Otilo!

ogy
this verse, "The existent things are the words of God which are not spent" (II 390.24), since the possible things arc infinite. In one passage the Sha ykh explains the mutual love that exists between God and the creatures in terms of vision (ru'ya) and audition (saini). God's love for the creatures stems from His vision of them within Himself as identical with Himself. Seeing them as the "Hidden Treasure," "He loved to be known." The creature's love for God derives from hearing the word "Be!", which brings them into existence. They are, in effect, identical with this word; each is the word "Be!" in a specific form. One of the characteristics of the Lover, should He possess form, is to breathe, since in that breathing is found the enjoymenr of what is sought. The Hrcarh emerges from a root, which is Love for the creatures, to whom He desired to make Himself known, so that they might know Him. Hence the Cloud co Illes to be; it is called the' Real Through Whom Creation Takes Place. The Cloud is the substance of the cosmos, so it receives all til<; forms, spirits, and natures of the <;osIlI0S; it is a receptacle ad infinitum. This is the origin of His love for lIS. As for our love for Him, its origin is audition, not vision. It is His words to us-while we were in the substance of the Cloud- "Be!" Hence the Cloud derives from His breathing. while: the forms which are called the COSlllOS derive from the word "Bel" So we are "His words which <Irenot spent." ... When we: heard His speech, while we were immutable in the substance of the Cloud. we were not able to keep back from existence. We became forms within the substance of the Cloud. Through our manifestation within the. Cloud Fie gave us an existence belonging to the Cloud. A thing whose existence had been intelligible gained cntified existence. This is the cause of the origin of our love for Him. (ll 331.23) things or words come within the Breath a~ the result of God's speech (qawl). The Koran
into existence

describes this speech as the single word "Be!", yet this word is addressed to each "thing" in the state of its nonexistence.
God says, "Our only speech to a thing, when We desire it" -here "Our speech" refers to the fact that He is a speaker (mlltakalli11l)-"is to say to it 'Be!'" (16:40). "Be!" is exactly what He speaks. Through it that to which He says "Be!" becomes manifest. . . . Thereby the entities become manifest within the Breath of the All-merciful, just as letters become manifest within the human breath. The thing that comes to be is a specific form, like a form painted upon wood. (ll 401.29)

The analogy between the letters that take shape in the human breath and the All-merciful Breath provides the basis for one of the Shaykh's major modes of describing the COS1110S. Just as the Arabic alphabet has twenty-eight letters through which the names of all things may be pronounced, so also the cosmos has twenty-eight basic "letters" which COI11bine to produce all created things. Each letter of the alphabet issues from a particular point, known as the "place of articulation" (m,~khra}), within the vocal apparatus. Depending on how the breath passes through the throat and mouth, that is, which "place of articulation" is employed, letters arc produced which may be guttural, velar, palatal, dental, labial, and so on. In the same way each letter I reality of the cosmos manifests Being in a specific mode different from other modes. Each, therefore, is connected to a specific divine name. Here we cannot go into detail concerning this cosmology; it will be sufficient for om purposes to be aware of the fundamental correspondence between the human and divine breaths.
From the Breath of the All-merciful be-

come: manifest the letters of engendered existence and the words of the cosmos in accordance with the different levels of the
places of articulation the human breather, is the most perfect within the breath of

The

existent

128

for the human being of all configurations