al-Fātiḥa, in layers

The whole book on seven verses

Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī d. 673/1274

Iʿjāz al-bayān fī taʾwīl Umm al-Qurʾān إعجاز البيان في تأويل أم القرآن

Ibn ʿArabī's stepson and chief interpreter reads the Fātiḥa across four hundred pages, each verse in four “tongues”: the outward, the inward, the limit and the place of ascent. He follows the ḥadīth's division into three sections, the middle one shared. The Arabic is the 1949 print, read from its page images (the archive.org OCR is unreliable) and checked against the OpenITI digital text; consonantal, as printed. Translations are AI (Claude).

Hyderabad: Maṭbaʿat Majlis Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-ʿUthmāniyya, 2nd printing 1368/1949 (434 leaves; Qūnawī's text pp. 1–408): the scan ↗Digital text (OpenITI) ↗

1. The Fātiḥa as the "copy of the copy": the five divine books and presences (Qūnawī's own introduction)

   Introduction · pp. 3–4 in the 1949 print ↗

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   ثم ان الحق سبحانه وتعالى جعل العالم الكبير الاول من حيث الصورة كتابا حاملا صور اسماء الحق وصور نسب علمه المودع في القلم الاسمى، وجعل الانسان الكامل الذي هو العالم الصغير من حيث الصورة كتابا وسطا جامعا بين حضرة الاسماء وحضرة المسمى، وجعل القرآن العزيز خلق المخلوق على صورته ليبين به خفي سيرته وسر سورة مرتبته. فالقرآن العزيز هو النسخة الشارحة صفات الكمال الظاهر بالانسان، والفاتحة نسخة النسخة القرآنية من غير اختلال ولا نقصان، وكما ان كل نسخة تالية هي مختصرة الاولى كذلك كانت الفاتحة آخر النسخ العلى. والكتب الالهية الكلية خمسة على عدد الحضرات الاول الاصلية: فاولها الحضرة الغيبية العلمية النورية المحيطة بكل ما ظهر، ولها المعاني المجردة والنسب الاسمائية العلمية؛ وتقابلها حضرة الظهور والشهادة، ولها ظاهر الوجود الكوني المسمى بالكتاب الكبير وسائر التشخصات الصورية؛ وحضرة الجمع والوجود والاخفاء والاعلان، ولها الوسط، وصاحبها الانسان؛ وعن يمين هذه الحضرة الوسطى حضرة بينها وبين الغيب المتقدم نسبتها اليه اقوى واتم، وكتابها عالم الارواح واللوح المحفوظ المصون الملحوظ؛ وعن يسارها حضرة نسبتها الى الاسم الظاهرة[كذا] مرتبة الشهادة اقرب، وهي مستوى الصحف المنزلة على الانبياء والكتب. فالكتب الاربعة المذكورة جداول بحر احكام مرتبة الانسان المستورة.

   Then the Real (glory be to Him, exalted) made the first, great world, in respect of form, a book bearing the forms of the Real's names and the forms of the relations of His knowledge deposited in the loftiest Pen; and He made the perfect human being, who is the small world, in respect of form, a middle book, gathering together the presence of the names and the presence of the Named; and He made the mighty Qurʾān the character (khuluq) of the one created upon His form, so as to make clear thereby the hidden course of his conduct (sīra) and the secret of the form (sūra) of his rank. So the mighty Qurʾān is the copy that explains the attributes of perfection manifest through the human being, and the Fātiḥa is the copy of the Qurʾānic copy, without defect or deficiency; and just as every subsequent copy is an abridgement of the first, so the Fātiḥa was the last of the lofty copies. The universal divine books are five, according to the number of the first, root presences. The first of them is the unseen, cognitive, luminous presence that encompasses all that has become manifest; to it belong the abstract meanings and the cognitive name-relations. Facing it is the presence of manifestation and witnessing; to it belongs the outward face of engendered existence, called the Great Book, and all the formal individuations. [Then] the presence of gathering and existence, of concealment and disclosure; to it belongs the middle, and its possessor is the human being. To the right of this middle presence is a presence lying between it and the aforementioned unseen, whose relation to [the unseen] is stronger and more complete; its book is the world of spirits and the Guarded Tablet, the protected and regarded. To its left is a presence whose relation to the Manifest name, the level of witnessing, is nearer; it is the plane on which the scriptures (ṣuḥuf) and books sent down upon the prophets settle. So the four books mentioned are channels of the sea of the hidden rulings of the rank of the human being.

