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Mashrabaمشربة

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الحكم العطائية

←Read ¶264 in the text

264 · 205 words · shading: how many commentators stop on each word

أَمَّا بَعْدُ فَاِنَّ الْبِدَايَاتِ مَجَلَّاتُ النِّهَايَاتِ وَاِنَّ مَنْ كَانَتْ بِاللَّهِ بِدَايَتُهُ كَانَتْ اِلَيْهِ نِهَايَتُهُ وَالْمُشْتَغَلُ بِهِ هُوَ الَّذِى أَحْبَبْتَهُ وَسَارَعْتَ اِلَيْهِ وَالْمُشْتَغَلُ عَنْهُ هُوَ الْمُؤْثَرُ عَلَيْهِ وَاِنَّ مَنْ أَيْقَنَ أَنَّ اللَّهَ يَطْلُبُهُ صَدَقَ الطَّلَبُ اِلَيْهِ وَمَنْ عَلِمَ أَنَّ الْاُمُورَ بِيَدِ اللَّهِ اِنْجَمَعَ بِالتَّوَكُّلِ عَلَيْهِ وَاِنَّهُ لَابُدَّ لِبِنَاءِ هَذَا الْوُجُودِ أَنْ تَنْهَدِمَ دَعَائِمُهُ وَأَنْ تُسْلَبَ كَرَائِمُهُ فَالْعَاقِلُ مَنْ كَانَ بِمَا هُوَ أَبْقَى أَفْرَحَ مِنْهُ بِمَا هُوَ يَفْنَى قَدْ أَشْرَقَ نُورُهُ وَظَهَرَتْ تَبَاشِيرُهُ فَصَرَفَ عَنْ هَذِهِ الدَّارِ مُغْضِيًا وَأَعْرَضَ عَنْهَا مُوَلِّيًا فَلَمْ يَتَّخِذْهَا وَطَنًا وَلَا جَعَلَهَا سَكَنًا بَلْ أَنْهَضَ الْهِمَّةَ فِيهَا اِلَى اللَّهِ تَعَالَى وَسَارَ فِيهَا مُسْتَعِينًا بِهِ فِى الْقُدُومِ عَلَيْهِ فَمَا زَالَتْ مَطِيَّةُ عَزْمِهِ لَا يَقِرُّ قَرَارُهَا دَائِمًا تَسْيَارُهَا اِلَى أَنْ أَنَاخَتْ بِحَضْرَةِ الْقُدْسِ وَبِسَاطِ الْاُنْسِ مَحَلِّ الْمُفَاتَحَةِ وَالْمُوَاجَهَةِ وَالْمُجَالَسَةِ وَالْمُحَادَثَةِ وَالْمُشَاهَدَةِ وَالْمُطَالَعَةِ فَصَارَتِ الْحَضْرَةُ مُعَشَّشَ قُلُوبِهِمْ اِلَيْهَا يَأْوُونَ وَفِيهَا يَسْكُنُونَ فَاِذَا نَزَلُوا اِلَى سَمَاءِ الْحُقُوقِ أَوْ أَرْضِ الْحُظُوظِ فَبِالْاِذْنِ وَالتَّمْكِينِ وَالرُّسُوخِ فِى الْيَقِينِ فَلَمْ يَنْزِلُوا اِلَى الْحُقُوقِ بِسُوءِ الْأَدَبِ وَالْغَفْلَةِ وَلَا اِلَى الْحُظُوظِ بِالشَّهْوَةِ وَالْمُتْعَةِ بَلْ دَخَلُوا فِى ذَلِكَ بِاللَّهِ وَلِلَّهِ وَمِنَ اللَّهِ وَاِلَى اللَّهِ وَقُلْ رَبِّ أَدْخِلْنِى مُدْخَلَ صِدْقٍ وَأَخْرِجْنِى مُخْرَجَ صِدْقٍ لِيَكُونَ نَظَرِى اِلَى حَوْلِكَ وَقُوَّتِكَ اِذَا أَدْخَلْتَنِى وَاسْتِسْلَامِى وَانْقِيَادِى اِلَيْكَ اِذَا أَخْرَجْتَنِى وَاجْعَلْ لِى مِنْ لَدُنْكَ سُلْطَانًا نَصِيرًا يَنْصُرُنِى وَيَنْصُرُ بِى وَلَا يَنْصُرُ عَلَىَّ يَنْصُرُنِى عَلَى شُهُودِ نَفْسِى وَيُفْنِينِى عَنْ دَائِرَةِ حِسِّى

