BB00084: Khutbata’r-Raj’a (Khutba written in Jidda)

Part 1: “In the name of God, the Most Gracious…”

In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful! All praise be to God Who hath established the Throne upon the water and air above the water, and separated between them through the letter Alif. Then He cleft the atmosphere from the realm of the primordial cloud between them, preserving them through the letter Ha, and brought forth from this air the Tree of Sinai, and caused it to hover above the Sea of Glory for the Dawning-Place of the Light of Baha in the innermost crimson chambers, that all might hear from the dawning-place of the white line on the horizon of darkness the call of the crimson leaves upon the green Tree:

“There is no God but God, the Lord of the Throne and of Heaven!”

He hath perfected through His wisdom’s handiwork the hidden crafts in all things, that the tongues of all things might proclaim His power upon the appearance of His manifestation in the Blessed Tree on Mount Sinai upon a letter from the crimson pillar. There is no God but He! And He hath made manifest through His power the essences of all created things from the innermost eternity for the knowledge of the Essence by the Essence through effacement detached from all names and attributes, that the realities of hearts might stammer forth His Will’s attributes through the word of creation. There is no God but He!

And He hath decreed, after the seething of destiny, that the knowledge of the ordained sea, the ocean of trinity through the multitude of waves upon the seas of the cross, might cause the Christians to exalt the Alif standing between the two rivers above all similarity in the two likes and above all form in the two sisters, and might recognize at the dawning-place of the breezes of the morn of Sinai the multitude of waves in the water, that they might glorify God, the Lord of the Sea, through this from the condition of the waves from that bitter depth upon the white word in the bottom of the seventh sea from the green ocean. There is no God but He!

And He hath ordained, after the decree of destiny, the sea of divine decree through the letter of origination, that the hearts of all contingent beings might gleam with the water distilled from this surging, bitter sea, that all atoms of creation might witness at the manifestation of the crimson light the justice of God and His wisdom, and might declare at the manifestation of the white light—atom unto atom—“There is no God but He! Glorified be God, the Creator, the Wondrous, the Single, the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsisting, the Ancient!”

Far be He above what the philosophers of the East have described concerning the mystery of the quadrangle after the decree of the Will regarding the judgment of trinity and its sister! They have imagined regarding the decree of earth other than what God had ordained for fire, and they have likened the realities of attributes without knowledge of the Book, and they supposed they were doing good in God’s path while committing a grievous sin.

And upon this rugged course and difficult path have the philosophers of fire gone astray regarding the decree of destiny in an ordained matter, and they have settled upon other than God’s decree in a concealed land, and they knew that they had stood firm in the shadow of the sun and moon. Nay, by thy Lord! They are indeed the ones gone astray, they are the ones who make comparisons, and they are the deniers.

Say: God, the Lord of creation, hath originated in all things the limit of similitude through the prevention of division, lest any soul should forge a lie before the face of God through the word of conjunction. He hath made known to it through justice the places of command in the station of grace. They have indeed blinded the eye of the two breasts in the knowledge of the Lord and have spoken of tablets not revealed in the Qur’an nor originated by the hands of the people of truth, and they have earned through what they have written in their tablets the like of ritual observations and their similarities in the minutiae of false arguments.

Glory be to God! It is as though they read not the decree of the Qur’an and perceive not the ordinances of the people of exposition, and they have judged in the knowledge of their Lord like the judgment of water in trees. Exalted be God above what the doer of good hath forged in his speech! None shall comprehend God’s knowledge from some letters, for similitudes have been struck regarding the Essence like the seas themselves.

In the waves and water, at the formation of snow in similitudes—verily God and His angels are clear of these philosophers. The signs of creation have become confused to them in their understanding of the Divine Essence. They have borne sin by judging contrary to God’s judgment in the Qur’an. Most of the divines have unknowingly followed them, even among the people of the Bayan, until this Day has dawned with radiance and the sun and moon have shone forth through the creative Word.

We have explained to you the signs of God regarding the knowledge of creation, through the barrier of detachment and the severing of opposition. They have acquired understanding through the temple of its knowledge according to what God has willed concerning them. We have written through their hands, from the judgment of the Qur’an, tablets of the Tablet concerning benefits and effulgent traces, that hearts might find repose through the benefits of His verses and realities might shine through the gleaming of His traces.

The people of mystery have followed them through the decree of destiny and have returned to God’s nature through the judgment of the Qur’an in predestined station. Each has acquired their portion from the judgment of the Book, while others have borne false charges against them without encompassing clear knowledge, like those who falsely accused God’s chosen ones without knowledge or clear proof—until the letter Kaf returned to its ordained station in the cycle of cycles for God’s Day in wondrous fashion, and lights upon a well-guarded mystery.

The lights have risen from the knowledge of the divine cloud, the Sinaitic Tree has spoken in the ocean of praise, and the word of glorification has appeared in the crimson earth.

