The book “Kernel of Kernel” of Ismail Haqqi has been translated from Turkish to English by Rauf Bulent and is published by Beshara. This book is an explanation of words of ibn ‘Arabi that the gnostic should not restrict to one belief. Below are some clear extracts from this book:

Ismail Haqqi writes p 4:

“One of the special matters that Ibn ‘Arabi wants to explain in his Futuhat-al-Makkiyah is this: “If a gnostic (arif) is really a gnostic he cannot stay tied to one form of belief.”

That is to say, if a possessor of knowledge is cognisant of the being in his own ipseity, in all its meanings, he will not remain trapped in one belief. He will not decrease his circle of belief. He is like materia prima (hayula) and will accept whatever form he is presented with. These forms being external, there is no change to the kernel in his interior universe.

The knower of God (arif bi’llah), whatever his origin is, remains like that. He accepts all kinds of beliefs, but does not remain tied to any figurative belief. Whatever his place is in the Divine Knowledge, which is essential knowledge, he remains in that place; knowing the kernel of all belief he sees the interior and not the exterior. He recognises the thing, whose kernel he knows, whatever apparel it puts on, and in this matter his circle is large. Without looking at whatever clothing they appear under in the exterior he reaches into the origin of those beliefs and witnesses them from every possible place.

Both the worlds are by the revelation of God.
Look upon the Beauty of Truth from whichever side you want.”

P 18-19, Ismail Haqqi wrote:

“The explanation has been long for reasons beyond one’s scope. Let us return to the matter in hand.

The real subject was this: Ibn ‘Arabi had said, “Had the gnostic known himself thoroughly, he would not have been trapped by any particular belief.”

If a man arrives at this state, he is considered as having become Perfect Man. All that we have said up till now, comprises a one-thousandth of the qualifications of the Perfect Man. After the man has found this degree he is absolutely the place of revelation of God so that from whichever side He reveals Himself, it is accepted. The person who finds this degree is called the Perfect Man. May God grant to us all that we reach this degree. Amen, hu…

Oh, brother, think with moderation. God gave us great aptitude. We lose this; is that a suitable thing to do? We bring ourselves down to the level of the group mentioned in the Quran: “They are like herds, perhaps even more addled.” It is a pity on us.

It is not easy to become a Perfect Man. It is only possible to find a Perfect Man and hold onto his hand and serve him. God has given this aptitude to everybody but man drops himself into the lowest degree, and destroys his aptitude. Surrender yourself to a Perfect Teacher, and also become a person.

The most important factor is to be bound with certitude to the perfectability of Man. Do not ever think that the Perfect Man is a man without belief or path. His path and his belief is in the existence of the Divine wish and in the existence of the Divine Order. Their belief is not a figurative path or belief. Some of the people of god, when questioned: “From what way are you?”, answered: “I am from the way of God.”

Be free of the rules of all the different ways: Be the leader of the list of all wayfarers.

They asked some of the great ones as follows: “According to what is said, the gnostic will not remain tied to any one belief, YET HE WILL APPEAR TO THE PEOPLE AS IF HE WAS IN CONFORMITY WITH THEM BECAUSE THERE IS A QUOTATION WHICH SAYS: ‘TALK TO THE PEOPLE ACCORDING TO THEIR INTELLIGENCE.’ NOW, IF HE WERE TO SHOW THE PEOPLE WHAT IS IN HIS HEART HE WOULD BE IMMEDIATELY KILLED. IF THE SITUATION IS SUCH, IS NOT THE GNOSTIC A HYPOCRITE?”

