[183] The word in the text is ازل, azl, which means duration of existence during a series of finite times, and infinite on the side of the past, as ابد, abad, signifies duration of existence during a series of finite times, and infinite on the side of the future.—(See Definitions of Jorjáni, in Not. et Ext. des MSS., vol. X. p. 39.)
[184] فيض is translated by Silvestre de Sacy “emanation;” and فيض اللقدس fayz al kudis, by “émanation très sainte” (see Ibid., p. 66). In common acceptation, fayz signifies “plenty, abundance, bounty, grace;” fayz-al akdes means also “communication of divine grace made to angels, prophets, and other superior intelligences without the intervention of the Holy Ghost.”
[185] اعيان خارجيه, aâyan kharjíah. The scholastics have distinguished fixed and external substances; the Súfis distinguish substances in and without God.
[186] The word وقت, wakt, “time,” has a technical signification.—According to Jorjáni, it means: “Your state, that is, that which is required by your actual disposition, and is not produced by design.” Shehab eddin Omar Sohrawerdi (who died A. D. 1234) says: “Time is what dominates man; man is not dominated by any thing more than by his time; for time is like a sword, it executes its decrees and cuts. By time is therefore meant what comes forcibly upon a man without being the fruit of his action; so that, subject to its power, he is constrained to conform to it. It is said: ‘Such a one is under the dominion of time,’ that is, he is retired from things which are his own, and transported to things which belong to God.”
[187] Feśuś ol hikem, “the bezels of philosophemes,” is one of the most celebrated works composed by Mohi eddin Ibn Arabi, upon whom see a subsequent note. This work was commented, not only by the above-mentioned Daúd Kaiśieri (of Cæsarea), but also by Anif-eddin Telmesani, and others.—See Baron von Hammer’s Geschichte des Osm. Reiches, IIter Band, Seite 657.)
[188] Upon Kaśa and Kadr see vol. II. pp. 352-353, note 1.
[189] استعداد, istidad, “disposition,” that is, when a thing possesses the near or remote quality for action.—(Jorjáni’s Definitions.)
[190] The name of Jabr is common to several doctors of Muselmanism. The most ancient of them is Abu Abd-allah Jabr Ben Abd allah al Ansari, a native of Medina, as it is indicated by his surname. Jabr, according to Mirkhond, first a pagan, after having examined the sacred books of all other nations, Jews and Christians, was vanquished by Muhammed’s eloquence, and adopted his faith.
Another Jabr is Abu Mussa Jabr Ben Haíían al Sufi, author of the book Kitab al Jafr, and of many other, some say five hundred, works upon the philosopher’s stone. He lived in the middle of the third century of the Hejira (about A. D. 864).
A third Jabr, an Andalusian, is surnamed Shems-eddin.