The Olive Tree (al-shajara al-zaytuna)

The Olive Tree is the unqualified liminal reality between the Real and the created. It sustains itself and contains its own oil. The Seal of the Chosen One (khatam al-Muṣṭafa) flows through each of its branches. The Olive Tree is beyond the qualifications of necessity and possibility. It is the site of disclosure of the Perfect Human Being (al-insan al-kamil), the manifestation of the all-comprehensive totality (jami‘ al-jamiʿ), and the Vicegerent (khalifah) who brings together the separation of all of existence. 

The Olive Tree is cited in many verses of the Qur’an, such as the verse about Adam: "And We said: O Adam! Dwell thou and thy wife in the Garden, and eat ye freely (of the fruits) thereof where ye will; but come not nigh this Tree lest ye become wrong-doers" (Q Baqara 2:35). It is also mentioned in the verse about a goodly word being like a goodly tree: "Hast thou not seen how God has struck a similitude? A good word is as a good Tree -- its roots are firm, and its branches are in heaven" (Q Ibrahim 14:24); it is also the Tree of the burning bush of Sayyidina Musa: "When he came to it, a voice cried from the right of the watercourse, in the sacred hollow, coming from the Tree: ’Moses, I am God, the Lord of the Worlds.’" (Q Qaṣaṣ 28:30); as well as the verse: "Though all the Trees in the earth were pens, and the sea-seven seas after it to replenish it, yet would the Words of God not be spent. God is All-mighty, All-wise." (Q Luqman 31:27). The Olive tree is also mentioned in the verse of the Pledge of Allegiance of Good Pleasure (bay‘at al-riḍwan): "God was well pleased with the believers when they were swearing fealty to thee under the tree, and He knew what was in their hearts, so He sent down Tranquility upon them, and rewarded them with a nigh victory" (Q Fatḥ 48:18). 

This then is the blessed Olive Tree whose light illuminates the light of the cosmos (nur al-kawn). It is the everlasting Tree; the kingdom that never fades; the Tree of the Pledge of Riḍwan (bay‘at al-riḍwan); the Tree of the secret of the innermost secret (shajarat al-sirr al-sirr). 

The seed of this Tree is [the divine saying]: “I loved to be known.” Its fruits are the sciences of the unseen, and its secret is pre-eternity (al-azal).

The Olive Tree is therefore the soul that is ready to be lit by the reality of min anfusikum: “A Messenger has come to you from yourselves.” [This receptive soul is one where] the lower soul (nafs) has been purified from the “I” by the Tree of “He” (huwa). The Olive Tree is thus the Path of ascent from the luminous configuration (al-haykal nurani) to the Furthest Mosque of union with the Spirit (masjid jam‘ ruḥani).

God mentions the Olive Tree six times in the Qur’an as an allusion to its realization of the six levels of faith which are mentioned in the Ḥadith of Gabriel [where the Prophet answers the questions: what is Islam? What is iman? What is Iḥsan? And when is the Hour?]. In this ḥadith, Gabriel came to teach us our religion in the form of a questioner, even though he knew the answer, thus manifesting in the two opposites, so that you may wake up from the slumber of your forgetfulness. 

And Gabriel (ṣ) he said, “Tell me about faith.” And the blessed Prophet (ṣ) responded [by listing the six pillars of faith], “To believe in God, the angels, the books, the messengers, the last day, and to believe in the measuring, its good and its bad.”

Sh. Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari (al-Mahajja al-Bayda')