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THE "ILLUSION" IN MATHNAWI
The
"Illusion" in Mathnawî
Ahmed Yüksel
ÖZEMRE
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The "Illusion" According
to
Mawlânâ
Jalâl al-Dîn Rûmî
The "Illusion" (Al
Wahm) is, within
its simplest definition, the faculty to imagine as existent what, in fact,
doesn't exist. Mawlânâ states in his Mathnawî that the "Illusion" constitutes a
very big obstacle for people of wayfaring (Al
Sulûk)
(V/2649)1. It is such
a big obstacle that even a prophet like Abraham (Ibrâhim) unduly
declared for the star he observed in the sky: "This is my Lord (Al
Rabb)", because
the illusion and the imagination always veil the eyes and blind the perception
(V/2650); and that he also wanted to sacrifice his son because he deluded
himself believing in his dream as a veridical one, whereas his dream should have
been, in fact, adequately interpreted (Al
Saffât/100-107)2.
watch of an ogre such as the "Illusion", may only grasp entities of this world
and forsee only up to the tomb (IV/3311). Reasons even as solid as mountains
often annihilate themselves in the oceans of Illusion and of Imagination without
leaving any trace (V/2654), because the "Illusion" is the disaster of the Reason
(III/1558). The one who made himself the slave of the Reason, may sometimes
discern what a big obstacle was that for him, and may perhaps finally perceive
also that he was continuously fluttering in an ocean of Illusion and of
Imagination because his vanity prevented him to pay attention to the teaching of
those who already attained God (
vâsilîn)(IV/3353-3356). Wasn't it the Pharaoh who was quite rational and philosopher to
debate Moses (V/2660), but whose people excited his "Illusion" by proclaming him
as God (
Allâh) (III/1556)and who also defended his cause like a dragon with insatiable voluptuousness
stimulated by his illusion to possess the Divine Lordship? (III/1557). What a
big lesson to be learned from this edifying
example!
Voluptuousness is the opposite of Reason; and the origin of the voluptuous-ness
is not the Reason, but the "Illusion". The reason weaving and nourishing the
voluptuousness is not the Reason; it is just the "Illusion" which manifests
itself under the cover of the Reason. If the Reason is gold, the "Illusion" is
its counterfeit. The "Illusion" is in continuous war against the Reason; it
looks like the Reason, but it isn't like it at all! The relation of the
"Illusion" to the Reason is like that of the state of Pharaoh full of illusions
to the state of Moses, owner of the real Reason (or Al Aql al-Meâd as explained
inf.). The "Illusion belongs to
Pharaoh, the destroyer of worlds, whereas the Reason belongs to Moses, the
polisher of souls (IV/2301 and inf.)
veiled; it doesn't discern and see the
Truth (
AlHaqîqah
) (IV/3278).It is therefore often impossible to discern the "Illusion" from the Reason. For
this reason, we must apply an infallible touchstone to both of them in order to
prove what a big counterfeit is the "Illusion". And here the touchstones are
Qur'ân and the traditions of prophets(IV/2304).
the power of the "Illusion" and may simply become mad (III/1530). Any little
illusion may immediately induce doubt in hundred thousands of those who are
advocating
taqlîd (unconsciousimitation) and
istidlâl (logicaldeduction); because their unconscious imitations as well as their logical
deductions are based only on conjectures (I/2125-2126). But the conjectures
induce man to logical comparisons (
AlQiyâs
). The greaterror of
Iblîs, which alsocaused his fall, was his illusion to consider himself superior to
Âdam when hedeclared it by the means of a
qiyâs(
AlA'raf
/12).A qiyâs performed
with the aim to determine the direction of the
qiblah in a cloudyday or in the night is an adequate act. But when the Sun is shining in the sky
or when
Ka'bah is in frontof you, any
qiyâs, which mayvery well direct you to an illusion, is futile. Would it be an adequate
behaviour to surrender to the illusion of considering the
qiyâs as the onlykey of the truth and to discard the big
edifice in front of you? Of course, not!
