نزه إلهك أن يرى كي تعرفه — Abu Muslim Al Bahlani

نَزِّه إلهك أن يُرى كي تعرفه

أتُراكَ تعرفه وتُثبتُ ذي الصفه

Declare your God beyond being seen, that you may know Him.

Do you think you know Him while affirming this attribute?

واعرف مقامك دون ما حاولتَهُ

إن التي حاولتَها لك متلفه

Know your station, short of what you have attempted.

What you have attempted will bring you ruin.

أتعبتَ نفسك في ظنون قُلبَّ

والحق إن ظنوا وهمك مخلفه

You have wearied yourself with fickle conjectures.

Truth, whatever they conjecture, refutes your delusion.

فيها توحِّدُ وتجعله لأغ

راض الطبيعة عرضة مستهدفه

There you affirm His oneness, yet make Him a target for

nature's purposes, exposed to their aim.

رَمزتَ عن تجسيمه ونصبتَهُ

غرضاً لعينك من وراء البلكفة

You alluded to rejecting His embodiment, yet set Him up

as a target for your eye, behind the claim of 'without how.'

وأحلت كيف وما وأين وشبهها

وعبدتَ ذاتاً بالحجاب مكنفه

You ruled out 'how,' 'what,' 'where,' and their like,

yet worshiped an essence encircled by a veil.

هذا التناقض في اعتقادك شاهد

يقضي عليك بأن دينك عجرفه

This contradiction in your belief bears witness,

judging your religion to be arrogance.

إن كنتَ تعقل ما تراه فهذه

ماهِيّة محدودَة متوقفه

If you comprehend what you see, then this is

a bounded essence, subject to limits.

أو لستَ تعقله فأنتَ مخلط

دَرك ولا درك فأين المعرفه

Or if you do not comprehend it, you confuse

perception and nonperception—where, then, is knowledge?

إن قلتَ معلوماً أحطتَ بذاته

وَجَعَلتَ عَجزَكَ قدرة متصرفه

If you say He is known, you have encompassed His essence

and made your incapacity a freely acting power.

أو قلتَ مجمولاً فأنتَ معطل

أعبدتَ مجمولاً وعطلت الصفه

Or if you say He is unknown, you deny His attributes.

Have you worshiped an unknown and annulled the attribute?

أتْبت إدراك العوارض ذاته

إن كنت درك العين لن تستنكفه

Affirm that perceiving accidents is perceiving His essence,

if you will not disavow the eye's perception.

يستلزم الادراك ويلك مُدركاً

متحيزاً ذا صورةٍ متكيفه

Perception entails—woe to you—an object perceived,

occupying space, possessing a form and a determinate mode.

تنفي التحيز والحلول وتُثبتُ

المستلزم المنفي ما هذا السفه

You deny spatial confinement and indwelling, yet affirm

what entails what you deny—what folly is this?

إن قلت أمر خارج عن فهمنا

وأتيتنا بقضية متكلفه

If you say it is something beyond our understanding

and bring us a contrived proposition,

فإليك لو جردتها عقلية

لرأيتَ نفسَكَ في الهوى متعسفه

then consider: if you stripped it down to reason,

you would see yourself acting arbitrarily through desire.

إن كنت تدركه بغير وسيطةٍ

فالفعل ليسَ لفاعل لن نعرفه

If you apprehend Him without an intermediary,

the act cannot belong to an agent we shall not know.

أولاً فأيُّ وسيطة تسطو بها

فترى عياناً ذاته متكشفه

Otherwise, what intermediary do you wield,

so that you see His essence openly unveiled?

وحديثكم يقضي برؤيتكم له

بالعين لا حسٍّ سِواها عَرّفَه

Your report asserts your seeing Him

with the eye, not another sense by which He was known,

رِدفاً لقول اللّه ناظرة وما

في حجتيك على ادعائك معرفه

alongside God's word 'looking'; yet there is

no knowledge in your two proofs supporting your claim.

هب أنني سلمت فهمك منهما

أين استقرت منهما تلك الصفه

Grant that I accept your understanding of the two:

where does that attribute find support in them?

