FIFTH CHAPTER · SECOND SECTION · Fifth Article
Fifth Article
It expounds with wisdom the purification of the human spirit, the annihilation (fanāʾ) of the body, the subsistence (baqāʾ) of the soul, and related matters.
O dear one! It should be known that the people of wisdom have said: The human nafs (nafs, the lower self) is an entity separate from the body. For you are never unaware of your own essence. Even in sleep and when you close your eyes, you do not forget yourself.
There is never a time when you have forgotten a part of your body’s components. Yet the whole (kull) can only be known by all its parts. Therefore, if you were a part of this body or any of its sections, it would not be possible for you to forget your own essence and yet perceive it. Thus, you are an entity separate from this body and its organs.
Moreover, due to the effect of the body’s natural heat (ḥarārat-i gharīziyya) [153/b] on its natural moisture, the body is always decomposing and flowing (taḥallul wa sayalān). Whenever the nutritive power (quwwat-i g̱ẖidāʾiyya) brings nourishment to the organs, if the new parts obtained from the food did not replace the old parts that leave the body, the body would be much larger than it is now. For the particles of food taken in have replaced those that have left the body. That is why the body does not become excessively large and remains in its present form.
If you were a part of this body or its components, your selfhood would be changing at every moment, and the essence understood from you would not be established and permanent. Thus, you are yourself, without being the body or any of its parts.
How could you be considered identical to the body, when you are unaware of its changes? Yet you are never unaware of your own essence. Therefore, you are beyond these things. Just as Allah, the Necessary Existent (Wājib al-Wujūd), is eternally distinct and transcendent from all beings.
Likewise, the “Ten Intellects” and the “Nine Celestial Souls” are neither bodies nor parts of bodies. They are neither inside this world nor outside of it; neither attached nor separate. For being inside or outside, attached or separate, are characteristics of bodies; those that are not bodies are abstracted from them. Thus, the human essence (nafs-i nāṭiqa, the rational soul) is such a substance that it cannot be conceived to have any sign belonging to the senses. For the human essence is that universal intellect (ʿaql-i kull) which has arisen from the manifest aspect of the universal intellect. And it is the condensed light of that intellect, of which the nafs is a shadow and exemplar. The effusion (fayḍ) of the Necessary Existent (Wājib al-Wujūd) reaches this nafs from that intellect. And it is among its attributes that it measures and weighs things, determines their quantity, and perceives its own essence. It arranges its affairs to preserve the body.
How then can it be conceived that this sacred essence is a body, when, upon the arrival of spiritual realities, it leaves its body due to its subtlety and turns toward its own realm? It has even been said: “The nafs-i nāṭiqa exists without the question of ‘where.’ It is a light from among the lights of Allah; its place of emergence is from Allah, and its place of return is to Allah.”
Nevertheless, since the human nafs is veiled by this body and has become attached to it, it is therefore responsible for the commands and prohibitions of the religion. It is obliged to follow the rulings of the body and is limited by it. Those pure souls who cleanse themselves from bodily impurities and soar above the base attribute of egotism realize that they are divine secrets and become ʿārif bi-llāh (gnostics, those who know Allah). They attain the station (maqām) of truthfulness (ṣidq) and reach the exalted court.
It is the universal intellect that disciplines our form belonging to the human species, adorns it at every moment with the lights of beauty, sends our souls to our bodies, and endows us with intellectual and practical perfections and exaltedness. It is our means to the Necessary Existent (Wājib al-Wujūd), who is our point of origin and return (mabdaʾ and maʿād). In the language of the sharia (sharia, the sacred law), its name is the Muhammadan Spirit. The nurturing and upbringing of us by the father of that world is through the “active intellect” (ʿaql-i faʿʿāl), which is the tenth intellect. Among the scholars of religion, it is known as the “Holy Spirit” (Rūḥ al-Quds).
