الباب الحادي والعشرون في السمع
Chapter Twenty-One: On Hearing
§1 وفيه قال رحمه الله:
And in it he said, God have mercy on him:
§2 السمعُ علمُ الحقِّ للأشياءِ ... من حيث منطقِها بغير مِراءِ
Hearing is the Real's knowledge of things, in respect of their speech, without dispute;
§3 والنطقُ فيها قد يكون تلفُّظاً ... ويكون حالاً وهو نطقُ دعاءِ
and speech in them may be an utterance, and may be a state, and that is the speech of supplication;
§4 والحالُ عند اللَّهِ ينطقُ بالذي ... هو يقتضيه منطقُ الفصحاءِ
and the state, with God, speaks that which the speech of the eloquent requires.
§5 واعلم أن السمع عبارة عن تجلي الحق بطريق إفادته من المعلوم، لأنه سبحانه وتعالى يعلم كل ما يسمعه من قبل أن يسمعه ومن بعد ذلك.
Know that Hearing is an expression for the self-disclosure (tajallī) of the Real by way of His deriving benefit (ifāda) from the known; for He, glory be to Him and Most High, knows all that He hears, before He hears it and after that.
glossary: tajalli
§6 فما ثَمَّ إلاَّ تجلي علمه بطريق حصوله في المعلوم، سواء كان المعلوم نفسه أو مخلوقاته فافهم.
So there is nothing there but the disclosure of His knowledge by way of its occurrence in the known, whether the known be Himself or His creatures. Understand.
§7 وهو لله وصف نفسي اقتضاه لكماله في نفسه، فهو سبحانه وتعالى يسمع كلام نفسه وشأنه كما يسمع كلام مخلوقاته من حيث منطقها ومن حيث أحوالها.
And it is, for God, an attribute of the Self (waṣf nafsī), required by His perfection in Himself; for He, glory be to Him and Most High, hears the speech of His own Self and His own affair (shaʾn), just as He hears the speech of His creatures, in respect of their utterance and in respect of their states.
§8 فسماعه لنفسه من حيث كلامه مفهوم، وسماعه لنفسه من حيث شؤونه فهو ما اقتضته أسماؤه وصفاته من حيث اعتباراتها وطلبها للمؤثرات، فإجابته لنفسه هو إبراز تلك المقتضيات وظهور تلك الآثار للأسماء والصفات.
His hearing of Himself in respect of His speech is plain; and His hearing of Himself in respect of His affairs (shuʾūn) is what His Names and Attributes require, in respect of their considerations and their seeking of the things-affected; and His answering of Himself is the bringing-forth of those requisites and the appearance of those traces of the Names and Attributes.
glossary: asma, sifat
§9 ومن هذا الاستماع الثاني: تعليمُ الرحمنِ القرآنَ لعباده المخصوصين بذاته، الذين نبَّه الله تعالى عليهم على لسان النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم بقوله: "أهلُ القرآنِ أهلُ اللهِ وخاصَّتُه".
And from this second listening is al-Raḥmān's teaching of the Qurʾān to His servants singled out by His Essence, those upon whom God Most High gave notice by the tongue of the Prophet, God bless him and grant him peace, in his saying: 'The people of the Qurʾān are the people of God and His elect.'
glossary: dhat The ḥadīth 'ahl al-Qurʾān ahl Allāh wa-khāṣṣatuhu' is sound (Ibn Mājah, Aḥmad).
§10 ويسمع العبدُ الذاتيُّ مخاطبةَ الأسماءِ والأوصافِ والذواتِ فيجيبها إجابةَ الموصوف للصفات، وهذا السماعُ الثاني أعزُّ من السماعِ الكلامي.
