BB00105: Tafsir-i-Suratu’l-Qadar I

Part 1: “Praise be to God Who brought into being…”

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

Praise be to God Who brought into being whatsoever is in the heavens and on earth by His command. Then those who have believed in God and His signs, these shall be gathered unto God. And praise be to God Who created the essences from naught by virtue of their own being, then made them the seat of the manifestations of His power in the kingdom of names and attributes, that none might behold aught except that he would see therein the revelation of its Creator more evident than all else, and witness in all things the garments of the countenance of his Beloved’s beauty, such that he would see no light save the light of His beauty and hear no voice save the voice of His glory.

Glorified and exalted is He Who hath transcended all things through the sublimity of His essence, such that nothing is seen at the station of its Lord’s manifestation save His establishment upon the throne of bounty above all whereupon the name of a thing hath fallen. How exalted is His praise, how great His majesty, how glorious His commendation, and how mighty His decree in all that His knowledge hath encompassed!

And here am I, in this my station on this Friday amidst the mountains, bearing witness that there is no God but Thee, alone with no partner. Thou hast ever been without the existence of aught beside Thee, and Thou wilt ever be without the existence of aught at Thy level. If I say Thou art God, my own self belieth me, for the divinity that my self knoweth is unworthy to describe Thy Lord. And if I say Thou art Lord, my self belieth me, for the lordship of Thy Lord none can know save Him.

Glorified art Thou! Glorified art Thou! The ancient, camphorated, radiant, effulgent, gleaming, sanctified, resplendent Essence of Thy Self hath prevented all contingent beings from ascending to the precincts of nearness to Thy Essence, O Lord of names and attributes! And the eternal, pristine, luminous, holy, gleaming, unique, resplendent Being of Thy Self hath barred all created things from ascending to the station of knowing Thy Self, O God of all existence!

How then can I praise Thy presence, O Beloved One, after knowing that the path is barred and the proof prevented? And how can I fail to mention Thee after Thou hast mentioned me and called to my inmost heart? Glorified art Thou! Glorified art Thou! Thou art the Most High, above Whom there is nothing, and the Supreme, like unto Whom there is nothing. Thou hast made all to know Thy Self, that Thou art not known through aught else, nor described by other than Thyself, nor characterized by any save Thee, nor praised by other than Thee. For the limit of creation returneth to its own station, and the nature of invention beareth witness to its severance from Thy door.

I have known Thee, O my God, by what Thou art, though I could never comprehend that eternal Essence and ancient Attributes. Glorified art Thou! Glorified art Thou! What pleasure equaleth communion with Thee, what comfort matcheth intimacy with Thee, what joy compareth with nearness to Thee, and what station can compare with the servant’s standing before Thy countenance?

Blessed am I in this my station, this my witness, this my mountain, and this my glorification which causeth me to speak in praise of Thee, in glory to Thy Self, and in tribute to Thy Essence. Unto Thee be praise, O my God, with praise whose truth none knoweth save Thee, whose station none comprehendeth save Thee, and through which Thou drawest me near, when Thou willest, unto Thy presence, and causest me to attain unto the station of Thy manifestation in the Paradise of refuge, the ultimate degree, the supreme horizon, and the realm that was or drew nigh.

I bear witness that there is no God but Thee, as Thou lovest and art pleased with. Then I bear witness to Muhammad, Thy servant and Thy Messenger—Thy blessings be upon him and his family—as Thou hast ordained for him in the supreme vision and revealed his wisdom in the Qur’an where Thou didst say—and Thy word is the truth—“He speaketh not from desire. It is naught save a revelation revealed.” Therefore, O God, bless him for having conveyed Thy revelation to all Thy servants and for having endured tribulation in Thy love, through what Thou art of grace and bounty, of grandeur and glory. Verily, Thou art God, the Mighty, the Most High. And I bear witness to the Legatees of Thy Beloved One and His beloved through what Thou hast ordained for them in Thy Book, whereof none save Thee can comprehend its knowledge. Verily, Thou art God, the All-Bountiful, the Bestower. And I bear witness regarding myself, O my God, that I am Thy servant, in Thy grasp, destitute before Thee, in need of Thy forgiveness. Verily, Thou art the Most Generous of the generous ones, the Most Bountiful of the bountiful ones, and the Most Merciful of the merciful ones. And verily, I am a servant among the afflicted ones.

