Pleasure
(Raudhatul Muheb-bin Wa Nuz-hatul Mushtāqin: Lovers’ Meadows and
Yearners’ Promenade)
Chapter 13
Discussion Join
Italic text is the original
and the rest the commentary:
“Whenever Mahab-bat (Divine
Love) strengthens so does the Pleasure, and that is so by the Idrāk
(Grasp, Prehension) of Beloved. Pleasure is the Idrāk (Grasp,
Prehension) of opulence and Pain is the Idrāk (Grasp, Prehension) of
refusal. As our Sheikh taught: The genesis of both Pleasure and Pain is
due to their corresponding Idrāk (Grasp, Prehension), Idrāk (Grasp,
Prehension) is their causation. However Pleasure is the most manifest
of all cognizances since it deals with psyche and consciousness.”
Pleasure’s foundation is Idrāk (Grasp, Prehension) of some ‘eternal
entity’ in the other universe, one might dream and thereby find immense
pleasure, often far exceeding the awake pleasures, and yet there were
no physical senses involved. So we ‘grasp’ at some eternal entity, in
another unreachable universe, and thus feel the temporal Pleasure in
this world—even in absence of all senses. ‘Eternal Entity’ is something
that is not subject to spatial-temporal and causality of this world and
lasts even if this universe is destroyed.
Note: Here the term
‘grasp at some eternal entity’ means there is a vector
with one point in the other universe and one point within us, and we
‘feel’ this vector’s
pointing at us, poking at something within us e.g. Divine Love is in
the other universe and the Pleasure within us in this universe. The vector
of <Love, Pleasure> is represented/rendered/constructed via a
‘feeling’ within us. We have no comprehension of Love since it is not
something for rational mind to comprehend, and we cannot comprehend
Pleasure, yet we ‘feel’ pleasure due to Eternal Love. We cannot
comprehend either element but we can feel their composite vector
poking at our hearts and souls.
‘Idrāk (Grasp, Prehension) of Beloved’ or ‘Idrāk (Grasp, Prehension) of
Allah’ means
thought there is no way to understand or comprehend Allah, but we
can Prehend Allah i.e. Allah or Allah’s Presence or Allah’s Edict or
anything related to Allah, was the cause for something that happened
and we feel somehow Allah’s involvement in the ‘process’ of this
‘feeling’ (feeling of pleasure or pain) yet there is no mental
cognizance e.g. what-ness how-ness why-ness. There is a feel again as a
vector
poking at us, a vector
manumitted from descriptions and characterizations.
Note: Prehension was
apPrehension or comPrehension, however the name was generalized to
Prehension by Alfred North Whitehead in his “Process and Reality” the
speculative philosophy of organism. Note that both apPrehension and
comPrehension occur in immediate past and Prehension indeed removes the
time-factor and removes the underlying processes such as mental
faculties, thus provides a more general terminology for the purpose of
‘Idrāk. ‘A Prehends B’ means B was essential in
concrescence/formation/becoming/causation of A or you may say ‘A is
Idrāk of B’ or 'A is caused by Idrāk of B' or
'A feels B'.
“The aim of all life-forms is
Pleasure. And this aim is a necessity for Wujud (Being-ness).”
Allah—The
Sublime Perpetual Creator—created recreated this universe for the pure
happiness of human being: But Allah never
wishes injustice to ITs/His Servants Qur’an [40:31]. The Sifāt (Divine
Attributes) such as Al-Wadūd (Most Loving) or Al-Jamil (Most
Beautiful) or Al-Rahman (Most Beneficent) are few examples of
manifestations of ITs/His Dhāt (Divine Essence) within the observable
universe to indicate the ‘Givenness’ of such Divine Fiat for human
being’s happiness, in attribute-form to allow for human ‘feel’ of them.
