Its manifestation among the messengers is an obligation;
through it He sent His revelation down.
Just as a messenger must manifest signs and charismatic gifts because of his claim, so the friend of God who follows must conceal them. This is the position of the company, because he makes no claim and ought not make one, since he is not a lawgiver. The balance of revealed law has been set in the cosmos, and the scholars of formal learning, who issue legal opinions in God’s religion, uphold it. They are the authorities in discrediting and accrediting. Whenever this friend of God departs from the established balance of revealed law while retaining the reason required for legal accountability, his state is conceded to him, because of the possibility concerning him that lies in the Self of the All-Merciful. It too is present in the prescribed balance.
If he manifests something requiring a prescribed penalty under the outward revealed law, established before the judge, the prescribed penalties must be carried out upon him. The possibility that exists in the reality of the matter—that he may be one of the servants permitted to do what is forbidden to others by revealed law—does not protect him from this. God has waived holding them to account, but in the abode of the Hereafter. He said concerning the people of Badr what has been established about permitting actions to them, and likewise in the transmitted report: “Do whatever you wish, for I have forgiven you.”
He did not say, “I have lifted the prescribed penalty from you in this world.”[13] Thus the one who carries out the prescribed penalty upon him is rewarded, while he himself incurs no sin, like al-Hallaj
Notes
[13]
(The author explicitly distinguishes pardon in the Hereafter from the execution of judgment in this world, while the reason required for legal accountability remains.)
Translator’s note TN4813-1: The supplied phrase is fī nafs al-Raḥmān, rendered ‘in the Self of the All-Merciful.’ Without vowels, nafs may also be read nafas, ‘breath.’ The later phrase fī nafs al-amr, ‘in the reality of the matter,’ is distinct in the supplied text. No emendation is made.
