Universal Dimensions of Islam Part 8

Any thought other than G.o.d's remembrance is evil suggestion.12

It is this perspective which enables one to reconcile competing truth claims within a unique Reality which transcends all such claims, that Reality to which the "truths" bear witness, to which they lead, and from which they receive all their value. The following words of the Qur'an bear witness to the unique Reality from which all religions derive: Our G.o.d and your G.o.d is One (29:46); as for leading back to the same Reality: For each of you We have established a Law and a Path (5:48).

If the paths revealed by G.o.d are different and divergent, then they cannot but be accompanied by divergent truth-claims, that is, claims pertaining to ways of conceiving and realizing the truth; yet insofar as this truth is but the conceptual expression of an ultimate Reality, and insofar as this Reality is posited as the alpha and omega of all things, the divergent conceptual claims to truth converge on a unique Reality-that of G.o.d, the ultimate truth, the ultimate Reality-both truth and reality being in fact synthesised in one of the most important names of G.o.d in Islam, al-aqq, "The Real/The True". If the source and the summit of the divergent paths is a single, unique Reality, it is this oneness of the Real which must take ontological precedence over the competing "epistemological" claims to truth. In other words, Being precedes thought; thought is consummated in Being.13 The mutually exclusive truth-claims, in their purely conceptual form, might be seen as so many unavoidable shadows cast by the divinely-willed diversity of religious paths; these diverse paths, in turn, can be envisaged as so many "lights" emanating from the one and only Light, this unique Light being refracted into different colors by the prism of relativity, and these differently colored lights then crystallising in the forms of the various religions, according to this symbolism.14 Red, blue, and yellow lights remain lights even while of necessity excluding each other: no light can be identified with another, except insofar as each is identified with light as such, and not as such and such a light. Here, the Essence of the Real, or the Absolute, is represented by light as such, and the religions can be seen as colors adding to that light something of their own relativity, even while being the vehicles of that light. As will be seen below, this means of reconciling outwardly divergent religious forms within a unitive spiritual essence evokes Ibn al-'Arabi's image of the cup being colored by the drink it contains. The water-standing here for the Absolute-within the cup-the particular religion-becomes 'colored' by the color of the cup; but this is so only extrinsically, and from the human point of view; for intrinsically, and from the divine point of view-sub specie aeternitatis-the water remains colorless.

Returning to the idea of da'wa-as-dialogue, in the Christian context, those most opposed to the reductionistic tendencies of the kind of pluralism a.s.sociated with John Hick argue forcefully that a Christian has both the right and the duty to "bear witness" to his faith: to some degree at least, and in some manner, implicit or explicit, it becomes one's duty to invite others to study and investigate the wisdom that is available within one's own faith. As mentioned above, this is a crucial prerequisite for anyone who wishes to engage in dialogue on behalf of a particular faith: to represent that faith must mean to "re-present" it, to present its wisdom, beauty-but also, its normativity, failing which one will not be seen as a "valid interlocutor" within the tradition one seeks to represent.

It might be objected here: it is impossible to meet every type of criterion which the different schools of thought within any given religious tradition may propose for one to be deemed a "valid interlocutor" on behalf of that faith. Whilst this is true, it is nonetheless worth making the effort to reduce as far as possible the basis upon which one's credentials as a valid interlocutor would be rejected by one's co-religionists. And one of the main bases for this rejection is, without doubt, the perception that those engaged in dialogue are so intent on reaching out to the Other that they do not sufficiently respect the integrity of the Self-that is, they inadequately uphold the normativity of the tradition ostensibly being represented in dialogue. This is a factor which cannot be ignored if one is concerned with a dialogue that aims to be effective, not just in the debating halls of academia, but also in the wider world, wherein the overwhelming majority of believers within the various religions believe deeply in the normativity of their particular religion.

How, then, can the Muslim engaged in dialogue cultivate that wisdom which perceives the truth, the holiness, and the beauty that is contained within the religions of the Other, whilst simultaneously upholding the normativity of his faith, and the specificity of his ident.i.ty?15 The perception of the validity of other, alien forms of religious belief acquires a particular acuteness in the light of the following strongly authenticated saying of the Prophet; it is transmitted by Abu Sa'id al-Khudri"

G.o.d appears to the Muslims on the Day of Judgment and declares: "I am your Lord." They say: "We seek refuge in G.o.d from you, and do not a.s.sociate anything with G.o.d." They repeat this twice or thrice, such that some of them would be about to return. G.o.d asks: "Is there any sign between you and Him, by means of which you would recognize Him?" They reply: "Yes"; then the reality is laid bare. . . . Then they raised their heads and He transformed Himself (taawwala) into the form (ura) in which they had seen Him the first time. He then said: "I am your Lord". They said: "You are our Lord".16 How, then, is one to recognize the divine "face" in the traditions of the Other; how does one recognize this "lost camel"-the wisdom contained within the religions of the Other? For this wisdom may well be expressed in forms of divine self-manifestation which are not only alien, but, in addition, so unlike one's own received wisdom that one takes refuge from them in one's own "G.o.d". If believers on the Day of Judgment are unable to recognize G.o.d in anything other than the "sign" furnished by their own beliefs, through the blinkers of their own prejudices, how can believers, here and now, ensure that they do not fall into this same trap?

