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(Ar-Rad) • المصدر: EN-KASHANI-TAFSIR
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ المر ۚ تِلْكَ آيَاتُ الْكِتَابِ ۗ وَالَّذِي أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْكَ مِنْ رَبِّكَ الْحَقُّ وَلَٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ
📘 Alif Lām Mīm RāÌ This is one of the secrets of love, one of the treasures of recognition. In the midst of their spirits, the friends have a deposit, but they do not know what they have. The wonder is that they keep on seeing an ocean and they weep in hope for a drop. This is like the Pir of the Tariqah said: “O God, Your stream is flowing-how long will I be thirsty? What sort of thirst is this that I see one cup after another? “Who has ever had a state rarer than this? I'm thirsty and clear water is flowing before me. “Exalted of the two worlds! How much will You be hidden, how much apparent? My heart is bewildered, the spirit distracted. How long this curtaining and self-disclosing? When at last will there be the everlasting self-disclosure?” The allusion is that today the friends have nothing more than the scent of the lights of those secrets and the whiffs of those traces, and that, other than MuḤammad the Arab, no one is worthy of that face-to-face vision. First He alludes to the road of recognition for the elect, since their gaze is on the Essence and the attributes, which are called “the World of the Command.” Then He uncovers the road of recog- nizing Himself for the common people. He knows that their gaze does not pass beyond the newly arrived things, the engendered beings, and the World of Creation. He says,
سَوَاءٌ مِنْكُمْ مَنْ أَسَرَّ الْقَوْلَ وَمَنْ جَهَرَ بِهِ وَمَنْ هُوَ مُسْتَخْفٍ بِاللَّيْلِ وَسَارِبٌ بِالنَّهَارِ
📘 [They are all] the same, those of you who keeps his words secret, in the hiding-places of his preparedness, and those who proclaim them openly, by exteriorising knowledge from [a state of] potentiality to [one of] actuality, and those who lurk, in the night that is the darkness of his soul, and those who go forth, exiting from the station of the soul and departing to the daylight that is the light of the spirit.
لَهُ مُعَقِّبَاتٌ مِنْ بَيْنِ يَدَيْهِ وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِ يَحْفَظُونَهُ مِنْ أَمْرِ اللَّهِ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُغَيِّرُ مَا بِقَوْمٍ حَتَّىٰ يُغَيِّرُوا مَا بِأَنْفُسِهِمْ ۗ وَإِذَا أَرَادَ اللَّهُ بِقَوْمٍ سُوءًا فَلَا مَرَدَّ لَهُ ۚ وَمَا لَهُمْ مِنْ دُونِهِ مِنْ وَالٍ
📘 For him are attendants, reinforcements that follow one another from the angelic realm and arrive to him by the command of God, guarding him, from the snatches of the jinn [cf. Q. 37:10] of the imaginal and estimative faculties and the overcomings of the bestial and the predatorial ones and their destruction of him. Indeed God does not alter the state of a people, in terms of an outward or inward grace or perfection, unless they have altered the state of their souls, in terms of their preparedness and the faculty for reception, as the divine effusion is all-inclusive and contiguous, like flowing water. Have you not considered His statement watered by the same [source of] water. And We make some of them to excel others in flavour [Q. 13:4]ḍ Thus that person is coloured by the nature of his preparedness: the one whose preparedness is pure, his effusion will likewise be pure and so his goodness will increase. Similar is the case with outward graces, which inevitably change into scourges merited by some manifest or hidden cause. That is why the verifiers said that the supplication whose response is forthcoming, as alluded to in His words, Call on Me and I will respond to you [Q. 40:60], is the one that issues forth by the tongue of preparedness. Moreover, according to one of the pious predecessors (salaf), 'That mouse has eaten into my slippers, and I know that it is only because of some sin I have committed; for otherwise, God would not have sent it against me', citing the example of the poet's words:'Were I from the [tribe of the great] Māzin, you would not have [dared] deem my camels yours for the slaughtering!'
هُوَ الَّذِي يُرِيكُمُ الْبَرْقَ خَوْفًا وَطَمَعًا وَيُنْشِئُ السَّحَابَ الثِّقَالَ
📘 He it is Who shows you, the lightning that is the flashes of the holy lights and the divine snatch, [inspiring] fear, that is, making you fearful of the speed with which it comes to an end and the long wait for its return, and hope, that is, making you hopeful of its remaining fixed or its quick return, and He produces, the clouds of the divine peace, that are heavy, with the rainwater of certain knowledge and true gnosis.
