Category Archives: Terminology

Terminologies of Qur’an, Sufis or Arabic grammar

Sama and Ardh

Salam,
In Quran,the words ‘sama’ and ‘ardh’ have been used multiple times.
The common translation of these two words:
Sama= Sky
Ardh= Planet Earth.
I look forward for your kind information on the detailed meaning of these words.

Some Notes for Whisper’s Ruh Post

Salaam Whisper

Don’t have all the answers you need, but have a bit of research on perhaps something useful for your Equivalence idea. Universes do not exist by themselves, they are mapped to each other, the mapping is what makes them to show existence per human cognition and spiritualities, the universes by themselves are not cognizable:

Nasafi

http://untiredwithloving.org/nasafi_mirror.html :

Know that the Alam-Saghir (Minor Universe) is a copy and a Nemūdār (Vectorial Abstraction) of the Alam-Kabir (Eminent Universe) and whatever is in the Alam-Kabir is also found in Alam-Saghir. So whatever is found within the Alam-Kabir (Eminent Universe) it ought to have a Nemudar (Vectorial Abstraction) within the Alam-Saghir (Minor Universe), otherwise any description of that object is inaccurate and false.

Definition: According to the treatise 10 of Nasafi Chapter 5 Nemudar of the beautitude of the Paradise are the temporal pleasures on this earth and the Nemudar of the torments of the Hell are the sufferings of humanity on this earth. Based upon this description the best translation for the Farsi word Nemudar is ‘Abstraction’ of something in some universe which is projected or imaged into another. Due to this aspect of the projection or imaging then the attribute ‘Vectorial’ is added, so Nemudar is Vectorial Abstraction.

http://www.untiredwithloving.org/jabarut_malakut_mulk.html :

Insan Kamil
Azizeddin Nasafi

“O Darwish! The relatedness of these universes are brimful with Ishq (Unary Unrestrained Love), every relatedness (say A in one universe is related to B in another universe) serves as mirror (reflects an image of A into B) while the antecedent and precedent (A and B) are actually in love with each other, and both in love with the mirror as well.

 

Suyuti Al-Ghazali on Muqabala , probably what you need to study:

http://untiredwithloving.org/suyuti_fathul_jalil.html#muqabalah
Mapping one universe to another

Al-Ghazali
“I say (it is my opinion): Since the universe of Shahada (Observables) became an ‘elevator’ towards the universe of Malakut (Spiritual Realms) and Suluk (Voyage) of Sirat-Al-Mustaqim (The Straight Path) refers to this upward glide i.e. the Din (Religion, way of spiritual life) and the resting-places of the Divine Guidance, therefore if there was no relationships and connections between these universes how could then be any form or glide from one to the other?

Due to the Divine Mercy there is‘equivalence’ between the realm of Shahad (Observables) and Malakut (Realm of Spirits) i.e. entities in one realm are corresponded to the entities in the other realm! Perhaps an entity in the Malakut (Realm of Spirits) has multitudes of corresponding entities in this world. Therefore a metaphor (e.g. entering and exiting the light) becomes an ‘exhibited display’ of an analog (of something in the other universe) and therefore corresponds to an entity in another universe and this correspondence is called Al-Mutabaqah.

 

 

Ruh and Quran 13:15

Salam,

We are told that we have a Ruh. If we were not so told, how could we have discovered that we have a Ruh? In other words, what are some observable attributes of Ruh that would have led us to know that we have a Ruh? The question arose in my mind because I was thinking of an “architecture” of how man is made and how he fits into the universe. Then the question arose in my mind if Ruh should be a part of this architecture (the word used in an engineering sense). I could not settle this issue in my mind.

The “architecture” question I am working on assumes an “Equivalence Principle”. It states that the spiritual world and the physical world are shadows of each other. Further more the object and the shadow are completely equivalent to each other. I originally came up with this thought from Quran 13:15. But now that I look back, what I did ( to conclude equivalence principle from Quran 13:15) seems very heuristic, even less firm than heuristic. So before proceeding with the architecture question I am also perturbed by my doubt about the validity of an Equivalence Principle. May be a detailed explanation and understanding of Quran 13:15 will help me. I will look forward to some help for understanding 13:15.

Note: When I go to http://untiredwithloving.lossofgenerality.com/    I do not see a tab to login.

Response to Whisper’s Ibada Post

Salaam Whisper and Salaam to everyone

Ibada is basically a term unknown to modern Muslims, their best understanding is what they watched in Hollywood movies depicting a person in cosmetic ritualistic acts of worship. So I admire a person as yourself who asks such honest and genuine question.

I cannot answer this question in any straightforward way, however over the years collected bits and pieces from books:

In Sunni books of the Arab, there are references to the Prophet’s saying that glancing upon the face of Imam Ali is Ibada! Does this mean worship, no not in the language Arab:

http://www.untiredwithloving.org/ali.html

the glance upon one parents’ face is Ibada, said the Prophet peace be upon him.

Or
‘The best of a man’s Ibada (Servitude for Allah) is his good opinions/judgments (about Allah or people)’, said the Prophet.

Or
‘The faster stays within the (state of) Ibada (Servitude for Allah), from dawn till dusk, if he does not backbite; if he does backbite his fasting is ruined’, said the Prophet.

The highest level and most precious Ibada:

Thinking

‘There is no poverty worse than ignorance, no investment with more return than that of ‘Aql (Intellect), and no Ibada (Servitude for Allah) like unto the Tafakkur (Thinking)’, said the Prophet.

 

Lisan Al-Arab
Ibn Manzour
‘Abada is the odoriferous incense burning on fire, ‘Abd is a plant with nice aroma.

