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I was a hidden treasure and loved to be known, so I brought forth creation. [Hadith qudsi -
Allah speaking through the mouth of the Prophet]
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Kun
God only has to say to a thing: "Kun! (Be)", and it becomes.
The Sufi masters indicate the 'thing' to which the command
'to be' is given belongs to the realm of Lahut or fixed forms.
Fixed forms have no being per se. Nonetheless, they are not
nothing. They are non-existent potentials of Divinity's
capacity for infinitely creative imagination.
According to the practitioners of the Sufi path, God does not
create ex nihilo or from nothing. Creation always comes
through the infinite fixed form potentials of the realm of
Lahut.
The non-existent potentials of God's creative imagination cry
out to Divine essence to be brought into existence, to be given
the robes of ontological reality. The Divine quality of
Rahman or Compassion responds to these cries and, in a
sense, gives being to the non-existent potentials.
However, Sufi masters are quite clear that, in point of fact,
fixed forms never leave their state of non-existence. God
qualifies or modulates the Divine Attribute of Being to reflect
the archetype or blueprint, so to speak, of the fixed-form
potential.
Additional Divine Attributes such as: Consciousness, Will,
Light, Hearing, Seeing and Speech are "added" to Being.
Each of these Divine Attributes is shaped, colored, oriented
and modulated by Divinity in accordance with what is called
for by the "recipe" of the capacity of a given fixed form
potential.
Consequently, what actually has reality is Divinity. The forms
assumed through Divine manifestation reflect various aspects
of the capacity of the fixed forms.
The non-existent potentials remain non-existent. Yet, God
has provided these potentials with an indirect mode of
reflected participation in the realm of ontology or being.
In a sense, capacity is a sort of index of the degree to which a
given fixed form can be reflected through different
dimensions of Divinity. The greater the capacity of a fixed
form, the greater is the array of Divine Attributes which,
potentially, can be brought into play, so to speak, under
appropriate conditions.
According to Sufi masters, the fixed forms known as human
beings have the greatest potential capacity among "created"
things for bringing into reflected play all the Names and
Attributes of God. However, potential is one thing, and
realization of that potential is quite something else.
Moreover, not all fixed form humans have the same degree of
potential capacity to bring into reflected play all the Names
and Attributes of God in the form of Divine manifestations. In
other words, as members of a class of fixed form potentials,
all human beings have, at least in some minimal fashion
relative to other classes of fixed forms, the greatest potential
capacity in the sense outlined previously. Nevertheless, within
the general class of fixed form humans, there are individual
differences of potential capacity from one fixed form human
to the next.
Even after God says: "Kun! (Be)" to a fixed form potential,
not all aspects of the capacity of that fixed form potential are
manifested right away. Different dimensions of such capacity
are given expression through Divine manifestation over time.
According to Sufi masters, once a fixed form potential is, so
to speak, called into being by the command of "Kun!", all the
various possibilities within a given fixed form capacity cry
out to be reflected in manifested reality. In the fixed form
capacity of human beings, there are both spiritual and
non-spiritual possibilities which are seeking expression.
What ensues is a dialectic, both among the possibilities of
fixed form potential which constitute the breadth and scope
of human capacity, as well as between individual human
capacity and Divinity. Different aspects of our human fixed
form capacity (e.g., false self, mind, heart, spirit) begin to vie
with one another for intentional control of what God is being
called upon to bring into the mirror of Divinely manifested
reality.
The above mentioned dialectic is a spiritual 'journey of
return'. We, metaphorically speaking, come from
non-existence, and we return to this condition of
non-existence. The landscape which "separates" the start of
the journey from its final termination, and through which we
travel, is our life experiences.
In reality, as far as our fixed form potential is concerned,
there is no departure, and there is no arrival back at our
point of origin. We are now where we always have been and
always will be.
Everything which occurs, occurs through the realm of Divine
manifestation. In one way or another, whether through
illusion or through truth, we are intentional, albeit indirect,
witnesses to these realities.
Sufi masters stipulate that, taken collectively, all fixed form
potentials, both human and non-human, are possibilities
inherent in the capacity of the universal soul of a
macrocosmic spiritual principle which gives expression to the
Divine Name of Rahman (compassion). The reality to which
this Name, Rahman, alludes encompasses all of the Divine
Names except for the all-inclusive Name of essence: Allah.
Consequently, according to practitioners of the Sufi way,
when God says: "Kun! (Be)", this command is directed to the
collective capacities of the universal soul inherent in the
macrocosmic principle rooted in the Divine Name Rahman.
When the fixed form 'universal soul' comes, in a manner of
speaking, into being through Divine manifestations, all
created particulars are microcosmic expressions of the fixed
form potential of the underlying universal soul. In turn, the
universal soul is an expression of the microcosmic principle
inherent in the Divine Name Rahman.
Therefore, from the perspective of the Sufi masters, we are
linked with all of creation through our collective membership
in the capacity of the universal soul. Furthermore, all
prophets, saints, and spiritual guides are fixed form
variations on one underlying macrocosmic principle inherent
in the Reality of the Divine Name of Rahman.
This is the hidden, spiritual treasure which is being "brought
forth" by God through creation. Our true identity is
embedded in this hidden spiritual treasure.
The purpose of our 'journey of return' is to be given an
opportunity to realize, according to our individual capacities,
a conscious participation, of sorts, in the significance, nature,
value, beauty, joy, majesty, love and so on, ad infinitum,
inherent in the aforementioned hidden, spiritual treasure.
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