The Two Differences Between Revelation and Inspiration

and in the most intense state of longing - and it is indeed part of the nature of Creatorhood to respond to them likewise with His Speech.

The fourth sacred reality of revelation

The attribute of speech is a necessary concomitant (lāzim) of the attributes of life and knowledge, and the illuminated locus of their manifestation. There is, then, no doubt that it exists in an all-encompassing and eternal manner in He who possesses All-Encompassing Knowledge, and Eternal Life.

The fifth sacred reality of revelation

There can be no doubt that He who bestowed impotence, longing, poverty, and worry about the future, as well as love and servanthood on His most beloved creatures, would apprise them of His existence through His Speaking - this is a necessary entailment of Divinity (ulūhiyyah). For they are, of all creation, the most lovely, the most loving, the most in worry, and the most dependent. They are destitute and impotent, and long to find their Possessor and Owner. Thus, our traveller understood that there is consensus on the heavenly revelation’s general signification of the existence and unicity (waḥdah) of the Necessary Existent (Al-Wājibu’l-Wujūd).

For it contains the realities of the Divine [ontological] descent, the Divine self-revelation, the Merciful encounter, the Glorified speech, and the Eternal notification. It is then indeed a most powerful proof, more powerful indeed than the proof that witnessing the beams of light coming from the sun at high noon gives, of the existence of the sun.

He then looked to the domain of inspirations (ilhāmāt). He saw that true inspiration (ilhām) resembles revelation (waḥy)

and in a way is a type of Divine Speech. However there are two differences between them:

The first difference between revelation and inspiration

Revelation (waḥy) is higher than inspiration (ilhām). Most revelation takes place through the intermediary of angels, whereas most inspiration takes place without intermediary.

The sultan, for example, has at his disposal two modes of speech and of issuing commands.

The first of them is his sending his deputy to one of his governors, with all of the stateliness of the sublime sultanate and universal sovereignty. On occasion, the sultan will meet with an intermediary in order to demonstrate the sublimity of that sovereignty and the importance of the command. The decree is then issued.

The second of them is his conversing with a personal assistant with whom he has a special relationship or a particular attachment, or even with one of his common subjects. He uses his personal phone, and speaks privately as himself, not using the title of sultan or speaking in the name of the universal kingship.

Thus, the Beginninglessly Eternal Sultan (As-Sulṭānu’l-Azalī) does not only speak through revelation, or the type of wide-ranging inspiration that fulfils the role of revelation, in His Name Lord of the Worlds (Rabbu’l-‘ālamīn), and with His title Creator of the Universe (Khāliqu’l-kāināt). He also has a more particular form of speech, which does take place however from behind veils, according to the capacities of each of His subjects, in so far as He is the Lord (Al-Rabb) and Creator (Al-Khāliq) of each individual and of each life-endowed creature.