ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Glimpses of the Nahj Al-balaghah The Discovery of the Self and of God The rediscovery of the self, in addition to the above two, requires to fulfil one more condition, and that is the realization and knowledge of the Cause of one's creation and existence. That is, it is impossible for man to recognize himself and know himself by viewing himself in separation from the Cause of his creation.

The real Cause of every existent is prior to it and nearer to it than it is to itself: And We are nearer to him than his jugular vein. (50:16) And know that God stands between a man and his heart. (8:24) The Muslim mystics have laid great emphasis on the point that the knowledge of the self (ma'rifat al-nafs) and the knowledge of God (ma'rifat Allah) are not separate from one another. To experience the spirit, which according to the Quran is God's 'breath', is, to experience the Divine Essence.

The Muslim mystics have raised severe objections against the statements of Muslim philosophers regarding the problem of self-knowledge and consider them to be inadequate. Shaykh Mahmud al-Shabistari was sent a series of versified questions by someone from Khurasan. His poem Gulshan-e raz is the reply he gave to the questions. In one of the questions, the enquirer asks: Who am I? Inform me about my self. What is meant by "Journey within thy self"? The Shaykh's reply is elaborate.

There he says: Forms and spirits, from the same light are derived, Reflected of mirror or beaming from the lamp. I' the word is everywhere in all your speech. It refers to the soul, the spirit. 'I' and 'You ', are greater than the body and the spirit, Which are together parts of the self. Go then, my good man, first know well your self, And remember: edema is different from robustness.

[^10] Leave one of them to soar over the undulations of space and time, Abandon the world to become a world in yourself. A further elaboration of this theme will take us outside the scope of our present discussion. To be brief, it should be said that the gnosis of the self is inseparable from that of God. This is exactly the meaning of the famous saying of the Prophet (S), and the same theme recurs in the recorded statements of Imam 'Ali (A): He who knows his self knows his Lord.