The Meccan Revelations

Manuscript volume 16 · Page 8

Konya manuscript

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Arabic

ولهٰذا نهى الله نبيه ص أن يكون جاهلا وقال لنوح ع: ﴿إِنِّي أَعِظُكَ أَنْ تَكُونَ من الْجاهِلِينَ﴾ [هود: ٤٦].

فإنه لا يخلو أن يفتخر على مثله أو على ربه وخالقه؛ فإن افتخر على مثله، فقد افتخر على نفسه والشيء لا يفتخر على نفسه؛ ففخره واختياله جهل، ومحال أن يفتخر على خالقه؛ لأنه لا بد إن يكون عارفا بخالقه أو غير عارف بأن له خالقا فإن عرف وافتخر عليه، فهو جاهل بما ينبغي أن يكون لخالقه من نعوت الكمال وإن لم يعرف، كان جاهلا فما أبغضه الله ولم يحبه إلا لجهله إذ لم يكن هٰذا في غير موطنه إلا لجهله.

والجهل موت، والعلم حياة، وهو قوله تعالى: ﴿أومن كانَ مَيْتاً فَأَحْيَيْناهُ﴾، يعني بالعلم، ﴿وجَعَلْنا لَهُ نُوراً يَمْشِي به في النَّاسِ﴾ [الأنعام: ١٢٢] وذٰلك نور الايمان والكشف الذي أوحى الله به إليه أو امتن به عليه فالمتطهر من مثل هذه النعوت محبوب لله فافهم.

(محبة المطهِّرين)

ومن ذٰلك حبه للمطهرين قال الله تعالى: ﴿والله يُحِبُّ الْمُطَّهِّرِينَ﴾ [التوبة: ١٠٨] وهم الذين طهروا غيرهم كما طهروا نفوسهم فتعدت طهارتهم إلى غيرهم، فقاموا فيها مقام الحق نيابة عنه؛ فإنه المطهر على الحقيقة والحافظ

English

which is why God forbade His Prophet, God bless him and grant him peace, to be ignorant, and said to Noah, peace be upon him, “I admonish you lest you be among the ignorant” [Hud 11:46].

He must boast either over his like or over his Lord and Creator. If he boasts over his like, he has boasted over himself, and a thing does not boast over itself: his boasting and swaggering are ignorance. Boasting over his Creator is impossible, for he must either know his Creator or not know that he has a Creator. If he knows and boasts over Him, he is ignorant of the attributes of perfection that befit his Creator; if he does not know, he is ignorant. God hates him and does not love him only for his ignorance, since he adopts this outside its proper setting only through ignorance.

Ignorance is death and knowledge life. It is His saying, exalted is He, “Is one who was dead, whom We gave life”—meaning through knowledge—“and for whom We made a light by which he walks among people” [al-Anʿam 6:122]. This is the light of faith and unveiling that God revealed to him or bestowed upon him. One purifying himself of such descriptions is beloved to God. Understand.

(Love for Those Who Purify)

Among this is His love for those who purify. God, exalted is He, said, “God loves those who purify” [al-Tawba 9:108]. They are those who purify others as they purify themselves, their purification extending to others. Within it they occupy the Real's station as His deputies, for He is truly the Purifier, the Preserver,

Notes

Translator’s note TN4702-1: The quotation retains an active purification form. The author explicitly interprets the second group as purifying others as well as themselves, contrasting it with the preceding discussion of purifying oneself; this explanation is not reduced to a passive “being purified.”

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Cairo source reference

Ibn al-Arabi, The Meccan Revelations — Manuscript volume 16 · Page 8 — https://www.futmak.com/english/konya/pages.php?id=4702&text=both