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B i s m i l-L a h i r-R a h m n i r-R a h m
IN T H E N A M E of G O DT H E IN F I N I T E L Y G O O D , T H E E V E R- M E R C I F U L
A l l a h u m m a s a l l i a l M u h a m m a d i w w a a l l i M u h a m m a d
O G O D , S E N D B L E S S I N G S U P O N M U HA M M A DA N D U P O N H I S I M M A C U L A T E F A M I L Y !
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Al and thePhilosophia Divinus[Al wal-Falsafah al-Ilahyyah]
Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Tabtab
TRANSLATEDby FADL ASADI AMJAD & MAHDI DASHT BUZURGI
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In the Name ofGodthe Infinitely Good, the Ever-Merciful
All praise is Godsand the best of blessings for Muhammad
and his Immaculate Family!
MAN has always been and will always remain in outward
existence, in its qualities and reality. He is not concerned with
anything else, nor does he turn away from it. Indeed, for man,
there is nothing other than this outward reality.
It is self-evident from his judgments of reason and
verdicts of his conscience that there is such a reality, and his
acceptance of this outward existenceexternal beingsis apriori and genuine knowledge, meeting all the conditions ofself-evidence.
If we observe a newborn child, with his freshly given
conscience, we will notice that sometimes it takes the breast to
feed itself milk and at other times it tries other things in search
of food. After trial and error, however, the child limits its
choice to breast-feeding and turns away from other means.
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* * *
Al ibn Abu Taliband Tasawwuf
By Caner K. Dagli
I am the abode of knowledge,
and Al is its gate.
The Prophet
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NO FIGURE IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF ISLAM, except the Prophethimself, has been the locus for so much controversy and
debate as that of Ali ibn Abi Talib. These controversies exist
on more than one level, ranging from questions of politics and
history to issues in theology and metaphysics. The intellectual
breadth and spiritual depth of Ali has inspired deep reverence
on all parts of the Islamic world, both among the Shiis and
the Sunnis, and although most of the conflict between these
two major branches of Islam hinges on Ali, one side could
never accuse the other of having inadequate love and respectfor him. In this way, paradoxically, Ali unites Muslims in
their love for him, but his centrality in opposing viewpoints
makes him a source of serious contention.
Moreover, we find within the Sunni world another
debate with Ali at its center, and this is the question of
esoterism in Islam, whose major manifestation is Sufism. The
Sufis recognize two types of authority, corresponding to two
types of knowledge. In terms of political authority, theorthodox Sunni position is well known. Although the Prophet
left no explicit instructions as to that would succeed him
politically, most of the community agreed upon Ab Bakr as-
siddiq, the Prophets long time friend and a respected figure
among the Companions, as the first Khalifah, or caliph of
Islam. He appointed Umar ibn al-KhaTTab, who himself
appointed a council of six men who in turn elected Uthman
ibn Affan. After Uthmans assassination Ali became the
fourth caliph.No Sunni denies that, in terms of temporal authority,
this was the proper course of events. In the Sunni world,
although there existed no separation between church and state,
the caliph was only and administrator, and while he might
have been prominent spiritually speaking this was not
considered a requirement for the office of caliph. The caliphs
authority was considered as having come from God, but in the
Sunni world, especially after the first generation, it was the
ulama, or scholarly classes, who would be responsible for
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the transmission of religious and spiritual knowledge and whowould act as the final authorities on religious matters.
The sultans, the caliphs, the jurists and the generality
of the scholarly classes represent exoteric authority in Sunni
Islam. The Sufis, however, recognize a chain of spiritual
authority, which is more or less independent of the exoteric
authority and in principle, takes precedence over it. We say
independent not in the sense that Sufism is inherently
antinomian; the opposite is true. But the judgment of a scholar
of the Exterior (a-ahir) could never, for the Sufi, overrule theteachings of an authentic spiritual master, a scholar of the
Interior, or the Hidden (al-baTin). This is because the exterior,
whose regulation is carried out by the Shariah, or Divine
Law, exists as a support for the inner life, the interior, whose
development is carried out by the tariqah, or spiritual path.
