The Third Juzʾ of the Commentary on Khalʿ al-Naʿlayn
Translation of the third part [from the Commentary on the Removal of the Two Sandals and the Putting-on of Light from the Place of the Two Feet] [The second translation of the first section of the third page (the Muḥammadiyyāt): The cheerfulness of intimacy and the tranquility of the soul]
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Text The Shaykh said: "The cheerfulness of intimacy and the tranquility of the soul," and he began to speak first about what he made the cheerfulness of intimacy say: among the listeners in this section of speech and the knowledge by which souls are made intimate, and he composed it gradually for what he arranged in the interior of the book from the hidden depths of secrets, so that no aversion results from it, for affairs that are tremendous—when they arrive suddenly, they are magnified and are not accepted.
The souls, and they feared them, so when they arrived upon the gradual progression, they were not overwhelmed by them, and they looked upon them with the looking of one who is half [89a], since it was something they were accustomed to and close to, except that it would be a soul opposing its like.
The truth along with their gnosis of it—these are the attributes of others. He, the Exalted, said: [27:14], so from the questions of this cheerfulness is His saying, Exalted: [7:172], and the Prophet — may God bless him and grant him peace — said in the commentary on this verse: "When God created Ādam, He stroked his back and extracted from it offspring, likenesses of progeny, and He took from them the covenant and the pact, then He returned them to the loins of Ādam."
The Shaykh said: "This is from this," that is: the ḥadīth is the same as the verse, for it is one single covenant.
Then the Shaykh adduced another ḥadīth that includes a covenant other than this, and he said: "He said — may God bless him and grant him peace —: " The Shaykh said: "This" means: the covenant other than the covenant that preceded in the report and the verse. The Shaykh said: "Both of them" means: the two covenants "were two pledges in
two times and two covenants upon two creations, for the creation of the spiritual [realm] is first, and the creation of the psychic [realm] is last," and this contradicts what he held previously — that God created the earth and created the human being of heavy clay from the light of the earth, and he saw the true reality of the earthly [nature], and it is the human spirits, among what He created from it the human beings.
We say: even if there was between the two reports a surface of comprehensive scope, yet from a distant place, the states and the context of the outward expression gives [the impression] that [389] the distant surface is not what is intended by the author of the book, nor is he knowledgeable of it, so he would be charged with what he did not intend. Indeed, had it been a report from a prophet who knew the knowledge of the first ones and the last ones, or had it been attributed to a world of one who traffics [in knowledge], it would be easy.
Ibn ʿAbd Allāh (d. 2283/896 CE) and ʿAmr ibn ʿUthmān al-Makkī (d. 2297/910 CE) did not intend that this be the surface, so we passed over its mention; because we are upon clear evidence from his affair.
So the Shaykh — may God be pleased with him — when he mentioned the creation of the spiritual [realm] first and the psychic [realm] last, he said:
Text "And for every covenant and compact and sunna regarding a contract and a pact, whether for the spiritual prophecy or other than prophecy, and the acknowledgment of servanthood and the recognition of the obligation of lordship is that one fulfills the allegiance and fulfills the conditions of communication in the origination of the heavy soul," he says: It is obligatory upon every messenger, whether an angel or a human, and this is his statement: "and other than prophecy," the communication then the finding of those addressed [and] the communicating to them, and his statement: "in the origination of the heavy," is specific to prophecy; because it is not obligatory upon them to communicate except after the existence of their bodily souls as it occurred, and in his speech there is much filling and lengthening from other than benefit.
Commentary "And for the human soul, the human and other than the human," he means by other than the human the jinn; because it was sent to them. He said: "After the recognition of servanthood and the acknowledgment of the obligation of lordship, that he fulfills the spiritual and fulfills the conditions of following and listening to the prophetic," on the day of the covenant of the prophetic," his statement: "The recognition of servanthood and the acknowledgment of the obligation of lordship," he means: That they acknowledge that those who communicate are servants of God, exalted, lordly ones, meaning: He gave them a portion of lordship. They used to take him as a master over us, [90] and the evidence that he intended that is that he had said at first when He admitted them in his statement: "other than prophecy," and so He made them the address of recognition of servitude and the acknowledgment of the obligation of lordship, and he had said: [7:172], so for this we said regarding servanthood and lordship what we said.
And his saying: "that he fulfill the conditions of following," and it is submission to what is followed in the active disposition, and what is repugnant to it, and what the intellect accepts and what it pauses regarding or rejects, it is incumbent upon him in this station to follow him in it. And his saying: "and listening," he means taking that from him with courtesy, and the report has come that when the Prophet recited — peace and blessings of God be upon him — Sūrat al-Raḥmān to his Companions, he said to them: "Indeed I recited it to the jinn, and they were better in listening to it than you, and they would say in every instance: 'So which of the favors of your Lord will you both deny?'" [55:13], "We do not deny, O our Lord," with the presence of courtesy."
And his saying: "for the prophetic tidings," he says of the image of the informing report, from a being of that informing— about the Real, "on the day of the coming of the prophetic tidings": the day of its informing, and it is the time of the existence of the one informed being informed, and he did not say: the one foretold; because he intended to verify the one foretold through the attribute of the prophetic tidings, verifying it to inform him about himself in it, until the informing was by a report, and it was from an attribute of the informing that stood by it, and it is the Prophet, without any existing thing, and this is a state of absolute perfection in conveying, and it is the one whom this shaykh intended, and there is no alternative, for it is speech that is neither verified nor restricted, for it resembles in the context of his speech, for the command with the difference of that is as such, and it occurred. Then he adduced as evidence what he said, with His saying, exalted be He: [7:6] — "Were the messengers sent to you?" [7:6] — "What did you answer them?" [7:7], His saying, exalted be He: [90a] "What does it mean, 'What did you answer them?'" His saying, exalted be He: [7:7] — what He mentioned of His action with them, and what will be from them, upon knowledge from Us.
