“Your creation and your resurrection are as those of one man.”
The Shaikh Mohí eddin[191] says in his Faś hawdí, “chapter of repentance:” The world is the image of God, and he the soul and governor of the universe, further he is the great mankind. The lord Maulavi Jámí, in the Nakd-al faśus, “the ready money of bezels,” states, that there are two divisions of the beings of the universe: the first consists of those who on no account have any sort of connection with the bodily world, in conformity to office and direction; these, called Cherubim, are divided into two classes: the one take not the least notice of the world and its inhabitants, and are named “the great Angels;” the other, although not connected with the bodily world, are yet entranced in astonishment as witnesses and valuers of God’s power, standing at the curtain of the divine court, and being the ministers of the supreme bounty; before them is an angel entitled “the great spirit,” greater than whom no angel exists. According to another interpretation he is said to be “the highest secretary and first intelligence.” This great spirit (the blessing of God be upon him!) holds the first rank of this class. The spirit, who is called Jabríil, follows after him in this legion.
“The rank which he possesses is a place known.”
Another division is composed of those who have connection with the bodily world according to order and office; these are named “spirits,” also divided into two classes: the one are spirits who perform their office in the heavens, and these are entitled “the high angels;” the other class are those who perform their office upon earth, and these bear the name of “lower angels.” Many thousands of them are appointed to the human race, and many thousands to minerals, to plants, and the animal kingdom. The people of the revelation (prophets) say: “There, where seven angels are not assembled, not a leaf can germinate from a branch;” the seven angels are meant to be seven divine powers. Thus, the spirits of fire, who are called Jin and Siátín, “genii and demons,” belong to the kind of lower angels, and Iblis is their chief and ruler. The lord Shaikh Mahmúd Shósterí says, that Iblis is the power of imagination, which the learned call “the material.” The Súfis give it the name of “the foundation of material substance,” or Enka.[192] According to the Súfis, matter is mâdum, “not eternally existent.” They call the absolute body “the universal body.” The Súfis say, as is found in the Favátah, that the spirit of mankind is the absolute spirit of the divinity; thus the spirit of mankind, for the sake of elocution—that is, excellence—expresses itself by sound; and sound, for the sake of elocution, by various distinct modulations, which in utterance are made sensible, becomes a word, and by the combination of words a language acquires reality. The Shaikh Muhammed Láhaji[193] says, in his Commentary on Gulshen raz,[194] “the Mystery of the Rosebower,” that the meaning of the expression “the divine spirit,” is “the revelation of truth in the circus of multiplicity,” and in the Sharh mahtaśer, “abridged Commentary (epitome)” on Gulshen, is found that, in like manner as the spirit of mankind becomes sound, and sound a word, so also the divine spirit becomes jawher, “substance,” and substances become spirits and forms; thus human nature is determined in a manner that its hidden conditions proceed from the interior to manifestation.
The presence of the universal deity, which is expansive in the divine spirit and soul), is fivefold. The first is hazeret ghaib mut´lak, “the presence of the absolute mystery,” and this is one with the aâyían sábatah, “the invariable prototypes (realities of things).” The second is the hazeret ghaib muśáf,[195] “the presence of the relative mystery,” which is nearest the absolute mystery, and this belongs to pure intellects and spirits. The third is the hazeret musáf ghaib,[196] “the presence of the mysterious relation,” which is nearest the absolute evidence; this is the world of similitude, or dream. The fourth is the hazeret shahádet mut´lak,[197] “the presence of the absolute evidence,” which reaches from the centre of the earth to the middle of the ninth empyrean heaven. The fifth is the hazerát jámâh,[198] “the presence of the vest,” and this is the universe in an extensive, and mankind in a restricted, acceptation.[199]
The Súfis besides say: The world is life and intellect, as far as the mineral kingdom; but the manifestation of intellect in every body is determined by the temperature of the human constitution. Sometimes bounty attains an excellence which is uttered with ecstacy, and becomes a modulation more powerful than that which strikes the ear: and this is the mode of the prophet (blessing upon him!). Thus is it commonly related that Jabrííl brought to the blessed prophet the happy news, that his poor followers will enter heaven five hundred years sooner than the rich. The prophet, full of joy, said: “Can none of you recite a verse?” A person proffered these distichs:
“The serpent of desire bit my heart:
There is, to cure me, neither doctor nor magician,
If not the friend whom I adore:
He alone possesses the theriac and the amulet suitable to my cure.”