What Is Vicegerency?

Understanding of organizational affairs and their management in the light of the granted knowledge of the Names comes within the parameter of Vicegerency.

It is confirmed from Man’s appointments as the vicegerent of Allah that somehow or the other he has to play some role in all departments of Control and Power of Allah.

Here, analysis of Knowledge of Names in the light of the Divine Administrative Policies seems necessary. According to the Quranic words Allah said, “Kun-fa-ya-Koon” ‘I uttered it to Be, so it happened’ i.e. the entire universe (existents) was created by mere utterance of word ‘Kun’ by Allah. There are four administrative sections of ‘Kun’. First of them is the Innovation (Abdaa) which means that although the means and sources for the existence of the existents never existed, with the utterance of ‘Kun’ by Allah the Most High all the existents were completely formulated without any means and resources. This is the first section of the Divine Administration.

The second section of the Divine Administration is the ‘Formation’ (Khalaq) which means that whatsoever had appeared in the form of existents, formats of motion and rest appeared in them and various stages of life began to take place consecutively, that is, the function of existents’ life was started.

The third section of the Divine Administration is the Policy (Tadbeer) which comprises the affairs regarding the arrangements and situational occurrence of the functions of the existents’ life.

Fourth section of the Divine Administrative Policy is the inclinations or Tadalla. It is that section of Divine Administration where the regulatory decisions regarding fates and predestinations are compiled and finalized.

Secrets of the Divine Administrative Policy or the Knowledge of the Names were granted to man so that he could perform his duties in the capacity of the vicegerent of Allah in management of affairs of the universe.

For understanding the construction of the universe, knowledge regarding the ingredients and various cadres of the universe is compulsory. In the table, Persona Major has been given the name of the Inner Self and three stages of each Visible and Invisible Realms are called Zahir-ul-Wajood (External self). Every stage out of the six stages of both the realms pertains to a species, or to say, this makes them six species in total. Beside them another species; the Homo-sapiens (man), has been termed as the Persona Minor. This Person Minor is the essence of the six species and an interstice or a link between Persona Major; the Inner-self and the Phenomenal Being.

Each and every aforementioned species consist of countless individual and that there is a Generic Self of every species. The very Generic Self has been called the species, or to say, this Generic Self is a collection of the root of all the individuals of its species. Nature, structure and functionality of every species is existing in the Generics self of that species. All these three states (Nature, composition and Functionality) are known as the elemental specifications of the Generic self. These are typical, specified features and impression encompassing Time and Space lying between Eternity and Infinity (The Remotest Beginning and the Remotest Ending).

When these featuring impressions descend in the Phenomenal World, functionality or motions formulates Time and Space in these impressions and designs.

All The faculties of motion except its absoluteness are present in the Soul. By absoluteness that Beatific Vision of the Most Exalted Allah is referred which according to Sufism is called ‘Tasweed’ (Black Draft). This Absolute Beatific Vision Has two Sub–sections, the lower one is the Obscure (Khafi) and the upper one is the Latent (Akhfa). The Beatific Vision of Allah descends from the first section: the Latent, towards the second one: the Obscure. It is the final stage of the Beatific Vision after that the ostensible stages; the Movement or the motion, begin. The first faculty of this motion is the Arcanum Subtlety, second, third and fourth are the Subtlety of the Spirit, the Heart and the Self, respectively. The Subtleties of the Heart and the Self are known as (Nasma). Both these stages are the last ingredients of the Motion. The section compromising the Subtleties of the Spirit and the Arcanum are called the stages of Formational Compositions. The Subtlety of Heart is called the Natural State and the subtlety of the self is the Functionality.

In the light of the aforementioned statement, Soul has six sections, two of them are innate sections and the four are the manifested… Which are the sections of motion. And, the Innate sections are the stages of that Beatific Vision about which it has been stated by the Holy Prophet (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) that, “One who recognized his Self indeed he cognized the Attribute of Cherishing Lordship of Allah”.

This very Attribute of the Lordship is sub-divided into two Innate sections and flows through the inner self of man in the form of constant and continuous current of the Beatific Vision. Two Innate sections, the Latent and Obscure and two of the manifested sections; Arcanum and the Spirit, are related with the Persona minor and the remaining two sections of the manifestation i.e. the sections of heart and Self are related to the Persona Minor.