هل اتيتا إلا لعينك رؤيةً

حملاً على بهتان أهل السفسفه

Did they provide anything but vision for your eye,

construed according to the falsehood of the sophists?

تركوا المجاز على هواهم ها هنا

وتقلدوه في أمور متلفه

They abandoned figurative language here at their whim,

yet adopted it in matters bringing ruin.

أترى مجازاً في الجوارح سالماً

إن كنت في هذا المقام معنفه

Do you deem figurative language sound regarding bodily members,

while rebuking it in this instance?

تأبى حقيقة الاستواء لذاته

إلا هنا للزومها متالفه

You reject literal enthronement for His essence,

except here, though it necessarily entails ruin.

أوجبت رؤيته فأوجب سمعه

وعليهما فله الذي لك من صفه

You made seeing Him necessary; make hearing Him necessary too.

On both counts, He then has the attributes you possess.

إن قلت قد سمع الكليم كلامه

أترى حقيقة ذاك صوتاً عن شفه

If you say the one addressed heard His speech,

do you think that was literally a sound from lips?

كلا لقد خلق الالهُ لاذنهِ

صوتاً فعرفَهُ بهِ ما عرّفه

No! God created for his ear

a sound through which He taught him what He taught.

إن قستَ رؤيته على تكليمهِ

لزم الحدوث لمدرك المتشوفه

If you compare seeing Him to His speaking,

origination follows for what the aspiring eye perceives.

فيكون مخلوقاً وتزعم خالقاً

بالحس تدركه وتدرك موقفه

He would then be created, though you claim Him as Creator,

perceiving Him by sense and perceiving His position.

أم غيره جردته من نفسه

أم غيره هو ذاته أم ما الصفه

Or is it something other than Him you abstracted from Himself?

Or is His other His very essence—or what is the attribute?

هذا هو التجديد والتحديد وال

تقسيم والتعديد ما متعسفه

This is renewal, delimitation, and

division and multiplication—how arbitrary!

فإذا نصبتَ سؤال موسى حجة

ونبذت أحكام العقول مزيفه

If you set up Moses' question as proof

and cast aside reason's judgments as spurious,

قل لي أموسى كان يجهل منعها

من قبل صاعقة النكير المرجفه

tell me: did Moses not know it was forbidden

before the shaking thunderbolt of rebuke?

فتسومه النقصان في توحيده

وتكون أكمل في الحجى والمعرفه

You thus impose deficiency on his profession of oneness

and become more perfect in understanding and knowledge.

أم كان يعلم منعها فأرادها

عدواً فتنسب للرسالة عجرفه

Or did he know it was forbidden, yet desire it

transgressively, imputing arrogance to prophethood?

أم كان يعلم منعها بحياته ال

دنيا فاعجل ربه ليشرفه

Or did he know it was forbidden during his life in this

world, and hurry his Lord to honor him?

وعلى الثلاثة فالنقيصة عندَهُ

بسؤالها أولاً فليسَك منصفه

On all three accounts, deficiency would lie with him

in asking for it at all; you are not fair.

بل كان يعلم منعها دنيا وأخ

رى والسؤال جرى لأجل ذوي السفه

Rather, he knew it forbidden in this world and the

next; the question arose for the sake of the foolish.

كفروا به أو ينظروه جهرة

فنهاهم فعتوا عتواً خوفه

They disbelieved in him unless they could see Him openly.

He forbade them, but they rebelled with a rebellion that frightened him.

فأراد من حرص على ايمانهم

اقناعهم بالزجر عن تلك الصفه

Out of concern for their faith, he sought

to convince them through a rebuke against that claim.

أتراه يسألها الكليم لنفسه

طمعاً بها ولها اليهود معنفه

Do you think the one addressed asked for it for himself,

hoping for it, while the Jews were rebuked for it?

واللّه ما جهل المقامَ ولا نسي

عز الجلال ولا تخطى موقفه

By God, he neither misunderstood the station nor forgot

the might of majesty, nor overstepped his place.

