The Seventh Juzʾ of the Commentary on Khalʿ al-Naʿlayn
[153] [The Seventh 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] [The Fourth Page: The Merciful Gifts (al-Raḥmāniyyāt)]
In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate The Imām Ibn Qasī – may God have mercy on him – said: "al-Raḥmāniyyāt." {The Imām, the Knower, the Thoroughly Rooted Commentator, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī Ibn al-ʿArabī – may God be pleased with him – said:} He intends merciful gifts (raḥmāniyyāt) of detailed exposition specifically, and in reality the merciful gifts have no connection to detail, except through detail. And if you encounter something general and comprehensive, then it is from the category of detail, because it is detailed.
Regarding the detailed, so that it may be distinguished: know that, and from what confirms what we have conveyed to him in the commentary on this section—for the expression that the Imām mentioned at the outset of this section, he did not mention the Qurʾān, then he confirmed that with his saying: [25:1], and this was not the Exposition, rather it was what we mentioned of the detail, for by it the entities are distinguished. Then he confirmed that with his saying: in the praise of the second: "Praise be to God " [25:59], and he came with the detail between creation and the establishment (istiwāʾ) attributed to Him, for when the Most Merciful (al-Raḥmān) was elevated by [20:5], then if it was upon news of origination, it would be in the meaning of "He bent down" to the Throne, and it would be the very Throne, not other than it, and He is the closest in verification to His saying, exalted is He, following this: [25:59], ·213 And even if al-Raḥmān were grammatically in the nominative (marfūʿan) with (established Himself), since that was the benefit in His saying: [25:59], and not in His command through the question about that, and that in the understood sense of the first, the meaning is known, and in accordance with what we said it would be obscure, for none knows it [154a] except one who has tasting (khibra) of the realities— so if you said: where then is the agent of istawā? We said: an implicit pronoun referring back to His saying: Allāh [25:59] at the beginning of this verse, and this is what we said. It is prevalent in the chapter of grammatical governance (al-naʿt) that following and cutting occur in the accusative and in the nominative, and the coordinating conjunction (al-ʿaṭf) in the accusative as well occurs in the nominative just as it was said: "and the good ones, the knots of the waist-wrappers," and just as it is in the accusative in his saying: "the ones descending at every battle-place," and what was in the nominative in his saying: "those who are the poison of enmity and the cutting edge of islands," and rather we said this because the author intended this verse regarding the istiwāʾ (establishment upon the Throne) to the exclusion of other verses among the verses.
So what the commentator required of what he first attributed to the author, his saying: "the Merciful ones" (al-raḥmāniyyāt), is attributed to the name al-Raḥmān, other than that the name al-Raḥmān occurred in the Qurʾān in verses that are multiple and diverse in rulings, and the author desired from this name al-Raḥmān that which occurs in [25:59], so it was not praised thereby in the sermon (khuṭba) by His saying, exalted is He: [25:59], so let him not go beyond with the commentary what is intended (maqṣūdahu) regarding this name from this verse specifically, and upon this he built the rest of the chapter up to its end, and Allāh is the one who grants success, and since he gathered them it indicated that he intends to speak about matters that are diverse, all of which refer back to the ruling of this name mentioned in this specific verse.
His saying: "To these merciful presences (raḥmāniyyāt), and their theophanic self-disclosure encompasses the angelic beings (malakūtiyyāt) and their ranks, and to them ascend [154b] the individual essences (firdawsiyyāt) and their elevations and the Muḥammadan realities (muḥammadiyyāt) with their secrets and meanings, and to them emerge the spirits (arwāḥ) and upon them the dawns shine forth," he made these merciful presences the goal of the three sections preceding this from this book, and he has restricted these merciful presences by the verse specific to the name al-Raḥmān mentioned in his discourse, and it indicated that what he mentions of the angelic beings and the individual essences and the Muḥammadan realities—he specified and did not generalize—for where is the rank of the name al-Raḥmān in His saying, exalted be He: [17:110], for to Him belong the most beautiful names, from His saying: [20:5], from His saying: [25:59], from His saying: [19:85], and where is this name in this verse from His saying: [19:85], so apprehend regarding these different relations their branching upon the sciences of a universal totality of different [aspects], and let us speak concerning this about the specific name whose precedence the istiwāʾ upon [the Throne] has already indicated, according to what the Imām indicated. The Imām said in this section, he said the Imām in discourse at the beginning of this section, proceeding toward the speech of Allāh, exalted be He: "Allāh the Mighty said: " [31:27], and He said in the [divine] decree (iqdār) of the divine: [31:28], and he indicated that his purpose in this section is what these two verses contain from the import of His speech and His power, not other [than that].
Then he said: "," and had he stopped here and made them a starting point and a report, it would have been more firmly established in gnosis [155a] of the divine, and that would indicate that He made the speech of the Real—to Him belongs the overwhelming—as³ a capacity⁴, and He made it for the knowledge which He manifested⁵ through the existents. But that is not what he did; rather he said after that speech: "," and he made the blame incumbent, for he indicated that his intended meaning was another matter, and his rank descended⁸ from this great and mighty affair which had he been steadfast in it and stood upon a vast knowledge, but he opened upon his self a door that was more befitting for him to close, for what is in it of the repulsion of multiplicity to the one. And it was only what called him to that what entered upon him from confusion in the interpretation of His saying, exalted is He: [31:28], and it is not a single soul; rather it is⁹ souls, many, their ruling is the ruling of the one. Likewise His words, and if they are many¹¹, their ruling is the ruling¹² of a word ¹⁰ that is one. And its being many, his saying: "" is not correct except in the limit that is comprehensive, as you say: the people—all of them—their males and their females are only a single human, and what he means by it is only the limit that is comprehensive¹⁴, not the individuality apart from¹⁵ the person. So what was true in his saying: "," for it does not contradict what God, exalted is He, said about His self and what He added to His speech.
¹⁵ Then he said: "," and this speech does not have an entry¹⁸ for it in the merciful aspects as a single totality, for the merciful aspects only seek creation¹⁹, and the might of the essence does not seek creation²⁰ at all. So he departed with this speech from the intended meaning²¹ of the translation of this section, ·216 Then he returned to what this chapter requires, and it is the correct one befitting this chapter which he intended.
