By Rusmir Mahmutcehajic
reformatted here by Greg Kagira-Watson
(Though I have tried to clean it up, there still
may be errors in spelling due to OCR corruption. Many diacritical marks
are
still absent.)
Chapter Two— Kernel
and Shell
(starting on p. 59 through p. 73.)
THE DIVERSITY OF
RELIGIONS
The differences
between these
three religions are used to cite the differences among their
followers—yet why
are their similarities not used to unite them? The unity of diversity
can be
interpreted to mean that these religions are esoterically alike, but to
the
external view exoterically unlike. Thus we have several levels of
identity:
these faiths all look to a single God, but are expressed in a plurality
of
different expressions in the world of concrete forms. The plurality is
visible-the unity all but invisible. The unity in
which
knowledge and existence—being—meet, is Intellect—what Meister Eckhart calls the uncreated and uncreatable
factor of every human individuality. Eckhart
is
echoed in Islamic tradition in the proverbial saying that the Sufi is
uncreated.6
Man is both finite
and
infinite. The esoteric view shows us the eternal perfection underlying
every
transient form of religion: the external, exoteric components should
serve to
enrich our perceptions of this unity. However, our perception is being
compelled, by modern trends of thought, to confine itself to the
exoteric and
ignore the esoteric: only that which can be empirically established has
any
validity. The universal science of metaphysics—humanity's attempt to
grasp
spiritual principle—is disappearing from view.
There are many
possible
answers to the riddle of religious pluriformity—but
not all are solutions. Theology cannot provide a confirmation of unity:
it
tends to justify the judging and subjective I, and suggest the
deficiency of
the judged and objective other. The next answer is the 'objective and
detached
position'. The self of the subject is separated from the object
undergoing
consideration. From this position all religions are debased in relation
to the
lofty detachment of the observer. Religion becomes pure phenomenon and
is
classed with other social phenomena: the class war, ontogenesis and the
like.
Yet the very subtraction of the self from the thing considered
diminishes the
value of this approach. The crudely individual self, its original
purity
overlaid by its mutable identity, is left to judge the validity of
knowledge
which is wholly immutable and independent of any one of its
manifestations. The
next answer we come to is phenomenology, which places all religion on a
specifically human plane, divorcing it from the supraindividual.
This approach denies pure intellectuality and the universal reach of
metaphysics, denying also that their origin may be anything other than
human.
When forms are thus
closed
and limited they compel other forms to become limited and hardened in
reaction.
If we confine ourselves to the exoteric view, no religion can be more
than one
of a crowd of contradictory forms and beliefs: but this contradicts the
principle of absolutes, and the absolute nature of truth. If there are
many
apparent forms of truth, then in reality these must all be forms of a
single
truth. Beyond the limitations of form they point to the presence of an
overwhelming absolute.
Any religion is a
sufficient
guide to absolute principle—to that extent, all religions are in
themselves
comprehensive, absolute. Each has the potential to transcend all
borders and
embrace all truths. The form is the letter of religion; transcendence
is the
spirit.
TRADITION
Phenomenological
analysis of
all the religions of
The destructive
effect that
ideology has on religion is due to the fact that the exoteric aspects
of
religion are all that ideology requires. Or rather, they are a means to
a
different end: instead of pointing to the esoteric, they can be turned
round
and made to point back to the ideology itself. Their presence implies
the
blessing of heaven on the purposes of the ideology: they are no longer
capable
of implying anything further.
At its best,
ideology
provides the self with a sense of liberation and limitless potential:
we have
the concept of the freedom of the individual, of autonomy and its
accompanying
rights. However, all sense of other human states or purposes is lost:
there is
nothing beyond the individual which could act as a guide or offer
knowledge of
the self. Acceptance of the principle that the Intellect is everywhere
present,
enables humanity to confirm and strengthen its ascent of 'the ladder of
worlds', to move from the conditional towards the Absolute. Tradition
prescribes
and enables this acceptance. A structure can be described as
Traditional, if,
to a greater or lesser extent but always consciously and voluntarily,
it
declares its dependence on doctrine, which has its foundations in
Intellect.
