The Second Chapter
Clarifying the similitude of the niche, the lamp,
the glass, the tree, the olive, and the fire
(1) True knowledge of this calls for presenting two poles, the area between which has no defined limit. I will allude to them briefly through symbols.
(2) The first pole clarifies the mystery and the method of using similitudes; the respect in which the spirits of the meanings are grasped within the frames of the similitudes; how an interrelationship is established between similitudes and meanings; and how there is a parallel between the visible world (from which the clay of the similitudes is taken) and the world of dominion (from which the spirits of the mean- things descend).
(3) The second pole concerns the layers of the spirits of the human clay, and the levels of their lights—since this similitude [of the niche and so forth] was put forth in order to clarify these [layers and levels]. Thus Ibn Masud reads [the Light Verse and says:] “The similitude of His light in 15 the heart of one who has faith is like a niche,” and Ubayy ibn Kacb reads [it and says:] “The similitude of light is of the heart of one who has faith.”
The first pole
Concerning the mystery and method of using similitudes
(4) Know that the cosmos is two worlds: spiritual and bodily. If you want, you can say “sensory and rational,” or “high and low.” All these words are close in meaning. They differ only through different viewpoints. Hence, when you view the two worlds in themselves, you will say “bodily and spiritual.” When you view them in relation to the eye that perceives them, you will say “sensory and rational.” When you view them in relation to one another, you will say “high and low.”
(5) It may happen that you name one of these worlds “the world of the kingdom and the visible,” while the other is the “unseen world and the dominion.”1 One who considers the realities of these words may become bewildered by the multiplicity of the words and imagine many meanings. But one to whom the realities are unveiled will make the meaning a root and the words a follower. This situation is reversed in the weak, since they search for the realities from the words. God alludes to these two groups with His words, “What, is he who walks prone upon his face better guided, or he who walks upright on a straight path?” [67:22].
(6) Now that you have come to know the meaning of the two worlds, know that the world of dominion is an unseen world, since it is concealed from the majority, while the sensory world is a visible world, since every- one witnesses it. The sensory world is a ladder to the rational world, for, if there were no connection and relationship between the two, the way of climbing to the rational world would be blocked. If climbing were impossible, travel to the presence of lordship and nearness to God would also be impossible.
(7) No one comes near to God unless he steps into the midst of the enclosure of holiness. What we mean by the world of “holiness” is the world that is elevated beyond the perception of the senses and the imagination. If we view its totality such that nothing leaves it and such that what is foreign to it does not enter it, then we call it the “enclosure of holiness.” It may happen that we name the human spirit, which is a channel for the flashes of holiness, “the holy riverbed” [20:12]. Then there are other enclosures in this enclosure, some of which are more intensely devoted to the meanings of holiness. But the word “enclosure” encompasses all its layers. So do not suppose that these words are irrational ravings to those who possess insights.
(8) My occupation just now with explaining every term that I mentioned has hindered me in my goal. You should undertake to understand these words. Let me return to my objective. I say:
(9) The visible world is a ladder to the world of dominion, and traveling on the “straight path” [1:6] consists of climbing this ladder. One may refer to this traveling as “religion” and the “waystations of guidance.” If there were no relationship and connection between the two worlds, climbing from one world to the other would be inconceivable. Hence, the divine mercy made the visible world parallel to the world of dominion; there is nothing in this world that is not a similitude of something in the world of dominion.
(10) It may be that one thing [in the visible world] is a similitude for many things in the world of dominion, and that one thing in the world of dominion has many similitudes in the visible world. A thing is only a similitude when it is like and corresponds to something by virtue of a certain kind of likeness and correspondence. To enumerate all these similitudes would call for an exhaustive study of the totality of the existent things found in both worlds in their entirety. Human strength is inadequate for such a study and cannot understand it, since short lifetimes are insufficient to explain it. The most I can do is acquaint you with an example. Then, from the few, you may draw conclusions concerning the many, and the gate of seeking an interpretation of these types of mysteries may be opened for you. Thus, I say:
(11) There are in the world of dominion noble and high luminous substances called “angels.” Lights effuse from these angels upon human spirits, and because of these lights these angels may be called “lords”— that is why God is “Lord of the lords.” These angels have diverse levels in their luminosity. Hence, it is appropriate for their similitude in the visible world to be the sun, the moon, and the stars.