"And either that they be words of a numerical multitude of things, and from the perspective of the names that are designations," [3/155] meaning: names of God from the perspective that He is one who speaks, having named Himself by them, so they are designations by the names and the titles that are in our hands and our languages, and they are names for His words, designations by our words, and his statement:
Text 5 "And the attributes, and likewise creation and attribution in the estimation of the names and the attributes," as for this speech, there is no scent for it, in what the essence verifies of unity, for no speech of his remained except regarding the Merciful who 6 is the one encompassed. For the name has what it indicates regarding each one of them, and the attribution has what indicates a description that is negative, and the attribute has what it indicates regarding a meaning-related matter that has for it a designation distinguished from other than it, and the name for us is nothing from it at all, and the attribution is like the first and the last, and the attribute is like the knower and the powerful, 10 and his statement: "It is composed of a single soul by a single word," so know that the single word does not come to be from it except a single one exclusively, for the single soul came to be by the single word, and the souls are many, and the statement of God Most High confirmed: [31:27], and he did not say "a word," so this imām elaborated, and what resulted, rather he returned to the origin, and its leading to it is the path, whether he willed or refused.
Text 15 Then he said: "And if you have estimated the detailing of the words" by their types from the single word in the single genus "then say: indeed the essence possesses names and attributes, and the male possesses forms of
descents and signs that are detailed."
His saying: "If you have determined" is speech that is corrupt; rather, this is how it is in reality, and nothing is determined except what is not in reality. And God, glory be to Him, has said this about Himself in His saying: [16:40], and He did not say "things," and His saying: "in the realm of the One" is false, [156a] for the Real, glory be to Him, does not restrict His speech to time; rather, by His speech He creates time, not in a time, and indeed this imām speaks about the Real who is in the qibla of the one who prays specifically, and just as He distinguished that likewise He entered it under the envelope of time. And as for his saying: "So say that the Essence possesses names and attributes, and the remembrance possesses manifestations and signs," what need is there to say "this is how the matter is," and likewise it occurred? For he is the one who says: [7:180], and the Qurʾān is the remembrance, and what is remembrance is manifestations and signs. So his saying: "So say" has no content for him, and if the imām—may God have mercy on him—had intended by that the weak aspect, and it is that he intended—may God be pleased with him—when he applied to it the names and attributes and upon the remembrance the manifestations and signs, then it is only from the standpoint of detailed exposition of the engendered beings, that is: from there these rulings are established, and as for from other than the detailed exposition of the engendered beings, there is nothing but a single entity, and but its reception is the singularity of the word, and so it comes out upon the limit of the all-encompassing which we have preceded with, and what He made in this except a glance in His saying, exalted be He: [54:50], For this reason he said there "one word," and what is meant by his saying, exalted be He: [54:50], is only the occurrence of what is commanded by it without hesitation or delay. He says: the command does not recur for the overwhelming of the divine and the weakness of the locus from refraining from what the Real commanded by it from existence, ·218 He said, exalted is He: [16:40], and everything He mentioned after this, so its meaning leads to His saying: , meaning: the place of detailed elaboration, [→156] because the word, according to the congregation of the people of gathering, unveiling, and existence, they say that the word descends as a single, identical entity from the Throne. When it reaches the Footstool (kursī) which is the place of the two feet, it becomes differentiated into report and judgment. And we only said "into report and judgment" because of the saying of some people that it becomes differentiated into command and prohibition, and that is an error, for the world of the angels—all of them—is command without prohibition, and what appeared of prohibition is only in the elemental world. For this reason we said that it becomes differentiated into report and judgment.
His saying: , he means the spirits that departed from their structures upon the differences of the levels of the structures, from light and darkness and density, and for this reason he called them "the carried inner aspects," and his saying: is that which does not accept division, or the spirits that never became differentiated at all, and it is not valid for them to become differentiated.
And his saying:
a single thing» leading to His saying: [25:59], so know that the existent things in His presence, glorified is He, are witnessed in the state of their non-existence. Their address was by existence, and every entity accepted according to the reality of its time that is linked to it and the time of its linkage to it, so the precedence and succession occurred. For this reason, ·219 for the repetition of the word, but rather the hearings coincided in the state of their non-existence for hearing this word of the existential, and He ruled upon those objects at the time of the relative, and there appeared what we mentioned, and he mentioned the Imām, and upon that He struck the parable in this question, for these [157a] are words that contain words like the aeon and time, containing the years and the months and the weeks and the days and the hours and the degrees and the minutes and the seconds and the thirds up to what has no end for it, so contemplate what he mentioned—you will find it as we have explained it.
Commentary And his saying: "This is the name the Most High—He is al-Raḥmān, and He is the King, the Judge" to the end of the discourse.
He means by this, he says: every name of the Divine has two significations—a signification upon the essence that is named, and a signification upon what it grants as the reality of that name by which it is distinguished from its companion in every name from among the signification upon the essence; from that reality every name is named with all the names, and described with all the attributes. This is like His saying, exalted is He: [17:110]—meaning: God or al-Raḥmān, rather all the names, all of them, for that reason are mutually resembling, whether they be mutual resemblance, other than that the ruling for every name when it is mentioned or when He discloses Himself through what is an indication of His essence—not through what He is indicated by upon the essence of what is named by it, for the generous is by the ruling of generosity, and the mighty is by the ruling of might, and likewise all the names that are under the authority of Him through what He is thus, and this is the detailed explanation regarding this name or this word: it is only that which the existents manifested for it. For this reason every name was named with all the names, and was described with all the attributes.
Text And his saying: "Regarding the names and the attributes, that they are divided from the perspective of created beings into
two divisions: spiritual entities that are noble, and psychic entities that are great, by the One who said: [15:29; 38:72], [3:28].
Then he mentioned speech all of which [157b] is clear, well-formed from the aspect of what it indicates, not from the aspect that it is an exegesis of the two verses, or the two verses mentioned are evidence for what he mentioned. What he mentioned is not among the names upon the aspect of limitation in the two divisions, correctly [thus], for among the names that he mentioned in the psychic states—like might (ʿizza): it has a face toward His essence, and it has a face toward what He intended. So whatever is purely for Him, it was the most fitting that one divide that into three divisions: a division that is purely for Him, and a division that is purely for the addition that seeks the engendered beings, and a division that is shared—it has a face toward Him and a face toward the engendered beings.
Then he mentioned in His saying, exalted is He: [14:48], the changing of that in the reality of the believer regarding the name and the attribute, for the believer is described with humility. And in the abode of the hereafter, humility belongs to the disbeliever; it is removed from the believer and cast upon the disbeliever. He, exalted is He, said: [14:14] regarding the disbelievers, and everything he mentioned in this section is clear, not needing explanation. But my saying: "clear"—I do not mean that he is correct; rather I mean that he is one who knows what is in it of what is correct and other than it.