Tradition as doctrine may be purely intellectual,
or
religious when it includes many extraneous elements.
Everything which is
exoteric
in religion—dogma, morality, ritual-has its roots in an esoteric unity.
Therefore, if we find the exoteric form alien or incomprehensible, we
should
look beyond it to the esoteric origin and essence of the religion,
instead of
allowing ourselves to become distracted by the difficulties of form.
For the
follower of each religion, its forms are the outward signs of the road
towards
the Absolute; they offer a living connection with Truth. However, the
exoteric
form which has no link with transcendent unity remains a landmark
rather than a
signpost-even this, however, is better than wandering in a void. We are
enabled
to turn towards the source of meaning; thus the conditions are created
for us
to accept the Absolute.
This process
reveals the
presence of two expressions or levels of unity. The first dwells in
forms which
are authentic, in that they enable transition from the symbol to the
signified.
The second is the transcendence of the signified. In Christian csoterism, Christ is the symbol or manifestation
of God,
the Logos or Word of God. Exoterically viewed, Christ is the starting
point of
the two thousand year-old drama which spread from
Intellect is
present in all
things, but reason as we know it is only present in humanity. Through
the
presence of Intellect, every symbol in the universe and in ourselves
has its connection with unity. Through reason we establish our
relationship
with quantity and movement: it can never bring us beyond the
measurable, no
matter how comprehensive its generalisations
may
sound. There is nothing universal about reason; but Intellect is
eternal.
The single confirms
the
multitude; the presence of many revelations is the process of a single
revelation. This expresses itself in finite, concrete forms, which are
no more
than symbols of eternity. Acceptance of one commands the acceptance of
others.
Failure to accept is the implicit or willing denial of the contents of
all
sacred forms, denial of their relationship to the Spirit. The truth of
the
esoteric content of every religion is today no longer accessible to the
majority. The esoteric is offered to us through the forms and actions
of the
exoteric: once the existence of this kernel is denied, the empty shell
is
easily broken. The fragments of exoterism
are reduced
to 'fundamentalism'-which could better be described as literalism, or
sentimentality. Once the living kernel is torn from the shell, the
shell ceases
to signify anything beyond itself, but can be set up as an idol, whose
cult is
the persecution of other religions and their followers. We have the
paradoxical
creation of heterodox religion: religion which denies and seeks the
destruction
of orthodox religion.
We need to change
our
perspective, to accommodate the vast range of exoteric manifestations
of
religion through the acceptance of their single, esoteric base. And not
only our perspective needs to be changed:
to change our attitudes
within the physical world is also to change them in the spiritual. The
spiritual heart, the organ which receives revelations, corresponds with
the eye
of the physical body: Absolute Principle, which radiates light, is symbolised by the sun; Intellect is symbolised
by light itself; the reality of God is what we seek by this light. The
spiritual transcends the individual: the will of the individual is
limited and
passive in comparison. We cannot understand spirituality or religion
merely by
comparing exoteric forms and attempting to synthesise
them on the basis of their similarity: to do so would be superficial
since it
would confine us to the level of forms. Such a comparison could be of
value to
the extent that we would become better informed about the exoteric, but
only if
we bear permanently in mind its esoteric content.
Forms can be used
for
evidence for and against similarity and difference: they can serve
equally to
forge relationships and to break them. To understand religion and its
unity we
need to understand that harmony can produce diversity. This harmony is
spiritual: the single kernel at the heart of every religion, the
nucleus which
gives religion life.7
CORRUPTION
Religion has three
components
which stem from different origins: dogma, moral law and cult or ritual.
The
first is the intellectual component, the
second is
social, while the third overlaps with both. The stability of a religion
depends
on the hierarchic relationship and balance between these three
components.