Evidently, prejudice is one of the main obstacles in the path of any dialogue which aims at discovering the wisdom of the Other; however, one of the princ.i.p.al problems arising out of the removal of prejudice towards the Other is the weakening of the ident.i.ty of the Self.17 How can we reach out to the Other in an unprejudiced manner, without this absence of prejudice diluting or subverting our own sense of ident.i.ty? Or again: How can we be universalist in our spiritual vision, without sacrificing the specificity of our faith and praxis?

It is our contention here that in the Islamic tradition, the Sufi school of thought a.s.sociated with Muhyi al-Din Ibn al-'Arabi, known in Sufism as "the greatest shaykh" (al-Shaykh al-Akbar)18 can be of considerable value in helping to cultivate the wisdom which synthesizes the two principles in question here: an unprejudiced, universalist, supra-confessional view of spirituality, on the one hand; and a normative approach to the specificity and particularity of one's own faith, praxis, and ident.i.ty on the other. It is possible to arrive at an inclusive perspective, one which, however paradoxically, includes exclusivism; this is a perspective which transcends the false dichotomy, so often encountered in our times, between a fanatical exclusivism which disdains all but one's own faith, and a relativistic inclusivism which fatally undermines the integrity of one's own faith. Upholding the integrity of one's faith is difficult if not impossible without a definitive, clearly delineated ident.i.ty, which in its very specificity and particularity cannot but exclude elements of the Other on the plane of religious form; by "religious form" is meant not just legal and ritual forms but also conceptual and doctrinal forms. However, all such forms are radically transcended, objectively, by the divine essence of the religions; and all the modes of ident.i.ty commensurate with these forms are just as radically dissolved, subjectively, within the consciousness of one whose soul has been effaced within that essence. These are natural corollaries of Ibn al-'Arabi's complex and challenging perspective on the dynamics of religious consciousness.

This metaphysical-or supra-confessional-perspective of Ibn al-'Arabi should be seen as the result of following faithfully and unreservedly certain spiritual trajectories opened up by the Qur'an, and not simply as the product of his own speculative genius, however undeniable that genius is. Within this perspective there is a clearly defined relations.h.i.+p between form and essence; as will be demonstrated below, his elaboration on this basic distinction flows from the clear distinction established in the Qur'an between the essence of religion-which is unique-and its forms-which are diverse. Verses such as the following should be borne in mind as the rest of this paper proceeds: He hath ordained for you of the religion (min al-din) that which He commended unto Noah, and that which We reveal to thee [Muammad] , and that which We commended unto Abraham and Moses and Jesus, saying: Establish the religion, and be not divided therein. (42:13) Say: We believe in G.o.d and that which is revealed unto us, and that which was revealed unto Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and that which was given unto Moses and Jesus and the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto Him we have submitted. (3:84) Naught is said unto thee [Muammad] but what was said unto the Messengers before thee. (41:43) It is that essential religion (al-din) which was conveyed to all the Messengers, whence the lack of differentiation between them on the highest level: the Muslim is not permitted to make an essential distinction between any of them: we make no distinction between any of them (3:84; 2:285, et pa.s.sim) Understanding this distinction between the essence of religion and its forms is crucial for those engaged in dialogue; a correct understanding of this fundamental distinction enables one to engage in dialogue with wisdom, and on the basis of a principled universality; this, in contrast to an unprincipled or rootless syncretism, and in contrast to a well-meaning but ultimately corrosive relativistic pluralism. Syncretistic universalism stems from a sentimental and superficial a.s.similation of the sacred; it thus has no intellectual or metaphysical principle which can discern authentic religion from spurious cults, on the one hand, and, on the other, maintain a total commitment to one's own religion whilst opening up to the religions of the Other. In syncretism, indiscriminate openness to all sacred forms in general-or what are deemed to be such-cannot but entail a disintegration of the specific form of one's own religion. Principled universality, by contrast, leads to an intensification of commitment to one's own religion; the sense of the sacred and the need to follow the path delineated by one's own religion not only coexist, but each may be said to be a sine qua non for the transformative power of other. For effective access to the sacred is granted, not by an abstract, purely discursive conception of the sacred in general, but by entering into the concrete, specific forms of the sacred which are bestowed by the grace inherent within one's own sacred tradition. From this spiritual process of plumbing the depths of the sacred emerges the comprehension that there is no access to the essence of the sacred, above all religious forms, except by means of those authentic formal manifestations of the Essence: the divinely revealed religions. Such a perspective flows naturally from reflection upon the meaning of the verses from the Qur'an cited above, and in particular, 5:48: For each of you We have established a Law and a Path. Had G.o.d willed, He could have made you one community. But that He might try you by that which He hath given you [He hath made you as you are]. So vie with one another in good works.

This minimal definition of authenticity-"true" religion being that which is divinely revealed-derives from the Qur'an and is reinforced by what Ibn al-'Arabi says about obedience to G.o.d determining one's salvation: "He who prostrates himself to other than G.o.d seeking nearness to G.o.d and obeying G.o.d will be felicitous and attain deliverance, but he who prostrates himself to other than G.o.d without G.o.d's command seeking nearness will be wretched".19 We are using this criterion to distinguish true from false religion, in the full knowledge that authenticity or orthodoxy as defined within each true religion will have its own distinctive and irreducible criteria. In this connection it is worth noting that there was never any central ecclesiastical authority in Islam, comparable to the papacy in Catholicism, charged with the duty of dogmatically imposing "infallible" doctrine. According to a well-known saying in Islam: "The divergences of the learned (al-'ulama) are a mercy".20 This saying can be seen as manifesting the ec.u.menical spirit proper to Islam; orthodoxy qua doctrinal form has a wide compa.s.s, its essence being the attestation of the oneness of G.o.d and of Muammad as His messenger, these comprising the shahadatayn, or "dual testimony". Accordingly, in Islamic civilization, a wide variety of theological doctrine, philosophical speculation, mystical inspiration, and metaphysical exposition was acceptable so long as the Shari'a, the Sacred Law, was upheld. We might speculate here that the principle of the saying quoted above can also, by transposition, be applied to the religions themselves: the divergences of the religions const.i.tute a "mercy". This mercy is expressed in the divine will for religion to be characterised by a diversity of paths: Had G.o.d willed, He could have made you one community.

