In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful
Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-Six: On Gnosis of the Abode of Dialogue and Disputation, from the Muhammadan Mosaic Presence
God descends wherever we are,
apart from His Essence’s most beautiful names.
He is Light, and light His locus of manifestation;
hence He removed it from us.
Created essences are dark,
at the nearest nearness, with none nearer.
God heard His questioner’s voice
asking for what He had willed from us.
Then we possessed Him as form, an honor:
how excellent the whole affair we possessed!
Hence we are Him forever;
for this He humbled Himself, while we have not ceased.
When He wishes to beget us,
He emits seed into His existence’s prime matter.
Notes
Translator’s note TN6535-1: Dūna may mean below or apart from; adnā permits nearest or lowest, with nearest adopted here. The compact ʿanā/ʿannā permits humbled Himself or from us; the former is provisional. The pronouns concerning light and its removal remain compressed. The begetting and seed imagery is retained without supplying an unstated object.