Then he said regarding the gathering between the ḥadīth of the seven layers, and that what is between one heaven and another heaven is five hundred years, and in the other ḥadīth three [or] seventy years, and he made the five hundred a year for the heavens of what is known, and he made the heavens that He bound with three and seventy layers for the descents beneath the surface of the sphere of the moon, equal to four elements: the sphere of ether, the atmosphere, water, and earth, and the imām was perhaps represented to him in his unveiling the layers of the descents as heavens, [158a] and perhaps he heard from the one whose unveiling is the support of this ḥadīth, and he judged by that according to what was unveiled to him in the imaginal world and representation, and especially since he had heard God, exalted is He, saying: [25:48], ·221 He means the clouds, not these known heavens, so it is not far-fetched that what is unveiled through them are heavens upon this course, and as for its ruling by the numerical limit in time upon that, the people of observation in the movement of the celestial bodies know by the course of what he mentioned from its correctness, and their knowledge is correct, there is no doubt in it, for they do not lie in that, and our evidence upon them is through the lunar eclipses, so it is inevitable that they know the destinations, and this they do not err in without disagreement, and it is actual, and rather what is imagined is that it be said in the totality between them that between the surface of the lowest heaven to the depth of the heaven which above it is three and seventy, and from the surface of the lowest heaven to the depth of the highest heaven is five hundred, so the traveler is upon three and seventy carried upon the body of the heaven—this if the matter were in his soul upon what he mentioned, and if it were unveiled in an example, then that would be the example described with this attribute in distance.
There is no specificity of the witnessed heaven in the senses, and this ruling [158b] would not know what the Real intended by what is exemplified for him in unveiling, like that which depicts meanings embodied in sleep and errs in their interpretation, for we have seen ourselves in sleep and as if the heaven we perceive with our hands while we are upon the earth, so from where is that distance in this imaginal realm? Is it not that it has been ranked in this proximity? So it would be truthfully in proportion to what he saw in the example, and God knows best.
Then the Imām—may God be pleased with him—said: [41:11] unto
the creation of the earth» to the end of his speech in this section. He looks to his saying—may God bless him and grant him peace: > "He descends to the heaven of this world, which is the throne of the seven zones," and from there he found the form of Adam, for His saying: [38:75], so there is inevitably a descent to their understanding of the glad tidings and what He brings into being in the earth from the beings, ·222 And for this reason there came the ḥadīth of the vision likened to the full moon on the night of the full moon, for what is between us and between Him is a canopy. And likewise there came the ḥadīth of the speech as a rustling heard by the raising of the veil of the celestial sphere, and it is the very descent of the Exalted to His servants, but what was hidden from Him is that this is in the abode of the Hereafter, [25:25], and it cracks [55:55], and the earth extends, and God comes [2:210] the clouds.
And He has mentioned in His speech what indicates that this is in the Hereafter, and the intended meaning which he meant in this section from the theophanic self-disclosure of the Real which he mentioned is that He willed the Real who is in the qiblah direction of the one praying, and the Real who said concerning it—upon him be peace—to us: "Worship God as though you see Him," and His saying concerning the one praying: "Verily God is before his face," so the Real intended by this attribution is that which he meant in this section. So investigate in his speech and you will find the correctness of what we have said, and He made all that he mentioned in this section from the chapter of God's mercy toward His servants, and for this He entered it among the merciful acts, and even if there was in it [159a] justice and punishment, what cannot be measured in its measure, but in it there is also some of the mercy.
The like of that or more, for that reason He entered it among the merciful acts, and especially since He has come in the description of the Real that He is the Merciful in this world and the Hereafter along with the afflictions and pains and punishments of existence in the two abodes, but the Merciful has not added them to them except for the overcoming of mercy over justice and patience.
The creation toward it after the establishment of justice, for indeed His mercy preceded His wrath, and He established the likeness—he prayed, may God bless him and grant him peace—in a ḥadīth of the vision of the Real like the vision of the full moon in the vision, especially because He likened the seen to the seen, and both visions are of two events, and the narrator likened the narrator, so he said: ·223 "you will see your Lord just as you see"—that is: the like of what you see— "the moon," and this is not from the ḥadīths of tashbīh as some of them claim. As for His saying, exalted be He: [6:103], it is a reality, for eyesight perceives by it what it perceives, and it is only the seer (al-mubṣir) who perceives it through eyesight, and that is a definition of eyesight in reality for what it is upon. And as for His speech concerning what is obtained for them on the day of visitation (al-zūr) before the vision of them and their spouses from among humankind, and concerning what the One who discloses Himself (al-mutajallī) casts upon them in the form of the veiling—it is known that all of it is sound in the self of the matter, for He, just as He likened Himself, glory be to Him, the one who prays here in His qibla and faced Him, and speech went back and forth between Him and between His servant in his intimate conversations upon what is sound and established from the restricting by that form, the theophanic self-disclosure would be a witnessing and a sufficiency for the appropriate, and had the theophanic self-disclosure not been through this form of proportionality, the matter would have been recompense and agreement; because it is not corresponding to what was [159r] in the self of the one who prays during the time of prayer, and that abode in the right of the believer is a knowledge in which there is no ignorance.
Chapter of the Fivefold He intended by the fivefold the measure of what the matter is in his self upon it—neither immersion nor concealment—and he took what resembles the mustering of bodily deeds in the hereafter as entities standing, distinguished in ranks, just as the essences of sensible things are mustered from the two heavy ones in the hereafter so that the deeds that they performed in this world become for whoever Allāh made felicitous, coming to them like what they were hastening to in the deeds in this world, and likewise the wretched ones with deeds they performed that will be stages in that scene until the judgment is executed upon them and the word of punishment is justified upon them, ·224 the dominion of the precedence of mercy over punishment prevails, and mercy encompasses them in their places in the Fire—except that, along with His engendered being, He made clearer what He manifested of manifestation upon the completion of its aspects; rather, He diminished from it the investigation into that, and that is much.