   ✦AI translation. Read against the page images of the 1949 print and the OpenITI digital text.

   Readings and notes (5)

   • "sīratihi" (سيرته): the print clearly has سيرته; the OpenITI/ibnalarabi.com digital text agrees; an emendation to سريرته ("his inner secret") is conceivable but not adopted.
   • "al-qalam al-asmā" (القلم الاسمى): print unvocalized; read as al-asmā "the loftiest" (OpenITI: الأسمى).
   • "al-ism al-ẓāhira" (الاسم الظاهرة) sic in print; OpenITI reads الاسم الظاهر. Translated as the latter.
   • Semicolons/colons are editorial punctuation added here; the print uses almost none.
   • The OpenITI text inserts "[شارح]" before خلق المخلوق; not in the 1949 print.

2. Basmala: why the bāʾ, the letter nearest the alif, opens the Book (alif = the One; bāʾ = the first duality)

   On 1:1 · pp. 136–137 in the 1949 print ↗

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   ولما كان مبدأ انبعاث النفس الانساني الذي انفتحت فيه صور الحروف هو باطن القلب، وله الغيب الاضافي نظير الغيب المطلق الذي له النفس الرحماني، وهو مستند الاحدية والتعين الاول المشار اليه، وكان الشفتان آخر مراتب النفس الانساني والكلام، ولهما الشهادة والتثنية الظاهرة في مقابلة التثنية الاولى المتعينة من الوحدة وبها، وكان الواحد من شانه ان لا يتعين في مرتبة من المراتب بنفسه بل يعين ولا يتعين، والالف كما بينا مظهره، وكان اقرب الحروف نسبة الى الالف هو الباء، كما ان اقرب المراتب نسبة الى الوحدة هي التثنية الاولى المذكورة، لمجاورة آخر نقطة الدائرة اولها، ولما علمت من حال الكثرة التي هي مقابلة الوحدة من انها تنتهي عند التحليل الى الوحدة التي انتشأت منها. واحكام الوجود والحقائق والمراتب والموجودات دورية، والحركات المعقولة والمحسوسة من الامور الكلية والتالية لها ايضا دورية، وهذا من البين عند الالباء المستبصرين؛ فظهر لما قلنا، وكما بينا، حرف الباء في المرتبة الثانية من الالف. وقد اسلفنا ان كل ظاهر متعين فانه اسم دال على اصله الذي تعين منه وظهر به، فالحروف والكلمات اللفظية والرقمية هي اسماء الاسماء لدلالتها على حقائق الاسماء الغيبية.

   Since the starting-point of the emission of the human breath, in which the forms of the letters open out, is the inward of the heart — to which belongs the relative unseen, the counterpart of the absolute unseen to which belongs the All-Merciful Breath, and which is the support of the Unity (aḥadiyya) and of the first entification referred to — and since the two lips are the last stages of the human breath and of speech, to which belong the witnessed [realm] and the manifest duality, facing the first duality that is entified from unity and through it; and since it belongs to the One not to be entified in any level by itself, but to entify without being entified — and the alif, as we have explained, is its locus of manifestation — the letter nearest in relation to the alif is the bāʾ, just as the level nearest in relation to unity is the first duality mentioned: because the end-point of the circle adjoins its beginning, and because of what you know of the state of multiplicity, which stands over against unity, namely that on analysis it terminates in the unity from which it arose. The rulings of existence, the realities, the levels and the existents are circular, and the intelligible and sensible motions — among the universal matters and those that follow them — are likewise circular; this is plain to the discerning men of understanding. So, by what we have said, and as we have explained, the letter bāʾ has become manifest in the second level from the alif. We have already stated that everything manifest and entified is a name indicating its root, from which it was entified and through which it became manifest; so spoken and written letters and words are names of the names, by their indicating the realities of the unseen names.

   ✦AI translation. Read against the page images of the 1949 print and the OpenITI digital text.

