The dunyā is a pantheon of idolatry, much like the Kaaba before the advent of Islam. To recall, In a previous meditation, I distinguished between the world-as-dunyā (lit. that which is close, lowly, the closed world) and the world-as-‘alam (lit. a sign, the open world). I am not referring to two different worlds but one world that can be perceived in two ways, amounting to two existential orientations. The dunyā is immanent and closed; in turn, it turns contingent differences between creatures (e.g., race, class, etc.) into reified hierarchies. In contrast, the world-as-‘alam recognizes only one real and absolute hierarchy: the ontological differentiation between the Creator and the created because God is uniquely transcendent and created the world ex nihilo.
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