Since the esoteric aspect of religion-that part which is founded on
pure
intellectuality-is the least readily accessible, we have dogma as the systematised and structured version of the
underlying
metaphysics. Dogma is the letter which must not be separated from the
doctrinal
spirit which created it. Although it can be readily seen as
intellectual, since
it deals with profundities, it is not in itself purely intellectual,
but
necessarily includes nonintellectual, sentimental elements. This state
of
affairs is reflected in the use of the term 'faith', which can be
distorted to
mean blind acceptance of dogma. Faith is very different from certitude,
which
is a purely intellectual state.
Sentimentality
prevails still
further where morality is concerned. Although morality has its
foundations in
religious dogma, it is primarily shaped by societal norms. Meanwhile,
ritual
has an intellectual aspect, to the extent that it symbolises
doctrine, but is social, since it involves a form of behaviour
in which all members of the religious community must take part.
Whenever the social
and
sentimental aspects of religion prevail over the intellectual, dogma
and ritual
lose their true role, and religion declines to socially accepted
morality.
Morality itself can play one of two roles: it can be a part of dogma,
since the
latter enshrines its principles; or in philosophical mode it can be
seen as
independent-a diluted form of the Absolute. Both morality and religion
are
vulnerable to sentimentality, which today has succeeded in virtually
overwhelming intellectuality. The next step is the reduction of
religion to the
level of nation and state. Wherever this process takes place,
intellectuality
vanishes, to be replaced by political ideology, which forces religion
to
perform a specifically anti-religious role. Today, this distortion is
all too
common. Phenomenological analysis of this rising antireligion,
focused on each religion in turn, gives a bleak view of the future.
ISLAM THROUGH
PHENOMENOLOGY
Understanding the
presence
and effects of Islam at any one time or place requires an insight into
the
principles and purposes of the Islamic mission, and the environment and
conditions in which they are being observed. Islam places the
relationship
between God as the Creator and humanity as the creature at the centre
of its
world-view. The nature of this relationship is what defines man's
salvation or
fall. God is the Creator of all, whose signs can be seen in everything
created,
yet who is unique and incomparable. At the centre of creation is
humanity,
itself both internally and externally a symbol. God has placed symbols
communicating the divine nature 'in the horizons and in human selves'.8
Humanity has the right to salvation: all other rights are God's.
Humanity's realisation of this right
depends on submission to God's
laws. Humanity, by submission to God's laws, realises
perfect freedom. As God's slave, humanity recognises
and understands God's symbols in the environment: everything good is
ascribed
to God, and is perceived as good in proportion to its nearness to God.
God sends humanity
prophets
and messengers who instruct them in the Truth, thus leading them from
'the
depths of darkness towards the light' 9. The best among
humanity is
the foremost prophet of God, and, through a series of such prophets,
God's
guidance and instructions are passed to humanity. All prophets declare
a single
truth to humanity, acting both as evidence of God's truth and
interpreters of
God's symbols 'in the horizons and in human selves'. According to
Islamic
belief, the prophet Muhammad stands at the end and beginning of the
series of
God's prophets, the Light and Seal of Creation. He confirms the truths
of all
the previous prophets and corrects blunders and false constructions
previously
made. His arrival turns the whole world into a masdjid,10 a place where
humanity's relationship with the self and the world can be formed on
the basis
of God's Message and the Example of the Messenger of God. All people
are called
to this masdjid,
and the fundamental goal of Islam is to ensure that all have the right
to
respond freely and to belong to this masdjid
of the world. The concept of this undertaking has
taken various forms during the expansion and interpretation of this
message:
this is the frame in which the presence of Islam in
The examination of
Islam 11
should trace its vertical threads through history down to the present
day. All
prophets of God, from Adam onwards, were within Islam-that is, in
submission to
God. Just as Christian tradition points to the Word and the Light as
the
beginning (in the opening chapter of the Gospel of St. John, the
principal
gospel of the ancient
This essential
Islam has left
its imprint in multitudes of languages, times and places. It retains
indestructible life and newness, since it reflects the mercy of God:
'There is
no God but He, the Living, the Everlasting.
