Surah Ya-Sin according to Ibn 'Ajiba (2): the night, the day, the sun and the moon
Contents
A translation of an extract from the work of the great eighteenth-century Moroccan Sufi master Ahmad Ibn ’Ajiba, and of his commentary al-Bahr al-Madid (“The Vast Ocean”). Verses 37 to 40 of surah Ya-Sin:
“And a sign for them is the night, from which We draw forth the day, leaving them in darkness” (verse 37).
“And the sun, which runs its course towards its appointed resting place: such is the decree of the Almighty, the All-Knowing!” (verse 38).
“And the moon, for which We have fixed stations, until it becomes like a withered palm stalk” (verse 39).
“It is not granted to the sun to overtake the moon, nor to the night to outstrip the day. Each of them swims in its own orbit” (verse 40).
Ibn ’Ajiba offers here a magnificent interpretation of the celestial signs as reflections of the stages and states of the spiritual wayfarer.
1. Night and day: heedlessness and wakefulness
“And a sign for them is the night, from which We draw forth the day, leaving them in darkness.”
For Ibn ’Ajiba, this universal daily cycle is the mirror of the wayfarer’s (salik) fundamental inner dynamic. Night symbolises the state of ghafla: heedlessness, forgetfulness of God, absorption in worldly concerns, the darkness of spiritual ignorance. It is the natural state of the unawakened soul, or the state into which the wayfarer falls back when he slackens his effort. Day, conversely, represents the state of yaqaza: spiritual wakefulness, vigilance, awareness of the divine presence, the light of knowledge and of the remembrance of God (dhikr). The Qur’anic expression “We draw forth (naslakhu) the day from the night” is interpreted by Ibn ’Ajiba as an active process: God, by His grace, withdraws the soul from the darkness of ghafla to bring it into the light. But the cycle continues: the day too can be “drawn forth” or veiled by the returning night of heedlessness. Ibn ’Ajiba says: “Thus a person remains between heedlessness and wakefulness.” This is the constant spiritual struggle (jihad al-nafs): striving against the darkness of oblivion to remain in the light of presence. The wayfarer oscillates between these two poles, knowing moments of clarity and effort, followed by periods of slackening and darkening. This alternation is a necessary stage, but one that must be outgrown.
2. The sun of gnosis
“And the sun, which runs its course towards its resting place: such is the decree of the Almighty, the All-Knowing.”
The sun, with its brilliant light and its regular course towards a fixed “resting place”, becomes the symbol of the goal: the Sun of gnosis (shams al-’irfan), the direct, infused and stable knowledge of God. This is no longer alternation, but a permanent light illumining the heart. The sun’s “resting place” (mustaqarr), says Ibn ’Ajiba, is “the hearts of the gnostics” (’arifin), those who have attained spiritual realisation. Their state is stable, their inner light no longer wavers. Al-Qushayri describes them as possessed of “a firm and unshakeable seat (sahib tamkin), unchanging in colour (ghayr mutalawwin)”.
3. The moon of faith and its stations
“And the moon, for which We have fixed stations, until it becomes like a withered palm stalk.”
Before attaining solar stability, the wayfarer is like the moon. His light is a reflection (of the prophetic or divine light), and it is changeable. The “stations” or “phases” (manazil) of the moon represent the fluctuating spiritual states of the salik. His Moon of faith (qamar al-iman) waxes when he intensifies his spiritual effort, his time devoted to God (tafarrug) and the orientation of his heart (tawajjuh). He then experiences expansion (bast), spiritual joy, felt proximity. But his light wanes if he falls back into contraction (qabd), weariness (fatra), doubt, the impression of being far away. His faith sometimes seems reduced to a thin crescent, “like a withered palm stalk” (ka-l-’urjun al-qadim), old and lustreless. This description realistically depicts the ups and downs of the journey for the majority of seekers, before divine grace causes the dawn of the Sun of gnosis to break within them.
4. The cosmic and spiritual order
“It is not granted to the sun to overtake the moon, nor to the night to outstrip the day: each of them swims in its own orbit.”
This verse reminds us that even these states, fluctuating or stable, obey a divine order, spiritual laws established by “the Almighty, the All-Knowing”. Each state has its place and its time in the divine decree for the wayfarer. The stable gnostic (the sun) does not “overtake” the fluctuating wayfarer (the moon) so as to annul his necessary stages, and the state of wakefulness (day) cannot wholly abolish the possibility of a return to heedlessness (night) without a divine decree of preservation. Each one “swims in its own spiritual orbit” according to the divine plan.
Previous part: the fetters of the soul; next part: the vessel of the Law on the ocean of Reality.
