Construction of the creative process

The relationship between the Creator and creations is a very interesting one, especially with regard to us human beings. How for example, we embody the essence of our Creator (al-'ayan al-thabitah), and hence the possibility of a dynamic relationship, leads us to the very core of the process of human thought and its subsequent intellectual activities.

God is the sole agent of the creative process which means only He can create. This being the case, when we talk about human creations, it is only possible by the extension of God's mercy (rahmat) and His Divine energy which enables a person to create. The human soul is a microcosmic representation of the realm of being ('alam). Whatever the processes and structures of the universe as a whole, is happening right inside the individual person. The structure of the human soul consists of 3:

1. Al-sirr (the spiritual heart)

This is the seat of Divine spirit. All transmissions of God's divine energy will be chanelled here. The cultivation of this part of the human soul will enable a person to have stronger closeness to God. This being the case, there is a feature within us that resembles that of the creator, al-'ayan al-thabitah (the immutable essence). We embody a part of God's immutable essence, albeit in a potential state (uncultivated) because we don't know the existence of it. On the contrary, God's immutable essence is constantly active and creating many things.

2. Al-nafs al-natiqah (the intellectual soul)

This is the soul which regulates the transmission of Divine energy into the spiritual heart. All the human intellectual activities occurs here.

3. Al-nafs al-hayawaniyah (the carnal soul)

This is the soul which creates imagination and emotion. Like animals, we possess the the carnal soul. Upon God's mercy, He channels His energy into the spiritual heart in the form of general knowledge. So, in order for the knowledge (which are still in a metaphysical potential form) to materialize into particular knowledge, it has to go through the carnal soul which processes it into the form of images and hence assumes a physical material form in our thought.

This process is very important in understanding how we create or invent things. In the case of literature, for example, if the author wants to write about the idea of kingship, he must first have a general idea of a king. God illuminates his spiritual heart enabling him to conjure up the idea of a king. But this idea is without form. His carnal soul then translates this idea into the form of images. He then creates a physical shape of a king in his mind, and makes comparisons with images which already exist in his mind. King is as brave as a lion, as generous as the sea. By this process, the general idea of a king takes material form. But these images (king, lion, sea) are all in raw form, unorganised and disorderly in our thought. They are illuminations of images, which appear randomly in our thought without series. The intellectual soul then regulates, controls, organises these images in our mind enabling the author to write a literature about a king in a structured way. Such is the construction of the process of creation.