BB00042: Risalata’l-Ishraq

Part 1: “Praise be to God Who brought the Primal…”

In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate

Praise be to God Who brought the Primal Will into being before all things, that His sovereignty might be made manifest in the kingdom of Command and Creation, and that all atoms might know what God hath testified concerning His Own Self by His Own Self from all eternity: that there is none other God but Him. He hath ever existed when naught existed with Him, and He will forever continue to be while no thing shall be mentioned at His level, for His Essence is the pure, primordial Essence that by its very nature severs all essences from the plane of knowledge, and His Identity is the ancient, crystalline Identity that by its very being prevents all material things from attaining the station of expression.

Whosoever claimeth to unify the Essence through his own essence by unifying the Essence itself—his unification is void, the aspects of his abstraction are compound, and the stations of his uniqueness are limited. For all that is other than the Essence was created only through the manifestations of limitation from the six directions and the appearances that indicate them. And whosoever uttereth a word concerning the unification of the Essence hath ascended to the station of Names, unified with the manifestations of Attributes, been confounded by the conditions of the signs of stations, and illumined by the manifestations of the tokens of indications, for the decree of creation at all times cannot be divorced from the state of powerlessness and need, and indicateth naught but the decree of despair and impossibility.

Exalted is the station of the manifestation of the Essence and the signs of the manifestations of Attributes above comparison and the striking of similitudes. Verily, all upon which the name of any thing can fall, whether of essences or accidents, whether of trees or identities, is created by God, exalted be His mention. He is far above the description of existences and the attributes of contingent beings, sanctified beyond the mention of signs and tokens, for He, in His glorious Identity and Beauty, and His sovereign station and Grace, cannot be known through comparisons nor described through similitudes from the stations of Command and the manifestations for which God hath set no end in what is endless.

Glorified and exalted is He! After the creation of the Primal Will, He brought into being the essence of Purpose and made it a sign of His Will, an expression of His Oneness, and a token of His sovereign power, that all might know, in the stations of Command and Creation, what God intended through the creation of contingent beings and the manifestation of existences. For He hath mention in the realm of possibility which preceded by His Essence the existence of all things and transcended by His Being the essence of all things. He is exalted above description in the rank of essences and sanctified beyond attributes in the station of essential realities, for He was the pivot of the revolving circle in the Most Exalted Horizon and the manifestation of the decree of justice “at the distance of two bow-lengths or even closer.”

Indeed, He is the Messenger of God, may God’s blessings be upon Him and His family, whom God chose from the innermost sanctum of the eternity of His Essence for His Essence, selected Him for the station of the knowledge of His Self for His Self, elected Him for the preservation of His mystery for His creation, and approved Him for whatsoever He wished and willed in creation for the manifestation of His dominion. This was so that He might convey to all atoms of existence the decree of the First Mention in its mystery and the decree of the Second Mention in its outward expression, until every limit knew its standing in the essential signs of unity, the manifestations of the stations of uniqueness, and the evidences of the tokens of glorification.

Through this, all became knowing of the truth of His authority, cognizant of the station of His sovereignty, and witness to His decree, for He conveyed to all that was in God’s knowledge all that God had written for them thereby, so that all, after their knowledge of these ranks, might become knowers of the mention of His beginning, for which God appointed no start other than Himself, and recognizers of His manifestations, which God ordained for Him in all His stations of the unseen and the seen, and that which is not realized save through the mention of the absent before the existent, that all might reach the ultimate outpouring of God regarding His truth, and say: I bear witness that verily Muhammad—may the blessings of God rest upon him and his family—is His servant and His Messenger, whom God hath made a luminous lamp unto all the worlds.

And praise be to God Who brought forth through His Command the essence of Power for the manifestation of the mystery of that which was destined, and ordained for it the form of Trinity for the manifestation of the Cross unto those in whose nature was the clay of Sijjin. From this did the Christians take the form of the Cross and the descent of the Divine into human form. From this did the philosophers affirm the judgment of the immutable archetypes in the Divine Essence to establish His knowledge—exalted be His mention. From this did the mystics, after absolute annihilation, detail the boundary of attainment to the Essence. From this did the philosophers establish the doctrine of the unity of existence and prove the simplicity of Reality, and that the Originator of a thing cannot lack it. From this did the learned ones speak of the affirmative attributes of the Essence and the negation of privative attributes from It through conceptual distinction. From this did the mystics claim for themselves in every age the station of Universal Guardianship, until most of them spoke that which they neither understood nor perceived.

