God’s-eye view. “A Flight Through the Universe,” by the
Sloan Digital Sky
Survey, displays close to 400,000 galaxies, each with
one or two hundred billion
stars, some many times the mass of our sun.
And please bear in
mind that there are maybe a hundred billion of these galaxies.
Click here for the 3D
version (you will need anaglyph 3D glasses).
God... created [Mohammed] as a light within a column of light, a million years before creation... (Re 53:13)
—Sahl al-Tustari
(on the Light of Mohammed, in the first Sufi Commentary on the Koran)
(In the Name of
God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.)
By the Fig and the Olive,
and Mount Sinai,
and this land secure (Mecca):
We indeed created Man in the fairest stature,
Then We reduced him to the lowest of the low,
Save those who believe and do
good deeds, and theirs is a reward unfailing.
(The Fig, 95:1-6)
Over the centuries,
a literal reading of the Fig Chapter in the Koran does not seem to have
produced much light. Taking the words at face value has yielded references to
trees and mountains, or at best, to the prophets with which these are related.
The fig and the olive are associated with Jesus, Mount Sinai (quite naturally)
with Moses, and the secure land or territory with Mohammed.
In what follows, I
would like to suggest an alternative reading. I propose to treat the named
entities as symbols. Perhaps this
approach will yield a more satisfying explanation as to why God wishes to swear
an oath by them rather than directly
by the prophets involved. There are two reasons for this:
·
God
does not take an oath idly. Among other things, an oath in the Koran is
intended to draw our attention to some subtlety which may otherwise be missed.
·
The
Koran has already named these prophets explicitly elsewhere. Why, then, refer
to them obliquely here?
First, of course,
we must define what we understand by “ symbol.”
To paraphrase
Martin Lings, a symbol is a shadow or
projection of a higher reality. It is a metaphor, a “bridge” (majaz) to understanding something that
is more complex, elusive, and abstract.
A reality can be
expressed by more than one symbol. Put another way, different symbols can
point to the same
reality. Similarly, the three-dimensional complex object (call it “Geb”) at the
left
has three different two-dimensional projections on three
mutually perpendicular planes. So
Geb can be
represented by G, E, and/or B in two dimensions. Likewise, the object at right
can
be represented by U, D (or A), and T. (Front cover design, 20th Anniversary Edition of Douglas
R.
Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid [1979].)
Let, us, therefore,
investigate the items named in the chapter for their symbolic content, in the
order of their appearance.
The Fig
The first item on
our list is the fig, from which the chapter (sura) also gets its name. What could it be referring to? Let us
approach this question by means of the World Tree. (Added emphases are in bold.)
[The notion] of a cosmologically sacred tree, or tree of life, is found
throughout the world. In the ancient Brahman tradition of India, and among
Shamans of Central Asia, the sacred tree was considered the symbolic axis of
the [world]. … The cosmic tree appears as an inverted tree with its roots in heaven
growing downward towards the earth as depicted in the Upanishads of India and medieval Cabbalistic writings (Wikipedia,
“Tree of Life,” 2013). A symbolic Mountain of Paradise and the four rivers of
life are also motifs found beyond Persia.[1]
The idea of an erect [upright] and of an inverted Tree is met with over a range
of time and space extending from Plato to Dante and Siberia to India and
Melanesia.[2]
Of paramount
interest to us is the identification of the World Tree with the fig tree:
the World Tree, the cosmic and supracosmic Tree of Life, which stretches
along the length of the Axis Mundi [World Axis] passing through and connecting
all of the created order—all worlds and beings—at the centre… is described in its inverted aspect in the Upanishads, ‘Its
root is above, its branches below—This eternal fig-tree (asvattha)! That
indeed is Pure. That is Brahma.’ … [And also in the] Bhagavadgītā,
‘Men tell of the changeless Fig-tree,
with roots that upward rise and branches that descend’…[3]
“This is an eternal Ashwattha
tree whose root is above, but its branches are downward. It is He that is
called the Bright One and Brahman, and Immortality, and in Him are all the
worlds established, none goes beyond Him. This is what you seek.”[4]
Ananda Coomaraswamy
provides some more information:
the One Asvattha is identified
with Brahman … A twofold division, cosmic and
supracosmic, of the Axial Column …
stands in part within the cosmos and in what is a greater part also out beyond the sky. … the Axis of the Universe is, as
it were, a ladder on which there is a
perpetual going up and down. … [5]
The word Miraj
(Ascension) literally means “ladder.” A chapter in the Koran is named
“Ascensions.”
