condi 88 tion of the righteous; but the lamp has yet to be lit. 89 88-89

Qurʾān 24:35 89