#FieldNotes005: Rediscovering Our Nature
From Individual Fulfillment to Cosmic Harmony
“There is no animal on land nor a bird that flies with its wings but that they are kinfolk like yourselves.” (The Qur’an, The Cattle Chapter, Verse 38)
As we lie on our deathbeds, we won’t think about our careers, accumulated wealth, or the things we bought. Instead, we will think about the people we love—our children, families, friends, mentors, and mentees. More specifically, we will recall the moments we spent together, not just with people, but in communion with all that is. We will reflect on the powerful experiences when we truly felt alive. As we wait to meet our Maker, we will contemplate moments of love. The existentialist asserts that death is lonely, while the Friend of God asserts that death is communion. As Mevlana Rumi penned, “our death is our wedding with eternity.”
Our civilization is at a transitional crossroads. With growing political polarization around the world resulting in more extreme forms of governance on both sides of the political spectrum, alongside a crumbling global system, the impending crisis seems inevitable. Should we envision a Hobbesian future where the crumbling Leviathan has turned humans against one another? Or should we imagine a cooperative possibility? A cooperative possibility is humanity’s lifeline.
“The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely, they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” - Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address
I remember first hearing about Lincoln’s ideal of the better angels of our nature. For my readers who have been following The Sufi Gardener, you’ll have caught that our turning point is giving way to a reevaluation of our understanding of human nature. I assert that we have a human nature that has remained the same, and I contest the idea that human nature is fluid. However, I’ve come to believe that the way in which we understand human nature changes depending on our context. There is a metaphysical epistemology that changes how we perceive Being and the Nature of Creation1.
For example, in the Islamic metaphysical tradition, we find numerous distinct metaphysical epistemologies that are rooted in the first principle of Divine Oneness. The Ishraqi school and the school of Ibn Arabi both offer distinct metaphysical epistemologies—Illuminationism with its focus on the hierarchy of light and intuitive knowledge, and Akbariyya with its emphasis on the unity of being and mystical experience—yet both are fundamentally grounded in a relationship to the Absolute Truth. These perspectives illustrate how diverse metaphysical frameworks within Islamic thought contextually connect to tawhīd (the ultimate reality of the Divine). The nature of Truth remains the same; it is Eternal and Unchanging. However, our understanding and our relationship to that Truth is a personal experience.
This point is worth mentioning as we are facing a transition of worldviews. Since the Industrial Revolution, our species has accepted the access to unlimited power in the form of cheap energy as a given. Collectively, this has altered our relationship to human nature and Being. As we plan for an energy transition, we must ask ourselves, where are we heading, and how are we to understand ourselves and the Great Chain of Being?
I don’t quite have an answer to that question. But I think the following precepts would be worth considering as we move towards a transition:
Within each human is the blueprint for al-insan al-kamil (human completion);
The result of knowledge must be loving that which is known;
Our actions have meaning and cosmic implications;
Our metaphysical epistemology must be grounded in kincentrism2;
Our economies must be reciprocal and exchange rooted in gift-giving;
Each creature in the cosmos is part of a larger community;
We are not creators; rather, we rearrange the cosmos in a way that is either harmonious or dissonant.
I'm starting to be convinced that something along the lines of these seven precepts will be necessary in a world in transition. If we are heading towards a reconfiguring of our global civilization, then we will need to learn to live, work, and play together. No longer will it be possible to build communities on mere identity but rather our communities will only survive if we learn to love one another as we share common places. Yet our global awareness will also require of us to come to terms of the cosmic repercussions of our actions. With our limbs, we all can make the throne of God tremble.
If you resonate with what you’re reading, I invite you to check out my offerings. We make offerings to give thanks. Our offerings embody our hopes and dreams. These offerings are intentionally designed and curated to guide you through the web of life.
With that, I give thanks to the Creator in you.
I understand that the idea of a “metaphysical epistemology” can seem like a categorical confusion. Classically, epistemology is the study of knowledge while metaphysics is the study of reality. I am making a claim that the same Immutable Reality can be known differently. I invite my readers to look at Nasir, Mohamad Nasrin, The Metaphysical Epistemology of Shaykh Shams al-Dīn al-Sumatrā’ī. Another work worth exploring is Sachiko Murata’s Chinese Gleams in Sufi Light. Murata explores how metaphysical epistemologies shaped a specific form of Chinese-language Islam. She writes, “it is commonly thought that Far Eastern metaphysics and cosmology are impersonal and therefore alien to the Islamic worldview. […] Many of the Chinese Muslims saw Confucianism as an affirmation of the same transcendent principles that animated the Koran. They had no difficulty understanding the Confucian teachings as pertaining to the same order of reality as the Islamic teachings - which is not to say, however that they had to criticisms to offer” (6-7). In this sense, we're seeing a metaphysical epistemology emerge instead of a dogmatic, imperial imposition.
Kincentrism is the experience of all creatures as kin. See Sherri Mitchell Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset: We Need a Kincentric Worldview. It's also worth mentioning that for many anthropologists, this is quite similar to animism. I'd recommend revisiting the oft-forgotten 19th century German scholar, Wilhelm Schmidt. Schmidt argued that early humans originally had a monotheistic belief in a supreme being. Schmidt's work, particularly his multi-volume "Der Ursprung der Gottesidee" ("The Origin of the Idea of God"), presents his theory that monotheism was the earliest form of religion.