The First Juzʾ of the Commentary on Khalʿ al-Naʿlayn
[354] [THE FIRST PART OF THE COMMENTARY ON THE BOOK OF THE REMOVAL OF THE TWO SANDALS AND THE DONNING OF LIGHT FROM THE POSITION OF THE TWO FEET]
In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful A Lord who eases through His mercy
Commentary on the Sermon of the Book He said: [1:2]»», he intended praise restricted by the attribute of act and the attribute of sanctification, for it is restricted by lordship. For unrestricted praise is not valid except as a word without meaning, like His saying, exalted is He: [27:59]. This is unrestricted in wording, and by "the worlds" he intended what is specific to this name, in general, whether it was or was intended specifically.
[34:26]»»: a proportion that is special; because He added them to the Addressee, among the totality of its [names]: the All-Opener, and He is the one from whom opening increases greatly; because it came with the structure of hyperbole, He said, exalted is He: [6:59]. So when He was alone with knowledge of the keys, it was not possible that there be an opener except Him, glory be to Him and exalted is He.
His saying: "al-ʿalīm (the All-Knowing)—here he means the All-Knowing by what the one to whom something is disclosed (al-maftūkh lahu) seeks from Him of the appropriate receptive preparedness (istiʿdād) that is upon him. And this is among the wonders of affairs: that there is no withholding there, and rather the withholding is from the receptivities (qawābil), and the effusion (fayḍ) is outspread, and the receptivities take according to their receptive preparedness (istiʿdādāt), so there is no disclosure (fatḥ) and no closure. If it is said: the disclosure is in the receptive preparedness, we say: and the receptive preparedness is also from the bestowals upon the one prepared (al-mustaʿidd) with the receptive preparedness that is upon him—he receives it by it, and that is the readying (tahayyu')—so there did not remain except that when we did not have knowledge of a matter, then it was that we named that a disclosure (fatḥ), and we named the bestower a granter of disclosure (fattāḥ).
His saying: "and if" (wa-in)—he did not conjugate it with the wāw of inception, and if it was in reality the inception, it came with the particle "anna," and it is a substitute for the position of the verbal noun; it indicates that the matter is an actual one, [55] and the proof for it is his saying: "al-fattāḥ (the Opener), and it is an intensive form noun, then it came with the two known and unknown ones in the definite form, because he intended a disclosure that was specific, just as he intended a specific lordship (rubūbiyya) by the attribution; for this name in some of its referents is among the names of attribution, because it seeks the object opened, and he made the definition of al-fattāḥ al-ʿalīm with the alif and lām, not by attribution, for the alif is for specification (tawḥīd) and the lām is for the divine inclination upon what is disclosed to Him, since the divine nature (al-wakhdhāniyya) was operative, and it is with specific disclosures (futūḥāt), not general ones, and it is the intended meaning of the author of the book.
Then he came with "He" (huwa), along with dispensing with it, when he intended a command other than what he intended here. The pronoun here refers back to the Lord (al-Rabb) necessarily, for he intended from the key what is under the domain of the name al-Rabb, but it may be a key other than one entering under the domain of the name al-Rabb; however the author of the book [intended] that he does not intend other than the key that is under the domain of this name.
He came with "the Knowing" (al-ʿalīm) in the structure of exaggeration, in contrast to "the knower" (al-ʿālim), for the Knowing is more expressive of His ʿilm of that which He is the command upon Him and of what is fitting from attribution to Him, for his ʿilm of the attribution and the attributed and the fitting — he came with the form of exaggeration.
And His saying: [2:213], all of this is fitting for the first.
Restricted — in it there is a fragrance of unrestricted speech, and as for the specification that is in "whom" (man), it refers back to us.
It is known to Him, for He is the one who defines the meaning of "a thing" (nakira) verbally, and He attached it to volition (mashīʾa) without [attaching it to] will (irāda), for will is specifically associated with increase and decrease and increase, as though He is saying: whoever He wills for him in his good and his ʿilm and his felicity, without doubt, then misfortune is increase, and He made guidance to the path — not to the goal — and He designated it with uprightness (istiqāma). This is an indication both positional and real. [55v] It is a specific ruling, and otherwise the reality is His saying: [42:53]. So what is left in this is the general command — a path only, and it is connected to Him. He said, exalted be He: [11:123], ·4 For al-ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm is a relative attribution as well, and it is its path—the one legislated in the world by the tongue of the revealed law (al-sharʿ). He said, exalted is He: [6:153] from the path that is legislated for you. So it is established that there is no path except what was sought from us in the manner of obedience to it by the ruling of servanthood (taʿabbud) and compliance (waḍʿ), not by the ruling of knowledge and gnosis (maʿrifa). For it is necessary that we know it and recognize it until the path of the legislated subject matter becomes clear to us, so we travel upon it seeking the happiness of faith. And the paths of gnosis are particular, and it came with the indefinite form of diminishment (tankīr), so He said: [this is part of a Quranic phrase] unlike what was mentioned in the Fātiḥa. He said, exalted is He: [5:48] and divergent paths; and Muḥammad—upon him be peace—was given the comprehensive universals of speech, and was sent as a general [messenger] differing from others. So whatever revealed law is contained in his revealed law—every revealed law—has been opened for a specific person among his community in his revealed law as a branch.
Mūsā, or ʿĪsā, or Ibrāhīm, or Nūḥ, or whoever among the messengers—he will be an heir of this which is opened for him. For that reason, the Prophet is distinguished—specifically the revealed law of Muḥammad, upon him be peace—a revealed law that encompasses the just rulings of all the revealed laws. So he will be an heir of a prophet in what is mustered in his rank on the Day of Resurrection.
He said—upon him be peace—: "The scholars of this community are like the prophets of the Children of Israel." So how much more so if there came al-ṣirāṭ with the alif and the lām! We would have made the alif and the lām for the genus so that it would encompass all the revealed laws; because the command is thus—it is in himself—so it behooves the knower (ʿālim) not to turn away from the truth (al-ḥaqq) when it becomes clear to him, ·5 And uprightness (istiqāma) in the paths — and deviation is only that which reverts to the destinations. For every path has uprightness toward its endpoint, and it is directed, deflected from [56a] the endpoint of the other path. And for this reason the course of everything is toward God Most High, for they are all existential (wujūdiyya), and every existence is real (ḥaqq), all of it reverting to Him. And the false is pure nonexistence — there is no uprightness it accepts, no deviation, no course, and no being adjudged.
To Him, and when you trace it in every judgment upon it through the false, you find it a matter that is non-existential, not existential.
And some of our companions said to us: Why do you investigate in this commentary this investigation into the implied pronouns and elisions, when if this was the wording and nothing else was sound with it?