From this did the jurists who were not qualified establish in the matter of “the affair between two affairs” the decree of compulsion in existence and delegation in being, and they imagined in the judgment of the unity of the Essence a multiplicity of multiplicities in the noblest form through affirmative mention. From this does everyone who turns away from the beliefs of the Imams of the Faith speak, and explains according to his own desires through analogies and similar arts of knowledge, claiming to judge reality—all of which is rejected by God, and His Command in those signs was but closer than the twinkling of an eye.

Verily it is a matter between Will and Purpose, and God hath made its capacity the capacity of the heaven of acceptances and the earth of receptivities. Verily it is the Path in all the worlds—through it is made happy whoso is made happy, and through it is made wretched whoso is made wretched. And it is the station of Hasan—peace be upon him—in the ranks of the Intellect. The blessings of God be upon him through Whom rose the sun of origination through origination, then set not the sun of invention through invention. None knoweth the decree of Trinity in His Name save God and whomso He willeth. Verily there is no God but He, the Mighty, the Powerful, the All-Bountiful.

And praise be to God Who brought forth the four ranks—namely Decree, Permission, Term, and Book—which exist with the aforementioned ranks by His Command, and made the bearer of each one of them a soul from among the successors of Muhammad, the Messenger of God—may the blessings of God rest upon him and his family—that all hesitations might hesitate through the hesitation of those Manifestations’ hesitation, and all glimmerings might glimmer through the glimmering of those conditions’ glimmering, and all atoms might know them through God’s revelation to them through them in the secret repositories of the essential realities of the Divine Realm and the depths of the essential realities of the Realm of Might in the essential realities of the identities of the Kingdom and Dominion, and the manifestations of the identities of the Kingdom and human realm, until every station knew itself and reached the ultimate purpose of its decree and the conditions of its affair, that all might know the severance of the way from the court of their might and the prevention of proof from ascending to the atmosphere of their grandeur, and all might testify in every moment to Muhammad, ʿAli, Fatimih, Hasan, Husayn, Musa, and Ja’far—the blessings of God be upon them—and their mystery, that no name of a thing nor attribute of a thing falleth upon them, and that they are exalted above mention of the Presence of Holiness and Majesty and the decree of description and similitude. Glorified be God, their Originator, above what they describe.

Now, to proceed: After I had taken up my abode in the land of Sad, Isfahan, there came a question—posed by the eminent savant, Mulla Sadra-i-Tabrizi—seeking an illumination [ishraq] akin to that which shone from the Court near [Siyyid] Kazim, may God’s mercy rest upon him, in the Lawami al-Husayniyyah. He was, indeed, among those who strive in the station of the knowledge of Reality, so long as he be not veiled by the splendors of phantasmal forms.

I therefore desired to respond to what he sought, with a radiance that would disclose the ruling of the Covenant on the Day of Concord, and “uncover the shank” for every soul that desireth the bond on the Promised Tryst.

But rejoice thou, when the breezes of the Dawn of Pre-Eternity stir the leaves of the Tree of Majesty; when the birds of Paradise chant upon its boughs with the light of Beauty; when the Dove warbleth upon the summit of that Tree with melodies no ear among the folk of discourse hath ever heard; when the Peacock of the Cloud wheels about it, and the Cock of Paradise claps beneath its shade. Then shall he who attaineth unto it verily prosper, and he who turneth away shall perish, uttering, “Verily we are God’s, and unto Him shall we return.” And there is no power nor might save in God, the Most High, the Most Great.

O pure questioner and wayfarer upon the path of the Most High! Know thou that the First Emanation hath blessed names, among them the First Remembrance, concerning which the decree was revealed in the words of Rida, peace be upon him, addressing Yunis where he said, exalted be His mention: “O Yunis, knowest thou what is the Will?” He replied “No.” He, peace be upon him, said: “It is the First Remembrance.” And among them is the Will, concerning which the decree was revealed in the words of the Most Great Announcement where He said: “God created all things through the Will, and created the Will by itself.” And among them are Creation, Origination, and Bringing-into-being, concerning which the decree was revealed in the words of God’s Proof and His Most Great Self, where He said, exalted be His mention, regarding the station of meaning: “Its names are three but its meaning is one.” And among them are the Emanation and the First in the words of the philosophers, and among them is Absolute Contingency.

