The Meccan Revelations

Manuscript volume 28 · Page 130

Konya manuscript

Open Arabic sourceOpen English translation

Arabic

الباب الرابع والتسعون وثلاثمائة في معرفة منازلة من تأدب وصل، ومن وصل لم يرجع، ولو كان غير أديب

لَوْلا الشهود وما فيه من النعم

ما كان لي أمل في الكون في العدم

كُنَّا بِهِ فيه حتى قال كن فبدت

أعياننا لسماع الكون في الكلم

فلو فتحنا عيونا ما بها رمد

كنا حيارى كمثل العمي في الظلم

وَلَمْ نكن فوجود النُّورِ أظهرنا

نورا فنحن بكون غير منقسم

والنُّورُ أعياننا والنور خالقنا

وَفِيْهِ نسعى برجل أو بلا قدم

(الخير والأدب والجمع)

اعلم أيدنا الله وإياك أن الوجود المطلق هو الخير المحض، كما إن العدم المطلق هو الشر المحض، والممكنات بينهما، فبما تقبل الوجود لها نصيب

English

Chapter Three Hundred and Ninety-Four: On Knowing the Mutual Encounter ‘Whoever Observes Proper Decorum Arrives, and Whoever Arrives Does Not Return, Even If He Lacks Proper Decorum’

Were it not for witnessing and the blessings it holds,

I would have no hope of being within nonexistence.

We were through Him, within Him, until He said ‘Be!’; then appeared

Our entities, through hearing being within the words.

Had we opened eyes free of inflammation,

We would have been bewildered, like the blind in darkness.

We were not; then the existence of Light made us appear

As light, and thus we are in an undivided being.

Light is our entities, and Light is our Creator;

Within it we strive, with a leg or without a foot.

(Goodness, Decorum, and Gathering)

Know—may God support us and you—that absolute existence is pure goodness, just as absolute nonexistence is pure evil. Possible things lie between them: insofar as they receive existence, they have a share

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Cairo source reference

Ibn al-Arabi, The Meccan Revelations — Manuscript volume 28 · Page 130 — https://www.futmak.com/english/konya/pages.php?id=8456&text=both