Differing interpretations of the meanings of spiritual
and temporal authority have led to misunderstanding between
the Shiah and Sunni as well as between certain elementswithin the Sunni world itself. The spiritual authority given to
Ali by the prophet is a reality accepted by both Sunni Sufis[1]
and Shiis, but they have differed as to its ramifications in the
temporal realm. As the first Imam of Shiism, Ali combines
both types of authority into one person, and according to
Shiism the proper order of things demands that the Imam
should rule both spiritually and temporally. However, whereas
in Shiism the esoteric aspect of Islam was projected into the
community at large, so that the distinction between exotericand esoteric becomes somewhat blurred, the Sufis have been
content to practice their way within the framework established
by exoteric authority. This is why they acknowledge Ali as
the main transmitter of the inner secrets (there were others,
such as Ab Bakr) without there being a necessary
contradiction with an exoteric authority not possessed of these
secrets. In other words, the vertical hierarchy and the
horizontal hierarchy need not mix. From the Sufi point of
view, the most profound mysteries were not meant for
everyone, and teaching them to the generality of believers
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would do much more harm than good, the clearer demarcationbetween the exoteric and the esoteric having the advantage of
avoiding such dangers.
From what has just been said we can conclude that
the best way to understand the conflict centered on Ali is to
see the `horizotal` disagreement between the Shiis and the
Sunnis as a sort of projection of the vertical distinction
between esoterism and exoterism. This becomes clearer when
one examines the profound similarities between Sufism and
Shiism. The Imams of Twelver Shiism are also greatspiritual masters in the Sufi chains of transmission, or silsilah.
If one leaves aside the Shariite and also cosmic
functions of the Imam, his initiatory function and role as
spiritual guide is similar to that of a Sufi master In fact, just
as in Sufism each master is in contact with the pole of his age,
in Shiism all spiritual functions in every age are inwardly
connected with the Imam. The idea of the Imam as the pole of
the universe and the concept of the quTb in Sufism are nearlyidentical.[2]
The main difference, then, is how far the spiritual
authorities must extend into the temporal realm. Ali happened
to combine these two aspects within himself to the highest
degree, being both the main recipient of the Prophets inner
teachings and the head of the Islamic state. Discussing the
debate on succession would take us too far afield here, but it is
important to remember that most profoundly the question is
one of the esoteric/exoteric distinction, and not of politicalmachinations and power struggles. No intelligent discussion of
Alis spiritual role is possible without understanding this
point.[3]
* * *
Ali ibn Abi Talib was the son of the Prophets uncle, and was
ten years old when the Prophet received his first revelation.
From early adolescence he was raised in the prophets
housedhold, due to financial trouble in his own fathers house,
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and remained close to the Prophet until the Prophets deathsome twenty-three years later. It was during this time, the
Sufis claim, that the Prophet imparted the inner teachings of
the new religion to Ali. Although one could rightly say that
all of the members of that original apostolic community in
Makkah were saints,[4] there is not only the question of
sanctity but also that of intellectual qualification. Not every
metaphysician is a saint, and similarly not every saint is a
great metaphysician. Ali combined in himself the vertical
perfection we call sanctity with a tremendous depth andbreadth on the horizontal plane. Islamic tradition remembers
Ali as a great warrior of his age, never defeated in combat
and always gracious to his foes. His virtue off the battlefield
was similarly well known, and he has come to be known in the
Muslim world as a sort of patron of the poor and a model of
what the West would call chivalry, the Islamic futuwwah.
Most importantly, he was known in his own time and up to our
present day as having possessed a keen intelligence andprofound wisdom, being a great teacher as well as extremely
eloquent in his use of Arabic.[5] In the Shii world the
distinction given to Ali is well known.
Among the Sunnis, the Sufis consider him to be the
main transmitter of the spiritual teachings of the Prophet, and
all the Sufi orders except one trace their origins through him.
[6] Also, one finds the curious exception made when his name
is mentioned: for the other companions, the honorific rai
Allahu anhu (may God be pleased with him) is customarilyused, but in the case of Ali one often hears the phrase karram
Allahu wajhah, literally, may God honor his countenance.
Later we will see how this formula relates to Alis spiritual
function in the Islamic world. All the descendants of the
Prophet, revered in both the Sunni and Shii worlds, trace their
lineage back to the marriage of Ali with Fatimah, the
Prophets daughter. Through Ali passes the spiritual authority
of the prophet, to him the physical trace of the Prophet in this
world, his descendants, trace their lineage, and with him the
Golden Age of Islam, the original Madinah, comes to an end.
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Our main aim in this short essay is to look at theoriginal sources in Sufism to see how the spiritual teachings of
Islam are related to Ali. We might say Islamic esoterism
instead of simply Sufism because the Nahj al-Balaghah and a
commentary of some of its passages by the Shii scholar
Allamah TabaTabai were also used as sources. Without
entering into the debate about the authenticity of the Nahj al-
Balaghah, it is sufficient to mention that even from the Sunni
point of view there is much in this book which comes from
Ali, and that the Shii-Sunni conflict has resulted in theunfortunate phenomenon of throwing the baby out with the
bath water. Most Sunnis tend to doubt Shii reports about
Ali, out of concern for a certain pious exaggeration from
the Shii side, and are surely cut off from many authentic
traditions. Therefore we thought it appropriate to use some of
the most important and well-known passages of the Nahj al-
Balaghah as selected by TabaTabai, none of which beings
what a Sunni might label as specifically Shii. In any event,as was stated above, it is in Sufism and the most esoteric
aspects of Shiism that consensus can be reached about Ali.
