Numbers in bold indicate pages in the text for which the following citations and explanations are provided.
xiv: “There is no right superior to that of truth” is a saying of the Maharajas of Benares, frequently cited by the author.
Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1327), a German Dominican theologian and mystic, was regarded by the author as the greatest of Christian metaphysicians and esoterists.
2: unconsidered oaths: “God will not take you to task for that which is unintentional in your oaths” (Surah “The Cow” [2]:225; cf. 5:89).
“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you” (Matt. 7:6).
Note 1: In Greek mythology, the hero Perseus, son of Zeus and a mortal woman, is said to have killed the Gorgon Medusa, a cruel monster with so frightful a countenance that none could behold her without being turned to stone; returning from this victory, Perseus rescued the beautiful maiden Andromeda, who had been offered as a sacrifice to appease a giant sea monster, thus meriting her hand in marriage.
“I am black, but beautiful” (Song of Sol. 1:5).
3: “God createth what He will. If He decreeth a thing, He saith unto it only: Be! [ kun] and it is” (Surah “The Family of Imran” [3]:47).
“In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1).
4: Note 2: “No soul shall bear the burden of another” (Surah “The Children of Israel” [17]:15; cf. 6:165, 23:62, 35:18, 39:7, 53:38, 65:7).
5: Abu al-Qasim al-Junayd (d. 910), known for his insistence that Sufism should be firmly based on exoteric Muslim law and practice, taught that the ultimate return of all things into God is anticipated in the experience of fana'.
Shams al-Din al-Samarqandi (1250-1310), best known for his mathematics and astronomy, also wrote works of theology and philosophy.
6: “Sin against the Holy Spirit”: “All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men” (Matt. 12:31; cf. Mark 3:29, Luke 12:10).
9: Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazzali (d. 1111) was an Islamic jurist and theologian, who later entered upon the Sufi path in search of a direct confirmation of God, which he described in his Mishkat al-Anwar, “Niche of Lights”, among other works.
Note 7: “They shall have fruits therein, and they shall have what they desire” (Surah “Ya Sin” [36]:57).
11: Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-74), a giant among the medieval scholastics and author of the monumental Summa Theologica, is considered by the Roman Catholic Church to be the greatest Christian theologian in history.
In the author’s original French, the term rendered “self-evidence” in the phrase metaphysical self-evidence of the Absolute is évidence, which includes the idea of obviousness as well as that of corroboration or proof.
12: “He punisheth whom He will, and He pardoneth whom He will” (Surah “The Spider” [29]:21; cf. 48:14).
14: The Prophet “seeks refuge in God from hunger and betrayal”: (hadīth).
19: “If thou wouldst reach the kernel, thou must break the shell” is a traditional maxim that the author attributes to Meister Eckhart (see editor’s note for Preface, p. 4).
The Upanishad s, also referred to as the Vedanta since they were traditionally placed at the “end” of the Veda s (see below editor’s note for this chapter, p. 21) and are seen by such authorities as Shankara as a synthesis of Vedic teaching, are Hindu scriptures containing metaphysical, mystical, and esoteric doctrine.
The Brahmasutra, one of the chief sources of Vedantic wisdom, traditionally attributed to the sage Badarayana (first century B.C.), distills and systematizes the teachings of the Upanishad s concerning Brahma, the Supreme Reality.
Ibn Ata Allah Iskandari (c. 1250-1309), an early master of the Shadhiliyyah tariqah and an authority in both Islamic law and the Sufi path, was the author of a number of treatises, most notably the Hikam (“Book of Wisdom”).
Note 3: Shankarian refers to the doctrine of Shankara (788-820), the preeminent proponent of Advaita Vedanta, whom the author considered the greatest of all Hindu metaphysicians.
Ramanujian refers to the doctrine of Ramanuja (1017-c. 1137), widely regarded as the classic exponent of Vishishta Advaita, the Hindu school of “qualified non-dualism”, in which emphasis is placed on the personal nature of God.
Note 4: Umar al-Khayyam —Omar Khayyam (1048-1125)—was a Persian astronomer, mathematician, and poet, whose Rubaiyat (“quatrains”) conceal a mystical apprehension of God under a veil of seeming skepticism and hedonism.
20: “Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do” (Matt. 23:1-3).
He de scribed many of their commandments as “human”: “Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes. . . . Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders? . . . He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites. . . . For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men” (Mark 7:1, 5-6, 8; cf. Matt. 15:9).
21: In Hinduism, the Veda is a body of sacred knowledge revealed to ancient Indian seers and transmitted in the Veda s, sacred texts composed of hymns, ritual formulas, and metaphysical doctrines regarded as authoritative for both doctrine and practice.
