The Second Juzʾ of the Commentary on Khalʿ al-Naʿlayn
The Second Part of [the Commentary on the Book of] the Removal of the Two Sandals [and the Acquisition of Light from the Place of the Two Feet] {From the benefits of Muḥyī al-Dīn Abī ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-ʿArabī al-Ḥātimī al-Ṭāʾī} [73b]
In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate Praise be to God, and peace upon His servants whom He has chosen.
The Shaykh – may God be pleased with him – said: "And O People of the Book, indeed Yūsuf – peace be upon him – when he said to his father: [12:4] up to His saying: [12:7]."
10 As for his saying: "O People of the Book," he means those who are firmly established in the truth of it; the knowers of its limits, just as it came in the report: "The People of the Qurʾān are the People of God and His elect," so the man intended to address the People of the Book of God, to present to them what he obtained from God by way of narration of the blessing of his Lord upon him in that, as a likeness of His command—exalted is He—to His Prophet in His saying: [93:11], and all that he was addressed with – peace be upon him –, his community are those addressed by it; so be warned of that, for indeed Satan is to the human being a manifest enemy, and likewise he seeks your destruction and teaches you from the interpretations of ḥadīths, and he completes his blessing upon you and upon the family of Yaʿqūb as He completed it upon your fathers before, Ibrāhīm and Isḥāq. Indeed your Lord is All-Knowing, All-Wise. Indeed there was in Yūsuf and his brothers signs for those who ask.
since the exemplar (al-uswa) was guided by it, except what departed from that by its proof, from what is specific to it, like His saying: [33:50], then He said: [33:50], and this is marriage by gift without dowry and without witnesses and without a guardian-kinsman, for qualification (al-ahliyya) is only for the one who is qualified for a thing, and so that thing has been made fitting for him.
As for the address occurring in the Qurʾān with [3:64], the intent by it is not that they stood in accordance with its right, for rather its meaning is those who were addressed with this Book and it was sent down for their sake, and it is possible that they would be among those intended by qualification, namely whoever undertook its right and what he desired after it from speech that was general to them according to what he gave them of address, so it remains [3:64] upon its root, from among qualification.
Then he said – may God be pleased with him – after conveying the verse:
Commentary 10. And gnosis of the reality of the command [74] He intends His saying: [15:88], so He commanded him with concealment for what he knew of envy upon which this disposition of nature was molded, and for this He said: [12:5], and God the Exalted willed that this matter be manifested, and that there be from his brothers what there was, and that the vision go forth upon what it was upon, and not especially a vision of the prophets, for it is a revelation (waḥy) from God to them in forms of imaginal isthmus-nature, so the shaykh said: .
Commentary And his saying: "This is a Josephian verse" — he says: the likeness of what we have deposited in this book for you is a likeness of the story of Mūsā in the marriage of the daughter of Shuʿayb, and what that story contained and what it produced.
And the likeness of what we have also deposited in this book of the divine sciences is a likeness of the story of Yūsuf. The station of that is the station of the rank of Yūsuf, and my station therein is the station of Yūsuf.
Yūsuf — you cast him into the pit out of envy from your own selves, for God is the accomplisher of His affair, and every one who has known his measure, for his knowledge does not impugn its rank, nor does he bring it down other than its station; and if you have concealed it at a time, then there is no escape from its appearance, and do not be with it also like the caravan in the purchase of Yūsuf — you purchase it at other than its true value, for he is diminished in its value — for God said: [12:20], among some of the well-known valuation in transactions at this time.
The reports are upon custom, and the act is upon reality, except with simple units of the individual, which is the three up to the ten that is the last of the simple units and the first of the contracts, and for this he said: [12:20], and it is from three up to ten, and the attribution of Yūsuf to the simple units is closer than his attribution to the compounds, for he is the closest to the world of the spiritual command, and so the purchase fell short of the status of his equals among the engendered beings and his simple units for the tawḥīd to which the prophets call, [74b] so it is not possible that there be his purchase except with this measure — a magnitude belonging to him as a state, and it is in the outward the customary deficiency from the value, and in the inward the perfection of the proportion which is his station upon it, so the address came out as the divine with diminishment upon custom from the expression "paltry," and he turned toward the loftiness of the station with dirhams, ·44 If he had said: a dirham or two dirhams, the spiritual station (maqām) would not be considered; for the believer has no equivalent from engendered being (kawn); since the believer is the master of engendered being, and this is the measure that we mentioned—it did not occur to the possessor of the Book as a danger, rather he only looked at the attribute of deficiency, and so he stopped with miserliness, not with dirhams. So understand them: [33:4].
This shaykh is saying: Do not be among these sciences that were deposited in this Book just as God mentioned Him among the stages of Yūsuf in the story of Yūsuf, and as God made him manifest, and the truth was singled out, and it became clear, and the old woman's share was allotted, and the she-camels came, and the tidings, and she cast the garment of God, and the prophethood of Yūsuf appeared and his rank, and likewise there is no escape from the manifestation of this knowledge and its confirmation through men who are its people, and none who opposes it harms it, nor one who is ignorant of it, for he is the one who gives sincere counsel to the one who gazes into it with his utmost effort—if he hears it he will be among the repudiators when he opposes his station in the Abode of the Hereafter, where effort does not avail—then regret, for the exegesis has ended at His saying: [11:122].
Then the shaykh – may God be pleased with him – said: — the encounter — he intends what this Book contained of the questions that are similar: the story of Yūsuf and Mūsā, meaning: the spiritual encounter, that is: a meeting from the Holy Spirit, then he said:
and disclosure», [75a] he says: from the niche of Muḥammad – peace be upon him –; since among those who distinguish, for he – may God bless him and grant him peace – said: he pointed to himself ·45 "We do not write and we do not reckon—the month is like this" to the end of the ḥadīth, and He, exalted, said: [62:2], meaning: among the nation (umma), for it is dispatched to the people entirely—their lettered and their unlettered—so the benefit of His saying means: among the nation (umma).
Then he said, the Shaykh: Text "And there was opened for me from the bolts of the gates and the linings of causes," meaning: what the Real deposited in these likenesses of meanings. He says: an unveiling for me from it, and there shone for me its morning.
His saying: Commentary "And I saw the characteristics of mercy knowledgeably, truly, and as an unveiling, with certitude," meaning: the mercy that is specific to the people of this affair in what they were given of this knowledge of the mercy that God mentioned.
He, exalted, said that He gave it to the chief of this type of knowledge and what he possesses of its instrument, and He is His servant.