We said: We speak in explaining the author of every speech from the standpoint of his rank, and this was a man who was among the people of literature, virtue, and knowledge of the speech of the Arabs, well-versed in the language and understanding of the tongue — the most eloquent. He does not intend a word other than it, unless for a wisdom he observes or a witness that in it requires for him the context of that word other than it. So when he does not flow in the explanation of his speech according to this course, then what his right requires in parsing from his speech — unlike if it were colloquial, having no knowledge of the realities of words from the Arabic tongue — it would be that our explanation for him is according the meaning especially from other than observing his expressions, lest we neglect much of his intended elisions and his implied pronouns, for the imposition of approximate indication upon it is upon whoever reads our book who is not among those knowledgeable of literature; since the predominant among the people of the path of God Most High and those who engage with this matter [is that they are] not knowledgeable of the realities of eloquent Arabic speech. And everyone who explains the speech of the like of one who is of this caliber of gnosis from one who does not have knowledge of the tongue must necessarily enter into the most of its meanings and purposes of its author, ·6 We have already noted some of what we spoke about regarding the explanation of the rhetorical allusion to his leaving out the lām [56b] of emphasis, and we also noted the discourse on the wāw of which enters into its meaning in his statement: "He is the Opener," and we noted as well the discourse on the istiwāʾ upon His statement: "and God" to the exclusion of anything else among the names, and on the realization of guidance, and on the lām of lowering from "to God" and on the alif and lām of "the worlds," and on whichever praiser intended to praise among the praisers in his statement: "Praise be to God" — did he intend the praise of praising, or the praise of the Real? Or the praise of engendered being, and upon the reality of what his statement: [1:6] points to? For we have left much of what the speaker intended in leaving it and affirming it, of what we mentioned regarding the deficiencies in the understanding of the majority among the people of the path of God, concerning this art.
Then we return and say: His statement "and the prayer" (al-ṣalāt) with the definite article of specification and covenant, meaning that which we have been commanded with.
In His statement: [33:56], and He said: [33:43], and so Muḥammad entered — upon him be peace — and all the prophets in His statement: [33:43], and perhaps what is meant is that we pray upon him with God's prayer from the standpoint of His statement being His, not from the standpoint of His command, and this may appear to some observers in the discourse of this master among the common people of the path, and it is not so. Rather, what he intended is nothing other than the existential prayer that is commanded with, and the proof for this is his statement: "was called by the holy innermost consciousness" (al-sirr al-aqdas), so he came in response to the command coming from the Real with the prayer upon him; because the response is not for the report, and the prayer of God is a report; so for this reason his prayer in this context is the prayer of the command, not the prayer of the report, since it is for the wisdom and its drawing attention to the affirmation of the ruling.
And his saying: "upon his Prophet" confirms that He intends the prayer (ṣalāh) of the command, for He—glory be to Him—did not command us with the prayer except following His mention—exalted is He—of him by the name of prophethood, and He said: [33:56]. The pronoun refers back to the Prophet, so that the involvement falls in the course [57a] of one and the same thing in the prayer upon him, just as the involvement occurred in the testimony of tawḥīd in the saying of the Exalted: [3:18]; except that the distinction between the two stations is that the testimony of tawḥīd is knowledge, because the proof necessitates it and it is not valid for it to be from the perspective of report; because imitation (taqlīd) in tawḥīd is not permissible, and the prayer is required with faith and the believer; because the report demands affirmation, and the believer is the one who affirms, and God prayed upon him only from His name "the Believer"; and for this He said: [33:56] from the concordance of this name.
And his saying: "the secret of God's righteous servants" — he intended by the righteous servants here the spirits, the dominant ones, which have no gnosis of Him—glory be to Him—through other than Him, not through their existence and not through any engendered being that is empowered over them. They are those from whom the prophets and messengers sought entry into them and attachment to them. Among them is he who witnessed the Truth as belonging to Him, that He is from them, and among them is one who is silent about it. Sulaymān said: [27:19], and Ibrāhīm said: [26:83], and God witnessed by this rank for the two states of ʿĪsā and Yaḥyā, and he said regarding ʿĪsā: ·8 [3:39], and He said regarding Yaḥyā: [3:39], so He specified them and this master made Muḥammad the secret of these servants, for most of the verifiers among the people of this path say that the Muḥammadan reality is what is intended from all engendered beings. By its causality it was found, and a report has been transmitted regarding this—God knows best its soundness—and if this is so through this the rank, and these are the cherubim—the servants of God, the righteous, those who knew none other than Him. So he derived from the speech of this master that the theophanic self-disclosure for this attribute is only what occurred in the Muḥammadan form. For this reason he made their secret, and the vision from them was angelic from the aspect of their constitution, Muḥammadan from the aspect that they are those who glorify Him, and concerning the specification, the name "angels" is not applied to them, but rather spirits that are designated. The name "angels" applies only to the emissaries [57-] among the spirits specifically. For this reason he made their secret and the one who subsists through them.
And his saying: "and peace be upon the most excellent" confirms what we have mentioned, and that the report transmitted is sound according to him from the path of unveiling by way of report regarding the causality of the Muḥammadan reality in the manifestation of the world. So he made it the ascent of elevation by light and loftiness, for the most excellent encompasses it up to the highest level. Upon the one who is the one established, the name of an agent, he is the Lord before His creation created, He said: [87:1], so He described him with the Most High, and in the report: "Where was our Lord?" And the address in this book is attributed to the Lord as praise and glorification and indication, and it contains from its beginning to its end.
As for the reading "al-mustawā," it is based on it being a noun of passive participle, and it is the celestial canopy (al-ʿamāʾ) which we mentioned, [and] that upon which the celestial nature is predicated, and every celestial thing—its spaces are level upon it. Otherwise, it is not a celestial thing for him, for the establishment (istiwāʾ) here seeks a meaning that has no existence in the wording, and perhaps some
5 may restrict it to this, but he erred in that, for the one who is established (al-mustawī) there is only the name al-Raḥmān. And this master never ceased [using] the name al-Rabb in all his speech, and the report is only transmitted with the name al-Rabb in His saying: "", and he said: "In a cloud (ʿamāʾ), above which was air and below which was air," on the path of negation. And the verification of this will come in the noble mystery (al-sirr al-aqdas).
And his saying: "with the believers" — when he mentioned the establishment (istiwāʾ), he did not say "with the knowers" (al-ʿulamāʾ), because knowledge (ʿilm) does not
10 indicate it at all, and knowledge of it is not valid except from the direction of the report and the method of hearing, so he restricted it to the believers rather than others [58a] from the standpoint that they are believers, and even if they were among the knowers among the verifying scholars, for the ranks should not be transgressed, and we seek refuge in God from being among the ignorant.
And his saying: "a prayer that benefits the workers" — since prayer was not valid from the standpoint
15 of absolute unity (al-aḥadiyya), seeking forgiveness from God was from the standpoint of absolute unity, and it came with intercession (al-shafʿ), because intercession is from duality (al-shafʿiyya); since it calls forth its reality as an intercessor and one interceded for, in his presence. So the intercessor has some effect in the act when it was a cause; ·10 And for this he said: [37:61], and he attributed the deed to them expansively and standing upon this reality. And this confirms that he intended the prayer of the command, for it is a created prayer, unlike the prayer of the divine report.
And he confirmed that with his saying: with the couch of the most holy on the Day of Religion» — there is no doubt and no concealment regarding what faith, truthful verification, the word of truth, and the unveiling of the verifier [give]: that God, exalted be He, creates images of spirits from the movements of His servants' worship, whether it be a core or an accident. So when the believer prays upon Muḥammad — upon him be prayer and peace — God creates that prayer as a spirit bodily, not a body, and not bodily in its spiritual sense. Its locus is where the aspiration of the one praying with it is at the moment of utterance, and it is the prayer of the command. Here, he said: "and it responds" meaning: it answers what was said to it: [33:56], and it responded to you, O God, for you — meaning: an answer for you.
