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 275 · “God created you and what you do”
See the print: Damascus 1966, p. 823, Damascus 1966, p. 824 (archive.org)
قَالَ تَعَالَى: «وَاللَّهُ خَلَقَكُمْ وَمَا تَعْمَلُونَ».
He, exalted is He, says: “God created you and what you do” (Q 37:96).
اعْلَمْ أَنَّ هَذِهِ الْآيَةَ وَأَمْثَالَهَا حَيَّرَتِ الْعُقُولَ وَالْأَوْهَامَ، فَاخْتَبَطَتْ فِيهَا الْآرَاءُ، وَتَخَالَفَتْ فِيهَا الْأَفْهَامُ، حَيْثُ نَسَبَ تَعَالَى خَلْقَ الْعِبَادِ وَعَمَلَهُمْ اِلَيْهِ، وَأَثْبَتَ فِي ضِمْنِ ذَلِكَ لَهُمْ عَمَلاً، فَأَفْرَدَ وَشَرَّكَ.
Know that this verse and those like it have bewildered intellects and imaginations, so that opinions about it have floundered and understandings of it have diverged, since He, exalted is He, attributed to Himself the creation of the servants and of their work, and within that affirmed for them a work; so He both singled out and made joint.
وَذَلِكَ أَنَّهُ تَعَالَى يَفْعَلُ تَارَةً بِلَا وَاسِطَةِ حِجَابٍ مَخْلُوقٍ، وَتَارَةً بِوَاسِطَةِ حِجَابٍ مَخْلُوقٍ، فَظَنَّ الظَّانُّونَ أَنَّ الْفِعْلَ لِلْحِجَابِ، وَهُوَ الصُّورَةُ الَّتِي شُوهِدَ الْفِعْلُ مِنْهَا حِسَّاً.
That is because He, exalted is He, acts at times without the mediation of a created veil and at times through the mediation of a created veil; so those given to supposing supposed that the act belongs to the veil, which is the form from which the act was beheld by the senses.
وَظَنَّ آخَرُونَ أَنَّ الْفِعْلَ مُشْتَرَكٌ بَيْنَ الْحَقِّ وَالصُّورَةِ.
Others supposed that the act is shared between the Real and the form.
وَالْفِعْلُ فِي الْحَقِيقَةِ اِنَّمَا هُوَ لِلَّهِ.
But the act in reality belongs only to God.
فَاِنَّ الْعَالَمَ كُلُّهُ أَفْعَالُ اللَّهِ، وَأَفْعَالُ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى كُلُّهَا أَفْعَالٌ لَازِمَةٌ قَائِمَةٌ بِهِ تَعَالَى، كَمَا هُوَ شَأْنُ الْفِعْلِ اللَّازِمِ عِنْدَ أَرْبَابِ اللِّسَانِ.
For the world, all of it, is God's acts, and God's acts, exalted is He, are all intransitive acts subsisting in Him, exalted is He, as is the way of the intransitive verb among the masters of the language.
فَلَيْسَ لَهُ تَعَالَى فِعْلٌ مُتَعَدٍّ، فَيَكُونَ لَهُ مَفْعُولٌ مُنْفَصِلٌ عَنْهُ يُقَالُ فِيهِ «غَيْرٌ»
So He, exalted is He, has no transitive act, such that He would have an object separate from Him of which one would say “other”.
فَاِنَّ الْمَفْعُولَ غَيْرُ فَاعِلِ الْفِعْلِ، كَالنَّجَّارِ مَثَلاً، مَفْعُولُهُ الصُّنْدُوقُ نَحْوُهُ، وَهُـوَ غَيْرُهُ ضَرُورَةً،
For the object is other than the doer of the act, like the carpenter, for example: his object is the chest or the like, and it is necessarily other than him;
وَالْحَقُّ– تَعَـالَى– لَاغَيْرَ لَهُ، فَلَا مَفْعُولَ لَهُ مُنْفَصِلٌ عَنْهُ.
but the Real, exalted is He, has no other, so He has no object separate from Him.
وَلِهَذَا أَرْبَابُ الشُّهُودِ يَشْهَدُونَ الْحَقَّ– تَعَالَى– فِي جَمِيعِ ذَرَّاتِ الْعَالَمِ عَلَى التَّقْدِيسِ وَالتَّنْزِيهِ اللَّائِقِ بِهِ تَعَالَى، ظَاهِراً بِفِعْلِهِوَتَصْوِيرِهِ وَخَلْقِهِ.
For this reason the masters of beholding behold the Real, exalted is He, in all the atoms of the world, in the manner of sanctification and transcendence befitting Him, exalted is He, as manifest through His act, His forming and His creating.