Specifically, He said: [18:65], so the characteristics of this mercy are those that were unveiled for him and her encompassing, and I do not know whether he was given from it anything or not. God knows best of his state.
Then he took to calling and building upon this station from his saying: Text "O God, indeed it is the gardens of your gathering."
To his saying: [1:2], for it does not need explanation of its intent, for it is supplication.
Then after the supplication he legislated in the bequest and the counsel, and this amount also does not need explanation.
And explanation; because whatever pertains to it is a question of knowledge, so we left the speech upon it for its explanation, so it would be the speech upon it at length for the matter, from other than an addition of benefit from his saying: Text "As if you had sought them, he opened a gate" following the supplication to his saying: Text "And the lightning was where it struck."
The Shaykh — may God be pleased with him — said, after his leisure from what we have mentioned:
it was parchment spread out, and it was arranged and it was a written book spread out» [75–] meaning: the wisdom that he intended in this book, and we alluded to it through the seed of the sower and the kernel of the planter, and his saying:
spread out» that is: a place manifestly for insights, then he said: meaning: them a written book spread out»; because writing is the joining of some letters to others, and from it the army (jaysh) was named, as a composition for its organization, and it is an expression for the joining of meanings, some to others, in a pattern possessing correspondences between them.
And his saying: means: this book — he intended by it what is upon him of beauty before other than the people of his language in the quest of foreigners for his facets, and for this he named it with a matter of Syriac origin to indicate the foreignness of his composition, and if Ibrāhīm — peace be upon him — was the first of those who spoke Hebrew when he moved from Ḥarrān to al-Shām, then when he crossed the Euphrates he spoke in this language and named it Hebrew (ʿibrāniyya); because he spoke it when crossing the Euphrates, then he said: — he says that it is from the standpoint of its meaning spiritual, that is: there descended through it the spirits of the highest realm, so its attribution from the standpoint of its reality is spiritual, and from the standpoint of expression about it is Hebrew, then this Shaykh transmitted it into the Arabic Muḥammadan language with exquisite words that indicate places of correspondence, and it is not among the books about which it is said that they are a translation that is elegant without meaning, and a name that is uttered (yuhāl) without substance.
The Shaykh said: Since it was a spiritual ascription, and a spiritual one, he named it the Book of the Removal of the Two Sandals and the Acquisition of Light from the place of the two feet, and for this reason he began it with the question of equalization of the matter of removing his sandals therein, and of acquiring the light of His guidance from the place of His two feet.
He said [76v] the Shaykh: — one is known by it, meaning: this - is the translation. — he says: one infers by it regarding what is intended from it by what is between the thing struck with it, and the thing struck for it among the correspondence according to the scholars. Then he said: meaning: what indicates it to him. He said: — he says: you will know its purposes. Then he said: — that is: the possessor of intelligence. — he says: I have come with wisdom in its proper place, knowledge and law, and my saying knowledge and law, that is: it is permitted that one enters into the house from whichever place it may be; because the intended purpose is entry, for the knower only intends the attainment of knowledge by whatever evidence it may be. Rather his purpose is arrival to the sought and the law in some states is not like that; rather he made that specifically something that the one who holds to it should not go beyond, so he said regarding the striking of the parable for this with a command: the Arabs knew from it the proper conduct of the divine [2:189]. Then he said: [2:189]. And he said: [4:136] — from this category also. And his saying: — this is the same as our saying: knowledge. And his saying:
except from its doors» — this is our saying: law.
Then he said: meaning: complete in vision, comprehensive of the two sides, as he said, the knower of the unseen and the witnessed; for it is nothing but a veil and an unveiling. Then he said: , for every observer [sees] according to what befalls him from his state and what appears to him from the horizons of his name. For the Muḥammadan law (sharʿ) reported that they were from the skin of a dead donkey, and the correspondence did not occur between it and the pure valley, so he was commanded to remove them [76b] because there was no correspondence that gathers them. And that which appeared to the author of this book from the removal occurring in the story—and it is what he said, and he said – may God be pleased with him –: , and the two are in his view the same as what he expressed with them.
Commentary Then he said: , and his saying: is given permission through the perfection of his receptive preparedness (istiʿdād), and whoever has perfected his receptive preparedness does not need exposure. But since exposure was something commanded by it as law and as a disciplining [leading] to the divine, in accordance with what came in the report: —for this reason he commanded him with exposure; since the foundation of this knowledge in this book is upon the method of the lawful and the sunna that is established, not upon what the non-divine sides of the legal rulings of wisdom that were placed by other than a divine command for the benefit and the time [when] that was seen— that is the one who establishes in the time of a gap.
His saying: "God may perhaps (ʿasā) take him by his hand" means: his guidance on the path that connects. And his saying: "and that there come to him " [42:51] means: by the opening that is the tasting from the mutual participation of his path from other than increase , and that is what He gives him from the source of the gift (minna) from what He wills upon the power of his conduct. And that is from the category of one who answered with more than what was asked of him. He said, exalted is He: [10:26]. I heard some of our shaykhs say in the interpretation of the increase: it is what the eye has not seen nor the ear perceived, nor has it occurred upon the heart of a human being.
Then he said – may God be pleased with him –: "and since the Pedestal (kursī) was the mighty place of the two feet" For he reported in the tradition that the Pedestal is the place of the two feet, and that is from the category of [77v] the indication to his knowledge, and by it Abū al-Ḥakam ibn Barrajān (d. 536 AH/1142 CE) said, and he made it the place of division. And for this he alluded to it by light (nūr), and said: "and the light by which it shone is the how (kayf) and the where (ayn)", so he clarified it. Knowledge elucidates things and distinguishes between them. [24:35]. So He intended the high and the low, and that is the locus of the how and the where, for they are a firm place. And had He intended the Pedestal that is known, when He said: "by it shone the how and the where", then above it is the Throne, and it is a place of a veiled illuminator, the Pedestal in its interior is like a ring thrown in a desert of the earth, and the light of the Pedestal is from its light. So His saying regarding the Pedestal that it shone by it—the how and the where—does not hold true generally, and it is: He intended the generalization for every veiled thing, and that is knowledge without doubt.
Then he said: "and the spirit was" meaning: this is the knowledge which he alluded to by the chair "the spread out" the differentiated, flowing "in the forms of the stairs" he means the ascensions in the divine meanings of the most holy holiness.
