On the Descent of the Real (mighty is His Majesty) to the lowest heaven in the last third of every night

And his saying (God bless him and grant him peace): "God descends, in the last third of every night, to the lowest heaven, and says: Is there [any...]? Is there [any...]?" -- a sound hadith [in] Muslim.

The hadith indicates, by its allusion, the appearing of the Real (glory be His and exalted) in every atom of the atoms of existence. So what is intended by "the night" is the created darkness.

And what is intended by "the lowest heaven" is the outward of the existence of creation; and by "the last third," its reality -- because everything of the things of existence is divided among three divisions:

a division [that is] outward, called the Kingdom (al-mulk);

and a division [that is] inward, called the Dominion (al-malakūt);

and the third division, the division of the Omnipotence (al-jabarūt).

It is [the division] transcendent above the Kingdom-division and the Dominion-division; so it is the divine [division], expressed -- the Omnipotence-division -- as "the last third," by the tongue of allusion, in this hadith.

And there is no [real] division -- for the single thing, if you consider its non-division, you must [still] conceive for it an outward, which is its form, and an inward, which is its self; and it must have a reality by which it subsists. So the allusion by "the last third" appeared; and the descent of the Real is His appearing by His transcendence (tanzīh) in the very created likening (tashbīh).

And this hadith has another consideration, by another allusion, higher than this first allusion.

And that is that you know that what is intended by "the last third" is the divine Attribute by which He discloses Himself to His servant.

So the reality of the appearing of the Essence is only in the latter [parts] of that Attribute -- not in its beginning nor in its middle; and this is a tasting-matter, known only by unveiling (kashf).

I mean the appearing of the Essence in the latter [parts] of the appearing of the Attribute, and [in] the ending of the thing's [coming-forth] from the Attributes; and this ending is the ruling of the Essence.

So the Essence appeared in the last third of the night of the Attributes.

And His saying "to the lowest heaven" means: to His Attributes by which His creation knew Him among the Names -- and they are "the lowest" (al-dunyā), because His are the lofty Attributes and theirs is servanthood, so it is "the lowest" (al-dunyā), from lowness (al-danāʾa); and His Names are His "lowest heaven" (samāʾuhu al-dunyā) by which their servanthood subsisted.

So the upshot of these considerations is that the Real (glory be His and exalted) appears to His servants in His Attributes by which they knew Him, at the ending of the appearing of those Attributes.

Meaning that, before the completion of the appearing of that Attribute, they are with it, not with Him; so when it takes to the ending of [its] appearing, they are with His Essence, not with His Attributes. So understand.

And this hadith has another allusion, by way of the secret, and it is in regard to the Perfect Ones (al-kummal). And that is when you know that what is intended by "the night" is the divine Essence, and by "the last third" the perfection of the knowing of the Essence that is permissible.

Because the Real (exalted is He) has two [kinds of] knowing:

a knowing whose perfection may be apprehended,

and a knowing whose perfection may not be apprehended.

And my saying that the perfection of the permissible knowing is what is intended by "the last third" [is] because the saint (walī) has three knowings of God:

The first knowing is:

"whoever knows himself knows his Lord" -- and its exposition has [already] preceded.

And the second knowing is the knowing of Divinity, and it is that the Essence knows its beauty from the Attributes; and this knowing is after the knowing of the Lord [that is] restricted by the knowing of the self.

And the third knowing is the divine tasting (al-dhawq al-ilāhī) that pervades the existence of the servant; so He descends by it, in [the servant's] regard, from His unseen to His witnessed [domain].

Meaning: the traces of Lordship appear in his body, so his hand has [the divine] power, his tongue has [the divine] bringing-into-being, his foot has the [divine] step, his eye -- nothing is veiled from it, and his ear -- by it he gives ear to every speaker in existence.

And to this meaning he (peace be upon him) pointed by his saying: "until I am the hearing by which he hears, and the sight by which he sees" -- the hadith. So the Real is his outward, while He is the Inward.

So the upshot of this discourse is:

that what is intended by "the descent of the Lord" is the appearing of His traces and Attributes which are of the requisites of Lordship; and what is intended by "the lowest heaven" is the outward of the body of the saint.

And "the last third" is the tasting, divine knowing that pervades the existence of the servant -- by which his effacement (maḥq) is made valid and by which his crushing (saḥq) is completed, so that his [true] right is realized.

And what is intended by His saying "in every night" is: of every essential appearing in every divine saint. So understand.

And the expression in the hadith does not depart, by what we have pointed to, from the outward sense of the hadith; rather, realize what we have alerted you to.

And do not leave the outward sense of the hadith either, for his speech (God bless him and grant him peace) contains secrets without end; and his speech has an outward and an inward, and every inward has an outward, and every outward an inward, to seven inner [depths].

As he (God bless him and grant him peace) said: "The Qurʾān has seven inner meanings"; and his speech is a branch of the speech of God (exalted is He), because "he does not speak from caprice: it is naught but a revelation revealed" (53:3-4) -- and [he is] ennobled and magnified, glorified and honored.