From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nagasiva) Newsgroups: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.sufi,alt.islam.sufism,alt.consciousness.mysticism,alt.religion.gnostic,talk.religion.misc,talk.religion.newage Subject: YahyaM: Al Hallaj and Sufism Date: 12 Sep 1997 12:49:23 -0700 Organization: Bay Junction Technology, Inc. Lines: 86 Sender: tyagi@news.bjt.net Message-ID: <5vc6c3$r3i@bay1.bjt.net> Reply-To: YahyaM@aol.com X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 (NOV) NNTP-Posting-Host: bay1.bjt.net Path: bridge!not-for-mail Xref: bridge alt.magick.tyagi:14882 alt.sufi:2568 alt.islam.sufism:2868 alt.consciousness.mysticism:13100 alt.religion.gnostic:8746 talk.religion.misc:323840 talk.religion.newage:80011 [from tariqas@world.std.com: YahyaM@aol.com] Uzma << 'When I [Allah] love my servant...I become the hearing with which he hears, the seeing with which he sees, the hand with which he grasps, the feet with which he walks, the tongue with which he speaks.' Hadith qudsi (Divine saying) Thus, it could be that Allah (swt) had become the tongue with which Al-Hallaj spoke when he said 'I am God', could it not? >> Yes indeed. Sufism offers the only explanations of this I've ever heard that make sense. You will hear some groups saying that their favorite avatar or incarnation is God. Various Eastern groups say (for example): "Meher Baba is God!" "Maharaj Ji is God!" "Da Jones is God!" "_____ [fill in the blank] is God!", etc., etc., etc., ad infinitum. In the West all this deification is concentrated in one individual: "Jesus Christ is God!" Neither the Hindus nor the Christians, to my understanding, have done a satisfactory job of explaining this identification of the beings of the limited and contingent human realm with the Unlimited Absolute. The theology goes something like: God condescended to take on human form for the salvation of humanity. This still doesn't explain how such a drastic ontological contradiction can be. The Sufis have succeeded in explaining it without contradiction. In fana' the individual human nafs is gone--THERE'S NOBODY THERE ANY MORE! Allah is the ever-present Reality all along. Take away the limited and contingent, and Allah is always there just the same, and with the nafs out of the way, you can see Him more clearly. Thus al-Hallaj wasn't saying "I am al-Haqq!" from his nafs, because his nafs wasn't there. When Bayazid al-Bastami said, "There is nothing in this jubbah but Allah," he wasn't deifying his nafs--he was remarking on its absence. Rumi said: What is the mirror of being? Nonbeing. Bring nonbeing as your gift, if you are not a fool. Ayeneh-ye hasti cheh bashad -- nisti Nisti bar gar to ablah nisti (Masnavi, I:3201) Rumi also explained about al-Hallaj: The baptism of God is the dyeing vat of Hu, Gods absoluteness, in which all colors become one. When the contemplative falls into that vat and you say, "Come out," He says, "I am the vat. Dont blame me." That "I am the vat" means the same as "I am God." The red-hot iron has taken on the color of fire. Sebghat Allah hast khom-e rang-e Hu pis-ha yek rang gardad andaru Chon dar an khom oftad va guyish qom az tarab guyad manam khom la talomm An manam khom khvod ana al-Haqq goftanast rang-e atesh darad ella ahanast (Masnavi, II:1345-1347) Also the quote from Fakhr al-Din al-`Iraqi that Mohsen just shared with us bears repeating: The glass has become transparent And the wine so clear That they merged and became the one like the other It is as though there is wine without a cup Or a cup without wine Picture that image and you will see what the Sufis are trying to tell you. -- (emailed replies may be posted);join the AMT syncretism!!;call: 408/2-666-SLUG! see http://www.abyss.com/tokus; "Clement of Rome taught that God rules the world with a right and a left hand, the right being Christ, the left Satan." - CGJung