(12) The traveler on the path first reaches the angel whose degree is the degree of the stars. The radiance of its light becomes clear to him. The truth becomes unveiled to him that the lower world is completely under its ruling authority and its light’s radiance. Because of its beauty 5 and the highness of its degree, something occurs to him and he says, “This is my Lord!” [6:76].
(13) Then, when that which is higher—that whose level is the level of the moon—becomes clear to him, he sees the first enter the setting place of falling down in relation to what is above it. Thus, he says, “I love ٥ /not the setters” [6:76].
(14) In the same way, he keeps on climbing until he reaches that angel whose similitude is the sun. He sees it to be greater and higher. He sees that it is receptive to the similitude because it has a certain kind of relationship with it. Relationship with the possessor of a deficiency is 15 itself a deficiency and a setting. Hence, he says, “I have turned my face as one who is of pure faith to that which originated the heavens and the earth” [6:79]. The meaning of “that which” is an obscure allusion without relationship. If a speaker said, “What is the similitude for the concept of ‘that which?’ ” one cannot conceive of an answer. Only the First, 20 the Real, is incomparable with every relationship.
(15) This explains why, when a nomad said to the Messenger of God, “What is the lineage of God?”2 there descended in answer, “Say: ‘He is God, One, God the Everlasting Refuge, who has not begotten and has not been begotten, and equal to Him is not anyone’” [112:1-4]. The 25 meaning is that God’s “lineage” is too holy for and incomparable with any relationship. This is why, when Pharaoh said to Moses, “And what is the Lord of the worlds?” [26:23]—as if he were asking about His quiddity—Moses answered by informing Pharaoh of God’s acts, since the acts are the most manifest of things in the questioner’s eyes. Moses said, 30 “The Lord of the heavens and the earth” [26:24]. Pharaoh said to those around him, “Did you not hear?” [26:25], like someone rebuking Moses for failing to answer the question of quiddity. Moses then said, “Your Lord and the Lord of your fathers, the ancients” [26:26]. So Pharaoh attributed madness to Moses, since he had asked for the similitude and 35 the quiddity but he was answered with the acts. Thus he said, “Surely your Messenger who was sent to you is mad!” [26:27].
(16) Let us return to the example [promised to you above] and say:
(17) The science of dream interpretation makes known to you the way similitudes are struck, since dreams are a part of prophecy. Do you not see that the sun in a dream is interpreted as the sultan? The reason is that the two share and are similar in a spiritual meaning, which is master}’ over all and the effusion of effects upon everyone. The moon is interpreted as the vizier, since the absent sun effuses its light upon the world by means of the moon, just as the sultan effuses his lights upon the one who is absent from his presence by means of the vizier.
(18) When someone sees in his dream that he has a seal in his hand with which he seals the mouths of men and the private parts of women, its interpretation is that he is a muezzin who calls people to pray before dawn during the month of Ramadan.4 When someone sees that he is pouring olive oil into an olive, the interpretation is that the slave girl below him is his mother, though he does not know it. A thorough examination of the various types of dream interpretation will increase your familiarity with this kind of thing, since it is not possible for me to occupy myself with listing them. Rather, I say:
(19) Among the high spiritual existents are those whose similitude is the sun, the moon, and the stars. So also there are among them things that have other similitudes, when attributes other than luminosity are in view. If there is among these existent things something that is fixed and unchanging, [something] that is great and not deemed small, and I some-thing] from which the waters of the gnostic sciences and the jewels of unveilings gush into the riverbeds of human hearts, its similitude is ،،the mountain” [28:291.
(20) If there are existent things that receive these jewels and if some are more worthy than others, their similitude is the “riverbed.” If these jewels, after becoming connected to human hearts, flow from heart to heart, these hearts are also ،،riverbeds.” The initial source of the riverbed is the hearts of the prophets, then the culama then those who come after.
(21) If the later riverbeds are below the first and are fed by it, then it is appropriate that the first be the “blessed riverbed” [28:30], because of the abundance of its blessedness and the height of its degree.
(22) If the lowest riverbed takes from the last degree of the “blessed riverbed,” then its feeding place is the “bank of the blessed riverbed” [20:301, not its bottom or its origin.
