Gnosis of God
Allah, the Almighty, has said, “I only created genii and mankind that they may serve Me” (Qur’an: 51:56). Serving cannot be done without knowing one: how does ‘One’ want to be served and what one is to serve? Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) has said, “If ye knew God as He ought to be known, ye would walk on the seas, and the mountains would move at your call.”
Gnosis is of two kinds:
- Cognitive (ilmi) is the foundation of all blessings in this world, and the next, most important thing for a man at all times in all circumstances is knowledge of God.
- Emotional (Hali): Gnosis is the life of the heart through God and the turning away of one’s innermost thoughts from all that is not God.
Knowing God is the duty of humankind, but most of the time, they neglect this duty, except those whom God has chosen and whose hearts He hath vivified with Himself.
Everyone’s worth is proportional to gnosis, and a person without gnosis is worth nothing.
Theologians, clergy, scholars and other learned persons give the name gnosis (ma`rifat) to right cognition (`ilm) of God, but Sufi Shaykhs call right feeling (hal) towards God by that name. They all agree that gnosis (ma`rifat) is more excellent than cognition (`ilm), for right feeling (hal) is the result of right cognition, but one who has no cognition of God is not always a Gnostic (`arif), but one may have cognition of God without being gnostic.
The Mutazillites assert that gnosis is intellectual and that only a rational (originally used is reasonable) person (`aqil) can have it. Others pretend that demonstration (istidlal) is the cause of knowledge of God and is not gained by anyone except those who can deduce in such a manner. Allah The Almighty has said, “Knowledge of Me depends on My Will.” (Qur’an: 6:111). According to conventional Muslim belief, soundness of reason and regard to evidence are a means (sabab) to gnosis, but not the cause (`illat) thereof: the sole cause is God’s Will and favor, for without His favor (inayat) reason is blind. Man’s only guide and enlightener is God; all human faculties are just tools, and all human emotions, feelings, and perceptions are just means, but the real and only cause is God’s favor alone.
When the commander of the faithful, Ali `ibn Talib, was asked about gnosis, he said, “I know God by God, and I know that which is not God by the light of God.” Allah The Almighty says in the Qur’an: “I am the Creator of Light in which believers are illumined.” And It is God that opens and seals the hearts of men.” (Qur’an: 39:23) & (2:6). God has created the body and committed its life to the spirit (jan), and He created the soul (dil) and committed its life to Himself; reason and all other human faculties have no power to make the body live with the spirit or to enliven the soul.
Piety as means of gnosis
God has imposed the obligation of piety, which is essentially gnosis, but only with the favor of the imposer. Unless God makes him know, man’s share in gnosis is mere helplessness. Abu `l Hassan Nuri has said, “There is none to point out the way to God except God Himself: knowledge is sought only for the due performance of His worship.”
Ordinary objects of search are found employing demonstration, but knowledge of God is extraordinary and attained by unceasing the reason’s bewilderment. Any act of human acquisition does not procure his favor but is miraculously revealed to men’s hearts.
Reason on the way to gnosis
Reason may only affirm the substance of gnosis, for gnosis involves negating whatever is affirmed by reason, i.e., whatever notion of God can be formed by reason, God is something different in reality. Reason and imagination are homogenous; where genus is confirmed, gnosis is denied. To infer the existence of God from intellectual proofs is assimilation “tasbih,” and to deny it on the same grounds is nullification “tatil.” Reason cannot pass beyond these two principles, which, in gnosis, are agnosticism.
Egoism and Gnosis
Reason goes as far as possible to attain knowledge of God but fails; Man grows restless and raises his hands for supplication and relief of his soul; when thoroughly exhausted, God grants their wish: His power becomes theirs, and they enjoy and rest in peace in a garden of intimacy. However, reason again comes to the fore and tries to gain control, but fails again, becomes distraught, and abdicates. Then God clothes it in the garment of service (khidmat) and says to it:
“While thou wert independent, thou wert veiled by the faculties and their exercise, and when these were annihilated thou didst fail, and having failed thou didst attain.”
God causes man to know Him through Himself with a knowledge that is not linked to any faculty, in which the existence of Man is merely metaphorical. Hence, to Gnostic egoism, egoism is utter perfidy; his remembrance of God is without forgetfulness, and his gnosis is not an empty word but an actual feeling.
Gnosis is result of inspiration (ilham)
It is impossible because gnosis supplies a criterion for distinguishing truth from falsehood, whereas the inspired have such a criterion. If gnosis is to be judged and verified by the standard of the sacred law, then gnosis does not depend on inspiration but on law, prophecy, and Divine Guidance.