Text Then he said: "and life, the treasured, in the veils of the exalted and the stairs" and this is among what confirms that he meant knowledge, where he alluded to it by life. He, the Exalted, said: [6:122]. He meant knowledge and named it life, and a light. His saying: "the treasured" means the concealed for the sake of concealing some of the springs in the veils of the exalted, meaning: in the veils of the most high, "and the stairs" means the passages.
Then he said: "and he did not enter from the lights of his exalted dominion the highest" meaning: the world of the unseen, "and not majestic splendors" he means the world of grandeur in the school of Abī Ṭālib al-Makkī (d. 386 AH/996 CE), and in the school of the community he means the world of the isthmus, his saying: "and not descents" he means his most holy descents in the divine tidings of the lordly, "and theophanic self-disclosures" he means upon the hearts [377b] with what you witness as tasting and drinking and watering, and his saying: "the most holy and the most luminous" he means the purest, meaning: the most radiant and the most elevated in the theophanic self-disclosures, "and the most luminous" he means the most luminous and the most elevated in the theophanic self-disclosures.
Then he said: "every unveiling of his dominion was clarifying from that indication" it is a passive participle noun, and the indication is a reference to the light previously mentioned, and his saying: "and every name treasured in me" was established
from that difficulty" he means life, the luminous, the treasured, previously mentioned.
He said: "and the acquisition was" that is: the taking "according to what their states require" of the wisdom," he means the receptive preparedness (istiʿdād) and readiness for the divine decree of the lordly (rubūbiyya) and destinal judgment. The preceding one, he said: "and He grants it the descents of contentment and mercy," he means the condition of the will and the mercy upon which He stipulated in the story of al-Khiḍr, then he said: "not upon a human pattern" and "nor upon a heart-based arrangement" — this is speech that is not established, and even if it were sound in itself "except upon providential pre-determination" he means: that which preceded it — the decree and the providence "and the providential descent" the volitional one, by which the destiny was decreed.
Then he said — may God be pleased with him —: "and the pages" he means: the deposit in this book. "It is
four in number: pastures of animals" for the production of milk, "and groves of date palms" for the production of honey, "and peripheries of a hand" for the receipt, then he said: "the first of them is the angelic quality of the name," that is: its designation.
The angelic qualities (malakūtiyyāt) in this book, he said: "and it is its longest," he means the greatest of them in expressions, and I do not know regarding the meanings how it is, he said: "and the second is an individual quality of the genus, and it is their shortest" in meaning, their longest in expressions, and it — and God knows best — is the one designated by the periphery, for the paradise (firdaws) is the garden, "and the third is Muḥammadan of the flat expanse and the human" because it is imbued with the quality of the celestial generosity [78b], ·52 and facilitation and the lifting of constriction and intimacy with what is in the ascents of the Muḥammadan reality from the witnessings and the theophanic self-disclosures.
He said: meaning: the Muḥammadan reality encompassing two translations. The first of them is "the bell-ringing of alarm and the second is the carpet of intimacy and the tranquility of the soul," he says: And it is only I made sections from the Muḥammadan traditions the wellspring of the book, seeking blessing through him — may God bless him and grant him peace —, And in this speech there is a deficiency, and that is because the wellspring of the book is the Mosaic and Yūsufian story, and the first of the sections, the four, is only the dominion, and after it the individual-soul aspects, and after it the Muḥammadan traditions, then the merciful aspects, and they are the fourth, and the bell-ringing and the carpet and the tranquility are from the soul of the book, and what preceded it is the wellspring of the book, and had it been from the sandal-straps of the two-who-are-shod, he would not have divided the Muḥammadan reality into two divisions, but rather he would have driven the bell-ringing and the carpet and the tranquility as an extension of the Mosaic and Yūsufian story, and it would have been that the wellspring of the book is the first of the four that are the source of the book.
It is correct that the wellspring of the book then begins with the first of the four that are the source of the book.
And as for his being — may God be pleased with him — that he made them four in number and did not make them fewer than that and not more, and that is because it is much what he mentions in this book and he stipulates upon the image of completion and perfection, and there is no doubt that it is not in number a number that is complete other than the four, for it contains all numbers, all of them; the simple elements and the knots are embraced by it; because in it is the three and the two and the one, so it is ten, and the ten is the first of the knots, and what is above the ten is from the numbers, for it is only a doubling of units and the ten, so for this noble completeness he made them four in number ·53 And the books revealed are also¹ four², and He has made them divisions as reports from a descent³ to the divine⁴, [78b] so He placed them upon that, and the titles⁵ of the number⁶ are four—there is nothing above them as a name for a number, and they are: the units, the tens, the hundreds, and the thousands, and these⁷ are also forms of completion, and likewise the formation of the animal kingdom stood upon four mixtures, and the pillars of nature⁸ are also four, by which⁹ were the generated things¹⁰ for the completion of existence, and the bearers of the Throne on that Day are four, and He is one who carries what is complete, and the forces of the corporeal realm are four: the attractive, the retentive, the digestive, and the expulsive, and the judgment ended therein. So whatever entered the four, it was only in a matter of completion when you considered it, and you found it likewise.
And his statement: Text — he means here the designations mentioned in this book.
He said: Commentary — he says: we came with it in this book upon the aspect of likeness to what it is, the matter upon him in himself, the one who took from it this book, as though it is a copy from the spiritual light and the streaming existential¹¹.
Then he said: — we say in places where we do not state explicitly, as the Most High said: ¹², Ibn ʿAbbās said: he meant intercourse, so he alluded, and he said — upon him be peace — to the bedouin who used to increase his intercourse in the jāhiliyya: "What did your donkeys do?"
He said: ¹³ — he meant the male, so he alluded, then he said: — he says: and verily¹⁶ we mention the thing of the places¹⁵, we state it explicitly by the name, then he said: — he says: and verily¹⁶ we mention the thing by an indication and a gesture and an allusion in which the expression about it does not reach¹⁷ the extent of exhaustiveness.