Verily the truth, according to the All-Bountiful, exalted be His mention, is that the servant should not ascribe to Him any name in the station of His Essence, nor attribute in the reality of His Self, nor description in the station of His Identity, for in that station He cannot be known by the how, nor described by the where, nor limited by indication, nor qualified by worship. For He is the Pure, Absolute Indicator of the Essence, beside Whom there is none other, and in Whose rank no creation is mentioned. Attributes are severed from the precincts of His might’s nearness, and names are prevented from reaching the threshold of His unity.

Whosoever saith “He is He” hath associated His creation with Him and taken for himself a likeness of Him. And whosoever saith that His existence proves His existence hath borne falsehood by mentioning existence in relation to His Self. All that the speakers have said before the seat of His celestial dominion, and all that the unitarians comprehend before the seat of His lordship, are but effects of His manifestations whereby He hath revealed Himself to all else through all else by means of all else, without His Essence being joined to His action or His creation to His Self. And none knoweth how its Fashioner brought it forth save He Who brought it forth—out of no thing, by Himself and for Himself—without any mention before it, without aught with it, and without any description like unto it after it; for God hath made its cause to be His very Self. Nor can anyone say “how” it is, for the how itself was created thereby and cannot be known thereby.

And this is what my master, al-Kazim—that is, Siyyid Kazim, may God hallow his dust—hath mentioned in the ninth effulgence of his book, may God sanctify his dust, concerning the names of that First Emanation beyond description and indication, and regarding the explanation of its emanation, composition, existence and formation—this is mentioned beneath that station. Were it not from other than Him that those names emerged in explaining the essence of the First Emanation, it would nullify it. But since words flow according to human stations, and the reality of explanation is known in the station of elucidation, he spoke the truth and revealed the absolute mystery. Ask God to raise him to the station of radiant grace flowing from the Absolute Bestower.

Part 2: “When you recognize the First Mention through God’s…”

When you recognize the First Mention through God’s revelation to you for its recognition at the first mention in your heart, be assured with certainty that nothing can exist in contingent being except through seven boundaries. For everything has the rank of existence which is expressed as the First Emanation, and the rank of quiddity which is expressed as the First Determination and Will, and the rank of connection between them which is expressed as Destiny. After the existence of two things, if there were no connection between them, they would not be two. Therefore, by proof of interval and avoidance of quantum leap, after the existence of two, the ruling of three is established. This is witnessed by one whose heart God has opened to recognize the mystery of the balanced descent of the galaxy. This proof in the balance is sufficient explanation for you.

When the existence of three is established in the beginning of primary causes, the existence of four is established through the existence of Decree, Permission, Term and Book through the descent of three. It is impossible for any rank to be reduced from these aspects. Therefore God has sent down in the written form according to the creative form, from the manifestations of unity and the appearances of glory and the revelations of praise in the stations of oneness, where one of them said:

“Nothing exists in earth or heaven except through seven: Will, Purpose, Destiny, Decree, Permission, Term and Book. Whoever claims one of these is lacking has indeed disbelieved.”

When you recognize the mystery of creation through what has descended in the hidden indications of these expressions, witness that the philosophers have slipped in the station of recognizing that First Emanation, which is the letter Kaf revolving upon itself, by itself, for itself, from itself—for they are unable to comprehend how God originated the Will by itself, for itself, from itself, without being touched by the fire of His Essence. The reason for this is that when they tried to recognize the First Mention through other than itself, recognition became difficult for them and the paths of explanation were cut off from their hands. They say within themselves: “How can a thing bring itself into existence?” Therefore they were compelled to believe in fixed archetypes within the Essence, and the unity of existence in all particles, and the causality of contingent beings’ origination in the eternality of the Essence, and the mention of the simple reality in the Essence and its manifestations in the attributes.

I seek refuge in God’s perfect words which have filled the spheres of names and attributes, from belief in those indications and arrival at those glories and drawing near to these evidences and turning toward these determined multiplicities in the world of phantoms and accidents and opposites and disparities, which are stations of the people of remoteness before God, Lord of all names and attributes. And this is but the consequence of what their hands have wrought—seeking and taking from sources other than the Suns of Majesty upon the dust—whereupon they strove to know the First Emanation by the intellect, which is the first delimitation in the world of essences. They knew not that the intellect, even at the furthest limit of the realm of abstraction, comprehendeth not things save as circumscribed, nor can it conceive the cause of the First Remembrance in the First Emanation without invoking otherness and the manifestation of contrariety.

