🕋 تفسير سورة هود
(Hud) • المصدر: EN-KASHANI-TAFSIR
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ الر ۚ كِتَابٌ أُحْكِمَتْ آيَاتُهُ ثُمَّ فُصِّلَتْ مِنْ لَدُنْ حَكِيمٍ خَبِيرٍ
📘 Alif lām rāÌ: [This is] a Book: [the interpretation of] this has already been mentioned; whose verses have been set clear, that is, the individual entities and realities of which [have been set clear], within the universal world by being confirmed as enduring in those states, not liable to alteration, change or corruption, preserved from every deficiency and defect; and then detailed, in the world of particulars and was made clear outwardly and entified according to a predetermined (maʿlūm) measure, from One Wise: that is, the judgements and differentiations concerning these [entities] come from a Wise One who has based them on knowledge and wisdom so that there can be nothing better or more firmly set clear, [and One who is], Informed, of how these have been differentiated in the way that they ought to be according to the wise order in terms of their measure, their timing and their hierarchy.
يَوْمَ يَأْتِ لَا تَكَلَّمُ نَفْسٌ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِهِ ۚ فَمِنْهُمْ شَقِيٌّ وَسَعِيدٌ
📘 And so, some of them will be wretched, and [some] fortunate: since [the expressions for] 'wretched' and 'fortunate' are given as indefinite nouns in order to emphasise the magnitude [of the affair], this indicates that the ones meant are the pre-eternally and sempiternally wretched or fortunate. And having described them in differentiated divisions, He indicates an exception in the case of the wretched one's everlasting stay in the Fire and in the case of the fortunate one's everlasting stay in the Garden by His words:
خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا مَا دَامَتِ السَّمَاوَاتُ وَالْأَرْضُ إِلَّا مَا شَاءَ رَبُّكَ ۚ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ فَعَّالٌ لِمَا يُرِيدُ
📘 except what your Lord may will, because what is meant by the Fire and the Garden is the chastising of the soul with the fires of privation from what is desired and the pains of the [dark] configurations and vestiges, and [respectively] the rewarding of the soul with the Garden of the actualisation of desired things and pleasures. And [what is meant] by the excepting of both from the everlasting stay is [respectively] the exiting of the wretched one therefrom to what is more severe in the way of the fires of the heart from the veils of the attributes and the acts through wrath, banishment, humiliation, degradation and the fires of the spirit through veiledness, accursedness and subjugation; and the existing of the fortunate one therefrom to what is more pleasurable and more delightful in the way of the gardens of the heart at the station of the self-disclosures of the attributes through beatitude, gentleness, honouring and exaltation and the gardens of the spirit at the station of presential vision through the encounter [with God] and the manifestation of the august glories of the Majesty and what no eye has seen or ear has heard or has ever occurred to a mortal's heart, since the wretched one is the counterpart of the fortunate one. As for the exiting of the fortunate one from the Garden and into the Fire, that is impossible as indicated by His words:
۞ وَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ سُعِدُوا فَفِي الْجَنَّةِ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا مَا دَامَتِ السَّمَاوَاتُ وَالْأَرْضُ إِلَّا مَا شَاءَ رَبُّكَ ۖ عَطَاءً غَيْرَ مَجْذُوذٍ
📘 an unending gift, that is, one that is not interrupted. Likewise is true of the opposite [case of the wretched], even though His words, exalted be He, [that He is] Doer of what He desires [Q. 11:107] suggests it, given that it is a very severe punishment (waʿīd). But that is the tongue of refined manner and [the way of] being mindful of the manifest senses before verifying esoteric meanings. Reality dictates that because the wretched one belongs in the various aforementioned levels of the Fire, he will not exit from it but will move from one layer to another and from one grade to another and is thereby eternally condemned. Consequently what is meant by the exception [in his case] is something else and that is that from the perspective of the [exclusive] unity [of God] he is with his Lord and the Lord leads him by his forelock along a straight path: the barren west winds (al-dabūr), which is the vain desire of the soul, drives him to Gehenna. There he finds himself at the source of propinquity (qurb) alongside the vain desire of his soul and takes pleasure in that which is appropriate for him so that it becomes [for him] the source of bliss. And in his case that which is called the Fire (musammā al-nār) disappears and becomes a Garden by virtue of his enjoyment of pleasures therein, even if he should be distant from the bliss of the fortunate one, as related in the ḥadīth: 'Watercress will grow forth from the bottom of Gehenna', and it is also [stated] therein: 'There will come a time when Gehenna's gates will be closed shut when there no longer remains anyone in it'. Likewise is the case with the fortunate one, as he passes through the Gardens and its degrees; but the exiting [therefrom] in light of the exceptive statement is something else [too]. Thus in his annihilation in the [exclusive] unity of the Essence and his being consumed by the ardour of fervent love, he will be among the august glories of the Beauty, where the Truth is [at once] the witness and the witnessed, not at the station of witnessing by the presence of the spirit but by the presential vision of the Essential unity in which there remains no entity or vestige of anything other than Him, [the like of which] no eye has seen or ear has heard or has ever occurred to a mortal's heart.
إِلَّا الَّذِينَ صَبَرُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ أُولَٰئِكَ لَهُمْ مَغْفِرَةٌ وَأَجْرٌ كَبِيرٌ
📘 save those who endure [patiently], an exceptive clause [referring back] to 'man': in other words, this species [of man] is despairing, ungrateful, exultant, and boastful in both states, except those who endure patiently with God, halting with Him in [both] the states of adversity and fortune, hardship and comfort, as ʿUmar [b. al-Khaṭṭāb], may God be satisfied with him: 'Poverty and wealth are [like] two riding animals. I do not mind which of the two I ride'; and who perform, in both states, what is in their best interest of what has been mentioned; those, theirs will be forgiveness, from the sins of the soul manifesting itself in despair, ingratitude, exultation and boastfulness in both states, and a great recompense, in the way of the reward of the self-disclosures of the acts and the attributes and the Gardens of these two.
فَاسْتَقِمْ كَمَا أُمِرْتَ وَمَنْ تَابَ مَعَكَ وَلَا تَطْغَوْا ۚ إِنَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ
📘 So remain upright as you have been commanded, by fulfilling the dues of God through God. For he, blessings and peace be upon him, was commanded to safeguard God's dues and to magnify His command and to direct His creatures by enforcing the judgements of the self-disclosures of the [divine] attributes after his return to creatures together with his presential vision of the [inclusive] unity of the Essence in such a way that he does not move, be still, speak or reflect except through Him, without the manifestation of any variegation from the remnants of his attributes or essence and [such] that no incoming thought occurs to him from without Him without violating one of the conditions of [his] magnification [of God], as he himself said: 'Should I not then be a grateful servantḍ', when, after his feet became swollen from [standing in lengthy] night vigils, he was asked, 'Did not God [already] give you the good tidings with His words that God may forgive you what is past of your sin and what is to come [Q. 48:2]ḍ'; and without [violating] any substation (daqīqa) pertaining to the forbidding of indecency and the enjoining of decency and to [his prophetic] warning and call, which is an incredibly difficult thing. That is why he [the Prophet] said, 'Sūrat Hūd has made my hair turn grey'. It is reported that when the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, saw a certain knower in his dream who asked him about that saying: 'Why, O Messenger of Godḍ Is it because of the stories of the prophets [mentioned therein] and the chastisement that befell their denying communities and the hardship they [the prophets] had to endure because of their communitiesḍ', to which he [the Prophet] said, 'No! It is because of His words So remain upright as you have been commanded'; and he who repents, from his ego and the sin of his existence, with you, from among the affirmers of Oneness who have arrived at the presential vision of the multiplicity at the source of [the inclusive] unity and the station of subsistence after annihilation. And do not transgress, by veiling yourselves with the veil of I-ness and ascribing the non-delimited divine perfections to your individuated I-ness which are confined to seeing [only] you and which necessarily result in veiledness by virtue of being confined to [something] other than non-delimitation. For the Divine ipseity cannot be confined by haecceity (hādhiyya) or I-ness (anāÌiyya). Truly He sees what you do, [and] whether you do it through Me or through your souls.