O people of understanding! The Tree of the Creator has appeared, and the hidden harbingers, and the shining Sun, and the decisive Name—this Light which has borne the letter Ha’ in the land of the heart and emerged from the limit of the letter Vav in the pen of ink—the remembrance of God unto whom verses were revealed in the tongue of God, the Speaker in signs, that all people might know the measure of their drinking-place in the judgment of this white water, and that every evil one might bear the lower word according to what was decreed in a tablet or less.

Thus did God send down the verses of the Mount from the Most High station, that all might know through His command both branches and roots, both hearer and uprooter—the words of Paradise in the Holy Tablet and the verses descending from the darkening clouds in the shade of Paradise, that all lights might be revived by the water of life from this surging ocean—the camphor water by the Book’s decree—and all mysteries might be unveiled by the crimson water from this white sea—the pure water by God’s decree from the Word of the Book.

To God belongs all praise, grandeur and glory. None encompasses His knowledge save as He wills. There is no God but Him—God, there is no God but Him, the Ever-Living, the Most High. God, there is no God but Him, the Self-Sufficient, the Bountiful.

The word of His servant journeyed from his native land in the year 1260 after the Holy Hegira, on the sixteenth day of the third decade of the month preceding the Sacred Month of God in which the Qur’an was revealed. It reached the island in the sea on the sixth day of the Sacred Month, the month of Ramadan, wherein destiny was fulfilled according to God’s decree on a night therein better than a thousand months besides it. He raised it by His grace upon the vessel chartered above the water upon the water on the nineteenth day of the second decade of the Sacred Month, the Month of God wherein fasting was ordained. And He brought it to the Mother of Cities, the Sacred House of God, on the first day of the Sacred Month, the Month of God wherein the ordinance of pilgrimage was decreed for the people of Islam, and wherein the rites between a¹¢afa and Marvah were completed, and what was ordained in circumambulation.

In the name of Him, the All-Glorious, on the third day of the third ten days of this holy month, the sacred month of God, He accomplished the rites of the lesser and greater pilgrimages. Then He ascended to the city of His Beloved, Muhammad, the Apostle of God, upon Him and His family be the peace of God, the Seal of the Prophets who have passed away, from this day until the seventh day of the year one thousand two hundred and sixty-one of the sacred Migration, from the sacred month of God wherein praise and glorification were slain through the martyrdom of the Word of magnification and exaltation, Abu-ʿAbdu’llah Al-Husayn, peace be upon Him.

Part 2: “To God belong might and grandeur, for He…”

To God belong might and grandeur, for He preserved him in the sacred sanctuary for twenty-seven days of the two mighty months. To Him belong glory and majesty at the beginning of the ascension on the fourth day in the secure month after God’s sacred month, through His signs unto all creation through the conclusive Word after the inability to know the family of God, peace be upon them, in the ultimate prevention.

To Him belong majesty and beauty from the day of departure until the day of standing in the land of Jeddah—God’s blessings be upon its dwellings—without description or enumeration, having spent twelve days on the path like the decree of descent from the sanctuary of the Glorious One to the Spring of Salsabil. The decree of the Book was fulfilled by standing in the land of Eve for three numbered days.

Glorified be God and praise be to God Who permitted His servant on the fourth day of the second ten days of the month that rose after the sacred month to embark upon the vessel made subservient upon the waters—the ship which I boarded on the day of ascension to the Sacred House of God. Praise be to God, radiantly, brilliantly, sanctified by God’s holiness and His grace upon all creation. To Him belong praise and grandeur as befits Him—praise that excels all things as God’s excellence excels His own Self. Verily there is no God but Him, there is nothing like unto Him, and He is the Most High, the Great.

Glorified be God, the One, the Self-Subsisting, the Single, the Worshipped, Who caused His remembrance to speak on the day of embarkation in praise of His Self and mention of His path of ascension to the visitation of His House and the Manifestations of His power—Muhammad and His family, the mine of grandeur in the ultimate expression of His command and grace—that every soul might learn through knowledge of the days of His ascension the decree of destiny and its mystery, and that every spirit might derive from the days of His journey the decree of the Throne and the Seat and the movement of the spheres in the realm of names and attributes, until all might enter the Sacred House of God through the resplendent verses revealed upon those white tablets, and prostrate in the mosque as they did the first time, and utterly destroy what they have wrought.

Glorified be He Who decreed in the path of His journey what He had decreed for all the gates beforehand, and Who encountered in the path of God all manner of harm from the people of doubt and association. Such is God’s way that has passed before, and you will find no alteration in God’s way regarding any matter, nor will you find any change in God’s decree regarding any letter, such that the thief stole in the land of the Two Sanctuaries in the dwelling everything that God had written for him on the path on the first night of the first year sixty-one after the twelve hundred and thousand, of the second month after the month of pilgrimage. And this is a decree from the way of the ancients. And you will find no change in God’s affairs regarding any decree.