Unfortunately, there is little serious work in Western
scholarship devoted to Ali, aside from rather poor translations
of Arabic sources and some books written in English of a
polemical nature from India and Pakistan, but there is a
wonderful translation of some excerpts from the Nahj al-
Balaghah[7] translated by Thomas Cleary entitled Living and
Dying with Grace. This dearth of material is a curiousphenomenon, considering the importance of Ali, and
considering that volumes have been written about later
political and historical figures in Islamic history. Between the
Prophet and the luminaries of the later generations there exists
a gap in modern scholarship. We hope to use some of the
Traditions (ahadith) regarding Ali, and from the later writings
the Mathnawi of Rumi, to see what they can tell us about Ali
and Sufism.
Futuwwah: Ali as the Paragon of Spiritual Chivalry
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The word futuwwah literally means youth but can be
translated as mystical youth or spiritual chivalry.[8] We
say spiritual chivalry because the traditional virtues of
chivalry, such as courage and generosity, are not limited to the
plane of action but must exist at the highest levels of ones
being. According to Sufi tradition, it is with Seth that
futuwwah became a spiritual path, and whose dress was the
khirqah, or cape. By the time of Abraham, this khirqah had
become too heavy, which may be a reference to thedecaying nature of things and the impossibility of those of
later times to match the spiritual practices of their
predecessors. Therefore Abraham instituted a new kind of
futuwwah, which was transmitted by him through his
prophetic descendants. The Prophet himself received it, and
transmitted it to Ali, who then becomes identified as the pole
of futuwwah.[9]
Ali himself was quite young as compared to theother luminaries of the apostolic age of Islam. This fact
combined with his legendary fighting ability and his
intelligence and virtue made him the fatal par excellence in
Islam. When one reads of Ali one can see his energy and his
powerful virtue come through the pages. His counsels and his
actions were of the nature of a striking sword and of a well-
aimed arrow. When informed that Ali had challenged him to
single combat to end a battle, Muawiyah knew he would
surely kill me since it was well known Ali had never beendefeated in combat. His later writings are a testament to his
nobility and intelligence, and his ascetic detachment from the
world and its luxuries earned him the title Ab Turab, or
Father of Dust, given to him from the Prophet himself.[10]
In the Mathnawi of Rumi, we find a beautiful
narration of an incident that took place between Ali and an
infidel knight which has been traditionally considered to
have taken place at the Battle of Khaybar. Ali had gotten the
better of this warrior and was hovering over him about to kill
him, whereupon the infidel knight spat upon the face of Ali.
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Quite to the knights surprise, Ali sheathed his sword, sparinghis life.
Learn how to act sincerely from Ali: know that the Lion of
God was purged of (all) deceit. In fighting against the infidels
he got the upper hand of (vanquished) a certain knight, and
quickly drew a sword and made haste (to slay him). He spat on
the face of Ali, the pride of every prophet and every saint; He
spat on the countenance before which the face of the moon
bows low in the place of worship. Ali at once threw hissword away and relaxed (his efforts) in fighting him. That
champion was astounded by this act and by his showing
forgiveness and mercy without occasion. He said, You lifted
your keen sword against me: why have you flung it aside and
spared me? What did you see that was better than combat with
me, so that you have become slack in hunting me down?[11]
As this passage continues, the knight implores Ali totell him what he has seen, to give the mysterious reason for his
pardon. The knight has already undergone a spiritual
transformation sparked by Alis strange action, and now
seeks to understand how Gods mercy has come upon him:
O Ali, thou art all mind and eye, relate a little of that which
thou hast seen!
The sword of thy forbearance has rent my soul, the water of
thy knowledge has purified my earth.
Tell it forth! I know that these are His (Gods) mysteries,
because tis His work (way) to kill without sword
Thine eye has learned to perceive the Unseen, (while) the eyes
of the bystanders are sealed
Inasmuch as the moon (even) without speech is showing the
way, when it speaks it becomes light upon light.
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Since thou art the gate of the city of Knowledge,[12] sincethou art the beam of the sun of Clemency, Be open, O Gate, to
him that seeks the gate, so that by means of thee the husks
may reach the core.
