REINCARNATION

Some people who have read certain of Rumi's poems in the Mesnevi and Divan-i Kabir have misinterpreted them and think that Rumi believes in reincarnation; reincarnation is an un-Islamic belief. As I have repeated continuously, it would not be possible for a great saint who follows the Muhammadi path to adopt an un-Islamic belief.

Reincarnation is defined as the transmigration of souls into the bodies of others. Pythagoras and his followers were of this belief among the ancient Greek philosophers. Today, most Hindus believe in reincarnation, and therefore do not eat animal flesh believing that it might be carrying the souls of their ancestors and relatives. It can be seen clearly in the passages from the Mesnevi below that Rumi, like many other lovers of God, spoke of the belief of dawriyya (rotation). One should be careful not to confuse reincarnation with dawriyya. But what is dawriyya

In order to understand this belief properly we first have to think carefully about some issues. According to the view of the gnostics, everything that we see in this universe is a place of the manifestation of the Divine Names and Attributes of God. In other words, everything is like a mirror. From the gigantic crea­tures to microscopic ones, in everything His Art, Power, and Beauty is manifested. Like a sun, the Holy Light is reflected in every atom and in every being the manifestation of an Attribute or a Name of God can be seen. Everything in this universe is alive. Not only human beings, animals, and plants but also objects like rocks, soil, water, and minerals, which we consider to be inanimate, are actually alive. However, the naked eye cannot see their motion which is the sign of their life force. In the Qur'an, God says: "Everything in the heavens and on the earth praises and invokes God. " It is also for the same reason that the Prophet commanded: "Do not disturb your belongings unnecessarily" In his famous futuhat al-Makkiyyah, Muhy al-Din Ibn al-'Arabi writes: "I can hear the praise of everything. Things that we normally consider inanimate invoke God more than humans, animals, and plants as they are less attached to the world. " Since the dervishes want to abstain from disturbing objects during their invocation, they step only gently on the ground when they walk; the ground is laid below everyone's feet, carrying everybody on its head and serving all. Therefore, they do not want to hurt the ground on which they walk. When they want to drink water, they gently kiss the glass. When they grasp the spoon, they kiss its handle. When they finish their meal, they do not stand up without kissing the table. This is because every­thing carries a spirit. Everything provides a service. It is a debt for the served to reward and respect those who serve.

Dervishes who treat the objects that we consider inanimate with so much respect in order not to disturb them show even more respect for plants and animals. There have been saints who abstained from picking flowers, sensing their invocation of God's names, as well as gnostics who walked for hours to return an ant to its colony in order not to separate it from its community. It is related that Shibli bought a sack of wheat from the bazaar and brought it home after walking for several hours. When he emp­tied the sack he saw a bewildered ant running around. He thought that he had separated the ant from its home. So he took the ant and put it in a box. He brought it back to the bazaar from where he bought the wheat and released it there. Ferdowsi, author of the Shahname, says, "Do not hurt an ant that is dragging a grain of wheat. It has a spirit and is alive. And life is a very sweet thing, " We see that the ant is dragging a grain of wheat, and this convinces us that it is alive. We see the flowers grow, and this convinces us that they arc alive. Bur the Qur'an and prophetic tradition tell as that objects like rocks, minerals, and soil, all things that we consider inanimate, are also alive.

Today science has proved that there are plenty of things and actions that we cannot see with the naked eye. When inanimate objects are viewed with electron microscopes, they are magnified thousands of times, and their microscopic motions are revealed and even can be photographed. The soil samples brought back from the moon have the same molecular structure as those from Earth; this microscopic motion is not restricted to our Earth. Just as the plants exhibit their living through their growth, blooming, and bearing fruits, "inanimate" objects demonstrate their life by the rotation of electrons around a nucleus. Animals demonstrate their life with sound, motion, eating, and regeneration. But human beings, who are the most honorable among all the creatures, prove their superiority not only with their intellectual faculties, like reasoning, reading, writing, speaking, and laughing, but especially through the Divine Entrustment that has been granted by Him. All the beings in the universe are places of manifestation for the Divine Names and Attributes. But the human being, the essence of the universe, is the place of the man­ifestation for allthe Divine Names and Attributes.

