Commentary: "When the sight will be dazed"; when it will be stunned and perplexed. This relates to the moment when the theophanies begin, for the being has no previous knowledge of what he is now contemplating, no familiarity with what he is seeing.
The "moon" symbolizes the servant in his contingency, and the "eclipse" his disappearance: that is to say, the evidence that his being is borrowed and does not belong to him himself for he "is" only in a metaphorical way...
The sun symbolizes the Lord -- may He be exalted! -- just as the moon symbolizes the servant. Their "conjunction" symbolizes the degree of the "union of the union" (jam' al-jam'), which is the ultimate degree, the greatest deliverance and the supreme felicity; and consists in seeing at the same time the creation subsisting by God, and God manifesting Himself by His creation...
The gnostic then asks "Where to flee?" because of the violence of the perplexity provoked in him by the multiplicity of the theophanies: their diversity, their fleeting character, the rapidity with which they disappear, the abundance of the divine descents (tanazzulat) which stun the intellect and plunge it in stupor...
"But there is no refuge" -- there is no shelter, no way out. The gnostic who would leave this
state to find repose is warned that the repose and the
Gnosis
are only found precisely where he is. The perplexity increases as the divine descents increase, but it is these divine descents which are the source of spiritual knowledge. This is why the foremost of the gnostics, our Prophet -- on Him be Grace and Peace! -- said "Oh Allah, augment my perplexity with regard to Thee!"
(Mawqif 320, pp. 53-55)
The search has no end: the knowledge of God has no end. He can not be known. He can only be known by that which proceeds from Him, as effects of His names, not His
ipseity.
This is why the following order was given even to the Prophet, although he possessed the knowledge of the First and the Last: "Say, 'Lord, increase me in knowledge!'" (Koran 20:114). And he does not stop saying this, in every state, every station, every degree; in this world, in the intermediate world and in the beyond.
(Mawquif 359, p. 134)
Select a new topic, or explore this topic further within Islam or across religions.
Browse additional quotations from 'Abd al-Kader.
Refer to bibliography.
Go to home page.