We should notice first that Rumi wrote that he spit on
the face of Ali. As was stated before, Islamic tradition gives
Ali the distinction of the special honorific karram Allahuwajhah. The face the knight spat on would be the same
countenance the very sight of which would have atransformative power over his soul.[13] Here we may equate
Alis face with the moon, and the light upon light as the
reflected rays of the sun.
The dark night of the soul covered over (kafir) isillumined by the light coming from the moon, but the moon
gives off light precisely because it is not in the dark of night,
but is in the presence of the solar rays, the rays of the Divine
Intellect, which it reflects to those who have not yet achievedvision of the Divine sun. The knight admits as much, when he
speaks of the moon showing the way without speech. The
unexpected sparing of his life opened the inner eye just
enough so that he could see the moon of Alis face shining
upon him, inciting him to ask Ali what he had seen, just as
one who has seen the moon but not the sun would wonder
what the source of that magnificent light could be.[14] For the
knight, Ali is Gods light in this world, a saint who God made
a light among men.[15] We might also remember here theverse about Moses
Moses said to his household: Verily beyond doubt I have seen
a fire. I will bring you tidings of it or will bring you a flaming
brand that ye may warm yourselves[16]
From a state of infidelity (kufr), the knight in fact becomes a
spiritual seeker, which Rumi represents with the series of
question, What have you seen? Tell it forth! Here Rumi
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brings out Alis role as the first great master in Islam after theprophet.
If the knight represents the beginning of the path,
then Ali represents the end of it:
He said, I am wielding the sword for Gods sake, I am the
servant of God, I am not under the command of my body.
I am the lion of God, I am not the lion of passion: my deed
bears witness to my religion.
In war I am (manifesting the truth of) thou didst not throw
when thou threwest: I am (but) as a sword and the wielder is
the (Divine) sun. I am a shadow, the sun is my lord, I am the
chamberlain, I am not the curtain (which prevents approach)
to Him
The sword of my forbearance has smitten the neck of myanger; the anger of God has come on me like mercy.
I am plunged in light although my roof is ruined; I have
become a garden although I am (styled) B Turab (the father
of dust).
Since (the thought of something) other than God has
intervened, it behooves (me) to sheathe my sword
And that which I am doing for Gods sake is not (done in)
conformity, it is not fancy and opinion, it is naught but
intuition.
I have been freed from effort and search, I have tied my sleeve
to the skirt of God.
If I am flying, I behold the place to which I soar; and if I am
circling, I behold the axis on which I revolve;
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And if I am dragging a burden, I know whither: I am themoon, and the sun is in front of me as a guide.[17]
For the saint, all activity is according to the will of
God and for the sake of God. The higher self, the lion of God,
dominates the lower self, the lion of passion. Ali is shown
here as having completely given up his own will to the Will of
God. This is faqr, or the spiritual poverty the Sufis speak of.
But poverty in relation to this world and ourselves is plenitude
in relation to Heaven and the next world,[18] as we see in the
line about the garden and Ab Turab. When the knight spit onthe face of Ali, the conflict was brought down to the personal
level, a level beneath the dignity of Ali. It seems that Rumi
does not interpret this incident as revealing some sort of fault
in Ali which he then moved to correct by withdrawing his
sword. Rather, as a result of intuition, not fancy, he knew at
that very moment what to do. We can see here an illustration
of how a spiritual master acts in a way, which befuddles the
disciple into moving farther along the path. He says to theknight:
Since I am free, how should anger bind me? Nothing is here
but Divine quality. Come in!
Come in, the grace of God has made thee free, because His
mercy has the precedence over His wrath.
Come in now, for thou hast escaped from the peril; thou wert a(common) stone, the Elixir hath made thee a jewel.[19]
The last line is reminiscent of the spiritual alchemy,
which the master helps the disciple perform. Through his
action and not through explicit instruction, Ali helps to bring
the seeker to the truth.
On the surface this passage from the Mathnawi is a
prime example of futuwwah, of chivalric mercy and
generosity on the battlefield. The brave warrior will claim no
glory for himself; he fights only for his Lord. Any deed
performed only with personal ambition in mind will yield no
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real fruit. But at a more profound level, it is the story of Alias master and the knight as disciple. As a result of the intuition
upon which the perfect sage acts,[20] he took action to guide
one to the truth. From this point of view, Ali did not
withdraw his sword so that he may save himself from acting in
anger and not for God, but to save the knight from believing
that he was dying for this reason. He saves the knights life,
and his soul.
