He was ‘alone’ (mutawahhid) when there was none with whom to...

He was ‘alone’ (mutawahhid) when there was none with whom to be intimate and at whose loss to feel lonely.” “He originated creation and gave to it its beginning without employing deliberation, profiting from experience, occasioning movement (harakah, i.e. in Himself), or being disrupted by the cares of the soul (hamamah nafs). He delays things to their times, [35] mends their discrepancies, implants (in them) their natural dispositions, and makes these (dispositions) adhere to their objects.

He has knowledge of them before their beginning, encompasses their limits (hudud) and their end (intiha’) and knows their relationships (qara’in) and aspects. Firm Rooting in Knowledge It was related from Abu Abdallah that when the Commander of the Faithful was speaking from the pulpit at Kufa a man stood up and said, “O Commander of the Faithful!

Describe for us thy Lord-blessed and transcendent is He-that our love (hubb) for Him and knowledge (marifah) of Him may increase.” The Commander of the Faithful became angry and cried out, “Assemble for prayer!” The people gathered together until the mosque was choked with them. Then he stood, his color changing, and he said, “Praise belongs to God, who does not gain in plenty by withholding nor become poor through giving, while every other giver than He diminishes.

(He is) full of the benefits of blessings and the advantages of superabundance. Through His Generosity, He ensures the provision of creatures. So He smooths the path of aspiration (talab) for those who make Him their Quest. Nor is He more generous with what is asked of Him than with what is not asked. Time in its march varies not for Him that (His) state should change accordingly.

If He should give to some of His servants (all of) the silver metal, ingots of pure gold and sacks of pearls that the mountains’ mines breathe [36] and the seas’ shells smile, His generosity would in nowise be affected, nor would the expanse of that which is with Him dwindle.

With Him are treasuries of bounteous bestowal which are not exhausted by objects of request and which come not to His attention in spite of their abundance, for He is the Generous who is not diminished by gifts nor made niggardly by the importunity of the importune.