(23) If the spirit of the Prophet is a “light-giving lamp” [33:461 and is kindled by means of the divine revelation, as God said—“We have revealed to thee a Spirit of our bidding” [42:52]—then the similitude of that from which kindling takes place is “fire.”
(24) If some of those who learn from the prophets do so through sheer imitation of what they hear, while others have a share of insight, the similitude of the portion of those who imitate is “a report” [28:29], while the similitude of the portion of the insightful is “a live coal” [28:29], “a burning brand” [20:10], and “a flame” [27:7], since the possessor of tasting shares with the prophets in some states. The similitude of this sharing is “warming oneself” [28:29], since only the person who has a fire can warm himself, not the person who hears a report about fire.
(25) If the first waystation of the prophets is to climb to the world that is too holy for the murkiness of sense perception and imagination, the similitude of this waystation is the “holy riverbed” [20:12].5
(26) If one is only able to walk in this holy riverbed by throwing off both this world and the next world and by turning one’s face toward the One, the Real—because this world and the next world are two contraries and counterparts, and because they are accidents of the luminous human substance and can be thrown off at one time and put on at another— then the similitude of throwing off the two worlds when one consecrates oneself by turning one’s face toward the Kacaba of holiness is “doffing the two sandals” [20:121.
(27) But let us climb once more to the presence of lordship. We say: If there is, in this presence, something through which the differentiated sciences are engraved upon substances receptive to it, the similitude of this thing is “the pen” [of God] [68:1, 96:4].
(28) If some of these receptive substances are prior in receiving, so that they transfer these sciences to others, their similitude is “the pre-served tablet” [85:22] and “the unrolled parchment” [of God] [52:3].
(29) If there is something above the engraver of the sciences that controls it, then its similitude is “the hand” [of God] [23:88].
(30) If this presence—which comprises the hand, the tablet, the pen, and the book—has a regular hierarchy, then the similitude of this hierarchy is “the form.”
(31) And if the human form is found to have a hierarchy that takes this shape, then the human form is “in the form of the All-Merciful.” 15 There is a difference between saying “in the form of the All-Merciful” and “in the form of God,” because the divine mercy is that to which the Divine Presence gives form through the [human] form.
(32) God showed beneficence to Adam. He gave him an abridged form that brings together every sort of thing found in the cosmos. It is as 20 if Adam is everything in the cosmos, or an abridged transcription of the world. The form of Adam- mean this form—is written in God’s handwriting. It is a divine handwriting that is not written with letters, since God’s handwriting is incomparable with writing and letters, just as His speech is incomparable with sounds and letters, His pen with wood and 25 reed, and His hand with flesh and bone.
(38) If it were not for this mercy, human beings would not be capable of knowing their Lord, since one knows one’s Lord only by knowing oneself.’ Since this [knowing] is one of the effects of the divine mercy, Adam came to be in the form of the All-Merciful and not in the form of God. For the presence of divinity is different from the presence of mercy, the presence of kingship, and the presence of lordship. That is why God commanded taking refuge with all these presences, for He said, “Say: ‘I take refuge with the Lord of men, the King of men, the God of men’” [114:1-3]. If it were not for this meaning, it would have been appropriate for Him to say, “in His own form.” But the words mentioned in the sound hadith are “upon the form of the All-Merciful.”8
(34) Distinguishing the presence of kingship from the presence of divinity and lordship would call for a long explanation, so let US pass it by. And let this much of the example be sufficient for you, since this discussion is an ocean without shore. If you find yourself put off by these similitudes, then make your heart intimate with His words: “He sends down out of heaven water and the riverbeds flow each in its measure” [13:17], and with the fact that the Quranic commentaries say that water is knowledge and the Qur’an, while the riverbeds are hearts.
Conclusion and apology
(35) Do not suppose from this example and this way of striking similitudes that I permit the abolishing of outward meanings and that I believe in their nullification, so that I would say, for example, that Moses did not have two sandals, and that he did not hear God address him with the words, “Doff your two sandals!” [20:12]. God forbid! Nullifying the outward meanings is the view of the Batinites, who have one blind eye and look only at one of the two worlds, not recognizing the parallel between the two or understanding its significance. In the same way, nullifying the inner mysteries is the path of the literalists. Hence, those who look only at the outward are literalists, those who look only at the inward are Batinites, and those who bring the two together are perfect. This is why the Prophet said, “The Qur’an has an outward, an inward, a limit, and a place to which one ascends.” Perhaps this saying is transmitted from Ali and stops with him.