Initiation
In concluding our examples drawn from the Mathnawi, we see
Rumi using Ali to explain the initiation and its role in the
spiritual quest. He quotes the saying of the Prophet to Ali:
When every one seeks to draw nigh to God by means of some
devotional act, do thou seek the favor of God by associating
with his wise and chosen servant, that thou Mayst be the firstof all to arrive (to gain access to Him).[21]
Then Rumi has the Prophet say to Ali:
Come into the shade (protection) of the Sage whom no
conveyor can carry off the Way.
His shadow on earth is like Mount Qaf, his spirit is (like) the
Simurgh that circles (soars) exceedingly high.[22]
If I should tell of his qualities until the Resurrection, do not
seek (expect)and conclusion and end to them.
The (Divine) Sun has veiled Himself in Man: apprehend (this
mystery), and God knows best what is right
O Ali, above all devotional acts is the Way (of God) do thou
choose the shadow (protection) of the servant of God
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Everyone took refuge in some act of devotion and discoveredfor themselves some means of deliverance.
Go thou, take refuge in the shadow of the sage, that thou
mayst escape from the Enemy that opposes (thee) in secret
When the Pir [master] has accepted thee, take heed, surrender
thyself (to him): go, like Moses, under the authority of
Khizr
God has declared that his (the Pirs) hand is as his own, since
he gave out (the words) the Hand of God is above their hands.
[23]
Of course, while the Prophet is speaking here of the
primacy of deeper spiritualized knowledge as opposed to
multiplication of devotional acts, the Sage he is speaking
about is himself, in his function as Alis spiritual guide. Rumiuses this first model of master-disciple relationships in Islam
as a means of counsel for the spiritual seeker, but it also serves
to illustrate the Sufi perspective that the Prophet himself was
the first Shaykh of Sufism, and that Ali was his main
successor, even though in those earliest times these realities
did not carry the names they do now. Rumi uses the story of
Khir and Moses as well as the verse, which describes the
reality of the initiation, symbolized by the giving of the hand,
which is a vertical pact with God above all else.The following passage from the Nahj al-Balaghah
speaks of esoterism and the initiation:
Here (and he pointed to his heart) I have abundant knowledge,
if only I could find people to bear it. Unfortunately, I have
found learners who are not faithful to it, applying it to the
devices of belief in this world Thus does knowledge die out
with the passing of its bearers. O God! Certainly the earth is
not devoid of those who rise in honor of God for good reason,
either openly and notably, or in fear and obscurity, so that the
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proof and clarifications of God may not be in vain. But howmany are they, and where are they? They are, by God, fewest
in number but greatest in rank with God. By them God
preserves the divine proofs and clarifications until they entrust
them to others like them and plant them in their hearts of
others like them. By them knowledge enters into real insight,
and they are imbued with the spirit of certainty.
They consider easy what seems hard to those who lead a life
of comfort, and they take to what the ignorant are averse to.They are physically in the world, yet their spirits are
suspended in the highest liberation. They are the deputies of
God on earth, and are those who invite people to the religion
of God. Oh, how I long to see them![24]
Here Ali was speaking of none other than the
esoteric teachings of Islam and the idea of the khawass, or
spiritual elite. He was speaking of the true mysticalknowledge, which can only be carried by those who are
transformed by its truths. This is why it dies out with the
passing of its bearers; books cannot convey such knowledge,
they can only speak of it. He also echoes here the fact that
many are called, but few are chosen, making note of those
who did not make proper use of what he had taught them.
Even in the time of Ali those qualified to receive spiritual
teachings and pass them on to others like them were in the
minority, although sanctity was of course much morewidespread. This explains why out of thousands of
Companions of the Prophet, and even of the smaller group
who were closer to the Prophet, only a small handful of men
were to pass on the inner teachings of Islam, with Ali
functioning as the main channel for this transmission. At the
end of this quote we see Ali longing to see those spiritual
elite who will come after his time in this world has ended, who
will carry on the teachings he received from the prophet.[25]
Again in the Mathnawi we have a reference of Ali, Like
Ali, sigh into the well[26] This refers to the tradition that
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tells that Ali once whispered into a well the secret, esotericdoctrine taught to him by the Prophet, along with a warning
against its being divulged. As stated above, these teachings
would cause more harm than good to the generality of people
(al-awamm). In the well known hadith, Ibn Abbas, the
famous Quranic exegete of the first generation, was once
given the true interpretation of a particular passage of the
Quran by the Prophet, and when the people asked him about
it, he told them the true interpretation they would stone him.
