BB00651: Fi’l-Maut wa’l-‘Ama’ (on death, and “the cloud”)

Part 1: “Glorified be He in Whose grasp…”

Glorified be He in Whose grasp is the kingdom of the heavens and of the earth. There is none other God but Him, the One, the All-Glorious, the Incomparable, the Almighty, the Single, the Eternal. From everlasting He hath been even as He is, and no thing hath ever altered Him; and unto everlasting He shall remain even as He is, and His being is not derived from aught. He made mention of the First by His word “Be”, and clothed it in the vesture of His sovereignty, that the handiwork of His might might be made manifest within the realm of “It is”. Verily He, in truth, is the Most Exalted above every exaltation, and the Most Great in His majesty above every greatness.

All things created are cut off from the station of His nearness and His exposition; all contingent beings vanish before the dawning of His knowledge and His splendor; all that hath been called into being is debarred from ascending unto the secret of His sanctity and His majesty; and all things are, even as they were before their own existence, sheer nothingness before the revelation of but one of the signs of the King of Oneness and the rising of the light of His radiance. Wherefore that Lord, the All-Glorious, the All-Great, the Living, the Self-Subsisting, the Most Holy, the Most High, is worthy that He be hallowed at every moment with that very praise wherewith He hath extolled His own Self in the snow-white reality of His being, in the majesty of the eternal singleness of His self-subsistence, and in the beauty of the raiment of His Manifestation’s countenance.

Hallowed be His oneness! We glorify Him with that which He loveth and approveth, and wherewith He describeth Himself in the realm of pure, enduring abstraction and in the kingdom of manifest, abiding praise; for other than He is powerless to voice His praise, and apart from Him none is able to know Him. His creatures recognize Him only within the bounds of His creative act, and whatsoever is in His dominion can manifest naught save the design and pattern of His invention.

Exalted is He! Whoso seeketh to know Him is veiled, by that very quest and by his own self, from His dawning-place; whoso seeketh to affirm His unity maketh mention of his own self and thus joineth a partner unto His being; whoso seeketh His love tasteth, in truth, the love of aught else, by measuring it according to the fashioning of his own existence; whoso seeketh to extol Him hath made the praise of His kingdom the praise of His Essence by his mention, and hath thus set a barrier between himself and the attainment of His presence. Whoso aspireth to attain unto purity in the vesture of His Face hath exalted himself above the bounds of his own extinction, and demandeth that which is in its very essence impossible. Whoso desireth to enter the sanctuary of the holiness of His Beauty hath made His greatness subservient to His kingdom, hath forgotten the power of His sovereignty, hath been veiled from the presence of His lovers, and banished from the glances of the eyes of them that rear the souls of men.

Hallowed and exalted is He! Verily, the essences, in all their abstraction; the paths, in all their comprehensiveness; the ways, in the fullness of their breadth; the signs, in the plenitude of their greatness; the manifestations, in the mystery of their origin; the realities, in the effects they exert; and whatsoever can be encompassed by names and attributes in all its belovedness—all are shut out from the station of His nearness, debarred from entering His presence, turned away from ascending unto the sanctuary of the holiness of His might, and removed from the remembrance of Him in the precincts of the City of His omnipotence. Exalted then is He: so great is the majesty of His Essence that all things are as though they had never been; and so lofty is the height of His ipseity that all contingent things are fallen away from any station of nearness unto Him.

I bear witness, in this my seat, unto God, that nothing is beyond the range of Thy power. Verily, Thou art He Who requiteth, the Inheritor, the Peerless, the Inaccessible. O my Lord! Thou, verily, art the One Who knoweth what hath been besought in the Book, and Thou art indeed the most meet to give decisive judgment. And I—according to what Thou hast inspired in me of the manifestations of the Beginning and the signs of the Day of Reckoning—shall assuredly make mention of whatsoever Thou dost will; there is no power nor strength save in Thee, and Thou, verily, art in watchful ambush.

