in themselves consists of accidents swift to cease.
They remain for two moments or something close to that only because the first moment is for their appearance and the second for imparting the benefit they give, for which they flashed. The locus is bewildered when they flash and has only recently parted from its preceding self-disclosure. These flashes wait until the bewilderment and attachment to its previous condition cease, so it receives what the flashes bring. By their waiting I mean their succession. When reception occurs, their ruling passes and they cease. Others come, like them or differing from them.
Their possessor always returns swiftly to the world of sense. These flashes bring only divine sciences with no connection to the sciences of the cosmos: they are purely divine. This is their criterion. If a person finds knowledge belonging to his own state, it is not flashes, for the modes of self-disclosure are many and varied in ruling. Know this. “God speaks the truth and He guides the way” [al-Ahzab 33:4].
Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-Nine: On Gnosis of Onslaughts and Sudden Inrushes. An Onslaught Is What Comes upon the Heart Because of Missing the Moment, without Contrivance on Your Part. Sudden Inrushes Are What Surprises the Heart from the Unseen in an Abrupt Encounter, Entailing Either Joy or Sorrow
Notes
Translator’s note TN5572-1: The clause rendered “knowledge belonging to his own state” is compressed: ʿilman yakūnu fī ḥālihi. The source does not further specify that knowledge here; its preceding criterion restricts flashes to divine sciences.
