M6:3737 — خود ازو یابد ظهور انکار او / نیست غیر عکس خود این کار او

Translation: Even His denial finds its manifestation through Him; This act of His is nothing but His own reflection.

Meaning: This verse asserts that even the act of denying God originates from God Himself, and this denial is merely a reflection or manifestation of His own divine reality.

Mowlana, in this profound and seemingly paradoxical verse, touches upon a cornerstone of his worldview: the absolute encompassment of the Formless over all forms. This sovereignty extends so far that even the very act of denying the Formless originates from within its sphere. As Mowlana states elsewhere, "Believers are drunk with affirmation, and disbelievers with denial." Both are under the sway of the Divine; both, knowingly or unknowingly, are intoxicated and entranced by His universal governance.

This insight represents the zenith of Tawhid al-Af'ali (the Oneness of Divine Acts), meaning there is "no escape from Your governance." We cannot flee from God's rule; even if we engage in disbelief, we remain subject to His administration and providence. Both faith and disbelief are His creations. Attar beautifully articulates this: "Whether it be disbelief or faith, it is the handiwork of the Sacred Presence, and it is His." Both faith and disbelief are woven by His hand of power; it is as if the cosmos is a fabric whose warp is disbelief and whose weft is faith, and He is the weaver of this fabric. There is nothing in existence that is not a creation of God.

Thus, from this perspective, even the denial of the Formless itself emerges and manifests from the Formless. This denial is merely a 'reflection' ('aks) of God Himself; it is a reverberation of His being and will. In other words, this act of denial is itself a form—a mask—that the Formless has brought forth into the world to showcase its boundless encompassment. In Mowlana's view, the universe is like a thought from the Universal Intellect, which has materialized into an external form: "This world is a thought from the Universal Intellect / The Intellect is like a king, and forms are messengers." God is the formless Architect of the world, and forms are merely tools in His hand. This world, in essence, is a form that God has assumed, a mask over His formless visage. We are compelled to perceive the Formless through forms and lack the power to remove this mask. Even those who deny, unknowingly, through their very act, display a form and a mask of that same Formless reality.

Key takeaways

• Absolute Divine Sovereignty: All phenomena, even those seemingly in opposition, originate from God's essence.
• Denial as Divine Manifestation: The very act of denying God is an expression of His power and pervasive presence.
• No Escape from Divine Governance: No action or realm exists outside of God's all-encompassing dominion.
• Forms and the Formless: All forms in the world, including human actions like denial, are ultimately reflections of the eternal Formless.
• Unity of Divine Acts (Tawhid): The diversity of human actions and beliefs ultimately traces back to a single divine source.