The Language of the Future
Sufi Terminology
by Murshid F.A. Ali ElSenossi

qudra
Power

(Qudra). There are seven Divine Attributes which are possessed to a far lesser degree by man. These are life (hayat), knowledge ('ilm), desire (irada), power (qudra), hearing (sam'), sight (basar) and speech (kalam). The Journey from the lower self to the Higher Self is a Journey from death to life, from ignorance to knowledge, from laziness to desire, from weakness to power, from deafness to hearing and from blindness to sight.


See also: Desire Divine Power Hearing Knowledge Life Sight Speech
(Irada) is the pain of love in the heart. There is no free choice involved with desire because when it fills the heart the lover is overwhelmed. He is compelled to seek the Beloved with all of his being. The murid is 'the one who desires Knowledge of Allah'.
(Qudra) is a Divine Attribute which is expressed by His Name The Powerful (al Qadir). The other six Divine Attributes are those which are expressed by His Names, The Living (al Hayy), The Knower (al 'Alim), The Possessor of Wish (al Murid), The All Hearing (al Sami'), The All Seeing (al Basir) and The Speaker (al Mutakallim).
(Sam'). The first words heard by man were those of the Divine Address in Pre-eternity when Allah said, "Am I not your Lord?" ("Alastu bi Rabbikum"). During the spiritual concert (sama') the true hearer hears and finds Allah within his ecstasy. At such a moment his essence may soar once again to the pre-Eternal moment of the covenant, the Day of Alast.
(Hayat). The Spiritual Journey is the growth and development of the self as it travels from darkness to light, from ignorance to knowledge, from death to life (hayat). This is the finding of Life in Allah.
(Basar) 'Sight' is the outward eye which perceives the World of the Visible as compared with the inward eye (basirah) which perceives the World of the Unseen.
(Kalam) is speech or words. The Source, Allah, is the Great Silence. In the process of descent, the Supreme Silence is firstly qualified with letters which then appear as words. The words become a sentence or sign which then appears as a form or book. The world is a book and the human is a book. In these two books we can read the signs of Allah, "on the horizons and within ourselves", which will enable us to ascend, and dwell once again, in the Great Silence.

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