وَلَا تَرْكَنُوا إِلَى الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا فَتَمَسَّكُمُ النَّارُ وَمَا لَكُمْ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ مِنْ أَوْلِيَاءَ ثُمَّ لَا تُنْصَرُونَ
📘 And do not incline toward the evildoers, that is, [those] who are guilty of associating [God] with a latent vain desire produced by the existence of some elusive remnant or some subtle shift towards the affirmation of another [besides God], for that is indeed the swerving that is comparable to [evil] transgression [alluded to] in His saying: The eye did not swerve, nor did it transgress [its bounds] [Q. 53:17]; lest the Fire, of [divine] wrath and privation, touch you, by way of [your] becoming veiled and chastisement by [your] separation, of the fires of the Beloved's jealousy, as in where He said to His beloved [Muḥammad]: 'Give good tidings to sinners that I am the Forgiver and warn the truthful that I am the Jealous One'; it is because of this idea that he [the Prophet] said that the sincere are in tremendous danger. For the substations (daqāÌiq) of the sins of their states are too fine to be perceived by the intellect and their punishment too severe to be estimated by illusion; and you will have, then, besides God, no protectors, to guard you from His punishment, govern your affairs or nurture you, and then you will not be helped, against His might: this is a threat for His friends. How [much worse] then [would it be] for His enemiesḍ
وَأَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ طَرَفَيِ النَّهَارِ وَزُلَفًا مِنَ اللَّيْلِ ۚ إِنَّ الْحَسَنَاتِ يُذْهِبْنَ السَّيِّئَاتِ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ ذِكْرَىٰ لِلذَّاكِرِينَ
📘 And establish prayer at the two ends of the day: since the five senses are sources of distraction that distract the heart with corporeal configurations that rush in on it and attract it away from the Presence of the Compassionate One, veiling it from the light and from being present by turning [it] away from the Holy Side and orienting [it] to the substance of abomination, substituting its intimacy with loneliness and purity with sulliedness, five prayers were prescribed in which the servant can devote himself without distraction to being present and close the doors of the senses, lest there should rush in on the heart any distraction, and [in which] the door of the heart is opened up to God, exalted be He, by orienting [to Him] and by means of the intention for [the reception of] the arrival of the reinforcement of light, and [in which] that person can gather his scattered thoughts and enjoy the intimacy of his Lord away from loneliness alongside a united orientation and an actualised concentration. Thus these prayers come to constitute five doors for the heart that open out to the Side of the Lord through which light enters onto him - in contrast to the five that open up to the side of Deluder and the abode of the Accursed Deluder through which darkness enters - so that the incoming light might dissipate the vestiges of its darknesses and sweep away the dust of its sulliedness. That is the meaning of His words: Indeed good deeds annul misdeeds. It is also related in ḥadīth that [the period] from one prayer to the next expunges what [sins] are between them, so long as the grave sins are avoided. He has commanded that it be observed at the two ends of the day so that its provisions, for the subsisting of concentration and the mastery of the luminous configuration, might be extended from the first [end] to [include] all the times [of the day], so that maybe that person might be of those who regularly observe their prayers [cf. Q. 70:23] by the regular occurrence of that presence and the subsistence of that light, and that perhaps he might sweep away and remove at the end [of the day] the separation and the sulliedness that were actualised in all of the other moments.
وَاصْبِرْ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُضِيعُ أَجْرَ الْمُحْسِنِينَ
📘 And be patient, through God as you [endeavour to] remain upright and with God through being present during prayers and not relying on the other; for indeed God does not waste the wage of those who are virtuous, those who witness Him while they fulfill the dues of uprightness, maintain justice and satisfy the preconditions for the magnification [of God] in acts of worship.
وَلَوْ شَاءَ رَبُّكَ لَجَعَلَ النَّاسَ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً ۖ وَلَا يَزَالُونَ مُخْتَلِفِينَ
📘 Had your Lord willed, He would have made mankind one community, of equal [levels of] preparedness and in accord on the religion of Oneness and the requirements of primordial nature; but they continue to differ, in orientation and preparedness,
إِلَّا مَنْ رَحِمَ رَبُّكَ ۚ وَلِذَٰلِكَ خَلَقَهُمْ ۗ وَتَمَّتْ كَلِمَةُ رَبِّكَ لَأَمْلَأَنَّ جَهَنَّمَ مِنَ الْجِنَّةِ وَالنَّاسِ أَجْمَعِينَ
📘 except those on whom your Lord has mercy, by guiding them to the affirmation of Oneness and granting them success for perfection: these are in agreement with regard to beliefs and goals and in harmony with regard to their conduct and their [spiritual] path, their prayer-direction being the Truth and their religion, the affirmation of [His] Oneness and love; and for that, difference, He created them, so that each one of them might prepare for some task and some activity and select by his nature a pursuit and a vocation, and that the arrangement of the world might thereby become ordered and that the means to livelihood might be established. They [mankind] are thus bearers of the command of God, made to bear the baggage of causes and provisions, and that by which mankind can sustain themselves. By them He has regulated the proper order of the life of this world. The group who are the recipients of mercy are loci for the manifestation of His perfection, by whom He manifests His attributes and His acts, making them a repository for His wisdoms, His gnoses and His mysteries. And the Word of your Lord has been fulfilled, that is to say, It has been consolidated, concluded and confirmed, and It is the following: 'I will surely fill Hell with jinn and mankind together', because Hell is one of the levels of existence and, from the point of view of [divine] wisdom, cannot be suspended and concealed indefinitely in non-existence while it is a possibility.
فَلَعَلَّكَ تَارِكٌ بَعْضَ مَا يُوحَىٰ إِلَيْكَ وَضَائِقٌ بِهِ صَدْرُكَ أَنْ يَقُولُوا لَوْلَا أُنْزِلَ عَلَيْهِ كَنْزٌ أَوْ جَاءَ مَعَهُ مَلَكٌ ۚ إِنَّمَا أَنْتَ نَذِيرٌ ۚ وَاللَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ وَكِيلٌ
📘 Perhaps, you might [think to] leave out some of what is revealed to you: when they failed to accept his speech, may God bless him and grant him peace, by [their] volition and repudiated what he said with corrupt requests [of their own], countering it with obstinacy and mockery, his breast became straitened and was not expanded for the [reception of the divine] speech. For volition attracts speech and the receptivity of the listener increases the energy of the speaker and makes him expansive therein; but if the speaker does not find a receptive locus, it is not facilitated for him and becomes [a source of] anxiety for him. Consequently, God gave him heart with these [words] and spurred his faculty and his energy with His words: You are but a warner, and your warning will always accomplish one of two things. It will either remove the veil and have a successful effect on the one whom God has granted success for that purpose; or it will serve as a definitive argument against the one who is not granted such success. And God is Guardian over all things, so entrust guardianship of the guiding [of people] to Him.
وَكُلًّا نَقُصُّ عَلَيْكَ مِنْ أَنْبَاءِ الرُّسُلِ مَا نُثَبِّتُ بِهِ فُؤَادَكَ ۚ وَجَاءَكَ فِي هَٰذِهِ الْحَقُّ وَمَوْعِظَةٌ وَذِكْرَىٰ لِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ
📘 And all that We relate to you of the accounts of the messengers, that with which We might strengthen your heart: since We have apprised you of how they suffered hardships at the hands of their communities but remained firm at the station of uprightness without slipping therefrom, and [apprised you] of how We reprimanded them for their variegations and for the manifestation of some remnant of theirs, as in the story of Noah when he asks for the deliverance of his son; and [apprised you] of the strength of their steadfastness and courage in their certainty and trust [in God], as in the story of Hūd where he says: Lo! I call God to bear witness and you, bear witness also, that I am innocent of what you associate [Q. 11:54] to where he says [Surely my Lord is] on a straight path [Q. 11:56]; and [apprised you] of the perfectedness of their generosity and virtue in the face of insolence, as in the story of Lot where the daughters are offered up in exchange for the safeguarding of guests from evil, [since We have apprised you of all of that], your heart has been made firm by all of that and your uprightness has been stabilised and your fixity has been strengthened by the dissipation of the vestiges of variegations from you, and your trust, your satisfaction, your certainty and your courage have been fortified and your character and your generosity have been perfected. And in this, sūra, there has come to you the truth, that is, that by which the convictions of the believers are verified, and an admonition, for them with which they might guard against that for which He destroyed [former] communities, and a reminder, of what they should follow as [their] religion and adopt as their path and conduct. But God knows best.