By this have they burdened themselves with the transgressions of universal realms, without evidence from the people of Truth or authority from the people of the Law. I beseech God to rectify, through His grace, the deeds of those among them who have passed away and those who remain in this world. Verily, He is the Forgiver unto him who transgresses not his own bounds in the Kingdom of Names and Attributes.

O thou who gazest upon these allusions! By thy Lord! The beginning of the knowledge of the stations of attributes can only be attained through what hath shone upon thee from the mystery of the verses. And should anyone not believe in that which I have revealed unto thee from the melodies of the birds of the Divine Realm, the cooings of the Dove of the Celestial Domain, the attributes of the Peacock of sovereignty and dominion, and the humming of the bees of the earthly kingdom, he shall not escape God’s wrath, even if he cannot grasp the reality of that exposition save after the appearance of the consciousness of the heart. Yet must he submit to what I have imparted in that station.

For the Pure and Primordial Essence hath ever been, and shall ever be, unassociated with Its creation, nor is Its creation mentioned in Its rank. Rather, It created the temple of all existence through the Will itself, not from anything, through Its own causation, Its own acceptance, the manifestation of Its own essence, and the ultimate expression of Its identity. Then through it It created whatsoever It willeth as It willeth. Though It is capable of creating all It desireth like unto the Will from naught, yet this is impossible in the contingent realm, for that which preceded in existence is the cause for that which was non-existent, as indicated by the words of the Imam, peace be upon him, who said, glorified be His mention: “Verily God, exalted be He, first created Light, bringing it forth from naught.

Then from it He created darkness, though He was capable of creating darkness from naught even as He created Light from naught. Then from darkness He created light, and from light created a substance whose density was as the density of seven heavens and seven earths. Then He caused the ruby to melt, and from His awe it became trembling water.” And to this referreth the inner meaning where He saith, glorified be His mention: “Verily God, exalted be He, was in a cloud above which was air and below which was air, before the creation of the heavens and the earth.” And what is meant by the cloud is the thin mist.

That first exposition pertaineth to the station of limitation, else if thou witnesseth the mystery of Unity, all things are created from naught, for if the Will did not indicate in its effect its Originator, its existence would not be from naught. And the knowledge of the First Emanation in the station of the manifestation of all through all is impossible save through infinite inner stations, which none can comprehend except he who hath rent asunder the veils of glory, transcended the journey of the intellect in itself, and attained unto the station of the manifestation of the Essence. For there, through the First Mention in the station of its own self, wherein no other is mentioned with it, the causation of the First Mention is known through itself and for itself.

Therefore did the Imam, peace be upon him, prohibit thought and speech concerning the station of the manifestation of the Essence. Nay, the way to knowledge of the Path is barred, being realized in the Third Station, which is the station of connection expressed as Destiny, whereunto Ali, peace be upon him, alluded in his words, glorified be his mention:

“Verily, destiny [qadar] is a mystery of God’s mysteries, a safeguard of His safeguards—uplifted within the veil of God, folded away from His creation, sealed with the seal of God, pre-existent in the knowledge of God. He hath withheld it from His servants, its knowledge denied them, and raised its knowledge above their testimonies and the extent of their intellects, for they cannot attain it through divine reality, nor through eternal power, nor through luminous grandeur, nor through the might of unity. It is a surging, billowing ocean, pure for God, the Mighty and Glorious, its depth spanning between heaven and earth, its width stretching from east to west, black as the darkest night, teeming with fish and serpents, rising at times and sinking at others. In its depths shines a sun which none should seek to discover except the One, the Single. Whoever attempts to discover it has opposed God, the Mighty and Glorious, in His judgment, contested His sovereignty, uncovered His secret and veil, and incurred God’s wrath—his abode shall be hell, an evil destination and journey’s end.”

Since the way is barred at the third station, it must needs be that in the rank of the First Remembrance it is of an even higher station, for in the rank of Destiny the intellect perceives the three directions and thereby distinguishes between Will, Purpose and Destiny. But in the First Remembrance, its recognition through the faculty of intellect is impossible, for nothing was created except by choice, and choice operates only after the equivalence of the two aspects. For this reason the intellect cannot perceive in the First Remembrance the causality of its essence to itself and the acceptance of its choice without mention of another.

