Appendix: Translations and Commentary on Arabic and Persian Quotations
ضمیمہ حکمت اسلامیہ
This appendix was compiled by Mawlawi Hafiz Muhammad Abdul Razzaq Siddiqui (khalīfa and devoted student of Bahr-ul-Uloom). It provides translations and explanatory commentary on the Arabic and Persian quotations, proverbs, poems, and sayings cited throughout the main text of Hikmat-e-Islamia.
On page 7 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Persian verse:
خَفتِهٰ رَاخِفتِهٰ کُندِ بیدار
Translation: (Blessed) is one who can put a sleeping person to sleep or awaken the sleeping — meaning how can one sleeping awaken another? This is an impossible task.
On page 7 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Arabic proverb or saying:
وَبِضِدِّهَا تَتَبَيَّنُ الْأَشْيَاءُ
Translation: Things become apparent through their opposites — meaning two things become known and recognizable through the differences between them, which become apparent when both are placed side by side.
On page 8 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Arabic saying:
الْحَقُّ مَحْسُوسٌ وَالْخَلْقُ مَعْقُولٌ
Translation: The Truth (Allah Most High) is the Perceived (mahsūs) and creation is the intelligible (ma'qūl) — the thing understood and conceived. This statement was made by Hazrat with careful attention to the word wujūd — because up to that point, the wujūd of Allah Most High is related to His own Essence (wujūd aslī), and all creation is its essence and its meaning is that it is never distinct — but from creation it is a wājib al-wujūd — it is not identical with the essence of creation, but rather from the standpoint of a creation one makes it a waqfa (stop) for it — they go apart from it and it from them — and it goes to its original referent (misdāq), i.e., its return to the original meaning of non-being — everything returns to its own — therefore for these people in whose view the gnosis of being is kept in mind by looking at others — God is preserved in the view of these people who look with devotion — they keep the gnosis of being in their view, and for them the creature and the servant is not an intelligible (ma'qūl) and not a being — but this thing that is preserved is understood as intelligible.
On page 8 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Arabic saying:
مَنْ عَرَفَ نَفْسَهُ فَقَدْ عَرَفَ رَبَّهُ
Translation: Whoever knows his self truly has known his Lord — meaning whoever recognizes himself with true certainty and investigation has thereby recognized his Lord and Sustainer.
On page 9 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Hadith Qudsi:
فَأَحبَبتُ أَن أُعرَفَ فَخَلَقتُ الخَلقَ كُنتُ كَنزاً مَخفِيّاً فَأَحبَبتُ أَن أُعرَفَ فَخَلَقتُ الخَلقَ
Translation: Allah Most High says: I was a hidden, concealed treasure — then I desired to be known, so I created the creation. The full Hadith Qudsi is: 'I was a Hidden Treasure and desired to be known — so I created the creation.' Allah Most High says: I was a hidden, concealed treasure — I desired that I should be known — so I created the creation to know Me.
On page 10 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — saying of Ibn 'Arabi, author of Fusus al-Hikam:
لَم يَشَمَّ رَائِحَةَ الوُجُود
Translation: He has not yet smelled the fragrance of existence (i.e., has not yet been truly existentiated). This is the inner level of the Divine — in which Allah Most High desires to make the creation inclined toward Him, and He takes note of their potentialities (isti'dādāt) and He knows their realities from one another — but they have not yet been created in reality — yet He has still said 'yet' — in other words, with another word He says they are all still in the knowledge of Allah — and they have not yet worn the garment of existence — meaning the wujūd of them has not yet come to the knowledge — and this is what Ibn al-'Arabī has referred to.
On page 15 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Persian verse:
آئِینَه تا بانَم اَز نَہ بر بایَم دِل زنہار کِه پیشِ من با ناز چیزَیں آئی
Translation: (By Hazrat, from the Kulliyyat Hasrat, verse 9 of page 216): 'I am a mirror — I am radiant from within the heart — take care, O thing that comes before me with pride and coquetry.' The commentary: Hazrat says to his Beloved: I am a mirror — such that I am radiant from the heart outward — meaning I am such a brilliant mirror that your own beauty, color, and style I can truly depict — so when you come before me, you will see yourself clearly and manifestly — your beauty will be given light and you yourself will be astonished — and the lover will thereby be the true one.
On page 21 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Hadith:
الْعَبْدُ وَمَا مَلَكَتْ يَدَاهُ لِمَوْلَاهُ
Translation: The slave/servant and whatever his hands have acquired — all of it belongs to his master. The meaning of this Hadith: from the perspective of an owned slave or one purchased with money, nothing is the property of the slave — whatever comes into his possession in terms of property belongs to the master — because the slave himself is also the property of the master.
