Sufism may be a mystical form of Islam, but it's Islam, isn't it? Or is it considered Islam?
There is also the worthy of note nonfiction work <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The Woman With the Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalen and the Holy Grail[21]<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"> which presents the idea that Mary Magdalen was actually married to Jesus Christ and the Holy Grail is not a cup or chalice at all but Marys womb as she carried the bloodline of Jesus to Egypt and then to Europe. The author, Margaret Starbird[22], advances her theory by analyzing art of the dark ages and the understood meaning behind it. Starbird does an excellent job of researching European history, heraldry, the rituals of Freemasonry, medieval art, symbolism, psychology, mythology, religion, and the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures to discover that the meaning of the Holy Grail could be the lost bride of Jesus and the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">female child she carried within her. Starbirds theological beliefs were profoundly shaken when she read <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Holy <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Blood, Holy Grail[23], a book that dared to suggest that Jesus Christ was married to Mary Magdalen and that their descendants carried on his holy bloodline in Western Europe. Shocked by such heresy, this Roman Catholic scholar set out to refute it, but instead found new and compelling evidence for the existence of the bride of Jesus. The roles of Muhammads daughter Fatima and Mary are similar. The true line of the Prophet Isa (Jesus) and his real teaching passing through Mary and into Europe mirrors the true line of the Imams (who propagated the real teachings of the Prophet Muhammad) who issued from the womb of Fatima. Fatima is regarded by some Sûfîs and theologians as the first spiritual head (<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">qutb) of the Sûfî fellowship.[24]Among the Ghulat[25] there is much respect paid to the Divine Feminine. In the Ghulat group the Ahl-i-Haqq (the People of Truth), the Divine Feminine appears as the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Khatun-i Qiyamat (Lady of Resurrection) who also is manifested as the mysterious angel Razbâr (also Ramzbâr or Remzebâr). The writer, Frédéric Macler, claims that the name Razbâr is of Arabic origin and means secret of the creator.[26] The term <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">qiyama literally means, rising of the dead, and allegorically, it implies an idea denoting the rising to the next spiritual stage, and <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">qiyamat-i qubra (great resurrection) means an attainment of the highest degree when a man becomes free from the ties of external laws, whom he shackles and transfigures into spiritual substance, which rejoins its divine sources.[27] The King of the World was sitting on the water with His four associate angels (<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">chahar malak-i muqarrab) when they suddenly saw the Pure Substance of Hadrat-i Razbâr, the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Khatun-i Qiyamat (Lady of the Resurrection). She brought out from the sea a round loaf of bread (<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">kulucha), and offered it to the King of the World. By His order they formed a devotional assembly (<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">jam), distributed the bread, offered prayers and exclaimed Hu! Then the earth and the skies became fixed, the skies being that <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">kulucha.[28] Another rendition of the emergence of the Lady of the Resurrection is as follows: After this the Holder of the World and Creator of Man looked upon Azrail with the eye of benefaction, and Azrail became split into two parts, one exactly like the other, and from between these parts a drop of light emerged in the form of a loaf of <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">kulucha bread. The Creator then said, I appoint that person (<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">surat) who became separated from Azrail to be the Lady of the Resurrection (<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Khatun-i Qiyamat), who will on the Resurrection Day be the helper of human beings.[29] The followers of Yârsânism, also known as the Yârisân, Aliullâhi, Ali-llâhi (i.e., those who deify Ali), Alihaq, Ahl-i Haqq (the People of Truth) or Ahl-i Haq (the People of the Spirit (Hâk or Haqj), are concentrated in southern Kurdistan in both Iran and Iraq. In each epoch there is a <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">female avatar of the Universal Spirit, a reflection of the higher status of women in the Kurdish culture and tradition.[30]What do those who study mystical Islam claim is the hidden meaning regarding the existence of the sexes in creation? These researchers perceive that the biological and psychological differences between the sexes are only hints of a more momentous significance hidden within the divinity Itself. Of course, Sûfîsm does not argue against the Oneness of Allâh. The quintessence of Allâh transcends duality, yet the Ultimate Reality manifests qualities in creation that are dualistic. In Kabbalah (a Jewish mystical tradition)[31], just below the first Sphere (<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">sefirah) of divine emanation known as Keter (meaning crown, summit or pinnacle), lie the two roots of masculine and feminine, known as Hokhmah and Binah. Although they are not masculine and feminine, Hokhmah and Binah are the archetypes of the masculine and feminine. Binah is the Kabbalistic feminine symbol for Understanding, a prelude to wisdom. Binah, the Great Mother, sometimes also called Marah, the Great Sea, is, of course, the Mother of All Living. She is the archetypal womb through which life comes into manifestation.[32] The female principle within God is personified and called by the name: Shekhinah (literally dwelling), a term familiar from classical Rabbinical literature. In the Kabbalah, however, the Shekhinah is not only included as a distinctive principle within the inner divine life, but this distinctive principle is explicitly, and quite graphically, described as female.[33] The Divine Masculine and the Divine Feminine express two very distinct aspects of Allâh. First, that Allâh is Supreme is the principle of masculinity, and that Allâh is Infinite is the principle of femininity.