مَنْ كَانَ يُرِيدُ الْحَيَاةَ الدُّنْيَا وَزِينَتَهَا نُوَفِّ إِلَيْهِمْ أَعْمَالَهُمْ فِيهَا وَهُمْ فِيهَا لَا يُبْخَسُونَ
📘 He who desires the life of this world: in other words, every person who performs a deed, even if that [deed] should seem to belong to the deeds of the Hereafter outwardly, with the intention of [gaining things of] this world and solely desiring a share of its shares, God, exalted be He, shall repay him in full the recompense for it therein, but nothing of the reward of the Hereafter shall reach him. To every person there belongs a portion of this world in accordance with the plane [of creation] upon which he is and a portion of the Hereafter in accordance with the primordial nature upon which he was created. Thus if he only desires this world with his deeds, then he [himself] has turned his face towards it and has turned away from the Hereafter, and he will have made, by his being attracted and oriented towards the lower aspect, his this-worldly portion the very thing that veils [him] from his other-worldly portion, such that his primordial nature degenerates and follows the plane [of creation] and his soul begins to employ the heart in the pursuit of its shares and so his other-worldly portion becomes joined to his this-worldly portion: and therein they shall not be defrauded, in other words, they shall not be diminished, that is, nothing of the reward for their deeds shall be diminished in this world, because when the heart is configured according to the mien of the soul, its share takes on the form of the share of the soul.
أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ لَيْسَ لَهُمْ فِي الْآخِرَةِ إِلَّا النَّارُ ۖ وَحَبِطَ مَا صَنَعُوا فِيهَا وَبَاطِلٌ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ
📘 Those are they for whom there is nothing in the Hereafter but the Fire, by virtue of their hearts being chastised by this-worldly veils and their being deprived from what their preparednesses entailed and their suffering pain as a result of things which they have acquired that do not befit them; what they contrive, of pious works, will fail, in the Hereafter, since they were [performed] with the intention of [gains in] this world, judging by his [the Prophet's] statement: 'Actions are [judged] according to the intentions [behind them] and for every man is what he intended [�]', to the end of the ḥadīth.
أَفَمَنْ كَانَ عَلَىٰ بَيِّنَةٍ مِنْ رَبِّهِ وَيَتْلُوهُ شَاهِدٌ مِنْهُ وَمِنْ قَبْلِهِ كِتَابُ مُوسَىٰ إِمَامًا وَرَحْمَةً ۚ أُولَٰئِكَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِهِ ۚ وَمَنْ يَكْفُرْ بِهِ مِنَ الْأَحْزَابِ فَالنَّارُ مَوْعِدُهُ ۚ فَلَا تَكُ فِي مِرْيَةٍ مِنْهُ ۚ إِنَّهُ الْحَقُّ مِنْ رَبِّكَ وَلَٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ
📘 Is he who relies on a clear proof from his Lord: that is, is he who desires the life of this world like the one who is upon a clear proof from his Lordḍ In other words, there is a tremendous distance between the two in terms of level. As for the one who relies on a clear proof, [this means]: a certainty on the basis of rational demonstration (burhān ʿaqlī) or one on the basis of an ecstatic consciousness of unveiling and there follows that certainty, a witness, from his Lord, namely, the QurÌān that confirms the veracity of the rational demonstration in terms of the affirmation of Oneness as well as the soundness of [Muḥammad's] prophethood and the principles of religion; and before this QurÌān [there was], the Book of Moses: in other words, there followed the demonstration before this Book the Book of Moses being in that state, as a standard, to be followed and an exemplar to be held on to in realising goals and a mercy from the Merciful that guides people, cleanses them and instructs them in wisdoms and precepts. Those they believe in it, in reality unlike those who seek the shares of this world.
وَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنِ افْتَرَىٰ عَلَى اللَّهِ كَذِبًا ۚ أُولَٰئِكَ يُعْرَضُونَ عَلَىٰ رَبِّهِمْ وَيَقُولُ الْأَشْهَادُ هَٰؤُلَاءِ الَّذِينَ كَذَبُوا عَلَىٰ رَبِّهِمْ ۚ أَلَا لَعْنَةُ اللَّهِ عَلَى الظَّالِمِينَ
📘 And who does greater wrong than he who invents a lie concerning Godḍ, by affirming the existence of another besides Him and ascribing an attribute of His, such as His speech and the like, to anotherḍ Those, they shall be brought before their Lord, by halting at the first halting place, veiled and forsaken, and the witnesses, the affirmers of Oneness, will say: 'These are they who lied concerning their Lord', by means of [their] idolatrous association. They are then driven away and cursed on account of their idolatrous association, [a sin] which is the gravest of injustice;
الَّذِينَ يَصُدُّونَ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَيَبْغُونَهَا عِوَجًا وَهُمْ بِالْآخِرَةِ هُمْ كَافِرُونَ
📘 they who bar, people from the way of God's Oneness and describe this [way] as being crooked despite its straightness, and who, in addition to being veiled from the Truth, are veiled from the Hereafter to the exclusion of others from among the followers of religions.
أَلَّا تَعْبُدُوا إِلَّا اللَّهَ ۚ إِنَّنِي لَكُمْ مِنْهُ نَذِيرٌ وَبَشِيرٌ
📘 [Saying:] 'Worship none but God, that is, this [Book] utters to you by the tongue of the state and through proofs that you should not associate anything in the worship of God and that you should devote worship exclusively to Him. Truly I am to you a warner from Him and a bearer of good tidings': speech by the tongue of the Messenger, namely, that I bring you a warning from the Wise and Informed One of the punishment of idolatrous association and its corollaries, and I [also] bring you good tidings from Him of the reward of affirming [His] Oneness and the benefits thereof.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَأَخْبَتُوا إِلَىٰ رَبِّهِمْ أُولَٰئِكَ أَصْحَابُ الْجَنَّةِ ۖ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ
📘 Truly those who believe, with the faith of certainty in the unseen, and perform, deeds that make them righteous for the encounter with God and draw them closer to Him, such as repentance, real renunciation, penitence, worship, patience and gratitude and all those corresponding deeds that relate to the wayfaring folk and their stations; and who humble themselves before their Lord, [and who] are self-effacing [before God] and are reassured by Him through yearning and who detach themselves [from all else] for Him, annihilating themselves in Him: such will be the inhabitants, of the Garden of the hearts, the Garden wherein they shall abide.
۞ مَثَلُ الْفَرِيقَيْنِ كَالْأَعْمَىٰ وَالْأَصَمِّ وَالْبَصِيرِ وَالسَّمِيعِ ۚ هَلْ يَسْتَوِيَانِ مَثَلًا ۚ أَفَلَا تَذَكَّرُونَ
📘 The likeness of the two groups is that of the blind and deaf and the seeing and hearing. Are they equal in likeness? The truly blind are those who do not have the eye of heedfulness to gaze on the signs of the hori- zons by way of inference, nor the heart of reflection to ponder the signs of the souls, nor the insight of the Haqiqah to see the unveilings of the unseen secrets with the light of perspicacity. The truly seeing are those who look with the knowledge of certainty at the marks giving witness to the acts, for Have they not gazed upon the dominion of the heavens and the earth? [7:185]. Again, with the eye of certainty they see the realities of the attributes, for Do they not ponder the Qur'an? [4:82]. Again, with the truth of certainty they see the majesty of the Essence, for Dost thou not see thy Lord? [25:45]. The knowledge of certainty relies on demonstration, the eye of certainty derives from clarity, and the truth of certainty is described by face-to-face vision. The knowledge of certainty belongs to the faithful, the eye of certainty belongs to the prophets, and the truth of certainty belongs to MuṣṬafā. This is why the world's folk have reports, and he has face-to-face vision. All the world is the shell, and he is the pearl. All the world is a hanger-on, and he is the goal. Were it not for you, O lustrous pearl, Adam would not have taken a breath in this ruined street.
