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In this cradle the breath was restrained:
The child of the kingdoms 1-of-nature was in the sleep of,
non-existence.
Although the essence continued to behold in a summary
The loveliness of details, circumstances and attributes,
It desired that in other mirrors
It might display its unveiling to its own gaze.
We might quote many similar passages from other Arabic and Persian works,
but from those which we have now adduced it is clear that even some of the
most earnest and thoughtful Muslim sages have been led to admit the existence
of a kind of plurality in the oneness of the divine nature. In the first
place, the authors whom we have quoted distinguish the absolute, unknown,
transcendent essence
(ذات) from both the first and the second unveiling
(تجلّيّ), and
they confess that thought and reflection cannot attain to the comprehension of
that pure essence. Secondly, they separate the first unveiling or
self-manifestation
(تعيّن) from this unknown and absolute essence in such a way
that the essence becomes manifest to the essence itself, and knowledge or
consciousness is differentiated from the essence, or, as Jami says:
Before Him He had a mirror showing the invisible:
The whole unveiling He had with Himself. 2
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DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY TRINITY
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So, as we have seen, according to Jilani, the first self-manifestation is
called the universal reason, and in this degree, although the realities of the
stable contingents are comprehended in the knowledge or consciousness of the
essence, yet (since they are not separate from it) Kashani says that the first
unveiling is termed the 'court of the oneness'
(حضرة
اْلاحديّة) or the unique majesty.
Thirdly, they distinguish the second unveiling or self-manifestation from the
first in this sense that in this degree of the essence the sources
(أعيان) of the
stable contingents
(الممكنات
اْلثّابتة)that is to say, the realities and the origins of
(أصُول) those
things which are hidden in God's essenceappear and are differentiated, but only
in God's knowledge. That is, when God wished to create things, He first
introduced them into His own knowledge and purpose. Hence this unveiling denotes
the energy of the action and purpose of the essence, just as the first unveiling
means the eternal knowledge of the essence. In this way we see that certain
Muslim sages have endeavoured to explain God's holy essence as a sort of Triad
for, differentiating the essence from knowledge and knowledge from the energy of
action and purpose, they admit that only in the degree of the first and second
unveiling is God known, and only by means of this second unveiling do the hearts
of God's worshippers obtain rest and peace.
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