Similarly the corresponding Asmā’ (Divine Names)
such as Al-Wadūd (Most Loving) or Al-Jamil (Most Beautiful) or
Al-Rahman (Most Beneficent) i.e. Names
etched within our psyche, conscious or unconscious, indicate the
‘Givenness’ of innate identifiers in mind and language to describe to
contemplate and to invoke That Beloved. When we describe we are in
Divine Presence or as when we contemplate or as when invoke Hu by Divine Names
each occasion is a different mode for Presence. Had Allah not
wished for each and every human being happiness, Allah would not
have manifested these Divine Names
and Attributes within the universe, within our psyche and language
or we could not have felt any feelings of pleasure or pain, hope or
despair and so on.
Had Allah
not wished for our happiness there would have been no feel of Divine
Presence! We would have waked up every morning with the shock of
unfamiliarity with this universe and for our own Nafs (Psyche, Self)
as does an Alzheimer patient! And we would have felt such fear every
moment of consciousness. What is keeping us away from such horror is
the ‘Uns (Intimate
Friendship) of Presence of Hu whereat keeps us assured we are in
Presence of a loving caring supporter. Otherwise humanity would have
never started and never continued.
“Inform everyone that this world’s
Pleasures are short-lived yet pointing towards another place where the
eternal Pleasures reside.”
And temporal pleasures of this happiness points to eternal pleasures of
the other universe. The pleasures of this world are not for Satan to
misguide human being into foul deeds, and they are not here for mere
examination of tests, they are here as vectors
pointing to the other universe: Ahoy! Look this way!
“And once you are cognizant that the
short-lived Pleasures of this world are instruments towards the
Pleasures of Hereafter, and know that these short-lived Pleasures were
created for that precise purpose, as was indicated by the Prophet: This
world is a short-lived Pleasure and the best of all Pleasures of this
world is a righteous woman”. She is a beloved of Allah, she is a means for assent and
satisfaction of Allah, and her companion finds two Pleasures
with her:
1. Blessings,
beauties and enjoyments
2. A (spiritual)
bridge connecting the man to the satisfaction of Allah and she is a breakthrough, smashing
barriers against the eternal Pleasures of Hereafter
And the latter is the Pleasure that
befits the intelligent man, and not the Pleasure that finally ends with
much pain and heartache.
And according to the Prophet there
are three blessings once obtained much goodness will be found both in
this world and the world-after: Heart filled with Shukr (Gratitude),
tongue busied with Dhikr (Remembrance)
and the Husn (Goodness)
of a woman (goodness within and without). “
This is a fine case of Sufi expressions for spirituality of women and
indeed showing the serious consideration for women’s spirituality. The
reader should note that the reverse is not true, what was said by the
Prophet and what was explicated by Imam AL-Jawzia are exclusively for
women and do not apply to men!
This spiritual asymmetry of sexes is the core of the humanity, which
has shaped it sometimes for better and sometimes for the worse based
upon the conduct of men towards the women.
Moreover these considerations move women away from the biological
necessity for propagation of life on planet earth, to spiritual
necessity for a man to find a Path towards Allah. Each one
of us walked—away from Allah—upon this
bridge of hers to enter this planet, and few lucky men would walk
backwards on her bridge returning to Allah! (Even
creation of Jesus, peace be upon him and his virgin mother, did not
require a father but required a mother. Allah did not
create Jesus without the mother though the omission of father was
allowed! And somehow the omission was necessary for Jesus’s purposes.)
“All heartache sorrow and pain are
caused by the absence of beneficial ‘Ilm (Knowledge)
for That Beloved, or lack of passionate effort and sacrifice for
obtaining such knowledge, or the absence of Idrāk (Grasp, Prehension)
for Mahab-bat (Divine
Love) and Irādat (Élan)—the
latter being the most painful. And because of that i.e. the vanishing
of his Divine Beloved, man is in pain left stranded within the carnal
realm hapless.”
Each pleasure in this world guides towards its counterpart in the other
universe, the counterpart that has reached the Kamāl (Perfection).
