| Excrepts from KASHF-AL MAHJUB The oldest persian treatise on Sufism |
| Translated by Reynold A. Nicholson |
| Union (jam) and Separation (tafriqat) |
| This website has been created and maintained by Seema Arif |
| God has united all mankind in His call, as He says, �And God calls to the abode of peace�; then he separated them in respect of Divine guidance, and said, �and guides whom He willeth into the right way� (Qur'an, 10:26)
Accordingly the real mystery of union is the knowledge and Will of God, while separation is the manifestation of that He commands and forbids: e.g. He commanded Abraham to behead Ishmael, but willed that he should not do so; and He commanded Iblis to worship Adam but willed the contrary; and He commanded Adam not to eat the corn, but willed that he should eat it; and so forth. Union is that which He unites by His attributes, and separation is that which He separates by His acts. All this involves cessation of human volition and affirmation of the Divine Will so as to exclude all personal initiative. |
| It is Man�s glory that while his actions exist and mortification is possible, he should escape by God�s goodness from the imperfection of his own actions, and should find them to be absorbed in the bounties of God, so that he depends entirely on God and commits all his attributes to His charge and refers all his actions to Him and none to Himself.
Gabriel told Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) that God has said, �My servant constantly seeks acess to me by means of works of supererogation until I love him; and when I love him, I am his ear and his eye and his hand and his heart and his tongue: through Me he hears and sees and speaks and grasps.� Mansur Hallaj has said: |
| Union is an attribute of God in which Man does not co-operate, because God has no rival in Godhead. |
| In remembering Me he is enraptured by the remembrance (dhikr) of Me, and His own �acquisition� (kasb) is annihilated so as to have no part in his remembrance, and My remembrance overpowers his remembrance, and the relationship of humanity (adamiyyat) is entirely removed from his remembrance: Then my remembrance is his remembrance. In his rapture he may exclaim like Abu Yazid Bastami, |
| � Thy will be done, O my Lord and Master!
Thy will be done, O my purpose and meaning! O essence of my being, O goal of my desire, O my speech and my hints and my gestures! O all of my all, O my hearing and my sight, O my whole and my element and my particles!� |
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| Union can only be referred only to his substance and attributes. God has eternal attributes, which are peculiar to Him and subsist through Him; and that He and his attributes are not two, for His Unity does not accept difference and number.
Union is knowledge of Divine Unity and separation knowledge of Divine ordinances: hence theology in union and jurisprudence is separation. Union is that on which theologians (ahl al-ilm) are agreed, and separation is that on which they differ.� Mystics when speak of �separation� attach to it meaning of �human actions�, e.g. self-mortification. By �union� they signify �Divine Gifts� e.g. contemplation. |
| Man's Glory |
| Remembrance is the Key |
| �Glory to me! How great is my majesty� |
| Hazrat Muhammad (SAW), has said, �God speaks by the tongue of Omar�. It may happen that God�s love holds absolute sway over the heart of His servant, and that his reason and natural faculties are too weak to sustain its rapture and intensity, and that he looses all control of his power to act (kasb). This state is called �union�. Herewith are connected all extraordinary miracles (I�jaz) and acts of miraculous grace (karamat).
His saints are thus united by their inward feeling and separated by their outward behavior, so that their love is strengthened by the internal union, and the right fulfillment of their duty as servants of God is assured by their external separation. A shaykh said, |
| �I have realized that which is within me, and my tongue hath conversed
with Thee in secret, And we are united in one respect, but we are separated in another. Although awe has hidden Thee from the glances of mine eye, Ecstasy has made Thee near to my inmost parts.� |
| 1. Sound union is that which God produces in a man when he is in state of rapture and ecstasy, and when God causes him to receive and fulfill His commandments and to mortify himself.
2. Broken union is this that a man�s judgment becomes distraught and bewildered, so that it is like the judgment of a lunatic: then he is either excused from performing his religious obligations or rewarded (mashkur) for performing them; and the state of him who is rewarded is sounder than the state of him who is excused. The state of being inwardly united he has called �union� and the secret conversation of tongue he callas �separation�. |
| Union is of two kinds |
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