Chapter Five: Clarification of Intentions — Section on the Meaning of Water and Washing the Limbs

Know, O seeker, that the interpretations regarding the clarification of what is intended by manifest words—which point to the inward realities of the Five Limits—are many and famous in the inward books of the People of Monotheism.

The verses of the Water Poem (Al-Qasidah Al-Ma'iyyah) and its explanation.....

I shall provide a portion of them that will delight the student and benefit the seeker, which our luminous Sheikh, Master Abu Abdallah al-Husayn ibn Hamdan al-Khasibi (may Allah sanctify his person), bestowed upon us in one of his famous poems in his Diwan, saying:

Water is a majestic Person

From whom life is prolonged

The inward reality of Water is a Person

Who is the Messenger Guide

Everything receives from him

A life that does not change

The "Thing" (Al-Shay') is a believer of the faith