Sufi cosmology

Islamic Sufis describe the Divine Descent and the creation of universe and humankind in the following stages, when Noor-e-Ahadi (Light of One), coming out of His self-isolated oneness, intended to manifest Himself in multiplicity. These stages are also termed as “Tanzalat-e-Satta. Many saints have explained these Tanzalat-e-Satta in their books. Abu Saeed Mubarak Makhzoomi has discussed them in his Arabic book called Tohfa Mursala.^[2] They are also discussed in the exegesis of Fusoos-ul-Hikam, a book by Ibn Arabi.^[3]

• Alam-i-HaHoot (Realm of He-ness): The level of HaHoot refers to HaHooiyat (The Unknowable and Incomparable world). It is an Arabic term which pertains to the Divine's Essence prior to manifestation. The spiritual stage related to it is called Ahdiyat (Alonehood). This is the Realm of pre-existence and a level of non creation.^[4] According to sufis, this state of Ahdiyat is incapable of being conceived, incapable of interpretation and is beyond all logical bounds. At this stage Allah is all alone and hidden in his own veil and cannot be exemplified with anything. Nothing exists here, neither the universe nor the creation. Here the Zaat (Divine essence) and neither His attributes are revealed or manifested.^[5]
• Alam-i-Yahoot (Realm of First Manifestation): The spiritual stage pertaining to YaHoot is referred to as Wahdat (Oneness). YaHoot is the first level of manifestation of "Hoo". When the Divine Essence desired to manifest, He manifested Himself in the form of Noor-e-Mohammad (Light of Muhammad). Since YaHoot is a world of Oneness, so it clarifies that Noor of Mohammad is a manifestation of God’s Essence and is not a separate entity. This is the first step towards Divine descent. The creation has not started yet. Here Hoo is called Allah which in Arabic means "the worshippable one", because there is a being in the form of Noor of Mohammad who worships Allah. And the level is called yaHoot because there is an entity who would address Hoo as YaHoo (O’Hoo).
• Alam-i-LaHoot (Realm of Absolute Unity): The world of LaHoot is related to the level of Wahdiyat (Unity). Here the soul of Mohammad is manifested from the Noor of Mohammad. Since this is a world of Unity so at this level Noor of Allah and Noor of Mohammad are in the same form. Therefore, the soul of Mohammad is in fact the soul of Allah called Rooh-e-Qudsi (The Divine Soul). At this level the whole universe and its creation is hidden in Noor-e-Mohammad and is anxious to manifest itself.

The above three levels are the levels of Unity and non-creation. The presence of Hoo in HaHoot, YaHoot and LaHoot indicates Absolute Unity. The creation takes place in the coming levels of Jabrut, Malakut and Nasut.

• Alam-i-Jabrut (Realm of Power): Jabrut is an Arabic term which means 'bridge' or anything that connects two things. It is called Jabrut because it connects the above three levels of non-creation and the coming levels of creation. The level of Jabrut is related to the level of creation of souls of human beings. Here Allah created the souls of human beings from Rooh-e-Qudsi. The soul of human beings created from Rooh-e-Qudsi is called Rooh-e-Sultani (the Kingly soul). The Divine attributes like knowledge, wisdom etc. which were present in totality in Rooh-e-Qudsi at the above non-creation levels got divided into human beings. Rooh-e-Sultani has attributes of angels because angels were created at the same level. Here Rooh-e-Qudsi got concealed in the Rooh-e-Sultani.
• Alam-e-Malakut (Realm of Intelligence): This level refers to the world of symbolic forms. At this level the souls took a recognizable but immaterial and intangible form for the first time. Here Rooh-e-sultani got concealed in the cover of Rooh-Noorani (the soul of celestial light). The souls of animals, plants and all non-living things were also created at this level. Due to the creation of souls of animals at this level the human soul adopted bestial qualities like lust, greed, covet etc.
• Alam-i-Nasut (Realm of Physical bodies): The level of Nasut refers to the physical world of material bodies. The stage where foundations of the tangible world of matter are laid. Here Rooh-e-Noorani got concealed in the cover of Rooh-e-Hewani (the soul directly related to the physical body) which was the breathed into the physical bodies of flesh and bones and non-living things. The process of human creation got completed here and Allah manifested Himself completely in Humans by concealing in the covers of Rooh-e-Qudsi, Rooh-e-Sultani, Rooh-e-Noorani and Rooh-e-Hewani.

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Abu Saeed Mubarak Makhzoomi

Abu Saeed Mubarak Makhzoomi

Abu Saeed Mubarak Makhzoomi, known also as Mubarak bin Ali Makhzoomi and Abu Saeed and Abu Sa'd al-Mubarak was a Sufi saint as well as a Muslim mystic and Traditionalist. He was an Islamic theologian and a Hanbali jurist based in Baghdad, Iraq. Abu Saeed was his patronym.

Ibn Arabi

Ibn Arabi

Ibn ʿArabī, nicknamed al-Qushayrī and Sulṭān al-ʿĀrifīn, was an Arab Andalusian Muslim scholar, mystic, poet, and philosopher, extremely influential within Islamic thought. Out of the 850 works attributed to him, some 700 are authentic while over 400 are still extant. His cosmological teachings became the dominant worldview in many parts of the Muslim world.

Muhammad in Islam

Muhammad in Islam

Muḥammad bin ʿAbd Allāh bin ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib bin Hāshim is believed to be the seal of the messengers and prophets of God in all the main branches of Islam. Muslims believe that the Quran, the central religious text of Islam, was revealed to Muhammad by God, and that Muhammad was sent to restore Islam, which they believe did not originate with Muhammad but is the true unaltered original monotheistic faith of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. The religious, social, and political tenets that Muhammad established with the Quran became the foundation of Islam and the Muslim world.

Allah

Allah

Allah is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from al-ilāh, which means "the god", and is linguistically related to the Aramaic words Elah and Syriac ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ (ʼAlāhā) and the Hebrew word El (Elohim) for God.

Alam al Jabarut

Alam al Jabarut

Alam al-Jabarut ) is realm proposed in Islamic cosmology. According to Suhrawardi (1154–1191), this is the highest realm, and denotes the place of God's presence. Below alam al-jabarut lies alam al-malakut, followed by alam al-mulk. The term jabarut doesn't appear in the Quran, but al-jabbar does (59:23). Thus the things in al-jabarut were whose which cannot change and are compelled in their state of eternity.

Malakut

Malakut

The realm of the Malakut, also known as Hurqalya, is a proposed invisible realm, featuring in Islamic cosmology. The Quran speaks of the malakūt as-samāwāt, supposedly a realm close to God. The concept is attested by the writings of al-Ghazali, but limited to epistemological categories of understanding metaphysical realities. Only centuries later, in particular with the Illuministic school of thought (Ishrāqi) and ibn Arabi, was it developed into a full ontological concept.