BASÎRAH – بصيرة

 

Literally: Caution. Circumspection. Watchfulness. Care. Attention. Prudence. Anything that serves to warn. A signal, warning, admonition. An evident or convincing proof.

The causes of hidâyah. The careful attention arising from îmân that penetrates the haqiqah of things. Farâsah. Understanding the haqiqah by the heart through feeling it. The sacred power (quwwa) in the heart that knows the haqiqah of things.

The black point of the heart, which is called Sawâd al-qalb, Sawda al-qalb, Aswad al-qalb, Suwaydâ al-qalb, is known as the place of basîrah. Some former muhaqqiqîn described this place as the place of religious ‘ilms. This point of the heart is the place of misery, rebellion and sin for kâfirs and deniers, but basîrah and understanding for mu’mins. Some ‘ulamâ have said that it consists of the mind (aql), which is the inner part of the heart.

 

“The Nûr of the Mind Comes From the Heart

The illuminated people who are in darkness should know that the nûr of thoughts cannot be enlightened without the light of the heart.

So long as that nûr and this light are not blended, there is darkness, producing dhulm and ignorance. The darkness of sham garbed in nûr.

If the white of the eye, which resembles daytime, white but darkened, is not combined with the black pupil, which resembles lightened night, it is not an eye, it will see nothing. Sight without basîrah is also worth nothing.

So, if the black point of the heart1 is not present in the white of thought, the miscellaneous information in the mind will produce no ‘ilm or basîrah. There can be no mind without the heart.” The Words ( 739 )

 

“KNOW, O FRIEND, that “bejewelled and fashioned artistically made” creatures are seen with the power of sight, and that the basîrah’s inability to see As-Sâni’ is due to its absence of basîrah, inability to conceive the matter’s greatness, or khidhlan2 . Denying As-Sâni’ would otherwise be much more ridiculous than denying the power of sight like the sophists.” Al-Mathnawi Al-Nuri (210)

 

“nûr cannot be held in the hand nor hunted with the fingers; it can be hunted only with the nûr of basîrah. If you stretch out a grasping, physical hand and weigh it on material scales, even if it is not extinguished, it will hide itself. For just as such nûr will not be content to be imprisoned in matter, so too it may not be restricted, nor accept dense things as its lord and master.” The Flashes ( 176 )