[7:7] that is: what was from them and what will be witnessed by Us in knowledge and concretely, and the agreement of the verse: [7:7], that is: We witnessed the conveying of the messengers, and We witnessed what they responded, and indeed it falls—the question being so that the proof belongs to God from every aspect, [21:112] and He, glory be to Him, is what is judged only by truth, for He is truly specific, determined; they know it and do not deny it, for it is what—every truth is known as in obligation, what every truth is brought near and not commanded by it, for the absence and the calumny and things resembling that are truth and it is forbidden to come with them, likewise some truth is unknown, denied, as some truth is denied, and some falsehood is known, brought near to God, exalted be He.
The Shaykh said: "And when the seed was brought forth in the covenant of the self-based upon forms of the seed," he says: small in its measure with its own self in its origin, since it knew that its affair is greatness in measure and seeking the loftiness and elevation upon the children of the genus, he says: for this reason it grasped it upon the form of the seed so that it might know its measure.
The Shaykh said: "And their measure in the judgment is the decisive that measure, for if it were from an affair of the self-based greatness in measure and the adornment through pride and the raising up above the other in secret and openly, He seized it, glory be to Him, upon the least of the properties of existence, and the smallest of subtleties of bringing-into-being which is known, and He presented upon it and its equilibrium and its measure, and He acquainted it with its goal and its smallness," His saying: "and to the side of it the noble angels," meaning: the angels, then He said: "and the human creation [95:4], He means the spirit [91a] the human, and the matter is not like that, ·81 And it is only the establishment of this state as an image before its descent to the lowest of the low, or the likeness of existence upon the form of creation in the higher spiritual world.
Then He described what would be from the saying of the Real to it, and He said – may God support him –: Text
Commentary and you did not diminish your share from these states of the world, and you acknowledged and submitted and were humbled and abased,» meaning: by those spiritual states the first, meaning: the angels, » [95:4], he says: as if He says to it: If you were in a state of your bodily form as you were upon it in the taking of the covenant of your felicity, this is the content of His words.
Then He said to it: and He mentioned the opposite and what resulted from the form of the people of the Fire, for it is known what is needed of mention and not of explanation.
Then He said: and He took to repeat what preceded upon the aspect of explanation and elaboration, and the elucidation, for we do not need to mention it also, for it is clear.
Then He said: He intends verse the taking and verse of the covenant of the prophets and verse of the covenant of those who were given the Book, and He said: And as for what came from among them, what came with His saying – peace be upon him –: ·82 we knew that creation is preceded by it and divested of it, meaning by that the state of His saying, exalted be He, to those who believed: [—91] the lowest level of reflection that does not ignore this question.
Commentary His saying: "and because He did not appear when He appeared except from an engendered being that is existent," he is saying: He transitioned from one existence to another existence, that is: He was existent then became existent. He intended the first existence as something known to God, exalted be He, and this is something known to every rational person. Had he applied to it the substitution of engendered being, the proof of permanence would have been stronger, and this has been said of it, and it is the school of Abī al-Ḥakam (d. 536 AH/1142 CE), and the creation of many among the scholars in general. It is a question that is profoundly obscure, and it is confirmed by whoever went to the school that this is the school; His saying, exalted be He: [16:40].
The meaning that he intended is correct, and the expression by which he expressed it on his behalf has not been well-supported, and its proof is what the one who disagrees with him regarding this question went to, which is His saying, exalted be He: [19:9], and from these two things the disagreement arose.
And his saying: "from where, inwardly," it is correct because things have immutable entities that are non-existent before their existence, then the state of existence accrues upon them. Had he said the like of this expression, or firstly the substitution of engendered being, it would have been in agreement with all the scholars from the standpoint that there is no existence in opposition to a meaning other than that.
Commentary His saying: "and for a command descending," he means His saying, exalted be He: [65:12]. And His saying, exalted be He: [51:56]. And His saying — peace be upon him —: > "There is nothing more beloved to God, exalted be He, than that He be praised."
And his saying: "and a decisive word" — he says what the divine Word preceded with regarding their bringing-into-being in their entities, for their entities and for their likenesses.
Commentary And his saying: "And the outward sense sought from it is the one specifically designated by the life [92b] of the imamate in it,
something sought through the attainment of the desired, for that purpose and the aspiration for it" — he means by the outward the subtle aspect from it, the aspect of the human, spiritual, addressed [dimension]; for the corporeal had no consideration for it except in its being a locus, whether angel or king. The spirit is the one specifically designated from it by the imamate. His saying: [2:30] — truly and by way of interpretation: Adam. And the earth: that which is known, and an indication and a drawing of attention to it. And rather [what is meant by] "earth" is the earth of bodies, and the subtle human, spiritual aspect is the one managed by it, the one established over what it has acquired of what is sought through the attainment of the desired regarding its truth and the aspiration for what is cast upon it of the divine remembrance.
Commentary And his saying: "something incumbent upon him" — rather he is commanded by it, not something incumbent upon him. And had it been something incumbent upon him as he said, he would not have been taken to account for associating partners nor for denial. And for this reason, when this man did not know the signification of the word "guilt" in the law, he took to interpreting guilt by the signification of the obligation, and said: "The guilt that if one is oblivious of it or neglects it regarding something of it" — what he intended by "guilt" here is the command.
