-- provisional translation
He is God!
Those pre-eminent Sufis who founded the doctrine of the
"unity of existence" [wahdat al-wujud] never intended by this term
the universally predicated existence which is conceived by the mind. For such
an existence is but an accident among others occurring in association with the
realities of things. That is to say, these realities are the substance
[jawhar], whereas that existence which is conceived by the mind, the
universally predicated existence, is but an accident associated with them.
Rather, what these pre-eminent figures have alluded to is an
existence compared to which the realities of all things are mere accidents. By
this is intended an existence that is pre-eternal [qadim] whilst all other
things are contingent [hadith]. Thus, the existence to which they refer is that
ineffable Reality whereby all things are realized, or, in other words, by
virtue of which all things subsist, but which itself remaineth self-subsistent
above the heavens and the earth. The
words "He is the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsistent" [Qur'an 2:255 and
3:2] bear witness to the truth of this utterance. And since that existence
whereby all things are realized is one, there is "unity of
existence."
The generality of the Sufis, however, conceive of that
ineffable Reality as having resolved itself [hulul] into countless forms, as
hath been said:
The sea hath ever been the sea.
And all contingent things its waves and forms
This world resembleth ice, and Thee
Thou art the water at its very source.
In other words, although that ineffable Reality defieth all
description, they found themselves obliged to describe it, and hence termed it
"existence." In brief, the generality of the Sufis hold that the
existence which is above all description and beyond all understanding is like
unto the sea, and the realities of all things are even as its waves. Although
the waves continually ebb and flow, the sea remaineth ever the same and
unchanged.
But in the eyes of the people of Truth, the Baha'is, that
unseen and unknowable Being is like unto the sun, which hath dawned above all
things and from whose rays all creatures, whether mineral, plant, animal, or
human, obtain illumination. That is to say, its effulgent rays shine upon them
all and they, in turn, reflect faithfully its light. Thus, if thou dost gaze
upon the stone, the earth, the plant, the animal, and man, thou wilt find them
one and all to be partaking of the bounty of the sun. In like manner, although
the realities of all created things are the recipients of the bounty of the
Daystar of Truth, the latter doth not descend from its heights of holiness and
sanctity, nor doth it resolve itself into contingent beings. "No thing is
there but that it containeth a sign betokening His oneness."[Attributed to
Abu'l-'Atahiyah]
