Niffari, Rig-Veda, Chuang-tse, Plotinus: The Process of Manifestation
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Photo: Signs of the zodiac- Libra, or al-Mīzān. Zodiac picture. From a 15th-century Arabic collectaneous manuscript known as Kitab al-bulhan.
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‘I spoke a word, and the word glorified Me: then of the glorifying of the word created I a light and a darkness. Of the light I created the spirits of such as believe, and of the darkness created I the spirits of such as disbelieve. Then I mingled the light with the darkness, and made it to be a stone-jewel: the jewelness was of the light, and the stoniness was of the darkness.’
(Niffari)
There was then neither being nor non-being...
Without breath breathed by its own power That One.
(Rig-Veda, X. 129. 1, 2)
At the beginning of the beginning, even nothing did not exist. Then came the period of the Nameless. When ONE came into existence, there was ONE, but it was formless. When things got that by which they came into existence, it was called their virtue ...By cultivating this nature, we are carried back to virtue; and if this is perfected, we become as all things were in the beginning. We become unconditioned.
(Chuang-tse; ch. XII)
He acted Himself into being.
(Plotinus)
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Recommended Reading:
'An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines'
By Seyyed Hossein Nasr (Author)
Purchase Book:
Amazon.com
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Description:
This is the only book to deal with classical Islamic cosmology as it was formulated by the Ikhwan al-S'afa al Biruni and Ibn Sina during the tenth and eleventh centuries. These figures influenced all the later centuries of Islamic history and in fact created the cosmological framework within which all later scientific activity in the Islamic world was carried out--the enduring image of the cosmos within which Muslims have lived during the past millennium.
Nasr writes from within the Islamic tradition and demonstrates how, based on the teachings of the Quran and the Prophet, the figures treated in this work integrated elements drawn from various ancient schools of philosophy and the sciences. This book is unique in its treatment of classical Islamic cosmology as seen from within the Islamic world-view and provides a key for understanding of traditional Islamic thought.
“…the amount of academic literature devoted to the way in which Muslims in classical and medieval Islam envisioned the cosmos is negligible. There are, however, some noteworthy exceptions. An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines is one of them.”
(Parabola)
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