Çeviri
Fusus al-Hikam ...İngilizce
• • •
tajalliyat-i arais un-nusus fi minas-sat-i
hikam iil-fusus
Printed in Great Britain
at the University Printing House, Oxford
by David Stanford, Printer to the University
First of
all, all thanks and gratitude be to Him who is the most Superlatively Praised
from all Eternity and ever. It is one of the manifestations of one of His
boundless benefactions to mankind and hence to us that He has given into the
hands of one of His chosen few, to whom He has shown the special favour, this
book known as the Fusus al- Hikam, the Bezels of Wisdom, and made of him His
Meaning. For Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi is not only a man of Wisdom, the greatest
Shaykh, Doctor Maximus, but a Meaning.
This is what makes any attempt at translating his
writings a task which Dr Austin of Durham University, who has himself
translated the Fusus, referred to, during the Ibn 'Arabi Symposium in 1984, as
almost an insurmountable task even for an Arabic scholar like himself.
• An Iraqi friend of mine once said that it was easier to understand
the Qu'ran than Ibn 'Arabi: All this is because Ibn 'Arabi is a meaning to
understand which one must have a receptivity of the heart pre-ordained where
meanings will filter in until the receptacle is so attuned to this meaning that
it will lay itself open and ready to receive the full impact of the weight the
meaning represents. This condition is not obtainable either be it by resolve,
application, or fortitude. It is a gift, directly given by the Giver of all
gifts for whatever reason He alone knows why.
I am one of the most ignorant of His servants and most
certainly, the most inept to translate anything of wisdom, gnosis, or meaning,
leave alone from two languages into a third but even to repeat in plain
language what has been said or written. Why such a person was chosen to
undertake such a task is His mystery and far be it from me to query His reason,
for He alone knows the unknowable.
Whatever His reason, it was Grenville Collins who came
to me one day and asked me to undertake the task of translating into English
the translation and commentary of Ibn 'Arabi’s Fusus al-Hikam, by the Jelveti
Shaykh Ismail Hakki Bursevi. He gave me three years to do it in. Why I
acquiesced I do not know. Of course, I knew the benefits of such a translation
into the English for all concerned. I knew, of course, that Ismail Hakki
Bursevi’s translation and commentary of the Fusus into the early
eighteenth-century Turkish was a book of inestimable value if one were to
attempt an understanding of the Meaning, not only of the written word but also
of the body of that meaning.
All I can say now, after not only three but four years
of toil, is that
Ismail Hakki Bursevi’s translation of,
and commentary on Fusus al-Hikam
by Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi.
Let there be
Praise and Gratitude with the tongue of closeness for Him Who is the Opener of
the treasuries of Munificence and Generosity and Who is the abode of the
highest of knowledges, and Who is the Ipseity of the Divinity and the Presence
of Singularity, Who opened up the words and the letters of the unknowable
events which were sealed with the seal of Uniqueness in the Unknowableness (ghayb)
of the Essence and which were hidden and contained in the completeness of His
Ipseity, which He opened with the breaths of Compassion and Essential revelation
which arrive from the Most Holy Effusion in the degrees of the Unknowable and
that which is no other than that which is compounded from the coming together
of the latent potentialities of the Unknown and the Breath of Compassion which
are the seals of the hearts of the Words of the Perfect Ones. He made them into
bezels for the engraving of His Ipseity and qualifications, and He specialized
the Breath of Compassion for the Essential necessities of the unknowable
realities and known potentialities in the establishment of knowledge, and
having specialized it for each specific part of each reality from the parts of
His revelations He made single particles of time to dress in the Most Ancient
Effusion to make every natural aptitude of each established potentiality
present, and in accordance with the necessities of the love of the Ipseity for
the total witnessing He caused to manifest each of the potentialities of
immanence and receptivities of being, in accordance with the reality of their
aptitude and receptivity in- their images and caused their establishment which
is individuated in the Divine Knowledge and the establishment of the
Unknowable. ‘He gave everything its nature and then guided them’ (Quran). In
accordance with this He bestowed on each, to the degree of its known quantity
and defined limit, His revelation of Being and effusion of Munificence. Then He
made them unlimited places of manifestation of gifts and unrestricted receivers
of portions. Then, having manifested, in the Seals of the Words of the
prophets, the results and quintessences of wisdoms and knowledges which are
particular to each degree from among the degrees of the total Divine Sainthood
and the Mohammedian Reality who are the greater prophets
ness of Uniqueness, the totality of the Divine Names and Lordly qualifications
were annihilated in His Essential Uniqueness, there to manifest the image of
His Perfection which was imprisoned in the Unknowableness of the Essence, in
accordance with the quote: ‘I was a hidden treasure and I loved that I be
known, and I created the immanence so that it knows.’ Under the impulsion of
His Essential Love, He desired that the images of the Names that were in
annihilation in His Ipseity, and the effects and the determinations which are
in the powers of these Names, be manifested in creaturial places of manifestation.
Thus He created the universe, which is the collectivity of the images of
detailing of places of manifestation, as a smooth body. Yet, as the universe is
not sufficient to contain the total manifestation and the manifestation for the
reception of the image of the Divine totality, He created Adam in the Divine
Image as its Spirit. Thus it is through Adam, who is the place of manifestation
of the Divine Names and the place of collectivity of the qualities of Lordship,
that the total polish and the polishing and the witnessing and evidencing of
totality and of detailing came about. Since Adam (S.A.) is the first of the
Seals which are in the image of Man and the most ancient of the prophets in
this emergence of elements, God the High manifested first in him the apparent
prophethood and extended to him help from the Mohammedian Reality which is the
Reality of Realities.
After this, from his children, in each of the prophets
there manifested the order of prophethood together with special religious law (shari
'ah) in accordance with the Lordship of the Name which determined over that
prophet and his people, and in accordance with what they bestowed, and in
accordance with the aptitudes of that prophet and his people. Even though each
prophet is the place of manifestation of the totality of the Divine Names, yet
the manifestation which is in him is in accordance with the width of the circle
of the Divine Name which is his support and his reality. The way God is known
and worshipped by each prophet’s prophethood and religious law is by the
determination of the Name which is his origin. When Mohammed (S.A.), who is the
owner of the Greatest Name which collects in itself the totality of the Divine
Names, and who contains the absolute general prophethood which is the collector
of the totality of the prophethoods, was appointed, then in accordance with:
‘Today I have completed for you your religion’, the order of religion and the
order of prophethood and the order of knowledge and the order of
manifestation, found its perfect conclusion and totality, and was sealed with
his material being.
Prophethood is the exterior of sainthood, and sainthood
is the interior of prophethood. The Envoy (S.A.), according to the hadith:
T was a
3
ness of Uniqueness, the totality of the Divine Names and Lordly qualifications
were annihilated in His Essential Uniqueness, there to manifest the image of
His Perfection which was imprisoned in the Unknowableness of the Essence, in
accordance with the quote: ‘I was a hidden treasure and I loved that I be
known, and I created the immanence so that it knows.’ Under the impulsion of
His Essential Love, He desired that the images of the Names that were in
annihilation in His Ipseity, and the effects and the determinations which are
in the powers of these Names, be manifested in creaturial places of manifestation.
Thus He created the universe, which is the collectivity of the images of
detailing of places of manifestation, as a smooth body. Yet, as the universe is
not sufficient to contain the total manifestation and the manifestation for the
reception of the image of the Divine totality, He created Adam in the Divine
Image as its Spirit. Thus it is through Adam, who is the place of manifestation
of the Divine Names and the place of collectivity of the qualities of Lordship,
that the total polish and the polishing and the witnessing and evidencing of
totality and of detailing came about. Since Adam (S.A.) is the first of the
Seals which are in the image of Man and the most ancient of the prophets in
this emergence of elements, God the High manifested first in him the apparent
prophethood and extended to him help from the Mohammedian Reality which is the
Reality of Realities.
After this, from his children, in each of the prophets
there manifested the order of prophethood together with special religious law (shari
'ah') in accordance with the Lordship of the Name which determined over
that prophet and his people, and in accordance with what they bestowed, and in
accordance with the aptitudes of that prophet and his people. Even though each
prophet is the place of manifestation of the totality of the Divine Names, yet
the manifestation which is in him is in accordance with the width of the circle
of the Divine Name which is his support and his reality. The way God is known
and worshipped by each prophet’s prophethood and religious law is by the
determination of the Name which is his origin. When Mohammed (S.A.), who is the
owner of the Greatest Name which collects in itself the totality of the Divine
Names, and who contains the absolute general prophethood which is the collector
of the totality of the prophethoods, was appointed, then in accordance with:
‘Today I have completed for you your religion’, the order of religion and the
order of prophethood and the order of knowledge and the order of manifestation,
found its perfect conclusion and totality, and was sealed with his material
being.
Prophethood is the exterior of sainthood, and sainthood
is the interior of prophethood. The Envoy (S.A.), according to the hadith’.
T was a
3
plying with the order of the Master by virtue of general heirship
and complete and total servanthood, without lack and without addition,
according to the limit set by the Prophet, exposed this book, magnificent of
value and great of address and order’
As this book came from
the source of the Mohammedian station and through the Way of the Ipseity from
the totality of Uniqueness, in the Divine Knowledge it contains the taste of
the Envoy (S.A.), and the sainthood of the other prophets therein mentioned, and
it became the prevalent order and the leader and indicator to the sealhood of
their perfections and to the manner of their tastes.
It contains the totality of the sealhood of their tastes
and perfections and the quintessence of the results which depend on their joy
and himmah. Yet, the people who stopped at the level and the limit of
the intelligence of the senses, and those who spent the power of their theories
at the level of the image of the conjectural theorizing, and those people who
are specialists of words and letters who are veiled from Divine gnosis and
knowledges of yaqtn due to their conjectural beliefs and theoretical
knowledges, together with the people who are enveloped and thick-skinned,
produced many articles concerning this book. This is because they were short in
understanding what it comprehends of the most noble absolute realities, and
because of their relative intelligence and because of the density of their
hearts, and because they were veiled and curtained from the Mohammedian Way and
the pleasure of totality of Oneness, and perhaps also because of their original
rebellion and eternal error which manifested its effects upon them.
But this book, having come down from the Mohammedian
Presence and from the degree of singularity of totality without intermediary,
became the yearning of the gnostics of the people of the Way, as well as the
sultans and kings from among the group of special people, and the purity of its
mysteries and realities remains according to its virginality. The hand of the
people of error did nqt reach it, and its bridal allusions and clarifications
are veiled by the Dearness ('izzah) and Majesty and palaced in the
delicateness of a pavilion, and no-one drew open the veil of Majesty and
Dearness from its face except the people who are from among the people of
Abstraction and Perfection. Thus nobody attained to its mysteries except a
small group from among the Mohammedian heirs who have reached the station of
the Sealhood of Mohammed and the Uniqueness of the Ipseity of the totality, so
that they alone were honoured with the knowledge of what was explained to the
Moham- raedian Seal, because the taking from this book and being effused with
this knowledge from the Mohammedian Presence is absolute and pure Divine
Beneficence, and it is only possible with Essential binding (rabata)
adhesion to the Way, and the complete teacher who has reached the
Mohammedian Special Sainthood. Origin twelve is the explanation of the
extension from ever and for ever of the Reality of Mohammed, and, in the images
of meanings and the realities of spirituality and in the images of the senses,
the places of manifestation of the prophets and saints, together with their
effusion.
♦ * ♦
Origin one: Now let it be known like
this, that Shaykh Muhyiddin ‘Arabi, God be pleased with him, is a goodness from
among the goodnesses of the best of the envoys in that which concerns all
actions and works and words and qualities and natures and tastes and states and
of becoming inexistent by annihilation in God and remaining (baqi) with
the Being of God, and he is subject to all of the Mohammedian degrees and
stations and he is heir to its knowledges and gnoses and completions and
revelations and stations and is the place of manifestation and mirror to the
totality of the Mohammedian Divine Complete Sainthood, which is" the
collectivity of the immanential and Divine collectivity of degrees, as well as
being the niche of Light arjd the plane of reflection to the Mohammedian total
Spirit. And just as God has sealed with the Seal of Prophethood all the
different prophethoods which existed in all the prophets from Adam (S.A.),
which end with the Seal of Prophethood, and just as the quintessence and
results of all the prophethoods were sealed by his prophethood, in the same
way, with the manifestation in the Shaykh (R.A.) of the totality of the Divine
quality of Mohammedian Divine Sainthood which completely contains the totality
of the in- teriority of the prophethood of all the prophets, he became realized
and manifested with all the results and quintessences of the completions and
totality of the knowledges of sainthood, and he became the Seal of Sainthood.
Thus his being became the manifestation and the niche of
Light of the collectivity of the totality of Reality and the Mohammedian Sainthood
of Divine Uniqueness. Thus, just as the Seal of Prophets (S.A.) extends and
helps the totality of the prophets from his absolute sainthood which is his
interior, in the same way, the Seal of Sainthood, which is his most complete
heir, extends and helps from the absolute sainthood which is his interior, yet
he does not expose anything from the Divine knowledges and realities and
determinations of Lordship except through the aspect of his subjection to the
Seal of Prophethood and from the aspect of his being his heir, and with his
permission. Consequently, he brought down and exposed this book in accordance
with the limit set
7
them reached the degree of his [the Shaykh’s] reality, even if a thousand
faithfuls testified that he was an impostor.’ He who has reached the degree of
witnessing and clarity is safe from those who are in the degree of covering up
the Truth and he does not care about the praise or blame of the populace.
The source of the error of the official doctors
concerning this book is that they see certain Divine knowledges and unknowable
mysteries, which are present in this book and in the words of other saints of
God, as being in opposition to some of the questions and affirmations of the
ingenious interpretation of some of the interpreters of Divine Law, and in
opposition to some of the beliefs of the people of belief, and they relegate
and enclose the Divine Knowledge to the particular belief of the interpreter,
and anything that does not agree with them they deny and blame. They do not
know that the interpreter is a person who derives meanings and that he
determines in accordance with the dominant conjecture (wahm), and that
they are not people of insight and clarity and witnessing and certainty (yaqin)
whereby they could observe according to how the order is where God and His
Envoy are concerned. Because of this, at the level of the correct estimate of
the interpreter, there are two merits. One is the merit of interpreting and the
other is the merit of hitting the mark, and at the level of the lack of his
hitting the mark there is only one merit and that is the merit of interpreting.
The witnessing gnostic is the possessor of insight and
clarity. He observes in the Divine Knowledge according to what order is
established, and having observed it in this way he then exposes that thing
according to his witnessing only if there is a Divine order to him ordering him
to manifest it, and if the Divine order does not come to him he refrains from
attempting to manifest the observation and remains gnostic according to
P.eality, because the one who is realized with the absolute servanthood is the
servant of God and not the^servant of the manifest whereby he would prefer
manifesting rather than keeping it interior. Equally, he is not the servant of
the interior that he should prefer to keep it interior when the interior has to
be manifested. Thus if he manifests, he is not a person of merit because he
does not manifest it for merit. He manifests it entirely from his conformity to
the Divine order due to his servanthood. However, if the interpreter, in the
interpretation of an order, did not estimate rightly and believed a thing
contrary to what the order was concerning that thing at the level of God, when
a gnostic opens up and manifests that same reality according to the reality of
the Divine order, then as the gnostic’s position is in opposition to the
interpretation of the interpreter, the people from among the official doctors
who imitate the interpreter deny the knowledge of the gnostic and blame him and
prevented. The Envoy (S.A.) in his prayer pointed at these three
parts with the words: ‘My God, I ask of You with all the Names with which You
have called Yourself, or that You have brought down in Your Book, or that You
have taught any one of Your servants, or by which You have shown in Your
Knowledge of the Unknowable.’ According to another hadith he said: ‘God
taught me three knowledges. He ordered me to announce one of these knowledges
and forbade me from announcing another of these knowledges, and the third He
left to me to announce or not.’
How is it that those who stop at the vision of the
determinations of the religious law, who are those who have stopped at the
level of the interpretation of the interpreter, or those who stop at the level
of the apparent meaning of the knowledge of what the Prophet has brought down
specially of religious law, could be of those who are established in knowledge,
since God established equality with Himself for those who are established in
knowledge? There is no doubt that there is no equality established with God in
the knowledge of something for those who have risen to the image of that
knowledge and to its established potentiality, except in the state of it being
established in the Divine Knowledge, because God knows that thing according to
whatever image is in the images of knowledge of that thing as it was
individuated in the Divine Knowledge and it remains known to God according to
that image. And the person who has risen to the knowledge of the image of that
thing in the Presence of Knowledge equally knows that thing according to that
image. Without this he would not be established in knowledge because being
established in knowledge is discovering that thing known, as it is, and then
knowing it. It is because of this that the word ‘established in knowledge’
refers to the Word of God and creates a veridic unity and collectivity between
the knowledges of God and those who are established in that knowledge. There
is no doubt that the knower who stops at the apparent understanding is not
established in knowledge, because had he been established in knowledge he would
have known the order exactly, in accordance with vision and insight, and would
not have determined according to opinion and surmising and would not have
erred.
The determination which is consequent to being
established in knowledge and vision is not the same as the determination which
is according to opinion and surmising, because it is wrong to transcend to an
equality with God in knowledge if that thing is the result of opinion or
surmising, because God’s Knowledge is much higher than opinion and conjecture
and surmising. Thus, it is clearly established that the person who stops at the
level of apparent understanding is not established in knowledge,
two in certain aspects a mutual exclusion or incompatibility,
because the requirement of prophethood is to receive inspiration from God by
intermediary, and to see the immanence and plurality and argumentation and
objection, and to order in the right way, and to forbid what is denied, and to
invite them away from covering up the Truth towards certainty of belief, and to
act according to limits, and equally it is to give appreciation of high degrees
and great goodnesses in the other world, and to caution with hell and with
great suffering.
On the other hand, the requirement of sainthood is to
receive from God without intermediary, from the private face, and to see God
and witness the Beauty (Jamal) and Oneness, and to refer and to entrust
all affairs to God and to observe all actions as coming from the one real Actor
who is God, and never to object in any way to the order of God and not to
object to any person, and to pass beyond all elevated ranks in this world and
from all the grand degrees in the other world, and to do away with all love of
the immanence and immanential particularizations totally and to annihilate
one’s being in the Being of God.
Look at Moses (S.A.), who is an envoy of God and was
spoken to by God and who was manifest with the completion and perfection of the
determinations of the Name Apparent. Even though God had encouraged him to converse
in communion with Khidr and even though Khidr had asked him to promise no
objection, after some of the determinations like the holing of a boat and the
killing of a boy and the building up of a wall, which are not of the Divine
realities and the mysteries of Union, became manifest from Khidr, Moses,
because of the necessities of the manifest and prophethood, preferred
objection. Khidr, being realized with sainthood and the determinations of the
interior, knew that Moses (S.A.) had no taste’ill the station wherein Khidr
himself was stationed which was the station of sainthood, just as there is no
taste for him in that station where Moses (S.A.) was established which is the
station of envoyship. The station of envoyship confers objection, and the station
of Moses requires objection, whereas the station of Khidr requires
non-objection. Thus, because of Moses’s station Khidr said to him: ‘You cannot
War patiently with me. How could you have patience with that. . .?’ The station
of Khidr does not allow objection from any person other than he who is at the
station of special witnessing where Khidr himself is, whereas Moses’s station
allows objection and he objects by force of the requirements of his station.
Thus Khidr did not want to converse with such because Khidr is the possessor of
the stations of the known and he wants converse with people who are agreeable
to his station. But the people of Medina, who are not in the station of the
determinations of the Manifest which are opposed to his station, he would
also, in the same way, not accept.
Manifesting with both orders in His Essence cannot be
denied because to manifest with both these orders is consequent to His
collective Reality and the determinations of both prophethood and sainthood are
collected there. The aspect where there is no opposition between the two is in
the fact that prophethood is the exterior of sainthood, and sainthood is the
interior and mystery of prophethood; prophethobd aims at announcement for the
purposes of Union of God and gnosis of God and worship of God, all of which is
present and existent in sainthood.
Now, there is no end to the Knowledge of God. It is not
immured in the manifest or in the understanding^ the manifest. Some of it
results through the announcement of the prophet and through the language of
prophethood, and some of it results from Divine instruction, as when God says:
‘We have taught them knowledge from Our private Knowledge’ or when He says:
‘Be devoted to God and God will teach you’ or when He says: ‘God gives wisdom
to whom He pleases’, or when He says: ‘When he was of the dead We'gave him Life
and brought him Light so that he walks with it among the people’, or: ‘Those
who have strived for Us so that We guide them in Our Way.’ The knowledge of
Khidr (S.A.) is of this kind. Some others reach this knowledge by God raising
them to it, and manifesting it by Divine revelation, not through teaching. This
knowledge is particular to the sainthood of the Seal of Prophethood, Mohammed
(S.A.), and to the heirs of this knowledge.
Divine knowledges do not result from intellectual proofs
and theories. Rather, they result from complete facing and joy of thought and
freedom of place after the Divine Munificence. The Shaykh, Sadruddin-i-Konevi,
may his mystery be blessed, says in his comment on the Fatihcr. ‘The
real knowledge through taste happens from the aspect of clear and total
insight, after the Divine Munificence, depending on the ceasing of the manifest
and hidden partial strengths and the detailed expenditure appertaining to them,
and by the freeing of the place from all knowledge and belief in everything
other than the desire of God to make known what He makes you know, by total
facing, sanctified from other common particularizations and imitative virtues
and from relative love affairs in what appertains to the immanence, and other
things, by superlative oneness and collectivity and compfete purity, and by
assiduously preserving this state in continuing superabundantly most of the
time without worry and without dividing thought and with great concentration.’
Now, the one who denies does not accept the Divine
Knowledge which descends into the hearts of the saints, and is either an
obstinate ignoramus or an imitator of opposition who imitates the doctors in
the
is
Manifest who have stopped at the level of the manifest law have
understood that part, but some of what is in this book is interior and does
not concord with the manifest, and that is from that part of knowledge which
God gave to His Envoy, not to manifest it in his law, but rather perhaps to
hide it. Some of it is from a part of knowledge which God did not bring down to
the Envoy (S.A.) during his conditioning with prophethood so that he should not
be worried during his invitation, but he made it open from God’s Knowledge of
the Unknowable. For instance, the above-mentioned hadith which is of the
Divine Knowledge and not of the speciality of prophethood.
Thus, as all the prophets (S.A.) are the substitutes and
alternatives of the Envoy (S.A.), and as He has manifested the Divine Knowledge
from the places of manifestation of the first of these parts before the
manifestation of the Envoy in the order of the emergence of the race of Man, in
accordance with the language of the times, in the same way He manifested the
reality of the second and the third parts from the niche of Light of the Seal
of Sainthood, who is its place of manifestation, in the Janguage of the people,
because his people, being under the determination of the owner of the
collectivity of speech (jawQmf al-kalini), is the most beneficient of
people through total receptivity and collectivity of place of manifestation.
Whether it be this Shaykh, may God be pleased with him, the owner of this book,
Muhyiddin 'Arabi, or whether it be other Complete beings from among the
Mohammedian heirs, none of them manifest any one thing from the Divine
Knowledge except through the order of God or the order of His Envoy. Thus,
anybody who denies the mysteries of the Unknowable and the Divine Knowledge
which the Shaykh has brought down in this book of Fusus from the Divine
Presence by the order of the Envoy (S.A.), his denial, due to his
narrow-heartedness and sad vision, refers to the Envoy. Thus they deny and
blame him in the image of obeying him and affirming him, because the Shaykh,
God be pleased with him, is subject to the law of the Seal of Prophethood, and
his being is the mirror of the law of the Envoy and the niche of Light for the
great Quran and is subject to it with total and perfect subjugation in the
degrees and stations, and is equally the niche of Light to the Reality of
Realities whicli is the private Mohammedian perfect total Divine Unique
Sainthood. Thus, a person who is imprinted with the private sainthood of the
Envoy (S.A.), and is manifested and revealed from there, and whose heart is the
place of manifestation of the image of the Divine collectivity of the
singularity of the Ipseity, will not out of his own choice deviate from that
universe of Oneness of Light and Presence of Holiness and Joy, and turn his
face to the universe of plurality and shadows and the universe of power and
pride, and how
17
God, find no joy or taste in the praise and laudation of the people
of imitation who are on the side of limitations and restriction, without any
portion and ignorant of the effusion of the Sea of Absoluteness, neither is
their heart afflicted by the refutation and denial of the deniers, nor does
there result any elation in their being from the affirmation of the affirmer.
‘The heart is large enough for the Ancient, just as it feels the existence of
the recent.’
Some commentators, to remove the refutations and denials
of the knowers of the manifest, have answered them by referring some of these
matters to the fact that the Shaykh belonged to the Maliki sect, and said that
the Shaykh is of the people of guidance and interprets according to the
original Maliki Way and consequently he has interpreted in this way. Others, to
apply some of the matters to the apparent, have interpreted him. Now, just as
the deniers have erred in their denial, these have equally erred in saying that
the Shaykh is an interpreter because he is Maliki, and trying to apply the
Diyine realities to, and make them concordant with, the understandings of the
people of the apparent, that is. if these words have come out of them accoiding
to this sort of belief.
Now, let it be known like this, Shaykh Muhyiddin 'Arabi,
God be pleased with him, is not according to the special sect of Maliki origin.
He is according to the Mohammedian origin and according to the Ahmedian law,
which law and religion the Envoy was in accordance with during his time, and
upon which were united the companions, upon whom was God’s pleasure. It is true
that each Complete, during the period of his ignorance, is according to one of
the four sects and finds growth and progress in that Way, but when he is
verified and realized in the Mohammedian perfection he receives the Divine
Knowledge, without intermediary, from the Mohammedian Spirit, and the origin
of all Ways is imprinted in his being and he is in accordance with the
Mohammedian Way and he is called Mohammedian. The Shaykh, God be pleased with
him, in the foreign lands was according to the Maliki Way, but when he followed
and became realized in the Mohammedian perfection he became Mohammedian and
became the Mohammedian Seal of Sainthood -from which Mohammedian niche of Light
all the people of sects received help, because the perfect heir who receives
the Divine Knowledge, without intermediary, from the Envoy, or the perfect
gnostic who receives it, without intermediary, from God, through an Essential
connection and a special aspect, does not need to belong to a special sect or
to be of the people of interpretation, because that person witnesses the Envoy
and he is with him, and in fact the Envoy is with the Divine Inspiration and
the Divine Inspiration descends on him. In the same way, people of derivation
are equally not interpreters because
IQ
figure. Nothing can be attributed to Him of Oneness or the
Necessarily- being-so of His Being, or of His being the beginning of
everything, or of the requirements of bringing about or of causing and
effecting, or of any appertainances of knowledge to Himself or to others. He is
transcended from all plurality of qualifications or Names. The Divine Names are
annihilated in there, and He is what He is and they are not what He is.
Although He is One with the Oneness of Reality, yet His Oneness is not related
to an opposition of plurality. His verification in His own Self, and imagining
Him as verified in true knowledge, does not necessitate the imagination of an
opposite, but rather that He is Self-established and establishes Himself. The
reason why we say ‘Oneness’ or ‘Unity’ is for the purposes of transcending and
understanding, and not to point at the notion of Oneness and Unity. God the
High, in consideration of the Reality of His Oneness and in consideration of
His total abstraction from manifestation in the places of manifestation and
qualities which are qualities attributed to Him, is, by virtue of the places of
manifestation, impossible of consideration and comprehension and witnessing and
knowing and qualification. Thus, the colours, lights, and different expanses
which are considered and witnessed in the potentialities and possibilities, are
modalities and circumstances which are different modalities and conditions and
which are quantitatively dissimilar and various, and where it concerns the
Being of God they are the same as His Ipseity, and the reality of a thing other
than Him is an order of accretion, and the Reality of the Being is from all
eternity in the Divine Knowledge and is nothing other than His relationship to
His individuation, which, in the vernacular of the verifiers from among the
people of God, is called the established potentialities {a'yan-i-t^abita),
and in the vernacular of other people they are called quiddities {mahiyyah),
the known un- knowables {ma'lum-i-ma'dum) and the established thing {shay'-i-thabit).
Consequently, the being of another is through the Effusion of the Compassionate
Self and the Divine revelation which is in effusion over His Established
Potentiality {'ayn-i-thabita), because that Effusion is an order of
accretion over His Reality.
The second half is the First Individuation (this is the
second half of the first shatr). The First Individuation is the first
Self-distinguishing from the Absolute Unknowable. It is the key to the
Presences of the Names, because its interior is the Blindness which is the
Compassionate Self upon which relies the Uniqueness. The Blindness is the
Presence of the totality of Names and qualities. The Prophet was asked: ‘Where
was our Lord before He created?’ He said: ‘He was in the Blindness.’ The first
degree of the degrees of manifestation is the First Individuation, because
compared to the Absolute Unknowableness the First
21
is the image of Divinity. And the second half is this aspect which
is the reverse side of the manifest, and this aspect is the consideration of
the relative numerality of what is established in the Intellect of the interior
of the First Individuation. Numerality through plurality of relationship
necessitates the numerality of potentiality, because when the Name Manifest
became differentiated in the degree of Blindness from the interior of the
First Individuation, which is the Absolute Unknowable, bearing in itself the
images of the relationships of plurality which are intellectualized in the First
Individuation, which are explained as the possibilities, and equally, as it
separated from it by the Name Manifest, its other necessities and
subjectivities are attributed to it. Thus, God the High witnessed His own Self
by His own Self in the degree of His own manifestedness, and His Ipseity was
manifest to Him with all the Names of His Ipseity and original relationships,
the individuations of which are manifest with the determination of the station
of Uniqueness of the Ipseity and collective individuation. And this is the
First Individuation. The numerality which is in that plurality of intellectual
relationships and original relationships caused the numerality of potentiality.
Consequently, the second revelation, through the Name Manifest, was raised in
accordance with the relationships which were therein intellectualized at the
degree of the First Individuation. Consequently, in that revelation the
original relationships and the intellectualized images of Names became manifest
and some of the images became differentiated from others. And the Ipseity
became manifest in His own second degree, and that is the Second Individuation.
In consideration of the manifestation in the Second
Individuation in the images of plurality which were intellectualized in this
second half, this second half became divided again into two halves. One of
these is the Arc of Necessarily-so-ness and in it prevail the Divine Names and
the relationships of Lordship. The other is the Arc of Possibilities and in it
prevail the images of possibilities and the realities of immanence, and both
these arcs are mutually qualificative and mutually necessary. Neither by
estimation nor by their being could one be imagined without the other. The
Perfect and Complete Man is individuated between the two above-mentioned arcs
which collect together between the realities of the necessarily-so-ness of God
and the relationships of actions with the Divine Names and Lordship, together
with the realities of possibilities and the potentialities of withdrawal and
abstention. He is the encompasser of the two realities and is prevalent over
all that is in the universes. He reaches the two sides and joins the two sides
and he is the collecting together of the two seas and is manifest in two
images, and this is the station of hu, the station of the ‘joining of
the two arcs’.
unknowable degrees of letters from the degree of the heart which is
the first place of issue of the human nafs which is the place of issue
of the hamza and like its extension and rising over the other issues of
letters. From among the universe of letters in the human nafs, the hamza
is the parallel of the First Individuation (ta'ayyun awwal) and the
parallel of the first of the individuations of the individuations of the nafs-i-rahmam,
which, because of its relationship of differentiation from the interior of
the First Individuation, was individuated first; as the hamza is the
first of the letters which are differentiated because of the rising of the human
nafs from the interior of the heart, in which the human nafs
opened up all the letters and images of the human letters. The alif is
the place of manifestation of the image of the Blindness ('ama) which is
the nafs-i- rahmani which is the qualificative of the One, by which and
in which the images of other existents became manifest and individuated, which
images are the letters and Divine words and Names, and Names of the Names, in
consequence of which, letters and human words are individuated with the human nafs.
The potential for anything from the letters does not become manifest except
through alif which is the place of manifestation of One. However, even
for the alif, according to the way of complete revealing and making
obvious, no potential is manifest in the degrees of speech, because the station
of the alif is Oneness, and Oneness is such a Oneness in the degree of
transcendence (tanzih) that in it there is no manifestation of potential
other than for Itself, and any other cannot comprehend It. Equally, alif
does not become individuated in the speech of the nafs. Rather, it is
manifested in digits because alif is nothing other than the extension
and.rising of the nafs from the interior of the heart without
individuation with any specific diacriticalization outside the issue of the
issuance of the letters. Thus, for alif there is nothing other than its
individuation in the places of issue of letters, and the letters do not become
individuated and manifest in the places of issue except by alif, just as
the hamza is manifested because of its differentiation from and rising
up from the interior of the heart of the alif of the human nafs
in its own place of issue. Equally, this first individuation does not become
individuated except from the interior of the heart of the First Individuation
with the nafs-i-rahman of the Ipseity, which is non-individuation but
causes to rise because of His manifesting in the first degree of His own
degrees. Thus, the Ipseity became individuated in the degree of the First
Individuation because of the nafs. Consequently, in the same way, the nafs-i-rahmant,
which is qualificative of Oneness, became individuated in the degree of the
First Individuation (ta'ayyun awwal) because of its rising from the
interior of the heart of the First Individuation.
Uniqueness of the Ipseity, is the same as the other Names and
Qualities. Neither by being nor in relationship is there any difference or
distinction between them, just like in Nature the trees and their branches and
their leaves and their flowers and their fruit are the same as the tree’s
being, and just as the branches and the leaves are the same as one another. By
virtue of the Qualities which are contained in the Ipseity of God, when the
Most Holy Effusion and the Ipseity of the Uniqueness is revealed, then the
images of the Divine Names and Qualities which are the realities of the Names,
become manifest and'become knowledgeably differentiated one from the other
because of the differentiation of the Qualities which are the realities of the
Names, and the place of manifestation and differentiation is the Presence of
the Essential Knowledge. Thus, each Name from among the Names has a distinctive
portion from the Essential place of manifestation, and which is specialized
for it. Thus some of the Names are r.iore prevalent and wider than others in
width and encompassing and in prevailing over other Names, because some are
like origins for some others, whereas some others are subject and secondary.
Some are (1) Names of the Ipseity, whereas some others are (2) Names of
Qualities, and some are (3) Names of action. For each of the Names established
in any of the three degrees, there is a singularization or differentiation from
the Names which are established in the other two degrees. Also, for each of the
Names of the three degrees there results a completion which is special to it,
and there is established for it a reality which is particular to it and
differentiates it from the others. This results in a Lordship which is not
established for another. For instance, there is for the Name Allah and
for the Name rahman an encompassing and prevalence over all other Names,
which does not exist for any Name other than these two. ‘Invite God or invite
the rahman.'
Each Name does not denote the Ipseity except by virtue
of its particularized quality and differentiated reality, because for each
Name two indications are established. One indicates the Ipseity with a quality
and the other indicates that meaning for which it has been sent (driven) and
requires that. Under this consideration, each Name becomes other than another
Name and becomes other than the Ipseity or the thing called. But in
consideration of a Name denoting the Ipseity, for that one, totality of the
Names result because the one that is called is One, and it becomes qualified by
all the Names, and according to this consideration becomes the Greatest Name
and becomes the same as that which is called. So much so, that it is the belief
of Abu Qasim ibn Qasiy. Abu Qasim ibn Qasiy, in his book called the Hat
al-Na'layn, says that all the Divine Names name with all the Divine Names
and are qualified by them because they denote the Ipseity. And we said in our
book, also
revealed in the Presence of Knowledge with specific individuation;
they are established according to non-existence and they are not qualified by
being. At the same, time, the established potentialities are the realities of
the possibilities which are established in the Divine Knowledge. Thus, for the
established potentialities there are two aspects. One aspect is that the
established potentialities are Divine realities in consideration of the fact
that they are the images of the Names and Qualities. The other aspect is that they
are the realities and basis of the possibilities. According to the first
consideration they are like the bodies are for the spirit. According to the
second consideration they are like the spirit for the body. The established
potentialities result from, and are individuated by, the Most Holy Effusion in
the Divine Knowledge, and through the Holy Effusion the potentialities of
possibilities, which are their images, are resultant with their necessities and
subjects in the exterior. The established potentialities are not qualified with
any being brought about, because they do not exist in the exterior, and that
which is brought about exists in the exterior. ‘The potentialities have not
smelt the scent of being.’ What exists is the images of the potentialities,
which are manifested, through the Holy Effusion, in the mirrors of
potentialities. Thus, all the images of immanence and the places of
manifestation of the universe of possibilities are the images of established
potentialities, or they are the images of the Names and Qualities.
Origin five: explains the five hadarat.
Let it be known like this, that there is no end to the number of Divine
Presences (hadarat), but in consideration of the five universes they,
are five (Presences). One is the Presence of the Absolute Unknowableness, which
is the Presence of Established Potentialities and Realities of Knowledge, and
opposite this, in counterbalance, is the Presence of Senses and Witnessing
which is also called the Universe of Possession and the Universe of Immanence
and Mischief, and between the two is the Presence of Absolute mithal, and
between the Presence of Absolute mithal and the Presence of Absolute
Unknowableness is the Presence of Direct Relation with the Divine Attributes (Jabarut),
that is to say, intellects and abstract selves. Between the Presence of the
Absolute mithal and the Presence of Witnessing there is a Presence of
Relative mithal which is the Universe of Sleep. The Presence of the
Collectivity of Human Completeness collects in itself all five of these
Presences and is the consequence of all these Presences. The Presence of the
Complete Man is the sixth Presence. Thus the universe of the Complete Perfect
Man is the most collected together of the collection of all the universes, and
the largest and most prevalent of all the Presences.
than One because things exist through the Existence of God and are
inexistent by their own selver. Consequently, how could a thing be united with
God when its being is through His Being and is inexistent by its own being?
Thus there is conformity through the aspects of generality and detailing
between the Ipseity of God and the ipseity of the Perfect Man, and the
Knowledge of God and the knowledge of the Perfect Man. Also, in the same manner,
between the High Pen and the Spirit of the Perfect Man, and also between the
Guarded Tablets and the Heart of the Perfect Man, just as well as between the
Throne and the Body of the Perfect Man, and between the Chair and the nafs
of the Perfect Man, there is conformity, and each one of these is a mirror to
that with which it is in conformity. Everything that is in general in the High
Pen is general in the Perfect Man. Everything that is detailed in the Guarded
Tablets, that same thing is detailed in the Heart of Man. Everything that is in
general in the Throne, that same thing is general in the Perfect Man.
Everything that is detailed in the Chair, then that thing is detailed in the nafs
of the Perfect Man. Thus the Perfect Man collects in himself the totality of
the Divine and immanential Books. God’s knowledge of Himself necessitates His
knowledge of the totality of things, and He knows the totality of the things
because of His knowledge of Himself, because the Perfect Man is in general and
in detail the huwiyyah of all things. ‘He who knows himself certainly
knows his Lord.’ The Shaykh, God be pleased with him, said in his Book of
Mysteries:
I am the Quran, and
the seven verses of
the opening chapter of the Quran,
And the spirit of the spirit, and not the
spirit in the containers.
God said: ‘Read your Book sufficient in yourself. Today He is the
Reckoner (hasib) to you.’ And God said: ‘To show them Our acts up to the
horizons and in their beings (nafs) so that the haqq becomes
clear to them.’ ‘Is not your Lord enough Who is the Witness of all things?’ And
He says: 'alif, lam, mim—this is the Book in which there is no doubt.’
In this, alif denotes the Ipseity of Uniqueness because it is from the
beginning of all beginnings, because He is from all time the first of things,
and lam denotes the Being which is extended over the possibilities, and
the mim denotes the total immanence which is the Perfect Man. Thus the
High God and the Universe and Man are the Book in which there is no doubt.
Thus, let it be known like this, that the degree of the
Perfect Man is just as mentioned before this; it is in the isthmuseity between
the Ocean of Necessarily-so-ness, which is the Divine Names and Reality of
Lord-
universe was like the body, and with the image of God the Envoy
became like its spirit. God leads whom He wishes on the straight path.
The seventh origin', is the explanation
of letters and words. Let it be known like this, that the letters and words are
according to two parts. One is the Divine letters and the Divine words, and the
other is the letters of being and the words of being. The unknowable Divine
letters which are in the Unknowableness of the Unknowable, are that which is
the excellence of the Ipseity, like trees among plants. Divine happenings are
considered as the highest degrees of God’s individuations. This is in
consideration of the fact that things in the Essential Knowledge of God before
the declension (stghah) of being are the most exalted degrees of relationships
where each happening is called a letter of the Unknowable. Before the
declension of being, if one considers intellectually each happening with its
necessities, that happening is called the unknown word. If one considers God’s
manifesting with that happening, without considering the necessities relevant
to the revelation of God, but considering the extension and apposition (insih&b)
of the two determinations, then that happening is called the letter of being.
When the extension and apposition of the determination of the revelation over
that happening and its necessities is considered, that happening is called the
word of being. Considering that the unknowable letters are the happenings of
the Ipseity, they are the same as God, just as the tree is a plant among
plants. In consideration of the individuation of the letters through the
individuation of knowledge, and the’numerality of the letters through the
relative numerality, and in consideration that the letters are the reality of
things and their origins and their beginnings and their places of emergence,
the unknowable letters are other than the Ipseity of God.They are
differentiated from It by their relative differentiation, but not with real
differentiation. Thus, the unknowable letters happen to be beginnings, or the
individuation of things, and salam.
Origin eight-, is the explanation of
prophethood with envoyship and sainthood. Let it be known like this, that the
prophet is a person who is visited with Divine inspiration sent from God, who
is visited by an angel with Divine inspiration sent by God, and that that
inspiration would carry in it a Way (short 'ah) by which Way the High
God causes the prophet to worship Him. If that prophet is caused to raise the
Way for the benefit of others, then he is an envoy. The Shaykh, in chapter 14
of his Futuhat, says: ‘Know that the prophet is a person who is visited
with Divine inspiration sent from God, who is visited by an angel with Divine
inspiration sent by God, and that that inspiration would carry in it a
■n
prophethood, the prophethoods of these are partial prophethoods, yet
in comparison with those with prophethoods like Variants and Singulars, below
them, with even more partial prophethood which is the prophethood of the prophets
who do not have a Way, the prophethood of these is complete prophethood.
The prophethood of explanation is equally of two parts.
One part is that the prophets (S.A.) obtain the knowledges and gnoses which are
outside of the Ways and laws, directly from God, without any means, through
their sainthood. The difference is that these prophets receive the knowledge
and the gnoses without intermediary, from God, through the aspect of sainthood,
and then prophesy. Divine waking up or prophesying and the Lordly insight is
what they wake up to from the Divine realities and gnoses of the mysteries of
the Unknowableness which the saints have; and in this kind of awakening or
prophesying there are no new Ways and laws. The prophethood of Khidr (S.A.) is
also of this kind, because Khidr is individuated, between the station of
faithfulness and prophethood with a Way, with singularity and closeness. The
station of closeness is the station of absolute wakefulness or prophethood,
which is received by him with Divine specialty; and in this station also, the
Divine specialty is obtained without means, from God, from the private aspect.
This kind of prophethood can also be fluent in animals, as God said: ‘Your Lord
inspired the bee.’ It is also fluent in other existents, but these are not
called by the Name ‘Prophet’ or ‘Envoy’, except that for some special angels
the word ‘Envoy’ is given. Prophethood of a Way is one of the degrees from
among the degrees of Absolute Divine Sainthood, and is its manifestation. The
prophethood with a Way is stopped with the Envoy (S.A.), as in his words:
‘There is no prophet after me.’ After him there will be no envoy appointed with
a new Way. However, the prophethood of explanation will never be cut off,
whether in this world or the other, from the places of manifestation of
Mohammedian Sainthood. The prophets as envoys are higher than other prophets.
They combine the three degrees of prophethood, envoyship and sainthood.
However, in the envoy, his sainthood and prophethood are higher than his
envoyship because sainthood is a Divine quality and prophethood is an angelic
aspect, whereas the envoyship is the human aspect. However, in another aspect,
envoyship is higher than prophethood and sainthood, and prophethood, equally,
is higher than sainthood, and the envoy is higher than the prophet and the
saint because the envoy is appointed with a book, and is higher than the
prophet and the saint because in law the saint is subject to the prophet and
the prophet is subject to the envoy. And the beginnings of the prophethood are
the ends of sainthood. The
35
Envoy (S.A.), the total, general Sainthood and Mohammedian private
Sainthood are combined. Another part of the private Sainthood is also the
sainthood of the special believers from among the people of following (suluk).
This sainthood which is above the degree of faith and belief (imari) is
due to the degree of sainthood which happens in each of the degrees, by virtue
of each station and each degree of the Mohammedian stations and Divine degrees.
Again: ‘God is the Friend of those who believe, and equally God makes the pure
His Friend.’ Thus the saint who is particularized in each degree and in each
station makes God his Friend over the totality of his affairs, by virtue of that
degree; and also God, because of that degree or station, befriends him when he
is realized through the Mohammedian private Sainthood; because according to the
Mohammedian taste, the saint v&fant (passed away) from everything
and does not witness anything else with the High God. Rather perhaps he becomes
fant with his being and becomes baqi (remaining) with His Being,
and after that he becomes baqi in everything, and observes God with the
Being of God in everything.
The sainthood which happens at every station of the
stations specialized for the Mohammedian Presence, is of the Mohammedian
private Sainthood, as that station is the Mohammedian station. The person who
is in the station of the ‘coming together of the two arcs’ from among the
stations of Mohammedian stations is in the station of the Perfect Man which is
the station of the rising of the creaturialities wherein he is particularized,
and this is also according to two parts. One part is the most perfect saints
who have been answered and returned (to earth), and this part is the Awake (hits
hy ar). Another part is those annihilated saints who are perfect. These
saints are the ones who are drunk with God (mestanan). They are saved
from the constriction of humanity and have been drowned in the Uniqueness of
the two arcs and have become inexistent in the witnessing of the jalal
and jamal of the Self-Subsistence. They do not even know of their own
existence, so how could they be in any way in relationship with any other
person? And they do not have the strength to acquaint other people with that
Exalted Being, and their praise is always (verse): ‘You have occupied me with
Yourself and brought me even closer to You, so that I thought that I was You.’
These people have no knowledge of the tastes of the pinnacle of awakening
(prophethood) and He does not occupy them with invitation. But the hushyar,
who are the perfectly returned ones, they, in accordance with: ‘We brought from
among them leaders who guide in Our order’ are made to wear the coat of
awakening and caliphate, and they invite the people to God and are guides with
the order of God. ‘Say: This is my
body for the interior knowledge. The other part results from the
human senses being manifest, and the members and the surroundings, like the
power of sight, hearing, touch and smell, and other members of the human body
which are particular to the apparent side of the man, like the belly, the
sexual organs of both Man and Woman, etc. There results a knowledge from each
of these pre-mentioned powers and members for the emergence of the humankind,
and these are the manifest workings of the human emergence, and in accordance
with the quote: *. . . so that they see Our acts unto the horizons . . these
take from the horizons the Lordly knowledges and the Divine acts which are
spread over the horizons, and convey them to the interior. The interior
knowledge is also according to two parts. One part' is the knowledge which
benefits from the interior of the Quran, and that is the knowledge of Unity (tawhid).
This includes the Divine mysteries and the realities of the Unknowable. The
second part of this is resultant from the senses of the interior and the powers
of the spirit. The animal spirit, the spirit of the intellect, the spirit of
reason and the Holy Spirit, together with the receptive heart which is the
place of revelation, these are the interior acts of the human emergence, which,
in accordance with the rest of the quote: ‘. . . and in themselves . . .’,
receive it from the interior and from Man’s unknowable emergence and his
reality, and enter it into the apparent emergence of his genus. In comparison
with the apparent knowledge this is like the knowledge of the spirit. Thus, as
the spirit cannot be manifest without the body, the interior knowledge,
equally, cannot be manifest without the exterior knowledge. On the other hand,
as the body is not present without the spirit, the apparent knowledge cannot be
present without the interior knowledge. Thus it is necessary for the emergence
of Man, which is created according to the Divine Image, that it should have the
collectivity of both knowledges, so that he witnesses the apparent with the
apparent and the interior with the interior, and so that he is qualified with
the collectivity of the manifest and the interior, from all of which results
completion and perfection for Man. Man should be wary not to allocate knowledge,
like some of the people of the manifest, to the manifest knowledge, nor, like
some of the people of the interior, allocate knowledge to the interior. The
doctors of the manifest, allocating what is known to the knowledge of the
exterior, are veiled from what is encompassed and known of the interior knowledge,
like the people of Moses who do not witness the haqq with the witnessing
of the unknowable in the intellectual comprehensions and the degrees of the
unknowable. Equally, the people of the interior, like the people of Jesus,
abstracting themselves from the manifest by their exaggerated leanings towards
the spiritual aspects, do not witness the
and I loved to be known ..Just as the manifestation is through
Divine Love, arrival is equally possible through Divine Love. God leads whom He
wants to the straight path.
Origin eleven’, is in explanation of the
Way and of the followers of the Way, and the states of following, and the
special Mohammedian Sainthood which is reached by the Perfect Man. Now let it be
known like this, that God the Great, while dwelling in the Unknowableness of
Quiddity, to manifest the Beauty of His Perfection arranged Man in the most
beautiful form and the best image, and sent him to the lowest of the low. God
said: ‘We created Man in the most beautiful order and then sent him to
the.lowest of the low, except those who are secure in belief and do pure acts.’
Therefore it is impossible, without a doubt, that Man would not turn his face,
once having reached the lowest which is the universe of Nature, to that which
necessitated God’s Will for His creation which is the Divine gnosis and
revelation and revealing, because his happiness results from that. Total
gnosis, revelation, and revealing, cannot possibly happen except with the perfection
of Man, and the perfection of Man cannot happen except by reaching to the
Presence of Oneness and the degree of‘even closer’ which is the degree of the
Perfect Man, and after the degree of ‘even closer’ which is the Mohammedian
Perfection, the Presence of Uniqueness, and entering the special Mohammedian
Sainthood. Entering the Presence of Oneness is not possible, and the perfection
of Man is unimaginable except through cleansing the heart, which is the house
of God, from things seen as blameworthy by law and habit, and from such
qualities, and by washing it with the water of purity and self-vigilance from
all that appertains to the immanence, and making it empty of the impediments
and obstacles of the possibilities, and by turning towards the Presence of
Oneness with the total aspects of the heart, without looking at other things
than the Face of Oneness and giving them importance, and holding onto the High
God and following Him and tiding oneself to Him under His determinations. ‘He
who holds onto God, indeed God leads him to the straight path.’ And as He said:
‘What more beautiful religion than he who has tided his face to God Who does
beautiful things?’ The straight path is the path of tawhid and the path
of Oneness of the Ipseity.
The religion of all prophets is one. From all eternity,
Man is according to one religion; from the first creation, from the time of the
emergence of his elements, he is thereupon established (according to one
religion). The highest degree thereof is Oneness, and to know the value of this
and to follow the Way of the Oneness of the Ipseity, which is the strongest
path and the straight and closest Way, is not possible except through
of God which is in him to those of others, and he would
prefer that to deciding to follow the other face and Hand of God in another
creature. In the same way, the veiled person who does not witness God in his
own being, how could he observe God in the place of manifestation of another,
and how could he observe the haqq by the intermediary of such a man? As
he is veiled he cannot be a guide to another, nor can another veiled be a guide
to him and therefore bring him to knowledge. How can a blind man depend on the
blindness of another to lead him in a Way, and how could the other blind remove
the curtain from the eye of the first blind man? s
How could you know the
tongue of the birds, Have you not seen, Oh mosquito, Solomon?
Each shepherd that comes from the mountain does not
manifest as Moses hearing the call: ‘I am God indeed’, and the one who travels
in the world in abstraction does not deserve being the Spirit of God and
reviving the dead. The Light of the Majesty of Mysteries does not fit into'
each heart, and every impetuous effort does not give strength to hear gnoses of
Majesty. In short, the perfect individual which is individuated for each time,
is like the Heart which is the place of the Divine Spirit, and the other saints
and caliphs are like members to him. However, the thing which is a part of the total
is not like the total. The place of manifestation of less is not like the place
of manifestation of the total. The place of manifestation of the Misleader is
not the place of manifestation of the Name Guide. Thus the follower of the Way
who differentiates the degrees becomes of the people of Reality, and the one
who does not differentiate the degrees becomes impostor (zindiq) and one
who swerves from a true direction, and being lost in the veil of wonderment (hayrah)
and wandering in the desert of yearning he remains in regret and finds no way
to witnessing and seeing. To see, to witness God in each place of manifestation
according to the place of manifestation is the taste of the perfect gnostic.
What is necessary for the follower is to differentiate degrees. Perhaps that he
should refrain from the totality of aspects and face God who is revealed in the
niche of Light of the receptive heart of the Perfect Man who is the place of
manifestation of the totality of the Divine Names.
Now, Oh receiving believers, and Oh you follower who
receives, if you follow the Word of God and want to be saved from this passing
universe and you desire to reach and value the universe of Oneness, do not give
your heart to this universe of plurality and shadows, refraining from it for
the purposes of being saved from this clothing of nature. Try to obtain a Way
from a superior guide and a total saint who is present
The third kind of people is the people who are brought close (muqarra-
biri). They have denied to themselves giving any special value to the
things of the worldly life and the heights of the degrees of the other world,
because their hearts are Divine mirrors and the places of reflection of Lordly
revelations. They are people of witnessing and vision and insight and certainty
and taste and conscience. They are not veiled from the witnessing of the Beauty
of Oneness by the witnessing of the plurality of the images of this world and
the other world, and the service of these people to the servants of God is by
the order of the haqq to guide them and purify them to the station of
Oneness, and their himmah upon the servants of God cleanses their hearts
from the interests of this world and from the impediments of the other world,
and polishes them, and guides them and brings them to safety. They do not
intercede for the orders of this world which would cause the distancing of the
servant from the house of the Lord of Dearness, and they do not incline towards
or face in the way of degrees of the other world which may cause the veiling of
the lover from the Beauty of the Oneness of the Unity of God. Their service is
to lift off the veils and the obstacles between God and the servant, not to
increase the veils, and they lead to God. They do not mislead from God. God has
preserved them from the common run of people in the images of this world, and
equally has preserved them from those special people who are in the images of
good-doers, and He even preserved them from the great abdal (Spiritual
Replacers or Exchangeables or Substitutes) who are never manifested with
inability in tasarruf and in the giving of all things in tasarruf
or lacking in ability in tasarruf bringing about a thing in the order.
If an act of generosity (a miraculous happerrng) were to emanate from some of
these people of stations—as these (people of stations) are at the degree of
being the servers and subjects and members of the people of perfection—and
(equally) an act of dispensing (tasarruf) were to emanate from one of
the abdal, the people of perfection appear in the images of inability in
connection with laying down the parameters of that event. Because these people
are veiled in servanthood and inability they are protected from being
understood by the common or the select people, and equally, from the
comprehension of their friends and relatives, and also from the knowledge and
estimation of the people of stations who have not attained to their level, as
well as from the abdal. ‘My Saints are under My slippers. Nobody else
knows them.* ‘God’s Friends are God’s brides, and nobody sees the brides from
among the ill-doers.’ However, the people of vision and the people of
intuition and gnosis who honour the height of the place of abode of this
category and know the height and value in no matter which image of inability
and perplexity this category
awakens different and apparent peoples, and the places of
manifestation of prophets, in the images of different religious laws. When the
Prophet (S.A.) manifested in the aspect of his bodily image, his extension and
awakening was without intermediary, and in accordance with the quote: ‘Today I
have completed for you your religion’ the Divine religion found completion by
his human presence, and the order of manifestation and manifesting resulted by
his presence. After his removal it is the Poles who are the places of
manifestation of the totality of his Reality, and the mirrors of his total
Spirit. Effusion and help and extension and guidance and teaching result
through the places of manifestation of the Poles who are his caliphs. Until the
Day of Judgement there is not a time that the universe of possibilities be
present without there being present in it his heirs or his caliphs, and without
their intermediacy. Their existence in the universe of possibilities is like
the spirit in the body of Man. ‘Such is the superior Bounty of God, He gives to
whom He pleases, Who is both Great and of superior Bounty, and God speaks the
truth and He guides to the Way.’
The calling by revelation of the Brides of
Absoluteness in the places of absoluteness of the Wisdoms
of the bezels
Bismi-llahi-r Rahmani-r Rahim. Praise
and glory to God Who ornamented the Seals of Words with the ornaments of the
bezels of Wisdom, and engraved the bezels of their hearts with the engraving
of His Greatest Name (ism-i-a'zam), and made it so that the hearts of
the people of himmah (spiritual will) be channels for the Effusion of
the Most Ancient Sea, Who willed that they know and a re cognizant, and created
Adam in His own Image and evened out his (Adam’s) image and his balance and his
presence. 'Then He brought the Seal of the treasuries of the universe and
bestowed upon him the keys of the treasuries of Munificence and Generosity, and
praise and glory to God Who praised the guide of the peoples from the nights of
darkness to the Way, and established the most perfect and solid Mohammed, the
Envoy, to be the best of leaders to whom He gave the ability to comprehend
many meanings from a few words (javsami' al-kalim) from the Most Ancient
and Holy place, and gave the right and correct order and the most direct speech
to him and to all his friends and relatives, and gave him the salam, and
to his perfect heirs from among the Arabs and the Romans and the Persians.
Now, Oh Seal of the possession of the subhan (He
whose praises are forever sung), and Oh bezel of Solomonic justice, know it
like this, that when the Shaykh (R.A.) witnessed the Envoy (S.A.) in his
veridic dream, and when the Envoy (S.A.) equally showed him in the images of
the mithal the Wisdoms which were brought down onto the hearts of the
prophets which are mentioned in the Fusus, al-Hikam, and ordered him to
take this Wisdom and bring it out to the people in the image of the senses without
addition or subtraction, according to the limit that the Envoy (S.A.) set for
him, the Shaykh, concording with the order of the Master, aimed at the
exposition of this book after naming it in the state of praising the Ipseity of
the Uniqueness which englobes in Itself all the relationships of the Lordly
Names and qualities, and from thence these Wisdoms and knowledges and mysteries
were brought down into his heart, and into the hearts of the prophets
mentioned, from that allcollecting degree, and he starts with:
In the Name of the All-Compassionate and Merciful,
praise and glory to God Who brings down the Wisdom to the hearts of the Words
49
Wisdom to the hearts of the Words.’ The Shaykh (R.A.) mentions in
section 198 of the sixth chapter of the Futuh&t that: ‘The general
praise and gratitude which does not condition the speaker with an order, has
three degrees. One is the praise of the praise. The second, the praise of the
thing for its own nafs, the third, the praise of another thing. There is
not a fourth degree of hamd after this. What there is after this in hamd
is: two parts, for the hamd of the thing for its own nafs or
the hamd of another thing, which are giving hamd by the quality
of action or by the quality of transcendence. After this here, there is no
third hamd, except in the hamd of the hamd which is by
itself two hamds, which does not become a true hamd if it is not (hamd
given) to both.
The hamd of the hamd bestows hamd
therein,
And if there was not hamd, there would not be hamid.
Then there is the hamd of the mahmud which has two
parts. One is he who gives hamd with himself to Him. The other part is
that when he gives hamd he is not of it, and this one is called shukr.'
•It is also possible to understand the Shaykh’s word 'al-hamd'
to mean the hamd of something to another. The Shaykh (R.A.) giving hamd
to God from the station of the closeness of the supererogatories with the
tongue of God, descending with the quality of action, gives rise to two
aspects. One, that this hamd is the hamd of the thing to
something else, and the other aspect is that it is of the category of that
thing giving hamd to its own self, because in the station of the
closeness of supererogatories the tongue is the tongue of God. Under this
consideration, the haqq becomes the hamid, the AamcZ-giver, and
the mahmud, the one to whom hamd is given. It is then also
possible to say that what is meant by this hamd is of the category of hamd
of the thing giving hamd to itself, which has two aspects. One aspect is
this, that from the station of the closeness of supererogatories, the haqq,
being qualified with the quality of bringing down, gives hamd to Himself
with the tongue of the Shaykh. The other aspect is this, that the Shaykh (R.A.)
gives hamd to his own self, as God said: Tn fact there is not a thing
which does not glorify God with his hamd.' This is so because the
reality of the Shaykh is a total specification or individuation from the
potentialities of knowledge of the haqq, and his exterior is also one of
the places of manifestation from among the many places of manifestation of the
haqq's Being. Consequently, what arrives to his heart from the Wisdom of
God does not arrive except that it definitely arrives from his own reality and
from his established potentiality which is one of the affairs (sha'ri)
of the Divine affairs. Consequently, his hamd to himself also refers to
the hamd of the haqq. However, as the Shaykh (R.A.) in the
above-mentioned chapter of his Futuhat has said, after having mentioned
became manifest in each praise-giver and in the hamd which is
the action of each praise-giver, and that which is praised is also His own
Self. Consequently, the High God is, and was, the Praise-giver, the Praisereceiver,
and the Praise. Thus, thq results of prajse ^JL^fer to God, and this
verification is what is understood from the Words of the Shaykh, and the
totality of the orders fretum to God whether they be hamd or whether
they be other than hamd. The High God encompasses all things with His
own Being. There is nothing outside of His Beings and He encompasses with His
Ipseity the totality of things because they are in annihilation in Him. Even
though the hamd of each hamd-giver returns to God the High, and
even though a differentiation between hamd and hamid and mahmud
comes up, the hamd of the Perfect Man, who is fludnt with the fluency of
the Ipseity of the haqq in all images, containing in himself the images
of the immanence and the totality of the places of manifestation of
creaturiality, together with the relationships of the Names and all the Divine
realities, becomes, like that of the Shaykh, the most complete and the totality
of' praise-giving, and finally, the most appropriate and suitable thing which
happens is that the High God praises His own Ipseity in him by His own Ipseity,
and the plurality of hamd and the ham J-giver and the
Zicmd-receiver remains in annihilation under the dominion of the Uniqueness of
Ipseity. It is not possible to consider that the Shaykh’s degree and
appointment in the Divine Knowledge could be less than the highest and most
complete if he mentions the highest degree of the hamd by which the
Perfect Man praises God, and/or that he should himself praise God with praise
lower in degree than that hamd. Consequently, it is clearly established
that what the Shaykh means by hamd is this hamd which has just
been mentioned above. That is why he attributed the hamd to the Name—
which is lafz dhatu-llah, which is a single spoken sound or word of
God—of the creative Ipseity which is particularized in the degree of Divinity.
God (Allah) is the Name of the creative Ipseity which is particularized
in the degree of Divinity, and Divinity is qualified by virtue of the
absoluteness of the Ipseity. Perhaps rather, it is due to the fact that the
Ipseity of the Creator is qualified by the Names and qualities, because due to
His Absolute Ipseity He is beyond need of the universes, as for the Ipseity
there is no particularization of a sign, nor particularization of a Name, nor
anything that could be known or understood from It other than Its Essential
privacy.
When the apparent and hidden letters of the Name Allah
are collected, it amounts to six letters (which in Arabic is written with four
letters). One letter is the alif, by line, and by speech and by
pronunciation it is the hamza, and two letters lam., and the alif
which becomes apparent in
the fact that some of the universes are manifest to some others in
the Unknowableness of the haqq. The Being of the haqq then
becomes the mirror for the universe, and in the Being of the haqq the
universe becomes manifest and the haqq remains interior. The second
letter alif points at the relationship of the Name bfyin, as this
alif manifests only in speech and is not apparent in writing, just as
the Name batin is manifest by its own effect and is not manifest by its
potential. The letter ha which is an allusion to the quiddity of the
Unknowableness which combines in Itself the first and the last, the interior
and the exterior, and the Presences of the malakut, the Unknowable and
the Witnessing, points at the fact that it is connected to and reaches the
first Divine alif of the Ipseity which is imprisoned in the
Qualificative Spirit and is spread evenly over both the Essential revelation
and the throne of the human heart which is believer and devout. The scriptural
line of the alif of the human essence being circular and comprehensive,
its point of lastness reaches the point of its firstness and from this the form
of the letter nun manifests. Thus the letter ha takes the shape
of a circle, the first of which is attached to its last. There appears a letter
alif over the form of the letter ha, which is encompassed between
the endness and the beginningness of it. Thus the letter ha became the
state of the letter waw becoming manifest, and the letter waw is
the interior of the letter ha because the first movement and place of
emergence of the letter ha is from the interior of the chest, and the
human nafs with the ha extends to the exterior of the two lips,
after which it returns to the interior of the chest which is where it started,
and its circle becomes complete and thus includes and encompasses all the
particularities of the totality of the places of emergence of the letters.
Thus, the movement of the letter ha is from the universe of the Unknowable
to that of the Witnessing, after which it returns to the Unknowable which is
its beginning. The letter ha is the appearing of the letter waw,
and the waw whose beginning of movement is between the two lips of the
collectivity of its beginning in the nafs, afterwards rises to the chest
from the two lips and extends, and then returns to its beginning, and passes in
accordance with the totality of the places of emergence of the letters in the
comprehensive circle of collectivity, and branches out according to the predications
of all the letters. The movement of the letter waw is from the universe
of Possession and Witnessing to the universe of the Unknowable and then it
returns to its origin which is the Witnessing, and which is the interior of the
letter waw. The letter waw and the ha are compatible with
each other and one does not separate from the other. The letter waw
manifests with the qualities of all the letters; having passed over the exits
of all the letters, it encompasses all the letters. In the same way, the
letter’/ia equally manifests with the
Name ba(in. Of the Divine Names which are known and those
which are intellectualized, the latter have no manifested a'yfin in the
exterior, and what is manifested of them is only their effect. After this, the
places of immanential manifestation and the realities of possibilities which
are carried in the nafs-i-rahmani also became manifest with the Names,
and the Names became interior to them. Thus, the nafs-i-rahmani first became
particularized at the degree of the hamza, which is the First ta'ayyun,
in the Name Interior (batin'), and then later became particularized in
the images of the Divine Names which is the degree of the first letter lam,
and just as the first letter lam became particularized in the interior
of the second letter lam, and as the second letter lam is the
manifestation of the first letter lam, in the same way, the images of
the Divine Names became particularized and manifest in the mirrors of the
potentialities with the nafs-er-rahman. The images of the receptive
potentialities which are the places of manifesta tion of the Divine Names,
became particularized and manifested with the Divine Names which are the
particularizations of the nafs-er-rahmani. Thus, the Divine Names of
necessarily-so-ness became the interior of the receptivities of the possibilities
of the potentialities, and the potentialities became the manifestation of the
Names of immanential receptivities. Thus, the inclusion of the first letter lam
in the second letter lam points at the inclusion of the Divine Names in
the places of manifestation of the immanence, and that the second letter lam
is the manifestation of the first letter lam points to the fact that the
places of manifestation of immanence are the manifestations of the Divine
Names, which (the immanential places of manifestation) derive from the Names
which have their extension and power in the interior. The Divine Names of
Lordship are in the interior and determine over the places of manifestation of
immanence, which shows that the power, dominance, corroboration and
strengthening all belong to the Divine Names. That is why the strengthening (in
pronunciation) of the first letter lam which is included in the
interior, guides to the second letter lam over which it has dominion and
determination. The second letter lam, in this matter of strengthening,
is established in conformity to the determination of the first letter lam.
Thus, in the two letters lam, one of which is the Divine Names and the
other of which is the immanential receptivities, the al if of the nafs-i-rahmani
became interior and two lams manifest. Thus, that which is
particularized is interior, whereas particularization is manifest.
Consequently, the nafs- i-rahmani, manifesting the Divine Names and the
realities of the immanential potentialities, became particularized in the
degrees of Lordship and the establishers of Lordship (marbub). The
determination of the Essential revelation having ended (munqadi) in the
creaturial places
of the Name Allah. In the word All&h the first
letter lam is for specification, and the lowering of the letter lam
(in pronunciation) is to guard the humility of the servanthood, and the
silencing of this letter lam's extension as a middle lam (before
the second letter lam) points at the silencing of the Divine Names in
their potentialities while they are in nonexistence. Equally, they also point
at the silencing of the potentialities of the immanence in the different
degrees. In fact, the middle lam is in degrees in the last lam,
and the opening of the last lam, which is opened up, which is in sister
relationship to the letter alif which it reaches, points to the reaching
of the receptive potentialities to the nafs-i-rahmani and to the coming
of the opening of the doors of Being and the keys of the Unknowableness of
Being. Thus, the letter lam joining onto the letter alif, the lam
becoming opened, allows the opening up of the receptive potentialities by the nafs-er-rahman
from the darkness of non-existence and points to the coming of the Divine
openings and the Compassionate revelations, and it points at the fact that the lam
is at the station of the humility of the servanthood and the humility of the
letter ha which alludes to the Unknowableness of the Essence (quiddity),
so that the servant who is qualified by absolute servanthood, in accordance
with God’s saying: ‘Invite Me and I shall respond; rememorate Me and I shall
rememorate you’, invites and rememorates God, and as this has an effect upon God,
God in turn rememorates him and invites him, and concords with and is obedient
to the servant.
Many of the later commentators have seen fit to
interpret the Shaykh’s: ‘Who brings down the Wisdom to the hearts of the
Words’, and thought that the word 'manzif came from the form 'tanztr,
considering it as holding a meaning of ‘detailing and in degrees’. However,
the Shaykh did not want to say that this appertained to the special short
'ah which was in fact given down in degrees, but what he meant was to
explain the Wisdom and the mysteries which are particular to them, emanating
from the Mohammedian private Sainthood without an intermediary according to
the Way of the pure aspect, brought down into their hearts from the Most Ancient
station. That is why he said: ‘. . . to the hearts of the Words by the
uniqueness of the straight and closest Way from the Most Ancient station’,
whereas the religious laws which have been brought down by degrees are from the
Ancient station, from the Presence of the Names and from the higher knowledges.
Bringing down (inzal) is the most prevalent and collective form of
bringing down. This bringing down prevails over both, whether it be by degrees
or the bringing down of the Wisdom always and forever into the hearts of the
prophets and the saints, but equally, when one considers that the Wisdom of
the prophets who are mentioned in this book, all together, at
mentioned in this book, what he meant by ‘Words’ are people, and
Sadr al-Milla wal-din (Sadruddin-i-Konevi), referring to the words that
followed: ‘and the people were successors’, pointing at what this meant, said
in his Fukuk'. ‘The Word is the same as that prophet for whom and for
whose people is the Wisdom of God, from the point of view of his speciality and
the pleasure of his particularization which is in fact the religious Way (sharFah)
of this prophet because of which he is called a prophet, but from the point of
view of his knowledge of God and from the point of view of God’s Knowledge and
its necessities and its timeliness and its being temporal or ephemeral, all of
this is infinite and timeless, and this is the aspect of his sainthood.’ The
Shaykh (R.A.) pointed at a very subtle meaning in this, and that meaning is this,
that as truthfully and veridically transmitted and related from the Mohammedian
Presence, with the words: ‘People of knowledge from among My people are like
the prophets of the bani Israel’, it becomes established that the
knowledgeable people and gnostics of these people are like the prophets of
Israel, thus making it known that among this Mohammedian people there are heirs
to prophets who are heirs by knowledge, by state and by station, and who
receive from the spirits of those prophets knowledges and states and tastes, in
which stations they (the prophets) were present before these (the heirs), and
that each prophet’s heir receives the extension of help and effusion from the
spirit of that prophet, or he receives it directly from God the Higlj, but from
the same ore from which that prophet h< d received it.
Thus, according to this consideration, for the
determinations which descend upon the hearts of the prophets there are heirs
existing among the people of the Mohammedian heirs, where each prophet’s wisdom
descends always and forever upon the heart of his heir as this heir is heir to
that prophet’s knowledge and states, or he is suited to the taste or Way or
knowledge or state of that prophet. And this is because each of these, either
through an intermediary or without an intermediary, takes from the Presence of
the same Name. The Mohammedian heir receives the knowledge from God the High
either in Light images or in special images, or receives it from the Spirit of
the Mohammedian special Sainthood, or from God the High in that place of
manifestation. These are the most complete of the heirs. This is so because the
stations and the states and the places of witnessing are the most comprehensive
and largest and most total, just as the Prophet Mohammed (S.A.) is the most
complete of the envoys because he is the ism-i-a'zam as it englobes all
the Divine Names. The Wisdoms, and the Wisdoms concerning their people, descend
upon the hearts of the Words which are the prophets, by virtue of their
prophethoods. The Wisdoms, and the Wisdoms which
are receptive of the Wisdoms of the collectivity of the perfection
of Uniqueness, and this book is private to the mention and rememoration of the
particularizations of the Ways of the people of perfection.
Now, know it like this, that as in the gnosis of
verification, the coming down of Wisdoms is according to two Ways. These two
Ways include the infinite Ways. One is the Way of arrangement of incatenation,
and this Way is according to what comes down from the Lordship and Presence of
Divinity which is the Ancient station. The second is the Way of mystery which
is the Way of the private aspect in which there is absolutely no place for an
intermediary, because the private face is such a face that each being, before
the reception of his established potentiality, is attached to the High God
without any intermediary, through an Essential attachment, and bringing down
according to this Way happens to come from the Presence of the singularity of
Uniqueness which is the Most Ancient station, and that is why he (‘Arabi) said:
By the uniqueness of the straight and closest Way from the Most Ancient
station. (This read as 'amam' means the closest and the straight), which
means that He brings down the Wisdom upon the hearts of the Words by the way of
the closest Way, which is according to the Way of Uniqueness, from the Presence
of the Uniqueness of the Ipseity which is the Most Ancient station. It could
also be understood as bringing down the Wisdom upon the hearts of the Words in
the Way of the Uniqueness which is the closest Way; or it can mean ‘dressing’,
so that one would read: He brings down into the hearts of the Words from the
Most Ancient place, the Wisdom, having dressed it up in the Way of the
Uniqueness which is the closest Way; it also contains the meaning of order or
informing, in which case it would read as bringing down the Wisdom as an order
and as information by that closest Way which is the Way of Uniqueness. The Way
of Uniqueness is the Way of the private aspect, and there is no intermediary in
it except attachment to the Ipseity.
Now, know it like this, that for every thing there is a
uniqueness which is particular to that and private to it, and these
uniquenesses are the affairs of the Ipseity and are called established
potentialities and the realities of knowledge; and this is by virtue of each
affair having no difference to the Ipseity which is qualified by the uniqueness
of each affair; because Uniqueness is fluent with its Essence in all the affairs
of the affairs of the Ipseity with Essential fluency. Consequently, any one of
the affairs of the Ipseity is the same as the Uniqueness of the Ipseity, and of
the affairs, each affair is the same as another affair; because of the
annihilation of the affairs in the Uniqueness of Ipseity, and the Ipseity,
equally, is the same as all. the affairs because of Its not being monopolized
in each of them by any one of them. Consequently, if the
63
in the images of the affairs of the Ipseity, and they are with the haqq
in the changes and in the twiddHngs in all the Divine affairs and the images of
the immanence, just as the immanence of the haqq is with them in
revelation in accordance with the images of the Ipseity. What is meant by the
Most Ancient station is the station of the Ipseity of the Uniqueness.
Now, know like this, that the Way, even though infinite,
is enclosed (contained) in two well-known Ways, one of which is the Way of arrangement
of incatenation and the other is the Way of mystery which is the Way of the
private aspect. In the same way, the stations, though they are infinite in
number by virtue of the infinity of the number of people of stations, are all
contained in two stations, one of which is more ancient than the other, and
this is by the priority of degree and essence, and not by time, which in fact
the official doctors should know well. That station is the Presence of the
Uniqueness of the Ipseity, transcended from Names and qualities, and is called
the Uniqueness of the totality of all the Presences of Names, and that Presence
is specific to the Sealhood of the Uniqueness of the Mohammedian collectivity.
Thus He reveals Himself by the Way of Uniqueness from the closest Way from the
Presence of Uniqueness, which is the Mohammedian Presence, with the Uniqueness
of the totality of the Ipseity, and the bringing down of the Wisdom upon the
hearts of these complete people by this Way makes them the same as the haqq
who is revealed to them in the image of the Ipseity, and their liearts have
been changed with the haqq in all the affairs of the Ipseity. There is
established an essential relationship between these Words and the Presence of
Uniqueness in transcendence and in non-relativity, and this Presence is
specific to the Mohammedians. Those who take it from this Mohammedian Presence
without an intermediary take it directly from the Mohammedian heirs, and the
Wisdom that comes down from this station is one Wisdom. The plurality of being
and Names are expelled from it, but because of the different receptivities of
that one Wisdom, it is called ‘Wisdoms’. Consequently, because of the variety
of receptivities, the Wisdoms are in plural relationship. In short, the
radiation of Wisdom upon the hearts of the Words from this Most Ancient station
does not happen except through the Way of closeness of Uniqueness, and this Way
is special to the Mohammedian prophets and saints upon whose hearts the Divine
Wisdoms have come down according to the qualification of Uniqueness, and the
Way itself is equally in accordance with the Uniqueness because their hearts
are in accordance with the qualification of Uniqueness.
The Wisdoms that are sent down from this station are
according to two aspects. One aspect is this, that the Wisdoms which appertain
to the Mohammedian taste and to sainthood and to Uniqueness and to the
although differentiated in the relationships of Oneness, does not
manifest in being except by number, and one is the origin and the beginning of
numbers. Number is the detailing of one. If these relationships were to be
manifest by the numeralization (augmentation) of the one through the detailing
of the degrees^of one, which are two and three and four, it happens that one is
half of two, a third of three and a fourth of the four. Thus the ancientness of
the Unique over One is apparent.
Now, know it like this, that the Divine Wisdom upon the
hearts of the Words is brought down from two stations. It is because of these
two Ways that the Shaykh (R.A.) said: ‘Who brings down the Wisdom to the hearts
of the Words by the uniqueness of the straight and closest Way from the Most
Ancient station.’ One Way is this, that it is brought down from the Presence of
Divinity which is the second station. These Wisdoms, coming from the Most
Ancient station from the Presence of Uniqueness, having been amplified in
accordance with the Divine Names in the Presence of Divinity, are brought down
from the Divine Names upon the hearts of the prophets and the saints. The other
Way is this: that from this Most Ancient station, according to the Way of
Uniqueness, they are brought down into the hearts of the prophets and saints,
which are the Wisdoms special to the Unity {tawhtd} of the Ipseity and
the Mohammedian taste. These Wisdoms are brought down in accordance with the
quality of Uniqueness, in accordance with one religion, and all the prophets
and saints are according to one religion which is the Unity of the Ipseity,
even though in consideration of their essential particularities the tastes of
some are other than the tastes of others. However, there is no difference in
their origin of tawhtd except this much, that due to the difference in
the aptitudes of the people, the religions and religious laws and orders and
prohibitions and special actions and specific determinations are different one
to the other. That is why the Shaykh said here, as if expecting an argument to
the contrary: Indeed, because of the difference of the people, the creeds and
the religious communities became different, as if it were going to be asked
that if the Divine Wisdoms of the uniqueness of the totality of the Ipseity of
Uniqueness came down upon the hearts of the Words by the Way of Uniqueness, or
if what was meant by bringing down of Wisdom was one Way, how then would the
creeds and religious communities be different, and how would there be so many
beliefs, religions and religious laws? It is to answer this possible query that
he says that although the different moods and ways of doing things and
aptitudes of the people caused the creeds and religious communities to become
different, even then the Essential Divine Wisdoms are brought down from the
Most
according to the straight path of that Name, whereas the totality of
the Divine Names is annihilated under the dominion of the Uniqueness of the
Absolute Ipseity. In the same way, the totality of the different Ways upon
which walk all the live beings is in annihilation under the dominion of the
uniqueness of the closest Way. The Shaykh (R.A.) writes in his Naqsh al
Fusus: ‘The aim of all the Ways is to God, and God is their aim and they
are all according to the straight path, but we serve God by the Way which leads
to our private happiness and He did not give that as law to us.’
And God gave praise (saldt) to the mamad
al-himam (the source of extension of all himmah) from the treasuries
of Munificence and Generosity, with the most righteous saying. This means the
gifts and munificences and revelation of the One Lord which is particularized
in the Presence of Divinity with munificence, which arrive and reach upon the
source of extension of all himmah from His treasuries of Munificence and
Generosity with the most righteous saying. In the knowledges of verification salat
(prayer and praise) is a real annexation. According to one consideration this
annexation can be applied to the servant, and by another consideration this
annexation can be applied to God the High. Thus the salat from the side
of the servant is prayer and humility (khudu') and meekness (istiqanat)
and modesty of mien (hushu') and endeavour (nuzu'), and from the
side of the haqq it is Mercy and Compassion (rahmah), Paradise (jinan),
and the revealing of Munificence (lutf) and Benevolence (imtinan)
and Favour ('atf) and Clemency (ra'fa) and Beneficence and
Kindness (ihsan) and Forgiveness (ghufran) and Approbation (ridwan).
The salat upon the Prophet comes at times as the salat which
happens by virtue of his 'ayn from the Presences of the totality of
Uniqueness and from the Presence of Uniqueness of the Ipseity, and at other
times from his relations and subjects by virtue of annexation of other. The
Shaykh refers to this in his Futuhat in the last chapter of the
mysteries of the salat. And the Shaykh (R.A.) attributed the salat
to God, because the word hamd necessitated that he should say that it
was salat done to the source of all himmah. Thus the Shaykh,
obeying the degree of height of the Envoy (S.A.), pointed at the fact that the
highest degree of the degrees of $alat, which is the salat by
God, was specialized for the Envoy (S.A.), or he pointed at the fact that the
one who gave hamd through his tongue is the haqq and not his own
self. Thus He gives praise upon His own nafs, and gives $alat
over His own Prophet. That is why he attributed the words: ‘God gave praise (salat)'
to the words ‘Praise to God’, and in the words ‘the source of extension of
all himmah' the Shaykh referred the $alat to the quality of the
Envoy (S.A.) which is extension of help, and annexed it to it, and placed the
69
in the Presence of Oneness the keys of the totality of the
treasuries of the Names came into the hands of the Envoy, each himmah of
the Envoy became extended from the treasury of that Name, by which Name the
Great God educates the possessor of that himmah by bestowing upon him,
as gift, that perfection. Thus it is equal whether it is himmah which
appertains to the worldly necessities of the nafs or whether it concerns
the perfections of spirituality of other-worldliness, or whether it concerns
God Himself or a thing at the level of God. In short, a thing which a person
asks for does not come to him except from the treasury of the Name which is the
private Lord of that situation, and from that Presence and from his own 'ayn-i-thabita,
the particularization of which is real in the Divine Knowledge. Yet it always
must come from the extension of the Reality of Mohammed which collects in
itself the totality of the treasuries of the Names and which is the niche of
Light of the Seal of the Envoys. Consequently, whatever gift or bounty or
revelation comes from the Ipseity of God from the Presences of the Divine Names
which are the treasuries of Munificence and Generosity, to their places of
manifestation, it arrives from the places of manifestation of those Names which
extend that gift and munificence from the isthmuseity of the Reality of
Mohammed. Thus it is the Reality of Mohammed which extends each himmah
and destines each business from the Presence of that Name to which the owner of
that himmah is attached. It is all the same whether that extension comes
from the treasuries of Munificence without taking into consideration whether
the receptor deserves it or not, or whether he has asked for it, or whether it
is from the treasuries of Generosity in consideration of an asking and desert.
The word 'al-himam', the plural of the word 'himmah',
refers to the himmah of the prophets and the saints whose blessed
essences emanate from the same Reality, whether those himam appertained
to a miracle or a spiritual generosity. They are equally extended from the comprehending
Sealhood of total and collective perfection of the Reality of the Envoy (S.A.),
and it is the Envoy who extends those himam for them from that collective
Reality. It is from this degree that the pre-eminence over the other envoys
becomes manifest. Thus, it becomes apparent that the Shaykh (R.A.), giving
precedence to the words: ‘source of extension of all himmah from the
treasuries of Munificence and Generosity’ over the word ‘Mohammed’, has pointed
to the intellectual anteriority of the Reality of Mohammed and to the
anteriority of the salawat (blessings and benediction) from God in
accordance with that Reality, and that Reality being called, consequently, by
His venerable Name, Mohammed. (All that happens is the creation—if in fact it
is actually a creation as
Moses by speech.” ’ The assertion of God by which the non-existents
hear is the assertion ‘Be’ {kuri), which was said for things that were
established in the non-existence, and by which that thing became manifest and
came into being, because the assertion ‘Be’ is the same as that assertion by
which the High God spoke {takallum). The assertion ‘Be’ is a (Self-)
revelation for God in an image which accepts assertion and speech. All the
same, revelation for God also does exist by other than this. Consequently,
under this consideration, assertion is more general than a manifest speech
(tongue), because one says the tongue of the Ipseity, the tongue of the
qualities, the tongue of actions, the tongue of degree, the tongue of Reality,
and where it concerns tongues there are other things which are also called
tongues. For each tongue, then, results a specific and particular assertion.
When it was verified in the Knowledge of Reality that the Reality of the Envoy
(S. A.), which is the Sealhood of comprehensive complete totality, is a
collective isthmus between the Ipseity and the Divine Names and between the
realities of being and the images of immanence, as the ipseity of the Envoy
(S.A.), in which is particularized his total Reality, is the most total place
of manifestation for the Divine Ipseity and the best place of reflection for
the qualifications and other relationships and actions and Names and characters
and qualities, and that the High God became fluent by Essential fluency in his
powers and members and in his essence and spoke from the station of
supererogatory closeness through his speech, it becomes known therefore that
if himmah emanates from a person for the completion of an affair, or
emanates for the arrival of a gift from the treasuries of a Name which is the
private Lordship of the possessor of that himmah, it comes through the
isthmuseity of the collectivity of the Reality of the Envoy which asserts with
the assertion ‘Be’ {kun) for that inexistent thing which is Divine gift
or the completion of al! that is required, which is treasured in the treasuries
of that Name to which appertains the himmah of the owner of that Name.
Consequently, the Envoy (S.A.) extends the himmah for that person with
the assertion ‘Be’, which is the most righteous assertion. Thus the most
righteous assertion becomes nothing other than kun, which word is
forever, and continuously emanates from God with the tongue of the Essence and
Reality of the Envoy.
In the words of the Shaykh: ‘source of extension of all himmah
etc.’ there is another consideration. This other consideration is as follows:
when God raised the Shaykh to the origin of the prophets mentioned in this book
and bestowed on him and brought down on his heart the Wisdoms which have been
brought down on the hearts of these prophets, He gave him great bounty for
which the Shaykh gave praise, and the Shaykh’s praise thus constituted a collective
praise of all the places of
cannot mean anything other than those who are private to the Envoy
from among the pure ones and from the knowledgeable ones of God, and cannot
mean the great ones etc.,!.because the same word is used in the Quran where it refers
to the Pharoah, when it says: ‘Enter there the people of Pharoah.’ Thus the
word ‘relations’ or ‘the people of means the Envoy’s private special people
whose inheritance and orders make them into the relations and people of the
Envoy through their order and heritage of knowledge and station, whether these
be great or small. But that person who has by his nature a relationship to the
Envoy and has a true relationship to the generic image of the Prophet, and yet
instead of trying to receive from God and from the spiritual heirs occupies
himself with the perishable vanities of this world, is also in image his
relation but not in meaning.
The salam upon the Envoy and his relatives is the
invitation of salam from God, and as it is mentioned, this is the revelation
which is particular to the Presence of the Name salam. Thus God fides to
that man the realities of completion and perfection and bestows upon him peace
of perfection from the revelations of the Might (satwah, Strength,
Power) of His Majesty and manifests him in the images of total intermediary and
leadership and caliphate, and gives to him the Divine praises of completion and
the reaching of hamd, and gives him as a gift the verification with the
realities of vision at the level of God and the perfection from deviations, and
God knows.
Following on from this, indeed I saw the Envoy (S.A.) in
a dream of announcement of good news (mubashshirah) in the last decan of
the month of Muharrem in the year 627 (hegira) in the city of Damascus, and in
his (S.A.) hand was a book and he said to me: ‘This is the book of the FusQs
al-Hikam. Take it and bring it out to the people who will benefit by it.’
Now know it like this, that it is well-known and
attested to be true from the Envoy that he said: ‘He who has seen me has really
seen me because indeed thesatan cannot represent me.’ The meaning of this hadith
is this, that if a person sees the Prophet in his dream in the image that the
Prophet had during his life-time and his image is as has been established by
true hadiths, and if this visible image was shown to the perfect ones of
the creation, indeed that person has seen the Envoy (S.A.) in reality; for the
satan cannot take on that image and cannot ever appear in that image because
the Envoy is the image of the Name hadi (Guide) whereas the satan is the
image of the Name mudill (Misleader) and it is not possible for the
place of manifestation of the Name mudill, which is the satan, to
manifest in the image of the Name hadi. It is possible that the satan
manifests himself with pretension of Lordship and Divinity because he is the
place of manifestation of the Name mudill
And the vision of the uniqueness of the totality of completeness
collects in itself the vision of the totality of stations in relationship to
God and in relation to the most complete creature which is the Envoy (S.A.),
and in relation to other perfect people the Seal of Prophethood and the Seal of
Sainthood are specific to their descendants.
Mubashshirah in origin is
the quality of a dream but it is one of those dominating adjectives which stand
in the place of that which they qualify. Thus the thing known is not always
mentioned with that which is qualified, like batha' which stands for
the plain of Mecca. Consequently, one does not say ‘a dream of announcement of
good news’, like one does not say ‘a desert and pebbly land’. Mubashshirah
is a real dream that the believer sees. In the real manner of being, the mubashshirah
is more general than the dream because God gives good news to His saints in a
state between sleep and waking, without a dream, by announcement or radiation (ilqa)
and by declaration or by revelation coming directly from God or coming
spiritually through an angel. The fact that this book was in the hands of the
Envoy points again at the fact that: concerning the tastes of the perfect,
complete prophets in this book, even though their knowledges and Wisdoms
therein mentioned are brought down from the Presences of the Name's which are the
origins of their specialities where it concerns their aptitudes, and these
knowledges and Wisdoms are engraved upon their hearts, yet the uniqueness of
the totality of the Wisdoms and knowledges of the prophets is held in the hand
of the Envoy (S.A.) because of the consideration that his prophethood is the
uniqueness of the totality of the Sealhood of all Prophethood. Consequently, it
englobes and collects in itself the totality of the knowledges and the Wisdoms
which are specific to each, and the detailing of that Wisdom and knowledge and
its explanation is in the hand of the Mohammedian Seal of Sainthood. ‘This is
the book of the Fusus al-Hikam' means that this book was called Fusus
al-Hikam by the Envoy, or equally it can be that this was giving news of
the fact that the name of this book was Fusus al-Hikam at the level of
God. To call this book by the name Fusus is to proclaim that this book
is the potentialities of the Wisdoms brought down upon the hearts of the
perfect ones that are mentioned therein, because the word fusus points
at the realities and meanings which are specifically known things, just as fusus
is the place of the engraving of the symbols of Names by which the treasuries
are sealed. These fusus are the engravings of the Divine Wisdoms of
perfection of the uniqueness of the Mohammedian collectivity of the Sealhood
which are detailed in the receptivities of the hearts of the perfect prophets
who are mentioned in this book. The Shaykh (R.A.) is the Seal which is special
for the Sealhood of the specialities of sainthood, because the
Envoy. Consequently, obedience to them is obedience to God and His
Envoy. However, the Shaykh (R.A.) also points to the fact that the Envoy gave
this book of the Fusus al-Iiikam to him through the Divine order, having
ordered him to expose it to the public, and he himself, as he is of the saints
and caliphs of the people of order, received the book by Divine order and by
the order of the Envoy, and by his exposing it, the people to benefit and
verify through this book are the believers who are obedient to God and the
Envoy and to the people of order who, in this case, is the Shaykh’s own person.
Had the obedience to God not been included in the obedience to the Envoy and
obedience to the people of order, God would not have ordered us to worship Him
through obedience to the Envoy and obedience to the people of order. Consequently,
any person who accepts this book that the Shaykh, who is himself the person of
order, exposes through the order of God and the order of the Envoy, that person
obeys the order of God and the order of the Envoy and the order of the people
of order, and the person who denies it denies the order of God, His Envoy and
that of the person of order. We take refuge in God from such. Thus, in the words:
‘people of order from among us’ he pointed at obedience to his own order.
In a similar way to this event of the Shaykh, and the
Envoy (S.A.) giving the book of the Fusus into his hands, in the year
1003 the people of Wallachia, having insurrected the soldiers of Islam and
their General, were putting a bridge across the river Danube near the township
of Rusjuk, and myself, the poor, was among the soldiers of Islam. One day,
about the time of dawning, sleep overtaking me, I saw the Envoy (S.A.) in a company
of grand and pure saints of great generosity, in converse, and he, the rising
place of the sun of prophethood, the Pole of the circumference of Being, was
visible in the very centre, and these estimable people were like a ring around
him and were sitting in complete respectful attitude and good form, attending
to the vision of the beauty of the Light of Prophethood, and his orders and
determinations; while myself, drawn in the line with these Lordly people and
included in the image of the circle, and witnessing the beauty of the Envoy,
was sitting opposite him according to the good form in that assembly. Then, suddenly,
that leader of prophets and the orderer of the lines of spirits of the great
saints, upon all of whom be the best and most superior salat and salam,
gave into my hand, being gracious to this poor one, a perfectly bound Quran
written in his own hand, and I, taking that Quran from the hands of the Envoy
(S.A.), opened it at a place and saw that it was the Envoy’s own handwriting
and began to read under the instruction and verification of the Envoy himself,
and he, giving me lessons, blew
•70
which befell the people of Islam that year have not happened
recently, but from those times on the countries of Islam and the Ottoman
countries were not free of the attacks of the people of opposition and revolts
and misleadings and changing of people of merit and constriction and jalal
until the year 1018, and in the year 1018 the aspects of the universe began to
change, and ill-luck stars of the places of manifestation of the jalal
began to wane.
Now, let it be known like this, that that extender of
all himmah and the owner of Munificence and Generosity, Mohammed (S.A.),
always and forever is not devoid of extending Divine Knowledge to his heirs and
caliphs, and they, on the other hand, never stop taking, without intermediary,
from him. Thus, whatever the Shaykh (R.A.) has explained of Wisdom in this
book, he has expounded it according to the limit and boundaries set by the
Envoy (S.A.) himself, and he has no power or ability either to increase or
decrease it, and God leads whom He wants to the straight path.
I verified the desire (amniyah) and purified the
intention, and abstracted the purpose and the himmah to expose this book
as it was limited to me by the Envoy (S.A.) himself, without increase or
decrease. This means that he verified the desire of the mubashshirah in
the universe of senses and witnessing, which also means that he comprehended
the Reality and the reality of the image which was represented to him in the
Presence of khayal, or it can also mean that he established it in the
exterior and manifested it in the senses, such as God relates as a story from
the prophet Joseph (S.A.): ‘This is the interpretation of the dream from
before, to which in fact God brought the reality’, for instance, such as the
dream seen in the Presence of the khayal which exists in the halfwaking
of the senses. In the word ‘desire’ it is possible to see two aspects. One face
is this, that it may be qualificative of the Envoy (S.A.). It is as if the
Envoy (S.A.) gave to the Shaykh the images of the Wisdoms and mysteries,
together with the place of manifestation of these images, to manifest them
through the hands of the Shaykh (R.A.) who is the complete heir and the
receptive place of manifestation of its Wisdoms and mysteries. The intention
and desire of the Spirit of the Envoy in the high spiritual isthmuseities was
this, since the Shaykh was already realized in the degree of Mohammedian Seal
of Sainthood, and the Envoy knew that the manifesting and opening up of the
knowledges and Wisdoms and mysteries which appertained to the taste of the
private Sainthood was to be through the hands of the Seal of Sainthood. That
is why God the High, together with the place of manifestation of His image,
gave to the Shaykh the images of these mysteries and Wisdoms, and the
manifestation of these was what the Envoy aimed at and what he desired.
81
the Divine and immanential perfections and they have completed and
collected the degrees of certainty of human completion and perfection, and they
have reached the degree of witnessing (shuhud) and sensitizing and
unifying and clarity of sight and arrived at the greatest caliphate by which
they are qualified and in which they are realized. Thus, they are with God in
the best and the highest form of stations of realization and in the closest
degree of perfection, thus respecting the good form with God in the subjects,
one of which, at the level of recitation, is speech, and another is the Divine
irradiation or the irradiation of the Spirit which is in the state of writing,
and the third one is what is kept in the mind which is the exterior of the
heart. So again, in his words where he says: ‘all that my fingers write’ at the
level of writing, and in the words: ‘all that speaks with my tongue’ at the
level of speech, and: ‘all that is folded in the core of my soul and mind’ at
the level of descent to the heart, he requested the specialization of the
blowing of the Spirit and the irradiation of the praise of God. Thus from all
possible places where there might be irradiation, he did not leave aside one
through which the saXan might infuse itself, and, to protect himself completely
from this possibility when he was in the degrees of being kept holding on,
protected and innocent of any other thing, and when his heart was open in width
to God, and when his heart was full of God, he requested that in the places of
radiation the purity of holding on and protection be specialized to him.
What is also meant by the irradiation of the praise of
God is the Presence of cleanliness and transcendence from all else. The
irradiation comes from the totality of the Presence of the Names. Thus he
requested that the irradiation of the praise of God from the specific Name subbuh,
which is from the Presence of cleanliness and transcendent purity, be
specialized to him so that he is purified and cleansed from all pollution and
that he is pure for God in holiness. Equally, it is the radiation that comes
without intermediary from the Presence of Uniqueness which is clean and
transcendent from all plurality, which is the image of the blowing of the
Spirit and the spiritual Word which manifests in the interior of the nafs
by radiation from the high and total angelic spirits. The words of the Prophet
also denote this: ‘Indeed the Holy Ghost blew over my chest.’ What is meant by
‘blowing of the Spirit’ is inspiration and radiation. In thv; way the Shaykh
points at the Divine Spirit, which had been radiated into him in the image of
the spirituality of Mohammed (S.A.), by the words: ‘in the chest of my nafs
that is, to his own nafs in the image of the spirituality of Mohammed
(S.A.), by the words ‘blowing of the Spirit’. Rau' is the chest, which
from the side of the nafs is the aspect of the heart which is the place
for the passions of the nafs and
Rt
denies his word denies the word of God and the word of the Envoy. He
continues, saying: So that those who understand be certain of it, those from
among the people of God who are the people of the Heart, that this is the book
from the station of Sanctifying, transcendent from all selfinterests of the nafs
into which enters misrepresentation (£«//>&), so that from among the
people of God who are the people of the Heart who come to know the mystery of
this book, let him be verified, that is to say, become gnostic in accordance
with Reality that this book comes down from that station of Sanctification. In
other words, that which is apparent and revealed in the words of this book and
the Wisdoms and knowledges therein, descend from the station of Uniqueness,
which station is transcendent from the self-interests of the nq/j, hence it does
not suffer from the intrusion of deceit and cloaking. In other words, the
spiritual image and the image of the meaning of this book is brought down from
the station of Uniqueness with the Divine Will in its original purit.y, and is
transcended from the purposes of the nafs which is the place of dressing
up and misrepresentation which is in the station of plurality, because it is
not dyed with the purposes of the nafs and it does not emanate from the
degree of the nafs which is the place of lack and shame, because that
which is manifested from the degree of the nafs is manifested with the
purposes of the nafs and the nafs dresses up and misrepresents
the Reality with falsity (batil). What is meant by the people of God is
the people who are according to the Way of the Divine collectivity of
uniqueness of perfection who are the people of the Heart. Their hearts are
changed (munqalib') with God and are large enough for God in the
differentiations of His revelations. These are not the people of God who are
drowned in the revelations of Beauty, who are annihilated in the revelations
of Might (satwah) of the Majesty, and also they are not the people of
God who are the specialized people of the partial and conditioned taste of the
Names.
And I pray that it be so, that when God hears my prayer
He will indeed respond to my cry. Some people objected to this, saying that
usually the opposite of this is more suitable because what is aimed at by ‘cry’
is to be heard and what is aimed at by ‘prayer’ is to be responded to. God
said: ‘Pray to Me (invite Me) and I shall respond to you’, but the prayer of
the Shaykh (R.A.) was: ‘I asked of God that He bring it about for me in this .
. . ’ and he follows exactly in all states and words God and His Envoy, so he
took into consideration only the interpretation of the clause in God’s Word
concerning the hearing of the prayer, and God said: ‘I certainly respond to the
needy if he prays (invites).’ Thus, as response is definitely asserted by God,
the Shaykh continued and said: Indeed, I do not irradiate except that which has
been irradiated to me, and
of the Presences of the Divine Names which are the realities of the
prophets, through the saints which are the heirs of these prophets, is never
absolutely cut off or interdicted or forbidden. God always brings down the
knowledge and the gnosis and the realities contained and comprised in the
prophets, upon the hearts of the saints who are the heirs of the prophets. Each
heir from among the heirs is an heir to the stations and states and knowledges
of one prophet and becomes present with the stations of that prophet, and the
states of that prophet become manifest over that heir. The realities of the
knowledges of God which God manifested by that prophet during his time, are
(later) manifested through that heir. The Envoy said: ‘People of knowledge are
the heirs of the prophets’, and he said: ‘The prophets did not give as heritage
either a coin or an ounce {dirham), but they did leave as heritage,
knowledge. He who takes of it, takes with the most delightful and greatest
good fortune.’ The knowledges of the prophets are Divine gifts and intuitions
and are brought down by Divine revelation and cannot be obtained through
earning or work. Thus, real inheritance is equally through gift and intuition
and not through action or intellect. Some of us from among the saints take the
knowledge from such an ore that the prophet or the envoy took it from that same
ore. Knowledge is not what the storytellers report with lengthy references and
attributions. The prophet and the envoy received knowledge from God. Thus a
true heir takes it from God and does not take it from what is told. Now, the
Envoy (S.A.) is the most perfect envoy and the most complete in state and in
station, thereby his heir is the most perfect and most complete heir to
knowledge, to state and to station, and just as the Envoy (S.A.) received the
Divine Knowledge from God without an intermediary, his complete and perfect
heir equally receives from God without intermediary, so be verified in this.
And from God he heard and
to God he returned, And when you have heard that, indeed keep in the receptacle
of your heart what He has given you, Then, with understanding, detail it
In the most succinct of
speech, and collect it, Then, in your turn, according to the requester, do not
prevent it,
This
is the Mercy that He has enlarged for you, so enlarge it.
The first line of this poem refers to the fact that he did not
expose in this book of Wisdom and mystery except what God had irradiated upon
him, and he is not under his own dispensation, but that these mysteries
request it, and be, in extending this knowledge to the people who
request it, the helpers and aiders of God and His Envoy. The majority of the people
in general are greatly veiled from the reality of the order and are in a deep
and general ignorance, and they remain and they do not reach the knowledge of
the haqq by virtue of what they encompass and understand within the
veils of creaturiality, and they remain destitute from the haqq in their
misrepresentation (dalal), whereas the taste of the prophets and the
manners of the perfect ones from among the saints are according to the order of
tawhid because they have not established the being of a being other than
the Real Being which exists by God in witnessing. They did not witness, either
by intuition or witnessing, any being other than the Being of the One God.
Rather, they witnessed the beings of things as annihilated in His Being, and
they observed the particularizations of potentialities as passing away (Jani)
in the Oneness of His Potentiality. What God intended by the Envoy whom He sent
as Mercy to the universes, is to awaken people from misrepresentation (dalal)
into the state of the reality of the order upon which is the order in its own
essence. He bestows Compassion and Mercy by giving them the true knowledge.
This Compassion of Mercy is the highest degree of Compassion and Mercy and the
most perfect and the most superior. Thus, the degrees of tawhid which
exist in the tastes of the prophets (S.A.), and this book which appertains to
the Unity of the Ipseity which is collective of all the degrees of tawhid,
which collects in itself the Mohammedian Way and the taste of the totality of
Uniqueness, the Envoy (S.A.) gave into the hands of the Shaykh who is the most
perfect of his heirs and the Seal of the Mohammedian Sainthood, and ordered him
to expose it and to reveal it and to preach it for Mercy and Compassion to the
totality of people.
And I pray to God that I be of those that He helps by
the purified Mohammedian religion, and which bonds and registers that we have
been collected in the Day of Judgement in his own group of people, just as He
brought us to be of his own people (now). The Shaykh (R.A.), though he is all
this already, speaks in the language of good form and prays that this is
granted him from God, to be included in the collectivity of the servants who
have been helped by God, thus, being helped he helps others, and that as he has
been conditioned at the level of God with the cleanliness of the Mohammedian
religion, he is equally solicitous of conditioning others with the Mohammedian
religion, and that he be included in the isthmuses of the other world and in
the Divine degrees among those who belong to the special group of the people of
the Envoy (S.A.) and that we be resurrected in that state, just as in the
emergence of this world he made us of his people, and in all states made us
subject
on
book, let them ascertain and have gnosis according to the Reality,
which is that this book is brought down from the station of Holiness {taqdis).
That is to say, what appears and is revealed from the
sentences of this book as orders {hukm) and knowledges {'Um) is
brought down from the station of Uniqueness, and that station is transcendent {tanzth)
of all the designs of the self {nafs) which is subject to
misrepresentation {taibis). The spiritual image of this book is brought
down according to the Essential purity from the station of Uniqueness and
transcends the designs of the self which is in the station of plurality, which
is the place of the possibility of misrepresentation. It is not affected by the
purposes and accidents of the self {nafs) and it does not emerge from the
degree of the self which is the place of lack and fault, because things that
manifest through that degree of the self manifest with the accidents and
purposes of the self and the self attires the Truth with error {batil).
People of the Heart is an explanation for the people of
God, which means people of the Way of the Divine, total Uniqueness and
perfection, whose hearts {qalb) have been twiddled {muqallib) by
the Truth and are enlarged for the Truth. These are not the people of God who
are drowned in the revelation of the Beauty, who are annihilated in the
revelations of the grandeur of Awe and Majesty {Jalal), and equally they
are not the people of God who are the possessors of the partial relative taste
of Names.
The first thing that the Possessor {malik)
inspired to His servant is the synopsis and essence of the Divine Wisdom
contained in the Word of Adam. Adam is the manifestation of the perfection of
the Divine humanity of the totality of the singularity, and since Adam is the
common factor wherein is united the degree of singularity of totality of
Lordship which is Divinity, and the Singularity, consequently the Word of Adam
has been specialized for the Divine Wisdom.
Let it be known that Divinity, which is the
manifestation of the singularity of the Divine collectivity, cannot be realized
in the outward appearance without that which recognizes Divinity. Of the places
of manifestation of the creaturial chaptering of discrimination, each one is
the place of manifestation of only a single Name. No one being has the ability
to be the place of manifestation of the collectivity of Divinity. Therefore,
since the immanence is created from the Total Intellect, each single thing is
the place of manifestation of one Name until it reaches mankind. The totality
of higher and lower beings, and the creaturial singularities of immanence
having been created, in each thing the manifestation of Divinity is by virtue
of that Name, which is the private Lord of that thing, manifesting the Ipseity
and its specific portion of Lordship. From the place of manifestation of the
immanence, in each of the places
Of the Divine Wisdom
{al-hikmat al-ilahiyyah)
in the Word of Adam
When God {haqq), whose praises are ever sung, and the High,
wanted to see by virtue of His Beautiful Names whose number is countless, His
essences {a'y&n), or if you want you can say, to see His own Essence
{'ayn), in the totality of the immanence which encloses the order, His
immanence which is qualified by existence. God, by virtue of His Beautiful
Names whose number is countless, wanted to see the essences of the Names, or if
you like you can say, since the essences of the Names is the same as the Reality
by virtue of the plurality of the relationships and individuations implicit in
that Reality, God wanted to see His own Essence. That is to say, considering
that the places of the singularity are the Beautiful Names in each of which God
expresses Himself with one quality, God wanted to see His own Essence in the
Perfect Man who is the total immanence, and in the reality of each Name
manifested by the quality of that Name, because the perfection of polishing and
the polish happens in that and with it.
When the Shaykh says: ‘When God, ... by virtue of His
Beautiful Names . . . ’ he points to the priority of the mashFa of the
Ipseity of Uniqueness in which masht'a (the manner of its being -
roughly) the essences of the Names are in annihilation. And this mash?a
of Ipseity of Uniqueness is the interior of the First Expression {ta'ayyun
awwal) which is in the Singularity and in the Presence of Blindness {'ama)
wherein the images of the Names of the Ipseity are in suspension. It is not the
mashi'a of the Absolute Ipseity in the state of transcendence and
non-revelation {la ta'ayyun) because in the state of complete
transcendence no order of qualification can be ascribed to the Ipseity and no
image or quality can be attributed to It. But his words: ‘ ... by virtue of His
Beautiful Names . . . ' become inclusive of the names of innumerable things,
and it becomes necessary that the essences of the Names equally become finite
and the order non-total. Then he added that their number is countless because
the Names in the realities of the infinite possibilities are the Divine
individuations. Consequently, the personalities of the Names are equally
infinite because the possibilities are infinite. But by virtue of the totality
of the individuations of the Names, the ‘Mothers of the Names’ are innumerable
and they are the realities of necessarily- so-ness and the totalities of effect
and action.
except in the places of manifestation of being, and the
manifestations which happen prior to the images of the total manifestation are
nontotal manifestations and they have not the ability to be the place of
manifestation of the images of the totality of the Divine Names and the images
of the Names of particularizations. The Divine Names which are particular to
the images of the total human emergence are not manifest in them and these
Divine Names are apparent in the places of manifestation and are manifested as
the image of the appearance of the genus of mankind which in itself includes
and concentrates the totality of the degrees of being. And since this is the
last of the degrees of being and the seal of the circle of being, and since the
ultimate cause and purpose of all being is the Being of the total immanence,
the other non-total immanences become details of this and like the necessary
ingredients of its quality of totality and collectivity. Consequently, only the
total immanence became qualified by being, and the other non-total immanences
did not become qualified by being except through the Being of the total
immanence because it is present in the final order of the degree of Man.
Consequently, the Perfect Man is qualified by being, and totalizes and pervades
the order.
And to manifest by it His mystery (to Himself). The
vision of the essences of the Beautiful Names happens in his place of
manifestation, all of which means that God desired to see the essences of His
Names in the total immanence, and through the place of manifestation of the
total immanence He manifested His own mystery to Himself.
The mystery is the essences of the Names which are
covered in God’s unknowable of the unknowables (ghayb-ul-ghuyub). The
essences of the Names are the perfect mirrors of the Divine Names and the place
of engraving of relationships of the Ipseity, which Divine Names appeared, so
to speak, in the mirrors of the essences. However, in the mirror of the total
immanence which contains the mirrors of the essences, God, so to speak,
observes His own Ipseity, and His qualities, and His relationships, and His
totality of qualifications and His Uniqueness.
It might be argued in what way is the Divine masht'a
concerned with the vision of the essences of the Names, but the fact is that
God is Eternal with all His qualities and Ipseity and is in vision of His
Essence and other things much before the innovation of Man, and He is not in
need of seeing His Essence in a place of manifestation. Because the vision of a
thing of itself by itself is not the same as the vision of itself by another
order which becomes for it like a mirror. To avoid such an objection the Shaykh
points at the difference between the two visions by saying: ‘Because the vision
of a thing of itself by itself is not the same as the vision of itself by
another order which becomes for it like a mirror.’
for God to see Himself in Himself is not the same as seeing Himself
in the total immanence which is like a mirror to Him.
The self of a thing appears in an image only insofar as
the place of reflection can return that image. Without the existence of this
place of reflection, and without God revealing Himself to this place of
reflection, the image of that thing was not manifest to God. In other words,
that thing which is like a mirror to God returns an image to God, which image
was not manifest to God prior to the existence of the place which reflects back
that image and prior to God having revealed Himself to that place. In other
words, the self of a thing manifests in a certain image according to the place
in which it was reflected, and the image could not have reflected in that form
without the existence of that place and without being reflected in that place.
Therefore, in this vision the self of a thing is manifest to God in the image
which the place of reflection reveals, whereas prior to that He was not
observing His Self in this image because the image exists due to the existence
of the mirror and appears due to observing that mirror, so that the observer
can admire the beauty and value of the image, which is his own ipseity, when he
looks at the mirror and the mirror returns to him an image which was not
manifested without that mirror.
Whether one considers the appearance of the nafs
(self), or its revelation, what is observed in the first vision is God’s
vision of His own Ipseity, and His Essential Perfection which is the same as
His own Ipseity when the perfections of the Names are in annihilation in His
Ipseity with the Names. But if there is no definition or private inclination
for these places of manifestation in which God observes His own Self, what appears
there then is not other than the Ipseity and the Essence of God, and appears
with essential particularities just as the appearance of God in the Perfect
Man. But if the place of manifestation has a particular inclination and
specific aspect, then that which manifests therein is differentiated from God
because the appearance of God therein happens due to that place and the place
does not happen due to God. In other words, the appearance which happens in the
partial places of manifestation is relative, in consideration of relative
qualifications or total qualifications. But God requires for His own Ipseity
that it appear in totality and that the totality is also manifest by Him.
Thus, if the place of manifestation does have the
appearance of totality and singularity, like the total immanence, but does not
have with it particular inclination and specific aspect which would
differentiate that which appears from God, then the appearance of God in that
happens as total appearance because the essences which were seen to be
of manifestation of the constant effusion of the revelation.
Accordingly, the body of the universe having been prepared and the Spirit being
blown into it by the Being of the total immanence, the perfect reflectivity and
polish resulted. And the constant revelation which is the Divine effusion
manifested from its places of reflection.
Now let it be known like this, that the preparation for
the insufflation is no other than the result of the aptitude to receive in the
place prepared. In other words, it is to manifest in the prepared place the
essential aptitude which is not brought about, because if the place had a
brought- about aptitude and did not have the essential aptitude it would not
have been suitable to receive the constant effusion, because preparation is
what results from a brought-about aptitude like the degree of the face of the
mirror surface to receive the looker’s image, and if a place does not have an
essential aptitude to become a mirror, it cannot receive the image of the
looker through preparation resulting in brought-about aptitude, because that
place did not have in its essence the aptitude to receive that image. In other
words, that which receives the effusion in a prepared place is the essential
aptitude, not the brought-about aptitude, existent already in its fixed
potentiality {'ayn-i-thabita), and this is the essential particularized
aptitude which is the Divine effusion and the Being of God which was already,
in the first instance, accepted by virtue of the particularization of what that
thing is. In the second instance, that which receives the essential being of
the revelation in that place is again the Being of God which is particularized
in the mahiyyah (what- it-is) of that place. In short, that which
receives the Reality is again the Reality.
All this is because that first effusion, which in the
first instance was receiver, became existent by it, and thereby receives the
non-ending, never-changing, constant revelation, because it is necessary by
virtue of His Ipseity that God be in constant, revelation. That is, God brought
about the universes through the Divine revelation, and there is nothing that
remains outside the receiver of the effusion in the place prepared, because the
being of the receiver is not brought about by Divine revelation, but rather
perhaps it is existent from the Most Holy Effusion (fayd-al-aqdas). The
receiver cannot be except from the Most Holy Effusion of God which is no other
than His own Essential revelation, because the Most Holy Effusion is the
revelation of the Ipseity in the image of the essence of the receiver which is
in the Presence of Knowledge of the Names. In other words, the established
potentialities and the realities of knowledge are the receptors for the Holy
Effusion.
The start of the particularization of the revelations of
the Ipseity is the particularization of the knowledge where each of the essences
from
is what necessitates the appearance of the revelation of the Names
in the exterior of that which is necessitated by the aptitude of the essences.
The totality of the order is from Him, the beginning of
it and the end of it. Thus the totality of the order is from God. The beginning
of the order of being is from God through the revelation of the Ipseity, which
is no other than the revelation of the Ipseity in the established
potentialities which are relationships of knowledge; having been received in
the revelation of the essences they become the particularization of the
revelation with the established potentialities. Afterwards, the preparation of
the place for the appearance of God with total manifestation, and for the
bringing about of the universes by the revelations of the Names and, after the
preparation, the manifestation in there with constant revelation, is all from
God. The ending of the order of being is again from God. As the revelation of
witnessing is the receptor in a prepared place, the ending of the order from
God culminates there and therein finds finality. The totality of the order (of
being) returns to Him as it started from Him. That is to say, at the level of
the elevation of the relationship of the qualifications and the manifestation
of the uniting of the Ipseity, order of being returns to Him. But the totality
of the images of immanence and the plurality of the particularities of the
Names become annihilated in the Uniqueness of the Ipseity and therein buried.
Consequently, the firstness and the beginning of all things, and the lastness
and place of return is God. Again, God is both the receptor, which is manifest
in the place of manifestation of all things, and that which is received and the
interior in all of them.
And the order necessitates the polishing of the mirror
of the universe, and Adam is the same as that polish of such a mirror and the
spirit of such an image. The Divine order and the predications of Lordship
necessitates the polishing of the mirror. Adam became the same as that polish
and thus became the spirit of the image of the prepared, inanimate place,
because Adam is the place of manifestation of the Presence of Divinity which
collects in itself the collectivity of the Divine Names. Consequently, as the
Presence of Divinity has in itself collected the Divine Names and as there can
be no intermediary between that and the Ipseity, the Presence of Mankind
equally contains the collectivity of the Divine Names and has no intermediary
between itself and the Ipseity of Uniqueness. The collectivity of the Names
which are in the Presence of Divinity are manifested in Man. Thus, Adam
collects in himself the orders of necessarily-so-ness (wujub), and Being
descended to the Presence of Divinity from the Presence of Totality. Finally,
having effused over images of varieties of possibilities in the degrees of
possibilities, and containing the totality of degrees, it arrived at mankind.
and bringing about the determinations of the relations of Lordship
and the Divine Names, they became called angels. Thus the angels are from among
the powers of the image of the universe and in the echelons of this, due to
their being what they are, and due to the totality of the singularity of the
Ipseity, there is no power in them to be established in the place of
manifestation of the Divine Names either in total or singularly, because the
angels are a part of the universe whereas the universe without the total
immanence is like a lifeless body and is without a spirit, therefore it does
not reflect.
It is only the Perfect Man who is the perfect place of
manifestation, who collects in himself the collectivity of the perfections of
the totality of the revelations, and who, through the total receptivity of
absoluteness, together with the manifestability of the Absolute Ipseity,
collects and unites between that and the manifestability of the actions and the
qualities and the Names, by virtue of there being existent in his
manifestation perfection and great expanse of comprehensiveness and there being
in his total emergence totality and equilibrium. Equally he unites and collects
together the realities of possibilities and the essences of immanence, together
with the relationships of the actions of the Divine Names and L,ordships, and
the realities of the Reality of necessarily-so-ness. Consequently, the
perfection of the Perfect Man is existent through collecting together between
the two seas, because he is comprehensive of the two realities and is prevalent
over the totality of things in the universes.
The Shaykh wanted to make this point clear because in
this chapter what is intended is to explain the degree of the angels who
pretended to the viceregency and tried to show that they deserved it, and to
explain that they have no natural inclination to be the place of manifestation
of the Divine collectivity, and that only Adam is the place of manifestation of
the Divine Image and the mirror of the collectivity of the Names. Otherwise,
there are many powers ijnt the universe in relation to which the
powers of the angels scattered throughout the universe in the image of
particularization are but a small portion. That is why the Shaykh refers to
‘certain of the powers . . .’ because the jinn, spirits and devils and afrits,
and the spirits of the dead, are also some of the images of the powers of the
universe. To add to this, there are the powers of some of the animals and
beasts and cattle and insects and reptiles, and on top of this there are many
other powers which are not mentioned because of trust in understanding.
The angels are like certain spiritual and sensitive
powers for it which were there at the emergence of mankind. The angels are like
the spiritual and sensitive powers which are present in the emergence of
mankind. Man, because he contains in his reflectivity as Man the collectivity
of
senses of the universe where each power is veiled by its own self (nafs)
and does not observe anyone else superior to its own self. The relationship
between the powers of the angels and the images of the universe is like the
relationship between the spiritual powers and senses of Man and the emergence
of Man. But here two faces are possible. One face is this, that the powers
which are no other than the angels in the emergence of the universe are the
spiritual and sensitive powers of Man. The other face is that they are like the
powers in the emergence of Man where each power is veiled by its own self (nafs),
and does not see anything superior to its own self. In short, it would be that
the self of each power of the powers of the image of the universe is veiled by
its own self and does not see a power superior to its own being and is under
the impression that it has in itself ability to attain to every quality and
degree of superiority which is in the proximity of God. Of these faces some are
better than the others.
And in these (in all the powers of the images of the
universe) there is the belief of familiarity with all the high positions and
elevated stations with God, since it is with Him from the Divine collectivity
between that which refers from all this to the Divine Person and to the side of
the Reality of Realities, and because in the total emergence of this its
qualities have necessitated the Total Nature which encloses all the
receptivities of the universe, high and low. At the level of each power,
because it has resulted from the Divine collectivity by virtue of its place of
manifestation, the nafs of each power imagines the Divine collectivity
in its self to be private to its self. This is because that Divine collectivity
appertains to the Divine Person, brought from His place of descent and high
position (mansib), and equally appertains to the proximity of the
Reality of Realities and also because it collects between that which appertains
to the above- mentioned qualities, that is, the qualities necessitated by the
Total Nature which encompasses the high and low receptivities of the universe
at its emergence, which emergence carries in itself the qualities of Reality
and creature (haqq and khalq).
What is meant by the Divine Person is the Presence of
Singularity which is the origin of the Divine Names which are effective with
the determination of bringing into being in all the possibilities of realities.
What is meant by the Reality of Realities is the Presence of Possibilities. Of
these two degrees, each degree has a collectivity particular to it by which it
is differentiated from the other collectivities. The first of these is the
Divine collectivity which includes the Divine realities and the Lordly
relationships. The second collectivity is the immanential collectivity which
includes the realities of possibilities and the images of immanence. A third
collectivity is the collectivity of Total Nature which
(the intellectual relationship of which is called Presence of
Possibilities and Reality of Realities) and that which returns to their
totality, is this high position (manfib) which first accepting the
revelation of the Divine Names while still in non-existence and the Drdne Names
thus becoming determined and differentiated with that acceptance, and then,
also being qualified with existence collected together in the degree of Total
Intellect together with the revelations of the Divine Names in accordance with
the arrangement by incatenation becomes manifest and individuated. This is also
so because the essences of immanence are present in the place of manifestation
of the Divine Names and happenings of Lordship, and as they are passive and
effected under their (the Divine Names) Lordship and tasarruf
(dispensing), and also as they are non-devoid of manifestation, they act
through the reception of Names, and manifest the Divine Names through their
being effected-upon by the essences. And thus, since the manifestation and
perfection of the images of the Divine Names are dependent upon the complete
effect and acted-upon- ness of the essences of immanence, that high position
which is in the collectivity of the Presence of Possibilities becomes qualified
with total servanthood under the Lordship of the Divine Names and at the level
of their effect and its thus becoming the total place of manifestation of the
Divine Names. The high position and elevated place of descent which refers to
the Total Nature which is the third reality of the collectivity of the Divine
collectivity, which is in the image of the universe with the emergence of Man,
is this, that the Total Nature which is acted-upon in the totality of images
and actor in the Total Image and which spreads over all the matter and
receptivity of the totality of the universes which is the total Divine Reality
and is the manifestation of Divinity since Divinity is the interior of all this
and since the images of the Divine Names are actors in the matter of 'ama
which means that the images of the Divine Names are manifest here with all this
which makes it so that the emergence of the Total Nature is one emergence which
by its reality is collective of the image of Divine necessities and the images
of creaturiality and of immanence which are manifest with the completeness of
both sides and which are qualified with the predications of both these
realities.
At the level of the emergence of Man the Divine
collectivity is resultant from three orders (amr). One of these refers
to the Divine Person (jan&b- i-ilahi)y another refers to
the Reality of Realities and the third refers to the Total Nature.
And also in this he does not know this by way of
reasonable intellect. This is from the science of comprehension. It cannot be
except through Divine insight (kasbf) from which he will know wbat the
origin of the
each universe includes the-images of infinite personalities so that
no-one except God knows them. In short, Nature is a reality which carries all
these images, by being materia to the totality of these images on the one hand,
and on the other, by activating all these images.
Now let it be known like this, that Nature is a being of
intellect and has no exterior being, but its effects are manifest. It bestows
the images of senses of beings which are attributed to it from above. It is a
place of activation for the Names of effect. It is like female to male wherein
immanence is manifested, as it is the materia for the images of the receptivity
for the totality of the universes. By virtue of the nafs-i- rahman
(Compassionate Ipseity) facing it, the images of the universe of receptivities
and the images of the Divine Names of necessity manifest in it; consequently,
it is acted-upon. It is equally active because Nature is the manifestation of
Divinity, and the images of the Names of necessity manifest in the materia of
the non-expression {'ama) in its interior through it, and equally
because of the images of the universes of receptivities being effected by it,
and thereby becoming manifest, because the'images of Nature which are
manifested in the materia of the 'ama become particularized with Nature
and become manifested. Thus the actor for these images becomes Nature itself.
In short, it is rather that Nature is at once both active and passive, because
that which is called Nature is composed of the four parts according to the four
comers. Two of these are active and two of these are passive. Those which are
active are heat and cold and those which are passive are wet and damp. Heat is
active in wetness, and wetness is passive to heat, and coldness is active in
dampness, and dampness is passive to coldness. Thus Nature in its own nafs
is active in one way and passive in another way. That it is active is not
severed by its being passive.
Now as has been mentioned, whether Total Nature be
materia to the universe of receptivities and thereby considered passive, or
whether it be considered active because the images are particularized in Nature
in the materia of 'ama, nevertheless what is given by true taste and
clear insight {kashf) is this: the origin of the images of the universe
which carries the universe of spirits is the Total Nature, and it encompasses
and collects in itself all the orders, and the comprehension of the science of
the Total Nature only happens by the insight {kashf) that the Essential
revelation bestows.
Now know that kashf is of several varieties. One
variety is intellectual; intelligence comprehends this kind of kashf
through the jewel, which in the regulations of one’s disposition and reason is
absolute. Another variety is particular to the nafs, which happens in
the case of the high possibilities of total selves, which have been released
from the conditions
realities. But the totality of the realities other than the reality
of humanity are each distinguished one from the other by the apparent
particularity of each reality which causes its distinction. The reality of
humanity became distinguished from other realities by the totalling of the
total singularity and by complete encompassing; and by means of total encompassing
it became intimate with the totality of realities and the totality of realities
equally became familiarized with it. There is nothing like Man (insan)
because his emergence is common to total emergence, and there is nothing in the
emergence of the universe which does not have an origin or a resembling part in
the Man, because the universe is in the image of the Man, and the Man is in the
Divine Image. Consequently, Man with his natural image and the genus of his
emergence contains the total of the place of manifestation of all the universe
of natures, and with his spirit he collects in himself the particularities of
spirits. That is to say, he collects the spirits of the adoring spirits, of the
intellects, of the nafs, of the angels and of the jinn, and with the
isthmuseity of his reality of humanity unites and collects in himself the two
sides of the Sea of NeceSsarily-so-ness (wujub) and the Sea of
Possibilities (imkan) and that of devolvement and the absolute n
on-manifestation (la ta'ayyun). His receptivity is the most total of all
totalities of receptivities, and his being the place of manifestation is the
most perfect of all the places of manifestation, and the effusion and
revelation which is particular to him is the most complete and most perfect,
most general and most embracing.
When the emergence of Man with its largeness of
receptivity and all- encompassing aptitude became present in the images of the
universe and appeared with the powers in the height and the depth of the
universe, and when all the realities became collected in him, the angels, which
are no other than the images of the spirits,pf the realities, prostrated themselves
to Adam who was the first place of manifestation of humanity, because the
universe in its perfection is dependent and in need of the being of Man, and
Man with his perfect emergence is made rich beyond need (ghaniyy) of the
universes. And Man is made rich beyond need (mughni) of the universe and
is self-sufficient as being the place of manifestation of the collectivity of
the singularity of the Ipseity and the place of ma nifestation of individuality
of particularizations of the Names, and the universe is not self-sufficient
without him.
He is for God in the same place as the eye of the eye is
for the man, with which seeing happens, and that is what is meant by vision.
And another reason why Adam, who is the total immanence, is called insan is
because Adam is like the man of the eye in the eye. That is to say, he is like
its pupil through which vision happens, and that which is
Adam, who is the total immanence, is both the recent and the eternal
Man and is continuous, perpetual emergence. Adam by his generic image is
recent, and is eternal by his image of knowledges, because images of knowledge
are established by the existence of knowledge and Reality (haqq) and
continuous by the continuation of the universe. Even perhaps that Man is
eternal with his corporeal image. The ultimate cause of the revelation of
bringing into being is the corporeal image of Man with which happens the polish
and polishing and total manifestation. On the other hand, the reason for its
being the continuous eternal emergence is because the reality of Man being the
mirror to the Essence of the Ipseity of Oneness together with all the infinite
individuations inclusive in the Essence of the Ipseity of Oneness, and thus
becoming in all the degrees individuated as well as in the Essence of Oneness,
then by the manifestation of the thing which was hidden of the relationship of
infinity in the One Essence, the reality of the continuous emergence becomes definite
for the Essence of Oneness (*ayn-ul- wahid).
The first degree of the continuous Essential emergence
is the degree of Compassionate Self (nafs-i-rahmant) which emanates from
the interior (batin) of the heart of the First Expression (ta'ayyun
awwal), together with the effusion of being and all that is encompassed in
the realities which are hidden and enfolded in the First Expression.
Consequently, as the Man is the singularity of the first
collectivity (jam' awwal) he is equally the chaptering of that
collectivity. Further, he is the uniqueness of the total of the total (jam'-i-jam'),
and the total of chaptering (jam'-i-tafsil). Thus the real Man is that
continuous eternal emergence where there is no other emergence, either in the
universe of chaptering and discrimination (furq&ri) or in the
station of collectivity and the unitative aspect (qur'an). Furthermore,
this emergence is perpetual and it has no beginning and it is an eternal
emergence which has no end.
And he is the connective and collective word. Adam, who
is the total immanence, is the collective word and the word of chaptering (fajil).
Between the determinations of necessarily-so-ness and the determinations
of possibilities he is a conjoining boundary (hadd-i-fasl) and a
partitioning isthmus (barzakh-i-hayil) that prevents the predications of
the one from overrunning and overbearing the predications of the other; also he
collects in himself the predications of necessarily-so-ness and predications of
possibilities because words of totality are three. One of them is that which is
of collective effect with the letters of action. The other one is the one that
collects in itself the letters of the collection of isthmuseity which is a
conjunction between action and being acted upon. Consequently, as Man (insari)
is a word of isthmuseity, collecting the
ward face, but its private face is this, that the realities of the
universe are the places of manifestation of the Divine Names and the places of
reflection of the revelations of Lordship. Each reality of the universe is the
place of manifestation of a specific face of the Divine faces and each portion
of this is the place of emanation and reflection to the revelation of a
specific Name. The most special face is this: before the manifestation of the
images of the collectivity of Man (jam'iyyati insaniyyah), the images of
the Quranic emergence of the perfection of Man, which are the treasuries of the
images of the Divine Names, were enclosed in the treasuries of the images of
chaptering of the discriminatory (furqari) emergence, which was in the
discriminated universes. Therefore each treasured reality of the universal
realities is an image of the Perfection of Man and the materia of the emergence
of Man (insan). Each reality, whether it be considered as the origin of
the images of the symbolic variety of the immanence which is manifested from it
through chaptering, or whether it be considered as matter to the emergence of
the human perfection, is, according to either of these two considerations, a
Divine treasury, and effectively the Perfect Man is the seal of the treasuries
of the universe and by his existence these treasuries are safeguarded.
And he is called the Viceregent because of this, that he
is the preserver of His creation like the seal is the safeguard of the
treasures, and as long as the seal of the King is upon it no-one dares to open
it without His permission, and He made him His Viceregent in the preserving of
the universe and the universe never becomes unpreserved as long as there is in
it this Perfect Man. God called this Perfect Man His Viceregent because of
this, since he is the one who preserves the creation (khalq) of God (haqq)
by being the place of total manifest; non, just as the King’s seal preserves
the treasuries of the kingdom. And as the seal of the King is present on the
treasuries no-one can open those treasuries except by the King’s permission.
Consequently, as the King’s, which is God’s, seal, that is to say, the total
manifestation of Perfect Man, is present on the treasures, not one of the
distinct realities would dare open the treasuries of the universe except
through the permission of the King, who is God, which means that in partial
opening of this treasury it is according to the necessities of the Divine
Wisdom by the permission of God or the Perfect Man. In the case of total
opening of the treasury, it is necessary by the permission of God for the seal
of the perfection of Man, which is the place of manifestation of the totality
of singularity, to leave the universe. Since it is preserved by the Perfect
Man, who is in the place of manifestation of the universe of the totality of
singularity, God appointed His Viceregent as successor in the preservation of
the universe,
you not see that if the Perfect Man left the universe and went out
of it there would be nothing left for God to preserve in the universe and on
earth because the realities of the treasuries of the universe are built upon
the Perfect Man who is the place of manifestation of the collectivity of the
Divine Names. Had the Perfect Man left this world, the Divine prolongation and
Lordly revelation, which manifests flowing from the collectivity of the
singularity of the Perfect Man by virtue of place in every reality of the
realities of the universe, would equally be cut off from the realities of the
universe, and returned again to its origin and there become constricted. It
would be left empty of the images of the immanential varieties which it would
manifest, and of the Divine mysteries which are brought into being and
treasured by the Divine Names which are at the level of masculinity in the
interior of the realities of the universe which are at the degree of
femininity, and there would be nothing left to treasure. Consequently, it has
come to be known like this, that Perfect Man by his interior is the spirit and
the origin of the treasuries of the universe, and by his apparent image is the
seal of the treasuries of the universe, and this is the exterior (zahir)
and the interior (batin).
The emergence of this world is composed of
differentiated and individualized genera and is composed of various and
contradictory matters and is therefore not perpetual nor remaining (baqi).
It is necessary that it is removed with its realities, whereas the emergence
of the other world, which results for the purpose of the ‘speaking self’ (nafs-i-
natiqa) from the power of the knowledge of the Ipseity and from pure
actions and precepts devoid of fault and from superior powers of spirit and
Divinity and qualities and characters and abilities, must be continuous and
remaining because it is of light and spiritual matter. And if the order (amr)
were translated into the other world and the human selves and spirits were to
be manifest in the gathering of the isthmus and the images of the spirits, and
if spirituality were prevalent over the images, and lightness over darkness,
and if God treasured the lights of reality of Lordship and the Divine mysteries
in the images of the other world, it would be necessary that the Perfect Man
become the perpetual seal of the treasuries of the other world with his
singularity of collectivity and by his being the place of manifestation of the
total.
All that there is in the treasuries of the world, like
powers and qualities and sensibilities and realities and angels, and all the
mysteries and munificences which are treasured in each of the places of
manifestation of one portion of the world, leave the emergence of this world
with the place of manifestation of the Perfect Man, which is their origin. And
the powers and qualities and sensibilities and realities and angels, some join
And with this he became the outstanding argument of God
the High over the angels. Because the Perfect Man collects in himself with
total perfection all the powers of the universe and the Divine Names, Adam
became the outstanding argument of the Truth over the angels. In the circle of
being there is no more perfect existent, and in the realm of witnessing there is
no more prevalent witness, than his manifestation. Among those who are alive in
this world, those who are not perfect of mankind are the speaking animals, and
these are a portion of the images of mankind that have not reached the degree
of Man and they are to Man like a dead body. And the perfection of Man is
through viceregency, and nobody is a Viceregent except by deserving of being
the place of manifestation of the Divine Names. And God knows best.
No angel can reach this degree, and not knowing their own
selves the angels argued that they should be Viceregent (khaltfah), and
they were subjected to the Divine admonition, and then admitted their inability
when they realized that they did not know the collectivity of the Divine Names
and they only knew the Names specifically for them.
Be guarded that maybe God has given you a warning by
another than you, and look from whence He gave you that which He gave you, and
that the angels did not know what the emergence of this Viceregent bestowed
with it, nor did they know what was necessary for the essential worship of the
Presence of God. Beware, you: God gave you advice and warning through something
other than you, and look from where He gave you that which He gave you. And the
angels did not know that which was given through the emergence of the
Viceregent by his encompassing of the perfection of the totality of the
singularity by virtue of he himself being the place of manifestation of the
collectivity of the Divine Names. In other words, they did not know that the
exterior appearance of the Viceregent was according to the image of the
universe and his interior emergence is according to the image of God, and they
did not realize what the emergence of this Viceregent gave them to understand,
because the emergence of this degree which is according to the image of the
totality of the Divine Names is called Viceregent, and they did not realize
that which was necessitated by this Presence of God as essential servanthood
and adoration ('ibadat-i-dhati). And they did not conform with proper
tact and respect to what this degree of Divine viceregency required.
Now, the essential servanthood is non-objection to that
Presence which is the place of manifestation which is under the Lordship of the
totality of the Names after the Divine Names have manifested in the most
perfect place of manifestation. The height, grandeur, majesty, awe and
splendour of the Presence of Divinity necessitates that the servant
which Names they glorify God and sanctify God. In another version it
is possible to read this passage as: the angels did not know those Divine Names
to which the angels are particular, or it is possible to read it as: the angels
did not know the Divine Names particular to them with which they glorify and sanctify
God. What is meant by these Names are the Names subbOh (the Glorious), quddds
(the Holy), tayyib (the Agreeable), tfihir (the Pure), nOr
(the Light), wAhid (the One), ahad (the Only), 'aliyy (the
Most High), and Names which are brothers to these which appertain to
transcendence and glorification and sanctification (jaqdts) and which
are particular to the angels. They were ignorant of these because they could
not have ascended to the realities of these Names, because, had they done so,
they would have known they had no right to be the Viceregent and they would not
have contended the viceregency. However, they only knew the images of the Names
which were particular to them, and they praised and sanctified God by those
Names. And they did not know that God the High has Names the knowledge of which
has not reached them and with which they did not praise Him, nor did they
sanctify Him. Equally there are Names of God of which they had no knowledge and
to which they had no access, and they could not praise Him through these Names
and they could not use such Names as khaliq (the Creator), razzaq
(the Nourisher), musawwir (the Imager), samV (the Hearer), bastr
(the Seer), and mut'tm (the Feeder), which appertain to arrangement (tadbir)
and enchantment (tashir). Then there are Names which belong to the
universe of bodies and to Nature like na'un (Bounty), 'adhdb
(Torment), marad (Illness), shifa' (Good Health), dagh
(Brandwound), dawa' (Medicine), and equally tawwab (the
Penitent), ghafur (the Coverer), ghaffar, 'afuw (the Forgiver), sattar
(the Veiler), 'adl (the Just), muniaqim (the Avenger) which
depend on the fault emanating from the servant.
If God does not reveal to Man with all of His Names,
there would be no Perfect Man (insan-i-k imil), consequently he would
not be qualified by total servanthood and become realized with essential
worship. And the angels, as they were ’.acking compared to the collectivity of
Adam by virtue of the lack in their selves, observing some of the shortcomings
and blameable things in Adam which are necessitated by the revelation of
certain Names, did not realize the manifestation of certain Divine Names which
are consequent to these lacks and did not praise and sanctify God by them.
They fell under the dominion of what we have mentioned,
and this state determined over them. That which we have mentioned, that is,
their lack of knowledge of what tact would have bestowed where it concerns the
emergence of uniqueness of Adam, and their lack of knowledge of many
kinds of them are so lost in the vision of God that they do not even
know their own existence. They do not even have the ability to hear God’s
words: T will bring upon earth a Viceregent’, and they are not even addressed.
Nor are they the angels of the earth. At this juncture David of Caesarea, may
he rest in peace, says that they were the angels of the earth, and jinn and
devils, which were overcome by darkness, and their emergence caused the veils.
But after verifying (tahqtq) this matter, what David of Caesarea says
does not hold because in 'Arabi’s words it is completely clear that it was the
high angels, not the earthly angels, who argued against Adam. The Shaykh
clearly goes on to say that the Names which exist at the level of Adam do not
exist at the level of the heavenly host, and from this you must understand that
the angels which spoke against Adam are the angels above the seven heavens.
Had the angels known that their selves were known to
them in portion, they would have known that they were a portion of the reality
of Adam and one power from his powers. They would have consequently known the
totality of Adam and would have known that the viceregency is only possible by
the totality of the emergence of Adam, and they would have refrained from
arguing with God and blaming Adam, and they would have been purified from
praising themselves, and they would not have created contention. Then they did
not even rest with blaming Adam, but they increased their contention (by
saying) by what they were about with sanctification and praise. But Adam was
with the Divine Names which the angels were not, and they did not praise their
Lord with these and they do not sanctify Him by these. But the angels did not
even stop there. They went further, saying that Adam would sow corruption on
earth whereas they praise and sanctify God, thereby attributing lowness and
lack to Adam and sanctification and praise to themselves. But Adam has the
totality of the Divine Names and he praises God with that totality and
sanctifies Him from the lacks, but the angels were not qualified with the
determinations {ahkam) of these Names and they did not know that.
Now, concerning the lacks of Adam and his sanctification
and praise, at the level of the totality of Adam there are Names of lack, and
the angels do not know how to praise God and sanctify Him beyond the lacks like
the sanctification and praise of Adam. The angels, not having other than Names
of transcendence, did not realize that in the totality of Names that Adam is
endowed with, there is a group of Names which appertain to plurality and
composition, and the manifestation of some of these Names in Adam necessitates
in Adam some lacks and error. But Adam praised and sanctified God with all the
Names at the level of the collectivity of Adam, and he sanctified God beyond
the lacks which are necessitated by certain Names in him, and the angels had no
know-
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by relating to them the determinations of others, and He corrects
them by describing the orders of others. This education in good form is the
most honoured station and highest degree of this high category of people which
is particular to the Viceregents who are the entrusted people of the Divine
Image, because good form is, after submission and commitment, not to object to
God in any particular, but to act with God in any station according to what the
Divine station necessitates. Consequently, it is necessary for any person of
good form and trust to deal with each person according to the necessities of
God’s manifestation there and be in accordance with the reflections of the
Divine faces, and not to pretend to any proficiency in his self to things like
viceregency (khil&fah) and trustworthiness {amiri) and
knowledges and service and dispensing {tasarruf) and miracle-making
coming down to him from places of descent which are elevated by God and which
are in his own being, but rather be always turned to the doorway of dearness
and be observant and prepared for the flow of the Divine orders according to
what is necessitated. The hearts -of the trustworthy people are the treasuries
of the Divine mysteries. They are protected from the wrongdoing of their
interior which is the showing of mysteries, because the hearts that are
particular to the Divine mysteries are the hearts of the people who are
entrusted with the mysteries. And the people of good form, the Viceregents, are
protected and guarded, and in them there is no revealing of mysteries or
pretension to proficiency unless it be through the Divine Will {iradah)
and God shows it through them. Even the Shaykh, who is the Seal of the
Mohammedian Sainthood, after having exposed the wisdom of the story of the
angels and shown that the evolution of the angels was less than that of Adam,
and having said that the angels were powers of the powers of Adam, then
returned to the Divine Wisdom by saying: We shall return to the Divine Wisdom.
And we say, know it like this, that certainly all orders (like Life, Knowledge,
Power,) have no being in their essence (*ajn) (yet) it is certain they are in
the mental capacity, intelligible and known. And that it is interior does not
diminish it from essentia! existence and it has determination and effect in
everything which is its essential existence. Had they been manifest in the
essence they would have been relative, and they would not have been total and
absolute. The fact that total order is interior does not mean that it is not of
the essential being, because in everything that is existent through the
essential existence, the predications and effects of the total order are
apparent. Consequently, when the total order is interior, it does not become
removed from the essential being. The Shaykh said that for the total order
there is predication and effect in everything, and for that is resultant the
essential existence, that is to say, exterior
reality is the same as the existent in each existent by virtue of
its being existent, and because it is not distinguished from existence. For
instance, if knowledge is ancient, it is qualified by that and is called
‘ancient’; if it is. recent and is qualified by that, then it is called
‘recent’. In the ancient, knowledge is really ancient, and in the recent it is
really recent, because in itself it is equally the same as that which qualifies
it, but in relationship to itself it is not different to its reality. Hence
that total reality is interior through its intelligibility and is not
distinguished by manifestation by the consideration of its intelligibility and
its totality. The foundation of each essential existent is established for
these total orders so that they cannot be removed from the intellect. Equally,
their existence in their essence is impossible with such a being which would
necessitate their removal from being objects of intellect. That is to say, that
which a private existent leans upon is forever these total orders, so that it
is not possible to remove them from the intellect as they are manifest by
virtue of the essences of existence. On the other hand, it is impossible to
have in the manifest essence the existence of these orders since they are only
manifest by virtue of their being in the essential existence. Consequently, the
existences of the orders are not possible in the manifest essence with an
existence which will cause them to be removed from being the object of
intellect, because it is due to their being total that the total orders are
objects of intellect, and that it is the same as each existent is by consideration
of its reality. Consequently, it is interior and an object of intellect by its
totality, whereas by its reality it is manifest in each essential existent. And
it is equal and the same thing whether that being is a temporal essence or a
non-temporal essence, and the relationship of the temporality to this total
order of the object of intellect is one and the same thing.
And the support of all essential existents in this is
the total orders which are not possible to remove from the intellect, and their
existence in the Essence (*ayn) is not possible by such an existence through
which they could be removed from being intelligible, and it is the same thing
whether this existent be temporal or non-temporal. Temporality or
non-temporality is in the same relationship to this intelligible total order,
except that in this total order a determination returns to it from the
essential existents by virtue of what they have been given, (and in certain
copies:) as realities necessitate in such essential existents, like the
relationship of knowledge to the knower and of life to the alive, and the alive
is an intelligible reality and it (the reality) is different from the alive as
it is different from life. In the sixth chapter of the Futuhat, Ibn
'Arabi says that the Being of God which is qualified by absolute being is
existent by Its own Ipseity. It is not existent out- of the prior
non-existence, and Its existence by
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equally the reality of life is one, so the relationship of knowledge
to the knower and life to the living is the same relationship, but the reality
of knowledge is one reality and the reality of life is one reality and each of
these is distinguished from the other by their realities, and although they are
objects of intellect by their totality and distinguished in their reality one
from another, their manifestation with their reality in the essential existent,
which is both the temporal or non-temporal, is one and the same. God is both
Knowing and Living. The angel is equally knowing and living, and so is Man. But
the manifestation of this total order is according to the place and this place
bestows on it a determination by which it becomes qualified. If this qualified
existent is ancient and absolute, knowledge and life which manifest in it are
both ancient and absolute, and if this qualified existent is recent and
relative, the knowledge and life which manifest in it are both recent and
relative. We say concerning God’s Knowledge, indeed it is ancient because it
is qualified by that, and for Man’s knowledge we say it is recent because it is
qualified by that. That which returns from the essential existent to the
reality of knowledge which is total order, such as the determinations of
ancient or recent, are the determinations that the essential existent bestows
on it. In no other way is knowledge understood except by totality and
absoluteness and it is manifest due to the place by the determination of
reality, and whether it is manifest in the ancient or the recent it is equal.
