Contemplation & Symbolism

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1. A symbol is like a shadow. If one can decode the shadow, he actually detects the metacosm, i.e, the phenomenon of whose shadow he has interpreted, e.g, the microcosm and macrocosm being shadows of the metacosm. This is a subtle world. And, the elements of man are also very subtle. Take man's brain. His brain has a tendency to alter reality in order to preserve its survival. Therefore, there has to be some meaning in the world man lives for his guidance in day-to-day matters. Of meaning. Imperatively.

2. The need of symbolism is ever more greater. Because what lies in this world also corresponds to each element which lies in man, therefore it's important for the sake of his own welfare that he gets rational understanding through contemplation over the 'shadow', this world, a need he can barely avoid. As the Sufis say, 'The Universe is a great man, and man is a little Universe'. This statement approves the latter view. 'Under the veil of each particle is concealed the soul-refreshing beauty of the Face of the Beloved. To that one whose spirit lives in contemplation of the Vision of God, the whole world is the book of God Most High' (Shabistari, Reading from the Mystics of Islam, by M. Smith).

3. Noway could this presence of Being in nature better be expressed than by the following verse.

Being, with all its latent qualities,

Doth permeate all mundane entities,

Which, when they can receive them, show them forth

In the degrees of their capacities

Jami, 'Abd al-Rahman,

Lawa'ih.