(I/3404-3406).
What an edifying example is the case of
that man, who, having seen a hair hanging over his eyebrow, didn't discern it
exactly and surrendering himself to the "Illusion", beleived to be observing the
new crescent of Ramadan and went to caliph Omar to report his observation
(II/113-119). An another not less edifying example is the case of that stupid
man who believed that the bear rescued by him would forever be a devoted friend
full of comprehension, but who was killed asleep when the same bear wanted to
send away a disturbing fly off the face of
his saviour by a big stone (II/1932, 1970-1971,2124-2129).
Examples
of Illusion
Now, what is in reality this "Illusion"
which bewitched and dominated such quantities of intelligent men, engineers,
scientists, philosophers, sages and even prophets? Where does it originate from?
How and when does the domination of "Illusion" over the man come to an end? What
would be the qualities of the man freed from the
"Illusion"?
We already stated that the "Illusion"
(
AlWahm
) points outto the faculty to imagine as existent what doesn't exist in fact. This faculty
has also the potential to be easily transformed into the illness of defending a
faith or an opinion developed in the "Imagination" with insistence and without
thinking about its adequacy..
In one of his edifying tales in Mathnawî, Mawlânâ
relates how students excited the "Illusion" of their teacher and induced him to
believe that he really was ill, and how the teacher was so convinced about his
imaginary illness that even he repugnantly hated his wife who was telling him
according to her observation that he wasn't ill at all (III/1523 and inf.).
When Abraham decided that the star he
saw in the sky was indeed his Lord, his decision was only reflecting an
illusion. That was also his illusion which induced him to admit:
1) that theapparent reality of each fact observed in dreams (
Al 'Alam al-Mithâl) has apremonitory character, and
2) that itcorresponds without exception to a reality in the physical world
(
Al 'Alamal-Shahâdah
) we live in.And that was this illusion which
oriented him to sacrifice his son to God. Or such a correspon-dence doesn't
exist in full extend and for each dream. Each dream should be adequately
interpreted by a wise man who really holds the very "Science of Interpretation
of Dreams". The fact that the Angel brought him a ram to sacrifice instead of
his son, was indeed the realization of the true meaning of his dream, which
could also be obtained by an adequate
interpretation.
In the same manner Pharaoh had the
illusion to have the Godhood. Another remarkable case of illusion is that of
personal secretary of the Holy Prophet for divine revelations, before Othman
assumed this charge. The heart of this secretary was so illuminated by the light
of the revelations that he sometimes read the revealed verses before Muhammad!
This extraordinary intuition led him unfortunately to the illusion that he also
was an authentic and independent recipient of the divine revelations like the
Holy Prophet. He said: "Verses are
revealed to me too", and consequently refused to be obedient to Muhammad
(I/3227 and inf.).
The situation of 'Âishah, the cherished wife of the Holy
Prophet, is also full of lessons. Her case makes evident in what extend the
tragical and ominous dimensions of an illusion may be. In fact, 'Âishah had the
illusion to have personally
de jureresponsability as well as the political power to punish the assasins of Othman
and to restore the moral order amongst the muslims. She unduly accused 'Alî, the
forth caliph, cousin and son-in-law of the Holy Prophet, for the murder of Othman the third caliph and declared war on
'Alî, and doing so she has been the cause of much more dissensions as well as
the cause of the death of many of the believers.
The same situation is true for the case
of Mu'âwiyah, the governor of Damas-cus, whose voluptuousness for the political
power induced him to nourish the illusion that he had the right to rebel against
the caliph 'Alî, without taking into consideration not only the tragical
dissensions his act would induce in Islam but also the verse of the Qur'ân which
states: "O ye who believe! Obey Allah,
and obey the Prophet and those charged with authority (ûlî al-amr) among
you'" (
AlNisâ
/59).The Origin of the
"Illusion"
For the true
knowers (
Al'arifûn
) the"Illusion" is a ruse belonging to the soul (
AlNafs
), hinderingthe man to reach the truth (
AlHaqîqah
). The originof the illusion is therefore the soul itself. For this reason, the soul is the
mother of all the idols. But the soul itself is another idol. Any idol is like a
snake, but that of the soul is like a gigantic dragon
(I/772).