Note 7: For al-Ghazzali, see editor’s note for “Ellipsis and Hyperbolism in Arab Rhetoric”, p. 9.
Shiite Muslims look to Ali and his descendents as the legitimate and authoritative representatives of the Prophet Muhammad, whereas Sunni Muslims accept the validity of the entire historical line of caliphs.
23: Note 8: Abu Hurairah (d. 678), a Companion of the Prophet Muhammad, was noted for his powerful memory and intelligence and for this reason was given permission by the Prophet to record and transmit ahādīth.
A completely analogous passage: “[Jesus] took [Thomas] and withdrew and told him three things. When Thomas returned to his companions, they asked him, What did Jesus say to you? Thomas said to them, If I were to tell you one of the things that he told me, you would pick up stones and throw them at me, and a fire would come out of the stones and burn you up” (Gospel of Thomas, 13).
Note 9: Al-Khidr is described in the Koran as “one of Our slaves, unto whom We had given mercy from Us, and had taught him knowledge from Our presence”; when Moses asks him, “May I follow thee, to the end that thou mayst teach me right conduct of that which thou has been taught?”, he responds, “Lo! thou canst not bear with me. How canst thou bear with that whereof thou canst not compass any knowledge?” (Surah “The Cave” [18]:66-69).
“For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God . . . to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually” (Heb. 7:1-3).
The “Krishnaite” aspect of the Prophet: Hindu tradition tells of the youthful dalliance of the avatara Krishna with the adoring gopis or cowherd girls of Vrindavan.
24: Note 10: Muhyi al-Din Ibn Arabi (1165-1240), author of numerous works including the Futuhat al-Makkiyah or Meccan Revelations, was a prolific and profoundly influential Sufi mystic, known in tradition as the Shaykh al-Akbar, that is, the “greatest master”.
“And when We said unto the angels: Prostrate yourselves before Adam, they fell prostrate, all save Iblis. He demurred through pride, and so became a disbeliever” (Surah “The Cow” [2]:34 passim).
25: Note 13: “Sight cannot reach Him (Allah), but He comprehendeth (all) vision. He is the Subtle, the Aware” (Surah “Cattle” [6]:104).
26: “There is no right superior to that of truth” is a saying of the Maharajas of Benares, frequently cited by the author.
“One thing is needful” (Luke 10:42).
28: Attributed to the sage Valmiki, the Yoga-Vasishtha is an Advaitic dialogue between a human spiritual master, Vasishtha, and his divine disciple, Rama, concerning the relationship between consciousness and Reality and including the story of the realized Queen Chudala, guru to her husband, King Shikhidhwaja.
The Bhagavad Gita, the best known and arguably the most important of all Hindu sacred texts and part of the much longer epic Mahabharata, consists of a dialogue between the prince Arjuna and his charioteer, the avatara Krishna, concerning the different paths to God.
30: In the author’s original French, the term rendered “self-evidence” in the phrase self-evidence of the divine Principle is évidence, which includes the idea of obviousness as well as that of corroboration or proof.
31: Asharism is the doctrine of the Muslim theologian Abu al-Hasan al-Ashari (873-935), who taught that anthropomorphic descriptions of God in the Koran should not be interpreted as metaphors, but are to be accepted at face value “without asking any questions”, and that God creates all human acts, thereby determining them, men nonetheless acquiring these acts and being thus responsible for them.
Plato (c. 427-c. 347 B.C.) was the greatest of the ancient Greek philosophers.
The works of Plotinus (c. 205-270), founder of the Neoplatonic school of philosophy, exerted a powerful influence on the mystical traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (see also editor’s note for “Tracing the Notion of Philosophy”, p. 92).
The formula “in the Name of God, the Clement, the Merciful” is found at the beginning of all but one of the Koranic surahs.
For Ashari, see editor’s note above.
32: “God doeth what He will” (Surah “The Family of Imran” [3]:40 passim).
34: Note 22: Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-73), a Sufi mystic and poet and founder of the Mevlevi order, is well known for his insistence on spiritual love as the proper basis for the seeker’s relation to God.
38: Note 26: Chaitanya (1486-1533), a Vaishnavite Hindu spiritual teacher and ecstatic devotee of Krishna, was regarded by his followers as an avatara of both Krishna and his consort Radha.
Note 27: “And David danced before the Lord with all his might. . . . So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet” (2 Sam. 6:14-15).
“For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea. And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances” (Exod. 15:19-20).
