Why has God made ego a means to know His attributes and names?
An entity that is absolute and all-encompassing has no limits and no
terms: it cannot be shaped or formed, it cannot be �determined� in any way
such that its essential nature can be comprehended. For example, a light
undetermined by darkness cannot be known or perceived, but if a bounding
line of darkness, real or hypothetical, is drawn, then it can. In the same
way, as the Divine Attributes and Names, like Knowledge, Power, Wisdom,
Compassion, are all-encompassing, without limits and without like, they
cannot be �determined� and what they essentially are cannot be known or
perceived. A hypothetical boundary is needed for them to become known. It is
by means of ego that need is met. Ego imagines in itself a fictitious
lordship, power and knowledge, and so posits a bounding line, hypothesizes a
limit to the all-encompassing Attributes, saying, �Thus far mine, the
rest His�. Ego thus makes a division. By means of the miniature measure it
contains, ego slowly comes to understand the true nature of the Divine
Attributes and Names.
Through the imagined lordship in its domain, ego can
understand the Lordship of the Creator of the whole universe
Through the imagined lordship in its domain, ego can understand the
Lordship of the Creator of the whole universe; by means of its own apparent
ownership, it can understand the real Ownership of its Creator, saying, �As
I am the owner of this house, so too is the Creator the Owner of this
creation.� Through its partial knowledge, ego comes to understand His
Absolute Knowledge, through its small amount of secondary art, it can have
an intuition of the primary, originative Art of the Exalted Fashioner. For
example, ego says: �As I built and arranged this house, so there must be One
Who has made and arranged this universe�, and so on.
Ego contains thousands of states, attributes and
perceptions, which disclose and make knowable to some extent the Divine
Attributes and functions
Ego contains thousands of states, attributes and perceptions, which
disclose and make know-able to some extent the Divine Attributes and
functions. That is to say, ego is, like a measure, a mirror or other
instrument for seeing or finding out, an entity that has an indicative
function. It does not carry meaning in itself but discloses meaning outside
itself. It is a strand of consciousness from the thick rope of human
existence, a fine thread from the celestial weave of the essential nature of
humanity, an alif from the book of human character. |