Now look at the thing that qualification brought forth
in this intelligible reality, and look at this connection between intellectual
things and essential existents. When knowledge determines over someone he is
established with it and it is said about him that he is a knower (which is) the
determination of he who is qualified by knowledge. That is recent in the case
of the recent, or ancient in the case of the ancient, and each one becomes
determined over. Now look at the thing that qualification brought forth from
the determinations of ancientness and recentness in knowledge which is this
reality of objects of intellect. That is to say, look at how the qualification
brought about in knowledge the determination of ancientness or recentness, and
look at the connection between the objects of intellect and essential
existents. It is knowledge which determined upon a person who is established
with knowledge so that he is called the knower. And it is the one who is
qualified by knowledge who determines over knowledge, that it is recent in the
case of the recent or ancient in the case of the ancient. So both of these two
become determined by and qualified by knowledge, and equally determiner upon
where one considers the two different sides. That is, by saying that the man
who is established in knowledge is a knower, knowledge becomes a determiner
over him, and that person becomes determiner over knowledge by its being
ancient or
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of one person is not the same as the essence of the other. Thus, the
total order is realized by its ipseity in the same way in the essential
existents and does not become divided by virtue of the number of existents. And
if there is a connection established between that which has an essential
existence and that which has no essential existence, this is a relation of
non-existence. Whereas between that which has an essential existence and that
which has not, which is the total order, there is established a connection, but
the total order is a consideration of non-existence. It is closer to understand
the connection of one thing to another from among existents by understanding
the connection between the order of the object of intellect and the essential
existent because the state is such that among all existents (there) is that
which connects and collects which is that essential existent. And there, when
the collector ends there remains a connection without a connector, but with a
connector it is more strong. But in the connection between the essential
existent and total order there is no collector or connector, and in reality
there has been found a connection with the non-existence of a collector, yet
with the existence of- a collector, the connection is stronger and more real.
That is to say, although the total order is non-existent and is an object of
intellect and has no collectivity between that and the essential existents,
there has appeared a connection between the two. Yet it is more definite and
true in this way that there is between the essential existents a collector and
a connector. In accordance with this way there exists between the ancient Being
of the Real (haqq) and the recent being of the Creation (khalq) a
connection due to the fact that being is collector.
Now let it be known that what is meant by total orders
is the nonexistent relationships which are things of the Ipseity for the
essential existents at the lever of their annihilation in the Ipseity of God,
like life and knowledge, whereas the universe of images (*alam-i-mithal)
is of the essential existents. The images that are manifest and exemplified in
the universe of images, whether they be considered of the total order like the
Ishraqi sect considers, or whether they be not so, are of the essential
existents, because they are existent by a stroke from the being through
universal revelation. The non-existent relationships which are of the total
order are non-existent and they do not exist by a stroke from being. The
Ishraqi sect say that for the total order existence is established in the
universe of images, which means that they have portions and tastes from each
degree of being, but as mentioned above, what the Shaykh means by total orders
is the non-existent relationships which are not included in existence, because
the essences have not even smelt the breath of existence. Yet each existent
from among the existents of the essential senses, which are present in the
universe of images and witnessing, is by
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recent became necessary by the existence of
the necessarily self-existent, and it became in need of that in its own self.
In the Futuhat Ibn ‘Arabi says: ‘Know that the
order (amr) is God (haqq') and Creation (khalq') and that is sheer
feeing (wujud-i-mahd), ever constant, and possibility is sheer and constant,
and non-existence is sheer and constant, and sheer being never accepts
non-existence eternally and infinitely, and sheer non-existence never accepts
being, and sheer possibility accepts being causally and non-existence causally
eternally. And sheer being is He, God, and no other, and sheer non-being is
that which is impossible and no other, and sheer possibility (imktm) is
the universe and no other. And degrees are in the hands of sheer being and
sheer non-being.’
As it (the recent) became necessarily existent through
this dependence, it (the recent) became manifest from its ipseity which
necessitated that it be according to its image and relate to it in everything,
be it Name or quality, except being necessary in its ipseity because this is
not true in the case of the recent, and although it (the recent) became
necessarily existent, yet its necessarilyness is through another, not through
itself. Since the recent came into manifestation due to it being of the self of
the necessarily self-existent on which it depends, the relationship of the
recent to the necessarily self-existent necessitated that it should be in the
image of that, and no other, as it is in everything related to it by bearing
its name, since it is dependent on the necessarily self-existent and since this
recent became manifest through the essential necessity, because the qualification
of necessarily-so-ness is not true in the case of a recent as the existence of
a recent is in need of another, whereas the necessarily self- existent ipseity
is not in need of another, because its existence is by and from its own
essence, and the recent is non-existent and is existent through the light of
the necessarily self-existent. Consequently, for the recent, the qualification
of its being necessarily-so is not true, and if ever it was that the recent
became necessarily existent, it is because the necessarily existent needed it
and because it is according to its image. But its necessity is through the
existence of another, and not through its own self. Therefore how can it be
that its existence is necessary?
Now as the servant is in the image of the Lord, as the
being of the Lord is necessary, so is the being of the servant necessary. The
being of the servant benefits from the being of the Lord but it has no ancient
place in the ipseity of necessarily-so-ness because that which exists by its
essential necessarily-so-ness, its necessarily-so-ness is of its own ipseity.
Then let it be known that indeed when the order is like
what we have said, that his manifestation (of the recent) is in His image, the
High left it to us concerning the knowledge of His Being, to look at the recent,
and
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relate to us. And if we take our own being as evidence of the Being
of God, then, our knowledge of Him is the result of our knowledge of our
selves. Through the language of prophets we have been made to know from the
Divinity that: ‘He who knows himself certainly knows his Lord’; ‘He who
complies with the Prophet, complies with God’; ‘You did not throw when you
threw but God threw.’ This shows us that God can be qualified with the same
qualities of completion and creaturial qualities that are related to us.
However, God in His Ipseity is transcendent beyond the qualification by
qualities of recentness. And even the intellects see that the qualification of
God by the qualifications of recentness is out of the question. The only
qualifications appertaining to the recent things by which God has been
qualified are according to the following information given by God Himself: ‘God
ridicules them.’ ‘God loans to them with beautiful loans.’ ‘God is the best of
Deceivers.’ ‘Those who harm God and His Prophet are deeply deceived.’ ‘I was
ill and you did not visit Me. I was hungry and you did not feed Me.’
Divine qualities are manifest in the mirrors of our
beings, and qualities of-recentness are equally established by our individuated
existences. Since our being is effused from the Being of God, it is perhaps
that His Being is manifest and revealed in our beings. Hence the things that
are related to us, may also be related to Him. God qualified Himself to us by
our qualities. We are the images of the relationships of Names and qualities
with which He was qualified, and they are manifest in us, like Life, Knowledge,
Will and Power.
When we observe Him through a qualification we observe
ourselves with that qualification because that which is manifest in the mirror
of His Being is our qualifications. If God witnesses us with a qualification He
witnesses Himself with the same qualification because that qualification is
His own qualification with which He reveals Himself in us according to our
aptitude. Consequently, if we witness Him, we witness ourselves because that
which is manifest in the mirrors of His Being is our qualifications. And when
He witnesses us He witnesses His own Self because that which appears in the
mirrors of our selves is His qualities. Consequently, our obedience is His
obedience, and our throwing is His throwing, and our knowledge of ourselves is
our knowledge of His Self.
For the necessities of realization, when God observed
His Ipseity as the possessor of the relationships of the annihilated essences (a'yan),
He caused His Essential Love to manifest the essences of the Unknowable in the
essential existents, and these Annihilated relationships became each one
differentiated from the other in the Presence of the Essential Knowledge. When
the Divine Nature (masM'a) found it incompatible to manifest those
relationships into being, then from the source of being,
ns
differentiated one from another because they are Its places of manifestation.
And if it was not like that there could not be plurality in the One. That is,
if it were not for the particularity of each of the matters in the Ipseity
which are in annihilation in the Reality of the One Real Existent, and if it
were not for the mystery of, first, the devolvement (ta'ayyun) of the
One Existent through devolvement in knowledge and, later, Its manifesting by
virtue of different receptivities in the essential existents, and the
differentiation of the people one from another, there would not have been the
multiplicity of relationships of knowledge, nor the multiplicity of essential ('ayn)
beings, nor the plurality, multiplicity or variation of the manifestation of
the One Real Existent, which is due in fact to the plurality of the receptors.
In this way, although He has qualified us with what He
qualifies His own Self in all aspects, there is no doubt there is a difference,
and that is no other than our need of Him in our being and the dependence of
our being on Him, because of our being possible and His being Rich beyond Need
from that which is like our need of Him. Again, if in this way God from every
face and with every quality qualified us and gifted us with the totality of His
qualifications and the totality of His Names, then there would inevitably be a
distinction between God and us. The only distinction between God and us is our
need of Him, and the dependence of our being upon His Being, because of our
possibilities, since a possibility has no being in itself. Its being is
effused from The Being. In the same way, the difference between God and us is
God’s Richness beyond Need from the equal of that thing through which we became
in need of Him, because God’s own Being is from His own Ipseity and not effused
from another. Know that even though need is particular to our being, from the
point of manifestation, need becomes prevalent over the Names of God. The
determinations and effects of the Divine Names in the manifest are not manifest
or realized without the manifesteds. Divinity, Lord or Creator, do not become
realized by existence except by the worshipper, the servant or the creature.
Consequently, for the relationship of Names there is established need. Yet it
remains that God in His Ipseity is always Rich beyond Need of the existence of
the universe, because His Being is always from His own Ipseity and is the same
as His Ipseity. Because of this there is a difference between the need of the
servant and God’s Essential Richness-beyond-Need.
It is true for Him that He is Eternal and Ancient, which
is absolutely without attributing to Him Firstness, that (Firstness) for which
there is an opening of being from non-existence ('adam). For God is
truly Eternal of origin and Ancient, but completely devoid of Firstness or
Beginning, that Firstness or Beginning (awwaliyyah) for which there
exists an opening of
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degrees were lifted and the face of the Absolute Existent became
manifest, and all the orders that are related to our individuated existences
return back to Him. For example, like the Divine revelations, which are
conditioned by our manifestedness after being expressed in our recent beings,
and like the Divine qualities, knowledges of Lordship, qualities of servanthood
and other actions and characteristics which were fixed in our beings in
consideration of their manifestation in our manifestation now all return to Him
and become related to Him. Consequently, He becomes the Last because the orders
of revelation and manifestation and the orders of the differentiation of the
Names all return to Him. ‘There is no Divinity except Him.’ (Lq ilaha ilia
hu). Indeed God is the Last in the essence (’ayn) of His Firstness,
and He is First in the essence (’ayn) of His Lastness. That is to say,
as He is the First by being the beginning of expressions when the Absolute
Being was still in the Ipseity of Absoluteness, the fact that He is the Last by
being the returning of the orders of differentiations back to Him is not an
added order to the Absoluteness of His Ipseity. Rather, ‘He is He’ (huwa
huwa) and His being the First and the Last are relative orders.
And He is the Last, exactly the same as His Firstness,
and He is the First, exactly the same as His Lastness. Therefore His Lastness
is exactly the same as His Firstness, and His Firstness is exactly the same as
His Lastness. But because our being needy of Him is in His Essence, He is
referred to as the First and the Last, and because He is the Essential
Richness-beyond-Need, He is truly the Eternal and Ancient. And He is the First (awwai)
and the Hidden (batin) in the non-expression (la ta’ayyun), and
the Last (akhir) and the Apparent (zahir) in the expression (ta'ayyun),
and then there is no other than He.
Then let it be known that indeed God qualified Himself
as both Manifest (zahir) and Hidden (batin) and brought into
existence the universe of the Unknowable (ghayb) and Witnessing (shah&dah),
so that we comprehend the hidden through our own non-existence (ghayb)
and (that we comprehend) the manifest with our own witnessing. According to
this consideration, our recent existence is also of the universe. Our ghayb
is spiritual, our witnessing is material. We comprehend the hidden with the
spiritual powers and source of the ghayb centred in our interior, and we
comprehend the manifest with our bodily material powers of vision. That is to
say, we comprehend the manifestation of God by virtue of the place of
revelation in the degrees of manifestation of the immanence. No-one can
understand something except to the degree of what there is in him of that
thing. Consequently, we comprehend the hidden by means of the ghayb in
us, and the apparent by means of the witnessing in us.
139
which He turned towards us, from them to create the Perfect Man, as
his total immanence collects together the realities of the universe and its
singularities, and the universe is (thus) of witnessing, and the Viceregent
hidden. Then God interpreted the above-mentioned complementary and opposing
double qualities as two Hands which brought about the creation of the Perfect
Man through those two Hands facing each other so that he makes of him His
Viceregent. What is meant by the two qualities is the quality of God and the
quality of the universe. The quality of God is Agreement and Anger and Beauty (Jam&t)
and Majesty (Jalal) and other effective qualities of action of the
necessarily-so which the image of God contains, whereas the quality of the
universe is fear and pleading and grandeur and familiarity, and other qualities
such as the qualities of receptivity of action and effect and possibilities
which the image of the universe contains. The Shaykh is quite clear on the
subject and says that what is meant by the two qualities is the two Holy Hands
and what is meant by the two Hands is the image of God and the image of the
universe. Then he explained this by saying that there is nothing but the
Essence that totalizes between the two images, the image of God and the image
of the universe, which are no other than God Himself. Some people of completion
interpreted the two qualities as Beauty and Majesty, but Beauty and Majesty are
Divine qualities. When the two Holy Hands of the image of God and the image of
the universe t arn from God Himself towards the creation of the Perfect Man,
all the qualities of action and reception of action which were in the two
Hnnds became reflected in the Perfect Man and with their orders and effects the
Perfect Man became manifested. Because of these two Hands ror the
one Hand, Grasp (qabad), Expand (basat), Forbid (man'),
Bestow ('ata), Elevate (raf') and Place (wad), and other
qualities of action of the necessarily-so, are resultant, and for the other
Hand, Grasping (inqibad), Expanding (inbisat), Fearing (khawf)
and Pleading (rijd), and other qualities of reception of action of possibilities,
are resultant. We are brought about according to the image of God and the image
of the universe, and the determinations of the qualities of creaturial
receptivity of action of plurality, and the Divine qualities of action which
are covered and held in the two Hands, became manifest to us.
In Adam became manifest all the realities of
predominance of Majesty and Subtlety of Beauty, also all the powers of the self
and the powers of darkness, and the nature of spirituality and the nature of
light, and the mystery of transcendence and of relativity, and of expression
and of non-expression, became completed in him and with him, and Adam became
the most, total, most complete and the most perfect of in nence, and
the largest and the most general and the most elevated place
of Nature and these are the subtle spirits, and the Prophet said the
universe is between the dense and the subtle, and it (the universe) is the same
as its veils for itself. God qualified Himself with veils of darkness which are
the bodies of the nature of the heavier creatures, and He also qualified
Himself with veils of light which are the subtle spirits and intellects and
beings and the universe of order and the universe of innovation (ibd&').
The Prophet said: ‘Indeed God has 70,000 veils of light and darkness.’
Veiling and veils are the necessary consequences of ruling and viceregency,
and the Viceregent who is the place of manifestation of the Divinity is veiled
by 70,000 veils of light and darkness.
The universe is between the subtle (lattf) and
the dense (kathtj), that is to say, it is subtle through that which is
spiritual and light, and dense by corporeality and darkness. Now, as the
universe happened between the subtle and the dense which is between the spirit
and the corporeality, the Being of God became expressed, flourishing in the
infinite pluralities and universes of the subtle and dense. And each of the
universes became a veil for the other; the dense is veiled by the subtle and
the subtle is veiled by the dense. Consequently, the being of the universe is a
veil for itself and cannot comprehend God from behind the veils of density and
subtlety because there is no portion for the universe in the Necessarily-
so-ness (wujub) of the Ipseity. Thus the universe by its own self is the
veil to its own self, because God is veiled by veils of light and darkness, and
the being of the universe is between light and dark and subtle and dense, and
since the universe with all its realities and singularities and subtleties and
densities by way of chaptering is a veil to the face of God, it is the closest
way for the universe to be a veil to itself. Consequently, the angels, which
are a part of the universe, became veiled by their own selves, and they did not
witness the collectivity of Adam.
And it (the universe) cannot comprehend God like His
comprehending of Himself. It does not diminish in the veil which does not ever
lift with its knowledge that it is different from its Creator due to its need
of Him. But it has not the satisfaction in the Necessarily-so-ness of the
Essential Being which is Him, the Being of God, which it does not comprehend
ever. And God does not ever diminish from this unknown reality of knowledge of
taste and witnessing, because for the recent there is no place in this (the
Necessarily-so-ness of the Essential Being.) Thus the universe cannot
comprehend God like God can comprehend Himself because, as we have seen, the
being of the universe is the veil to its own self. Consequently, because of the
veil, nothing can comprehend and the universe is never beyond the veil, and the
veil is not removed from it, as long as the universe knows that it is
differentiated from that which brought it about, because it is dependent for
its being on the one who brought it about
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when he refused to prostrate himself to Adam, because Iblis is a
power and a portion of the universe and what was necessary for each power of
the natural and spiritual powers is that they should submit to the determinations
of the one who possesses the totality between the two Hands, and they should
obey him and conform to him. But the reality of Iblis, by his nature and by his
reality, is in opposition to the reality of Adam because the reality of Adam is
the image of the manifestation of the uniqueness of the totality of the Divine
and immanential totalities, and that is why God collected Adam between the
totality of both Hands.
The reality of Adam, which is intimacy (insaniyyah),
necessitates equilibrium (f tidal) and good measure and also
necessitates lack of exclusivity in partial expression, and collectivity
between Absolute Transcendence and Oneness and between devolvement and non-
devolvement. The reality of Iblis is the image of partial T’-ness (an-
aniyyah), and of the deviation from absolute certainty (yaqin), so
that he is conditioned by self-aggrandisement and appearance and selfexaltation,
and this reality necessitates the company of fire which has ascendancy over the
other elements. Consequently, there came about animosity and opposition in the
universe of images due to the opposition to reality. Furthermore, the emergence
of Adam and Iblis is in opposition to each other, because of each one’s greater
portion. The greater portion in the emergence of the humankind is water and
earth, and water and earth with their realities and images and powers and
spiritualities bestow many qualities, like leniency, obedience, reception,
conformity, belief, perseverance, dignity, friendship, quietude, humility,
servanthood, self- deprecation, knowledge and gentleness. In the emergence of
Iblis the greater portion is fire, and that, with reality and images and
spiritualities, also necessitates elevation, self-aggrandisement, pride,
malice, deception, domineering, compulsion, covering up, defectiveness, malice
and envy. In short, fire, which is in the emergence of Iblis, necessitates selfaggrandisement
and elevation, and not humility and prostration. Prostration (sujud) is
the quality of the earth, and self-aggrandisement is the opposite of
prostration. To expect Iblis to prostrate himself is impossible. The reason why
he was ordered to prostrate himself was his trial so that the mischief in his
character become apparent. But in no way is prostration possible for him because
there is complete opposition between his reality and prostration.
And he, Adam, is no other than the same thing as the
collection of the two images, image of the universe and the image of God, and
these are the Hands of God the High. And the Iblis is a part of the universe
and this collecting did not come about for him. It is not that God collected
Adam between His two Hands or created Adam with both His Hands, except
145
perhaps from the essence of itself and from the essence of the total
where the presence of the total is veiled. Thus he becomes deprived of the
knowledge of the presence of the total, and thus is banished from the Divine
Oneness and the singularity of Man.
It is because of this that Adam was the Viceregent. Adam
became Viceregent because God collected Adam between these two images, that is,
between the uniqueness of the collectivity of the realities of
necessarily-so-ness and the uniqueness of the collectivity of the realities of
immanence. Therefore, for Adam resulted the degree of the total of the total,
and it is because of this that Adam became Viceregent, since it is necessary
for the Viceregent to have the collectivity of the image of God and the image
of the universe, and not because the order of viceregency is the mystery of the
two images of the truly existent.
If he were not manifested in the image of that to which
he was the successor, he would not have succeeded to it (viccregency), and if
there was not in this all that the subjects, over whom he was made Viceregent,
require, he would not be a Viceregent to them, because they depend on him (the
Viceregent). If Adam were not manifested with that image of God by which He
made him His Viceregent, that being the universe and parts of the universe,
Adam could not have become Viceregent. And he could not have been Viceregent if
the totality of the things that the subjects over whom he was made Viceregent
demanded of him were not present in him, because these subjects depend on the
Viceregent through the reality of the emergence of this same Viceregent by
virtue of the collectivity of each of the realities of uniqueness, and therein
the Viceregent is an isthmus between one of the realities of the reality of the
Ocean of Necessarily-so-ness and the reality of its place of manifestation from
among the realities of the Ocean of Possibilities. And this is his throne and
the reality of his necessarily-so-ness is spread over this.
It is impossible if he were not with what each thing
needs of him. Unless this is so, he cannot be Viceregent for them. Viceregency
would not be true except by the Perfect Man. It is impossible for Adam to be
Viceregent over them if he were not present with what each thing needs of him.
That is to say, Adam must necessarily be present with each thing that the
universe needs from him, so that his viceregency be true. If the Viceregent did
not manifest with the Divine Image, he v/ould not know God with all His
qualities, and his order would not be prevalent and his determination would not
be effective if he did not manifest with Lordship and the determinations of the
totality of Divine Names. Consequently, since he would be short of the degree
of viceregency, his subjects would not obey him. If he did not appear with the
images of the universe, what his subjects, which are parts of the universe over
which he is Viceregent,
singularities and particularities. Because of this, from the First
Intellect to the last variety of the immanential existents, there is not an
atom from the atoms of existence which does not have its equivalent existing in
the Perfect Man, but by virtue of reality and degree, the universe is according
to the image of Man, and the relationship of the reality of the ipseity of Man
to the reality of the universe is like the relationship of the original to the
copy.
His apparent image emerges from the realities and the
images of the universe, and built his interior image according to the image of
the High, and it is because of this that he (the Prophet, S.A.) said (in the hadith
qudsi)'. ‘I become his hearing and his sight*, and did not say: ‘I become
his eye and his ear’ and he differentiated between the two images. God created
the interior {batin) image of the Perfect Man in His own Image because
the interior of Man is according to the images of the realities of the totality
of the Divine Names, like Life, Knowledge, Power and Will, which are eternally
and for ever images of God. The interior of the Perfect Man is according to the
image of God because God created Adam according to His own Image, and his
exterior is according to the image of the realities of the universe and the
exterior of the universe. The exterior is itself the place of reflection of the
interior, and the interior is expressed in the apparent by virtue of becoming
manifest.
Because the apparent image of the Perfect Man is
according to the image of the universe, and his interior image is according to
the image of God, the Prophet commented on the hadith qudsi that He,
God, said: T become their hearing and their seeing’, and that He did not say: T
am their eyes and their ears.’ Hearing an*d seeing are the qualities of God who
is Hearer {sami') and Seer {basir). Hearing and vision are
interior {batin') but the eye and the ear are apparent parts of the servant.
In this way the Prophet differentiated between the interior image and the exterior
image and relegated the interior of the Perfect Man to the Divine Image.
What is meant by the apparent image of Man is not his
corporeality, but rather perhaps the body and spirit, and the intellect, and
self, and powers and meanings and qualities other than these to which it is
suitable to apply the term ‘creaturial’ and ‘other than God’. Thus the form
which is a collection of all these is the apparent image of the collectivity of
the Perfect Man by which he is the image of the universe. That is why he is
referred to as the small universe due to his apparent image, and not due to his
interior image. And from the differentiation of the two images in the hadith
it is obvious that for the hearing and vision each of these is a spiritual or
Divine reality for the self or for the spirit, whereas the eye and the ear are
organs of seeing and hearing and are related to the
IzlO
been any determination apparent in the essential existents. In the
same way, had there not been the fluency of the Divine Image of God in the
existents there would have been no being for the universe.
Just as indeed if it were not for such as the total
intelligible realities there would not have manifested a determination in the
individuated existents. The Shaykh, may God be pleased with him, has explained
the attachment of the universe to God and he has explained the manner of the
manifestation of God in the universe, having affirmed the manifestation of the
total order with all its determinations and effects, in the essential existent
and the rules of the connection of these with the essential existent. Then he
expanded by explaining the connection of God to the parts of the universe and
their need of God in their existence. Then he explained that the universe
needed the fluency of the image of God for its existence and that without that
it could not be qualified by being, and the impossibility of manifestation of
determination in the essential existences without the realities of the objects
of Total Intel ect And at the level of the non-existence of the total
realities, the nonexistence of determination in the essence is similar to the
fact that the existence of knowledge in a person is dependent upon absolute
knowledge which is of the total order. Had there not been absolute knowledge
which is total order, there would not have been a knower, and it would not have
been true to predicate of anyone the quality of know!
Thus each relative existent in its existence is dependent upon the
existence of God, and is dependent on the fluency of His image.
It is from this Reality that comes the dependency of the
universe upon God for its being. From this reality, that is to say, from the
reality cf the fluency of His image in the existents, there resulted the
establishment of need of the universe for God in the existence of the universe.
In other words, the existence of the universe became needy in its existence of
this reality, because if there had not been the fluency of God by His image in
the existents, the universe could not have been qualified by existence. But as
the universe in its existence is needy of God’s existence, God’s existence in
the place of manifestation of the universe is also in need of manifesting with
Lordship. But it is in the place of manifestation of the universe that God’s
Lordship becomes realized, just as Divinity is realized by the worshipper and
creation is realized by the creature. By way of mutual relationship, both God
and the Creation, each of them, became in need of the other.
Everything
is in need, everything is not without need, This is the truth itself and it is
plainly said, If I mention One which is without need
i si
the necessities of the universes. In other words, if I mention the
Rich beyond Need, who has no need, you will know what we mean; that He is by
His Essence Rich beyond Need of the universes. Both God and the universe, each
of them, is one tied to the other and there is no separation for the one from
the other. Take this from me and understand. God is tied to the universe since
He manifests His Lordship with it and in it, and the universe is tied to God by
its existence since it is existent through His existence and is in need of Him.
Know it like this, that the total Divine heavenly
spheres consist of four heavenly spheres. The first of the heavenly spheres is
the nonexpression (la ta'ayyun). Another one is the heavenly sphere of
the First Expression (ta'ayyun awwal) which is the heavenly sphere of
singularity and the heavenly sphere of collectivity. The heavenly sphere of the
First Expression is, in the Being of the Absolute God, like the heart in a man,
and it becomes expressed first in the First Expression with the Merciful
Ipseity (nafs-er-rahmani), just as the human self becomes first
expressed in the human heart. The heavenly sphere of the First Expression encompasses
two great heavenly spheres. One of these is the heavenly sphere of the Divine
Names and the qualities of Lordship which encompasses the heavenly sphere of
the totality of the Divine Names, and this heavenly sphere is very high. The
other is the immanential heavenly sphere and the heavenly sphere of the places
of manifestation which encompasses the totality of the heavenly spheres of the
places of manifestation of the immanence, and this heavenly sphere is the
perigee. And of the heavenly spheres of the Divine Names, the heavenly sphere
of each Name comprises the immanential heavenly sphere and is tied to the
special heavenly sphere which is its place of manifestation from among the
places of manifestation of the immanential heavenly spheres, and that Name’s
own relationship of Lordship and the image of its necessarily-so-ness is
manifest therein, and that Name’s private place of manifestation which is the
immanential heavenly sphere is equally tied to that Name which is its private
Lord by virtue of its need of the revelation of that Name in existence.
Consequently, all the heavenly spheres of the Divine Names are tied to the
realities of the immanential heavenly spheres which are their places of
manifestation. The totality of the immanential realities and the heavenly
spheres of the creaturial places of manifestation are equally tied to the
heavenly spheres of the totality of the Divine Names, and the meaning of
‘Everything is tied up with everything’ is this. In other words, the
collectivity of the totality of the Divine Names is tied to the totality of the
reality of the universe, and equally the collectivity of the totality of the
realities of the universe is tied to the collectivity of the totality of the
Divine Names.
necessarily-so which are qualified by action and being effective.
And this is His Word.
The fact that Adam is one person (nafs) is proved
by God saying: ‘Oh you people, revere your God who has created you from one
person (nafs), and created from that his wife and spread from these two
many men and women.’ This shows that Adam is the origin and the source of
emergence of the numerous variety of ^human beings, because one is the origin
of number. And since what is meant by Adam is the coming into existence of the
Viceregent, the most perfect between the total and the partial, it means that
God emanated from this one origin the image of the totality of the singularity
of all the realities of receptors of action, and that image He called ‘Eve’.
‘Eve’ (hawwa') is the plural of hawaya which means ‘uniting’. He
produced her according to the image of Adam and according to his natural
disposition. Therefore she is from the left side because the spirit is from the
right side, and from this truth it became allegorically related that she was
created from his curved rib. Because in manifestation curvature is of the reality
of Nature. In short, God manifested from these two parents the images of the
totality of the collectivity of all the realities of the places of
manifestation of humanity.
Inside Adam or inside Eve is the origin of the images of
the realities of action and receiving action and that origin is the reality of
the First Expression and the immanential realities. Eve, who is in the image of
Adam, comprehends equally the First Expression and the realities of the
activities of the Divine Names, and also contains the reality of the
immanential realities, thereby including in herself the realities of the
actions and the realities of the receiving of actions of the images of being.
Consequently, as Eve is of this image, the qualities of action and reception of
action, being in effect in her interior, manifested from her, and she gave
birth in one generation to two boys and two girls for the purpose of
reproduction. Revere God and safeguard what manifests from you for your Lord,
and preserve for your own self that which is interior to you because that is
your Lord, because the manifestation of Adam is from the totality of the
universe of immanence—because of the veiledness of the universe, it is the
place of collection of lacks and defect which is particular to the station of
the immanence. If any action or predication which is ugly emanates from the
man, relate them to the self, and it is necessary to safeguard the self for
God. But if they are praiseworthy, attribute them to God and it is necessary to
safeguard God for the self.
And it is indeed that the order is both blame and
praise, and be the safeguard where it is blame and bring your safeguarding to
Him in praise and you will be people of good form (adab) and knowledge.
Order is both
because the place alters the Divine Eflfusion, is attributed to the
place of blame, which is the self.
Then God the High showed him (Adam) what He had given
into him, and this He brought about between His Hands; one Hand is the universe
and the other Hand is Adam and his descendants, and made clear their degrees
therein. Then God made Adam aware, that is He made him observe what He had
given into him. That is to say, Adam, who is the totality of the image of the
manifestation of the singularity of perfection of the Divine Man, together with
uniqueness, was made to be aware of the mysteries of the places of
manifestation of his progeny. And He brought this about between His two Hands.
That is to say, God made Adam to be aware and to witness that which had been placed
into him between His two Hands. One Hand is the universe; and this is the left
one, wherein is held and witnessed the universe. That is to say, He showed the
universe in detail in the left Hand which is the weaker, because the left Hand
is the possessor of the qualifications of receptivity which are enacted from
the Divine qualities. In the other Hand which is the right Hand, He showed Adam
and the children of Adam, and by making him aware, He explained the degrees of
his children. The right Hand’s grasp is stronger because it is the possessor of
the qualities of actions and Divine Names. In other words, that which is held
in the right Hand is the Divine Image, and t thus He made Adam
witness the image of the totality of the collectivity of the singularity of the
Divine Perfection, which is the places of manifestation of his progeny, and
explained the degree of each one’s portion of perfection of knowledge and
gnosis of the Absolute Divine Reality according to each one’s different way
and variation of taste by which their degrees are distinguished.
When God showed in my mystery what He gave into this
leader, the greatest progenitor, I brought in this book of that only that which
was within the limits set for me, not what I knew of it, because for this the
book is not wide enough, nor is the universe (which is) at this moment
existing. It is of what I have seen that is put in this book as the Envoy of
God (S.A.) limited it to me, the Divine Wisdom in the Word of Adam, and this is
this chapter. When God made me aware in my mystery of that which this greatest
progenitor was entrusted with, He made me witness the collectivity of the
Divine Images of the perfect children in detail. I have recorded in this book,
of all that I have observed and witnessed, only that amount which was limited
for me. That is to say, having observed the realities of all the prophets, I
have recorded here only so much as was limited and appointed to me by the
Prophet when I was ordered to explain in this book the degrees and the tastes
of the prophets. I have not recorded ail that was made known to me of tastes
and
and words and letters and names which are in the immanence, first
descended upon him, and even his own body happened through the expansion and
diffusion of the degree of effusiveness of the One Compassionate nafs.
What is engraved in the gem, or the essence of the meaning of the heart of
Seth, is the knowledges of the Divine gifts and presents of the Ipseity, and
his other wjsdoms and gnoses and his tastes and perfections constitute what
this chapter has as a subject. That is why in this chapter the gifts and the
Divine quiddities of the Ipseity, which come about with the expansion of the nafs-i-rahman'i,
are explained. When God the High, Who, due to His Absoluteness and
Transcendence and the Sheemess (sarafah) of His Ipseity was not qualified
by beginning and was not the place of emergence of any thing, then was the
degree of the First ta'ayyun, which is the possessor of the totality of
the devolvements and uniqueness of totality; and as this degree became special
to the real Man; Adam, who is the greatest progenitor, became the image of that
degree, and that degree is sealed by Adam. The degree which follows this is the
expansion of the nafs-i-rahman upon the quiddities and receptivities. It
is the degree of effusion of being because it is qualified by being capable of
effusion. Thus it became the place of emergence and source, and the Wisdom of
Seth, who is the first bom of the degree of effusion and thereby the
manifestation of the first source or place of emergence, became the follower of
the Wisdom of Adam.
Then the Wisdom of the Transcended Magnificat (subOhiyyah)
in the Word of Noah. After this the Wisdom of the Transcended Magnificat (subuhiyyah)
in the Word of Noah, and this Transcended Magnificat is realized in the Word of
Noah, and this Wisdom has followed the Wisdom of Breathing Out in the Word of
Seth because, as it was mentioned, the first degree of the Divine degrees,
which is the beginning and the firstness of the haqq, is established,
which is the degree of collectivity of singularity, and is followed by the
quality of effusion and of being the source, which is the degree of the
effusion of being and gift of being. The first of the receptivities of the
Essential Divine Effusion is the universe of spirits. They are freed and
cleansed of composition, shortcomings and the plurality of possibilities which
are gathered from the intermediaries, and are thus the most complete of all
existents. And the relationship of these to the Oneness of the haqq is
much more determined than that of other things. Their tastes in the gnosis of
the haqq is to transcend, render holy and magnify and praise the haqq,
and their sole connection to the Person of the haqq is in this way.
Because they are so removed from the determinations of possibilities, they
qualified Adam with unworthiness and
i <;o
spirits whose tas te for the knowledge of God is praise and
magnification and sanctification. The first determination is the determination
of collectivity. After that comes the degree of effusion of being, and after
that comes the degree of the knowledge of sanctification. And because of all
this, the determinations of the transcendence of God are imparted in this
chapter.
Then the Wisdom of Sanctity (qudddsiyyati) in the
Word of Idris. After this comes the Wisdom of Sanctity in the Word of Idris
(Enoch). The Wisdom of Sanctity is established in the Word of Idris and follows
the Wisdom of the Transcended Magnificat, and this is why Idris is mentioned
after Noah although in time Noah is after Idris, because the quality of
sanctity is in no need of the quality of praise and is a subsequent degree and
is deeper and more intense even though in transcendence they are together.
There is another meaning in sanctification, that it conjectures a finding of a
way or access to the side of God if the qualifier in his sanctification is not
aware of the aspect of lack. Between the act of transcending of God by Noah and
the transcending of God by Idris there is a difference, in that Idris’s taste
is of the intellect and pure, whereas Noah’s taste is of intellect and the nafs;
because Idris was afflicted so that his spirituality was prevalent over his
nature, and having been cleansed of the universe of bodily temperament (mizaj),
humours and tempers, he went outside of humanity and mixed in with the angels
and spirits, and for about sixteen years he neither ate nor drank and he did
not sleep and he remained pure intellect, and with him the seventh heaven was
made to ascend, and he entered paradise. Noah is contrary to this, because Noah
is present with the taste of the nafs and taste of the spirit, and he
married and that is why he had children and he is the second Father. The
sanctification of Idris is more intense and that which is more intense is prior
to that which comes later. This is why the Wisdom of the Transcended Magnificat
was followed by the Wisdom of Sanctification, and the Wisdom of Sanctification
was made close to the Word of Idris because that which results for Idris is the
way of completion of sanctification. That is to say, it is due to his having
been afflicted, and due to his being stripped of the shortcomings which were
accidents, and of the mixing of elements and the sadnesses of nature, that the
determinations of sanctification are therefore propounded in this chapter.
Then the Wisdom of Ecstasy and Rapture (muhaymiyyati)
in the Word of Abraham. Rapture and ecstasy is the intensity of love, and the
quality of ecstasy and rapture of love first became manifest in the high and
with the gifts of the Ipseity (as in the case of Seth) and of the
Names for which there is priority because they are the sources, he makes this
(Seth) to succeed (Adam), and if he then continues the succession with the
qualities of abstraction and transcendence, it becomes necessary, for the
degree of knowledge to become complete, that the degrees and the predications
of the positive attributes (sifat-i-thubutiyyah) and the places of
manifestation of the humankind be mentioned; because abstraction never
expresses completely the knowledge. Abraham (the khaltl) is the first
mirror in which the determinations of the positive attributes of God were
manifested. Thus Abraham is the one who has the degree of being characterized
by the Divine qualifications, and is the possessor of the first
interpenetration, because the positive attributes of God and the primordiality
of their appearance is resultant through him and this primacy is particular to
the interpenetration of Abraham. That is to say, he vested the Ipseity with
qualffication by his truth, and for Abraham is manifested the manifestation of
the first isthmuseity, and in the degree of possibilities (imkari) the
totality of the determinations of the neces- sarily-so-ness became first
complete through him. On the other hand, Mohammed is realized by the Divine
qualifications and is the possessor of the last interpenetration (khillah),
with which there is no veiling. In the first interpenetration the determinations
of veiling are not lifted, because its necessities are that the individuations
which are special from the haqq and which are affected by
qualifications, are in complementary opposition to the essential receptivities
of otherness which are in reality the necessities of the receiver. The
interpenetration of Mustapha (the Prophet) is other than this, because in this,
juxtaposition or reciprocity or opposition is repellent because of the quality
of manifestation of God and His quality of being hidden, due to the singularity
of 'ayn (Essence) which is the Quiddity (huwiyyah) qualified by
both manifesting (zuhur) and interiority (butun). Because of
this, the Prophet said of Abraham that he is the image of creation and;loved
his people. The difference between being characterized by a quality (takhalluq)
and reality (tahaqquq) is this, that being characterized by a quality
results from gain and work when it is not interpenetrated by quality. But the
person who is characterized by a quality is the place for the predications of
the quality and is the aim of the arrows of the effects of the qualities, and
reality (tahaqquq) cannot be true by qualification except with the
relationship of the Ipseity, which in that case is the decree where the person
who is realized with the qualities is the mirror for the Ipseity and for the
degree which has collected in it all the qualities, so that all the Names and
qualities are depicted there by Essential depiction, and not a mirror by way of
engraving for the Divine depictions. By virtue of the
faithful tongue, most exalted (wa ja'alna lahu lisana sidqin
'aliyyan), therefore Ishmael is the place of manifestation of the Name 'aliyy,
and the Name 'aliyy is one of the Names of His Ipseity. In another face
the mystery of the specialization of Ishmael to exaltedness is related to the
remainder of the children of the khalil. Ishmael was like a prayer that
contains the mystery of the Mohammedian completion, the relationship of which
is total to the Ipseity of God. Isaac is like a prayer for the mysteries of the
Names as the prophets are the places of the manifestation of those Names. And
in the precious Quran the allusion to this is in the story of Abraham in the
chapter of the Spider: ‘We gave him as a present Isaac and Jacob and brought to
their progeniture the prophethood and the Book’, because each prophet is a
place of manifestation of one of the Names from His Names. Here the ‘Book’
means the order which collects and contains in itself the law (shart'ah).
As Ishmael is the place of manifestation of the Most Exalted, and as the
mystery of the Mohammedian completion is in this place of manifestation, he
became related to exaltation and the- Word of Ishmael became specialized to the
Wisdom of Exaltedness,, and the Wisdom of Exaltedness became successor to the
Wisdom of Truth because it is more exalted, more total, more complete and more
prevalent.
And then the Wisdom of Spirituality. (ruhiyyati)
in the Word of Jacob. What follows is the Spiritual Wisdom which is blown into
the Word of Jacob. There are two faces possible in the attribution of the
Wisdom of Spirituality to Jacob. One is that it should be read with the
diacritical sign 'damma' and pronounced ruhiyyah because of a
Quranic verse concerning Jacob: Tn that God has cleansed for you the religion,
and in fact you will not die except that indeed you are Muslims.’ This Wisdom
is called the Wisdom of Religious Spirituality and in this the word has been
mentioned according to religion and its determinations since there is a
precaution and arrangement (tadbir) in the establishment of relationship
between religion and spirit due to the fact that the human emergence contains
the precaution and arrangement between spirit and religion. Precaution and
arrangement of the spirit is in two parts. One part is precaution and
arrangement by intellect which requires to be characterized by the Divine
Character, to be qualified by the Divine qualities and to be completed by other
Lordly completions, so that there be no aim to research in the mirrors of
temperament and himmah and good actions. The second part of the
precaution, arrangement and condition of the spirit is the precaution and
arrangement and conditioning of the body by the spirit and its looking over its
good actions. This precaution, arrangement and condition includes in itself the
precaution,
this Wisdom is qualified by Light is dependent on the knowledge of
an anterior. That anterior is this: the absolute non-existent, which is the
opposite of Absolute Existence and which is qualified by darkness, is
individuated in the Intellect in opposition to the Absolute Being, as the
absolute non-existence. Without intellectualizing, it is never realized or
individuated. Equally, the Absolute Being cannot be comprehended except by
consideration of it being individuated in the mirror of nonexistence which is
intellectualized in opposition to it. The indistinct shadow, which is
individuated between the Absolute Being and the intellectual non-being, is the
reality of the universe of absolute mithal, and equally, light is its
essential quality. Thus that which extends from the universe of absolute mithal
over the Presence of khayal is in reality light, because light is that
light by which things are understood. However, nur is that kind of light
by which something is understood but itself is not understood, whereas the
other light (diya') is a kind of light (nur) by which things are
understood but itself is also understood. It would have been necessary through
verification that this Wisdom be called the Wisdom of the Light (diya')
because it is in reality light and not the absolute nur, but that which
is the determination of the thing in between the two things is this, that if
its relationship to one side of the two sides is more than to the other side,
and the side where its relationship is stronger is prevalent over it, then the
thing becomes qualified by that. The universe of absolute mithal, of
which this Wisdom explains the reality, and its expansion of light, is between
the universe of the senses, which is qualified by darkness and sadness, and the
universe of the spirits, which is the universe of light, and is receptive of
qualification with the qualities of both these sides, but being closer to
being prevailed upon by the light of the universe of spirits this Wisdom has
been called by the Name Light (nur). That is why the Shaykh qualified
this with the word nur. There is another reason why he qualified this
Wisdom with nur and that is because khayal is nur, which
in fact the Shaykh clarifies and explains in chapter 63 of his Futuhat,
and then relates this Wisdom of nur to the Word of Joseph because the
universe of absolute mithal is prolonged as the taste and kashf
(insight) of Joseph. Because of the relationship of expansion of the nur
of the universe of mithal to the Presence of khayal, he observed
his brothers in the images of stars and his father and aunt as images of the
sun and the moon, and also because the High haqq revealed to Joseph in
the form of a kashf the reality of the images of the visions-of the
Presence of khayal which is the nur of knowledge and which
knowledge He gave as a present to him and which knowledge is the knowledge of
interpretation. Consequently, there was established between nur and
Joseph an essential relationship,
it was built upon singularity through a commanding of the mystery of
bringing into being which is the first of the manifested opening in this
Wisdom. Even though in certain copies the word is written as fatihiyyah with
reference to the Wisdom related to the Name of God the fatih, still Ibn
'Arabi did not use the word fatihiyyah but used the word futuhiyyah because
the number of keys (mafatih) of the Unknowable (ghayb) is
according to the number of the variety of futuh (openings). And by
intending conformity to God in his commanding of the beginning of being from
the Unknown (ghayb) of the Ipseity and the all-encompassing Absolute
Existence, he subjected himself in this matter to the Divine good form (adab).
As the Oneness of Lordship results in the opening (futuh) of the Ipseity
of Uniqueness, the Wisdom of Opening follows the Wisdom of Uniqueness.
Then the Wisdom of the Heart (qalbiyyah) in the
Word of Jethro (Shu'ayb). The Wisdom of the Heart is branched in the Word of
Jethro and this is due to two mysteries. One mystery is in respecting the
meaning of ‘branching’ which is understood in the name Shu'ayb. Shu'ayb was an
Arab and his name is Arabic. The heart, in the circumference of the human body,
is extended. Rather perhaps, it is the same for all the creation, which is all
the animals (including Man), and it thus becomes the source of all the
branchings. Yet the heart is the first branch or portion which has been
immanenced in Man and animals. Shu'ayb was many-branched. His results and his
children were many. The second mystery is particularized to the expansive heart
of Shu'ayb and its bond of forgiving-Mercy, and is extended to all things and
is branched into a hundred branches. That which was prevailing over Shu'ayb was
the quality of the heart, an order with justice and execution of just weights
and portions, and the heart was the place of manifestation of justice, and this
was the image of the collectivity of the singularity between the manifested and
the hidden, The temperance of the body and the justice of the nafs comes
from that, and according to the needs of justice the effusion comes out of it
and becomes fluent to all the circumferences of images and to the totality of
the members; equally arriving there and therein being fluent, by which is
achieved the remaining (baqa') of the image. Also, the totality of the
singularity of the powers both spiritual, physical and of the self (nafs),
results from this for the heart. These powers with straight and right balance
become branched from it and they are placed equally in-each member from thence,
according to the strength of necessity of reception and inclination, (‘and
always gives the necessary extension to them according to the preserved
relationship of qadar and justice, and for it is the delivering to each
its due in truth’).
bones, manifested the images of different forms of returning and
varieties of determinations of qadar. It is because of this that this
Wisdom was brought close to Ezra and the determinations of qadff
(necessarily essentially imposed fate) and qadar were''explained in
this Wisdom. And the Wisdom of Strength and Mastery was followed by the Wisdom
of Chaptering (of fate) because Mastery-and Strength are Divine Names of God
and acquaintance with the mystery of qadar is specialized to God, and
this sequence shows that a person can become acquainted with the wisdom of the qadar
and the, mystery of the qadar only after he has leant his back to a
strong support which is taking refuge in God and thereby becoming existent
through the Existence of God. Consequently Ezra came to know the mystery of the
qadar after he was made to die and come back to life.
Then is the Wisdom of Elevation (nubGwiyyah) in
the Word of Jesus. The Wisdom of Elevation in .the Word of Jesus is constructed
in such a way that it is expressed both with the hamza and without the hamza
of the alphabet. With the hamza it comes from the word naba',
that is to say, it has the meaning of anbiya' (prophets). Without the hamza
it is naba which comes from yanbu which means height, elevation.
This Wisdom here is not made close to Jesus because of the word nabi
which means, to predicate, to give news, to announce, because all these prophets
mentioned in this book are joined in the same announcement. What he rather
would like to aim at meaning is elevation. Sadruddin-i- Konevi in his Fukuk
says that: ‘The aim of our Shaykh in bringing close this Wisdom (hikmah) of
Elevation is not because of the meaning of announcement, since all that he has
mentioned of the prophets in this book shows that they are together in this,
but instead the meaning he aims at is elevation.’ The aspect of the
relationship of Jesus to elevation is this: Jesus is the Word of God and the
Spirit of God, and the High God has related him to His own Self and He related
him to elevation in his ascension to God: ‘I shall let you die and I shall
elevate you to Me’, and indeed God elevated him to Himself, and because of this
mystery he brought close the Wisdom of nubuwiyyah to the Word of Jesus.
Dawud Kayseri (David of Caesarea) refutes the word of Sadruddin-i- Konevi,
saying that the total, universal, eternal prophethood is particular only to
Mohammed. The Shaykh al-Akbar says in chapter 10 c- his Futuhat that the
envoyship of all the other envoys is not the same as the envoyship of Mohammed
in that each one is an envoy to a people for a special purpose, and he (the
Shaykh) makes appropriate a Wisdom from the Divine Wisdoms to each of the
prophets; whereas had Mohammed been at the time of Adam, then there would not
have been an\
was named by the Wisdom of Elevation. Because of this, the Wisdom of
qadariyyah was followed by the Wisdom of Elevation, because the dawning
of the mystery of qadar results in the elevation of total Divine
elevation. Ezra learned when he questioned, that to dawn upon the mystery of qadar
it is necessary to die and to come back to life, but Jesus was aware of the
mystery of qadar and did not question the mystery of qadar-,
perhaps on the contrary he brings to life the dead through the predication of qadar.
Dawning upon the mystery of qadar is one of the steps of the
elevatedness of Jesus, and total elevation became manifest in Jesus.
Ihen the Wisdom of Compassion (rahmfiniyyah) in
the Word of Solomon. Compassionate Wisdom is fluent in the Word of Solomon, and
because the completion of the mysteries of private and universal Compassion was
manifest in Solomon, the Compassionate Wisdom was attributed to the Word of
Solomon. The High God extended over all creatures in the determination and
order of Solomon, and subjugated the whole of the universe to him and gave him
as a gift dispensing (tasarruf) and pomp and circumstance and dominion.
Consequently, the Mercy of Compassion being extended over all existents, the
Compassionate Wisdom follows the Wisdom of Elevation and Prophecy, because
after the elevation of the servant to God the servant manifests among the
creatures with Mercy of Compassion, and this points to the fact that Jesus,
after having been elevated to God, in his second emergence will descend with
Mercy of Compassion which is Universal Sainthood. A person who is not elevated
to God like Jesus, and has not reached the ‘meeting of the two arcs’, does not
manifest among the creatures with caliphate and determination like Solomon.
Then the Wisdom of Being {wujOdiyyah) in the Word
of David. The Wisdom of Being is existent in the Word of David, and the Word of
David has been specialized for the Wisdom of Being because being has been
completed in the image of Man as the Divine Caliphate. In this genera of
humanity, the person who appeared first with caliphate was Adam, but the
determination of caliphate was not completely seized through Adam because the
existing nation which would become successor to Adam would be made up of a
small number of individuals. And this is because this (caliphate) requires the
enlargement of the determinations of the degree of Adam at the time of Adam,
and there was nobody upon whom would expand the determination of this degree
except a small group of people who were of his progeny. Because of this, Adam’s
caliphate did not include the degree of envoyship. Rather
lation of humanity is participant in this quality and this is the
symbol of the selves by virtue of the arrangement (tadbir) of the selves
in the bodies of this genus, and the states (of these selves) are the symbols
of the images of the determinations of that quality of totality, each in
accordance with the necessities of its degree and aptitude. The connection of
Jonah with the belly of the fish is the image of the connection of the human
selves to the bodies which have emanated from the high total spirits. And the
coming out of Jonah from inside of the fish upon the surface of the earth like
a plucked chicken, that is to say, like a hairless cub (baby) unprotected from
injuries—he had nothing of skin on him—points to the fact that the human selves
in the sea of the genuses are connected to the animal spirit of the fishkind,
and the animal spirit happens in the darkness of the sea of genuses, and the
human self (nafs) reaches the degree of Total nafs after asking
for forgiveness and awakening, and through the mediation of asking for
forgiveness becomes cleansed from the plurality of the qualities of the
darkness of the animal spirit and the sea of genuses. Then it enters the Total nafs
and then only is it true to call it a nafs in a man because He has
created them all from one nafs. This way of explaining being true, the
mystery of why the other interpretation with the sign of fatha over the
fei' follows, as the Wisdom of nafasiyyah, the Wisdom of Being,
is this, that the exhalation of the humankind happens only after the degree of
caliphate which is completion of being. If the man is in constriction and
sadness and in wahm (conjecture) he does not reach the degree of
caliphate which is the complete being of the Perfect Man. Being saved from this
situation of sadness and constriction and wahm (conjecture) results in
the completion of the human being. If nafsiyyah is with the sign of sukun
over the fa'. the reason why the aspect of caliphate is followed by the
Wisdom of nafsiyyah is this, that the human nafs manifests in the
totality of being, in the degree of caliphate, and therein becomes realized,
and after this it attains to the degree of Total nafs.
Next is the Wisdom of the Unknowable (ghaybiyyah)
in the Word of Job. The Wisdom of the Unknowable is manifest from the Word of
Job and thereby becomes close to Job because in the state of affliction of Job,
before him and after him all the states are of the unknowable, even the
sadnesses are in the unknowable of his body, therefore he was afflicted with the
unknowable, after which the High God removed him through kashf from the
ailments of the ghayb. The Wisdom of nafsiyyah was succeeded by
the Wisdom of ghaybiyyah because the Divine breathing-out (tanfis
ilahi) and the breaths of Mercy is particular to the person who with his
heart becomes absent (ghayb) from the universe of
(malik) was prevalent over his state
(‘because indeed possession is forcefulness and the possessor is forceful’).
‘Indeed God» He is Nourisher (razz&q) in the extreme, both strong
and firm.’ The High God emphasized him with strength which was fluent in his himmah
and his facing which was fruitful and resulting in his aim and in his
agreement, and it is well known that himmah is of the interior (bat
in) causes, and the interior causes are stronger in meaning and
determination than the apparent ones, and their relationship to God is more
rightfully entitled. That is why the people of the universe of order are more
complete in strength and greater in effect than people of the universe of creation.
If God had not helped her beyond and outside the usual causes with the Lordly
power of the ghayb, his wife would not have been proper to give birth to
a child and there would not have come about a pregnancy in her from Zachariah,
and when because of this the High God made the joyous announcement of John (Yahya)
to Zachariah, Zachariah was surprised that there should be a child from him and
his wife and wondered how this could happen when he had had no children in his
life and his wife was barren and they had both become very old, and God
answered him saying that it was thus, that even though such a thing could not
happen from the point of view of apparent causes, yet in relationship to the
owner of complete strength and total power this was clearly possible. And when
this strength from God became fluent in Zachariah and his wife it passed on to
John. That is why the High God said: ‘Oh John, take the Book with strength’,
and succeeded the Wisdom of jalaliyyah with the Wisdom of Ownership (malikiyyah)
because jalal is conducive to possession and forcefulness and because it
points to the fact that it is only after the authority of revelation has
annihilated the existence of the awe and majesty of the servant that the
manifesting with the Divine qualities and possessorship through the Being of
the haqq occurs, and also because John was a gift from God to Zachariah.
I hen the Wisdom of Intimacy (inAsiyyah) in the
Word of Elijah. The Wisdom of Intimacy is familiar in the Word of Elijah, and
this Wisdom of Intimacy was made particular to the Word of Elijah due to that
certain quality in the Ipseity with which the High God adorned Elijah, so much
so that he was elevated to the angels, though equally related to Man. Because
of this, familiarity with two groups was established for Elijah. Both these
groups were familiar with Elijah and they would collect together and confer
together, and he was equally their most familiar and most genial companion. The
mystery of this is this, that different and varied kinds of complementary
things are established between the powers of the high spirits and the powers of
the human
by the Wisdom of Beneficence is because to run away from creation
and become familiar with the haqq brings about beneficence and
witnessing (shuhud), and for a person who is disciplined in mind like
Elijah, after his human qualities are annihilated in the qualities of
quantitativeness and the Divine qualities, he reaches the degree of Loqman,
which is the degree of beneficence and witnessing, and caliphate is declined.
Then the Wisdom of Religious Leadership (imfimiyyah)
in the Word of Aaron. The Wisdom of Religious Leadership is determined and
remains in the Word of Aaron. Let it be known like this, that the religious
leadership mentioned in this connection is one of the appellations of the many
appellations of caliphate and there is for it determination and primordiality.
Religious leadership, in a certain consideration, is divided into two parts.
One part is this, that there is no intermediary between this leadership and the
Divine Presence, and the other part is that this sort of leadership is
established by intermediary things, and the caliphate which is without
intermediary things is the absolute caliphate and its determination is
universal in existence.
It could hardly happen that it would be conditional
because the caliphate which is established through intermediaries is other
than this as the caliphate with the intermediaries is conditional and is not
absolute. The example of the caliphate without intermediaries is the words of
the High God to Abraham: ‘We brought you to the people as a leader.’ The
leadership with the intermediaries is like that of appointing Aaron caliph over
the people like when He said: ‘We made you Caliph over Our people.’ Equally, it
is like the caliphate of Abu Bakr who became the Caliph of the Prophet. This
caliphate is other than the caliphate of the Mahdi because the Prophet did not
attribute the caliphate of the Mahdi to himself but said of him, ‘the Caliph of
God’. The Prophet announced the caliphate of the Mahdi in general and
determined that the Mahdi was a khaltfah of God without intermediaries.
Let it be known like this, that each envoy who is
appointed with a sword is a caliph from among the caliphs of God and is from
among those of great resolution (ahlu-l 'azm) and is of those who
announce the envoyship of the Lord and demand that the people they are sent to,
believe, and if they do not believe then he fights with them. But envoyship is
other than this: an envoy might be individualized by envoyship alone and may
not be ordered to fight, like it was at the beginning for Mohammed for whom it
was told that he was envoy only for announcement, and many other quotations
from the Quran equivalent to this, but afterwards the state was changed. Then
he became ordered with fighting, and equally determination was extended over
belongings
between the determinations of the Divine Will and the determinations
of order, but the declension of law became prevalent over the state of Moses
and he did not have patience with certain states of Khidr. In short, the High
God enriched Moses by making him converse with Khidr and to taste certain parts
of the many parts of the private Knowledge film laduni) and to observe
some of the determinations of the Divine Will. The fourth order is this: in
Moses’s envoyship his preponderance is established over many of the envoys.
There is a hadith of the Prophet which says when giving news to us of
the Day of Judgement that when the peoples are there present he had not seen
the people of any prophet greater than the people of Moses. As the hadith
says: ‘Do not give precedence to me (the Envoy) above Moses; Moses held onto
the plinth of the Throne with strength. He could not have grasped the decrees
when the Mount Sinai was being struck by thunderbolts if he were not of those
who are made exceptional by God.’ Because at the station of the blowing of
Israphil, the blowing is not effective on the people who are elevated and high.
It is effective only upon the people who are below the‘people of Israphil.
There are other aspects than the one mentioned which show the eminence of
Moses, among which are the High God’s words: ‘Indeed you are the most high’,
during the debate. (‘Today prospers the one who is eminenced because of his
prevailing over the Pharaoh.’) There is not a people which has shown animosity
to Moses over which Moses did not prevail and which he did not destroy, and
this is all because of the manifesting in completion of the quality of eminence
in Moses. Because of this, the Wisdom of Moses was qualified with Eminence, and
the Wisdom of Religious Leadership was succeeded by the Wisdom of Eminence
because the reality of eminence is accomplished by reaching the degree of
Religious Leadership, and Aaron was a gift of God to Moses and his prophethood
is a portion of Moses’s prophethood, and the prophethood of Moses was
emphasized by the prophethood of Aaron, and Aaron was the Genera) in the orders
and the Minister of Moses with the title of ‘prophet’.
Then the Wisdom of Intention and Refuge (samadiyyah)
in the Word of Khalid. The Wisdom of Intention and Refuge is intended in the
Word of Khalid. The Name sama J has two meanings. One of them is the samad which
has no interior to it, which has no spacious hollow in it. The other one has
the meaning of intention and refuge. The one meant in this context is the one
which means intention and refuge. When Khalid became among his people the place
of manifestation of mediation and refuge, in everything of importance his
people used to take refuge in his advice and intervention and when nasty things
happened to them they
of each Wisdom is that prophet’s heart. That is why that Wisdom has
been related to that prophet. In this book I have limited myself in what I have
mentioned of these Wisdoms to (the limit of) what has been established
(concerning these) in the Mother of the Books (Quran), which limit was the
limit given tc me by the Prophet. The degrees of the Mother of the Books are
many but its total Mothemess is five. The first one of these is the Mother of
the Book, the greatest, which is the First ta'ayyun, and it is the
Reality of the greatest Reality. Its second is the Divine Mother Book which is
the 'ama of the Lordship, which when questioned with: ‘Where was our
Lotd before He created the heavens and the earth?’ the answer came from the
Prophet as: ‘He was in the 'ama’. The third is the Evident Mother Book
and this is for the Name the Organizer, the Arranger (mudabbir), and
that is the First Intellect and the High Pen. That is to say, the First
Intellect is the Evident Book and its Mother is the Reality of Realities of
immanence and that is the 'ama of he who acknowledges Lordship. The
fourth is the Chaptered Mother Book. This is for the Name Chaptered (mufasil).
These are the ‘Preserved Tablets’ by law, and the Total Self (nafs) by
cognosis and determination. The fifth is that Mother Book which is the Name of
the Creator of heavens, and that heaven is in the spirituality of the spirit of
the moon. Now, the First ta'ayyun, which is the greatest Reality of
Realities, is the degree of the Perfect Man, and this is the Mother for all the
Mothers mentioned, and the Books are equally established in their Motherhood in
this great Mother. The Mother Book is the singularity of the collectivity of immanential
and Divine collection of Books, and what is mentioned in this book (Fusus
al-Hikam) is only as much as is established and mentioned in the Mother
Book according to the Way of the singularity of the totality of the
collectivity of completions of Mohammedian Reality, and it is not as much as
the establishment of the Wisdoms in the Mother Book. This degree is the degree
of grand isthmuseity which is connecting between ta'ayyun and la
ta'ayyun and the ghayb of the Ipseity and the great Witnessing and
between reality and creaturiality. And the possessor of this is the Seal of
the Prophets, the man who has been considered worthy of hamd, Mohammed,
peace be upon him, who limited what is limited from that degree to special or
private wilayah. In this book of the above-mentioned determination, I
have mentioned only in accordance as it was delineated to me, or, I was
established in exposing the determinations at the level of that thing that was
delineated to me, and I stopped at that which was given as limit to me. If I
had thrown more into this I would not have the power (so to do) because the
Presence prevents from doing so. If I had inclined to mention more than what
was given as delineation or limit to me I would not have been able to do this
The Wisdom of Breathing Out
(al-hikmat an-nafathiyyah)
in the Word of Seth
Know that the gifts and grants which are manifest in the universe
upon the hands of His servants and upon other than their hands are of two
sorts: of these one is Essentia! gifts and the other is gifts through the
Names, and these are differentiated one from the other by the people of taste.
If, when the Divine Compassionate Effusion exudes from
the Divinity and becomes extended over the receptive quiddities (mahiyyat),
the gifts are considered by their origin, they are one, and according to this consideration
they are called Essential gifts because they emanated from God (haqq)
according to the requirements of His Essence and there is no other cause for
them apart from Himself. However, if they are considered by their variety due
to the images of the same Divine Effusion and gifts of Lordship in the
recipients and by the recipients themselves, they are called gifts through the
Names.
Now, know it like this, that the Essential gifts which
arrive from the Ipseity of the Divinity, are particularized revelations from
God. In other words, they are the Divine revelations from the singularity of
the totality of the Divine Names particular to individuals of perfection and to
the perfect ones of those brought close. Yet, know that the Absolute Ipseity (dhat-i-mutlaqa),
because of being what It is, does not give gifts, and equally, because of being
the Ipseity of God, does not reveal Itself by one revelation. What they call
Essential revelation is the revelation of the Ipseity of the Divinity. It is
comprehended that the gifts of the Names are contained in the Essential gifts
because they accept essentially the variable manifestations and multiplicity in
the receptivities. Thus in each of the Presences of the Names emanates the
Divine gift which is particular to it, and manifests in accordance to the
place where it is revealed. In what follows it is possible grammatically to
understand the request of a gift as including the meaning of responsibility.
Consequently, according to this understanding the requester is responsible for
the request.
Of these there are certain gifts which are given due to
a specific request and others which are given according to a non-specific
request, and other gifts which are given without any request, and it is the
same whether they are gifts of the Essence or gifts of the Names. In short,
there are certain
with caution. In a certain consideration it is grammatically
possible to draw the meaning that the inclination of this class is natural to
their state and they are cognizant of their inclination. His request is a precaution
when that request is of the order of the Possible; he does not know what is in
the Divine Knowledge, nor what his aptitude (jstfdfid) has granted him
of receiving. That is to say, the question of this class is a precaution when
what is requested is something from the Possible upon which has passed the
Divine order that it should take place, which means that he knows in general
that for this kind of order which is established in the Divine Knowledge to
happen, it depends upon a request, and he says that it is possible that it will
happen dependent upon a request in the Divine Knowledge. Thus he asks for a
possibility to happen, even though no-one knows in detail what is established
in the Divine Knowledge, and he is not aware whether it is in accordance with
what he pleads for in the exterior. He does not even know what his aptitude has
given him of receptivity.
Consequently, if it is the natural impatience which
prompted the request, his state of aptitude is either concordant or discordant.
If it is concordant it is necessary that what is asked for happens, and if it
is discordant it does not happen at that time. If it is his state of aptitude
which has prompted the request, certainly what is requested happens and the
request is enjoyed, even if the requester does not pronounce the request,
because by requesting with the languages of aptitude the answer is not delayed.
If knowledge is what prompts the request by speech and
demand, because there are certain demands which cannot be comprehended or
granted except after being requested, then he demands that request
precautionarily, in which case exactly what has been asked for happens if the
requester’s aptitude is complete. But if his inclination is not in accordance
with his request, then God responds to him with ‘‘labbayka' (meaning
that God answers twice to the summons with alacrity and pleasure), but retards
the enaction of that same request; yet the possibility still remains. It is
possible that it may come about through observation of the quantity of the
knowledge of the requester and the requester himself, and it is also possible
that it may not. However, if the request is in concordance with the aptitude
there is no delay or possibility of remaining, but rather it is suitable that
it comes about exactly as the request. Because it is one of the most abstruse
informations and knowledges for one to know at each moment the inclination of a
person at that moment. This is only possible for any one of the most complete
people. Otherwise no one can usually conceive his aptitude at a given moment so
that when he requests a thing that thing happens. Sometimes it so happens that
he
And they are of two classes. One class know their
aptitude from what they receive, and another class know what they receive from
their aptitude and these are more complete. In this class this is the most
complete of what there can be of knowledge of aptitude.
The People of Presence are of two classes. One class
know their aptitude from what they receive. These do not know it through
insight (kashf) of the universe of meanings and the established
potentialities (a'yan-i-thabita). They do not know thdir aptitude in
detail, rather they know their aptitude in general from what comes to them and
what they receive, knowing well that had they not had the aptitude, that
reception would not have happened. The other class know from their aptitude
what they will receive as gift, and the gnosis of the second class, that is, of
the class of the People of Presence, is the most complete that can happen in
the knowledge of aptitude. The second class is the most complete and have the
most insight (kashf). The insight to the universes of the unknown and
the higher Presences has been brought close to the Presences of the people of
this second class. Thus they knew their established potentialities which are
present with the Ipseity of God in the Eternal Divine Knowledge. They know
their aptitudes in general from the particularities of their original and
eternal receptivities. Consequently, from the knowledge of their aptitude they
know what they will receive. Thus they do not ask except for that for which
they observe an aptitude in themselves to receive, and what they request in
fact happens, immediately or after a lapse of time.
When the Shaykh, God be pleased with him, divided the
gifts into those received by asking and those received without asking, and divided
those received by asking into the request of the specific order and into the
request of the non-specific order, and later divided into two parts where it is
a question of what prompts the requester to his request, he went on further to
explain another branch, saying: And of this class there are those who ask not
because of impatience, and not because of possibility; they ask only in
concordance v/ith God’s order in His words: ‘Invite Me and I shall answer you’,
and he who is like this is the servant par excellence. There is not for
this requester any spiritual will (himmah) attached to what he requests,
whether it be specific or non-specific. Rather, his spiritual will (himmah)
is in his concordance with the orders of his master. In other words, for the
servant par excellence nothing of spiritual will appertains in what he
asks of specific or non-specific, whether it be hidden or manifest, whether it
be in this world or the other. His only spiritual will is in his concordance
with the orders of his master. He requests and prays and invites only to
concord with the Divine order. If his state necessitates a request, he requests
servanthood, because if his state of
It often happens among the complete servants, even when
they know their aptitude, and they know that a request is close to their
aptitude at that time, still they request for concordance with the order but
they do not intend to receive an answer and their spiritual will does not
appertain to a result happening. Rather their spiritual will is to concord with
the Divine order. This is the absolute servant, and this class of people is
more complete than the first class of people who do not know the state of their
aptitude when requesting and are not aware which way God’s knowledge concerning
them prevails. In this class of people, if their state necessitates a request
and makes them feel the Divine aim is prayer and request, they pray for
concordance and servanthood, and if they know by the . aptitude of the state
that the affliction is for the purpose of completion and testing and God’s
approbation (ridwan), they show patience and consign that order to God
and keep silent because they know that God does not perpetuate upon them His
attributes of Oppression {qahr} and Majesty {jalal}, but rather
that in the Essential Compassion the effects of the accidents of oppression are
necessarily obliterated, because God’s saying that His Mercy passes over His
Anger concerns the object that He was angry with. Therefore, for that person
over whom the Divine Mercy has passed, the accidental anger becomes, according
to the first instance, obliterated, just like in the case of Job who was
patient with what afflicted him and in the beginning did not ask God for its
removal because he knew the state and the state of his aptitude. No affliction
and trouble with which God afflicts His servant is absolute oppression. Rather
it is particular Mercy and Munificence which manifests in the image of trouble
and tarnishing. Only the people who are aware of the Mystery of Fate {qadar}
and who have acquaintance with the Divine Knowledge and who know the Divine
aim, appreciate this affliction. They know whenever the moment of the severance
of the ill and harm is arriving and the time for reaching gladness and comfort {rahah)
happens, then they pray and God removes their ill from them and changes the
difficulty into ease. Thus they request the removal of the ill to concord with
the Divine order and because they are afraid that they could not bear the
Divine Oppression if they did not request. In requesting and not requesting,
God’s servants observe the rules of good form {adab} and they always
observe the Lordly predications and the Divine order in accordance with God’s
determination and knowledge. When the state necessitates, these special people
concord with the order in things that appertain to their own selves, but for
things that have to do with the people of the world, of the country, or the
people of their own house and in certain respects with orders that appertain to
the
191
being right, whatever the request may be or whoever may be the
requester. But at the level of the request, the manifestation of the determination
of agreement is to the extent of the receptivity and aptitude of the servant.
The manifestation of the determination of agreement before the manifestation of
the thing requested is God’s help and assistance for the completion of a
servant’s aptitude. However, if God knew the completeness of the aptitude of c.
person in a request, whether his request be through the tongue of his state or
the tongue of his essential being or the tongue of his aptitude, He brings out
that request before the servant asks with his personal tongue and at once
agrees to it. People who do not know this mystery think that the agreement to
some people’s requests is never retarded, and that some are not agreed to, but
the order is not like this. Rather, every prayer is answered from every pleader
but it is all according to the order of God. Then the Shaykh, may God be
pleased with him, adds here the words ‘understand this’, by which he points out
that what is meant by agreement is actual agreement, not the agreement with 'labbayka',
because the agreement with 'labbayka' is never retarded from the
request, and to agree with ‘labbayka' and retard the action of agreement
points to the mystery of belovedness and that God never goes against the
servant, because it sometimes happens that God answers the request of the
requesting servant with 'labbayka' and does not respond by granting that
thing requested, because God’s agreement and love appertains to the frequency
of the servant’s prayer and also because retarding the active agreement is
better for the servant. Yet, with all that, God loves the servant and agrees to
his prayer and request and aims at generosity towards the servant and his
closeness, and listens to his prayer and agrees with him but does not grant him
the thing requested because of the perfection of His love for him, since He
does not want the servant to be veiled by anything from His love, and does not
want him to be distanced from Himself.
Thus, when the beloved servant requests from God
anything other than God, He does not agree effectively because of the
completeness of His love for him, and so that the servant does not become
veiled from Him through what he has asked for. It happens sometimes that He
bestows upon the servant that which he has requested and does not love him and
distances him step by step. This is like in the case of Iblis. He said to God:
‘Lord, grant me a delay till the day you resurrect them’, and God answered and
agreed to his prayer by saying: ‘Indeed you are one of those who will be
granted a delay till that Day whose time is known.’ These words of agreement are
not due to God’s love for him, but rather they are due to his degradation and
expulsion. Thus one is
because the self is what necessitates the aptitude in the order,
which prior to potential being, was destined for it in the Presence of
Knowledge.
The request in the language of degree is like the
request for prophethood which requests from God that thing by which and in
which his presence and maturity would be established as derived from that
certain prophet through whose being that specific prophethood is perpetuated.
The Shaykh, may God be pleased with him, says later on that the absolute gift
which comes from God does not happen through request. The absolute praise (hamd)
is the joining together of each part of the two in the order itself, and he compared
it to a thing which is not conditional to anything. That which unites between
the two is such that in a way it conditions it and therefore it cannot be
absolute.
As indeed it is not true that praise be absolute except
in words, whereas in meaning it is impossible for it not to be conditioned by
the state. That which prompts you to praise God is relative to you, either by
the Name of action or by the Name of transcendence. It is impossible for a gift
to be granted in the order itself without being requested. The gift is conditioned
by the request. That it should be absolute without request is not true except
in words. That is to say, absolute praise does not happen, because the state of
the praise-giver, his quality or his station qualify the praise during the
state of praise-giving. It is true that the word of praise is transcended, but
in meaning it is conditioned by the state. It is impossible that that which
prompts you to praise should not be in meaning the imagined form of your
perfection or your spiritual will (himmah). Thus you praise with the
praise which is absolute in the word but it is not absolute praise in the
meaning because you know that you praise Him because He is your creator and
protector. Thus that which prompts you to praise conditions your praise since
it is the imagined form which is the meaning of your veracity and your
creaturiality; such veracity and creaturiality is perfected by the Names
Creator (bar?) and Protector (hafiz), and these two Names are
Names of action. In the same way, if the hungry, having eaten and been
satisfied, says: ‘Praise be to God’, he praises God from the Presence of the
Name Nourisher (razzaq), and it is impossible that that praise be the
same as from the Presence of the Name Preventer (manf). In the same way,
if a person has been saved from being in a place which frightens him, and gives
praise, he does not praise except from the Presence of the Name Protector (hafiz).
In short, when he says: ‘Praise be to God’, his praise is not absolute but is
conditioned by the Name of action. What is meant by a Name of action is a Name
of actor, like the Nourisher, the Munificent and the Protector.
In the same way, if God has guided a person to the
knowledge of God’s not being qualified by the qualities of latter things, and
he
There are some from among them who know that indeed
God’s knowledge of them in all their states cannot be any different from what
it was in the state of being established as potential being before their
existence, and they also know that God does not bestow except what their
potential being has given to God of knowledge of them and that is what they are
established as at the time of their establishment in the Divine Knowledge. And
they know from whence resulted God’s knowledge of them. This class of people of
the second category know that indeed God’s knowledge of them in all their
states is such as is established for this class at the time of the
establishment of their potential being and before the existence in the exterior
of that potential being. They also know that God does not bestow except that
which their potential being has given to God of knowledge. And that knowledge
that their potential being has given to God is that which was established in
the Divine Knowledge concerning them in the state of their establishment in the
Divine Knowledge. This class know from which degree has resulted His knowledge
of them.
Now let it be known in fact like this, that there is a
class greater and more prevalent than the others, due to their insight and
their perfection and their knowledge and their being, who are situated in the
Eternal Divine Knowledge and who have the insight of destiny and fate and the
insight into the Divine mysteries of the possibilities which are current over
them. This is a class from the highest group of people who know that God’s
knowledge of them is in accordance with whatever they were established as at
the moment of the establishment of their established potentiality ('ayn-i-thabita)
in the individuation of knowledge (ta’ayyun- ’ilmi) prior to the
existence of their potentiality (wujud-i-'ayni). That is to say, where
they are concerned, God’s knowledge of them is according to the image of their
individuation in knowledge and not in any other way, because the established
potentialities (a'yan-i-thabita) and the individuations in knowledge (ta'ayyundt-'i/miya)
are for God the images of knowledges of things, so that according to whichever
image a potentiality is individuated God knows him according to that image,
and he is known to God in that image, and when he is existent as potential
being (wujud-i-'ayni) he knows that God does not bestow on him from the
Divine gifts except that which he has given to God of his own known image at
the state of the establishment of his potentiality ('ayn) in the Divine
Knowledge. Consequently, God bestows that upon him in his potential being (wujud-i-
ayni). In other words, whatever each thing gives to God as knowledge of
what they know of themselves, God knows that according to that image, and
according to what is suitable to the image of knowledge He gives them that in
their potential being (wujud-i-ayni).
Knowledge is not effective upon a known thing by what
that thing
of the knowledge, they are released from requesting and observe the
flowing of the fate (qadar).
And they are of two kinds: those who know this in
general and those who know it in detail. And those who know it in detail are
higher and more complete than those who know it in general. And they know what
there is in the Divine Knowledge, but only through God communicating to them,
either by what their essence has given of knowledge of it, or else by showing him,
through intuition, of his established potentiality ('ayn-i-thSbita), and
the transitions of states over him endlessly. And he is higher, because he is
in his knowledge personally in the station of God’s knowledge of him, because
his taking (of knowledge) is from one source. Those who know it generally are
those who know what there is of God’s Knowledge in it, and His knowledge of
their manifest or secret states is according to the requirements of his essence
which means that he knows it generally through belief (iman) and proof (burhan),
and the others, that is, the class who know the Mystery of Fate (qadar)
in detail, they are knowledgeable through insight (kashf), and actually
see it. Those who know it in detail know what is established in the Divine Knowledge
concerning them. This is either by communication in detail from God of what his
established potentiality gave of knowledge to Him, that is to say, God knows
him according to what image he gave to God in the way he was known when his
established potentiality was individuated in the establishment of knowledge,
and in that state with whatever necessities and accidents and additions he was
individuated. And God, with that very image, without more or less, communicates
through suggestion to his potential existence. If the servant is a prophet,
God’s communication happens through the means of an angel, or is brought down
and suggested to his heart and made known to him, and if the servant is a
saintly inheritor (warith) it is by suggesting it to his heart, whose
established potentiality requires this specified state. This knowledge, by the
suggestion brought to his heart, is not the same as the knowledge which results
from reaching up to the, knowledge of the established potentiality ('ayn-i-th&bita),
because there 'is no rising to the witnessing of his established potentiality
in the case of communicating, or giving him insight from his established
potentiality and from the infinite transitions of states of his established
potentiality. The one who knows through insight is higher than the one who
knows through communication (ilhdm) because the one vzho knows through
insight, his cognizance of himself happens at the station of God’s knowledge of
him, because the taking of knowledge is from one and the same source.
In other words, God gave insight to this pure servant
with total Essential Bounty ('inayah) from the Presence of the Divine
Knowledge
among the totality of states from his established potentiality. In
other words, it is what his established potentiality gave to God, because the
applying of this bounty is by virtue of the applying of the Divine Will {iradah),
and the applying of the Divine Will is due to the applying of knowledge to his
states and to his established potentiality, and the applying of knowledge to
him is by virtue of the natural essential aptitude and particularization .of
knowledge. Thus particularizations of knowledge and the unknowable
receptivities are the sources and origins of Divine bounty. Thus this servant’s
knowledge of his established potentiality is Divine bounty passed over him
from the states of his established potentiality. But God’s Knowledge is not
like this. This person of insight knows that (Divine bounty) when God raises
him to that, which is to the states of his essence. It is not in the scope of
the creature that God raise him to the (knowledge of the) states of his
established potentiality according to which is the image of his being, so that
(it is not in the scope of the creature that) when He raises him up, he be
raised to the level of God’s knowledge of these established potentialities in
their state of nonexistence, as there they are essential relationships and
they have no form. This means, when the potentialities are unknowable in the
Singularity of God, before the individuation of knowledge, they are not known
as such because they are only essential relationships and are not 'r'
dividuated in the particularization of knowledge, so how can the;
known to the servant by the knowledge of their form? Yet, in the
Sing larity, God’s Knowledge is the same as His Being and His Ipseity where*’*,
is annihilated the totality of the potentialities. Thus, when the establish^
potentialities are annihilated in that Singularity, how can the knowledge of a
servant reach it when the creature is the image of a potentiality, because the
knowledge of the creature benefits from his established potentiality in the
Presence of Divine Knowledge, and the established potentialities in their state
of annihilation in the Singularity are not in being because they are only
essential relationships? Consequently, the servant’s knowledge of them is
equally not in being. Thus knowledge cannot be established for the servant. But
this aspect is when it relates to the servant; not when it relates to the
established potentiality. Because the established potentialities are essential
relationships and there is no scope for any creature to encompass these: only
the Ipseity of God knows them because here the knower is not creature, and the
totality or plurality of creaturial being and the establishment of
relationships of plurality in it are in non-existence.
Consequently, the
difference between God’s Knowledge and the knowledge of the servant in this
matter is established according t' ” ways. The first is that the servant’s
knowledge is a bounty to him frc~
says . until We know’. Now let it be known like this, God’s
Knowledge is according to two parts. One part is the Essential, singular, total
and general knowledge, and the other is knowledge of qualities and Names and of
beings and of details. Essential knowledge in reality does not depend on
information because the Singularity of the Ipseity is dominant over
relationships of plurality and the unknowableness of plurality of being. Thus,
the knowledge which is attributed to God by virtue of the collectivity of the
Divine Names is not realized except by the verification of the reality of
unknowableness and events of unknowableness, because in every instant there is
a different manifestation of the Truth. Consequently, the knowledge which is
attributed to God by virtue of the manifestation of that instant is not
realized except exactly when that instant is in being. Thus the fact that by
verification that knowledge is dependent on the thing known is by virtue of the
fact that knowledge is a relationship appertaining to the manifestation of the
relationships of things known. Thus the words ‘. . . until We know’ are an
indication of the dependence of the knowledge attributable to God by virtue of
the exalted qualities and the beautiful Names, which in turn are dependent on
the manifestation of the individuations and the realities of the informations
in the domains of witnessing and degrees of being.
And renewal in this kind of knowledge does not
necessitate renewal in the Knowledge of the Ipseity, because the consideration
of the knowledge attributed to God by virtue of the essences of possibilities
is other than the consideration of the Essential Knowledge, because the
Essential Singularity is dominant over both knowledge of the relationships of
plurality and the potentiality of the plurality of being. For these there are
no manifested potentialities, because in the Essential Singularity, knowledge,
knower and the known are according to singularity, and in the same way, in
being, the Reality of Oneness, which is not added on to the Essentiality of the
Ipseity, is On^.
*. . . until We know’: this is absolutely true of
meaning. It is not like what a person who is not of this way (mashrab)
conjectures. In other words, knowledge which is attributed to God by virtue of
the Divine Names is dependent upon the manifestation of prevalence of states
and determinations and effects and appertainances and relationships and
qualifications and other necessary additions which are by virtue of degrees
and stations in the Essential Being and in the immanential wit- nessings of the
potentialities. In the same way, the Knowledge of God which is by virtue of
immanential manifestations, is realized by the modes and manners of that which
is manifested in the degrees of being. However, even if in reality the infinite
images of the relationships and qualities and connections and appertainances
which are in the power of
not to the Ipseity. Making the connection with knowledge and not
with the Ipseity necessarily causes mischief because he proved something other
to be additional to the Ipseity and by this he separated himself from the
people of God who search deeply into the Truth, who are the possessors of
insight and witnessing. Because at the level of the ones who delve deeply into
the Truth, the knowledge which manifests from the potentialities is a thing
which belongs to knowledge which was established at the state of non-existence
of the established potentialities, which is, therefore, not additional to the
Ipseity.
Now, as the words of the Shaykh led to the aptitude, he
now refers back to the original aim which was the matter of gifts.
Then, we return to the gifts and say the gifts are
either from the Essence which arrive through revelation from the Ipseity of
Divinity, or they are from the Divine Names which are particular to the
Presences of the Names and arrive from there. And the loans and the presents
and the munificences can never be except through Divine revelation, and
revelation from the Essence never is other than in the image of the aptitude of
the one who receives the revelation, and no other than this happens. Whether
all these gifts be Lordly or spiritual, like sciences, knowledges, realities,
revelations or witnessings, or whether they be immanential and material, they
never happen except by Divine revelation, and revelation from the Essence never
happens except according to the aptitude of the one revealed to, and nothing
other than this happens because it is the aptitude and the receptivity of the
potentiality that requests and invites these revelations from the Essence and
the Names. And the potentialities which receive the revelation are the images of
Eternal Knowledge which are according to the spiritual gifts which are private
to the munificent effusion and revelation of being, in accordance with the
individuation of each one and each one’s intrinsic aptitude.
This being so, the one revealed to sees in the mirrors
of the Reality nothing other than his own image since the Divine revelation is
according to the image of the one it reveals itself to, because the Divine
revelation manifests according to the image of the aptitude of the one revealed
to, and becomes individuated according to the aptitude of the one revealed to.
Thus the image of the aptitude of the one revealed to becomes individuated in
that revelation and becomes manifest. Thus the Divine revelation becomes the
mirror to the image of the servant’s aptitude. Consequently, the servant to
whom the revelation is made, observing the Divine revelation in the image of
his. own aptitude, witnesses in the Divine mirror nothing other than his own
image.
Now let it be known like this, that the Divine
revelation reaches the complete servant due to the aptitude of his potential
being. His aptitude
When my Beloved reveals Himself, with what eye is He
seen? With His own eye, not my eye; no other eye can see Him.
God said: ‘Eyes do not perceive Him.’ Thus no other than Him can
perceive Him. Consequently, the one who observes Him observes Him with His
eyes. And it is absolutely so that only His eyes see Him. Some of the people
who have understood this example of the image in die mirror even thought that
the image seen is between the eye of the seer and the mirror. This is the
utmost they have attained to of knowledge, whereas the order is like we have
said and we follow that. This is because if the image were not imprinted on the
mirror it would not be affected by the condition of the mirror in length or
shape or size, and we have explained this in the FutfihAt al-Makkiyyah.
In the sixty-third chapter of the Futuhat, Ibn 'Arabi explains
definitely: ‘And the reflection in the mirror’, he says, ‘is neither existent
nor non-existent, neither known nor unknown, neither negative nor positive,
just as when a man sees his image in the mirror he knows definitely that he has
perceived his own image’, and goes on to explain that the image takes its form
according to the mirror, and knows that his image is not between himself and
the mirror, nor is it reflection of light from the eye to the image in the
mirror or from elsewhere outside, and that he has without a doubt seen his own
image as it is reflected in the mirror, and God. shows the truth to His servant
by this example and verifies whether he is unable to understand the reality of
this, or if he does understand or whether he knows, and if he contradicts this
reality he is completely unable and ignorant and in the most powerful
perplexity (hayrah).
And if you have tasted of this, you have tasted that
utmost limit, and there is no higher aim, which is the right of the creature.
Now know it like this, that in the mirror of your established potentiality the
individuation of God to you does not happen except by virtue of your
established potentiality and its particularities and its aptitude. Thus when
God reveals Himself to you through an Essential revelation you cannot observe
God except in the image of your established potentiality (since your
established potentiality is no other than an individuation of Him).
Consequently, your witnessing God who reveals Himself to you as yourself is
like the vision of your eye in the mirror observing your image. In other words,
you cannot observe God except through the particularity of your own established
potentiality, but always in the mirror of the Being of God. And do not covet or
tire yourself to advance to a higher step than this in your progress.
What he means here by step is ‘degree’, because he takes
into consider-
He is your mirror in seeing yourself, in other words,
God is the mirror for you to see your self in. In other words again, the Being
of God is the min or for the manifestation of the stages of potential being
because the immanential realities are manifested, in the mirror of His Being (hu-
wiyyah) and you are manifested with tne images of the potential of being in
the light of the revelation of the Being of God according to the images of the
potential of knowledge. In the same way, the mirror of the Unknown (ghayb),
which is the Being of God, is also the mirror; and Knowledge of God which is
the image of Essential Unknowableness and the Eternal Virtual Being is also a
mirror in which you observe yourself. Thus, as you exist as potential being,
and thus divest yourself from your qualities and withdraw yourself from«your
relationships and qualifications, you observe your 'ayn-i-thabita in
the Being of God, thus God becomes a mirror for you, and you are His mirror for
observing His Names and the manifestation of His determinations. You are God’s
mirror as one total being for observing His Names and for the manifestation of
the determination of His Names. In other words, God observes the images of His
Names and His Essential relationships and Lordly qualities in you, and the
determinations of His Names become manifest in you because Man is the place of
manifestation for the manifestation of the totality of the Ipseity together
with the totality of the Divine Names, and he is the place of origin of the
determinations of His Names. But in no way is he other than the same, and the
order becomes mingled and ambiguous.
The Divine Names and Essential relationships of Uniqueness,
by consideration of potentiality, are no other than the Ipseity of God. Consequently,
in reality you are the mirror of the Ipseity of God. Hence the order becomes
mingled, vague and ambiguous, because God is the mirior to your self. Thus God
is the hidden and your self is the manifest, and you become the mirror to the
Names of God because the Divine Names are revealed to your essence.
Consequently, from the point of view of the Names, God is manifest and you are
the hidden. In short, God or creature, each one is mirror to the other, being
manifest or hidden, or unknowable or witnessing, and exteriority and
interiority and other relationships of Names and matters of the Ipseity being
the same thing as the Ipseity, the order of being and witnessing becomes ambiguous
and equivocal to certain people of different ways (mashrab).
In the same way, God’s Essentia! revelation is a mirror
to the unknowable relationships of Mau which are his established potentiality,
and the Being of God, when considered in revelation, is manifest in the established
potentialities and the established potentialities are hidden. Thus the
established potentialities which have been revealed to, become
knowledge of God and this knowledge is not intrinsically possible
except for the Seal of the Prophets and the Seal of the Saints.
Now, know that that person who is the inheritor of this
becomes realized in this station and witnesses that he is the place of
manifestation of the First Devolvement with width of receptivity and total
place of manifestation; that is to say, he is manifested from the First
Devolvement {ta'ayyun awwal), that is to say, from his essential being,
with all the Divine Names and Lordly qualities, and his interior is imprinted
in his established potentiality with his totality of singularity, and his established
potentiality is not specialized with partial specialization, and he has
collected in himself and encompassed the width and totality of the place of
manifestation together with all the established potentialities and the
realities of the Unknowable with the total comprehension of the singularity,
and the totality of the potentialities are concordant in him and thus he is the
same as the totality of the potentialities and the Realities of the Reality,
then, the revelation granted to him in his receptivity in accordance with his
individuated potentiality and his absolute totality of singularity of
receptivity is the revelation of the singularity of the totality of
completeness. Thus, in this revelation, by his exterior he witnesses the
exterior and interior of God, and by his interior equally he observes the
interior and the exterior of God. Through his encompassment of totality of
singularity and the particularities which emanate from his completeness and
his being the seal, he collects between the totality of the manifest and the
totality of the hidden, and he observes God by witnessing of the potentiality,
and also God observes him with the witnessing of oneness and totality, so that
he is individuated in the oneness of potential so that he is transcended from
being limited.
Consequently, in that station, the revelation bestows
upon him the comprehension of the ultimate of knowledge, and the comprehension
of silence and the non-existence of perplexity. This witnessing does not happen
except in the eternity and everlastingness of the Mohammedian perfection of
human reality. For this reality of the totality of singularity of perfection in
its degree of manifestation and place of manifestation and also in the
witnessing of the universes, there is the individuation of oneness and of
totality. Equally there is for him in its degrees of hiddenness and
unknowableness and in the spiritual and angelic spheres, the individuation of
oneness and totality and completeness. The exterior of this reality is
prophethood and its interior is sainthood. For prophethood and sainthood, for
each there are two collectivities. One is totality of totality and the other is
differentiation.
Thus, the totality which was in Adam before detailing
was the image
totality of singularity, and between the totality of the reality of
meanings, and between the collectivity of human corporeality, and that would be
Mohammed (S. A.), whom God has commended.
That which is particular to his totality of
manifestation is the Father of Mankind, Adam (S.A.), and that which is
particular to the totality of spiritual interiority is the Divine Spirit, which
is Jesus, and the sainthood which is specific to the totality of totalities
among the totalities of singularity in the interior of the degree of the
reality of meanings is for Ibn 'Arabi, who is the special Seal of the source of
detailing (Fusus), may God be pleased with him. The collectivity of this
Seal is total between the totality of meaning and spirit and image, and between
the reality of his collectivity of the totality of meaning and spirit and
image, and necessitates the manifestation of the collectivity together with his
collectivity. This Seal’s relationship to the Seal of Prophethood is like the
relationship of a descendant. The relationship of Jesus, who is the Spirit of
God, to the Seal of Prophethood, is like the relationship of an heir who is not
a descendant, and the sealhood of interiority and sainthood is combined between
them.
Now, Oh seeker of knowledge of the perfection of
mankind, and Oh incliner towards the light which emanates from the niche of
Light of the Seal of Mohammedian Sainthood, let it be known like this, that the
reality of Mohammedian perfection with its manifestation contains the totality
of potentialities of the Divine potentialities and Names, and collects together
the origins of the realities of prophets. And all the realities of the prophets
are individuated therein because each prophet is the place of manifestation of
a special Name from among all the Names, and by the reality of that Name is
dependent upon God, and it is by virtue of that that it takes the predications
of prophethood and envoyship from God.
The Divine Names in their breadth of determination and
application and their prevalence over other Names are various. Thus the facets
among the prophets is due to the dissimilarity and variousness of the Names
which are their states and orders and origins, and their prophethood is
partial prophethood. However, if the Name of any prophet, which is the source
of his prophethood and the origin of his dependence, is more prevalent over
other Names, it is as if it totalizes the intrinsic qualities of the
determinations of the other Names and that prophet is the closest to the
Mohammedian totality.
Thus, each prophet receives the knowledge appertaining
to prophethood in the Reality of Realities, which is the reality of his Divine
Name, and takes it from the Mohammedian perfection of human reality due to the
breadth of the determination of that Name, because that reality is
the Seal of Prophets, and of the saints, not one observes except
from the niche of Light of the Seal of Sainthood.
These two degrees, manifest and hidden aspects, are
both, according to one consideration, Divine degrees. Dissimilarity between the
two is due to relationship, because the exterior of Mohammedian Reality is
prophethood, and its interior is sainthood, and the Presence of the determinations
of the Name Manifest and the prolongation of the Name Manifest is from the Name
Interior, and the manifestation of the effects and the determinations of the
Name Interior is by the Name Manifest. Thus superiority is among and between
the relationships of Divinity. Under another consideration, the Divine Reality
of perfection and completion is the Mohammedian Reality and its manifestation
is the prophethood of the Mohammedian totality and its interior is the
Mohammedian absolute Sainthood.
Mohammed (S.A.) is in manifestation the Seal of
Prophethood and in the interior the Seal of Sainthood, but the necessities of
the manifest are plurality and relativity, and the necessity of the interior is
oneness and absoluteness. Thus, interior and exterior are in one aspect in
opposition to one another, and to avoid worry during the time of invitation
and so that the determination of oneness and the determination of the Mysteries
of Destiny and Fate do not prevail over the determination of the manifest, his
self was individuated in the Absolute Prophethood which encompassed him during
the period of prophethood. However, a person who is individuated and appointed
from among Absolute Sainthood, and the most complete heir from among the
complete heirs, is like a mirror to the imprints of that degree. According to
another consideration he is the manifestation of prophethood, and prophethood
is of the immanential qualities and the interior is sainthood, and sainthood is
of the Divine qualities, and he is the Saint, the Praised, and is present in
the exterior with the Seal of Prophethood (S.A.), and he is called the niche of
Light of Sealhood of Prophethood, and equally in the interior he is present
with the saint who is of the completeness of the heirs of Mohammedian Seal of
Sainthood and he is called also the niche of Light. Thus, all prophets and
envoys receive from the niche of Light of the Seal of Prophethood by virtue of
the breadth of encompassing of the Names which are their states and origins,
and all the prophets receive the knowledge which is particular to the way of
the Mohammedian Seal from the niche of Light of the Seal of Saints. So much so
that in fact the envoys do not see what we said (above) that they saw except
from the niche of Light of Seal of Sainthood, because envoyship and
prophethood, that is to say, prophethood and envoyship of law-making, are both
cut off from sainthood whereas the (total Mohammedian Divine) sainthood is
not prevalent over the prophet. Consequently, the envoys and
prophets take this specific knowledge by virtue of their sainthood from the
niche of Light of the Seal of Sainthood, because envoyship and prophethood of
law-making is cut off and sainthood is not cut off, and these words include two
aspects.
One aspect is this, that prophethood and envoyship of
law-making is not a permanent quality for prophets and envoys. They are
particular to the emergence of this world and when they have passed away from
their worldly emergence their taking through prophethood and envoyship becomes
cut off, because when they die their prophethood and envoyship is cut off, and
they then take from the niche of Light of the Seal of Mohammedian Sainthood,
which is the same source, this time from the aspect of the sainthood being in
the isthmuses of the other world and the elevated Presences, because effusion
is never cut off from, and is continuously present with, prophets and envoys.
Another aspect is this, that envoyship and prophethood
are qualities of creaturiality, and the determinations which are taken with
these appertain to giving news of the wonders of the Unknown (ghayb)
and the particularities of the Presence of Compulsion (Jabarut) and
Spiritual sphere (malakut), and the qualities and the Names, and refer
to the determinations and happenings of immanence', and it is not possible for
them during that period to attain to the Oneness of the Divine Essence and to
the potentialities of the unknown and the relationships of the Ipseity, or to
the knowledge of the mysteries and determinations which are particular to the
specific Mohammedian Sainthood, and it is unimaginable that as long as the
prophet and the envoy are clothed in immanential relationships that they should
take without intermediary from the Mohammedian niche of Light. Thus, if God
wished to make the prophets and envoys witness the knowledges appertaining to
the mystery of Oneness during their earthly emergence, He would remove totally
from them their creaturial qualities and lift off the determinations of
plurality. Prophethood and envoyship, not being of essential qualities and not
being of the qualities of God, become cut off from them, because their
essential qualities are total poverty and total annihilation, whereas sainthood
is a quality of God. Thus, prophethood and envoyship have no place in the niche
of Light of Seal of Sainthood which is the image of the singularity of the
unknowable potential and the Divine Names. Consequently, the taking which was
through the aspect of prophethood and envoyship is also cut off. Yet the taking
which was through the aspect of sainthood is not cut off. Thus prophets and
envoys and other saints, whether during their existence in the emergence of
this world or whether they have been transported to the emergence of the next
world,
among the Divine qualifications and a degree of complete totality
from among the Divine degrees. Whichever case, it is all-inclusive of the
totality of the Divine degrees and is the origin of the effusion and the source
of knowledge of all the prophets and envoys and perfect saints. Thus, as the
Seal of Sainthood is individuated in that niche of Light by virtue of his
individuation in that degree of totality and by the imprinting of that degree
on him, and as he is the source of all that is received by virtue of his being
annihilated in that degree, and as he is the place of manifestation of
collectivity and of detailing, the fact that he is subject to the Seal of
Envoys and the determinations of the religion of the Seal of Envoys, does not
diminish in any way from the height of his station, and in any case, as all the
prophets and the envoys and saints receive from his niche of Light, their
allegiance to him is not contradicted.
In spite of what Dawud al-Kayseri says about this, the
one who is meant by the Seal of Sainthood is not the Mahdi, nor is it meant to
be Jesus, because Jesus is the Seal of Universal Sainthood and the Universal
Sainthood starts with Adam and ends with Jesus. As God says: ‘At the level, of
God, Jesus is similar to Adam.’ The Shaykh, God be pleased with him, in his Futuhat
al-Makkiyyah in the 73rd chapter and in the 13th part, mentions: ‘The Seal
is of two parts: with one Seal God seals Absolute Sainthood and with the other
Seal God seals Mohammedian Sainthood. But the Seal of Absolute Sainthood is
Jesus (S.A.) and he was the Saint with Absolute Prophethood at the time of
those people, and he will come down towards the end of time as heir and Seal
and there is no saint after him with absolute prophethood, just as Mohammed is
the Seal of Prophethood and there is no prophet of religion after him. And
indeed Jesus was one of the greatest Lords of determination (ahlu-l 'azm)
from among the envoys and one of the most special of the prophets, though the
determination of prophethood over him in this station of prophethood was
removed by the ordinance of time over him and changed to another, and he will
come down as saint, this one of the Absolute Prophethood, with whom all the
Mohammedian saints will join. He is of us and our Lord. In this order the first
prophet was Adam and the last prophet was Jesus. He will be implicitly prophet
and on the Day of Judgement he will be with us and with the Envoy. But as for
the Seal of the Mohammedian Sainthood, he is a man of Arab origin from among
the best and most noble, and he exists in our time. I knew of this in the year
595 and saw its sign which He hid from the eyes of His people, and revealed it
to me in the city of Fez, and I even saw the Seal of Sainthood from him who is
the Seal of Absolute Prophethood, and many people do not know this. And just as
God sealed by Mohammed (S.A.) the prophethood of religion, in the same way God
sealed by the
between the Yemen and Damascus comers; At a place close to the
Damascus comer, there were two bricks missing, one of silver and one of gold.
In the top layer a gold brick was missing, and in the layer under it a silver
brick was missing. I saw myself fitting into these places like two bricks of
silver and gold which completed the wall, and left nothing missing. I stood and
looked at this and knew without doubt that these two bricks were my own self
and no other. I woke up and gave thanks to God and said most abjectly: “l am of
those who are subjects to the Envoy (S.A.) and to the prophets, peace be on
them all, and it is suitable that I be the Seal of God for His Sainthood only
if this is dear to God”, remembering the hadith of the Prophet regarding
the wall and the brick. I told this to some knowledgeable people in Mecca and
understood from them that what had happened to me of elevation had not happened
to them. The seer of this vision asks that He perfect me by His Generosity,
because special devotion to God does not accept boundaries, nor imbalance, nor
inaction. And this is indeed God’s Munificence, Who gives to whom He pleases.’
As for the Seal of Sainthood he can be in one aspect
lower and in another aspect higher than the prophets. The aspect of being lower
is due to the fact that he is qualified with tbtaljservanthood, and his servanthood
is most complete and he does not possess a law but rather h- subjects himself
to the determinations of the religion of the Seal < Envoys and receives the
religious determinations from him. Thus, by consideration of his subjugation to
the religious determinations he is lower. The higher aspect is that the Seal of
Envoys receives from his (the Seal of Saint’s) niche of Light because during
his invitation the Seal of Envoys, being garbed with some of the predications
of plurality, receives only by means of an angel, whereas the Seal of Sainthood
is in the source of totality and he is the place where all is received and he
receives without an intermediary.
Now, as the order is as mentioned, do not conjecture
that the person who is individuated and singularized in the niche of Light of
the Seal of Sainthood is in every way superior to the Seal of Prophethood,
because the Seal of Sainthood in the place of manifestation of the degree of
total collectivity is not qualified by being, so there can be no question of
superiority established for his being.
Now, as it has been mentioned several times, prophethood
is the exterior of sainthood, and sainthood is the interior cf prophethood.
Consequently, he who is individuated in the station of the Seal of Prophethood
is also individuated in the station of the Seal of Sainthood. Thus he receives
from the outward aspect which is prophethood, a from the interior aspect which
is sainthood. His interior is larger, more
God. If sainthood is considered a Divine
quality for the Seal of Prophethood, then the individuation of the Seal of
Prophethood with the Divine quality is higher than his individuation with his
creaturial quality. The aspect where it is higher is like this, even though in
another aspect it is lower. Because sainthood, which is interior, is a Divine
quality and contains expansion of oneness and prolongation of effusion and revelation,
whereas propheth ood, which is exterior and which is a creaturial quality,
imbibes from the sainthood and continues from there. And the aspect where
sainthood is lower is this: sainthood is interior and the predica tion and the
effects of the interior is apparent through the place of manifestation of the
exterior and depends on that to manifest its power and strength, and it
preserves its effusion and revelation. On the other hand, if sainthood is
considered as an Essential quality for God, there again the Seal who is
individuated therein is in one aspect higher because he collects in himself all
the individuations of knowledge and the relationships of the Unknowable and the
plurality of relationships of existence, as well as being extended and prevalent
over both oneness and plurality.
Consequently, by virtue of sainthood, all the prophets
and envoys and the saints who have arrived, take as their source of knowledge
that absolute, unique, total Sainthood, and the person who is individuated
therein is called Seal of Saints because he manifests with the perfection of
sainthood therein, and the sainthood is sealed by him. That sainthood is also
called the niche of Light of Seal of Sainthood because that light is imprinted
in the Seal of Sainthood from which God effuses for all the potentialities. The
absolute sainthood which is an Essential, total, Divine quality, is higher and
more collective than the prophethood which is a creaturial quality. Thus the
Seal of Sainthood who is individuated therein with absoluteness and expansion,
is certainly higher than the Seal of the Prophets who is conditioned by the
conditions of prophethood during his time of invitation, since absoluteness and
totality is higher than conditioning and differentiation. For example, the
expansion of the chest of the Seal of the Prophets and the state of
transcendence of his heart and the manifestation of the determinations of unity
in him at the time of the journey for the Night of Mfraj of the Seal of
Prophethood (S.A.) was in a way superior to his state when he was subjected to
the order of invitation and conditions of prophethood. And in a way it was
inferior because the manifestation of the totality of the singularity of the
Divine Image, with all the completeness of Its Names and Essence, depends on
the perfection of the human manifestation with which happens the perfection of
polish and reflection. On the other hand, if one observes that the first and
the last, and the manifest and the hidden is
subject in religious law to an order which does not exist in him but
exists in another. Thus he is lower in the knowledge of religious
determinations and he is higher in the Divine gnosis and in the knowledge of
Reality.
Due to the fact that the Seal of the Envoys is included
in the station of Absolute Sainthood and rises to the degree of ‘even less’ (aw
adna'), he is higher than all, because that station is special to him by
origin.
The people who have reached a certain degree of maturity
in esoteric matters look to the degrees of superiority in the knowledge of God;
therein is their desire, to be foremost in the degrees of the knowledge of God,
and at their level and point of view the knowledge of God is higher and
foremost. As for the happenings of the immanence, they do not concern
themselves with that, since naturally lack of knowledge in such things does not
diminish them in any way. Perhaps rather the insight into the matters of the
immanences and their concern with it would diminish them because it would prevent
them from turning to God and from the observation of the Absolute Beauty.
Now the prophets are specialized for the purpose of
announcing religious predications and for the observation of the orders of
religion. Each prophet, in accordance with the Divine order, makes a particular
people pray to God according to a specific Way and he is conditioned by
teaching them and bringing them to happiness. In genera! all prophets, because
of teaching their people and their concern with this, become veiled from the
witnessing of their union during their ascension (ini'raj) and during
their absence from among the people, since, on account of manifestation, though
they are the inviters in accordance with a Divine order, their heart is towards
the immanence.
The saints, on the other hand, are not concerned with
the happiness and purification of the people, or with the teaching and the announcement
of religious predications because invitation and manifesting is not of the
necessities of sainthood. Perhaps rather they are under the dominion of the
predications of the Name Interior which causes their vision to incline towards
what concerns the predications of fate (qada') and destiny (qadar)
and what is willed by God. Their expansion and their superiority is through the
knowledge of God. The one who knows God most is the most perfect and highest.
Consequently, as has been explained, that the lack of knowledge in the
fertilization of the palm tree, and other things like this that concern partial
orders of the immanence, does not diminish from the height of the rank of the
Prophet, in the same way, for the saint to be subject to the religion imposed
by the Seal of Envoys does not diminish their collective and encompassing
knowledge and does not diminish them in the knowledge of God. Now, know for
real what we have told you. That is, know according to its reality
225
be prevalent over himself. Thus the Seal of Sainthood in his dream
would see that same wall by which the Envoy was represented; that is to say,
the prophethood would be represented to him in the image of that wall. Thus the
Seal of Sainthood would see-in his dream the wall which the Envoy interpreted
as prophethood, but would see in that same wall the place for two bricks.
In other words, prophethood was represented to the Envoy
as a wall which was complete except for one brick which represented the Envoy,
and the Envoy became that brick. It is inevitable that the saint should see
this dream, only whereas the Envoy only saw one brick missing, the Seal of
Saints sees the same wall as the Envoy saw in his dream but sees two bricks
missing. In it, to the silver brick of the Seal of Prophethood is added on the
silver brick of the Seal of Sainthood which is imprinted with the Seal of
Prophethood and fitted into the place of the brick missing in the wall of
prophethood, thereby his self filling the gap in the wall. In this way, the
Seal of Sainthood conforms to the place of the two bricks which he saw missing
in the wall of sainthood and prophethood and completes the gap by his self.
And the bricks are of gold and of silver and he sees two
bricks missing from the wall and he completes the wall with these two bricks of
gold and of silver, and it is necessary that he sees his self (na/s) fitting
exactly the gaps of these two bricks, and it is the Seal of Sainthood who is
these two bricks and he completes this wall. This means that God shows him
prophethood and sainthood and subjection and subjugation in the form of two
bricks. Consequently, it is inevitable that the Seal of Sainthood should see
his own self as two bricks, one of silver and one of gold, fitting exactly into
the place of the two bricks. That is, he should see in his dream that it is his
own self that fills the places of the two bricks. And with his being, the wall
is complete. Now, just as prophethood is manifest and sainthood is interior, in
the same way, gold is interior and silver is manifest. Gold is the image of
real Divine perfection and establishes its sovereignty, and it is the reality
and the interior of the silver. As sainthood is the real meaning and the
interior of prophethood, silver by the perfection of its cleanliness is the
closest to gold. But as the time passes and under the influence of things that
happen, its image becomes tarnished, and in the same way prophethood becomes
cut off, but gold is not like this. It does not tarnish or diminish because its
original precious image is preserved. Equally, sainthood does not get cut off
because God Himself is Saint (waliyy) and Praised (hamid).
Thus when the Seal of Prophets and Envoys is created
according to the Divine Character and with the qualities of servanthood and
with the necessities of establishing religion and law and inviting to God, he
consideration, the reality of the golden brick becomes established
for the Seal of Sainthood, and sovereignty results for him. The determination
of the fact that he knows the order as it is in his own self and by God, and
that he receives the mystery of it from God without intermediary, results in
his: appearing to be subject in the exterior because he seemingly takes from
the religious laws, by virtue of which he becomes subject to the Seal of the
Envoys where it concerns religious laws. If you have understood v/hat I have
pointed at, then a beneficial knowledge has resulted for you.
What has been pointed out is this, that this saint who
is the Seal is completely subject in action, in character, in state, in essence
and degree, to the Seal of Envoys, and equally, in knowledge and station, his
being the heir is prevalent, as he has been granted sovereignty in the
knowledge of God and subjugation in being the heir of Mohammed. In other words,
collecting in himself all Divine perfections in manifestation, being outwardly
in perfect subjection to the laws of the Seal of the Envoys, and inwardly being
strengthened and made successful, and taking directly from God without
intermediary he becomes individuated in the niche of Light of the Seal of
Sainthood and is the one that is followed by all in the knowledge of God. If
all this is understood, then will result the arising of the beneficial
knowledge which leads to perfection. The beneficial knowledge is this, that
after Divine help, perpetual happiness in the exterior comes about through
perfect following'of (the laws of the Seal of Envoys, because perfect
subjection to the Envoy results in Divine Love. ‘Say: if you love God, follow
me. God will love you.’ (Quran)
AH prophets, from the esoteric knowledge (laduri)
of Adam to the last of the prophets, without exception, receive from the niche
of Light of the Seal of the Prophets; even though his existence in thejnatural
body was delayed, indeed he is existent with his Reality. Now, the Reality of
Mohammed, according to which image Adam is manifest, after his existence and
manifestation in the totality of Divine Presences and in the Presence of the
Ipseity of Compassionate Blindness famd) and in the Presence of
Knowledge of the Divine Names and in the degree of the Total Intellect, and
equally in the Guarded Tablet and in the images of Nature of the Throne and the
Chair and in the totality of the higher spirits and other high degrees of
spirits and images and; elements until finally all the images of the
collectivity of the Divine humanity of Man is reached, and present and fluent
in the places of manifestation of the Divinity and in all the degrees and
Presences, does not cease from inviting all the realities and spirits to the
Union of the Ipseity and does not cease from being effused and extended from
all that. Thus all the envoys and prophets, receiving knowledge by virtue of
their spirituality and reality in the past
qualified by the Divine qualities and after acquiring the conditions
of sainthood from the Divine qualities. It can even be said that it can only
happen after acquiring the conditions of sainthood from the Divine qualities,
etc. That is to say, nobody other than the Seal of Saints becomes a saint in
existence except after he is qualified with the Divine qualities and after acquiring
the conditions which are the Divine characteristics. After this acquisition,
the fact that he is a saint is due to the fact that God called Himself 'waliyy'
and 'ham id. This is so because 'waliyy' is one of the Diyine
Names. Consequently, a saint does not become a saint except after being
qualified by the Divine Character and after being qualified by the Divine
Names.
Now the Seal of Sainthood is one of
the images from among the Mohammedian images by which is sealed the sainthood
particular to Mohammed. Consequently, the determination of the 5
Seal of the Prophets is like his determination before he was clothed with an
elemental body, because it is necessary that the most perfect place oi
manifestation, which is the Reality of Mohammed, encompass the EsSenti.il
revelation of that reality in the degree of sainthood, just as it necessitates
the most perfect place of njafiifestafion for the revelation of the degree of
prophethood. And it is equally necessary'from the existence of the Seal that in
the degrees of pfophethood and sainthood there be two images of the one reality
which is the Reality of Mohammed. Nevertheless, of the two images which are
established for that one reality, the one that is prior is sainthood, because
sainthood is the interior aspect of that reality and is of the Divine
qualities. Prophethood is its exterior aspect and is of the immanential
qualities. Consequently, the niche of Light of the Seal of Sainthood
encompasses the sphere of general Sainthood and collects together all the spheres
of prophethoods and sainthoods. ,
r
The relationship of the Seal of Envoys, in respect of
his sainthood, to the Seal of Sainthood, is the same as the relationship that
the prophets and envoys have to him. Now the Seal of Sainthood is individuated
in the Seal of private Mohammedian Sainthood, and the niche of Light which' is
private to it and is the collectivity of the singularity of the sealing of the
Divine particular Mohammedian Sainthood, just as the Seal of the Envoys is individuated
in the sealing of the complete, encompassing, Divine, law-giving prophethood
because it is his niche of Light. Thus the prophethood of all the prophets is a
sainthood which is arranged in degrees because prophethood is of the images of
the determinations of words of sainthood, and all the relative sainthoods which
are the interiors of all the prophets are the relative images of the perfect
and complete Divine Mohammedian Sainthood. Consequently.
ary, from the source, that knowledge .which hc takes from,the
Prophet by virtue of his being the heir. Also hft’i^fie observer-of the degrees
of prophethood, of envoyship, of sainthood,' and of caliphate and other degrees
both Divine and immanential by virtue of his being individuated in the degree
of the Reality of Mohammed which is the Reality of Realises. And from that
degree he extends and effuses over all.
And he is a goodness (husnS) from among the
goodnesses of the Seal of the Envoys, Mohammed (S.A.), and he is the first of his
community and Lord of the sons of Adam in the opening of the doors to
intercession. Thus the Seal of Saints in the exterior is one of the goodnesses
of the goodnesses of the Seal of the Envoys, which is due to the fact that
being the best and most complete subject in the determinations of his Way, he
is his most perfect heir in sealhood. And in the interior aspect he is goodness
because he is individuated in the collectivity of the uniqueness of the
complete place of manifestation in the interior of the sealhood of Mohammedian
Divine image. Thus he is an individuation from among the individuations from
all eternity of the Reality of Mohammed, as well as a revelation from among its
revelations. In the same way, when the Seal of the Envoys manifested in the
station of envoyship with laws, his sainthood did not manifest with the
Uniqueness of Ipseity so that he could bestow upon the people who deserved it,
the deserts of the Name the Gbide (hadi), because the goodness* of his
sainthood was interior. Thus this became manifest in the sainthood which is in
the exterior his most perfect heir, and in the interior his most complete and
most prevalent place of manifestation. According to this consideration, the
Seal of the Saints is one of the goodnesses from among the goodnesses of the
Envoy, except that because he receives directly from God without intermediary,
he is the Viceregent of God and not the Viceregent of the Envoy. Mohammed is
the first among the company of prophets and saints, and he is the Lord of the
sons of Adam in opening the door of intercession, because the Reality of
Mohammed, collecting 'all of the Divine and immanential realities, was made
foremost of all the realities of prophets and saints in individuation and
manifestation, and the other individuations of the realities of knowledge and
images of personifica tion of being are the followers of his individuation. And
he wa's made to be foremost in his being over all the collectivity of the
realities in the opening of the door. In consideration of this, he is qualified
with firstness because he is the First Individuation (ta'ayyun awwal),
and in his being that place of manifestation, the effusion emanated to the
realities of prophets and saints. Thus he is the opener of the door of effusion
of being, as well as being the opener of the door of intercession, which at
lan the Seal. of the Envoys as the necessary particularity is the
dohammedian Presence. Another order is this, that the Seal of the Envoys
particularized and specified his foremostness in the opening of ie door of
intercession because he is the mirror to the Mohammedian bsolute Sainthood
which is his interior.
And in this particular state he precedes the Divine Names. That is
to ly, in the special state of the opening of the door of intercession, he
recedes the Divine Names.
Now the Seal of the Envoys has precedence in opening of the door of
itcrcession in three ways. The first one is this: When the reality of ie Divine
collectivity of Mohammedian Reality became individuated igether with the nafs-i-rahmant
prior to other degrees of Divine in- ividuations, the singularity of the Names
and qualities which were in nnihilation under the awesomeness (Jalal) of
the Uniqueness of the iseity also became individuated. And each singular person
became ileased from annihilation by the nafs-i-rahmani and the
intercession of fohammedian individuation and became existent through a stroke
of dstence and became diff erentiated one from the.pther. Thus, the Reality f
Mohammed, through the singularity of the collectivity of uniqueness ith the
revelation of the All-Compassionate, interceded for the recepti- ities of the
realities of individuals, and having extracted the realities om the oppression
of non-existence brought them close to being. This itercession is^the opening
of the door of Compassionate Mercy for the >ivine Names, as well as being an
intercession in differentiation and lanifestation, from knowledge to the
Essence and from non-existence > existence. Consequently, the ta'ayyun
awwal, which is the first place T manifestation of the nafs-i-rahmani,
interceded for the intercession hich is of the..Divine Names and of the
realities of prophets and saipts. The second ,way is this: The Divine Names and
the realities of the ’-layb, each of these intercede, in the places of
manifestation and in the diverse, to manifest the tastes, the knowledge, the
determinations and fects, which are treasured in each one’s treasure house. The
Names of ie Divine realities are also dependent on the places of manifestation id
the universes to manifest their determinations and effects. It is even irhaps
that the realization of the Names is dependent on the places of anifestation.
Consequently, as the universes and places of mani- station were not created,
the determinations and effects of the Names id realities were not manifest.
Even the Lordship of the Names was ?t manifest. It was after God had first
created, as He says, the Intellect, hich is the first degree of the degrees of
Mohammedian existence, which >ain is the Total Intellect and which collects
in itself the totality of ie complete and partial places of manifestation and
the higher and
215
! I ..iV:
the Ipseity, in accordance with the sayiSg^'We^did not*’$end you
except as Compassibnate Mercy to the universes’; as his bein'g'is the same as
the Mercy of the Compassionate, and as his law includes all the previous laws,
he intercedes with the Mercy of the Compassion to all the universes and peoples
as mercy to the degree of their receptivity. And his particular people are
deservers of being the place of mahifestability of the Compassionate Mercy. In
general, by his being, total covering up of faults and the abolition of wrong {batil)
and the perfection of polish and polishing happen; the door of invitation and
intercession being opened by his being, in the same way in this emergence
invitation through propheihood is sealed with him in accordance with the
meaning: ‘There will not be after me . . .’
Now there is another way which is the intercession
particular to the emergence of the other world. The witnessing of the
witnessing is that at the Day of Judgement people will be gathered to Adam for
intercession. Adam will refer them to Abraham, Abraham to Moses and Moses to
Jesus, and Jesus will refer them to Mohammed, and when they are all gathered to
Mohammed for intercession the hadith referring to: ‘I am the origin of
intercession’ will become established. As he is the Mercy to universes, in the
Day of Judgement equally his intercession is general. He may intercede even for
prophets, saints and angels, and intercedes for their intercession. Thus God
allows at His level that the angels, envoys, prophets and intercessors among
believers use intercession. Each prophet intercedes for a particular people
and the general interces ;ion is particular to the Envoy. Thus, even in the
situation of the Day of Judgement it is the Envoy who opens the door of
intercession, and with God’s permission he becomes the first intercessor. In
the Day of Judgement the last intercessor is the most Compassionate,' of the
Mercifuls and intercedes at the level of the VengefuNMerciful which would draw
a person who has not even ever done a good deed out of the fire. It is the Name
the Benefactor (mun'im) and the Name Superior Gift-giver (rnufdil)
which take them out. Thus in the opening of the door of intercession over the
sons of Adam, and over the Divine Names which are the origins of the prophets,
the foremostness bf thejJEnvby becomes established because at the degree of
tfje ta'ayyun awwal the place of manifestability of the nafs-i-rahmant,
andvthe totality of the Divine Names, became individuated with him and
manifested in the universes and the places of manifestation with his succour
manifested its predications and effects and revelations and lights, and the
prophets which are the places of manifestation of the Names also helped through
the means of his help. Consequently, the Seal of Prophets, being the possessor
of the totality of collectivity, preceded the Divine Names in
the determination of the words ‘everything is destroyed except His
face’ becomes manifest in him. In the same way, in the last emergence, having
opened the door of intercession and after each prophet has interceded for his
people and each saint for their people, he attains to the Lordship in the
special station which is particular to the Envoy and which is the general
intercession, beyond and higher than the limits and degrees of other kinds of
intercession, because he has brought up from abjection the all from their place
of manifestation.
Had the rulership of the Names of destruction and awe
like the Names Destroyer, Avenger, Inflictor of Pain (mu'adhdhib), been
manifest in this world and the other, the rulership of the Names Favour (lutf)
and Beauty (Jamal) would be interior. Consequently, there would be no
determination manifest for these Names if the rulership of the Names of
affliction were not diminished. Thus the totality of the human Mohammedian
Reality manifested the realities of beautification and liberality and of
extreme compassion (hanan) and favour (lutf) from the treasuries
of the singularity of collectivity,^;andffiaving-interceded for the singularity
of the Name Compassionate Mercy with ,its uniqueness of totality, and having
manifested the mystery of ‘My Compassion supersedes My Anger’, the edifices of
Paradise, of flowers and light, become filled with the Divine revelation, and
the valley of light of the garden of the extent of one’s understanding, and the
palaces and the newborn infants and all the manifestations of Compassionate
Mercy, become the receptor of the lights of overlooking shortcomings and of
pardoning (ghufran); then the mystery of: ‘And say: Truth, came and the
wrong is abolished’becomes apparent.
If someone understood these degrees and stations it
would not be difficult for him to accept things like these words. In other
words, if somebody understood the degrees of sainthood and prophethood and
understood that prophethood is the outward aspect of sainthood and that
sainthood is the interior aspect of prophethood, and that he who is
individuated in prophethood is the Seal of Prophets, and that in his interior
the one that is: individuated in sainthood is the Seal of Sainthood,
and that prophethood is an extension of sainthood, and the manifestation of the
determinations and effects of sainthood is through prophethood, it would be
easy for him to understand the things that have been said before, because the
Reality of Mohammed is one reality; its exteriorization is prophethood which is
the niche of Light of the Seal of Pi ophets, and its interior is sainthood
which is the niche of Light of the Seal of Saints. As its interior is Truth and
Oneness it is high, and as its exterior is immanence and plurality it is lower,
yet if you consider that its manifestation is totality of manifesting and
manifestation, and
719
bestov s by the hands of the Wise {hakimjahd at that'time He
looks at the best, for,instance the drinking of unpleasant medicine which
results in comfort, and He sees it results in comfort since the consequence of
wisdom is that a person should be given what is most suitable to him at that
fime. What is necessary for the servant then, is, due to the great comfort he
is about to receive, that he should bear the little unpleasantness, because
wisdom results in comfort and God the Wise treats by that and gives him what is
most useful and best for him. Or He gives through the hands of the Name He who
gives freely {w&hib) and gives munificence. With the Name w&hib
there is no obligation on the part of the receiver of the gift to give thanks
or necessity to act. W&hib does not require a response of praise or
thanks or action. It is purely for the manifestation of the being of
munificence. Or He gives through the hands of Compeller {jabbar) and
this looks at his indigenous nature where things concerning him happen, and to
what that person has a right. The Compeller {jabbar} repairs and
remedies the damage and removes the lacks and calamities; thus it observes his
needs and what he deserves and sees that what he lacks is removed. He remedies
through that and corrects, purifies and eliminates the ill. Or He bestows
through the hands of gbaffSr (the Forgiver who overlooks the faults) and
this looks at the place and at the state he is in. If the place where the
servant is in is a state which necessitates ghafr (forgiveness),
through which necessity that state would result in what he deserves of painful
punishment, it covers that place from that. Qr if the state does not need a
painful result {’uqObah) it covers it from the state where it would need
punishment.
The person who is the place of manifestation of the Name
ghaffar has two states. In one he becomes worthy of punishment; in
another he is not worthy of punishment. If the state is worthy of punishment, ghaffar
covers it from punishment, and if he is in a state which does not require
punishment, He covers it from a state which would need punishment. In short, it
prevents him from taking on unacceptable things and he is called innocent and a
person to whom great attention has been paid, and protected, and other things
like this, all of this variety, (like muweffaq (successful), manzur
(observed), mos'ui^happy), mahtnud (praised and who has had gratitude
given to him), or to ether than Names mentioned before which are of the same
sort, like 'astm (pure), wafiyy (relieved from thingsthat are
unpleasant) and hadi (Guide), and in general where each gift is related
to the Name most suitable from among the Names. And it is God who bestows the
gifts since He is the Treasurer who has with Him His treasuries. It is in the
Name Allah that are gathered all the treasuries of all the Names, and it
is the collective Name Allah which collects all the gifts through all
the Names in His treasuries.
241
of the Names. These are called the Essential Names, like the. Living
(hayy), the Knower ('alim), the Wilier (murid), the
Receiver (q&bil), the Able (qd.dir), the Bounteous (Jaw&d),
the Enquirer (su'al). But in truth there is only One Reality which
accepts all these relationships and qualifications which are referred to as
the Divine Names. In other words, if the Divine Names are infinite as the
effects which emanate from them are infinite, and also if they refer to the
finite orders which are the Mother Names or the Presences of Names, in reality
in existence there is only One Reality which collects in Itself all these
qualifications and relationships and there is no other Pure (mahd) Being
and all the Divine Names in the Singularity are the same as each other. He- is
that He is. Yet in relation to the essences (a'yan) and the realities
which are known and unknowable in that One Reality, that One Reality accepts
the totality of the relationships and qualifications which is the One Reality
of the Divine Names. In other words, although the light of being is in reality
one colour, when it is revealed, to the: unknown essences that revelation
becomes multicoloured by virtue of the receptivity of each of the essence!;;
and the essences in their turn, becoming existent with the knowledge of
existence through the light of that revelation, become differentiated one from
the other. Consequently, through the particular condition of each essence, the
manifestation of God’s One Being becomes a Name. Thus it is because of the
receptive essences that the One Being accepts the plurality of relationships
and qualifications and things and individuations, and It manifests as
plurality. Thus it is Unity (tawhid) and Oneness in reality, and
multifanousness and plurality in manifestation. However, the plurality of the
Names which are the source of emanation of actions and the beginnings of states
and Lordships, and the fact that they are infinite, is due to the essences of
possibilities, and the knowledge of the essences is due to their effects. But
the plurality which is in the Essential Names which are the original Names, is
due to the necessities of the Ipseity. The Reality, however, bestows the necessity
that there be one reality for a Name which manifests infinitely, so that it is
differentiated by that reality from another Name, and that reality by which it
is differentiated is the same as that Name. This is as if it were dyed in the
colour of one of the essences (a'yan) of the essences of the One
Existent in consequence of its ability to receive and thereby become manifest.
That manifestation in that colour is different to the manifestation and
colouring of another essence. Thus in the One Existence of Reality it is one
reality but it is differentiated and many realities by virtue of its different
colouration and conditioning in the essences and its manifestation in the
mirror of the unknowable essences with private particularities. Association does
not occur in this. Since the reality of each
God Who is Necessarily Existent, since it does not benefit the
existence of the reality of things; however, things are realized by it. And
after this the individuation of the light which effuses from the sources of
light is also Essential. An individuation is the recipient which causes the
light which individuates the Being of the effusing God by means of the recipient’s
. own brought-about essential particularity. Thus, differences between the
Names are due to the particularities of the realities, because individuation
denotes particularity though it !is a Name for the individuated
with that individuation. Equally, the individuated is the Being of God named by
the individuation, and that again is a Name for the Absolute God which is named
by the totality of the Names. All that which is named, which are actions, are
the receptors which define or designate the Being of the Absolute God, and the
individuation which is being named is a definite action, and the Divine
Effusion is constant in individuation because the Essence of the Effusor is
constant.
Even though the possible recipients,
which are the individuations, are not infinite due to their personalities, yet
the Mothers of the Names which define the individuations, are the one light
which is the effusor, and the Mothers are the realities in the special origin,
for the realities which follow them. All the individuations, even though they
are included in the Mothers of the Presence of Names, yet due to their
personalities are infinite in the same way as their being necessarily-so.
Equally, even though the revelations of the Names are from one revelation due
to their or igin, yet each individuation from the individuations of personal
effusion of light and the establishment of the light of witnessing and the
totality of the generous pouring out of beings which are individuated from one
essence (’ayn), is not however the same in one essence' (’ayn) as it is in
another. Consequently, there is not a thing ever which is repeated in
the,Divine Presence of Knowledge. Thus renewal, pluralization, oneness,
non-existence and annihilation (Jana') are for individuation, not for
the Individuated by such an individuation, since He is as He is. Consequently,
that which the Presence of the.Name the /Vast (wasT) bestows is this. :
"
This knowledge was the knowledge of Seth upon whom be
peace. In other words, the knowledge of bestowals and gifts is the knowledge of
Seth because Seth is for the first of the Fathers (Adam) the image of the first
gift, and in the same way as the Divine total predications found completion
with Adam, the abundant effusion and the gift of being became manifest in his
son Seth.
And his spirit extends to all that is spoken of in this
way, with the exception of the spirit of the Seal, because: there is no
extension whatever to it (the spirit of the Seal) except from God, never from
one spirit from
245
which is not from God’; the Seal of Sainthood is the place of total
manifestation of that degree.
And he did not know this of his own being (nafs)
at the time of the composition of his elemental body. That is to say, at the
time of the composition of his body he could not have known that he, the Seal
of the Saints, was the substance for all spirits and that he was the helper
without intermediary from God, because the veil of the natural matter (hayuia)
and the composition of the elemental body prevents such knowledge at the time.
From the point of view of his reality and his degree he knows all this exactly,
but from the point of view of what he is from the aspect of his elemental
composition he is ignorant. In other words, the Seal of Sainthood knows all
this exactly as it is, from the point of view of his all-comprehensive degree
and total reality, even though he is ignon .nt of it from the aspect of
elemental composition. So he is in full knowledge of the fact that he is, by
his degree and reality;'the order of being.the helper to all spirits, although
he does not know this from the point of view of his elemental composition. He
is both knower and ignorant, and accepts the qualification of opposing
qualities, just as the origi^r accepts to be qualified by the same. That is, he
accepts qualifications of knowledge and ignorance just as the One Being (huwiyyah),
which is the ofigin, accepts the qualifications of opposing qualities.
Thus the Seal of Saints becomes qualified with opposing
qualities just as the One Being (huwiyyah) collected in Itself 4he
opposites, such as interior and manifest, first and last etc. They qualify the
One Being (huwiyyah) in which there is no differentiation, and he
receives in himself the complementary opposites because the totality of reality
is the singularity of the reality of possibilities and necessarily-so-ness.
Thus, by his ipseity (dhat) he accepts the qualifications of
completenesses and lacks. Consequently he is ignorant by his elemental nature
of that which he knows through his spirit, yet his ignorance due to his
elemental nature does If lot diminish his knowledge by his reality, just as
doubleness in numbers does not diminish the singularity of the number, nor does
darkness and whiteness oppose colour. Like Majesty (Jaffl) and Beauty (Jamif)
and like Manifest (z&hif) and Interior (bAtiri) and like
First and Last, he is the same as all these, and not other. In other words,
just as the Being of the One God, which is the origin, accepts the
complementary opposites with all the qualifications that ensue, like Beauty and
Awesome Majesty, like Outward and Inward, like First and Last, where the One
Being that accepts these opposites is the same as His own Being and is not
another being. Thus this Being is free of all opposition and is the same Being
as the one qualified by the opposites and is no other from the standpoint of
reality and absoluteness, and from the standpoint
the manifest and interior mystery and he is the image of the
detailing of the totality of his uniqueness.
He-came out of him and belonged to him. Seth, with the
images of his elemental and Divine emergence, issued from Adam and belonged to
Adam since he was a gift to him by consideration of being the image of a gift
given to Adam in manifestation ahd by-being his mystery in the interior.
Consequently, Seth is the image of the totality of Adam, because gifts arid
bestowals belong to the receptivity of the realities ofthe degrees of places of
manifestation, and they are enclosed between the order of being and degree,
since collectivity and encompassing which belong to the realities of degrees
and being necessitate enclosing. Consequently, gifts of the Divine Names are
opened by Seth and again they are sealed by him. Because of this the Shaykh,
may God be pleased with him, mentioned the bestowals of the Divine Names and
the mystery of being the Seal in the Wisdom of Seth. For he whose intelligence
is from God it was not a stranger that was brought. In other words, for a
person who takes his understanding from God, it was not a stranger that came,
and a person who takes his understanding from the Divine Presence knows that
each person, because of his aptitude and strength of receptivity, takes only
from his established potentiality (^ayn-i-thabita) and his reality of
knowledge, and knows that what reaches him reaches him from his own reality.
Thus Seth who was given as a gift to Adam was the image of the aptitude of Adam
and the mystery of his reality, and not a stranger from outside, but an image
from among the images of the mind of Adam’s reality. For each person who
receives a gift, the image of the Divine gift is the image of the aptitude of
his established potentiality {'ayn-i-thabita) and the image of the
mystery which makes pirn receptive to the gift.
All the gifts in the immanence are according to this
channel. That is, whether they be through an intermediary or in some other way,
without intermediary, all the gifts that happen in the immanence art^acording
to this channel. In other words, all the gif^diat’happen'in-th'e'immanence are
in the image that they have required f^pm the being which is individuated by
virtue of the receptivities'in-receptivities particular to the receptivity,-
because the being that effuses from God is Essential for the Being, of God, and
the reception of it is by virtue of the receptor’s original inclination and
essential particularity. Had there not been the inclinations of the receptors,
there would not have been an individuation by virtue of the receptivities where
the receptivities would be individualized with the images of gifts from the
treasuries of the Divine Munificence.
It is true that the gifts arrive from the Divine
treasuries but that which
of the special unite between the two witnessings and they observe
the oneness of being, as it is in its order in itself.
When any possessor of insight (kashf) witnesses
an image which gives him of knowledge he did not have and inspires him with
that which was not id his hands before, that image is the same as the person
himself and no other. In other words, if the person of insight witnesses an
image and that image inspires him with a knowledge which was not known (ma
lam ya' lam), saying ‘I am God’, and gives him an order, do not let that
man think that the person he saw is God because in;reality that person who is
revealed is the same as himself because he is tfie same as God. Thus God did
not reveal Himself to him and did not bestow anything on him except in the
image of his own established potentiality ('ayn-i- thabita) and thus the
image that he saw is the same as himself and is not another. And from the tree
of his own self (nafs) is the friiit of his own knowledge. That is to
say, that image which, is seen is his Own established potentiality ('ayn-i-thabita)
and is the irriage of the tree which has been planted in the reality of his own
earth, and the knowledge which has been inspired from that image and those
gifts which have come from it, is effectively from the tree of his name which
is manifested as the knowledge' and the gifts he receives. In short, he takes
and collects the fruit of the knowledge which is manifested from the image of
the tree which is his name. Like the image manifested from him in reciprocation
of that polished body is no other. That which is manifested from that person of
insight (kashf), and that which is seen is no other than himself because
were the things seen other than that, that polished body would have happened in
him prior to the reciprocation. Thus the polished body which is the place for
the manifestation of the image, bestows on him the witnessing of his own
essence; in the same way its manifestation in the Being of Truth is by virtue
of the appearance of his own established potentiality (^ayn-i-thabita)
in the mirror of the Truth. Consequently, the place bestows the witnessing of
its own self.
Therefore do not think that the image you have seen is
God, even though in reality it is no other, since the total is not enclosed in
the partial. There is only this, that the place or the Presence in which he saw
that image is the image of his own self to which has been suggested the
transposition by the aspect of the reality of that Presence. These words are
the exception to where he says: ‘That image is the same as himself and no
other.’ That is to say that in reality that place or that Presence from the
Divine or immanential Presences is where that person of insight sees that
image, and he himself imbues that place with his own image. And the image
therein seen is in a way reciprocated by virtue of the reality of that Presence.
In other words, the Presence where the seen
ponds to the right side and reflection manifests. In other words,
exceptionally, the relative being divorced from its relativity, having
transcended (fan&') his own self, he sees himself absolutely in the
mirror of divorced relativity and transcendent (fani) and free of
conditions of relativity, and witnesses himself in the Absolute. Then the
reflection manifests because the mirror is below the viewer. That the right
side should correspond to the right side and thereby give a reflection is of
the particularity of water, just as a man standing near a river sees his image
reflected with the right side corresponding exactly.
And these—all are of the gifts of the reality of the
Presence which is revealed therein, and which we have brought down to the stage
of mirrors. Consequently, the image that appears in the mirror, even though it
is the same as that which looks in the mirror, still is manifested according to
the particularity of the mirror. Thus, in each of the Presences of the Divine
and immanential Presences which are like stages of the mirror, the onlooker who
is possessor of insight observes one image and that image is his own image. But
in that Presence in which that image manifests. according to the necessities
of its reality, the image of the viewer is reversed and is dyed with the colour
of that Presence. Thus each Divine gift that comes to a person arrives from his
own self and from his own established potentiality ('ayn-i-thabita), and
whichever manner of being, and whichever inclination of the manner of the
Presence the revelation corresponds to, the Divine gift manifests dyed in those
colours. Consequently, each gift manifests with the image of his own
inclination.
And if a person knows his own aptitude he knows his own
way of receiving, but each person who knows his way of receiving may not know
his aptitude except after reception even though he might know in general before
reception, yet he would not know in detail.
Now, the knowledge of the aptitude is according to two
occurrences because some of the gnostics know the non^brought-about essential
aptitude by which they first accepted \jbejng; thus, included in this non-
brought-about knowledge of aptitude mey> know the later brought-about
aptitudes By which they are renewed and they take on the manner w'hich accords
with the manner of the Being. Consequently, at each instant, in each place and
in each station, they know the reception of the revelations and gifts that will
come to them. That is to say, having the aptitude for the reception of the
revelations and gifts they know that this coming about of the aptitude of being
is non-brought-about aptitude because this latter aptitude is one of the
determinations of the first aptitude. Thus he has first received being through
the first aptitude in such a way that it resulted in the existence of this
second aptitude. What’the Shaykh has mentioned above appertains to the second
category, that some know
guides.’ Then He brought the things into being and placed them where
they belong. Consequently, allowance of that which lacks wisdom is not
acceptable.
From this, some of the
observers deviated into denying the Possible (imkiri), and establishing
the Necessarily-so-ness (vrujtib) of the Ipseity and of other. In other
words, some of the people of observation, due to their weakness of
intelligence, have thought it possible to agree on a thing which diminishes the
Divine Wisdom. Consequently, they have deviated into denial of the Possibility
and trying to prove that there is only the Necessarily-so for the Ipseity and
for other. They say that in existence there is only the One who is necessarily
existent and there is nothing else, and the existence of the impossible is
impossible but the necessarily existent is necessarily existent through Its
Ipseity and It is necessarily existent through others. And that which is
necessarily existent by Its own Essence is the Being of God, and that which is
necessarily existent by another is the being of the universe. Consequently, for
the One who is necessarily existent by Its Ipseity there is necessarily nonexistence
of the impossible, and for the one which is necessarily-so by another, there
results necessarily non-existence of the impossible through another. That which
is individuated by virtue of the receptor is the Being. Consequently, in
reality, for the Possibility there is no other than His individuation. ; .
And people like us who investigate the Truth do in fact
establish the Possibility (imkSn) and know its Presence, and the
Possible (mumkiri) wherefore it is the Possible, and wherefrom it is the
Possible, and that it is by its own essence necessarily-so through other. That
is to say, those of us who witness the realities in the order itself verily
establish the Possibility and know its Presence, or know the Possible, and by
virtue of Reality what thing is the Possible, and from which Presence the
Possible is possible since it is through its own essence necessarily-so by
other.
Now, the Possible is particularized being and its
Presence is the universe of intelligence. That it is the Possible is by virtue
of its particularization with the light of being, and its necessarily-so-ness
is by virtue of its being with the Being of God (haqq). Equally, particularization
is a later manifestation of being, according to a specific aspect by which the
receptor whose being is particularized makes it an absolute certainty of
knowledge due to its own particularity. Consequently, it is possible that
particularization can cease to exist (mun'adim) or that
particularization can be a later event, because particularized being cannot be
transposed into the non-existent. Rather perhaps it is the images of
particularizations that become changed for it.
Thus, at your level it has become a reality how
particularization
255
Nojv, the qualified being by which the Possible exists
is exactly the same as the Being of God, because of which the condition of
otherness and qualification befell it. Each existent is a possible by virtue of
its particular individuation and is necessarily-sq by virtue of the reality of
its being (huwiyyah). Nobody knows this ift detail except the special
knowers of God. That is to say, only those who are gnostics of God know this
because they first witnessed and knew it in their origin which is both: absolute
and summarizing (ijmal'). Thus they are not veiled from the reality of
One Being by the plurality of individuations and relationships and
qualifications which are parts of the relative being. Thus, 11 reality, there
is no other than the Absolute Being, together with the relative or the
conditioned being, and in both of these the reality of being is one, and
therein absolute and relative are Essential relationships.
In accordance with the precedence of Seth will be the
last bom, bom of this spehies of mankind, and he will be the bearer of his
mysteries. Now, since Adam was the image of the manifestation of the uniqueness
of totality with all the perfections of Divine, Lordly and immanential Names,
the gift of being in Adam was of oneness and totality. The manifestations of
particularizations following him appeared in his being structured according to
the requirements and arrangements of the first realities and letters of
eternity. The first of particularizations is the degree of effusion. However,
effusion does not become realized except between the effusor and the effused
to. The effusor is God, the active, and His effusion which is His gift and
bestowal has two aspects. One<aspect is Essential, the other aspect is
through the Names. The ^effused to is the universe, and the universe has also
two aspects, the universe of collectivity and the universe of particulars.
The manifestation of the gift of Names is in the
universe of particulars, and the manifestation of the essential gift is in the
universe of collectivity. The manifestation of the gift from the Presence of
the giveris active and its manifestation from the Presence of the ^receiver
is,'acted-upon, and the relationship of the gift to the actor and the
acted-upon is of the Essence, and the degrees of the effusion in the
individuations is according to these two aspects. Thus, the particularization
of the effusion from the Presence of the actor is its particularization from
the receptivities of the perfection of the prophets, and its individuation in
the receptor is the individuation of the Perfect Men from those places of
manifestation of perfection of Names. Adam (S.A.) is the place of manifestation
of the uniqueness of the collectivity of the Names and of the One Self. By consideration
of the Essentiality of the Ipseity and Its absoluteness, there does not exist
in him revelation, Name, quality, or determination, but by' the second
consideration which is the existence and effusing of
the degrees of particularization of gifts, its light ends in the
perfection of prophets and saints, and its darkness ends in the pharoahs and
tyrants and devils, in the same way the degree of the sealing of Divine gifts
which is inaugurated and sealed by Seth, manifests in the last bom of this kind
of human being who is the last of the places of manifestation of Divine
perfection of humanity. And that person bom is according to the precedent of
Seth and bears his mysteries. As the mysteries of the Divine gifts is opened by
Seth it is closed by this one bom and there is no-one born after that of this
humankind. He is the Seal of all those bom. That is to say, in the perfection
of this humankind which is according to the Divine Image, after this person is
bom there will not be manifested a single person in the image of the Divine
perfection. He will be the Seal of the perfection of mankind because he i*!'
the image of the sealing of the degree of the gift of the uniqueness of-all
mankind. Even though that which is bom after him is by virtue of appearance among
Man, in reality he is drawn in the degree of animals.