As to that which hath been attributed in tradition to the saying of the Suns of Decree—He of Whom it was said (may my spirit, and the spirit of whomsoever is, in the knowledge of God, beloved of Him, be a ransom for His sake) in the hidden mystery: “Were death a man, both the believer and the infidel would purchase him”—there can be no doubt that whatsoever hath descended from those servants who dwell within the realm of causes, and every morn whereon the Day-Star of pre-eternity adorneth itself in the world of inner meaning, all this is for the adorning of the Greatest Deep. For in every thing God hath set a sign unto every thing, that none may be veiled from His dawning-place, but that all things may behold Him in all things, manifest through the manifestations of His will.

Flowing through every letter of that discourse is the word of God, exalted be He: “Say: If the sea were to become ink for the words of my Lord, the sea would surely be exhausted ere the words of my Lord are exhausted, though We brought another sea like unto it to serve as aid.” And then His word—exalted be His remembrance—wherein He saith: “Were all the trees upon the earth to become pens, and the sea, with seven seas to replenish it thereafter, to become ink, the words of God would not be exhausted. Verily God is exalted in might, all-wise.”

For the discourse of the Messenger of God and of those who, after Him, are His witnesses is hard, most hard—deep, unfathomable, rugged and austere. It cannot be borne by a cherub nigh unto God, nor by a Prophet sent, nor by a believer whose heart God hath tested with faith. And if he should indeed bear it and seek to convey it to another, it would not find a settled resting-place within his own heart. All this proceedeth from the decree of the King, the Compeller.

When, then, through the mention of that supreme allusion, thou hast come to recognize what God hath enshrined in but a single letter of that Greatest Sign, bear thou witness that it hath hidden manifestations and pre-ordained modalities; for it is, from the vantage-point of the Supreme Horizon before a Mighty King, that each soul—according to the measure of God’s manifestation unto him—knoweth therefrom what lieth concealed in His secret. And even as God, exalted be He, hath made it known and brought it forth, none can encompass His knowledge thereof; even as its truth hath been attested by the Mention of the First and by the lights of the Dawn of pre-eternity. For all besides them are, at the moment of their mention, as non-existent, and are powerless to know each one of them in accordance with what God hath deposited in their temples of the mystery of abstraction and in the garment of singleness that pointeth to the Living, the Eternal, the All-Praised.

As for me, to the degree that God hath revealed Himself unto me—my heart bearing witness to the essence of mine own impotence and my sheer nothingness—I shall make mention of some of the manifestations of that discourse, for such as desire to behold the theophanies of the heaven of the Divine Will in the earth of limitation. Know then that “death”, in the terminology of the people of reality, hath applications without end, in an infinity upon infinity, unto an infinity—for in the mention of every life there is a death that correspondeth unto it, from the first evocation of detachment unto the last link in the chain of limitation.

At times, in the idiom of the people of infallibility, it is used to denote sheer non-existence preceding existence; for this is that death unto which no life hath gone before, and naught becometh a thing save after the decree of affirmation. In the language of the sages, however, it is that which standeth over against life. And God—hallowed and exalted be He—created not the creation but for abiding. Hence, when one of the Prophets was asked—exalted be His mention—“How shall we attain unto Thee?”, God revealed unto him: “Cast thyself away: thou shalt know thy Lord. Thy outward self is for extinction and thy inward reality for abiding.” This is that which the All-Merciful hath promised unto His servants; and there is no doubt that God faileth not His covenant.

The poverty of the contingent being toward God at every instant is even as his poverty at the first moment of his existence; and had God not called him forth, he could by no means come to be. Likewise, in every state: did God not succour and sustain him, he would become a thing forgotten, forgotten. At each moment the second effusion is life, and the first, in relation to it, is death—whereas, in itself, it is a creation ordained for abiding, mentioned in its own realm and existent within the pattern of its own fashioning. This is the most subtle of parables in the realm of allusion for such as know the places of the divine command in the kingdom of names and attributes—without number, without beginning, without end, without limit. For in every death there is life, and there is not a thing but We have created it in pairs two and two—this, of the handiwork of God, the Subtle, the All-Informed.