God who existed before anything existed bestowed life on humans, animals, plants, and inanimate objects. God bestowed life to all the creatures in the universe that He created with one word, kun(be) and manifested in them His attributes, like the reflections of a spiritual sun in the mirror of the universe. All this happened without Divine incarnation (hulul) or unification (ittihad). That Supreme and Unique Universal Spirit bestowed the jamadi, or inorganic spirit on the objects that are considered to be inanimate, the botanical spirit on the plants, and the zoological spirit on the animals. However, the human spirit, which was blessed with the Divine Entrustment, is not like other types of spirits. The human spirit shall live after death. The spirit that is bestowed on human beings when they are still in their moth­er's womb will continue on to the Intermediate State (barzakh) and remain there until the Judgment Day. On the Judgment Day, when decayed corpses will be resurrected by God, the human spirit will recenter the body.

The dawriyya (rotation) poetry, which has been written or recited by many poets who, like Rumi, talk about the love of God, is the story of the Divine Light's separation from the Absolute Being—God, whose existence has no beginning. This story begins with the descent of the Divine Light from the heav­ens, and after going through many stages, its returns back to its origin. In other words, dawriyya poetry deals with the separation from the Origin (mabda] and the return to the Home (ma'ad}. Those dawriyya poems that give an account of the separation from God in the eternal beginning and exile in this world are called. farshiyya (earth) or nuzul (descent) dawriyya, and those that give an account of the return to the Origin are called the 'uruj (ascension) dawriyya.

Now let us look at some dawriyya poetry composed by Rumi and try to understand it: "Man first came to the world of inorganic substances. From there he fell into the world of the plants. He lived in the world of the plants for years and never remem­bered his life in the world of inorganic substances. And when he transferred from the world of plants to the world of animals, he then forgot his life in the world of plants. " These verses illustrate the development of our physical being. In fact the human body, our material existence, is built through what we eat and drink. Our food consists of meat, vegetables, fruit, water, and inorganic substances, such as the minerals in our food. Man's seed was dispersed around different parts of the universe before it fell in the mother's womb. The mother and father prepare that seed from the food they eat, consisting of meat, vegetables, and minerals. Furthermore, when the seed develops in the mother's womb, it is nourished with the food that comes through the mother's food. In this way, humans came to into existence from the ranks of minerals, plants, and animals and became the 'essence of the universe. ' Therefore, Shaykh Ghalib wrote: "Take care of yourself because you are the essence of the universe. " In another poem., Rumi remembers this subject:

I died after being inorganic matter and became a growing plant. I died after being a plant and appeared in the shape of an animal.

I died after being an animal and became a human being. After all this why would I be afraid of decreasing and being incomplete?

Let me make another move ahead and escape the state of humanity and spread my wings in the world of angels.

I cannot stop even after becoming an angel. I have to pro­ceed even further because everything other than God is destined to be destroyed.

And in the end, I will be sacrificed from being an angel and become something that cannot be imagined.

I become nothing by leaving all forms. I am completely effaced and say like Arganun: "We surely return to Him. " When carefully read, we can see that in these verses Rumi describes the different stages of the development of the human essence. The physical being of humans comes from the soil. They obtain their food from the plants that grow in the soil and the animals that are fed from that soil. After being in those worlds, humans come to the world of humanity. But they do not lose anything by departing from these other worlds. On the contrary, they advance and develop. This is not to say that the plants and animals we see around us today will be humans in the future. Rather, what is being discussed here is that when humans attained the bliss of dying after the animalistic stage to become human beings, there remained no fear of death; humans are aware that they will not vanish with death. They will escape their physical existence and attain God. The sword will be freed from its sheath. The following quatrain by Rousseau, translated into Turkish by Pertev Pasha, addresses this subject: "When the spirit escapes the darkness of body / And betakes itself on the road to its homeland / That is when doubts and illusions fade / And then the truth is known."

