مكتبة كتيبة محمّد بن نصير Muhammad bin Nusayr's Library Bibliothèque de Muhammad bin Nusayr کتابخانه کتیبه محمد بن نصیر

مَكْتَبَةُ كَتِيبَةِ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ نُصَيْرٍ

Al-Usayfir - Muhammad ibn Shu‘ba al-Harrani

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Because the Veil is other than the One Veiled by it, and the Power is other than the Humanity [Nasut]—and they [the human forms] are the Houses from which the Lord spoke."1

Then he said: "Is it not that when you looked at him, you looked at a created being like yourselves, whom you know by his name, his attribute, his kunya, and his lineage?"

We said: "Yes."

He said: "How did you say that He is Allah, while vision perceives Him not, and He perceives vision?!"

Then he said: "Is not Allah Inner, Veiled, Unseen?"

We said: "Yes."

He said: "So the Inner2, Veiled, who is unseen, is Allah, the Ancient, the Pre-eternal; He has no partner, no peer, no opposite, and no equal."

We said: "You have spoken the truth."

He said: "Does this Meaning [Ma'na] have a Name?"

We said: "What is the Name of this Meaning? Inform us."

Footnotes

1The Veil is sensory and seen by the eye, whereas the Power does not fall under the senses; we do not see the Power, but rather we see its effect. Hence, the Power is other than the Humanity—the "Houses" from which the Lord spoke in the human manifestations (the Second [Shadow] and the Likeness). We say: "The Apparent is the Hidden, and the Hidden is the Apparent" when we intend the Identity [Huwiyya]... the constant Spiritual Meaning indicated by the Active Participle. And we say: "The Hidden is other than the Apparent, and the Apparent is other than the Hidden" when you intend the Attributes which the Meaning manifested from the perspective of us (i.e., the Power and the Form).
2The Inner, Veiled, who is not seen by the eye and whom the "Where" does not contain, is the Point [Nuqta] regarding the knowledge of which all creatures were deluded. Neither a Name nor a Gate claimed to see It. That is the Ancient by the Essence, stripped of descriptions, attributes, ratios, and annexations; the Inner by Wisdom... And the Trustworthy Youth [al-Shab al-Thiqah] said: "It was not of His Justice and His Grace to appear to them with the Overwhelming Illumination [al-Ishraq al-Mustalam], for that would cause their annihilation."
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