Similarly, Ab Hurayrah, the most prolific of hadithtransmitters of the first generation, stated that he had two
stores of knowledge from the Prophet: the first he taught
openly, and that if he were to divulge the second the people
would slit his throat. Facts such as these are quite enough to
demonstrate the existence of an esoteric tradition living within
the exoteric tradition. One ought to remember here that both
Ibn Abbas and Ab Hurayrah are pillars of exoteric authority
in Islam.In the Sufi tradition it is related that the Prophet once
said to Ali, You are of the rank of Aaron in relation to
Moses, except that there will be no prophet after me. Perhaps
we may examine this statement in light of the prophetic hadith
stating that there will be ulama (those endowed with
knowledge) of my ummah who will be of the rank of the
prophets of the Children of Israel. Here we can draw a
parallel between the spiritual function of at least some of the
Hebrew prophets with the great saints of Sufism, linesbeginning respectively with Aaron and Ali.
We can understand the role of the later Hebrew
prophets and that of the Sufi saints as the renewal of the spirit
and inner teachings of the original revelation (none brought a
new religion), and so by analogy and not direct parallel, since
Sufism draws a clear distinction between a saint and prophet
(who is also a saint), we can say that Ali had the same
relationship to the Prophet as Aaron did to Moses. No Hebrew
prophet after the Sinatic revelation was of the same rank as
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Moses,[27] just as no saint in Islam could duplicate the role ofthe Prophet.[28]
Sight and knowledge
No discussion of Ali and Sufism would be complete without
speaking about the notion of knowledge one can have of God
in this world. In a sense, the reason detre of Sufism is to tear
away the veils, which separate man from God in this world.
To see this world fully as what it is to see it transparently. Tothis effect, Ali is once reported to have said, If the veil were
lifted my certainty would not be increased. We might
consider this in relation to the hadith about the four caliphs,
where they each state how they see God in relation to the
world. The first three stated that in relation to a thing they see
God with it, before it, and behind it. Then Ali said, When I
see a thing, I see God.[29] Here is an illustration of the
degrees of knowledge one is capable of in this world. WhenAli talks about the lifting of the veil, he is speaking of the
lifting if the veil of Gods creation, the outer veil. His certainty
would not be increased because his inner veil had already been
lifted. Similarly, he said, I would not be worshipping a lord I
have not seen.[30] All of these statements refer, not to seeing
in the ordinary sense, but to the inner eye in man, the eye of
the Heart, or the Intellect. This is what Ali was referring to
when he said, God has given man nothing more valuable than
the Intellect.[31] In a saint like Ali, this eye is wide open,and he sees all things thought it, and hence sees all things in
God. This is why he can make the rather bold statement that
he does not worship a lord he has not seen, and truthfully say
that he does not see anything apart from God. It is not a
question of seeing in the ordinary sense, and the Sufis would
rebuke anyone claiming to see God with his two eyes. Rather
we must understand sight in a symbolic sense. Since we
identify sight more than any other sense with knowing a thing
and comprehending it, Islamic esoterism speaks in the
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that the inner signs can lead us to all that is hidden from us (al-mud mar). The last verse is a concise statement of man as the
locus for manifestation of all the Divine Names. This poem is
one of the earliest statements of the same idea the Sufis speak
of when they say, The universe is a big man and man a little
universe. Every thing contained in the macrocosm (al-kawn
al-kabir, the universe) is also contained in the microcosm (al-
kawn as-saghir, man). This means that man, in his central
position in the universe, has the capability of knowing the
principles of all things sapientally and existentially, derivingfrom the fact that every object of his knowledge has a
counterpart within himself that derives from the same
principle, and here we are referring to the Divine Names and
Qualities.
Also there is the enigmatic hadith attributed to Ali:
All the Quran is contained in the srat al-fatihah, all of this
surah is contained in the basmalah, all of the basmalah in theba with which it begins, all the letter ba in the diacritical
point under it and I am that diacritical point.[35]
The dot of the ba represents the intersection of the
horizontal and vertical axes of reality, the alif of iqra! and
the ba of bismi rabbika, or Recite in the Name of your
Lord, the first verse revealed to the Prophet.[36] This cross is
the symbol of Universal Man. The horizontal line of the cross
represents human perfection at this level of being, and thevertical line the realization of other states of being. So these
states are ranked, in integral expansion, in the double sense
of amplitude [horizontal] and exaltation [vertical].[37]
Ali is declaring in the language of symbolism that he has
realized this station. Also, one may see the point as the
principle of all writing, hence symbolically as the principle of
all manifestation. In commenting on this subject, the Shaykh
Ahmad al-Alawi wrote:
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He is being (kain) not as the result of temporal origin
(hadith), and existent (mawjd) not having come from non-
existence (adam). He is with everything, not through
association (muqaranah); and he is other than everything, not
through separation (muzayalah). He is active (faal), not in the
sense of possessing movements and instruments. He was
seeing when none of his creatures were to be observed by
Him. He was alone (mutawahhid) when there was none with
whom to be intimate and at whose loss to feel lonely.[40]
This above passage can be seen as a description of
the Divine Qualities, which relate God to his creation, how
God affects but is not affected, the Unmoved Mover. The
following passage explains this relationship in reverse,
describing how manifestation leads us back to the Principle.