اِذِ الْفَاعِلُ يَظْهَرُ بِفِعْلِهِ، وَفِعْلُهُ قَائِمٌ بِهِ لَايُفَارِقُهُ، فَهُوَ تَعَالَى الظَّاهِرُ بِفِعْلِهِ لِمَنْ شَاءَ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ، وَهُوَ الْبَاطِنُ الْمُتَحَجِّبُ بِفِعْلِهِ عَمَّنْ شَاءَ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ، فَيَتَوَهَّمُ أَنَّ الْعَالَمَ غَيْرٌ وَسِوًى.
For the doer becomes manifest through his act, and his act subsists in him and does not part from him. So He, exalted is He, is the Manifest through His act to whichever of His servants He wills, and He is the Hidden, veiled by His act, from whichever of His servants He wills, so that this one imagines that the world is an other and something besides.
وَلَيْسَ الْأَمْرُ كَذَلِكَ، وَاِنَّمَا الْعَالَمُ كَالْفِعْلِ اللُّغَوِيِّ، وَهُوَ الْمَصْدَرُ، الَّذِي هُوَ أَمْرٌ اعْتِبَارِيٌّ لَا وُجُودَ لَهُ فِي حَدِّ ذَاتِهِ،
But the matter is not so; rather the world is like the act in the linguistic sense, namely the verbal noun, which is a merely posited thing having no existence in itself;
وَاِنَّمَا قُلْنَا هَذَا لِيُعْلَمَ أَنَّ الْعَالَمَ الَّذِي هُوَ فِعْلُ اللَّهِ– تَعَالَى– وَخَلْقُهُ وَتَصْـوِيرُهُ؛ أَمْرٌ اعْتِبَـارِيٌّ، لَا اسْتِقْلَالَ لَهُ بِذَاتِهِ، وَاِنَّمَا هُوَ قَائِمٌ بِفَاعِلِهِ الْمُقَوِّمِ لَهُ، وَهُوَ الْحَقُّ– تَعَالَى– فَمَا هُوَ غَيْرُهُ وَلَا سِوَاهُ،
We said this only so that it be known that the world, which is God's act, exalted is He, His creating and His forming, is a merely posited thing with no independence in itself; it subsists only by its doer who sustains it, and that is the Real, exalted is He; so it is not other than Him nor besides Him;
فَالْقِيَامُ وَالْقُعُودُ مَثَلاً، لَا وُجُودَ لَهُ فِي حَدِّ ذَاتِهِ، وَاِنَّمَا الْفَاعِلُ صَارَ ظَاهِراً بِهِ، بَعْدَ أَنْ لَمْ يَكُنْ ظَاهِراً بِهِ،
Standing and sitting, for example, have no existence in themselves; the doer has simply become manifest through it, after not having been manifest through it;
وَقَدْ وَرَدَ فِي الْكِتَابِ الْعَزِيزِ وَالسُّنَّةِ النَّبَوِيَّةِ نِسْبَةُ الْفِعْلِ اِلَى اللَّهِ وَحْدَهُ، وَنِسْبَتُهُ اِلَى الْخَلْقِ وَحْدَهُ، وَنِسْبَتُهُ اِلَى اللَّهِ بِالْخَلْقِ، وَنِسْبَتُهُ اِلَى الْخَلْقِ بِاللَّهِ.
In the Mighty Book and the Prophetic Sunna there have come the attribution of the act to God alone, its attribution to creatures alone, its attribution to God through creatures, and its attribution to creatures through God.
فَلِهَذَا كَثُرَ اللَّغَطُ وَانْتَشَرَ الِاخْتِلَافُ فِي نِسْبَةِ الْحَاصِلِ بِالْمَصْدَرِ، لِمَنْ هُوَ،
For this reason the clamour grew and disagreement spread over the attribution of what results from the verbal noun: to whom does it belong?
وَمَنْ عَرَفَ مُسَمَّى الْمَخْلُوقِ، وَمَا هُوَ عَرَفَ الْأَمْرَ كَمَا هُوَ.
Whoever knows what is named by “the created”, and what it is, knows the matter as it is.
وَلَيْسَ هَذَا اِلاَّ اِلَى الطَّائِفَةِ الْمَرْحُومَةِ، أَلْحَقَنَا اللَّهُ بِهَا وَجَعَلَنَا مِنْحِزْبِهَا،
And this belongs only to the group granted mercy; may God join us to them and make us of their party.
قِيلَ لِي فِي الْوَاقِعَةِ: اِنَّمَا أَضَافَ تَعَالَى الْفِعْلَ اِلَى الْمَخْلُوقَاتِ أَحْيَاناً، مِنْ حَيْثُأَنَّهُمْ صُوَرٌ وَأَشْكَالٌ فِي الْوُجُودِ الْحَقِّ، لَاغَيْرُ.
It was said to me in the visionary event: He, exalted is He, attributed the act to creatures at times only inasmuch as they are forms and shapes in the real Existence, nothing else.
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