فَقَالَ الْمَلَأُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْ قَوْمِهِ مَا نَرَاكَ إِلَّا بَشَرًا مِثْلَنَا وَمَا نَرَاكَ اتَّبَعَكَ إِلَّا الَّذِينَ هُمْ أَرَاذِلُنَا بَادِيَ الرَّأْيِ وَمَا نَرَىٰ لَكُمْ عَلَيْنَا مِنْ فَضْلٍ بَلْ نَظُنُّكُمْ كَاذِبِينَ
📘 The council of his people who disbelieved, that is the noblemen who were brimming with the affairs of this world, with power over these [affairs] and who were veiled by their intellect and by their rational concepts from the Truth, said: 'We see you but a mortal like us, being as they were exoteric folk, halting at the limits of the intellect which is tarnished with illusion and bewildered with vain desires: this is the intellect [used for the pursuit] of livelihood. These [folk] cannot see anyone being at a stage beyond the one which they have attained on the basis of reason and have no awareness of the levels of preparedness and perfection as being one stage after another and one level above another [and so on continuously] to an extent that only God knows. Thus they have not felt the station of prophethood and its significance; and we see not that any follow you save the vilest among us, the poor among us, those who are lower [in status] than us, since for them level and status are related to reputation and wealth, exactly as God, exalted be He, said: They know [merely] an outward aspect of the life of this world; but they, of the Hereafter, they are oblivious [Q. 30:7]; [through] rash opinion, that is, [they are] impulsive and spontaneous opinion since they are of weak intellect, unable to acquire livelihood, while we are folk of reflection and consideration: they said this because they were veiled by their intellect which is incapable of perceiving reality and spiritual merit as its used is restricted to the acquisition of livelihood and halting at the limits thereof. As for the followers of Noah, peace be upon him, they are folk of far-reaching aspirations and intellects that hover over the Holiness not engaged in seeking livelihood or concerned with the means of acquiring or actualising it, which is why they denigrated and scorned their intellects. We do not see that you have over us any merit, or advancement in terms of what we are referring to, since for them merit was confined to advancement in terms of wealth, property and reputation; nay, we deem you liars', for being unable to perceive what you affirm or understand what you say despite our abundant astuteness.
قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ أَرَأَيْتُمْ إِنْ كُنْتُ عَلَىٰ بَيِّنَةٍ مِنْ رَبِّي وَآتَانِي رَحْمَةً مِنْ عِنْدِهِ فَعُمِّيَتْ عَلَيْكُمْ أَنُلْزِمُكُمُوهَا وَأَنْتُمْ لَهَا كَارِهُونَ
📘 [He said:] 'O my people, have you considered if I am [acting] upon a clear proof from my Lord: that it is incumbent upon you from the point of view of reason to submit to Him, and He has given me mercy, that is, special guidance through unveiling that is high above the degree of [rational] demonstration, from Him, that is, above the stage of intellect, being from the forms of knowledge that are God-given and from the station of prophethood, and it has been obscured from you, for your veiling of yourselves from the inward with the outward and from the Reality with creation. It can only be received through the volition of the folk of preparedness: how then can we compel you and coerce you to it, while you are averse to itḍ, in other words, if you wish to acquire acceptance of it, then cleanse your souls and purify your preparedness, if one has been bestowed on you, and abandon your denial so that the effect of the light of volition might be manifested upon you and you might then [be able to] receive it, God willing.
وَيَا قَوْمِ لَا أَسْأَلُكُمْ عَلَيْهِ مَالًا ۖ إِنْ أَجْرِيَ إِلَّا عَلَى اللَّهِ ۚ وَمَا أَنَا بِطَارِدِ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا ۚ إِنَّهُمْ مُلَاقُو رَبِّهِمْ وَلَٰكِنِّي أَرَاكُمْ قَوْمًا تَجْهَلُونَ
📘 I do not ask of you any wealth for this, that is, anything that I desire for myself of the things confined to the [context of the] actualisation of livelihood. I do not demand that of you, so be alerted to my [true] desire, if you are possessors of rational faculties as you claim; and I will not drive away those who believe, since they are people of propinquity and stature before God, and if I were to drive them away I would be an enemy of God and one in strife against His friends: I would not be a prophet in that case. But I see you are a people who are ignorant, of what makes a man fit for the encounter with God, knowing neither God nor the encounter with Him, because your intellects have taken flight to this world or because you are foolish, hurting the believers with your foolishness.
وَأَنِ اسْتَغْفِرُوا رَبَّكُمْ ثُمَّ تُوبُوا إِلَيْهِ يُمَتِّعْكُمْ مَتَاعًا حَسَنًا إِلَىٰ أَجَلٍ مُسَمًّى وَيُؤْتِ كُلَّ ذِي فَضْلٍ فَضْلَهُ ۖ وَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَإِنِّي أَخَافُ عَلَيْكُمْ عَذَابَ يَوْمٍ كَبِيرٍ
📘 And [bidding you]: 'Ask forgiveness of your Lord, in other words, proclaim His Oneness and ask of Him that He forgive the configurations of looking upon the other, the veiling of oneself with the multiplicity, confinement to things and halting with them even your acts and attributes; then repent to Him, return to Him by having [your] essences annihilated in Him, and He will give you fair enjoyment, in this world, on the basis of the divine law and justice in the case of subsistence after annihilation until the time of your reception at death, and He will give every person of merit, in terms of character traits, knowledge and perfections, [the due for] his merit, in the way of reward and degrees; or, He will give you fair enjoyment of the pleasures of the self-disclosures of the acts and the attributes, upon your disengagement, up to the moment of your annihilation; or, He gives every person of merit in terms of preparedness, [the due for] his merit in the way of perfection and level upon his elevation and drawing closer. But if you turn away, that is, refrain from affirmation of Oneness and disengagement, I fear for you the chastisement of an awful day, one [that will be] severe for you, the day of the return to God, the Powerful over all things, in other words, the day on which your incapacity and the incapacity of what you worshipp shall be manifested through His manifestation, exalted be He, in the attribute of His powerfulness whereupon He will subjugate you with chastisement.
وَيَا قَوْمِ مَنْ يَنْصُرُنِي مِنَ اللَّهِ إِنْ طَرَدْتُهُمْ ۚ أَفَلَا تَذَكَّرُونَ
📘 And O my people, who would help me against God, who is the Vanquisher over His servants [cf. Q. 6:18], if I drive them away, and make myself liable to His vanquishing power by driving them awayḍ Will you not then remember, the requirements of the human primordial nature and thus be restrained from what you sayḍ
وَلَا أَقُولُ لَكُمْ عِنْدِي خَزَائِنُ اللَّهِ وَلَا أَعْلَمُ الْغَيْبَ وَلَا أَقُولُ إِنِّي مَلَكٌ وَلَا أَقُولُ لِلَّذِينَ تَزْدَرِي أَعْيُنُكُمْ لَنْ يُؤْتِيَهُمُ اللَّهُ خَيْرًا ۖ اللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا فِي أَنْفُسِهِمْ ۖ إِنِّي إِذًا لَمِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ
📘 And I do not say to you, �I possess the treasure houses of God�: in other words, I [only] claim merit [over you] on account of prophethood, and not on account of any wealth or great property, nor on account of having knowledge of the unseen or by claiming to be an angel, so that you might [justifiably] deny my merit for the absence of these [things]. Nor do I say, to the poor believers whom you scorn and regard with the eye of disdain, that God will not give them any good, as you claim, because for me 'good' is that which is with God and not property - God knows better, than me and you, what is in their souls, of good. He is best acquainted with their capacities and thoughts and none [except Him] knows the measure of their goodness, because it is tremendous. Lo! then I, that is, if I were to deny [any association of] good with them or drive them away, would be of the evildoers indeed'.
وَاصْنَعِ الْفُلْكَ بِأَعْيُنِنَا وَوَحْيِنَا وَلَا تُخَاطِبْنِي فِي الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا ۚ إِنَّهُمْ مُغْرَقُونَ
📘 Make the ship through Our eyes and Our revelation. In keeping with the Shariah and by virtue of the outward decree, a command came, " Build a ship from teak and sit in it so as to be delivered from the storm. " In keeping with the Haqiqah and by virtue of special favor and the attribute of proximity, a call came to his secret core, " You have the ocean of the soul before you. It is a drowning, destructive ocean in which are waiting whirlpools full of danger and spirit-stealing sharks. You must cross it in order to reach the shore of security. Build a ship of self-purification in three levels: one fear, the second hope, and the third approval. Then attach to it the sail of truthfulness and set it toward the east wind of awareness of Me. " This is why He said, " through Our eyes and Our revelation: I Myself will drive it as it should be driven and where it should be driven. " He it is who makes you journey on land and sea [10:22]. And We carried them on land and sea [17:70]. By way of allusion He is saying, " My servant, turn over the governance of your work to Me, entrust yourself totally to Me, and keep your self-determination distant. You are being carried by My gentleness, and 'He who is carried by the generous does not fall. And if he does fall, he will find someone to take his hand.' " This is just what MuṣṬafā said: " You indeed will be threading a bridge of fire. If one of you treads on a spark, the bridge will say, 'Your Lord has said to shelter him!' " This is a great generos- ity and an infinite gentleness that the Exalted Lord will do for the disobedient servant tomorrow when he crosses the Narrow Path. " So, sometimes he will stop, sometime stumble, " falling and getting up. The Exalted Lord knows that the servant has no one to come to his aid but He and no one to take his hand but He. In the reports it is mentioned that God's mercy toward the servant is more than a mother's mercy toward her child. Supposing that a child's foot gets caught in the mud a thousand times, each time the mother will say, " Rise up, O soul of your mother! " Each time she will be even more tender and lovingly kind toward the child.