وَيُسَبِّحُ الرَّعْدُ بِحَمْدِهِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ مِنْ خِيفَتِهِ وَيُرْسِلُ الصَّوَاعِقَ فَيُصِيبُ بِهَا مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَهُمْ يُجَادِلُونَ فِي اللَّهِ وَهُوَ شَدِيدُ الْمِحَالِ
📘 And the thunder that is the assault of the self-disclosures of the Majesty, proclaims His praise, in other words, it glorifies Him and sublimate Him above what is conceptualised by the intellect of the one visited by such self-disclosures as he becomes ecstatically conscious of what the intellect is unable to comprehend; and it praises Him as He ought to be praised by means of the perfection that is derived from that self-disclosure, a praising in actuality, so that the glorification of the thunder becomes the cause of that [perfection] itself; or [it is that] the assault glorifies by means of the very same self-disclosure which is exalted above that it should be comprehended by mental perception; and so too the angels, that is, the angelic realm of the spiritual faculties, [also proclaim His praise] out of awe of Him and of His Majesty. He unleashes, the thunderbolts that are the divine august glories by means of the self-disclosure of the real vanquishing that contains the universal grace and in this way strips the recipient of the self-disclosure of his existence and annihilates him from the remnants of his soul, as reported in the ḥadīth [qudsī]: 'God, exalted be He, has seventy thousand veils of light and darkness. If He were to remove them, the august glories of His countenance would burn up every creature whose eyesight perceived Him'; and smites with them whom He will, of His beloved servants and those fervent lovers [of Him] that yearn [for Him]; yet they dispute about God, by reflecting on His attributes and by trying to affirm [the truth of] Him through rational consideration and what is incumbent on Him and what is impossible in His case, though He is great in might, the One with the power to eliminate [the usefulness of] rational devices for the purposes of comprehension and to obliterate the light of a person's insight by disclosing Himself and consuming him with the light of fervent love [of Him].
لَهُ دَعْوَةُ الْحَقِّ ۖ وَالَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ مِنْ دُونِهِ لَا يَسْتَجِيبُونَ لَهُمْ بِشَيْءٍ إِلَّا كَبَاسِطِ كَفَّيْهِ إِلَى الْمَاءِ لِيَبْلُغَ فَاهُ وَمَا هُوَ بِبَالِغِهِ ۚ وَمَا دُعَاءُ الْكَافِرِينَ إِلَّا فِي ضَلَالٍ
📘 His is the call of truth: in other words, the truthful call that is not made in falsehood belongs to Him and not to anyone other than Him. He calls on Himself and He responds, as He says [elsewhere] Surely to God belongs pure religion [Q. 39:3], which is to say that pure religion is His religion only, which means that the truthful call that deserves to be answered is the call of the affirmer of the Oneness, the one who is annihilated from his soul and subsists through his Lord; likewise is pure religion, His religion. Callers who subsist by their own souls only call upon what they have conceptualised and sculpted in their imagination and so their call is not answered, except in so far as an inanimate thing responds when something is requested from it. By my life, only an affirmer of the Oneness calls upon God, whereas another calls upon the other, an illusory thing that has no power or existence and hence no response. Such [a caller] is one who has veiled his preparedness by the attributes of his soul and thus is not aware of what it [his preparedness] deserved and so his call is lost, and such a call can only be doomed [to failure]. Or [it is that] the call of truth, Majestic and Exalted, can only be for Him; or that the call of the one called, who is the Truth, is the call specific to His Essence, not made to any of His names or attributes. The describers (wāṣifūn) who call upon His names and attributes as opposed to His essence do not receive an answer from the thing that they have called upon except as the answer received by the one who calls upon water by gesturing [to it], [and that is] because they are veiled; and the call of, those who are veiled, [goes only] astray, lost.
وَلِلَّهِ يَسْجُدُ مَنْ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ طَوْعًا وَكَرْهًا وَظِلَالُهُمْ بِالْغُدُوِّ وَالْآصَالِ ۩
📘 To God prostrate themselves all in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly. In the tongue of commentary, the prostration of the unbeliever is an unwilling prostration, for he prostrates himself and shows humility at the time of tribulation in the state of hardship so as to repel harm from himself. Thus MuṣṬafā said to Ḥaṣīn Khuzāʿī,1 " How many gods do you wor- ship today? " He said, " Seven: one in heaven and six in the earth. " He said, " Which one of them do you look to on the day of your hope and fear? " He said, " The one in heaven. " According to these words, when someone prostrates himself to a god wanting to attract a benefit or repel a harm, that is a prostration of unwillingness, not a prostration of willingness. The willing prostration is the one done for the command alone and to venerate the Real's exaltedness. There is no taint of wanting, no hope for compensation, and no dread of tribulation. The individual is in prostration, the heart in finding, the spirit in witnessing; the individual is with loyalty, the heart with shame, and the spirit with limpidness. That chieftain of the Tariqah, Abū Yazīd BasṬāmī, was addressed in a dream: " 'O Abū Yazīd, Our storehouses are full of worship. Approach Us with brokenness and abasement.' In Our thresh- old, bowing and prostrating are of no use without brokenness of the heart and limpidness of the spirit, for the storehouses of Our exaltedness are already full of the bowing and prostrating of the lords of the heart. When you come to Our threshold, place the heart's pain in the spirit's cup and send it to the Presence of the Beloved, for the heart's pain has measure with Us. " The Pir of the Tariqah said, " The tawḤīd of the hearts of the faithful is in the measure of the heart's pain. The more a heart is burnt and the more complete its pain, the more it is familiar with tawḤīd and the closer it is to the Real. " Without the perfection of burning pain, don't mention religion's name. Without the beauty of yearning for union, don't lean on faith.
قُلْ مَنْ رَبُّ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ قُلِ اللَّهُ ۚ قُلْ أَفَاتَّخَذْتُمْ مِنْ دُونِهِ أَوْلِيَاءَ لَا يَمْلِكُونَ لِأَنْفُسِهِمْ نَفْعًا وَلَا ضَرًّا ۚ قُلْ هَلْ يَسْتَوِي الْأَعْمَىٰ وَالْبَصِيرُ أَمْ هَلْ تَسْتَوِي الظُّلُمَاتُ وَالنُّورُ ۗ أَمْ جَعَلُوا لِلَّهِ شُرَكَاءَ خَلَقُوا كَخَلْقِهِ فَتَشَابَهَ الْخَلْقُ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ قُلِ اللَّهُ خَالِقُ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ وَهُوَ الْوَاحِدُ الْقَهَّارُ
📘 Say: 'Then have you taken beside Him, that is, anything other than Him, whoever it be, protectors, who have no power to benefit or harm themselvesḍ', for the Powerful and the Owner is God and none other.
أَنْزَلَ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً فَسَالَتْ أَوْدِيَةٌ بِقَدَرِهَا فَاحْتَمَلَ السَّيْلُ زَبَدًا رَابِيًا ۚ وَمِمَّا يُوقِدُونَ عَلَيْهِ فِي النَّارِ ابْتِغَاءَ حِلْيَةٍ أَوْ مَتَاعٍ زَبَدٌ مِثْلُهُ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ يَضْرِبُ اللَّهُ الْحَقَّ وَالْبَاطِلَ ۚ فَأَمَّا الزَّبَدُ فَيَذْهَبُ جُفَاءً ۖ وَأَمَّا مَا يَنْفَعُ النَّاسَ فَيَمْكُثُ فِي الْأَرْضِ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ يَضْرِبُ اللَّهُ الْأَمْثَالَ
📘 He sends down from heaven water, and the wadis flow in their measure, and the flood carries a swelling scum. And from that which they kindle in fire, wanting ornament or ware, arises a scum the like of it. Thus does God strike truth and falsehood. As for the scum, it van- ishes as jetsam, and what profits people abides in the earth. Abū Bakr WāsiṬī said that this verse is the pivot of knowledge of the Haqiqah and recognition. " The meaning is that He revealed from on high to the hearts and ears of the prophets and He in- spired the intellects and insights of the wise. " The majestic Unity, through the attribute of mercy and clemency, sent down from heaven to the messengers the true message and the pure revelation. They heard it with their ears and they perceived it with their hearts. In the same way He inspired the friends and threw the light of wis- dom into their hearts. And the wadis flow in their measure, that is, He made the hearts see in the measure of their capacity, life, and illumination. The hearts of the prophets became clear and bright through the light of revelation and messengerhood, and the hearts of the friends with the lamp of wisdom and recognition. In their measure, that is, each person in his own measure, in degrees and grades-one higher, one middling, one lower-the relative preference and disparity being apparent to everyone. About the messengers He says, " We made some of the prophets more excellent than others " [17:55]. About the friends He says, " They are degrees with God " [3:163]. One has messengerhood in ad- dition to prophethood, another has prophethood in addition to wisdom, another has recognition in addition to knowledge, another has tasting the Reality in addition to faith and bearing witness, another has the knowledge of certainty along with explication, another has the truth of certainty along with face-to-face vision. He gave to each person what was fitting, and He placed within each heart that for which there was room. And the flood carries a swelling scum, that is, He caused loss to those hearts with erroneous views, lowly lapses, and the wishes that Satan casts, what he steals from memory, his casting of slips.