Then he said: "And Allāh, exalted is He, casts the light from His innermost (sirr) upon whomever He wills from among His names, just as [40:15]," meaning the casting of the spirit from His command upon whomever He wills from among His servants—and they are the messengers and everyone to whom He revealed—by the intermediary of the spirit, [26:193], and His saying: [79] meaning: from the sake of His commanding him of the truth with that, as He said, exalted is He: [13:11], meaning: from His command to them by His preservation, and it may be from here in the sense of the bāʾ, meaning: by the command of Allāh, for the letters of relation interchange, some of them replacing others, and this is known by the states and what it gives of meaning. So He brought down the divine names here at the level of the servants, and the light at the level of the spirit, and the innermost consciousness (sirr) at the level of the command. And that is because the divine names have ranks, some above some. And whoever wishes to become acquainted with it from this question, let him look in our book on the virtues of the Maghrib, in a chapter of it, its translation being a concise treatise on an eternal origination, wherein we mentioned in this chapter the ranks of the divine names and paused at some of them upon some, and we made from them a mother and a reliable support, and how it was directed toward the bringing-about of the world, and the cause of that, and if it were the names with this aforementioned quality, then there is no alternative but that the truth be cast upon this assessment of the light from His innermost consciousness (sirr) upon whoever He wills from among His names, by according to what the state of the name gives it in the existential command, for the divine names by us, their judgments have appeared, and in us their realities have spread, and for this they are realized by them, ·55 And were it not for what is between us and between it of correspondence, what is correct of assuming character-traits with them, He would not cast us toward them—glory be to Him—as an encounter of a spiritual state and consideration of a light that is essential, from His innermost consciousness. And the secret here is a metonymy for marriage. He said, exalted is He: [2:235], that is: marriage.
And His saying: [4:40] is an encounter specifically, and the wonder is that—glory be to Him—whatever He willed of it He only willed through it, for it is from His names: the Desirer (al-Murīd), and He is the possessor of the will (al-mashīʾa). So if the name intended [79b] the finding of an engendered being, the Able (al-Qādir) said to it legislatively: it is not possible that it be connected to His finding it, until I say to it: Be! So its finding is dependent upon me, and it says: the determination is for me, so I am prior, and the pausing of the Desirer upon a realized matter, and the name the Living says: your existence through my existence is conditioned, so all of you are dependent upon its existence and its ruling upon me, and every name, divine, in it is the power of all the names; because every name, its referent is the Essence, and the ruling of whatever, so for God to appoint any name He wills from His names for the encounter of the light from His innermost consciousness. So thus, understand the realities, and let the one who distinguishes distinguish what He willed, and the denier of what He intended, [33:4].
[The First Translation of the First Section of the Third Page] (The Muḥammadiyyāt): Ṣalṣalat al-Jaras [The Ringing of the Bell]
In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate The Shaykh – may God be pleased with him – said: "Ṣalṣalat al-jaras" (the ringing of the bell) in a translation of this merit: The Muḥammadī, and it is a type from among the types of revelation (waḥy), and it is the most intense of what comes upon him – may God bless him and grant him peace –, and it is an arrival of a spiritual meaning (maʿnawī qalbī) from His saying: [26:193–194]; for if it had been something sensory, it would have been like the ringing of the bell in likening (tashbīh), since it was heard as a ringing (ṣalṣala), rather it was heard as a meaning, and rather this exegesis was specified by the descent; upon his spirit (rūḥāniyyatihi) and his heart (qalbihi) for two matters. The first: because of his saying: "like the ringing of the bell," and he did not say: "it is the ringing of the bell," so the meaning resembled the sensory. And the second matter: because the likeness of this is the speech of the Real (al-Ḥaqq) to the angels through revelation (waḥy), and the angels are the likeness of the subtle human entity in the domain; because they are spirits carried in luminous forms (anwār), except that these human spirits are commanded by the directing of bodies of a natural disposition, not otherwise. And when the descent of revelation upon the angels was like the ringing of the bell equally, there would come upon them and their spirits would become constricted at the presence of this [80b] Likewise, revelation was such that Muḥammad – upon him be peace – his spirit became constricted at the presence of this revelation resembling the ringing of the bell. And the change would appear upon his body because of the director being for it and the preserver taken from it, just as the conditions of the kingdom change when the king is absent from it and does not leave a deputy to manage it, and no one stands in his station in it. For this reason we have said that the descent of revelation from this station (maqām) is a descent of a spiritual (rūḥānī) nature, ·57 So when terror is removed from their hearts and they arise from their swoon, they say: What was it? The Real then says to them: "The Real, that is: [34:23], that is: the matter is greater than what was disclosed to you, that is: what appeared to you was nothing but [34:23]. Then He purified Himself from this descent that resembles what the engendered being gives, and He said in the presence of their saying "the Real": then He exalted Himself from this lowering that resembles what the engendered being grants. So He said at their statement "the Real": From the place where you are, God Most High said: [34:23] the Real, [34:23]. The Prophet — peace be upon him — explained in his ḥadīth this verse by what he mentioned of the chain upon ranks, and by the intensity of His descent He mentioned the anger and the perspiration; for the perspiration is due to what appeared in the natural disposition from the pressing upon it, and the anger is what the spirit found from the constriction due to the bearing of this descent, and the image of this constriction is that it is not within the power of the originated being.
Know the details of what He made comprehensive for Him: the Real in His descent by this image — except after conditions of the divine.
And by the strength of lordly natures He is granted the Real through knowledge of the details of this comprehensive, and the stripping of meaning from this image which in it descent occurs. Do you not see the person among us: when a question is cast upon him that is obscure, he needs reflection upon it, and the alteration of his temperament pertaining to it, and the burning of his interior due to the heat of thought, and perhaps he is led by that — being a natural cause leading to his destruction — in extracting the meaning that is intended.
In those expressions which are asked about, along with the fact that the referents of the expressions are known [80b] to him, ·58 And he only labors in the knowledge of lineage between those words in order to see what occurs¹ to him of meanings. Do you not see Ḥabīb ibn Aws al-Ṭāʾī (d. 231 AH/846 CE) — when the king came and likened him in the market of the Arabs and to one who had no equal among his people; for he likened him in magnanimity to a seal (d. 578 CE), and in forbearance to al-Aḥnaf (d. 67 AH/687 CE), and in intelligence to Iyās (d. 122 AH/740 CE) — he was presented before him in the assembly, and he wanted to extract from him what had occurred to him in his mind, and he summoned examples of that in his mind. He found that God, exalted be He, had likened light — the Divine Light — to the light of the lamp, and he arranged that in two verses, and made them from the self of the poem in the place of objection, and he said: Do not deny my striking for Him one beneath Him — as a parable, a going-forth in affliction and distress For God has struck the lowliest for His light — as a parable, from the lamp-niche and the wicks The reporter, the narrator, said: We smelled from him in these two verses the fragrance of his liver, meaning: in the burning of his temperament. He did not tarry but a few days and died. He did not labor this labor except in arranging words and expressions and in composing, for what deludes you about one who seeks from Him in the aggregate the detailed accounts about the truth — exalted be His majesty — and the correctness in that. Were it not for the powers that God gave it to these angelic and subtle human faculties, it would have melted at this descent as lead melts.
