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

ad-dunya
World

(Dunya). The corporal world is this life. It is all that distracts man from the Remembrance of Allah and the Truth. It is the veil with which He conceals Himself from His creation. Dunya is whatever is closest to one's lower self. In itself 'the world' is not bad, it is only in being attached to it that one can be harmed by it. Man must have non-attachment. He must be in this world like a stranger. His sights, his vision, his aspirations and his love should be directed totally towards the Real, Allah.


See also: Hereafter Self Staff of Moses
(Akhira). The hereafter is the next life in which are found the Bridge, the Scales, Paradise and Hell. For the traveller on the Spiritual Path the reality of the things and events of the hereafter may be experienced here and now, in this life. Paradise is the mirror of Allah's Absolute Beauty. It is nearness to Allah. Hell is the mirror of His Absolute Majesty and signifies forgetfulness and hence distance from Allah. The degrees of these experiences vary in accordance with the preparedness of the traveller and ultimately through the Grace of Allah.
(Nafs). The ego or the self or the soul. The nafs is that dimension of man which stands between the spirit which is light, and the physical body which is darkness. The spiritual struggle or combat is waged against the downward-pulling tendencies of the nafs which seduce the heart away from Allah. The nafs is also the domain of imagination. Allah is within our own selves, yet we do not see Allah. The work of the higher teaching is directed towards transforming the 'Lower Self' into the Higher 'Perfect Self' and 'seeing' Allah everywhere. There are seven stages of the self, seven postures in the ritual prayer, seven verses or 'signs' in the opening chapter of The Qur'an, and seven levels of knowledge, all of which are finely interconnected. Shaykh Mahmoud Taha of Sudan writes concerning the self: "This soul is immortal in essence despite the changes that befall it through different forms and at different times and places. At no time does the soul cease its quest for immortality - to be immortal in form as it is in essence. This story is . . . the story of every human being. However, we all have forgotten it. By 'forgetting' it is meant that it settled at the bottom of the unconscious and was then covered by a thick layer of illusions and fears that we inherited from the times of ignorance and superstition. There is no way that we can achieve our happiness unless we break through this thick layer. . . which prevents the forms of the unconscious to be reflected in the mirror of the conscious and hence reveal the greater truth, the truth of truths that is shrouded by the veils of light. This long story that flows from the unconscious is made of the same stuff as that of dreams. The Qur'an is made out of the same stuff. It was brought into existence only to remind us of our extraordinary story. He who remembers it will acquire knowledge beyond which there is no ignorance and an immortality beyond which there is no perishing".
('Assa). The staff of Prophet Musa (Peace be upon him). The staff symbolizes the (corporal) world which it is to be feared when it controls and dominates. However, the knower of Allah can take it up, as did the Prophet Musa, and use it in the Way of Allah, to bring benefit to himself and to humanity.

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