لِلَّذِينَ اسْتَجَابُوا لِرَبِّهِمُ الْحُسْنَىٰ ۚ وَالَّذِينَ لَمْ يَسْتَجِيبُوا لَهُ لَوْ أَنَّ لَهُمْ مَا فِي الْأَرْضِ جَمِيعًا وَمِثْلَهُ مَعَهُ لَافْتَدَوْا بِهِ ۚ أُولَٰئِكَ لَهُمْ سُوءُ الْحِسَابِ وَمَأْوَاهُمْ جَهَنَّمُ ۖ وَبِئْسَ الْمِهَادُ
📘 For those who respond to their Lord, by purifying [their] preparedness of the impurities of the attributes of the soul, there shall be the goodly reward, which is the perfection that is effused upon them at the moment of purity, expressed by His words, light upon light [Q. 24:35], and those who do not respond to Him, who have not purified themselves of human vices and the impurities of physical nature, will not be able to offer in redemption anything of what belongs in the lower aspect, such as property and those means to which they were attracted by means of love. They will have thus destroyed their souls because those [means] are the cause of increased distance [from God] and ruin, and so how can they constitute a means for their deliverance from those darknessesḍ Their declaring themselves innocent of such things will not avail them once the configurations of being attached to these things have become deeply rooted in their souls. For such there shall be an awful reckoning, for halting with the acts at the station of the soul, which is the station of divine justice, and so their questioning is inevitable at the Reckoning, and their abode shall be the Hell-fire, of the attributes of the soul and the fires of privation and evil configurations;
اللَّهُ الَّذِي رَفَعَ السَّمَاوَاتِ بِغَيْرِ عَمَدٍ تَرَوْنَهَا ۖ ثُمَّ اسْتَوَىٰ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ ۖ وَسَخَّرَ الشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ ۖ كُلٌّ يَجْرِي لِأَجَلٍ مُسَمًّى ۚ يُدَبِّرُ الْأَمْرَ يُفَصِّلُ الْآيَاتِ لَعَلَّكُمْ بِلِقَاءِ رَبِّكُمْ تُوقِنُونَ
📘 God is He who lifted up the heavens without pillars that you see. Heaven and earth, land and see, air and space, are the World of Creation, the playing field of the gaze of the creatures, whose end is apparent and which can disappear. But the World of the Command can never have an end, for it is necessarily continuous. As long as a man does not pass beyond the World of Creation, he will not be given access to the World of the Command. The che- valiers whose gaze travels in the World of the Command are the Pegs of the earth. Just as in respect of form the world's mountains keep the earth in place, so also in respect of meaning the chevaliers keep the world standing. " Through them rain falls and through them provision is given. " This is why the Lord of the Worlds says,
وَالَّذِينَ يَصِلُونَ مَا أَمَرَ اللَّهُ بِهِ أَنْ يُوصَلَ وَيَخْشَوْنَ رَبَّهُمْ وَيَخَافُونَ سُوءَ الْحِسَابِ
📘 and who fear their Lord, upon the self-disclosure of the attributes at the station of the heart and thus witness the majesty of the attribute of Tremendousness, thereby becoming obliged to be in awe and fear;
وَالَّذِينَ صَبَرُوا ابْتِغَاءَ وَجْهِ رَبِّهِمْ وَأَقَامُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَأَنْفَقُوا مِمَّا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ سِرًّا وَعَلَانِيَةً وَيَدْرَءُونَ بِالْحَسَنَةِ السَّيِّئَةَ أُولَٰئِكَ لَهُمْ عُقْبَى الدَّارِ
📘 such as patiently endure, as they wayfare upon His way, to stay away from familiars, desiring His satisfaction, and such as preoccupy themselves with self-cleansing by means of devotions through [the expending of] wealth and the body, repelling the vice of the soul with virtue; those, theirs shall be the sequel of the [heavenly] Abode, as they are returned to the primordial nature. Or [it refers to] those who endure patiently to stay away from the attributes of their souls, desiring the countenance of their Lord, in other words, out of love for the Essence and not out of love for the attributes; and who establish the prayer of the witnessing and expend of the stations, the states, the unveilings and the deeds which We have provided them with, secretly, by disengaging from the configurations of these and the configurations of finding rest with them and love for them, and [expend] openly, by avoiding them and not turning their attention to them, and who, with the good actualised by the self-disclosure of the divine attribute, repel the evil that is the attribute of the soul: those, theirs shall be the sequel of the [heavenly] Abode, that is, subsistence after annihilation.
جَنَّاتُ عَدْنٍ يَدْخُلُونَهَا وَمَنْ صَلَحَ مِنْ آبَائِهِمْ وَأَزْوَاجِهِمْ وَذُرِّيَّاتِهِمْ ۖ وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ يَدْخُلُونَ عَلَيْهِمْ مِنْ كُلِّ بَابٍ
📘 Gardens of Eden, that is, all three of them: they enter the Garden of the Essence along with those that were righteous from among the fathers that are the spirits; and the Garden of the attributes with the hearts; and the Garden of the acts with the righteous from among the spouses of the souls and the descendants that are the faculties; and the angels, from among the inhabitants of the realm of divine power and the angelic realm, shall enter to them from every gate, of the gates of the attributes, bidding them peace and greeting them with the salutations of luminous irradiations and holy reinforcements, all of which is the result of their patience in staying away from sensory pleasures.
وَيَقُولُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَوْلَا أُنْزِلَ عَلَيْهِ آيَةٌ مِنْ رَبِّهِ ۗ قُلْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُضِلُّ مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَيَهْدِي إِلَيْهِ مَنْ أَنَابَ
📘 Say: 'Indeed God sends astray whomever He will: in other words, guidance and error are determined by the signs [sc. the verses of the QurÌān], for there is a sign in every thing and the signs sent down to the Messenger of God are more than sufficient [for those who want to be guided]; rather what determines these is the divine will, so that He sends astray whomever He will because of a lack of preparedness, or because of that person being veiled by dark coverings; and He guides to Him those who turn in penitence', by purifying their preparedness, from among [His] lovers. Since the folk who are sent astray are of two kinds, those who lack preparedness and those who have veiled theirs by the darkness intrinsic to mortal nature, so the guided folk are also of two types, beloved ones who are guided without their turning [to Him] in penitence (ināba), because of the potency of their preparedness, and beloved ones whom God guides after their turning [to Him] in penitence, as He has said God chooses for Himself whomever He will, and He guides to Himself whomever turns penitently [Q. 42:13];
الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَتَطْمَئِنُّ قُلُوبُهُمْ بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ ۗ أَلَا بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ
📘 Those who have faith and whose hearts are serene in the remembrance of God. The hearts of one group are serene in the remembrance of God, and the hearts of another group are serene in God's remembrance of them: And surely God's remembrance is greater [29:45]. In the tongue of the folk of allusion, this verse reports about two people, one the desirer and the other the desired. One keeps his hours immersed in the remembrance of the tongue, sometimes prayer, sometimes glorification, and sometimes recitation of the Qur'an. The other is joyful with the remembrance of the Real in the midst of the spirit because he is drowned in the ocean of face- to-face vision. He does not attend to the remembrance of the tongue, but keeps on saying, " O God, as long as I remember Your remembrance, my spirit laments at all remembrance. As long as my heart is happy with Your apparentness, the happiness of the two worlds is but wind. " The first travels on the road of the religion, kept in the bonds of his own remembrance, and it is said to him, " Preserve the remembrance and give ear to the commands and prohibitions. " The other is on the carpet of proximity, snatched away from causes and creation and singled out for the divine attraction, and it is said to the remembrance, " Give ear to him. " This is just like one group hop- ing for paradise, while paradise itself is hoping for another group. That is in the Prophet's words, " Surely the Garden yearns for four individuals: the one who fasts Ramadan, the one who recites the Qur'an, the one who protects the tongue, and the one who feeds the hungry. " It has also been narrated that the Garden yearns for Salmān. The desirer's eyes have come upon this: " Remember Me! " [2:152]. The desired has been shown this: " I will remember you " [2:152]. The desired is seeking remembrance, and remem- brance is seeking the desired. The desirer is seeking the present moment, and the present moment is seeking the desired. The desirer is seeking the heart, and the heart is seeking the desired. The field of the desirer's gaze is the world of setting forth in the wrap of createdness, and the field of the desired's gaze is the air of unity and the space of solitariness.
الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ طُوبَىٰ لَهُمْ وَحُسْنُ مَآبٍ
📘 and, theirs shall be blessedness, by arriving at the primordial nature and the perfection of the attributes, and a fair resort, by admission into the Garden of the heart, the Garden of the attributes.