And the Shaykh made this precious station in this divine inspiration, the comprehensive, like the seed of the sower. He points to the singularity of the speech and that it, even if it were a single word, its meaning is existential — words that have no end; this seed opens and the fruit from it — and for this he cited as evidence for its being a seed and fruit by His saying, exalted be He: [6:95] [81a] ·59 That is: the manifestation of what is in love and longing from the unseen matters carried within it that are not seen. Every eye, that is: what sees it—no one sees the Real except one whose insight the Real has made a distinguishing faculty in the eye of the totality, and it is in His view a skin like the morning. Then He adjoined the testimony with [6:96] so that the observer might verify in His speech what He intended, for it is a likening based upon a likening, lest the creation be borne upon the splitting of the seed—and what is in the interior of the grain and the kernel is something outwardly apparent to sight, and what is in its power is that which He brings out through sowing and seeds.
He said: , that is: when the daybreak splits open, everything appears, just as the covering of the night concealed it. And for this reason he said—upon him be peace—in his supplication at dawn with the spreading light, as though he was disseminated from its rising point southward and northward, as if it split open in two halves, and the night was covered by its manifestation, and the night became absent in it just as he was absent in the night. He said—exalted is He: [35:13], and when the night came to an end, the garment of the day was stripped from the night, that is: He stripped it as one strips a garment from the body of the wearer. For the night then appears and the day's belly is concealed. He said: [36:37], and He said: [36:38].
Problems of cyclical recurrence upon a beginning with [36:38], and He said—exalted is He: [7:54], and in this the two branches are that the carrying is that which is born in the night and the day from the affairs, from His saying—exalted is He: [55:29], ·60 And He, exalted is He, said: [27:10], and every kind of what appeared from the sciences he would say was from those comprehensive concise expressions, just as it is that everything that appeared from trees and fruits [81b] was of grain and kernel, and he likened them to grain and kernel, and did not liken them to brightness (iṣbāḥ); rather, he likened the splitting of grain to the splitting of brightness as an elucidation of the intended meaning; because the grain and the kernel are among what the earth produces as crops and plants, and he made his book built upon the ascending ways of animals and the regions of traveling and stages of a hand, so it is inevitable that he seek what is suitable to these expressions and the preliminary dispositions that preceded him from the matters of affinity, and he found love and longing and found the Real had already mentioned them regarding what is suitable to this meaning, and just as among fruits are what cannot be reached except by expending effort and toil, likewise among the sciences there is what cannot be attained except through the expenditure of effort and striving, the abundant, and the sciences that are at this level are the sciences descending in the rank of the imaginal isthmus (barzakh). And whenever the human being extracts knowledge from the form of milk in the imaginal isthmus (barzakh), and that what is intended by it is knowledge, this is the truthful one, the greatest, since the extraction of that was fitting. He said to him the ancient scholar —may God's blessings be upon him—: "You struck some and you erred some," and what he determined regarding the stripping of what lay hidden in those imaginal forms of the intended meaning for other than itself, like the shell of the walnut for example, which he found the Real had placed behind three veils that are specific, that cannot be reached except after the lifting of those veils, and this is the likeness of that, and then there are sciences and descents that cannot be reached except with toil and hardship, and it is the descent of abstract meanings from materials in a detailed manner; their fruits resemble the fruits of figs, ·61 and below it in the rank are grapes and what resembles them of apples and pears and other than that of this genus, and below that in the rank are dates and dried fruits and pears, and furthermore there are knowledges that are veiled within them, being veils for knowledges beyond them that cannot be reached except after the attainment of those knowledges and the arrival to the veils, and the lifting of those [82a] veils, and after that comes the arrival to them, and that is so that
٥ it only be in the knowledge that results from the composition of premises. For there is no alternative to the knowledge of individual terms, then the bearing of some upon others—which is their composition—and after their being lifted upon the specific aspect and the specific condition, the sought knowledge appears. What resembles it among the fruits is the kernel that is in the core of the dried fruit and its likeness. The ranks of knowledges correspond to what is required by what the parable has fallen upon from among plants—much thereof we have mentioned; this is a sample so that one may infer by that upon what has occurred.
١٠ Silence about it out of fear of lengthiness, since I am in perplexity with this man regarding the repetition of his speech and its lengthening in his addresses, of which much of his expressions are repeated and little is of benefit. Rather, most of his speech in this book is like the parable that is struck: I hear commotion but I see no grinding. And were it not that he draws attention to verses in which we find expansiveness in the commentary and speech upon the meaning, we would not have noticed from most of his speech anything of benefit. And this man did not possess the craft of conveying and making understood, nor composition and order.
١٥ And this is what we have commented upon from the beginning of the translation of the ringing of the bell to his saying: "and whoever has the power of speech upon that" at the end of his preface and his careful attention to what he introduces after that.
This master – may God be pleased with him – said, after the preamble of the ringing of the bell and what is intended by it, he said: "Among the types of speech regarding that are forms of subtleties, fine points, and verities, and it is the glimmering flash and the rising opening." His saying "the glimmering flash" is what appears to him in that from among the meanings, and "the rising opening" in his saying: "among speech regarding that"; because the opening, when it is found in the meanings, and the rising opening in his saying: "among speech regarding that"; because when the speaker utters it, he manifests the meaning that it came with from its sake, and so the opening is attributed to it, and the flash is for what appears from it of the meaning. [82b] Then he said – may God have mercy on him –: "As for the subtleties, they are fine points of detailed elaboration," meaning the farthest extent to which detailed elaboration reaches in the meanings, but what he sufficed with regarding them is neither a foundation nor does anyone suffice with them in totality from any single perspective from which he considered it, unless God acquainted him with that, or they would be under the classifications of the intellect, but in what gives it the power of the intellect, and the speech remains concerning the same undifferentiated matter. Is it like that or not? And this is the question of the claim of the Ṭāʾifiyya that there is a station beyond the stage of the intellect, and between the statements of the masters of wisdom regarding this there is much speech, for they deny that from a certain standpoint. They affirm it in totality as a single affirmation, but they have not established what we have established regarding that in totality as a single affirmation upon that aspect, from among the philosophers of Islam other than Abū Muḥammad ibn Ḥazm (d. 456 AH/1064 CE) – may God be pleased with him –, and as for Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505 AH/1111 CE), I have not seen him have anything regarding that, nor for anyone other than him, except that he interpreted it by his saying that the intellect does not operate independently through its perception, and he likened it to the pleasure of sexual intercourse for the two impotent ones—he means knowledge of tasting.
