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

al-bashar
Man

(Bashar). Bashar is 'man made of flesh' or mankind. Bashar alludes to the 'tenderness' (al mubasharah) with which Allah kneaded man between His Two Hands; "I am about to create man (bashar)... " (The Qur'an 15:28).


See also: Beautiful Model Bereft Best of Creation Knower Needy One who covers the Truth People of Allah People of blame Perfect Man Poor Trust Verifiers Viceregent
(Uswa hasana). The Holy Prophet Muhammad al Mustapha (May the Salutations of Allah be upon him and Peace) is the beautiful model. Through his perfect example man is given the means of drawing closer, and yet closer, to Allah. The degrees of such nearness depend upon the manner and attitude in which one follows the beautiful model. Those who love Allah and His Messenger more than anything, more than life itself, are the slaves who follow Muhammad al Mustapha in their outer lives and in their inner realities. To approach Allah, the slave must first meet the Holy Prophet Muhammad. This meeting is a Mystery. The Holy Prophet Muhammad, the beautiful model, becomes the slave's inner reality through the unveiling of the Reality of Muhammad. The hadith says, "Who has seen me has seen Allah".
(Miskin). Poor and utterly and totally bereft. This miskin is the slave who is at the absolute extremity of need of Allah. He has been stripped of everything and exists purely to manifest the All-Comprehensive Name 'Allah'.
(Khayr al Khalq). The Holy Prophet Muhammad (May the Salutations of Allah be upon him and Peace) is the best of creation. Allah said, "If not for you, if not for you (Oh Muhammad), I would not have created the creation".
('Alim). The one who knows. This term derives from the word 'knowledge' ('ilm). Usually it refers to the exoteric scholars, though sometimes 'alim is used in reference to 'those who know Allah'. The 'one who knows' is the one whom Allah causes to witness his godhead (uluhiyyah) and His Essence. No states manifest to him, knowledge is his condition.
(Miskin). Needy, poor and utterly and totally bereft. The 'miskin' is the slave who is at the absolute extremity of need of Allah. He has been stripped of everything and exists purely to manifest the All-Comprehensive Name 'Allah'.
(Kafir). The one who covers up Reality. Taken negatively the kafir is the infidel and unbeliever within oneself. Taken positively the kafir is the knower of Allah who guards his secret and hides the Sacred Reality within himself. It is said that if the Reality of the Sufi was to be unveiled he would be worshipped.
(Ahl Allah). This title embraces the entire humanity, but there are many degrees within the Ahl Allah. These are the various levels of 'knowing Allah', for it is in knowing Allah that one is brought near to Allah. Amongst humanity there are people who do not want to know Allah, and there are people who do not know Allah, and people who do want to know Allah and at the higher levels there are the people who do know Allah. The men of this last group, the knowers of Allah ('arifin), occupy numerous ascending levels in their 'knowing'.
(Al Malamatiyya). These are the Perfect Ones. Their exteriors never disclose the reality of their interiors. They are those who know and are not known. Al malamatiyya are Allah's perfect slaves, Allah's perfect lovers, Allah's perfect knowers. They manifest His All-Comprehensive Name 'Allah', without a trace of Lordship. Allah has placed their 'blaming self' over them as a protection against self-conceit or satisfaction. They are the greatest of the Sufis. They are in constant submission and surrender to the Will of Allah. A Murshid (Spiritual Guide) who is one of the malamatiyya is the perfect Murshid and his murids often attain to Manliness. The Master of the cosmos, the Best of Creation, Muhammad al Mustapha (May the Salutations of Allah be upon him and Peace), who is a Malamatiyya, is their Master.
(Al Insan al Kamil). He is the viceregent of Allah, through whom Allah contemplates His Own Name-derived Perfection. The Perfect Man has actualized the divine form and in carrying the Trust has fulfilled his reason for being. It is through the Perfect Man that Allah enters the world. Al Insan al Kamil is also one of the names given to the Supreme Isthmus. Man consists of a body and a spirit which governs it. The cosmos also consists of a body and a spirit which governs it. Its spirit is the Perfect Man. Without him the cosmos is likened to a discarded body.
(Al Fuqara). The indigents or the poor. This term refers to the spiritual poverty of travellers on the Sufi Path. These travelling murids who are in need of their Spiritual Guide or Murshid, display their poverty towards him, and in so doing, they make firm his poverty towards Allah.
(Amanat). The Trust was offered to the heavens and the earth, but they refused to carry it, but mankind accepted the Trust. The Trust is to act as a locus of manifestation of the All-Comprehensive Name 'Allah'. The Perfect Man is the one who fulfills this Trust and in so doing becomes worthy of being Allah's representative on this earth.
(Al Muhaqqiqun). These great ones form the highest category of friends of Allah. They follow no one's authority because in themselves they have verified and realized [through unveiling and finding], the truth and reality of all things which is Allah, the Real. They are also known as'The People of Unveiling and Finding'.
(Al Khalifah). The viceregent of Allah is the perfected human being who has fulfilled his reason for being. He has carried the Trust which Allah offered to him, the Trust of being the locus of manifestation for the Name 'Allah'. The viceregent is the Perfect Man in whom Allah contemplates His own Name-derived Perfection. No one is called khalifah except through the perfection of the Divine Form within him. It is through His khalifah that Allah enters the world.

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