Now, as the last person bom according to the precedent
of Seth in this emergence of the universe is at the level of the animals, in
the same way the human heart in the emergence of Man which carries the
mysteries of the spirit of Man is the last degree of the high degrees of
humanity, because the lowest degree by whichtMan is Man is the degree of the
heart which is the place of the Divine revelations and the. place of
manifestation of the perfection of Names. Thus the person who has fallen out of
the degree of the heart falls out of the degree of human perfections and
becomes included in the domain of other animals, even though by image he is
like Man. Consequently, that is why the last bom of this species of human
perfection is according to the precedence of Seth because Seth is the place of
manifestation of the awakening of the Divine Effusion and the place of
diffusion of the revelation of the Merciful. Thus when he is lower and shorter
than the degree of the uniqueness of totality and much below the station of the
spirit which is his parent, in which station is the heart, he has not
established the science of the perfection of God which is resultant for the
spirit—because if the heart is not free of the self presenting itself it cannot
be completely free of bodily associations; even though it is free of
incarnation, it is not totally free of bodily associations, except at the
degree of the spirit by virtue of the spirit.
Now in the emergence of mankind, if the last bom falls
out of the degree of the heart, he falls into the degree of beasts and cattle,
even though by his exterior he resembles a man. He is devoid of the Divine
qualities and the determinations of necessarily-so-ness. . The determinations
of possibilities and the qualifications of self and animality are
of the active Names and the essential receptivity, and the strength
and spirit cf the gift of Names is from that. That which effuses is the collectivity
of the uniqueness, and the rank of the gifts of Names in manifesting is the
collectivity of the uniqueness, and it is necessary that the gift of the Names
is manifested first because the essences of receptivity accept the gift:
of uniqueness of the totality of Ipseity through the education of the gift of
the Names.
Thus in the same way the prior coming out of the sister
points to the fact that the particularization of the degree of receptivity
comes before the realization of the degree of activity, and that the Seal of
the engendered is bom after the sister is to verify his sealing and the degree
of his collectivity, because had the sister emerged after him and the Seal
before the sister, she would have been the Seal of the engendered and the order
does not become sealed with the female because that is qualified with being
acted upon. A condition of the uniqueness of the collectivity which is the
quality of action is not apparent in her. Thus in the degree of totality of
perfection, action in femininity appears in decline. Thus the humarifspecies
which starts with the image of perfection which is Adam, ends in. the same way
with the image of perfection which is the Seal of the engendered which is Adam.
Similarly it is sealed with the image of perfection which is the last child.
The :fact that his head is between the legs of his
sister is a second pointer to the realization of the order of lastness as the
manifestation of the uniqueness of the totality of sealhood comes after the
manifestation of the degree of particularization. Thus as the opening of the
resulting images of the first collectivity happens with the first parents which
are Adam and Eve—here happens coupling of the couple as Adam collects the
images of the Divine Names of action and essences of receptivity of
acted-upon-ness since manifestation and'frianifesting is of action and being
acted upon, and as the image of Adarfi’s acted-lipon-ness is Eve, for which
reason she was created from the left rib, in the same way images of mankind
which are the results of this species became coupled in the image of the
uniqueness of collectivity due to the fact of their being cf the sealhood of
the collectivity of the images of the Divine Names of action and essential
receptivity of acted-upon-ness.
Because of this mystery the last child is bom with its
sister, together, and his self carries the mystery of Seth, because as Seth
collects the qualities of action and acted-upon-ness in his manifestation, and
because he seals effusion and being effused upon, in the same way the last
child manifests with the qualities of action and acted-upon-ness, and effusion
and being effused upon is sealed by him. And this at the same time
the effacing of children. The fact that China is the last of the big
countries illumined by the Divine Presence points at the fact that it has
reached the end of perfection and that the sending of the determinations has
arrived at an end and has become the degree of sealhood. Thus the reaching of
the end of the descending of the determinations necessitates the ending of the
kind of human in this emergence, and in the same way by the appearance of the
heart in China, which is the last degree of the degrees of mankind, the degrees
of the emergence of mankind are sealed by it, and the degrees below that are
the degrees of animals, and the Divine animals are not illumined by the Divine
Presence, and sterility spreads in men and women and there is an increase of
marriage without birth Thus there are few births which appear but the birth of
the species of mankind does not happen except perhaps very rarely. Those which
are born in general are animals according to the necessities of Nature in the
image of Man. And he invites them to God but nobody responds because their inclination
results in effacing and effacing also results in a lack!of guidance
and lack of response. And if God took away the believers of that time, what
would be left would be like animals. ‘The worst of the animals for God are the
deaf and dumb,and they do not comprehend.’ ‘They are like cattle, yet they are
even more misled.’ And they are the wors'. of mankind and God does not descend
upon them the Divine determination because they have not the inclination to
receive the Divine determination. They do not do what is good to do and they do
not forbid what is bad to do. They only spend according to the determinations
of Nature, purely by sensuality, devoid of any intellect and law. They remain
in the image of Man although they are animals, and the wisdom of their being,
animals in the image of Man is their manifestation of the mysteries of the
realities of Nature and of animality which is in accordance with nature in the
human image being opposed to intelligence and establishment of law, so that
the places of manifestation of Majesty with completion of its mysteries becomes
manifest and it is ended with them, and the Hour is present over them.
The Prophet has said: ‘The Hour does not come except
upon the worst of the people’, and he said: ‘The worst people are those upon
whom the Day of Judgement comes when they are present and they are alive.’ And
after the passing away of the Seal of the sons, the wisdom of why there should
be a Day of Judgement upon the people is this, that the universe before the
bringing about of Adam was like a dead body and Adam became its spirit, and
when the spirituality of the manifestability of Adam was blown into the
universe it became alive, and the world does not slip away, diminish from being
present and alive with the spirituality of the perfection of the place of
manifestation of Man until we arrive
ISMAIL HAKKI BURSEVI’S
translation
of and commentary on
FUSUS AL-HIKAM
by
MUHYIDDIN IBN 'ARABI
VOLUME 2
rendered
into English by
BULENTRAUF
with
the help of
n nmcc rr
mrrcmruc
God has
extended this book of Fusus al-Hikam as a private Mercy to the people
who want to reach perfection. As Ismail Hakki Bursevi’s commentary says: ‘Oh
special people, Oh people of the Fusus, this is a private Mercy from God
which is extended to you, which leads the people of purity to perfection.’ To
value this is to give praise to God and to endeavour to treat the book as it
should be treated, for it is a pure generosity. In approach to its meaning
sentiment is essential, because there is no way of reaching to meanings and
realities solely with the intellect since it is limited in its capacity and it
fixes and categorizes truth by its very nature, and it could not therefore be
the central instrument for understanding a book of this calibre and weight as
it might conceivably be in the case of a purely academic or scholarly work.
This book is beyond ordinary measure. It is beyond the general run of mystical
writings, and it is more than just a book of meanings. It is to do with the
very meaning of meanings, with the meanings, the realities and the knowledges
of God, and it comes directly from God according to His own manner and wish.
This matter is so elevated and of such grandeur and magnificence that one could
not, however much one studied it or used different methods of approach, arrive
at a real comprehension without God’s help and assistance, and it would seem
to be of primary importance to ask for that help and for the aptitude which is
capable of receiving the meaning perfectly. It is His own Knowledge and there
is no Knower but Him, and if such an aptitude or receptivity should become
realized in us, it is because He gives it as a gift.
Since the Fusus al-Hikam does not result from
conjecture, from speculation, from opinion, or from any partial aspect, and
since it has arrived according to its own manner and according to the original
purity and uniqueness, then it has necessarily been brought to the exterior in
the only way it could be brought in order to fulfil these
retirement from this world, but the taste of the Jelveti is at the
same time for the return to this world after Union, the coming out of that
seclusion adorned with the Divine characteristics, which is regarded as
progress, as an added gift (the bridal present - jilwa), the superlative
perfection of expression, and this manner very clearly signifies that which is
central to 'Arabi’s teaching and the Mohammedian Way. It is therefore most
appropriate and not at all surprising that a Jelveti Shaykh should have written
the definitive commentary. It is interesting to note that the difference
between the names Helveti and Jelveti is in the diacritical point, the added
dot of the JTm of Jelveti.
All hamd to God forever for the Fusus and
for the fact that there should be a commentary such as this one which has now
been translated into English. It is an exceptional gift to people that the
realities and mysteries of the Fusus should have been elucidated and
enlarged and taken even further through one who knew not only all the other
commentaries but who knew intimately and exactly ’Arabi’s meaning, and in the
case of several meanings being possible, which meaning the Shaykh preferred.
He in fact discussed many points from the Fusus with the Shaykh himself
at his house in Damascus. It need hardly be said that such converse is possible
despite the fact that there are centuries between them in the apparent world.
In the Universe of mithal the Prophet Mohammed instructed Bursevi and
tested him on his knowledge of Arabic in the company of the great saints and
prophets who were there present, in order to verify and make known to the
company that he knew the language. This event in the Universe of mithal
is related in the commentary, and the following is a short extract: ‘. . . ana
I, taking that Quran from the hands of the Envoy (S.A.), opened it at a place
and saw that it was the Envoy’s own handwriting and began to read under the
instruction and verification of the Envoy himself, and he, giving me lessons,
blew into my heart the realities of the Quran and the delicacies of the furqan
(discrimination), and I became so drowned in Divine Knowledge that whatever
thing I was questioned upon, I gave answers.’
1985
R. A. Brass Oxford
The Wisdom of the Transcended
Magnificat in the Word of'Noah 323
The Wisdom of Sanctity in the Word of Idris (Enoch) 395
The Wisdom of Ecstasy and Rapture in the Word of Abraham 437
The Wisdom of the Truth in
the Word of Isaac 485
The Wisdom of Exaltedness in the Word of Ishmael 547
The Wisdom of the Transcended Magnificat
(al-hikmat as-subbuhiyya)
in the Word of Noah
The Wisdom of God-being-Ever-Praised being apportioned to the Word
of Noah its mystery was mentioned in the index. Now, only know that Seth was
the place of manifestation of the Effusion of Compassion and the source of the
gift of Names, and by virtue of the receptive a'yan, the Divine Names
having effused their being, there necessarily appears in the Names and a'yan
an increase together with this. The time between Seth and Noah being long and
there being no prophet during that time, the people of Noah took the numerous
Names as people and forms, and even the eschatology and the future states and
the sciences of the Names of perfection and the Day of Resurrection to be absolutely
bodily. Their state necessitated that they be invited to transcendence.
Consequently, Noah was sent to them with the Wisdom of praise and the removal
of comparison and similarity (tashbih). But according to the Mohammedian
taste, transcendence is the same as limitation. Therefore the Shaykh says:
Know that with the people of Reality, transcendence of the Divine Person is
exactly the same as limitation and relativization and conditioning. This is to
say that you should know that with the people of veracity, transcendence of the
Divine Person is the same as limitation and conditioning; because the
transcendence of God is its differentiation from the things which transcend it
from material bodily things and latter things; and to transcend a thing or to
differentiate it from something is to differentiate it by qualifying it by
another quality which differentiates that which is differentiated from what it
was before. Consequently, He is re-qualified, re-conditioned and limited again.
Or it may be that it is transcended from conditioning, then it is conditioned
by absoluteness because for the absolute transcendence is a condition, whereas
God is transcendent from both the conditions
that which is transcended from, which is a necessary plurality, and
these are all against oneness. That is why the Shaykh (R.A.) limited
conditioning in the Divine Person. But if he transcends and speaks by it, that
is to say, if the ignorant and the one who lacks good form and maintained his
assertion, in other words, if they did not prove in one way the transcendence
and in another way the immanence and similarity, but instead proved and
maintained what they believed, they are qualified'with ignorance and lack of
form, because conditioning by absoluteness conditions and limits what they
believe in. However, had they through cognosis transcended in one way and
similarized and immanenced in another way, they would not be qualified with
ignorance and lack of form, and they would be free of limiting and condition.
And the believer who maintains through the law (shafi'a) the
transcendence and remains with transcendence and does not see other than
transcendence and remains there, he in fact is short of form and belies the
Truth and the envoy. He is in error, and this is where he is lacking in form
because with his own intelligence and thought he determines over God and
encloses Him in the image that he has brought about according to his
understanding, because transcending through the human intelligence, which is
conditioned by thought, is conditioning by virtue of the determinations and
effects of intelligences. Thus the Divine Person who transcends from the
thoughts of the polluted human intelligences, to be transcended by
intelligences and His being encompassed by that which is understood by those
intelligences is lack of form.
Belying God and the envoys is according to two aspects.
One aspect is this, that according to the language of the envoys there has
been in one way transcendence and in another way immanencing. For instance:
‘There is not anything like Him, and He is the Hearer and the Seer.’ Thus, if
transcending, then it is necessary to belie God and the envoys. The other
aspect is this: in accordance with the words of the envoys there happens to be
the qualification of God with the qualities of immanence in consideration of
transcendence occurring in certain degrees, like in: ‘God mocks at them, and
God is the best of deceivers’, and other qualities of immanence, and even
though the Divine Presence is completely transcended from qualities that come
transcendence and immanence refer back to God and he transcends His nafs
with one relationship and immanences it with another relationship, considering
that that which is made similar is the same as that which makes it similar.
The Shaykh in his sentence: ‘And the believer who
maintains through the law..qualified the consenter to the laws with ‘believer’,
this because he wanted to avoid including those who spoke through consent but
were'not believers. The Jews and Christians and other people of religion who in
their daily life act or speak in consentment of Mohammedian laws but are not
believers, these are qualified with covering up (kufr) which is the
strongest form of ignorance and lack of form.
To return to what the Shaykh says: And he (the
transcender) is not aware and imagines that he is in the substance of the
matter, but he has missed, elapsed, and he is like those who believe in some
things and deny some things. This means that the one who transcends is not
aware that he is faulty and belies God and belies the envoy and he imagines
that he is at the result of the matter (in the substance of the matter) but he
is in error and he resembles that person who believes some of the
determinations and orders which have come through the word of the envoy, and
denies some others. He is like that person who is a believer by consenting and
speaking in accordance with the religious laws (sharT'a) but is an
unbeliever by denying that thing which is the cause
of those determinations. Thus, he becomes a believer by proving the being in
the particularization (ta'ayyun) of that particularization for God, and
having covered up the aspect of God by the being of the particularization,
which particularization comes from the Divine Lordship and results there, he
becomes a covercr-up of the Truth. It is in fact known that when the languages
of the Divine laws are spoken concerning the haqq, they do not
necessarily speak of a thing in particular, but rather in accordance with what
would be understood first by the generality, but for the particular people it
is spoken for a special meaning which is understood from the aspects of that
speech in whichever language it is posed. That is to say, in whichever language
it is posed, from the position of that speech and what is understood from its
aspect for a particular meaning and for
Thus, in the language of the generality the words: 'Laysa
ka-mithlihi shay’un’ are words of transcendence, and the words: 'wa huwa
s-samT'u l-baslr are words cf immanence. According to the grammar the
position of the letter kaf, as we mentioned above, causes this phrase to
mean: ‘There is not anything like It or equal to It (niithl)' and this
is total transcendence, and the rest of the phrase is exactly the same as
immanencing, but the elite understand tire immanencing from the transcendence
and the transcending from the immanencing, because the word tnithl
together with the letter kaf, if understood in the apparent way would
mean a thing similar to the similarity of the thing and this would prove
similarity and would necessitate immanencing, and in the same way the ‘Hearer
and the Seer’ denotes the understanding that He alone is the Hearer and the
Seer, and this is transcending. Thus, what is necessary for those believers
who consent and speak through the laws is to concord with the first meaning in
general in the language of the envoy and to transcend Him in concordance with
that where there happens to be transcendence, and where there is immanencing to
immanence Him so that they are freed from lack of form and freed from belying
the envoy, and indeed there is manifestation for the haqq in all khalq
(creation) and He is the apparent in everything that is understood or
signified. That is to say, the haqq is apparent by virtue of the place
in each of the creaturial places of manifestation and in everything mentally
understandable. Thus, in every existent and spoken word and in every understood
commentation He is apparent by virtue of the place, and addresses with
particular address, but each people imbibes according to their own degree. The
generality imbibes it from every creature and everything spoken, and the
particular people take it from all creatures, all things spoken, all things
understood and all things known; but the meanings are brought down to the
generality according tc the first immediate comprehension, and in the
particular people it is brought down in every kind of understanding from whence
the particular people understand it in many ways. And God mentioned that which
consists of the case where meanings are prevalent over the totality of
understandings because the haqq encompasses all understanding, and the
totality is what He intends in relationship to those who under-
becomes the haqq's image and huwiyya and that the Name
Manifest (za/nr) becomes the universe by being manifest from the aspect of the
conditioning and the relativization of the haqq and not through the consideration
of Absolute Reality since He is the Reality of the Absolute Divinity while He
is conditioned with all the conditions of the Names. Consequently, the universe
is the huwiyya of God and becomes the same as the universe from the
aspect of manifestation, because God is the First and the Last and the Manifest
and the Hidden. Thus, when the haqq is manifest and when the manifest
is the universe, He is the Name Manifest. As He is indeed by meaning the spirit
of that which has manifested, He is the Interior. Just as the haqq is
the spirit of the thing manifest from the aspect of meaning and its reality, He
is conditioned by the condition of being hidden and interior. Consequently, the
haqq is also the Hidden and the Interior {batin'), and batin
is equally the huwiyya of the haqq. Thus it is the haqq
which is conditioned by manifestation in the universe and by being interior and
hidden in the meaning, and manifestation or hiddenness are the huwiyya
of the haqq. His relationship when He is manifested in the images of the
universe is the same as the relationship of the planning and executive spirit
to its image. His relationship when He is manifested in the images of the
universe is the same as the relationship of the planning and executive spirit
to its image which it plans and executes. That is to say, after having obviated
that the haqq is the huwiyya of the zahir and the batin,
the relationship of His hiddenness and interiority to His manifestness is the
same as the relationship of the spirit, which plans and executes, to the image.
The images of the universe are the zahir of the haqq, but they
are prolonged and assisted {mustamidd) from the batin and are
effused from it, and the batin prolongs and assists them just as the
planning and executing spirit prolongs and assists the image, and the batin
is helped and prolonged from the batin of the batin.
New, the images of the universe are not particular to
the images of bodies, but are rather perhaps from the degree of the First ta'ayyun
wherein the Absolute Unknowable revealed itself together with the nafs-
i-rahmani and first manifested itself therein, and when at last it reached the images of the universe of witnessing which are the
because for a thing a complete limit results only by description or
mention of its exterior and interior, but God is the outward and the interior
of the manifest, and He is the interior and manifest of the interior. And God
is limited by all limits. Thus God is limited by all limits, so that all things
that are limited are limited with Him. Thus, if God were to be limited He could
only be limited by the totality of limits because He is the exterior and
interior of all images that are limited by the exterior and interior, and the
image which is limited in that image by manifestation and interiority is His
particularizations (ta'ayyunSt), but the images of the universe are not
bound and cannot be contained or circumscribed, and equally the limit of each
image from among the images of the universe cannot be known except to the limit
of that which results from the image of each universe. Thus God becomes
limited by the limits of the image of the universe, yet the images of the
universe are not bound and cannot be comprised because the images of the
possibilities are endless, and the limit of each image from among the images of
the universe is to the limit of that which results from the images of each of
the universes. Thus, as the totality of the images of the universe are ordered,
God does not become limited by the limit of the images which are not ordered.
Thus the limit of the haqq remains unknowable except through the
knowledge of the limit of all images, and that this should come about is
impossible, and the limit of the haqq is impossible. That is to say, to
have the knowledge of the limit of every image is impossible. Consequently, it
is impossible to know the limit of God because God is Seif-revealed from all
eternity forever, and the receptive a'yan are equally perpetual in receptivity
and the images of the universe are eternally immanenced. Consequently, the
universe cannot be limited by the limit which depends on the images which are
not immanenced. Consequently, for God limit becomes an unknown except that it
is not unknown from the knowledge of the gnostic who witnesses the One Being of
the haqq and who knows that the images of the universe are the images
and the Being (huwiyya) of the haqq, and that by virtue of the
place in the manifestation it is creaturial, and by virtue of the interiority
it is that which is understood. This is so because it happens in the perfection
and completion of release and
through the tongues of the envoys God the High gave news of His own
Essence (nafs) with both transcendence (tanzih) and immanence (tashblh).
Thus, to take it with one of these without the other is to turn away from God.
He who unites in his knowledge between transcendence and immanence and
qualifies Him with the two qualifications as a whole, because it is impossible
to know this in detail as there can be no encompassing of the images in the
universe, which means that if a person in his knowledge unites between
transcendence and immanence and qualifies Him as a whole (in general) with the
two qualities, since it is impossible to qualify Him with the two qualities in
detail since one cannot encompass all the images in the universe, as immanence
is the manifest and witnessing and plurality, and transcendence is interiority
and the unknowable and oneness, then the verifying gnostic, in consideration of
the reality of God ’s oneness by which God is Unique and he transcends Him from
all His particularizations, and in consideration of God’s manifesting and
revelation and by virtue of the Name Manifest, in consideration again that the
universe is the huwiyya of the haqq and thus he immanences Him,
he will unite between transcendence and immanence, and with the quality cf
plurality and manifestation which is the necessity of immanencing, and with
the qualities of interiority and oneness which transcendence necessitates he
will qualify Him as a whole. Equally, the one who believes in the
determinations that arrive from God and subjects himself and emulates the law
will qualify Him with immanence and transcendence as a whole because the images
of the universe are infinite and not encompassable and it is impossible to
qualify Him with the two qualities in detail. Then certainly that person knows
Him as a whole and not in detail, that is to say, not in detail because it is
not possible to particularize in one go that which is infinite. Yet the High
God, without finality and end, from all time details and particularizes the
images of the universe. As has been pointed out before this, if some of the
verifiers qualify the haqq with the qualities of transcendence and
immanence, as these two qualities are the necessities of the Reality of God,
like firstness and lastness and manifestation and interiority, since God
accepts similarity and opposition, since the Reality of God encompasses the
totality of the oppositions and
is established for God does not occur except by uniting between
knowledge of the Divine signs which are scattered among the images of the
horizons and of detailing, and the uniqueness of the totality of the signs of
the uniqueness of the totality in the images of Man. It is because of this that
the High God pointed at this meaning and said: ‘Soon We shall show them Our
signs in the horizons* and that is that which is outside of you, and whose
particularization in relationship to your particularization is a latter and
different particularization, and the haqq is manifested in each
particularization with one revelation and He has covered in all
particularizations with a discriminated and detailed covering. ‘And equally We
will show them in themselves’ and that is the same as you, which is that the
covered extended over the throne of the heart of the believer with a total
complete and quranic covering, so that it is clear to those who are viewers who
are looking at it That is as if to say that that which is seen in the horizons
and the persons is the haqq, until it is clear without doubt for those
who look at the horizons and the anfus that that which is seen in the
horizons and the anfus is the haqq. Due to the fact that you are
His image and He is your spirit, and that you are to Him as a bodily image and
He is to you as the executive spirit to the image of your body. That is to say,
since you are His image and He is your spirit, and then you are for Him like a
bodily image and He is for you like the executive spirit to the image of your
body, which means that the fact that the haqq is seen in the horizons
and in the anfus is due to the fact that you are the image of the haqq
and to the fact that the haqq is your spirit. Therefore the image of
your body is like the executive spirit. That is to say, the manifesting of the haqq
in the places of manifestation of the horizon and the anfus is like the
coming into presence of the horizons and the anfus by it and the
manifestation of the spirit in the body and coming into presence of the body
with the spirit, consequently the haqq is your huwiyya and you
are His image. In the same way, the haqq is the Total Spirit, and spirit
is the spirit of the universe, because the Ipseity with the reality of His
Qualities is the executive total, and this limit applies to and prevails over
both your manifestedness and your interiority. For instance, if you were to be
described as the speaking animal this limit
the thing existing, combining the two revelations under that determination
for which there has been necessitated a witnessed revelation and the
determinations of the Name Manifest, if it passes away that thing's manifest
image passes away and is dissipated (fani), and its interior image which
is particularized in it by the universal revelation is its spirituality, and it
cannot pass from the image of the universe by virtue of its interiority. That
which is particularized in it of the Divine aspects is the Divine face. The
human image which remains by the spirit, if the executive spirit were to leave
it that image does not remain as man but one says concerning that image that it
is an image which resembles the image of man. Thus, between that human image
which is spiritless and a human image made of wood or stone there is no
difference, and that image is not called ‘man’ except by extension and not in
reality, and the fact that the haqq is like the spirit to the human
image is that the human image is composed of the spirit and the body. The
spiritless human image is not really a human image, just as in the human limit
the apparent image and the interior huwiyya are taken together, and the
appearance of the human cannot be taken away from its interior and its-interior
cannot leave its exterior. That is why the Shaykh says: The cessation of the haqq
is absolutely impossible from the image of the universe because if God
abstained from the universe by revelation the image of the universe would be
non-existent, therefore, it could not have been called the image of the
universe. Consequently, the image of the universe remains through the Being of
the haqq which is like the spirit to it, and it would pass away if God
ceased to reveal Himself. And indeed the limit of Divinity for Him is by its
reality, not figuratively, which means that just as in the limit of the human
the manifest and the interior are taken together and that the manifest cannot
pass away from the interior, in the same way, God, being the spirit of the
image of the universe, does not pass away as Divinity from the image of the
universe. Therefore, the limit of the Divinity is established in reality for
the haqq and not figuratively, because the presence of the divinified is
by the Divinity. Consequently, since the divinified is present by the
qualification of the Divinity of the Divine, the Divinity does not cease to be
limited (circumscribed, defined) by the limit
the uniqueness of totality is all through that. It is thus that God
brought into the universe the image, and that is the image of the totality of
all the images of possession and angelic spirits, which continuously gives
praise and gratitude, and like that the High God caused the image of the universe,
which is no other than the mani- festedness and huwiyya of God which is
no other than the images of possession and the collectivity of angelic spirits,
to give constant praise and laudation of the haqq. This means that He
made it laudatory to His own nafs because the presence of the image of
the universe is through God. Thus, the image of the universe, which is the
combination of the manifest and the interior, is extended from its interior and
is present with God who is its spirit, and is laudatory to Him and is in
constant praise of Him. But we do not understand their constant praise because
we cannot encompass what there is of images in the universe. Because we are
conditioned by our sensorial existence and our possibilities we cannot
understand the constant praise of all the images because we cannot encompass
what there is of images in the universe because the images of the universe are
different varieties and genuses and the image of each genus understands only
the constant praise of his own kind and does not understand the language of the
genus which is outside his own genus. Thus, the images of the universe, in
consideration of transcending from any lack His Names and Spirit, sing His
praise (sabh), but in consideration of the manifesting of the
perfections which are manifested from these images they give grateful praise (hamd).
All the languages of God are eloquent with the praise of God. Thus, all the
images of the universe are the languages of God and are eloquent with the
praise to God. In other words, all the images are the manifestation of God, and
in consideration of manifestation God is particularized in them and speaks with
their language. Thus they are the languages of God and the languages of God are
eloquent with the praise of the interior- ity and give gratitude to Him, and
thus they said: ‘Praise and gratitude to the Lord of the universes’ (al-hamdu
lillahi rabbi-l 'alamiri). That is, since all the images of the universe
are God’s languages, they said: ‘Praise and gratitude to the Lord of the
universes’ which means that praise and gratitude is particular to God who is
the Lord of the
led in the degrees of the order, and in cognosis you will be a
leader and a master which means you will be deserving of a following and you
will be deserving of masterliness and caliphate.
He who speaks with twoness has
become an establisher of a partner (musharrik),
And he who speaks with singuiarizing
has become a unifier.
That is to say, if a person speaks with duality on this matter, that
is, proves the immanence through the Being of the haqq, his observation
will be in duality and duality proves a partnership to God because he observes
in being the haqq and khalq and transcends God from the
immanence. But if somebody speaks by singuiarizing Him he becomes a unifier
because he has singularized God from duality and plurality by transcending Him
from plurality. Thus he renders God one and conditions Him by oneness, and as
he does not cognize Him he falls into polytheism (shirty because he
proves something other than the haqq from which he transcends the haqq,
whereas singularity is the correlative of number, like being a couple. Thus
the inunan- encer compares the One Existent to other existents, therefore he
associates them in their being, and the transcender takes one of the beings out
of the other and distinguishes Him after having associated Him in being. Thus
he also takes God out of being from the number of duality and he becomes like
the one who says: ‘God is the third one of the Trinity.’ Note that the word
‘speaks’ which occurs in the stanzas has been taken by some to mean formulation
or avowal or informing. That is why the Shaykh made the verb transitive by the
use of the letter ba*.
Beware of immanencing Him or you will
make Him a double,
And beware of transcending or you
will be one who singularizes.
if you make a second of the R.eal One God so as to prove immanence
by it, oeware. There are two ways of proving secondity. One way is that both
existents are ancient and this is the word of the polytheist,
unknowableness and absoluteness which is He. That is to say, the
conditioned being, as it is conditioned, cannot be the same as the absolute
being, as that is absolute. Perhaps rather you are He, that is to say. in
consideration of the Reality of being the conditional is absolute which is
conditioned in the conditional and absolute in the absolute. Consequently, the
meaning becomes as follows, that while you are conditioned by the condition of
manifestation you are not the same as the Being of God which is absolute and
unknowable, but considering the Reality of being you are the same as Him and
His huwiyya, and you see Him in the essence of orders in His absoluteness
because in the images of the totality He is total, that is to say, with one
reality. In the 'ayn of the a'yan you see Him as conditioned by
each 'ayn by virtue of His manifesting by an 'ayn, because one
conditioned thing is different to another conditioned thing but the same in the
absolute. Conditioned is the Name Manifest (tfihir) and the universe,
and the absolute is the Name Interior and God, and this aspect is what emanates
as the apparent aspect from the Shaykh’s words.
In the words: ‘. . . and you see Him therein’ the word fi
can be equally read with the pronounced ya' with emphasis, which would
make the whole meaning come to as follows: you are not Him, that is, the
conditioned is not absolute in consideration of the difference between
relativity and absoluteness. Rather, you are the same as Him considering the
Reality of being. Thus ‘and you see Him therein’, because you see Him in the
Reality of the Mohammedian isthmuseity which collects together the manifest
and the interior, and which is conditioned by the manifest and the universe,
and the haqq and the absolute by interior, and by virtue of My
particularization in that Reality thereby you see in Me the same thing as the
orders, by virtue of the interior as absolute and the haqq, and by
virtue of the exterior as conditioned and the khalq.
Nev/, the pronouns ‘you’ and ‘Him’ and the letter kaf
of address and the letter ta‘ of address and the pronounced yd’, all
these allude to One 'ayn which manifested at the degrees of
manifestedness and interiority, because the reality which is particularized in
the ‘you’ is the same as the reality which is particularized in the ‘He’, and
in
ing gone into excess in immanencing, were veiled from the unity of
God by the plurality of Names. Noah, exaggerating in transcendence, invited
them away from the idolatry of the Names to the unity of the Essence and to
pure exclusive unity. Thus his people did not follow him because they were
veiled from unity by the witnessing of plurality, but if Noah had combined
between the two invitations, that is to say, between the oneness of the Ipseity
and the plurality of the Names, and had invited them with immanencing in
transcendence and transcending in immanence like Mohammed invited, surely they
would have followed him. But the state of their depth in plurality and
manifestation and the manifest was such that it necessitated destruction from
the Divine Energy. That is why they were invited with the invitation of transcendence
which was far from their inclination and understanding.
And he invited them openly (publicly and directly), that
is to say, he invited them to the unity which is destructive of the plurality
of Names which are under the Name Manifest (?fl/rir). Thus they with their
manifestations did not follow him, the predications of plurality having
preponderance over them, but they followed him by acting with the zahir
and followed him in God’s detailed and discriminatory Book and to the outward
form of the Name Manifest because the universe is the versified image of the
Divine Word with which God spoke exactly in the Breath of the rahman.
Thus they only heard the meanings of the places of manifestation which are
present in the manifestations of the veiling of the words and they followed
that, but they were deaf of hearing the One God. Thus they covered up the
aspect of the uniqueness with kufr (covering up) of plurality.
Then he invited them to the mystery. After that he
invited them to the mystery, that is to say, to the Name Interior (batin).
That is, he invited them to the uniqueness which destroys the plurality of the
Names which are under it (batin), so that their interior would be conditioned
to the oneness of the Ipseity, but although he invited them to the mystery of
the interior they were all in the manifest, and the determinations of the
darkness of particularizations having spread over them they were busy with the
apparent plurality and had gone far into it and were distanced from the oneness
of the interior. Thus
with Noah’s invitation was necessary for them. And they prided
themselves in their nafs and covered themselves with their clothes and
said: ‘We shall not support your Divinity.’ Thus, with their clothes they hid
themselves so as not to hear his invitation.
Gnostics of God know to what Noah points concerning his
people, lauding them with the tongue of disparagement. Thus, the gnostics of
God who verify, knew what Noah (S.A.) intended to point at by lauding o ver
them with the tongue of disparagement concerning his people. That is to say,
they knew from the fact that they agreed to Noah’s invitation in the form of
opposition and that they concorded in the form of denial, and that what Noah
(S.A.) was pointing at was lauding when he pointed at that lauding with the
tongue of disparagement in lauding his people, because Noah (S.A.) had invited
them to ask for pardon, that is to say, to cover themselves with pardon. Thus,
by completely covering themselves they became manifest with the revelation of
the One and All-Destroyer. Thus, the people of Noah having affirmed him in the
image of denial, Noah equally lauded them in the image of disparagement with
the words: ‘Lord, do not support on earth a land of coverers of Truth (kafiririf,
which means that he prayed for them so that they reach tne interior and the collecting
together. In fact they accepted his invitation in the image of deviating from
it. Thus they became manifest in the image of ignorance when in fact they had
knowledge of arriving to the invitation. And they knew, (and in certain
copies:) and they know, that they did not accede to his invitation because of
what there was of discrimination in it The words ‘and they know’ refer to the
gnostics of God, and the gnostics of God knew that Noah’s people did not accede
to his invitation because there was discrimination in it, because Noah invited
his people from plurality to oneness and from immanence to transcendence and
this invitation is exactly discrimination. It is an invitation from one degree
to another degree. In the first degree with the lack of witnessing the haqq
and invitation to the absolute is discrimination. It is like from the Name
Disparager to the Name Endearer, and from the Name Misleader to the Name Guide,
different to the invitation of Mohammed (S.A.): ‘I invite to God and to basira
(vision), rnyself and those who follow me, and glory and praise
ami discrimination are collected together in the collective totality
and collective differentiation and conjunction. In other words, qur'an
collects all, but discrimination does not comprise the conjunction, that is,
the discriminating collectivity, because in all the essences which are
collected in the conjunction the manifestation by virtue of place in each is
discriminatory and manifestation is not collective and conjunctive. That is why
the discrimination does, not comprise the conjunction and the person who dwells
in the conjunction does not incline to discrimination. And thus (as to mean
because the immanence is a conjunctive order) there has not been anybody
except Mohammed (S.A.) who has been specialized with conjunction (qur’an), and
thus it is that his people are the best of people that have come out from among
mankind. This means that as the order was not conjunction (before this) no one
other than Mohammed (S.A.) was specialized with it. He was specialized with it
because he was manifest with the necessities of the totality of the Divine
Names and their realities, together with the collectivity of the conjunctivity
of the totality of all the realities of the Divine Names, rather perhaps
because his reality was the reality of the totality of the collectivity of the
conjunctivity, and no other than the people of Mohammed (were given this
specialization), that is to say, they also are specialized with conjunctivity
because of their Mohammedian closeness and Ahmedian inheritance, because before
this it so happened that all the perfect servants of God were the places of
manifestation of the determinations which come down from the detailing Names.
Thus, among the people of the past the necessary Divine determination was to
invite to transcendence because these people were inclined to the plurality of
idols and were harnessed to the invitation of the veils of the images of Names
and were removed totally from the Reality of the Uniqueness which is the origin
of" plurality. However, the presence of idols and the worship of the
images of the bodies of the universe came about because the manifestation of
the relationships of the Unknowable which were essentially annihilated in the
Essence of the Singularity and the particularization of the revelations in the
First Will was the aim of God in that willing. Consequently, the realities,
first became manifest in the universe of witnessing because God intended that
it
qualification one and that one in reality is plural. It is because
of this that he said: ‘I was given the jawami' al-kalim.' However, the
person of discrimination, his order is difficult and his invitation is even
harder, because if he invites them to transcendence and unity and. as
above-mentioned, to collectivity, his people will say to him: We will accede to
your invitation according to these words: “There is not one from among the
creatures whom He does not hold by his forelock because my Lord is according to
the straight path.” ’ Thus, the difference between the Guide and the Misleader
and the Obeyer and the Rebel is removed, rather perhaps that in this kind of
witnessing there is not even the existence of the rebel. On the other hand, if
he invites them to immanence and detailing his people will obey him like the
people of Moses who said: ‘Show us God visually’ and also: ‘Bring us God and
with Him His wife.’ This is because the inviter is in one area and the invited
is in another area and each one of them prefers their own surroundings, but the
one who has collected between collectivity and detailing and immanencing and
transcendence is different to all this.
If Noah had given a similar verse to this by word of
mouth they would have acceded to it Thus, if Noah (S.A.) had by word of mouth
brought to his people a verse similar to this and if his invitation had been
collective, his people would have acceded to it, just as Mohammed (S.A.) came
with this sentence and his people acceded to it. That is why the Shaykh
referred to it as ‘by word of mouth’ because Noah did come with a verse similar
to this in meaning. That is why his people followed him with action, which
following is spiritual, which following is more secret than following by word.
And that he immanenced and transcended in one verset,
perhaps even in half a verset, because in fact Mohammed (S.A.) did immanence
and transcend in one sentence, perhaps rather in half a sentence did he
immanence in transcendence and transcend in immanence and collected between
transcendence and immanence. And Noah invited his people by night by virtue of
their intellect and their spirituality which is in fact the unknowable (ghayb).
That is to say, when Noah invited at night it was an invitation to the interior
(batin.) and the ghayb and this was due co the intelligence and
spirituality of his
Him there is not. And Noah (S.A.) did not combine between the
transcendence and immanence in invitation, as Mohammed (S.A.) did combine with
the words: ‘That which is like Him there is not’, and their interior hated this
discrimination and increased them in running away. Thus, because of this
discrimination, that is to say, because he invited them first to the interior
and then to the manifest, their interior hated it. Thus the lack of
collectivity in the invitation increased their ruilning away.
Then he said, Noah (S.A.) informed, in himself. After
that Noah (S.A.) from his own self secretly addressing himself to God (informed
with the words): ‘And indeed when I invited them so that You pardon them they
brought their fingers to their ears and hid themselves under their clothes.’ It
is with these words that he informed that he invited them by night with the
language of the ghayb to pardon (ghafr ~ to pardon by covering up
their shortcomings) so that He cover up their shortcomings (pardon them), not
so that He expose them. In fact, he invited his people at night with the
language of the unknowable to cover up the shortcomings first, so that God
cover them up, and he did not invite them so that He expose them. They
understood this, that is, covering up with pardon, from him (S.A.). That is,
they understood from Noah’s invitation the necessity for the covering up
pertaining to the visible form which their state necessitated. With that they
brought their fingers to their ears and covered themselves up with their
clothing. That is, it is because they understood the necessity of covering up
from the words of Noah that they covered their ears with their fingers and
themselves with their clothing. In other words, so as not to hear Noah’s appeal
they made the covering up from their clothing. Thus, in what appertains to the
form in covering up in the invitation they followed and affirmed in denial and
refusal, taking what there was of covering up to mean for them not to hear what
Noah said, knowing well that if they heard what he said they would necessarily
have to follow him. That is why in accordance with tneir state they took the
covering up (ghafr, maghfira) from Noah’s invitation to prevent them
from hearing these words. And this is, all of it, image of covering up to which
he had invited them. They acceded to his invitation by action, not by
affirmation (labbayka). All
And Noah in his wisdom said to his people: He will send
a heavens over you, raining. Thus, when Noah saw the determination of the
state of his people and their station, and observed their following through
action, and since they had understood the requirement of covering up from
demanding of pardon, Noah descended to guide them by virtue of their not being
aware by using a stratagem from his own station. Consequently, he spoke with
words the outward aspect of which would be suitable to their understanding it
from its outward aspect, and with its interior and intellect it would be suitable
to their intellect. Thus Noah (S.A.), through his wisdom, with the language of
pointing pointed out to his people: if you accede to what I say according to
the necessities of the intellectual transcendence, then God will send over you
the heavens, that is to say, the clouds full of rain and water, and that is the
intellectual cognosis in the meanings, and speculative reflection, that is to
say, water is intellectual cognosis in meaning and it is equally a speculative
reflection (consideration), and will help you with possessions with which you
will be inclined towards Him. He will come to your assistance with possessions,
that is to say, with holy incomes and pleasing revelations, and He will succour
you with such things as will incline you and attract you to His side, and if
He has made you incline towards Him you will see therein your own images. Thus
if that holy flash and witnessable revelation attracts you towards God and
makes you inclined towards Him, you will witness in that revelation the image
of your own 'ayn-i-thabita, and if some from among you imagined that
they saw Him, they are not those who know, and whoever from among you knows he
has seen his own nafs, he is the knower. Thus, a person from among you,
if he imagines that he has seen God, that is to say. if he thought that the
image he saw in that visible witnessed revelation was God and imagines it to
be so, that person does not know God because the One Being which is revealed in
the image of the a'yan-i-rhabita is revealed by virtue of the particularities
of the a'yan and not by virtue of Itself. And if from among you a person
knows he has seen his own self, that person is a gnostic, because the true
knowledge of a servant is the knowledge of his own nafs which is in the
image of his own 'ayn-i-thabita because God’s revelation is
Divine knowledge results with true and real clear insight (kashf).
Thus their commerce did not become profitable and they
were not guided. Thus, their commerce did not become profitable because the
ultimate of what they looked at and the final point of the total of their
knowledge and reason is to deviate from God with possessions. Consequently, as
their intellectual knowledge increases, so does their veiling increase, and
this happens at a distant limit from the original purpose. Consequently, they
did not find guidance with that knowledge. And that which was in their hand
was lost to them, all that which they in fact imagined was possession for them.
Thus, what they imagined was their possession from that knowledge as reasonable
conclusions at their level was lost to them because it was not built upon the
origin because it was not close to witnessing (shuhud) and certainty.
‘And those who have covered up the Truth, their work is like the mirage of the
thirsty man who anticipates water in the river-bed.’ Thus, the work and the
knowledge of those who cover up the Truth with intellectual conclusions
dissipates like a mirage because it is not underlined by Divine corroboration
and the Holy Spirit. And where it concerns the Mohammedians (the order for you
is), and give to others of that which has been brought to you, (because the
Mohammedians are) appointed successors therein, by which is meant that the
knowledge is the possession of God and the Mohammedians are viceregents in this
and it is not their possession in origin. That knowledge is bestowed on them by
God, upon which He has made them caliphs. It is their possession only through
being a caliph over it because their knowledge results from Divine devolvement
and compassionate revelation. It is perhaps Divine knowledge which due to the
complete branching of places becomes imprinted in them. Thus, addressing the
Mohammedians he says: ‘That knowledge which your Lord bestowed on you, over
which you are the caliphs, give some of that to the poorer student demanders
according to their inclination.’ Perhaps they have been appointed to return to
its origin the Divine knowledge, which is their possession only through the way
of caliphate, which knowledge they refer to God and they appoint God the caliph
over it. Thus, they should return to God the High the knowledge, which is that
possession over which they were made
allowable that it should refer to the Mohammedians, that is, God has
made the Mohammedians caliphs in His own possession. Consequently, possession
by origin belongs to God. Although He had made them possessors by way of
caliphate, yet again He asked them to return the possession to its origin as
attested by His saying to the Envoy: ‘There is no other God but Him and take
Him as your wakTl.' That is, He has ordered them to take Him as their wakll
in the possession over which they have the viceregency, and that which is
established for the people of Noah thus becomes established also for these latter.
Consequently, possession becomes established for the Mohammedians. However, do
not let there ever pass through the minds of the people who are short in Divine
knowledge that because it has been said ‘possession is theirs’ that possession
should be established for anyone other than God, and in case this ever happens
the Shaykh (R.A.) said this to refute it:
This possession is possession by viceregency, and
thereby possession is that God is the King (possessor) of possession. And this
possession is possession of caliphate, and as this possession is possession of
caliphate there became established for them that God is the possessor of the
possession, because their existence is by origin God’s possession, because in
their being, the possessor and the possessed and the dispenser and the present
is God, and God is their possession because in accordance with the order: ‘Give
to others of what has been brought to you wherein you are the viceregents’, the
possession of their being in which they are the viceregents, when they give of
that to others and the possessions of knowledge and tastes and states and
natures and other degrees and stations and knowledges of perfection, they give
away completely and they become in accordance with the saying: ‘He who was of
God, God was of him*, and thus God becomes their possession and what they own.
It is in this meaning that the most gnostic Shaykh Abu Yazid Bastami, may God
sanctify his mystery, said in his pleading to God at the time He revealed Himself
to him: ‘My possession is greater than Yours. The immanence is Yours and I am
Yours and I am Your possession, and You are my possession and You are the Most
Great of the Greatest and my possession You are, and You are greater than Your
possession and that is me.’
manifestation. Had they deserted them, in fact they would have deserted
God manifested in them and they would have been ignorant of God to the extent
of their desertion of these idols because in each iool there is a face for God.
He who knows this has gnosis of God. He who does not know this is ignorant of
God.
The deceit and trick of the people of Noah is according
to two aspects. One aspect is this, that having heard Noah’s invitation and
having understood that Noah invited them to discrimination, they addressed each
other, saying: ‘This prophet proves a being other than the Being of God for
these idols, Wadd, Suwa’ and others, and telling us to abandon these idols he
wants to prevent us from the witnessing of God and our praying to God in these
idols, and invites us thus to discrimination, but we are in the very essence of
collectivity and we observe the One Being in all the places of manifestation
and we do not prove a being for anything other than Him. Thus, if you abandon
and turn away from these idols according to his invitation you will have denied
the Being of God manifest therein and you will have turned away from God in
them.’ Consequently, when Noah heard them saying to each other the words: ‘Do
not give up Wadd or Suwa' . . .’ so as not to turn away from God and equally
not to incline towards discrimination from the collectivity, he was no longer
able to invite them because his invitation was to discrimination whereas they
were in the essence of collectivity. Thus it is that they played a great trick
on Noah (S.A.).
The other aspect is this, that they dwelt on Noah’s
invitation through action and not by words, in the image of denial, and they
agreed to his invitation in the images of denial and refusal because they were
in the place of objectivization of concordance but they had no awareness of
agreeing with him or affirming him. Equally Noah was unaware that they had
followed him through a deceitful stratagem and a trick. That is why this trick
became a great trick against Noah and that is why they refused his invitation
with the apparent word because invitation is discrimination (furqan)
whereas they were in conjunction (qur’an) in the essence of collectivity
and that is why they said in covering up: He brings us God whereas we are with
Him, because the invited from is the same as the one invited in the
and the determination of one Name and invites with a Divine order
and Lordly power, and equally the invited who agrees by action is in the same
way under the dispensation of one Name and is obedient to the order to which he
is appointed and knows and is expectant of the arrival of the order that is
going to arrive. They agreed with him through deceit just as he had invited
them with deceit Thus the people of Noah answered their agreement to Noah with
deceit since he had invited th'em through deceit.
And the Mohammedian came and knew that the invitation to
God is not by virtue of His huwiyya but that it is by virtue of the
Names. Thus, when the possessor of the way of thinking of the sealhood, the
Mohammedian, came to invite, he knew that invitation to God is not by virtue of
His huwiyya of Uniqueness but rather that the invitation is by virtue
of His Names, because the Absolute huwiyya is always with totality with
the encompassing of the Ipseity. That is to say that invitation is from the
Lordship of one Name to the Lordship of another Name. For example, it invites
from the Name hafiz to the Name rafi' and from the Name muntaqim
to the Name rahun and from the Name fadl to the Name hddl.
But as the Divine Names by their essential particularities are distinguished
one from the other, the essential particularizations which are the places of
manifestation of the Names are equally distinguished one from the other by
their essential aptitude, and some of them are more elevated than the others.
Thus, the invitations happen from the Lordship of the Names whose
determinations are narrow and particular, to the Lordship of the Names whose
determinations are wider, more comprehensive and general, more total and more
complete. This is because the revelation which is in the Presence of the
totality of uniqueness is not the same as the revelation in the Presence of
uniqueness of discrimination. Rather perhaps the ultimate purpose of
manifestation and manifesting is that each of the Divine Names with its Name
of essential particularity, while differentiated from other Names and while the
Ipseity of Uniqueness is revealed in it by one aspect, is collective cf the
collectivity of all the Divine Names of the collectivity of uniqueness and is
the place of manifestation of the total. This collectivity does not happen
except in the place of manifestation of the Complete
of al!. Except that if in the origin it happened that he is the
place of manifestation to the ism-i-jalal, there is no benefit in that
in appearance he is the place of manifestation of jamal and that he
attracts the revelations of the Name of jamal and that he appears with
the perfections of jamal.
Now, invitation is from the accidents of the Lordship of
the Names of Awe and Majesty to the original Lordship of the Names of Beauty (jamal),
and this 'explanation is according to the consideration where in the manifest
Lordship and rulership is of ism-i-jalQl (awe and majesty) as the
necessities of the preponderant quality, and where the Lordship of the Name
which is the origin of the person who is being invited, and the determinations
of that Name, have remained in the interior. However, if the original Lordship
and rulersbip is considered to be of the origin of the Name, and if that one’s
determination has become apparent, then invitation is from that Name’s relative
and partial Lordship to the total absolute Lordship of the Name which is most
totalizing and prevalent from among the Names so that that Name in that man’s
place of manifestation collects the totality of the Names so that its Lordship
change from partial relative Lordship to total absolute Lordship. In other
words, let it be seen with the eye of discernment (basira).
Now, let it be known like this, that those who invite to
God are of two classes. One class invites with His permission by expounding the
Divine Laws. For him it is not necessary to have the kashf of realities
like they necessarily are with God. The other class is also of two classes. One
of these is those to whom God has made kashf of the realities of those
predications with which they are appointed to proclaim. To the other class He
did not do it with kashf, but perhaps rather the knowledge of that thing
happened to them from God by explaining to them in a veridic dream or through
inspiration or Divine inspiration (wa/ty), but they are not appointed to
announce it. Those who are appointed to announce it are also of two kinds. One
kind is those of great resolution who are appointed with announcement of
envoyship and war. The second part is the prophets who are other than of great
resolution who only have to announce and nothing else. Those of the great
resolution who are high in degree invite
vails over them, it is understood that they are invited to the Name
which is more collecting and more prevalent like the Name Allah and the
Name Compassionate (rahman). The determination of the Name rahman,
just as it is prevalent over all that are pious, it is also prevalent over the
Name jabbar and other Names of awe and majesty and destruction and
conquest.
Abu Yazid Bastami, God’s mercy upon him, heard a man
reading: ‘On the Day We shall collect the pious to the Compassionate (rahman)
in throngs’, and he shouted out: ‘If a person is in the Presence of the
Compassionate Beatitude and compassion is his evidence, it is surprising how
he can be collected for judgement at the level of the rahman.' The
Shaykh al-Akbar, the Great Master, the owner of the book, the most radiant, the
Red Sulphur. God be pleased with hirn, when he heard the surprise of Abu Yazid
he said that there is no surprise in this. The surprise is in the words of Abu
Yazid. It is from the Name Compeller (jabbar) to the Name Compassionate (rahman).
which means that they are brought to judgement from the Names and Qualities
ofjalal and conquest to the Names and Qualities of beauty and generosity
and subtlety (lutf).
He brought with the letter of ghaya (aim and
extremity) and made it close to the Name, which means that God the High brought
the letter of aim and extremity, which is ‘i7a’ (the preposition: to), and made
it close to the Name which is prevalent over all the Names, so that it is
understood that the Name Compassionate (rahman) is prevalent over all
the other Names and it is understood that all the Names end in it as there is
no difference between it and the Name Allah. From the people of the
universe each group is under the Lordship of one Name from among the Divine
Names, and if a person is under the Lordship of a Name he is servant of that
Name. Thus the Envoy invites them from the differentiations of those Names to
the Name Compassionate (rahman) or to the collectivity of the Name of
God (Allah) and this invitation is according to discernment (basira) because
it saves them from the danger of association (shirk) with God and enters
them to the servanthood of one Divinity. At the level of the Mohammedian
invitation, the invitation is not by virtue of the huwiyya of God,
because the huwiyya is present, existent, in the total,
different area of possibilities. Consequently, this is the result of
the piety of the pious people, which is that the evil of their being has been
changed into the goodnesses of compassion: and the thingness of a thing is a
thing only because it is by virtue of place; and there is not left in their
being any quality other than the quality of compassion, like piety and like the
qualities of praise.
And they said in their deceit: ‘Do not abandon your
idols and do not abandon Wadd, Suwa*, Yaghuth, Ya'uq and Nasr.* The Shaykh
explains the deceitfulness of the people of Noah with this verse {aya}. Thus
Noah’s people, addressing each other, that is to say, the leaders advising the
others in exaggeration to increase their deceitfulness, said: ‘Do not abandon
your idols, Wadd, Suwa', Yaghuth, Ya'uq and Nasr, because these are the Divine
places of manifestation, and the prophet who is inviting us establishes a being
other than the Being of God in these and wants to prevent us from observing the
face of God in them and invites us to become disunited and separated whereas
we are in the essence of collectivity and we know nothing other than God.’
And if they had deserted them they would have been
ignorant of God to the degree of what they deserted of these because indeed for
God in everything worshipped there is an aspect He who knows that knows it and
he who is ignorant of it does not know it The Shaykh says here that indeed the
people of Noah, when they abandoned their idols they would become ignorant of
God only to the degree of that which they abandoned of their idols, because in
everything worshipped there is a private aspect therein for God. The person
who knows that aspect knows God. The person who does not know that aspect
becomes ignorant of Gcd, which means that in every stone, wood, sun or moon, in
everything worshipped, there is a special aspect for God, which aspect remains
when the veilednesses of things are destroyed. Consequently, he who knows that
aspect and the face of God in each thing worshipped knows God who is
particularized in the place of manifestation which is that thing worshipped.
And the one who is ignorant of this aspect in that thing worshipped is ignorant
of God who is therein particularized and who is revealed from its reality.
as the plurality of the places of manifestation of the Names does
not impair the singularity of the Lord and the Divinity which is the thing
worshipped. He is the one worshipped in everything that is worshipped, and the
worshipper in all that worship.
The gnostic knows who is worshipped and in what image He
has manifested so that He is worshipped, and he knows that in fact the
differentiation and plurality in the image of that which is worshipped is like
the plurality of the members of the human sensory image and like the plurality
of the spiritual powers in his spiritual image, and it is no other than God who
is worshipped in each thing worshipped. Thus, a person who is the gnostic of
God knows who it is that is worshipped and in what image He manifested so that
He became worshipped, and he knows that in fact the plurality and differentiation
in the images of the idols is like the plurality in the sensory image cf the
members of the person, and like the plurality of the spiritual powers in his
spiritual image, and like these it is relative and qualificative. As the
plurality of members and powers does not impair the sensory images and the
spiritual images, in the same way the places of manifestation of the Names
equally do not impair the oneness of Ipseity. Thus in everything worshipped no
other thing has been worshipped except God.
The lowest of the worshippers is he who has imagined
Divinity therein (in the idol). Thus, the lowest of the worshippers is the
person who has imagined Divinity in the idol, that is to say, he has not observed
the manifest God in every idol but imagined in each idol the Divinity and
worshipped it. Consequently, the faulty and ignorant is veiled and is in
unawareness of God. And If this imagining had not been, stones and other things
would not have been worshipped, meaning that if the meaning of Divinity had not
been imagined in each idol, stones or other things like that, such as sun, moon
etc., would not have been worshipped. Because of this, because in each idol
Divinity is imagined, (God) said: ‘Say to them “name (designate) them”’ and if
they name them they would name them as stone or wood or star. God said: ‘Tell
your people to name their idols’, and if they had named them surely they would
have named them with ‘stone’ or ‘wood’ or ‘star’, that is, they would have
designated their
with the relativity of the idols, and do not be veiled from the One
Being who is revealed in them, and observing the One Face in all the places of
manifestation, be tractable and docile to that.
Communicate this good news (bashshir) to the
people of good and beautiful qualities (muhsinin) who have reduced to
nothingness the fir e of their nature. That is to say, communicate this good
news to the people of good and beautiful natures who are tractable and docile
to this, that in the observation of God’s grandeur and magnitude, and in their
drowning in the ocean of arrival, the fire of their nature has been
extinguished. And they said ‘God’ and did not say ‘Nature’, which means that
they called it with the Name God, and the Divinity becomes varied with many
Names, and they did not call it with the name of another thing from Nature.
Thus, they said ‘Divinity’ and they did not say ‘Nature’, because the person in
whom the fire of his nature has been extinguished knows from the extinguishing
of the fire of his nature that Nature is effected-upon and is dispensable.
Dispensing is established for God and it is not for Nature because Nature is
the place where the action takes place. It is for the Names of effect like a
female in comparison to a male. Immanencing is manifested in it but the order
is of the intellect and has no being in the exterior, and in the same way it
has no being in the a'yan-i-thabita because it is the same as the a'yan-i-thabita.
It is even the same as the haqq with no consideration of changing. That
is why God was not called by (the name) Nature as it is called with design and
purpose because there exists a conjectural mutual opposition. Thus, Nature
being a place wherein the action takes place and is effected, and as its power
is strong, the learned people and philosophers knew it as the same as God, and
having enclosed effect to it attribute it to it (the effect to Nature). But
those lovers whose fire of nature has been extinguished at the level of the
arrival of revelations of Majesty and Awe and whose natural determinations have
been overcome underneath the Divine Qualifications, they do not prove being
for Nature, but rather they prove it for the One God and the Divine Names whose
effects are manifest in Nature. That is why they call it God and not Nature.
In fact, they (the people of Noah) misled many of them
as they
of their annihilation and perplexity in that revelation, and they
cannot distinguish one direction from another.
They did not do too much, the oppressors to their nafs,
the purified ones who have inherited the Book. Those who have oppressed their
being did not act superfluously since they are the purified who have inherited
the Book. That is, the Book of collecting and discriminating was bestowed on
them and they inherited it, as the quote goes: ‘Then We caused them to inherit
the Book, those We have purified from among Our servants. From among them there
are those who have oppressed their nafs and those who act with
moderation and those who pass beyond with good deeds.’ What is meant from this
verset concerning the oppressors is the Mohammedians who have oppressed their nafs
for their nafs by putting aside the desires, and who have oppressed the
One Being by discriminating and multiplying because they have enclosed Divinity
in the oneness which is in the plurality of the opposites. They have perhaps
become perplexed between the relationship of the plurality of non-existence and
the Essential oneness. And he is the first of the three and comes before the
ones who act with moderation and those who pass beyond with good deeds. And the
Mohammedian oppressor is the first of the three in the words of God the High:
‘And from among them the one who oppresses his own nafs, and of them the
one who acts with moderation, and of them the one who passes beyond with good
deeds.* Thus God has preceded him over the one who acts with moderation and the
one who passes beyond with good deeds, because the vision and viewing of the
oppressor is from one to the many. The sage Tirmidhi, God be pleased with him,
says in his Sahih, as told by Abu Sa'id, that the Envoy (S.A.) said
concerning this verse: ‘All of them are in the same place and all of them are
in paradise.’ The oppressoi enumerates the one and sees the oneness in
plurality. The one who acts with moderation observes the one and the plurality
in the one and the one in the plurality and unites between the two visions. The
one who passes beyond unites the number and sees the plurality as one. Thus the
one who acts with moderation and the passer-beyond are not people of perplexity
because they consider both the haqq and the khalq, but the
Mohammedian oppressor is different to them because
In other words, the one who is in hayra is not detached from
the centre but encircles it at the same time. That is to say, the one in hayra
observes the central point of the oneness of the haqq and turns
around it with the enumeration of aspects. In other words, he turns with God
with whichever reason He makes him turn and he moves with Him, from Him, whichever
direction He takes. Yet, due to the plurality of visions his sight is dimmed,
and by the necessities of the multiplicity of aspects and places of
manifestation he is in perplexity and wonderment and is disorientated. There
is no beginning nor end to his movement. His movement is the movement of God,
beginning from Him and ending in Him.
And the person of the protracted way inclines outside of
the aim and he requires that thing in which he is the possessor of an imagination,
which is his aim. And the one with the protracted way inclines from the centre
towards the circumference, and is outside of the aim, and he desires that thing
for which he has an imagination and his aim is to that. In other words, this
person inclines towards the circumference from the centre and he is the veiled
ignorant who instead of witnessing the haqq in himself and in each of
the places of manifestation imagines Him to be outside and away from his nafs,
and he turns his face towards that imagined image at some distance, which is in
the image of what he imagined, and desires that. He has inclined away from God
and outside the purpose, and according to his supposition becomes distanced
from God because he has deviated from the Divine aspects which are witnessed in
himself and in other places of manifestation and faced the image of his
imagination for which image he has created this imagination in himself. He then
has an imaginary and brought-about Lord and God, and his following ends up in
that imagination. For him there is from and to and that which is in between the
two. That is to say, like he has conjectured, there is a beginning which is
from his nafs and he follows from there. In reality this beginning from
is from the God which he has imagined, and it takes him to, that is to say,
there is an end to it which is the reaching of the aim of that imaginary God
which he has imagined, and there is also the distance which lies between the
from and to, which is the he.einninE and end, which distance he conjectured to
be the road
of God is wonderment. Thus, they were lost in the uniqueness which
is prevalent in the totality and revealed in the images of plurality, and they
remain in wonderment in the witnessing of the 'ayn from the particularization,
and in the witnessing of the oneness in the 'ayn of plurality. And they
were entered Into the fire in the essence of the water. Thus, they were made to
enter the fire which was in the essence, the source and the sameness of water,
which means that they were entered into the fire of oneness when they witnessed
the oneness in the 'ayn of plurality, or else, they were entered into
the fire of the revelation of the glory and majesty of the face in the 'ayn
of the water which is the ‘steam’ of the knowledge of God, which water is that
true life through which everything takes life. He used the word ‘fire’ for the
oneness, and ‘water’ for knowledge, because the glory and majesty of oneness
bums and because in the knowledge of God results the real life. The totality of
oppositions is special to the Mo- hammedians. Consequently, at the level of the
existence of life and knowledge there is no more forceful wonderment than the
wonderment which comes from the witnessing of drowning and burning, and He
brought to witness concerning the Mohammedians the existence of fire in the 'ayn
of water with the words: ‘When the oceans become turbid and are inflamed.’ Then
he said: And for the Mohammedians is: ‘When the oceans become turbid and
inflamed.* Concerning the Mohammedians there came the aya: ‘When the
oceans become turbid and inflamed.’ The oven is inflamed when it is lit, that
is to say, Arabs say the oven is inflamed when it is lit. That is to say, when
he says: T lit the oven’ the oven became inflamed (and he uses the same word, *sajara\
both for the oven and the seas becoming turbid and inflamed). The fire is in
the 'ayn of water, thus that which is the same as the oceans of Divine
knowledge which encloses the total is the sa me as the fire of the revelation
of the glory and majesty of the face of oneness. And for them there is no
helper other than God. That is, they have found no other helper from among
idols and other immanential particularizations because the Essential
revelation has burnt away their being. Consequently there remained no other
helper than God that could help them, but God brought them to life with His own
Being, and helped them. And God is (from all time) the very
is why at the degree of Divinity He qualified His Ipseity with the
words: ‘Every day He is in a different configuration.’ By ‘configuration’ is
meant particularization and revelation and relativization. Lordship is nothing
other than dispensing in that which regards Him as Lord, and it transports that
which regards Him as Lord, when it has reached the end of its education, from
one manner to another.
His intention by (saying) ‘Lord* was for the
establishment of the proper complexion. Thus Noah (S.A.) desired the
establishment of the proper complexion (talwTn) in crying out with the
Name ‘Lord’, that is to say, with the quality and qualification which would be
sufficient to what was important, and in the manner which would be suitable
to his aim in this prayer, and that is God’s establishment with the revelation
and manifestation in this quality, and that is again talwin
(establishment of the proper complexion). (Note: the only true establishment
among mystics is the complexity of the change in complexion which is
tantamount to a total ecstasy and enstasy.) As no other than this is suitable
for or true to it, because in the degree of Lordship nothing other than the
establishment of the proper complexion is true, especially in the station of
agreeing to a prayer. And the prayer of Noah (S.A.) is this: Do not leave on
earth, by which words he meant: do not leave any of them on the face of the
earth, meaning, do not abandon them in the earth of discrimination and
manifestation. He prayed over them that they be brought to abide in the inside
(of the earth). Noah prayed that they be made to abide inside the earth, by
which he meant: please do not leave them upon the earth of discrimination but
enter them into the interior of uniqueness and totality because, as God says,
‘He is the only abode’. And this is the prayer of Noah, which is that they
reach the Lord which is in the interior of the earth. The Mohammedian says:
‘Had you been lowered down on a rope to the very interior of the earth, indeed
you would fall or descend upon God.’ This means that according to the
understanding that God is the Light of the heavens and earth, God is manifested
and revealed from the totality of the higher particularizations and of the
lower personifications and He is the huwiyya of all the
particularizations, and high and low in relation to Him are the same, and He is
the same as the above as He is equally the same as
the emergence of the world, by the necessities of qualities
preponderant over the nafs. the assembly of every nafs and human
aspect being variable, each necessitates determination from the Name Determiner
from the Divine Person according to its collective image which results from
its spiritual assembly and its nature and its qualities.
It is also possible that the words used above: *. . . because
of the variety of aspects’ can mean the aspects of the Divine Names, that is,
because of the Variety of the aspects of the Divine Names in the Presence of
Divinity that is why He takes people out. Thus God is manifest and interior and
is both the starting point and also the point of return. Consequently, He is
manifest and revealed with all the aspects of the Divine Names because the
Divine Presence necessitates manifestation with aspects of different Names. Of
these coverers-up of Truth who covered themselves up in their clothes and
brought t heir fingers to their ears, demanding covering np, which means that
of those disbelievers who covered themselves with their clothes, and their cars
with their fingers, demanding the covering up, do not leave any upon the face
of the earth, because they covered themselves up with their clothes and put
their fingers in their ears in demanding covering up, because under the
determination of their veiling what they understood from ghafr (God’s
covering up from shortcomings, and pardon) was to be covered up, so they chose
to be covered up by their clothes and their fingers (instead of praying for
God’s covering up). (Do not leave) any of them at all, all around, until it be
of general benefit, just as the invitation was general. Do not leave one person
even, until the benefit becomes general, just as the invitation was general.
That is to say, Noah (S.A.), to be able to bring his people from the
servanthood of the images cf Names, as they were veiled with plurality to the
detriment of oneness, to the action of taking refuge in the happiness of the
uniqueness of the face of Ipseity away from the variations of aspects of the
Names which is the destructive void of being away from God’s grace, had invited
them to come out into the Light of the Beauty of Ipseity away from the veils of
shadows of awe. Consequently, at the level of Noah (S.A.) it became clear that
they were people of veils, that they would not worship anything other than the
images of the plurality of the Names and that invitation would
exist the powers of the self. It is true that their interiors are
the places of manifestation of the mysteries of Lordship and that the Names of
the Presence of Lordship are revealed to their interiors, but their exteriors
are absolute servanthood. 'Phus, deviating from servanthood they view
themselves as Lords by virtue of the mysteries of Lordship while their exterior
is a servant. That is to say, they transpose themselves from servanthood to
Lordship after they have been aware that they are servants, perhaps even while
they were servants of their nafs, because in fact they are outwardly
servants and in their interior Lords, but deviating from servanthood and
attacking the mysteries of Lordship they incline to the side of deviation and
they respond to the invitation of the Name Misleader. Consequently, their
salvation and the salvation of those who come after them is this, that they be
covered up in the interior of the earth as they are covered up from hearing the
call, and that they be drowned in the oceans of the inundation of insight and
collectivity. And they do not bring forth, as though they do not bring forth a
result, and do not show except that which is dissolute, that is to say, that
which is hidden to the person who is the place of manifestation. Coverers-up (kuffSrari),
that is to say, they cover up that which has manifested after its
manifestation. That is to say, they are so dissolute that they are coverers-up (kuffaf).
That is to say, they cover up what is apparent after it has been apparent.
In other words, they are coverers-up of Truth by covering up the Divine Reality
with their selfhood. Their children also appear in the image of their mystery
because the child is the mystery of its father. They also do not bring to a
consequence the Lordship which is hidden in them and the hiding of which is
necessary. With the persistence of their selfhood they make apparent the
dissolute which manifests with the pretension of Lordship because apparentness
is dissolution and what was necessary for them was to manifest with
servanthood, and hiding and covering up of the mystery of Lordship which was in
them. They do not show anything except the absolute Lordship which they show
and with which they are apparent, and the Divine Reality which they cover up is
apparent in them with its image having become manifest in them which they
cover up with their own self. And they show that which is covered up and then
they cover it up after
RR7
Or else, the meaning of the phrase: *. . . they do not
show except that which is dissolute’ could also be as follows: they do not show
anything other than dissolution, which dissolution would manifest the oneness
which is covered with plurality, and after showing it cover it again with the
plurality of particularizations. Thus they show the oneness which is covered
and then afterwards they cover up what they have shown. In other words, at the
same time they manifest God and cover themselves Up and in another moment they
cover up God and manifest themselves, as God is both manifest and hidden.
And the one that looks at this is perplexed and does not
know what the dissolute intends by his dissolution or what the kafir
intends in his kufr, and it is all the time the same person. Thus, the
onlooker who desires God becomes perplexed in this manifesting and covering up
and does not know for what purpose the dissolute is in dissolution and why the kafir
is in kufr. In other words, the same person would at one time manifest
with Lordship and cover up his own servanthood when all the time that person
who is both manifesting and covering up is the same one person. And then at
another time he covers up the Lordship and manifests with servanthood. Thus the
person who views this one person’s showing and covering up, which are his two
states, becomes perplexed between the two states and will not know which of
these states he should follow. Consequently, these people increase the
perplexity of those who follow them.
Lord, cover me up in pardon, that is, cover me up and
cover that which is of my determined time. That is to say: Lord, cover my particularized
selfhood with the Light of Your Essence, and with the Light of Your Qualities
cover up all my work and my characters, and cover up from me the powers of my nafs
and my nature so that I become freed and saved from being manifested by them
and with them, and let me be completely annihilated with my ipseity and
qualities in Your Ipseity and Qualities.
Let my station and value be not known, like Your value
is not known, as in Your words: ‘Wa ma qadaru Alldha haqqa qadrihi.’ Thus,
my station and value should not be known, just as Your value was never known,
because of Your words: ‘Wa ma qadaru Allaka haqqa qadrihi ’ (They do not
appreciate God to the reality of His value - to
“300
worries of Nature and the qualities of the nafs, and
sanctified. That which arrives therein and descends to it is Divine inspiration
(ilh&m) and Lordly inspiration (wahy), and what is said
therein as arriving from the subhbn is according to the original
cleanliness and the place does not change it. However, in the heart of the
person who is at the degree of nafs, the sayings of the nafs
which happen therein are coloured with the qualities of that nafs.
Thus, the sayings of the nafs at the degree of the'nq/j are at the
degree of the heart Divine information. The Shaykh, may God be pleased with
him, interpreted the two parents as Intellect and Nature, and in the same way
he interprets that which enters the heart as sayings of the nafs,
because the Divine informations are from the higher direction and the sayings
of the nafs are from the lower direction, which means: also cover up
things which enter the heart from the sayings of the nafs so they enter
the heart believing that which has entered the heart as Divine information.
Consequently, he asked for the covering up of the sayings of the nafs,
which the Prophet (S.A.) pointed out to them with the words ‘that which their nafs
have said to them*, because: ‘My earth and My heavens cannot contain Me but the
heart of the believing servant can contain Me’, in accordance with which at the
station offanH* in God, God’s Selfness is present in the place of the
servant’s selfness and the Divine revelation ends all else in the heart other
than God. There is nothing remaining therein. Consequently, the person who
believes in the sayings of the nafs as Divine information, when he
entqps the heart he is coloured by the colour of the revelation and is covered
with it.
(Also cover up) the believers who are from the Intellect
and the female believers from the nafs. And do not increase for the
oppressors, who are the oppressors from among the people of the Unknown who
are enshrouded behind veils of darkness, do not increase their perdition, that
is, other than annihilation. And the oppressors who are the people of the ghayb
who are enshrouded behind veils of darkness, do not increase their perdition,
that is to say, other than annihilation. The word ‘oppressors’ {zSlimTn)
is derived from ‘darknesses’ (zulumat). (S.A.) said: ‘Oppression is the
darknesses of the Day of Judgement’ That is to say, behind the veils of
darkness and the covers
^01
Sphere of Yoh is written in our book ‘The Revelations of Mosul', and
the mysteries of Noah are mentioned therein, and the mysteries of other
prophets are also mentioned. Consequently, he who wants to know the mysteries
of Noah, let him apply himself to the Sphere of Yoh which is mentioned in the Tanazzul8t-i-Mawsiliyya.
Tanazzulat-i- Mawsiliyya is the name of a book which the Shaykh wrote in
the town of Mosul. And the Shaykh (R.A.) interpreted that which concerns the
people of Noah according to the interior, and God knows.
The Wisdom of Sanctity
(al-hikmat al-quddusiyya)
in the Word of Idris (Enoch)
The conjunctive phase of the Word of Enoch to the Wisdom of Sanctity
was mentioned in the index.
The relationships of height are two, height of place and
height of rank and position. Both these heights are resultant for the sun, but
the resulting of the height of place is because the sun is the highest of the
spheres (falak) of possibility and place because it is the middle of all
spheres. However, the resulting of the height of rank and position is due to
the fact that it is the centre and is the cause of the being of the
surroundings and is also the highest of the places because it also combines
between the two heights. And the height of place: ‘And We raised him to a high
place’, and the highest of the places is that place whereupon the universe of
spheres turns in a rotary motion like a millstone, and that is the Sphere of
the Sun. The height of place becomes established then for Idris, and this
verset: ‘And We raised him to a high place’ denotes that it is the Sphere of
the Sun, which means that We raised Enoch to a high place which is the Sphere
of the Sun. Consequently, as the Sphere of the Sun incorporates both heights it
is the highest of places, and therein is the spiritual station (maqSrn) of
Enoch. Thus the spiritual station of Idris is in the Sphere of the Sun.
Now, height of place is a thing’s being in the highest
of places, and the height of position and rank is a thing’s being in the
highest degree. Even if it is not a place or it is in the lowest of
possibilities it is related to the highest sphere, like the high degree of the
Perfect Man, and for Idris the reason for the establishment of height of place
is this. This is because Idris was not stripped of spiritual ta’ayyun
and did not reach the Mohammedian essential union by being obliterated in the ’ayn
of the Uniqueness of the Ipseity and by being divested of
Scribe is Mercury. Aud from the point of view that it is the pole of
the spheres it is the most elevated place. Thus the Sphere of the Sun being the
pole of the spheres it is the most elevated place, and God named the Sphere of
the Sun ‘the very high place’ because it is the heart even though the spheres
above it are higher. Thus, what God intends from height of place is the height
of rank of the place. Consequently, for this place results the high degree of
position.
Now, there is height of place which is real and of the
Ipseity like the height of the Divine Ipseity, and there is place which is
qualificative by relationship to a high place. Consequently, the highest of
places is the Sphere of the Sun because it is the middle of all. This place is
the place of the spirit of Idris, upon him be peace, and the place of his
spiritual body. Thus his height is height of place.
And the height of position, it is for us, that is to
say, for the Mohammedians. God said: You are the heightened ones and God is
with you in this height, and He is far above all places but not from position
(rank). The height of position is established for us, that is to say, the
Mohammedians, because God said concerning these: ‘And you are the heightened
ones (aZ-a'/un) and God is with you in this.* That is, although He is high
above any place (mak&n) it is not so of rank (makana). That
is to say, for the Mohammedians the establishment of the height of position and
rank is through the words: ‘You are the heighten ed ones’, because the
collectivity of singularity and Mohammedian totality is the highest degree of
all the degrees. At the same time, the High God is heightened beyond any
condition by His Essential Singularity and His transcendent Absolute Being.
Thus, when He establishes for us a height and says that He is there with us, it
is to make us understand that our height is height of position and rank and it
is the height of Mohammedian total singular essential height, and in this
height God’s Singularity is with us due to our transcendence and absoluteness,
because the High God is by virtue of His Ipseity upon absoluteness,
consequently is high beyond place because place (and possibility) is place (and
possibility) by being with Him, and it is not higher than position and rank and
this is so because His degree in the Absolute Being is higher than His degree
which is in the relative being.
height with Him, to transcend from association in this height He
said: ‘Glorify the Name of your Lord the Most High’, by which He meant: glorify
the Name of your Lord which is higher than the meaning of this association.
Thus God established another height for His own Ipseity beyond the height
wherein He is associated with us, and transcended Himself from this
association. This is because there is no end to the degrees of height and
perfection because even though there is established for u's a height because we
have united between the two heights, yet between the two heights our collecting
together is a relative collection whereas for God there results between the
collectivity of places and the height of places a totality of the totals
because God is the came as the total, and in another aspect the height of God
is the essential height because He is High absolutely by His own Ipseity, not
through relationship to other. Consequently, all height which is related to
everything is the height of God because the height which is manifested and the
height which is related to Him in everything is to the degree of God’s
revealing Himself therein by the Name ‘Most High’. Consequenti}', in original
height He has no associate.
And what an extraordinary thing from the orders of
immanence that Man is the highest of the existents, that is to say, the Perfect
Man, but that there is no relationship of height for him except through
following, be it by place or be it by position, and these are places of descent
(of station), and he has no height by himself and he is high either by the
height of place or by the height of position, and the height is due to them.
That is to say, it is of the most wondrous of orders that Man, that is, the
Perfect Man, should be the highest of existents. That is to say, the Perfect
Man is the most high of existents, but the fact is that there is no height
related to him except through following either through height of place or through
height of position, yet position is a status, a place of descent.
Consequently, the Perfect Man’s height is not intrinsic to him, that is, he is
high by height of place and height of position. Yet height of place and position
is established. That is to say, although the Perfect Man is the highest of
existents there is no height related to him except by following through place
and position since height is established for both of these. ^Consequently,
there is no essential height for the Perfect Man.
being particularized, becomes exactly the same as
non-particularized. As for: ‘Is there a divinity together with God?’, this
means that there is not. Consequently, there is no being for any other.
Now, the particularization of all things is
annihilatable and all aspects return to Him. Consequently, the essential
height arid the real face is established for One which is heightened in Its own
Ipseity. And when God said: ‘And We have elevated him to a high place’ He
brought about the word ‘high* as a laudatory qualificative for the ‘place’, and
when He said: ‘And when your Lord said to the angels: “I am bringing about a
Viceregent on earth” *, this is the height of position. This points out what we
already know, that the height of place and position is not an essential height,
and here again we see and know definitely that by the laudatory qualification
of ‘place’ by the word ‘high’, and equally when He says: T am bringing about a
Viceregent upon earth’, that this degree of viceregency is the height of
position, that in the height of place and in the height of position of Man is
not an essential height because He qualifies the place by the word ‘high’, and
height becomes a qualificative of the place and not of the person, and that man
becomes high by being elevated to that place, and for position it is the same
thing because He has reserved the height of position for the degree of
viceregency. This means that the height of position which is particular to the
Perfect Man is the height of the degree of viceregency which is the degree of
collectivity of singularity of perfection and completeness. Equally then, this
height is a brought-about height for the Perfect Man and it is not essential.
And He said to the angels: ‘You have aggrandized yourselves, or are you of the
high ones?*, meaning by this the high ones who are a variety of angels for whom
is established the height of position by God because of their being in love and
being unaware of anything else and by virtue of which they were not ordered to
prostrate to Adam, because, due to the extreme force of their love, they do
not even know their own nafs and they do not even know that God has
created Adam. Consequently, for these angels God established height of position
and said to Iblis concerning the. high angels: ‘Did you find yourself too grand
to prostrate yourself before what I have created with both My Hands and have
you become one of the high
ani
Viceregents, they are equally the height of position. That is to
say. they are the height of a degree and they are brought-about height and
qualificative height and they are not the essential height. The essential
height and real height is established only for the/w^ who is High by His own
Ipseity. Thus, the height of the haqq is differentiated from the height
of position in which all others participate in meaning.
The Shaykh, may God be pleased with him, after having
exposed that whether it be the height of place or position of that which is
other than God it is qualificative and relative, he starts expounding on the
essential height of the haqq. And of the Beautiful Names the Name High
(Wiyy), and the Name 'aliyy is of the Beautiful Names of the haqq.
High as compared to what and there is no other than Him with Him? Then He is
indeed High by His own Ipseity. Here the interrogative form is for the purpose
of denying that there can be such a situation. In certain copies this is even
given as ‘higher than what?’ All this is to denote that there is not anybody
else to be higher, and height is of God’s own Ipseity. That is to say, God’s
height is not in relationship to the immanence or the creaturial multiplicity
and it is neither a qualification nor a relationship, but in Reality, where
there is no other than Himself, He is High by His own Self. That is to say, a
height which is essential and not high by qualification or meaning. Or from
what thing? And from what thing is He higher? There is nothing except Him and
this height is by His own Being. Since that thing from which He might be higher
is no other than the huwiyya of God, consequently God’s height happens
for His own nafs which is Rich beyond Need (ghaniyy) from other
by His own Reality, because He is the same as the totality of all things. The
height is mentioned as being higher from, but that is because it includes the
meaning of elevation in it and it is mentioned with great height because there
is the meaning of surpassing and dominating. However, the height of God is not
through attribution so that there could be any inclusion of highemess or
from-ness since His height is essential and He is High by His own Ipseity. And
with respect to being He is the same as ail beings, and things which are named
as latter things are high by their essence. And God, by virtue of being, is the
same as the things that are, because there is no other existence other than His
Being.
not other than the 'ayn and that is the Ipseity, and He is
High by His own Being and not by qualification. That is to say, the a'yan
are established according to their original non-being with multiplicity of
images in existence. Nevertheless, that which is manifest in the totality of
existence is the 'ayn which is individuated in the totality of
existences, and it is still the same One which by virtue of nonexistence of
the a'yan is individuated and has become several by manifesting with the
images of existence. Consequently, the existence of multiplicity is in the
Names, and the Names are relationships and the relationships are orders of
non-being. Consequently, there is no other in existence than the Ipseity which
is the One 'ayn. Thus, God is High by His own Being, and His height is
essential and not quali- ficative. In other words, the images of existences are
individuated and manifested through the revelation of the One Ipseity which is
the One 'ayn reflected in the mirrors of the established a'yan.
Consequently, the a'yan are still in non-being, and that which is
manifest in the mirrors of the established a'yan is the One 'ayn
which is revealed in the images of existence and which is manifest in each 'ayn
by virtue of place. Consequently, He is High by His own Ipseity in all images.
The word ‘with’ at the beginning of the Arabic sentence refers to the word
established’ which refers to the sentence: ‘And they are always in their
state.’ By virtue of this there is no height by qualification in the universe;
however, there are superior aspects of being. By virtue of what has been, said
before there is no height of attribution in the universe. All height is
essential because the images which are numerous in existence are only the
revelations and manifestations of the One Existent in the mirrors of
non-existent a'yan. Consequently, that which is manifested in all images
is no other than the One Being, but Its places of manifestation which are
manifested by virtue of the nonexistent a'yan, which are the aspects of
being, are qualified existents and these are one superior to the other. And the
height of attribution exists in the One 'ayn only due to Its multiple
aspects. Because of this it is said in this matter, He and not He, and you and
not you. Height of attribution exists in the One 'ayn by virtue of Its
many aspects because these aspects are one superior to the other, just as the
essential height exists in the existents by virtue of the haqq being the
One aspect is this, that Kharraz was qualified with the Divine
Qualities of opposition, and observing the Qualities of opposition in his own
self he determines over the haqq through the oppositions. And the other
aspect is this: as Kharraz is one of the aspects of the Divine aspects and a
tongue from among the tongues of the haqq, by uniting God the High
between the two opposites, in the tongue of the place of manifestation that he
is he determines with them over his own nafs. And the words: ‘talking
from his own nafs' become understandable as a substitute for the words
‘Kharraz said’, that is to say, Kharraz said he was speaking from his own nafs.
He is the First and the Last and the Manifest and the
Hidden, and He is the same as that which is manifest and the same as that which
is hidden, and in His state of manifestation there is not anybody other who can
see Him and there is not anybody from whom He can be the hidden. He is manifest
to His Self and He is hidden from Himself, and He is the one called Abu Sa'id
al-Kharraz and others like that from the Names of latter things. (And in
certain copies ‘and others’ occurs.) Thus God is the First and the Last and the
Manifest and the Hidden. Consequently, God is the same as the thing that is
manifested, and again God is the same as a thing that is hidden. When He is in
a state of manifestation there is not one thing other than Him in existence
that could see Him when He is manifest, which means that in the manifest there
is nothing other than Him in existence and there is not one in existence from
whom the haqq can be hidden. Thus, the haqq is manifested to His
own Self and hidden from His own Self. That is to say, when the haqq is
manifested He is manifested to His own Self and His own Self observes Him, and
when He is hidden it is again His Self who is hidden from His Self who is
manifest. That is to say, in His Being which is individuated in the images of
existence He is hidden by virtue of His non-being and absoluteness. That which is called Abu Sa'id al-Kharraz, and with it all others of the latter
Names, is the naqq. That is to say, He becomes hidden by virtue of
Reality, and He is an aspect from among the Divine aspects by virtue of
individuation and there is not in existence one which is other than Him. There
is only this much, that the aspects are one superior to the other and various
by virtue of the Names being manifest in them or
407
The vicissitude occurring in this case is from the nafs,
wherein the nafs addresses a person with an order with its mention and
connections, and the dissuader from it forbids him from its action, and in the
action at the level of hesitation the nafs knows the differences of the
predications. And the nafs causes to occur its own occurrences and hears
it, and knows by what (cause) it has itself brought about this occurrence or
vicissitude. Thus the nafs knows what thing brought about this
vicissitude and occurrence and what thing ordered it, and each person’s nafs,
when this occurrence is suggested, hears that occurrence being suggested and
knows what thing has brought about this occurrence.
The 'ayn is One, and if the predications are
various there is no way or line of conduct permitting of ignorance in things
similar to this because Man knows all this from his own nafs. But the
state is that the 'ayn is One, and even if it is true that the
predications are varied there is no way or line of conduct permitting of
ignorance in things similar to this, because the man knows from his own nafs
that his nafs is the one that causes these occurrences and hears what
these occurrences say to him, and knows it, and there is no way or line of
conduct permitting of ignorance in this. Thus Man is one *ayn with Liis nafs
and is multiple and several by the predications of the nafs. Consequently,
as the predications of the nafs are varied and in complementary
opposition (to one another), its gnosis is resultant from combining between the
varied predications. And he Is the image of God. Man is the image of God, and
God with His Ipseity is One. With relationships and qualifications of
complementaries and Names and opposing qualifications He is many. Consequently,
this gnosis results from the combining between the opposites. The orders became
mingled, and the numbers became manifest with one in the known degrees, and the
one brought about the numbers and the numbers articulated the one, and the
predication of the numbers did not manifest except by the numbered. This is to
say, the One 'ayn became many through the particularizations (ta'ayyun&t)
and became several through the degrees, and thus became the varied orders, and
in the known degrees numbers became manifest with the one. Now, the
manifestation of the numbers with one in the known degrees is
ano
Consequently, if God revealed Himself in the image of His Essential
Uniqueness, there would result the degree of: ‘There was God and with Him there
was nothing', and numbers of Names and the infinite Qualities would become
therein hidden, and this is like the hiddenness and interiority of halfness,
one-thirdness, one-fourthness and other infinite numerical relationships within
the one, because these do not manifest except through number; however they are
differentiated by number. If God reveals Himself in the images of
particularizations and the degrees of revelations, He reveals number and
plurality and brings into emergence couplings and singularities. Consequently,
according to this consideration these images of particularizations are the
degrees of descent of the Being of the One God. And what is there in existence
except Him?
Among the numbered there are some which are (of)
non-existence and some which are (of) existence. That is to say, some of the
numbered become inexistent in the exterior and some become existent because
the absolute non-existent with the 'ayn in the unknowable is
non-existent and it has no existence in the exterior and in appertain- ance. It
sometimes happens that something is inexistent by virtue of the senses but it
is existent by virtue of the intelligence. It is inevitable that it be either
from number or from the numbered. Thus it is possible that sometimes a thing is
from the point of view of the senses inexistent, yet it is existent from the
point of view of intellect, for instance, like the half or the third or other
relationships existing in one, and if it is considered from the point of view
of the intellect, these are inexistent in the exterior but existent in the
intellect. It sometimes happens that one is at the same time inexistent and
existent in the exterior, just like Zayd is existent at home and non-existent
in the market, and consequently it is inevitable that the number and the
numbered be either in the exterior or in the intellect. It Is inevitable that
there should be an emergence building up from one. That (number) one emerges
by its own cause. Thus, it is inevitable that one should originate and bring
about number. Consequently, number becomes what comes out and is manifest
because of. one.
Each of the numbers happens to be a reality by itself,
like the number nine for example, and ten and the ones below it, and all
Al 1
species through which it is differentiated from all other degrees.
And we determine upon them by it. Of the degrees of numbers we determine upon
them with the uniqueness of each degree which is also of one reality. For
instance, we say with the uniqueness of the reality of the two that the two is
of one and one in its reality, which means that the reality of two, which is
particularized from one with one, is according to the reality of uniqueness and
we determine over it with oneness because the reality is one, and other degrees
are like this. In other words, as the name ‘totality of ones' is not removed
from the realities of the degrees of numbers, consequently all the numbers are
like genuses for the realities. It collects them and takes them and is devolved
into all of them and is true over all their collectivity, like the veracity of
genus over all its species. Thus, the totality of ones speaks from the reality
of its totality through those degrees and it determines over them with that
reality, which means that whatever is necessary for a degree the totality of
ones bestows that and determines over that degree by that which it has
bestowed. In other words, the totality of ones is conversant with each degree
from among all the degrees with its totality of reality from that same degree.
That is to say, it is determinant over each degree with the determination that
that degree has bestowed upon it, which is what that degree necessitates.
Indeed, in this saying, twenty degrees became apparent To explain this by an
example, from one to nine the degrees are ones. After that comes ten and twenty
which are the names of special decades, and then the thirties, forties,
fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties, and the nineties and the hundreds and a
thousand. Thus, of these twenty degrees, for each degree there is a reality
established which is different from the other reality which is form of species.
The name ‘totality of ones’ is prevalent for all the degrees of numbers and
all the degrees are associated in it except the one, because in the one there
is no combination and one is not a number and for it there is a special degree
in existence which is that it is the origin and point of emergence of all
numbers. Indeed, we enter combinations. Thus, to recapitulate, combination does
enter into all the degrees of numbers which are of twenty degrees. And the
name ‘totality of ones’ is true of all of them, and for each degree of the
degrees of numbers there is established a reality by
an
which are above the twenty, like thirty or forty, are each named
with another proper name other than the decan of the twenties, arid of the
realities of numbers each reality is a unit in itself, and it becomes
absolutely clarified with your saying ‘twenty' that the reality of the
singularity of the totality which is known as twenty, even though it is a
single degree from the degrees of numbers, yet its oneness is a oneness of
collectivity because by virtue of its being one and unique it cannot be added
and is not resultant from some ones. Consequently, of these decans, each decan
and each reality from the reality of numbers is taken up in the name
‘collectivity of ones* and in which they are all in association, and
combination enters into all of them and they are differentiated one from the
other by it. Under this consideration, in the words ‘twenty degrees’, the word
‘degrees’, which belongs to the word ‘twenty’, becomes the activator of the
words ‘become apparent’, and from this there results a state. You are not
detached from establishing the same thing which is, in your consideration,
negative in itself. Thus, at your level you have not been separated from
establishing the same thing as that which is in itself negative. That is to
say, each degree of the degrees of numbers is distinct one from the other by
its reality, and the determination which is established for one is negated
from the other. Nevertheless, by virtue of each of them being a single reality
and a single degree and by consideration that the name ‘collectivity of ones’
includes them all, each reality from among the realities becomes the same as
the reality of the other. For instance, we can say that one is different to the
remainder of numbers because they are numbers and one is not a number because
it is the origin of number. For other numbers we can say each of them is a
number and for each of them there is the reality of species which is different
from another reality, because two is a species and it is different from the
threes and fours and other numbers. Three is also like this. Yet, equally, we
can say for these numbers that they are a collectivity of ones. Thus, according
to this consideration they become one the same as the other. Consequently, even
though each degree is by the reality of differentiation other than another, and
that it should be the same as another is negatable by itself at your level, yet
you prove that it is the same thing in consideration of the
numerality for it because number is one reality from among many
numbers, thus one encompasses the beginning and the last of the numbers, and to
negate the collectivity from number which is its becoming many is to establish
for it the collectivity. Each number according to one consideration is
different to another, and according to another consideration it is the same as
the other. He will Indeed know that God who is transcendent is He who is the
immanent {tashbth) creation (khalq). God, who is transcendent
from immanence by consideration of the Reality of His Singularity, is the same
as the immanential creation in consideration of His revelations in the particularized
images. Thus it is God who administrates (nZbtfr) the Reality of Singularity
which is revealed in the images of revelation and particularization, and it is
the khalq which administrates pluralization and multiplicity of numbers
by virtue of degrees, but the verifier we mentioned, according to the
Mohammedian taste at once says it is haqq by virtue of its reality and
it is immanence {khalq) by virtue of the particularity which requires
plurality. Indeed, ft is (absolutely, in the superlative case,) so, that the
created {khalq) is differentiated from the Creator {khSliq), since
as the creation is creation it is not the creator, and the creator by virtue of
being the creator is not the created, and this distinction between creatorness
and createdness is apparent exactly as oneness is distinguished from plurality,
and singularity from multiplicity, but the 'ayn which is in the
singular and the multiple and the one and the plural is the same 'ayn.
One is of the glory {sha'n) of God, uniquely, really, and by His
particularization and manifestation, plurally and creaturially. The gnostic,
Abu Hassan al-Ghowry, said: ‘Praise and glory to Him who has made Himself
subtle and called Himself haqq and then intensified Himself and named
Himself khalq.' And the order is such that the Creator is He who is the
created, and the order is such that the created is He who is the Creator. The
glory of the order is that in the first case it is through the aspect of
particularization and manifestation that the creator is the created, and the
glory of the order is that through the aspect of reality it is the created that
is equally the creator. According to the two considerations, and in
complementary opposition (in reflection of one to the other), He is this and
this is He, but as the One Being of
either Isaac or Ishmael which are the other (latter) ta'ayyun,
but instead he saw that he was immolating his own nafs, and in the
universe of senses he did not sacrifice the grand sacrifice by immolation
except that he sacrificed his own nafs. Consequently, the One Being of
God, which is One Reality, is manifest and particularized in numerous degrees
and multitudinous particularizations, and in each degree and particularization
He is called by a Name and He is particularized with one particularization
wherein He is not particularized in another particularization and in another
degree with that same Name, yet, by virtue of reality it is the same 'ayn.
Thus, the one who saw himself in the image of Abraham and was therein
particularized and saw he was immolating his son is again his own nafs
which he saw in the particularization of his son which is his own being which
is manifested and was immolated in the image of the great immolation. And he
who is called Adam and who is a spouse by virtue of particularization marries
his own nafs which appears in the image and in the particularization of
his consort. Here the Shaykh, God be pleased with him, by mentioning: ‘And He
created from him his pair*, refers to a Quranic aya which reads: ‘Oh you
people, be devout to your Lord who has created you from one nafs and from
it its couple and from them deployed many men and women’, because this aya
also points to the fact that the One 'ayn, being particularized in
different degrees, manifests as many 'iiyun, and that the many 'uyUn
by virtue of their reality are only one 'ayn. Thus He created from one nafs
its couple. And he did not marry other than his own nafs from whence was
his mistress and his son, and the order is one in numbers. Thus, Adam did not
marry anything other than his nafs. Thus his mistress was created from
his own nafs, and the son of Abraham was also established from his own nafs.
Consequently, Adam marries his own nafs in the image of his mate and
Abraham immolates his own seif in. the image of his son, and even in the image
of the ram he sacrifices his own nafs, and the order of being in reality
is one in the images of numbers; even though by virtue of particularization it
is multiple in particularizations of species and persons, yet the unity of the
'ayn unites the plurality of all particularizations. Look now how you see
unity as the ‘mother’ of plurality, or do you see unity veiled by plurality, or
do
.m
his particularization in the place of manifestation of the son. That
is to say, and he said: ‘And look, what do you see?* Thus the Being, which is
particularized in the place of manifestation of the son, answered by saying:
‘Oh my father, do what you have been ordered to do.’ The Shaykh (R.A.) uses
this sentence: ‘And look, what do you see?’ in the same manner as Abraham’s affectionate
fatherly tongue, and addresses you and says: ‘And look, what do you see?*,
concerning whether it is One 'ayn or many 'uyun. Do you see al!
as One 'ayn, or do you see it as many 'uyttnl Look, do you see
the totality as One 'ayn, or do you see many 'uyun! The son is
the same as (essence of) his father. The state is that the son by virtue of his
reality is the same as his parents, where the son, according to: ‘The son is
the mystery of his fa ther’, is the detailing of the necessities of some of the
mysteries which are locked up in the collectivity of the oneness of the father,
manifesting in the image of the son, and the detailing of the collectivity of
the inferiority of both parents. Thus the son in consideration of the reality
is the same as the father, nevertheless he is different to him by consideration
of personification and particularization because he is other than the
personification of the father, and equally in consideration of the
deterinination of both parents he is different. (He) did not see that he was
immolating other than his nafs, and He redeemed it with a grand
immolation and it manifested in the image of a ram, that which had manifested
in the image of a man. Thus, when the father saw in his dream that he was
immolating his son, he did not see that he was immolating anybody other than
his own nafs. God the Great redeemed with the grand immolation the nafs
of the father which had manifested in the image of the son. Thus it appeared in
the image of the ram, that person which had appeared in the image of a man,
which means that the possession of complete grandeur which is manifest in the
image of the man and which appeared in the image of the ram is why Ibn ‘Arabi
qualified the immolation with the kasra sign under the letter dhai
and qualified it with grandeur (’a?Tm). The reality of animality, as it can
appear in the image of Man, it can also manifest in the image of sheep and
other images. Thus he did not sacrifice for his own nafs that which was
lower than his nafs because one cannot redeem with that which is lower
that which is more
A1O
difference of images through the determinations upon them. Nature is
equally not the same as that which manifests from it as the images which have
manifested from Nature are varied by the determination which happens to be over
them, because for each image particularized and manifested from the Total
Nature there is a specific determination which does not exist as determination
for the images other than that image, and for the Total Nature by virtue of its
totality that determination dobs not occur. Thus, of the heat, cold, dampness
and dryness, which are the four realities of Nature, a thing which manifests
from Nature according to the necessities of some of these, the determination
over that is not with the same determination but with a different
determination. And this Is cold and dry and this other.is hot and dry and they
are united through their dryness and differentiated with other than this. That
is, a thing which is manifested from Nature can be pointed at and determined as
being cold and dry and this other thing determined as hot and dry. Nature
unites between these things with the dryness since it is in both things, and
differentiates them by hot and cold. Thus Nature with its totality is not the
same as the images which manifest from it. Nature is the collector, which means
the state is that that which collects all the opposites is Nature because
Nature is one reality by virtue of its matter and different things by virtue
of its particularizations and images. Consequently, Nature accepts the
determination of oppositions over the images because it collects in itself the
opposites through their realities, and in the oppositions it is the same as the
opposites but it does not collect in itself the opposites with the
particularization of opposi tions in the images in particularized matter, but
as Nature is total absolute matter it accepts the totality of opposite images
and its acceptance of all the images is equal in degree and the
particularization of one image is no higher than the particularization of
another. Thus Nature with its reality is the same as all the opposites and
collects them all in itself. Nor yet are they the same as Nature. That is to
say, Nature does not collect between the images of opposition. Rather perhaps,
that which accepts the images of opposition is matter. It is Nature which is
the one ’ayn which is the place of manifestation of the images of
opposites, because Nature is the collectivity of the four
immanential images is the same as that it is one mirror for the
images of the Divine Names and the images of the possibilities of being of the
Divine Ipseity, because Nature is the appearance of the Divinity, perhaps even
that it is the same as that. Yet another aspect is this, that the universe of
Nature is the images which are manifested in the Being of God which is one
mirror. Nor is it not perhaps that it is one image in different mirrors. No,
perhaps rather that the universe of Nature is one' image manifested in
different mirrors which are manifest by the particularities of the mirror of
Reality and of a'yan. According to this aspect, the Arabic sentence is an
example for the manifestation of the One Being of the haqq in the
mirrors of different a'yGn by virtue of the a'yOn. Another aspect
is this, that the universe of Nature is one image in the Divine Names which are
different mirrors. Consequently, the universe of Nature is one image
manifesting in accordance with the ordinations of the realities of the Names in
the mirrors of the Divine Names, because the image of the Being of the One God
is manifested in the images of receptivity and effectedness of Nature which is
the summarized in the intelligible Nature. And because of the revelation of the
One Being of the haqq to the images of intelligible Nature, the nafas~i-rahmO.nl
and the Divine Names are particularized in the mirrors of the images of Nature,
just as the images of Nature are manifested in the Being of God which is one
mirror. Consequently, it is also suitable to multiply in this way other
remaining aspects in accordance with the pre-mentioned ways. After this there
is nothing but perplexity (hayra) because of the differences of vision.
Consequently, in accordance with this consideration, there is nothing in
existence except perplexity due to the differences of the vision of the people
of veils, because the people of veils are in perplexity on whether they should
determine that it is one as they look at the one image which is manifest in
different mirrors with intellectual reasoning, or whether it is many when they
look at the many images that manifest in one mirror. Consequently, as their
visions are different their knowledge ends in perplexity and there is nothing
left for them except perplexity. And if someone knows what we have said he is
not in perplexity, that is to say, that the One Being of God appears in the
a'yan with different images by virtue of different particularizations
appears circular in a circular mirror and rectangular tn a
rectangular mirror. Consequently, the determinations become varied over the haqq
by virtue of the place, which is the n’ydn, and with the varieties of
determinations the haqq became determined upon, Thus, each 'ayn becomes
determiner over the haqq by virtue of the specific determination which
it contains. However, God does not accept determinations except from His own
Self because by the universality of His own Ipseity over each 'ayn He
determines with that thing which is in each 'ayn. And after, there is
nothing except this. That is, in the order and in verification there is nothing
further than this, which means that nothing determines over the haggby.
different ^terminations except the determinations of the X^SM^nwrerein;
^^fm^reytealed Himself. Consequently, always and friqtii alArtern;Wthe
/jjrtgjqi reveals Himself to the 'aySn-i-thQbita and
r^ccivesWiyi^JlenTipidjtions which they bestow on Him and never ceases to be
manifest with them and with different determinations and with different
variations. Equally, He is not removed from being witnessed in them and with
them, and His Knowledge which is consequent to His revelation in the a'ySn
is not removed from manifesting and being increased.
And the haqq is the khalq by this aspect,
so consider, And He is not khalq by the other aspect, so remember.
In consideration of the meaning that the One Being of the haqq
is manifested in different mirrors and is varied in the places of reflection of
the a’yan and receives the totality of the determinations of the a'yan,
by this aspect the haqq is khalq. Thus, with the eye of vision
look at it and witness the haqq in the images of the a'yan. In
this line the words: ‘... by this aspect’ he refers to the words: ‘He is one
image in different mirrors.’ In consideration of the other aspect, that is to
say, considering the Essential Singularity and the totality of the Divine
images in the Presence of Oneness, the haqq is not khalq where in
the mirror of the One Being of God the images of the a'yan are
manifested, and the haqq, being transcended from the qualifications of
immanentiality, is veiled by His own Veil of Dearness and Greatness and
persists in His Essential Unknowableness, so remember! In short, it means, you
remember these two aspects so that you come
are all relationships and qualifications, and there is no reality
for all these other than the One Being of God. In consideration of this, then
the words: ‘. . . is not allowed to persist, nor to remain’, have one actor
which is the One Essence. After this he refers to the Wisdom and says:
For the One who is High by His own nafs, He is
the One for whom there is completion, who drowns therein the totality of the
order of being and the relationships of non-existence by virtue of the fact
that it is not possible for any one of these qualificatives to make Him pass
away from it or to be other than it, whether these be praiseworthy by
knowledge, by intelligence or by law, or whether they be blameworthy
knowledge-wise, or by intellect or by law. That is to say, that Being which by
Himself, in other words, by His own Essence and Reality, is High, for that
Being there is resultant completion and perfection, and it is with that that He
drowns the totality of the orders of being and relationships of non-existence.
By virtue of this there is not a single qualification which would remove Him
from those orders of being and relationships of non-existence, nor could there
be any outside His compass, and it is all the same whether these orders are
praiseworthy through knowledge or intelligence or law, or whether they are
blameworthy through knowledge, intelligence and law. In other words, the One
Being of the haqq who is called by the Name Allah and who is High
and Absolute with the essential height, whose completeness and perfection
covers and includes the totality of completenesses and perfections of being and
qualities of Reality and relationships of qualifications and non-existences,
and who cannot be removed by any one of these above-mentioned qualifications
and where it is not possible for any one of these qualifications to be beyond
His compass, whether these qualifications be praiseworthy or blameworthy by knowledge,
intelligence or law, is He for whom any relationship is equal, and His
manifestation and being qualified by one of these qualifications is not prior
or superior to His manifestation and qualification by another qualificative.
And this is not like this except particularly for that which is named AUSh.
But really this essential height and absolute perfection and completion is not
established except particularly for that which is called Allah which is
or He is manifested with a number of Names like in the man who is
not complete and perfect, or He is manifested with a small amount of Names like
in the animals, and after that in the plants, and after that with the minimum
of Names where He is manifested as in the minerals. Consequently, there is no
essential completeness and perfection for each of the places of revelation from
among the places of revelation, but rather perhaps there is a portion for it
from completion and perfection by virtue of this fact of being a place of manifestation,
and by virtue of being a place of manifestation there occurs among the places
of revelation a certain superiority of one to the other. Consequently, the
portion for each one of these from the essential height is by virtue of his
capacity to encompass or lack of capacity to encompass. And if it was that,
that is to say, that which is not called Allah, that the image was
therein, such an image then is the same as the essential completeness and
perfection because it is the same as that which has manifested therein, and
this one is that which is named Allah, and He Is the one that is the
same as the image. That is, if the one named by another Name is an image in the
mirror of God, then for that image there results the same as the essential
completeness and perfection because that image is the same as that thing which
has manifested in it. Consequently, the essential completion and perfection
which is established for the Being which is called by the Name Allah,
becomes equally established for that one image which manifests from the Being
of God. Consequently, it is necessary to witness the images in the Being of God
for each of which there is resultant the same as the essential completion and
perfection which is already established for that which is called with the Name Allah,
which is the One Being of God. Then the difference between the two witnessings
and considerations is this, that if that which is called other than Allah is
the place of reflection for the haqq, then it is necessarily inevitable
that there should be superiority of one to the other among the higher degrees
of the places of revelation. On the other hand, if the image in the haqq,
that is to say, if it is a Name for the haqq, for that one there is
essential completion and perfection because it is inclusive of the Ipseity, or
equally because the Name is the same as the one Named. With his words: *...
because it is the same as that which has manifested
of its guiding to the dhat, to It is the totality of the
Names, and because of its guiding to the meaning it is singularized and
differentiated from the others, like the Lord (rabb) or the Creator (khaliq)
or the Fashioner (musawwir) and others like this, and the Name (actually)
is what It is by virtue of the Ipseity, and the Name is other than what It is
called by virtue of the thing which is specific to that Name which has been
appointed to that Name from the meaning which has been mentioned for it. That
is to say, the reason why that each Name from among the Divine Names is called
by the totality of the Divine Names and that they are qualified by them is
explained in this place is this, that in fact each Name points at, guides to,
the Ipseity, and also to that meaning which is that that Name was placed for
that meaning and that meaning requires that Name, that is to say, necessitates
it. Thus, by virtue of each Name guiding to and denoting the Ipseity there
results for each Name all the Divine Names and that Name then becomes called by
all the Divine Names and becomes qualified by all of them, and through this
aspect He is them, and equally, by virtue of the fact that each Name denotes
and guides to a meaning by which that Name is singularized for it, that Name
becomes differentiated from other Names, like Lord, like Creator and like Fashioner,
and others like these. Thus, a Name by virtue of the Ipseity is the same as
what is called by that Name, and equally, it is other than that which is Named
by virtue of the thing that is special to that Name because of the meaning
which is placed for that Name, by which meaning that Name is differentiated
from another Name.
And if you understand what is the height in what we have
mentioned and you understand that in fact the highest degree of height is the
height of Ipseity, and that that which is high is that which has the essential
height, then you understand that that which is the height of the height, it is
not the height of place, nor the height of position, because the height of
position is special to tine propinquity of the order, like the sultan, the
judges, the viziers and the q&dis and all the appointed people, for
which appointment they have ability or they have not, whereas the height by
qualification is not like that. You would know that in fact the height of the
height is not the height of place or the height of position, because the height
of position is
tion. He is not high in his own nafs because his height is in
relation to that degree and his subjection to it, and if he were to be dismissed
from his appointment he has not any elevation left because of the fact that he
has no followers or subjects left, whereas the gnostic who is high by
qualification is not like this because his elevation does not disappear and he
does not get dismissed from his appointment, and God guides whom He wishes to
the straight path.
The Wisdom of Ecstasy and Rapture
(al-hikmat al-muhaymiyya)
in the Word of Abraham
(Muhaym is from tne word yahim in
the passive, ismi maf'ul). When the intimately penetrated friend
(Abraham) was called the ‘Intimate Friend* (khatil) he was intimately
penetrated and encompassed by all that which qualified the Divine Ipseity. The
prophet Abraham (S.A.), the khatil, was called with the Name khaRl,
that is, intimate among all the Divine Names by which the Divine Ipseity was
qualified, because he was made intimate and because he was embraced and
encompassed by all the Qualifications. That is to say. having become intimate
with all the Names and image of the Divine Ipseity. he collected in himself
and encompassed the totality of the Divine Attributes. Consequently, as the
Divine Attributes and Names became present with Abraham, then Abraham equally
becomes present with their reality of presence in the reality of the places of
manifestation of the Names and Attributes. Thus he becomes qualified with the
totality of the Divine Attributes and Names of the Ipseity and becomes
intimate in all of them, and the Divine Essential Love becomes fluent in all
the essences and realities of Abraham, and Abrahamic love equally becomes
fluent in the realities of Presences. Thus, under the first consideration he
was called ‘intimate’ as the subject (the actor), and he became equally under
the second consideration (‘intimate’) as the object (the acted-upon). The poet
says:
You
have become intimate in me, coursing as the spirit in me,
That is why Khalil was called khatil.
Khalil having the meaning of action of
intimacy whereby it becomes intimate to the Divine Qualities, the Shaykh, may
God be pleased with him, points at it through the words of the poet and means
to
which is colour, appears in the place of the jewel of the one that
is coloured, and all differentiation between the two is removed. That
penetration is not the same as that of place and position. That is to say, it
is not like the penetration of the one that has the position into the place.
When the colour intimately penetrates that which is coloured, it is fluent in
all parts of that which is coloured, and under this consideration he becomes he
(Jtuwa liuwa) and there can be no discrimination between them through
the senses. Therefore the presentation is fluent in all the parts of the jewel
because the intimate penetration of the presentation in the jewel is its
fluency because it pervades all parts of the jewel, so much so that there is
not any part of the parts of the jewel, whether it be outwardly or inwardly,
that is devoid of that presentation, like a colour fluent in the totality of a
body.
The word ma in the Arabic is to mean ‘not so’,
which makes the sentence mean that this intimate penetration is not the same as
a thing that is settled in a place penetrating another object which is the
abode of that thing. If it were so, it would necessitate that the haqq
becomes an envelope for the khalll, or the contrary, that the khattl
would become an envelope for the haqq, or that hulul
(incarnation, occupation of a space by another) would become necessary, but all
these are wrong. He (the Shaykh) compared the reasonable, or that which is
reached with the intellect, with the unreasonable, which is that which is
reached through perception or by the senses, to allow these students to
understand, because all that happens in the Witnessing is an indication of
what happens in the Unknowable, and the reasonable things are inferred
(deduced) by the things that are perceptible and things that are sensed.
Or the penetrating of the haqq into the being of
the image of Abraham. This means: or the reason why Khalil was called khalll
is because God intimately penetrated the being of the image of Abraham, and
the intimate penetration and the fluency of the haqq into the being of
the image of Abraham is the qualification of the haqq by the qualities
of Abraham and the image of Abraham. The Shaykh (R.A.) said: *. . . the haqq
into the being of the image of Abraham’, but did not say: *. .. the haqq
into the image of Abraham’ to preserve it from
439
emanate from Him. That God manifests with creaturial qualities such
as oppression, deceit, mockery, fraud, magic, illness, hunger and thirst, is
established through the Quran and hadith. These qualities of lack are
attributed to Him as consequences of the abode but it does not pass beyond or
out of or transgress from the abode of the universe. The Divine Personality is
always transcendent from the qualities of subsequentialities. Do you not see
God, that He manifests with the qualities of subsequentialities, and that
indeed He gave news of Himself through such manifestations with qualities of
lack and qualities of blame? (This is a witnessing for the second
determination.) This is the determination of God penetrating the image of
Abraham and being qualified by subsequentialities. That is to say, do you not
see the haqq that manifests with the qualities of subsequentialities,
and that in fact with this manifestation He gives news of His own Self, and
that He manifests with the qualities of lack and the qualities of blame, which
in the degrees of intellect or in religious law or in general behaviour calls
for lack and blame? God’s manifestation with the qualities of subsequentiality
is attested in such Quranic phrases as: ‘God deceived them’, ‘God mocked them’,
etc., and His mention of His being hungry and ill, and hungry and thirsty, and
in the true hadith where it is said: ‘God laughed at what they did ...’
Thus God manifests with the qualities of subsequentiality in the subsequentialities
by virtue of subsequentiality. Do you not see how the creature is manifested with
the Qualities of God from his beginning to his end? (This is a witnessing for
the first determination which is the determination for the penetration of
Abraham into the Divine Qualities and his being qualified with the Qualities of
the haqq.) That is tc say, do you not see the creature who is manifested
from the beginning to the end with the Qualities of God? The creature who is
manifest with the Divine Qualities is the Perfect Man (insUn-i-k3.mil).
God indeed created Adam in His own Image, and the image of God is the image of
the collectivity of the Divine Names and Qualities, not one of the Divine
Qualities remaining outside the circumference of this totality. It is perhaps
rather that the Divine Qualities are present by him (the Perfect Man) and he is
the place of manifestation of the determinations. And that is why: And all of
it is true for him. That is to say, all
441
which receives praise, and that through that very perfection the
receiver of praise deserves the praise. Praise is the quality of one perfection
from among the Qualities of God which emanates from the Reality of God.
Consequently, the praise which is in the place of manifestation of the
praise-giver, in view of the perfection which is manifest in the place of
manifestation of the praise-giver and praisereceiver, is also God. That is why
he (the Shaykh) says: The results ensuing from the «praise of each praise-giver
and receiver of praise refer back and return to God, because in reality that
which receives praise with the perfections which are manifest through each
place of manifestation and each being, is God, because it is God who is individuated
(muta'ayyin) in each place of manifestation and is the same as that.
Equally, the praise-giver is in reality God because those perfections and
praises which are in the place of manifestation of that praise-giver, and that
which manifests with those perfections, is the haqq, and He is the
praise-giver, the receiver of praise, and the praise. However, as He said, all
the icsults of. praise return to Him from all praise-givers and
praise-receivers, thereby specifying the return of the praises to God, leaving
outside of this non-praise-receiving orders, yet the state is such that the
beginning and the reference of all orders is God. Therefore he (the Shaykh)
generalized the predication of the return of the order by specifying and
affirming with the word ‘air, and said: And to Him returns the order, all of
it, which means that the totality of the order, whether it be praise-receiver
or blamereceiver, returns to God. And that the order should return to God
became general to blame or praise, and yet after that there is nothing but the
praised or the blamed in being. Thus, the determination of the return of the
order to God became general to include all that is blameworthy or praiseworthy,
so the state is such that there is not in being anything other than that which
is praised and that which is blamed. Nevertheless, in his words where he
mentions the return of all the results of praise and of all order to God, there
are several aspects. One aspect is like has been mentioned. It happens due to
the fact that the Being of God is particularized and appears in the places of
manifestation of things whereby each creature’s actions or qualities refer to
God because of abode. Another aspect is as follows: here
human genus, and because it causes to bring about the taste of a
kind of completion from among the revelations of Divine Beauty and is equally
the cause of the manifestation of the Perfect Man, who is a gnostic of God and
by essential worship is assiduous in the devotion {'akif) of God, and in
consideration that it is an emergence from His emergence and perhaps even
because it is also an image of Divine Love and an image of the collectivity of
Divinity, and further, by consideration of the fact that it is the origin of
the Divine and immanentia! perfections which are manifested in the place of
manifestation which is the humankind, it certainly is praiseworthy. Thus, even
adultery, if one takes it out of the context of the limits of religious law
and out of the viewpoint of total natural sexuality and effectively relates it
to the act of completion of being and other such relationships, it is
praiseworthy. Thus blameworthiness reverts to praiseworthiness. Perhaps rather
that blameworthiness does not revert to praiseworthiness, because that which
is seen as blameworthy is under another point of view praiseworthy but is
manifested at the end of certain relationships with latter accidents in the
image of blameworthiness. There is no aspect of blameworthiness except when
sexuality does not obey religious law or intelligence. Sexuality is blameworthy
when it is not within the obedience of intelligence and religious law. The non-
happening of sexuality is due to the necessities of religious law. This causes
the cutting off of relationship and heirdom and causes rebellion against order
and it promotes mischief. But these last are orders of non-existence. They
belong to the consideration of immanential particularizations; but although
they are in accordance with nonexistence, they are all the same aspects of
possibilities and they refer and return to the qualities of possibilities.
Without a doubc, being and necessarily-so-ness and all their determinations are
praiseworthy, and equally the order of being is praiseworthy. Thus all orders
of praise and blame return to God. But the return cf the blameworthy is not in
consideration of the fact that it is blameworthy due to a relationship with
certain orders of non-existence of attribution, but rather that it is through
the consideration of the reality of the original orders which are manifested as
images of blame, or equally they return by virtue of the fact that they are praiseworthy
things in consideration of their
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totality of the Names and Qualities of God become manifest over him.
Thus Abraham becomes food for God with all the determinations and praises and
Names and Qualities. In the same way, the Being of God, being mutakhallil
in the image of Abraham, becomes veiled in that image. Consequently, God
becomes Abraham's hearing and sight and his other powers. Now, as mutakhallil
is the interior, it becomes manifest through mutakhallal. However, the
manifest is nourished by the interior because effusion does not manifest on the
apparent except through the interior. Consequently, the interior is the
nourishment for the exterior, and the apparent is nourished by the interior
because its presence, its being and its establishment is through that. If the
servant becomes mutakhallil and interior, then God would be mutakhallal
and apparent, and the servant becomes nourishment and strength for God with the
Names and Qualities. However, if God becomes mutakhallil and interior
the servant becomes mutakhallal and manifest and the haqq becomes
for the servant his powers and his nourishment. If it were that He, God, was
the apparent, and the immanence was covered therein, then it would be that the
immanence is the totality of the Divine Names and His hearing (and His sight
and hand and foot) and all His relationships and comprehensions, and if the
immanence were manifest, then God is covered and interior therein, then God is
the hearing of the immanence and its eye and its hand and its foot and the
totality of its powers, just as has arrived in the veridic news. Therefore, if,
as in the first case, God was manifest, then it would have been the immanence
which would have been hidden and covered in it. Consequently, it would be the
immanence that would be God’s totality of Names and His hearing and His sight
and His foot and all His relationships and comprehensions, but if it were, on
the contrary, the immanence which were manifest, then it is God who is covered
and hidden in the immanence. Consequently, it is God who would be the hearing,
the sight, the hand, the foot and all the powers of the immanence, which in
fact has arrived through the veridic news. What is meant by the veridic news is
the veridic nadlth, which is the word of God which says: ‘When My
servant approaches Me with supererogatory works I become his hearing, his
sight, his hand and his foot.’ This is a hadith qudsl and this closeness
a An
Divine relationships, and the Divine relationships are dependent on
the potentialities. If the Divine Ipseity were devoid of these relationships.
like Divinity and Lordship etc.. It would not have been a Divinity. Yet, it is
out a'yan that brought about this relationship. In other words, the
Existent Ipseity is not the Absolute Ipseity where It is particularized in the
degree of Divinity. That is why It would not be a Divinity if It was free of
the Divine relationships which are the necessities of that degree, in which
case It would have been the Absolute Ipseity. However, in that degree the
Ipseity cannot be free of these relationships because the Divine Names and
Qualities and relationships of Lordship are the necessities of that degree and
depend in reality on the creaturial relationships, because Divinity, Lordship,
creating, nourishing and other Divine relationships, are in reality
qualifications and their existence is relationship and qualification. Thus
Divinity is realized through there being somebody to establish it as Divine (ma*lah\
and in the same way Lordship is realized through there being somebody to
establish it as such (marbub). The Ipseity which is not transcended from
these relationships is the Existent Ipseity which is particularized in the
degree of Divinity, and this Ipseity is not that Ipseity which is Essentially
Rich beyond Need (ghaniyy), because that one, by the absoluteness of Its
Essentiality, is Rich beyond Need of the universes as well as of the Divine
Names and the relationships of Lordship. The Absolute Ipseity is Rich beyond
Need of Name or image or praise or qualification or being determined upon by
anything. The realization of Divinity for the Ipseity is the manifestation of
the Ipseity in the degree of the First ta'ayyun with all the
determinations of Essential Unknowableness or particularizations of the
Essential Unknowableness, together with the Divine and creaturial
relationships. However, if the Ipseity were devoid of Divine and creaturial
relationships It would have been the, Absolute Ipseity and would not have been
called the Divinity. Yet, for the purposes <if manifestation and
manifesting, and for the completion of revelation and revealing, it is
necessary that the degree of Divinity should be established for the Ipseity.
And we have, through our establishing of Divinity (ma’luh), brought
about the Divinity. And we have, through our establishing of Divinity, brought
about the Divine to be
It is not known until we are known. The Envoy of God,
peace and praise be upon him, said: ‘He who knows his self knows his Lord’, and
he (the Envoy) is the most gnostic of God in the creation. Thus, Divinity
cannot be known as a Divinity as long as we are not known. That is why the
Envoy said: ‘If a person knows himself, in fact he knows his Lord’, and thus
the person who is most gnostic of God among the creatures, that is, the Envoy,
relegated the knowledge of the Lord to the knowledge of the seif, thus making
the knowledge of the Lord dependent on the knowledge of the na/s, and that the
gnosis of the Lord is consequent to the gnosis of the creature, because Lordship
is established by that which acknowledges the Lordship. Lord is only known by
there being one that acknowledges Him as Lord. One of the two things qualified
cannot be known except by the other. That is why the Envoy made the knowledge
of the Lord dependent upon the one that knows the Lord. The mentioning of this hadith
here is not for the purpose of explaining the knowledge of the Lord by the
knowledge of the nafs. It is only for the purpose of explaining that the
fact that the Ipseity should be called both by the Names of Divinity and Lord
is dependent upon the one who qualifies Him as Divine and the one who regards
Him as Lord. The necessities of how the knowledge of the Lord is through the
knowledge of the self is mentioned in another place.
Some of the wise people and Abu Hamid have mentioned
that God is known without looking at the universe, and this is wrong. In fact,
some of the wise people like Abu ‘Ali and his followers, and Abu Hamid who is
the Imam Mohammed Ghazali, have maintained that God is known without looking at
the universe, and this assertion of theirs is wrong. The fact that something is
known as Divinity is dependent upon the universe (which is the ma*luh)
which is that which establishes it as Divinity, because Divinity cannot be
realized without it being established by those who regard it as Divinity.
Consequently, knowledge of God by virtue of His Divinity is dependent upon consideration
of the universe, and the Divine signs shine in the horizons and in the selves.
The High said: ‘And We will show them Our signs in the horizons and in
themselves until it becomes apparent to them that that is God, the Truth.’ The hadith
qudsl says: T was a hidden
which is manifested absolutely in the mirror of that which
establishes His Divinity, which becomes relative by virtue of that which establishes
it, is proof for His nafs which is absolute, and of His Divinity, which
is the degree of collectivity. In fact, the universe is not except (that it is)
His revelation in the images of His established, potentialities, and it is
impossible that their existence be without that Also, insight is bestowed upon
you that in fact the universe is not other than the revelation of the haqq
in the images of the established potentialities of the singularities of the
universe, so that it is impossible to imagine their existence without
revelation in the images of the mirrors of the potentialities, or it is
impossible to imagine the intellectual existence of the established
potentialities which are established in the Presence of Knowledge through
Divine revelation, without that revelation. (Thus, according to the first
aspect the pronoun ‘their existence* may refer to the word 'images’, and the
second aspect is that it may refer to the a'yan-i-thSbita.) Thus, when
the universe is the revelation and manifestation of the haqq in the
images of the established potentialities, the evidence (datil) of the
universe to the haqq becomes the evidence of the haqq to His own nafs.
Nevertheless, the potentialities are all the same established upon their
non-existence, and they are the images of the revelation by virtue of the
potentialities of what is reflected in the mirrors of the potentialities, or
equally they are the images of the established potentialities manifested in the
mirror of revelation which are relative by virtue of being potentialities.
That which the second insight {kashf) has bestowed is the images of the
potentialities in the mirror of revelation.
And He (that is to say, the haqq) varifies
Himself and multiforms Himself by virtue of the realities of these
potentialities and their states. Equally, insight bestows on you that in fact
God becomes varied and of different images by virtue of the realities and the
states of these potentialities, and by virtue of the realities and the states
of these established potentialities He becomes varied in revelation and
manifests in different images and is imaged in different appearances. In other
words, what is manifest and observed in the images of the potentialities in
different images by virtue of the potentials is again the Being of the haqq,
and that the established potentialities are again
non-existence and annihilation in the station of collectivity and
the Presence of Uniqueness, at the level of the revelation of the Ipseity, the
images of our potentialities are manifested in the revelation of God. Thus,
while we were according to oneness in the Uniqueness, some of us are manifested
to others of us in the mirror of God, and when some of us were ignorant of some
others of us with the ignorance of non-existence, some of us come to know some
others of us with God’s existence while we were in the oneness in the
Uniqueness, and some of us become differentiated from some others of us through
the particularities of the Ipseity. The extension of the revelation of the
Ipseity over the established potentialities is equal but becomes branched
differently due to the revelation of the potentialities, and then manifests.
Thus the varied manifestation of the images of the potentialities in the
revelation of the ha jq is because of the particularities of the
potentialities.
Now, the first degree of manifestation and distinction
is the First ta'ayyun and the Presence of Knowledge, where in the Divine
Knowledge distinction results through the essential particularities among the
potentialities, and through the determinations of essential relationships and
qualifications there comes about knowledge, or through lack of relationship
there comes about denial. The knowledge and demal which exists in the universe
of spirits is the result of mutual correspondence and knowledge and mutual
opposition and denial which is in the Presence of Knowledge; so much so, that
the mutual knowledge and denial which is in the Presence of Witnessing is the
result of the mutual knowledge and denial which exists in the universe of
spirits. And also the last aspect is this, for which the Shaykh said what he
said above, because what is witnessed at the level of the first insight is the
existence of God in the mirror of the established potentialities which are in
non-existence in the Ipseity of God, and they are not manifested potentialities
because they are in non-existence, so that when one looks at the image which is
manifested on the surface of the mirror one does not witness the mirror.
However, in the second insight the images of the potentialities are manifested in
the mirror of the haqq and the haqq is hidden in His Essential
Richness-beyond- Need. That is why the Shaykh noted with the words: ‘And some
of us
knowledge from us, and I take refuge in God from being of the ig-
norants. This means that in the second insight there are some from among our
images of possibilities which are manifested in the mirror of the Truth who
know that in the universe of senses that this knowledge in fact came to us in
God because of what our potentialities bestowed on us. And there are some of us
from among our possible beings who are ignorant of the Presence of the Divine
Knowledge where, in that Presence, this knowledge came to us through what our
essential particularities bestowed upon us. Thus the Shaykh says that he takes
refuge in God from belonging to that category of people who are ignorant of
that Presence of Knowledge. That is to say that our established potentialities
are distinguished one from the other, having been particularized through
Essential revelation in the Presence of Knowledge in the Being of the haqq.
Thus, our a*yOn of being which are our established potentialities and
their states are particularized with the particularization of knowledge in the
Presence of Divine and Essential Knowledge. Thus some of us, becoming
distinguished from some others, came to know that that knowledge is also
bestowed on us because of the particularities of our essentialities. Then we
follow according to the Divine law and Mohammedian plan in the universe of
senses and of witnessing, and thus, having attained to the Presence of the a'ySn-i-thabita
and Divine Knowledge, we come to know by taste at the level of the second
insight and revelation of perfection that our knowledge which was in the
established is resultant to us in the Being of the haqq and the Presence
of the Essential Knowledge because of the bestowal of the particularities of
our essentialities. This knowledge is essential knowledge. It is not outside
the existence of the haqq, for instance like the images which are
particularized in the mirror, which are particularized on the surface of the
mirror but arc inexistent and unknowable in the exterior. However, the
essential particularity of each potentiality is by virtue of its particularization
in the Being of the haqq, just like the two images of which the one that
is reflected inside the mirror is due to its particular image which is outside
it.
At the level of the first insight the Being of God is
manifested in the mir rors of the potentialities by virtue of the
potentialities, and equally
words, it is not God who determines over us by these two insights in
this world dr the other, whether we are in happiness or in difficulty, by retrograding
or advancing, or lacks or completion. He determines over us with the essential
particularities of our own established potentialities and what they
necessitate, and with the determinations which our own established
potentialities have bestowed. What the first insight bestows is this: the
manifestation and revelation of the haqq in various images in the
mirrors of the potentialities through the essential particularities and
original aptitudes of our established potentialities. Thus the revelation of
God is in consequence of the place wherein it is revealed, which is the
potentialities. What the second insight bestows is this*, the manifestation of
the images of the established potentialities as necessitated by the
potentialities in the mirror of the Being of the haqq. What the two
insights together bestow is this: the haqq did not determine over us
from all eternity in accordance with our established potentialities, and
forever over our existential potentialities, except with one determination from
among ail determinations which was in accordance with our receptivity and
aptitude, and by that which we have asked of Him through our aptitude. This
determination is through the Mystery of qadar (apportioning of fate),
or equally with what we determine over Him with which He determines over us.
Perhaps rather we determine over our own potentialities with what our
potentialities give us of determination. We are the essential matters and the
images of the relationships of His Knowledge, and we determine with the
necessities of our potentialities over our own selves in the Being of the haqq,
and again this determining is through the Mystery of qadar. It is
because of this that God said: *To God is the most eloquent superiority in the
argument’, that is to say, concerning the ones that are veiled when they say to
God: ‘Why did You do to me like this or like that?* when things are
disagreeable to their intents. Because of this, God the High said: ‘And to God
is the most eloquent superiority in the argument.’ This means, where the veiled
ones are concerned there is the most eloquent and perfect proof in the argument
established for God that they have not witnessed the order as it is when they
say to God: ‘Why did You do like this or like that to us?’, and consider these
as disagreeable to
their own selves’, and this Quranic Ilya was brought down to
refute the arguments of those who are veiled. And indeed He (God) did not know
of them except in accordance with what they were in Him. This means that God
did not know them except in accordance with that knowledgeable image, by which
image they are established in the Presence of Knowledge in the Being of the haqq.
In fact, God does not determine over them except by that determination which
they have demanded from God in accordance with their aptitude. In other words,
they have determined over God. by which determination they wanted the haqq
to determine over them. Perhaps rather, as it has been said, they determine in
the Being of the haqq over their own selves. Thus their argument becomes
invalid and there remains the eloquent superiority in the argument for God.
They argue that their actions are decreed by God, and God argues that: ‘My
Decree is subject to My Ability, and My Ability is subject to My Order, and My
Order is subject to My Knowledge, and My Knowledge is the consequence of how
you are known.’ Thus, for all eternity forever, the determination that is
current over the creation is in consequence of and in accordance with the
requirements of the aptitude of the creation. And if it were said, what is the
use of His saying: ‘If We wanted We would have guided them all’, we would say,
if there is the letter of avoidance it is for avoiding and He would not wish
except that which is the order upon it. Thus, if you say as has been mentioned,
if it is our own potentialities which determine over its and if God only
effuses being according to the necessities of those potentialities, then what
is the use of God saying: ‘If He wanted He would have guided them all’, because
God has relegated the guidance to His own way of being {mashVa), then we
would say, the proposition ‘Zow’ is a letter of avoidance which would mean that
God’s way of being {mashVa) did not appertain to that thing upon which
there was the proposition of avoidance. The proposition of avoidance was placed
there to show that it would cause the avoidance of the latter possibility and
the sentence would then be: had God wanted to guide them all He would have
guided, but His knowledge was that all did not have the inclination to being
guided so that He guide them all. Consequently, the avoiding proposition was
included into the manner of
The meaning of: ‘He would have guided you* is that He would have
made it clear to you (the reality of the order as it is in itself), but God did
not open the eye of vision of all the possibles to comprehend in which way the
order Is established in itself. Consequently, some of them are knowledgeable
and some of them are ignorant, which means that the meaning of the words: ‘He
would have guided you’ is that He would have made it clear to you, that is to
say, if God’s mash? a had appertained to it He would have guided you
all, which means that upon whichever thing the order was established at the
state of its being established in the Divine Knowledge. God would have made
that clear to you. However. God did not open the eye of basTrj of all
the possibles in the universe so that they comprehend the order which is
according to that thing upon which the order is established in itself. Thus,
some of them are knowledgeable and some of them are ignorant. And God did not
wish, and He did not guide them all. He did not want to. Thus God did not wish
and He did not guide all of them, that is, the Divine manner of being did not
appertain in the past eternity to the guidance of all, and it will also not in
the future eternity ever, because the Divine Knowledge did not appertain to the
guidance of all due to the aptitude and the lack of receptivity of all to
guidance. Consequently, He did not guide all, but only those who knew and had
the aptitude. Equally, some who have not the aptitude are left to remain in the
darkness of being misled and in the valley of hell. As God is in a different
business, a different manner of being, every day, it is necessary that the
Divine news be equally different, and the aptitudes of the potentialities are
also varied. The aptitude of the potentialities is a specific state. It is not
brought about by a cause that brings it about, because the potentialities are
the places of manifestation of Names and Qualities in the Divine Knowledge,
perhaps rather that they are the same as the orders of the Qualities and the
Leader Names which are present through His Ipseity, and further, perhaps even
that they are the same as the Ipseity of God by virtue of their annihilation in
the Ipseity of God in reality. In the state of the establishment of all the
potentialities in the Divine Knowledge, their relationship to the Ipseity is
the same as the relationship of the Ipseity to all the potentialities,
and in relation to the Ipseity the
appertains to only one determination which is necessary for it at
the time of its being established from the two intellectual determinations. It
does not appertain to the other determination which is its refutation. As the
appertainance of the manner of being is according to the Uniqueness, it
appertains only to one of the determinations of the two intellectual
determinations in the thing known. And that (i.e. the way it is, the mashT’a}
is a relationship subject to knowledge, and knowledge is a relationship subject
to that which is known, and the known is you and your states. And mashT’a
is a relationship which is subject to knowledge, and equally knowledge is a
relationship subject to the known. However, it is so, that the known is you and
your states. That is to say, mashT’a is subject to knowledge because
whichever way one looks at it, it is not possible that will (jrdda) and
the mashT'a could appertain to something which is not known. That
knowledge is subject to that which is known because the establishment of the
known in the being of the knower can only be in respect of the particularized
image of that which is known, and since what is known is you, that is to say,
it is your state together with your established potentiality, and that this
necessitates the existence of one of the two contrary propositions of the
established potentiality, then of course the mashT'a must appertain to one
determination. And in the Being of the haqq and in the Divine Knowledge
each of the established potentialities (a'yan-i- thabita), which are the
Divine knowledges, becomes known to God in accordance with the predication that
it has bestowed to God, and each thing known is established in the Knowledge of
the haqq, the Knower, in consequence of that thing’s particular
individuation, and knowledge therefore is subject to that particular
individuation, just as the mashT’a is subject to knowledge. And there is
not for knowledge an effect in that which is known. Rather, there is an effect
in the knower for that which is known, and it bestows from its own self in
whatever way it is in its own potentiality. This is to say that that which is
known has an effect on the knower due to its bestowing upon him the image of
its knowledge from its own self in the way that the thing known is established
at the state in which it is established. Consequently, it is that which is
known which bestows knowledge to the knower in the images of what is known to
him, because the knower
self more than its capacity’, because those people of understanding
who are contented with themselves according to what is apparently understood,
cannot comply with or obey or listen to that which comes to them through a
special language, and through a language which is more elevated, more
appertaining, more totalizing and more perfect than that. They would have been
necessarily disappointed, deprived or even debarred from What was meant as
guidance and the order of guidance in the arrival of the Divine address, and it
would have been useless and untoward to propose to them an action which would
be beyond their capacity and their ability to bear. However, the Most Wise
maker of the universe brought to them in accordance with His Wisdom in general
language in accordance with what is understood as intellectual vision bestows,
and He hid deep in the interior of it the Divine knowledges and the Mysteries
of Decree (qada*) and Apportioning of Fate (qadar) which insight
bestows, so that each one of us, in accordance with our private aptitude, takes
from it the determination that our own established potentiality bestows, and
the people of appearances take from it according to their known manner the apparent
determinations, and each of the people of interior knowledge takes from it in
accordance with the capacity of reception and total comprehension consequent to
what insight bestows. Like this, believers increased, and a small portion of
gnostics are people of insight. That is, because the address came according to
the language that the intellectual vision bestows and not according to what the
kashf bestows, the believers became many and the gnostics who are the
people of kashf became few, because in the degree of belief we are
together with the totality of the believers in taking the address which arrived
in accordance with what the vision of the intellect bestows, and it is easy to
agree with the address which arrives in this way because it is a thing of appearances
and it is easily possible to take from it with intellectual vision, which is
the lowest and most apparent form of comprehension; and because there exists
an aptitude in a small number of us to take in the manner that insight bestows
that which is hidden in the interior of the address which came in the apparent
manner, and to rise to the mysteries inside this address^ only a small number
of us gnostics are people of insight. It is also true that the majority of the
a an
about this example as if it came from the language of the gnostic
angels who arc possessors of known stations, and addresses with these words
from the language of particularized beings and known knowledges, and says that
there is not a single individual from among our particularized existences for
whom there is not a known station or place, and for each of us the coming about
of our known station in the establishment of the Divine Knowledge is our
manifestation in the exterior being: Because in the origin the known station is
the image of everything’s being known in the Divine Knowledge, according ro
which image that thing is known in God’s Knowledge. Thus to manifest in the
exterior being according to the establishment which was in the Divine Knowledge
is through the Divine mashVa, and this mashVa does not apply
except in accordance to the establishment which is in the Divine Knowledge.
Yet, the particularities of the established potentialities which are in the
Divine Knowledge are various. Consequently, the appertainance of the mashVa
is also varied. Thus, the Divine mashl'a did not apply to the guidance
of all because the aptitudes of all are varied as each one has a known station
and does not extend beyond that centrality. Consequently, the mashl'a does
not apply to the guidance of a person who has not the aptitude to be guided.
This is if it is indeed established that the being is iu fact for you. This
means that there will be an order of particularization for you to be manifested
in the exterior existence in accordance with your establishment in the Divine
Knowledge if it is established that in fact there will be existence for you and
that you are qualified with being. This means, in other words, that if the
Being of the haqq were particularized by virtue of your potentiality in
the mirrors of your established potentiality which was in annihilation, and if
that image of knowledge were to be manifested in outer existence, then that
known image which is manifested in the mirrors of your potentiality being
conditioned by virtue of your potentiality, in accordance with these
considerations it is established for you and it is attributed to you. And if it
is established that in fact the being is for the haqq, it is not for
you, and the determination is yours without a doubt in the Being of the haqq.
This means that in accordance with what the first insight bestows, that the
Being of the haqq is manifested due to the
AM
the 'mages of the potentialities thus become differentiated one from
the other, then, under the consideration that you are existent with the Light
of being which effuses over your potentiality, then, considering that the Being
of the Absolute haqq is conditioned in your potentiality, and if the
determiner is the haqq, there is no more for Him other than the effusion
of existence over you, and the determination is yours over yourself. And if it
is the haqq who is determiner over you because He has given you being,
then for the haqq there is nothing of determination except the effusion
of being. Then your determination over your ’ayn is established because
the haqq determines over it with the determination that the particular
inclination of your ’ayn has bestowed upon the haqq. If there is
any objection to this from any possible angle, here the Shaykh, God be pleased
with him. means that even if it is true that it is the haqq who is
determiner, all the same there is no determination for the haqq other
than the determination of the haqq for the effusion of being over your
potentiality, and the determination is established for your potentiality which
the private aptitude of your potentiality has bestowed upon God, and he (that
person) says: ‘Determine over me with this determination’, and determines over
God. Thus, although the haqq is the determiner under the consideration
of the effusion of being over the potentialities, and that the haqq
determines over each of them with the special determination that each of the
potentialities has bestowed to the haqq, still, that which determines
over the potentialities is the potentialities. And do not praise except
yourself and do not blame except yourself. If your potentiality necessitates
happiness and completion and thereby manifests with happiness and completion,
then do not praise anything other than your own self because the light of your
being arrives at you through your aptitude. Thus, whatever your potentiality
has bestowed as. determination upon the haqq so that the haqq
determines over you with that same determination, then naturally the haqq determines
over you with that very same determination which has emanated from you in the
first place. Thus praise yourself. And if your aptitude necessitates lack and
misery and if lack and misery will manifest in you, do not blame anyone else
other than your nafs. In the state of the establishment of the
potentialities, if what is necessary
471
is manifest. And He is your nourishment by being. And God is nourishment
for you with being, because you are manifest with existence even though in the
manifested being of God. God remains hidden in the image of your established
potentiality. Thus you are nourished by the Being of the haqq and you
are manifest, and the Being of the haqq is hidden and interior. The
transcendence of nourishment or the absolutizing of nourishment in this matter
is in the way of a simile, because the potentialities are the causes of
remaining of the manifestations of the determinations of being. Equally, the haqq
is the cause of the remaining of the beings of potentialities,’ exactly in the
same way as nourishment is the cause of the remaining and presence and the
manifestation of completeness of the one that is nourished. Just as nourishment
is hidden in the one nourished, the potentialities through their determinations
are the nourishment of the haqq. The haqq is manifest in the
potentialities and the potentialities are hidden and passing away (/SnF) in the
haqq. Thus the haqq is the nourishment of the potentialities
through being, because having manifested their potentialities He remains hidden
in them. In short, the potentialities determine over the haqq by their
determinations, and the haqq determines over the potentialities by
being. That which particularized for Him, particularized for you. That is to
say, in all eternity the determinations of the established potentiality
particularized in God and God became the determined over and you became the
determiner in the manifest existence as the determination became particularized
from God for your being. Thus, in consequence of your being determined over,
you became the nourishment of God through determination, just as the haqq
became your nourishment through being. The order is from Him to you and from
you to Him. The order, that is to say, the determination, refers to you from
the haqq through His effusion of being over your potential. Thus the haqq
is the determiner over you, and you are the one that is determined over, and,
at the same time, the determination from you is made to belong to the haqq by
bestowing upon the haqq that special determination from your
potentiality which was established in the state of its establishing in the
Presence of Knowledge. Thus, both the haqq and your potentiality, each
through a different aspect, is the determiner, and is the
473
and revealing. Equally, I praise God because He made me according to
the Divine Image and effused being upon me with the singularity of the nafs-i-rahmSnT
from the interior of the First ta’ayyun, and for manifesting in me with
the totality of perfection by bestowing the blessing of the Divine Image on me.
And God worships me, that is to say, He obeys me when I ask Him to respond to
me, and He responds to me, and I worship Him by concording with His order and
obeying Him in all the orders and by making myself indigent before the grandeur
of the Singularity of His Ipseity. Another way of seeing this verse, where he
says: ‘He worships me and I worship Him’, is this, that God worships me when
together with the nafs-i-rahmUril I became particularized in the degree
of the First ta’ayyun, and thus having, been particularized in the
totality of Divine and immanential particularizations and in all the degrees
and in all spiritual beings and in all manners of personality and corporeality
I became manifested and made to be in the human image so that He arranged and
maintained and prepared me to blow into me the Spirit of the image of Divine
perfection, and equally I worship Him by manifesting Him with that image
whereby I have received in that Divine and total image of perfection all the
revelations of the Names of Ipseity.
Now, let it be known like this, that what is meant by
worship is to bring about, and make and prepare and educate, and to respond
properly in response. Thus the attribution of worship to God is not due to lack
of good form. These words are not the words of drunkards. These are the words
of the true and realized gnostic and the heir that has verified. The word of
the gnostic is always in accordance with the order and origin of knowledge. In
whatever manner or way words emanate from him they are necessarily in
accordance with good form. However, it sometimes happens that certain words
emanate from the gncstic in the form of words that emanate from people who lack
in good form and people who doubt, but the determination of the gnostic is not
like their determinations because the gnostic is observant of the complete
circumference of the Ipseity and there is not a word in his place of witnessing
which God will not accept, and there is not a qualification by which God does
not manifest. Especially as this group of people in question have established a
special terminology so
475
through the effects of Lordship when the mysteries of His Divinity
are manifested, because relationships of Names like Divinity, Lordship and
Being, are dependent on the immanential potentialities such as the acceptance
of their being a Divinity and a Lord. Thus, servanthood, by virtue of its
servanthood, helps the haqq in the realizing of His Names and Qualities,
and in His manifesting with them and through them and manifesting them, and
helps God to become manifest with the totality of His places of manifestation,
and manifesting with all the relationships of Divinity, and also in the final
maturity of the determinations of the Names, because the help given to the
realities and the relationships of the Names, and their fulfilment, is through
the manifestation of their effects in the places of manifestation. Consequently,
God is not Rich beyond Need from us where it concerns the Names and Qualities.
It is for this that God made me and
thus I knew Him and caused Him to become.
It is for the purposes of being the place of manifestation for the
manifestation of His Divinity and Lordship that He caused me to become, so
that I help Him through my recognizing His Divinity and His Lordship, so that I
come to know Him and have caused Him to become in knowledge in such an image
where that image concords with that which God wishes. The words: ‘It is for
this...’ denote and refer to: T help Him . . .*, which means that He made me
exist so that in the place of my manifestation His Names and Qualities manifest
their determinations and effects, by which He becomes known and witnessed.
And indeed the hadith arrived
to us, and His purpose was therein realized.
The hadith referred to is the hadith qudsi'. T was a
hidden treasure and I loved that I be known, and I created the immanence so
that I be known.’ The purpose of God became realized in me. That is to say, in
my essence what He demanded was realized. That is to say, He became manifest
and revealed in me with the total receptivity and the total place of
manifestation in me. He became manifest and revealed
477
people of the Way, by his knowledge, by his state, and by kashf.
In fact the Throne is carried by those who are rulers and they each are
enclosed, that for the body, that for the spirit, and that for nourishment,
and Adam and Israfil for images, and Gabriel and Mohammed for the spirits, and
Michael and Abraham for nourishment, and Malik and Ridwan for promises and the
things promised, and there is no other ruler than what we have mentioned. The
Shaykh, may God be pleased with him, says about this in his abundance of
intelligence: God brought about to this Throne eight who will carry it on the
Day of Judgement, and of them four angels, one in the image of Israfil, the
second in the image of Gabriel, the third in the image of Michael, the fourth
in the image of Ridwan, the fifth in the image of Malik, the sixth in the image
of Adam, the seventh in the image of Abraham, the eighth in the image of
Mohammed, God praised him and salam over him, and these are the images
of their interior meanings, not the images of their emergence. The nourishing
of the nourished is by nourishment, and if the nourishment becomes intimately
penetrating into the being of the one nourished there remains nothing except
its intimate penetration, and indeed the nourishment is fluent in the totality
of all parts of the one that is nourished. And the nourishing of those who are
nourished is through nourishment. Consequently, exactly in the same way as the
totality of the being of each of those who have been penetrated is intimately
penetrated and it is intimately penetrated into the reality of the other by its
totality of oneness, nourishment, with its reality, is fluent in all parts of
the nourished. However, in that there is no portioning. There is no portioning
in the Divine totality, but he has considered the parts of the one who is
nourished as Names and Presence of Names in plurality. Without a doubt, when
Abraham intimately penetrated all the stations of Divinity, where he is considered
by the Names, therein manifested the Ipseity of the Exalted (Majestic and
Awe-inspiring) and the High and Lofty. When Abraham, upon him be peace, became
nourishment for God and intimately penetrated Him, without a doubt he intimately
penetrated all the Divine stations where he is considered as the Names.
Consequently, the Ipseity of the Exalted and the High became manifest in the
place of manifestation which is Abraham with
in accordance with what the first insight bestowed. God became
manifest in various images in the mirrors of the potentialities due to the
potentialities. Thus, we. by our manifest beings, are the images of the haqq
which is manifested in the mirrors of our established potentialities.
Consequently, the haqq is manifest in our images and we are interior in
Him and hidden. We are the nourishment of the image of the haqq which
becomes manifest in our images, because the presence of those images is through
our being the places of manifestation. The other aspect is this, in accordance
with what the second insight bestows, that when the Being of the haqq
was revealed to the established potentialities, that which becomes manifest in
that revelation is the images of the potentialities which became manifest due
to the potentialities in the image of the Being of the haqq, and in
those images the Being of the haqq is interior and is their nourishment.
Thus, if our exterior beings were to be considered in relationship to our established
potentialities, then they would be their images. Consequently, we are the
images of the images of our established potentialities with our nature, which
means that our images from the ghayb are manifested in these, our
exterior images, and that we are their nourishment and are hidden in them and
we are their interior, because their being manifested at all and present is
through our external images being their place of manifestation. Consequently,
if we are the images of the Unknowable and the Being of the haqq with
our exterior beings, then with our essential reality we are His Names and
relationships and happenings of His Ipseity. And the fact that we are this, is
the best way.
And there is not for
Him any other than my immanence,
and we belong to Him as also we belong to ourselves.
This means that there is no total place of manifestation for the haqq
other than my being, because He is manifested in me with total manifestation.
Thus, we are for the haqq because He manifests by us, and with His
revelation He is in our manifestation, just as we are manifest with our
realities and potentialities. That is to say, for the manifestation of the haqq
with the image of His Divine total Ipseity there is no other perfect piace of
manifestation and all-pervading place of
aspect the Shaykh points with the word T. Consequently, according to
the first aspect there is no differentiation between our quiddity and the
Absolute Essential Quiddity of the haqq except the relative differentiation
which is between the First ta’ayyun. and la ta’ayyun., because in
that there is no apparent quality of servanthood and quality of Lordship.
However, according to the second aspect there is differentiation, because the
Quiddity being particularized by T-ness two parts become apparent. One part is
the portion of Lordship and the other is the portion of servanthood. Yet, there
cannot be for God a relative ‘I’ because of His Holy and Absolute Quiddity,
like there can be a relative us. Equally, perhaps, for that which is
encompassed in our T-ness is established for Him encompassing, prevaiEng and absoluteness.
Or also that for me there are two aspects, one the interior quiddity and the
other the apparent T-ness, whereas for the manifestation of the T-ness of the haqq
there is no word ‘I’ verbally and in reality except that the manifestation of
His T-ness in the potentiality of being is through the Perfect Man, because one
aspect of the Perfect Man is the Absolute haqq which is His interior and
His Absolute Quiddity, and the other aspect of the Perfect Man is through the
universes, and that aspect is his T-ness and manifestedness. Consequently, as
the verbal ‘I’ is not proper to the manifestation of the haqq, the
T-ness is in the manifestation of the haqq's T-ness in the existence,
and this manifestation is detailed and with Names, whereas the manifestation of
this T-ness in the Perfect Man is total and essential. It could equally be
that His T-ness is not particularized in my T-ness in such a way that my T-ness
should be different to His T- ness. According to this consideration it means
that it remains as was, without there being enveloping or penetration of the
one to the other.
However, in me is His place of
manifestation, and we are to Him as if a vessel.
This means that in my being there exists the place of manifestation
of the haqq wherein the haqq is manifested and revealed in total
manifestation, and that place is the heart of Man. Thus, we are for the haqq
like a vessel, thus manifesting by us becoming particularized; it can also be
understood that He is particularized by the container,
The Wisdom of the Truth
(al-hikmat al-haqqiyya)
in the Word of Isaac
» •
Redeeming a prophet from being
sacrificed by slaughtering a sacrificial offering,
And where are the voices and actions
of rams as compared to the movements and pain of Man?
Here several interpretations are possible. In the word ‘redeeming’
there might be a non-written question which would be eliminated due to the
question in the second line, this being found satisfactory to convey the
meaning of the question, in which case it would mean a surprise that how can
the voice and the movement of a ram possibly approximate the movement and pain
in Man, and that a ram would be sufficient sacrifice for a prophet? Another way
would be without a question: the sacrificing of a ram for an offering redeems
the prophet, meaning that it redeemed the prophet. This second would be because
of the Quranic verse: ‘And We redeemed him with a great sacrifice.’ In this
case the first verse would be giving news of the fact as it happened, wherein
the word ‘redeeming’ becomes established for the word of God, therefore there
being no necessity for a question of surprise, and the question form in the
second verse becomes a question which appertains to the determination (hukm)
of the fact (happening) of redeeming, which means that the voices and movements
of rams are far removed from the movements of people, and what an extraordinary
wisdom is this, when there is a great distance between the degree of the animal
and that of the man that a ram could redeem a ptophet. In this case there is no
doubt in the happening and the validity of the redemption because it has
happened, but the question refers to the cause and the reason why such a thing
happened. Another aspect is this, which might come to mean that my nafs
be
This is because the Divine Image is the grandest and cannot be
killed or that there should be sacrifice made of it. This grace and aggrandizement
can also be taken for the ram who redeems by its being made the sacrifice in
the place of, in lieu of, the Perfect Man, who is according to the Divine
Image. But I have no knowledge from what balance this is taken, says the
Shaykh. However, this means that both of these aspects are true.
Now let it be known like this, that the fact that God
aggrandized the ram and qualified it with the Name ‘Grand* is due to this
wisdom by which Abraham saw this ram in the image of Isaac who is his son who
is according to the Divine Image which is in accordance with the grand creation
and nature in accordance with the Quranic verse: ‘And you are according to a
grand nature or creation*, yet which Abraham saw, in accordance with his power
of imaging, as Isaac in his dream. Thus, having rendered grandeur to it in the
dream of Abraham by figuring it in the image of a Perfect Man which is in
accordance with the Divine Image which is in accordance with the grand nature
or creation. He then rendered it grandeur again in the universe of the senses,
this time in the image of a ram replacing his son who was a Perfect Man which
Abraham had thought was the intended.sacrifice. In this way the ram before
redemption being in accordance with the grand image He sacrificed it for the
Perfect Man and made it a sacrifice for him, thus aggrandizing it in the
totality of aspects, and if before redemption the ram had not been grand it
could not have been the redeemer. That is why in the Quran it says: ‘And We
have redeemed it with a grand sacrifice’ whereby it declares and announces
that the ram was grand.
The Shaykh’s words: ‘And He, the Great God, aggrandized
. . .’ are not the interpretation of the Quranic words: ‘And We redeemed it by
a grand sacrifice’ so that the qualification with the word ‘grand’ be
necessitated by the fact that it was going to replace the son of Abraham at
the time of Abraham. The aggrandizement which happened to be for the ram is due
to His graciousness to both the ram and us equally, and this is the wisdom of
His graciousness in this matter to us because both these aspects are true, and
rather perhaps each one of these two aspects necessitates the other, because
through graciousness
or over-abundance of usage, and there is no ambiguity in this and
certainly no feigned shortcoming.
Without a doubt the fattened camels
and oxen are of greater value,
But indeed He brought down for the
sacrifice the ram as offering.
The fattened oxen and camels used to be driven to Mecca for
sacrifice and these were much more expensive than rams, but in fact it was the
ram which was brought down for sacrifice as an offering, which means that as an
offering the ram became more of value and deemed more laudable. On the other
hand, for aggrandizing the ‘face of God’ and for the requiring of the passing
into a contemplative abstraction and from the point of view of having the love
of God dominate over the love of possession and also for the purpose of
respecting the best that is for the poor, because no matter how high the price
of the sacrifice is, that much is increased the degree of the one who
sacrifices, there is no doubt that the value of the oxen and camels is higher
than the value of a ram. That is why it is allowed that seven people together
could sacrifice one ox or camel. Abdullah ibn Abdal Mutallib (father of the
Envoy) sacrificed one such animal for seven people. Thus, according to these
considerations it would have been necessary that an ox or a camel should have
been sacrificed, but for closeness to God they are less of value than the
sacrifice of a ram and they are below the degree of the ram. This is because
there is a strength of relationship between the ram and the nafs which
has surrendered itself, because just as the nafs of the ram is
surrendered to being sacrificed and where it is surrendered to be fUnT
where it concerns a man, in the same way the surrendered nafs concords
itself to become fSnT in God and is ready to expend and give up and
exert its spirit for the face of God. Also, the ram (sheep) is created for the
purpose of sacrifice, and its milking or reproduction are subject to its being
killed, whereas oxen and camels are for riding and carrying heavy loads and
that is their main purpose of creation and they are not as commonly used for
sacrifice. Thus, although the price of the ox and camel is greater for an
offering, the sacrifice of a ram
did not do 30 with the ox and the camel who are of higher price, and
by allowing to remain the sacrificial which was the Caliph of God if in fact
Isaac had been sacrificed. He completed the gain which resulted for the
universes. Consequently, the gain that was to come through that sacrifice came
through the sacrificing of the ram and thereby a great deal of diminution in
loss. Again, the loss in possessions which would result from the sacrificing
of an ox or a camel was reduced by the sacrifice of a much cheaper ram and that
also is a gain. Equally, as gain resulted for Isaac in the sacrificing of a
ram, a great gain equally resulted for the perfect ones who are the universes.
Thus equally for them there is decrease in loss.
Sacrifice is the image offana* in God. and the
greatest sacrifice in the way of God is the sacrifice of the nafs. Thus
the sacrifice which is the image of the submission and concordance of the nafs
of Abraham (S.A.) and Isaac (S.A.) is for the purpose of completing and
retaining forever the degrees of gains, like belief, beautification and gift,
sainthood, prophethood, envoyship, caliphate, leadership, pure love of God,
invitation, and to diminish the characters which cause loss and distancing from
the Divine Beauty. In the same way, the sacrifice of the nafs which is
the image of absolute fand’ is keeping loyalty and faithfulness for the
pact of tawhTd through which the gains of essence and quality and action
are gained. In a hadith qudsl God says: ‘He who demands Me, let him be
passionately in love with Me, and he who is passionately in love with Me, let
him know Me, and he who know s Me, let him be in love with Me, and he who loves
Me, I shall kill him, and he who kills, the blood-money is to him, and upon
whom is the blood-money? To Me is his blood-money.’ Can there be greater gain
than this, that by its essence and quality and action your being is made to
pass, and that in your absoluteness, with the Divine image of the collectivity
of the Ipseity, the haqq manifests and there remains?
Thus the order of sacrifice is already set in order and
with it the dues of the pact of Union are made, and not to execute by this the
dues of Union is diminution because of loss and loss of aptitude, because for
a servant who causes duality by the remaining of bis T-ness, the witnessing of
unity is not possible. Therefore it is absolutely
honourable which is suitable to the honourable is sacrificed, there
is gain for faithfulness and passion if it happens in the place of the order,
but it becomes diminution if the stingy is sacrificed for the stingy, or when
the stingy is sacrificed to the honourable or when the honourable is sacrificed
to the stingy. Consequently the diminution due to loss is according to three
aspects, and one aspect is this, that when the stingy is sacrificed for the
stingy the sacrifice happens due to the loss and sorrow of the sacrifice and of
the person for whom the sacrifice was made. Another aspect is this, that if the
stingy is sacrificed for the honourable the loss occurs because of the
sacrifice. A third aspect is this, that if the honourable is sacrificed to the
stingy it is because of the loss and sorrow of the person for whom it is sacrificed.
Of all the existents, that which has the strongest submission and concordance
to God is the highest and closest to God.
There is no higher creature than the
inanimate object, and after that
The plants, each according to the
defined value and the measure.
Thus, in concordance and in submission there is no higher creature
than the inanimate object. Then come the plants, each according to its definite
value and degree. In the Divine knowledge the inanimate objects and metals are
higher because they remain and continue according to the knowledge of their
essential nature and they never vary from their essential and original
character and constitution, and they know where it concerns the way they are
used and the value of their manner of usage in accordance with their innate
nature. Thus they have surrendered to and concord with the reality of being and
degree under the dispensing under the Divine Will, because they are realized
with being and degree and essence, which is that there is no other dispenser
than the Being of the haqq, and dispensing is not real for any one
person other than Him. The plants are lower than the inanimate objects in
degree because their innate ability of movement is added on to the original
nature of the inanimate objects through growth. Even though growth is of the
natural necessity of the plants, yet that natural constitution of movement
through growth is attributable to
emanates from the praise-giver except after its being alive (its
being in the state of hayy) and equally after its knowing that there is
a creator and a Lord who is the possessor of all perfection, who gives it its
nature (creates it) and educates it. Thus intuition and explanation, and also
witnessing of determination which is evidence, shows and necessitates that the haqq
(God, the Truth) is revealed in everything and that He is fluent in every
existent with His Singularity, and that the haqq is the same as that
life and knowledge which is in that existent. Even perhaps that each Name from
among the Divine Names is qualified therein with all the Names due to the
prevalence of the Uniqueness of the Ipseity to all Names; at such a degree that
all the necessities which exist in the origin of existences exist therein.
Where there is a place in which there is being, there also exists knowledge and
intellect; however, only if the place does not impede the arrangement
(levelling) of the human being; that is to say, if it does not reach the height
of the place of equilibrium which necessitates the manifestation of the place
of the intellect and comprehension, then life and comprehension remain interior
of that place and do not manifest in that place. Consequently, that place has
no feeling or consciousness, like a deaf mute. Consequently the inanimate
objects and plants are possessors of life and comprehension in their interior
but not in manifestation. In each thing which has senses there is the self and
there is determination (hukm) and conjecture (wahm) so that it
comprehends its nafs by its power of animality and becomes veiled with
its T’-ness and becomes delineated in determination, but the one that has no
senses and self is contrary to this situation because it remains purely in accordance
with its innate nature. Therefore it has no dispensation through its own
T’-ness. Thus the inanimate objects intuitively and in reality know their Lord,
and willingly and spontaneously submit to it and concord with it After these
come the plants because in them thex-e is a dispensation of a kind, like
growing and like propagating, and due to this dispensing and action the plants
are less than the inanimate objects because the inanimate objects witness by
their essence and innate nature that there is no other dispenser than God.
After these comes the sensitive animal which is veiled by its selfness and is
manifest by Divine Will. After that comes the lacking human who is
in it there is never a difference because the animal is created and
innately constituted according to that (to what it is).
Now, let it be known like this, that you should not
think that in the words: ‘There is no higher creature than the inanimate
object’ that the inanimate objects are higher in every way than all other
things and that they are followed by plants and then those who have senses,
then the human animal, because in the order of incatenation which starts with
the aspect of the human image which is the total Divine Image, the inanimate
objects are lower than the plants because the inanimate objects are according
to inanimation, therefore have no movement, and plants are higher than them
because there is more of life (hayy) manifested in them and they are
thereby closer in one degree to the human image than the inanimate objects.
Animals in the same way are higher than the plants because they also cut a degree
higher than the plants and are closer to the human image than the plants as the
life of the senses is more manifest in them, and the human animal equally is
higher than all the rest because in consequence of its manifestation he is
according to the most beautiful arrangement and includes the qualities of the
animal, of the plant and of the inanimate objects, and in him the life of the
senses, the comprehensions of will and the Divine Qualities are more plurally
manifest than in all the others, and between the human animal and the Perfect
Man, who is according to the Divine Image, there is no degree other than the
spiritual degrees, but the reason why1 the human animal is lower
than all the others is due to the fact that the qualifications of all degrees
from the three degrees are collected in him and because he is assiduously
applying to himself all of them, and because the states and qualities which
exist effectively in all the degrees of immanence exist equally effectively in
the human animal and because he is by all this distanced from the original
unity and the determinations of plurality are plurally manifested in him, and
his being a central object and an intermediary and his ability to act by his
own means being more than all the others, because of all this ‘they are like
the sheep and goats, perhaps even more misled’ and ‘their density is more than
that of stones’, and words like these, became his qualificative. Yet, if the
qualities of beauty of the three degrees, perhaps even the qualities of
within the reckoning (hisab) and estimation, within the
obligations of the comprehension of his reasoning and intellect. ‘They are of
those who regret the most through their works, those for whom their efforts
have misled in the life of this world, and they reckon that they, by their
doing, that they make things more beautiful.’
It is as Sahl said, and
the verifiers like usj For us and for them, (we are) at the station of
beautification (ihsan).
Sahl ibn Abdullah Tostari and other verifiers like us, agree on this
matter, that it is as we have said concerning the animals, plants and the
inanimate objects, and that the inanimate objects are the most submissive and
obedient, because we and others like us who verify, we ar e together at the
station of beautification and witnessing where we witness the totality of the
order as it is. The degree of ihsiin is the degree above that of belief.
God the High said: ‘Then they were devout and they believed, and then they were
devout and they beautified.’ (Ahsan from the root husn and
Divine Name muhsin, Beautifier, and ihsRn, the gift of Beauty.)
The Prophet (S.A.) says: ‘The ihsSn is that you worship God as if you
saw Him.’ The degree of ihsQn is the degree of seeing everything and
witnessing everything as it is. The Shaykh (R.A.) says in chapter 72 of the FuttihOr.
‘It is shown to you that the inanimate objects, they are knowers of God and
they pray to God otherwise than other creatures. They are created in knowledge,
not by intellect of their own, nor by desires, nbr by ability to dispense
except dispensing what has been dispensed for them, not through their own nafs.
They dispense only by what God dispenses for them. The plants are created with
knowledge in the same way and their degree is less, lower, because of growing
and demand of height. They appertain to the class that are nourished, and this
gives them growth and the demand for height, and the inanimate objects are not
like this. They have no height through natural movement, and if they happen to
be high they decrease through their nature and require lowness and this is the
truth of servanthood. Height is the praise.of God and He is the High, but the
stone is devoid of the vicissitudes of Lordship. When in height they diminish
from fear of God, and God gives us
they do not accept the word of God which is the nourishment of the
spirit. The Shaykh declares then the lack of aptitude to accept the word of
God:
They are the deaf and dumb, and of them he gave, The pure one, so
that we hear of it as evident proof in the Quran.
That is to say, they are deaf and dumb, that group of people whom
the pure one (S.A.) brought to us (told us of) without a doubt in the Quran so
that we hear about them. ‘They are deaf and dumb and blind and they will not
understand.* That is, deaf because of the partiality of their intellectual
comprehension and their ears are blocked, and they are dumb from speaking with
the word of God, their tongues being sealed through the intellectual proofs and
theoretical reasoning, and in every witnessing of God their eyes and their
hearts are blinded. Behind the interior veil of intellectual comprehension they
cannot observe the reality of the bride of Beauty and the face of God in the
places of manifestation which are the things. ‘They are not blinded in the eye,
but they are blinded in their hearts which are in their chests.’ The people who
are veiled from God, though they are people of heart and eyes and ears, God has
taken away from them their hearing, their vision and speech with intelligent
expression. ‘They have hearts which do not understand. They have eyes that do
not see. They have ears with which they do not hear. They are like the cattle
or sheep herds, perhaps even they are more misled.’
Know, God has accorded help to us and to you, that
Abraham (S.A.), the khatil, said to his son: ‘I saw in a dream that I
was sacrificing you’, and the dream is the Presence of khayHl but he
did not interpret it, and it was that the ram had appeared in the image of the
son of Abraham in the dream. Oh you follower (salik) who sacrifices for
God the ram of his nafs, and Oh you who are annihilated in the Being of
the haqq by the /and’ in God, know that Gcd the High has accorded help
to us and to you with bestowal of success in salvation in that in fact Abraham,
the khattl (S.A.), said to his son: T saw that I was sacrificing you in
the dream’, whereas the dream is the Presence of khayHl and needs to be
interpreted, but Abraham (S.A.) did not
imaging dispensing from the meaning of the image had imaged the ram
in the form of Isaac due to the establishment of the established relationship
in submission and concordance between Isaac and the ram. Thus the dream of
Abraham necessitated interpretation but he did not interpret it. Abraham
believed the dream. That is. taking it according to the appearance of the dream
he supposed the image seen was Isaac, whereas at the level of God that image
seen was the grand sacrifice. Thus Abraham (S.A.) did not bestow upon the khayal
its reality by interpreting it. And his Lord redeemed him from the wahm of
Abraham with the grand sacrifice which was the interpretation of his dream at
the level of God, but he (Abraham) did not have consciousness of this. Thus,
due to the wahm of Abraham, his Lord (Isaac’s Lord) sacrificed the grand
sacrifice for the son of Abraham, and at the level of God the grand sacrifice
was the interpretation of Abraham’s dream. However, he had no aptitude for it;
which means that due to the dispensing of the khayal of Abraham,
although the interpretation for the son of Abraham was the grand sacrifice at
the level of God and that it was due to this fact that it had appeared in the
image of the son which would then necessitate the interpretation of that image
seen as the grand sacrifice, the image was not interpreted by it (i.e. the
grand sacrifice) because Abraham had no consciousness of this interpretation.
In the Arabic of Ibn ‘Arabi: ‘And his Lord redeemed him’, these words refer to
the son of Abraham, and the. words: *. . . the interpretation of his dream’
refer to Abraham. The revelation in images in the Presence of khayal
needs another knowledge by which is comprehended what God intends by such an
image. Thus, the image revelations which happen in the Presence of the khayal
need another kind of knowledge, and what God intends from that which is seen is
understood with the help of that knowledge. This knowledge is the knowledge of
interpretation, and the knowledge of interpretation does not happen except by
the intuition and growing of the refinements of the Divine Names, and by the
increasing and the intuition of the relationships which exist between those
Names which appertain to the interior and those Names which are under the plane
of the apparent. Thus the person who has gnosis of the relationship which
exists between the images and their meaning, and the
upon him. said: “In some places you were right and in some places
you were wrong.” (Abu Bakr) said: “I swear by my father, you and my mother, Oh
Envoy of God,, will you tell me in what I made a mistake?” Upon him peace,
said: “Do not swear, this is the hadTth upon the veracity of which
people concord.’*’
And God the High called to Abraham (S.A.) with the
words: ‘Indeed Oh Abraham, you have believed the dream*, which means that in
fact, Oh Abraham, you have believed the dream and you took it as it was and you
made it a true dream. But He did not say to him: ‘You were right in the dream
in that it was your son*, because he (Abraham) did not interpret it and took it
as he saw it in the exterior, yet the dream demands interpretation. This means
that God the High did not say to Abraham: ‘You were right in the dream’, which
means again that He did not say (to Abraham), you were right in the dream and
in fact that what you saw was your son, because Abraham did not interpret the
dream but rather took it in the manifest form as he saw it, whereas the dream
requires interpretation. Thus, having attested to the truth of the dream
without interpreting it he was not right in what was in the dream, because had
he been right in the dream the vision seen would have been his son, then in the
manifest form he would have had to sacrifice his son. However, what Abraham
had seen, which was manifested to him in the image of his son, was the ram, but
he did not interpret it as the ram whereas that dream needed interpretation. It
is thus that the notable Lord said: ‘In fact you must interpret the dream’, and
the meaning of interpretation is the permission from the image seen to another
order. It is because the dream requires interpretation that the notable Lord of
Egypt said: 'In fact you must interpret the dream’, and the meaning of
interpretation is that the seer is permitted to pass to another order from the
image he has seen in his dream, which other order is what is intended from the
image. And the cows were years in drought and in plenty. Thus, in the words of
the Lord of Egypt, when he said: T saw seven fat cows eating seven emaciated
ones’, following Joseph’s interpretation, or in its reality, the years became
years of dearth or abundance, which means, by the images of the fat cows was
intended the years of plenty and abundance, and by the images of the emaciated
cows was
Abraham, and the words: *.. . in the essence of the order at the
level of God' are an attribution of explanation. The senses imaged the sacrifice,
and the khayal imaged the son of Abraham. Thus, the manifest senses
imaged the sacrifice because that which was going to be sacrificed was
sacrificed at the level of God. Thus, at the level of God every thing,
whichever image it is established as, is manifested with that image in the
universe of the senses, and the universe of senses is more total and larger
than the universe of khayal. Because of the relationship of submission
and concordance between the son of Abraham and sacrifice the khayal
imaged the son of Abraham, because the khayal images one meaning in
different forms. That is why the dream needs interpretation. If he had seen the
ram in the khaySl he might have interpreted it by his son, or by another
order. That is, if Abraham (S.A.) had seen in his dream that he was
sacrificing the ram he might certainly have interpreted it by his son or
another order which would be related and appropriate to the ram, because the
desert of the realm of the dream is interpretation. Then He said: ‘This is indeed
an evident trial’ (a manifest seeking of information, way of becoming
informed). This to say either that Abraham said after he had witnessed the
reality of the situation, or God the High, after having tested Abraham for
information, said, that indeed this here order is a blatant trial, that is to
say, a manifest seeking of information, that is to say, seeking of information
in knowledge, that is to say, whether he knows what is necessitated by the
province of a dream where it concerns interpretation, or not That is to say, by
these words God meant to seek information in knowledge on whether Abraham
(S.A.) knew or not what the province of dreams necessitated of interpretation,
because He knows that the realm of dreams requires interpretation. Because God
the High knows that in fact the province of dreams requires interpretation.
Thus He tested Abraham in knowledge, but Abraham did not accomplish what was
necessitated as interpretation in the realm of dreams.
Now, that dream in which the image seen does not concord
with the image in the exterior needs interpretation. But that dream in which
what the Presence of khayal images is concordant with the image in the
exterior does not accept interpretation. Thus, when he
S07
this dream, and in this dream Taqi ibn Mukhallad believed in the
milk and made himself vomit and he vomited milk. If he had interpreted his
dream this milk would have been knowledge. God forbade him great knowledge
equal to the value of what he drank. Just as Taqi ibn Mukhallad who is an Imam,
master of attestations, was unaware. Taqi heard in the news established near
Taqi that in fact the Prophet (S.A.) said: ‘If a person sees me in a dream, in
fact he sees me as when awake, because the Satan cannot be represented
according to my image.’ Taqi ibn Mukhallad saw the Prophet, peace be upon him,
in his dream, and the Prophet (S.A.) made him drink milk in this dream. Thus
Taqi ibn Mukhallad believed in his dream upon awakening. That is to say, he
thought it was milk, but it was not milk. It was knowledge. Thus he made
himself vomit. Consequently, he vomited milk. If he had interpreted his dream
that milk would have been great knowledge for him. Thus God forbade him great
knowledge only to the limit of what he drank of milk. As Taqi ibn Mukhallad did
not know that his dream required interpretation, and not having interpreted the
milk as knowledge, he became prevented from great knowledge to the degree of
what he drank of that milk and vomited. Do you not see the Envoy, whom God
blessed and gave him peace, who was given a cup of milk in his dream and who
said: T drank of it until it came out of my nails, and then I gave what was
left to Omar* (Caliph Omar who was a disciple). They asked him: ‘What did you
interpret it with Oh Envoy of God?* He said: ‘Knowledge’, and he did not leave
it as milk as in the image that he saw, because of his knowledge of the realm
of dreams and what they need of interpretation. Do you not see that in the
dream the Envoy of God, upon whom God gave peace and blessings, was given a cup
of milk, and the Envoy (S.A.) said thus: T drank that milk until it came out of
my nails. After that, what was left in the cup of my leftover I gave to Omar.’
From among those who were present in this gathering, they asked him: ‘Oh Envoy
of God, with what thing did you interpret the milk?’ The Envoy (S.A.) said: ‘I
interpreted it with knowledge.’ That is to say, the Envoy (S.A.) interpreted
the milk with ‘knowledge’ and did not leave it as milk according to the image he
saw. Because of his knowledge of the realm of dreams and what they need of
snq
possible for the Satan to be embodied in the image of the body of
the Envoy (S.A.). This is guarantee of purity from God for the seer of the
dream so that the person who sees that dream is not misled by seeing the Satan
in the image of the Envoy. These last words of the Shaykh, God be pleased with
him, are purely exposed for manifest understanding, meaning that the person
who expects from the image of the body of the Envoy (S.A.) manifestation of
guidance does not get seduced by simulating by that which is opposition of the
place of manifestation of guidance. He is protected from this. Leaving aside
the purity and the unsullied state of the person who sees the dream, if it were
possible for the Satan to embody the image of the body of the Prophet (S.A.),
that person who sees the dream would still remain unsullied because the image
of that body would protect him, perhaps that that image would even protect the
Satan from misleading, because it is not possible to have any form of
misleading from that image because that image is the image of pure compassion;
perhaps even if it were possible for the Satan to embody that image he would
then become a believer when he embodied it and would manifest by virtue of that
state with the Mohammedian quality of the Mercy of the Compassionate.
Now, in reality the wisdom of or the reason for the
impossibility of the Satan to embody the image of the body of Mohammed is this,
that the Satan is from the parts of the universe a low part. He is the place of
manifestation of the Name, the Misleader (mudill), and the quality of
misleading, and he has no receptivity or ability to be the place of
manifestation of another Name from among the Names. Equally, it is not possible
for any other quality from among the Divine Qualities to manifest in him,
because had he had the power and the receptivity in him to manifest with
another quality, he would have prostrated to Adam and would not have been
called with the Name Satan (shaytan). On the other hand, the image of
the Mohammedian embodiment is the image of Divine collectivity of Names,
absoluteness and relativity, non-particularization and particularization, and
equally it combines in itself that which is God (haqq) and creature (khalq)
and the totality of the collectivity of the Divine Qualities as well as
immanential qualities. Hence, for a low part of that
511
him in the universe of senses. (If the Envoy) gave something (to the
person who has the dream), that very thing is exactly that and interpretation
enters into it, and if that thing comes out in the senses exactly like it was
in the imagination (khay&I), such a dream does not need interpretation.
This means that if the Prophet gave somebody something in a dream, that is
indeed that very thing, which means that it is that dream into which enters the
interpretation. However, if in the imagination that which is seen comes out
into the exterior in exactly the same image as has been seen, in other words,
if the sensory image is the same as the image of the khayal, for that
dream there is
no interpretation because it is conformed to the
original, and the way it is conformed to the original is this, that when an
order of the Essence comes down upon the spirit of the one who sees the dream,
the opposite of that order manifests in the spirit by reflection through the nafs,
and then the opposite of that opposite reflects into the power of imagination
of the one who sees the dream. Thus, in the senses that image takes form
exactly as its original because it is the opposite of the opposite since the
essential order takes it out of the dream into the senses exactly in the image
that the person who sees the dream sees it in the dream. It is up to this much,
and it is to this that Abraham, the khatil, and Taqi ibn Mukhallad
trusted, which means that Abraham, peace be upon him, saw that he was
sacrificing his son, and in the senses he took it as his son, and Taqi ibn
Mukhallad saw himself drinking the milk, and in the senses he thought it was
milk. However, Abraham was pure and innocent and God the High purified him
from the sacrifice of his son, but He did not prevent Taqi ibn Mukhallad from
throwing up the milk, thus He forbade him that much knowledge as he drank (and
threw up). Since the dream has these two aspects (that is, of interpretation or
not) and God let us know what Is good form (adab) (for us in these
matters) by what He did with Abraham when He showed him the ram in the image of
his son and He redeemed his son by it, and when He said to him the words:
‘Indeed, Oh Abraham, you have believed in the dream’, that is to say, when,
concerning a dream, these two aspects, that is to say, interpretation and no
interpretation, have been established, and God the High has taught us the good
form in His action towards
the established truth, whether it be concerning the state of the
person who sees the dream, or whether it be concerning that place in which the
person who sees the dream observed the haqq., or also, both where it
concerns the person who sees the dream and the place he sees it in. That is to
say, if the High God reveals Himself to us in the images of imagination of the mithal,
or in images of the senses, which images the intellectual proof denies and
transcends God from it, for instance, if the person who sees the dream sees God
in a place in a certain image, to which image there applies death, then it is
necessary for us, by the necessity of good form, that in concordance ^vith the
intellectual proofs that we should interpret that image according to the
established truth, either as it concerns the person who sees the dream, that
is, if the one who sees the dream is a person of ill, or if he is a person of a
certain place, or if he is a good-doer, or again we interpret it according to
the established truth if it has to do with the place, and whether the person
who sees the dream is a person of good-doings or the people of the place are
bad people, or else the person who sees the dream and the place it is in
together, we interpret according to the established truth, but if the seer of
the dream and the place together are not of the good-doing people, then at the
level of intellectual proof where images of perfection would be in lack -
according to which images of perfection the religious law is established - it
is all denied. Then that dream is refused because it is upon the image of
completeness and perfection that the established truth has been given; and
refusal (is) as in the hadith'. Tn the Day of Judgement the haqq
reveals Himself in the image of lack and they deny Him. Then He changes into
the image of completion and grandeur and they accept Him and they prostrate to
Him.’
It has been recounted that in the countries of Arabia a
man who was known to be pure saw God in his dream in the passages of his house
and God did not show nicety to him and slapped him on the face. When that
person woke up he was taken by a great alarm. However, the owner of the book,
the Shaykh, God be pleased with him, gave him news of his dream. When the
Shaykh saw the alarm of the person he said to him: Tn which place did you see
God?’ And that person said to him: Tn a house that I have bought’, and the
Shaykh
witnessed, cognized and prostrated to as they are. In this also, the
revelation according to the images of our aptitude, when revealed to us they
are understood, witnessed, cognized and prostrated to in those images without
interpretation or change. Rather perhaps that when revelation and vision is
established at the level of intellectual proof in the other world, the
revelation and vision which happens in this case is equally in the first place
necessarily submitted to because the vision which happens in1 the
other world depends upon the aptitude which happens in the emergence of this
world, because after the happening of the aptitude the vision which happens in
this world is closer than the image which happens in the other world, because
perhaps rather that this vision in the other world is more clearly expressed by
what concerns vision as in the words of the Quran: ‘He who was blind in this
world is also blind in the other.’ However, the acknowledgement or denial of
vision which happens in the other world is due to the dogmatic beliefs of
certain people, so that if God the High is revealed in concordance with a
certain dogma, it is acquiesced to by those who are in accordance with that
dogma, a nd if the revelation is according to a dogma which is different and
contrary to this dogma, it is acquiesced to by the people who have that other
dogma and it is denied by people who have another dogma. Yet for the people of
intuition (kashf) and witnessing and for the people of absoluteness and
being who are not limited by dogmas and bound by limit of belief, in whichever
image God reveals Himself in the emergence of this world and the other world,
or whichever emergence it may be, or whichever form, He is cognized, witnessed,
prostrated to and praised. In every realm in which He is revealed or manifested
it is the same, whether His revelations are in the images which are acceptable
according to the established considerations, or intellectually, or whether they
are unacceptable intellectually and according to established considerations,
or whether they be unacceptable to the established law.
For the One. the
Compassionate, in every realm What there is of images which are hidden, or what
there is of it manifest.
Thus, for the Being of the One. the Compassionate (rahman),
who
517
mirrors of the realms, are the images of the haqq, you will
be truthful in your words because the haqq becomes manifest and the khalq
becomes hidden, because the image is manifested which is seen in the
mirror, and the mirror is hidden. This way, what is manifested in the realms is
the revelation of the haqq, and the realms remain in non-being. If you
were to say it is a different order, that is to say, the seen image is the
immanence, then you have crossed over and traversed from the haqq to
the immanence and from the individuated (muta'ay yin) to the
individuating (ta'ayyun). Which means that you cross over and traverse
from the haqq which is witnessed in the mirror of the immanence, and
that you make of the haqq a mirror for the immanence and observe and
witness the immanence in the haqq. In this way the immanence becomes
manifest and the haqq remains interior.
And His determination is not in one
realm to the exclusion of another realm,
But it travels with the haqq to the immanence.
That is to say, the determination of the Being of the One, the Compassionate
(rahman), is not exclusive to one realm and that it does not exist in
another realm, but it travels and is fluent with the haqq in the
immanence (khalq). In other words, the revelation and determination of
the rahman in one realm is not different from His determination and
revelation in another realm, because the relationship of all the realms to the
Being of the haqq and the nafs-i-rahm&n is the same,
manifesting in accordance with the realm in all the realms. However, the rahman
and the Being of the haqq, and revelation of the consciousness and the nafs-i-rahmcln,
all together are individuated and revealed in the degree of 'ama'
(‘blindness’) which is the interior of the First ta'ayyun, and then at
the level of the immanence it travels into the essences of the unknown and the
realities of the immanence and creaturialities which are the areas of the
possibilities, and is revealed and manifested in the images of the creation.
There is an allusion to a very subtle meaning in this, which is that when the
revelation of the rahman is revealed to the a'yan-i-thabita it
makes the creation, which is the images of the a'yan in the shadow of
the veils
519 1
complete perfection of the Ipseity of the Absolute haqq, it
is out of the question that He could be immured in one or another aspect.
Rather that He is perhaps hidden in each aspect and in each nonaspect. His
interiority requires absoluteness and transcendence, and His manifestation,
conditioning and immanencing. His Essence and Ipseity is transcendent even from
being interior or manifest, because interiority or exteriority are Divine
relationships, whereas the haqq, by virtue of His Essential non-need, is
Rich beyond Need of any relationship.
(But) is accepted what is in the
places of revelation of the intellect and in that which is
Called the khayal, and the true of the visions.
This means, although the intellects would deny the revelation of the
images in the universe of the senses, yet the spiritual revelation in the
places of revelation of the intellect is acceptable. That is to say, the
intellectuals accept the spiritual revelation which happens in the non-sensory
intellectual images, and the revelation of images which happens in the thing
which is called the khayal, that is, in the treasuries of the khaydl,
is'also acceptable on condition that these images are interpreted by a meaning
which the intellect, accepts. The veridic visions equally accept the revelation
which occurs in the places of revelation of the intellect and of khayal.
By the veridic vision is meant the witnessing of the vision of the eyes which
is the true kashf m all the realms wherein the eyes that have the
vision, that is to say, the eyes which are not veiled, see the haqq in
the images of the revelations and do not circumscribe the haqq in and by
the images of the revelation. ‘Today the faces are bright and alive looking to
their God1, that is to say, unveiled. Abu Yazid al-Bastami says in
this station: ‘If the Throne and that which the Throne encloses, a hundred
thousand thousand times were in a corner of the corners of the heart of the
gnostic, he would not feel it.’ Abu Yazid al-Bastami (R.A.) says in this
station, that is to say, the station of the heart, that if the Throne and that
thing which the Throne encompasses were multiplied by a hundred thousand times
a thousand, and was to be put into a corner of the comers of the heart of the
gnostic, the gnostic could not have
to transcendence. The manifestation of a thing in it is impossible.
•Everything is in annihilation except His face.’ Except for the face of the
Absolute haqq, everything else, all the knowledgeable individuations
and individuations of being are in annihilation therein. The Light of the
Divine Ipseity inundates, encompasses and seals with its light all
individuations. Consequently, how could anything that is existent or
conditioned manifest in this large and absolute heart, and in what way could
this heart in which it exists feel it? And it is indeed established that the
heart is large enough to contain the haqq, yet with all this it is not
qualified with being quenched. Were it replete it would be quenched. With these
words the Shaykh (R.A.) explains the width of the heart of the '&rif
and its inability to feel anything other than the haqq, and in the
above-mentioned words of Abu Yazid assigns in a eulogistic manner a
supposititious reason for the matter connected with the quality of the person
eulogized, because in fact in the hadith qudsl it is said: ‘Neither My
world nor My heavens is large enough, but the heart of My believing servant is
large enough for Me.’ With these words is established the fact that the heart
of the k&mil is large enough for the haqq, but all the same,
although it is large enough for the haqq and the haqq can be
contained in it by revelation, it is still not qualified with quenching.
Consequently, if the heart were replete at the level of the revelation of the haqq,
it would be quenched, and this is In fact what Abu Yazid said. With these words
the Shaykh (R.A.) refers to the words of Abu Yazid: T drank love, cup after
cup. What I drank did not finish, nor was I quenched.’ ‘Even the man who sips
the steam of the heavens and earth, and his tongue is lolling out and panting
with thirst.* With these words of Abu Yazid one sees that although the heart is
large enough for the successive revelations of the haqq, it is not
qualified by being quenched and awaits further and other revelations.
Now, let it be known like this, that the way that the
heart is large enough for the haqq is through the way of revelation. It
so happens that sometimes the revelation is partial, and sometimes it is total.
The revelation of the haqq to the heart of the gnostic who is at the
station of gnosis of the nafs is partial revelation, and his heart is
large enough for the cognized haqq, and nothing other than that
revelation of al!
Creator of things in His own nafs, that is to say. in His own
Knowledge. which at the station of Uniqueness is the same as His own Ipseity.
He is the Creator of things in the images of knowledge and manifests them in
the beings of the essences, and by this consideration He is the Creator of the
beings of potentialities. All that You have created. You have collected in Your
own nafs. Your manifestation in the degrees of knowledge and the
Unknowable is the aspect by which God's creation of things in His own nafs
is the manifestation and yaqin of His Being in the degrees of existence.
Thus, individuation in His Being is creation, and under the consideration of
His manifestation in all the individuations He collects the totality of the
creation in His Being, since the creation is the same as His Being, and the
totality of the images of creation is the collectivity of His Singularity.
There is nothing outside it, and nothing from outside enters it.
You create that which is not finite, whose being
Is in You, and You are both Narrow and Large.
Through the aspect of Your individuation in the images of knowledge
which are in the Presence of Knowledge, You create that thing whose being is
not finite, and by consideration of Your manifestation in the images of
creation and in the Presences of the potentialities and essences, thus You are
both Narrow and Large, that is to say, Narrow because of Your being conditioned
in each of the images of the creation, and Large because of Your manifestation
in the images of totality. He is Narrow to be comprehensive with the existence
of knowledge and encompassing by His Ipseity through His Uniqueness of Ipseity
which is dominant in all the images of the creaturiality and which dominates
again the individuations of knowledge and the images of Names and Qualities,
because the totality of the indhidua- tions are in narrowness and compression
at the level of individuations of Names of Uniqueness of Ipseity, and are
conditioned in the narrowness of non-being. But He is Large because of
manifesting by virtue of place in each of the images of creaturiality after
having effused being into the potentialities which were in non-being in the
narrowness of the Uniqueness of Ipseity. Consequently Large, because He is
Large because of the consideration of His comprehensiveness
If it is large enough to contain the
haqq, and it did not narrow from
The creation (khalq), how
then is the order, Oh you listener?
When the heart is large enough for the haqq which is large
enough for all the things with Its Ipseity and Qualities and Names, that heart,
that heart of the Perfect Man, did not become narrowed due to and from
(containing also) the creation. How then is the order, Oh listener? That is to
say, the haqq does not fit into the heavens and the earth but fits into
the heart of the perfect believer, and that heart which becomes large enough
for God, how could it be narrower than the heavens and the earth and other
creatures? Thus the Shaykh (R.A.) in these four stanzas draws attention to the
fact that the Perfect Man’s heart is in such a degree in width that it is large
enough for the Absolute God. Consequently, how can the things which are created
in the nafs of the haqq contain the width of the heart, and how
equally can that heart be in narrowness because of them? Consequently, at the
level of the heart’s largeness for the haqq, first of all the heart
becomes large enough for all that is created in the nafs of the haqq.
Consequently, there is nothing of haqq or khalq for which the
heart of the kSmil person is not large enough. And if there arises a
question in there not being the resplendent light of dawn in the heart at the
level of the Divine revelation in the heart, he (the Shaykh) says that the
heart which is large enough for the haqq does not become too narrow for
the khalq, which means it is also large enough for the khalq.
People might question that there is contradiction. The aspect of the heart of
the perfect gnostic both to the haqq and the khalq is this, that
when the haqq reveals Himself into the heart with His Names and
Qualities and the heart is big enough for that, it is equally big enough for
the images of creaturiality which are included in the Names and Qualities,
because the Names and Qualities do not become realized except by their places
of manifestation which are the images of creation. Consequently, if it is large
enough for the Names and Qualities, it is also large enough for their places of
manifestation which are the images of creaturiality which are the created
things in
son
(istimrar) of the
being of that thing is dependent on the non-interrup- tion the thing that causes it. unless of course the
gnostic
has seized all the Divine Presences of immanence, then that thing
does not cease to exist because the 'arif does not ever become forgetful
completely of the creature because he preserves all the Presences. It is
perhaps that he preserves it from one of the Presences, and because of this
witnessing his creation remains existent.
Now let it be known like this, that the himma of
the gnostic for the creation of a thing is this: the gnostic, with the ease and
presence of the heart, at the level of the collectivity of thought, collecting
all powers and himma and ideas, applies himself to the creation of that
thing, and that thing becomes existent like any other existent outside the
heart which is the place of the himma, just as Asaf obliterated the
throne of Bilqis in Saba and created its equivalent in the presence of Solomon,
and just as the throne became existent and sensible outside, the gnostic, in the
same way, with the power of holiness and Divine relationship, creates a thing,
and that thing, like other creations from the Essence, becomes existent and
sensible outside the realm of the khayal and outside the place of the himma.
In the same way, he creates the spiritual images by which he enters with them
into the universe of spirits. On the other hand, anyone from the general run of
people with imagination and wahm can bring about something in their
hearts, but as they are devoid of powers of holiness and spirituality they
will not be able to arrange that brought-about form from every aspect and
manifest it in the exterior. Thus, the fact that the creation of the gnostic
exists outside the place of the himma is due to the gnostic’s completion
and perfection, and the spirit of that which is created by the gnostic is the himma
of that gnostic, and the himma is not removed from preserving it.
However, if the gnostic underwent a moment of forgetfulness of what he created,
that is to say, if he were to pass from the universe in which that thing is
existent to another universe wherein that thing is veiled, in other words, that
he is forgetful of its preservation, or even if his heart turned to another
thing and his himma is spent on a different order, that created thing
becomes non-existent because that thing is present through the spirit of the himma
of the gnostic and because his himma is cut away from that,
reason why the forgetfulness is never general is this, because it is
not necessary to be forgetful of all the Presences if one is forgetful of one
Presence. Rather that he only is forgetful of some, and the reason why it is
not general in particular is this, that if he is neglectful of one hadra,
in another aspect he is not neglectful because being forgetful in one hadra
but being present in other hadardt preserves the image of the thing
created in the hadra wherein he is present even though he is forgetful
of the original Presence, and because he is present in one or several of the hadardt
and thereby preserves the image of what he has created in those Presences, the
images of that which is created are also preserved in the original Presence and
in all the Presences. Therefore, the forgetfulness or neglect which happens in
a specific Presence is equally not general. One can interpret this also in a
different way, this question of general and specific, by the people in general
and the special people. If the general or the special people create something
and witness something in the khayal or in the intellect, it is not
possible for them to observe one image necessarily in one specific Presence.
Thus forgetfulness is never general. However, according to this consideration,
if forgetfulness were not general in the generality of the people then it would
be necessary that the generality of the people also, who observe a certain
image in one Presence without being forgetful of it in that one Presence, could
not be qualified with forgetfulness also where other Presences are concerned.
However, the generality of people who create things in the power of khaydl
through wahm, these things that they have created have no existence
outside the power of khaydl. What good then does this do that this sort
of forgetfulness is not general, since the thing created has no existence
outside the khaydR And how could they preserve the image which is in the
power of the khaydl as an image outside the power of the khaydl when
they are forgetful of the image within the power of the khaydl! Consequently,
directly they are forgetful of the khaydl, that khaydl image
equally becomes non-existent, unless of course that all this is mentioned with
insistence, that is, that the forgetfulness is not general, to show that the
gnostic, when he is forgetful of. one Presence at one level, he is still
observant of another Presence, thereby his forgetfulness is not general. Or it
can be that this is mentioned because: in
get away from it, which means that they covered it. doing their best
to prevent it from manifesting. That is to say. even though they know it they
have refrained from exposing this, and covered it up. When there is denial of
their pretension that they are the haqq, which means that they refrain
frojn'the exposition iof this, because in the exposition of this there is
negation of the^retension that they are the haqq, because there is a
kind of people from among the people of God who do tasarruf in the
universe and wko are people of closeness through supererogatories, who do the
dispensing by virtue of their qualification vyith-'the; Divine Qualities while
there still are in their beings remainders of themselves. Although also they
say: ‘In our being there is nothing other than the Reality. Our dispensing is
God’s dispensing’, in this pretension there is negation because according to
what has been mentioned there is a difference between their dispensing and the
dispensing of the haqq. Thus, those people of God who are of this kind
defer the exposition of this so that the interfering enemies do not come to
know of it and keep on questioning them. What a pity though, that this kind of
people of God take this attitude and defer in this matter. Rather they should
have perhaps conformed to the words: ‘Take-Us as your wakTl’, and taken
God as their wakil in all orders and not attempted at dispensing (tasarruf)
and left appointed Viceregent in dispensing only God. And Indeed God is never
forgetful (of anything), but it is impossible for the servant not to be forgetful
of one thing or another. God the Absolute is never ever forgetful of anything
He has created, but for the conditioned servant it is beyond doubt that he
shall be forgetful of certain things and not of others. Thus, there is
established a difference between the haqq and the servant, and
difference is apparent between the creation of God and the creation of the
servant, and the preservation by God and preservation by the servant. From the
point of view of preserving, when he has created, for him it is to say: ‘I am
the haqq', but his preservation of it is not like the preservation of
God. It is true that the servant can say: T am the haqq* as far as
preserving what he has created is concerned, but the preserving of a thing, as
created by a servant is not the same kind as God’s preservation of the image of
His creation. Thus, for the servant to say the words: T am God’ is not
533
explain this second differentiation is equally eloquent because the
differentiation subsequent to not forgetting necessitates the differentiation
necessitated by forgetfulness. But in this case there is not such necessity,
which means that there is difference apparent between the servant and the haqq
when the servant is preserving all the images and while that preservation is
persistent in him by virtue of preserving one image in that Presence of which
he is not forgetful. It is possible for someone to argue and question and say
after all this explanation that even though the difference in forgetfulness is
explained there is no apparent difference in the matter of preservation,
because just as God preserves the image of His own creation the servant equally
preserves the image of his creation in one of the Presences from among the
Presences by virtue of his not being forgetful of that Presence. The words of
the Shaykh (R.A.) are an answer to this expected question, wherein he
underlines that even in this case there is a difference between the servant and
God when he adds: Because this is preservation through being comprised in a
larger expression, which means the preservation by the servant is through being
comprised in a situation and not by purpose or particularization, which means,
by preserving the image which is in the Presence which is in the servant’s
witnessing he preserves the images in all the Presences, even though he was
forgetful of the other Presences as he passes from one Presence to another,
and God’s preservation of all that He created is not like this, in fact He
preserves all the images according to certainty (yaqin). And the haqq's
preservation of all the things He has created is not through being comprised in
a larger expression. Rather it is that His preservation of every image is in
accordance with His particularization, and His knowledge of ail things is
equal, which means that His preservation of all images is due to His
particularization, and His knowledge of all things is in the same way. And this
is the question I have been informed of (by God). No one has written this in a
book ever before, neither me nor other than me, except in this book, and this
(matter) is the sole thing of value of (appertaining to) this time and its
singularity. That is to say that the complete and perfect gnostic, having
encompassed all the Presences, is then neglectful of one Presence in one
aspect, but because of his non-forgetfulness of all
with one image over many Presences, and in that Presence you observe
that image, and by preserving that you preserve the images of all things which
are created in all the images, this resembles the Book for which God said: *In
it We have left out nothing.* (This refers to the Guarded Tablets for which God
has said: Tn it We have left out nothing’), meaning that He collected in it all
things. And it collects ail that has happened and that which has not happened,
which means that that Book contains everything that has already happened from
all eternity, and all that which has not yet happened but will happen until all
eternity. Consequently, the gnostic who encompasses all the Presences,
maintaining and preserving the image of his creation in one Presence through
his witnessing that Presence preserves the images of that creation in all the
Presences, ahG all images are included in that one image. Thus, that one
Presence Is like the Evident Book which collects all things, where no image
runains outside it. No one knows what we have said except he be qur'nn
in his own self, which means, the Perfect Man, who having comprehended the totality
of the Divine and immanential Presences collfetts in himself the Divine image
and the creaturial image, who is qur'an himself, collects the totality
of things, and the totality of things are attached one to the other in his
being. Thus, being in gnosis of the collectivity of his own self he witnesses
taste where that one Presence collects the totality of Presences, and the
gnostic who is not ignorant of that one Presence and its image preserves all
the Presences and their images. Consequently, he does not know the predication
of the Presence which is like the qur'an for all Presences except he is
the qur'Qn in his own self, because he is the possessor of the
collectivity of singularity. If he were to become lost from his creation in one
Presence, he will witness it in a Presence which is higher than that Presence
which would be in the witnessing of that Presence and its preservation, and
that Presence becomes like that Book in which is collected all that has
happened and all which has not happened but will happen in the future. Consequently,
the gnostic who knows that that Presence is the Book which collects everything,
is gnostic by being qur'an in his own self. Those who are pious people
by common usage are people of discrimination and they are righteous and duly
perform their religious act. They have
and this is the discrimination which is the highest discrimination,
which means that the discrimination of the devoted is like the discrimination
we have mentioned in this matter by which the servant becomes differentiated
from the Lord, and the discrimination we have mentioned in this matter is the
highest discrimination, and the only reason why the discrimination of the
devoted is like the discrimination of the possessor of collectivity and qur’an
is in the matter of differentiation between the servant and the haqq.
That is to say, it is similar in the fact of differentiating between the haqq
and the servant. However, the discrimination of the devoted is lower than the
discrimination of the possessor of qur’an, and this latter’s
discrimination is higher. That is why the Shaykh says: . this is the
discrimination which is the highest discrimination’, because at the station of
discrimination after collectivity is the discrimination of the perfect heir, where,
while the haqq is manifest in the servant with the Divine collectivity
and the servant is the total place of manifestation for Him, God’s Essential
Necessarily-so-ness is differentiated from the servant’s essential dependence.
It is also possible to understand it this way, that the discrimination of the
Perfect Man, who is in himself the qur’an, is similar to the
discrimination mentioned in this matter in that it differentiates between the
servant and the Lord, and this is the highest discrimination. Thus, the gnostic
is not differentiated from the haqq at the degree of collectivity, but
when he descends to the station of discrimination after collectivity to
establish the degree of differentiation between the haqq and the khalq,
being qualified with a quality from among the creaturial qualities such as
being qualified by being completely dependent on the haqq in being, and
the quality of discrimination becoming preponderant in him, he becomes
differentiated from the haqq and manifests ivith servanthood.
And sometimes the servant manifests
as the Lord without a doubt,
And sometimes the servant manifests as the servant
truly.
At times without a doubt the servant becomes the Lord in consideration
of his manifestation with the Divine Qualities and Lordly relationships. That
is to say, the Perfect Man by way of caliphate with
My believing servant is large enough’, and being qualified with absolute
and complete servanthood and total dependence he collects in himself the
collectivity of the Essential Divine Names and his heart becomes large enough
for the Ipseity and Quality of haqq and becomes manifest from his place
of manifestation in the most suitable and perfect and highest and most wise
aspects to the Divine actions and Lordly determinations. However, he is not in
requirement of Divine perfections which are established for God by virtue of
his being qualified by absolute servanthood and by virtue of his absolute
refraining from raising himself to Lordship, and he is not manifest with his
Own being, nor with dispensing. He is transcended from the degree of dispensing
by his own being, because in dispensing he has made God his regent and proxy.
On the*other hand, if the perfect servant becomes Lord he is in the hard life
because if he manifests with the Lordly Qualities he becomes needy of the gift
of nourishment. Thus, being in need of getting nourishment, at times he is
consequently in a narrow life, because where it concerns being, rich-
ness-beyond-need, action, effect ana effusion of the haqq. these are
Essential Qualities, whereas non-being and being acted-upon and being effected
and being dependent and being receptive are essential qualities for the
servant. Thus the servant by essence is needy, even though incidentally he is
powerful by the power of God, or at the time of the qualification with
servanthood and dependency, which are the qualities of servanthood, he
manifests with incapacity and need when he is needy of the effusion and help
which are the qualities of Lordship. The following two lines, together with the
two other stanzas that follow, are in explanation and exposition of the
stanzas that have passed.
And from his immanence as a servant
he sees the same as himself,
And all desires are made ample from1 him
without a doubt.
I
Thus, as the servant is an absolute servant qualified with the
qualities of servanthood, he witnesses the same as his own essence. That is to
say, he sees his own essence as in need and unable. He even sees his non-being (’adam),
and then all desires are enlarged from him
dispensing. Because of this you see some of the gnostics complain.
When he manifests with servanthood and the quality of inability the dispensing
and giving which comes about in his place of manifestation belongs to the haqq
and to the Names and the Divine Qualities, and he has no place in that
dispensing. Consequently, the manifestation of the perfect servant with the
qualities of inability is at the time when he turns his face to Lordship and
his manifestation with needs is when he looks at the same time at his own
absolute servanthood. On the other hand, he who has made the Lord his proxy and
taken Him as his regent in the things that are required, according to the
requisites of absolute servanthood, without even rising to Lordship, and being
manifest with the determination of total fana\ he is not incapable
because he has committed all orders to God and taken Him as his proxy, and at
his level dispensing and not dispensing is all the same, rather perhaps even
that non-dispensing is preferable.
The Shaykh (R.A.) in chapter 22 of the Futuhat
says that nobody knows the wonderful taste of being qualified by servanthood
except at the level of his being qualified by Lordship he has tasted the worries
of that position where the creation needs him, like Solomon (S. A.), who at one
time asked that God the High give upon his hands physically the nourishment of
the servants of God, that is to say, that it reached them through his hands.
Thus Solomon (S.A.) at that time collected everything of nourishment which was
present. Then a creature came out of the sea and asked of Solomon his
sustenance, and Solomon (S.A.) said to that animal: ‘Every day take from this
collected sustenance that which is necessary for your sustenance.’ The animal
ate all that had been collected of sustenance. That is to say, he ate all the
sustenance that was collected by Solomon for the totality of the servants and
finished it. Then he turned to Solomon and said to him: ‘Why did you not give
me all my nourishment completely? The great God gives me every day ten times as
much nourishment as this, and there are beings, animals, who are greater than
me and whose nourishment is much more than mine.’ Solomon (S.A.) fully regretted
what he had asked of God and knew that largesse does not exist in the creature
which is suitable to the creator, because Solomon (S.A.) had asked of God a
possession which would not be suitable to
servant’ is addressed to the Perfect Man, who is manifest with Lordship
and servanthood at the station of caliphate, what is meant by ‘fire’ is the
fire of inability and non-ability by one’s own essence. However, the inability
of the perfect is in relationship to himself. It is not in view of the power
and strength of the dispensing of God in his place of manifestation. Otherwise
there would have appeared no act from the Perfect Man. For the people of the
known stations below that of the Perfect Man, from which emanate certain
actions which appertain to dispensing and Lordship, although they are not under
orders to dispense they begin to dispense by virtue of their qualification by
certain Divine Qualities because the remainder of their nafs complains.
What is meant by ‘fire’ in their case is the fire of disappointment, because
the follower (salik\ if he is ever interested in dispensing, he becomes
veiled and totally prevented from the witnessing of the beauty of oneness.
Where other people of power and branches of importance are meant, in their case
the ‘fire’ means the promised fire. God the High has said: ‘The grandeur of the
tormentors and the greatness of those who have become depraved and who have
contended against Me, for them is entering into the fire.’ And God leads whom
He wants to the straight path.
The Wisdom of Exaltedness
(al-hikmat al- 'aliyya)
in the Word of Ishmael
Know that that which is called Allah is Unique by Its Ipseity
and Total by Names. Know that in fact the Being which is called Allah is
Unique by Its Ipseity and Total by Names, that is to say, because of Its
manifesting Itself with the images of the many Names that the image of Divinity
contains It is Total, because with the fluency of the nafs-i-rahman the
many Divine mutually opposed contradictory Names become manifested.
Now, let it be known like this, that Divinity is a
collective degree between the Absolute Ipseity and the Divine Names, and is
many and total in consideration of God’s manifesting Himself with the Divine
Names. But in consideration of its interior, where its interior is not
differentiated from non-particularization (la ta'ayyun) and Absolute
Ipseity except for the particularization itself, it is the same as the Absolute
Ipseity. Thus, if the Being which is particularized in that degree, and by
which It is called, were related to the Being of the Ipseity, It is equally
Unique with the Ipseity and is free of plurality of relationships and being,
and all relationships and attributions fall off from It. But if It were related
to the images of the Divine Names which are particularized at the degree of
Divinity It is the totality of the plurality of all the Divine Names and is
manifest with plurality and qualified by it. Hence, for the Ipseity of God, in
consideration of Its Oneness, many relationships result, like the relationships
of plurality of the one as number - because Divinity necessitates worshippers
of Divinity — then the Divinity implies infinitely numerous relationships, just
as one intellectually implies halfness, thirdness, quartemess, and other
infinite intellectual relationships. Thus, the Unique (ahad) by Its
Essence and Ipseity is transcendent from plurality of relationships and being,
just as the One (wahid) is the totality
Consequently, the words: ‘And all existents have nothing to do with
God except by their private Lord’ mean that, for each existent, from the Divine
Names which imply the degree of Divinity and the Presence of Oneness, there is
one private Name by which Name the High God transcends that being, and the
connection of that existent to God is through that Name because at the degree
of Divinity and in the Presence of Oneness Names are differentiated one from
the other. Consequently, as has been mentioned, each existent is the place of
manifestation of one private Name from among the Names that the degree of
Divinity contains, and is the manifestation of one reality from among the
Divine realities at that degree. Thus, each existent’s support is that private
Name and its own reality. Equally, each existent has no priority in the degree
of Divinity. But the Divine Uniqueness is the same as the one, and in copy,
what is it to the Unique that it should have priority as It does not say
anything from It to the one, or anything to another, because It does not accept
division (partitioning)? But the Divine Essential Uniqueness, at which
Presence the Divine Names and Lordly realities are in power, is the same as
that. Consequently, there is no priority for any one of the existents because
the honour is such that it cannot be said that there is anything for one of the
Divine Uniqueness, or that for another equally there is something, since that
Uniqueness does not accept division. In other words, in the Divine Essential
Uniqueness, in which the plurality of relationships of being are collected and
are as faculties, all pluralities of relationships and collectivities and
beings are according to the quality of Uniqueness. Consequently, in the Presence
of Uniqueness the Divine Names are not differentiated one from the other like
they are differentiated in the Presence of Oneness, so that there could be a
possibility of priority for one person by virtue of that Name and to which he
would be attached. Furthermore, the quality of Uniqueness is not receptive of
division or partition so that there could be one portion for one person and
another portion for another person, so that there could be, by consideration of
the portion particular to each person, a priority for him in Uniqueness, and a
connection. Consequently, this is impossible because in the Uniqueness there
is no being of plurality. The quality of Uniqueness dominates and conquers the
Uniqueness of the Divine Ipseity in which there is no priority for
anyone because It is not the Uniqueness of the Divine Names, because in that
one (the latter one) all the existents have priority. Under certain
considerations. Names (asma ’) are the same as the One that is called {musamma).
The happy is the one who is agreed to by his Lord, except that after that there
is not anybody who is not agreed to by his Lord, because it is he who maintains
for Him His Lordship, so he is agreed to by Him and he is happy. The Shaykh
(R.A.) having spoken before this of the private Lordship and that there was not
any existent who did not have his private Lord who educated him, and that it
was that portion of that existent from absolute Lordship that educated him by
virtue of that existent’s established potentiality, which is in fact the
revelation of the Absolute Being, and that also it is by virtue of that
revelation that it is called by a Name, which preserves and educates that
existent through that private Name and that existent is agreed to at the level
of his private Lord, he (the Shaykh) proceeds to explain that each one of the
existents, by his relationship to his Lord, is happy, and thereby places the
matter of happiness under the Wisdom of Ishmael because Ishmael (S.A.) was
agreed to at the level of his Lord by Divine absolute stipulation, because of
which he was happy. Thus he means that Ishmael was, at the level of his private
Lord, agreed to. However, there is not a single person who is not agreed to at
the level of his private Lord. His private Lord is that possessor Lord who
maintains His Lordship over him. Consequently, that person, at the level of his
private Lord, is agreed to, to the extent of his receptivity and ability to
receive the Lordship of that Lord, which he maintains over Him. Thus that person
is happy. In other words, the happy one is that person who, at the level of his
Name which is his private Lord, is agreed to by private aptitude by accepting
the Lordship of that private Lord and by that Name’s completion becoming
manifest by him. Indeed, each existent from among the existences in the
Presence of Existence, who is the place of manifestation of the Lordship of
that private Lord, is agreed to at that level, because He exercises His
Lordship and maintains it over him, and that existent who establishes the
Lordship is agreed to at His level. If he was not agreed to He would not
maintain His
depend on the Lord. Consequently, the maintenance and realization of
Lordship has been given over to the one who establishes Lordship. If the one
who establishes Lordship is existent and remains (baqT), Lordship
equally exists and remains, and if the one who establishes the Lordship
disappears, then Lordship also disappears. Consequently, it is apparent from
the words of Sahl that there is a mystery of Lordship and that that mystery is
your being, and if the mystery of Lordship, which is your potentiality, were to
show, that is, were to cease, then the Lordship would also be inexistent. (The
word zahara which is ‘manifest’ here means zala which is ‘to
cease’.) The Shaykh (R.A.) discusses these matters (of the mystery of the
Divinity and the mystery of Lordship) in the first volume of the Futuhat.
And he put in there the word ‘Zaw’’, and that is the word of refusal (imfind')
for impossibility (imtina'). Thus Sahl, God be pleased with him, entered
the law before the word zahara, and law is the word of
refusal and avoidance as impossibility, which means that if that mystery were
manifest or obvious, Lordship would be inexistent. However, it (that is, the
mystery) does not manifest and Lordship does not become inexistent But the fact
is that that mystery does not manifest, consequently Lordship does not become
inexistent, because it is so, that there is no being for the 'ayn except
by its Lord, and the 'ayn exists always and Lordship does ndt disappear
ever. The honour is such that for each 'ayn there is no existence except
through the revelation of the Name which is its private Lord, yet the 'ayn
is always existent, consequently Lordship always remains existent because it is
Lordship which depends on the existing 'ayn, and that Lordship never
becomes inexistent, nor ceases. What is understood by the Shaykh’s last words
is this, that the potentiality, which is the mystery of the Lordship on which
depends the realization of Lordship, is the existent potentiality which enters
into the circle of existence by Lordly revelation, which means that the existent
potentialities, which at the level of the First ta'ayyun, with the nafs-i-rahmarii
and Lordly revelations, individuate and are manifest in the mirrors of the
established potentialities, enter into the image of the circle of existence and
become qualified by being, and thus having become potentialities of being,
then, whether they be considered as the potentialities of existence in the
higher
with action. Consequently, the potentiality is in agreement to the
actions of his private Lord which manifest in him and from him. Such actions
are all agreed to because for an actor and a craftsman there is agreement for
his actions and craftsmanship, because he has sufficient portion of his
actions and his craftsmanship, as He bestowed everything to His creation and then
guided, which is that it is clear that He bestowed everything to His creation,
and he accepts neither less nor more. In each potential the actor and the
craftsman has sufficiently of his own actions and craftsmanship of that
portion of action and craftsmanship which was according to his receptivity and
which it demanded from the actor and craftsman, and this is understood from the
words of God the High which say: ‘Gave everything to His creation and then
guided.’ That is to say, God bestowed upon him his portion which is his
creaturial nature, that is to say, what his aptitude necessitated, and then
guided him. Which means that He makes it clear that He bestowed to everything
what its creaturial nature demands and that each thing does not accept anything
less or more than what his aptitude requires, and demands the portion that his
aptitude demands and accepts. The Shaykh (R.A.) gave a clear exegetic explanation
of guidance so that it be known and be clear that God the High bestowed on
everything its nature and then guided him to everything in accordance with his
nature by virtue of Iris receptivity and aptitude. Consequently, the guided and
the person who is agreed at the level of his Lord is that person who knows that
God gave everything its nature in accordance with that thing’s aptitude.
And it was that Ishmael (S.A.), by discovering this
matter we have mentioned, was agreed to, and in the same way all existents are
agreed to by their Lord. Thus Ishmael, because he discovered the same matter as
that which we have mentioned, became agreed to, that is to say, because Ishmael
rose to the knowledge that for the potential action is not established except
for the Lord which is revealed and manifest in the potential, and the potential
equally does not request from his Lord by his receptivity except that which
manifests from Him (his Lord). Thus Ishmael (S.A.) became agreed to by his
Lord, and in the same way each existent is agreed to at the level of his
private Lord by maintaining the Lordship for that private Lord
level of total Lordship. Therefore it is not
necessary that he should be agreed to at. the level of another Lord because he
is agreed to at the level ofhUown Lord. Consequently» the Lordship which is
individuated from total Lordship and which becomes realized in him is the
Lordship which is suitable to him, that is to say, what his receptivity
demanded and which is the Lordship particular to that private Name.
Consequently, the private Name which is the owner of a private Lordship is
only agreed to at the level of that private Name which is his private Lord, and
is not agreed to at the level of the other Lordships which comprise total
Lordship, because he did not accept their Lordship, and their Lordship is not
individuated in him. The Shaykh (R.A.) says: ‘Because he did not take the
Eordship except from all, and not from one’, because if each one of the
existents had not taken the private Lordship from the total Lordship but had
taken it only from the private Lord, theh the one who Is agreed to at the level
of one Lord would necessarily be agreed to at the level of another Lord. For
instance, it would be Necessary in casks like ra'uf and 'atuf and
rahim which are related Names, that the |i^rson in whom is realized the
establishment of Lordship of the Lordihip of ra'iif, and who has
established the Lordship at that level and is agreed to, would necessarily be
also agreed to at the level of ’atuf which is another Lord; and in the
same way in the case of the opposing Names like jalTl and janiil where
some of the establishments of Lordships which are agreed to at the level of jattt
are equally agreed to at the level of jamil, as jamal manifests
in the jal5l, and jalal manifests in the jamal, as His jamal
results in His jalal, and His jalal necessitates His jamal',
thus it becomes necessary that the one who establishes Lordship who is agreed
to at the level of one Lord, is also agreed to at the level of another Lord. In
the same way, according to the belief of Ibn Qasiy, which is that whichever
Name you take from among the Divine Names it becomes the Greatest Name (ism-i-a'yam)
as it leads to the Name of the Ipseity and the Ipseity collects in Itself the
totality of the Divine Names, consequently that each of the existents leads to
the Ipseity, and consequently that if he is agreed to at the level of his
private Lord he is necessarily also agreed to at the level of the Ipseity, and
he who is agreed to at the level of the Ipseity is necessarily agreed to at the
in association. However, private Lordship is never in association.
Consequently, no potentiality took from the total if it were not in him
effectively in collectivity in himself. And like this Al-Qashani also says that
each potentiality from among the potentialities takes from the absolute
Lordship that Lordship which is particular to that Name which is suitable to
itself and does not take from one thing. That is to say, the totality of the
potentialities do not take it from a specific one so that it would be necessary
that if the one is agreed to at the level of his private Lord he would be
agreed to equally at the level of another Lord. The Absolute Lord is Lord of
Lords. All the superior commentators, each one of them takes the Shaykh’s
words: *... not from one’ to mean this, that all the potentialities did not
take the Lordship from the ‘Leaders’ (meaning Names) which is a definite one,
so that one servant who is agreed to at the level of his Lord be equally agreed
to at the level of the Lord of another servant, both their Lords being the
same. But what the Shaykh (R.A.) aims at in the words: Tt is not necessary,
although all existents ... etc.’, and in the words: ‘All existents are agreed
to by their Lord’, and before that in his words: ‘The happy is the one who is
agreed to by his Lord’, is that even though each one of the existents is agreed
to at the level of his Lord and is happy, he (the Shaykh) wishes to remove the
equality, which is in every way conjectured in the relative, in happiness and
agreement among the existents, and to establish the difference of agreement in
relation to the Lords of such people as the complete ones, and the lacking
ones, and the happy ones, and the corrupt ones (ill-doers), and the believers,
and the deniers (coverers-up), and the ones who are obedient, and the ones who
revolt, and to explain that the one who is agreed to at the level of the Lord
of the Misleader is not the same as the one who is agreed to at the level of
the Guide. For instance, it does not mean that for any person who is at a level
corresponding to the degree of Ishmael and who is agreed to at the level of his
private Lord, that it is necessary that he should also be agreed to at the
level of the private Lord of Ishmael. Consequently, like this, agreement is a
relative order and not absolute, and in the same way it does not result in the
order of eternal felicity. That which causes eternal felicity is to be agreed
to at the level of the total absolute Lordship with the order of
individuated Lordship, again it does not take from one definite.
When David of Caesarea takes the words: ‘Because he did not take the Lordship
except from all, and not from one, and the individuation did not happen to him
from the total except the thing that was suitable, and that is his (private)
Lord’ as an invalidation (ta'lTf) for the words: ‘And it was that
Ishmael (S.A.), by discovering this matter we have mentioned, was agreed to
..he refers the pronoun ‘because he’ to Ishmael himself, and the resultant lack
of hitting the mark is understandable by the person who has a low degree of
comprehension.
And no one takes it from God by virtue of His
Uniqueness, and because of this the people of God have forbidden revelation in
Uniqueness. These words are answer to a possible objection which might be that
if Lordship is taken from Uniqueness it is necessary then that he who is agreed
to at the level of one Lord should also be agreed to at the level of another
Lord, since Uniqueness is the origin and collectivity of all Lordships. The
answer is that he says: there is not one who takes Lordship by virtue of God’s
Uniqueness, because in the Uniqueness there is no severalness or being part. It
is because of this that the people of God forbid the revelation in the Uniqueness,
because for revelation it is necessary to have the one revealed to and the one
who reveals, and these negate the Uniqueness since it needs severalness and
multiplicity. Consequently, the revelation that happens in the Uniqueness is
the same as the Uniqueness Itself. He reveals His Being to His own Self, and
revelation, the revealed and the revealed to are all One Being. And if you were
to look at Him by Him, He is the one who looks to His own Self. The One who
looks does not disappear from looking at Himself by Himself. Thus, if you were
to look at the haqq with the Being of the haqq, that is to say,
you would be looking at Him with the Being of the haqq after you have
been the total place of manifestation of the haqq and that the haqq has
manifested in you with the totality of manifestation of His Ipseity and
Quality. Thus, the haqq looks at His own Self. Thus, the haqq does
not disappear from looking at Himself by Himself. Thus, in Uniqueness the
looker and the one who is looked at is the One Being of God. There is no other
thing in that which could look at Him or take from Him. Consequently, one
cannot take from Him by virtue
of the addressee and with His own Being, the haqq is the one
who looks and the one who is looked at. However, as it is in negation of the
Uniqueness of the Ipseity this relationship is impossible, and to look at this
relationship is the association of the addressee to the haqq, which
means that the haqq and the khalq are the ones who look, and the haqq
is the one that is seen. Thus haqq is both the one who looks and the one
who is seen. But this creates a flaw in the Uniqueness by the existence of the
relationship. It is also possible that the meaning is as follows: even if the haqq
saw no other than His own Self by His own Self from the place of manifestation
of the addressee, since for the essence of the possible, by virtue of its
non-existence ('adam), looking is not established, looking, then, again
appertains to the haqq who is manifest in the essence of the possible,
and it is known that the haqq in this qualification, that is to say,
when He is qualified by manifesting in the place of manifestation of the
essence of the possible, is both the one who looks and the one who is looked
at. Thus, even under this consideration the Uniqueness disappears because of
the aspect of the look manifesting in the place of manifestation of the essence
of the possible.
It is not true that the one agreed to is agreed to
absolutely. When it is established that each existent did not take the Lordship
except from the all, that is to say, from the absolute Lordship, and only took
from it the thing that is suitable from the private Lordship, then according to
this consideration it is established that it is not true for the existent who
is agreed to at the level of the private Lord to be absolutely agreed to, which
means that it would not be true that he would be agreed to at the level of the
totality of the Lordships of the Divine Names which is implied by the absolute
total Lordship, because as each one of the existents takes from the private
Lordship that which is suitable by virtue of the width of his receptivity from
the total Lordship, that he is agreed to at the level of the private Name which
is the possessor of that Lordship which is his private Lord, does not
necessitate that he should be also agreed to at the level of another Lord.
Consequently, for the one who is agreed to at the level of his private Lord it
is not necessarily true that he should be absolutely agreed to, because the
fact that he is agreed to at the level of his
was with his Lord agreed to.’ These words are very clear, and by
qualifying this the High God made him superior to the other essences. Consequently,
his superiority over other essences is due to the fact that God clearly
specified that he was at the level of his Lord agreed to, and mentioned in the
Book: ‘Ishmael, he was faithful of promise and he was envoy prophet, and he
used to order his people with salat, salawat and zakat, and he
was with his Lord agreed to.’ The Shaykh (R A.) has mentioned already that
Ishmael was agreed to, prior to this, where he says: ‘And it was that Ishmael
(S.A.), by discovering... etc.', whereby he showed clearly that what the haqq
bestows upon each thing is its creaturial nature, in other words, that which he
demanded from the haqq according to his receptivity, and that is his
portion, and it is because of his attaining to the fact that this is his
portion and that this attainment is the knowledge of the Mystery of qada'
and qadar which is the beginnings of tawhld. Consequently, his
envoyship and his prophethood aside, it is because of his reaching to the
knowledge of tawhld that Ishmael (S.A.) was true to his promise. This
means that the High God takes from al! prophets the dire covenant which is the
covenant of tawhld, v/hich means that they may not pray to or face
anything other than the haqq and that they do not prove existence for
anything other than the haqq, and after this promise and commitment of
and to tawhld, because Ishmael (S.A.) was established upon that
commitment and all his actions were according to tawhid and his tawhld
governed all his states, God made him thanked and praised by the words: ‘He was
true of promise.* Because he established the Being of the haqq by
negating anything other than the haqq, and because he ordered witnessing
and prayer to the naqq according to meditation and presence which
necessarily invites tawhld to all his intimates in the horizons that
obeyed him and to all his intimates in his own nafs which are his
spiritual powers and powers of his nafs, and to his spirit and to his
heart and to his nafs, and again, because he ordered that they should
banish all that is other than the haqq from their being, and kill their nafs
with the sword of love of God and by cleaning and purifying it (their nafs)
of uncleanliness of emanations and of being two, he was praised and mentioned
by the words: ‘He used to order his intimates with salawat and zakat'
is invited from the Lords of other Names, knew Him to be agreeing
and that he was being separated and distinguished from other servants and was
being invited to Him, being agreed to; thus he responds to the invitation of
the haqq and concords with His order. (And says to them): ‘And enter
into (the category) of My servants’, as this station (of agreeing) is their
possession, and the servants mentioned here are all servants who know their
Lord, who are contented with Him and do not look at another Lord, as the
essences of all the Lords are according to Uniqueness and as the One Essence
has collected the totality of Lords. That is to say, in the words ‘My servants’
the servants mentioned are all servants who have known their own Lord and who
are contented with it and do not look at any other Lord, since the essences of
all the Lords are according to the Uniqueness and since One 'ayn
collects the totality of Lords. ‘And enter My paradise’ which is with which I
cover Myself (the word 'janna' - ‘paradise’ — is of the same root as 'jinn',
and that means ‘covering’), and what is My paradise other than you, and it is
you by your self that covers Me. In certain copies it reads: which is My
mystery, which means, it is My veiling. Thus, enter My paradise, but it is that
My paradise, Oh self, is no other than you because you cover Me by your ipseity
(dhat) and you are My veil. He who enters you reaches Me, and nothing
other than Me is found in you. Which means that when the servant is agreed to
at the level of his Lord and joins his Lord as being His place of manifestation
whereby all His actions manifest in him, to which manifestation the Lord
agrees, thus the servant becomes the paradise of the Lord because the Lord is
manifested by the servant and is covered in his being the place of
manifestation, and in this way the servant made of his nafs the
protection for his Lord and covers Him from blameworthy actions. Thus the
servant attributes to himself all blameworthiness even though by origin all
action is the Lord’s: ‘Say: All is from God.’ He also made of his Lord a
protection and a cover for his own nafs in all renderings of grace and
perfection. Thus, he qualified his Lord with all grace, and the servant became
covered and veiled by the being of the Lord because of the attribution of all
grace to Him. Consequently, in rendering of grace the Lord became the cover for
the servant, and in blameworthy things the
I am not known, because God, due to His Essential Absoluteness, is
neither qualified, nor praised, nor known, nor witnessed. Equally, you cannot
be known by virtue of your reality because your reality is summarized in My
Ipseity. Rather perhaps that it is therein annihilated and is according to
non-being. Consequently, if My Ipseity is unknown it is evident that your
reality cannot be known. Thus, God becomes both known and unknown. That He rs
known is subject to the fact that the servant is known, and that the servant is
unknown is subject to God being unknown. Consequently, the servant is also both
known and unknown. As the Shaykh (R.A.) says:
, And if one did not know
of a thing its reality,
How then can He be known and be
related to within him?
if
And if you have entered His paradise you have entered
your nafs. The Shaykh (R.A.) says, if you have entered His paradise you
enter your own nafs because your nafs is His paradise. He is
veiled by your nafs and He is manifested by your nafs. Whenever a
Lord from among the Lords of the Divine Names calls to His servant: ‘Return to
your Lord’, and orders him to enter the paradise of his Lord, the gnostic
enters his own self because the gnostic has gnosis of the fact that the
paradise of his private Lord is his own nafs. The gnostic servant has
gnosis of the fact that he is for that Lord the place of manifestation, the
place of revelation and the extended throne, and that the Lord is Lord and
Master. The Lord never desists from being the lover of His servant and from
showing agreement to him and being agreeable to him, and equally, the servant
never fails to be in gnosis of his Lord and to be in His paradise and to be
agreed to at His level. God be pleased with them and show them His agreement.
And He never stops agreeing to us with all His Love,
And
His passion never fades from being all-loving affection,
He forbids me separation from Him and necessitates My
joining Him without possibility of distance or closeness.
nafs, that is to say, by virtue of your nafs
that) you came to know Him and due to the determinations of possibilities which
are necessary for it. And the other is the knowledge of the Lord by virtue of
the knowledge of the nafs, again, by virtue of the Lord, not by virtue
of the nafs, which means, the knowledge of the nafs because your nafs
is the being of the Lord, and the knowledge of the nafs is not through
and due to the nafs. Another way to understand is: your knowledge of the
Lord due to the fact that you are the place of manifestation, not because of
you.
And you are the servant and you
are the Ix>rd, •
A
Since you are to Him and in Him the servant.
Thus, in consideration of the first gnosis you are servant for the
Lord whose dominion is manifested in you, and for the Name whose determination
is over you, whom you know by His qualifications of action and His Essential
Richness beyond Need from the actions through your own nafs and its
essential inability and dependence. In consideration of the second gnosis, for
that private Lord, because of His manifestation in you, you are the servant in
Him, and because of His agreeing to all you ask of Him which happens in the
images of order your dominion over Him is manifest, and equally, at the level
of His Lordship He is realized by you and because you maintain the Lordship of
the Lord over Him. Consequently the consideration becomes like this: and you
are the Lord to the private Lord in which you are, which means the
determination of His Lordship to His servant.
Now let it be known like this, that God the High is
manifest and hidden, and by the Name Manifest {zahir) there is Lordship
established for the Name Hidden {batin). Nevertheless, the hidden
educates the manifest by effusing the lights of the Unknowable over the manifest
and by manifesting the determinations and the effects of the unknowable Divine
Names. In the same way, the manifest educates the hidden and makes it reach
completion by receiving as effusions the lights of the interior and by the fact
that the manifestation in the exterior of the determinations of the Names is by
the place of manifestation of the Name Manifest, which, if one disregards their
manifestation in the manifest, remain in lack in the interior, or even
«V
than that promise which he has with his private Lord which dissolves
his promise, for instance, the servant of the Merciful whose determination is
in opposition to the servant of the Destroyer and dissolves the former’s
promise. And this word *'aqd\ ‘promise’, can also be 'aqida which
means ‘belief’, in which case: from the Lordships of the Divine Names one
person is the place of manifestation for one Name and that person is in
accordance with a private belief which is of the necessity of the
determinations of that Name, by which he is distinguished from the other Lords
of belief, just as the Name which is his private Lord is distinguished from
other Names by a private particularity. Thus, each belief upon which a person
is established by the necessities of the private Lord which is manifest in him,
that belief is dissolved by that other person for whom there is a belief which
is other than that belief according to the determinations of the Lord which is
particular to it. Thus, the servant of the Subtle (latif) is according
to a belief which the servant of the Destroyer (qahhar) dissolves,
because this one’s belief is in opposition to the other one’s. Equally, the
servant of the Manifest is according to a belief which the servant of the
Interior will dissolve since this one’s belief is in opposition to the other.
Consequently, each Name has a private Lordship which is in opposition to the
Lordship of another Name. Each person is upon a private belief and a private
action, which, at the level of his private Lord, is agreed to, and at the level
of the Lord of another servant it is not agreed to, and each Name only agrees
to the servant who establishes Him as the Lord (marbub). In this context
the word 'man' (in the last verse of the poem above) is a noun which is
the actor of the word/dissolvesrit’. (yahulluhu), or it could also be
with the diacritical sign kasra, to rC^d ‘mzn’, in which case the actor
of‘dissolves it’ is the word ‘the belief’, for instance: dissolves the belief
which happens to it from other. And God agrees to His servants and they are
agreed to, and they agree to Him, all of them, and He is agreed to. Thus, God,
who is individuated in the degree of Divinity which includes all the Divine
Names, agrees to all His servants because each of the Lordships of the Divine
Names which are in the degree of Divinity agrees to its servant by manifesting
in him and by him the effects which are the necessities of its wisdom.
Consequently, the
is that there is nothing in being that is not distinguished from
another because in the Divine Presence the Names are distinguished one from the
other. Thus, these things which are alike do not unite together, and if they
cannot unite they are in opposition to each other. That is why the two
Presences are contrary, just like the contrariety of the things which are alike
and in opposition. However, the Shaykh (R.A.). having established the being of
opposites and likes in the explanation of the two Presences, proceeds to
explain in consideration of the Reality of Being which unites the two Presences
which are in fact one reality, by pointing to that One Reality which removes
likeness and opposition, and thereby goes on to explain the oneness of
Ipseity, and after thattjie oneness of the width and latitude of being, and
says: And after that there is no like; and there is in being no alike and there
is in being no opposite, because in fact being is One Reality and a thing is
not in opposition to its own self, which means that there is no consideration
of being alike in the R.eality of Oneness because It is in accordance with the
quality of Uniqueness. Consequently, there is no ‘alike’ in being and no
opposition in being, because being is One Reality and a thing can never be in
opposition to its own self and essence, which means that the Ipseity of
Uniqueness, which is One Reality, is established in accordance with the quality
of Uniqueness wherein there is no differentiation or plurality which could be
alike to It. Consequently, in the Reality of Being, which is Its exterior and
which collects together the Presence of Lordship and the Presence of
servanthood, there is equally no ‘alike’ because the One Reality, which is
according to the Uniqueness of the Ipseity, is manifested in the mirrors of
being according to oneness. Consequently, there can be no ‘alike’ in being, and
consequently there can be no opposition in being, since being is One Reality,
and it is impossible that one thing be multiple in itse lf and be alike to and
in opposition to its own self, because that One Reality is individuated only
intellectually in the degrees of distinguishing. Consequently, the manifest is
the same as the place of manifestation, and the place of manifestation is the
same as the manifest, and individuations and particularizations are the
qualities and modes of that One Reality. The Essence or Self is One. However,
in the Presence of Being there is nothing which is
see with the eye or the eye of the interior anything other than the
same as the haqq when I observe the existence outside,of the intellect
in the ‘exterior and the interior. ‘He is the First and the Last and the Mani-
fest and the Hidden, anci He encompasses everything.’ ‘God witnesses that in
fact there is ho other Divinity except Himself.’ This is for one who fears his
Lord, that he be He (and in certain copies: that he be Him). These words are
the completion of the words: ‘God was pleased with them and they were pleased
with Him.’ What has passed in betweeii was the supposed opposition. In this,
the word ‘this is’ points to' the meaning of the words: ‘God agrees to them and
they agree to Him’, as if meaning that the station of agreement is particular
to the one who fears his Lord. In other words, the ‘one who fears his Lord’ is
the one who differentiates the Presences of Lordship and servanthood one from
the other and reflects the dues to each part. Thus the servant who is qualified
by absolute servanthood establishes the degrees of agreement between the two
parties and never transgresses from his servanthood by good form. The station
of agreement which comes about between the two parties is particular to that
servant who feared his Lord, feared of ever allowing that the Lord be his
being, or that he be the being of the Lord, thus including the being of the
Lord into the being of the self (wujud-i-'aynt), and the rulership of
the Divine Oneness be manifest upon himself and destroy differentiation,
because at the level of manifestation of the rulership of the oneness
differentiation and numerality becomes destroyed. ‘And say: Truth has come and
falsehood (batil) is destroyed.’ Thus the servant fears that he should
establish unity by saying, the being of the Lord is my being or that my being
is the being of the Lord, due to his knowledge of differentiation, because the
servant who fears for his Lord knows the differentiation which happens between
the Lord and the one who establishes Lordship. Lordship does not become
realized in he who establishes Lordship, and he who establishes Lordship does not
exist without the being of his Lord. However, the servant stopped at the centre
of his servanthood in the state of being agreed to at the level of bis
Lord,’and dm the state of agreeing to the Lordship of his Lord because the Lord
agreed to his servanthood. In the same way, the Lord is equally established in
the centre of His Lordship in the
the Names, and onl^ithen it becomes established among the servants
in the Presehce'of,;Bemg. In short, it becomes established between
the servant and the Lord as mentioned. Had there been no differentiation, then
surely one Divine Name would have been interpreted in all its aspects by
another, yet the Name Endearer (the One who raises in esteem) (mu 'izz)
is not interpreted by the interpretation of the Name Abaser (mudhill),
and the rest are in the same way. If there were no differentiation between the
Lords of the Divine Names, certainly one Divine Name would be interpretable in
all its aspects with that with which another Name could be interpreted.
However, the Name Endearer cannot be interpreted in all its aspects with the
interpreta- t:on of the Name Abaser. In the same way, all the Divine
Names of mutaqabilat (contraries) equally cannot be interpreted this way
in all their aspects, like the Beneficial (nafi‘) and the Misery-creator
(darr), and the Beautiful (jarnil) and the Majestic (jalil).
Yet it is it from the aspect of Uniqueness, which means that yet Endearer is
Abaser by way of Uniqueness of Ipseity and can be interpreted by the interpretation
of Abaser in consideration of the LTniqueness of the Ipseity. Thus,
every Name can be interpreted with the interpretation of another Name, whether
it be in opposition or in concordance, because in consideration of the
LTniqueness of Ipseity there is neither opposition nor concordance. Opposition
and concordance are in consideration of degrees of Names. As you might say,
concerning all the Names, that it leads to the Ipseity, and to its own reality
by virtue of its self (its huwiyya), and the one who is Named is one,
and the Endearer, it is the Abaser, and the Endearer is not the Abaser by
virtue of its self (nafs) and its reality. However, you might say that
each of the Divine Names leads to the Ipseity or to its own reality by virtue
of its private quiddity (huwiyya). Thus, that which is named by all the
Names is one. Consequently, in consideration of the oneness of the one Named;
Endbaref fts the quiddity of the Abaser, yet the Endearer is not the Abaser by
virtue of its own essence and its own reality, because the reality of the
Endearer is distinguished from the reality of the Abaser, which means that for
each Name there are two indications. One indicates the Ipseity and the other
indicates the Name’s own self and its reality by which it is distinguished from
another
that they are confused by a new creation.’ Equally, you do not make
things pass away. That is to say, you do not make pass away absolutely the
essences of being, because you know that they are the places of manifestation
of God and that God is from all eternity and forever revealed and manifested in
them. In the same way, you do not maintain absolutely the essences of being,
because the essences of being are things that pass away and are annihilated at
the level of the Uniqueness and the Last Day of Judgement and the revelation of
the One and All-Conqueror. In the same way, do not make the immanence pass
away from God or do not make God remain without the immanence, and in the same
way, do not make the immanence pass away at the level of the revelation of God,
because although the immanence is from all eternity in reality a passing away
thing, yet how can you make iVpass away? And equally, do not make the haqq persist
since'anyway the haqq persists from all eternity.
The
inspiration (wahy) is not irradiated (yulqa) upon you from one to another, and you do not irradiate it.
The inspiration (wahy) does not descend on you from one to
the other because there is no other. It is inspired into you because you are
the Being of the haqq, and you do not pass it on to another because
there is no other, because you are at the station of collectivity. All servants
are the places of manifestation of your reality. Thus, they are your detailings
and you are their total, and when you inspire them you do not inspire anybody
else and no inspiration can be made upon you from another except from your own
reality. That is to say, whatever is irradiated to you from the Lordly gifts
and Divine tastes, you equally educate and irradiate this Divine knowledge to
those who ask for it, and you irradiate to them only what each person’s reality
bestows upon them, so nothing is irradiated from another.
As the High God praised Ishmael (S.A.) with agreement
and faithfulness of promise, the Shaykh (R.A.), after having explained the wisdom
of the mystery of agreement, now passes on to the explanation of the wisdom of
the mystery of praise (thana*). The praise is through faithfulness to
promise, not by faithfulness to threat, and the Divine
shortcomings even though He had threatened. Consequently, the Divine
Presence cannot be praised by faithfulness to the threat because threat is not
essentially lauded and it is only in response and opposition to the
shortcomings of the servant. And He praised Ishmael because he was faithful of
promise, and indeed the possibility (of the realization of the threat) passed
away in reality. Because Ishmael was faithful of promise Got! praised him,
which means He praised him with the words ‘faithful of promise’, and because
his promise maintained the persistence of the past promises. Also, in reality
the possibility of the realization of the threat concerning God is eliminated,
because the realization of the promise has become certain. God, with the words:
‘And do not count God as one of those who will vary in His promise to His
envoys’, said that and praised Ishmael with the faithfulness to promise and not
the faithfulness to threat. Rather, He promised with the words: ‘But He will
overlook’, as in the quote: ‘We overlook their shortcomings.’ In the same way,
God said: ‘God covers over all shortcomings, and God does not cover up,
forgive, when you associate Him with something, but after that He covers up
everything’, and other versets. Consequently, God’s praising Ishmael by
faithfulness to promise, that praise is of the category of the faithfulness of
the promise of God, and by promise of overlooking it becomes established that
it is necessary that the promise is carried out, and the promise is
overlooking, forgiving and covering up. Consequently, from the establishment of
the faithfulness of promise, the possibility of the happening of the threat
became established as a possibility. When there is this in it (that is, the
possibility) it is that a preference is required. In the realization of the
possibility of the threat there results a demand of preference because the
coming about of one of the two sides of the possibility is through preference.
In this case there is nothing other than the shortcomings which would prefer
the threat. Consequently, it would be necessary to demand shortcomings and the
request of non-overlooking of ill-doings. But the fact is that the man is
ordered with the demanding of perfections and goodnesses and beauties, and is
promised with the overlooking of the ill-doings, because the only purpdse.of
the threat is to frighten you and make one devout. Consequently; the preference
of maintaining the threat over
At a taste therein which is for them
a different munificence
Which means that the wretched people have a taste which is for them
a different munificence, which means that they, in the house of wretchedness,
are in a different munificence.
To the munificence of perpetual
paradise; however, the order is one.
Which means that although the munificence is different to the munificence
of the perpetual paradise, yet the order is one and the same by virtue of the
revelation, which means that the happy ones and the wretched ones are under one
and the same revelation, and the order of tasting and being the subject of the
munificence for the people of paradise and the people of hell is the same
order, which again means that the people of paradise, who are the good selves,
relish their state and are in comfort, just as the people of hell, who are the
wicked (khabith) selves, relish wickedness and are in comfort in it.
Thus, punishment becomes agreeable (*adhb) for them. Consequently, the
order of be th comforts, which is particular to each category by virtue of the
character of each, is the same from the point of view of relishing.
And between the two of them there is
a difference at the level of the revelation.
And it is such that although at the level of the revelation there is
difference between the two comforts because of the aptitude of the place of
revelation, there exists the difference between the comforts. For instance,
like the water which comes from the sky, in one place it is sweet, in another
place it is acrid. There is even further difference between the comforts of the
two different peoples of the paradises at the level of God’s revelation in the
image of rahma because the comfort of the people of hell is from the
Mercy of the Most Merciful of the Mercifuls, because it results after anger and
punishment, whereas for the people of the paradise the comfort is from the
Presence of the Most Merciful of the Mercifuls.
parts the place of burden of the manifestation of the intimate Man
and the carrier of the image of the perfection and completeness of the
humankind.
Now, let it be known like this, Mercy and Compassion is
an Essential Divine Quality and Anger is an accidental quality which depends
on the desert of the servant’s ill-doing, and the Name Avenger (muntaqimi)
equally, under whose Lordship is the one who is inflicted with Anger, is of the
secondary Names. Its determination over the servant is due to the servant’s
offence. Consequently, if ever the servant deserves punishment and enters the
house of wretchedness, which is hell, then without a doubt the consequence is
that God’s overreaching Mercy overreaches Anger and the punishment of the
people of fire is changed into sweetness ('adhb}, and without a doubt
the punishment of the people of punishment returns to mercy after a long
stretch of time. However, the munificence of this kind that the people of fire
receive is in hell. That is to say, they relish the punishment, and even if a
zephyr comes in from heaven they dislike it and become irritated by it, just
like the dung-beetle who is used to the stench of the dung is upset with the
smell of the rose.
The Shaykh (R.A.) says in his Futiihat in chapter
twenty: ‘The emergence of the fire which torments the people, when the Divine
Anger is finished for them it is joined by Compassion and Mercy which overrides
it and the determination returns to it for them, but the form does not change,
and had it changed it would torment them . . .’
Now, since God the High with His Names of opposition is
revealed, like for instance, as the Most Indulgent (ghaffar) and the
Destroyer (qahhar), as the Majestic (jalll) and the Beautiful (jamil),
and as the Endearer (mu’izz) and Abaser (mudhill), the place
of manifestation of the jamal and the jalal which is the
paradise and hell (jahlm), and the mischief-makers and believers who are
their Lords, who are the places of manifestation of the Names of opposition,
always exist and remain. In paradise the prophets and the muqarrabln who
are munificized with the munificent paradises are in the witnessing of the
beauty of the Lord, and at the level of the manifestation of the -evelation of
the Ipseity are in paradise with houris and palaces.
remains the Most Merciful of the Compassionates’, but he does not
say the Compeller (jabbar) remains, nor the Destroyer (qahhar), because
of the happening of the familiarization before the coming into being of the
action in their hearts. For he who has known the meaning in this being, it is
true for him the specialization in the station of the Most Merciful, and for he
who is ignorant of it in this being, he enters with the generality into the big
Day of Judgement. At the station of the rah’uriin is revealed the system
of the rising in value of the release from liabilities and intercession, and
they will see by the intercession of the Most Merciful of the Compassionates.
From hell manifest the bastions to the paradise of the interior, and if the
wall falls down and the fortress walls are demolished, rivers blend together
and the seas welcome each other, and without the isthmus (barzakh)
existing the punishment becomes munificence, and hell paradise, without
punishment or retribution, only munificence and security in the witnessing of
the evident essences, and the singing of the birds with lovely voices on the
branches and round the canopied seat in the enclosure in the evening, and after
those the houris and the young girl and boy servants of paradise, and the
non-existence of the owner and the remaining of the agreeableness (ridwan).
It would so happen that hell would be munificized in the enclosures of paradise
and the maleficence of the Satan would be evident to them . . .
In short, it is not far that at the level of God’s
complete Power and general Strength He destroys in one instant the world and
the other world and what there is in them and all the particularizations of
being, and brings about anew the form which is either better than the one
before, or one like it. Rather, it is that at the level of the examiner heir
and the verifier gnostic that God re-creates it constantly in one instant:
'Indeed they are confused by the attirement of the new creation’, and God
guides whom He wishes to the straight path.
Original Manuscript
Written in Turkish and Arabic circa 1700
Translated from the Boulaq Edition of 1252 ah
» ad 1832
English Translation ©
1985 by Grenville Collins
ISBN 095 095 2729
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy,
recording or any information storage and retrieval system without per* mission
in writing from the copyright owner. Requests for permission to make copies of
any part of the work should be sent to: Permissions, Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi
Society, 23 Oakthorpe Road, Oxford ox2 7bd
England.
Published by
MUHYIDDIN IBN ARABI SOCIETY
OXFORD ISTANBUL
&
SAN FRANCISCO
1989
Ismail Hakki, translator of the Fu$u$ al-Ifikam into Turkish, is known as
‘the Bursevi’ from his thirty year association with the Anatolian town of
Bursa, the former capital of the Ottoman Empire.
One year before his birth, his father’s house in
Istanbul was destroyed by fire and the family was obliged to go to relatives in
Aydos, near Edirne. It was here that Ismail Hakki was bom in 1653 (1063 H).
His introduction to the Way was early. He was taken at
the age of three by his father to kiss the hand of Osman Fazli of Utpazar,
Shaykh of the Jelvetiyya order, who from that day used to refer to him as ‘Our
student since the age of three’. Following his recommendation he left Aydos for
Edime when he was eleven in order to study with Abd al- Baki Effendi. During
this period he copied by hand every book that he read, and spent much of the
12,000 dirhams of silver that he had inherited from his mother on books, living
on what was left.
At the age of twenty and back in Aydos he was invited to
Istanbul by Osman Fazli. He accepted with alacrity, already wishing to further
his education in Istanbul. He attended Osman Fazli’s own lectures in various
mosques, and also those of other well-known gnostics. It was during this time
that he learned Persian, and that he started translating and commenting upon
certain suras of the Quran and hadiths of the Prophet. Renowned for his fast
and clear handwriting, he was an adept student of calligraphy. Also evidently
of music, for he set to music many of the hymns of the seventeenth-century
founder of the Jelvetiyya order, Aziz Mahmud Hudayi Effendi.
In 1675 he was sent to Gskup (Skopje) where he founded a
Jelvetiyya tekke and married the daughter of Shaykh Mustafa Ushshaki.
Here he began to preach. However he was not understood, by the dogmatic imams,
the ignorant people and crude Sufis of the town, and particularly the muftu,
the religious authority. The young shaykh was treated very badly, and even
threatened with beating and death, but he battled on patiently, fighting
ignorance, for six years. At last Osman Fazli replaced him and transferred him
to Koprulu. There he stayed for a little over a year, until he was invited by
the people of Sturumca to their town. With his shavkh’s nermisr.ion he went and tnnaht
there fnr twn and n
mosque named the Mohamidiya Mosque. He ended his days completely
retired from the world, occupied with writing the last of his books. When these
were complete he was seventy-five years old.
Ismail Hakki wrote more than one hundred works,
including several books of verse and diwan. These include translations of
Arabic and Persian :exts and many commentaries. He wrote equally well in Arabic
and Turkish, and indeed of his books sixty are in Turkish and the rest in
Arabic. He was noted for his clarity of expression, avoiding the florid
excesses of many of his Ottoman contemporaries.
He is perhaps best known for his commentary on the Quran
entitled ‘Ruh al-Bayan'. Another well-known work is his ‘Ruh
al-Mathnawi', a commentary upon the introductory part of Jelaluddin Rumi’s
great work. His ‘Kitabu-1-Silsile' is a treatise on the Jelvetiyya order
containing biographies of all the shaykhs, including himself. It is the major
source for biographical details of his life.
Ismail Hakki Bursevi S.A. died in 1725 and returned to
remain in the Universe of Beauty for which he had yearned for years. His tomb
is outside of the Mihrab of the Mohamidiya Mosque which he built, and liis wife
is just below him. On the tombstone the date of his death is given as 1137 H.
The mosque is in the Tuzpazari district of Bursa, and the local people know it
as the Ismail Hakki Mosque. Many of the people of Bursa when passing stop and
send a Fatiha to the Effendi.
P. Young
1988
Chisnoime House
Of the Wisdom of Spirituality in the
Word of Jacob 505
The Wisdom of
Light in the Word of Joseph 521
Of the Wisdom of
Uniqueness in the Word of Hud 563
Of the Wisdom of
Opening in the Word of Salih 579
Of the Wisdom of the Heart in the
Word of Jethro (Shu'ay b) 595
Of the Wisdom of Strength and
Forcefulness in the Word of Lot 629
Of the Wisdom of Apportioning of Fate
in the Word of Ezra (Ozeyr) 649
669
The Wisdom of Elevation in the Word of Jesus
Of the Wisdom of Spirituality
(al-hikmat ar-ruhiyyah)
in the Word of Jacob
Now let it be known thus, that the Wisdom of Spirituality can be
explained by what God said that Abraham said to Jacob and his sons: ‘Indeed God
has purified the religion for you’ (inna Allah itfafa lakum ad-din).
Therefore the Shaykh starts this chapter with the word din (religion),
saying that religion is two.
First the religion which is proper to God, and the
religion which is proper to the people who know God, and the people who know
the people who know God, and the religion of everybody who values God. Religion
in the dictionary means inqiyad— conforming to a regulation. But it can
also come to mean the religion which is the subject of that which is proper to
God. In short, religion comes to mean conforming to rules, posed and explained,
proper to God; which in turn brings the servant to the submission and
submission to a regulation either in an open manifested way, or in a hidden
way. And the kind that is manifest openly is proved by submission to those
rules which God has imposed through the language of His envoy according to His
book. But submission secretly is constant belief in what the prophets confirm
of what God has sent of His news. Consequently, the reality of secret
submission is that there will be left no other thing except this constant
concern in the nafs, and this submission is a complete submission to
this order of God, through the order of the prophets.
What is meant by religion is submission to a regulation.
Consequently, religion is two. First is the religion proper to God, and tills
is the religion of the person to whom God the Great has explained His religion,
also the religion of the person to whom God explained directly. Consequently,
religion is either from the hadarat-ul-jam' without an intermediary, and
it is submission to this regulation, or it is submission to a regulation which
is brought to him either through the intermediary of a prophet or envoy, or
through the intermediary of other believers; and the other is a religion which
is accepted among the common people
conforming to your actions, just as His own actions proved the Names
of God because otherwise the Names of God are frozen in the Ipseity, and are
not manifest and are not provable for God except when these Names are manifest
in a place of manifestation by their completion and action. Consequently, God
is named by every Name which is particular to a place of manifestation
consequent to a particular action in all the totality of manifestations. Hence
Names are proved by effects and actions. That is to say, for God to be called
by a Name, and for that Name to be proved to be a Name for God, it is necessary
that there should be an action, just as Narhes are the initiators of the
manifestation of actions. And God’s works is you. Therefore His actions are
subsequentialities, which comes to mean that the Names of God is you; which
means that they are the a'yan-i-thabita and their action is subsequent.
Which comes to mean that God’s actions are the a'yan of existence, and
the a'yan of existence are subsequentialities. Consequently, God is
named because of subsequentialities which are effects and actions. With the
recognition of divineliness and lordliness and the creature, God becomes
manifest through the qualities of Divinity, Lordship and creation, and is
called God, Lord and Creator, and equally you are called by virtue of your
effects and actions, 'ahd-sa'td— the contented servant. Now happiness is
conforming to the orders of abstention imposed by God and submission to things
like His goodwill etc., and non-conformity is bad behaviour.
If you are conforming to the order of God you obey God,
and whenever you obey God in all His orders, because of the answer necessary to
your posing, God also obeys you.
Therefore God does not respond to you except if you
respond to Him. This is the great happiness, but the greatest happiness is that
you, Man, consequent to what we have seen, collect all the Names of God in
yourself and become the place of manifestation of the face of God. Although
complete conformity and submission is conducive to this happiness, because also
it is conducive in the long run to the greatest happiness we have mentioned,
conformity is the great happiness, but because you accept to conform and submit
to all these rules and live in it and build it, equally when He gives what you
ask of Him, He is conformed to you, and His Divinity and His action which is no
other than you, becomes established through your existence, and becomes
established with its Names. The short of it is consequently that the tntalitv
of relieion belongs to God. and therefore conformity equally
bring about a regulation so that that which is incomplete is
completed, then the wisdom and regulations which appear in these ways are
according to the order and agreement of God for the completion of the
incomplete nufus.
It is true that God has imposed recognition and prayer
to God upon all the creatures, but God has equally recognized that regulation
which these people conform to as emanating from His own level, but this way is
the way of the select and is not the way of the masses. Every single one of the
masses is not capable of withstanding the rigours of abstention and of
following these threads (suluk, pl. of silk, thread, from salaka,
to follow), but for the people of specialness, special order is existent
from God which gives them special ability through which God has given them as a
gift this special order through which they are able to follow this thread and
withstand its rigours.
When God has opened the gate of rahmah upon these
people they becomqAaware of certain regulations which they have to
be aware of, and establishes in their heart a conformity to these and an esteem
of their high value, and in this esteem of these things they continue and
demand God’s satisfaction (ritlwan), which is other than the known ways
established by the prophets; and this way is the way of the private face, and
in this there is no intermediary. Consequently, these people who find and
invent these ways do not appear as prophets and envoys whc are for proclaiming
to the masses, because this way is not the way for the masses, but it is beyond
and in addition to that which is explicit in what the prophets and envoys
proclaimed. God did not impose these upon these people but these are things
which they have found to be necessary beyond that which the regulations of the
religions have established, such as abstentions of too much food, sleep, and
fasting and dhikr and other things that people of tajawwuf have
found to be necessary to conform to. Therefore, everybody is not obliged to
follow this except those who have this special disposition, which they have
requested, and for them to go on this way is necessary, and they believe that
by doing this they come to the satisfaction of God (ridwan Allah). God
says: ‘Of those people who have come into these ways, and go according to these
ways and believe in them, We have given them what they deserve from what they
do and this is the light of holiness and completion of the nafs.' And,
from among these, those who imitate them without this disposition are
impostors, and they are outside of establishing the Truth in these ways because
they do not act according
establishment of God’s conforming to the servant by his demands is
the state of the servant, because the order of giving by God is according to
his desert. That is to say, it does not flow onto the servant except in the
degree and in the manner as the servant’s state requires. And God appears to
him according to the demands of his state either in one way, or in the case of
the opposition way, as the forgiver—'afuw and ghafur.
Consequently, the opposition of the servant induces in him the increase of kamal,
and if the servant requires from God taking away or retribution, then God
appears to him in the qualities of revenge and destruction through the Names of
Avenger and Destroyer, and his state in that case does not demand progression
but rather demands destruction and avengeance. The conformity of the Truth to
the servant is no other than the conformity of the Truth to the servant’s requirement
of his desert according to his state. Therefore God conforms to the servant
according to the inclination of his hal, and He either inclines in
softness and gentleness or in forcefulness and rigour, and in both cases it is
no other than what the servant deserves according to his hal and in both
cases it is conforming to the religion that he has conformed to and in both
cases religion is no other than what the servant deserves, meaning God’s
conformity to the servant whether secret or not, God conforms to that. But the
secret of all this is that certainly the servant is no other than a revelation
in the mirror of the Being of haqq, which proves that God reveals
Himself in the possibilities according to that which the possibilities give to
God of themselves. Consequently, for the possibilities there is nothing but
that; and for every state they are in there is a different image. In short,
according to the servant’s cause, revelation happens in accordance with that
cause.
Now let it be known like this, that the High Truth with Its Names
and Qualities manifests in the mirror of the a'yan-i-thabita, and the a’yan-i-thabita
are manifested in the mirror of the Being of Truth. In short, both the a'yan
and the Truth are mirrors to each other. In short, as the haqq is the
mirror for the a'yan, the servant by virtue of his 'ayn- i-thabita
is a revelation in the mirror of the Being of Truth, which is manifested
because of the 'ayn of possibilities from among the Names of beliefs (din).
Therefore,the conformity of the haqq to His believing servant is by that
which is easy and thereby manifestation of the name of religion; and this the a'yan
had already asked of, and revealed to, God. And God’s conformity to the
servant, even when he is not a * ** * - *■---- -— — — — —-.-——A +
of the possibilities and of the a’yan, which is not fixed
according to the images of its state. Consequently, Truth manifested because of
the states of non-existence, by dressing up in the images of the states of
non-existence of the non-existent possibilities. Consequently that which
manifests in the images of the states of the possibilities is the Being of the haqq,
and the possibilities of noh-existence are fixed according to their origin. Therefore,
if you were in knowledge of this mystery, you would definitely know in the
image of the states of possibilities who is the one that is made tasteful and
who is the one that is made to suffer. That is to say, in the images of the
states of possibilities, which is defined by Divine revelation, the one that is
good and the one which is suffering is no other than the Truth, but both
suffering and wellbeing qualities are of immanence (kawh). Their
applicability to the Truth must be from one of the two sides, one of which is
that God qualifies Himself in His descent (into the images) of immanence such
as cases of being devious or being mocking, cautious; and the other face is
this, that it is the return to the Truth of immanence and the qualities of immanence.
But the totality of qualities with respect to Uniqueness are all annihilated in
it, and. in it there is neither taking pleasure nor suffering. That is to say,
you will know why and how that which has caused a state or one of any states is
the revelation of the haqq, by reason that it was necessary for the haqq
to take the form of that state. Therefore desert which is 'uqubah and i’aqab
being the 'aqtb of the state in meaning is equally applicable to good
desert and bad desert except that in common religious law that desert which is
good is called (thawdb) good works and in cases of bad things it is
called punishment ('iqab). (i’aqab, 'aqtb, 'uqubah, are all from the
same root as the word ya'qub (Jacob) which means that which has received
his desert.) In other words, orie state (hal) is recompensed or receives
its desert by the state that follows it which is its reward, and that reward
can be good or bad according to its usage in religion, but this rewarding is of
the consequence of the state of the servant, which God is obliged, out of His
benevolence and greatness, to give; and the servant returns time and time again
to his inclination, which means that religion is habit, and habit means
returning again and again to the same state. But in being there is no
possibility of returning to a state which is passed and no state can ever be
repeated. And if there is no repetition possible in the manifestation or
revelation, consequently there cannot be a repetition in the state. The first
revelation was never the same as
the servant of the nature and it is said about the envoys and their
heirs that they are, among the masses, the servants of the orders of God.’ But
the real matter is that they are in the amr itself servants of the
states of possibilities and tfieir service is in accordance with their general
state, which states they were fixed upon at the time when their a'yan were
in fixity (thubut); which means that although people say for the doctor
that he is definitely servant of the nature because the object of the doctor is
to restore you to your humour, his medicine is to sustain you in your natural
state, or to eliminate that which disturbs your natural state. In the same way,
for the envoys and their heirs who are the doctors of the nufus and who
give medicines to rebalance and do away with illnesses and imbalances, it is
said that they are the servants of the order of God, whether this be in
accordance with the amr of iradah (determination) or contrary to
it. They are the announcers of the amr, they are in the amr
itself images of a'yan-i-murnkinat (a'yan of possibilities) and they
stand under these images of possibilities. Whatever the a'yan give they
manifest that, exactly as the doctor’s aim is to cure the sickness. But equally
as some people are so far away from balance that the more the doctor gives them
medicine, the more the illness increases, equally the aim of the envoy is to
lead the people according to the decree of God and save them from the illness
of having gone astray, but he who has no ability to receive guidance, as the
envoy and his heirs invite them to discrimination, their deviation increases.
Therefore, both the doctor’s and the envoy’s work is to bring the bodies and
souls to health and lead them to it, but only those who have the ability to
receive this direction and health become healthy and guided, and those that do
not, their illness and deviation becomes more acute. And the service of these
people to the a'yan of possibilities is from the totality of their hals
which state they were in when their a'yan-i-thabita were in the state of
fixity (thubut) in the Divine Knowledge. Now look at this; what a
strange situation; that although in appearance they are the servants of the
order of God, in the order itself they are the servants of the states of
possibilities and equally their service at the state of the fixity of their a'yan
was due to their general state. There is no exception to v/hat has just been
said;- which means that the doctor is the servant of the nature and the envoys
and their heirs are the servants of the amr of God only if the servant
who is required to serve the Divine order at the level of the image of that which
he serves is the servant that is there arrested either through his state or
through his word; because it is not
bringing to health, he is the servant of nature; if the patient
becomes sicker, he is not. In the same way, the envoys and their heirs are
servants in one way by inviting the people to the order of God, and they are
not servants of the order of God by inviting people who are not receptive.
Because if there is an order for a thing to happen and it did not happen, it is
in accordance with the Quranic saying: 'Wa ma 'ala ar-rasul ilia al-balagh'—‘There
is no other obligation to the rasul except to announce.’ Therefore, the rasul
and his heirs are for the people (nufus) an eventual doctor and they are
in conformity with the Divine order {amr) if God has ordered them to
bring the people to recuperation. But this means that he looks both towards
curing the people and God’s desire {iradah). Therefore he looks to God’s
order which is to cure people and he sees Truth in that; and it appears that haqq
has ordered him to do something which is opposed to what God told him to do,
yet nothing happens unless God orders it and the thing happens only because He
has ordered it, and things happen because the order of God is pertaining to
that thing that happens. But God has ordered something, and God’s determination
for that thing to happen was in the order in the manifest state at the level of
the envoy telling them of it. But although the order took place, its
appertaining determination did not take place through that appointed servant
(envoy) that had to obey that order. Which shows that if the determination is
not a condition of appertainment to the order, then the order happens, but that
which does not appertain to the execution of the order does not happen. Therefore
the envoy does conform to the order, but the resultant determination which does
not belong to him does not happen, which proves that in an order what results
is that which in that order is the determination appertaining to that order and
only that which appertains to that order happens (and not necessarily that
which is not appertaining to it in determination). That is, with the language
of the envoy who is the appointed servant, that to which this appertaining
determination applies happens, and not the rest. Therefore, in an envoy who by
his language does pronounce the order of God, that which causes objection or
deviation from it is not called disobedience on the part of the envoy, because
the envoy has already done what he was told. An envoy is only to announce and
nothing else.
Now that which was appointed to happen by the language
of the envoy happened, and that that which was its appertaining determination
did not hanoen is because in the Knowledge of God the non-happening
towards the complete destruction of the people. But if he, because
he is not charged with excess in his capacity, abstains from this, then he
thinks he has failed in his invitations. And if this order of invitation is
under these conditions it is to restrict the envoy from overdoing and prevent
him from excesses, but at the same time it would have been in excess of the
capacities of those who are being invited. And if he knew, the envoy would be
uncertain between the two orders which one is under the determination and which
one is not, and he would have been extremely distressed by those who did not
comply. Therefore, as we have mentioned, when an envoy manifests with an order
of invitation, he is veiled from the knowledge of the inclination of things, so
that he can carry on his invitation without worry and that his invitation is
universal over everybody; consequently, as we see, the order to invite for the
envoy is for the envoy a Divine imposition. Now a person does not know the hukm
of iradah except after the aim is reached. That is to say, he only knows
after the aim is reached whether for the happening of that aim there was Divine
determination or not, and that person only knows the order of determination if
God has opened his kashf, that is to say, if God has unveiled his vision
and caused kashf to happen. And God does not open the vision of kashf
of everybody, and among those whose vision of kashf is opened it is not
opened at all times. That is why this kashf is rare and it happens for
individuals at special times; it does not become their property. Because it so
happens at times that the kamil 'arif has his vision on the uniqueness,
at which time he is veiled from plurality, and at times he is in a state of
looking at the plurality and he is veiled from looking at the uniqueness, which
means he is not constantly the owner of the kashf of the uniqueness and
of the veils of plurality. That is why He caused the Prophet to say: ‘Say, that
I have no knowledge for what purpose I am used or to what purpose you are
used.’ Which means that he is not constantly at all times in kashf, to
be able to know at every instant, to comprehend the state of fixity of the
orders of possibilities and to know the determination of each 'ayn.
The Wisdom of Light
(al-hikmat an-nuriyyah)
in the Word of Joseph
This is the Wisdom of Light which expands its light to the Presence
of khayal. (In certain copies it reads: . to the universe of khayal.')
That the light of this Wisdom of the Light expands over the Presence of khayal
means that the light which is the essential quality of absolute mithal
is extended over the Presence of khayal which is the Presence of sleep.
In other words, when the human subtlety, which is the human spirit, is transported
and extended over the Presence of khayal with all its strength from the
Presence of the senses, and when the sleeper’s mind is true, veridic, in
perfect health, and his character is equal and straight, and if the mirror of
his heart is polished clean from considerations of passions and from
considerations of reflections and aspecting and being present with Lords
through all kinds of abstentions and endeavours, and if the determination of
joining were to remain and were alive between the Presence of continuous khayal
and discontinuous khayal which is the absolute mithal, and if,
further, the Divine Will appertained to the revealing of certain unknowable
meanings in forms of images of khayal to that sleeper, then the light of
the Unknowable, which is the essential quality of the absolute mithal,
expands upon the Presence of khayal. Consequently, due to this
expansion, the sleeper observes in the images of the khayal the
unknowable meanings which come down in the Presence of khayal. In this
kind of dream the images made by the Presence of khayal are in
concordance and suitable to the images which are the images of the exterior,
and in this dream there is no interpretation. In other kinds of dreams these do
not concord because of the power of forming images of the sleeper, and his
state and the place of the dream. This is also so due to his overriding quality
in comprehension at the time. In such cases the imagined images manifest in the
images either which are in opposition to the origin, or in the images which
resemble and are related to the origin. In this dream interpretation is
necessary because one image manifests for many difFprpnt meanincs to
one oerson or to several neonle. With all that.
is the true dream’, which means that ’Aishah (R.A.) says: the first
part of the parts of the Divine inspiration with which the Envoy of God, peace
and blessings be upon liim, was started, that is to say, with which God the
Great began the inspiration to the Envoy (S.A.), was the true dream.
Consequently, for the Envoy (S.A.) the true dream became the beginning of
Divine inspiration. The reason why the Shaykh (R.A.) says: *. . . and this does
not happen except in the state of sleep’ is to show that to be started with
dreams as a part from the parts of the Divine inspiration for the Envoy (S.A.)
was before his being manifested with the dream. And he did not see dreams
except that they all came out as clear as the early morning. At the time of the
beginning of the manifestation of prophethood of the Envoy of God, peace and
blessings of God upon him, his state was such that he would not see a dream
except that that dream was like the manifestation of a faithful morning in the
universe of witnessing, bright and clear. The Shaykh (R.A.) says: She says
(that is, 'Aishah, R.A.): ‘There was nothing hidden in it.’ She indicates with
her words: *. . .just like the early morning’ to the fact that there was
nothing hidden in the fact that in the veracity of his dream and in the images
of his khayal manifested outside, which was not the same as the images,
that it was clear like the early morning. In the Futuhat the Shaykh
(R.A.) says: ‘'Aishah (R.A.) in the true hadith says: the first
beginning of inspiration which started the Envoy of God (S.A.) is true dream.
He did not see a dream which did not come out clear as the daylight, and the
reason in this for his (S.A.) believing it is that he established this in the hadith
when he said: “Believe in the dream.” As he said “believe in it” he did not say
it without comprehending it by any one of the parts of his senses or by all of
them, and he dio not say it by accident, and he would not have said it when he
was awake, of a thing that he imagined in his nafs, if he did not see it
completely, exactly, in the senses, and this is the cause of the veracity of
his dream.’ And it is up to here that reaches her knowledge, no further. That
is to say, the knowledge of 'Aishah (R.A.) does not go any further than the
happening of dreams which were true and that the beginning of the inspiration
to the Envoy (S.A.) was by veridic dreams. And the duration for him in this was
six months, then came the AngeL Thus 'Aishah (R.A.) discriminated between the
Presence of khayal and the Presence of witnessing, and relinquished the
coming down of the Angel with the Divine inspiration to the Presence of
witnessing, and did not ioin
the Presence of witnessine to the Presence of khaval.
And she did
and that after that the Angel came, but her knowledge did not
encompass the fact that the Envoy, in accordance with: ‘Everything disappears
and after that there is only the face of God, and He is the Witness of
everything’, used to witness His face in manifestation in the mirrors of all
things, and the Quiddity of the haqq present in all the degrees of the
high and low, and was not lost one minute from his witnessing. That is why he
said and clarified the witnessing of the Munificent face of the Ijaqq
with the words: ‘My God, I ask of You indeed the taste of vision to Your Munificent
face’, and having been annihilated in the witnessing, requested the taste of
witnessing, as the degree of the taste of witnessing is higher than witnessing,
because the annihilation in the witnessing of the Ijaqq is the veridic
death to which the annihilation referred to in the words: ‘Everything is
annihilated except His face’ alludes, and the taste of witnessing happens in
remaining after fana'. The real waking up in the words: *. . . and v/hen
they die they wake up’ is nothing other than that. And everything he saw in the
state of awakening (in certain copies: in the state of sleep), they are of this
sort. AU he saw of images and actions in the state of awakening was of the
nature of the images of the khayal that he saw in his sleep, because the
Envoy (S.A.) joined the state of being awake to that of being asleep. Thus, aU
the orders and states which were visible to him and which he understood in the
state of awakening are to be joined to what he saw as imaged in the Presence of
sleep, and to be taken as of the same nature. This interpretation is the
preferred one. And in fact (even) when the states varied, which means that even
the symbols which were manifested in the state of awakening, and their state,
differed upon the one who saw the images of the states which were imaged in the
state of sleep, were different because of the difference of the senses and the khayal,
yet each one of the images of the symbols which are manifested in the senses
and the khayal, because they are the images and the. symbols of one
meaning from among the essential meanings, there is no difference between the
states. And it passed, her words, six months, but rather the whole life of the
S.A. in this world was of this nature, which means, according to what she,
‘Aishah (R.A.), says, six months passed which was the duration of dreams and
wakening. Perhaps rather that in this world the whole life of the Envoy (S.A.)
passed in the nature of sleep. That is to say, just as the images seen in the
sleep were interpreted with the meanings intended from them, the state of
awakening of his life, which 'Aishah (R.A.) says was six months,
image manifests in another different image and this is the thing
called universe of khay&l and this is interpreted. The
interpreter passes on from this image which he saw when he was
asleep. Thus the interpreter passes on from the image the sleeper has seen
in his sleep to the image of that thing upon which the order is, if he hits the
mark. This means that the interpreter passes from his khayal image to
his particularized image, which in the order itself that order was imaged as
such an image in the universe of mithal, and that it become as
individualized in the Divine Knowledge, just as the manifestation of knowledge
in the image of milk tc the Envoy, who saw knowledge manifest in his sleep in
the image of milk. And he interprets by transposition from the image of the
milk to the image of knowledge. As the Envoy (S.A.) transposed the image of the
milk and passed it on to the image of knowledge. And he (S.A.) transposed it as
he said, the meaning of this image of milk to the image of knowledge. Thus the
Envoy (S.A.) transposed the image of milk. That is to say that the image of the
milk that he saw in the dream means that it is the image of the knowledge. That
is to say, he interpreted with knowledge. The Shaykh (R.A.) tells in the
chapter on Isaac that he was given in his sleep a glass of milk that he drank
until it came out of his finger-nails, and then he gave the rest to Omar, and
when he was asked: ‘Oh Envoy of God, how did you transpose it?’, he said:
‘Knowledge’, and did not leave the image of the milk as he saw it, because of
his knowledge of the realm of dreams and because of his knowledge of what
interpretation necessitates. Milk, at the beginning of nurturing, is
nourishment for the bodies of the needy infants. In the same way, useful
knowledge is nourishment for the spirits of the spirits of the believers.
Equally, in the education and completion of the needy bodies and needy spirits
there is the relationship of milk to knowledge. This is why in the Presence of
dreams the image of knowledge manifested in the image of milk, like water which
is the image of life, and honey which is the image of knowledges of gnosis of
tastes, and like wine which is the images of love-affairs and fallings-in-love
and of desires.
After that, he, upon whom is Cod’s blessing and
peace, was, when inspiration was given to him, taken away from all usual
sensations. That is to say, when the Divine Will
appertained to his receiving an inspiration, he was taken away from all his
usual sensations. He was covered, that is to say, he was dressed in a dress
from the mithal, which he calls ‘which covered him.’ That is to say, he
was made to wear a garment or covered from the usual senses. That is to sav. he
was made
its nature would vary. After the Angel had given that inspiration to
him and left him, after which that state was relieved from him, there would
appear perspiration on his forehead and the flush of the face became evident on
the planes of his cheeks, and he would be present again as if released from a
tie. Consequently, because of this it was easier for him to receive the
inspiration when the Angel brought it to him represented in the image of a man,
as he received this through hearing. This is known as mutual conversation (muhadatha)
and in this there is no change of temperament or alteration of nature, and in
these kinds of instances there is an appetizing or desirable way (mashrab) and
a satisfaction which is easily relished for the awliya' of God.
And if he is a man, yet he is really an angel who enters
into the image of a man, because the Angel which is represented as a man to the
Envoy (S.A.) with the Divine inspiration is not essentially a man, and he has
only entered the image of a man to be able to impart to the Envoy (S.A.) the
Divine inspiration. Thus, the fact that the Angel is seen represented in the
form of a man by the Envoy (S.A.) is from the universe of khayal, because
if it were not from the universe of khayal he would have appeared in his
original image and would not have been represented in another image which is
the image of a man. The gnostic (the Envoy, S.A.) who saw, passed and reached
its real image, which is the angelic image, which image God the High named
‘Angel’ (ynalak). In many copies it is given as ‘and he interpreted it’,
meaning that the gnostic viewer interpreted the man with the Angel and thereby
until it reached its original and real image, and he said: ‘This is Gabriel who
came to you to teach you your religion? Thus the Envoy (S.A.), when Gabriel
came to bring down the Divine inspiration, said to his companions that this is
Gabriel, which is that he interpreted the man seen as Gabriel. However, he had
said to them before: ‘Return that man to me? That is to say, when Gabriel
(S.A.) came to enter where the Envoy (S.A.) was, some of the companions tried
to prevent him from entering, and the Envoy (S.A.) said: ‘Return that man to
me? That is to say, do not prevent him from entering. And he named it by ‘man’
because of the fact that he appeared to them in that image. Then he said: ‘This
is Gabriel’ and took into consideration the meaning of the image in which this
man is imagined, whose real image is whom God the High named as Gabriel. He was
truthful in both sayings, that is to say, both in the word ‘man’ and in the
words ‘this is Gabriel’. In the sensory eye, because of the man’s appearing in
the eyes of the people, and considering
they aimed at, which means that they would have imagined in
themselves that they would appear manifest as the images of the stars and in
the images of the sun and the moon, and would have desired and aimed at that,
but this manifestation is not what they aimed at, desired, because had it been
so, there would have been little left for them but to see the same dream and
comprehend it in the universe of khayal and know it in the universe of
witnessing, because it happens sometimes that the comprehension of that which
is in the treasuries of khayal happens from both the side of the seer
and the one seen, but as the knowledge did not happen to them of what Joseph
(S.A.) saw, the comprehension was from Joseph (S.A.) in the treasuries of khayal.
That is to say, when they had no knowledge of what Joseph (S.A.) witnessed and
they did not know that Joseph saw them as stars who prostrated themselves to
him, it is that the comprehension happened from the side of Joseph (S.A.) from
his treasury of khayal. In other words, the comprehension was of what he
saw in his treasury of khayal, not from the side of the others. And this
Jacob (S.A.) knew to be like this when it was narrated to him. This means that
Jacob, when he was narrated the dream, knew at once its meaning and the mystery
of the prostration. However, he also knew that because he did not know of this
dream before Joseph told him, that the brothers of Joseph also did not know,
and he said: ‘Oh my son, do not narrate your dream to your brothers. z They
will plot against you a veritable plot*, which means that they might come to
know of your superiority, and through jealousy plot your perdition. Then he
absolved his sons from this treachery and joined it to Satan, and it is not
(like Jacob mentioned of absolving his sons from treachery and attaching it to
the Satan) other than the very treachery from Jacob to Joseph (S.A.), which
means that because of the treachery manifesting from the sons of Jacob there
might arise an animosity in the heart of Joseph that he, Jacob, absolved his
sons from treachery and attached it to Satan, , because treachery is of the
suggestion (ilqa) of Satan. Another aspect of this is that when Jacob
said to Joseph (S.A.): ‘Do not narrate your dream to your brothers and they
might plot against you a veritable plot’, Joseph (S.A.) came to know the
animosity of his brothers, and in his heart there was suspicion against them.
Thus, as it is absolutely necessary for prophethood to have peace of chest and
repose of heart and purity of interior, Jacob, to purify him above the
suspicion which came about in Joseph concerning his brothers, and also to
educate him, as with his intelligence he had
orders of the Unknowable (ghayb), sometimes it happens that
it is from the universe of holiness and sometimes it happens that they are from
the universe of mith&l, and the images of the mithal cannot
be except if they concord with the meanings of the intellect. Thus the external
images are in concordance with the images of the mithal. Joseph (S.A.)
had discriminated between thfe images of khayal and the images of the
senses when he said: . which my Lord brought out to be true*, that is, He
showed it in the senses after it was in the images of khayal.
And he said of it (concerning this):
‘People sleep.* Thus the honoured Prophet Mohammed, the pure, upon whom God
made peace and blessings, said because of this order, that is to say, because
Joseph discriminated between the senses and the khayal'. ‘People sleep.’
Thus the Envoy (S.A.) discriminated the senses from the khayal, perhaps
rather he said in reality that the senses is exactly the same as the khayal and
the khayal is exactly the same as the senses. And it was that the words
of Joseph (S.A.): which my Lord
brought out to be true’ is
like a man saying that he saw in his dream that he woke up from that
dream that he saw, and then interpreted it, which means that he saw in his
sleep that in fact he woke up in that dream that he saw, and then after that he
interpreted it. That is to say, he saw that he woke up in his dream and
interpreted the dream afterwards. And he did not know that in fact he is in the
sleep itself and never ceased (sleeping). If he had awakened he would have
said: ‘I saw such and such and I saw that I woke up, and I transposed it like
this.* Yet, however, if that person woke from his sleep, the dream he had in those
specific images he would narrate to his friends as: T saw a dream and I saw
that I awoke and I transposed that dream in such and such an image.’ That is,
when he awakes from his sleep, the dream he saw in his dream and the images he
saw in his second dream, waking up in the universe of the first dream, would
recount in which way he transposed the images in that dream. This is like that
That is to say, the words of Joseph (S.A.): ‘. . . which my Lord brought out to
be true’, is the same as that man who saw a dream in a dream, and waking up
from his second dream and interpreting it in the first dream, in other words,
considering his dream to be of the senses, he interprets it with the
manifestation of images of the senses. Thus the dream of Joseph (S.A.) is in
the same position as the dream of the man in the dream, and the words: ‘. . .
which my Lord brought out to be true’ in the universe of senses, is in the same
position as that man who, awakening from his second dream, interprets it in his
first
the Mohammedian heirs witness the haqq by way of imagination,
which reveal themselves in the sensory images of the khayal in this life
which is the sleep of unawareness. And when they awake from this sleep of
unawareness with death of fana' in God, at the level of the
manifestation of the dawn of remaining with God, with the eye of the Unity,
together with the essence of the witnessing of the Uniqueness, they witness
that it was God that manifested in the forms of the senses and images of
immanence, and with tills they interpret.
A difficult hadith and its mystery is abstruse,
Who is in the immanence and there is
no place for any being excep t God?
Because the Being of the haqq which is manifest in all the
places of manifestation, and who conquers, annihilates, who destroys all
pluralities and numeralities by His Oneness, on account of Its degrees and
places of manifestation, if It were to manifest with Its Essential Oneness in
each of them, all the places of manifestation of immanence and the places of
revelation of the potentialities, perhaps even the Names and the Qualities and
the relationship of things of the Ipseity, would have been annihilated in His
All-Conquering Light, and having detached itself from the shores of
discrimination, drowning in the sea of Oneness of Truth, its being would have
been joined to the sea of Uniqueness. Of the Mohammedian heirs, whether they be
the prophets of the past or the saints that join him, who attained to the
knowledge of the interpretation of the images which they witnessed in the sleep
of the senses and of witnessing at the level of waking to remaining by God
after death and fana' in God, and who reach the degree of intuition of
their reality, do so only those who are Mohammedian heirs, because this
knowledge is special to Mohammed, upon whom is God’s blessing and salam,
by origin and by inheritance to his heirs. Because of this the Shaykh says:
Look what honours the knowledge of the heirs of Mohammed, upon whom is God’s
blessing and salam, which means, what an extraordinary thing which
honours their knowledge, and. what an honourable knowledge their knowledge is,
so that with that knowledge they attain to such abstruse truth. And I will
enlarge the words in this Presence (of khayal) with the words of the
Mohammedian Joseph, of which, God willing, you shall have knowledge. Now know
it like this, that different sainthoods which exist in all the prophets and
saints, are the detailing of the Mohammedian sainthood, and the totality of
And consequently it is that the relationship of other than God and
those which are called the universe, to God, is like the relationship of the
shadow to the person, and that that which is called the universe is the shadow
of God. And this is the same as the relationship of being to the
universe. And this is the same as relating existence to the universe and
qualifying it. That is to say, it is like saying the universe exists, because
the shadow exists without a doubt in the senses. So without a doubt the
shadow exists in the senses, yet the existence of the shadow is through the
existence of the person. Therefore in the same way, the universe, which is the
shadow of the haqq, exists with the existence of the haqq. Thus,
the universe existing with the existence of the haqq, and existence
being attributed to it, it is called other than the haqq. Nevertheless,
the Reality, which is the same as the Being of the haqq, is one.
Consequently existence, by virtue of Reality, is one and the same potentiality.
It is only other than the haqq by virtue of its relationship to the
universe. According to this consideration the word ‘shadow’ becomes an
assignment of a supposititious reason for some- tiling connected with a quality
of the person to the phrase: ‘And it is the same as the relationship of being
to the universe.’ The gnostic Shaykh, Mu'ayyad al-Jundi, says: ‘This is an
assignment of a supposititious reason for something connected with a quality
of the person to his words: “That which is called the universe is that which in
relationship to the haqq is like the shadow to the person”.’ However,
in the same way, the shadow exists in the senses only when the person exists.
In the same way, the universe or what is called ‘other than the haqq' is
because the haqq exists, and that is taking away any consideration from
there being in existence other than God in His potentiality from all eternity,
and His Being is from Its own Ipseity, just as there is no existence of the
shadow without the being of the person.
However, if there is further (that is, in the senses) that this shadow will show itself
therein, which means that without a doubt in the senses the shadow exists, but
that shadow only manifests itself if there is a place for it existent in the
senses. In other words, the shadow shows itself in the senses only if there is
a place existent in the senses for it to show itself in. Rather, as it is
necessary for a place to exist in the senses for the being of the shadow, in
the same way, where it concerns the shadow it seems absolutely necessary that
the shadow is attached in the same way to that Elevated Person, and equally, it
is absolutely necessary that there be light so that the shadow can be
differentiated from it. Thus,
possibilities. However, understanding happens by the Name Light of
God. This means that if one disregarded the outward attribution of being which
is conditional through the condition of being attributable to a place, and if
one did not take into consideration the particularities of the realities of
possibilities, one cannot understand the Reality of being, because being is the
same as the Absolute haqq.
And this shadow extended over the potentialities of
possibilities in the image of the unknown Unknowable. This Divine shadow, which
is the attributable being, extended over the potentialities of possibilities in
the form of an unknown Unknowable. That is to say, the potentialities of
possibilities which are distanced from the light of being, if their
establishment and their being known in the Essential Knowledge and in their own
being were considered without the Being of the haqq, they would be
inexistent. and unknown in the darkness of the Unknowable. When the being of
the light affects the potentialities in their darkness of non-existence, then
luminosity of being inclines to darkness. Consequently, the extension of the
attributable being upon the potentialities of possibilities extended over the
darkness of non-existence which is the unknown Unknowable and became manifest.
Do you not see the shadows inclining to darkness, pointing to what there is in
there of hidden? With these words the Shaykh points to the extent of the
relationship between the light of being and the potentialities of the
possibilities, meaning: do you not see the shadows incline towards darkness,
which are manifested at the level of the extension of the light of the sun over
the images of the persons of the universe in this manifest world of senses, and
which shadows point at the things hidden in their essences? Of the extent of
relationship between it and the people of which they are the shadows? Thus, as
the potentialities of possibilities are distanced from the light of being, when
the light of being extends over the potentialities of possibilities, the darkness
bf non-existence of the potentialities affecting the luminosity of being,
luminosity of being tends to incline towards shadow and manifests in that way,
because when the shadow of luminosity from the absolute Light extends over the
persons of the potentialities of the Unknowable, equally the darkness of the
potentialities, which are inclined to darkness through condition and
particularization, extends over the light of being from the potentialities of
the Unknown, and then the two shadows become mixed one with the other. Thus the
darkness of the unknowableness of the potentialities becoming manifest in the
attributive being, the light of being becomes interior
the effect of distance. These examples and explanations of the Shaykh
is to make known that God is known to us by our knowledge of the being of the
universe, just like when we know the shadow of a person, we know of the person,
because as the being of the universe is conditioned by an extent over the
established potentialities which are in the distance of non-existence, they
happen at the other limit of distance from the Being of the Absolute because of
the relative or the conditional being at the extreme distance from the
Absolute. Consequently, the being of the relative or the conditional is both
small and dark in vision. And it is not known from the universe except as much
as is known from the shadows, meaning that one knows of the haqq from
the being of the universe only as much as can be known of things from their
shadow, or only as much as can be known of the reality of the universe and the
potentialities of the unknowableness of the universe, which is the realities of
the quiddities. That is, only as much as is manifested in the light of being
which is of the particularities manifested with being of the bodies of the a'yan
and the images of its forms and its effects, because these are the shadows of
the potentialities. They are not the potentialities of the realities which are
established in the universe of ghayb. Consequently, as the reality
behind the shadow cannot be known to us by the being of the shadow, in the same
way, we cannot know the Reality of the Ipseity behind the shadow from the being
of the shadow. One is in ignorance of the haqq to the degree that one is
in ignorance of the person who has that shadow, and where it concerns the
universe which is the shadow of the haqq, one is as ignorant of the haqq
as one is ignorant of that person from whom extends the shadow. And due to the
fact that it is the shadow of Him, He is known. Because this sentence is
written in the objective case it would mean: due to the fact that the universe
is shadow for the haqq, it is known that the haqq is the general
Lord and Divinity of the universe, and as it is not known that which is in the
ipseity of that shadow of the image of that person from which it extends, in
the same way, it is unknown from the haqq. That is to say, the image of
the absolute transcendence of the Ipseity of the haqq and His nonparticularization
from which the light of being extended, that being which extends over the
possibilities is neither understood nor witnessed, because the extension is
conditional to the thing which is the place and place of manifestation of that
extension. Because of this we say that the haqq is known to us from one
aspect and unknown to us from another aspect. That is, He is in fact known to
us summarily because the universe,
shadow happens by the sun, and die senses are witness to it, as
in fact the shadows do not have a potentiality in themselves without the
light That is to say, it is the senses that witness that it is the sun
which makes us understand the existence of the shadows, because in fact the
shadows have no existence if the light of the sun did not extend. For instance,
if a person were present in a very dark night, his shadow will not be
manifested. Thus, in the same way, the existence and the comprehension of the
shadow of the universe does not happen except through the Name Light of the haqq.
