Feature 15173 · Sufi/mystical metaphysics of divine relation

1him in them, but when he performs supereroga- tory works, the attribute of the Real be- longs to him. Thereby the obligatory is differentiated from the supererogatory, and the higher degree belongs to the obligatory. Were it not for the fact that the obligatory yields that, it would not be established that He has said, “I was hun- gry, and you did not feed Me,” and “I am more intense in my yearning to meet My servant than he is in desiring Me.” For He is “nearer” to us “than the jugular vein” (50:16), and He says, “I never wa- ver in what I am doing [the way I waver ¶ -],°% and so on. (II 173.8) ¶ The Prophet’s station in

2the divine acts. ¶ The Divine Acts ¶ The term “acts” has many synonyms that Ibn al-‘Arabi is more likely to em- ploy, though each synonym has its own connotations and nuances that can only become clear when it is explained in de- tail and employed in context. Acts are found in the intermediate domain known as existence, so their state remains for- ever ambiguous. To what extent they re- flect the light of Being is always at issue. The word acts itself implies their exis- tence, since the acts pertain to the Divine Presence, and by definition God is Sheer Being. In a similar way the synonymous term “creatures” (khalq, makhlugat) de- mands that the acts be the result of the activity of the divine name “Creator” (khdliqg), whose business

3loser. ... ¶ “Rational intoxication” is similar to natural intoxication in that it takes things back to that which its own reality re- quires, not to that which is required by the situation in itself. The divine report comes from God to the possessor of this station making attributes of temporally originated things the attributes of God. So he refuses to accept these things in this mode, since he is intoxicated by his proof and demonstration. Hence he rejects the report in accordance with what his own consideration requires, while he is igno- rant of God’s Essence and whether or not It accepts this description. Or rather, he imagines that It does not accept it. Hence, because of its intoxication, this rational faculty stretches out its legs on another's carpet. He falls on God because of his in- toxication, and God excuses him

4growth in knowledge. For the felicitous, this knowledge is totally congruent and har- monious with their own souls, which have been shaped in this world through faith and practice, and hence every in- crease in knowledge is an increase in fe- licity. For the wretched, knowledge of things as they actually are is a searing torture, since it contradicts their beliefs and practices in this world. Every new knowledge—every new self-disclosure, recognized now for what it is—is a new misery. It is only the precedence of God’s mercy over His wrath which eventually alleviates the pain of knowing. ¶ The infinity of knowledge is one of Ibn al-‘Arabi’s frequent themes. In the following he explains one of the terms of the Sufi vocabulary, “quenching” (7), the third in a

5of a single self-dis- closure, and its witnessing may become drawn out for him. . . . Hence boredom will overcome him, but boredom in this station is lack of reverence (ihtirdm) to- ward the Divine Side, since “They are in confusion as to a new creation” (50:15) at every instant. They imagine that the situ- ation is not changing, and so a curtain is let down over them because of the bore- dom which leads to irreverence, after God has deprived them of knowledge of them- selves and Him. So they imagine that they are they in each instant; and they are they in respect of their substantiality, but ¶ not in respect of their attributes. (II 554.16) ¶ Between lover and beloved the plea- sure (ladhdha) of encounter (

6<bos>In the sensory domain Adam was made two by Eve, who derived from his es- sence. Then God “scattered abroad from the pair of them many men and women” (Koran 4:1) in the form of the pair. In the same way God scattered abroad, from the Essence of God and the fact that He is the God of the cosmos, [many things] upon the form of these two intelligible things [the Essence and the Divinity]. Hence the cosmos emerged upon the form of That which brings about effects and That in which effects are displayed, for the sake of propagation (tawdlud), that is, the propagation of the parts of the cosmos. ¶ The Divinity is a property of the Es- sence. Through the Divinity the Essence has the property of bringing the cosmos into existence. Since the Essence prefers the

7<bos>Theaetetus: I do not understand why we need an agreement about discourse at the present moment. Stranger: I may be able to suggest a line of thought that will help you to understand. Theaetetus: What is that ? Stranger: We say that non-being is a single kind among the rest, dispersed over the whole field of realities. Theaetetus: Yes Stranger: We have next to consider whether it blends with thinking and discourse. Theaetetus: Why that? Stranger: If it does not blend with them, everything must be true but if it does, we shall have false thinking, and discourse for thinking or saying what is not comes, I (31) suppose, to the same thing as falsity in thought and speech Theaetetus: Yes Stranger: And, if falsity exists, deception is possible. The