THE ANSWER IS AS FOLLOWS: NO. BECAUSE THE HYPOCRITE IS HE WHO HAS A SECRET BELIEF BUT SHOWS WORK IN THE OPEN ACCORDING TO THE CURRENT BELIEF AND HE HIMSELF KNOWS THAT WHAT HE DOES IS NOT PROPER. WHAT THE GNOSTIC SHOWS OUTWARDLY AS HIS BELIEF IS THE SAME AS THE TRUTH, AND ALTHOUGH HIS INTERIOR BELIEF MAY SEEM TO BE IN OPPOSITION TO THE BELIEF HE SHOWS OUTWARDLY, IT IS NOT. THE FRAME OF THE GNOSTIC IS LARGE. IN HIM EVEN THE TWO OPPOSING BELIEFS ARE UNITED. IF THESE TWO OPPOSING BELIEFS APPEAR AS OPPOSITES TO THE PEOPLE OUTSIDE, FOR HIM THEY ARE NOT. THE ONE WHO KNOWS BEST IS GOD.

Comment: One can clearly see that these Sufis do Taqiyah in front of common people and hide their real belief, as according to them only the elite can understand Wahdatul Wujud and if they were to tell their creed to anyone, they would be killed like Hallaj. So their religion is a secret Batini religion. They tell something while in reality they believe something else.

P 32-34:

“Here it is necessary to explain the absoluteness and the relativity of the all-inclusive Truth.

For the one who needs to be freed from fear and be saved from it, what sort of a belief is necessary. . . We shall explain. . . But first an introduction.

It is necessary to know that the all-inclusive Truth (haqiqati-l-jami’a) which the Sheikh mentions above is one of the many Names which refer to that which is named. Some of the gnostics have interpreted it as “Love”, some other great ones have interpreted it as “eternal strength and speech”. Both Muhyiddin ‘Arabi and Sadruddin Konevi intend only one thing by this, and that is One Ipseity and One Reality.

Your Beauty is single but devotions are different. Everything’s pointing to that Beauty is established.

This Reality in question is called in Arabic wujud (Existence), in Turkish varlik (Existence), in Persian hati (Existence), but in Reality, this Existence is transcendent beyond all these names. What is true is that to explain this they use the terms wujud (being), ‘ashq (love), nur (light), nafs (self), or rahmah (clemence), but that which is meant by all of these is the name of One Being which is haqq (Reality).

Those who interpret being as absolute have conditioned it. They have extracted the meaning of being from the conjoining of absoluteness with relativity. But they have considered another kind of absoluteness from that conjoining and transcendence.

Further they have transcended it even from transcendence. They even said while you are conditioning it, it is absolutely necessary that you transcend it at the same time.

Because this is a matter that depends on taste. Hence what one must understand is that this one Existence has such magnitude that It includes everything. Also It gathers in Its Being all the degrees. . . Then gathers all these degrees in Its Ipseity. . . Then let It be the same as all these degrees and equally let It be transcendent from all of them. In this way It is both relative and absolute, both all-inclusive and transcendent from all. By virtue of Its absoluteness, it is rich beyond need and dear above everything, so that no caprice or prayer reaches Him. Here two Quranic quotations point to this meaning:

1.”God is Rich-Beyond-Need of the universe.”
2. “Praise and Glory to your Lord, the Lord of Strength and Dearness beyond that with which they can qualify Him. “

and a hadith which explains the same meanings: “God was God and there was not with Him anything equal. “

In this station neither name nor picture nor poem of praise nor adjective exists. He is considered free and transcendent from all. The one who journeys through all degrees and reveals Himself is Him. Since He is the same as each degree, and is in a qualification which makes Him the collector of all, He is the One who is called by all the Names, drawn in every picture, called with different names and qualities and qualifications. He descends to every degree, and this descent is also a sign of His ripeness. His descent is explained by this hadith: “I was ill, and you did not visit Me. I was hungry and you fed Me not from your own food.” The Reality, in Its qualities, in Its descent and in Its degrees accepts the opposites because from It’s point of view there is no such thing as opposite. . . Only those who are more special than special understand this. For the people of gnosis this is a hint and for them it is enough. The following Quranic saying shows the situation very well: “He is the Beginning and the End, He is the Exterior and the Interior and He knows everything by its own being.”

