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

al-fahwaniyyah
Address (of the Real One)

(Fahwaniyyah). An address of the Real One (Allah) by means of face-to-face encounter in the world of analogies and images.


See also: Face to face vision Imagination Letter Union World of analogies and images
('Iyan). This term suggests that there are still two faces to have vision of each other. The lover is not yet lost in the Beloved, absorbed by the camphor or drowned in the Ocean. He is still looking.
(Khayal). Imagination indicates a reality that becomes manifest in three different places. Firstly, the Khayal is manifest within the cosmos where existence is the same as imagination. Secondly, the Khayal is manifest within the macrocosm where the isthmus between the spiritual and corporeal worlds is imaginal. Thirdly, the khayal is manifest within the microcosm where the human self is the reality between the body and the spirit. Khayal is synonymous with images. The Realm of Imagination is the isthmus between the World of the Unseen and the Visible World and it is within this khayal that man is given the clearest expression of the 'He, not He' (Huwa, la Huwa) mystery of existence. The human faculty of imagination (khayal) is purely passive with regard to the active conjectural faculty of illusion and with regard to the Spirit which may imprint upon it heralding visions.
(Harf). As a letter of the alphabet, harf symbolises the language or expressions with which the Real One addresses His slave. For language to be used there must be two, a duality. There must be the Lord (Rabb) and His slave (Al Abd). The Great Silence is beyond such duality - it is within the Essence Itself.
(Wasl/Wusul). Union or joining. This term contains the idea of duality because of the joining, or union, between two. In complete union there is no duality whatsoever. Therefore, wasl is inferior to complete union. Through being the Divinity, Allah is perpetually in a state of wasl with engendered existence. "He is with you wherever you are" (The Qur'an 57:4).

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