4. Marco referencial
4.4 Marco Teórico
4.4.7 La Innovación y su papel en la Economía Naranja
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
The word ism (‘name’) is derived from sumūw (‘loftiness’) and sima (‘sign or characteristic’).
Therefore the way of one who practices remembrance of this Name is to be characterized (yattasimu)97 outwardly by different types of intense efforts (mujāhadāt) and to be elevated (yasmū)98 [inwardly] through aspiration to the places of witnessings (mushāhadāt). As for those who are not characterized by [these] modes of behavior (muʿāmalāt) outwardly and have lost the loftiness of aspiration for intimate communications (muwāṣalāt) in the inner secrets of their hearts, one will not find the subtleties of remembrance in their speaking (qāla) or the generous gifts of nearness in their purest state (ḥāla).
[Section] The meaning of Allāh (‘God’) is the One who possesses Divinity (ilāhiyya) and Divinity lays claim to the attributes of Majesty (jalāl). The meaning of bismillah (‘In the Name of God’) is ‘in the Name of the One Who is unique in strength and power’. The Compassionate, the Merciful is the One Who is the only One in initiating grace and help.
Hearing the Divinity [in the phrase In the Name of God] causes awe and eradication (iṣṭilām) while hearing the Compassionate causes nearness and reverence (ikrām). Everyone whom the Real (s) treats with kindness upon hearing this verse is tossed between wakefulness (ṣaḥw) and effacement (maḥw), subsistence (baqāʾ) and annihilation (fanāʾ).99 When He unveils the attribute of Divinity to such a one, He causes him to witness His Majesty and his state is effacement. When He unveils the attribute of Compassion to him, He causes him to witness His Beauty and his state is wakefulness:
I disappear when I witness You, then become alive again.
How often have I come to life before You and how often have I passed away.100
[2:1] Alif lām mīm.
97 A verb derived from the same root w-s-m as sima.
98 A verb derived from the same root s-m-w as sumūw.
99 These four terms are explained in al-Qushayrī’s Risāla in the sections on ‘Wakefulness and Drunkenness’ (al-ṣaḥw wa’l-sukr), ‘Effacement and Affirmation’ (al-maḥw wa’l-ithbāt) and
‘Annihilation and Subsistence’ (al-fanāʾ wa’l-baqāʾ), (vol.1, pp. 217-9, 222-3, 211-3).
100 This verse was not located in Muṣṭafā.
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According to some people, these isolated letters at the beginning of the sura are among the ambiguous [verses], the interpretation (taʾwīl) of which is known only to God.101 They say every book has a mystery and the mystery of God in the Qurʾān is these isolated letters.
According to other people they are acronyms for His Names: the alif is from the Name
‘Allah’, the lām indicates His Name al-laṭīf (‘the Subtle’), and the mīm indicates His Names al-majīd (‘the Glorious’) and al-malik (‘the King’).
It is said God made an oath by means of these letters, an honor they hold because they are the basic elements of His Names and His Speech.
It is said that they are the names of suras [of the Qurʾān].
It is said that the alif indicates the Name Allāh, the lām indicates the name Jibrīl (Gabriel), and the mīm indicates the name Muḥammad (ṣ), since this Book descended from God upon the tongue of Gabriel to Muḥammad (ṣ).
Among the [Arabic] letters, alif is independent (infaradat) in its form because it does not connect to other letters in writing; all but a few of the letters connect.102 By contemplating this quality, the servant becomes aware of the need of all creation for Him and His
Self-sufficiency from all.
It is said that the sincere servant remembers from the status of the alif the absolute freedom of the Real (swt) from being particularized by place. All of the letters have a place in the throat, the lip or the tongue, etc., for articulation, except alif. It is His
‘His-ness’ (huwiya)103 without being ascribed to any place.
It is said the allusion in [the alif] is to the servant’s standing alone (infirād)104 for God (swt) so that he will be like the alif which is not connected to any letter, and will not abandon the state of standing straight and upright before Him.105
101 A reference to Qurʾānic verse 3:7.
102 In Arabic script, the alif is one of six letters (out of a total of twenty-eight) that do not connect to the letter after them in a word.