We have explained as much as possible what is absolute and what is relative. Let it be known that if you condition Him by absoluteness, this absoluteness becomes as if it were relative, whereas it is necessary not to tie Him down to any condition. Because God has encompassed all degrees. The following is a verse from the Quran which states this: “Wherever you turn, God has a face of revelation in that direction. (note from Ali H Khan: this is wrong translation)” According to this order in every degree there is a face of revelation. Consequently you cannot deny one and accept the other. If you do, you cover up the Truth, and this is considered denial.

For example, an idolator, because he has made his devotion exclusive to an idol, and because he has tied his state to that denies any other belief. Consequently he is considered as one who covers the Truth. Then if a Muslim denies one of the beings in which God manifests Himself, religion does not consider him as Muslim.

The covering up of the false has covered up the Absolute Truth. The covering of the Truth has covered himself with Truth.

Oh, son, the meaning of this is hidden in the Quranic verse: “Your Lord’s decree is this, that you worship only Him.”

The greatest of the universe, the deepest ocean is Thou, Why bother to know about places since Being is Thou.

The person who has reached the kernel of the state of Absoluteness is called a gnostic, a saint and a person of God. For these the following Quranic verse exists: “Be aware that for the saintly servants of God there is neither fear nor sadness.

Gnostics, saintly servants, enter this company and find salvation from fear and danger. My God, may we be granted these states.”

Comment: So one can see that Ismail Haqqi’s interpretation of ibn Arabi’s words is clear, none is worshiped other than Allah, and the gnostic has all beliefs, restricting to one manifestation is Kufr (veil), rather one should worship all forms. This was clearly said by ibn Arabi about the worshipers of the calf and the idol worshipers of the people of Nuh (aley salam) and he quoted the verse that Allah decreed that they should not worship but Him, and Ahlus Sunnah say here decree is Shar’i, meaning Allah ordered creation to worship Him alone, yet they can disobey his order, while these people as explained by Al-Jami in his explanation of “Fusus ul Hikam”, say that it also include Hukm Taqdiri, meaning Allah preordered and only He can be worshiped.

P22-25, Ismail Haqqi writes:

“A man who is on the way becomes Man when he reaches the Total Intellect. This is called the Reality of Muhammed. That which is mentioned in the hadith applies to this: “First of all God created my Intellect.” (note Ali H Khan: a fabricated Hadith) The man of the Way at this station is colourless and finds Oneness.

The colourless imprisons even the colour:
Moses makes war with Moses.
One who does not enter a colour finds a sweet way.
Moses and Pharoah become friends.

The intellect of the man finds the Total Intellect, his self finds the Total Self, his spirit finds the Holy Spirit. This station is known as Union after Separation. This is the station of the people who are attracted to God. Perplexity, remorseless distraction and intellect are at this level. Many get irrevocably lost at this stage. That is why they say, to look for Union without being separate is madness, and if this madness happens, the man of the way of Truth remains at this state; he can never go forward and cannot reach perfection or completion, and cannot find Truth in itself, as It is. However, this state is an extremely pleasurable state, and it is the station of journeying with Truth in Truth.

The man who has started on the journey (salik) has thrown into the ocean the atom of existence in himself. He is now without a head: and now he is neither aware of himself, nor of the universe, nor of anybody else. . . From this moment on he cannot take refuge in any one part of religious belief and cannot subject himself to the regulation of any dogma. But he must not loiter in this state — it is absolutely essential he must go forward. With the help of God in this station, finding the state of non-existence with God, it is necessary that he reach the universe of subsistence with Him.

Third Journey

This journey starts from Him, but at the same time it is the station of remaining (baqa’) with Him. That is to say, it is the journey from the Reality (Haqq) to the Many (khalq). That is to say, having found the Universe of Oneness, he passes into the state of separateness. The man on this journey is for helping others to know, for clearing a way for others with a spiritual descent, and he puts on the cloak of manhood and comes down from his state to among the people and mingles with them. That is the meaning of the hadith that says: ”I am also a human being like you all.” It is necessary at this state to eat, to drink, to sleep, to marry, but not to fall into excess in any, nor into asceticism. Complete balance and direction is essential.

