On Likening (al-Tashbīh)

Divine likening (al-tashbīh al-ilāhī) is an expression for the form of [the divine] Beauty -- because the divine Beauty has meanings (and they are the divine Names and qualities) and it has forms (and they are the self-disclosures of those meanings in whatever they fall upon, of the sensible or the intelligible).

So the sensible [is] as in his saying: 'I saw my Lord in the form of a beardless youth'; and the intelligible [is] as in His saying: 'I am as My servant thinks of Me, so let him think of Me what he will.' And this form is what is meant by likening. And there is no doubt that God (exalted is He), in His appearing in the form of His Beauty, remains upon what He deserves of transcendence. So, just as you gave the divine Side its due of transcendence, likewise give it its due of divine likening.

And know that likening, in God's case, is a rule unlike transcendence -- for, in His case, it is a direct-vision matter (amr ʿaynī). And none witnesses this except the perfect ones among the people of God (exalted is He); as for those other than them, of the gnostics, [each] grasps what we have said only by faith and imitation, by what the forms of His comeliness and His beauty require.

since every form of the forms of the existents is a form of His comeliness. So if you witnessed the form upon the likening-aspect, and witnessed nothing of transcendence, then the Real has shown you His comeliness and His beauty from one face [only].

And if He showed you the likening-form, and the divine transcendence was [also] attached in it, then the Real has shown you His beauty and His majesty in the two faces of likening and transcendence: 'So wherever you turn, there is the Face of God' (2:115, al-Baqara). So declare [Him] transcendent if you wish, and liken if you wish; for in every case you are drowned in His self-disclosures -- there is no [way] for you to be disjoined from Him -- since you, and what your ipseity is upon, of state and work and meaning, [are], in your entirety, a form of His beauty.

So if you remain upon your creaturely likening, you witness the form of His comeliness; and if the eye of transcendence in you is opened upon your likening, [then] you are the form of His comeliness, His beauty, and His meaning; and if you win what is beyond likening and transcendence in you, [then] you are beyond likening and transcendence -- and that is the Essence.

So choose for yourself, in love, whom you would select. And know that the Real has two likenings:

An essential likening (tashbīh dhātī) -- and it is what He is upon, of the forms of the sensible existents, or what resembles the sensibles in the imagination.

And a qualitative likening (tashbīh waṣfī) -- and it is what is upon [it] of the forms of the name-meanings, transcendent of what resembles the sensible in the imagination. And this form is conceived in the mind, [but] is not given modality in the senses.

So whenever it [the qualitative form] is given modality, it joins the essential likening -- because modalization is of the perfection of likening, and perfection by the Essence is prior [/more fitting]. So the qualitative likening remains, and this cannot be given modality, by any kind of the kinds, nor [any] genus -- [it is given form only] by the striking of a likeness.

Do you not see the Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He), how He struck a likeness for His essential light by the niche, the lamp, and the glass? And the human was the form of this essential likening -- because what is meant by the niche is his breast, and by the glass his heart, and by the lamp his secret; and by the blessed tree, faith in the unseen -- which is the appearing of the Real in the form of the creation, and [true] faith is faith in the unseen; and what is meant by the olive[-tree] is the absolute Reality, which we do not say is, from every aspect, Real, nor that it is, from every aspect, creation. And the tree of faith was 'neither of the east' -- so [it] requires absolute transcendence, such that it negates likening -- 'nor of the west' -- so we hold to absolute likening, such that it negates transcendence -- so it is pressed between the husk of likening and the kernel of transcendence. And then 'its oil' -- which is its certitude -- 'would almost give light' -- so the darkness of the oil is lifted by its light -- 'even if no fire touched it' -- by the direct-vision which is direct-vision light, and it is 'a light' [namely, of] likening 'upon a light' of faith, which is the light of transcendence -- 'God guides to His light whom He wills, and God strikes the likenesses for the people, and God is knowing of everything' (24:35, al-Nūr).

And this likening was an essential likening. And though it appears by a kind of likeness-striking, that likeness is one of the forms of His comeliness -- as if knowledge appeared in the form of milk in the world of similitude. So the niche, the lamp, the glass, the tree, and the oil -- neither of the east nor of the west -- and the giving-of-light, and the fire, and the light that is 'light upon light': all of them, by the outwards of their concept, are essential forms of the beauty of the Essence of God (exalted is He). 'And God is knowing of everything' -- and it is the meaning of His beauty, because knowledge is a meaning in the knower of the thing. So understand.

And God speaks the truth, and He is most knowing.