Slumber
seizes Him not, neither sleep.12
The
history of Islam belongs to the wider history of all sacred traditions.
These
traditions are, in a narrow sense, the historic trends sparked by the
various
revelations of this light.
Our approach to
Islam should
also be lateral, to include the phenomena which are joined to Islam at
the
root, but have taken various directions: Islam is a religion of
messages and
prophecies, and all its forms recognise
this
inheritance. We should also incorporate the sociological standpoint,
examining
various social groups and conditions while taking account of Islamic
relations
towards world unity, balanced against the attitudes of national
entities and
individual groups.
Whichever of these
approaches
is adopted it will speedily confirm that Islam, like its fellow
religions,
defined as perfection and the road towards perfection, evades
scientific
definition. All scientific approaches to Islam, therefore, must
necessarily be
incomplete, while nevertheless necessary on that account. Meanwhile,
there is
no complete phenomenological portrayal of Islam: this is therefore the
approach
used by this book to interpret Islam in Bosnia.13 We will move from examination of outward
forms to the deeper layers of the human response to God's instructions
and
guidance, and finally to the innermost nucleus of Islam.
Islam is deeply
concerned
with the relationship of the external to the internal, the form to the
content.
According to Islam, the diversity of the world reflects the Unity of
God:
humanity has always had the capacity to recognise
and
comprehend this unity. The world is a Book of God, laying God's Message
open to
humanity in clarity and fullness. This Book, composed of myriad
letters, is in
all its forms the sign of the Creator. The truth of the World and the
Book is
measured by what they symbolise. Thus the
Deus Absconditus ('And equal to him is not
anyone'14)
is the Deus Revelatus The Deus Absconditus
leads people through His messages and prophets to the True Road, and
then they
know him as the Deus Revelatus ('God who
Declares
Himself 15 and 'God Who speaks'16)
Humanity learns how
to find
the roads that lead up to the level of becoming the convinced slave of
God. All
forms of approaching God require first that the illusion of the
individual self
should be shattered, and commitment to God made. Whoever serves God
acts as
God's viceregent, the guardian and
advocate of Goodness. Those who act for
themselves alone, making the
blunder of independence from God, act as the tool and advocate of evil.
Any
part of humanity which has accepted the reality of living in the world
as an umma, is under obligation to attempt
the transformation of
the world into a medina, where relationships towards other human beings
are
defined by Tradition: 'by religion and by religious laws'. The world
will shape
itself around 'the best nation ever brought forth to men, bidding to honour and forbidding dishonour,
and believing in God'.17
The
phenomenological approach
to Islam which we have chosen is the method proposed by the Sufi of
Baghdad,
Abu'1-I iusayn an-Nuri
(d.
907), and similar to that of his contemporary al-Hakim at-Tirrnidhi.18
Based on the Kur'an,
Nuri's concentric formula works inwards
from the
external forms of holiness towards the most internal core of religion.
In this
model there is no God but God, and the heart is simultaneously the
centre and
the sphere in which the unification of the human I with God's I can
take place.
It is composed of four principal concentric circles, embracing a core
or
centre: (1) the breast (sadr) is connected
with
Islam;19 (2) the heart (kalb)
is the place of faith (iman
20)—the heart
enables internalisation of purely external
usage of
religious forms, and is therefore the organ of the purely spiritual
aspects of
religious life; (3) the inner heart (fu'ad)
is the place of intuitive gnostic
knowledge (ma’rifa21),
where God's knowledge can be approached 'from us',22 with
nothing to
mediate between; (4) the most internal core of the heart (lubb) is the place of unity (tawhid23)—this is the place
of experiencing the One who is, was, and will be from eternity to
eternity, as
being both visible and attainable.
