You cannot know your Lord by making yourself nothing. Many a wise man claims that in order to know one’s Lord one must denude oneself of the signs of one’s existence, efface one’s identity, finally rid oneself of one’s self. This is a mistake. How could a thing that does not exist try to get rid of its existence? For none of matter exists. How could a thing that is not, become nothing? A thing can only become nothing after it has been something. Therefore, if you know yourself without being, not trying to become nothing, you will know your Lord. If you think that to know Allah depends on your ridding yourself of yourself, then you are guilty of attributing partners to Him – the only unforgivable sin because you are claiming that there is another existence besides Him, the All-Existent: that there is you and a He.
Our Master, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon Him), said: He who knows himself knows his Lord.
The answer to this question is: Allah Most high exists and none other exists with Him. He is now as He has always been.
If one sees oneself as other than the only existence which is Him, or if one does not see oneself as a part of Him, then the answer came from the Messenger of Allah when he said, “He who knows himself, knows his Lord.” He did not mean by ‘self’ one’s ego – that self which favors the pleasures of the flesh and its lowly desires and which tries to command all of one; nor did he mean the self that first deceives – making one believe that the dirt and the ugliness is proper, then flagellates itself for the wrong it has done and forgets and does it again; nor did he mean the self-satisfied self. He meant one’s truth, one’s reality. When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed and said: O my Lord, show me the reality of things.
What he meant by ‘things’ was those things that appear to be other than Allah. He meant, “Teach me those things other than You. What is all this around me? Let me know. These things – are they You, or are they other than You? Did they exist before or did they come to be? Are they here forever or are they going to pass away?”
And Allah showed him that the ‘things’ had no being and He showed ‘them’ to be Him, and it was seen that all appeared as other than Allah was His being. He was shown things without a name, without time, without quality, as the essence of Allah.
About: 'The One Alone' is an esoteric essay on transcendental unity by celebrated twelfth-century Spanish mystic Ibn Arabi who is considered by many the greatest master of Sufism, may God hallow his station. The essay is published as part of the book, Divine Governance of the Human Kingdom from FonsVitae.
Wrapped in ultimate paradox, the doorway of enlightenment and marifa (Divine Gnosis) is summarized in its totality in the opening verse of a short illuminated chapter in the Final Testament by this:
# Further: Click here to read an excerpts from "The One Alone," a famous treatise by 13th-century Sufi master Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi. The whole essay is only 20 pages, and is a marvel of precision and intensity. Some call it as Islam's "Tao Te Ching".
Every day, every hour, every moment the light of Love illuminates and expands the way our heart sees, feels, and connects with the Presence of the Divine within all hearts, within all life, guiding and revealing the way we are seen and known by a creative Presence that is so beyond our comprehension, every description we ever form will dissolve and change as we share the words.
Any claim to stand apart from this creation process is laughable and impossible, for we are created, sustained by, and contained within this indefinable unlimitedness that dissolves theories as fast as the greatest minds can invent them. There is no power, no evil, no darkness that could stand against what cannot ever be imagined or contained or fixed, as everything created changes as we behold even a microscopic particle manifested by such beingness.
The ever unfolding miracle is how pure love flows and appears in this confusion as a gentle breathing and compassionate nearness emanating from the heart waves of our longing for love, which creates a being out of our own wholeness manifesting a spiritual likeness as an answer to our prayerful longing.
What can be created once can be multiplied to infinity, and a desire to live many lives can be granted in the blink of an eye. To be mercifully contained within a closed loop, where we sustain the illusion that everything stays the same is an equally possible and numbing choice.
Random thoughts throw us into changing realities without pattern or goal and leave us spinning in unknown dimensions of a randomly created existence, and like Alice in Wonderland, we wander aimlessly in the moving clouds of an errant dream.
Mind alone says God is a network of membranes, imagining we live in elongated bubbles that separate and create worlds beyond where our miniature minds can go. Is God playing with us as He unravels everything we ever believed or made?
Only one reality guides us into the arms of a Beloved that becomes our home beyond the morphing mania of our minds. It is surrendering to divine Love to grant our heart's deepest desire.
All else is vanity and delusion luring us away from the destiny for which we were created, to love and be loved in a blissful stream of unfolding wonder, holding the hand of a Beloved Friend that reveals the unending, ever changing miracle of life evolving in the light of love.
"You will not enter the Garden of Divine Presence until you have faith and you will not have faith until you love one another." - Sacred Tradition of Islam (Muslim)
"When a man asked the prophet, may God's peace and blessings be upon him, "O Messenger of God, when will the Day of Judgment be?", the Prophet asked him back, "What have you prepared for it?" he said, "I have not prepared for it a great deal of prayer, fasting nor charity, but I love God and His Messenger intensely," the Prophet said, "You will be with the ones whom you love." - Narrated by Bukhari
"Where are those who love each other for the sake of My glory? Today I will shelter them with My shade, as there is no shade today except My shade" - God Almighty speaks on the Day of Final Awakening (narrated by Muslim)