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Coolness of the eye - Circle of the Subtle World and the Dense World

Circle of the Subtle World and the Dense World

Tags: Silk worm, I, Soul, Shadow, Subtle Body, Hazrat Adam, Jinn, Pari, Mutahharah, Hur

1. If one asks: Which came first, the day or the night? It would be wrong to say either the night or the day precedes the other. For, the circle of their rotation continues simultaneously without any anteriority or posteriority. For instance, when the planet earth came into existence, the day and the night started simultaneously, as is mentioned in the verse (25:62) under the title of "succession (khilfatan)". That is, God made the night and the day succeed one another. And in this lie many wisdom-filled allusions.

2. The Noble Qur'an says that the rotation of everything is in a circle (21:33; 36:40) and no creature is excluded from this universal law. The heaven, the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, the air, the water making circles by their respective rotations, say that the idea of creation is like a circle which has no end at all. That is, creation has neither a beginning nor an end. For, it is impossible to think that there was or will be a time in which God was or will be without the act of creation. Rather, as He is eternal in His essence and attributes, so He continues to enfold and unfold the universes.

3. In this world, something may be small physically, but it cannot be inferior or superfluous in wisdom. For instance, the silk-worm which, in time becomes transformed into a moth and then from the egg of the moth, it is again transformed into a worm. In this example, for the wise, there is an allusion to the circle of the subtle and the dense world, in that man is capable of becoming transformed from the dense into the subtle and to fly. What limitless blessings of God are upon him that, in order to do good deeds, he again wears the attire of the dense body, just as the moth cannot produce silk, without becoming a worm. Thus there are many great wisdoms hidden in this circle.

4. From the secrets of Sufism and the law of the unity of souls, it appears that men, jinns (paris), angels and spiritual creatures, as well as the huris and ghilman of Paradise are all created from the same substance. For the source and return of the intellect and the soul is only one. And the manifestations of all magnificent sarabil or shirts (subtle attires 16:81)) are for Adam and (other) human beings, so that they may duly express the gratitude to God for these great and precious bounties.

5. It is necessary to reflect seriously on this Divine power and law of "soul within soul" that: How is a person sometimes possessed by a soul other than his own, a jinn (pari), higher soul or lower soul? If this is true, imagine what wonders and marvels of this nature may appear at the stages of true and real spirituality, which is in the light of ma`rifat? Moreover, what abundance of marvellous bounties there would be in the great spiritual kingdom of the subtle world, namely, Paradise? Is not every house of Paradise adorned with the beauties of intellect and soul (29:64)? Cannot every palace there be in the form of a sacred living and speaking personality? It is indeed like this, but it is not possible to describe the subtle world adequately in words.

6. It is not surprising if a seeker of truth is lost and wanders for sometime in the jungle of knowledge, for perhaps, I faithfully describe my own personal experience. The most important and the most difficult knowledge is in the story of Hazrat Adam (May peace be through him). It is an extremely subtle matter. For, if one errs in the recognition of Adam, then this would mean as Mawlawi-yi Ma`nawi says:

"If the mason lays crooked the first brick
The wall becomes crooked till the Pleiades".

In studying the Qur'an and its every noble verse, it is very necessary to have the habit of deep and profound reflection. Can there be any difference between Adam (May peace be through him) and other Prophets with respect to the law of creation? In this connection, it is extremely useful to think in the light of the noble verses concerning the eternal sunnat. Also, the verse of creation (30:30) sheds all-pervading light upon this. And, it is imperative to think more about the verse (2:285): "... we make no distinction between any of His messengers".

7. The Wise Qur'an says that the soul is from the world of command (17:85) and has come to this world like the rope of God (3:103), the higher end of which is in the hand of God, pre-eternally and post-eternally, and the lower end is in the human body. Another example of the supreme soul is the sun, whose light and reflection falls upon everything on the earth. If all the people of the world hold a mirror up to the sun, they have many suns, but there is still only one sun in the sky. Thus, every human being has two "I's", the "higher I" (ana'-yi `ulwi), which is in the world of command and the "lower I" (ana'-yi sifli), which is in the world of creation. Thus, with respect to the higher I, Hazrat Adam and all the people of Paradise were commanded to remain in Paradise forever: "And they abide in it forever" (2:25), and with respect to the lower I, they were commanded: "Descend all of you from it" (2:38).

8. Mawlawi-yi Ma`nawi says: "Ma amadah nistim in sayah-yi mast" - we have not come to this world at all leaving behind Paradise, rather, this physical existence of ours is the shadow of that existence. If this is so, it is true to say that our shadows always rotate on the circle of the subtle and the dense. And this is the way, ordained for the acquisition of the innumerable bounties of God, for this world is the farm of the Hereafter.

9. In order to understand the positions of man, jinn (pari), angel and devil, you should study the famous work "Jami`u'l- Hikmatayn" (pp. 135-44) of Hazrat Hakim Pir Nasir-i Khusraw. From this book it is evident that everything is man himself. Thus, before Adam, human beings lived on earth in astral bodies, and due to their subtle bodies, they were called jinns (see Da`a'im'ul- Islam, p. 298). And according to the circular law of transformation of dense into subtle, they will again be jinns, and be transferred into subtle bodies. In the present cycle this process is evidenced by the appearance of U.F.O's. By jinns are meant the male and female paris, from whom the righteous ones are angels and the wicked ones are the devils.

10. It is human beings who are called jinn due to their becoming invisible by transforming themselves from the dense into the subtle, pari due to their spiritual beauty and huris and ghilman due to their going to and dwelling in Paradise. This means that the name of Adam, according to his rank and work, changes each time. And it is the infinite providence of the Benevolent Lord that the children of Adam are given every rank. And it is in this sense that he is called the quintessence of the macrocosm and in subtle form he contains everything that is scattered in its vastness.

11. The manifestations of the Qur'anic miracles bewilder the wise. In this connection, it seems necessary to refer to an example of the people of Paradise. In Paradise every mu'min will be mutahhar (purified), for this wisdom is hidden in the background of the verse: "And in them for them will be purified (mutahharah) wives" (2:25). Mutahharah is a passive participle, which has a subject that acts upon it. Here the subject is God Himself, Who by granting them the subtle body, purified them from every physical dirt. Their spiritual purification is by special dhikr-u `ibadat and their intellectual purification by knowledge and wisdom. The same is true of their husbands, for in Paradise, both husband and wife, like male and female paris, are equally handsome and beautiful.

12. The main purpose of mentioning the huris of Paradise is that, by the blessings of the true Imam, I will try to present to you that special knowledge and wisdom, which is hidden and stored in the relevant verses, such as (56:35-36): "Indeed, We duly created them (women of Paradise) (i.e. their initial and physical creation became complete in this world, so that nobody would think that hur is a legendary thing), then made them virgins (i.e. after the worldly life, they are granted the subtle body, in which they now become virgins, and this indicates that men also receive the subtle or astral body)".

Nasir Hunzai, London,
15 Dhu'l-hijjah, 1411/28th June, 1991.