وَيَصْنَعُ الْفُلْكَ وَكُلَّمَا مَرَّ عَلَيْهِ مَلَأٌ مِنْ قَوْمِهِ سَخِرُوا مِنْهُ ۚ قَالَ إِنْ تَسْخَرُوا مِنَّا فَإِنَّا نَسْخَرُ مِنْكُمْ كَمَا تَسْخَرُونَ
📘 And he was building the Ark, to the end of this [verse]: the [literal] exegesis of this, as indicated by its apparent sense, is a reality in which one must believe and a truth which one must affirm, in accordance with what has been transmitted in the historical accounts of the details of the story of the Flood, its time, its modality and its extent. As for the [allegorical] interpretation [of this episode], it is possible to interpret the Ark as Noah's Law (sharīʿa) borne by him and those of his people who were believers like him, as the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace: 'The likeness of the family of my house is the likeness of Noah's Ark: whose comes on board shall be saved and whoso stays behind shall drown'. And the Flood [may be interpreted] as the mastery acquired by the sea of primordial substrata and the destruction of all those who did not disengage from that [substrata] by following a prophet and cleansing their souls. Similarly, of the words of the prophet Enoch (Idrīs), peace be upon him, and of his conversations with his soul something has been related to the effect that this world is like a sea that is brimming full with water, and so if you manage to find a ship to ride upon the destruction of the body you will be delivered from it to your world; otherwise, you will drown therein and perish. On the basis of that, the meaning of 'and he was building the Ark' would be: he was adopting a Law from the wooden boards of righteous deeds and the nails of the forms of knowledge by which deeds are arranged and confirmed; and whenever a council of his people passed him, they scoffed at him: as you know is the case with scoundrels and profligates notorious for their licentiousness (ibāḥā), scoffing at adherents of the [divine] Law who are restricted by its constraints. He said, 'Though you scoff at us, in your ignorance, yet we scoff at you, upon the manifestation of the awful nature of the consequence of your disbelief and your veiledness, even as you scoff;
فَسَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ مَنْ يَأْتِيهِ عَذَابٌ يُخْزِيهِ وَيَحِلُّ عَلَيْهِ عَذَابٌ مُقِيمٌ
📘 and you shall know, then, to whom will come a chastisement that will degrade him, in this world in the way of destruction, death, sickness, harm, hardship or poverty and how he will be perturbed and distressed at what he is losing, and upon whom an enduring chastisement will fall', an everlasting one in the Hereafter in the way of the mastery [over him] of the fires of privation and the dark configurations of vices and utter loss.
حَتَّىٰ إِذَا جَاءَ أَمْرُنَا وَفَارَ التَّنُّورُ قُلْنَا احْمِلْ فِيهَا مِنْ كُلٍّ زَوْجَيْنِ اثْنَيْنِ وَأَهْلَكَ إِلَّا مَنْ سَبَقَ عَلَيْهِ الْقَوْلُ وَمَنْ آمَنَ ۚ وَمَا آمَنَ مَعَهُ إِلَّا قَلِيلٌ
📘 Such that when Our command came, for the destruction of your community, and the oven, of the body, overflowed, at the point of the mastery of the corrupt mixtures and the excretive moistures over the natural heat and [the mastery of] the natural potency of the primordial water over the fire of the animal spirit. Or [such that when there came] Our command for their spiritual destruction and the oven overflowed at the mastery of the water of natural vain desire over the heart and its drowning it in the primordial sea of the body. We said, 'Carry therein of every one two pairs, that is, from every kind of every species two, being their two forms, special and that of kind, which remain upon the annihilation of individuals. The meaning of the 'carrying of the two therein' is his knowledge of their subsistence with the subsistence of human spirits. For his knowledge is part of his all-subsuming ship, since it is composed of knowledge and deed. Thus its knowledge regarding the two is its carrying of the two and his knowledge concerning the two is his carrying of the two therein; and your family, and those who are joined to you in your religion and your conduct from among your kin, save those against whom the Word has already gone forth, that is, the judgement from pre-eternity that that one should be destroyed for his disbelief, and those who believe', in God from among your community.
۞ وَقَالَ ارْكَبُوا فِيهَا بِسْمِ اللَّهِ مَجْرَاهَا وَمُرْسَاهَا ۚ إِنَّ رَبِّي لَغَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
📘 And he said, 'Embark therein! In the Name of God be its course and its mooring, that is, in the Greatest Name of God, which is the existence of every perfect knower from among the individuals of the human species [shall be] its effectuation, the putting into force of its judgements and the propagation of these [judgements] across the sea of the corporeal world, in addition to the establishing, the setting clear and the confirming of these, as you see in the case of every [divine] law whose command is effected, confirmed and set clear by the presence of a prophet or one of the leaders (imām) of that community [subject to that law] or one of its religious scholars (ḥabr). Truly my Lord is Forgiving, of the dark corporeal configurations of your souls and the sins of the garments of physical nature that bring about your destruction and cause you to drown in it sea, if you follow the Law; Merciful', by His effusion of bestowals of knowledge and unveilings as well as luminous configurations by which He delivers you. Were it not for His forgiveness and mercy, you would surely be drowned and destroyed like your brethren.
وَهِيَ تَجْرِي بِهِمْ فِي مَوْجٍ كَالْجِبَالِ وَنَادَىٰ نُوحٌ ابْنَهُ وَكَانَ فِي مَعْزِلٍ يَا بُنَيَّ ارْكَبْ مَعَنَا وَلَا تَكُنْ مَعَ الْكَافِرِينَ
📘 And it sailed with them amid waves, of temptations of the sea of corporeal nature and [waves] of the overwhelmingness of its [corporeal nature's] summonings of people and the victory [over them] of its vain desires by their consensus over its requirements; like mountains that block vision and are [too] unstable for travelling along. Or [it sailed with them amid] waves of the deviations of the constitution and the overpowerings of ruinous mixtures. And Noah called out to his son, who was veiled by his intellect - that was [itself] overcome by illusion, being the intellect of livelihood - from the religion of his father and his affirmation of Oneness; who was [standing] in a place cut off, from his religion and his law: 'O my son, embark with us, that is, enter into our religion, and do not be with the disbelievers!, those who are veiled from the Truth and who will be destroyed by waves of the vain desires of the soul to drown in the sea of natural character traits.
قَالَ سَآوِي إِلَىٰ جَبَلٍ يَعْصِمُنِي مِنَ الْمَاءِ ۚ قَالَ لَا عَاصِمَ الْيَوْمَ مِنْ أَمْرِ اللَّهِ إِلَّا مَنْ رَحِمَ ۚ وَحَالَ بَيْنَهُمَا الْمَوْجُ فَكَانَ مِنَ الْمُغْرَقِينَ
📘 He said, 'I shall take refuge in a mountain that will protect me from the water', meaning by this, the brain which is the locus for the intellect, in other words, I shall take refuge with the intellect and the intelligible so that it might protect me from the overpowering of the sea of primordial matter that I might not then drown therein. Said he, 'This day there is none that can protect from God's command, except him on whom He has mercy', with the religion that proclaims the Oneness and the Law. And the waves, of the vain desires of the soul and the overpowering of the water of the sea of nature, came between them, that is, these veiled him from his father, his religion and his affirmation of Oneness, so he was among those drowned, in the sea of corporeal primordial matter.
