má qultu ḥubayyibí mina ’l-taḥqíri bal ya‘dhubu ’smu ’l-shakhṣi bi-’l-taṣghíri.
"Not in contempt I say 'my darling.' No! By 'diminution' names do sweeter grow."
[740] Dìwàn, p. 472 sqq. A French rendering will be found at p. 41 of Grangeret de Lagrange's Anthologie Arabe (Paris, 1828).
[741] The words of God to Moses (Kor. vii, 139).
[742] Díwán, p. 257 sqq.
[743] This refers to Kor. vii, 171. God drew forth from the loins of Adam all future generations of men and addressed them, saying, "Am not I your Lord?" They answered, "Yes," and thus, according to the Ṣúfí interpretation, pledged themselves to love God for evermore.
[744] Díwán, p. 142 sqq.
[745] See A Literary History of Persia, vol. i, p. 428 sqq. But during the last twenty years a great deal of new light has been thrown upon the character and doctrines of Ḥalláj. See Appendix.
[746] The best-known biography of Ibnu ’l-‘Arabí occurs in Maqqarí's Nafḥu ’l-Ṭíb, ed. by Dozy and others, vol. i, pp. 567-583. Much additional information is contained in a lengthy article, which I have extracted from a valuable MS. in my collection, the Shadharátu ’l-Dhahab, and published in the J.R.A.S. for 1906, pp. 806-824. Cf. also Von Kremer's Herrschende Ideen. pp. 102-109.
[747] Muḥyi ’l-Dín means 'Reviver of Religion.' In the West he was called Ibnu ’l-‘Arabí, but the Moslems of the East left out the definite article (al) in order to distinguish him from the Cadi Abú Bakr Ibnu ’l-‘Arabí of Seville († 1151 a.d.).