The Secrets of Surah al-Fatiha: the Treatise Attributed to Ibn Arabi

Stage 2/3 · Secrets of the Basmala· the Name, the word Allah, al-Rahman al-Rahim

The four degrees in "Bism Allah al-Rahman al-Rahim (بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم)"

Then know that in "Bism Allah al-Rahman al-Rahim" there are four degrees: the indicating Name (الاسم الدال), the Essence, the attribute of Majesty (jalal, جلال), and the attribute of Beauty (jamal, جمال). And these are the degrees of all existent things, for they are four divisions: divinity, spirituality, corporeality, and animality, the last being everything possessed of a spirit.

The meaning of the ba' at the head of these four degrees is an allusion: "the existence of these worlds is through Me; nothing other than Me has true existence, except in name." The world, I mean all that is other than God, is existent in name and metaphor, not in meaning and reality. To this one of them alluded with his saying: "I never looked upon a thing without seeing God in it"; and clearer still is the saying of another: "I never looked upon a thing without seeing God before it." And the Prophet ﷺ declared it with his saying: "Do not revile Time (al-dahr, الدهر), for Time is God", a hadith whose soundness is agreed upon.

So the verified sense of "Bism Allah al-Rahman al-Rahim" is: My existence is through My Essence, and that is God; and all My attributes, those of the order of Majesty and those of the order of Beauty, subsist through the Essence; and whatever is other than Me, namely the world, is a name, existent through My union, subsisting through My self-subsistence. "So glory be to Him in whose hand is the dominion of all things, and to Him you shall be returned" Ya-Sin 36:83.

In it is another allusion: that created beings are veiled by the veil of the names of their own selves and the veil of the names of everything other than them in the world. They imagined for every name a named object, and so fell into the wilderness of association (shirk, شرك) and separation, wandered in the desert of misguidance, and their foot slipped from the straight path and the highway of tawhid and oneness. But when they crossed over, with the foot of truthfulness in following, past the veils, and its wastes were traversed by the teaching of "And He taught Adam the names, all of them" al-Baqara 2:31, with which Adam was singled out, they knew that there was nothing of substance beneath them, and they recognized that these names laid upon things are: "nothing but names which you have named, you and your fathers" al-Najm 53:23. It was to lift this mask that the Prophet's ﷺ supplication was: "O God, show us things as they really are." For everything has, according to the outward, names conveying a meaning that suits it, as Adam (آدم) was named "Adam" because he was taken from the surface-soil (adim, أديم) of the earth: this name suits his outward being; but in reality he has another name, conveying a true meaning

deposited within him, suited to that reality; and that is His saying, exalted is He: "I am placing upon the earth a khalifa (خليفة, vicegerent)" al-Baqara 2:30, He named him, by correspondence to the deposited true meaning, "khalifa." Likewise everything has one name in the outward and, in reality, another name. The human being alone, not the angel or any other, was singled out for being taught all the names. So when they were freed from the prison of ignorance of the names and its veils were lifted, they arrived at God; and when they arrived at God, exalted is He, they profited from His Majesty, and He is al-Rahman, and delighted in His Beauty, and He is al-Rahim.

The allusion in the precedence of "the Name"

As for the precedence of "the Name" (al-ism) in "Bism Allah": among what has been said of it is that it is for blessing (tabarruk, تبرك).

And of the sin [of "ism"], among what has been said: it marks the difference between seeking auspiciousness and the right hand [al-tayammun wa-l-yumn].

And among them, as I have said: to Him belong the Most Beautiful Names, and corresponding to every name He has an attribute; so the unrestricted utterance of the absolute Name encompasses every one of the Names. The Names have their root in the Attributes, and God has no attribute without a name indicating it. On this basis, beginning "with God" falls upon every name and every attribute. The ba' is for implication (tadmin, تضمين), that is: "Begin with all My names and My attributes: I am God, al-Rahman, al-Rahim, who brought the created beings into being and made the existents manifest. I order the livelihoods of all the kinds of creatures universally, by the attribute of Rahmaniyya (رحمانية); and I order the degrees of the return of the people of noble gifts and resolute aspirations especially, by the attribute of Rahimiyya (رحيمية)."

And among them: the Name is set first for the purification of souls and the clarification of hearts from every name and every trace, so that the innermost secrets may be adorned with the lights of God, exalted is He. For adornment comes only after purification, according to His saying, exalted is He: "He has succeeded who purifies himself, and remembers the Name of his Lord, and prays" al-A'la 87:14-15, that is: purifies his soul by the remembrance of the Name of his Lord, and adorns his spirit with the ornament of prayer and intimate discourse with his Lord.

And among them: the lover, when he has learned the name of the Beloved, names himself by it, as was the state of Majnun Layla (مجنون ليلى). He was asked: "What is your name?" He said: "Layla." And even so, Adam's disobedience was through his forgetting; so when the Lord taught him all His names, according to His saying, exalted is He: "And He taught Adam the names, all of them" al-Baqara 2:31, he forgot the name of his own self, that he was God's khalifa, and the name of Iblis (إبليس), that he was an enemy to him, and the name of the tree, that it was forbidden to him. And God excused him, saying: "but he forgot, and We found in him no firm resolve" Ta-Ha 20:115.

Such likewise was the state of Mansur [al-Hallaj] (منصور الحلاج) when it became verified in his gaze that everything apart from God is vanishing, and he knew that God is the Real (al-Haqq, الحق): at that, in his gaze, he forgot, and the name of the Real became verified as the name of his own self. So when the Real came and the vain passed away, he was asked: "Who are you?" He said: "The Real (al-Haqq)." Thus the Name was set first here so that the servant, upon the verification of His name, might forget the name of everything else, and God might disclose Himself to him in reality, not as name nor as trace, as He said, exalted is He: "And remember your Lord when you forget" al-Kahf 18:24, that is: when you have forgotten everything other than the Lord.

The verification of the word "Allah" itself

We say: the word "Allah" (الله) is built upon four letters: an alif, two lams, and a ha'.

• Two of its letters agree in kind and are joined: [the two lams];
• and two of its letters differ and are separate: [the alif and the ha'].
• Of the two agreeing letters, one is voweled and the second is quiescent;
• and the two differing letters likewise: the first voweled, the second quiescent.

Their totality, in form and meaning, points by allusion to His two attributes and His two blessings. His two blessings are: an outward blessing and an inward blessing. And His two attributes are: the Outward (al-Zahir, الظاهر) and the Inward (al-Batin, الباطن).

These two differ, so two differing letters indicate them: the alif and the ha'. For the alif is for making-manifest (izhar, إظهار) and the ha' is for concealment (idmar, إضمار), as when you say "lasta" ("you are not"), it indicates negation, but when you introduce the alif into it and say "a-lasta" ("are you not?"), it indicates manifestation and affirmation; and when you attach the ha' at the end of a word, it is for concealment, as when you say "daruhu" ("his house"), the owner of the house is concealed, not manifest. So the alif is an allusion to the attribute of the Outward, and the ha' an allusion to the attribute of the Inward.

The two agreeing letters, the two lams, indicate His two blessings, for the two of them agree in kind, as He said, exalted is He: "and He has lavished upon you His blessings, outward and inward" Luqman 31:20. This as to the form. As to the meaning: [the doubled lam is read] "illa ayyu ni'ma", what a blessing! what two blessings! what two blessings of His!, the doubling (tashdid) in it being for magnification. The allusion in this word, then, is that God has with His servants two blessings: the blessing of the outward and the blessing of the inward.

The outward blessing has two meanings. The first: the blessing of manifesting you through bringing-into-existence, after you were hidden in the world of spirits, as He said, exalted is He: "We created you, then We formed you" al-A'raf 7:11, that is: We created you in the world of spirits; the second: then We formed you in the world of bodies.

Likewise the inward blessing has two meanings. The first: your coming into existence; the second: the blessing of your being given the noble spirit.

For the magnificence of divinity and the might of oneness demanded exclusive solitude in existence and the absolute negation of any partner; yet the vast mercy demanded bringing-into-existence, so His mercy outran His wrath: by bringing creation into existence through the attribute of Rahmaniyya, which is universal to all existents in their coming-to-be, and by preserving them through the attribute of Rahimiyya. So the allusion in the verification of the word "Allah" is that it has four letters, each letter bearing a blessing; and were it not for the four blessings corresponding to the four letters, existent things would have no existence at all.

