Manuscript volume 10 · Page 8

الملائكة عليه سبحانه بما لا يتقارب، ولكن ما كل طائف ينتبه إلى هٰذا الثناء الذي نريده.

(الثناء الإلهي في طواف العارفين)

وذٰلك أن العلماء بالله إذا قالوا «سبحان الله» أو «الحمد لله» أو «لا إله إلا الله» إنما يقولونها بجمعيتهم للحضرتين والصورتين، فيذكرونه بكل جزء ذاكر لله في العالم وبذكر أسمائه إياه. ثم إنهم ما يقصدون من هذه الكلمات إلا ما نزل منها في القرآن لا الذكر الذي يذكرونه؛ فهم في هٰذا الثناء نواب عن الحق يثنون عليه بكلامه الذي أنزله عليهم وهم أهل الله بنص رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم؛ فإنهم أهل القرآن وأهل القرآن هم أهل الله وخاصته.

فهم نائبون عنه في الثناء عليه، فلم يشب ثناءهم استنباط نفسي ولا اختيار كوني ولا أحدثوا ثناء من عندهم؛ فما سمع من ثنائهم إلا كلامه الذي أثنى به على نفسه، فهو ثناء إلهي قدوس طاهر نزيه عن الشوب الكوني. قال تعالى لنبيه صلى الله عليه وسلم: ﴿فَأَجِرْهُ حَتَّى يَسْمَعَ كَلامَ الله﴾ [التوبة: ٦] فأضاف الكلام إليه لا إلى نبيه صلى الله عليه وسلم.

(القلب والبيت والطائفون)

ولما جعل الله تعالى قلب عبده بيتا كريما وحرما عظيما، وذكر أنه وسعه حين لم يسعه سماء ولا أرض، علمنا قطعا أن قلب المؤمن أشرف من هٰذا البيت، وجعل الخواطر التي تمر عليه كالطائفين. ولما كان في الطائفين من يعرف حرمة البيت فيعامله في الطواف به بما يستحقه من التعظيم والإجلال، ومن الطائفين

praise of Him, glory be to Him, beyond all comparison. Yet not everyone who circumambulates notices the praise we mean.

(Divine Praise in the Circumambulation of the Knowers)

When those who know God say “Glory be to God,” “Praise be to God,” or “There is no god but God,” they say it through their comprehensiveness of the two presences and the two images. They remember Him through every part of the world that remembers God and through His Names’ remembrance of Him. In these words they intend only what has come down in the Quran, beyond their own remembrance. In this praise they are representatives of the Real, praising Him with His speech sent down to them. They are the people of God according to the explicit statement of the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, for they are the people of the Quran, and the people of the Quran are God’s people and His elect.

They represent Him in praising Him. Their praise is unmixed with any inference of their own selves or creaturely choice, and they invent no praise of their own. All that is heard of their praise is His speech with which He praised Himself. It is divine praise, holy, pure, and free of any creaturely admixture. God Most High said to His Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, “Grant him protection until he hears God’s speech” [al-Tawbah 9:6]. He ascribed the speech to Himself, rather than to His Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace.

(The Heart, the House, and Those Who Circumambulate)

God Most High made His servant’s heart a noble house and a mighty sanctuary. He mentioned that it encompasses Him when neither heaven nor earth encompasses Him. We therefore know with certainty that the believer’s heart is nobler than this House. He made the thoughts passing through it like those who circumambulate. Among those who circumambulate are people who know the House’s sanctity and treat it with the magnification and reverence it deserves. Others