The Glass Container (al-zujaja)

The Glass is the subtle entity of the heart which surrounds and protects the Lamp (misbah) of eternity from the winds of temporality and the sensory impurities of spatial qualification. The zujajah, the glass, is the site of manifestation of the descents of the unseen into the visible realm. 

This Glass is the locus of God’s gaze. It is the storehouse of the spiritual realm (malakut). It is the manifestation of the innermost secret, and the reality that reflects the ocean of union within the drop of separation. The Glass is the site that encompasses the lamp of the Muḥammadan light (al-nur al-Muḥammadi) a light that is both simple and all-encompassing, both resting and moving. It is the supreme isthmus (barzakh) and the mirror that reflects the lights of eternity in the quarry of non-eternity. It is the container of the unseen and the manifestation of the visible realm.

The zujajah is thus the tablet where the symbols of the realm of separation display themselves...It is the spokesperson for the supreme mufti, al-Mufti a’zam, about whom the Prophet (s) says “Seek fatwá from your heart.”...

The Glass is the third symbol in the Verse of Unveiling [the other two symbols being the Niche (mishkat) and the Lamp (miṣbaḥ)]. It is the mirror that reflects the lights of the Lamp (miṣbaḥ) and its secrets. Since the Lamp (miṣbaḥ) is a pure celestial meaning that is hallowed beyond movements, shapes, and forms, and since that pure celestial meaning loved to become known, it descended by way of reflection into the Glass of the Imaginal realm (khayaliyah)…the realm of “as if you see Him” (ka’annaka tarah). This [descent] is in order for the pure meaning to become clearly visible to you in the sensory realm and in order for you to learn what it means to declare God’s transcendence within the shadows of His immanence; the shadows of “as if you see Him.”

This Glass (zujajah) is thus a receptacle that unveils the state of the Lamp (miṣbaḥ). It discloses its affairs, levels, descents, determinations, and properties. The Glass is the separation (farq) of the Lamp’s union (jamʿ). It is that which separates the union of the Lamp and differentiates it. 

Since the Lamp (miṣbaḥ) is hallowed beyond the reach of non-eternity, it assumes the outward form of the Glass with all of its different presences and within the modalities of time and space. Thus it discloses itself in every instant through a Name, and in every place through a form or a shape (shakl). 

Let me give you an illustrative example. The Glass (zujajah) is a container that assumes a shape. In contrast, the Lamp (miṣbaḥ) is the unqualified waters of the unseen. These waters have no shape, form, or color. However, by virtue of the fact that the Lamp comes into contact with the Glass of your heart, it takes on the color of the heart and assumes its shape.

The coloring of your own pre-eternal secret is then unveiled to you…from behind seventy veils in pre-eternity. The lights of the Lamp descend into the levels of the Glass, which are seven. We call them the Commanding Soul (al-nafs al-ammara), the Lamenting Soul (al-nafs al-lawwama), the Inspired Soul (al-nafs al-mulhama), the Soul at Peace (al-nafs al-muṭmaʾinna), the Pleasing Soul (al-nafs al-marḍiyya), the Pleased Soul (al-nafs al-raḍiya), and the Perfected Soul (al-nafs al-kamila).

Now the middle soul, the Soul at Peace, is the isthmus (barzakh). It is the liminal entity between the Seven Souls and … each soul assumes its own color that distinguishes it in the Lamp from other colors. As for the sum total of these seven souls, it is the Spirit which has no color. 

…Moreover, there is a subtle point here that is worth alluding to here. The patched cloak (marqqaʿa) that we wear in our Path is the sensory descent of the Glass (zujaja) of the Imaginal realm into the world of the visible. This is because the Lamp, as we have already explained, is a force that has no end and no qualification. The Glass represents the imagined boundaries of the Lamp within the imaginal realm. Or you could say that the Glass is the site of disclosure of the colors insofar as they take on states and levels and determinations.

The Patched Cloak (muraqqaʿa) takes on the shapes of the descents of the colors. These colors hide the radiant heart of the seeker (al-qalb al-miṣbaḥi) which in turn draws its force from the flowing intermediacy of the Olive Tree (al-zaytunah). The Path Cloak is thus the site of manifestation of the heart of Shuʿayb…which divides into twelve sorts, or twelve springs, according to the number of the letters of the proclamation of tawḥid: la ilaha illa Allah.

The faqir in the patched cloak is thus a lamp of divinity within a glass of human nature. The Glass is thus a Patched Cloak of separation (furqaniyah); it is a separation of the union (qur’aniyah) of the heart of the Lamp. For the state of separation of the Glass (zujajah) subsists through the union of the Lamp (jamʿ al-miṣbaḥ). Conversely, the union of the Lamp (miṣbaḥ) expresses itself in the separation of the glass in the Patched Cloak. It is a non-manifestation in manifestation, and a manifestation in non-manifestation.

Glory belongs to the One Who made the state of separation to be a proof for the state of union, and the state of union to be the foundation of the state of separation!

From Sh. Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari’s “al-Mahajja al-Bayda’”