At times, moreover, the word “death” is employed to signify ascent unto a loftier station after a lower one—this being what is meant by the people of severance and renunciation from among the exponents of rapture. For life and death, in their Originator, are a single creation; and with God there is no death, for whatsoever God willeth is, and extinction can never overtake it. In His sight the decree is one: He hath made death and life alike before Him, and hath fixed them both at the boundary of origination. The distinction, and the mention of loftiness after lowness, pertain only to the degrees of receptivity and to the mirrors of contingency; otherwise, He Who is manifest in death is the very One Who is manifest in life, and He Who exerciseth sway over both is a single Command, even as God hath intimated in His words: “Our command is but one.”

For from the horizon of the court of the Sanctity of the One there can arise naught save that which pointeth unto the One, though it be veiled in curtains without end. The trace of the handiwork pointeth to naught but the manifestation of the Artificer; and God is but One, Single, Unique, Eternal, Self-Sufficient, Solitary, Ever-Abiding. This is but a sprinkling from the oceans of “with Me”—the inmost reality of the outward—yet it is in truth a mighty theme, save for such as have recognized the sites of destiny and beheld the dust of divine ordering. They are a people not to be known by quietude nor by agitation; God hath created them for Himself and hath fashioned them for His remembrance.

He is the One, the All-Glorious, in the realm of numbers; the Elect in the lineage of oneness; the alif that standeth in the rank of numerals; the water distilled from the Tree of Sinai, whereby the rushing springs are made to share. And upon the plane of outward manifestation, in the sense of omnipotence, hath there been established for their hearts a sign, that minds and souls may bear Him witness. It is this: that in death God hath appointed the meeting with Him. The believer yearneth after it with a yearning such as he feeleth for naught else besides. Hence ʿAli—peace be upon him—hath declared:

“By God! The son of Abi Talib is more intimate with death than is the suckling child with the breast of its mother.”

In like manner hath the Qur’an been sent down, addressing, in the first instance, the people of the Torah and, in the realm of exposition, all the people of utterance:

“If ye claim to be the friends of God, apart from all other men, then wish for death, if ye be truthful.”

Likewise, the pure and sincere believer is verily the one consumed with longing for the meeting with God; nay, he hath no refuge save in God Himself, and there is for him no flight but unto Him. Yet such a thing cannot be attained save after death. Hence, were the servant able to purchase death, he would assuredly buy it with all that God hath bestowed upon him, in the hope of attaining unto the presence of his Lord—exalted be His glory.

Yea, by my Lord! Were I to find a path thereto, I would be the first of those who seek it and purchase it. But God hath ordained for every soul an appointed term, inscribed and irrevocable, which it can neither anticipate nor delay. With God, moreover, is the knowledge of all things, in a Tablet inscribed. This is the reason for the believer’s desire to “purchase” it.

As for the cause of the unbeliever’s desire to “purchase” death, it is because of what God hath prepared for him on the Day of Resurrection. For whatsoever befalleth him in this world, his torment in the next is doubled, his punishment grievously intensified, and an evil reckoning awaiteth him, since God, verily, is severe in chastisement. Were there, then, a way to “purchase” death, it would be that his torment might thereby be lightened. But no way is open unto any soul therein: the whole matter resteth in the hand of God; He doeth whatsoever He willeth and decreeth what He desireth.

To this the exalted word of God alludeth, where it hath been sent down in the Book:

“We only give them rein that they may add sin unto their sin, and for them is a humiliating punishment.”

For God—glorified be He—is the All-Powerful, the All-Subduing: He granteth no respite to any of the unbelievers save that their torment in the Fire may be multiplied, that they may become deserving of the wrath of the Almighty and be made to taste the displeasure of the All-Compelling. For God is the All-Glorious, Lord of terrible retribution, the All-Potent, possessor of a strategy that none can escape.

Such is the meaning of the tradition upon the plane of outward exposition, as it is apprehended by whoso hath recognized its inward sense. But know thou that “death”, in the sight of the people of detachment, is a reality of seven all-embracing degrees.

