Is GOD an object, a circumscribed thing that can be seen or conceived in its entirety? No, of course not; He transcends all objects. But worship Him as if He is. In other words, you have a definite moral order – worship. Now imagine an object worthy of that worship. Mentally create an object that corresponds to your highest absolute, while knowing full well that it is not Him, but as close to Him as you can imagine. This imaginal object inhabits what I call the ‘mirror-world’. I name it thus because it not only attempts to reproduce – unsuccessfully – the qualities of GOD but it also imitates His power to create things out of nothing. The command to worship and the dual creation – by Him and by us – are reflected in the verse, Truly His are the creation and command. Blessed be AL-LAH, the Master of the worlds! (Q7:54). By His creation, we have objects. And by His command, we have values and obligations, transmitted from GOD-as-Subject to conscious subjects.
The transition from subject to object is accomplished through the Self. By having a Self, GOD presents Himself as an object which He and we can name; without this, references to AL-LAH could not appear in the Qur’an.
You know what is within my self, and I know not what is within Your Self. Indeed You are the Knower of the Hidden. (Q5:116)
تَعْلَمُ مَا فِي نَفْسِي وَلاَ أَعْلَمُ مَا فِي نَفْسِكَ إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ عَلاَّمُ الْغُيُوبِ
By having a Self, GOD can be simultaneously a totally unknowable Subject and a partially knowable Object (in Whose Transparency subsists one of His Names, the Hidden). Rather than being exclusively one or the other, the Self / self is an isthmus (barzakh) between subject and object, preserving ‘their’ single identity while opening up a conceptual space for reflexive acts such as self-knowledge and self-definition, and allowing for perfections that GOD in His Aloneness cannot have.
Keep in mind that there is no question here of temporal progression; rather GOD has always been both the Unknowable Subject and the Supreme Object of worship in the orthodox world-view:
And there remains the Visage of your Lord, possessing Majesty and Honour. (Q55:27)
وَيَبْقَى وَجْهُ رَبِّكَ ذُو الْجَلاَلِ وَالإِكْرَامِ
The Self, moreover, provides a basis not only for superlatives but for personality.
Say, “To whom belongs whatever is in heaven and on earth?” Say, “To GOD. He has ordained Compassion for Himself.” (Q6:12)
قُلْ لِمَنْ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ قُلْ لِلَّهِ كَتَبَ عَلَى نَفْسِهِ الرَّحْمَةَ
There is a wealth of significance in this act of GOD attributing Compassion to Himself. How is this com-passion to be expressed, if not with passion, by a commitment to creating and sustaining objects that reflect and reproduce this passionate character? And thus we read:
But they will never cease to be contentious, / Other than the ones to whom your Lord shows Mercy; and for that He did create them. (Q11:118-119)
وَلاَ يَزَالُونَ مُخْتَلِفِينَ
إِلاَّ مَنْ رَحِمَ رَبُّكَ وَلِذَلِكَ خَلَقَهُمْ
We were created to receive His Love – which is our initial experience after birth if we are born into a loving family – and then to transmit and reproduce it as both our love and more objects of compassion, such as our own children, and gain thereby some inkling of how it feels to be God. The purpose of creation is thus to become signs that point to GOD, in either one of two ways:
1) by receiving and re-presenting His Names, particularly Mercy. To take an analogy from light, the sunlit side of a mountain testifies in its brighter hues to the brilliance of that light’s source. In loving – GOD, ourselves, and others – we reproduce His Love.
2) by refusing and negating His Names. Using the same analogy, the dark side or shadow of a mountain testifies to the sun by the shadow’s contrast (darker shade signifying a stronger light producing it), its length (indicating the sun’s height in the sky), and its direction (exactly opposite to where we should look to see the sun).
By GOD’s own Self, therefore, AL-LAH produces objects that reflect, either directly by likeness or indirectly by contrast, His own object state, which is transparent to us. The objects of this mirror-world in which we live are here to reveal His Divine Names or attributes, the creative core of which is His Compassion.
But besides these signs on the horizons, AL-LAH reveals Himself to humans in yet another fashion, within themselves (Q41:53). He does this through what He calls His Spirit: Then He proportioned him [the human being] and breathed His Spirit into him, and made for you your hearing, sight, and hearts. How little do you offer thanks! (Q32:9) It is this Spirit in us that makes us active subjects (as indicated by your hearing, sight, and hearts). As subjects, we experience a little of the creative power and freedom of GOD as Subject.
Although His Subject state and our subject states are not the same, the affinity is nonetheless strong enough to prompt some individuals to make mystical claims of identity with the Divine. But the Qur’an is reticent on this point when They question you about the Spirit. Say, “The Spirit is derived from [or about] the order [or the business] of my Master, and no knowledge has been given you except a little.” (Q17:85)
Why is the answer so deliberately vague? Why does it avoid the Vedantic formula of tat tvam asi (‘That thou art’)? The Qur’an, I would suggest, is careful to avoid wordings that could lead to the kind of spiritual boasting and deception that hucksters, charlatans, and cultists indulge in without sufficient regard for the greater good of the community. Considering how easily abused mention of His Spirit can be in monist declarations such as those of Al-Hallaj (“I am the Truth”), orthodox theologians and commentators tend to emphasize a ‘separatist’ version of monotheism. They would remind us that the angels are subjects even closer to GOD than ourselves, yet
Truly in the presence of your Lord are those who have no pride that bars their serving Him, and they exalt Him, making their prostrations unto Him. (Q7:206)
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ عِنْدَ رَبِّكَ لاَ يَسْتَكْبِرُونَ عَنْ عِبَادَتِهِ وَيُسَبِّحُونَهُ وَلَهُ يَسْجُدُونَ
On the other hand, the devils are spiritual beings too, and subjects whose knowledge and other powers surpass ours, yet their arrogance and refusal to obey has earned them the worst of outcomes in Hell. Clearly, being spirited, be it in angelic, human, or satanic fashion, does not entitle one to claim outright divinity.
The GOD You Already Know 