40: The Fusus al-Hikam, or “Bezels of Wisdom”, one of Ibn Arabi’s most renowned works, consists of a series of mystical reflections on the wisdom embodied in the lives and characters of twenty-seven prophets.
Note 29: The Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, or “The Interpreter of Desires”, is a collection of mystical love poems.
The de facto existence of two esoterisms: See the author’s chapter “Two Esoterisms” in Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism (Bloomington, Indiana: World Wisdom Books, 1986).
41: For Junayd, see editor’s note for “Ellipsis and Hyperbolism in Arab Rhetoric”, p. 5.
43: Note 1: According to Augustine (354-430), the most prolific and influential of the Western Church Fathers, “All things that are, are good, and as to that evil the origin of which I was seeking, it is not a substance, since, if it were, it would be good” (Confessions, 7:12).
44: Joseph made himself known to his brothers: “They said: Is it indeed thou who art Joseph? He said: I am Joseph” (Surah “Joseph” [12]:90).
Prophetic dream: “Joseph said unto his father: O my father! Lo! I saw in a dream eleven stars and the sun and the moon, I saw them prostrating themselves unto me” (Surah “Joseph” [12]:4).
“This is the interpretation of my dream of old that my Lord hath made real” (Surah “Joseph” [12]:100).
For the Fusus of Ibn Arabi (see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 24, Note 10), see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 40; Kalimah Yusifiyah, or “The Word of Joseph”, is Ch. 9 of this treatise.
It is God Himself who taught Joseph: “We established Joseph in the land that We might teach him the interpretation of dreams” (Surah “Joseph” [12]:21).
Note 2: The other dream: “And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed. For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf” (Gen. 37:5-7).
45: Sadr al-Din Qunyawi (d. 1274), Ibn Arabi’s stepson and most prominent disciple and a close friend of Rumi’s (see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 34, Note 22), was a Persian Sufi who wrote a highly esteemed commentary on his master’s Fusus as well as several works of his own.
Farid al-Din Attar (c. 1142-c. 1229), one of the most renowned of the Sufi poets and author of the Elahi Nameh (“Divine Book”), is best known for his Mantiq al-Tayr, or “Language of the Birds”, an allegory of the spiritual journey based on Surah “Sad” [38]:20: “And the birds assembled; all were turning unto Him.”
Note 3: He explained their dreams to his two companions in prison and then to the king: Surah “Joseph” [12]:36-49.
46: “Be cold”: “We said: O fire, be coolness and peace for Abraham” (Surah “The Prophets” [21]:69).
Joseph sent his tunic to his father: “Take this my tunic; apply it to my father’s face; he will recover his sight” (Surah “Joseph” [12]:93).
Throwing Joseph naked into the well: “So they did lead him [Joseph] off, and were of one mind to throw him to the bottom of the well” (Surah “Joseph” [12]:15).
“Take this my tunic; apply it to my father’s face; he will recover his sight” (see editor’s note above).
Note 7: Shihab al-Din Omar al-Suhrawardi (1145-1234), founder of the Suhrawardiyya tariqah and well known for his theological learning, was author of the widely influential 'Awarif al-Ma'arif, or “The Gifts of Divine Knowledge”.
47: Note 8: For al-Ghazzali, see editor’s note for “Ellipsis and Hyperbolism in Arab Rhetoric”, p. 9.
Aisha, the daughter of Abu Bakr and youngest of the wives of Muhammad, is quoted as the source for many ahādīth, especially those concerning the Prophet’s personal life.
48: “Two (worldly) things have been made lovable to me, women and per- fumes. But the light of my eye is in prayer” (hadīth).
A Church Father could refer, among others, to Irenaeus (c. 130-c. 200), who taught that “the Son of God became the Son of man that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God” (Against Heresies, 3:19); or to Athanasius (c. 296-373), who wrote, “The Son of God became man that we might become God” (On the Incarnation, 54:3); the essential teaching is common to many Patristic authorities.
Note 11: “Opening of the breast”: “Have We not opened for thee thy breast?” (Surah “Solace” [94]:1).
49: “Average man”: The author has in mind the average man of a traditional civilization, not man diminished by the artificiality of the modern world; see the chapter entitled “Human Premises of a Religious Dilemma”, p. 88, author’s note 26.
For Ashari, see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 31.
“God doeth what He will” (Surah “The Family of Imran” [3]:40 passim).
Note 13: “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible” (Matt. 19:26).
50: “In the image of God”: “God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them” (Gen. 1:27).
51: “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not” (John 1:5).
The 'Ihya of al-Ghazzali is his 'Ihya 'ulum al-din, or “Revival of the Religious Sciences”.
