Oneness and Multiplicity – Part 1 of 2

Zat: Essence

We are all incomplete. Allah is the only One Who is complete. We all need learning to do. That is why we are on earth and Allah is Gracious and Merciful and Generous enough that He shares Himself with us. His goal is to teach Himself to us and our goal has to be learning. But we move our focus from the essence to the form. When we move to the form, then we lose our focus. Behind every form, there is the essence and that is what we should be addressing to, the essence, at all times.

Say, “He, Allah, is Ahad [Unique; Formless], Allah is Al Samad [The Administrator of All Manifestation]. He does not give birth, nor is He born, and nothing is equal to Ahad.” (Al Ikhlas:1-4)

Wahdat and Kasrat

We have the realm of multiplicity and we have the realm of wahdat. We see there is the world of multiplicity (kasrat) and the world of unity, wahdat. Multiplicity is derived because of the forms. And because of the kinds of energy that Allah can manifest. Allah is One but He has 99 Names that we know of. So He has infinite Beautiful Names.

Allah, the only One you can call Ilah [God]; His are the Asma-ul Husna [Most Beautiful Names]. (Ta Ha:8)

So this makes it multiple but actually it is all one. One kinetic energy. One potential energy. When it turns into kinetic, then it can go into multiplicity. So how does it become multiplicity? With intention, connection and direction. One of the most important parts is the intention, connection and direction. That is how Allah works. In everything that we see that is created, there is an intention of Allah. This can be part of everything, everything that is created. And there is a connection. There is a source coming and there is a direction, where it is going to. Of course the amount is also determined with the intention.

This is an excerpt of the Online Saturday Sohbet given on January 3, 2009 by Murshid Shaykh Taner Vargonen Ansari and edited for this article on October 5, 2020. The translation of the Qur’an verses are also from Murshid Shaykh Taner Vargonen Ansari.

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