   Readings and notes (5)

   • Excerpt begins with the last word of p.136 (ولما, followed by catchword كان) and runs to p.137 l.14.
   • "انفتحت" as printed (OCR: انفتت); agreement with masc. relative الذي is loose in the print; OpenITI identical.
   • "انتشأت" as printed; OpenITI reads انتشت.
   • "فظهر لما قلنا وكما بينا حرف الباء": syntax elliptical; OpenITI adds [أن] before حرف. Translation construes حرف الباء as subject of ظهر.
   • Context: this is the opening of the section "Tafṣīl li-mujmal qawlihi Bismi llāhi l-Raḥmāni l-Raḥīm" (p.136), subtitled "al-sharḥ bi-lisān al-martaba al-dhawqiyya".

3. The inner senses of the Qurʾān, and everything folded into the Fātiḥa, the basmala, the name Allāh and its hāʾ

   On 1:1 · p. 146 in the 1949 print ↗

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   ومن لا يكشف له هذا الطور لم يعرف سر بطون القرآن التي ذكرها رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم بقوله «للقرآن ظهر وبطن الى سبعة ابطن» وفي رواية الى سبعين بطنا، ولا سر قوله (اعطى كل شيء خلقه)، ولا سر قوله (يدبر الامر)، ولا سر قوله صلى الله عليه وسلم «خصصت بست» وتعيينه في جملتها الفاتحة وخواتم البقرة الدالة على كمال ذوقه وجمعيته، ولا سر قوله تعالى (تنزيل من حكيم حميد)، ولا سر قول علي رضي الله عنه «لو اذن لي في تفسير الفاتحة لحملت منها سبعين وقرا»، ولا سر قول الحسن رضي الله عنه «انزل الله مائة كتاب واربعة كتب فاودع المائة في الاربعة» وهي التوراة والانجيل والزبور والفرقان، واودع الجميع في القرآن، واودع جميع ما في القرآن في المفصل، واودع ما في المفصل في الفاتحة. وقد نبهتك الآن على اندراج الجميع في هذه الاسماء الثلاثة، ثم اندراج الاسمين وما تحت حيطتهما في الاسم الله، ثم اندراج كل شيء في حرف الهاء من الاسم الله.

   Whoever has not had this stage unveiled to him does not know the secret of the inner senses (buṭūn) of the Qurʾān which the Messenger of God (God bless him and give him peace) mentioned when he said, “The Qurʾān has an outward and an inward, up to seven inward senses”, and in one transmission, “up to seventy”; nor the secret of His saying, “He gave everything its creation” (Q 20:50); nor of His saying, “He directs the affair” (Q 10:3); nor of his saying, “I have been singled out with six things”, and his naming among them the Fātiḥa and the closing verses of al-Baqara, which point to the perfection of his tasting and his all-comprehensiveness; nor the secret of His saying, “a sending-down from One Wise, Praiseworthy” (Q 41:42); nor the secret of the saying of ʿAlī (God be pleased with him), “Were I permitted to comment on the Fātiḥa, I would load seventy camel-loads from it”; nor the secret of the saying of al-Ḥasan (God be pleased with him), “God sent down a hundred and four books, and deposited the hundred in the four” (the Torah, the Gospel, the Psalms and the Furqān), “and deposited them all in the Qurʾān, and deposited all that is in the Qurʾān in the mufaṣṣal, and deposited what is in the mufaṣṣal in the Fātiḥa.” And I have now drawn your attention to how all of it is folded into these three names [Allāh, al-Raḥmān, al-Raḥīm], then how the two names, and what lies within their compass, are folded into the name Allāh, and then how everything is folded into the letter hāʾ of the name Allāh.

   ✦AI translation. Read against the page image of the 1949 print (p. 146) and the OpenITI digital text.

   Readings and notes (3)

   • Read from the page image of p. 146 (the passage opens at the top of the page's second paragraph); the OpenITI text agrees word for word apart from its «صلى الله عليه وآله».
   • “These three names”: the context is his commentary on the basmala, so the three are Allāh, al-Raḥmān, al-Raḥīm; the bracket is ours.
   • Qūnawī gives the “seven inward senses” as the Prophet's saying without an isnād; no chain for it is known in the ḥadīth collections (see the page's layer 9).

