My Mercy Embraces All Things
“My Mercy embraces all things. I shall prescribe it for those who are reverent, and give alms, and those who believe in Our signs, those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, whom they find inscribed in the Torah and the Gospel that is with them…” (Q Aʿraf 7:156-57)
God’s mercy embraces things as such, for it embraces every particle of created existence. His existentiating mercy is a sheer grace. It is a gratuitous favor bestowed upon the worlds which were once submerged in an ocean of nonexistence, calling out for help through the silent tongue of their state. His is a mercy of replenishment for these worlds which are sustained by, from, and for Him, so that the subtle graces of pure meaning may flow through them.
His mercy is that innermost secret which flows through the All and is within the All. His mercy is hidden on account of the sheer intensity of its manifestation… It is a downward flow of His presence into the levels of existence… God’s mercy embraces all things because it is all things, yet it is not a thing because “no-thing is as is like.” (laysa kamithilihi shayʾ)…[His mercy] is like the breath that flows through the body of the universe.
God’s name the All-Merciful (al-Rahman) contains great secrets and eternal lights. It is the king and master of the most-beautiful names of God, which is why He juxtaposes the All-Merciful with His essential name Allah: “say call upon Allah, or call upon the All-Merciful.” Thus, God’s All-Mercifulness embraces all things. And just as the name the All-Merciful discloses itself in the Garden, it discloses itself in the Fire with the same degree of intensity. To this effect, God quotes Abraham (s) as saying to his father: “O my father! Truly I fear that a ‘punishment from the All-Merciful’ will befall you, such that you will become a friend of Satan.” [In contrast to the name the All-Merciful] the name the Compassionate (al-Rahim) denotes the gratuitous benevolence of the mother’s womb (rahmiyya). Thus, whereas the All-Merciful is all-encompassing, the Compassionate singles out and specifies.
As for the Basmala (or the Qurʾanic expression “In the name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Compassionate”) it is both inclusive and exclusive. That is, the Basmala is [contained in the] hidden dot [of the letter Baʾ ب]. And when [the dot under the Ba ب] wished to become manifest, it ascended to the letter Nun ن of al-Rahman (الرحمان), thus showing mercy to all things, because [the dot under the ب] is all things. Then [the dot] descended to the world of revealed Laws and divided itself into believers and non-believers, proximity and distance.
Thus, His mercy embraces all things because it flows through all things. It manifests all things because it subsists in all things and is manifest through all things. Moreover, Divine Mercy precedes and embraces Divine Wrath. For Divine Wrath is a disclosure of His Mercy, and there is nothing in existence except for His Beauty. As for Divine Majesty, it issues from Him and to Him, and what you suppose to be Divine Majesty is none other than a disclosure of the Majesty of Beauty, not the essence of Majesty, for created existence does not have the power to withstand His majesty.
You should also know, may God have mercy on you, that you will not directly taste God’s mercy that embraces all things until you embrace all things in your heart. Only then will the principles of His wisdom become unveiled to you, and only then will you see how His mercy encompasses all creation, flowing through each particle and bestowing the due upon each existent thing according to its preparedness.
Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi Al Karkari (Kaf al-astar)