As for the correspondence of the four blessings with the four letters: it is as we have shown, that blessing is twofold, an outward blessing and an inward blessing, the outward having two meanings as mentioned; and we have shown that the letters are of two kinds, agreeing and differing, one letter of each pair voweled and the other quiescent. The voweled letter of the one pair corresponds to His outward blessing, and the second to His inward blessing; the voweled letter of the second pair corresponds to His outward blessing in the two meanings mentioned, and the quiescent to His inward blessing in its two meanings.

And were there not, between His Essence, exalted is He, and the essences of those granted unveiling of the attributes of His Beauty and His Majesty, the veils of the lights of Rahmaniyya and Rahimiyya as an intermediary, their essences would be annihilated in Him and their bodies would dissolve, as he (upon him be peace) said: "His veil is light: were He to lift it, the glories of His Face would burn up whatever His sight reaches of His creation." This is just as God, exalted is He, when He willed in His consummate wisdom that the people of the earth benefit from the light of the sun, its heat and its properties, set between the sun and the earth the sphere of intense cold (falak al-zamharir, فلك الزمهرير): this cold air, and the encompassing ocean of cold water, serve as an intermediary so that the force of the heat is repelled by their coldness, and were it not so, the earth and all upon it would burn. So, to divulge this secret and unveil this reality to those grateful for the secrets of His bounties, He set the signature "Bism Allah al-Rahman al-Rahim (بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم)"

at the head of His noble Book, that it might be verified for them that creation is veiled from God by the veil of the Name; and when they cross, by the pulls of His kindnesses, past the veil of the Name and arrive at the Named, and He is Allah, He discloses Himself to them in divinity; and when the overwhelming force of the self-disclosure would obliterate them utterly, the attributes of Rahmaniyya and Rahimiyya overtake them and shield them from its trial and effacement.

The word "Allah" is the greatest of the Names: from several aspects

The first: the reports indicate this. It is related of the Prophet ﷺ that he entered the mosque and found a man praying and saying: "O God, I ask You by this: that You are Allah, the One, the Unique, the Eternally Sufficient, who did not beget and was not begotten, and to whom none is equal." The Messenger of God ﷺ said: "He has called upon God by His greatest Name, the Name by which, when He is asked, He gives, and when He is called, He answers."

And Ubayy ibn Ka'b (أبي بن كعب, may God be pleased with him) related that the Prophet ﷺ said it is in His saying, exalted is He: "Allah, there is no god but He, the Living, the Self-Subsisting" al-Baqara 2:255, and in His saying: "Alif Lam Mim. Allah, there is no god but He, the Living, the Self-Subsisting" Al Imran 3:1-2. The reports indicate that the greatest Name is deposited within supplication. When we looked, we found that the name repeated in the two verses, and the name of supplication, is "Allah", so it was verified for us that the greatest Name is "Allah."

As for the answer to the one who argues from these two verses that the greatest Name is "the Living, the Self-Subsisting (الحي القيوم)," saying: since the Messenger confined the greatest Name to these two verses, we know it is "the Living, the Self-Subsisting", we do not concede the confinement; for he affirmed the presence of the mighty Name in each of the two verses singly, and if confinement were intended here, it would entail alternation or doubt; and if it were a matter of doubt, it would not be found except in one of the two verses to the exclusion of the other, as when we say "Zayd is in this house, and in this one": he must necessarily be in a single house. Since it is found in both verses, and in what lies beyond them, we know it is possible that it be found in yet another place, just as we found it in the transmitted supplication and the hadith.

The second: names are of two kinds: the name of the Essence and the name of an attribute. Just as the Essence is nobler than the attribute, so the name of the Essence is nobler and greater than the name of an attribute. We have shown that this name, I mean the name "Allah", is the name of the Essence, while the other names are names of the attributes; so it is determined that it is the greatest Name.

The third: the attributes are contained within the Essence, while the Essence is not contained within the attributes; so the names of the attributes are contained within the name of the Essence, and the name of the Essence is not contained within the names of the attributes. Thus we know that the greatest Name is the name of the Essence, not the names of the attributes, and this name is determined for the Essence.

The fourth: of the might and magnificence of this name: it takes no plural and no dual, and the alif and lam do not drop from it in the vocative, so that the letters of its utterance are never negated, unlike all other names. This is a clear proof that it is the greatest Name.

The fifth: if a letter is dropped from it, what remains is still a name of God. If you drop the hamza, there remains "lillah" (لله), and it is among the descriptions of God: God said "and to God belong the Most Beautiful Names," "and to God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth" Al Imran 3:189. If you drop the first lam, there remains "lahu" (له), also among His descriptions: "His is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth" al-Baqara 2:107. And if you drop the second lam, there remains "Huwa" (هو, He), also among His descriptions: "He is God, the Creator, the Maker" al-Hashr 59:24. Since this property is found in no other name, we know it is the greatest Name.

The sixth: God, exalted is He, when He taught His beloved ﷺ His name at the affirmation of His oneness and the negation of divinity from any other than His Essence, said: "So know that there is no god but Allah" Muhammad 47:19. Were the greatest Name another, He would have taught His beloved that one instead, especially at the negation of partnership from His Essence, majestic is His majesty.

The seventh: this name has a special property with respect to faith: faith is not valid without it, as in your saying "la ilaha illa Allah", and were you to say, in place of "Allah" here, one of the names of the attributes, a person's Islam would not be valid. So it is evident that it is the greatest of the Names.

The eighth: the Prophet (upon him be peace) made fighting turn upon the utterance of this name, saying: "I have been commanded to fight people until they say: there is no god but Allah. When they say it, they render their blood and their wealth inviolable from me, except by its right, and their reckoning is upon God." So deliverance from the depths [of Hell] hangs upon this name, and triumph through the degrees [of Paradise] hangs upon this name, and the protection of life from killing, of wealth from seizure, and of child from captivity hangs upon this name. Hence it must be the greatest Name.

The ninth: He commanded His beloved (upon him be blessings and peace), upon turning away from all that is other than God and turning wholly toward Him, to hold constantly to the remembrance of this name, saying, exalted is He: "Say: Allah, then leave them playing in their vain discourse" al-An'am 6:91. This shows that this name is the greatest of the Names.

The tenth: God, the Magnificent, because of the magnificence of this name, guarded it from anyone else being named by it. And of its magnificence: none of the deniers, that is, the enemies of the religion, ever dared attach this name to their false gods or anything else, as He said, exalted is He: "Do you know any namesake of His?" Maryam 19:65, that is: do you know anything that bears the name "Allah" other than God? Such is the might of this name with God. Likewise God has not favored anyone with being so named, just as the Prophet ﷺ, because of the preciousness of his kunya with him, forbade taking his kunya, saying (upon him be peace): "Name yourselves with my name, but do not take my kunya." By this we know it is the greatest of the Names.

The eleventh: it is related of the Prophet ﷺ that he said: "The names most beloved to God are Abd Allah (عبد الله) and Abd al-Rahman (عبد الرحمن)." The singling out of these two names for love is, without doubt, due to the special rank of the names "Allah" and "al-Rahman", just as these two names are singled out for mention in supplication over all the other names, by His saying, exalted is He: "Say: call upon Allah, or call upon al-Rahman" al-Isra 17:110. That indicates that the two of them are nobler and greater than all others. Then, the name "Allah" is nobler than the name "al-Rahman," because He set it first in mention both times; and because the name al-Rahman indicates the perfection of mercy, while the name Allah indicates divinity, all-subduing power, magnificence, might, and the rest of the attributes. Thus it is established that the name "Allah" is the greatest of the Names and the most beloved of them to God, exalted is He.

The twelfth: God, exalted is He, commanded His servants, indeed bound them, to the remembrance of this name and made it the cause of felicity, as in His saying, exalted is He: "those who remember God standing, sitting, and upon their sides" Al Imran 3:191. He made it the key of the Garden and its price, as the Prophet ﷺ said: "The key of the Garden is: la ilaha illa Allah," and he said: "The price of the Garden is: la ilaha illa Allah." Indeed He made it, in reality, the key of the hearts of His sincere servants through the lights of perfection; and by it He drew aside, from the innermost secrets of the realized ones, the curtains of the existential attributes through the self-disclosure of the attributes of Majesty, that they might be guided to the shore of the right-hand valley of union, as the Prophet (upon him be peace) declared in his words [on the day of the Trench]: "By God, had God not been, we would not have been guided, nor given alms, nor prayed."