“…the
angels and the Spirit descend, by the leave of their Lord, for every errand”
(97:4).
Coomaraswamy also reminds us that
“This pillar is omnipresent and passes through the centre of every being.” Keith Critchlow
adds that this ‘is described as a “ray
joining every being to the spiritual sun”.’[6] And Plato—whom a great
Sufi, Jili, once saw in a vision as “filling the world with light”—compared man
to an upside-down tree, whose roots are in the heavens and whose branches tend
downwards to earth.[7]
Now a tree with its
roots in heaven and its branches downwards is also known in Islam. It is called
the Tree of Bliss or the Tree of Happiness (tūbā).
Thus, we may read the Fig tree (in its
inverted form) as an equivalent symbol of the Tuba tree.*
Another tree, the Shajarat-al
Tūbā … is prominent in aḥādith [Sayings of the
Prophet] and in the writings of later mystics. The Shajarat-al Tūbā was described by Ibn al-ʿArabī
[the great Sufi mystic] in his Futūhāt
al Makkiya as growing down from the roof of Heaven and penetrating all of
the spheres of Heaven. … This tree he calls the Tree of happiness
or bliss (tūbā)’ …[8]
The word tūbā (pronounced “two-baa”) occurs in the Koran
(13:28) without reference to a tree. However, the tree of that name is well
established in the Prophet’s Sayings: for example, “the Tuba is a tree in
Paradise. God planted it with His own
hand and breathed His spirit into it.”[9]
The inverted tree,
with its roots in heaven and its fruits on earth, or (according to Ibn Arabi)
growing down from
the roof of Heaven and penetrating all of the spheres of Heaven.
Right: picture of the
Tuba Tree (circa 1900), with the 99
Beautiful Names of God written
on its leaves and the Banner of Praise (liva al-hamd) of the Prophet on its
right.
Whoever holds on to
one of its leaves (that is, recites one of God’s Names) is said
to be pulled up to
Heaven. At the bottom are the Eight Gates of Paradise.
Here is Ibn Arabi on
the Tuba in his Meccan Revelations (Futuhat-ul Makkiya):
The Tree of Tuba compared to all other trees of Paradise is like Adam who was the origin of
mankind, for when [God] planted and set it right, He blew of His spirit into it… He adorned it with decorations and
garments that beatify their wearers. We are its earth as He has made ‘whatever is on the earth an adornment for it’
(18:7). It gave the fruits of Paradise all the truth
they have, as a stone of date produces a palm tree, and the light which those
fruits carry.[10]
Sometimes the Cosmic Mountain (see below) and the Cosmic Tree symbols are combined, as in the Scandinavian
World Tree Yggdrasil. Of the Tuba Tree, Laleh Bakhtiyar states: “Tuba, in its
macrocosmic form, grows at the uppermost limits of the universe. In its microcosmic form, its cultivation
depend[s] upon the mystic. … Ibn 'Arabi describes this symbol in both its
forms. In its macrocosmic aspect, it is
associated with the Cosmic Mountain on top of which the Cosmic Tree grows.”
Bakhtiyar continues:
The whole of the cosmos is seen as a tree, the Tree of Knowledge, which has grown from the seed of the Divine
Command, “Be”. The Tree has sent down
its roots, sent up its trunk, and spread out its
branches, so that this world, the world of Symbols, and the world of
Archetypes, are all contained by this Tree.
As the Tree is manifest in a macrocosmic aspect, so it is hidden in the
microcosmic form. It is the symbol of
wisdom which, through roots in meditation, bears fruit of the Spirit.[11]
Because the Tree of
Bliss grows downwards from the roof of heaven, many domes
of mosques and shrines in Islam have highly abstracted, stylized
representations of the Tuba.
