BB00238: Tafsir-i-Dhata ’Ali Mamsusa

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

All praise be unto God Who transcendeth mention of His Essence by His Essence for His Essence, Who is sanctified above all names and attributes. He is the One, the Living, the Self-Subsisting, the Single, the Unique, the All-Sufficing. He hath ever been and naught existed with Him, and He will ever be and naught shall exist with Him. He hath brought forth the principles of names and attributes through the manifestation of His Will, and hath created the conditions of creation through the revelation of His Purpose, ascribing them unto Himself to manifest His transcendence and grandeur. He hath commanded all servants to call upon Him by these names and attributes, that the contingent may attain the ultimate bounty of His effulgence and the needy may reach the furthermost limit of their right.

Glorified and exalted is He! All attributes in the holy court of His sanctity are mere falsehood, and all names before the majesty of His sovereignty are pure invention. The highest essences of abstract realities cannot ascend to the heaven of His grandeur, nor can the most elevated manifestations of contingent beings descend to His transcendent realm. He is as He hath ever been in the glory of His Essence and the exaltation of His attributes. No likeness of Him exists in creation, nor in all possibility is there attribute or name. Glorified and exalted is He above the description of those who describe Him and the praise of those who praise Him!

Blessings be upon Muhammad, the center of the circle of existence in all the worlds, the Manifestation from God, and the One Who standeth in His place in all the worlds of the unseen and the visible, Who was mentioned in the two Names and veiled in the two Symbols, Who appeared in the two Stations and was exalted in the two Commands. And peace be upon the Manifestations of His Self, the Imams of the Faith, the Pillars of Certitude, the Manifestations of the revelations of God’s Name, the Mighty, the Powerful, and what hath been sent down in the inner meanings of the verses of the Perspicuous Book. I bear witness that they are honored servants who speak not before He speaketh and who act by His command.

They undertake nothing save by His leave, and they are fearful of His glory. Mercy be upon those who follow them and obey their command, who believe in their hidden and manifest aspects, in the mystery that proceedeth from them and is concealed within them, and in that which pointeth to the curved Alif of their grace through the mystery of the letters in the Alif and the center of the Alif in its manifestation in the letter Ba before and after it, and in all its stations of the unseen and the visible. Verily, He is the Great, the Exalted!

To continue: I have read what thou hast sent down and have understood what thou hast asked. Know thou that the Eternal Essence is far more glorious than to be known through aught else or to be described by other than Itself. Nothing of creation can comprehend It. Names only indicate themselves, and attributes only reflect their own examples.

The essence of Ali is created, yet God hath attributed it to Himself as an honor, just as the Kaaba is called the House of God. He is God’s Manifest Essence in the kingdom of Command and Creation, as Ali (peace be upon him) indicated in his words when asked about the primary causes:

“These are forms free from matter, devoid of potentiality and readiness. He revealed Himself to them through them, so they became illumined; He appeared to them, so they shone forth; and He cast His likeness into their essence, thus manifesting His actions through them.”

He is God’s Most Exalted Essence, the Blessed Tree, and the Lote-Tree beyond which there is no passing. Whosoever knoweth Him shall never go astray, and whosoever remaineth ignorant of Him hath erred and fallen.

And the meaning of that tradition was disclosed in His saying, peace be upon Him:

“I am the Essence within the Essence, for the Essence, by the Essence; and I am the Essence of all essences.”

He interpreted the meaning of this tradition in the saying of al-Sadiq, peace be upon Him:

“These are the houses of light, the garments of manifestation, the mines of indication, and the tongues of expression. They are not He, yet neither are they other than He. The Essence of Ali is not the Essence of God, yet His Essence made manifest in the station of origination is the Essence which He ascribed unto His Own Self—and that is the Essence of Ali, peace be upon Him.”

The Book of God itself testifieth to this, where He saith: “God warneth you concerning His Self.” And al-Sadiq, peace be upon Him, interpreted this to mean: He warneth you lest ye make Muhammad a created being; for were He created, the Essence itself would be originated and created—and this is manifest unbelief.

Moreover, the standard of the verse of mutual imprecation (mubahalah) hath established by unanimous proof that ʿAli is the Self of the Messenger of God—may blessings and peace be upon Him and His family—and that upon Him floweth whatsoever God hath caused to flow therein. He is a light proceeding from the primordial Light, and a will arising from the primal Will. Unto this refer His words, peace be upon Him: “I am the companion of secondary pre-eternity.” And His saying, addressing Salman and Jundub: “My knowledge of the luminosity is the knowledge of God, and the knowledge of God is My knowledge.”

This is the pure religion with which God hath commanded, as He saith: “They were not commanded but to worship God, sincere in their religion unto Him.” Verily, the knowledge of pre-eternity is His knowledge, and His knowledge is the knowledge of pre-eternity, for in the realm of possibility there is no knowledge save His knowledge. Unto this pointeth the saying of the Family of God: “Whoso knoweth you hath known God.” And the saying of the Imam, peace be upon Him: “We are the Most Beautiful Names of God; none knoweth God save through our knowledge. Through us is God known, and through us is God worshipped. Were it not for us, God would not be known; were it not for us, God would not be worshipped.”

And after mention of those radiant lights—the suns of grandeur—every soul that knoweth the path of elucidation beareth witness with the eye of certitude that what thou hast asked concerning the saying that the Essence of ʿAli is touched by the Essence of God—verily, it is a created essence which God hath ascribed unto His exalted Self. His utmost nearness hath been expressed by the term “touch,” though the divine Essence is far exalted above any conjunction with His creation or any comprehension by His servants. For He hath said: “No vision comprehendeth Him, but He comprehendeth all vision; He is the Subtle, the All-Informed.”

And the like of this is recorded in the traditions of the Family of God, peace be upon them, where all recite in the visitation of the Mother of the Proof, addressing her: “Thou hast endured in the path of God’s Essence.” If such an attribution is valid in that station, there is no doubt that its use in the beginning of the Cause is likewise a truth wherein there is no uncertainty.

This sufficeth thee; upon it testifieth all that is in the knowledge of God, and God is encompassing all things. Nay, it is a Glorious Qur’an inscribed upon a preserved tablet. Glorified be thy Lord, the Lord of Glory, above that which they ascribe unto Him! And peace be upon the Messengers, and praise be to God, the Lord of all the worlds.