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 182 · “You will not number the blessing of God”
See the print: Damascus 1966, p. 402, Damascus 1966, p. 403, Cairo, vol. 1, PDF p. 380, Cairo, vol. 1, PDF p. 381 (archive.org)
قَالَ تَعَالَى: «وَإِنْ تَعُدُّوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ لاَ تُحْصُوهَا».
He, exalted is He, has said: “And if you count the blessing of God, you will not number it” (Q 14:34; 16:18).
الْاِحْصَاءُ، بِمَعْنَى الْعَدِّ وَالْحِسَابِ، وَبِمَعْنَى الْعِلْمِ•
Iḥṣāʾ (“numbering”) has the sense of counting and reckoning, and the sense of knowing.
فَعَلَى الْأَوَّلِ؛ لَا تُطِيقُوا عَدَّهَا، فَاِنَّهَا لَا غَايَةَ لَهَا، لِأَنَّ نِعْمَةَ الْاِمْدَادِ لِاِبْقَاءِ الْاِيجَادِ؛ أَبَدِيَّةٌ لِكُلِّ مَوْجُودٍ، وَكُلُّ مَوْجُودٍ مُنْعَمٌ عَلَيْهِ بِاِبْقَاءِ وُجُودِهِ،
On the first sense: you are not able to count it, for it has no end. The blessing of replenishment for the maintaining of existentiation is everlasting for every existent, and every existent is blessed with the maintaining of its existence.
وَأَوَّلُ نِعْمَةٍ عَلَى الْمَخْلُوقِ اِعْطَاءُ الْوُجُودِ هَذَا فِي الْعُمُومِ،
The first blessing upon the creature is the giving of existence; this is in the general sense.
وَأَمَّا فِي الْخُصُوصِ فَهِيَ نِعْمَةُ الْاِيمَانِ
As for the particular sense, it is the blessing of faith.
فَهَذِهِ النِّعْمَةُ لَهَا لَوَازِمُ، وَلَوَازِمُ لَوَازِمَ، وَتَوَابِعُ وَمُقْتَضَيَاتٌ، لَانِهَايَةَ لَهَا، بَلْ هِيَ نِعَمٌ مُتَوَالِيَةٌ أَبَدَ الْآبِدِينَ، وَدَهْرَ الدَّاهِرِينَ•
This blessing has concomitants, and concomitants of concomitants, and consequences and requirements, without end. Rather, they are blessings following one upon another, for ever and ever, to the end of all ages.
وَعَلَى الثَّانِي لَا تَعْلَمُونَهَا، فَاِنَّ الْحَقَّ– تَعَالَى– لَطِيفٌ•
On the second sense: you do not know it, for the Real, exalted is He, is Subtle.
وَمِنْ لُطْفِهِ يُظْهِرُ النِّعْمَةَ فِي صُورَةِ النِّقْمَةِ، وَبِالْعَكْسِ،
Out of His subtlety He makes blessing appear in the form of chastisement, and the reverse,
فَتَلْتَبِسُ النِّعْمَةُ بِالنِّقْمَةِ، وَلَا يُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَهُمَا اِلاَّ صَاحِبُ بَصِيرَةٍ نَافِذَةٍ وَكَشْفٍ صَحِيحٍ،
so that blessing becomes confused with chastisement, and none tells them apart except one who has penetrating inner sight and sound unveiling.
فَكَمْ لِلَّهِ مِنْ نِعْمَةٍ وَرَحْمَةٍ، فِي طَيِّ الْمَكْرُوهَاتِ النَّفْسِيَّةِ الطَّبِيعِيَّةِ عَلَى السَّعِيدِ،
How many a blessing and mercy God has for the felicitous one, folded within things hateful to the soul and to nature!
فَاِنَّهُ يَشْقَى الشَّقَاءَ الصُّورِيَّ فِي الدُّنْيَا بِالْبَلَايَا وَالْأَتْعَابِ بِالتَّكَالِيفِ، وَالْأَمْرِ وَالنَّهْيِ، وَالضِّيقِ وَالْحَصْرِ، كَمَا يَكُونُ لِلشَّقِيِّ فِي السَّعَادَةِ الصُّورِيَّةِ فِي الدُّنْيَا، مِنَ الْفَرَحِ وَالْبَسْطِ، وَالسَّعَةِ وَالرَّاحَةِ،
For he suffers wretchedness in form in this world: through trials, through toils imposed by the obligations, the command and the prohibition, and through narrowness and confinement. In the same way, the wretched one has, in happiness in form in this world, joy and expansion, ease and rest,
لِأَنَّ الدُّنْيَا دَارُ مَزْجٍ لَا دَارُ تَخْلِيصٍ، حَتَّى اِنَّهُ يَلْتَبِسُ فِيهَا السَّعِيدُ فِي الْآخِرَةِ بِالشَّقِيِّ فِيهَا،
because this world is an abode of mixing, not an abode of sorting out. So much so that in it the one felicitous in the hereafter is confused with the one wretched there.
فَاِذَا حَصَلُوا فِي الدَّارِ الْآخِرَةِ؛ حَصَلَ التَّمَيُّزُ وَزَالَ الْمَزْجُ،
When they arrive in the abode of the hereafter, distinction comes about and the mixing passes away.
فَفِي الصَّحِيحِ: «اِنَّ الرَّجُلَ لَيَعْمَلُ بِعَمَلِ أَهْلِ الْجَنَّةِ فِيمَا يَبْدُو لِلنَّاسِ وَهُوَ مِنْ اَهْلِ النَّارِ» الْحَدِيثَ بِطُولِهِ، وَهُوَ مَشْهُورٌ•
For in the Ṣaḥīḥ: “A man indeed does the work of the people of the Garden, as it appears to people, while he is of the people of the Fire.” The ḥadīth continues at length; it is well known.
وَذَلِكَ لِكَوْنِ الدُّنْيَا خَيَالاً، وَاِنْ كُنَّا نَقُولُ: اِنَّ الْكَائِنَ فِيهَا مَحْسُوسٌ لِغِلَظِ حِجَابِنَا، مِنْ حَيْثُ أَنَّ الْحَقَائِقَ تَظْهَرُ فِيهَا بِغَيْرِ مَاهِيَ عَلَيْهِ فِي نَفْسِ الْأَمْرِ غَالِباً، وَبِمَا هِيَ عَلَيْهِ نَادِراً•
That is because this world is imagination (even though we say that what exists in it is sensed, owing to the thickness of our veil), in that the realities mostly appear in it otherwise than as they are in actual fact, and only rarely as they are.
فَلِذَا يَحْتَاجُ مَا يَظْهَرُ فِيهَا اِلَى تَعْبِيرٍ، كَالَّذِي يَظْهَرُ فِي الرُّؤْيَا، أَيْ عُبُورٍ مِنَ الظَّاهِرِ اِلَى الْبَاطِنِ،
Therefore what appears in it needs interpretation, like what appears in a dream, that is, a crossing over from the outward to the inward,
فَلَا يَكْتَفِي بِمَا ظَهَرَ فِي الصُّورَةِ عَنْ بَاطِنِ الْحَقِيقَةِ•
so one does not make do with what has appeared in the form in place of the inward of the reality.
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