The capacity to recognise other religions as valid, without detriment to the commitment to one's own religion, evidently requires a certain spiritual suppleness; minimally, it requires a sense of the sacred and an inkling of the universality of revelation; at its most profound, it is the fruit of spiritual vision. With the help of Ibn al-'Arabi's doctrine, itself evidently the fruit of just such vision,21 we can arrive at a conception of a principled universality, that is, an awareness of the universality of religion which neither violates the principles of one's own religion, nor dilutes the content of one's own religious ident.i.ty.

2. Universality and Ident.i.ty The relations.h.i.+p between the perception of religious universality and the imperatives of one's ident.i.ty is brought into sharp focus by Ibn al-'Arabi in his account of his spiritual ascension (mi'raj), an account describing one of the peaks of his inner life.22 In this spiritual ascent-distinguished from that of the Prophet, which was both bodily and spiritual-he rises up to a spiritual degree which is revealed as his own deepest essence. But one can hardly speak of personal p.r.o.nouns such as "his" at this level of spiritual experience: whatever belongs to him, whatever pertains to "his" ident.i.ty, is dissolved in the very process of the ascent itself. At the climax of this ascent, he exclaims: "Enough, enough! My bodily elements are filled up, and my place cannot contain me!", and then tells us: "G.o.d removed from me my contingent dimension. Thus I attained in this nocturnal journey the inner realities of all the Names and I saw them returning to One Subject and One Ent.i.ty: that Subject was what I witnessed and that Ent.i.ty was my Being. For my voyage was only in myself and pointed to myself, and through this I came to know that I was a pure 'servant' without a trace of lords.h.i.+p in me at all."23 It is of note that immediately following this extraordinary revelation of the deepest reality of "his" selfhood within the divine reality, Ibn al-'Arabi should proclaim, not the secret of oneness with G.o.d, or his "Lords.h.i.+p" in the manner of a allaj who declared ecstatically ana'l-aqq (I am the Truth), but the very opposite: he came to know through this journey that he was a pure servant ('abd), without any trace of lords.h.i.+p (rububiyya). The highest realization is accompanied by the deepest humility. Self-effacement, rather than self-glorification, is the fruit of this degree of spiritual station, the very opposite to what one might have imagined. It is the essence or sirr-"secret" or "mystery" - of consciousness within the soul of the saint that, alone, can grasp the truth that it is not conditioned by the soul. The consciousness within the soul knows that it is not of the soul-this being one of the reasons why this inmost degree of consciousness is referred to as a "secret": its immanent, divine ident.i.ty is veiled from the soul of which it is the conscious centre. Herein lies one of the meanings of the Sufi saying: the Sufi is in the world but not of it.

