freedom from this, knowing that we can apprehend it only thus.
Likewise, though we declare the Real free from any change arising within Him through the rulings of the entities of possible things, so that no change subsists in His Essence—rather, He is the All-Holy, the All-Glorified—the affair can be only thus in the eye’s witnessing, because the fixed entities in themselves have this form.
(The Diversity of Forms and the Fixity of the Reality)
Likewise the Spirit of Holiness sometimes discloses himself in Dihya’s form and others. He disclosed himself filling the horizon, and disclosed himself in the form of tiny ants[4]. Forms varied upon him, or he varied within forms. We know that, insofar as he is the Spirit of Holiness, he is purified of change in his essence, yet this is how we apprehend him.
Likewise, when he descends with verses upon whichever of God’s servants he descends upon—and the verses are diverse, for the Qur’an is diverse—it is imprinted in the recipient’s heart in the form of what he brings down to him. The recipient’s state changes because the verses change, while speech, insofar as it is God’s speech, is one and receives no change; the Spirit, insofar as he is what he is, receives no change.
Speech is all-holy, the Spirit is all-holy, and change exists. You consider what the verses indicate: if they indicate possible things, sanctification belongs to the Real. If the verse indicates the Real, it is not in respect of His entity, for He is All-Holy, but in respect of a certain divine Name among the Names. This is the benefit of indication.
Notes
[4]
«الدر», ‘pearls,’ was corrected to «الذر», ‘tiny ants or particles,’ as in the new edition. (New edition, vol. 11, p. 214.)