Name of the first current of the Beatific Vision is the Channel of Black Draft (Neher-e-Tasweed), second one is the Channel of abstraction (Neher-e-Tajreed). Third one is the channel of evidences (Neher-e-Tashheed) and the fourth one is the Channel of Manifestation (Neher-e-Tazheer). Beatific Vision of the Channel of Black Drafts feeds the Latent and the Obscure Subtleties, Which are the basis of the Self. Descent of the Beatific Vision, in fact, commences from the Arcanum Subtlety. This is the phase which is very crucial for the spiritualist when they start to descend from angelhood towards humanity. Evil temptations initiate in the Arcanum Subtlety. As the same form the first section of the human soul. Because of the same section man attempts to be forgetful of the Absoluteness of Allah, tries to defy His Cherishing Lordship and shows an aversion to his roots.

If he intends to observe his roots, clear and open signs exhibited by Allah are there. For instance, breathing is not under the conscious control of man. He, invariably breathes, but the process of breathing has nothing to do with his will. Blinking of eyes is involuntary action. Similarly, circulation of blood and other internal movements of the human body are those functions which form the basis of his being, i.e. the Ultra conscious. When man descends from his basis the Ultra conscious and steps into the world of consciousness, that this time when he becomes aware of the functionalities of his life. though all the formational compositions and states had already taken place in the Ultra-conscious. The first Beatific Vision of the Lordship which is termed as the Black Draft (Tasweed) initially plays the role of the Lordship in the Persona Major i.e. the Self of the Entirety. This role is described in the Holy Quran in these words:

“Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The parable of His Light is as if there were any Niche and within it a Lamp: the Lamp enclosed in the Glass”.

That is, compilation and the arrangement of the Ultra conscious and the Super-Ultra conscious which are based upon the Beatific Vision of Allah Are carried out by Allah himself. The Channel of the Black Draft is responsible for feeding the Latent and the Obscure Subtleties. Both these sections are more elevated than the Ultra-conscious, and in Sufism the same are the sublimates of Absoluteness. Both the sections are the upper circles of the Beatific Vision. The first circle (Latent) is separate from the second one: The Obscure, only because the Beatific Vision of the latter is less subtle than the first ones. By saying, “Light of the Heavens” (Noor-us-Samawat), Allah, The Most Exalted has referred to these very two sections. After these two, there are two sections of the Arcanum Subtlety, and the subtlety of the Spirit. These are also two circles of the descendant Beatific Vision, the first of them has more subtle luminescence than the second one. Both the sections have been termed as “the Enclosing Glass” by the Allah, the Most High.

All these four sections of the Beatific Vision: the four circles on the knowledge, are considered the Invisible or the Unseen Realms and these very four circle have been collectively named as the persona Major.

The Last two sections of the Soul are two bright circles of the Subtleties of the Self and the Heart which are called Nasma or the Visible Realm. Allah, the Most High has exemplified this Nasma as The Flame of the Lamp’. This is the realm of Movement or the Evident Realm (Aalam-e-Shahadat). It is the Realm which is a combination of both Time and Space. Both these two circles of the Soul are known and Persona Minor. Persona Major is the Entire Self compromising four sections and Persona Minor is the Partial-Self which is a collection of two sections. The Entire Self is absent and unseen and the Partial-Self is present and manifested. The Entire-Self is the name of Formational Composition and Attributes. The Partial-Self is the name of Functionality and the State or nature. The Entire-Self is the Knowledge of creation in the Partial-Self is the Creation itself. Entire-Self is encompassing one and is one of the sections of the Attributes of Lordship of Allah; the Most Exalted.

Formation of the Creation is bi-folded and di-hedral. One is the Entire-Self or the Knowledge of Object and second is the Partial-Self or the Object itself. That is the Knowledge of Object then Object and after Object once again is the Knowledge of Object.

Example

When we see a rose we can, as a matter of belief, understand that the past generations of the rose also existed. These past generations have the status of the Knowledge of object. Although the same or not present before the gardener nor can he witnessed them, the presence of the rose is a comprehensive evidence of their existence. After the object again comes the Knowledge of the Object, that is, after the rose, existence of coming generations of the rose is also certain though the coming generations are also not present before the gardener.

Knowledge of the Object is everlasting and another name of the same is the Nonentity. Knowledge of Unity (Oneness) commences from this very point. Knowledge of the Object never perishes; only the Object (thing) does, as in case of the ancestors and the coming generations of the rose. Rose is the object and its past and future generations are the Knowledge of the Object. This very knowledge is the Attribute of the Lordship. Only the object. i.e., rose is the thing which would perish and stand annihilated whereas the knowledge of the object or the Attribute of the lordship is everlasting by contrast.