He said: "It was witnessed through it with the certainty of knowledge," meaning: when the veil is removed for him at death, not before it. Then he said: "And the proof stood upon him," that is: it appeared. "The proof of the adversary," meaning: whoever was calling him to the unification of God, and they are the messengers and the scholars. He said: "And upon him ran the decree of the judgment of justice and governance in the decisive matter," meaning what was written for him in God's knowledge of wretchedness in the abode of the hereafter.
Commentary Then he said: "For that reason God—exalted is He—said, after the acknowledgment of lordship and the testimony to it," meaning: the context of the verse, [7:172], a rank for whoever reflected. [7:173] [92b] offspring from after them. [7:173], a rank of one who was born and did not reflect, and so they contend in ranks.
And wretchedness is in wretchedness from wherever it is wretchedness, and it may be that some of it is more wretched than some.
On the basis of the measure of what God appointed for the degree of that, and for the imitation if it was taken as a degree: if he was not taken by it and took to associating [others with God], then for him is the wretchedness of associating, and for the other two wretchednesses are by condition; and that the heedless one be striving and his striving led him to association or denial, and he did not have in his intent anything more than that. And as for what was established—if he left reflection in that, then it is the same, and the imitator in governance equally—this discourse is in the explanation of the verse, not in the intent of the author of the book, and we intended by that to clarify the sites of the address of the Divine to His servants in His book.
Then¹ the Shaykh said — may God be pleased with him —: "And by what the truthful, the real one knew — may God bless him and grant him peace — that we are the last ones, the first ones," the Shaykh said: "So the priority became his² and for his community outwardly," this is speech that is not established, for he did not leave seeking precedence in it except for the proximity of a state he attributed to that, then he said: "And if the afterworldly³ the lower-worldly were his, manifestly" this is correct, then he said: ⁵ "And by what he said," meaning: the Prophet — peace be upon him —, that he was the first from whom the earth split open from him⁴, this ḥadīth also supports our statement, in what this Shaykh said, that it is speech that is not established for what we mentioned of the excuse from him regarding that, for indeed he — peace be upon him — [rather] what he said "the first from whom will split open the earth from him is I and my community"⁷ — this is a proof upon him and if he were not ignorant of that, the Shaykh said with this ḥadīth: "It is verified⁸ as being obligatory and as a binding ruling," this is a ruling [93a] ¹⁰ whose apparent and inner meaning of the ḥadīth contradicts it, and its limit and its objective, and rather what establishes this ruling as binding is the one who claimed that it was established for him by what he witnessed after that, and he said: "God Most High said:
you worship»⁹ and [21:104]."
The Shaykh said: "Likewise the bodily return in the traditional from the isthmus-like spiritual one is the first of what is counted¹¹ upon our father Ādam — peace be upon him —, then the sunna is operative and the ruling ¹⁵ is operative upon the ruling of mutual succession and the pattern of procreation¹², so Muḥammad and his community will be last in the encounter¹³ of the bodily as they were last in the beginning of the lower-worldly creation, and they will be¹⁴ first in the arising of the otherworldly as they were first in the arising of the spiritual."
We said: If the intent of this man by this discourse is the interpretation of the report and the verses, then what he has is a report with the content of that, and not by the state that occurred from the denial of restoration, and it was sent down concerning them. This is the verse, and if he was claiming that it is an example for him in his unveiling of that, then it is conceded to him as his unveiling, and there remained the discourse: does he uncover for him the command upon what he is upon, or not? In that there is a pause, and not especially And in it there are contradictions, due to what he believes in regarding the Companions of the Cave and al-Khiḍr and Ilyās and whoever was delayed from among a people of Yūnus, and they are from the community, and they have precedence in the affair of the worldly life. So from among them are from the community of Muḥammad who are delayed in the joining of bodily forms, and they were not last in the beginning of creation of the worldly life. Likewise he claimed, and upon his saying [7:29] from what he interpreted, and it would be that these mentioned ones are those preceding in the joining of bodily forms [93b] because they are ones brought forward in the beginning of the creation of the worldly life, and the discourse of this shaykh who we mentioned—he is between one explained; because he intended by it the verses and the report, so we do not need to go to its explanation, nor to a clarification of what the command is upon him in it. For I am an expounder of his discourse, so it is not incumbent upon me to verify knowledge upon what the command is upon him in himself, except that it compels me to that—discourse that leads me to a wound in the religion, and the discourse of this man is by the praise of God protected from that, for it is from a believer, a Muslim.
Then he said—may God be pleased with him—:
Where is he from His saying – peace be upon him –: "the Companion Most High"? When he was given the choice, and where is the pleasure of beholding upon the stripping away from beholding with the restriction? This is a light that was absent from him, and had he intended his community by this, he would not have directed toward the honor and rank, for indeed pleasure, whenever it becomes subtle, becomes immense, and rather his prophecy was delayed and his genesis was held back for the affair of another, so that his law would not overtake what his copy abrogated, and so that there would not appear in what is other than it any deficiency. He said – peace be upon him –: "Had Mūsā been alive, he would have had no choice but to follow me"; since the word of divinity has been verified, should there not be in this cycle of concealment a law that is accepted, other than his law? And God is All-Knowing, All-Wise.
Then he said – may God be pleased with him –: meaning: the Prophet – peace be upon him –
the dominion, and beneath the shade of the merciful gifts, and behind the veils of the unseen, and before the spring of the hearts, sheltered in the glory of
a holy self, and purity of a sanctified breath, and bliss of an intimate soul,» This opposes his instruction in the first of his path, and this discourse does not need an explanation except for what pertains to the specification of these stations and states [94b] which he mentioned, and a detailed exposition shall come in the book regarding their repetition as signs, for the questions to be settled shall be directed to them.
