had not been created!’ ‘Would that ‘Umar’s mother had not borne him!’ ‘Would that she had been barren!’ and the like.
Thus the entities are less needy than the Names, while the Names are more intensely needy because of the bliss they have in this.
Especially since they witness in the Real the intrinsic joy in perfection, insofar as possible things in their fixity accompany His Essence, and that He is exalted above their effect and above being affected because of them.
In respect of His Essence He is in a perfection beyond being affected, both in the fixity of the entities and in their existence. For no knowledge has been added within Himself of anything other than what they were therein: they gave Him knowledge of their condition beginninglessly, and in that form they come to exist.
Thus neighboring in fixity is indwelling in existence. In fixity the state is beside the entity; in existence it inheres within it. This is one of those sciences, so know this.
(The Fourth Pole, upon the Footing of Jesus)
As for the fourth Pole, who is upon the footing of Jesus, peace be upon him, his Sura from the Qur’an is ‘Say: O disbelievers’ [al-Kafirun 109:1]. It has a quarter of the Qur’an, and his Abodes equal its verses in number. This Pole is among the jealously guarded, protected ones. He has perpetual self-disclosure, and his discourse concerns gathering, finding, and the knowledge of increase. If he sees in someone an ambiguity that comes between him and knowledge, he removes it until