The dome itself symbolizes
heaven. (Left:
Tilla-Kari Medrassah at Registan,
Samarkand,
Uzbekistan. Right: interior of Taj
Mahal mosque, India.)
The dome of this
mosque is distinguished by the fact that the Tree of Happiness is depicted both
on its exterior and its interior. Note the sunburst design
with an eight-pointed star at its apex, and
the daisy-like,
mirrored spiral pattern. (Dome of Shaykh Lutfullah mosque, Isfahan, Iran.)
A Fibonacci Spiral
is duplicated and the circular pattern is mirrored.
When assembled, the
result forms the pattern seen in sunflowers.
(The Tuba tree has
also been associated with the Indian Kalpavriksha
tree because it fulfills all desires.)
Finally, Henry
Corbin equates the Tuba Tree with Ibn Arabi’s Cosmic Tree (shajarat al kawn): “…the Tuba tree; now, we know that this is the
name of the tree that shades Paradise; it is the Tree of Being [another name for the Cosmic Tree].”[12] But Ibn Arabi
claims that this tree stands for the Perfect Human (see below). We have, then,
established a link between the Fig and the Perfect Human, which is also the
Light of Mohammed.
The Olive
The treatment for
the Olive follows closely upon that for the Fig. Let me quote from an earlier
article:
In his treatise on
Cosmic Unification (al-Ittihad
al-Kawn, translated as The Universal
Tree and the Four Birds), the famous
Sufi, Ibn Arabi, equates the Universal Tree (al-shajara al-kulli) or
World Axis with the Perfect Human Being. (Ibn Arabi’s other “tree,” the World Tree
or Cosmic Tree (Shajarat al-Kawn), also symbolizes the Universal Human.) In addition, the Tree stands for eternal life, and is
called the Tree of Life in some traditions. Another name for it is the Tree of Light (A. J. Wensinck, Tree and Bird as Cosmological Symbols in
Western Asia (1921)). That light
beam (also called the Ray of Creation) is, in Sufism, the first-created
light, the First Intellect (Universal Mind) or the Light of Mohammed (these
occur in the Prophet’s own Sayings). This is the light that is referred to in
Genesis: “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Gen. 1:3).
For Islam, the olive is the central tree, The World Axis,
a symbol of Universal Man and of the Prophet. The ‘Blessed Tree’ is associated
with light, since its oil is used as lamp fuel. (The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols, p. 716.)
And this brings us to another part of the Light Verse:
“[The lamp] is lighted from a Blessed Tree, an olive neither of the East nor of
the West [hence of the center], whose light would well-nigh shine out even if
it were not lit by fire” [hence self-luminous] (24:35).
The first Arabic letter, the Alif, also represents the Cosmic Pillar because of its shape. …[13]
Here we need only
add that in Islam, the “Straight Path” to be followed (sirat al-mustaqim) is not only a road without bends, but also means
the “Ascending Path” along the vertical axis, because of the root word qam (“to raise oneself”).[14] Hence the Alif also
represents the Straight Path itself, namely, elevation along the axis of
consciousness or spirituality, which is perpendicular to all dimensions.[15]
Mountains, trees,
and pointed man-made structures are all equivalent symbols for the Cosmic
Mountain or Pillar
of the Universe. (From
left: Mt. Machapuchare, Nepal; pine tree; Wat Arun,
Bangkok; Cheops
Pyramid, Egypt)
Mount Sinai
According to
psychologist Carl G. Jung, “The mountain stands for the goal of the pilgrimage
and ascent, hence it often has the psychological meaning of the self.” [16]
Mount Sinai is, of
course, the mountain specific to Moses, but before we talk about that, we must
talk about mountains in general, which lead to the archetype of the Cosmic
Mountain.
What is the Cosmic
Mountain? It is a mode of, or an alternate symbol for, the World Axis. It
represents the cosmos. Not confined to the physical universe, it spans the
whole of existence—“the eighteen thousand worlds,” as the Sufis call it.
