Waḥdat al-Wujūd — The Better “Better” Explanation
Now we get to the more mystic side of things. The arguably most well-known Sufi Idea is Waḥdat al-Wujūd or in laymen’s terms: the Oneness of Being. You may go around the internet and its highly likely that you’ve heard it summarized this way:
Allah Ta’alaa is One | One of His {S.W.T} Names is Al-Haqq {ٱلْحَقُّ} meaning the Reality | Reality is Being | Allah {S.W.T} = Reality = Being i.e. God is Being
The basic sketch is what that suggests. You must realize that there is only one Being with the capitalization suggesting a Divine Attribute. To assume that anything also has its own being i.e. that something else exists is shirk or polytheism. That is the shortcut version of it all. Try first to understand Wujud and this idea.
It has a lot to do with how some Sufi Muslims view their existence. And it is one of the most important aspects of Sufism {alongside tawhid}. And if you’re one of those people who’d prefer that they be given the most simplified definition, Wujūd {existence} in the words of Ibn-e-Arabi is;
“wujūd is the unknowable and inaccessible ground of everything that exists. God alone is true wujūd, while all things dwell in nonexistence, so also wujūd alone is nondelimited (muṭlaq), while everything else is constrained, confined, and constricted. Wujūd is the absolute, infinite, nondelimited reality of God, while all others remain relative, finite, and delimited”
Source: Fusus–al-Hikam
While this belief does center around the concept of Wujūd, the most striking and essential part is that of Waḥdat, which mostly means one but in this case, refers to unity. I’ll try going over the various thoughts that have come to surround this belief, and how they relate to one another.
Disclaimer: Sufism (while not recognized as such by many Sunnis) is an entirely different sect within Islam, and as such, it is undoubtedly true that some of its notions disagree with the other sects. Most Sufi ideals are hard to explain to non-Sufi Muslims.
As the most avid and influential writer on the topic, it is imperative that we turn to the words of the Sufi saint; Ibn-e-Arabi. To him, it was simple enough to describe, Allah Ta’alaa as the Necessary Being. Everything in the cosmos apart from Allah Ta’alaa does not possess Wujūd, but he uses the term to refer to us too. To explain why he did so, Ibn-e-Arabi set up an analogy. The Sun is the source of the Earth’s energy and light. Whatever we have can inevitably be traced to the Sun’s light. We borrow from it. In the same manner, everything in existence borrows its Wujūd from Allah Ta’alaa. Everything we see is but the Wujūd’s self-disclosure (tajalli) or self-manifestation (ẓohur). In a more summarised way, it is a simple case of “He/not He” (howa/lāhowa).
The most important point of this doctrine is the batin (esoteric) reality of us creatures, rather than focusing on the zahir (exoteric) dimension of reality and existence. To Ibn-e-Arabi Wujūd is the all-encompassing, unique, and one reality from which all others are derived. Our being is but a mere shadow of the truth. We are dependent on the Real. In his own words;
“Glory to Him who created all things, being Himself their very essence (ainuha)”
We who live and are mawjûd (exist) are defined, finite, distinct, and muqayyad (limited). However, Allah Ta’alaa is absolute and infinite, undefined and indefinable, transcendent and ineffable, indistinct and indistinguishable, and most of all mutlaq (non-delimited). What is Real is incomparable but is disclosed in all things (tajalli), which is why it feels so close and similar. And if you have some brain cells to process what I am going to say, the Real is so nondelimited that it is not delimited by nondelimitation. To quote;
“God possesses Nondelimited Being, but no delimitation prevents Him from delimitation. On the contrary, He possesses all delimitations, so He is nondelimited delimitation”
Wujūd is the absolute reality and truth of Allah Ta’alaa. As the Necessary Being (wājib al-wujūd), Allah Ta’alaa cannot not exist. Wujūd is the only possible reality that exists in all cases, the truth and fact that cannot be declined, the Essence of Allah Ta’alaa/the Real (dhāt al-ḥaqq). In more simple cases Wujūd can be used to refer to the individual or everything that is not Real (māsiwāAllāh). Hence, it can be employed to refer to us as well.
The names and attributes of Allah Ta’alaa are relationships present between the Essence and existence (the cosmos). They are known and belong to Allah Ta’alaa for He knows the nature and identity of all, but they are not separate ontological qualities (as that would imply plurality in the godhead). The act of creation according to Ibn-e-Arabi was one of effusion (fayd). A similar philosophy came about in South Asia under the Persian name Hamah Ust (He is the only one).
