Sep 8, 2013 ... He quotes the Qur'anic verses al-Inshirah, the 'expansion', and the ... 395) on the
Fusus al-Hikam, where Ibn al-Arabi has explained that what ...
Halqa Meeting of September 8, 2013 Abdul Hayy: Adding to our last session about a human being's potential for directly experiencing his or her own spirituality, Rumi compares that capacity to the prophetic potential for revelation. He quotes the Qur'anic verses al-Inshirah, the 'expansion', and the famous verse, He is with you wherever you are, to make his point. This is from the Masnawi, Book V, verses 1065 through 1083: Though subtleties are held in the seeker’s heart, there is not yet the knowing of those secrets, until their unfolding makes the heart radiant, and God recites, “Have We not expanded?” 1 For it's in the breast that We gave your ‘expansion’. We have deposited the ‘expansion’ in your breast and yet, you still you seek it outside of yourself. You're a dairyman, why go to others for milk? There’s a limitless source of milk within you, why are you still searching for it in a pail? O lake, you have a channel going to the sea; Shame on you for seeking water from a puddle! Has “Did not We expand?” not unveiled it for you? How did you end up a seeker of ‘openings’ and a beggar? Behold the ‘expanding of the heart’ within yourself so as not to be faulted with, “Do you not see?” 2 On the verse, He is with you wherever you are: A full basket of bread is up on your head while you go door to door begging for crusts. Reach to your own head, quit this foolery! Knock on the heart's door, why any other? You’re standing there knee-deep in a stream unaware of yourself, asking others for water. There's ample water in front and back of you, but your eyes are barred in front and back. A saddled rider seeking his horse is asking, "What’s this?" "A horse!” “Where’s the horse?" "Hey! Isn't that a horse right there under you?" 1
Qur’an, Surah 94, verse 1, “Have We not opened up your breast?”
2
Qur’an: “In the Earth there are ‘signs’ for those who have ‘certainty’, and within yourselves. Will you not see?”
"Yes," he says, "but who has ever seen a horse?" He’s mad with thirst and water is in front of him; he’s in the water but not aware of it flowing by. Like a pearl he asks, "Where is the ocean?" and that fantasy like the shell is his barrier. Asking, "Where is it?" becomes his veil, his cloud screening the sun's radiance. His failing eye is the blinder on his eye: Removing the barrier has become a barrier. Self-awareness is also what plugs his ear; O ecstatic one, be aware [of Spirit!] 3
Abdul Hayy: Let us also consider the following words by Khwarazmi in his commentary (page 395) on the Fusus al-Hikam, where Ibn al-Arabi has explained that what 'enlightenment' is really about is that the Sufi becomes a 'rememberer' (mutazakir) of the inherent primordial spiritual insights that God had bestowed upon his or her essence in Pre-eternity. Khwarazmi elucidates: "The spiritual insights of this tribe (the Sufis) are ecstatic in nature; These are insights which are revealed to the Sufis whenever their hearts are purified of the obscurities of worrying, thinking, and imagining. When purified, they become 'rememberers' of those spiritual insights latent in their hearts which flow to them as pure gifts from the Station of Sanctity, neither acquired nor strived after." Abdul Hayy: The clarification of the heart described in this passage is best achieved through clearminded, open-hearted zikr , the remembrance of Spirit, in which the 'rememberer' remains present, awake, and attentive to the Spirit within. Clear and focused awareness on the Divine Presence and the letting go of mental and emotional entanglements prepare the heart for the emergence of the Self-luminous Divine Awareness.
3
For this treatment on hoosh, awareness, compare with line 14 of Book I, “The one intimate with this awareness is whoever is unaware (of himself). The [divine] ‘tongue’ has no buyer [for the divine Words] except the [passive, selfnegated] ear.”