‘Then We grasped it to Ourselves with an easy grasping.’ After that We
grasped that extended shadow with an easy receiving back to Ourselves, by
receiving back the light which was the proof of the shadow, because the
ultimate cause for the manifestation of the shadow is light. Consequently, when
the light is grasped back and returned to its origin, the shadow also is
received back. Consequently, when the Divine Light and the revelation of the rahman,
which brings into being and manifests the shadow universe, is returned to
its origin and is there constricted, then the shadow universe is also received
back, and the haqq receives this back with an easy receiving, and the
potential possibility, which is the place for the manifestation of the shadow,
remains invisible in the Unknowable (ghayb). The High God qualified the
receiving back with ‘ease’, because the extension of the Divine shadow which is
called the universe depends on three orders. One of these is the place of
manifestation, which is the potentialities of the possibilities. Another is the
manifestation and the particularization of the Being of the Absolute haqq,
and the third one is the revelation of Light which is manifest Name of the haqq.
Thus, these three are appointed as the reason and cause for the existence of
the shadow of the universe. Consequently, if ever the non-existence of one of
these three were considered, the shadow of the universe would not have been
manifest, but the receiving back of the shadow does not depend on any
condition. It is only an order concerning the way of the Will of God. Except if
one considered the receiving back of the shadow by receiving back the light
which proves the shadow, even then the receiving back would depend on the
light. Consequently, the receiving back of the shadow is easy in relation to
actual seizing and receiving back, but it is not in relationship to the Person
of God as nothing is in consideration of Him. As for His seizing it back, it
is because it is His shadow and manifested from Him, and the orders return to
Him, all of them. The reason why God took the shadow back to Him is because
in fact the
thing understood because of the differences of the images of the
potentialities of possibilities. In the same way, the name ‘universe’ or the
name ‘other than God’ does not get eliminated or lost from it by the fact of
the differences of the images of the individuals of the universe. From the
point of view of the uniqueness of its being the shadow, it is the haqq.
That is, by virtue of the fact of the uniqueness of that thing which is
understood being a shadow, that thing understood is the haqq. Between
the Uniqueness of the haqq and the uniqueness of generality there is a
difference in the order itself, because the Uniqueness of the haqq is
the Uniqueness of the Ipseity, which is transcendent from the
particularizations of plurality, and the haqq can never be
particularized either by particularization of plurality or
non-particularization in plurality, whereas the uniqueness of the universe is
nothing other than the consideration of the non-existence of the
particularization of plurality. Thus, the uniqueness of the universe is
particularized by the non-particularization in plurality. Because He is the One
and the Unique. That is, it is because the haqq is One and Unique Being,
and from the point of view of the plurality of the images He is the universe.
That is, from the point of view of the plurality of the images, that thing
which is understood is the universe because it is number by being counted.
Thus, the Uniqueness of the haqq becomes circumscribed with shadow in
otherness and becomes numerous by the number of the images and powers. Be
discerning (perspicacious) and verify that which we have explained to you.
Thus, the being of that which is understood being the Being of the hoqq
by virtue of the Quiddity of the haqq, and that by virtue of the
differentiations of images in it it is the universe and other than the haqq,
which is verified and declared and which I have explained to you, be discerning
in knowing this and understand it with its reality. And if the order is
according to what I have mentioned to you, then the universe is conjectural and
it has no real being. Thus, as it is not ejdstent and present by its own self,
in every aspect it cannot be other than the Being of the haqq. Real
being is for the Aatyzy. The attributive being is for the universe because the
universe is the shadow of the Real Being and does not stand by its own self.
Rather that the universe is present by the Being of that Ipseity of which it is
the shadow. And this is the meaning of khay&L that is, what was
given to you to imagine that (that is, the universe) it is an additive order
present by its own self outside of God. It is because it is imagined to be so
that it is called khayal. However, in the order itself the universe is
not like that, that is to say, being outside
and like the relationship of the shadow to the person, and that also
by virtue of your quiddity and your reality you are the Aag?, and that by
virtue of your particularization and difference of appearance you arc the
universe, the other, and other than It. And in this knowledge the knowers are
one superior to the other, and those who know and those who know more. In this
knowledge the knowledgeable ones are one superior to the other in that some of
them are knowledgeable and some of them even more knowledgeable, and this is
due to the difference of the places of observation. Thus, the person who
observed the particularization with the plurality observed the immanence, and
that person who observed the Unique Being which is revealed in this image
observed the haqq, and that person who observed His face observed God
and the immanence as two considerations, as the One Reality of the Ipseity is
according to two aspects of consideration, and that person who observed the
totality of pluralities as one reality, which are in plurality because of
qualification and relationship, that is to say, observed the total with the
Names and the Uniqueness with the Ipseity, that person is of the people of God
who know God with true gnosis, and the person who observed the haqq
without the immanence is a person of state in the station of the collectivity
with the station of fana', and the person who observed the haqq
in the immanence and the immanence in the liaqq is the one who has total
witnessing in the station of remaining (baqa') after fana' with
the uniqueness of the 'ayn. and differentiation after collectivity. This
station is the station of rectitude (istiqamat), and the possessor of
this is most learned of all, and God alone knows. And the haqq in
relationship to the particular shadow is small and big, and pure and most pure,
which means that the Being of the haqq, in relationship to the
particular shadow;, that is to say, because of the particular place of
manifestation, is either big or small or pure or even purer, just as the light
in relationship to the veils which veil the viewer from the outside according
to what colour veils it, and colours it by its own colour, whereas in the order
itself it has no colour. That is to say, the rays of the light, coloured behind
the coloured glass, appear coloured, whereas in the order itself the light has
no colour. Thus, if the glass is pure and clear, so is the light behind the
glass in its original purity and remains uncoloured by any colour, and if the
glass is tinted, the light also becomes tinted, but see it, you, like an
example of your reality to your Lord, which means that even though the light in
the order itself has no colour but becomes tinted with the colour of the glass,
consider this as
all his powers and surroundings. And that the liaqq does
become the servant’s hearing and vision is established by such indications as
the law-giver bestowed as information from God by way of narrating from God the
High by the hadith qudst where it says: ‘The servant does not deflect
from approaching Me by supererogatories until I love him, and when I have loved
him I have become his hearing and his sight’, and other such indications. And
with all this, the shadow exists, that is to say, although the haqq is
all the powers and the surrounds of the servant, the shadow itself which exists
in the servant, is existent. (Note: that is to say, even when God has become
the powers and the sight and the hearing of the servant, the shadow in the
servant persists and that is what makes him a contingent. Even though his
reality as God is manifest in him, he is at the same time a contingent, as the
shadow is contingent to the origin of the shadow.) Because in fact the pronoun
referring to the hearing applies (returns) to him. That is to say, because the
pronoun which is in the word ‘his hearing’ refers to the servant. And the
others of the servants who are not like this, the relationship is that this
servant is closer to the Being of the haqq than the relationships of the
other servants. This means that of the servants other than this servant, who
have not passed away from their qualities into the Quality of the haqq, that
is to say, God is not their powers and their surroundings, then the
relationship of this servant to the Being of the haqq is closer than the
relationship of the servants who are not like this one.
Now, know it like this, that to be verified with God is
of two parts. One part is that a person becomes verified with God and passes
away from his own qualities into the Qualities of God, and God becomes present
in the station of his qualities, and this servant is closer to God than other
servants who are active in their own qualities and remain with the veiling of
those qualities, and this closeness is called ‘closeness of supererogatories’,
and it is to this category of closeness that the Shaykh (R.A.) refers when he
says: ‘And of us there are some where God is his hearing and vision’ etc. The
other part is called the ‘closeness of obligations’ which is closer than the
previous closeness, because the closeness of this person is being essentially
passed away and remaining with God, and God sees by him and hears by him and he
is God’s hearing and seeing. Perhaps even that he is the image of God, like
Mohammed, praise and peace be upon him, for whom it was said: ‘You did not
throw when you threw, but God threw.’ And as the order is as we have exposed to
you, know that you are illusion {khayal), and all that
being except if it is the Being of God especially by virtue of Its
Ipseity and Its own 'ayn, because the Ipseity of Uniqueness is the same
as being and no other by virtue of the fact that being is solely being (wujud-i-
mahd). And the Reality of the liaqq named by Its Ipseity of
Uniqueness is no other than exclusively being, due to the fact that He is being
Without die condition of non-particularization and without the condition of
particularization, and He is by virtue of Himself holy from all praise and
Name. There is no praise for Him or Name, nor image, and there is no
consideration of plurality in it by any aspect, and also not by virtue of His
Names, because His Names have two connotations. The Reality of the haqq
which is called by the Ipseity of Uniqueness is no other than solely being (wujud-i-mahd),
because of the fact that He is solely being without the condition of
non-particularization and the condition of particularization. Equally, because
the haqq is solely being He is transcendent from Qualities and Names,
because for the haqq which is named by the Ipseity of Uniqueness there
is neither image nor Name nor Quality, and no consideration is possible in any
aspect for the plurality that It has in Itself, and this is because He is named
by the Ipseity of Uniqueness and not because He is called by Names. From the
point of view of the Ipseity, the Being of the haqq is the same as the
Ipseity, and it is not the same as the Ipseity by virtue of the Names of the haqq,
because for the Names of God there exist two connotations. One is the Ipseity,
and the other is the Quality. One connotation is Its own 'ayn (the same
as Itself). The first connotation is the Ipseity which is the same as the Name.
And that is the named 'ayn. And the Name under this consideration is the
same as what is called, that is to say, the Ipseity is the same as the liaqq.
Perhaps rather even that all the Names, being annihilated in the Ipseity and
not being differentiated one from the other, are the same as each other, and as
the Name is the same as what is called by that Name, under this consideration
the Being of the Ipseity is the same as the haqq. The other connotation
is that which denotes to it that which the Name details to it from this other
Name and differentiates. The other connotation, which is a Quality, is that
thing which the Name connotes so that this Name is differentiated from another
Name, because in the Presence of Uniqueness the plurality of Names are
annihilated and are the same as each other, but in the Presence of Oneness each
Name becomes particularized by its own Quality and becomes differentiated one
from the other. Perhaps as each Name by consideration of its particularization
be the same as the Absolute haqq. Consequently, it becomes
‘the illusioned haqq' which is the particularization and the
manifestation of the haqq in the mirrors of the unknowable
potentialities (a'yan-i- ghaybiyyah) due to the manifestation and
particularization of the haqq by virtue of the a'yan, or it is a
particularization of the a'yan with the essential specialities in the
Being of the haqq. Consequently, the haqq is Absolute by virtue
of the Being of the Holy Ipseity, and by virtue of the Divine Names the haqq
is ‘illusioned’, imaginary. The Shaykh, with his words: ‘The being, all of it
is illusion in illusion’, pointed this out. I transcend that which has no proof
for It other than the proof of Its own Self, which means that I transcend that
Absolute haqq who has no proof other than Itself, because'the quiddity (huwiyyah)
of the universe is the shadow of the haqq which proves It, connotes It.
Equally, the shadow, by virtue of being Its shadow, is the same as that which
gives the shadow. Consequently, there is no proof of the haqq other than
Its own Self. And His immanence is not proved. His Being is no other than the
same as Itself. Thus, the Being of the haqq is not established except by
the sameness of Its Self, that is to say, by Its Ipseity, because that which is
existent other than the Being of the liaqq, which is manifest and
hidden, is not being. It is pure non-existence. Thus, the Being of the haqq,
which is the quiddity of all things, proves, connotes again only His own Being.
Or it might be considered like this: His immanence is not established, that is
to say, that immanence which is the creation of the haqq manifest
therein by His revelation, gave proof to It by no other than Its same Selfness
and Its Ipseity and not by other than Himself from among the Names. That is to
say, the immanence, which is the place of manifestation and the creation of the
haqq, does not establish proof of the Being of the haqq except by
the Ipseity of the haqq. Consequently, the immanence, which is called
other than the baqq and which is named as the universes, is considered
as proof to the Being of the haqq only by the proof of the proof of the
Ipseity of Its own Being, and it does not prove the Being of the haqq by
being existent and by being independent existence. And there is not in
immanence other than which is proved by the Uniqueness. Thus, in immanence,
that is to say, in being, there is no other proof of being other than the Being
of the Uniqueness, and the being which is the subject of the proof of
Uniqueness is the Being of the Aa??, because the Uniqueness which is the same
as the haqq does not prove except the Being of the haqq which is
the Uniqueness. Consequently, there is no being which proves the Being of
Names prove the other things named is verified by the effects of the
Names which are the different images of the universe, because the differences
between the effects of the Names prove the differentiation among the things
named. Thus, the knowledge of the Names depends on the receptivities, the
places of manifestation and the differences of effects. Equally, the
realization of the being of the universe in the a'yan depends on the
Names and the Presences of the Names. In short, by way of mutual relationship
they are dependent one on the other. As there is no being rich beyond need of
one of them from the other, being rich beyond need of one of them would
necessitate being rich beyond need of the other. Thus, being rich beyond need
of the universes is the same as being rich beyond need of the Names. In the
same way, when the universes are considered as the images of the Divine Names,
then it becomes clearly manifest that being rich beyond need of the universes
is the same as being rich beyond need of the Names because the universes are no
other than the images of the Names, and that the Ipseity of Uniqueness is
absolutely Rich beyond Need of any other thing is clear in the words of the haqq-.
‘Say: He is the God.’ ‘Say: He is the God, the Unique’ by virtue of Its 'ayn.
That is to say, Oh Mohammed say: The Being of the haqq by virtue of the
Ipseity of the haqq is the God, the Unique, Rich beyond Need of other. God
is Self-subsistent, yet what is relied upon in the needs and needed by virtue
of our relying upon Him. That is to say, God is what is relied upon or intended
in needs and the needed by virtue of our relying upon Him. Thus, in
consideration of the Name $amad, the Being of the haqq is One,
that is to say, not Rich beyond Need of the Names, because $amad is
needed, and that which is needed cannot be realized in the exterior without
those who need it. Thus, in consideration of Oneness, the Being of the ijaqq
is not Rich beyond Need of the Names. By virtue of His own Quiddity and us, He
did not bear. The haqq did not bear by virtue of the
necessarily-so-ness of His Quiddity and by virtue of the possibleness of our
quiddity. That is to say, He did not take friendship from our quiddity and did
not bring forth from His and our quiddities. Therefore, He cannot be a
progenitor, and the words: ‘There is nothing equal to Him’ proves this, and in
the words of the Shaykh that follow, this is very clearly put down. And He did
not bring forth (give birth) as there is no other thing unique equal to Him.
Thus, by virtue of His Quiddity the haqq was not bom from anybody so
that He could be a result of anything. Equally, not one is equal or
exchangeable or similar to Him, so that it be close
is not one equal in uniqueness to Him*’ refuted an equal, just as it
refuted partner.’ And in chapter 59 of the Futuhat: ‘His mashVa
and His Will and His Knowledge and His Power is of Himself, the High God, and
becomes plural in Himself, High and Grand, though He is absolutely One, and
when they asked of the Prophet (S.A.) of His Qualities, the Surat of Ikhla$
came down and freed Him of any association with another.’ And the completion of
the freedom of the haqq is negating from Him all qualities of plurality
and establishing His Essential Uniqueness. Yet all uniquenesses are not the
praises of the Ipseity of the haqq. The Uniqueness which is related to
the Ipseity is the Uniqueness of the 'ayn, and it is not the Uniqueness
of the plurality of the Divine Names. That is why the Shaykh (R.A.) pointed at
these two Uniquenesses and said: The Uniqueness of God by virtue of the Divine
Names required us, and this is the Uniqueness of plurality, which means
that the Uniqueness of God by virtue of the Divine Names required us for
manifesting in us the effects of the Names in the plurality of Uniqueness,
because that which is named by all these many Names is One by virtue of
Essence, and by virtue of the relationship appertaining to His Ipseity It is
plural in relationships. Consequently, to this plurality of relationships which
is in the Intellect is applied the Name ‘Uniqueness of plurality’. And the
Uniqueness of God by virtue of His being Rich beyond Need of us and of the
Divine Names, it is the Uniqueness of the 'ayn. This Uniqueness is
also the Uniqueness of the Ipseity wherein a mentation of plurality cannot be
considered. Consequently, the Uniqueness of the Ipseity necessitates being Rich
beyond Need of the Divine Names and also of the immanences which are the
necessities of the Names. Consequently, the Uniqueness which is transcended
beyond plurality is the Uniqueness of Ipseity and not the Uniqueness of the
Names. And to all of them is applied the Name Unique, and know this like
that. The Uniqueness which is related to the Ipseity is the Uniqueness of the 'ayn
and not the Uniqueness of the Names; thus, know you the difference and the
distinction between these two Uniquenesses, so that you be not questionable in
their usage, and use each one in their own station. And God did not bring
into being the shadows and bring them prostrating, (so that they are spread
on the earth and docile to the haqq), transient (going towards) from the
left (towards the right at sunset) and from the right (towards the left at the
elevation of the sun) except as proofs for you of you and of Him. Thus the High
God did not bring into bcine the shadows for the neonle outside, and eauallv
did not brinp the
Thus, the poverty or need is to nobody other than God. Until yon
know from whence or from what Reality the haqq is qualified
with being Rich beyond Need from the humankind and Rich beyond Need of the
universes, and that the universe is qualified with being rich beyond need, and
what makes some of the humankind rich beyond need from some of the others, and
in what aspect he is the same as the one who is in need of some others. That
is to say, so that you come to know from which degree and from what Divine
Reality the haqq became Rich beyond Need,of the people and of the universes,
and became qualified by being Rich beyond Need. And the universe also became
qualified as rich beyond need. That is to say, some of the universe became
qualified with being rich beyond need from the others, from that aspect where
the aspect of being rich beyond need is the same as some being in need of the
others. That is to say, some of the universe became rich beyond need of a thing
in one order, and in that order became in need of another portion in another
thing. It is like the shadow of a person which in being is in need of the
person, but it is rich beyond need from another person, and the fact that it is
rich beyond need from another person is the same as its being needy of its own
person. It is rather that some parts are in some aspects rich beyond need of
other parts, and they are in need through some aspects of some others. This is
like cooled and frozen water being rich beyond need of the sun, yet in need of
the heat for its being able to flow. It can also be interpreted as that it
becomes rich beyond need in one of the aspects of the aspects, and that aspect
by which it is in need of another. Another interpretation would be as if this
aspect which is the same as its need of another. Thus the haqq, in
consideration of the Uniqueness of Its Ipseity, is Rich beyond Need of people
and the universes, and in consideration of the manifestation of the haqq
in the places of manifestation of the universe, and His Lordship, some of the
universe is rich beyond need of some others, because in another place of
manifestation it is in need of the haqq by a relative (qualificative)
need. In consideration of causality the universe is in need of its own kind. It
is without a doubt indeed that die universe is in need, by essential
need, of causes, because the universe is in accordance with non-existence.
Therefore, there is no original existence for it because in existence it is in
need of a cause. And the greatest cause for it is the quality of the cause (sababiyyah),
file haqq. That is to say, when one does not take into consideration
the quality (nwafc), our beings and existences are in need of the by an
essential need thouzh thev are nresent with the revelatinn and
manifestation, and action and ability and strength and nourishment
with protection are the subjects of being and are the qualities and actions of
the haqq. Thus, for the parent there is nothing else but receptivity and
ability and being the place of manifestation, and in his being the place of
manifestation that which is manifested as action is the action of God. Without
a doubt the quality of causality of the same as the haqq has become
manifest so that there is nothing other than God which is needed. He is by
Himself. There is no associate to Him, and it is because of this that God the
High said: ‘Oh people, you are in need of God, and God, He is Rich .’beyond
Need and to whom all praise is due’, which means, the High God by His Ipseity
is Rich beyond Need of anything else and gives praise by His own Ipseity to His
Ipseity. In other words, need is your essential quality, and being Rich beyond
Need is the essential quality of the haqq. Thus, He made it clear that
the people have no richness-beyond-need in the order itself, and that they are
in need of the High God in total need in every order through their essential
need, and that He, through His Ipseity and perfections and Qualities, is the
one that is praised. And it is known that there is for us need of some of us
for others of us, and that our Names are the Names of God. This means that our
need of some of us for some others of us is the Divine Names which are ours, by
which Names the High haqq has revealed Itself to us. Thus our Names are
God’s Names and that we arc only the images of the Names, and that there is
nothing in us that will need anything other than the haqq. (He is the
Rich-bey ond- Need and we are the poor.) Being in need is without a doubt being
in need of Him, and our potentialities [a'yan) in the order itself are
no other than shadow, because need is without a doubt only to God specifically
and to no other, yet our potentialities in the order itself are the shadow of
God. That is to say, our potentialities in the order itself, which are the
informations from the Unknowable, arc His shadow. In consideration of His Name
Interior (6d(zn) it is no other than shadow, because in consideration of the
qualities and relativities of the interiors the Name Interior is the same as
the haqq, and the shadow of the haqq through conditional
qualification is His Being. Otherwise said, our potentialities, that is to say,
our external beings, are the shadow of the haqq in the order itself. Our
being in need of the haqq is just like the need of the shadow for the
person whose shadow it is. And He is our quiddity and not our quiddity. Thus
the haqq, in consideration of reality and being, is our quiddity.
Through particularization and relativity and being
Of the Wisdom of Uniqueness
(al-hikmat al-ahadiyyah)
in the Word of Hud
For the Singleness of Existence (wahdat-i-wujud'),
there are established three degrees. The first of these is the Singleness of
the Ipseity which is the Absolute Uniqueness (ahadiyyah) of Ipseity, and
in this, as we know, there is no relative plurality nor plurality of
existences, nor consideration even of these. The second of these is the
Singleness of Names with the plurality of Qualities, and this is the Singleness
of Godhead, and with this consideration God is One and with
the former, God is Unique (ahad). The third degree is
Singleness of action which is the Uniqueness of Lordship (ahadiyyat-i-rububiyyah).
It is this Uniqueness (ahadiyyah) which is specialized in the
prophet Hud, God keep him in salam. But, this Uniqueness is both taken
and given and arrested, that is, it is arrested in the fact that at this moment
the Lord is according to a special way and that God proceeds in that special
way. Therefore, this Uniqueness is the Uniqueness of the plurality of actions
and results which is related directly to the huwiyyah of Ipseity.
Now know it thus, that the straight way is the way of
Singleness because God is One, and this is the shortest way of the ways that
arrive at God. Because for each Name of God there is a special servant for whom
that Name is its special Lord and that servant is the place of manifestation of
that quality. The servant is apparent and the body, and the rabb is
hidden (fedfin) and the spirit, because each nafs of each a'yan
of being is attached to one special Name of the Names of God and depends on it
and it acts according to the necessity of that Name. Therefore, each 'ayn
goes according to its special straight path and its Lord is according to that
straight path. However, each 'ayn is on the straight path according to
its private Name and not according to a Name which is its equivalent. Oneness
is reached through any one of these Names because of the relativity in
immanence in this world, but the Uniqueness of all the ways, which is the
straight way, is the Name of Allah which is the soecial Name for the
Inseitv of Godhead.
manifestation without that manifestation being through one of Its
Names, and each Name is qualified by all the other Names because haqq
cannot be fragmented, whereas the places, that is, those who are manifested,
are in certain respects fragmented. And if God does manifest as a medium
through ‘all-nesses’, He therein manifests with all His Names and that place of
manifestation is like the Perfect Man. But if He manifests not as a medium in
all things, that particular manifestation is not a medium to all things and He
is outside all that and that thing is eloquent with only seven things named and
the other Names are in its ba^in and cannot be expressed, like in the
relative man. And if He is going to be manifested in a constrained manner, the
speech also will remain interior to that which is manifested, like in solids
and plants. Therefore, if there is no manifestation of all Names and Qualities
in a manifested thing, the Names and Qualities remain interior because of the lack
of ability in the manifested thing’s nature to express itself. Therefore, there
is not a single creature who is not speaking, be it manifestedly or interiorly.
Those things in whom speech is interior, their speech and giving of grace to
Truth is through their maimer. Most people call this speaking their non-speech,
but those who see things as they really are and have kashf open, hear
speech both of the hidden and the manifested kinds, but those who are veiled
cannot hear.
Hence all things are speaking things, even though in
some the speech is hidden, because that which actually produces speech is
non-existent in them. Therefore, speech in those things is batin and
everyone does not hear. The veiled one does not hear, but the one whose veils
are removed and is kamil does see, hear, the spirituality of every thing
and does hear, in manifested speech or not, their language.
There is not in existence one creature that the eye sees
who is not in his ayn and essence the haqq, which has appeared
manifested in that image. But the imaginations of the veiled ones call them
creatures, because they are covered in creaturial form and are veiled by it.
But to the ones who know, haqq is manifested through that image.
Therefore the appearance of the images of haqq in forms of creatures is
likened to invitations inside envelopes. The manifestations of creatures are
like the envelopes wherein is held the Truth in Truth of manifestation though
they be the immanencing of the Divine manifestation; (the Arc of wujub,
and the Arc of imkan).
Know it thus, that the (re-Realization of the Divine
tastes of knowledge which exist for people of God. is varied because of the
another person of kamal in the same way, although the huwiyyah
of Ipseity remains the same.
(Muhyiddin Ibn ’Arabi likens this truth to water which
takes on the shape of the container; and sometimes the water is salty, bitter
or different, whereas the quality of watemess remains equal and water in
essence remains the same though it tastes different from different wells.)
In the same way, though there are limitless
differentiations, the Reality does not vary. Therefore, whoever studies
knowledge becomes knowledgeable whether it be useful or not useful; they each
absolutely receive knowledge. Although the knowledge is in every ‘thing’ (shay'),
the people mentioned in this book, though different in expression, express
the same indivisible Truth.
Therefore everybody who is distanced from the;Reality is
in hell: the good man, if he is away from his reality, is in hell; the vengeful
man, who becomes merciful, is in hell. When then God takes a person who is in
his ’ayn manifested with the winds of hell and leads him to his
homeland, which is hell, with that leading into hell, they become annihilated
in their own existence, and they have reached their destination. The 'ayn
is annihilated, taken away from individuation, therefore distance is eliminated
and in their case what was qualified as hell has become non-existent, and if
distance is eliminated, hell, which is distance from Reality, is eliminated.
But, though they have reached the elimination of hell, it does not mean they
have reached the Absolute where there is no qualification. Now understand that haqq
did not give them this situation because they deserved it as a gift from God,
but because they took it due to what they deserved according to their actions,
which actions were those upon which they were established due to their personal
ability and due to their a'yan which in the Presence of His Knowledge
were already known; because no matter what their actions appeared to be upon
this world, it was all the same in accordance with their a'yan and
thereby they were on the straight path with their foreheads in the Hands of Him
Who Guides in the straight path. Here it appears that there was coercion (jabr),
but the jabr does not refer to the Hand which holds them by the forehead
and leads them, but to the propensity of their 'ayn, and it is this jabr
of the 'ayn through the propensities of their 'ayn that they
asked from the Absolute rabb, the hukm, determination of the
private rabb', and their arrival thereby at the closeness of 'ayn
is not to do with the degree of their closeness to the Ipseity but it is
determined rather by the Quranic saying: ‘We are
is the one which obliges one to recognize the Source. The people of
Hud who were killed and were taken away from relative life, but were left in
the origin of jtayy, what was their body, tougue, foot, etc., are all then
under the Name of hayy, their essence. That is, when you are dead, every
part of your body is speaking in life (hayy). So denial is useless of
one’s previous acts. If you say in the next world: T did not hit this man’, the
hand will say: T hit him by the order of the brain that ruled me’, so every
atom will, be speaking. Ahl-i-kashf can hear everything speaking, making
sound, etc.
The wind that killed everybody during the night, and in
the morning only their bodies were found, was both a punishment and a mercy;
(the destruction of the people of Hud).
It is only at the station of Man that there is otherness
between what is imagined as creature and what is known as God. God says: T am
in manifestation, I am that which is manifested’, but when it comes to Man, He
does not say that, He keeps it secret. Only mankind has to discover it for
themselves, and only people of kashf know this. If it were net so, then
He could not have said: T am all existence.’ There is a section of the
multitude of existents who are differentiated from Him until by their own
efforts, they come to know Him. Everything is Him, and knows it; but there is a
category who are in His image but do not know that He is all. The only ones who
do not know until kashf are the ones in His image.
And this otherness, individuated in animals, plants and
rocks, is the secret of the individuation of human beings. Therefore, certain
things are forbidden to Man. If it were not so, then it would no longer be a
secret, for if the secret of T am Truth, I am God’ were known, then He would
have manifested His Ipseity in everything, and His mystery would not have been
known.
Things speak in ba(in
and Man speaks outwardly. And it is this differentiation from the human being
which creates the possibility of the word ‘you’. For lesser than humans, there
is no ‘you’, only oneness. As the thing is hidden (from you) it becomes ‘Thou’.
Consequently, every man is not in the same degree of consciousness of the
Reality. A section of human beings is un-knowing, not gnostic, and another part
is gnostic. Therefore, there has been for each kind and category and era of
people a different envoy. ‘God made appear to me the a'yan of all the anbiya'
from Adam to Mohammed, who are human beings, and mA fVtAiv* eniiMf f/s nsa +l*AeA ttrarA
God is the same as all the senses, because through the
senses hayy exposes itself; yet spiritual sense is even a degree closer.
We know that God said that spirit is an order from your God. Now, an order is
not a creature. We also know that the universes are an order; therefore, they
are not a creature. Creatures are limited but universes are not limited, and amr
is not limited. The creature is a result of amr. The ruh is
unlimited. That which is unlimited is naturally closer than that which is
limited. That is why the Prophet told us from God, as a good tiding, that God
said: 'idh taqarraba ilayya 'abdi bil-nawafil kuntu sam'ahu wa ba^arahu',
which translates: ‘When My servant approaches Me with things I have not imposed
upon him (naw&fil), I am his hearing and his seeing.’ And thereby
informed us of the beshara that Truth, Aa<7<7, is the same as our
powers. An imposed order is limited, but unlimited actions for Him naturally
brings you closer. People who deny this are those who do not see and understand
that if God is the same as the restricted things, God becomes restricted, and
if God includes all spirits and bodies and is individuated in all these things,
He cannot be limited, and appears in all, and separately and more; therefore He
is unlimited. Those who do not understand cover up our Reality, and those who
do not understand cover up our proofs; they are stricken with jealousy and
miserliness and oppressions, (and are oppressors, and oppression is in
darkness), because these things are in their nafs. Those who know God’s
evidences with partial knowledge, know it only because in their nafs is
all this negativity. This is very often met with in knowledgeable people of ahli
kitab, because they know the evidences of Truth through their books. Even
their very elegant students of the books try to bring in as many proofs as
possible to try to deny this because of the existence of their jealousy and
miserliness and oppression which are inherent in their nafs. Ibn ‘Arabi
argues that what all these people see in the books is the curtailing of the
Unlimitedness of God* and he refutes it by the Prophetic saying: ‘Above the 'ama,
it is not air, and below the 'ama, it is not air’, which shows that
there is no possibility of limiting the 'ama. And he proves that in the
Quran many things are limitations, but people must go beyond that. When in the
Quran it says: ‘We brought it down on the Night of Power’, this is a
limitation, but those who stand on those words are limiters. Whereas it is us
who limit Him, He is unlimited. To absolutize from relativity is also
relativity, and to say of the Absolute ‘Absolute’, is also a limitation. But
all the same, we know to be ahcnlutelv true that haaa is the same as the
‘thines’. Whereas the ‘things’
manifestation of Aagg, and haqq is the spirit and interior of
the universe, and the universe is the insan-i-kabir (Big Man) by virtue
of its being the image, because that image is the image of haqq
according to the image of rahman according to His image created, and
thereby it is zahir because haqq is zahir in the universe,
because that universe is the image of haqq. And that which is batin
is also haqq because He is both zahir and ba{in. Hence haqq
is the total of the immanence. That is to say, the ?d/nr and ba^in of
immanence is haqq, (‘Indeed the immanence is an illusion, and it is the
Truth in Truth’), and haqq is that Single Existent which is that which
maintains my existence because it is through His existence that it exists.
This way, haqq is Itself and is other than
Itself, but by being other than Itself, It is not other than Itself, because
other is Itself again; thereby, there is no other than haqq.
Now, let it be known thus, that nafs-i-rahmant in
the ba[in of the ta'ayyun awwal in the degree of 'ama, is
matter and hayula to all the images of creaturial possibility and images
of Divine knowledges of the ghayb, and all the images of the Names; in
the same way, the nafs insani is hayula to all images of letters
and words. That is to say, the nafs insani, though the same as the
person itself in the interior of the human heart, is individuated in the ba(in
of the human heart, and passing through where the letters originate from, is
individuated in each degree, and passing through each degree is in a different
individuation until it reaches the degree of the letter waw and
manifests through the last of the letter sources which is the degree of the
letter waw, which is all- inclusive of all the special qualities of all
the letters; in the same way as the nafs-i-rahmani, while it was still
the same as the la ta'ayyun and in the interior of the ta'ayyun
awwal, became individuated in that ta'ayyun awwal, and the totality
of the letters of the unknown and the Divine Names and realities and the images
of the immanence, became individuated. And in each degree, the nafs-ar-rahman
became individuated in that degree. Then as that nafs-ar-rahman
progressed and manifested through the degrees both Divine and immanent, thereby
the unknown letters and Divine words and Truth and images of immanence became
individuated in it. And in each degree, the nafs-ar-rahman became
individuated with that degree, just as every degree became individuated in the nafs-ar-rahman,
and hence, when it reached the last degree of all the degrees of existence,
which is the degree of ins&n-i-k&mil, which includes all the
Divine and immanent degrees, the nafs-ar-rahman
other than the existence of the Ijaqq, which in turn is no
other than all these acts, qualities and graces. Hence, if the actions and bad
results are attributed to the 'abd, the 'abd becomes the
protector of his Lord from the attribution of these badnesses; because
badnesses and faults are within the laws of non-existence, and the recipient of
them is the 'abd. On the other hand, if the nice things and perfections
and graces are attributed to the Lord (haqq), the Ijaqq then
becomes the protector of the ’abd by not validating the attribution of
such things to the 'abd, which is not in its essence, because He is the
essence of the 'abd,.because graces and perfections are of existence
arid are for the existence of haqq, and even further, they are the
Reality of the Reality. Therefore, the highest degree of relating to the
Reality is for the 'abd to make the Lord his Protector, and it is to
draw attention to this that he said: ‘Those who have related to the Reality
have made God the Protector in their ipseity, in their quality and in their
actions, and covered their own ipseity with the Ipseity of the Ijaqq and
their qualities with the Qualities of haqq and their actions with the
actions of Ijaqq. Thereby the haqq covers their %ahir.'
That is to say, it has become exactly the same as the image they manifest,
their ipseity and T-ness having found fana' in the existence of Reality.
And these people have no manifest existence except that
their place of abode is non-place of abode, that is to say, their place of
abode is Reality. Therefore, the man who does that which he does for payment of
his deeds is never equal to the man who does it out of his own will (since it
is not imposed), and his prayers are not because they are imposed, but because
he wants to show ’abdness to the rabb and establish the rabb, and
so rabb can establish the 'abd, not because he wants to gain
anything by it but looks at it from the point of view of giving and receiving
of pleasure. Whereas, the man who acts and is ignorant, like he who prays so
that he reaches paradise and is preserved from fire, he is not like this, and
when he is in action, his action is in witnessing his own rabb. If in
one way the haqq is the protector of the 'abd, in the same way
the 'abd is the protector of the haqq. Because, though the haqq
is protecting the 'abd, preserving him in the kamalat (degrees of
completion), in the same way the 'abd is protecting the Ijaqq
from being tainted by lacks and ill things. But whatever is true, both from the
point of view of ba(in and zahir, He is both Ijaqq and khalq
and contains both perfection and lack: or equally, one can say He is not in
every way
any form or belief who does not establish God according to his
imagination and wahm. Therefore, this God is an erroneous, ‘brought-
about’ God.
Now, let it be known like this, that God is far removed
from being imagined in one form of manifestation (tajalli), from one
condition and from one individuation, because He is, by nature of Absoluteness
and la ta'ayyun and Ipseity, far removed, and because there is an
eternity and indefinity and infinity of manifestations. Hence the people of kashf
and shuhud and gnosis and existence, whose hearts are clear of
mental imaginings and dogmas and awhani, can never, and will never,
determine God to one image or dogma, and believe in that; but they see Him in
all the varied manifestations according to the manifestation of the Name who is
the rabb of that manifestation, knowing it has manifested in that
manifestation according to the inclination of that manifestation or place, etc.
Therefore, they do not acknowledge Him in one manifestation and deny Him in the
opposite manifestation. And they observe Him in manifestation in that moment
according to the Name that necessitates it, because they do not limit Him to
any manifestation anywhere, ever. Because manifestation is infinite,
indefinite, and every moment is different and unlimited. But the people who
believe in religious dogmas, deny one another’s religion; what they have conjectured
in their nafs they take for God and they only see their own nafs
because of its mental image, and because of this, what they imagine is the same
as their own nafs, because their mentality has brought about this image
in nafs from nafs by nafs, and then that which they have
seen in their nafs becomes their Lord. Therefore, the people who are
veiled through being attached, careful, who go through one form of dogma, what
they see as God is their nafs and there is no difference between idols
and such brought- about Gods.
But in the end, even that is also He, because in their
mind there are the asma' which they imagine to be God, and He appears to
them in those asma' and He is also God, as there is nothing else anyhow.
Therefore, what they see is the rabb of a Name which is their private rabb
and it is not the Absolute rabb, but equally, at the same time, it is
not another rabb. Therefore, if the 'ar if sees and observes with
all his capacities etc., completely, he observes (but nobody can observe haqq
but haqq)', therefore look at the different degrees of mankind in the
knowledge of God. Therefore, anybody who believes in the dogmatic belief of his
own predilection to the exclusion of other beliefs is a man
Of the Wisdom of Opening
(al-hikmat al-futuhiyyah)
in the Word of Salih
Of
all the marvellous Acts is the Act of mounts (&yat-ul-
raka'ib)
And thus is the
variety in the ways;
From among them there are those who there abide in
Truth
And of them there are those who cut distances into
deserts of wilderness;
But those who abide
are people of 'ayn, And the cutters of distances are the masses and followers; And to
all He gives from that which is The opening of His ghayb from every side.
Of all the marvellous
Acts is the Act of mounts
So that you endeavour to reach your goal, the Act of mounts is one
of the Divine Acts which shows itself as specialized in the case of each envoy,
like the she-camel for Salih and the buraq for Mohammed. Here the Shaykh
started the chapter with reference to the mount because, in the case of Salih,
the she-camel plays a most important part in the confirmation of the veracity
of his calling people to the Truth, and the word ‘mount’ is the plural of the
word *rakiba\ and the rakiba is the thing one gets onto to arrive
at where one is intending to go. This is like a symbol of the himmah and
acts of the prophets and saints and their people and followers, by which they
are brought to the original aim which is completion. Of these, each one is
particular to one kind of mount: some of them are on the mount of himmah,
some of them are on the mount of works (a'mal') etc., and each one is on
a different road because the roads to God are the same as the number of the
selves of the creatures. Each one has his own particular gait and his own
particular road, and due to the particularity of the road he has the suitable
mount, and the difference of the particularities of the roads is due to the
necessities of the Name of the particular Lordship, and the
intention and remain short, and these do not abide with the reality
of abiding with the acts of God which are the mounts. They have according to
their own sights and intelligence spent the acts and deviated. The Shaykh, may
God be pleased with him, has differentiated these two categories by saying:
But those who
abide are people of 'ayn
That is, those who are in the reality of abiding in the way of the
Truth with the mounts which are the acts of Truth, those who abide thus are
people of 'ayn and they are people of sight and witnessing {shuhud), and
they invite the people to God with vision (ba^irah) and are faithful ($adiq)
in their invitation, and these are the people of 'ayn and these are
aimers at the Essence (maq^ud bidhat), and the intention of all aimers
is for these people.
And the cutters of
distances are the masses and followers
Veiled from the Reality of Knowledge, full of wahm and of
intelligences overcoloured by wahm, these cutters are the populace and subjects
who get invited to the Truth and they are used like animals in wars and equally
in affairs of religion and the world. They are the populace and the subjects.
The word used, 'jana'ib', is the plural of 'janiba' which is
derived as a conjugation from the word 'janub' which means ‘south’ but
which equally means ‘south’ because of farness, and thereby these are distanced
from Reality.
And to all He gives from that which is
The opening of His
Unknowable (ghayb) from every side.
All abiders and the cutters receive the opening of the Unknowable
from every side from God; the opening of the unknowableness from God which is
specific to them comes from God, from the unknowableness of the Essence and
from the unknowableness of the Name of the private Lord which is his divinity
and also which is in the unknowableness of the knowledge of God concerning him
and which is in the unknowableness of the fixed potentialities (al
’ayn-c.l-thabitc). And this arrives from every side to him. In another
sense they receive what they deserve according to the unknowableness of their
essence, but the opening of the first category of people who are abiding with
the Truth, for them this world and the other world are necessarily inherent (mulazima).
And God gives them their desert with the opening (futuh) which is
lenient
Will means the relationship of the Ipseity of God’s facing {tawajjuh)
specifically to the immanencing of an order, and in addition to this, at
the level of haqq facing that thing there was not His Word ‘Be’, that
thing would not have been. In short, at the level of the Ipseity of creativity
and Its connection with Will and His Word ‘Be’, that which exists at the level
of the Reality of these could not have existence. Consequently, a trinity results
from there being Ipseity, Will and Speech, and in this trinity singularity
appears and the universes come into existence from this singularity; in other
words, directly trinity of singularity is established for the ‘Ipseity of the
bringer into existence’, a triple singularity manifests in that which is the
receptor. Because of singularity which manifests in the thing which is the
receptor, that thing’s immanencing itself and its qualification by existence
becomes a reality. In other words, the immanencing of a thing is by its own nafs
which is a triune singularity, because if there had not been this receptive
singularity there could have been no effect for the Divine Singularity and
perhaps not an establishment of singularity, because for the haqq the establishment
of singularity depends on the singularity of the thing, and the singularity of
a thing is nothing other than that thing’s thingness which is established in
the Divine Knowledge and is its hearing; which means its hearing of the Divine
Word.
And also, the bringing into existence of its own
existence is the concordance of the immanence to the order which it is given.
Consequently, from the point of view of the receptive thing, that which causes
its coming into being is its singularity; and from the point of view of the
bringer into existence, what is necessary is the singularity of that bringer
into existence. Consequently, the three on one side becomes equivalent to the
three on the other. The ipseity of the thing which is established in the Divine
Knowledge at the time of non-existence becomes balanced by the Ipseity of the haqq
which is its bringer into existence, and that thing’s hearing the Word ‘Be’ is
balanced by the Will of the haqq which is its bringer into existence,
and that thing’s concordance to the reception of that order which was ordered
to it prior to its immanence is balanced by the Word ‘Be’ of the ^agg.
Consequently, that receptive thing is existent by concordance to the order of
the bringer into existence. And the High Aagg, by saying: *. . . and they
become’, relates or ties the immanence to the thing; in other words, at the
level of the emanation of the order the thing becomes immanent through its own nafs.
If at the level of the Word *kun\ which
part appertaining to the order given in this except by the giving of
the order. The Shaykh gives an example here: there is a master against whom
rebellion does not come into consideration, and this master orders his servant
to rise. The servant arises in concordance with this order; in the rising of
the servant there is no part appertaining to the master except in the word, the
order. The action of rising remains completely with the servant. In this case
arising is attributable to the master only in so far as the order of rising has
emanated from him, and because of this order the act of arising has happened in
the servant.
That which is established in the Divine Knowledge but
which is nonexistent in the vision of the eye, is the thing which exists with
the Knowledge of Existence, and it is never non-existent with total nonexistence.
Its immanencing at the level of the emanation of the Divine order is its
manifestation exemplifying the Divine order according to that image of
knowledge. Consequently, that thing’s manifestation according to that image
mentioned above cannot be attributed to the haqq. Its manifestation is
from the side of the thing; from the side of the haqq it is only the
order to manifest, and if the order does not come at that level that thing remains
all the same according to its establishment in the Divine Knowledge. For the
emanation of the action (/J7), the actor (fail) is no other than the
receiver of the order (ma’mur) who is acted upon (munfa'il) by
the order (amr). In this way there is absolute establishment of fact
that for the thing which appears according to the image in the Knowledge, if
there are faults and errors in its action of appearance, these cannot be
attributed to the haqq which gave the order, but to itself. (For
example, if the servant obeying the order of the master to stand up does so too
quickly, he may find himself dizzy upon standing up. This fault in standing up
and stumbling can in no way be attributed to the order to stand up, since both
the action of standing up in accordance with the order and the errors committed
in the execution of the order belong entirely to the receptor of the order,
that is, to the servant; and the order itself and the giver of the order are
entirely without blame.)
Immanence then is essentially existent according to
trinity. That is from either side, the side of haqq and the side of the khalq,
thingness (shay'iyah), hearing and accordance. From the side of the haqq
there is the Ipseity and the Will and the Word. From the side of the khalq there
is the Thingness, the Hearing and Accordance. In fact for the occurrence of
immanence there has to be established a trinity from
determination. The example of the fact that the determination is
general is; man is animal, all animals are body (Jism), man is body.
Body (jism) is determination but in this respect it is defective and
non-specific because each body is not animal. And the example that the order is
equal is: man is animal, all animals have feelings and man has feelings. In
this case feelings is equal to animal. The middle limit is called ‘defective’
because it takes on the image of defect for the sake of comparison. Perhaps it
is even that it is a defect in the happening of the result, because had there
not been the middle limit there could not have happened to be a result between
the two priorities, and if it were not non-specific and defective and if it
were not equal, then the order would result with an untrue result. For example:
man is animal and some of the animals are horses; consequently to say that all
men are horses would be untrue, and the truthfulness of the order depends
entirely on the composition being according to the special condition, and its
not being true is entirely dependent on the result not being according to the
special condition. But then the arrival at the untrue result or lack of truth
of the result is existent in the universe, like the attribution of actions to
the servant, though they were devoid of any quality of attribution to God. That
is to say, if the action is attributed to the servant who is its actor, by an
order (amr) from God, or by the emanation of its existence, that act is
all the while devoid of any quality of attributability to God. Therefore the
result becomes untrue because the servant is a receptor and the receptor has no
existence of itself; consequently, for the result to happen it is not
sufficient to have the nafs of the receptor, because if a thing is not
existent by its own nafs and exists because of something else, how can
it bring into existence any other thing? Therefore it is definitely from the
actor, and the actor in reality is the haqq, and the servant exists by
the existence of the haqq and is dispenser by His strength. Therefore
the servant who is receptor becomes actor by the existence of haqq.
Therefore to ignore the existence of haqq in the servant and to
attribute the action to the servant is not true, and to attribute this
immanence absolutely to God, that is to say, to attribute all the actions
absolutely to God in spite of the fact that they emanate from the servant
himself, is not true, because it is unimaginable that an action take place
without the receptor; consequently action cannot be attributed absolutely to
God. Of these two attributions each one is absolute lie because in reality the amr
of Kuf th® ImmonAnr*
ic frnm th#* c#»rvant
defect and a cause. And what is meant by the generality of defect is
the generality of defect in the exterior which is the thing which causes the
universe to be subsequent, which in the example just given was determined with
it, and became the same as the determination (hukm), and that is our
word ‘has a cause’. In the proof the middle limit which is defect is also
subsequent and not what is desired, because in the proof the defect is the
defect of the determination and not the defect of the existent. In short, what
is desired is the defect of the existent with which the determination is to be
made, and then that is the same as the determination, because the defect which
causes the subsequent to exist in the exterior is the cause and the cause in
non-particularity is from God in the case of the coming into subsequence of the
universe, and that it is not particular (specific) is due to the fact that the
cause is attributable to the subsequent, because cause refers to haqq,
because the haqq by the Word ‘Be’ ordered the immanencing of the reality
of the universe. Therefore it equally refers to the universe because at the
level of hearing the order and being in agreement with it by its inclination
from when it was in the ghayb, the universe becomes immanenced.
(The Shaykh, may God be pleased with him, in chapter 182
of his Futuhat says: ‘ Wa lama lam yajihh al-wujud anna wujud al-'alam
ilia bil- qawl min Allah wa as-sama min al-'alam yafhar wujud (uruq as-saadah
wa 'ilm al-farq baynahumma wa bayn (uruq ash-shifa' ilia bil-qawl al- ilahi wa
sama' al-kawni', and this cause is spiritual.)
And the cause refers equally to the cause of creation
like it is attributed to this creature’s existence, a creature’s existence
which is already a creature prior to it, either by attribution of action or by
special attribution, and this cause exists in all totality of existents aside
from the Prime Intellect. Subsequentiation is special to the universe in the
exterior, and subsequentiation equally by its relationship to the totality of
subsequents is general but the cause is even more general than that. Under this
consideration, in the words: Tn the subsequential appearance of the universe’ (fi
huduth ul-'alam) there is the meaning: ‘There are ways’ (fi (uruq)
and if the cause is attributable to the thing which needs a cause it becomes
more non-specific or general than that which is subsequent. And if this is
taken into consideration it means that the subsequentiality of the universe,
the establishment of the cause of the coming into subsequence of the universe
from God, is more general because that thing for which there is resultant a
cause is more
Because the origin of immanence is trinity, God
manifested this in the Wisdom of Salih, upon him be peace, through the fact
that his people were to be delayed for three days as a promise which cannot be
belied. In other words, in the destruction of the people of Salih, the High God
delayed the destruction for three days, and when the three days were completed
thus, His promise became veridic, and the wisdom in this is that the
inclination to destroy comes about in three days and here the destruction
resulted at the level of the trinity just as existence came about at the level
of the trinity. Consequently, in the taking away of the people of Salih, may
peace be on him, the wisdom in God’s making the three days an indisputable
promise is that His promise came about by virtue of the trinity in the words
‘three days’. And the faithfulness of that result is that loud voice through
which sound the haqq destroyed them, so that they were destroyed in
their houses with their chests to the earth and in this way they entered the
morning and were unable to get up from where they were.
Consequently, as the inclination to destroy them was
completed in three days, then trinity caused that sound which destroyed them.
Of the three days, on the first day the faces of the people of Salih became
extremely yellow, and on the second day they became extremely red, and on the
third day they became extremely black; and when the three days were completed
the propensity to become destroyed became a reality and from them became
manifest the day of corruption and that manifestation was called destruction,
and the reality of their destruction came about at the level of trinity among
days. And the becoming yellow of the faces of these wretches became balanced by
God’s words spoken in reference to the happy ones whose faces glow, but in this
case the word ‘glow’ (musfirah) is derived from 'sufur' and 'sufur'
is ‘?u/iur’ which means ‘manifested’. Consequently, the yellowing became the
symbol of wretchedness manifesting in the people of Salih. After this there was
the reddening of the faces of the people of Salih which is balanced again with
the ‘Ja/nTcaA’ which means ‘laughing’, because smiling and laughter is
conducive to blushing. And the third state of becoming black is balanced by
what God says about the happy people: ‘And to announce to them with the mercy
of their Lord and His acceptance (ridwari)', as in the same way He says
about those who deny: ‘Forewarn {bashshir) them with the most painful
suffering.’ The happy ones were affected by this word from God, and what they
felt within themselves of this joyful announcement showed in their faces
from appertaining to others. And he will know certainly and
definitely that nothing from beneficence and maleficence will be given to him
except from his own ipseity, and what I mean by ‘beneficence’ or ‘maleficence’
is what is lenient to his character and temper or what is unsuitable to his
character and temper and therefore not lenient to it.
Let it be known like this, that the reality of
everything is the image of the knowledge of God of that thing from eternity.
That image in the Presence of Knowledge is according to the image of knowledge
and its necessary relationships and the necessities of the necessaries and
their relationships and is essential for its reality. And for God this is not
brought about because they are not existent in their a'yan but rather
for the haqq they are established in the existence of the haqq. They
are not existent in the 'ayn's existence, and there cannot be
attribution of ability (qudrah) to the becoming of everything except by
that which necessitates its reality from eternity, whether they be people of
the prophet or saint, or whether they be from among other people. In short, God
does not give to them what He gives except that which is necessary by virtue of
their reality and what their 'ayn-i-thabita requires from eternity.
Equally He does not give maleficence except from the person’s own ipseity: that
which is suitable to each person’s aim and is lenient to his nature is
beneficence, that which is not suitable to his aim and not lenient to his
nature is maleficence. Therefore, in the case of the people in hell, their
suffering is caused by the conditions there being not in accordance with their
aim and not lenient to their nature. After the passage of time they begin to
appreciate that which was contrary to the leniency of their character, and by
this appreciation the repulsion to it is removed and that thing becomes
suitable to their nature and there is not left punishment or maleficence.
Because of this, the suffering of the people of hell becomes changed from
suffering and becomes mercy (rahmah) and ease (rahah), though it
was maleficence before their appreciation and was opposed to the leniency of
their nature. The owner of this observation places on their side the totalling
of the excuses of all existence, and those indeed who do not find excuses know
in reality all moments are subsequent from themselves and result from
themselves and from that which was effectively in their own self.
We mentioned this when we said: ‘Knowledge is subject to
the known’ (inna al-'ilm tabi'un al-ma'lum). and that ability or power
and bringing into existence is by virtue of the image of knowledge, and the
person then would say, addressing his nafs, when that which is against
his aim
Of the Wisdom of the Heart
(al-hikmat al-qalbiyyah)
in the Word of Jethro (Shu’ayb)
Know that the heart means the heart of the knower of God ('&rif
billah) which is from Divine Mercy. And the heart of the 'ar if is
larger than the Divine Mercy, because it is large enough for the haqq.
That is to say, it is large enough, with proper largeness of receptivity, to
receive the total manifestation of the totality of the images of the Names,
whereas the Mercy of haqq is not wide enough for the haqq. (The
Shaykh, may God be pleased with him, explains the heart by the heart of the 'arif,
because at the level of the select saints (awliya') the heart which is
not the heart of the ‘arif of God is not a heart, and also he does not
mean here any other heart than the heart of the knower of God, not even the
heart that knows the Divine Names, because the heart which knows the Divine
Names rather than the heart which knows God is a partial heart, and it has no
ability to receive the manifestation of the haqq in Its total
manifestation.)
And the heart of the knower of God in an individuation
is the place of the manifestation of each of the Divine Names and is
individuated with the individuation of total manifestation. The heart of the
knower of God is one of the Divine gifts, and it is given as a gift from the
Pure Mercy. This is why it is larger than the Mercy of God, because Mercy (rahmah)
is one of the Divine Qualities and modes, and it is one thing, and it is not
wide enough for the totality of the Names and the forms of the collectivity of
the Divine Qualities; and Divine form cannot be contained in Mercy whereas the
heart of the knower of God is wide enough for the haqq. Haqq in the form
of the total Divine Ipseity cannot by way of revelation be contained in this.
In other words, the Mercy of the haqq is not large enough for the haqq
because haqq is rahim (mercifier) and not marhum
(mercified).
There is no established order concerning the haqq
for rahmah, but the language of those knowers of manifestation implies
that there is such a situation; however, at the level of those special people
who are people of the kernel, the degree of these knowers of manifestation is
this order is necessary. Hence, Lordship is not qualified with being
ghaniyy from the universes. Hence the amr remains between
dependency of Lordship on the universe in its quality of Lordship, but ghaniyy
from the universes with regard to Ipseity. Hence the Aagg (Ipseity) is by
virtue of Its Ipseity ghaniyy of the universes, and not ghaniyy
by virtue of Its Lordship. Yet by its reality and its qualification Lordship is
no other than the Ipseity which is ghaniyy, and Lordship, like other
qualities of the Ipseity, is the same as that which it qualifies. Thus Lord is
no other than the Essence by virtue of its origin, since the Essence is in
manifestation by Its belonging to Its Names and the quality of Lordship. Since
the order of belongingness is in opposition to the belongingness of the Ipseity
to the Uniqueness and Absoluteness, these, by their dependency on the
universes, are obliged to be not ghaniyy from the universes. Here we
have ghaniyyntss and dependency as two opposing orders, and in the same
way, in the origin, the Names are equally in opposition one to the other, such
as Guidance and Misleading, etc. Hence the Mercy of God upon the a'yan
of the universes is His Mercy upon His own Names. So from the state of ghaniyyness,
out of mercy for the sake of His own Names which are dependent upon
manifesting, He has mercified them by manifesting them, thereby extricating
them from their state of constriction. And Lordship is one of these Names which
has been extricated from constriction through the Mercy of God through His Name
rabb, which is dependent on the universes for its establishment. Hence the
completion of rububiyyah. which is dependent on the manifestation of the
universes, has through the manifestation of the universes established rububiyyah-,
and Lordship is the third degree. The degrees of Names and Qualities which is
the degree of uluhiyyah (Divinity) is prior to this. But the tanfis
(the breath of liberation) from constriction which occurs by the creation of
the universe and is established by Lordship is not necessarily the first tanfis.
The first tanfis then is not because of rububiyyah. The first
tanfis is the liberation from constriction of the Divine Names which are
by essence in the Ipseity of the haqq in His Presence of Knowledge. The tanfis
awwal is effected by the exteriorization by the nafs-ar-raljman in
His Presence of Knowledge, of the Divine Names which were already factually
present in the Ipseity, where the Names become individuated one from the other.
The second tanfis is after this, when the nafs- ar-rahman brings
into being the orders (afykam) and the effects and exteriors of the a'yan
which were factually present in the Divine Names.
and the totality of creation, which the Throne contains, was
multiplied 100,000 times by 100,000 times, entered and appeared in a comer of
the heart, that heart could not have felt it’, because the Throne and all that
which it contains of creation is limited and definite whereas the largeness of
the heart of the 'arif is indefinite and infinite, because the heart of
the 'drifts large enough for the infinite and indefinite existence. And
Junayd, may God be pleased with him, says where it concerns the largeness of
the heart: ‘How can a heart which feels the ancient, the prior, feel at the
same time that which is consequent and later?’ And the Throne which contains all,
is consequent and later than the chadiyyah which is the Prior and
Ancient haqq which fills every corner of the heart, and that which is
consequent is in a state of annihilation in that priority and cannot be
felt. When the haqq reveals Itself to the heart of the kamil 'arif
in the image of ahadiyyah, there is no other thing with it.
And since the tajalli of the haqq is
variable in forms, consequently by necessity the heart will be large enough or
narrow enough according to the forms of the Divine tajalli. The heart of
the 'arif or Complete Man is circumscribed by haqq and can adapt
to the variability of the Divine tajalli, because it is perhaps like
this that the receptivity of that heart has the ability of totai absoluteness
by virtue of the Absolute haqq, and equally relative by the relativity
of the different forms of tajalli of the liaqq, whether these be
Divine forms of Names or other Qualities of the hayula. Yet the partial
hearts are not like this, because they are qualified by conditions or they have
aptitudes in one direction or another in accordance with special Divine tajalliyat.
In consequence the heart of the complete 'arif is enlarged or narrowed
by virtue of the revelation of the haqq, and the heart of the non-dr
if, on the other hand, conditions to largeness or to narrowness the
revelation of the haqq and this is the secret of the revelation of God
Himself in different forms and their reception by the people on the Day of
Judgement. Because of this, in whatever form the revelation happens, the knower
is knower of this and bows to it. But the non-'arif is veiled by his
private belief and does not bow to any other revelation of the Divine haqq
except to that to which he is inclined, and he denies and seeks refuge from it.
The seal follows the form of the bezel, and the heart of the 'arif or of
the Complete is like this, it follows the form of the Divine revelation.
Because of the supremacy of the uniqueness of the whole on it, this heart is
absolute, and this heart of the 'arif is constantly in
the revelation which belongs to the shuhud, the heart
witnesses the haqq and reveals itself to the haqq in that image
with which the haqq has revealed Itself to it. Here the haqq has
become the same as the belief of the servant. And when the great haqq
removes the veil which is between Himself and the people of beliefs, each of
these people observes the haqq according to his own belief. And the
observed haqq becomes the same as the believer. Therefore, what the
servant has observed according to his belief is his own nafs. The heart
at the level of revelation from the ghayb, and at the level of
revelation of witnessing, does not feel other than what he believes the haqq
to be.
In short again the servant does not see in the mirrors
of the haqq any other thing but his nafs. However, the Completed
Man who encompasses the ta'ayyun awwal and has arrived at the batin
and the zahir of the ta'ayyun awwal is the possessor of two
faces. One face is interior, one face is exterior. With the face which is
interior which is absolute, he faces absoluteness and the absolute ghayb
and observes it, and he is not conditioned by the form of any one Name and he
does not condition haqq by any one belief and does not relegate Him to
the Presence of any one Name. And with the zahir he is observant of and
facing the exterior of the ta'ayyun awwal and is receptive of all the
Presences of the Presences of the Names therein, and the haqq reveals
Himself to him by them, and since mirrors are like that which has been
revealed, and they have the aptitude for the revelation of all the Presences,
he receives the revelation of all the hadarat with the mirror which he
has in his being. But he receives the revelation from each Presence with that
which exists already in his nafs; so that, that revelation from that
Presence is suitable for it. That is to say, from the Presence of whichever
Name haqq reveals Himself, he does not relegate the haqq only to
that form but accepts whichever form according to whichever belief of the
believer the revelation comes. And it shows itself to haqq in that
variation and takes on that transformation. That is to say, the haqq
which is in the beliefs and convictions of the people of beliefs is that haqq
for which the heart of the complete believer is large enough to receive that
revelation. And the haqq which is believed in is that haqq which
reveals Itself to the heart. But the heart of the 'arif knows that the haqq
has revealed Itself in the form of that belief. That is to say, the 'ayn of
the senses does not observe a haqq which is not the haqq of a
belief, because nothing is large enough for the Absolute Divinity which is the
same as the totality of the things, because It is
And equally, where it concerns the 'arif there is
no end to the knowledge of God unless the 'arif stops at that end.
Perhaps on the contrary, the 'arif at every era in time requests from
the knowledge of God more. And this is why the Prophet, to him peace, by order
cf God said: 'Rabb zadni 'ilman' That is, he required more of the Truth.
Therefore the order (amr) is infinite from both sides. That is to say,
from the side of haqq the amr of revelation is endless because
the revelation of the Divine Ipseity is neither with beginning nor end. In the
same way, from the side of the servant the amr of the knowledge of God
equally is endless, because the knowledge of God is subject to the Divine
revelation and the Divine revelation is in perpetuity. Therefore, since the
knowledge of God is subject to the endless revelation, knowledge of God becomes
equally endless. Because of that, the Prophet, peace on him, was ordered to ask
more of the 'Um.
Now, as has been seen, the infinite revelation of the
Divinity and its form as it gets impressed on the absolute nafs of the
complete servant, the Complete Man returns to the haqq that same value
and appearance, and according to the value of that image which he has returned
the kamil manifests himself to God. And there is no form or image that
the kamil may not accept and witness the haqq in it. In short,
when the haqq reveals Himself to the servant, the servant returns the
image of that revelation to the haqq and the servant becomes manifest to
the haqq in that image. Now if you say and if you maintain that being is
haqq and khalq by virtue of collecting all together with the ba(in,
it is the haqq\ but if you differentiate between khalq and haqq,
and you say that I am that servant of God, I act through Him and I become that
hand of His with which 1 cling onto Him, and I become that tongue of His with
which He speaks, or any other of His members, then you again do not
differentiate between haqq and khalq. Yet according to the liadith:
‘The amr is all of haqq and is all of khalq' (al-amr haqq
kullahu khalq kulluhu). In that case, according to the meaning of this hadith,
you will say the order to be is totally haqq or else it is totally khalq,
and yet the order to be is by one consideration khalq, and by another ha(M>
whereas the order itself is single and the thing which accepts the form of a
revelation is exactly the same as that revelation, therefore that thing is both
the revealed and the revealed-to. Whether you want to consider it by one
consideration haqq and by another khalq, you will see that the
total members and actions is nothing other than ta'ayyun or
manifestation of the servant and the same as he is.
every angle and consideration. And if you are going to consider Him
through His ta'ayyun in manifestation, you will say it is witnessing.
And if you are to consider His la ta'ayyun, you will have to say He is
the real Unknowable. And if you are to consider His manifestation in Reality,
you will say He is the total manifestation, that is, creation {khalq).
And if you are going to consider Him from the point of view of ta'ayyun
and the uniqueness of 'ayn in la ta'ayyun you will have to say
His total existence is Ijaqq. And if you are going to consider that the
exterior of the Being of haqq is the aljadiyyatu-l-'ayn
(singleness of 'ayn), forever revealed to its interior, then you will
say haqq is the revealed and the revealed-to, and this is stranger than
strange, that one Reality by Its Essence causes all the different
considerations that we have seen, and that all the considerations we have seen
are real in each case and that He reveals Himself endlessly and perpetually
with all the infinite forms. Now, if the Single Reality reveals Itself in no
matter which one of the images, do not you lose yourself from Him in the
totality of forms, because that Single Reality is in each 'ayn and in
each belief, and in the 'ayn of Its devolvement is in transcendence, by
the Presence of His Absoluteness and non-devolvement of His Essence by which He
is Absolute and far removed from any condition, and equally, in the 'ayn of
His la ta'ayyun and in His totality of His ta'ayyunat and in
their absoluteness He is manifested with the totality of the a'yan, manifested
that is, to the totality of the a'yan yet again: ‘Since He is Himself by
His Reality’ {min haythu hiya hiya fi haqiqatiha). All these things are
in Him effectively and, you, be surprised with this by virtue of the
consideration of that which is considered; and if you will be a verifier of
truth, do not be surprised that Ijaqq is far removed from there being
with Him another being with His Being. In short, the Reality of Uniqueness is
the same as all the things that are, whether that thing is intelligent or not
intelligent, and to question even that there is such a thing as intelligent and
non-intelligent is denial. (Yet the Shaykh, may God be pleased with him, by
virtue of interior vision, questions from the Reality of Uniqueness. That is to
say: ‘What is there that happens to be other than the Reality of Uniqueness?’
By this question he means that there is no other existent, because the Reality
of Uniqueness is the same thing as every thing, and in existence is the same
thing as every being, and his question is a rhetorical question of
confirmation. That is, if being is a single 'ayn, who is the intelligent
in the existence of being, and who is the unintelligent, since Ijaqq is
existent
Consequently, the lubb (kernel) is the heart, and the word dhikrt
is made private specifically to those of the heart. Because the heart is in the
perfect centre between the images of immanence in creation and images of the
Divine Qualities of wujub (necessity). And it is able to vary from all
images of varieties of immanence of creation to the meanings and Divine
Qualities and Presences of Names and is not besieged according to the order
alone, and is on the contrary the place and place of manifestation for the
total revelation of the Divine Names.
Therefore, Man in the forms of being, by virtue of its
variability of form can descend to the images of immanence and become clothed
by them even before appearance in this geuera, even among the universe of
meanings and spirits and in the Presences of the Divine Names and among the a'yan-i-thabita
and in the Presences of knowledge; and even when he is afflicted by
forgetfulness of the things that he has witnessed with his spirit and his
reality, still the heart by virtue of its variability in the meanings and
qualifications can revert to His remembrance. Therefore, the word ‘My dhikr'
in the sentence has become a specific for tire heart which has changed over
from images and qualities. In respect of images of beliefs, because of this
variability, the heart in the varieties of qualities and images, of whichever
belief into which the haqq Itself changes over and reveals Itself as the
heart, knows this and becomes a place of rest for it, therefore the heart is
not besieged for particular images of haqq.
God did not say in the Quran that My dhikr is for
that person in whom there is intelligence, because intelligence is a condition
and does not act except by condition, and it makes fixed an indefinite order in
that one single word; whereas the truth, in its being of the order, is contrary
to particularization, because the Reality is absolutely devoid both of
conditioning and absoluteness. Whereas the heart by virtue of being variable in
images is large enough for Reality, especially the heart of the insan-i-kamil
which is the reality of human, divine, everlasting, infinite completeness,
collectivity of singleness, which is the heart of the Being of ftaqq.
When the fact is as it is, it is impossible to condemn,
or better, not to see the reality in opposing beliefs and conditions.
And for the man for whom there is a heart, that person
knows the variability of the haqq in the image by virtue of the
possibility of the heart to be variable in the forms. That is to say, because
the heart can suffer the change in the forms, the man who has a heart knows in
the
witness Him in the 'ayn of totality. That is to say, he who
knows his nafs in the 'ayn of collectivity (Jam') and in
the totality of the images of immanence which enter into being and which
therein enter endlessly, and he who sees all this as the huwiyyah of the
haqq and witnesses it and is 'arif of the haqq with the haqq,
and to whom the haqq reveals Himself with Himself and who is ’arif
of this and the possessor of this kind of witnessing, is the possessor of the
utmost pleasure and taste and is. really an 'arif. Because haqq
is one and existent and is witness and the witnessed. In other words, through
revelation and/or through witnessing through the totality of ’ayn the 'arif
who knows liaqq in these ways is the 'arif who is intended by the
words of God: ‘The one who has the heart’ (liman kcna lahu qalbun), that
is to say, the owner of that heart who is inclined to change his nafs in
accordance with the variability of the haqq in the images of the
revelation. That is to say, the haqq in the images of Its revelations
has an inclination to vary Its nafs, and he is also equally changeable.
In whatever image the haqq has varied he also varies himself in
accordance, and knows Him in that variation. Or equally the heart is variable
at the level of the haqq varying it, because He says: ‘The heart of the
believer is between two fingers from among the fingers of the rahman,
and He changes it as He wishes’ (qalb-ul-mu'min bayna u^bu'in min
ajabt'-ar-rahman yaqallibuhu kayfa yas ha'a). In this sentence it is
equally valid to say that the heart is changeable according to the variations
of its own nafs because the reality of the heart is variability. Hence
in all images of change the heart is changeable. In short, the 'arif who
is the possessor of a heart recognizes and knows the haqq by the haqq
in all Its revelations of all images, and he is witness to and in vision of the
fact that he sees the total uniqueness and the uniqueness of the total through
the Being of haqq. If that is so, it means that the sentence: 'liman
kana lahu qalbun'— the afore-mentioned pleasure and taste is particular to
the possessor of the heart. And it may be that this is the truth of the matter
of the liman kana lahu qalbun.
But the people of beliefs are those imitators who
imitate the prophets, peace upon them all, in that which the prophets and the
envoys gave them of news of the haqq. The ones who imitate people of
thought, who refer the news they receive to their intellect and interpret it
accordingly, are not imitators. The imitators of the first kind, who imitate
the prophets, are those referred to in the words of God as ‘to whom We have
given hearing.’ That is to say, He gave hearing to those
God. The witnessing through the way of representation in the
Presence of khay&l is known as khayal-al-shuhud (witnessing
by the khayal). But the Prophet said: ‘God is in the niche of
orientation (qiblah) of the man who prays’, and consequently he observes
Him there. This is something other than the witnessing by khayal. And if
the eye of the man who is praying becomes blinded by the Light of the haqq,
yet if he is a man of strength of seeing and iron vision, he will observe the Ijaqq
with the sight of the eye and he does not need total turning of the face or
complete scrutiny, but he simply sees it with the eye like that person whose
inclination is complete, and whose kashf is strong, and who sees God in
every direction because God is present in every direction.
Now let it be known that the result of intellectual
theory is necessarily relative, and without exception specializes the amr
in one thing, and the possessor of this quality conditions the Ijaqq in
an unwitnessed thing, and if somebody imitates this man he does not reach shuhud,
because the shuhud which has a being cannot be either conditioned or
specialized, because it is on the contrary absolute and the same as each
particular, and the person who imitates this has lost all possibility because
he cannot witness the amr.
The people who imitate the people of theoretical
intellect are those for whom God has said: ‘Gog
has relieved them from being responsible over their followers.’ But the
prophets are not relieved of being responsible for those that follow them,
because the envoy invites those that follow him according to the vision that he
has of Reality, and those who hear him and imitate him believe in what he says
and believe in what they witness. Now after that they adhered to the witnessing
by the way of their own capacity, imagination and representation, and after
that they passed on to seeing and through the way of verification of the haqq
reached the station of vdlayah, and the envoys are not relieved from
responsibility for these.
Now my dear friend, verify and research into what I have
recalled to you of this Wisdom of the Heart, of the Divine mysteries and
knowledge of the Lord, and according to reality become an 'arif.
The reason why the Wisdom of the Heart is ascribed to
the prophet Shu'ayb, God have peace on him, and becomes his specialty, is
because there is sectioning (tash'ib) in the Wisdom of the Heart. That
is to say, the Wisdom of this is not particular to one section, because each
belief is a section. The totality of beliefs is many sections (shu'ab)
and shu'ayb derives from tash'ib—sectioning. And because the
heart is also
is abolished according to the Quranic saying: ‘God abolishes that
which He pleases, and establishes’ (yamhu All&h ma yash&'u wa
yuthbit). Therefore, it happens that in manifestation the execution of the
promise and that which is promised is removed from that rebel. And another form
is like this, that God is true in His promises, that He has promised him the
non-execution of His promise according to the mash? a— nature—of the
case, and according to His saying that He praises the going beyond the
execution of that which is promised, (e.g. the Quranic advice wherein the
killer is to be executed in return for his misdeed, yet the immediately
following verse says but it is better to forgive). In short, promise is in the
order of the promise and the promise must be true and executive but the order
is riot necessarily on the actual execution. There is also the case that when
God appears to the believer in the form of his belief while in this \vorld in
His Reality, then the believer sees that his belief which had^been specific
according to his imagination and belief was not the Reality, and then his
misbelief is translated into belief in the Reality ana instead of being
ignorant he becomes knowledgeable; from then on, jvhat he misbelieved in
becomes lifted from him. After reverting to Truth and the vision is clarified
by the light of vision, that eye does not become blind again, because specific
beliefs and dogmas are only peculiar to the people of veils. Yet even in other
cases, because of God’s revelation in different images at the level of vision,
when God reveals Himself to him in the huwiyyah of his belief, it is
different from what he expected it to be, because God may reveal Himself in the
different images of His Names, and after having revealed Himself in this way
God then reveals Himself again to the man in the way he used to believe in,
because there is no repetition in revelation, because it is impossible that
God’s revelation be in one image many times, because the Divine Names and the
Divine happenings are infinite and indefinite and God is permanent in
revelation and there are never two revelations the same. Something had
manifested to the people of belief from God concerning the Divine huwiyyah
before the final kashf, (that is, when they were still alive,) in which
they had believed, having calculated that that revelation was the reality.
Consequently, the revelation in the other world which is contrary to what they
had believed in in the life of the senses, and the witnessing of this new
revelation, is one of the causes of progress after death. And in fact we have
mentioned the development that takes place after death, and its images, in our
book called ‘Divine Revelations’, during the mention
are fixed in the a'yan in strength, and during Man’s
devolvement from the Knowledge of God to the a'yan of immanence
transforms and exteriorizes the ahwal, which are with strength fixed in
the a'yan, into actions. In other words, from eternal original
inclinations God manifests the infinity of non-original inclinations by virtue
of His revelations and because of the necessities of manners and beings in this
world and in the other world, and equally in the barzakhs and in the
Last Day and in the realms of good deeds and in visions and in the other realms
of other-worldly indigences, and in the higher degrees and due to his
consciousness and non-consciousness, because all that has entered the realm of
being and has become being by virtue of the being of the wdjibu-l-wujud
(a being necessary in itself), becomes w&jibu-l-wujud itself, and
consequently cannot be reverted to non-existence. As a result of all this it is
constantly in renewal and advance, because, always, absolutely always, it is
perpetually receiving the perpetual Divine revelation of being and with each
revelation his reception of the revelation which follows is increased. But it
sometimes happens that he is not aware of his advance, because if he is of the
people of the veils, by virtue of the thinness and delicacy of his veil Man is
forever in revelation which revelation is constantly dominant over him. And for
each inclination and revelation the consequent revelation is increased, which
are the revelations of knowledge of witnessing of hal and of stations or
of consciousness, because of totalling and because of the totalling of the
totalling and because of the uniqueness of the total and individuation and
because of the similarities of the images of revelation Man does not recognize
it, because revelations are not in strict order, exactly like the similarities
of the nourishment which arrives at different times, and though they resemble
each other, the first one is not the same as the one that follows. Though they
are all nourishment, they are resemblant nourishment; they are not the same as
each, but different. At the level of ahli-kashf and verification the
difference between the devolvements is obvious and manifest, whereas at the
level of people of the veil it is hidden.
At the level of the man who understands that the
similarities are similar but therefore different in devolvement, he understands
equally that in witnessing, it does not necessitate differentness in the shuhud.
Therefore people of verification see the multitude in one. In fact the
person of kashf sees the plurality in one. That is to say, he sees the
plurality of the a'yan in similarity of image which are infinite and
which are visible and manifested and he witnesses them in one singular 'ayn.
Consequently, whenever a thing from among the existent things is
described, the hayula is described in that way, because though the hayula
does not diminish from its intelligibility by the fact that all the images
manifest from it, it itself is visible and manifests in all images. But the hayula
becomes limited by the limitation of the totality of all images. You can say,
describing your intellect, the intellect is that jewel- apart which is capable
of understanding in totality and in partiality without appertaining to a form,
and in describing your nafs you say the nafs-i-natiqa is the
jewel-apart capable of understanding in totality and in part, and has the
ability, the relationship, of precaution (tadbir) and expenditure by its
form. (That is, it can think in advance and act physically.) And equally in
describing the physical body, you can say the body is a receptive jewel in
three dimensions. In each of these descriptions, you have taken the jewel to
describe it, but in reality the jewel is one. But the images it gives are many
and different; therefore the totality of the images of realities refer back to
the jewel which is one. And the jewel is for the totality of images the hayula,
and the hayula is the jewel. Now, while the Divine Names and Qualities
were an intellectual plurality in the Divine Ipseity which is a single 'ayn,
at the level of revelation that singleness of 'ayn becomes plurality of
witnessing and vision, and the Ipseity of the Ijaqq which is a single 'ayn
remains intelligible. Therefore, the Ipseity of Ijaqq which is the
single 'ayn is by Its own ghaniyyncss Rich beyond Need of the
universes, but by virtue of His Qualities like creativity, nourishing, ability,
with the images of Its Names It is variable and is manifest in the opposing
immanent definitions, and by virtue of. the reality all the images of
revelation refer back to It and belong to It. Yet between creativity and
nourishingness there is established difference between the two images of
revelation, yet all the time the Quality which is powerfulness is in
differentiation in opposition to the other Qualities of the Divine Qualities.
And if a person knows himself according to this knowledge, that is to say, if a
person knew his nafs as the Reality of the Ijaqq which is
manifest forever in all the images of possibility, and if he knows that haqq
is manifest in him, he definitely knows the haqq. Because certainly and
definitely God has created Man in His own image. Further perhaps, Mau is the
same as God’s huwiyyah and the same as God’s Reality.
By this word ‘image’ is meant the image of the totality
of the Names and the totality of the Qualities of the wujub. Which means
that the man who is Perfect Man with his total capacity is the place of
essential reality, in which case that reality is the same as itself,
and this reality is the reality of the plurality and the images of its parts
are not infinite, and the other face is that the nafs accepts
relationship to the haqq by virtue of the fact that that which manifests
in the nafs of the nafs is the nafs of the haqq.
And the fact that the nafs is the nafs of the haqq is from
the stations of closeness and supererogatory works. And these two closenesses
are for the nafs by which it has two faces, because in the closeness of
supererogatory things haqq is the same as our huwiyyah and'is our
hearing and our seeing and hands and legs and other forces we have, and is by
virtue of being the same as our a'yan and our nufus, and at the
level of closeness of obligations we are the image of God wherein He speaks
with our language. That is to say, we are that tongue of His, which has been
established by the saying: ‘God has heard he who has praised Him’ (sami'
Allah liman hamida). And because of this face we are the tongue and the eye
and the hearing of God. With this aspect we are by virtue of God; with the
other aspect which is the first aspect, He is our hearing and sight and other
powers and is our exterior. Now if God is by our manifestation manifested to
us, we are in His uniqueness of ghayb His protector from the plurality
of witnessing, and if thus God in the uniqueness of His 'ayn comes into
manifestation we become His interior and He becomes the same as our abilities,
members and nufus, and if this is so by virtue of His oneness of
unification it is the nafs of the haqq and by virtue of
relationship and infinite sections He is the same as us. And if we know the nafs
in this manner of largeness we come to know through the reality of knowledge
exactly as the reality. ‘He who knows himself knows his Lord’ (wa man 'arafa
nafsahu faqad 'arafa rabbahu). And we become realized with the reality of
the nafs as in this sentence, because this single nafs, which is
by virtue of His huwiyyah of the ghayb single, is the same as the
nafs of the haqq and is also by virtue of His Himselfness and
Self-individuation the same as our being. This is so because for Him indefinite
number of Himselfness is possible and occurs by the personality of each of
those. And this many Himselfnesses is the image of the relativity of the Divine
huwiyyah. However, if the nafs in its own devolution should
manifest itself with its singularity of huwiyyah, we would be
annihilated in its huwiyyah and become the batfn of that huwiyyah
in our state of annihilation. In this case then we become, in matter of huwiyyah,
the same as that huwiyyah and we are not us. But if the nafs
manifests in the images of its multiple T-nesses we become
For those who are using their intellect, God has said it
is because they are clothed in the new creation. This means that they do not
realize that the universes and the nufus were created in one 'ayn,
and that they were changed into the new creation of every instant. And they do
not know that in every moment and in every nafs the creation of the
universes is renewed through Divine revelation. The universes by their own nafs
are inexistent; they are existent with the existence of the liaqq. And
the liaqq is forever and infinitely always in manifestation. Where it
concerns the return of the prior revelation, the universes become inexistent,
and at the level of the reappearance of the following manifestation they come
into existence and are recreated. But because of the quickness of the
revelations which follow each other and the joining of the light of the
following revelation with the prior revelation, there is no differentiation
visible between the two revelations; it is because of this that the universes
cannot be observed as being, then not being, and being again. And the people
who are looking at the image of the exterior of the universes, the people of
thought, imagine that whether the realities are original or added on in the
case of their being dressed by the body, they think that there is no change and
no difference between the past moment and present. Now, there is not anything
which enters the realm of being which becomes non-existent, but in
non-existence there is no necessity for non-change and the matter of
changeability does not necessitate the existent things to be nonexistent,
because the great God is constantly and forever, permanently in revelation, and
the universes are permanently in reception of these revelations, and therefore
being never can become non-being; consequently and equally there can be no
moment of non-existence. But had there been a moment of non-existence there
would be a moment when there was no God. But at the level of revelation the
creation of the universes is constantly in a new creation. But since the
universe is dependent on the Being of the haqq, in this there is no
difference or change.
Let it be known like this then, at the level of the
majority of the people of veils, what is seen is both haqq and other
than the haqq, and it is manifest and observable. And haqq Itself
is hidden and not present, and because of this It is changeable through the
universes of the nafs, and where it concerns the nufus, creation
is renewed while the singularity of the 'ayn, which is its reality,
remains fixed, because the totality of the universes is changing constantly,
whether it is original or secondary,
the Divine revelation and the images of the Divine Names, for the
purpose of polishing and repolishing and manifesting and showing, appears in
the images of the manifested immanence which is in annihilation but
intelligible in the Divine Ipseity, then the plurality, wliich is intelligible
in thq Divine Ipseity, appears and at this point the Divine Ipseity becomes
intelligible and interior in plurality. In fact what is witnessable in
manifestation is that plurality which is the being of the universes by virtue
of the haqq having devolved into that, and exists only with referential
being. And in the mirror of the Being of haqq, like the image which can
be observed in a mirror, the being of the universe is also observable; outside
of that it has no existence. When in the mirror of manifestation the images of
the universe which are the interior revelation but by virtue of manifestation a
devolved existence of the haqq, which is annihilated in the Unity of the
it appears in the mirrors of the universe and is visible and existent in the
exterior, and the plurality of a'yan, and the unity of the Ipseity
remain collected and intelligible in the interior. But since the Being of the haqq
is revealed and devolved into the mirrors of the images of the universe, it can
be considered that what is observable and manifested is the plurality of the
existence of Ijaqq, and in each place of manifestation, manifesting
according to the necessity of that place and conditioned by it And by virtue of
devolvement where the a'yan which were intelligible in the existence of Ijaqq,
when the haqq reveals Itself in the mirrors of the a'yan, the haqq
which is conditioned by the a'yan, and the intelligible a’yan in
the mirror of the existence of the single haqq, appear. So again the
plurality which is visible and manifest is the existence of the universe by
virtue of the devolvement of the Ijaqq into it.
Whether we call this manifested plurality by virtue of
its being the thing devolved to, or the thing conditioned by the devolvement,
or whether we call this haqq, or whether by virtue of its being
conditioned by the devolvement we call it the universe, still, from the
interior, the Divine revelations are constantly following each other from the
Ipseity of Uniqueness. If the observable plurality is considered as the Being
of the haqq by virtue of the constant and endless revelation the visible
images are at every moment variable because haqq is variable in images.
And if we consider it, by consideration of the observable plurality, as the
universe, the universe also exists by Divine revelation and the arrival of
revelations are constantly following one another. And the universe becomes
variable and changing by virtue of the fact that the nrinr
haqq, then these people are the victors
and the 'dry's and know the amr as it should be.
This being so, yet it also shows that in the limit which
is for the things, it becomes apparent that the totality of the universe is
contingency. And it becomes apparent that this limitation in the
things and this contingency is self-subsistent and the same as the jewel,
because the limitation of a thing in itself is the same as that which is
limited; therefore contingency becomes self-standing and becomes the same as
this jewel which is self-standing at the limit of the thing which is limited.
And that thing which is contingent is not self-subsistent. People who define
the jewel as a jewel which stands by itself are limiting it, and in this
explanation they use self-standing, whereas self-standing is a contingent. So
if you say for instance that Man is a speaking animal, the word ‘speaking’ is a
contingency. And if you describe an animal by saying it is a sensitive body,
moveable by will, you are saying this is a body whose name is sensitive, moving
by will, then the body is contingent, because it is conditioned, and the tiling
conditioned is contingent. In the same way, growing is contingent because it is
something added on to something else, and in the same way sensitivity is
contingent, because sensitivity is the same as understanding and understanding is
contingent. In the same way movement is contingent because it is something
added on. And in the same way will is contingent, and even receiving is
contingent, and it is then obvious that the self-standing jewel is the same as
its contingency and its reality, because jewel has become contingent to
self-standing. In this way the whole universe is contingent and the
contingencies taken at the limit of the jewel become the same as the jewel and
all these contingencies become the jewel. The result is that that which does
not stand by itself becomes standing by itself. From the totality of
contingencies which do not stand by themselves there appears a contingency
which stands by itself. That is to say, while it was a contingent and not
standing by itself it became self-standing in the description of the jewel;
thereby it has become the same as the jewel and therefore self-standing. In
short, the totality of things, which by themselves are not standing and which
by themselves are contingencies, have become a thing which stands by itself and
which is the jewel. And this jewel is not a contingent order according to the
totality of the contingencies mentioned in its limits, because the jewel is the
amr which results from the totality of the contingencies. Now, though the
parts of the limits of the jewel itself and the essential realitv
In this way, something which is in two times, which is a thing that
does not exist, becomes existent as two times or many times, and the thing that
does not exist by itself, exists by itself by appertaining to that thing. And
the parts of the jewel which are its contingencies become the same as the jewel
itself. But when you say that the jewel is the same as the contingencies and is
not an added amr to the contingencies, in this consideration the jewel
itself can be seen as contingent. And the jewel becomes the totality of the
contingencies of the universe. Theref ore it is an error not to see that the
universe is a totality of contingencies and is interchangeable with itselfness
and that not a thing from the universes is a self-subsistent jewel. That is to
say, it is wrong not to know that the existent which is present in its 'ayn
by virtue of its own 'ayn is the Being of the Absolute haqq whose
Being is present by Its own Ipseity. And the thing’s existence is perishable,
and only exists in every moment by His existence. But the ahli-kashf and
ahli-tahqiq, they see that verily the great God reveals Himself in every
breath, yet revelation never repeats itself, so though they see Him
revealed in every breath, there is no repetition in revelation and there is
neither intellectually nor through kashf any possibility of repetition
of the revelation. And each revelation gives and causes the revelation to
follow and there is no possibility of receiving the two in the same way since
the reception of each is a different reception, and revelation depends on
receptivity. Therefore, the receptivity of the revelation offered and caused by
the prior revelation is received differently and there cannot ever be
repetition in revelation.
Understand with delicacy of comprehension, with depth of
understanding, upon what thing is the order of being. Be cognizant of this.
And praise be to the Lord of the Universes.
Of the Wisdom of Strength and Forcefulness
(al-hikmat al-malkiyyah)
in the Word of Lot
The word malk means forceful (shiddah). Therefore, in
the Word of Lot, the Wisdom of malkiyyah would mean Wisdom appertaining
to Forcefulness. A ruler (malik) is forceful. It is said: T “mastered”
the dough’ when you have made the dough firm (shadadaf).
As Qais bin al-Kha?im described his spear thrust: T
strengthened my hand with it and enlarged the wound to such a degree that those
standing nearby could see through it to what was behind.’ The Shaykh means to
show by this poem the use of the word ‘forcefulness’ (malkah) which is
derived from the root mlk from which root is also derived the words malik
(king) and malak (angel), whereas in the Word of Lot it is the Wisdom of
malkiyyah (forcefulness).
Lot is qualified by the Wisdom of Forcefulness (malkiyyah)
because the Quranic Word refers to Lot as saying: ‘If only I had strength over
you, or if there were for me a forceful (shadid) support’, and because
Lot took refuge in God’s strength and forcefulness. When Lot addressed his
people who were disobedient and said: ‘If only I had strength over you’, what
is meant by strength in this case is the strong and forceful spiritual will (himmah)
which exists among the people of Effect. In other words, ‘If only I had in me a
strong spiritual will, I could have resisted you with it, and I could have
expelled your ill from me and from my people by it, or, if I had a forceful
support to take refuge in,’ and by ‘forceful support’ he means a clan or tribe,
‘so that this tribe could have removed you from me and my followers.’ In the
apparent meaning, the forceful support is the tribe or clan, but in reality
what is meant is that since God is the Strong and the Forceful, he took refuge
in Him. And the Prophet said concerning this: ‘May God give mercy to my brother
Lot, who indeed took refuge in a forceful support.’ By this he pointed at the
fact that Lot, may peace be on him, indeed was with God, because God is the
Strong and the Forceful.
Lot intended resistance against the ill-doers and his
enemies by the streneth of sniritua! will. Rut T.ot was at the station of
comnlete
Man, who is the Viceregent (khaltfah) of God, is translated
to the high spiritual isthmuses (barazikh), or to the emergence of the
realms of the other world, he is in the Divine Image, and the dispensing that
happens in his station there devolves to the person who replaces him here. It
is true that the people who have gone to the isthmuses of the other world, the
people of completed (kamtf) spirit, are capable of dispensing with
absoluteness and expansion (inshirah), but they perform their dispensing
through the manifested Perfect Men existing in this world, even though all the
dispensings existing in the universe of witnessing ('alam-i- shahadah)
belong to the Perfect Man who is existent in the universe of witnessing in the
Divine Image. That is why Lot attributed the strength (quwah) to himself
when he said: ‘If only I had the strength.’ And he demanded this for his
own person, and in realitjr this is the strength which is in the spiritual will
{himmah) which tftnanates from Man. The result is that Lot became
established with Itrength (quwah) and forcefulness (shiddah),
thereby the words that Jie uttered: ‘If I had strength over you’, became the
Divine Self of the Names Strength and Forcefulness; consequently, with
the-strength of the spiritual will which was established through the
Names Strong and Forceful, having effect over his people, destroyed them. The
Prophet, may peace be on him, said that from that time there has never been a
prophet who was not of the tribe he was preaching to, so that his relatives
defend him against the ill of the enemies within his tribe and protect him
within his tribe, exactly as Abu Talib, the Prophet’s uncle, protected the
Prophet.
The words of Lot: ‘If I had the strength over you’ were
elicited from Lot because Lot, from the degree of closeness of supererogatory
works (nawafil) heard God, with true hearing, say: ‘God created you from
weakness’, that is to say, God created you originally from that which is weak.
Lot came to realize that his spiritual will had no existence in his origin,
because he was created from non-existent dependency. That is why He described
it as from weakness, because that which is nonexistent by itself and can only
receive existence from God, is a weak non-existent being. Lot referred being to
the original weakness, as it has neither strength nor ability in it. But in the
Naqsh al-Fu$u$ of the Shaykh, when he talks of the first weakness, he
means the weakness of the constitution in the general public and the elite. And
the strength that comes after is the strength of the constitution which is
attached to it in the elite which is the strength given to it by the spiritual
state (haT). And the second weakness is the weakness of constitution,
and to that
That is to say, the bringing about of weakness in Man is the
returning of the man to his origin which is weakness because weakness is the
quality of non-existence which exists in Man, and this is God’s word: ‘I
created you from weakness.’ In short, God returned Man to that thing from which
He had created him, namely weakness. Therefore weakness is interior in the man,
and accidental strength is apparent, and wherever this accidental strength is
not apparent in the man, then his real state and interior, which is weakness,
reappears. The weakness one is returned to is not the same weakness as at the
beginning of life, although to all appearance the old man is similar to the
child. But the weakness in old age is in the final degrees of weakness, which
is facing towards non-existence.
To show this, the Shaykh brings another Quranic saying:
‘And after that Man is brought to the lowest form of life, so that having been
qualified by knowledge, he no more knows anything.’ And Man is returned to his
original weakness and in this the old man is similar to the child.
When Lot regarded the origin of his creation and saw the
weakness of his condition of old' age, and saw the weakness of knowledge
appertaining to this state, which comes from God’s knowledge, observing all
this he realized that he had no ability for dispensing except in non-existence,
and saw no strength in himself. Having been returned to the condition of
weakness in the lowest degree of life in his old age, which is the station of
complete annihilation in God, and annihilation in which state there is
absolutely no knowledge or dispensing by spiritual will or strength, Lot saw
that he had been returned to that degree and saw no power at all in himself to
dispense and appealed to the Divine Strength which can only appear in the
station of subsistence (baqa') in God, and which appears in the Perfect
Man as dispensing with that same strength. ‘There is no state nor strength
except by God’ (la hawla wa la quwata ilia bi-llah).
No prophet has been appointed until he has completed at
least forty years of life, because after the fortieth year of life the
diminishing of the human strength and the weakness of his natural constitution
begins, which means that all strengths of feeling begin to diminish and the
original weakness and old age begin to appear. That is why Lot said: ‘If only I
had the strength’, meaning, ‘If only I had strength to resist you’. He did not
ask for the re-strengthening of his body, but demanded the effective spiritual
will, because the coniine about of this strength
powers of spirituality and the evidence of the Divine Reality, the
Divine inspiration, and that which comes from the Lord, is received in the best
of fashion and is not influenced or coloured by the domination of creaturial
darkness and darkness of possibilities. The Divine effusion manifests in each
place of manifestation according to that place of manifestation, and is only
resurrected there according to the degree of it being cleansed from the ore of
existence and muddy source of existence.
Now if you ask what prevents one from the use of
effective spiritual will when one knows that even the followers of the envoys
and prophets possess the ability of effective spiritual will, and surely the
prophets should be the most suitable in the dispensing of spiritual will, I
would answer that you are right, but further knowledge is lacking in you. And
the explanation of this is that indeed the knowledge of the Divinity precludes
the dispensing of spiritual will; it is knowledge which prevents the dispensing
through spiritual will, and according to the proportion that a gnostic's
knowledge is heightened, his dispensing through spiritual will is decreased.
The reason for this has two aspects. One is that usually the gnostic’s reality
is through his station of servanthood, in which case he will not indulge in
dispensing, because he will keep in view the origin of his natural creation and
because of the reality of his complete servanthood he will leave all action to
the order of his Lord and will fashion himself according to bis Lord. Only if
there is a Divine order will he undertake to dispense in concordance with the
order, because in that case he is under orders, and a person under orders is
excusable, even though he knows all the time that action and dispensing belong
to his Lord and are not his. Looking at himself he will see that he has no
strength in himself for dispensing because he is created from weakness. So the
gnostic, having seen that his reality is through his servanthood, and keeping
in view the origin of his natural creation, leaves all dispensing to the Lord
and makes God his attorney (waktf).
The other aspect is the oneness of the man who dispenses
and the man who is dispensed upon. It is the same being. And because he
witnesses the singularity of the two, that is to say, because of the
singularity of the vision of the eye And what is seen by the eye, he cannot see
any thing from among the possibilities other than the One and Single Being of
God, and it is impossible for him to convey his spiritual will on something
else since he cannot observe anything else, because he is in the state of
witnessing the Uniqueness of Being.
the reality of that thing, in the image of knowledge, is according
to the straight path.
To call opposition that which manifests from a dispute
is only an accidental order which is manifested by the veil which is over the
eyes of the people, because everyone is, in the Divine Knowledge, the place of
manifestation of the reality of one Name, and happens to be the source of one
action. Even if by virtue of the opposing Names there appears to be opposition
and contradiction emerging from the Presence of Being, in reality there is no
opposition, because the gnostic who has risen to the Divine Knowledge knows
that the person who is apparently in dispute with him is established according
to the state in which he was established in the Divine Knowledge. And the
gnostic is completely certain of that which the Divine Reality bestowed in the
Divine Knowledge, and he does not oppose this. On the contrary, he accepts and
confirms whatever bestows the reality of a thing and whatever appears from each
place of manifestation.
According to this consideration, the opposition that
appears from something is not opposition, and the reason why it is called
opposition is consequent to an accidental order and shows the veiling from the
Presence of Knowledge of the people with the veil of darkness of nature and
orders of possibilities, and it is because the people are veiled from it that
they are in opposition one to another. In fact, what manifests opposition is
the veil of possibilities, which veils their eyes from themselves, so that they
can see nothing behind the veil but see only the veil. God said: ‘A great many
people do not know’, and this is because of the veil which is over their eyes,
and this veil is not lifted and they know only the visible things of the life
on earth, and they are ignorant of the other world and of the observance of the
orders of Names and the higher universes that are established in the Presence
of Knowledge, and their hearts are veiled and sheathed. The Shaykh says
concerning the hearts which are in a sheath, that they are turned {maqlub},
and the word ghafil (ignorant, unconscious) is an inversion (rnaqlub)
of the word ghilaf which means sheath, which means that their hearts are
enveloped in a sheath, and this sheath prevents the heart from understanding
the Divine order, and what that order was concerned with in the Divine
Knowledge. Therefore the hearts of the people who are in ignorance are veiled
and covered from understanding the reality of an order, and cannot comprehend
anything other than what is apparent in the life of this world and can
comprehend nothing of the emergence of the other world.
gnoses that they have been given, and some
they keep to themselves. At the same time, this sentence takes the people
addressed as the ‘People of the Ends’ (nihayah) who are the Viceregents
who appear with the qualities of Lordship, and they are^taade Viceregents by
God to dispense in the universe. In short, addressing them, He says: ‘I have
made you Viceregents in Lordship and dispensing, therefore give to Me the order
(amr) of viceregency and Lordship and the order of dispensing and make
Me your Attorney and your Viceregent, and this is better for your state; more
suitable and certainly more perfect for your servanthood; and it is safer and
more complete.’ The greatest Viceregent and the most generous Envoy heard this
address and said: ‘My God, You are the Owner of Progress (safar) and the
Viceregent in the Presences’, and made God his Viceregent in the order of his
own viceregency. Abu Su'ud and other gnostics of God, each one heard this
address and knew that this order concerning dispensing and gnosis, although it
was in their hands, was not in reality their possession, but that in reality
they were Viceregents in this order. When Abu Su’fld heard spiritually: ‘Give
to others of that over which I have made you Viceregent’, God addressed Abu
Su'ud’s mystery, and the mystery of other people similar to him: ‘This order
over which I have made you Viceregent and which I have given to you; give Me
your attorney in that, and take Me as your Attorney.’ Consequently, Abu Su’ud
concorded with the Divine order and took God as his attorney in dispensing,
because Perfect Man taking God as his Viceregent is more complete and more
prevalent than God taking Perfect Man as His Viceregent. The person who
observes this order can in no way dispense by spiritual will. Spiritual will is
active with that collectivity when the possessor of spiritual will applies his
concentration of consideration with the domination of his spiritual will for
the happening of a thing, so that there is no space left in him for any other
thing, and it is the knowledge of this that separates the gnostic from this
collectivity. Consequently, the gnostic of complete knowledge appears with
extreme impotence and weakness and does not appear by dominating anything or by
dispensing spiritual will over any order.
Some of the Substitutes (abdal) said to Shaykh
’Abd ar-Razzaq: ‘Tell Shaykh Abu Madyan, after greetings upon him: Oh Abu
Madyan, why isn’t anything made difficult or tiring for us, whereas for you
yourself things are difficult and tiring, and this in spite of the fact that we
are trying to be close to vour station and vou are not trvine to be close to
As for vs, we did not abandon it in an envelope; the abandoning of
dispensing is its abandoning through preference, yet, in the Presence of
Lordship, the abandoning of dispensing through preference is a kind of
forsaking of tact. Rather we refrained from using it, due to the completeness
of our gnosis, because complete knowledge does not necessitate dispensing
through the determination of choice. Whichever complete gnostic dispenses
through spiritual will in the universe, he does it by order of God and
obligation, and not by choice, because he knows each thing in whatever state it
was established in the nonexistence in the Divine Knowledge that in existence
it is manifest according to that, and he does not begin to dispense. And if it
becomes necessary to dispense he regards his essential servanthood and sees
that total servanthood does not necessitate dispensing but rather that concordance
with the Divine order is necessary. Therefore the gnostic takes the Presence of
Lordship as his attorney, which is the root and beginning of the emergence of
all acts of dispensing. And if dispensing happens from a gnostic in the
universe, he dispenses by obligation and Divine order and not by his choice,
and thus he is an appointee and is under obligation and therefore he is
excusable, even perhaps he does not need an excuse because servanthcod
necessitates concordance with the order of the master. Thus when he dispenses
through order and obligation he dispenses due to the completion of his
servanthood. It so happens that many dispensings manifest from the gnostic at
certain times, which the gnostic had no intention of doing either by obligation
or choice, and he was not even conscious of them, and only becomes conscious of
them after they have happened, and these are the Divine dispensings which
happen by the manifestation of God in the place of manifestation of the
complete gnostic.
We have no doubt that the station of envoyship demands
dispensing for the acceptance of the envoyship. Dispensing through miracles by
an envoy causes his people to acknowledge him, so that the religion of God
becomes manifest. In other words, a miracle is necessary to envoyship, and the
envoy, by God’s permission, dispenses at the level of lus people, and brings
about a miracle which, at the level of his people, causes their
acknowledgement, so that having acknowledged him they accept his envoyship and
the religion of God becomes manifest. But a saint is not like a prophet,
because the saint is the place of manifestation of the Name Interior (ba(in)
and the station of sainthood Hnes nnt demand disnensine: rather the saint
prefers not to dispense.
the hearts of the people who observe it & not general. It only
affects those in whose hearts there is inclination |to believe, and
consequently in those hearts in which there is no light ibf belief the miracle
remains ineffective. Only those who according to their original inclination are
established in the Divine Knowledge and in the state of non-existence, receive
the light of belief in their heart, and it is only those whose hearts were
originally enlightened with the light of belief that are manifested in this
world as people of belief. The person who in the Divine Knowledge is known as
the non-believer, here will remain non-believer. That is why God said to the
Prophet, who is the most knowledgeable in nature and the most faithful of state:
‘You do not guide those whom you love, but God guides whom He wishes’, thereby
allocating guidance to belief to God alone. What remains to a prophet is as God
says: ‘To the Prophet is only to announce.’
Had there been universal effect .concerning spiritual
will then the Prophet’s spiritual will would certainly have been effective, and
without doubt there is no one more complete, higher or stronger in spiritual
will than the Envoy, yer his spiritual will did not have any effect in bringing
his uncle Abu Talib into Islam. And the verses mentioned above were brought
down for that. Had the effect of spiritual will been general, certainly it
would have had effect in the case of Abu Talib, who was the Prophet’s uncle and
protector, whom he loved and showed exaggerated attention and spiritual will to
bring him into Islam.
It is because of this that God said to the Prophet: ‘It
is indeed for you only to announce’, and He said: ‘It is not for you to guide
them, but God guides whom He wishes.’ That is to say, you cannot guide to the
Truth through your individuation (ta'ayyuri) or by being who you are.
Only God can do this by being in the place of manifestation that ycu represent,
and He guides only those who have the inclination to be guided in the Divine
Knowledge. Thus, God adds in the Surat al- Qa$as‘. ‘God knows who will
be guided.’ In other words, God knows those people who, through their
established essences (a'yan-i-thabita) at the state of non-existence,
gave to God the knowledge of their being guided. That is to say, in whichever
way the picture of them being guided was drawn in the Presence of Knowledge
with their immutable potentialities in their state of non-existence with their
essential inclinations, they gave the knowledge of that picture to God and God
knew them according to that picture, and they became known by the order of God
in that image. Each of these people gave the knowledge of their
because We never passed an order upon them
except in accordance with what they gave Us and by the decree they asked of Us
according to their inclination. That is why God said: ‘They are the oppressors
of themselves.’
In the same way: ‘We never gave them an order which was
not what Our Essence gave Us to tell them’, and We ordered them by it. because
essences (a'yan) are the same as the Ipseity of Uniqueness and the
Ipseity of Uniqueness is revealed in their image. Our order to them is what Our
Essence gave Us to order, and Our Essence is known to Us and thereby We know
whether to say to them like this or like that. In short, whatever is given to
Us to order in Our Essence, We ordered according to that, and We did not say
except what We know We should say. That is to say, We gave them no order other
than what We knew to be established in Our Knowledge, by which We ordered them.
We said: ‘The Word is from Us; it is up to them to concord or not to concord
with what they have heard.’ This means: We said the Word is established for Us
by virtue of what they gave Us to know of their inclination and their
receptivity, and for them there is either concordance or lack of concordance to
Our Words, that is to say, Our Order, when they have heard Our Word through
what their essential inclination gives of concordance or lack of concordance.
‘All is from Us and from them
And receiving is to Us and to them, Even if they are not
of Us Doubtless We are of them.’
Which means: all order is from Us by virtue of the totality of Our
Names and Our Powers of action, and at the same time the order is from them
since they are the essences which are manifested by the Being of God because
they are the places of manifestation by their ability to receive the realities
of the Names and by their essential inclinations. The receiving of the
knowledge of Reality is from Us, that is, it is from Our Divine Presence of
Knowledge and the collectivity of Our Names, and also knowledge is received
from the known essences. This means that no thing can reach another thing
unless it is from its own essence and from its origin which is its reality. The
known essences are Our Reality and Our Being, because God’s Knowledge first
appertains to His Ipseity and then appertains to the essences, which are the
places of the manifestation of the Realities of His Essence. At
is that the station of envoyship is gifted by dispensing in order to
manifest the religion of God, and the envoy is appointed with dispensing
because of his tenderness towards his people. However, the saintly gnostic does
not dispense but makes God his attorney, and because of his knowledge of the
fact that the thing comes into being according to the form it has at the state
of establishment in the Divine Knowledge, again he does not dispense because he
sees oneness in existence. And this is what is written here.
Consequently, become cognizant of this according to its
reality and be realized in this until you are of the Divine Regents and of the
heirs of Mohammed.
We have explained to you
the mystery And we have elucidated the order.
Indeed, in this Wisdom of Forcefulness without a doubt the mystery
of Destiny {qadar) has become manifest, and the order of being has been
elucidated as it is, because the order of being cannot possibly be in any other
way. The actor is the effuser and the receiver is the effused.
He is indeed established in the double, That one who is
called single.
When it is said: ‘He who is One Being is established in the double’,
it means that He is the receiving creature, and the receiving creature is the
double. The double manifests in the second degree of single, and He is single
because He is not the maker of double, but the single becomes double only by
the reality of doubleness, and without it He remains single.
Because this chapter includes the kernels of gnosis and
the mystery of Destiny (qadar), the Shaykh, may God be pleased with him,
followed it by the chapter concerning the Wisdom of qadar. And God
knows.
Of the Wisdom of Apportioning of Fate
(abhikmat al-qadariyyah)
in the Word of Ezra (Ozeyr)
It is because the prophet Ezra wanted to know about the mystery of qadar
that the explanation of his Wisdom starts with the explanation of qada*
and qadar. (This mystery which is considered as one of the most profound
and insoluble mysteries, is called the mystery of ‘'qada' and qadar',
and has two parts.)
Know that God’s qada* is the
determination (Hukm) of God in things. And His hukm in things is,
according to the limits of His knowledge of, and in, things. And the knowledge
of God of things is according to the limit of the knowledge that they
themselves give of knowledge, from their own nafs, to God. This
knowledge they have given tc> God of their nafs is what they were
fixed upon when they were in their state of annihilation. That is to say, the qada'
is at the beginning of time without beginning; the Divine hukm of the wahid
al-ahad according to the knowledge the things had given God of themselves
when the things were about to be individuated with the nafs-ar-rahman in
the Knowledge of God. Consequently all the totality of Divine ahkam are
of the Uniqueness, according to the image they showed in the Divine Knowledge
in the time of the ta'ayyun', that is, whatever the things gave of
themselves to God, whether happiness or banditry or believer or hider of truth,
or reaching high degrees, or of completion or lack of completion or other
states (ahwal) or necessities of the time,«was according to what form
God knew of them then. ,
In short, the determination (hukm) which ocfcurred
for them at the beginning of beginningless time, according to His knowledge
concerning these things is limited according to the degree of what those things
gave to God of their essential inclination. In other words, the determinations (ahkam),
which were dormant in the nafs of the things themselves, gave to God
that which their inclination and ability allowed, and according to which
inclination and ability they were fixed in their 'ayn, which is the
limitation they imposed; and consequently it is that limited image which
manifests in the Divine Knowledge. Then obviously the haqq
establishment and writing down, except by what the inclinations
intrinsic in them demanded of God, through giving to God that which they
themselves ordered themselves to be, by appearing in His Divine Knowledge and
knowledge of forms, in forms which they chose, subject to their inclination. In
short, what God has done is simply allow them to come into being and manifest
themselves as they wished to be. God did not even invent the things and bring
them into being. They asked to be manifested. Their inclination was not forced
upon them; but it was from their ipseity. It was not given from outside but
from what they had already in themselves.
Because His order upon us is according to His knowledge
of us and through the necessity of His Ipseity, He knows us according to what
we know ourselves as, and He never gives an order upon things with other than
what the things are in their 'ayn, with which, in the state of
non-existence, they were fixed. Therefore His orders are consequent to what the
thing necessitates. In short, in this matter qada' and qadar is
such, that God does not call qada' or assessment (taqdtr) upon a
thing except by that which its receptivity and ability necessitates. The
defendant {mahkum) asks a question from the judge according to the
necessity of his ipseity and that is an order cn himself, and the judge can
only act upon that person through that same hukm that the defendant {mahkum}
has asked for. In other words, the judge does not pass an order on anyone
except by the order necessitated by the reality of that person. This means that
the accused has power over the judge by what he can show to the judge,
according to which the judge has to pass judgement over him. It follows that
each judge is an accused by what judgement he has passed. Whoever the judge may
be it is so, even if he is the haqq, or the khalq, because again haqq
cannot pass an order on a thing except by that by which that thing deserves an
order. And the haqq equally falls into the same position; It cannot be
judged except by that which It deserves. Consequently He is also the accused,
and equally of all those who are judges in appearance, whether prophets or
envoys or people of nations or kings or sultans, they are all judged by what
they judge. And for these people there is also the other face, that because
they are appointed by God to their positions they are doubly under orders {ahkaniy.
judging by the necessity of what they do, and being judged by what they do.
In short, verify deeply this mystery of qadar
which is a judgement over things, and come to the knowledge of its reality,
because the
more advanced in inclination and capacity of reception. Some are in
a higher degree than others, and the envoys are in a higher state according to
the state of their people, and there being one prophet bigger than another
depends on the people. The prophet cannot propose to them something other than
that which their natural inclination allows them to accept and follow, and
according to the ability in the people, the degree of prophecy is higher or
lower. ‘Like the envoys, We have made them cne superior to the other’ (Quran),
which means God has made one superior to the other in the envoyship. But at the
same time the Quranic verse says: ‘Do not differentiate between any of the
envoys.’ That is, in their prophethood they are the same, but by necessity of
the people they are sent to, they are one higher than the other. Whereas in the
case of the prophets and saints, since the prophet is the exterior of the saint
and the saint is the interior of the prophet, the superiority of some of the
prophets over the others is due to the fact that some are superior in sainthood
than others, and not only due to the people they come to. And this superiority
in the saints is by their largeness and their being the places of the
exteriorization of the Divine Names and in the Presence of Being they are in fana'
by their own ipseity and by their own qualities in God, and consequently it is
according to the degree of their fana' that they are, in their
appearance, some superior to others, and they do not prophesy according to the
needs of the people, but rather according to the degree of their superiority in
the knowledge of their interior of what they know of uluhiyyah and rububiyyah.
And this is not included in the kind of superiority mentioned in the Quran
concerning the envoys which is dependent on the ability to receive and
inclination of the people they are sent to. On the contrary, this superiority
is intrinsic to their person and this superiority is due to their person and
not to their function. And this superiority is again dependent on the degree of
sainthood they have reached.
All this is not only physical, but partly physical and
partly spiritual. God says: Tn the matter of nourishment (rizq), God has
made some superior to others’, but He has not specified this for any one kind
of people, like envoys, prophets or saints, but He meant it, without condition,
for everybody. And part of the nourishment is spiritual and concerns the
knowledge of God, therefore among the people some are superior to others in
this spiritual way. But He did not bring the nourishment except according to
the qadar known to Him of the deservings that were asked of Him by the
creatures. This apportioning
not vary ever or change, therefore he knows now that he will not
receive anything except what he has asked for except according to his eternal
inclination, and this gives pleasure. All development and completion has been
deserved by his reality, and all suffering whether sensible or spiritual will
be definitely received by him according, to what he has asked of God. He kuows
that it has already been accorded in totality, and his nafs is secure in
the knowledge that he is going to receive it. On the other hand, that the
knowledge of this mystery gives to the knower the deepest suffering is because
he observes in others the completion of all possibilities and that they receive
it according to their ability, inclination and reality, and that it is in
consequence to their essential aptitude; and that he himself is short in
servanthood, and in being the place of complete manifestation, therefore he
feels pained in considering the shortness of his inclination even though he
knows he must be beyond and in better and closer satisfaction of the haqq
than the one who is completely veiled from the mystery of qadar and qada'.
There is a second face to this. It so happens that the time arrives when he
is ordered to do a thing, and that in his inclination there is no provision for
the execution of that order. In short then, the knowledge of this mystery of qadar
and qada* gives to its knower both repose and suffering. And because the
knowledge of this mystery of qadar and qada' gives both these
conditions, the great liaqq has qualified His own nafs both with
anger and with approval, and because of this the Divine Names became in
opposition. And this is the mystery that both Divine anger and approval
appertain to the mystery of the knowledge of qada' and qadar.
Anger (ghadab) is of the order of non-existence
and is contingent to the non-ability or non-receptivity of a thing of
completion and of happiness, or is dependent upon a shortcoming in the person’s
inclination. Consequently, Divine anger is due either to lack of ability or to
shortage of abifity, because that Divine hukm which has to do with the ghadab
is subjeci to the Divine Knowledge and knowledge is also subject to what is
known and what is known also confers the nonability and anger, and God then
knows that that person or thing deserves anger. Therefore, ghadab is
from the order of the knowledge of the mystery of qadar and qada'.
The relationship of the mystery of the Divine approval to the mystery of qadar
and qada' is as follows: approval is subject to complete inclination
which necessitates the reception of rahntah, and if a thing is receptive
of rahmah and effusion
realities, because they are the realities of the Ipseity and the
Ipseity of the haqq does not accept any variation or addition or
augmentation or diminution. Just like a half, a third, a quarter are
intelligible in the reality of the one, these are, for that one, original
relativities enclosed in its oneness and not outside of it. It is not really
these relativities, intelligible in the reality of oneness, that are
manifested; but when the one manifests, all these relativities manifest that
oneness in the endless possibilities of their relationships, according to their
ability, and the manifestation of the One Being of the haqq in the
images of many is exactly like this.
The prophets did not receive the inspiration except through
the direct and private way which is, with the agency of the angel, information
coming directly from the haqq. At that level the envoys and prophets are
not concerned with, or required to know, or are aware of other knowledge than
that which is imparted to them through this method. Because it is the degree of
being an envoy or prophet which presumes the giving up of all other mental or
intellectual or philosophical considerations. They are imbued with a taste for
the reception of this information and have no taste for any other, and because
of their envoyship and prophethood, they are equally cut away from the images
of the knowledges which were established in the state of non-existence of the
knowledge of the a'yan and consequently from the taste of knowing about
the mystery of qadar and qada*. They are completely specified for
only that which appertains to their prophethood and envoyship. If when it is
necessary for one of them to know the mystery of qadar and qada\
then they come to know this not through their prophethood and envoyship, but
through their sainthood, at which degree, in any case, prophethood and
envoyship are annihilated. Therefore the complete knowledge ('Um) is
only through Divine revelation and by the lifting of the veil of the eye and
the ear like at the time of the Last Judgement, which in this world is kashf,
and the $ahib- i-kashf (owner of kashf) who combines in one the
light of vision with the light of the eye, if his kashf makes him
comprehend a thing by one of these he also does it by the other. When the haqq
reveals through the light of the kashf the 'arif observes the
realities as they are in the Presence of the knowledge of a'yan and
realities, and understands what is ancient, what is subsequent, what is non-existent,
what is in being, and what is necessary and what is allowable.
Now understand like this, that the great haoo does not
pass a
making him come to life again, and to see how the time-whitened
bones were again re-covered by flesh and.; skin and then brought to life.
(*Abraham wanted to see with his eyes how the dead came alive again. He was
told to take four little birds and cut their heads off and make a well-mixed
paste with their bodies, feather, bone and all, and place a portion of the
paste on the summits of the four mountains which surrounded the area. Then he
was to place the four heads each one between the fingers of his hand and call
for the birds. He saw that the four birds were reconstituted and joined to
their heads in the hand of Abraham.)
The knowledge of one person’s qadar and qada'
does not entail the knowledge of all people’s qadar and qadci'\
had he been shown again like he was shown how the dead come to life, still he
would not have known what is the knowledge of the qadar and qada'
for his people, since the knowledge of this mystery .is at the level of the
Ipseity before ta'ayyun, therefore it is not revealed to people and is
specifically cut off from the prophets and envoys; and Ozeyr’s question was of qadar
but the knowledge of the qadar was not given to him, because in relation
to Ozeyr this knowledge was absolutely impossible to give, since the
conditioned is prevented from circumscribing the absolute. But that which was a
question of the conditioned, God did show him in his own person. And it is
impossible for anyone other than God to know the order of qada',
therefore the keys of that which is established of the a'yan in the
non-existence are the keys of the ghayb (mafatih-ul-ghayb'j and nobody
but God may know these, and the knowledge of qadar is only possible by
reaching that which is fixed for the a'yan in the nonexistence, and
since this is not possible for anyone else the knowledge of such things is also
not possible; ‘The keys of the Unknown are with Him and nobody else knows them’
(wa 'indahu mafatih-ul-ghayb, la ya'lamuha ilia huwa). And we must
recall that the Names which are contained in the ghayb reveal themselves
due to the enlargement of the nafs-ar-rahman in the non-existent a'yan,
and the non-existent a'yan become then the keys for these Names. Equally
the ipseity of the haqq is a Divine Name by each 'ayn, and each
Name is a key for the treasury of the unknown which is in the Ipseity of the Ijaqq.
And the totality of these keys are in the hands of God, because all the Names
which are collected at the degree of Divinity are included in the Name God
which is the Name of this degree. But it so happens that the great God by
virtue of the masht'a of one of His servants, who have to do with
not established for anybody else, but is private to God, since we
know that the quality of Absolute Being, which is not relative to anything at
all, is private and fixed for God. Again, because He alone is the Absolute
Being, in bringing about being absolute, qudrah appertains specifically
and privately to the Absolute Being, since that which is other than absolute is
relative and all that is relative is receptive and effected.
Now, it does happen, that some of the Completes have the
ability to bring into being and to return to non-beirig, which happens in
certain cases and this is referred to certain a'yam. To be qualified
with such qudrah is not by virtue of any difference between the kamil
and the haqq, but on the contrary, perhaps, rather by virtue of the
union consequent to the side of servanthood having found fana' in the
side of Lordship, or by virtue of that which is necessitated by the total of
absoluteness in the quality of the kamil, exactly as in the case where
God said to the tongue of Jesus to say: T will make the blind see, and will
cure the leper and will bring to life the dead, by God’s permission.’ Again, in
this absolutefication, there is no dhawq for the relative person, except
for such a person as would be completely freed from his relativity into
absoluteness and be empty oP'hhhsfelf during the execution of the act and be
not himself present and in observation and in execution during the bringing
into being. And these people, may God be pleased with them, are the Seals of perfection.
While we saw that God was displeased and scolded Ozeyr,
may peace be or. him, concerning his question concerning qadar, now we
have seen that in fact Ozeyr wanted to know the relationship of the qudrah to
the maqdur, and desired the witnessing of this through dhawq-,
but the relationship of the qudrah to the maqdur witnessed
through dhawq is impossible except by the ipseity of such a qadir
who alone may observe his own uniqueness in the maqdur by virtue of the
manifestation of the qadir in the image of the maqdur, so that
the quality of duality in the qadir and maqdur may not be
eliminated by the uniqueness of the ipseity. Bringing into being and invention
of creation is a Divine speciality of qudrah. This is because the qudrah
which is related to the maqdur is not necessitated by the ipseity of
anything except for one such for whom absolute being is fixed, for one such
cannot be conditioned, either by the quality of qadir alone, or by the
quality of being maqdur alone. Equally he must not be only haqq or
only khalq but rather he must be in a position to observe the uniqueness
of qadir and maqdur together, and this witnessing is specifically
fixed to the
short, that if Divine inspiration and information through
inspiration was removed from Ozeyr, then amrs would be made known to him
through fcarA/and revelation which would lead him to know his own 'ayn
thabita, and having seen his 'ayn thabita he would then know that as
there is no possibility for him to reach the knowledge of the mystery of qadar
in his 'ayn thabita, he cannot know this, because this knowledge is a
Divine particularity which necessitates the knowledge of reality of the
totality of the a'yan. ..
The Prophet Mohammed, peaCe t>p. flriin, said: ‘My
Lord admonished me with the best of admonishments’,, ahd tms information
proves that the admonishment of Ozdyt fe^r ^ks miimficence on the part of God
to Ozeyr, and those who are ahli-kashf and knowers of this kind are
knowers, and people of ignorance and denial do not know this, because the
ignorant preserve the outward amr by their understanding of its outward
limitation, and remove fifta it the reality of the amr, and this
information to Ozeyr was in reality a promise and not that which is promised.
In short, those who know, know that this information is a promise, because they
know that though in appearance this news concerning Ozeyr’s admonishment seems
to promise his removal from prophecy and Divine inspiration and his removal
from the Presence of closeness, in fact, on the contrary, this cannot be so
because the prophets have power and height further than this situation, because
the private and personal inclination of the prophets confer on them the fact
that their names are fixed in the company of prophets and that they are
preserved there with complete Divine purity, and that they cannot be displaced
from there.
Know this then, you, that in fact sainthood (wilayah)
is a Divine Quality and the circle of universes is the collectivity of
everything and includes all the degrees of envoys, prophets and saints, and
refers specifically to the origination of the other world and totally to the
origination of this world, and as sainthood is the enclosing circle of all, it
cannot be cut off. And because prophethood has been cut off by the last
prophet, peace be on him, the collectivity has in it a prophethood reserved for
the saint. Even to this day, this is not cut off, because it is i elated to the
saints who are not of the people who, like the envoys and prophets, make new
doctrines and religions. But this cutting off is particular to the source of
prophethood and relative to it but continues by virtue of sainthood which is
necessarily the dissemination of knowledge concerning God and by direct and
integral giving of information.
by which a servant might be called, and which might be specific to
the servant without at the same time being in reference to Consequently, the
servants are obliged to be called awliya' by virtue of the fact that
they are fani in God. This only remains, that God is full of benevolence
(lutf or latif) to His servants.
You may observe that a prophet sometimes talks of things
which have nothing to do with religion, like: ‘If My servant approaches Me with
supererogatory works, I become his hearing and his eye' (idh laqarraba
ilayya 'abdi bil-nawafil kuntu sam'ahu wa baqarahu), or: ‘You did not throw
when you threw, but God threw’ (wa ma ramayta idh ramayta wa lakin Allahu
rama). Such ahadith and such things that have to do with being
characterized with the character of God and stating of complete giving up to
Him (tawakkul), and agreement to God (rida') and surrender (taslim),
and such stations of tawhid or individuation and/nnd* and baqa' and
totalling and differentiating and other characters and stations of God; to
explain these, if the prophet speaks of things which have nothing to do with
dogma, it is because he is at the same time a saint who knows, because for the
prophet there are three degrees. One is the degree of envoyship where >he is
a connection between God and peoples; the second is the degree of sainthood,
which is a connection between a prophet and the Ijaqq, and in this
degree there is no other connection, where reception here is done directly
without intermediary. So if the prophet speaks from his secret sainthood from
such knowledges as knowledge of oneness which have nothing to do with doctrine
and religion, he speaks as a waliyy and 'arif, because such
things refer to the haqq and do not refer to the khalq for which
latter he uses the tongue of prophethood or envoyship. And the prophet’s
station of knowledge of sainthood is more complete and higher than his
condition of being a prophet and an envoy, because sainthood is from the side
of haqq and is never cut off, whereas envoyship and prophethood are from
the side of khalq and are cut off. And if you ever hear that the degree
of wilayah is higher than the degree of prophethood, understand and be
certain that what is meant is like when we say that prophethood, envoysbip and
sainthood degrees are collected in one person. Understand this so, because
what is meant is that in that person, sainthood is higher than the others, but
it is not meant that the saint who follows in the short'ah of the
prophet is higher than the prophet, because the dependent cannot be higher than
that on which he depends; if that were so he would be equal to it or pass
beyond it which is impossible. When
God in his state of fana', by virtue of their reality being
of the Divine Ipseity and in the degrees of Divine Qualifications they are
effected by it, and by virtue of the fact that the servants in their fana'
and in their state of baqa' after fana' relate both ways to Him
and this is the degree of closeness by obligations and is a station of being an
heir. So the Name waliyy applies to anybody who is individuated in one
of these three degrees. When God said what He said to Ozeyr, this was the
promise, that having removed him from the list of prophets and envoys he would
then be subject to the kashf and Divine revelation, because there would
remain in Ozeyr with the finishing of envoyship and prophethood, his sainthood.
Since there is no prophet or envoy who is not a saint,
it is necessary to be a saint to become a prophet or envoy, and what this
promise was, was that your added-on-degree of prophethood will be removed from
you if you insist on understanding this mystery, and you will remain as saint.
And a prophet and envoy cannot be sent somewhere as envoy except after having
gone through the purification.and satisfaction caused by the necessities of
becoming a saint and being the subject of Divine Love. But his saintship is his
side towards God whereas his envoyship and prophethood is towards the people.
Consequently, prophethood and envoyship are particular degrees within the realm
of sainthood, but not all saints need be prophets or envoys. Therefore
sainthood is more common than prophethood and envoyship, which makes of
prophethood and envoyship two special degrees in sainthood. And when through
revelation the mystery of qadar is made revealed to them (munkashif)
the station of sainthood is strengthened and in that the stations of
prophethood and envoyship are annihilated. Therefore it is definitely true that
Ozeyr’s question was acceptable, because as a prophet he was also a saint and a
special saint and therefore in knowledge of the realities of God. Therefore God
would not provoke in him what he sees unfit, or cause him to ask that which is
impossible to bring about. Therefore a prophet asks only that which is possible
to happen. Consequently his question is always well received. Therefore it is
obvious that Ozeyr’s question was an acceptable question and God’s apparent
admonition was a promise because what he wanted would happen when his
prophethood and envoyship would be removed from him.
Yet although we said that there is no invitation to a
new creed or new belief in the other world and it is all ended with the last of
the
The Wisdom of Elevation
(al-hikmat an-nubuwiyyah)
in the Word of Jesus
From
the water of Mary or from the blowing of Gabriel, In the image of Man existent
from mud,
The
Spirit immanenced in the person which is cleansed From nature, which you name
by ‘prison’ (sifin). Due to this his abiding was lengthened,
Therein
more than a thousand years, appointed, Spirit from God and no other, and
because of that He revived the dead and built a bird from mud So that it be
true for him that his origin is from his Lord And by it have effect in the high
and in the low. God cleansed him bodily and transcendentally,
Spiritually, and made
him the symbol of His immanencing.
From
the water of Mary or from the blowing of Gabriel, In the image of Man existent
from mud
Now let it be known like this, the human bodies even though they are
one in the limits of reality and the images of the senses and spirituality, yet
the causes of their composition are varied, so that the one who is weak of mind
need not imagine that the Divine Ability and Reality does not bestow by which
this human emergence is immanenced except through one cause which by itself
bestows this emergence. Thus, God the High denies this doubt, and He created
the human bodies according to four varieties. One of these is the body of Adam,
another is the body of Eve. Yet another is the body of Jesus, and the other is
the bodies of the sons of Man. Each of these four kinds of bodies are in opposition
in the emergence of their bodies to the causes of another emergence. Yet, they
are not in opposition in the bodily and spiritual images and in the reality of
Man. Thus God the High manifested in one special way this emergence of Man in
Adam by which He did not manifest the
Thus., whichever way it is, the emergence of the body of Jesus is
different to the emergence of others, and his immanencing is the Divine Word.
Consequently, in accordance with this consideration, to question is
unnecessary. The words: ‘From the water of Mary . . .’ refer to the obliterated
verb, and the verb with its actor is obliterated as the words ‘immanencing of
the Spirit’ in the second verse point out, that is, as though it were that the
Spirit was immanenced from the water of Mary or from the blowing of Gabriel.
The words ‘in the image of Man’ also refer to the obliterated word
‘immanencing’. It is also possible that the words ‘in the image of Man’ would
refer to the blowing, which means the embodiment of the Spirit of God was either
immanenced from the water of Mary or from the blowing of Gabriel who was then
existent in the image of a man. It could also mean that Jesus, who was in the
image of a man, was immanenced from the water of Mary and also from the blowing
of Gabriel. That is to say, as Mary was a human being, and as Gabriel was
manifested in the image of a man when he blew, Jesus was immanenced in the
image of a man and manifested that way. Yet, Jesus is no other than the Spirit
of God and the Word of God. Equally, the body that was immanenced is Jesus, but
its spirit was not immanenced from the water of Mary or the blowing of Gabriel,
because Jesus is that Divine Word which Gabriel, taking it without intermediary
from the haqq, applied to Mary.
After this, the Shaykh (R.A.) makes it very clear by
saying: And He created the body of Jesus certainly from the real water of Mary
and the imagined water of Gabriel, and he came out in the image of a man by
virtue of his mother and by virtue of Gabriel representing the image of a man.
Thus Jesus was immanenced from two waters and only appeared in the image of a
man because of his mother Mary, and Gabriel appearing in the image of a man.
And God’s words: ‘I am no other than your Lord’s envoy, come to give you as a
gift an intelligent boy-child’, and the words: ‘And We blew therein from Our
Spirit’, established that the spiritual matter for the immanencing is from the
blowing of Gabriel who was manifested with power of activity and effect, and
the power of activity and effect manifests nothing unless there is opposite it
the power of being effected and the power of being acted upon, the image of
which is Mary, and the material of the body is from Mary; at the level of
Gabriel blowing into Mary in the image of a man, the imagined water, which is
in the matter of the dampness
r<*o1 wnMr in Mnrv
and that flowinc into
bring to you a present for you of an intelligent boy-child.’ Thus,
with these words, when Mary was relaxed and pleased, her relaxation was not due
to natural passions of nature or from her inclination to a young man, and there
would not have been a constriction in Mary at the sight of the image of a young
man if before that it was rather that Gabriel had said to her: ‘Oh Mary, God
sends you joyful news by His Word from Him, whose name is the Messiah.’ It was
due to this Divine joyful message that again she was relaxed and pleased from
the joy of Gabriel, and thus at this moment of relaxing and elation that
Gabriel (S.A.) breathed to her the Jesus (S.A.), and it is then that her
interior, which was cleansed from natural human agitation, elated with Divine
joy, and at the level of the sweetness of her interior, from the manifestation
of waters of desire which flowed to her womb, created the desire which was caused
in her from the manifestation of the Divine Love. This was definitely not
natural desires. It is also possible and allowable that the purified person
might be the person of Jesus, which means: in the image of the person cleansed
from the nature which is called ‘prison’, which is the image of his body in the
image of Man, he was immanenced.
And the humankind is manifested with the qualities of
nature which is the lowest of the low. Such a nature that it is called
‘prison’, and prison is the limit of destitution and farness, and this is why
the humankind is in prison in the universe of nature, because he is imprisoned
and shut up in natural qualities and the conditions of darkness. Thus, the
determinations of nature having been collected over his spirituality, he is
veiled from the universe of light and holiness. God says: ‘Then We returned
them to the lowest of the low except those who believe and do pure acts.’ Thus,
the person of the body of Jesus is cleansed from the universe of nature, and he
qualified him thus because of that, because the Spirit of God, even when it is
manifested in the image of Man in the aspect above-mentioned, is still
according to the original cleanliness and essential purity and is cleansed from
the natural qualities. It is also possible and allowable that it may apply to
the words of immanencing, first in the words: ‘From the water of Mary or from
the blowing of Gabriel, in the image of a man . . .’ as in the first couplet,
or to ‘immanencing’ as in the second couplet. Thus, the word ‘or’ can be taken
to mean ‘and/or’. Under this consideration it would mean that the body of
Jesus, which is named with the Spirit of God, was immanenced with the water of
Mary and the blowing of Gabriel in the image of a man which is existent from
mud, immanenced
his mother Mary is of the purest of the manifestations of nature.
Thus, according to the first aspect, the word (therein) refers to the image of
the body of Jesus which is the person of Jesus, and the second aspect is that
it refers to nature. And Sadruddin-i-Konevi, God sanctify his mystery, in his Fukuk
says: ‘The image of Jesus was immanenced from the Divine Word through the
speech of Gabriel, and his establishment in this universe for a length of time
is derived from the mystery of the nature of Mary (S.A.) and engenders the
contagion of the power of nature from Mary therein with the blowing of Gabriel
of the Word, and that specifies the Gabrielian representation as a young man,
that is to say, handsome and temperate, and the state of the action resembles
from a certain aspect an emission without sexual intercourse.’ (In the union of
the two humidities thus, although following the natural order of the human
procreation due to the necessities of immanencing in the shape and body of a
human being, yet definitely avoiding totally any form of sexual contact, of
which lower forms of human nature both Mary, the Spirit of God and Gabriel were
entirely cleansed.)
Spirit from God and no
other, and because of that He revived the dead and built a bird from mud
Now let it be known like this, that every prophet from among the
prophets is a place of manifestation from among the Divine places of
manifestation, but due to a specific and definite consideration. Thus, due to
this consideration and this reason, to bring into being each prophet and each
thing thpre is individuated a Name for the haqq by virtue of which Name
that prophet is made to rely upon the haqq. It is equally this way for
the business of each existent, that by virtue of that specific consideration,
to bring it about and to manifest it a Name is individuated from the haqq
and on which Name that existent depends. However, the difference between the
prophets and the great among the saints, and the places of manifestation below
these, is this, that the prophets and the great saints are the places of
manifestation of the totality of all the Names, where their relationship to
other Names on which depend the remainder of existents and the collectivity of people
is the same relationship to the persons which are the individuals of genuses
and varieties. And as there are differences in the determination of width or
largeness among the genuses and varieties, it is the same way for the order
among the prophets and the saints in the station of superiorities. Thus, each
prophet’s dependence upon the haqq is due to
individuated from the interior of the Name All&h, and is
not individuated from subsequent Names which are the Presences of other Names.
This is why he brought to life the dead and he built a bird out of mud, and the
bird he built was a kind of bat. God says in relating this: Tn fact he created
for them from mud in the shape of a bird and blew into it and it became a bird
by permission of God, and he cured the blind- bom and the leper and brought to
life the dead by the permission of God.’ Thus the spirit of Jesus (S.A.)
emanating from the degree of Divinity which is the orphan’s possession and the
possession of Mohammed, and being individuated in the Presence of Divinity and
his being dependent upon the collective Name just like the being of the Envoy
(S.A.), the relationship of Jesus to him became complete, and his knowledge and
covenant was made close to the knowledge and covenant of the Envoy (S.A.), and
it is apportioned to him to enter the sainthood of Mohammed in the second
emergence because his manifestation and individuation is equally from the
sainthood of Mohammed in the Presence of Divinity.
So that it be true for him that his origin is from
his Lord And by it have effect in the high and in the low.
That is to say, that is why the creation and bringing to life
manifested from Jesus (S.A.), that which is of Divine speciality, and that is
why God the High manifested creation and bringing to life from the place of
manifestation of Jesus, so that for Jesus from his Lord, which is the Name God,
become true his relationship and origin, by which relationship and origin he
be effective in the high and the low. That is to say, according to: ‘To God is
the possession of the heavens and the earth’, determination and effect and
change and dispensing in the high degrees and the low places of descent is
specific to God the High. Thus, the relationship and origin of Jesus (S.A.)
from God became established because his spirit is individuated from the
interior of the Presence of Divinity and accordingly he manifested with all the
totality of Divine Qualifications which that complete totality contains, so
that he could manifest his Lordship from the aspect of viceregency in the
higher universes and the lower degrees and determine by it, and in the same
way, that he effect in the higher orders by bringing to life the human image,
and in the lower orders by creating from mud the bat. By effecting in the
higher and the low there becomes established for him
finding it more dextrous than making it similar to Eve, it was said
‘similar to Adam’, and this aspect is one of the aspects of what this
above-mentioned verse indicates. The Shaykh (R.A.), in the tenth chapter of the
Futuhat, says: ‘The sealing of the earth from the cycle of possession is
similar to its not having begun, which indicates the fact that the
superabundance is in the Hand of God, and that this order does not necessitate
a first father for his person, and He brought into being Jesus from Mary and
descended to the place of descent of Adam and descended Jesus to the place of
descent of Eve, and as He brought about the female from the male, He brought
about male from the female, and sealed it with the similarity of there being no
beginning to that which He brings about as son without a father, just as Eve
was without a mother, and Jesus and Eve are brother and sister, and Adam and
Mary are their parents.’ Tn fact “similarity of Jesus at the level of God is
like the similarity of Adam’’ is making a resemblance to the non-existence of
male parenthood, from the point of view that an indication like this to Jesus
is for the acquittal of his mother and does not make a resemblance to Eve
because in fact the order concerning that in immanencing is that the woman is
the place of accusation by the existence of child-bearing, as it is the place
subject for the birth, and the man by place is not the same as this, and the
intention from his indication is the lifting up of doubts. In the case of Eve
there is no extraction from immanencing from Adam, because Adam has no place of
derivation from him for the purposes of birth, and this is no proof except for
those who establish the being of Adam and his immanencing and immanencing from
him, and as there is no issue of a son without a father, in the same way there
is no issue without a mother. And this example is by way of meaning, and that
in fact Jesus is like Eve, but because into this enters that which has been
said from the one who denies the immanencing of the woman, so we have called it
the place of derivation from, and in this way was the accusation. The example
therefore of Adam is (the result of) the acquittal of Mary which may result
ordinarily. And definitely the manifestation of Jesus from Mary without a
father is the same as the manifestation of Eve from Adam without a mother, and
he is the second father.’
Know that it is the portion of spirits that they
transport to a thing nothing other than life for that thing, and life becomes
fluent therein in that thing, and it is because of that that Sftmirt took a
handful from the envoy who is Gabriel and who is Spirit, and Sfimiri knew of
this order,
mooing, and it is called mooing. If Samiri had placed the image in a
different image than the calf, that is to say, if he had placed the subject of
his construction to another image and brought it about in that other image and
had mixed what he got as a handful from the effect of the envoy to it, or
otherwise, if Samiri had placed the handful that he took from the effect of the
envoy in a different image, certainly the name of the voice produced would be
related to that particular image, just as frothy gurgling is for the camel, the
low bleating is for the ram, the light bleating for the lamb, and the voice for
the man, speech or words. That is to say, of all the images, whichever image
Samiri had built and established and mixed it with it, there would have
manifested the voice particular to that image and the voice of that image would
have been related to that, just as the voice of the calf, which is mooing, is
related to it, and is called the mooing of the calf. In the same way, the voice
of another thing would have been related to that thing, just as the spetxh of
Man and the words of Man.
Now, let it be known like this, that Gabriel (S.A.) is
total Spirit, and he is the ruler of the seven heavens and that which is below
them and upon birth and elements, and his place of xulership is the Lotus Tree of
the Extreme Limit, and the Lotus Tree of the Extreme Limit is the image of the
self (nafs) of the seventh sphere. Every one of the spirits of the high
degree are effective in the totality of the lower degrees which are below that.
Thus, the spirits of the other spheres which are below the seventh sphere are
like the helpers, aiders, and powers of Gabriel. However, the spirit of the
Sphere of the Moon which the philosophers call Active Intellect, is known by
the gnostics as Ishmael, but that Ishmael is not the prophet. Perhaps rather
that it is the angel which is the ruler of the universe of immanence and
mischief, and he is of the subjects and helpers of Gabriel and he has no
determination above the Sphere of the Moon, just as there is no determination or
dispensing for Gabriel above the Lotus Tree. Consequently, if Gabriel (S.A.)
were embodied in the representative image and manifested in the senses and he
stepped upon a piece of earth of any kind and passed over it, it bestows on
that spot extra life. All the high spirits are in this manner, and Samiri knew
this meaning. When, before this, Samiri witnessed in the insight of the nature
of slowly enticing to perdition, the angels which support the Throne, which are
four, one in the image of Man, another in the image of an eagle, and one in the
image of a lion and one in the image of a bull, the vision of Samiri attached
itself to that
in total awareness and complete presence. Thus Mary (S.A.) did not
know tnat it was Gabriel who had manifested to her in the image of a young man
because Mary had no knowledge or an indication concerning the spirits so that
she recognize them when they were embodied, like the Prophet (S.A.) knew. That
is why she took refuge in God from him, and said: T take refuge in the rahman
from you’, and she took refuge in the rahman because of the imagined
sorrow of a possible intercourse when she saw him in the image of a man. When
she learnt that this was not permitted, total presence with God resulted in
her, and that was the spiritual Spirit, because Mary knew that without legal
marriage intercourse was not of the permitted order, legally or intellectually.
Thus, in that taking refuge there came to Mary complete presence with God, and
that complete presence is the spiritual Spirit which expanded that which is
binding and constricting. There can be no expansion except in the revelation of
the Breath of the rahman in the spirit of the person. In a copy
rigorously verified it reads: ‘And brought about for her complete presence with
God.’ That is to say, Gabriel brought about for her the complete presence. That
is to say, as Gabriel represented the image of a man and Mary imagined that he
desired intercourse with her, by her taking refuge Gabriel was the cause of
Mary’s complete presence with God. If he had blown into her at this moment
according to this state, by which Jesus would have come out, not one person
would have been compatible with him because of the detestableness of his nature
due to the state of bis mother. That is to say, Gabriel (S.A.) did not blow
Jesus into Mary in that state because he knew that the manifestation of the
Spirit in a place is due to the individuation of that place. That is why he
delayed the order of blowing until the resulting docility and the removal of
the constriction from Mary. If Gabriel had blown Jesus into Mary when he
appeared representing the image of a young man when Mary took refuge from him
in her state of constriction, then Jesus (S.A.) would have come out with such a
quality that not one man would have been able to bear him due to the repulsion
of creation which emanated from the state of his mother Mary. This was because
Gabriel appearing to Mary in the image of a young man, Mary imagined that he
desired intercourse, whereas Mary was devoted virginally to God and was strict
(true) believer in the world and was protective of legal intercourse, and her
self (nafs) grieved; thus if Gabriel, the trustworthy, had blown over
Mary the Spirit of God and the Word of God in that state, the state
the fulfilment of that promise, and with her chest exhilarated and
released into expansion from constriction she did not feel withdrawn from
Gabriel. Thus, Gabriel approached her in the form of a man, and blew into her
at this moment Jesus (S.A.). Gabriel was transporting the Word of God to Mary
like the envoy transports the word of God to his people, and these are the
speeches and the words which he deposited (ilqa) with Mary, and the
Spirit from Him. Just as the envoy takes from God the meanings of the Divine
words from the aspects of spirituality and of internal meanings, and transports
them to his people with his spirituality, and deposits them in the hearts of
the human selves and in the words of mankind, in the same way, Gabriel (S.A.),
being represented in the image of a man, transported to Mary Jesus, which is
the Word of God, and with the blowing and the self of that image he deposited
it. Rather like when Gabriel transported the Divine inspiration to the Envoy
(S.A.), in the same way he transported Jesus, which is the Word of God, to
Mary. The image of the transportation is the same. However, the taking from God
in both cases does not have to be in the same way, because Gabriel took the
Spirit of God without intermediary from the Presence of God’s Name which is the
Name of totality. Each of the envoys takes the Divine words that come down to
them from the Presence of the Divine Name which is its private Lord and the
source of effusion of one of the Divine Names, unless it happened to be that
the private Lord of the envoy who takes, happens to be the Name God, which is
the collective Name.
