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

mithal
Similitude

(Mithal). Image or form or analogy or symbol. This term is synonymous with Imagination (khayal). The Mithal is the isthmus between the World of the Unseen and the Visible World and it is within this Realm of Imagination that man is given the clearest expression of the 'He, not He' mystery of existence.

See also: Corporeal body 'He, not He' Isthmus Meanings Sea

Corporeal body ( jasad )

(Jasad) refers to those imaginal objects which are witnessed in the World of Imagination. This is the appearance of a corporeal body in the imaginal realm. The reality of imagination is to embody that which is not properly a body.

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) .

Meanings ( ma'ani )

(Ma'ana). Everything in creation has an outward form. These forms are the manifestations of their essential inner meanings. The meaning of everything is Allah. Within imagination all meanings become clothed in substratum and take on form. No meaning is able to hold itself back from imagination.

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