With the corruption and destruction of the body, the human nafs does not become corrupted or destroyed. For it is not the locus or place of the human essence such that its opposite or contrary would be the case. Since the first place of emergence of the human spirit is the “universal intellect,” it is also perpetual and never ceases to exist. Indeed, a person of insight perceives this within himself: even if all the organs of his body were to perish one by one, his own nafs would never perish. As the bodily faculties diminish and disappear, the theoretical faculty of the nafs-i nāṭiqa reaches its highest degree. For the reality of the pure light of the Truth (nūr-i mujarrad) does not admit of nonexistence. Therefore, the human nafs never accepts nonexistence. However, nonexistence may come to its various deficient (muḫtalif) levels, and it does not remain in one state. When a particular body is created and, with its special nature, becomes capable and worthy of being illumined by one of the descending levels of the universal nafs, then one of the levels of the universal nafs attaches to that body by an independent path. The characteristics of these descending levels of the universal nafs, which is that light [154/a], are, by means of the various forms that have come to a simple body in relation to itself, at the degree of the characteristics accepted for that simple body.
Thus, when that particular body is destroyed, that deficient characteristic of the universal nafs does not perish. If those characteristics did not remain, these individualities of the universal nafs would not persist. They would not return to their original source and become alive, like rays of the sun. For the connection between the nafs and the body is accidental (ʿaraḍī) and depends on taste (dhawq). Therefore, the destruction of that connection does not necessitate the destruction of this abstract substance.
The pleasure and delight of each of the senses and faculties is only in accordance with its own perfection and to the extent that perfection is perceived. And the pain of each is likewise in accordance with the loss of that perfection and to the extent that loss is perceived (according to the degree of perception). For the perfection of each faculty is to attain its due; its deficiency is to be deprived of its due.
The perfection of the nafs-i nāṭiqa is to turn away from bodily faculties. It is to be intricately adorned by knowing its origin and final destination. It is to know its own reality and to find the Truth Most High (Allah). Its deficiency is to be empty of and unaware of this gnosis (maʿrifa). Its pleasure and delight is to be filled with the light of gnosis. Its sorrow and pain is to be filled with the darkness of ignorance and heedlessness. However, as long as the human nafs is occupied with this corporeal body, it does not feel pain from the vices belonging to the nafs, nor does it take delight in the virtues belonging to the spirit (ruh). For it has become intoxicated and oblivious due to the nature of the body.
When the human spirit (nafs-i nāṭiqa) separates from the body and is freed from its intoxication, if it is a “pure nafs” (nafs-i zakiyya), it beholds and witnesses Allah, the Necessary Existent (Wājib al-Wujūd), in proportion to the loftiness of its knowledge and the beauty of its character. It finds blessings and delights that eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, and hearts have not conceived. It attains intimacy with pure and clear lights, reaches its original place of emergence, and all its desires are fulfilled. It is revived with the blessing of eternity and remains in everlasting felicity. Not only does it reach its point of origin, but if it joins the best of people and helps them in truth and goodness, it becomes among the jinn who are better than us.
If, however, it is among the impure souls (nufūs-i ḫabītha), then at the moment of separation from the body, it finds the torment of pain in proportion to the darkness of its ignorance and the degree of its animalistic character, and in accordance with the realities it denied (heyʾat-i raddiyya). When it departs from this world of the senses, it cannot reach the presence of Allah (the world of holiness, ʿālam al-quds), but remains in the darkness of the grave (barzakh). There, it stays in sorrow until the Resurrection, with fear, regret, despair, and grief. If it forms a connection with the worst of people and helps them in evil and corruption, it becomes among the most evil of all, the group of devils (shayāṭīn).
All human beings, while their nafs-i nāṭiqa are substances belonging to the world of spirits, have been drawn away from their own realm by these bodily faculties and base occupations. They have been pulled into this lowest world (ʿālam-i asfal) and cast into the darkness of the body. If the nafs-i nāṭiqa is adorned with divine (raḥmānī) character and strengthened with knowledge of the Truth, and if it gradually reduces eating and sleeping, freeing itself from the domination of bodily faculties and overcoming the heat of passion, then it desires its own realm and proceeds fittingly to its place of origin and return.