And his saying: "with the couch of the most holy" he means: [2:210]. So it is a shadow from this cloud-like shadow, and it is a force proceeding from the cloud in which the Lord is. Beneath it is His creation, and what is above it is air and what is beneath it is air, so it was not this swept one [wind-driven], and what is beyond it is air. Up to the definition of the cloud as the driving of air — it has, just as the clouds are driven by the air, so it is a cloud with no ruling for the air in it. So when the prayer of the command [folio 58b] had no ruling for caprice, the soul in it was correct, the correspondence was established, and it became sanctified just as its course became sanctified from the ruling of caprice. So it was as if it were a recompense, and for this he said: "the Day of Religion" meaning: the day of recompense, for religion is recompense, ·11 He said, exalted is He: [2:210] with the name "the Lord," for He said: [89:22] and this is the coming in shadows, for the name of God does not come absolutely and is not valid, rather there is no escape in it from a name among the names, and that name is specifically associated with the clouds, [2:210] for the execution of the command and the settling of the right, [2:210], [2:210]. Whoever carried the outward sense upon other than what we have mentioned, then he has no knowledge of the intent of the author of the Book, and he has not caught a scent from it.
Commentary His saying: "Peace be upon you" in the indefinite form, without the definite article — he intended its generality and its inclusiveness for all the worlds.
That which he erred in his thinking — and for this he came with the pronoun of the gathering, so for every person there is a peace, and it is more complete and more perfect in reality than the defined peace, and in it is an alert to the listeners regarding submission to what he brings in the interior of the book of matters that most minds have not reached.
Then he came with a word of merit and connection and said: "As for what follows, may God sanctify your spirits," and it becomes apparent from the words of this master in this supplication that the spirits are subordinate to the bodily temperament of the natural constitution, and he had said this to a group of our companions, and some of the texts point to it, and for this reason he says the differential among the spirits in gnoses — so for this, if it is correct, it bears sanctification and thus would be from one who has made clear his doctrine through this supplication regarding the spirits, and if it were from one who does not say with their begetting from the temperament, and he says with their individuation and their existence before their bodily vehicles [59a], then he is from one who says that the spirits attain for them preparations from what they carry of gnoses and ignorances, ·12 then some spirits acquire base dispositions, and when they are thus for the acceptance of these base dispositions, the school requires that it be called for them sanctification from these dispositions of baseness for their acceptance of them, and this lord must not be devoid of being upon one of these two schools, and there is no alternative, or upon both of them together, and upon this there is also a group from among the scholars of our companions and others from the scholars who participate
Text We have in the purification of souls and their cleansing, and their preparation for the acceptance of the spirits of the angelic realities (malakūtiyyāt) that do not require in their attainment—conduct through affairs that are conventional (waḍʿiyya) from the standpoint of what they are as conventional, not from the standpoint of what they are, for the believers traverse them from the standpoint of what they are conventional and from the standpoint of what they are, and from the standpoint of what they are, participation is with others, and the results are angelic realities (malakūtiyyāt), outward spirits and inward secrets, and from the standpoint of what they are conventional for whoever traversed them from
Commentary These are truths that are lights, divine, exemplary, descended in the substances of representation and definition, and from the standpoint of what they are, spirits unlike exemplary ones, abstracted from substances, so our companions gather between the two truths, and the participating companions for us witness the command from one single reality, due to the absence of their faith in the conventional divine matters of faith (īmāniyya) which the Real set as a straight path (ṭarīqan mustaqīman) to it. He said—exalted is He: [24:35], then He mentioned the lamp-niche (mishkāt) and the glass (zujāja) and the lamp and the oil and the olive, then He negated the directions, then He said: [24:35], light graduated in light upon light, immense in the most immense, and this is not accepted except by the companions of faith, and this is the meaning of His saying: .
His saying in the supplication [59b] also: meaning: and He expanded your range, and it narrows by its narrowing, and there is no doubt that it is a supplication that is more apt, for the range expands by the expansion of the range and the field, for whenever the person grows in the path his gnosis diminished, and whenever his gnosis increased and his range and field expanded, And Ibn al-Sayyid al-Baṭalyawsī (d. 521 AH / 1127 CE) went to this in "Kitāb al-Tawḥīd" of his, and he held the view of whoever takes tawḥīd from number, and upon this is a group from among the scholars.
His saying: came with the word of sending, and it shall not be except in an existent upon which states alternate, so I report that it shall be conveyed to you from the reports of expertise that came from God upon the tongue of the prophets, so know that He speaks in this book from the presence of the tongue and the witnessing place of discursive understanding, for He has made clear about the reality of what He intends, and He took by the hand of the observer in His speech where He designated for Him the intended direction, and as for the flash, the horizonal is what overflowed upon the horizons of the heavens, and much of what is pointed to of it, and it is the lightning that flashes to his sight from the horizons of the heavens that are deposited in the reports of the scriptures, so He made clear about the decree that He took from the reports of expertise, and it is the flash of the horizonal from the name of what is from the heavens, so He judges from it, and upon it by what that flash gives him, and it is a witnessed visual, imaginal, isthmus-like, not stripped from the materials of the isthmus-like, so this book, its first does not depart from its last from the exemplifications of the isthmus-like, ·14 The observer should not be troubled by what is in it regarding a meaning abstracted from the example, for it was only judged upon in that for the purpose of conveying to the understandings of the common people of this method. It is like the book of the general public, not the book of the elite. For the books of the elite are stripped of material substance and exemplification, and this is not found in this composition. It may happen that the example errs and hits the mark, and the abstracted meaning is a hitting-the-mark stripped of it. Error has no [60] ruling upon it, nor does resemblance have any path upon it.
Text Then he said: "What is enjoyed through the beautiful meaning of faith" — because it is a report, and none avoids it except the believer from where his faith is, so that he has auditory tasting of what it has brought him.
Commentary His saying: "And a door opens to the protected sanctuary of the Syriac" — he means: this is the one who sends to him from the pages of the report what his hearer acts upon, so that he obtains tasting from his own self to verify the report. And the report is the very opening of the door to the protected sanctuary from his name the Opener of the additional. To the Lord, and he named it protected sanctuary, saying that it is not a permissible pasture for anyone, [and] not that it is a protected sanctuary for its own sake; because if it were a protected sanctuary for its own sake, entry to it by any aspect of the aspects would not be valid. And he described it with the Syriac — he means by that it is not in Arabic, for declension is elucidation, and elucidation is its place of detailed explanation. So he says: it is obscure, meaning: undeclined, and undeclined matters do not indicate detailed explanation. Their details are only the males from the men, like the supply that is in the medicine-case. It is known that in it are letters whose forms are not known, nor their number, except by one whose footstep is established in the knowledge of the undeclined, witnessed, for he witnesses the things differentiated in the very totality, and distinguished in the divine presence of the gathering, ·15 And had he intended the tongue apart from what we explained, he would not have mentioned the consequence of that Ibrahamic story; rather he would have mentioned from the stories what pertains to the people of the Syriac tongue.
And his saying: "so that there be for you pastures for your animals" means: in that, the Syriac pasturage, and he brought down the command in the form of the animating spirit for the existence of nourishment through parable in the isthmus-like manner, so there would be for every newborn, He said—exalted is He: [7:172] in the taking of the covenant, and upon it there fell the primordial nature (fiṭra) in every newborn [60b] from the natural disposition, and it is longing. The first thing that caused their hearing to long and their existence in the pre-eternal seed (dharr) was the affirmation of lordship, just as the first thing that caused their hearing to long in the state of their being established in their entities before their existence by the existential command, and it was said to them: "Be!" and so they were— the words are the first attribute of divinity; gnosis of it are the possible things from the Real—glorified is He.