The circles are
made up as
follows: the first circle comprises
the sacred
subject, the good
act, the good
word, the good
scripture, the good
individual, the good
community. The second consists
of God,
the Message,
Salvation;
the third is submission,
faith,
love;
the fourth is Deus Revelatus, holiness,
truth;
and the
fifth, the central, Deus Absconditus.
I. The outer
circle, or the world
of external forms, covers three
areas:
(1) sacred
matter, sacred space, sacred time, sacred numbers, sacred acts;
(2) the
sacred word; the spoken word (that of God or his chosen prophets);
Tradition, teaching, learning; the language of prayer to God (asking,
thanking,
repenting, recollecting, whispering);
(3) the written
word-the Messenger or Book of God; (4) the
righteous man and the righteous community.
II. The second
circle, the
first of the inner circles, is the world of religious
imagination, meditation, perception, regarding the invisible being
and the visible and invisible actions of God:
(1) the concept of
God;
(2) the concept
of creation (cosmology and anthropology),
including concepts of the original states of the world and humanity;
(3) the concept
of the Message,
as the nearness of God's will as revealed in history and the soul;
(4) the concept of
salvation;
(5) the concept
of the afterworld and the conditions within it.
III. The third
circle
represents the world of religious
experience, that is, what happens deep in the soul, as opposed to
fantastic
or rationalist concepts of God; the religious values which are tossed
aside in
the conflict between humanity and the sacred, and the accomplishing of
sacred
acts:
(1) respect (for
God and His
Holiness);
(2) fear;
(3) faith
and total trust in God;
(4) hope;
(5) love,
desire for God, surrender to Him, returning to God's love. Together
with these
values are grouped the values of peace, joy, the desire to share and
take part,
and special religious experiences: inspiration, miraculous appearances,
the recognition of a call, enlightenment,
seeing and
hearing, ecstasy, strange physical powers.
IV. The real
world of religion
in the chosen model corresponds to the innermost circle. This
centre is God's Reality, which can be encountered in all
external forms, inner perception, and experiences of the soul in a
twofold
sense:
(1) Deus Revelatus, or God Who has His Face towards mankind, as perfect
holiness,
truth, justice and love, mercy, salvation;
(2)
Deus Ipse or Deus
Absconditus, experienced as perfect
unity.
God's reality can
never be
manifest in human forms of expression, thought and experience. All
levels of
our experience can be described only as emanations from God's Unity or
as
returning to God. The created is the sign of the Creator, and its
reality-which
is always of a lower order than the Creator, since the Creator is
always higher
in relation to the created-is only found in Him.
The
phenomenological analysis
of Islam in
THE SCIENCE OF
SYMBOLS
The foundation of
sacred
tradition is the science of symbols.24 Modern civilisation
has promoted ratio to the highest level, and humanity as a whole is 'categorised' accordingly. Intellect-man's
capacity for
relationship with the remote and supra-rational-is losing the place it
once
held in every sacred tradition. Intellect in its original significance
is
accordingly a target for modern hostility, since it is concerned with
the truth
which transcends the world and so denies the rationalist view that the
only
world is the world that can be measured and defined. Religion is seen
as a mere
aberration of the subconscious, and defined as 'a product of social
conditions'. In this environment, Tradition's truths cannot be
accessed, since
contemporary man is all but incapable of seeing any meaning in sacred
science
and sacred art. Both believers and agnostics share the same view of
symbols and
their role: nothing inside the world need be interpreted as pointing to
what is
outside it.