103 Huwiya, from huwa can also be translated as ‘essence’.
104 Infirād is the verbal noun for the verb infarada, the word al-Qushayrī uses several times in this section to describe the characteristics of the letter alif.
105 Literally, ‘between His Hands’ (bayna yadihi).
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It is said that at His address alif, the servant is called in his innermost self to withdraw (infirād) the heart to God Most High. At His address lām, he is asked to yield (līn) to Him in considering His due. Upon hearing the mīm he is asked to conform (muwāfaqa) to His command regarding that which has been entrusted to him.
It is said that each letter has a specific form and the alif is alone (infaradat) in its being a vertical line, set apart from connection with other letters like it, so He assigned the front part of the Book for it. This is an allusion to the fact that anyone who has renounced the
connection with likenesses and distractions attains the good fortune of the sublime rank and wins the ultimate degree. He has become worthy to speak with the detached letters (al-ḥurūf al-munfarida) which are not combined, following the custom of lovers (sunnat al-aḥbāb) in veiling the state and hiding the affair from strangers to the story. Their poet said:
I said to her, ‘stop’.
She said ‘qāf’.106
[The poet] did not say ‘She stopped’ (waqaftu) so that no onlooker would see, nor did he [have her] say, ‘I will not stop’ (lā aqif) in tending to the heart of the beloved, but rather, ‘She said “qāf”’.107
It is said that there are many expressions (ʿibārāt) for ordinary people (ʿumūm) and [many]
symbols (rumūz) and allusions (ishārāt) for the elect (khuṣūṣ). He made Moses hear His words in a thousand (alf) places while He said to our Prophet Muḥammad (ṣ), ‘Alif...’ and [Muḥammad] said, ‘I was given the all-comprehensive words (jawāmiʿ al-kalim) and then the speech (kalām) was shortened for me’.108
106 Muṣṭafā states that Abū Isḥāq al-Zujjāj recited this verse to show that Arabs used single letters to indicate words. In this case, the letter qāf indicates the word aqif, which means ‘I stop’ (Muṣṭafā, no.1, p.80). It could also be understood as indicating waqaftu (‘I stopped’). The second line of this verse appears in the Basyūnī text but not in MS K117, f. 4a. Following the latter, I have omitted it since it obscures al-Qushayrī’s point.
107 In other words, the poet has her speak in the ‘code’ of lovers that allows for a hidden expression of intimacy.
108 ʿAbd al-Raḥmān gives Muslim, Al-Masājid, 7:8 and Ibn Ḥanbal, Al-Musnad, 2:250, 2:314, 2:442, 2:501, among other sources for this ḥadith. . Lane quotes authorities who understand the ḥadīth as ‘I have had communicated to me the Qurʾān, in which many meanings are comprised in a few words’
(Lane, vol.1, p. 458). Al-Qushayrī quotes this ḥadīth again in his commentary on 2:50 below.
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Someone said: My master said to me, ‘What is this sickness?’ I said, ‘Do you love me?’ He said, ‘Lām alif’.109
[2:2] That Book, in it there is no doubt.
It is said that Book means ‘this Book’.110
[On the other hand] it is said [that Book] is an allusion to what preceded its revelation in the [divine] Speech.
It is [also] said [that it means] ‘that Book whose revelation I promised to you on the Day of the Covenant’.
In it there is no doubt for this is the time of its revelation. It is said: ‘that Book within which I prescribed mercy on Myself for your community – there is no uncertainty [regarding that]
for it has been verified by what I have said’.
It is said [that Book is] the Book that is My predetermination (sābiq ḥukmī) and My eternal decree (qadīm qaḍāʾī), because in it there is no doubt regarding those for whom I have determined happiness or have sealed with wretchedness.111
It is said [it means]: ‘My determination is what I have said: there is no uncertainty in the fact that My mercy precedes My wrath.’
