Oneness, Annihilation, and Manifestation

توحید، فنا، تجلّی

[Verses:] "That and the self — what great wonder / If after the veil of imagination — / the eye that does not sound with drums of presence — / the sun has come where I am each morning." (Hasrat Haydarabadi)

[Verse:] "I myself am also the same and I am not otherwise. / Hazrat, God is amazing — how can I behold it?" (Hasrat Millah)

Tawḥīd, Fanāʾ, Tajallī (توحید، فناء، تجلّی)

The sign of the contingent (mumkin) is that its existence and non-existence are equal to it. From this it is a necessary consequence that it cannot be a master, nor a possessor of ownership. 'Lā malika Anā al-ʿAbdu wa māmalaktu Yadā' — (i.e., it does not own anything). The ghanā (self-sufficiency) and muḥtāj-e-muḥḍ (pure indigence) alongside the Wājib (the Necessary Being) are a special hallmark.

اللَّهُ الْغَنِيُّ وَأَنتُمُ الْفُقَرَاءُ

"Allah — He is the Self-Sufficient (al-Ghanī), and you are the indigent (al-fuqarāʾ)." (Qur'an 47:38)

The one whose dhāt is by the grace — is bāl-ʿarḍ (contingent by nature) — remains looking in every moment toward the dhāt of the Necessary Being — in that moment He is the Vast Dhū al-Jalāl. The name of 'absolute indigence' is given by Hazrat (may Allah be pleased with him). And that example is being set first: being — the iradah (will) appears, because with the manifested asmā (names) with the tajallī (theophany) of the Divine Names — the repeated general principle is that the name of Allah the Exalted is repeated so many times — as to whoever says it the name gives the tajallī — it is wished that this name be spoken by the tongue, remembered in the heart, thought of — in this way the greater the connection with it, the more that manifestation will appear. The more it appears, the more the āthar (effects) of the exalted Divine attributes of Allah become apparent for the slaves — to such an extent that the attributes of Allah the Exalted will be apparent in the slave's good attributes. For in essence — bāl-ʿarḍ — from the Necessary Being — it will become non-existent. It will mean 'not to be'. And from another quality the quality: 'the one that appears is not that quality.'

Tawḥīd of Acts and Tajallī of Acts (توحیدِ افعالی وفنائے افعالی، تجلّیِ افعالی)

Our task is: Tawḥīd, Fanāʾ, and Tajallī appear in three forms. Tawḥīd of acts — fanāʾ of acts — tajallī of acts. Tawḥīd of attributes — fanāʾ of attributes — tajallī of attributes. Tawḥīd of Essence — fanāʾ of Essence — tajallī of Essence.

The tawḥīd of acts: in the chest of the human being, in the chest of a person — a light of the sun comes and goes — what it shows — the light of vision is what it shows — one body of another shines — that same light of the spirit which comes and goes — the fact that one sees this — is a spectacle. The spectacle is this: 'We are all the same world as the teacher of cinema whose picturisation was complete — with a fine recording of melody, ghazals, dances, music, tunes, instruments, a peacock's drum, and a flute.'

Regarding tawḥīd of acts — the tawḥīd of acts: in this chest the human being is like a cinema screen. A very fine invisible sun is projecting its light. It is seeking this light — wondering where this light is coming from. Sometimes the back of it is seen and sometimes it comes back around in front of it. And the scenes of this cinema — of this screen — are like this: a beautiful voice, melody, music, tune, instrument — the peacock's drum — is still coming. Yet the great intellect understands that this is the voice of a machine — it is not the voice of some beautiful person or of vocal music. Rather it is the key of notes of the gramophone that are producing this. And those high and low keys are being produced.

[Verse:] "From the dry tree of friends' voice — from afar the friend's voice arrived / The flute of the distant voice in secret — one is present, the hidden search remains." (Mawlana Jami, may Allah have mercy)

Regarding tawḥīd of acts — fanāʾ of acts: the wisdom of this — a pen and ink it is. Its ink in a calligraphic pen traces beautiful letters. Who made this beautiful pen? From the time of Hazrat Sulaymān (Solomon, peace be upon him), the birds' quill — dipped in the river in the water — the quill of the birds' feather was dipped so that the quill's nib's point gradually changed shape. But who gave these letters an intelligent mind to understand? Ink, qalam (pen), siyāhī (black ink) — all are bāl-Dhāt (from the Essence). No other motion exists among them. All the acts of the Rabb al-ʿālamīn (Lord of all worlds) are through the slave's hands. The slave does His work. And Allah the Exalted creates: 'Khalaqa-kum wa mā taʿmalūn' — He created you and whatever you do (Qur'an 37:96). So whoever created this work — it was the Greek's imagined notion that caused it. The Turks acted accordingly. The Turks' action was according to the Greek notion. Well — what happened next? Evil — or good. The action of the Greeks in the sight of the Greeks is right, while in the sight of the Turks the action was wrong. And the action of the Turks in the sight of the Turks was right, while in the sight of the Greeks it was wrong — the Turks attacked their country — and that was their act of defence. And here, from the perspective of the thought-system and the matter — looked at from every angle — good action's purpose is there — necessity prevails. The thought-system thus requires every direction to be for the best.

