من الملائكة (وَكَانَ أللَّهُ لم يزل (بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيراً ذْ جَآءَوكُم مِ جَوْفِكُمْ وَمِرَ اسْعَلَ منكم من أعلى الوادي وأسفله من المشرق والمغرب أشد بلاء على المسلمين مطلقا هو الأحزاب (وَإِذْ زَاعَتِ الأَبْصَرُ) مالت عن كل شيء إلى عدوها من كل جانب (وَبَل …

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم وصلى الله سيدنا محمد حق قدره مقداره العظيم. مختصر الأجوبة: لأني أختصرها جدا خوفا على نفسي من إباحة السر. فالقطب تجل من تجليات الحق يجمع سائر التجليات، والجنة وما فيها من سائر التجليات فهي تجل من تجليات القطب ومعها خمسة عشر عالما كلها يمدها ويتصرف فيها ويستمد هو من الختم الكتم، وهو بحر لا ساحل له ولا أمد ولا انتهاء. وهو يستمد من الحقيقة المحمدية وهو وراءه وفوقه بحر لا ساحل له أيضا ولا أمد ولا غاية وهو يستمد من حضرة الإطلاق التي لا أين ولا كيف ولا انتهاء لها ولا أمد ولا غاية. فالجنة وسائر أنواعها وسكانها على استمرارها ودوامها تجل من تجليات القطب. قال تعالى: ﴿إِنَّا عَرَضْنَا ٱلْأَمَانَةَ عَلَى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ وَٱلْجِبَالِ فَأَبَيْنَ أَن يَحْمِلْنَهَا وَأَشْفَقْنَ مِنْهَا وَحَمَلَهَا ٱلْإِنسَٰنُ إِنَّهُۥ كَانَ ظَلُوماً جَهُولاً﴾ (الأحزاب:72) فقال تعالى: ﴿يَٰٓأَهْلَ يَثْرِبَ لَا مَقَامَ لَكُمْ﴾ (الأحزاب:13). والجواب الثاني اعلم أن رؤية الله تعالى في الجنة بالأبصار، والمرئي وجهه الكريم من غير واسطة بل كالقمر ليلة البدر. فمنهم من يراه في اليوم سبعين مرة، ومنهم من يراه مرتين، ومنهم من يراه مرة ومنهم من يراه مرة في الأسبوع، ومنهم إذا رآه مات ويحيا بعد ذلك ويحن إلى الرؤية إليه، فهي أحلى من كل شيء، رزقنا الله ذلك بمنه وكرمه. وأما رؤية النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم فهي تلك الرؤية التي تقع للمحسنين في الجنة وعدم رؤيته صلى الله عليه وسلم غيره لجلالة قدر ما رأى لا على شبه ما يراه الفاني. فهو صلى الله عليه وسلم لم ير شيئا مع بقاء عقله وصحوه لا على طريق السكر ولذلك لم يغب عنه ذكر أمته حتى دعا لهم. وأما قرب الحق للخلق فعبارة عن وجوده ووحدانيته لأنه لا شيء معه من أزل أزل الأزل إلى أبد أبد الأبد. وليس ذلك هو مقام النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم. فالخلق قربهم للحق بمعنى انعدامهم في وجوده والدنو للنبي صلى الله عليه وسلم حقيقي مع بقاء ذاته الكريمة، لأنه تعالى لا يريد شيئا سوى حبيبه محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم. وأما الإخلاص فليس لغير العارف بالله تعالى لأنه إخراج السوى في معاملة الحق تعالى، وذلك لا يطيقه من يعرف السوى، وعارف السوى محجوب مبعد نعوذ بالله من البعد والحجاب. وأما الهيبة فحال تعتري العارف المتمكن بشهود العظمة ضد الأنس كما أن القبض ضد البسط والخوف ضد الرجاء. قال العارف: أشتاقه فإذا بدا أطرقت من إجلاله1 أما السير فهو عبارة عن معارف المعارف، وهو الترقي أيضا، وطريقته إدامة الفكر بين النسب التي بين الربوبية والعبودية لا غير، وذلك موجب امتثال الأمر واجتناب النهي، لأن من تفكر في صفات الربوبية اشتاق إلى المولى فيمتثل ويجتنب. ومن تفكر في صفات نفسه كذلك، وأما القطبانية فالأقطاب كثيرون والفرد واحد في كل زمان، ومنه استمداد العارفين في زمانه وغير ذلك مما تقدم في الكلام على القطبانية لأن القطبانية إذا أطلقت فالمراد الجامع. وقد يطلق القطب في كل من دار عليه مقام أو حال ولذلك قلت لك الأقطاب كثيرون. وأما معرفة الولي مقامه فقد يعلمه وقد لا يعلمه وهو أكثر. وطريق معرفته أن يلهمه يقظة أو مناما، أو سمع ذلك عن شيخه، أو من النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم، أو من غير ذلك، كما قيل للسيد العربي بن السائح رضي الله عنه: أنت قطب؟ فقال: هكذا سمعت الناس يقولون. وأما اختلاف الألوان ﴿وَمِنْ ءَايَٰتِهِۦ خَلْقُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ وَٱخْتِلَٰفُ أَلْسِنَتِكُمْ وَأَلْوَٰنِكُمْ﴾ (الروم:22) فذلك تمام القدرة الإلهية لأن الله تعالى لم يفعل شيئا إلا فعل ضده. مثل الذكر والأنثى، والسماء والأرض، والسواد والبياض، والخضرة والصفرة، والحلو والمر، والمؤمن والكافر، والشقي والسعيد، والليل والنهار، والصباح والمساء إلى ما لا نهاية له، وذلك التباين في الشخص الواحد أبهر عقول المتفكرين ولكن الآيات لا يعظم موقعها إلا في قلوب الرجال1. وأما الحج الذي وصفت لي فهو حج الرجال وهو الذي يعبرون عنه بحج الخطوة وزيارته كذلك. والاعتماد على خبر النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم واجب لأنه لا يأتيه الباطل من بين يديه ولا من خلفه. فأخبرني ما قال لك صلى الله عليه وسلم في هذا العبد الآبق هل ذكرني؟. ليتني خطرت ببالك في وقت تلقيك منه صلى الله عليه وسلم. وأما ما أشرت لك في قوله تعالى: ﴿وَتَرَى ٱلْجِبَالَ﴾ الآية (النمل:88) فإليك استخراجها، فأخوك عثمان انجاي قال في ذلك ما يبهر العقول فعلمت أنه اطلع على سر الآية. رزقنا الله الفهم عنه بمنه آمين. وأما صلاة النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم بالأنبياء فحسية بأجسادهم وأرواحهم، ولا يمنع ذلك عدم افتراض الفريضة لأنها ليست فريضة. والافتراض على الناس الخاص والعام وهم ما حضروا تلك الصلاة، والأنبياء الذين لقيهم في السماوات على تباين درجاتهم أمهم في الأرض. وقدرة الله أبهر من ذلك، ألم تعلم أن جميع الإسراء في ساعة والنبي إنسان واحد، والذي كتم أكثر مما أظهر. قل الله. وأما الدعاء فجائز أن يطلب العبد من الله كل مقام وكل شيء يمكن وجوده. فما عند الله باق لا ينفد ﴿كُلاًّ نُّمِدُّ هَٰٓؤُلَآءِ وَهَٰٓؤُلَآءِ مِنْ عَطَآءِ رَبِّكَ وَمَا كَانَ عَطَآءُ رَبِّكَ مَحْظُوراً﴾ (الإسراء:20). وأما التفكر في النبي والتفكر في المعارف فلا فرق بينهما عندي والله تعالى أعلم. انتهى مختصر الجواب. وكتب على عجل أجهل خلق الله إبراهيم بن الحاج عبد الله التجاني بكوس عام 1349 لليلتين بقيتا من الربيع النبوي، والله ولي التوفيق.