(36) What I say is this: By the command to doff the two sandals, Moses understood throwing off the two engendered worlds. Hence, he obeyed the command outwardly by doffing the sandals and inwardly by throwing off the two worlds. This is “the crossing over”—that is, the crossing from one thing to another and from the outward to the mystery.
(37) There is a difference between people: One person hears the words of God’s Messenger: “The angels do not enter a house in which there is a dog,”10 and [yet] brings a dog into his house. He says, “The outward sense is not meant; on the contrary, what is meant is removing the dog of anger from the house of the heart, because it prevents the entrance of knowledge, which derives from the lights of angels, since anger is the ghoul of the rational faculty.” Another person obeys the out- ward sense of the command. Then he says, “The dog is not a dog because of its form, but because of its meaning, which is predatoriness and ferocity. If it is incumbent to preserve the house, which is the resting place of the person and body, from the dog’s form, then it is even more incumbent to preserve the house of the heart—the resting place of the specific true substance [of humanity]—from the doglike evil.11 Thereby I bring together the outward and the mystery.”
(38) Such a person is perfect. It is he [who is] meant by their words: “When someone is perfect, the light of his knowledge does not extinguish the light of his piety.” Hence, you see that the perfect one does not allow himself to leave aside a single prescription of the sharia, even though he has perfect insight.
(89) This is an error that makes some of the travelers slip into license and roll up the carpet of the outward statutes. It may even hap- pen that one of them will abandon the prescribed ritual prayers and suppose that he is in perpetual prayer in his innermost consciousness. This is the same as the error of those stupid people who give themselves license by seizing on nonsensical sayings like the words of one of them, “God does not need our works,” and the words of another, “The inner self is full of loathsome things and cannot be purified.” They do not desire to uproot anger and appetite, since they suppose that they are commanded to uproot them. This is all stupidity. All that we mentioned is the slip of the high-minded and the stumble of the traveler—he whom Satan envies and pulls down with the cord of delusion.
(40) Let me return to the discussion of the two sandals. I say: The outward doffing of the sandals calls attention to the abandonment of the two engendered worlds. Hence, the similitude in the outward aspect is true, and its giving rise to the inward mystery is a reality.
(41) Those who are worthy of having their attention called through this similitude have reached the degree of the “glass,” in the sense in which the glass will be discussed. Imagination, which provides the clay from which the similitude is taken, is solid and dense. It veils the mysteries and comes between you and the lights. But when the imagination is purified so that it becomes like clear glass, then it does not obstruct the lights; rather, it becomes a pointer toward the lights; or, rather, it preserves the lights from being extinguished by violent winds. The story of the “glass” will be told shortly.
(42) Know that the low, dense, imaginal world became for the prophets a glass, a niche for lights, a purifier of the mysteries, and a ladder to the highest world. Through this it comes to be known that the outward similitude is true and behind it is a mystery. Deal in the same way with the similitudes of the “mountain,” the “fire,” and so on.
A fine point
(43) The Messenger said, “I saw cAbd al-Rahman ibn cAwf entering the Garden crawling.”13 Do not suppose that he did not witness it with his eyesight in just this manner. On the contrary, he saw it in wakefulness, just as a sleeping person would see it in a dream, even if, for example, ،Abd al-Rahman himself was asleep in his house. Sleep has an effect on witnessing such as these because the ruling authority of the senses forces the person to turn away from the inward’ divine light, since the senses keep him occupied and attract him toward the world of sense perception, turning his face away from the world of the unseen and the dominion.
(44) But it may happen that some of the prophetic lights rise up and take control. Then the senses do not draw him to their world and do not keep him occupied. He witnesses in wakefulness what someone else would witness in a dream. But when he dwells in the utmost limit of perfection, his perception is not confined simply to the seen form. Rather, he crosses from it to the mystery. Then it is unveiled to him that faith attracts to a world that is called “the Garden,” while riches and wealth attract to the present life, which is the lower world. If that which attracts to the business of this world is stronger or it resists the other attraction, then the person is blocked from journeying to the Garden. If the attraction of faith is stronger, the other attraction will result in difficulty and slowness in his journey. Hence, the similitude for this journey from the visible world is “crawling.” In this way, the lights of the mysteries are disclosed to the viewer from behind the pieces of glass that are the imagination.
