God - exalted be His Name - has commanded man in several places in the Quran to deliberate upon the Holy Book and be persistent in this effort and not be satisfied with a merely superficial and elementary understanding of it. In many verses the world of creation and all that is in it without exception are called portents (ayat), signs and symbols of the Divine.[45] A degree of
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deliberation upon the meaning of portents and signs and penetration into their real significance will reveal the fact that things are called by these names because they manifest and make known not so much themselves but a reality other than themselves. For example, a red light placed as a sign of danger, once seen, reminds one completely of the idea of danger so that one no longer pays attention to the red light itself. If one begins to think about the form or quiddity of the light or its color, there will be in his mind only the form of the lamp or its glass or color rather than the conception of danger. In the same manner, if the world and its phenomena are all and in every aspect signs and portents of God, the Creator of the Universe, they have no ontological independence of their own. No matter how we view them they display nothing but God.
He who through guidance of the Holy Quran is able to view the world and the people of the world with such an eye will apprehend nothing but God. Instead of seeing only this borrowed beauty which others see in the attractive appearance of the world, he will see an Infinite Beauty, a Beloved who manifests Himself through the narrow confines of this world. Of course, as in the example of the red light, what is contemplated and seen in "signs" and "portents" is God the Creator of the world and not the world itself.
The relation of God to the world is from a certain point of view like (1 + 0) not (1 + 1) nor (1 x 1) (that is, the world is nothing before God and adds nothing to him). It is at the moment of realization of this truth that the harvest of man's separative existence is plundered and in one stroke man entrusts his heart to the hands of Divine love. This realization obviously does not take place through the instrument of the eye or the ear or the other outward senses, nor through the power of imagination or reason, for all these instruments are themselves signs and portents and of little significance to the spiritual guidance sought here.[46]
He who has attained the vision of God and who has no intention but to remember God and forget all else, when he hears that in another place in the Quran God says, "O ye who believe! Ye have charge of your own souls. He who erreth cannot injure you if you are rightly guided" (Quran, V, 105), then he understands that the
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sole royal path which will guide him fully and completely is the path of "self realization." His true guide who is God Himself obliges him to know himself, to leave behind all other ways and to seek the path of self-knowledge, to see God through the window of his soul, gaining in this way the real object of his search. That is why the Prophet has said, "He who knows himself verily knows the Lord."[47] And also he has said, "Those among you know God better who know themselves better."[48]
As for the method of following the path, there are many verses of the Quran which command man to remember God, as for example where He says, "Therefore remember Me, I will remember you" (Quran, II, 152) and similar sayings. Man is also commanded to perform right actions which are described fully in the Quran and hadith. At the end of this discussion of right actions God says, "Verily in the Messenger of Allah ye have a good example" (Quran, XXXIII, 21).
How can anyone imagine that Islam could discover that a particular path is the path which leads to God without recommending this path to all the people? Or how could it make such a path known and yet neglect to explain the method of following it? For God says in the Quran, "And We reveal the Scripture unto thee as an exposition of all things" (Quran, XVI, 89).
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NOTES
1. Editor's note: As indicated in the introduction there has been in the Shi'ite world a continuous tradition oftheosophy or wisdom (hikmah), which is also called falsafah, or philosophy, to which the author refers often in this book. This school is, however, a traditional school of philosophy wedded to metaphysics and to means of spiritual realization. It should not he identified with profane or purely rationalistic modes of thought and is therefore not the same as philosophy as currently understood in the West. although it does use rational demonstrations and the laws of logic.
2. We can deduce from this verse that worship in the religion of God is sub servient to Unity (tawhid) and is based upon it.
3. To be able to attribute and describe depends on knowledge of that which is to be described. From this verse it can be concluded that except for those who are devoted in sincerity to God and those who have become purified. no others can come to know God in the manner in which He should be known. He therefore cannot be properly known or described by others and is beyond whatever attri butes they give Him.