4. Al-ḥamd: the divisions and kinds of praise; praise of praise; ḥamd vs. shukr vs. tasbīḥ

   On 1:2 · pp. 166–167 in the 1949 print ↗

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   فاذا عرفت هذا فنقول: الحمد ينقسم من وجه الى حمد المحمود نفسه والى حمد غيره له. ثم ان الحمد بما يحمد الشيء نفسه او بما يحمده غيره على انواع ثلاثة، لانه اما ان يحمده بصفة فعل، او صفة تنزيه، او صفة ثبوتية قائمة بالمحمود يستحسنها الحامد فيثني على المحمود من حيث هي، او عليها من حيث ظهور حكمها بالمحمود وفيه، بما بينه وبينها من المناسبة الثابتة بما فيه منها كما بينا. وهذا القسم من وجه يندرج في قسم صفة الفعل، فان الاستحسان ونحوه لا يخلو عن نوع انفعال. وحمد الحمد يسري ويظهر في كل الاقسام بذاته، ولو لم يكن لما صح حمد، لما عرفت من ان الحكم في كل موجود ومرتبة للسر الجمعي، فتذكر. ثم الحمد نوعان: احدهما وهو العلم[كذا] الحمد بما عليه المحمود، والثاني اخص منه وهو الحمد بما يكون منه ويسمى شكرا. وتعين الكلمات والصور والصفات والاحوال والكيفيات الظاهرة والمعقولة من حيث دلالتها على ما ذكر لا يتناهى، وليس للحمد والمحمودين والحامدين قسم ولا مرتبة تخرج عن هذه الاصول التي ذكرناها. وخاتمة الضوابط في هذا الباب هو ان تعلم ان كل ما ينسب الى الجناب الالهي بلسان الحمد والثناء لا يخلو اما ان يفيد امرا ثبوتيا او سلبيا، فالسلب راجع الى التسبيح، والاثبات مندرج في الحمد، فافهم.

   Once you know this, we say: praise divides, in one respect, into the praised one's praise of himself and another's praise of him. Then praise — that by which a thing praises itself or by which another praises it — is of three kinds: for one praises him either by an attribute of act, or an attribute of transcendence (tanzīh), or a positive attribute subsisting in the praised one which the praiser finds beautiful, and so lauds the praised one in respect of it, or lauds it in respect of the manifestation of its ruling property in and through the praised one, by virtue of the fixed affinity between him and it, through what of it is in him, as we have explained. In one respect this [last] kind falls under the kind 'attribute of act', since finding-beautiful and the like are not free of a kind of being-affected. And the praise of praise (ḥamd al-ḥamd) pervades and appears in all the kinds by its very essence; were it not so, no praise would be valid — for you know that the ruling property in every existent and every level belongs to the secret of all-comprehensiveness (al-sirr al-jamʿī). So remember. Then praise is of two sorts: one of them — the more general [print: 'knowledge'] — is praise for what the praised one is; the second, more specific than it, is praise for what comes from him, and this is called thanks (shukr). The entification of words, forms, attributes, states and qualities, outward and intelligible, insofar as they indicate what has been mentioned, is without end; yet there is no kind or level of praise, of the praised or of the praisers, that falls outside these roots we have mentioned. The seal of the rules in this chapter is that you know that whatever is ascribed to the divine side in the tongue of praise and laudation must convey either something positive or something negative: the negative goes back to glorification (tasbīḥ), and the positive is included in praise (ḥamd). So understand.

   ✦AI translation. Read against the page images of the 1949 print and the OpenITI digital text.

   Readings and notes (4)

   • "وهو العلم" is clearly what the print shows (p.167 l.4) and the OpenITI text agrees; context (والثاني اخص منه) demands الاعم "the more general". Treated as a misprint; translation follows الاعم.
   • "بصفة" — the print's ص is poorly inked (OCR: بسفة); read بصفة.
   • Last word of p.166 is بذاته, followed by catchword ولو; excerpt continues p.167 ll.1–13.
   • Qūnawī's formal commentary on the lemma al-ḥamd begins p.161 (OCR l.4678: "فنقول قوله تعالى (الحمد) الحمد من مقام التفصيل ..."); this excerpt is the typology at the close of that sub-section, just before the lemma "lillāh" (p.167, l.4843).

