This letter was written
for Sayyid Mîr Shems-ud-dîn Alî Halhalî. It provides information on man’s ten
component parts that are from the
’âlam-i-emr and the ’âlam-i-khalq, and explains how the human heart is
superior to the ’Arsh:
Hamd be to Allâhu ta’âlâ, and salâm to those slaves of His chosen and loved by Him! Man is a sampler of patterns made up of ten
component parts. These component parts are substances that are in solid, liquid, and gaseous forms and which, with the inclusion of energy, make up the quartet
termed ’anâsir-i-erbe’a (four elements); man’s
nafs, heart, and soul; and his latîfas called sir and khafî, and akhfâ.
[It is stated as
follows in the book entitled Nebrâs, and also in the hundred and fourteenth page of its annotation rendered by Muhammad Berhurdâr Multânî ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’: (Suleymân
bin Ahmad) Taberânî ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’, (260, Taberiyya, Damascus - 360 [971 A.D.], the same place,) quotes ’Abdullah bin ’Umar ‘radiy-Allâhu
’anhumâ’, (fourteen years before the Hegira - 73 [692 A.D.], Mekka,) as having said: “Allâhu ta’âlâ created His creatures from water, air, nûr, and zulmat.” The ‘nûr’ here means ‘heat energy’, [which Greek philosophers called ‘fire’, and which
may change into other types of energy.] And what is called ‘zulmat’ is the earthen substances. Hence, all objects are made up of solid, liquid, and gaseous
substances, and energy, which means to say that all substances carry energy.]
All the organs and
forces that man possesses originate from these ten components. These ten
components are dissimilar to one another. They pull in opposite directions.
[Each and every one of them wishes that the others should all be like it.] The
initial five components belong in the ’âlam-i-khalq. That is, they are material. As these five components are
opposite to one another, likewise the other five components, which are from the
’âlam-i-emr, are opposite to one
another, each having a different duty. One of these ten components, the one called nafs-i-nâtiqa,
or man’s nafs, always tries to foist its own desires on the others. It never bows to
others’ preferences.
Allâhu ta’âlâ has created these ten irreconcilable components, brought them together, and made a unity with quite
new properties, giving it its human shape. Because man is a unity made up of these ten component parts, he has been honoured with the title, ‘Khalîfa of Allah
on the earth’. No creature other than man has attained this honour. So great as is the ’âlam-i-kebîr, since it subsumes all beings
outside of man, none of its members has accumulated all these ten components in itself. This honour is commonly possessed by the entire humanity.
The ’Arsh is the most valuable of all the creatures in the ’âlam-i-kebîr. The tajallî that is reflected on it is superior to the tajallîs reflected on the other
creatures. For, the tajallî reflected on the ’Arsh is the collection of the other tajallîs. The tajallî reflected on the ’Arsh takes place with all the Names
and Attributes of Allâhu ta’âlâ, and it is a perpetual, ceaseless tajallî. The heart of a kâmil Muslim is identical with the ’Arsh in many respects. Hence, a heart with that
maturity has been called the ’Arshullah. And hence also has
it attained a tajallî that approximates to the tajallî reflected on the ’Arsh.
The tajallî reflected on the ’Arsh is complete. The tajallî reflected on the
heart of an ’ârif is a part from that tajallî. Yet the heart possesses a
superior property of which the ’Arsh is devoid. That superior property is
awareness; it is ‘to know Him’. The heart falls in love with the tajallî that
is reflected on it and becomes infatuated with the zuhûr that takes place on
it. The ’Arsh lacks this love. On account of this awareness and love that the
heart has been gifted with, it is capable of making progress and improving. In
fact, it does improve and gain height. The hadîth-i-sherîf that reads: “A person will be with
his beloved one,” verifies this fact. So the heart is with its beloved one. If it has loved the Names and Attributes of
Allâhu ta’âlâ, it will be with them. If it has loved the Dhât-i-ilâhî (Allâhu ta’âlâ Himself), it will proceed beyond the Names and Attributes and attain grades far and far afield. The ’Arsh cannot attain tajallîs beyond the
Names and Attributes. Wa-s-salâm.
Menba-i-fayz-u-ma ânî is majlis-i-Abd-ul-Hakîm, [1]
Menzil-i-qurb-i-ilâhî,
is sohbat-i-’Abd-ul-Hakîm.
Malja-i-bî-châra-ghân, dermân-i-derd is Hakîm,
Ma’dan-i-irfân, nûr-i-Subhân, sirr-i-Qur’ân is
Hakîm!
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[1] Sayyid ’Abd-ul-Hakîm Arwâsî ‘rahmatullâhi
ta’âlâ ’alaih’, (1281 [1865 A.D.], Başkale, Van, Turkey - 1362
[1943], Ankara.)