Voices of Islam (206 page)

27. Ibid., 46.

1. See D. Fairchild Ruggles,
   Gardens, Landscape and Vision in the Palaces of Islamic Spain
   (University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University, 2000), 218–219.
   

2. William Morris, the principal fi re of the Arts and Crafts Movement, understood this point very well. His dictum, ‘‘Everything in the home should be both useful and beautiful’’ is a faint echo of the traditional perspective.
   

3. Frithjof Schuon,
   The Transfiguration of Man
   (Bloomington, Indiana: World Wisdom Books, 1995), 103.
   

12
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T
HE
Q
UR
’
ANIC
S
YMBOLISM OF
W
ATER

•

Martin Lings

In the Qur’an, the ideas of mercy and water—in particular, rain—are in a sense inseparable. With them must be included the idea of Revelation (
tanzil
), which means literally ‘‘a sending down.’’ The Revelation and the rain are both ‘‘sent down’’ by God the All Merciful. Both Revelation and rain are described throughout the Qur’an as ‘‘mercy’’ and both are spoken of as ‘‘life-giving.’’ So close is the connection of ideas that rain might even be said to be an integral part of the Revelation, which it prolongs, as it were, in order that by penetrating the material world the divine mercy may reach the uttermost confi s of creation.
1
To perform the religious rite of ablution with water is to identify oneself, in the world of matter, with this wave of mercy, and to return with it as it ebbs back toward the principle, for purification is a return to our origins. Islam—literally ‘‘submission’’—is not other than nonresistance to the pull of the current of this ebbing wave.

The origin and end of this wave lie in the Treasuries (
khaza’in
) of Water, which are ‘‘with Him [God]’’ (Qur’an 15:21). The Treasuries of Mercy are also spoken of in just the same terms, and it is clear that these treasuries are no less than the supreme source of mercy Himself,
al-Rahman,
God the Infinitely Good. The Qur’an also speaks of its own archetype, the ‘‘Mother of the Book’’ (Qur’an 13:39), which is divine omniscience, this treasury cannot be set apart from those of mercy, for it likewise belongs to
al-Rahman,
who is the source of the Book: ‘‘The Infinitely Good taught the Qur’an’’ (Qur’an 55:1). We have already seen the connection between mercy and comprehension, and the Treasuries of Water comprise both of these aspects of
al-Rahman,
for water is a symbol of knowledge as well as well of mercy. Abu Hamid al-Ghazali remarks in
Mishkat al-Anwar
(‘‘The Niche of Lights’’) with regard to the verse, ‘‘[God] sends down water from heaven, so that valleys are in flood with it, each according to its capacity’’ (Qur’an 13:17), that the commentaries tell us that the ‘‘water’’ is Gnosis
2
and that the ‘‘valleys’’ are hearts.

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The differentiation here is in the varying capacities of the valleys, not in the water itself, which comes directly from above and has yet to undergo the influences of soil, stone, or mineral. But water which comes up from the earth is in fact differentiated, so that it symbolizes different aspects of knowledge as in the following verse of the Qur’an: ‘‘And when Moses asked for water for his people, we said: ‘Strike with thy staff the rock.’ And there gushed forth from it twelve springs, and everyone knew his drinking place’’ (Qur’an 2:60). The differentiation here is not only in the drinkers but also in what they drink. The last five words of this verse are quoted throughout Islamic literature to refer, beyond their literal meaning, to the fact that everyone who ‘‘drinks’’ from the Qur’an is aware of the particular standpoint that has been providentially allotted to him whether it be that of ritual law, for example, dogmatic theology, or mysticism. It is not out of line with the literal meaning of the verse, if one remembers that in ancient Israel, each of the 12 tribes had its own particular function.

When the Qur’an tells us that at the creation, ‘‘[God’s] Throne was upon the water’’ (Qur’an 11:7), it affi implicitly two waters, one above the Throne and one beneath it, since the tenant of the throne is
al-Rahman
(God the Infinitely Good), with Whom are the Treasuries of Water, or rather who constitutes Himself these treasuries. This duality, the waters of the unmanifest and the waters of manifestation, is the prototype of the duality within creation of the ‘‘two seas,’’ which are so often mentioned in the Qur’an.
3
These two seas, one sweet and fresh, the other salt and bitter (Qur’an 25:53), are, respectively, Heaven and Earth, which were originally ‘‘of one piece’’ (Qur’an 21:30). Parallel to this and in a sense based on it, is the Sufi symbolism of ice, for salt water and ice, both representing the nontranscendent, are ‘‘gross,’’ albeit in different ways, when compared with fresh water. It is also true that the ocean, as the vastest of things in the entire terrestrial globe, has an altogether transcendent significance. When the Qur’an says, ‘‘If the sea were ink for the words of thy Lord, the sea would be used up before the words of the Lord were used up’’ (Qur’an 18:109), it is saying that the symbol is not to be compared with that which it symbol- izes, namely, the ‘‘Mother of the Book,’’ the Sea of which is in fact vast enough to contain the words of God. Nonetheless, by choosing material seas rather than any other earthly thing for this demonstration, the Qur’an affirms that they are, for the infi itude of the Divine Wisdom, the symbol of symbols; they have this symbolism in virtue of their size, apart from and, as it were, despite their saltiness, for salt water as such is always transcended by fresh water.