The particular dynamics of being within the ontology of Ibn al-'Arabi helps us to understand why specificity and self-effacement should be the natural expressions of universality and self-realization; these dynamics also help us to see the intimate relations.h.i.+p between the deconstruction of ident.i.ty and the perception of the universality of religion, as well as the necessity for the reconstruction or rest.i.tution of ident.i.ty within a specific religious matrix. These "religious" corollaries of Being will be explored later in this section. For the moment, attention is to be focused on the fact that at the very summit of this spiritual ascent to ultimate reality and self-realization, Ibn al-'Arabi receives from that Reality the verse of the Qur'an (cited above): Say: We believe in G.o.d and that which is revealed unto us, and that which is revealed unto Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and that which was given unto Moses and Jesus and the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto Him we have submitted. (3:84) He then adds these words: "Henceforth I knew that I am the totality of those (prophets) who were mentioned to me (in this verse)"; and also: "He gave me all the Signs in this Sign".24 Since the word for "sign" is the same as that for "verse" (aya), this can also be taken to mean that all revealed verses are implicitly contained in this verse which establishes the universality and unity of the essence of the religious message, despite the outward differentiation of its formal expression. This last point is clearly implied in another account of a spiritual ascent, in which Ibn al-'Arabi encountered the Prophet amidst a group of other prophets and is asked by him: "What was it that made you consider us as many?" To which Ibn al-'Arabi replies: "Precisely (the different scriptures and teachings) we took (from you)".25 Heavily implied in the Prophet's rhetorical question is the intrinsic unity of all the revelations. This principle is expressed in the following verse of the Qur'an (cited above), which Ibnal-'Arabi quotes and then comments upon: He hath ordained for you of the religion (min al-din) that which He commended unto Noah, and that which We reveal to thee [Muammad] , and that which We commended unto Abraham and Moses and Jesus, saying: Establish the religion, and be not divided therein. (42:13) Then he quotes from another verse, mentioning further prophets, and concluding: Those are they whom G.o.d has guided, so follow their guidance. (6:90) He comments as follows: This is the path that brings together every prophet and messenger. It is the performance of religion, scattering not concerning it and coming together in it. It is that concerning which Bukhari wrote a chapter ent.i.tled, "The chapter on what has come concerning the fact that the religions of the prophets is one". He brought the article which makes the word "religion" definite, because all religion comes from G.o.d, even if some of the rulings are diverse. Everyone is commanded to perform the religion and to come together in it.... As for the rulings which are diverse, that is because of the Law which G.o.d a.s.signed to each one of the messengers. He said, For each of you We have established a Law and a Path. Had G.o.d willed, He could have made you one community. (5:48). If He had done that, your revealed Laws would not be diverse, just as they are not diverse in the fact that you have been commanded to come together and to perform them.26 One sees clearly that Ibn al-'Arabi is suggesting here a distinction between religion as such, on the one hand, and such and such a religion, on the other; it is religion as such that warrants the definite article (al-din). But such and such a religion, far from being marginalised in this perspective, is endowed with an imperatively binding nature by virtue of the absoluteness of its own essence, that is, by virtue of being not other than religion as such. For, on the one hand, religion as such, al-din, is the inner substance and inalienable reality of such and such a religion; and on the other, it is impossible to practise religion as such without adhering to such and such a religion. Apprehending the universal essence of religion, far from precluding particularity and exclusivity of formal adherence, in fact requires this adherence: to attain the essence one must grasp, in depth, the form by which the essence reveals itself. This is why, in the pa.s.sage quoted above, Ibn al-'Arabi continues by stressing the specific path proper to the final Prophet. It is that path "for which he was singled out to the exclusion of everyone else. It is the Koran, G.o.d's firm cord and all-comprehensive Law. This is indicated in His words, 'This is My straight path, so follow it, and follow not diverse paths, lest they scatter you from its road' (6:153)".27 This "straight path" both excludes and includes all other paths: excludes by way of specific beliefs and practices, and includes by virtue of the single Essence to which the path leads, and from which it began. But one cannot reach the end of the path without traversing its specific trajectory, without keeping within its boundaries, and thus making sure that one does not stray into other paths: And each one has a direction (wijha) toward which he turns. So vie with one another in good works (2:148). One is instructed to turn towards one's particular goal, in a particular direction, and this is despite the fact that the Qur'an tells us that Wherever ye turn, there is the Face of G.o.d (2:115). The ubiquity of the divine Face, then, does not imply that, in one's formal wors.h.i.+p, the direction in which one turns to pray is of no consequence. For the Qur'an also says: Turn your face toward the sacred mosque, and wherever you may be, turn your faces toward it [when you pray]. (2:144) For Ibn al-'Arabi, such combinations of principial universality and practical specificity are paradoxical expressions of a principle that goes to the very heart of his ontology, his understanding of the nature of reality: for "part of the perfection or completeness of Being is the existence of imperfection, or incompleteness within it()"28-failing which Being would be incomplete by virtue of the absence of incompleteness within it. This is an example of the bringing together of opposites (jam' bayn al-iddayn) which is emphasised repeatedly in the writings of Ibn al-'Arabi, pertaining to the paradoxes required on the level of language, if one is to do justice to the complexities of existence. Just as completeness requires and is not contradicted by incompleteness, so the incomparability (tanzih) of G.o.d requires and is not contradicted by comparability (tashbih), universality requires and is not contradicted by particularity, inclusivity requires and is not contradicted by exclusivity, and nondelimitation (ilaq) requires and is not contradicted by delimitation (taqyid).

Returning to the direction in which one must pray: on the one hand, the instruction to turn in a specific direction "does not eliminate the property of G.o.d's Face being wherever you turn." On the other, the fact that G.o.d is there wherever one turns nonetheless implies the bestowal of a specific "felicity" (sa'ada) as the consequence of turning in a particular direction for prayer. "Hence for you He combined delimitation and nondelimitation, just as for Himself He combined incomparability and similarity. He said; 'Nothing is like Him, and He is the Hearing, the Seeing' (42:11)."29 Nothing is like Him: this denial of similarity, this expression of pure tanzih or transcendence, is immediately followed by an apparent contradiction of this very incomparability, for "He is the Hearing, the Seeing". As human beings also hear and see, this statement inescapably entails establis.h.i.+ng modes of similarity or comparability between man and G.o.d. Ibn al-'Arabi, however, does not allow the mind to be restricted by this conceptual antimony, but rather takes advantage of the appearance of contradiction, using it as a platform from which to rise to an intuitive synthesis between these two opposing principles: the divine incomparability is perfect only when it is not conditioned by the very fact of being unconditioned by similarity, and vice versa. The divine nondelimitation is only properly grasped in the light of delimitation, and vice versa. This paradox is powerfully delivered in the following pa.s.sage: He is not declared incomparable in any manner that will remove Him from similarity, nor is He declared similar in any manner that would remove Him from incomparability. So do not declare Him nondelimited and thus delimited by being distinguished from delimitation! For if He is distinguished then He is delimited by His nondelimitation. And if He is delimited by His nondelimitation, then He is not He.30 Without possessing or manifesting an aspect of finitude, G.o.d cannot be regarded as infinite; without a.s.suming a mode of delimitation He cannot be nondelimited; without the relative, He cannot be Absolute. Without the innumerable manifestations of these apparent contradictions of His own uniqueness, without such multiplicity within unity, and unity within multiplicity, "He is not He". The very infinitude of the inner richness of unicity overflows as the outward deployment of inexhaustible self-disclosures; this process is described as the tajalli or uhur (theophanic revelation/manifestation). It is a process wherein no repet.i.tion is possible (la tikrar fi'l-tajalli); each phenomenon is unique in time, s.p.a.ce and quality. In this complex and subtle conception of wujud, there is no contradiction between a.s.serting the uniqueness of each phenomenon-each distinct locus for the manifestation of Being, each mahar for the uhur or tajalli of the one and only Reality - and the all-encompa.s.sing unity of being which transcends all phenomena. Multiplicity is comprised within unity, and unity is displayed by multiplicity.

