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

(Huwa, la Huwa). This dynamic phrase contains the secret and mystery and the ultimate paradox of existence. Everything is 'He' (Huwa) and everything is 'not He' (la Huwa). The knowers and lovers of Allah have penetrated this mystery and are utterly bewildered. The World of Imagination is the Realm of He, not He. It is the realm in which this mystery may be momentarily grasped.

(Khayal). Imagination indicates a reality that becomes manifest in three different places. Firstly, the Khayal is manifest within the cosmos where existence is the same as imagination. Secondly, the Khayal is manifest within the macrocosm where the isthmus between the spiritual and corporeal worlds is imaginal. Thirdly, the khayal is manifest within the microcosm where the human self is the reality between the body and the spirit. Khayal is synonymous with images. The Realm of Imagination is the isthmus between the World of the Unseen and the Visible World and it is within this khayal that man is given the clearest expression of the 'He, not He' (Huwa, la Huwa) mystery of existence. The human faculty of imagination (khayal) is purely passive with regard to the active conjectural faculty of illusion and with regard to the Spirit which may imprint upon it heralding visions.

(Al 'Arifin/'Urufa). They see and recognize Allah wherever they look. The knowers are bewildered. But this is not the bewilderment of being lost, rather it is the bewilderment of having found Allah. They know that He cannot be known. The knowers are nothing because they are everything.

(Ahl al Kashf wal Wujud). These are the knowers. They have passed beyond the veils which stand between themselves and their Lord and they stand perpetually in His Presence.