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Masnavi 1, 1130-34
Rumi often refers to or quotes the proverbial
expression, "Things become
clear through their opposites." Everyday experience confirms this truth,
for the existence of the myriad things of the world only becomes
possible
through differentiation and opposition. If two things were not
different,
and therefore "opposed" in some respect, they would be one and the
same. Each individual of a pair of opposites makes the existence of the
other individual possible; day and night, perfection and imperfection,
wholeness and brokenness, happiness and sadness, newness and oldness,
spirit and body. Each of these correlative terms can only exist and be
known because of its opposite. And so it is with all things, except God.
He alone has no opposite, but transcends all opposition. He alone is the
true "coincidence of opposites," where all opposition is effaced in the
Oceanof Unity. For the same reason, we cannot know Him, since He
has no opposite to "make Him clear."
God created suffering and heartache so that
joyful-heartedness might appear through its opposite.
Hence hidden things become manifest through
opposites. But since God has no opposite, He remains
hidden.
For the sight falls first upon light, then upon
color: Opposites are made manifest through opposites,
like white and black.
So you have come to know light through light’s
opposite: Opposites display opposites within the breast.
God’s light has no opposite within existence,
that through its opposite it might be made manifest.
From "The Sufi Path of Love - The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi,"
William C. Chittick, State University of New York Press, Albany, 1983
page 49.
Submitted by Sunlight
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