This ontological perspective is to be applied on the plane of religion: there is no contradiction between a.s.serting the uniqueness of a particular religion, on the one hand, and affirming the all-encompa.s.sing principle of religion which transcends the forms a.s.sumed by religion, on the other. The transcendence in question leaves intact the formal differences of the religions; for, these differences, defining the uniqueness of each religion, are by that very token irreducible; the formal differences can only be transcended in spiritual realization of the Essence, or at least, an intuition of this Essence. They cannot be abolished on their own level in a pseudo-esoteric quest for the supra-formal essence. For these differences are divinely willed; religious diversity expresses a particular mode of divine wisdom, which man must grasp if he is to do justice both to the formless Essence of religion, and the irreducible uniqueness of each religious form.

Ibn al-'Arabi's conception of al-din, or religion as such, a religious essence that at once transcends and abides at the heart of all religions is in complete accord with the Qur'anic perspective on religious diversity; it helps one to see that an orientation towards this quintessential religion does not in the least imply a blurring of the boundaries between religions on the plane of their formal diversity. For one does not so much conceptually posit as spiritually intuit this essence of religion-in other words, one sees this "heart" of religion with one's own "heart", rather than one's mind: My heart has become capable of every form: it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks, And a temple for idols and the pilgrim's Ka'ba and the tables of the Tora and the book of the Koran.

I follow the religion of Love: whatever way Love's camels take, that is my religion and my faith. (emphasis added)31 The defining spirit of principled universality thus pertains to inner vision and does not translate into any modification of one's outer practice. It is on the basis of this religion of love, perceived by spiritual intuition, not formulated by rational speculation, that Ibn al-'Arabi can issue the following warning to narrow-minded exclusivists: Beware of being bound up by a particular creed and rejecting others as unbelief! If you do that you will fail to obtain a great benefit. Nay, you will fail to obtain the true knowledge of the reality. Try to make yourself a Prime Matter for all forms of religious belief. G.o.d is greater and wider than to be confined to one particular creed to the exclusion of others. For He says: "To whichever direction you turn, there surely is the Face of G.o.d" (2:115).32 One should note that this counsel resonates with a Qur'anic warning to the same effect. This verse comes just before 2:115, quoted in the previous citation from Ibn al-'Arabi. Here, the att.i.tude of religious exclusivism is censured, and the Muslim is told transcend the level of inter-confessional polemics and focus on the essential pre-requisites of salvation: not belonging to such and such a religion, but submitting to G.o.d through one's religion, and manifesting the sincerity of that submission through virtue: And they say: None entereth Paradise unless he be a Jew or a Christian. These are their own desires. Say: Bring your proof if ye are truthful.

Nay, but whosoever surrendereth his purpose to G.o.d while being virtuous, his reward is with his Lord; and there shall be no fear upon them, neither shall they grieve. (2:112) The Qur'an excludes this kind of chauvinistic exclusivism by virtue of an implicit, and occasionally explicit, inclusivism; but it also includes its own mode of exclusivism, both implicitly and explicitly, in affirming the need to follow the particular religion of Islam. The Akbari principle of paradoxical synthesis of two apparently contradictory principles can clearly be seen at this level of revelation, and is indeed the ultimate source of Ibn al-'Arabi's elaborate metaphysics. In keeping with the spirit of this metaphysical perspective, one must a.s.sert: it is only on the basis of the vision of the religion of love that one can be "liberated" from the limitations of one's own faith, for then, the escape is upwards, towards the essence of one's own, and every, faith; any attempt to loosen the bonds of one's own belief system, in the absence of this upwardly and inwardly essentializing movement of consciousness, is tantamount to simply dissolving the roots of one's religious ident.i.ty, and leaving nothing in its place on the level where one cannot do without a sense of ident.i.ty, that is, the human personality. The consciousness which is alone capable of transcending the formal limitations of religion is supra-personal: it has nothing to do with the empirical ego.