Neither excess, nor deficiency must there be in him That is the rightt way in the midst of this,

The person who reaches that state is a person of iffet (the quality of being above reproach) and istiqdmat (direction). He outwardly agrees with religious laws and he accepts them, but he does not ever get involved with extra ritual other than that which is essential. Both in the Universe of Multitudes and in the Universe of Oneness, he is constantly in a state of prayer (salat). His exterior universe is close to the people. His interior universe is conjoined inseparably to God. To understand this person is very difficult because people think and judge a man by his visible devout attitude and his exterior actions, and they think it is the devout man who is evolved. However, the Perfect Man’s development cannot be seen with the eye of the senses. To be able to see him, you have to have eyes that have reached him.

In short, only those who have reached perfection can recognize the Perfect Man. This circle is the circle of Difference which comes about after the circle of Union. The Khalifa ‘Ali said: “To have individuation without having reached union is polytheism (shirk); if at the end of union there is no differencing, it is imposture (zindiq); but to find union and differencing as one is also considered as tawhid (unification).” These three stations are the meaning of the thing we have been trying to explain, and there is no necessity to go any deeper into it.

For the Perfect Man, this descent to the Station of Differentness is considered progress. When he reaches this station, then he has gnosis of himself. And because at this place he is tied indissolubly to the original Essence, he has no possibility of being tied to any one form of belief. God knows best.

In spite of the fact that the state is thus, just as Ibn ‘Arabi says, this person does not question anybody because of the belief he nurtures; he does not meddle with such things and he does not deny their belief, because he has arranged deep in his being all the beliefs. That is to say, the gnostic has understood an all-inclusive point of view. For this reason, the all-inclusive reality has a face in each sector of belief because what they call an absolute perspective is that gnostic. There is no absolute which has not a relative side. Because of this, whatever is worshipped, the Absolute appears in that face. Whether or not the owner of a belief knows this, this is how it is.

Sheikh al ‘Iraqi says thus: “God made all things the same as Himself. The wisdom in this is that He did not want anything worshipped except Himself. . . and so that nothing else be loved, the Divine intensity necessitates this.”

Intensity of God did not allow any stranger;
He, without a doubt, became the same as all things. God wanted to create all the things,
But did not allow other than Himself in between.
Those who worship in this world, worship Him
So that on the earth whatever i’s seen is Him;
And this the creatures may seize.
That is that man can only seize with good character. And the narrow hearts are made by that

The particulars mentioned above are the established known meaning of this verse from the Quran: “Your Lord’s decree is this that you do not be a servant to any but Him.” That is to say: Oh Prophet, your Lord’s apprreciation and decree is this that in love, in praise, and in exaltation, you should know no other than Him, see no other than Him, and be a servant to no other than Him. In any case, it is absolutely impossible to worship other than Him. Even the worship of an idol results in the worship of God, because the existence of the idol is also of God. To be able to understand this it is necessary to understand and to know that all existence is of God. These words of ours are a mirror to what has been said before.

Thus the gnostic, after having understood this meaning, neither enters into nor denies anybody else’s belief, because he understands there is no other existent but Him and because he saw the All linked together in a chain of order, and understood that he himself is nothing other than an order and a will. Again, the gnostic sees every person according to the manifestation of a Name, and thereby their beliefs and their behavior are as they should be.”

Comments:

These Sufis believe that Aql Kulli is Haqiqah Muhammadiyah also called Nur Muhammadi, and this was the first creation. They took this from ibn Sina who said thay Aql was first creation and from its Faydh (emanation) other things got created. Moses becomes friend with Pharaoh, this is from Mathnawi of Jalaludin Rumi.

P 44 and after, Ismail Haqqi writes:

“Ibn ‘Arabi continuing, says as follows: “God created His own Being, but intelligences could not understand this. Because those minds are of the intelligences that think of material things. The intelligence that appertains to material things is deffective in the understanding of great things. To be able to understand this it is necessary to have an intelligence that goes beyond these things and reaches further. – In effect, to say that God created His own Being from an exterior point of view does not seem to appear proper. But from the point of view of meaning all the same it is true and it is a state which reduces everything to a state of inability; and what is necessary for us is the meaning.

