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

mu'attal
Inoperative

(Mu'attal). In Truth there is nothing in existence which is inoperative because Allah does not create anything without a specific purpose. Some parts of the cosmos are more excellent than others, but each and every part and entity is operative.


See also: Animality Completion Levels Perfection Place Rank Self - Animal Self -Perfect
(Hayawaniyyah). Creation is a hierarchy. Each entity has its own level which indicates its position within that hierarchy. The animals occupy their own level and in so doing they fulfil and complete all the requirements demanded by that level of manifestation. Man was created to become the locus of manifestation for the All-Comprehensive Name 'Allah'. He has been given the choice to return to Allah either as a 'human being' who has fulfilled his 'reason for being' or as a mere human who has the qualities of an animal. In this latter case he may be described by the word hayawaniyah - animality, because he has fallen beneath his own hierarchical level.
(Tamam) is the condition of an entity whose creation is lacking in nothing. An entity can have this completion without having perfection. However, perfection implies completion.
(Maratib). Every existent thing has its own level, and each one of these levels demands a specific relationship with Allah. When an existent thing fulfils all of the conditions pertaining to its level in the hierarchy of existence then that thing is complete.
(Ihsan). Excellence or perfection or sanctifying virtue or spiritual beauty. Ihsan has three degrees: 1).To do the good that should be done with one's property, words, acts and states. 2). To worship with total presence like one was actually seeing one's Lord. 3). To contemplate Allah in all things, at all times and always. Perfection is the third rung on the seven-runged ladder of Knowledge. These seven levels are Islam, Iman; Ihsan; 'Ilm al yaqin; 'Ayn al yaqin; Haqq al yaqin; Islam. (Surrender, Faith, Perfection, Knowledge of Certainty, The Eye of Certainty, The Truth of Certainty and Total Surrender and Submission).
(Makan). Elevation is of two kinds one is elevation in rank (makanah) and the other is elevation in place (makan) and mankind is described by both. Elevation in place pertains to works and worship, for it is through works and worship that man is elevated in the degrees of Paradise. The term makan is also applied to a resting-spot or waystation in the expanse, which exists only for the people of Perfection, who have actualized the stages and states and passed beyond them to the stage above Majesty and Beauty. They have neither substantial attribute nor relational characteristic.
(Makanah). Elevation is of two kinds one is elevation in rank (makanah) and the other is elevation in place (makan) and mankind is described by both. Elevation in rank (makanah) pertains to knowledge, for it is through Knowledge of Allah that the knower rises in degrees of nearness to Allah.
(Nafs al Hayawaniyya). The animal self. This is the lowest self. It is man cast down to the "lowest of the low". The animal self is totally obedient to the base natural impulses. The one who is dominated by the animal self is unfit for spiritual endeavour because he stands at the extremity of disbelief.

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