A Study and Analysis of the Essential Divine Rulings and Aspects

In the epistemic system of Islamic mysticism, any name, attribute, or feature about the divine essence is negated. In fact, the stage of God’s essence is deemed free from any rulings. For this reason, some people have assumed that no name or word can refer to the stage of essence, even words such as “essence” (dhāt) itself or the ultra-hidden essence. This article provides an overview of the views of mystics through a descriptive-analytical method, concluding that such an understanding is an instance of the fallacy of equivocity between the ordinary sense of the “name” and its mystical sense, since mystics do not have ordinary names in mind when they negate them from God’s essence. They refer to the ultra-hidden stage through different words. When they say that this stage is without any name or pattern, they negate the mystical sense of name from this stage, rather than a name that merely refers to the essence, without constraining it. Furthermore, a scrutiny of the works of mystics reveals that the stage of the essence is free from rulings in the sense that the stage of the ultra-hidden essence admits of no constraints or restrictions. Put differently, since it has no peculiarities or specificities, it admits of no specific rulings. Such rulings apply only when we descend from the stage of essence down to the stage of particular determinations. At this stage, constrained, restricted, and specific rulings apply to the determinate or constraint essence, rather than the absolute essence. However, absolute non-restricted rulings, which do not divest the essence of its absoluteness, can be predicated of the essence