Abu Bakr (d. 634) was among the Prophet Muhammad’s foremost Companions and served after the Prophet’s death as the first caliph of Islam.
Omar Ibn al-Khattab (d. 644) was also a Companion of the Prophet and served as the second caliph of Islam.
Hasan al-Basri (642-728), one of the earliest and most influential Sufis, was noted for his insistence that the believer should always keep death and the final judgment foremost in his mind.
Note 16: Blaise Pascal (1623-62), a French mathematician, physicist, and Christian philosopher, was greatly influenced by the Jansenist belief that original sin is the defining feature of fallen man.
52: Note 17: Al-Hasan Ibn Ali (c. 624-669), the son of Ali and Fatima, daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, is said to have had nearly one hundred wives.
Ali Ibn Abi Talib (597-661) was the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad and the fourth caliph of Islam.
53: Note 19: For Rumi, see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 34, Note 22.
54: Note 20: John of the Cross (1542-91), whose mystical works include the Ascent of Mount Carmel and the Dark Night of the Soul, was a Spanish priest and co-founder, with Teresa of Avila, of the Discalced Carmelites.
Teresa of Avila (1515-82), whose most important work on the spiritual life is the Interior Castle, was a Carmelite nun and foundress, with John of the Cross, of the Discalced Carmelites.
56: Note 24: Parvati is the consort of the Hindu god Shiva; Lakshmi, regarded in most traditions as the consort of Vishnu, is the Hindu goddess of good fortune and the embodiment of beauty; in Kashmiri Shaivism Tripurasundari is the shakti or divine feminine energy shared by Parvati, Lakshmi, and Sarasvati; Sharada is a Hindu goddess of learning; Sarasvati is the consort of the Hindu god Brahma.
57: Rabiah Adawiyyah (c. 713-801), one of the most renowned of Sufi saints, lived an extremely ascetical life, saying that there was no place in her heart for the desire of anything but God.
The Ruh al-Quds, or “Sufis of Andalusia”, is among the many works of Ibn Arabi (see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 24, Note 10).
59: Note 28: Ibn al-Jawzi (1126-1200) was a jurist, theologian, historian, and noted preacher and the author, among numerous works, of the Kitab al-Qussas, “The Storytellers and Admonishers”.
Note 30: Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-97), a Carmelite nun who was drawn to the monastic life as a very young child, is best known for her spiritual autobiography, The Story of a Soul, written at the command of her superiors shortly before her death at age twenty-four.
The Immaculate Conception is the Roman Catholic dogma that, from the first moment of her conception, the Blessed Virgin Mary was free from all stain of original sin.
The Novissima Verba (“newest words”) of Thérèse include a record of her spiritual experiences and final conversations and counsels as collected by her fellow nun, Mother Agnes of Jesus, between May 1897 and her death on 30 September 1897.
61: Note 31: “Oriental Dialectic and Its Roots in Faith” is Ch. 7 of the author’s book Logic and Transcendence, trans. Peter N. Townsend (London: Perennial Books, 1975).
62: Note 34: Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824) was an Augustinian nun, stigmatic, and ecstatic visionary, whose revelations included detailed information concerning “The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ” and “The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary”, both works dictated to Clemens Brentano and first published in 1833 and 1852, respectively.
63: Mansur al -Hallaj (858-922), the first Sufi martyr, was flayed and crucified by the exoteric authorities for his mystical pronouncement, ana 'l-Haqq, “I am the Truth.”
Al-Niffari (d. c. 970), one of the earliest Sufi writers, was the author of “The Book of Spiritual Stations” and “The Book of Spiritual Addresses”, works well known for the density and obscurity of their style.
Note 36: The Athanasian Creed, an early Christian statement of faith, says of Christ that he is both “God, of the essence of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man, of the essence of his mother, born in the world: true God and true man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting”.
64: Hanbalite fideism is the perspective of Ahmad Ibn Hanbal (d. 855), whose school of Islamic law accentuated a literal interpretation of the Koran, anthropomorphic descriptions of God not being interpreted as metaphors, but accepted bi-la kayf, that is, “without asking any questions” or “without asking how” they apply to God.
Note 38: Mutazilites were members of an early Islamic theological school that insisted on the importance of reason in establishing a middle way between the extremes of unbelief and fideism.
65: Note 38: Ibn Taimiyah (1263-1328), a Muslim theologian whose literalistic views brought him into conflict not only with Sufis and philosophers but even his fellow Hanbalites, strongly opposed interpretations of the Koran that took refuge in the idea of bi-la kayf (see editor’s note, p. 64 above).
Note 39: For Ibn Hanbal, see editor’s note, p. 64 above.
