BB00114: Tafsiri-i-Hadith-i-’Allamani Akhi Rasulu’llah

Part 1: “Praise be to God Who has inspired those…”

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

Praise be to God Who has inspired those in the heavens and earth with wisdom, lest anyone be veiled from the appearance of the light of His Countenance which He has deposited in the stations of Command and the purposes of creation. All things behold Him manifest and present, for verily there is no God but Him, the Mighty, the Exalted.

And praise be to God Who created the Primal Will before all existences, by itself and for itself, for the manifestation of the signs of His oneness in the stations of unity, that all might know how God has revealed Himself to them through them in the essences of their beings and the realities of their true selves, for He is the Single, the One, the Self-Subsisting.

He has ever been, while nothing existed in the realm of possibility, and He will ever be what He has been, without mention of anything in existence. For His Essence is the pure Essence from which all names and attributes are severed in the sacred precincts of His might, and all allusions are forbidden from the station of recognition of His holy Self-Subsistence.

Whosoever knows Him through the knowledge of anything has associated something with Him and taken falsely another god, for as He is in the might of His Identity and the majesty of His Oneness, He has no attribute save His Presence, no description save His Essence, no likeness among things, and no mention in creation. All that is known except Him is but the limitation of itself, and all that invention describes is but an aspect of what God has ordained in its rank.

Glorified and exalted is He! None knows how He is or how He creates what He wishes except Him. Glorified and exalted is He above what they describe.

Thereafter, when the honored Governor of the Friends—may God grant him the ultimate of his desires from the beginning to the Day of Return—asked about the meaning of the tradition which he related from Ali, peace be upon him, wherein he said:

“My brother, the Messenger of God, taught me the knowledge of what was, and I taught him the knowledge of what will be.”

Though I have not seen this tradition in the well-known books, since its meaning accords with reality, there is no doubt it is truth with God.

And when I promised to answer him, I sought God’s help to explain what God wished to reveal of the hidden inner meanings of His traces from the unseen to the visible. Know that God created the Primal Will before all things and made it at the time of existence its own cause, not anything else, for it is the First Remembrance about which the Imam, peace be upon him, said to Yunus when asked “Do you know what the Primal Will is?” He said “No.” Then Ali said “It is the First Remembrance.”

Indeed God, through His subtle wisdom and mighty craftsmanship, has placed within it the sign of His Self-Subsistence, that it might indicate His unity in every aspect. It has seven aspects through which nothing can be clothed with existence except through them. This is the rank of the Primal Will which we express in the highest sense as the First Remembrance, with which nothing else is mentioned.

It continues eternally in the highest station as the Creator which was manifested to it at the beginning of its creation as a sign of the appearance of His Self-Subsistence, a mirror reflecting His Countenance of Eternality, and a geometry for the manifestation of His sovereignty. It is the sign for which God has made no beginning except the perpetuity of His grace, and no end except in itself. It has ever drawn from God, by itself and for itself, in all ranks of the unseen and visible realms, and it has no exhaustion.

It is the sign that indicates the Oneness of the Essence. God has made its outward appearance identical to its inner reality, its beginning identical to its end, and its secret identical to its public aspect. It has no likeness, for all else exists through the manifestation of its creation from nothing, demonstrating the power of its Originator. Glory be to Him and exalted is He! How mighty is His power and how great is His beneficence that cannot be known.

In the First Mention there is but one Word, and it is He, and all names are but signs of the manifestation of this station, and in reality there is no mention of aught else besides it, for whatever else might be mentioned before it or mentioned at its level would not be befitting that Focal Point. All that those who make mention have mentioned in description of that Focal Point is naught but its description through its manifestation at the level of that thing. This is witnessed by those who have known the venues of the Cause and have become aware of the ultimate purposes of the Seal and have beheld the mystery of eternity in the station of servitude. Beyond this station there is no further purpose possible, nor is there any mention before it save what God alone knows of its wisdom, glorified and exalted be He above what they describe.