The soul has seven different faces: 1) Al Nafs
al-Ammârah
(the soulsugges-ting and commanding evil acts),
2) Al Nafs al-Lawwamah (the soulcriticizing and condemning itself),
3) Al Nafsal-Mulhimah
(the soulsubjected to all kind of inspiration)3
, 4) Al Nafsal-Mutmainnah
(the soulwho realized the state of trust),
5) Al Nafsal-Râdiyyah
(the soulwho is satisfied with God),
6) Al Nafsal-Mardiyyah
(the soulwith whom God is satisfied),
7) Al Nafs al-Kâmilah or Sâfiyyah (the soulwho reached the perfection or the purity). In each of these steps the "Illusion"
has many extremely specific ruses. The seven faces of the soul is called
Al Atwâral-Sab'a
or "TheSeven Attitudes (of the Soul)".
The "Illusion which appears in the step
of "Al Nafs al-Ammârah" is extrovert; and it manifests itself by means of
"suspicions" about others, whereas that which appears in the step of "Al Nafs
al-Lawwâmah" is introvert. It manifests itself by attributing to the soul
qualities or defects which are in fact non-existent. The majority of tales in
Mathnawî are edifying examples dealing with the activity of the "Illusion" in
both of these steps of the soul and narrated in the framework of quite shocking
scenarios.
The necessity to preserve oneself from
the "Illusion" is stated in
Qur'ân as in thefollowing verse:
pursue that of which thou hast no knowledge! In fact, all the acts of hearing
and of seeing as well as the heart are toghether responsible for that"
(AlIsrâ
/36).By the way, Qur'ân exhorts the
believers as follows:
seemed pleasant in your hearts and ye conceived a sinful conjecture. So ye are a
people who deserves to perish"
(AlFath
/12).believe! Avoid cojecture as much (as possible). Conjecture, in some cases, is in
fact a sin. And don't spy on each other nor speak ill behind their backs"
(AlHujurât
/12).them follow nothing but conjecture. Truly, conjecture avails nothing against the
Truth"
(
AlYûnus
/36, Al Najm/28).exhortations are unfortunately not strict-ly followed in the Islamic World, so
quantities of bad innovations, superstitions, myths and unrealistic questions,
all foreign to the faith, invaded religious applica-tions and behaviours. It is
not of rarity to meet persons who endeavour to give and to diffuse, in the name
of God or at least in the name of His Holy Prophet, conjectural opinions on
religious questions without refering neither to
Qur'ân nor to Sunnah.In today's world where the mass media
is dominant, we are witnessing the birth of a kind of
Industry of IllusionProduction
with adefinite task to enhance the "Illusion" in the people, to hinder the people to
have healthy thought, to engender suspicions against certain persons and
institutions and to be a powerful obstacle for the people to reach the truths.
This industry with its bosses, its big financial resour-ces, its networks of
telecommunication all around the World, its strategists, its planning experts,
its social engineers, its teams of applications, its representatives and its all
kind of agents is a damned diabolic instrument to enhance the "Illusion" and to
give rise to utopia, to conjectures, to suspicions and to collective paranoia in
the people.
