The Meccan Revelations

Manuscript volume 28 · Page 138

Konya manuscript

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Arabic

أجنبي، فهو الميت على الحقيقة.

فمن لم يصحبه الحق في جميع صفاته، فما هو حق، فإن الحق لا يتبعض، فإذا كان كان، وإذا لم يكن كان في نفس الأمر، ولا نعرفه.

فكن عالما، ولا تكن جاهلا، ولهٰذا قيل: «ما اتخذ الله وليا جاهلا قط»، وإن الله يتولى بالفعل تعليم أوليائه، مما يشهدهم إياه في تجلياته.

ومثل هذا قوله ص: «إن الله لا يمل حتى تملوا»، فمللكم هو، في الإشارة، ملل الحق.

(الاعتقاد والغفلة عنه)

ولما كان الحق في حق كل أحد هو عين اعتقاده فيه وعلمه به، ثم غفل عن اعتقاده، الذي هو ربه، فقد ذهب عن محل عقده، ففقده، وهو كان صاحبه.

فعزاه الحق فيه، من حيث ما هو لنفسه، في الحق الذي كان متعلق عقده فَرَبُّ كل إنسان إنّما هو على صورة عقده فيه[50]، والحق الذي هو حق في نفس الأمر وراء كل معتقد، لا بل هو صورة كل معتقد؛ ﴿والله يَقُولُ الْحَقَّ وهُوَ يَهْدِي السَّبِيلَ﴾ [الأحزاب: ٤].

الباب السادس والتسعون وثلاثمائة في معرفة منازلة من جمع المعارف والعلوم حجبته عني وهو من الحضرة المحمدية

ألا إلى الله تصير الأمور

ما أنت يا دنياي إلا غرور

Notes

[50]

(كان الرسم في النسخة السابقة «قرب كل إنسان»، وصُحّح إلى «فرب كل إنسان» بمقابلة الطبعة الجديدة (ج١٠، ص١٠٢).)

English

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.’

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Cairo source reference

Ibn al-Arabi, The Meccan Revelations — Manuscript volume 28 · Page 138 — https://www.futmak.com/english/konya/pages.php?id=8464&text=both