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You assert that the Creator of
the universe has infinite perfections: He
encompasses the highest degrees of all the kinds of
perfections. Whereas the perfections are judged by
way of contrast. Without pains, the perfection of
pleasures cannot be perceived; without darkness, you
cannot recognize light, and without separations,
union does not give pleasure, etc.
Consider the following
points:
The
one who asks a question such as this is not
aware of true perfection. He imagines relative
perfections to be true. Whereas any virtue or
perfection or superiority which manifests itself
in comparison or contrast with others is not
true but of relative value and significance.
When its opposites are lacking, it loses all its
value. For example, heat is desired in
comparison with the severity of cold. A food is
delicious in proportion to the severity of
hunger. Were it not for hunger and cold, neither
food nor heat would have any value. Whereas true
pleasure or love or perfection or virtue is such
that it does not manifest itself in comparison
with others or in proportion to the degree of
its opposites, but it is by itself, of itself
and a reality established of itself. In life
there are some realities which do not need
comparison or opposites to perceive or
appreciate. For example, the pleasure of being
existent, and the pleasures of life, mercy, and
compassion, and the pleasures of belief, love,
knowledge and continuance of life, and the
beauty of light, and the delight and beauty of
having powers of seeing and speaking, and the
beauty of moral virtues and good conduct, and
the perfection of Divine Essence, Attributes and
acts, do not change. With or without opposite,
they are virtues and perfections in themselves.
Thus, all the perfections of
the Majestic Maker, the Author of Grace and
Beauty, the Creator of Perfection, are true in and
of themselves. The perfections in the creation are
their reflections according to the capacity of
each being.
God is loved because He is perfect,
and perfection is loved because of itself.
In Sharh al-Mawaqif, Sayed Sharif al-Jurjani writes: ‘The
cause of love is either pleasure or benefit or
sexual or natural inclination or perfection.
Perfection is loved because of itself.’ That is,
you love something or someone because of either the
pleasure it gives or the benefit it brings or the
sexual or natural (fatherly, motherly or filial,
etc.) inclination you feel towards it or the
perfection it has. If it is perfection which arouses
love, there is no need to search for another cause
to love. For example, people tend to love men of
perfections, of perfect virtues, although they have
no relations to them whatever.
So, by virtue of being true,
indisputable and infinite, all the perfections of
Almighty God and all His Most Beautiful Names are
loved because of themselves. The Majestic Being, Who
is absolutely worthy of love and the True Beloved
One, loves His perfections and the beauties of His
Names and Attributes, which are all true, in a
manner fitted for Him. He also loves the works of
His Art, which are the mirrors to His Perfections,
and the beauties of His creatures. He loves His
Prophets and saints, and particularly His noble
beloved, who is the lord of the Messengers and the
master of the saints. Because of His love for His
Own Beauty, He loves His beloved, who is the mirror
to that Beauty. Because of His love for His Own
Names, He loves His beloved, who manifests those
Names in a most comprehensive way, and his
brothers-the other Prophets-and Companions. Because
of His love for His art, He loves His beloved, who
displays that art, and those who are like him, that
is the rest of the Prophets. Because of His love for
His creatures, He loves His beloved, who welcomes
those creatures with due appreciation and applause,
saying: ‘What wonders God has willed! God bless
them! How beautifully they have been created!’,
and those who follow him. Because of His love for
the beauties of His creatures, He loves His beloved,
who is the most comprehensive embodiment of all
those beauties and all moral virtues shared by them,
and his brothers and followers.
All of
the perfections in the whole of the universe are the
signs of a Majestic One’s perfections and
indications of His Beauty. In relation to His
perfection, all the beauty and perfection in the
universe are an indistinct shadow. The following is
a brief pointer to five of the evidences of this
reality.
1.
A splendid, perfectly
built and decorated palace evidently points to
perfect engineering, architecture and joinery,
and shows that its builder is a perfect
engineer, architect, decorator and joiner. All
those names and skills demonstrate the
perfection of the builder’s artistry and
competence. The perfection of the competence
necessarily shows that the builder is a perfect
one of most sublime nature.
