v

IV

MEDITATION

MEDITATION (at-tafakkur) is an indispensable

complement of the rites because it gives value to
the free initiative of thought. None the less its limita-
tions are those of the mind itself; without the ontologi-
cal element of rites it could not pass from the separa-
teness (al-farg) of individual consciousness to the syn-
thesis (al-jam®) of consciousness beyond form. In
Islam it is founded on the verses of the Quran addressed
to ‘““those endowed with understanding” and recom-
mending for meditation the “signs” (the symbols) of
nature ; it is also founded on these two sayings of the
Prophet: ‘““One hour (one moment) of meditation is
worth more than the good works accomplished by the
two species of beings endowed with weight (men and
Jinns, jinnah)> and: ‘° Meditate not on the Essence but
on the Qualities of God and on His Grace.”

Normally meditation proceeds with a circular mo-
tion. It starts from an essential idea, developing its
diverse applications in order in the end to reintegrate
them in the initial truth which thus acquires for the
intelligence that has reflected on it a more immediate
and a richer actuality. This is the opposite of philoso-
phical research, which envisages truth as something
not already in essence present in the mind of him who