and so he is the one truly dead.
For anyone whom the Real does not accompany in all his attributes, that [companion] is not the Real, since the Real cannot be divided. If He is, He is; and if He is not, He is in actual fact, but we do not know Him.
Be knowledgeable, then, and do not be ignorant. For this reason it has been said, ‘God has never taken an ignorant person as a friend.’ God actively undertakes to teach His friends through what He causes them to witness in His self-disclosures.
Similar to this is his saying, God's blessings and peace be upon him, ‘God does not weary until you weary.’ Your weariness is, by way of allusion, the weariness of the Real.
(Belief and Heedlessness toward It)
Since, in each person's regard, the Real is identical to his belief concerning Him and his knowledge of Him, if that person then becomes heedless of his belief, which is his lord, it has departed from the locus of his conviction. He thus loses it, although it had been his companion.
The Real, insofar as He is what He is for Himself, then consoles him over that Real who had been the object of his conviction. Each human being's lord is only according to the form of his belief concerning Him[50]. The Real who is real in actual fact is beyond every belief—indeed, rather, He is the form of every belief. ﴿God speaks the truth, and He guides the way﴾ [al-Aḥzāb 33:4].
Chapter Three Hundred and Ninety-Six: On Knowing the Mutual Encounter ‘Whoever Gathers Gnosis and Sciences Is Veiled by Them from Me’—It Is from the Muḥammadan Presence
Truly, to God all affairs return.
You, my world, are nothing but delusion.
Notes
[50]
(The previous version read ‘qurbu kulli insān’ [the nearness of each human being]; this was corrected to ‘fa-rabbu kulli insān’ [thus each human being's lord] by comparison with the new edition, vol. 10, p. 102.)
Translator’s note: The pronouns spanning the page boundary in ‘he is a stranger to him’ and ‘the one truly dead’ can refer either to the servant or to the supposed companion. The preceding text qualifies the Real's death as ‘in his regard.’
