Arif-Similitudes

Arif, Tariqat

“Bismillahir Rahmannir Raheem”Al-Hamdu Lillaahi Rabbil ‘Aalameen was Salaatu was- Salaamu ‘Alaa Sayidinaa Muhammadin wa Aalihi wa Asabihi Ajma ‘een (tauheed- risalat- ahkirat and islam-iman-ihsan)

Arif 23

They appear to men in the forms of the Divine similitudes whereby God reveals Himself to the dreamer. All those forms are angels, who descend in diverse shapes by command of the angel entrusted with the making of similitudes. For this reason a man dreams that lifeless things speak to him: unless they were really spirits assuming the form of lifelessness, they would not have spoken.

The Prophet said that a true dream is an inspiration from God—because an angel brings it—and also that a true dream is one of the forty-six parts of prophecy. Since Iblís, though he did not worship Adam, was amongst those commanded to worship, the devils who are his offspring were commanded to appear to the dreamer in the same forms as the angels: hence false dreams.

According to this argument, the Sublime Angels are unknowable except by “the divine men” on whom God bestows such knowledge as a gift after their release from the limitations of humanity.

The Rúḥ has many names according to the number of his aspects. He is named “The Most Exalted Pen” and “The Spirit of Mohammed” and “The First Intelligence” and “The Divine Spirit,” on the principle of naming the original by the derivative, but in the presence of God he has only one name, which is “The Spirit” (al-Rúḥ).

In the course of this colloquy the Idea of Mohammed (al-Ḥaqíqatu ’l-Muḥammadiyya) says:

God created Adam in His own image—this is not doubted or disputed—and Adam was one of the theatres (maẓáhir) in which I displayed myself: he was appointed as a vicegerent (khalífa) over my externality. I knew that God made me the object and goal of all His creatures, and lo, I heard the most gracious allocution from the Most Great Presence: “Thou art the Quṭb whereon the spheres of beauty revolve, and thou art the Sun by whose radiance the full-moon of perfection is replenished; thou art he for whom We set up the pattern  and for whose sake We made fast the door-ring , thou art the reality symbolised by Hind and Salmá, and ‘Azza and Asmá . O thou who art endued with lofty attributes and pure qualities, Beauty doth not dumbfound thee nor Majesty cause thee to quake, nor dost thou deem Perfection unattainable: thou art the centre and these the circumference, thou art the clothed and these the splendid garments .

In some aspects the spiritual organ which Ṣúfís call “the heart” (qalb) is hardly distinguished from the spirit (rúḥ):

when the Quran mentions the Divine spirit breathed into Adam, it is the heart that is signified.

He describes it as “the eternal light and the sublime consciousness (sirr) revealed in the quintessence (‘ayn) of created beings (Mohammed), that God may behold Man thereby “; as “the Throne of God (al-‘Arsh) and His Temple in Man…the centre of Divine consciousness and the circumference of the circle of all that exists actually or ideally .

It reflects all the Divine names and attributes at once, yet quickly changes under the influence of particular names.

Like a mirror, it has a face and a back. The face is always turned towards a light called the attention (al-hamm), which is the eye of the heart, so that whenever a name becomes opposite to, or as we should say, strikes the attention, the heart sees it and receives the impression of it; then this name disappears and is succeeded by others.

The “back” of the heart is the place from which the attention is absent .

The Divine names and attributes are the heart’s true nature, in which it was created.

keep it pure by self-mortification.

Recompense for good works depends on the merit imputed by God to His creatures according to the original individualisations in which He created them: it is a necessary right, not an arbitrary gift .

The heart reflects the world of attributes, or rather, itself reflected by the universe. “Earth and heaven do not contain Me, but the heart of My believing servant containeth Me”:

It is the heart alone that comprehends God—by knowledge, by contemplation, and finally by transubstantiation .

When God created the whole world from the Light of Mohammed, He created from the heart of Mohammed the angel Isráfíl (Seraphiel), the mightiest of the angels and the nearest to God .

When I want to talk to Allah I say prayers and when I want that he talk to me I recite quran- Hazrath Ali(ra)

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