The Sufis And The Spirit

This article is all about The Sufis And The Spirit.

The Sufis have defined the spirit as a manifestation or shadow of Divine life, and an immaterial substance; God Almighty has not enabled anybody to have perfect knowledge about its exact identity. While philosophers tend to call it “the speaking soul,” the Sufis prefer designating it as “the spirit breathed,” based on God’s declaration in the Qur’an,

I have breathed into it (the body) out of My Spirit” (15:29).

According to them, in addition to the spirit’s being the essence of human existence and nature, the perfection of humanity is possible through spiritual perfection, which one can realize by journeying in the heart on the way to God. The spirit is also an important means for the human relationship with God. It is only through the spirit that a human being can travel toward and through the metaphysical realms, feel a relationship with God Almighty, and observe on the horizon of the heart and other inner faculties numerous marvels which are impossible for the body to observe.

The body is the mount of the spirit, and the physical heart is the base of what we call the (spiritual) heart. A person knows and perceives through the spirit, and it is also through the spirit that they become aware of and experience themselves. In sleep or other similar situations, for example, when one is unconscious, the spirit partially cuts its relationship with the body and begins traveling in its own horizon. When death comes, the spirit departs from the body completely, and lives a transitional form of life between this world and the next until the new creation in the other world. It never suffers complete annihilation.

The spirit essentially belongs to the Realm of the Transcendental Manifestation of Divine Commands. The Qur’an declares,

All that is on the earth is perishable (55: 26).

The “death” of the spirit is of a relative nature and must be in the form of absorption. Humans enter and live in the intermediate world of the grave with their spirits still living, and during their long journey, with the “ups” and “downs” after the grave, their spirits command their bodies. As all their eternal physical and spiritual pleasures in the other world depend on living in this world at the level of the spirit, so too, all sufferings and torments will arise from leading a worldly life at the level of animal appetites. A person enters Paradise in the “patronage” of their developed “spirit breathed,” and the completely refined and illuminated body shares this favor. Such a favor may be enjoyed by God’s chosen, best servants in the world as a miracle. The Ascension of the Master of creation, upon him be peace and blessings, is the brilliant example of such a favor.

Dance Dervishes Rotate Towels Whirling Dervish

Whirling Dervish

The spirit has no need to dwell in a body, but the body is its dwelling place in the world. As a Divine reward for its refinement, the spirit has no need to be in a specific place. But this does not mean that it is like the Divine Being, absolutely above being contained in time or space. The body is a mechanism for the spirit to execute its control over, or an instrument with which it voices its feelings. It is not a part of the body, attached to or contained by it. With its roots in the Realm of (the Initial Manifestation of) Divine Commands, its branches and leaves at its worldly address, and in a certain type of relationship with the body that is unknown to us, it speaks, thinks, loves, pities, and if submitted to God, continuously does good deeds, advancing toward Paradise. But if it is made subservient to the body, then whatever a person does, says, and thinks becomes like a growl or a snarl.

The spirit is a subtle, refined being that resembles the angels. It commands all the physical and immaterial senses and faculties of a person. The mind, which materialists and materialist physiologists see as the source of all human “mental” activities, is like a telephone exchange between the spirit and physical organism, a reservoir for the produce of the faculties that are dependent upon the spirit, the center of connection between the sense organs, a library of the intellect and soul that contains worlds, a set of switches for feelings, motions, and activities of perception, and a laboratory to study, distinguish, analyze, and synthesize Divine gifts. It is a dynamic element of the spirit.

According to the majority of Sufis, the spirit is something created, even though it comes from the Realm of (the Initial Manifestation of) Divine Commands. It is the most subtle, purest, and most refined of creatures. It is a mirror for the reflection of Divine Attributes and Names, one that is able to penetrate the densest of things. It reminds us of the Divine Being. Those equipped with the capacity to see and hear the things unseen and unheard by ordinary humans see and hear by means of either the (spiritual) heart or secret (an innermost faculty more subtle and refined than the heart), which is under its control and guidance. The people who have knowledge of the truths that lie in the essence of existence and the Religion rise to the peaks of (spiritual) discoveries and observations on the wings of the spirit. While we can only see the outer dimension of things with the physical sense of sight, the spirit is honored with penetrating the inner dimension through the windows of the (spiritual) heart, and with the observation of what lies behind the manifestations of Divine Attributes and Names through the windows of the secret. Although all believers will be honored with this favor in the other world, the one who has the greatest capacity to receive it is the Master of creation, upon him be the most perfect of blessings and peace, who says, “The thing which God created first is my light.”[1]

Being a breath from the Realm of (the Initial Manifestation of) Divine Commands, the spirit takes on a form according to each individual. It has an energetic or astral envelope and can appear in the form of the double of the individual to whom it belongs. It departs from its body at death, and by God’s will and leave, it keeps waiting for the union.