Similarly, the palace of the
world, that perfectly built and decorated work,
evidently points to the perfection of acts. For
the perfection of a work results from the
perfection of acts. The perfection of acts
necessarily points to the perfection of the Names
like the Organizer, the Fashioner, the Wise, the
Decorator, the Builder, which are involved in the
building of that place. The perfection of the
Names and Titles undoubtedly shows the perfection
of the qualities or Attributes. For if the
attributes are not perfect, the names originating
from them cannot be perfect. The perfection of the
Attributes evidently demonstrates the perfection
of the competence. The perfection of the
competence shows of a certainty that the One Who
has built that palace is absolutely perfect, for
although His perfection has manifested itself
through the veils of Attributes, Names, acts and
works, still it reveals such faultless perfection
and beauty so far as can be observed in the
universe.
After you see that infinite
perfection originating in the Essence of the One
Who has it, you may understand how much the
relative perfections manifested in comparison to
others or by way of contrast signify.
2. When viewed with attentive
eyes and considered reflectively, the universe
reveals to the heart and sound conscience that the
One Who has made it so beautiful and decked it out
with such varieties of adornment has such infinite
beauty and perfection that He has made it so.
3. As you know, perfect and
well-proportioned works of art depend on perfect
planning. Perfect planning is based on
comprehensive knowledge, perfect mind,
intellectual refinement and spiritual purity. The
purity of the spirit manifests itself in the work
through knowledge. So, with all its material
beauties, this universe consists in the drops
issuing from an infinite knowledge belonging to
One Who has infinite beauty and perfection.
4. As you know, one of light
diffuses light and illuminates, and benevolence
proceeds from wealth and grace originates from a
gracious one. Since this is so, like light
pointing to the sun, all the beauty and perfection
observed in the universe point to a perpetual
beauty.
Like a mighty river glittering
with the reflections of the sun’s light, the
creatures flow over the face of the earth
glittering with the reflections of beauty and
perfection. Just as the reflections of light in
the bubbles on the surface of the river do not
originate from the river itself, so too, the
beauties and perfections glittering temporarily on
the flood of creatures do not belong to the
creatures themselves; rather they are the
reflections of the lights of the Names of an
Eternal Sun.
The disappearance of the
mirrors and death of the creatures in contrast to
the perpetuity of the reflections in them of the
inseparable grace and beauty are among the most
manifest proofs that the apparent beauty does not
belong to those reflecting them, and that there is
One with an ideal beauty and an ever-manifested
kindness and grace, One Whose existence is
absolutely necessary, Who is Eternal and
All-Loving.
5. As is known, if three or four
people coming from the same place through
different ways report the same event, it gives
certainty as to the occurrence of that event.
In the same way, all the people
who are able to uncover the hidden truths and have
as certain knowledge of them as seeing them with
the naked eye, who belong to either the different
classes of truth-seeking, purified scholars or the
different ways of the saints or the different
schools of the sages, all differing from one
another in time, place, method, temperament, and
capacity, have all unanimously agreed that the
beauties and perfections observed in the mirrors
of creatures in the universe are the reflections
of the Perfection of a Single Necessarily Existent
One and the manifestations of the beauty of His
Names, their consensus is an unshakeable decisive
testimony.
The
pleasure, beauty and grace a person or a thing
has are judged according rather to those that
receive and manifest them, than to their
opposites. For example, generosity is a
beautiful and praiseworthy virtue. A generous
person receives pleasure from the happiness of
those whom he has favored a thousand times
greater than that he receives from his
superiority to the others in generosity. Also, a
caring and compassionate one feels greater
pleasure in proportion to the comfort of those
for whom he feels compassion. For example, the
pleasure which a mother receives from the
happiness and well-being of her children because
of her compassion for them is so great and
strong that she nearly sacrifices her life for
them. The pleasure of that compassion causes a
hen to attack a dog to protect her young.
Since the true pleasure, beauty
and perfection of laudable virtues and praiseworthy
qualities are judged according rather to those that
they are related with than to their likes or
opposites, for sure, the Beauty of the Mercy of the
Perfect and All-Gracious One, Who is the All-Living,
the Self-Subsistent, the All-Benevolent, the
All-Caring, the All-Merciful and the
All-Compassion-ate, should be considered in view of
the beings He has mercy for. According to the degree
of the happiness and well-being of those whom He
favors with His Mercy, and particularly of their
enjoyment of His bounties in Paradise, the
All-Merciful and All-Compassionate One feels what we
call sacred love, sacred pleasure, sacred
exhilaration and sacred joy, which are in accordance
with His Holy, Transcendent Being, and are
infinitely greater, more sacred, more elevated and
more refined than their counterparts existing in the
creation. You may look at a single manifestation of
the comprehensive meaning of this mighty truth by
means of the telescope of the following comparison.
