UNITY OF MANIFESTATION

The writings of Makhdoom Sharafuddin (1263–1380 CE) contain certain concepts and doctrines which are generally believed to have been articulated a few centuries after him. One such mystical doctrine known as ‘Unity of Manifestation’ (Wahdat ash-Shuhud) was propagated in the eleventh century of the Islamic era by Shaykh Ahmad al-Faruqi (1564–1624 CE) to contradict the then prevalent concept of ‘Unity of Being’ (Wahdat al-Wujood).

It is true that Shaykh Ahmad al-Faruqi (nicknamed, Mujaddid Alf Thani) was par excellence the greatest exponent of the doctrine of the Unity of Manifestation but one is surprised to see that Makhdoom Sharafuddin, too, had clearly delineated the fundamental position of this concept about two and a half centuries before it was revived by the Mujaddid.

Makhdoom has explicitly stated in his letters, in the light of his personal religious experiences and intuitive knowledge, that was commonly known by Unity of Being or annihilation of every created being in the Divine Essence was really no more than a state of eclipse of other beings and objects in the presence of Divine light exactly in the same way as the dim light of the stars is deprived of its brilliance before the luminous lamp of the Sun.

He succinctly describes the process by pointing out the extinction of any object is altogether different from its being invisible. He explains that the tenuity and evasiveness of the immanentist feeling deludes many an elevated soul in the ecstatic state of Divine effulgence unless Grace of God and guidance of an illuminated teacher giver shoulder to lead him on the right path.

“The effulgence of Divine Essence is so manifested before the traveler of spirit that its radiance blots out every other object and being from his view. The tiny particles of dust are put out of sight in the light of the sun but it does not mean that these particles become extinct or get absorbed in the sun; what it actually means is that these minute atoms cover up their faces in shame before the luminous lamp of heaven.

Man never becomes God for God is Exalted, Glorious and Great. Nor is ever a created being swallowed up, incorporated or united with the Divine Essence. Becoming extinct is quite different from being invisible. A Gnostic poet has lent articulation to this truth in these words.

For the Eternal One nothing is old or new;

All others are insignificant, He that He is.

When you look into a mirror, you get absorbed in the reflection of your own self and forget the mirror: then you do not aver that the mirror has become extinct or that it has turned into your reflection or that your reflection has melted into mirror. This is the substance of annihilation in Divine Oneness which manifests itself in a like manner.

He talks funny who speaks of it, but does not know

To set a limit between one’s annihilation and His refulgent glow.

This is the tenuous path where many have slipped. No traveler of spirit can forge ahead unless the grace of God and the guidance of an elevated mentor, who had himself waded through the billow’s rage of this furrowed sea, help him to find out his way.”

(Letter No.1)

Here it might be contended that a lamp brought before the Sun loses its luster so completely that its existence becomes merely illusory; for, nothing can be existent and nonexistent both at one and the same time. Makhdoom says that such a contention is not correct because the transformation undergone by the lamp is of attribute and not of essence. He writes in a letter:

“Some say that when the sun shines, the lamp practically loses its entity: the sun is then the only reality that exists. What is the use of a lamp, they say, which melts into nought, for its entity and light rest on an even keel. If anybody contends that the existence and non-existence are each other’s anti-thesis and the two cannot be found at one and the same time, then he ought to know that we are talking about the attributes and not about the essence. The essence does not undergo a change but the attribute does. The sun shines over a stream and warms its water. Its quality is changed not its nature; the rays of sun act on the attribute and not on the essence. There is no contradiction at all in it.”

(Letter No.86)

(excerpt from ‘The Way of the Sufis: A Journey into the lives of three Saints of Islam’)
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