1:1 Bismallah ar Rahman ar Rahim
In The Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
A simple beginning really. Bi….. Ism... Allah....Bism is most usually treated as, "in the Name of " understood as "for the sake of". So, In the Name of - who? In the Name of Allah - The Conscious Energy and Creator of All Existence.
The Arabic letter Ba, with the short i vowel, makes it Bi, and becomes a preposition: "through" "by" or "with". Isma, is "name". So we have With (or By) the Name of... The understanding is sometimes "In" but that is misleading as it does not have the quality of inside. Nonetheless it is often written in English as "In the Name of Allah"
Maulana Muhammad Ali has a useful note in his English Quran translation: "The phrase is in fact equivalent to: I seek the assistance of Allåh, the Beneficent, the Merciful (AH). Hence it is that a Muslim is required to begin every important affair with Bismillåh."
This line, or ayat, continues with ar Rahman ar Rahim. In The Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate. This surah, the Fatiha (The Opening) is also known as the Seven Oft Repeated Verses because of it's everyday use in prayer. It is said that the whole of the Quran is contained within this first surah, that His Unity, His Oneness is affirmed therein and through out the whole text. That is true, without a doubt. What I would like to notice here, is the use of dualistic characteristics embedded within this first surah. This first ayat reveals the first instance: ar Rahman ar Rahim. Two names of Allah that reflect His Mercy in two polar reflective ways. The Prophet (saw) said: "Al-Rahmân is the beneficent One whose love and mercy are manifested in the creation of the world, and al-Rahîm is the merciful One whose love and mercy are manifested in the state that comes after." Thus Rahman is for all and Rahim is directed at those who acknowledge His Being, ie; "believers".
Allah is noting the He is good to all of creation, He is Beneficent and Loving to all. He also notes that He is also Merciful to those who acknowledge Him in the state that comes after life. So, immediately we have two dual ideas presented in the very opening of the Quran: Those who do with those who do not and our state today versus the state that is to come.
Abu Hurayrah heard the Messenger of Allah say, (Allah, the Exalted, said), `I have divided the prayer (Al-Fatihah) into two halves between Myself and My servant, and My servant shall have what he asks for.' If he says, "In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate."
This appearance of dualism is not an instance of opposites, as nothing can oppose the Creator, Whom is One. So the question that arises is why is there this notion of polarity? Is it polar at all? Maybe not. That said, there are many instances of dual attributes within the Quran.
1.2 الْحَمْدُ للّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِين Al ḥamdu lillāhi rabbi l-ʿālamīn.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds.
Al ḥamdu ~ The Praise, lillāhi ~ be to Allah ~ rabb: usually translated in English as Lord, as there is no exact word in English that corresponds. In reality rabb refers to a nourisher, evolver or one who brings to completion. ālamīn ~ usually translated as worlds, ie; plural. Maulana Muhammad Ali breaks ālamīn down from the plural of the root 'ilm, (to know) meaning "that by means of which one knows a thing". This immediately brings us to the Sufi wisdom "I was a Hidden Treasure and I wanted to be Known." Allah shows us how He wants us to know Him, through His ālamīn, His worlds.
These multiple places of existence, His Worlds, is it two? Is it more? At this point in the Quran we are not yet told. Reading further into the Quran we first find the dichotomy of the heavens and the earth, could this be our dual reflection of His creation? Perhaps, but going even further we are told that He fashioned the heavens into seven. Seven Heavens. Seven. Anyone who has contemplated existence might have noted that there are lots of cases within our realms being that are broken down into seven. There are seven days to the week. Sir Isaac Newton, somewhat arbitrarily some would say, divided the hues of the rainbow into seven distinct colors. This was done to match the seven accepted pitches of a musical scale, another also somewhat subjective delineation. (This vagueness is important, as we will see.) There is also the Sufi way of breaking down the ego into seven layers, the seven layers of the nafs. This Sufi spiritual psychology matches Hermetic philosophy and it's seven alchemical operations: Calcination, Dissolution, Separation, Conjunction, Fermentation, Distillation & Coagulation. These, of course, correspond to the seven planets, as they were known by the ancients. Which also correspond to herbs, metals, and so on, we could continue, and I have touched upon this elsewhere, but lets just remember that the Fatiha has seven ayat or seven verses.
