The Meccan Revelations

Manuscript volume 25 · Page 295

Konya manuscript

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Arabic

الْمَساجِدَ لِلَّهِ فَلا تَدْعُوا مَعَ الله أَحَداً﴾ [الجن: ١٨]، فإن الله مع الخلق، ما الخلق مع الله، لأنه يعلمهم ف﴿هُوَ مَعَهُمْ أَيْنَ ما كانُوا﴾ [المجادلة: ٧] في ظرفية أمكنتهم وأزمانهم وأحوالهم.

ما الخلق معه تعالى جل جلاله، فإن الخلق لا تعرفه حتى تكون معه، فمن دعا الله مع الخلق ما هو كمن دعا الخلق مع الله، ﴿فَلا تَدْعُوا مَعَ الله أَحَداً﴾.

ولا يصح السجود إلى غير الله إلا لكون الله مع الخلق حيث كانوا، فلا نعلمه ولا نجده إلا بالخلق، فالسجود على الحقيقة لله الموصوف بالمعية مع الخلق. ولهٰذا شرعت القبلة، كما قال ص: «إن الله في قبلة المصلي»، فالقبلة ما هي الله والله فيها، فأمرنا بالسجود لها لكون الله فيها ومعها.

فمن رأى الخلق ببصره فقد رأى الحق ببصيرته مطلقا، وليس له إذا رأى ذٰلك أن يسجد له إلا إذا أمره بالسجود، وإن كان لله فلا يقع في الحس إلا لغير الله أبدا، لأنه لا يصح أن يقع السجود لله، لأن الله بكل شيء محيط، فالجهات كلها نسبتها أو نسبة الحق إليها على السواء.

ومن خر على قفاه فما سجد لله، وإن كان الله خلفه كما هو أمامه، لكن الله ما

English

places of prostration belong to God, so invoke no one alongside God’ [al-Jinn 72:18]. God is with creation; creation is not with God. For He knows them: ‘He is with them wherever they are’ [al-Mujadila 58:7], within their places, times, and states.

Creation is not with Him, exalted is He, majestic His Majesty, for creation does not know Him so as to be with Him. One who invokes God alongside creation is not like one who invokes creation alongside God. ‘Invoke no one alongside God.’

Prostration before other than God is sound only because God is with creation wherever they are. We know and find Him only through creation. In reality prostration is therefore before God, described as being with creation. For this reason the direction of prayer was prescribed, as he said, God’s blessings and peace be upon him, ‘God is in the direction of prayer of the one praying.’ The direction is not God, and God is within it. He commanded us to prostrate toward it because God is within it and with it.

Whoever sees creation through eyesight has seen the Real through inward vision without restriction. Yet when he sees this, he may not prostrate before it unless He commands him to prostrate. Although it is for God, in sense perception it only ever falls before other than God, since prostration cannot fall before God: God encompasses everything, and all directions bear an equal relation to Him, or He to them.

Whoever falls upon the back of his head has not prostrated before God, although God is behind him just as before him. But God took

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Cairo source reference

Ibn al-Arabi, The Meccan Revelations — Manuscript volume 25 · Page 295 — https://www.futmak.com/english/konya/pages.php?id=7743&text=both