إن الحروف إشارات المداد فلا

حرف هناك سوى ذات المداد طلا

The letters are signs of the ink, so there is no

letter there but the ink's own essence as a coating—

طلا الحروف اللواتي صار صبغتها

وهماً وصبغته صارت وما انتقلا

the coating of the letters, whose coloring became

illusory; they became its coloring, while it did not move.

بطونها كان في غيب المداد كما

ظهورها كان بالتقدير منه إلى

Their hiddenness was in the unseen of the ink, just as

their manifestation, through determination, was a bounty from it.

وهي التقادير منه والشئون له

وليس ثمَّ سواه فافهم المثلا

They are its determinations and its modes,

and nothing else is there; understand the similitude.

وإنهن سواه لا تقل هي هو

تخطى ولا هو أيضاً هنَّ مختبلا

Though they are other than it, do not say, “They are it,”

lest you err; nor foolishly say, “It too is they.”

فإنه كان من قبل الحروف ولا

حرف ويبقى ولا حرف هناك ولا

For it existed before the letters, when there was no

letter; it remains, with no letter there—none.

وهالك كل حرف في العيان سوى

وجه المداد بمعنى ذاته جعلا

Every letter perishes in visible appearance, except

the face of the ink, understood to mean its essence.

فللحروف ظهور وهي خافية

وذاك عين ظهور للمداد حلا

The letters have a manifestation while remaining hidden,

and that is the very manifestation of the ink, made lovely.

والحرف ما زاد شيئاً في المداد ولم

ينقصه شيئاً ولكن فصّل الجملا

The letter added nothing to the ink, nor did it

diminish it at all, but it unfolded the wholes into detail.

وما تغير الحروف المداد وهل

مع المداد وجود للحروف ألا

The letters do not alter the ink; and is there

any existence for letters alongside the ink? Take heed!

ألا فحقق مقالي ما الوجود هنا

سوى وجود مدادٍ عند من عقلا

Take heed and ascertain my words: there is no existence here

except the existence of ink, for one who understands.

وأينما كان حرف لم يزل معه

مداده فاعقل الأمثال ممتثلا

Wherever a letter exists, there is always with it

its ink; understand the similitudes with due obedience.

ونحن لم نضرب الأمثال فيه له

وإنما هو للأمثال قد بذلا

We have not set forth similitudes concerning Him for Him;

rather, He Himself has been offered for the similitudes.

ونحن أمثاله اللاتي ضربن لنا

في خلقه قد فهمناها ولا جدلا

We are His likenesses, those set forth for us

in His creation; we have understood them without dispute.

فكن بصيراً بأمر جلَّ عارفه

له المداد وأنواع الحروف جلا

Be perceptive about a matter whose knower is exalted:

it makes the ink and the kinds of letters clear to him.

واعلم بأن مداد الحرف فاعله

به محيط له فيه عليه ولا

Know that a letter's ink is its maker,

encompassing it—for it, in it, over it—and no—

والحكم ليس سوى حكم الحروف وما

لها وجود فحقق رتبة النبلا

The ruling is only the ruling of the letters, yet

they have no existence; ascertain the station of the noble.

إن الوجود الحقيقيْ ذات خالقنا

وهو الذي عز في سلطانه وعلا

True existence is the essence of our Creator,

who is mighty in His sovereignty and exalted.

وهو المداد يمد الكل أجمعهم

بذاته فهو فيهم كلهم كملا

He is the ink, sustaining all, every one,

through His essence; thus He is in them all, complete.

وذاته في سوها لا تحل إذا

إذ لا سواها ولا فيها السوى حصلا

His essence does not dwell in anything other than itself, then,

for nothing is other than it, nor has otherness arisen within it.

وإنما الكل سماها الشئون له

جميعها فهو فيها طبق ما نقلا

He has simply named them all His modes,

every one; He is in them, according to what has been transmitted.

والكل منه إشارات يشير بها

وما الإشارة إلا فعل من فعلا

All are signs from Him, by which He points,

and a sign is nothing but the act of one who acts.

نحن الكتاب لأنا أحرفٌ كتبت

به على نفسه قد خَطَّنا وتلا

We are the book, for we are letters written

by Him upon Himself; He has inscribed us and recited.

والكاتب الحق يمحونا ويثبتنا

كما يشاء فلا نبغي به بدلا

The Writer—the Real—erases us and affirms us

as He wills; we seek no substitute for Him.

والروح عرش التجلي بالصفات بدت

والذات منا ثمان عرشه حملا

The spirit is the throne of self-disclosure, manifest through the attributes;

and the essence in us, as eight, bore His throne.