In the same way, the actions of created beings — one with another — have some aspect that from a human perspective seems wrong, and some that seems good or useful. So from a perspective of wisdom and divine decree — it is all for the best of the world. The world that is all coloured and radiant is the sign of the wisdom of Allah Almighty. And the fullness of the world — this knowledge and sign of the wisdom of Allah — is from the perspective of the beautiful wisdom: all that is going on is all for the best.

If one becomes honoured by Allah the Exalted through faith — with contentment and tranquillity of the 'ārifīn (knowers of Allah), all shall stride and be set forth.

Tajallī of Attributes (تجلّیِ صفاتی)

A white rose's bud — what a delicate beauty — it is giving a fine colour and scent. A rose — it is the flame of its own fire. Flower, colour, fragrance — the colours growing from it — there are many thousands of kinds of things. And each one in its kind — all are sending out colour and scent. The colours all are reflecting each other and the light coming back again — and various colours emerge — the white colour! All shades together in the white. And white is saying to you: I am all the colours — and to you the colourless colour. The black colour reflects no shade and no light — reflects no shadow — it is the colour of non-existence, to nothing — existence.

In this way, through the Divine names and attributes — some names and attributes become apparent and some do not become apparent. All the attributes and names are a coloured array of this world. In this world you can see: all these luminous attributes display various coloured affairs of the world on account of the names. And the world's diversity arises from them. This coloured variety of the world comes from here.

If all the names and attributes were to become apparent — then the total power of things would become incapacitated — then what creation would remain? Because whoever claims how powerful — what time, what might, what 'who' — making the endlessly absolute claim of all eternity. The second side also makes his claim — whose property is whose. And here — 'Truly my claim is right; every other claim is an empty claim.' Thus He made all the universe: 'Kun (Be!) — and it all became.' After that, the whole realm of creation fell into the presence of the real-seeming absolute claim — and its nature became clear and settled.

وَعَلَى اللَّهِ فَتَوَكَّلُوا إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ ۚ وَمَن يَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِ فَهُوَ حَسْبُهُ

"And upon Allah, so put your trust, if you are truly believers." (Qur'an 5:23) "And whoever places his trust in Allah — He is sufficient for him." (Qur'an 65:3)

Tajallī of the Divine Essence (تجلّیِ ذات)

Wah! Wah! Your name — wah! Your colour — so lovely. Your beauty — so enchanting. Your fragrance — so alluring. Youth gives itself to you — grown men prostrate themselves before you. From your pleasures the desire for contentment is not obtained. The truth of your pleasure — what sort of pleasure is that? Where is this compound coming from? From what kind of art — no manufactured compound — then where is it? Then no kind or quality of things. Each city shows a different colour of you. The entire city has a different colour of you. All saddened are your signs. Every city a different colour — pūrī (a city of completeness?) — every city in you is a different colour. And in the last stage — Jibrāʾīl's (Gabriel's) wings are unable to reach — a thing of the pure — that place — cannot be described — where He is who creates saffron as a false colour for it. The genuine truth — is not fully expressible. Then where is this — where are these stages? Then many more stages come. After these stages — the types of arts and qualities — where is the compound coming from? More stages. Which stage then is the stage of the pure Essence — incomparable — the Qā'im bi-dhātih (Self-Sustaining)? I, being in the complete imagining of these — remain myself. And from those I find the reflection of myself. And I look at these qualities of the horse — I want to find the being of the horse — its non-being — but the quality of the horse is a wondrous reflection of mine. I want to find it and in my imagination I feel: 'What am I? I am Muhammad Abdul Qadeer the Siddiqī — and one, whole. My dhātī (essential) information is one — and in my personal identity no difference is possible. My information and my attributes are my essential — and they keep repeating in their own selves.

[Verse:] "Such that we are ourselves and we are not ourselves / — the imagined thought before the setting is a veil." (Hasrat Haydarabadi) / [Verse:] "Come, let this occupation of preoccupation be set right and — with the best — / the Mashghala (preoccupation) of imagining and that of the Exalted — be set well and first." (Hasrat Haydarabadi)

In this imagination — look inside your own thoughts. I sometimes see nothing in myself. I sometimes see myself elsewhere in sleep. But I always see nothing but myself — nothing else — and myself I am always encompassing in this way. In the same way the dhāt of Allah Almighty encompasses every atom of the 'ālam (world). None is outside His personal self encompassing.

أَيْنَمَا تُوَلُّوا فَثَمَّ وَجْهُ اللَّهِ

"Wherever you turn, there is the Face of Allah." (Qur'an 2:115)

In this imaginary form — from every form of being that does not in some way include my being — them I cannot settle in any movement. So the exalted knowledge and glorifications of Allah Almighty — and whatever is in the heavens and in the earth — all the atoms are encompassed by this knowledge — none can be outside it.