"The turbidity of your hearts is muddied, and the color of your claims" and it is that which the Prophet—upon him be peace—drank on the night of the Night Journey, and it was said to him: "You have chosen the primordial nature (fiṭra)," but this goes back to the receptacles, and that the pasture is one—the sheep graze upon it and it produces milk, and the date palm grazes upon it and it produces honey. So the meaning—even if it was one in his soul, for if it has settled beneath the temperament of the mixture and his authority prevails over it in the world of bodies and bodily forms, it manifests in the eye in the form of what that mixture requires of milk and blood and phlegm and air and flesh and fat and bone and sinew, ·16 Likewise, the meanings, when the spirits have obtained them according to what is established in their constitution, in the commentary on His saying: "God has sanctified your spirits" — it emerged upon the reality of what each spirit gives it, whether human or non-human, whether of jinn, angels, plants, minerals, or animals; for the nourishment is drawn upon the human, each locus of possibility with what befits it, and the all-encompassing nourishment is the flowing moisture, which is life, and it generates the beverages, and the spirits are nourished; but just as we mentioned it with food, the nourishment of the spirits is from where there is encounter, and the nourishment of hearts is from where there is inflection and fluctuation in the varieties of knowledges and gnoses, and for this he said: "and your spirits and your hearts are nourished."
As for his saying: "and your beverage is generated" — for the sake of enjoyment, which he mentioned, and if he pointed to His saying, exalted be He: [47:15] regarding the third river, the wine-river, then these are practical gnoses, meaning: their results are deeds, unlike the rest of the rivers, for wine is something extracted, unlike water, milk, and honey, for they are rivers that are not manufactured, so he intended knowledge that is specifically designated, and this is far from the intent of the author of the book, and more fitting is returning with delight to the enjoyment of what is in it of the pleasant, the delightful, and the sweet.
His saying: "So there was from that what reaches you" means: by way of translation upon my tongue, then he said: "beneath this veil, the sovereign veil" — he intended from behind this veil, the sealed one upon which is the seal of mercy. It indicates that it is from the station of beauty and the state of intimacy, not from the station of majesty and overpowering, ·17 and the bliss arrives to him at the moment of His theophanic self-disclosure, and he intimated in this speech that it is knowledge from beneath the Throne, and what is beneath it is for the being of the origin of mercy and its starting-point from the Throne; since the course of mercy was, then he made clear concerning his intent and disclosed what he verified of that in his knowledge or his belief.
He said: to the end of the story, he pointed to a prophetic Muḥammadan subtlety.
Text Her reception is a reality that is Mosaic, upon a specific face and a specific condition, but this master, the author of the book, did not fulfill the story in its meaning, nor did he unveil its life-giving aspect, so his wish was that he had not taken it as a likeness and had not clothed it as a garment, for he brought out its creation, and set upon it its due right; and if we had explained it according to what it is in itself, it would not have been an explanation for the words of the book that we were charged with parsing it, and if we spoke about it according to what the shaykh presented in his book, it was mere emptiness, and God is the One sought for help. So the determination fell upon me to parse it according to the measure of his course.
And to establish its course in that upon its leg. And let the observer excuse me regarding what we have left of the exposition of the story, for I am bound to explaining [61b] its expressions, and not to add in the exposition beyond what he deposited in his book. So let us say: He — may God be pleased with him — when he said: he adorned her with the ornament of heaviness, and much of what the shaykh considers in his book.
Her connections to the genesis of heaviness, and much of what the shaykh considers in his book.
Commentary And his saying: "No human has touched her and no jinn" that is: no one knew her. If he intended by "the jinn" all that is concealed of the luminous and fiery spirits, then the jinn encompasses them by the name, for it is applied to the angels just as it is applied to the fiery spirits, and this statement is not valid, ·18 For they are among the sciences that were obtained for this gnostic who compressed them in his claim regarding this worldly abode, and how can exclusive singularity and truth be valid? He said to the Pen: "Write on the Tablet my knowledge in my creation in this world, for the Pen has known this knowledge of my creation in this world up to the Day of Resurrection," and this is from His knowledge in His creation in this world, for the Pen and those who rely upon it and those who look into it have known it. Had He attributed the contrarinesses to Him in it, and nothing of it from other than Him would be deficient, then many of the scholars, engineers, and poets would be among the people of the path of God who invent things and meanings, and these are in their right innovations, and if they were in the self of the matter, they had already preceded to it, but what they took was from the teaching of another to them, that is to say, it was in their right like what it was in the right of the first, and it is in their right truly excuses, and this is that which we mentioned regarding the expansiveness in the customary way, but the verification requires that the verificatory gnostic should know that the divine expansiveness is that nothing recurs in existence at all, and for this reason no one has ever sensed it before them, nor was it tasting, for that which is on the Tablet—the expression is from it, not from it itself—so it does not have existence of two eyes except for its possessor who tastes it, and likewise the possessor of the Book—what he has from it is only the expression from it, not from it itself, for if [62a] he claimed its very self, then that is like it, not its very self, for it is from the totality of the beautiful maidens of goodness, so He made for it likenesses and resemblances, but in the indications upon them there is nothing in their very selves, and this is a deep sea in which the swimmer is drowned, and where is this meaning from this likeness? For the likeness is how the subtleties are cloaked, and otherwise then where is the divine light from the light of the lamp? But the descent to conveying for the understanding of the deficient ones who do not comprehend the abstract meanings is only in the hallowed materials of the imaginal, isthmus-like nature due to the predominance of the senses and the sensory upon them, ·19 So the knower inevitably must descend to them in a theophanic self-disclosure that is divine, from the hadith: "Our Lord descends to the lowest heaven" (ḥadīth al-nuzūl, agreed upon), meaning: the nearest in the last third of the night of this cosmic origination. He divided it into three divisions: He descends in the last division of it, due to the connection of this division—the last part of the night—with the morning, which is the manifestation of lights from Himself for the appearance of things through it. Likewise the knower descends in expression about the divine meanings to the isthmus-like similitudes, except in what pertains to the essence of the Real, glory be to Him. For there is no way for His gradual descent in the degrees to remove proportionality from every aspect. For this reason His transcendence, glory be to Him, is incumbent upon us at this station, and He said: [16:74]. However, it is possible that one strike a likeness that would be attributed to the rank that is divinity. Whoever is from His engendered being, to it pertains an attachment, and through it verification occurs, not from His engendered being in itself.
Text 10 His saying: "The third descended from the dominions of lights"—he says it is a divine question that a deed of a lawful endeavor required, a descent from the dominion of spirits, not of lights. For this reason the Shaykh indicated it by the example of the daughter of a prophet: a prophet married her to one like him, and so it was from a deed that is lawful from one who was sent down to him, for it is from the deed [62b] of this deed itself, not from the standpoint of what it is as lawful.
Text 15 And his saying: "To the veils of secrets"—he says it is from the sciences of concealment, about other than its people, according to his saying: "Do not give wisdom to other than its people lest you wrong it." And this is the knowledge of the grace bestowed upon the mercy that is specific to the proximity that is an envelope for it, ·20 He, exalted is He, said: [18:65], so everyone who claims knowledge that is ladunnī (from the divine presence) and compassion has not been established through it toward others, then that is not ladunnī knowledge, but rather it is knowledge whose attainment is from another path; because with ladunnī knowledge comes gentleness and tenderness, and compassion. It is said: a branch bends when it is supple in softness and blessing, and what we indicated is verified through this derivation.