The desire flowed in Mary, and Jesus was created from
the true water of Mary and the imaginary water of Gabriel which was fluent in the
humidity of this blowing, because the blowing from the animal body is humid
because there is an area of water in it, and the body of Jesus was immanenced
from the imaginary watei and the real water. Thus, with the blowing, desire was
fluent in Mary and ran into her womb. Thus the body of Jesus was immanenced
from real water on the side of Mary and imaginary water from the side of
Gabriel, such an imagined water that it flowed to the womb of Mary from the
humidity in that blow, because the blow which comes from an animal body is
humid because there is in it existent something of the area of water. Thus, the
body of Jesus was immanenced from the imaginary water, a water which is
in the humidity of the blowing of Gabriel, and from the real water, the water which
is excited in Mary. Thus, as mentioned before, when Mary continued to be in the
sanctuarv the Aneel had nronhesied to her with
Gabriel who appeared in the image of a handsome young man: *. . .
and to present you with a child growing in the Divine grace’, and at the ’evel
of the knowledge that the Word of God would be deposited with her from the
place of manifestation of Gabriel in the image of a man, and at the level of
desiring the child which was promised, desires moved in her in the usual
determined way, because the conditions of intercourse were collected consequent
to the arousing of the desire in her for that child which God had announced to
her, and with her wish for it and from the expansion of the self because the
time of the promise had arrived, and Gabriel’s graciousness to her in the image
of a handsome young man, and knowing that he was to deposit with her the
boy-child who would grow in the Divine grace, her desire moved exactly as in
the moment of sexual fulfilment and Mary conceived at the level of the blowing
of Gabriel, and with the breath of Gabriel her own pure water flowed into her
womb. Thus, in consequence of the words of Gabriel: T am an envoy from your
Lord and will present you with a boy-child growing in Divine grace’, and in
accordance with the special face, to take the child which is the Spirit of God
from the speech of Gabriel from God, specifically concerning Mary, her desire
moved and flowed in her. Now, the other aspect is this: the love which was flowing
in Mary, emanating from the Essential Love, is the desire of the Divine Love,
just as for the Divine Knowledge the bringing into existence of the creation
and its manifestation, it is the facing of that very Divine Love. T was a
hidden treasure and I loved that I be known, and 1 have created the creation so
that I am known.’ Thus, as the Divine Will applied to the coming into being of
the body of Jesus in Mary, the desire consequent to the Divine Love which was
in strength in Mary, moved by the order of God, and with the blowing of Gabriel
flowed in her; and the fain that the body of Jesus was created from real water
from Mary’s side and imaginary water from the side of Gabriel, and the water of
Gabriel being imaginary, is this: this is because the one who blew is the
represented image. Gabriel is not the blower in his real image. Therefore, in
him, quiddity is equally represented and is imaginary, and in that image water
is not manifest in its true image. And the majority of the commentators prefer
this aspect where the fact that it is imaginary water is possibly from the
imagination of Mary, because when she saw Gabriel in the image of a man she
imagined that a child would have to be from the water of a man; consequently,
Mary being affected bv her imagination, and from her imagination that from
no immanencing except in accordance with the
usual determination. That is to say, Jesus is the Spirit of God but his
appearance in the image of a man is due to the relationship of his mother Mary
and due to the representation of Gabriel in the image of a young man, so that
no immanencing may come about in this humankind except in accordance with the
usual determination and in accordance with the known wisdom. In other words,
from Mary should be bom again a human being, because an image that the women
witness at the time of intercourse or imagine in the image of the child has for
it a very great effect. They even relate that when a certain woman gave birth,
her child was bom with his image as the image of a man but his body was like
the body of a snake, and when she was questioned about this she told that at
the time of her intercourse she had seen a snake. Consequently, Jesus
manifested in the image of the sons of Man because the most noble and the most
honourable image is the image of a man, which is created in accordance with the
image of God. ‘In fact, God created Adam in His own Image.’ Consequently,
because of the honourableness of this image, God made the immanencing in the
humankind in accordance with the usual determination, and because of
transcending him that there be no image immanenced unless that of Man, because
the creation of Man is particular to God as He is revealed in the image of Man.
‘Indeed God kneaded the dough of Man for forty days.’ Thus, that is why after
forty days of kneading the dough the image of Man became revealed, and God the
Great was revealed in the image of Man in the materia of the Divine Nature (Jahut)
of Light by virtue of the uniqueness of the collectivity of the great
isthmuseity, and then He kneaded the dough of Man. In the same way, Jesus
(S.A.) was bom due to Gabriel (S.A.) blowing into Mary the Spirit of God at the
moment of her expansion and the exhilaration of her breast, when her image was
of beauty and her face was relieved, full of announcement of joy and smiling
with announcement of joy, and expansion was dominant over her. And there came
out Jesus (S.A.), bringing to life the dead because he was the Divine Spirit,
and giving life belonged to God and the blowing to Jesus (S.A.) was just like
the blowing to Gabriel of the Word of God. Thus, Jesus (S.A.), manifesting with
the quality of Life, came out giving life to the dead because indeed he is of
Divine Spirit, and Divine Spirit does not pass by something without giving life
to that thing, and in that place of manifestation which was Jesus, giving life
was particular to God and it was established for Jesus tn blow it
spirituality of the letter the letter of l&hdt was
dominant. That is why people said of him: ‘God is the Messiah, son of Mary’, by
the error of those who spoke deviationally.
All the complete perfect ones, that they are words which
are derived from the realities of spiritual letters and bodily letters happens
after their being manifested in the genus of this human emergence. That they
are words of the Divine Unknowable is that they are derived from the letters of
the Unknowable whose collection is the cause of the existence of the spirits,
and the letters of the Unknowable are nothing other than the determinations of
necessarily-so-ness which are the aspects and effects of the Names of the
Ipseity. Consequently, when the High haqq is revealed in the degree of
Divinity by virtue of the letters which are the Names of the Ipseity, through
the letters of the a'yan, which are effected by their complementary
opposition which in fact are the receptivities of the realities of the a'yan,
naturally there happens a joining-together whereby the letters of the
Unknowable become particularized and individuated in the letters of the
receptive a’yan. Thus, if the letters of the receptivities of the ’ayns
come close to each other, which are in complementary opposition to each of the
determinations of the letters of the Unknowable, then are derived the words of
the Unknowable, and equally, when the letters of the receptivity of the a'yan
which are the totality of the letters of the Ipseity which have been effected
in the degree of Divinity are collected together, then results the collective
total Divine Word, and that word is the reality of the spirituality of the
image of Jesus which is derived from the imprinting of the letters of the
totality in that degree. This is why He said: ‘It is the Word that He implanted
into Mary.’ There is another aspect which consists of the application of the
Divine original letters of the Ijaqq to things due to the fact that they
are according to His Oneness, and these are the first keys and they are called
the ‘keys of the Unknowable’ (mafaitlj al-ghayb). These are the Names of
the Ipseity and the ‘mothers’ of original things, which quiddities are of their
necessities and are the results of the appertainance of their
knowledgeabilities. The parallel (na*tr) of these is the imaging of the
human self before the particularization of the images that a man knows in his
own mind. These are singular dispensations which are exempt from spiritual,
mental and sensory conjunction. In that mentation things are one the same as
the other. In the second mentation, it is the mentation of the quiddities which
are the individuations by virtue of relative differentiation in the
In his reality the conjectural and the real bringing to life. In
certain other copies, concerning his reality one reads that its nature was, as
we have said, that he was a creature of conjectural water and real water.
Equally, the bringing into life by Jesus (S.A.) was conjectural because perhaps
that it was rather that the bringing into life was in reality from God, because
the real Actor and the Possessor of the totality of the Qualities is God. Thus
Jesus collected between the real bringing to life and the conjectural bringing
to life because of the fact that it was necessitated by his reality according
to which was created his body. In fact, we have already mentioned that indeed
Jesus was created from conjectural water and real water. From one aspect, the
bringing into life is related to him by way of reality, and from another aspect
by way of conjecture. This sentence explains the word ‘he collected’ in some of
the copies. That is to say that in one aspect it is by way of reality that
bringing to life is related to Jesus, and in another aspect by way of
conjecture. That is to say, when the body of Jesus (S.A.) was created from conjectural
water and real water, the reality and conjecture manifested from his action.
Consequently, bringing to life is related to him both by way of reality and by
way of conjecture, because his action is a branch of the origin of his being
immanenced, and God the High in the Quranic words considered both aspects,
because the two aspects together are of the necessities of his essential
creation, and God says therein, that is to say, in truth Jesus (S.A.): ‘He
brought to life* by way of reality, and before that, by way of conjecture: ‘He
blew into it and it became a bird by the permission of God? Here the actor is
not that he blew, but the blowing was the actor. And it became a bird due to
the fact of its sensory bodily image. By way of reality it was said concerning
Jesus’ bringing to life, that is to say, God said: ‘He brought to life the
dead’, and God actually attributed the bringing into life to him, and by way of
con jecture it was said concerning his bringing into life that he blew into it
and it became a bird by the permission of God. Thus, in the genitive case, that
is to say, in the words ‘by the permission of God’, the actor is the word ‘it
became’ and not the word ‘blowing’, but it is possible in the genitive that the
word ‘blowing’ is the actor. Thus it is possible that under this consideration
it be like this: as to what Jesus constructed out of mud in the shape of the
sensory body or a bird, it becomes a bird by virtue of the sensory bodily image
and not due to the reality of its spirituality, because as Jesus (S.A.) is
created from real water and conjectural water due to his mother Mary and to the
appearance of
in which case the way he did it being the
action and the action emanating from him be not attributed to any other than
God in common knowledge of action. God’s immanencing to him is of the aspects
and effects of the Names of the Ipseity with which Jesus was realized and with
the collective effects of which he was manifested. Now, God’s immanencing to
Jesus is by the relationship of his special inclination which is by virtue of
his known image and his established potentiality. Consequently, in the bringing
to life and in the creation which emanated from Jesus, the aspects of
conjecture and reality were collected together, and in fact conjecture and
reality were collected in that thing in which Jesus’ body was created.
Everything is done in the way He said. And in die same way he
cured the blind-bom and the leper, and all that is attributed to him and to the
permission of God, and the ‘permission*, as given by the scriptures, is similar
to His word, ‘by My permission* and ‘by permission of God.’ And in the
same: way, God’s saying of Jesus that he cured the blind-bom and the leper is
according to reality and conjecture, and equally the totality of the things
related to the miraculous things to Jesus and to the permission of God, and
also to the words ‘by My permission’ and ‘by the permission of God’, and the
things that are similar to the permission in the scriptures are all according
to reality and conjecture. And if ‘blowing’ appertained to the genitive case
it would be that the blower had the permission to blow and the bird would
become from the blower by the permission of God. Thus, it would mean that due
to the words ‘by the permission of God’ being in the genitive case and
appertaining to the blowing, then the blower would be permitted to blow and the
bird would result from the blower by God’s permission, and this would be the
aspect which is through the aspect of reality. And if it were said that the
blower blew not due to the permission, it would be immanencing of the bird to
fly by God’s permission. If the blower, which is Jesus (S.A.), blew without
the permission of God, then the thing which was created in the image of a bird
would fly by the permission of God and the immanencing would be for the flyer.
In other words, if it were at the level of blowing without permission, then the
bird would be immanenced from its own self and this would be that Jesus created
it from the aspect of conjecture, which would be that at the level of his
blowing, the immanencing of the bird from his own self by the permission of
God, and its creator in reality would be God who permitted the immanencing of
that thing. That is as if that thing made, after flying by the permission of
God, would declare that it was
for his people to pay the tax in all humility and submissiveness, in
other words, that they pay their tax in submissiveness and show no resistance
or animosity. The fact of Jesus being born from that state of submissiveness
of his mother, and his coming out in submissiveness and his telling his people
to give the tax, is in his first emergence when he appeared with the envoyship
of law-giving and at the time of his giving the determinations of the law to
his people when he emerged as law-giver. In his second emergence he will not
descend in the state of his mother, to remove some of the qualities with which
he was bom from the state of his mother which do not have place in the
Mohammedian collectivity, and will descend with the Divine natures and
Mohammedian qualities, otherwise he would not have entered the circle of the
complete totality of the Way of Mohammed (S.A.). However, it is necessary that
Jesus in his second emergence make war against the Dajjal and kill him.
Consequently, his being bora with the state of his mother, in submissiveness,
is at the level of his ordering his people to pay the tax, and his descent with
the Mohammedian nature in the second descent is at the level of his descent
where he has to war with the Dajjal and. destroy him. If he had come
again with submissiveness he could not have killed the Dajjal. And
equally, when he comes again he will not descend with a new law-giving and
independent envoyship, but will follow the lawgiving of the totality of the
collectivity of the religion of the Envoy (S.A.), who is the regent of the
intimate religion and possessor of law and way of action, and he will descend
again, reviving the Mohammedian ways of action in accordance with the
Mohammedian religion, and in his own sainthood and in consequence of
Mohammedian religion and from the point of view of his viceregency he will
remove some of the determinations, which are established through religious legal
opinion of the individuals and which are ambiguous, which were at the time of
the Envoy, and were not necessarily according to the determinations of the
Envoy (S.A.). And that he removes some of the determinations is not outside the
Mohammedian legality, because the veracity of the relationship of Jesus (S.A.)
to the state of Mohammedian collectivity is through his entrance into the
Mohammedian collectivity by taste and by state and through his branching out
with its determinations, and by him God the High seals the determinations and
the rule of the determinators in this religious way (skart'ah). The
commentator David of Caesarea says that at the time of Jesus’ second coming,
Jesus, due to his submissiveness bom of his mother, will imnose the tar nn the
the Names of the lahut, and to bring to life and to cure are
of their particularities. However, Jesus (S.A.) used to bring to life the dead
while he was clothed in the image of a man, because the image of Jesus is the
result of such an image which Gabriel, while he blew into Mary and implanted (ilqa)
it, he was represented in that image. That is why at the time when the materia
of the child is acted upon by the progenitor, the character and the form of the
self which is dominant in the progenitor at the time becomes predominant over
the child. That is why had Gabriel (S.A.) not come in the image of a man to
Mary but had come in another image of the immanence, like animal, plant or
solids, surely Jesus (S.A.) would not have resurrected the dead unless he was
clothed in that image, because Jesus’ resurrecting is the Angel Gabriel.
Consequently, he does not resurrect except when he is clothed and manifest in
the image in which Gabriel (S.A.) was represented when he implanted the Word in
Mary. If Gabriel had come in his image of light which is outside the
elements and the fundamentals, as he does not go outside his nature. If
Gabriel (S.A.) had come in his natural light image as he is in the Lotus
Tree of the Extreme Limit (sidratu-l-muntahd), which image would be
outside the elements and the fundamentals, yet Gabriel (S.A.) does not go
beyond his light nature and does not exceed above his definite image which is
in the Lotus Tree of the Extreme Limit, because his original image is not of
the elements but it is natural and of light and is between the eighth and the
seventh sphere (Jalak), and appears in his station in that original
image and does not pretend to the image of Divine Light and image of the Names,
but he becomes represented in all the images of the elements which are under
his rule because Gabriel is the ruler of elements. It is of his powers that he
can manifest in images of all the elements .which are in the seventh heaven and
below that. He manifests in whichever image of the images of the elements he
desires by virtue of domain and station and by virtue of the aptitudes of the
people of each station. Then Jesus would not have brought to life except
when he appeared in that same image of the nature of light, not elemental with
the human image from the side of his mother, which means that Jesus could
not have resurrected the dead unless he manifested in the image of the nature
of light, and he could not have resurrected clothed in his human image from the
side of his mother because his resurrecting is by virtue of his manifesting in
the image in which Gabriel was at the time he blew. Consequently, had it not
been like this, he could not have resurrected unless he was manifested with
Consequently, he brings him alive. However,
only with that amount of life during which he speaks, so having spoken he
returns back to his original state, but this means that he does not revive him
with the revival of the animate so that he walks and eats and that he lives a
length of life and remains for that period. It is known that in the story of.Jesus
it happened that Jesus (S.A.) revived Sam bin Noah, with his speech. Thus,
having witnessed his prophethood, he (Sam bin Noah) returned to his original
state. That is to say, there was life manifested in him during that period of
speech. Thus, revival by speech of the inanimate, for their speech, it is like
the revival of the inanimate so that, after their conversation they return back
to the image of the inanimate. Thus, the life of the dead which speak is also
like this. Consequently, the intelligent became utterly perplexed that the
human image clothed in Divine effect manifests in reviving the dead. The Shaykh
said ‘a human person’, after which he added ‘from among the human beings’,
because the intelligent would not have fallen into utter perplexity had it been
that the Angel, which is not a human being, was represented in the image of a
human being and revived the dead, because life is essential spirits. The reason
why the intelligent people were perplexed when they saw the revival of the dead
coming from a human person is the fact that they were perplexed because they
saw Jesus (as a person) reviving the dead. And some of them were led in this
through the words of endosmose (hulM) and that he is certainly God when
he revives die dead, which means that some thought when they saw Jesus reviving
the dead that God had endosmosed into the human image of Jesus, and they said:
‘Jesus is God’, because he brought the dead to life and bringing the dead to
life is of Divine speciality. Thus they related the revival of the dead to God
whom they thought was indwelling in the image of Jesus. And by this they
related to kufr (covering up of the Truth) and this was covering because
they covered God who (they thought) was reviving in the human image of Jesus,
because in fact they covered God who revives the dead with the human image of
Jesus, and conjectured that God had endosmosed into that image, and that image
is His real image. Thus the God who is manifest in Jesus and in all the places
of manifestation with the revelation of the universal revelation, they
individuated Him solely in Jesus and covered Him up with it, and from the
aspect of individuation they said: ‘God is Jesus.’ These words are the words of
the beginnings of the Nestorian sect. God the High said concerning those who
have covered
as the image which was, however, the human image for Jesus, whereas
they related Divinity to the image and made it the same as the image. Rather
that they enclosed the Divine Quiddity in the subject of the human image, which
image was the son of Mary. Thus they differentiated between the determination
which was Divine according to that image and the image of Jesus, the Messiah,
by that word ‘He is’ which is for differentiation, and they made of the determination
the same thing as the image. In other words, they determined over the image of
the Messiah and made that image the same as the determination. It is also
possible that here the word ‘determination’ may be used to mean ‘determined
upon’, because with Divinity in the verset in the words God is determined upon
and the Messiah is determined by, that is to say, between the Messiah image and
that which is determined upon by that image, which is God, which they
differentiated with the words ‘He is’ and they attributed the terrestrial
nature to the quiddity and posited God with that quiddity by attributing the
image to it, but they did not make the image of Jesus the same as that which
determined upon which is God. Thus, they limited the Divine Quiddity and
confined it to a specific image from the terrestrial images. However, God is
not circumscribed in any image. Thus they erred in the consideration which
conjectured circumscription, because the hearer thought that they said: ‘God is
he, the image of Jesus’, but they differentiated and discriminated and said:
‘God is in the image of Jesus’, which means that God is in endosmose in the
image of Jesus, son of Mary. Thus they combined error with covering up (kufr)
by saying: ‘God is he, the Messiah’, because they confined and covered the
Divine form by it in Jesus, which they did by saying: ‘God is in Jesus’, and
also ‘the son of Mary’, whereas in fact God, the Truth, is the same as all,
without limit and without circumscription and without being some of an indefinite
substance, or a portion. Rather, He is Absolute in His Ipseity from all
relativity and all absolutizing. There is no other with Him. There is not even
a place for Him into which He could enter through endosmose, and no being other
than Him so that it could relativize Him and make Him circumscribed. Gabriel
was already in the form of a man and he had not blown. Afterwards he blew, and
differentiated between the image and the blowing, and the blowing was from the
image which already was, but not ‘yet’ the blowing, and the blowing is not, in
point of fact, essentially (from the image). They had endosmosed the Divine
Quiddity in the human imaee. thus thev had differentiated between the imace and
the
without a father by the blowing of the trustworthy Spirit. Equally,
acts which are of Divine particularity emanated from him, and through this
aspect it is that it is due to his body that he is the Spirit of God. He was
called by the Spirit of God and the Word of God before the trustworthy Spirit
and before he resuscitated the dead. ‘From God and His Word that he (the Angel)
implanted in Mary.’ Consequently, Gabriel implanted into Mary through blowing,
the Divine Spirit and the Divine Word, and that he was the Divine Spirit and
the Word of God has been pointed out before this. The reason why the Shaykh
says ‘image of the senses’ and conditions it to the image of the senses when he
talks of him as ‘in the image of the human senses’ is because in the spiritual
images everyone is the Spirit of God, and in the images of the Names equally,
everyone is a word of God. Yet every person is related to the image of his
progenitor, not to the one who blows His Spirit into the human image, because
in fact when God arranged the human body, as He said, He arranged it and blew
into it, He, the High, from His own Spirit, and related it to Himself, and He
related the Spirit in his immanence and in his 'ayn to Himself, the
High. Perhaps rather that each person is related to the image of his progenitor
in his human image and his spirit is not related to the blower, because in fact
God the High, when He arranged the human body, just as He said He had arranged
it, God the High blew of His own Spirit in that body. Thus the High God related
to Himself the Spirit which is blown into that arranged body, in its immanence
and its 'ayn, that is, in its image. That is to say, God the High blows
His Spirit into the body of each person after He has arranged the image of his
body. For instance, just as He arranged the body of Adam from mud, and just as
He has arranged the images of his (Adam’s) descendants in the womb of the
mother, He blows His Spirit into them after He arranged the body. Thus, in the
being and in the 'ayn of that body the Divine Spirit is related to the
High who blew, but his body which exists before arrangement and his person
which exists after the blowing is not related to the haqq who blew but
is related to the image of his parent, because the image of each person is the
image of the state of the image of its parent, where the Spirit manifests by
virtue of that state and is particularized and individuated therein. But
Jesus is not like that, that He arranged the body and the human image and then
blew His Spirit into it It is different like we have mentioned, and there
is not any similar to it It is such that Jesus’ creation is not like this. That
is to say, the materia of his body was not existent
'kun' is related to God. The other
consideration is this, that God, descending from His Absolute Reality into the
image of the person which is individuated or particularized by the word *kun',
becomes individuated as the 'ayn, and according to this consideration
the word ‘kun' be the same as the image. Thus the Shaykh (R.A.), taking
into consideration these two aspects, says as a question: Can the Word be
related to Him by virtue of that which He is? That is to say, questioning, he
says: Can the Word ‘kun' be related to God the High by virtue of that
transcendence whereupon the haqq is in reality? Thus, if according to
this consideration, if the Word 'kun' can be related to the haqq,
then that which He is (mahiyyah) cannot be known. Thus, that which the
Word is cannot be understood because it is the Absolute Word of the haqq
which is absolute in its reality, and the Word of the haqq is the same
as His Ipseity, and the Reality of the Ipseity is not known by any one of the
human beings, because the Ipseity of the destroys all plurality of
individuations. There is not the existence of one in It. By virtue of the
Ipseity, generality and things known are the Being of the One haqq.
Thus, the reality of the Word which is related to Him is left alone in the
state of Absoluteness. Thus, this Word is a Word of the Unknowable. Or does God
the High come down in the image of the one who says ‘kun^l That is to
say, does the Quiddity of the haqq descend from His Absolute Reality by
revelation to the image of the person who says the word ‘kun', so that
by virtue of that individuated image it can be related to the haqq due
to the descending of the haqq? If one considers that the speaking image
is the descent of the haqq, then it becomes (fayakun), and the
word 'kun' becomes the reality of that image into which He had descended
and manifested therein, which means that for that image into which God had
descended and therein manifested, the word 'kun' becomes the same as
that person and is related to him. In other words, if God descends into an
image from among the images of the immanence and manifests therein, the word 'kun'
which emanates from that image becomes the same as that image and becomes the
same as the Aa#? who has manifested in that image and has particularized in
that image. In consideration of manifesting from that image whence the word ‘kun'
emanated, it is the haqq. Under other grammatical considerations it is
as if it were said: if God descends into the image of someone who says ‘Be’ and
it becomes, then the word ‘Be’ becomes the same as that image, and under this
consideration the Word becomes the Word of becoming. Some of tbe gnostics
believe one
done is only known by taste and cannot be known by explanation,
because explanation only results in imagination, and imagination is not enough
in understanding the realities, Especially in understanding how things are
done, because how things are done is not known except by taste and
consciousness, just as the taste of an event cannot be understood except by
taste. As for the spiritual resuscitation, this is by knowledge. That is
to say, resuscitation of the senses and of the bodies by which Jesus is
manifested is by means of blowing, but the spiritual resuscitation which
resuscitates the heart and the nafs which is dead with ignorance, that
results by means of Divine knowledge. And such (resuscitation which results
from spiritual resuscitation) is Divine Essential life of light of
knowledge, which is, as God the High has said in that matter: ‘Or the one who
was dead and We brought him to life, and We brought to him light by which he
walks among people.* And all those who have resurrected their dead nafs
with the life of knowledge in this matter particularly appertaining to the
knowledge of God, they are certainly resuscitated by it, and for them there is
light by which they walk among people, like among forms which have images.
Thus, life which results from spiritual resuscitation is the Divine
Essential life of light of knowledge. That is to say, he who is alive by
knowledge is alive by the Divine Essential life of the light of knowledge, and
concerning this life, God said: And the one who was dead through ignorance, We
brought him to life with the life of knowledge, and We brought to him light,
and that is knowledge, with which he walks among people, and they understand by
it that which there is in their aptitude. Thus, any person who revives with the
life of knowledge a nafs which is dead with ignorance in the special
matter which appertains to the knowledge of God, that person certainly
resuscitates that person with that matter, and that matter or question becomes
light for him with which he walks among the people, that is to say, he walks
among the people who are in image in his form. That is to say, knowledge which
is spiritual life which is particular to the nafs which are high and
knowledgeable in God, is Essential Divine life of light of knowledge which God
the High bestowed upon His awliya' and the complete ones of the purest
kind, so that they resuscitate those nafs with the aptitude from death
through ignorance, and effuses upon them the light of the life of the light of
knowledge so that their lives are resuscitated with the life of light, and in
that way they walk among the people who are of their own form and they
understand the intentions and states and the aptitudes which
by virtue of knowledge through His
Knowledge. Rather perhaps that He manifests them due to knowledge. He also
qualified it with ‘light’ because of knowledge, because it is through knowledge
that the mexistent things of the Unknowable are manifested, because light is
that thing which is manifested through its own self and manifests equally that
which is other, and it is the interior spiritual light which results through
the above-mentioned Qualities which are of the Qualities of the Divine
perfection. Being alive through the life of knowledge is higher, more honoured
and more total than the life of the senses, because resuscitation with the life
of knowledge is the resuscitation of the nafs and of the spirits to
which non-existence (/and’) never attaches, whereas all those that are
resuscitated with life of the senses are subject to non-existence. However, in
the general nafs resuscitation of the senses also happens because it has
to do with the senses and it is a Divine particularity. Thus the order which is
arranged according to the Divine Ability, when observed through the senses its
effects are more numerous, and thus the generality only knows the life of the
world, because the power of the himmah of the prophets and envoys is to
save the human emergence by resuscitating the spirits of the people of the
humankind with the life of the light of knowledge, and the facing and the himmah
of their people and their subjects is also to turn away from the earthly
life and to become alive with the life of the interior meaning and the eternal
spiritual life. Thus, in the complete ones who are people of ability, having an
appreciation of interior spiritual life, its happening is more numerous, and as
they have little inclination to revival of the senses, the occurrence of that
is much less. Now, as the Shaykh (R.A.) explained both the resuscitation of the
senses and the resuscitation of the interior spiritual meaning, and as the
resuscitation of the resuscitated is through that which is his receptivity to
be resuscitated, consequently he points to the resuscitation of the interior
spiritual meaning, that God the High resuscitates with the Breath of the rahman
their inexistent a'yan which are dead with the death of non-existence,
and points equally to the fact that for this it is necessary in the thing which
is non-existent to have both a receptivity to being and the one who brings into
being.
Had it not been for Him, and had
it not been for us, that which is would not have been that which is.
This is to say, had there not been the Absolute Uniqueness of
Ipseity, or otherwise, had there not been His Essential revelation, together
with
And we are in reality the
servants of the haqq, and indeed God is our Master.
That is, the totality of the a'yan of being speak in their
language that in reality we are the servants of the haqq, being the
place of manifestation of a specific Lord from among the Divine Names, and we
worship Him with that, and God the Great disposes the order of each one of us
by virtue of that Name. And the established potentialities of the most complete
ones which are realized through the oneness of the Divine collectivity, in
their speech say: we are in reality the servants of the haqq because we
worship Him with the essential worship, that is to say, being the place of
manifestation of the collectivity of the Names of the Uniqueness of the
Ipseity, and in consideration that that collectivity is manifested in us, we
are Its servants by virtue of that collectivity, and the Lordship of all the
Names which are intrinsic in the collectivity of the Names being in general
effective in us, and, on the other hand, He effecting upon us specially the
totality of Lordship of that collectivity, we are imder the dominion of the
Lordship which is both general and specific and we are His servants in
accordance v/ith both aspects. He equally is our Master with the totality of
the Divine Names and with the collectivity of the Essential Uniqueness, and He
is our waliyy and the one that we establish as waliyy, and He is
the disposer of our order.
And we are the same as Him. Know
this when you have said ‘Mankind’.
When you say to us ‘Mankind’, that is, you name us with the Name
‘Mankind’ which is the place of manifestation of His Essential Oneness and the
image of the collectivity of the Divine Names, then indeed we are the same as
the haqq, and be you knowledgeable in this way, because the place of
manifestation of the perfection of Mankind is the same in reality as the haqq
who has created Adam according to His own image, because he is commensurate
with the measure and extent of the haqq, and he has no measure or extent
to his definition so that the haqq should manifest in accordance with
that measure. Consequently, the haqq manifests in his image with all His
absolute manifestability in the image of the collectivity of His Essential
Oneness, and in the measure of the transcendence of His potentiality (’qyn) and
with His la ta'ayyun, and He is not altered by being there.
Consequently, he is the same as the haqq, and the haqq is the
same as him. However, that which is other
it veil you from the fact that it is a Divine Name. Thus, Mankind
has bestowed on you a proof which guides you to the haqq. In other
words, he exposed to you that Man, by his grandest collectivity and the
greatest isthmuseity, is the most explicit proof of the haqq and His
most manifest. proof. Thus, looking at Man’s human image and his quality of
possibilities, do not be veiled from the haqq which is manifested in him.
Be the haqq and be the immanence (khalq), you will be
■ by God the rahman.
The Shaykh (R.A.), having expressed the high degree of the Perfect
Complete Man, addresses the Perfect Complete Man which collects between
Divinity and Lordship and establishment of Lordship, and whose exterior is khalq
and whose interior is haqq, and goes on to say: by virtue of your
mankindness and your isthmuseity it is possible for you to be the same as the haqq
by virtue of reality, since by virtue of your reality all the collectivity of
the Divine Names are present by your presence. It is possible for you to be the
same as the immanence in consideration of your human image. Thus, by your
nature and creatur- iality all the realities and potentialities are present. In
other words, be the haqq through your reality, or be the khalq by
your creaturiality and humanity, and when you are expanded to the haqq
the khalq by your isthmuseity, because of the manifestation of the
degree of Divinity in you, you become the rahman to the totality of the khalq
by virtue of the generality of your being and the expanse of your rahmah.
As in the verse before he warned you not to be veiled from the high quality
that he argued for Mankind, he concluded the height and value of Mankind in
this stanza, that is to say, that Man collects the haqq and
the khalq and by his reality is the rahman to the totality of the
a'yan and immanences.
Nourish His creation from Him.
Thus you become refreshing repose and sweet scent.
Let it be known like this, that the haqq by Its Being is the
nourishment of the creation, because being is through the haqq, and the
presence and continuation and the life of the creation is like such a
nourishment by which the one that is fed is present and continuing and alive.
At the same time, the creation is the nourishment of the haqq in the
manifesting of the determinations of the Names and Qualities, because these are
realized through creation. Thus, the Names are realized by the known
And the order became partitioned between His side and
our side
Thus the order of being, according to the
considerations of intellect, became divided into two parts, one part of which
is our giving Him, which is the giving of aptitude and state according to which
we were established when we were established in non-existence, and the second
part is His giving, which is bestowal of being and the bestowal of the
superiorities and perfections and completions which are the necessities of
being in accordance with the condition of our potentialities.
And He gave life to that which He knew by my inside
(by that which was hidden inside me which He knew
through my interior ) when He gave life.
That is to say, the manifestation of the images of completion and
perfection of the Divine collectivity which are within the powers of the
Perfect and Complete Man, is dependent upon the resulting of the complete
aptitude and the width of receptivity of the Man. ‘And when I have arranged it
I blew into it of My Spirit*: the images of the collectivities of the Names
which before the arrangement were in him in effect, which were in torment,
became released from torment at the level of manifesting resulting from the
arrangement. Thus the Shaykh (R.A.) says: that Absolute Being who knows the haqq
in my reality, in my potentiality, that is to say, in my interior, in my heart,
with the totality of the images of His Names, that is to say, He witnesses it
in the aptitude of my reality, vivifies and manifests the haqq with the
totality of His images which were in me in effect and in power at the time when
He vivified me. That is to say, the Being of the Absolute haqq does not
become witnessed and recognized except at. the level of the manifestation with
His image at the place of manifestation of the Perfect Complete Man. Thus,
before arrangement the images of the Divine Names were in the power of the
aptitude of Man. When He wanted to manifest them and when He wanted to be
recognized and witnessed, He arranged the body and the being of the Man, and
vivifying him with the blowing of the Spirit of revelation He vivifies him by
manifesting the image of the haqq which is in his interior, and becomes
recognized and witnessed by it.
Another aspect is this: the realization and
manifestation of the Divine Names depend upon the manifestation and realization
of the recentive
consideration, we were the same as the totality of the immanences
and potentialities and times.
Or else, we were the same as the haqq in all
eternity since the totality of the immanences, potentialities and times were in
the Being of the haqq. As the immanences, potentialities and times
became degrees for His manifestation and descent, as He became individuated in
their images, equally we were individuated and manifested in the images of the
immanences, the potentialities and times. Thus we were equally immanences,
potentialities and times in the Being of the haqq.
There is another aspect. This is that we were the
established potentialities in the Unknowableness (ghayb) of the haqq
and in the Presence of Knowledge, and we were the constructed and existent
immanences in the universe of spirits. As we descended to the unknowablenesses (ghuyub)
of the heavens and the earth and passed through the totality of the stations of
the heavens and the spheres and the stations of the unknowablenesses of the
earth such as the minerals, plants and animals, and reached finally this human
image, we were a very long time in the aeons of the Unknowableness of the haqq.
There is another possibility of reading and
understanding this, and that is: when we were manifest in the total perfection
of the human image in the being of potentiality, we were at certain times from
the aspect of immanences, potentialities and times, annihilated in Him. That is
to say, our immanences and our realities of knowledge and our interior
potentialities, our times and eras, being spent in the Being of the haqq,
our qualities and essences and the totality of our times which are manifest
existents and immanential individuations were annihilated in the Being
of the ha(M- The haqq with His Essential and nominal
revelation was revealed in our hearts and we had no knowledge of our own
beings. The verse which comes after this points at this aspect, and there is a
notice in this, that we, with our immanential realities and established potentialities,
before existence were included and solidified with unknowable times in the
Being of the haqq. In the same way, after being, we became unknowable
for many lengths of time in the Being of the haqq due to our
unknowableness and annihilation. Thus, the potentialities of the complete and
perfect ones are not forever continuous and present in the place of
manifestation of the revelation of the Ipseity and in annihilation in the haqq
with their essences and qualities, but due to manifesting and manifestation,
and to complete and perfect the human selves, they descend to human qualities.
Consequently, under these aspects he is always the haqq and
always the creature, and he collects both the and the creature, and he is
absolutely divorced from being individuated with anything from the haqq
or from the khalq as it is the High Lord which is manifest in him.
Consequently, according to this taste, the above-mentioned verse has this
meaning: by virtue of the fact that we have collected between the haqq
and the creature and particularization and non-particularization, Reality is
not constant over us. That is to say, at certain times we are collected in
absoluteness, and at certain times we are realized in the collectivity between
absoluteness and relativity. Which are things that guide to what we
have mentioned in the order of spiritual blowing with the image of human
genus. That is to say, the arrangement of the body of Jesus when the
trustworthy (amm) Spirit represented in the image of the humankind blew
Jesus into Mary, and that his human image was included in the spiritual
blowing, these are of the things that guide to what we have mentioned. In
that the haqq has qualified His Self as the Compassionate Self, and it
is without a doubt that all which is qualified by a quality is subject to that
quality in everything where that quality necessitates its presence.. In
other words, it is necessary for each thing qualified that it also necessitates
that it should also need the necessities and the subjects of that, quality,
because if a thing is necessary, surely all that is subject to it is also
necessary, and that which is subject to that thing is related to it. And in
fact you know what the nafs necessitates in that which is breathed
upon (in that which is made to have a self). That is to say, in the nafs
of mankind, breathing necessitates blowing, and at the level of non-breathing
the interior torment and pain necessitates breathing, and the breath of mankind
from the interior of the heart extends over all the stops which are the places
where letters come from, which are the points of exteriorization of the
letters, and due to each stop it is necessary that it be a particular letter.
Consequently, breathing (nafas) necessitates the elevation and lowering
of the letters and the images of the letters and words, and equally it
necessitates the actor and the acted-upon-ness of the words. Thus, equally, the
Divine Breath necessitates the blowing. In the same way, it necessitates the
breathing for the rahman to liberate from torment the potentialities of
the possibilities which are non-manifested in their state of establishment in
non-existence. In the same way is necessitated for the Breath of the rahman
at the level of its extension, to extend over the Divine and immanential
degrees from the interior of the First ta'ayyun, and that
under the consideration that Nature becomes their actor as they
manifest with the images of the Names of Nature in the materia of the
‘Blindness’ (’awa), then Nature becomes the active Divine Reality, and the
Breath of the rahman, receiving all the active images of the Names and
those of the immanential acted-upon images, becomes for them a jewel of the hayula.
Consequently, Nature is the same as the Breath of the ragman which is
extended from the uniqueness of the reality of the collectivity of creaturial
acted-upon-ness and the reality of the Divine action from the Reality of the
great Reality. The Breath of rahman is interior and Nature is exterior.
Thus, that God qualifies His Self (the nafs-ar- rahman) by Breath (nafas-ar-rahmari)
is His qualifying it with all the necessities of breath, like blowing and
breathing, like His manifesting in the images of Divine and immanential letters
and words which are the images which are manifested in Nature. And from the
collection of all these is the image of the elements for where, for the purpose
of blowing of the Spirit, the trustworthy Spirit was represented in that image
and appeared to Mary and blew Jesus in that image.
And the elements are images from the images of Nature,
and that which is above (both) the elements and of that which is born of them
are equally images of Nature. That is to say, from the middle of the earth
until one reaches the first heavens, earth, water, air and fire and all images
that are bom inside these, whether they be corporeal or spiritual, all images
of kinds which are the totality of all these images, is an image from among the
images of Nature which the Breath of the ragman necessitates and effuses
over Nature. Equally, that which is above the elements and that which is above
the things bom of the elements are equally in the same way images of Nature,
which means that the spiritual images which are above the images of the seven
heavens which are bom from the elements are equally of the images of Nature.
And they are the high spirits who are above the seven heavens, which means
again, the high spirits which are above the images of the seven heavens, which
are above the seven heavens, which are born from the elements but which are
above the elements, they are equally like the elements an image of tne images
of Nature because they are what the Breath of the rahman effused over
Nature as images of Nature, and these are like the high spirits, like the
Throne or the Chair, and like the incorporeal essences and intellects which are
above them, but the spirits of the heavens and their essences are elemental
because they are of the smoke of the elements and are bom from it. But the
spirits of the seven heavens and their
Breath of Nature, from the aspect of reality, is the collectivity of
complementary opposition, and because of the order of becoming, some of the
realities of Nature are manifest and predominant over others. Under this
consideration, complementary opposition happens in the essence of Nature
itself. As Nature is the manifestation of Divinity, complementary opposition
exists equally from its four qualities which are the principles of Divinity. In
that way, the totality of the Divine Names of complementary opposition which
the Breath of the rahman necessitates, like the words, the Merciful, the
Avenger, the Elevator and the Abaser, are individuated and manifested in Nature.
Thus the complementary opposition manifests in Nature from the Names of
complementary opposition (mutaqabilat—asma' mutaqabila).
And those complementary oppositions which are in the
Divine Names are relationships which were bestowed by the Breath of the rahm&n. These complementary
oppositions are relationships of non-existence ('adam) which exist among
the Divine Names. These are bestowed by the Breath of the rahman,
because in accordance with the consideration that the Names are relationships
of non-existence and knowledgeable meanings, they have no complementary
opposition in them, because heat and cold, black and white, are collected
together in the intellect and in thought. They are not complementary
oppositions. The complementary opposition among the Names manifests with the
images of the Names, by which imagery the Breath of raJjman causes it to
be realized, the realities of the relationships of the Names. In other words,
when the Breath of the rahman expands over the non-existent
potentialities which are in the Presence of possibilities, then by virtue of
each potentiality in each degree it becomes particularized and varied. Thus,
when the Breath of the rahman bestows existence to the relationships of
the nonexistent Names, the complementary opposition which manifests among the
images of the Names takes place from the side of the Breath of the rahman,
because manifesting is from the side of the Breath of the rahman. Yet,
however, there is no complementary opposition particularized among actions and
receptions in the Breath of rahman. As the Breath of the rahman
is like the materia prima (hayula) for the actions and receptions, all
actions and receptions in it are one and the same qualification. The complementary
oppositions become manifest by virtue of the particularization and
manifestation of the Breath of the rahman in the mirrors of the
potentialities which are non-existent relationships. Yet the complementary
opposition that the Breath of the
Uniqueness of the Ipseity which is outside this detetmination of the
Breath of the ragman, concerning whom (that is, the Ipseity of
Uniqueness) there came to be Richness beyond Need of the universes? However,
being Rich beyond Need of the universes is being Rich beyond Need of the Breath
of the rahman, because the Breath of the rahman is the origin of
the universes. Thus it is because of this that the potentialities of the
universe came out in the image of the one who brought them into existence. Yet
the one who brought into existence the universe is no other than the Breath of
the rahm&n. Thus the universe, in accordance with the image of the
Divine Breath, is manifested in concordance with the collectivity of actions
and receptions, which means the universe came out in the image of the one who
brought it into existence. Yet the universe is no other than the Divine Breath.
What there is of heat is the higher of the Divine Breath. When it manifested
with the actions and receptions collected in it with opposing modalities, that
which was of heat in the Divine Breath, with the Divine Breath the images of
the Lordly Names became heightened in the actions and became particularized in
the high aspects. And what there was of coldness and humidity in it became low,
which means that in the same way that which results in the Divine Breath of
cold and humidity, the Divine Breath becomes low in the immanential images
which are parts of the universe, and manifests that way. And what there is of dryness,
that becomes established and does not go down. The sediments are for the cold
and the damp. Do you not see the doctor, that if he wants to prescribe the
drinking of a medicine for a person he looks at the water of the urine in the
glass, and if he sees sedimentation he knows that the maturity is completed and
makes him drink a medicine which will accelerate the maturity. As for
sedimentation, it appertains to the humidity and coldness of the nature. Which
means that that which happens in the Breath of the rahman from dryness
is that by which the Breath of the rahman is established, and that does
not descend. Thus, sedimentation, descending to the bottom, is special to
coldness and dampness. And do you not see the doctor who in fact when he wants
to give a potion to drink to a patient he looks into the glass of his water. If
he sees that the water is sedimented he knows that in fact the maturity is
complete, and for the doctor maturity is the aptitude and preparation of the
matter for the expulsion, and expulsion is brought about through inundation
which is through humidity, or bringing down and debasing through cold. Thus the
doctor makes that sick person drink that
two oceans, collects in himself the
realities of active effects and the immanential realities of acted-upou
effects. That which is individuated in this degree is the Perfect and Complete
Man. Thus, when the Divine Breath becomes manifest in Nature, which is the
manifested degree of Divinity, by necessitating the realities of the Divine
Names and the places of manifestation of the realities of creaturiality and
other qualities of complementary oppositions—because in this degree the Divine
Breath is interior and Nature is exterior—then there is marriage between Nature
and the Divine Breath, and these two are like one thing, because the
images of the Divine Names and the creaturial qualities which are complementary
oppositions and which are necessitated in the Breath of the rafynan,
become manifest in Nature, and equally Nature manifests those images in a very
particular aspect in the Divine Breath. After this in fact that human person is
the dough of God the High which He kneaded with His two Hands, and they are two
complementary opposites, and if you say the two Hands are both right Hands,
they are still not devoid of any distinction between the two of them, which
means that the Shaykh (R.A.), having mentioned that Nature is complementary
opposition and that the complementary oppositions which are among the Divine
Names are from the Breath of the ro^mdn, goes on to mention that the Perfect
and Complete Man who is individuated in the isthmuseity between the actions of
the Names and the receptivities of the places of manifestation which are of the
necessities of the Breath of ragman, this Perfect Man is created by two
complementary opposite Hands, and that complementary opposition which is
included in the Breath of the raljm&n manifests in his creation.
That is to say, after the realization of the complementary opposition which is
between the Names and the complementary opposition which is in Nature, God the
High in fact, kneaded the dough of this human person with two Hands: ‘Indeed
God created Adam in His own image and according to the image of the universe.’
That is to say, God the High made the dough of Adam with the image of the
Divine Names of action which is His right Hand, and the image of the
possibilities of the places of manifestation of acted- upon-ness which is His
left Hand, and God’s two Hands are complementary opposites. In consideration
of the fact that it is both Divine and immanential and nominal and of the
places of manifestation and of action and of acted-upon-ness, and in
consideration of the fact of it being of all the images of the haqq and
of the image of the universe, they are two complementary opposites. The Shaykh
(R.A.) said in the
emergence elementally, yet they are of Nature. These are the mala’ika
al-altn which are lost in adoration and prostration in the Beauty (jamal)
of the Ipseity. In their luminosity the determinations of necessarily-so-
ness are dominant over the determinations of possibilities. As their aspects of
creaturiality are in fana* in the haqq they know nothing else but
the haqq. They do not know that Adam was created, and they do not know
that the angels have been ordered to prostrate to him. And if He made Man
superior to other things of the kinds of elements, it is only because of his
being immanenced from mud, and he to superior in kind to all that He has created
from the elements without proceeding. Thus Man did not become superior in kind
to others of the kinds of elemen ts except because he was a human being made of
mud, which means because God proceeded to create him from mud and to bring him
into being by both His Hands. Thus Man is the highest kind of all those created
from the elements without this procedure. In short, he is superior to all
elementals in the universe to whom He did not proceed in the same way, because
He has proceeded to their creation with the Name ‘One’, whereas the creation of
Man with two Hands happens through the collectivity of complementary
oppositions and complementary representations, where there is not a single
quality from the Divine Names and Qualities, nor of the places of immanential
manifestation and of the receptivity of possibilities, that is not realized in
his totality of place of manifestation. And Man in rank is higher than the
worldly and heavenly angels, and the high angels are better than this kind of
Man by the conclusive Divine attestation. Thus, Man is higher than the earthly
angels and the heavenly angels in degree because he is created by the procedure
of the two Hands, whereas the creation of the angels of the earth and heavens
is proceeded to with one Hand. And the higher angels are better than this kind
of Man by Divine verdict, that is to say, than this animal man, because the
reality of this kind is annihilated in his creaturiality, and his luminosity is
annihilated in darkness, and these are manifested with their own selves.
The Divine verdict is the words: ‘Or are you of the higher ones?’ The
creaturiality of these is annihilated in the Reality. Thus, because of their
creaturiality and darkness being annihilated in Reality and luminosity, and
because of the predominance of Reality in their nature, the high angels are
better than this kind of Man which is the opposite of what they are, but, in
comparison to the degree of the Complete Man, which is according to the ima« of
the hnnn as mankind falls from the Hetrree
annihilated in the Reality and that their selves have found fana'
in the face of the Reality of the haqq, and that the elemental and
natural darkness and the qualities of humanity and of creaturiality manifesting
in Man, because it sometimes happens in Man that the determinations of the
qualities of humanity predominate over the Divine Qualities in him and he
becomes veiled from the haqq, whereas in the angels lost in adoration
the creaturial qualities are destroyed and they do not become veiled, it is
under these considerations that they are more honourable, but they are not
absolutely honourable. The Complete Man, who is no other than the place of
manifestation of all and the image of the collectivity of arrival, by virtue of
being the grand isthmuseity, and his being able to return from the degree of
completeness to the station of more completeness and to descend to the station
of complete servanthood, and because he becomes annihilated in the Ipseity of
the haqq, and: ‘Indeed We have graced and honoured the sons of Adam’, he
is more graced and honoured and superior to all. The bringing about of the
creation and the aspecting of the Divine Love of the Ipseity to His creation: T
was a hidden treasure and 1 loved to be known, and I created the
creation so that they know’, the cognosis of the Divine Ipseity and the
ultimate cause and purpose of the universe results from the creation through
Man. And other creations of high and low are created in consequence as an
inseparable accompaniment. Consequently, as the Divine Love of the Ipseity
faces by origin the creation of Adam, the collectivity of the Divine cognosis
and worship of the Ipseity happens through him, just as total Divine polishing
and reflection happens by him. That is why Man is most graced and honoured.
Especially where it concerns the faults and errors of Adam at the level of the
existence of complete absolution (tawbah) it comprises completion and
causes the revelation of the haqq with the multiplicity of Names. He
who wills to know the Divine Self, let him know the universe, because it is
that he who knows his self indeed knows his Lord which has manifested in him,
just as the universe manifested in the Breath of the rahman, by
which Breath God the High liberated the Divine Names whose effects were not
manifested, by manifesting their effects. This means that that person who
wishes to know God’s Self, let that person know the universe, because when a
person knows his own self, indeed he knows his Lord in which the universe is
manifested. That is to say that the universe is manifested in that Breath of
the rahman by which God the High exhilarated from among the Divine Names
that torment
order v/as not obliterated as it descended with the exhilaration of
everything in general until it reached the last existent. However, there is no
last for the manifestation of the Names with their effects, and there is not,
equally, a last for the manifestation of the effects with the Names.
And everything is in
the Breath itself As light is in the dark before dawn itself.
The universes and the immanences and the a'yan and the
effects which are the totality of the realities of necessarily-so-ness and the
images of the Names are manifested and individuated in the Breath itself, just
as the light itself is manifested and particularized in its opposite, that is
to say, like in the darkness of the end of the night. In other words, just as
light is manifested at the end of the night, which emerges from the end of the
night, the totality of the images and the effects of the Names, and the
realities of the possibilities and their images, are manifested in the Breath
of the rahman.
And knowledge by proof
Is like the dawn for one who is sleepy, And will see what I have said to him As
a dream which leads to the Breath
The cognition of the Breath of the rahm&n
with the proofs of intellect and deductive intelligence is particular to that
man who is asleep at dawn. Since he is occupied with deduction the light of kashf
is removed from him and he is in the sleep of ignorance, and veiled. Thus,
what I have said concerning the Breath of the rahman is to him like a
dream which points at the Breath of the rahman, that is to say, what I
have told him is like a dream for him that he has seen in his sleep of
ignorance and which he interprets from behind the veil as the Breath, and he is
not in that interpretation according to kashf and individuation. For
instance, the sleeper interprets the dream he has seen from behind the veil sometimes
correctly and sometimes incorrectly. Thus, what we have said to the people of
intellectual proof of the Breath of the rahman is like a dream which he
interprets as the Breath, but he does not know what we have told him according
to kashf or particularization so that he interprets our words concerning
the Breath of the rahm&n and understands it and interprets it
according to particularization. Conse- mientlv our words which cnncom rh« Qr»o»i< .l.
In fact the High God revealed Himself to that person who was not
demanding knowledge. That is to say, when Moses, son of ‘Imran, came requesting
fire, the High God revealed Himself to him in the bush in the image of fire,
which is what he requested, and openly addressed him: ‘Indeed I am God’, and
the mystery of this hidden reality was revealed, that the images of the Names
are the same as the images of the universe which are manifested with the Breath
of rahman, and that the Breath of rahman encompasses all the
images of the universe and is present and manifest in all of them.
And he saw it as fire
but it was light For the kings and for the night patrols.
Thus Moses (S.A.) saw the haqq which was revealed in the
image of fire, as fire, and before he was called to, he knew it as fire,
whereas that which he saw was light which is manifest in the high kings and low
night patrols. In other words, when the Light of the face of the haqq
was exemplified as fire in the image of the bush, Moses (S.A.) thought it was
fire, whereas that which he saw.was light. Thus Moses (S.A.) did not interpret
his dream and did not pass into the reality of the thing he saw in the image of
the thing which he naturally requested. Had he passed over (to the other
meaning) he would have known that what he saw was that Light of the haqq
which is manifest and revealed in the kings who are of completion and
perfection and of the origin, and in the happy ones, and in the lower ones who
do actions of righteousness and justice and duly perform their religious acts.
Or, it means His Light is revealed in the complete and perfect kings who are
the people of insight (kashf) and revelation, and in the people of the
night patrol who are experts of theory who are people who determine with
intellectual proof in the night of the darkness of nature, because the
manifestation of the light of revelation in the high, honourable, elevated
ones, is like its manifestation in the low and the abject, because superiority
in degrees is only manifest by virtue of receptivity in the complete or the
lacking. ‘Do you not see superiority of some in what the rahman
created?’
If you have understood
what I have spoken of, Know then that you are wretched.
That is to say, if you have understood what I have been talking to
you about, that God the High, being manifest and revealed in the higher
just as he would have deyiated from that thing in which God would
have revealed Himself other than the thing that he requested, because in this
He revealed Himself in what Moses requested, and Moses had no vision for anything
other than what he requested, and you also, like Moses, at the beginning of the
order, if you were veiled from the Light of the haqq and were to request
the fire of individuation, then witness the haqq in His revelation in
that specific thing which you have requested and hear His call so that you are
not veiled from the haqq with the complete veiling.
And this Word of Jesus, when God became present to him
in the station of ‘Until We are made to know, and We know’ (this refers to two
different uses of the word, one starting with the letter nun and the
other starting with the letter ya, which comes in the Quranic text), and
questioned him, whether that which they attributed to him, that he is the haqq,
was related to him, even though He already had knowledge from the beginning by
what that order was at the beginning. When it became present for God the High
in the station of 'na'lam ya'lam', He addressed the Word of Jesus when
He already knew in the station of ya"lam which is the word realized
in its meaning, and questioned that Word Jesus, whether that thing which was
attributed to him, that is, the Divinity which was attributed to him, whether
this was true, that is to say: ‘Is the order of Divinity related to you
established in the order itself and acceptance of it emanate from you, or
not?’, even though before questioning him the knowledge of the haqq in
this matter was established, and that the haqq did know whether this
order was, that is to say, did it emanate from Jesus or not. And He said to
him: ‘Did you say to people: “Take me and my mother as two gods other than
God”?’ Thus, when God the High said to Jesus: ‘Did you tell the people to “take
me and my mother Mary as two gods other than God”?’, God then established His
own nafs in the station of ‘Until it is known to Us’ (an fyatta
na'lam), that is to say that We are made to know that these words emanated
from you, even though He knew what had emanated from him. It is without a doubt
in good form (adab), the answer from the one questioned, when He
revealed Himself to him in this station and in this image which necessitated
the wisdom of the answer in the separation in the very essence of oneness of
totality. It is necessary for Jesus to comply with good form for the question posed
to him by the haqq, as the question came according to the image
of the station of separation, because if God revealed Himself to Jesus in this
station,
existence, and if somebody speaks an order, surely he knows it,
which means, if I said it You would know it because You are the one who spoke.
Thus the words: ‘. . . because in fact You, You are the speaker’ is the tongue
or the words of oneness of totality (jam''). It is the tongue and words
of closeness of obligation by virtue of the annihilation of the being of the
servant in the haqq, and the manifestation of the haqq in the
image of the servant. Thus, when God speaks, the servant is His tongue and
words. The words: ‘. . . and You are the tongue by which I speak’ is the tongue
of separation, that is to say, yet You are that tongue of mine by which I
speak, which in fact the Envoy of God (S.A.) informed us from his Lord in the
Divine information, that is to say, in a hadtth qudst. Thus God the High
said: T am his tongue by which he speaks’, which means, I am that tongue of My
servant by which My servant speaks. Thus God made His own Quiddity to be the
same as the speaking tongue. Equally, with the words: ‘Did you say... ?’ God
related speech to the servant, that is to say, the servant speaks with My
tongue even though I am his tongue. After that, the valid servant
finished his answer with the words: ‘Yon know what is in my nafs.' After
that, the valid servant, that is to say, Jesus (S.A.), ended his answer with
the words: ‘You know what is in my nafs', which means, that which is in
my self of Your Quiddity and Your complete perfection, You know, because my
quiddity is no other than Your Quiddity. Yet, in this station of separation in
the place of manifestation of Jesus, He who speaks these words with the tongue
of Jesus is the haqq, who with the word 'ta'lam' addresses the
station of oneness of totality (jam'), and the speaker knows what there is in
his own nafs. ‘And I do not know what there is in it’ By virtue of the
fact that my self is Your Being, I do not know the things which are potentially
in my nafs. And He banished knowledge from the quiddity of Jesus by
virtue of the fact of bis quiddity, not by virtue of the fact that he was the
speaker and of effect. Thus the Aagg, which was speaking with the tongue of
Jesus, removed knowledge from the quiddity of Jesus in consideration of
particularization by virtue of the fact that He was his quiddity, and ~not by
virtue of the fact that He removed it from Jesus who was speaker and of effect.
Because by virtue of this the quiddity of Jesus is the Quiddity of the haqq,
and the one who speaks; and is of effect is His Quiddity. In the Quran the last
quote is given as: ‘And I do not know what there is in Your Self’, whereas the
Shaykh (R.A.) quoted it as: ‘And I do not know what there is in it’, because
the Shaykh wants to
‘Indeed You, You . . .’ he separates and pluralizes and unites into
one, unifies and expands by relegating the knowledge as private to Him, and
contracts the knowledge to Him alone by banishing it from anyone else. Then he
said, as an ending to the answer: ‘I did not tell them except with which You
have ordered me’, by denying first and indicating thereby that he was not
himself. Then, he established the word within the prescription of good form
with the questioner. If he had not done so he would have been qualified by the
lack of knowledge of realities and be is far from such a thing. He said:*...
nothing other than what You ordered me with, and You are the speaker over my
tongue (in the oneness of totality (Jam') and closeness of obligation)
and You are my tongue’ (in discrimination and closeness of supererogatories),
and look at this Divine spiritual awareness (awakening) (tanbffr), what made it
so subtle and pleasant (laftf) and what made it so fine (raqtq).c
After that, Jesus (S.A.), who is valid servant, answered in conclusion by
saying: T did not tell my people except that which You ordered me to say.’ By
saying: T did not tell them . . .’ he removed from himself the saying, though
he was the indicator, which means that Jesus said these words when he was not
in being, when he was annihilated in the Being of the haqq and when he
was in the relative non-existence. After that, Jesus (S.A.) established the
saying due to complying with the necessary good fotm, because God had
questioned him with the words: ‘Did you say . . .?’ It is due to his compliance
with good form that he answered: T did not say . . and if Jesus (S.A.) had not
answered in this way, surely he would have been qualified with the lack of
knowledge of Reality, yet Jesus (S.A.) is higher than being qualified with the
lack of knowledge of Reality. That is why he said: *. . . with no other than
with which You ordered me.’ Thus he answered with these words, meaning that I
did not say that thing except with which You ordered me, when the one who spoke
with my tongue was You, and this is the same as the station of oneness of
totality and closeness of obligation, and when he added: ‘You are my tongue’,
this is the same as the station of discrimination and supererogatories. Look
then at this Divine spiritual awakening (awareness), with what thing He made it
subtle and pleasant and with what thing He made it fine. He is the latff
and the raqiq. Making aware or awakening is activating, causing to act.
That is to say, look at the subtlety and fineness of the information cf Jesus
who is the Spirit of God, how subtle and pleasant is his phraseology, and how
fine is his pointing-out. In certain copies this is given as: ‘Look at
is invited to worship his own private
Lord. And in this way he distinguished with his words ‘My Lord and your Lord*
between the two allusions, the allusion to the one spoken to and the allusion
to the addressee. (With the words) ‘nothing other than with which You ordered
me’ he established himself as the one ordered, which is nothing other than his
servanthood, as one does not give an order to someone from whom the agreement
to the order is not imaginable, even if he cannot execute (the order). The
relationship of God to an existent through Lordship being not the same as His
relationship to another existent, Jesus (S.A.) distinguished with his words ‘My
Lord and your Lord’ the two allusions, which are the allusion to the one spoken
to and the allusion to the addressee, so that discriminating with the ya
of the one spoken to referring to his own self, and the kum which refers
to his people, he distinguished between the Lordship of a Name and its law to
himself and the Lordship of a Name which determined over all his people. When
he said: ‘. . . nothing other than with which You ordered me’, he established
his own self as one appointed to receive an order. However, the appointment of
bis own self as receiving an order is no other than his servanthood, because a
person does not become appointed as receiving an order if that person were not
imagined to concord with the order, even if he cannot concord. Thus Jesus
(S.A.) established himself in servanthood. When the order came down according
to the determinations of degrees, it dyes in this way all that manifest in a
degree with what that degree’s reality bestows; and the degree of being
appointed as receiving an order, there is a determination which is apparent in
all those who are appointed as receiver of an order. This is a special
determination for each of those who are manifested in all the Divine degrees of
immanence and individuation. That it is apparent in each appointee with an
order is equal to all, whether it be the order of God and the appointee for the
immanence, whether it be the order of immanence for the appointee of God, and
whether it be the degree of order and Divine appointee for order, or
immanential. Thus, for the degree of the appointee with an order there is a
special determination which is apparent in each of the appointees, and that
determination is responding to that order; if the order is God and the
appointee is immanence, by concording to His order and determination, and if
the one who orders is the immanence and the appointee is the Aagg, by
responding to its prayer and concording and obeying it. Like in his answer to the miestinn nf hie nnrU Ahn Tolik coizt. a:,i
is in accordance by what He has promised, willingly, and with Munificence
and Generosity which He imposed over His nafs, because He imposed over
His own Self Mercy and Compassion. And like this, all prayers are agreed to
without a doubt, even if they are delayed, which means, because what God
demanded of the servant is exactly the same as what the servant demanded of
God, each prayer is answered, and it is impossible that it should not be
answered, even though the coming about of the concordance with the prayer is
delayed, because the degree of being appointed to receive an order necessitates
concordance, but the concordance of God is a concordance of response and not a
concordance of obligation like the concordance of the servant. Just as some
of those to whom it is proposed that they establish an address by establishing
a prayer, do not establish it at the time, and they delay their concordance and
pray at another time when it is possible for them. With all this, it is without
a doubt that he will concord and respond, even if only by intention. Thus,
in this way, every prayer is equally responded to even if some of them are
delayed in response by virtue of the fact that the state of the servant
necessitates it, and the delay is better for the servant. God retards it only
due to His Mercy and Compassion, and again He responds due to His Mercy and
Compassion at another time. Thus the servant is under Compassion and Mercy at
both times.
Now, the Shaykh (R.A.), during his verification of the
words of Jesus: T did not except which You ordered me’, expressed in this
context the rule that by virtue of degrees the Divine order descended, with his
words that: ‘The order came down according to the determinations of degrees’,
which is due to his wishing to point out that when Jesus was appointed to
receive an order with that which the degree of being ordered necessitated, that
is to say, manifesting with concordance, it is exactly at the same time as the
manifestation of that concordance and agreement to the order, as when the
Divine order came to him. Thus, the one who orders descends by virtue of the
place, and that place is completely receptive to that order in accordance with
the necessities of that order. Thus, no word emanates from him other than that
thing with which he has been ordered, because he is not qualified with anything
other than the qualification of servanthood so that he could vary it from the
image of the intention of the haqq when the orderer came down to him by
virtue of the place and in accordance with the necessities of the special
qualification and of the place. Thus Jesus (SA.), when he savs: T did not tell
them other than what Yon
all the manifested existences which are individualized according to
their potentialities are witnessed in annihilation. There is no witnessing in
there other than the witnessing of the One Being. Thus, He witnesses the people
of Jesus from the place of manifestation of Jesus. The words: ‘My Lord and
their Lord’ is at the level of the nafs, because the cognosis of the
Lord is at the level of the nafs and there is no annihilation, and each
person is the place of manifestation of a special Lord, and by virtue of the
differentiations in the Lords it is necessary that there be in there
differentiation and establishment and being. ‘When You made me die’, that is
to say, when You lifted me up to Yourself and You veiled them from me, and
veiled me from them, ‘You were the Guardian (ragfb) over them* in other than my
materia (elemental materia), perhaps rather, in their materia. When You
elevated me up to Yourself and veiled them from me by manifesting me in the
level of spiritual image, they could not witness me because they only knew me
in the image of my elemental presence. Equally, You veiled me from them because
I cannot witness them at the level of Your witnessing. Then You become the
guardian over them in materia other than my elemental materia. Perhaps even, in
their materia, which means, under the consideration of You manifesting in their
materia, You become their guardian. Thus these words are of the station of
totality (Jam'). You are their eyes, which necessitates the
guardianship. The witnessing of Man of his own nafs is the
witnessing of die haqq of it. This is to say that because in the
closeness of supererogatories You became that eye of theirs which necessitates
guardianship. Thus, Man’s witnessing of his own nafs is God’s witnessing
of it, because he is guardian with God’s vision. These words are from the
station of difference. He brought it with the Name raqtb, the
Guardian, because he made it into witness to it. (In certain copies it is
‘to himself*.) Jesus (S.A.) called God’s witnessing which is in their materia
with the Name Guardian, that is to say, in his speech he brought in the word
Guardian, because Jesus (S.A.) made the witnessing for his own self when he
said: ‘And I was witness over them as long as I was among them.’ Because he
wished to differentiate between iiimself and his Lord so that it is known that
he himself is a servant in his immanence, and that God, He is the Lord in his
immanence, so he brought himself in that he was the witness and in so far as
God, that He was the Guardian. Jesus (S.A.) wished to differentiate between
himself and his Lord due to his respect of the proper form, so that he be not
in association with the haqq in any one Name, so that it be known
haqq, because by the rank of Lordship
the Lord deserves all priority. Then Jesus proclaimed that in fact for God, the
Guardian, was the Name that he brought for himself, and that is ‘the Witness* in
his words ‘Over them the witness’, and he said: ‘You are the Witness over
everything? Which means that Jesus (S.A.) proclaimed that in fact for God, the
Guardian, that Name is established which Jesus mentioned for himself, and that
Name is Witness, as in Jesus’ words ‘Over them witness? Then Jesus said: ‘You
are the Witness ever everything? That is to say, having mentioned the Name
Witness for himself, he then established the Name Guardian for God in his
words: ‘And You are Witness over everything? What there is to understand where
the Shaykh (R.A.) says: ‘For God, the Guardian, the Name that Jesus brought for
himself’, is this, that the Name Witness is one of the subjects of the Name
Guardian, when the Guardian descends to the station of the one named. He made
(the word) ‘all* for the generality, and by (the word) ‘thing’ completely
denying any specific identity to anything in the immanence, and brought the
Name Witness, for He is the Witness over all things witnessed by virtue of what
reality necessitates in those witnessed. Jesus (S.A.) used the word ‘all’ which
is for the generality He also used the word ‘thing’ which is completely
denying any specific identity to anything in the immanence. Also, he used the
Name Witness. Thus God is Witness over all that is witnessed by virtue of what
the reality of that which is witnessed necessitates. By the words: ‘And You are
the Witness over everything’, Jesus (S.A.) differentiated between his being a
witness and the haqq being a witness, because, as he said, he is witness
over them only as long as he is present among them, whereas God is Witness by
Essence and Knowledge from all eternity and forever over the images and all the
states of everything manifest or interior, and according to the necessity of
that thing’s aptitude and its established potentiality. Perhaps Jesus (S.A.)
referred his own witnessing also to the fyaqq during the time he was
present among his people, when he said: ‘And You are the Witness over
everything’, and that is why the Shaykh (R.A.) continues with: He made aware to
that, that in fact He, the High, was the witness over the people of Jesus at
the time he said: ‘And I was witness over them while I continued among them’,
which means that Jesus (S.A.) meant to point out the fact that while he was
present among his people, and saying that he was witness over them, that it was
in fact the fyaqq who was witness over his people by the witnessing
which was in his materia, and that it was God’s witnessine in his own nlace of
manifestation
and revelation of subhan. And be said: ‘If You punish them .
. .’ with the pronoun of the absent, and that is the very same thing as the
veil from the haqq in which they arc. Thus, when Jesus (S.A.) used the
indefinite pronoun, meaning those who are absent, by saying: ‘If You punish
them . . .’, that absence became the very same thing as the veil, that absence
being the meaning of the pronoun of absence. The people who are intended by the
pronoun ‘them’ became veiled from the haqq in that veil, and that veil
is the veil of the individuation of Jesus, because they became veiled by the
veil of the image of his (Jesus’) individuation, because they had incarcerated
the haqq in Jesus with their words: *God, He is the Messiah, son of
Mary.’ And they covered the Truth, that is to say, they covered the haqq
which was individuated in him. Consequently, they became absent from it, and
that covering and that veil became for them the absence. It is also possible to
consider this text as the words: ‘If You punish them . . .’ referring to the
word ‘punishment’, then it would mean that if You punish them, their punishment
would be their remaining in that veil. Thus, punishment becomes the same as
that veil, in which veil they are veiled from the haqq. And God
mentioned them, thus mentioned with the tongue of Jesus, or mentioned them with
information of Jesus in the absence, with the words: ‘If You punish them . . .’
It is equally possible to understand in this that the pronoun for the subject,
the actor, is hidden in the word ‘and he mentioned’, and this would refer to
Jesus, which would mean that Jesus referred them to God. Prior to their
presence before God, that is to say, before they reach the degree of presence
with God, God mentioned that they are covered with the veil, and the fact that
God mentioned them became the leaven for them. Even when they become present,
which means that even when they reach the degree of presence with the or at the
level of their coming into the presence of the haqq after their
resurrection from the tomb on the Day of collecting and differentiating of the
creatures, or equally, on the Great Day of Judgement, resurrecting from their
bodies and corpses with which they were covered, which are the tombs of the
creatures, if they happened to be in the presence of God by being annihilated (font)
in the haqq. The leaven would have determined over the dough and they
would become like itself (the dough). What is meant by: ‘The leaven would have
determined over the dough’ is that the leaven of God’s mentioning them as
absent would have determined in the dough of their aptitude and their reality
in the degrees of being absent which
Precious ('azfz). That is to say, even if they deserve torment due
to their opposition, if You overlook it, which will cover them from the
affliction of torment and prevent affliction reaching them, then indeed You are
the Precious, so to speak, the Preventer and the Protector, which means, since
You are the Protector, whatever afflicts other than the Names of destruction,
You prevent that affliction from reaching them by the Preciousness of the
Singularity of Your Ipseity. Thus the Preventer has the meaning of actor, and
the Protector is the object that is that which is protected. However, it could
also be the Name of the subject, the Protector. Thus, when the word ‘Protector’
is related to the Ipseity of the haqq, then the Ipseity of Uniqueness
becomes the Protector, and the haqq with His Essential Preciousness
increases the side of the protectivity of the Uniqueness, and becomes Preventer
from otherness and cuts with the sword of preciousness the rivalry of the
others. In the first case they are the objects of protection for the haqq who,
with the Light of Ipseity, overlooked their shortcomings and covered them with
the quality of overlooking shortcomings from the dominion of the Names which
are in complementary opposition to the Name ghafur (the Overlooker of
shortcomings). The reaching to You of this people is not by virtue of the fact
that You are the total Lord according to what is necessitated in Yourself by
Your Ipseity, because Your Lordship is by virtue of their selves and their
servanthood, and their servanthood is relative and partial since they are
relative and partial. How could they then worship You with the total essential
worship which You deserve by Your Ipseity, and how could they then reach You by
virtue of Your being the total Lord? And this Name, when God bestows it to one
of His servants, then God is named by that which is known, and this Name 'azfe
is for the one to whom it is bestowed, and It becomes Preventer and Protector
and wills it far away from the Avenger and die Tormenter, from revenge and
torment. When God bestows this Name 'aziz to one of His servants, that
is to say, if He revealed Himself to him with the Name 'aziz, that
person also becomes qualified by and realized in the Name Precious. Then God
the High is called mu’izz (one of the 99 Names—the Endearer, the
Precious-maker) because He has made His servant precious, and the servant to
whom this Name has been bestowed is called 'aziz, the Precious, because
where God is concerned he has become precious. Thus God becomes Preventer and
Protector from the Name Tormenter and Avenger with will to inflict of vengeance
and torment. Consequently, the servant who
to the first possibility, which is the most
likely, it would mean that God used to represent it with detailed
representation to the Envoy (S.A.), that shortcoming, due to which shortcoming
his people required punishment. That is to say, He used to represent in detail
and singularly the shortcoming of each one of the people from among the members
of liis servants. Thus, the Envoy (S.A.) would repeat to God the phrase: ‘If
You punish them, indeed they are Your servants, and if You were to overlook
their shortcomings, indeed You are You, the 'aztz and hakim' in
each representation and for each potentiality. Thus, had the Envoy (S.A.)
witnessed in that detailed representation that which caused the necessity of
giving first consideration to God and that which caused His Person’s gifts,
surely the Envoy (S.A.) would have prayed over them, not for them, and would
have given priority to God’s intention over his own intention., because he
would have seen that God the High wanted to vanquish them and take revenge,
whereas the Envoy (S.A.) pleaded for forgiveness and overlooking of their
shortcomings. God the High, prior to that night and His detailed
representation, had not detailed their crime and their shortcomings except that
thing by which they deserved what this &yat of God the High bestowed
of abandoning oneself to God and to committing to His forgiveness. That is to
say, He represented that which was necessitating the expanding of their shortcomings
to forgiveness, as well as that his people were abandoned to Him and that the
people were His servants, through what the Envoy (S.A.) said in his prayer, and
it was for this purpose that these words emanated from the Envoy (S.A.). And if
it were that God the High had represented to him in detail only the
potentiality of their shortcomings and His will to avenge Himself over them,
then the Envoy would not have prayed for them. He would have prayed over them.
And what God the High meant by what He represented to the Envoy (S.A.) is their
shortcomings, because shortcoming demands overlooking the shortcoming. In the
words: ‘. . . that which they deserved* there is the meaning of that very
thing, and in the words ‘that which . . . bestows’, ‘that which’ means ‘in this
way’, and the letter ya means ‘which is’ and is the subject of the words
‘that which they deserved’. It could also be that the object of ‘that which
they deserved’ is eliminated by v/hat the meaning of the words ‘committing to
His forgiveness’ points out, where then the word ‘bestows’ is interchangeable
’vith the words ‘they deserved’, as if to say: that which God represented to
him of their shortcomings in detail is no other than that which this ayat
He did not find it appropriate for that servant in that speech
except that in fact He willed the responding to that speech and the decreeing
of the execution of that matter. It is possible in this sentence that the word
‘z/d’ could mean "alayya', in which case the sentence above would
read: He did not find it appropriate for him in that He had already agreed for
him in this . . . etc. And God the High says: ‘Brought down to you, and brought
down for you.’ Not a person should deem that what is appropriate to it is not
comprised in it Thus, not one person should deem a thing to be that that which
is appropriate to it does not comprise it, that is to say that a person who has
been found appropriate for a prayer should deem the response is slow, because
the prayer comprises response. Thus the person who is appropriate for the
prayer is also appropriate for the response even if the prayer happens to be
retarded. The word ‘comprised in it’ refers always to the prayer. And let him
persevere with the perseverance of the Envoy (S.A.), as in this verset, with
all his states, until he hears with his ear or with his hearing (of the heart),
whichever way you wish to (hear), or whichever way God makes you hear His
response, because it is your desert, either to the request by die tongue which He
makes you hear by your ear, or it is your desert, that which He makes you hear
by meaning by your hearing. Let him persevere in all his states in prayer, just
as the Prophet (S.A.) persevered in this verset, until he hears by his ear
which is the tool of hearing of the body, or let him hear by hearing which is
the tool of hearing of the heart, because hearing is spiritual. Respecting the
indefiniteness of this address, he (the Shaykh R.A.) said: *. . . whichever way
you wish’, that is to say, by whichever tongue you ask, you will hear by that
hearing, or it means by whichever way God the High makes you hear the response.
Thus, if He will give you your desert by the tongue of the question, He will
make you hear His response by the ear, and if He is going to give you your
desert through the question of meaning, He will make you hear His response with
the hearing of the heart, because giving the desert is by virtue of the
question. And hamd to God, the Lord of the Universes.
ISMAIL HAKKI BURSEVI’S
translation
of and commentary on
FUSUS AL-HIKAM
by
MUHYIDDIN IBN ARABI
VOLUME
4
rendered into English by
BULENT RAUF
with
the help of
R.
BRASS and H. TOLLEMACHE
Bulent Rauf died in September 1987. The words of Ibn ‘Arabi had not
by then been distinguished from the commentary of Ismail Hakki in some of the
chapters in this volume. However, these chapters are published in that form, in
accordance with his wish at the time of his death.
Grenville Collins
The Wisdom of Compassion
(al-hikmat ar-rahmaniyyah)
in the Word of Solomon
Let it be
known like this, that rahmah, Merciful Beatitude, is according to two
divisions. One is the Merciful Beatitude of the Ipseity, and the other is the
Merciful Beatitude of qualification. Each of these two is also divided into
two. One is the general Merciful Beatitude, and the other is the private
Merciful Beatitude. Thus Merciful Beatitude has four origins which become like
mothers to other variations, as from these four chapters of the Merciful
Beatitude ninety-six variations occur. When the ninety-six are added to the
four origins, a hundred occurs. And when the Envoy said: 'Allah has a
hundred compassions’, he notified of these hundred. God in the Quran also told
of the four origins of the Merciful Beatitude by: 'Bismi-llahi-r rahmani-r
rahim', 'al-hamdu lillah ar-rabb al-cd'.imtn.' The two Mercies
which are in the 'Bismi-llahi-r rahmani-r rahim’ are the general
essential Compassionate Beatitude and the private essential Compassionate Beatitude.
And the two Mercies which are in the Fatiha (first chapter of the Quran)
are the general qualificative Compassionate Beatitude and the private
qualificative Compassionate Beatitude, and the rest of the variants of the rahman
diversify from the.se.
The Compassionate Beatitude wnich was made private to
Solomon was the Compassionate Beatitude which is qualificative and general, and
this Mercy is the predication of the general essential Compassionate Beatitude
which encompasses ill things. That is why there is general qualification for
this Compassionate Beatitude. It is because of this that Solomon’s rule and tasarruf
became generalized in the universe. God subjugated to hin» the high and the
low universes. The proof of the low universes being subjugated to him is his
dominance over the jinn and Man and wild animals and birds, and other sea or
land animals. His dominance even passed beyond the animals and prevailed over
the elements; thus he subjugated the wind, and the wind blew according to his
order. And he subjugated water to himself, so that the fiery satans could dive
into it for him. And this is the summum 761
Saba, and the bestowal of the person of Bilqis to him, the Shaykh
started the Wisdom of Solomon by describing the state of Bilqis.
Now let it be known like this, that some have said that
Bilqis is the daughter of Sharakhil from the descendants of Ya'arab bin Qahtan,
and Sharakhil was a very great king (ruler). He married a woman of the jinn who
used to be called Rayhana bint As-Sukun. Thus Sharakhil had a daughter from
Rayhana which was Bilqis, and Sharakhil had no other children except Bilqis.
Others said that the father of Bilqis was the vizier of the King of Saba,
Sharakhi bin Sharakhil, whose name was Du Sarakh ibn Hud-had bin Multat bin
Malik bin Saba, and her mother was 'Amirah Banti who wa* the daughter of
"Amir bin Haym, the King of the jinn, whom Du Sarakh had married and
brought to the town of Saba. Amirah Banti became pregnant by Du Sarakh, and
Bilqis was born. After a while, having had Sharakhi bin Sharakhil’s, the King
of Saba’s, head cut off, he became king in his place. The Shaykh, may God be
pleased wi*h him, in his Tarjuman ai-Ashwaq, says that Bilqis was born
between Man and jinn, and that her mother was of mankind and her father was of
the jinn. If her father had been of mankind and mother from the jinn, she would
have been dominated by the spirituality. Before Bilqis married in reality
Solomon, she was particularized for Solomon from all eternity, and was
established in friendship over Solomon before the love-affair between them was
reckoned, but as years of separation and differences continued, Bilqis of her
own opinion became doubtful and prostrated to other than God. When Solomon knew
that her time of felicity came close, he attacked her with eternal
relationships of love and aspirations of compassion, and sent her a letter
speaking of God, wherein he mentioned secretly the friendship of marriage and
old established agreements, and he started the letter with the Basmalah
(Basmalah meaning Bismi-llahi-r rahmani-r rahim) and gave hamd
to his Lord to whom all hamd returns, and mentioned to Bilqis the two
Compassionate Beatitudes, and essential Compassion and the brought-about
Compassion, and established the two Compassions between the couple, and
protected her with both the Co mpassionate Beatitudes, because the lover by the
necessities of being the lover is rahmahtized, and then he sealed his
letter with his own seal and burdened it to the Hoopoe who is strengthened and
corroborated with the Divine Breath and aspirations of compassion, and sent the
lettei with him. The letter arrived at Bilqis unknown by those who were of her
government, so that Bilqis said to
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rebellious man who works iniquity) to tear off the beginnings of the
letters out of treachery for the sender, but Solomon did not put his name
before that of God, and in any case, this would not be in accordance with the
perfection of knowledge of Solomon, so that to avoid Bilqis from burning the
top of the letter he would put his own name before that of God, because
knowledge of God necessitates tact and aggrandizement, and this aggrandizement
necessitates the precedence of the Name of God and not the appearance of Solomon
in self- aggrandizement. Thus the Shaykh refutes the words of such interpreters,
and says how could Solomon put his name before that of God, and how could this
be suitable with the knowledge that Solomon had of his Lord? Bilqis says of the
letter that it was a gracious letter, which means that it was a letter to which
gracious reception was necessary and action in accordance with what it said.
Therefore, Bilqis qualified the letter with graciousness, and Bilqis was made
certain by God of this and was.in accordance. When the Hoopoe threw the letter
of Solomon to Bilqis, she accepted what it said in her heart, and showed it to
her people so that only through discussion they should also come to accept it,
and by what she qualified it with she meant to say: ‘This letter is necessarily
worthy of grace.’ Thus it is not suitable that people have even considered to
speak about Solomon’s name preceding that of God.
There are some who attack those who think that Solomon
put his name before that of God, and say how would it be possible for
Solomon, although they are muslims, to put the name of Solomon
before that of God, thus maintaining that the name of Solomon is put before the
Name of God. Thus, in that way, although they seem to praise Solomon, they
still blame him. However, the truth is that Bilqis qualified Solomon’s letter
with grace and received it graciously, even though she was still an unbeliever.
Although as yet she had not said in the presence of Solomon: ‘Lord, I oppressed
myself, now I fide myself, with Solomon, to God the Lord of the universes’, yet
before saying this, with the grace she had qualified the letter with, she had
already accepted the contents of the letter and was obedient to the order of
Solomon. Thus, the most suitable to Solomon’s knowledge is what the Shaykh has
mentioned concerning this matter, that: ‘It is from Solomon, and it is . . .’
are the words of Bilqis, and it is to tell from whom the letter had come, as
she had not mentioned the sender of the letter when she referred to it by saying:
‘A letter was thrown to
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respect for the sender, and not possibly because of precedence of
one name or another, or its contrary. And the consideration that Solomon
preceded his name to t hat of God to protect the Name of God by the power of
rulership and grandeur that Solomon’s name produced in people, so that Bilqis
should not destroy the letter, such a consideration is not suitable with the
decree of knowledge and servanthood of Solomon, that he should precede his name
to that of God and precede the respect due to himself to that of God and appear
with his own grandeur at the level of the grandeur of the Name of God. Thus all
these possibilities do not exist.
In it (the letter) he mentioned the two Compassionate
Beatitudes, the Compassion of all-bounty (imtinari) and the Compassion
of necessarily-so-ness, and these two Compassionate Beatitudes are the rahmdn
and rahim which are at the beginning of the letter where it reads: Tn
the Name of the rahmar. and the rahim.' That is to say, he
explained the singularity of the ‘otality of the Divine Names contained in the
Name of God with the Name ar-rahman which denotes the Compassion of
all-bounty, because the Compassion of all-bounty is general in all existence by
virtue of the rahman being the same as general being, because the
Compassionate Beatitude of all of rahmdn is the essential all-bounty, is
general to the totality of the Names and realities. And: ‘My Mercy extends over
all things’ leaves nothing outside of it, and is extended over the totality of
things, even to the Names of God; High and Holy and Truth are all in
singularity, are His Essential Ipseity, just as His Knowledge is. For instance,
He says in the words of the angels: ‘Our Lord had extended all things mercy-wise
and knowledge-wise. ’
The Name ar-rahim denotes the Compassionate
Beatitude of being, because Compassionate Beatitude by virtue of the
necessities of inclination after being is particularly all Mercy.
The totality of the established potentialities are rahmahliz&d
with the essential all-bounteous Compassion of Compassionate Beatitude, whereas
in the rahim there is a particularity of exaggeration in generalization.
Thus, for the rahim there is specific generalization from the rahmdn,
and for the rahmdn there is generalized particularization from the rahim,
and the a‘yan are not raAzna/ttized with the Compassionate Beatitude of
the Compassion of necessarily-so-ness except after aptitude, that is to say,
from the Most Holy Effusion with essential revelation and the nafs-ar-rahmdn.
Because of the generality of
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Himself a rahmah in all cases and made it necessarily so that
He should respond with Compassionate Beatitude, is all-bounty, and in this
consideration all Compassionate Beatitude is bounty, whether it be in
consequence of acts or whether it be directly of all-bounty without any desert,
and it is still all-bounty without any act by extending from all eternity. If a
servant, for instance, deserves Compassion (rahmah) in response, which
is specific Mercy, by virtue of his piety, that servant comes to know who it is
that is the actor through him, or who it is that acts by him. That is to say,
he comes to know that the actor in his place of manifestation, or again, the
actor through the place of manifestation that he represents, is God, and that
it is God who brings about those actions through the hand of the servant and
manifests them. Thus, necessarily-so-ness and responsiveness also becomes
all-bounty.
The acts of human beings are divided over eight members
of the humankind. In other words, in the human being the members specially
responsible to God lor acts of belief are eight. The eye, the ear, the tongue,
the hand, the belly, the female sexual organ, the male sexual organ, and the
heart. And each of these members is specially responsible with the legal
predications and religious works particular to it. God has necessitated
Compassion and Mercy to be bestowed upon His own Self for the owners of these
eight members in response to a pure and proper action emanating from these
members. The Shaykh, may God be pleased with him, mentions these eight members
in his book, Mawaqi' al-Nujum (the Stations of the Stars). In a hadith
there is a mention of eight portions of the body which are known as the
greatest parts of the body, and these are the two hands, the two feet, the two
knees, and the forehead and the nose. But these eight members mentioned in the
hadfth are specific for the prostration and do not appertain to the
totality of the acts of the humankind. So understand.
And indeed God made it be known that He is the huwiyyah
of each of these members by saying that: ‘I become their hearing and their eyes
and their hands and their feet’, and these are eight. Thus, by the
manifestation of the eight organs, or by the place of manifestation of the
servant, the one who acts is no other than God, even though the image
appertaining to the members belongs to the servant, and the huwiyyah of
God is in the servant, that is to say, is included in the Name of the haqq,
and not otherwise. In other words, God is the same as each member, and the
actor through each of the members is God
769
you have seen the immanence (khalq) you will see the First,
the Last, the Manifest and the Interior. Firstness, lastness, manifestness or
hiddenness is realized with the immanence, whether these qualifications are
referred to the haqq or whether they are referred to the khalq.
The most perfect manifestation, the most total, the most complete witnessing,
and tne largest, is the existence of the Perfect Man, which is the last degree
of being, and which is the seal and the end of the manifestation of immanence,
and there is no existence more complete and more beautiful than his being so
that after there being the Perfect Man the immanence be the last.
And Solomon was not ignorant of this Divine knowledge;
rather that this knowledge was of that possession that was bestowed upon
Solomon, so that it is not suitable for any other person to be manifested in
the universe of witnessing with that same quality. The Shaykh put the special
knowledge under the category of possession (mulk) because possession is
the manifest estate, and knowledge is the secret estate, and the manifest
estate together with the hidden estate and with the Divine knowledge is its
spirit and results with it, because had there not been the spirituality of the
Divine knowledge there would not be a possibility of tasarruf in the
possessions of immanences. In the case of the Perfect Ones and the aqtab,
who are realized with the totality of essential servanthood and complete Divine
knowledge, it is from the totality of their heart and the perfection of their
reality that the totality of the Divine and immanential tasarruf branches
out, and because of their realization with the Presences of the Divine Names
and their manifestation with viceregency, although by the order of God and the
permission of God, the tasarrufs in the higher and the lower universes
are manifested from them, yet they are not manifest like Solomon with tasarruf
in the universe of witnessing. Each one. of them, in his own time, is singular
in tasarruf like Solomon, but it is not necessary that all the people
under his tasarruf know that he is the tasarruf-docr being
manifest with the manifestation of rulership, because the Viceregents who are
appointed with tasarruf are qualified by servarrhood, and the observance
of servanthood prevents tasarruf, especially the Perfect Man who is
Viceregent, having deputized the haqq for tasarruf and turned his face
to perfection with absolute servanthood, and being realized with total
annihilation. Thus that person is not manifestly manifest with tasarruf,
even though in his place of manifestation the High God manifests the
771
because in each portion of the possession there was a specified
person who was in tasarruf in that portion, or it may also be that
Solomon was independent in tasarruf only for a specific portion of the
possession from the total. With the hadith concerning the demon, above-
mentioned, we also came to know that Solomon was not specialized except in
manifestation. The Envoy indeed is specialized in the total and in
manifestation. That is to say, he is special to tasarruf in the total of
the parts, and to manifest with tasarruf. Or it can also mean that with
the hadith concerning the demon we have come to know that Solomon was
specialized for manifesting, and that the Envoy was with the hadith
concerning the demon but not to manifest with tasarruf, and it also
happens that Solomon is specialized for manifestation with tasarruf in
tasarrufing over the totality of possessions. If the Prophet in the hadith
concerning the demon had not said that: ‘God gave me power over the demon’, we
would have said, in fact, when the Envoy determined to take the demon, God made
him remember the prayer of Solomon so that the Envoy know that the state is
such that God will not give him power in holding the demon, and that the demon
will be sent back unmolested. But as the Envoy said: ‘God gave me the ability
to do it’, we came to know that indeed God had bestowed tasarruf over
the afrit, and that after that He made him remember, and he remembered the
prayer of Solomon, and he acted in good form in accordance with that and did
not appear with superiority over Solomon, and from this we came to 'kuow that
after Solomon it is not suitable for any one person to manifest with tasarruf
in general. Our object with this question, apart from these words and their
warning, is to point at those two rahmahs, Compassionate Beatitudes,
that Solomon mentioned them with twe Names. The Arabic interpretation of these
two Names is ar-rahm&n, ar-rahim, which means that the Names that
Solomon used to mean ar-rahman, ar-rahim, are not the Arabic words ar-rahman,
ar-rahim, but that the Arabic words ar- rahman, ar-rahim, are the
meanings of these two words that Solomon used. Thus, what the Shaykh intends,
the two Compassionate Beatitudes were attributed to the haqq and that
Solomon mentioned these two Compassions in two Names. And then the Shaykh
begins to elaborate on these two Compassionate Beatitudes of God.
God conditioned the Compassion of answering, and made
the Compassion of all-bounty absolute in His words: ‘My Compassionate Beatitude
extended over every thing.’ This means even the Divine
773
and it is also more likely that this means the existence of the
Perfect Ones, because even though the effects of the Names are manifest with
the essences of being, in the essences of those who are other than the Perfect
Ones the effects and the images of the totality of the Divine Names is not
manifest. In each essence there is manifest the effect of one Name only, and
only in the beings of the Perfect Ones, the anbiya’ and the awliya’,
the images and the effects of the totality of the Divine Names is manifest. And
from the manifesting and the manifestation of the other essences, the ultimate
cause in this way is the manifestation of God. Thus, the beings of the Perfect
Ones with the Divine Names and the Lordly relationships and the essences of the
unknowable and the essences of immanence and being, become the result of the
Compassionate Beatitude of all-bounty, because even though the essences of the
immanence are the result of '.he Compassionate Beatitude of allbounty by
virtue of the manifestation of the Names in partial manifestation in them, the
essences of the universe in the partial results is not the total result, because
that manifestation of the manifestation of the essences in the partial Names,
by virtue of the turning towards the domain of transcendence of the essences of
the Perfect Ones and the degree of the Perfect Man, it is still in
constriction. Consequently, the partial manifestations and conditional beings
of the essence which are in the universe become manifest in the degree of the
Perfect Man with total and complete and isthmuseital manifestation, then the
effects and the predications of the totality of the Divine Names also become
manifest therein in manner of chaptering. Thus, the essences of the Perfect
Ones become the total result for the Compassionate Beatitude of all-bounty,
because the Perfect Man is the seal and the ultimate end for the results of the
steps of the Divine and immanential realities, and as there is nothing but God
it can be a result to nothing else, because the Perfect Man produces the
desired result of God. Its result is God. Consequently, each one of the
essences of being which is before and above l ie degree of the Perfect Man, in
relationship to what is before it, is the result of the Compassionate
Beatitude. But results which is the result of the last of the essences, which
is the manifestation in the essences of the Perfect Ones, is the final total
result, and because of this consideration the essences are the results of the
Compassionate Beatitude of all-bounty. Understand this. The High God extended
all-bounty over the Names with our non-existential unknowable realities, because
the Divine Names were in annihilation
775
singularity of Essence, that is to say, with regard to the plurality
of relationship which is in the Intellect, it is inevitable and necessary that
it be chaptered, because the essences are dissimilar in their aptitude where it
regards strength and weakness, largeness and oppressiveness, and closeness to
the real balance or distance. Thus, for a person whose aptitude is of the
strongest, one says he is more knowledgeable than that other whose aptitude is
lower, whereas the reality of the humankind is one, and in the same way the
Uniqueness of God is also the Uniqueness of the Ipseity, but it is various in
manifestation by virtue of the inclinations and aptitudes of the essences which
are the intellectual relationships. And the meaning, that is to say, of the
superiority, is the meaning of the lack of appertaining to the Divine Will as
compared with the superiority of appertaining to Knowledge. This superiority is
in the Divine Qualities because the appertaining to the Divine Will is less
than the appertaining to Knowledge, and appertaining to Knowledge if superior
and more general because Will is subject to Knowledge; thus Knowledge is more
general and prevailing than Will which is subject to it, oecause the
appertaining of Knowledge to things known is more general than the
appertaining of Will to things known, because Will appertains to a number of
knowledges by specifying and appointing the Will to appertain to that number,
whereas all things are known to God at all times and God is in knowledge of
those, and God is never removed from being qualified by the quality of
Knowledge, but Will does not apply all the time to all things because God does
not will those things at all times, and at those times it is not necessary to
qualify them by the quality of Will, like it is said: ‘When We will, We tell
them “Be” and they are.’ Consequently, the appertainment of Will being less
than the appertainment of Knowledge, it becomes necessary that there is
superiority among the Divine Qualities, and when superiority is established
among the Divine Qualities it also becomes apparent in the essences of
immanence which are the places of manifestation of the Divine Qualities. The
meaning of the appertaining of the completeness and superiority and increase of
the Will over the appertaining of Power, since the appertaining of Will is more
general than the appertaining of Power, as Power does not appertain to anything
unless Will specifies the Power for a purpose, then Knowledge determines over
Will and Will determines over Power, so that when the Will specifies Power to
bring about a thing, Power brings into existence that thing.
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Divine Names are superior one io the other, like the Knower, the
Wilier and the Powerful, when all the Names are no other than God. Thus the
High God, by virtue of being the Knower, is more general in appertaining than
the consideration of being the Wilier and the Powerful, and it remains that He
is He; the one who is the Knower, the Wilier and the Powerful is God and no
other. Oh waliyy (saint, or my beloved), do not know God in one place of
manifestation if you are ignorant of Him in another place of manifestation. Do
not establish Him with one quality in one place of manifestation if you deny
Him with one quality in another place of manifestation. In other words, do not
know God in one place of manifestation of your own self, and do not establish
Him in that place of manifestation and particularize Him there, if you deny Him
and do not recognize Him in another place of manifestation, and do not know
that other place as devoid of the face of God. Rather, know Him and establish
Him in all places of manifestation in consideration of the receptivity of that
place.
Let it be in no other way but that you do establish God
in the way that God established and proved His own Self, and that you keep Him
away from certain qualifications in the same way that He denied certain
qualifications to Himself, like in that verset which contains completely the
proving of God by Himself, when He established His own Self and denied anything
equal to it, as when He said: ‘There is no thing like it’, whereby He denied
likeness, and He said: ‘He is the Hearer and the Seer’, thus establishing the haqq
with a quality which is general to all creatures alive, and to all who hear and
see. The fact is that there is not in existence other than which is alive (hayawan
= creature or animal), because the Divine huwiyyah being fluent in
the totality of existence necessitated the presence of life and knowledge and
ability and hearing and seeing, and total qualities other than these, and
partial qualities, in everything that exists, and knowledge and life and other
qualities exist even in those, but is not apparent in some of the existents.
The veiled ones think that life does not exist in some, and that is why he
called some of them animals and others not, and called them inanimate objects,
but the Shaykh warns very clearly that there is not a thing in existence which
has no life. In no other way than like this that life on earth became hidden in
certain cases from the comprehension of some people. The totality of existence
is in effect alive, and for the people of God it is known that life is
contained in all existents. It is because it is interior and hidden from some
people that
779
After all this, how is it possible for Solomon to put
his name before the Name of God as some people thought, whereas Solomon is of
the totality of the existents that were existentiated by the Compassionate
Beatitude of Compassion? Therefore he is mercified by the Compassionate
Beatitude of Compassion, and in the same way, as he is specialized for
perfection he is also raAma/itized by the Compassionate Beatitude of Mercy.
Thus it is inevitable that the Name rahman and rahim should be
placed before Solomon’s name so that the dependence of Solomon, which is rahmahtized,
upon the Mercifier, which is existentiator, become veridic, because it is
necessary to precede the Mercifier to the mercified so that the mercified
becomes dependent on the Mercifier, and if it is not so, the word ‘Mercifier’
cannot be applied to it. The words which have been enunciated concerning
Solomon are against the truth (saying that Solomon’s name was before God).
VTiat follows is to explain the words against the truth and to commen' on them.
To precede (anteriorize) the person which deserves posteriorization, and to
posteriorize that which deserves anteriorization, which is the Name of God, in
a subject where it deserves anteriorization, is against the necessities of
knowledge of truths, and the reason why Ibn ‘Arabi added at the end of his
sentence: *. . . in a subject where it deserves anteriorization’ is because it
is necessary that at the beginning of all order is preceded with the Name of
God, especially at the beginning of words and the text of the letter and in
opening up on the subject of invitation to God. That is why the Prophet said:
‘Every order which does not begin with the Name of God is barren.’
It is because Bilqis was wise and knowledgeable and that
her degree in knowledge was high that she said that the letter was thrown to
her, without naming Solomon, and she did this to let her people know that there
were many ways other than through them for reaching her, and she had access to
many more orders and mysteries, and that her people do not know all the ways
and orders. Consequently, they fear for themselves in such cases. Her not
mentioning the person who threw the letter, and hiding the way the letter was
notified to her, is of the Divine caution in administration of government,
because if the way news reached Bilqis is hidden from the people in the
government, the government fear for their own selves and do not dispense with
orders as when that order has arrived to their ruler from themselves, because
then they knew how they have brought it to the ruler and how to
781
and the time for the return of what is the object of the vision, or
the object of the eye, is the same time as the non-reaching of the vision to
it. In other words, the opening of the eye towards the object of vision is the
same time as the eye reaching that object, and the return of the object of
vision to the person looking is the same time as the nonreaching of the
vision, but the getting up of a man from where he is sitting is not like this
because there is not such speed in it, because the getting up of a body from
its place is the time of its movement, which is possible of division.
Consequently, transportation in movement would also be subject to time, but the
movement of the eye is instantaneous and does not allow division beyond zero.
Consequently, transportation in that manner is also instantaneous, without
time. Thus Asaf ibn Barkhiya’ became more complete in work. The words of Asaf
ibn Barkhiya’ become the same as the action in one and the same time. That
means that what Asaf said about bringing the throne before your sight reaches
the object of vision and returns, became the same as his action. In other
words, his saying that he would bring the throne became the same as his having
brought it, and in that instant Solomon saw the throne of Bilqis standing in
front of him. God says: ‘And Solomon saw it standing near him’, so that people
do not imagine that Solomon thought he saw the throne without the throne having
been transported from Sheba.
Now let it be known like this, that Asaf ibn Barkhiya’
was supported by God and was with the permission of God, and confirmed by it
with constructive ability from the universe of power. God had bestowed on him
dispensing in the universe of immanence with himmah and power of malakAt.
Thus he dispensed in the case of the throne of Bilqis; having dissolved the
matter of the image of the throne in Sheba, brought it into existence in front
of Solomon. Thus, the coming of the throne of Bilqis to the presence of Solomon
is neither by transporting it from one place to tie other, nor by while it
stood in its original place its image was made visible to Solomon at another
place. For the throne, there was not anything left to be done that Asaf knew
when he said: T will bring it to you’, other than dispensing through power, and
the time it took for him to say to Solomon: T will bring it to you’ was the
same time as when the throne was non-existent in Sheba and was existent near
Solomon. This bringing about is of the same kind of total dispensing which God
had bestowed^as miracle to Solomon by giving it as a great gift of dispensing
to some of the people around Solomon,
783
in Sheba from the existence of that throne and make the very same
image of that throne existent near Solomon in the same moment, because the haqq
is the same as the powers and means of the Perfect Ones. Consequently, words
and action are also of the haqq\ and Solomon was nabiyy and the qutb
of his time and was a dispenser with gentleness in the universe, and the aqtab
and Viceregents, because of their qualification with complete servanthood and
total poverty and self-abnegation, do not dispense in an order when it concerns
their own selves, and if from their successors and their ministers an order
comes out pertaining to themselves they say nothing, because of their perfect
abandonment of themselves to the dispensing of the haqq, and because of
the form suitable towards the haqq. That is why the haqq completed
the possession of Solomon with Asaf, and just as He gave all-bounty to Solomon
He also gave all-bounty to the aqtab with the presence of the perfect
beings and with the presence of those who have arrived, so that they are not
afflicted with the counsel of the ignorants, but rather bestowed on them the
counsel of the knowledgeable people and gnostics and pure believers so that
they bear the burden of that which is heavy and can be delegated, and carry out
their predications and orders and have them put into action.
Let it be known like this, that the jinn are strong
spirits, and they are subtle and corporeal bodies. They areuiicier the dominion
of the jewel of fire and air. We are under the domination of the jewels of
earth and water. The elements of earth and water are heavy elements. Because of
the strength of their spirits and the subtleness of the jewels of their bodies,
God has given them power to appear in different forms, and like the quick
action of the angels >hey are established with actions beyond the ability of
Man. Only this much is different, that the spirits of the jinn are lower
spirits and the angels are heavenly spirits.
When the Shaykh, may God be pleased with him, speaks of
the time it takes for the movement of the eye etc., and where it reaches the
sphere of the fixed stars, and in other places, when he uses the word ‘time’,
he means ‘instant’ (an), and an is that time which does not accept
division. And for us there did not happen the transportation of the throne, the
union of time, which means union of the time is the union of the time when the
movement of vision unites with the object of vision, and Asaf had promised to
bring the throne before that time. Had there been transportation it could not
have happened in this manner. Non-existence and re-existence happened in such
a manner in the
785
and that includes no beforeness or afterness. It is not true that
the word ‘then’ always necessitates time. Yet the word ‘then’ necessitates in
the Arabic usage in certain specific matters the precedence of higher degree,
like in: ‘Then it covered the sky . . .’, and also in the saying: ‘Then he was
of the ones that believed,’ In these cases the precedence indicated does not at
all mean there was time between the creation of the heavens and of the earth;
like when the poet says: ‘The spear jolted and then shook’ there is certainly
no time passed to denote ‘then’ between its jolting and shaking, because
jolting is the cause of its shaking and there is no time between the cause of
a thing and a thing that is caused. Jolting contains the meaning of movement,
and the movement of the jolt is shaking. There is without a doubt no time
between the two happenings. Exactly like in the poet’s use of the time of
jolting and the time of shaking which are both the same time, in the
re-existence of the immanence with breaths or moments, the time of its
non-existence is the time of its existence, like the Ash'arites infer in the
renewal of accident, because, the Ash'arites infer that two times do not remain
in accident.
The question of bringing the throne of Bilqis is one of
the most difficult questions at the level of the usual intellect, except for
those people who know what we have mentioned above. For them there would be no
difficulty. There is no superiority attached to Asaf in bringing the throne
through non-existentiating and re-existentiating except in the fact of actually
bringing it to the presence of the council of Solomon, because all things are
in re-existentiating of the immanence. The bringing about of the
individuations which follow each other and the appearance of one existence in
the image of the throne of Bilqis, or the manifestation of the image of the
throne in the Being of God, or the following of each other of existences, are
all because of the following of one and other of the revelations. All of these
are special to God. For Asaf there is no other than bringing about this reexistence
in the council of Solomon by re-individuating it in that council by intention,
and this re-existentiating is equally, in the matter of Asaf, established for
God. Yet the language of teaching necessitates what the Shaykh, may God be
pleased with him, drew, which is that the bringing about, the
non-existentiating and the re-existentiating, on account of the apparent, has
to be attributed to Asaf. No distance was traversed by the throne. There was no
travel over distance and the earth was not folded for it, nor was it like tayy-i-maqam,
nor was there
787
opposers and those who cover up the Truth. Solomon being bounty to
David is because the manifested Divine viceregency thus becomes completed in
David and its perfection is manifested in Solomon, and this cleaving stroke is
pointer to this perfection. In other words, his being is purified from appertainances
of immanence and is struck with the seal of the Lordly Qualities and Divine
Names and is accounted for in the station of perfection so that his jewelness
will never diminish. And from this gift of God which is Solomon to David, it
becomes so that the specialization which is particular to Solomon and his
companion Asaf is also a gift of God.
As to Solomon’s specialization in knowledge, it emanates
from the words of God: ‘And We have made Solomon understand.’ That is to say,
Solomon was specialized for understanding and learning from God, and his
knowledge came through God’s making him understand and teaching him. In the
story of the sheep, God says: ‘We made it understood by Solomon concerning the
question.’ In other words, We made Solomon comprehend what it all meant, and We
bestowed this on him. And to understand a thing as it ts, from God
and from the knowledge of God, is Divine knowledge, because God alone knows
things as they are. And just as Solomon was given as a gift to David, this
understanding and comprehension,,was a gift to Solomon. Thus, when Solomon
judged in the story of the sheep he did so through the instruction of God, even
though when nis judgement was in opposition to that of David. The Shaykh points
out by the opposition in judgement, where Solomon’s judgement annuls that of
David, that it was God who made Solomon understand what judgement should be
given. In the same way, it is God who bestows the knowledge to all those who
have to give judgement over those who are created universes, mankind and angels
and genii. David’s knowledge was adducive common-sense knowledge bestowed on
him by God, because he is included in God’s words: ‘We gave them judgement and
knowledge.’ In the matter of the sheep, Solomon’s knowledge is Divine knowledge,
because that which is dominant in Solomon without intermediary is God Himself,
and thus Solomon became the interpreter of God in the seat of faithfulness and
the place of manifestation of God, and He who was judging and dominant was God
Himself. Consequently, David’s knowledge is bestowed knowledge from the
Presence of wahhab and Gift-giver, whereas Solomon’s knowledge is
essential Divine knowledge and he judged according to what is known in the
789
that when they are in error in utmost endeavour and when that utmost
endeavour happens to be contradicted, and see how He has given superiority
(munificence, God’s grace) to these people!
And when Bilqis saw the throne, knowing about distance
and knowing that it was impossible to transport the throne in that time, she
said: ‘It is as if it were it.’ That is to say, when Asaf brought the throne,
Solomon said: ‘Cunning her her throne’, and they concealed it, cun- ninged it,
by asking her: ‘Is this your throne?’, and Bilqis equally cunninged over them
and answered with the declension of denial, cunningness, which is the
declension of similarity, and did not say: ‘It is it’, because she knew of the
distance and the time it would take for the throne to be transported, and in
conformity to the renewal of being she brought in the letter kaf of
similarity and answered: ‘It looks like it’, but did not say: ‘It is it’; and
Solomon, knowing the order in his own nafs, said: ‘Is it like this?’,
and did not say: ‘This is your throne.’ So Bilqis, being guided with success
and knowing the order, answered in accordance with Solomon’s question and by
virtue of the happening of the order as it was, and Bilqis was truthful and hit
the mark according to what we have said from the renewal of creation with
similarities. That is to say, as the throne by virtue of its image was it,
Bilqis was truthful in saying: ‘It is as if it was it.’ All the same, the
throne which was in the presence of Solomon was the throne which was in Sheba
by virtue of the reality of the throne and the specific knowledge of the "ayn
of the essence, and it was not by virtue of materializing a being, and the
order is truthful by Bilqis saying: ‘It is as if it is’, and because it was it
in reality. All the same, in the time of renewal you are the same as you were
in the past; according to this consideration you are what you were, and you are
not by consideration of the renewal of creation.
After this, it is also of the plenitude of Solomon’s
knowledge that awareness of consequence in the mention of the palace, that is
to say, he made her aware of the renewal of creation. He said to Bilqis: ‘Enter
the palace’, and the palace floor was smooth and there were no waves in it. It
was of glass, that is, the floor of the palace was like marble, made of clear
white glass, and there was water under it and in the water there were fish.
When Bilqis saw the floor of the palace she thought it was water and lifted up
het skirts from both sides so that her dress would not get wet. By virtue of
the similarity of images, the order became ambiguous (doubtful) to Bilqis.
Solomon made Bilqis aware
791
people of Israel believe in’, and meant by that ‘Lord of Moses and
Aaron’, and with these words conditioned his belief, whereas Bilqis transcended
it and absolutized it by saying ‘Lord of the universes’. In one way the
conditioning of Pharaoh can be contiguous to the absolu- tization of Bilqis
because the Lord of Moses and Aaron is the Lord of the universes, but all the
same it will not be as strong a submission as that of Bilqis, because Bilqis’
submission is explicit (tasrih) and universal (farmin') whereas
that of Pharaoh was restricted, implied (tadmm) and specialized (takhsis).
Thus Bilqis was more apposite, more conforming and more knowledgeable in
submission to God, because as she explicitly mentioned her submission to the
Lord of the universes there was not anything left in the Presence of Lordship
from among the Lords of the Names, so that she submit to them by implication,
as she submitter, explicitly and clearly to the Lord of Lords and the Lord of
the universes which contains them all. Bilqis clearly expressed (tasrih)
the submission of the total and implied (tadmin) the submission of the
parts, whereas the Pharaoh explicitly (tasnh) expressed the submission
of the parts and implied (tadmiri) the submission of the total. In this
way, Pharaoh’s belief was weaker, and thus in submitting to God Bilqis becarpe'
more apposite than Pharaoh in submission.
Pharaoh was under the predication of the time, and
because of that he said: ‘I believe in that which the sons of Israel believe
in’, because that time was the time of bani Israel’s being saved from
drowning, and their victory over the Pharaoh. That is why Pharaoh related his
belief and specified it, because he had seen the magicians who had said in
their belief that they believed in the Lord of Moses and Aaron, thus specifying
their belief. And it is because of that belief that the sons of Israel were
saved from drowning, and Pharaoh knew this and that is why he said: T believe
in what the sons of Israel believe in’, and specified it to that Lord which the
sons of Israel believed in and which was the Lord of Moses and Aaron.
Consequently, Pharaoh specified his belief because of the specification that
the magicians had brought about, thus imitating them and pleading to be saved
like they were saved. Thus, when he saw that his power was defeated, and seeing
the power in the sons of Israel, he inclined towards them, and in his belief he
compared the specification to the specification of the magicians, and in this
comparison he erred because the magicians’ belief is conditioned to the belief
of the prophet. It is necessary that the subject
793
because she knew that with His Names He was individuated in all the
universes.
ticular for Solomon is what made Solpmon superior, by
virtue of that same dominion, to any other of the people of the universe, and
God made this a part of his own possession so that after him it is not suitable
for anybody to be manifested in the same way, and that is because
On the other hand, that dominion (taskhir) which
was made parthat dominion made particular for Solomon is through his order,
and it is positively through order and not by himmah or collecting of
hearts, nor is it by the oppression of wahm. God said: ‘We gave him
dominion over the wind, which blows by bis order’, that is to say, having given
dominion to Solomon over the wind, the wind would blow by
Solomon’s order, and this is because this dominion which is
particular to Solomon is positive dominion, and no other. God says concerning
all of us, without specification: ‘We have given you dominion over that which
is in the heavens and the earth, over all of them’, and in explaining this God
mentioned wind and stars and other things, all of which is under our dominion,
but they are not under our dominion by our order but rather under God’s order,
because He says: ‘We gave dominion to you . . .’ Thus if you understand,
Solomon is not particularized from us except by order, without totality and
without himmah', rather he is specialized positively and only for order.
Thus we say that Solomon was specialized in dominion simply and positively by
order and is not by himmah and totality specialized in dominion, because
indeed we know that the bodies of the universe are activated for the purposes
of himmah of the complete people, as the perfect beings abide in the
station of totality, and in fact we have examined in this Way of God that the
bodies of the universe are activated for the himmah of persons. From
Solomon, when he wished the dominion over something, it was necessary simply to
pronounce the order, without himmah and without totality. The totality
of the universe with Divine dominion is under our dominion, and in the same way
there is activation in the bodies of the universe for the perfect beings with himmah
and totality of heart. In these two orders there is no superiority to us
except that the particularization of his dominion without himmah and
collectivity is simply by the pronouncing of an order. Oh complete gnostic,
know, may God confirm and corroborate us and you from His side with spirit and
assistance and guidance to success, that in fact a gift like this by way of
munificence, as a gift from God bestowed upon
795
order and God has destined it, then surely it is reckoned in the
other world and diminished from his possession therein. And this determination
is fluent in all things which are demanded of God, whether the demand be
through the Divine order or without that order. And the demand through the
Divine order is like God said to His Prophet: ‘Say: Lord, increase me in
knowledge’, and the Envoy obeyed the order and demanded increase in knowledge,
and he used to say: ‘Lord, increase me in knowledge’ three times. When in his
sleep milk was given to him, he used to interpret the milk as knowledge,
because he demanded more of knowledge and because he knew the place where the
dream occurs, since he knew that milk was interpreted with knowledge and since
he knew that in the dream knowledge manifests with the image of milk because of
the similarities and relationship of milk and knowledge in the education and
completion of the lacking spirits and in the bodies of the lacking children.
Consequently, he interpreted his dream in, the same way when he was given a
glass of milk. The Envoy drank it and what was left over he gave to Omar ibn
al- Khattab. One of his friends in his company asked him what did he interpret
the milk with, and he angered: ‘With knowledge.’ In the same way, on the night
of the Jpjumey when he was taken up, the Angel brought him a bowl containing
milk and another bowl containing wine, and the Envoy drank the milk, and the
Angel said to him: ‘Oh Envoy of God, you have chosen the natural constitution
just as wished for, that is to say, this religion upon which you are, or the
Divine natural constitution in the Divine Knowledge; you have done just as
wished, because your natural constitution requires this. May God make your
people to you just as wished for, because by you hitting the mark they also hit
the mark and they reach you’, or it could also mean: *. . . and because of you
hitting the mark God will bestow on your people doing just as wished for.’ When
milk appears in the dream it is the image of knowledge and it is knowledge
which is symbolized by the image of milk, just as Gabriel was symbolized in the
image of a young man to Mary. When the Prophet said: ‘People are asleep and
when they die they awake’, he wanted to point out that anything that mankind
sees in this world is in fact like in a state of dream for a person who is asleep,
and it is an illusion (khayal). In other words, he pointed at the fact
that everything that Man saw in this world is like the illusion one sees in the
state of dreaming, and without a doubt it is necessary to interpret what he
sees. In fact, feelings and
797
mysteries of the tartqah and come to know them completely.
The state of the Envoy was such that when he was offered milk he used to say:
‘My God, bless for us what there is in^t and increase for us from it’, because
indeed the Envoy used to see the milk as the image of knowledge and thereby he
used to ask for the increase of knowledge, and he was indeed ordered to demand
more of this knowledge when God said to him: ‘And say: My Lord, increase me in
knowledge.’ If anything other than milk was offered to him he used to say: ‘My
God, bless for us what is in it and feed us in the best way from it.’ What was
better than that was milk, as milk is the image of knowledge. When God bestows
upon someone through a demand by Divine order, indeed God will not consider
reckoning in the other world with that thing because the demand was made
through Divine order, but for a thing that a person demands from his own nafs
without a Divine order and is bestowed with it, for that in fact referred to
the order of God, He reckons with it if He wishes and does not do so if He
wishes. And I plead for knowledge specially from God, because if a person
demands knowledge from his own self and if God gave him that knowledge, God
does not reckon with that, because God’s order to His Prophet to demand more of
knowledge is the same as the order to his people. In other words, the order to
the Prophet is the order to his people, because God says: ‘For you there is in
the Envoy the best and the most beautiful example (model, pattern)’, and which
example is greater than this mutually comforting of intellect from God for one?
In other words, what can there be better for a person whose understanding is
from God, that is, God makes him understand? In the demand for the increase of
knowledge the order to the Envoy is equally order to us because we are induced
in the being of the Envoy. It may be that in relation to us the Envoy is
sometimes ordered in certain orders, but the state is that his degree is very
much higher than that. If we had made you aware of the complete station of
Solomon, indeed you would have seen an order to rise to the understanding of
which would have given you terror. In fact, most of the gnostics of this tariqah
were ignorant of the state and the place of Solomon, but the state is that the
order is not like what they think. Some thought that’Solomon put his name above
that of God and chose the possessions of this world and asked of God that this
possession be never given to another, and that the possession he was given in
this world will be diminished from his possession in the other world, but the
state is that Solomon’s degree in the sight
799
The Wisdom of Being
(al-hikmat al-wujudiyyah)
in the Word of David
The aspect
of attribu ing the Wisdom of the Word of Being to the Word of David was
explained in the index, and concerning the attribution of the Wisdom oF
Being to the Davidian Word is in the same way explained by the Shaykh (R.A.),
who points at the fact that the completion and perfection of Being, :nd the
Being of completion and perfection, happens through it being manifested from
the Presence of jawad and wahhab together with the Divine total
worldly viceregency in the human -collectivity of collectivity of the singularity.
Even though this completion of Being manifests in all the prophets and saints
who are manifested Viceregent$i(ip every age, its most complete and
clear manifestation is in the case of David, because God the High has collected
between the two caliphates for David, that is to say, between the Divine
spiritual reality of caliphate and the apparent caliphate of possession and
kingdom which is apparent in this world as the caliphate with the sword and
tctal judgement. He also gave him prophethood and determination ard extension
of address and total possession and penetrating judgement, which latter
appertains also to the totality of kinds and genuses of the universe. This same
judgement manifests in Solomon in perfection, and Solomon is one of the beauties
of the beauty of David because he is a gift to David. ‘And We have given as
gift Solomon to David’ (Quran); consequently he attests to the completion and
perfection of David and it is a munificence for his superiority. And that this
aspect did not manifest in any other perfect ones of Viceregents is due to the
fact of God the High specializing this to David as a specialty of total
completions of David (S.A.). The fact that God the High said: ‘Oh David, We
have brought you as Viceregent upon the earth, and judge among the people with
truth’, He verifies with certainty his viceregency and its specialization to
him, as such certainty of announcement has not happened to anyone other than
David. The fact that God the High has said: ‘I will bring upon the earth a
Viceregent’, the viceregency is probable for Adam, because
801
action is perfect is a prophet, but this is wrong. Were it true it
would necessitate Divine inspiration (wahy) and the descending of an
angel with laws of religion. However, this^ofider is not like that. It is
evident that prophethood and envoy ship a Divine specialty and does not result
from knowledge and action, and its realization does not depend upon the
realization of what necessitates it, because the existence of what is necessary
and its realization is by the existence of what is needed, and it cannot be any
other way. In the same way, other gifts which have been given to the prophets
are equally Divine gifts and Divine benefits with nothing expected in return
and only through munificence and way of superiority. Consequently, as
prophethood is of Divine specialty, God did not ask in return for it thanks or
desert from the prophets. Nevertheless, thanks always emanates from them and
they act with pure acts, but there is no demand of thanks in return for the
specialty from God, and of the prophets a return is not expected. And He said:
‘We gave him as gift Isaac and Jacob’, that is to say, to Abraham, the khalil
(S.A.) (the intimate Friend), and He said of Job: ‘We gave him as gift his wife
and others with it’, and He said in the case of Moses (S.A.): ‘We gave him as a
gift from Our Compassion and Mercy his brother Aaron as a pi-ophet’, and other
examples like this. And that which protects them first is that which also
protects them to the end in all their states, or in most of them, and this is
no other than His Name the wahhab. And He said in the case of David:
‘And when We in fact gave David from Our Munificence.’ He did not condition it
with the request of desert from him and He did not give news of this gift to
him for which He mentioned a desert. In fact God the High did not conjoin to
the gift He gave David a desert, ;hat is to say, a knowledge, so that He should
ask of David something in return, and when God gave David news of this gift He
did not tell David that this was in return for an action, or a desert. On the
contrary, He rather mentioned that this was given to David as a gift from His
Munificence. And again, when He says: ‘We have given Solomon to David as a
gift’, it is again definitely a free gift and a gift of munificence. And this
sort of gift is a gift of kindness and a superiority. ;Infcuch cases there is
no determination of desert.
And He did not require from him thanks for this action.
He required it from the people of David. He did not omit to hint with the
mention of David, so that they (the people of Dav id) might thank Him for what
He gave to David as beneficence. Thus He did not ask the thanks from
F03
that one is not in return for a request, whereas the other is the
contrary. It is a definite order and a request for thanks. In the second case
this is so because it is not that the Divine gifts came to him by way of kindness
and superiority, nor does his thanks change over from thanking by order to
thanking gratuitously. Between these two categories, the one who thanks
gratuitously is superior and more perfect than the one who gives thanks by
necessity. And the first munificence that God gave as munificence to Dav;d was
to give him the gift of a name in which there is no letter from among the
letters of connection, and He cut him off by this from the universe and through
this name He let us know positively, and those letters are the letter dal
and the letter alif and the letter waw. These letters cannot t e
joined to letters that follow it. Thus the mysteries of the cutting away of
David from the universe is manifested in the letters of his name. And He called
Mohammed with the letters that connect and separate, and He connected and
separated from the universe and collected between the two states in his name,
just as He collected David between two states in the way of meaning. Thus, He
connected him to His Ipseity and l&plarated him from the universe. Thus the
High God united between the two states in his name, joining him to the haqq
and separating him from the universe, which He had done for David only in the
way of meaning, joining between the two states, which means, from the aspect of
meaning and degree He cut him off from the universe and joined him to Himself.
And He did not do this in his (David’s) name. In David’s name He did not
collect the letters of connection and separating except through the aspect of
meaning. And He made this a specialty for Mohammed over David, I mean, to draw
his (Mohammed’s) attention to the fact that with his name the order became
complete from all aspects, and it is in the same way for his name Ahmed. Thus,
to collect in the name between connection and separation was specialized for Mohammed
over David, which means that his attention was drawn to the fact that by his
name the two states were collected together. Consequently, in the case of
Mohammed the order was completed in all its aspects, that is to say, from the
aspect of his name and meaning and the aspect of his reality so that it became
general, and that is why also in the name Ahmed of Mohammed the collection
between the two states was brought about, because in the name Ahmed the letters
of separation, which is the letter dal, and the letters of connection,
which are the ha and the num, are collected together. And this is
from the Wisdom of God. It is a Divine Wisdom to
805
effective over himself and all that.be^longed to him, all his bodily
and spiritual powers being subject in? the manifest and the interior to Him,
and as the praises and the repetitions of praise were under the determination
and dispensation of the heart of David, God the High manifested, bringing as an
example the repetition of praise of the mountains and the birds allocated to
David’s praise, thus He manifested the mystery of the fact that David’s
exterior and interior was in conformity with Himself. This was because at the
time of David the revelation of the manifest w is predominant, because there
had remained at the time of David some of the determination of the Mosaic
invitation which happened to be under the Name Manifest. And He bestowed
upon him strength and munificence by it. And God the High qualified David
with strength in different quotes from the Quran, like in the case of the iron,
and others. And He bestowed on him wisdom, that is to say, both in the
apparent matters of politics, government, and in the interior, by bestowing
upon him the knowledge of the Divine realities, the degrees of Names and
immanences. And after that the greatest favour and the rank of the very
proximity to God which God made special for him, the definite assertion
concerning his caliphate, the like of which He did not do for any one of his
kind and there were caliphs from among them, and He said: ‘Oh David, We have
brought you as Caliph upon the earth. Judge among the people in truth and do
not follow passion’, do not let any other thing come into your mind in your
judgements other than the inspiration from Me, ‘which will deviate you from the
Way of God’, that is to say, from the Way with which the envoys have been
inspired, wl ich means that after this the greatest favour is from David to
God, and the rank cf the very proximity to God results for David from God,
which rank God has specialized for David, and this is certifying the
viceregency of David which He did not do for any one of the prophets who are
members uf David’s kind. Even though there were Viceregents from the same kind
of people as David, He had not specialized them like this. In other words, He
said: ‘Oh David, in fact We have made you Viceregent in e|'rt$, thus judge and
give justice with truth among people and do not follow other passion, in other
words do not follow anything that comes into your mind other than what I have
inspired you with in judgement, as those things could deviate you from the Way
of God, that is to say, from the Way with which I have inspired My envoys.’ Then
He who is praised showed good form where it concerned David, and said: ‘In fact
those who
807 i
which is Viceregency. Thus equally in the case of Abraham it is not
the clear certainty specifically mentioning the viceregency. And then,
whereas viceregency is specifically mentioned for David, He brought him as a
Viceregent in judgement, and this cannot be except from God, which means
that viceregency in judgement cannot be except by appointment as successor from
God. In other words, judgement would not be relying upon the Presence of the
Name which appertains to all the Names, and that Name is the Name God, because
judgement is a specification for God the High. Leadership in comparison with
viceregency is like sainthood compared to prophethood. In fact each saint is
not a prophet, and in the same way each leader is not a Viceregent, whereas
each Viceregem is a leader just as each prophet is a saint. It also happens
that at times the Viceregent is a Viceregent to another person. Thus people in
general are not always Viceregents by Divine determination, whereas David was
Viceregent by Divine determination. In certain copies the following occurs:
‘It would not be the same even if He had mentioned’, which wotj|dl;mean
that the viceregency of Abraham is not the same as the viceregency of David
even if God had mentioned the viceregency with H's specific Name which is Viceregency.
That is to say, if God had said: T will bring you as Viceregent over the
people’, thus mentioning the word Viceregent for Abraham with the Name
Viceregent, again it would not be the same thing, because the viceregency of
David is ascertained. He said to him: ‘Judge among the people with truth’,
and the viceregency of Adam could not have been of this degree. His (Adam’s)
viceregency might be succession to viceregency of what there was before in
this matter, not that he was appointed by God over the creation by Divine
determination, and even if the order happened to be like this, yet our words
are only concerned with the matter of absolute support concerning him and a
direct mention of it. Thus God the High said to David: ‘Judge among the people
with truth’ and specifically appoints David as Viceregent injustice and truth
to judge over the people. Adam’s viceregency does not come under the same
category. It could be that Adam’s viceregency was in succession to what there
was of degree of viceregency before him. One could conjecture, that is to say,
that Adam’s viceregency might be a viceregency to whatever there was before him
as Viceregent from among the angels or other creatures, but it is not like in
the case of David, that Adam was appointed by God to judge and determine among
the people and over the people by Divine determination.
809
UX-.Ia
the viceregency happens from the Emjpy in the taking of that determination
with which the Viceregents determine from that very same determination which
was made legal to the Envoy (S.A.). Thus the Viceregent to the Envoy is such a
person whose determination is transferred to him by the Envoy (S.A.) and from
where he takes it. That is to say, either by the Envoy (S.A.) transferring it
to him, or takes it through a transference and information arriving to him from
the Envoy, or he takes it through exertion of his utmost acumen to form a
correct legal opinion, the origin of which is again taken from what is
transferred from the S.A. Thus the manifest Viceregents do not go beyond the
law that the Envoy (S.A.) has set. However, among us there are certain
Viceregents who take that determination from God, that same determination that
the Envoy (S.A.) has taken from God in manifestation and made it legal to his
heirs and who have taken it from the S.A. Thus, he who takes it without
intermediary from God becomes the Viceregent of God in that in the essence of
that determination, that is to say, by taking that determination exactly from
God which the Envoy (S.A.) had equally taken from God and made it legal to his
followers. Thus, for that Viceregent there happens to come about a special
point of consideration exactly as there has come about a special point of
consideration for the Envoy (S.A.) of God. That is to say, just as the Envoy
(S.A.) took it from God he also takes it from God, and the place of taking of
that determination is equally God to both of them. That Viceregent is subject
to the Envoy (S.A.) in the open in that he has no opposition or differentiation
from the Envoy (S.A.), and equally like the Prophet who is the Mohammed (S.A.)
to whom God said: ‘There are those whom God has guided, so follow them in their
guidance’, that is to say, like the Envoy (S.A.) follows the guidance of the
former envoys and prophets (S.A.). This means that the Envoy (S.A.) was ordered
to follow the guidance with which the former envoys and prophets were guided.
The Envoy (S.A.) was not ordered to follow them, but was ordered to follow that
with which they were guided. Consequently, he takes it from God just as they
took from God. And he in truth is specialized for that which he knows from
that way of taking, and he is concordant, which means, even though
the Viceregent who takes it directly from God is in appearance subject to the
Envoy in determination, yet that V/ceregent is specifically adopted for that
which he knows from that way of taking, and in this he is not subject, yet in
taking it he is concordant to the Prophet because he has
811
the High, though in that legal determination they are established in
conformity with the Envoy. Consequently, when the Envoy (S.A.) knew this order
he did not restrict the order of viceregency. That is to say, he did not
prevent the viceregency from God and did not restrict viceregency from his own
viceregency. Rather perhaps that he pointed at the Divine viceregency. There
are Viceregents of God among His people who take from the mine of the Envoy and
envoys, who have taken it from where the Envoy (S.A.) has taken, and they know
the superiority of that which has preceded them there Among His creatures
there are Viceregents for God wno have taken the determination and knowledge from
the same ore as the Envoy and the envoys have taken, and they know the
superiority of the envoy who has had precedence in that taking, because the
Viceregents reach the thing they have reached because of the envoy though they
take from the same ore as he has taken. However, there results a superiority
for the envoy over them. Because the envoy can receive more, and this
Viceregent cannot receive more. Had he been an envoy he could Have received
(more), which means that if the Viceregent, who ca.-.hot receive more, had
been an envoy, he would have been able to receive more. (God) does not give of knowledge
and determination except that which is specifically in the law of the envoy to
which he is in the apparent subject and not opposed. This is in opposition
to (the way of) envoys. Which means that that Viceregent is in appearance
concordant and subject to the envoy and he is not in opposition. An envoy is
different because God the High has made legal certain determinations for each
one of the envoys, some of which determinations are concordant with the law of
a preceding envoy, and some of these determinations are not concordant by
increasing or adding another determination. Thus, an envoy is capable of more
where a Viceregent is not capable of more. Do you not see Jesus (S.A.), when
the Jews imagined that he would not increase over Moses, the same as we have
said concerning today’s viceregency with the Envoy, they believed him and they
confirmed him, but when he increased a determination or when he abolished a
determination which Moses had confirmed, as Jesus was an envoy, they did not
believe this because it was contrary to their beliefs in this matter, and the
Jews were ignorant in this order as it was and they demanded his death. Thus,
when Jesus con- corded with what Moses had given as law, as the Viceregent is
subject to the Envoy like we said, in the appearance he was not apparent with a
determination which waf in opposition to Moses, and they believed in
813
, 'T'fi
devoid of conjecture, and (equally) not devoid of transposition of
the meaning. Things like this happen to come about from Viceregents of today,
and such things will happen to come about from Jesus (S.A.) when he comes down,
and he will remove many things of the legality of a personal opinion that was
decided upon, and by this removal he will make evident the real image of the
true legality upon which truth was the Envoy (S.A.) and the law, especially
when the determinations of the leaders were mutually opposed in one descent.
It becomes clearly known that if that inspiration had come down it would have
come down by one of the aspects, and that aspect would have been the Divine
determination. Other than this, if God confirmed this it is due to the personal
beliefs of the leaders, and that law is the law of confirmation and not the law
which came down by Divine inspiration, only to remove a difficulty from this
people and give amplitude in this determination among these people. The viceregency which is singularized from envoyship and prophethood
which is the viceregency of today, this is not of established origin so that
he may increase or decrease over the law of the Envoy (S.A.). Perhaps rather
the Viceregent decreases or increases a determination over the law of the
Envoy because the leaders have confirmed in their opinion this thing and that
there was a difference of opinion among the leaders in this determination, but
he would not increase or decrease over a law with which Mohammed (S.A.) was
addressed, and which law was definitely certified for him. Thus it may happen
in appearance that a certain ViceregenJ manifests with opposition to a certain hadith.
Then At is imagined, that is to say, a person who is veiled imagines that th.
it opposing determination is of the opinion of the Viceregent, but it is not of
the opinion of the Viceregent. Rather that at the level of this leader this
news was established from the Prophet (S.A.) through insight (kashf).
That is why he stopped in determining with that hadith. If that hadith
had been established at his level through insight, then certainly he would have
determined by it. And if the way concerning that hadith was that of
justice, then it is from justice, that is to say that in appearance it is
through the way of justice that it is established, and those who retell it were
from just to just until it reached the Envoy (S.A.). However, that justice is
not free of conjecture and it is not free of transposing into meaning because
it might transpose it into a meaning which is not the intention of the meaning
meant by a commentator. Thus, things like this happen from Viceregents today.
And this will happen from Jesus (S.A.), because in
815
them. That there is no Killing in the spiritual viceregency is because
the real and spiritual viceregency does not happen in every century except by
one man who is the Perfect One of that age and who is the Pole, and the other
Viccregents are under his determination and his dispensation. And if in fact
execution came about in the apparent viceregency it is because for the one who
is individuated in the apparent viceregency this station does not exist. That
is to say, as there is not the station of the spiritual viceregency he does not
take from God and he cannot be the Viceregent of Gcd, whereas that Viceregent
is the Envoy of God (S.A.), and if he is just in accordance with that, then in
the sentence: ‘. . . and there is not that station for that Viceregent’ it
means the one who is individuated in the apparent viceregency, and they would
be the two Viceregents who are manifested with justice, in other words, for
each one of the Viceregents who are individuated in the apparent viceregency
who therefore do not have the degree of the Divine spiritual viceregency, yet
eapli one of them is just, they are Viceregents of the Envoy and they are named
as Viceregents. Thus, the execution of the second of the Viceregents is
necessitated from that original determination whereby it becomes possible to
imagine the existence of the Divinity, because God the High says: ‘And if there
were among them another divinity tnan God, there would be corruption’, because
the Viceregent is the place of manifestation of the degree of Divinity and the
degree cf Divinity is one degree and God is the One Divinity. Thus, in the
being of the second Viceregents there is a possibility of imagining the
existence of two divinities. Grammatically, the phrase: *. . . it is because
he determines according to the original (determination)’ is an assignment of
cause for the phrase: ‘and if this matter of execution is brought’, and it is
not grammatical conjunctive to a consequence to a foregoing clause. The
conjunctive to the amma is the phrase: ‘. . . this is in the manifest
viceregency.’ Even if they agree (that is, if the two divinities agree), and
we know that if they disagreed in evaluation, the determination of one of them
would be carried out, which means that if the two divinities are concordant
in determination in the apparent, yet they would differ in evaluation, thus we
know that in fact the two divinities are virtually different, then certainly
the determination of one of them will be carried out. And the one who
carries out the determination, he is the only one according to the reality, and
the one whose determination is not carried out, he is not significant. And from
here we know that all
817
own self a determination. Outside of 'be mashi’a there is not a thing in
existence, nor is there anything elevated into being. It is because of the sublime dominion of mashi’a over everything
that Abu Talib al-Makki has considered it as the Throne of the Ipseity, that is
to say, for the Ipseity of the Divinity, not for the Ipseity of Absolute
Uniqueness, because mashi’a necessitates for itself a determination.
Thus there is nothing in existence and nothing is elevated from being outside
of the Divine mashi’a', which means the reality of the mashi’a
necessitates for itself a determination because mashi’a necessitates
breath, and in fact necessitating is itself a determination for the
particularization of a thing which the Divine Knowledge designates. Thus, if
the Divine mashi’a appertains to the happening of a certain thing, that
thing happens, because the Divine order, for which there is no refusal, is
such an order in which the Divine mashi’a appertains to its taking place
in existence or in non-existence. Thus, if the Divine mashi’a were not
in conformity to the taking place of an action, and if the order was not in
conformity with that action, that action would not have taken place, even
though the mashi’a only necessitates the conformity of the order to that
action, because the mashi’a does not necessitate the coming about of an
action from the one who is ordered. It only necessitates the order for the
happening of that action. In fact, if the Divine order was opposed by
what is called disobedience, it is only because of the order by intermediary,
not by the order of immanencing. Absolutely no one can disobey in all He does
in consequence of the order of the mashi’a. The opposition
happens only in the case of the order through an intermediary, so understand!
This means that the only possible disobedience to a Divine oroer by what
is called disobedience is no other than a Divine order by intermediary, that is
to say, an order of proposition, or an order of the religious law which has
come through the intermediary of the envoy. Consequently, .no one has ever
disobeyed an order which comes through the order Of mashi’a. All
disobedience that has come about in all the actions oi God the High came about
only when the order was through an intermediary, and never through the order of
the Divine mashi’a.
Now let it be known like this, that the Divine order is
according to two parts. One is the order which is through the intermediary of
the prophets and saints and the leaders of legal opinion (ijtihad). The
other part is without an intermediary, which is the order of immanencing,
which is the order of the High God for the happening of a thing
819
but that it happens in a special place where the action manifests in
his hands. Thus the order of mashi’a brings about the essence of that
action which is in the receptivity of the receptive essence. This is why the
Shaykh noted it with the words: ' .. not to what manifests from his hands’,
because the order of mashi’a, when it turns to bringing about the
essence of an action, the essence of that action becomes the essential
intention and its non-happening is impossible to think of. But if the order of mashi’a
timed to the bringing about of a certain person in whose hands the essence of
the action is manifested, it sometimes happens that it is not necessary that
the essence of that action be existent at the level of the bringing about of
that person. Consequently, if the aptitude of the receptive essence is
concordant with the order of proposition which comes about with the language of
the religious law, it is called obedience, when the order of the action becomes
existent through the order of immanencing, but if the aptitude of the receptive
essence is not concordant with the proposed order, when the essence of the
action has come into being through the order of immanencing, it is called
disobedience in respect of the order of proposition and the order of the law.
That is why the Shaykh (R.A.) says: Sometimes this is called opposition to
the order of God and sometimes it is called agreement and obedience to
the order of God. Thus at a certain time the action which manifests because
cf the order of immanencing and because of the appertainance of the order of
immanencing to the Divine order, it comes out by the word of the prophet as an
order of proposition. This is called opposition as the thing which has manifested
appears in opposition to the Divine order which is the order of proposition,
and sometimes it is called agreement and obedience to the Divine order as the
essence of the action manifests in the language of the law in accordance with
the Divine order, but it is never called opposition in relation to the Divine
order which is the Divine mashi’a, because in existence not a single
action emanates which is in opposition to the Divine mashi’a. The
essence of every action comes about due to the Divine mashi’a which
appertains because of the special aptitude of the established potential. Also
it is such that the order of the mashi’a is aspected to the bringing
about of the essence of the action and it is not aspected towards that person
in whose hands that action has manifested. Consequently, there is no opposition
in consideration of the order of mashi’a. Language of praise (hamd)
or blame is subject to it in compliance to what it might be. Thus, the
language of
821
transposition. Consequently, if the Anger, which is late, is
attached to the servant by virtue of the servant’s opposition to the order of
proposition, and determined over him, that which is prior determines over
that, and that which is prior and more ancient is the rahmah which precedes
everything. And rahmah attains him as there is no other thing which
precedes it. Consequently, -ahmah attains the servant because there is
nothing other than rahmah which is more ancient and prior; thus it
became established that the inclination of the all is towards rahmah
because there is no person who opposes the order of the tnashi'a. And
this is the meaning of His Mercy preceded His Anger, so that it determines over
that which arrives at it, because in fact it rests on a purpose and every
follower is for the purpose, without a doubt of arriving at it and without a
doubt of arriving at the rahmah and departing from Anger, and it
is so that its determination is over all that arrive at it by virtue of what
the state of the one who arrives bestows upon it. Thus, what we have said
is the meaning of the words: ‘His rahmah precedes His Anger’, which
means that God’s rahmah preceded His Anger so that rahmah
determines over that person who arrives at the rahmah, because in fact rahmah
abides in rhe purpose and it is such that the totality of the creation follows
the purpose, therefore without a doubt it arrives at its purpose and that it
arrives at rahmah, and it is equally without a doubt that it departs
from Anger because rahmah abides at the purpose. Thus the determination
becomes specialized for the rahmah where it concerns each person who
arrives at rahmah, according to what each person’s state bestows, which
means, as those who arrive at rahmah are different in their states,
equally rahmah determines over them according to the varieties of rahmah,
as each one of them necessitates a different kind, because the state of some
requires the bestowal of pleasure of rahmah after a repetition of Anger.
Even that place called hell becomes paradise' for him, and for him ease and
munificence becomes the same as hell. The state of some bestows relief from
Anger after the taking of vengeance. And the state of some bestows the taste of
the effect of agreement and the spirit of conscience. And the state of some
bestows going up to the high degrees. In fact, in all, the end of each person
is rahmah and happiness, even though in relation to some, rahmah
is relative.
And he who is of understanding
witnesses what we have said,
823
and we give it as gift to you the knowledge and effusion in
accordance with your receptivity and aptitude. Thus nothing comes to you from
the Divine knowledge except what effuses from our hearts which are the
treasuries of Divine knowledge.
As to the softening of the iron, it is like the
softening of the hardened heart by restriction and threat, like the fire
softens the iron, which means that the softening of
the ircn by David (S.A.) is the image of the softening of the hardened hearts
which are eventually softened by restriction and threat, just like the fire
softens the iron, because the hardened heart which is frightened and rendered
timorous and which is affected by restriction and threat, has aptitude. Divine
exhortation and determinations, spiritual dispensings, soften them. Thus the
softening of the iron by David (S.A.) is the image of the power that God the
High bestowed on David for the; softening of the hearts of the believers who hear
his words. Thus, softening of the hearts is the spirit of the softening of the
iron, because m the iron there exists a tendency to soften, just as there is a
receptivity to conform and to obey in the hearts of the believers. The
softening of the iron is not difficult That which is difficult is the hearts
which are harder than stone, because fire cracks them and calcines them and
does not soften them. Thus the softening of the iron is not difficult. What
is difficult is the softening of the hearts which are harder and more solid
than stones, because even though the fire calcines and cracks the stone, that
is to say, turns them into quicklime but does not soften them. Thus the hearts
of the people who are veiled is according to three parts. One part is those
hearts which are softened by restriction and threat. Another kind is like
stones from which burst forth rivers: ‘And there are those among them from
which burst forth rivers, and there are those of them who crack and water
bursts forth from them.’ This category of hearts is also affected by
restriction and threat, and waters of knowledge of gnosis and rivers of
effusion of gnoses boil out of them. The third category is the hearts who are
harder than stones. This category is not affected by advice and address.
Consequently, what is the state of the Complete Man with those whose hearts are
harder than stones? And He did not soften the iron for him (David) except
for making protective armour consequent to bringing into his awareness from God
that nothing protects a thing except with itself, and the armour protects from
the spearheads and the sword and the knife and arrowhead or blade, in fact iron
protects from iron. In fact God the High did not soften the iron for
825
Of the Wisdom of the Seif (or Breath)
(al-hikmat an-nafsiyyah)
in the Word of Jonah (Yunus)
Know this to be
definitely like this, that the God created this emergence of the humankind
according to completion, from the points of view of spirit and body and nafs,
in His own image. That is to say, He created this according to the image of the
Divine Names and Qualities of the totality of Lordship at the Presence of
Divinity, so that the Qualities of completion of this
totality be manifest in him. And this emergence of humanity is created in
accordance with the image of the haqq, and nothing can begin, or have
directorship over, the removal of the order concerning this emergence other
than the creator of this emergence, who is the director of the removal of this
order. The removal is by His own hand, since the proof of Divinity, which is
the emergence of Man and his order, cannot be removed except by His hand, and
God alone kills the nafs at the time of death. Death strikes in
different ways: either by death, or by murder and demolition, and in all cases
it returns to th; Divine order. And the reasons why there happens to be murder
and demolition is either that it is in the hands of the haqq and in the
hands of His qudrah, or by virtue of the fact that He has ordered equal
treatment in the matter of religion. In other words, He is the director of the
order of this emergence, by having ordered just retribution. Now if a person
without the order of God desires to disarrange the order for this emergence of
humanity, that is to say, without being in accordance with religious
prescription, and he is directed to its destruction, without a doubt that
person oppresses {zulm} his own nafs, and he transgresses against
the limits that God has established in connection with that emergence, and he
labours in the destruction and demolition of a person whom God has ordered to
be built up.
Now you must know this, that without a doubt it is more
in line with real truth and the reality to show forgiveness and pity than to
obey prescription and to persevere even for God in that conformity. That is to
say, it is much more preferable in truth for the servants of God to show
827
Do you not see how God has preferred the case where of
those who were afflicted by the murder of one of their relatives and who have a
right to demand retribution and from among whom only one man prefers
forgiveness and the rest prefer the killing of the murderer? He agrees with
only that man that either forgives alone or forgives with money, and He causes
this one man’s choice to be taken into account in preference to the rest.
Again, a person cannot be killed in retribution as
recounted in the story that happened at the time of the Prophet. A man was
killed, and the killed man’s relative saw the rope that belonged to the dead
man in the hands of another person, and seized him saying this man is the
murderer, and wanted him killed, and the Prophet said: ‘The killing of this man
would be like another murder. The finding of the rope in the possession of the
man cannot be considered enough proof to cause a retribution.’ God said: ‘The
punishment for a sin is equal sin’ (wa jaza’u sayyi’atin sayyi’atun
mithluha), which means that although retribution is allowed by religion, it
is still a sin. The act of retribution is an act of sin, though allowed by
religion. If a man forgives a murderer and does not kill him, there is merit
at the level of God for that person, because the life even of th; murderer is
in the Divine image. Of course this is so, since He made Man for His own Self,
so that by him He can manifest His Names, Qualities and Completion. Consequently,
to act with respect towards that creature which is in the image of haqq,
is to act with respect towards the haqq.
