Letters from a Sûfî TeacherManiri, Sharaf al-Din Ahmad ibn Yahya
Islamic
Letters from a Sûfî Teacher
Maniri, Sharaf al-Din Ahmad ibn Yahya
Sufism -- Early works to 1800
Another is through one's own nature. "He that knows his own nature,
verily knows his God." God first shewed His Powers in the universe to
enable monotheists to gain Knowledge of Him by observing it. This way
being too long for the Sages, He placed in Man the essences of the
entire creation, thus making Human Nature the facsimile of the whole
universe and the ladder to His Knowledge. Pilgrims tread the Path of
Divine Knowledge _in_ themselves, look for the pure and the foul _in_
themselves, and find the indication and proof of that Knowledge _in_
themselves.
God engages some men in observation, and they know Him by pondering
over His creation. He leads others to His knowledge through asceticism.
There is another class of men whose hearts He illumines at once. Again,
some are debarred from the _essence_ of the Divine Knowledge, others
from the Path itself. "The Divine Beauty has thousands of aspects, each
atom presenting some peculiar one."
=Noori= was asked: "What is the proof of God?" He replied: "The proof
of God is God Himself." They asked him again: "Then what is the use
of intellect?" He said: "Intellect is a failure, it cannot lead save
to what is a failure like itself." Intellect can only look upon an
entity either as _body_, _essence_ or _accident_; or in Space and
Time. It cannot go beyond those limitations. If it fixes any of
those limitations on God, it sinks to infidelity. If, bewildered, it
exclaims: "I do not find any existence save with these properties. So,
God being without any of these properties, is perhaps naught,"--it
is still dragged down to infidelity.... In short, Divine Knowledge
depends upon Divine illumination alone.
Divine Knowledge is the knowledge of God as He is in His Essence,
Attributes, and Works. The Sage should know God in the same way as
God knows Himself, and as He has described Himself in the =Qurân=.
There are two theories as to the _perfection_ of this Knowledge. Some
Intellectualists hold that the Sage knows God in the same way as God
knows Himself. If he does not know Him perfectly, he knows a part of
Him. But God is partless. So Sages are equal in Divine Knowledge.
Intellectualists hold to the possibility of perfect Divine Knowledge.
The other theory is held by the Sûfîs and a few intellectualists as
well, _viz._, that no one knows God perfectly. They know Him to exist,
and know it to the extent necessary for their salvation. They do not
hold to the possibility of perfect Divine Knowledge.
With the Masters of the Path, Divine Knowledge is the actual and
direct perception of God: with the Intellectualists, it is the sound
intellectual knowledge of God.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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