I am the cosmic being that nothing resembles;
and the one whom I resemble has accepted a likeness.
This is among the most wondrous things: look,
perhaps you will see that its likeness is impossible.
There is nothing in the cosmos but a single existence,
exalted beyond being opposed or attained.
(The Renewal of States and Cosmic Sciences)
Know—may God strengthen you—that everything in the world passes from one state to another. The world of time changes at every time; the world of breaths, with every breath; and the world of self-disclosure, with every self-disclosure. The reason is His saying, exalted is He: “Every day He is upon some affair” [al-Rahman 55:29]. He confirms it by His saying: “We shall attend to you, O two weighty kinds” [al-Rahman 55:31].
Every human being finds within himself that the thoughts in his heart vary during his movements and his stillness. No transformation occurs in the higher or lower world except through a divine turning, with a self-disclosure particular to that entity. Its dependence upon that self-disclosure is according to what its own reality affords.
Know that among cosmic kinds of knowledge are sciences taken from cosmic beings whose objects of knowledge are cosmic beings; sciences taken from cosmic beings whose objects are relations—and relations are not cosmic beings; sciences taken from cosmic beings whose object is the Essence of the Real; sciences taken from the Real whose objects are cosmic beings; and sciences taken from relations whose objects are cosmic beings. All these are called cosmic sciences, and they change as—
Notes
Translator’s note TN646-1: The poem’s closing lines compress the contrast between likeness and incomparability. “Its likeness is impossible” gives a contextual reading of the compressed line ending in istaḥāla, which can also signify transformation. This is an interpretation of the supplied wording, not a verified emendation. “The two weighty kinds” in the Quran quotation refers to humankind and jinn.