And the Essence-servant (al-ʿabd al-dhātī) hears the address of the Names and the Attributes and the Essences, and answers them with the answer of the qualified to its qualities; and this second hearing is dearer than the speech-hearing.
glossary: asma, sifat
§11 فإن الحق كذا أعار عبده الصفةَ السمعية يسمع ذلك العبدُ كلامَ الله، يسمع اللهَ لا يعلم ما هي عليه الأوصافُ والأسماعُ مع الذات في الذات، ولا تتعدد، بخلاف السماع الثاني الذي يعلِّم الرحمنُ به عبادَه القرآن.
For thus the Real lent His servant the attribute of hearing, that servant hearing the speech of God: he hears God, not knowing what the attributes and the hearings are, with the Essence, in the Essence; and it does not multiply, unlike the second hearing by which al-Raḥmān teaches His servants the Qurʾān.
§12 فإذن الصفةُ السمعية تكون هناك للعبد حقيقةً ذاتيةً غير مستعارة ولا مستفادة.
So the attribute of hearing comes to be there, for the servant, an essential reality (ḥaqīqa dhātiyya), neither borrowed nor derived.
§13 فإذا صحَّ للعبد هذا التجلي السمعي نُصب له عرشُ الرحمانية، فيتجلى ربُّه مستوياً على عرشه، ولولا سماعُه أولاً بالشأن لما اقتضته الأسماءُ والأوصافُ من ذات الديَّان، لما أمكنه أن يتأدَّب بآداب القرآن في حضرة الرحمن.
And when this auditory disclosure is sound for the servant, the Throne of Raḥmāniyya is set up for him, and his Lord discloses Himself, mounted upon His Throne (mustawiyan ʿalā ʿarshihi). Were it not for his hearing first, by the affair (shaʾn), what the Names and Attributes require of the Essence of the Requiter, it would not have been possible for him to be schooled in the courtesies of the Qurʾān in the Presence of al-Raḥmān.
glossary: tajalli
§14 وهذا كلام لا يفهمه إلاَّ الأدباءُ الأمناءُ الغرباءُ، وهم الأفرادُ المحقَّقون بسماعهم هذا الكلامَ الثاني، ليس انتهاءً، لأن الله تعالى لا نهاية لكلماته.
And this is a speech none understands but the courteous, the trustworthy, the strangers (al-ghurabāʾ); and they are the Singular Ones (al-afrād), the verified, by their hearing of this second speech, with no end, for God Most High has no end to His words.
§15 وهي في حقهم تنوُّعاتُ تجلياتٍ، فلا تزال تخاطبهم الذاتُ بلغة الأسماء والصفات، ولا يزالون يجيبون تلك المكالمات بحقيقة الذوات إجابةَ الموصوف للصفات.
And it is, in their regard, varieties of self-disclosures; so the Essence does not cease to address them in the language of the Names and Attributes, and they do not cease to answer those addresses by the reality of the Essences, the answer of the qualified to its qualities.
glossary: tajalli
§16 وليست هذه الأسماءُ والصفاتُ مخصوصةً بما في أيدينا مما نعرفه من أوصاف الحق وأسمائه، بل ثَمَّ لله من بعد ذلك أسماءٌ وأوصافٌ مستأثرةٌ في علم الحق لمن هو عنده.
And these Names and Attributes are not restricted to what is in our hands, of what we know of the attributes of the Real and His Names; rather God has, beyond that, Names and attributes withheld (mustaʾthara) in the knowledge of the Real, for the one who is with Him.
glossary: asma, sifat
§17 فتلك الأسماءُ المستأثرةُ هي الشؤونُ التي يكون الحقُّ بها مع عبده، وهي الأحوالُ التي يكون العبدُ بها مع ربه.
Those withheld Names are the affairs (shuʾūn) by which the Real is with His servant, and they are the states (aḥwāl) by which the servant is with his Lord.
§18 فالأحوالُ نسبتها إلى العبد مخلوقة، والشؤونُ نسبتها إلى الله تعالى قديمة، وما تعطيه تلك الشؤونُ من الأسماء والأوصاف هي المستأثرة في غيب الحق، فافهم هذه النكتة من نوادر الوقت.