The significance of a symbol varies according to whether it is considered as an independent entity or in relation to some other symbol. In relation to wine, water—even fresh water—may represent the untranscendent or the less transcendent, as for example, when the Qur’an mentions that in Paradise the elect are given wine to drink whereas the generality of the faithful drink from

The Qur’anic Symbolism of Water
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fountains of water. This relationship between wine and water is analogous to the relationship between the sun and the moon, for wine is in a sense ‘‘liquid fi ’’ or ‘‘liquid light’’; but fi and water, inasmuch as both are elements, are on the same plane, and it is possible to consider wine and water as equal complements. Thus, in another description of Paradise, the Qur’an mentions rivers of water and rivers of wine (for example, Qur’an 47:15), without specifying any difference of level. Here it may be said that wine, being ‘‘warm,’’ has the ‘‘subjective’’ significance of Gnosis in relation to the cold ‘‘objectivity’’ of water, which represents the Truth, the object of Gnosis. But when considered by itself, water has a total significance that transcends the distinction between subject and object, or that includes both subject and object, for inasmuch as it can be drunk, water is a symbol of Truth ‘‘sub- jectivized.’’ That is, Gnosis and water can indeed claim to be ‘‘the drink of drinks.’’ In any case, whatever the drink, water is always its basis.

The following passage of the Qur’an, the fi part of which has already been quoted in connection with Gnosis, is particularly important for its illustration of the difference between the true and the false, or reality and illusion: ‘‘He sends down water from Heaven so that the valleys are in flood with it, each according to its capacity, and the flood bears the swelling foam’’ (Qur’an 13:17). Thus, God coins the symbols of reality and illusion. ‘‘As for the foam, it goes as scum upon the banks, and as for what profi men, it remains in the earth’’ (Qur’an 13:17). In light of this imagery—of the scum, which remains visible, and the water, which disappears—we may interpret the Qur’anic verse, ‘‘They know only an outward appearance of this lower life’’ (Qur’an 30:7). The ‘‘outward appearance’’ is the scum of illusion, whereas what escapes us in this world is the hidden water of Reality. We see here the significance of the fountain, which holds such an important place in Qur’anic symbolism. The bursting forth of a spring—that is, the reappearance of heaven-sent water that has become hidden—signifi the sudden unveiling of Reality, which transcends outward appearance, and the drinking of which is Gnosis. But in addition to this objective–subjective symbolism, the foun- tain also has the purely subjective signifi e of the sudden opening of an eye, which is implicit in the Arabic word
‘ayn,
which means both ‘‘eye’’ and ‘‘fountain’’ [or ‘‘spring’’]. This subjective symbolism is in a sense more important, because the reason why men see only the scum of illusion is that their hearts are hardened; in other words, ‘‘the eye of the heart’’ is closed, ‘‘for verily it is not the sight that is blind but the hearts that are blind’’ (Qur’an 22:47). In one highly suggestive passage, the Qur’an compels us to envisage the possibility of a fountain springing from the heart: ‘‘Then even after that, your hearts grew hard so that they were like rocks, or even harder, for verily there are rocks from which rivers gush forth, and there are rocks which split asunder so that water flows from them’’ (Qur’an 2:74).

The presence of ‘‘a barrier beyond which they pass not’’ (Qur’an 55:20) between the two seas means that the waters of this world are unable to

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overflow into the next world and that the upper waters refrain from utterly overwhelming the lower waters. Instead, they allow them to exit as a seem- ingly separate domain without undue interference from above, at any rate ‘‘for a while’’—to use the Qur’anic phrase, which is so often repeated to denote the impermanence of this world and everything in it. ‘‘Undue’’ is a necessary reservation, because the upper waters by their very nature cannot altogether be kept out of the lower waters, any more than water—to revert to the Sufi symbolism—can be kept out of ice. The upper waters, being the original substance of all creation, not only surround but also penetrate this world as its secret reality, to which it will eventually return. Thus, although the rain, symbolizing this penetration, is only sent down ‘‘in due measure,’’ it is nonetheless the herald or portent of the hour—that is, the last day, when the barrier will be removed and the upper waters will flood this world, transforming its nature and causing the resurrection of the dead, for they are Waters of Life.
4

Until then, any presence of life in this world means that a drop of these waters has passed the barrier, but this possibility is limited. ‘‘Verily, this lower life is but as water, which we have sent down from the sky’’ (Qur’an 10:24). Life is altogether transcendent in relation to this world, where it exists merely as a fleeting loan, ready to ‘‘evaporate’’ back whence it came as water evapo- rates back to the sky. Life is a passing trespass of the Beyond in the domain of the here below, a brief penetration of soul and body by the Spirit.
5
However, the Spirit is not ‘‘at home’’ in this world—hence the extreme precariousness of life—whereas it is indeed at home in the Beyond: ‘‘Verily, the Abode of the Hereafter, that is Life, did they but know’’ (Qur’an 29:64).
6