On page 22 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Arabic proverb:
لِكُلِّ مَقَالٍ مَجَالٌ
Translation: For every statement there is an appropriate context — meaning any statement or saying fits only in its specific context — meaning every matter has an appropriate time and place.
On page 23 of Hikmat-e-Islamia:
أَنتَ وَرَاءَ الوَرَاءِ ثُمَّ وَرَاءَ الوَرَاءِ
Translation: (O Lord!) You are beyond the beyond — then again beyond that beyond.
On page 31 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Arabic verse:
أَذَّنَّا بِبِيْنِهَا اسْماءٌ رَبٌّ نَاوٍ يَمِلُ مِنهُ الشُّوآءُ
Translation: We informed ourselves about the separation in her names — a lord intends and from him the fire-brands are drawn. This verse is from the poetry of a pre-Islamic female poet named 'Ubayda. This verse is from one of the Seven Hanging Odes (al-Mu'allaqāt al-Sab') — odes hung at the Ka'ba in the pre-Islamic era. The verse itself: the poet informs about the god who intends and from him the fire of separation springs.
On page 35 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — verse of Imra' al-Qays:
قِفَا نَبكِ مِن ذِكرىٰ حَبِيبٍ وَمَنزِلٍ
Translation: Stop, let us weep over the memory of a beloved and a dwelling place. This verse of the pre-Islamic poet Imra' al-Qays earned great fame in the era of pre-Islamic poetry and was hung in the Ka'ba. The ode gained recognition in Arabic literature every year. The poet, addressing his two companions, says: Stop — both of you stop — let us weep together over the beloved and her dwelling and remember her.
On page 38 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Persian verse of the Sufi poet 'Irfanī:
مُمكِن بُود اَمكاں كِه هَمِه عَجز و نياز است سَرمايَه دولَت چِه سَلاطِين چِه خَدَم را
Translation: The possible (mumkin) is always the possible — whose every characteristic is helplessness and need / What is the capital of wealth to the kings — and to the servants? This Persian verse by the Sufi poet 'Irfanī: here 'insān' (human) is called 'mumkin' or 'bande' (servant) in the Sufi terminology — and the characteristic of need and helplessness is that which brings it to life and money. The poet says: the possible — all its characteristics are helplessness and need — since kings are also subjects to wealth: servant needs kings and kings need servants — need is equal for both — since the wealth needs the wealth and the capital needs the treasury.
On page 45 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Arabic proverb:
كُلُّ مَا شَغَلَكَ عَن رَّبِّكَ فَهُوَ صَنَمُكَ
Translation: Whatever thing occupies you and distracts you from your Lord — meaning keeps you heedless and negligent of your Lord — it is your idol. The meaning is that all things other than Allah are idols in a certain sense — if you become so occupied in them that you go heedless and forget Allah, then now you are an idol-worshipper.
On page 47 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Arabic proverb:
إِنْ خَيراً فَخَيرٌ وَإِنَّ شَرّاً فَشَرٌّ
Translation: If it is good then good, and if it is evil then evil — here the reference pronoun (kān) refers to a thing which is its implied subject. The full sentence reads: if the hidden thing is good then it is good, and the one whose news it is is the beginning of good. The meaning: in the kashf (spiritual visions) in dreams or in general, if the inner feelings and thoughts are good, then it is true and reliable; and if there are evil feelings and evil thoughts, a believer must take care to protect himself from them.
On page 47 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Arabic verse:
الْعَيشُ نَومٌ وَالمَنِيَّةُ يَقظَةٌ وَالمَرءُ بَينَهُمَا خَيالٌ سَارِي
Translation: Life is sleep and neglect, and death is alertness and wakefulness — and the human being between the two is a passing dream.
On page 51 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Prophetic Hadith:
اذكُرُوا اللَّهَ حَتَّى يَقُولُوا مَجنُونٌ
Translation: Remember Allah to the extent that people begin to call you mad.
On page 53 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Du'ā:
اَللَّهُمَّ أَرِنَا الْأَشْيَاءَ كَمَاهِيَ
Translation: O Allah! Show us things as they truly are.
On page 59 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Arabic saying:
وَلَا مُشَاحَةَ فِى الإِصطِلَاح
Translation: There is no quarrelling or disputing in the use of a term or technical terminology — the meaning: any term may be used for anything, because the purpose of each school is one, so using any term for something does not make any difference.
On page 59 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — constructed by Hazrat Qibla, an Arabic phrase:
تَعَالَى اللَّهُ عَمَّا يَصِفُ الظَّالِمُونَ عُلُوّاً كَبِيراً
Translation: Allah Most High is supremely exalted far above what the wrongdoers attribute to Him — a great exaltation.
