بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
و الصلاة و السلام على أشرف المرسلين
و على اله و اصحابه أجمعين

It was narrated on the authority of Sayiduna ‘Umar ibn al Khattab (radiAllah ‘anhu), who said: “While we were one day sitting with the Messenger of Allah , there appeared before us a man dressed in extremely white clothes and with very black hair. No traces of journeying were visible on him, and none of us knew him. He sat down close by the Prophet , rested his knee against his thighs, and said: “O Muhammad! Inform me about Islam.”
The Messenger of Allah said: “Islam is that you should testify that there is no deity except Allah and that Muhammad is His Messenger, that you should perform salah, pay the Zakah, fast during Ramadan, and perform Hajj to the House, if you are able to do so”
The man said: “You have spoken truly.” We were astonished at his questioning him (the Messenger) and telling him that he was right, but he went on to say: “Inform me about iman”
He (the Messenger of Allah) answered: “It is that you believe in Allah and His angels and His Books and His Messengers and in the Last Day, and in qadar (fate), both in its good and in its evil aspects” He said: “You have spoken truly.”
Then he (the man) said: “Inform me about Ihsan.” He (the Messenger of Allah) answered, “It is that you worship Allah as if you see Him. And even though you do not see Him, [you know] He sees you.”
He said: “Inform me about the Hour.” He (the Messenger of Allah) said: “About that, the one questioned knows no more than the questioner.” So he said: “Well, inform me about the signs thereof.” He said: “They are that the slave-girl will give birth to her mistress, that you will see the barefooted, naked, destitute, the herdsmen of the sheep (competing with each other) in raising lofty buildings.” Thereupon the man went of. I waited a while, and then he (the Messenger of Allah) said: “O Umar, do you know who that questioner was?” I replied: “Allah and His Messenger know better.” He said: “that was Jibril (the Angel Gabriel). He came to teach you your religion”
[sahih Muslim, hadith n°12].

When the Truth (al haqq) wanted to be known and to show His wonders by His own Wonder , He took a handful of His primordial Light and from it, He created the Throne (‘arsh), the pedestal (Kursi), the heavens and the kingdoms. His Wisdom has willed that the Light of His creatures have been hidden by the drape of the divine preservation and by the Veil of Pride. Then appeared the Source of the Oneness Union (‘ain al jam’ al wahdaniya) at the heart of the created and nonexistent universe (faniya). The degrees, the laws, the expressions and the visual perceptions appeared while He was as He always have been, unique, singular and Self Subsisting. Then we were able to distinguish the directions, the places and the creatures, (totally erased by the Oneness of the Essence), everything subsisting by the Lights of the divine Attributes.

In this sense, we can mention the hadith qudsi:
“I was a hidden Treasure then I desired to be known so I created a creation to which I made Myself known; then they knew Me.”
[Hadith da’eef but authentic according to the greatest sufis through unveilings (kachf)].

He became hidden by His Name, apparent by His Essence and present in everything in the same way as the numer 1 (one) is present in all the numbers. So He appeared in the Oneness through his Name and his Essence, and He hid himself in the duality (ithnayniya) through His Name (staying in the same time by His Essence). Two being nothing else than one plus one and so on with all the numbers.

It has been said in a poem:

In reality, the universe is like Dihya,
the materialization of the Spirit in a deceptive appearance

N.B: Dihya is the name of the companion whose sayiduna Jibreel took the appearance.

It has also been said:

There are no being except The True One (al haqq)
There is no fulfilled saleek, or [saleek] on the path of fulfillment
The visual and final proof happened, and he does not see other than Him through my eyes

It is reported that someone came to al Junayd (radiAllah ‘anhu) and asked him: “”O Abul Qacem, Have you seen your Lord because of your acts of adoration? Or Do you think that the heart is the access door to the (divine) Presence?”
Al Junayd (radi Allah anhu) replied: “O you, How should we worship One whom we do not see! But we cannot assimilate Him to what our eyes see and we can not assimilate Him to what we ignore, because we would not be able to declare His incomparibility (tanzeeh).”
The man asked: “so , How have you seen Him?”
He replied: “The way (to see him) is known for Mankind, and Unknown for the Lord. And the physical vision of the eyes (absar) can not contain Him in this Life. But the hearts know Him through the Realities of Faith, then they (the hearts) rise and go from the divine Knowledge (Ma’rifa) to the Vision (through Muchahada) of the Light of the divine Gratitude. He is visible through the sacred Realities, free from all created Attributes. Sanctified by His sublime Beauty, He is described by His absolute Perfection. He rewards the hearts with His favors. He is known for his justice, described by His benefaction.”

