The Language of the Future
Sufi Terminology
by Murshid F.A. Ali ElSenossi

tashbih
Similarity

(Tashbih) is to declare that a certain similarity can be found between Allah and His creation. This tashbih is through Allah as Possessor of the Names. The isthmus is the ontological locus of tashbih. The word tashbih derives from shabbaha which means to make or consider something similar to some other thing. The sensory and imaginative faculties demand, by their very essences, to see Allah, in contrast to the rational faculty which declares Allah's Incomparability. The 'knowers through Him' never limit or constrain Allah. They declare Allah's Incomparability (tanzih) and Similarity (tashbih), and this is the Absolute Truth. He/not He.

See also: He/not He Incomparability Isthmus Knowers of Allah

Incomparability ( tanzih )

(Tanzih). Incomparability or Transcendence or Unknowableness or Remoteness. Tanzih is to declare that Allah transcends every quality or attribute possessed by His creatures. The word tanzih derives from the word nazzaha, which means to keep something away from anything contaminating or impure. The rational faculty declares Allah's Incomparability, but this is only half of the Absolute Truth, because Allah has both Transcendence and Similarity (tashbih). Allah says in The Qur'an, "Nothing is like Unto Him" (42:11). This is Allah's Incomparability (tanzih). But the same verse continues, "and He is the all-Hearing, the all-Seeing". This is Allah's Similarity (tashbih). The Absolute Truth is Allah's Incomparability and His Similarity. The 'knowers through Him' know Allah through Allah, by combining the declaration of His Incomparability (tanzih) with the affirmation of His Similarity (tashbih). Allah as the Essence Itself is Utterly Incomparable, while Similarity is attributed to Allah as the Divinity.

Isthmus ( al-barzakh )

(Barzakh). Barrier or isthmus or separating partition. The barzakh is the symbol of an intermediate state. It is something which separates two other things while never going to one side. It is the barrier between the known and the unknown, the existent and the non-existent. Imagination is the most excellent barzakh in that it is 'neither this nor that', or 'both this and that', or the realm of 'He/not He' (Huwa/la Huwa). "It is He Who has let free the two bodies of flowing water: One palatable and sweet, and the other salt and bitter; yet has He made a barrier between them, a partition that is forbidden to be passed" (25:53) .

Knowers of Allah ( 'arifin )

(Al 'Arifin/'Urufa). They see and recognize Allah wherever they look. The knowers are bewildered. But this is not the bewilderment of being lost, rather it is the bewilderment of having found Allah. They know that He cannot be known. The knowers are nothing because they are everything.

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