Life is a manifestation of the Divine Names the All-Living and One Who Gives Life. With respect to humans, it manifests itself as the spirit that is breathed and which displays multifarious activities in the body into which it has been breathed. In its relation with humans, the spirit is an entity created within time, and it can be said that it is breathed every moment in an ever-renewed cycle through the constant, ever new manifestations of the Divine Names the All-Living, the One Who Gives Life, and the One Self-Subsisting and Causing to Subsist. Those who cannot see this reality behind life either attribute the spirit to the physical composition of the body or to the mind or brain, or in heedlessness of the points or inner senses or faculties of support and seeking help on which it is dependent, regard it as eternal (in the past) and independently self-subsisting. However, it is neither valueless, to be attributed to a decaying physical composition or other material causes, nor too arrogant to claim self-eternality and self-subsistence. It exists because God has made it exist, and subsists because He is the One Self-Subsisting and Causing to Subsist. The Prophetic declaration, “The thing which God created first is my spirit (according to another narration, “my light),” indicates to this fact.

In respect of its body and carnal soul being related to the Physical Realm of Creation, of its spirit relating to the Realm of the Initial Manifestation of Divine Commands, of its (spiritual) heart that is open to the Realm of the Transcendental Manifestation of Divine Commands, and of its secret (its innermost faculty more subtle and refined than the heart) turning toward the Realm of the Transcendental Manifestation of Divine Attributes and Names, humanity—this noble being—is a peerless, most comprehensive copy of creation. However, despite or due to this elevated nature, it has both the qualities of excellence and the attributes of carnality. (This division is made by those who regard the spirit and soul as separate entities.) The effects of both the qualities of excellence and the attributes of carnality relate to the materialization of human acts. Belief, intention, resolution, discipline, determination, and first and foremost, turning to God in faith and obedience, or turning away from Him in disobedience, are each like a seed from which good or evil grows and develops, so that a person either rises to the highest of the high, or falls to the lowest of the low.

Those who regard the soul and the spirit as separate entities see the former as the center of human evil attributes and the latter as the source of praiseworthy qualities and values. They consider reason or intellect to be the tongue of the spirit, and insight its translator. According to this approach, reason is connected with the spirit, not with the soul. According to such thinkers, the spirit is the basis of the mechanism of learning, discernment, inspiration, and conscience, and it is the essence of humanity. It is the spirit which in a healthy body sees with the eyes, tastes with the tongue, hears with the ears, touches with the skin, and smells with the nose.

The spirit has a deep, intimate connection with the body beyond consciousness. This connection is of a nature that the spirit experiences by means of the body itself, all bodily attributes and activities, each of which principally originates in a different manifestation of Divine Names, and is able to penetrate the nature of matter with certainty.

However, some Sufis use the spirit and the soul interchangeably. They categorize the spirit as the vegetable soul or spirit, the animal soul or spirit, and the human soul or spirit. They also categorize the soul according to its degree of spiritual evolution as the carnal, evil-commanding soul, the self-accusing soul, the soul receiving inspiration, and the soul at rest, and so on. According to the majority of scholarly Sufis, a soul that has reached the rank of being at rest avoids all evil and makes doing good, praiseworthy deeds a dimension of its nature. Taking another step upwards, it keeps even involuntary occurrences in its mind under control. Angelic qualities and holiness are observed in a hero of truth who has reached this point, and then the doors of the knowledge of the Unseen are slightly opened onto him or her. Over time, such a soul becomes a pure spirit, and its carnality is totally transformed into spirituality.

This point needs further elaboration, as follows:

According to the Sufis, as long as the spirit is supported and strengthened through ever deepening belief, good deeds, the avoidance of sins, and true learning and reflection, the soul begins to display the traces of straightforwardness. When this continues with constant purification of the soul and the “refinement” of the body through regular worship, both the soul and the body can receive the gifts of turning to God Almighty under the guidance of the spirit.

