The Book of Wisdom
Ibn Atā’ol-lāh Al-Eskandari

Hekam: When hope & despair are one and the same 

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Hekam (Wisdom): The sign of reliance upon (one’s own) actions is the diminishing of hope in presence of mistakes.


Al-Rendi: Reliance upon Allah, The Sublime, is the characteristic of the ‘Āref (Divine Cognoscente) who is also a Muwah-hid (Professor of Divine Oneness), and the reliance upon other than Allah is the description of the heedless and the ignorant.

For the ‘Āref (Divine Cognoscenti) who are also a Muwah-hid (Professor of Divine Oneness), they enjoy the Qurb (Divine Nearness) and the Mushāhidah (Divine Perception) glaring upon their Rabb (Divine Maser Administrator, Lord) whilst their Nafs (Psyche, Self) Fān (Evanescing). And if oversights or negligence befalls them, they indeed eyewitness/observe the administration & conduct of Haqq (The Absolute True Reality, Allah) applied to them—the flowing of the Qadhā (Divine Decree) all over them. On the other hand if some obeisance originates from them, they do not observe this in and of their own Nafs (Psyche, Self) and do not see their effort or exertion within this obeisance. That for certain their Rabb’s (Divine Master Administrator’s) Dhikr (Remembrance) of them was preceded (prior to their act of good deeds, Allah remembered them and thus they were made to do good deeds). Their Nafs (Psyche, Self) is Mutma’en (Reposed) underneath the effusion of Qadar (Divine Fate) and their hearts tranquil shone upon with rays of the Nur (Divine Light). (Sharqāwi: The worshippers and the Murids (Seekers) rely upon the actions and deeds such as Salāt (Prayers) or Dhikr (Remembrance) and so on for getting into the Paradise and escape from the fires of Hell. However the ‘Āref (Divine Cognoscenti) do not observe anything of their own Self in any of their actions (even the righteous acts) since they believe that the “true doer” is actually Allah and their persons are merely the Mahal (Place) for such manifestations (their actions caused by Allah’s will))

For the latter, there is no difference between the two Hāla (Momentary states of the heart) i.e. they do not discern between hope & despair, since they are already drown deep within the ocean of Tauhid (Divine Oneness) therefore (due to the concept of Oneness) their fear and their hope have become one and the same: their fear (of Divine Punishment) is not decreased due to their abstinence from wrongdoing and similarly their hope is not increased by what they offer as Ihsān (Beautiful Deeds).




© 2005-2002,  Dara O. Shayda , Dr. Hind Rifai