Abd al-Kader Quotes on Contemplation (3 Quotes)

Paraphrased Among the degrees of the universal Manifestation, each sentient creature typically experiences an illusory sense of autonomy. At the same time, with or without the creature's awareness, the creature subsists eternally as an 'immutable prototype' in the divine Knowledge.

... The divine Reality, when it 'combines' with the creatures in a strictly conceptual mode, is hidden to the eyes of the spiritually veiled, who see only the creatures. Conversely, it is the creatures that disappear in the eyes of the masters of the Unity of contemplation (wahdat al-shuhud), for they see only God alone. Thus, both God and the creatures hide the other.... ... In the same way, when there is the state of extinction (fana') which the men of the way also call 'union' (ittihad) the worshipper and the Worshipped, the Lord and the servant, disappear together. If there is no worshipper, there is no Worshipped and if there is no servant, there is no Lord. For, when two terms are correlative, the disappearance of one necessarily brings about the disappearance of the other, and therefore they disappear together.

Turn your face toward the sacred Mosque (Koran 2144,149,150) Commentary The word 'sacred' means that a heart which has not disengaged itself from the sphere of the soul and the sphere of created beings is forbidden to penetrate into this place.... 'Wherever you are, turn your face' toward the sacred Mosque means, 'Wherever you are, in the accomplishment of works of worship or in the ordinary acts of life, contemplate Him in what you eat, in what you drink, in him or her whom you marry, always knowing that He is at once the Contemplator and the Contemplated....