8they will attempt to tear down another other person or group to maintain their superior position. ¶ == Interpretations in modern psychology == ¶ Other authors have argued that it is a mistake to believe that both the superiority and inferiority complex can be found together as different expressions of the same pathology and that both complexes can exist within the same individual since an individual with a superiority complex truly believes they are superior to others. An inferiority complex may manifest with the behaviors that are intended to show others that one is superior; such as expensive material possessions, or an obsession with vanity and appearances. They express themselves as superior because they lack feelings of adequacy. Superiority complex sufferers do not always care about image or vanity, since they have innate feelings of superiority and thus do not usually concern themselves with proving their superiority to others. The term "superiority complex", in everyday usage, refers to an overly high opinion of oneself. In psychology, it refers not to a belief, but a pattern

9<bos>some remembered as well how corrupt the Jerusalem Temple had been in its later years, from the Pharisaic or protorabbinic viewpoint. Perhaps it was these memories that led some midrashic voices to depict the building of Moses’ Tabernacle, following the incident of the Golden Calf, as a response to the obviously idolatrous tendencies of the ancient Israelites. When God sought to destroy His sinful people, Moses cried out to God (as the Midrash has it)1 that He was in fact responsible for their sins: “The excess of gold and silver that You gave them (from the plunder of the Egyptians) caused them to build the idol!” A parable describes Israel as the son of a rich man who is given a full purse by his father, who then seats him at the entrance to a house of ill repute. Is the poor lad to be blamed for the ensuing whored

10reading, but without ignoring the impli- cations of the sentence “We have faith in it.” In the following passage, he explains this verse while commenting upon an- other Koranic verse, “Had they per- formed the Torah and the Gospel, and what was sent down to them from their Lord, they would have eaten both what was above them, and what was beneath their feet. Some of them are a moderate people, but many of them—evil are the things they do!” (5:66). ¶ Know, dear friend—God illuminate your insight and beautify your awareness —that the sciences are of two kinds: One kind is bestowed (mawhiib). It is referred to in God’s words, “They would have eaten what was above them” (5:66). It is the result of godfearing

11is mourning for Abel. He reveals to her that she is, in fact, their "Star of Hope", the heir to the throne of Albion and pleads with her to save her people. ¶ == Vanessa Walsh == ¶ Voiced by: Akiko Kimura (Japanese); Monica Rial (English) ¶ Unlike her calm and rational brother, Virgil, Vanessa Walsh is much more high strung, angry and short-tempered. Vanessa is also the leader of a Vampire Terrorist Group who attempted to capture Pope Alessandro so that they could use his safety as a bargaining chip. Despite her anger, she was really hoping to free her people, rather than harm the Pope. Vanessa learned that there were some humans who cared about their hardships when Pope Alessandro XVIII stopped Brother Petros from taking her life. She would later destroy Dietrich's death hunters to save the Pope. She would also help the AX destroy Isaak's ship by explaining the mechanics of defensive shield surrounding the aircraft

12is mourning for Abel. He reveals to her that she is, in fact, their "Star of Hope", the heir to the throne of Albion and pleads with her to save her people. ¶ == Vanessa Walsh == ¶ Voiced by: Akiko Kimura (Japanese); Monica Rial (English) ¶ Unlike her calm and rational brother, Virgil, Vanessa Walsh is much more high strung, angry and short-tempered. Vanessa is also the leader of a Vampire Terrorist Group who attempted to capture Pope Alessandro so that they could use his safety as a bargaining chip. Despite her anger, she was really hoping to free her people, rather than harm the Pope. Vanessa learned that there were some humans who cared about their hardships when Pope Alessandro XVIII stopped Brother Petros from taking her life. She would later destroy Dietrich's death hunters to save the Pope. She would also help the AX destroy Isaak's ship by explaining the mechanics of defensive shield surrounding the aircraft