In the verses cited above, Rumi not only talks about depart­ing from the world of spirits and descending to the lower plane, but he completes his dawriyya with the ascension and reunion with God. He is not content with saying: "I died after being an animal and became a man, " His spirit did not find peace with this. When he says: "Let me make another move ahead and escape the state of humanity and spread my wings in the world of angels, " he wishes to attain the state of an angel by escaping the state of humanity, understanding that the state of humanity has many obstacles, like the desire for fame, lust, anger, greed, love of this world, and passion; these chain one's hands and keep one far from God, making one's self a slave to materiality Being an angel does not satisfy Rumi either, and he wishes to advance even further because elsewhere in the Mesnevi he says: "O broth­er, the door (path) of God is a door that is never reached. Hence, however much you proceed toward this door, you will not see it as being far enough and will not stop. Proceed ever more. " "Every day there is a new departure for me and new distances to cover. " This is the character and approach of Rumi.

Because of his character, Rumi does not stop even after attaining the state of an angel; he wants to proceed to become completely nothing, "something that cannot be imagined, " leav­ing all forms. Here Rumi means the level of fana fillah(annihilation in God). At this point we face a subtle issue. The concept of nothingness that Rumi talks about is not the same nothingness that is the foundation of Buddhism. Leaving the world, dying before dying, and escaping the ego is not the selflessness that the Buddhists believe in. The nothingness that Rumi seeks is escap­ing the evil that is inherent in the state of humanity, killing desires like lust, anger, and love of the world and being annihilated in God. In other words, it is an escape from this shadow existence. However, the nothingness in the Buddhist belief is an attempt to escape all existence and to attain Nirvana. Akif Pasha expresses the Buddhist's view of nothingness in Ms following couplet: "In nothingness there is neither sorrow nor concern, nor the bitter­ness of pain or former hope lost. Therefore, all men seek this nothingness. " The two following couplets of Akif Pasha might also have been inspired by Rumi: "Some people seek the eternal existence with a lack of sorrow; some seek nothingness due to sor­rows and pain. I, on the other hand, am effaced in the dust under the feet of Muhammad, who is the King of Both Worlds, and hence I neither seek existence nor run away from nothingness. " It is impossible not to remember Yunus Emre when speaking of existence and non-existence, when he says: "I am neither happy with having / Nor sorry for destitution / I am overwhelmed with your love / You are the One I seek. "

The following ode explains dawriyya more closely:

I stayed for some time in each of the nine heavens called the Great Fathers (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Neptune, Uranus and the two Pole stars). I rotated for many years with the stars in the signs of the Zodiac.

For some time I remained invisible. I was somewhere with Him. Those days I was in the country of aw adna (or even closer), which is closest to God. There I saw what I saw.

I received nourishment from God just as the embryo receives nourishment from its mother. Children of Adam are born once but I am born many times.

I stayed in the robe of the body for many years. I have done many things. I have torn apart many robes with my own hands.

I spent many nights with the ascetics in houses of worship. And I slept many nights with the idol worshippers in front of idols.

I am both one of the thieves running around and the agony of the lamenting sick. I am both the cloud and the rain. I keep on raining on the gardens.

O beggar, the dust of mortality has never reached my dress. I picked many roses in the garden of immortality.

My essence is not of fire, water, nervous wind, and decorat­ed soil, I laugh at them all.

O son, I am not Shams of Tabriz. If you see me do not tell anyone: "I saw him. " I am not him. I am pure light.

In order to better understand the issue of dawriyya, which is difficult to understand and to explain, we have to grasp the fundamentals of wahdat al-wujud. According to this belief, exis­tence is one. There is only one tiling that exists, and that is God. There is no other existence than the existence of God. And it is impossible for anything else to exist. In other words, when there were no heavens, no earth, nothing at all, God, al-Qadim (the Primordial), existed. All the beings in this universe, visible or invisible, have appeared in the knowledge of God. Then they came into existence with God's manifestation of His Divine Will. In other words, they were created as a result of God's man­ifestation of His Person (Self). But in reality, ail created beings and all universes consist of non-existence that has the illusion of existence; the real existence is only the existence of God. Prophet Muhammad described the state before the universe, whose existence is an illusion in a sense, as follows: "God exist­ed and nothing else existed with Him. " 'Ali was present there and he replied: "It is still the same way, " pointing to this truth.

