certainty among the knowers are two hundred and one, and among the People of Blame one hundred and seventy. It belongs to the unseen dominion and the world of might. It has one relation to the unseen dominion, while among the knowers it has two relations, for among the knowers it is composed of six realities, while among the People of Blame its constitution is from four realities. It has dead stillness and living stillness. Through living stillness its possessor is disturbed; through dead stillness he attaches to God and is not disturbed in it, without specifying a remover, but through whatever God wills to remove it.
Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Three: On Knowing the Station of Leaving Certainty and Its Secrets
When the servants stand with the Willer,
the rule of will removes his certainty.
He gives the Real His rank, lest
he restrict Him and impair worship.
He does what He wills, as He wills,
without compulsion or the rule of habit.
The proof has indicated, without doubt
or uncertainty, the denial of recurrence,
for the known substance remains
as it was under the ruling of witnessing.
At one time He strips it, or clothes it
with a like or an opposite, to confer benefit.
Know—may God grant you success—that by denying recurrence I mean what we affirm: nothing is repeated in
Notes
Translator’s note TN4134-1: In the second line, ‘the rule of will’ is read as the delayed subject that removes ‘his certainty.’ The Willer is God in the ensuing argument. The stripping/clothing lines use khalʿ with min and ʿalā for taking off and bestowing a covering.