66: “None knoweth its interpretation but God” (Surah “The Family of Imran” [3]:7).
The Koran rejects the worship of idols: “Those who believe do battle for the cause of God; and those who disbelieve do battle for the cause of idols” (Surah “Women” [4]:76 passim).
Note 42: An idol, which the Koran reproaches precisely for being deaf and dumb: “Then turned he [Abraham] to their idols and said, Will ye not eat? What aileth you that ye speak not? Then he attacked them, striking with his right hand” (Surah “Those Who Set the Ranks” [37]:91-93 passim).
67: A Cabalist is a Jewish esoterist and mystic.
Note 43: Imam Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili (1196-1258) was the founder of the Shadhiliyya tariqah, an initiatic lineage from which are derived a number of other Sufi orders, including the Alawiyya and Darqawiyya.
69: “The soul is all that it knows” is the doctrine of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), for whom “the thinking part of the soul, while impassible, must be capable of receiving the form of an object; that is, it must be potentially identical in character with its object without being the object” (On the Soul, 3.4).
For Veda, see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 21.
The Purana s are Hindu sacred texts recounting events of ancient times and containing cosmologies, genealogies, descriptions of pilgrimages and rituals, and stories about the gods, demons, and ancestors.
70: For Junayd, see editor’s note for “Ellipsis and Hyperbolism in Arab Rhetoric”, p. 5.
“Shining in the darkness”: “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not” (John 1:5).
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).
The Mawlawiyah (or Mevlevi) is a Sufi order popularly known as the “whirling dervishes” and deriving from Jalal al-Din Rumi (see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 34, Note 22), whom his disciples called mawlana, “our master”.
The Shaykh al-Akbar (“greatest master”) is a traditional title of Ibn Arabi.
Gaudapada (sixth-seventh century A.D.), author of a commentary on the Mandukya Upanishad, was the teacher of Govindapada (dates unknown), who in turn was the teacher of Shankaracharya (see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 19, Note 3).
71: “Approach not prayer when ye are intoxicated” (Surah “Women” [4]:43).
74: “Against the Spirit”: “All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven unto men” (Matt. 12:31; cf. Mark 3:29, Luke 12:10).
Note 49: Parable of the talents: “For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: and I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 25:14-30).
76: Note 3: For Ashari, see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 31.
For Ghazzali, see editor’s note for “Ellipsis and Hyperbolism in Arab Rhetoric”, p. 9.
Louis Massignon (1883-1962), a leading French Islamicist and Catholic priest, was best known for his magisterial study of the Sufi saint Mansur al-Hallaj (see editor’s note for “Paradoxes of an Esoterism”, p. 63), The Passion of al- Hallaj: Mystic and Martyr of Islam.
Abd al-Rahman Ibn Muhammad Ibn Khaldun (1332-1402), a Muslim historian and philosopher, called attention to the recurrent conflict between nomadic and sedentary peoples in his Kitab al-'Ibar, “The Book of Examples [from the History of the Arabs and the Berbers]”.
78: Note 8: In traditional Western psychology, the four temperaments are the sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic.
79: Note 9: For Omar Suhrawardi, see editor’s note for “Paradoxes of an Esoterism”, p. 46, Note 7.
Ramakrishna (1834-86), a bhakta of the Hindu goddess Kali, was one of the greatest Hindu saints of modern times.
Shiva, the third god of the Hindu trinity—with Brahma and Vishnu—is associated with the powers of generation and destruction.
“There is no lustral water like unto Knowledge” is a traditional Hindu teaching often quoted by the author, based in one of its formulations on the Bhagavad Gita, 4:38.
82: “Behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).
Note 13: “There are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be writ ten” (John 21:25).
83: “And the remembrance of God is greater” (Surah “The Spider” [29]:45).
Note 15: Ahmad al-Alawi (1869-1934), a famous Algerian Sufi shaykh, was the author’s spiritual master.
85: Note 18: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God” (Matt. 5:9).
Note 19: Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), who in his Divine Comedy repeatedly condemned the popes for their involvement in politics, argued in his De Monarchia, or “Treatise on Monarchy”, that the emperor should be the supreme temporal ruler, as in the time of Augustus.
Note 21: Tiruvalluvar (c. fifth century A.D.), a Tamil poet, ascetic, and saint, was a weaver by trade and author of a frequently translated work on the aims of human life, regarded by many Hindus as a sacred text.
87: Note 24: For Ibn Arabi, see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 24, Note 10.
Note 25: Shankara (see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 19, Note 3) set forth the fundamental principles of Advaita Vedanta in his Atma-Bodha, a short treatise on “Knowledge of the Self”.