[34] In the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Quran, Allâh reveals Itself by giving Itself ninety-nine names. These names are divided up by Islamic <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Ulama into the names of Majesty (<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">jalâl) and the names of Beauty (<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">jamâl). The names of Majesty call to mind images of the stern and strict father, while the names of Beauty call to mind images of a gentle and loving mother. Allâh did not exhaust Itself in creating the world; hence Allâh still exists along with creation. Allâh, in creating the world, is indicative of masculine qualities, such as achievement, strength, dynamism, severity, and rulership. Yet, Allâh is also infinite compared to the finite world. This inconceivably extended aspect of Allâh is the aspect of Allâh that the Sûfî often refers to in ecstatic poetry in the feminine gender. That is why Ibn al-Arabî says Allâh can be referred to as both Huwa (He) and Hiya (She). One of the drawbacks of the English language is that we do not give gender to nouns. Arabic, like the Romance languages, expresses words with gender. Many of the essential words regarding Allâh are in the feminine gender in Arabic.[35]In this paper, the author will analyze three of these words: the first is al-Hakîm, the Wise; Wisdom is <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">hikmah. In Arabic to say, for example, Wisdom is precious, you could repeat the feminine pronoun: <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">al-hikmah hiya thamînah, literally Wisdom, she is precious. It is stated by some Sûfî Sheikhs (Masters) that Sûfîsm originally was named <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Sophia, which connects Sûfîsm with the Christian Gnostic tradition, in which Wisdom is personified as a woman, the divine Sophia. The physical mother of Jesus was an external image of manifestation of the Virgin Sophia, the word Sophia stemming from <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Sophos (wisdom). The Gnostics, whose language was Greek, identified the Holy Spirit with Sophia, Wisdom; and Wisdom was considered female. The Virgin was closely associated by the early church with Wisdom, of the cathedral church at Constantinople, while the ascension of the Virgin Mary refers to the passing of Wisdom into Immortality. The litany of the Blessed Virgin contains the prayer, Seat of Wisdom, pray for us. Julian of Norwich (1343-1420?), English religious writer, an anchoress, or hermit, called Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Roman Catholic Holy Trinity, our Mother in Wisdom, and our Mother of Mercy or Compassion.[36] The latter title with the words mercy and compassion returns us to a subtle interpretation of the phrase Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim, often translated as In the name of Allâh the most Beneficent the most Merciful, but with the added gnosis that God can appear to a human being as the Divine Feminine and that the Divine Feminine is not confined to Christian or Islamic mystical intuitive apprehension of spiritual truths. St. Peter Chrysologos presented the Virgin as the seven-pillared temple which Wisdom had built for herself.[37] The aforementioned philosopher and Sûfî, ibn al-Arabî, saw a young girl in Makkah surround by light and realized that, for him, she was an incarnation of the divine Sophia.[38]Mary was born of an angelic annunciation; Fatima (the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad) was considered to come from the level of angels. She is considered by many Muslims as divine in origin and several variations of a major <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">hadith describe how she was conceived on the night of <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Mirâj (ascension). On this night Gabriel took Muhammad to Jerusalem and then to Heaven. While up in Heaven, he was offered some heavenly fruit, the seed of which was responsible for her conception, after the Prophets return on the same night and making love to his beloved wife Khadija. Fatima tul Zehra (Fatima the Radiant, Fatima the Brightest Star, Fatima-Star of Venus, Fatima-The Evening Star), the daughter of the Prophet, is the secret in Sûfîsm. She is the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Hujjat of Ali. In other words, she establishes the esoteric sense of his knowledge and guides those who attain to it. Through her perfume, we breathe paradise. Though she was his daughter, the Prophet Muhammad called her <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Um Abiha (mother of her father). What mystery was the Prophet hinting at by this statement? While Fatima Zehra was Muhammads daughter, the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Rasulallah (Prophet of God Muhammad) understood that his gnosis was bestowed upon him from the Divine Feminine. Fatima Fatir as representative of Allâhs <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Jamal, saves humankind from Allâhs <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Jalal. Esoterically, if it were not for Fatima (Mercy), Allâh would never have sent Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Quran to humanity. The night is the exemplification of our sovereign Fatima, especially the Night of Destiny (<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">laylat al-Qadr). Lady Fatima was chosen from all women to be the Mother source of Muhammads lineage, the core of the generation of Muhammad. Through her, the progeny of the Prophet multiplies through a woman.[39] The process of giving birth to the spirit is the feminine principle. That to which has been given birth is the masculine. This is why, in spiritual transformation and rebirth, only the masculine principle can be born, for the feminine principle is the process itself. Once birth is given to the spirit, this principle remains as Fatima, the Creative Feminine, the Daughter of the Prophet, in a state of potentiality within the spirit reborn.[40] Shias revere the person of Fatima, for she is the mother of the line of inspired <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Im<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">a<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">ms who embodied the divine truth for their generation. As such, Fatima is directly associated with Sophia, the divine wisdom, which gives birth to all knowledge of God. She has thus become another symbolic equivalent of the Great Mother.
