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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Page 72 of 133

And the Form has an Emanator (Mufid) and a Fashioner (Musawwir)1, and He is the Bestower of Forms. It is impossible for the Form falling under the sense of sight to exist except in a locus and a place.

And the Form in [External] Existence2 is Associated (Muqarina)3 with the Hyle (Hayula — Prime Matter), and the Hyle is the root of the Cause.

How then is it valid [for someone] to witness an Existent—transcendent in His estimation—while possessing such ignorance and error that makes him unable to know Allah except through the association of the Form?

Do you not see this wretched, poor man? He worshipped the Form, the Image (Mithal), and the Body subsisting by its existence entirely. This is error, and the belief of the ignorant who speak about the Essence of Allah without knowledge. We ask Allah for safety.

And it has been said:

Footnotes

1"The Form has an Emanator and a Fashioner" does not mean it is created or composed.The Bestower of Forms is the one who emanated it upon the Intellect, and He is the one who fashioned it in the eye. (Quotes: "He shows them the Essence fashioned by His Power..." / "And whoever Allah has not made a light for, he has no light").The Sensory Form requires a space (Hayyir) to appear within it.
2Existence here: Refers to the General External Existence (Al-Wujud al-Khariji al-'Amm).
3Association (Muqarina): Means companionship and inseparability (Mulazama), not resemblance (Mushakala).Therefore: The Visible Form appearing to the elite and the commoners is inseparable from the Divine Power, and that Power is the root of the invention of the Cause (The Great Name).The ignorant, straying person cannot Single Out (Ifrad) the Meaning from the Form, because he does not know the Law of Transcendence (Tanzih) and Abstraction (Tajrid).In this time of ours, there are those who say to the Form: "It is You (feminine: Iyya-ki) we worship" or "There is no god but You (feminine: Anti)" (using the female addressing Kasra).It would be good if those brothers contemplated the sayings of the author of Al-Usayfir (Sanctified be his secret).
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