BB00216: Khutba written one stage from Medina (Khutbiy-i-Shajariyyih)

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

All praise be to God Who hath testified of His own Self by His own Self that there is none other God but Him, and Who hath brought His creation into being by His command that there is none other God but Him, and Who hath ordained for all things paths leading towards God through the ways of His mystery by means of an inviolable Book based upon the letters of His unity’s Word that there is none other God but Him, and Who hath perfected in all things the tablet of their response to that which proceedeth from their Lord’s command, that they might be established upon the throne of love in every condition, face to face with His countenance, that there is none other God but Him.

Exalted then be God, the Single, the One, the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsisting, above the station of contingent beings and their self-knowledge, and the description of created things and the glory of their realities. He hath brought into being the Temple of Oneness in the essence of creation that the atoms might give voice to whatsoever their Creator willeth, and He hath deposited the likeness of Unity in every atom of creation. Each thing beareth witness to His manifestation without any similitude, and He hath, through the sublimity of His grandeur, clothed Himself in the garment of transcendence in the most exalted heights, that all might know the independence of their Creator in the dawning-places of His signs.

He hath manifested through His power the sovereignty of His dominion over the realities of souls and horizons, that all contingent beings might recognize the Word of Grandeur from God concerning His own Self, and that no soul might imagine for itself the attribute of connection or action from His command. Glorified and exalted is He! He hath raised up the cloud of the Divine Essence through praise of His own Self and made it a station for His manifestation through His creation, that all might witness the severance of the way through love of their Creator.

He hath made every atom to bear witness to the creation of all things, that all might know His purpose in creation—the Word of the Heart for the error of servants—lest any soul imagine in the knowledge of God a proof for His Essence. For He is God, Who hath ever been, and there was nothing else besides Him. He hath created proof for His creation and examples for the conditions of His servants, yet now God is without any likeness, just as He had no proof nor attribute indicating His Self.

He hath established proof, limited examples, and the way for indicative geometry, yet the example telleth naught but of itself, and the way indicateth naught but its own reality. God hath ever been the proof of His own Self, and there existed none besides Him. Now the decree is as it hath ever been—there is no object of worship except Him, for His Essential Nature cutteth off all perfection through His creation, and His Being is the knowledge of creation’s inability to know Him. None shall know Him as He is except Him, and none among creation shall be capable of knowing His Essence, for the Essence is the Essence, and creation is but from the realm of attributes.

Exalted then be God above what the anthropomorphists among the Christians describe, when they take the form of the cross from the temple of trinity and interpret the signs of Divinity in terms of limitation, thereby fabricating against God a falsehood based on the word of association, when they say that Christ is the Son of God. Glory be to God and exalted be His command! Jesus, son of Mary, was naught but a Messenger before whom other Messengers had passed away, and after whom came Muhammad, the Seal of the Prophets. He was but a Messenger of God and the first of them that worship.

Exalted then be God above what the peripatetic philosophers have fabricated concerning the word of connection between the Lord and creation, taking their ruling from the word of the Christians after God had detailed the signs of His love in their realities. They went astray and led others astray unknowingly, and they were followed in their vain desires by the illuminationist philosophers and some of the divine theologians regarding the word of unity in existence. Glory be to the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsisting, above what the wrong-doers fabricate concerning His signs! Were the matter as they say, then each would have gone to itself, and the decree of multiplicity in His existence would have been nullified. How misguided is their knowledge and how repugnant their doctrine! May God slay them for their idolatry—they are truly a people who do not understand.

God is the Truth, there is no God but Him. He hath created all things out of nothing in their proper form, each according to its capacity to respond, with no connection between them nor any third thing besides them. Creation hath known its Creator, Who hath blocked all paths leading to His Essence and sent forth the Messengers for His Cause, lest any soul claim to know the Divine Essence by itself. All have confessed their powerlessness to know His Self. He hath established “where” without any “where” like unto Him, and “how” without any similitude to His justice. He hath originated geometry without any command beneath Him, that the noble ones among the most eloquent Arabs might know the attribute of duality in His creation, and that the mystics among the most distinguished Arabs might recognize, in the station of hearts, the essence of pairing in its limit, and that the vast ocean of destiny and its people might be certain of the bounds of possibility and the description of geometry in its essential reality, that all might be confounded by the signs of the Tree upon those white tablets—confounded by His reality in the realm of proof and the recognition of severance in the path, until each entereth his station and entereth through God’s gate by His leave, bearing witness unto God and His creation as God hath loved for Himself that there is no God but Him, the Mighty, the Wise.

And I, in my station upon the black mountain in the land of the Two Sacred Precincts, beneath the shade of that green tree adorned with yellow leaves, do bear witness that there is no God but Him, alone with no partner, the One God, the Living, the Self-Subsisting, the Eternal, Who hath taken neither consort nor son, Who hath no partner in might nor any protector in grandeur. There is no God but Him, the Self-Sufficient, the All-Praised, the Great.

And I bear witness that Muhammad, peace be upon him and his family, is His servant and His Messenger, whom He hath chosen from the innermost sanctuary of His might over all things, and made him the station of His Self in being known to Himself and to all His creation, and established him in the station of His sovereignty in praise and performance, for He exists as He hath always existed, never to be associated with things nor with praise of Himself, and He is the Most High, the Most Exalted.

And I bear witness to the twelve successors of Muhammad, peace be upon him and his family, as twelve months in the Book of God from the day He created the heavens and the earth, whom God hath made, for the glory of His Beloved, the station of His Self, and made them in performance the station of His action, and removed all distinction between them and His Beloved, save that He distinguished His Beloved with a letter that none but His Self can precede and none can equal—may God’s peace be upon him and his family and upon his family, the Guiding Imams, as God hath willed for Himself. Verily, there is no God but Him, and He is powerful over all things.

And I bear witness to every truth that God’s knowledge hath encompassed, as God hath willed for Himself. Verily, there is no God but Him, and none knoweth how this is save Him. God sufficeth as a witness. Glory be to God, Lord of the heavens and the throne, above what they describe. Peace be upon the Messengers, and praise be to God, the Lord of the worlds. In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate.