al-Amīr ʿAbd al-Qādir b. Muḥyī al-Dīn al-Jazāʾirī · Kitāb al-Mawāqif fī baʿḍ ishārāt al-Qurʾān ilā al-asrār wa-l-maʿārif
المواقف
The Book of Stations
Mawqif 169 · “Whatever evil befalls you is from your self”
See the print: Damascus 1966, p. 376, Damascus 1966, p. 377, Cairo, vol. 1, PDF p. 357, Cairo, vol. 1, PDF p. 358 (archive.org)
قَالَ تَعَالَى: «مَا أَصَابَكَ مِنْ حَسَنَةٍ فَمِنَ اللَّهِ وَمَا أَصَابَكَ مِنْ سَيِّئَةٍ فَمِنْ نَفْسِكَ».
He, exalted is He, said: "Whatever good befalls you is from God, and whatever evil befalls you is from your self" (Q 4:79).
الَّتِي هِيَ اللَّهُ حَقِيقَةً.
which is, in reality, God.
فَالْكُلُّ مِنَ اللَّهِ.
So all is from God.
فَلَا غَيْرِيَّةَ وَلَا سِوَائِيَّةَ،
So there is no otherness and no alterity;
وَاِنَّمَا غَايَرَ بَيْنَهُمَا: لِيُعَلِّمَنَاالْأَدَبَ الْقَوْلِيَّ، الَّذِي يُدْرِكُهُ الْعَامُّ وَالْخَاصُّ، وَالْجَاهِلُ وَالْعَالِمُ، لَا الْأَدَبَ الِاعْتِقَادِيَّ،
He distinguished between the two only in order to teach us the courtesy of speech, which the common and the elect, the ignorant and the learned all grasp, not the courtesy of belief.
فَاِنَّهُ لَنْ يُصِيبَنَا اِلَاّ مَا كَتَبَ اللَّهُ لَنَا، لَا عَلَيْنَا،
For "nothing will befall us except what God has written for us" (Q 9:51), not against us,
اِذْ كُلُّ مَا كَتَبَهُ فِي اللَّوْحِ؛ اِنَّمَا هُوَ مَا عَلِمَهُ مِنَّا، وَذَٰلِكَ مُقْتَضَى اسْتِعْدَادَاتِنَا الَّتِي هِيَ نُفُوسُنَا.
since all that He wrote on the Tablet is only what He knew of us, and that is what our preparednesses, which are our selves, require.
فَلِذَٰلِكَ كَانَ لَنَا لَا عَلَيْنَا، هُوَ مَوْلَانَا الْمُنْفَرِدُ بِالْخَلْقِ وَالْاِيجَادِ، لِلْخَيْرِ وَالشَّرِّ، وَالنَّفْعِ وَالضَّرِّ،
That is why it is for us, not against us. "He is our Master" (Q 9:51), alone in creating and bringing into existence good and evil, benefit and harm.
فَهُوَ اللَّهُ فِي مَرْتَبَتِهِ الْعَلِيَّةِ الْأِلٰهِيَّةِ، الظَّاهِرُ بِالنَّفْسِ، فِي مَرْتَبَتِهِ النَّفْسِيَّةِ، وَهُوَ هُوَ.
He is God at His exalted, divine level, the One manifest through the self at His level of the self, and He is He.
فَالنَّفْسُ مَا هِيَ شِرِّيرَةً وَلَا خَبِيثَةً، بَلْ نَزِيهَةٌ طَاهِرَةٌ.
So the self is neither evil nor vile; rather, it is unsullied and pure.
وَاِنَّمَا هِيَ مُنَفِّذَةُ الْخُبْثِ بِحَسَبِ الْقَضَاءِ الْأَزَلِيِّ وَالْحُكْمِ الْآلٰهِيِّ بِالْجِسْمِ،
It is only the executor of vileness through the body, according to the pre-eternal decree and the divine judgement.
فَلَا يُمِدُّ الْاِنْسَانَ بِالْخَيْرِ وَالشَّرِّ اِلَاّ نَفْسُهُ الَّتِي لَيْسَتْ مُغَايِرَةً لِلْحَقِّ- تَعَالَى- اِلَّا بِالِاسْمِ وَالْحُكْمِ، لَا بِالْحَقِيقَةِ.
Nothing supplies a human being with good and evil but his own self, which is other than the Real, exalted is He, only in name and judgement, not in reality.
فَلَا يُمِدُّ شَيْءٌ شَيْئاً غَيْرَهُ، وَاِنَّمَا الْمَدَدُ صَادِرٌ مِنْ بَاطِنِ الشَّيْءِ اِلَى ظَاهِرِهِ، خَيْراً وَشَرّاً،
So no thing supplies a thing other than itself; supply issues only from the inward of a thing to its outward, as good and as evil.
وَظَاهِرُ الشَّيْءِ صُورَتُهُ الْخَارِجِيَّةُ، وَبَاطِنُهُ هُوَ صُورَتُهُ الْأَسْمَائِيَّةُ،
The outward of a thing is its external form, and its inward is its form in the divine names.
فَلَا يَلُومَنَّ أَحَدٌ اِلَاّ نَفْسَهُ، مَادَامَ جَاهِلاً بِحَقِيقَةِ الْحَالِ،
So let no one blame anyone but himself, as long as he is ignorant of the reality of the situation.
فَاِذَا عَلِمَ؛ وَجَدَ مَا ظَنَّهُ غَيْرَ مُلَائِمٍ لِنَفْسِهِ؛ مُلَائِماً وَمَطْلُوباً لَهَا، بَلْ لَاتَقْبَلُ غَيْرَ مَا حَصَلَ لَهَا.
But once he knows, he finds that what he thought unsuited to his self is suited to it and sought by it; indeed, it accepts nothing other than what has come to it.
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