The Meccan Revelations

Manuscript volume 30 · Page 35

Konya manuscript

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Arabic

فمن فهم الجمع هكذا، علم الأمور كيف هيه:

من دَرَى الجمع هكذا

علم الأمر كيف هو

فهو الحق لا سواه

فلا تسمعنه

(القطب الخامس وثبات المحبة)

وأما القطب الخامس الذي على قدم داود ع، فسورته من القرآن ﴿إِذا زُلْزِلَتِ﴾ [الزلزلة: ١]، ولها نصف القرآن، ومنازله بعدد آيها، وحاله التفرقة، وله مقام المحبة فهو معلول للحب، فداؤه دواؤه. وما له علم يتقدم فيه على غيره إلا علم ثبوت المحبة الإلهية والكونية، ولهٰذا كان في مقام التفرقة وكان من الأئمة، فنقل إلى القطبية.

يقول هٰذا القطب: إن الحب ما ثبت، وكل حب يزول فليس بحب، أو يتغير فليس بحب؛ لأن سلطان الحب أعظم من أن يزيله شيء حتى إن الغفلة ـ التي هي أعظم سلطان تحكم على الإنسان ـ لا يتمكن لها أن تزيل الحب من المحب.

يتمكن عنده إن يغفل الإنسان عن نفسه بمحبوبه، ولا يتمكن للمحب أن يغفل بأحد عن محبوبه؛ فذٰلك هو المحب، وذٰلك هو الحب:

فداء المحبة ما لا يزول

و إن الشفاء له مستحيل

English

Whoever understands gathering in this way knows how things are:

Whoever knows gathering thus

Knows how the affair is.

It is the Real, none other;

So do not listen to it.

(The Fifth Pole and the Constancy of Love)

As for the fifth Pole, who is upon the footing of David, peace be upon him, his Sura from the Qur’an is ‘When it is shaken’ [al-Zalzala 99:1]. It has half the Qur’an, and his Abodes equal its verses in number. His state is separation, and he has the station of love: he is ailing with love, and his ailment is his remedy. There is no science in which he surpasses others except the science of the constancy of divine and cosmic love. For this reason he was in the station of separation. He had been among the Imams and was then transferred to Polehood.

This Pole says that love is what remains constant: any love that ceases is not love, and any that changes is not love. For love’s sovereignty is too great for anything to remove it, so that even heedlessness—the greatest sovereignty ruling the human being—cannot remove love from the lover.

In his view, it is possible for a person to become heedless of himself through his beloved, but it is not possible for the lover to become heedless of his beloved through anyone. Such is the lover, and such is love:

The ailment of love never departs,

And recovery from it is impossible.

Notes

Translator’s note: The final line of the first poem, فلا تسمعنه, is a compressed, unvocalized prohibition with an uncertain object. It can also be read causatively, ‘so do not make it heard.’ The printed negation is retained.

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Cairo source reference

Ibn al-Arabi, The Meccan Revelations — Manuscript volume 30 · Page 35 — https://www.futmak.com/english/konya/pages.php?id=8843&text=both