He gave precedence to the act of prayer, because it is the most important of acts of worship, and he mentioned its state in the Hereafter in proportion to what it was in this world. Then, since his school of thought was not the requirement of congregation as an obligation, nor the striving toward the mosques, he struck the parable and took from the prayers what is not valid to establish except through striving toward the mosques and congregation. That is only in the Friday congregational prayer among the obligatory prayers. So he mentioned in the theophanic self-disclosure of the Divine the states of what is obligatory upon the believer in the prayer of the Friday congregational prayer—whether as imām or as one led [160]—in terms of clothing, adornment, and appearance in sitting and standing, and movement and stillness and arrangement. And it was also from his school of thought that the preacher, when he ascended the pulpit, should have with him two companions in rank beneath him among the rememberers, and the first of them is an example for ʿĪsā and Yaḥyā, and he made the preacher like Muḥammad—may God bless him and grant him peace—among all, and he intended Yaḥyā and ʿĪsā specifically, to the exclusion of others among the prophets, not for their own sakes, but rather that is because the life is an essential attribute of the spirit, or an inseparable concomitant that necessarily cannot be separated from it; since ʿĪsā was the spirit of God—not that the matter on the Day of Resurrection will be as he said—rather, he intended the meaning that binds between life and the spirit. For the spirituality that belongs to ʿĪsā is that which necessitated for him the blowing into the birds, and it necessitated for him that they become living through the reviving of the dead. So life became connected to the spirit, and he did not have for anyone other than him among the prophets that. And for this reason, the Real attributed the blowing to ʿĪsā just as He attributed the blowing to Himself, and He did not attribute that to a king brought near, nor to anyone other than ʿĪsā, ·225 He said, exalted, regarding ʿĪsā: [38:72], and He said of Himself, glory be to Him: [15:29], and He said, exalted, also of Himself regarding Maryam: [21:91], for what He attributed was the blowing (nafkh) which is that from which life comes only to His Self (nafs al-ḥaqq) and to ʿĪsā. Therefore He made ʿĪsā and Yaḥyā each one close to his companion, that is: an augmentation.
5 As for what he mentioned of the one standing (al-qayyim) between the hands of the possessor of the bed (al-sarīr), whoever he was, and that he is in a time in which the one standing is a king and the possessor of the bed is a herald, and in another time it is the reverse—the ruling principle (al-ḍābiṭ) for this [folio 160b] is that the possessor of the bed is always the one who stands between his hands, for he is the possessor of dominion (mulk), and everything in his presence is his possession, and that has become manifest to the people of unveiling (kashf) though they did not recognize what it is, except a few among them. Abū al-Budr (d. 618 AH/1222 CE) said to me about the wrappings—or other than them—that it is
10 He said on the authority of a great person among the people of his time that he was under his command, and the matter reached that other thing. He said: Rather, by God, I saw him carrying the canopy between his hands, and the reason for that is that every single one who perceived his companion in his self and his dominion, then the ruling authority (ḥukm) in his dominion belongs to him, and if it were returned upon him in his dominion, the authority would have been by the ruling authority of the possessor of the house. The Messenger of God—may God bless him and grant him peace—said: "A man shall not be made leader in his authority, nor shall anyone sit upon his place of honor except with his permission." And unveiling (kashf) is from the presence of bewilderment (taḥayyul).
15 The imaginal likenesses (khayāl) of every human being are the presence of his dominion. Whoever enters into the presence of his dominion is under the ruling authority of the possessor of that presence. So every single one of the unveilers (mukāshifīn) has verified this, and likewise the possessor of the bed is the one who stood firm therein and sat upon it, and he has the ruling authority and the sovereignty. And whoever is other than him stands between his hands, and even if he was greater than him in the self of the matter. However, the ruling authority belongs to the presence and the place, so know that, and upon this take all that this imām mentioned in this chapter from this art (fann)—there is nothing other than it.
As for the companion (qarīn), he is the angel who belongs to every human being, the angel who has the attribute of good in the life of this world, and so he is with him upon the bed in the abode of the hereafter, not parting from him there just as he did not part from him here. And as for his saying in the guardianship of Jibrīl – upon him be peace – it is that [161a] , this means: for the Prophet – may God bless him and grant him peace – for he is the one who sits with him upon the bed in that Day, for he was in this world devoted to him, he does not command him except with good, and he is among the spirits. God attached him to the angelic rank, and that is not for anyone of God's creation except for Muḥammad – may God bless him and grant him peace –, for he has no – upon him be peace – face toward wretchedness at all, and as for the rest of creation, their companions are those whose spirits are fiery in Hell, and what has been left in them is the care of the one they are devoted to. And there the merit of Muḥammad – may God bless him and grant him peace – over the rest of people on the Day of Resurrection becomes manifest, just as it became manifest here when he said: "God aided me against him and he submitted" by raising the grammatical case, and the setting upright is his face, and he is the one who gives him unveiling (kashf), and for that he said: "For he does not command me except with good," and so he made – may God bless him and grant him peace – his soul (nafs) under his command, and that for the companions the judgment is in his essence, and truly so that what is with him upon the bed would be.
And as for what he mentioned of the means (wasīla), it is in the Sacred Law specifically for one who hopes – may God bless him and grant him peace – that he be that single one, and it is a rank in the Garden that is not taken by it except one orphan of the Garden, and perhaps it will not be attained – may God bless him and grant him peace – except by the supplication of his community for a judgment that we have mentioned in the prayer in the Meccan Opening (al-Fatḥ al-Makkī), and it is that he has – upon him be peace – the Garden over his community, because their guidance is by God in this world, and so God – glory be to Him – willed to grant him the means (wasīla) in the hereafter by the supplication of his community, ·227 He rewarded him until nothing remains of any recompense from other than compensation except that which God Most High, who is not subject to injustice, [161b] upon him is what is incumbent upon the reports of poverty and need, and along with this, he — may God bless him — in a state of absence until you call upon Him through it, I grant it to him, and it has been established that the angel says to the supplicant through the unseen: "And to you the like thereof," so there is inevitably for him a portion from it and a share — I mean for the supplicant, but rather through what will be from that means of the lights radiating from it upon all the gardens, for no light radiates from it in a garden except in the gardens of the supplicants through it for Muḥammad — may God bless him and grant him peace —, and when Ibn Qasiyy saw that, he said in this section regarding the means: "So let him call upon his own soul, and upon him it returns," for this is a calling through a calling — a calling of the Prophet to the Truth, and a calling of the community for the means for the Prophet — may God bless him and grant him peace.