In the "Holy
War" (
AlJihâd
), thebelievers ought to declare against the ignorance, the blamable acts and the
"Illusion", their only refuge is
Qur'ân and Sunnah. In fact,Qur'ân states as a good news that believers having fear of God will be bestowed
with
Furqân which is theholy power of discernment [of the good from the evil, of the favorable
(
AlHayr
) from thefatal (
AlShar
), of theclean from the filthy, of the meritorious act from the sin, of the right way
from the aberration, of the Islam from the "attribution of partners to God"
(
AlShirk
), of thewell founded science (
AlIlm
) from the"Illusion" (
AlWahm
), and of theTruth (
AlHaqîqah
) from theimagination or lie] (
AlAnfâl
/29).God promises
to facilitate the difficulties to whom who gives alms, who fears God and who
attest the best (
AlLayl
/5-7).Therefore, it is futile to be hopeless because God confirms the Truth by his own
words in spite of guilty sinner who hate It (
AlYûnus
/82); at theend, the lie is bound to perish (
AlIsrâ'
/81, AlAnbiyâ
/18). Thebeliever knows that the Truth is from the Lord; and for this reason, he is never
in doubt (
AlBaqarah
/147, Âli'Imrân
/60). For,outside of the Truth there is only error (
AlYûnus
/32). Verily,those who know aren't at all like those who don't know (
AlZumar
/9). God willgive a great reward to those who are "provided with a deep special knowledge"
(
AlRâsihûn
)(
AlNisâ
/162).Prophet says in his
hadîths (Suyûtî: Jâmi' al-saghîr):
- The Truth may
be known only by the veridical ones.
- To be
submitted to the Truth is better and much more honourable than to impose oneself
by the means of lie (
AlBâtil
). Whoeverwill impose oneself with lie, God will punish him by forced
humi-liation.
- To search for
the Truth entails "to be in a foreign land" (
AlGhur-bah
).
- Be veridical
one! For, veracity is one of the doors of the Paradise. Abstain from lying! For,
lying is one of the doors of the Hell.
- The men are
divided into two categories: the knowers and those who accumulate knowledge. Any
third category is futile.
- Woe is the
knower on account of the ignorant! Woe is the ignorant on account of the
knower!
- Woe is he who
doesn't know! Woe is he who couldn't protect what he
knew!
- Up to the end
of the world, a bunch from my community will con-tinuously be in Holy War to
defend the Truth and will be victo-rious.
clearly discern the differences between those who defend the Truth without
taking into consideration neither illusion nor suspicion, and those who esteem
to obtain advantages by lying.
Holy War Against The Soul
For
The
Annihilation of The
"Illusion"
Yaqîn means:
"
Knowledge which isabsolutely free from any kind of conjecture, suspicion, hesitation, imagination
and illusion
". The lastverse of the Sûrah
AlHijr
states: "Be obedient to your Lord until the Yaqîn will begiven to you!
". As theorigine of the "Illusion" is but the soul, so it becomes clear that, in order to
reach the certitude (
AlYaqîn
) in theaforementioned meaning, the bad acts of the soul must be, in any way,
annihilated. Therefore a Holy War (
AlJihâd
) against thesoul becomes necessary.
The jihâd is the Holy
War for God, i.e. fighting enemies in order to make the decrees of God dominant.
It is related that the Holy Prophet, coming back from a military engagement,
said: "You came back from the littlest
jihâd (
Al Jihâdal-Asghar
) to the greatest jihâd(
Al Jihâdal-Akbar
); this greatest jihâd is that one thebeliever declares against his soul" (Abdurraûf al-Munâwî: Kunûz al-haqâiq fî hadîthi hayr
al-halâyiq). This hadith which is in concordance with the following ones, is
concieved by the "people of wayfaring" (
AlSâliqûn
, i.e. bythose who are engaged in the way conducting to God) as a guide pointing out not
only to the importance of the Holy War against the soul, but also to its
rank:
- The holy
warrior (
AlMujâhid
) is the onewho is in holy war against his or her soul (Tirmidhî: Fedâ'i
al-Jihâd).
- The holy
warrior is the one who is, in holy war, against his or her soul for the purpose
to let it be obedient to God (Ahmad bin Hanbal: Musnad).
- Your
strongest enemy is your soul which dwells in you (Abdur-raûf al-Munâwî: op.cit.).