It is said [it is] an allusion to the faith, knowledge, love and goodness that is written in the hearts of His friends. Surely the Book of the lovers is something cherished by the lovers, especially when deprived of meeting. In the Book of the lovers, there is their consolation and intimacy, their healing and refreshment. With respect to this, they recite:
Your writing is all around me, it doesn’t leave my bed There is healing in it for that
109 Lām alif spells the word lā in Arabic, which means ‘no’. Muṣtafā does not give another source for this line.
110 A common interpretation understands the word ‘that’ (dhālika) in this Qurʾānic verse as meaning
‘this’ (hādhā).
111 For the concept of God’s ‘sealing’, see Qurʾānic verses 2:7, 6:46, 42:24, and 45:23.
25 which I am concealing.112
They also recite:
The book brought
what is most cooling to our eyes, a healing for hearts;
thereby the utmost limits of desires are granted.
People divided happiness into portions
amongst themselves.
The most fortunate of them was I.113
[2:2 cont’d] A guidance for the God-fearing.
i.e., an explanation and proof, a light and a highway, for those whom the Real (swt) has protected from the darknesses of ignorance, and given insight with the lights of the intellect, and selected for the realities of connecting (waṣl). This Book for the friends (awliyāʾ) is a healing (shifāʾ) and for the enemies (aʿdāʾ) a blindness and affliction (balāʾ). The one who is God-fearing (muttaqin) is one who fears (ittaqā) looking to his own God-fearing (taqwā); he does not rely on it nor does he consider that he can be saved except through the grace of his Protector.
[2:3] Who believe in the Unseen, and maintain the prayer
The true meaning of belief (imān) is affirmation (taṣdīq) and then actualization (taḥqiq), both of which are brought about by God’s granting of success (tawfīq). The affirmation is in the
112 Muṣṭafā points out that this verse is also quoted without attribution in al-Qushayrī’s Risāla (Muṣṭafā no. 2, p. 103). He adds an additional line but doesn’t explain where it’s from;; the line does not appear in al-Qushayrī’s Risāla (vol. 1, p. 276).
113 Muṣṭafā traces a slightly different version of these verses to Abū Muḥammad al-Khāzin (Muṣṭafā no. 3, p. 111).
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contract (ʿaqd)114 and actualization is through the exertion of effort (jahd) in preserving the covenant (ʿahd) and observing the limit (ḥadd). The believers are those who affirm (ṣaddaqū) their commitment (iʿtiqād) and then are sincere (ṣadaqū) in their effort (ijtihād).
As for the Unseen, what the servant knows of it is limited to what is necessary. The servant understands each religious matter by a kind of reasoning (istidlāl), a mode of reflective consideration (fikr), and testimonial witness (istishhād), so the belief is invisible (ghaybī) within it. The Lord (swt) is unseen (ghayb) and what the Real speaks about with regards to the gathering and the resurrection, the reward and the place of return, and the reckoning and punishment, is unseen.
It is said that only someone who has the lamp of the Unseen with him believes. Those who are supported by the demonstrative proof of intellects believe through the evidence of knowledge and the sign of certitude. The veracity of reasoning brings them to the courtyards of insight, and what is correct in testimonial witness carries them to the elevated observation points of stillness. Their faith in the Unseen comes through the types of knowledge (ʿulūm) they possess, crowding out the causes of doubt. [Others] receive instruction (taʿrīf) through curtains of lights He has lowered down over them. Through the glimmers of perspicuity (bayān), He has freed them from the need for any thought and reflection, any seeking of pure intuitions (khawāṭir dhakiyya) or rejection of ignoble urgings (dawāʿin radiyya).115 The suns of their innermost selves rise and they no longer have any need for the lamps of their
reasoning. Regarding this they have recited:
From your face my night has become the sun of the bright morning.
The darkness is elsewhere, in the air.
People are in
the twilight of darkness.
While we, from your face,
114 The translation follows MSS K117, f. 4b and Y101, f. 6b here with ʿaqd, rather than the word
‘intellect’ (ʿaql) found in the Basyūnī edition. The word ʿaqd is more consistent with al-Qushayrī’s use of rhyme and wordplay.
115 The translation follows MS K117, f. 4b here.
27 are in the bright morning light.116
They also recite:
The sun of the one who loves you has appeared at night.
It has become illuminated since she117 does not set.
