of the rulings of possible things’ immutable entities, those forms appearing through ruling within the Real’s entity, as writing appears upon parchment, are called cosmos. The divine name the Manifest made them appear—rather, He appeared through them.
This is a domain in which the Real is distinguished from creation. The variety of forms does not affect the entity within which they appear, just as substance does not change from being substance through the states and accidents appearing upon it. What appears is the ruling of a concealed meaning that has no existence except through ruling within the beholder’s entity. Its rulings are neither existent nor nonexistent, although fixed.
Reliance is placed upon the cosmos as a sign, not a sign of God, for God is independent of the worlds [Al ʿImran 3:97]. It is only a sign of the fixity of the meanings possessing these rulings appearing within an entity of Real. The cosmos is thus a sign of itself, and so is every thing. Nothing indicates a thing more than the thing itself: this indication does not depart, whereas extrinsic indications depart and do not remain fixed.[44]
Whoever relies upon the cosmos in this respect relies upon something sound and unchanging. In reality, reliance is only upon it in this respect. If the Real is “every day upon an affair,” one does not know what that affair will be. One cannot rely upon someone whose inward intent one does not know.
The perfect one among the Folk of God is whoever varies with the variety of the affairs,
Notes
[44]
(The wording “تتبعت” was corrected to “تثبت,” “remain fixed,” by comparison with the new edition.)
Translator’s note TN5224-1: The negation lā ʿalā Allāh is read with ‘sign,’ following the contrast with the meanings’ fixity and the cosmos as its own sign; attachment to ‘reliance’ is also possible. In the final sentence, the subject of ‘does not know what is within his self’ is implicit; the rendering takes the knower as the person relying.