And it has been verified for those who hold fast to the firmest handhold that by it they attained what they intended, found what they sought, were given what they asked, and were answered when they called, so they knew it is the greatest Name.

The thirteenth: it is soundly reported of the Prophet ﷺ that he declared the merit of the remembrance of this name over the remembrance of all the names, in his saying: "The best remembrance is: la ilaha illa Allah; and the best supplication is: al-hamdu lillah (الحمد لله)." We say: were any name greater than "Allah," that one would have been the best.

The fourteenth: what is related from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (may God be pleased with him), from the Messenger of God ﷺ, who said: Musa (upon him be peace) said: "O Lord, teach me something by which I may remember You." He said: "O Musa, say: la ilaha illa Allah." He said: "There is no god but You, but I want something You single out for me alone." He said: "O Musa, were the seven heavens and all they contain besides Me, and the seven earths, placed in one scale-pan, and 'la ilaha illa Allah' in the other, 'la ilaha illa Allah' would outweigh them." A sound hadith. This is an explicit declaration that nothing besides God is mightier or greater than the word "Allah."

The fifteenth: according to most of the scholars and the great jurists, the intellect cannot arrive at the manner of this name's derivation; and it is likewise established that the Real, the intellects have no way to knowledge of His essence. So this name possesses an added correspondence with the designation of the Real from this angle, and the rest of the names are not so.

Hence this name must be the greatest of the Names. For this reason He opened His noble Book, the magnificent Qur'an, with this name and made it the beginning of His address, fixing it at the head of His Book so it may be known that all that was sent down in this Book, names of attributes, praise and laudation, the manifesting of signs, the establishing of proofs, the mention of bounties and names, commands and prohibitions, promise and threat, reports and traditions, stories and admonitions, knowledge, wisdoms and allusions, riddles, utterances and meanings, subtle points and graces, secrets, fine details and realities, the Qur'an and its ambiguous passages, the abrogating and abrogated verses, and all else that entails mercy or punishment, guidance or misguidance, all of it issues from Him. It is like a sultan who sends an edict to his realms and his servants, written with the name dearest to him and his greatest mark of favor in the tughra (طغراء, royal signature) of the edict, so it may be known that all the rulings contained in the edict issue from him. Since the signature of the divine edict is with the name "Allah," we know it is the dearest of His names to Him and the greatest of them in worth.

We content ourselves with this measure of expounding the excellences of this name and establishing the evidences of its nobility and magnificence, or rather it is a guarding of speech, for it is something over which intellects and imaginations scatter, and which sciences and understandings cannot encompass, as He said, exalted is He: "They have not measured God with the measure due to Him" al-An'am 6:91, that is: they did not know the inmost essence of God, exalted is He, with true knowledge; likewise they did not know the name "Allah" with the knowledge that is its due.

If supplication by the greatest Name seems to go unanswered

If a questioner asks: you have reported that the greatest Name is such that whoever calls upon God by it, He answers, and when He is asked by it, He gives, yet we call and ask by it and see no trace of an answer most of the time? We say: the reply is from two angles.

The first: supplication has courtesies and conditions without which it is not answered, just as prayer has essential elements without which it is not accepted. The first of its conditions is that one's inward be made sound by the lawful morsel; for the Prophet (upon him be peace) mentioned "the man who lengthens his journey, disheveled and dust-covered, while his food is unlawful and his drink unlawful, then stretches his hands to heaven: O Lord, O Lord!, how should he be answered?" A sound hadith. And it has been said: supplication is the key of heaven, and its teeth are the lawful morsel. And the last of its conditions is that one supplicate with sincerity and presence of heart. God, exalted is He, said: "So call upon God, making the religion sincerely His, though the disbelievers detest it" Ghafir 40:14. For a man's movement of the tongue and his crying out without presence of heart is like wailing at the door, or the watchman's call on the roof; but when the heart is present in the Presence, it is for him like an intercessor. We shall not lengthen the discussion here, for this is not its place.

The second angle: the Name, though magnified in itself, yields its immense benefit to you only when you utter it with magnification; and your magnifying of it is in the measure of the purity of your intention and the height of your aspiration in remembrance, in purifying your heart of worldly and even otherworldly shares (huzuz, حظوظ). For if you remember Him for your soulish or spiritual portions, the remembrance follows your share, and the magnification belongs to the share, not to the Name. But when your inmost core is purified of the stain of shares, it ascends to the Remembered One, as He said, exalted is He: "To Him ascends the good word, and the righteous deed raises it" Fatir 35:10. The righteous deed is that you purify your remembrance of shares and watch over it with the rights due, so that your share becomes the Remembered One of the remembrance and the Named One of the Name. And that is the greatest of all shares: then your remembrance becomes

the greatest of remembrances, and the Name you mention the greatest of names; and in this state every name by which you call upon God is the greatest Name, and the supplication is answered, because you called upon Him for His own sake and sought from Him nothing but Him, and so you found Him; for He said: "Call upon Me; I shall answer you" Ghafir 40:60, that is: seek Me and you shall find Me, as He said: "Truly, whoever seeks Me finds Me." So understand the allusion.

On "al-Rahman al-Rahim"

Abu Ubayda (أبو عبيدة) said: they are two attributes of Him, exalted is He, whose meaning is: Possessor of mercy; and God's mercy is His willing of good, blessing, and beneficence.

I say: the scholars have differed over the meaning of mercy. Some of the verifiers said: mercy is among the attributes of the Essence, it is the will to convey good and repel evil; and will is an attribute of the Essence. This is the position I choose, because He, exalted is He, [would otherwise] not have been described by this attribute before He created the existents. Since He created creation, we know His mercy is an attribute of His Essence, for the creating of creation is the conveying of the good of existence to the creature and the repelling from it of the evil of non-existence; existence being wholly good, and non-existence wholly evil.

Others said: it is among the attributes of act, it is the very conveying of good and repelling of evil.

We say: the conveying of good without the prior will, in respect of the Maker, glorified and exalted is He, is impossible; for conveying good is an act, and every act is preceded by will on the part of the freely choosing Agent. By this it is established that God, exalted is He, was in pre-eternity al-Rahman al-Rahim.

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (أبو حامد الغزالي) mentioned that the Prophet ﷺ said: "Take on the character-traits of God (takhallaqu bi-akhlaq Allah, تخلقوا بأخلاق الله)."

This entails that the servant should have, from every one of the names of God, exalted is He, a portion befitting it; and the servant's strongest portion from the name al-Rahman al-Rahim is to be abundant in mercy. And know that whoever is nearest to the servant has the first claim on his conveying mercy and good, and the nearest of people to him is his own soul. So he must show mercy first to himself, then to others. He (upon him be blessings and peace) said: "Begin with yourself, then with those in your care."

His mercy toward himself concerns either spiritual matters or bodily matters.

As for the spiritual matters: know that the soul has two faculties, a theoretical and a practical. The theoretical faculty: conveying mercy to it means purifying it of ignorance and adorning it with true knowledge, which is the knowledge of God by unveiling and direct witnessing: an eye-witnessed knowledge, not a demonstrative one. Understand this well. The practical faculty: guarding it from the two extremes of excess and neglect in character-traits, and binding it to constancy upon the middle way between the two extremes, by the commands and prohibitions of the Shari'a, upon the rule of the Path (tariqa, طريقة).

As for the bodily matters, they are of two divisions: things sought in themselves and things sought incidentally. Those sought in themselves belong to the bodily essence and are confined to food and marriage; He has said, exalted is He: "Eat and drink, but do not be excessive" al-A'raf 7:31

so mercy toward the body is refraining from excess. As for what is sought incidentally: it is wealth, and mercy in it is His saying, exalted is He: "those who, when they spend, are neither extravagant nor miserly, but hold a just balance between the two" al-Furqan 25:67. These are the anchors of every person's mercy toward himself.

As for his mercy toward others: know that the perfection of the human being lies in the perfection of servanthood, and the perfection of servanthood lies in observing the rights of Lordship and conveying their portions to creation and uplifting the progeny, as he (upon him be peace) said: "Reverence for the command of God, and tenderness toward the creation of God." And the last testament of his life ﷺ was: "The prayer, and those whom your right hands possess." One of the shaykhs said: the sum of all good things is confined to two matters: truthfulness with the Real, and good character with creation. What confirms that this rank is the greatest of ranks is that He described His Messenger (upon him be peace) by mercy, saying: "We sent you only as a mercy to the worlds" al-Anbiya 21:107; and He said: "toward the believers, kind and merciful" al-Tawba 9:128; and He said, exalted is He: "It was by a mercy from God that you were gentle with them" Al Imran 3:159.