Now then, O thou who rememberest the remembrance of the Beautiful One and seeketh the mystery of the Glorious One, I have read thy letter and have understood what thou didst desire concerning the interpretation of “Verily We sent it down on the Night of Power.” And now We answer thee concerning what thou hast asked. Take what We have given thee of the manifestations of the Names of the Kingdom in the meanings of the Divine Realm, and be thou of the thankful ones.

Know thou that this Súrah possesseth a meaning whose knowledge none can compass save God alone; for He revealed it through His own knowledge, and none of His creatures can encompass its station. Verily He is the Mighty, the Most Exalted. That which was sent down in the station of origination is the same as that which was sent down in the station of creation; unto this doth God allude in His address to His Beloved on the Night of the Ascension, saying: “Thou art the Lover and Thou art the Beloved.”

When thou considerest the letters of this Surah and that station, thou wilt perceive that the Ha’ is the spirit and the root of the Surah; around it revolve the millstone of manifestations, and from it proceed the names and attributes with their meanings. Unto this pointeth the saying of God—exalted be He—in the Gospel:

“Know thyself, and thou shalt know thy Lord: thy outward self is for effacement, and thy inward self is I.”

What is intended thereby is the manifestation of the Essence unto thee through thee, according to thy rank. Dost thou not see that utterances indicate meanings which, in turn, point unto the station of the Essence? Yet this is not sought by those possessed of understanding, for they see no path unto the knowledge of the Essence save through the negation of names and attributes. He Who hath revealed is God alone; I associate naught with Him. And that which was revealed through Him is that which was revealed unto Him—namely the Ha’, the rank of the manifestations of unity in the stations of abstraction, and the degrees of the Muhammadan Reality in the worlds of command and creation.

By “the Night,” in the rank of Ahmadiyyih, is intended the station of His intellect; and in the rank of differentiation it is Fatimih—provided that in this station the meaning of the Ha’ be observed as the rank of the primal, universal guardianship, which was made Ali. For he is the Light which God sent down in the station of Fatimih; unto this hath God alluded concerning her in His Book, saying—and His word is the truth—“Nay! I swear by the setting-places of the stars; and verily that is a mighty oath, if ye but knew.” The “purified ones” are Ali, who was the meaning of the Ha’. If thou desirest a fuller exposition, it is the Two Hasans; and for this reason the written form of the Ha’ is a sign of her station for him who knoweth her name and reasoneth from her manifestation.

That form is a letter from among the letters of the Most Great Name, of which ʿAli—peace be upon him—spoke, saying: “Its form is thus…” And there is no servant who engraveth upon a Yemeni red carnelian ring but that all good is gathered unto him, and it becometh his protection from every ill; for this is the Most Great Name, which recounteth the three grades in the Torah, the four names in the Gospel, and the five names in the Qur’an. Recognize, then, that which I have made known unto thee of the Red Elixir; verily it is precious and mighty.

Part 2: “The meaning of the other verse…”

The meaning of the other verse is the negation of the knowledge of aught besides Fatimih concerning her true station, even as God—exalted be His remembrance—hath said: “And what shall make thee know what the Night of Power is?” Though outwardly it is a mode of interrogation, inwardly it is the closing of the path unto all created beings. Then recognize the ordinance of her manifestation in the saying of the Most High: “The Night of Power is better than a thousand months.” Know, moreover, in that station, that things are not devoid of three grades: Sarmad, which hath neither beginning nor end; Dahr, which hath a beginning but no end; and Time, which is realized through the motion of the sphere of spheres, with the rising of the sun and the moon and the appearance of day and night. When the meaning of “month” is applied in the world of Dahr, that is what is intended—and not otherwise; and the same judgment holdeth in the realm of Sarmad.

