Union in Separation

The holy Prophet (s) said in one hadith: “Temptations will be presented to the [human] heart in the same manner as reed mats are plaited, strip by strip. The heart that imbibes these [temptations] is marked by a black dot, while the heart that rejects these [templations] is marked by white dot. Accordingly, there are two types of hearts: one that is as white as a white stone. It is unharmed by temptations for as long as the heavens and the earth remain. The other is dark and dust-colored, like a turbid vessel. It neither recognizes the good, nor rejects the reprehensible. It is only consumed by its passions.” (Muslim, sahih, K. al-iman, #211).

[The Shaykh (q.s.) comments]: The temptations of the imagination are nonexistent shapes that manifest in the realm of possibility. That is, these temptations manifest within the loci of the realm of separation in one’s field of vision. They are what the holy Prophet (s) likened to strips of the reed mat in the aforementioned hadith. Every strip is one of the appearances of the realm of separation. It is a cause of forgetfulness for the average believer. Those who notice the strips remain with the strips. They are be seduced by the variety of colors of the strips; by their length and shortness; by their straightness and curvature. Their life is spent moving from one manifestation to another, without realizing that if the beauty of the strips were to be removed, they would discover them all to be identical—  as though a single strip were changing from shape to shape, and from color to color.

However, those who behold the reed matting as a whole experience the beauty of the divine Artisan (saniʿ) through the beauty of His created artisanry (sunʿa). Through the meticulous arrangement of the reed matting, they behold the marvelous work of the divine Artisan; and through its grandeur, they behold His all-embracing vastness. They then become absent from the artisanry out of love for the Artisan.

This is because those who behold the unifying comprehensiveness of all things see the Almighty Lord with the eye of unity. The separative components [of the matting] therefore bear resemblance to each other, as do the cosmic levels of existence, because the beholder is submerged in an ocean of unity where each drop is identical to the other. The beholder knows the entire ocean by virtue of knowing the single drop.

Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi Al Karkari (Kaf al-astar)