or their truthfulness—say whichever you wish. For this reason they are designated specifically as saintly marvels, and are called neither miracles nor sorcery.
A miracle is that the like of which creatures are unable to produce, whether by their being diverted from it or because it lies outside human capacities, without the power of the soul[68] and the special properties of Names, although it appears at their hands. Sorcery, by contrast, is that in which an aspect of truth appears, although in itself it is not true. The word derives from the temporal dawn, saḥar, the mingling of light and darkness.
It is not night, because of the dawn’s light mingled with it, nor is it day, because the sun has not risen before the eyes. Likewise, what is called sorcery is not sheer falsehood, which would be nonexistence, for the eye has perceived something about which it has no doubt. Nor is it pure truth, possessing existence in its own entity, for it is not in itself as the eye witnesses it and the observer supposes.
The saints’ marvels do not belong to sorcery, for they possess an existent reality in themselves. Nor are they miracles, for the practitioner has knowledge of them, and they proceed from the power of spiritual aspiration.
(Explaining ʿUlaym’s Words and the Constancy of Substance)
As for ʿUlaym’s saying, “You see it as gold through your reality with your Lord, for entities do not change into one another”: when he saw how greatly the man esteemed what he had seen, he told him, “Knowledge of yourself is nobler than what you have seen. Be characterized by knowledge, for it is greater, even though the column really was gold.” He thus made known to him that entities do not change into one another,
Notlar
[68]
(The reading “to absence,” ilā ʿadam, has been adopted according to the newer edition.)
Translator’s note TN951-1: “Miracle,” “saintly marvel,” and “sorcery” distinguish muʿjizah, karāmah, and siḥr. The first paragraph after the opening continuation contains the compressed phrase ilā ʿadam, literally “to absence,” retained by original note 68. It is rendered contextually as “without,” following the contrast with the soul’s power and the special properties of Names. The wordplay then links siḥr, “sorcery,” with saḥar, “dawn.”