At its base and
beneath it are the various hells. Below the clouds that surround it, there is
lightning, thunder and rain. But above the clouds it is always sunshine. According
to scholar of comparative religion Mircea Eliade,
In several traditions, the Cosmos is shaped like a mountain whose peak
touches heaven: above, where the heavens and the earth are reunited, is the
Center of the World. This cosmic mountain may be identified with a real
mountain, or it can be mythic, but it is always placed at the center of the
world.[17]
The ziggurat was literally a cosmic mountain; the seven stories represented
the seven planetary heavens; by ascending them, the priest reached the summit
of the universe.[18]
As for the peak:
The summit of the cosmic mountain is not only the highest point of the
earth; it is also the earth's navel, the point at which the Creation began.[19]
According to Indian beliefs, Mount Meru rises at the center of the world,
and above it shines the polestar.
The Ural-Altaic peoples also know of a central mountain, Sumeru, to whose
summit the polestar is fixed. [20]
Mount Meru or Mt. Sumeru
(“Beautiful Meru”), the Hindu conception of the Cosmic Mountain. Above are the
heavens, below are
the hot and cold hells. Its height was said to be more than a million
kilometers, a large enough
number in an age
when people had not yet heard about billions of light-years. At the top is the
City of
Brahma (God).
The World Axis is
considered to pass through the Pole Star, and the Center of the World to be its
terrestrial footprint, because the axis of the Earth’s rotation points towards
the Pole Star, “the center of heaven.” In this case, the Axis of the Universe
becomes identified with the Axis of the Earth. Naturally, the situation
depicted in this time-lapse photo can be observed everywhere north of the
equator, so that on this basis, any location in the northern hemisphere can be
called “the Center of the World” with equal justification. (The star cannot be seen from the southern hemisphere.) Please
bear in mind that this is, again, symbolic.
The Pole Star is also the star at the top of a
christmas tree, which has the shape of a mountain.
As for the Sufis,
they consider the mountain to represent the human body, and more specifically
the head, with all its equipment (sense organs, brain, mind, etc.). For example,
Yunus Emre [21] says:
Within a mountain, I beheld
The eighteen thousand worlds
where “mountain”
means the body.
Now as for Mount
Sinai, its story is too well-known for repetition. Moses retired there twice
for forty days each, returning with the tablets on which the Ten Commandments
were inscribed. What we shall focus on here is the Koranic version of what
transpired on the mountain. When Moses was approaching the Burning Bush for the
first time, he was instructed: “Take off your sandals” (20:12). According to Master
Kayhan, “the sandals are his self.”
The really
important event occurs when Moses implores God, “Let me see You.” God replied,
“You cannot see Me. [22] But I shall manifest Myself to this mountain and if it
can stand it, then you can see Me” (7:143). But the
mountain shattered and Moses was knocked unconscious.
Here is what the
Master had to say:
Mount Sinai is mentioned in the Torah, but it’s not a mountain – it’s
Moses’ ‘mountain’! Moses’ Mount Sinai is his head.
Is there anyone who has seen this mountain, this Mount Sinai? Show me this
mountain. Here is that mountain [the head], it’s this, this.
Let’s work on this mountain a little bit, okay? This head is the antenna of
the eighteen thousand worlds, it’s the antenna of the Torah, the Psalms, the
Gospel and the Quran. [23]
Mount Sinai (left, otherwise known as Jabal Musa, the Mountain of Moses);
Mount Hira (right, otherwise
known as Jabal Nur, the Mountain of
Light;
so called because fires used to be lit on its summit as a
beacon for travelers)
The Secure Land
The “land secure”
has traditionally been accepted as Mecca and its environs. Here there are three
noteworthy locations: Mount Hira, the Cave of Hira, and the mosque of the
Kaaba.
Mount Hira and the Cave
We have already
dealt with the case of Mount Sinai. The case of Mount Hira is quite similar.
Both are versions of the Cosmic Mountain. Furthermore, the first is the retreat
of Moses, the second that of Mohammed. And in that mountain there is a cave. It
is where the Truth was revealed to the Prophet of God.