And the Messenger ﷺ, praising his Companions, began the mention with the description of Abu Bakr (أبو بكر, may God be pleased with him) by mercy, saying: "The most merciful of my umma toward my umma is Abu Bakr."

The special rank of "al-Rahman" among the names of the attributes

The special property of al-Rahman, to the exclusion of the other names of the attributes, is from several aspects.

The first: it is the most closely tied of the attribute-names to the Essence. For the names are of two kinds: names of the attributes of gentleness (lutf, لطف) and names of the attributes of subduing force (qahr, قهر), and al-Rahman has the special property of both attributes: from it issue gentleness and force alike, just as they issue from the Essence; from it issue bringing-into-existence and annihilation, as will come. This is among the properties of the divine Essence to the exclusion of the other attributes; so it is established that it is the most specially ranked of the names.

The second: it has a correspondence with the Essence that no other attribute has: just as the name of the Essence may not be applied to any other than Him, so the name al-Rahman may not be applied to any other than Him. By this correspondence it became singled out for mention in supplication together with the mention of "Allah," by His saying, exalted is He: "Say: call upon Allah, or call upon al-Rahman, whichever you call upon, His are the Most Beautiful Names" al-Isra 17:110.

The third: al-Rahman is nearer to the name "Allah" than all the other names. The Qur'an and the hadith indicate this. As for the Qur'an: His saying "Bism Allah al-Rahman al-Rahim (بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم)" mentioned His name al-Rahman immediately after the name Allah and set it before all the other attribute-names; so we know it is the nearest of the names.

The difference between al-Rahman and al-Rahim

As for the difference between al-Rahman and al-Rahim, though both are names derived from mercy (rahma): al-Rahman belongs to the attribute of His Majesty (jalal), and al-Rahim to the attribute of His Beauty (jamal). The difference between them is that Majesty stands intermediate between the divine Essence, whose prerogative is the subduing force and the might that demanded oneness and the negation of any partnership in existence, and the attribute of Beauty, whose prerogative is the gentleness and mercy that

demanded bringing-into-existence and preservation. By the relation of one side of Majesty to the all-subduing force of the Essence, there is in it an edge of force; and by the relation of its other side to the tender mercy of Beauty, there is in it mercy. So the mercy in it is strengthened by the strength of the all-subduing power, and thus becomes stronger than the tender mercy of Beauty.

Know, then, that the intensification of mercy in it, with force, has become preceded and overcome by the gentleness of mercy, hence His saying, exalted is He: "My mercy has outrun My wrath," and in one narration: "My mercy has overcome My wrath." The force preceded by mercy, and the mercy strengthened by force, that is al-Rahman, intensive in mercy. So it is established that al-Rahman belongs to the attribute of Majesty and al-Rahim to the attribute of Beauty; and for this reason al-Rahman comes intermediate between "Allah" and "al-Rahim" in "Bism Allah al-Rahman al-Rahim." And since al-Rahman is intermediate between sheer force and pure gentleness, at times, through force, it demands annihilation, as God, exalted is He, reported of His attribute of annihilation in His saying: "On the day the heaven is split open with the clouds and the angels are sent down in ranks, the true Kingdom that day belongs to al-Rahman, and it shall be a hard day for the disbelievers" al-Furqan 25:25-26, and at times, through gentleness, it demands affirmation, as He reported of His attribute of origination and affirmation in His saying: "Truly your Lord is God, who created the heavens and the earth in six days, then mounted the Throne" al-A'raf 7:54. In it there is an edge of the awe of divinity, and this belongs to it exclusively, not to al-Rahim.

Stage 3/3 · Verse by verse· from al-hamd to amin

"Al-hamdu lillah (الحمد لله)": Praise belongs to God

Al-hamd (الحمد, praise) encompasses laudation (thana', ثناء), gratitude (shukr, شكر), and commendation (madh, مدح).

Laudation is by mentioning some of the praiseworthy attributes: if you say "this man is generous," you have affirmed that of him.

Gratitude is for blessing, rendered to the Bestower for whatever kindness He has granted you. He said, exalted is He: "If you give thanks, I will surely increase you" Ibrahim 14:7, that is, in blessing.

Commendation is that a man be spoken of with all the praiseworthy qualities in him, while there is negated of him every contrary attribute not in him.

Now, it is not within the capacity of created beings to praise God, exalted is He, with these three meanings in reality, only by way of following (taqlid, تقليد), or by miraculous enabling.

As for laudation: when the Prophet ﷺ was addressed on the night of the Mi'raj (معراج, the Ascension) with "laud Me," he knew that this is not within the capacity of the creature, and said: "I cannot reckon up laudation of You." And know that the command must be obeyed and servanthood displayed, so he said: "You are as You have lauded Yourself." This is laudation by following, for he lauded Him only with the laudation with which God lauded Himself in pre-eternity, a laudation truly befitting His pre-eternal Essence and attributes; and the knowledge of no originated creature attains the inmost nature of a single one of the pre-eternal attributes of God, exalted is He, as He said: "and they encompass nothing of His knowledge save what He wills" al-Baqara 2:255, meaning it is beyond him to know the inmost nature of any attribute of His attributes, for laudation is a branch of knowledge. No one has ever lauded God, exalted is He, in verified reality, only by following. Understand this well.

As for gratitude: likewise, no human being truly realizes gratitude for God's blessing except through seeing his own incapacity to discharge it, as is related of Dawud (داود, upon him be peace), that he said: "My God, how can I thank You, when my thanking You is itself a blessing from You upon me?" So God, exalted is He, revealed to him: "Now you have thanked Me"

and that is because gratitude is never granted except as a blessing which itself obliges further gratitude; His blessings have no end, how should gratitude catch up with the ever-renewed blessing, when it is infinite?, according to His saying, exalted is He: "If you would count the blessing of God, you could never reckon it" al-Nahl 16:18.

As for commendation: neither is it possible for a human being to commend the Real in reality, because commendation implies knowledge of the perfection of the Essence and the attributes, so that one could speak of Him as He truly is, and that is impossible, according to His saying, exalted is He: "They have not measured God with the measure due to Him" al-Zumar 39:67.

For this reason He praised Himself, with laudation, gratitude, and commendation, and said:

"Al-hamdu lillah": that is, it belongs to the God alone that His pre-eternal, everlasting Essence be praised; praise is fitting for none but Him: He is praised by His own praise, from pre-eternity to everlasting. "Praise belongs to Him" is an allusion to the laudation of His Essence in its divinity.

"Rabb al-'alamin (رب العالمين)" (Lord of the worlds): an allusion to gratitude for the bestowal of Lordship upon the rank of al-Rahman al-Rahim.

"Malik yawm al-din (مالك يوم الدين)" (Master of the Day of Judgment): an allusion to the commendation of His Essence with all the attributes of His gentleness and His force, His Beauty and His Majesty, in His kingship and His dominion, through His ownership in this world and the next, before He created them both.

In this is a proof that none has lauded, thanked, or commended God except God, as one of the shaykhs said: none has truly spoken of God save God. Since creation is incapable of laudation, gratitude, and commendation of God, exalted is He, as He truly is in His attributes of perfection, He commanded them to praise Him upon the negation of the attributes of deficiency from the Essence of divinity, saying, exalted is He: "And say: praise belongs to God, who has taken no child, who has no partner in the Kingdom, and who needs no protector out of lowliness; and magnify Him greatly" al-Isra 17:111.

And since we are commanded to say "al-hamdu lillah," we must praise Him according to our capacity, even if we cannot praise Him as He truly deserves, as He said, exalted is He: "So fear God as much as you are able" al-Taghabun 64:16, and the Prophet (upon him be blessings and peace) said: "Go straight, though you will never encompass it." So each praises Him according to the measure of his knowledge of Him, and thanks Him for what He has granted him of His blessings, "Say: each acts according to his own manner" al-Isra 17:84.

So he says: al-hamd (الحمد) encompasses laudation, gratitude, and commendation. Laudation belongs to the tongue, and gratitude to the limbs, by His saying, exalted is He: "Work, O family of Dawud, in gratitude" Saba 34:13; and commendation belongs to the heart. The tongue's laudation protects you from the folly of the sultan and keeps you safe from the blight of ingratitude; the limbs' gratitude rescues you from the depths of the Fires and brings you to the degrees of the Gardens; the heart's commendation draws you near to al-Rahman and honors you with the robes of gnosis (irfan, عرفان).

