Everyone Is Allah

“The face was red with flushing blood as he tried to stop his breath for as long as he could; the eyes bulged out, though staring at nothing; small rivulets of perspiration shone on the forehead; and the voice coming through the foaming mouth was barely audible. He was not merely a fanatic: He was mad… `People think I am mad, but you know... though we have to keep mum about it... you know, I am Imam Mehdi...'

His spiritual exercises had made him physically ill too… He could scarcely speak when he tried to complete his sentence, and then did that through his gestures, nodding with satisfaction, as if the message had been transmitted to my mind by some telepathic process. Coming out of his trance after sometime, he continued, `The earthquake last night... but you know everything, don't you? It was Mohammad (pbuh)... he came here four times. Rabitai Sheikh [contact with my spiritual guide], yes, Rabitai Sheikh is a must!'…my suppositions about his problem changed to certainty when he said, `The fragrance of flowers, the song of birds, the air, everything... but then, you know it. Yes, yes, you know it, I am Allah, you are Allah, every thing is Allah!...'

What is the name of this intoxicant against which there is no law except the Quran and Sunnah, common sense and sound reasoning? Take cover, a bomb is going to explode, Scuds are going to be fired, and no Patriot is going to save me when I mention the name. Only those who have the courage to know, those who have the will and the strength to analyze any point, and those who are daring enough to accept the truth even if it appears to be against conventional and popular views should continue to read. The name is Tassawuf, which is usually called Sufism in English, refers to `Islamic' mysticism. Whatever my paranoiac friend said was in fact, perfectly consistent with this discipline which was influenced primarily by Greek mythology, Christian pantheism, and Hindu concepts of theology and Yoga…

What is being presented here to represent Tassawuf is not a collection of whimsical remarks of any Tom, Dick, and Harry, but quotations from highly venerated works of well-known Sufis (proponents and followers of Sufism)….

The Sufis, do not merely believe that `everything is God's'. They move further and their `small step but a giant leap' changes `every thing is God's' to `every thing is God'. According to Sufism, Tauhid expressed as laa ilaaha illallaah (there is no God but Allah) is the Tauhid of the `proles' and ordinary people, whereas the Tauhid of the elite and of the selected ones is laa maujuda illallaah (there is nothing but Allah). This means, whatever we see is, in fact, God, because nothing except God exists. And if anything exists, it is God. Sheikh Mohyuddin Ibni 'Arabi writes: `Although, apparently Creation is distinct from the Creator, in reality the Creator is but Creation, and Creation is but the Creator. All these are from one reality. Nay, it is but He who is the only reality, and it is He Who manifests Himself in all these realities.'

The idea is that a knife and a sword, for example, are called by their names and are treated as distinct items. But when their `essence' (steel) moves beyond and beyond all forms and shapes, it is called steel. Similarly, God is seen as the reality which is beyond shapes and patterns, but in essence, immanent in all creation… Such ideas lead to the belief that our bodies are `forms' which obstruct us from going (beyond and beyond). So, complete self-denial of the physical self and its requirements would join us again with the Ultimate Reality. This idea of self-denial is again not found in Islam, which emphasizes fulfilment of all human needs within specified and natural boundaries. Probably because of the nature of their ideas, Sufis's have always tried to hide their `inner light'. The Prophet was told to communicate whatever truth as revealed to him [the Quran 5:67], but these people have another story to tell: `Therefore, it should be obvious that the ultimate of all disciplines of Mystic intuition is this Tauhid, and the secrets of this discipline and cannot be written in any book because, according to a saying of "Aa'rifs" [those who have achieved awareness], exposing the secrets of the Divine modes amounts to infidelity.'

But whenever some Aa'rif in his ecstasy does expose these `secrets', the walls of the tombs of the Sufi saints echo with claims like (I am God) and (I am pure! What an exalted status is mine!) Everything is God, God is every thing, there is nothing except God, what's the difference! My friend with bulging eyes was not saying anything novel. Misconstruing me to be a Sufi, he was only sharing his secret: `I am Allah, you are Allah, everyone is Allah!' Na'oozubillaah!”

~ Asif Iftikhar is a Fellow at Al-Mawrid and also a permanent member of the Social Sciences Faculty at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Lahore (Pakistan) where he has been teaching courses related to Islam, Islamic law, business ethics, and communication skills for more than seven years now.