The Goddess remains the esoteric heartbeat of Islam. She is the beloved of Sufis

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" Light of the East

 

Iran and Saudi Arabia are not normally associated with the Divine

Feminine . . . we have to remember that militant Islam, like muscular

Christianity, is only one side of the coin. The reverse is a dazzling

mirror-image of Sophia who, in the persons of Fatima and Mary,

upholds the Divine Feminine within Islam. . . .

 

Sophia is the mystical companion, the soul within each body, seeking

the Divine Beloved. It is she who causes the mystic to proclaim that

he belongs to no race or direction of the earth: 'My place is the

placeless, my trace is the traceless. 'Its neither body, nor soul,

for I belong to the Soul of the Beloved.'40 Certainly, the Divine

Feminine is so marginalized in Islam, that one might be forgiven for

believing it to be totally absent.

 

Both Mary and Fatima are reverenced within esoteric Islam, for they

are both mothers of the Logos, the Word. Fatima inherits the role of

Spenta Armaiti, within Shi'ism, for she is the mother of a lineage of

imams. She is seen as symbolic of the 'supracelestial earth.'41 She

is considered to be the source of the imam's wisdom because she is

lawh mahfuz or 'the hidden tablet; upon which God has written.'42 One

of her titles in Ismaeli Shi'ism is Fatima Fatir, or Fatima the

Creator, which recalls the Sophia Ergane of Proverbs.43

 

Ibn Arabi states that Universal nature (Tavi'at al-kull) 'is

the feminine or maternal side of the creative act. She is

the " merciful 'breathing-out' of God " (Nafa ar-rahman).'44 We may

compare Sophia as the Divine Sigh of Compassion in Sirach: 'I came

forth from the mouth of the Most High.'45 This breathing out has the

effect of manifesting Sophia to the world, yet Sophia is also the

dwelling place of God for, as Ibn Arabi says: 'Where was your Lord

before creating the Creation? He was in a Cloud; there was no space

either above or below.'46

 

The nature of both the Black Goddess and Sophia are brought out in

Islam. The exoteric fulminations about women, so similar to those

found in Christianity and Judaism are, of course, negative

polarizations of the devouring Goddess, yet this exists side by side

with the positive image of the Ka'aba, Islam's Black Madonna. Within

Islam, the Divine Male and female principles are typified by the Pen

and the Guarded tablet. The Pen is God writing upon the tabula rasa

of the World-Soul, which preserves the veiled tradition of Sufism.47

 

The quotation which leads this chapter is the paradoxical

foundation of Islam's veiling of the Divine Feminine. Ibn Arabi's

exposition of this paradox may help us to understand it better. 'The

Absolute manifested in the form of woman is an active agent because

of exercising complete control over man's feminine principle, his

soul. This causes man to become submissive and devoted to the

Absolute as manifested in a woman. The Absolute is also passively

receptive because, in as much as it appears in the form of a woman,

it is under man's control and subject to his orders. Hence to

contemplate the Absolute in woman is to see both aspects

simultaneously, and such vision is more perfect than seeing it in all

the forms in which it manifests itself. That is why woman is

creative, not created. For both qualities, active and passive, belong

to the Essence of the Creator, and both are manifested in woman.'48

 

This defination must be taken in its mystical context. For

Moslems, the feminine principle is active, and the masculine

principle is quiescent, in the manner of Christ within the womb of

Mary. After proper preparation by spiritual practices, the masculine

principle grows and is born. 'Once birth is given to the spirit, this

(feminine) principle remains as Fatima, the Creative Feminine, the

daughter of the Prophet, in a state of potentiality within the spirit

reborn.'49

 

The secret veiled power of the Divine Feminine is thus actively at

work within Islam. Its esoteric forms uncompromisingly address the

Divine with the masculine pronouns, but its esoteric qualities are

all feminine.

 

The Goddess remains the esoteric heartbeat of Islam. She is

the beloved of Sufis, 'the ultimate image of God the Beloved — the

breaker of all images in the shrine of the heart. She is the form

leading beyond form, the obstacle to the Way and the Way . . .'50

 

Sophia is herself the 'interpreter of ardent desires.' The

mystical vision of Ibn Arabi portrays the longing of all for Sophia:

The aspirations and desires of all seekers are attached to her, yet

she is essentially unknown to them; hence they all love her, yet none

blames another for loving her. Similarly, every individual soul and

the adherents of every religion seek salvation, but since they do not

know it, they are also ignorant of the way that lead to it, though

everyone believes he is on the right way. All strife between people

of different religions and sects is about the way that leads to

salvation, not about salvation itself.'51

 

But Sophia is also the reconciler of differences, for her

love belongs to everyone: 'She manifests herself everywhere, like the

sun; every person who holds her deems that she is with him in her

essence, so that envy and jealousy are removed from their hearts.'

52 "

 

Caitlín Matthews, Sophia: Goddess of Wisdom,

The Aquarian Press, 1992, p. 179-90.

 

 

(40. p. 74 Cragg; 41. p. 63 Corbin, 1977; 42. p. 65 ibid; 43. p. 66

iIbid; 44. p. 116 Burkhardt; 45. Sirach 24:3; 46. p. 185 Corbin,

1969; 47. p. 28 Bakhtiar; 48. p. 22 Bakhtiar; 49. p. 23 ibid; 50.

Letter of Ya'quib bin Yusuf, Gnosis vol 5, p. 5, Fall 1987; 51. p. 81

Wilson, Scandal; 52. ibid)