BB00239: Fi ’ilmi’s-Sarf va’n-Nahv (Treatise on grammar)

In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate

Praise be to God Who hath manifested Himself unto man through the detached, moving Point from the Dawning-Place of the Bayan, and praise be to God Who hath ordained through His bounty that which He hath ordained for man through the connected, quiescent Point in the syntax of the Bayan, that the two seas might meet at the point of convergence upon the form of the pentacle, and lest the people of clear vision suppose concerning what God hath ordained in the Point between the two limits the decree of the two gulfs.

Verily hath the All-Merciful created the point of grammar from the realm of effacement, and God hath perfected within it the laws of limitation according to the decree of the imagined from the point of the known. With God is the power of alteration in His decree, and there is nothing but hath its appointed term. No thing can outstrip God’s decree concerning it, and this is a binding decree from God, the Truth, concerning creation according to pure truth.

When God created the center of grammar from around the mystery of the line, We revealed unto it:

“Draw not nigh unto the Tree of Beginning, for it is forbidden unto thee in truth.”

Then I allotted it a portion from the dust of the land of truth concerning nearness, but it drew nigh without permission. Then We decreed its expulsion from the Garden of the Gate, and from that portion which rose from its lower members We created the point of morphology as its mate. Then God’s command for its descent was fulfilled upon the tablets, and it was written in the Mother Book among the people of change in the line of limitation.

Until now have the two points wept in the land of the tablets, but lo, I have forgiven their drawing nigh by God’s leave, their Lord, when they acknowledged their powerlessness concerning that Gate. Verily I have been, in truth, unto all worlds by God’s leave, All-Forgiving.

Furthermore, O thou pure Gate, know that after the rising of the sun from the dawning-place of permission, the believing youths have a right concerning that Gate not to acquire the paths of knowledge from books of opposition, for their fathers have tasted love of the fruit from the Tree of Eternity. It behooveth not the rain descending from the cloud-sea to drink love from the body of the calf, for God desireth to purify the earth for His Greatest Day, that they worship none save Him. Verily, He is the Truth, there is no God but Him.

Write thou upon the paths of excellence for the youth from the teaching of the Creator of man from the Dawning-Place of the Bayan within thyself, according to the manifestation of His majesty over all contingent beings and realities, that they might testify after reaching maturity to the transcendence of the Gate above the limitation of explanation.

Verily hath God created the two knowledges from the drop distilled from those two seas—“He hath let flow the two seas that meet together: between them is a barrier which they do not transgress.” O people of earth and heaven! God hath not ordained nobility for man in that knowledge from those two seas, for it is the portion of the people of the two gulfs. True nobility with God is knowledge of the All-Merciful and of the barrier standing between the two worlds.

So desire ye the equatorial line standing between the two seas, which bringeth forth from one of them the pearl of syntax and from the other the formation of coral. The first is a decisive limit from God—nothing knoweth excellence save through conjunction after separation. The second is a perfect decree—rest is not known save through cessation after separation.

Cast thou the ways of rules from the water of the elixir upon the verdant tablets from the form of unity from the shade of the supreme realm, that the people of understanding among the faithful might witness that what is there cannot be known save through what is here, and no letter can be written except there draweth nigh unto it the decree of origination and the word of execution from the All-Merciful. “Verily, unto God do we belong and unto Him do we return.”

Open thou the gate of the Book upon the twenty-nine letters, and cause to flow from these upon all the decree of nearness.

Begin with what God has inspired you through the tongue of the Bab and commence with mention of the verb, for it is the pivot of the decree. These are its numbers through repetition in the Ancient Verb. Judge the point of the isthmus by the decree of the two unseen in the two testimonies, and distinguish its decree in the meeting of the two gatherings. Make mention of the proximity of the unseen to the visible after your consideration of the numbers of the letters in their fewness and abundance. Judge the lesser unto the depths of nearness, and write upon the greater the point of remoteness. Direct the verb upon the pure manifestation, parse the noun with pure water, and judge the letter by the connection from the world of manifestation to Mount Sinai. Here for you is the blowing of the trumpet, and all letters call from the Mount that the sun has risen, the day has dawned, the noon has passed, and the night has retreated. God has not ordained for us on that day any stopping at the Gate. God is my Lord, there is no God but He. Thus should the doers act.

Then know, O my strong confidant, that the name is the mark of the thing as it is in its essence. It has ranks, among them that mirrors are its grace, words its limit, forms its attribute, and inscribed images its trace. For every book according to the decree of all is from God, inexhaustible. God has made words as bodies for spirits which are meanings, and God has written with His hands between them a true relationship, and there was naught between them save as between the Kaf and the Nun. As for the verb, it is the movement of the thing, and upon it depends the axis of the noun and letter. The origin of the verb is a motionless creation not known by stillness, and according to our doctrine, which is the truth, a moving creation not known by movement. Whoso knows separation from union has indeed attained the point of knowledge.

As for the letter, it is the meaning which tells only of connection. When God desired to create the letters, He originated a word of four letters, and God named each letter: for the first, verb; for the second, noun; for the third, preposition; and for the fourth, the hidden secret that sustains them. And here I am making known to you that letter which al-Sadiq (upon him be peace) indicated in the tradition of the Name. Creation has been filled from the outpouring of that letter, and none knows its subtle workmanship save Him. Rely upon God and say: There is no power nor strength save in God. And let the pen flow upon the Point of the Gate by the Gate. In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Praise be to God, the Lord of the worlds.