Skip to the content
Mashrabaمشربة

The commentators side by side

One passage at a time. Each column is a commentator; each row gathers the comments on the same words, so readings and emphases can be compared.

الحكم العطائية

←Read ¶273 in the text

273 · 68 words · shading: how many commentators stop on each word

اِلَهِى كَيْفَ تَكِلُنِى اِلَى نَفْسِى وَقَدْ تَوَكَّلْتَ لِى وَكَيْفَ أُضَامُ وَأَنْتَ النَّاصِرُ لِى أَمْ كَيْفَ أَخِيبُ وَأَنْتَ الْحَفِىُّ بِى هَا أَنَا أَتَوَسَّلُ اِلَيْكَ بِفَقْرِى اِلَيْكَ وَكَيْفَ أَتَوَسَّلُ اِلَيْكَ بِمَا هُوَ مُحَالٌ أَنْ يَصِلَ اِلَيْكَ أَمْ كَيْفَ أَشْكُوا اِلَيْكَ حَالِى وَهِىَ لَا تَخْفَى عَلَيْكَ أَمْ كَيْفَ أُتَرْجِمُ لَكَ بِمَقَالِى وَهُوَ مِنْكَ بَرَزَ اِلَيْكَ أَمْ كَيْفَ تَخِيبُ آمَالِى وَهِىَ قَدْ وَفَدَتْ اِلَيْكَ أَمْ كَيْفَ لَا تَحْسُنُ أَحْوَالِى وَبِكَ قَامَتْ وَاِلَيْكَ

My God, how could You leave me to myself when You have taken charge of me? How could I be wronged when You are my helper? How could I be disappointed when You are ever solicitous of me? Here I am, seeking to draw near to You through my need of You. Yet how can I seek to draw near to You through something that cannot possibly reach You? How can I complain to You of my state when it is not hidden from You? How can I set out my case to You in words when those words came forth from You toward You? How could my hopes be disappointed when they have come to You as petitioners? How could my states not be good when they subsist through You and [return] to You…

On the whole passage · 1 of 1

Ibn ʿAbbād

الوكيل والناصر والحفى أسماء الله عز وجل وهى مقتضية لوجود آثارها من وجود الكفاية والمنفعة والظفر بغاية المقصود والبغية فكيف يتصور انفكاك ذلك عن العبد عند وجود حاجته … التوسل التقرب والوسيلة مايتقرب به وأعظم وسائل العبد الى مولاه هو تحققه بما توجبه عبوديته وهو فقره اليه فى كل حال من أحواله فلا يرى لنفسه حسنة يقتضى بها ثوابا ولايدلى بحجة يستدفع بها عن نفسه عقابا … بين المتوسل به والمتوسل اليه نسبة تامة ووصلة حقيقية وهى التى اقتضت له وجود التوسل ولانسبة ولاوصلة بين الفقر الذى هو نعت العبد وبين الرب الذى له الغنى الاكبر … شكوى الحال لاتصح الا لمن هى غائبة عنه وهو غير عالم بها والله تعالى لايخفى عليه شئ وقد قال ابراهيم الخليل على نبينا وعليه الصلاة والسلام حسبى من سؤالى علمه بحالى … الترجمة بالمقال هى التعبير باللسان عما فى الضمير ليقع التفهيم بذلك للمترجم له والله تعالى هو الذى أنطق اللسان وأطلقه بذلك فالترجمة من الله تعالى برزت واليه مآل أمرها والعبد لامدخل له فى ذلك … الآمال الوافدة الى الله تعالى لايخيبها من قبل أنها فارة اليه ومتعلقة به ومنقطعة عما سواه والله تعالى كريم جواد متفضل منعم فليثق العبد بذلك وليكن على يقين منه وان لم يسأل ولم يطلب … من تحقق بالمعرفة رأى أحواله كلها حسنة الوجود قيامها بالله ورجوع أمرها اليه وهذه كلها أنواع من التعجب تعجب بها المؤلف رحمه الله نفسه من نفسه فيما هو بصدده من سؤاله وطلبه

The Trustee, the Helper, and the Ever-Solicitous (*al-Wakīl*, *al-Nāṣir*, *al-Ḥafī*) are names of God, mighty and majestic. They entail the existence of their effects: sufficiency and benefit, and the attainment of the utmost of what is sought and desired. How, then, could one conceive of these being cut off from the servant at the moment his need arises? … Seeking a means of access (*tawassul*) is drawing near, and the means (*wasīla*) is that by which one draws near. The greatest of the servant's means to his Master is his realization (*taḥaqquq*) of what his servanthood (*ʿubūdiyya*) requires, namely his poverty (*faqr*) toward Him in every one of his states (*aḥwāl*). He thus sees in himself no good deed by which he might lay claim to a reward, and he puts forward no plea by which he might ward off punishment from himself. … Between that through which one seeks access and the One to whom access is sought there must be a complete relation and a real connection, and it is this that makes seeking access possible for him. Yet there is no relation and no connection between poverty, which is the attribute of the servant, and the Lord, to whom belongs the supreme self-sufficiency (*ghinā*). … Complaining of one's state is valid only toward one from whom that state is hidden and who has no knowledge of it, whereas nothing is hidden from God Most High. Abraham the Intimate Friend (*al-Khalīl*), upon our Prophet and upon him be blessing and peace, said: 'His knowledge of my state suffices me in place of my asking.' … Interpreting by speech (*al-tarjama bi-l-maqāl*) is expressing with the tongue what lies in the heart, so that the one addressed may thereby come to understand. But it is God Most High who made the tongue speak and set it free for this. The interpreting therefore emerged from God Most High, and to Him its matter returns; the servant has no share in it. … Hopes that come as envoys to God Most High He does not disappoint, since they are fleeing to Him, attached to Him, and cut off from all besides Him. God Most High is generous, bountiful, gracious, and beneficent. So let the servant trust in this and be certain of it, even if he neither asks nor seeks. … Whoever is realized in gnosis (*maʿrifa*) sees all his states as good in their existence, since they subsist through God and their matter returns to Him. All of these are kinds of wonderment (*taʿajjub*) by which the author, God have mercy on him, caused himself to marvel at himself concerning what he was engaged in, namely his asking and his seeking.

The opening of his commentary only; the whole of it runs over pdf 224–225 (printed p. 220–221) of the print: follow the link to the page images.

Ibn ʿAbbād · pdf 224–225 (printed p. 220–221)

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.