The Shakti of Islam

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The Shakti of Islam

 

The term shakti (or Sakti) means fundamentally the efficient energy

of the Supreme Principle envisaged in itself or at a given

ontological degree. For the Principle, the metacosmic Order,

comprises degrees and modes in virtue of Universal Relativity, mâyâ,

in which it reverberates. In the domain of the spiritual life, the

same term Shakti signifies the celestial energy that allows one to

enter into contact with the Divinity, by means of the appropriate

rites and on the basis of a traditional system. Essentially, this

divine shakti aids and attracts: She aids as " Mother, " and attracts

as " Virgin " ; Her aid descends upon us from Heaven, whereas Her

attraction raises us toward Heaven. Thus the Shakti on the one hand

confers a second birth, and on the other offers liberating graces.

 

In the Absolute, the Shakti is the aspect of Infinitude that

coincides with the All-Possibility and gives rise to mâyâ, the

universal and efficient Shakti. Infinitude is 'Beatitude' or 'Bliss',

ânanda, which combines in âtma with sat, 'Being', and with

cit, 'Consciousness' or 'Knowledge'. We could also say that the pole

ânanda results from the poles sat and cit, just as union or

experience results from the poles object ad subject; it is from this

resultant that arises universal Unfolding—the creative mâyâ with its

innumerable possibilities rendered effective.

 

As immanent and latent liberating power—or as potentiality of

liberation—Shakti is called kuNDalini, 'Coiled up', because it is

compared to a sleeping serpent; its awakening in the human microcosm

is effected thanks to the yogic practices of tantrism. This means,

from the standpoint of the nature of things or of universal

spirituality, that the cosmic energy which liberates us is part of

our very being, notwithstanding the graces that Shakti confers upon

us, through mercy, " from without " and but for which there can be no

Path. In any case, just as mahâshakti or parashakti—the 'supreme

productive Energy'—equals the feminine aspect of brahman or âtma, so

the kuNDalini gives rise to a divinification that makes it the equal

of the creative mâyâ.

 

According to the Qur'ân, the names Allâh and Rahmân are quasi-

equivalent: " Call Him Allâh or call Him Rahmân, to Him belong the

most beautiful names " ; which indicates the as it were Shaktic

character of the name Rahmân. The name Rahîm, 'Merciful', in a way

prolongs the name Rahmân, 'Gracious'; it prolongs it in view of the

creatures, and in this sense it is taught that Allah, who is Rahmân

in His Substance, is Rahîm in relation to creation. The great Shakti

in Islam is the rahmah: it is the Goodness, Beauty, and Beatitude of

Allah. (Note that in Arabic the word rahmah is derived from the root

rahim, a word signifying 'womb', and this corroborates the

interpretation of the rahmah as Divine Femininity, thus as

mahâshakti.)

 

There are moreover some more specific forms of the Shakti, such as

the sakînah, the 'appeasement' or the 'sweetness', and the barakah,

the 'blessing' or the 'irradiation of sanctity', or again

the 'protective energy'; all of which constitute so many images of

the celestial Femininity, of the beneficent and saving Shakti.

 

From quite another point of view, it could be said that the Shaktic

perspective is manifested in Islam by the sacral promotion of

sexuality (this is indicated, paradoxically, by the veiling of women,

which suggests mystery and sacralization). This character puts Islam

consciously and abruptly in opposition to the exclusively sacrificial

and ascetic perspective of Christianity, but brings it nearer to

Shaktism and Tantrism. (Christianity, through contact with Sufism,

also has a quasi-Tantric dimension, namely chivalry or courtly love,

characterized by the cult of the " Lady " and by a no less particular

devotion for the Virgin.) According to a hadith, " marriage is half

the religion " ; that is to say—by analogy—that the Shakti is

the " prolongation " of the Divine Principle; mâyâ " prolongs " âtma. To

know woman—insists Ibn al-`Arabî—is to know oneself, and " Whoso

knoweth his self, knoweth his Lord. " Certainly, the human soul is

one, but the sexual polarity splits it, to a certain extent; now

knowledge of the Absolute requires the primordial totality of the

soul, for which sexual union is in principle the natural and

immediate support, although obviously this totality can be realized

outside the erotic perspective, as each of the sexes comprises the

potentiality of the other; the human soul being one, precisely.