وَقِيلَ يَا أَرْضُ ابْلَعِي مَاءَكِ وَيَا سَمَاءُ أَقْلِعِي وَغِيضَ الْمَاءُ وَقُضِيَ الْأَمْرُ وَاسْتَوَتْ عَلَى الْجُودِيِّ ۖ وَقِيلَ بُعْدًا لِلْقَوْمِ الظَّالِمِينَ
📘 And it was said, 'O earth, swallow your waters, and O heaven, abate!': in other words, a call came from the direction of the Truth by the tongue of the Law [to] the earth of corporeal nature to the effect: O earth, by the command of the Law and by following its precepts diminish the power over you of your vain desire and its mastery by the gushing forth of your substrata over the heart and halt at the bounds of moderation through which it [the heart] acquires its proper condition; and O heaven of the intellect, veiled [as you are] by habit and sense, tarnished by illusion and overcast with the clouds of vain desire that reinforce the soul and physical nature by preparing for it its substrata and means [of nourishment] through consideration, desist from reinforcing it. And the waters, of corporeal nature and the lifeline of the moisture that screens off the light of the Truth and prevents real life, subsided. And the affair, of God, was accomplished, by the deliverance of those who were saved and the destruction of those who were destroyed, and it became steady, that is, his law was upheld, upon the Jūdī, of Noah's existence and it settled, and it was said: 'Away with, that is, destruction for, the evildoing folk!', who denied God's religion and worshipped vain desire instead of the truth and substituted the place of the Law with the path of nature.
وَنَادَىٰ نُوحٌ رَبَّهُ فَقَالَ رَبِّ إِنَّ ابْنِي مِنْ أَهْلِي وَإِنَّ وَعْدَكَ الْحَقُّ وَأَنْتَ أَحْكَمُ الْحَاكِمِينَ
📘 And Noah called out to his Lord and said, 'My Lord, lo! my son is of my family: fatherly compassion and the affectionate bonds of kinship drove him to demand his deliverance on account of the intensity of his attachment to him and concern for his affair. Despite that, he was mindful of the [refined] manners required in the [divine] presence and the virtuous [form of] requesting [from God], saying: and truly Your promise is the Truth, and he did not say, 'do not break Your promise to deliver my family'. And he said that [which he did say] only because of the presence of some variegation and a remnant within him, since by 'family' he had understood those related [to him] by form and natural ties of kinship, oblivious on account of his excessive distress for his son of God's proviso where He said: save those against whom the Word has already gone forth [Q. 11:40], failing to realise that his son is the one against whom the Words had already gone forth. Nor did he [Noah] solicit the compassion of his Lord, but alluded with his words: and You are the Most Just of Judges' to the fact that the Knower, the Just and the Wise does not break His promise.
قَالَ يَا نُوحُ إِنَّهُ لَيْسَ مِنْ أَهْلِكَ ۖ إِنَّهُ عَمَلٌ غَيْرُ صَالِحٍ ۖ فَلَا تَسْأَلْنِ مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌ ۖ إِنِّي أَعِظُكَ أَنْ تَكُونَ مِنَ الْجَاهِلِينَ
📘 He said: 'O Noah, lo! he is not of your family: in other words, that [the one who is of] your family in reality is the one with whom you share religious kinship, a spiritual relationship and a real connection not a formal one, as in the saying of the Commander of the Believers, peace be upon him: 'Verily the friend of Muḥammad is the one who obeys God, even if he should be distantly related and verily the enemy of Muḥammad is the one who disobeys God, even if he should be closely related'; lo! it is not a righteous deed: He makes clear that he is not of his family by [saying] that he is not righteous, pointing out that his family are the righteous ones, the followers of his religion and his law and that because of his [the son's] indulging in corruption and error his soul is as it were a unrighteous deed and that the cause of deliverance is only righteousness and not his kinship with you on the basis of form. Thus the one bereft of righteousness shall be denied deliverance. He [God] also intimated that he [his son] was a form of sin that issued from him [Noah], as in the saying, 'he is one of his father's secrets', according to what the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, said: 'The child is the secret of his father'. That is because when he [Noah] had done his utmost in his [prophetic] call [to his people] and expended all effort in the prolonged period without his people responding to him, he became wrathful and invoked [God] against them with his words: My Lord, do not leave from among the disbelievers a single dweller upon the earth. Assuredly if You leave them, they will lead Your servants astray, and will beget only disbelieving profligates [Q. 71:26-27]. In this way he was distracted from the presential vision of God's power and wisdom and [from the fact] that He brings forth the living from the dead and brings forth the dead from the living [Q. 10:31]. That invocation of his constituted the sin of his state at the error of his station. Consequently God tried him with the disbelieving profligate whom he claimed, during his state of wrath, was the only thing which they would beget, prejudging God this supposition of his, which is why He cleansed him of that sin with that punishment.
قَالَ رَبِّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ أَنْ أَسْأَلَكَ مَا لَيْسَ لِي بِهِ عِلْمٌ ۖ وَإِلَّا تَغْفِرْ لِي وَتَرْحَمْنِي أَكُنْ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ
📘 He said, 'My Lord, I seek refuge in You that I should ask of You that whereof I have no knowledge. Unless You forgive me, my variegations and the manifestation of my remnants, and have mercy on me, by [granting me] uprightness and fixity, I shall be among the losers', who lose their souls as a result of being veiled from Your knowledge and wisdom.
قِيلَ يَا نُوحُ اهْبِطْ بِسَلَامٍ مِنَّا وَبَرَكَاتٍ عَلَيْكَ وَعَلَىٰ أُمَمٍ مِمَّنْ مَعَكَ ۚ وَأُمَمٌ سَنُمَتِّعُهُمْ ثُمَّ يَمَسُّهُمْ مِنَّا عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
📘 It was said, 'O Noah, go down, that is, descend from the locus of the union and the pinnacle of the station of sanctity and absorption in the unity to the station of differentiation and law-giving prophethood by returning to creation and witnessing the multiplicity at the source of unity, neither wrathful because of [your] being veiled by them [the multiplicity] from the Truth, nor satisfied with their disbelief by veiling [yourself] from them with the Truth, in peace, that is, safe from being veiled by the multiplicity and from the manifestation of the soul in wrath and from the existence of variegation and the actualisation of attachment after disengagement or error after guidance, from Us, that is, [a peace] issuing from Us and through Us, and blessings, as a result of the legislation of the rules of the Law and the establishing of the foundations of justice by means of which everything grows and is augmented, upon you and upon some communities, that will issue, from those with you, following your religion and your path until the end of time. And [there will be other] communities, that is, and there will issue forth from those with you communities, to whom We shall give enjoyment, in the life of this world, because of their veiling themselves therewith and halting [thereat], and then a painful chastisement will befall them', when We destroy them for their disbelief and burn them in the Fire of the vestiges and chastise them with the configurations.If you wish to effect a correspondence [between this and your own existence], you would interpret Noah as your spirit and the Ark as your cognitive and practical perfection through which shall be your salvation at the point of the Flooding of the sea of primordial matter, such that when the oven of the body overflows as a result of the mastery of alien moisture and corrupt mixtures and there comes the call [proclaiming] its [the body's] disintegration, he [your spirit] rides in it and carries with him [on board] from every two kinds from among the beasts of the animal and the natural faculties and the birds of the spiritual faculties two, that is, their original pair. And [he carries with him] his three sons, Ham (Ḥām) the heart, Shem (Sām) the considerative intellect and Japheth (Yāfith) the practical intellect as well as his wife, the reassured soul, taking it [the Ark] on its course in the Greatest Name of God and [finally] being delivered with timeless subsistence from eternal destruction in the Flood, while his other wife, the corporeal nature, and his son from her, the estimation that sought refuge in the mountain of the brain, are drowned.
وَيَا قَوْمِ اسْتَغْفِرُوا رَبَّكُمْ ثُمَّ تُوبُوا إِلَيْهِ يُرْسِلِ السَّمَاءَ عَلَيْكُمْ مِدْرَارًا وَيَزِدْكُمْ قُوَّةً إِلَىٰ قُوَّتِكُمْ وَلَا تَتَوَلَّوْا مُجْرِمِينَ
📘 And, O my people, ask forgiveness of your Lord, for the sins of the soul's veils and for halting with vain desire in idolatrous association, then turn to Him repentant, by orienting yourselves to the affirmation of Oneness and to the wayfaring along His path through disengagement and illumination, and He will release the sky of the spirit, upon you in abundance, with the waters of true knowledge and gnoses of certainty, and He will add to you, the strength of perfection, to, the strength of preparedness. And do not turn away from Him, as sinners', by manifesting the attributes of your souls and orienting yourselves to the lower aspect through the love of this world and the pursuit of nature.
قَالُوا يَا هُودُ مَا جِئْتَنَا بِبَيِّنَةٍ وَمَا نَحْنُ بِتَارِكِي آلِهَتِنَا عَنْ قَوْلِكَ وَمَا نَحْنُ لَكَ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ
📘 They said, 'O Hūd, you have not brought us any clear proof: [they said this] because of the deficiency of their understanding and the blindness of their insight to the perception of the proof, [itself] the result of the place of the natural coverings [over them], and so since they could not comprehend him, they necessarily denied him.