5. Opening of the second "section" (qism) of the Fātiḥa: iyyāka naʿbudu wa-iyyāka nastaʿīn — worship as utmost submission; why worship precedes seeking help

   On 1:5 · pp. 264–265 in the 1949 print ↗

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   فاتحة القسم الثاني قوله تعالى (اياك نعبد واياك نستعين)، والابتداء اولا بعون الله ومشيئته بذكر ما يقتضيه ظاهر اللسان ومرتبته، ثم نرقى منه وفيه بالتدريج الى الباطن، ثم الحد والمطلع، والامر المحيط الحاكم على الجميع، كما يسر الله ذلك فيما مر. […] والعبادة في اللغة اقصى غايات الخضوع والتذلل، ومنه ثوب ذو عبدة اذا كان في غاية الصفاقة وقوة النسج، كأنه اشارة الى قبوله الانفعال والتأثير القوي، وارض معبدة مذللة. واما سر باطن ظاهر (اياك نعبد) الآية، هو انه لما ذكر الحقيق بالحمد واجرى عليه صفات العظمة والجلال ونعته بنعوت الكمال، تعلق العلم او الذهن بمتصور عظيم الشأن جدير بالثناء وغاية الخضوع والاستعانة به في المهمات، فخوطب ذلك المعلوم او المتصور المتميز بتلك الصفات حين تعين مرتبته وصورة عظمته في ذهن المناجي بحسب معتقده فيه الذي عليه يترتب اسناد تلك الصفات اليه، وقيام المناجي حالتئذ في مقام العبودية المقابلة للربوبية المستحضرة له عقيب ذلك بـ«اياك نعبد» يا من هذه صفاته، اشارة الى تخصيصه بالعبادة وطلب الاستعانة منه، اي لا نعبد غيرك ولا نستعينه، اقتصارا عليه وانفرادا له، وليكون الخطاب ادل على ان العبادة لذلك المتميز بذلك المتميز الذي لا تتحقق العبادة الا به. واقران العبادة بالاستعانة للجمع بين ما يتقرب به العباد الى ربهم وبين ما يطلبونه ويحتاجون اليه من جهته، وتقديم العبادة على الاستعانة كتقديم الوسيلة على طلب الحاجة رجاء الاجابة، كما نبه سبحانه على ذلك بقوله (اذا ناجيتم الرسول فقدموا بين يدي نجواكم صدقة ذلك خير لكم) الآية، واطلاق الاستعانة لتناول كل مستعان به.

   Opening of the second section: His saying (exalted is He), 'You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help.' We begin first — with God's help and will — by mentioning what the outward sense of the language and its level require; then we ascend from it and within it by degrees to the inward, then to the limit (ḥadd) and the point of ascent (muṭṭalaʿ), and to the all-encompassing matter that governs all of these, as God made that easy in what has gone before. […] Worship (ʿibāda) in the language is the utmost extreme of submission and abasement. From it comes 'a garment having ʿabada', when it is extremely close-woven and of strong texture — as though alluding to its receptivity to strong impression and effect — and 'a trodden (muʿabbad) ground', i.e. one made level and submissive. As for the secret of the inward of the outward of 'You alone we worship …': when He had mentioned the One worthy of praise, applied to Him the attributes of majesty and splendour and described Him with the qualities of perfection, knowledge or the mind attached itself to something conceived as of immense standing, worthy of laudation, of utmost submission and of being asked for help in weighty affairs. So that known or conceived one, distinguished by those attributes, was addressed at the moment when its rank and the form of its majesty became determinate in the mind of the one in intimate converse — according to his belief about Him, upon which the ascription of those attributes to Him depends — and the one in converse stood at that moment in the station of servanthood that faces the lordship made present to him; directly after that [he says] 'You alone we worship', O You whose attributes these are: an indication of singling Him out for worship and of seeking help from Him — i.e. we worship none but You and ask help of none but You, confining ourselves to You and devoting ourselves to You alone — and so that the address should indicate more clearly that worship belongs to that Distinguished One, through that Distinguished One, without whom worship is not realized. Worship is joined to seeking help so as to combine what the servants draw near to their Lord by with what they ask and need from Him; and worship is put before seeking help as the means is put before the request for a need, in hope of a response — as He (glory be to Him) indicated by His saying, 'When you converse privately with the Messenger, put forward alms before your private converse; that is better for you' (Q 58:12); and seeking help is left unqualified so as to cover everything for which help is sought.

