The Essence as God. It will be understood that comparison (tashbíh), i.e., the bringing of God into relation with created things, is a judgment about Him and does not affect His absolute transcendence (tanzíh) as He is in Himself, which He alone can conceive and know. This fact is known intuitively by Perfect Men; for other mystics it is a truth apprehended by faith. While the Essential tanzíh has no opposite, the antithesis of tanzíh and tashbíh is associated with God in His creative and creaturely aspects by those who perceive that He is One and that the form of all existent things is the form of, Divine excellence (usn). Considered absolutely, the Divine nature does not admit of change. Change consists in the relations of God, i.e., in the diverse aspects wherein He manifests Himself to us. His manifestation of Himself to Himself, and His occultation of Himself in Himself, is eternally one and the same. The notion of eternity, without beginning and without end, when it is applied to God, involves no time-relation with His creatures, but only a judgment that His nature is necessarily timeless.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 18:34:14 +0000