الفتوحات المكية (Meccan Revelations)

With you, according to the scale of the two eyes, is the bread a symbol of daily provision and sustenance and the news knowledge of divine matters from the beginning; you distinguish between the Truth al-Haqq and the world, and between yourself and your essence, the appearance from the inward, and the inward from the appearance. For you are of the world, the spirit of the world, and the world is your outward image, and there is no meaning to the image without the spirit, nor is there any meaning to the world without you. So when you distinguish your essence from the world, and from those who stand for the Truth, and from the creation, you will know your worth in the world in the knowledge of the Truth, and you will know your position by the price of your values. You were a knower, and you were a caller; you were brought down as a pillar, a parable of what the Guidance sent down.

If you are of this kind, and possess discernment, then do not demand blame and do not demand praise. Do not invent a cause, for when you do so, it is for your own ego, and there are rights upon your intention. You are not that person, if it were Muhammad in your absence, so praise him for leaving it intentionally.

This which I have informed you of is one of the keys to the treasuries of generosity, so do not lose it, for it does its work like every key, and no key does its work in it without connection; yet it opens other than what this key has closed. The keys of the Unseen are known only to Him, so there is no way for anyone who has ascended—who does not know them, except He—to know them, except for what He has scattered. He who covets what is not to be coveted has testified against himself with ignorance, and ignorance is in death. The earth, and what the names have perfected, and the earth, and to Him belongs the similitude; so there is no image of Him in every heaven and earth. He is the One who is God in the heaven and God in the earth. He is God in God, in the heavens and in the earth; He knows your secret by His being in the earth, and your public by His being in the heaven. From the perspective of the origin, He knows your secret by His being in the heaven, and He is with you wherever you are, from the perspective of the vision of His unseen and the appearance of His manifestation. To Him belongs the Exaltedness, so He is the Named, and He is the Inward. He knows your public from His being in the earth, and He is your outward appearance, which appeared to the eyes of His unseen, while His decree is hidden, because His decree is in His spirit, for it is the spirit within you. The known is the scarcity of the descent in the occurrences of His secret, for He is the Outward.

Poetry
It has become clear that the Truth speaks by the Truth,
And that what we have said is a realized matter.
So do not be deceived by being a knower of the Truth,
For the opposite of what we have said is a fabricated matter.

You say, as the Perfect Man al-insan al-kamil the Perfect Human being who manifests all divine names, who is none more perfect than him: "I have a time in which none encompasses me but my Lord." And the original referring to the unrefined ego says: "I have a time in which none encompasses me but my self." For in all times, the world seeks rest in Him in the union of distinction. This is why the Perfect Man is His vicegerent khalifa successor/representative, exalted be He. Therefore, He has taken charge of Himself, over His knowledge of His Lord. This is why the one who knows his self knows his Lord referring to the famous Hadith: "He who knows his self, knows his Lord". For the one whom He made a successor over the world is from his knowledge of his self, and the succession is upon the image of the one who appointed him. So his knowledge of his Lord is from his knowledge of his self. He knew that all that is described as existence—does it end? That is, everything that enters into existence and is described with life in the knowledge of God, by virtue of it being existent—is it described by finitude because it is existent, or is it not described by finitude? If he means by finitude that the essence of the existing entity is described as having existence, then we are of it, just as every created thing is, for its essence is existent. If he means by finitude the end of the period of its existence and then it ceases, this is correct.

It is not valid for his belief in the Truth, because He is Necessary Existence wajib al-wujud the existence that must necessarily be in His essence, so He does not accept finitude in His existence. Even if it is not existent, the extension upon it, which is imagined, is not impossible from two aspects of its finitude, and likewise in the Truth. The other point: know their essences in that, the Hereafter, by hearing our signs regarding their remaining in the Hereafter, and that the stability of the extension is upon them. So the proportion of remaining for God differs from the proportion of remaining for the created order. Thus, the absolute in knowledge and in the presence of existence is the created order, which is confined, while that which is in knowledge is absolute.

So he who has spoken at a time of realized existence has understood: that which exists is seen by the existence of the Truth for the Truth by God. So when you know your state as a neighbor to the knowledge of God by the Truth—and since the knowledge of God of the world has no remaining except through us, and the divine attribute has no remaining except through the world—each one of them is a provision for the other, by which it is nourished for the remaining of its existence. It is judged upon it as such.

Poetry
We are a provision for Him; He is nourished by our being,
Just as He is a provision for existence by His essence.
So He protected our being, and He protected His being as God and Truth.
The statement is what is in it from permission, so there is no pride,
That the created order in every state confesses the dominion of the King, by servitude and property.

So the originated existence and the ancient existence are bound, one to the other, by the bond of addition and decree; it does not necessitate the existence of the entity. For instance, the human is an existing entity from the aspect of what he is—human—and his existence is not made non-existent by the [divine] decree if he does not have a son to grant him his existence, or the estimation of his existence by the quality of fatherhood. Likewise, he is also a servant, and the owner is not described as such unless he has property with which he owns. It is said that he is an owner; likewise, the king. Even if he is an existing entity, it is not said of him that he is a king until he has a subject whom he rules. For he, from the aspect of his essence, is an existence without the connection of the essence of kingship. And from his being a Lord, he seeks the subject marbub the one who is ruled or cared for by a Lord, without doubt. So from the aspect of the entity, he does not seek, and from the aspect of Lordship, he seeks the subject in existence and estimation. We have mentioned that every ruling in the world must be based upon a divine attribute, except for the Essential Attribute, which the Truth deserves for His own sake—and by it He was an entity—and the Essential Attribute which belongs to the world by merit, and by it he was. So you say: but at that, he is more deserving of the attribute of poverty, for poverty and lowliness are equal. This is why he said to the Truth: do not be of the lowly refers to the state of humility, draw near to it with ease, with lowliness and indigence. The one who is capable of a thing and does not do it, the Essential [Attribute] concerning the thing is not described by that. The Lord, in that by which He was acted upon, is not acted upon by indigence for Majesty, and the one acted upon is described by lowliness and indigence. So the Truth is distinguished from the creation. Even if the creation is by the Truth, the Truth is connected to the creation by attention, as we have established. This house has contained the killer of the one who says: "Why, then, is the ruling based upon passion, when it is found in the created order?" But he does not rule by passion in existence. What is based upon it? What we have learned, if you have understood the saying of God, the Exalted: "Your Lord is doer of what He wills" Quran 11:107, so He did not describe Himself with choosing in His manifestation, and the created order is described by the ruling, so the address was directed toward it.