تولدت عني وعن واحد — Ibn Arabi

تولدتَ عني وعن واحدٍ

فسميتَ بالغائبِ الشاهد

You were born of me and of One,

so you were called the absent yet present one.

فلولا قبولي وأسماؤه

لما كنت عني وعن واحد

For were it not for my receptivity and His names,

you would not have come from me and from One.

فيا من هو النعتُ في عينه

ومَن نعتُه ليس بالزائدِ

So O you who are the attribute in your very essence,

and whose attribute is nothing added:

لقد رمتُ أمراً فلم أستطع

كما رامه الصَّيد بالصائدِ

Indeed, I sought a thing but could not attain it,

as the quarry sought it through the hunter.

تراوغُ عن سهمه قاصداً

وأين الفِرارُ من القاصد

You deliberately dodge his arrow;

and where is escape from the pursuer?

ومِن أعجبِ الأمر أني به

صدرت ولم يك عن واردِ

And one of the strangest things is that through Him I

issued forth, though not from anything incoming.

وكيفَ الصدورُ وما في الصدورِ

سوى مقبلٍ عنه أو شارد

And how can there be issuing forth, when in the breasts there is nothing

but one coming from Him, or one straying?

تعاليتُ لما تعاليتم

وما أنت بالواحد الواجد

I was exalted when you all were exalted,

yet you are not the One, the Finder.

أنا واحدٌ واجدٌ كونكم

ولستُ لعيني بالفاقد

I am one, finding your existence,

and I am not bereft of my own essence.

أنا ثابتٌ لستُ عن مثبت

كما أنا عن موجِدٍ ماجد

I am fixed, not through one who fixes,

as I am through a noble giver of being.

فإنّ غناه بأعياننا

مُحالٌ عليه لدى الناشد

For His self-sufficiency through our essences

is impossible for Him in the seeker's view.

ولكنه مثلُ ما قاله

غنيٌ عن العالم الراصد

But He is, just as He said,

independent of the watchful world.

وذاك الغنيُّ بلا مِرية

وإياك من نفثةِ العاقد

And that is the Self-Sufficient One, without doubt;

and beware the knot-tier's puff of breath.

تعالى عن الفقر في ذاته

علوّ الحفيظِ على الراقد

He is exalted above poverty in His essence,

as the guardian is exalted above the sleeper.

تعوّذتُ منه به مثلَ ما

تعوّذت من غاسقٍ حاسد

I sought refuge from Him in Him, just as

I sought refuge from a darkening, envious one.

فنعتي الإقامة في موطني

كما نعته عنه بالوافد

So my attribute is abiding in my abode,

just as His own description is that of one who comes.

فينزل ربي إلى خلقِه

ولا وَصفٌ للخلقِ بالصَّاعد

So my Lord descends to His creation,

and creation is not described as ascending

إليه ولكن لآياته

كما جاء في المحكم النافذ

to Him; His signs, however, are,

as stated in the definitive, binding text.

يقرّ ويجحّد إقرارُه

وأين المقرُّ من الجاحدِ

He affirms, yet His affirmation is denied;

and how far is the affirmer from the denier!

أزينه وهو لي زينة

كما زيّن القلبُ بالساعدِ

I adorn Him, and He is an adornment for me,

as the bracelet is adorned by the forearm.

طردتَ الذي لم تُرد قربَه

وسميتَ عبدَك بالطاردِ

You drove away the one whose nearness You did not desire,

and called Your servant 'the banisher.'

إذا امتحن الله عبّادَه

نفوزُ بمعرفةِ العابدِ

When God tests His worshippers,

we gain knowledge of the worshipper,

كما الأمُّ تضربُ أولادها

لتظهر مرتبةُ الوالدِ

just as a mother strikes her children

so that the parent's rank becomes manifest.

دعاني إلى رفدِه جودُه

فجئتُ مع الوفدِ كالوافد

His generosity summoned me to His bounty,

so I came with the delegation like a visitor.

وكان معي حالَ ما جئتُه

وما كلُّ من سارَ كالقاعدِ

And He was with me when I came to Him;

and not everyone who journeys is like one who sits still.

فسيري به مثلَ سيري له

فأنعتُ بالسائقِ القائد

So my journey through Him is like my journey for Him,

so I am described as the driver, the leader.

أذود الردى عن جناب الهدى

لا علم في الناس بالذائد

I ward off destruction from the precinct of guidance;

among the people there is no knowledge of the defender.

وما ذدته عنه إلاّ به

فيا خيبة العالمِ الحائدِ

And I warded it off from Him only through Him;

so alas for the learned one who turns aside!