Then he took this — the Shaykh – may God be pleased with him – instructing the delay of his prophecy with an instruction other than what resembles that of the first, and it is better. Nay, it is not said regarding it that it is better, due to the absence of beauty in the first instruction, and so he said:
care for his community by it.» ·88 Then he said – may God be pleased with him –: "They are the last ones in return, the first ones in primordial origination, and the last ones in the mundane, and the first ones in the eschatological." His saying: "in primordial origination" means: in the appearing from what began to appear when it manifested. And his saying: "the last ones in return" means: in the thing of manifestation from what began to appear when it manifested. And his saying: "the last ones in return" means: in the isthmus nature, as he determined it.
We say: when He returned them according to the pattern of mundane procreation in their bodies, they are not in that state in the isthmus, for what is in the isthmus is return in an isthmus-like manner; for the world of the isthmus is bodies, not bodies. And these bodies that are resurrected on the Day of Resurrection are sensory, witnessed bodies, not isthmus-like. For had the isthmus been a momentary glimpse indicating the unseen, it would have been more resembling. And if it were not sound from every perspective, his saying: "and the last ones in the mundane" means: in the thing, "and the first ones in the eschatological" means: in resurrection, and this is repeated speech.
He said: "And he is also Adam of the prophets in the first covenantal" means: in the covenant of the prophets. And Adam preceded the thing in the other primordial origination. If he intended return, then speech has contradicted, for it is upon other than the pattern of the thing in the primordial origination. And if he intended by it resurrection, then what satisfies the speech is its due, for it is not said therein "thing."
As for his saying: "So Adam was the thing in the first covenantal," if he intended resemblance [94b] in causation, then what is in the report is what indicates it. And if he intended priority, then what is in the report is what indicates it also, and that is the intent of interpreting the report. So it is void. If he claimed unveiling, we would ask him for it and he did not have with me what I would turn to him in its entirety. And if he intended admonition upon his saying – upon him be peace –: "I was a prophet while Adam was between water and clay," then this is the divine presence, not that one. For if that is the divine presence of their gathering, and for this there is another meaning that is not that.
Commentary His saying: and what he intended – and God is most knowing – by the goodness of his conjecture about it, by his saying "this" is that the pronoun refers to the state of return and origination, that it is perpetual and everlasting as has preceded in his saying: "a return upon an origination and a recurrence upon a recurrence, perpetually and forever," and that he intended that this recurrence does not change and does not alter, but it is upon what it is; no deficiency befalls it like what occurs upon the beginning from alteration and corruption and dissolution and removal of forms, but it is a perplexity for the observer in his speech, making it a sunna and a wisdom, and this is what is conjectured about it, and God is most knowing.
Then he said: "And as for quiddity in grasping, and ipseity in engendered being, what remains beneath the cover of concealment
and behind the veil of sound," meaning: unveiling of the reality in that, its meaning leads to the point that one asks about it one who is qualified for it, and he said: "so that the mighty trembling one is reassured," that is: a guarantor, who desires a preserver of a trust, or who addresses a noble equal, for it is as if he established a quiddity, but rather something unknown to some intellects, and it is a great question: is it for the Real—how is it unknown, or not? How does He have [something] while the totality has said that it is not conditioned upon either of the two meanings.
And as for his saying: "Ipseity in engendered being is something known in the estimation of every knower through the revealed law, without doubt
and falsehood," [95a] if he intends by ipseity the locus of His creation or the Garden or when He descended to the earth, then this is a general investigation indeed, and it is loftier than that, but what is apparent from his speech regarding what comes after is that he intended some of these places, and even if it were not far, this, from his state.
For he is saying after this "but only as one who makes hear and gives news of it," in the accusative with an omitted [word], meaning: I mention or I shall describe, saying nominally and alerting to the essential nature and modality, or to one of the two, according to the measure of what appears from his speech, and the context of his testimonies.
He said – may God be pleased with him –: "God the Exalted said: " [38:71-72] And he said: [95:4-5]." Then he took – May God be pleased with him – in the commentary upon what He gave him, and his understanding of it, he said: "The spirit (rūḥ), the one breathed in Adam – upon him be peace – with the soul (nafs) which is a spouse for him and outwardly manifest upon him," and he means: the soul that was animal, by which the body of the human being was a phantasm, [and] that which was by it a human being, he said: "It is a light that returns upon the spirit (rūḥ), the one breathed in," and he said: "It is the light of the primordial reality, the first," meaning the spirit (rūḥ) the totality, from His saying [38:72].
Then he took to attribute the primordial reality, the first, which is this breathed-in [spirit], from it, he likened its flash, the highest, and in likening it to lightning as speech the commentator extends in his citations, for it is two lightnings: a lightning of the heart and other than the heart. So did he liken it to the likeness of the two lightnings for two levels upon which the human being is, or to the likeness of the lightning of the one alone?
Then he said in the description of the universal spirit: "And as for in its essence, it is an imposition of that light and a sun of that light and the clear illumination, and it is the lightning flash of tears, the overwhelming of the deluge [95b] from its imposition, the scattering of lights, and in its holiness is the delight of the spirits of life," he spoke in this according to the way of the primordial.