Here one might ask: How can this be true? How can one view this universe that was created ex nilo* We live amongst all these creatures and we feel that we exist and live. Then how can we say that we do not exist? Also we came to possess some of the things that God created. We eat and drink. How can all this be considered to be non-existent? Is this at all possible? Is this because our existence is for all practical purposes non-existent and insignificant in comparison to the vast greatness of this universe? Modern science has discovered that there are stars as far away as 60 billion light years from our planet. The spacecraft, the Spirit, only recently arrived on Mars and began sending images to the Earth. The universe is so vast that our world seems like a little blue spot among countless stars, and we are like particles of dust on an orange. Thus is the notion of nothingness, a way of approximating the truth as the poet says:

If our earth is like a dust particle compared to the heavens Then along the same line of reasoning, man has to consider himself to be in non-existence.

No, this consideration is neither an approximation nor a delusion, but it is the truth of Rumi's interpretation of Islam. What kind of significance can our physical existence have when all the stars in the heavens do not have any significance at all with respect to the infinite greatness and power of God? In one of his quatrains Rumi says: "There is none other than Him in this world. There is neither anything ugly nor anything beauti­ful, neither anything visible nor anything invisible. Every arrow that is shot is shot with His Power. Every deeply meaningful word is uttered through His lips. " When we look at the sky on a clear summer night we see billions of stars shining in the heav­ens. But when the morning comes and the sun rises with all its magnificence, we cease to see the beautiful stars that caressed our hearts with their twinkling and which comforted us. Where have all they gone? Have they disappeared in the infinite vacu­um of space? They are still in their place, still traveling in their orbits, and still emitting light. But they are not visible anymore since the light of the sun suppresses their light and makes them invisible. Similarly, if a sun of truth, a sun of faith, rises in our hearts, our eyes are dazzled with its light and we become unable to see anything other than God. Then we came to understand the truth of "Nothing exists but Him. "

Other followers of the view of wahdat al-wujud describe this in the following way: Although existence is one, it has an inner and an outer aspect. The inner aspect of existence is a light that is the spirit of the universe, and the universe is filled with that light throughout. It is this light that gives life to every thing, including those things that we mistakenly modify as inanimate. The Qur'anic verse, "God is the Light of the heavens and the earth" expresses this truth. There is no limit, end, or peak to this light. It does not penetrate things and it does not unite things. This light is an infinite ocean of holy light that has no shore and whose greatness cannot be encompassed. Life, knowledge, will, and power exist because of this light. Everything comes into existence and sustains its existence through this light. The vision, sound, speech, motion, work, and influence of creatures come from this light. In fact, everything consists of this light. The characteristics of beings, the nature of things, their attributes, and power all come from this light. This light is unique and it is not more than one. It enlightens everywhere, like a sun. All things from the micro cosmos to the macro cosmos, all the stars and countless worlds, everything is a place of manifestation and reflection for this light. Like Niyazi Misri (d. 1696) has said: "Look at the things in all six directions with a careful eye / They are all a mirror where the Face of the Most Merciful is seen / He is the Sayer, the Said, the Seer and the Seen / Whatever there is, high and low, know that the Beloved is seen there. "

After becoming familiar with these views, we understand that all the different stages, levels, attributes, and modes are His mirror and His place of manifestation. Since we could say that He is the Spirit of the Universe, in the Rumian sense, there is no one but He who is in the mosques with the pious and in the temples with the idol worshippers. Ziya Pasha spoke of this truth when he said: "In the sight of God, a Muslim and a fire worshipper are one. " In other words, both of these different states are manifestations of His different Names; in this case, al- Hadi and al-Mudhill. The following ode by Rumi helps clarify this issue:

O God, you are the Healer of the sick. You are the One hidden as the spirit within the boons and bounties.