So, what is important here? Is it Allah's Oneness, the seemingly dual nature posited, or is this allusion to the septet meaningful? How do we decide? These questions are maddeningly misleading and loaded, especially if your contemplative tendency is for linear thought. The search for meaning beyond one's nose forces one to confront the non-linearness of existence. The very ground of one's being is formed in something far far beyond simple understanding as is conceived by this thing we call our brain. To see - to witness Reality as it is without a veil, another organ other than (or in addition to) the brain must be called into action. To find meaning where it does not seem to exist we need to call on the heart, the organ of choice. The heart knows Allah is One, as it this in pre-existence, a day called "rus-e-alast" (Quran 7:172). We also experience the dualities of life in the Yin and Yang of everyday experiences: day and night, sickness and health, youth and age, and other existent opposites. Seven on the other hand, takes some training to bear witness. Herein is more wisdom. Nevertheless, do not close your mind or your heart because you do not immediately find meaning. Meaning is a tricky thing and it all depends on your perspective. What is simple may belie complexity and what is obscure you may find to be clear, if only from another vantage point. Understand that it is your brain that gets in the way, your heart is a clear vessel.
1.2 الْحَمْدُ للّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِين Al ḥamdu lillāhi rabbi l-ʿālamīn.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds.
Focus is on the One, Who Lords over His Creation, the Worlds. One is the Lord of Many. Singular source for multiplicity, diversity, for a ray of many things. Yet, what is this "praise". We have from the accepted tafsir of Ibn Kathir:
"Abu Ja`far bin Jarir said, "The meaning of (Al ḥamdu lillāhi) (all praise and thanks be to Allah) is: all thanks are due purely to Allah, alone, not any of the objects that are being worshipped instead of Him, nor any of His creation. These thanks are due to Allah's innumerable favors and bounties, that only He knows the amount of. Allah's bounties include creating the tools that help the creation worship Him, the physical bodies with which they are able to implement His commands, the sustenance that He provides them in this life, and the comfortable life He has granted them, without anything or anyone compelling Him to do so. Allah also warned His creation and alerted them about the means and methods with which they can earn eternal dwelling in the residence of everlasting happiness. All thanks and praise are due to Allah for these favors from beginning to end.''
Further, Ibn Jarir commented on the Ayah, (Al-Hamdu Lillah), that it means, "A praise that Allah praised Himself with, indicating to His servants that they too should praise Him, as if Allah had said, `Say: All thanks and praise is due to Allah.' It was said that the statement, (All praise and thanks be to Allah), entails praising Allah by mentioning His most beautiful Names and most honorable Attributes. When one proclaims, `All thanks are due to Allah,' he will be thanking Him for His favors and bounties.''
This hamd, praise, is a reaching out from the heart with an acknowledgment of His Beautiful Attributes of Perfection. The heart sees perfection without eyes, without a brain, even without consciousness the heart knows its Lord. So, what is needed is the brain's activation, an actuation that is accomplished by physically bringing into the current plane of existence vibrations which are in tune with the seven heavens. This auditory, vibratory gratitude points to the Creator's Purity over everything. Plato had said the upright man “will always be seen adjusting the body's harmony for the sake of the accord in the soul” (Republic 591d). These vibrations are given in the Quran in form of the Asma ul Husna, Allah's Ninety Nine Beautiful Names. These make up something called zikr or remembrance of the Beloved.
1:3 الرَّحمـنِ الرَّحِي ar Rahman ar Rahim Most Compassionate, Most Merciful
Immediately we are treated to a repetition, (a vibration) a reminder that it is the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate One Whom we are talking about here, as if we are capable of forgetting. Yes indeed, we are quite capable of such heedlessness. Gaflet. If this gaflet is denied, if you claim you can remember all the really important things, then you have become of those who are full of pride. More importantly it is to recall one's incompleteness, as He is Rahman, Rahim. He is Perfect, One. That which you lack you will find in His Being. You are better off praising Him through your actions, your words and through your heart than you are striving to prove your worth. So we are reminded to recall these attributes.