Traditionally, the
cave has also been considered as a symbol for the Heart. [24] If we follow
this line of reasoning, there is something quite remarkable about the Cave of
Hira. It is a very small cave, more like a niche (mishkat) or alcove, barely enough for one person. There is an
opening at the bottom of the cave, oriented towards the Kaaba. Light streams in
through that crack. So the main entrance of the cave is for people, the far end
is for light. And the same holds for the Cave of the Heart: one end is your
side, through the other end enters Light (the Light of God).
The Master used to
relate how the Prophet of God used to leave the bosom of his beloved wife,
Khadija, and go to that cave to meditate. He told of his asceticism, his
hardships. On at least one occasion, he added the following concerning the
cave:
And in some parts of Sufism—and so it is in reality—Sufis consider this
body a cave. They consider this body, from head to foot, a stupendous cave. The
caves outside, you can visit those too, but before we do that, let’s build up
this cave.
The spirit is in this cave.
Let’s appreciate the spirit, let’s appreciate this cave. [Pointing to his
chest:] This is the great cave, the cave of the spirit/of life. The others are
external caves. When we train the Base Self in this cave, it’s done. There is also the path [leading up to the cave], the
Prophet of God comes by that path.
The cave of the body. Don’t sleep, think about this for two-three days,
because you haven’t heard it [before]. This cave is the seat of the Real (of
God), the seat of the Koran, the seat of the Prophet of God. If, together with
the Prophet of God, we train this cave, we will progress, Godwilling.
What shall we do? I’m always telling you. From here [the neck] upwards, quit the Forbidden. Whether sight
and hearing, smell, or food and drink, stop the Illicit. Down [there], stop
Forbidden Lust. Do these two, and you’ll find that the cave is filled with
light. Do this—I’m telling you for God’s sake.[25]
The Kaaba
The “Cube” (Kaaba) is the world center for Hajj, the Pilgrimage of Islam. Of a
series of “centers of the world,” it is the last and, according to Muslims, now
the universally valid center. (The Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, where the
Dome of the Rock now stands, was its predecessor.)
To recap “The
Symbolism of the Center” from Mircea Eliade:
1. The Sacred Mountain — where heaven and earth meet — is situated at the
center of the world.
2. Every temple or palace — and, by extension, every sacred city or royal
residence — is a Sacred Mountain, thus becoming a Center.
3. Being an axis mundi, the
sacred city or temple is regarded as the meeting point of heaven, earth, and
hell.[26]
The Kaaba
corresponds to the “navel of the earth”
(omphalos) also found in other
traditions.
The Kaaba is situated on the ‘axis of the world’ and its four corners are
oriented towards the cardinal regions of the sky. The rite of circumambulation
expresses with precision the relationship existing between the sanctuary and
the celestial movement; it is accomplished seven times to correspond with the
number of the celestial spheres. [The lowest of these “heavens” corresponds to
the observable physical universe.] [27]
Cities and sacred places are assimilated to the summits of cosmic
mountains. … According to Islamic tradition, the highest point on earth is the
Kaaba, because “the polestar proves that ... it lies over against the
center of heaven.”[28]
“Highest point”
spiritually, that is.
According to the
Ancient Chinese, Chen-Jen, the True
Man or Real Man, connects heaven and earth, and hence is identified with the
World Axis. It is the same in the case of the Perfect Human in Sufism:
Thus the seat (the Arabic Word is markaz, which strictly means ‘centre’) of the supreme Pole (called al-Qutb al-Gawth…) is described
symbolically as situated between heaven and earth, at a point which is exactly
over the Ka‘bah which, precisely, has
the form of a cube and which is itself one of the representations of ‘the
Centre of the World’. [29]
The Kaaba is
considered to be the projection on earth of its heavenly archetype, the “Prosperous
House” (bayt al-mamur, also called
the “Visited House”).
