THE UNCOVERING OF THE SECOND VEIL: CONCERNING UNIFICATION (_tawḥíd_).
God said, “_Your God is one_” (Kor. xvi, 23); and again, “_Say, ‘God is
one’_” (Kor. cxii, 1). And the Apostle said: “Long ago there was a man
who did no good work except that he pronounced God to be one. When he
was dying he said to his folk: ‘After my death burn me and gather my
ashes and on a windy day throw half of them into the sea, and scatter
half of them to the winds of the earth, that no trace of me may be
left.’ As soon as he died and this was done, God bade the air and the
water keep the ashes which they had received until the Resurrection; and
when He raises that man from the dead, He will ask him why he caused
himself to be burnt, and he will reply: ‘O Lord, from shame of Thee, for
I was a great sinner,’ and God will pardon him.”
Real unification (_tawḥíd_) consists in asserting the unity of a thing
and in having a perfect knowledge of its unity. Inasmuch as God is one,
without any sharer in His essence and attributes, without any
substitute, without any partner in His actions, and inasmuch as
Unitarians (_muwaḥḥidán_) have acknowledged that He is such, their
knowledge of unity is called unification.
Unification is of three kinds: (1) God’s unification of God, i.e. His
knowledge of His unity; (2) God’s unification of His creatures, i.e. His
decree that a man shall pronounce Him to be one, and the creation of
unification in his heart; (3) men’s unification of God, i.e. their
knowledge of the unity of God. Therefore, when a man knows God he can
declare His unity and pronounce that He is one, incapable of union and
separation, not admitting duality; that His unity is not a number so as
to be made two by the predication of another number; that He is not
finite so as to have six directions; that He has no space, and that He
is not in space, so as to require the predication of space; that He is
not an accident, so as to need a substance, nor a substance, which
cannot exist without another like itself, nor a natural constitution
(_ṭab`í_), in which motion and rest originate, nor a spirit so as to
need a frame, nor a body so as to be composed of limbs; and that He does
not become immanent (_ḥáll_) in things, for then He must be homogeneous
with them; and that He is not joined to anything, for then that thing
must be a part of Him; and that He is free from all imperfections and
exalted above all defects; and that He has no like, so that He and His
creature should make two; and that He has no child whose begetting would
necessarily cause Him to be a stock (_aṣl_); and that His essence and
attributes are unchangeable; and that He is endowed with those
attributes of perfection which believers and Unitarians affirm, and
which He has described Himself as possessing; and that He is exempt from
those attributes which heretics arbitrarily impute to Him; and that He
is Living, Knowing, Forgiving, Merciful, Willing, Powerful, Hearing,
Seeing, Speaking, and Subsistent; and that His knowledge is not a state
(_ḥál_) in Him, nor His power solidly planted (_ṣalábat_) in Him, nor
His hearing and sight detached (_mutajarrid_) in Him, nor His speech
divided in Him; and that He together with His attributes exists from
eternity; and that objects of cognition are not outside of His
knowledge, and that entities are entirely dependent on His will; and
that He does that which He has willed, and wills that which He has
known, and no creature has cognisance thereof; and that His decree is an
absolute fact, and that His friends have no resource except resignation;
and that He is the sole predestinator of good and evil, and the only
being that is worthy of hope or fear; and that He creates all benefit
and injury; and that He alone gives judgment, and His judgment is all
wisdom; and that no one has any possibility of attaining unto Him; and
that the inhabitants of Paradise shall behold Him; and that assimilation
(_tashbíh_) is inadmissible; and that such terms as “confronting” and
“seeing face to face” (_muqábalat ú muwájahat_) cannot be applied to His
being; and that His saints may enjoy the contemplation (_musháhadat_) of
Him in this world.
Those who do not acknowledge Him to be such are guilty of impiety. I,
`Alí b. `Uthmán al-Jullábí, said at the beginning of this chapter that
unification consists in declaring the unity of a thing, and that such a
declaration cannot be made without knowledge. The Sunnís have declared
the unity of God with true comprehension, because, seeing a subtle work
and a unique act, they recognized that it could not possibly exist by
itself, and finding manifest evidences of origination (_ḥudúth_) in
every thing, they perceived that there must be an Agent who brought the
universe into being—the earth and heaven and sun and moon and land and
sea and all that moves and rests and their knowledge and speech and life
and death. For all these an artificer was indispensable. Accordingly,
the Sunnís, rejecting the notion that there are two or three artificers,
declared themselves satisfied with a single artificer who is perfect,
living, knowing, almighty, and unpartnered. And inasmuch as an act
requires at least one agent, and the existence of two agents for one act
involves the dependence of one on the other, it follows that the Agent
is unquestionably and certainly one. Here we are at variance with the
dualists, who affirm light and darkness, and with the Magians, who
affirm Yazdán and Ahriman, and with the natural philosophers
(_ṭabá´i`iyán_), who affirm nature and potentiality (_quwwat_), and with
the astronomers (_falakiyán_), who affirm the seven planets, and with
the Mu`tazilites, who affirm creators and artificers without end. I have
briefly refuted all these vain opinions in a book, entitled _Al-Ri`áyat
li-ḥuqúq Allah_,[143] to which or to the works of the ancient
theologians I must refer anyone who desires further information. Now I
will turn to the indications which the Shaykhs have given on this
subject.
