The Second Ray — The First Station — The Rays

The First Fruit of the First Station

It is in divine unity (vahdet) and its affirmation (tevhid) that divine beauty and dominical perfection become apparent. If there were no unity that pre‑eternal treasury would remain hidden. Yes, it is only in the mirror of unity and in the manifestation of the divine names concentrated by means of unity in the faces of particulars at the extremities of the tree of creation that infinite divine beauty and perfection, unending dominical excellence and loveliness, the incalculable bounties and gifts of the Merciful One, and the utterly perfect beauty of that Eternally Besought One, are all to be seen.

For example, when the particular act of sending to the assistance of a powerless infant lacking will, pure white milk from an unexpected place, that is, from between blood and faeces, is considered from the point of view of the affirmation of divine unity, suddenly, through the wondrous, tender sustaining of all infants and young and their subjugating their mothers to themselves, the undying beauty of the Most Merciful’s mercy is seen in all its splendour. If not beheld through the eyes of divine unity, that beauty is hidden and that particular providing of sustenance is ascribed to causes, chance, and nature, thus losing all its value and even transforming its very nature.

Also, for example; if the healing of one dreadful disease is considered from the point of view of the affirmation of divine unity, on the face of the bestowal of healing on all the sick in the huge hospital called the earth through the remedies and medicines from the vast pharmacy called the world, the beautiful compassion of the Absolutely Compassionate One and the acts of His mercy become apparent in universal and splendid fashion. If not considered in respect of the affirmation of divine unity, that particular but knowledgeable, perceptive, and conscious bestowal of healing will be attributed to the properties of lifeless medicines and to blind force and unconscious nature; its character will be completely changed and it will lose its wisdom and value.

I am explaining here because of its relevance a point which occurs to me about a benediction for the Prophet (UWBP). It concerns the well‑known prayer that is recited regularly by the Shafi‘i’s at the end of the tesbihat following the five daily prayers: Allah! Grant blessings to our master Muhammad and to the family of Muhammad, to the number of ills and their remedies, and bless him and them and grant them unending peace. It is important because due to the wisdom in the creation of human beings and the mystery of their comprehensiveness, every moment they entreat their Creator and seek refuge with Him, and offer Him thanks and praise. Just as illnesses are the most effective whip driving them to the divine court, so the chief of the sweet bounties prompting him to give thanks earnestly and to truly offer praise gratefully are remedies, healing, and good health. For this reason the benediction is most meaningful and widely accepted. Sometimes when reciting to the number of all ills and their remedies I see the earth in the form of a hospital and sense the clearly obvious existence of the True Healer Who supplies the remedies for all ills, physical and spiritual, and answers all needs, and His universal clemency and sacred all‑embracing compassion.

Also for example; if the bestowal of guidance and belief on someone who experiences the ghastly pains of misguidance is considered from the point of view of divine unity, the pre‑eternal beauty of One Munificent and Generous becomes apparent on the face of that supreme gift. For that beauty transforms the insignificant, transitory, and impotent person into the slave-addressee of the One True Object of Worship, Who is the Creator and Sovereign of all the universe, and through his belief bestows on him – and on all believers according to their degree – eternal happiness and a broad and splendid everlasting world and property. One flash of that unfading beauty is such that it makes all believers love it and the elite enamoured of it and captivated by it. If such an event is not considered from the point of view of divine unity, the person’s particular belief will be attributed either to himself, as with the self-centred and self-opinionated Mu‘tazilites, or to causes. Then that sparkling gem of the Most Merciful, the true price and value of which is Paradise, will be devalued to the worthlessness of a piece of glass and will no longer reflect the flashes of that sacred beauty.

Thus, it may be seen from these three examples that the innumerable sorts and varieties of divine beauty and dominical perfection are apparent in the particular beings at the extremities of the sphere of multiplicity, and in all their states and conditions, and by reason of divine beauty and perfection being concentrated in them through divine unity their certain existence are understood and established. It is because divine beauty and perfection are to be seen with the heart in the affirmation of divine unity and perceived by the spirit that all the saints and purified ones have found their sweetest illuminations and most delectable spiritual sustenance in repeated recitation of “There is no god but Allah,” the profession of divine unity.

And it is because divine grandeur and magnificence, divine glory, and the absolute sovereignty of the dominicality of the Eternally Besoughted One are realized in the profession of divine unity that Allah the Most High’s Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) declared: The best thing I and the prophets before me have said is ‘There is no god but Allah.’