We can also approach this matter from another perspective, as follows: If the animal soul is so powerful as to dominate the body, this causes the “death” of the spirit, while leading a life at the level of the heart and the strengthening of the spirit results in either the “death” or submission of the soul, or even in acquiring an angelic nature in some people of superior spirituality. Seeing the good side of everything, positive thought, sound belief, regular worship, orderly recurring supplications and recitations, and continuous imploring for forgiveness of sins constitute the securest way of strengthening the spirit and compelling the soul into submission. Those who follow this way sincerely have never been witnessed to fall halfway. Far from falling halfway, those who never give up self-supervision on this way and who are always careful of their relationship with God Almighty, continuously advance toward the highest of the high. The scholarly Sufis call them “the people with illuminated and illuminating spirits.” But those who always see the evil side of things and events, who suffer deviances in thought, who spend their lives on worldly ambitions and daydreams, who have never been able to attain truth in belief, who are heedless of worship, who do not strengthen their inclination toward good through prayer, and who cannot overcome their tendency toward evil and sins through asking God for forgiveness inevitably fall to the lowest of the low. Such are called “the bodies of darkness.”

Dove represent spirit, soul and freedom

Dove represent spirit, soul and freedom

The spirit becomes like a “pigeon” or angel, flying toward the heights of the Hereafter; this is to such an extent that people restrain their carnal desires, fill their heart with knowledge and love of God, and live a life according to the religious rules. If, by contrast, a person lives in dependence on carnal or bodily appetites, then the spirit weakens, the heart fades, feelings become polluted, and the “secret” is silenced. In brief, the dominion of carnality always results in the paralysis of spirituality, and the strengthening of the spirit leads to the submission and purification of the soul. To express this point, some saints say, “Those who care about their bodies cannot care about their spirits, and those who care about their spirits cannot remain as those who care about their bodies.” These saints teach people how to discover their spirits.

An unpurified soul tends to carnality and pursues the satisfaction of bodily desires. Until it becomes a soul at rest and becomes almost identical with the spirit, it displays this characteristic to some extent. But when the spirit reaches the rank of being pleased with God and being pleasing to Him, by God’s help, it begins speaking like the spirit. When a person attains this character, the reason, which is a curious, inquisitive faculty, rises to the horizon of being an analyzer of the proofs and essentials of religious commandments, taking on the “color” of the heart, and begins observing metaphysical realms from the observatory of the spiritual intellect. The heart lies in ambush to hunt the mysteries that pertain to the Realm of the Transcendental Manifestation of Divine Attributes and Names, and the secret breathes with yearning for the Divine Being.

A Most Direct And Safest Way To God

God is LOVE

The heart and the secret are like two eyes of the spirit with which we can look on eternity. Along the spiritual journey, the spiritual intellect beats with the dreams of the Realm of the Transcendental Manifestation of Divine Attributes and Names, and the secret with a yearning for the Realm of the Transcendental Manifestation of Divinity. When they have obtained what they are enamored of, each becomes intoxicated with what it observes in its horizon in great amazement. When Divine gifts, flowing from the secret to the heart and taking on the color of the Realm of the Transcendental Manifestation of Divine Commands in the receptors of the heart, are transferred to the spirit in the tongue of the heart, they begin to give voice with angelic accent. This may be analogous—even though imperfect and limited—to the conveyance of Divine mysteries to the Prophets by the angels, whom we may liken to spirits with the depth of their secrets and hearts. Indeed, in the verse, He conveys the Spirit (the life-giving Revelation, from the immaterial realm) of His command to whom He wills of His servants (40: 15), the Qur’an sometimes uses the Revelation in the meaning of the spirit. Just as the spirit is the essence of life in the body, so too, the Revelation is the essence and most important means of spiritual life and vitality. The spirit is a Divine breath, direct or indirect, and the Revelation is also a breath issuing from His Attribute of Speech. The most loyal trustees of this Divine secret are the perfect or universal men.[2] The spirit, which the greatest of universal men, the Master of creation, upon him be peace and blessings, received and breathed into his community is the Divine Revelation itself, and the gifts and inspirations that come to relatively universal men following in his footsteps are a means of mercy for the Muslim Community, provided these gifts and inspirations are tested and verified according to the basic standards that are established by the Revelation.

