Manuscript volume 32 · Page 212

فقوت القوت الذي يتقوت به هو استعماله، فالمستعمل قوت له، لأنه ما يصح أن يكون قوتا إلا إذا تقوت به. فاعلم من قوتك ومن أنت قوته.

روينا عن عالِم هٰذا الشأن وهو سهل بن عبد الله التستري، أنه رضي الله عنه سئل عن القوت فقال: «الله». فقيل له: «عن الغذاء نسألك». فقال: «الله»، لغلبة الحال عليه، فإن الأحوال هي ألسنة الطائفة وهي الأذواق.

فنبهه السائل على قدر ما أعطاه حاله في ذٰلك الوقت، فقال: «يا سهل، إنما أسألك عن قوت الأجسام أو الأشباح». فعلم سهل أن السائل جهل ما أراده سهل، فنزل إليه في الجواب بنفس آخر غير النفس الأول، وعلم أنه رضي الله عنه جهل حال السائل كما جهل السائل جوابه.

فقال له سهل: «ما لك ولها»، يعني الأشباح، «دع الديار إلى بانيها، إن شاء خربها وإن شاء عمرها». فما زال سهل عن جوابه الأول لكن في صورة أخرى، وعمارة الدار بساكنها، فالقوت اللهْ كما قال أول مرة.

إلا أن السائل قنع بالجواب الثاني لنزوله من النص إلى الظاهر. وهكذا أكثر أجوبة العارفين إذا كانوا في الحال أجابوا بالنصوص، وإذا كانوا في المقام أجابوا بالظواهر، فهم بحسب أوقاتهم. وهٰذا

The sustenance of sustenance, through which it is sustained, is its use. The user is sustenance for it, because it cannot rightly be sustenance unless someone is sustained through it. Know who is your sustenance, and for whom you are sustenance.

We narrate from the knower of this affair, Sahl ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Tustarī, that he, may God be pleased with him, was asked about sustenance and said, ‘God.’ He was told, ‘We are asking you about nourishment.’ He said, ‘God,’ through the dominance of his state. States are the tongues of the group, and they are tastings.

The questioner drew his attention according to what his state at that time gave him, saying, ‘Sahl, I am asking you only about the sustenance of bodies or bodily forms.’ Sahl knew that the questioner was ignorant of what he intended. He descended to him in the answer with a breath other than the first. It became known that he, may God be pleased with him, was ignorant of the questioner's state, just as the questioner was ignorant of his answer.

Sahl said to him, ‘What have you to do with them?’—meaning bodily forms—‘Leave the dwellings to their Builder: if He wills, He ruins them; if He wills, He makes them flourish.’ Sahl did not depart from his first answer, but gave it in another form. A dwelling flourishes through its inhabitant, so sustenance is God, as he said the first time.

The questioner was satisfied with the second answer only because of his descent from the unambiguous to the apparent. Such are most of the knowers' answers. When within the state, they answer through unambiguous expressions; when within the station, they answer through apparent meanings. They accord with their moments. This