I said: Will you teach me the science of tailoring (ʿilm al-khayāṭa)? He laughed and said: Alas, people like you do not have the strength for this. This knowledge is not easy for your kind. Our tailoring is not related to our actions, intentions, or tools... —Here, tailoring alludes to the composition of form together with hayūlā (prime matter).— I can teach you tailoring only to the extent that you are able to mend your patched, coarse cloak... —by this, he means the discovery of the science of medicine and the preservation of the balance of temperament, thereby healing the body.
The author says: Pay attention to mending your patched cloak! The author did not say "Sew it!" For sewing is the composition of form together with matter. The other does not have such a state. He taught me only this much of the knowledge.
Then I said: Now teach me the Word of Allah (Kalāmullāh)! He said: As long as I remain in this village, the distance is too great. You cannot learn much from the Word of Allah. However, I can teach you only as much as is made easy for you.
He brought me a tablet —the Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ (the Preserved Tablet)— and taught me letters I had never seen before. —By the tablet, the author means the common sense (the shared faculties), and by the letters, he means the science of logic. For logic, in relation to the science of ḥikma (wisdom), is like the letters of the alphabet.— In the end, through these letters, I began to understand the meanings of all the surahs.
Then he said: Whoever does not understand these letters cannot attain the proper knowledge of the Word of Allah. Whoever becomes acquainted with the states of these letters begins to deepen. At that time, I learned the science of abjad (numerology). —By the science of abjad, the author means the science of wisdom, for this science, in relation to the sciences of unveiling (kashf), is like abjad.
After completing my studies, I inscribed its letters upon the tablet as much as I was able. —By inscribing upon the tablet, he means the discovery of knowledge and maʿrifa (experiential knowledge of God) known as the science of ladun (divine knowledge). Through this science, unseen ḥaqīqas (inner realities) become manifest. This science is not infinite.
In the end, things unseen from the meanings of the Word of Allah became manifest to me. Whenever I encountered a difficulty on this path, my shaykh would immediately resolve it. (Jibrāʾīl, 149)
Some Sufis have described the Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ as the center of the circle. The reason that led Sufis to use this expression is as follows: When they saw that the human being, as the khalīfa (vicegerent) of the earth, displayed justice in his dominion and uprightness in his acts of generosity and judgments, they called him the center of the circle of the cosmos because of his justice. Looking at the lines extending equally from a single point to the circumference, they interpreted the Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ as the center of the sphere and regarded it as the ultimate point of justice. For this reason, they called this meaning the center of the circle. (Tadbīrāt, 128)
The Supreme Throne (ʿArsh al-ʿAẓīm), the Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ, is the fixed universal rational soul (al-nafs al-kullī al-nāṭiq). When Allah created the Supreme Pen (Qalam al-Aʿlā), He created for it a second rank. That is the Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ, which is the soul; it is also the malāʾika (noble angels). This is what is indicated in the verse: "And We wrote for him on the tablets [alwāḥ] an explanation of all things" (al-Aʿrāf 7:145). This is the Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ: admonition and details.