Page 25 - Chapter
Two: "Islam’s theological axiom, tawhid, declares that God is
one, but it also asserts that the world is many. All of Islamic theological thinking
addresses the issue of how to correlate multiplicity with unity. Those who look more at
the divine side of things place greater stress on unity, and those who look more at the
world emphasize multiplicity."
Commentary:
Although some Muslims engage in theological activity, Islam is not a theological system.
Theology is a man-made enterprise which explores different facets of the conceptual
discipline known as ‘religion’, whereas Islam gives expression to a God-given
Deen - method, way, path, journey process - that is intended to assist the individual to
realize different dimensions of spiritual potential.
People are free, of
course, to reject what has been said above concerning the nature of Islam. Nonetheless, if
someone - such as the author of the foregoing quote - is going to discuss Islam, then, at
the very least, that individual should be careful not to conflate conceptual and academic
biases with the ‘object’ being explored.
Consequently, while
‘tawhid’ may be a theological axiom from the perspective of, say, an
academic, to claim that tawhid is "Islam’s theological axiom" is to
make an assertion which seeks to impose academic values, priorities, and assumptions onto
that which is being studied - in the present case, Islam - and treating the values,
assumptions, and so on, of the former as if they are naturally inherent in the latter. In
truth, ‘tawhid’ is neither a matter of theology, nor is it an axiom - that is, a
self-evident or universally recognized truth.
Many people pay
lip-service to ‘tawhid’. Far fewer people have experienced the reality of
tawhid.
A person who, in
principle, accepts the truth of tawhid but who has not experientially realized that truth
is not in a position to say such a truth is either self-evident or that the individual
‘recognizes’ the nature of the truth which, in principle, is being accepted.
Furthermore, since very few people know, first hand, the reality of tawhid, one cannot say
that tawhid is a truth which is ‘universally’ recognized - even though many
people may proceed on the assumption that ‘tawhid’ is, in fact, inherent in the
nature of reality.
In the foregoing quote,
the author states that "Islam’s theological axiom ... declares that God is
one", and, then, he continues on to claim that the same theological axiom
"asserts that the world is many." Even if, for the purposes of discussion, one
were to allow the author’s way of referring to tawhid as a "theological
axiom", in point of fact, contrary to the contention of the author, tawhid does not
simultaneously assert that God is one while the world is many.
Tawhid gives expression
to the Oneness of Divinity and nothing else. To the extent we think of the world as many,
we have misunderstood both the Oneness of God as well as the nature of the world, for when
properly understood, the world is nothing other than a manifestation of God’s
Oneness.
It is we - through our
illusions and delusions - who separate off manifestation from the underlying Source. In
the Qur’an, one finds: "You see them looking at you, but they do not see"
(7:198), and while, on the surface, this is being said in reference to the Prophet
Muhammad (peace be upon him), in truth, it refers to all who ‘look’ at the world
but "do not see" the Presence or Face of Divinity.
God is One, and the world
is one with God. The experience of ‘multiplicity’ is, with one exception, an
illusion.
The exception to the
foregoing ‘rule’ - which, actually, proves the rule - is the experience of those
friends of God who go through two varieties of tawhid. In one experiential engagement of
tawhid, the person sees Oneness in multiplicity, while in the other experiential modality
of tawhid, the individual sees multiplicity in Oneness, but, in truth, each is but the
flip side, so to speak, of the One Divine ‘coin’.
According to the author
of Sufism - A Short Introduction, "All of Islamic theological thinking
addresses the issue of how to correlate multiplicity with unity. Those who look more at
the divine side of things place greater stress on unity, and those who look more at the
world emphasize multiplicity." Now, leaving aside the author’s tendency to
confuse Muslim theology with Islam, the task facing theology is not "how to correlate
multiplicity with unity" since the process of trying to demonstrate how multiplicity
and unity are "mutually" related (which is the nature of correlation) is to set
up the issue in a problematic manner.
In other words, to
consider ‘multiplicity’ and ‘unity’ as, somehow, being
"mutually" related is already to give credence, tacitly, to the idea that
multiplicity has a reality which is something other than a manifestation of Oneness.
Tawhid does not encompass any provisions for permitting two things - namely, multiplicity
and unity, to be related one to another, and all attempts which are dedicated to providing
such a ‘correlation’ will be doomed to failure.
Contrary to the
author’s way of stating things, there is not a "divine side of things" and
a ‘world side of things’. There is only Divinity.
Of course, people can
engage Reality in any way they wish. Indeed, this is precisely how conceptual systems and
interpretations arise - when people use their lower-order faculty of imagination to invent
fictions - in this case, theology, which are, then, reified and given existence as
‘truth’ or ‘reality’.
Various Muslim
theological thinkers may have addressed, and may continue to address, "the issue of
how to correlate multiplicity with unity", but as long as they approach this issue
through the lower-order, fiction-oriented faculty of imagination, the issue will never be
resolved. The experiential truth of tawhid only can be realized through the unveiling
activity of spiritual imagination which seeks to embrace what is Real rather than to try
to invent ‘reality’.
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