لكن لكبح عنادهم وعتوهم

عرض السؤال وقلبه في المعرفه

Rather, to restrain their obstinacy and rebellion,

he presented the question, his heart remaining in knowledge.

أو لم يصرّح أنهم سفهاءُ مف

تونون عند التوب مما أسلفه

Did he not declare that they were foolish and

deluded, when repenting of what he had previously done?

ومتابُهُ من جريها بلسانه

من دون اذن أو لصعق خوفه

His repentance was for letting it pass his lips

without permission, or because of the swoon that frightened him.

أعميتَ عن تابيد لن منفيها

وجعلت في التأكيد لن متوقفه

Have you gone blind to 'never' making its negation permanent,

and restricted 'never' to mere emphasis?

ما بال تحصرها على تأكيدها

لولا التجاهل في مقام المعرفه

Why confine it to emphasis,

unless you feign ignorance where knowledge is required?

هب إن برهان العقول رفضتَهُ

فالنص تستر شمسه متكشفه

Grant that you reject the proof of reason:

yet you cover the text's sun while it shines unveiled.

أيقول ربك لن تراني فارتدع

وتقول سوف أراك خلف البلكفَه

Does your Lord say, 'You will never see Me'—so desist—

while you say, 'I shall see You behind "without how"'?

أو ليسه هذا عناد ظاهر

فاذهب أمامك موعد لن تخلفه

Is this not manifest obstinacy?

Then go: ahead of you is an appointed time you will not miss.

أبآيةِ الانعام أدنى شبهةٍ

أم آية الاعراف ويك محرَّفه

Is there the slightest doubt in the verse of al-Anʿām,

or is the verse of al-Aʿrāf—woe to you—distorted?

هل فيهما بعض التشابه موهماً

ايجاب سلبهما لمن لم يَانفه

Is there any ambiguity in them suggesting

affirmation of what both negate, to one who does not reject it?

كلا ولكن الهوى سَلبَ النُهى

واضلها فتهوكت في الزخرفه

No! Desire has robbed minds of reason

and misled them, so you plunged into embellishment.

ومن المصيبة ضل سعيُ معاشرٍ

قلدتهم تخِذوا هواهم مزلفه

Another calamity: the efforts of people went astray,

whom you imitated; they made desire their means of approach.

ألمحت من نور التجلي لمحةً

فجعلت ذات الحق تلك مكشفه

Did you glimpse a gleam of the light of manifestation,

then make that the unveiled essence of the Truth?

سبحانه جلت صفات كماله

عن كل ما لحق الحدوث من الصفه

Glory be to Him! The attributes of His perfection rise above

every attribute belonging to originated existence.

الطور أتحفه التجلي عن حقي

قته وموسى مصعق ما أتحفه

The manifestation bestowed a gift upon the Mount, beyond its true

nature; Moses lay stunned, receiving no such gift.

أجهلت أن تجليات جَلاَلِهِ

ظهرت لسائلة المحال مخوفه

Did you not know that manifestations of His majesty

appeared, terrifying those who asked the impossible?

طلب التي نأفت خصائص ذاتهِ

فاستخطفتهم غضبة مستخطفه

Seeking what the properties of His essence transcend,

they were swept away by a sweeping wrath.

أنكرت دك الطور منهُ بآيَةٍ

زجراً لعاتية اليهود المسرفه

Did you deny His crushing the Mount with a sign,

rebuking the rebellious, transgressing Jews?

فهب التجلي ما تقول فأين في

أثناء آيته مقام البلكفه

Grant that manifestation means what you say: where, within

its verse, is there a place for 'without how'?

وإذا أنفت تجلياً بالآية ال

كبرى وحسبك ضلة أن تأنفه

And if you reject a manifestation through the great

sign—rejecting it is error enough—

فجلاله وجماله وكماله

شاهدته في الذات أم فعل الصفه

then His majesty, beauty, and perfection:

did you witness them in His essence, or in the attribute's action?