Therefore the seeker of God’s decree must submit to the guardians who bear the knowledge of the Family of God, peace be upon them, through what the sun of origination has risen with origination, then through what the sun of invention has set with invention. Otherwise, were one to seek understanding through the path of explanation, one would cast oneself into the stations of fire by believing as the philosophers chose regarding the connection between God and His creation, for the intellect cannot perceive the cause of existence from the thing itself, and thus one enters into affairs abstracted from the fixed essences and below them, which are invalid according to the school of the people of infallibility, peace be upon them, while thinking oneself rewarded in the inner secret. Nay, by thy Lord! Silence regarding what one cannot perceive of the reality of the matter is better than affirming fixed essences in the Divine Essence and binding oneself to belief in the unity of existence between the Creator and the created, then in the conjunction of the Essence with its action. Glory be to God above what those who liken Him describe of His signs!

For this reason Ali, peace be upon him, said:

“Thy power has become manifest, O my God, but Thy majesty has not become manifest, so they likened Thee and took some of Thy signs as lords, and thus they did not know Thee. For had they known Him, that naught should be mentioned with Him and His Essence is not conjoined with His creation, they would have witnessed in the station of the First Emanation its origination from nothing through its own causality, not another’s, without conceptualizing through their perception or imagining through their suppositions for the negation of themselves. Glory be to God, Lord of the heavens and earth, above what they describe!”

And the Qur’anic verse in the station of sempiternity [sarmad] beareth witness to this, in its mention of the six days, which are intended as the manifestations of the First Remembrance, and naught else. And “the heavens” are that First Remembrance; and the six alluded to are the station of the days which signify the Will, that Will being its cause at the limit of its delimitation. By the number of these degrees is established the existence of the aspects of action within the essential realities of the manifestations of the theophany, and the degree of receptivity within its own station—which, by reason of the nearness of its attributes to their Origin, telleth of naught save action. And things attain unto those degrees, determined in the rank of its heart; save that its first aspect, which pointeth only through the First Emanation, suffereth not the servant to apprehend any aspect of mention from other than it. Otherwise, in truth, everything beneath the Essence is composed of the elements of its own world; and God hath created naught as a solitary entity, standing by itself—since the rank of possibility cannot subsist, as such, within the possible.

Let it never occur to thy mind that the First Remembrance—which, despite its composition and the modes of its delimitation in reality, pointeth unto God—was, in the station of knowledge, addressed by men through an imagined oneness whereby It revealed Itself unto them. Nay, rather, the mystery in very truth lieth beneath and beyond that. The First Mention, which is the first absolute emanation, has no self other than itself. The mention of the aspect of specification is not in truth its description, but rather is the station of Will. Were it not so, how could the servant attain certitude of the pure, absolute Oneness in the station of the Essence, exalted be His mention? That is the pure Truth with which no creation is mentioned and with which no servants are described. It is the pure manifestation which tells of naught but God. Rather, in the station of contingency, when the servant observes, nothing is possible except two pairs.

But when he looks with his inner mystery which has no mention of anything with it, he recognizes its indication of the station of the Essence, exalted be His mention. In that station, the feet of some among the wise philosophers have slipped, as they believe in the station of worship through mystical knowledge without knowledge of existence. This is the delusion mentioned in the tradition “Whoever worships God through imagination has disbelieved.” Rather, knowledge is the same as the known, the rule of mystical finding is the same as direct vision, and the path of deeds is certitude. One who turns to God in the station of worship while thinking that the contingent can only know its own limitations, that worship is established in the station of His kingdom, and that the ultimate knowledge of the heart is the mention of composition and the limit of contingency—such a one is neither a believer in God’s unity nor His worshipper. Rather, it is incumbent upon the servant to worship God Who is free from His creation and not associated with His creation.

Part 3: “Imagine not that what the holy ones turn…”

Imagine not that what the holy ones turn to is the manifestation of His revelation to them—God forbid such conjecture as imagined by deluded souls! Rather, He is the pure Truth beside whom there is no other, with whom nothing in His rank is mentioned. He is the pure Essence Who has no name, no description, no trace, no attribute. He is exalted above mention of names and attributes, sanctified beyond the station of manifesting signs of essences.