And as for what he established in this section — that ʿĪsā and Yaḥyā are intercessors, and the Prophet — may God bless him and grant him peace — and a position was established for both of them through their gathering in that rank, for they are from him at the rank of those who sit with the preacher on the day of Friday gathering upon the pulpit below him in degree, and if they shared with him in the pulpit, it is an example like what the imām made it, and it does not mean: specifically ʿĪsā and Yaḥyā, rather it means: the spirit and life, nothing else, for the Prophet — upon him be peace — when he mentioned his speech: to the listeners there was obtained for them from that in their hearts spirits by which they live as it came in knowledge: [6:122], for this is the meaning of ʿĪsā and Yaḥyā together, for the Truth, the explicit — in the gathering it is only Ibrāhīm — upon him be peace — and al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, his uncle — may God bless him and grant him peace —, this is the one whom unveiling gives him — the definitional the verifying, ·228 And what is intended by this man is that he walks [162a] toward the theophanic self-disclosure according to what occurs from the spiritual states in the prayer of the congregational gathering from the imām and the one led in prayer. And as for what he mentioned from the ḥadīth of Ibrāhīm – upon him be peace – it is for what is in the prayer from the prayer upon the Prophet – may God bless him and grant him peace –, like the prayer upon Ibrāhīm – upon him be peace –, and it is only made an accompaniment of the Sunna, not a separate one.
5 For the being of the legislator is none other than God, exalted be He; what he is as a Messenger of God – may God bless him and grant him peace – like the prayer upon Ibrāhīm – upon him be peace – is none other than God, exalted be He. And the Messenger is one who conveys from God, exalted be He, so the commander and the legislator is God. He, exalted be He, said: and the Messenger conveys what was sent down to you» [5:67], and this sufficed as a clarification. And He said: [4:105], and He did not say: with what you saw. So He indicated that the Real is the one who addresses His servants with all that they understood from the Sunna, and the Real to whom existence perpetually belongs; so the Sunna has never been separated from Him, nor
10 by the existence of the Prophet – upon him be peace – nor by his loss.
Then he came with speech understood in the ultimate degree of excellence and clarity, to the point that he said: So the compassion says, and even that I, "the innermost consciousness speaks to the innermost consciousness, you are you, you ruled over you, and I ruled; I am,
and upon the reality, who are you and who am I? And who is the servant and who is the master?" And this, all of it, is as he said, from the mutual resemblance of the innermost consciousness to the innermost consciousness, and the ruling of the unseen in the unseen. So he indicated – may God be pleased with him –
15 in this mighty speech to the outward manifestations and the apparent in them; so the outward manifestations are servanthood that has an effect in lordship, and the apparent is lordship in the form of servanthood. And for this reason the Sharīʿa came in the right of the Real with every name and description; it is not possible for the servant to be described with that description from the attributes of the spiritual realities, the noble ones, and the self-dispositions, the mighty ones, except that he indicated in this chapter and this [162b] is the specific bestowal that is the delight of the theophanic self-disclosure of acts of worship, to the effect that every human being in his dominion has a complete ·229 encompasses His bounty the bounty of every king, just as every divine name has the Most Beautiful Names, all of them, according to the meaning that God Most High mentioned in the two names in His saying: [17:110]. For had He intended, Most High, other than the essence of divinity, the referent to which the Most Beautiful Names return, He would not have said: [17:110], for we knew that since He ruled another over which He gives it differing names, likewise bounty in that it is truly and actually a single bounty and in that it is bounty such and such, multiplied, for in it is a bounty of everything that is enjoyed through it, so understand.
As for his saying — may God be pleased with him —: "and every theophanic self-disclosure of a prayer is higher than a theophanic self-disclosure before it, and the command arises and increases until he performs the Friday prayer, and when the second Friday was, like the one who passed," meaning: upon what passed of the ruling.
Then he said concerning the second theophanic self-disclosure of the second Friday: "and as for the light" meaning: that which for this theophanic self-disclosure of the second, "it is more all-encompassing, and sovereignty is higher, and more vast," and the effusion and the increase, for it is
more complete, and "more saturated." It is not as he claimed at the end of the discourse, for the states of people are varied, and what he said is only for those who conform their selves with the signs, those who verify in their thoughts and their hearts, like the state of one who said: "I did not see anything except that I saw God before it," and their likenesses, and if not then whoever's Friday was the first without the second, he has no likeness to this; rather he descends upon his work, for this is a theophanic self-disclosure of acts, not a theophanic self-disclosure of providential cares and specific endowments. For had he intended the theophanic self-disclosure of providential cares and specific endowments [163] that is for a people in gardens of specific endowment and gardens of inheritance, then likewise it would be what he said.
And for this he said in this discourse, because He—exalted be His majesty—in , the matter was garbed upon Him from the aspect of His addition to the Real, and what was felt regarding what is in this discourse of deficiency; since He added the increase to the exalted and the holy and the splendor adjacent to the Real, and the Real transcends accepting the increase in His essence, and rather mercy accepts the increase from the aspect of its attribution to the One who manifests theophanic self-disclosure to them, from the aspect of what the Real called them to by exclusive devotion, not by works. And as for the works, then according to their realization through it the theophanic self-disclosure is for them, other than that every single one in his bliss sees that it is what is above it—bliss whose encompassing every bliss is as we said, that every name contains all the names, so it is the removal according to the theophanic self-disclosures, rather it is in reality forms of the theophanic self-disclosures, and that splendor is stripped—the overwhelming upon the dominion of every human being—and here are investigations and secrets.
He did not expose himself to mentioning them, and so I do not know whether it is because of his not knowing them or not? And it is that every one who prays in the world, his prayer is only to his Lord who is in his creed, and the theophanic self-disclosure only occurs in the works according to the creeds, and it is of various kinds absolutely, so let it be known that the One who manifests theophanic self-disclosure to him is one, and here the men of God realize in the gnosis of God, and they differ upon them.
The removal—so they do not know in truth what they were in it except after their return from their absorption to their images, and at that point there appears upon every single one of them contrary to what is upon the other of the aspect that opposes it, as though he sees upon himself the like of what is upon him [163b] from the aspect that accords with it, and so this imām is exposed to the mention of the works of the private and leaving the more important, which is the mention of what is in the soul of the worker from his knowledge of his Lord, whether he was an imitator or a possessor of reflection or a possessor of unveiling, according to what he took in his worldly life, and he has included in this chapter, from the Friday prayer, what pertains to it of adornment and other than it of what is appropriate, and so there is no need for us in explaining what is clear, and making excellent what he knows to be excellent.