The sun of day sets at night, while the sun of hearts never disappears.118
Anyone who believes in the Unseen through witnessing the Unseen (ghayb) becomes absent (ghābā) in witnessing it. He became an absent one who is himself unseen (fa-ṣāra ghayban yaghīb).
As for maintaining prayer, it is maintaining its pillars and practices, and then absenting oneself (ghayba) from witnessing them, looking instead to the One to Whom prayer is
offered. Thus one will preserve the precepts of the command for Him in what is performed for Him from Him, effaced from regarding [the act of prayer]. Souls such as this face the qibla with their hearts immersed in the realities of communion:
I see myself, when praying, turning my face toward her even though the direction of prayer
116 I am following the version of these lines found in the MS K117, f. 4b: laylī min wajhiki shams al-ḍuḥā wa-innamā’l-ẓulma fī’l-jaww al-nās fī’l-ṣadafa min laylihim wa-naḥnu min wahjiki fī’l-ḍawʾ.
Muṣṭafā notes that al-Qushayrī cites this passage elsewhere in his Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt and his Risāla.
(Muṣṭafā no. 6, p. 59). The version of the poem in the ‘Section on Advice for Aspirants’ (bāb al-waṣiyyya li’l-murīdīn) in the Risāla is slightly different than the one here (vol. 2, p. 732).
117 The word ‘sun’ (shams) is grammatically feminine in Arabic.
118 Muṣṭafā traces these lines to al-Ḥallāj’s Diwān (Muṣṭafā, no. 9, p. 27).
28 is the other way.
I pray but don’t know whether I have completed
the two [rakats] of the morning prayer or eight.119
Ordinary people strive, when beginning to pray, to direct their hearts back to the awareness of what they are performing obligatorily, yet they do not turn back from the torrents of
forgetfulness. The elect, on the other hand, direct their hearts back to the awareness of what they are performing, yet they do not turn back from the realities of communion. What a difference between one who attends to the precepts of the law but is absent in the familiar territories of his forgetfulness, and the one who turns back to the precepts of the law but is absent in the realities of communion.
[2:3 cont’d] and of what We have provided them expend
‘Provision’ (rizq) is that from which mankind derives benefit. In the tafsīr tradition it says that they expend their wealth either through supererogatory acts or obligatory acts, according to the details of [juridical] knowledge. However, the allusion [in the verse] explains that they do not hold back anything from God (swt) of that which has been made easy for them. They expend their lower selves in the good manners of servanthood (ʿubūdiyya) and they expend their hearts in the perpetual witnessing of lordship (rubūbiyya). The expending of the followers of Sharīʿa is with respect to wealth (amwāl) and the expending of the masters of reality is with respect to states (aḥwāl). [The followers of the Sharīʿa] are those for whom the 2.5% [alms]120 is sufficient, with one’s entire wealth taken into account [in determining] the minimum amount, according to the customary practice. As for the people of realities, if they grant even a moment of the entirety of their states to themselves and their own worldly fortunes, the Resurrection looms before them.
[Section] The ascetics (zāhidūn) expend the pursuit of their own whim (hawā) on the path, for they prefer the good pleasure of God over their own desires. The worshippers (ʿābidūn) expend their ability and power in the way of God, constantly holding to their consciousness of
119 Muṣṭafā attributes a slightly different version of these lines to Majnūn in his Diwān (Muṣṭafā , no. 2, p. 122).
120 The obligatory amount of zakāt.
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God (taqwā),121 privately and publicly. The seekers (murīdūn) expend in His way what distracts them from remembering their Protector (mawlā), so they do not pay any attention to anything in their present world or their world to come. The knowers (ʿārifūn) expend in the way of God everything other than their Protector (mawlā), so the Real (s) draws them near and gives them refuge and by virtue of being alone with Him, He suffices122 for them.
[Section] The rich expend from their blessings for the sake of what is to come while the poor (fuqarāʾ)123 expend from their aspirations for the sake of turning [to God]. It is said that [the instruments of] the servant are his heart, his body and his possessions. Thus by their faith in the Unseen, they [serve] through their hearts, by their praying they [serve] through their lower selves, and by their expending they [serve] through their possessions, so that they become worthy of the special favors (khaṣāʾiṣ) of drawing near to that which they serve and worship.
