This divine function is on the masculine side, representing the aspects of action force, movement, rigor Allah as Lawgiver. On the level of the names are the principles of the masculine and the feminine: the names of Majesty are the prototype of masculinity, while the names of Beauty are the prototype of femininity. The Generous, the Merciful, the Forgiving are names of mercy or Beauty, while the Enumerator and the Just are names of rigor or Majesty. Allah has revealed Himself in the Qur'an in the names of rigor and mercy, known as the names of Majesty (jalal) and Beauty (jamal). That Allah is Absolute is the principle of masculinity, and that Allah is Infinite is the principle of femininity. "Masculine" and "feminine" are not simply equivalents of the human male and female, since all men and women have elements of both masculinity and femininity within them.
These two attributes are the supreme archetypes of the masculine and the feminine. On the highest level, Allah is at once Absolute and Infinite. But even on the level of the Divine Nature, there are the roots of the masculine and the feminine. Allah's Essence transcends all duality, all relationality, so it is beyond male or female. The root of the duality between the masculine and feminine is found in the divine nature itself. On the highest level of the Divine Reality, Allah is perfectly One. It goes back from the biological through the psychological and the spiritual to the Divine Reality itself. The distinction between male and female is not just a biological accident but a very profound element of the human state.
The Polarity of Divine Majesty and Beauty Moreover, in the sources of Islam and in the Sufi tradition growing from there, we find a distinct, explicit preference for the feminine aspect of Allah, especially the nature of ultimate Divine Reality as essentially feminine.
#Shakti the divine feminine how to
In recent years there has been much discussion and controversy over how to reshape Christianity to include the Feminine on the divine level, but in Islam that has never been an issue, for the feminine element in Islam has always been present, especially in Sufism.Īlthough both masculine and feminine equally have their origin in the Divine, I would like to take a special look at the feminine in Islam to help redress the balance because the feminine side of Islam has been mostly overlooked so far. Perhaps in part due to the metaphysical interiority of the Feminine, this aspect of Islam has lived a largely hidden existence - but it is no less vital for that. So often has Islam been portrayed as an exclusively masculine, patriarchal faith that many have never suspected the central importance of the Feminine in Islam and would be astonished to realize that it has been there from the beginning.