Educational Philosophy Theory

1 Finer still than that is the mention of the Primordial Point, which is the Source, and which does not grow or decrease, nor consume itself.

2 The one who denies my spiritual state denies it because he does not see me, and he calls me a heretic. He charges me with evil, and seeing my glory he calls for help, and it is to the sacred circle which is beyond the beyond that he cries.

3 He who reaches the second circle imagines me to be the Inspired Master.

4 He who reaches the thrid circle thinks that I am at the bottom of all desires.

5 And he who reaches the circle of Truth forgets me and his attention is distracted from me.

6 ?No indeed, not a refuge! Upon that day the recourse shall be to thy Lord, upon that day man shall be told his former deeds and his latter.'

7 But man turns to indirect testimony, he flees to a refuge, he fears the sparks, and his intention is beguiled and led astray.

8 I am absorbed in the sea of the depths of eternity and he who reaches the circle of Truth is occupied on the shore of the sea of knowledge with his own knowledge. He is absent from my vision.

9 I saw a certain bird from the selves of the Sufis which flew with the two wings of Sufism. He denied my glory as he persisted in his flight.

10 He asked me about purity and I said to him: ?Cut your wings with the shears of annihilation. If not you cannot follow me.'

11 He said to me: ?I fly with my wings to my Beloved.' I said to him: ?Alas for thee! Because there is naught like Him, He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.' So then he fell into the sea of understanding and was drowned.

12 One can represent the ocean of understanding thus:



I saw my Lord with the eye of my heart I saw: ?Who are You?? He said: ?You!? But for You, ?where? cannot have a place And there is no ?where? when it concerns You. The mind has no image of your existence in time Which would permit the mind to know where you are. You are the one who encompasses every ?where? Up to the point of no-where So where are you?

12. A single unique point from the circle denotes the various thoughts of the understanding. A single point is itself the Truth and the rest is error.

13. ?He drew near? in rising - ?then he came again? in transcending. Seeking he drew near; enraptured, he came again. He left his heart there and drew nigh to his Lord. He was absent when he saw Allah, yet he was not absent. How was he present and not present? How did he look and not look?

14. From amazement he passed to lucidity and from lucidity to amazement. Witnessed by Allah he witnessed Allah. He arrived and was separated. He reached his Desire and was cut off from his heart, and ?his heart lies not of what it saw.?

15. Allah concealed him then made him draw near. He commissioned him and purified him. He made him thirsty and then fed him. He purified him and then chose him. He called him and then summoned him. He afflicted him and then came to his aid. He armed him and then put him in the saddle.

16. There was a distance of ?one bow span? and when he returned he reached his mark. When called he answered. Having seen he effaced himself. Having drunk he was satisfied. Having come near he was awe-struck. And having separated himself from cities and helpers, he was separated from consciences and looks and created traces (athar).

17. ?Your comrade did not go astray,? he did not weaken or grow weary. His eye did not falter nor was he tired by a ?when? of pure duration.

18. ?Your comrade did not go astray,? in his contemplation of Us. He did not pass beyond in visiting Us, nor transgress in Our message. He did not compare Us to others in treating of Us. He did not deviate in the garden of dhikr in contemplation of Us, nor go astray in roaming in fikr.

19. Rather he remembered Allah in his breaths and blinks of the eye, and was resigned to Him in afflictions and thankful for his gifts.

20. ?This is naught but a revelation revealed? from the Light to the Light.

21. Change your speech! Absent yourself from illusions, raise your feet high from mankind and creatures! Speak of Him with measure and harmony! Be passionate and lost in rapture. Discover - that you might fly beyond the mountains and the fields, the mountains of cognizance and the hills of security in order to see He whom you regard. And so the legal fast is ended on coming to the Sacred House.

22. Then he drew nigh to Allah like the one who is going to enter the Intention. Then he announced that it is forbidden. It is like a barrier rather than impotence. He passed from the Station of Cleansing to the Station of Reproach and from the Station of Reproach to the Station of Proximity. He went nigh searching and he returned fleeing. He went nigh invoking and he returned a herald. He drew nigh answering and returned invested with Divine Nearness. He drew nigh as a witness and returned a contemplative.

23. The distance between them was ?two bow spans?. He hit the mark of ?where? with the arrow of ?between? (ayn and bayn). He stated that there were two bow spans to specify the exact place, and ?or? because of the un-delineated nature of Essence, ?a little closer? in the Essence of the Essence.

24. The Master of the Extraordinary Al-Husain ibn Mansur Al-Hallaj said:

25. I do not believe that our expression here will be comprehensible except to the one who has arrived at the second bow span which is beyond the Tablet of Forms (lawh mahfuz).

26. There are letters that are used no longer letters of Arabic or Persian.

27. There are letters only and that letter is the mim which is the letter signifying ?what he revealed?

28. The mim designated ?The Last.?

29. The mim is also the string of the First. The first bow span is the Kingdom of Might (jabarut) and the second is the Kingdom of Sovereignty (malakut), and the Kingdom of the Attributes is the string of the two kingdom. And the Kingdom of the Essence of Intimate (specific) Illumination (tajalli khass) is the arrow of the Absolute and the arrow of the two spans.

30. It comes from the One who kindles the fire of Illumination.

31. He said that the adequate form of speech is that speech the sense of which is drawing near. The Author of the meaning is the Truth of Allah not the method of His creation. This nearing is only obtained in the circle of vigorous exactitude.

32. Truth and the Truth of Truths is found in the finest distinctions, from previous experiences, by means of an antidote made by one who loves, in consideration of a rupture with all attachments, in the saddles of those who arrive together, due to the persistence of calamities and the discernment of distinctions, and it is by a word of deliverance. This is the path of the elect in respect to individuals, and the nearing is seen as a vast area so that the knower who has followed the observed paths of prophetic tradition may understand.

33. The Master of Yathrib, peace be upon him, proclaimed the glory of the one who possesses the most excellent of graces, inviolable, preserved in a ?hidden Book,? as He mentioned in a visible book, ?in a Book inscribed? on the meaning of the language of the birds, when He brought us there.

34. If you understand this, oh lover, understand that the Lord does not enter into conversation except with His own, or with the friends of His own.

35. To be one of His own is to have neither Master nor disciple, to be without preference or distinction or affectation or counsel, not having any ?his? or ?from him.? But rather what is in him is what is in him, but without there being an ?in him,? as a desert without water in a desert without water, as a sign in a sign.

36. Public discourse translates its meanings transplant his wishes, and his wish is seen from afar. His path is hard, his name is glorious, his form is unique, his knowledge is denial of knowledge, his denial is his sole truth, his sin is his source of confidence. His Name is his Path, and his outward characteristic is his burning, his attribute is Desire.

37. The Road (shar?) is his characteristic, the truths (haqa?iq) are his arena and his glory, selves are his portico, Shaitan is his teacher, every sociable being became his familiar animal, humanity is his conscience, obliteration is his glory, effacement is his subject of meditation, the bride is his garden, and effacement of effacement his palace.

38. His Masters are my refuge, their principles are my alarm, their volition is my request, their aid is my stopping place, their sorrows are my grief.

39. Their leaves are a drinking place, their sleeves are nothing but dust, their doctrine is the cornerstone of their state, and their state is impotence. But any other state would be an object of anger for Allah. So this is enough and success with Allah.