Another important matter that intelligences do not comprehend is this: anybody who speaks a word concerning God, he gives Him an image. Even if he worships it still he worships what he has imagined. That is also God Himself and nobody else. God has shown a face in the mirror of the heart of His servant according to his understanding. We are now coming to the real matter. In these cases of imagining or thought obviously it is not that servant who created God; it is that God has created His own Being. The creator of everything is God; there is no other creator than Him. That which appears in the belief of the servant also is of the domain of things that God has created, which in fact were created also by God.

One of the deep meanings of: “God created His own Being” is also this.

There is a special thing which is to be known and we shall explain: creation, bringing about, inventing, making and immanencing, all point to the same meaning. Even if each of these have even a slight difference of meaning they all come to the same. What is meant by all these is the manifestation and revelation of God.

Another meaning that should be given to all of these is the following: God created His own Being. According to the conjecture of the thinking servant, and according to his thought, He manifests His Being. Here is an example. Someone takes a mirror in front of them and creates their being there, sees it and knows it. There is a special pleasure for a person to look and see himself in the mirror.

For this reason God has created this universe and Adam, and made them His mirrors. But this is important; in the mirror of the universe He sees His reflection and in the mirror of Adam He looks upon Himself exactly and sees Himself. Here what is meant by Adam is Man. What is meant by saying He created the universe and Adam and made them mirrors for His Being is: He manifested Himself as a mirror… He presented His Beauty in that mirror to His Ipseity. By doing this He became the Seer. From the other face He became the Beloved and He entered upon caprice. He presented again His Beauty to Himself and revealed Himself: here the seer, the seen and the sight and the mirror are the same.

The Perfect Man is such a pure, clean, absolute mirror that God, who is Absolute Beauty, sees His Ipseity unconditionally therein.

The mirror of the Perfect Man is according to the revelation of God. The revelation which happens in others is according to the servant’s imagination, his capacity to receive and his aptitude. God speaks the truth and guides to the straight path.

Ibn ‘Arabi, at the end of his Fusus al Hikam, has used certain words. Because it is connected to our subject, let us consider some parts here. In short, Ibn ‘Arabi says: “The God in whose existence one believes is the Divinity built according to the conjecture of the servant. This is a qualification that the servant has conjectured from within himself and which he worships in accordance with it, and he puts God into his own narrow frame. Therefore he condemns the belief of anybody which does not concord with his own belief. The reason for this is that it is not that it does not fit God’s desire, but it does not fit his own conjecture. Were he tolerant he would not have done so. . . Acting like this that servant made for himself a private deity and condemns everybody that does not agree with him, because he is ignorant. Had he understood the meaning of what Junayd of Baghdad, said: ‘The colour of water is the colour of its container,’ he would not have argued with anybody else. He would have become a gnostic who accepts everybody’s beliefs. He would have seen and recognized the revelation of God in any image.

The person who imagines a private deity has simply a conjecture; he is neither a knower nor a gnostic. Because of this God said: ‘I am according to the conjecture of My servant.’ The meaning of this is: in what manner My servant thinks of Me, I become according to that.

This, whether it be Absoluteness or whether it be relativity.

The God for whom belief of different kinds is nurtured is defined, limited and numbered. The Divinity which fits into the heart of the servant is that one; that is to say, a face of the revelation of God; and it is no other Divinity. However, the Divinity which is Absolute has Majesty (jalal) and there is nothing else findable except that and He doesn’t fit into anywhere, not even into the heart. How could He fit, since He is the same as everything? There is no other Ipseity and He is even the same as the heart. It is not even permitted to say whether He fits into His own Being or whether He does not. Think of the matter according to this and understand.”

It is necessary to bring an example so that what we explained above can be easily understood. If a beloved was looked upon and 100,000 mirrors were placed around her, how many 100,000 would that beloved be seen as; but in effect she is only one. All the same, in those mirrors, according to each one’s aptitude, she would appear in some as brilliant, in some as sad, in some straight, in some crooked. Consequently, if a man saw the face of his beloved in one mirror and denied the other mirrors, he would not be a gnostic. He who is a gnostic acknowledges each. In whatever mirror he sees her, he affirms and perhaps he even sees her without a mirror.