Praise in the sense of laudation is of two kinds: laudation of the Essence, by its oneness and pre-eternal, everlasting singularity in divinity; and laudation of the attributes, that they are qualified by the attributes of perfection, transcendent above deficiency and cessation. Praise in the sense of gratitude is of two kinds: gratitude of the Essence and gratitude of the attributes: gratitude to the Essence for the blessing of His existence, and gratitude to the attributes for the outpouring of existence through His generosity. And praise as the fruit of commendation is of two kinds: commendation of the Essence by negating all essences in existence except His Essence; and commendation of the attributes by surrendering one's own qualities and annihilating them in His attributes, that you may become abiding through His identity (huwiyya, هوية), not through your own I-ness.

"Rabb al-'alamin (رب العالمين)": Lord of the worlds

His Lordship in the sense of creatorship, ownership, and mastery is universal; and in the sense of nurturing (tarbiya, تربية) it is particular, varying according to the kinds of existent things:

• Nurturer of the bodily frames: with the varieties of His blessings.
• Nurturer of the spirits: with the kinds of His generosity.
• Nurturer of the souls of the servants: with the rulings of the Shari'a.
• Nurturer of the hearts of the yearning: with the courtesies of the Path (tariqa).
• Nurturer of the innermost secrets of the lovers: with the lights of the Reality (haqiqa, حقيقة).

He is the Disposer of every wise affair from pre-eternity to everlasting; He is the Completer of His blessing, outward and inward, in this world and the next, upon His believing servants, as He said, exalted is He: "and I have completed My blessing upon you" al-Ma'ida 5:3; and the Perfecter of His lights for the seekers of His secrets, as He said, exalted is He: "and God is the perfecter of His light" al-Saff 61:8. He is the Bestower upon all existents of the bestowal of existence universally, and of the blessing of guidance particularly.

The Lord (al-Rabb) has a special connection with the answering of supplication. For God, exalted is He, commanded His servants to supplicate and promised them the answer, by His saying: "Your Lord said: call upon Me, I shall answer you" Ghafir 40:60. Then He taught them how to call on Him and by what name to call on Him, by His saying, exalted is He: "Call upon your Lord humbly and in secret" al-A'raf 7:55; and in many places of the Qur'an it is mentioned in the form of supplication, as in "Our Lord, give us good in this world" al-Baqara 2:201 and "Our Lord, do not let our hearts swerve" Al Imran 3:8, and its likes are many. And He inspired His prophets and messengers (upon them be peace), when seeking a need and the answer to supplication, to call upon Him by this name:

• He inspired Adam (upon him be peace), as He said: "Then Adam received from his Lord words, and He turned to him" al-Baqara 2:37; it is said they were His words: "They said: our Lord, we have wronged ourselves" al-A'raf 7:23, and He answered him: "then He turned to him and guided" Ta-Ha 20:122.
• Then Nuh (نوح, upon him be peace) called Him, saying: "My Lord, leave not upon the earth one dwelling among the disbelievers" Nuh 71:26.
• Then Ibrahim (upon him be peace) called Him, saying: "My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead" al-Baqara 2:260.
• Then Musa (upon him be peace) called Him, saying: "Our Lord, obliterate their wealth" Yunus 10:88.
• Then Yusuf (upon him be peace) called Him, saying: "My Lord, You have given me dominion" Yusuf 12:101.
• Then Sulayman (upon him be peace) called Him, saying: "My Lord, forgive me and grant me a dominion" Sad 38:35.
• Then Zakariyya (upon him be peace) called Him, saying: "My Lord, my bones have grown feeble" Maryam 19:4, and for Yahya he said: "and make him, my Lord, well-pleasing" Maryam 19:6.
• Then Isa (upon him be peace) called Him, saying: "Our Lord, send down upon us a table from heaven" al-Ma'ida 5:114.
• Then God, exalted is He, commanded His beloved, our Prophet (upon him be blessings and peace), and taught him to call upon Him by it, saying to him: "And say: my Lord, increase me in knowledge" Ta-Ha 20:114.
• Then He summoned the believers, in various places of the Qur'an, to His word "Rabbana (ربنا, our Lord)", and others besides these, of the friends of God and the prophets (upon them be peace), called Him by this name, and He answered them by His bounty and generosity, because of the might of this name and its magnificence.

So God, exalted is He, when He honored this umma and established them in the station of intimate discourse with Him, commanded them to supplicate and promised them the answer, conferred favor upon His beloved (upon him be peace) and his umma with the Seven Oft-Repeated (al-sab' al-mathani, السبع المثاني), by His saying, exalted is He: "We have given you seven of the oft-repeated, and the magnificent Qur'an" al-Hijr 15:87. In this is a noble allusion and a subtle grace: that God, exalted is He, conferred favor by the Opening of the Book just as He conferred favor by the whole Qur'an, the secret being that all the realities of the Qur'an and the roots of its meanings are folded within the Fatiha, as we have mentioned. So He made the Opening of the Book the preamble of the servant's intimate discourse with the Lord in the prayer, and began its opening with His Most Beautiful Names and His exalted attributes, saying: "Bism Allah al-Rahman

al-Rahim"; then He followed with the praise of the Essence of divinity; then third came the description of the attribute of Lordship, which holds the special property of answering, having therefore been set before the supplication, as has been mentioned, so He said: "Praise belongs to God, Lord of the worlds" al-Fatiha 1:2. Then, after the praising of God, exalted is He, He took up the laudation and said: "al-Rahman al-Rahim. Master of the Day of Judgment. You alone do we worship, and You alone do we ask for help" al-Fatiha 1:3-5. Then He followed it with the asking that the servant brings, saying: "and My servant shall have what he asked."

Of the utmost special rank of the name "al-Rabb" in the answering of supplication is that even Iblis, after he was cursed and banished, called upon God, exalted is He, by this name, saying: "My Lord, grant me respite until the day they are raised" al-A'raf 7:14, and his Lord answered him, because of the magnificence of this name, saying: "You are among those given respite" al-A'raf 7:15. Yet he was not granted success in employing it toward obtaining His blessings and generosity; rather, in his case it was a drawing-on by degrees (istidraj, استدراج) and a stratagem, as He said, exalted is He: "We shall draw them on by degrees from whence they know not; and I grant them respite, truly My stratagem is firm" al-A'raf 7:182-183. Poor wretched Iblis, had he been of the people of noble favor, he would have been granted to say "My Lord, look upon me" instead of "grant me respite," and God's answer would have been "you are among those looked upon" instead of His saying "you are among those given respite" al-A'raf 7:15.

And of the special property of this name [al-Rabb] is that, by the requirement of the language, it embraces meanings the other names do not. Among them is what indicates commendation in itself, namely "the master" (al-sayyid), by His saying, exalted is He: "Mention me in the presence of your lord" Yusuf 12:42, that is: your master. Likewise "the owner" (al-malik): the Prophet ﷺ said to a man: "Are you a lord of camels or a lord of sheep?" He said: "Of each God has given me, in abundance and plenty."

And among its meanings is what indicates creatorship, by His saying, exalted is He, reporting of Musa (upon him be peace) in answer to Fir'awn when he asked: "'And what is the Lord of the worlds?' He said: 'The Lord of the heavens and the earth'" al-Shu'ara 26:23-24, that is: the Creator of the heavens and the earth. In it is an indication that "the worlds" means the heavens and the earth and what is between them.

And among them is what indicates the perfection of His mercy and His gentleness, toward all the worlds universally, toward the human being particularly, and toward the elect most especially.

As for the worlds: He nurtures them with their nourishments; He is the Lord of the atoms of their existence, [nursing them] with the milk of the kindnesses of Lordship at the Covenant, when He said: "Am I not your Lord? They said: Yes indeed" al-A'raf 7:172. By the mercy of His Lordship He created them; by the gentleness of His Lordship He is their Creator; by the bounty of His Lordship He gave them knowledge; by the solicitude of His Lordship He made them bear witness until they said "Yes indeed"; and by the wisdom of His Lordship's governance He made their acknowledgment the seed of tawhid.