By Allah's Name, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful. May Allah bless our master Muḥammad with the full due of his worth, his mighty measure. The answers in brief — for I am keeping them very short out of fear for myself of making the secret free for the taking. The quṭb is a tajallī among the tajalliyāt of al-Ḥaqq which gathers all the rest of the tajalliyāt; and the Garden and what is in it of all the tajalliyāt is a tajallī among the tajalliyāt of the quṭb. Along with it are fifteen worlds, all of which he supplies and disposes over, while he himself draws his supply from the Seal, the Concealed One — an ocean with no shore, no limit and no end. He in turn draws supply from the Muḥammadan ḥaqīqa, which is behind him and above him, likewise an ocean with no shore, no limit and no furthest point; and it draws supply from the Presence of Absoluteness, which has no "where" and no "how," and no end, no limit and no furthest point. So the Garden and all its kinds and its dwellers, in their continuance and their permanence, are a tajallī among the tajalliyāt of the quṭb. He said, exalted is He: ﴿Truly We offered the trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, and they refused to bear it and were afraid of it, and the human being bore it — truly he was a great wrongdoer, deeply ignorant﴾ (al-Aḥzāb 72). And He said, exalted is He: ﴿People of Yathrib, there is no standing-place for you﴾ (al-Aḥzāb 13). The second answer. Know that the seeing of Allah, exalted is He, in the Garden is with the eyes, and what is seen is His noble Face, without any intermediary — rather, as the moon on the night when it is full. Among them is one who sees Him seventy times in the day, one who sees Him twice, one who sees Him once, one who sees Him once in the week, and one who, when he sees Him, dies and is then brought to life afterwards and yearns for the sight of Him — for it is sweeter than everything. May Allah grant us that by His favour and generosity. As for the seeing by the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, it is that same seeing which comes to the muḥsinūn in the Garden; and his not seeing anything else was on account of the majesty of the worth of what he saw, not after the likeness of what the one passing away in fanāʾ sees. For he, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, saw nothing else while his intellect and his sobriety remained, not by way of drunkenness — and that is why remembrance of his community never slipped away from him, so that he prayed for them. As for al-Ḥaqq's nearness to creation, it is an expression for His existence and His oneness, since there is nothing with Him from the pre-eternity of the pre-eternity of pre-eternity to the after-eternity of the after-eternity of after-eternity. And that is not the station of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: creation's nearness to al-Ḥaqq is in the sense of their being brought to nothing in His existence, whereas the drawing-near for the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is real, with his noble essence remaining — because He, exalted is He, wants nothing other than His beloved Muḥammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. As for ikhlāṣ [sincerity], it belongs to none but the one who has maʿrifa of Allah, exalted is He, for it is the driving out of the siwā [what is other than Him] in one's dealing with al-Ḥaqq, exalted is He; and whoever knows the other-than-Him has not the strength for that. The knower of the other is veiled and held at a distance — we seek refuge in Allah from distance and from the veil. As for hayba [awe], it is a ḥāl that comes over the firmly established ʿārif through the witnessing of Greatness; it is the opposite of intimacy, just as qabḍ is the opposite of basṭ and fear the opposite of hope. The ʿārif said: I long for him, and when