أعلمت ربك قادراً إلا بم

ظهر الاقتدار لذاته المتصرفه

Have you known your Lord to be powerful except through the

manifestation of power belonging to His acting essence?

ماذا ترى في جاء ربك هل عَنى

بالذات أم أمر القيامة كشفه

What do you see in 'your Lord came'? Did He mean

His essence, or disclose the event of the Resurrection?

ما جاء إلا أمره وعَظيم قد

رته وأجناس الخليقة موقفه

Nothing came but His command and His mighty

power, while the kinds of creation stand assembled.

أتراه جاء مع الملائك نفسه

بالذات في ظلل الغمام مكنفه

Do you think He Himself came with the angels,

in person, enveloped in canopies of cloud?

هل جاء إلا أخذه وأليم بط

شته بجاحدة له مستنكفه

Did anything come but His seizure and His painful

onslaught against those who denied Him disdainfully?

أظننت محجوبين عن جناته

وشهود عين الرحمة المتعطفه

Did you suppose that being veiled from His gardens

and from witnessing the very source of tender mercy

منع الحجاب عيونهم عن ذاتهِ

أخطأت أو فاعبُد حجاباً كنّفه

meant a veil kept their eyes from His essence?

You are mistaken; otherwise worship a veil that envelops Him.

هل زاد أم نقصَ الحجاب أم استوى

وتراه من أي الجهات تَكَنَّفَه

Did the veil increase, diminish, or stay the same?

From which directions do you think it surrounded Him?

مزق حجابَك يا مجسمَ ربه

وحجاب جهلك إنه ما أكنَفَه

Tear your veil, you who give your Lord a body,

and your veil of ignorance—how enclosing it is!

واعرج إلى تقديس ذات الحق بال

نور الذي أوحى وَحَسبُكَ معرفَه

Ascend toward sanctifying the essence of the Truth by the

light He revealed; that is knowledge enough for you.

قدس نعوتَ اللّه عن مخلوقه

وانبذ نعوتَ البدعة المتحرفه

Sanctify God's attributes above those of His creation,

and reject the distorted attributes of innovation.

وإذا نزعتَ إلى الهدى عن غيره

فالاستقامة نزعة المتصوّفه

If you incline toward guidance, away from anything else,

then uprightness is the Sufis' inclination.

للّه نحلتنا ونِعمَ سبيلها

أصلاً وفرعاً لا تخالفُ مصحفه

To God belongs our creed—excellent is its path,

in root and branch, never contradicting His Book.

هي عين ما نزل الأمين بهِ على ال

هادي الأمين وما سواها زخرفه

It is precisely what the Trustworthy One brought down to the

trustworthy Guide; all else is embellishment.

لا نعبد المحسوس ذاتاً كل مح

سوس حدوث ذاته متألفه

We do not worship a perceptible essence; every

perceptible thing is originated, its essence compounded.

بل نعبد الرب الذي عرفاننا

إياه عرفان بأن لن نعرفه

Rather, we worship the Lord: our knowledge

of Him is knowing that we shall not know Him.

أي عجزنا عن دركه هو دركه

لا درك ما هياتنا المتكيفه

That is, our inability to comprehend Him is comprehension of Him,

not the comprehension of our conditioned essences.

تجريدنا لصفاته ولذاتهِ

تجريده هو نفسه لن نعرفه

Our declaring His attributes and essence transcendent

declares Him Himself transcendent: we shall not know Him.

توحيدنا إياه توحيد القُرآ

ن بذاته والفعل منه المعرفه

Our profession of His oneness is that of the

Qurʾān: His essence is one; knowledge comes through His acts.

ونجله عن رؤيةٍ بالعين أو

بالقلب في الدنيا وأخرى مزلفه

We exalt Him above being seen by the eye or

the heart, in this world or the hereafter brought near.

والدين نأبى أن نقلده رجا

لا غير معصومين عما حرفه

In religion, we refuse to imitate

men not protected against distorting it.

ونقلد الرأي المطابق أصله

لمحقق استنباطه عن معرفه

We follow the opinion conforming to its foundation,

of one who verifies its derivation through knowledge.

