This letter, written to As-sayyed Murshid-i kâmil Hadrat Mîr
Muhammad Nu’mân, explains that Allahu ta’âlâ and His Attributes and Deeds are
very close to His born servants.
My hamd (thanks) be to Allahu ta’âlâ, and
goodness and salâms to the people whom He chooses and loves! We have received
your precious letter. You went to a great trouble. May Jenâb-i-Haqq reward you
for your efforts! You ask us time after time to explain Allahu ta’âlâ and His
Attributes and Deeds, which are closer to these classes of beings than anything
else is, and you are eager to learn the answer. So I feel compelled to reveal
the matter a little:
Everything exists with its true nature,
with its essence. There is no need for giving something its own nature, or for
anybody to give it, for everything has its nature in itself. It is for this
reason that it was said that the nature of anything could not be made. Every
substance has an essence, a nature. It is not necessary to do some work to give
substances their natures. But, some work is to be done to produce the nature of
something in something else. For example, the dyer’s work is to dye fabrics,
but not to make a fabric fabric or to make a dye dye, which is unnecessary.
Then, the nature of a thing is not given to that thing later. But some work is
done to bring that thing and its nature together. Everything is itself together
with its own nature. This word of ours is not valid when shade is considered.
The shade of something, or its reflection or fancy, or its image on a mirror,
has become a shade, or a reflection, etc., not with its own nature, but with
the nature of the original that causes it to be formed, for a shade, or an
image, does not have a nature of its own. The nature that exists in the shade
is the nature of the original thing that forms it. Then, the original is closer
to its shade than the shade is to itself, for the shade has become the shade
with the nature of its original, that is, with the original, not with its own
nature; for it does not posses its own nature.
Since all classes of beings, all creatures
are the shades, reflections, and images of Allahu ta’âlâ’s deeds, these works,
which are the originals of these beings, are closer to these beings than these
beings are to themselves. And since these deeds are the shades of the Divine
Attributes, Allahu ta’âlâ’s Attributes are closer to the beings than the beings
and the deeds, that is, the originals of the beings, for they are the originals
of originals. And
since the Divine Attributes are the shades
of the Divine Person (Zât-ı ilâhî), and since Allahu ta’âlâ Himself is the
original of all the originals, the Person of Allahu ta’âlâ is closer to the
beings than the beings themselves, the Divine Deeds, and the Divine Attributes.
The intellectual individuals, who will understand these by reading them
carefully, will admit our word, if they are reasonable enough. If there should
be any person who does not believe us, it is not important at all, for our word
is not intended for them.