- The greatest
holy war is against the soul, against the earthly vain desires and passions
(Suyûtî: op.cit.).
- The most
virtuous holy war is (to have courage) to express, in the presence of a cruel
ruler, only words in keeping with justice (Ebû Dâvûd: Melâhim, Ibn Mâjah: Sunan, Tirmidhî: Fitan, Ahmad bin Hanbal: Musnad).
And Qur'ân
points out to the reality of the soul as follows:
- "Nor do I
abstain my soul (of all kind of blamable acts); the soul is certainly commanding
the evil, unless my Lord does bestow His Mercy. Verily, my Lord is The Forgiver
and The Merciful"
(
AlYûnus
/53).
- "And it was
We Who created man, and We know what dark sug-gestions his soul makes to
him"
(
Qâf/50).
- "Then seest
thou such a one who takes as his god (idol) his own vain desire? And God
(
Allâh) induced himto error about science, and sealed his hearing and his heart and put a cover on
his sight. Who will now guide him after God? Will ye not then receive
admo-nition?"
(AlJâthiyah
/23).
that one whom God does bestow His Mercy, we can deduce from these verses that
the soul, in general:
1) does commandthe evil,
2)
producesdark suggestions and illusions,
3) candegenerate man by inducing him to assume his or her earthly and vain desires and
passions as his or her god (or idol), and by recognizing no commander greater
than his or her own soul. Such a
shirk (i.e.attribution to God any partner similar to Him at least from the point of view of
power) is due to the fact that man is led to error about the "Knowledge"
concerning his or her soul: because he or she is ignorant of the ultimate
reality of the soul.
In the ways
conducting to Allâh called
Al Turûqal-Aliyyah
("SupremeWays" or "Ways Attibuted to Alî4
"), the HolyWar against the soul is conducted according to the method of
Al Atwâral-Sab'a
. This methodaims the purification of the soul in each of its seven faces by
zikr (i.e.remembrance of Allâh by continuous mention of Its Holy Names or
Al Asmâ'al-Husnâ
), colloquialteaching (
AlSoh-bah
), effectiveand transforming glance (
AlNazar
), meditation(
AlTafakkur
), deepconcentration (
AlRâbitah
) andmortification (
AlRiyâdhah
). Theapplication of all these methodical steps gradually transforms the material
density (
AlKesâfah
) of thesoul into a spiritual substance
(
AlLetâfah
) and weakensthe admonition of the "Illu-sion" on the soul.
But, even
those who reached the top of the evolution of the soul in this pro-cess where
the soul got an ethereal quiddity and where it became really "muslim", the
"Illusion" is still existent. In order to attain a state free of "Illusion" or
in other words to reach to the
Yaqîn , it isnecessary to desicate the source of the "Illusion", i.e. the soul must taste the
death. The hadîth: "Die before
death!" points out to this necessity. On the other side, the verse: "Every soul shall have a taste of death; in the end, to Us shall ye be brought
back" (
Al'Ankabût
/57) statesthat the natural result of tasting the death is the turning back to the presence
of God. Therefore, it becomes evident that the turning back to the presence of
God by tasting the death is also equivalent to reach to the state of knowledge
called
Yaqîn.Nevertheless,
we understand that there are two kinds of death: the first one is the death as
pointed out by the hadîth of the Holy Prophet and which is a death before having
been dead, i.e. the (temporary) death of the soul; and the other one is the
death of the body.
Mi'râj is the
ascension of the Spirit (
AlRûh
) and itsreception to the presence of God. It is the end of all the illusions,
suspicions, conjectures as well as unrealistic and unadequate imaginations. It
is the bestowal of the
Yaqîn as well as Al Aql al-Meâd and the Walâyah. In the man,it marks the annihilation of the domination of the soul and the forever
establishment of the sovereignty of the Spirit. So, the man becomes "Perfect
Man" (
Al Insânal-Kâmil
) who is theliving mirror of God, the place of theophany for His Holy Names as well as
HisHalîfah
(His Deputy)on the Earth.