Commentary And his saying: "to the couches of the houses of the free" — he means the hearts that have not been stolen. They are engendered beings absolutely, to verify it from two aspects: the first aspect is that they be free, not owned by anyone except the Real, glory be to Him, in His witnessing thereof, or that they be free from angelic lordship over them by way of the Real's governance over them by the ruling of what is most noble, due to the predominance of the Real over their essence. So it was the Real that heard them, saw them, made them strong, and all their parts. Since they were truly all of them in this station, they were free. He said — peace be upon him —: > "O God, place light in my heart," and he counted the limbs until the hair, and when that continued upon him he gathered the whole and said: > "O God, make me light," that is: make me truly light in my entirety. He alludes to this station. He said, exalted is He: [24:35], and He is one of His names, and His name is His very self. He says: this is the knowledge that does not obtain except in the heart of a free person who has no possession of anyone over him; because it is a pure right specific [to God], and this is the latter of the two aspects that we mentioned.
And his saying: "So whoever was worthy," that is: whoever possessed this likeness, then took to build upon this [63] the sciences, and he described them with "the firstcomers" due to their precedence over attainment, and "the settings" for their goodness, and "the peers" for the existence of their likenesses, and he is the most fitting. And whoever was of this likeness, then he is "an equal" — there is no comparison — to "the essences of the foremost" — the lofty among the sciences acquired through prophetic works.
And his saying: "from the daughters of the Bedouins," he means the people of the desert as distinct from the Arabs. He says: no city contains them, and no wall surrounds them, that is: among the sciences that the restriction does not seize hold of, nor encompassment. For he is pointing to the divine sciences, for indeed God encompasses and is not encompassed by knowledge; since every knowledge that is connected to engendered being, it is encompassed by it and bound, and for this He made them from the daughters of the Bedouins, and for this the scholars differed regarding the leadership of the Bedouin, and his ruling concerning it is that he does not bind himself, and the leadership is built upon restriction, so the one led — even if he was bound by the acts of the leader — he follows him, so he does not raise until he raises, and he does not prostrate until he prostrates, and likewise the leader is bound. By the conditions of the one led, for the sake of the sick and the weak and the one in need, so he prays the prayer of whoever is behind him actually, so everyone behind him in a state is like the one who prays behind him with his prayer actually, and each one is bound by his companion.
So the Bedouin — his leadership is not valid by this indication, so He made them from the daughters of the Bedouins and did not make them from the daughters of the Arabs.
Commentary And his statement: "and with him are silver of the secret of action and gold of the light of knowledge" — he explained it therein other than what I intend by way of elucidation, and that is because since silver was below gold in the rank of perfection, and the purpose of mineral [63b] he made silver for action and gold for knowledge; because action does not exist except through knowledge, for it is dependent in its existence upon it.
He made the higher for the higher and the lower for the lower, and he made the secret for action, for the ruling of knowledge in action is an intelligible matter, not something sensible. So it was like something concealed, and he named it a secret, and he made light for knowledge, for the gathering of the two of them in unveiling of matters is according to what it is upon. And for this reason he conjoined it with it also, since silver was the currency when its cultivation was in the mine and it received from the deficiencies and reached the utmost degree in the perfection of being gold, for gold was in the state of its being silver, and indeed a paper therein by force, concealed from existence of the two eyes.
Because what it lacked was from the perfection of cultivation, he made the secret for silver for this meaning, and also since action was in the outward for the servant and in the meaning for the Real, [37:96], it became the action of the Real, a secret in the movement of the servant. So for this reason he made the secret in action.
And his statement: "what exists as a truthful likeness and an obligatory requirement and resolution" — this confirms what we have mentioned, that it should be the obtainment of this knowledge from an action that is legislated. And his statement: "a truthful likeness" means: just as it obtained for its likenesses as an emulation and a foundation.
He—exalted is He—said, when He mentioned the prophets to His prophet Muḥammad—peace be upon him—: [6:90], and He said: [3:95], and He said: [42:13], and He said to us: [33:21].
Commentary And his saying: "and the obligation of what is good and lawful" means He took it by right, not by the caprice of a self. He—exalted is He—said: [5:88], that is: from what God has made good and lawful for you. It is as though He desires from the sciences that which faith requires, not what the intellectual rational proof gives him, due to the deficiency of comprehending this cognition from among the divine sciences. [64a] He—exalted is He—said: [3:169], [2:154] — from heedlessness. And this is the art of knowledge by which the one slain in the way of God is dead by rational knowledge and alive by faith-knowledge. And this is an art from knowledge that is firm and vast. There is for us in it a vast field, so let one who gives sincere counsel to his self abandon what the pattern of his intellect gives him for the sake of his faith, and not reverse the matter, lest he suffer the misery of perpetuity.
And his saying: "Let him put that forward" between the hands of his address, for he is a bridegroom, and worthy of a building with essences of a ḥadīth that is good and touching." He intends the saying of the Exalted: [2:282], and the report attributed: "Whoever acts upon what he knows, God grants him knowledge of what he did not know," and his address: seeking it, and the bridegroom: the state of joy and elation, and the building: the connection of this knowledge through it to the edifice, And his saying: "by essences of a ḥadīth that is good" because he stipulated that this be from the thin coverings of reports, for this reason he said: "of a ḥadīth" from the occurrence, and it is lofty, celestial, like the one who prays, communing intimately with his Lord, and he said – upon him be peace –: "And I have made the delight of my eye in the prayer," and he did not say "my hearing," for what he intended was witnessing, and it is communion, for his witnessing is the very source of his communion, so his speech is his essence, and you have been named as speech pertaining to a specific attribute like the rest of the attributes' lineages, for the communion is from behind the veil.
What it is, is the power of the eye, and rather it is the pleasure of hearing, and speech, when it is other than the essence, is not valid with it the witnessing, and when the eye of his essence was correct, with it was the witnessing, and the report is more fitting that it return to Him — the believer, so the one who prays in the state of the Prophet – upon him be peace – is a witness possessing the power of the eye, and likewise it is the realities, and the touching is the weeping; he intends the tasting, for it is as if it decreased, ·25 For he stipulated that it be from among the pages of tasting, and reports do not constitute tasting (dhawq), and the one who touches [64b] in the pages gives tasting (dhawq), rather it is its very essence, except that he intends—and God knows better—that what is in the pages of tasting, when one acts upon it according to the way of faith, one attains tasting (dhawq) in direct experience, and so it was like the report containing within it something about his state. And by this, his statement is correct: "and the touching" following "a good ḥadīth," but in it there is distance, and God knows better.
Commentary And his statement: , that is: he takes pleasure in it within himself for himself, , that is: he has mercy through it upon another by way of benefit, permanently in this world and the next. And if you said: it is correct as this world, but how is it correct as the next world? We say: this man prevails over our supposition that he is among the people of tasting (dhawq), and so his is the word of truth and the statement of truthfulness, and we have known that Adam, in a state of being among his states and in knowledge of what is from his sciences, the angels did draw near to him in it, and the truth affirmed it.
Text And he made exalted his word from that aspect upon them, and knowledges do not refrain [20:114], so it is not far-fetched that this matter be permanently confirmed, or that there be always one who benefits from us wherever we were; for it is renewed, how and to what degree, descending and having been sent down, and high and most high. And when the spirits of the most high had drawn near to Adam in knowledge of the names, then it is not far-fetched that this be among imaginal likenesses and resemblances.
In the hereafter, for the first has already occurred therein, and creation therein is between a knower and one who is taught, and this is his statement: .