(45) The Messenger did not limit his judgment to Abd al-Rahman alone, even though his vision was restricted to him. Rather, through him he made a judgment concerning everyone whose insight is strengthened, whose faith is firm, and whose wealth becomes so abundant that it competes with faith but cannot overcome it, because the strength of faith is greater.
(46) This lets you know how the prophets see forms and how they witness the meanings behind the forms. In most cases, the meaning is prior to the inward witnessing. Then the meaning radiates from the witnessing upon the imaginal spirit, whereupon the imagination becomes imprinted with a form that parallels the meaning and resembles it. This type of revelation in wakefulness needs interpretation, just as in dreams it needs dream interpretation. That which occurs in dreams is related to the prophetic characteristics, just as [the number] one is related to forty- six,14 while that which occurs in wakefulness is more closely related than this. I suppose that its relationship is that of one to three, since the branches of the prophetic characteristics that have been unveiled to US are confined to three, and this is one of the three kinds.
The Second Pole
Clarifying the levels of the luminous human spirits;
for, through knowing them you will
come to know the similitudes of the Qur’an
(47) The first of the luminous human spirits is the sensible spirit. It is the one that receives what the five senses bring. It seems to be the root and first appearance of the animal spirit, since through it the animal becomes an animal. It is found in the suckling child.
(48) The second is the imaginal spirit. This spirit seeks to fix what the senses bring in, remembering it as something stored within itself, in order to present it to the rational spirit above it when there is need for it. This spirit is not found in the suckling child at the beginning of its growth. That is why an infant tries eagerly to take something, but when it is absent from him he forgets about it and his soul does not make him yearn for it. When he becomes a little older, he reaches a point where he cries and demands a thing even when it is hidden from him, because its form remains preserved in his imagination. This spirit is found in some animals and not in others. It is not found in the moth that pounces upon fire, aspiring for the fire because of its passionate love for the brightness of day. It supposes that the lamp is a window opened onto a place of brightness, so it throws itself upon it and is harmed by it. But when it passes by the fire and reaches darkness, it returns to the fire time after time. If it had a remembering spirit that fixed the pain conveyed to it by its senses, it would not return to it after having been harmed a single time. Thus, when a dog is beaten once with a stick, it flees when it sees the stick from afar.
(49) The third is the rational spirit through which you perceive meanings outside of the senses and imagination. This spirit is the specific human substance. It is not found in beasts or in children. The objects of its perception are universal self-evident knowledge, just as we mentioned when we showed the superiority of the light of the rational faculty over the light of the eye.
(50) The fourth level is the reflective spirit. It takes pure rational knowledge and brings about combinations and pairings, deducing therefrom noble knowledge. Then, for example, when it derives two conclusions, it combines the two anew and derives another conclusion. It never ceases increasing in this manner ad infinitum.
(51) The fifth is the holy prophetic spirit that is singled out for the prophets and some of the friends of God. Within it are disclosed flashes of the unseen, the properties of the next world, and some of the knowledge of the dominion of the heavens and the earth, or, rather, some of the lordly knowledge that the rational and reflective spirits cannot reach. There is an allusion to this in God’s words, “Even so We have revealed to thee a Spirit of Our command. Thou knewest not what the Book was, nor faith; but We made it a light, whereby We guide whom We will of Our servants” [42:52]. For it is not unlikely—o you who cling to the world of the rational faculty—that there is another stage beyond the rational faculty within which there becomes manifest that which does not become manifest to the rational faculty. In the same way, it is not unlikely that the rational faculty is a stage that lies beyond discrimination and sensation, within which marvels and wonders are unveiled that sensation and discrimination cannot reach.16 Do not think that utmost perfection stops at your own self.
(52) If you desire a similitude of this taken from all the characteristics we witness in some people, then consider how taste in poetry, which is a kind of sensation and perception, is singled out for a single group of men. Some people are so deprived of this taste that, for them, harmonious melodies cannot be distinguished from the disharmonious. Consider also how the strength of taste within some people is so great that they derive from it music, songs, stringed instruments, and many types of musical modes which produce sadness, delight, sleep, laughter madness, slaying, and loss of consciousness. These effects are only strong in one who possesses the root of this taste. As for one devoid of the characteristic of taste, he also hears the sounds, but these effects are weak within him. He wonders at one who possesses ecstasy and loses consciousness. If all the rational thinkers who are masters of taste came together to make him understand the meaning of taste, they would not be able to do so. This is a similitude concerning a lowly situation, but it is near to your understanding.
