Manuscript volume 29 · Page 97

النور كيف يراه الظل وهو به

قد قام في الكون عينا في تجليه

فإن تحلى بنعت النور كان له

حكم التجلي ولكن في تَحَلّيْهِ

الروح ظل وعين الجسم يبديه

من نور ذات يراه في تدليه

و ليس يدري الذي قلناه غير فتى

ذي خلوة فيراه في تخليه

وقد يراه الذي ولى بصورته

عنه فبان له لدى توليه

(النور والحجاب)

قال الله عز وجل: ﴿الله نُورُ السَّماواتِ والْأَرْضِ﴾ [النور: ٣٥]. فمن النور من يدرك به، ولا يدرك في نفسه، فهو حجاب عليك عن نفسه. وأنت والعالَم حجاب عليك.

وقوله ص: «إن لله سبعين ألف حجاب أو سبعين حجابا (الشك مني) من نور وظلمة» الحديث. فحجاب النور من هذه الحجب واحد، والظلم الحجابية ما بقي من هٰذا العدد.

فهو عين الحجاب عليك، وهو المحتجب فيه، فبنفسه احتجب.

How can shadow see the light, when through it

It stands as an entity in created being, within His self-disclosure?

If it adorns itself with the attribute of light, it possesses

The ruling of self-disclosure, but within its adornment.

The spirit is a shadow, and the body's entity manifests it

From the light of an Essence it sees in His descent.

None knows what we have said except a young man

Possessing retreat, who sees Him in his solitude.

He who turns his form away from Him may also

See Him, for He appears to him upon his turning away.

(Light and the Veil)

God, mighty and majestic is He, said, “God is the Light of the heavens and earth” [al-Nūr 24:35]. Some light is that through which one perceives, while it is not perceived in itself. It is thus a veil concealing itself from you. You and the world are a veil over you.

He, God's blessings and peace be upon him, said, “God has seventy thousand veils, or seventy veils”—(the doubt is mine)—“of light and darkness”: the report. One of these veils is the veil of light; the remaining number consists of veiling darknesses.

He is the very veil over you, and the One concealed within it. Through Himself He is veiled.