Mutual Love and Signs

The mystics have played a decisive role in the development of the Koranic sciences; their hermeneutical methods range from a simple verbal interpretation to symbolical and allegorical exegesis, without, however, denying the value of the exterior meaning of the Koranic words. For the devout some of whom could find up to seven thousand meanings in a single Koranic verse… The holy book was "the resurrection," for, as Hallaj had claimed, "in it there are the signs of Divine Lordship [rububiyya], information of the resurrection, and news about the future till the eternity of eternities. Whosoever knows the Koran is, so to speak, in the Resurrection" (B 265). The words of the Koran have formed the cornerstone for all mystical doctrines: the early Sufis lived under the threat of the Last Judgment as described in the terrifying words of many suras, until they discovered the promise of mutual love between God and man (Sura 5:59); they found in it the different stages of the human soul, which rises from the "soul that commands evil" (an-nafs al-ammdra) to the "soul which is at peace with God" (an-nafs al mutmaiinna). They read that God is closer to man than his jugular vein (Sura 50:16) and is, at the same time, the Lord and Creator of the universe, immanent and transcendent. "The sights do not reach Him" (Sura 6:103), but "whithersoever ye turn there is the Face of God" (Sura 2:109). God has "put signs into nature and into the human soul" (Sura 51:21), and it is necessary to see and to understand them. Mystical Dimensions of Islam – Annemarie Schimmel – Page 44