You make your servants sick so that they may pray to You because You are the purchaser and accepter of their lamenting and crying.

Everyone in this world is seeking a remedy for his own hardship. However, the remedies of these hardships are seeking You because there is no doubt that You are the Creator of both the hardship and the remedy.

The hardships that make one beg from others are curtains, pretexts that are predetermined. Beyond this curtain is Your door of boons, where one ultimately is destined.

You first make the sick lament and cry so that they may find comfort and regain their health eventually. But in reality You are the One who is our illness and our lamenting. By God, You are the One who says "you are... "

On this game field You arc the ball. You are the player and the spectator. Slavery, lordship, and kingdom are all Your pre­determination. Both the straight line and the curved line are drawn in Your school.

Our bodies are like houses and our souls are like guests in these houses. O God, we do not exist. Our bodies and our souls are Your Shadow. In realitv You are the spirit of our spirits who are guests in our bodies.

Since God manifests himself in everything, expressions like "from inorganic substances, I transformed into plants, from plants into animals and from animals into man, " which can be found in many places in the Mesnevi, must be interpreted as the developmental stages of our physical being, as previously men­tioned. Transmigration of souls is not what is being talked about here. The notion of reincarnation leads to a denial of the Hereafter, which is contradictory to the fundamentals of Islam. Regarding this matter Rumi says: "You own a body without body. So do not be afraid of your spirit leaving the body. (Your real existence is beyond this physical body)"

According to the followers of reincarnation, there is no Intermediary State (barzakh] where the spirits after death will wait until Judgment Day, and reward or punishment for our deeds is manifested as coming back as a lower or a higher form of life. They further claim that the spirits are limited and con­stantly transmigrate from body to body. They do not adhere to the Islamic perspective that God manifests Himself in a differ­ent way in every instance. Instead, they believe that there is rep­etition in God's manifestation. The followers of reincarnation, who are unaware of the fact that the Divine Emanation spreads over all the things and covers them constantly, believe that the spirit will cease to exist after going through many adventures and entering and exiting many bodies. Muslims, however, believe in the immortality of the human spirit, which is a Divine Entrustment. Therefore, we are not afraid that we are destined to vanish in the soil. Omar Khayyam (d. 1131), a Muslim philosopher, remembers our physical mortality and says: "Know that every breath you take is an opportunity/ You are not grass that will grow again next year. " He advises us to prepare for the spiritual world and not waste our time. Human beings do not want effacement; rather they want to live after death. They want to live on, even if it is in the hearts of others. Therefore, the great Turkish poet, Baki says: "All that remains under the dome of the heavens is the memory of a pleasant sound. "

Can we remain tied to the elements (inorganic materials, plants and animals) that reach our bodies through what we eat and drink when our physical existence, our bodies are destined to decay and to be eaten by insects and worms in the grave? In the preceding ode, Rumi said: "My essence is not of water, fire, air, and soil. " The elements belong to our bodies, which house our spirits. While the four elements make up the body, the spir­it, which resides in the body, has nothing to do with the ele-ments because the spirit is "Divine Breath. " Indeed, in his famous Qasidah al-Ta'iyyah the great Sufi poet Ibn al-Farid (d. 1235) pleads first to be delivered from the influence of false belief and delusion that originates from lowly desires and then begs God that He may keep him away from those who believe in reincarnation:

O God, grant me the sign of the virtues and wisdom that will save me from the influence of false belief and delusion based on imperfect knowledge and hypotheses caused by lowly desires.

O God, keep me away from the believers in naskh (reincar­nation, transmigration of soul from one human body to anoth­er), maskh (transmigration of soul from one human body to an animal body).

O God, mix me not with those who claim faskh (transmi­gration of soul from one human body to plants), and raskh (transmigration of soul from one human body to inorganic substances) and hence believe that in every transmigration the soul suffers the agony that it deserves.