Hearing this, the man stood up and kissed imam Junayd’s hand and stayed close to Him until appeared in him the best things, he remained faithful to his master until his death (May Allah take them in His Mercy)”
[Iqadh al Himam fi charh al hikam: sidi ahmad ibn Ajiba]

He ﷻ is veiled in His Apparition (dhuhur) and visible in His Concealment. And eyes are deprived of His Contemplation only because of the presence of the Veil of His Pride. The created beings were able to be seen only after they have been covered with the veils of the Beneficial gentleness and of Divine Wisdom, because they all express themselves through their Sukun and in their Sukun, showing in this way their Creator, but we do not perceive how they mention Him.

And in the Hikam:

His actions point to His names. His names point to His attributes. His attributes point to His Entity since it is impossible for an attribute to be existent all by itself

So everything persists only by Him, everything is Apparent only by His Essence, everything only comes from His Attributes, everything is annihilated in His Being and is Extinguished (fani) is His Permanence. And the Diversity of the physical manifestations in the worlds are only intrinsic manifestations of the Divine Names. In other words, despite the high number and the diversity of flowers, the water which brought them to life is One.

Allah ﷻ said: “And within the land are neighboring plots and gardens of grapevines and crops and palm trees, [growing] several from a root or otherwise, watered with one water; but We make some of them exceed others in [quality of] fruit. Indeed in that are signs for a people who reason.”
[surah Ra’ad / verse 4].

The people of Allah have compared the Univers to an ice ube whose external surface is hard while its inside is liquid. In this way, he who looks at the ice cube without any regard would see different kinds of matter while the one who would take time to think on that, he would observe that ice is nothing else than an other form of water manifestation.

in His Hikam, sayiduna ibn ‘Ata al iskandari (radiAllah ‘anhu) said:

It is not the existence of any being alongside of Him

 that veils you from God, for nothing is alongside of Him.

 

Rather, what veils you from Him

 is the illusion of a being alongside of Him.

So, you are veiled from Allah only because of the illusion that there is other than Him and because you still take into consideration the different kinds of shapes took by the Universe. But if you payed attention to the Attributes of the Seigneury and the Divine Proud, you would realize that He is wherever you turn:
“And to Allah belongs the east and the west. So wherever you turn , there is the Face of Allah. Indeed, Allah is allEncompassing and Knowing.”
[surah al Baqara, verse 115].

Because nothing exists with Allah: “So wherever you turn, there is the Face of Allah.”, all the marks are annihilated by the gush of the Lights, and in turn, the Lights are annihilated by the Oneness of the Secrets, letting al Wahid stands out, without any partners, by the Existence.

In this sense, it has been said:

My Beloved showed himself with his pomp beauty
and in each pomp of the beloved, there are forerunner

 

When his Beauty appeared in various forms
they(the forms) have been named and they became a prelude.

It was reported that a salaf said:
“Once, I entered in a monastery during the time of prayer, and I asked a christian: “show me a place so I can pray” he replied: “Purify your heart from everything except Him, and then pray wherevere you want”. I was ashamed in front of him.”

And it is reported that Abu Zayd (radiAllah ‘anhu) used to pray in any direction while reading the Qu’ranic verse: “All things perish, except His Face” .The face of Allah, according to the people of fulfilled spiritual level, means the heart of the Divine Essence, namely the Secrets of the Essence and the Lights of the Attributes “All things perish, except His Face” means that everything is annihilated in the past, in the present and in the future, except His Hallowed Essence.

It has been said in a poem:

The Knowers by Allah have been annihilated and they no longer saw
other than The Most Proud, the Sublime One.