In pa.s.sing, one might note that it is this dissolution which postmodern deconstruction engenders, deliberately or otherwise; one aspires to be liberated from the "constructions" of belief, language, history, tradition, etc. by systematic demolition of these elements. But, in stark contrast to the spiritual "deconstruction" of an Ibn al-'Arabi, there is no reconstruction of thought, belief and ident.i.ty on a higher plane of being.33 Here it would be appropriate to return to the spiritual ascent, or mi'raj of Ibn al-'Arabi mentioned earlier. It is important to note that in the course of this ascent, he undergoes a process of dissolution by means of which he is divested of various aspects of his being, such that he becomes aware that "his" consciousness is no longer "his", and the Real is realized as the essence of all consciousness and being. The degrees leading up to this unitive state are given in a description of the "journey" of the saints to G.o.d, within G.o.d. In this journey the composite nature of the saint is "dissolved", first through being shown by G.o.d the different elements of which his nature is composed, and the respective domains to which they belong; he then abandons each element to its appropriate domain: [T]he form of his leaving it behind is that G.o.d sends a barrier between that person and that part of himself he left behind in that sort of world, so that he is not aware of it. But he still has the awareness of what remains with him, until eventually he remains with the divine Mystery (sirr), which is the "specific aspect" extending from G.o.d to him. So when he alone remains, then G.o.d removes from him the barrier of the veil and he remains with G.o.d, just as everything else in him remained with (the world) corresponding to it.34 The const.i.tutive elements of human nature are "dissolved" (or deconstructed) through being absorbed by those dimensions of cosmic existence to which they belong. Consciousness becomes rarefied, purified, and disentangled from matter and its subtle prolongations. As seen above, the "culminating revelation" coming just before the experience of extinctive union, was given in relation to the essence of all religions. Just as this realization of the essence of all religions does not entail any diminution of adherence to the form of one's own religion, likewise, as regards consciousness as such, the realization of the essence of the Real in no way entails any diminution of one's slavehood before the Real: "The slave remains always the slave", according to a saying often repeated in Ibn al-'Arabi's works. The ego remains always the ego, and this level of personal specificity cannot but entail what Ibn al-'Arabi refers to as 'ubudiyya, slavehood.

In other words, in this process of spiritual ascent there is both talil and tarkib, dissolution and reconst.i.tution, dissolution of all elements pertaining to the ego, and then reconst.i.tution of this same ego, but on a higher plane: that of a conscious realization of one's actual nothingness. The higher the plane reached by essentialized consciousness, the deeper one's awareness of one's slavehood. In contrast to deconstruction, this dismantling of specificity and ident.i.ty in the movement towards universality and transcendent Selfhood is accompanied by a return to specific ident.i.ty, which is now vibrant with the spirit of the ultimate Self: the individual sees the Face of G.o.d everywhere, because of the very completeness of his self-effacement; and, on the plane of religion, the specific form of his religion resonates with the universality proper to its essence. One grasps religion as such within such and such a religion; the absolute, nondelimited essence of religion is revealed by and within the relative, delimited religion, just as the Self of the Real (nafs al-aqq) subsists as the ultimate reality within the soul of the individual, who now comes to understand that he is both "He" and "not He". Each religion is both a form, outwardly, and the Essence, inwardly; just as man is "the transient, the eternal".35 The religion of love, or the religion of the "heart", thus re-affirms and does not undermine one's particular religion, or any other revealed religion; rather, this conception of "the religion" or religion as such presupposes formal religious diversity, regarding it not as a regrettable differentiation but a divinely willed necessity. The infinite forms of existence are integrated, "made one", according to the unitive principle of tawid, in the very bosom, and not despite, this infinite unfolding of Being; we observe an a.n.a.logous synthesis between multiplicity and unity on the level of religious phenomena: the dazzling diversity of religious forms manifest the principle of inexhaustible infinitude, just as the degree proper to "the religion", or religion as such, is the expression, in religious mode, of the principle of absolute oneness. This synthesis between infinity and oneness on the religious plane implies, then, both diversity of revealed forms, and the uniqueness of each specific revealed form. Each revealed religion is totally unique-totally "itself"-while at the same time being an expression of a single, all-encompa.s.sing principle, that of Revelation, a principle within which all religions are integrated, or "made one", in the rigorously metaphysical sense of tawid.

To conclude: It is clear that for Ibn al-'Arabi the unity of religions lies in the unity of Revelation, and that this position is rooted in the message of the Qur'an: Say: We believe in G.o.d, and that which was revealed unto Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and that which was given unto Moses and Jesus and the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto Him we have submitted. (2:136) The following verse might well be read as an allusion to the mystery of this unity of the celestial cause and the diversity of terrestrial effects: And in the earth are neighbouring tracts, and gardens of vines, and fields sown, and palms in pairs, and palms single, watered with one water. And we have made some of them to excel others in fruit. Surely herein are signs for a people who understand. (13:4) The "water" of Revelation is simultaneously one in its substance and multiple in its forms. In terms of the image of the water and the cup, briefly alluded to above: the cup might be seen to symbolize the form taken by Revelation, while water stands for the Essence of Revelation. Water, in itself, is undifferentiated and unique, whilst undergoing an apparent change of form and color by virtue of the accidental shape and color of the receptacles into which it is poured. The receptacles, the forms of Revelation, are fas.h.i.+oned according to the specificities of the human communities to which the specific revealed message is addressed: And We never sent a messenger save with the language of his folk, that he might make the message clear for them (14:4). Just as human communities differ, so must the "language" of the "message" sent to them: the cups cannot but differ. However, the one who knows "water" as it is in itself, that is, the essence of that which is revealed, and not just its forms, will recognize this "water" in receptacles other than his own, and will be able to judge all such receptacles according to their content, rather than be misled into judging the content according to the accidental properties of the container.