When they exist entirely through124 His Truth, they become deserving of the perfection of intimate friendship (khuṣūṣiyya).
[2:4] and who believe in what has been revealed to you; and what was revealed before you;
and of the Hereafter, they are certain.
Their belief in the Unseen necessarily requires their belief in the Qurʾān and in what God has revealed in the books before the Qurʾān, but He repeats the mention of belief here for the purposes of specification and corroboration. The affirmation (taṣdīq) of the intermediary (ṣ)125 in some of what he has communicated makes the affirmation of him obligatory in all that he has communicated, since the evidence of his sincerity bears witness generally without any restriction. They have certainty in the Hereafter because they have witnessed the Unseen:
When the Messenger of God (ṣ) asked Ḥāritha, ‘How is your state?’ He said, ‘I have become one who submits to God in truth and it is as if I were with the people of the Garden
exchanging visits, and as if I were with the people of the Fire clamoring to one another, and as if I were with the throne of my Lord in plain sight. The Messenger of God (ṣ) said, ‘You have it right, so keep to it’.126
121 The word ‘consciousness of God’, which can also be translated as ‘God-fearing’ (taqwā), follows the MSS K117, f. 5a and Y101, f. 7a rather than the word nufūs found in the Basyūni edition because it makes more sense in the context and matches the rhyming pattern of hawā, taqwā, and mawlā.
122 The translation here follows the phrases ‘He gives them refuge (āwā)’ and ‘He suffices (kafā)’ from MS K117, f. 5a.
123 Al-Qushayrī uses the word ‘the poor’ (fuqarāʾ) to mean both the indigent and those who have attained the spiritual station of poverty. See ‘Section on Poverty’ (bāb al-faqr) in his Risāla (vol.2, pp.
536-549).
124 The Basyūnī edition has ‘for the sake of (li)’, while the MSS K117, f. 5a and Y101, f. 7a have
‘through (bi)’, which is the preposition used throughout the sentence, i.e., ‘they exist through...’.
125 i.e., Muḥammad.
126 Baysūnī mentions in a footnote that al-Ṭabarānī’s Muʿjam al-kabīr classifies this ḥadīth as having a weak chain of transmission (isnād). ʿAbd Raḥmān cites a few sources for the ḥadīth, including al-ʿUqaylī’s Kitāb al-ḍuʿafāʾ al-kabīr, 4:455. Al-Qushayrī cites a shorter and slightly different version of this ḥadīth in his commentary on Qurʾānic verse 2:50 below.
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ʿĀmir b. ʿAbd al-Qays127 said, ‘If the veil were to be lifted, it would not increase my certainty’. The real meaning of certainty is to rid yourself of indecisive guessing and to stay far away from loose conjecturing.
[2:5] Those are upon guidance from their Lord; those are the ones that will prosper
It means ‘[those are] in possession of clear evidence, certainty, unveiling and realization from their Lord’. He discloses Himself to their hearts first by His signs, then by His attributes, and then by His reality and Essence.
Some people are upon guidance from their Lord by means of rational proofs (dalāʾil al-ʿuqūl). They apply [these proofs]128 properly and therefore attain truths of different types of knowledge (ḥaqāʾiq al-ʿulūm). Other people possess insight (baṣīra) into the courtesies of drawing near, so that through witnessing the mercy and generosity [of God] they attain the perspicuity (bayān) of certainty. The truth appears to others in their innermost selves so that they witness the reality of the eternally sought and impenetrable (ṣamadiyya), and they attain to the source of the faculty of insight by virtue of mystical knowledge (ʿirfān).
Those are the ones that will prosper: Prosperity is to attain what is wanted and win what is sought. The folk129 have attained subsistence (baqāʾ) at the place130 of meeting and have achieved victory in subduing the enemies that are the clamor of random thoughts (hawājis) in
Those are the ones that will prosper: Prosperity is to attain what is wanted and win what is sought. The folk129 have attained subsistence (baqāʾ) at the place130 of meeting and have achieved victory in subduing the enemies that are the clamor of random thoughts (hawājis) in