Part 2: “The first is the degree of bringing forth…”

The first is the degree of bringing forth his life, the station of the mineral. There hath God placed all things within a pit of putrefaction, that the elixir-like constituents may be prepared for whoso standeth in the degree of limitation. The ranks of things differ in this station according to their nearness or remoteness. Thus it may be that the “death” of the servant, in the pit of corruption, consisteth in the least measure of those oily particles that appear through distillation.

All the first revealers of the Law, from its beginning unto its end, are as a fire from God for those bounded limits, that it may burn away the accidental, superficial elements until the elixir-like parts, which testify to the oneness of God, are made manifest. Then, when all that God hath placed within the servant crieth out, with a tongue of clear and eloquent Arabic,

“There is none other God but He, the Single, the All-Glorious, the Inaccessible,”

the constituents of limitation are consumed and the elixir degree is revealed.

To this alludeth the saying of one among the people of sanctity, Ja’far ibn Muhammad as-Sadiq—peace be upon him—who hath declared:

“Servitude, in its outwardness, is manifest; its inmost essence is Lordship. Whatsoever is lost in servitude is found in Lordship, and whatsoever is hidden in Lordship is attained in servitude.”

This proceedeth from the decree of the One, the Single, the Most Exalted. And this is but the lowest of the degrees of death.

When, then, the degree of limitation is drawn forth from the station of the mineral, it thereupon attaineth unto the degree of the vegetal. In this rank there is mention made of the Blessed Tree “neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil would well-nigh shine out, even though fire touched it not”. This Tree is, upon the plane of outward speech, termed by the wise the balsam-tree, and at times the olive-tree, and at times the Tree that came forth from Mount Sinai, producing oil. When it hath been refined and purified and from it four drops are brought forth, then, when the yellow drop appeareth and uniteth with that which before it had been produced—the red—there is disclosed the degree of its unity, and it becometh a dye for them that partake thereof. Thus is the work of wisdom perfected in every universal and particular.

And when death is drawn forth from the vegetal degree, it attaineth unto the animal degree. There hath God created a sign of the manifestations of divine unity, so that when the servant causeth all his aspects and faculties to speak only of this one reality, he may be rendered worthy that the word descended in tradition be fulfilled in him: “Die before ye die.” For these latter degrees are the second ranks of the limits of the elixir contained within the bodily composition in the orders of mineral, plant, and animal.

When, moreover, this process reacheth the degree of soul, of spirit, and of mind, there is, in answer to it, a death of bodies: every contrariety is effaced, every opposing aspect is blotted out—even shadow itself—until the matter is carried to the degree of apparent extinction, which is in truth the ocean of abiding and of pure life before the Lord of Origination. There hath the servant ever been gazing toward God, and God revealing Himself unto him thereby; no letter remaineth unto him, nor any sign but that it pointeth to God alone.

To this alludeth the saying of God—exalted be He—regarding the Greater Death that ensueth after the universal blast of the Trumpet:

“And when the trumpet is blown, whosoever is in the heavens and whosoever is in the earth shall swoon away, save him whom God willeth.”

What is meant thereby are the four reeds beyond the ten, and those states wherein his heart, time after time, hath confronted them and the Supreme Horizon; for in that station it behoveth that the remembrance of the Face of God, the Most Exalted, the Most Great, overshadow them. For the “letters of the Face” are fourteen in number—these are the mighty suns and the luminaries of power referred to in His words: “All things perish save the Face of thy Lord, the Lord of Glory and Bounty.”

The life of that Face is the letter ha at its end: a Word created, whose name correspondeth to its form, and whose frame answereth to its secret. Its number is none other than the number of the other letter of the Face—that hidden Name and treasured symbol—through which there hath appeared whatsoever hath appeared between the Kaf and the Nun. God hath appointed for His servants no nearness beyond this, nor is there any token that exceedeth the Kaf and the Nun. This is that creation of God whom He hath chosen for His own Self, and made the station of His own Self in His utterance “Be!”—there is none other God but He, the King, the Self-Subsisting, the Most Holy.