To accept G.o.d fully, therefore, means to accept His presence and reality in all forms of His Self-disclosure, all forms of revelation, all beliefs stemming from those revelations; while to limit Him to one's own particular form of belief is tantamount to denying Him: "He who delimits Him denies Him in other than his own delimitation.... But he who frees Him from every delimitation never denies Him. On the contrary, he acknowledges Him in every form within which He undergoes self-trans.m.u.tation."36 Nonetheless, the ordinary believer who may thus "deny" G.o.d by adhering exclusively to his own belief is not punished because of this implicit denial: since G.o.d is Himself "the root of every diversity in beliefs", it follows that "everyone will end up with mercy".37 Also, in terms of the water/cup image: the water in the cup, however delimited it may be by the container, remains water nonetheless, hence the ordinary believer benefits from his possession of the truth; even if this truth be limited by the particularities of his own conception, it adequately conveys the nature of That which is conceived, but which cannot be attained by concepts alone. Thus one returns to the principle that all "religions" are true by virtue of the absoluteness of their content, while each is relative due to the particular nature of its form.

Each particular religion vehicles the Absolute, even while being distinct from It: the absoluteness of a religion resides in its supra-formal, transcendent essence, while, in its formal aspect, the same religion is necessarily relative; and this amounts to saying, on the one hand, that no one religion can lay claim, on the level of form, to absolute truth, to the exclusion of other religions, and on the other hand, that each religion is true by virtue of the absoluteness of its origin and of its essence. One continues to conform to the dictates of one's own religion, and does so, moreover, with a totality that is commensurate with the absoluteness inherent in the religion;38 and at the same time one is aware of the presence of the Absolute in all those religions that have issued from a Divine Revelation, this awareness being the concomitant of one's recognition of the formal and thus relative aspect of one's own religion; and this recognition, in turn, arises in proportion to one's ability to plumb the metaphysical implications of the first testimony of Islam, "There is no G.o.d but G.o.d": only the Absolute is absolute.

This kind of approach to the question of religious diversity and interfaith dialogue ensures that the formal integrity and distinctness of each faith will be respected, and at the same time establishes the proper level at which we can say that all religions are at one. It is not on the level of forms that they are one; rather, they are one in G.o.d as their source, and they are as one in respect of the substance of their imperative to man: namely to submit to the Divinely Revealed Law and Way. Principles such as these, expounded with subtlety and depth in the metaphysical perspective of Ibn al-'Arabi, can help greatly in avoiding both the pitfalls of bridge-building between faiths and cultures, on the one hand, and the dangers of religious nationalism, on the other: that is, it can help to prevent a fragmentary sense of the sacred from arbitrarily or indiscriminately a.s.similating apparently "religious" forms out of sentimental desire; and, inversely, it can help prevent an over-zealous sense of orthodoxy from summarily anathematising alien religious forms out of dogmatic rigidity. Such a perspective shows that there is no incompatibility between believing absolutely in one's particular faith and cultivating reverentially a universal sense of the sacred.

Gnosis Revealed faith speaks to every man;

Secret and difficult is the kernel of wisdom.

Gnosis is not form, nor is it time;

The sage is guided by a hidden star.

In one sense gnosis is a part

Of faith, its content finely spun;

And yet the depth of gnosis still remains

Beyond the yoke of pharisaic power.

Who can fathom the word of G.o.d's wise men?

I am neither a Jew, nor Muslim, nor Christian,

Rumi said; and my Islam is not

Dogmatic belief; it is that which is.

O light of the heart, s.h.i.+ning before the Most High,

Which always was and nevermore shall fade.

Frithjof Schuon

Footnotes

1 Martin Lings, What is Sufism (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1975), pp. 22-23. For further discussion of this theme, see our The Other in the Light of the One: The Universality of the Qur'an and Interfaith Dialogue (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 2006).

2 Tim Winter, "Islam and the Threat of Europe" in World Faiths Encounter, no. 29, 2001, p. 11.

3 This saying, cited in the collections of al-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah, complements other well-known sayings of the Prophet concerning the need to search for knowledge from the cradle to the grave, even if the knowledge be in China, etc. See al-Ghazzali's collection of such sayings, together with Qur''anic verses and sayings of the sages, in his Kitab al-'ilm, the first book of his monumental Iya 'ulum al-din ("Enlivening of the sciences of religion") translated by Nabih Amin Faris as The Book of Knowledge (Lah.o.r.e: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 1966).

4 See the masterful work by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Science and Civilization in Islam (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1987, "Introduction", pp. 21-40.

5 See Thomas Arnold, The Preaching of Islam (London: Luzac, 1935).

6 See for a more extended discussion of Ibn al-'Arabi's principles of exegesis, in the context of Sufi and postmodern hermeneutics, The Other in the Light of the One, chapter 1, "The Hermeneutics of Suspicion or of Sufism?", pp. 1-73. See also our paper, "Beyond Polemics and Pluralism: The Universal Message of the Qur'an", delivered at the conference: "Al-Azhar and the West: Bridges of Dialogue", Cairo, 5 January, 2009.

7 As Frithjof Schuon observes: "Every religion by definition wants to be the best, and 'must want' to be the best, both as a whole and in its const.i.tutive elements; this is only natural, or rather 'supernaturally natural'" ("The Idea of 'The Best' in Religions", in his Christianity/Islam: Essays on Esoteric Ec.u.menism [Bloomington: World Wisdom, 2008], p. 91).

8 "Knowledge calls out for action", says Imam 'Ali; "if it is answered [it is of avail], otherwise it departs." Cited in the compilation by 'Abd al-Waid midi, Ghurar al-ikam wa durar al-kalim (given together with the Persian translation, under the t.i.tle, Guftar-i Amir al-mu'minin 'Ali, by Sayyid usayn Shaykhul-Islami) (Qom: Intisharat-i Anariyan, 2000), vol. 2, p. 993, no. 21.

