The Meccan Revelations

Manuscript volume 29 · Page 130

Konya manuscript

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Arabic

و ليس يرى الإنفاذ إلا مقصر

جهول بما قلنا عن الحق عاجز

قال الله تعالى: ﴿إن الله لا يضيع﴾ [التوبة: ١٢٠]، ﴿إِنَّا لا نُضِيعُ أَجْرَ من أَحْسَنَ عَمَلًا﴾ [الكهف: ٣٠]؛ هٰذا في الوعد. وقال في الوعيد: ﴿فَيَغْفِرُ لِمَنْ يَشاءُ ويُعَذِّبُ من يَشاءُ﴾ [البقرة: ٢٨٤]. فاعلم إن هذه المنازلة هي قوله: «إن رحمتي تغلب غضبي»، وهي قوله: ﴿وما تَشاؤُنَ إِلَّا أَنْ يَشاءَ الله﴾ [الإنسان: ٣٠].

فإذا وعد العبد وعدا، وشاء الله أن يخلف ذٰلك العبد وعده وما عاهد عليه، شاء من العبد أن يشاء نقض العهد، ولو لا ذٰلك ما تمكن للمخلوق أن يشاء. فشاء العبد عند ذٰلك نقض العهد وإخلاف الوعد بمشيئة الله في خلق مشيئة العبد. فهو قوله: «ووقتا لم أف». فلا تعترض على العبد، فإنه مجبور في اختياره بمشيئتي[53].

(مراعاة خطاب الشرع في الذم والعفو)

ولكن ينبغي لصاحب هذه المنازلة، إذا رأى من وقع منه مثل هٰذا، أن ينظر إلى خطاب الشرع فيه؛ فإن رأى أن ذٰلك المحل الظاهر منه مثل هٰذا، من نقض العهد وإخلاف الوعد، قد أطلق الحق عليه لسان الذم، فيذمه بذم الحق، فيكون حاكيا، ولا يذمه بنفسه. هٰذا هو الأدب، وليس ذٰلك إلا في الخير، كما يقيم الحدود على المتعدي

Notes

[53]

(يعقب المؤلف هذا التقرير بقيد مراعاة خطاب الشرع، ثم يخص جواز ترك الوعيد بما كان للعبد فيه خيار وكان تركه خيرا.)

English

None sees its execution but one falling short,

Ignorant of what we have said concerning the Real, and incapable.

God, exalted is He, said: ﴿Truly, God does not let go to waste﴾ [al-Tawba 9:120], ﴿We do not let go to waste the reward of one who does good work﴾ [al-Kahf 18:30]. This concerns the promise. Concerning the threat He said: ﴿He forgives whom He wills and punishes whom He wills﴾ [al-Baqara 2:284]. Know that this mutual encounter is His saying, ‘My mercy overcomes My wrath,’ and His saying: ﴿You do not will unless God wills﴾ [al-Insān 76:30].

When the servant makes a promise, and God wills that this servant break his promise and what he covenanted, He wills of the servant that he will to break the covenant. Were it not for this, the creature could not will. The servant then wills to break the covenant and fail to fulfill the promise through God's will in creating the servant's will. This is His saying, ‘And sometimes I did not fulfill it.’ Do not object to the servant, for he is compelled in his choice through My will[53].

(Observing the Revealed Law's Address in Blame and Pardon)

Yet when the possessor of this mutual encounter sees someone from whom such a thing has occurred, he should look to the address of the Revealed Law concerning him. If he sees that the Real has released the tongue of blame against the locus from which such breaking of the covenant and failure to fulfill the promise has appeared, he blames him through the Real's blame, thereby recounting it, and does not blame him through himself. This is proper decorum, and it applies only in what is good, just as he carries out the prescribed penalties upon the transgressor

Notes

[53]

(The author follows this assertion with the qualification of observing the Revealed Law's address. He then limits the permissibility of abandoning a threat to what the servant has a choice concerning and whose abandonment is good.)

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Cairo source reference

Ibn al-Arabi, The Meccan Revelations — Manuscript volume 29 · Page 130 — https://www.futmak.com/english/konya/pages.php?id=8690&text=both