provision reported by the saying of the Glorified: {And in the heaven is your provision and whatever you are promised} (Al-Dhariyat: 22).

And [it points] to their descent from the levels of lofty gnoses to the "Egypt" of exoteric sciences, which is their [sought] objective, and to the striking of humiliation and poverty upon them due to their distancing from Him—the Exalted—thereby, and the wrath which is the veiling (al-hujba) from Him.

And [it points] to the fact that this veiling is a wrath from Him upon them because of their disbelief in His signs—which are His manifestations (zuhurat)—by affirming humanity and its states upon them during this veiling; and to their "killing of the prophets" by affirming killing upon them without right, while they [the prophets] are transcendent above it; and that this wrath, humiliation, and poverty with which He recompensed them was for what they disobeyed and transgressed, and the opposition to what He forbade them from regarding transgression, rebellion, and disbelief.

And we must contemplate the knowledge of the established example (al-mathal) of the River of Talut—which is the exemplar (al-mamthul) of the exoteric science (al-’ilm al-zahir)—in the Holy Quran by the saying of the Exalted: {And when Talut set out with the soldiers, he said, "Indeed, Allah will test you with a river. So whoever drinks from it is not of me, and whoever does not taste it is indeed of me,