Thursday, January 25, 2007

The Divine & Man

An English translation of Urdu excerpts from the book ‘‘Light Rays of the Muhammadan Beauty’’, an exegesis on ‘Surah Alam Nashrah’, by the Gnostic Shaykh, faqih, master of the traditional sciences, Mauwlana Naqiy `Ali Khan Qadri Barakati, may Allah honour his abode and sanctify his secret, ameen.

In Praise of Allah Most High

‘‘The Necessary Entity and All-powerful Allah alone deserves praise without limit. It is He who honoured the essence of beings with the virtue of life, and created the seven heavens and earths in six days. His sumptuous wisdom and subtleties in creation are beyond the comprehension of intellects and far from the grasp of one’s thought’’
Rays of the Divine in the Quidity of Man

‘‘The most visible entity in creatures are objects, and the most noticeable substance is the human body, yet the entireties of Intellectuals and Philosophers are bewildered in its essence, and the nearest thing to man is his existence; he says ‘I’ yet has no knowledge who he is.’’

‘‘Creation is rich with art and subtleties. It is surprising that when man sees an eye-catching art drawn on a piece of paper or inscribed on a wall, he eulogizes the artist yet ignores his own figure and image and does not realise that the pre-existent inscriber drew several splendid images on a droplet of semen and filled it in with countless esoteric and exoteric abilities.’’
A Handful of Soil & Caliphate?

‘‘The breeze of Divine grace whence passes the defective, renders it faultless and makes the worthless precious. Look at the pitiable soil, it swifts in the mountains and plains, suddenly, the very same soil becomes God’s representative on earth by Divine favour. The angels of the highest realm who have been engaged persistently in glorifying Allah and praising him for 700,000 years question in sheer desperation, ‘‘[we praise You and glorify You] and remain occupied in none save devotion to you, this creature is corrupt and will shed blood and is not worthy of this station’’, whereupon, the Creator replies, ‘‘[Surely I know what you do not know]. You are gazing at his corruption and blood shedding; do you not ponder on Our mercy and Kindness? We will create a pure nation from him and will honour him over the entire worlds’’.’’


M u n a w w a r
Incomplete work