I stood upon the bare rock, submitting to a divine
Mystery at the rank of clarity.
I embraced the gazelle within her brilliance
To rise above the rank of eminence.
I passed beyond intellects without a limit
And plunged into the selves’ rain with modesty.
(Forms’ Glorification and Renewal)
God, exalted is He, said, “There is nothing but glorifies with His praise” [al-Israʾ 17:44]. Every form within the world—and the world contains only forms—glorifies its Creator with a particular praise He inspired in it.
No form within the world perishes without its very perishing being another form’s appearance within those very substances, glorifying God, exalted is He, so that the whole cosmos is never without glorification of its Creator. The entities of that form’s parts glorify Him in a manner befitting that form.
All the world’s forms are relations and states, neither existent nor nonexistent. Though witnessed from one aspect, they are not witnessed from another. The very time of those forms’ annihilation is the very time of those forms’ existence: their very perishing is the very other form, not that the other comes to be after perishing.
(Unveiling Forms and Unseen Things)
Having learned this, know that the whole world, except humans
Notes
Translator’s note TN6082-1: The verse juxtaposes ṣafā, “bare rock” (also al-Safa), with ṣafāʾ, “clarity”; sanā, “brilliance,” with sanāʾ, “eminence”; and, provisionally, ḥayā, “rain,” with ḥayāʾ, “modesty.” “Gazelle” also permits the lexical sense “sun.” These readings retain the compressed imagery without identifying a further referent.