As for the elect among the prophets and friends of God: the nobility of the seed of their tawhid became manifest in the earth of their hearts, through the water of the Shari'a and the religions, the winds of faith and certainty, and the lights of the suns of ihsan (إحسان) and gnosis. Under the protection of Lordship He completes His blessings upon them, the blessing of contemplating His Beauty and the unveiling of His Majesty, as He said of our Prophet ﷺ: "and that He complete His blessing upon you and guide you upon a straight path" al-Fath 48:2. Then He ennobled his umma, by the blessing of following him, with these same honors, and favored them with these noble gifts and degrees when they seek guidance to the straight path, by first setting forth His remembrance and laudation through "Lord of the worlds, al-Rahman al-Rahim, Master of the Day of Judgment."

The benefit of the repetition of "al-Rahman al-Rahim"

The benefit of the repetition [of al-Rahman al-Rahim in the Basmala and again in the Fatiha] is from two aspects.

The first: its mention in "Bism Allah" is at the very start of the Book and the opening of the address to those servants, that He is al-Rahman al-Rahim, in that He called you to divinity, that is, to obedience and worship, and He called you only that He might forgive you, through Rahmaniyya and Rahimiyya, by His saying, exalted is He: "He calls you that He may forgive you your sins" Ibrahim 14:10. Whereas their mention in the Fatiha follows "al-hamdu lillahi Rabb al-'alamin (الحمد لله رب العالمين)," which is the commendation of His Essence; so "al-Rahman al-Rahim" [here] is general laudation, as he (upon him be peace) said in what we have related: "The servant says: al-hamdu lillah (الحمد لله); God says: My servant has praised Me. The servant says: al-Rahman al-Rahim; God, exalted is He, says: My servant has lauded Me", the hadith. Thus it is established that the two of them in the Fatiha are for laudation; their mention in the Basmala is from God, to incline the hearts of the servants toward servanthood through mercy and forgiveness, while in the Fatiha they are from the servants, in laudation of God, exalted is He, for the Beauty and Majesty that are His, and for His good pleasure.

The second: their mention in the Basmala is to still the awe and lift the stupefaction caused by the magnificence of the name "Allah," exalted is He, upon His servants, as was the state of Musa (upon him be peace) when He addressed him with "Truly I am Allah": the soul of Musa (upon him be peace) nearly fled from the awe of hearing the name of Allah, so He set him at ease

upon the carpet of the Lord, removing the stupefaction with His words: "And what is that in your right hand, O Musa?" Ta-Ha 20:17. And because through His Rahmaniyya and His Rahimiyya the souls of the servants take comfort toward the worship of God, and their hearts find rest in the remembrance of God, exalted is He, as He said: "Truly in the remembrance of God do hearts find rest" al-Ra'd 13:28, that they may thereby find felicity in His intimate discourse, become worthy of praising and lauding His Essence and His attributes in the prayers, remember Him in supplications, and raise their needs to God, that He may guide them to the attainment of the degrees and the ranks of nearness.

"Malik yawm al-din (مالك يوم الدين)": Master of the Day of Judgment

The allusion in it is that the din (الدين, religion/judgment) is in reality Islam, as His saying indicates: "Truly the religion with God is Islam" Al Imran 3:19. And Islam is of two kinds: an outward Islam and an inward Islam.

The outward Islam is by the tongue's affirmation and the limbs' works, by His saying, exalted is He: "but say: we have submitted, for faith has not yet entered your hearts" al-Hujurat 49:14; and he (upon him be peace) said, in answer to Jibril's (upon him be peace) question "What is Islam?": "Islam is that you bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad ﷺ is the Messenger of God, establish the prayer, give the zakat, fast Ramadan, and make pilgrimage to the House if you are able to find a way." This is the bodily Islam

and the bodily is dark; it is expressed by the darkness of night.

The inward Islam is by the expansion of the heart and breast with the light of God, exalted is He, by His saying: "Is he whose breast God has expanded for Islam, so that he walks upon a light from his Lord…?" al-Zumar 39:22. This spiritual Islam is luminous; it is expressed by the daylight.

The bodily Islam requires the body's submission to God's commands and prohibitions; the spiritual Islam requires the surrender of heart and spirit to His pre-eternal rulings, His attributes, and His decree. Whoever stands halted at the bodily Islam and has not reached the rank of the spiritual Islam is still journeying in the night of the religion, hesitant and bewildered, wandering among kings and angels, as was the state of al-Khalil [Ibrahim] (upon him be peace) in the night: "When the night covered him, he saw a star; he said: this is my lord" al-An'am 6:76.

But he over whom the morning of worship has breathed, and the sun of spiritual Islam has risen from behind the mountain of his self toward the yearning of the heart, until it reaches the mid-heaven of his spirit, his outward is illumined with the light of the Shari'a and his inward with the light of the Reality, so he is upon a light from his Lord, and he enters the morning under the shelter of the religion. His litany of the moment becomes: "We have entered the morning, and the Kingdom this morning belongs to God." He witnesses with the eye of certainty, an unveiler by the truth of certainty, that the Kingdom is God's and there is no master but the Master of the Day of Judgment. And when the daylight discloses itself to him and unveils, he asks the Master openly, addressing Him face to face and conversing with Him lip to lip: "You alone do we worship, and You alone do we ask for help."

"Iyyaka na'bud (إياك نعبد)": You alone do we worship

The discussion of it runs upon three aspects.

The first concerns the direct address (khitab): it is not that it turns from absence (ghayba) to address; rather it returns to address from absence, because between the owned servant and his Owner there is no veil except the veil of the self's kingship. When he crosses beyond the veil of the self's kingship, he arrives at the direct contemplation of the self's Master, as is transmitted from Abu Yazid [al-Bistami] (أبو يزيد البسطامي, may God be pleased with him), that in one of his unveilings he said: "My God, how do I find the way to You?" His Lord said to him: "Leave your self, and come."

For the self has four attributes, each another veil: the commanding self (ammara, أمّارة), the reproaching self (lawwama, لوامة), the inspired self (mulhama, ملهمة), and the tranquil self (mutma'inna, مطمئنة). So the owned servant is commanded to remember the Master of his affair by four attributes: the attribute of divinity, of Lordship, of Rahmaniyya, and of Rahimiyya. He passes through the preceding commendation of divinity, gratitude of Lordship, and laudation of Rahmaniyya, and the excellence of Rahimiyya; and the strength of the pulls of these four attributes tears away the four veils that screen the self from the Master of the attributes. Thus he is freed from the darknesses of the night of his self by the rising of the true dawn of the Day of Judgment, "the day no soul possesses anything for another soul; the command that day belongs to God" al-Infitar 82:19, and the servant remains a servant wholly owned, "with power over nothing, a burden upon his master" al-Nahl 16:76. Then his Master shows him mercy and remembers him, by reason of His generosity, according to the decreed promise "Remember Me and I will remember you" al-Baqara 2:152; He calls him and addresses his soul: "O tranquil soul!" al-Fajr 89:27; then He draws him out of the absence of his self into the witnessing of his Lord's Mastership with the pull of "Return to your Lord!" al-Fajr 89:28. So he contemplates the Beauty of his Master and calls upon Him with the call of a submissive, humble, lowly, powerless servant, as some have recited "Malika yawm al-din," in the accusative, as a vocative.

The second aspect, the meaning of "na'bud" (we worship): its verified sense is: we declare One, we are sincere, we obey, and we humble ourselves. It has been said that worship is the disciplining of the self to bear hardships in obedience, its root being lowliness, compliance, obedience, and abasement: one says "a paved (mu'abbad) road" when it is coated smooth with tar, and the slave (abd) is called abd for his abasement and compliance toward his master. I say: this definition of worship as stated is not a complete definition, for the angels have worship, and their worship is not a disciplining of the self to bear hardships in obedience. True worship is the self's liberation from bondage to every share, worldly or otherworldly, so that they worship God for the Real's own sake, not for a share, by His saying, exalted is He: "And they were commanded only

to worship God, making the religion sincerely His" al-Bayyina 98:5.

The third aspect, the special point in His word "na'bud" being plural: it is mentioned in the plural because the human being has a self (nafs), a heart (qalb), a spirit (ruh), and an innermost secret (sirr):

• The self is worldly: it worships its worldly caprice, by His saying: "Have you seen him who takes his own caprice as his god?" al-Jathiya 45:23.
• The heart is otherworldly: it worships for the Garden, by His saying: "and restrained the self from caprice, truly the Garden is the refuge" al-Nazi'at 79:40-41.
• The spirit is of nearness: it worships for proximity and presence, by His saying: "in a seat of truthfulness, in the presence of an All-Powerful King" al-Qamar 54:55.
• The innermost secret is of My Presence: it worships the Real, by His saying, upon the tongue of His Prophet (upon him be blessings and peace): "I have divided the prayer between Me and My servant into two halves: half is Mine, half is My servant's, and My servant shall have what he asked."