Scholars have noted that Rahman and Rahim vary in their intensity, that Rahman is great in its power of tenderness and Rahim's greatness is in its enduring qualiuty. Here we see our polarity swinging between the two Qabbalistic pillars of Might and Mercy, or in Sufic terms, between Jallal and Jamal. Even if they are expressed subtly and carefully this appearance of severity and deep beauty is bewildering to the human mind as it fails to connect the idea of mercy with strength, and seeks only to make human relationships between archetypes. Often the father mother motif is mapped onto these two attributes, but in reality these correspondances fall short. The human mind struggles with the Divine Being's august nature as His likeness is undecipherable and so remote to our knowledge. What balances this dichotomy is the heart's perception of Unity. The full depth and meaning of the Beloved's Completeness overwhelms, crashes down upon our perceived existence and we call upon ar Rahman ar Rahim. We get all this and more from His Mercy and Compassion.
1:4 مَـالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّين Māliki yawmi d-dīn Master of The Day of Judgment
In an Hadith Qudsi Allah the Most High had this to say about this passage, "My servant has glorified Me’ - and on one occasion He said: ‘My servant has submitted to My power.’" Taken as a whole, Ibn Kathir's Tafsir has this to say about this ayat: "The Owner of the Day of Recompense.) Allah says, `My servant has glorified Me,' or `My servant has related all matters to Me." Which is all true. As a prayer, the perspective from the prayee in this passage is another acknowledgement of the Divine's attribute as the One Who Judges. Yawmidiin, the Last Day, connected with a time of having one's deeds balanced on the scales of righteousness, can be considered like a place. A location. A field where "something" occurs to all souls and this place or time is continually occurring very moment, it is not something just pushed off to some far off day. Rather we are in this place currently.
It is not an accident that this ayat falls upon the 4th line within the surah. Looked at from the point of there being seven lines and mapping it onto the 4th place within a diatonic scale we discover that it has a subtly balanced feel that propels it back to the 1st place; ie, back to Bismallah. In Western music this "4th place" is considered the sub dominant. We are not suggesting Allah the Most High as Master of the Day Of Judgement is in any way "sub dominant." What we are calling attention to is the sense that the person praying at 4th or sub dominant (the fourth ayat, Māliki yawmi d-dīn) is in a place that wants to return to the One.
The aspects of this "place" is the musical feel of it being unsettled, something it being done to it, it belongs, but it is not quite sure. In Western music theory this sub dominant prepares for what is to come next, the 5th degree. This preparation occurs spiritually through the medium of Māliki yawmi d-dīn. Much can be said here as we turn to our Master, our Māliki, and ask for forgiveness of our missteps so that we are cleansed of that which prevents us from fully being in the Presence of our Beloved. Our Rabb is there, at this "4th place", at this Day of Judgment, just like He is There In the Beginning. Yet we struggle to free ourselves from this veil which hides our true nature from our own selves. So here we stand, always exposed to Māliki yawmi d-dīn. May He be soft and forgiving upon us all.
So what is this which keeps us from our most potential immediate experience of Reality, our Beloved? What is the so called sub dominant place preparing us for?
1:5 إِيَّاك نَعْبُدُ وإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِين Iyyāka naʿbudu wa iyyāka nastaʿīn You alone do we worship and You alone we seek for help.
1.2 الْحَمْدُ للّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِين Al ḥamdu lillāhi rabbi l-ʿālamīn.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds.
Focus is on the One, Who Lords over His Creation, the Worlds. One is the Lord of Many. Singular source for multiplicity, diversity, for a ray of many things. Yet, what is this "praise". We have from the accepted tafsir of Ibn Kathir:
"Abu Ja`far bin Jarir said, "The meaning of (Al ḥamdu lillāhi) (all praise and thanks be to Allah) is: all thanks are due purely to Allah, alone, not any of the objects that are being worshipped instead of Him, nor any of His creation. These thanks are due to Allah's innumerable favors and bounties, that only He knows the amount of. Allah's bounties include creating the tools that help the creation worship Him, the physical bodies with which they are able to implement His commands, the sustenance that He provides them in this life, and the comfortable life He has granted them, without anything or anyone compelling Him to do so. Allah also warned His creation and alerted them about the means and methods with which they can earn eternal dwelling in the residence of everlasting happiness. All thanks and praise are due to Allah for these favors from beginning to end.''
