Manuscript volume 29 · Page 245

مستغفر فأغفر له».

فلقد فات الناس خير كثير لجهلهم وما توغلوا فيه من تنزيه الحق حتى أكذبوه، ولهٰذا قال: ﴿يا أَهْلَ الْكِتابِ لا تَغْلُوا في دِينِكُمْ ولا تَقُولُوا عَلَى الله إِلَّا الْحَقَّ﴾ [النساء: ١٧١]. وليس الحق إلا ما قاله عن نفسه، فلو لا ما علم إن العالم يعلمه^[90] ما قال لهم: ﴿وَلا تَقُولُوا عَلَى الله إِلَّا الْحَقَّ﴾.

(ظهور الحق وآداب كتمان السر)

فحاجة الحق في نفسه إلى ظهوره أعظم من حاجة المظهر له إلى إظهاره، فإن الحق قد حجر علينا إظهار الحق في مواطن، كالغيبة والنميمة وكتم الأسرار، وكلها حق ممنوع الظهور في الكون القولي، لا في عينه من حيث هو صفة لمن قام به، فهو الظاهر الخفي.

فالإحسان من الحق رؤية، ومن العبد كأنه، والايمان من الحق والخلق على حقيقته، وكذٰلك الإسلام عند العارفين به، غير أنه لا يقال في الحق إنه مسلم. فما كل ما يُدرى يقال، ولا كل ما يشهد يذاع؛ صدور الأحرار قبور الأسرار. والله ﴿يَقُولُ الْحَقَّ وهُوَ يَهْدِي السَّبِيلَ﴾ [الأحزاب: ٤].

الباب الأحد والستون وأربعمائة في معرفة منازلة: من أسدلت عليه حجاب كنفي فهو من ضنائني، لا يُعرَف ولا يَعرِف

seeker of forgiveness, that I may forgive him?’

Much good has escaped people through their ignorance and their plunging so far into declaring the Real transcendent that they have declared Him untruthful. For this reason He said: ﴿People of the Book, do not go to excess in your religion, and say nothing concerning God but the truth﴾ [al-Nisāʾ 4:171]. Truth is only what He said concerning Himself. Had He not known that the world knows it^[90], He would not have said to them, ﴿Say nothing concerning God but the truth﴾.

(The Appearance of Truth and Decorum in Keeping the Secret)

Truth's need in itself to be manifest is greater than the need of the one manifesting it to make it manifest. The Real has restricted us from manifesting truth in certain dwelling places, such as backbiting, tale-bearing, and concealing secrets. All these are truths forbidden to appear in verbal existence, not in their own entities insofar as they are attributes of those in whom they subsist. It is thus the manifest, the hidden.

Excellence from the Real is seeing, and from the servant is ‘as though.’ Faith from the Real and creation is upon its true reality, as is Islam among those who know it, except that the Real is not called a Muslim. Not everything known is said, nor everything witnessed divulged. The breasts of the free are the graves of secrets. God ﴿speaks the truth, and He guides the way﴾ [al-Aḥzāb 33:4].

Chapter Four Hundred and Sixty-One: On Knowing the Mutual Encounter ‘Whoever I Lower the Veil of My Shelter upon Belongs to My Treasured Ones, Neither Known nor Knowing’