When the mention of the supreme point of the Will was established, reference was made to mention of its identity which is named the Purpose, and it is the station of the Second Mention wherein appeareth the focal point of the mention of creation within creative bounds and naught else. And in that focal point is mentioned the very station of the Most Exalted which is the station of Ali in the world of manifestation, as He, exalted be His mention, hath indicated in the verse of Mutual Invocation: “our selves and your selves,” where by consensus of both parties what is meant by “self” is Ali and none other. Through that station appeareth the focal point of connection which is Destiny, which is the source of multiplicities and infinitudes. Through the existence of Purpose exists all that existeth in possibility. Therefore hath the Truth referred to the absolute outpouring in His utterance regarding the teaching of the Messenger of God—peace be upon Him—“He knew what was,” for there was naught but knowledge through the manifestation of the Will which ever was and besides which there was naught else.

In such wise doth wisdom require that Ali, who teacheth the station of the Primal Will should possess knowledge of that which is to be; for before mention was made there was not what would be such that He should know it. And when the mention of purpose was established, the mention of the place of all created things became assured. Wherefore the Messenger of God—may the blessings of God rest upon Him—knoweth, through Alí, the knowledge of that which shall come to pass, each thing according to its rank, in the degrees which God hath ordained for them in the knowledge of the unseen.

For knowledge, in very truth—as the People of Truth maintain—is itself the thing known; even as Sadiq hath intimated in the tradition of al-Mufaddal, that knowledge is the full consummation of the known, and that power and might are the full consummation of the act. And whensoever the words of wisdom are not complete in their outward appearance and complete in their inward reality, wisdom itself is not complete in the wise man, though he be powerful. This, verily, is the secret of the root of existence and the point of all that existeth—nor can any one interpret that tradition more exaltedly than this; for within the realm of possibility none can attain beyond it.

Part 2: “Yet the matter, in the sight…”

Yet the matter, in the sight of the men of gnosis, is hard unto the utmost degree of inaccessibility; and I know not today any one able to attain unto the very truth of that exposition, save whomsoever God willeth. I beseech God, therefore, to inspire whom He desireth with the knowledge of the reality of the Bayan, throughout every grade of exposition, in the worlds of being and of manifestation.

And after this exposition, the meaning of that tradition is not magnified, in the eyes of the people, by way of definitions and limits; for, according to that rank, when volition appeared, God ordained for it five aspects. Among them is the station of Qadar—the determining measure—comprising the geometries of essences and matters, of beings and selves, of identities and accidents, and other modes and relations, together with the causes of beginnings, in the sphere of passivity and response.

In that station do multiplicities appear, and the veils become distinguished from the modes, and essences from attributes. Wretched is he who is wretched in this grade through accepting its choice; and blessed is he who is blessed in this grade through that wherewith God hath favored it, by reason of its choice. This is the inmost depth of possibility, and the Greatest Abyss whereunto the Imam hath alluded, saying:

“The wretched is wretched in his mother’s womb, and the blessed is blessed in his mother’s womb.”

And the cause of that manifestation lieth in the rank of Qadar; for therein is the most evident disclosure of choice. For a thing is not brought into being in the world of choice by itself; and even though in the first rank it may appear as choosing, none can reckon it but the Subtle, the All-Aware.

Likewise is the judgment in the second rank; for the aspect of accepting good and evil is a third aspect, which appeareth after the conjunction of the two matters. This, by the decree of direct vision and the secret of possibility, became manifest only in the station of Qadar and in the figure of the triangle. Wherefore did the Christians say, “Three of Three,” and take the form of the cross in the grade of trinity, and made the Godhead—which is the world wherein the Will is manifested—to indwell within the human—which is the station wherein multiplicity is mentioned. Exalted is God above that which the wrongdoers utter concerning the ordinances of the manifestations of their own impurity, high above it and greatly exalted!