   ✦AI translation. Read against the page images of the 1949 print and the OpenITI digital text.

   Readings and notes (5)

   • […] marks an omitted grammatical paragraph on iyyā as a detached accusative pronoun (p.264 ll.5–10, OCR 7302–7309).
   • "ثم نرقى" — print shows نرقى (OCR: نر منه); vocalization uncertain (narqā).
   • "وأما سر باطن ظاهر" is as printed; both OpenITI and the print agree.
   • The editor's preface (pp. 8–9 of the preface, OCR ll. 176–195) paraphrases exactly this passage.
   • This is the ẓāhir-level opening; the deeper treatment of the prayer-ḥadīth follows at pp. 268–269 (next excerpt).

6. Iyyāka naʿbudu and the ḥadīth qudsī "I have divided the prayer between Me and My servant": worship addressed to a mental idol cannot be the divided prayer

   On 1:5 · pp. 268–269 in the 1949 print ↗

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   فيا من هذا شأنه، بالله عليك راجع نفسك وانظر: هل يمكن ان يكون لمثل هذا الحال والاعتقاد ثمرة، او يرضى بها عاقل ذو همة عالية في معتقده او عباداته وتوجهه في صلاة او غيرها من العبادات؟ واين المقصود من قوله تعالى (فاستبقوا الخيرات) الآية؟ فاين المسابقة، واين التوجه الصحيح المصدق قول المتوجه الى الحق في زعمه (اياك نعبد) وهو كاذب؟ فانه لم يخاطب بهذا الا الصورة الذهنية التي خلقها بعقله السخيف او وهمه وخياله ورأيه الضعيف. وانى ترجى ثمرة عبادة او صلاة هذا اساسها؟ واين «قسمت الصلاة بيني وبين عبدي» وذكره سبحانه الفاتحة واقسامها كـ«مجدني عبدي» و«فوض الي» و«هذه بيني وبين عبدي» و«هؤلاء لعبدي ولعبدي ما سأل»؟ فبالله عليك، هذه الصورة المنتشئة في ذهنك تقول شيئا من هذا، او تقدر على شيء؟ هيهات! المنشئون لتلك الصور لا يملكون لانفسهم نفعا ولا ضرا، فما الظن ببعض ما انتشأ فيهم منهم على النحو المذكور؟ واعلم ان في قوله صلى الله عليه وسلم في حديث الفاتحة والصلاة «يقبل من الصلاة ربعها ونصفها»، وتعديده الاقسام حتى انتهى الى التسع، ثم قال «وآخر تؤخذ صلاته كالثوب الخلق فيضرب بها وجهه»، اشارة الى ما ذكرنا من تفاوت حظوظ المتعبدين وقلة جدوى الكثير منهم وحرمان آخرين بالكلية، وليس ذلك الا لما ذكرنا من تأسيس الامر على غير اصل صحيح، ونعوذ بالله من ذلك ومثله.

   O you whose state this is — by God, look back at yourself and consider: can such a state and belief bear any fruit, or can an intelligent person of high aspiration be content with it in his belief, his acts of worship, and his turning [to God] in prayer or other devotions? Where then is what is intended by His saying, 'So vie with one another in good works' (Q 2:148)? Where is the vying, and where the sound turning that would verify the words of one who, as he claims, turns to the Real saying 'You alone we worship' — while he is lying? For he has addressed with this nothing but the mental image that he himself created with his feeble intellect, or his imagination and fantasy and weak opinion. How can the fruit of a worship or prayer whose foundation is this be hoped for? And where is 'I have divided the prayer between Me and My servant', and His (glory be to Him) mentioning the Fātiḥa and its sections — as in 'My servant has glorified Me', 'He has entrusted [his affair] to Me', 'This is between Me and My servant', and 'These are for My servant, and My servant shall have what he asked'? By God — does this image arising in your mind say anything of this, or have power over anything? Far from it! Those who give rise to such images possess for themselves neither benefit nor harm; so what should one think of something that arose in them, from them, in the way described? And know that in his saying (God bless him and give him peace), in the ḥadīth of the Fātiḥa and the prayer, 'Of the prayer, a quarter of it is accepted, and a half of it' — his enumerating the portions until he reached a ninth, and then saying, 'and another's prayer is taken like a worn-out garment and struck against his face' — there is an allusion to what we have mentioned: the disparity of worshippers' shares, the slight profit of many of them, and the utter deprivation of others; and this is only because of what we have mentioned, the founding of the matter on no sound root. We seek refuge in God from that and its like.

   ✦AI translation. Read against the page images of the 1949 print and the OpenITI digital text.

   Readings and notes (5)

   • "تقول" — the print's dots here are ambiguous (could be read تنول); OpenITI reads تقول, and the sense (the divine sayings of the ḥadīth) confirms "say".
   • "المنتشئة": print shows المنتشية; normalized.
   • The quotation "لا يملكون لانفسهم نفعا ولا ضرا" echoes Q 13:16 / 25:3 but is not bracketed as Qurʾān in the print.
   • The first sentence begins mid-page p.268 (l.7); the preceding lines criticize worship directed to a self-made mental image (from p.267).
   • Qūnawī quotes the ḥadīth in fragments; the full text (Muslim, Ṣalāt) is printed by the 1949 editor in a footnote to his preface (OCR ll. 147–156).

7. Opening of the third section: the tripartite division of the Fātiḥa (first part God's, last part the servant's, middle shared) and the plural "ihdinā"

   On 1:6 · p. 286 in the 1949 print ↗

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   فاتحة القسم الثالث من اقسام أم الكتاب، بموجب التقسيم الالهي والتعريف النبوي، وهو آخر اقسامها، والخصيص بالعبد، كما كان الاول خصيصا بالحق، والمتوسط مشتركا بين الطرفين. قوله تعالى (اهدنا الصراط المستقيم): اعلم ان هذه الآية تشتمل على امور تتعلق بظاهرها وامور تختص بما بعد الظاهر وفوقه، ونحن نبدأ بالظاهر ثم نشرع فيما بعد. فنقول: هذه الآية منتظمة من ثلاث كلمات: لفظة اهدنا، ولفظة الصراط، والمستقيم، ولكل واحدة من هذه الثلاث ثلاث مراتب ظاهرة وثلاث مراتب باطنة سننبه عليها كلها ان شاء الله تعالى، فتذكر تثليث الفاتحة وافحص عن سره، فان اشهدته شاهدت العجب. واهدنا امر في صورة دعاء وسؤال، وهو مأخوذ من الهداية وهي البيان، واصل هذه اللفظة بالياء وانحذفت للامر، وورودها بصيغة الجمع هو ارداف لما سلف في قوله (نعبد ونستعين)، فكأن كل من العباد يترجم عن الجميع بلسان النسب الجامع والحكم المشترك بين الكل. والحكمة الاولى في ذلك ان الخلق لا يخلو فيهم من عبد يستجاب له في عين ما سأل، فيسري حكم دعائه وبركة عبادته تلك في الجميع.

   Opening of the third section of the sections of the Mother of the Book — according to the divine division and the prophetic instruction — which is the last of its sections and is proper to the servant, just as the first was proper to the Real and the middle shared between the two sides. His saying (exalted is He), 'Guide us on the straight path': know that this verse contains matters pertaining to its outward sense and matters proper to what lies beyond and above the outward; we begin with the outward and then proceed to what lies beyond. We say: this verse is composed of three words — the word 'guide us', the word 'the path', and 'straight' — and each of these three has three outward levels and three inward levels, to all of which we shall draw attention, God willing. So recall the threefoldness of the Fātiḥa and search into its secret; if He lets you witness it, you will witness a marvel. 'Guide us' is a command in the form of supplication and request; it is taken from hidāya, which is making-clear (bayān); the root of this word has a yāʾ, which was dropped for the imperative. Its coming in the plural form follows on from what preceded in His saying 'we worship' and 'we ask for help': it is as though each of the servants spoke for all, in the tongue of the comprehensive relation and the ruling shared among all. The first wisdom in this is that among creatures there is never lacking a servant who is answered in the very thing he asked; so the ruling property of his supplication and the blessing of that worship of his pervade all.

