Admonition to the Soul

All other things are its particulars, not its parts; for it is the Universal to them, not a whole [composed of parts] ¹ .

Consider this, O soul, awaken, and beware of heedlessness and procrastination. Practice refinement from the impurities of nature, and seek aid in this through humility, longing, and supplication to the Fountainhead of Good and its Manifestation—the Origin and Creator of the Intellect, the Bestower of Life, Wisdom, Perfect Generosity, and Mercy. By doing so, O soul, you shall live and find true happiness.

O soul: Indeed, the Creator of all things, their Source and Origin—Exalted is His Glory and Sanctified are His Names—has fashioned you and created you, and endowed you with the faculty of visualization and representation.

As for visualization: it is your perception of a thing according to the reality of how its Creator brought it into being.

Footnotes

¹Note on the Universal and the Whole: As transmitted on the authority of the Master Messenger—may his glory be exalted—when it was said to him: "O Messenger of God, you have previously said, and your word is the truth, that the Light is not partitioned within anyone, nor is it divided into a numerical count; yet we see it in everyone in varying degrees, and find it exceeding in some over others?"He—may his glory be exalted—replied: "Number is its center, division is its manifestation, and differentiation is its dwelling. Thus, in that which is vast and spacious, it is vast; and in that which is narrow and constrained, it is narrow. Do you not know that the First Intellect—from which a subtle essence appeared in the Second Work—is that through which one comprehends from God, knows God, and is guided to God? And God is the One, the Ancient, the Great Light, the Compassionate, the Merciful, who emanated from the Light of the Essence of the One (Al-Ahad). The Unseen is its inward reality, and by the Oneness of the Light of the One, He neither begets nor is He begotten, and there is none co-equal unto Him. It is like the letter Waw (و) from the Ha (ه); though you may say they are two letters, their meaning is one, and their hidden source is the One. 'Vision perceives Him not, but He perceives all vision; He is the Subtle, the Acquainted.' Regions do not contain Him, but He contains them; He is the Subtle in thought, the Acquainted, the Hidden in the Unseen, the All-Hearing." (The Egyptian Treatise).

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

Admonition to the Soul - Hermes Trismegistus

Footnotes