Footnote 143:
“The Observance of what is due to God.”
SECTION.
It is related that Junayd said: “Unification is the separation of the
eternal from that which was originated in time,” i.e. you must not
regard the eternal as a _locus_ of phenomena, or phenomena as a _locus_
of the eternal; and you must know that God is eternal and that you are
phenomenal, and that nothing of your _genus_ is connected with Him, and
that nothing of His attributes is mingled in you, and that there is no
homogeneity between the eternal and the phenomenal. This is contrary to
the above-mentioned doctrine of those who hold the spirit to be eternal.
When the eternal is believed to descend into phenomena, or phenomena to
be attached to the eternal, no proof remains of the eternity of God and
the origination of the universe; and this leads to materialism
(_madhhab-i dahriyán_). In all the actions of phenomena there are proofs
of unification and evidences of the Divine omnipotence and signs which
establish the eternity of God, but men are too heedless to desire only
Him or to be content only with keeping Him in remembrance. Ḥusayn b.
Manṣúr (al-Ḥalláj) says: “The first step in unification is the
annihilation of separation (_tafríd_),” because separation is the
pronouncement that one has become separated from imperfections (_áfát_),
while unification is the declaration of a thing’s unity: therefore in
isolation (_fardániyyat_) it is possible to affirm that which is other
than God, and this quality may be ascribed to others besides God; but in
unity (_waḥdániyyat_) it is not possible to affirm other than God, and
unity may not be ascribed to anything except Him. Accordingly, the first
step in unification is to deny (that God has) a partner (_sharík_) and
to put admixture (_mizáj_) aside, for admixture on the way (to God) is
like seeking the highway with a lamp (_mizáj andar minháj chún ṭalab-i
minháj báshad ba-siráj_). And Ḥuṣrí says: “Our principles in unification
are five: the removal of phenomenality, and the affirmation of eternity,
and departure from familiar haunts, and separation from brethren, and
forgetfulness of what is known and unknown.” The removal of
phenomenality consists in denying that phenomena have any connexion with
unification or that they can possibly attain to His holy essence; and
the affirmation of eternity consists in being convinced that God always
existed, as I have already explained in discussing the saying of Junayd;
and departure from familiar haunts means, for the novice, departure from
the habitual pleasures of the lower soul and the forms of this world,
and for the adept, departure from lofty stations and glorious states and
exalted miracles (_karámát_); and separation from brethren means turning
away from the society of mankind and turning towards the society of God,
since any thought of other than God is a veil and an imperfection, and
the more a man’s thoughts are associated with other than God the more is
he veiled from God, because it is universally agreed that unification is
the concentration of thoughts (_jam`-i himam_), whereas to be content
with other than God is a sign of dispersion of thought (_tafriqa-i
himmat_); and forgetfulness of a thing which is known or unknown means
the unification of that thing, for unification denies whatever the
knowledge of mankind affirms about it; and whatever their ignorance
affirms about it is merely contrary to their knowledge, for ignorance is
not unification, and knowledge of the reality of unification cannot be
attained without denying the personal initiative (_taṣarruf_) in which
knowledge and ignorance consist. A certain Shaykh relates: “While Ḥuṣrí
was speaking to an audience, I fell asleep and dreamed that two angels
came down from Heaven and listened for some time to his discourse. Then
one said to the other, ‘What this man says is the theory (_`ilm_) of
unification, not unification itself (_`ayn_).’ When I awoke he was
explaining unification. He looked at me and said, ‘O So-and-so, it is
impossible to speak of unification except theoretically.’” It is related
that Junayd said: “Unification is this, that one should be a figure
(_shakhṣ_) in the hands of God, a figure over which His decrees pass
according as He in His omnipotence determines, and that one should be
sunk in the seas of His unity, self-annihilated and dead alike to the
call of mankind to him and his answer to them, absorbed by the reality
of the Divine unity in true proximity, and lost to sense and action,
because God fulfils in him what He hath willed of him, namely, that his
last state should become his first state, and that he should be as he
was before he existed.” All this means that the Unitarian in the will of
God has no more a will of his own, and in the unity of God no regard to
himself, so that he becomes like an atom as he was in the eternal past
when the covenant of unification was made, and God answered the question