To how many hundred thousand eyes was visible this evident image. Again He Himself has become desirous of His own Beauty.

It is not necessary to explain further than this example. The possessor of gnosis, the longer he thinks and takes pleasure in the taste, can find that many examples.

Let us give another example. If a man remained in a dark place without seeing the light of the sun, and one day if the sides of that place were opened up with glass of many colours and forms, when the day comes, each of these glasses would be struck by a different light. According to where the light strikes a different glass, there would fall into the room a different coloured light. Then the man would argue that the colour of the sun as green, red, etc. and he would be lost in illusion and image. But the gnostic will know the reality of the matter and decide accordingly. He knows that the colour of the water is the colour of the container and he knows that what lights up everything is the light of God. Quran: “God is the light of the earth and the heavens. – This explains the situation aptly. According to the gnostic, what is seen in the mirrors of the two universes is one face. Even though it is like this each gnostic has attained to one perfection.

Some of them say: “At the end of it all there is nothing in which I do not see the 1pseity of God. –

Another group says: “There is nothing within which I do not see the Ipseity of God.”

Another group says: “I see Him before anything else.” Yet another group says: “Only God.”

A certain group of gnostics say: “Only God sees God.”

In this matter of seeing, five forms have occurred. The gnostic, after having gathered all these five in himself, finds that five other things happen, the explanation of which is not suitable here, and to reveal this even is forbidden. Those who want to find out let them hang onto the hem of a Perfect person and ask of him, because: “The one who has not tasted cannot know;” this is a necessary condition. The rest cannot be explained by writing.

So there it is; and peace. God is the only helper.
With the help of God this is now completed.

Comments: The clear Kufr is not hidden to anyone!

 

P 4, Haqqi wrote:

“First Form

If a person in his body understands the partial spirit in his form which may be called the speaking self (nafsi-n natiqa), if that person’s state is like this, he is in the first form. This station is called the station of progress. According to the people of Union, self, heart, spirit, intellect, mystery all mean the same thing. These different names are given to the same thing which takes different forms at different times.

This thing known as the speaking self has neither life nor body but has influence and action outside and inside the body, yet it has neither place nor a sign of existence. Though it has no special location, when ever you put your finger on something it is there and it appears there existent in all its totality. Furthermore, division, partition and things of this sort are not possible for it. It is that which holds in the man’s hand, which looks in his eye, which speaks in his tongue, which walks in his foot, which hears in his ear, and in short is present and in control in all his feelings.

It is totally and essentially present in every part of the body, and having circumscribed the whole body, it is transcendent and free from every part of the body. If a finger or a foot were to be cut off, it would suffer no diminution, nor does it lose any part of itself. In any case, it is at its centre as it was always, and remains permanent and present. If the body is annihilated it suffers neither loss of existence nor dispersion. To be able to understand this there are meanings which do not fit into any limit or calculation.

Second Form

Let the one who is in this second form look to the horizons. That is, let him look at the horizons where the Total Self is. . . This is called Intellect, the Qualified Total Spirit, Viceregent. It has no bodily shape and it is not even outside this universe and its heavens, but it englobes all existents and therein it is present and in control. In relation to it, highest top and the bottom of the bottom are the same. It is present in every one of those degrees with its own ipseity. It cannot be parcelled or partitioned. If the skies fell in and the earth shattered, nothing would happen to it.

For example, what difference does it make to the sun and how does it suffer though it enters every tower, palace or house that is built in the world. However, each chimney, room or hall receives light from it according to its window. Just as if those houses were to fall down and the palaces be ruined, nobody would imagine anything would happen to the sun, equally nothing would happen to it. No matter how many people or creatures God has created, He can have determination in, and control over, all of them. No matter how many die from among those that are alive that Qualified Spirit remains present forever and in whatever state it was.