88: Note 26: Abdul Hadi, “Universality in Islam”, The Veil of Isis, January, 1934.
89: For Muhyi al-Din Ibn Arabi, see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 24, Note 10.
Abd al-Karim al-Jili (c. 1365-c. 1412) systematized the teachings of Ibn Arabi, notably in his most important work, The Universal Man, which is concerned with both cosmological and metaphysical questions.
Pythagoras of Samos (c. 569-c. 475 B.C.), often credited with coining the word “philosophy”, was one of the greatest of the pre-Socratic sages of ancient Greece, teaching a doctrine that was at once philosophical, mathematical, astronomical, and musical.
Another of the pre-Socratic philosophers, Heraclitus (fl. 500 B.C.), best known for his aphorism that “one cannot step twice into the same river”, believed nonetheless that there is a single, underlying, and unchanging order in the cosmos, which he called the Logos.
Plato (see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 31) taught that the things of this physical and sensory world are subject to belief or opinion alone, true knowledge being reserved for the changeless world of the Ideas or Forms.
For Aristotle (see editor’s note for “Paradoxes of an Esoterism”, p. 69), to know a thing is to understand it in view of its causes: material, efficient, formal, and final (Physics, 194b).
According to Solomon, wisdom “is a treasure unto men that never faileth: which they that use become the friends of God, being commended for the gifts that come from learning” (Wisd. of Sol. 7:14).
“Fear of God”: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov. 1:7).
90: Thomas Aquinas (see editor’s note for “Ellipsis and Hyperbolism in Arab Rhetoric”, p. 11) followed Aristotle in teaching that “the principle of knowledge is in the senses” (Summa Theologica, Part 1, Quest. 84, Art. 6).
Note 2: Hermann Türck (1856-1933) was the author of Der geniale Mensch, “The Man of Genius” (1903).
91: Abu Hamid Muhammad al -Ghazzali (see editor’s note for “Ellipsis and Hyperbolism in Arab Rhetoric”, p. 9) wrote Tahafut al-Falasifah, “The Incoherence of the Philosophers”, a work accentuating the inadequacies of reason and the necessity of revelation and mystical knowledge.
Ibn al-Arif (1088-1141), an Andalusian Sufi master, was best known for his writings on the science of the virtues.
92: Plotinus (see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 31) endeavored to synthesize the teachings of Plato and Aristotle in his monumental Enneads, a collection of discourses compiled by his disciple Porphyry.
93: Note 4: For Ibn Arabi’s Fusus al-Hikam, or “Bezels of Wisdom”, see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 40.
94: One cannot testify to great truths except by the Holy Spirit: “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3).
In the cosmology of the pre-Socratic teacher Empedocles (c. 492-432 B.C.), the universe is a tapestry woven from four primary elements, fire, air, water, and earth (see the author’s footnote 7), which are brought together and dispersed by two fundamental forces, love and strife.
Muhammad ibn Abd Allah Ibn Masarrah (883-931), an early Andalusian mystic and Neo-Platonic philosopher, taught that the visible world and its creatures result from the creative descent of the divine Will into primordial matter or “dust” (al-haba).
95: Note 9: Plato wrote in one of his letters, “There does not exist, nor will there ever exist, any treatise of mine dealing [with “the subject I seriously study”]. For it does not at all admit of verbal expression like other studies, but as a result of continued application to the subject itself and communion therewith, it is brought to birth in the soul on a sudden, as light that is kindled by a leaping spark, and thereafter it nourishes itself” (Letter VII, 341d).
Synesius of Cyrene (c. 370-c. 414), who studied in Alexandria under the celebrated pagan Neo-Platonist Hypatia, was the Christian bishop of Ptolemais.
Note 10: The author introduced The Transcendent Unity of Religions (first published in French as De l’unité transcendante des religions in 1948) by explaining, “This book is founded on a doctrine that is metaphysical in the most precise meaning of the word and cannot by any means be described as philosophical. Such a distinction may appear unwarrantable to those who are accustomed to regarding metaphysics as a branch of philosophy, but the practice of linking the two together in this manner, although it can be traced back to Aristotle and the Scholastic writers who followed him, merely shows that all philosophy suffers from certain limitations which, even in the most favorable instances such as those just quoted, exclude a completely adequate appreciation of metaphysics. In reality the transcendent character of metaphysics makes it independent of any purely human mode of thought. In order to define clearly the difference between the two modes in question, it may be said that philosophy proceeds from reason, which is a purely individual faculty, whereas metaphysics proceeds exclusively from the Intellect” (trans. Peter Townsend [Wheaton, Illinois: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1993], p. xxix).
