سؤال عن معنى قوله تعالى: ﴿وَفِي ٱلسَّمَآءِ رِزْقُكُمْ وَمَا تُوعَدُونَ﴾ (الذاريات:22)، وقوله: ﴿وَلَوْ أَنَّ أَهْلَ ٱلْقُرَىٰٓ ءَامَنُواْ وَٱتَّقَوْاْ لَفَتَحْنَا عَلَيْهِم بَرَكَٰتٍ مِّنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ﴾ الأعراف:96 عمر بن مالك. الجواب عن الآية الأولى والله أعلم: أن للآية ظاهرا وباطنا كغيرها من الآيات، وقوله تعالى ﴿وَفِي ٱلسَّمَآءِ﴾ السماء: معناه المجازي المطر، كما قال الشاعر: إذا نزل السماء بأرض قوم...البيت1. يعني المطر. والمعنى الحقيقي السماء المعروفة. والرزق أيضا رزقان: رزق مجازي ورزق حقيقي. فالرزق المجازي مدار أمره على المطر، لا ينزل رزق إلا بواسطة المطر. لأن حكمة الله التي جاء بها قوام هذه الدار، كما تعطيه حروف حكمة: الحراثة، والكسب، والميراث، والتجارة، ومدار الكل على الحراثة، ومدارها على المطر، فصار قوله: ﴿وَفِي ٱلسَّمَآءِ رِزْقُكُمْ﴾ فيه إقامة الأسباب. والرزق حقيقة بيد الله وقدره تقديرا وينزله بقدر معلوم. ولما كان العبيد تحت قبضة سيدهم وتحت صولته وسلطانه، فكأنهم تحته وهو تعالى فوقهم بلا أين ولا كيف. فصار ما ينزله عليهم من الأرزاق فكأنه من علو إلى أسفل، والسماء عالية فوق الناس، فعبر بكون الرزق بيده وعنده بقوله: ﴿وَفِي ٱلسَّمَآءِ رِزْقُكُمْ﴾ ومعناه أنه بيده وعنده، وحيث كان عنده فهو فوقنا. وفي الآية إشارة إلى الأرزاق الحسية والمعنوية. والكل من السماء، قدرها تقدير عزيز عليم، ورفعت أقلامه، وجفت الصحف. فهذا اختصار الجواب عن الآية الأولى. والثانية: في مدح الإيمان والتقوى، بأنهما سبب فتحه علينا بركات من السماء والأرض كقوله تعالى: ﴿وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ أَقَامُواْ ٱلتَّوْرَىٰةَ وَٱلْإِنجِيلَ وَمَآ أُنزِلَ إِلَيْهِم مِّن رَّبِّهِمْ لَأَكَلُواْ مِن فَوْقِهِمْ وَمِن تَحْتِ أَرْجُلِهِم﴾ (المائدة:66) يعني أن أهل القرى لو آمنوا الإيمان التام الحقيقي لفتح عليهم بركات السماء، وهي الفتوح والمعارف والأسرار والواردات والإلهامات التي هي بركات العالم العلوي، وبركات الأرض التي هي علوم الدرايات والروايات والمعاملات. كما أن قوله تعالى: ﴿لَأَكَلُواْ مِن فَوْقِهِمْ﴾ إشارة إلى المعارف الإلهية، ﴿وَمِن تَحْتِ أَرْجُلِهِم﴾ إلى علوم الروايات والدرايات التي هي أرض النفوس، فالإيمان والتقوى سبب في الكل كما صرحت به غير ما آية، قال تعالى: ﴿وَٱتَّقُواْ ٱللَّهَ وَيُعَلِّمُكُمُ ٱللَّهُ وَٱللَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ﴾ (البقرة:282)، وقال تعالى: ﴿إِن تَتَّقُواْ ٱللَّهَ يَجْعَل لَّكُمْ فُرْقَاناً﴾ (الأنفال:29) وهو نور

A question about the meaning of His words, exalted is He: ﴿And in the heavens is your provision, together with what you are promised﴾ (al-Dhāriyāt 22), and His words: ﴿And had the people of the townships believed and had taqwā, We would have thrown open to them blessings out of the heaven and the earth﴾ al-Aʿrāf 96 ʿUmar b. Mālik. The answer concerning the first verse — and Allah knows best — is that the verse has a ẓāhir [outward sense] and a bāṭin [inward sense], like other verses. His words, exalted is He, ﴿And in the heaven﴾: al-samāʾ, in its figurative meaning, is rain, as the poet said: "When the samāʾ comes down upon the land of a people…" — the [rest of the] line. He means rain. Its literal meaning is the known heaven. And provision, likewise, is of two kinds: a figurative provision and a real one. The figurative provision turns entirely upon rain; no provision descends except by means of rain. For the ḥikma [wisdom] of Allah upon which the subsistence of this abode was established — as the letters of the word ḥikma themselves yield — is: ḥirātha (tillage), kasb (earning), mīrāth (inheritance), tijāra (trade); and all of these turn upon tillage, and tillage turns upon rain. So His words ﴿And in the heaven is your ﴾ contain the establishing of secondary causes. Yet provision in reality is in Allah's hand; He apportions it by a decree and sends it down in a known measure. And since slaves are under the grip of their master, under his sway and his authority, it is as though they were beneath Him while He, exalted is He, is above them — without a "where" and without a "how." So what He sends down upon them of provisions is as though it were from a height to a place below, and the heaven is high above people; thus He expressed provision's being in His hand and with Him by His words: ﴿And your provision is in the heaven﴾. Its meaning is that it is in His hand and with Him, and since it is with Him it is above us. In the verse there is an indication of provisions both sensory and meaning-bearing. All of them are from the heaven; He measured them out with the measuring of One Mighty, All-Knowing; the pens have been lifted and the pages have dried. This, then, is the answer to the first verse in brief. As for the second: it is in praise of faith and taqwā (conscientiousness) in that the two are the cause of His throwing open to us blessings from the heaven and the earth — like His words, exalted is He: ﴿And had they upheld the Torah and the Gospel and what was sent down to them from their Lord, they would surely have eaten from above them and from beneath their feet﴾ (al-Māʾida 66). That is, if the people of the townships were to believe with the complete, real faith, the blessings of the heaven would be thrown open to them — and these are the openings [futūḥ], the maʿārif [gnostic knowledges], the secrets, the incoming states [wāridāt] and the inspirations, which are the blessings of the upper world; and the blessings of the earth, which are the sciences of dirāyāt [reasoned understanding] and riwāyāt [transmitted reports] and of dealings. Just as His words, exalted is He, ﴿they would surely have eaten from above them﴾ are an indication of the divine maʿārif, and ﴿and from beneath their feet﴾ of the sciences of riwāyāt and dirāyāt, which are the earth of the selves. So faith and taqwā are the cause of all of it, as more than one verse has stated plainly. He said, exalted is He: ﴿And have taqwā of Allah, and Allah teaches you; and Allah has knowledge of every thing﴾ (al-Baqara 282), and He said, exalted is He: ﴿If you have taqwā of Allah, He will appoint for you a furqān (criterion)﴾ (al-Anfāl 29) — and it is a light

Working transcription — not yet proofread against the printing.

Translation by Amadu Kunateh. The compiler's footnotes are not included.

§1. The edition prints this reference itself.