Evolution / Spiritual Ascent

ارتقاء

Evolution or Spiritual Ascent (Irtiqā'): Understand the origin and end of things — grasp the levels and their implications — maintain awareness of a thing's relationship to a few material causes — what you think you know is mere self-deception. Blessed is the person who, in the condition of a monkey, has become a dignified human being. Blessed — we are strange creatures of dust. Our circle of existence moves along a descending-ascending arc: the most compressed state is matter, then gas, then liquid, then solid — the cold state — minerals, plants, animals in the scale of 72 elements — then the monkey — the gorilla — then the human being. In that final stage is the simplest intellect — the active intellect — the intellect joined to the celestial — according to our spirit: kafir (unbeliever), fāsiq (transgressor), mu'min (believer), sālih (righteous), fāni fī Allāh (annihilated in Allah), fāni fī dhāt Allāh (annihilated in the Divine Essence) — fāni fī dhāt Allāh: remaining in the subsistence of Allah, having arrived at the levels in which descent took place, then ascending back from those levels. Thus al-Hamdu lillāhi awwalan wa ākhiran wa zāhiran wa bātinan.

خُلِقَ مِن مَّاءٍ دَافِقٍ يَخْرُجُ مِن بَيْنِ الصُّلْبِ وَالتَّرَائِبِ

"Created from a fluid poured out, emerging from between the backbone and the ribs." (Sūrat al-Ṭāriq, 86:6–7)

وَلَقَدۡ خَلَقۡنَا الۡإِنسَانَ مِن صَلۡصَالٍ مِّن حَمَإٍ مَّسۡنُونٍ

"And We did certainly create the human being from clay of altered black smooth mud." (Sūrat al-Ḥijr, 15:26)

From the subtle substance (jawhar habā') through minerals, then plants, then animals, then the human being — the chain of ascent proceeds. If Allah Most High willed, He could create a human being from dust — as He created insects, worms, serpents, frogs — bilā tawassuṭ al-nabātāt (without intermediary plants). Indeed, Allah has power over all things.

إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ

"Indeed, Allah has power over all things." (al-Baqara 2:20)

Now listen! Dhāt-e-Haqq — Ahadiyya — Wahdat — Wahidiyya — A'yān Ilāhiyya — A'yān Thābita — A'yān to the Names — through power to Mithal — Arwāh — Juhar Habā — Mithāl — Ajsām — actualized state: fire — liquid state: water — solid state: earth — Basā'it — Murakkabāt — then minerals — the last of minerals is the tree — then plants — their last is the monkey / gorilla — then the human being — in the human being the simplest intellect is: the simple intellect — the active intellect — the angelic intellect — or by our spirit: kafir, fāsiq, mu'min, sālih, fāni fī Allāh, fāni fī dhāt Allāh, fāni fī dhāt Allāh — the remainder in the subsistence of Allah — having come down from those levels, it now goes back up. Al-hamdu lillāhi awwalan wa ākhiran wa zāhiran wa bātinan.