إِنِّي تَوَكَّلْتُ عَلَى اللَّهِ رَبِّي وَرَبِّكُمْ ۚ مَا مِنْ دَابَّةٍ إِلَّا هُوَ آخِذٌ بِنَاصِيَتِهَا ۚ إِنَّ رَبِّي عَلَىٰ صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ
📘 Truly I have put my trust in God, my Lord and your Lord; there is no creature, but He takes it by the forelock: he makes clear the necessity of trusting in God and that this [trust] is a fortified citadel, firstly by that His Lordship subsumes all and the one who is lord over another manages his affair and preserves him such that he has no need of the protection or guardianship of another; then by that every soul-possessing individual is subject to His vanquishing power and authority, captive in His disposing hand, His dominion and His power, unable to act, without power over or effect upon another and immobile in himself, like the dead, and as such there is no need to guard oneself or seek protection against him; then by that He is, on a straight path, that is, on the path of justice in the world of multiplicity, which is the shadow of His unity, and consequently He does not give anyone warrant over another except when that person deserves it on account of some sin or crime. Nor does He punish anyone unless he has slipped, even if it should be a minor [slip]; but such [punishment where it is due] might be for the purpose of cleansing [that person] and raising [him] by a degree as in the case of [the degree of] witnessing. In addition, within all of that he denies them and their deities the power to bring benefit or harm.
وَيَا قَوْمِ هَٰذِهِ نَاقَةُ اللَّهِ لَكُمْ آيَةً فَذَرُوهَا تَأْكُلْ فِي أَرْضِ اللَّهِ وَلَا تَمَسُّوهَا بِسُوءٍ فَيَأْخُذَكُمْ عَذَابٌ قَرِيبٌ
📘 And, O my people, this is the she-camel of God: the interpretation of the she-camel has already been given. As for the deliverance of Ṣāliḥ and those with them, according to the mentioned interpretation, this is like the deliverance of Jesus, peace be upon him, from crucifixion, as related in His words And yet they did not slay him nor did they crucify him but for them he was given the resemblance [Q. 4:157] and His words and they did not slay him for certain. Nay, God raised him up to Him [Q. 4:157-8], similar to the deliverance of the believing man from among Pharaoh's folk [cf. Q. 40:28], according to what He has alluded to in His words So God shielded him from the evils of what they had plotted [Q. 40:45].
وَلَقَدْ جَاءَتْ رُسُلُنَا إِبْرَاهِيمَ بِالْبُشْرَىٰ قَالُوا سَلَامًا ۖ قَالَ سَلَامٌ ۖ فَمَا لَبِثَ أَنْ جَاءَ بِعِجْلٍ حَنِيذٍ
📘 And verily Our messengers came to Abraham with good tidings, to the end of this [verse]: noble human souls possess connections with higher disengaged principles and the holy spirits of the celestial spheres in the way of the vanquishing intellectual lights and the heavenly governing souls and [they also enjoy] mixing with the higher council of the inhabitants of the realm of [divine] invincibility (jabarūt) and ingressions into the realm of dominion (malakūt). For each soul, depending on its primordial nature, there is a principle that corresponds to it from the realm of invincibility and a governor that nurtures it from the realm of dominion. From the former [the principle] it derives the effusion of knowledge and light, while from the latter [the governor] it derives its supply of strength and deeds, as alluded to by His words and every soul will come accompanied by a driver and a witness [Q. 50:21]. And [for each soul] there is also an original resting-place to which it resorts from the Side of the realm of the Divine Essence (lāhūt) should it disengage, as he [the Prophet] said, 'The spirits of martyrs shelter in lanterns of light that hang from below the Throne'. Every time that it [a soul] is attracted to the lower aspect by inclining to natural physical pleasures, it is veiled by the subsequent coverings from that [Divine] Side and is cut off from the supplies that it receives from that aspect in the way of the lights of invincibility and the angelic faculties. As such it becomes weaker in its perception, since it has become veiled from the reception of those irradiations and [weaker] in vigour and strength, cut off as it is from those supplies [provided] by that [angelic] faculty. But each time that it orients itself towards the higher aspect by rising above corporeal configurations and disengaging from material garments and drawing closer to God, the Principle of all principles and the Light of all lights, exalted be He, by [acts of] renunciation and worship and by adhering to these principles with cleanliness and probity, with his [this person's] deeds bound to sincerity of intention and devoted conscience, God will reinforce that person, by virtue of his correspondence with the residents of His presence, from their world with the reinforcement of light and power so that it [that soul] will know what no one else knows from among those of its own genus and will have the power to do what no one else will have the power to do from among those of its own species; it will also have moments in which it penetrates that [world] by detaching itself from its body and other moments where it will be remote therefrom depending on what afflicts it from [its] governance of its body.
وَهُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ فِي سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍ وَكَانَ عَرْشُهُ عَلَى الْمَاءِ لِيَبْلُوَكُمْ أَيُّكُمْ أَحْسَنُ عَمَلًا ۗ وَلَئِنْ قُلْتَ إِنَّكُمْ مَبْعُوثُونَ مِنْ بَعْدِ الْمَوْتِ لَيَقُولَنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا إِنْ هَٰذَا إِلَّا سِحْرٌ مُبِينٌ
📘 And He it is Who created the heavens and the earth in six days, in other words, He created the corporeal world in six directions - and His Throne was upon the water, namely, His Throne which is the First Intellect founded upon the first knowledge and reinforced by it, preceding the corporeal world in terms of existence. If we were to interpret the six days as the period of concealment, as has already been mentioned, and the creation of the heavens and the earth as His concealment, exalted be He, within the differentiations of existents, then the meaning of His Throne being on water would be that it was before the incipience of concealment manifest and known to people, as in when you say, 'I did it knowingly', that is, in the state of its being known to me, or while I had knowledge of it, that is, in full knowledge [thereof]. [This is] similar to when Ḥāritha asked the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace: 'How do you find yourself O Ḥārithaḍ', to which he replied, 'I find myself a believer, in truth'. He [the Prophet] said, 'For every truth there is a reality. So what is the reality of your faith'. He [Ḥāritha] said, 'I saw the people of Paradise visiting each other and I saw the people of Hell-fire howling to one another [in agony]. I saw the Throne of my Lord projecting forth'. He [the Prophet] said, 'You are on the right path. Stick to it'. In many instances in [statements relating to] the divine precepts the primordial substratum (mādda hayūlāniyya) is referred to by the expression 'water'. Among these is the ḥadīth in which it is related that the first thing that God created was a jewel (jawhara). He then gazed upon it with the eye of majesty whereupon it melted in shame, half of it becoming water and the other half fire. If we were to interpret it [water] with reference to this [jewel], it would mean that His Throne was before the heavens and the earth in essence and not in time, with mastery over the substratum, above it in terms of rank. Should you wish to effect a [spiritual] correspondence with [this and] the differentiations of your existence, the the meaning would be: He created the heavens of the spiritual faculties and the earth of the body in six months, being the minimal period of gestation.
۞ وَإِلَىٰ مَدْيَنَ أَخَاهُمْ شُعَيْبًا ۚ قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ اعْبُدُوا اللَّهَ مَا لَكُمْ مِنْ إِلَٰهٍ غَيْرُهُ ۖ وَلَا تَنْقُصُوا الْمِكْيَالَ وَالْمِيزَانَ ۚ إِنِّي أَرَاكُمْ بِخَيْرٍ وَإِنِّي أَخَافُ عَلَيْكُمْ عَذَابَ يَوْمٍ مُحِيطٍ
📘 [Shuʿayb said] I see you in prosperity: when Shuʿayb, peace be upon him, saw [the extent of] their misguidance by their idolatrous association and their veiledness to the Truth by [their worship of the idol] al-Jibt [Q. 4:51] and their desperation to acquire ephemera through all manner of vices and their extreme covetousness to garner wealth by means of the most evil characteristics, he bid them to desist from that, saying to them [in effect]: I see you [potentially] prospering in your preparedness with the possibility of actualising perfection and receiving guidance. Therefore I fear for you lest your sins should encompass you for your being veiled from the Truth, your halting with some other [besides God], diverting your reflective energies in their entirety to the pursuit of livelihood, your turning away from the final return and restricting your aspirations to the mere securing of the corrupt transient things instead of the actualising of the enduring righteous deeds, and because of your orienting yourselves towards the lower aspect instead of the higher aspect and your preoccupation with the bestial specific qualities instead of the human perfections. So adhere to the affirmation of Oneness and justice, separating yourselves from idolatrous association and injustice which is the sum-total of vices and the mother of ruinous dangers.
وَيَا قَوْمِ أَوْفُوا الْمِكْيَالَ وَالْمِيزَانَ بِالْقِسْطِ ۖ وَلَا تَبْخَسُوا النَّاسَ أَشْيَاءَهُمْ وَلَا تَعْثَوْا فِي الْأَرْضِ مُفْسِدِينَ
📘 And do not be degenerate, in your corruption, that is, do not go to extremes or to the utmost in corruption, for injustice is the end-result of such [corruption], just as justice is the end-result of righteous work and the sum-total of virtues.
بَقِيَّتُ اللَّهِ خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ ۚ وَمَا أَنَا عَلَيْكُمْ بِحَفِيظٍ
📘 The remainder [which is] with God is better for you if you are believers: in other words, if you believe in anything remaining, then what would remain for you with God in the way of perfections, felicities of the Hereafter, intellectual assets as well as cognitive and practical acquisitions are better for you than those ephemeral acquisitions in which you endure hardship and which you oppress yourselves in order to acquire and actualise but then abandon at death and nothing remains of them with you except the evil consequences of the implications of such [acquisitions] and the necessary chastisement for the firmly-rooted configurations of your souls. After he had witnessed their denial, their obdurate persistence in disobedience and their mockery of his obedience [to God], as well as his renunciation, his affirmation of [His] Oneness and his integrity with their words:
قَالُوا يَا شُعَيْبُ أَصَلَاتُكَ تَأْمُرُكَ أَنْ نَتْرُكَ مَا يَعْبُدُ آبَاؤُنَا أَوْ أَنْ نَفْعَلَ فِي أَمْوَالِنَا مَا نَشَاءُ ۖ إِنَّكَ لَأَنْتَ الْحَلِيمُ الرَّشِيدُ
📘 Does your [way of] prayer, to the end of this [verse],
قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ أَرَأَيْتُمْ إِنْ كُنْتُ عَلَىٰ بَيِّنَةٍ مِنْ رَبِّي وَرَزَقَنِي مِنْهُ رِزْقًا حَسَنًا ۚ وَمَا أُرِيدُ أَنْ أُخَالِفَكُمْ إِلَىٰ مَا أَنْهَاكُمْ عَنْهُ ۚ إِنْ أُرِيدُ إِلَّا الْإِصْلَاحَ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُ ۚ وَمَا تَوْفِيقِي إِلَّا بِاللَّهِ ۚ عَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ وَإِلَيْهِ أُنِيبُ
📘 He said, 'O my people, have you considered, in other words, tell me: what if I might be [acting] upon, a proof of certitude regarding [my] affirmation of the Oneness, from my Lord and that He has provided me with fair sustenance from Himḍ, in the way of cognitive and practical wisdom, as well as perfectedness and perfection by means of uprightness in affirming the Oneness, would it be right for me to abandon my forbidding of idolatrous association and injustice, and my desire to set things right by cleansing and adorning you [with righteous deeds]ḍ The apodosis of araÌaytum ('have you considered') has been omitted because it has [already] been indicated in similar [passages], as the aforementioned stories of Noah and Ṣāliḥ, peace be upon them both, and [indicated] by the words here that are specific to him: And I do not desire to be inconsistent before you, to the end of this [verse]: that is, that I should seek to procure transient this-worldly benefits [for myself] by committing the very injustices which I am forbidding you. I desire only to, set my soul and your souls right by acts of self-cleansing and preparation for the reception of wisdom so far as I am able. And I am only successful in setting things right, through God. In Him I trust and to Him I turn [repentant].
وَلَئِنْ أَذَقْنَا الْإِنْسَانَ مِنَّا رَحْمَةً ثُمَّ نَزَعْنَاهَا مِنْهُ إِنَّهُ لَيَئُوسٌ كَفُورٌ
📘 And if We cause man to taste some mercy from Us, to the end of this [verse]: man ought to have confidence in God, trusting in Him, in poverty, wealth, hardship, comfort, sickness and health and [should] not veil himself from Him by the existence of a grace or in his striving or conduct with regard to acquiring [his livelihood], or [veil himself] by his strength or power to pursue his needs or in any one of the ways or means whatsoever, lest there should be despair upon the loss of those means or [alternatively] ungratefulness, the wantonness of comfort or insolence when they are forthcoming such that he then becomes remote from God, exalted be He, and forgets Him so that God forget him. Rather, he should see the giving and the withholding as being from Him and no one else. And so if He should bring upon him a mercy in the way of health or a grace, he should thank Him first by seeing that as being from Him and witnessing the Gracious in the form of [His] grace, which is [done] with the heart then with the limbs by using them in that which satisfies Him and in acts of obedience to Him and by fulfilling His dues with regards to that [mercy]; then [he should thank Him] with his tongue by [words of] praise and laudation, fully certain that He has the power to strip [him] of it, and preserving it by giving thanks for it, seeking more of it on the basis of His saying, exalted be He: If you are thankful, then assuredly I shall give you more [Q. 14:7]. The Commander of the Believers [ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib], peace be upon him, said: 'If the edges of grace reach you, then do not repel the fullness of it by the sparsity of [your] thanks'. Then if He should wrest it from him, let him be patient and not grieve for it, in the full knowledge that it is He who has wrested it from him and no one else because of some welfare that will [ultimately] finds its way to him. For the Lord, exalted be He, is like a father who is compassionate in the nurturing of him, nay, He is more gentle and more merciful, since a father is veiled from what God knows seeing only the immediate and outward welfare, while He is the Knower of the unseen and the visible, knowing what is in his immediate and future best interest.
وَاسْتَغْفِرُوا رَبَّكُمْ ثُمَّ تُوبُوا إِلَيْهِ ۚ إِنَّ رَبِّي رَحِيمٌ وَدُودٌ
📘 And ask forgiveness from your Lord, then repent to Him. Surely my Lord is ever-merciful, loving. He says, " Ask forgiveness from your Lord, for He is the forgiver and the servant-caresser-not as is fitting for the servant, but as is fitting for Him. No matter how many offenses the servant may have, in the end the Patron's bounty is more. It is the gentleness of lordhood that offers its gentle- ness to the attribute of servanthood: Whatever shortcoming servants may have, My unneediness is equal to it. Whatever may be unapproved from him, My loving kindness is on top of that. What- ever the servant may hope, My bounty is greater than that. " Surely my Lord is ever-merciful, loving. The loving is He who shows His love to His servants by His beautiful doing toward them. The loving is He who caresses the servant with His loving kindness and pours over him continual blessings so that the servant will become His friend. This is why He said to David, " O David, make Me beloved to My servants. Make My path clear to My servants and throw friendship for Me into their hearts. Teach them about My blessings and make My words sweet in their hearts. Tell them that I am the Lord with munificence and no niggardli- ness, with knowledge and no ignorance, with patience and no incapacity, with wrath but no annoy- ance. There is no change in My attributes and no alteration in My words. With Me the word does not change, and I do not wrong the servants [50:29]. " So, if the servant should fall short, not recognize what is rightfully due to this generosity, and not show gratitude for blessings, He will rebuke and say, " O son of Adam! You have not been fair to Me! I showed My love for you through blessings, and you showed your hate for Me through acts of disobedience. My good descends upon you, and your evil rises up to Me. " ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib narrated this hadith from the Prophet, who narrated it from God.
قَالُوا يَا شُعَيْبُ مَا نَفْقَهُ كَثِيرًا مِمَّا تَقُولُ وَإِنَّا لَنَرَاكَ فِينَا ضَعِيفًا ۖ وَلَوْلَا رَهْطُكَ لَرَجَمْنَاكَ ۖ وَمَا أَنْتَ عَلَيْنَا بِعَزِيزٍ
📘 They said: 'O Shuʿayb, we do not understand: they did not understand because of the existence of rust on their hearts as a result of the sins which they earned. The reason why it was the fear of his clan and not the fear of God, exalted be He, that prevented them from stoning him was because they had veiled themselves with creation from the Truth, which is caused by a lack of understanding, similar to where He says: You indeed arouse greater awe in their hearts than God. That is because they are a people who do not understand [Q. 59:13].
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