وَهُوَ الَّذِي مَدَّ الْأَرْضَ وَجَعَلَ فِيهَا رَوَاسِيَ وَأَنْهَارًا ۖ وَمِنْ كُلِّ الثَّمَرَاتِ جَعَلَ فِيهَا زَوْجَيْنِ اثْنَيْنِ ۖ يُغْشِي اللَّيْلَ النَّهَارَ ۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ
📘 And He it is who spread out the earth and placed within it unshaking mountains. In terms of the allusion and intimation of the Folk of the Haqiqah He is saying, " It is He who spread out the earth and placed within it the Pegs, namely the friends and masters among His servants, to whom recourse is had and from whom assistance comes. " The sun rises in the east and sets in the west for a hundred years before someone's eyes are daubed with the collyrium of the Haqiqah by the pencil of solicitude. Perhaps we will be allowed to see those chevaliers and reach endless felicity with one look at them. For thousands of years the moon-faced beauties of Firdaws and the houris of paradise have been standing in wait in that busy bazaar: When will the fortunate procession of those chevaliers be conveyed to the highest of the High Chambers so that they, as hangers-on, may step into the pageant of good fortune at an Omnipotent King [54:55]. On the day Junayd's bier was carried, a bird came and sat on the edge of his coffin. People were waving their hands at it but it would not leave. Ruwaym said, " In generosity the bird is telling us with the tongue of its state, 'Leave me alone, for my claws have been fixed to the edge of his coffin with the nails of passion. Today this frame of Junayd is the portion of the cherubim. If not for the intrusion of your tumult, you would fly with me like falcons in this air.' " When they buried him, one of the poor stood above him and recited these verses: " Oh the grief at separation from a group who are lamps and fortresses, rain clouds, cities, and unshaking mountains, good, security, and stillness. The nights will not change for us until they are brought forth by fate. So every fire belongs to our hearts, every water belongs to our eyes. "
أَفَمَنْ هُوَ قَائِمٌ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ نَفْسٍ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ ۗ وَجَعَلُوا لِلَّهِ شُرَكَاءَ قُلْ سَمُّوهُمْ ۚ أَمْ تُنَبِّئُونَهُ بِمَا لَا يَعْلَمُ فِي الْأَرْضِ أَمْ بِظَاهِرٍ مِنَ الْقَوْلِ ۗ بَلْ زُيِّنَ لِلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مَكْرُهُمْ وَصُدُّوا عَنِ السَّبِيلِ ۗ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلِ اللَّهُ فَمَا لَهُ مِنْ هَادٍ
📘 Is He Who stands over every soul what it has earnedḍ, that is, He stands over it [sustaining] it by bringing into existence all that is ascribed to it of things it has earned, being a Sustainer of it and [sustaining it] by means of its earnings. The term 'earned' is used here, even though these [earnings] come about by means of God's creation, exalted be He, because He has manifested these upon it by virtue of a preparedness in it to which He makes these [earnings] correspond and which it receives from God, exalted be He. Thus from the perspective of the reception [of these earnings] by the locus and its fitness to be a locus for the manifestation [of these earnings] and its very being a locus, these [things] are ascribed [to the soul] as things which it has earned, entailing them as it does, while at the same time the Truth, exalted be He, stands over it by bringing them into existence. Or [it means that] He stands over it in accordance with what it earns and with what that [earning] entails. In other words, in the measure that its earnings entail attributes and states which occur to its preparedness, He effuses upon it the [commensurate] recompense that is luminous perfective configurations, that reward it, or tarnished dark configurations that chastise it.
وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا رُسُلًا مِنْ قَبْلِكَ وَجَعَلْنَا لَهُمْ أَزْوَاجًا وَذُرِّيَّةً ۚ وَمَا كَانَ لِرَسُولٍ أَنْ يَأْتِيَ بِآيَةٍ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ ۗ لِكُلِّ أَجَلٍ كِتَابٌ
📘 For every term there is a Book: for every time there is an affair that is prescribed and predetermined or ordained in that moment for creatures. Subsequently, divine precepts are designated by God in accordance with [specific] moments. For every moment there comes from Him a messenger bearing what is good for that [particular] time. Likewise is the case with all things that originate in time, such as signs and otherwise; and it was not for any messenger to bring, anything of the sort except by His leave and at the [appointed] time, since these [signs] are designated [certain] times at which they come into existence without being changed, substituted, brought forward or delayed.