Such is but a mention of one meaning of the tradition, for it hath subtle significances upon the plane of the horizons as distinct from the souls; yet each of these two God hath ordained as a counterpart to the other. Naught do the possessors of understanding infer from what is “here” save by what is “there”, nor from what is “there” save by what is “here”. God verily doth encompass it from beyond. There is no end to exposition, nor any cessation to manifestation.

As to the meaning of the other tradition asked about in the Book—namely that “God was in a cloud (ʿama), above it was air”—this, in very truth, is sound and right, if the servant behold it with the eye of divine unity and regard not the mention of the cloud apart from God, exalted be He. For God—glorified be He—hath ever been; with Him there was naught beside Him, that He should be said to be above any thing, or in any thing, or from any thing, or upon any thing. He hath ever been His own Self, and the “cloud” is His own Essence, and pre-existence His very being. Those names He hath brought forth by His breaths; hearts acquire them, and souls, in their weakness, are ennobled by them. All proclaim that God is void of aught else and that beside Him there is none.

Even now, our Lord is as He hath ever been: His creation was not with Him, nor is any other thing mentioned in His degree. He is the One, alone in His Essence, sanctified in His attributes. The “cloud” and the “air” were meant to indicate none but His own Self; for were aught other intended, it would be annulled, inasmuch as a gap would thereby be implied and His unity would be impaired. It is impossible to describe God as being exalted over any thing, or as sitting or “established” upon any thing. For in what hath been sent down from the All-Glorious—“The Merciful is established upon the Throne”—the “Throne” intendeth naught but His knowledge and His power, and these are His very Self and none other. Were it something other than He, there would needs be a peer unto Him—far exalted is He above likeness and comparison.

He hath ever been All-Knowing, when there was no “known”; and He shall forever remain the All-Preserving, when there is no “object” of preservation. In the idiom of the people of infallibility it is sometimes said that the “Station of Establishment” is the station of the manifestation of His theophany unto others: a station of relative attribution ennobled in that God hath ascribed it unto Himself, in order to honour whom He willeth and to favour whom He mentioneth—just as He saith, “The Ka’bah is the House of God”, while in truth God hath no “house” but that He hath named it for Himself that all His servants may reverence it and His loved ones circle round it.

In like manner hath it been revealed in the Qur’an: “They encompass naught of His knowledge save what He willeth.” That “knowledge” is the knowledge He hath created and ascribed unto Himself by way of ennoblement; hence the exception is made and the sense of limitation implied. But the knowledge of the Essence none can encompass, nor is it meet that any should possess it save God alone; no exception can there be in that realm.

According to this subtle mode, the tradition may be interpreted by holding that the “cloud” is the seer’s vision toward God: the station wherein the Mention of the First shone forth, and whose relation He honoured with a noble relation. For in the case of God—exalted be He—the utterance “The Merciful is established upon the Throne” is as the saying “God was in a cloud”. The word ama’ (cloud) in the language of the people is related to ama (blindness): there, nothing existed but God, and the eyes were blinded from His Face and the gazes from His Countenance. It is an absolute, unmingled, pure cloud, wherein, whether in His hiddenness or His manifestation, His outwardness or His inwardness, naught was seen but God, the One, the Single, the Eternal, the Self-Sufficient, the Peerless, besides Whom there is no other God and with Whom there is none.

The “cloud”, then, and all the names, are created within His dominion, tokens of the sovereignty of His might and attributes of the majesty of His Lordship. He it is Whom the highest depths of vision can never grasp, Whom the subtlest extremities of thought can never contain. He, nevertheless, comprehendeth all things through His command. There is none other God but He, the One, the All-Subduing. In that allusion there is disclosed to the people of mystery that which lay hidden behind the veils of light. Sufficient is God, the All-Compelling, the All-Forgiving, for whatsoever appeareth in cycles and is concealed in dispensations.

