He knows best who is godfearing﴾ [al-Najm 53:32].
Had this speaker intended the side of the Real from the outset, in whatever form he wished, that saying might have been a means of nearness to God. Deeds are according to intentions, and each person has only what he intended.
God sees what is within the human soul, and God has a day upon which secrets are tested.
Whatever is a means of nearness to God according to the Revealed Law is among that over which God's Name has been mentioned and which is dedicated to God, even if expressed as love poetry, mentioning places, gardens, and young women. If the intention in all this concerns the considerations corresponding to these within divine gnoses and lordly sciences, there is no harm, even if an objector objects.
(The Manifest Form and the Speaker's Intention)
We have a principle to which we return in this: God, exalted is He, discloses Himself to His servants on the Day of Resurrection in a form in which He is denied, so that they seek refuge from it, saying, ‘We seek refuge in God from you: you are not our Lord,’ while He says, ‘I am your Lord.’ It is He, exalted is He. There is a secret here within His self-disclosure; seek it in knowing beliefs and their differences.
Likewise with these expressions: although the form of what they name is outwardly other than God, contrary to what the speaker intended, God deals with him only according to what he intended in this.
The speaker's states indicate it, as has been said: regard the saying and its speaker, meaning also what the speaker's state is[58].
If he is a friend, it is friendship, even if harsh; if he is an enemy, it is abuse, even if beautiful.
(The Author's Poetry and His Commentary on The Interpreter of Longings)
As with what we mention within our poetry,
Notes
[58]
(The written form in the previous copy was ‘qātilihi’ [his killer]; it was corrected to ‘qāʾilihi’ [its speaker] by comparison with the new edition, vol. 10, p. 115.)
