anything that gives rise to confusion and bewilderment?” I said, “No.”
He said to me, “Thus it is with all the originated things you see. No one has any effect in them or any share of creating. I create things at causes, not through causes.[20] They come to be through My command. I created the breathing in Jesus and created the engendering in the bird.”
I said to Him, “Then You addressed Yourself in saying, ‘Do’ and ‘Do not.’”
He said to me, “When I acquaint you with an affair, keep to courtesy, for the Presence does not admit pressing the matter to its strict conclusion.”
I spoke through Him, “This is the very matter we were discussing. Who presses the matter, and who observes courtesy? You create both courtesy and pressing the matter. If You create pressing the matter, its ruling must follow; if You create courtesy, its ruling must follow.”
He said, “It is so. Listen, then, when the Qurʾan is recited, and be silent.”
I said, “That is for You: create hearing so that I hear, and create silence so that I am silent. Nothing addresses You now but what You created.”
He said to me, “I create only what I know, and I know only what the object of knowledge is. ‘To God belongs the conclusive proof’ [al-Anʿam 6:149]. I have made this known to you before. Adhere to it in witnessing, for there is nothing else, and you will put your thought at rest. Do not feel secure until obligation ceases; it does not cease until you cross the Path. Then people’s worship will be intrinsic, not from a command or prohibition entailing obligation, recommendation, forbiddance, or disapproval. ‘God speaks the truth, and He guides the way’ [al-Ahzab 33:4].”
Notes
[20]
(Here the author distinguishes creation’s conjunction with causes from attributing the bringing into existence to them. He then connects this witnessing with adherence to courtesy and obligation.)
Translator’s note TN4129-1: The supplied qultu bihi is rendered ‘I spoke through Him,’ distinguishing its bāʾ from the surrounding ‘I said to Him.’ The text has not been silently changed to qultu lahu. ‘At causes, not through causes’ likewise preserves the explicit distinction between ʿinda and bi-.