What I have mentioned in the depths of those allusions is an explanation of the reality of the mystery of contingency in the kingdom of names and attributes. Outwardly, that tradition has universal meanings through knowledge of which the veils are lifted from the stations of the servant, bringing him to the summit of knowledge and grace. For honor with God lies not in formal learning nor in considering the chain of limitations, but rather the remembrance which is humanity’s nobility is the divine mystery and the manifestation of the light of eternal independence that encompasses all aspects of the servant, through which he reaches the pinnacle of justice.

As Ali indicated in his discourse that scholars excel one another in knowledge of what is neither apparent nor implied, and knowledge of what was and what will be is the condition of that station for whoever desires the sweetness of nearness to the holy presence of the Essence and arrival at the manifestations of the words of the verses of attributes. It is incumbent upon him to lift the veils and allusions of the Glory which indicates the presence of the Essence. After knowledge of those stations, one recognizes that Muhammad and the family of God have degrees in contingency which none of understanding can encompass except whom God wills, for He is the Guardian in origin and verses.

All that God, glorified be He, has originated and will originate hereafter is present before the Messenger of God due to his presence before God, for God’s knowledge has ever been His essence with no known thing alongside Him in the degree of eternity. Rather, He knows all things, universal and particular, before their existence just as He knows them after their existence, and none knows how this is except Him. The claim of difference between the concept of life and knowledge is invalid in the station of the Essence, for just as He is living in His existence and needs no other thing for life, likewise He has known all things to their particles and needs no existence of the known in His degree.

All multiplicities were present in His dominion, and Muhammad’s knowledge encompassed them all through what God taught him of His grace, for He is the Ancient, the Exalted. God made Muhammad and his trustees, God’s blessings be upon them, the repositories of His knowledge and related them to Himself due to their mighty station and elevated rank, like the House and the Sacred Mosque. Nothing escapes their knowledge as God willed in the kingdom of names and attributes.

What was revealed in the Book “Had I known the unseen, I would have acquired much good” and what came in the traditions regarding the ranks of different perspectives in the stations of mysteries is only to manifest their servitude and inability before all beings, or to mention the loftiness of their glory through negation in the station of conjunction. In truth, knowledge of multiplicities holds no nobility in the station of the Essence; rather it is polytheism according to the people of glory, for in the station of knowledge of the Essence, every mention of anything is invalid and indeed indicates polytheism and imperfection.

The nobility among the people of the Bayan and glory in the station of existences and entities is pure simplicity in the station of the manifestation of the Essence. Otherwise, attachment to multiplicities and knowledge of them is imperfection for one who knows the wisdom of the manifestations of the Divine Essence in the Kingdom of Names and Attributes.

Thus, if the Imam denies knowledge of something, and if the observer is one who truly knows their station, he will understand their intention and thank God his Lord for inspiring him with the path of His good pleasure. But if he is not among those who know, he will not comprehend the depth of knowledge in that matter concerning them, even though creation can never, throughout endless ages and the eternity of manifestation, fully comprehend their station. For God has created them in a station which none can attain, and perhaps in certain instances they deny knowledge in order to show their grace to the usurpers, so that the latter might not feel ashamed when in their presence. The one who knows their true station understands the melody of their words and the significance of their signs in all things.

In brief, We have taught you established principles that hold the key to understanding their knowledge and attaining their presence. Otherwise, were I to interpret but one letter of that tradition with ink from all the seas of heaven and earth, those seas would run dry before its meaning could be revealed. Yet I have summarized this discourse for those who seek knowledge of the beginning and the return. I ask forgiveness in all things, for He is the Lord of the monotheists in the worlds of names.

Sufficient for the servant is His wisdom concerning the beginning and the return. Glory be to God, the Lord of the Throne, above what they describe. Peace be upon the Messengers, and praise be to God, the Lord of the worlds.