So the states, in their ascription to the servant, are created; and the affairs, in their ascription to God Most High, are pre-eternal; and what those affairs give, of the Names and attributes, are the ones withheld in the Unseen of the Real. So understand this subtle point, of the rarities of the age.
§19 وإلى قراءة هذا الكلام الثاني الإشارةُ إلى النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم في: {اقْرَأْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ، خَلَقَ الْإِنْسَانَ مِنْ عَلَقٍ، اقْرَأْ وَرَبُّكَ الْأَكْرَمُ، الَّذِي عَلَّمَ بِالْقَلَمِ، عَلَّمَ الْإِنْسَانَ مَا لَمْ يَعْلَمْ}.
And to the reciting of this second speech is the pointing, to the Prophet, God bless him and grant him peace, in: 'Recite in the name of your Lord who created; created the human from a clinging-clot; recite, and your Lord is the Most Generous, who taught by the pen, taught the human what he knew not.'
Qurʾān 96:1: al-ʿAlaq 96:1, from 'iqraʾ' (the basmala the API prefixes to v.1 is not quoted). Verified, tag correct.Qurʾān 96:2: al-ʿAlaq 96:2. Verified verbatim.Qurʾān 96:3: al-ʿAlaq 96:3. Verified verbatim.Qurʾān 96:4: al-ʿAlaq 96:4. Verified verbatim.Qurʾān 96:5: al-ʿAlaq 96:5. Verified verbatim.
§20 فإن هذه القراءة قراءةُ أهلِ الخصوصِ وهم أهلُ القرآنِ، أعني الذاتيينَ المحمديينَ الذين هم أهلُ اللهِ وخاصَّتُه.
For this reciting is the reciting of the people of the elect (ahl al-khuṣūṣ), and they are the people of the Qurʾān, I mean the Muḥammadan Essence-folk (al-dhātiyyīn al-Muḥammadiyyīn), who are the people of God and His elect.
glossary: haqiqa-muhammadiyya
§21 أما قراءةُ الكلامِ الإلهي وسماعُه من ذات الله بسمعِ الله تعالى، فإنها قراءةُ الفرقانِ، وهي قراءةُ أهلِ الاصطفاءِ وهم النفسيونَ الموسويونَ، قال الله تعالى لنبيه موسى: {وَاصْطَنَعْتُكَ لِنَفْسِي}.
As for the reciting of the divine speech and hearing it from the Essence of God by the hearing of God Most High, that is the reciting of the Furqān, and it is the reciting of the people of election (ahl al-iṣṭifāʾ), and they are the Self-folk, the Mosaic ones (al-nafsiyyīn al-Mūsawiyyīn). God Most High said to His prophet Moses: 'And I fashioned you for Myself.'
Qurʾān 20:41: Ṭāhā 20:41. Verified verbatim, tag correct.
§22 فمن هنا كانت تلك الطائفةُ الموسويةُ نفسيينَ، بخلاف الطائفةِ الأولى الذاتيينَ، قال الله تعالى لمحمد صلى الله عليه وسلم: {وَلَقَدْ آتَيْنَاكَ سَبْعًا مِنَ الْمَثَانِي وَالْقُرْآنَ الْعَظِيمَ}.
From here that Mosaic faction were Self-folk (nafsiyyīn), unlike the first faction, the Essence-folk (al-dhātiyyīn). God Most High said to Muḥammad, God bless him and grant him peace: 'And We have indeed given you seven of the oft-repeated, and the Mighty Qurʾān.'
Qurʾān 15:87: al-Ḥijr 15:87. Verified verbatim, tag correct.
§23 فالسبعُ المثاني: هي السبعُ الصفاتُ كما بيَّناه في كتابنا المسمَّى بـ: الكهف والرقيم في شرح بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم.
