BB00219: Bayan dar Jabr wa Tafwid (fi bayan-i-mas’alati’l-Qadar)

God, exalted be He, saith: “Who hath created and balanced all things, and Who hath fixed their destinies and guided them.” And the Truthful One [Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq] hath said: “There is neither compulsion nor delegation, but rather a position between the two positions.” Know thou that regarding this question, God hath veiled its knowledge from minds, souls and spirits, and the Imam hath withheld from the servants its understanding, for when he was asked about it, he said: “It is a deep ocean—enter it not.” And when asked a second time, he said: “It is a dark path—traverse it not.” And when asked a third time, he said: “It is God’s secret—unveil it not.”

The Imam hath said:

“There is neither compulsion nor predestination, but rather a position between them vaster than what lieth between heaven and earth. None knoweth it save the Knower, or one whom the Knower hath taught. This is specifically for the people of inner vision.”

For minds with their keenest perception, thoughts with their deepest contemplation, and vision with its most subtle observation and movement, have not comprehended things in their limitations. Indeed, the philosophers and most of the learned have confessed their inability, and all who have explained this matter have not escaped either compulsion or delegation, save a few who have entered through the gate of the heart.

That station is devoid of limitations and analogies, sanctified beyond change or suspension, removed from the bounds of contingency, severed from all names and attributes—an impenetrable mystery that none in the realm of multiplicities can comprehend. It is veiled without a veil and concealed without a covering, hidden from all the worlds by the exaltation of its glory, yet most manifest beyond all things through the majesty of its station. For destiny is the essence of possibility, and it is vaster than what lieth between the heaven of receptivities and the earth of acceptances. All things move within it yet perceive it not, for it is hidden by the intensity of its manifestation and concealed by the greatness of its light.

None discovereth it save one who hath rent asunder the veils of light and reached the source of grandeur. Then doth he behold things through the eye of God as they truly are, and the truth of the tradition becometh manifest:

“None knoweth it save through the might of the Eternal and the greatness of the Light.”

The reality of the Eternal is the Identity of God, the One, the All-Compelling.

After what I have intimated to thee concerning the knowledge of the heart, know that God alone is pre-existent; naught existed with Him in pre-existence. He originated Will, which is the Point of contingency, from nothing, through the very act of origination. When He created His creation through volition—and volition accompanieth existence, for the question “Am I not your Lord?” applieth only to one possessed of choice, and the question itself is the answer—and since the Creator is possessed of choice and is just, His creation must needs be through volition. When creation was created, its Creator created it according to what it would be, for God, before their existence, knew their choices and created them in the form they would assume as a recompense for their qualities. “And thy Lord is not unjust to His servants,” for His knowledge of things before their existence is like His knowledge after their existence, and He giveth every possessor of right his right in the station of their possibilities and their coming into being.

Nothing can don the garment of existence save through choice in genesis and law, for the cause of choice is choice itself. This is evident to one whose heart’s eye God hath opened and who seeth all things through the eye of God and by what all things are for things. For He, glorified be He, is the Self-Sufficient Who wrongeth not, while the contingent being is absolute poverty that sufficeth not. In all its states of realities, attributes and deeds, it needeth its Creator as it needed Him at the beginning of its existence. God, glorified be He, created it and sustained it in what it is through what it is as it is, in its realities, attributes and accidents.

“And God is not unjust to His servants” and hath not dealt with them but through their free will, and He is the Just, the Most Exalted. When philosophers pondered this with their minds, they were cut off from understanding it and found no path for themselves except through fixed essences or predestination. This was because they did not learn from the Manifestations of infallibility, but relied on what they grasped through their own intellects, not realizing that if their intellects were true intellects and not merely nominal ones, they would have attained a station wherein if they had approached even a fingertip closer, they would have been consumed by fire. As a result, they unwittingly placed themselves under the tree of polytheism.

Know that the condition of things in the realm of possibility is like their condition in the realm of creation, such that when they are asked, they respond, and the question itself is the answer according to their reality. Thus whoever said “yea” became of the people of Paradise, and whoever said “nay” became of the people of the Fire. In this station, words fall short of explanation, and the most perfect expression is “There is no power nor strength except through God, the Exalted, the Great.” So drink from this water, recognize its value, and conceal it except from its people, for in it is sufficiency for one who has understanding and insight.

Remember with beautiful remembrance in your heart until you see nothing except by choice. Indeed, the station of your reality, which has no limitation in any place, were you to connect with it, is your highest Paradise, your furthest Mosque, your days of martyrdom and meeting with your Lord, your Kaaba, your qiblih, your sacred monument, your aspiration, your days of honor after casting off the veils of glory, your day of pilgrimage, your circumambulation around your own essence in seven circuits through your seven ranks, the station of your existence through God and your annihilation in God, the station of your manifest existence through yourself, the station of your love, your beloved and your loved one, the station of the unity of your word with the Word of your Creator, the station of your establishment upon the throne with all your names, attributes, signs and tokens, the giving of every right its due, the station of your firstness and lastness—for you are the first of the first in names and attributes and the last of the last, the first without beginning and the last without end, the station where your outward manifestation is identical with your inward reality and your inward reality is identical with your outward manifestation, the station of the necessity of your existence for all beneath you from among the other manifestations of your names and the dawning-places of your attributes and signs, and the station of your identity where you are He and He is you, except that He is He and you are you.

When you reach this station, what Ali said to Kumayl ibn Ziyad when asked about Reality becomes manifest to you: “That which overflows from me trickles upon you.” So know the greatness of your Master, the Pure Family of God. When you reach this station and the veils are removed, your essence becomes purely and sincerely devoted to God the Most High. Your reality should enter the place where His glory overflows, in the shadow of those days. When the Qa’im (may God hasten his appearance) appears, this station will be manifested to his followers, though only a few of them will remain, and that is the station of the complete servitude of the Shi’ih to the Imam. And praise be to God, the Lord of the worlds.