THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER

"ON KNOWING THE MODALITY OF MANIFESTATION AND OCCULTATION"

Know, may Allah guide you to the guidance, that manifestation [Zuhur] and occultation [Ghaybah], if you attribute them to Eternity [Al-Qidam], they have no reality. But if you attribute them to Temporal Origination [Al-Hadath], you find manifestation to be a sign of existence, a proof of affirmation as justice from the Maker [Al-Bari] the Exalted, and an accident ['Arad] entering upon all the sights of those looking at Him.And if they saw a form and a decaying body, and standing and sitting, and eating and drinking, and marriage and children, and movement and stillness, and killing and death, then [in] this time, we do not see a manifestation in it.

Al-Sadiq (may his might be mighty) has said: "Indeed, every age and time, and moment and season, is not devoid of an Existent Meaning [Ma'na Mawjud], a Limited Shadow [Zill Mahdud], and an Intended Gate [Bab Maqsud]."

And this is an age in which we do not find anything of what Al-Sadiq said!