Manuscript volume 27 · Page 217

وإذا كان الذي أراك ذٰلك أراكه بعين الخيال كانت الكثرة في القليل حقا والقلة في الكثرة حقا؛ لأنه حق في الخيال وليس بحق في الحس.

(اللبن والعلم والتلقين)

كما أراك اللبن في الخيال فشربته، ولم يكن ذٰلك اللبن سوى عين العلم، فما رأيته لبنا وهو علم إلا بعين الخيال، ورأيت تلقينك ذٰلك العلم ممن تلقنته في صورة شربك اللبن كذٰلك في عين الخيال.

والعلم ليس بلبن والتلقين ليس بشرب، وقد رأيته كذٰلك؛ فلو رأيته بعين الحس لكان كذبا، لأنك رأيت الأمر على خلاف ما هو عليه في نفسه، فما رأيته إلا بعين الخيال في حال يقظتك وإن كنت لا تشعر أنت بذٰلك، فكذٰلك هو في نفس الأمر؛ لأن الله صادق فيما يعلمه وهو في الخيال صدق كما رأيته.

(التعليم في صورة الضرب)

وكذٰلك تلقيك العلوم من الله بالضربة باليد، فعلم المضروب (ص) بتلك الضربة^[95] علم الأولين والآخرين، والعلم لا يحصل إلا بالتعلم بالخطاب من المعلم أو بخلق في النفس ضرورة.

وقد حصل في حضرة الخيال بالضرب، فلا بد أن يكون الضرب مخيلا والمضروب في عينه مخيلا إن كان في نوم أو يقظة، لصدق الذي يرى ذٰلك وهو الله، كما قال تعالى: ﴿يُخَيَّلُ إِلَيْهِ من سِحْرِهِمْ أَنَّها تَسْعى﴾ [طه: ٦٦] ولم تسع في نفس الأمر.

وهكذا كل ما تراه على

But when the one who showed you this showed it through the eye of imagination, multiplicity within fewness was true, and fewness within multiplicity was true, for it is true in imagination, though not true in sense perception.

(Milk, Knowledge, and Instruction)

Thus He showed you milk in imagination and you drank it, although that milk was nothing other than the very entity of knowledge. You saw it as milk, though it was knowledge, only through the eye of imagination. Likewise, through the eye of imagination, you saw your being taught that knowledge by the one from whom you received it in the form of drinking milk.

Knowledge is not milk, nor is instruction drinking, yet you saw it thus. Had you seen it through the eye of sense, it would have been false, for you would have seen the matter contrary to what it is in itself. You saw it only through the eye of imagination while awake, even if you did not perceive this. This is how it stands in the actual nature of things, for God is truthful in what He teaches, and in imagination it is true as you saw it.

(Teaching in the Form of a Blow)

Likewise, you receive sciences from God through a blow of the hand. Through that blow, the one struck—God’s blessings and peace be upon him—knew^[95] the knowledge of the first and the last. Knowledge is obtained only through learning by the teacher’s address, or through its necessary creation in the soul.

Yet in the presence of imagination it was obtained through striking. The striking must therefore be imaginal, and the one struck imaginal in his entity, whether in sleep or wakefulness, because of the truthfulness of the One who shows this, who is God. As He Most High said, “Through their magic it was made to appear to him that they were running” [Ta Ha 20:66], though in the actual nature of things they did not run.

Likewise, everything you see contrary to