[ZAKĀT] Then he turned after that to the action of zakāt and said: Text "Purification is of two kinds: a kind in bodies, and a kind in spiritual garments, but it, from the standpoint of the establishment of religion through the body and its being a shirt of the rational soul, is the gathering of the instruments of the essences of the composite." So know that he likened religion to a garment upon its wearer; because
Commentary The Prophet – may God bless him and grant him peace – there came from him the like of this in visions. And since zakāt was purification, and cleansing is nothing but removing filth and dirt, it stands in the meaning of the purified place, meaning that it was either sensory, and in this meaning it is not obligatory upon the prophets – upon them be peace – zakāt; because there is no dirt for them, and dirt is not the moral dirt that zakāt purifies other than miserliness. So whoever does not have control over his believer in what he possesses, then there is no dirt for him and no zakāt is obligatory upon him. And if the Prophet – upon him be peace – then what it is for the purification of dirt and the cleansing of the self from blameworthy attributes, and rather it is from the standpoint that zakāt is growth and profit so that good may increase upon them, and the divine good may grow upon them.
And as for his saying: Text "a washing and an immersion," the washing is the charity of the obligation, and the immersion is the charity of voluntary giving, and as for his saying: Text "from what has preceded and what is guided," it is the meaning of his saying – upon him be peace –: [164a] "Rather your deeds are returned to you," and the saying of God Most High: [99:7].
And [99:8].
And his saying – may God be pleased with him –: Text "And what adhered and was stored up returns on the Day of Resurrection" as it came in the ḥadīth, he said: Text "This is the reality of prevention, just as that is the reality of repelling." ·232 This is a repulsion, and the withholding is only a cause that makes the wealth held back courageous, the most intrepid after it had been gold or surplus or possessions, because the withholding rendered it courageous, the most intrepid. And as for his saying: "there remains nothing for the sovereign but the abode, except what is for God," he says: that is, what was done for God's sake in the emulation of His command and His prohibitions, for the saying of God: [25:23], its meaning being what they benefited by it but nothing assembled for them of it as a thing, and they obtained nothing from it upon merit—meaning in the hereafter; since God had already recompensed them for it in this world as it came, and they found contrary to what they had believed, [39:47], and in this meaning goes the saying of the Most High: [25:24], and there is no good in the Fire until its counterpart enters it, and it is only upon what they believed.
Commentary And as for his saying: "the bliss of the people of the Garden is a condition in the chastisement of the people of the Fire," and only the correct view is that some of the bliss of the people of the Garden is a condition in the chastisement of the people of the Fire, and the chastisement of the people of the Fire is not a condition in the bliss of the people of the Garden; because mercy preceded wrath, so the bliss is theirs even if there be no punishment in the Fire. And if you say: this is the bliss that is for the people of the Garden—is it a condition in the chastisement of the people of the Fire, how would it be [316a] when His command, if the felicity of the two abodes and the two stations prevails? We say: the people of the Garden do not perceive the bliss that is obtained for the people of the Fire therein; because they are not expelled from it, so they are therein in bliss, ·233 And the people of the Garden, from the standpoint that it is in their estimation a house of misery just as they knew it and recognized it, they would imagine that the punishment upon them is perpetual, and they would seek refuge from it. For this reason it was called a chastisement, and what is in the Fire of pain is at the time of the carrying out of the prior mercy, and the exhaustion of what is due upon them of the word of punishment, and what He mentioned in this section up to its end, attesting to it with a verse: [9:14].
This is understood, for he has expressed strangely therein and made it more strange, and made it more eloquent and made it clearer, and made it more concise and made it more wondrous — may God have mercy on him — but what he fulfilled of the matter of zakāt in the theophanic self-disclosure of the Real therein is like what he did in the prayer, and all actions have for them theophanic self-disclosures of the Divine from the standpoint of what is believed, not from the standpoint of the action, but for every action there is an image in the theophanic self-disclosure according to the people of God, the gnostics, of that.
Chapter [on Fasting] Then he said: As for fasting, he mentioned therein: "When the attributes of fasting are completed in the human being, he has become lordly in secret," and that is because fasting is an expression of restraining the soul from food and drink and sexual intercourse, and all of these are attributes of self-sufficiency, lordly in an aspect. If a speaker says: then why did He say regarding the unjust, the disbelievers, and the corrupt ones what He said about them — how then is it correct to say regarding the one who fasts that he is lordly in secret? And the Rabb has indeed been reported from him in his speech, the Mighty One, the statement about the one who said about them [165a] — then let us transfer from the condition of absence the specification of the person, and we do not find in the speech of God the like of this. Rather, He mentioned the corrupt one as so-and-so the corrupt one said, and so-and-so the unjust one. Rather He said: [40:35] — what He said: so-and-so is an arrogant tyrant, ·234 And had he said the like of this, the arrogant tyrant would have rejoiced in it, and what he rejoiced in would not be something absent in his reality. Thus the statement of the Imām is established: that the fasting person, when the attributes of fasting are embodied in him, was of lordly nature.
As for his statement: "in the vision of the prophetic natures and the states of the angelic realm" — he intends the engendered being of the Messenger of God — may God bless him and grant him peace — who sees from behind him as he sees from in front of him, and for this reason he drove the ḥadīth: "I see you from behind me as I see you from in front of me," and as for his statement: "and the states of the angelic realm" — for he means that the human being enters into whatever form he wills in the Garden, just as the angels appear in whatever form they will, and for this reason he came with the ḥadīth of the market of the Garden, and it is a ḥadīth that al-Tirmidhī (d. 279H/892CE) brought out in his compiled work. Then this Imām made these states as likenesses struck for the varieties of theophanic self-disclosures of the divine, and the difference of vision according to the difference of the theophanic self-disclosures and the transitions of states and forms upon the people of the Gardens, and varieties of the theophanic self-disclosure of the divine according to the variety of works and states that accompanied the works, and the difference of times and places, and the abundance of works and their scarcity, and their permanence upon them and the absence of permanence and what resembles that — of what enters into it the detailed discussion. As for his statement in the ḥadīth: "I spend the night; my Lord feeds me and gives me drink" — it is
"nourishment from the inward to the outward" — this is not with what is sound, rather it is from the outward, for he said: "I spend the night" and the pronoun [165r] in "my Lord" returns upon the one who described Him with overnight stay, and the spirit of the divine is not described with overnight stay, and what he ate — may God bless him and grant him peace — except through the senses in the divine presence of imagination as the sleeper sees, for the visions of sleep and unveiling are only through the senses in the divine presence of imagination, and of it what is according to what he witnesses and sees, so it is his trace being sound, ·235 So he sees that he eats and finds satiation and the effect of food, and likewise the Messenger of God—may God bless him and grant him peace—used to find it, and we found it from those we transmitted from among them. That is like the echo of the chest of the religion, shaykh of shaykhs, in the abode of Miṣr, the one known as Ibn Ḥamawayh (d. 617 AH/1220 CE), and like our father al-Ḥusayn ibn Ḥarāzim in the city of Fās, and others, and we have seen that in our selves.
