—the Real—his appearance by way of service in the reality of the affair. Despite this divine nearness, he is seen as creation without Real, as ordinary people see one another. He then rules within the cosmos through what his reality requires as a cosmic copy, because of the correspondence between himself and the cosmos. The cosmos does not know this divine nearness.
(The Surah Openings and Appearance’s Rulings)
This is the obliteration of obliteration the men of God reach. He witnesses God through God, and the cosmos through his self, not through God. Within this station he realizes alif and rāʾ in particular among the letters opening the surahs, alongside knowledge of the remainder. In this station alif and rāʾ have the ruling within him wherever they occur among the surahs.
His ruling within the cosmos in this station, however, comes from the remaining letters: lām, mīm, ṣād, kāf, hāʾ, yāʾ, ʿayn, ṭāʾ, sīn, ḥāʾ, qāf, and nūn. Through these letters you appear within the cosmos in the station of obliteration of obliteration, while through alif and rāʾ you appear within obliteration.
They are the friends of God of whom the Prophet, God bless him and grant him peace, said, “When they are seen, God is remembered.” Their very self-disclosure through these two letters within the outward form is the Real’s very self-disclosure. Whoever sees them sees the Real. When seen they bring God to remembrance through their realization of His attribute. They address the Real face to face within it when He discloses Himself to them in a form of
Notes
Translator’s note TN5562-1: The pronoun in ẓuhūrahu (“his appearance”) can concern the Real’s manifestation or the vicegerent’s appearance. The unvocalized fa-yurā/fa-yarā can be passive “he is seen” or active “he sees”; the main reading is passive, following the account of others seeing a created being while the Real is veiled.