5 Then he said in the second rank: "And as for the light which was in it [95:4], and the holiest of blessings, [12:76]," meaning the knower is found upon a knower, and the most knowing, for he means by that about himself that he knew what no other knew in terms of the modality of taking and the innate nature of engendered being, or he says: "This is my knowledge, and perhaps other than me knows better than me regarding this question," but this is what is verification, because knowledge does not overturn its reality, but there may be found a matter which, for many aspects, is known.
10 Among them is a knower of one aspect, and another knows more than that, so the most knowing of it is by the aspects which were found for it. That is the matter, not by the self of the matter, for knowledge is equal in the self of the matter, and the meaning of [12:76], that is: the known things of some of the scholars are more than some, and this is the light which he mentioned. He said regarding it, the Shaykh: "It is the Muḥammadan light, and the veil of the existential lordly one to which the angel prostrated, and upon it the dominion was extended, and by it the heavens stood, and from it the grace began, and to it the connection returns,
15 and by it servitude was necessitated and sovereignty was established, and by it the imāmate was obligated and leadership was verified, and dignity and felicity were confirmed," he intends by this speech the incoming report, and if it is not firmly established, that were it not for Muḥammad – upon him be peace – God would not have brought the world into existence, ·92 And this report is not sound, and the speech is entirely understood, and a group from the people of this path have gone to this, and we have mentioned this state as having been fulfilled in the book .
Then the Shaykh said: "And indeed God Most High, when He willed from the matter of trial what He willed," the trial here is the obligation, [96a] "and He willed from the matter of affliction and choosing what He willed, and He perfected the excellence with Adam, and He established," meaning: the excellence of existence is perfected by it; because it is the last existent being and the first thing intended; since he was an imām and a vicegerent, the angelic realm was made subservient to him, and for this reason the other [realm] is ruined by his departure to it, "the Hour shall not come until there remains not upon the face of the earth anyone who says: God, God."
He said: "He wiped upon his back that wiped surface, the lofty one, by which he brought forth the building,
the building of buildings, and he took the covenant of the prophets and the truthful ones," this has come out in the taking of the covenant concerning his intended meaning by the gesture toward modality and howness, then he said: "and he established them from the creation
altogether," he returned to the matter of the wiping of the seedbed, then he said: "and He determined them upon lordship," he intends lexically, he said: "and witnessing servanthood," he intends its meaning; because what occurred for it in the matter of utterance, but he gave it the meaning.
Then he said: "All of that is to see His wisdom and to make manifest His determining," meaning: the Supreme Assembly sees it as the highest, and we, he intends the wisdom of the perfection of existence, not the wisdom of existence, for it becomes manifest through a single existent being and its determining becomes clear, in the creation of perfection, and He is the One whom al-Ghazālī intended by his saying: There is no more wondrous than this world in the realm of possibility, ·93 he described himself in the image of the state with power over perfection, and this is a problematic question, for you, however much you make it that He has power over the most perfect of what He originated, up to what has no end for it, you have indicated that the creation of perfection does not enter under possibility, and the Real is not described with power over it, and for this whoever falls into the impossible in his ignorance of what he mentioned — may God be pleased with him —, this is the meaning of his saying:
Text in what we have explained from the sense of his expression, not in what he intended.
Then he said: [96b] his proof» meaning: the supports, and as for the Muslim, he does not dispute, for he is upon the assessment that if creation altogether were to resist, the proof of God would stand against them, he said: he means the elevation above the how, and God knows best his school, he said: This is a negative description, he said: as if he is in his claim attributing upon the essentiality of engendered being, and the essentiality is a spatial thing, not a state.
His saying: he means the life of the progeny that stands through them the content that is in the life that is in the loins of Ādam, and he means in the loins of the species, so the lām and the alif are for the genus, that is: the life that is in the loins of every father, and he does not mean that in the aspect of what is correct, for the life that obtains for the progeny is only that which obtains in the bellies of the mothers, not in the loins of the fathers, and when it was that the seminal fluid of Ādam was deposited in him — he meant that the life, even if its repository was in the bellies of the mothers, was from the seminal fluid of Ādam — so it was only below it, so the seminal fluid was in Ādam in this time, and the loins were, and there was no alternative to Ādam, ·94 And he also intends all lineages, because building is from water, and water is the source of life, and it is in the loins of every father. He said, exalted is He: [86:6], meaning: the gushing water, and it is that which emerges in agitation. He likened it to the wave [86:7]; so he spoke according to the reality of the place of 5. water, specifying the loins because of what God mentioned regarding the back, and sons are created from the two waters. According to us, this is legislatively, and according to the naturalists, from the water of the man specifically, and that the water of the woman—nothing is created from it. This is nothing, and Abū Ṭālib al-Makkī had invalidated that regarding ʿĪsā—peace be upon him—for he was from the water of [97a] Maryam specifically. He said the shaykh, regarding the mention of the surging of water, that it was his station: "the primordial judgment," meaning: The surging "for the manifestation of the evident singular impulse," meaning: in the effusion of the seed "and a separating word" to manifest 10. the thing of the heart upon that: the primordial founding, and the primordial judgments of the eternal, and the gradual descent of the everlasting." He intended by that the perpetual generation through gradual temporal descent, for it is cut off as God informed. So it came with the expression of the everlasting and the perpetual in other than its proper place, broadly and metaphorically.
Then the shaykh began to speak about the form of finding the mutual proportionality and the building through gradual descent in the realm of witnessing, upon what appeared in the taking of Ibn Muʿayyin from a father Muʿayyin. God intended in that taking the teaching of the natural disposition: how this sentence is derived upon what the wisdom gives it 15. through temporal gradual descent, until every person is found in his time; because He [41:12] its command, and the celestial one has already been made by God to have a trace in the lower [realm] through what He revealed to it. So it is as if God is the teacher of the totality and the one who makes them know.