Further, Ibn Jarir commented on the Ayah, (Al-Hamdu Lillah), that it means, "A praise that Allah praised Himself with, indicating to His servants that they too should praise Him, as if Allah had said, `Say: All thanks and praise is due to Allah.' It was said that the statement, (All praise and thanks be to Allah), entails praising Allah by mentioning His most beautiful Names and most honorable Attributes. When one proclaims, `All thanks are due to Allah,' he will be thanking Him for His favors and bounties.''
This hamd, praise, is a reaching out from the heart with an acknowledgment of His Beautiful Attributes of Perfection. The heart sees perfection without eyes, without a brain, even without consciousness the heart knows its Lord. So, what is needed is the brain's activation, an actuation that is accomplished by physically bringing into the current plane of existence vibrations which are in tune with the seven heavens. This auditory, vibratory gratitude points to the Creator's Purity over everything. Plato had said the upright man “will always be seen adjusting the body's harmony for the sake of the accord in the soul” (Republic 591d). These vibrations are given in the Quran in form of the Asma ul Husna, Allah's Ninety Nine Beautiful Names. These make up something called zikr or remembrance of the Beloved.
1:3 الرَّحمـنِ الرَّحِي ar Rahman ar Rahim Most Compassionate, Most Merciful
Immediately we are treated to a repetition, (a vibration) a reminder that it is the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate One Whom we are talking about here, as if we are capable of forgetting. Yes indeed, we are quite capable of such heedlessness. Gaflet. If this gaflet is denied, if you claim you can remember all the really important things, then you have become of those who are full of pride. More importantly it is to recall one's incompleteness, as He is Rahman, Rahim. He is Perfect, One. That which you lack you will find in His Being. You are better off praising Him through your actions, your words and through your heart than you are striving to prove your worth. So we are reminded to recall these attributes.
Scholars have noted that Rahman and Rahim vary in their intensity, that Rahman is great in its power of tenderness and Rahim's greatness is in its enduring qualiuty. Here we see our polarity swinging between the two Qabbalistic pillars of Might and Mercy, or in Sufic terms, between Jallal and Jamal. Even if they are expressed subtly and carefully this appearance of severity and deep beauty is bewildering to the human mind as it fails to connect the idea of mercy with strength, and seeks only to make human relationships between archetypes. Often the father mother motif is mapped onto these two attributes, but in reality these correspondances fall short. The human mind struggles with the Divine Being's august nature as His likeness is undecipherable and so remote to our knowledge. What balances this dichotomy is the heart's perception of Unity. The full depth and meaning of the Beloved's Completeness overwhelms, crashes down upon our perceived existence and we call upon ar Rahman ar Rahim. We get all this and more from His Mercy and Compassion.
1:4 مَـالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّين Māliki yawmi d-dīn Master of The Day of Judgment
In an Hadith Qudsi Allah the Most High had this to say about this passage, "My servant has glorified Me’ - and on one occasion He said: ‘My servant has submitted to My power.’" Taken as a whole, Ibn Kathir's Tafsir has this to say about this ayat: "The Owner of the Day of Recompense.) Allah says, `My servant has glorified Me,' or `My servant has related all matters to Me." Which is all true. As a prayer, the perspective from the prayee in this passage is another acknowledgement of the Divine's attribute as the One Who Judges. Yawmidiin, the Last Day, connected with a time of having one's deeds balanced on the scales of righteousness, can be considered like a place. A location. A field where "something" occurs to all souls and this place or time is continually occurring very moment, it is not something just pushed off to some far off day. Rather we are in this place currently.
It is not an accident that this ayat falls upon the 4th line within the surah. Looked at from the point of there being seven lines and mapping it onto the 4th place within a diatonic scale we discover that it has a subtly balanced feel that propels it back to the 1st place; ie, back to Bismallah. In Western music this "4th place" is considered the sub dominant. We are not suggesting Allah the Most High as Master of the Day Of Judgement is in any way "sub dominant." What we are calling attention to is the sense that the person praying at 4th or sub dominant (the fourth ayat, Māliki yawmi d-dīn) is in a place that wants to return to the One.
