Manuscript volume 26 · Page 4

وجودا عقليا فلكل كثرة من ذٰلك أحدية تخصه. وعلى كل حال أوجب الحق على عبده أن يتأخر عن رتبة خالقه كما أخر سبحانه علمنا به عن علمنا بأنفسنا؛ فوجود العلم المحدث به متأخر بالوجود عن وجود العلم المحدث بنا.

(العلم بالنفس والدلالة على الحق)

وجعل المفاضلة في العالم بعضه على بعض لنعرف المفاضلة ذوقا من نفوسنا فنعلم من ذٰلك فضل الحق علينا. وإن تأخر علمنا به عن علمنا بنفوسنا لنعلم أن علمنا بنفوسنا إنما كان للدلالة على علمنا به؛ فعلمنا أنا مطلوبون له لا لأنفسنا وأعياننا؛ لأن الدليل مطلوب للمدلول لا لنفسه.

ولهٰذا لا يجتمع الدليل والمدلول أبدا؛ فلا يجتمع الخلق والحق أبدا في وجه من الوجوه؛ فالعبد عبد لنفسه، والرب رب لنفسه. فالعبودة لا تصح إلا لمن يعرفها فيعلم أنه ليس فيها من الربوبية شيء. والربوبية لا تصح إلا لمن يعرفها فيعلم أنه ليس فيها من العبودة شيء.

(الصلاة ومعنى التأخر)

فأوجب (الحق) على عباده التأخر عن ربوبيته فشرع له الصلاة ليسميه بالمصلي^[1]، وهو المتأخر عن رتبة ربه. ونسب الصلاة إليه تعالى ليعلم أن الأمر يعطي تأخر العلم الحادث به عن العلم الحادث بالمخلوق؛ فقال: ﴿هُوَ الَّذِي يُصَلِّي عَلَيْكُمْ ومَلائِكَتُهُ﴾ [الأحزاب: ٤٣]، وقال: ﴿فَصَلِّ لِرَبِّكَ﴾ [الكوثر: ٢].

in intellectual existence. Every multiplicity of these possesses a oneness specific to it. In every case the Real required His servant to remain after his Creator’s rank, just as He, glorified is He, placed our knowledge of Him after our knowledge of ourselves. Our temporally originated knowledge of Him follows in existence our temporally originated knowledge of ourselves.

(Self-Knowledge and Indication of the Real)

He placed comparison in excellence among the world’s parts so that we might know comparison in excellence through tasting from ourselves, and from this know the Real’s excellence over us. Our knowledge of Him comes after our self-knowledge so that we know our self-knowledge is only to indicate our knowledge of Him. We know that we are sought for Him, not for ourselves or our entities, since the indication is sought for what it indicates, not for itself.

For this reason indication and indicated never come together. Creation and the Real therefore never come together in any aspect. The servant is servant through himself, and the Lord is Lord through Himself. Servanthood is possible only for one who knows it and knows it contains nothing of Lordship. Lordship is possible only for One who knows it and knows it contains nothing of servanthood.

(Prayer and the Meaning of Coming After)

(The Real) required His servants to remain after His Lordship and prescribed prayer for the servant so that He might name him musalli, the one praying and coming after,^[1] the one after his Lord’s rank. He attributed prayer to Himself, exalted is He, to make known that the affair requires temporally originated knowledge of Him to come after temporally originated knowledge of the creature. He said, ‘He is the One who sends prayers upon you, as do His angels’ [al-Ahzab 33:43], and, ‘Pray to your Lord’ [al-Kawthar 108:2].