So this Shaykh said: , meaning: knowledge reached the placing of affairs in their proper places, , that is: the decree, destiny, and engendered being were established, , he means the irāda with increase in engendered being. He said: [68b] free from hesitation, and the prevailing one over the obstacles to occurrence , that is: for the senses, in sequence, is the ordering of creation, , and that is four months, for the drop—the first thing the womb receives is the drop in the hand of an angel of the seventh heaven, who holds it for a month, then after that the Real commands him to deliver it to an angel of the sixth heaven, who holds it for a month, and creation occurs in it during that period through alteration and transformation from state to state, 10. then he transfers it in the third month to an angel from the angels of the fifth heaven, then he said: in the fourth [month] he transfers it to an angel of the fourth heaven, and at that point the spirit is blown into it by the decree of the Almighty, the All-Knowing, and the ordering of human creation in the womb has been fully explained in some of our books, concerning increase and decrease, male and female and hermaphrodite—and this difficulty constrains him, for it is the locus of explaining the speech of a person who has no speech based on knowledge from the standpoint of what he is.
- The Shaykh said regarding this spirit that is blown: , he means the covenant that the Spiritual one took upon the prophets, the veiled one in the act of origination, and for that reason he said: he means a covenant of taking the seed from the back.
"and the soul (al-nafsāniyya) the lowest, which was the seed of humanness and the kernel of the soul (al-nafsāniyya)," he means His word, Exalted: [4:1], so He referred to it with the seed and the kernel, and it is of the soul (nafsāniyya). Then he said: "and He raised it up," he means He made, "the soul (al-nafsāniyya) in the grasp of the bodily (al-jismāniyya) as a veil upon
the luminous, and a covering upon that reality [69a] the spiritual (al-rūḥāniyya)," that is: the subtle divine ⁕ and the spiritual (al-rūḥāniyya) expressed by the reality of the human being that is established by it and managed by it and governing over it, veiled in essence by the veil of the soul (al-nafsānī) which is the animal spirit, and concealed by the covering of the bodily (al-jismānī) which is the heavy thing, and it is the body.
He said: "until it reaches the utmost of the human (al-basharī)," that is: the human being reaches his utmost end in manifestation; since the field of vision of the eyes and the range of sight and the vantage point of the onlooker were, he said: "and the establishment of the heart (al-qalbī)," he says: and until it also reaches the establishment, he means His word: [82:9], and His word: [82:7], so your measure is the receptive preparedness (istiʿdād) for receiving what is breathed into it, he said: "then the precedence (al-qidam) is the real (al-ḥaqq)," he means the outward thing "its establishment is the reality, the supreme (al-ʿulwiyya)," that is: his subtle spiritual reality, he said: "and the wisdom of the everlasting (al-ṣamadāniyya)," he means: by the divine knowledge (al-ilāhī) its establishment, which is the refuge and the escape unto Him, for the everlasting (al-ṣamad) is the One to whom refuge is sought in all matters.
He said: because he has with him the root of spirituality. He said: "from its excellences"—the "Adamic" here means the primordial Adamic nature, not lineage to Adam, for he has already said in what preceded in the spiritual nature as Adam in the corporeal nature, so he named him Adam with the name known for the primordial nature in the corporeal 5 —the one who is Adam—upon him be peace—and he also said: "The Muḥammadan reality extends him from my radiance," meaning its lights, the eternal ones," meaning its lights that do not cease in this world or the next.
And his statement: "And when he separated from Adam—upon him be peace—that is the Muḥammadan light and the innermost consciousness of the eternal grasp of honor," meaning the one that the Real took from the back of Adam, "he did not return to the pure state except having arisen from the veil of passion and the youth of humanness," which is 10 that of a covering and garment, a shirt of desire," and the pronoun [69b] refers to the one who is that which returns upon the veil and the youth, then he said: "What veiled the light" and "what" here is the agent of "arose" and it is in the position of elevation, and it is a name, "and it blew with the lamp of meaning," that is: a breeze blew upon this lamp and its wind.
And he said: "And he possessed the locus of extension of life," he says: and he confined the spirit of life from 15 its flow, the content of this speech is Adam's occupation with Eve, and his inclination toward it from the direction that was created for it, and it is that he does not cease in the divine witnessing-place most exalted, and there is no escape for the natural constitution from a ruling that appears at a time, and he was veiled from that by the veil and the blowing with the lamp of the spiritual.
So he said: "And the sanctuary protected," that is: some things were forbidden upon him by the prohibition of eating, and it is the first imposition of obligation, and it is a matter of non-existence, that is: do not do.
He said: meaning: there occurred what was obligatory upon the guardian when it occurred, he said: "So what was, was" and he described the quiddity of Adam.
He said: "Had it been with the Muḥammadan light and the Ṣamadī mystery," he means: had he stopped with the knowledge and not been made to forget "the Ṣamadī mystery," meaning: he was with his simple spirituality, not with his burdensome constitution ٥ which seeks nourishment; because the ṣamad that has no hollow interior — the ṣamad here is contrary to the ṣamad in the first sense.
Then he made to mention speech between us — it is something legislated within himself, not needing explanation nor needing elaboration, yet there is in it what is correct and what is deficient, and our purpose was not discourse upon the matter regarding what is the truth incumbent upon him, but rather our purpose was the elucidation of what was obscure in his speech and what appeared from it, so there is no ١٠ need to go to its mention. So we left off speech for its elucidation from this place to his saying: "and for this reason the knowers of the
judgment know it, the departing ones" — the indication by this to what preceded of the discourse, and it is a separation of the messengers, some of them over others, by the signs and the followers. This is the content of his speech that we left.