Commentary And his statement: — he means what the gathering form (al-ijmāl) makes known of what he has obtained from the subtleties of detailed exposition. Then he said: — he means: the subtleties of the one who imagines — he likened the union of fruits, blossoms, and leaves with the branches in the nucleus, for we know from the cutting that all of this is in the nucleus with power and receptive preparedness (istiʿdād), and were it not for what is in it through this likeness, what appeared from it would not have appeared, by proof that if you had planted something other than it from what is not in it, this power would not have manifested from it anything, for every nucleus and seed, there manifests from it what is in its power from the matters gathered therein; likewise, expressions in what they indicate of meanings.
Text And his statement: — he means [83b] the body in its entirety, for it contains forms and shapes without limit or end, and even if it is from the perspective of what is a body absolutely (muṭlaqan) — there is nothing in it of the forms in actuality — yet it is receptive to the manifestation of the particular forms from it, and this is because every collective entity is because the gathering contains many things that are expressed about it by something singular, like the animal, for it is a single reality and a single word, yet it contains every body that is nourished by the senses; so from the perspective of the gathering character of its form and its meaning, it contains forms that are diverse and numerous, like the human being and what falls under it from the individuals of that species — the horse, the mule, the donkey, the bird — upon their kinds and their beasts of burden, for the terms "animal" and "human being" and "horse" and "bird" and "beasts of burden" and whatever is contained in great number — under the word "animal" is the word "human being," and "horse," and "bird," and "beasts of burden," and whatever is contained; every word among them, by way of its collective character, also has another word for the varieties of languages and their multiplicity, so within "human being": the man, the woman, the boy, the youth, the elder, the old man, and the child, ·64 And under the name "bird" is the name of crows, ravens, magpies, and owls, and likewise the predatory animals and beasts. And the whole is subsumed under the name "animal," and likewise the body in terms of its form and its meaning.
Depicted as forms and shapes, for in it is the body of minerals, plants, animals, and what is under these forms of forms, and likewise among the rectangular, the square, the triangle, the elongated, and under these types, shapes which are a totality among them like the triangle with equal sides, and the isosceles triangle, and similar to that. And this is the meaning of his saying: .
Then he said regarding this connection that it has separations in two connections of its meaning:
of the soul» which is not witnessed by the senses , meaning: the sense has for it the rank of the encompassing totality for this detail, and these separations [83b] are psychic, existing in the soul upon the likeness of what they are, appearing upon it when they are found in the senses by way of correspondence. Each connection sees them according to its connection: its vision in the soul is other than its vision in the senses, and its vision in the encompassing is other than its vision in the psychic separation. For each presence is a connection to its specification, and the vision of the imitator of it is according to his understanding, in what was brought to him by the one who preceded him in that. He looks at it with a connection that is the equal of his rank.
And this is his saying – may God be pleased with him –: vision, a royal, preserving vision»; because they are the preservers. For them is the channeling in these connections, for the being of the lower world is the birthplace of the celestial, and that is mentioned in its chapter in other than this book.
And it is his statement also: "and the prophetic vision witnesses it as an intellectual, lofty witnessing," so he made the seeing for the angels to attach it to the objects, and made the witnessing for the prophets to attach it to the witness among them in the highest angelic realm.
He said: "and its disclosure is the imitation" for the prophets in what their knowledge did not reach by way of witnessing. He said: "an intellectual, theoretical disclosure," that is: a conceptual one in the imaginal isthmus that appears therein as meanings, forms, corporeal, bodily, in the state of their being spiritual from other than emergence to the senses. So this indeed established what he intended with the subtleties of detailed exposition in the encompassing in the state of its totality before specifying it in its specific meaning upon the utmost limit of satisfaction, [33:4].
Commentary And his statement: "and the subtleties are spirits in the minutiae, and for that reason what emerges from the well of singularity is from plants by the number of what is in them of the subtleties, the divisions, or the like of that." He was cautious with his statement: "or the like of that" because in some places the well does not fully contain what is in its power of the child. For an obstacle that arose from the patch, or from the surface [84a] there appears upon it after it a knot of difficulty, or an affliction, or flooding with water. So the reasons are many, and when the Real, exalted, preserved them from these obstacles, all that is in them of the child emerged, and it may be that the well is known in its essence before its cultivation, like the womb for a woman—there is no offspring from it at all, and from it is the barren wind, and they are the devastating destructions.
The Shaykh said: "And the single plot of land may reach up to a thousand plots and beyond that," according to the measure of what there will be of the goodness of the soil and the preservation of the sower, the Real—exalted be His majesty." He, the Exalted, said: [56:64]. For this reason, He—glory be to Him—applied to this the name of the sower, for it is not fitting that there be applied to Him—glory be to Him—anything except what He applied to Himself, for indeed God is not to be given parables for our ignorance of what is fitting for His majesty to be in relation to Him.
Commentary His saying: "And there will be in every plot, of the subtle points and refined points, the measure of what is in the first plot," meaning: in the offspring, just as there was in every "child of Adam the measure of what is in him of the subtle points and refined points, parts corresponding to parts, and divisions corresponding to divisions," and the verification of what he indicated—that the limit and the reality gather the whole. For this reason, every individual contains as if what is in the totality, so every person in the human species is encompassed by a single limit, and every species in the animal genus is encompassed by a single limit from among the universality of that genus, and those are distinguished by the differentia that distinguish them from those species, and the divisions and through them come the detailed distinctions. It is said: a species of animal is speaking, and another is neighing, and another is braying, and another is bleating, to the likenesses of this. So if the veil of the specific were lifted for you, you would witness every species of them, and if the veil of the generic were lifted for you also in this generic nature, you would witness every person belonging to them, those species.
In the sciences, you would witness every person belonging to them, those species.
Likewise —the Shaykh says— from the carpet of spirituality, you would be spoken to from your essence by the number of the offspring of Adam from creation».
Then he mentioned the story of Yūnus, if it is sound, and there is no need to mention it, for the commentary has informed about it, and its purpose is that He confirmed what He said by mentioning it as a consolation to the listener. But it is a story that is not established from a sound perspective.