96: Pyrrhonic logic, that is, the logic of Pyrrho (c. 360-c. 270 B.C.), a Greek skeptic, who maintained that all knowledge, including the evidence of the senses, is uncertain.
97: Koranic story of the initial pact between human souls and God: “And (remember) when thy Lord brought forth from the Children of Adam, from their reins, their seed, and made them testify of themselves, (saying): Am I not your Lord? They said: Yea, verily. We testify. (That was) lest ye should say at the Day of Resurrection: Lo! of this we were unaware” (Surah “The Heights” [7]:172).
“Whoso knoweth his soul knoweth his Lord” (hadīth).
98: “Beauty is the splendor of the true” is a fundamental axiom of the author’s perspective, an axiom he attributes to Plato.
René Descartes (1596-1650) propounded a philosophical method based upon the systematic doubting of everything except one’s own self-consciousness, as summed up in the phrase cogito ergo sum (“I think; therefore I am”).
For Pyrrho, see editor’s note above, p. 96.
Note 11: Ananda Coomaraswamy (1877-1947), for many years curator of Indian art in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and one of the founding figures of the perennialist school, was the author of numerous books and articles on art, religion, and metaphysics, written from the point of view of the primordial and universal tradition.
“Unto you your religion, and unto me mine” (Surah “The Disbelievers” [109]:6).
103: For al-Khidr, see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 23, Note 9.
106: Note 3: Jacob’s Ladder: “And [Jacob] dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it” (Gen. 28:12).
107: Note 6: Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950), widely regarded as the greatest Hindu sage of the twentieth century, experienced the identity of Atma and Brahma while still in his teens, and the fruit of this experience remained with him as a permanent spiritual station throughout his life.
For Ramakrishna, see editor’s note for “Human Premises of a Religious Dilemma”, p. 79, Note 9.
108: Note 7: For Ibn Arabi, see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 24, Note 10.
110: “Verily, my Mercy precedeth my Wrath”: hadīth qudsi.
111: “Lead us on the straight path” (Surah “The Opening” [1]:5).
117: Note 18: “Remember God at the Holy Monument” (Surah “The Cow” [2]:198).
118: The Koran enjoins the faithful to remember God: “Therefore remember Me; I will remember you” (Surah “The Cow” [2]:152 passim).
Note 18: For Ahmad al-Alawi, see editor’s note for “Human Premises of a Religious Dilemma”, p. 83, Note 15.
Note 19: For Shankaracharya, see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 19, Note 3.
120: “God became man that man might become God”: see editor’s note for “Paradoxes of an Esoterism”, p. 48.
121: Note 21: Abu al-Qasim al -Qushayri (d. 1074), author of a commentary on the Koran, is best known for his Risalah, or “Epistle [to the Sufis]”, a manual on the spiritual path.
The works of Ibn al-Arif (see editor’s note for “Tracing the Notion of Philosophy”, p. 91) included his Mahasin al-Majalis, or “The Beauties of Spiritual Sessions”.
122: She [Sayyidatna Maryam] is mentioned in the Surah of “The Prophets”: “And she who was chaste, therefor We breathed into her (something) of Our spirit and made her and her son a token for (all) peoples” (Surah “The Prophets” [21]:91).
128: “Call upon Allah or call upon al-Rahman ; to Him belong the most beau- tiful Names” (Surah “The Cave” [18]:110).
Note 3: Origen (c. 185-c. 254), among a number of Church Fathers, speaks of Christ as the “Wisdom of the Father”.
Note 5: The Trinity that the Koran attributes to Christianity: “They surely disbelieve who say: Lo! God is the third of three. . . . The Messiah, son of Mary, was no other than a messenger, messengers (the like of whom) had passed away before him. And his mother was a saintly woman. And they both used to eat (earthly) food” (Surah “The Table Spread” [5]:73, 75).
The Angelical Salutation—otherwise known as the Ave Maria or “Hail Mary”—describes the Blessed Virgin Mary as gratia plena, “full of grace”, and says of her that Dominus tecum, “the Lord is with thee” (cf. Luke 1:28, 42).
Bernadette Soubirous (1844-79), to whom were granted several apparitions of the Blessed Virgin, asked “the beautiful Lady” who she was, and in her reply the Virgin applied the Catholic dogma (see editor’s note for “Paradoxes of an Esoterism”, p. 59, Note 30) to herself as a personal title, saying: “I am the Immaculate Conception.”
129: “I was a hidden treasure, and I wanted to be known”: hadīth qudsi.
133: Selection 1: “The Book of Keys”, No. 163, “Hikmah, Dhikr, Jamal”.