 

According to Ibn al-`Arabî, hiya, 'She', is a divine Name like

huwa, 'He'; but it does not follow that the word huwa is limited, for

God is indivisible, and to say " He " is to say " She " . It is however

true that the Dhât, the divine 'Essence', is a feminine word, which—

like the word Haqîqah—can refer to the superior aspect of femininity;

according to this way of seeing things, which is precisely that of

Hindu Shaktism, femininity is what surpasses the formal, the finite,

the outward; it is synonymous with indetermination, illimitation,

mystery, and thus evokes the " Spirit which giveth life " in relation

to the " letter which killeth. " That is to say that femininity in the

superior sense comprises a liquefying, interiorizing, liberating

power: it liberates from sterile hardnesses, from the dispersing

outwardness of limiting and compressing forms. On the one hand, one

can oppose feminine sentimentality to masculine rationality—on the

whole and without forgetting the relativity of things—but on the

other hand, one also opposes to the reasoning of men the intuition of

women; now it is this gift of intuition, in superior women above all,

that explains and justifies in large part the mystical promotion of

the Feminine; it is consequently in this sense that the Haqîqah,

esoteric knowledge, may appear as Feminine.

 

The Prophet said of himself: " The Law (sharî`ah) is what I say; the

Path (Tarîqah) is what I do; and Knowledge (Haqîqah) is what I am. "

Now this third element, this " being, " evokes a mystery of femininity

in the sense that " being " transcends " thinking, " represented by

masculinity inasmuch as it may be conceived as lunar; woman offers

happiness, not by her philosophy, but by her being. The crescent moon

is so to speak " athirst " for plenitude, which is conceived as solar;

thus the feminization of spiritual plenitude is partly explained by

the metaphysics of men. (In German as in Arabic and Lithuanian, the

word 'sun' is feminine and the word 'moon' is masculine, which evokes

the perspective of matriarchy, of feminine priesthood, of women-

prophetesses, and obviously of Shaktism. Tacitus made much of the

respect ancient Germans had for women. And let us recall here the

beatific function of the Valkyries, and also this quasi-Tantric

sentence from Goethe: " The Eternal Feminine draws us heavenward " [Das

Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan]).

 

But there is more: the feminine character that one can discern in

Wisdom (Hikmah, Sophia) results moreover from the fact that the

concrete knowledge of God coincides with the love of God; this love,

which to the extent it is sincere implies the virtues, is like the

criterion of real knowledge. And it is in this sense that the saving

Shakti is identified at once with Love and with Gnosis, with maHabbah

and with Haqîqah.

 

In his Fusûs al-Hikam—in the chapter on Muhammad—Ibn al-`Arabî

develops a doctrine which on the whole is Shaktic and Tantric, by

taking as his point of departure the famous hadith on women, perfume,

and prayer: the " three things " that God " made lovable " to the

Prophet. This symbolism signifies above all that for the male, woman

occupies the center among the objects of love, whereas all the other

things that are lovable—such as a garden, a piece of music, a glass

of wine—are situated on the periphery, which is what the " perfumes "

indicate—prayer represents the quintessential element—the

relationship with the sovereign Good—which gives meaning to

everything else. Now, according to Ibn al-`Arabî, man, the male,

loves woman as God loves man, the human being; for the whole loves

its part, and the prototype loves its image; and this implies

metaphysically and mystically the inverse movement, proceeding from

the creature to the Creator and from woman to man. To say love, is to

say desire for union, and union is a relationship of reciprocity,

whether it be between the sexes or between the human being and God.

 

In loving woman, man tends unconsciously toward the Infinite, and for

that very reason he has to learn to do so consciously, by

interiorizing and sublimizing the immediate object of his love; just

as woman, in loving man, tends in reality toward the Absolute, with

the same transpersonal virtualities.