On page 47 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Persian verse:
اَنچِه اُستادِ اَزَل گُفت هَمَاں مِی گُویَم
Translation: What the eternal master (i.e., Allah Most High) spoke — that very thing is what I say. Hazrat described the Prophets or the awliyā' who receive Divine inspiration — they say it just as it is delivered from their side and they do not add or diminish anything from their direction.
On page 47 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Arabic proverb:
الْمَوتُ جِسرٌ يُوصِلُ الحَبِيبَ الَّى الحَبِيبِ
Translation: Death is a bridge that connects the beloved to the Beloved — meaning it is a bridge for the one who desires the Beloved of Allah — meaning those who desire the Lord will ultimately be united with Him — and this love in this world and the next makes them so connected that finally in the hereafter they will be joined to Him — and there they will be honoured with His Dīdār (vision) and union.
On page 73 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Persian verse:
هَر دو عَالَم قِیمَت خُود گُفتِه نَرخ بَالا كُن كِه اَرزَانِي هَنوز
Translation: Both worlds have announced their own prices — raise your price high, because you are still cheap. This verse is from the ghazal of Hazrat Amir Khusro (may Allah have mercy upon him). This verse addresses the Beloved throughout — saying: I am announcing my price for both worlds, and I am saying: raise your price higher — because your price is still very cheap near me — meaning: whatever you ask of both worlds and the hereafter you can get — but this deal is still very cheap near me — and so I request of you: raise your price and do not give the beauty of the Beloved cheaply.
On page 81 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Arabic proverb:
النَّاسُ أَعدَاءُ لِمَا جَهِلُوا
Translation: People are enemies of what they are ignorant of — the meaning: people are enemies of whatever they are ignorant of and unfamiliar with, building their denial and rejection on that ignorance — while those things can indeed be true and correct, even if they have not reached their knowledge of them and they cannot come to their knowledge.
On page 82 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — an Arabic phrase coined by Hazrat:
كَالوَحيِ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ
Translation: Like the wahi (inspiration) that descended from the sky.
On page 82 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Supplication (Du'ā):
اَللَّهُمَّ أَرِنَا حَقَائِقَ الأَشيَاءِ كَمَاهِيَ وَتَوَفَّنِي مُسلِمًا وَالحِقنِي بِالصَّالِحِينَ
Translation: O Allah! Show me the realities of all things as they truly are — cause me to die as a Muslim — and join me with the righteous people — and include me in their rank.
On page 87 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Persian verse (by Hazrat):
هَمِّیں نَقادَت رِه ازكَجاست تَا بِهكَجا
Translation: Consider carefully on the path — from where is the beginning and where does it go after. The meaning: the path is the place from which two paths emerge — one goes toward the destination and the other is wrong and keeps one away from it. At the beginning there is very little difference between the correct and the wrong path — but if one travels further on the wrong path, then it diverges more and more, and finally it becomes very difficult to reach the destination — because when one goes back, the destination is very far. Here Hazrat's purpose is that if the wrong path is chosen, then one goes far from the truth — and Islam is the correct and straight path which leads to the truth and keeps all other paths away and far from the wrong. Indeed this Quranic verse is thus interpreted (ذلك هو الضلال البعيد — that is a far straying) — its meaning: the further one strays in error, the more one comes to and returns from being one — and finding the truth and the path becomes an extremely difficult affair.
On page 89 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Hadith Sharif:
السَّلَامُ عَلَيكُم يَا أَهلَ القُبُورِ أَنتُم سَلَفٌ وَنَحنُ خَلَفٌ وَإِنَّا إِن شَاءَ اللَّهُ بِكُم لَاحِقُونَ
Translation: Peace be upon you, O inhabitants of the graves — you have gone ahead and we are coming after you — and indeed, if Allah wills, we shall follow you. The instruction (hukm) of this Hadith is to say this. This is the saying of the Companions of Badr — related from the accepted Messenger (peace be upon him): the Prophet (peace be upon him) said regarding them: 'Do not speak ill of them — if you were to stand at their graves, you would hear them — they are at a distance of two miles and you can hear them — thousands of things come in your dreams — if the inhabitants of the graves were to come and speak in the World of Witnessing, then to appear and be heard in this World of Witnessing, beneath the laws and principles, would be impossible — rather, this hearing and seeing is through the laws and principles of this world and beneath them.'
