for KaalChakra, Clifton, anyone else ... about my question earlier

Dear Kaal, Clifton and others,

it seems my question to Zeemax caused some confusion, and in true spirit of learning, it is my duty to allay those anxieties cause by such confusion. I have put together this little piece (by no means comprehensive), to explain the point I was trying to define better but couldn’t due to lack of time (on my part) earlier today.

I’d like to give the following quotations to explain what I was asking Zeemax on-line … unfortunately we were speaking of different things, as became apparent to me within a few minutes of posing the question. I’d like to explain some terms before, especially what “UNITY OF EXISTENCE� is, as perceived by the Pantheist …. In fact, many have gone as far as regarding this the very “TAUHEED� (One-ness of God) which is universally accepted as the ‘first pillar of Islam’, i.e., translated into the “Unity of Existence� as we know it. I have drawn on some on-line references too so everything that requires explaination is a few clicks of the mouse away (for those who are serious about learning).

I’d like to apologise for the long post, it was an unavoidable evil (alas).

I start by defining Wahdat al-wajood (Unity of Existence):

Wahdat-ul-Wujood literally means the unity of creation. As originally developed by Ibn Arabi, it does not, as sometimes believed, imply that God is present in everything, but rather that God's likeness can be observed in created things. Wahdat-ul-Shuhud (Apparentism, or Unity of Witness), on the other hand, holds that God and his creation are entirely separate.

Hence “dualism� is the doctrine that states that there are TWO existences/beings simultaneously,

1 – The Creator …. And
2 – His creation

Wahdat al-wajood negates this concept and recognizes “God – the Creator� to be ‘the ONLY existence’ and the rest a figment.

Now some ‘old-timers’ to explain further!:

Ibn arabi (1165AD - 1240AD) from Murcia, Spain:

A vastly prolific writer, Ibn Arabi is generally known as the prime exponent of the idea later known as Wahdat-ul-Wujood,

“It is He who is revealed in every face, sought in every sign, gazed upon by every eye, worshipped in every object of worship, and pursued in the unseen and the visible. Not a single one of His creatures can fail to find Him in its primordial and original nature�.
(Futûhât al-Makkiyya


I’d like to draw on Dr Mohammed Iqbal who said/wrote the following in his famous “Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam� essays:

[Finite minds regard nature as a confronting ‘other’ existing per se, which the mind knows but does not make. We are thus apt to regard the act of creation as a specific past event, and the universe appears to us as a manufactured article which has no organic relation to the life of its maker, and of which the maker is nothing more than a mere spectator. All the meaningless theological controversies about the idea of creation arise from this narrow vision of the finite mind.7 Thus regarded the universe is a mere accident in the life of God and might not have been created. The real question which we are called upon to answer is this: Does the universe confront God as His ‘other’, with space intervening between Him and it? The answer is that, from the Divine point of view, there is no creation in the sense of a specific event having a ‘before’ and an ‘after’. The universe cannot be regarded as an independent reality standing in opposition to Him. This view of the matter will reduce both God and the world to two separate entities confronting each other in the empty receptacle of an infinite space. We have seen before that space, time, and matter are interpretations which thought puts on the free creative energy of God.8 They are not independent realities existing per se, but only intellectual modes of apprehending the life of God.

[[The question of creation once arose among the disciples of the well-known saint BaYazid of Bistam. One of the disciples very pointedly put the common-sense view saying: ‘There was a moment of time when God existed and nothing else existed beside Him.’ The saint’s reply was equally pointed. ‘It is just the same now’, said he, ‘as it was then.’]]

The world of matter, therefore, is not a stuff co-eternal with God, operated upon by Him from a distance as it were. It is, in its real nature, one continuous act which thought breaks up into a plurality of mutually exclusive things.]

Mansur al Hallaj (c. 858 - 922): born in Persia:

He is well known to claim “ana-al haqq� or ‘I am the truth’ for which he was crucified for the crime of heresy (as per his wishes, since he wanted to emulate Jesus).