he appears I lower my eyes out of awe of him As for the journeying, it is an expression for the maʿārif of the maʿārif, and it is also the rising higher. Its way is the unbroken pondering of the relations that lie between Lordship and servanthood, and nothing else; and that is what makes compliance with the command and avoidance of the prohibition necessary, because whoever ponders the attributes of Lordship comes to long for the Master, and so he complies and avoids — and whoever ponders the attributes of his own self, likewise. As for quṭbness: the aqṭāb are many, while the Fard is one in each age, and from him the ʿārifūn of his age draw their supply, along with the rest of what has already been said in the discussion of quṭbness — for when quṭbness is used without qualification, what is meant is the comprehensive one. And "quṭb" may be applied to anyone upon whom a station or a state turns; that is why I told you the aqṭāb are many. As for the walī's knowing his own station: he may know it and he may not know it, and the latter is more common. The way of his coming to know it is that He inspires him, waking or in a dream; or he heard it from his shaykh, or from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, or from elsewhere. As it was said to al-Sayyid al-ʿArabī b. al-Sāʾiḥ, may Allah be pleased with him: are you a quṭb? and he said: that is how I have heard people say. As for the difference of colours — ﴿And among His signs is the creating of the heavens and the earth and the difference of your tongues and your colours﴾ (al-Rūm 22) — that is the completeness of the divine power, for Allah, exalted is He, has done nothing without doing its opposite: male and female, heaven and earth, black and white, green and yellow, sweet and bitter, believer and unbeliever, the wretched and the happy, night and day, morning and evening, out to what has no end. And that divergence within a single person has dazzled the intellects of those who ponder; but the signs fall with weight only in the hearts of men. As for the ḥajj you described to me, it is the ḥajj of the men, and it is what they express as the ḥajj of the step; and the visitation of him is likewise. Relying on a report from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is obligatory, since falsehood does not come to him from before him or from behind him. So tell me what he, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to you about this runaway slave — did he mention me? Would that I had crossed your mind at the moment you were receiving from him, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. As for what I hinted to you regarding His words, exalted is He: ﴿And you see the mountains﴾, the verse (al-Naml 88) — bringing it out is for you to do. Your brother ʿUthmān Njie said about it what dazzles intellects, and so I knew that he had come upon the secret of the verse. May Allah grant us understanding from Him, by His favour, āmīn. As for the Prophet's leading the prophets in prayer, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: it was sensory, with their bodies and their spirits, and the fact that the obligatory prayer had not yet been imposed does not stand in the way of that, since it was not an obligatory prayer. The imposing is upon people, elect and general, and they were not present at that prayer. And the prophets whom he met in the heavens, for all the divergence of their degrees, he led in prayer on the earth. Allah's power is more dazzling than that. Do you not know that the whole Night Journey took place within an hour, and that the Prophet is one single human being? And what he kept hidden is more than what he made plain. Say: Allah. As for supplication: it is permitted for the servant to ask Allah for every station and for every thing whose existence is possible, for what is with Allah endures and is not used up — ﴿Each of them We supply, these and those, out of your Lord's giving; and your Lord's giving is never fenced off﴾ (al-Isrāʾ 20). As for pondering the Prophet and pondering the maʿārif, there is no difference between the two in my view, and Allah, exalted is He, knows best. Here the brief answer ends. Written in haste by the most ignorant of Allah's creation, Ibrāhīm b. al-Ḥājj ʿAbd Allāh al-Tijānī, at Kaws, the year 1349, with two nights remaining of the Prophetic Rabīʿ. And Allah is the Master of enabling grace.

§10 of the tafsīr chapter of al-Fatāwā wa-l-ajwiba. The edition prints this reference itself.