Knowledge of the Manifestation of Relief (al-Ifraj) and Intermingling (al-Mizaj)

Sheikh Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Baladi—may God be pleased with him—narrated to me, saying: I asked my master the reliable sheikh Abu al-Husayn Muhammad ibn Ali al-Jali—may God raise his rank—regarding the Meaning: does He manifest through His Veil? And does the Veil manifest through his Gate?

He replied: "This is impossible and false. None of our preceding sheikhs said this, nor anyone who speaks our word and believes the Truth with us. For the Meaning only manifests in His own Essence, not through anything of His creation or His attributes. This statement that is said—that He manifests 'through the Name'—is a distorted statement and an innovated, repulsive view. Rather, its meaning is: that the Meaning—Exalted—manifests in the likeness of the form of the Veil, not the Veil [itself], for He manifests without cessation or transition—and this is the Manifestation of Relief (al-Afraj). The Name, who is Muhammad, manifests through the Gate—and this is the Manifestation of Intermingling (al-Mizaj)."

This is established and present in the epistle of our sheikh, jurist, and the Imam of our group, Lord Abu Abd Allah al-Khasibi—may God raise his degree and ennoble his station—when mentioning the Sequence of the Meaning, the Name, and the Gate. He says: "The Meaning removed the Name and appeared in the likeness of his form, and the Name appeared through the Gate."

Because in our view, and according to the view of our sheikh Lord al-Khasibi—may God ennoble his station: the soul of the Gate was created from the body of the Veil through which he appeared in humanity. It is as if when the Veil appeared through the Gate, the body of the Mim intermingled with the soul of the Sin (which is created from the body of the Mim); thus these two lights intermingled within him and became one in root and branch. From the body of the Sin comes the soul of the Greatest Orphan. The body of the Mim and the soul of the Sin are one and the same.