Both of these spirits—the spirit and the Revelation—are of vital importance for humanity. In the same way that the growth, health, and survival of the human body are possible through the spirit, the life and survival of all the worlds depend on the “spirit” that is breathed by the universal man. Before the creation of the first universal man—Adam, the first human being and also a Prophet who would read creation and illuminate reasons and hearts with the breath he conveyed—the world was dark. Especially through the light which the Greatest Spirit and the Spirit of Holiness diffused, the middle part of its history was illuminated. If one day this light disappears, leaving the world in darkness, and things and events begin to be interpreted as playthings of chance, a new way will appear before humanity. That is, like the alternation of night and day, the world, which will have been darkened, will be replaced by the illuminated world of eternity. Let us once more listen to Bediüzzaman:

Just as life is a pure extract distilled from the universe, just as consciousness and sense perception are extracts distilled from life… and just as the spirit is the pure essence of life—indeed, it is life itself stable and autonomous—so too is the physical and spiritual life of the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, the most refined extract distilled from the sense perception, consciousness, and intelligence of the universe. The Messengership of Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, is the purest extract distilled from the sense perception, consciousness, and intelligence of the universe. Indeed, as testified to by his works, accomplishments, and legacy, the physical and spiritual life of Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, the very life of the universe’s life, and his Messengership are the light and very consciousness of the universe’s consciousness.

It is truly so. If the light of Prophet Muhammad’s Messengership departs from the world, the universe will die. If the Qur’an deserts the universe, the universe will go mad. It will lose its mind and cause the destruction of the world by striking its head on a star.[3]

The spirit breathed into a human being potentially means the same as what Islam, the Prophet, and the Qur’an mean for existence, each as a universal spirit which encompasses the universe, and as its consciousness, life, and light. However, in order to manifest itself in the corporeal realm, the spirit needs a system or a mechanism. Whether transparent or dense, all things are receptors of the universal laws that issue from the Realm of the Initial Manifestation of Divine Commands and which are appointed for their creation and operation or life. All living beings, including humans, with their particular composition and capacities, and the universal men with their distinguished nature and the particular favors accorded to them, are where the spirit particular to each rises.

With respect to humanity, the spirit has some stages of rising or birth, as follows:

  1. Its rise during the initial determination of natures. This stage of its rise has a relation to the truth of Muhammad as Ahmad—his archetypal existence before his coming into the world as Muhammad. This is the view of those who maintain that spirits were created before the bodily existence of humanity.
  2. Its rise during the creation of Adam—and indeed of every person—which is expressed in, I have breathed into him out of My Spirit (15: 29).
  3. The rise of the breathed spirit in the horizon of the heart and the secret. This rise also describes humanity’s actual undertaking of the high status of vicegerency. The one who is the perfect representative of this status is the universal man. The body of the universal man, even if it is inferior to the spirit as a corporeal entity, has spiritual refinement. The Ascension of the Master of creation, upon him be peace and blessings, during which his blessed body accompanied his spirit—which he made with his spirit and body together—is an example of this. Even in its everyday activities and states, such a body manifests the Divine Being’s Attributes of Majesty and Perfection, as stated concerning the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings: “When he is seen, God is remembered and mentioned.”[4]

A universal man displays certain distinctions. He is born with the distinctions particular to him, and lives in awareness of them. He tries to fulfill whatever these distinctions require him to do. He advances into the other world in the way he lives. Even his body enjoys its share in his distinctions. For example, the bodies of the Prophets do not decompose or rot in the earth.[5]

The spirit of the Core of Prophethood, upon him be peace and blessings, was the first to be determined and specified at the beginning of creation. However, he was transferred into material existence in the world as the rhyme of the verse of Prophethood, the fruit of the Tree of Creation, the sun of the sky of Divine Messengership, and the conveyor of the final, decisive judgment in all matters, whose advent had been awaited for centuries with great excitement and joy.

He is both the fruit and the seed; both the first signal and the last sign. He has both the secrets of the Basmala [6] (as the beginning of everything), and the mysteries of the Fatiha (the Opening Chapter of the Qur’an). He can also be regarded as the forerunner coming from behind. He describes himself and his Companions, saying, “We are those who have come the last, but who have outstripped the others.”[7] As the community of every Prophet will follow its Prophet on Judgment Day, it must be a most glad tiding for us regarding the station or rank which will be bestowed on those who follow that Greatest Spirit, upon him be peace and blessings. He is the Greatest Spirit, and his community is the happiest, most fortunate community.