Symbolism has been
relegated
to the lowest rank in the hierarchy of those issues which are seen as
concerning humanity today, yet it is the most important in our search
for a
possible transformation of the consciousness which makes us the
captives and
victims of 'nature'. The issue of symbolism is of fundamental
importance for
humanity. Without symbolism there can be no understanding of the
origins or the
purpose of man's presence in the world. 'The seven heavens and the
earth, and
whosoever in them is, extol Him; nothing is, that does not proclaim His
praise,
but you do not understand their extolling', comments the Kur'an.25
'I was hidden Treasure, and I loved to be known, and so I created the
Universe.'26
The message is
clear:
everything 'in the horizons and in human selves' has the significance
of a
symbol celebrating God. 'Naught is there but its treasuries are with Us, and We send it down, but in a known
measure... It is We
who give life, and make to die, and it is We who are the inheritors.'27
Thus, the archetypes of everything existing in the world and among
human beings
remain with God, 'and unto Him all matters are returned'.28
Since nothing can
be pure
being, nor have meaning in itself, everything 'in the seven heavens and
on earth'
belongs among the multitude of symbols which testify to the Heavenly
Treasure.
Humanity, in falling, lost the capacity to recognise
'God's praise' in every symbol. The First Man's seizure of 'the
forbidden
fruit' is symbolic of this failure: he took possession of what was
merely a
symbol, instead of recognising 'God's
glory' in this
same symbol. He mistook a sign for the destination. Thus he lost the
capacity
to approach the higher truths. His heart, as the organ for direct
recognition
of these truths, became darkened. But the symbols found in the world
and
revealed in ritual, indivisible from sacred science and sacred art,
retain
their potential to remove the eclipse separating soul and heart: the
possibility offered by God's prophets and the Good. The rope of
salvation is
thrown to humanity, its fibres pulsing
with the life
of higher worlds. This series of worlds, ranked from lowest to highest,
enables
the gradual transformation of the symbols offered by the earthly world
into
fuller symbols of God, by which humanity climbs towards, or returns to,
the
First and Last. In this ascent our fallen selves are renewed, returned
to the
state of the First of humanity.
The proverb 'The
world is a
great man and man is a small world'29 reminds us of the
interrelated
nature of symbols. 'That which is below is as that which is above, and
that
which is above is as that which is below.'30 Singleness,
unity or
indivisibility of Being is the first
principle emphasised by metaphysics. It
contrasts with the
conditional nature of all states of existence except pure Being.
Conditionality means interdependence, and this includes the
cause-consequence
chain which binds the infinity of created states. The science of signs,
or
symbolism, is the language which explains—often with geometric
strictness of
definition—the causal sequence.
The interpretation
of symbols
and signs is the origin and foundation of religious teaching, but has
been
eclipsed and lost to the West since the Renaissance. Humanity's loss of
awareness of the central organ, which links us to the real axis of the
world,
means our imprisonment on the surface of only one level of existence.
The whole
of Being, from the smallest to the greatest
of its
manifestations in space and time, participates in general principles,
whose
eternal and unchangeable archetypes are stored in the Treasury. Nothing
'in the
horizons and in human selves' (Kur'an)
exists outside
these principles. The eternal and unchangeable essence of every symbol,
revealed in the world of material phenomena in an empirical form, is
stored in
God's intellect.
From this it
follows that all
phenomena, from the countless multitudes of existential levels, are
interrelated. This comprehensive relationship takes the form of
universal
harmony, reflecting the principle unity of the world's manifold
phenomena: it
is on this relationship that the science of symbols is founded. This
science is
able to define the forms and relationships of all symbols, no matter
which
sacred tradition is taken as its focus. It sets in motion the process
of
denying the unreal and confirming and acknowledging the Real, synthesising the phenomena of existence in
systematic
comparison. Each synthesis shapes the unique identity of every
individual
tradition among the multitude of sacred laws and ways. The role of
symbols is
to re-inspire humanity, to revive awareness that we have the capacity
to
overcome every boundary and limitation: to recognise
the presence of the Ineffable in every object in the living world.
Ritual and symbols
are
aspects of this fundamental nucleus of sacred science. Both lead the
disciple
on to the ladder of accepting the Most High, transforming everything in
the
horizons and the self into the rungs of the ladder, a sequential scale
spanning
all existence. Thus all degrees of existence facilitate humanity's
union with
the higher states of Being. The whole world
is ordered
according to the corresponding attitude within the human soul. No crack
is left
between the First and the Last, the Outer and the Inner. The good human
being
is the most perfect symbol of God.31
Every phenomenon
is, to a
greater or lesser extent, a symbol enabling this spiritual realisation.