O thou who gazest upon the mystery unto the station of exposition, true explanation is thy due. Most people of the true party worship God through imagination, knowing that what creation turns to is the condition of contingency and station of exposition. God and His angels are innocent of such servants. Rather, the ultimate sin is that very imagination. What the Family of God and their trustees—peace be upon them—have mentioned in the stations of knowledge is that instruments point to themselves and tools indicate their like, and the wise have said that nothing transcends beyond its source—this is true in the station of creation. But if thou wishest to apply these indications in the station of the unity of the Essence, no path remains for thee, nor canst thou prove the manifestation of the Necessary Being through proof, for his heart is attached to the condition of contingency.

The more one ascends, one cannot unify the All-Merciful, and therefore the tidings have descended from the suns of grandeur and mysteries: “When discourse reaches unto God, be silent.” For discourse about God increases naught but bewilderment in its possessor. And these allusions veil the servant from knowledge of the Primal Remembrance, for knowledge of Him profits not except through deeds around that station. For while knowledge of the Primal Remembrance is established with all souls, action according to His stations and stillness beneath His shade is what is desired by God. And though the reality of knowledge is deed, yet in the realm of manifestation the reality of knowledge is not established except through deeds in the worlds of creation.

Therefore God has made it incumbent upon all to know Muhammad—peace be upon him and his family—in the highest degree of sublimity and the summit of glory, as One exalted above likeness and similitude and sanctified beyond comparison with any mortal. The fruit of that knowledge is but to increase utter effacement in His countenance and to follow His ordinances and conditions, and to occupy oneself with that which draws the servant near to His holy court and the majesty of His manifestation. The stations of that Remembrance’s appearance in the realm of manifestation differ according to the capacities of beings and the existence of multiplicities. Thus the more delicate the glass of one’s heart and the more refined one’s conduct, the more perfect will be one’s knowledge of the Source of the Primal Remembrance, the nearer one’s nearness, and the more excellent the manifestation of one’s knowledge in the stations of creation and command.

By this knowledge doth man glory above the ranks of the denizens of existence, and thereby is the epiphany of the Praised One distinguished from that which is intended. Verily, for the one who knoweth the First Remembrance there are degrees without end.

Among them is he who standeth in the station of the Point—the knower who witnesseth Its manifestation unto him by Itself, without any sign save the mirror of his heart. This is the station of the loftiest landmark of the heart, whereby he turneth to the First Remembrance in the first mirror—that One Who, of Himself and by Himself, pointeth unto God—exalted be His remembrance—by the proof of fixity, and by the negation of names and attributes from the Countenance of the Beloved.

In this station the beings possess an eightfold chain, indicating the stations of the degrees of the knower of the First Remembrance. Therefrom, after multiplication, ariseth the number fifty-six, corresponding to the number of the name Mahdi—peace be upon him—after the addition of the three letters, in token of the stations of Lahut (Divinity), Jabarut (Empyrean), and Malakut (Kingdom) in the rank of his name. This is not the place for its exposition; there is for it a Promised Day, if God so will, when it shall be disclosed; unto it returneth the decree in the origin and in the return.

Among these degrees is the rank of the Hidden Alif—the station of Will—whose bearer God hath appointed to be ʿAli—peace be upon him. Whoso knoweth it knoweth God and uniteth Him, in the station of the manifestation of the second stirring of his heart in a second mirror.

Then the rank of the Soft Alif—the station of Destiny (Qadar)—whose bearer God hath made Hasan—peace be upon him. Whoso knoweth it knoweth God and uniteth Him, in the station of the manifestation of the third degree of his heart’s theophanies in the third mirror.

Then the rank of the Alif standing over every soul—the station of Decree (Qada’), the secret of Bada’, the emergence of Ratification, and the perfection of Origination—whose bearer God hath appointed Husayn—peace be upon him. Whoso knoweth it beareth witness unto God in the fourth degree of his heart’s theophanies in the fourth mirror.

Then the rank of the Unconjoined Alif—the station of Leave (Permission)—whose bearer God hath made Ja’far ibn Muhammad—peace be upon them both—whereunto the Truth alluded in His word: “Naught of Our bounty reacheth you save an alif unconnected.” And whoso knoweth it uniteth God, his Lord, in the fifth degree of his heart’s theophanies in the fifth mirror.

And among them is the rank of the Conjoined (Curved) Alif—the station of the Appointed Term (Ajal). And verily God, through His mighty power and great bounty, has made its bearer Musa ibn Ja’far, peace be upon them both. And verily one who knows him and his truth unifies God and praises Him as He has described Himself in the sixth level among the revelations of His heart in the sixth mirror.