   ✦AI translation. Read against the page images of the 1949 print and the OpenITI digital text.

   Readings and notes (3)

   • The heading (4 centred lines) is part of the 1949 print and matches the fihrist entry (fihrist p.3: p.286).
   • "فكأن كل من العباد" as printed (grammatically كلاًّ expected).
   • The middle (shared) section = iyyāka naʿbudu wa-iyyāka nastaʿīn, cf. the ḥadīth phrase «هذه بيني وبين عبدي» quoted p.268.

8. The seven kinds of people in uprightness (istiqāma): by word, deed and heart

   On 1:6 · pp. 303–304 in the 1949 print ↗

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   واذ قد ذكرنا نبذا من اقسام الناس في مراتب الهداية والاهتداء فلنذكر ما يختص بالاستقامة. اعلم ان الناس في الاستقامة على سبعة اقسام: مستقيم بقوله وفعله وقلبه، ومستقيم بقلبه وفعله دون قوله، ولهذين الفوز والاول اعلى؛ ومستقيم بفعله وقوله دون قلبه، وهذا يرجى له النفع بغيره؛ ومستقيم بقوله وقلبه دون فعله، ومستقيم بقوله دون فعله وقلبه، ومستقيم بقلبه دون فعله وقوله، ومستقيم بفعله دون قلبه وقوله، وهؤلاء عليهم لا لهم، وان كان بعضهم فوق بعض. وليس المراد بالاستقامة في القول هنا ترك الغيبة والنميمة وشبههما، فان الفعل يشمل ذلك، وانما المراد بالاستقامة في القول ارشاد الغير بقوله الى الصراط المستقيم، وقد يكون عريا مما يرشد اليه. وسنجمع الامر لك في مثال واحد موضح، فنقول: مثاله رجل تفقه في امر صلاته وحققها ثم علمها غيره، فهذا مستقيم في قوله؛ ثم حضر وقتها فاداها على نحو ما علمها محافظا على اركانها الظاهرة، فهذا مستقيم في فعله؛ ثم علم ان مراد الله منه من تلك الصلاة حضور قلبه معه فيها فاحضره، فهذا مستقيم بقلبه. وقس على ذلك بقية الاقسام تصب ان شاء الله.

   Now that we have mentioned something of the classes of people in the levels of guidance and being-guided, let us mention what is specific to uprightness (istiqāma). Know that people in uprightness are of seven classes: (1) upright in word, deed and heart; (2) upright in heart and deed but not in word — these two attain success, and the first is higher; (3) upright in deed and word but not in heart — for this one benefit is hoped through others; (4) upright in word and heart but not in deed; (5) upright in word but not in deed or heart; (6) upright in heart but not in deed or word; (7) upright in deed but not in heart or word — and these [last] count against them, not for them, even though some of them are above others. By uprightness in word here is not meant abstaining from backbiting, slander and the like, for 'deed' covers that; rather, uprightness in word means guiding others by one's speech to the straight path — while one may oneself be devoid of what one guides to. We shall gather the matter for you in a single clarifying example. Its example: a man who studied the law of his prayer and verified it, then taught it to another — this one is upright in his word; then its time came and he performed it as he had learned it, keeping its outward pillars — this one is upright in his deed; then he knew that what God wanted of him in that prayer was the presence of his heart with Him in it, and he made it present — this one is upright in his heart. Measure the remaining classes by this and you will hit the mark, God willing.

   ✦AI translation. Read against the page images of the 1949 print and the OpenITI digital text.

   Readings and notes (4)

   • CONFIRMED: the classification is seven (سبعة اقسام), and it is Qūnawī's own text (p.303), not only the editor's summary (the editor paraphrases it in his preface, OCR ll. 203–215).
   • "وهؤلاء عليهم لا لهم" — OCR garbled this as لاهم; print and OpenITI read عليهم لا لهم. Its scope (classes 4–7, or only the last four listed after the break) is not explicit; translated as referring to the remaining classes.
   • "وهذا يرجى له النفع بغيره": ambiguous — either "benefit is hoped for him by means of others" or "benefit to others is hoped through him"; rendered literally.
   • The ibnalarabi.com/OpenITI digital text places this under an editorial heading "وصل: في مراتب الاستقامة", which is NOT in the 1949 print.