Inward Meanings. As some of the sages said: "Sensory perceptions are bridges to the intellectual realities." For the world of witnessing (Alam al-Shahada) is a parable of the world of the unseen (Alam al-Ghayb).

Everything in the kingdom of spirits (Malakut) is hidden from us; we cannot understand it nor reach its knowledge except through its likeness in our world which we observe and comprehend. We then know what is absent through what is present, as a kindness from the Creator—Exalted is His power. Had it not been for that, we would not have understood those secrets nor grasped those lights.

The scholar Al-Makzun (may Allah sanctify him) indicated this meaning in his treatise, saying: "Likewise, the Takbir (Allahu Akbar) was ordained in the call to prayer (Adhan) four times to alert the creation to their prior response in the First Call." Meaning, the sins that the believers committed caused them to forget those prior knowledges. Out of His kindness toward them, the Exalted reminded them after their Descent (Hubut) through these outward expressions in the revealed books and the sayings of the worlds of light. He also informed us—may Allah sanctify him—in his treatise titled Tazkiyat al-Nafs (Purification of the Soul) by his saying:

And His prayer upon the believers is His manifestation to them through His Essence, His Veil, His Gates, and the people of His holy