(53) Use this similitude to understand the specific prophetic taste and strive to become one of those people who taste something of that spirit, for the friends of God have an ample portion of it. If you are not able to do this, then strive, through the analogies we mentioned and through the attention-calling remarks we gave as symbols, to become one of those people who have knowledge of this. If you are not able to do that, then the least you can do is [to] be one of those people who have faith in it. “God will raise up in degrees those of you who have faith and have been given knowledge” [58:11]. Knowledge is above faith, and tasting is above knowledge; [this] because tasting is a finding, but knowing is a drawing of analogies, and having faith is a mere acceptance through imitation. Therefore, have a good opinion of the people of finding and the people of gnosis.
(54) Once you have recognized these five spirits, know that, taken together, they are lights, because they make many types of existent things manifest—the sensory and imaginal among them. Even though the beasts share in certain kinds of spirit, the human being has another kind, nobler and higher. Humans were created for a more sublime and loftier objective. As for the animals, spirits were created for them only to be their instrument in the search for nourishment while they are subject to human beings. The spirits were created for human beings only to be their net in the lower world—a net with which they can catch the principles of the noble religious sciences. When a human being perceives a particular individual with the senses, the rational faculty acquires from it a general, unlimited meaning, just as we mentioned concerning the similitude ofc Abd al-Rahman ibn cAwf crawling. Since you now know these five spirits, let US return to the presentation of the similitudes.
A Clarification Of The Similitudes Of This Verse
(55) Know that drawing a parallel between these five spirits and the niche, the glass, the lamp, the tree, and the olive can be a long discussion. But I will be brief and confine it to calling attention to the path of drawing parallels. I say:
(56) As for the sensible spirit, when you consider its specific characteristic, you find that its lights come out of numerous holes, like the two eyes, the two ears, the two nostrils, and so forth. Hence, the most suitable similitude for this spirit in the visible world is the niche.
(57) As for the imaginal spirit, we find that it has three characteristics: First is that it derives from the clay of the dense low world, because the imaginalized thing possesses measure [and] shape, [has] specified and confined directions, and is near or far relative to the one who does the imagining. A characteristic of a dense thing that is described by the attributes of bodies is that it veils the pure rational lights, which are incomparable with being described in terms of directions, measures, nearness, and farness.
(58) The second characteristic is that when this dense imagination is purified, refined, polished, and organized, it becomes parallel to the rational meanings and points toward their lights. It does not obstruct the light that radiates from the meanings.
(59) The third characteristic is that, at the beginning, imagination is much needed, because through it one can organize rational knowledge so that knowledge will not be agitated, shaken up, and scattered with a scattering that eliminates the organization. What a wonderful help are the imaginal similitudes for rational knowledge!
(60) We find these three characteristics in relation to the seen lights of the visible world only in glass. Originally, glass is a dense substance, but once it is purified and made clear, it does not veil the light of the lamp. Rather, it conveys the light in a proper manner. Furthermore, it protects the light from being extinguished by violent winds and rough movements. Glass, therefore, is the first similitude for the imaginal spirit.
(61) As for the third spirit—the rational spirit through which perception of noble, divine knowledge takes place—the manner of using the lamp as a similitude for it is not hidden from you. You came to know this in the earlier clarification of the fact that the prophets are light-giving lamps.17
(62) As for the fourth spirit—the reflective spirit—one of its specific characteristics is that it begins with a single root and then branches off from it into two branches. Then from each branch grow two branches, and so on until the branches of rational divisions become many. Then, at last, it reaches conclusions that are its fruits. These fruits then go back and become seeds for similar fruits, because some of them can fertilize others so that they continue to bear fruits beyond them. This is similar to what we mentioned in the book The just Balance.’8 Hence, it is most appropriate that in this world the similitude of the reflective spirit be the tree.