In case you’re wondering; yes I did take it off from a previous post. But let me be more intricate with what he suggests. Comparison and Transcendence. One of the principles of this thought is as follows: To understand a concept you need not look at it from one lens. Look at it from both. And if they conflict you are at truth. I’ll paint a more common example for you. We have ice. Now what is it? It’s frozen water, but isn’t water also liquid ice? Or is it cold? But doesn’t that just mean it isn’t hot?
Those questions only touch on one side. But here it’s different. For Comparison think of it as simply comparing the Divine to something that is. For instance, in terms of mercy. Another example could be people linking or associating Him {S.W.T} with one place or object. A pond, a building whatever suits you. To Ibn-e-’Arabi this was limiting Allah {S.W.T} to something, A comparison limits the Divine or suprarational and by definition, God has no limits {in Islamic Monotheism}.
The term he uses to express this is the Immanence of God. On the other hand, he points at stating that Transcendence is too incomplete. Why? For if you do so, you fail to realize the true nature of the relationship between us and Allah Ta’alaa. Between the Creator and the created. Neither is an answer. And in that dilemma shall you find the actual solution. The Divine is both Immanent and Transcendent.
Now there are two other things we need to clear away. The first is relativity. Who you are changes based on what the opposing mirror is. Certain other minds too focused on this. For us what suffices is that you need to take into consideration your being. It is reflected from the Divine but your being is the Being i.e. there is only One Being. And as such with respect to something Divine you are essentially Divine or rather you’re being is a part of it. Meanwhile, you yourself are not God. You are everything that God is not. A simple idea of the manifest and non-manifest colliding.
Then God may he be exalted! — said to me, “What are you?” I replied, “I am two things, according to two different relations. With respect to You, I am the Eternal, forever and ever. I am the necessary Being who epiphanizes himself. My necessity proceeds from the necessity of Your essence and my eternity from the eternity of Your knowledge and Your attributes.”
“With respect to me, I am pure non-being who has never breathed the perfume of existence, the adventitious being who remains nonexistent in his adventitiousness. I only possess being so long as I am present with You and for You. Left to myself and absent from You I am one who is not, even while he is (fa-ana mafqud mawjud)”
Source: Kitab-al-Muwaqif, Emir Abd-e-Kader
Two sides of the same being. Now circle back to the Immanence I mentioned. You see although Orthodox Islam — a term used by Sufis to refer to non-Sufi beliefs — focuses only on the 99 Names of Allah Ta’alaa; Ibn ‘Arabi tends to disagree. He says that in a sense you’re limiting the Divine Nature here. The Holy Qur’an mentions that “And to Allah belong the best names, so invoke Him by them.” {Al-Araf, Ayat 180} and in as much to ‘Arabi, Allah {S.W.T} has Infinte Names. Each of them shows how the Divine Essence manifests itself.
To better define it think of there being one central pool. It has multiple tunnels leading out of it each of them at their end having a certain color pigment that is added into the water. Where you drink or see that water will define how it seems to you. Was the one you drank red or yellow, purple or black? The general gist is the same here. There is one Divine Essence made manifest i.e. is known by the Name of God: Allah. From there all other names draw from this Essence or core and express different attributes. Such as Mercy or Anger. All Names come from one essential core and in that it is beyond any duality or multiplicity. Or so ‘Arabi believes.
We need to understand this more clearly. The Immanence of God is the same as the one above. Being is one of those reflections. And in as much we who borrow from it as I covered last time, express another form of it.