which He Himself had asked, and that atom was only the object of His
speech.[144] Mankind have no joy in such a one that they should call him
to anything, and he has no friendship with anyone that he should respond
to their call. This saying indicates the annihilation of human
attributes and perfect resignation to God in the state when a man is
overpowered by the revelation of His majesty, so that he becomes a
passive instrument and a subtle substance that feels nothing, and his
body is a repository for the mysteries of God, to whom his speech and
actions are attributed; but, unconscious of all as he is, he remains
subject to the ordinances of the religious law, to the end that the
proof of God may be established. Such was the Apostle when on the night
of the Ascension he was borne to the station of proximity; he desired
that his body should be destroyed and his personality be dissolved, but
God’s purpose was to establish His proof. He bade the Apostle remain in
the state that he was in; whereupon he gained strength and displayed the
existence of God from out of his own non-existence and said, “I am not
as one of you. Verily, I pass the night with my Lord, and he gives me
food and drink”; and he also said, “I am with God in a state in which
none of the cherubim nor any prophet is capable of being contained with
me.” It is related that Sahl b. `Abdalláh said: “Unification is this,
that you should recognize that the essence of God is endowed with
knowledge, that it is not comprehensible nor visible to the eye in this
world, but that it exists in the reality of faith, infinite,
incomprehensible, non-incarnate; and that He will be seen in the next
world, outwardly and inwardly in His kingdom and His power; and that
mankind are veiled from knowledge of the ultimate nature of His essence;
and that their hearts know Him, but their intellects cannot reach unto
Him; and that believers shall behold Him with their (spiritual) eyes,
without comprehending His infinity.” This saying includes all the
principles of unification. And Junayd said: “The noblest saying
concerning unification is that of Abú Bakr: ‘Glory to God, who has not
vouchsafed to His creatures any means of attaining unto knowledge of Him
except through impotence to attain unto knowledge of Him.’” Many have
mistaken the meaning of these words of Abú Bakr and suppose that
impotence to attain to gnosis is the same thing as agnosticism. This is
absurd, because impotence refers only to an existing state, not to a
state that is non-existent. For example, a dead man is not incapable of
life, but he cannot be alive while he is dead; and a blind man is not
incapable of seeing, but he cannot see while he is blind. Therefore, a
gnostic is not incapable of gnosis so long as gnosis is existent, for in
that case his gnosis resembles intuition. The saying of Abú Bakr may be
brought into connexion with the doctrine of Abú Sahl Ṣu`lúkí and Master
Abú `Alí Daqqáq, who assert that gnosis is acquired in the first
instance, but finally becomes intuitive. The possessor of intuitive
knowledge is compelled and incapable of putting it away or drawing it to
himself. Hence, according to what Abú Bakr says, unification is the act
of God in the heart of His creature. Shiblí says: “Unification veils the
Unitarian from the beauty of Oneness,” because unification is said to be
the act of Man, and an act of Man does not cause the revelation of God,
and in the reality of revelation that which does not cause revelation is
a veil. Man with all his attributes is other than God, for if his
attributes are accounted Divine, then he himself must be accounted
Divine, and then Unitarian, unification, and the One become, all three,
causes of the existence of one another; and this is precisely the
Christian Trinity. If any attribute prevents the seeker of God from
annihilating himself in unification, he is still veiled by that
attribute, and while he is veiled he is not a Unitarian, for all except
God is vanity. This is the interpretation of “There is no god but
God”.[145]
Footnote 144:
Kor. vii, 171.
Footnote 145:
Here the author cites an anecdote of Ibráhím al-Khawwáṣ and al-Ḥalláj
which has been related above. See p. 205.
The Shaykhs have discussed at large the terms by which unification is
denoted. Some say that it is an annihilation that cannot properly be
attained unless the attributes subsist, while others say that it has no
attribute whatever except annihilation. The analogy of union and
separation (_jam` ú tafriqa_) must be applied to this question in order
that it may be understood. I, `Alí b. `Uthmán al-Jullábí, declare that
unification is a mystery revealed by God to His servants, and that it
cannot be expressed in language at all, much less in high-sounding
phrases. The explanatory terms and those who use them are other than
God, and to affirm what is other than God in unification is to affirm
polytheism.