By his giving sense (tashir) to sense organs (mashair) it isknown that he has no sense organs. By his giving substance
(tajhir) to substances (jawahir) it is known that He has no
substance. By his causing opposition (muaddah) among
things it is known that he has no opposite (idd). By his
causing affiliation (muqaranah) among affairs it is known that
He has no affiliate (qarin). He opposed darkness to light,
obscurity to clarity, moisture to solidity, and heat to cold. He
joins together those things, which are hostile to one another,
and separates those, which are near. They prove (the existenceof) their Separator (mufarriq) by their separation and therir
Joiner (muallif) by their junction. This is (the meaning of) His
Words-He is the Mighty and Majestic And of everything
created we two kinds; haply you will remember. (p.39 Quran
LI, 49)[41]
Here Ali is expounding upon the fundamental
duality of all manifestation, the realm of opposition which is
the manifestation of the Divine, which itself is not subject to
any type of opposition. In these three short passages we have a
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discussion of the Principle in itself, the Principle as it relatesto Manifestation, and Manifestation as it relates to the
Principle.
Ali and interpretation of the Quran
Unfortunately, not much remains of Alis interpretation of the
Quran. He wrote an esoteric commentary on the Quran,
which is now lost, and which survives in fragments in the
commentary of Jafar as-sadiq.[42] Even without a great bodyof material directly attributable to him we still can get an idea
of his understanding of the Quran. The Prophet said, O
People, among you is one who struggles with the
interpretation (tawil) of the Quran as I struggle with its
revelation (tanzil),[43] referring to Ali. Ali himself said,
No verse has been revealed without me knowing for what it
was revealed, and where it was revealed[44] The towering
figure of Quranic commentary Ibn Masd said, The Quranhas been revealed with seven readings, each with an inner
meaning and an outer. Ali ibn Talib knows the outer (al-ahir)
and the inner (al-baTin).[45] The Sufis have always held that
each verse of the Quran holds meaning upon meaning,
revealing truths much deeper than the surface meaning of the
text, a meaning that is of course also true on its own level.
Some have assigned four levels of meaning, others seven.
These numbers must be understood metaphorically, of course,
since in principle the meanings of each verse are infinite. IbnArabi said that each time one reads a verse a new meaning
should be made clear. Therefore, when Ibn Masd said that
Ali knows the inner and outer meanings, this means that he
was qualified to interpret the symbols (ayat) of the Quran.
The manifest is finite and limited to what we might
say about it, but the hidden includes every thing that the
manifest is not, and is therefore infinite, and the scope of
interpretation goes all the way up to the level of the Divine.
The hadith about the dot of the bi is enough to show what the
words of the Quran, even its very letters, have to say about
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our very day very few texts exist which describe the actualpractices of Sufism even though the practices are alive and
well all over the world. We mention this only because
researchers need to take more seriously the aspects of Sufism,
which were not meticulously documented.
In this paper we have painted mostly broad strokes.
Although touching upon many of the important sayings and
teachings of Ali related to later Islamic esterism, the scope of
this paper does not allow us to go into any great detail as to
the meaning and proliferation of these sayings in the Islamicesoteric tradition. For example, in the school of Ibn Arabi, in
such figures as Abd al- Razzaq al-Kashani and Daud al-
Qaysari, one finds frequent reference to Ali in the context of
their very subtle metaphysical discussions. This must not be
interpreted as simply some pious or sentimental attachment to
a great religious figure.
Rather, these later metaphysicians knew full well that
they were describing realities to which Ali had spoken in amore synthetic and symbolic way, which was fully in accord
with his function as well as with his proximity to the original
revelation. This is an only example. There is no doubt that a
thorough study of the Sufi literature and oral tradition
regarding Ali would keep a scholar occupied for many years.
We must not forget that in the context of Sufism, we
are speaking about the second link in a continuous, living
chain consisting of only four or five dozen such links, and
which is supplemented by an extensive written tradition. If wehope to gain any real understanding of what comes later in this
tradition, we ought to be looking closer to the source and not
chasing after borrowings and the like. The information
presented in this essay should show that the most central
doctrines of Sufism were not novel in their conception but
only in their formulation, and that Ali had a full, integral
knowledge of the realities of which later Sufis would speak
using intricate explications of doctrine. We hope that in the
future this colossal figures role will not continue to be passed
over in silence, and that this short essay has established in the
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readers mind the connection of Ali to very heart of theIslamic tradition, which is the transmission and assimilation of
truth regarding the nature of Ultimate Reality, and whose
fountainhead is the revelation given to the Prophet.