4. We can deduce from this verse that there is no other way to meet the Lord except through Unity and right action.
5. From this verse it can be concluded that the true worship of God results in certainty (yaqin).
6. We can conclude from this verse that one of the necessary conditions for reaching certainty is to gain a vision of the."angelic" or "archetypal" heavens and earth.
7. From these verses it becomes known that the destiny of the righteous (abrar) is contained in a book called 'Illiyin (the very elevated), known by those close to God through spiritual vision. The verb "attested by" (yeshhaduhu in Arabic) shows that by "a written record" is not meant a written book in the ordinary sense rather it refers to the world of "divine proximity and elevation."
8. From this verse it can be understood that the science of certainty ('ilm al yaqin) results in the vision of the final end of those who are in a state of wretched ness, this end being called jahim or hell.
9. It is with reference to this truth that the Holy Prophet in a hadith accepted by Sunnis and Shi'ites alike says, "We prophets speak to mankind according to the degree of their understanding." Bihar al-anwar, vol.l, p.37; Usul al-kafl, Kulayni. Tehran, 1357, vol.l, p.203.
10. The source for this hadith has been mentioned in Part I of this work.
11. Nahj al-balaghah, sermon 231. This question has been discussed in our work on the Quran which is also to appear shortly in English. 118
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12. Al-Durr al-manthur, vol.ll.p.6.
13. Tafsir al-safi. Mulla Muhsin Fayd Kashani, Tehran. I269 p.8 Bihar al-anwar. vol. XIX, p- 28.
14. Quran, XXVI. 173.
15. Quran, LIV, 34.
16. Editor,s note: It may be added that this is the method employed by the author in his monumenental Quranic commentary al-Mizan, of which seventeen volumes have already appeared.
17. Tafsir al -safi, p. 4.
18. This has been recounted of the Prophet in the Tafsir al-safi, p.15 Safinat al-bihar of Abbas Qumi, Najaf, 1352-55, and other well-known commentaries.
19. Editor's note: This is in reference to the Quranic verse, "We shall show them our portents upon the horizons and within themselves, until it be manifest unto them that it is the Truth" (XLI, 53).
20. Editor's note: This is a direct reference to the practice of dhikr or invocation which also means remembrance and is the fundamental technique of spiritual eaalization in Sufism.
21. Bihar al-anwar, vol.l, p.117.
22. The question ofthe abrogation or substitution of certain verses ofthe Quran is one ofthe difficult problems of the science of the principles ofjurisprudence and at least some of the 'ulama in Sunnism seem to have accepted abrogation The incident of Fadak seems also to involve the question of different kinds of inter pretations given to Quranic verses through the use of hadith.
23. The proof of this question lies in the large number of works written by traditional religious scholars on fabricated hadith. Also in books dealing with the biography of learned men. some transmitters of hadith have been described as unreliable and others as weak.
24. Editor's note: The traditional Islamic criticism of hadith literature and the creation of criteria for distinguishing between true and false hadith must not be in any way confused with the criticism of European orientalists made against the whole corpus of hadith. From the Islamic view this is one of the most diabolical made against the whole structure of Islam
25. Bihar al-anwar,vol.l.p.139.
26. Bihar al-anwar,vol.l.p.117.
27. See the discussion concerning "a single tradition" in works on the science of the principles of jurisprudence (usul).
28. Bihar al-anwar, vol.l. p.55.
29. In these matters one should refer to the discussions concerning ijtihad and taqlid in works on the science of the principles of jurisprudence.
30. Wafayat al-a'yan of Ibn Khallikan, Tehran, 1284 p.78: A'yan al-shi'ah of Muhsin 'Amili Damascus, 1935 onward. vol. XI. p.231.
31. Wafayat al-a'yan. p.190,- A'yan al-shi'ah, and other works on the biography of learned men.
32. Editor's note: Kalam is a special discipline in Islam: the word is usually rendered into European languages as theology, although the role and scope of kalam and theology are not the same. Henceforth, the word kalam itself. which is now gradually coming into use in English, will be employed in its original Arabic form and will not be translated.