So the servant draws near with his half to the Presence of His perfection, with praise, laudation, and gratitude upon the attributes of His Beauty and Majesty, and the Lord draws near, as His generosity and favor require, as He said: "Whoever draws near to Me a handspan, I draw near to him a cubit", with His half: the deliverance of His servant from bondage to all that is other, bringing him out of darknesses piled one upon another, the self's caprice, the heart's attachments, the spirit's clinging to other than the Real, into the light of His oneness and the witnessing of His singularity. And the earth, the self, and the heavens, the heavens of the heart, the Throne of the spirit, and the Footstool of the secret, shine with the light of their Lord; so all of them together believe in God who created them, He being their Master; they disbelieve in the idols they used to worship, grasp the firmest handhold, make themselves all one single worship, and say: "You alone do we worship and You alone do we ask for help", we stand waiting and we ask of You help in Your worship and in all our affairs.

Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may God, exalted, be pleased with him) said, with "iyyaka na'bud wa iyyaka nasta'in (إياك نعبد وإياك نستعين)": "because You created us and guided us." I say: "You alone do we worship" because You are the Worshiped; "You alone do we ask for help" because You are the Goal; and the joining of "iyyaka", because You are the Sought; "nasta'in", because You are the Beloved. "You alone do we worship," O Master; "You alone do we ask for help," for all besides You perishes. "You alone do we worship" upon Your blessing; "You alone do we ask for help" upon knowing You. "You alone do we worship" because You said to us "My servants"; "You alone do we ask for help" because You are our Guide to You.

"Ihdina al-sirat al-mustaqim (اهدنا الصراط المستقيم)": Guide us upon the straight path

Guidance is upon three aspects: the guidance of the general, the guidance of the elect, and the guidance of the most elect.

The guidance of the general: He, exalted is He, guides all animals to seek their benefits and repel their harms, by His saying: "He said: our Lord is He who gave everything its created form, then guided" Ta-Ha 20:50, and He said: "Have We not made for him two eyes, a tongue, and two lips, and guided him to the two highways?" al-Balad 90:8-10.

The guidance of the elect: the guidance of the believers to the Garden, by His saying: "their Lord guides them by their faith" Yunus 10:9.

The guidance of the most elect: the guidance of the Reality, from God Himself, by His saying: "He said: I am going to my Lord, He will guide me" al-Saffat 37:99, and He said: "God draws to Himself whomever

He wills" al-Shura 42:13, this is the guidance to God. And the Prophet ﷺ said: "I knew my Lord by my Lord; and were it not for the bounty of my Lord, I would not have known my Lord." In His saying, exalted is He, "And He found you wandering, and guided" al-Duha 93:7 is an allusion to this meaning, that is: you were astray from Me in the wilderness of your existence; I sought you for My existence, found you by My bounty, guided you by the pulls of My solicitude and the light of My guidance toward Me, made you a light, and sent down to you a light. So through you I guide whomever I will of My servants: those who follow you and seek Your good pleasure, I illumine them, out of the darknesses of their human existence into the spiritual light, and guide them to a straight path, as He said, exalted is He: "There has come to you from God a light and a clear Book, by which God guides…" al-Ma'ida 5:15-16.

Know that the straight path is the upright religion, that to which the magnificent Qur'an points; and it is the character (khuluq, خلق) of the master of the messengers (God's blessings and peace be upon him), as He said, exalted is He: "Truly you are upon a magnificent character" al-Qalam 68:4, then said: "and that this is My path, straight, so follow it" al-An'am 6:153.

It is of two kinds: a straight path to the Garden, by His saying, exalted is He: "God calls to the Abode of Peace, and guides whom He wills to a straight path" Yunus 10:25, that is, to the Garden; this is for the Companions of the Right, by His saying, exalted is He: "And the Companions of the Right, what of the Companions of the Right! Amid thornless lote-trees, and banana-trees layered with fruit, and extended shade" al-Waqi'a 56:27-30.

And the second: a straight path to God, exalted is He, by His saying: "and truly you guide to a straight path" al-Shura 42:52, the path of God, which belongs to the Foremost, by His saying, exalted is He: "And the Foremost, the Foremost, those are the ones brought near" al-Waqi'a 56:10-11. In the verse is an allusion that whoever is guided to a straight path is among the Foremost, the near ones, and however it may be, he outstrips the Companions of the Right by what belongs to the near ones: the contemplation of the Beauty and the unveiling of the Majesty. This rank belongs especially to the master of the messengers and seal of the prophets, and to the following of him, by His saying, exalted is He: "Say: this is my way; I call to God upon clear insight, I and whoever follows me" Yusuf 12:108.

"Ghayr al-maghdub alayhim wa-la al-dallin (غير المغضوب عليهم ولا الضالين)": Not of those upon whom is wrath, nor of the astray

Al-Rashidi said: not of those upon whom is wrath through opposition and disobedience, nor of the astray from the dissolution(?) of religion and faith. And al-Tustari (التستري) said: "not of those upon whom is wrath", like the Jews, whom He cursed with banishment, so that they were not guided to the Law and to verification, and they fell from the straight path, from the human rank in which man was created in the fairest stature, and were transformed into apes and swine in form and in meaning. And also: "not of those upon whom is wrath" through forsakenness, "nor of the astray" through forgetting, when they fell from the straight path of tawhid.

"Those upon whom You have bestowed favor": the allusion in it is to the way of those upon whom You have bestowed the blessing of the unveiling of the Reality. The repetition of "path" [in the sura] is an allusion to the two real paths: a path from the servant to the Lord, and a path from the Lord to the servant. The one from the servant to the Lord is a perilous road, beset on both sides, how many caravans have been cut off upon it, how many mounts have broken down on it, while the herald of Might calls to the people of might: "the quest is turned back, and the way is barred!", His saying, exalted is He, telling of the cutting of this road and the cutter of this company: "I shall surely sit for them upon Your straight path" al-A'raf 7:16. But the one from the Lord to the servant is a road secure

and in safety: how many a caravan has passed safely upon it, its stations hedged about with blessings, its travelers journeying on, joined rank upon rank with those upon whom God has bestowed favor among the prophets. God has blessed their assemblies(?) with the lights of solicitude, their spirits with the secrets of guidance, their hearts with the traces of walaya (ولاية, friendship with God), their souls, in the subduing of caprice, the understanding of natural disposition, and the keeping of the Law, with divine enabling and care, and against the plots of Shaytan with vigilance and safekeeping: "the path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor", with the outward and the inward blessing, as He said, exalted is He: "and He has lavished upon you His blessings, outward and inward" Luqman 31:20.

The outward blessing is the blessing of the prophets, the sending of the Books, the rulings of the Law, the enabling to accept the call of the messengers, answering the Real, following the Sunna, shunning innovation, the self's compliance with the commands and prohibitions of the Law, and coming upon the foot of truthfulness, so hold fast to servanthood.

As for the inward blessing: God, exalted is He, blessed their spirits at the beginning of the primordial nature with the reception of the sprinkling of His light, by his saying (upon him be peace): "God, exalted is He, created creation in darkness, then sprinkled upon them of His light: whomever that light struck is guided, and whomever it missed has gone astray and erred." The opening of the gate of God's path to the servant came from the sprinkling of that light, the first of the rain is a sprinkle, then it pours. So the believers look, by that sprinkled light, toward the contemplation of the Unseen; they behold the Unseen and are enveloped: "the path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not of those upon whom is wrath, nor of the astray", by the pulls of Your kindnesses; and the gates of Your bounty were opened upon them, that they might be guided

by You, to You; and so they attained, by what befell them, yes!, from You.

"Not of those upon whom is wrath, nor of the astray": those whom that light missed when He sprinkled of His light upon them, so they went astray in the wilderness of the self's caprice and wandered in the darknesses of natural disposition and blind imitation. So He was wroth with them, like the Jews, and cursed them with banishment, so that they were not guided to the Law and to verification, and they fell from the straight path, from the human rank in which man was created in the fairest stature, and were transformed into apes and swine in form and meaning.