This tradition, moreover, concealeth a tender, gracious meaning, drawn from the very substance of the subtleties of the mysteries, distilled from the simple camphor of the lights. It is this: The Eternal Essence is a hidden, wondrous reality, which no sight can ever attain, nor can the highest depths of thought soar unto the atmosphere of its sanctity. What hath appeared in the kingdom of the “cloud” and shone forth from its light upon Mount Sinai is the Command which He created out of nothing, investing it, over all things, with the vesture of His Lordship, and conferring upon it the authority of His Will and His Purpose.

Glorified be God above the possibility that the Eternal Essence should draw nigh unto aught of the realm of possibility, or that aught of contingent being, even in its annihilation, should attain unto the summit of His dominion. Nay rather, that light whereby He manifested Himself unto Himself is His light, which no horizon hath beheld in its dawning, nor hath any eye regarded save He Himself.

It is His Word whereby the unity of God, the Eternal, the Most Exalted, the All-Praised, is proven, and the manifestations of the divine singleness of God, the One, the Most High, the Inaccessible, are made sure. This is the Word of God. It hath been created in three modes of manifestation that can be found in no other: for the world of possibility must needs have (first) mention, (second) existence, and (third) a mention of acceptance and a nexus between the two. The alif is the fire of origination, the lam the station of conjunction, and the ha’ the station of receptivity. Thus was the full “Face” revealed and the “Hand” numbered.

That ha’ which appeareth from God and indicateth Him is the one that standeth between the two conditions and is fixed between the two points of ripeness. It is that very “cloud” above which is air and beneath which is air. When it issueth from the hidden world of the unseen into the realm of visibility, there shineth forth the first Name God hath chosen for His own Self, “the Most Exalted, the Most Great”. This is that station whereunto the allusions of the people of prostration cannot reach, and before which, for the people of infinity, the manifestations are disclosed.

The “cloud”, in truth, is identical with that whose number is seventy, the Word “Be!” which was preceded by “air”—the Mention of the First, Muhammad—above which is air and beneath which is air. It is that leaf created from the Tree of Prophethood, fragrant and pure, guiding, sanctifying, hallowed, exalted, uplifted, and made manifest. Under its shadow there were fashioned the realities of the spiritual ones—the Prophets, the righteous, and the godly. This is the meaning of the tradition in its outward and inward sense.

If thou desire the innermost of the inner, it cannot be attained in the world of sheer abstraction unless one descendeth into the world of its descent. The furthest limit of that descent, in the station of words, is the alif that standeth between the two points. When the servant desireth to establish in it the sign of divine unity and to behold therein the dawning of detachment, he perceiveth the outward of the tradition in the inward of the “cloud”, and beholdeth that the “air” above it is as the “air” beneath it. Hence hath God, exalted be He, said in the Qur’an: “And when his Lord manifested Himself unto the mountain, He made it crumble into dust, and Moses fell down in a swoon.”

Its form is the form of the five, and its shape the shape of the six-sided figure; its number comprehendeth them both. The other letter of the Face—namely the ha’—precedeth in this Name, which is exalted above resemblance. From that very Greatest Name, and from what was sent down thereafter in the Book of ʿAli—peace be upon him—one may behold whatsoever man desireth of the bounty of God, in accordance with His saying:

“Shall man have whatsoever he desireth? Nay, unto God belong the latter life and the former.”

That delicate symbol hath been elaborated in the circle whose decree hath gone forth from the worshipper Who, through His knowledge thereof, hath never been perplexed. Whoso is ignorant thereof erreth and is led astray. This sufficeth for the meaning of these two traditions; for, were I to desire to expound them according to their reality, the oceans of the heavens and the earth, were God to make them ink, would be exhausted, and all the trees, were He to make them pens, would be spent, while the outpouring of God would still remain inexhaustible and His command without cessation.

I shall conclude this answer with a prayer at the moment of communion with God, the Sovereign, that its ending may be as musk. For in this let the competitors compete, and for this let the doers of deeds labour. Verily, unto our Lord shall we return.