Commentary And his statement: — he intends from the perspective of the horizontal extent of its name, which encompasses all that which³ was found from Him — this divine wisdom (ḥikma) — in my view does not have its boundaries delimited by its freshness⁴ in my view, in itself, for it has not ceased to be known, being originally for the Real, exalted be He. His statement: "He not clothe them a mouth" means: it was not disclosed, for it⁵ is not other than Him. He says: it is a essential wisdom (ḥikma dhātiyya), and its touch is not a hand, then⁶ — meaning: ۰ it was not found to be a power (qudra), for it is not something innovated; rather it is a pre-eternal wisdom belonging to the pre-eternal knowledge, and He is the One who knows it by Himself from that lamp that shines.
And his statement⁸: — this indicates that it is not a essential wisdom (ḥikma dhātiyya) belonging to Him, for [65b] every matter that can be removed from you, that is a trust (amāna) at your presence, and if it remains upon you, and everything that does not ¹⁰ admit of removal from you — for that reason it is your very self (ʿaynuka), not other than you — then it is not a trust (amāna). It is as though the trust here is the source (ʿayn) of relation (nisba), not the source of that which is attributed, meaning: the source of knowledge by relation¹¹, because it is possible that the knowledge would be removed by relation, and it is unknown from the perspective of the specific relation, just as a relation¹² is unknown with respect to what has arrived in the reports referring to the Essence — the specific relation — except that we know that there is a relation in the totality from other than specification.
To a specific one; and for this he said: "by the trust (amāna) of God," but that which appears from his speech is that it is at his presence a trust of God, meaning: He does not give it nor hand it to other than its people, and so its measure is esteemed, and the eyes of the foreigners esteem it, ¹⁵ and the ignorant souls deem it their right.
And his saying: "blind, deaf, not recognizing it" from the aspect of the report, for its being deaf, "distinguishing it" from the aspect of inner sight, and it is the knowledge of discernment for its being blind, [2:171], [8:21], understanding, and He said: [50:37].
Text Then he said: "And whoever does not have with him what he offers as a dowry, and was a reward, generous, righteous, let him hire himself for eight years of pilgrimage, or ten," he said some of the masters: The spirits are not attained except by expending the spirits,
Commentary There is no doubt that this descent at the absence of knowledge and action to the level of the novice is problematic in this representation; for he employs for himself this duration, and he is a possessor of action and knowledge of what he acts, so it is as if the one whom He secluded from him rejected it back to him, and the dowry in our view is without doubt, so it is not for him any way out except by way of stripping away the action and the knowledge that befits this excuse, and if it was upon knowledge and action, but it will not be truthful the like of it as we say about the one for whom the breaching of custom occurred, and he is not upright in the moment of returning him to the way of uprightness, so that would be a dignity in his right, for most of our companions stipulate being in the dignity of uprightness in the state upon which one is at the breaching of custom, [65b] and we are in the dignity of uprightness in the state upon which one is at the breaching of custom. It is not a condition for that, so upon this the way out of the level is at the absence of truthfulness of the likeness, and as for the specification of the duration by the ten years, the strength of the ten that the human is upon, the sensory and the intelligible, the righteous» (Sūrat al-Qaṣaṣ, 27/28).
Perhaps he is alluding to His saying, exalted be He: [28:27].
and they are ten, for each power a year, that is: he employs each power for the completion of the temporal cycle so that the four seasons are encompassed, and it had been that he completed them as ten in the equal portion, and if the eight were the four mixtures of it and its four bases, then those are eight, for each power a year by the ruling of interpenetration, that is: for each power a cycle, and it is ruled in each year, so in total they constitute ⁕ Each power has been served for a year, so the eight are years of bodily service, and the ten are years of spiritual service.
Commentary His saying: "Then when [28:29] by choice and [28:29], let him know that he is at the sacred valley and the spiritual station of the most exalted, the most holy, so there let him remove the two sandals, and let him seek the light from the place of the two feet, for there is nothing but the light of the Real, and the word of the Truthful One, and the path by which the command stood, and creation." He says: When he has departed from this spiritual station whose attainment his people made possible, and there does not remain upon him any of its proofs, a proof that prevents him from disposing freely in his affair from the prophetic informational, Nūrid dimension, and he did not taste upon it, a proof that prevents him from disposing freely in his affair from other than report, the Real called him after that in his soul through spiritual transition to enter him into a spiritual station more holy, and He grants him in it a suspension. He breathed, and the Real, exalted be He, says to him: You have taken this divine wisdom and upon it is the dust of the human and the cosmic, and you exerted your soul in its attainment, and the engendered being clung to you for its adornment, the intermediary of the human and the cosmic, and you exerted your soul in its attainment, and the engendered being clung to you for its adornment, ·29 So your aspiration ascends and your gnosis of its measure, for I intend to remove it from its mine, and to station you upon it through reports of its being found by raising the intermediaries, and removing the bonds, and displacing the conditions, and to speak to you through its healing, and to grant you it in its standing and its dignity, since it was [66a] a wisdom of tasting from the scriptures revealed upon the essence of prophetic character, so you shall be transported through correspondence from the kawn-related report to the divine report, for your honor shall be elevated through intimate converse and speech, and the matter shall be understood and the secret comprehended, and he traveled with its people from where he does not know that he was called, and the state and the story bear witness for him to the beginning in his innermost consciousness.
And he does not feel, so he perceived from a side — and it is the divine turning — al-Ṭūr, and it is from what confirms that He intended the turning, for al-Ṭūr is every mountain in which there is an inclination toward the spherical form of resemblance to the arc, so it is an indication toward the turning, and he called it from his need, and it disclosed itself to him in that which is sought from him, so that the motives would settle from him to his saying, and there shall not be from him any preoccupation with other than it, and his objective was the fire out of need for it for its benefits, and he found upon the fire guidance, meaning: a clarification of what was intended from it, so he attained thereby what the asker attains — the wisdom from its mine in a quality other than its quality, and an ornament other than that ornament, and where is the newly originated from the ancient? And where is the small from the great? And that was in the valleys of the sanctified knowledge that manifests from the attachment to the kawn — [13:17], so the valleys are rivers of the knowledge of life. He, exalted be He, said: [11:7], [21:30], [22:5] — the results of the knowledge of life, and the cause of the subsistence of the essences.
And the command came with removing the two sandals, saying: Do not stop with the outward aspect of the command, and do not take your knowledge from the dead, as Abū Yazīd said: You took your knowledge from one dead from another dead, and we took our knowledge from the Living who does not die, and do not be joyful with a child for it will affect you—his state, but rather what you have taken from the command of the lawful (al-mashrūʿ) is not from the wise (al-ḥakamī), and all of this was existing in the two sandals,
5 So he was commanded to remove them both, for they were of leather—and that is the outward—of a donkey, and that is the land of the dead, from other than male, and that is engendered being (kawn); for [28:88]. So had the one remembered [366] incorporated the whole in the power of remembrance, because it is lawful, and its state was reversed with the existence of death and donkey-ness and leather, then look to the command of the lawful—what is strongest in its ruling in purification and sanctification and the absence of influence from the other with its existence, and whoever's worship was by this likeness—
10 the one who preceded, let him remove them both; because at the station (maqām) of the purest, the Prophet—upon him be peace—removed them; for the sake of a wisdom connected to it, and that is in the prayer (ṣalāt), and he took upon his companions in removing them in accordance with their worship upon the purity of the lawful, for he made clear that the trace belongs to the lawful command and its ruling is a command and a prohibition.