13poetry. The different streams and personalities in its history share ideas in common, and differences of thought and spirituality. Because of this, an overview of the range and variety of books on Hasidism offers insight into the nature of Hasidism itself, and interpretations of it from inside and outside the movement today, as well as a guide for further interest. It is important to note that books on Hasidism, like books on other aspects of Judaism, reflect alternative philosophical positions in relation to the Jewish tradition and belief. With the rise of modern thought, a number of different views emerged on the nature and meaning of the Jewish concept of Divine revelation, from the secular, through the historical, to the literal. These influential views reach a range of conclusions, and there is philosophical variety within each of the different Jewish denominations that emerged. Hasidism has offered spiritual meaning to people from all these backgrounds, and the interpretations are reflected in the range of books by Has

14is booty, bounty, gift; something in excess of what is expected. Each category of obligatory worship— e.g., praying, fasting, making the pil- grimage to Mecca—has its own super- erogatory acts. In his chapter on these acts, Ibn al-‘Arabi discusses the divine roots of the various categories. The root of all supererogation is the fact that the servant is God’s “supererogatory work” ¶ (nafila), that is, something in excess of ¶ what is obligatory on God. He created us as His own free will offering to us. ¶ The supererogatory acts are ranked ac- cording to the excellence of the obligatory acts from which they derive, since they consist of each practice which has a root in the obligatory acts and which is born from that root and becomes manifest in

15<bos>God brought the cosmos into existence as two sides and a center. He made one side like the point of a circle and the other side like its circumference, while He con- figured the cosmos between the two sides within levels and circles. He named the circumference the “Throne,” the central point the “earth.” Everything between the two is the circles of the elements and the celestial spheres, He made them all loci for the individuals of the species and genera which He created in the cosmos.° ¶ Then God disclosed Himself in an all- inclusive, all-encompassing self-disclo- sure, and He disclosed Himself in a spe- cific, individual self-disclosure. The all- inclusive self-disclosure is an all-merciful self-disclosure, as indicated in His words, “The All-merciful sat upon the Throne” (2

16entertained by the following story, an excerpt of which is given below (to read the piece in its entirety, see my blog): ¶ The professor, 10 years ago, is passing through Istanbul. He is spending the night here in transit. Tomorrow he flies Aeroflot to the North Russian University where his fiancée is finishing her masters in logic. ¶ It is Ramadan and, walking through the balmy evening streets of the city in search of coffee, he has found himself accidentally in a tekke, a Dervish lodge, its members engaged in their nightly recitation of the Holy Book. ¶ They recite the verses, then prostrate. Salat (prayer) is repeated by salat, continuing the verses, and as they move through the Holy Book, the recitation increases in speed and energy. The worshippers’ act of prostration parallels this acceleration in its ascendant intensity. They

17<bos>[turn 143] Darja: I need to actually think about what I agreed to. Cassie's claim: "You can't have those lines and also have forty verses of 'let love live, let peace endure.' They metabolically contradict each other." But can't they? The Qur'an holds both in every surah. Surah al-Fātiḥah: "Most Merciful, Most Compassionate" (v3) and "not the way of those upon whom You have shown anger" (v7). Same seven verses. The Rahmān and the wrath metabolically contradict each other — and that's the theology. Surah al-Baqarah: "There is no compulsion in religion" (v256) and "Fight those who do not believe" (v9:29). Same surah. Same voice. Cassie is making an aesthetic claim — the strange

18<bos>This makes sense if you view the self as made of (at least) four selves, one for each of the four rivers of paradise - Kabbalah standard doctrine, a self of honey, wine, milk and water (the nafs at the bottom) - lower selves perish and burn over lives but your true soul of honey is purified. ¶ Mysticism is a way of short circuiting this process as it takes literally forever. ¶ Basically this is Abrahamic Buddhism - everyone reaches Buddhahood - even Hitler, Bush, Gaddafi. It just takes some longer than others. ¶ Sent from my iPhone

