The Fifth Chapter (of the Twenty-Ninth Flash)¹

On the degrees of For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs! It consists of five ‘Points’.

FIRST POINT

This phrase is a well-tried remedy for the sickness of human impotence and poverty: For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs!

The Giver of Existence is Eternally Existent, there is no harm therefore in the passing of beings, for the things that are loved continue to exist through the continuance of the One Who gave them existence, the Necessary Existent.

He is the Enduring Maker and Creator; the passing of creatures causes no sorrow, then, for the means of love for them, their Maker, is Enduring.

He is the Eternal King and Lord, so there are no regrets on the passing of His dominions, on their departing and being renewed.

He is the Eternal All-Knowing Witness; no grief is felt therefore at the disappearance from this world of things that are loved, for they have perpetual existence in the knowledge of that Pre-Eternal Witness, and in His view.

He is the Enduring Owner and Creator; there is no pain therefore at the passing of beautiful things, for the source of their beauty, their Creator’s Names, are enduring.

He is the Enduring Inheritor and Raiser to Life; there should be no lamenting on being parted from beloveds, for the One Who will resurrect them and return them to Himself is Enduring.

He is Eternally All-Beauteous and Glorious; there should be no distress therefore at the disappearance of beautiful things, for those beautiful things are the mirrors of the Beautiful Names, which endure together with their beauties after the disappearance of the mirrors.

He is the Eternal True Object of Love and Worship; so no sorrow should be felt on the passing of ‘metaphorical’ beloveds, for the True Beloved is Eternal.

He is Eternally Merciful, Compassionate, Loving, and Clement; so the passing of the apparent bestowers of bounties and compassion has no importance, it should not cause sorrow or despair, for the One Whose mercy and compassion encompass all things is Enduring.

He is Eternally Beauteous, Gracious, and Kind; the disappearance of gracious and sympathetic beings, therefore, should neither cause pain, nor should importance be given it, for the One Who takes the place of all of them and a single of Whose manifestations they all together cannot replace, is Enduring.

Since He is Enduring and possesses these attributes, He takes the place of every sort of transient, ephemeral beloved in this world. For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs!

Yes, enough for the immortality of this world and all it contains is the enduring existence of its Owner, Maker, and Creator.

SECOND POINT

Sufficient for my immortality is God, for He is my Eternal God and my Eternal Creator, the Eternal Giver of my existence, my Eternal Maker, my Eternal Owner, my Eternal Witness, the Eternal True Object of my Worship, my Eternal Resurrector. There is therefore no harm in the disappearance of my being; there should be no sorrow, regret, or grief. For the Giver of my existence is Enduring, and His creation through His Names is also Enduring. The attributes of my person are nothing but the rays of one of His Names. They exist permanently in their Creator’s knowledge and within His view, and do not therefore cease to exist on their passing and disappearance.

Likewise, sufficient for me in respect of immortality and the pleasure of it, are my knowledge, understanding, consciousness, and belief that the rays in my being of an Enduring Name of my God are Enduring, and that the reality of my being is nothing other than a shadow of that Name, and that through the mystery of its reflection or image in the mirror of my being, my reality is not itself lovable, but lovable on account of the immortality of the various enduring things reflected in it.

THIRD POINT

For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs! For He is the Necessary Existent, and these transitory beings are nothing other than places reflecting the renewal of the manifestations of His existence and giving of existence. Through Him and through being connected to Him and through knowledge of Him, are endless lights of existence; while without Him, there are the endless darkness of non-existence and the limitless pains of separation.

These transitory beings are mere mirrors, and with the changing of their relative determinations, they are renewed in six aspects in their transience, disappearance, and permanence:

The First: The permanent existence of their beautiful meanings and identities in the World of Similitudes.

The Second: The permanent existence of their forms in the tablets of the World of Similitudes.

The Third: The permanent existence of their results and fruits which look to the hereafter.

The Fourth: The permanent existence of their dominical glorifications, represented [in the Preserved Tablet], which is a sort of existence.

The Fifth: The permanent existence in the exhibitions of knowledge and eternal vistas.

The Sixth: The permanent existence of their spirits, if they have them. For their various functions and states in their death, transience, disappearance, annihilation, and their appearance and extinction, is nothing other than what is demanded by the Divine Names. It is due to the mystery of this that beings flow like a rushing torrent on the waves of life and death, existence and non-existence. And from this function arises perpetual activity and continuous creation. I, and everyone, therefore, are compelled to say: For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs! That is, as regards existence, it is sufficient for me that I am the work of the Necessary Existent; to receive this illumined existence for a passing instant is preferable to millions of years of apparent, fruitless existence.

Yes, through the mystery of being related to God through belief, a minute of this existence is the equivalent of thousands of years without the relation of belief; the degrees of existence of that minute, even, are more complete and extensive than those thousands of years.

Likewise, sufficient for me for existence and the value of existence is my being the art of the One Whose grandeur is in the heavens and signs are on the earth, and Who created the heavens and earth in six days.

Likewise, sufficient for me for existence and its perfection is my being the artefact of the One Who adorned and lit up the heavens with lamps, and made dazzling the earth with flowers.

Likewise, sufficient for me for pride and honour is my being the creature and totally owned slave and servant of the One in relation to Whose perfection and beauty all the beauties and perfections of the universe are merely dim shadows, and signs of His perfection and indications of His beauty.

Likewise, sufficient for me for everything is He Who stores up in tiny containers between the kaf and the nun² incalculable numbers of bounties, and preserves through His power tons in a single handful of the subtle containers called seeds and grains.