The Almighty “feels” sacred
love and pleasure because of the happiness and
well-being of His servants
Suppose there is a kind,
compassionate and generous man. In order to feed
some people who are extremely poor, hungry and
destitute, he prepares a banquet on his fine ship
traveling in the sea. While they are eating, he
watches them from above. You may understand to what
extent their enjoyment of the food and happiness,
and the gratitude they feel in return, please and
exhilarate that noble and generous one.
Similarly, the All-Merciful and
Compassionate One has spread out a vast table on
which are all varieties of food on the face of the
earth which He causes to travel in the space with
all the beings-men, jinn and animals-on it. Together
with feeding all those beings here in the world on
the foods on that table, He invites those
innumerable servants of His who are infinitely
hungry and destitute, to the everlasting gardens of
Paradise each of which He prepares as if a
magnificent table laid out with all kinds of food
and drink which are of pure pleasure and delight.
Now, considering the pleasure and
happiness which the generous one mentioned in the
comparison above feels at the enjoyment of his
guests, although he is only like an officer charged
with delivering God’s bounties, not the true owner
of the foods he offers, you may compare the sacred
love and pleasure which the All-Merciful One feels,
which we are unable to describe.
To cite another example, if a
skilful technician invents something like a
phonograph and displays through it the results he
wants to obtain, you may understand how he will be
pleased and say, ‘What wonders God has willed!’.
A man is pleased with the working
of a simple instrument like a phonograph. Whereas
the Majestic Maker has invented the vast universe
like a phonograph or a unique composition of music.
He has made the earth in general and all the
creatures in it in particular, and especially the
head of man, each like a Divine phonograph or a
piece of Divine music, that sciences should be lost
in admiration of it. Thus, since all those creatures
display the results expected of them to the utmost
degree and in a extremely beautiful way, their
obedience to God’s laws of the creation and
operation of the universe, which comprise their sort
of worship and glorification and their specific
praise and exaltation of God, and the attainment of
Divine purposes for their lives, please God to the
extent that, even if united into a single intellect,
all mankind could not comprehend it.
Still as another example, a just
judge who receives great pleasure from doing and
establishing justice, becomes extremely happy with
restoring the rights of the oppressed against
oppressors. Likewise, you may compare with this the
sacred meanings arising from the reality that the
Absolutely Just Ruler, the Majestic Overwhelming
One, gives all creatures the right of existence and
animate beings the right of living, and protects and
maintains their existence and lives against all
kinds of aggressions. He also restores all the
rights in the universe and acts in absolute justice,
and especially He will judge in the Hereafter all
men and jinn and establish absolute justice.
The essence of the universe is
love. All creatures move with the motive of love.
All the laws of attraction, rapture and gravity
originate in love
As in the examples above, in each
of one thousand and one Divine Names there are
numerous sorts of beauty, grace and perfection, and
an abundance of levels of love, pride, honor and
grandeur. It is for this reason that the exacting
saintly scholars who are the objects of the
manifestation of the Divine Name the All-Loving,
have concluded: ‘The essence of the universe is
love. All creatures move with the motive of love.
All the laws of attraction, rapture and gravity
originate in love.’ One of them even said:
The spheres are intoxicated,
angels are intoxicated, so are stars.
The heavens, the sun, the moon,
and the earth are intoxicated.
Intoxicated are the elements
and plants and trees and human beings.
All the animate beings are
intoxicated, and so are all particles of the
creation.
That is, every creature is
intoxicated with the ‘wine’ of Divine love,
according to its capacity. As is known, every soul
loves the one who does him kindness and loves true
perfection and transcendent beauty. He also loves
the one who does kindness to those whom he loves and
for whom he has mercy. Should it not be understood
from this that the Majestic and Beautiful, the Most
Beloved of Perfection, in each of Whose Names are
innumerable treasuries of kindness, Who makes all
those whom we love happy with His favors and is the
source of countless perfections and levels of beauty
and grace, is worthy of infinite love and the
intoxication of the whole of the creation with His
love? It is because of this that some saints who
have manifested the Divine Name the All-Loving have
said: ‘We do not even want Paradise. A gleam of
the Divine love is eternally sufficient for us.’
It is also because of this that, as the Prophet
Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, said: ‘A
single minute spent in beholding the Divine Beauty
in Paradise excels all the bounties of Paradise’.
So, all perfections of love are
produced within the spheres of the Divine
manifestations of Unity and Singleness from the
Names and creatures of the Majestic Being. The
perfections imagined outside those spheres are not
true.
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