Notes
[1] We say Sunni Sufis because Sufism is not confined to the
Sunni world, but exist among the Shiah as well.
[2] S.H. Nasr, Sufi Essays, New York, 1991, p.111.
[3] For further reading on this topic see Frithjof Schuon
Seeds of a Divergence in his Islam and the PerennialPhilosophy.
[4] Lecture by S.H. Nasr, Fall 1997.
[5] One cannot help inserting here that, He is like Arjuna,
Mother Teresa, and Shankaracharya all rolled into one.
[6] The Naqshabandiyyah trace their origin through Abu Bakr,
but also claim to be connected to Ali through Jafar as-Sadiq.
[7] Actually, I did spot a complete translation of it somewhere.
[8] S.H. Nasr, Spiritual Chivalry,Islamic Spirituality, vol. 2,ed. S.H. Nasr, New York, 1991, p.305.
[9] ibid.
[10] Perhaps dispense with this paragraph.
[11] Rumi,Mathnawi, trans. R. A. Nicholson, Lahore, vol. 1,p.202.
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[24] Cleary, Thomas, Living and Dying with Grace: Counselof Hadrat Ali, Boston, 1996, pp.81-83. A shorter version ofthis is found inHilyat al-Awliya.
[25] It is interesting to note here an incident where the Prophet
was with a group of Companions, and mentioned to them that
there would be those who would come after him who would
be like fifty of you. They asked, Fifty of them, or fifty of
us? and he replied, Fifty of you.
[26] Nicholson, vol. 4, p.517.
[27] Of course here we are not including Christ in the line of
Hebrew prophets.
[28] On the issue of degrees of prophecy and their function,
one can look to the philosophy of Suhrawardi.
[29] There is another version of this hadith where Ali insteadrecapitulates the three previous statements all together. (S.H.
Nasr, lecture).
[30] Tabatabai Allamah, A Shiite Anthology, ed. and trans.William C. Chittick, London, 1981, p.38.
[31] Nicholson, vol. 4, p.643.
[32] Quran, XLI, 53.
[33] Taken from Nasr, S.H. Ideal and Realities of Islam,Cairo, 1989, p.63.
[34] Lecture, S. H. Nasr Fall 1997.
[35] Guenon, Rene, Symbolism of the Cross, London, 1975,p.6.
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[36]. Lings, Martin, A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century,Cambridge, 1993, p.149.
[37] Tabatabai, p.30.
[38] ibid.
[39] ibid., p.39.
[40]. Lecture by S.H. Nasr, Fall 1997.
[41]. Abu Nuaym Ahmad ibn Abdallah, Hillyat al-Awliya,Beirut, 1967, p.67.
[42]. Dhahabi, Muhammad Husayn, al-Tafsir wa l-Mufassirin, Cairo, 1995, p.96.
[43] ibid., p.97.
[44] There is a hadith of Ali, whose reference I could not findfor this paper, where he encourages learning the science of
Arabic letters.
[45] Dhahabi, Madrasahs of Tafsir.
[46] Ibn Abbas said, Whatever I have taken of tafsir is on
the authority of Ali. Dhahabi, p.96.
CANER K. DAGLI is a Fulbright Award
winner for research in Turkey. He earned
a B.A. from Cornell University, an M.A.
from George Washington University
where he was a student of Seyyed Hossein
Nasrand a Ph.D. from Princeton
University. His dissertation is entitled,From Mysticism to Philosophy and
Back. He specializes in Islamic
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philosophy, mysticism in world religions, and Sufism. He isan Adjunct Professor in the Religious Studies Department of
George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, specializing in
Comparative Religion and Islamic Philosophy. He has taught
courses on Islam and Mysticism, and on the relationship of
Religion and Science, as well as on Values and Responsible
Life.
Mr. Daglis interest in religion and mysticism,
particularly Islamic studies, has been fueled in part by his
heritage. Though Mr. Dagli was born and raised in NewJersey, his parents are of Circassian background. His father is
from the Caucasus Mountain region in Russia and his mother
is from the same ethnic group originating in Turkey. These
areas, primarily Muslim enclaves, offer a natural starting point
for Mr. Daglis studies.
Mr. Dagli is a Special Advisor to the Royal
Hashemite Court of Jordan for Interfaith Affairs.
* * *