On the Two Feet and the Two Sandals (al-Qadamayn wa-l-Naʿlayn)

Know -- may God guide us and you, and give you of wisdom what He has given us -- that the Two Feet are an expression for two opposed essential rulings.

And the two of them are of the totality of the Essence -- nay, they are the very Essence; and these two rulings are those upon which the Essence is ordered, like origination and pre-eternity, Real-ness and created-ness, existence and non-existence, finitude and the absence of finitude, likening (tashbīh) and transcendence (tanzīh), and the likes of that.

[All] of what belongs to the Essence from the standpoint of its very self and from the standpoint of its ruling that is [proper] to it; and for this [reason] this matter is expressed [thus], because the Two Feet are of the totality of the form.

And as for the Two Sandals, [they are] the two opposed descriptions, like mercy and vengeance, wrath and good-pleasure, and the likes of that. And the difference between the Two Feet and the Two Sandals

is that the Two Feet are an expression for the contraries proper to the Essence, and the Two Sandals are an expression for the contraries that pass over to the creatures.

Meaning that they seek the trace in the creatures, so they are two sandals beneath the Two Feet, because the intellectual descriptions are beneath the essential descriptions.

And the being of the Two Sandals of gold is the very seeking of the trace by them, so they are going (dhāhiba):

that is, their ruling pervades the existents, so they have the ruling in every existent that exists, of whatever kind of the existents it be.

And when you have known the meaning of the Two Sandals and known what is intended by the Two Feet, the secret of the Prophetic hadith appears to you -- namely, that the Compeller (al-Jabbār) sets His foot in the Fire, and it says: "Enough, enough" (qaṭ qaṭ), and that it is annihilated thereupon, so that in its place grows the rocket-plant (shajar al-jarjīr) -- or as he said.

And we shall hint at that at the end of the book, in the chapter in which we mention Hell, as far as is possible of declaration or allusion. So understand this meaning.

And know that the Lord has, in every existent, a complete Face, and that Face is upon the form of the spirit of that existent, and the spirit of that existent is upon a sensory form and a body.

And this matter, for the Lord, is an essential matter, which He merits for His Essence; it is not negated from Him by [any] regard, because it is not established for Him by [any] regard.

Because everything that is attributed to the Real by [some] regard, that attribution is negated from Him by the contrary of that regard.

And everything attributed to Him not by [some] regard -- its attribution is not negated from Him by any of the regards. So understand that.

And since the matter is so -- if it is thus -- the form, for the Lord, is an essential matter; and to that is the pointing in his saying:

"God created Adam upon the form of the All-Merciful," and his saying: "God created Adam upon His form."

And these two hadith, even though they require meanings that we have discussed in our book named

"al-Kahf wa-l-Raqīm fī sharḥ Bismillāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm" -- the unveiling gave us that they are upon the outward [literal] sense of the wording, as we pointed to first, but on the condition of the divine transcendence (tanzīh), [He being] exalted above corporealization (tajsīm) and likening (tamthīl),

And God says the truth, and He guides to the way.