In sleep and wakefulness, it turns toward that realm and receives hidden knowledge from it, and knows the affairs of the past and future, which are secrets of the world of becoming (mughayyabāt-i kawnīyya). For this nafs is the mirror of that intellect, receiving the engravings of gnosis (maʿrifa) and becoming among the people of unveiling (kashf). So much so that the human spirit, taking something from its source, the faculty of imagination (quwwat-i mutakhayyila) likens it to a suitable form, and that form comes to the common sense (ḥiss-i mushtarak), and from there, various forms are reflected in the mine of imagination (taḥayyul). Thus, the nafs-i nāṭiqa beholds in it wondrous forms and strange shapes in beauty, subtlety, and grandeur, and converses with them. Or, seeing no one, it hears only rhythmic words and beautiful sounds, [154/b] melodious tunes. If these things occur during sleep, that is a true (ṣādiq) dream. If it occurs between sleep and wakefulness, it is a vision (wāqiʿa). And if the nafs, during sleep, does not reach its original place of emergence and sees these states through intermediaries, that is a confused dream (adghāth-i aḥlām) [40], which are imaginations and delusions.
The lights of Allah’s exalted presence descend and spread over apt and pure souls. The opening of the door is granted to those who knock with the name of Allah. Thus, the person lacking insight who denies the delights of this spiritual world and supposes them to be corrupt fantasies is like the impotent (ʿinnīn) who denies the pleasure of sexual intercourse. He has preferred animality over angelicity.
Our Lord! We have believed in You and in the perfect attributes that indicate Your exaltedness. We have acknowledged Your Prophets. After being freed from bodies, we have come to know that there are various levels of Your dominion (malakūt) in witnessing the lights of the first places of emergence of the souls. Surely there are worthy servants who, by means of their intellectual and moral perfections, strive to witness Your lights. Thus, in order to cling to the light with these dark bodies, they turn from the darkness of bodies and human pleasures to what the sharia deems appropriate. It is as if, by the movement of the mad, they attain the most precious possessions of perfect and intelligent people. O Allah! Help us with Your light! Make us firm with Your light! Revive us with Your light!
Rubāʿī
Ānhā ki bar āsūmān ṣuḥbat-i māhand
Bar taḥt-i-i shaṭranj malāmat-i shāhand
V’ānān ki zi sirr-i īn suḫan āgāhand
Gumrāh-i khalāyiqand u wujūd bar-rāhand
Translation of the Rubāʿī
Those who converse with the moon in the sky, reproach the king on the chessboard. Those who are aware of the secret of this word have lost their way and have sacrificed their existence on this path.
Verse
1-Know the nafs-i nāṭiqa in your heart as the essence of the essence
It is hidden like a treasure in ruins
2-It is the source of the secret of existence; know this yourself
For this selfhood is from it, like the glimmer of a mirage
3-The nafs-i nāṭiqa is the sea of life for all
The reality of man is beautifully connected to it
4-Its action is pure wisdom and its word is pure correctness
Its love is constant fidelity and its beauty is the pure path of life
5-This body, soul, intellect, heart, and sense are all shells
You, reach the core, let not the shells be a veil there
6-Seek in your heart the ascension (miʿrāj) of union with the nafs-i nāṭiqa
Otherwise, every spark will burn the body, thinking it is a mere image
7-O Haqqī! He who knows the Truth has known his nafs
In that soul, the hardship of imitating shaykh and youth does not remain
In Contemporary Turkish
1-Know the nafs-i nāṭiqa in your heart as the essence of the essence. It is hidden like a treasure in ruins.
2-It is the secret of the fountain of existence; know this yourself. For this selfhood is from it, like the light of a mirage.
3-The nafs-i nāṭiqa is the sea of life for everyone. The reality of man affiliates with it, attaches to it.
4-Its action is complete wisdom, its word is correctness. Its love is always fidelity, its beauty is the path of life.
5-This body, soul, intellect, heart, and sense; all are shells. You reach the essence, let not the shells be a veil there.
6-Seek in your heart the ascension (miʿrāj) of union with the nafs-i nāṭiqa. Otherwise, every spark will burn the body, thinking it is a mere image.
7-O Haqqī! He who knows the Truth has known his nafs. Whether young or old, in that soul, the hardship of imitation does not remain.