Manuscript volume 18 · Page 240

والانتقام والعفو. كما ظهر الشمس في ذات القمر فأناره كله، فسمي بدرا، فرأى الشمس نفسه في مرآة ذات البدر، فكساه نورا به سماه بدرا.

كما رأى الحق حكمه في ذات من استخلفه، فهو يحكم بحكم الله في العالم، والحق يشهده شهود من يفيده نور العلم. قال تعالى: ﴿إِنِّي جاعِلٌ في الْأَرْضِ خَلِيفَةً﴾ [البقرة: ٣٠]، وعلمه جميع الأسماء واسجد له الملائكة، لأنه علم أنهم إليه يسجدون. فإن الخليفة معلوم أنه لا يظهر إلا بصفة من استخلفه، فالحكم لمن استخلفه.

قال الحق لأبي يزيد في بعض مكاناته مع الحق: «اخرج إلى الخلق بصفتي، فمن رآك رآني، ومن عظمك عظمني». فتعظيم العبيد (إنما هو) لتعظيم سيدهم، لا لنفوسهم. فهٰذا سر الإبدار؛ فنصب الله صورة البدر مع الشمس مثلا للخلافة الإلهية، وأن الحق يرى نفسه في ذات من استخلفه على كمال الخليقة، فإنه لا يظهر له إلا في صورته وعلى قدره.

ومن يرى أن الحق مرآة العالم وأن العالم يرى نفسه فيه، جعل العالم كالشمس والحق كالبدر، وكلا المثلين صحيح واقع. واعلم أن الله قصد ضرب الأمثال للناس، فقال: ﴿كَذٰلك يَضْرِبُ الله الْأَمْثالَ لِلَّذِينَ اسْتَجابُوا لِرَبِّهِمُ﴾ [الرعد: ١٧، ١٨]، الآية. فالعالم كله بما فيه ضرب مثل

and retribution and pardon. So the sun appears in the moon’s essence and illuminates it entirely, and it is called a full moon. The sun sees itself in the mirror of the full moon’s essence and clothes it in a light through which it calls it a full moon.

So too the Real sees His ruling in the essence of the one He appointed vicegerent. He governs the world by God’s ruling, and the Real witnesses him with the witnessing of one who imparts to him the light of knowledge. He said, exalted is He, “I am placing a vicegerent upon the earth” [al-Baqara 2:30]. He taught him all the names and made the angels prostrate to him, knowing that they were prostrating to Him. It is known that the vicegerent appears only in the description of the One who appointed him, so the ruling belongs to the One who appointed him.

In one of his ranks with the Real, the Real told Abu Yazid, “Go out to creation in My description. Whoever sees you sees Me, and whoever magnifies you magnifies Me.” Servants are magnified only through magnifying their master, not for their own selves. This is the mystery of becoming full. God set the form of the full moon with the sun as a likeness of divine vicegerency, and of the Real’s seeing Himself in the essence of the one He appointed vicegerent, in the fullness of created nature. He appears to him only in his form and according to his measure.

Whoever sees the Real as the world’s mirror, with the world seeing itself within Him, makes the world like the sun and the Real like the full moon. Both likenesses are sound and actual. Know that God intends to strike likenesses for people. He said, “Thus God strikes likenesses for those who respond to their Lord” [al-Raʿd 13:17,18]—the verse. The whole world, with all it contains, is a likeness struck