The seven oft-repeated (al-sabʿ al-mathānī) are the seven Attributes, as we set forth in our book named al-Kahf wa-l-Raqīm fī Sharḥ Bism Allāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm.
glossary: sifat
§24 والقرآنُ العظيمُ: هو الذاتُ، وإلى هذا المعنى أشار صلى الله عليه وسلم بقوله، فأهلُ القرآنِ ذاتيونَ، وأهلُ الفرقانِ نفسيونَ، وبينهما من الفرقِ ما بين مقامِ الحبيبِ وبين مقامِ الكليمِ، والله يقول الحق وهو بكل شيء عليم.
And the Mighty Qurʾān is the Essence. To this meaning he pointed, God bless him and grant him peace, by his saying. So the people of the Qurʾān are Essence-folk, and the people of the Furqān are Self-folk; and between the two is the difference between the station of the Beloved (maqām al-ḥabīb) and the station of the Interlocutor (maqām al-kalīm). And God speaks the truth, and He is Knowing of all things.
glossary: dhat The witness here repeats the ḥadīth 'ahl al-Qurʾān ahl Allāh wa-khāṣṣatuhu' displaced inside the clause; lightly reordered to sense (the ḥadīth properly attaches to the Essence-folk of §20).
Collation. Bāb 21, al-Samʿ (Hearing), the sixth of the dedicated attribute-chapters. Structure: a 3-verse opening qaṣīda (Hearing as the Real's knowledge of things in respect of their speech, utterance and state), then the doctrine of Hearing as an attribute of the Self by which God hears His own speech and His own affairs (shuʾūn) and His creatures' speech and states. The chapter's substance is the TWO LISTENINGS: the ordinary speech-hearing, and a 'second' deeper hearing by which al-Raḥmān teaches the Qurʾān to the servants singled out by His Essence (the dhātī servant hears the address of the Names/Attributes/Essences and answers as the qualified answers its qualities). From this come: the lent-vs-essential attribute of hearing, the Throne of Raḥmāniyya and istiwāʾ, the withheld (mustaʾthara) Names beyond those in our hands, and the shuʾūn/aḥwāl distinction (affairs pre-eternal as ascribed to God, states created as ascribed to the servant). It closes with a two-fold typology of the elect: the Muḥammadan Essence-folk (al-dhātiyyīn, ahl al-Qurʾān, maqām al-ḥabīb), who recite 'iqraʾ bi-smi rabbika' (96:1-5); and the Mosaic Self-folk (al-nafsiyyīn, ahl al-Furqān, maqām al-kalīm), who recite from 'wa-ṣṭanaʿtuka li-nafsī' (20:41); the seven oft-repeated (15:87) read as the seven Attributes (with a self-citation of al-Jīlī's al-Kahf wa-l-Raqīm) and the Mighty Qurʾān as the Essence. Witness handling: §24 the well-known ḥadīth 'ahl al-Qurʾān ahl Allāh wa-khāṣṣatuhu' appears displaced mid-clause in the digital witness; lightly reordered to sense and flagged. Several kāf-as-alif OCR garbles restored.
Qurʾān. Three Qurʾān loci verified verbatim against alquran.cloud, all tags correct. (1) al-ʿAlaq 96:1-5 (§19) -- the opening five verses, quoted from 'iqraʾ' (without the basmala the API prefixes to 96:1), verified clause by clause. (2) Ṭāhā 20:41 (§21), 'wa-ṣṭanaʿtuka li-nafsī.' (3) al-Ḥijr 15:87 (§22), 'wa-laqad ātaynāka sabʿan mina al-mathānī wa-l-qurʾāna al-ʿaẓīm.' Allusion flagged: the ḥadīth 'the people of the Qurʾān are the people of God and His elect' (§9, §24; sound, Ibn Mājah and Aḥmad). Self-citation noted: al-Jīlī's own al-Kahf wa-l-Raqīm fī Sharḥ Bism Allāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm (§23).