“And we are safe from doubt, and the interpretation of the command is fixed in our thought; by common consent the word about the attributes of God Almighty, interpreted according to opinion, is not to be depended upon; it may sometimes happen that we interpret it contrarily to the will of the Lord God; we always fall into doubt and some deviation from truth; but we say what the men firm in knowledge say: that the whole is from the Lord, the Almighty God; we manifested this belief externally, and internally we acknowledged it as true; we consign it to the Lord, the Almighty God, and we are not perplexed by the abstruseness of this knowledge, because to possess it, is not imposed upon us by the law of the faith.” Some have carried scrupulousness to that degree, that they do not interpret in Persian the words “hand, countenance, and strength;” but, like the Hashaviyat Ashâriah, they enjoined that whatever is contained in the Koran about strength, both hands, countenance, arrival, meeting, supremacy, and the words in the sacred sayings, such as:
“God created Adam after his own image.”
and other expressions therein of a similar sort, are to be read in the very terms of the original, so that the words which there openly bear upon solid bodies, are understood by them in such a manner as to answer the belief of the religious sects and the attribution.
The author of this book heard, in the year of the Hejira 1048 (A. D. 1638) in the royal capital of Lahore, from Mulla Adel, of Kashghar, that he (the Mulla) has read in the revered book of his faith, and also the lord Mawlána Abd al rahmen Jámî[518] has stated, in his noble verses, that by the right faith it is necessary to believe in our heart, and to confess with our tongue, that the author of existence is independant, absolute, and without wants; and that his being is free of matter and without a form, and that he is better than whatever can be imagined; he existed primitively whilst the beings were in the mansions of nothingness; after which, as an object everlasting, he remained firm, and no other being but he is always, and one; but his greatness, his attributes, and his names are without measure and number, although in a thousand parts he is but one; in these however he is not confined; the qualities of his majesty are not perceived by the eye; and no being but he has life inherent in his qualities; but he lives neither by his spirit, nor breath, nor body, although he be living by himself. He is another universe, endowed with such a knowledge that the world has no superiority over him, and his omniscience comprehends the totalities and the parts, the inhabitants and the places, and the town of existence, in such a manner that not a grain of sand is without his knowledge; he is the author of every thing by his will, and the actions of all things may be voluntary, such as the doings of mankind; or natural, such as the inclination of a stone, and are all produced by his will.
“Not a thorn pricks without his will;
Not a thread is broken without his direction.”
He is strong, and possesses a perfect power; without the help of instruments he performs every thing; from nothingness he brings forth beings; he hears without an ear; he sees without an eye:
“He hears the petition from afar and near:
He sees, be there light or darkness.”
He speaks, but his speech comes not from his throat, nor from the tongue and the palate; but what he announces or withholds is nothing more than his speech; and his silence is eloquence.