11. Hud

Alif lām rāÌ: [This is] a Book: [the interpretation of] this has already been mentioned; whose verses have been set clear, that is, the individual entities and realities of which [have been set clear], within the universal world by being confirmed as enduring in those states, not liable to alteration, change or corruption, preserved from every deficiency and defect; and then detailed, in the world of particulars and was made clear outwardly and entified according to a predetermined (maʿlūm) measure, from One Wise: that is, the judgements and differentiations concerning these [entities] come from a Wise One who has based them on knowledge and wisdom so that there can be nothing better or more firmly set clear, [and One who is], Informed, of how these have been differentiated in the way that they ought to be according to the wise order in terms of their measure, their timing and their hierarchy.

[Saying:] 'Worship none but God, that is, this [Book] utters to you by the tongue of the state and through proofs that you should not associate anything in the worship of God and that you should devote worship exclusively to Him. Truly I am to you a warner from Him and a bearer of good tidings': speech by the tongue of the Messenger, namely, that I bring you a warning from the Wise and Informed One of the punishment of idolatrous association and its corollaries, and I [also] bring you good tidings from Him of the reward of affirming [His] Oneness and the benefits thereof.

And [bidding you]: 'Ask forgiveness of your Lord, in other words, proclaim His Oneness and ask of Him that He forgive the configurations of looking upon the other, the veiling of oneself with the multiplicity, confinement to things and halting with them even your acts and attributes; then repent to Him, return to Him by having [your] essences annihilated in Him, and He will give you fair enjoyment, in this world, on the basis of the divine law and justice in the case of subsistence after annihilation until the time of your reception at death, and He will give every person of merit, in terms of character traits, knowledge and perfections, [the due for] his merit, in the way of reward and degrees; or, He will give you fair enjoyment of the pleasures of the self-disclosures of the acts and the attributes, upon your disengagement, up to the moment of your annihilation; or, He gives every person of merit in terms of preparedness, [the due for] his merit in the way of perfection and level upon his elevation and drawing closer. But if you turn away, that is, refrain from affirmation of Oneness and disengagement, I fear for you the chastisement of an awful day, one [that will be] severe for you, the day of the return to God, the Powerful over all things, in other words, the day on which your incapacity and the incapacity of what you worshipp shall be manifested through His manifestation, exalted be He, in the attribute of His powerfulness whereupon He will subjugate you with chastisement.

And He it is Who created the heavens and the earth in six days, in other words, He created the corporeal world in six directions - and His Throne was upon the water, namely, His Throne which is the First Intellect founded upon the first knowledge and reinforced by it, preceding the corporeal world in terms of existence. If we were to interpret the six days as the period of concealment, as has already been mentioned, and the creation of the heavens and the earth as His concealment, exalted be He, within the differentiations of existents, then the meaning of His Throne being on water would be that it was before the incipience of concealment manifest and known to people, as in when you say, 'I did it knowingly', that is, in the state of its being known to me, or while I had knowledge of it, that is, in full knowledge [thereof]. [This is] similar to when Ḥāritha asked the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace: 'How do you find yourself O Ḥārithaḍ', to which he replied, 'I find myself a believer, in truth'. He [the Prophet] said, 'For every truth there is a reality. So what is the reality of your faith'. He [Ḥāritha] said, 'I saw the people of Paradise visiting each other and I saw the people of Hell-fire howling to one another [in agony]. I saw the Throne of my Lord projecting forth'. He [the Prophet] said, 'You are on the right path. Stick to it'. In many instances in [statements relating to] the divine precepts the primordial substratum (mādda hayūlāniyya) is referred to by the expression 'water'. Among these is the ḥadīth in which it is related that the first thing that God created was a jewel (jawhara). He then gazed upon it with the eye of majesty whereupon it melted in shame, half of it becoming water and the other half fire. If we were to interpret it [water] with reference to this [jewel], it would mean that His Throne was before the heavens and the earth in essence and not in time, with mastery over the substratum, above it in terms of rank. Should you wish to effect a [spiritual] correspondence with [this and] the differentiations of your existence, the the meaning would be: He created the heavens of the spiritual faculties and the earth of the body in six months, being the minimal period of gestation.

And if We cause man to taste some mercy from Us, to the end of this [verse]: man ought to have confidence in God, trusting in Him, in poverty, wealth, hardship, comfort, sickness and health and [should] not veil himself from Him by the existence of a grace or in his striving or conduct with regard to acquiring [his livelihood], or [veil himself] by his strength or power to pursue his needs or in any one of the ways or means whatsoever, lest there should be despair upon the loss of those means or [alternatively] ungratefulness, the wantonness of comfort or insolence when they are forthcoming such that he then becomes remote from God, exalted be He, and forgets Him so that God forget him. Rather, he should see the giving and the withholding as being from Him and no one else. And so if He should bring upon him a mercy in the way of health or a grace, he should thank Him first by seeing that as being from Him and witnessing the Gracious in the form of [His] grace, which is [done] with the heart then with the limbs by using them in that which satisfies Him and in acts of obedience to Him and by fulfilling His dues with regards to that [mercy]; then [he should thank Him] with his tongue by [words of] praise and laudation, fully certain that He has the power to strip [him] of it, and preserving it by giving thanks for it, seeking more of it on the basis of His saying, exalted be He: If you are thankful, then assuredly I shall give you more [Q. 14:7]. The Commander of the Believers [ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib], peace be upon him, said: 'If the edges of grace reach you, then do not repel the fullness of it by the sparsity of [your] thanks'. Then if He should wrest it from him, let him be patient and not grieve for it, in the full knowledge that it is He who has wrested it from him and no one else because of some welfare that will [ultimately] finds its way to him. For the Lord, exalted be He, is like a father who is compassionate in the nurturing of him, nay, He is more gentle and more merciful, since a father is veiled from what God knows seeing only the immediate and outward welfare, while He is the Knower of the unseen and the visible, knowing what is in his immediate and future best interest.