this customary order. This is the meaning of leaving charismatic gifts, and it has its men: specifically the People of Blame. As for the Sufis, they manifest them. Among the great ones, these are considered follies of the selves, except within the limit we have mentioned.
Chapter One Hundred and Eighty-Six: Knowing the Station of Breaking Customary Order
Breaking customary orders has distinct divisions,
which reflective examination has enumerated.
Some are specified, upheld by the Real,
like prophetic miracles, confined to messengership.
The other divisions admit of possibilities,
and knowledge has no form by which to specify them.
All are clear in God’s Book,
so attend to it: you will find them inscribed there.
Glad tidings, magic, ruse, or its sign:
all are mentioned in God’s Book.
These, then, are five divisions, exhaustively numbered
for those who examine them, and they are well known in created things.
Notes
Translator’s note TN4817-1: ‘Or its sign’ follows the supplied aw ʿalāmatuhu, whose pronoun is not explicitly resolved. The poem’s five divisions are retained as stated, without recasting the list.