 

لسان العرب  ابن منظور
والعَبَدَةُ: صَلاءَةُ الطيِّب. ابن الأَعرابي: العَبْدُ نَبات طَيِّبُ الرائحة؛

‘Abd has the botanical nature of blooming aromatic plants and in extreme cases like an incense burning upon the flares of trials and tribulations, only to give out one of the most unique and loveliest aromas in heavens and earth.

Sometimes a plant must be dried i.e. dead in order for it to burn on the fire to give off lovely aroma, so are many ‘Abid (Servants of Allah) during their lives no one senses anything from their direction, but upon their death universe fills with the aroma of Divine Beauty!

 

Response to Whisper’s Dhikr Post

Salaam Whisper and Salaam to everyone

Best reference for spirituality of Dhikr, from Qushairi Manifest:

http://www.untiredwithloving.org/qushairi_dhikr.html 

Most important concept in metaphysics of Sufis is that human being cannot remember Allah in any form, nor even to mention the Divine Name, but it was Allah all along that remembered or mentioned the human being and the primordial echo of that remembrance or mention is our words remembering Allah:

http://www.untiredwithloving.org/ibn_ataa_hekam_dhikr.html

For that matter the terminology of Qabiliyat has been used:

http://www.untiredwithloving.org/qabiliyat.html

Human being a Divine Musical Instrument, and sounds coming out of him or her are nothing but Dhikr of Allah as in primordial memory accessed to understand something of Allah:

http://www.untiredwithloving.org/muddakir.html

Being good to the mother is a requirement for a man to do proper Dhikr of remembrance of Allah, per Hadith of the Prophet:

http://www.untiredwithloving.org/dhikr_mother.html

 

 

Fitra Response to Shakir Shahid

Salaam Shakir and Salaam to everyone

Fitra, from the form Fatara belongs to a family of related words i.e. Falaqa and Shaqqa:

http://www.untiredwithloving.org/sunderer.html 

In particular:

http://www.untiredwithloving.org/sunderer.html#fatara

Lisan Al-Arab
Ibn Manzour

Fitra-t to invent but for the first time.

Allah Fatara means Allah created the people and started them (for the first time).
Al-Fitra-t: Allah Fatara the creation means Allah brought entities into being and invented them in a form (like kneading the dough) trained for a particular way of action (behavior):

فِطۡرَتَ ٱللَّهِ ٱلَّتِى فَطَرَ ٱلنَّاسَ عَلَيۡہَا‌ۚ

30:30.  Allah‘s Handiwork, that which, Fatara people conformally (according to the design of the handiwork)

Allah’s Handiwork has focused and positioned the human nature to believe (in Tauhid (Divine Oneness))

Fatir is the grammatical agent of verb Fatara i.e. the Sunderer, the sunderer across the cosmos, the starter of all objects going through the cosmic-wide sunderance of singularity.

Q: What is Singularity?

A: A singularity separates realm A from realm B, where each realm are endowed with structures and rules for existence of the entities within them. There is no way the two realms could immix and if they could they both would have had perished. They can coexist since the singularity forbids them to commix in whatsoever way.

Example 1: A larva crosses the singularity of a cocoon to adopt new rules of motion i.e. rapid aerial flight abandoning the completely incompatible slow crawling motion on branches.

Example 2: Ice in solid form, suddenly becomes liquid.

 

 

Example 3: Our bodies are molecularly quite similar to other animals, however these bodies serve as singularities through which our being-ness translocated from the other realm of spirits to this corporeal realm.

 

 

 

 

 

Reply to Hala’s post on Beauty

Salaam Hala and Salam to everyone

Hala I will try to provide back up for your writings on concept of Beauty, so this will be in several pieces and kinda sloppy.

Hadith you quoted:

Inna  Allah (is) beautiful and loves the beauty, said the Prophet.

 

الجامع الصغير – لجلال الدين السيوطي
المجلد الثاني >> [تتمة باب حرف الألف]

1720- إن الله تعالى جميل يحب الجمال
التخريج (مفصلا): صحيح مسلم والترمذي عن ابن مسعود الطبراني في الكبير عن أبي أمامة الحاكم في المستدرك عن ابن عمر، ابن عساكر عن جابر وعن ابن عمر
تصحيح السيوطي: صحيح

Inna indicates that this Beauty of Allah is the very shape of the universe which shapes all things that are beautiful.

Shah Ni’ma-tu-Llah said: Jamal (Beauty) is the Tajalli (Lucent Manifestation) of Allah towards Allah and for Allah.  [1]

This means that Allah loves to see ITs own beauty and loves  to show ITs own beauty to ITself. All other forms of beauty (and pleasures of exposure to beauty) are borrowed from Divine Beauty, infinitely vitiated of course. Gold in its purest form could not be used for jewelry making since it is too soft and needs to be alloyed with impurities. As such for Divine beauty to be seen by other than Allah needs to be alloyed with impurities then it is beautiful in our eyes, else no eye could behold its purest form. Those ‘impure alloys’ are the beautiful things other than Allah.

Irfani (Gnostic) definition of Beauty: Emergence of perfection (Kamal) of the beloved, to render beloved’s needlessness of lover!

Note: Jamal (Beauty) and Kamal(Perfection) are one letter off i.e. Jim for Jamal replaced by Ka for Kamal, in the language Arab indicates conceptual relatedness.

If you could cognize the needlessness of Allah from all things, then you suddenly see the purest forms of Allah’s beauty. If you could not fathom Allah’s needlessness e.g. thinking Allah needs you to do something charitable or religious, then you see nothing of Allah’s beauty, only your own Nafs’.

 

[1] Sajaddi: Farhang-e Istilahat Irfani