And the borrowing of light from the place of the two feet is an indication to the humble, and that is His saying: [5:66] when they established the Book of the Truth upon them, and the place of the two feet
15 is the holy valley (al-wādī al-muqaddas) by the lifting of the intermediary between him and between the direct presence of the feet, and the footstool (kursī) is the place of the two feet, and that is His speech (kalām) in its division, and that is the station (maqām), the most mighty, the most holy, and His footstool (kursī) is the place of the two feet, and that is the knowledge of the one whose knowledge encompasses the heavens and the earth, and that is the upper and the lower, and the lower expanded His knowledge—the upper and the lower and what is between them in meaning and sensory perception, so nothing remained except that His knowledge encompassed it, even its very essence, ·31 And for this he said: "There remained nothing but the light of truth," and it is His essence, "and the truthful speech," and it is the disclosure of it, "and the secret that sustained the command and creation," meaning: the hidden meaning that appeared, by it is the world of the command, and it is every existent not by means of a cause, and the world of creation, and it is every existent by means of a cause of bringing-into-being, and the entirety is for God, [7:54].
And from his saying: "Whoever was the spring of the gathering, zealous over the sanctuary of the lofty" to his saying: "And O
people of the Book, indeed Mūsā ibn ʿImrān when he was called," it does not require explanation for its clarification and elucidation, for it is a description and portrayal of a spiritual state and existence, and an example struck for matters known to every understanding and hearing, [67a] so we left the discourse upon them for the people's gnosis of them.
His saying: "And O people of the Book, indeed Mūsā ibn ʿImrān when he was called that , and he heard the mightiest, most holy speech, he removed from himself the two sandals," and indeed the purpose of the explanation of the removal of the two sandals had passed.
Then he said: "And he repelled the whispering of how and where," saying: he repelled from his soul the clothing of discourse from the direction of the address from where the evidence of the intellect gave it, not from where what the theophanic self-disclosure gave it from the direction of verbal address, for faith follows the report for the establishment of the beginning from the side of the mount on the right, and indeed there had passed its explanation, and this man in his book stopped with what the unveiling gave him and turned to the judgment of the intellect, so I do not know why—did he fear the heinous deed? Or did his knowledge not reach more than this?
For indeed whoever knows the place of theophanic self-disclosure and from whom the theophanic self-disclosure comes does not deny the side and the call, especially since he has said: [20:10] that is: a sign, and he found — peace and blessings of God be upon him — the guidance as it occurred in his mind.
He said: "And he has not ceased removing and being removed" meaning: every time a veil was disclosed to him, there was a veil behind what he removed. "Until
Text
he removed the veil of the ghān from his saying — peace be upon him —: "It is indeed clouded upon my heart," "and the rayn," he said — the Exalted: [83:14] And what a wonder! The first veil that faith removes from a heart is the ran, and this is what He made an exaggeration, for what He intends — and God knows best — is only that every address is a report conveyed by a type of immanence — it is not satisfied by faith because of what is in it of opposition to the intellectual evidence, as reports of immanence, for one does not believe in them more than the rationalists believe regarding what they are upon outwardly, just as one believes in them.
The possessor of that tongue which is Arabic, and if some of these matters of report are not accepted by [67-] faith outwardly, then there must inevitably be in its counterpart a rayn and a ghān, and that is the ghān.
And the rayn is that which he mentioned, that he removes it — this person is the one who strives with it. Whoever with every report divine that comes to him, whether his intellect or his heart accepted it, there is no distinction in his view between the two matters when there overcomes faith through his light and the removal of the darkness of thoughts — there is disclosed to him the sought in every thing and from every direction,
Text
"He put on the shirt and the cloak of the two sources and the two debts" — for the enormity that appeared to him at the stripping and the removal from these obstacles that stood between most intellects and the Real.
Then he said: "Every existence was stripped in His reality from the coolness of His outward manifestation," he speaks regarding His reality, not regarding the self (nafs) of the command, as one says in witnessing: it is the annihilation of His existence, I mean in His presence, not that He was deprived in His reality, not in His eye, and his saying: "from the coolness of His outward manifestation," that is: he left what was concealing him in his outward and established him as He said: [20:53] [20:53] so there did not remain for him what conceals him.
Commentary Then he said: "and it split open from the sheath of his light," that is: the flowers of knowledges and their fruits appeared, and the shoots and the fragrance were inhaled from the aromatic breezes, and it is every knowledge that is guarded, and it is in the completeness of its source and its preservation until it reaches its end, and the sheaths split open and the treasures emerge, and the realms appear in their totality of the thing in the most complete of its forms, so no suspicion presents itself to it as doubt presents itself to those who extract knowledges through intellectual reflection.
And his saying: "and he saw the earth spread out flat," he means the locus in which generation does not occur, It is not seen in it crookedly and not unevenly, it has been spread with flowers and fruits and crops upon the variation of their kinds and the rivers, and it is a land that contains pastures for animals and date-harvesting places and the cutting of a hand, and upon this earth are the orbits of the Book.
And his saying: "and a canopy" — rather it means the veils and the coverings that are for the lords of this earth, which is [7:32], and [7:32], and it is exclusive to the believers. [68b] ·34 And He made "the firmament a visible adornment" with the light that courses in the atmosphere from the theophanic self-disclosure of the sun at noon—for it is not clouds, which veil over the vision of the Lord, exalted be He, so that you are not harmed in His vision. And He made the intermediary stages set in order for what they contain of the lordly theophanic self-disclosures in the image of the moon in its resemblance, just as the reports have come regarding them both. He said—may God bless him and grant him peace—in the Ṣaḥīḥ: > "You shall see your Lord just as you see the sun at noon—for it is not a cloud that veils it—and just as you see the moon on the night of the full moon." He means the image of perfection from without deficiency, and the vision does not attach except to the Lord. He, exalted be He, said: [75:22-23] and it is the veiling from other than the believers. He, exalted be He, said: [83:15], and He said in the story of Moses: [7:143], and He said: [7:143], and He did not say other than Him among the names, and the Lord is the Nurturer.
Also, and the nurturer—He is the one who appears in this earth with what He nourishes it and rectifies what is in it, for the Lord who rectifies is also called: "I have nurtured the garment when I have mended it," and the well-known in this station which Shaykh mentioned is that He is the Lord. And he said: [20:12] and he did not say: "your God."
And his saying: "With the existence of a tangible touch" means what he said—upon him be peace—from: > "The Real struck with His hand between my shoulders, and I found the coolness of His fingers between my nipples, and I knew the knowledge of the first ones and the last ones," and knowledge and discussions are attained through touch and sight, and he had opened the door of inquiry from this art in the witnessing-place of the sanctified, and I learned from him knowledge collectively ·35 and I found that it has a sensory pleasure and an intelligible one, so glory be to the One who gives whatever He wills in whatever He wills—He is not singled out by a state to the exclusion of another state. There is nothing except that in it is everything for the one to whom it is opened therein. By God, indeed the Garden appeared in the breadth of the encompassing wall, by its very essence, not as a likeness, in the form of an isthmus (barzakh).
Commentary His saying: — from the knowledge (ʿulūm) of delight and the breaths (anfās), one finds in its presence a lordly 5 essence, and perhaps one becomes established until it manifests upon one's outward, and one's body worships and one's flesh increases from other than the eating of any ordinary food; rather, from the food of his Lord in the spirit (rūḥ) of his knowledge (ʿilm), and there is no doubt that joy in knowledge is of a natural disposition that is savored.
Commentary His saying: — that is: the morning became yellow to them from the existence of the Real (al-Ḥaqq) through the rising of 10 the sun, the one by which [397] the resemblance occurred. So it disclosed from the realities that which is upon it, just as the brilliance of the morning disclosed through its yellowing from the sensibles to the visual faculties.