I quote what Rumi wrote about his ideas and what followed about three centuries later:

[People imagine that it is a presumptive claim, whereas it is really a presumptive claim to say "I am the slave of God"; and "I am God" is an expression of great humility. The man who says "I am the slave of God" affirms two existences, his own and God's, but he that says "I am God" has made himself non-existent and has given himself up and says "I am God", that is, "I am naught, He is all; there is no being but God's." This is the extreme of humility and self-abasement.]

His best known written work is the Kitab al Tawasin , or Ta Sin al Azal, which includes two brief chapters devoted to a dialogue of Satan (Iblis) and God, where Satan refuses to bow to Adam, although God asks him to do so. His refusal is due to a misconceived idea of God's uniqueness and because of his refusal to abandon himself to God in love. Hallaj criticizes the staleness of his adoration (Mason, 51-3). Al-Hallaj stated in this book[4]:
“If you do not recognize God, at least recognise His sign, I am the creative truth -Ana al-Haqq-, because through the truth, I am eternal truth. My friends and teachers are Iblis (Satan) and Pharaoh�.

The very poem/ghazal by Ghalib that was the point of contention, and the shayr zeemax quoted, and I tried to explain, as per my own understanding of it, goes like this:

“usay kaun daikh saktaa, ke yagaana hai wo yaktaa;
Ke dui ki bu bhi hoti, tau kaheen dochaar hota�

[who’d have seen Him, since He is THE ONLY/UNIQUE; had there been the slightest notion of ‘duality’, I’d have come across Him]

This is taken from the Ghazal that starts (Mat’laa) as :

“yeh na thee hamaari qismat, ke visaal-e YAAR hota;
Agar aur jeeteay rehtay, yehi intizaar hota�

[it wasn’t my destiny to have “been one with the BELOVED"; and had I been living for any more, the longing would have continued]

YAAR/BELOVED here is referring to “the Ultimate Reality�

The last shayr (maqtaa) of the same Ghazal goes like:

“yeh masaa’il –e tasawwuf, yeh teraa beyaan Ghaalib;
Tujhey hum wali samajhtey, jo na baada khwar hota�

[these narratives of ‘tasawwuf’, and the way you describe them, O Ghalib, we’d have thought you were a saint had it not for your drinking (alcohol)]

And KaalChakra ji, you perhaps need to read up on Sufism too … the Sufis you abhor are the “darbari sufis� who made the spread of Islam possible in foreign lands by joining hands with their imperial masters, and benefitting from their roles …. The Sufis I am speaking of are the ‘Real McCoy’ … like Bulleh Shah … who equate the “mullah di bang� in the morning (the morning/fajr azaan) to the ‘morning barks of dogs’!! are anti-establishment (and organized religion, and are basically free-spirited, free-thinking individuals.

I once wrote on FP that these Sufis/ Pantheists were nothing but ‘atheists’ of their times … and I am certain if Bulleh Shah/Mansur/Ibn arabi/Ghalib were alive today, that is exactly what they’d have been! … since their God (a necessary evil to believe in at the time), was lightyears away from the God of any religion of the day.

By the same token, probably people like myself would have been pantheists of the middle ages … without the benefit of scientific learning, that is!

I'd like to leave you with a few shayrs by Faiz from his poem titled "ham dekhein ge":

[Jab arz-e-Khuda ke kaabe se
Sab but uthwaa'e jaenge
HUM AHL-E-SAFA MARDOOD-E-HARAM
Masnad pe bethae jaenge
Sab taaj uchhaale jaenge
Sab takht gira'e jaen'ge

Hum bhi dekhenge

Bas naam rahega Allah ka
JO GHAYEB BHI HAI HAZIR BHI
JO MANZAR BHI HAI NAZIR BHI

Uthega ANAL HAQ ka nara
Jo MAIN BHI hoon aur TUM BHI ho

Aur raaj karegi Khalq-e-KHUDA
Jo MAIN BHI hoon aur TUM BHI ho]



Take care … I hope you find this journey as useful (and enjoyable) as I have!