Ch. 5 Exposition of the Universal Worlds and the Five Divine Planes

The word 'alam (world) being derived from the word 'alama, lexically signifies "that through which something is known," and technically signifies, "everything other than Allah." This is because what is known through it is Allah, with respect to His names and attributes, since through each individual in the world a name among the divine names is known, because it is locus of manifestation of a specific name among them.  

Through real substances and types the Universal Names (al-asma al-kulliyah) are known, even through animals considered contemptible by laymen such as the fly, the mosquito, and the flea, etc.— are known names for which they are a manifestation.

The First Intellect is a universal world because of its encompassing universal realities of existence and their forms by way of collectivity; the name, the Merciful (al-Rahman) is known through it.

The Universal Soul is also a universal world because of its encompassing the particulars of whatever is encompassed by the First Intellect by way of differentiation; the name, the Beneficent (d-Rahim) is known through it.

The Perfect Human (al-insan al-kamil) is a universal world because he unifies them all by way of collectivity with respect to his spirit and by way of differentiation with respect to his heart. Through him the name, Allah is known, which encompasses all the names.

If every individual in existence is a sign for a divine name, and every name being encompassed by the Essence which includes its names, also includes them, then each individual in existence is also a world through which all the names are known. Therefore the worlds are infinite, from this perspective. However, since the divine universal planes are five, there are also five universal worlds, inclusive of everything other than them.  

The first universal plane is the plane of the Absolute Unseen, and its world is the world of Immutable Archetypes in the plane of the [divine] knowledge. In contrast to it is the plane of the Absolute Visible (al-shahdda)„ and its world is the Kingdom (al-mulk).

The relative Unseen plane can be divided into that which is closer to the Absolute Unseen, its world is the world of the spirits of Invincibility (al-jabarut) and Dominion (al-malakut), that is, the world of immaterial intellects and souls; and that which is closer to the Visible which is the Imaginal Realm (al-mithal).

The relative Unseen is divided into the two categories because spirits have imaginal forms corresponding to the Absolute Visible world, and a noetic immaterial form corresponding to the Absolute Unseen.

The fifth [plane] is the totality of the four previous planes, and its world is the world of the human being who is the collectivity of all the worlds and whatever they contain.

The world of Kingdom (al-mulk) is a manifestation of the Dominion (al-malakut), which is the Absolute Imaginai Realm, which in turn is a manifestation of the world of the Invincibility (al-jabarut), that is, the realm of immaterial beings, and it is a manifestation of the Immutable Archetypes, which is a manifestation of the world of divine names and the plane of Unity, which is a manifestation of the plane of the Singularity.

Remark  

You must know that these worlds, their universals and particulars are all divine books, for their encompassing His Complete Words (kalimat al-tammat) since the First Intellect and the Universal Soul—both forms of the Mother Book, which is the plane of [divine] Knowledge—are both divine books.

It may be said, that that First Intellect is the "Mother Book" for its encompassing things by way of collectivity, and the Universal Soul is the "Manifest Book" for their appearing there as particulars, and the "Book of Effacement and Establishment" (mahw wa al-ithbat) is the plane of the Soul impressed upon the Universal Body, with respect to its association with engendered things.

This book of Effacement and Establishment occurs for individual forms that are in it, with respect to their concomitant states arising from their essences because of their essential receptivity, their appearance conditioned by the configuration of celestial spheres which prepare the essences to clothe themselves in those forms together with their states from the divine emanation of the Name, the Director {al-mudabbir), the Effacer (al-mahi), the Establisher (al-muthabbit), the Accomplisher of what He wills (al-fa’aal li ma yasha), etc.

The Perfect Human is a book comprehending the aforementioned books because he is the replica of the Great World, as mentioned by the divine gnostic Ali ibn Abi Talib (al-Qayrawani),

The Shaykh writes—may God be pleased with him:

Thus, from the aspect of his spirit and intellect he is the noetic book, called the "Mother of the Book," from the aspect of his heart, he is the "Book of the Guarded Tablet," and from the aspect of his soul, he is the book of "Effacement and Establishment," for these are noble pages, elevated and pure, that none shall touch it nor perceive its secrets and its meanings save those purified from the veils of darkness.

The books that have been mentioned are the essential divine books. As for their branches, they are all that is in existence, consisting of the intellect, the soul, the spiritual and bodily powers, and others, for they are among the things in which properties of existents are inscribed, either entirely or in part, whether in collectivity or in differentiation. The least thereof is the inscription of laws deriving from those books. And Allah knows best.

Another Remark  

You must know that the relation of the First Intellect to the Great World and its realities is identical with the relation of the human spirit to the body and its powers, and that the Universal Soul is the heart of the Great World just as the Rational [soul] is the heart of man. For that reason, the world is called the "Great Human."

It should not be imagined that the forms that the First Intellect contains in collectivity, and the Universal Soul contains in differentiation, are other than its realities, such that forms separated from their realities emanate from Allah, the Glorified, to each of those two. Rather, effusion of those forms in both consists of the engendering of those realities in them. All realities that exist in the external world are like shadows of those forms, since they are the ones that appear in the external world by way of manifesting themselves in them [First Intellect and Universal Soul] first and they [intellect and Soul] attain the knowledge of them [external forms] by means of the forms themselves that are emanated to them and not by forms extracted from the external world. Those realities are identical with the reality of the First Intellect; rather they are identical with each world with respect to absolute Being, even if—from the perspective of their entification and state of being known—they are different. For we have mentioned that all realities return to absolute Being with respect to essence, and each of them is identical with the other with respect to Being, even though they are distinct with respect to entification.

Furthermore, [the First Intellect] is the first form appearing in the external world on the divine plane. We have mentioned that the realities of the names at this degree are from one perspective identical with it and are from another perspective distinct from it; such is also the case for its manifestation. The unity of realities in it [First Intellect] is the same as the unity of all of the children of Adam in Adam before their entification, even though with respect to their identities they are disparate at their manifestation. In fact, it [First Intellect] is the true Adam, confirmed by his saying, "The first thing that Allah created was my light."

The distinction by quiddities is like the distinction by identities, for both express that by means of which a thing is what it is. The difference the two is that quiddity is used for universals and identity is used for particulars.

‘It cannot be said that the children of Adam are unified in relation to type (naw’a) because quiddities differ by their essences and cannot be united. Further we have mentioned that quiddities are specific noetic existences that are entitled as discrete universals but are united in Being qua Being.

Distinction in the mind between the knower and the known does not negate unity in Being, just as rays of the sun during the day or on a moon-lit night are existentially one, even though the mind judges the light of the sun or the moon to be other than the light of the star. The essential unity of the things known by knowledge and the knower is only the unity of attributes, names and entities in the Real, and nothing else.

Such is the case for the forms acquired in every world, whether they are extrapolated or not, for they are not divested from their realities, because just as they exist in the external world they exist in the noetic, the imaginal and the mental worlds. Acquiring the form of a thing—divested from its reality—does not result in knowledge of it necessarily, since the form is other than it, according to the [philosophers].

Man, for his being the replica of the Great World, contains all the realities in it, and they are identical with him, in one respect, for the reasons mentioned above. Nothing veils him from them except the elemental plane. Thus, to the extent that veils are removed realities are manifested in him, so that his state concerning the objects of his knowledge is like that of the First Intellect.

In actuality, his knowledge is also active with respect to his station [spirit] and passive from another perspective. In fact, it is more fitting to describe him as having active knowledge than the First Intellect because he is the vicegerent and governs all of the worlds.