Thus the one who possesses that spirit, when he looks at the horizons, if he knows these states, will understand what the second form is.

Third Form

In this station man receives further developments and sees what is called his partial spirit to be non-existent and annihilated in the Total Spirit, and he comes alive in the Qualified Spirit. . . Let him observe that the spirit is the Total Spirit, and that the intellect is the Total Intellect, and observe this with the certainty of the Truth (haqqu-lyaqin) and then throw away from himself anything called ‘partial’. Let him understand that everything is tied to the Total. Thus is the third form.

Fourth Form

Then . . . let him continue to ascend in this station. Let him find his spirit annihilated in the Qualified Spirit. And now let him see that the Qualified Spirit is annihilated in the Ipseity of God. Let him be liberated both from the partials and the totals. When this happens to him he sees all businesses annihilated in the acts of God, all Names and Qualities annihilated in the Name and Quality of God, and equally, all ipseities annihilated in the Ipseity of God, and he sees them as non-existent. When he is secure in this then he has reached what is known as closeness through Knowledge (‘ilmu-l yaqin) and closeness through Truth (haqqu-lyaqin) and he reaches the station of complete witnessing.

Under the cloak of the existents there is nothing other than Him: he comes to know the meanings in this through the interior, and also, having acquired an understanding of the meaning of the Quranic quotation: “Today, to whom does everything belong? To God, the One and Complete Annihilator,” he knows certainly that in the interior, there is nothing other than God.

Up to now we have mentioned four forms. These can also be called as follows:
1. Enfus — Interior
2. Abaq — Horizons, outside existence
3. The union of the first and second forms
4. The annihilation of the first, second and third forms in the Ipseity of God.
Fifth Form

This is such a station that here every station that has been mentioned before should be seen and observed as one. The person who has reached this station is often referred to as Son of Time (ibnu-l- waqt).

Sixth Form

The person who has reached this station is a mirror for everything. The traveller in this station finds on his road no one else but himself and thinks of everything as tied to himself. He says: “Inside my cloak there is nothing but God. Could there by anybody else in the two worlds except me?” That is, he is a mirror to everything and everything is mirrored in him. Perhaps, even, also he is the shine of the mirror and what is reflected. He was before this the Son of Time and he used to say: “There is no other existence but God.” When he has found this station he will say: “There is only ‘I”‘, and he is often referred to as the Father of Time (abu-l waqt).

Seventh Form

The man who comes to this station is now in complete annihilation. Completely and simply he has reached non¬existence, and from now on in subsistence (baqa’) he reaches subsistence (baqa’). After this one would not speak of him as having state or station. He has here neither observation nor witnessing nor gnosis, and the explanation or interpretation of these is not possible because this place is a station of complete non-existence. Even the word station is used here only to explain because the person here knows of neither station nor sign. Only those with taste understand through taste. May God make this state easy for us.

When the gnostic has reached this station he is in the universe of Oneness and Collectivity (‘Alemi jam’). If it is necessary for him to separate from here he is adorned with a Divine existence. He knows his reality and consequently comprehends God, and then he is no more tied to any of the laws, regulations, beliefs that we understand in the exterior. This is what one wanted explained, and the meaning desired was this.

Without being I did not find the road to that Truth;
There I became alive with the Truth; I found subsistence (baqa)

Myself, I annihilated myself; Myself I found myself again. You will be all when you make nothing of yourself.

At last the gnostic understands that whether it be in the enfus or whether it be in the afaq whatever is manifested is the Ipseity; that existence is One Existence, One Soul, One Body; it is neither separated nor individuated; that everything in immanence is nothing other than His Manifestation and Tools; that from every particle or stem to the greatest mass, God (al haqq) is manifested with all His Qualities and Names, and that this manifestation is according to the understanding and belief of each person. In each place and in each station He shows a different face.”

Comment: May Allah protect us from such Sufis!

May Allah sent Salah and Salam on the Prophet (saw), his family, companions and those who follow them.

Compiled by Ali Hassan Khan