Even more
importantly, for Sufis the Kaaba is a symbol of the human Heart—not the
physical heart that pumps blood, but its spiritual conjugate that keeps it
beating. A Sufi story illustrates this nicely:
God said to David,
“Build a house for Me.” David replied: “My Lord, you have no abode. You are
beyond all and present everywhere. How should I build a house for You?” God
said, “You are My abode. Keep My
house free of everything other than Me.” So we should let nothing but God into
our hearts. This is why the Prophet threw all idols out of the Kaaba, the House
of God, and why it remains empty to this day: because it represents the
condition our hearts should be in. As the Patriarch Abraham advises in Ibn
Arabi’s Meccan Revelations:
“Make your heart like this Visited House, by being present with God in
every state. Know that of all that you see, nothing contains the Real God
except the heart of the believer, and that is you!” [30]
(Note: This doesn’t mean we should love nothing else. We
should love God more than anything else, love everything for the sake of God, and
steer clear of the things God does not love. Paramount among these last: having
other idols beside God, Illicit Gain and Illicit Sex.)
The Master said:
“Mend a heart, you build the Kaaba. Break a heart, you wreck the Kaaba.” He
also said:
My last will to you: Build a Heart, don’t break it. Don’t tear down the Kaʿba
[the sacred sanctuary of the Heart]. Serve the Heart you’ve broken until you
mend it. If you demolish the Kaʿba, how can you prostrate towards it?[31]
Like many others, I
was brought up with a secular education. They taught us that Islam was the Five
Pillars (saying the Word of Witnessing, performing the Prayer, Fasting, giving
the Alms-tax, pilgrimage of the Hajj) and perhaps the Creed of Six Precepts.
They didn’t teach us that Islam was also the above. Neither did they teach us
the following:
If but once you break a heart
This Prayer you perform is void.
Even the seventy-two nations
Cannot wash your hands and face.
Knowledge is to know science
Knowledge is to Know Thyself
Whereas you don’t know yourself
What use is all this studying?
What you think for yourself
Think also for others
The meaning of the Four Books
Is this, if there is any.
Come, let us know each other
Let us make things easy
Let us love and be loved
Nobody survives this world. (—Yunus Emre)
Before going on, let us summarize the correspondences:
Fig: World Tree, Tuba Tree
Olive: World Tree, light
Mountain: body, head, World Mountain
Cave: body, Heart
Kaaba: Heart, World Center
The Universal Man
All this leads up
to Verse 4 of the Chapter of the Fig: “We
indeed created Man in the fairest stature.” This is what all those symbols
have been referring to: the Universal Man or Perfect Human.
“Is Man a guest to
the Universe, or is the Universe a guest to Man?” Master Kayhan posed the
question, and he also supplied the answer (I am translating his speech about
this for the first time):
If we look at its outward face, its appearance, Man is a guest to the
Universe. First the Universe was created, then Man came. But on the other hand, God created the Light of
Mohammed first, and created all the worlds from that. So the Universe came as a
guest to Man.
He also wrote:
What are Man and Universe? The two are like twins, two lovers that complete
each other. From another angle, Man and Universe are like a tree and its
flower, its fruit.
What would the Universe do without Man? What would Man do without the
Universe? The two complete one another. …
Man and Universe are like the two faces of a leaf; they can’t be separated.[32]
Alif, the Cosmic Pillar
that some have viewed as the spinal cord of the universe.
Although it is
depicted above in the direction of the time axis, it should be kept in
mind that it is
orthogonal (perpendicular) to all dimensions, including time.
(Incidentally, note the resemblance of the cosmos, as
depicted above, with the headpiece
of a whirling dervish. Sufis also had a two-pleated “crown
of Alif” which resembled the
flame of a candle.
A sharper-tipped version of this was called the “swordlike cap.”)
The candle of the spirit has such a flame
That it cannot fit under the
bell-jar of the [universe].
—Shaykh Galib
The Fall
The next verse
(Verse 5) reads:
“Then We reduced him to the lowest of the
low.”
And that is our
sorry state today. This is the Fall of Man.
But fear not! For
Verse 6 gives good tidings of our redemption: “Save those who believe and do good deeds, and theirs is a reward
unfailing.” Another Chapter adds: “Surely
Man is in loss, except for those who believe, do good works, and counsel Truth
and patience to one another” (103:2-3).
So even in our fallen condition, the door of hope is open
to all of us.
-------------------
*But of course, God
knows best. Even if this conjecture is incorrect, at least it has led us to the
contemplation of sublime matters.