Knowledge of God is Intuitive (daruri)
It is also impossible because, in such a case, everything that is known in this way must be known by all rational persons, and we see some rational persons deny the existence of God and hold the doctrines of assimilation (tasbih) and nullification (tatil). Moreover, if so, the principle of religious obligation (taklif) would be destroyed, for that principle cannot be applied to objects of intuitive knowledge, such as one’s self, the heaven, earth, day and night, pleasure and pain, etc.
Some aspirants consider absolute certainty (yaqin), which they feel, says: “We know God intuitively,” giving the name of intuition to this certainty. Substantially, they are right, but their expression is erroneous because intuitive knowledge cannot be exclusively restricted to perfect people; on the contrary, it belongs to all rational persons.
Certainty (yaqin)
Man’s certainty in gnosis may be greater or less, but the principle of gnosis is neither increased nor diminished since it would be impaired in either case. You must not let blind conformity enter your knowledge of God; you must know Him through His attributes of perfection. Such a certitude can be attained only through the providence and favor of God, who controls our minds.
False Pretension
The gnostic’s affirmation of a means is a sign of dualism (zunnar), and regard to anything except the object of knowledge is polytheism (shirk). When a man is doomed to perdition in the Preserved Tablet, nay in the will and knowledge of God, how can any proof and demonstration lead him aright? Dhu `l Nun, the Egyptian, has said, “Beware lest thou make pretensions to gnosis,”
“The Gnostics pretend to knowledge,
But I know ignorance: that is my knowledge.”
Do not claim gnosis, lest thou perish in thy pretension, but cleave to the reality, and thou may be saved. The real gist of gnosis is knowing God’s Will and absolute power “qadar.” When it is realized that God duly possesses everything and is under his due control, he is left with no business with humanity. All veils are gone as ignorance is annihilated, and this life is equal to life hereafter.
Gnostics’ Comments about Gnosis
Abdallah b. Mabbarak said, “Gnosis is not being astonished by anything,” while Shibli declared, “Gnosis is continual amazement (hayrat).” Amazement is of two kinds:
• Amazement at the essence &
• Amazement at quality
The former is polytheism and infidelity since no doubt is allowed regarding the essential nature of God, but the latter is gnosis because the quality of God lies beyond reason’s scope.
Dhu `l Nun the Egyptian has said, “Gnosis is, in reality, God’s providential communication of the spiritual light to our inmost hearts,” i.e. until God, in His providence, illuminates the heart of Man and keeps it from contamination, so that all created things have not even the worth of a mustard-seed in his heart, the contemplation of Divine mysteries, both inward and outward, does not overwhelm him with rapture.
Abu Yazid has said, “Gnosis consists in knowing that the motion and rest of mankind depend on God” and that without his permission, no one has the least control of His kingdom.
Muhammad b. Wasi has thus described Gnostics: “His words are few and his amazement perpetual.” Shibli has added, “Real gnosis is the inability to attain gnosis,” i.e., the inability to know a thing, to the real nature of which a man has no clue except the impossibility of attaining it.
Who and What am I?
A man always faces such questions when Allah The Almighty is the object of Man’s search, the accomplisher of their prayers, and the author of their amazement. When he knows God, he sees himself as entirely subdued by the divine omnipotence. Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) has said,
“ He who knows himself has come to know his Lord,”
i.e., he who knows himself to be annihilated knows God to be eternally subsistent. Annihilation destroys reason and all human attributes, and when the substance of a thing is not assessable to reason, it cannot be known without amazement.
Passion for Gnosis
Abu Hafs Haddad has said: “Since I have known God, neither truth nor falsehood has entered my heart.” When a man feels desire and passion, he turns to the soul (dil) so that it may guide him to the lower soul (nafs), which is the seat of falsehood, and when he finds the evidence of gnosis, he also turns to the soul so that it may guide him to the spirit, which is the source of truth and reality.
Abu Bakr Wasiti has said, “ He who knows God is cut off from all things, nay, he is dumb and abject, i.e., he is unable to express anything, and all his attributes are annihilated. So Hazrat Muhammad (SAW), as he was in a state of absence, has said,
“I am the most eloquent of the Arabs and non-Arabs”;
But when he was borne to the presence of God, he said:
“I know not how to utter Thy praise.”
Answer came:
“O Muhammad, if thou speakest not, I will speak; if thou deemest thyself unworthy to praise Me, I will make the Universe thy deputy, that all its atoms may praise Me in thy name.”
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