And also: "not of those upon whom is wrath" through forsakenness, "nor of the astray" through forgetting, those who, when they halted upon the straight path in the well of humanness, forgot the kindnesses of Lordship and strayed from the straight path of tawhid; so Shaytan seized them with the net of association, the Christians, and they took caprice as diversion and this world as the abiding, and spoke of "a third of three": "they forgot God, so He forgot them" al-Tawba 9:67. And also: "not of those upon whom is wrath, nor of the astray", through absence after presence, tribulation after joy, darkness after light. We seek refuge in God from decline after increase, and from corruption and immorality.

"Not of those upon whom is wrath", by turning back from the straight path, so that the cry goes up against them: "guide them to the path of the Blaze" al-Saffat 37:23. "Nor of the astray", from the generosity of the Generous and the mercy of the Merciful, by turning away from the upright religion: deprived of the sound heart and of the Gardens of bliss, deserving the painful punishment. "Not of those upon whom is wrath", by being detained in the way-stations and cut off from the caravans. "Nor of the astray", by being turned aside from the Goal.

Section: On "Amin" (آمين)

Saying amin (آمين) is prescribed after "wa-la al-dallin," whether in the prayer or outside the prayer. Wa'il ibn Hujr (وائل بن حجر, may God be pleased with him) related: "I heard the Messenger of God ﷺ recite 'ghayr al-maghdubi alayhim wa-la al-dallin' and then say: Amin, stretching his voice with it." A good (hasan) hadith. And Abu Hurayra (أبو هريرة, may God, exalted, be pleased with him) related its like.

I say: in it are allusions.

Among them: the servant writes his book and knows its merit, every movement that issues from him is a letter, and every deed is written in the book of his obedience or his disobedience. How many a book has been written of obedience or disobedience and carried up by the angel of the right hand or of the left, yet when it reached the Presence, not a letter was found in it! As for the evil deeds, the good deeds had erased them, as He said, exalted is He: "Truly the good deeds drive away the evil deeds; that is a reminder for those who remember" Hud 11:114; and as for the acts of obedience, [ostentatious] pleading and association had nullified them, His saying, exalted is He: "If you associate, your work shall surely fail" al-Zumar 39:65. So God, exalted is He, out of the solicitude of His generosity toward His servants, made amin the seal upon the book of the servants' prayer, so that nothing whatsoever can erase it: it remains sealed for them, fixed, until the Day of Recompense, for "God erases whatever He wills and confirms, and with Him is the Mother of the Book" al-Ra'd 13:39. And here he (upon him be peace) said: "Amin, like the seal upon the book."

And among them: God, exalted is He, said: "I have divided the prayer between Me and My servant into two halves, and My servant shall have what he asked." The allusion in it: from the servant come the praise, the laudation, and the supplication; there remains My half, the answering, the guidance, the mercy, the pardon, the forgiveness, the good pleasure, deliverance from the Fires, elevation of degrees

in the Gardens, and the noble honor of meeting al-Rahman. So what he asked was sealed with the seal of amin, for the Day mankind stands before the Lord of the worlds; and He said, in accepting the speech: it is sealed.

And among them: [man is] veiled from God, exalted is He, by the veil of his I-ness (anāniyya, أنانية) and the finding of his own existence. His existence is compounded of the higher spiritual and the lower bodily; the Law came precisely to bring him out of the darknesses of his lower bodily veil into the higher spiritual light, for whoever remains in them is of the lower people, of the Fire, by His saying, exalted is He: "you were upon the brink of a pit of the Fire, and He delivered you from it" Al Imran 3:103. Whoever escapes the darknesses of the lower part of his existence arrives at the light of the garden of the higher part of his existence, yet he is still veiled by the veil of the higher light, by his saying (upon him be peace): "God has seventy thousand veils of light and darkness." For the spiritual, relative to the bodily, is luminous; but relative to the Pre-eternal Light it is dark, as he (upon him be peace) said: "God, exalted is He, created creation in darkness, then sprinkled upon them of His light." The true Light is God, exalted is He; all else is created, dark.

And as he said: the servant's servanthood lies in going out from the darknesses of his I-ness into the light of His divinity, and in losing his own existence in the existence of the Real. The wisdom in the sending of the prophets, the Qur'an, and the Books, with promise and threat, encouragement and warning, in the commands(?) and the prohibitions, and all the rulings of the Law and its courtesies, is confined to this meaning. For this reason God, exalted is He, mentioned in various places of the Qur'an "that He may bring you out of the darknesses into the light", "Bring your people out of the darknesses into the light" Ibrahim 14:5. So God, exalted is He, by His generosity and His nobility, gathered the roots of all that is in the revealed Books into the suras of the Qur'an, and deposited the realities of all that is in the suras of the Qur'an into Surat al-Fatiha (سورة الفاتحة); and, as we have mentioned, it is confined within

the four ranks, up to our saying: guidance from pre-eternity to everlasting. For the servant needed His guidance in pre-eternity, that He guide him into existence; had there been no guidance of him into existence, he would have been astray in the wilderness of non-existence: this is one of the meanings of His saying, "And He found you wandering, and guided" al-Duha 93:7. When the servant was guided by the guidance of "Be!" (kun, كن), he came out of the straying of non-existence into the guidedness of spiritual existence, then he was astray in the world of spirits, as it is said, "the water is lost in the milk," so he needed His guidance to bring him out, by guidance and by sanctuary from the spiritual straying, into the guidedness of the bodily world, until he reaches the completion of the human rank with maturity and intellect. Then he strays in the wilderness of the humanness of existence, and needs the guidance of God through returning to the straight path along which he came from non-existence into existence, until he returns along it from existence into non-existence. So His saying

"Ihdina (اهدنا)" (Guide us), is a petition for the means of the return: in the Law it wears the form of the Prophet, but in the Reality it is the pull of the Real, guiding him by this to non-existence and the annihilation of existence, just as He guided him by blessing into existence, that He may guide him to the Necessary Existence. This is another of the meanings of "And He found you wandering, and guided" al-Duha 93:7. And just as the Necessary Existence has no end, so God's guidance to the knowledge of Him has no end, unto everlasting. Therefore God, exalted is He, made the servant's prayer a mi'raj (معراج, ladder of ascent), that by it he may ascend to the non-existence of I-ness and the loss of existence. And this ascent to non-existence is not within man's own power, only by Him who brought him into existence and sent him down to the lowest of existence, as He said, exalted is He: "then We returned him to the lowest of the low" al-Tin 95:5, that by it he may ascend to the highest of the high of non-existence. So upon God, exalted is He, is the raising; and upon the servant, the surrender. The servant's surrender is by faith and righteous deed, by His saying, exalted is He: "except those who believe and do righteous deeds" al-Asr 103:3; and the best of deeds is the prayer, for this God, exalted is He, said: "I have divided the prayer…", the hadith.

So the servant draws near to God, exalted is He, with truthfulness of intention, praising Him and thanking Him for the blessings He has granted, and asking Him for guidance to Himself. And the Real, exalted is He, takes him from himself to Himself, annihilates him from himself, and makes him abide through Him, without his own "he"

and repels the traces of his I-ness by the overwhelming force of the self-disclosure of His Identity. Then he loses the imagined with a loss after which you never find it again, and finds the Sought with a finding after which you never lose it again, for it has become his kingdom, by His saying, exalted is He: "and My servant shall have what he asked." So God, exalted is He, sealed it, the finding of his moment, with the seal of amin.

This, then, is the allusion to the station of His sincere servants: that no one in all the worlds has any disposal over them, and the seal of the Lord of the worlds has been transferred(?) to them. Iblis despaired of any disposal over them, and said: "except Your sincere servants among them" al-Hijr 15:40.

The end of the book.

The book is complete, by the help of the King, the All-Bestowing. And God, exalted is He, knows best the reality and what is correct.

Frequently asked questions

Qur’anic references

• al-Fatiha 1:1-7, the sura itself
• al-Hijr 15:87, the Seven Oft-Repeated
• al-An'am 6:59, nothing moist or dry but in a clear Book
• al-A'raf 7:172, the primordial covenant and bala
• al-Ahzab 33:72, the Trust offered and carried
• al-Isra 17:110, call upon Allah or call upon al-Rahman
• al-Baqara 2:255, the greatest Name in Ayat al-Kursi
• al-Duha 93:7, He found you wandering and guided