Yes, although a small bounty, gift and sustenance like a flower, a fruit, or a light is a tiny mirror, through the mystery of divine unity each suddenly stands shoulder to shoulder with all its fellows and joins with them. Being transformed into a large mirror, its species displays the sort of divine beauty which is manifested on it. With transient, fleeting beauty it points to an everlasting, undying beauty. As Mawlana Jalal al‑Din said: The imagination which is the snare of the saints ❋ Is the reflection of the moon‑faced beauties of the garden of Allah; it becomes a mirror to divine beauty. If not for the mystery of the affirmation of divine unity, each particular fruit would remain on its own, and would show neither that sacred beauty nor its elevated perfection. Even the particular flash of beauty within it would be extinguished and would vanish. It would quite simply become its opposite; from being a diamond, it would turn into glass.

Also, through the mystery of the affirmation of divine unity, in living beings, which are the fruits of the tree of creation, is a divine personality, a dominical oneness, an immaterial face of the Most Merciful defined by the seven attributes, a concentration of the names, and the manifestation of the determination and personification of the One Who is addressed by the words You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help. Otherwise that personality, that oneness, that face, the manifestation of that determination would expand to the extent of the universe, disperse and be hidden. It would be seen only with eyes of the heart that were truly vast and comprehensive. For the magnificence of divine grandeur would veil it; not everyone could see it with the eye of the heart.

Also, it is clearly understood from those particular living beings that their Maker sees them, knows them, hears them, and does as He wishes. Quite simply, behind the createdness of each living being, the immaterial personification and determination of one who has power and will, hears, sees and knows, is apparent to one who believes. Especially behind the createdness of human beings from among living creatures, through belief and through the mystery of divine unity, that immaterial personification and determination are to be observed in extremely clear fashion. For samples of meanings such as knowledge, power, life, hearing, and sight, which are the bases of that personification of oneness, are present in human beings, and they indicate them through those samples. For example, the being who bestows the eyes, both sees the eye, and, a subtle meaning, sees what the eye sees, then he bestows them. For sure, the oculist who makes some spectacles for your eyes, sees that they are suitable, then he makes them. And the being who bestows the ears, surely hears what the ears hear, then he makes them and bestows them. Examples for the other attributes may be made in the same way.

Also, human beings bear the impresses and manifestations of the names; through them, they testify to those sacred meanings. Also, through their weakness, impotence, poverty, and ignorance, human beings act as mirrors in another way; they testify to the power, knowledge, will, and other attributes of the one who has pity on their weakness and poverty, and comes to their aid. Thus, since through the mystery of divine unity, a thousand and one divine names are concentrated in the furthest points and most scattered particulars of the sphere of multiplicity, in the tiny missives known as living beings, and are to be read most clearly, the All‑Wise Maker multiplies the copies of them extensively. He makes exceedingly numerous and various the copies of the species of small living beings in particular, and publishes them everywhere.

What impelled me to the truth of this First Fruit was a certain feeling and experience. It was like this:

At one time, due to my excessive feelings of pity, sympathy and kindness, I was exceedingly touched and sorry for living beings, and of them, intelligent beings and human beings, and particularly the oppressed and disaster‑stricken. I exclaimed from my very heart: “Neither these monotonous laws which prevail over the world hear the woes of these powerless and weak unfortunates, nor do the overwhelming, deaf elements and events hear them. Is there no one to take pity on their wretched state and intervene in their particular plights?” My spirit was crying out from its very depths. My heart called out with all its strength: “Do these fine creatures, these valuable goods, these yearning and grateful friends, have no owner, no master, no true friend who will look to their business, accompany them and protect them?”

The satisfying, soothing, and sufficient answer to the cries of my spirit and tumult of my heart was this: through the mystery of the Qur’an and light of belief and the mystery of divine unity, I perceived the particular favours and special assistance of the All‑Glorious One, Who is All-Merciful and Compassionate, above the law, to those lovable creatures who weep and lament under the pressure of universal laws and the assaults of events; and His particular dominicality towards everything directly; and the facts that He Himself directs everything personally and listens to the plaints of all things; and that He is the true owner, protector, and master of everything. I felt an infinite joy in place of endless despair.

In my view all living beings gained in importance and value augmented a thousand times by being totally owned by such a Glorious Owner and connected to Him. For since everyone takes pride in their master’s honour and fame and in the rank of the person to whom they are attached and acquire a dignity, through the unfolding of this relation through the light of belief and the state of being owned, and due to its strength, an ant vanquished the Pharaoh and could feel the pride of a thousand Pharaohs, who were heedless, imagined themselves to be independent and to own themselves, and had overweening pride – which was extinguished at the door of the grave – at their forefathers and the land of Egypt. And in the face of Nimrod’s pride, which changed into torment and shame when he tasted the pangs of death, the fly pointed to the pride of its own relationship, reducing Nimrod’s to nothing.

