ILLUMINATION IN ISLAMIC MYSTICISM
70
enough
to
upon doing so comprehend what happens
lift this veil, shall
93
to the interlocutor (al-kalim)
A
at the time of discoursing.
tiny gesture suffices as a hint to the intelligent, voice.
While another must hear a loud Evidence
:
The chosen
in knowledge.
He
the vision.
gnostic
is
They reckon not folded, even
is
whom commoners
not one with
His
his secrets.
lights
share
appear not to
when he spreads out and
vanishes
while light dawns. I
Time behind
hid myself from
his
wing
eye sees Time while he sees the days of me, they know me not
So
that
me
my
Ask Of my whereabouts
they
know
not.
;
not either.
THE ELEVENTH ARTICLE
An
Article on Annihilation
"
Said Allah, the Exalted,
Aim (manza
f
)
:
The
Every one on
it
must be annihilated."
reality of annihilation is passing
and
95
94
away, even ex-
you wish, you may say that the annihilation of the novice (al-murid) is the purification of self from tinction, vanishing
decline.
If
defilement, while the annihilation of the desired object (al-murad) signifies the adoption by it of the attributes of sanctification. You also say that the annihilation of the traveller means his divorce from dependence on lights (al-anwar) while that of the gnostic means his divorce from the contemplation of the glance of others
may
,
(aghyar). In other words, you may say that annihilation is the passing of I-ness (al-aniyah) and the eradication of rudiments (al-
68
Al-Kalim or Kallm Allah
9i
Koran
08
On
Mass H,
55
:
say [26b] that annihilation
may
baqiyah)** Lastly, you
is
complete
an epithet especially associated with Moses.
is
26.
the subject of annihilation, fanti,', a mine of information see Index. For the earliest notions on /ana' reference
to abu-al-Hudhayl, better
known
who
as al-'Allaf,
is
provided in be made
may
taught that everything
is
bound for destruction, creatures, Paradise and Hell; abu-Mansur al-Baghdadi, al-Farq Bayn al-Firaq, ed. Philip K. Hitti, Cairo, 1924, p. 101. This doctrine is mentioned on the epitaph of Dhu-al-Nun al-Misri, d. 243/859, pub. by Bull. Instit. fr. archeol. Or., Cairo,
Qadir 86
al-Jilani, d. 561/1166.
Cf.
Mass H, tome
ii,
t.
ix, pp. 13,
14;
it
See al-Shattanawfi,
p. 525.
was p. 79.
later
adopted by 'Abd-al-