that in which there is no sharing, upholds emancipation from bondage to causes. His emancipation is his knowledge of that particular face: when he knows it, he leaves bondage to causes. As for servitude to God and servitude to servanthood, which is servitude to the state, emancipation is altogether invalid.
(Nourishment and Life’s Connection to Causes)
Life’s connection to customary causes is most apparent in the nourishment of everything nourished, whether through immaterial or sensory nourishment. Sensory nourishment is known. Immaterial nourishment is what nourishes intellects and everyone whose life is through knowledge, whatever it may be and by whatever path.
How much knowledge comes to its knower through trial! This is to establish the proof in one whose affair is seeking, and it pervades all existents. We have explained this in the section on the belly in Mawāqiʿ al-Nujūm. Were it not for prolonging the discussion, we would explain the secrets connected with this presence. From each presence we therefore draw attention only to a part.
(The Attributions of the Name Lord)
This Name, Lord, has many attributions. They share attribution but differ according to that to which it is attributed. There is attribution to the worlds: Lord of the worlds; to the second-person pronoun in the singular, “By your Lord” [al-Hijr 15:92]; in the dual, “Who, then, is the Lord of you two, Moses?” [Ta Ha 20:49]; and in the plural, “your Lord” [al-Baqara 2:21].
It is attributed to fathers—Lord of your fathers—to the third-person pronoun—his Lord [al-Baqara 2:37] and their Lord [al-Baqara 2:5]—and to the heaven