Selection 2: “The Book of Keys”, No. 639, “The Gordian Knot”.
“Say: Allah! then leave them to their vain discourse” (Surah “Cattle” [6]:92).
134: Selection 3: Letter of 28 January 1956.
135: “The world is false; Brahma is true; the soul is not other than Brahma” is a summation of Advaita Vedanta traditionally ascribed to Shankara.
“An invisible and subtle essence is the Spirit of the whole universe. That is Reality. That is Truth. You are That (Tat tvam asi)” (Chandogya Upanishad, 7.6).
“The Self was indeed Brahma in the beginning. It knew only that ‘ I am Brahma’ (aham Brahmasmi). Therefore It became all. And whoever among the gods knew It also became That; and the same with sages and men. . . . And to this day whoever in like manner knows ‘ I am Brahma’ becomes all this universe. Even the gods cannot prevail against him, for he becomes their Self” (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 1.4.10).
Selection 4: Letter of 19 October 1974.
136: Selection 5: “The Book of Keys”, No. 308, “Silence and Word”.
The “lotus” (padma) that contains the “jewel” (mani): The author is alluding here to the Tibetan Buddhist formulation Om mani padme hum, a mantra meaning “O Thou Jewel in the Lotus, hail”.
“I am black, but beautiful” (Song of Sol. 1:5).
Selection 6: Letter of 7 August 1979.
For Shankara, see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 19, Note 3.
For the Veda, see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 21.
137: Selection 7: “The Book of Keys”, No. 1124, “Faqr Equals Fitrah”.
“O men, ye are the poor in relation to God, and God is the Rich, the universally Praised” (Surah “The Angels” [“The Creator”] [35]:15).
138: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Mark 12:30-31; cf. Luke 10:27).
“Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:41).
“Hate our soul”: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26).
Selection 8: Letter of 28 January 1956.
139: Selection 9: “The Book of Keys”, No. 615, “The Alternative”.
140: Selection 10: Letter of 3 February 1955.
Selection 11: “The Book of Keys”, No. 1030, “Metaphysics of the Name”.
141: “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love” (1 John 4:8).
“And God said unto Moses, I am that I am: and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you” (Exod. 3:14).
Selection 12: Letter of 15 March 1974.
142: Selection 13: “The Book of Keys”, No. 1008, “Islamic Esoterism and Esoteric Islam”.
143: Selection 14: “The Book of Keys”, No. 18, “The Divine Name as Answer”.
Selection 15: Letter of 30 November 1978.
I am sending you here an article: The article is the sixth chapter of the present book, “The Quintessential Esoterism of Islam”.
For Ibn Arabi, see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 24, Note 10.
144: Ikhtilaf al-'ulama' rahmah: “The divergence [of teaching] among the wise is a blessing” (hadīth).
Allahu karim: “God is most generous.”
I wrote another [article] on weaknesses found in “average Sufism”: The article is the second chapter of the present book, “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”.
For Asharite theology, see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 31.
A third article, on the notion of “philosophy”: The article is the fifth chapter of the present book, “Tracing the Notion of Philosophy”.
Selection 16: Letter of 5 May 1945.
All the prophets are equal: “We make no distinction between any of His messengers” (Surah “The Cow” [2]:285).
Some are superior to others: “Lo! thou (Muhammad) art of the number of (Our) messengers . . . some of whom We have caused to excel others, and of whom there are some unto whom God spake, while some of them He exalted (above others) in degree” (Surah “The Cow” [2]:252-53); “These are they unto whom God showed favor from among the Prophets” (Surah “Mary” [19]:58).
The commentary by Ibn Arabi is his Fusus al-Hikam (see editor’s note for “The Exo-Esoteric Symbiosis”, p. 40).
145: Selection 17: Letter of 17 January 1950.
146: The Shaykh al-Akbar (“greatest master”) is a traditional title of Ibn Arabi.
Selection 18: Letter of 5 May 1945.
147: Selection 19: “The Book of Keys”, No. 1155, “Al-Khalwah”.
For the Shaykh al-Alawi, see editor’s note for “Human Premises of a Religious Dilemma”, p. 83, Note 15.
Spiritus autem ubi vult spirat is Latin for “the wind bloweth where it listeth” (John 3:8).
Selection 20: “The Book of Keys”, No. 829, “Closing the Eyes and Pronouncing the Name”.
148: Selection 21: Letter of 29 January 1975.
T. and N. were two friends of the author who had terminal illnesses.
Selection 22: “The Book of Keys”, No. 1090, “The Absolute Argument”.
149: “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29).