The most fundamental of these symbols are the sacred forms and Names of
God,
contained in the Message or revealed in the speech of the One who was
in
Himself an image of the Message. Next we have the various physical
manifestations of the sacred relationship sacred scriptures, the
temple. These
are reflected in all efforts to ensure that the Speech of God is
'heard' and
that the scripture of the word is 'read'.
Bosniac identity is rooted in the symbolic elements
of its
sacred traditions and can therefore only be fully understood through
the
science of symbols. The disappearance of this science from the visible
remainder
of the Bosniac inheritance has driven the Bosniac people to participate unconsciously in
their own
division and destruction. From day to day they act in parallel with the
declared enemies of this identity, possessing no greater understanding
of the
symbols of their own sacred science and their sacred art than do the
latter.
However,
NOTES
1 The quotation is
taken from
a well-known speech of Ilassan to Sheikh
Ahmed: 'The
most complicated people on the face of the earth. Not on anyone else
has
history played the kind of joke it's played on us. Until yesterday we
were what
we want to forget today. But we haven't become anything else. We've
stopped
halfway on the path, dumbfounded. We have nowhere to go any more. We've
been
torn away from our roots, but haven't become part of anything else.
Like a
tributary whose course has been diverted from its river by a flood and
which no
longer has a mouth or a current; it's too small to be a lake, too large
to be
absorbed by the earth. With a vague sense of shame because of our
origins, and
guilt because of our apostasy, we don't want to look back and have
nowhere to
look ahead of us. Therefore we try to hold back time, afraid of any
outcome at
all. We are despised both by our kinsmen and by newcomers, and we
defend
ourselves with pride and hatred. We wanted to save ourselves, but we're
so
completely lost we don't even know who we are anymore. And the tragedy
is that
we've come to love our stagnant tributary and don't want to leave it.
But
everything has a price, even this love of ours. Is it a coincidence
that we're
so overly softhearted and overly cruel, so sentimental and
hard-hearted, joyful
and melancholy, always ready to surprise others and even ourselves? Is
it a
coincidence that we hide behind love, the only certainty in this
indefiniteness? Are we letting life pass by us for no reason, are we
destroying
ourselves for no reason, not in the same way as Jamail,
but just as certainly? Why are we doing it? Because
we're not
indifferent. And if we're not indifferent, that means we're
honest. And
if we are honest, then let's hear it for our madness!' (Mesa Selimovic, Death and
the Dervish, translated by Bogdan Rakic and Stephen M. Dickey [Evanston, 1996],
pp. 408-409.)
2 In this book the
terms intellect and doctrine
(teaching) are used in their original sense, which differs
considerably from the one that is most commonly used nowadays.
Intellect
(Arabic al-'aql, Latin intellectus), which is often
translated as mind, has more levels of meaning. It can denote a general
principle of all intelligence, a principle that transcends the limiting
circumstances of thoughts. Reflection of the General Intellect in
thoughts can
also be called 'intellect'; in that case it corresponds to what was
called
reason in ancient times. The heart corresponds to the supra-rational
intuition
in the same way as the brain corresponds to thoughts. The fact that
present-day
people place their feelings, rather than intellectual intuition, in the
heart
proves that emotion is for them at the centre of the individual. Doctrine (teaching) (Arabic al-'akida,
Latin doctrina)
is systematically organised and active
knowledge of
religious truth, based on the interpretation of signs—images, symbols
and
parables, arranged on the horizons and human selves. Such a doctrine
leads, via
the stations of wisdom (fear, love, knowledge), to discernment in terms
of
dividing, and to cognition in terms of uniting.
3 Rene
Guénon, Syrnboles de la
Science sacrée (Paris, 1962), p. 9.
