the Lord.
As for knowledge of union and separation, it is the encompassing ocean of which the Preserved Tablet is a part. From it the First Intellect acquires knowledge, and from it the whole Highest Assembly draws support. No one from the communities attained it except the friends of God in this community. Its self-disclosures in their breasts vary into six thousand types and hundreds more. Some friends of God have acquired all these types, such as Abu Yazid al-Bistami and Sahl ibn ʿAbd Allah, while others have acquired some of them. The friends of God in all the other communities had, from these sciences, breathings of a spirit into the heart. They became complete only for this community, in its honor and out of solicitude for it, owing to the standing of its Prophet, our master Muhammad, God bless him and grant him peace.
Among its hidden sciences, which are like roots, are three sciences: a science concerning divine matters, a science concerning the higher spirits, and a science concerning naturally generated beings. What concerns divine matters remains on a single footing and does not change, even though its relations to its objects change. What concerns the higher spirits varies without undergoing transformation. What concerns naturally generated beings varies and is transformed with their transformations. This is what is expressed by the most abject stage of life: ﴿So that, after having knowledge, he may know nothing﴾ [al-Hajj 22:5]. For the materials from which he acquired this knowledge have been transformed,
Anmerkungen
Translator’s note TN3441-1: The source reads miʾīn, ‘hundreds,’ after ‘six thousand types,’ without stating the number of hundreds. The translation retains that indefinite wording.
