to ward off harm from itself, so injury and harm occurred incidentally. The human being is different, for he may intend harm: through his animality he wards off harm, and through his humanity he intends harm.
The servant is impetuous, while the Generous Lord created, determining the form and distinguishing the parts within the whole. Then “the All-Merciful” ... “created the human being, taught him clear expression” [al-Rahman 55:1, 3–4], which is what the tongue utters. Then the Most Generous Lord “taught by the pen” [al-ʿAlaq 96:4] what the fingertips trace. The human being is thus a structure made by a Lord who is Generous, Most Generous, and All-Merciful. These are four names that turned toward the creation of water. He then made from “water every living thing,” since His Throne was upon it.
The created cosmos is His shadow; then, through its returning shade, He returned it to Himself. Casting is joining, and meeting is splitting. He distinguished heaven from earth, so raising was distinguished from lowering. He perfected the human workmanship and dyed it with the dye of faith in the presence of direct divine address, through the witnessing of spiritual excellence. When He wrote, He ordered, placing each thing in its place and setting up its weights when He set His balance:
Each part has a ruling that distinguishes it
forever in its entity from among its fellows.
The whole is multiplied by the whole for one who sees,
an arithmetic multiplication, to impart understanding through its explanation.
For in the darkness of the inward parts He ordered it,
when He fashioned it in the proportioning of its structure.
Notes
Translator’s note TN3117-1: This passage is written in densely rhymed prose. It pairs ilqāʾ, “casting,” with liqāʾ, “meeting,” and ratq, “joining,” with fatq, “splitting.” Fayʾ denotes returning shade. “Direct divine address” renders fahwāniyya, and “spiritual excellence” renders iḥsān.