Given the ambience of Shukr (Gratitude)
and Dhikr (Remembrance),
the enjoyment of the Husn (Goodness, Beauty)
of a woman elevates the man towards Allah, as does
a warm column of air gliding an eagle upwards with little energy spent
by the eagle, for she is Allah’s beloved
beyond all doubts. Her beauty, a vector
along which a man is guided towards the Divine Beauty of Allah, was
originally from Allah and only delivers/guides/points man to Allah.
However for the same woman enraged by the vulgar approach devoid of any
spirituality, her temporal pleasure only guides the man towards hollow
carnal existence.
“The Prophet used to pray: I ask You
for the Pleasure of glancing at Your Face and Shawq (Yearning)
towards meeting You.”
Here the ‘Pleasure’ or the ‘Yearning’ are not substances of this world,
here the acquisition of either entity is not achieved by any effort of
the man, and truly they require the Divine Givenness.
Let me explain to you in different words: The pleasure or yearning or
beauty are not a part of the human parcel, they are Divine Endowments
and their purpose, no matter how they are manifested, is to point to
you a Path towards Allah, to meet
with Allah
to see Allah.
Any Pleasure on this earth is meant to reach Perfection
and that Perfection, finally, is to glance at Allah’s Face,
if you are unable to conduct the affairs for that Pleasure to guide you
towards its ultimate Perfection in the other universe, you are
imprisoned here and endeavoured only a Pleasure-pulse for some moments.
“There are three forms of Pleasure:
1. Physical,
pleasures of eating drinking and sex and so on. These pleasures are
shared with animals.
2. Psychological,
pleasures of leadership grandeur pomp and aggrandizement. Just like
physical pleasures, these psychological pleasures may be necessary for
Mankind to move upwards and improve, but given abuses they are far more
harmful than that of the physical pleasures.
3. Spiritual &
Intellectual
Spiritual and Intellectual Pleasures
Examples of Spiritual and
Intellectual Pleasures are Ma’refat (Divine Gnosis) or ‘Ilm (Divine
Knowledge) and their perfection—within
this world—manifest as benevolence generosity chastity courage patience
and so on. And this is the pleasure for the Nafs (Self, Psyche)
that has reached loftiness and nobility.
These pleasures are felt by the Qurb
(Divine Nearness) or ‘Uns (Intimate
Friendship) or Shawq (Yearning)
for meeting That Beloved, and this pleasure for the eye of the heart is
to behold one ray from the rays of Nur (Divine
Light). Indeed a particle of such pleasure is far superior to that
of mountains of pleasures in this mortal life.
Some ‘Ārif (Divine Cognoscente) said:
Whoever feels the pleasure of seeing Allah all eyes in the universe find pleasure
seeing him! And those who do not find pleasure in seeing Allah indeed find only sorrow or regret in this
world. (Now you know the reasons for rejections and betrayals they are
all incubated within you not wanting Hu)
And again some ‘Ārif (Divine
Cognoscente) said: The poor losers of this world leave it behind while
never tasted the goodness of its blessings! And they were asked: And
what are these blessings? They answered: Mahab-bat (Love)
for Allah, feeling ‘Uns (Intimate
Friendship) for Hu, feeling Shawq (Yearning) to
meet Hu, Ma’refat (Gnostics) of Allah’s Divine Names
and Attributes.
It is said: The Love necessitates the
movement of Nafs (Psyche, Self)
and intensifies her seeking, since Nafs (Psyche, Self)
is created for rapid movements similar to spread of fire, thus Love
moves her naturally, and whatsoever of objects that can be loved Nafs (Psyche, Self)
finds within the object’s loving pleasure and movement (as sailing
along a wind), and if the love ends then Nafs (Psyche, Self)
becomes heavy and still and loses her energy to laziness. And in such
condition one can find laziness lack of self-esteem sorrow stress
sorrow and melancholy. No happiness or beatitude if Nafs (Psyche, Self)
has nothing to love.
With Allah there is only success”
End.
© 2005-2002, Dara O. Shayda