The aspects of this "place" is the musical feel of it being unsettled, something it being done to it, it belongs, but it is not quite sure. In Western music theory this sub dominant prepares for what is to come next, the 5th degree. This preparation occurs spiritually through the medium of Māliki yawmi d-dīn. Much can be said here as we turn to our Master, our Māliki, and ask for forgiveness of our missteps so that we are cleansed of that which prevents us from fully being in the Presence of our Beloved. Our Rabb is there, at this "4th place", at this Day of Judgment, just like He is There In the Beginning. Yet we struggle to free ourselves from this veil which hides our true nature from our own selves. So here we stand, always exposed to Māliki yawmi d-dīn. May He be soft and forgiving upon us all.
So what is this which keeps us from our most potential immediate experience of Reality, our Beloved? What is the so called sub dominant place preparing us for?
1:5 إِيَّاك نَعْبُدُ وإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِين Iyyāka naʿbudu wa iyyāka nastaʿīn You alone do we worship and You alone we seek for help.
The secret is that every moment we step away from the Beloved all the while paradoxically wanting to be with Him always. Because of the heart's acknowledgment in pre-existence, (rus-e-alast), it has this corner deep inside that recalls the moment it affirmed Allah's Oneness. We are not exposing a secret you do not know , the secret is the tears you will cry when you finally touch upon this space tucked away within your heart and say, You alone do we worship and You alone we seek for help.
So, here we have arrived at the fifth place which the Master of the Day of Judgement was leading us towards, to the open admission that You, Our Beloved, Alone Exists. We are lost and nothing without You. The Malik of the "sub dominate" propelled us into finally admitting we want nothing else but Bismallah, the One, Allah.
Many musical systems in human cultures have a notion of a tone that sets up the melody to "go back home" to the originating pitch, to return to the tonic and have a sense of resolve and repose. This doesn't happen without tension, which both the 4th and 5th places set up for us. The operations which happened before continue but now we have entered a stage where the heart is truly engaged as a spiritual organ in the sense that we are now moving out of ourselves as materially existing beings and fully recognizing the presence of spiritual realities in our life. The 5th, musically the dominant, places us fully in this tension to go home by making Reality feel imperative. Home for us is the secret of the heart. Alchemically this is Fermentation, purification of the soul. What happened before occurred to the brain, to emotions, to feelings, to our will, etc. The soul in this way is now directly acted upon by You Alone Do We Worship.
Ibrahim Hakki Erzurumi spoke about this place, in Sufism called Nafsi Radhiyah, "The self which is pleased with his Lord. The human soul at peace and in harmony with divine harmony is pleased with his Lord. Now he is protected from doing wrong. His cleansed heart is filled with love and peace. He has reached to the truth of Islam, having given his will to the greater will of Allah. He sees his Lord all around him, thus he accepts whatever exists, whatever happens in this world and in this life without opposition, rejection or the slightest of disturbance. He considers it all as natural, yet, as he is in total control of his ego, he does not have any inclination towards that which Allah has rendered unlawful."
So, here we have arrived at the fifth place which the Master of the Day of Judgement was leading us towards, to the open admission that You, Our Beloved, Alone Exists. We are lost and nothing without You. The Malik of the "sub dominate" propelled us into finally admitting we want nothing else but Bismallah, the One, Allah.
Many musical systems in human cultures have a notion of a tone that sets up the melody to "go back home" to the originating pitch, to return to the tonic and have a sense of resolve and repose. This doesn't happen without tension, which both the 4th and 5th places set up for us. The operations which happened before continue but now we have entered a stage where the heart is truly engaged as a spiritual organ in the sense that we are now moving out of ourselves as materially existing beings and fully recognizing the presence of spiritual realities in our life. The 5th, musically the dominant, places us fully in this tension to go home by making Reality feel imperative. Home for us is the secret of the heart. Alchemically this is Fermentation, purification of the soul. What happened before occurred to the brain, to emotions, to feelings, to our will, etc. The soul in this way is now directly acted upon by You Alone Do We Worship.
Ibrahim Hakki Erzurumi spoke about this place, in Sufism called Nafsi Radhiyah, "The self which is pleased with his Lord. The human soul at peace and in harmony with divine harmony is pleased with his Lord. Now he is protected from doing wrong. His cleansed heart is filled with love and peace. He has reached to the truth of Islam, having given his will to the greater will of Allah. He sees his Lord all around him, thus he accepts whatever exists, whatever happens in this world and in this life without opposition, rejection or the slightest of disturbance. He considers it all as natural, yet, as he is in total control of his ego, he does not have any inclination towards that which Allah has rendered unlawful."