 

In Sufi mysticism the Divine Presence, or God Himself as object of

love or of nostalgia, is readily presented as a woman. To quote the

Dîwân of Shaykh Ahmad al-`Alawî: " I drew near to Layla's dwelling,

when I heard her call. O would that sweet voice never fall silent!

She favored me, drew me toward her, and took me into her precinct;

then with words most intimate addressed me. She sat by me, then came

closer, and raised the garment that veiled her from my gaze; she took

me out of myself, amazed me with her beauty . . . She changed me and

transfigured me, marked me with her special seal, pressed me to her,

granted me a unique station and named me with her name. " The " divine

dimension " is called Layla, 'Night', for its a priori nonmanifested

quality; this makes one think of the dark color of Parvati and of the

Black Madonnas in Christian art.

 

Prophet Muhammad's love of women had the spiritual capacity to find

concretely in Woman all the aspects of the Divine Femininity, from

immanent Mercy to the infinitude of universal Possibility. The

sensory experience that produces in the ordinary man an inflation of

the ego, actualizes in the " deified " man an extinction in the Divine

Self.

 

Flowers are loved for their perfume as well as for their beauty; now

both these qualities relate to femininity and thus to the Shakti;

beauty gladdens the heart and appeases it, and perfume makes one

breathe, it evokes the limitlessness and purity of air; the " dilation

of the breast, " as one would say in Sufi mysticism.

 

Every virtuous or beautiful woman is in her way a manifestation of

Shakti; and since virtue is a moral beauty, it can also be said that

beauty is a physical virtue. The merit of this virtue devolves upon

its Creator and, by participation, to the creature as well if she is

morally and spiritually up to this gift; this is to say that beauty

and virtue on the one hand pertain a priori to God, and on the other

hand, for that very reason, demand that their spiritual implications

be brought out by the creature.

 

The quality of Shakti in woman goes with the quality of deva in man.

Each sex participates—or can participate—in the opposite sex. (This

is shown graphically by that fundamental symbol that is the Chinese

Yin-Yang, which in all its applications expresses the principle of

compensating reciprocity.) The human quality is one and has priority

over the sex, but without in the least abolishing the latter's

capacities, functions, duties, and rights.

 

The character of deva and Shakti show that the human being is, by

definition, a theophany and that one has no choice but to be so, any

more than one could choose not to be Homo sapiens. The human vocation

is to realize that which is man's reason for being: a projection of

God and, therefore, a bridge between earth and Heaven; or a point of

view allows God to see Himself starting from an other-than-Himself,

even though this other, in the final analysis, can only be Himself,

for God is known only through God.

 

— Excerpted from the essay " Mahashakti " by Frithjof Schuon,

originally published in Racines de la condition humaine (Paris: La

Table Ronde, 1990); English translation in Roots of the Human

Condition (Bloomington: World Wisdom Books, 1991), p. 29-45.

http://www.kundalinisupportnetwork.com/articles/islamshakti.html

 

 

When we write shakti in the Arabic alphabet, the numerical value of

the letters totals 730. (Shîn=300, kâf=20, tâ'=400, yâ'=10.) It is

illuminating to compare shakti with the Arabic words that total 730:

 

dhakî 'intelligent' — this word comes from a root meaning the blazing

up of a fire; Shakti is the Power that energizes the Intellect.

dhalla 'to be lowly, humble' — the Feminine is relegated to a lowly

status in patriarchal systems.

kathîr 'abundant' — the Supreme Feminine is the Infinite, the divine

All-Possibility, the Great Mother bringing forth all things in

fruitful abundance.

khalaqa 'to create' — Shakti is the Power that engenders all

creation.

khalîs 'pure' — as the divine Power, Shakti is ever pure and holy.

ladhdha 'to be sweet, pleasant, delightful' — Shakti brings

transcendental delight and enjoyment to Her lovers. nafakha 'to

breathe' — from the yogic breath arises prâNa kuNDalinî, a form of

kundalini shakti. (See Kundalini: The Energy of the Depths by Lilian

Silburn, p. 64)