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is, His life is perpetual, it is
pre-eternal and post-eternal. Death and
evanescence, non-existence and cessation,
cannot befall Him. He Who is pre-eternal
must certainly be post-eternal. He Who is
sempiternal must certainly be eternally
enduring. He Who is necessarily existent,
must certainly be without beginning or
end. How could non-existence touch a Life
of which all existence, in all its
varieties, is its shadow? Non-existence
and ephemerality and cessation could in
no way encroach on a Life through the
manifestation of which all lives
continuously come into being, and on
which all the stable truths of the
universe are dependent, and through which
they subsist. Indeed, one flash of
the manifestation of that Life accords a
unity to the multiplicity of things, all
of which are subject to ephemerality and
decease, and makes them display
permanence; it saves them from dispersal,
preserves their existence, manifests in
them a sort of continuance. That is, life
accords a unity to multiplicity; it makes
it permanent. If life departs, the unity
disintegrates, it ceases. Most certainly,
ephemerality and transience cannot
approach that necessary Life one
manifestation of which are all those
innumerable flashes of life.
Decisive
witnesses to this truth are the
transience and ephemerality of the
universe. That is, just as beings bear
witness and point to the Life of the
Undying Every-Living One and to the
necessary existence of His Life through
their existence and lives, so too do they
bear witness and point to the perpetuity
of His Life and its eternity through
their deaths, through their ephemerality.
For the fact that after beings have
perished, others follow after them,
manifesting life like them and taking
their places, demonstrates that there is
an unceasingly living being who
continuously renews the manifestation of
life.
Bubbles
on the surface of a flowing river sparkle
in the sun and disappear. Troop after
troop of bubbles appear, following on one
after another. They display the same
sparkle, are extinguished and disappear.
Through this state of extinction and
sparkling, they point to the continuance
of an elevated and enduring sun. And so,
in the same way, do the change and
alternation of life and death in these
constantly moving beings testify to the
continuance and perpetualness of an
Ever-Living Ever-Enduring One.
These
beings a re mirrors. And in the same way
that darkness is the mirror to light, and
however intense the darkness is, to that
degree it will display the brilliance of
the light, these beings too act as
mirrors in many respects by reason of the
contrast of opposites. For example, just
as beings act as mirrors to the Maker's
power through their impotence, and are
mirrors to His riches through their
poverty, so do they also act as mirrors
to His everlastingness through their
ephemerality. The poverty of trees and
the face of the earth itself in
wintertime, and their glittering wealth
and riches in springtime, act as mirrors
in most unequivocal fashion to the power
and mercy of an Absolutely Powerful One,
the One of Absolute Riches. It is as
though all beings are making supplication
with Uvays al-Qarani through their
tongues of disposition, and are saying:
"O
God! You are our
Sustainer, for we are
mere slaves; we are
powerless to sustain and
raise ourselves. That is
to say, the One Who
sustains us is You! And
it is You Who is the
Creator, for we are
creatures, we are being
made! And it is You Who
is the Provider, for we
are in need of provision,
we have no power! That is
to say, the One One Who
creates us and bestows on
us our provisions is You!
And it is You Who is the
Owner, because we are
totally owned property;
someone other than us has
power of disposal over
us. That is to say, it is
You Who is our Owner! And
You, You are Mighty! You
possess grandeur and
sublimity! As for us we
look to our baseness and
see that there are
manifestations of a
mightiness on us. That is
to say, we are mirrors to
Your mightiness! And it
is You Who is the
Possessor of Absolute
Riches, because we. are
utterly wanting, and
riches are bestowed on us
that our indigent hands
could not obtain. That is
to say, it is You Who is
rich, the One Who gives
is You! And You, You are
the Ever-Living,
Ever-Enduring One,
because we, we are dying,
and in our dying and in
our being resurrected we
see the manifestation of
a perpetual giver of
life! And You, You are
Ever-Enduring, because we
see Your continuation and
perpetualness in our
demise and transience!
And the One Who responds
to us and answers us, the
Granter of Gifts is You.
For all of us beings, we
are ever crying out and
requesting, entreating,
imploring by tongue and
by state. And our desires
are brought about, our
aims are achieved. In
other words, the One Who
answers us is You!...
" And so on.
Every
creature, universal and particular, is,
like Uvays al-Qarani, a mirror, in a form
that has the meaning of supplication. All
proclaim the Divine power and perfection
through their impotence and poverty and
deficiency.
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