الفتوحات المكية (Meccan Revelations)

Ascension of the Chosen One

"God is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The likeness of His light is as a niche wherein is a lamp, the lamp in a glass, the glass as it were a glittering star, kindled from a Blessed Tree, an olive neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil well-nigh would shine, even if no fire touched it; Light upon Light! God guideth unto His light whom He will; and God striketh metaphors for mankind, and God is Knower of all things" Quran 24:35.. Regarding what has come of this metaphor of the lamp for His Light, which is represented by it in brilliance—"and God striketh metaphors for mankind"—He is aware of all things. Know that this lamp is specified by what it is for a lamp, so it should not be said, "The light of the glass is like the lamp," or that its stillness is like the revealing of the lamp, as if the light of a person of insight has expanded over it. Such statements! For God only mentioned that as part of the conditions of this lamp, its qualities, and its attributes represented by it, my master. For such a lamp is that for which a metaphor is struck, for God knows how to strike metaphors. He said concerning it, "None strikes the metaphors except the learned" Quran 29:43.. Let one consider: if his portion is to strike the metaphor attributed to Him, then let him desire it, for that is divine etiquette. If He has not placed him in that set metaphor, then he is forbidden from that set of metaphors, like those who do not know.

Thus, regarding the metaphor: "Why does God strike it?" For God, glory be to Him, makes truth flow in the striking of that metaphor if you are a person of thought and adherence. If you are a person of unveiling and witnessing, then it does not suffice, for "I am upon a clear proof from my Lord." The intention belongs to God, not me. Rather, He reveals it just as He originated it, similar to what is told about God striking a metaphor for Himself. For the people of intellect, there is etiquette in striking metaphors, as He said regarding the disagreement of people about the number of the people of the Cave; that is a judgment of the unseen because they did not witness it. This ignorant person, not facing what is to come, said, "They will say..." then completed the verse, then said, "Say, my Lord is most knowing of their number; none knows them save a few" Quran 18:22, except for those reaching with their intuition without knowledge.

My master also said, and God Almighty said, "There is no private conversation of three but He is the fourth of them, nor of five but He is the sixth of them, nor less than that nor more but He is with them wherever they are" Quran 58:7. So do not be like those who say there is no "three" because it is not said "the gathering is four" except in a single genus and the metaphors. If you complete the metaphor, does it contain what suits its genus if it is infallible? It is only said regarding it "the sixth and the fifth." Does he not see the dog? Since it was not of the human species, and humanity, and their number was many, they did not say "the fourth of them is their dog." So understand:

When God illuminated the Shining Lamp in the corners of the establishment of my Names, the verification was in accordance with the eye of every possibility. So be radiant in everything and be, for what is beyond my rank in my bewilderment has been said regarding its people: the lower states are for God, God created man from dust. I ascended, the remaining points precede me, saying: "Because you do not appear from what is in the world of witnessing, silence is with dust." So there, the remainder in it is of silver; from there I entered and sat near to the...

factional with the righteousness with its subject, and the sunset is a journey of twenty days in the constellations; discovery is almost there, as is sight in knowledge, not in the eye. Our scale is that companion in the Abode of Majesty. We only send signs; so every youth is like "Be" in yesterday, he reached it by himself or a name, reached in its metaphor in its states, and by it the arts were transmitted by its learned scholars, according to the secret the Truth attached to Him in His Names.

The first of them, he who wanted to be Hearer and Seer of knowledge of what the creation is informed about, they diverged in the victorious tongue. It is the construction for him from His speech which the construction attributed to the general tongue, which is what is folded in the whole world, from what they speak of, be what may. As for us hearing what the creation narrated of the speech of the limbs, we heard it with the general and special tongue. Thus their utterance is in it, the expansion of the Creator to speak without a tongue; He speaks, so if He speaks, He speaks in Himself, and he has known it by its meaning. So if his knowledge is completed, he emerges to the secrets of the Names with the beauty of what it gave him of the signs, a firm name in those Names.

However, his essence, from the stripping of jealousy from the imposition of duties, it was said to him: "How sweet it is, from its perfection, upon which he was not sad," a mockery for the addresser in the general tongue, rather he placed him in the perfection of what appeared at its metaphor. So he commits to him, and he does not cease surrendering him from the stage of indicating the tongue of the state, except for him who is pleased with the station of his action. Perhaps it guided the traveler in his height and power, until it tells the image of our utterance on the cross of the tongue which they address us with, and we understood. So if He says, "Have We not made for him two eyes and a tongue and lips," Quran 90:8-9 that is the provider, and perhaps from His signs is what arises by manifestation in the tongue twice. As for us losing the will in it, from that, the blame falls upon them. This is a man claiming prophecy, or a flaw has entered his mind, so what is born speaks in his heart or his image. The address to us with him is defamed by it in his hand with other than what is the truth, and he believes in his saying that he is His messenger, a flaw in knowledge and the impotence of the weak from His saying, "We will show them Our signs in the horizons and in themselves..." Quran 41:53 until the demonstration of the imams.

What God showed him, he is infatuated by these signs in this way which we mentioned, so we asked for what they saw in that way. He believes and looks at his speech, and denial does not fall upon him except when he joins the way. Perhaps there is no difference between the world and the owner of this craft in the secret, not in knowledge, in these signs. In the sittings of the scholars, all are signs. Whoever is deaf and they do not hear, it does not increase from this craft with a heart with the changing of the signs, God inspires him, and with a secret of consideration, he gives it a thought higher than hearing with the connected blessing, good, to reveal to him these signs, a revealing and witnessing, elevated and present in the inhabited world, regarding his sciences and... and no mention of the way to it. He did not cease knowing these things. As for people criticizing him, none of them answered to add metaphors to God. They said, "Is there proof for that?" and one of them composed poetry in glory. He only acts upon the outward of what is the metaphor of the metaphors, and they carried his saying regarding what God acts upon, "God strikes for them the metaphors," for God is the one who strikes the metaphors for people, as if God knew and there was no peer to compare with what God struck of the metaphors. So there is not in that repository of the gatherer between the metaphor and what was struck for it, so he is satisfied from the direction of those gatherings, and what passed in it from what was said. So the saint does not strike the metaphors for God, rather he is known by what God struck of the metaphors, like His saying, "God is the Light..."