To proceed: beginnings are where endings are made manifest, and whoever's beginning is by God, his ending is to Him. What one is occupied with is what you have loved and hastened toward; what one is distracted from is what something else has been preferred over. Whoever is certain that God is seeking him becomes sincere in seeking Him, and whoever knows that all affairs are in God's hand gathers himself together through trust in Him (tawakkul). The pillars of this edifice of existence must inevitably be torn down, and its precious things must be stripped away. The intelligent man, then, is he who rejoices more in what is more lasting than in what passes away. His light has dawned and its first glimmers have appeared, so he has turned from this abode with lowered eyes and turned his back on it. He has not taken it as a homeland or made it a dwelling. Rather, while in it, he has roused his aspiration (himma) toward God Most High and journeyed through it, seeking His help to come before Him. The mount of his resolve has never ceased: it never comes to rest and is ever on the march, until it kneels down at the Presence of Holiness and on the carpet of intimacy. That is the place of opening converse, of face-to-face encounter, of sitting in company, of intimate discourse, of witnessing and of beholding. So the Presence has become the nest of their hearts: to it they take refuge, and in it they dwell. When they descend to the heaven of [God's] rights or to the earth of [their own] portions, they do so by permission, with firm establishment and with rootedness in certainty. They did not descend to the rights with ill courtesy and heedlessness, nor to the portions with appetite and enjoyment. Rather, they entered into that by God, for God, from God and toward God. 'And say: My Lord, cause me to enter with an entry of truthfulness and to go out with an exit of truthfulness' (Q 17:80). This means: so that my gaze may rest on Your might and power when You bring me in, and my surrender and submission may be to You when You bring me out. 'And grant me from Your presence a helping authority': one that helps me and helps through me, and does not help against me; one that helps me against witnessing my own self and annihilates me from the circle of my senses.

On the whole passage · 1 of 1

Ibn ʿAbbād

المجلات محل التجلى والظهور فالسالك فى ابتداء سلوكه يتجلى له أمر نهايته … هذا بيان ما ذكره ومعنى كون بدايته بالله أن تكون مجاهداته ومكابداته وأنواع رياضته مصحوبة بالاستعانة بالله تعالى والاعتماد عليه والانقطاع اليه فبذلك يصح له وينفذ فى توجهه وسلوكه … المشتغل به أيها المريد السالك انما هو عملك على التقرب من ربك عز وجل والتوسل اليه بالطاعة والعبودية له وهو الذى أحببته وسارعت الى اجابة دعوته فيحق عليك أن لا تستقل ذلك الشغل بل تكون به قرير عين … العبد مطلوب لربه عز وجل باقامة وظائف العبودية له وذلك بما اختصه به عز وجل من العقل والفهم وما رزقه من المعرفة والعلم وثمرة ذلك الطلب عائدة الى العبد فلم لا يصدق العبد فى طلبه واجتهاده اذا أيقن بذلك … ذكر هذا المعنى تسلية للعبد عما يفوته فى حال سلوكه من حظوظه وشهواته لانه اذا علم أن هذه الأشياء لابد أن تزال عنه أو يزال عنها ولو بعد حين وكل ما هو آت قريب لم يغتبط بما يكون مآل أمره الى ذلك … فرح العبد بالأشياء الفانية هو موجب للزيادة فى همه وغمه اذا افتقدها … فلما كان العبد على هذا الوصف صرف عن هذه الدار الدنيوية أى مال عنها مغضيا جفنه عن أقذائها من غير مبالاة بذلك … هذا ابتداء سفره بقلبه الى الحضرة العلية وبدأ بانهاض الهمة الى ربه والاستعانة به فى القدوم عليه وهو أساس أمره … هذه استعارات مليحة استعملها فى سفر القلب الى حضرة الرب وقد تقدم معنى ذلك عند قوله لولا ميادين النفوس ما تحقق سير السائرين وحضرة القدس وبساط الانس هما موضع محط الرحال وبلوغ الأوطار والآمال … هذا هو سفر التدلى والنزول وبه يتحققون بمقام البقاء والصحو فاذا نزلوا من سدرة منتهاهم الى سماء الحقوق وهى حقوق الله عليهم مما أمرهم به أو نهاهم عنه ليقوموا بذلك فعلا أو تركا … المدخل والمخرج الادخال والاخراج وقد عبر بهاتين العبارتين عن السفرين المذكورين فالمدخل هو سفر الترقى لانه دخول على الله عز وجل … طلب من الله تعالى النصرة له ليستقيم أمره وطلب منه النصرة به ليكمل حاله فالنصرة له هى ملاك أرباب البدايات من السالكين اذ بذلك يتيسر عليهم قطع عقبات النفس ومحو دواعى الهوى والحس

