| Excerpts From Kashf al Mahjub |
| Allah The Almighty hath said, �I only created genii and mankind that they may serve Me.� (Qur'an: 51:56) Serving cannot be done without knowing one: how does �One� wants to be served and what one is to serve? Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) has said, �if ye knew God as He ought to be known, ye would walk on the seas, and the mountains would move at your call.� |
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| (Pages:267-277) |
| Gnosis of God |
| Cognitive (ilmi) which is the foundation of all blessings in this world and in the next, for most important thing for a man at all times in all circumstances is knowledge of God.
Emotional (Hali): Gnosis is the life of heart through God, and turning away of one�s inmost thoughts from all that is not God. |
| Gnosis is of two kinds: |
| Knowing God is the duty of mankind, but mostly they neglect this duty for most of the time except those whom God has chosen and whose hearts He hath vivified with Himself.
The worth of everyone is in proportion to Gnosis, and he who is without gnosis is worth nothing. |
| Piety as means of Gnosis |
| Theologians, clergy, scholars and other learned persons give the name gnosis (ma`rifat) to right cognition (`ilm) of God, but Sufi Shaykhs call right feeling (hal) towards God by that name. They all agree that gnosis (ma`rifat) is more excellent than cognition (`ilm), for right feeling (hal) is the result of right cognition, but one who has not cognition of God is not always a Gnostic (`arif), but one may have a cognition of God without being Gnostic.
The Mutazillites assert that gnosis is intellectual and that only a rational (originally used is reasonable) person (`aqil) can possibly have it. Others pretend that demonstration (istidlal) is the cause of knowledge of God, and is not gained by anyone except those who can deduce in such a manner. Allah The Almighty has said, �Knowledge of Me depends on My Will.� (Qur'an: 6:111). According to conventional Muslim belief, soundness of reason and regard to evidences are a means (sabab) to gnosis, but not the cause (`illat) thereof: the sole cause is God�s Will and favor, for without His favor (inayat) reason is blind. Man�s only guide and enlightener is God, all human faculties are just tools, and all human emotions and feelings and perceptions are just means, but the real and only cause is God�s favor alone. |
| When the commander of the faithful, Ali `ibn Talib was asked concerning gnosis, he said, �I know God by God, and I know that which is not God by the light of God.� Allah The Almighty says in Qur'an: �I am the Creator of Light in which believers are illumined.� And "It is God that opens and seals the hearts of men.� (Qur'an: 39:23) & (2:6). God has created the body and committed its life to the spirit (jan), and He created the soul (dil) and committed its life to Himself; reason and all other human faculties have no power to make the body live with spirit or to enliven the soul. |
| God has imposed the obligation of piety, which is essentially gnosis, but only with the favor of the imposer. Man�s share in gnosis, unless God makes him know is mere helplessness. Abu `l Hassan Nuri has said, �There is none to point out the way to God except God Himself: knowledge is sought only for due performance of His worship.�
Ordinary objects of search are found by means of demonstration, but knowledge of God is extraordinary and is attained by unceasing bewilderment of the reason. His favor is not procured by any act of human acquisition, but is miraculously revealed to men�s hearts. |
| Reason on way to Gnosis |
| Reason may only affirm the substance of gnosis, for gnosis involves th negation of whatever is affirmed by reason, i.e. whatever notion of God can be formed by reson, God is in reality something different. Reason and imagination are homogenous, and where genus is confirmed gnosis is denied. To infer the existence of God from intellectual proofs is assimilation �tasbih�, and to deny it on the same grounds is nullification �tatil�. Reason cannot pass beyond these two principles, which in regard to gnosis are agnosticism. |
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