It should also be known that the aʿyān-i thābita (immutable archetypes of possible existents) and the intellectual forms, which consist of their essences, being colored with the dye of existence does not mean that these intellectual forms have left the rank of knowledge and acquired an external existence. Such a thing is impossible, for such a meaning would (God forbid) necessitate that Allah, Exalted is He, be ignorant, and Allah is far above that. Rather, this means that the possible existents, which are deprived of those perfections, correspond to the external wujūd (existence) with the intellectual forms that are beyond the intellectual wujūd. It is like a carpenter conceiving of a plank in his mind and then making it externally. However, in this case, the form of the plank in the mind, which is equivalent to its essence in the carpenter's knowledge, does not appear identically. Rather, an external existence corresponding to the mental form of the plank arises. Understand this well! (Maktūbāt, I, 211)
The aʿyān-i thābita are the determinations of possible beings in Allah's knowledge; these are the forms of the realities of the divine names at the level of knowledge. Their being delayed by the Real (al-Ḥaqq) outside of Essence and time is not possible. They are eternal and everlasting. The meaning of relation (nisba) is not in relation to another, but in relation to the Essence (i.e., being deferred is in relation to the Essence). (Jāmiʿ, 240)
ʿAyn (eye): ...The qalb (heart) is likened to the ʿayn (eye) because the eye is a name composed of the whiteness, blackness, pupil, and the light of the pupil between two eyelids... (Bayān, 33)
No one but Ahmad and Iblis has ever been worthy of making a claim. However, while Iblis fell from the eye (ʿayn) to the fayn, for Ahmad, the eye of the eye (the very essence of the eye) was opened... (Ṭawāsīn, 204)
ʿAyn refers to the essence of that from which things emerge. (Lumaʿ, 450)
There are two kinds of ʿayn: the outward ʿayn and the inward ʿayn. The outward ʿayn is from the world of sensation and shahāda (the world of witnessing); the inward ʿayn is from another world, the world of malakūt (the spiritual realm). Each of these two ʿayns has its own sun and light. Vision is perfected in its presence. One is outward, the other inward. The outward is from the world of shahāda and is the perceptible sun. The inward is from the world of malakūt and is the Qur'an and the books Allah has sent down. Whenever this state is fully unveiled to you, the first of the gates of the world of malakūt is opened to you. (Mishkāt, 51)
The ʿayns became a single mirror
and thus unity removed multiplicity
by the existence of the Real (al-Ḥaqq)
such is the reality of creation
Look at it only with the eyes of the witnesses
(Futūḥāt, 1, 110)
Every ʿayn accepts the changes of states, qualities, accidents, and similar things. The changing state has assumed the form of a mirror. Due to the ʿayn that accepts this difference in terms of fixity, every changing state has countless ʿayns of its own. This can be distinguished within its own states, and it can multiply due to the abundance of its states. It does not matter whether the state is finite or infinite. Thus, the knowledge of the Creator relates to it eternally. He creates them only with the forms of His knowledge within their fixity. This creation also occurs as a state after nonexistence and as a state among mutually corresponding states. For the relation (nisba) of their mutually corresponding states is different from the relation to the state corresponding to themselves. In every ḥāl (spiritual state), there is a specific ʿayn. The fixity of the ʿayn must be maintained. When the states do not correspond to each other, there is a single ʿayn within various states. (Futūḥāt, IV, 212)
The Shaykh said: The ʿayn is the ʿayn of the Exalted Creator who created these creatures. Therefore, it is not correct to deny this completely. For if it were to cease to exist, you would also cease to exist. Yet it is an exemplar for you. In this case, how could your nonexistence be possible while you exist and the effects of your attributes are not absent? But its affirmation is also impossible. For if you affirm it, you would then have taken it as an idol and lost the prize. How can the affirmation of something nonexistent be possible? Or how can there be consensus about its nonexistence while you exist? Yet Allah created you alive, knowing, powerful, willing, hearing, seeing, and speaking in His own form. You cannot distance yourself from any of these realities. For He created you according to His own form, adorned you with His beautiful attributes, and named you with His names.
He is living, and you are living; He knows, and you know; He wills, and you will; He is powerful, and you are powerful; He hears, and you hear; He sees, and you see; He speaks, and you speak; He is essence, and you are essence; He gathers, and you gather (just as everything is hidden in Him, so too in you); He exists, and you exist; He is the possessor of rubūbiyya (lordship, nurturing, upbringing), and according to the ruling of the hadith, 'All of you are shepherds and each of you is responsible for his flock,' you are also a possessor of rubūbiyya. He possesses pre-eternity (has no beginning), and by virtue of your existence in His knowledge which has never been separated from Him since pre-eternity, you too possess pre-eternity. According to what has been explained, everything attributed to Him is also attributed to you. However, He exists uniquely in might and majesty, while you have become unique in abasement and incapacity. At the beginning, all the relations between you were complete, but at this point, that relation was severed. Thereupon, I said: My master, first you brought me near, then you distanced me; first you revealed the essence, then you covered it with a shell.
He replied: I placed it under the rule of the divine ḥikma (wisdom) so that it might be easily attained from both near and far, and so that it might be accessible to all who approach or withdraw, according to the capacities of human understanding. (Insān, 1, 9)
The lights shone in my eyes
when the two presences manifested
the two huwwiyya (identities) became one
at the moment of 'two bows' length'
yours and what belongs to you
every being is with you
within the veils of aḥadiyya (divine oneness)
blessed is the one who lives
the state of distinction in the state of union
the light of the Essence illuminated ʿayn al-yaqīn (the eye of certainty)
with the colors of aḥadiyya
this is the rank of kamāl (perfection)
this is the gift of ittiṣāl (union)
this is the servant who never departs from the station of Rubūbiyya
O person of pure understanding
take the essence of the jewels
never leave the bounds of servanthood
this is the meaning of proximity (qurb)
he was honored with lofty stations