1:6 اهدِنَــــا الصِّرَاطَ المُستَقِيم Ihdinā ṣ-ṣirāṭa al-mustaqīm Guide us to the Straight Path.
Much ink has been spilled upon the elucidation of this ayat. Al-mustaqīm is derived from QWM which leads to a rich store of meaning, but is understood as straight. Other words derived from this root are qawm (they stand still), qiyamat, (resurrection), qayimu (upright) and maqam (place). Maqam is interesting because in Eastern music systems it refers to pitches used, as in a scales. Sufis terminology speaks of makam and hal, one's station and one's state. Importantly, "When Sufis recite this verse, they concentrate on the vertical and atemporal rather than the temporal and horizontal trajectory of the path and pray to God to be guided now on the path of ascent and therefore to transcendence of ordinary human consciousness and life, a path that is also one of inwardness, until they reach "there" which is also "here" at the center of our being. According to the Hadith, " the heart of the person of faith is the Throne of the All Good (and Compassionate), that is, God" (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, The Garden of Truth: Knowledge, Love, and Action, p 104)
Here we have this "one" place that is both inward and outward, neither solely here nor there. The path is one because the goal is One. It is a kind of resurrection because it transcends one's being and consciousness. It is upright because the path is Islam which is the Surrender to one's Lord. It is a "place" because to truly be located one has to be present with all the force of one's being which demands surrender, acceptance. It is the place where the ego is removed from the spirit, so to speak.
Much ink has been spilled upon the elucidation of this ayat. Al-mustaqīm is derived from QWM which leads to a rich store of meaning, but is understood as straight. Other words derived from this root are qawm (they stand still), qiyamat, (resurrection), qayimu (upright) and maqam (place). Maqam is interesting because in Eastern music systems it refers to pitches used, as in a scales. Sufis terminology speaks of makam and hal, one's station and one's state. Importantly, "When Sufis recite this verse, they concentrate on the vertical and atemporal rather than the temporal and horizontal trajectory of the path and pray to God to be guided now on the path of ascent and therefore to transcendence of ordinary human consciousness and life, a path that is also one of inwardness, until they reach "there" which is also "here" at the center of our being. According to the Hadith, " the heart of the person of faith is the Throne of the All Good (and Compassionate), that is, God" (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, The Garden of Truth: Knowledge, Love, and Action, p 104)
Here we have this "one" place that is both inward and outward, neither solely here nor there. The path is one because the goal is One. It is a kind of resurrection because it transcends one's being and consciousness. It is upright because the path is Islam which is the Surrender to one's Lord. It is a "place" because to truly be located one has to be present with all the force of one's being which demands surrender, acceptance. It is the place where the ego is removed from the spirit, so to speak.
Resurrection, standing, and being upright have a quality of waiting and something being removed, cleansed or purified. Being on a path implies work. Straightness certainly implies rigidity, but it also carries with it the added connotation of a clear way forward. Associations such as these have to be heard in the light of the understanding the whole revelation as well as the Sunnah. A close reading of the Quran reveals that "the straight path" is not straight in the sense of being heedless of one's surroundings, but it is a purification of the ego-nafs from all that which is impeding the perception of the Divine Being The sirat al mustaqim is a distillation of that which does not belong from that which is pure and primary. The alchemists have had this to say about the matter:
"1. Distillation is a certain art of extracting the liquor, or the humid part of things by virtue of heat (as the matter shall require) being first resolved into a vapor and then condensed again by cold.
2. Distillation is the art of extracting the spiritual and essential humidity from the phlegmatic, or of the phlegmatic from the spiritual.
3. Distillation is the changing of gross thick bodies into a thinner and liquid substance, or separation of the pure liquor from the impure feces." (John French, The Art of Distillation)
1:7 صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنعَمتَ عَلَيهِمْ غَيرِ المَغضُوبِ عَلَيهِمْ وَلاَ الضَّالِّين Ṣirāṭa al-laḏīna anʿamta ʿalayhim ġayri l-maġḍūbi ʿalayhim walā ḍ-ḍāllīn The path of those whom Your blessings are upon, not of those whom You have cursed nor of those who have gone astray.