33. Ibn Abi'l-Hadid, beginning of vol.l.
34. Editor's note.' As pointed Out before, philosophy in this context means tradi tional philosophy. which is based on certainty,and not the specifically modern philosophy that begins with doubt and limits the intellect to reason.
35. These matters are ampIy; treated in Akhbar al-hukama' of Ibn al-Qifti. Leipzig, 1903, Wafayat al-a''yan. and other biographies of learned men
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36. Editor's note: These are all outstanding philosophers of the later period (from the 7th/l3th to the llth/l7th centuries) and are nearly unknown in the West, except for Tusi who is, however, known more for his mathematical works than for his philosophical contributions.
37. Editor's note: Earlier Muslim philosophers believed, like Aristotle, that motion is possible only in the accidents of things, not in their substance. Mulla Sadra asserted, on the contrary, that whenever something partakes of motion (in the sense ofmedieval philosophy) its substance undergoes motion and not just its accidents. There is thus a becoming within things through which they ascend to the higher orders of universal existence. This view, however, should not be confused with the modern theory of evolution.
38. Editor's note: Islamic esotericism is called Sufism (tasawwuf) or gnosis (irfan); the first word concerns more the practical and the second the theoretical aspect of the same reality. It has been common among Shi'ite religious scholars since the Safavid period to refer to Islamic esotericism more often as irfan than as tasawwuf. This is due to historical reasons connected with the fact that the Safavids were at first a Sufi order and later gained political power, with the result that many worldly men sought to put on the garb of Sufism in order to gain political or social power, therefore discrediting Sufism in the eyes of the devout.
39. The sixth Imam has said. "There are three kinds of worship: a group worship Gnd in fear and that is the worship of slaves; a group worship God in order to receive rewards and that is the worship ofmercenaries; and a group worship God because oftheir love a'nd devotion to Him and that is the worship of free men. That is the best form of worship." Bihar al-anwar, vol. XV, p.208.
40. Editor's note: The author has here in mind the religions of India and the Far East in which different aspects of the Divinity are symbolized by mythical and symbolic forms and deities and which therefore appear in the eye of Muslims in general as "polytheism".
41. See the works on the biographies of learned men and also Todhkirot al' awliya-' of'Attar, Tehran. 1321 (A.H. solar), and Tara'iq al-haqa'iq of Ma'sum 'Ali Shah, Tehran, 1318.
42. In the language of the gnostics, when the gnostic forgets himself, he be- comes annihilated in God and surrenders to His guidance or walayat.
43. The gnostics say that through the Divine Names the world has gained an apparent existence and thus runs its course. All the Divine Names are derived from the "Complete and Supreme Name." The Supreme Name is the station (maqam) of the Universal Man who is also called the spiritual pole (quth) of the Universe. In no time can the world of man be without a quth.
44. Editor's note: The spiritual path in Islam is called sayr Wa suluk (meaning "traveling and wayfaring") to indicate the way or journey which symbolizes the movement from man to God.
45. God- Exalted be His Name -says. "But monasticism they [the Christians] invented -We ordained it not for them--only seeking Allah's pleasure, and they observed it not' with right observance." (Quran, LVII, 27)
46. Editor's note: There is a difference between a sign which signifies a meaning through agreement and a symbol which reveals the meaning symbolized through an essential and ontological bond between the symbol and the symbolized. Here the author is using the concept of signs and portents (ayat) in the world in the sense of true symbols.
47. Ali has said, "God is not that which can enter under one of the categories of knowledge. God is That which guides reasoning toward Himself." Bihar al-anwar, vol.ll, p.186.
48. A famous hadith repeated especially in works of well-known Sufis and gnostics. Shi'ite and Sunni alike.
49. This hadith is also found in many gnostic works, both Shi'ite and Sunni