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The Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, by Ibn al-Arabi, tr. Reynold A. Nicholson, [1911], at sacred-texts.com


LI

1. At Dhát al-Aḍá and al-Ma’zimán and Báriq and Dhú Salam and al-Abraqán to the traveller by night

2. Appear flashes of swords from the lightnings of smiling mouths like musk-glands, the odour whereof none is permitted to smell.

p. 138

3. If war is waged against them, they draw the swords of their glances; and if peace is made with them, they break the bonds of constraint.

4. They and we enjoyed two equal pleasures, for the Beloved has one kingdom and the lover another.

COMMENTARY

1-2. He says, 'In the station of light and that of the soul's oppression between the two worlds and that of the manifestation of the Essence and that where the ascending spirits find peace (###) appears a terribly beguiling grace which is veiled by the favour of the Beloved.'

3. This verse refers to the Wrath and Mercy of God.

4. 'Equal,' because God created Man after His own image.

'For the Beloved,' etc., i.e. the lover and the Beloved exert a kind of mutual influence (###) upon one another.


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