يَمْحُو اللَّهُ مَا يَشَاءُ وَيُثْبِتُ ۖ وَعِنْدَهُ أُمُّ الْكِتَابِ
📘 He effaces whatsoever He will, and He affirms. Know that the highway of the Real's religion is three things: submission, the Sunnah, and self- purification. In submission be fearful, in the Sunnah be hopeful, and in self-purification be a lover. Submission has no escape from fear, the Sunnah must have hope, and self-purification is nothing but the foundation of the lover. To the fearful it is said, " Be afraid! " To the hopeful it is said, " Keep on seeking! " To the lover it is said, " Keep on burning! " In the end the address will come to the fearful, " Fear not! [41:30]. Do not fear, for the days of fear have come to an end. " To the hopeful will be said, " Grieve not! [41:30]. Have no sorrow, for your hope has been reached and the tree of joy has grown. " To the lovers will be said, " Rejoice! [41:30]. Be happy, for the night of separation has ended and the morning of union has come. " Each of these things has its own path of effacement and affirmation in the world. From the hearts of the fearful He erases eye-service and puts certainty, He erases stinginess and puts gen- erosity, He erases avarice and puts contentment, He erases envy and puts tenderness, He erases innovation and puts the Sunnah, He erases fright and puts security. From the hearts of the hopeful He erases free choice and deposits surrender, He erases disper- sion and deposits togetherness, He erases perplexity and deposits the precedent light. From the hearts of the lovers He erases the customs of human nature and deposits the marks bearing witness to the Haqiqah, He decreases the marks bearing witness to the servant and in- creases the marks bearing witness to Himself. Then, just as he was at first, so also he will be at last. The Pir of the Tariqah said, " O God, the majesty of Your exaltedness left no room for allu- sions. Your effacing and affirming took away the path of ascription-I lost all that I had in hand. O God, Yours kept on increasing and mine decreasing until at last there remained only what there was at first. " Tribulation lies only in the makeup of my water and clay.
وَفِي الْأَرْضِ قِطَعٌ مُتَجَاوِرَاتٌ وَجَنَّاتٌ مِنْ أَعْنَابٍ وَزَرْعٌ وَنَخِيلٌ صِنْوَانٌ وَغَيْرُ صِنْوَانٍ يُسْقَىٰ بِمَاءٍ وَاحِدٍ وَنُفَضِّلُ بَعْضَهَا عَلَىٰ بَعْضٍ فِي الْأُكُلِ ۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِقَوْمٍ يَعْقِلُونَ
📘 And on, the earth of the body, are tracts neighbouring each other, such as bone and flesh, fat and nerves, and gardens of the trees of the natural, animal and human faculties, of the vines of the appetitive faculties from which are pressed the wines of the vain desires of the soul, and [gardens] of the [vines of the] rational faculties from which are pressed the wines of love and fervent love, and sown fields that are the vegetative faculties, and the date-palms that are all of the other external and internal senses, sharing one root, such as the eyes, the ears, the nostrils, and not sharing a root, such as the tongue, and the instrument of reflection, that of estimation and that of memory, watered by the same [source of] water, the water of life, and We make some of them to excel others in, the flavour of objects of perceptions and natural dispositions, as in the superiority of the intellect's objects of perception over those of the senses, and [the superiority of] eyesight over touch and the natural disposition of wisdom over that of modesty and the like. Surely in that are signs for a people who understand, the wonders of His handiwork.
أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا أَنَّا نَأْتِي الْأَرْضَ نَنْقُصُهَا مِنْ أَطْرَافِهَا ۚ وَاللَّهُ يَحْكُمُ لَا مُعَقِّبَ لِحُكْمِهِ ۚ وَهُوَ سَرِيعُ الْحِسَابِ
📘 Or is it that they have not seen how We visit the land, We seek out the land of the body at the moment of old age, diminishing it at its edgesḍ, by the [gradual] wearing away of its organs, the failure of its faculties and the weakening of its senses bit by bit until death. And God judges, in this way; there is none that can repel His judgement, none to avert or change His judgement. Or [it means that] We visit the land of the soul at the moment of wayfaring, diminishing it at its edges by annihilating its acts with Our acts first, as He has said, 'Through Me he hears and through Me he sees', then, second, by annihilating its attributes with Our attributes, as He has said, '[Until] I am his hearing with which he hears and his sight by which he sees', then by annihilating its essence by Our essence, as He has said to whom does Sovereignty belong on this dayḍ [Q. 40:16], responding Himself with His words To God, the One, the Vanquisher [Q. 40:16], since creation in its entirety will have been annihilated; thereupon there will be only God's judgement, judging as He will without any to repel His judgement since anything other than Him does not exist.
۞ وَإِنْ تَعْجَبْ فَعَجَبٌ قَوْلُهُمْ أَإِذَا كُنَّا تُرَابًا أَإِنَّا لَفِي خَلْقٍ جَدِيدٍ ۗ أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا بِرَبِّهِمْ ۖ وَأُولَٰئِكَ الْأَغْلَالُ فِي أَعْنَاقِهِمْ ۖ وَأُولَٰئِكَ أَصْحَابُ النَّارِ ۖ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ
📘 And if you are wondering, because of their statement, then that [statement of theirs] itself is the cause for wonder, since man becomes a new creation in every minute, indeed, the world [itself] becomes a new creation at every moment by the changing of configurations, states, conditions and forms. How can one who has contemplated the world of engenderment and corruption with a heedful eye deny the [reality of] new creationḍ Those are the ones who, have been veiled from the presential vision of the acts and the self-disclosures of [His] lordliness, and how much more so [are they veiled] from the self-disclosures of the divine attributesḍ those - fetters shall be around their necks, and so they are unable to raise their heads - lowered [as they are] in disgrace towards the earth, their eyes restricted to [perceiving only] what is close to them of [things perceptible to] the senses - in order to see the angelic realm of the spirits and witness the world of [divine] power and the rational concepts that are remote to the waystations of the senses; and those, they shall be the inhabitants, of the Fire of the acts in the lowest pit of the abyss of physical nature, abiding therein.