The belief in reincarnation, which is un-Islamic, causes us to lose our spirit, the existence of which we feel (our real self). I feel a Divine Entrustment which is within me. What is inside me is mine. It is not someone else's. It will not go anywhere else. When it exits this world it will only return to its origin.

Mahmud Shabastari (d. 1320), author of the Gulshan-i Raz, points out the inadequacy of the intellect in this matter and then says that belief in reincarnation comes from a narrowness of viewpoint and hence it is kufr (infidelity) and has no sub­stance to it.

Know that the whole universe is filled with the light of God. He is hidden in the universe since He is apparent. In other words, the fact that He is as apparent as sunlight causes Him not to show Himself and to remain hidden.

The light of God neither goes from one place to another, nor does it change from one state to another. That light neither changes nor assumes a different form.

You think that the universe sustains its existence with its own existence and that its existence is everlasting with its own essence.

Whoever possesses a mind that is inclined toward long reflection, it takes its owner to many mind-boggling places, surprising and misleading him.

Because of long, useless reflections of the mind, some have been taken by philosophy and some by the belief in incarnation (hulul).

The intellect does not have the ability to see the light of truth. So, go and seek another eye, the eye of the heart, to see Him.

Both eyes of the philosopher are cross-eyed, and therefore he cannot see God as one.

The belief in reincarnation is caused by the narrowness of the point of view and hence it is infidelity and has no substance to it.

When Shaykh Muhammad Lahiji (d. 1464) wrote commen­taries on these verses, he followed the conduct of many gnostics and referred to verses in the Mesnevi to explain these difncult-to-understand, esoteric truths. Although it may be repetitious, for blessing's sake, I cannot proceed without including the following lines from the Mesnevi:

Since the existence of the soul is felt and is so close to ourselves, it remains unnoticed. Man is like a jug, whose mouth is dry although it is filled with water.

How can you see the colors of red, green, and pink where there is no light?

But since your intellect and thoughts are lost in colors, these colors prevent you from seeing the light itself.

Whenever the night covers the colors then you come to understand that seeing colors depends on light.

Outside, it is impossible to see the colors if there is no light. The same holds true for the colors inside you.

The colors on the outside can be seen with the light of the sun and stars. The colors of the inner world only can be seen with the shining of the light of God.

The light of your eye is the light of the heart because the light of the eye comes from the light of the heart.

The light of the light of heart comes from the light of God. But this light is completely diferent from the light of the intellect and light of the senses.

At night since there is no light, you cannot see the colors. This you came to understand as the opposite of the light.

First the light is seen and then the colors. You can under­stand this clearly with the disappearance of light.

God created sorrows and difficulties as the opposite of comfort and peace of mind, so that comfort and peace of mind will be appreciated (understood).

Every hidden thing becomes apparent with its opposite. And since God has no opposite He remains hidden.

You recognized the light with its opposite because when something becomes apparent it makes apparent its opposite as well.

In the world of existence, the light of God has no opposite making it apparent through its opposite.

Of course our eyes cannot see and encompass Him. But understand that He sees and encompasses us with the parable of Moses and Mount Sinai.

The last section of the previously quoted material refers to the Qur'anic verse, which reads: "Eyes do not comprehend Him, but He comprehends all the eyes. He is the Subtle and the Aware. "

The light of the existence of God is manifested constantly and without interruption. This manifestation is not in the way that believers in reincarnation understand it to be. There is no repetition in the creation. Since everything is a mirror for the manifestation of God, every mirror constantly shows us some­thing different from His Attributes and Acts. This manifestation never is separated from the Ultimate Emanator: "Sunlight nev­er is separated from the sun, so how can the emanation be sep­arated from God?" The following couplet by Aziz Mahmud Hudayi (d. 1628), a well known Turkish mystic, illustrates this truth very clearly: "His manifestation became a veil for His manifestation / Does anyone with eyes ever seek evidence for the existence of light?" This truth cannot be comprehended only with reason. Reason can take one only half the way. As Rumi tells us, "The philosopher has relied on his mind and killed him­self with thought. Let him run and go away. He already has left the treasure of truth behind. You tell him, 'Run and go!' The faster he runs the farther he gets from the desire in his heart. " Why are we going far away? Is God not closer to us than our jugular vein?