Thy definition implies at the same time thy exterior and thy interior reality: for the (corporal) form which remains, when the spirit which governed it has left it, it is no longer a man; one speaks of it as of a form having a human appearance, but which is not distinguishable (essentially) from a form made of wood or stone, and which takes the name man by the extension of the term, and not in its proper sense. But, from the forms of the world, God can never separate Himself (for then they would cease to exist), so that they are necessarily included in the ‘definition’ of the Divinity (ulaihiyah), whereas the exterior form of man is defined only accidentally, so long as he is in this life. In the same way that the exterior form of man ‘praises by his tongue’ his spirit and his soul which rule it, so the forms of the world ‘glorify’ God, although we do not understand their praise (according to the Qur’an: ‘there is nothing which does not glorify Him, but you do not understand their praise’) (xvi 44), and that because we do not embrace every form of this world. Every one of them is a tongue which pronounces the praise of God; and that is why (the Qur’an) says, ‘Praise be to God, Lord of all of the Universes’ (1, 2) which means that all praise refers finally to Him. So that He is at once He who praises and He who is praised. If thou dost affirm the Divine transcendence, thou dost condition (the conception of God), and if thou does affirm His immanence, thou dost limit Him; but if thou dost affirm simultaneously the one and the other point of view, thou wilt be exempt from error and be a model of knowledge. He who affirms the duality (of God and the world) falls in the error of associating something with God, and he who affirms the singularity of God (excluding from his Reality everything which manifests itself in multiplicity) commits the fault of confining Him to a (rational) unity. Be careful of comparison when thou dost envisage duality; and be careful not to separate the Divinity when thou dost envisage Unity! Thou art, not Him; and yet thou art Him; thou wilt see Him in the essence of things, sovereign and conditioned at the same time.
Source: Fusus al-Hikam
Another affirmation of the realization of the Essence and Being is expressed by the concept of Love, Lover, and Beloved. Love is the Divine Essence and Lover is a stand-in for humans. Beloved is God. Too long for this relationship to be made through, an ideal appears. The Lover sees himself in the Beloved and the Beloved sees Himself in the Lover. This central theme is understood simply as God wanting to see Himself in humans. As Fakhiruddin ‘Iraqi one said:
“Beloved, I sought you here and there, asked for news of you from all I met; then saw you through myself and found we were identical. Now I blush to think I ever searched for signs of you.”
Source: The Divine Flashes {Lama’at}
Once this realization is reached by the Lover the idea of Love remains. All else is dismissed. And the true goal is reached. What is Real and the dimension of that Reality is made to come to knowledge. According to ‘Arabi the Creation of our forefather Hazrat Adam {A.S} had a central purpose. The purpose is that Allah Ta’alaa wanted to see all of Divine Essence in one central object or kawn. To summarize all of the Divine Order {al-amr} and to manifest His Mystery {sirr} to Himself.
Being the metaphysically complicated speaking man he is, ‘Arabi decides to initially leave it at that. But inevitably decides to explain it. Saying that we ourselves need to have a proper reflection to see ourselves. Our own realization of ourselves is insufficient and incomplete. Something else needs to procure it for us, another reality needs to. Something expressed by a mirror. Which manifests to us our own reality something that we couldn’t have seen without a plane to reflect it and the ray itself.
He then focuses on the creation of everything claiming that everything was akin to an unpolished mirror. But it is in the Divine Nature to pour some of Its Spirit and Activity into it and in as much the mirror was polished. Hazrat Adam {A.S} was the light ray then and in that the Divine Reflection was completed. All of this is taken from one of the Hadith termed as one of the Hadith al-Qudsi; a form of Hadith directly attributed to Allah Ta’alaa and something that was narrated through the Prophet Muhammad {S.A.W}. That is these Hadith are the sayings of Allah {S.W.T}.
‘I was a hidden treasure; I loved to be known (or: know) and I created the world’.
Now many consider it to be daif i.e. the lowest rank of Hadtih which correlates to it being fabricated or baseless. Regardless, ‘Arabi’s notions still stand unimpeded. There are numerous other ideas he makes known through his work such as the Seal of Saints and the idea of a son being the reflection of his father. But there’s one reason why it never falls under Pantheism and Monism. Because as ‘Arabi constantly stresses. All is He, but all is not He. Unlike more radical ideas this one is more juxtaposed and requires differing thoughts. There is no Orthodox way to the Real. You need to reach it personally. Islam is not the religion of one’s forefathers. You have one image — the Qur’an and Sunnah — use it as your path.
That expresses one of the fundamentals of Sufism. You don’t need to force it, let it come itself. Religion cannot be enforced; you need to feel it. The path to the Real is not consigned to one dimension. It is unique for everyone. For you and for me. Reach it for yourself. The map will show it to you in a manner solely unique to you. I may have strayed off-topic but this is imperative to understand. We are the non-manifest, the non-beings with some reflections of the Being. Allah {S.W.T} is the Manifest. We are in a sense related to the Essence but are not. And in that notion, you will find the Truth. And then nothing will stop you from saying: “He! He! He!”.
And with this, I signify my comeback. It’s been a rough week. Godsend kiddos. Have a nice day!
