صبغة الله وجود اللهِ

صابغٌ ذاكره واللاهي

The dye of God is the existence of God.

It colors alike the one who remembers Him and the heedless.

والبرايا عدمٌ أجمعهم

بثبوت دون علم الله

And all creatures, every one of them, are nonbeing,

with no fixed existence outside the knowledge of God.

قف قليلاً وتأمل أنت في

كل وقت كائن يا ساهي

Pause a little, and contemplate

what comes into being at every moment, O heedless one.

بالتجلي لك تبدو خلقة

ثم تخفى ليس تدري ما هي

Through manifestation, a created form appears to you,

then it is hidden; you do not know what it is.

بارق يلمع قد ظن له

وقفة من لبسة الأشباه

A lightning flash gleams; one imagines it to have

a pause because it wears the guise of semblances.

هو خلق الله أي تقديره

ظاهر بالأمر أمر الله

It is God’s creation—that is, His determining—

manifest through the command, the command of God.

ثم أمر الله قل واحدة

مثل لمح البصر الأوّاه

Then God’s command—say—is but one,

like the blink of an eye, O oft-sighing one.

هذه حالة عبدٍ آمرٍ

من أولي الأمر وعبد ناهي

This is the state of a servant who commands,

one of those vested with command—and of a servant who forbids.