وَيَسْتَعْجِلُونَكَ بِالسَّيِّئَةِ قَبْلَ الْحَسَنَةِ وَقَدْ خَلَتْ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمُ الْمَثُلَاتُ ۗ وَإِنَّ رَبَّكَ لَذُو مَغْفِرَةٍ لِلنَّاسِ عَلَىٰ ظُلْمِهِمْ ۖ وَإِنَّ رَبَّكَ لَشَدِيدُ الْعِقَابِ
📘 And they would have you hasten on the evil rather than the good, because of the correspondence between their preparedness and evil, this [itself] being on account of the mastery of dark configurations and vices on that [preparedness], and so they incline to evil because evil prevails over them, when there have indeed occurred before them, punishments of the likes of them. Truly your Lord is forgiving to mankind, despite their evil-doing towards their own souls when they acquire those wicked configurations that veil [them] from the light, [forgiving] to those in whom such [configurations] have not taken deep roots and have not annulled their preparednesses, and so He removes them with the light of His mercy; and truly your Lord is severe in retribution, of those in whom such [wicked configurations] have become deeply rooted and have become a rust, annulling [their] preparedness.
وَيَقُولُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَوْلَا أُنْزِلَ عَلَيْهِ آيَةٌ مِنْ رَبِّهِ ۗ إِنَّمَا أَنْتَ مُنْذِرٌ ۖ وَلِكُلِّ قَوْمٍ هَادٍ
📘 And those who disbelieve say, 'Why has not some sign been sent down upon him from his Lord!': having become veiled, they did not see the signs that bore witness to [Muḥammad's] prophethood, such as his [the Prophet's] assumption of God's attributes, because of their non-perception and the blindness of their insights. That is why they did not reckon these as signs and requested them according to their vain desires. Your duty is only to warn them, and not to guide them, for guidance belongs to God; and for every folk there is a guide, who corresponds to them in terms of the genus-correspondence of primordial nature and so they acquire an affinity with him at the point of his perfection and his reception of the divine light cast upon him. They accept guidance from him and so God guides them according to His manifestation [in that guide]. Therefore, whoever corresponds to you in terms of that original genus-correspondence will receive guidance from you, and whoever does not, will not.
اللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَحْمِلُ كُلُّ أُنْثَىٰ وَمَا تَغِيضُ الْأَرْحَامُ وَمَا تَزْدَادُ ۖ وَكُلُّ شَيْءٍ عِنْدَهُ بِمِقْدَارٍ
📘 Those are hidden mysteries known only to God, who, knows what every female bears, and thus He knows what the female of the soul bears in the way of the child of perfection, in other words, the potential of every preparedness, and [knows also] the increase in the wombs of preparedness as a result of self-cleansing, self-purification and the blessed company of perfections, and [He knows] the reduction [in these preparednesses] as a result of engrossment in passionate desires. And everything, in the way of perfections, with Him is according to a, designated, measure, in accordance with [a person's] receptivity. Or [it means]: and everything in the way of the potential for receptivity is with Him according to a measure [designated] in pre-eternity issuing from His holiest effusion, neither increasing or decreasing. Or: for every folk there is a guide, who is God, exalted be He, as He has said You [Muḥammad] cannot guide whom you like, but [it is] God [who] guides whomever He will [Q. 28:56], by virtue of the fact that He knows the potential for receptivity that is in [all] preparednesses, the [potential for] increase and decrease [in them] and so He determines on that basis their perfections.
عَالِمُ الْغَيْبِ وَالشَّهَادَةِ الْكَبِيرُ الْمُتَعَالِ
📘 [He is] the Knower, of the Unseen in the way of the potential for receptivity in preparednesses as well as [Knower] of the witnessed of those perfections present that emerge into actuality; the Great, in stature, whose majesty is above granting the requirements of certain preparednesses, yet He embraces them all and gives them [all] what they require; the High Exalted, above that His effusion should be stemmed such that it fails the actualisation of a preparedness and be the cause of it lacking what it requires.
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