Whatever existed other than from an outward that was not from an inward to an outward, then the senses perceive along with wakefulness, and perception occurs in other than wakefulness and standing, or sleep, and just as what the senses perceive may be, so too may what the senses perceive be in the ruling, and it may not be—I mean in wakefulness—and likewise what the senses see in sleep or unveiling may be upon what it sees, and it may be for it with greater effect in wakefulness, and he finds when he awakens the effect of that. And it may not be so that it would be from the falsehoods of the senses. This is the verification in this matter, and indeed this Imām said: "From an inward to an outward"—he only intended by it a matter of imagining to something sensible and outward. This is what is thought about it, otherwise it would be erroneous.
And as for what this Imām indicated: the fasting person restrains his self from food and drink and sexual intercourse—it is established in an attribute of self-sufficiency that does not befit him, and for this the Exalted said: "Fasting is for Me and I am its recompense," meaning: this attribute of self-sufficiency is mine, not yours, and His saying: "and I [166a] am its recompense," meaning: I am its recompense from the engendered being of the servant that is described by what is God in reality, not for the servant from it anything. He looks to this, His saying: "and I seek refuge in You from You," for when he did not have what corresponds to it, the one seeking refuge by it and the one from whom refuge is sought from it—then He made the daytime of Ramaḍān like the resting to the Friday in the division. And in the ruling of theophanic self-disclosure with speech that is understood, not needing explanation, in their transition from one spiritual state to another spiritual state, and He mentioned that from this divine presence which has this action, the innermost consciousness of engendered beings and the heart of the immutable entities are known.
And his saying: "And the veil of mercifulness, even if it separated" — he means: from the name al-Raḥmān, like his saying — peace be upon him —: > "The womb (al-raḥim) is a branch from al-Raḥmān," then he said: "And the command with what he did not separate from the divine presence of the innermost consciousness, he perceived the secrets of bliss with every name from His names and an attribute from
His attributes" — he means: in the theophanic self-disclosure of the One, the eye does not alternate among the names upon it, and his saying: "Indeed
this is the divine presence of the most-holy, a mirror of the secrets of the engendered beings" — he says that the entities of the engendered beings are seen in it, its self, and some of it sees some, and what they perceived from it was only their souls exclusively. Then he said: "From
it" — he means: from the eye of this divine presence "the meanings descend to the entities" — he says: the divine presence from which the imaginal faculty takes what it forms, either from the outside or from the inside, and the appearance of sovereignty in the form of a human being — this from the outside, or the vision of the sleeper — this from the inside. Then he described and attributed and yet it is what suffices, what the fasting person ought to attain and what he has fulfilled, and no proportion is proportionate to the correct, clear one, and he made bliss with what he mentioned a bliss that is spiritual in meaning, from glances of the innermost consciousness to the innermost consciousness, and he made the image of movements for marriage like dangers of thought to thought.
And his saying: "And from [166a] this place the people of firm rootedness ascended to the knowledge of the innermost consciousness which
it befits God to take a female companion and no child" — he conveyed in this speech upon tasting and made understood that one might imagine that the matter is tremendous, and indeed it is tremendous, so let us allude to the innermost consciousness which discloses itself to them so that they know this, and that is a theophanic self-disclosure from the theophanic self-disclosures of the essence and manifestations of the essence — one does not look upon them of the one to whom it is disclosed except from the perspective that He is an essence, not from the perspective of the meaning that the essence of the seer is described by, ·237 he sees the oneness of his soul in the oneness of his Creator, and he knows that nothing inclines from it nor does anything incline toward it. He knows that he should not have a companion, and when the companion is absent the offspring ceases to exist. When he transforms in the theophanic self-disclosure of singularity, he knows the breasts of the world, and what appeared from it—is his source the source of the Real in
Text the world, and he names the world with the Real, and the Singular is the one who says to no one,
Commentary a child»[17:111], for the One (al-Aḥad) is the object of worship of the Singular, and He is the one the Imām said of: "the consciousness rose to the meaning of praise, which He commanded to be said, upon that forever."
Then He made the gathering of humankind in the loins of Ādam from this lineage, and this is the inner blessing; since it was the locus of daytime fasting, this is the outward blessing. Then he began to mention the blessing of the outward by the outward, through breaking fast and marriage from the beginning of the night until the rising of dawn of Ramaḍān. Then the verse which God says therein was driven forth: [2:187], so it was directed toward what is lawful for the fasting person when he breaks fast from marriage, and he did not expose himself to eating and drinking. This indicated that upon the one concerned with mentioning it, that it has a meaning that is not found in anything other than it of what is lawful for the fasting person through breaking fast.
Then there came [167a] the prophetic ḥadīth: > "For the fasting person there are two joys: a joy at the time of his breaking fast" and he did not mention eating and drinking, so it may enter into this generality and ambiguity what is meant by it in the verse. As for what he intended—and God knows best—except the time of his breaking fast, not the specific eating, this indicated that he said afterward: > "and a joy at the meeting of his Lord."
He said: "The time of the breaking of dawn is the emergence of the adornment of the angelic realm with the lights of the angelic realm," for at the breaking of dawn one abstains from food and sexual intercourse, so the attribute reverts to the one it belongs to. He has a reality, and it is his saying: "Fasting is Mine," then he mentioned speech spread out to the end of the section, he made in it fasting an ornament for the servant, through which he adorns himself—glory be to Him—and his saying concerning it that it is from the innermost consciousness that is guarded, because of His saying: "Fasting is Mine and I am the one who rewards for it," and whatever belonged to Him, it is guarded from perception.
Then he spoke in detailing the rank with the members by way of speech that is understood, then there came in it a ḥadīth: "Ramaḍān is a name from among the names of God," and for this reason fasting was associated with this month among us—the attribute of the everlasting and the ornament of the all-holy, the adornment with what is in Ramaḍān of fasting and night-vigil prayer, and He is the Self-Subsisting— upon every soul, and He is [2:255].