والنفس كرسيه السبع الطباق حوى

مناهيَ الحفظ فالوهم الذي قبلا

The soul is His Footstool, containing the seven superposed heavens:

in us they are memory, then estimation, which received,

فالفكر فالعقل أيضاً فالخيال بدا

فالطبع فالحس فالأشياء قد شغلا

then thought, then intellect too; then imagination appeared,

then temperament, then sense, engaging with things.

والجسم فيها الأراضي سبعة ظهرت

جلدٌ فعِرْقٌ فغضروفٌ به اشتملا

The body is its seven earths, which appeared:

skin, then vein, then cartilage in which it is wrapped,

فالعظمُ ثم الغشا فالقلبُ داخله

ثم الشغاف بحب القلب قد عدلا

then bone, then the membrane, then the heart within it,

then the heart's covering, balanced against the heart's love.

حتى العناصر فيها أربعٌ عرفت

صفرا دمٌ بلغمٌ سوداءُ قل مثلا

Even its elements are four, known as

yellow bile, blood, phlegm, and black bile—say, for example.

ثم المواليد فيها أربعٌ ظُفُرٌ

شَعرٌ وقملٌ وإنسانُ المنيِّ تلا

Then its generated beings are four: a nail,

hair, lice, and the human born of semen follows.

وكل واحدة مما ذكرتُ لها

بالأصل منها اتصال قط ما انفصلا

Each one of those I mentioned has

a connection with its origin, never once severed.

مراتب كلها عين الوجود بدت

بها بشكلٍ كبيرٍ واحد عملا

All are degrees, the very being that appeared

through them, fashioned into one great form.

ثم اقتضت أنها تبدو معددة

في كثرةٍ باختصارٍ مَرْأَةً رجلا

Then they required that they appear as many,

in multiplicity, in epitome: a woman, a man.

ولا تعدد فيها عند عارفها

لأنها حضرة فيها لقد نزلا

Yet there is no multiplicity in them for one who knows them,

for they are a Presence into which He has descended.

أعنى به الغيب غيب الذات وهو هنا

محض الوجود وجود الحق منتقلا

By Him I mean the unseen—the unseen of the Essence—which here is

pure being, the being of the Real, in transition.

وهي انتقالاته بالإعتبار له

تقلب في شئون ضمنها جهلا

They are His transitions, in a relative sense; His is

a turning among modes, within which He is unknown.

الله أكبر عن هذا ومشبهه

من العلوم وعن عالٍ وما سفلا

God is greater, beyond this and its like

among forms of knowledge, beyond what is lofty and what is low.

ولكن القول منا كشف رتبته

لنا برتبة كشف حقق الأملا

But our saying unveils His station

for us, at a degree of unveiling that fulfilled hope.

خذ ما بدا لك من قولي على أدب

واسمع كلامي فإني أوضح السبلا

Take what becomes apparent to you from my words with reverence,

and listen to my speech, for I make the paths clear.

وما اختفى عنك فاكفف عنه قولك في

سر وجهر ولا تجعل به زللا

As for what is hidden from you, restrain your speech about it in

private and in public, and do not make it a cause of stumbling.

ودعه للكامل النحرير يعرفه

لأنه ما ابتغى عن ربه حولا

Leave it to the perfected adept, who knows it,

for he has sought no departure from his Lord.

نحن النفوس لها الأجسام أودية

ومن قلوب الورى كم أسكنت جبلا

We are the souls, for whom bodies are valleys;

and how many a mountain among human hearts they have made a dwelling!

وكم تنقلت الأشجار من ملأ

وما تعرش ممن جدَّ أو هزلا

And how often trees have moved from a throng,

and what is trellised by those who are earnest or jest.

يا نحلُ أَوحى إليك الرب فاتخذي

من الجبال بيوتاً واسلكي ذُلَلا

O bees, the Lord has revealed to you: take

homes from the mountains, and travel submissively.

وكل شيء سبيل الرب خلقته

إليه في الناس من يمشي به وصلا

Every thing—its created form is the Lord's path;

whoever among people walks it reaches Him.

هنالك العلم علم الله يخرج من

بطونها اختلفت ألوانه عسلا

There, knowledge—the knowledge of God—comes out of

their bellies as honey whose colors vary.

بطونها حضرات الحق إذ هي قل

ظهوره فهو منها لابسٌ حللا

Their bellies are the presences of the Real, for they are—say it—

His manifestation; thus through them He wears robes.

لأنها هي تقديراته وبها

يبدي الخلائق والأملاك والرسلا

For they themselves are His determinations, and through them

He manifests the creatures, the angels, and the messengers.

مراتب وشئون فيه أجمعهم

محققون وأما ليس فيه فلا

Degrees and modes: in Him they all

are made real; as for what is not in Him, it is not.