God is closer to man than his jugular vein. And you are trying to shoot your thought far away like an arrow.

O, you who draws his bow and shoots his arrow, the prey is close by and you are shooting your arrow to a distant place.

The farther one shoots his arrow, the more distant he remains from the invaluable treasure of the truth.

The following lines, composed by a gnostic, reveal the same truth: "That Beloved is always with you and never far away from you, even for a moment. Even though you are living your life unaware and separated from Him, He is never separated from you. / In order to see the sun of His face open your eyes and look carefully because His sun is never covered and is visible to the eye. / But even if there is no obstacle other than His own light it is only possible to see His face again with His light. "

As discussed above, all the things that we consider to exist do not exist in reality. They only seem to exist. Just as the star becomes invisible when the sun rises, nothing other than God remains visible at the time of Divine Manifestation. Indeed, Rumi confirms this notion in the following couplets:

O spirit of our spirit, who are we to claim that we exist? We simply are non-existing ones. The real existence that makes mortals seem to exist is You. '

When one admits that there is only one existence, namely God's existence, then hulul and ittihad become impossible; for both of these conditions to occur, there must be two existent beings. And yet there is only one existing entity, and that is God.

As is widely known, the gnostics tell us of four journeys that are necessary to make in order to orient one's self to God, to attain the truth, and to open the eye of the heart: The first journey is spiritual advancement from the station of the self to the "apparent horizon" (ufq al-mubin), which is the end of the level of heart. On attaining this level, the lover of God throws away their excessive love for materialism, the world, and riches from their heart. They raise the veil of plurality (kathrat) from the face of the unity (wahdat}. In other words, he delivers him­self from the perception of plurality He sees unity in everything. This journey is called the journey to God. (sayr ilallah}.

The second journey is completed by assuming the conduct prescribed by the Qur'an and attaining the "highest horizon" (ufq al-'ala}, which is the end of the level of Unity (wahdaniyyah]. In contrast to the first journey, in this journey the veil of unity (wahdat} is lifted from the face of the plurality (kathrat). In this journey, plurality is seen in unity, whereas in the first journey unity is seen in plurality. This journey is called the journey in God ( sayr fillah}.

The third journey leads to deliverance from all dualities, esoteric or exoteric, viewing all the power and acts in God and attaining the level of "the very union itself" ('ayn al-jam'}. This journey is called the journey with God (sayr ma'allah}. The fourth journey is the level where one returns from God to the people in order to guide them to God and this is a state where unity is seen in the form of plurality, and plurality is seen in the form of unity. Similarly this level refers to returning from the state of union (jam'} to that of separation (firaq), or from intox­ication (sakr} to sobriety (sahw). This journey is called the jour­ney from God (sayr anillah}.

The great Sufi poet Mahmud Shabastari explains that all the spiritual levels that a believer goes through in their spiritual jour­ney, where they walk on the path of Islamic Law to attain the truth, have nothing to do with reincarnation: "The meaning of this is not reincarnation. These states are appearances of Divine Manifestations. Someone was asked: 'Where is the final destina­tion?' He replied, 'It is the return to the origin. "' The gnostics have described the descent of our spiritual existence from the lev­el of unity (ahadiyyah} to the level of humanity (insaniyyah} as the "semi-circle of descent, " and the ascension of our spiritual existence from the level of humanity (insaniyyah) to the level of unity (ahadiyyah) as the "semi-circle of ascension. " Gnostics who journey to God have thought of the journey to God and the jour­ney in God as attaining the level of union (jam'), the level of sainthood. Furthermore, they have viewed the journey with God and journey from God as the level of separation (farq), the level of plurality, and the level of inviting and guiding the people to God. There is a subtle point here: It is by no means a regression or descent for a gnostic to go from the level of unity (jam') to the level of separation (farq). On the contrary, it is the perfection of the knowledge of God and obtaining the license of being of service to humanity. This is the highest level for a saint; they will bear the title of spiritual guide (murshid) and guide the people to God. As Sadi explains, "Dervishhood is walking on the path of God and serving other people. It is not tied to beads, prayers, or dervish clothing. "