And as for the night-vigil prayer, it is "the descent of the Majestic to the dominion of the people of the parties," and it is apparent from His speech in this meaning that the Real descended for their night-vigil prayer, and the correct view is that they arose for His descent, and rather He went to what He went to—those lesser than this whom we went to—that the time of the descent is unknown to us, so we do not know when He descends until we stand, and He knows the time of our standing, so He descends for our night-vigil prayer, and He went away from that which He finds among the people of the night in their hearts, and it is the meaning by which He calls them to the prayer, so that is the descent of the Real to their hearts [167r], and for that reason they arose in veneration of Him. So the gnostics know that, and they stand the standing of the etiquette of the arrival of a king—they see Him only—glory be to Him, ·239 He has indeed said regarding the right of the totality [83:6], and whoever has no knowledge that that is the Real (al-Ḥaqq), then he only believes His rising to be a rising of request, desire, and questioning, and He made clear what we have gone to. And what the Imām went to is near, far-reaching, for that which we have gone to is the station (maqām) of the scholars of God, and that which the Imām went to is the station of the generality. Then he mentioned what comes from the Real to His servants in that theophanic self-disclosure (tajallī) to the rising of the dawn from the removal and the benefits with clear and manifest speech, in which is the station (maqām) of the Prophet — upon him be peace — the Day of Visitation, and where it comes from the Real, and he made clear the form of the matter according to a likeness for it, for it was so and God knows best from the people of the likeness. He was not from the people of explicit revelation (al-waḥy al-ṣarīḥ), and whoever was from the people of the likeness, then he only speaks and conveys his meaning by what is likened for him, and he may err in the expression of visions, and he may not err, and he may err in some and be mistaken in some, and likewise every speaker in the speech of the unseen by the ruling of interpretation regarding what has two aspects — thus the expressions are diverse, for the words (alfāẓ) of the speaker [contain] in them forms and letters arranged in a pattern that issues from that. Every form is called a word (kalima) that stands for the meaning that is indicated by the station of the form that the sleeper sees, like knowledge in the form of milk (laban), and restriction in firmness in religion and the form of the firm bond (al-ʿurwa al-wuthqā) in Islam.
Then he mentioned regarding the alms-tax of fiṭra (zakāt al-fiṭr) speech that is understood that does not need explanation, except that he falls short of what is befitting for this station from its beginning to its end, for these are the acts of mercy (raḥmāniyyāt) that have a splendor whose dye has not been exhausted, so I do not know whether from incapacity or other than that — God knows best.
Then he also mentioned the night of destiny (laylat al-qadr) and the prayer of [1168] the feast of fiṭr (ʿīd al-fiṭr) with clear speech, not needing explanation, except that he negated that the vision be upon the form of knowledge and that there be for them therein authority (sulṭān).
He said: "they did not see with knowledge what was" and except that he sensed through illusion what occurred, and his saying: "nor do they know," it may bear the meaning that He intends that they do not know what they saw, and it may bear the meaning that He intends by that what God meant by His saying: [32:17], and He made every visitation an intercession the like of what are the acts of worship here, then He made the matter revolve in every year with those meanings as the days of the year revolve, and the rulings of its seasons, and what is in them of festivals and times of the servants at every lawful ritual.
Then he likened their going out from it to what they were in it of the constriction of timing which is the appointed term called death, to the expanse of the everlasting forever in which there is no timing, like the going out of the newborn from the constriction of the womb to the expanse of this world. And this world is pregnant with us, so we are in constriction in it, and labor pains are the agony, and going out is the dispersal.
For one of the two abodes, then he mentioned speech that is understood regarding the utmost clarity of exposition in the birth and the state of childhood in the first of his going out and what he likened it to from the states, then he mentioned the matter of being blessed with blessings as we are blessed by it with pleasant and agreeable speech, in a wondrous manner.
Then he indicated that every thing that is found from al-Ḥaqq is for a matter, so it is a messenger from al-Ḥaqq for that matter which was created for its sake, and just as the messenger takes care in delivering his message, nay, the one sent takes care in the response, likewise the blessing which was created so that one may be blessed by it—if the one upon whom the Bestower of blessings bestows it does not accept the blessing by it, he has taken care of himself, and if he accepts, then he has been blessed with the blessing by the acceptance of the one blessed upon whom it was bestowed by Him. Then he mentioned speech regarding that the matter sought and the greatest secret is from the concealment, such that the feet are smeared with it and it is not felt [168b] and it is from the nearness from the world, like the saying of God: ·241 [50:16], but with this proximity He is not known and not perceived, and He is not seen due to the submersion of the eyes and the preoccupation of the mind and the absence of discernment. He intended by the expression "intercession" (al-ishfāʿ) the prayer of tarāwīḥ, for that is the convention (iṣṭilāḥ) of the people of his land, and all the lands of al-Andalus follow this convention, and we have deemed obligatory what we saw as problematic from the book Khalʿ al-Naʿlayn according to this convention, and indeed we have only looked at the generality of the people of the path—every bit of it was problematic, but had we looked at the generality of the scholars of God, and had we looked at the generality of the people of the path, all of it would have been problematic. So we have confined ourselves from that to what the examination of the scholars from the people of this matter requires, [33:4].
And praise be to God alone, and His blessings upon our master Muḥammad, the best of His creation, and his family, and he granted abundant peace.
The weak slave in need of God most high, Yūsuf ibn Abī Bakr ibn ʿUthmān al-Nasāʾī (?) al-Khuwwārānī (?) — may God pardon him — completed the copying in his own hand on the day of Sunday, the nineteenth of Ṣafar, the year forty and six hundred.
From beyond it the celestial sphere of the constellations, and beyond it the celestial sphere of the fixed stars, the source of time-cycles, then the descent with the void to the center to establish therein the foundations of the structure, the sphere of air and the element of fire, and He fashioned an earth, then water above it, a celestial sphere added as scribe of the register, above it the celestial sphere of the crescent, and above it above it the celestial sphere of Venus, above it the celestial sphere of the wandering star, the source of the sovereign, from above it Mercury, then Jupiter, the celestial sphere that is attributed to the engendered being, and for every body what resembles its nature, He created what is called the world of lights, the preservation of existence from His name the Beneficent, the noble angels, their emblems understanding them, moved toward perfection, they were born at the movement toward the world of Satan, then minerals and plants, and beyond it the animals came to us with sciences of the animal, and the ultimate purpose, the appearance of our bodily form in the world of composition and bodies, the blowing of the Divine into the subtle human form, when it was leveled and its pillars were balanced, its attendants the angels and the heavy ones, and He clothed it with His robe, so it became a vicegerent, and by the revolution of the celestial sphere, the encompassing one, and its wisdom, He showed us in the world of temporal things, in the hollow of this earth black water, it flows upon the surface of the winds, and near it it revolves around a rock, the center of His sovereignty, it ended by His grace and His bounty, glory be to Him.