In Sufi terminology, the term the Greatest Spirit is generally used in the meaning of the Truth of Ahmad—the meaning or truth that the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, represented before his coming into the world as Muhammad. Since that most illustrious being is the most polished, purest mirror of Divine Attributes and Names, He is the most radiant “face,” the most resplendent “stature,” of the Visible or Corporeal World and the (invisible) Realm of the Transcendental Manifestation of Divine Commands. By means of the lights he diffused, all things and events have come to be understood as a thoroughly meaningful book to study, and humankind has clearly learned from where it comes and where it goes, while the human spirit, enamored of eternity, has been re-born and saved from the veils of the darkness of corporeality through his promises of eternal happiness.

However, some regard the Greatest Spirit as the manifestation of universal life, some as the universal manifestation of Divine Majesty, and some, based on the Qur’anic verse,

The angels and the Spirit descend in it (the Night of Power and Destiny) by the permission of their Lord with His decrees for every affair (97: 4),

as the Greatest, Universal Spirit Who descends on a blessed day or night as a means of spiritual expansion and elation for believers. There are still others who consider it to be the most comprehensive representation of spiritual journeying toward God from the beginning to the end, while yet others call Him the First Intellect or the Universal Soul. As a matter of fact, like the Spirit of Holiness, who is the unperceivable being regarded as the source of the radiations of the Prophets, the Greatest, Universal Spirit is unknown to us in His real identity.

The spirit of everyone is in fact open to the Realm of the Transcendental Manifestation of Divine Commands, and has a connection with it. Those having expert knowledge of the matter describe the spiritual discernment and perception through this connection as “the near conquest,” the intuitions and impression of a heart open to and connected with the Divine Attributes and the Realm of the Transcendental Manifestation of Divine Attributes and Names, as “the manifest conquest,” and the observations of the secret turning toward the Realm of the Transcendental Manifestation of Divinity, as “the absolute conquest.”

A human being is a candidate for both Paradise and eternity, and for both the “observation” of God in Paradise and gaining His good pleasure, with his or her inner faculties such as the spirit, heart and secret. Since all the favors to be accorded in the other world primarily relate to these faculties, and we are therefore unable to perceive them in our corporeality, they will come as surprises:

I have prepared for My righteous servants things that no eyes have ever seen, no ears have ever heard of, and that have never occurred to the heart of anyone.”[8]

Certainly, the Divine favors to come in the Hereafter are impossible to perceive by “worldly reason” or “the reason of worldly life”—the reason busied with worldly affairs only. Who knows what surprises the One Who gives the answer,

Therein will be for them everything that they desire, and in Our Presence, there is yet more (50: 35),

to those who ask, “Is there yet more?” in pursuit of more knowledge and love of God, will bestow from the source of the promise,

For those who do good, aware that God is seeing them, is the best (of the rewards), and still more (10: 26).

We think that the infinite Mercy of the One Who has made the contract with humanity, Whoever is for God, God is for him, requires it to be so.

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Relationships

To summarize, life is everything in the universe and it is directly connected to Him, the All-Living and Self-Subsisting (by Whom all subsist). The life of God Almighty is Life Itself, essential to His Being, and eternal in the past and future. His Life is by Itself, not dependent on any spirit. But the spirit of every living being is an immaterial substance and the cause of the life of that being. Being refined, pure bodies, angels continue to exist by means of their spirits, which are almost identical with their lives due to their purity and refinement. For this reason, some scholars maintain that the death of angels is not like the death of corporeal living beings, but like fainting or absorption. According to these scholars, the death of the spirits will be like the death of angels. Since, in their view, the spirits are simple, living, and conscious Divine laws issuing from the Realm of the Initial Manifestation of Divine Commands, they will not decompose or rot like compound or composed entities. However, as declared in the verse,

The Trumpet will be blown, and so all who are in the heavens and all who are on the earth will fall dead (39: 68),

they have also been destined to pass over the bridge of death, even in the form of absorption or fainting.

According to the Sufis, like the three separate but interdependent faculties of a complete entity, the spirit is an immaterial entity that has three dimensions as the object of three separate Divine favors. They are as follows:

The first is what they call “the spirit itself.” It is the first manifestation of the all-encompassing Divine Mercy in the name of bringing the spirit into existence. It appears to be subsisting as the result of the mutual, interdependent relations and positions of the elements that form a living being.

