hayāl-i muṭlaq (Sufi Terminology)

By hayāl-i muṭlaq (absolute imagination) is meant the amā (the Cloud). This level renders the absolutely subtle (imperceptible) Necessary Being (Wājib-i Subḥānahū) into a dense (perceptible) form, for there, He manifests in the mode of the possible. It also renders the absolutely dense—that is, the nonexistent and the possible—into a subtle form, for here, He does not manifest in the mode of the Necessary. It is nothing other than existence (wujūd). The hayāl-i muṭlaq is the barzakh (isthmus) between the absolutely subtle and the absolutely dense. The essence of the separated (munfaṣil) imagination (hayāl) that is amā is the Breath of the All-Merciful (nafas al-Raḥmān). For when the Breath becomes dense, amā appears. Indeed, this is the Breath itself... This consists purely of existence (wujūd). (Asfār, 130) (See also: amā)