Al Aql al-Meâd is the faculty to graspimmediately the true reality beyond the manifested. And Walâyah means The Friendship of
God.
For the realization of the
Mi'râj,it is necessary for the soul to taste the death of the soul before the death of
the body.
Mathnawî:
mysteries! (V/742). If you desire to be a living dead who moved from this world
before the death, and whose state may not be grasped by the means of reason but
only if you are dead too; whose soul isn't moved (suddenly) as that of the
ordinary people, but following a sequence of stations till to the last one...
(V/745-746), who is walking as a dead on this earth as all really living do so
whereas he is in the skies, and if you want to see the beloved directly without
any curtain, opt for the death and tear this curtain.
But choose not the death which
conducts you to the tomb, but that which transforms you and conducts you to the
Light (Al Nûr)! (VI/738-739). How
happy is that one who is liberated from his or her soul and reunited with "Who
Is Living" (Al Hayy) (I/1535). The
spirits liberated from the prison of the soul are but deserving of God and "His
Guiding Ambassadors" to the people (I/1542). For such a man, there is a special
Mi'râj at each breath (I/1580). The
body of such a man is on the earth whereas his spirit (Al Rûh) is in the "World of Unspace"
(Lâ Mekân). This world is such that
it can't, in any way, fit into "Illusion" of the "people of wayfaring"; and it
can't even be born in imagination! (I/1580-1581).
The Biggest
"Illusion"
Knowers" (Al Ahl al-Hikmah) the man is in
sleep in this material world. What he lives is but a dream. He is not aware of
this fact and has the illusion that this dream is the ultimate reality. As
another illusion, he is also attributing in this dream an existence to himself.
What is keeping him remote from his Lord is, indeed, this illusion which is
called "The Biggest Illusion". This illusion, like the others, is generated in
the very soul of the man.
If the man becomes sâlik under the guidance of a
Perfect Man, "... he will be purified
from all desires and passions, and his heart will become aquainted with the
mystery of The Merciful (Al Rahmân)
established Himself on the Divine Throne (Al 'Arsh) (Tâ
Hâ/5)" (I/3665); and he begins to perceive that all the apparent things
as well as his soul are rather illusions and outcomes of the imagination. In
fact, accor-ding to His Unfathomable Wisdom, God manifests to us what is indeed
non-existent as if it was majestically and magnificiently existent, and what is
really existent as if it was non existent (V/1026). At the end of the way
conducting him to God, the man becomes totally free of the "Illusion",
independent and blessed, mirror and Walî (Friend) of God and, by these
qualities, His Deputy (Al Halîfah) in this World of
Illusion.
Conclusion
Mawlânâ Jalâl al-Dîn states in his
Mathnawî that the "Illusion" is a big obs-tacle for those who engaged themself
in the way conducting to God. He enhances this fact by examples presented under
the form of edifying tales. The origin of the "Illusion" is the soul,
because the "Illusion" is a
characteristic ruse of the soul. The Holy War against the soul is, according to
the Holy Prophet, the Greatest Holy War. To whom who will be victorious in this
war, the way of Yaqîn, i.e. the way of the Knowledge
free of any kind of illusion, suspicion, conjecture and imagination is open. But
the man can only reach the Yaqîn when the truth of the hadîth:
"Die before death!" is manifested to
him, i.e. when his soul is dead and consequently when he is given the
opportunity to be in the presence of God and to receive Walâyah. And it is only then that he
became awakened from this earthly transitory life to the eternal real and divine
one.
* *
*
trans-lated in Turkish by
Çelebî Veled Izbudak and published by the Ministry of National Education of
Turkey.
[2](Name of the Sûrah/Number of the
corresponding verses)
[3]As well as satanic as divine inspirations.
[4]Forth caliph, cousin and son-in-law of the Holy Prophet.