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Cosmology and Architecture in Premodern Islam from the whole, we call it, with reference to this dissociation, a “letter.” And when we consider its aspects, properties, accidents, and concomitants in association with the essence, we call it, with reference to its association with the whole, a “word.” And with regard to the abstraction of every being from the additions and relations, and to the distinction from one another, they are called “isolated, disjointed letters.”143 And with regard to the nonabstraction of beings from the additions and relations, and to the nondistinction from one another, they are called “composed utterances.” And with regard to the distinction of the universal states of Being from one another, and to every being falling under one state, they are called “chapters” (sura).144
The attribute of knowledge, as already discussed, is the first determination of the divine Essence. In the context of alphabetical symbolism, manifestation becomes the “book” that contains the divine knowledge. Here Sufis articulate two concepts concerning the detailed and summarized versions of the “book.” “Know O well-supported son that the world is two-fold, the world of command and the world of creation, and that each is a book from God’s many books, and that each has an opening, and that all that is detailed in the book is summed up in the opening. So with regard to summing up what is detailed in the book, the opening is called the ‘mother of the book’ (umm al-kitab), and with regard to unpacking what is summed up in it, this state of detailing is called the ‘clear book’ (al-kitab al-mubin).”145 Both concepts derive from the Quran, which is referred to as the “clear book” and its opening chapter (al-fatiha, “that which opens”) as the “mother of the book.” A hadith takes this process of miniaturization further to the point of the first letter.146 The opening chapter comprises seven verses that are seen as corresponding to the seven principal divine names, which are called the “mothers of the names.” Just as these seven names contain all the divine names, so likewise al-fatiha contains in synoptic form all the truths revealed in the book.147 Understood as signifying the potential and actual modes of being, the Sufis have applied both concepts at various levels of existence. Consistently, the “mother of the book” refers to the maternal source wherein all is potentially latent, whereas the “clear book” refers to the projected state where the undifferentiated totality is revealed in differentiated forms. At the divine level, the Essence, in that all divine realities are latent within it, is designated as the “mother of the book,” whereas God’s knowledge of himself, which reveals these realities in the form of the names, is designated as the “clear book.” In the world of archetypes, the Pen, in that all cosmic realities are latent within it, is designated as the “mother of the book,” whereas the Preserved Tablet, which reveals these realities as cosmic forms, is designated as the “clear book.” In the world of nature, the Throne (al- arsh), in that