And from it is the station of the letter, which is the station of the Book (Kitab). And verily God has made Fatimih, the blessings of God be upon her, the bearer of that letter. And verily one who knows her truth unifies God in the seventh station among the manifestations of His heart which indicate Him in the seventh mirror.

And verily for each chain of these eight chains there are stations hidden in the unseen, and the descents of those stations which are for the manifestations of the Imams of the visible realm are concealed. And nothing exists in the heavens and earth except through the manifestation of those seven in the realm of His invisibility and the descent of those seven in the realm of visibility.

And verily this is the highest station of Paradise in the eyes of the people of the Bayan, when one understands the words of the All-Merciful: “The All-Merciful has taught the Qur’an, created man, taught him expression.” And verily this is but a drop from the mention of the First Emanation in the level of its manifestations in created things.

As for its essential nature, which is the highest, thou hast heard the rustling of the Bird of Divinity in explanation of the First Mention. And all that those who make mention mention in that station is cut off from the essence of His Being and prevented from ascending to His presence. Here there is no name for Thee, no mark, no indication, no description, no narration, no attribute. None knoweth how this is save God alone.

And verily in His level there is attachment to this First Emanation, which is the station of Will. The sages mention expressions in the station of exposition for the wayfarers from the human level, including: the second pre-existence, conditioned existence, the first determination, the prime matter of prime matters, the element of elements, the substance of substances, the secondary infinity. And what God intended beyond these names is that which is inscribed in the Book.

And verily the Truth is that every name upon which falls the name of a thing should be applied in the station of the manifestation of His unity in this level, for it is primary to all else. Indeed, there is no manifestation in contingent being except from that station, as Husayn, peace be upon him, indicated in his prayer on the Day of Arafih:

“Other than Thee has not the manifestation that Thou hast, such that it could reveal Thee. When wert Thou ever hidden, that Thou shouldst need proof to lead to Thee? When wert Thou ever distant, that created things should lead to Thee? Blind is the eye that seeth Thee not, though Thou art its Observer. And at a loss is the servant who hath no portion of Thy love.”

And the Truth hath indicated in another station: “I saw nothing except that I saw God before it.” And He, exalted be His mention, said: “I saw no light but His light, and heard no sound but His sound.” And thus did Ali, peace be upon him, say in his sermon: “I am His manifest Divinity, and I am the Reality upon which no name nor likeness falls. I am the Gate of Remission. And there is no might nor power except through God, the Exalted, the Great,” for verily my spirit and all in the kingdoms of command and creation would be His sacrifice, established upon the Throne of Will by God’s leave.

And he it is who bestoweth upon every soul its due, and who guideth unto each thing, by God’s leave, its allotted sustenance. Verily, he is the very Will in the worlds of essences; and the mystery of this matter is that to which, peace be upon him, he alluded in the Khutbat al-a¹¬utunjiyyah—upon its Originator be thousands of praises and greetings. “I saw God and Paradise with the physical eye”—meaning the vision of the Will as it appeared to him. Assert nothing beyond this, for any reference to the Eternal Essence is impossible and forbidden. None save Him can know Him as He is in the glory of His Identity and the majesty of His Self-Sufficiency, and none but He can describe Him.

Everything upon which the name of a thing can be applied, except God, is created, and He is exalted above the mention of aught else. All manifestations, conditions, and whatever falls under the rule of names and attributes are names of this aspect, for they are, as they are, a sign of the Will. Whatever flows in the Will flows in them, except that the First is the First Mention, and the Second is that whose existence was brought about through it.

The philosophers have differed regarding the ruling on the origination of the Will—whether it was created from nothing like the Will and its causality when the origination of the Second became connected with it. The truth is that both these aspects flow within it. When the servant looks through the causality of the Will, he needs not mention the origination of the Second in the rank of the Will. And when the servant looks at the station wherein the effect must necessarily resemble the attribute of its cause, he has no recourse but to say that the Will has manifested itself to the Will, through it, in its rank, just as the ruling was mentioned regarding the Will itself. This indeed is the truth in the innermost mysteries.

If you desire the outer ruling, it is that which I conveyed to you before: that origination is the One, and whatever originates from itself needs no new origination. However, in the mystery of this outer ruling there is an inner aspect, which is that the First Origination at every moment needs support from God, and God supports it in every condition through Himself for Himself, as if it were in every condition a new origination. Yet nothing transgresses its own limits, nor does the ruling apply equally to another. Therefore glorified be God, its Creator, above what they describe.