GLOSSARY 159

by Al-Ghazali and synonymous with al-kimiya ar-rithaniyah
(spiritual alchemy).
kun: be! The creating fiat, or order.

al-Lahiit: the Divine Nature; opposed to ‘an-Nasat, (human
nature). Ibn ‘Arabi says the latter is like a form or con-
tainer of which al- Lahit is the content, or the secret life.
Lahiit is derived from ilah, ‘“‘divinity’’, nasit from insan,

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“man’. See also Hahiit.

lawa’ih: glimmers, intuitions. Lawa’ih is the title of a book by
al-Jami, q. v.

lawami: flashes, sudden intuitions.

al-Lawh al-mahfiiz: The Guarded Tablet, symbol of universal
receptive Substance or of the universal Soul.

al-lubb : the kernel ; fig. the hidden meaning, the essence of a
thing, the heart. The contrary is al-qishr: the shell:
““Grasp the kernel and cast away the shell!”

al-mahabbah : love, spiritual love. See also al-ma‘rifah.

Mahasin al-Majalis: *Beauties of the Assemblies” ; title of a
work of Ahmad ibn al-‘Arif on the spiritual virtues.

majdhib: one who undergoes the divine attraction (al-jadhb), the
spiritual man whose meatal faculties are as it were para-
lysed or confused by the effect of the Divine attraction.
Such is the case of the ‘“fools in God”’—not of those who
pretend to be mad in order to isolate themselves from
men, but those who really are incapable of outwardly ex-
pressing their spiritual state in an intelligible way.

al-Malakiit : The Permanent S>vereignty, the celestial and ange-
lic kingdom. Cf. this verse from the Quran: “Itis He who
holds in His Hand the Sovereignty of all things.” (XXXVI,
83). See also Hahiit.

al-ma‘na : the meaning, signification, spiritual perception.

Mansur al-Hallaj, al-Husayn, 858-922, crucified by the shariat
authority for having said Ana-l-Haqqg : I am the Truth”

al-ma‘rifah : knowledge, gnosis; al-ma‘rifah (knowledge), al-