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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The Testimony (Al-Shahada) is—as was said regarding Prayer—the ultimate reality of the Gnostic’s connection with Allah; and at its perfection is the attainment of the Goal of Gnosis1.

And the Master (Exalted be His Might) says:

"The one praying is holding intimate discourse (Munaji) with his Lord."

And the one holding intimate discourse cannot do so without knowledge and verification of what he intends towards.

And our Master Ja'far al-Sadiq (Exalted be His Might) said:

"The Names are limits, the Attributes are slaves, and the Form is an attribute among the attributes, not an Essence encompassing the Essence, nor subsisting by itself; rather, it subsists by its Originator and Manifester.

How then is it valid for the speaker to say: "The Visible Form is the Form of the Meaning," and point to the knowledge of it through humanity exclusively and limitedly—according to his claim—on the tongue of the one he imitated?

Footnotes

1The saying of Al-Sadiq (Peace be upon him): "The Names are limits, and the Attributes are accidents (A'rad) and slaves."Meaning: The Gnostic who prays must not restrict his Master with the limits of Names. The Meaning (Al-Ma'na) possesses the significance of the Names, not their structure (Mabnaha).He must know and believe that the sensory Attributes which the Master (Exalted be He) manifests are accidents, humiliated and subservient to serve the creature who does not see anything but His Attributes when looking at the Visible Form."(And my inability to see Her as She is... She appeared via Attributes and Names)."The Form falling under visual sensation (in shape and figure) is one of the sensory Attributes from which the Meaning must be sanctified (Tanzih), after affirming His existence through it.The Allama (Sanctified be his secret) said: "This is the path of the People of Verification (Ahl al-Tahqiq) and the doctrine of the People of Scrutiny firmly grounded in knowledge, who sanctify the Truth (Al-Haqq) from form and fashioning. For the Form does not encompass the Essence; rather, it subsists by the Essence, not by its sensory self. The Meaning (Exalted be He) made it exist and manifested it for the need of the created beings, and He is its Sustainer."Al-Makzun (Sanctified be his secret) said:"And the negation of the originated thing that I witnessed, Is an Eternity established in my ancientness. Therefore, my affirmation of Him through my vision, Became the negation of what is in my sight." (i.e., Seeing the Form proves the Divine, but realizing the Divine requires negating the physical limitations of what is seen).
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