“Those who adore God in the sun behold the sun,
and those who adore Him in living things see a living thing,
and those who adore Him in lifeless things see a lifeless thing,
and those who adore Him as a Being unique and unparalleled
see that which has no like.”
-Ibn al-Arabi
The name of God for the Sufis is Allah, which translates literally as ‘The Nothing’ and is the same for the Gnostics who worship an Agnostos Theos, the unknowable divinity.
“The seed of Sufism was sown in the time of Adam,
germed in the time of Noah,
budded in the time of Abraham,
began to develop in the time of Moses,
reached maturity in the time of Jesus,
produced pure wine in the time of Mohammad.”
-Shahabudin Suhrawardi, Awarif el-Maarif (Gifts of Deep Knowledge)
The mystical path for the Gnostics and the Sufis is characterized by the personal relationship between the heart of each seeker and God, there is no one that can ever stand in the way of a seeker and their connection to Allah, the Beloved.
The mystics, the lovers of God, understand that we live in a false world separate from the direct influence of the Divine. This is a world of sleep, illusion and darkness. The pull to return to God is a mutual love, the mystic loves God and God, the Beloved, the Friend, loves the mystic.
“I was a hidden treasure and wanted to be known, so I created the world in order that I may be known.”
-Hadith of Prophet Mohammad
Spirit has descended and unfolded into matter, creating this material existence, and all the worlds of the universe.
In this world we have forgotten our Divine state and believe in the false paradise, like prisoners who have been in prison so long they have forgotten the world outside.
“Think how it is to have a conversation with an embryo.
You might say, ‘The world outside is vast and intricate.
There are wheat-fields and mountain passes,
and orchards in bloom.
At night there are millions of galaxies, and in sunlight
the beauty of friends dancing at a wedding.’
You ask the embryo why he, or she, stays cooped up
in the dark with eyes closed.
Listen to the answer.
There is no ‘other world.’
I only know what I’ve experienced.
You must be hallucinating.”
– Jalaluddin Rumi
This is our psychological sleep: we are spiritual embryos, undeveloped, but with a potential to grow. We are in the realm of separation from God because of our own internal darkness, our own psychological sleep. We are creatures hypnotized by the animal nature, the nafs, the appetitive and egoic self which is a multiplicity.
“Love will open the door of spiritual poverty and poverty will show you the way of unbelief. When there remains neither unbelief nor religion, your body and your soul will disappear; you will then be worthy of the mysteries.”
– Farid ud-Din Attar
The return to absolute union with God is called fana: annihilation. When the state of transformation has concluded, then we are inhabitants of the highest spiritual world, and like moths in the flame, we dissolve and become absorbed in the light.