The commentators side by side

هذا البيت عجيب فى بابه فانه مشتمل على ذكر الفاظ يناسب بعضها بعضا وهى البدر والشمس والهلال والنجم وكذلك الكاس والادارة والمزج والبدر مبتدأ وكاس خبره والتقدير البدر كاس لها وقيل سمى البدر بدرا لمبادرته الشمس بالطلوع كانه يعجلها المغيب والكاس الاناء يشرب فيه أو مادام الشراب فيه مؤنثة مهموزة جعه أكؤس وكؤس وكاسات والشمس الكوكب النهارى العظيم المضىء وهو الاوسط فى السبعة السيارة فوقه ثلاثة وهى زحل والمشترى والمريخ وتحته ثلاثة وهى عطارد و الزهرة والقمر والشمس فى الوسط مأخوذ من شمسة القلادة ومنهم من يقول البدر عبارة عن العارف الكامل وأكبر العارفين الانبياء بعد نبينا يراد العارفون من أمته والمدامة هى المعرفة الالهية التى تفيض أنوارها فى جميع الكائنات وأما الهلال الذى يديرها فهو المبلغ عن العارف كاصحاب الانبياء وتلاميذ العارفين واذا مزجت المعرفة اللدنية بالمدارك الشرعية الدينية فكم يظهر هناك نور يهتدى به أصحابى كالنجوم بأيهم اقتديتم اهتديتم وما احسن قول الشيخ عبد الرحيم اليمنى البرعى حيث يق ول هم نجوم اشرق الكون بهم • بعدما كانت تواحيه ظلاما كل من لم ير فرضا حبهم • فهو فى الناروان صلى وصاما

This verse is marvellous of its kind, for it contains words that correspond to one another, namely full moon, sun, crescent and star, and likewise cup, passing around and mixing. “The full moon” is the mubtadaʾ (subject) and “cup” is its khabar (predicate); the underlying construction is: the full moon is a cup for it. It is said that the full moon (badr) was named badr because it hastens ahead of the sun in rising, as though it hurries it to setting. The kaʾs is the vessel that is drunk from, or [it is so called] as long as the drink is in it; it is feminine and takes hamza, and its plurals are akʾus, kuʾūs and kāsāt. The sun is the great, shining daytime star. It is the middle one of the seven planets: above it are three, namely Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, and below it are three, namely Mercury, Venus and the Moon. The sun in the middle is taken from the shamsa (central pendant) of the necklace. Some say that the full moon denotes the perfect gnostic, and the greatest of gnostics are the prophets; after our Prophet, the gnostics of his community are meant. The wine is divine gnosis, whose lights overflow into all beings. As for the crescent that passes it around, it is the one who conveys [it] from the gnostic, like the Companions of the prophets and the disciples of the gnostics. When gnosis from the divine presence is mixed with the religious perceptions of the Law, how much light appears there by which one is guided: “My Companions are like the stars: whichever of them you follow, you will be guided.” How excellent is the saying of Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Yamanī al-Burʿī: “They are stars by which the world shone / after its regions had been darkness / Whoever does not regard love of them as obligatory / is in the Fire, even if he prays and fasts.”

﴿لها﴾

أى لتلك المدامة المذكورة من حيث انها محبة الهية كما ذكر وهى عين المحبة الازلية ظاهرة فى مظاهر الآثار الكونية فشمس يحبهم ظهور نورها فى بدر يحبونه من قوله تعالى يحبهم ويحبونه وذلك الظاهر عين الباطن وهو المشرق على جميع المواطن وهو خمر الوجود الحق والخطاب الصدق شربه كل شئ من الاشياء فظهرت به الطلالات والافياء فهو محبة ينبت كل حبة وهوخر يسكر عقل زيد وعمرو وهو وجود يفيض انواع الكرم والجود وهو خطاب كن فيكون تنفصل به كل حركة وسكون وهوذات لقيام الادوات وهو صفات واسماء لملابس سليمى واسماء ومن فهم الاشارة أغنته عن كل عبارة وأهل الاذواق يفهمون معانى ما كتب فى الاوراق والاسرار فى قلوب الاحرار وقوله البدروهو الانسان الكامل العالم المحقق العامل قال فى القاموس البدر القمر الممتلئ وقال فى الصحاح يسمى بدر لمبادرته الشمس بالطلوع كانه يعجلها المغيب ويقال سمى بدرا لتمامه والانسان الكامل مجلى من الحق تعالى تجليا وظهورا واشراقا ونورا وهو يبادر شمس الاحدية بطلوعه فى الظلة الكونية كانه يعجلها المغيب فيحجبها عن عبون المريب وهو مجلى الحق على التمام وهو باب العطايا والانعام

