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Naming represents not only power and knowledge but also – and this strikes at the heart of nominalism – another kind of reality. Nominalism asserts that only particular things are real, and that names are . . . merely names. The opposite position, realism, was famously expounded by Plato, who held that universal forms precede and are superior to their particular instantiations. The Qur’an supersedes and transcends both sides of this debate.
The key to understanding this lies in the dual nature of names as both things and signs. Every existent other than GOD consists of things, i.e., particulars, and the names for them are also things. GOD’s Names, however, are a special case. Insofar as they represent Who He is as their referent, they are not separate entities but figures of speech like ‘the Face of GOD’ or ‘His Hand’. To the extent that they mean GOD, they are not things. However, insofar as they are words that can be spoken, written down, and otherwise manipulated, they are things – based on their status as phenomenal objects-in-themselves, not on what they mean. The same applies to values such as goodness, (which I mentioned in the third textbox in Chapter 1), beauty, or reason. Insofar as they are GODlike absolutes, they are not things but rather metonyms for GOD Himself, and are the channels through which His immanence pervades creation. Naming an absolute and intending thereby something other than GOD, however, actually renders it so, and thus it becomes an object, divorced from its original meaning, that can be discussed and dissected without any reference to GOD.
This is the creative power in naming. By GOD’s naming it, a thing comes to be, and without that name it only ‘exists’ outside of time in a kind of eternal potentiality, awaiting the Divine Word. The names originally assigned to things by GOD were not disclosed to the angels but instead to Adam (peace be upon him), who gained thereby a GODlike power that the angels were ordered to acknowledge by their prostration. They did so out of reverence to the new reality symbolized by Adam. Whatever brings a reality into existence is essentially a loftier reality (and I say “essentially” because this superiority has conditions attached, as we shall see).
Nominalism is, therefore, utterly deficient, as it sees no higher reality than the things around us. The angels were not nominalists; they were engaged in worshipping GOD as Reality, not as just another thing. But without the knowledge embodied in names, they lacked the ability to see exceptions in a mass of particulars; they could not even identify themselves. One could say that they only saw universals, which is why they were so quick to generalize about the human race. For doing so, we might as well call them realists.
This leads us to the problem with Platonic realism. Every thing is not just one thing, nor does it have just one name; there are, depending on the complexity of the named object, an indefinite number of identities in any single particular. The particular is a manifestation of higher realities (identified by Ibnu ‘Arabi as the Names of GOD) in a specific combination that no one name can ‘capture’. One name may be the main or proper name, but even AL-LAH names Himself in various ways (though He is neither a thing nor multiple in nature), and the Qur’an too has multiple designations. Each name has its own meaning, and each meaning can be reinterpreted through semantic linkages and symbols in innumerable permutations. So each ‘single’ thing dissolves into a cloud of ‘worlds’ of other things and names connected through various dimensions, both in it/them and beyond it/them. If this bewildering multi-world array of articulated distinction and redefinition can be considered sufficiently similar to the original theory of forms found in Plato, I stand corrected.
Iblis also took a stand – by not prostrating and refusing to be corrected.
(34)
And [consider] when We told the angels, “Fall to Adam in prostration,” but Iblis refused with arrogance, becoming one of the deniers.
وَإِذْ قُلْنَا لِلْمَلاَئِكَةِ اسْجُدُوا ِلأَدَمَ فَسَجَدُوا إِلاَّ إِبْلِيسَ أَبَى وَاسْتَكْبَرَ وَكَانَ مِنْ الْكَافِرِينَ
The angels acknowledged by their prostration the immanence of GOD’s Power, Graciousness, and Knowledge in Adam (peace be upon him). The angels had always judged everything on the basis of its action, which is why they had questioned the creation of Adam himself – Will You make there those who cause corruption there and shed their blood?” They had assumed that his appearance reflected his reality, that there was a one-to-one correlation between word and meaning, or between act and intention. Now, however, like everything else, the angels’ prostration became infused with a higher but hidden meaning, namely continued obedience to GOD in the face of His creation. The act of prostration became symbolic of the Divine Wisdom planted in the earth as GOD’s deputy, i.e., of Adam himself. It shows us how in this world we cannot always judge by appearances, i.e., the bodily ‘earth’ in anything. It appeared that they were worshipping Adam, but they were not; the act was ordered and performed as a symbol of a higher meaning symbolized by but not automatically inferable from that act. In all things, we need to know the inner act of intention, which is its wisdom, its spirit, and its heaven.
Iblis, on the other hand, found GOD’s command to prostrate himself to Adam (peace be upon him) unfair and demeaning. He considered himself to possess seniority and superiority by virtue of his race, having been created earlier, and from fire (Q15:27). Unlike the angelic light, however, which gives itself freely for the benefit of man and the glory of GOD, fire cannot produce anything without first consuming something. It demands an exchange – a reversal of value, as it were. Because it cannot give without first receiving – contrary to GOD, Who always gives first, and infinitely more than He receives – it lacks the ability to transcend itself or see beyond its own needs.*
* The first sentence in the Qur’an (Q1:2) begins with Praise be to GOD, or, to be more precise, Giving praise is owed to GOD. This spirit of worship and service, of giving of one’s best unstintingly, without thought of return, to the One Who most deserves that worship and service, is what distinguishes the angels above all other rational beings. It explains why they were willing to prostrate themselves upon command, without hesitation or doubt, and why their diligence and devotion are frequently mentioned as examples for mankind to follow. To forget oneself and one’s needs and wants in obeying and praising the Highest is the highest state that a believer can attain. If there is any kind of transcendental unity between Creator and created, this is it.
Iblis, therefore, could not envision the greater value or hidden meaning in the creation of Adam (peace be upon him). He had been receiving the Light of GOD since his creation, and had been returning what he thought was an equal measure of service. But this command to prostrate brought him up to the limit of his temperament, and so he refused. The act of refusal, unpunished, produced in him a false sense of power, resulting in arrogance. And it was this attitude that resulted in a hitherto unknown class of being – denial. Essentially nothing but the loss of faith, where faith is simply affirmation of a reality, denial produces a new form of duality in the world and a new kind of creature – the deniers (kafirin). Their state is no longer one that is confined to the duality between word and meaning, or body and soul, or earth and heaven, but rather one that metaphorically splits the very heavens (Q19:90) . . . engendering unmeaning, soullessness, and hell.
With Iblis, consequently, duality becomes duplicity, and the shadow of unreality is introduced into all worldly affairs. A chasm is opened up in the body of created being, and deceit, hypocrisy, and evil come in to claim a pseudo-existence that acts as if it were everything, whereas it only survives by virtue of the good it commandeers and wears as a mask. In itself it is nothing, and will be revealed as such when to Him are all affairs returned (Q2:210).
The GOD You Already Know 