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

Know that the Messengers, may Allah bless them and grant them peace, inasmuch as
they are Messengers not inasmuch as they are awliya' and gnostics are in ranks
according to that on which their communities are based. They only have the knowledge
with which they were sent, according to what the community of that Messenger needs,
no more and no less. Communities differ, some have more need than others, so
Messengers differ in the knowledge of the message just as their communities differ. It is
what Allah said: "Those Messengers: We favoured some of them over others." (2:253)
In the same way, they also differ in what springs from their essences, peace be upon
them, in the varieties of knowledges and judgements they have according to their
predispositions. This is what Allah said: "We have preferred some of the Prophets over
others." (17:55) And Allah said in respect of creation, "Allah has favoured some of you
over others in provision." (16:71) Provision from Allah can be spiritual like
knowledges and sensory like food. Allah "only sent it down in a known measure."
(15:21) It is the due which creation seeks. Allah "gives everything its created form."
(20:50) He sends down according to what He wills. (2) He only wills what He knows,
and so He commands it. What He knows is as we have stated. It is only by what the
known accords.
Timing basically belongs to the known. Fate, knowledge, will and volition follow the
Decree. So Allah only gives the understanding of the secret of the decree in respect to
knowledges to the one who has been given complete gnosis. Knowledge gives complete
rest to the knower, and it gives painful punishment to the knower as well. It gives two
opposites. By knowledge, Allah describes Himself with both wrath and pleasure, and by
knowledge the Divine Names are opposite one another. A reality (3) governs the
absolute existent and the limited existent. It is not possible that there be something more
complete than it or stronger or greater than it, because of the universality of its
jurisdiction, both limited and unlimited.
The Prophets, may Allah bless them and grant them peace, only take their own
knowledges from a particular divine revelation. Their hearts are free of logical
speculation because they know the limitations of the intellect in respect to its cognitive
perception. The intellect is unable to perceive matters for what they really are. Simple
communication is also unable to perceive that which is only accorded by taste (dhawq).
Perfect knowledge remains only in the divine tajalli and in what Allah removes of veils
from the springs of the inner sight and the eyes. They perceive matters - their non-time
and in-time, their non-existence and existence, their impossibility, necessity and
possibility - for what they truly are in their realities and sources.
Since the request of 'Uzayr, peace be upon him, occurred on the elite path, censure fell
on him as is related in tradition. (4) Had he sought the unveiling which we mentioned,
perhaps censure in that would not have fallen on him. The proof of the simplicity of his
heart is in his statement, "How can Allah restore this to life when it has died?" (2:259)
His form, peace be upon him, is in this statement of his, as the form of Ibrahim is in His
words, "Show me how You bring the dead to life." (2:260) That necessitates the
response by the action which Allah manifested when He said, "Allah caused him to die
a hundred years, then He brought him back to life," and He said, "Look at the bones
how We raise them up and clothe them in flesh." So he saw how bodies grow with the
witnessing of realisation. He showed him how it was. He asked about the decree which