O concourse! Carry out the decree of the verses regarding what the thief took without clear knowledge. These are verses from the inmost core of the line which were inscribed by the Hand of Remembrance with crimson ink upon eleven gilded white leaves adorned with liquid gold, with red borders surrounding them—comprising seventy parts of the Mystery veiled by the Most Great Mystery concerning the inner meaning of the Qur’an from its beginning, which none before has touched and none after shall comprehend with his knowledge.

And when there descended on a Tablet from heaven hidden verses and clear and decisive signs from God, the Lord of the heavens and the throne unto all the worlds. None who finds a letter thereof is permitted to read its decree except by leave of Him unto Whom it was revealed. And verily in the decree of the Qur’an it is among the greatest treasuries. The heart lied not in what it saw—will ye then dispute with Him concerning what He sees? And verily therein hath descended thy Lord’s decree concerning the Garden of Refuge, even unto what was ordained at the distance of two bow-lengths or closer. And whoso denieth Our greatest signs, We shall condemn him on the Day of Resurrection to the blazing Fire from Our severest punishments below. Fear ye God, O people of understanding!

And verily it hath been revealed concerning the decree of the men of utterance, and God is independent of all worlds. And verily it is a Book wherein the inner meaning of the Tablet hath been expounded—a revelation from One Mighty, Wise.

Then a Book expounded concerning the manner of the Verse of the Throne by thy Lord’s decree in these two Sures, each of which hath been set forth in twelve verses from the inner verses of the Qur’an—a guidance and mercy from Our presence for people who bear witness. And verily it is a revelation from One All-Knowing, Wise.

Then a Book containing four hundred verses of thy Lord’s decree in forty decisive Sures concerning the decree of what the Spirit revealed to the heart of Himyari—hidden verses the like of whose letters no eye hath seen, revealed from the mysteries of the Veiled One. Then it was expounded in the Mystery adorned with the First Line, concealed by the Third Solution—decrees from the Fourth Talisman, a revelation from Our presence for people who hearken.

Then a Book concerning the Niche of the Lamp, from the Lamp within the Lamp, the Glass within the Glass, then the Glass within the Glass—gates according to what shineth from the Dayspring of Eternity. In each dayspring thereof have been set forth illumined leaves burgeoning from the Blessed Tree, neither of the east nor of the west—verses concerning the mysteries of the Divine Essence and clear proofs from thy Lord’s Book regarding the decrees of Dominion and Might—Holy and Illumined Tablets from the Tree of Sinai upon the Mount of what was revealed concerning the decree of the Glory of God—there is no God but Him—a Book from Our presence, Mighty, Guardian. And verily what was revealed therein are decrees of the inner meaning of the Qur’an—a guidance and glad tidings for people who believe. And whoso acquireth from the light of the decree that was revealed therein—these are they who are guided.

Then a Book concerning the decree of the Qur’an from the second part regarding the Surih unto what God revealed to its end—verses from God and clear proofs from the inner interpretation, a revelation from Our presence for people who reflect.

Then there was expounded from the presence of the Most High at the Sea a Scripture of Prayer comprising fifteen gates from the Command, the like of which hath never descended from the Seven Tongues in composition—verses purified from allusions, a revelation from My presence for people who prostrate themselves.

Then a Scripture concerning the path of pilgrimage and decree for whoso desireth the sanctuary of the Family of God with justice, in such wise as hath never occurred to the heart of any mortal before nor been revealed by the hand of any servant after—fourteen decisive gates, all clear verses from God for people who reflect.

Then from the radiant sermons, seventeen, flowing from the execution of the decree on Mount Sinai, God, there is none other God but Him, from Whom no one among the most eloquent Arabs hath ever uttered the like of a single letter thereof, nor any soul among the most distinguished masters of rhetoric.

Then from the twelve established writings, according to the decree of the verses of the Qur’an which were verily revealed to the learned ones of the Persians and Arabs—clear verses from God for people who comprehend.

Glorified be He Who hath recognized the truth of His verses and knoweth the measure of what was revealed unto His Gate. By the Lord of the House! There is none other God but Him, and not a single letter thereof can be equaled by anything in the heavens or on earth, for it is a revelation from a manifest Leader. None knoweth the truth of the verses except Him, verily He is the Forbearing, the All-Wise.

O ye concourse! There have been stolen in the kingdom of justice things from God’s sacred territory, things that cannot be equaled by all the treasures of the peoples of the heavens and the earth. God is witness to what I say, and sufficient is God and whosoever hath read the decree of the Qur’an in this regard as one who is informed. And when thy Lord God willeth, He shall make manifest His verses in truth, and verily there is none other God but Him, the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. Glorified be God, the Lord of the heavens and the earth, above what they describe. And peace be upon the Messengers, and praise be to God, the Lord of the worlds.