The disparity in understandings between formlessness and form is one that runs through religion, and has run through religion, forever. To understand spirituality, one needs to have some understanding, some belief in, some faith in, some acknowledgement of formlessness.
Without formlessness, and without the understanding of formlessness, religion concentrates on form. So you have various costumes that are worn, various ways of growing your beard or not growing your beard, and these things become very important in observance. To the point where you can recognize those who are observant by the way they look. And if they don’t look a certain way the community assumes they’re non-observant.
The difference between form and non-form has also been part of the conflict between Sufism and religious orthodoxy. A famous statement made by a man called Hallaj years ago was “Ana al-Haqq.” In Arabic it translates to “I am reality.” This statement became incredibly controversial to the point where, because he made it publicly, he was executed because you could not claim that you were God-like, or reality, publicly. God was beyond, and is beyond, comprehension and beyond understanding according to the orthodox, so these kinds of statements became heresy.
In Sufism, another statement that has become universal is “To know yourself is to know your Lord” or “You must know yourself in order to know your Lord.” This statement is really very close to “Ana al-Haqq, I am reality.” It’s a hint; it’s a guideline to what has to be done to come to know your Lord.
To come to know your Lord you have to become real. And we use that word when we describe people; he’s a phony or he’s real. I can get along with him because he’s real. He doesn’t blow things up other than the way they are, he doesn’t try to make things more than they are; he’s consistently legitimate. He’s real.
So, what does that “real” mean? What does that “reality” mean? What is it to be real? What is it to be reality and how does one come to that point?
So, I am reality, to know your Lord you must know yourself. Well to know yourself truly, you must know the truth of yourself. You have to know the real self; you have to know your reality. And how do you get to know your reality?
Since Haqq, reality, is one of the Names of Allah, one of the Names of God, it’s understood that to know yourself you must enter reality. You must become one who searches for reality. So in the search for the self there is the search for reality because you can only know the self when you understand reality.
The word for the level of understanding that reaches reality is Haqqiqat, which is part of the word, the root word Haqq, is in Haqqiqat; the way of reality, the way of the truth, the path in reality. So we, in order to know who we are must know…