I.e. for that aforementioned wine, insofar as it is divine love, as mentioned. It is the very pre-eternal love, manifest in the maẓāhir (loci of manifestation) of the traces of created being. So the sun of “He loves them”, the appearance of its light is in the full moon of “they love Him”, from His saying, Most High: “He loves them and they love Him” (Q 5:54). That manifest is the very hidden, and it is what shines upon all the abodes. It is the wine of the true existence and the truthful address; every one of all things drank it, and by it the shades and shadows appeared. So it is a love that makes every seed sprout; it is a wine that intoxicates the intellect of Zayd and ʿAmr; it is an existence that pours forth kinds of generosity and bounty; it is the address “Be, and it is”, by which every motion and rest is set apart; it is an Essence for the subsistence of the instruments; and it is attributes and names for the garments of Sulaymā and Asmāʾ. Whoever understands the ishāra (allusion) has no need of any expression. The people of dhawq (taste) understand the meanings of what is written on the pages, and the secrets are in the hearts of the free. His saying “the full moon”: it is the perfect human (al-insān al-kāmil), the realized knower who acts [on his knowledge]. [The author of] al-Qāmūs said: “The badr is the full moon.” [The author of] al-Ṣiḥāḥ said: “It is called badr because it hastens ahead of the sun in rising, as though it hurries it to setting”; and it is said that it was named badr for its completeness. The perfect human is a majlā (locus of disclosure) of the Real Most High, in tajallī (self-disclosure) and manifestation, in shining and light. He hastens ahead of the sun of aḥadiyya (Oneness) by his rising in the shade of created being, as though he hurries it to setting, and so veils it from the eyes of the doubter. He is the locus of disclosure of the Real in completeness, and he is the gate of gifts and favours.

﴿كاس﴾

أى مظاهر ومجلى المقام الاعلى وانما كان الانسان الكامل كأسالها من حيث هى خمرة تسكر كل من شربها فيغيب عقله عن ملاحظة الأكوان فان الانسان الكامل يتكلم بمافيه من علوم تحقيقها عند المريد الصادق فيشربها منه المريد الصادق فتفنى كيته وكيفيته فلايبقى منه غيرها

I.e. loci of manifestation and the locus of disclosure of the Highest Station. The perfect human was a cup for it only insofar as it is a wine that intoxicates everyone who drinks it, so that his intellect becomes absent from regarding the created beings. For the perfect human speaks of the sciences that are in him, whose realization is with the sincere aspirant; the sincere aspirant drinks them from him, and his quantity and his quality pass away, so that nothing remains of him but it.

﴿شمس﴾

أى طالعة مشرقة على كل تقدير وتصوير وهو مقتضى علمها وارادتها على حب ماتوجه به أمرها القديم وحكمها المستقيم

I.e. rising and shining upon every determination and every forming. That is what its knowledge and will require, according to what its eternal command and its upright judgement are directed to.

﴿هلال﴾

هو ذلك البدر المذ كور الا انه محجب بظهوره بنفسه عن اظهار بقية النوركاان الارض اذا حالت بين القمر والشمس بعض حيلولة سترت بقية ذلك النور

It is that aforementioned full moon, except that by its appearing with itself it is veiled from displaying the rest of the light, just as the earth, when it comes partly between the moon and the sun, conceals the rest of that light.

﴿مزجت﴾

بالبناء للمفعول خلطت بغيرها

In the passive voice: mixed with something else.