John 3:11 · World English Bible
John 3:11 Meaning Most Certainly I Tell You
Most certainly I tell you, we speak that which we know, and testify of that which we have seen, and you don’t receive our witness.
What does John 3:11 mean?
Dhawq: Taste Al-Ghazali used this word for knowing something by having had it yourself. A person who has been through an illness talks about it differently from a person who has only read the symptoms, and anyone listening can hear the difference.
From the Sufism reading below.
John 3:11 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Sufism
SUFISM
Sufism
Dhawq: Taste Al-Ghazali used this word for knowing something by having had it yourself. A person who has been through an illness talks about it differently from a person who has only read the symptoms, and anyone listening can hear the difference. The one who has had it can describe it accurately and still watch the words fail to carry it across.
ʿAyn al-yaqīn: The eye of certainty The Quran's name for certainty that comes from seeing rather than from being told. Between hearing that a house is on fire and standing in front of it, the information is the same but the person is not. Once someone has seen, argument stops being what holds them steady, and they keep saying the same thing under pressure.
Taqlīd: Going on somebody else's authority The tradition's term for holding a belief because it came down to you from others. Someone whose learning is all secondhand has a place to file every claim, and firsthand speech fits none of those places. So the more a person has read, the easier it becomes to file a witness as one more opinion and set it aside.
Ḥijāb: The veil Al-Ghazali's word for what stands between a person and light. A veil is rarely plain ignorance; more often it is built from what someone already knows well and is respected for knowing. Hearing something that would cost them all of that, a person can stay polite, stay interested, and simply not take it in.
Kitmān al-sirr: Keeping the secret Sufis guard what they have seen instead of announcing it. Being turned down by a serious listener shows quickly that some things have nowhere to land in another person, however carefully they are put. Hallaj said his openly and was killed for it, and most teachers after him waited to be asked before speaking.
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Live John 3:11 today
- Think of one thing you know from having lived it. Resist dressing it up for an audience today, and let it stay something you act from instead of something you post.
- When someone tells you something from their own experience that does not fit what you know, hold off on the counterargument. Ask one more question instead of filing their words as an opinion.
- If you are the expert in the room and a less credentialed person says something that would cost you your position, stay in the discomfort for a minute before you answer. Polite interest is an easy way to not take something in.
What have you heard recently that you handled politely because actually receiving it would cost you something?
The same truth in other traditions
Zen
The old line says the finger pointing at the moon is not the moon. Someone can hand you an accurate description and still not hand you the thing.
Tao Te Ching 1
The Tao that can be put into words is already not the Tao itself. What someone has actually seen does not survive the trip into speech intact.
Buddhism · Dhammapada
A person who recites the teachings without living them is like a cowherd counting another man's cattle. The words can be held perfectly and still belong to someone else.
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