Shabistari and Real Islam

[Mehr Licht]

I have some questions and I predict that debates may break out when people answer them so I thought I would put them here to be safe and to allow people of all religions to chime in. Anytime you ask about the Real ____ (insert name of religion) debates usually start. I don't have the answers myself so I'm not looking to debate but I would like to see others discuss these questions.

I've been reading the Gulshan-i raz or Garden of Mystery by the Sufi poet Mahmud Shabistari. It has to be one of the most beautiful and enlightening texts I've ever read. It really makes my heart ache and sing at various points just reading it.

Are his teachings authentically Muslim though and do they bear any resemblance to the actual teachings of Muhammad? Much of it seems like poetic adaptations of Hellenic mysticism and philosophy (especially Neo-Platonism with a good dose of Hermeticism) and Indian thought (both Hindu and Buddhist). Don't get me wrong he often quotes the Quran as well as Hadith but is he doing that to give authority to foreign doctrines brought in or is he actually teaching the batin or esoteric meaning of the Quran that is hidden to the non-mystic and just using older terminology and symbolism to better elaborate on it like many of the Greek Church Fathers did ?

If his Islam is a misunderstanding (or even a purposeful misrepresentation intending to sneak in older esoteric teachings) then I think misunderstood Islam may be one of the most perfect religions out there. If it isn't than Islam is pretty awesome for having produced such an enlightened soul. I just wish I could take a ride in a time machine and ask him these questions personally. What I wouldn't give to talk to someone like this.

I can't seem to answer the question myself and could use some help.

I'll post some quotes from it later too.

 

[Mehr Licht]

Read the sentence, "I was a Hidden Treasure"
and become aware of the elusive secret.

Nonbeing is a mirror, the world its reflection, and man
is the eye of this reflection, beholding the hidden Viewer.

You are the reflection's eye and it the light of the ey.
The Light of the eye is seeing itself through your eye.

The universe is human, and the human a universe.
It cannot be made any clearer than this!

When you look well into the heart of this matter,
God is the seer, the seen , and sight itself.

A sacred Tradition has explained this meaning:
"I am his hearing and seeing," makes it clear.

Know that the world from end to end is a mirror.
In each atom blaze one hundred shinning suns.

If you cleave the heart of a drop of water
a hundred pure oceans will from it.
​

...

I will finish this section of the poem later I have to pick my son up from a friends.

 

[Mehr Licht]

Each speck of dust, carefully examined,
reveals thousands of humans teeming within.
...
From the core of a seed spring a hundred harvests.
A whole world comes out of a seed of grass.

Spirit dwells in a mosquitoes wing.
Heavens sphere is in the point of its eye.

In the niche known as the core of the heart,
the Lord of the Two Worlds make a home.

Within the heart both worlds have been joined,
sometimes showing Satan, and sometimes Adam.

Look at the world where everything is topsy turvy:
within an angel lies a demon, in the devil is an angel.

All are mingled together like a seed and its fruit.
In the denier see a believer, in a believer see denial.

Al have been assembled in the point of the moment:
All cyucles of time itself: the days, months, and years.

Pre-creation and eternity are here merged together:
the final coming of Jesus and the making of Adam.

At every point along this great cycle
thousands of forms emerge and take on shape.

A circle appears around each of these points.
Which are centers orbiting doing the greater cycle.

If but one particle is pulled from its alloted place,
the whole created world would fall into chaos.

All are in a dizzy whirl and not one of these particles
has set foot outside the limits of contingency.

Individual determination has imprisoned every one,
out of the Whole and into helpless fragmentation.

You could say that they are between motion and restraint,
forever between the vestment and divestment of being

All are agitating while yet ever at rest;
nor are their orgins and temenations obvious.

All are yet aware of their own essence
and so make their way to that Court.

Hiding behind the veil of each and every atom
is the enlivening beauty of the Beloved's face.​

 

[Mehr Licht]

I have another question as well. I notice that Shabistari connects the seven heavens to the Surah of the Seven Verses. In the next section he also mentions the order of the sevens spheres - Saturn 7th, Jupiter 6th, Mars 5th, Sun 4th, Venus 3rd, Mercury 2nd, and the Moon 1st. Are these seven spheres related the seven heavens he mentioned previously and where can the Surah of Seven Verses be found in the Quran?

 

[Mehr Licht]

Ooops, never mind the question of where the Surah of Seven Verses can be found. I see that it's Al-Fatiha.

 

[F0uad]

I don't see how the seven heavens are connected to the seven verses of Al-Fatiha, can you maybe go into more detail?

And is there any authentic source that says the same?