The Meccan Revelations

Manuscript volume 7 · Page 158

Konya manuscript

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Arabic

اعتبار هٰذا الفصل

الوتر لا يتكرر، فإن الحضرة الإلهية لا تقتضي التكرار، لما هي عليه من الاتساع ﴿والله واسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ﴾ [البقرة: ٢٤٧]، ولما كان العلم صفة إحاطية، قرن معه السعة، واشتق له اسما منها، كما اشتق من العلم، فاعلم ذٰلك، فلا وتران في ليلة.

فأحدية الحق لا تشفعها أحدية كل مخلوق، فإنه لكل شيء أحدية، لا بد من ذٰلك، وبأحديته عرف كل شيء أحدية خالقه، وهي الآية التي لله في كل شيء الدالة على أحديته، وهو الذي أشار إليه القائل بقوله، وهو أبو العتاهية.

وفي كل شيء له آية تدل على أنه واحد.

ولا يكون لشيء أحديتان، فلا يشفع وتره من قام يصلي ممن نام على وتر.

(أحدية الذات وأحدية المرتبة)

ومن راعى أحدية الألوهة، وأضافها إلى أحدية الذات الموصوفة بالألوهة، فإن أحدية المرتبة لا تعقل إلا مع أحدية صاحب المرتبة، قال من قام من الليل يريد الصلاة، وكان قد نام على وتر يضيف إلى تلك الركعة التي نام عليها، وهي التي أوتر بها، ركعة عند قيامه، يشفعها به، ثم يصلي بعد تلك الركعة ما شاء، مثنى مثنى، كما ورد في الخبر: «صلاة الليل، مثنى مثنى،

English

The Inward Application of This Section

Witr is not repeated. The divine presence does not entail repetition, on account of its vastness. “God is Vast, Knowing” [al-Baqarah 2:247]. Since knowledge is an all-encompassing attribute, He joined vastness to it and derived a name for Himself from it, as He derived one from knowledge. Know this. There are no two Witrs in one night.

The Real’s oneness does not become even through the oneness of any creature. Each thing necessarily has its own oneness, and through its oneness each thing knows the oneness of its Creator. This is God’s sign in every thing pointing to His oneness, to which Abū al-ʿAtāhiyah alluded when he said,

In every thing He has a sign
that points to His being One.

No thing has two onenesses. Someone who rises to pray after sleeping with his Witr already performed therefore does not make his Witr even.

(The Oneness of the Essence and the Oneness of the Rank)

Those who consider the oneness of divinity and add it to the oneness of the Essence described by divinity hold that the oneness of a rank can be understood only along with the oneness of the possessor of that rank. They say that someone who rises at night wanting to pray after having slept following Witr adds, when he rises, a cycle to the cycle by which he performed Witr before sleeping, thereby making it even. He then prays as much as he wishes, two by two, as it is related in the report, “The night prayer is two by two,

Notes

Translator’s note TN2052-1: A rank and the one who possesses it can be distinguished in thought. This supplies an inward application for making the earlier Witr even, while the preceding argument treats each thing’s oneness as irreducible.

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Cairo source reference

Ibn al-Arabi, The Meccan Revelations — Manuscript volume 7 · Page 158 — https://www.futmak.com/english/konya/pages.php?id=2052&text=both