In this sense turning from God to people is a higher state than turning from people to God; the most glorious and hon­orable personality of the universe, our most beloved Prophet commands: "He who serves is the lord. " While in the first level the issue is the salvation of the individual seeker salik, the issue in the second level is to save humanity. In the first level, the salik has cleansed his self and attained the level of sainthood. With the grace of God he has escaped evil and saved only himself. However, in the second level, he has been charged with the duty of cleansing people from their bad behavior and habits and has attained the bliss of living for others. He has obtained a diplo­ma of spiritual guidance.

It is for this reason that a Gnostic attaining the level of sep­aration after the level of union will see the one truth and one Being in all he sees in the plurality. He will attain the joy of view­ing God, not in just one mirror, but in countless mirrors and everywhere. The gnostics who reach this level have obtained full spiritual freedom and are released from all attachments. The sul- tan of the Gnostics, Ibn al-Farid, mentions this subject in his famous ode "Qasida al-Ta'iyyah"; "Don't count me among the muqarrib (those who are close to God). The attribute of being close to God is the attribute of a servant at the level of union (jam). I do not see myself as separated from Him. The view of separation is a sin for me. When I attain the level of union, there will be no difference between far and distant, union and separation, friendship and animosity, beginning and end. All will be the same for me. "

The following couplets by Rumi explain that the human spirit does not necessarily need a body in order to live:

The people say "Such and such person has died. " But you say: "O, those who are unaware, I have not died. I am alive. " My body may be lying in loneliness and dryness, it has fallen asleep. But in my heart, the eight gates of heaven are opened.

Why would one worry if the body lies in dirt when my spir­it has fallen asleep in the rose garden?

The spirit will never notice this in sleep. It does not matter whether he sleeps in the rose garden or whether he sleeps next to the furnace in the bath.

The spirit walks in the world of spirits, crying: "If only my people had known my happy situation. '

If the spirit does not want to live without this body, whose place will be the palace of the heavens?

If the spirit did not want to live without this body, then who would receive the spiritual nourishment as promised by
God: "Your nourishment is from the heavens. " '

I would like to conclude this section with the permission of God with the following couplets by Rumi concerning resurrec­tion. In these couplets, the great saint explains that the parts of human bodies that already have decomposed and mixed with soil will come together on the Day of Resurrection with the command of God. Every spirit will recognize its own body, will enter only its own body, and thus will be resurrected, It is a contradiction to the Qur'an to think that the resurrection will occur in spiritual terms only As Rumi says, "The Spirit will reenter every body that raises its head from the stone. " The res- urrection of the body will occur in physical terms. What can lie beyond the Power of God?

If the spirit was able to live in many different bodies, as believers in reincarnation suggest, then which body would the spirit enter on the Day of the Resurrection? With which body would the spirit enter the Presence (court) of his Lord?

In a Prophetic Tradition it is related that on the Day of Resurrection, a command will be given to every body; "Stand up!" The breathing into the sur (Trumpet) is the command that comes from God saying: "O humankind! Raise your heads from your graves!" Just as intellect and thought return to every one when they wake up in the morning, so too will the spirit return to every body that raises its head from the earth.

The spirit recognizes its body on the Day of Resurrection. The spirit enters that ruined place which is its own, just like a buried treasure.

Every spirit will recognize its own body and will enter that body How can the jeweler's spirit enter the tailor's body? The spir­it of the scholar will go to the scholar and the spirit of the tyrant will go to tyrant.
Just as the Iamb recognizes its mother and the mother her young in the morning, so too has God's Knowledge given the spirits a similar knowledge.

A foot can recognize its shoe, even in the dark; then O, beloved, how can the spirit not recognize its own body?

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