manner let them also interpret that which the Most Sublime Pen hath set
down. The Commander of the Faithful (Imám ‘Alí) hath said: "I am He Who
can neither be named, nor described." And likewise He hath said:
"Outwardly I am an Imám; inwardly I am the Unseen, the Unknowable."
Abú-Ja’far-i-Túsí hath said: "I said to Ábí ‘Abdi’lláh: ‘You are the Way
mentioned in the Book of God, and you are the Impost, and you are the
Pilgrimage.’ He replied: ‘O man! We are the Way mentioned in the Book of
God,—exalted and glorified be He—and We are the Impost, and We are the
Fast, and We are the Pilgrimage, and We are the Sacred Month, and We are
the Sacred City, and We are the Kaaba of God, and We are the Qiblih of
God, and We are the Face of God.’" Jabír hath said that Abú-Ja’far—peace
be upon him—spoke to him as follows: "O Jabír! Give heed unto the Bayán
(Exposition) and the Má’ání (Significances)." He—peace be upon him—added:
"As to the Bayán, it consisteth in thy recognition of God—glorified be
He—as the One Who hath no equal, and in thy adoration of Him, and in thy
refusal to join partners with Him. As to the Má’ání, We are its meaning,
and its side, and its hand, and its tongue, and its cause, and its
command, and its knowledge, and its right. If We wish for something, it is
God Who wisheth it, and He desireth that which We desire." Moreover, the
Commander of the Faithful (Imám ‘Alí)—peace be upon him—hath said: "How
can I worship a Lord Whom I have not seen?" And, in another connection, he
saith: "Nothing have I perceived except that I perceived God before it,
God after it, or God with it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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