The verse, To assign partners to Allah is verily a great transgression states that it is an infinite wrong to associate partners with Allah the Most High. Assigning partners to Allah is a vast crime because it transgresses the rights, honour, and dignity of all creatures. Only Hell can cleanse it.

The Second Fruit of the Affirmation of Divine Unity

The First Fruit considered the Most Pure and Holy One, the Creator of the Universe, now this Second Fruit considers the universe and its essential nature. Yes, through the mystery of divine unity the perfections of the universe are realized; and the elevated duties of beings are understood; the results of the creation of beings are established; the value of creatures are known; the divine purposes in the world find existence; the instances of wisdom in the creation of living beings and conscious beings become apparent; behind the stern, angry faces of the violent storms of upheaval and change the smiling, beautiful faces of mercy and wisdom are seen; and such numerous existences of transitory beings as their results, identities, true natures, spirits, and glorifications, which they leave in their places in the Manifest World before they depart, are known.

Furthermore, only through the mystery of divine unity is the universe as a whole known to be a meaningful book of the Eternally Besought One; and all beings from the ground to the divine throne to be a miraculous collection of divine missives; and all the realms of creatures to be a magnificent regular dominical army, and all sorts of beings from microbes and ants to rhinoceroses, eagles, and planets to be diligent officials of the Pre‑Eternal Sovereign, and since they act as mirrors to and have a relation with that Sovereign, the value of all things are understood to infinitely surpass their individual value; and the answers are revealed of the unsolved, abstruse questions “Where do this flood of beings and these caravans of creatures come from? Where are they going? Why did they come? And what are they doing?” Otherwise, these elevated perfections of the universe would vanish and those lofty, sacred truths be transformed into their opposites.

It is because the crimes of ascribing partners to Allah the Most High and disbelief constitute aggression against all the universe’s perfections and its sacred truths and the elevated rights of beings that the universe becomes angry at the disbelievers and idolators. The heavens and earth become wrathful, and the elements unite to destroy them, overwhelming and submerging those who ascribe partners to Allah, such as Noah’s people and the ‘Ad and Thamud peoples, and the Pharaoh. In accordance with the verse, Well‑nigh bursting with fury Hell so rages and fumes at the disbelievers and ascribers of partners to Allah the Most High that it almost bursts apart. Yes, to associate partners with Allah is a terrible insult to the universe and a great transgression against it. It insults their honour by denying the sacred duties of beings and the purposes of their creation. To illustrate this, we shall allude to one example out of thousands.

For example, through the mystery of divine unity the universe resembles a huge, corporeal angel; glorifying and sanctifying its Maker with hundreds of thousands of heads to the number of species of beings, and with hundreds of thousands of mouths to the number of members of those species, and with hundreds of thousands of tongues in every mouth to the number of organs, parts, and cells of those members – a wondrous collection of elevated creatures engaged in worship like the Angel Israfil. Through the mystery of divine unity, the universe is also an arable field yielding copious crops for the worlds and dwelling places of the hereafter; a factory producing numerous goods, such as human actions, for the levels of the Abode of Bliss; and a movie‑camera with a hundred thousand lenses continuously taking pictures of this world to show to the spectators in the eternal realm and especially in Paradise. To ascribe partners to Allah the Most High is to transform this truly wondrous, absolutely obedient, living, corporeal angel into a lifeless, soulless, unemployed, perishing, meaningless, wretched, futile collectivity, revolving in the tumult of events and storms of change and darkness of non-existence; and to convert this strange, utterly orderly, beneficial factory into an idle, confused, unconscious plaything of chance lacking product or result or function; to make it into the playground of deaf nature and blind force, a place of mourning for all intelligent beings, and the slaughterhouse of all living creatures, and a vale of tears. In accordance with the verse, To assign partners to Allah is verily a great transgression to associate partners with Allah the Most High, although a single evil, leads to such vast and numerous crimes that those who perpetrate it deserve infinite torment in Hell. Anyway… since this Second Fruit has been explained and proved repeatedly in The Illuminating Lamp, we have cut short the long story here.