Commentary His saying: — that is: the removal of the restriction by a stroke of the beyond. So there appeared the splitting of the seal of articulation. And his saying: and that is what He spoke with to him of the meanings. And his saying: — he means the customary sound.
— he says that he — 15 may God bless him and grant him peace — heard the speech of the Real, majestic is His majesty, without a sound and without a letter, and not restricted to a time nor to a specific direction; rather, he heard it with his entirety. So all of it was hearing from every direction, and they have given evidence for that: ·36 When something discloses itself to me, I face it wholly as a beholder; and if He is a whisperer (nājānī), I am wholly an auditor (masāmiʿ).
And for this he said: "Rather He hears equally from the flanks, the sides, the meeting-places, the behind, and the thickets
and the heights," and that is because if the speaker (al-mutakallim) is not restricted by directions nor by time, then the auditor is not likewise, for he is possessed of directions, and directions are not apprehended except through him in his corporeal origination (nashʾatihi al-jismiyya), for the right, the left, the behind, the front, the above, and the below belong to him in reality, and he is in a spatial-temporal condition (ẓarfiyya); time is a reality, so it is inevitable that he hears in a time and from a single direction, or from all his directions, and however it was—equally from all his directions, or from a specific direction—then his hearing has been restricted to the directions. And God, exalted is He, has reported that He restricted His call to him—peace be upon him—to the side of the right; so if it is inevitable that we proceed with the intellectual proof, then let us say that the speaker (al-mutakallim) is not in a time nor in [98b] a direction, and not inside the world nor outside it, for His being, glorified is He, is other than a differentiated being (mutaḥayyiz), and that the auditor, from the aspect of his receptivity (thaqālībatihi), is in a time and not in a direction from himself; however he is in a direction from other than him. So if the call was from his essence in its totality, then his hearing of it would be from other than a direction, and the report is as it has come thus. But if one stops with the school of the speculative theologians (al-mutakallimīn) regarding the incoming report, with the call from the side of the Ṭūr on the right, then the caller (al-munādī) does not have the right, glorified is He. He said, exalted is He: [19:52], that is: We gave him intimate audience (nājaynāhu). And indeed it is said: I called out (nādaytu) so-and-so, meaning: I directed his front toward the one who calls him to me. So it is not by the specific text establishing the call that he is from the Real (al-Ḥaqq), in the sense that He is the caller (al-munādī) by Himself in this verse that is adduced as evidence thereby, ·37 Rather, He said, exalted is He, in another verse: [4:164], and He confirmed it with the infinitive noun to indicate the elevation of intermediaries, and that He made him hear His speech from the standpoint that He is the Speaker, glory be to Him, but what is established as this text in the course of this story — the shaykh did not follow this path in this story. The verification from the standpoint of the indication specifically — He said, exalted is He: [28:29] — meaning: the fire.
[20:11] And he indicated about the one who called him out: did he call him out? The Real, by Himself, or did He call him out through an existent being from among His creatures? Rather, the apparent sense is that the caller here is not He — God.
And His saying: [20:12] — it is possible that the one who says to him what God says: [20:12], and especially upon what the shaykh adopted in the interpretation of the removal of the two sandals — that they are his worldly life and his caprice, and whoever was 10 of this likeness along with his worldly life and his caprice, then by the consensus of the people of the path of God, he does not hear the speech of God, and does not hear the Real as His speech, whoever is in these veils with this likeness.
And the context of the verse indicates that the one who called him out said to him: [20:12], so if the Real were the one who spoke to him with [20:12], then he had heard the speech, and he is 15 one who is stripped from restriction by engendered beings, all of them, and that he be of the receptive preparedness befitting that he hear the speech, the most mighty, the most holy, upon a correct image that is established with him. And he is in this story not upon that, and in this story itself he said to him: [20:13], and what he said to him: so listen to what I speak to you with — as healing, ·38 And his saying: [20:13], that is: make yourself ready for what is cast unto you until you comprehend what is spoken to you. There is no disagreement among the people of realities (ḥaqāʾiq) regarding this matter—that the one to whom theophanic self-disclosure (tajallī) occurs is in speech that was either unrestricted speech, meaning He addresses him from His sensation and from his soul—likewise it is the knowledge of tasting (dhawq)—and Mūsā in this story was upon the contrary of all of this. So upon this, the speech would be revelation (waḥy) from behind a veil, as God Most High said: [42:51] a messenger, and the speech upon these ranks is well-known among the scholars by God. Then in this story also, of the speech, after He said to him: [20:14], [20:15–16], [20:17], He said: [20:18], and he said: So he cast it, and behold it was a serpent moving swiftly.
He said: [20:19–21]. And this—all of it is upon what he stipulates.
The people of realities (ḥaqāʾiq) did not hold that speech is except by the intermediary of revelation (waḥy) or from behind a veil, or [99b] by sending an angel. So had the man—may God be pleased with him—spoken in hearing the speech of the Real, from other than restricting it by this story of equalization, he would have been more worthy of the translation about the intentions of the people of this path (ṭarīqa), and not seeking to gather between the texts and the intellectual evidence; because the intellect falls short of this art of knowledge that is dependent upon the prophets and those who inherited from them among the friends of God (awliyāʾ), ·39 And if one were to contest regarding this story by pointing to the text reported in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim concerning the theophanic self-disclosure of the Real to His servants in the Abode of the Hereafter and their denial of Him, and His transformation into the sign by which they recognize Him—he would know at that point that it is the speech of God to Mūsā – upon him be peace – and whoever He spoke to, and that one does not stipulate these conditions which she stipulated.
5 Then he said – may God be pleased with him –: "and those were the fruits," alluding to the parable "the fruit of sincerity," and so he contradicted himself, for he did not strip away until He said to him what He spoke to him with: [20:12], and he did not recognize the speech as the fruit of sincerity. Rather, from the fruits of speech comes sincerity and instruction, and the man erred regarding this question, and supposed that it was from it based on something that obtains, while what was obtained from it was upon something fleeting.
Then he took to saying that this parable is "the benefit of sincerity and hearing, and the permissibility of truthfulness."
10 and certainty and good opinion of the Lord of the worlds, all of this is understood.
Then he said: "then you did not cease to be in a state," meaning what we mentioned: that the self acquires a state from what it carries of the sciences in the commentary—may God sanctify your spirits. Then he said: "bringing it to the station of truthfulness," meaning: the station to which his truthfulness conveys him: [54:55], at a sovereign, omnipotent King. Then he said: "and the precondition for its reception of speech is the Real," meaning: he has
15 known the way, so whenever he wished to hear the speech of the Real, he strips away and is stripped of—as preceded, ·40 That is: this is the sunna that connects to speech, and it is "the sunna of theophanic self-disclosure" — he means proximity — "and the ascending." He intends the miʿrāj, and his saying: "and the preparation of the approach and the ascending," he says: if there was upon this preparation [99b] what came to us from the Real with what He had known and what He received from it of what He makes known, He intended His saying: [53:8], so the drawing-near from Him and the theophanic self-disclosure from the Real to him is the affirmation of an attribute of elevation, and the descent is the subtlety of concealment.
5 Then he took to advising whoever desired the attainment of this spiritual station — how there should be upon him of states: a counsel of faith to the end of the counsel, and there is no need for its explanation, for it is understood.
{The commentator said:} The first part of the commentary on the book is completed; he recites it in the second: His saying: "O people of the Book, indeed Yūsuf — upon him be peace — said for his father," and praise belongs to God.
10 {Up to here the speech of the commentator — may God be pleased with him — is completed.}