 

And They saw everything being annihilated except Him
In the present, in the past and in the Future

 

The knowers By Allah (‘arifun) have annihilated themselves and they stayed by their Lord, and this is why they no longer see other than The True One, the vision of anything else than Him is forbidden for them

In this sense, it has been said:

Since I knew God, I did not see other than Him
and the consideration of other than him is forbidden for us

 

Since everything was gathered for me, I no longer fear the separation
Today, I arrived, Gathered

The vision of other than the True One nullifies ablutions (Wudhu’), because of the loss of the consciousness of his own annihilated nature in Allah’s Attributes. While taking into consideration the physical appearance of the Univers, is a part of which leads the arifun (knowers by Allah) to a state of ritual Impurity (Janaba), and this is one of the biggest sin. The Knowers by Allah (radi Allah anhum) perform the partial ablution (wudhu’) with the water of the Unknown (Ghaib) which was sent down from the Ocean of Jabbarut to the Garden of Malakut, They have been annihilated to their own actions, to their characteristics and to their capacities. Then they performed full ablution (Ghusl) to wash their own extinction (fana), Only then they definitively get rid of other than Him. so They (may Allah be pleased with them) are in a constant Prayer and since they prostrated themselves in the Hallowed Presence, they have not quit this prostration.

Once, Shaykh Mawlay ‘AbdusSalam ibn Mashish told to Abu al Hassan Shadhili (radiAllah anhuma): “O Abu al Hassan, Sharpen the eyes of faith and you will see Allah in everything, near everything, with everything, before everything, after everything, close to everything, above everything, under everything, encompassing everything, with a proximity described by Himself. As for His encompassing Omnipresence, It is an Attribute which befits him and which is its own, without end and without limits, without location and without direction, and His company and His Proximity are not concerned with distance, His Omnipresence surrounds all the creatures. And erase everything with His own description : He is al Awwal (The First One) and al Akheer (The Last One), he is al Dhaheer (The One who Appears) and al Bateen (the Hidden One), huwa huwa huwa… Allah was and nothing else existed with Him and He is today as He has always been.”
[Iqâdh al-himam fi charh al-hikam – sidi Ahmad ibn ‘Ajîba].

If the Proud of the Benefactor appeared, the Universe would be annihilated. This is why the actions appearing in this Universe are only visible things coming from the manifestation of the Divine Names. And the Divine Names come from the Attributes which come from The Essence. So He ﷻ is visible in His Concealment through the flow of His Lights in the creatures and if the created world was veiled from Him a single moment, it would be immediately annihilated. Sayidi ‘Abdessalâm ibn Machîch (qaddas Allâhu sirrahu) said:
“He is visible in His Concealment and concealed in his Apparition. His Name al Dhaheer (the One who Appears) erases the apparition of other than Him and Conceal it, because there could not be an other appearing being than Him ﷻ . As for his Name the Hidden One (al Batin), This name renders the apparition of His Manifestations necessary so He can be Concealed because of the visible manifestations. Because if He stayed as He is in His Concealment, He could not have been Known nor worshiped. He is al Dhaheer and al Batin in order that no being can be concealed with Him. Everything which appears is Him, and, as well, everything which is concealed is Him.

You can say: His is appearing through in what he is concealed, and he is concealed through everything which appears from the Divine, because nothing is with Him.

You can also say: He is appearing through the consideration of His Knowledge and Concealed through the consideration of the “how” , because the Seigneury (Rububiyya) is exempted from the “How”.
You can also say: He is appearing through His Wisdom and Concealed by His Power which is the reason of his Wisdom, because he Manifested the wisdom and concealed the Power.”
[Charh tasliyat al-qotb ibn Machîch – sidi Ahmad ibn ‘Ajîba].

It has been said:

There are no being except The True One (al haqq)
There is no fulfilled saleek, or [saleek] on the path of fulfillment
The visual and final proof happened, and I does not see other than Him through my eyes

It has also been said:

and all the universe is only the ensemble of the visible parts of my appearance
hiding the beauty of my blazing face

 

[my face] appeared through the characteristics of the creation
and the essences of everything worship my brilliant Light