Recognition of Imam Part III - Key 21 Speaking of Everything
Key 21 Speaking of Everything
Tags: Speech
In verse (41:21), it is said: “They will say that God, Who has granted speech to everything, has also granted us speech.”
Before explaining this blessed universal law, we should say something about the reality of speech or the power of speaking. So it is necessary to know that although according to some sages, speech is the property of the human soul, in reality it is first the property of the intellect and it is the intellect through which the human soul receives the faculty of speech.
The first proof of the fact that the human soul receives the faculty of speech through the intellect is that, in the order of the world of religion, the foremost and highest rank is the Divine Word (kalimah-yi bari), which is also called the Word “Be (kun)”, and the “Universal Command (amr-i kull)”. This Divine Word is like the speech of the World of Religion. By the Command of “Be (kun)” the Angel of the Universal Intellect, who is like the intellect of the World of Religion, came into existence and from the Universal Intellect, was created the Universal Soul, which stands for the soul of the World of Religion. From this simile it is evident that the perfection of the soul is by the Intellect and that of the Intellect is by the speech.
The second proof is that the human body depends on the soul; the soul is protected by the intellect and the intellect is nourished by the speech.
The third proof is that the intellect cannot be without speech, the proof of which is an angel, but the soul can be without it, the example of which is an animal.
The fourth proof is that knowledge, whether it is inspired (ladunni=`ata'i, given) or acquired (iktisabi), it nonetheless comes in the form of speech, including the sign of revelation, which too is a kind of speech. It is first accepted by the intellect and consciousness and then it reaches the soul.
From the above-mentioned proofs, it is clearly established that just as in the World of Religion, the Universal Intellect came into existence from the Divine Word, namely, the command of “Be (kun)” and the Universal Soul from the Universal Intellect, similarly, in the personal world of a mu'min, the partial intellect attains perfection from the wisdom-filled farman of the Imām of the time, which is like the Divine Word, and then from such an intellect his [soul attains perfection]. That is, his soul becomes the soul of faith (ruhu'l-iman). Then as a result, his inner senses are awakened and can observe the realities of things (haqa'iq-i ashya') which is that all things have three kinds of existence: physical, spiritual and intellectual. Everything in its intellectual and spiritual existence continues to speak. In addition [he observes that even] the physical existence of things is not devoid of miraculous speech.
Thus, the external and physical things speak in two ways: by mute expression (zaban-i hal) and by the spoken word (zaban-i qal). Since mute expression is an universally accepted fact, therefore there is no need to explain its nature. We will only explain the nature of the spoken word. The spoken word also is in two forms: first, the voice and sound of things under the control of the Holy Spirit turn into miraculous speech and dhikr-u tasbih (remembering God and extolling Him that He is free from any attributes). Secondly, such a miraculous sound is produced from things which do not have any sound that it cannot be duly explained.
When all things, with and without sound, start to do the dhikr-u tasbih of God with the spoken word, then from one point of view we can say that God, by His Perfect Power, gave them speech. From another, it can be said that it is the miracle of the mu'min's own soul of faith. In a third, it can also be accepted that it is the Holy Spirit's miracle. From a fourth point of view, it is also true to say that all this is the state of the unveiling of spirituality (kashf-i ruhaniyyat ka `alam) through the light of the manifest Imām. Thus, all these points of view are true and correct in their respective places and none of them is wrong. For, where there is the unity of all realities, there are the diverse aspects of its state.
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