Here the outer understanding is the separation of the non-believers from the believers within the community. The inner to be taken from this is that the non-believer in you is to be removed from the believer in you. This is the leading step to union, in music it is one short inevitable step to the home note, the return. It will happen, there is no preventing it. You are the tension leading up to Union. Your understanding of you is the crux of your dilemma. All of your choices up to this point have been about yourself and the drop lost within the Ocean. You are an Ocean of Remembrance, why do you fight to reach the shore?
Seven Oft Repeated Verses. Seven heavens. Seven layers of ego. Seven ancient planets. Seven diatonic pitches. Of what value is seven to these observations? Why do subtle relationships exist between revelation, vibratory and physiological patterns? Are they imagined? Or are they real cosmological dynamics? We can either leave these questions to scholars and scientists or allow ourselves the luxury of investigation in these realms. The matter is not simply a split between belief and unbelief nor science and spirituality. Seekers of truth can not leave their quest for a direct ontological experience for others to sort it out, as it is crucial that one does not refer to just a report from the Beloved. We want to meet face to Face.
"1. Distillation is a certain art of extracting the liquor, or the humid part of things by virtue of heat (as the matter shall require) being first resolved into a vapor and then condensed again by cold.
2. Distillation is the art of extracting the spiritual and essential humidity from the phlegmatic, or of the phlegmatic from the spiritual.
3. Distillation is the changing of gross thick bodies into a thinner and liquid substance, or separation of the pure liquor from the impure feces." (John French, The Art of Distillation)
1:7 صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنعَمتَ عَلَيهِمْ غَيرِ المَغضُوبِ عَلَيهِمْ وَلاَ الضَّالِّين Ṣirāṭa al-laḏīna anʿamta ʿalayhim ġayri l-maġḍūbi ʿalayhim walā ḍ-ḍāllīn The path of those whom Your blessings are upon, not of those whom You have cursed nor of those who have gone astray.
Here the outer understanding is the separation of the non-believers from the believers within the community. The inner to be taken from this is that the non-believer in you is to be removed from the believer in you. This is the leading step to union, in music it is one short inevitable step to the home note, the return. It will happen, there is no preventing it. You are the tension leading up to Union. Your understanding of you is the crux of your dilemma. All of your choices up to this point have been about yourself and the drop lost within the Ocean. You are an Ocean of Remembrance, why do you fight to reach the shore?
Seven Oft Repeated Verses. Seven heavens. Seven layers of ego. Seven ancient planets. Seven diatonic pitches. Of what value is seven to these observations? Why do subtle relationships exist between revelation, vibratory and physiological patterns? Are they imagined? Or are they real cosmological dynamics? We can either leave these questions to scholars and scientists or allow ourselves the luxury of investigation in these realms. The matter is not simply a split between belief and unbelief nor science and spirituality. Seekers of truth can not leave their quest for a direct ontological experience for others to sort it out, as it is crucial that one does not refer to just a report from the Beloved. We want to meet face to Face.
You (think you) are my lover? I will bewilder you! Construct little since I will ruin you!
(Hz. Mevalana Rumi)
All these words seek to highlight the choice we have before us, the illusionary dual road before us that lies between the two poles of our own selves. Our existence is a distillation of our baser selves, we live our lives to make wine from the adjuration of our hearts. We are sparks of light embedded in a physical world that hides our true nature from ourselves. Revelation is a rope thrown to give us a hand hold that leads to our Beloved Whom we already acknowledged, but have momentarily forgotten due to the bewildering beauty of His Creation. How much more bewilderingly beautiful is the Beloved! Allow yourself to be cooked so that you will taste good to your Beloved.
(Hz. Mevalana Rumi)
All these words seek to highlight the choice we have before us, the illusionary dual road before us that lies between the two poles of our own selves. Our existence is a distillation of our baser selves, we live our lives to make wine from the adjuration of our hearts. We are sparks of light embedded in a physical world that hides our true nature from ourselves. Revelation is a rope thrown to give us a hand hold that leads to our Beloved Whom we already acknowledged, but have momentarily forgotten due to the bewildering beauty of His Creation. How much more bewilderingly beautiful is the Beloved! Allow yourself to be cooked so that you will taste good to your Beloved.