The Shaykh said [70]: "Among that is that the night is the outward of the day and that the day is the inward of the night," he mentions speech whose content is that he made time from the first of the existence of Adam to the end of time a day and a night, ١٥ and he incorporated in this place the complete messages of the messengers, and he made whoever was sent in the night from among them few in followers, and whoever was sent in the day, from among them his followers were many, and there has come regarding that a report, ·99 This is the content of the chapter in its entirety, and his doctrine therein is that every single one of the prophets is superior from one aspect and surpassed from another aspect, and that they are in reality equal in following, and he gathered between one who was followed from among those who follow through his striving and his discernment in that, and so requital fell upon intentions, and he erred and was correct, and he did not verify that verification in the expression concerning what is intended, and many things escaped him in the chapter of disparity, and he made the master among them one who was given much abundance but did not give much in return, according to the saying of the Prophet—upon him be peace—: > "I am the most giving in return among you to the nations."
Then he said at the end of the chapter on the disparity of the messengers: "That there is an indication of what leads to the interior of the times" and a secret in the beginning of the engendered beings, then he took to saying: Indeed the like of this is sealed and not disclosed, for it is "The deep sea and the vast open expanse," and silence about it is more appropriate, for it through the expression about it may cause blindness in the sight. And he likened its effulgence to the pouring of oil, abundant in the lamp of the thin wick of fine precision, and it shines with the oil and is nearly extinguished, and the farthest—may God have mercy on him—what he is close to, until the listener imagines that he remained silent concerning a mighty matter, and perhaps what he has of that is indeed a mighty matter, for the common people have held in esteem among matters what is not held in esteem by the scholars, and so he indicated that it had been the disparity in time and existence, and this is easy and clear, and the Sacred Law has already clarified it and made it evident.
So know that the disparity is of two types: one of exclusive specification, and one that is not of exclusive specification; as for the one of exclusive specification, we have no speech concerning it, for indeed God [3:74] from among His servants, ·100 So the suckling infant dies and is raised [70b] to ʿIlliyyīn, and the disbeliever submits at the moment of death, and it is not for him a deed other than his Islam, so God gives him whatever He wills of the spring of grace, not of the spring of recompense, due to the absence of being recompensed for it. As for the other preferencing that is external to the specificity, it is through divine enabling (tawfīq) and guidance from that. And as for the preferencing between the two persons by time, like the deed on the day of the Friday gathering, and the day of ʿArafa, and the days of Ramaḍān, and what the revealed law mentioned of the nobility of the deed and its merit in some times, the worker in them is preferred over the worker from the standpoint of time, and it may be by place, like the one praying in the sanctuary of Mecca and Medina and Jerusalem and the shores of the seas, and the one praying in other than them among the places from the standpoint of spatial location specifically, and the preferencing may also be by deeds, as one who performed and another , and the preferencing may be by states, like the one praying in the congregation, and the one praying alone, and the one praying who contemplates his prayer, and the one praying while he is in a state of heedlessness and self-talk, and both of them are rewarded by the revealed law, and the merit between them is concealment therein. And he has said regarding times: "The best of centuries is my century," and he mentioned the three centuries, then he mentioned the deed at the end of time in the absence of the helper, and his being joined to the most meritorious of centuries. So this too is from the preferencing of times, and from it also is the one rising, the distances are aided at the place of the drop of the infant and at the birth of his mother, so the person is prepared for the acceptance of the virtues, and knowledge is given to other than him contrary to that, and this is a temporal preferencing, and perhaps our companion was silent about this measure, especially given what was reported in the report from the saying about the stars, ·101 And he knew that this censure is assigned to whoever attributes the act to it, or whoever attributes the act to God because of it. As for whoever makes the act for God in its presence, not because of it [71a], this one is not reached by any censure legally, for he informed how God placed the affairs in His engendered being and carried out His custom in His creation, and linked it with a governance-based, knowledge-based linkage. There is no repeller of His command, and [13:41], and this is the one He mentioned—it is not from the exposition of the Book.
5. And it is only for what was indicated to him by His saying, as a reference to "the loci of times and the beginning of the states," and it is the rising of the distances.
Then he said—may God be pleased with him—: Text He said: Commentary
10. upon him be peace—: "Do not differentiate between the prophets."» We say: this is speech, all of it, that is unedited; there is no benefit in it. As for its meaning in his saying—upon him be peace—: "Do not differentiate between the prophets," it is that each one of them is a distinguished one who is preferred. And they are equal in that they are messengers and prophets, for the message and prophethood
15. refer back, each attribute of the two, to a single limit and a single reality, and this is known by every ignorant person. So how is the knower! And people have not distinguished between them in their being prophets [or] not messengers, but rather from another matter. So the Lawgiver blocked this door upon them, and said: "Do not differentiate between the prophets," ·102 For the most excellent among them in knowledge of God is only known through God's making known, and God has not made us know. So how can one make a judgment upon what is in the soul of the Creator regarding the right of some of His servants over the nearness of the most particular? And ʿĪsā – upon him be peace – said, in what the Truth, exalted be His majesty, informed us about him: [5:116]. So for this reason he said – upon him be peace –: "Do not show preference among the prophets," teaching us proper conduct with God, for He is the educator who gives sincere counsel – may God bless him [71b] and grant him peace –, and how could it not be so when he said – upon him be peace –: "Indeed God has disciplined me and made excellent my discipline," [33:4].