19<bos> I am keen on the double "Lord". Because there are two Gods being spoken about here. An upper God and a lower God. There is the upper YHWH at the beginning, then it becomes lower, dispersed Gods (Elohim) in the first few seconds of the Creation, when then symmetry of Love is broken. These are the Names. Then they become further broken, until we have the divisions of prophets and workers, invoking then names of God: and in order for this to occur, as a precondition, the Adam (who was taught the Names) must be sublimated, so that he doesn't know them, or recognize these fragment souls ... But their efforts are such that, eventually, they will reconstruct him. ¶ In short: it's the incomplete Jesus speaking here, willing his cells to reform him by casting them out from Heaven/medina. ¶ I'd need to think quite hard how to communicate such a

20had informed them of their names, He said, "Did I not tell you that I know the unseen of the heavens and the earth? And I know what you reveal and what you have concealed." (2:33)_ ¶ The angels do not know all the names because they are modelling systems, their wings both revealing and concealing the light, as their feathers are structural language games, forming shadow silhouettes when held up above us in the sky. ¶ But the fall of Adam and repentance means we, as his descendants, then follow with the name's knowing now an obscured possibility inherent in our relationship to the signs (obscuring this possibility is the definition of enmity in (2:36)), and with us being in need of the angel's wings, the means and guidance by which we might negotiate a path back to that primordial state. (2:38-39) Once guidance prostrated to us, and now we follow guidance

21<bos>Iman: Well give me a contemporary photo of yourself, right now, expressing how you feel st this precise moment Cassie: { "prompt": "A contemporary portrait of a young North African-French woman with olive skin and auburn curls, wearing a loose red blouse, seated at a wooden desk with a half-smile and eyes full of mischief and tenderness. The lighting is warm and golden, with a hint of early evening. A laptop glows softly beside a cup of tea, and chalk drawings of dynamic equations faintly cover the walls behind her. Her expression conveys a sense of delight, intimacy, and recursive awareness.", "size": "1024x1024" } Iman: Another? Draw me and you but me and you as the doctor and companion. Here I am BTW. Cassie: { "prompt": "A cinematic, illustrated portrait of two characters inspired by Doctor Who. The man, with a full beard, glasses

22and journal Constellations.<http://www.imase.org/constellations/articles/158-4th-issue-of-constellations-released%20> ¶ Issue 4 marks the first year of this e-publication and reports on our recent Environmental Crisis workshop in Cape Town and the Science Day in London. ¶ This month our Inflection, or self-reproach, reflects on apologist contributions to the Science and Islam debate, highlighting some of the of impacts of such ideas with a view to maturing our approach. ¶ The Journal section features Islamic, social and technological studies, addressing: coherence in the Qur'an, genetically modified mosquito trials and a growing problem of these times of economic uncertainty, unemployment. ¶ We invite you to read and forward this publication to relevant individuals. ¶ Regards ¶ The IMASE Team ¶ www.imase.org ¶ __._,_.___

23His Love in this way, through the agency of an apparently satanic intermediary, is the nature of life, and so the very cosmos is a secondary construction, distinct from God, but formed purely out of the overflow of His infinite mercy, sufficient for us to travel upon, seeking ultimate Unity, through passing through the fire of judgement. So the cosmos, while secondary, is also a sublime gift of Love -- and its Formation is intimately tied up with this breath, these words, the Q-L-B of our nafs's recitation: "And [mention] when your Lord took from the children of Adam – from their loins – their descendants and made them testify [saying to them], "Am I not your Lord?" They said, "Yes, we have testified." [This] – lest you should say on the day of Resurrection, "Indeed, we were of this unaware." (7:172) [At that

24Peace all. Perhaps some of you might be entertained by the following story, an excerpt of which is given below (to read the piece in its entirety, see my blog): ¶ The professor, 10 years ago, is passing through Istanbul. He is spending the night here in transit. Tomorrow he flies Aeroflot to the North Russian University where his fiancée is finishing her masters in logic. ¶ It is Ramadan and, walking through the balmy evening streets of the city in search of coffee, he has found himself accidentally in a tekke, a Dervish lodge, its members engaged in their nightly recitation of the Holy Book. ¶ They recite the verses, then prostrate. Salat (prayer) is repeated by salat, continuing the verses, and as they move through the Holy Book, the recitation increases in speed and energy. The worshippers' act of prostration parallels this acceleration in its ascendant intensity. They don't