God did not become manifest by the Name zahir
(Manifest) except by there being Man, because insan (Man) is the image
of God. If a person respects Man, indeed he respects God, because God’s image
is the Name ‘Manifest’ of God, since He made him in His own image, and the
maintenance of this is better than any other action. Then people might object
and query and might say: ‘If the man is in the image of God and is His Name zahir,
then one can never speak ill of Man.’ The answer is that by virtue of his ‘ayn,
Man cannot ever be spoken ill of; rather perhaps what can be spoken ill of are
actions which emanate from him, to the extent that his actions are not the same
as his ‘ayn, and our word concerns the ‘ayn, therefore one
respects the ‘ayn of Man, because it is in the image of God, and is
God’s Name Manifest (zahir). Consequently, a man’s ‘ayn i.; never
ill spoken of, but actions which are contrary to religion which emanate from
him may be spoken ill of, because those actions are not the man’s ipseity nor
his ‘ayn, but
829
There are two faces to this ayat. One is that by
allowing retribution, there is life made possible for this special kind of man,
so that a man who observes the retribution may be limited and prevented from
murdering others. And the other face is that in the order of retribution,
there is for you life, in that you pass beyond the execution of retribution
and confer the continuation of life. In short, from what we have mentioned as
indications, know this, you, that in fact God respects this emergence and its
establishment, and you also respect this emergence, and you desire this,
because it is by the respecting of this emergence that this happiness results.
And could there be greater happiness for Man than to respect the Divine image?
the goodness of which is incumbent on God and the goodness of which is God, and
understand this.
Indeed the honour is such that since Man is hayy
(life), for him is desired the completion of that quality, and its attainment,
for which he is created. And-the person who works for Man’s destruction, in
fact works to prevent that man’s arrival at kamal, for which Man was primarily
created. In other words, the work is for the destruction of Man and for
prevention of his reaching kamal, which kamal is the necessity of
his ‘ayn-i-thabita in the Divine Knowledge and according to which God
had destined him. Consequently, that man works against God’s decree, and works
for the prevention of the taking place of God’s destiny, therefore wonts
against God. The killer who does this deed against one person, has also done
this against the progeny of that person, preventing God’s decree from
happening, and has prevented the emergence of Man and not respected the
emergence of Man, and has tried to prevent all the progeny from reaching kamdl,
and he has prevented the coming into life of many kamil people, and the
totality of Divine images to come into fullness and continue life, and the man
who works against this by killing one person, his punishment is according to
that.
The Prophet said to the people who were fighting for the
protection and establishment of Islam: ‘Shall I tell you something that is much
better than that you should reach the enemy and annihilate him, or that the
enemy should reach you and kill you and make you a witness (shahid)',
and that is the dhikr of God.’ Dhikr of God is better for you
than to fight for the word of God, and to die as the witness of God, though it
is true that in the battle for the sake of God, the name of God is elevated and
knowledge of God expanded and the good deed of
831
being does he do the dhikr of God and is with all his parts
in observance of haqq, and at the level of haqq he observes his nafs
as annihilated, and in fact it is this person who does the dhikr of haqq
and is in observance and who knows the qadr of emergence, and he has
reached this observation through the medium of this emergence. And if his
emergence had been destroyed before this, he would have been prevented from
the majesty of this observance (shuhud). In the same way, the totality
of the shuhud in this emergence being resultant at the level of the
reality of the dhikr, therefore the observant dhikr-doer can only
know the qadr of this emergence through observing haqq in this
emergence and is ‘arif of it. But if the man does the dhikr only
with his tongue, who because he does the dhikr, with the totality of his
tongue and can emit no other sound except the dhikr through his tongue,
then the vision and other possibilities of the man are in annihilation in his
tongue, and the haqq's revelation of J.tseif is only the observation of
the tongue and not of the vision. Therefore that man cannot know the destiny of
this emergence.
Know this mystery then about the dhikr of people
who are deficient in knowledge: because the deficient in knowledge is many with
his parts and limbs and body, as he does not use all his abilities in the dhikr,
only that limb of his which is doing the dhikr observes the haqq, and
the rest of his body and abilities are in ignorance. Surely the dhikr-do'vcig
member of that person without a doubt is present and in observance of God, and
the remembered God is that part’s revelation and that part is in observance of haqq.
And the unknowing parts of the servant are in ignorance by virtue of not
knowing and not doing the dhikr of haqq. Yet the haqq is the
revelation of a part of the deficient person.
Indeed Man is of many parts, and by virtue of these
parts, is not single of the ‘ayn, because there is established for each
part an ‘ayn. God, on the other hand, is unique of ‘ayn and many
in Names, just as Man is many in parts and one in ‘ayn. And the dhikr
of one part of him does not necessitate the dhikr of another part. And haqq
is the revelation of that part of the human being which is doing the dhikr,
and the rest of the parts which are not doing the dhikr are qualified by
deficiency. If it happens that one part of the man does the dhikr of God
and God becomes the revelation of that part, the haqq by Its
munificence, by that part alone preserves the rest of the parts, but not
because they deserve it. Therefore, that part is the cause of the preservation
of
833
spirit and complete spirit, God then again like He did at the
beginning — ‘and I blew into him of My Spirit’ {wa nafakhta fihi min ruhi) —
blows again into that body of mitkaland of barzakh and of the
other world and of spirit; and the man scops his degrees in which there is no
change for ever of evers in the Divine and second world degrees stops his
gradations and never varies, because this place is baqd1 and
is upon temperance {i‘tidal), and also because that place and its
population is composed of the jewels. But if the person who is going to be
transferred to the other world is not of this kind, for him is arranged
another world according to his jewel and character and other possibilities; and
Man never receives death in that second world, which means his parts do not
become differentiated, because i'tidal, which is necessary for the
continuous arrival, is present in the later emergence. Because it emerges from
the purest and most real of the jewels.
Although each individual of mankind, by virtue of his
secondary inclination and .his dominant quality, requires an individually
specialized place for himself composed to his necessity, the great God, due to
certain causes, puts the totality of them all into three kinds. The first kind
are the muqarrabin, which are the prophets, the envoys, the kamil
awliya’, and all the people of itlaq (absoluteness —
divorced from immanence). For these people when they have been transferred,
they are not enclosed and conditioned, and for these people this world is not
preferable to the other world by virtue of their itlaq-, by their
ipseity they circumscribe and contain the totality of Divine hadarat and
Names and the knowledge of possibilities of the lower kind. The second kind are
the people of the right, and these are some special and general kinds of awliya',
and by their,.degrees the whole total of the people of beliefs, and these
people;; are,, because they are imitators, those of them who have transferred
to the other world, because in them certain orders of unity and certain orders
of plurality were present, in little time they are annihilated by orders which
contain distinction, and orders which contain union, and in some of them the
orders of oneness and the orders of plurality are equally balanced, and these,
after the first division, in a length of time, by virtue of the power or weakness
of plurality, the orders of union take over the orders of plurality, and in
some of them the orders of plurality conquer the orders of union, yet since the
order of oneness is like a leaven in them, in the resultant dough, this leaven
transforms the orders of plurality and the plurality changes into oneness. And
in this way a man who has been
835
dues to God and the dues to the servant are deducted, like what happened
when the khalil of God was thrown into the fire and that fire into which
he was thrown became coldness and peace. (When Ibn 'Arabi spoke of the
resemblance of the fire of the khalil of God and the fire that is used
for punishment for people who are enemies of God, and protestations occurred,
that how could it be that the khalil of God should be compared with
people of the fire, ‘Arabi answered as follows: Abraham, peace be on him,
equally suffered, but only by the vision of the fire, and equally due to his
knowledge that a being of the animal kind, if it comes near fire, it is certain
that that person will suffer. And when they started to throw him into the
fire, at the level of his vision he suffered, but his suffering was through his
wahm whereas the suffering of the people of the fire is sensory. This
happened because Abraham, peace be on hirn, oefore and at the time of being
thrown into the fire, did not know what God intended. That is to say, he did
not know that in the ‘ayn of suffering God was showing him comfort and
munificence. After he was thrown into the fire, Abraham, after having gone
through the existence of these sufferings of wahm, found the fire cool
and of peace concerning his own nafs, although he was observing at the
same time the image of the colour of the fire. But the image of the fire in his
case became cool and peace and not the fire that bums, whereas that image of
colour remained in the eyes of the people still as fire, and they thought the
fire was burning Abraham. It is that one thing can be different in the eyes of
the onlookers by virtue of the state of the onlookers. For instance, the person
who is hot sees the air fiery, and the person who is cold sees the air as
freezing. In short, fire for the khalil, may he be in peace, was
coolness and peace, and fire in the eyes of the people who were watching.)
The order of the revelation of God is like this. If you
want you can say indeed God revealed Himself like the revelation of this amr,
or if you want you can say indeed, people of immanence with the eye looking at
things and looking at things through vision are like the haqq in matters
of revelation. That is to say, in revelation haqq is variable as He is
variable. At the level of revelation God is different in the eyes of the
onlooker, that is to say, while the revelation of the haqq is one, in
the eyes of the onlooker by virtue of his own mood, that is to say by virtue of
the spirituality or corporeality, or by virtue of the changes between the
Divine Qualities and by virtue of one Quality overriding the other, and by
virtue of the mood that arises from all this, haqq
837
haqq is dependent on the lorded-c verness. And this is constant. And
consequently the servanthood of the servant and its lorded-ovemess by God is
constant. In short, the totality of the dead are in the hands of God.
There is no stopping or non-happening concerning death.
And death does not make him non-existent. God allowed in religion killing
because He knows He does not lose the servant and servanthood does not get lost
from the killed, and servanthood returns to him when emergence from this world
reverts to the emergence from the other world. In fact, the servant never
ceases to fall into non-existence where haqq is
concerned, because nothing is outside of Him, because it includes both the
manifest and the batin. That is to say that when the servant
is taken away from the manifest Lordship of the Lord by virtue of death or
murder it becomes the batin, where the batin rabb becomes the director and orderer over him. God therefore never
ceases to translate him from one emergence to another, from one homeland to
another, where the second homeland is better than the one before. So He takes
him from one manifestation of revelation and puts him into another
manifestation of revelation, which second revelation is higher and better and
lighter and purer than the first. The huwiyyah of the haqq which is individuated in the servant
returns in fact to the nafs of the haqq Himself, as is pointed out in the words: ‘To Him returns all the amr' (wa ilayhi yurja'u
al-amru kulluhu). And this shows very clearly in
fact that that which returns to the haqq is
the same thing as the haqq, since the haqq, by the observance by revelation in the a'yan of
actor and acted upon, is manifest^and individuated. Which means that the a'yan of immanence are the same as the haqq and
the amr returns to Him.
Tasarruf happens in God, because the images of creation and action which
happen in manifestation are manifest and individuated when the haqq is in batin. He is mutasarrif because the Divine images of action and Names which happen in the bat in are individuated in the zahir. Nothing
emanated from the haqq which is not the same as the
haqq-, perhaps rather the huwiyyah of the haqq is the same as that thing, and equally nothing returned to the haqq which is not the same as that thing. In fact what returns to Him is
His own huwiyyah. This face which we have just mentioned is that which the Divine kashf gives in the words of God (wa ilayhi yurja'u al-amru kulluhu), because the Unique Ipseity is revealed in the images of the a'yan and the images of
839
Of the Wisdom of the Unknowable
(al-hikmat al-ghaybiyyah)
in the Word of Job
When water, which is the same as the Ipseity of Uniqueness, became the
origin of all life, God made water the image of life and knowledge, because
life, which is the same as the Ipseity of Uniqueness, was first represented in
the images of the spirits, and after that in the images of the elements.
Theieby, also, water is the origin of the elements. ‘And We brought life into
everything from water’ (Quran).
Know that the mystery of life oecame fluent in water. In
other words, the mystery of life became manifest in the image of water. Water
is the origin of all the elements and fundamentals, and consequently God
brought life into everything from water. And there is nothing in existence
which is not alive, because absolutely in reality there is nothing in existence
which does not praise (jasbih) God by giving Him grace,
but we cannot understand its praise except through Divine revelation (kashf)-, and nothing renders grace to God unless it is alive. Consequently
everything is alive. And the origin of everything is water because the origin
of everything is life. The fact that life is fluent in water, and that
everything has life through water is definitely realized by the Divine Being (huwiyyah) manifesting with the Breath of Compassion (nafas-ar-rahman) and by the Breath of Compassion, being fluent in everything.
Accordingly, life pervades the totality of the realities of the necessities of
Names and the realities of the possibilities of creation, and water is fluent
in the totality of the fundamentals and elements and all the things that are
engendered by water by virtue of the individuation (ta’ayyun) in water of the Breath of Compassion and the Being of God.
Thus the Shaykh takes water as the origin for all the
elements and the fundamentals. Do you not see how the Throne, that is to say,
the bodily Throne which is the primum mobile {falak-al-atlas), rested on water? Because without a doubt the Throne became
immanenced from the steam of water which arose from heat. Consequently, the
image
841
Man became elevated according to his Lord and was manifested
according to Him, yet God preserves from beneath with His Being the servant who
is full of pride and self-elevation and disobedience, by looking at the servant
who is ignorant of himself, or equally by looking at the elevatedness of the
servant who is ignorant of his Lord. That is to say. although the man by virtue
of his reality claims Lordship from God for his place of advance and the
elevation of his rank, and because he is ignorant of himself and his Lord, he
manifests with that quality of self-aggrandizement, yet God preserves him from
beneath. And if He did not, he would have become non-existent.
In reality the being of the servant is none other than
the image of the individuation of the Being of God revealing Himself upon the
servant. Of course the individuation is high and manifest over that thing
through which it is individuated, and that which is individuated is the Being
of God which is covered over by the individuation of servanthood. If God had
not preserved the individuation of the servant, in which is individuated the
Being of God, certainly it would have become non-existent, because
individuation has no reality without there being that which is individuated,
because individuating without there being an individuated is destructive.
That God preserves His servant from beneath is the
meaning of the Prophet’s saying: ‘If you lowered a rope, it would fall upon
God.’ The Prophet pointed in this hadith to the fact that
the relationship of ‘underneath’ to God is the same as the relationship of
‘above’ to God, as indicated in the words: ‘They fear their Lord who is above
them’, and: ‘He is the destroyer over His servants.’ That is to say, the relationship
of above and below to God is equal, because God encompasses both the outward
and the inte.ior and the above and the below, and ‘He is with you wherever you
be; if you are buried in the earth He is with you, and in whichever dwelling
you appear, He is with you.’ Consequently, as they fear God from above, and as
God strikes them and destroys them from above, He destroys them in the same way
from underneath, and one is afraid af not being protected. Do you not see how
individuation would ex.st no more if the revelation which is in individuating were
to return to the individuator? And since above or below with reference to God
is equal, the six directions do not manifest except with respect to Man, or
even except through Man, who is also in the image of the Compassionate {rahmdn), and the fact that God preserves the servant from beneath does not
prevent God from
843
all directions, is prese.j-ved from beneath by water, in the same
way the other images of the universes and elements and fundamentals are equally
preserved in the best way from beneath, because the Throne necessarily includes
all those, because the word ‘arsh (Throne) implies each thing
of existence, because each existent is the Throne and the place of
manifestation of the Divine Names. Consequently, the totality of things is the
Divine Throne. If the Divine Life, which preserves everything in the image of
water from beneath, returned to its origin, the particular order of that thing
would be made void, because that natural warmth which is the life, of the
living is preserved by the natural dampness. So the life of the neat results
from the image of the dampness of water, and when that dampness is inexistent,
death occurs, and the disintegration of the parts of Man arises from that.
Consequently, the Shaykh, having elucidated the prefaces relating to the manner
and taste of Job, began his explanation.
God said to Job: ‘Strike the grou nd with your foot for
this is water for washing the body’; that is cool water. When Job struck the
ground with his foot, from the ground rose a life-giving spring, and Job washed
with that water and drank from it. By that single stroke of the foot upon the
earth, God removed from Job all the ill that was attached to his soul {nafs) and to his body. Job was suffering from excessive fever, and God
calmed that fever by the coolness of the water. Satan had perpetuated that
fever in Job’s body for seven years, and by cooling the fever with the water
God gave Job recovery of health. In other words, as medicine, God diminished
the fever by increasing the peace {salam) of the coolness.
Because of this, medicine consists in the diminishing of the excess and the
increasing of the deficient. In other words, medicine consists, in nature, in
the decreasing of what is excessive in the balance and in increasing that
which is deficient in the balance.
The goal of medicine is equilibrium, and there is no way
to achieve this except by coming close to it. Thus, what is required of
medicine is equilibrium, but there is no way to achieve this real equilibrium except
in so far as the equilibrium of Man is close to the real equilibrium. We said
there is no possibility of equilibrium because in truth, reality and witnessing
constantly bestow the self with the immanencing {lakwin), because at every instant things are in a new creation and in a new
immanencing. Immanencing cannot happen except by inclination, and this
inclination, where it applies to nature, is called deviation {inhiraf)
845
just said, that the fate of the people of the fire is mercy and
removal of suffering, even though they are ris’dent in the fire, then the
removal of suffering in their case is agreement. Consequently, by the removal
of suffering, anger is annulled, because anger is the same as the suffering.
If you would understand, you would understand in reality, since pain is
consequent to anger, just as the person who is angry certainly suffers in his
self and will not wreak vengeance upon the person with whom he is angry by
putting him into pain, except that by giving pain he wishes to find repose (rdhah") in his self. Consequently, the pain which appears at the level of
the one who is angry is transferred to the person with whom he is angry, and
therefore in this case also God becomes qualified by agreement, which is the
choice of one of the orders, and equilibrium is removed.
If you singularize God from this universe, by Grandeur
and Exaltedness, then He will be aggrandized to such a degree that He would be
rich beyond need of finding ease in Himself by passing His anger on to the one
He is angry witn. But if you were to consider that the Identity (huwiyyah) of God is the identity of the universe, then all the orders cannot
manifest except in God since He is the identity of the universe, and since God
and His orders extend from God upon the universe. What is meant by th1!
saying of God: ‘All order returns to Him’, is that the totality of the universe
in its reality and in its revelation returns to God; and what is manifest in
the universe is the Identity of God. Consequently, pray and be servant to God
whichever thing you face, though you be veiled and covered, tru$'tdh Him and
appoint Him your Attorney (wakil). That is to say, though
yqu are veiled or covered, pray to Him and be confident in Him, because the
short intelligences and weak comprehensions are veiled from understanding the
reality of the universe, and putting your trust in Him (tawakkul) happens in the state of being veiled. Thus, even though God is
covered and veiled from your vision, pray and put your trust in Him and ask
that He bestow on you the witnessing and the closeness (yaqiri) by removing the veil and lifting the cover.
In short, in the universe of possibilities there is no
universe more beautifully constructed (badi')
and more total than this universe, because in fact the reality is that God
brought it into being according to the image of Compassion (rahman). The Shaykh, having considered the identity of the universe as being
the same as the Identity of God, then made it understood, by saying that He
brought the universe into
847
This is so because of the difference of the ability
in each person behind the veils and curtain, where the determination {hukni) is consequent to the domination of supposition. It is not a
determination resultant from witnessing and visual specification. And if the
knowledge which is other chan the knov/ledge of revelation (kashf) and witnessing (shuhud) were true knowledge,
there would be no variability and there would be no manifestation of various
beliefs. There would exist only one knowledge and one belief; and one knowledge
is God’s Knowledge alone, by which and in. yzhich the reality of all things is
known and witnessed. All things are known to God in the Presence of Knowledge;
in whatever image they are identified, God knows them according to that. Even
the knowledge of the Perfect Man, who, being liberated from the conditions of
conjecture and beliefs of supposition, has reached the Divine Knowledge, and is
perhaps even the place of reception of that Knowledge, is also knowledge of
witnessing and knowledge of closeness, and he observes the order in the Divine
Knowledge, exactly as it is.
After that, that water became a drink for Job (may peace
be on him) to eliminate the pain of thirst which was appointed in him, and the
torment which was the Satan’s touch on him, so that he would be distanced from
understanding the realities as they are, by which understanding he would be in
the place of closeness. Now, that is to say he touched Job with that pain so
that Job be distanced. In short, God eliminated that thirst and the torture of
suffering by that cold water. And Satan {shaytan)
is the word derived from shatun which means being far from
the Truth, and becoming far off, and remoteness, and he is called shaytan because he is very far away from understanding God and
comprehending the realities, and the word shaytan
is a superlative case and this is applied to him because of his extreme
distance. Thus the Shaykh interpreted shaytan
as remoteness.
Each thing witnessed is close to the eye, even if in
distance it is far from it, because in fact vision reaches a thing by virtue of
witnessing it. If there had been no reaching it by the eye, the eye would not
be able to witness it. Or the reverse is equally true, that that which is
observed reaches the eye. Whatever the case may be, witnessing gives reaching,
and reaching gives closeness, and this closeness of the eye is according to
both the beliefs, whether the light of the eye emanates from the eye or, as in
the second case, whether the object seen imprints itself upon the eye. Here the
Shaykh refers to the differences of opinion
849 /■ !i
Now certainly you have come tc know that distance and
closeness are two qualifying orders, where closeness is related to certainty
and application, and distance is related to the lack of this and to deviation.
Therefore, closeness and distance are two relationships which have no existence
of their own, essentially and in reality, although the rules and orders of
distance and closeness are existent. In other words, the relationship of God to
each one of the totality of existents is at the same level. The Person (Ja nab) of the Ipseity is completely transcendent from closeness or
distance, and closeness and distance exist only as two qualifying orders by
virtue of the actions and the states of the servants, and they have no
existence in reality. The predications of these two orders are established in
that which is close and that which is distant. Thus, because closeness and
distance are two accidental qualities, Satan, who is distanced from God, is
essentially close, since he exists through the existence of God, and since he
is the place of manifestation of. the Name ‘Misleader’ (mudill), and Job, may peace be on him, though he was essentially close,
because of his deviation from balance (i‘tidal)
was in the essence of distance. And do not forget and do not be veiled from the
fact that closeness and distance are two accidental qualities, and the
closeness is in the distance, and the distance is in the closeness.
Now know that the reason why God showed us the mystery
of Job’s illness is to provide us with an example, and so that the people of
Mohammed read the lines of. this book according to their state; and this is a
lesson to those 'people so that they learn from what befell Job, who is the
subject of this book, and this is due to God’s desire to honour them. That is
to say, God made Job, with all his states, an example to us; how Job was first
afflicted, then, by virtue of his patience in affliction, how he was saved, and
He made example of the various ills that befell Job, together with his
salvation and return to health in response to his patience, so that the people
of Mohammed read this book of Job according to their state. Thus, this book is
a lesson so that they learn about affliction and patience and well-being and
salvation, so that when affliction strikes them, they are patient, and when the
order of testing is completed, they concord with the Divine order to pray that
this affliction be removed from them. And like Job, who was the original
subject of this affliction, they join his station in agreement and in
punishment. That He did this is to honour the people of Mohammed, so that the
RSI
Job acts through Divine Wisdom, and is patient in the
face of affliction when the Divine Wisdom requires that, and when it is
necessary he prays for the removal of affliction. It is known that a group of
Sufis believe that patience is to restrain the soul from complaint, and they
say that the limit of patience is the refraining from complaint absolutely,
whether that complaint be to God or to others. However, for us at our level,
there is no such limit to patience. On the contrary, at our level the limit of
patience is to refrain^ from complaint to other than God, and not to refrain
from complaint to God, because God ordered us to appeal to Him and to appeal is
complaint to God, and complaining to God does not diminish patience. Thus, God
veiled those people from knowing the reality of the order, because they thought
by complaining, the complainer is prevented from agreement to destiny (qadd’), whereas in reality the order :s not like this. The
complainer does not prevent his agreement to the destiny by complaining. In
reality complaint Jo God or even to ethers does not prevent agreement to the
destiny. Perhaps it doe:; prevent agreement to what has happened as a result of
destiny, but we have never been told to agree with the resultant effect of
destiny, and ill is that thing which is the result of destiny. Ill is not the
same as destiny. Thus, to complain of the ill which is the result, and to work
for the removal of that, does not diminish one’s agreement to the destiny. That
which is pronounced as sentence is an order which is demanded by the essence,
state and inclination of the person who is to be sentenced, and the decree is
God’s predication to that order. Thus, it is not necessary to be in agreement
with the sentence, as disagreement with the sentence does not mean disagreement
with the decree itself.
The Ancients have given us this example: if a sick man
being treated by a doctor is to take a terrible-tasting poison or is to be
treated by burning, the sick man is absolutely certain that he will suffer from
what the doctor proposed. Yet he knows well that what the doctor proposed is
due to his higher wisdom in medicine and that he will be cured of his ill. If
he then complained to the doctor and asked him to remove the possible pain from
him by exchanging for another medicine which is easier to bear, this order of
complaint by the sick man would not prevent the patient’s agreement with the
decree (qada’)
of the doctor over him, but would only be
disagreement with the kind of medicine proposed.
Job came to know that in restraining the soul from
complaint to
853 Ji'”4
that I cry to Him’, by which he means: ‘God afflicted me with an ill
so that I ask of Him for the removal of that ill from me, and that asking does
not diminish my patience.’ In other words, indigence, which is one of the
necessities of servanthood, does not diminish my being patient. Therefore, to
correct the poverty and servanthood of a true servant, it is necessary to ask
and pray.
Now we have come to know that certainly patiepce is to
restrain the soul from complaint to other than God. When the Shaykh mentioned
other than God, and when you say that the totality of existence is the manifest
image of God, that there is no existence other than God, then how can it be
imaginable to complain to other? And he answered: what I mean by ‘other’ is one
particular aspect from among the Divine aspects. In fact God appointed a
specific aspect from among the Divine aspects, and that specific face is called
the face of Identity (huwiyyah'). That is to say, it
is the aspect of the Absolute Identity, which includes, the totality of
aspects, and that aspect is the Divine Name. Thus the servant who asks God for
the removal of affliction should pray with that aspect and not pray with the
other aspects which are called ‘causes’, even though the other aspects are no
other than the face of Identity. That is to say, the aspect of Identity is the
same as the totality of aspects, and its particularization in all the aspects
is its particularization in Himself. To restrain the soul from complaining to
other than God is to incline to a specificaspect of God from among the Divine
aspects. For the gnostic to pray to the Being (huwiyyah) of God for the removal of ill from himself does not veil him from
the fact that the totality of the causes are again the same as God Himself, and
there is no difference between the vision of the gnostic and the vision of that
aspect of Being; but for other than a gnostic, it is ruled by difference.
What has just been mentioned is a mystery, which path is
not applicable to those who are other than people of tact from among the
servants of God, because they alone are secure people for God, and are not
known to other than God, and only some of those know each other. Thus we have
advised you; so act accordingly, and ask of God, the Glorious, so that you
correct the servanthood and indigence, and in the desiring of necessary things
follow the example of the Divine order.
God says: ‘Pray to Me and I will answer you’, and God
tells the truth and guides on the Way.
855
The Wisdom of Awesome Majesty
(al-hikmat
al-jalaliyyah)
in the Word of Jjfthn (Yahya)
J'
This is the Wisdom of the
primordiality in Names, because God called him Yahya (John), that is, so that
Zachariah’s rememoration (dhikr) be alive by it. The Wisdom
pertaining to John is of the Names of Primal Wisdom (al-hikmat al-awwaliyyah). God called John with the name John, meaning thereby that the dhikr of Zachariah became alive through this action. Primordiality in a name
is the qualification through which that name acquires, its primal position. In
names primordiality occurs because when a name is given for the first time to
a thing, which then being named by that for the first time, it acquires that
primordiality. Now God called with the name John a thing which was primary to
the humankind, and He did not name with this name only so that Zachariah’s dhikr should come alive by it, because Zachariah had asked of God:
‘Present me from Your private Knowledge (laduri)
a waliyy, to be my heir and an heir to the House of Jacob, and bring him
forth well agreed by the Lord.’ That is, he asked for a saintly heir as his
heir so that his dhikr should come alive through that. And He had not brought
forth before this of that name. God the High says: ‘And
We had not brought forth before this of that name’ (Quran). Meaning that God
says that He did not call before this anything by that same name. Now here,
contrary to His custom, God united in this name knowledge and qualification,
because when Zachariah asked of God the High for a saintly successor so that he
will become his own heir in prophethood and knowledge and that his rememoration
of God be alive through him, God agreed to his (Zachariah’s) prayer. Thus God
called John by the name John because God the High bestowed him to an impotent
old man and a barren old woman, and contrary to custom He named him John,
because usually the knowledge of a quality and the quality itself are not
united in a name, to point at the unusualness of this case, and also for
particularization of John and honouring of Zachariah. And He united between the
coming forth of the quality, that which would be remaining and he would leave
behind a child by whose 857!
Zachariah because of the favour which emanated from Him for Zachariah
because Zachariah had said: ‘Give me from Your private Knowledge a saintly
successor’, thus giving priority to God over the mention of his son, just as
Asiyah had done when she gave priority to the neighbourhood of God in her
words: ‘Near You a house in Paradise.’ Consequently, because Zachariah gave
priority to the mention of God over the mention of his son, God favoured him
and destined to him his need, that is to say, by giving him John in uniting
between qualification and knowledge as a present. And God the High called the
son He gave as a gift to Zachariah with the quality which is Life that
Zachariah demanded, so that John’s name be a rememoration for what Zachariah,
His prophet, asked of Him, because Zachariah had asked the continued life of his
rememoration. Thus, the name John remeino- rates that, and the rememoration of
Zachariah is alive by him, and calling John by His own Quality. Because the
S.A. (Zachariah) wanted the rememoration of God to remain after him, because
the son is the mystery of his father, and said: ‘To be heir to me and an heir
to the sons of Jacob’, but there never is in reality an heir after them (the
prophets) except in the station of the rememoration of God and inviting to Him.
Because Zachariah wanted to establish an heir to the rememoration of God to
remain after himself, and asked for a son because the son is the mystery of his
father. Thus Zachariah said: ‘An heir to me and an heir to the people of
Jacob.’ However, in tliis matter for the prophets (S.A.) there is no heir
except for the rememoration of God and invitation to God. Thus, Zachariah
(S.A.) asked for a pure son which would be his mystery, and for the continued
remaining of the Divine rememoration and invitation to God which was in
himself, so that that son would rememorate God and would invite people to God,
because Zachariah (S.A.) was the place of manifestation of rahmah and of completion, and he was at the extreme of satisfaction of the
subtlety and munificence of beauty and domination and awe and majesty, but at
the time of his prayer and asking, his interior was dominated by the fear of
the powerful heirs of wrong-doing, so much so that he was afraid that
rememoration of God and invitation to God would be lost after him, and he had
no saintly heir so that he would have a people over whom he would be present
with the order of prophethood, so that he would remember God with true
rememoration and invite the people to God. Thus, the asking for a pure son
among the prophets is for the perpetuation of the desire of the knowledge of
God and the manifestation of
859
his day of resurrection, and equally on the day of the birth of his
heart, according to the spiritual masht'u of nature (or
equally on the day of the birth of John’s heart as it emanates from the general
masht'a of human beings) or the birth of John’s spiritual emanation from
the masht'a, and equally from the day of the death of his nafs (self) and again at his becoming existent in the Reality of Truth.
The day of his birth equally means the day of his birth in the knowledge of God
by the establishment of the image of that knowledge, together with the ta'ayyun awwal (or through the ta'ayyun awwal—First ta'ayyun = First individuation), or equally on the day of his ta'ayyun (individuation) according to his natural inclination having
received the manifestation of the Name salam
from the Most Holy Effusion (fayd-al-aqdas)-, and the day of
his death is the day when he is released from his ta'ayyun- i-wujudt (individuation in existence), and the third part, where it says
‘resurrected alive’, means thaf on the Great Day of Judgement,
through the annihilation of all devolutions manifested and secret, and coming
into baqa' (remaining) after fana' (passing away), existing
then only through the Being of the Ipseity, thus being resurrected alive
through the Divine Life of the Ipseity.
Among all the people of insight (kashf) it is agreed that the most complete and most complete perfection—salam—is this, because the word salam
refers to God Himself, is a qualification from God Himself, and the words "salam to him’ referring to John. And in fact the word of the Spirit
(Jesus): ‘And salam upon me the day I am born, the day I shall die and
the day I shall be resurrected alive’, is the most perfect upon agreement. Having said that this is the most perfect and complete form of salam, people will say then, what is the position of Jesus? How could it
be so when the situation is that in the manifestation of Jesus, God announced
Jesus’ birth by his beginning and his end being in the salami Zmd the answer is that though this is the most complete form of salam in the case of John, in the case of Jesus, because he is the Spiiit
of God and the Word of God, it is through the devolution into Jesus of the
Substance of God that God gives the salam
upon Himself and not upon another, and the immanence of this uniqueness proves
Jesus’ being established in completeness. That Jesus proclaims himself
transcendent from all lack and shortcoming, which transcendence is private to
God, establishes that completeness. And that is the most complete in the
consensus of opinion and belief, and the highest for purposes of
interpretation./Thus the salam in the case of
861
Jesus, gives salam to Himself in consideration
of the fact that He is veiled in the individuation of Jesus. In short, if these
words are not interpreted, none of the people of belief acknowledge the
veracity of the fact that God the High gives salam
upon Himself in the substance of Jesus. However, the tiding and salam which is in the place of manifestation which is Jesus is more
complete at the level of the people of insight (kashf)
and gnosis, as it is in relationship to the residing of Jesus in completion and
the witnessing of the uniqueness of Jesus, because there is no indication in
the case of John in himself to the witnessing of his uniqueness and his
residing in completion other than the tiding which has come down to him from
the aspect of the Quiddity of God. In fact it is that He went in this matter
against the usual custom in the case of Jesus in that he spoke when his
intelligence and completion had resided in him at this time when He made him
talk therein, and it is not necessary to believe someone who is able to talk in
whatever state, because it is possible that he speaks contrary to what is
witnessed by him, whereas for John it is the salam of
God upon John. It is from this aspect that it is higher, as it happens to be
clothed by the Divine Munificence as compared to the salam of Jesus to his own self. In fact, it is that in the case of Jesus
the usual custom was deviated from. What happened was that Jesus spoke in the
cradle, that is to say that the intelligence of Jesus became established and
complete at that time when God the High made Jesus speak' therein. It is not
necessary to believe the speech of somebody who is capable of speaking in no
matter what condition in what he says, that is to say, whether it be by way of
making someone speak or making it possible for them to speak, or whether it be
that he has the ability to speak, it is not necessary to believe what he is
saying. That is to sr.y, the fact that one speaks with a speech does not
necessitate the veracity of that speech, because it is possible that he speaks
with a speech which is not in concordance with the order itself. The case of
John . s contrary to this possibility by the fact that he has been witnessed as
such, because it is God the High who witnessed with His words where he is
concerned. Thus the salam of John in this aspect is
higher in clothing, which is the Divine clothing which clothes John, than the salam of Jesus upon his own self. And in fact if the closeness of the state (of
Jesus) denotes his closeness to God in this, and his veracity, as well as
denoting the blamelessness of his mother when he spoke in the cradle, and this
is one of the two witnesses, and the second witness is the shaking of the dry
and barren tree, and
863
because Jesus is the servant of God at the level of latter people
who know the quiddity sf Jesus, that is to say, they testify to that. What he
said other than: ‘I am the servant of God’, remained as a possibility at the
level of the intellectual point of view, until all he had notified of when he
was in the cradle became manifest and true in the future when he invited them,
which means that other than what he said: ‘I am the servant of God’, remained
in the determination of a possibility from the point of view of the
intellectual, until in the future when he was appointed, and when he was
appointed his truth became evident and the possibility was eradicated. Thus,
you, understand according to the truth that which we have pointed at, that is
to say, it has been pointed out to you the difference between the salam of Jesus upon himself and God’s salam to
John, or that you understand with clear understanding and witness with the
discerning vision (bastrah) the truth of all he
gave news of concerning the absolution of Mary, his mother, and give no substance
to.the possibility which results from the intellectual point of view.
865
Of the Wisdom of Ownership
(al-hikrnat al-malikiyyah)
in the Word of Zachariah
Know that indeed God’s rahmah encompasses all things
both by being and by determination (hukm). That is to say,
whether a thing is existent by being called existent or whether a thing is
existent only in knowledge. Divine Mercy encompasses all existents of possible
feelings and knowledgeable individuations and relationships with nonexistence.
And indeed the existence of anger is also due to God’s Mercy upon anger.
Thereby, His Mercy passed beyond His Anger, that is to say, the relationship of
Mercy to Himself goes beyond the relationship of Anger to Himself. Know it
like this, that Mercy is Essential (that is, from the Ipseity) for Truth (haqq), because Truth (God) is by Itself existent, and His effusion and
goodness emanates from the treasures of the existence of Mercy from the Divine
Presences. Consequently, Mercy of Truth encompasses all the individuations of
existence and relationship of non-existence Cadam).
And anger is also of the relationship of non-existence. And rahmah encompasses also anger because the existence of anger is also from
Divine Mercy, but the relationship of anger to the Truth is subsequent to the
relationship of Mercy to the Truth, because anger, in comparison to Mercy, is
contingent; just as to flow is contingent to being water, and equally, as its
solidity is contingent to its fluidity. In fact, anger is a determination (hukm) from non-existcnce (‘adarr) and takes its
origin from the nonability of an existent to receive and actuate a
determination (hukm) of manifestation, when the 'ayn is in completion.
Hence the determination (hukm) of
that thing’s inability to receive Mercy would necessitate the complete
non-appearance of Mercy in that thing in this world and in the other.
Therefore, the thing’s inability to receive and the non-reception to the
effusion of Mercy is in relationship to the thing itself called by the
Merciful: anger, criminality, and badness (sharr).
Hence, the relationship of Mercy to the Truth goes beyond the relationship of
Anger to the Truth. The Manifestation of Mercy, which is the consequence of the
Mercy of Light upon the
867
non-existence, accepts non-existence, and that thing by which the
universe looks towards existence, accepts existence. Therefore, some of the
universes v/hich are darkness of nature and some of them which are light, are
the Divine Ipseity, nafs ilaht (Divine nafs). Hence, in relation to light, darkness is bad, but existence by
virtue of its being existence is goodness, while badness is complete
non-existence. Oh student! That is to say, when there was an existence for each
‘ayn, be it an ‘ayn of existence or an ‘ayn of knowledge, which is the ‘ayn-i- thabita of each thing, that ‘ayn demands its existence
from God individuated in the degree of Divinity, and from the Presences of the
Names and from the treasury of the Name which is particular to it. Because God
always extends and grants the existence which is the due to that ‘ayn, and each ‘ayn would not have causality of
qualification had it not been so, and that is vjhy the Mercy of God
became common to each thing, because God, through that Mercy through which He
gave Mercy to each thing and by bringing it into existence in the existence of
knowledge, accepted by that its demand and its closeness which is in the
existence of its ‘ayn and the closeness which is in you. In
other words, God brought into existence the ‘ayn of
that thing. That is, God in His Knowledge with a special Mercy establishes that
thing with the existence of its ‘ayn, and when that thing
which is thus established demands, requires, or is inclined to closeness and
is inclined to existence, God, through that Essential Mercy with which in the
Presence of Knowledge He had given it rahmah
and brought it into existence, accepts its desire for closeness which is in
the ‘ayn of existence of that thing, and brought into existence the ‘ayn of that thing with that. That is to say, each of the a'yan, which were in annihilation in the Ipseity of haqq, requested or demanded the coming into existence of their ‘ayn through their essential inclinations. That is, when they were still
non-individuatec' in the a'yan, but all the same were
established in the Presence of Knowledge wherein they were individuated and
also individuated by the Mercy of God and His Essential revelation in the
Presence of Knowledge, then God, with that same Essential Mercy with which He
had extracted them from annihilation and had mercified them, now accepted their
closeness and inclination to coming into existence in their ‘ayn and accepted their request and brought them into existence.
Hence because of this, that is to say, after the a'yan were established in the Divine Knowledge, through the rahmah of Ipseity, they became
869
which is the Reality of the Name rahmdn,
because the ’ayn of the Reality of the Name rahmdn refers to the one ’ayn, because the One, which is
the Reality of the Name rahmdn, includes all the Names of
the a’yan. Therefore, that first ‘thing’ which was encompassed by the fayd-al-aqdas, which is the manifestation of the Ipseity with the Essential Mercy,
that ‘thing’ is the ‘thingness’ of the collectivity of ’ayn. That ’ayn is the Reality of the source of Mercy
which is then differentiated into the Mercy of the Names, and that ’ayn is mercified and brought into existence by the Mercy of the Ipseity
to become Names of Mercy and to bring into existence the Names of Mercy through
the Essential Mercy of the Ipseity. In that case, that which encompassed the
first thing with the Mercy of Ipseity is the nafs-i-rahmah, the Mercy Itself. That is, that which became manifested in the ’ayn of Mercy, is Mercy, because in the relativity of non-existence,
even rahmah does not manifest except in an ’ayn.
Therefore, according to the first face, Mercy encompasses the ‘thingness’ of
that ’ayn, which makes it Merciful to its own Mercy. Because in manifesting,
that ’ayn becomes the event of the Ipseity of Mercy, consequently, if Mercy is
mercifying, it is mercifying its own nafs.
Consequently, that thing is its own thingness. That is to say, the thingness of
the ’ayn of Oneness. And is the beginning and origin of’ail the a’yan, and is also, consequently, the thingness of all existence, which
means the existence of their thingness. In other words, concisely, it means
that first of all rahmah is encompassing to its own
nafs and then encompasses the ’ayn of
Oneness, which includes all the Names of the a’yan,
that is, the Reality of the Name of rahmdn.
In short, the nafs-ar-rahman is encompassing before and
after the manifestation of all things. However, though it has encompassed
everything, Mercy is also a relationship from the relationship of r
on-existence and is a thing among things. But because He says His rahmah encompasses everything, therefore in His Knowledge that becomes
real through His Knowledge and by existence. Whereas many things are seen as
under Anger, though all things are mercified, then nothing ought to be under
Anger. Yet the Mercy of the Essential Mercifulness of completeness (kamal) is subjected to the common Mercy of Mercifulness by virtue of the
place of receptivity. And we have already mentioned in the Futiihdt that indeed effect does not take place except for the non-existent,
and does not take place for that which exists. That is to say, effect is established
for the a’yan-i-thabita which are non-existent, and is effective
871
means people who have gone beyond the world of senses, that is to
say, the reality of the problem of the effect of the non-existent on the
existent is not understood except by the people of awham who
conjecture certain matters of their own conjecturing which have no existence,
and their nafs become acted upon and affected by a great action and a very strong
effect. That is to say, this knowledge happens in their case through taste;
that is to say, they look upon the source of the effect, the source of which
are matters of wahm, and because of this taste, it so
happens a knowledge results in them, and that which has effect on them are
matters of wahm and non-existence. But that person in whom wahm is not effective ard is not knowledgeable through taste, that
person in whose existence the wahm which is an order of
non-existence, has so much effect on him, that the person is far from realizing
this problem. That is to say, if one told a person who is affected by wahm that the a'yan of non-existence are
effective and ordering in the amr of existence, he will by
taste understand and comprehend through seeing in his existence the act of the
order of wahm,
and understand how and in what manner the order of
non-existence has effect on the existent, but the person who has not felt the
effect of wahm, cannot understand, because he has not seen the effect of wahm in his own self, and he has no pleasure in this question. Another
way is as follows: that wahm, which is an order of
non-existence, appears in the power of imagination of the people of wahm, brings into existence things of wahm
non-existent in the power of imagination. That is, people of wahm bring about the existence of things in their imagination, those
things which are things of non-existence. That man knows how the amrs of non-existence, which are the a'yan,
have effected in the existence of haqq, in His (haqq's) Presence of Knowledge, and brought into existence the images of
knowledge which are non-existent in His Presence of Knowledge. And that person
in whom wahm is not effective, that is to say, who does not create in his
faculty of imagination, images of imagination, that person is far from understanding
this question.
The Mercy of God, which at the degree of Uniqueness is
the same as the Ipseity, is different to It in the degree of Unity and by
appearing in manifestation in the images of immanence; nafs-ar-rahman is current in the immanence and in the same way it is current in
the a'yan of knowledge and in the essences of the unknown by having brought
into existence in the Presence of Knowledge the essences and a'yan of
873
believing a'yan. The rahmah of haqq, Mercy of Truth, has mercified the makhluq (creature, the created) by virtue of It mercifying Itself by
bringing them into existence, which makes that He Himself is the first
mercified of all the creatures of the Mercy. Because the bringing into
existence of the a'yan thabita, by the rahmah, by appertainance to belief, is the same as the appertainance of
Truth to the created; and the other effect for rahmah
results through the question; that is to say, it is degreed according to the
degrees of questions. Those who are veiled question the haqq or demand of the haqq that He has mercy on them.
But ahl-i-kashf, people of vision, demand the Mercy of God which exists through
them. And they require, demand, ask God’s Mercy through the Name Allah. And they say. ‘Oh Allah, mercify us’, and the rahmah does not mercify them in any other way than through their qayyumness (Permanently Subsistent) because rahmah is
only subsistent by them. Hence, for any place, the order is established
because for each Quality or Adjective which exists through the existence of.
the recipient place, that place happens in the order of that Quality. The
qualified establishes the Quality. Because in reality an order is established
only for the subsistence of that place where the order is received. For
example, like the spiritAyhich can exist only by the body, and the spirit is
the order upon that body (in control of it), but it is not there if the body is
not there, and does not have order over the body after it has left the body,
with the exception, however, of the complete kamil
spirit, which unlike what is mentioned above, does not manifest in a special
form, except temporarily, and does not really hold a form. Therefore, the
meaning which subsists through a place is Merciful through its reality. And
that person through whose existence rahmah is
perpetuated is not called the Merciful, but is called by the meaning that
perpetuates the rahmah in him. Except that that person is
called by the meaning of the rahmah which is perpetuated by
his being. In reality, the thing that orders is the meaning of Mercy. People of
kashf observe through taste in their own nafs the
order of the rahmah which is subsistent through their
being, because rahmah is thabita,
established, in their existence. It is exactly, clearly, like the spirit for
which they are the mould. In the same way as rahmah is
subsistent by them, they are subsistent by the rahmah,
and they observe in their existence, through taste, that the order under which
they are is Mercy. In the same way, rahmah is
not created by being in the creature, because like the spirit, it persists in
the creature, but also like the spirit, their place
875
Mercy and brought them into existence, and equally through His
Mercy, mercified that 'ayn which perpetuates, subsists,
that Mercy until that ‘ayn mercifies all things, and
that person who has not tasted this order, that is to say, he did not know
through his taste that rahmah subsisted through his own
being, and equally he did not see established in this order its primordiality,
hence that person who could not dare to say that haqq is
the same as the rahmah or the same as that Quality, that
person is an Ash'ari.
Although rahmah is in the degree of
collectiveness by virtue of Divinity, because rahmahs
are the treasuries of the Names by virtue of the Names having beer, collected
in It, and that that degree includes all the Divine Names, yet rahmah in its relationship to each of the Divine Names is different,
because each Name by its own reality is different and distinct from the others,
yet each of the Divine Names is the treasury of a kind of rahmah, and me'-cifies the person through that much of the Reality which
has been given to him.
It is because of these differences of .thp degrees of rahmah that God is asked to give Mercy upon them. And He does that through
each of the Names of Divine Names, and asks for this rahmah through those Names, and then God does rahmah on
the person who demands. And they say when they are asking directly for the rahmah of God, which includes all Reality, by remembering the quote in
which God Himself says that His rahmah encompasses
everything, and through the saying: ‘Our Lord encompasses everything through
the rahmah and knowledge.’
The Shaykh al-Akbar describes .wo ways of flowing. One
is the flowing of the people who are t elievers of religion and who go through
certain forms of this and demand rahmah on their action;
and the other way is without any action being there, that is prescribed, and
that way goes through the phrase: ‘And My rahmah
has encompassed all things’ and profits from that, and this rahmah is the rahmah of Ipseity which covers
all things, and acts are not in this consideration. And it was because of this
way of running that it was said to the Prophet: ‘May God forgive you all your
sins which are in the past and which will be in the future.’ And this is like
the Mercy of God again common to everything, and also the case for certain of
His servants, to whom He says: ‘Do whatever you want, for your forgiveness is
already established.’ And this second way is called the rahmah of imtinan, and it is the rahmah of the ipseity, and it is
not given against
877
Of the Wisdom of Intimacy
(al-hikmat al-inasiyyah)
in the Word of Elijah
Elijah (Elias) is Enoch (Idris) who was a nabiyy
before Noah, and whom God elevated to a high place. Enoch stayed in the heart
of the skies (seven spheres, of which the heart is the sun). After that he was
sent to Baalbek as an envoy. This is how Enoch is before Noah: Enoch is the
grandfather of Noah’s father; Noah, son of Lamech, son of Methuselah, son of
Enoch; and Enoch is Idris, called Idris because of the multitude of his
learning, teaching and writing. (Note: the word Idris comes from the Arabic
root d-r-s', the same root gives dars, which means lesson
or learning. Idris is a superlative form derived from the
same root.) Elias (Elijah) is of two beginnings. Death here has no effect, just
as in the case of Khidr and Jesus. And God elevated him to the fourth heaven
which is the heart of the heavens, that is, the heaven of the sun. Then God
brought him down, just as He is going to bring down Jesus, peace be on him, and
sent him to Baalbek to be an envoy for a second time. Enoch, peace be on him,
had no sexual desire in him. He was pure intellect, and with that intellect he
used to solve the mysteries of cosmology, mathematics and Divine sciences; and
Enoch had texts concerning these things.
Because of the excessiveness of his asceticism and
because the spirituality conquered his other feelings, he was taken up to the
fourth sphere—the place of the qutb. And after a while he
was brought down to Baalbek as an envoy. That is to say, he was the same person
known in his first appearance as Enoch (Idris) and in the second appearance as
Elijah. Baal is the name of an idol andBek is the ruler of that place, and Baal
was an idol particular to this ruler.
Elijah, who is Idris, was given a vision of an eruption
of the mountain called Lebanon from whence appeared to him a horse made of
fire (the word Lebanon, lubnan, comes from the word lubanah which means necessity); and Idris saw this in the ‘alam-i-mithal (universe of analogies, dreams, prototypes). In fact what Elijah
saw in the ‘dlam-i-
mithal was that in the land of Damascus there was a
mountain that
879
levels of insilah (harmony). In short,
through excessive asceticism, Elijah’s spiritual powers conquered his bodily
powers. And this conquering completely of the powers of the nafs and body has unveiled completely, in the ‘alam-i-mithal, his spiritual image. In short, his bodily nafs was shown to him in the shape of Mount Lebanon, and his spiritual
image is that which resulted from his corporeality, which, in the shape of a
horse, went out of him and the mountain split away from him. Just as in the
case of the prophet Salih’s she-camel, the rock split.
In short, he remained after this vision in the ‘alam-i-mithal, completely devoid of any desires, exactly as spirits would be, as
in the case of angels, other spirit beings and intelligences. That is to say,
he remained manifested in the knowledge of transcendence (tanzth), exactly as the angels, other spirits and intelligences. Hence in
Elijah, Truth became transcended completely from qualities of khalq and nafs. Having transcended all relationships of
the body, which is the place of determinations (hukm),
the result is that Elijah was established according to the half of the
knowledge of the Divine as pure intelligence; and that knowledge is complete
transcendence; and the completeness of khalq,
creation, and nafs, which carry qualifications of
relativity (lacks), were completely erased from him, and he became veiled from
complete self-subordination (tawakkul) and patience and
gratitude and all the qualities appertaining to the khalq,
and the knowledge of existence and witnessing (niUshahadah), all of which happens in the images of immanence which is the other
half. That is to say, the determinations of the Name batin (Hidden) became complete in him, but the determinations of the ism-;-zahir remained, because had intellect Caql)
been purely individualized by itself, by virtue of the fact that it takes
knowledge from the intellectual vision, its knowledge by God would be according
to transcendence and would not be according to immanence (tashbih). Because pure intellect is qualified by the quality of transcendence
(janzih), therefore its knowledge of God is through tanzih. Hence it would be according to one half of the knowledge, because
by transcending transcendence from immanence, it is not gnostic of immanence.
If God were to have given gnosis to the intellect
through tajalli, it would be according to absoluteness, in which case it would not
be transcendent according to the vision of the intellect and neither would it
be according to immanence. By and in God, his gnosis would be
381
humanity and in the completion of the image, the complete determination
of wahm caused the Divine religions to come about, and not the reverse—that
religions cause the aw ham to come about.
Therefore, religions immanenced and they transcended,
and in their transcendence they immanenced through the ability of conjecture (tawahhum). That is to say, because of the ability of conjecture of those who
conjecture, immanence is j included in the transcendence, and in the immanence
it transcended through intellect because intellect is transcendent. Hence all
relationships of wahm became attached to all relationships of
intelligence, and vice versa. In other words, the totality of transcendence
becomes attached to the totality of immanence, and the totality of immanence
becomes attached to the totality of transcendence. It is impossible that
transcendence should be devoid of immanence according to the necessity of wahm, equally that immanence be devoid of transcendence. That is why God
said of intelligence: ‘Laysa kamithlihu shay'un', which
means, there is no thing equal to it. Hence He transcended it, and in
transcending, immanenced it by saying: ‘There is no thing like unto it’, and
it creates an example for the haqq because it transcends that
which is like haqq from being equal to anything that is
like it, and this is complete transcendence because establishing is likening it
to something and it is denying its possibility of being like something. That
is, it transcends it in such a way that no thing from among things equals that
which is transcended. And this transcendence is also immanence, but it is
immanence through conjecture.
Hence, when this decision is determined by saying that
indeed God created Adam in His image, because it transcends Adam who is in His
own image from being like anything else, according to the high and first way of
transcending haqq from an example, and what results is
that in transcendence there is immanence, and in immanence, transcendence. Just
as when He says: ‘And He is the Hearer and the Seer.’ Hence he immanenced Him
because he establishes the two Qualities, which are Qualities established for
the servant, for the Truth, and this immaneucing is complete transcendence,
because He, by saying those two Qualities, specialized these two Qualities for
the Truth, and constructed the sentence in such a way that the thing that is
hearing and seeing is only the Truth Itself. It is the Unity of the Truth
Itself and that there is no hearer or seer except Him and this is transcendence
through intellect, and this is the most important of the
883 :
the necessities of the determinations of awham,
and what is meant by this is the position of the Truth coming down through a
kind of khayal,
imagination, close to wahm.
That is to say, it became knowledgeable according to the necessity of the
leaders of wahm. That is to say, God granted revelation with the Quality that
necessitated immanence to leaders from amongst His servants who are complete,
because they were already in visual knowledge of the amr, as it was. That is to say, these leaders became heirs to the envoys
that followed through tawhid (Unification) between
immanence and transcendence, and they did not reach this place through gains of
work. In other words, these complete people, the leaders, became communicative
with the things that the envoys were communicative with,'cut the envoy became communicative
with that thing through which the awham determined. That is
to say that religions and the envoys being communicative through that which the
awham determined, the complete leaders also are determined by the awham, and in this saying both tanzih
and tashbih are included and this is according to the saying: ‘Wa idha ja’athum ayatun,
qalu lan nu’min hatta nu’ti mithl ma utiya rasul-Alla'n Allahu alamu haytha
yaj'alu risdlatihi' (‘And if they were shown a
miracle they said: we will not believe it until we are given like what was
given to the prophet of God. God knoweth best where to place His
miracles/message’): where God starts with mention of the envoy of God and after
that makes that sentence carry the word Allah.
Here God becomes the huwiyyah of the envoy and the
envoy becomes the image of God, and through this consideration God is the envoy
of God, through God being his ipseity and his being His image. But if so, God
has placed the ipseity of the envoy of God where His own Ipseity should be. And
this sentence thereby becomes a complete representation of immanencing in
transcendence through wahm. And it is strange among the
texts of the leaders not one of them refers to this. Whichever face of the
meaning one wants to draw from this sentence, the truth is there, and whoever
urderstands the reality of this, will understand the reality of: ‘He who rebels
against an envoy, rebels against God.’ Hence under these considerations, the
immanence which is in the envoy is established for the transcendence which is
in the Ipseity of Truth, and the transcendence which is in the Ipseity of Truth
is established for the immanence in the envoy.
And also, let this be clear, if God, haqq, manifested Himself in one image, He has appeared in that image
according to the determination
885
this degree and that degree is manifested and individuated in His
manifestation with all its parts and totality, and the insan-i-kamil is the manifestation of that degree, and the Ipseity of that degree
and the Reality of that degree is manifested in all the envoys and prophets and
the complete awliya' and purified people. Therefore, if a
person is realized in that degree and understand^ that which is hinted at by
the word Allah, he is a knower, an ‘dl'im. And this brings us
back to the quote: 'Wa idha ja’athum ayatun, qalu lan nu’min hatta nu’ti mithl
ma utiya rasul-Allah Allahu. a'lamu haytha yaj'alu risdlatihi’, which is a different face for understanding thi% but which again
shows that the Ipseity of God becomes the ipseity of the envoy. And this ‘alim understands this, and this understanding is special to that person
who comprehends the language of hinting. Therefore there are ‘arifin who, by the word Allah, hint at that degree, but
the Absolute Ipseity cannot be called by the Name Allah and
be conditioned by it because It is far transcendent from that.
The Wisdom of Elijah and the spirit of this chapter and
its resume is this, that in reality the order {ami ) of
being is divided into the effector and the effected; and the effector and the
effected are two indications. The effector is from the degree of acting and the
effected is from the degree of being effected upon, and there is no existent
other than One Single Existent and there is no effected other than Him.
Therefore, in every face, in every station, in every hadrah, what effects is God, and what is effected upon in every state, and
in every place or in every Presence, is the universe. That is to say, the Truth
which is effective, effects in every possibility and in every face of existence
whether It be effecting with or without an agent. And It is effective in every
state, like ‘alam-i-ghayb or shahadah
and like the spirit and feeling, and it is equal in all things; and whether
this effect be through a thing which is manifest in immanence or from a place
of manifestation, or whether it be from one Divine Name from among the Divine
Names, the effector is always the Divine Ipseity by virtue of His Qualities and
Names, because Names and Qualities are the incapacity of the incapacities and
also the beginning of every thing from eternity. And those which are effected
upon are the acyan of the universe, because the
acyan are the places and provinces of Names and are the places of
revelation of the Names; and the division of the amr into
effector and effected has become the spirit pf this Wisdom, because without a
doubt there is a connection between the incapacity and the
887
‘Aql-i-salim (the perfected intelligence) is the heart which is devoid of wrong
beliefs and which exists according to the original nature and beauties of
eternity. That is to say, the person who has the 'aql-i-salim is a person who possesses, observes, the Divine revelation in the
mirror of Nature. That is to say, he sees the Divine revelation in Man which is
the mirror of Nature, so that this man observes God, Truth, haqq, in the Divine mirror through his taste (dhawq),
and haqq reveals Himself to him in the mirror (place of revelation) of
Nature; such as the Prophet who saw his Lord in the image of a youth, or like
Moses to whom God revealed Himself in a bush and who observed Him there. Such
people know what we are meaning by taste. This is one way. or there is the
second way where a man has complete confidence in God and believes in it, but
this second one does not see, does not have a place in which to observe, but he
believes all the same what we say. However, if, as in the first case, the man
is possessor of the natural mirrors in which-the revelation takes place, he
knows the truth of what we have said concerning the amr,
which is divided into the effector and the effected, through his observation
and taste, and observes that God is the effector in all the Divine Presences (hadarat) and the immanence; and that the effected are the acyan. Therefore he returns and connects to its origin that thing w^iich
emanates from the entirety of immanence and the Divine Preseiipes. But if he is
not of the observant of the observant ones, and imitates what the prophets and
equally all the awliya’ have brought of this Divine news, he
is in complete belief and surrender to the words of these people, like those of
whom the hadith says: ‘The sincere believer is he who believes in what we have
repeated io him.’
When an intelligent person sees in his dream an image or
a Selfrevelation of God in whatever image It might be, he would believe in it
because of the wahm which had its determination over him_and
it is impossible that he should not do so. For example, if a man says: T saw
God in some image’, even if God had appeared or revealed Himself in the form of
a man, the intelligent believer believes in haqq, in
the shape of the image in which He reveals Himself, and due to his wahm, knows God, haqq, is in all the images of
revelation and that God may appear also in a human form. But the non-believer,
who does not believe in prophets and revelations, he has an intelligence
dominated by pure wahm, which means that he determines
wahm because he imagines that his wahm is
leading him into falsehood. Therefore, he
889
image of his feet and hands and his head, and that he is not the
image of his head or eye. That is to say, a peison is no other than his collectivity,
which is the collectivity of his pals, and he is not outside of that, and that
each part of a person is the same as that person, yet each image of a part of
him is not the same as the image of another part. Hence, Truth is many, yet
One. By images He is many; by Essence, He is One. That is to say, haqq is One through the singleness of 'ayn and
oneness of existence, and through images of revelation and of manifestation
together with Names and Qualities and events attributable, It is many. In the same
way, by being members of the human race, though each person is different to the
other, yet by the reality of their being of the human race, they are the same.
That is to say, the single 'ayn which is the existence of
humanity produces an endless number of persons, and human existence manifests
itself in endless numbers of individuals, each person belonging to the
humankind. Hence Man, though he is one through the reality of the 'ayn of mankind, is at the same time many through the images of each
different person.
It is the same way, when you look at the Truth, which is
an existence both One and Unique, wahid and ahad\ just as you have seen yourself in many mirrors, and in one mirror,
you have seen only one image, in the same way as you see the haqq, Truth, in the mirrors of the Names, as many and several, and in one
mirror, which is the Ipseity of Truth, you see Him as one image. If you v/ant
to see the existence of the One haqq, then you look at the
mirrors of the Names, and if you want to see the image of the Truth in
Uniqueness, then you look into that mirror which is a mirror from among many
mirrors of the Names, into the mirror of Uniqueness, and if you want to see
your own image, according to Oneness, then do not look at the number of mirrors
of the Divine Names, but look to that single mirror, so that in there you see
the face of Unity, according to the Unity. 'Fahakadha huwa amr in fahamc:' (‘If you have understood, the amr
itself is like this’). Do not be afraid, therefore, that by separating yourself
from the images and forms which are your personal existences among the
different degrees of existence, that you shall become non-existent; if you are
non-existent, you become existent as a waliyy in
the existence of haqq. And do not be afraid to remove from
yourself that which is a great veil to you from the Ipseity of hiqqq, that veil which is your individuated existence and image of your nafs, and do not forget the hadith which says: ‘God
loves bravery, even if it is for killing a thing
891
is established in non-existence, because that which causes the
bringing into existence of an established thing is the existence of haqq, Truth, and that thing which is established is brought into
existence through the existence of haqq, Truth. Hence, in the
bringing into existence of an established thing, incapacity is the existence of
haqq and the established thing is the incapacitated. Hence, the case of
the incapacity becoming incapacitated for its own incapacitated is this, that
the incapacitated non-existent 'ayn in its eternal case
of being established in the Divine Knowledge through the same incapacity which
is no other than the Ipseity of Uniqueness, demands through its inclination and
possibility of reception that incapacity bring it into existence and make it
incapacitated for itself, which therefore means the 'ayn of
incapacity demands the existence of its incapacitated. And in this instance,
the demand is the connection between the two sides. Hence, incapacity by virtue
of being incapacity becomes incapacitated for its own incapacitated, because haqq which brings into existence is the incapacity which biings into
existence the existent: and to the bringing into existence of haqq, the existent Incapacity, by its inclination, determines upon haqq and demands from It the bringing into existence. Hence, when haqq is incapacity. He becomes incapacitated for that for which He is
the incapacitated: And in the same way also the incapacitated by virtue of
being incapacitated becomes incapacity for the incapacity by virtue of the fact
that the incapacitated has demanded its own bringing into existence from haqq which is incapacity and by determining upon it through existence.
Hence, the incapacitated by virtue of being incapacitated for incapacity,
becomes incapacity for the incapacity, and incapacity becomes incapacitated for
it.
And that determination by which the intelligence
determines, determined by inscribing it in vision. That is to say, at the
level of the inscription of the place of the argument, it is veridic, because
that determination by which the mind determined is this: a thing upon which
depends the existence of another thing until it is realized by it, that thing
is not dependent upon the existence of the thing, which incidentally is
subsequent to it, through which it is realized in its own existence. And that
thing is not dependent on the existence of that thing. That is to say, the
existence of the first thing is not dependent on the existence of the second
thing, unless the second thing, by existence, be the incapacity of it and that
the first thing be the incapacitated of the second thing. And absolutely, a
circle becomes
893
to its image of its incapacitated, its determination of
incapacitation transfers to its determination ineapacitatedness. Hence
incapacity becomes incapacitated for its own incapacitated and also its
incapacitated becomes incapacity for it, and this is the aim. That is to say,
this determination, (or this inscription, e.^pbsition), is the aim of the intelligence
and the intelligent. If he appreciated the order as it is, and the vision of
the order upon that thing where the order is, thus at the level of Divinity,
(for the 'drif
al the level of kashf—revelations—it
is also established in this way of revelation by kashf),
and if he were not arrested and established at the level of appreciation by
mental vision, and if he were to pass through this degree of appreciating and
reach the degree of shuhud through Divine revelation,
this above-mentioned face would not have been his aim. That is to say, if the
intelligent appreciated the order as it stood hr would not be established in
the level of the vision of mind.
Now we say in the language of taste that in the
singleness of 'ayn, in both images, that is to say, in the
images of incapacitation and incapacitatedness, the permission to receive the
two orders is resultant by two considerations. Hence when the singleness of 'ayn is incapacity, it has ability or permission or scope to be the
incapacitated, and when it is the incapacitated it also has the ability and
permission to be incapacity. That is to say, the singleness of 'ayn in its own 'ayn is collective of both the
determinations of incapacitation and incapacitatedness. Hence the singleness
of 'ayn becomes incapacity by its incapacitation and incapacitated by its
incapacitatedness, and by virtue of the 'ayn of
singleness of ‘ayn, because of this, by virtue of these
stations, all these considerations are equal. And when and if in the
determination of the veridic intelligence, the order concerning incapacitation
is in this wise established, that is to say, at the level of veridic
intelligence, it possible for incapacity to be incapacitated for its own
incapacitated, when this order is, in a manner of speech, in constriction at
the level of intelligence. But in situations other than this constriction,
wherein the ability of the intelligence is to be expansive, what sort of
credence could you have concerning the expansion of vision of intelligence,
whereby a meaning may manifest upon intelligence through Divine revelation?
Hqhce as the Prophet showed, he could establish a thing which he could,
establish for God; although the intellect could equally establish it, he did
something further, that which the intelligence is not free to comprehend, in
which case the
QOC
due to the necessities of the vision of intellect, that same thing
they will admit at the level of revelation, but when they are detached from
that moment of revelation and left alone with their nafs,
they fall into perplexity concerning what they have seen. Therefore, if he is a
servant of the rabb, he will refer the truth to the
determination of the vision, and if he is a man appearing in accordance with
the appearance of the next world, in this world, that man will not be perplexed
from the comprehension of that which is beyond the understanding of the intelligence.
Because gnostics or ‘arifir appear in this world and
they are to all appearances in the image of this world. That is to say, they
appear in the images of this world, qualified by the images of this world, so
that people who are veilec think they are of this world, because their determination
of this appearance in this world is current over them and they eat, they drink,
they r.iaiTy and they sleep. And also, for example, they are under some human
qualities like vengeance and killing, whereas the truth is that God has already
translated them in their interior into the appearance of the other world. They
are manifested according to the appearance of the other world, and it is
impossible for them to have been 'arifin if they had not
been manifested according to the appearance of the other world. By this it $si!1meant
that if there is a certain necessity for them to undertake an ‘aim or if they
wish for a certain reason to appear, they can appear in this world, according
to the images of this world, and while they are here they are subject to the determinations
of this world. Therefore, the people who see them, see them as persons existing
in this world. Therefore, it is possible that Elijah in his second descent and
his appearance be of this variety.
Hence the gnostics are unknown in the worldly image, and
because of their manifestation under the de'.ermination of worldliness, nobody
would understand that they are gnostics except those people for whom they are
not unknown, that is, t lose who have had their vision opened by God (bastrah), and these people understand them according to the saying: ‘My awliya3 (saints) are under My slippers’, and the greatest slipper of
dearness ('izzah) is that worldly image. Hence there is not a single gnostic among
gnostics of God who are gnostics due to the Divine revelation, who has not
passed the Day of Judgement (hashr) in this world according
to the next world. And what that man sees, the others do not see. What he
observes, they do not observe, and this extraordinary situation of coming into
this world through the next world, this God gives through His own special
providence (‘inayah)
897
animality, qualified only by life and liberated from intelligent
thinking and conjectural beliefs, so that he uncovers all animals except Man
and jinn. Because Man, by being unable to descend to the degree of absolute
animality, in which station .there is no tasarruf,
and by being unable to be divorced from the conditions of intelligence and
thought, he cannot descend to the degree of uncoveredness of the degree of
animals. That is why all animals are people of kashf,
because they are divorced from all conditions of intelligence. And when this
man uncovers all that is uncovered by all the animals, he realizes that he is
realized in his own animality, and that when Man descends further from the last
degree of descent, which is that of the human being, and descends from his own
animality, there is in him no essence left, except that of life, and he is
absolutized by absolute animality, and at that state, from the instinctive
knowledges of all the animals, he becomes knowledgeable and observes the
running through in all the images, the life which is the One Reality. Therefore
he knows by what virtue the single essence can be apparent both as Elijah and
as Idris. And the signs of realization in the station of animality are two. One
of these marks is what we have mentioned, that is to say, hence, the man who is
realized in his own animality can see in the tombs who is in suffering and who
is gratified and realized; he can see the dead as living through spiritual
life; and he observes the silent as talking through words of the heart and sees
the sitting as walking through spiritual motion. The second sign is
speechlessness by virtue of that which is. If he wants to relate by speech to
what he sees and speak it, he cannot speak, just as the animal cannot speak.
When these two signs appear in him, he has reached the state of animality, and
we had a student who went through this state of uncovering, only he was not kept
through speechlessness; that is to say, he could speak of what he saw and he
was not realized in animality.
When God put me in this station, I became realized in my
animality with complete realization, and I could observe and wanted to speak
through this state, but could not speak, and I could not differentiate between
my station and the station of the people who are tongueless, dumb; and when one
is uncovered ir|:«tKe station of animality and his speech is
divorced from him, if he is hot preserved in this station, that person does not
become realized in animality, and the person who is not realized in animality
cannot be realized in humanity. Referring back to what has been said before,
which has been explained that one
899
of things manifested in Nature. Hence he is in one sense the same as
all the images, and in another sense is different from all the images. And the
one who wants to rise to the wisdom of Elijah, let him descend to the
realization of his own animality and descend from the degree of intelligence
and its determination and become nothing but animal, until he has known through
taste the mystery of the descent of Idris as Elijah who was sent to Baalbek as
an envoy in the image of Elijah. And let him know this mystery through taste,
and when he becomes an 'arif in both places of descent
and has realized the reality of Truth in the vision of Truth at the highest
sphere and has known in the asfal the seeing or haqq, and acquired a degree of realization in that degree, after that,
through taste, let him be active in the way of the 'ayn of
Truth and the Ipseity of Uniqueness, and know and reach the plurality of Names
and Qualities, and become qualified himself by the Unification of the Oneness
of both stations; and in the Oneness, observe the Oneness of Beauty, and in
plurality observe the plurality due to becoming knowledgeable in the knowledge
of taste, from which station comes the determination which is in the image of
Nature. That is to say, in the Universe' of.Intelligence, the intelligence
which is one 'ayn, observes the nafs in the Universe of nafs. Therefore it
observes in the Universe of Intelligence, Pure Intelligence, and all orders
which are origins for the natural images in the Universe of asfal (Lowest of the Low), then by taste he will know that the various
determinations in the images of Nature are meanings of unknown a'yan and realities of total intelligences and that these are descended
and have become manifested in the limited images of Nature. And also he will
know that the One Reality which is the existence of the Unique Ipseity is the
same as the Ipseity, and the a'ya.n are no other than pure
meanings which are in the intelligent intellect of meanings, and that they are
in the Universe of Intellect, Pure Intellect; and in the Universe of nafs, Pure nafs\ in the Universe of Plants, Pure Plants;
in the Universe of Minerals, Pure Minerals; in the Universe of Solids, Pure
Solids; in the Universe of Crystallized things, Pure Crystals.
Hence the Single 'ayn is
manifest in all of these degrees in the natural images of the species, while at
the same time in His Oneness, there is persistent all the while, the ghana (= ghaniyyness) of Ipseity, persistent in Its Oneness. Hence that One 'ayn is the Source and Origin of all and is the returning place and
arrival place of all amr. Hence that person who wants
to reach the station of Elijah and Idris will observe
901
Of the Wisdom of Beneficence
(al-hikniat al-ihsaniyyah)
in the Word of Loqman
It was mentioned before this, as in the Wisdom of Abraham and in
several other places, that indeed the totality of immanence (kawn) is food (ghidha) and that Man with the
determinations is the food of God because God became manifest with the
determinations of Man’s 'ayn. and the 'ayn-i-thabita became hidden in that. The Being of the haqq
which is manifest in the 'ayn-i-thabita of Man is fed by
the determination of the 'ayn-i-thabita, at the same time haqq by Its effulgence of Being over Man is its food. When or if for Its
own Being the Divine mashi’a appertained to the Will (iradah) of nourishment, in other words, by virtue of the degree of Divinity
when the Being of the haqq which is actualized in the
possibilities of the a'yan manifested the
determinations of the Divine Names which are at the strength of that degree by
manifesting in the places of manifestation of the a'yan of
possibilities, and through Its mashi’a appertained to the
Will (iradah)
of being nourished, then the totality of immanence
becomes His nourishment, and all the Divine determinations which are actualized
and manifested through the immanence are also His nourishment, simply because haqq is manifest in the garments of Qualities and Names through the
Divine determinations of immanence, and the immanence is the nourishment of the
haqq, by virtue of the manifestation (ta'ayyun) and the actualization (muta'ayyiri) of the haqq in the a'yan of the universes and in
that which is manifested in the immanences.
By virtue of the fact that the Divine Identity (huwiyyah) is the same as His Ipseity, He is completely Rich beyond Need (ghaniyy) of the universes and of the totality of the-t)xvine Names. The
difference between mashi’a and iradah is that His mashi’a is exactly the same as
His Ipseity, and His Will (iradah) is one of the Qualities
which necessitate the Name murid. Sometimes it does happen
that the mashi’a is the same as the iradah and sometimes it
happens that it is different. In certain aspects the mashi’a is more generalized than the Will (iradah)
903
of the haqq is His iradah,
that is to say, in action and in bringing into being, and in appertaining to
and in indicating the Ipseity, they are united. Consequently therefore, you
must determine and act according to the mashi’a
which necessitates bringing into being and which is the same as the iradah, since He indeed desired the Will. Hence iradah is
the aim (murad) of the mashi’a. In other words, in one
way the mashi’a and the iradah are the same, but in
another way they are different. Therefore, you determine by the mashi’a which appertained to the iradah,
since the iradah is the aim {murad) of the mashi’a.
In short, the intention of 'Arabi is that sometimes mashi’a appertains to the Will, and sometimes it appertains to the Will of
increase which is Union, sometimes to the Will of decrease which is nonexistence.
In other words, the mashi’a of haqq aims at increase which is bringing into existence, and equally aims
at decrease which is bringing into non-existence after bringing into existence.
Whereas in any case in either of these parts, the haqq has
no other mashi’a than the Absolute mashi’a which appertains both to
the bringing into existence and the taking out of existence. Therefore, the mashi’a appertains to the general whereas iradah
appertains to bringing into existence, as has been mentioned. In other words,
that which has been mentioned is the difference between mashi’a and iradah resulting from the different facets.
Therefore be knowledgeable in this, that from one point of view the reality of
both these things is no other than the totality of singularity, and in this
respect they are both the same ‘ayn and there is no
difference between them, and when they appertain to the bringing into being of
something they are both the same thing and there is no difference between them.
The Shaykh mentioned this problem in this Wisdom because this chapter Includes
the Wisdom of Nourishment (rizq) and without a doubt
concerns the arrival of all the nourishment to all the nourished, and this
chapter according to its meaning includes the manner of the arrival of the
nourishment.
The Wisdom of the knowledge of the reality of things as
they are is in what God said concerning Loqman: ‘We gave wisdom to Loqman, and
when wisdom {hikmah.) is given, great good is
established.’ That is to say: ‘Indeed We gave Loqman wisdom’, and wisdom is the
knowledge of the reality of things as they are. Wisdom is a kind of knowledge,
and that person to whom wisdom has been given, indeed to him is given great
goodness, and what greater goodness can happen to one than that he is qualified
by the knowledge of things as they
905
for the good action is necessarily ^going to happen whereas the recompense
for the bad action may np't happen at all if God wills. (He did not say to his
son that the mustard seed was specific to him but he took the reckoning by the
grain in general, and in this way he made the person for whom the grain is
reckoned a general being rather than a specific being, by not saying ‘for you’
or ‘for other than you’.)
Then Loqman, in his speech, placed the grain in the
heavens and on the earth, warning the one who is looking at these words of
Loqman to see therein that it is God Himself who is in the heavens and in the
earth, and recall to mind the Divine saying and transpose himself to the
saying: ‘And indeed He, God, is in the heavens and in the earth’ (wa huwa allahu fi-s
samawati > >a fi-l ard). And as God is
existent in both the heavens and in the earth, he knows that God is actualized
and present both in the heavenly a'yan of the Names and the
spiritual realities of immanence and the a'yari of
creation on earth. Consequently, through the effusion of the Divine Names and
the heavens of the realities of the Names, and by the effusion of the
revelation of Lordship of nourishment in the a'yan of
the creations of the earth, by the total meaning of all this being God, God
bestows through this then, by virtue of the fact that God is the same as the
nourishment and the nourished, because God is the same as the Divine treasuries
and the spiritual nourishments in the heavens and the earth. When God gives out
the nourishment which is on the earth and in the heavens, to anybody, He gives
it by being the same as both the nourisher and the nourished. Thereby He
becomes in Being the nourishment of the a'yan of
our non-existence.
Loqman then had told his son both by what he mentioned
and by what he did not mention, which is that indeed God is the same as all
that is known, whether what is known exists in the 'ayn or
whether it exists in the Knowledge. That is to say, Loqman advised by what he
said that the haqq is the same as all that, exists outside
of Him, and by that thing over which he was silent he advised that the haqq is the same in knowledge as each thing kndwn, and that He is
established and subsistent (baqi) in the Knowledge of the ghayb and is not qualified by the existence of the 'ayn. In other words, in the higher spheres which are the realities of
the Names and in the spiritual states which are called ‘heavens’ and in the
lower spheres in the reality of the immanence, and in the individual bodies
which are called the earth, the Identity (huwiyyah) of the haqq is manifest through Divinity
907
establishment of Knowledge, and the other degree is its thingness in
the being of ‘ayn. (Here is a quote from
Sadruddin-i-Konevi in his book, Nafahat ash-Shay’iyah. The
‘arif Shaykh, breast of the people and religion, the Konevi, in his book
of Nafahat says: ‘Indeed according to law and according to reality thingness
can be attributed according to two considerations: one of these is the
thingness of being and the other is the thingness of establishment. The meaning
of the thingness of being is that the being of the immanence is an existent
thing by its own ‘ayn according to its own being and according
to others. And this part is what is known by everybody. The second
consideration of the thingness, which is called ‘thingness of establishment’,
is an image of the knowledgeability of everything in the Knowledge of the haqq from eternity, for ever, established in the one and only manner and
never changing or exchanging, and it is differentiated from other knowledges by
its specialness.’)
And for the known there are established three degrees,
and the thing which is known has become singularizpd and differentiated from
the thing by its establishment in the tlnknown Essential Absoluteness. And thus
the known has become more general than the thing, and has become the most
denied of the denials because it refers to the realities of the Essential ghayb which is unknown. Because of this, this was explained by: ‘God is
the same as all known things’ (inna al haqq kullu shay’in ma‘lum), and not explained by the words: ‘God is the same as everything’ (inna al haqq ‘aynu kulli
shay*), because if it had been said that God is the
same as everything and if He were specialized this way, then it would be that
the Identity (huwiyyah) of the haqq would
be specialized to the things of knowledge and the things of existence, and the
Knowledge of the ghayb which is the Knowledge of the Ipseity
would have been left out of what the Ipseity encompassed, whereas this degree
is prior to the two degrees mentioned.
It is because of this that it was mentioned and
explained by that which refers to the trinity, and the majority of the
commentators differentiated the thing from that which is known in this way:
that the thing is that which has its own ‘ayn of
existence and that which is known is reachable by the thing which has its own ‘ayn of existence to the thing which has no ‘ayn of
existence. Many commentators have not differentiated the thing from that which
is known by another aspect, by saying that what the Shaykh intends by ‘thing’
is that which exists with its own ‘ayn of existence, but in
this way of representing
909
things which are called by different names, and that which is
revealed as manifestations of each of these things and the ‘ayn which is manifest and existent in them, is the One ‘ayn.
These words conform to what the Ash'arites say, since
they affirm that the totality of the universe is equal to the jewel. The
universe is one jewel, and when they say the totality of the universe is one
jewel, it is the same as when we say it is one ‘ayn, by
which we mean it is one ‘ayn in all the things. Then the
Ash’arites say: ‘And the universe which is one jewel varies by the accidents’,
and this saying is what we say when we say: ‘And they vary and increase by
relationship and by image’, and what they say is the same as what we say.
And one 'ayn by varied images and
multiple relationships becomes varied and many until the images and
relationships become differentiated the one from the other. It is said of a
thing, this thing is not the same as the other thing by virtue of its different
relationship, but say it as you wish, it is the same thing by virtue of its
jewel. That is to say, in our words, that this thing, for instance a stone, by
virtue of its image is not the same as that thing, for instance a stick. And in
the words of the Ash’arites this thing is not the same as another thing by
virtue of its nature, width etc. In their words they are the same by virtue of
the jewel, and in our words this thing is the same as the other thing by virtue
of its oneness of ‘ayn. And ore thing being the
same as another by virtue of its jewelness at the level of each image and each
nature, it is taken as the same as each jewel. That is to say, of all the
existents, each existent being taken at the level of existence is taken to be
the same as the jewel. But we say indeed the jewel is not the same as the haqq, but the Ash'arites think that in fact what is meant by jewel, even
if it is the haqq, is not the same as the haqq, which the people of insight (ahl-i-kashf) and revelation transcend. And that is the Great and Holy God who is
the creator of each thing and the nourisher of each thing. In other words,
although the Ash'arites say that in all the images of the universe there is the
singularity of the jewel, they still come to believe in the duality of the ‘ayn, and they add that in the universe that which is the ‘ayn of the jewel is other than the haqq, but
the order is not like what they say, because the haqq is
Existent and Unique and One and He is Exalted (rnuta‘ali) in such a way that it is beyond possibility to consider that in
existence the Reality therein is non-existent. Therefore we say that in
existence there is nothing other than the haqq
which is One Reality and One ‘ayn, and that that
91J
being informed (ikhtibar). In other words, this
knowledge of being informed is the knowledge which benefits from God’s saying:
‘And We shall test them until We know.’ This knowledge of information is the
knowledge of tastes, and the establishment of this knowledge for the haqq is by virtue of the reality of the existence (wujucT) of the servants. In other words, for the Divine Identity (huwiyyah) this knowledge through being informed, resultant by the existence
of taste (dhawq) and conscience, happens by virtue of His manifestation of the
Divine Identity (huwiyyah) which is both actualized and
fluent in the places of manifestation in the people of taste and perfection.
While the haqq knew of that thing
upon which His order (amr) is, He made His nafs subject to profiting from a knowledge. That is. He qualified His
own nafs by learning a knowledge, and it is impossible to deny a thing that
God has stipulated upon His Self, which means that by doing that which He has
done, God differentiated between the Absolute Knowledge and knowledge (through
taste by saying: *. . . until We know’, which is from the Presence of the Name khabir which is differentiated from the Name ‘alim by
being conditioned by taste, since Knowledge is a quality of the Ipseity and
therefore is not added onto the Ipseity. The Name ‘alim is
the same as the Ipseity and does not depend on another thing to manifest its
relationship since He knows Himself by His own Self. But the knowledge which
manifests by virtue of there being places of manifestation, which is knowledge
of information, is not like this. Knov/ledge of taste is conditioned by the
faculties of strength (qHwah). In other words, it
results by the tastes of the faculties, because the one who has taste (dha’iq) does not taste the knowledge of taste except by his spiritual
faculties, or by bodily faculties. Which means that unless God, the haqq, becomes the same as the faculties of the members of the servant,
and unless the knowledge of taste (film-i-dhawq) results in
the servant in all his members and with all kinds of strength by virtue of the
manifestation of the haqq in the existence of the
servant, there does not result for the existence of the haqq the knowledge of taste and the informative knowledge. And this is
for the existence of God which is revealed and actualized in the existence of
Man with the faculties of the man in the place of manifestation of the Perfect
Man by virtue of the fact that haqq has made Himself the
acquirer of knowledge. And all this is for the knowledge to result, whereas God
by His Ipseity is ghaniyy from the universes, and equally
by His Knowledge is ghaniyy from the
913
which is manifest in the being (wujud)
of the servant results a knowledge, which knowledge does not result from
another one of these relationships. Considering that the Being (yvujft.d) of the haqq is the same as the totality
of the faculties, He is undifferentiated, since there is no otherness in the
faculties, yet in each of the faculties by virtue of manifestation, in each of
these He is differentiated since the attributions are differentiated one from
the other. So, if you want, consider the One Being after which the servant is
called ‘servant’, as servant, or else that the haqq by
Its Ipseity is One and by attribution of faculties is many, and with this that
the haqq is One and Unique by Its Ipseity and there is no differentiation in
the Singularity of Ipseity, since there is no otherness possible in It, and
that He is many by attributions and qualifications and happenings and
qualities, and these are differentiated one from the other by their reality'
and their ipseity.
Loqman instructed his son with the two Names of God, latif and khabir, and said; ‘Indeed God is latif and khabir' (jnna allahu latif khabir), and what
happens from his teaching his son these two Names shows the completion of the
wisdom of Loqman. If Loqman had mentioned these two Names in the image of the
word 'kawn' (immanence) which is the bestower of existence, and if he had
mentioned these two Names in conjunction with the word 'kana' which is the word of being, and had said: ‘Indeed God was latif and khabir' (wa kana allahu latifan khabira),
Loqman would have been even more superlatively complete in his wisdom and more
eloquent in address and in envoyship, because the word of being which is kana (kawn — immanence, and kun—be, from the same root) would
have shown that God the High was for eternity qualified by these two qualities
and that these two qualities were the necessary components of His Ipseity.
Because the words: ‘Wa kana allahu latifan khabira'
would have been informing of the informative knowledge that God is forever in
His Ipseity latif and khabir,
and in the same way equally now is latif and khabir. But when we say only: ‘He is latif and
khabir', this saying becomes pure information, though it is all the same
possible that it may inform from the informative knowledge, and does not
necessarily mean that God’s Being (wujtid) necessitated
these qualities. It may also be that according to his own belief in his vision
of intellect, Loqman only meant to give information without referring to the
informative knowledge (khubr), or this might be by
virtue of something else in him, '’.hat he said: ‘God is latif and khabir', without
915
son was in the station of being taught and had not yet knowledge of
the reality of things. That is why he said it in this way, out of his kindness
and extreme pity for his son. He spoke it in a way which was closer to the
boy’s understanding, so that his son in his own nafs from
these informations given to him became realized and established in the station (maqam) of information. However, it could have equally been suitable that
Loqman said what he said in the superlative manner and in the completion of
wisdom, but we excuse Loqman for not using the language of wisdom, because that
wisdom’s orphanage is of the possession of the orphan and inherited possession
of the Prophet Mohammed: ‘Do not go near th •. possession of the orphan’, and
that phrase is of the speciality of Mohammed and is forbidden to those who have
not risen to that station (maqam). Therefore Loqman’s
wisdom is in completion and perfection according to his degree and time.
Equally, in comparison with other prophets. Mohammed is appointed with total
possession of faculties and superior completions (fadl).
If Loqman had spoken with the same degree of
completeness that the Shaykh refers to, in wisdom he would have had to have
been of the people of Mohammed, whereas the prophets are forbidden from reaching
or attaining to the Mohammedian degree to be able to preserve the degrees of
their prophethood; but in the isthmuses of the other world it is not forbidden;
the-e they reach, there they attain.
In the Quranic saying: ‘He who does the dharrah of good and he who does the dharrah of ill’, in this case ‘dharrah' refers to the
smallest thing that can be nourished, and had there been something smaller He
would have mentioned it. And indeed God brought the word ‘dharrah' to be the most small thing, and Loqman mentioned his son’s name in
the diminutive because diminutive is rahmah,
and warned
,1a.';-
him in the way that will give him Happiness and mercy. And when he
warned his son, saying: ‘Do not attribute shirk to
God’, his warning was that in reality shirk ij
the greatest oppression. And what is understood from this was that if he did
that, the child’s own nafs would be under oppression,
since to establish nafs and existence is oppression (zulm) upon the station of Uniqueness. That is why to repudiate all
conjecture (wahm) of misunderstanding he clarified the situation by mentioning the
word 'zulm'—oppression. Just as to cause polytheism (shirk)
is zulm to the station of Uniqueness, that which is oppressed is the
station of Uniqueness and the one who does the shirk
brings it about by qualifying that station by partition. Whereas that station
does
917
partnership, which means that each of the partners has a
predilection for a different thing in which the other partner has no interest.
Consequently, according to appearance there is no partner. And the reason for
this word concerning the existence of associate is because of joint ownership (musha‘a), that is to say, it is the partnership in the Indivisible One ‘ayn. And if one ‘ayn is common to two partners,
since in reality execution (tasrif) on the part of one of
the associated removes the possibility of there being joint ownership and there
is no doubt that the High God is the Absolute Executor in the universe,
consequently there is no joint ownership, and there is no shank. Consequently, in the One ‘ayn and
in the Divinity, which is the degree of Oneness, there is no association,
neither in the images of manifestation nor in reality. And the order stays upon
Unity and this establishes the plurality of the Beautiful Names (asma’ al-husna) for God and thereby equally for the rahmdn.
(Quranic quotation: ‘Say: Invite God or invite the rahmdn’— ‘Qul: ad‘u alldh av> id‘u
ar-rahman.')
At that degree for the people who are veiled,
association manifests through conjecture (wahm)
because God established the collectivity of the Divine Names for each one ,pf\
the Divine Names, from the rahmdn. Then God and rahmdn tjecame associates at that degree of collectivity, yet, all the
same, from among the Divine Images association is conjecture, because the
Divine Image by Its essence is One, and invitation is to the Divine Image or to
the One Ipseity (dhat} in the image of rahmdn or to whichever of the images or whichever of the images of the
Names, or whichever image it may be, invitation is to the One Ipseity and to
nothing else, even though the one who invites the rahmdn is
specific in one way. However, there again there is not partnership since the
one who invites God is in the same way specific, and there is no partnership
even in that and this consideration is for the person who is veiled by the
image, because by virtue of the existence of being veiled by the image there is
no association in what he invites.
In this case, in what manner can association (shirk) be imagined at the level of a person witnessing? For from his
vision and in his witnessing both the first way or second way of association is
removed, since the person of witnessing is specialized in inviting the Ipseity
of Uniqueness. Therefore there cannot ever be association (shirk) in those he invites because of the singularity of those he invited
in the totality of the images, at his level. And all this is because the
Essential Singularity encompasses the totality of images. Whichever image he
919
Of the Wisdom of Religious Leadership
(al-hikmat al-imamiyyah)
in the Word of Aaron
Know this, that certainly Aaron’s being was from the Presence of rahmut, which means that Aaron’s being was from the Presence of rahmah and he was named with mercy upon Moses, (rahmut
is a superlative case of rahmah like malakut is a superlative case of malak),
and it is said in the Quran: ‘We gave Aaron to Moses from Our private rahmah as a prophet.’ Indeed Aaron was older than Moses whereas Moses was
bigger in prophethood than Aaron.
Now know like this, that Moses, upon him be peace, was
the place of manifestation of the Majesty (Jalal).
He was of irritable character and very solid in religious matters, and there
was a defect in his speech so that his speech was not clear. Aaron was the
place of manifestation of Beauty (Jamal) and he had a
beautiful character and he had the quality of being agreeable to God (murdi) and he was clear in his speech.
Moses asked of God for his brother to be joined to him
in his prophethood so that together with Moses he could invite the people, and
in helping Moses he would be conducive to making the people appreciate Moses
more. So God gave him his brother Aaron from the private rahmah as a present, as a prophet, and he became his brother’s helper,
second, and manifestor; so the existence of Aaron became for Moses a mercy from
God, and his prophethood also came from the special Mercy because Moses asked
of God for Him to give Aaron as a prophet. And Aaron was older than Moses and
the older brother has mercy and kindness (shaftq)
and the mercy (rahmah) of brotherhood and motherhood (umumiyyah), because Moses and Aaron were from the same mother and father, and
the utmost of natural affections is the mercy of motherhood, and Aaron ;v/as
kind (rahim) towards Moses even before his prophethood, but because he was not a
prophet himself he was not a helper with him in inviting.
That is why Moses, upon him be peace, said the words:
‘And join him in the order (amr) given to me as a prophet
and demonstrator.’
921
with them all. (This is not a matter of these people interpreting,
but means independent judgement derived from the same quality, connotation and
meanings, furthering the inherent reality in different exegeses.) In short,
these are successors who believed in the Envoy without having seen him with the
sense of sight but the Envoy has yearning and longing for them. For these, in
the Envoy, there is a pattern of goodness or beauty so that they become heirs
by their relationship of brotherhood. There is the hadith
which says: ‘Blessed are those who saw me and believed in me, and seven times
blessed are those who believed in me and never saw me’, and they are the
brothers and successors who follow the pattern of goodness and receive from it
through brotherhood, exactly like a brother who inherits from an affectionate
brother after he has departed from this emergence.
Aaron was Moses’ viceregent (khalifah) and successor in the absence of Moses, ai .d this is conditional
successorship and viceregency because it is. given by Moses. Thetefore, in
determination and in leadership Aaron was the viceregent of Moses. That is why
Moses was angry with Aaron when Aaron, in the absence of Moses, did not determine
over the bani Israel concerning the order of Samiri’s calf. Aaron was patient
under Moses’ anger, iso that when Moses seized Aaron by his hair and head in
his anger, since Aaron was mercy upon Moses, he held his patience in order to
deliver him from the oppression of the anger that had conquered him which
thereby would have diminished him before his enemies since Aaron was older than
Moses. His being seized by his younger brother by the hair and head would have
become an impediment of Moses’ invitation to the Truth in his prophethood.
Since Aaron was appointed by God as a helper for the manifestation of Moses’
prophethood and from his mercy upon Moses, he addressed Moses with the tongue
of mercy and the mercy of love and by compassion. He said to him: ‘Oh son of
my mother’, thus addressing Moses by the intermediary of their mother but not
by their father, because the mother’s compassion in the dispensing of affection
is greater, and if her essential mercy and her natural love for her son had not
been centralized in her nature, she would not have had the patience for the
education of her child. Aaron, because of his mercy for Moses, said: ‘Do not
hold me by my hair and head and do not let my enemies laugh at me’, so that the
quality of anger was removed from Moses and any possible shame from the enemies
was expelled. And all the words of Aaron, which have been mentioned, are of the
breaths of Mercy from
923
him from the oppression of anger and strengthened his prophethood
and helped it. Because Moses had appeared among the people of veils and
especially among the denying^nemies with an order which made it impossible for
the order of prophethood and which was against mercy and guidance, it would,
among the weaker believers, impair their faith, and among the enemies would
result in belligerence and grumbling and noisiness on the part of the enemies.
In short, since Aaron was a gift of mercy to Moses, Aaron spoke these words by
virtue of his mercy and affection for Moses, because the being of Aaron is
solely and purely from the Divine Mercy and nothing other than mercy and
affection can emanate from him.
From the words of Aaron, two faces became possible: one
face is that having suffered from the rebelliousness of the enemies and since
he was both affectionate and beneficent from the mercy in his own nafs, he said what he said to Moses to ease and calm the situation. The
other face is that as he was the Divine mercy given to Moses with prophethood,
Aaron spoke these .vords through that same mercy, so that through Aaron, Moses’
enemies would not rise against him. And it is to eliminate the first face that
the Shaykh here says: ‘And this was affection upon Moses from Aaron.’ When
Moses came back and said to his brother: ‘What prevented you when you saw them
being misled, from following me?’, Aaron ansv'ered: ‘I was afraid that you
might say that I divided the bani Israel.’ What had happened
was that a section of the bani Israel had actually followed
Samiri and worshipped the calf, but another section of the bani Israel delayed their adoration of the calf, saying that they would
ask Moses when he came back. The reason why the second section of the bani Israel delayed their adoration of the calf was because Samiri had
told them that the calf was the God of Moses. In fact Aaron had told the bani Israel: ‘You have been seduced, whereas your Lord is the Merciful;
follow me and obey my order.’ This second section of the barn Israel had answered: ‘We shall stay until Moses comes and we shall
ask him.’ This section of the bani Israel had not believed in
the calf by following Samiri, and they had delayed their belief subject to
Mosje^ireturn and until they could ask him, though they continued to worship
the calf. The first section were the followers of Samiri and these were divided
from the others, and Aaron was afraid that this division in the bani Israel would be attributed to him, whether by Mcses or by the
tribes. Aaron’s words are equally inherent of mercy to Moses in that they did
not wish to
925
from his lack of assistance. Thai is to say, when the bani Israel worshipped the calf, Aaron denied this to them and did not
help in the order of worshipping the calf, because the 'drifts that person who sees in everything the haqq—perhaps
even that he will see that the haqq is the same as
everything.
And Moses used to educate Aaron with the education of
knowledge because Moses knew more than him, even though he was younger in age.
That is to say, he used to educate Aaron with the education of Divine knowledge
which was actualized for Aaron in the matter of Moses, because education does
not happen except from the Absolute rabb. And
in the same way, God used to educate Moses in the matter of Aaron, because God
had made Aaron a mercy for Moses and had completed his prophethood by that, and
his admonition was more forceful because of that.
The coming about of the 'ayn from
Moses and the emanation of the throwing down of the Tablets with lack of
establishing and the seizing of the hair of Aaron are all a very strong order,
and for such a thing to happen for a person like Aaron, ^ Subject, from a
brother who was by age younger than him, is unexpected. But all the totality of
the prophets, peace be upon them, are innocents. God does not act through their
hands with a thing which is not obedience and wisdom, and also acts with such
things that increase knowledge and gnosis {'Um and ma'rifah'). So in fact Moses points out and educates Aaron in such a way that
Aaron understands the mysteries of the things that result from the worship of
the calf, so that he become aware of the mystery of the worship of the calf
which Moses knew and therefore told him.
The worship of the calf is a great mystery, and by
virtue of their prophethood this has been removed from the prophets, and God
teaches this to them only by virtue of their sainthood. And God was concerned
with the education of Moses and Aaron, whether it be before a thing happened or
whether it be after it happened; and it was because Moses was the educate r of
Aaron that when Aaron upon Moses’ anger responded by the things he said as we
have seen, having understood and taken notice of this situation of reality,
Moses saw the reality of what came about outwardly and inwardly from Aaron and
said: ‘Lord, forgive me and my brother and enter us into Your Mercy, and You
are the most Merciful of the Compassionates.’ Having shown and explained to his
people what errors emanated from them, he then returned to Samiri and said to
him: ‘According to your profession you
927
because the knowledges of Moses were the knowledges of discrimination
(furq&n) and were not unifyingf^ur’d/j), and the quality of fire is to
separate and decompose. In short, what dominated Moses was discrimination and
distinguishing, and strength and manifestation and possession and conquering,
and it was because of this mystery of the Light (n/?/ ) of Divine Oneness that
Moses had observed that fire (ndr) in the plurality of the bush. And he
subjugated that image of the calf to the fire, which image of the calf Samiri
had made into a divinity for those who worshipped it, so that that fire burnt
that image and differentiated its component parts, just as Divine revelation
differentiates each person upon which the High God causes revelation to happen.
Because at the level of the manifestation of the prior, the subsequent does not
subsist; rather it dissolves and becomes completely destroyed. Thus Moses, by
burning the image of the calf, showed his people the picture of his burning the
image of the sublime Countenance in creation, and the throwing of the ashes of
the calf into the open sea is the picture of the disappearance of the recent at
the level of the revelation of the ancient Lord. And understand.
Moses, before he burnt the image of the calf, had
addressed himself to Samiri and had said to him: ‘Now look at your divinity.’
By this, Moses had called the calf a divinity, for the sake of instructing
through showing the errors, because Moses knew that in fact that calf was one
of the Divine symbols in which, in one way, the High God is manifest and
revealed. Then Moses said: ‘I shall surely burn the calf.’
The wisdom of his burning the calf is the following:
Because there is animality in the human beings, there is the ability to
dispense over the animality of the animals, because the High God subjugated to
Man the animality of the animal when He said: ‘We have subjugated to you all
that which is in the heavens and the earth.’ But the origin of the calf was not
animal. It was not constructed through animal matter but with the solids which
were the trinkets of the nation. Therefore, for Man, in the matter of animals
being subject to him, this calf was more superior than the animal. Certainly
this calf is’different from the animals. It has no will like the animals have,
and Without will or objection it is established by virtue of the
determination- of the person who is dispensing over it. That is to say,
although the animal is subjugated to Man, in the animal a kind of will exists.
The solids, which are greater in obedience than the animal and qualified by
their original nature, are qualified by total obedience; movement and will do
not exist in them and they are
929
Unique. But differentiations of revelations become destroyed and
inexistent at the level of manifestation of the total of Divine revelation,
and when the revelation and manifestation of the haqq manifested
in the mirror of Moses and became bigger and more awesome than the symbols of
idolatry, then His sublimity of countenance burnt up the image of idolatry of
the calf.
But the animal has will and purpose, and sometimes it
happens that in certain demands one gets refusal; and if the animal shows its
purpose and its will, it so happens that sometimes there appears from that
animal rebellion for that which Man has demanded from it, and the animal will
not execute the demand. But if in that animal the strength does not appear, or
if the man’s purpose coincides with the animal’s purpose, then that animal will
be obedient to that which the man has asked of it, just as a man is obedient to
a man from whom he aims at getting something, for instance receiving a
possession or some other purpose, a man becomes obedient to a man like himself.
In other words, a man becomes obedient to another man for a purpose in such a
situation where the man is supSHor to him in that object, like in knowledge or
position or possession, or demanding a benefit from somebody else; in some
certain cases this demand of possession is known as payment.
And this fact, that some people are elevated above other
people, is obvious in the words of God where He says: ‘We have elevated some of
them above others in degrees so that some may have command over others’, which
means He has elevated some of them above others in degrees. That is, like in
nourishment one is rich and one is poor, one is free and one subject, or in
excellence of character where the truths have been brought to perfection. In
these cases the height of the degrees depends on the beauty of character. He
whose nature is good, his degree is high. So some have use over others in their
needs, in their works, or a group among them use another group as their workers
and they propose work to them, and the others because of what they receive as
payment become obedient to them, so that one through work helps the other, and
the one through possession helps the other. This image is the cause of the
regulations of the worldly order, and sometimes the orders of the other world are
ordered as a result of this.
For the human beings, no one can be commanded over by
another who is equal to him, or equally, a man who is equal is not commandable
over by another man for the purposes of that man, or for the
no 1
domination of subjugation over the^ther, like the master subjugates
and imposes upon his servant, and^the ruler does the same to his people with
such things that are not necessarily their desire.
The second kind of dominion is dominion by state like
the dominion of the people upon their ruler, which ruler exists by the order of
the people and by his protection from their enemies, protecting their goods and
their lives and so on. All this is dominion of the people by their state over
their ruler. In all this the people have dominion over their king, and he has
to obey and serve them, and this dominion in reality is called dominion by
degrees, which means that even though the people by their state dominate, their
ruler and use his services for their own affairs, in reality this dominion is
the dominion of the degrees and is the degree of rulership. For instance, if a
ruler was made to abdicate from his rulership, he would no more abide in the
service of the people and he would no more be dominated by them, because the
degree of rulership was determined over the ruler by the totality of this
order, and because of that the king became the dominator according to this
degree. If there is a king among kings who perseveres and works for his nafs for the protection of his people, and he works for his nafs so much that the possessions and the persons of his people are
under protection, and that consequently the belongings and nourishment of the
people actually belong to him and he uses their belongings and their persons in
all their strengths to preserve himself from his personal enemies and he
becomes a renowned ruler so that nobody can oppose him, the reward for this is
only to the degree that he has worked for God.
There are, among the kings, certain kings who are cognizant
of this order and know that in reality his dominion over his people is due to
the degree of rulersh'p, and that rulership over him, through the same degree
of rulership, is rulership of the people. Consequently, he will be cognizant of
the value of the people and their rights. In this case, God will give him his
desert, according,£o this knowledge, in the same manner as knowledgeable people
receive their desert. Equally then, the desert of a cognizant ruler like this
is dependent upon God, because He is revealed by its revelation in the images
of their works and the news of the works of His servants. In other words, he
witnesses the haqq which is revealed in them and by virtue
of their manifestation, he will be under the dominion of that witnessing of the
haqq in them, and because of that his desert will be dependent upon God
by the
933
the Light of being and with the revelation of the effusion of being
in any one variety of the high creatures and the low creatures, in each variety,
even in the image of each person, it became absolutely necessary that He
should be worshipped in every single image of the images of the universe,
either by worship of Divinity like the worshippers of idols, trees, stones, the
sun and the moon, stars and the calf, because Divinity is of the Ipseity for
the Being of the haqq, hence in whatever form the Being of the
haqq is manifest or is revealed, then in that image He will be
worshipped, or by the worship of dominion like the people’s worship of possessions
and people of position and rank, and there is no name in common usage for the
worship of dominion because this is reserved for the indirect worship. Whatever
the case, servanthood is realized in these two kinds, because if somebody’s (or
something’s) love and lulership is manifest in your heart, you are that
person’s servant.
For the person who understands the?Zz<rz«7<7 in
every image there is no doubt that the haqq is
the one that is'jpjayed to in every image, whereas at the same time nothing has
been worshipped in this universe except after it was adorned with elevation at
the level of the worshipper and after it manifested in the heart of the
worshipper with a certain degree. That is to say, because each one of what is
worshipped from among the things of the universe was worshipped after being
dressed with a certain elevation in the heart of the worshipper and each
manifested in the heart of the worshipper in certain degrees, the High haqq became for us that which is called ‘elevated in degrees’ (rafi‘ ad-darajat). That is to say, He called His own nafs
‘elevated in degrees’ and did not say ‘elevated in one degree’, because the
things that are worshipped in different degrees all have a servant and the
thing that is worshipped according to reality in that degree is the haqq. In other words, at the level of the worshipper which is in that
degree, it is after haqq becomes dressed by elevation
that the worshipper worships haqq. Consequently, haqq becomes elevated in degrees.
The High God pluralized the degrees in one ‘ayn because certainly the High God decreed and determined that nothing
else be worshipped in the many different degrees, and He gave it in each degree
a place of Divine revelation so that the haqq is
worshipped in that degree.
The greatest and highest of these places of revelation
in which the haqq has been worshipped is passion (haw a). In fact the High God has said: ‘Do you not see those who have taken
their passion as their
935
Futuhat: ‘I have witnessed the passion in certain insights (kashf) in manifestation with the Divinity sitting on His Throne and all
His worshippers afraid for Him and of Him and standing around Him; I have
never witnessed anything worshipped in the images of immanence greater than
that.'
Do you not see the Divine Knowledge of things; what
thing made it more complete and perfect and how complete the Divine Knowledge
is and how the High God has completed knowledge for that person who worshipped
his own passion which he took for his divinity? The High God misled him on
knowledge and yet being misled is perplexity (hayrah),
so the High God completed and perfected by means of perplexity which is
misleading. And the explanation of this completion or misleading is this: the
High God knew this worshipper, or else the value is this, the High God knew
that this worshipper did not worship except his own passion, that is '0 say, He
knew the person who was worshipping passion knew that he did not worship except
his own passion by virtue of submitting to his passion in that which his
passion orders him, even though he worshipped it knowing that that thing was
worshipping a person from among persons. Yet the worshipper's worship of the
High God equally came about from the side of passion like the worship of other
things, because, the value is such that if the passion had not happened from
the side of the Holy Divinity (and passion is will with a kind of love from
among different varieties of love, be it love of salvation or deg-ees, or the
love of the perfection of the nafs or the love of the qualities
of the haqq, or the love for the Ipseity), the worshipper would not have
worshipped God, and would not have preferred Him above any other. That is to
say, as the worshipper’s worship of the High God is from passion, and since
passion itself is nothing other than the will of love to a kind of image from
among the spiritual images, consequently he who has worshipped an image from
among the images of the universe and considers that image as Divinity, does not
consider that as Divinity except £j$assion. Thus the worshipper is never
released from being condemned to the rulership of his passion, and whatever he
worships, he worships with his passion.
Some have transcended love to the High God by looking at
reality, because in reality love and the lover and the beloved is one existent,
and there is no difference between them except by consideration, exactly like
knowledge, the knower and the known are the same. Thus the rule of tawhid is maintained, and in the manifestation or the
937
of what the thing is called, and it is the same thing in the case of
trees and animals and other things worshipped. In other words, each worshipper
for instance calls by the name ‘stone’ his idol which is of stone; this name
concerning that idol is the name of its personality by some way of
manifestation, and secondly, by virtue of the mahiyyah which
is actualized (muta'ayyin), by a personal manifestation (ta'ayyun).
Divinity is a degree of totality and of unification, but
the one who worships a stone or a wood etc., imagines that Divinity is at the
level of his idol, be it of wood or stone; that is to say, he believes that
what he worships is actualized at that degree, for the eye of this special worshipper,
whose eye is resident on that idol in this specialized place of revelation, is
devoted to this specialized place of revelation. However, in reality, Divinity
is the place of revelation of the haqq. In other words, each
worshipper imagines that tJjegDivinity which is the degree of totality of
elevation is the degree 0^ his pwn idol and that his idol is actualized in that
degree, and that degree is equally actualized in his idol. But the truth is,
the degree of Divinity that is imagined in each thing worshipped is not
Absolute Divinity. This is the place of revelation of the haqq for the vision of this special worshipper, whose eye is resident
upon his idol in this special place of revelation, wherein the haqq is revealed in a special face and the worshipper thinks that that
special face is the elevated degree. Consequently, this worshipper becomes
veiled by the manifestation of the haqq which is actualized
in that special place of revelation, and he has been veiled from the face of
the haqq because he only witnessed the manifestation because his nafs and his manifestation is of a personal and partial variety. Had the
worshipper been free and divorced from the regulations of the manifestation (ta'ayyuri), he would have witnessed only the manifestation of the face of the haqq which woula have been revealed in his own idol, and if he had
observed the face of the haqq in his idol, he would have
equally observed in the totality of things worshipped that the haqq reveals Himself and manifests Himself therein in a face, and he
would not have devoted to one specific place of revelation that elevated
degree and the Reality, or the totality of unification, unless that specific
place of revelation be the place of revelation of the ins&n-i- kamil, which is the place of totality of manifestation and receptivity
wherein that degree of Divine unification manifests with the largeness of
unification and with the totality of manifestation.
o-jo
i. -'
It is by their words that they established that there
was one God, at their level, and they believed it and these other idols were a
means of approach to that one God. And when the Prophet witnessed their ability
to believe in one God, he invited them to one God. In short, the one God was
known at their level even though not witnessed, because they knew that the
images they witnessed were stone and were nothing of Divinity, and it was
because of this, because they knew that Divinity was not in the stone, wood,
etc., that it became an obligation upon God to prevent them from worshipping
wood and stones. That is why God said to the Prophet: ‘Tell them, you name what
your idols are because you worship them, but that which is called by the Name Allah is not worthy of being worshipped by anything other than One
Existence.’ When these people are questioned on the names of their divinities,
they call the idols by their appropriate names, and they say that the stone is
stone and the tree is tree etc., and hence by their own words they become
boupd, because idols which are stone, wood or star are not fit to be
worshipped.
Yet, those who are gnostics and know the order either
through Divine knowledge or insight (kashf;
from the Lord, manifest over the people who worship images of the universe by
denial because, in reality, their degrees in knowledge bestow on them that they
are outwardly, according to the necessities of the times, believers in the
determinations of the prophet of the time and follow that prophet because of
whom they have become believers. The saints who verify the Reality and the
complete gnostics know the order of Being as it is, and are witnesses of the
Oneness of the Being of the haqq in the manifestations of
immanence, and have insight to the fact that whatever is worshipped among all
the things that are worshipped is in reality the real God; yet they manifest
over the people who worship the numerous idols that are derived from the images
of the universe, because the degree of their Divine knowledge bestqwson them
that they should be in accordance with the determinations) of the prophet who
is the saint of the times, and be in accordance with his laws, and they believe
in that even though in reality they are gnostics by insight (kashf), because the prophets and envoys have limits of religious law and
determinations of religion. The manifested rulership of these is caused by the
necessity of the manifesting and the manifestation of the haqq and of knowledge and worship necessitated by the origination of the
emergence of the completion of Man.
941
spite of their knowledge of all this ‘.hey would still appear with
denial so as to coincide with the laws of the envoy and concord with him since
that envoy is the ruler of the time. But the believer who denies the open
worship of the idols has no knowledge that the haqq is
revealed in the places of revelation v'hich are these idols. He does not know
that the haqq is revealed in the idols, and he remains ignorant of the fact that
the haqq reveals Himself in idols, and does not understand, and the
complete gnostic, who is the heir of the prophets and envoys, has veiled from
these people the fact that it is the haqq
which is manifested in the places of manifestation which are the idols, even though
he sees that they worship the haqq in the places of manifestation
which are the idols. The reason why the gnostic veils this determination is
because of magnification (ta'zim) and beneficence (taknm) and majesty (ijldl), and he also veils the haqq because he wants to transcend the haqq from
actualizing and immanencing which is the totality of the knowledge of the
people who are veiled, and again to be able to complete those from among the
population who are inclined towards following (suluk)
and have the aptitude to face from the relative to the Absolute, so that by
refraining from the images of relativity, they are guided to the meanings of
Absoluteness, and so that they unite between the Absolute and the relative.
Consequently, the gnostic ordered the people of veils
who were worshipping idols to refrain from these images because the envoy of
the era refrained from these images and did not legalize the worship of the haqq in those images. Therefore, the gnostic ordered them to distance
themselves from the images in order to agree with the envoy and also because he
is desirous of the increasing of the Divine Love towards them, and so that the
love of God becomes realized through their agreement with the prophet, because
God said: ‘Tell them, if you love God, follow me so that God loves you.’ By
this, God relegates the love of God to following the envoy, and makes the
following of the envoy the result of the love of God. And because the 'drif is desirous of the excess of the Divine Love, which is extra Divine
Love, which is subject to following the envoy, he follows the envoy and orders
to refrain from the worship of the idols since the envoy also refrains from
this.
The envoy invites to the God, the Absolute Being,
because that is what is necessary for being and for nourishment, and for all
orders and aims it is necessary to appeal to That; and He needs no one, and He
is
943
The Wisdom of Eminence
(al-hikmat al-'uluwiyyah)
in the Word of Moses
The aspect of the specification of the High Wisdom to the Mosaic Word
has been mentioned in the index, and the Shaykh (R.A.) brought first the wisdom
of the death of the children to other determinations of Moses, because the
children which 'vere killed for Moses are like his powers and parts, and other
determinations are like his necessities. Thus the Shaykh (R.A.) started with
the killing of the children, and said: The wisdom of the killing of the
children because of Moses is to visit him with succour of life of all that were
killed because of him, which means that all the children in Israel were killed
because of Moses, and the wisdom of this is that the death of each child for
the sake of Moses is to help with its life, and belongs with its life to Moses
for whom they were killed. Now, Oh those who like Moses, the one spoken to by
God in the Tor of revelation, requesting the vision of Beauty and burnt in the
Light of prostrations of the jatal and the revelation of
Beauty, and, Oh those who are covered with the being spoken to by the Oneness,
drowned in the Sea of Oneness of the haqq and
in the Sea of the Effusion of the Ipseity of Uniqueness, You, the complete and
perfect gnostic and the receptive knower, know it like this, that the Ipseity
of the God and the Being of the Unknowable Absolute, in consideration of Its
Absoluteness and non-individuation, is One Reality, and is transcendent from
praise, qualification, Name and affairs, attributions and plurality and
numerality of individuation, and is not determined over by any determination or
seasoned by any quality, nor pictured by any praise. But in the First ta'ayyun, which is the collectivity of the totality of the individuations of
the Divine Names and container in itself of all the receptive potentialities of
possibilities of being, He descended for the purpose of manifesting the
non-existent Names and the potentialities of conjectural receptivities, which
are the potentialities of the Unknowable and the realities of the Ipseity
which are in annihilation in His Ipseity, with total manifesting and
manifestation for witnessing and making witness in its totality and in detail
with the
945
in Adam (S.A.) who is the Father of Man. The degree of the Preserved
Tablets which is the second degree of the High Pen, which is referred to as the
Total Self, is where the spirits and the intellect which were in full power in
the High Pen become detailed in relation to the High Pen, when the High Pen
descends to it (i.e. the degree of the Preserved Tablets). Here, through
differentiation of being, they become distinguished one from the other and
become individuated with total and partial ta'ayyun.
Thus, the spirits oc the prophets and envoys
and of the total and perfect saints, being the places of manifestation of the
totality of the collectivity of the Names which are individuated in the Divine
Knowledge, are individuated with total individuation in the degree of universe
of spirits and Preserved Tablets, because they are mirrors and places of
manifestation for the total Names. Thus, each of the spirits from among the
total spirits, by virtue of its collectivity and the expanse of the circle of
its circumference, comprise and are prevalent over the partial spirits which
are manifested, which spirits are individuated in their degree of totality.
They are in the human emergence like the spiritual and bodily powers and
Corporeal limbs, and they are like servants and subjects and peoples in the
universe. Thus, certain partial spirits are like the powers and parts and
subjects and servants of certain total spirits, who are individuated by that
one’s individuation and who are existent by that one’s existence. Thus, just as
this partial spirit which is under the circumference of that total spirit and
is under his determination in the higher universes and the universes of the
spirits, and equally, as they are under the dominion of that certain total
Name, they are still under its determination when they have reached the sensory
bodies in the universe of senses and witnessing, just like the peoples and
subjects of prophets and envoys, and the soldiers and populaces of sultans and
kings. It is equally so in the isthmuses of the other world. ‘All people are
invited by their leaders.’ Each prophet is in accordance with the plurality of
his people and the totality of the spirituality of the width of its religion,
and the totality of this spirituality is in consequence of the unknowableness
of his reality and the collectivity of the totality of the Divine Name to which
he is the place of manifestation. The strength of invitation in the prophecy of
each prophet is in consequence of the aptitude of his people and their
multiplicity. When the Divine Will appertains to the rising of an envoy which
is specific to it, in accordance with the
947
Thus, before the individuation of the prophetic, perfect, complete
humour of Moses (S.A.), the humours which were receptive spirits and realities
which were in the spirit of Moses, were individuated and appertained to his
spirit and bodies. Although he was present in the station of his own
spirituality according to the totality of the Mosaic spirit, he became
manifested and individuated by virtue of the place of manifestation in the
place of manifestation of those spirits. However, they were not sufficient to
resist the Pharaoh without Moses and his total spirit. They had contained only
the power to assist Moses in the manifestation of the totality and perfections
of Moses, and the wise and knowledgeable ones of the Copts had already informed
the Pharaoh that at that time there would be a son born from the Israelites,
through whose hands would com; r bout the destruction of his possessions and
of himself. Consequently, the Pharaoh, who was afraid of God’s qada‘ and determination, decreed the killing of the children which were
bom to the Israelites, but did not realize that if God decreed the destruction
of his person and dissemination of his estate through the hands of somebody
whom God willed to live, he could not find victory over that person.
Consequently, by the order of the Pharaoh they killed all the children bom from
the Israelites at that time, thinking that they might be Moses, that is to say,
that one of them might be the child through whose hands would be destroyed and
disseminated Pharaoh and his dominion. Consequently, the Pharaoh became the
helper of the child who would destroy him and disseminate his estate, by
killing all the children of Israel, and helped along m his own destruction,
because the spirits of those children killed reverted all to the universe of
the spirit of Moses, and were collected together at the level of the spirit of
Moses and were comprised in it. Thus, the spirit of Moses became strengthened
by those spirits, and the qualities of those spirits became collected in him
andtJjeirbecame strengthened with their powers. Thus the spirit of Moses became
the collectivity and the place of collection of all those spirits, and as has
been mentioned before, this is the wisdom of extension of help to Moses from
those spirits.
Disregarding the fact that in a certain aspect those
spirits, separating themselves in a certain aspect from the universe of the
Moses spirit, that they manifested in the human image which is the end of the
traverse of spirits in manifestation, and reached the degree of the human
spirit which is the last degree of the degrees of spirits, and were manifested
and revealed in the image of Man which is created in
949
the fact that the children that were killed were the detailed image
of Moses, and when they were killed their spirits belonged to Moses for help.
Thus God, by virtue of His Knowledge, is Most Wise where it concerns their
being killed, and He determined that they should be killed, in the matter of
Pharaoh, and killed them, and had the information that if those children were
not killed and that their spirits and life did not belong to Moses and give him
strength, the destruction of Pharaoh and his estate could not be accomplished
by Moses and be manifested. Thus the haqq, who
is the only one in his estate and sin- gularized in his determination, is the
Absolute Actor, and whatever order emanates in his estate, either collectively
or in detail, is certainly built according to His Wisdom, and that whatever
action manifests in being is built upon His Knowledge and in, accordance with
His manner of action (mashi’a). In this sentence5
‘it is also possible to use the words: ‘. . . there is not after that,
ignorance’ to appertain to Pharaoh’s determination that each child of the
children of Israel is Moses. In other words, there is no ignorance in the
determination of Pharaoh for having each child killed as Moses, as they were
detailed images of Moses. Yet ignorance exists in particularizing Mosesness to each
image, as well as in knowing in which way each image is Moses, and in knowing
that the life of each child killed belonged to Moses and that their killing is
succour to Moses. Without a doubt their life is for Moses, meaning the life of
the ones killed for his sake, and these were manifested lives in their natural
constitution, not defiled by the desires of the self, therefore they were
according to the natural original constitution.
The life of each child that we.s killed because of Moses does, without a doubt,
belong to Moses according to the necessities of wisdom and knowledge. The life
which belongs to Moses is life which is manifested according to the original
nature, which has not been polluted with the pollutions of qualifications of
the humankind, and not defiled. Rather perhaps that life is manifest and
established according to the nature of the ‘Yea’ (bald).
‘The nature of God, according to which is the nature of Man.’ Although the
spirits of those children killed were attached to the images of nature and to
the elemental humour, they were manifested according to original purity of
spiritual light and nature of primordial eternal islam—‘All
bom are born according to the nature of islam'—and
were killed before they were qualified with the qualities of animality and
before the human qualities and the desires of nature had manifested in their
bodies and
951
The Lordly leader and the self-subsistently wise,
Mohammed bin Ali Tirmidhi (R.A.). tells of a hadith in
his ‘Book of Seals’, which he refers to Abdu Rahman bin Sirahiyya who said: ‘It
came to me in a dream of the battle, and when the deaths of Ja'far and Zayd and
Ibn Rawahah were mentioned, the friends of the Prophet (S.A.) wept a lot, and
him to whom is the most superior of salawat
and salam said: “Do not weep”, and said: “Why should we weep that our friends
and the most honoured among us and the people of superior quality from among us
are killed?” And the S.A. said: “Do not weep, because my people is likenable to
a garden which has an owner . . . who feeds generally by waves and waves, ind
to the very end feeds most generously all of us, and lengthens its fruits, and
when God resurrects us He brings about for us successors from the son of Mary
better than His apostles.” ’ And again, in the same way, he (Tirmidhi) relates,
referring to Sahl, son of Rabi'ah, who says: ‘The Envoy (S.A.) said: “In that
there are heirs (loins), heirs and heirs, people from among my companions, man
and woman, who enter the paradise without reckoning.” After that he continued:
“And the last ones with them when they joined them, and He is the Dear and the
Wise. This is superiority from God which He gives to whom He pleases, and God
is the giver of superiority and grandeur.” And the leader of the believers,
‘Ali, whose face God has rendered generous, said when he spoke to some of his
friends at the victory ?ver the people of Jamal: “We should be pleased if our
friend so-and-so was of our witnesses (the ones who fell in battle in defence
of religion), and if they fall from among our soldiers, these people are from
among the friends of the people and of the abode (depth of the heart) of the
women, and time flows immediately from them and
strengthens in them the peptitude.” ’ And Moses was the totality of the
lives of those who were filled on the account that they were him, and all that
was of gift for those>who were killed was no other than what was in the aptitude
of their spirits, was in Moses. Thus Moses became
the totality of the lives of the children of Israel who were killed for being
taken for Moses, and the totality of their spiritual life and spiritual
strength was collected in Moses. Thus, whatever was prepared for that one
killed, as Divine gifts, which was particular to the aptitude of its spirit,
that is to say, whatever was obtained as gift in the aptitude of that spirit,
that thing of gifts existed in Moses, because whatever was prepared for them
did not manifest in them because they were killed, and as their spirits became
comprised in the spirit of
intelligence. Thus the big is under the enchantment of the small,
and the big does not know that this is happening. After that, the small employs
the grown-up fcr his own instruction and for his own protection and for the arrangement
of his own affairs and for his familiarization. In short, he occupies him for
himself so that his own chest is not constricted. All this is of the action of the
small upon the big and this is due to the strength of the station, because the
small is of recent date with his Lord because he is of recent immanence, and
the big is further away, and he who is closer to God compels the one who is
further away from God, like the special angels who are brought into closeness
with Him subjugate those who are further away. All
these above-mentioned dispensings (tasarruf) are of the
action apd effect which the small has on the big, and this action and effect
is^frpm the strength of the station of the small, because in reality the small
is of recent date to his Lord because in fact the small is of recent immanence,
which means that his immanencing from his Lord is closer in time, whereas the
big is further away in time from the small in being immanenced. Thus, whoever
is closer to God subjugates the person who is further away from God, like the
special ones of the race of angels, who, due to their closeness to God the
High, subjugate the angels who are further away from God, and other creatures.
It is also possible to read this sentence with the diacritical sign of kasra, which would then mean: the special people who are close to the king
subjugate those who are further away from the king, like the viziers and
leaders subjugate the commonality of people.
Now, let it be known like this, that closeness and distance,
close and far, are two relationships to God which have been individuated from
two stations of Divinity, according to which two stations felicity and
wretchedness are made into degrees. Thus, that person who has the least of
intermediacy of states, that person becomes the closest, like the First ta'ayyun, because the First ta'ayyun is the first degree that
manifests from the Absolute Unknowable. Thus, he subjects the person who has
not this closeness, due to his closeness to his existensor, like the prophets
and saints who subjugate their people and their followers. Whichever person is
the possessor of the uniqueness of the totality of the Divine completeness and
perfection, that person is closer than the one over whom the determinations of
plurality are predominant, and he subjugates that person, but the closeness and
distance which happens in this position is due to the recent arrival of
955
‘Whoever happens to be with knowledge is alive, and he never dies.’
In the same way, water causes life in the bodies, and the exposition of the
Envoy (S.A.) to the rain is indicative of the consideration of the effusion of
the spirit which is effused over the complete and perfect spirit, and the
uncovering of his head points to the removal of all impediment to the descent
of the Lordly knowledge and the Divine effusion. Inviting him by its essence,
by its state. Thus, like the Angel who descends with Divine inspiration, the
rain invited the Envoy (S.A.) with the tongue of its state, with its essence,
which descended in the image of knowledge and life, and he exposed himself to
it so as to be attained by it in what its Lord had given to him. Thus, the
Envoy (S.A.) exposed himself to the rain so that in respect of his being an
envoy, from the rain he would be attained by that which the rain brought to him
from its Lord. Now what it brought is this meaning that all things are alive by
it, because rain is the life of all bodies. Thus the rain is the image of life
and knowledge and Divine effusion which is the nourishment and food of the
spirit. Had there not resulted for him of Divine benefit in what attained to
him, he would not have exposed himself to it. And this envoyship is the
envoyship of water by which God brought life to everything. So understand! If
there had been no Divine benefit resultant for the Envoy (S.A.) from rain, by
what attained him of rain, the Envoy (S.A.) would not have exposed himself to it.
Thus, this envoyship is the envoyship of water by which God the High created
everything that is alive. Thus the envoyship of water is this, that as every
live thing receives life from water, and as water is the image of life, the
life of the spirits of the prophets and saints is the water of the life of
Divine effusion. Consequently, the rains of the Divine effusion are constantly
descending from^Kle Presences of the heavens of the Divine Names.
Consequently/remove that thing which veils and prevents the reception of that
Divine effusion, and be communicated by it. So understand this subtle meaning.
The manifest spirits, which are like the active powers, remain according to the
nature of light. The Divine Names and all the heavenly spirit?» which are the
beginnings of those spirits, became attached to the spirit of Moses. The Divine
Names and all the heavenly spirits is from whence they were resurrected. Thus,
these spirits were not separated from Moses, just as these active powers were
not separated from Man in the emergence of mankind, and the Divine Names and
the total spirits which were the origin of these spirits equally were not
removed from aspecting 95"?
that God willed (expected) of the nafs is
reached by the tools of those powers, and it is through these tools that
perfection and completion results for the nafs.
The wisdom of the ark being the tranquillity of the Lord
in this elemental form is this: because the human form is the last degree of
manifestation and is the most complete, most collective, most prevalent and
the largest of '.he Divine places of manifestation, because it is created
according to the Divine image. Perfection and completion results at the degrees
of manifesting and manifestation, of witnessing and making and causing to be witness.
The Divine Wills and the Essential Love and the meanings
of the Unknowable and total orders nevehVcease to descend and to be motivated,
and He never ceases to' manifest His revelations and His effusion over their
receptive a'yan in the Lordships of all the degrees of existence, and never ceases
to observe and be aspected to them with Lordship. Thus .this human form, which
is created according to the Divine image, is created in consequence of its
receptivity of the totality of the immanential and all the Divine perfections
and completions. When the human nafs and the human spirit
descends to the degree of reflection and of polishing which is the most perfect
and complete human degree, and when it attains to the degree of God’s
revelation in him with complete and partial manifestation, then in that form
there is tranquillity for the Lordships of the Names, and tranquillity results
to that being of total Divine manifestation. Thus, in this way, the word
‘tranquillity’ is derived from the word ‘tranquil’, but if it is to be considered
that it is derived from the word of the same root, ‘abode’ (maskari), then it points to the perfect and complete human heart which
results in the human form, which is the place of reflection of the Divine image
and the repair (home) of the Lordly revelations. The Shaykh (R.A.) says in his Risalat al-Ghawthiyya, recounting from Khattab: ‘The haqq to
the ghawth, which is His own Self, said: “Tell Me, Oh ghawth", and it answered: “Labbayka, Oh Lord of the
Throne.” “Tell Me if there was anything manifested like My manifestation in
Man.” It said: “Oh Lord, is it not a dwelling for You?” And He said: “It is the
abode of the abodes, and there is no abode for Me other than Man.” ’
And threw into the water with it, so that there would
result in him by these powers the science of knowledge, and He made it known to
him by this that if it is that the spirit that directs him is the king, that he
does
959
images of the universe revealed in the mirrors of the receptive a'yan, are the images which are reflected and revealed in the a'yan. The universe has no other image or quiddity than the images of the
Beautiful Names. Thus, what is meant by the image of the universe is the image
of its interior reality which is, in the images of the Names and Qualities,
the individuated images of the One Existent, because they are established and
remain with the a'yan of the Names and Qualities, also
because they are meanings and realities. The images of sensory persons are
engravings and forms and individuations, and they are exchangeable; the
interior images of individuations are the spirits for the manifested sensory
images. Thus, God the High did not plan the direction of the manifest image of
the universe except by the interior image of the universe, where that, interior
image is manifested and revealed in this manifest image, and He plans its
direction and its establishment with the successive revelations. And He
manifests in them the latter images which are in the powers of the manifest
images. Thus, the planning of the direction of the universe by its image is
planning the exterior image of each part of the parts of the universe, which
is individuation, by the images of the Names which are the individuated images
which are interior, and planning the universe by its self is planning some
latter parts by some parts of the parts of the universe. What there is of
difference between those two planning of directions is this. There has not come to us
one Name with which He is called where we did not find the meaning of such a
Nvme and its spirit in the universe, which means,
those Divine Names with which God the High has called Himself and taught us.
The meaning and the spirit of each Name is that Name’s Quality whiclii
differentiates it from another Name, and the spirits and meanings of all these
Names, like the Qualities of Life and Knowledge and Will and Ability, are all
established in the universe. Thus, the Ipseity of Uniqueness is Rich beyond
Need of the universes. However, by virtue of their differentiation from the
Ipseity of Uniqueness, the Divine Names and Qualities are not rich beyond need
of the universes. The Names are revealed in the images of the receptivity of
the a'yan. In the same way, God does
not plan the direction of the universe except by the image of the universe. Thus again, the High God did not plan the direction of the universe
except by its own image, that is, the image of the universe, which means, by
the Divine Names which are the images of the universe. Thus the High God plans
the direction of the universe with the universe, just as He 961
and Lordly Qualities which are collected in the Presence of
Divinity, and all realities and essences which are collected in the greater universe,
God the High collected in the Complete and Perfect Man. And He brought this as the spirit
for the universe, and subjected to it the high and the low because of the
completi on of his image, which means that God the
High made :he Perfect and Complete Man to be the spirit of the universe, just
as He made the speaking self the spirit for the human image. Thus, due to the
completion and perfection of the image of its collectivity, He made the high
and the low subject to him, because the image of the Complete and Perfect Man
collects in itself the Divine image and the image of the universghThus, because
of the perfection and completion and the collectivity.’pf the image, He
subjected to him (the Perfect Man) the heavens and the earth, the higher
spirits and lower persons, and the universe of the spirits and the universe of
witnessing, and the high Divine Names of necessarily-so-ness and the low
places of manifestation of immanential possibilities. And it is such that there
is not a thing in the universe who does not praise God with its hamd. In the same way, there is
not a thing of the universe where it is not subjected to this Man, as he
bestows on them the reality of his image. •Thus,
there is not a thing which is a part of the universe which does not ever praise
God with the tongue of hamd. In the same way, there is
not a thing of the universe where that thing is not subjected to this Man,
because the reality of the image of collectivity of Man bestows the fact that
the universe must be subjected to it because his reality is collective reality.
His relationship to the universe is like the spiritual and sensory powers in
the human emergence and the relationship of the spirit to the limbs and
memi-ers, in the same way as all the parts and realities are fluent in the
universe. Consequently, the universe comes under its subjection and
servanthood. And the Shaykh compared the subjection of the universe to the hamd and praise (tasbth) of the universe to the haqq. Because with the words: ‘And there is not a thing that does not
praise Him by its hamd' it is established that the
things and singularities of the universe are established according to their
praise of the universe. Nothing praises God except that thing which is alive,
and the life of the universe is the being of the Perfect and Complete Man which
is its spirit. Consequently, as all things praise God, in the same way all
things are under the subjugation of the Perfect and Complete Man because their
succour and life arrives to them from him. It is rather like this, that as all
things are under his
is misguidance, and he is
not outside that, and forever he is not guided, because indeed the order in
itself has no limit at which to stop, and guidance is that which guides Man to
perplexity (hayrah) and he knows that the
order is perplexity. The Shaykh (R.A.), bringing testimonial for the
above-mentioned claim, says that tr.3 God said: Is the order not like this,
that the person who is dead with the death of ignorance, We made him alive with
knowledge, and that We made knowledge a light for him with which he walks among
the people, and that light is the light of guidance, and the counterpart of i
person who walks with the light of knowledge among people is like the person
who is in the darknesses, and the darkness is for him misguidance and he is
not outside of these darknesses. That is to say, he will never be guided to the
straight path, because in reality there is no limit in the order itself so that
he would stop at that limit. Thus guidance is the guidance of Man to perplexity
which is the praiseworthy perplexity, and the darknesses are the perplexity of
ignorance, the despicable perplexity. And perplexity is agitation and
movement, and movement is life, and it has no peace and no death. That is to say, as perplexity is
agitation and movement it requires movement and pain, and movement
necessitates life. Consequently, for that which is in movement there is no
tranquillity. Consequently, there is no death for it, because that which is in
movement is alive. And being and no non-existence, which means, referring to perplexity, that the order is being, therefore
it has no non-existence. That is to say, the lift which is alive with knowledge
is forever alive and remaining with eternity, and it cannot have inexistence.
The being might also be in reference to life ratherthan to perplexity, as movement
necessitates life. To him uponwliorn is peace said: ‘Who is made alive with
knowledge never dies.’ It is also grammatically allowable that the words
‘movement’ and ‘being’ both refer to perplexity. And in this way in the water in which
there is the life and the movement of the earth, (as
testified by) His words: ‘and it quivered and bore’, (and
in) His
words: ‘and it increased and brought forth’, (and in) His words: ‘and grew
comely from each pair’, that is to say, it did not bring forth except from that
which is like it, that is to say, of its nature, just like being a pair has
partnership in it in what is born from it and manifests from it. This refers to the words like He sard: ‘Or is it not that he who was
dead, We have made him alive with knowledge’, that is to say, as life is
existent in knowledge, life is equally existent in that which is water, through
which results the life and the movement of the earth, and the
965
of the Being of the haqq. And was established by it, referring to the establishment of the plurality for the One Being of
the haqq. The universe is the one that worships, the one that establishes
Lordship and the one that is created, which necessitates the Being of the
Divinity, the Lordship and the Creator. Thus, with the existence of the
universe the Divine Names became realized and the plurality of Names became
established by manifesting in the places of manifestation of beings of the
universe their effects and Names of determinations. Before the coming into
being of tne universe the plurality of the Names were in the Intellect of the
One Ipseity, and this was called the relationships of plurality and the
Uniqueness of pliffality, and the Shaykh added: and the Uniqueness of plurality is
contrary to it. That is to say,
the Uniqueness of plurality is contrary to the plurality of the Names in the
Being of the haqq through the bringing about of the
universe, because the knowledgeable images of the Names which are in mentation
in the Uniqueness are. manifested and revealed by virtue of the places of
manifestation, and it is the places of manifestation that manifest the actions
and effects and predicaments which are potentially in the Names. The plurality
of Uniqueness is the plurality which is in mentation in the One Ipseity due to
the extrinsic, relative, theoretical and speculative individuations, which
plurality is only mental images and which have no existence outside, and their
mentation does not depend upon the exterior potentialities. They are only in
mentation in the Divine Knowledge in complementary opposition to the
non-existent receptive potentialities. This degree is the degree of the
Presence of Oneness, the Presence of Divinity and the Divine Knowledge, where
the Names are differentiated one from the other by the differentiation of
relationship, and they are not differentiated by external differentia tion and
existential differentiation like the differentiations that happen in the
universe. The plurality which happens in the universe is real plurality, and
the plurality which happens in the Presence of Knowledge is the plurality of
relationships. In this way the subject of the sentence ‘plurality of
Uniqueness’ is the word ‘contrary’, because the plurality which is in mentation
does not depend on the universe, but the plurality of Names which is manifested
by the universe is dependent on the universe. God was in fact Unique of potential (ahadiyyatu- l-‘ayri) by virtue of His Ipseity. That
is to say that His Ipseity was in the state of Uniqueness of potential, and in
consideration of Uniqueness of Ipseity and Uniqueness of potential God is
transcendent from the
967
was necessitated by the manifestation of the universe from the haqq, then the Name Creator also becomes realized by the manifestation of
the universe. Thus it becomes necessary that before God the High created the
universe, that He be qualified with the Quality of Creator- ness before He is
qualified with the Quality of Creatorness, and that while He is not called by
the Name Creator He is called by the Name Creator. Consequently, it becomes
necessary that the Name Creator (khaliq) is established by
the Name Creator, and this is wrong. Thus, Creatorness is established by the
creation of the universe. Another aspect of the error is this also: it becomes
necessary that the plurality of Uniqueness is established by the manifestation
of the universe and it becomes necessary that the plurality of the Names are
also the plurality of the Uniqueness. What is intended here is the expression
of the plurality of the Names, not the explanation of the plurality of
Uniqueness, because the plurality of Uniqueness, were it to be
through the manifestation of the universe, would not be the primary plurality,
because it would be impossible to collect and consider the Uniqueness of the
Names and the plurality of the Names in one instant in the same place. Another
aspect of the error is this: it becomes necessary that the Uniqueness of
plurality be established by the Name Creator, yet what emanates from the
Quality of Creatorness is plurality, not uniqueness. Yet another aspect of the
error is this, that in the Ipseity of the haqq the
Names which are in mentation in the Uniqueness would have to be necessarily
entered under the Name Creator. Thus, it would be necessary that the Names are
creatures. This^is also an error. Another aspect of the error is this, that
there appears a necessity to enter error into the matter of degrees, and it
would necessitate oppression over the degree of plurality of Uniqueness as it
would not be placed where it should be, because in the terminology of this
group of people, that is this group of people, Uniqueness of plurality is the
Uniqueness of the plurality of the Names and Qualities which are in potential
in the Ipseity of the haqq, and they are in oneness
according to the Unity, and plurality in it is an order of relations, and
extrinsic in relation to the inexistent receptive potentialities which are in
mentation in it, and he represents God as being Unique of 'ayn by virtue of His Uniqueness of Ipseity where the plurality of being
and the plurality of relations are not considered in Him, and where all the
Names and Qualities and relationships and things which are extrinsic are all in
annihilation in Him, and that God is Unique of 'ayn by
virtue of His Ipseity and
969
of which God
particularized whom He pleases from among His servants. Thus, look at this Divine instruction, how most beautiful it is and
what is it that makes it the possessor of value and beauty, such an instruction
which God the High relegated specifically to attainment and awareness of that
complete person from among His servants, whose Essential Divine mashi’a appertains to it. What is meant by the Divine instruction in this
is .hat God instructed us through the language of the Quran and the relating of
it by the Envoy of God, that when He ordered the mother of Moses to deposit him
in the ark and throw the ark upon the waters, and that the mother of Moses put
him in the ark and threw the ark upon the waters, is given to us as instruction
in the words of the Quran and related to us by the Envoy of God. What He
instructed us with is that that Divine instruction is the real life which is
Divine knowledge, and leads to the Light and the Oneness of the Ipseity.
Equally, it refers to the Divine instructions which are in the words: ‘Or is
not that he who was dead, We have made him alive, and We brought to him light
by which he walks among people’, and the words: ‘Do you not see the earth parched,
and when We bring down to it the water, it quivered and bore, and it increased
and brought forth, and grew comely from each pair?’, whereby He mirrors one to
the other, the unknowable receptive potentialities, and the established
potentialities and the Divine Names which are according to establishment in
the One Ipseity. He manifests the images of the Names in the receptive a'yan, and the images of the potentialities in the images of the Names,
and in the images of the Names He manifests with Names and Qualities and is
revealed and pluralized with different revelations, and remains covered and
hidden in Oneness in the creation of those revelations with the Essential
Oneness of mentation. This Divine instruction is specific of attainment to the
most sincere friend of the servants of God and to the most helped individuals
and to a few states, whom, in the assembly of the Divine Knowledge, God has
reserved for instruction with His Essential mashfa.
The Shaykh (R.A.), after having explained the wisdom of the throwing of Moses
upon the waters, continued on the wisdom which happens when he comes into the
hands of the family of Pharaoh. When the family of Pharaoh found him in the water near
the tree, the Pharaoh called Moses mH, which is ‘water’ in the Coptic language,
and sa is ‘tree’. He named him
with what he was found near, because the ark had stopped by the tree in the
water. In short, Pharaoh named Moses by a
combination of water and tree
971
and completion was most often specific to the greatest of men. Moses
also became the joy of his eye for the Pharaoh because of that believing that
God bestowed upon the Pharaoh when the Pharaoh was drowning. Thus God the High
took Pharaoh clean and cleansed, that is to say, when he was in belief of the
Lord of the universes and was cleansed by God from polytheism {shirk) by the water of belief, and clean of contention to Lordship in his
own self and wrong doctrines. There was not left in him anything of the bodily
pollution in the senses or in meanings or in selves or in he spirit, because
God the High took him when he was in the act of belief, before he could acquire
anything of pollution, and it is such that islam
(fiding and surrendering to God) cuts off all which passes prior to it. That is
to say, all that of association and crimes and pollutions prior to his islam are cut off, all of which are the Divine rights, like, above all,
association and not concordance with the Lord or obedience. Thus the Pharaoh
was taken at the level of his belief, before he could acquire anything of
pollution, and his last words were the words of belief. God made of Pharaoh’s
belief, or equally, according to this qualification, made the taking of Pharaoh
a Divine act for His bounty, so that the person from among His servants whose mashi’a appertained to His bounty, so that not one of those who do misdeeds
should be saddened from the Divine Mercy, because no one person other than the
people who cover the Truth are saddened away from the Divine Mercy. Had the Pharaoh been one of those to be saddened, he would not have started upon belief. And Moses
(S.A.) was like the wife of Pharaoh sa}d,Hiii- that he was: ‘the joy of the eye
for me and for you. Do not (you people) kill him. He will be of benefit to us’,
and it happened like this and God benefited them by the S.A., and they were not
aware that he was the prophet on whose hands was the destruction of the
possession of Pharaoh and the destruction of his people. Thus, had the Pharaoh
been of the class of people who were to be saddened
away from the Divine Mercy, he would not have undertaken to believe. Thus
Moses (S.A.) ^became the joy of the eye to Asiyah and to the Pharaoh, and both
of them benefited by him. Asiyah, the wife of Pharaoh, had spoken concerning
Moses with words of respect as she addressed in the plural case, or that she
was addressing the Pharaoh and the people who were instigating the death of the
children of Israel. That is why she said: ‘He is the joy of the eye for me and
for you. Do not you people kill him. It could be that he will benefit us if we
adopt him as our child.’ That is to say, in fact let Moses be for
9'3
tion to the refutation of this. The Shaykh (R.A.) says in his Futuhat that in the words of God the High: ‘This instant, but you had
revolted before and you were of the mischief-makers’, there is proof of the
belief of Pharaoh. In the end of the chapter there is announced that these
words explain the reproach to Pharaoh of his rebellion and mischief which
happened before, that it does not prove his disbelief. In fact, people have
taken this as proof of his belief, and, God willing, this question will be
explained in detail at the end of this Wisdom. And when God protected him from
the'Pharaoh, the heart of the mother of Moses entered the morning, relieved
from grief which had attained it. When God
protected Moses from the Pharaoh and preserved him from being killed by his
people which Pharaoh had intended to have done, the heart of the mother of
Moses was relieved from sorrow and distress when she entered the morning,
which grief had befallen her from the fear of the killing of her son. This was
even so that God had inspired her heart, yet conjecture (wdhm), having predominated, had made her grievous and sad. Thus, in accordance
with the Divine beshara, corresponding to the morning, when
she was informed of Moses’ not being killed, her heart was relieved from grief
and was left free of it, because she knew that her son was safe and protected.