He intended by "the veil of corporeality" here the covering of the sensory, that is: that which veils the sensory. It is not the body that is the veil of the sensory, for that which he witnesses at the lifting of the veil through the sensory from the speakers is for him by the number of the offspring of Adam. Rather, he witnesses them as bodies in a presence among the presences of existence. So his statement "corporeal" is not correct except as breadth in expression, for its corresponding meaning intended by him at the perspective of him in his speech from the scholars of realities. But the generality of the people of this path are ignorant of this, the amount which is intended here. We alert him to it so that it is debated, and it breathes into something that is not barren. If he intended by lifting the corporeal veil, the bodies that are veiled from natural perception through the sensory in a world of witnessing, which is not elevated, and rather his gaze turns from it to the bodies exemplified in the isthmus-like dimension to understand what he is—the command upon him in this comprehensive sense, then it also broadens in expression; since the bodies are not elevated from their existence, nor from their places. So upon every aspect, he intended the breadth. But these bodies—the outward in the world —the one exemplified in the isthmus-like dimension in the shadows of these bodies, the celestial [85a] and the terrestrial. So the world, all of it, is depicted with its parts and its divisions in every presence according to that presence. So it is a spirit in the presence of spirits, and sensory in the presence of sensation, and exemplified in the presence of the imaginal, and the isthmus, in every world that is higher among the persons of the lower world—an example of that is found, ·68 And there may be in the world that which the lower world produces, like the spirits of created beings from among movements of corporeality, and among them what is created from aspiration (himam), for it is as though it is created from a spiritual matter (amr maʿnawī). Likewise, thoughts and meanings—all of them are attributed to the higher world, and for this reason we were commanded to direct the indication by his bearing witness upon this approach with His saying: [13:15].
Text [13:15]. He means: their likenesses in what was found from them [13:15]. He directed attention to the times of the production of shadows, for the shadow does not exist when the light is in the counterbalancing position of the head, but rather it appears after the deviation from this counterbalancing, and what appeared from it at the appearance of light was as though it were its enemy, and what appeared from it at the withdrawal of light from it was original. And it gathers upon a foundation, and came with the structure of fewness, and it is actions (afʿāl); because he intended the shadows of the kinds.
And it is few in comparison to what is in it of types and individuals, so for this he did not gather them in the gathering of abundance. Some of them said: With an action-noun (afʿul) and with actions (afʿāl) and with a verbal noun (fiʿla) that gathers the lesser of the number.
He means the fewer. For every example in every world, its form is upon the form of what it is—that is the world upon it of worship and spiritual states. And it is the saying of the Shaykh: "Had the veil of wisdom been lifted from the sight of [85b] the certain ones", he means: the doubters, "and the eyes of the people of determination had seen the realities of their selves riding with those who ride, prostrating with those who prostrate", except that I say: Indeed the spirits of created beings from among the movements and aspirations and thoughts—their state is according to what was created from it or became attached to it or occurred from its sake without restriction.
Text His saying: "And their semblances are the outward, comprehensive aspect of these inner subtleties, as though they are wooden planks firmly propped up, and a pillar of extended duration. They are unable to prostrate [63:4]," and this is speech of an imitator in all that he said. He has no knowledge of what the command is upon him, and he has witnessed against his own self by this.
The statement that he is in all that he mentioned of realities and sciences a transmitter, an imitator, from someone other than tasting and not an unveiling from his essence. Otherwise, where is this self from that self? We have indeed given this man rest from what we had believed concerning him, and we knew that he is a transmitter of ḥadīth and a carrier of a fatwā and narrator of a narration. So we explained that it is only with regard to a meaning from one who transmitted from him, and [1:1]. The narration has been verified that he used to transmit from the righteous servant in this book, and he is a successor of God the Andalusian. He was among the great, distinguished ones, and he would come to this man, describing to him what he receives from the spirit of holiness and the divine light in his heart. And he was in the possession of the author, who understood and was eloquent in his discourse, skilled in literature and language, and possessing powerful rhetorical ability in the craft of writing. He clothed those meanings with literary expressions of a rhetorical mode according to the measure of his understanding. And he had entered into the matter in some places due to the deficiency of his understanding of what that righteous servant brought to him. Among them is this speech [86a] which he said in the chapter "that they are wooden planks firmly propped up," this does not He says, that man originally. We have thus obtained the distinction between what is from him and between what he transmits, upon the basis that I know better about his states than other than me, for I met his children and he was one of understanding and acuity, ·70 and he asked him about the states of his father, and he described states that indicate what we have mentioned of his deficiencies, and in the ḥadīth of his encounter with his shaykh Ibn Khalīl, for him and for his likes there is sufficiency in the gnosis of his state and the constriction of his state, and in his epistle to ʿAbd al-Muʾmin ibn ʿAlī and his words therein regarding his indication toward his own self—and the affair had not been the affair as he mentioned it—and the reversal of the affair upon him indicates that he had not been a realized one in his affair, and that he was ignorant of his rank and his self.
Then he said—may God be pleased with him—: "" [23:14], meaning: the ones who determine— not the ones who bring into existence; because he is Ashʿarī in creed, his saying: "As for the realities, they are appendages, derived from the appendage of the turban and making it resemble it, and it is what hangs down from it, and what he intends from that— he drew near from the Real to the one who drew near from Him from His saying: [53:8-9].
And he had indicated to it at the beginning of this book regarding proximity and elevation and hanging down and attachment, for they are what was intended for their very essences, and they were only intended for the manifestation of the realities of the divine nature and the lineages of lordship, so that the most beautiful names appear and the one named is known, then he is worshipped upon a limit of what is known. He said, exalted be He: [51:56], and for the perfection of existence also and the completion of gnosis, and since the appendages of the turban were departing from a state more fitting, he was alerted that the affair has no extreme for it from the direction of [86b] the beginning, nor from the direction of the end except by the ruling of obligation, not by the ruling of what it is—the form upon it as it is the affair in his self, ·71 And every beginning is added to this matter, or you are described by it, so its manner with us is not in the self of the matter. For this reason the verities (ḥaqāʾiq) were called "the constants" (al-dawāʾib), and that is the gathering of reality (ḥaqīqa), and it is a rank above the truth (al-ḥaqq), extraneous to it, as he said: I am a believer truly (ḥaqqan). The Prophet — may God bless him and grant him peace — said to him:
And this is the truth of the truth (ḥaqq al-ḥaqq) as you say in the plural of the plural (jamʿ al-jamʿ) in the language, like: anāʿīm is the plural of anʿām, and anʿām is a name for a plural (jamʿ), so this is the plural of the plural (jamʿ al-jamʿ). Sometimes one says in it "reality" (ḥaqīqa), and sometimes one says "truth" (ḥaqq) according to what falls in utterance, while the meaning is one in the time.