A strange feeling and perception which drove me to this Second Fruit. It was like this:

One time when observing the season of spring, I saw that the successive caravans of beings, and especially living creatures and the small young ones at that, followed on one after the other in a flowing torrent, displaying hundreds of thousands of samples of the resurrection of the dead and Great Gathering on the face of the earth. But they appeared only briefly then disappeared. The tableaux of death and transience amid that constant, awesome activity seemed to me excessively sad; I felt such pity it made me weep. The more I observed the deaths of those lovely small creatures, the more my heart ached. I cried at the pity of it and within me felt a deep spiritual turmoil. Life which met with such an end seemed to me to be torment worse than death. The living beings of the plant and animal kingdoms, too, which were most beautiful and lovable and full of valuable art, opened their eyes for a moment onto the exhibition of the universe, then disappeared and were gone.

I felt grievous pain the more I watched this. My heart wanted to weep and complain and cry out at fate. It asked the awesome questions: “Why do they come and then depart without stopping?” These apparently useless, purposeless little creatures were being despatched to non‑existence before my very eyes, despite having been created, nurtured and raised with so much attention and art, in such valuable forms. They were merely torn up like rags and thrown away into the obscurity of nothingness. The more I saw this the more my inner senses and faculties, which are captivated by beauty and perfection and enamoured of precious things, cried out: “Why does no one take pity on them? Isn’t it a shame? Where did they come from, the death and ephemerality in these bewildering upheavals and transformations which persistently attack these wretched beings?” As I started to utter fearful objections about divine determining and the grievous circumstances of the outer face of life and its events, the light of the Qur’an, the mystery of belief, the favour of the Most Merciful, and the affirmation of divine unity all came to my assistance. They lit up those darknesses and transformed my laments into joy and my weeping into happiness and my pity into exclamations of Blessed be Allah! What wonders Allah has willed! They caused me to declare: All praise be to Allah for the light of belief!

For through an inner meaning of divine unity I saw that all creatures, and particularly living creatures, produce truly significant results and have general benefits.

In Short: All living beings, for instance this adorned flower or that sweet‑producing bee, are divine odes full of meaning which innumerable conscious beings study in delight. They are precious miracles of power and proclamations of wisdom exhibiting their Maker’s art in captivating fashion to innumerable appreciative observers. While to appear before the gaze of the Glorious Creator, Who wishes to observe His art Himself, and look on the beauties of His creation and the loveliness of the manifestations of His names, is another exceedingly elevated result of their creation. A further elevated function of their creation is described in the Twenty-Fourth Letter, and is their serving in five ways the manifestations of dominicality and divine perfections which necessitate the infinite activity in the universe.

I saw that if the being is endowed with spirit, since its apparent death has the meaning of a joyful release from duties, besides the above benefits and results, it leaves behind in its place in this Manifest World its spirit, and in innumerable memories and other preserved tablets its form and identity, and in its seeds the laws of its being and a sort of future life, and in the World of the Unseen and Realm of the Divine Names the perfections and beauties it has mirrored; it merely passes behind the curtain of death and is hidden from worldly eyes. I exclaimed: “All praise and thanks be to Allah!”

These genuine, powerful, faultless, utterly brilliant instances of beauty and loveliness which are visible in all the levels of the universe and all its realms of beings and have spread everywhere, demonstrate with complete certainty that the ugly, harsh, abhorrent, wretched former situation, which the association of partners with Allah the Most High necessitates, is impossible and illusory. For such ghastly ugliness could not exist hidden under the veil of such genuine beauty. If it were found there, that true beauty would be untrue, baseless, futile, and illusory. This means that the association of partners with Allah has no reality, its way is closed, it has become stuck in a bog; what it posits is impossible and precluded. Since this truth of belief, which pertains to the emotions, is explained in detail with numerous proofs in many parts of The Illuminating Lamp, we shall suffice here with this brief indication.

Third Fruit

This fruit looks to conscious beings and particularly to human beings. Through the mystery of divine unity, among all creatures the human being may attain to the highest perfections, and become the most valuable fruit of the universe, the most perfect and refined of creatures, the most fortunate and happy of animate beings, and the addressee and friend of the world’s Creator. Indeed, all human perfections and lofty aims are tied to the affirmation of divine unity and find existence through its meaning. For if there were no unity, human beings would be the most unhappy of creatures, the lowest of beings, the most wretched of the animals, the most suffering and sorrowful of intelligent beings.

