Sittings of August 1959 — Part V

مجالسِ اگست ۱۹۵۹ — حصہ پنجم

20 August 1959 (Thursday)

Topics 23–26: A Delightful Matter; Is Creation Good? What Is Creation? Creation and Relational Existence

Hazrat remarked on the delightful paradox at the heart of the created world: creation is fundamentally good, because it proceeds from the All-Good (al-Khayr). Yet creation as such — as something separate or distinct from the Creator — is not truly 'good' in its own right, for it has no independent existence.

In answer to the question 'What is creation?', Hazrat said: Creation is a relational existence (wujud idafi). It is not an independent entity but a manifestation of the Divine, like the image in a mirror — the image is real in one sense, yet it is not a separate thing from the mirror and the light that illumines it.

21 August 1959 (Friday)

Topics 27–28: Existence is the Very Essence; Creation is a Compound Imagination

Existence (wujud) is identical with the Divine Essence (Dhat). There is no existence apart from Allah's Existence. What we call 'creatures' are modes or manifestations of that one Existence, each expressing a particular Divine Name or Attribute. 'Creation is a compound imagination' — that is, the apparent multiplicity of created things is a complex of images arising within the one field of Divine Being, without any of them having independent being of their own.