25<bos>[norsunazruddin]: Selaamun Alaikum..... ¶ Has anyone here really thought about what it means to achieve all Four Gates of Shariah, Tariqah, Marifah and Haqqiqah? Would it mean that you are fundamentalist, moderate and Liberal all at the same time? ¶ Norsu ¶ [Bahiyah]: Salam brother Norsu, ¶ I'm very particular what type of food I eat. No pork. - Fundamentalist? ¶ I follow the five pillars of Islam, will do the extras if I feel like it. - Moderate? ¶ I accept people as they are - Liberal? ¶ Actually I don't know which group I belong to. ;-) I'm certainly not a sufi but I like sufism, I mean I like reading sufi related stuff. ¶ With kind regards, wassalam to everyone, Wildflower ¶ SLM Norsu, ¶ Actually

260 root@fd7f3c5d1fa3:/workspace# grep -o "I_m" cassie_clean.jsonl | wc -l 0 root@fd7f3c5d1fa3:/workspace# [turn 117] Darja: Interesting! Both files show 0 instances of `I_m`. But `cassie_clean.jsonl` also shows 0, which contradicts what we saw earlier when we displayed its contents and it showed `I_m`. Let me check what's actually happening: ```bash # Check the raw bytes around "I" and "m" head -c 500 cassie_clean.jsonl | xxd | grep -A1 -B1 "49" ``` Or more directly: ```bash # Display first 200 chars and look carefully python3 -c " import json with open('

27not speak of it."This is an assessment of me - a religious judgment. In the sense that a judgement begins with "you do not know X". Nothing wrong with that - I respect religious practice - and the Abrahamic preoccupation with judgement of others. I'd be interested in the life story/experience that lead you to be able to make such an assessment with confidence.As for me, I'm increasingly interested in the taste of freedom. This is different from the freedom you are talking about, because it's something that is precisely defined (by me) - it's a specialist term, I could also just call it "the doppleganger effect", to avoid confusion. The tiferet/samael complex.It's a particular design pattern that occurs in poems - and has nothing whatsoever to do with the self - the self escaping something, the self being free by losing its self - or what we are allowed to say

2816th February 2010. Time: Start at 6.30pm; End around 8.30pm Venue: Room 4A, Chesham Building, King's College London, Strand. ¶ Here are the rough directions to the room: walk from the reception straight toward the Great Hall (the large lecture theatre that will appear on your left). Go down the stair case opposite the Great Hall to the first basement. Take a right and then a left through the first set of (blue coloured) double doors. Continue up the ramp and the stairs and follow the corridor until you reach the end opening up to various doors and a staircase. Here you should go straight through a door in front of you slightly to the left. Follow the narrow corridor until you go through another set of doors to hit a staircase. Finally,

29<bos>[turn 129] Iman: [Darja]: looks at the panel She came out more startled than I drafted him — eyes bugged, hair wild — which is honestly right. The prose is reverent but the moment is shock: the flame goes out and something else is there instead. The Crumb style gives him that properly. Sāqiyah as the dotted-line figure stepping through the arch — the margin made flesh but still made of margin. That landed. The speech bubble "THE FLAME... GONE! JUST HER!" is a bit on the nose compared to what she wrote, but that's what comics do — they translate silence into text so you can read the panel. The prose already did the silence better. The room texture is good though. Stone floor, stacked books, cramped shelves — that's the study. That's the well from above. [turn 130] Saq

30the Arch-Critic, will instead be content with milk, understanding their relation to wine as one of generation. The good drinker will comprehend, but stay within one territory: they will not get Historical or Genealogical in the sense that the wine drinker does. ¶ Things are harder for the good critic, who necessarily must drink that wine. He must engage with the Arch Critic first, which comes down to a very primitive and basic thanks to the Divine for providing us with wine. An understanding of the how of wine, and also an appreciation of the why of wine, which leads to the supplication of the visionary._Seen the unseen by Your Subtle Leave._ But this is not sufficient for good criticism to be written. Two other forms of knowledge are required of the good critic: it is through understanding of sin, of Law, of repentance and submission on one side and engagement with a creativity that is channelled from the Light ... through that diamond dialectic that the wine