For together with their infinite impotence, their innumerable enemies, their boundless want, and endless needs, they have been decked out with a great many faculties and senses so that they feel innumerable sorts of pains and experiences countless sorts of pleasures. They have such aims and desires that one who does not govern the whole universe at once cannot bring about those desires. For example, human beings have an intense desire for immortality. Only one who has disposal over the whole universe as though it were a palace can answer this wish; who can close the door of this world and open that of the hereafter, like closing the door of one room and opening that of another. They also have thousands of desires, both negative and positive, which like the desire for immortality spread throughout the world and stretch to eternity. It is only the Single One, Who through the mystery of unity holds the whole universe in His grasp, that by answering these desires of humanity can cure the two awesome wounds of his impotence and want.

Moreover, they have wishes for tranquillity and ease of heart so insubstantial, secret, and particular, and aims connected with the immortality and happiness of their spirits so vast, comprehensive, and universal, that they can be answered only by one who sees the subtlest and most imperceptible veils of the heart, and is not unconcerned, and hears its most inaudible, secret voices, and does not leave them unanswered. That one must also have sufficient power to subjugate the heavens and earth as though they were two obedient soldiers, and make them perform universal works.

Also, through the mystery of unity all the human members and senses gain a high value, while by ascribing partners to Allah the Most High and disbelief they fall to an infinitely low degree. For example, the most valuable human faculty is intelligence. Through the mystery of divine unity, it becomes a brilliant key to the sacred divine treasuries and to the thousands of coffers of the universe. Whereas if it descends to associating partners with Allah and to unbelief, it becomes an inauspicious instrument of torture which heaps up in the head all the grievous pains of the past and awesome fears of the future.

Also, for example, compassion, the most gentle and agreeable human characteristic: if the mystery of divine unity does not come to its assistance, it becomes a calamitous torment which reduces people to the depths of misery. A heedless mother who imagines she has lost her only child for all eternity feels this searing pain to the full.

Also, for example, love, the sweetest, most pleasurable, and most precious human emotion: if the mystery of divine unity assists it, it gives miniscule humans the expanse and breadth of the universe, and makes them petted monarchs of the animals. Whereas if – I seek refuge with Allah – they descend to associating partners with Allah the Most High and unbelief, because they will be separated for all eternity from all their innumerable beloveds as they continuously disappear in death, love becomes a terrible calamity constantly lacerating their wretched hearts. But vain amusements causing heedlessness temporarily numb their senses, apparently not allowing them to feel it.

If you make analogies with these three examples for the hundreds of human faculties and senses, you will understand the degree to which divine unity and the affirmation of it are the means by which people may be fulfilled and perfected. This Third Fruit too has been very well explained in detailed manner with proofs in perhaps twenty of the treatises of The Illuminating Lamp, so I am sufficing with this brief indication here.

What Impelled Me to This Fruit Was the Following Feeling:

At one time I was on the top of a high mountain. A spiritual awakening powerful enough to dispel my heedlessness showed me death and the grave in all their stark reality, and transience and ephemerality with all their painful representations. Like everyone’s, my innate desire for immortality surged up and rebelled against death. The fellow feeling and compassion in my nature, too, revolted against the annihilation of the people of perfection, the famous prophets, the saints, and the purified ones, for whom I feel great love and attachment; it boiled up angrily against the grave. I looked in the six directions seeking help, but found no solace, no assistance. For looking to the past, I saw a vast graveyard; and to the future, darkness; and above I saw horror; and to the right and left, grievous situations and the assaults of numberless harmful things.

Suddenly, the mystery of divine unity came to my assistance and drew back the veil, revealing the face of reality. “Look!”, it said. First of all I looked at the face of death, which I feared greatly. I saw that for the people of belief it was a discharge from duties. The appointed hour was the discharge papers. It was a change of abode, the introduction to an everlasting life, and the door leading to it. It was to be released from the prison of this world and to fly to the gardens of Paradise. It was the occasion one enters the presence of the Most Merciful in order to receive the wages for one’s service. It was a call to go to the realm of bliss. Understanding this with complete certainty, I began to love death.

I looked then at transience and ephemerality, and I saw them to be a pleasurable renewal, like pictures on the cinema screen and bubbles on flowing water under the sun. Coming from the World of the Unseen in order to refresh the exquisite manifestations of the most beautiful names, they were an excursion, a trip, in the Manifest World, with certain duties to perform; they were a wise and purposeful manifestation of dominical beauty; they performed the function of mirrors to the eternal beauty of beings. This I knew with certainty.

I then looked at the six directions and I saw that through the mystery of divine unity they were so luminous they dazzled the eyes. I saw that the past was not a vast grave, but having been transformed into the future, had become thousands of enlightened gatherings of friends and thousands of light‑filled vistas. I looked at the true faces of thousands of matters like these two, and I saw that they afforded nothing but joy and thanks.