The Oneness of Being

The Sufi Doctrine of The Oneness of Being
by Hazrat Shah Shahidullah Faridi [excerpted from Spirituality in Religion]
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"The Oneness of Being is a conception generally held by Sufis, and means that the Supreme Being is not only Supreme among beings, but is the Only Being. All other entities only exist by deriving their being from His Being, and are totally dependent for their being and their other attributes upon Him. Thus, to say that they exist is only a manner of speaking; in their own nature they are non‑existent, but achieve existence by being able to receive, in a degree that is proper to them, a reflection of the Divine Being. In their existence, therefore, they are, as it were, suspended between being and unbeing; in themselves they are ‘not,’ but in deriving their being from the Self who eternally ‘is,’ they ‘are.’ In short, their being is only relative and borrowed and the truth remains that there is only One Being, in whom and by whom, all that is, is.

The exposition I have just made contains an element of duality. But the Sufis go farther than this: they state that all the entities of the universe are ultimately the Supreme Truth Himself, Who displays Himself to Himself in multiple forms and variegated modes, without the unchangeable Unity of His Essence being in any way vitiated. It is as if He sees Himself in a mirror nothing that appears in the mirror is anything but He. Rather He shows Himself in myriads of mirrors, each of them receiving that reflection of Him of which its size, shape and colour are capable. Like a man sitting in a room surrounded on all sides with a multiplicity of mirrors, every mirror contains in some measure His picture, and yet His essential Oneness remains untouched and pure.

Between Him and His image in the mirror there is thus a relation of both identity and difference. If it be said that the mirror contains His own image - for if He were to cease displaying Himself in it, the image would cease to exist and what is seen in the mirror is nothing but a reflection of His own Attributes - this will no doubt be true. From this point of view, the image is He Himself. If, on the other hand, it be stated that the reflection is after all not the same as the person reflected - for if this was so the person himself would be damaged if the mirror were broken, which obviously he is not - this too is unquestionable. From this angle, the image is essentially different from him who is the source of the image. The image derives its being entirely from Him, whereas He is totally independent of His image. When the exponents of the Oneness of Being speak of the Absolute Being's immanence (His undwelling in the entities of the universe), they mean it in this sense; and when they speak of His transcendence, they mean it in this sense also.

The Oneness of Being is not a theory nor a philosophy, for both of these are the products of mere rational cogitation. A person assembles some facts and observations before his mind and, using the tools of human reason such as analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction and so on, carves out a theory or a philosophy, which can be nothing but plain conjecture. The Sufis, on the other hand, state that the Oneness of Being is the result of spiritual vision, not of `rational speculation. If a man delves down into his deepest self, leaving behind him one by one all his human limitations, he finally reaches that Divine Ray which is forever shining within his innermost soul. The light of this Ray is so powerful that he becomes totally immersed in it, so much so that he is unaware of his own immersion, and is no longer distinguishable from the Ray itself. It is the result of this inward vision that he sees, not supposes, all being to be ultimately One Being, and all entities to be the detailed display of His Attributes which does not stain His essential purity of all multiplicity. The difference between philosophies and the vision of One Sole Being is therefore fundamental; one is merely the speculative arrangement of mental data, the other the direct apprehension of an eternal verity.

The Sufis do not have to grope for support for their doctrine from any outside source; they find it in a deeper penetration into the meaning of Qur’an. In "Remember the name of the Master, and isolate thyself to Him with a total isolation"(Al-Muzammil:8), they find the urge to seek nearness to God; when, after the trials of the way, they are chosen for such nearness, they find realized within themselves:" All on it shall pass away, and there shall remain the Face of the Master, full of majesty and glory"(Ar-Rehman:26,27). In this state they perceive that "Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth"(Al-Nur:35), that is to say that He has brought every thing forth from the darkness of unbeing to the light of being, and that "Wherever you turn, there is the Face of Allah"(Al-Baqara:115). "He is with you wherever you be"(Al-Hadid:4), but not with the accompaniment of two beings, but with the inexpressible intimacy of "He is the First, the Last, the Outward and Inward"(Al-Hadid:3), and "He is nearer to him than his life vein" (Qaf:16)."
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