However, when the matter descends to the realm of limitation, it points to the thousand stations of Adam whom God created before that Adam, indicating that it is better than these. In the outward paths, the Night of Power is the twenty-third night of the month of fasting, the month of Ramadan, in which the Qur’an was revealed. Whoever recites therein the Surih of the Spider on the right side of the letter Ha’ and the Surih of the Romans on the left side of the form of the Ha’, while acknowledging their truth and their manifestation in the temples of their followers, Paradise becomes incumbent upon them. I swear by God that none shall be excluded from that portion, and I see no sin in this, relying as I do upon His gracious care and bounty. Verily He is the Possessor of great favor and tremendous grace, and He is indeed the Generous Bestower.

Let it not be difficult for you that in every thousand months there must be numbered Nights of Power, for how can one conceive of those months which He equates with it? Indeed, it was the duration of the rule of the Umayyads—may God curse them—the age of the ancients and the eternity of the latter ones, and in it there was no Night of Power, for the basis of equivalence is a thousand months minus the Night of Power. This is not a station of questioning.

The meaning of “Spirit” in His exalted Words “The angels and the Spirit descend therein by permission of their Lord for every matter” refers to the Qa’im, and by “angels” are meant the Imams, for they have transcended their station of infallibility and descend on the Night of Power upon her. The meaning of His exalted Words “Peace it is until the emergence of dawn” points to Fatimih, and what is meant by “peace” is the peace of the Lord, Mighty and Exalted, for God, exalted be His mention, ceases not to send peace upon her, since God’s outpouring of grace regarding her, which was the sustenance of her existence, is the peace from Him. What is meant by the emergence of dawn is the station of utter poverty of the servant who needs in every aspect the sustenance of his Lord.

The verse has inner stations that thoughts cannot bear and the hands of those possessed of insight cannot reach. Rather, everything in it has a manifestation, and its manifestation has a manifestation unto infinity. Through it sharpen your vision and extend the hand of your insight, for were the ocean ink for the letters of this surih, the ocean would be spent, even as His words, exalted be His mention, state: “even if We brought the like thereof to aid.”

The interpretation of this surih as al-Khidr asked of al-Baqir is that which I mention to you, that His names and attributes might draw you to the holy realm and His meanings and realities might connect you to the realm of intimacy. It is as related in al-Kafi, and every servant has the right not to see in the Qur’an and its meanings except through the encompassment of God’s knowledge, for God is more glorious and greater than that anyone should be able to encompass the knowledge of His Word, and all perceive as the ant perceives the oneness of its Lord.

They cannot attain even a thousandth part of a tenth of what God intended in its meanings. Thus did the Imam say, in essence, that the Word of God is neither ancient nor new-born, for it occupies the station of the intermediary realm and the supreme creation. Nothing is more subtle and exalted, then more magnificent and evident, than the Word. God, exalted be His mention, has placed no intermediary between Himself and His chosen ones except His Word, for the Word is the mirror that reflects its Speaker in all His glory, grandeur, majesty and awe.

No one can truly comprehend the reality of the Word of God, exalted be His mention, for it points to the eternity of His ancientness, the glory of His self-subsistence, the majesty of His sanctity, and the beauty of the garments of His Most August Countenance. These are far too exalted for even the highest abstract essences among the possessors of wisdom to approach their precincts, let alone for the loftiest summits of substantive realities among the bearers of names and attributes to equal them.

Exalted is God, the Supreme Sovereign, far above how those who draw comparisons describe His Word, and far above what the wrongdoers say regarding His verses, with a great exaltation. I seek forgiveness from God, my Lord, for what I have said in interpreting His verses according to what befits Him. Verily, He is the Ever-Forgiving, the Merciful, the Munificent, the All-Bestowing, the Generous. Sufficient is His grace in His knowledge of my sin and my confession of my disobedience. Verily, He is the Ever-Living, the Self-Sufficient, the Ancient. Glorified be God, my Lord, above what they describe. Peace be upon the Messengers, and praise be to God, the Lord of all worlds.