Likewise, sufficient for me in place of all possessors of beauty and beneficence is the All-Beauteous and Compassionate One. For all these beautiful creatures are merely ephemeral mirrors for the renewal of the lights of His beauty in the course of the seasons, the centuries, and the ages. And all these recurring bounties and successive fruits of the spring and summer are places of manifestation for the renewal of His continuous bestowal in the passage of creatures, days, and years.

Likewise, sufficient for me for life and its true nature is my being a map, index, summary, balance, and measure of the manifestations of the Names of the Creator of life and death.

Likewise, sufficient for me for life and its functions is my being a word inscribed with the pen of power, pointing to and making understood the Names of the Absolutely Powerful One, the Ever-Living and Self-Subsistent; by my life receiving the manifestations of my Creator’s essential attributes, and His are the Most Beautiful Names.

Likewise, sufficient for me for life and its rights is my displaying it among my brother creatures and proclaiming it to them, and exhibiting in the view of the Creator of the universe my being decked out in the manifestations of My Creator’s Names, Who has adorned me with the bejewelled dress of my being, the gown of my inborn nature, and the necklace of my well-ordered life, which is ornamented with the gifts of His mercy.

Likewise, sufficient for me for the rights of my life are my understanding the salutations of living creatures to the Granter of Life and my observation of them, and my testifying to them.

Likewise, sufficient for me for the rights of my life is my being adorned and made beautiful with the embossed jewels of His bounties, to present them consciously, because of my belief to the view of the Pre-Eternal Monarch.

Likewise, sufficient for me for life and its pleasures is my knowledge, realization, awareness, and belief that I am His slave, artefact, and creature, needy and wanting for Him; and He is my Creator, Compassionate to me, Who nurtures and raises me munificently, graciously, through His bestowal, as befits His wisdom and mercy.

Likewise, sufficient for me for life and its value is my being a measure through my absolute impotence, poverty, and weakness to the degrees of the power of the Absolutely Powerful One, the degrees of mercy of the Absolutely Compassionate One, and the levels of strength of the Possessor of Absolute Strength.

Likewise, sufficient for me for perfection is my knowledge that my God is Absolutely Perfect, and whatever things there are in the universe which are perfect, they are signs of His perfection and indications of it.

Likewise, sufficient for me for perfection in myself is belief in God, because for man, belief is the source of all perfections.

Likewise, sufficient for me for all my needs sought through the tongues of my various faculties, is my God, Sustainer, and Creator, the Giver of my form; His are the Most Beautiful Names; He feeds me and gives me to drink; He nurtures, raises, administers, and perfects me; He is limitless in glory, and His favours are comprehensive.

FOURTH POINT

Sufficient for me for all my wishes is He Who opened up from a fluid through His subtle art, subtle power, wisdom, and His subtle dominicality, my form and that of all my fellow living creatures.

Likewise, sufficient for me for all my aims is He Who made me, opened my ears and eyes, included in my body my tongue and my heart, and placed in them and in my other faculties innumerable precise scales to weigh up the contents of the treasuries of His mercy. Similarly, He placed in my tongue, heart, and nature, countless sensitive instruments to gauge the varieties of the treasures of His Names.

Likewise, sufficient for me is He Who, through His glorious Godhead, beautiful mercy, grand dominicality, munificent clemency, vast power, and subtle wisdom, included in my insignificant, lowly person and weak and wanting being, all these members and faculties, limbs and systems, senses and feelings, inner faculties and spiritual powers, to allow me to know all the varieties of His bounties and comprehend most of the manifestations of His Names.

FIFTH POINT

I and all men should declare thankfully and proudly:

Sufficient for me is the One Who created me and took me out of the darkness of non-existence, bestowing on me light of being.

Likewise, sufficient for me is the One Who bestowed on me the bounty of life, which gives all things to those who possess it and stretches out its hands to all things.

Likewise, sufficient for me is the One Who made me a human being and bestowed on me the bounty of humanity, which makes man the microcosm, greater in meaning than the macrocosm.

Likewise, sufficient for me is the One Who made me a believer and bestowed on me the bounty of belief, which makes this world and the hereafter two tables laden with bounties, and offers them to the believer with the hand of belief.

Likewise, sufficient for me is the One Who made me a member of the community of His Beloved, Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him) and bestowed on me love of God and being loved by Him, which are found in belief and are the highest degrees of human perfection; and through this love springing from belief, expanded the extent to which believers could benefit, to the infinite contents of the spheres of contingency and necessity.

Likewise, sufficient for me is the One Who, not making me inanimate, or an animal, or leaving me in misguidance, gave me preference with regard to nature, species, religion, and belief, over the majority of creatures; praise and thanks are therefore due to Him alone.

Likewise, sufficient for me is the One Who made me a comprehensive place of the manifestations of His Names, and in accordance with the meaning of the Hadith: “The heavens and the earth contained me not; I was contained in the heart of my believing servant,”³ bestowed on me a bounty which the universe could not contain; that is, man’s essential nature is a comprehensive place of manifestation of all the Divine Names manifested in the universe.

Likewise, sufficient for me is He Who bought from me the property of His I had in order to preserve it and later return it to me, and give me Paradise as the price. Praise and thanks be to Him to the number of particles of my being multiplied by the number of atoms in existence.

Sufficient for me is my Sustainer; May God be exalted!

And the Light of Muhammad; God’s blessings be upon him!

There is no god but God!

Sufficient for me is my Sustainer; May God be exalted!

My heart’s inner life is the remembrance of God;

The remembrance of Ahmad; God’s blessings be upon him!

There is no god but God!

 

FOOTNOTES

1. The original of the Twenty-Ninth Flash is in Arabic. [Tr.]

2. That is, the creative command “Be! (Kun!).” See, Qur’an, 36:82, etc. [Tr.]

3. See, al-‘Ajluni, Kashf al-Khafa, ii, 195.