BASÎRAH – بصيرة

 

Literally: Inner perception, ma’nawî vision, insight; circumspection, prudence and the faculty of discernment. Anything that serves as a warning, an evident or convincing proof, or an enlightening admonition. Etymologically, it derives from the root b-s-r (ر ص ب ), which literally means seeing, discerning and is the root of the word Basar that refers to one of the seven attributes of Allah. It is also the root of the word Basîr (بصير ) that refers to one of names of Allah.

As an Islamic Term: The causes of hidâyah. The acute and careful attention arising from îmân that penetrates into the haqiqah of things; farâsah. It is the sacred power (quwwah) in the heart that perceives and understands the haqiqah through feelings and direct witness. In the context of the acts belonging to Allah, it denotes the all-aware and purposeful governance (basîrâne) full of hikmah that leaves no room for chance.

The black point of the heart, known under the transkription variants of suwaydâ’ al-qalb, sawâd al-qalb, or al-aswad al-qalb, is recognised as the actual locus of basîrah. While former muhaqqiqîn described this subtle point as the seat of the religious sciences and ma‘rifah, for the kâfirs, it transforms into a place of ma’nawî blindness, rebellion and misery. For the mu’mîn, however, it is the pure source of basîrah and intellectual-ma’nawî comprehension. Some ‘ulamâ have also defined it as the ‘aql (intellect-mind) that resides in the innermost sanctuary of the heart.

 

The Nûr of the Mind Comes From the Heart

The illuminated people who are in darkness should know this phrase: “The nûr of thoughts cannot be enlightened without the light of the heart. So long as that nûr and this light are not blended, they are darkness. They produce dhulm and ignorance — a counterfeit darkness garbed in nûr.

There is a daytime in your eye, yet it is white and dark. And within it is a black pupil, which is an illuminated night. If it were not in the eye, that piece of fat would not be an eye, and you would see nothing. Sight without basîrah is also worth nothing.

So, if the suwaydâ’ al-qalb1 is not present in the whiteness of thought, the amalgam of the mind cannot be transformed into ‘ilm nor basîrah. Mind cannot exist without the heart.

The Gleams

 

KNOW THAT while the eye witnesses the fashioned and bejewelled creatures, the basîrah’s inability to witness their Sâni‘ is due to nothing other than either the absence of basîrah, its blindness, its constriction under the immensity of conceiving the matter, or it is khidhlân2.

Denying the Sâni’ would otherwise be much more ridiculous than denying the power of sight like the sophists.

 Al-Mathnawi Al-Nuri-467

 

Because nûr cannot be held in the hand nor hunted with the fingers; rather, it can be hunted only with the nûr of basîrah. If you stretch out your grasping, physical hand and weigh it on material scales, even if it is not extinguished, it will hide itself. For just as such nûr does not accept being imprisoned in the material, so too it cannot be bound, nor accept materially dense things as its owner and master.

17th Flash/10th Note