“[Quotation absent from the supplied text]” [al-Nahl 16:43]. Only the offspring asks, for he is in the station of childhood, ṭufūlah, from ṭafal, meaning dew. God Most High says in Surat al-Nahl [78]: “[Quotation absent from the supplied text]” [al-Nahl 16:78]. He does not know until he asks. The child is in the fifth rank because his mothers are four—the elements—so he is the fifth entity. For this reason questioning is the constant litany of the fifth Substitute among the Substitutes.
(The Sixth Substitute)
As for the sixth one’s station, his constant litany is: “[Quotation absent from the supplied text]” [Ghafir 40:44], as found in Surat Ghafir. This is the sixth rank and therefore belongs to the sixth. It is sixth because, in the fifth rank, as we mentioned, he asks after previously not knowing. When he asks, he knows; and when he knows, he becomes firmly realized in his knowledge of his Lord. He entrusts his affair to Him, because he knows that none of his affair is in his own hands and that God does whatever He wills. He says: “I have come to know: since God has given me control of my affair, while He does whatever He wills, I know that entrusting it to Him is more advantageous for me. For this reason I make it my constant litany.”
(The Seventh Substitute)
The seventh one’s station is God Most High’s saying in Surat al-Ahzab [72]: “[Quotation absent from the supplied text]” [al-Ahzab 33:72]. This is because it (that is, the Trust) has the seventh rank. The formation of Adam, expressed by the term “the human being,” was likewise in the seventh rank. He (issues) from an intellect, then a soul, then Dust, then a sphere, then two active elements (fire and air), then two receptive elements (earth and water): these are six. The human being, Adam, was then formed in the seventh rank. Since the human being came into existence in the sign of the Ear of Grain (that is, Virgo), whose period of governance is seven thousand years, the human being came into existence in the seventh rank of the duration.
Notes
Translator’s note TN612-1: The author links ṭufūlah, “childhood,” with ṭafal, “dew”; the connection is part of his explanation of the fifth rank. In counting the six stages before the human being, he treats the pair of active elements as one stage and the pair of receptive elements as another.
