The Mystical Stages of Union

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2. The Mystical Stages of Union

As Sufi ultimate goal is to become one with Truth, divine Being, oneness of Being, or God. Thus, Sufi “sees God in all being, in every manifested thing.” 78 It is worth noting that in Sufi tradition the Sufi perceive that all creations are created to discover God in them as stated in the Quran “We shall show them Our signs in the universe and in themselves until they see that it is the Truth [God]. 79 The Quran also says, “To God belong the East and the West: wherever you turn, there is the face of God. For God is All-pervade, All- Knowing” 80 Unio Mystica, the ultimate aim of union with the Divine is achieved at through a process of transformation. Transformation emerges through three stages of mystical development, namely, union, separation, and reunion. Union refers to the state of initial union, a primordial state of the souls and reflects the original, paradisiacal divinity of man. In contrast to union, separation is “the fall of man from his divine state, and the severance of the self from its Center, it involves the crushing of the self or ego and involves great trial and tribulation ”, 81 or blessing in disguise because without them the Beloved would not be accomplished. 82 This stage is crucial in journey to union with the Beloved. It is 78 Eric Geoffrey, Introduction to Sufism: The Inner Path of Islam Indiana: World Wisdom, 2010, 13. 79 Quran 41: 53. 80 William C Chittick, Sufism: a Beginner’s Guide Oxford: One World Publication, 2008, 30. 81 Lalita Sinha, Unveiling the Garden of Love Mystical Symbolism in Layla Majnun Gita Govinda Indiana: World Wisdom, 2008: 47-48. 82 Ibid. 105. 27 in separation that reunion is possible. Separation is to transform the self to the next level of his quest. Mysticism symbolizes this transformation in terms of Alchemy, as explained by Buckhardt as follows: For true alchemy, the lead or other base metal that was to be transmuted into gold was only a symbol- a very adequate one- of the human soul sunk in the darkness and chaos of passion, while gold represented the original nature of man, in which even the body is ennobled and transfigured by the life of the spirit. 83 However, “this process is voluntary, embarked upon by the sole motivation of love as the underlying motif of love is not as means to an end but the end in itself. ” 84 Hence, the mystic path to the Beloved is depicted by the predicament of the soul as a result of its separation from the Beloved.The last stage of unio mystica is reunion, which [It] denotes the state of union regained by the human soul after the experience of earthly realities, or separation. Although this state shares similarities to the bliss of union; it is different in that it is concerned of intellectual penetration of the heart, not with the bliss of innocence. The re- union refers to a spiritual return, in which the soul realizes its true self leading to a direct vision of, and identification with the Ultimate Reality. 85 In the context of Pamuk’s oeuvres, the deep longing for a new identity as well as the agony of separation from their traditional self the Ottoman’s legacy which is harshly taken from them apparently is the heart of his tales. This endless predicament between being completely East or totally West eventually becomes a unique experience i n Pamuk’s hand. He stitches the collective feeling of 83 Titus Buckhardt, Miror of the Intellect: Essays on Traditional Science and Sacred Art, Trans. and ed. William Stoddart Albany: SUNY Press, 1987, 180. 84 Lalita Sinha, Unveiling the Garden of Love Mystical Symbolism in Layla Majnun Gita Govinda. Indiana: World Wisdom, 2008: 48. 85 Ibid. 47-49. 28 melancholy shared by the whole nation into a personal tale of identity quest enveloped in the bittersweet agony of searching for true love, soul- destroying separation from the lover, and the ecstatic longing to reunite with the beloved in worldly context that indirectly expresses ideals associated with the Sufi mystical experience. Accordingly, the issue to be addressed in the present study is the implicit string between the qu ests of Turkey’s identity in Pamuk’s tales and the identity formation in Sufi framework.

B. Review of Previous Study