Manuscript volume 27 · Page 281

الحقوق ولا يترك عليه حجة لله ولا لخلقه، فيوفي الربوبية حقها والعبودية حقها — وما ثم إلا عبد ورب — إلا هٰذا المنزل خاصة. هكذا أعلمنا الله بما ألهمه أهل طريق الله الذي جرت به العادة أن يعلم الله منه ورثة أنبيائه. وهو منزل غريب عجيب، أوله يتضمن كله، وكله يتضمن جميع المنازل كلها.

(الشهادة على المذاهب وأهلها)

وما رأيت أحدا تحقق به سوى شخص واحد مكمل في ولايته، لقيته بإشبيلية وصحبته وهو في هٰذا المنزل، وما زال عليه إلى أن مات رحمه الله، وغير هٰذا الشخص فما رأيته، مع أني ما أعرف منزلا ولا نحلة ولا ملة إلا ورأيت قائلا بها ومعتقدا لها ومتصفا بها^[122] باعترافه من نفسه.

فما أحكي مذهبا ولا نحلة إلا عن أهلها القائلين بها، وإن كنا قد علمناها من الله بطريق خاص، ولكن لا بد أن يرينا الله قائلا بها؛ لنعلم فضل الله علي وعنايته بي.

(القول بانتهاء العلم وحدود النقل)

حتى أني أعلمت أن في العالم من يقول بانتهاء علم الله في خلقه، وأن الممكنات متناهية، وأن الأمر لا بد أن يلحق بالعدم والدثور ويبقى الحق حقا لنفسه ولا عالم.

فرأيت بمكة من يقول بهٰذا القول وصرح لي به معتقدا له (وهو رجل) من أهل السوس من بلاد المغرب الأقصى، حج معنا وخدمنا، وكان يصر على هٰذا المذهب حتى صرح به عندنا، وما قدرت على رده عنه.

ولا

rights, leaving no proof against it for God or His creation, and fulfills the right of lordship and the right of servanthood—and there is only servant and Lord—except this Abode in particular. Thus God has taught us through what He inspired in the people of God's path, through which He customarily teaches the heirs of His prophets. It is an unusual, wondrous Abode: its beginning contains all of it, and all of it contains all the Abodes.

(Witnessing Doctrines and Their Adherents)

I have seen no one realize it except one person perfected in his sainthood. I met him in Seville and kept his company while he was in this Abode. He remained in it until he died; may God have mercy upon him. I have seen no one other than this person, although I know no Abode, sectarian doctrine, or religious community without having seen someone professing it, believing in it, and characterized by it,^[122] according to his own acknowledgment.

I relate no doctrine or sectarian teaching except from its own people who profess it, even though we have known it from God through a particular path. God must nevertheless show us someone who professes it, so that I may know God's bounty toward me and His care for me.

(The Assertion that Knowledge Ends and the Limits of Reporting)

I was even informed that someone in the world holds that God's knowledge concerning His creation ends, that possible beings are finite, and that the affair must come to nonexistence and extinction, while the Real remains real through Himself with no world.

In Mecca I saw someone who professed this doctrine and explicitly stated it to me as his belief. (He was a man) from the people of Sūs in the far Maghrib. He performed the pilgrimage with us and served us. He persisted in this doctrine until he stated it explicitly in our presence, and I could not turn him away from it.

I do not