(63) Since the fruits of the reflective spirit are a matter within which the lights of knowledge may be augmented, fixed, and given subsistence, it is appropriate that the likeness that is used not be the quince, apple, pomegranate, or other [kinds of] trees. But, among all the trees, the olive tree specifically is used, because the quintessence of its fruit is olive oil, which is the matter for lamps. Out of all oils, olive oil is singled out for the specific characteristic of having a great deal of radiance with little smoke.
(64) If cattle and trees that have many offspring and much fruit are called “blessed,” then it is even more worthy to call that tree whose fruit does not end at a defined limit a “blessed tree” [24:35].
(65) If the branches of pure rational thoughts cannot be ascribed to directions [or to] nearness and farness, then it is appropriate that the tree be “neither of the East nor the West” [24:35
(66) The fifth spirit is the holy prophetic spirit ascribed to the friends of God when it is in the utmost degree of purity and nobility.
(67) The reflective spirit is divided into [two kinds:] a sort that needs instruction, awakening, and help from the outside so that it may continue partaking of many types of knowledge; and another sort that has such intense purity that it is, as it were, awakened by itself without help from the outside. It is most appropriate that the one that is pure and has reached full preparedness be referred to by the words, “Its oil would well- nigh but shine, even if no fire touched it” [24:35], since among the friends of God are those whose light would all but shine so that they could all but dispense with the help of the prophets. And among the prophets are those who could all but dispense with the help of the angels. This similitude is suitable for this kind.
(68) When these lights are ranked in levels, one on top of the other, then the sensory spirit is the first. It is like the preparation and introduction to the imaginal spirit, since the imaginal cannot be conceived of as being placed in its situation except after the sensory. The reflective and rational spirits come after these two. Hence, it is most appropriate that the glass be like the locus for the lamp and the niche like the locus for the glass. Hence, the lamp is in a glass and the glass is in a niche. Since all of them are lights, one above the other, it is appropriate that they be “light upon light” [24:35].
A conclusion
(69) This similitude becomes clear only to the hearts of those who have faith or to the hearts of the prophets and the friends of God, not to the hearts of the unbelievers. After all, by “guidance” is meant light. That which is kept away from the path of guidance is falsehood and darkness—-or, rather, it is more intense than darkness, because darkness does not guide to falsehood any more than it guides to truth.
(70) The rational faculties of the unbelievers are inverted, and so are the rest of their faculties of perception, and these faculties help one another in leading them astray. Hence, a similitude of them is like a man “in a fathomless ocean covered by a wave above which is a wave above which are clouds, darkness’s piled one upon the other” [24:40]. The “ocean” and the “fathomless” are this world, because within it are destructive dangers, harmful occupations, and blinding murkiness.
(71) The first “wave” is the wave of the appetites which call out to the bestial attributes, occupation with sensory pleasures, and achievement of the wishes of this world, so that people will eat and enjoy just as cattle eat. It is appropriate that this wave be something dark, because “love for a thing makes blind and deaf.”
(72) The second “wave” is the wave of the attributes of predatoriness, which send forth anger, enmity, hatred, malice, envy, boastfulness, vainglory, and arrogance. It is appropriate that it be something dark, because anger is the ghoul of the rational faculty. And it is appropriate that this be the higher wave, because more often than not anger takes control away from the appetites so that, when one is furious, this distracts from the appetites and makes one heedless of the appetitive pleasures. However, appetite can never overcome a furious anger.
(73) As for “clouds,” they are the loathsome beliefs, lying opinions, and corrupt imaginings that have veiled the unbelievers from faith, knowledge of the Real, and the gaining of brightness through the light of the sun of the Qur’an and the rational faculty. The specific characteristic of clouds is that they veil the radiance of sunlight. Since each of these is something dark, it is appropriate that they be “darknesses piled one upon the other” [24:40].
(74) Since these darknesses veil the knowledge of nearby things— to say nothing of faraway things—this explains why unbelievers are veiled from knowing the wonders of the states of the Prophet, despite
the nearness of his availability and his manifestation with the least pondering. Hence, it is appropriate that this be referred to with [these words:] “When he puts forth his hand, you can hardly see it” [24:40].
(75) Since the source of all lights is the First Light, the Real—as was clarified earlier—then it is appropriate that each person who has realized the unity of God believe firmly that “to whomsoever God assigns no light, no light has he” [24:40]. This amount of the mysteries of this verse is sufficient for you, so be satisfied with it.
