Part 7 (1/2)
”Moses carved out a stone from the mountain, and, when I wrote the Torah therein, the stone turned into emerald. The knower's heart was made of harsh stone-when I wrote My name therein, it turned into an exalted book.”9 * * *
The next verse is the first half of 2:148, which reads, ”Everyone has a direction to which he turns.” This is often understood as explaining the diversity of creation. In stage two of the commentary, Maybudi reads the verse as referring to the ”kiblah” of people, their orientation in their wors.h.i.+p. Each of us has a G.o.d on which our aspirations are focused, and that G.o.d is determined by our created nature, which was given to us by our Creator. This idea is commonplace in Islamic thought, and is alluded to in Koranic verses like 25:43, ”Have you seen the one who has taken his own caprice as his G.o.d?” I have already explained how Ibn Arabi develops some of its implications in terms of ”the G.o.d of belief.” Here are Maybudi's words in stage two: Everyone has a kiblah toward which he turns. The folk of falsehood have turned their faces toward a crooked kiblah-by [G.o.d's] decree and abandonment. The folk of truth have turned their faces toward a straight kiblah-by [G.o.d's] decree and giving success. And the whole affair is in G.o.d's hand.10 In this straightforward interpretation, Maybudi takes the verse as a statement of the actual situation, of the static relations.h.i.+p between creatures and the Creator. But our situations are not in fact fixed, so we can always do something to change them. The fact that we are abandoned today does not demand that we will be abandoned tomorrow, nor does the fact that we receive success today mean that we have a lock on success. If we look with the eye of love, we can see that the verse is urging us to recognize our true Beloved and turn away from all the false objects of love that attract us. This is the way Maybudi interprets it in the third stage: He [G.o.d] says by way of allusion: ”All people have turned away from Me. They have become familiar with others instead of Me. They have made the ease of their hearts to lie in something less than Me and accepted it as their beloved.”
You, who are the n.o.bles on the Path, you, who claim to love Me-lift up your eyes from anything less than Me, even if it be the highest paradise. Then you will walk straight, following the Sunnah and the conduct of Muhammad, and you will fulfill completely the duty of emulating that greatest man of the world. For, his conduct, as the greatest of the prophets, was to turn his eyes away from all beings and not to see any refuge or to accept any resting place other than the shelter of Unity [aadiyyat].
When a man wears down his soul in the path of love
he'd better not incline to anyone less than the Friend.
In the path of love the lover must never
give a thought to paradise or h.e.l.l.
When someone puts himself right by following [Muhammad], the candle of his love for G.o.d will be lit in his path such that he will never fall away from the road of love. To this is the allusion in the verse, ”Follow me, and G.o.d will love you” [3:31]. Whenever someone goes straight on the avenue of love, he will be secure from the varied directions that are the kiblahs of the shallow-minded. One fervent lover has said in his state, No matter that I don't have the world's kiblah-
my kiblah is the Beloved's lane, nothing else.
This world, that world, all that exists-
lovers see the Beloved's face, nothing else.
Al-allaj alluded to the kiblahs of the shallow-minded when he said, ”The desirers have been turned over to what they desire.” In other words, everyone has been placed with his own beloved.
The reality of this work is that all creatures have claimed love for the Real, but there was no one who did not want to be somebody in His court.
Whoever found himself a name found it from that Court.
Belong to Him, brother, don't think about anyone else!
Since everyone claimed to love the Real, He struck them against the touchstone of trial to show them to themselves. He threw something into them and made it their kiblah, so they turned their face to it, rather than to Him. In one it was possessions, in another position, in another a spouse, in another a beautiful face, in another vainglory, in another knowledge, in another asceticism, in another wors.h.i.+p, in another fancy. He threw all of these into the creatures, so they busied themselves with them. No one spoke of Him, and the path of seeking Him stayed empty.
This is why Abu Yazid said, ”I walked up to His gate, but I didn't see any crowding there, because the folk of this world were veiled by this world, the folk of the afterworld were veiled by the afterworld, and the claimants among the Sufis were veiled by eating, drinking, and begging. There were others among the Sufis of a higher level-but they were veiled by music and beautiful faces. The leaders of the Sufis, however, were not veiled by any of these. I saw that they were bewildered and intoxicated.”
It was in accordance with this sort of tasting that the Guide on the Path [Anari] said, ”I know the drinking place, but I'm not able to drink. My heart is thirsty and I wail in the hope of a drop. No fountain can fill me up, because I'm seeking the ocean. I pa.s.sed by a thousand springs and rivers in hope of finding the sea.
”Have you seen someone drowning in fire? I'm like that. Have you seen someone thirsty in a lake? That's what I am. I'm exactly like a man lost in the desert. I keep on saying, 'Someone help me!' I'm screaming at the loss of my heart.'”11 * * *
I conclude by citing one more pa.s.sage, again from the commentary on the second surah, specifically verse 5. At the beginning of this surah, after saying that the Koran is the book within which there is no doubt, the text goes on to say that it is a guidance for the G.o.dfearing, and then it describes the G.o.dfearing-those who have faith in the unseen and perform the commanded practices. Verse 5 then reads, ”Those are upon guidance from their Lord; those are the ones who prosper.” The next verse turns to a description of those who do not prosper-those who reject G.o.d's guidance.
In the third stage of his commentary on verse 5, Maybudi goes into quite a bit of detail to suggest what sort of ”prosperity” is at issue: Here you have endless good fortune and unlimited generosity. G.o.d has opened up the door of their insight and has looked upon their hearts with the gaze of solicitude. He has lit up the lamp of guidance in their hearts so that, what for others is unseen, for them is manifest, what for others is reports, for them is unmediated seeing.12 Next Maybudi turns to accounts of the Prophet's Companions and some of the early Sufis to suggest the difference between knowing something by means of transmitted reports, and knowing it by means of direct vision and immediate experience. Then he turns once again to the sayings of Anari and cites a highly poetical dialogue between the spirit (jan) and the heart (dil), which concludes by reminding us that all this talk of love and transformation represents tawid in practice, and it leads to the union in which G.o.d becomes the hearing with which the lovers hear and the eyesight with which they see.
The human substance is like a rusted mirror. As long as it has rust on its face, no forms appear within it. When you polish it, all forms will appear. As long as the opaqueness of disobedience is on the believing servant's heart, none of the mysteries of the spiritual realm [malakut] will appear within it, but, when the rust of disobedience is removed from it, the mysteries of the spiritual realm and the states of the Unseen begin to show themselves. This is precisely the ”unveiling” [mukashafa] of the heart.
Just as the heart has unveiling, the spirit has unmediated seeing [muayana]. Unveiling is the lifting of the barriers between the heart and the Real, and unmediated seeing is seeing together [ham-didari]. As long you are with the heart, you are receiving reports. When you reach the spirit, you arrive at unmediated seeing.
Shaykh al-Islam Anari has let out the secret here in the tongue of unveiling, lifting from it the seal of jealousy. He said: On the first day of the beginningless covenant a tale unfolded between heart and spirit. No one was there-not Adam and Eve, not water and clay. The Real was present, the Reality was there.
No one has heard such a marvelous tale. The heart was the questioner, and the spirit was the mufti. The heart had an intermediary, but the spirit received the report by unmediated seeing. The heart asked a thousand questions from the spirit, and they all came to nothing. With one word the spirit answered them all.
The heart did not have its fill of asking, nor did the spirit of answering. The questions were not about deeds, nor were the answers about rewards. Whenever the heart asked about reports, the spirit answered from unmediated seeing. Finally, the heart came to unmediated seeing, and it brought back the report to water [and clay].
If you have the capacity to hear, listen. If not, don't hurry to deny, just stay silent.
The heart asked the spirit, ”What is faithfulness [wafa]? What is annihilation [fana]? What is subsistence [baqa]?”
The spirit answered, ”Faithfulness is to bind the belt of love, annihilation is to be delivered from your own selfhood, subsistence is to reach the reality of the Real.”
The heart asked, ”Who is the stranger, who the mercenary, who the familiar?”
The spirit replied, ”The stranger has been driven away, the mercenary remains on the road, the familiar is called.”
The heart asked the spirit, ”What is unmediated seeing? What is love [mihr]? What is unneedingness [naz]?”
The spirit replied, ”Unmediated seeing is the resurrection, love is fire mixed with blood, unneedingness is the handhold of need [niyaz].”
The heart said, ”Add to that.”
The spirit answered, ”Unmediated seeing does not get along with explanation, love is paired with jealousy [ghayrat], and wherever there is unneedingness, the story is long.”