question
What guidance is provided by the Quran and the Sunnah for Gnostic knowledge?
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Sunday, 27 June 2010 00:00
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Sayyed Roohullah Musavi
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09373582540
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30
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متن ويرايش جزئي شد.
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Amateur
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ayah, God, Divine love, self realization
Gnostic knowledge, God's manifestations, Unity of being, the real being,religious perception, Islam
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\viewkind4\uc1\pard\ltrpar\fi720\sl276\slmult1\lang1033\f0\fs28 God - exalted be His Name - has, in several places in the Quran, commanded man to deliberate upon the words and meanings in His Holy Book, to be persistent in this effort, and to not be satisfied with a merely superficial and elementary understanding of His guidance. In many verses, the world of creation and all that is in it, without exception, are called portents (ayat), or signs and symbols of the Divine. A degree of deliberation upon the meaning of portents and signs, and penetration into their real significance, will reveal the fact that things are called by these names because they manifest and make known, not so much themselves, but a reality other than themselves. For example, a red light placed somewhere as a sign of danger, once seen, reminds one so completely of the idea of danger that one no longer pays attention to the red light itself. If one begins to think about the form or quiddity of the light or its color, only the form of the lamp, its glass or its color will be in his mind rather than the conception of danger. In the same manner, if the world and its phenomena are, in every aspect, all signs and portents of God, the Creator of the universe, they have no ontological independence of their own. No matter how we view them, they display nothing but God.
\par He or she, who, through guidance of the Holy Quran, is able to view the world and the people of the world with such an eye will apprehend nothing but God. Instead of perceiving only a 'borrowed beauty' which others observe in the attractive appearance of the world, he will see an Infinite Beauty, a Beloved who manifests Himself through the narrow confines of this world. Of course, as in the example of the red light, what is contemplated and seen in 'signs' and 'portents' is God, the Creator of the world, and not the world itself. The relation of God to the world is, from a certain point of view, like (1 + 0) not (1 + 1) nor (1 x 1), that is, the world is nothing before God and adds nothing to him. It is at the moment of realization of this truth that the harvest of man's separative existence is plundered and in one stroke man entrusts his heart to the hands of Divine love. This realization obviously does not take place through the instrument of the eye or the ear or the other outward senses, nor through the power of imagination or reason, for all these instruments are themselves signs and portents and are of little significance to the spiritual guidance sought here.
\par He who has attained the vision of God and who has no intention but to remember God and forget all else, when he hears that God says in another place in the Quran, 'O ye who believe! Ye have charge of your own souls. He who erred cannot injure you if you are rightly guided' (1), then he understands that the sole royal path which will guide him fully and completely is the path of 'self realization.' His true guide, who is God Himself, obliges him to know himself, to leave behind all other ways and to seek the path of self-knowledge, to see God through the window of his soul, gaining in this way the real object of his search. That is why the Prophet (S) has said: "He who knows himself verily knows the Lord." He has also said: "Those among you who know themselves better know God better."
\par As to the method for following the path, there are many verses of the Quran which command man to remember God, as for example where He says: "Therefore remember Me, I will remember you"(2) and similar sayings. Man is also commanded to perform right actions which are described fully in the Quran and hadith. At the end of this discussion of right actions, God says: "Verily in the Messenger of Allah ye have a good example" (3).
\par How can anyone imagine that Islam could discover that a particular path is the path which leads to God without recommending this path to all people? Or how could it make such a path known and yet neglect to explain the method of following it? For God says in the Quran: "And We reveal the Scripture unto thee as an exposition of all things"(4). So to understand the real path of gnosis we must refer to the Quran and the Holy Prophet and his Household.
\par
\par -------------
\par References:
\par (1)- Holy Qor'an (5:105)
\par (2)- Holy Qur'an (2:152)
\par (3) Holy Qur'an (33:21)
\par (4)- Holy Qur'an (16:89)
\par \pard\ltrpar\qr\f1\fs22
\par }
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shi'a, p 36, by Allamah Tabatabai
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Shia
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110
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110-09373582540-68
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locked
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Shuja Ali Mirza
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ayah

God - exalted be His Name - has, in several places in the Quran, commanded man to deliberate upon the words and meanings in His Holy Book, to be persistent in this effort, and to not be satisfied with a merely superficial and elementary understanding of His guidance. In many verses, the world of creation and all that is in it, without exception, are called portents (ayat), or signs and symbols of the Divine. A degree of deliberation upon the meaning of portents and signs, and penetration into their real significance, will reveal the fact that things are called by these names because they manifest and make known, not so much themselves, but a reality other than themselves. For example, a red light placed somewhere as a sign of danger, once seen, reminds one so completely of the idea of danger that one no longer pays attention to the red light itself. If one begins to think about the form or quiddity of the light or its color, only the form of the lamp, its glass or its color will be in his mind rather than the conception of danger. In the same manner, if the world and its phenomena are, in every aspect, all signs and portents of God, the Creator of the universe, they have no ontological independence of their own. No matter how we view them, they display nothing but God. He or she, who, through guidance of the Holy Quran, is able to view the world and the people of the world with such an eye will apprehend nothing but God. Instead of perceiving only a 'borrowed beauty' which others observe in the attractive appearance of the world, he will see an Infinite Beauty, a Beloved who manifests Himself through the narrow confines of this world. Of course, as in the example of the red light, what is contemplated and seen in 'signs' and 'portents' is God, the Creator of the world, and not the world itself. The relation of God to the world is, from a certain point of view, like (1 + 0) not (1 + 1) nor (1 x 1), that is, the world is nothing before God and adds nothing to him. It is at the moment of realization of this truth that the harvest of man's separative existence is plundered and in one stroke man entrusts his heart to the hands of Divine love. This realization obviously does not take place through the instrument of the eye or the ear or the other outward senses, nor through the power of imagination or reason, for all these instruments are themselves signs and portents and are of little significance to the spiritual guidance sought here. He who has attained the vision of God and who has no intention but to remember God and forget all else, when he hears that God says in another place in the Quran, 'O ye who believe! Ye have charge of your own souls. He who erred cannot injure you if you are rightly guided' (1), then he understands that the sole royal path which will guide him fully and completely is the path of 'self realization.' His true guide, who is God Himself, obliges him to know himself, to leave behind all other ways and to seek the path of self-knowledge, to see God through the window of his soul, gaining in this way the real object of his search. That is why the Prophet (S) has said: "He who knows himself verily knows the Lord." He has also said: "Those among you who know themselves better know God better." As to the method for following the path, there are many verses of the Quran which command man to remember God, as for example where He says: "Therefore remember Me, I will remember you"(2) and similar sayings. Man is also commanded to perform right actions which are described fully in the Quran and hadith. At the end of this discussion of right actions, God says: "Verily in the Messenger of Allah ye have a good example" (3). How can anyone imagine that Islam could discover that a particular path is the path which leads to God without recommending this path to all people? Or how could it make such a path known and yet neglect to explain the method of following it? For God says in the Quran: "And We reveal the Scripture unto thee as an exposition of all things"(4). So to understand the real path of gnosis we must refer to the Quran and the Holy Prophet and his Household.

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References: (1)- Holy Qor'an (5:105) (2)- Holy Qur'an (2:152) (3) Holy Qur'an (33:21) (4)- Holy Qur'an (16:89)

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