Then he gave a metaphorical name for it also, I mean from the verities, with (rawāʾiḥ arwāḥ al-ḥayāt), because what this knowledge gives from life — since life belonged to the spirits essentially — the fragrances are according to what reaches the hearts from it, so they come alive by it according to that measure.
And for this reason he said at the end of the chapter: what they said: Indeed for every truth (ḥaqq) there is a reality (ḥaqīqa), and the reality is what your life leads back to, and it is our commentary on the verities (ḥaqāʾiq): that they are what was intended for him by these subtleties (daqāʾiq) and fine points (raqāʾiq) whose mention preceded, and others also from the verities; because the word ʿāmm (general) encompasses all the verities, and it is possible that this man intends by the verities here that which pertains specifically to these subtleties and fine points of humanity; and for this reason he explained them by his saying: , and it is the nearest to his intent, and God knows best.
His saying regarding these realities: it is "the ascending stages of the wayfarers" — he means the seekers, the meanings of kinship to the divine, and the divine names, and that they manifest in the ascending stages for the wayfarers that are the spectacles of lordship, and the divine names, and that they "are ascending stages for the gnostics to the most high," for they are the orbits of the Most High, and from this indication and the divine presence [87:1], for upon them are the elevations of the gnostics to their objects of knowledge from the perspective of what the names are of Him — glory be to Him — not from the perspective of what He requires of them from His effects upon us, for they were for them an ascent to the like of what we indicated to Him of the sciences.
And the Shaykh had said in this meaning: "and He suffices you from that," he says: and He suffices you, "from that, for if you mention the reality, then you have reached the end from the place of the beginning, and you have reached the ultimate end from the origin of generosity," he intends by our saying that the matter is a spherical cycle in the descent of the imaginal, isthmus-like, for you, if you began the circle, its end is the place of its beginning, and it is not then except these four: knowledge, entity, reality, and actuality, and we have mentioned the nobility of the four in number, and that they are an endless count, and it is not after the ultimate end a goal, and it is the reality.
And his saying: "so whoever expanded its carpet" — from the perspective of the signification of the lower world upon it, from His saying — Exalted is He: [71:19], and his saying: "established" — settled and was fixed in his knowledge by the command upon what he is upon — no shaking disturbs it and no doubts affect it, and his saying: "from rode its steeds, the starting-point of the ultimate end" means: in the ascending stages, and the starting-point of the ultimate end is that which the resemblance falls upon — it is that to which the deeds of the servants end, for to it ends what ascends from the lower realm, ·73 and to it terminates what descends from the height. And this indicates to you clearly that what he intended by the realities here is nothing other than what pertains to the subtleties and the fine realities which he mentioned in this book of his, not the realities upon the absolute, for had he intended the realities absolutely, he would have stopped with the establishment upon the Throne (istiwāʾ) and the Burāq and left the Rafraf, which is above [87b] the Burāq and the piercing into the light at the point of parting from the Rafraf, and the address with the prayer (ṣalāh)
Text of the Lord upon the servants, from His saying: [33:43] with the voice of Abū Bakr for humankind by what is witnessed and for the verification of love in the witnessed world. And for this reason the Ṣiddīq said to him on the day of Badr in his supplication: "O God, if You destroy this group, You will not be worshipped," upon the surface of his sound: Stop! Indeed your Lord prays, and that is the address of the highest spirit and the leader of the approaching ones, in the highest realm, the wellspring of life and the translator of the essence, [33:4].
10 Then the Shaykh said after that concerning what approximates the perfection which preceded, and he said – may God be pleased with him –: "The approximation of that is that the heavens and the earth were a joined thing before the splitting, and it was as if it were before the creation of creation," then he said: What this means and its significance is that God, when He created by the splitting, the heavens seven and from the earth their likeness, and He created the atmosphere like that, He made the heavens with a world 15 He created from it, and the atmosphere likewise, and the earth likewise. And when He created the structures upon what He mentioned, He breathed into them spirits from the likenesses of their participation; He named them realities. He created them from what He created from them: their structures. And He has made apparent from the doctrine that he says: Indeed the spirits are followers of the temperament, as we mentioned previously.
Then He deposited the higher world with knowledge, and commanded it to effuse it upon the isthmus world. The isthmus world effuses upon the earthly, and the earthly world is set in motion for action. When action is performed, the spirits of their aspiration ascend upon the steeds of their works [35:10] [88a] to the divine presence of stability and mercy, to the Lote Tree of the furthest boundary. He circumambulates the inhabited House, then transfers to the ʿIlliyyīn, then descends by another descent—a knowledge upon the isthmus from the higher, then descends from the isthmus to the earthly, and events occur in the earthly realm. An action other than that is also a stairway, and one ascends to the higher realm, and events occur— a descent after a descent, until he reaches the earthly realm perpetually and forever—a descent and an ascent upon the pattern of what we have mentioned. The matter is as the Shaykh mentioned, except that what he determined and what he intended by its meaning is not like the image as it is upon it in itself, nor what distinguishes between the works that are not opened for them—the gates of the heaven and between the veils that are pierced, nor whoever receives them in every world among the likenesses that are upon the form of the worker in every world. We have elucidated this station as fulfilled in our book al-Mawsūm with "al-ʿAbādila," and in "al-Tadbīrāt al-Ilāhiyya," and how events occur for them. The names vary according to every divine presence one ascends to, so let one look there, for this chapter in this book is too restricted for anything to be said in it or to be silent about, and had one remained silent about it, that would have been better for him.
Then He made the command a reality and a truth, and He made the lowest to what is above it a reality, and He made what is above it a reality for it, and likewise every lower thing is a reality, and that which is above it—the neighbor—has for it a truth, and that which follows it is a truth, and likewise every lower thing is a reality, and that which is above it, the adjacent, has for it a truth. And He made that in what occurs therein of correspondence and affinity, and this, even if it is not something in relation to the verified knowledge (al-ʿilm al-muḥaqqaq), most resembles the speech that preceded it regarding the ascending stages of works and the descent of knowledges.
⁕ And it is said in the proverb: "A one-eyed person is better than a blind one."
The second part has ended; the third follows it—its translation. The shaykh said: the carpet of the souls and the tranquility of the soul. [88b]