[Section] The Shaykh said: "Section: And this discourse is general regarding all the prophets, encompassing all the messengers from the time of Ādam to ʿĪsā – upon them both be peace –." He means his statement – may God be pleased with him –: "Do not show preference among the prophets," then he said – may God be pleased with him –: "Since the wisdom of prophethood has come to an end," he made it a seal by way of consideration of what preceded, and said: "The cycle of sovereignty returned to ʿĪsā, in the return of the temporal nature upon the eternal nature." He said: The Most High: [3:59]. So he singled out by this the discourse in its entirety specifically for Muḥammad – upon him be peace – from among the totality of the prophets, and singled out for him his cycle and his uniqueness – may God bless him and grant him peace – because of reports she narrated through his mastery over others and his precedence over them, and because he – upon him be peace – meant by his statement: "Do not show preference among the prophets" whoever is equal to him among them, and he stripped his soul away from them, ·103 There is no clear (jalī) text that indicates what he mentioned in this elaboration from a book nor from a sunna, but rather there are intimations, and when we saw him objecting regarding what he mentions to the reports from the Book and the Sunna, we knew that he is a commentator upon it, expressing his understanding therein, not that he speaks from a command that the Real (al-Ḥaqq) unveiled to him in his knowledge, or addressed him in his innermost consciousness (sirr), or made him witness in likenesses of subtle allusion in his sleep, other than what he knew
5 of what was unveiled to him and a concealment of his state. Therefore he directed himself in some of his questions to objecting against him, because he contradicted himself in his statements, and in all that he went to, rather most of it not all of it—we do not accuse him of it for the sake of his particularity, but rather we accuse him of the reports, or for the sake of a discussion whose origin has been established in his speech. So we refute his speech with his own speech, and most of his speech is governed by what is sheer, and had we been occupied [72v] with the discussion of his statements—what is sound from his book in our estimation, save a little—yet I did not object
10 against that except in some matters compulsorily not by choice, and its cause is what we have mentioned; because he did not object against speaking from his unveiling (kashf), but rather he spoke from the method that we alerted to, from the commentary of a report concordant with what he would convey to him from what God, the One who intended by this book all that he wished to confirm by it upon him with what he finds in his creation, and he was a man who was illiterate.
15 The Shaykh said: "And as for the master of the messengers and the imām of the first and the last, there is no particularity for him in this modification, nor is there any opposition of a remembrance in this sending down." He means by "modification" his statement: , and he means by "sending down" [3:59].
Then he said in his discourse regarding the truth of it—peace be upon him—: "For what was the knot of the circle" this is an outward contradiction, for it was not the knot of the circle except for ʿĪsā, for he says in it: "The cycle was completed," "and the judgment of prophethood was sealed," and that by which the cycle is completed is without doubt the one who knots it and manifests through it its perfection, and Muḥammad—peace be upon him—is but the beginning of another cycle, and it is the cycle of sovereignty, and for this reason this man said in it: "and it was" meaning: Muḥammad—upon him be peace—"the beginning of the hereafter and the antecedent of the outward formations, so a house is not measured against a house of abode, nor a measure of quantity against a measure of quantity," and if there is in this discourse a contradiction of what preceded, then it is a clear proof of that.
Then this shaykh said in his commentary on his saying—upon him be peace—regarding the nations that acted with commerce until the afternoon, and the last of them—upon him be peace—from the afternoon period, and they were equal in the wages that had the agreement, and the Prophet—upon him be peace—mentioned concerning them that they said: How does equality in the wages occur, and our service is longer in duration than their service?
So God says to them: What of your right was diminished from what was agreed upon for it? That is [372v] my bounty, meaning: in the nation of the afternoon period, which is the nation of Muḥammad—he was given from it what he willed, and he informed that He—exalted—was just in what He gave, and that He fulfilled every possessor of a right his right along with the existence of the surplus.
And this man took to explain this report, and he attributed our distinction by the afternoon period from this day, and he said, prolonging: "and know that the whiteness of the horizon is from the light of the evening, and the air of the evening from
the soul of the evening, and the afternoon period until the night is the glow of the daytime," ·105 Then he began to speak about how he arrived at the content of this statement—the division of time according to the creation of the human being—from weakness to strength to weakness and grey hair, by expressions all of which are understood and established, with no need for us to explain them.
Then he removed himself from it by indirect speech and broad [expression], and he spoke concerning the preferencing of the prophethood of Muḥammad—upon him be peace—and the Qurʾān over the rest of the prophethoods and scriptures. Then he repeated the question of ʿĪsā—upon him be peace—regarding the dispensation of his time.
Then his descent at the end of time, and with what the equality between him and Muḥammad—upon him be peace—was, up to the first of the merits of the Sakīna.
Chapter of the Sakīna Everything in this chapter from its beginning to its end is clear in meaning, needing no explanation. It also contains what pertains to the events occurring in times, and it draws parallels between them and what occurs in this Muḥammadan question, and he made the summons of Muḥammad—upon him be peace—a day from among a thousand years, from the days of bringing-into-being the human from Ādam to the end of time. Then he sent down this gathering of days as a single universal day, then he divided it into times, then he looked at the day of the alif of the Muḥammadan descent of the Qurʾān—the first of the Companion [Qurʾān] and the later brotherly one—and what he fell short in regarding representation and ordering, other than that the principles upon which this discourse was built—some of it is sound and some of it is what is conceded to its speaker, and we have already mentioned some of what he mentioned tangentially and healingly in [73] of the Maghrib.
The third part has ended, and praise be to God alone. The fourth follows it, and it is the first of the kingdom-realities.
[100b]