RAHMÂNIYYAH – رحمانية

 

Being Rahmân. The attribute, the title and the haqiqah which arise from the Name Ar-Rahmân.

 

“If you want to witness one manifestation of the beauties of Al-Jamîl Zuljalâl's Names in the mirrors of beings, take a look with a gazing, wide, imaginative eye at the face of the earth supposing it to be a small garden and know; the terms like rahmâniyyah, rahîmiyyah, hakîmiyyah, and ‘âdiliyyah allude to both the names, and acts, and attributes, and shuûn of Janâb-i Haqq.

Observe the rizq of foremost man and of all living creatures, which arrives regularly from behind the veil of the ghayb, and see the beauty (jamâl) of Ilahî rahmâniyyah.

Then consider the miraculous sustenance of all young, and the two pumps of milk hanging over their heads on the breasts of their mothers, as sweet and pure as the water of Kawthar, and see the captivating beauty (jamâl) of Rabbânî rahîmiyyah.” The Rays ( 86 )

 

“the haqiqah of rahmâniyyah:

That is, we see with our own eyes that there is one who has covered the face of the earth with thousands of gifts of rahmah, and made it into a feasting-place. He has laid out a spread of hundreds of thousands of the different delicious foods of rahmâniyyah and made the inside of the earth a storehouse containing thousands of precious bounties of rahîmiyyah and hakîmiyyah. He sends to us the earth, in its yearly rotation, like a ship or a train, laden with the finest of the hundreds of thousands of necessities of human and life, every year from al-‘âlam al-ghayb; and He sends to us too the spring, like a waggon carrying food and clothing for us. Thus does he nurture us, with the utmost compassion. In order for us to profit from those gifts and ni’mahs, He has moreover given us hundreds and thousands of appetites, needs, feelings, sensations and senses.

As was set forth in the Fourth Ray concerning the âyah on حَسْبُنَا اللّٰهُ وَنِعْمَ الْوَكِيلُ , He has given us a stomach that can take pleasure in infinite varieties of food.

He has favoured us such a life that through the senses associated with it we can derive benefit from the innumerable ni’mahs of the vast corporeal ‘âlam, just as if it were some spread of ni’mah.

He has favoured us with the human state so that we delight in the boundless gifts of both the material and ma’nawî ‘âlams, through instruments such as the mind and the heart.

He has conveyed Islam to us so that we derive nûr from the boundless treasuries of al-‘âlam al-ghayb and al-‘âlam ash-shahâdah.

He has granted us an îmân through hidâyah so that we are illumined by the innumerable nûrs and gifts of the ‘âlams of this world and the âkhirah. This universe is like a palace adorned by rahmah with innumerable antiques, wonders and valuable things. And then given to man's hands the keys to open all the chests and chambers in that palace, as well as bestowing on man's fitrah all the needs and senses that will enable him to make use all of them.

A rahmah that embraces this world and the âkhirah and all things, indeed that rahmah, is without doubt manifestation of an Ahadiyyah within Wâhidiyyah.

That is, just as the light of the sun is an example of Wâhidiyyah, through its comprehending all things that face it, according to their ability every bright and transparent object, through receiving the light, heat, and seven colours of the sun and the reflection of its semblance is also an example of Ahadiyyah. Hence, whoever sees its all-embracing light will conclude that the sun of this earth is Wâhid and one. Witnessing the warm and luminous reflection of the sun in all bright objects, and even in drops of water, he will say that the Ahadiyyah of the sun, or the sun itself, is present with its attributes close to all things; it is at the heart mirror of everything.

So too the encompassing of all things by the extensive rahmah of Ar-Rahmân Zuljamâl, like a light, demonstrates the Wâhidiyyah of that Rahmân and that He in no way has any partner. Similarly, the fact that under the veil of that all-embracing rahmah the lights of most of Ar-Rahmân's Names and a sort of manifestation of His essence are found in everything, and especially in all living beings, and in man in particular, and the fact that this gives each individual a comprehensiveness arising from life which causes him to look to and be related to the whole universe, proves the Ahadiyyah of Ar-Rahmân and that He is present with all things and does all things in all things.

Yes, Ar-Rahmân shows the splendour of His glory (jalâl) in the whole of the universe and all over the earth through the Wâhidiyyah and comprehensiveness of that rahmah. So too, through the manifestation of Ahadiyyah, in each animate beings, particularly in man, He gathers together in that individual the specimens of all ni’mahs, through transmitting them to the tools and instruments of that animate being and ordering, also through causing the wholeness of the universe (without shattering) to be given to that single individual like his own house in one aspect, He proclaims the special compassion of His beauty (jamâl) and makes known that the various forms of His bounty are centred in man.

Similarly, a melon (for example) is concentrated in each of its seeds; the One who makes the seed must necessarily be he who makes the melon. Then, with the special balance of his ‘ilm and the particular law of his hikmah, he extracts the seed out from it, gathers it together and clothes it in a body. Nothing other than the one and Wâhid craftsman who makes the melon is able to make its seed. That would be impossible.

So too, since through the manifestation of rahmâniyyah the universe becomes like a tree, a garden, the earth becomes like a fruit, a melon, an animate being and man becomes like a seed, of a certainty Al-Khâliq and Ar-Rabb of the smallest animate being must be Al-Khâliq of all the earth and all the universe.

In Short: just as the making from a simple material and unfolding of the regular and orderly forms of all beings through the haqiqah of fattâhiyyah, which is comprehensive, proves wahdah to the point of being self-evident, so too the haqiqah of rahmâniyyah, which encompasses all things, through its nurturing of all animate beings that come into existence and enter the life of this world, particularly the newly arrived, with the utmost order and regularity, causing all necessities to reach them, forgetting none of them, this same rahmah reaching all individuals everywhere at the same instant demonstrates both wahdah and Ahadiyyah within wahdah.” The Rays (190-192 )