Fusus al-Hikam The Seals of Wisdom by Shaykh al ... - ImagoMundi

knowledge of the heirs of Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace!
I would say more on this presence on the Muhammadan tongue of Yusuf, as you will
soon understand, if Allah wills. Know that that which is referred to as other-than-Allah,
or the universe, is related to Allah as the shadow is related to the person. The universe is
the shadow of Allah. It is the same as the relation of existence to the universe, since the
shadow exists in the senses without a doubt. But there must be something by which that
shadow appears. If one were to remove that by which the shadow appears, the shadow
would be intelligible but would not exist in the senses. Rather, it would be a potential in
the essence of the person on whom it depends. The locus of the manifestation of this
divine shadow called the "universe" is the sources of the possibilities by which this
shadow extends itself. This shadow is perceived according to what it projects itself on
from the existence of this essence, but perception occurs through His name, the Light.
This shadow is projected on the sources of possibilities in the form of the unknown
unseen.
Do you not see that shadows incline to the darkness, indicating the hiddenness they
contain because of the distance of the relationship between them and the persons who
project them? Even if the person is white, his shadow is like this. Do you not see that
when mountains are distant from the eye of the onlooker, they appear black? In their
actual sources they are other than the colour the senses perceive. This is only due to the
effect of distance. It is like the blue of the sky. This is the effect distance has on the
senses with non-luminous bodies. It is the same for the sources of possibilities which
are non-luminous because they are non-existent. Even if they are described as
unchanging, they are not described by existence since existence is light. Distance makes
luminous bodies appear small in the senses, so this is another effect of distance. The
senses perceive them as small in size, whereas in their sources they are large according
to that degree and greater in magnitude. One knows by proof that the sun is larger than
the earth, but it appears to be the size of a shield. That is also an effect of distance.
You only know the universe according to the amount you know the shadows, and you
are ignorant of the Real according to what you do not know of the person on which that
shadow depends. Inasmuch as He has a shadow, He is known, and inasmuch as one is
ignorant of what is in the essence of the shadow of the form which projects the shadow,
he is ignorant of Allah. For that reason, we say that Allah is known to us from one
aspect and not known to us from another aspect. "Do you not see how your Lord
stretches out shadows? If He had wished, He could have made them stationary," (25:45)
i.e. it still would be a potential in Himself. It is as He said, that Allah would not give a
tajalli of Himself to possibilities until He manifests the shadow. The shadow is as if it
remains outside of the possibilities which do not have a source manifested for them in
existence.
"Then We appoint the sun to be a pointer to them," that is to His name, the Light of
which we spoke, and the senses witness it, for shadows have no source in the absence of
light. "Then We draw them back to Ourselves, in gradual steps," so Allah draws it back
to Himself because it is His shadow which appeared from Him, and it is not other-than-
Him. All that you perceive is the existence of Allah in the sources of possibilities.
Inasmuch as the He-ness of Allah is He, it is His existence. Inasmuch as forms differ in
it, it is the sources of possibilities. As the name of the shadow does not leave it by the
difference of forms, in the same way the name of the universe or the name other-than-