لما تعدى حفظه أعيانها — Ibn Arabi

لما تعدَّى حفظه أعيانَها

حفظاً إلهياً إلى الجيرانِ

When His protection extended beyond their very selves,

as divine protection, to the neighbors,

فبنيت إسلامي عليها محكماً

أركانه فيحل من بنياني

I built my Islam upon them, making firm

its pillars, so it takes its place within my edifice.

الله كرَّمنا بدولة أحمد

كرماً يعم شرائعَ الإحسانِ

God honored us with the reign of Ahmad,

with generosity embracing the ordinances of excellence.

شهدتْ بذلك نيتي وطويتي

وإن امترى في ذلك الثَّقَلان

My intention and my inward disposition bore witness to this,

even if humankind and jinn doubted it.

لما سرى سرّ الوجودِ بجودِه

في عالم الأرواح والأبدان

When the mystery of existence flowed by His bounty

through the world of spirits and bodies,

شهدتْ حقائقه بأنَّ وجودَه

قد عمنا في الحكم والأعيان

its realities testified that His existence

has encompassed us in judgment and in concrete being.

لما التفت بناظري لم أطلع

إلا إليه فإنه بعياني

When I turned my gaze, I beheld none

but Him, for He is manifest to my sight.

لو كان ثَم سواه كنت مُقسماً

بين الإله وعالمِ الأكوان

Had there been another besides Him, I would have been divided

between God and the world of created beings.

فانظر لما تحوي عليه قصيدتي

من كل علم قام عن برهان

So consider what my poem contains

of every science founded on proof.

لو أن رسطاليس أو أفلاطناً

في عصرنا لأقرَّ بالحرمان

Were Aristotle or Plato

in our age, he would acknowledge his deprivation.

من عدَّل الميزان يعرف قولنا

ويقرُّ بالنقصانِ والخسران

Whoever sets the balance aright understands our words,

and acknowledges deficiency and loss.

لا تُخسِرُوا الميزانَ إنَّ عقولكم

دون الذي أعنيه في الرجحان

Do not give short measure in the balance; indeed, your intellects

fall short, in weight, of what I mean.

اقرأ كتاب الله فاتحةَ الهدى

فجميع ما يحويه في العنوان

Read God's Book, the Opening of guidance;

for all that it contains is in the title.

إنَّ الإله الحقّ أعلم كونها

عين الصلاة وإنها قسمان

The true God has indeed made known that it is

the very essence of prayer, and that it has two parts.

لما قرأتُ كتابه في خلوةٍ

معصومة من خاطرِ الشيطانِ

When I read His Book in seclusion,

protected from Satan's prompting,

عاينتُ فيه مَعالماً بدلائل

لا يَمتري في صدقها اثنان

I beheld within it landmarks supported by proofs

whose truth no two would doubt.

لوأنّ عبدَ الفكر يشهدُ قوانا

لم ينتطح في سرِّنا عَنزان

If the slave of thought could witness our powers,

two she-goats would not lock horns over our secret.

لكنهم لما تعبد فكرُهم

ألبابَهم بعدوا عن الفُرقان

But when their thought enslaved

their intellects, they strayed from discernment.

إن تتق الله الذي يجعل لك

الفرقان بين الحقِّ والبُهتان

If you fear God, who grants you

discernment between truth and fabricated falsehood,

لو وفقوا ما لفقوا أقوالَ من

لعبوا بهم كتلاعبِ الوِلدان

had they been guided aright, they would not have cobbled together the sayings of those

who played with them as children play.

والكلُّ في التحقيقِِ أمرٌ واحدٌ

في أصله بالنص والبرهان

And all, in true realization, is one thing,

in its origin, by the text and proof.

نطقتْ بذلك ألسنٌ معلومة

بإصابةِ التحقيق في التبيان

Well-known tongues have spoken of this,

attaining true realization in their elucidation.

لو أنهم شهدوا الذي أشهدته

ما قام في ألبابهم حكمان

Had they witnessed what I was made to witness,

two judgments would not have arisen in their minds.

لعبتْ بهم أهواؤهم فهمُ لها

عند اللبيبِ كسائرِ الحيوان

Their passions toyed with them, and they are in their sway,

like all other animals in the discerning person's eyes.

إنَّ النجاةَ لمن يقلِّد ربّه

فيما أتاه به وهم صنفان

Salvation is indeed for whoever follows his Lord

in what He has brought him; and they are of two kinds:

صنفٌ يراه شهودُ عينٍ دائماً

أو في حجابٍ عنه وهو الثاني

one kind sees Him always through the eye's witnessing;

or is veiled from Him—and that is the second kind.