The second is the “spirit breathed.” It is what they call “the speaking soul,” which is favored with reason, willpower, spiritual intellect, certain inner senses, and consciousness, and with the capacity for developing through learning and belief. It is a living, conscious Divine law or command breathed into the embryo in a certain stage of its development in the womb of mother. A hadith says that it is breathed by means of an angel. This spirit was breathed into Adam by God Almighty Himself, as stated in,

I have breathed into him out of My Spirit (15: 29);

and into the Prophet Jesus, upon him be peace, by means of Archangel Gabriel. These spirits of human beings are called “the spirits particular.” The spirit of every individual human being has particularities of its own that emanate from particular manifestations of Divine Compassion, and is related to his or her own particular nature, character, and capacity. These spirits may be likened to the different reflections of the sun in earthly objects, varying from one another in nature, capacity, and particularities. The almost limitless diversity and multiplicity of the objects are not contrary to the oneness of the sun that is reflected in them. Each receives a reflection according to its particular capacity, nature, and features from a single sun, which has all of the reflections. Without ignoring the inadequacy of the comparison, we can say that just as all the instances of light, heat, and some other features shared by all the objects on the earth and even other planets, are reflections of the sun’s light, heat, and other features, the spirits having particularities according to each human being are reflections of the Life of the One Who has Attributes of Majesty and Grace, and manifestations of His Names the All-Living and the One Who Gives Life. It is for this reason that as some Sufis living in absorption of Divine Existence and who always consider the Real, Essential Existence even while looking on the shadowy existence, and experience annihilation under the lights of the burning manifestations of the Divine “Face,” state that they feel no existence but Him. Some ecstatics among them go so far as to see existence as if it were the dead reflection of a human being in a mirror, and view it as something imaginary.

In fact, this is confusion that arises from being overwhelmed by spiritual intoxication and absorption. Therefore, such considerations of Muslim Sufi ecstatics should not be confused with the philosophical views of pantheists. Even though there seems to be a similarity between the two views or considerations, while Muslim Sufis have concentrated on Divine Existence as the real existence, and have been annihilated in It, regarding contingent existence as something imagined, the others concentrate on the corporeal existence, either ignoring the Divine Existence or viewing the former as the incarnation of the latter.

The third dimension of the spirit is the “biological spirit,” which the Muslim Sufis call the “animal spirit.” It is an element of connection between the breathed spirit or the speaking soul and the body. This may also be regarded as a veil of the spirit’s subtlety, purity, and dignity that is related to the Divine Name the All-Outward.

The spirit breathed by God is an abstract, non-biological substance. The tides of humans between guidance and straying, good and evil, and happiness and misery, occur in relation to the animal spirit. If it were possible to listen to the spirit breathed, we would always hear it singing tunes of happiness. The sufferings and pains of the animal spirit in those whom the real human spirit dominates are means of perfection for the spirit breathed. If, by contrast, they are weak in respect of their spirit breathed—those who are not alive in respect of their conscience, who are dead in their relationship with God—they gain nothing in return for their sufferings and pains. The most important mechanism of the spirit is the conscience, which is an observatory for the “observation” of God.

O God! Show us the truth as the truth, and enable us to observe it, and show us falsehood as falsehood, and enable us to avoid it. Make us die as Muslims and include us among the righteous. Bestow Your blessings and peace on the Light which rose from the Unseen into existence, having the reality of all existence, and subsisting by You for You in the Realm of the Transcendental Manifestation of Divinity, and which was equipped with Your standards of conduct in the Realm of the Transcendental Manifestation of Divine Attributes and Names, and on his Family and Companions, who represent all that the Prophet brought into the Realm of Corporeal Existence.

By M. Fethullah Gulen


[1] al-‘Ajluni, Kashfu’l-Khafa’, 1:311. (Tr.)
[2] For the “Universal Man” see, M. Fethullah Gülen, Emerald Hills of the Heart – Key Concepts in the Practice of Sufism, The Light, NJ, 2004, vol., 2, pp., 289–305. (Tr.)
[3] Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, Lemalar (“The Gleams”), “The Thirtieth Gleam, The Fifth Part, the Fourth Sign.” (Tr.)
[4] al-Munawi, Faydu’l-Qadir, 2:528; at-Tabari, Jami’u’l-Bayan, 11:132. (Tr.)
[5] Abu Dawud, “Salah” 201; an-Nasa’i, “Jumu’a” 5. (Tr.)
[6] Basmala is the phrase, “In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate,” and mentioned at the beginning of every good, religiously lawful deed. (Tr.)
[7] al-Bukhari, “Wudu'” 68; Muslim, “Jumu’a” 19, 21. (Tr.)
[8] al-Bukhari, “Bad’u’l-Khalq” 8; Muslim, “Iman” 312; at-Tirmidhi, “Janna” 15. (Tr.)

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