First Flash

Tawhîd is of two sorts. For example, if the various goods of a great man arrive in a market and a town, in two ways it is known that they are his. One is brief and in a way befitting ‘awâm, which is: “Possessing such significant goods is beyond everyone’s limits. No one apart from him can be the owner.” But under the supervision of such an ordinary and ignorant man, there can be a lot of theft. Many men might claim ownership of its parts. The second sort is this: One reads the writing on every large package and recognizes the signature on every roll; by knowing that great man’s seal on each brand, he says: "Everything belongs to that man." Here, in this sort, each thing in a ma’nawî manner points to the owner of the goods.

In the same way, tawhîd, too, is of two sorts:

One is tawhîd al-‘âmi and dhâhirî: "Janâb-i Haqq is One, He has no sharik or like. This universe is His."

The Second is tawhîd al-haqîqî: through seeing on everything the mark of His qoudrah, the seal of His rubûbiyyah and the embroidery of His pen, and opening a window directly onto His nûr from everything, it is to have îmân and confirm His oneness and that everything emerges from the hand of His qoudrah and He has no sharik or assistant in His ulûhiyyah, rubûbiyyah and sovereignty in any aspect, and to attain a sort of perpetual hudhur with a firm belief approaching the degree of shuhûd. In this Word, we, too, shall mention rays that point to this pure and elevated tawhîd al-haqîqî.

A Warning within the First Subtle Point: O ghâfil who performs ‘ibâdah to the causes! Causes are a veil. Because the dignity and grandeur of Allah require them to be thus. But it is the qoudrah of As-Samad Who works. Because tawhîd and glory (Jalâl) require it to be thus and necessitate independence. The officials of Azalî Sultân are not executives of the sovereignty of Rubûbiyyah but rather the heralds of that sovereignty and the observing supervisors of the Rubûbiyyah. Those officials and means are for demonstrating the dignity of Qoudrah and the majesty of Rubûbiyyah so that the connection of Qoudrah with the matters and things, which are insignificant and low, should not be seen. He did not take those officials as His shariks in His sovereignty due to His impotence and need like a human sultân in poverty and soiled with impotence. It means that causes have been placed so that the dignity of Qoudrah can be preserved in the superficial view of the mind. Because like the two faces of a mirror, everything has an aspect of “mulk”, which resembles the mirror's coloured face and can be an arena for various colours and states. The other is “malakût” which resembles the mirror's shining face. There are incompatible states with the dignity and perfection of As-Samad’s qoudrah in the aspect of mulk and outer face. Causes have been placed to be both the source and the means of those states. But in the aspect of malakût and haqiqah, everything is transparent and beautiful. It befits the connection of Qoudrah with it and is not incompatible with Its dignity, therefore, causes are apparent only; in the malakût of things and in haqiqah, they have no real effect.

Another hikmah of the creation of apparent causes is this: causes that will be the target of unjust complaints and bâtil objections have been placed lest those complaints and objections not be directed at the Absolute ‘Âdil. For the faults arise from causes, from their incapacity. A ma’nawî comparison is narrated in the form of a subtle example illustrating this mystery:

Hazrat ‘Azrâîl ‘alayhissalâm said to Janâb-i Haqq: "Your ‘abds will complain about me for my duty of seizing of the rûhs; they will be resentful towards me." Janâb-i Haqq said to him through the tongue of hikmah: "I shall put the veil of calamities and illnesses between you and my ‘abds so that the complaints will be directed at them and they will not be resentful towards you."

So look, just as illnesses are a veil and a source to which the things imagined to be bad at the appointed hour are referred; the hikmah and beauty, which are — in haqiqah — present in seizing of the rûhs, are connected with the duty of ‘Azrâîl ‘alayhissalâm. In the same way, Hazrat ‘Azrâîl is also a veil. He is a supervisor of that duty and a veil to qoudrah of Allah so that certain states at the time of seizing of the rûhs, which outwardly appear to be merciless and are not befitting to the perfection of rahmah, should be referred to him.

Yes, dignity and grandeur demand that the causes be a veil to the hand of qoudrah in the view of the mind, while tawhîd and glory (Jalâl) demand that the causes withdraw their hands from the real effect.