أفلت سانحة الهدرْ فاربع على

ضلع العمى وابغ الضلالة مزلفه

The chance for idle chatter has slipped away; so stay with

blindness's crooked bent, and seek error as a means of approach.

أضللت صديقية عمريّة

وهبية تهب الهداية منصفه

Have you called astray a Ṣiddīqī, ʿUmarī creed,

a Wahbī creed, impartially bestowing guidance,

بدرية أحدية ما حكمت

عَمراً على قرانها ليحرِّفَه

a Badrī, Uḥudī creed that did not appoint

ʿAmr arbiter over its Qurʾān, to distort it?

شربت بماء النهر كأس نبيها

كأساً بامزجة الرحيق مقروفة

It drank its Prophet's cup with the river's water,

a cup mingled with blends of pure nectar.

لا تدَعي هتك الجلالِ برؤيةٍ

حسب العقول من المقام المعرفه

It makes no claim to violate majesty by seeing Him;

knowledge of that station is enough for minds.

أقصر مطامعك التي طولتها

إن المطامع في محال مخلفه

Curtail the ambitions you have prolonged:

ambitions toward the impossible remain unfulfilled.

انصف حقيقة لن تراني تلقَها

نفياً يؤيد قاطع المتشرفه

Do justice to 'You will never see Me'; you will find it

a negation reinforcing the decisive bar to aspiration.

وانظر إلى الشأن المحال وقوعه

إذ بالمحال ثبوته قد أوقفه

Consider the matter whose occurrence is impossible,

since He made its realization depend on the impossible.

لو جاز لم يك بالمحال معلقاً

كلا ولا صعقت يهود بمرجفه

Had it been possible, it would not have been tied to impossibility;

nor would the Jews have been thunderstruck by a shaking blow.

قد كان في العلم القديم بانهُ

لا يستقر الطور ساعةَ أرجفَه

It was already in eternal knowledge that

the Mount would not remain firm when He shook it.

وإن ادعتي بأن هذا المنع في ال

دنيا وبالأخرى حقوق موقفه

And if you claim this prohibition belongs to this

world, while rights are established in the next,

قلنا حكمت بأنهُ متغيرٌ

لما فرضت هناك تغيير الصفه

we say: you have judged Him changeable,

since you posited a change of attribute there.

وكما له بالذات ليس موقتاً

كلا وليس صفاته متطرفه

His perfection in His essence is not time-bound,

nor do His attributes shift to extremes.

ما يستحيل عليه فيما لم يزل

قد رتموه لغاية المتشوفه

What has always been impossible for Him

you have posited at the end you long for.

لا تستحيل صفات خالقنا ال

قديم ولا تغيره الدهور المردفه

The attributes of our Creator cannot change—the

Eternal One; successive ages do not alter Him.

سبحانه لا منتهى لكماله

إذ لم يكن لبداية مستأنفه

Glory be to Him: His perfection has no end,

for He never had a newly arising beginning.

عُد عن طريقك ما لعينك منفذٌ

إلا إلى كيفية مستهدفه

Turn back from your path; your eye has no access

except to a determinate mode set before it,

إلا إلى جهة تحدّد جَوهراً

متلبساً عرضاً تحقق موقفه

except to a direction delimiting a substance

clothed in an accident, whose position you establish.

أولاً فليست رؤيةً معقولة

فنرى حديثكم إليها مصرفه

Otherwise, it is not an intelligible vision,

so we see your report turned toward that.

بيني وبينكم الكتاب فقد قضى

إنا على رشد وإنْ بكم سفه

Between me and you stands the Book; it has ruled

that we follow right guidance, while folly lies with you.

لا تجعلوا التوحيد عرضة وهمكم

غرض الحقيقة منه عين المعرفه

Do not expose divine oneness to your imaginings;

its true aim is knowledge itself.

ما أبعد العرفان عن ألبابكم

إن كان تقديس المهيمن بلكفه

How far true knowledge lies from your minds,

if sanctifying the Guardian means 'without how'!