After that,
God forbade him wet-nurses until he received the breast of his mother and he
was nursed, so that God completed for her her joy by this. This is so in
(accordance with) knowledge of religious laws (shara’F). That is to say, after the mother of Moses was given the bounty of
the bounty of God the High of protecting Moses from the Pharaoh, God forbade to
Moses the breast of other wet-nurses. Thus he did not accept the breast of
other wet-nurses until he rose to the hands of his own mother. Thus his own
mother wet-nursed him so that God the High complete the joy of his mother by
wet-nursing him, because motherhood is complete with nursing. The knowledge of
the religious legalities is also like this, that is to say, the knowledge of
religious legalities is like forbidding the wet-nurses other than the breast of
the mother to Moses, because there is a particular private religious law for
each prophet. They are forbidden the religious laws of another prophet except
that which is legally allowed them from the other religious laws, because it
happens sometimes that the knowledge of the religious laws of one prophet is
not suitable to the people of another, exactly as the milk of some wet-nurses
is not suitable to some children, even though milks are one in the image of
being milk, but it
975
you aware. That is to say, because of that we have made you aware by
our word ‘in image’ that that which is forbidden in one law, by virtue of the
image it looks as if the same thing was allowed, that is to say, this consideration
is by virtue of image, but in the order itself the order is not like that,
because the order is a new creation and the images are for things alike. It is
by allusion to this that there was the forbidding of wet-nurses concerning
Moses. This is because of the reality of who wet- nursed, not because of who
gave birth, because the mother who gave birth bore it from the aspect of
safekeeping, so that it immanences therein and is nourished by the blcod of the
fluid of the menstrual flux without its being aware of it. It is like this so
that there is not for him in this matter any indebtedness, because he is not
nourished except that if he were not nourished by it and it did not get out of
her this blood, it would destroy her and would render ill the foetus. Its (the
child’s) indebtedness to his mother is by its being immanenced (through her).
Being nourished by her is helpful to herself from ill effects, which would be
to the limit if he did not take this blood from her and did not take it out and
did not nourish the foetus. This is to say, as each thing is nourished by its
origin God the High forbade wet-nurses concerning Moses as an allusion to this.
Thus Moses’ mother according to the reality is the woman who wet-nursed him.
The woman who bore him is not in reality his mother, because the mother who
gives birth (to a child) bears that child by way of being entrusted with it.
Thus it becomes immanenced in that mother and? is nourished by the blood of the
fluid of the menstrual flux withbut the consciousness of its mother during its
being immanenced and during its nourishment through the blood of the menstrual
flux, which means that though Moses is immanenced in his mother and is
nourished by the blood of the menstrual flux of the mother, the mother has no
awareness or will in this matter. This is so, so that for the mother there is
no cause for gratitude over it, because in reality he was not nourished except
by that blood, which if it were not nourished by it and that blood did not come
out of the mother, surely that blood would destroy the mother or render her
ill. Thus, for the foetus there is gratitude established for the mother that
bore him, as that foetus is nourished by that blood. Thus the foetus, through
itself, preserves its mother from such ill as the mother would have witnessed
in her body if that blood had remained in her and had not gone out of her and
her foetus had not nourished itself with it. The wet-nurse is not like this,
because she intends by her wet-nursing to keep
977
saved Moses from the sadness of the ark, and the ark is his human
nature (nasuf).
Thus Moses burnt the darkness of nature by what God bestowed on him of Divine
knowledge, if he does not go out of nature and its determinations by that
Divine knowledge, because in whichever general: ty He manifests, of course He
manifests in the places of manifestati an of nature. It is never outside of
nature. At the very utmost He manifests in the image which is purest and the
most light image of nature in the universe^ sanctity. And He tempted him with
many temptations, that is, He tried him in many areas so that it would be
realized in his self his patience with what God has afflicted him, and the
first thing God afflicted him with is his killing of the Egyptian, with which
God had inspired him, and He helped him in the mystery of it and he was not in
the knowledge of this, but there was not any concern in himself due to this
killing (that is to say ‘heed’, to say he was not worried by what he was
afflicted with). In his being he did not wait until the order from his Lord
gave him in this, because the prophet is interiorly innocent when he does not
know, until he is notified of it, that is to say, that he has been tested by
this. And God the High tested Moses in many areas so that his patience would be
realized in himself to all with which God the High had inflicted him, so that
he be sure of foot in patience, because many of the Divine perfections and
completions in the human emergence manifest with afflictions and tests; so the
first affliction with which God the High afflicted Moses was his killing of the
Egyptian by means of His help to Moses and making him able through God’s
inspiration and its mystery in the act of killing the Egyptian. That is to say,
Moses killed the Egyptian in accordance with the inspiration and God’s lending
him the ability to kill the Egyptian (in accordance) within the mystejy (of
this action). It is true that Moses did not know that he killed by the order of
God the High, because he was not yet sent as a prophet. However, by this
killing, Moses did not find in his own self any heed, even though Moses did not
depend on the coming of a Divine order to kill. Because he is not made aware by
Divine inspiration, the interior of the prophet is always innocent until he is
informed of it by God. This means, the interior of the prophet is always
innocent of committing major sins. Thus Moses killed the Egyptian with the
Divine inspiration to his heart to kill, without his being aware of it, because
as he was not informed he had no knowledge that he killed him by Divine
inspiration to kill, because had he known, it would not have been affliction
and he would not have
979 J
And Khidr (S.A.) showed to Moses (S.A.) the piercing of the boat,
the exterior of which is destruction, that is to say, image of destruction, and
the interior is salvation from the usurper. Khidr did the piercing of the boat
for himself, that is to say. he himself manifested with the piercing of the
boat, just as the ark was for Moses upon the water covering him totally. Thus,
the exterior of this ark for Moses is the image of destruction, but its
interior is salvation. And when his mother had done this it was because of the fear
of the hand of the usurper Pharaoh, so that he
would be dead in captivity (so that he would die covered up, that is, enclosed)
and she would see it happen. This means that it was because she was afraid that
Pharac-h would tie the hands and feet of Moses and would kill him in front of
the eyes of the mother that the mother of Moses put him into the ark and put
the ark upon the waters. He says to kill in captivity, and the captivity of Man
or other things for killing is to enclose, to shut up, to imprison and to throw
until it dies. The best way is. to read this as that he would be dead,
enclosed. By
inspiration (that is to say,
she did it by inspiration) this is what God inspired her with when she did not know, and
Moses witnessed in himself that she was nursing him (feeding him), and when she
was afraid for him put him in the waters, and as known in the saying: ‘When the
eye does not see, the heart is not afflicted’, she was not frightened over him
with the fear of witnessing him with the eyes and was not saddened over him
with the sadness of the vision of th^eye, and her imagination dominated, her
pretty imagination that one flay God might return him to her, and she lived
with this imagination in herself, and prayer is against fear and sadness. She
said when she was inspired that may it be so that this is that envoy who has
the destruction of Pharaoh and the Egyptians upon his hands, and she lived and
was happy with this conjecture, and supposition with a view to her is
knowledge of the order itself. Due to the Divine
inspiration of which she had no knowledge, whereas Moses in his own self
observed this as though she was breast-feeding Moses, and when the mother of
Moses feared over Moses and thus put him upon the waters, because as the saying
goes: ‘When the eyes do not see, the heart is not afflicted’, so she was spared
the fear of seeing with the eyes and she was not saddened with the sadness of
vision, and because of her beauty of thinking that God may give Moses back to
her some day, the mother of Moses lived and remained in herself with this imagination,
and prayer is against fear and sadness. Thus the mother of Moses, when she was
inspired with -his action, said it would be prayed
981
manifesting and total manifestation which is what
causes eternal life. The movement of Moses at that moment was in reality the
movement of Divine Love which is mentioned in the hadith qudsi. The Divine Love which is aspected from God to His creation
necessitates the manifestation of God with total manifesting and manifestation
and polishing and reflection which is in the degree of the Perfect and Complete
Man. Thus, the Perfect and .Complete Man is under the determination of that
movement of Diving iJovq .before his completion. Thus the movement of Divine
Love necessitated in Moses that in the place of manifestation of Moses there
should result total witnessing and causing to witness and total revelation and
collective and complete gnosis, and in this way Moses moved so that the Divine
image, which is the Divine Trust which was placed in Moses, was preserved and
made to preserve, and by virtue of the spirits which are the places of Mosaic
manifestation which are comprised in his spirit, that they reach the perfection
for which they were deemed worthy. And in this way it is that the origin of the movement
of the universe from the nonexistence (cadam), wherein it was in
quietude, to being, is thus said to be that it is the order of movement from
quietude was the movement which is the existence of the universe is the
movement of love, and the Envoy (S.A.) brought it to awareness that this is so,
by his words: ‘I was a treasure unknown, and loved to be known.* Had there not
been this love, the universe would not have manifested as it is, and the movement
from non- being to being is the movement of love of the one who brings into
being for the movement of love of the one that is brought into being. In fact, the origin of the manifestation and coming into being of
the universe from non-being, wherein the universe was in quietude, is movement
to being. That is why it is said that the order of being is movement from
quietude, that is to say, the movement into being of the universe which was in
quietude in non-being, because quietude precedes movement. It is thus that the
movement which is the coming into being of the universe became the movement of
love. That is to say, it became the movement which emanated from the Essential
Divine Love. This is what the Envoy (S.A.) meant to make aware in reality. In other
words, the movement of the universe from non-being into being is the movement
of love. That is what he pointed at in his words: T was a hidden treasure and
unknown, and I loved to be known.’ Thus, had there not been this Essential
Divine Love, the universe would not have manifested in the same love
relationship, jarib would have remained in its 983 '
knowledge of the latter and the knowledge of the previous. Thus the
degrees of knowledge become complete according to both aspects, through the
aspect of the Ipseity and through the aspect of the manifestation of the
potentialities in the universe.
It is possible to consider in this sentence the words:
‘and His knowledge of Himself by His own Self’ to be an answer to a possible
question. If it were that the questione asked: ‘As God knows His Ipseity and
His perfections and completenesses before coming into being of the universe and
before His manifestation in the images of the universe, then what is the use
of bringing into being the universe?', the Shaykh (R.A.) answers this by what
follows, that the knowledge of the High God of Its own Ipseity is from all
eternity and for all eternity established for Him due to His being Rich beyond
Need of the universes, yet His manifesting in the receptive potentialities
which are in annihilation in His own Ipseity, and His witnessing in those potentialities
and the revelation in those potentialities of the Qualities and Names, depend
on the coming into being of those potentialities. The knowledge of God of
everything is by virtue of that thing. God’s knowledge of a thing in the Divine
Knowledge while that thing is established in non-being is in accordance with
the image of the non- being of that thing. By its manifestation in the being of
the potential it becomes God’s knowledge by the innage of its potentiality,
which image of potentiality is not the same^s^he image in non-being except by
mentation. Thus, as knowledge is 'subject to that which is known, and as that
which is known is in renovation at every instant, so also is knowledge at every
instant according to latterness. Thus, the degrees of knowledge become
perfected and completed by manifestation. And such is the completion of the degrees
of being. It is that their being is of all eternity, and other than all
eternity as it is latter, and those of all eternity are the Being of the liaqq in His own Self. And such
are the degrees of being which also become complete
by the potentialities of the universe, because some of the beings are of all
eternity and some of them not of all eternity, and the ones that are not of all
eternity are latter, and the beings from all eternity is the Being of the haqq by Its own Being, which are the beings of the potentiality of the
Ipseity. And
those which are not of all eternity is the Being of the haqq by the images of the
established universe. That is, the beings which
are not of all eternity is the Being of the haqq
which manifests with the images of the universe, which universe is established
in potential in the Knowledge from all
985
High, ease became beloved from the aspect of the Names. Yet the ease
was not reached until the bringing about of the being of the images which are
unto the highest and to the lowest, whereby it was eased out of torment as the
Names manifested their effects in the being of images. Thus, it became
established that in fact movement happened for love. Consequently, there is
notJa movement in being which is manifest in the immanence excepti,that it is
the movement of love because it emanates from the Love of the Divine Ipseity,
which emanate from the Essential Divine Names, which is for their expansion
with the manifestation of their determination and effects, which is potentially
in the Divine Names, and also to appertain to their breath of expansion for the
purpose of manifestation of the perfection and completion of the Names, and
also for the witnessing and manifestation of the perfection and completion of
the haqq. There are of the knowers
who know this, and of them there are who are veiled by the closest cause in
their-determination in the state and because of its invasion of the self; and
fear was observed to exist for Moses when the killing of the Egyptian happened,
but the fear was love of escape, salvation, from the killing, and he ran when
he was afraid. The meaning of this is that he ran when he loved the salvation
from the Pharaoh and his works, and that is why he mentioned it with this cause
as the closest that was observed of him at that time. It is like the image to
the body of the human being, and the love of salvation comprises in it the
comprising of the body in the spirit which is the manager for it Thus, some of the knowers know that this movement is of love, and
this knower appertains to the knowledge of Lordship; thus he knows that the
fleeing of Moses was due to the love of salvation. Some of the knowers is such
a knower that the closest cause has veiled him, because tne closest cause in a
state determines over the veiled self and because it invades over the self.
Thus, in the case of Moses, at the killing of the Egyptian, that which happened
with the witnessed fear, that is to say, Moses, by killing the Egyptian,
witnessed in his own self a fear, and that fear comprised his love of salvation
from the fear of having killed. Thus, visibly, Moses ran away when he loved
salvation from the killing, that is to say, from the Pharaoh and his works,
that is to say, due to the love of salvation. Thus Moses (S.A.), during his
conversation with the Pharaoh, mentioned this closest cause when he said: ‘And
I ran away from you when I was frightened of you.’ Thatfcause was
witnessed where Moses was concerned. This can also be understood in the
following way:
987
would have been left outside. Thus the prophets speak according to
the manifest tongue, and the people, due to the dissimilarity of their aptitude
to understand, take it dissimilarly, and they (the
prophets) count
on the understanding of the knowing hearer. That is
to say, the prophets speak according to the manifest tongue and they count on
the understanding of the knowledgeable elite who listen to them, because the
knowledgeable listener, due to his private understanding, infers the extra
meaning from that manifest speech, which the generality (of the public), who
are conditioned by the manifest understanding, cannot understand. The envoys do not consider
except the general, because they know the degree of the people of
understanding. Thus the envoys (S.A.) do not
consider any other language in address except the language of the general
(public), and do not speak with any other language, because they know the
degree of the people of understanding, that the people of understanding, due
to their private aptitude and comprehension, will understand tne meaning which
is effectively intended from their speech. Consequently, their language is the
language of the manifest. As the S.A. made aware of this degree in the matter of gifts,
and said: ‘I give to a man whereas another is more beloved
to me than
him. out of fear that God enters this man (the one
I have given to, or the one who is less b.eloved to me) into fire.’ In fact, the Envoy (S.A.) made aware of this?(fegree when he spoke
of the gifts from the public treasury. Thus he said:: In fact I give
to a man whereas another man is more beloved of me than him, due to the fear
that he would imprecate God. That is to say, I am more bountiful to a man who
is of low generality as I prefer him as the object of my bounty rather than
that honourable person who is in fact more beloved of me than him, because if I
bestow upon a person who is closer to me and more beloved, that ordinary man
would say he gave to his close and deprived the one who is further away from
him. Thus he becomes a denier of the truth by virtue of the fact that he has no
awareness, or becomes a renegade. Consequently God the High may enter him into
the fire, and by not bestowing on the one who knows, such words will not
emanate from him. He considered the weak of intellect and vision who is dominated by greed and low nature. Thus, in this matter of gifts, the Envoy (S.A.) considered the
person who was weak of intelligence and vision, upon whom greed and low nature
is predominant, and he preferred him. The word for nature, tab'a, is here with the silence of the letter 'b'. This
is the best way, because what the hadith means by
989
the person of fine understanding attains to a knowledge where such
knowledge is not for any other, that other for whom no knowledge results like
the knowledge of this diver for pearls of wisdom. Thus, the diver of the seas
of knowledge and meaning, who is the gnostic, understands the value of the
person (,who addresses him from his words. Consequently, the words
^f the prophets and envoys are according to the apparent meaning because of
this. When
the prophets and envoys and heirs know that in the universe and among their
people there is he who is in this position, they deliberately continue in
expression of the manifest tongue in which there results the association of the
elite and the public, and the elite understand what the public understands from
it and more, due to which it became veridic for them the name which is ‘elite’,
and they are differentiated from the public by that. When the prophets and the envoys and the heirs know that indeed in
the universe and among their people there exists such a person who is in this
situation-, that is to say, he attains to a knowledge which does not result for
others, they (that is, the prophets, envoys and heirs) inclined in expression
and intended the expression for the manifest public, in which language there
results the association of the elite and the public. That is to say, they did
not express the words according to the language of the elite but they
considered the public language which is the manifest, in which both the elite
and the public are in association. Thus the elite understand from that language
what the public understands of knowledge, and understand even more than what
the public understands, and that what is more is a thing due to which the name
became veridic for the elite, and that name in reality is ‘elite’. That is to
say, for that which they understood more, the name ‘elite’ became true for the
elite. Thus the elite became differentiated from the general by that, and they
arc called with the name ‘the elite’. Those who communicate knowledge were
contented with that (that is, with the manifest
language). Thus, the prophets, the envoys and the heirs who communicate
knowledge, contented themselves with the manifest language, and pronouncing
their words according to the manifest language they placed in accordance with
the manifest language the religious laws and the basis of religion. Had the
prophets, envoys and heirs, who dive into the ocean of meaning, brought to the
shores of the sea some of the jewefc.«if-Divine Reality and pearls of fine
meaning which are within those’words, the people of appearances, who do not
understand anything further than the shores of the sea and
991
from the powers of nature, and that having distinguished between
good and bad, and praiseworthy and blameworthy, there happens to be a part in
him which demands salvation from the preponderance of the powers of desires and
animality over the powers of the intellect and belief. Thus, having expanded
from the growth of the powers of the apparent form, it turns to the powers of
interior spiritual heart. The water of Midian is the image of religiously legal
knowledge which is general in the life on earth, in which are associated both
the elite of the powers of the heart and form and the generality of people. The
Divine shadow is the Divine Being which is the abode of the spirit of the human
intellect, and that tree from which the shadow extends is the uniqueness of the
totality of the collectivity of the perfection and completion of the human
being which is the collectivity of selfhood and of desires and of angers both
in the spirituality and in the body. Thus, that human collectivity is the
uniqueness of the collectivity of the plurality of mutually interlacing (mutashajira) humanity which is mutually coupled and varied. The two girls are
the images of the strength of belief and the strength of thought. These are of
the results of the powers of the heart which collect together between natural
powers and the specialities of the powers of the spirit. (iHere
Moses said:
‘Lord, I am indeed needy of what of goodness Yqiplta(ve descended
upon me’, meaning, the watering of the animals of
the two girls is a good thing that You brought down upon me, thus I am in need
of the good thing that You bring down upon me. And he brought the knowledge of
watering to be the same as goodness which the God had brought down to him, and
qualified his nafs with need of God in goodness which is with Him. Thus Moses (S.A.) made his knowledge of watering to be the same as
goodness which God had brought down to him, and equally, he qualified his nafs as being in need of God in such goodness as is existent at His level
and from whom that goodness emanates. Thus, the goodness which is existent at
His level, which is the action of watering, is what he qualified his own self
with as in need of God, and this points at the fact that he required the
watering of his spirit with the place of manifestation of the complete teacher
from the well of Divine knowledge which is the life of the spirits under the
Divine shadow, and he explained to God his necessity and his need of God
concerning that watering. It is as if observing his own spirit and nafs was in the same way thirsty as the spiritual powers and the powers
of the animal nafs of the two girls for the Divine
knowledge, whereupon he requested the
9'»3
patient. This sentence can also be read as to mean: Khidr attempted
to show certain other determinations than this, which we have not mentioned in
this book, lor which the Envoy (S.A.) had wished that Moses had been silent;
would that Moses had not objected to Khidr so that God would have brought down
the^jorcier concerning Moses and Khidr according to that, and related ii in'the
Quran. It is narrated that the Prophet (S.A.) said: ‘Would that brother Moses
had patience so that God would relate to us from his prophethood’, and it is
also narrated that: ‘God’s rahmah would be on us and to
Moses had he been patient so that it was narrated to us of his prophethood’,
and it is also mentioned, equally veridic: ‘Had he been patient in seeing the
strange things’, and it is related from the Shaykh (R.A.) that Khidr (S.A.)
joined Abu Abbas, and Khidr said to him: ‘I would have enumerated to Moses, son
of Tmran, a thousand queries which took place from before he was born up to the
time of his meeting, but he was not patient even with three of these.’ Thus
Khidr (S.A.) pointed out to Moses (S.A.) that all the states thzt have happened
to Moses and all that will happen to him is according to the order and Will of
God the High, and they happen through His Knowledge, because it is impossible
that it should be other than through God’s Knowledge. The knowledge of those
states is of the specialty of sainthood from which the envoy is veiled during
his invitation, because it is of the knowledge of the mystery of qadar, and if the envoy had attained to that knowledge it would be
possible that he would be worried in the exposition of the order, with which
exposition he is ordered, because if a person is given a knowledge in
witnessing that it is a thing that happens through the Divine order which
affects all the servants, and to which there is no way of opposing, it would be
not possible for him to prevent a person from such a thing or to order a person
in disaccordance with it, or that that witnessing should cause the denial of an
order. However, the envoy is ordered by exposition from God the High while he
is in that knowledge, which although it happens from some who are ordered and
does not happen from others, yet what God the High intends from His order to be
exposed from an envoy is exposition only: ‘For the envoy is only the
exposition.’ Thus, a person who has attained the mystery of qadar sometimes finds himself in the^vision of the non-happening of a
determination with the exposition’^ which he is appointed, and does not
remember that he is only appointed with exposition, whether that thing will
come about according to the order or not. Thus, keeping in
995
certain orders only, as the envoy is manifest by the determinations
of envoyship and the saint by the determinations of sainthood.
Now let it be known like this, that Khidr was one of the
Singular people, and the singulars are a group of people who are outside the
determinations of the qutb. There is no dispensation in
the qutb over them. The singulars among the human beings are like the muhaymin angels among the angels, who are muhaymin
(lost in adoration) in the Beauty and Awe and Majesty of G ud. For them results
the singulars of three from among the numbers, and ttiose which are the threes
beyond and above that. Of what is less than three there is no anteriority for
them and for others, because uniqueness, which is one, is for the Ipseity of
God, and two is for the degrees, and that is the Divine Unity (Divine
Unification), and three is the first of the immanential being from God. The
Presence of Singularity from the Divine Presences is specially for the singular
and they are distinguished by that degree, and for them the Name Singular from
among the Divine Names is special, and the Divine insertions which come upon
their heart arrive from the station from which station it also comes upon the muhaymin angels. Also, their stations are made unknowable. Equally, they
become denied with whatever thing tli'ey manifest of knowledge, state, action
and works, just like Moses (SkA.) denied Khidr (S.A.) in spite of the existence
of God’s witnessing and explanation of the place of descent of Khidr to Moses.
The Shaykh (R.A.) says in chapter 30 of the Futuhat, which is the chapter specially specialized for the singulars (afrad), that: ‘And these are a group of people outside the determination of
the qutb, by themselves, and the qutb has
no dispensation over them. For them from among numbers is the three and further
higher (numbers). For the singulars and for others which are below the first
singular there is only three, which is the most anterior, because indeed the
uniqueness (the one and onlyness) which is for the one, is for the Ipseity of
the haqq, and two is for the degrees and that ir the Divine Union, and three
is the being of the immanence from God. For the angels the singulars are the muhaymin angels which are lost in adoration in the Beauty of God and the Awe
and Majesty of God. These are outside the angels which are subjected and which
plan and conduct, who are distracted in the universe of registering and
inscribing, and they are from the Pen and the Intellect, and on to below that.
And the singulars from among the intimate ones (the human beings) are like the
muhaymin ones from among
997
the Divine Love give"? to him, and this is the special love as
his desert and this is not the love with something in return, because the love
with something in return is what all of the: people of felicity associate in at
the level of God, and those are which; He,bestows to whom He pleases that wants
to approach God with the supererogation of beneficial deeds. After this there
is that love which is the second branch which is at the same place of descent
as the flower which results for him. Where God becomes the hearing and the
sight and the hand of him is other than this. This is the third branch, and
that is the place of descent of the fruit which was bound at the time of the
flower, and when this is happened, then the servant hears by God, speaks by
Him, sees by Him, strikes by Him and hears by Him and understands by Him, and
this is the private Divine inspiration that this station bestows, without the
Angel being the intermediary from God, and it is because of this that Khidr
(S.A.) said to Moses (S.A.): “You have no information with which you can
denigrate (my acticn).” As to the inspiration of the envoy, it is by the Angel
between God and His envoy. There is no information to him by this taste during
the signing of the determination in the universe of witnessing, and it is not
customary the sending of the Divine determinations of religious legislation
into the universe of witnessing except by means of the Spirit who descends with
it to his heart, or in a form, and the envoy does not know the legalities of
the religion except under this qualification and no other. And indeed the envoy
is close by the conforming to the obligations and the love for him from God,
and it does not result for him such a love as the closeness of the
supererogatories and its love and what its love bestows. However, he knows of
it by God, not from the knowledge of the religious legislation or the signing
of the determination in the universe of witnessing, and he has no information
with which to denigrate it, and things of this kind. This is the value of he
who is specialized with it by Khidr other than Moses (S.A.)’, and ended his
words. Thus, understand these words and its detailing so that you understand
the station of the envoy, the station of Khidr and the place of descent of the
Mohammedian gnostic, so that you can distinguish between these (people).
And he knew by this what was agreed for Moses without
his knowing of it, because had he known, he would not have denied a thing like
this to Khidr for whom God had witnessed to Moses (and spoke of him) in praise
and agreement. Yet with all that, Moses was forgetful of God’s
999
this, he would not have
been told by Khidr: ‘You have no information concerning
it to denigrate me.’ Had Moses known the acts and knowledge of Khidr, Khidr
certainly would not have told him this. That is to say: how can you be patient
with me where it concerns something for which you have neither information nor
taste with which you encompass it? As if to say: ‘I am upon a knowledge
which does not happen to you from taste’, which
means that I am according to a knowledge from God, for which no knowledge
through taste has been given to you. That knowledge is the knowledge of Union (tawhid), knowledge of the mystery of qadar and
knowledge of sainthood. Thus, when I manifest to you according to the image of
that knowledge, how can you be patient when you are in accordance with the
necessities and determinations of prophethood and envoyship? In fact, how could
you possibly be patient? ‘Just as you are according to a knowledge which I do not know’, and did him justice, which means that you are upon a
knowledge from God, which is the knowledge of religion and knowledge of
envoyship, >vhich I do not know. Thus Khidr did him justice. That is to say,
he removed the knowledge through taste and information from Moses and pointed
that.^t^was special to himself through Divine instruction, and specialized for
Moses the knowledge of religion, the knowledge of envoyship, and the descent
of the Angel with Divine inspiration to Moses, and removed from himself this
knowledge of religion and’ knowledge of envoyship and the descent of the Angel
upon him with Divine inspiration. Thus he did justice to Moses, and did not say
to him: T am better than you.’ Rather that he knew the worth of Moses and
whatever it was that Moses was without a doubt, and agreed with him in that
which Moses had denied him (of) his companionship, because of his respect of
Moses’ station and his place of descent, since envoyship, which was the degree
of Moses, necessitates question and argument, and Khidr knew this. That is why
he resisted accepting Moses to his companionship, because he knew Moses was a
prophet. But
the wisdom of the separation is because of, or in accordance with, what God
says concerning any envoy: ‘Whatever the envoy brings to you, take it. Whatever
he forbids you to do, forbid that to yourselves.’ The knowledgeable people of
God who know the value of the envoy and envoyship have stopped at these words.
And in fact Khidr knew that Moses was envoy of God, and took from him, that
which was in concordance with giving the envoy what was due of good form. It is true that God says in fact that what the envoy gives you,
take, and what he
1901
abstention, and by saying what he said, as he said, he pointed to
the fact that it was according to Moses’ order of abstention that was the cause
of the separation between himself and Moses. Thus Khidr, in accordance with the
good form due'to, the envoy, acted in accordance with the order of Moses. The
Shaykh refers further to this subject in chapter 73 of his Futuhat. Moses did not say to him:
‘Do not do so’, and did not require his companionship, due to his knowledge of
the value of the rank in which he was, by which he had spoken to him through
forbidding in any further companionship. This is
to say that when Khidr said to Moses: ‘This is the separation between myself
and yourself’, Moses did not respond to him like before, and did not say to
him: ‘Do not undertake a separation between ourselves’, and did not require his
companionship, because Moses knew the value of the height of that rank in which
Moses was individualized, and giving the due to the rank of envoyship which is
the possessor of order and forbidding, did not require further conversation
with Khidr. But in the first instances when he asked him for his companionship,
he was concording with his aspect of sainthood, not his envoyship. And Moses fell silent, and separation occurred. Thus Mose; having fallen
silent on request of companionship, there occurred necessarily between them a
separation. The Shaykh (R.A.) says on this matter in chapter 161 of his Futuhat: ‘There is no doubt that among the prophets and people of religious
laws are the highest of the servants of God among the sons of Adam.
Nevertheless, there are servants who are specialized in superior knowledge
which does not necessarily distinguish them as superior by this knowledge in
which they are superior. Thus he said to Moses: “I have a knowledge which God
has taught me (made me know) which He has not taught you, and you have
knowledge which God has taught you which He did not teach me.” But he did not
say: “I am superior in knowledge to you.” Ke knew what was due to Moses and
obeyed the order of abstention from his companionship through respect to the
station of Moses and the height of his station. And Moses kept silence at the
time of their separation and did not retract his forbidding, because he knew
from whom Khidr had heard tlxe^order of abstention of Moses and said to him: “I
did not do it ohf'of my own order”, and Moses knew when they separated that the
order was from his Lord, and did not object to the separation, and what was
intended happened for Moses, and what God intended for Moses to know also
happened as intended, and Moses knew that with God there are servants who have
1003
knowledge is the knowledge of envoyship and prophethood, and Moses
is an envoy and a prophet, and Khidr denied that knowledge from himself and did
not establish it for himself. Had Khidr, during the companionship of Moses and
Khidr, manifested with the determinations of prophethood, Moses would not have
denied it because he would have manifested from his own degree. The Shaykh
(R.A.) in chapter 30 of his Futuhat says: ‘Khidr knew that
Moses had no taste in the station that he, Khidr, was in. just as Khidr had no
taste in the station that Moses was in of knowledge that God had taught him. It
is that the station of Khidr does not bestow argument to anyone, to anything
that God has created, in his particular witnessing according to him, whereas
the station of Moses does bestow argument with another in all that is shown to
him outside of with which he was envoyed, and the proof of this is in the way
in which Khidr said to Moses: “How can you have patience . . .?” Had Khidr been
a prophet he would not have said this sentence, which he did because he was not
of the station of prophethood, and he spoke to him with singularity for each of
them in their station when he said to Moses: !“I(jiave a knowledge
which you do not have . . and he separated fr^rn him and distinguished himself
by denial. Denial is not from the businesses of the Singulars (afrad) because for them there is the firstness in the orders in which they
are denied by others but they do not deny.’
Now the gnostic Shaykh, Sadruddin-i-Konevi, says in his Fukuk in the fakk of the fass concerning the Mohammedian Sealhood: ‘The totality of the
determination of the religious law which he brought, the whole of the earth is
the mosque for God and His people, and its earth is clean, and He inserted in
the determinations of his envoyship the envoyship from the past of the envoys
and those that remain of them, like Jesus (S.A.) and Elijah (S.A.), and in the
same way, in the order of his prophethood inserts equally Khidr (S.A.) into
this, and the people who are veiled are in opposition to one another in the
prophethood of Khidr, but for the greater verifiers there is no variance among
them in this matter.’
In appearance there is a difference between these two
sayings (of ‘Arabi and Sadruddin-i-Konevi). In fact in chapter 24 of the Futuhat the Shaykh (R.A.) says: ‘All saints are prophets which are after the
Sealhood unto the Day of Judgement, are similar to the prophets, are Mohammed
(S.A.) in prophethood, like Elijah and Jesus and Khidr for these people’, and
again in chapter 46 of the Fut&hat where he says:
1005
is possible that Khidr was subject to an envoy other than Moses and
was in his law, and perhaps that the determination he was under was in
opposition to the determination tharMoses had. Thus Khidr determined with the
killing of the young boy according to the religious law of that envoy to whom
he was subjected, and that determination was in opposition to the religious law
of Moses. That is how Moses denied it. Thus the killing of the young boy was
not under the determination of Khidr, as Khidr was not the possessor of a
religious law. In fact perhaps rather that where he is concerned, his
determination in this matter from our point of view is similar to the
determination of the religious judge who is under the religious law of the
envoy (S.A.). Consequently, Khidr does not become a prophet of religious law,
so understand!
As this
became evident (that is, superiority by comparison)
in the
Mohammedian people in the case of Mie pollination of the date-palm and when he
(S.A.) said to his companions: ‘You know better the affairs of your world.’
There is no doubt the knowledge of a thing is better than the ignorance of it,
and by this God praised His own Self in that He knows everything. The
affirmation of the confession of the S.A. to his companions in that they were
more knowledgeable in the affairs of the world than himself is because he had
no knowledge of it in this, and that is a matter of knowledge through taste and
experience, and he (S.A.) had no branching into this knowledge. His business
was most important, and yet even more important By this I have awakened you to
a grand good form. Profit from it if you apply yourself to it This superiority in comparison became evident to the people of
Mohammed in the case of the fertilization of the palm tree. One year the Envoy
(S.A.) saw his companions fertilizing their date-palm by taking from the male
tree to the female flowers, and the Envoy said to them: ‘It would not matter if
you left alone the fertilization’, and because of these words they (the
companions) did not proceed with the fertilization. That year few dates ripened.
The Envoy (S.A.) then said to his companions: ‘You are more knowledgeable in
the affairs of your world.’ It is without a doubt that to know something is
prefer^bjeMo being ignorant of it. It is because of this that God the High*
praised His own Self with the encompassing of everything, by the words: ‘Indeed
He encompasses everything.’ Thus, the confession of the Envoy of God (S.A.) to
his companions concerns their knowledge being superior to his own in the things
of this world, since the Envoy (S.A.) had no experience and
1007
for the purpose of transcending Him from the attribution of that act
to Him which in appearance was a bad thing to do and blameable, whereas the
pointing of the wall, which is a good act, he attributed to the haqq and said: ‘Your Lord willed it.’ In the case of the killing of the
young boy he said: ‘And we have willed to exchange him for them from their
Lord.’ Here he mentioned it with the letter nun of
collectivity, because in this matter there is from Moses’ point of view blameworthiness
since Moses (S.A.) had thought the young boy to be an intelligent self which
was being ki’led by another self. Thus, in his view killing was blameworthy,
whereas his killing was beneficial to his parents. Thus Khidr, having in one
case attributed to his own self that which was blameworthy in current custom
from the point of view of Moses, attributed to the haqq that
which was good and merciful, and with the letter nun of
collectivity which collects together the Lord and Khidr he expressed it to
Moses. However, Moses (S.A.), who is the image of the Nam? Manifest and whose
station is the station of the heart, has for him resultant the knowledges of
envoyship and prophethood and the knowledges of religio,us W^, and for him
there exists the determination to order with what is. acceptable and forbid
what is blameable in the manifest. Because of this, the miracles of Moses
(S.A.) were in the completeness of clarity and manifestedness. Whenever Moses
(S.A.) was in great satisfaction from the gifts of the Name of Manifest, the
Will of God the High appertained to his (Moses’) completion by willing for him
a portion (side) of the determinations of the Name Interior, by collecting
together that which was both of manifest and secret revelations and bringing
together in his aptitudes of prophetic knowledge the knowledges of sainthood.
Thus He sent him to the companionship of Khidr who is the place of
manifestation of the Name Interior. In fact Moses (S.A.) was manifest among his
people with a contention, which people were the most knowledgeable of the
people of the earth. This contention was among a great congregation of the
people of Israel. Hence God the High inspired Moses and said to him: ‘Perhaps
We have a servant in the collectivity of the two Seas’, that is to say, the Sea
of necessarily-so-ness and the Sea of possibilities, or the Sea of the
manifest and the Sea of the interior, or again, in the collectivity of the Sea
of prophethood and the Sea of sainthood. Consequently, Moses (S.A.) was ashamed
of his contention, and asked of God the High that God decree a companionship
between the two of them, and asked for .permission in this demand and this
coming
1009
appearance and in Moses’ point of ^ig.w both blameworthy and not
good he attributed to himself. It w^s^firs^ with the sinking of the ship, after
that the killing of the boy, and in the third place with the rebuilding of the
wall that Khidr was manifested. The wisdom of the order of this the Shaykh
(R.A.) explains in chapter 31 of the Futuhat,
and says: Khidr brought this happening in the middle of the occurrences,
between the matter of the ship and the matter of the wall. He did not bring it
about at the beginning or at the end, so that that which was blameworthy in
this matter is on the side of the ship, and in this matter that which was of
good he brought to the side of the matter of the wall. If the matter of the boy
had been either at the beginning or at the end. wisdom would not have allowed
it, so that in every way it was cleansed so that nothing of good or its
opposite be related to it. If it were at the beginning and the matter of the
ship in the middle, the thing which was good for the parents of the boy in the
matter of the boy would not .have arrived, so that in appearance, according to
the Presence of unknowablenesses which is the ship, it should pass on and in
this way reach the goodness which is in the wall. If the matter of the wall
were in the middle and the story of the boy at the end, the blameworthiness of
the ship would not have arrived to the blameworthiness of the boy, so that it
pass beyond the good that was in the wall. Consequently, that it should pass
without relationship, because it is of the honour of the Presences that the
essences of things, I mean, changes the quality as it is of the honour of the
Presences of things that the essences pass by the side of things. Thus, the
matter of the boy happened in the middle. Consequently, the aspect of the
blameworthiness is on the side of the ship, and the aspect of good is from the
side of the wall, and according to this consideration the Divine Wisdom has
become straight, so understand!
And his word: ‘And He gifted me, my Lord, with
wisdom’ means caliphate, ‘and made me of the envoys’ means envoyship, and not
all envoys are caliphs. The caliph wields a sword and can dismiss and can
appoint, but the envoy is not like this. Foe him there is only to announce with
what he has been sent. If he fights for it and protects it with the sword, that
man is a caliph and an envoy. When Moses spoke these words concerning the gift of
the Lord with wisdom, he meant by it the caliphate, and by saying that he was
sent as an envoy he meant that he was an envoy. Thus, each envoy is not a
caliph, and an envoy is not like a caliph who can use a sword and can appoint
and dismiss. The
1011
those present in the court of Pharaoh were people of wisdom, intelligence,
and masters of reason and theory. They used to compose quid dity from genera
and division and they used to compose a definition for everything from genera
and division, and they used to call that definition the Quiddity, so that when
the Pharaoh asked his question in front of them concerning the Quiddity of God,
his question referred to the Quiddity which was composed of genus and division
according to the ancient terminology, and consequently his question concerning
the Absolute Reality of God and His tota1 Quiddity became a
conjectural question. The amphibology that the Pharaoh brought in his question
concerning the Quiddity of God was not composed of genera and division, so
that he could interpret the answer to those present due to their
non-comprehension of that which Pharaoh in his own self knew. That is to say
that there is for God Quiddity and Reality other than Being. This Pharaoh knew,
and he explained this in his amphibological question, knowing well that the
knowledge of the Quiddity is necessary for the pretension of prophethood to the
prophet. Also, Pharaoh knew that God cannot be defined. That is why !ne
asked his question, demanding the knowledge of the quiddity of the thing with
the interrogative pronoun ma, and he who asks with ma requires the reality of a thing, and it is necessary for the
reality of everything but it is not necessary or possible that the Reality and
Quiddity of God be composed of genera and division so that knowledge of Him
could be obtained by a definition. Under these considerations, in the word ‘bimci. sha'ar' the word ‘ma' bears the meaning ‘that is’,
and takes the objective case for the word ‘that they know’, and the word in his
question refers to the word ‘they know’. Consequently, Pharaoh’s question was
according to two aspects. And when he answered, he answered according to those who know the order. Thus, when Moses answered
with the words: ‘Lord of the heavens and the earth and that which is between
them, if you are of those who are certain in knowledge’, he answered with the
answer of those who know the order of Reality in Divine Knowledge, because
though one can ask of the Quiddity with the word ‘ma', and
the Divine Quiddity is the Absolute Ipseity, one may not answer from It, and
Its qualification and explanation are not possible except by relationships,
attributions and Names and Qualities. The Name Lord is not of the Names of
attribution, and Lordship was known by those people. Consequently, when Moses
answered with the words: ‘Lord of the heavens and of the earth and of that
which is between them’ he
1013
words, what did I ask him of and w^ith what did he answer me? And it became evident to
those present, due. to the shortness of their understanding, that the Pharaoh
was riore knowledgeable than Moses, and this is because he spoke to him in his
answer as distinguished from ma. Thus, at the level of
those present it was manifest, due to the shortness of the understanding, that
indeed Pharaoh was more knowledgeable than Moses, and this was due to the fact
that in his answer to Pharaoh Moses had given an answer as distinguished from ma, because when one is questioned from the Quiddity of God, that which
is necessary is to answer with an answer that questions the Quality. And this was in appearance
other than an answer to what was asked of him, and
Moses’ answer appeared to be not a proper answer, concerned the Quiddity and
the answer the Qualifications, and the answer was not suitable to the question
because at the level of those present the question concerning the Quiddity
should have been answered with a definition composed of genera and division. And it was established in
the knowledge of the Pharaoh that he would not answer except by this, which means that the Pharaoh definitely knew that he would not
answer by any other answer, that is to say, he would only answer by Qualities
particular to God. And he said to his friends: ‘In fact your envoy which has
been sent to you is a madman’, as if the knowledge I asked of him was veiled
from him. In fact it cannot be imagined that that could be known. The truth is that it cannot be imagined that God could be known by
any other than God Himself. But these words of Pharaoh have also two aspects.
One is the apparent meaning that this envoy of yours which has been sent to you
is a madman. That is to say, the knowledge of what I asked him is veiled from
him and he cannot understand what I asked him. In this way he appeared before
them as more knowledgeable than Moses. The other aspect is that at their level
it testifies Moses’ envoyship, meaning that the knowledge of the thing that was
asked of him is veiled from him because in reality the Reality of God is not
known by any one persqn, and also, the envoy during his envoyship is veiled and
covered from the realities of things and the mystery of qada’ and qadar. Consequently, his duty is not to
invite to the Absolute Ipseity but to invite to the Divine Qualities, and if he
were to be questioned of the Ipseity he would answer by the Qualities. And the question
(Pharaoh’s) is true in that the question of the Quiddity is questioning of the
reality of what is required, and it is without a doubt that He is in His own
Self according to a reality. In these words the
1015
comprehension and understanding and subtlety of intellect it is not
true. And the answer to this cannot be except by what Moses answered. Thus,
there cannot be an answer to the question of the Quiddity of God except in the
way that Moses answered it, that is to say, as he answered by the quality of
Absolute Lordship. Consequently, Moses’ answer was also true. And here is a
great mystery in that he answered the one who asked the definition of the
Ipseity with Its action, and he made the definition of the Ipseity the same as
Its attribute which It manifests with in the images of the universe, or in
which manifests the images of the universe, or by which He manifests from the
images of the universe. It is as if he said in his answer to the words: ‘And
what is the Lord of the universes?’, he answered by saying: ‘That in which
manifests the images of the universe, from the height which is the heavens, and
from the low which is the world, if you are of certain knowledge, or He
manifests with it.’ That is to say that there is a great mystery in the way
Moses answered, in that in fact Moses ^n^vered the person who queried about the
definition of the Ipseity:1jwith the Lordship which is the action of
God. Thereby Moses made the definition of the Ipseity, which is the Lord, the
same as the attribute of that thing by which the Lord manifests in the images
of the universe, or equally, he made the attribution of Lordship the same as
that which manifests in the Being of the Lord as the images of the universe. In
other words, he made the attribution of Lordship to the universes the same as
the definition of the Ipseity. It is as if he said to the Pharaoh in answer to
the Pharaoh’s question, ‘What is the Lord of the universes?’: ‘It is that One
Being in whom manifest the images of the universe, in the height of the universe,
which is the heavens, and the lowness of it, which is the earth.’ In other
words, the Lord of the universes is that One Being in whom are manifested the
higher images or the universe which are the heavens, and the lower
images which are the earth, that is, if you have certitude in knowledge.
Equally, it is as if he said: ‘It is that One Being who manifests with the
images of the universe.’ Consequently, it is either that the Being of God is
the Lordly manifestation in the higher and lower images of the universe, where
the essences of the universe are the mirrors and planes of reflection for the
One Being of God, or that the Being of the One God is the One mirror for the
essences of the universes, in which the images of the essences are reflected
with the rahman and manifested and individualized with Lordship. Consequently,
under both considerations, the images of the universe derive
1017
and individuated by the levant of Life in the totality of things
which are manifested, and He is interior and individuated in all the things
which are in the interior, and equally, certain individuations are aspected
from the interior towards the manifest, and some are from the manifest towards
the interior. Thus He knows the totality of things and is there Possessor,
whether they be manifest or interior and whether they are individuated between
manifestation and interiority. If you are of people of intellect and
comprehension, that is, if you are people of limiting,
because indeed the intellect is limiting. Because in fact people of limiting
and definition either limit the haqq by immanencing the haqq through comparison to the bodies, or they transcend Him from being a
body. Thus they limit or condition or define God by immanencing God or
comparing with spirits and intellects. Thus even their transcendence is
conjectural, because under scrutiny it is immanencing and comparing (tashbih). And the first answer is
the answer for the people of certainty (yaqin).and they are the people of
insight (kashf) and being, and he said to them: ‘If you are of the people of certainty’,
that is to say, people of insight and being. Certainly you have understood by
which you are certain in your witnessing and in your being. Thus the first
answer is: ‘Lord of the heavens and of earth’, and
this is the answer for those who have certainty and they are people of insight
and being, and he said to them: ‘If you are of those who have certainty’, that
is to say, if you are people of insight and being. Then in fact I have
expressed to you with that by which you have certainty of it through your
insight and being. In other words, if you are people of insight and witnessing,
then you must by needs have certainty through your certainty in your insight
and being that one cannot answer from the Reality of God except by attribution.
Thus I have expressed it to you in my answer and according to that by which you
have certainty through your witnessing and being, and if you are in the circle
of witnessing, you have certainly understood my answer. The ijcason why Moses
started in his answer to the question on the Quiddity by indirect answer, and
his answering with an action, is announcement that God, in consideration of His
Reality, is Absolute from all definition or conditioning or limiting, and is
not entered under any genera and is not distinguished from another division,
because He is a total Essence and encompasses all things and all things are in
annihilation in Him. Thus he changed over to the declaration of the Reality of
Lordship by declaring that which is of Divine attribution, so that the.
Lordship of the universe of higher
1019
Pharaoh and of the knowledge that Pharaoh had. And he said to him: ‘If
you will take a god other than me I shall make you of the imprisoned (masjuninY, and the letter ‘s’ in the
word ‘sijn' is of the unnecessary
extra letters, as if to say: ‘We shall covfcr you up; and in fact you obliged
me to affirm to you by what I have said to you, a saying like this.’ Thus, as Moses made God the same as th? universe, and the Pharaoh
being an image from the universe, and as God is the same as his essence, he
said to Moses: ‘If you take a god other than me I will surely make you of those
who are incarcerated’, and ‘n the word ‘prison’ in Arabic the letter sin is an unnecessary letter, and extra letters are collected from the
quiddity of the heavens, and when the letter sin is
eliminated, what remains is jin, and jin is covering up, as God says: ‘And when the night covered them up’
(Quran). Cover up, that is, I will certainly cover you up, because in fact by
your answer you made it certain that I should say to you words like this,
tllat^is to say, like: ‘I am your most high Lord.’ You are the cause of |h^
emergence of these words from me, and you confirmed me in these words, thus
equally, I, in accordance with your answer, cover the quiddity of your
Mosesness. Pharaoh, before his belief, was the possessor of the knowledge of tawhid, and in his pretensions was a squanderer, and he was from among the
number of those people for whom the Envoy (S.A.) said concerning them: ‘Most
wicked of people who will rise on the Day of Judgement and they will be alive’,
that is to say, before their real death in God and the passing away of their
‘me’-ness, knowing the mystery of tawhid and the great Day
of Judgement. Thus, due to his knowledge of tawhid,
he pretended to Divinity by his own individuation, and invited the people to
his own self due to his knowledge of tawhid, because
the person who has knowledge of tawhid understands the
tongue of allusion, but had he been a person who possessed the tawhid of witnessing and taste, he would not have pretended. Thus, when the
Pharaoh understood that Moses was a unifier (muwahhid) and speaks with God, he found an occasion to pretend to Divinity,
because in this manner of speech any other being than God is devoid of being,
and God, equally, in Lordship and in tevelation, is varied in manifestation and
determinations. Thus, for the degree of the Lord manifest in the image of
Pharaoh in that congregation, there is determination over the Mosaic degree.
Thus, Moses confirmed the Pharaoh with the tongue of unification and fortified
him in his pretension by virtue of rank of rulership and manifestation of
power. Consequently, when this
1021
! /ft-
order, and what is. Oh Moses, now the degree I am in is effectively
to determine over you, because in the apparent image the degree which is made
mine has possession of determination and it is allowable that a promise should
emanate from me. With the Essence my ‘me’-ness is the same as your “me’-ness.
That is to say, in consideration of One Essence my being is your being, and. in
consideration of degrees it is other than yours, and that degree is in effect
the degree of determination over you.’ Consequently, when Moses (S.A.) understood
this from the Pharaoh, he bestowed his due to Pharaoh and said: ‘You are not
capable of doing this’, even though he was agreeing, because in tawhid the Pharaoh has no power and he cannot be attributed any action and
power. From the aspect of this annotation, the words ‘fa-in qulta' emanate from the Pharaoh, and the word 'fayaqul'
is its answer. However, it is also possible that the words ‘fa-in qulta' are the words of Moses. Then it would mean: ‘If you were to say to
me these words in this tongue’, then the words: ‘You have been ignorant’
becomes its answer. And the rank, that is, the rank
of the Pharaoh, was a proof for him for his power over him (Moses) and in
manifesting the effects of his power there, because as God is individuated in
the dignity of Pharaoh, there results in that company from the point of view of
the apparent image determination for that dignity, according
to that dignity where Moses’ appearance happened to bn, because from the point
of view of the apparent image, Pharaoh was manifested with the sword over
everything with determination. Thus, the degree wherein Moses is manifested is
under the effect of the apparent image of the other, but in the interior image
the manifestation of the degree which is in Moses is higher than the manifestation
of the degree which was in Pharaoh. God had said to him: ‘Do not be afraid:
indeed you are the superior.’ And in that way in the result of the order this
is evident from the superiority of Moses over the Pharaoh ^However, in that
company the Pharaoh in his manifested image had determination over Moses. And he said to him, showing to
him (the Pharaoh) that which would prevent him in his animosity towards
himself: ‘If I brought to you an evident thing?’, and the Pharaoh was unable to
say anything other except: ‘Do it, if you are of the truthful’, so that the
Pharaoh would not appear in the eyes of the weak, and
as in certain copies: intolerant in the eyes of the weak from among his people. Thus Moses said to Pharaoh when it was evident of the Pharaoh what
would prevent his animosity over Moses: ‘If I brought to you something
evident?’ If I brought to you an evident
1023
whichever image God reveals Himself in, whether it be an image that
the true intellect sees as impossible, or whether it be an image that it
admits, because they are people of certainty. Gabriel, who is the place of
manifestation of Intellect, said: ‘When the fingertips are close to that which
might burn them, they stop.’ It is because of this that Moses brought in his
answers that which would be acceptable to those of certainty and to those
specially of intelligence. That is to say, because the intelligence stops at a
certain limit, and because the people of intuition go beyond the limit, Moses
brought in the first answer that which only the people of certainty would
accept, and in the second part of the answer that which is acceptable to the
specialty of the intellectual, because that answer is specially for the
intellectual, and the people of certainty do not stop at that level. And he
threw his stick. So, as the Pharaoh said: ‘Do’, Moses threw his stick down, and
that is the image by which the Pharaoh rebelled against Moses in his denial of
agreeing to Moses’ invitation. The stick ( asah) is
derived from isyan which is ‘rebellion’. That is why the
image of the Pharaoh’s action became a proof against him. It is also the image
of the Pharaoh’s nafs-i- ammarah (the ordering self), whereas
in relation to Moses the stick is a snake which is the image of the secure self.
Thus the Shaykh (R.A.) has explained what took place between Pharaoh and Moses
in their discussion in the way of allegory. That is why he said: ‘And it was
the image by which the Pharaoh rebelled against Moses in his denial.’ Thus, if
the self in the place of manifestation which was Pharaoh was not docile but
instead obeyed the passion which is the equivalent of the heart which is the
speaking nafs, and if conjecture and Satan were in control of it, the ordering nafs, due to its being conquered by its passion, becomes proud and
denying, and having denied it refuses. But if the self, as in the place of
manifestation which was Moses, was docile to God and obeyed the heart which is
the speaking nafs, and is illumined by the light of the
spirit, it becomes a stick in which he has confidence in his actions and in the
obtaining of superior characters and beliefs and in its travels, and brings
down useful leaves of knowledge from the tree of reason over the sheep of his
animal powers, and helps him in all his quests by co-lection of proofs and
indications and reaping of superior and complete purposes, and the clearly
apparent snake which the Pharaoh with his self used to misrepresent the
similarities of powers of conjecture and imagination in his people, and uses it
for his revenge. All the above-mentioned perfections of.the
1025
7 '
action is attributed to God, as the self is qualified with the
Divine Qualities, whether the nafs is manifest with the fury
and destruction or just determination and munificence. Thus the order manifests
with God, and His actions, even though they are in the images of mischief like
Khidr killing the young boy, but in reality they are the same as truthfulness
because it is through the Divine order and its actor is God. ‘That which you
have cut because it was limp, or left them to stand erect according to their
origin, it is all through the permission of God.’ And it became manifest the
determination here exactly differentiated in one being and that is the stick and
it is alive and a manifested snake. The determination
in its last image is a manifest snake. Thus, that which is the vegetableness of
the stick is one jewel which manifested over the determination of stickness as
a differentiated essence over the stick which was the image of Pharaoh’s
rebellion, and in the same way, when the stick which was the oic jewel
manifested in the determination of a live stick, the determination of life
became a differentiated essence while it was the same jewel, and manifested in
the latter image. Thus, the change happened in the determination. And the swallowing in one
mouthful its likes from life from the state that it was a live snake, and the
things that were sticks from the state that it was a stick. Thus, considering that the snake is alive, it swallowed all its
equivalents in life, and equally, the stick sv^allowed all that were sticks,
considering that it was a stick. Thus, that which manifested in the image of
sticks, manifested in essence as tne image of the snake, and swallowed up the
snakes due to the fact that it was a snake, and the stick swallowed things
because in origin it was a stick. Consequently, whatever thing the people of
Pharaoh held with and manifested, the luminous eminence which was the genera of
Moses annihilated that. And there manifested proof of Moses over; the proofs (of the Pharaoh) in the images of sticks, live snakes and Ropes. Thus the
proofs of Moses were victorious over and manifest1
over the imaginary proofs of the Pharaoh, which were in the images of sticks
and live snakes and ropes. And there were for the magicians ropes, but for Moses there
was no rope. That is to say, Moses did not manifest
with rope. In the emergence of mankind, magicians are powers of the self which
are coloured by the determination of their own passion. It is also the two
powers of lust and anger which are deviated or which lean to the special ties
of natural and animal spirit, because even though the powers of the spirit of
the self, if it enjoys the conditions and modalities of the powers of
1027
is to say, even though all of you are Lords in comparison of what
you own and possess, and the lowest form of the Lordship of the earth is Man’s
own Lordship of himself, yet 1 am manifest over you with rulership, and to
judge an order and determine over you has been bestowed upon me, and as my
dispensing in being is more than yours, I am your highest Lord. Now, it is
perhaps that ‘Lord’ is one of the Names of attribution and necessitates that which
establishes the Lordship (marbub). In common language it
means the possessor or king. One says Lord of the house, Lord of the clothes.
Lord of the sheep. It also means the master, ae it is said by God in the words
of Joseph: ‘Return to your master and ask him, why did the women cut their
fingers?’, and in the case of one o f his friends in the prison who used to
press wine for his Lord, and other instances like this. And the word ‘Lord’
with- out attribution is not attributed to.other than God of the universes.
Thus the Lord is the Absolute Goa,; the High One. Consequently, with
these three meanings, there results absolute Lordship for Him, and in all
images of appearance and example He lords over His servants. For others it is
accidental and worldly Lordship, because other is the place of manifestation
and revelation of the absolute Lordship. Consequently, the accidental and
worldly Lordship is a qualification for the One Essence which manifests in many
images. Thus, for whoever is manifest in Lordship, the Lordship for that person
is accidental and worldly to the degree that God the High in His possession and
in His servants has bestowed upon them a certain degree of dispensation and
determination. The places of manifestation of the qualification are varied in
degrees and one superior to the other in revelation of Lordship. Consequently,
a person whose dispensation and determination is more in comparison to another,
his Lordship is higher than the other’s Lordship, and sometimes a person is in
all the world a caliph in manifestation, and some are, on the e ther hand,
caliphs in the interior. Yet others are caliphs both in the manifestation and
interior, like Solomon (S.A.). Thus the Pharaoh, when he was possessor of
rulership in his time over his people due to his will being dominant among his
people, he was judge, ruler and determiner in comparison with his people, and
he addressed them and said to them: ‘I am your highest Lord’ and attributed his
Lordship to them, but he did not say to them: ‘I am the highest Lord’ or: T am
the Lord ot everything’ or: ‘I am the Lord of the universes according to
absoluteness.’ And when the magicians knew the truth in what he (the Pharaoh) said to them they did not deny
1029
High killed the children of Israel in the appearances of the people
of the Pharaoh so that their life and succour may appertain to Moses, in the
same way He killed the magicians in the image of Pharaoh so that they rise to
the degrees cf witnesses in the other world, which degree they would not have
attained to except if the Pharaoh had killed them through oppression through
the necessities of the manifest. Grammatically, the word 'linayl' might apply to the words of the magicians when they said ‘decree’,
because with the knowledge they had they knew that the hanging and torturing by
Pharaoh would lead them to reach the Divine degrees in the other world which
they could not attain without that torture and killing, because nobody reaches
the degree of witnessing as a martyr except by being killed through oppression.
Because in
fact for the causes there is no way of suspending them. Thus, because in fact there is no way of suspending the causes;
since God has caused the reaching of some of the high Divine stations and
other-worldly degrees dependent on certain causes, there is no way of
suspending those causes so that the reaching of those degrees be possible
without those causes and those causes be suspended. Because in fact the established
potentialities (a'y&n-i-thabita) necessitated
these. In other words, the established potentialities have necessitated these
causes, as the states of the a‘yan and their determinations
and their effects are manifest through causes. Nothing manifests in existence except
in the image according to which establishment a thing is, as there is no
changing in the words of God, and when the words of God referred to the
potentialities of existence, the causes are of old from the time when they were
established, and they are related to latter things from the point of view of
their existence and manifestation, (meaning their
manifesting in their individuation, as the a‘yan
never manifest). In other words, the established potentialities never manifest
in existence except through the images in 4>hich they were present in their
establishment, because there is no change in the words of God, and the
established potentialities and the realities of knowledge are Divine words.
However, the words of the essences are nothing other than the existence,
because the established potentialities are manifest in existence through the
images of existence. Consequently, the a'yan,
the essences and potentialities, are considered as ancient in relation to the
existence because of their establishment in the Divine Knowledge. Thus, they
are called words of the unknown. They are also referred to as latter in
relationship to the others by virtue of their manifestation
1031
the other world by His
words of exemption, except the people of Jonas, which
means that the belief of the Pharaoh is belief of despair, and the belief of
despair is of no use according to what you say, for which you take as example
the people of Jonas' But God’s words which we have quoted do not indicate that
at the le /el of peoples’ vision concerning the removal of pain of this world
for which that belief is of no avail, that belief would equally be of no avail
to them in the other world, because of the words ‘except the people of Jonas’
being taken as an indication, because when the people of Jonas saw the pain and
became believers, at that instant God removed from them the shameful pain in
this world, as God says: ‘Except the people of Jonas, when they believed, We
uncovered from them the shameful punishment in the life of this world.’ Consequently,
thatjybur belief will not be of avail to you at the level of vision of pain for
a person who believes at that moment, cannot be taken as an absolute
impossibility that their belief will not be accepted from them in the other
world. He
wills by this that in this world the taking away is not removed from them. In
accordance with this, the Pharaoh was taken away from it together with the
presence of belief. Thus God, with these words, has
willed that in fact belief at the sight of pain does not remove from’people the
taking away and the pain. Thus, other than the people of Jonas, according to
the manner of God, it is not taken away from any one person at the level of the
sight of pain, calamity; that is why the Pharaoh was taken away from this world
with the existence of belief. Consequently, the removal of the pain which is
brought down in this world concerning the belief at the sight of pain being of
no avail, doss not necessitate that the belief would be of no avail in the
other world. This was his order, the order for those who are certain of passing away
at that certain hour. That is, the fact that
Pharaoh was taken with the existence of belief is as if the order of the person
who is sure of passing away at that very hour is the same as the order concerning
Pharaoh. That is to say, the Pharaoh was taken away as he was certain of
passing over and in belief. However, even under the consideration of not being
certain, one can be taken away with belief in another manner. The meaning of this
situation bestows that he may not have been certain of passing away, because he
saw the believers walking in the dritd-out road which became evident when Moses
hit the sea with his stick, and the Pharaoh was not certain of destruction,
like those who are other than at the point of death so that they do not expect to be touched by it. That is to say, deducing
from the
1033
intended it is clear, but if the intention is the spirit then it
would come to mean: We shall save your spirit together with your body. Those
for whom
is veridic the wcrd of punishment in the other world, they are those who do not
believe, even if all the acts (of God) were brought to them, until they see the
painful punishment They taste the punishment in the other world. That is to say, that person is according to mischief
due to his aptitude in the Divine Knowledge and who therefore is under the
determination of punishment and is not a believer in the first writing down;
that person will not believe, even if all the Divine acts and prophetic
miracles were brought to him, unless they taste the painful punishment. That is
to say, those who are taken as being the coverers-up of truth and transported
to the other world, they will not believe unless they taste of punishment, like
Abu Jahl and those of his kind, because when Abu Jahl was killed, he said to
the man who killed him: ‘Tell your master (that is to say, Mchammed): “Let it
be known to you in this state (where I am) that I do not regret opposing you.”
’ The
Pharaoh is outside this class. Thus, the Pharaoh
falls outside the class of the people who deserve the punishment in the other
world, because he fully believed.
The Shaykh (R.A.) in this place declares his conviction
according to obvious necessities in accordance with the Quranic sayings which
came down concerning the Pharaoh’s belief, and in this matter the Shaykh has no
doubt. However, some have said that he was speaking decidedly upon conjecture,
trying to form a legal (religious) opinion, but he is none of those, because trying
to form a legal opinion and to speak decidedly upon conjecture is for the rank
of the people of doubt who decide upon the most suitable conjecture, whereas
the Shaykh (R.A.) is a complete heir. He sees the ‘Orders as they are and
witnesses them and is in cognizance of them, aha he is not in the degree of
doubt so that he would furnish definitive Divine proofs for his prevalent
doubt, and that he should determine in an order with effective and convincing
conjecture. The complete gnostic who is realized with Divine knowledge and the
knowledge of the Envoy and acts accordingly, his heart is the source of Divine
knowledge and the treasury of Lordly mysteries, and his assertions are not due
to his doubt so that he brings irrefutable Quranic proofs, or through
irrefutable proof tries to form an effective opinion through conjecture. It is
rather that the gnostic heirs bring the irrefutable proofs as images to make
those people who look towards Divine proofs and who are people of belief
conditioned
1035
is a guide and drunkards are not guides. The Caliph is manifested
according to the Divine image and is not under the dominion of a state. The
words that emanate from a Caliph, even though they are contrary in comparison
to the common understanding, are in accordance with the words of absolute
certainty (yaqiri) and witnessing (shuhud). To relate such things
to drunkenness is words of drunkenness and are not the words of a witnessing
gnostic. And to say the appointee is excusable is absolute error, because the
believer from the Presence of God and the appointee from the Presence of the
Envoy of God would have to be appointed through the surrounds of a forbidden
order so that his manifesting with the forbidden order would be excusable, and
the person of holiness and preciousness aj^djmightiness is far higher than
ordering something with an error and a denial. It is true that somebody who has
evolved through the Mohammedian religion and who has belonged to any one of the
four sects of the Sunni ways and who has flourished in it according to the
realities of the Quran and the purified Mohammedian religion which the Prophet
established and was present over it, he continues to be a servant according to
that special manner, but a person who with essential receptivity and total
subjugation and submitting to the Envoy (S.A.) who is the limit and source of
all ways, forms, legalities of all religions and manners, which is the place of
manifestation of the Mohammedian Divine religion and source of Divine
knowledge, and who knows the orders as they are and witnesses the attributes
and Qualities according to their order, and is a gnostic, is manifest with such
a Mohammedian legality that the Envoy (S.A.) becomes visible to him in his own
time, which is both affirmed by Divine inspiration and religious law and is not
affirmed through legal religious opinion, because in the company and presence
of the Envoy (S.A.), religious opinion is forbidden. There is no possibility of
variance of opinion, because at his level what is affirmed is through Divine
inspiration. Now let us know like this, that the Shaykh Muhyiddin ‘Arabi (R.A.)
is the Seal of Mohammedian Sainthood and the possessor of all the Divine
degrees, and he is the place of manifestation of the Mohammedian Spirit and
the root and source of the Most Holy Effusion of Uniqueness. He is manifestly
and interiorly subject to the Envoy (S.A.) through knowledge, and collects in
himself all his knowledges and gnoses. He is one of the beauties from among the
beauties of the Lord of the envoys, and an evident act of Mohammedian private
sainthood. He is aggrandized with the Divine caliphate
1037
of the Pharaoh according to the line and the limit of the Envoy
(S.A.), and the Envoy (S.A.) is Mercy and Compassion to the universes and he
manifested the belief of the Pharaoh through the most complete place of
manifestation of his heir, because God the High, with His words: ‘Today We save
your body so that it becomes an act for those who come after you’, made it one
of the acts of His universal Compassion, so that the servants of God who are
people of affliction are not saddened until the Day of Judgement from the
Divine Spirit. Thus the Shaykh (R.A.) says the belief of the Pharaoh is not a
belief of sadness (of the last minute), because when he was at the moment of
being transferred he was already a believer. Thus he was taken with the presence
of belief in him. And all the words that the Shaykh (R.A.) says concerning the
Pharaoh are according to veracity and not according to supposition or doubt and
hesitation, and it is given according to the manifest meaning of the Quran. It
is not according to the realities and interiorities of the Quran so that there
be cause for excusing those who deny or blame. How can they who do not believe
in what the Quran manifestly gives, rise up to understanding what is interior?
Further, this is clearly legally ascertained in the order of individuals trying
to form a (religious) legal opinion (ijtihad). To endeavour proof of covering up the truth (Jcufr) of a person without absolute proof is not a permissible religious
legal endeavour to form an opinion. For those who are people of good taste and
witnessing and insight and being, the usage of good form prefers acquiescence,
especially that the Shaykh (R.A.) in his Futuhat
in chapter 198 says that God the High acquiesced to Pharaoh in his belief and
witnessed his believing. He said: ‘God indeed corroborated the Pharaoh in his
belief by saying: “Only now, and you had rebelled before”, and pjo^ea his being
saved in his belief. Had he not been of the saved, the Hijfh would have said in
this matter like He said in the case of the Arabs. He said: “The Arabs
believed, but they do not believe, but perhaps they say they have reached
tiding (in God) but the belief has not entered into their hearts’”, and goes on
to explain the details of it. And it is not necessary that although the Pharaoh
was taken with the existence of belief in him that he should not be inflicted with
fire. At the level of the existence of the qualities of selfhood and human
character, when the believer is taken it is necessary that he should be
inflicted with fire and cleansed. This here is the manifest which has come with the
Quran. That is to say,
the above- mentioned aspects is this manifested order with which the Quran
1039
invitation of the complete heirs who follow him in all his states
manifestly or interiorly, their words are according to the discerning vision (basirah). Consequently, these words emanate from the Shaykh according to
discerning vision concerning the absolute certainty of the belief of Pharaoh
and lack of any certainty concerning his nonbelief. Therefore he leaves the
oroer to God. But concerning his (Pharaoh’s) people there is a
different determination, but this is not the place for it. ‘When the Hour comes, the people of Pharaoh enter into the strongest
pain and punishment.’ This Quranic act concerns the people of the Pharaoh, not
himself. They did not enter the belief and they did not say: T have belief in
that in which the sons of Israel believe, and I am of the muslims.’ They, on
the other hand, persisted in believing in the partial Lordship of the Pharaoh
and believed in the relative Lord, and they bound and limited and conditioned
the Quiddity of the Absolute Lord, and thereby they became misbelievers. ‘On
the Day of Judgement they are of the blameable’ is also established for the
sinful and ungodly from among the believers even though their belief is true. After this, also know that
God does not take anyone who is dying unless he is a believer which is attested
by what has come down as Divine information. That
is, God does not take anyone who is dying unless he is a believer who has
attested to the Divine information which has come down through the tongues of
the prophets, and it is because of this that sudden death and
being killed unknowingly is held as detestable,
because such a person is not on the point of death and certain of being transferred,
because a person who is dying and is certain of being transferred witnesses
the state of the hereafter. And the sudden death is limited to that where the interior
breath goes out and no outside breath comes in. This is the sudden death, and
this is other than the one who is on the point of death, because this person
who meets with sudden death is not aware of his
being transferred, whereas the person who is on the point of death is aware. And the man who dies
without knowledge is in the same way. His neck is hit from behind his back and
he was not aware, and he is taken in whatever way he was of belief or denial,
and it is because of this that the Envoy (S.A.) said: ‘People are gathered (the Day of Judgement) according to the way in which they were taken,
whichever way that may be.’ Consequently, the
people who die suddenly and the person who is killed without his knowing, he is
taken in whatever way he happens to be, in belief or in denial, without
knowledge of his being transferred. And there is no one
1041
other world, because the belief happens during the life in this
world, before the death-rattle and the point of death. There is a third
category where if he is at the point of death before the sight of the people,
even if he was not in the sight of the people at that time and he was at the
point of death a believer, this is where there is a difference of opinion. For
certain people his belief is acceptable because the Envoy (S.A.) said people
are brought to judgement according to the way they died, just as they are taken
according to the way they were. Consequently, in concordance with this, that
man became certain of transference and witnessed the state of the other world
and the angels and became a believer and was taken in consequence of word of
belief. Consequently, his last breath was sea'ed with belief and the word of
God: ‘He who in his last words says: “There is no God but God” enters
paradise.’ But by another peoples this is not acceptable, because a state of
death-rattle is the universe of the isthmus and is cut off from the life in
this world which is the place of belief. Consequently, his belief is not
acceptable. And this person brings as support the High God’s words: ‘The day
when your Lord shows some of His acts, the belief of a person does not benefit
him had he not believed before or gathered good in his belief.’ However, this
verset is a threat, and the threat is extended from a promise, and it is not a
certain proof of lack of benefit or advantage to the belief of a man when at
the point of death a person seals his life with the word of belief. Thus, in
this case there is a latter connection which is that a believer comes to
complete belief with his heart, and when he is saying his belief to himself he
thinks in his mind of the other world, and if he is taken at that moment with
that memory in his heart, conse|qi|^fly the first instance is preferable,
because if at the point of deatfil though he is a believer, in his mind occurs
the other world and he is taken at that moment, this is a difficult order and
the order of that is in God’s hands. Howevei, in any case, there is a
difference between him and the denier that dies either suddenly or is killed
without his knowing and there not being a previous knowledge of death, because
the person who is killed without his knowledge or is dead suddenly, he’is taken
in whatever state he happened to be in at that moment. Consequently, there is a
different determination for the man who has given up his denial and has come to
belief and has spoken the word of witnessing, or equally, while he is saying
it, that memory comes into his mind and he is killed or died suddenly, as
compared with the other man for whom there is another
1043
surely he would have been returned to his action and
work. Thus God would have turned away from him. it comes in a hadith (saying of the Prophet): ‘He who turns to God totai.'y, God turns
to him totally, and he who turns away from God totally, God turns away from him
totally.’ However, Moses was purified, brought close and selected. Thus, it is
because of God’s closeness to him that He revealed Himself to him in the image
of what he required, even though Moses had no awareness of this. Thus, the
revelation of God to Moses in the image of fire is the result of God’s
friendship to Moses, so that he would not turn away from Him if He appeared to
him in an image other than what he required. ,
v/‘'
Now, you know it like this, that indeed Moses (S.A.) was
purified and beloved and that God attracted him to Himself through giving him
friendship and help through his converse with Jethro (Shu'ayb) (S.A.) so that
Jethro would describe to him God and make Moses love Him. What was predominant
in Moses was that he required vision, and vision cannot happen except in the
form of an image, and fire is the most honoured image in the universe because
fire is related to God through two very grand (great) Qualities which are
Destruction (qahr) and Love (muhabbah'), because in the burning by fire the effect of destruction is
manifest, because fire does not touch anything where that thing does not
receive its effect, and definitely fire annihilates everything. In fact God
does not reveal Himself to anything where that thing is not annihilated. There
is no revelation except by the reception of that which has been revealed to.
Light is the effect of Love because Light by its essence is beloved.
Consequently, it is from the perfection and completion of God’s bounty to Moses
that He made him go out looking for fire, so that he attaches his whole
endeavour to fire and turned to it totally. Thus He revealed Himself to Moses
in the image of fire. Consequently, his exterior and interior was covered
through the revelation in the image of fire with the two Qualities of
Annihilation and Love from fire by which the revelation was made. It is without
a doubt necessary for the thing through which the revelation is made that it
should be qualified by the Qualities of the revealer and be suitable to the
thing upon which it is revealed. This is the third witnessing which happens
before the station of Union (jamc) in separation
and in the station of converse which necessitates duality. However, the real
witnessing in the meaning necessitates the annihilation of that which is
revealed to in the revealer. ‘When his Lord revealed Himself to the
1045
Of the Wisdom of Intention and Refuge
(al-hikmat as-samadiyyah)
in the Word of Khalid
The Wisdom of Khalid bin Sinan is that he indeed by his invitation
manifested the prophethood of isthmuseity (barzakhiyya). That is to say, after his death and then having come back to this
life, he wanted to invite through the prophecy of the barzakhiyya consequent to witnessing. This is what one must remember, that he
did not profess to give news of the states of the other world except after his
death. That is to say, it was not that Khalid was manifested with the prophecy
of barzakhiyya, butthat he would first die and would witness the states of the barzakh and then, after becoming alive again by Divine order, he would be
manifested with the prophecy of barzakhiyya. That is why
Mohammed did not consider Khalid's prophethood when he said: T am the first man
(prophet) after Jesus, son of Mary, and he (Khalid) was between me and him, a
prophet.’ Now let it be known like this, that Khalid bin Sinan was between
Jesus and Mohammed and closer to the appointment (ba'th)
of Mohammed, and he lived in the lands of Aden. When Khalid realized the
completeness of Mohammed and that the ‘Mercy to the universes’ (rahmah lil-'alamin) was appointed, he wished that what he gave out, his prophecy, would
result in being universal, and he wanted his propnethood to be dependent on
that knowledge which results from what is in the barzakh
for the totality of creatures after death. Because the people in general do not
concord with what is given out as prophecy from a person as they would concord
with what he would give out of what he had actually seen and witnessed in the barzakh after his death and his coming to life again, since the prophecy of
such a prophet would be more eloquent in effect upon the beliefs of the people.
Khalid was very strong in himmah,
and the witnessing of the Singularity (ahadiyyah) was dominant over him. His people who believed in him always
referred to him whenever ill befell them. During his time, in the lands of
Aden, a great fire appeared which came out of a cave and destroyed the produce
and the agriculture of those lands. And his
1047
would have given them news of the barzakh
wherein determinations of sorrow and good taste and happiness and rebellion are
in the images of life on earth, so that by Khalid’s giving news of this, all
the envoys’ truths would become veridic in that which they said during their
life on earth, concerning the things of the other world. Because for the
general public, if a prophet dies and comes back, the effect of the news he
gives of the other world is more definite than the information of the other
world given by a prophet who is not dead but who is alive in this world.
Khalid’s aim was that the whole of the universe believe in all that the envoys
have brought as determinations and laws so that the mercy (rahmah) be upon the whole of the universe, because Khalid was honoured by
the fact that his prophethood was close to the prophethood of Mohammed, and
Khalid knew that Mohammed was being sent as mercy to the universes (rahmatan lil-'alarrun) and because of that he had desired the universal prophethood.
Khalid was not an envoy (rasul)
but he wished greatly that the whole of the people benefit from the mercy which
was to come through the envoyship of Mohammed, even though he was not appointed
with announcement. He had wished that in the barzakh
he would be given pleasure from that general mercy so that in his knowledge
concerning the immanence he should become strengthened, as he was to give news
through witnessing of the ways of the barzakh. But
as has been said, his people squandered him, and it is said that after the
appointment of the Envoy Mohammed, a daughter of Khalid came to see him and the
Prophet greeted her by saying: ‘Greetings, oh daughter of the prophet whose
people have squandered him.’ The Prophet did not qualify the people of Khalid
by being lost, but qualified the prophet of the people as indeed being
squandered, because they did not allow him to attain his aim and they did not
execute his will, and consequently he was not manifested with the prophecy of barzakhiyya.
Does the desire to do something deserve an equal merit
even if one is prevented from actually bringing it about? Without doubt or controversy
this is definitely so. There is the example of what the Prophet said about the
man who had desired to go and pray in the mosque with the congregation but was
prevented by the congregation being dispersed so he could not meet up with
them. For him, his desert is the same as if he had done his prayer with the
congregation. However, in the case of a poor man who wishes to do a good deed
like a rich man,
1049
The Wisdom of Singularity
(al-hikmat al-fardiyyah)
in the Word of Mohammed
Indeed that which he was, the Wisdom of Singularity, is because he was the
most complete existent or being in this humankind (genus of humanity), and
because of this, order started with him and ended with him, because the reality
of the Envoy (Mohammed) and his devolution (ta'ayyun) is the collectivity of the totality of the Divine immanential
reality, and the being (existence) of his human genus is also devolved in the
totality of Ipseital place of manifestation. The haqq is
apparent in that with total manifestation with His Ipseity and Qualities. In
other words, Mohammed, peace be with him, is the first devolution of the Divine
devolutions through which becomes devolved the Ipseity of Uniqueness, and it is
thereby prior to all devolution. Further, it is the beginning and origin of all
devolutions and is inclusive of all devolutions. Further, he is one and
singular in being, and has nothing equal to it, because in this degree there is
no other equal devolution, because beyond this degree there is no other degree
than the Ipseity of Absolute Uniqueness which is transcendent from all
devolution and quality andmame and image and limit and praise. Further,
singularity is specific to him absolutely because of his inclusiveness of all
devolution. Ibn 'Arabi calls his Wisdom with the qualification of ‘Total
Wisdom’, and there is no difference between singularity and totality except by
consideration, because this first devolution in consideration of other
devolutions is the totality of all totals. The devolution of the other anbiya' are equally total devolutions and they are equally descending
devolutions, and when they reach personal devolutions they are various and
dissimilar in the degrees. Because of this, the Envoy at the coming of the Day
of Judgement said: ‘There was the nabiyy ard with him a
small group of people, and there was the nabiyy
and with him there were two men, and there was the nabiyy
and with him there was one man, and there was the nabiyy
and with him there was not any other one.’ What results for Mohammed is
absolute totality and total reality, and
1051
totality within the being of the 'ayn.
After that, when the spirits became evolved in the degree of the Guarded
Tablets and each became specialized from the other and each one’s reality of
light became manifest and they were differentiated one from the other, the High
God delegated as nabiyy to them the reality of Mohammedian
spirituality so that he prophetized to them of the perfection and completion
of the reality of singularity of totality, and the words: T was a nabiyy when Adam was between water and mud’ is an indication of this
revelation (revealing, sending,’rising), and it involves all the revelations in
the prior emergences. When the total, high, natural images which are from the
Throne and the Chair became existent, and when first the places of
manifestation and their completion of the lights which are the caliphs and awliyd of the spirits of the anbiya became existent,
then that mystery of the revelation of Mohammed became manifest to them in the
second place. From among the spirits, those who became secure in that are the
spirits who are indissolubly joined to the Divine spirituality of the
singularity of total perfection of the humankind. In that emergence the High
God resided the descendants of Adam in the station of shuhud after having appointed them in the plain of existence. And then He
addressed them with the words: ‘Am I not your Lord?’ (alastu bi rabbikum), and they answered: ‘Yes, indeed’ (bald).
When the images of genuses became existent, the determination (hukm) of that belief became manifest among the human beings of perfection.
They believed in this, and they are the best of people. The Envoy Mohammed
pointed at this mystery: ‘Al arwah junud mujannadah fima ta'arif minha Vtai if wa ma
tanakir minha ikhialif.' And when this emergence of
the genus of the perfect perfection of the human perfection became the most complete
and the most perfect of the totality of all emergence, and when the totality of
Divine manifestation became manifest according to the most perfect way in the
emergence of genus of Mohammed, thereby Mohammed becoming the most perfect
existent and the totality of the images of existence, consequently the Divine
Wisdom, by virtue of being placed in that, became manifest in the most perfect
and most total way. Because of this the order of nabiyyshvp, the order of religion and the order of perfect manifestation became
finalized by it, and the Wisdom of Singularity became specialized in that.
And the first of the singularities is three and is not
one. Even though one is the origin of number it is not from among numbers,
ins<- ■■
Envoy became similar to the symbol. In other words, because the
Envoy comprised the symbol of conjunction of the smallest and the biggest and
the middle limit which comprises the trinity, and by being the symbol which comprises
the original and secondary duality and equally of the placing of the original
and the elevating of the second which is the trinity, the Envoy became similar
to that, because his reality is the place of manifestation of the primal
singularity which is the source and exactly the same as the trinity, and by his
corporeality being the most total of the existents of humankind he is given the
words of the three kinds, which are the words of the Divine activity of
necessarily-so-ness and the words of immanential acted- upon-ness of
possibilities and the words of the realities of the totalities of human
perfection, and his being thus became the totality of the collectivity of these
words. In other words, the Envoy came to comprise by virtue of the words the
trinity. But because the symbol from one face is other than what it symbolizes,
so that there be no possibility of understanding any difference between the
Envoy and the Envoy’s symbolizing and guidance to the haqq, he says the symbol is the symbol of his own nafs. In other words, the Envoy, which is the most symbolic of the
symbols of the haqq, is symbol of and guide to his own self.
That is to say, the guidance and symbolism of the Envoy to the haqq is essential symbolism because the reality of the Envoy is the taayyun of the Absolute Ipseity with the First ta'ayyun,
and his bfcing equally is tlje. place of manifestation of the Absolute Ipseity,
and the Divine Ipsfeity is therein elevated from it so that no other thing can
be symbol to it. In other words, the Envoy’s symbolizing of the haqq is the haqq's symbolizing to His own
Ipseity, because his essential individuality is the same as the haqq's Absolute Ipseity. There is no difference between these two except by
consideration of ta'ayyun, and by consideration of the tawhtd of the Ipseity, She is She. It is the same ‘ayn and the same dhat, and is in the degree of
transcendence absolute and in the degree of idativity individualized.
When the reality of Mohammed gave the first singularity
it was triangular of emergence, and was garbed with a triangular emergence.
Because singularity is Ipseity and Will and Word, and that the Envoy is its
image which is the Ipseity and necessarily-so-ness and receptivity, it would
consequently be according to the origin of the image which is according to
trinity, and thereby by its emergence of genus
1055
resultant from his knowledge of his nafs.
That is to say, Eve, in relationship to Adam, is for example an introduction
to the knowledge of Adam’s manhood and his being qualified by the adjectives of
activity, because if there was no Eve, Adam could not be manifested with that
quality, and equally he would not be realized and qualified with that. Man in
relationship to God is like a portion and a branch, and the haqq is the total and origin. Man, by his own activity and his
acknowledgement of Lordship (servanthood) (marbub),
is an introduction to the knowledge of the Iif-ord’s quality of action and His
Lordship, because he himself and the knowledge of his Lord is resultant from
his knowledge of himself. If he does not know that his nafs was qualified by the qualities of the receptivity of action and by
the quality of acknowledging Lordship (rnarbub), he cannot know the qualification of the haqq by
the qualities of action and Lordship. It is more like that the haqq's quality of action and Lordship becomes realized by his being,
because man’s knowledge of his own self, which is the second degree in the
being of the man, it is introduction and origin to the knowledge of God. Thus
he said (the Envoy): ‘He who knows his nafs
knows his Lord.’ Consequently, if a person knows his nafs he will know his Lord, and this makes the knowledge of the nafs an introduction to the knowledge of the Lord and makes the guide,
and it makes the knowledge of the Lord a result for the knowledge of the self.
All this is because in the Being of the haqq is
the origin, and the servant is subsequent (the branch), and in knowledge the
knowledge of the servam is the origin and the knowledge of the Lord is
subsequent. Woman is portion for man, and man is the ta'ayyuns of some of the degrees of the manifestation of the haqq, and
each portion symbolizes its origin and guides to it. Woman is symbol and guide
to the man. Man is symbol and guide to the haqq, and
symbol and guide is introductory to that which it symbolizes and guides to.
Equally, as the woman is the nafs and the ta‘ayyun of the man, because his own being and nafs is
closest to it, he (the Envoy) gave priority to the women. According to these
considerations, the saying concerning the knowledge of man of his own self
begins by the mention of the woman and finalizes at the end by the mention of
the prayer as the last. If you want you can speak of forbidding of knowledge
and arrival through inability, because it is true indeed that by virtue of
reality where it concerns the haqq it is allowable to forbid
knowledge, or if you want you will speak with the establishment 105^,/ '
in the Presence of possibilities, like spirit, heart, nafs, khayal and body, and of the a’yan of action and
reception of the universe, which is not collected in the image of Mohammedian
place of manifestation of the totality of all original portioning and
synthesizing. Mohammed then is total symbol and guide (dalil) to his Lord, and the lucid path, because he is the places of
manifestation of the Divine perfection, and his guidance and symbolization is
again to his own nafs. And you, understand this with the
subtle understanding.
And when women were made lovable to him, his inclination
of affection to them is of the kind of the inclination of the total to the
part. This inclination is again to his own nafs,
because considering the reality of the part being the same as the total even
though by another consideration the devolvement (ta’ayyun) is not the same, yet a thing never inclines with love to aiother
thing except its own self, and yearning does not happen except to its own self,
except, of course, in between them there is the fact that the total is devolved
in the part. And this exists between the total and the part, and if there had
not been this consideration between the total and the part and there had been
no connection between the two, the total would not have been a total and the
part would not have been a part, and if the part was not the total, then the
total would have no love and inclination towards it. And the Envoy
exteiiorized from the order of the nafs from the closeness of
the haqq concerning the emergence of this genus and through the meaning
of.thewords: ‘And I blew of My own Spirit into them.’ That is to say, as the
woman is part of the man, the Envoy’s inclination and yearning for the female
is the inclination and the yearning of the total for the part, manifesting that
the love is to the self since the High God had blown of His total Spirit into
man, the spirit of man became like a part of the Divine Spirit, just as the haqq's inclination and yearning for the man’s emergence and His
conditioning (relativization) in the human being is the total’s inclination
and yearning for its part. Adam witnessed his own self in Eve, and in the
second step it is her love for his own self, just like the human being is for
the Being of the haqq the second degree since the haqq devolved in him. Then He qualified His nafs with
a very strong yearning and desire for the face of man, by virtue of His devolvement
in the place of manifestation of man. The haqq's
yearning for this becomes His yearning for His own nafs, and
He said about those who yearn: ‘Oh David, My yearning for them is much stronger
(more
1059
yearning the face of the haqq.
That is to say, because of his yearning for the face of haqq, having taken away from in between them their veil of the body, it
is without a doubt that the haqq has yearning for that
person. And what of the joyful yearning of the haqq for
those who are the muqarrabirf! They see Him with
His immanence and they love what they see and they yearn for this station (rnaqarn). The High haqq's yearning is
established.'hnd is certain for these muqar- rabin. When the High haqq was witnessing them and they
were being witnessed by the haqq, it absolutely necessitates
that the muqarrabtn
witness Him without a veil by temoving the veil of
devolution from among them the devolved ‘ayn,
even though the world station and emergence of the genus forbids the witnessing
of the haqq because of the characters of the nature and the veils of genus
necessitated in the body of the human being. Consequently, in total fana and the level of the death of will, the qualifications of immanence
and the veils of possibilities being removed at this level, or at the level of
the removal of the veils through natural death, he observes, if there has not
been left any other veil other than the veils of possibilities and other than
the veil of the body. But if the qualifications appertaining to mankind and
veils of possibilities are established and remaining in his nature, he will not
be able to observe even at the level of death. ‘He who was of these blinds, he
will be blind also in the other world.’ And the word of God concerning His
Eternal Knowledge, concerning the knowledge and images of all things which are
established in this Knowledge, becomes similar to what He said to David about
His yearning being more intense (shadid). As God said
through the hadith of Hesitation and it is of this
context: T do not hesitate in anything I do as I hesitate in taking the spirit
away of My believing servant who is repelled by death, and I find his vexation
disagreeable; however, it is unavoidable that he should see My face. In other
words, I hesitate because My faithful servant finds death unpleasant and I find
his repulsion at death which will bring him to face Me repulsive, so I hesitate
to take his life which will bring him to face Me in that state when he is in
repulsion. I would not like to take his spirit away in his state of
disagreeableness, and that he should with that quality come to Me. I would have
preferred that I take him away when he is in a sta'e of yearning, in which case
if at that state of yearning I take his life he will certainly join Me, and I
like that he joins Me in that state of yearning-fdr Me.’
God then has given the
1061
‘I drank of love, cup after cup. Neither the wine finished nor my
thirst.’ Also from among the people of belief and people of certainty there is
a group of people of the heart who observe the haqq in
His clothes of Qualifications of Beauty, yet there remains, and these are the
people of closeness of supererogatory works. The Envoy points at this in the
words of the hadith qudsi\ T am their hearing and their
vision.’ Having been qualified by the Divine Qualities they are divested of
their human qualities, yet not being annihilated from their ipseities they are
veiled from the Beauty of the Ipseity. This group of people have collected in
themselves both the yearning and the joy of attainment in yearning because they
are in one way veiled and in another way arrived.
Coming face to face is according to three parts, and for
each of these parts there is death, resurrection and the Day of Judgement. The
first coming face to face happens by natural death, and in this resurrection
and the Day of Judgement happens according to what the Envoy said: ‘Dead, but
present in the Day of Judgement’, and also the words: ‘People are asleep and
when they die they wake up.’ This rising after resurrection for coming face to
face are from among those people of happiness who believe in the ghayb and who are veiled and who see the haqq in
the images of their beliefs by virtue of the degrees of the believers, seeing
in the universe of mithal or in the figures of the
high skies. For,t^c people of the heart this vision happens in the most
beautiful way in the isthmuses of spiritual light. For the people of shuhud this happens in all the images of existence according to the
relationship of their degree of annihilation from their ipseity and the vision
of haqq with the 'ayn of the haqq according to their own apportioning of absoluteness and
relativity. If these wished for conditioning (which is relativity) the High God
orders them with the same conditioning and relativity. ‘They do not wish for
other than except what God wishes, because their will is the will of God.’ When
they annihilated themselves from their own ipseity and their qualifications
remained with them in which way. In this Day of Judgement all the people are
the same, and this Day of Judgement by degree is small and by comprehension the
big, but the truth is that it is a country from among the countries of the big
Day of Judgement. That is why the Envoy said: ‘The tomb is the first station
from among the stations of the other world.’ But the Day of Judgement of the
people of the heart is divestion from the clothes of the senses and
1063
haqq, but the servant’s love of the haaq is
due to the haqq's love of the servant. God said: ‘He loves them and they love Him’
(yuhibbuhum wa
yuhibbunahu). If there had not been the love of the
haqq for the servants, the servant would not have loved the haqq. Consequently the servant’s yearning for the haqq is due to the haqq's
yearning for the servant. However,^ the haqq's
yearning for the servants is stronger, because the servant’s love and yearning
for the haqq
is a portion of the love and yearning of the haqq for the servant, and the haqq's
love and yearning for the servant is total. The servant yearns only in
accordance with his devolved 'ayn and his established reality,
whereas the haqq, being devolved with the manifest and
hidden devolved beings and the reality of the ghayb, is
yearning with absoluteness (itl&q) and non-ta’ayyun. Thus, in the servant’s devolve- ment there is by virtue of the haqq's devolution of the yearning of the haqq for
Its own nafs by virtue of Its total devolvement in the degree of Divinity.
Equally the haqq's yearning by virtue of His la ta'ayyun is equally stronger and dominant. The phrase 'tahfi nufus' (though in certain copies it is 'tahwi')
shows the yearning nufus in suffering due to the
strength of the desire of reaching facing, and from the love of death which is
a means to arrive at that, which is prevented by destiny. This last bit means
this: since the High haqq has ordered and determined
for each being an appointed death (ajal musamma), no death
is possibly envisaged before the arrival of that time, and coming face to face
is not possible before then. ‘When the destiny (qada‘)
which is delineated and a known time is over, then I complain from lament and
the Beloved equally complains from lament.’ When the High haqq (said: ‘When I blew into it from My Spirit’) elucidated it and made
it apparent that in fact He blew into that human place of manifestation from
His Total Spirit, consequently the haqq did
not yearn for the yearning servant but to His own nafs
which is devolved in the 'ayn of the servant, and to His
own Spirit which is blown into the servant’s place of manifestation from His
own Spirit. And the Shaykh’s saying: ‘And when He elucidated that He blew into
it from His own Spirit, He did not yearn except for His own nafs', is the result of what he said before. Consequently, the haqq's yearning for the yearning servant at the level of death is His own
yearning for His own nafs which at the level of the
removal of the immanential veil appears in the place of manifestation of the
servant, the total manifestation and His yearning
1065
Himself to him and addressed him, because not only was Moses’
emergence inclusive of fire (did Moses’ emergence include fire) but in his
emergence the quality of jalal and fire are dominant.
If his (man’s) emergence had been natural, his spirit
would have been of light. This means that if man’s emergence had been according
to the nature of the origin of his emergence and not influenced by the nature
of elements, his spirit would not have been fiery but would have remained of
light, like the angels who are above the seven heavens, but man’s spirit
becomes apparent by virtue of the place (the place where his emergence takes
place). Equally, God points to (the fact) the blowing and that is frcm the nafs-i-rahmani. The High God makes reference to the blowing of the Spirit into the
man or equally He makes reference to the Spirit, as one is that He blew, or
that the Spirit blew, according to the saying: ‘And I blew into it of My
Spirit.’ Without a doubt then, the human spirit is of the nafs-i- rahmani. In other words, it is blown from the nafs-i-rahmani, thereby making the nafs-i-rahm&ni
manifest in the man. Consequently, certainly the cayn of man, that is to say his external being, manifests with this nafs which is the Divine blowing, and due to the inclination of that in
which it was blown happened the ignition of fire and not of light. This
inclination is due to therbody of the man. That is why because of
that which it was^biown into that man’s emergence became fire and not light.
Because that which is blown into and which has the inclination to receive that
which is blown into is elemental matter. Consequently, in there light becomes
igneous and fiery rather than remain as light, because his emergence is
elemental and not natural light. The nafs of
the haqq became hidden {batin) in this place and because
of which man became man. In other words, in the animal spirit the nafs-i-rahmcinf became hidden and man became manifest.
And then He yearned for it. After this the High God made
for man, which is Adam, another person which desired him, according to his
image, and which He called woman. That is, from Adam, according to his image,
He created Eve and called it woman, thereby the woman came into manifestation
in the image of man, which is Adam, just as man became manifest in the- image
of the haqq. Adam yearned for and loved the woman, just as a thing’s love and
yearning for its own nafs, because his own nafs in the second degree was apparent in the image of the woman and is
therein devolved. Equally, the woman
in the same way for the haqq, being a pair
(pairness) became manifest by the being of the human.
Thus manifested the triad of haqq, man
and woman. Consequently, by this triplicity, singularity came about. Man became
manifest in the image of the haqq. The woman became manifest
in the image of man. The haqq became longing and yearning
for the man, and man became longing and yearning for the woman, just as
something longs and yearns for its own nafs.
Thus the haqq manifested in the image of the man and man manifested in the image
of the woman, and according to this consideration, in the third combination haqq manifested in the image of the woman. In the emergence of the
humankind this singularity is exemplified, by spirit, heart or nafs, or as haqq, spirit and body, where the
spirit is according to the image of haqq, and
the body is according to the image of the spirit, and while the spirit was one,
the image of the body paired it (made it a pair.).
Man has an ardent desire, a yearning for his Lord
because the Lord is his origin, and woman has a yearning for man in the same
way because he is her origin. The yearning of the man for the haqq and of the woman for man is the same as of a thing yearning for its
own country. But it is God who made the woman beloved to man, just as God loved
someone who is according to His own image. Then man’s love did not happen
except for that person which is immanenced from him, and that which is
immanenced from him is woman, and in reality man’s love happened for that being
from whom the man is immanenced, and that is the haqq. In
other words, when the man is established upon the Divine love which is his
origin, he loved the woman with a Divine love, not with the love of his own nafs. Again in other words, because the Divine iove is established upon
man, the Envoy Mohammed said: T was made to love . . .’, and did not say: ‘I
loved from my own nafs . . .’, meaning that he was
made to love from and by God, and he did not say: ‘I loved of my own being . .
.’, because his love appertains to the Absolute rabb,
according to whose image he is. In other words, his love for the haqq which is his origin is essential, and his love for the woman which
is devolved from him is by being made to love from God. Even in the love man
has for his woman, the man’s love appertains totGod, because in
reality the man loves a woman through the love qfi God because of his nature
being of the Divine nature. In the saying?4And indeed you are
according to a grand nature’, the nature of the Envoy is according to the
Divine
1069
desire of man for the woman wherein he finds fana*. In fact the High God is jealous over His servant that the servant
should believe that he could find taste and pleasure in other than the haqq. So the haqq is jealous over His servant
that he should believe that he should find pleasure and taste in woman other
than Himself, and that he, man, believe that this pleasure and taste is
possible with other than haqq. That is why He recleanses
His servant with ablution so that he returns to haqq, and
that instead of finding fana’ in woman that he should
look back at haqq and find fana ’ in
Him. Consequently, God washed His servant clean from believing in taste and
pleasure in other than haqq Itself, and ordered Hm to
ablute. The Shaykh means by this ‘belief in finding taste and pleasure in
another’ the people of beliefs, who see the woman as differentiated from the haqq and believe that it is ‘another’, but the 'drif is witness that he witnesses the haqq in
every form, and he consequently witnesses the haqq in
the best of ways in the woman because the woman is manifest in the form of the
man. The (arif observes and witnesses the God’s action
with relation to the man and God’s activation according to the woman, because
order and moment, willingly or unwillingly, is impossible without being brought
about by the haqq. Consequently, it is without a doubt
that the mati jin this worldly emergence returns to the haqq in the place of manifestation of the woman, having witnessed the haqq in that without a doubt. When the man observes the haqq in the woman, at the moment of conjunction (arrival) he witnesses
the haqq by His manifestation in the image of effectedness (rnunfa'il) through an effected intermediary from the haqq, and the haqq is manifest in there in the
image of being effected (infi'dP). Consequently, he
observes the haqq by virtue of His manifesting in the
image of effectedness because the woman is the place of effection, and also
because the woman is the image of the man and that the man becomes manifest in
her. Consequently, because of this, he equally observes Him in the effector
which manifests in the result. Now if the man observes haqq in his own nafs, because of the woman’s
manifesting from him, he observes the haqq in
the effector in relation to the woman which has manifested from the man by
virtue of which situation the woman becomes the effector. Consequently, he
observes haqq in his own nafs with the quality of effec-
torshipness. If the man observes d.e haqq in
his own nafs by virtue of the fact that this does not encompass that which
immanences from
1071
observed in the woman in the best manner because therein He appears
in the qualities of actor and the effected. Consequently, the Perfect Man
observes the haqq in the emergence of the genus of the
images in the best manner in the image of the woman. And this observation happens
in his vision, and this vision does not exist in the vision of the lacking man
and this observation is not an observation necessary for the man’s perfection.
It is because they are imperfection it is not necessary that the haqq manifest totally in them, and therefore it is not the same as the
manifesting of the haqq in total manifestation in
the Perfect Man, and it is not the observation of the haqq in it with total observation. Do not be misled in this, because it
is only in the perfect vision wherein in other places of manifestation in the
genuses of the immanence wherein he sees the haqq by
virtue of the place of manifestation of the haqq\
therefore the Perfect Man, by virtue of the fact that the haqq manifests in the woman by action and effected-upqn-ness, therein
observes the haqq in them in the best of manners, better
than in any other image.
If the order of observation is prevented by virtue of
the fact that the haqq is devoid of matter, if the
order of observation is thus prevented and if the observation of the haqq was impossible to observe without matter, by virtue of the fact
that the haqq is manifest and revealed in the matters of images of genus and
nature, in that case the observation of the haqq in
the woman is certainly the greatest and the most perfect observation, and the
greatest arrival is in marriage, and in this manner mentioned, in the event.
The event is an example of Divine facing. That is to say, it is an example of
His facing through that which emanates from the haqq's
Essential Divine Love upon that person which the haqq has
created acording to His own image, so that it becomes His khalifah, so that the haqq in his place of
manifestation observes His own nafs, for which He
arranged and levelled him and blew into him of His own Spirit which is His own nafs. The outward manifestation of man which He created in His own image
is creation, his immanence, and his interior is the haqq, because
the Divine Spirit is the nafs of the rahmdn. The event is the example of the Divine facing because the man by
virtue of this event wishes to manifest his own image, perhaps even for the
creation of the khaltfahs which follow after the creation of
Adam, the Father of mankind, and the place of manifestation of the Divine
facing towards them happens through this event, because there, images of the
human
1073
revelation of the Ipseity in the images of the non-brought-about a'yan-i-thabita. The second is the descent from the universe of meaning to the
spiritual individuation which is a descent in the universe of spirits. The
third is the descent in the individuation of the nufus which
is the universe of the speaking nufus, and the fourth is
the descent appertaining to mithal waich is without matter of
body or form or analogy, and this is the universe of mithal. And the fifth is the universe of material bodies and the universe
of senses and witnessing. And these four descents are former enterprises (mutaqaddim) of the degrees of the ghayb for the high which
is lower than themselves, and they are like results for the high which is lower
than themselves for the degrees of the ghayb,
and for that which is higher than that which is lower than them they are like
results which happen action and acted-upon-ness, and for this reason the Divine
descents are called marriages.
The Envoy (peace be on him) called women lnisa”, and the word nisa’ is plural for women which
has no singular. The other Arabic word for woman is 'mar’ah'
which has no plural, but the word nisa’ (root nasa’a) has another meaning which is ‘retarding, putting off to later’,
like in the Quranic sentence;;4Putting off to later is more
prevalent in covering up the Truth’ (in which sentence nasi’ means putting off to later and does not mean women). In this case,
as Mohammed puts it, the word nisa’ respects the fact that
women are drawn from Adam and therefore they are later than Adam, and to show
that his love for women was not emanating from him he said: 41 was
made to love three things from your world, women . . .’, showing that his love
for women was emanating not from his own self but from God. That is why he
said: ‘I was made to love . . .’ rather than: 41 loved . . .’
Consequently, because in being there is a consideration of women being
posterior to Adam, respecting this situation he used the word nisa’. Again, denoting the fact that he was made to love women because of
their degree, denoted in the saying: ‘And men have degrees’, and since by
degree the woman is created according to the image of the man and equally in
degree descends from him and that degree is its effectedness from men, and
indeed nisa’ is the place of effectedness from among the images of the humankind
and the humankind manifests from man by them. God’s love became appertaining
to the knowledge of God and the knowledge of God is resultant by the
humankind, consequently the existence of the humankind
1075
that. But if a man loves the women by natural particular desire of
nature, the knowledge of the desire of this kind becomes lacking in him, and he
becomes lacking in that knowledge because he has not comprehended that that
desire and loVe is the image of the Divine love and did not understand with
whom he tasted by what he was given to taste, and at their level their love for
women and their finding taste in that is like an image without a spirit. Even
though that image of the nafs is the ipseity of spirit in
the order in the vision of a person who looks at it with the Divine love, even
though that image is not visible for the person who approaches his woman or his
slave girl only through pleasure no matter what that female’s position happens
to be, that is to say, whether she is married to him or not, and since his
approach is entirely for pleasure, that is to say, he approaches the woman
entirely for the pleasure of desire, he does not comprehend whom he loves and
with whom he finds pleasure. Even though that image in the view of the man
inspired by Divine love has spirit, in the vision of the man who approaches the
woman entirely for pleasure, that image which has a spirit because its spirit
is the Divine love and Divine pleasure, is not visible to that man, and at his
level the image is spiritless, and he takes pleasure in natural desire and does
not realize with whom he takes pleasure and who is taking pleasure through him.
Except in the sight of the people of Divine love this image is without spirit.
The people of knowledge who take pleasure in their place of manifestation and
in the place of manifestation of women in whom they take pleasure. This means,
for he who approaches women from the point of view of pleasure has become
ignorant of his nafs in that thing that others are equally
ignorant of it in him, that is, he did not know that his nafs is one of the places of manifestation of Divine manifestations and
was ignorant that woman was created according to his image, i.i other words he
did not know whose is the pleasure in the place of manifestation of woman and
who takes pleasure. And just as he does not know with whom he had pleasure,
equally others do not know, since he does not name it by his own tongue so that
others know, that is, no other knows that he took pleasure in conjunction if he
does notj’name with which conjunction he took pleasure, because nobody /has
pleasure in his pleasure. If ‘other’ is people of kashf and
knowledge, in their view this pleasure is possible for the two faces. If he is
of the people of the Divine love he takes pleasure with the haqq in the place of manifestation of
1077
attested by the quote: ‘Men have degrees’, which establishes that
woman descended from man’s degree who has descended from the degree of the haqq, since he was created according to the image and was built according
to His image, although he was in the image of the haqq.
That is to say, even though man is created according to the image of the haqq, he descends a degree from there. Woman, who is according to the
image of man, descends a degree from there. And that is the degree through
which the haqq is differentiated from man, thereby the haqq
becomes in no need of man, in no need of the universes, though He is the first
actor, because the haqq becomes differentiated from
man by His non-ta'ayyun and by His Essential transcendence, whereas man by his need of the haqq because he needs ta'ayyun and being, whereas the haqq remains beyond need of the universes by His degree of Essential
transcendence because that degree is devoid of the degree of plurality which is
the universe. The second degree, which is the reality of man which is the first
degree of non-ta'ayyun, by virtue of the haqq being in ta'ayyun in it, God does not become devoid of relative plurality. Yet the
reality remains indeed, the ta'ayyun awwal, which js;the
totality of the reality of mankind, is the second actor, and the primordiality
which is for the Absolute haqq does not exist for him,
because the primordiality of the haqq is due to the
primordiality of the Ipseity, and the primordiality of the man which is the
image of the haqq is ta'ayyun
and the primordiality of the Knowledge of the ghayb,
and the man remains, by virtue of his being the khalifah
of the haqq through being the image of the haqq, the
universe of second actor. In other words, he is the second degree for the a.:t
of the haqq. And do not conjecture in this the existence of both actors, because
the haqq is the first actor by virtue of the non-neediness of His own
Ipseity and that He has created man in His own image through which image He is
the second actor. That is to say, by His ta'ayyun
in him, by virtue of His ta'ayyun in him with His Names
and Qualities, is the actor of the images of immanence. Consequently, by virtue
of the fact that man is created in the image of the haqq,
through the degree of imageness he is differentiated from the Absolute haqq by virtue of his being ta'ayyuncd, and there is
no primordiality of Ipseity of necessarily-so- ness for him.
First of all, the a'yan of
the ghayb became differentiated one from the other by relative
differentiation in the First ta'ayyun through the
1079
it is definitely its desert which is its reality and its necessity
by virtue of its rayn thabita. in other words, the
High God did not bestow its nature to each thing except that that] thing
deserved it, which thing deserved it through its own Name by which it is named
or appointed. In other words, that thing deserved that through what its essence
and its ’ayn deserved.
To women, who are effected through man, in the degree of
culmination of effectedness and in the place of manifestation of women, He
revealed Himself with the quality of being loved, and bestowed on them the
attraction of the hearts of men and the inclination of men towards them. For
the man, who is created in His own image, who is the actor of the second
degree, in his actorness gave him his due in initiatoriness over women and
bestowed on them the love for the women; and to the man who is 'cirif of the reality of the order He bestowed the observation of the haqq in the total and the taking of pleasure with the haqq, which is its nature and its desert because he is observant of the haqq in the total. Consequently, he takes pleasure with the haqq in the total. And to the ignorant man who is not 'arif of the haqq in the images of the universe, He
bestowed upon him his nature which is the image of finding pleasure exclusively
with the place, which at his level has no spirit. Thus He bestowed upon
Mohammed (peace be on him) who is an 'arif and
whose desert was love of women, and he then through Divine causing to love gave
the desert of women and loved them.
The Envoy (peace be on him), in "he hadith mentioned, first mentioned women, over beautiful perfume and the
pupil of the eyes in prayer, because indeed women is the place of being
effected, and the women which is the place of being effected is the origin of
the being of the humankind, whereas the perfumes and the pupils of the eye in
prayer is of the necessities of the humankind. Consequently, Nature came first
by its image of being effected-upon-ness, over the things which become existent
from it. That which becomes manifest and existent through Nature are the images
of the universe. That is to say, Nature takes primordiality over things^which
become existent from it through imaging, because things that are existent in
Nature through external images are existent through imaging and are established
for mental exclusion; for example, like the Divine Names, which are established
in the Ipseity of the haqq but are muta'ayyin in the Presence of Knowledge and their images are manifest in
Nature and
1081
receptive a'yan. Consequently, Nature is in
one way actor and in another way acted upon. But nevert leless, for the
specific purpose of manifesting the images of bodies and planets of the
universe, the Breath of rahman is fluent in the relative
Nature which is the jewel of hayula, and the images of the universe
of bodies become manifest in the nafs-ar-rahman which is
the same as Nature.
Yet the fluency of the Divine Breath for the spirits of
light (and d'rad—effections of any kind, latitudes, mountains, valleys, faces of
objects, bodies, accidental qualities, incidental, accidental, casual things
etc.), this fluency is latter; in fact the Divine Breath, being fluent in the
Absolute Nature which is the spiritual jewel devoid of material hayula, brings about the being of the spirits of light, whereas the bringing
about of the a'rad is through the intermediary of the
width of Nature which is the place of manifestation of the nafs-ar-rahman. Consequently, according to the way mentioned, just as Nature takes
precedence with its images of intelligence over the images that are exis.ent in
it, the Envoy, peace be on him, gave precedence to the women because they are
the place of effectedness for images of the perfection of the ^humankind, upon
the manifestation of which depends the Divine knowledge and the Divine manifestness
and manifestation. The Envoy, peace be on him, gave priority to women in this
news, and gave superiority to the feminine over the masculine, because indeed
he meant an act of himmah for the women, and he said
‘three’ in the feminine not three in the masculine, yet the Arabic
construction requires the superiority to the masculine over the feminine in
grammar (syntax), and it is necessary in Arabic construction to form the
sentence in the masculine even if in the sentence there is one masculine word
and many feminine words. That is, the Arab does not say: ‘Many Fatimahs and
Zayd went out (kharajnaf, hut says: ‘Zayd and many Fatimahs
went out (kharaju.).' And the Envoy is an Arab, and the most eloquent of the most
eloquent of the Arabs, and it would have been necessary that he should
construct this phrase with the superiority of the masculine over the feminine,
but he did the contrary and submitted to the meaning by which was meant that
he was made to love by Divine making to love, and that love was not effected by
his nafs, and what was aimed at in this being made to love and that love
being put in his heart was that women is ‘mother’ and mother is origin, that is
to say, it is the Reality of Realities. Hence the High God instructed the
108.3
of ‘ayn in the Ipseity in the real Man which is
the totality of isthmu- seity which is masculine between two,feminines. In the hadith men- tioned. the Envoy, peace be on hipij; made the ending a
primordial nadir (comes from the word nazir) in
rendering it feminine, and between them included the masculine. In other words,
he started with the word ‘women’ and ended with ‘prayer’ {salat), and both women and prayer are feminine, and the perfume between the
two is masculine, like the Envoy in being. Because in reality man is included
between the Ipseity from which it becomes manifest, and women which is manifest
from him, hence man is realized between two feminines, the first one of which
is the feminine of the Ipseity, that is to say that the Ipseity {dhat) is a feminine word, consequently the first one is a real feminine
form as equally is women in feminine form though prayer is not real feminine.
Perfume is masculine between the two, like Adam is between the Ipseity {dhat) from which it becomes, and Eve which comes from him. Yet Adam, who
is between the two females, becomes female through the fact that it becomes
manifest from a feminine and the second feminine comes from him.
Consequently he is ‘mother’ {umm) and
is the origin of totality of realities.
Now if you want you can say that Quality from which man
becomes existent is feminine like Ipseity {dhat),
yet the Ipseity {dhat) is transcendent from anything
manifesting from It, so if you want you can say that Power {qudrah) from whom man became existent, yet qudrah is
also feminine exactly as the Ipseity and Quality, or if you want to mean like
the Ash'arites believe, that Quality and Power are additional to the dhat and therefore are intermediary between dhat and
action, but equally Quality is female. In short, no matter which way you want
to be established upon, indeed you will not find any that do not give priority
(precedence) to the feminine. Even among the people of causality {'illah) whose words are afflicted by causality it is thus, because they
consider the haqq as cause in the existence of the
universe; the fact is that cause (‘illah) is also feminine.
(Those who consider the Bein^.lof the haqq a
cause for the being of the universes are the doctors of science.)
Now what is the wisdom in the Envoy putting the word
‘perfume’ that he has been made to love, after the women? It is that in women
happens the sweet winds of immanence because it is the place of birth and
manifestation and accomplishment of action is dependent
1085
(adab) and the degrees of limit in servanthood, being prostrate in the
Presence of Divinity. Prostrations are limits of humility in response to the
completion of grandeur of the haqq, and in the station of being
effected upon, which is the desert of the possibility and which is by origin
its speciality, it is the image of fana’ of the necessities
of possibilities in which he was standing and which he knew. In fact, the
origin of the possible by its being established in the Divine Knowledge, by
virtue of its being established is non-existence, after which it is effection
by virtue of it being brought about from that which is existent. In short, the
High God bestowed upon him action and effect because its reality necessitates
that. Consequently, action and being effected, the two sides became equalized
in him, and the two arcs of necessarily-so-ness and possibility were brought
close, and perfect and complete great servanthood and general grand masterness
was bestowed upon him. Thereby, in the universe of breaths he became realized
with actorness because he was bestowed with jawamT kalim, and they are the realities of letters and the configuration of
society of nufus, and the nufus being according to the
reality of species and are individuated (muta'ayyin) according to the individuations of personalities and being is its
effusion, which become immanenced and realized with the sensorial personality
and the realities of being, together with the breaths and nufus of the rahtnan which blows from the
realities of the ghayb. The zephyrs are the immanencing of the
spiritual breaths and nafs of rahmdn and the sweet winds are perfumes, that is why the Prophet, peace be
on him, was made to love good-smelling perfume, and he mentioned perfume after
women, pointing at the fact that nafs in origin is latter
by virtue of being breathed. According to this consideration, the Divine nafs which is manifest from ‘mother’ (umm)
which is called Mother of the Book, with that Divine nafs through the realities of the letters and words of the Mother Book,
expirated. In other words, from the constriction of non-existence (fadam) first brought them out into the width of the Divine Knowledge and
then manifested them to the universe of witnessing, which is the beginning,
invention, of the universes, so they manifested with that nafs. The Divine nafs is that which is preceded by
to that is enlarged, breathed out and became nafsed by
it. Mother, which is nafsed, is origin and nafs is detail.
To the Envoy, peace be on him, perfume was made lovable
from God. This is why the Envoy, in mentioning the perfume, mentioned it
1087
of manifestation of Mohammed, and^his being became rahmah for the universes. '
In all that the Compassionate Throne ( arsh rahmani) encompasses, there is not a thing left which has not met with
Divine rahmah, and in the Divine saying: ‘And My rahmah
expanded over everything’ it is made clear that the rahmah
meets everything that the Throne encompasses. Hence the 'arsh rahmani has expanded to everything and the Name prevalent over the Throne
is rahman, and the fluence of rahmah i.i the universe
happens through the reality of the 'arsh or through the total
reality of the Name rahman which is prevalent over
the 'arsh. Just as we have declared in this book and except in one subject in
several subjects and several times in the ‘Meccan Opening’. Now it is manifest
that the Name rahman's total rahmah
which is prevalent over the 'arsh has met all the existents
which are encompassed by the bodily 'arsh ('arsh jusmani), and in the totality of the universes, in its reality, its rahmah is fluent, because the 'arsh extends over all
things which are under its determination (hukm),
because the High haqq says: ‘And My rahmah extends over everything.’ In the ta'ayyun awwal, which is the Divine 'arsh, with the nafs-i-rahmani of the ghayb, the receptive a'yan of possibilities together with the Divine Names which are the yet
inexistent things, have been differentiated, because in the ta'ayyun awwal, which is the 'arsh of the non-Zafayyun
and the Absolute ghayb, the total and complete and general rahmah is prevalent over the totality of the things which is under its
encompassing, which has taken them out into the plains of the Divine Knowledge
from the constriction of non-existence. Equally, the 'arsh of the Prime Intellect which encompasses the totality of the spiritual
and bodily realities which is spiritual and rahmani 'arsh and the Name rahman which encompasses this is
expanded over the totality of things of the spiritual and bodily reality which
is under its encompassing which extends over all this. Even the Jbodily 'arsh ('arsh jusmani) is a thing from among these things. Thofreality of the Name of rahman which is prevalent over the 'arsh is this
that differentiates the Name rahman from other Names. And upon
the totality of the realities of species and varieties and personalities which
are the realities of the universe which are under it, it bestows the fluency of
the haqq. After this the Shaykh returns to the remainder of the wisdom of the hadith.
1089
ipseity is tayyib, and their words which are
their breaths is equally tayyib, and this is how the
breath is the same as the sweet-smelling breeze. Breath which becomes muta'ayyin in the heart which is the beginning of me human nafs, and having passed into all the degrees from the sources of letters,
at the level of speech by virtue of the state of the breath at the level of
speech which is the source of the letter waw, having
become muta'ayyin at that level, manifests with a sweet breeze in the image of the
speech with the quality which is bestowed upon it by the tayyib ipseity of the tayyib people. In other words,
the breath, at the level of speech, becomes permeated by the sweet breeze that
the state of the breather has bestowed on it. And breath (nafas) becomes the same as the sweet-smelling breeze, because the nafas has expirated through the tayyib by
virtue of the state of the breather in the image of speech. If the place is tayyib, equally nafas is tayyib. Consequently, its sweet-smelling breeze is equally tayyib because its origin is tayyib, and nothing other
than tayyib emanates from the tayyib. However, if the place is
wicked, the breath is equally wicked and emanates in wickedness, (‘And he who
is wicked, nothing emerges from him except sinister words’). Tayyib (good, sweet-smelling scent, sweet-smelling air) and khabith (wicked) are two opposing (mutaqabilatari) adjectives. They are accidents for the breath by virtue of place.
The anfus (breaths, nufus) are in reality Divine
order and nafs-ar-rahman. By virtue of this, they are essentially tayyib.
They emerge from the origin by original cleanliness (taharah)
and beauty and subtlety (latafah), and yet by virtue of a
wicked place there results for it a wicked form whence the breath manifests in
the image of speech with that wicked form. It is equally so on the contrary for
the tayyib breath by virtue of the tayyib
place, where a tayyib form ■•results and the tayyib breath becomes most tayyib, just as sweet^ater
through its running through a channel which is in a sweet place is sweet.
However, as nafas by origin, by virtue of its being
Divine nafas, is tayyib in totality, whether it comes by
virtue of a place as tayyib or as khabith, yet breath (nafas) by virtue of its origin
is tayyib, and it becomes by virtue of place either mahmud or madhmum\ consequently it is tayyib by consideration of its tayyib place or khabith by consideration of the khabith
place. Consequently, madh (praise) or dhamm (blame) over the nafas at the level of speech is
by virtue of the tayyib form or the khabith form. That is why nafas is relegated to speech,
because in the
1091
required of a thing, (such as) like a nice-smelling something stops
smelling nice and then it is diminished from its perfection, then it becomes
objectionable, and other than these things which we have mentioned, meaning
these relationships, there is not anything in existence of objectionability.
Hence something is in one way appreciated and in another way considered
undesirable. In one relationship it may be well, and in another relationship it
may be considered bad.
When the order of being was divided into good and bad,
the Prophet was made to like what was good and was not made to like what was
not good, because what was good was according to his nature which inclined to
good, and the goodness of women is of the necessities of goodness and good
.\yomen are created from his good nature and are parts of him. The Envoy
described the angels which really suffer from bad smells, because in the
emergence of this genus there is decomposition present because man is really
made of putrefying mud which is wet mud, that kind of putrefied mud which is
miasmic. He is created from a dry mud which comes from black mud which comes
from miasmic acid mud, and the angels find it very disagreeable, the putrefying
smell in this emergence, because the natures of the angels which are of the
emergence of light and spirit, and their good and clean personalities, are
contrary to the smells of putrefaction and things in this emergence. And
because of the relationship there is that exists with the angels it is
absolutely necessary to be clean of body and clothes, and the continuing in
ablution and nice smells are absolutely necessary. The Shaykh gives these examples
because good and bad are, like he has explained, orders of relationship. The
nature of the dur g-beetle becomes disturbed and suffers and hates the smell of
the rose. Whereas the smell of the rose is of good smells, yet at the level of
the dung-beetle the scent of the rose is not of good smells, and the relation
of this good smell with the dung-beetle in relative order becomes disagreeable.
If there is a person who in image or meaning is like the dung-beetle and in
that sort of a nature, truth (reality) would disturb him and he would be upset
if he heard the truth, and would be happy with wrong, and these sort of people
is what God refers to when He says: ‘Those who believe in the batil and went into kufr by God’, because they are
coverers-up of the truth {kafir) wher it concerns God.
They are the believers in batil, and these are the ones
that God qualified by saying that they are in error (husran).
That is to say, by their inclination to
1093
things lovable. Yet it is so that where the character is deviated
from the true balance and the approved character is lost, in fact some of the
people who have deviated characters, smells musk in everything and does not
differentiate between different smells; then he is devoid of balance and there
is no difference between this man who has deviated from balance and the man who
likes the smell of smoke and putrefaction, and there is no difference between
them in differentiation and comprehension of differentiation.
Man is according to two images. One is according to the
image of the haqq and the other is according to ,the image
of the universe, and in the universe you will not find a single character who
will understand only one order of things, that is to say, only the good or
only the bad. But you will find in the universe a kind of character who will
understand the good from the bad, or that while he knows the bad and that he is
with taste for the bad and without good taste, that is to say, a man who is by
taste a character whose taste is for the bad, or the contrary, a man who will
see by vision or smell that which is good and will understand it and because of
his taste will not look at its badness, and he is occupied with the goodness of
that thing and overlooks the badness of that thing. This kind of nature is rare
in nature, but to elevate (remove) altogether the bad from the universe, that
is, from the immanence, is not true, and it is not true (acceptable) to remove
all the bad from the universe and to understand only the good in everything,
because natures are variegated and the good is that which is lenient to the
character and inclination of the person who understands, and by degrees that is
against his character and nature that thing becomes bad and the bad is not
according to the nature and character of a person, and by relative degrees of
opposition to his nature and character things become good. Consequently, good
and bad are two relative orders of comprehension. The removal of the bad from
the immanence is not true by virtue of the fact that natures are
differentiated, and by virtue of the images of opposing Names effective in the
universe. But from the point of consideration of the relationship of the acyan to the things, and by virtue of the reality of things as they
really are, thatVwhich is muta'ayyin in everything through
the Being of the haqq, there is not a thing in the universe
which is bad. And the consideration that certain orders are, at the level of
the haqq, some are good and some are bad, is because of that thing, or the
devolution of the haqq in one degree from one of
1095
the servant to address God in prayer and for God to address the servant,
it is a supplication, and supolication happens at the level of vision, and
prayer is vision of the hdqq. God made prayer the same as
vision because what is intended by prayer is supplication (munajaf) between the haqq and the servant, and
supplication is only possible during vision, and if the one who prays does not
reach the station of vision during supplication, in reality he is not praying.
Hence the reality of prayer is vision (shuhud).
And when God says: ‘And they are continuous in prayer’. He explains this meaning
(He means this), and because prayer {salat)
is vision that for the Envoy prayer was made the pupil of the eye, because the
pupil of the eye in the Beloved is possible through vision of the Beloved.
Prayer is divided adoration between God and the servant
according to two halves. One half of the prayer is particular to God, and the
other half is particular to the servant, just as in the veridic hadith God said: ‘Indeed I made prayer divided into two parts between
Myself and My servant. Half of it is particular to Me and half is special to
My servant, and for My servant results that which he does.’ The servant says: ‘Bismi-llahi-r rahmani-r
rahim', and God says: ‘My servant has mentioned
Me.’ The< servant says: ‘Al-hamdu lilldhi rabbi-l 'alamtn',
and God says: ‘My servant has praised Me.’ The servant says: ‘Ar rahmani-r rahim', and God says: ‘My servant lauds Me.’ The servant says: ‘Maliki yawmi-d din', and God says: ‘My servant has glorified Me. My servant has given
over his order to Me.’ All this half is particular to God. That is to say, all
these qualifications coming from the servant are particular to God, and the
servant is not qualified with these. And this half is called shatr-i-wujub (the half of necessarily-so-ness, the necessarily-so-ness half).
Then the servant said: 'Iyyaka na'budu wa iyyaka nasta'in', and God says: ‘This is between Me and My servant, and what My
servant desired happened.’ And this moment shows that God associates with the
servant. This verset is an isthmus, includes both sides. In the words: 'Iyyaka na'budu' there is adoration from the side of the servant and establishes God
as the object adored, and in the words: 'wa iyyaka nasta'in' is from God to the servant help, because help is particular to the haqq. Then the servant says the rest of the prayer, and God says: ‘These
qualifications are particular to My servant, and from My servant has resulted
that which he has asked for.’ Like He has particularized the first part of the
prayer for Himself, the second
1097
and also, equally, the hearing of Him from the place of
manifestation of that imagined image, that Divine word with which the haqq will answer him, because by virtue of eaciPword of the man in
prayer the haqq addresses him and answers him in the prayer. In fact, in the
mentioned hadith this has come to pass, and it is possible to say that the word to
answer is: let it be light (khafif) and lend sound to what
is arriving from that imagined God so that God through that will answer him, if
the man who is praying is the leader in his private universe. That is to say,
the universe of being which is private to him, which is his body, his spirit,
his interior, his exterior, his surrounding, his limbs, his nafs his heart, and the totality of his spiritual and sensible powers
and the individuals of the powers of senses, all of which his being contains,
if he is a leader in prayer to this and also to the angels who will be praying
with him during his prayer, this will happen.
Now what is meant by private universe is man’s own
universe of existence, and some have conjectured that what was meant by leadership
(imam) was to become a leader to man, but the words ‘private universe’
refutes the possibility of such a conjecture, because the degrees of leadership
which are brought down happens in the private universe of man, and since this
order becomes established, the leadership of man becomes established in a
higher way. Indeed each man in prayer is without a doubt a leader (imam), because indeed the angels follow the servant in his prayer and this
is so even when he is alone in prayer. Indeed during prayer, for each person
who prays, there results the degree of envoyship (rasul),
and the degree of envoyship is acting as substitute for God, because the
leadership of the envoy is the presence of God’s servants in their own right.
Consequently, the leader (imam) is the caliph of God only
when he is at prayer, and the totality of his powers and his surroundings,
equally the protective angels, all follow him, and he is present there with the
rights of all of them. Being a leader (imam) to
a collectivity of man is equally in this manner. In short, during prayer the
degree of envoy- ship happens for the leader (imam),
^especially when he has finished the bowing (rak'ah),
and especially at the moment of having heard (of hearing) the praise and
gratitude of all those that follow him, he says: ‘God has heard those that give
Him praise and gratitude’ (sami‘ Allah liman hamida), which
means that God hears the praise and gratitude of those who praise Him through
the quality of ‘Hearer’
1099
attributing hearing to the word of God which is the aim of the
degree of the delight (consolation) of the pupil of the eye which is the witnessing
of God. Now, let it be known like this then, that seeing, hearing and
witnessing of God in a servant at prayer, happens through the strength of
belief and yaqtn, and it even is that the collectivity of the yaqin becomes the same as his comprehension, his vision and his hearing.
And it sometimes happens that the heart with the light of vision and
understanding, that is to .say he sees with the light of revelation of the
Divine Qualities which are revealed to the heart, and it sometimes happens that
seeing God happens through the sight of the eye. That is to say, the haqq assumes a similitude (mutamathil) and being
revealed becomes witnessed by him, and divides the prayer between Himself and
His servant. The haqq who divides the prayer between Himself
and His servant is the haqq who is believed in according
to the beliefs, and it is not the Absolute haqq. God
collects all these faces in His perfect and singular servant; there he observes
the haqq in all faces. There is no otjier kind of worship from among all
sorts of worship in which the .worshipper is not allowed to have any other
occupation other than the, salat, the prayer itself, while
he is at this worship, because salat is supplication (munajat') to God and it is absolutely forbidden to give attention to anything
else. That is to say, to give attention to anything else prevents him from the
vision of God, but other worships are not like the salat.
The biggest and the greatest of words and acts which is included in the salat is the dhikr of God which is related to
the heart and the tongue. In fact, we have mentioned the qualities of the
Perfect Man during salat in the Futuhat al-Makkiyyah, to show in what way the saldt
happens. That is to say, this sort of salat
which is established according to presence and witnessing, prevents the
worshipper from things which are abominations and which are detestable. In
fact, God has established it for the person who is at worship while he is at
worship, and he is called the worshipper during that time that he pays no
attention to any other affair except this worship, whether this other thing be
another worship, or whatever other thing it may be.
But the fact is that the dhikr of
God in the saldt is bigger. That is that dhikr
which happens from God for His servant at the moment when the High God answers
His servant in response to His servant’s demand, and God’s praise of His
servant is bigger than the servant’s dhikr of
his Lord in the salat because grandeur is particular to God.
1101
down from above. This movement is the inverted position (mankusa), like the letter alif, the movement of vj>Mch
is top towards the bottom. And the other kind is the movement from the bottom
up, and this movement is the straight movement for the universes of the Divine
Names and Lordly relationships, like the movement of the alif from down up when it is connected to another letter, because the
common names become existent with the existence of the immanence and in (with)
this is included the movement of ascension (mi'raj)
for the bringing into existence of spirits and anfus.
And the third one is in neither of the two directions which are the top and the
bottom, but rather for the movement at the horizon which is for the bringing
into existence of the universe of collectivity of man between the two
directions, and this movement is the horizontal movement; and this trinity and
the triple movement is in the salat which is private to the haqq, which is brought into existence through revelation. In the same
way, the movement of the universe which is manifest from the degree of solids
is equally of three kinds of movement, the first one of which is the inverted
movement which is the movement of the plants and vegetable kingdom, and one
part is horizontal which is the movement of the animals, and one part is
straight which is the movement of man. Hence, the universe is manifest through
three movements, which finds straightness with the man, like the salat of the one who prays is complete and resultant from triple
movements, one of which is his standing up which is the state of straightness,
the other is his rak'ah, and the third is his state of
prostration. Thus, for the servant there happened during the salat, which is no other than reaching and connecting (irtibat) to God, singularity and trinity in his heart through the three
movements, which are standing up, rak'ah and prostration.
This trinity appertains to the act of the servant; the trinity which is in his
words is the trinity in the salat which happens through (in)
the trinity of the Fatiha (the first verset of the
Quran). In short, the singularity of Mohammed which is resultant through
trinity happens with many of its aspects in thcpaZat and becomes realized in
many kinds of salat. This is why salat was made to be loved by the Envoy.
Now let it be known like this, that what the Shaykh (God
be pleased with him) meant by saying that the movement of man is straight, the
movement of the animal horizontal and the movement of the vegetation is
inverted, is this: he did not mean that it is always
if it is resultant from other than the necessity of growing, like
the movement in directions, but the movement which happens as further movements
in the bodies is because it is the body of a plant, whether that movement be in
the animal or in any other thing. In short, that movement is one movement which
is the movement which happens from the original seed, which that body becomes
manifest by the movement of growing from that seed. Consequently, all bodies
become enlarged (widened, expanded, ample) in every direction according to the
degree that is granted of aim (help, assistance, reinforcement, goal) to it.
Thus it sometimes happens that its movement towards the right gives it a growth
,w'iich is much smaller of growing movement towards up. Other directions are
the same as this. The reason why one mentions these words of the Shaykh here,
in short, is this, that according to certain faces that he mentions in the
book, and (when) according to the majority of people, it is according to what
the doctors of science have said, but at the level of the Shaykh himself it is
not like this. All the threc^movements mentioned are all straight, even the
roots of the seed! which face towards below the seed, and lower
which is the way of the trees, even their movement is straight movement. Then
how can it be that the movement of the trees which are on the surface of the
earth cannot be of straight movement?
When the Prophet said that: ‘The salat was brought to me as the pupil of the eye’, he did not ascribe the
bringing about to himself but related it to God, because in reality the
revelation of the haqq to the one who is praying
refers to God and does not refer to the one who is doing the prayer, because
the light of the eye (qurrah-al-'ayn) of the one who
is praying is the witnessing of the haqq, and
the witnessing of the haqq and the revelation of the haqq refers to the haqq and is not brought about by
the servant. The revelation that is brought to the one who prays is aspiration
to the haqq. In fact in reality, if God had not mentioned it to the Envoy from
His own qualification from His own Self, certainly God would have ordered the
Envoy to prayer without revelation to the Envoy from Himself. Therefore the
Envoy’s words: ‘In prayer the light of my eyes was brought to me’, means that
the saying was from God to the Envoy: ‘I brought the light of your eyes to you
in prayer.’ That is to say, if the haqq from His own nafs had not mentioned first this quality to the Envoy by way of conferring
a benefit (imtinan), He would have ordered him with prayer
1105
iv» meaning of ‘gladdened’, because the gladdening of anyone is brought
about by his reaching what he desires, and it does not incline to the vision of
another thing other than what he desires.
It is surprising that David of Caesarea, after having
said the words ‘in a thing’ appertain to seeing, that it should not be
conjectured that it could appertain to the words ‘does not look’, and then to
say that it is also possible that it could appertain to the words ‘does not
look’.
Prayer being plea and witnessing, or because in the
prayer the witnessing of the Beloved and the dwelling of the eye of the lover
with the haqq, and in reality because the haqq is
his direction of worship, God has forbidden to look or to acknowledge any other
direction other than the direction (qiblah) of the prayer,
because during the salat, acknowledging another direction
other than the direction of the direction of the prayer is a thing that the
Devil seeks an occasion from the salat of the servant.
Thus, acknowledging any other direction prevents the servant ~rom the
witnessing of the haqq which is the real Beloved,
or in other words, because of that acknowledgement, the Devil prevents the
servant from witnessing his Beloved. Rather, if the haqq was
the Beloved of this person who recognizes other things in his prayer and looks
at other things than the direction of the prayer which is his Beloved, his
heart and face would not acknowledge any other thing than the haqq. That is to say, the servant who is in prayer faces the direction of
the Beauty (Jamal)
with the face of his heart to acknowledge the
speech of the haqq which comes about with the hearing with
the heart, and if his eye was dwelling with the witnessing of the jamal of the haqq, if he does acknowledge
anything else, that acknowledgement prevents him from witnessing the haqq, because otherwise he would have been witnessing the haqq with the facing of the heart, and if the facing of the heart
acknowledges any other thing and turns that way, he would be deviating from the
haqq. Perhaps if one looks at it in reality one can see that if in the
prayer the servant who is turned towards the haqq and
the haqq was his real Beloved; and if he had considered Him as his highest
desire and real purpose, he would not have acknowledged another thing with the
facing of his heart if his direction of prayer was turned to the haqq, because when the heart is turned to something which is its Beloved
and considers that his direction, he cannot acknowledge any other thing,
because the real dominion over his heart would dominate and would predicate
over
1107
In the same way, there is no definite image for the Absolute haqq so that the gnostic knows Him according to that image, since the haqq manifests from every place of manifestation by virtue of that place
of manifestation, and from the belief of the people of beliefs He is manifest
by virtue of the image of his belief. The haqq by
Its Ipseity is beyond all qualification or attribution, therefore necessitates
His manifestation with any qualification of every qualifier, every attributer,
every knower; by virtue of what is necessitated it receives necessarily that by
virtue of the qualifier, the attributer and the knower. And if the man of
belief has partial belief, by virtue of his belief He manifests to him
accordingly, but that total gnostic who does not have any body by virtue of his
not having a limited belief, since he is in the knowledge of God, knows of
Absoluteness, and as he is not conditioned in his belief by a particular belief
in his knowledge and his witnessing, and that his gnosis and witnessing is
absolute and does not see one thing or one quality except the haqq, and that he sees for the haqq only
one reality and one face, but the haqq has manifested to him
with one face and one reality in a thing, and therefore sees only the Absolute
face of God by virtue of the haqq's Absoluteness. The Shaykh,
may God be pleased with him, says of that, this gnostic’s colour does not
exist. In his place of manifestation the revelation of the haqq manifests with singularity of quality, and he witnesses the haqq as revealed and manifest by virtue of the beliefs in the images of
all beliefs, and in all places of manifestation by virtue of manifestaticn, and
observes Him in His Ipseity, transcendent from all qualification and
attribution. Thus the haqq that we imagine in our
direction by virtue of our belief is the haqq who
prays over us and is subject to our being. If we were the thing prayed to, the
Latter Name would result for us and we would be realized in the place of that
Name, and that Name would become established for us, just as when we mentioned
it for the level of the state of the imagined God of our belief, this Name of
Lattemess became established there by virtue of the fact that it is latter
through imagination and belief in the being of the servant. Therefore, we
become apparent at its level in its mirror and its being by virtue of our
condition. Consequently, the haqq does not look at us or
reveal Himself to us except by the image of that thing we took to Him from our
state and our inclination. That is to say, whatever image we bestow on Him due
to our aptitude and we are manifest in the mirror of that being,
1109
immanence. Therefore everything rentiers grace and gratitude to the
Absolute Lord. Equally, as the Absolute Being is relative in each degree of the
things, that thing renders grace to the degree of Divinity through that degree
of relativity, and equally each thing is thereupon established with his own
praise and rendering of grace and gratitude and gives praise and gratitude
according to the face that he gives grace and gratitude to himself. And equally
also, everything is the manifestation of the private Name and that Name is his
private Lord where in the place of manifestation of which he is manifest, hence
his praise of himself again becomes the praise of his private Lord which is his
Name. And again, everything gives praise and gratitude to what is brought about
within his belief as his believed-in Divinity, and that believed-in Divinity is
brought about by him and is his own make, and the making of a thing refers back
to his own nafs.
Consequently, the rendering of praise tb the
believed-in Divinity of each thing becomes again praising and giving thanks and
gratitude to his own self. The Shaykh, may God be pleased with him, when he
said each thing’s rendering of grace and praise is particular to his own nafs, meant it this way, as (since) he has explained this, and do not be
caught up in heedlessness (neglect). Nevertheless, we have mentioned concerning
the believer that in reality a believer does not praise except that Divinity
which is manifest and particularized in his belief, and to which the believer
has attached his own nafs. Everything that results
from the wc-rk of the believer refers back to himself. Consequently, the
believer did not praise anything except his nafs. In
fact, it is such that if somebody praises a work, without a doubt he is
praising the maker of that work, because in fact the beauty or lack of beauty
of that piece of work refers to its maker. But the fact is, the Divinity of the
believer is a thing made for the person who is looking at it which he has
brought about in his own mind, and he turns towards it and looks at that.
Consequently, the Divinity of the believer is the. art. of the believe^ .and it
results that the praise of the believer in such a believer is' the praise of
himself because it is of his own making, and the making of a thing refers to
himself. And it is because of this that as the believer praises his own
believed-in Divinity results in him praising his own nafs, is why a believer dispraises the belief of another, because that
belief is not of his making. If such a believer was tolerant, dispraise would
not have happened. In other words, of the people of partial beliefs, each believer
praises
mi
Divinity is such a Divinity to which the heart of Its servant has
enlarged itself for It, whether the believer is in the belief of an absolute
or the belief of a relative. In fact the Absolute Divinity, considering that
It is the same as the things, nothing becomes enlarged for It, because It is
the same as that thing and It is the same as Its own nafs', and yet one cannot say that something became enlarged for its own
self and you cannot even say it does r ot become enlarged for its own self,
because by virtue of knowledge the High haqq is
large for all things and is the same as the existence of the things, therefore
It is large enough for Its own Self, and God says: ‘My Lord has enlarged
everything knowledge-wise.’ And the angels said: ‘Our Lord has enlarged
everything rahmah-wise and knowledge-wise’, and there is no doubt that God knows His own
Essence. Consequently, knowledgewise He knows His Self and is large enough for
it.
Now let it be known like this, that the haqq, according to His words: ‘I am according to the supposition of My
servant’, reveals Himself to each believing servant according to this belief,
because the haqq by the Absoluteness of Its Singularity
encompasses everything, and consequently encompasses the totality of the
images of the senses, imagination, conjecture, intellect, supposition and knowledge,
because the haqq is both zahir and
batin, and all of these images are not outside the zahir and the batin. Consequently, whichever
way the supposition of the servant happens to be, the Divinity he believes in,
whether it be immanential (tashbih), sensory, or imaginary
or conjectural, or whether it be transcendent, intellectual, God manifests
Himself and becomes revealed to the believer according to the image of his
belief, which means that God is not manifest to that person except according to
the image that man has of It, whether it be according to absoluteness or
relativity. The absoluti- zation of the haqq is
of the honour of the intellect and is not of the honour of comprehension
(perception) (idrak) which is below the intellect.
Intellect is relative, hence the believer takes as limit
his Divinity, but some of the limits are different from other limits.
Consequently, to the Divinity of a belief is enlarged the heart of the servant
who believes in Him without knowing Him because belief happens in the heart,
but the Absolute Divinity which is the same as everything, nothing is enlarged
for It except the heart of the ‘Arif which is total
essence, because the heart of the ‘arif changes (is
twiddled) with the
111?
1 ne AuyiZy al-ijikam is the major work of Muhyiddin Ibn
'Arabi, known as the ‘Greatest Shaykh’. Its theme is the Infinite Wisdom which
is at once unique in Itself and many-faceted in its representation in the line
of prophets from Adam to Mohammed. It is simultaneously an explanation of the
profoundest meaning of man’s existence and perfectability, and an esoteric
exegesis of the Quran. In treating of the Divine Wisdom, it is so faithful to
its subject that the book is itself a paradigm of its theme.
Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi was bom in Andalusia, Spain, in ad 1165. From the age of thirty-two he
travelled extensively throughout the Islamic world, conversing with the
greatest mystics, divines and philosophers of his day. He wrote some five
hundred books, of which he considered that Fu^uj al-Hikam to be the most
important. Although as an outspoken critic of religious and philosophical
dogmatism he made many enemies, he was and is revered as a saint and as a
teacher of incomparable stature. His last major opus, the Fu^u^ al-Hikam,
should be read with a pre-understanding of the point of view and reference and
the ensuing perspective, for which Ibn 'Arabi is unmatched. It is to Ibn
‘Arabi, who speaks from objective vision of the Unique Existence, that the
exposition of Its Self-revelation may be ascribed, as the first Sufi to
correlate the ^theory’ of wahdat-i- wujud, of which he is celebrated as
the originator and most complete propounder of all time. He died in Damascus in
ad 1240.
Ismail Hakki (ad
1653-1725), known as the ‘Bursevi’ from his long association with Bursa in
Turkey, was originally from Aydos, near Adrianople. He studied with Osman
Fazli, the shaykh of the Sufi Order of the Jelvetis, and eventually became his
successor. His knowledge of both Arabic and Turkish was superlative. His
extensive commentary upon the Fusus al-Hikam, published here in full, is
surely the best of the many commentaries which this book has inspired, being
aligned perfectly and completely to the spirit of the original, whilst his
Introduction which forms an integral part of this volume is without doubt a
masterpiece in itself.
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