Quotes by 'Abd al-Kader

The absolutely Non-Manifested cannot be designated by any expression which could limit It, Separate It, or include It. In spite of this, every allusion alludes only to Him, every designation designates Him, and He is at the same time the Non-Manifested and the Manifested.

Paraphrased: Allah is neither this nor that.

Know however that God, in order to manifest Himself by His essence to His essence, has no need of creatures since, with relation to Essence, he is absolutely independent with respect to worlds and even with respect to His own names. . . . On the other hand, when He manifests Himself with His names and His attributes - which implies the manifestation of the effects - He needs (huwa muftaqir) the creatures. . . . This relation is . . . necessary in order that the divine Names, which are only distinguished by their effects, can be distinguished from one another. At the same time, the divine Names, by the one of their "faces" which is turned toward the Essence, are themselves totally autonomous with respect to worlds. In this respect, they are nothing other than the Essence itself and that is why each of them can be qualified and designated by all of the other Names in the same way as the Essence.

Allah is in Himself the non-being and the being, the inexistent and the existent. He is at the same time that which we designate by absolute non-being and by absolute being; or by relative non-being and relative being. . . . All these designation come back to God alone, for there is nothing which we can perceive, know, write or say which is not Him.

Abu Sa'id al-Kharraz said: I have never known Allah - May He be exalted! - except through the coincidence in Him of the opposites. "He is the First and the Last, the Apparent and the Hidden." (Koran 57:3)

Oh, you who believe! Fear Allah, and seek a means of access to Him, and struggle on His way; perhaps you will succeed! (Koran 5:35) Commentary: . . . God commands believers to practice the fear of Him. This corresponds to what is called . . . the "station of repentance" which is the basis of all progress on the Way and the key which permits one to arrive at the "station of realization". . . . After that God says to us: "And seek a means of access to Him" . . . There is absolute unanimity among the People of Allah on the fact that, in the Way toward Gnosis, a "means of access", that is to say, a master, is indispensable. However, at the beginning of the Way he can be satisfied with books which deal with pious behavior and with spiritual combat in its most general sense. "And struggle on His Way": this is an order to do battle after having found a master. It is a matter of a special holy war (jihad), which is carried out under the command of the master and according to the rules which he prescribes. One cannot have confidence in a spiritual combat carried on in the absence of the master, except in very exceptional cases. . . . The dispositions of beings are varied, their temperaments are very different one from another and something which is profitable for one can be harmful for another.

The diurnal sun sets at night, but the sun of the heart never disappears.

His light spreads out and this operation expresses nothing other than the ordered unfolding of His attributes over the non-being. What is called "the possibles" are those things which show themselves capable of receiving that light and those which are called "the impossibles" are those which are unable to receive the light. It is to just this that the Prophet - upon Him be Grace and Peace! - alluded when He said, "Allah created the creatures in the darkness, then He sprinkled them with His light. Those who were touched by some of this light are on the good way; and those who failed to be touched by it are astray."

Turn your face toward the sacred Mosque (Koran 2:144,149,150) Commentary: This means: "Turn the [divine] face which is particular to you. . . ." This face is the secret (sirr) through which your spirit subsists. . . . It is the source of man's being and the command [formulated in the verse] is in reality concerned with this. God . . . does not consider your exterior form but only your heart - which is the "divine face" proper to each of you, and it is this "divine face" which, in you, "contains" God even though His sky and His earth cannot contain Him. . . . He who turns (toward the sacred Mosque} with his body alone, without also turning this face, has not truly turned. . . . He who looks with his finite eye only sees finite things - bodies, colors or surfaces. He who looks with the eye of his hidden spirit sees the hidden things - spiritual beings, forms of the world of the absolute Imagination, jinns - all of which are still only created beings and therefore veils. But he who looks with his face, that is to say, his secret (sirr), sees the face which God has in each thing; for, in truth, only Allah sees Allah, only Allah knows Allah. . . . As for the "sacred Mosque" . . . , although this term applies literally to the Mosque perceived by the senses, it should be understood as designating the degree which totalizes all the divine Names, that is to say the degree of the divinity which is the "place of the prostration" - of the prostration of the heart, not of the body.

"O my people, I disavow all that you associate [with God]. I orient my face with an exclusive orientation towards Him, who created the heavens and the earth and I am not one of the associators." (Koran 6:78-79)