4 Guénon
(1962), p. 12.
5 As the Revelation
bases its
message about the world on recognition and understanding of the sign (ayah), the word 'symbolism' corresponds
to the 'Science of Signs', discussed in more detail in another work by
the
present author: O nauku
znaka (On
the Science of Signs), (Sarajevo, 1996).
6 The Sufi is the
human
equivalent of Intellect, since his whole task is to prevail over the
world of forms
and travel from multiplicity towards unity. This enables him to see one
within
many. For him all forms are clear: they reveal to him their nature as
signs of
the Ineffable. He knows the truth that there is no clearer sign of God
than
that which man incorporates. His nature confirms his creator. Human
nature
generally, and human mentality in particular, are incomprehensible out
side
religious terms. Religion defines them directly and fully.
Understanding both
the structural and the non-structural elements of religion means
understanding
religion in its pluriformity-on the level
of gnosis,
the religio perennis, in
which the external barriers created by dogma are resolved.
7 For a fuller
study of the
issue, see Frithjof Schuon,
The Transcendent Unity of Religions (
8 41:53.
10 The Prophet
said: 'The earth has been made sacred and
pure and a mosque for
me.' He also said: 'The earth is a mosque for you, so wherever you are
at the
time of prayer, pray there.' In another tradition he said: 'The whole
earth has
been made a mosque for us.' The traditions have been recorded in A1 jami'-us-sahih (Sahih Muslim),
I, 194, (
11 The term Islam
is used
here in its fourfold sense: 1) universal submission to God and God's
laws; 2)
the last Revelation of God with its centrality and comprehensiveness;
3) civilisation that was generated by the
Last Revelation; 4)
political religious views which place notions of human society on
opposite
sides of a scale-on one side is whatever is submitted to, and governed
by,
God's Law, on the other side is that which is submitted to, and
governed by,
secular laws.
12 2:255.
13 This
phenomenological
model is based on the works of Friedrich Heiler,
Das Gebet (
14 112:4.
15 2:115.
16 31:27.
17 3:110.
18 Paul Nwyia, Exégcsc coranique et langage
mystique (
19 39:22.
20 49:7.
21 53:11.
22 18:65.
23
2:163-164,
24 Sign (Arabic aya, Hebrew atb,
Aramaic atha, A,
Syriac atha,
Greek semeíon) has a wide
range of meanings in this text; that
range encompasses sign in its narrower sense and symbol
(Greek symbolon, Latin symbolum) in the broader sense.
It is worth noting here that
symbol is impossible to define, since
breaking through perceptions and uniting extremes into a unique view is
part of
its nature. Words cannot convey its true value. It has an exceptional
ability
to unite unconscious and conscious influences in one expression, as
well as
instinctive and spiritual forces that clash or are growing into harmony
in man.
Sign in the modern understanding is
not the same as symbol, since a sign
can be arbitrary, so that the
determinant and the determined remain strange to each other, while
symbol
represents a connection between the determinant and the determined. The
symbol is therefore more than the sign:
it refers from the other side of
meaning and depends on interpretation. Since the Revelation uses sign (aya)
for the entire range of phenomena
of universal existence, this term is being used in this text in
accordance with
the attitude that every phenomenon is a sign that serves spiritual materialisation or completion of man's centre
and
comprehensiveness in the entirety of creation. For different kinds of signs in God's messages, and ways of
interpreting them, see Rusmir Mahmutcehajic
(1996).
25
26
Muhammad Baqir Majlisi,
28 3:109.
29 This Sufi saying is quoted in Titus Burckhardt, Introduction
aux Doctrines ésotériques de l’Islam
(
30 The words are from die Emerald
Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus.
They form part of an alchemical document which can be traced through
the Middle Ages to Arabic sources such as Jabir,
who claimed he was quoting from Apollonius of Tyana.
See Whitall N. Perry, A
Treasury of Traditional Wisdom (
31 Tins Burckhardt,
De l'Homme universel (
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