9 In the words of Frithjof Schuon: "The true and complete understanding of an idea goes far beyond the first apprehension of the idea by the intelligence, although more often than not this apprehension is taken for understanding itself. While it is true that the immediate evidence conveyed to us by any particular idea is, on its own level, a real understanding, there can be no question of its embracing the whole extent of the idea, since it is primarily the sign of an apt.i.tude to understand that idea in its complete ness. Any truth can in fact be understood at different levels and according to different conceptual dimensions, that is to say according to an indefinite number of modalities that correspond to all the possible aspects, likewise indefinite in number, of the truth in question. This way of regarding ideas accordingly leads to the question of spiritual realization, the doctrinal expressions of which clearly ill.u.s.trate the dimensional indefinitude of theoretical conceptions" (The Transcendent Unity of Religions [Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 1984] p. 1).

10 After mentioning this a.n.a.logy, Sakyamuni Buddha continues: "Words are the finger pointing to the meaning; they are not the meaning itself. Hence, do not rely upon words" (cited by Eisho Nasu, "'Rely on the Meaning, not on the Words': s.h.i.+nran's Methodology and Strategy for Reading Scriptures and Writing the Kygs.h.i.+nsh" in Discourse and Ideology in Medieval j.a.panese Buddhism, eds. Richard K. Payne and Taigen Dan Leighton [New York: Routledge, 2006], p. 253).

11 The Discourses of Rumi (Fihi ma fihi), tr. A.J. Arberry (London: John Murray, 1961), p. 202.

12 This is from William Chittick's translation of the Lawai, in Chinese Gleams of Sufi Light by Sachiko Murata (Albany: SUNY, 2000), p. 138.

13 This is the very opposite of the Cartesian axiom: 'I think, therefore I am'. Here, thought trumps being, individual conceptualisation precedes universal reality. Subjectivism, individualism, rationalism-all are contained in this error, and reinforce its basic tendency, which is to reverse the traditional, normal subordination of human thought to divine Reality.

14 Schuon refers to the distinction between metaphysics and ordinary religious knowledge in terms of uncolored light, and particular colors: "If an ex ample may be drawn from the sensory sphere to ill.u.s.trate the difference between metaphysical and theological knowledge, it may be said that the former, which can be called 'esoteric' when it is manifested through a religious symbolism, is con scious of the colorless essence of light and of its character of pure luminosity; a given religious belief, on the other hand, will a.s.sert that light is red and not green, whereas another belief will a.s.sert the opposite; both will be right insofar as they dis tinguish light from darkness but not insofar as they identify it with a particular color" (Transcendent Unity, p. x.x.x).

15 This is one of the central questions which we posed and tried to answer in The Other in the Light of the One, pp. 117-139; 185-209; 234-266.

16 This is part of a long saying concerning the possibility of seeing G.o.d in the Hereafter. It is found in the "sound" collection of Muslim, ai Muslim (Cairo: 'sa al-alabi, n.d.), vol. 1, p. 94.

17 Self is given in capitals only as a parallel to the use of the capital O for "Other"; what is meant here is the empirical self, the individual as such, and its communitarian extension, and not the universal Selfhood of the Real (nafs al-aqq, as Ibn al-'Arabi calls it), at once transcendent and immanent.

18 For the most comprehensive biography of this seminal figure, see Claude Addas, Quest for the Red Sulphur, tr. Peter Kingsley (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1993); for a concise overview of Ibn al-'Arabi's thought, see Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Three Muslim Sages (Lah.o.r.e: Suhail Academy, 1988 repr), ch. 3, "Ibn 'Arabi and the Sufis", pp. 83121.

19 Cited in William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al-'Arabi's Metaphysics of Imagination (Albany: SUNY, 1989), p. 365.

20 Ikhtilaf al-'ulama rama. This is often cited as a adith, but is more authoritatively ascribed to al-Shafi'i.

21 Ibn al-'Arabi claims that everything he wrote was contained in his first vision of the "glory of His Face"; all his discourse is "only the differentiation of the all-inclusive reality which was contained in that look at the One Reality" (Sufi Path, p. xiv).

22 The following pages contain reflections on material which can be found elaborated in greater detail in our Paths to Transcendence: According to Shankara, Ibn Arabi, and Meister Eckhart (Bloomington: World Wisdom, 2006), pp. 69-129.

23 James W. Morris, "Ibn al-'Arabi's Spiritual Ascension", in Michel Chodkiewicz (ed.), Les Illuminations de La Mecque/The Meccan Illuminations (Paris: Sindbad, 1988), p. 380. One is reminded by the words "my place cannot contain me" of Rumi's lines: "What is to be done, O Muslims? For I do not recognise myself? I am not Christian, nor Jew; not Zoroastrian, nor Muslim." This is a succinct expression of the transcendence of all religious ident.i.ty in the bosom of the unitive state, which is alluded to later in the poem: "I have put duality aside. . . . / One I seek, One I know, One I see, One I call. / He is the First, He is the Last, He is the Outward, He is the Inward." [paraphrasing 57:2]. (Selected Poems from the Divan-i Shamsi Tabriz, [ed. and tr. R.A. Nicholson (translation modified)] [Cambridge: CUP, 1977], pp. 125, 127).