On page 96 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Persian Rubā'ī (by Jāmī):
يَارَب مَدَده! كَز خُودِي خُود بَرهَم وَاز بَدبَرَم وَازبَدِي خُود بَرهَم دَرهَستِي خُودمَرا زِخُود بِه خُودكُن تَا اَز خُودِي وِبَيخُودِي خُودبَرهَم
Translation: O Lord! Help me — save me from my ego (myself) / and keep me away from evil and my own evil / in my existence, take me from myself to yourself / so that from selfhood and selflessness, both, I am delivered. This is a Persian rubā'ī (quatrain) from the work Lawāyih of Jāmī (from the 8th Lā'iha), taken by the compiler from the Lawāyih. Jāmī says: O Lord! Help me so that if you consider me as existing — because if you see me as existent and I see myself as existent too — then it remains duality and not unity. So take me from myself so that I am annihilated (fanā') in You — and deliver me from both selfhood and selflessness — meaning: annihilate my selfhood in Your Baqā' (subsistence) — and take both away from me — deliver me.
On page 95 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Persian Rubā'ī (by Jāmī):
زَامِیزِش جَاں وَتَن تُوئِي مَقصُودَم وَزمَردَاں وَزِستَن تُوئِي مَقصُودَم گَر ذَاتِ مَن اَز بَرتَقَم زِمِياں تَا ذِيرَ بَزِي كِه مَن بَرقَتَم زَمِياں
Translation: In the mixture of soul and body, You are my purpose / In life and death, You are my purpose / If my essence ascends from between the grounds / May You remain living though I have ascended from the grounds. This rubā'ī (quatrain) is from the Lawāyih of Jāmī (from the 6th Lā'iha). The commentary: Jāmī says to his Beloved: the purpose of creating the compound of my body and soul is You — the purpose in my living and dying is You — if my essence leaves from between the grounds (meaning my soul departs) — then You live (in me) — because my existence is annihilated in You and its 'I' (anā'iyya) that gives expression to selflessness itself becomes annihilation — and from both, together, in the Baqā' (subsistence) of You, I am established.
On page 97 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Hadith Sharif:
السَّلَامُ عَلَيكُم يَا أَهلَ القُبُورِ أَنتُم سَلَفٌ وَنَحنُ خَلَفٌ وَإِنَّا إِن شَاءَ اللَّهُ بِكُمْ لَاحِقُونَ
Translation: Peace be upon you, O inhabitants of the graves — you have gone before us, we come after you — and we will surely, if Allah wills, follow you.
On page 97 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Hadith:
هَذِهِ لِأُمِّ سَعدٍ
Translation: This belongs to Umm Sa'd — i.e., this is the reward going to the mother of Sa'd. Sa'd made a well (kanān) and brought the Prophet (peace be upon him) there to offer its reward on behalf of his deceased mother. The Prophet (peace be upon him) declared it: 'This is Umm Sa'd's well' — meaning the reward of this well goes to the mother of Sa'd — and as long as the well remains and people drink from it, the reward will keep going to the mother of Sa'd.
On page 99 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Du'ā:
اعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيطانِ وَخَبِثِه
Translation: I seek refuge in Allah from the Devil and his evil and wickedness.
On page 100 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Prophetic Hadith:
سَبَقَتۡ رَحۡمَتِي عَلَى غَضَبِي
Translation: My mercy has preceded my wrath. This Hadith is in Sahih Muslim. Reported from Abu Hurairah: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) say: 'Indeed Allah Most High wrote a Book before He created the creation — in it is written: My mercy has preceded My wrath — and it is written above the Throne.' (Agreed upon — Bukhari and Muslim)
On page 101 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — A comprehensive Du'ā:
اَللَّهُمَّ اِنِّي اَعُوذُ بِرِضَاكَ مِن سَخَطِكَ وَبِمُغفِرَتِكَ مِنْ عُقُوبَتِكَ وَاَعُوذُبِكَ مِنكَ
Translation: O Allah! I seek refuge in Your pleasure from Your anger, and in Your forgiveness from Your punishment, and I seek refuge in You from You.
اَللَّهُمَّ أَرِنَا حَقَائِقَ الأَشيَاءِ كَمَاهِيَ وَتَوَفَّنِي مُسلِمًا وَالحِقنِي بِالصَّالِحِينَ
Translation: O Allah! Show us the realities of things as they truly are — cause me to die as a Muslim — and join me with the righteous. Include me in their rank.
On page 102 of Hikmat-e-Islamia — Prophetic Du'ā:
اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ حُبَّكَ وَحُبَّ مَن يُحِبُّكَ وَحُبَّ عَمَلٍ يُقَرِّبُنِي إِلَيكَ
Translation: O Allah! I ask You for Your love, and the love of those who love You, and love of deeds that bring me close to You.