*Majallāt* (places of disclosure) means the locus of self-disclosure (*tajallī*) and manifestation. The wayfarer (*sālik*), at the outset of his wayfaring (*sulūk*), has the matter of his end disclosed to him … This explains what he mentioned. The meaning of his beginning being 'through God' is that his strivings (*mujāhadāt*), his endurance of hardships (*mukābadāt*), and the various kinds of his spiritual discipline (*riyāḍa*) are accompanied by seeking help (*istiʿāna*) from God Most High, reliance (*iʿtimād*) upon Him, and exclusive devotion (*inqiṭāʿ*) to Him. Through that, his orientation (*tawajjuh*) and his wayfaring become sound for him and are carried through … That with which you are occupied, O aspirant (*murīd*) and wayfarer, is nothing other than your labour to draw near to your Lord, Mighty and Majestic, and to seek access to Him through obedience and servanthood (*ʿubūdiyya*) toward Him. It is what you have loved and hastened to, in answering His call. So it is incumbent upon you not to deem that occupation slight; rather, let your eye be content with it … The servant is sought by his Lord, Mighty and Majestic, to uphold the duties of servanthood toward Him, and that by means of the intellect and understanding with which He, Mighty and Majestic, has singled him out, and the gnosis (*maʿrifa*) and knowledge with which He has provided him. The fruit of that seeking returns to the servant. Why, then, would the servant not be sincere in his seeking and his effort, once he is certain of that? … He mentioned this meaning as a consolation for the servant over the portions (*ḥuẓūẓ*) and appetites that escape him during his wayfaring. For when he knows that these things must inevitably be taken away from him, or he from them, even if after a while, and that all that is coming is near, he will not delight in something whose outcome is that … The servant's joy in perishing things is what brings about an increase in his worry and grief when he loses them … So when the servant has this description, he turns away from this worldly abode, that is, he inclines away from it, lowering his eyelid against the specks of filth in it, paying no heed to that … This is the beginning of his journey with his heart to the Exalted Presence (*al-ḥaḍra al-ʿaliyya*). He began by rousing his aspiration (*himma*) toward his Lord and by seeking His help in coming before Him, and that is the foundation of his affair … These are elegant metaphors he has employed for the heart's journey to the Presence of the Lord. Their meaning was given earlier, at his saying: 'Were it not for the arenas of the souls, the journeying of the travellers would not be realized.' The Presence of Holiness (*ḥaḍrat al-quds*) and the Carpet of Intimacy (*bisāṭ al-uns*) are the place where the travellers' loads are set down and where their desires and hopes are attained … This is the journey of condescension and descent (*tadallī*), and through it they become realized in the station of subsistence (*baqāʾ*) and sobriety (*ṣaḥw*). When they descend from their Lote-Tree of the Boundary to the heaven of rights (*ḥuqūq*), namely God's rights over them in what He has commanded them or forbidden them, so that they may fulfil these by doing or refraining … *Mudkhal* and *mukhraj* mean causing to enter and causing to go out. By these two expressions he has denoted the two journeys mentioned. The 'entrance' is the journey of ascent (*taraqqī*), because it is an entering in upon God, Mighty and Majestic … He asked God Most High for help on his behalf, so that his affair might be set right, and he asked Him for help through him, so that his state might be made complete. Help on his behalf is the mainstay of the people of beginnings among the wayfarers, since through it the crossing of the soul's obstacles and the effacement of the promptings of desire and the senses are made easy for them

The opening of his commentary only; the whole of it runs over pdf 211–215 (printed p. 207–211) of the print: follow the link to the page images.

Ibn ʿAbbād · pdf 211–215 (printed p. 207–211)

Ibn ʿAbbād's Arabic: the opening of his commentary on each passage, transcribed from the page images of the Cairo 1319/1901 print and read twice (each comment links to the page where his commentary on that passage begins; the rest of it is on the following pages, not transcribed). English translations of the commentaries and of the passage are AI (Claude) and marked. Differences are computed by comparing the words each commentator quotes with our working text; they may reflect a different manuscript reading, a paraphrase, or an alignment error. About this text.