The story of Adam, on whom be peace, and how the Divine destiny sealed up his sight so that he failed to observe the plain meaning of the prohibition and to refrain from interpreting it.
The father of mankind, who is the lord of He (God) taught (Adam) the Names, hath hundreds of thousands of sciences in every vein.
To his soul accrued (knowledge of) the name of every thing, even as that thing exists (in its real nature) unto the end (of the world).
No title that he gave became changed: that one whom he called ‘brisk’ did not become ‘lazy.’
Whoso is (to be) a believer at the last, he saw at the first; whoso is (to be) an infidel at the last, to him it became manifest.
Do thou hear the name of every thing from the knower: hear the inmost meaning of the mystery of He taught the Names.
With us, the name of every thing is its outward (appearance); with the Creator, the name of every thing is its inward (reality).
In the eyes of Moses the name of his rod was ‘staff’; in the eyes of the Creator its name was ‘dragon.’
Here the name of ‘Umar was ‘idolater,’ but in Alast. his name was ‘believer.’
That of which the name, with us, was ‘seed’ was, in the sight of God, thou who art at this moment beside me.
This ‘seed’ was a form (idea) in non-existence (potentiality), existent with God, neither more nor less (than the form in which it appeared externally).
In brief, that which is our end is really our name with God.
He bestows on a man a name according to his final state, not according to that (state) to which He gives the name of ‘a loan.’
Inasmuch as the eye of Adam saw by means of the Pure Light, the soul and inmost sense of the names became evident to him.
Since the angels perceived in him the rays of God, they fell in worship and hastened to do homage.
The Adam like this whose name I am celebrating, if I praise (him) till the Resurrection, I fall short (of what is due).
All this he knew; (yet) when the Divine destiny came, he was at fault in the knowledge of a single prohibition,
Wondering whether the prohibition was for the purpose of making unlawful (the thing prohibited), or whether it admitted of an interpretation and was a cause of perplexity.
When (the view that it admitted of) interpretation prevailed in his mind, his nature hastened in bewilderment towards the wheat.
When the thorn went into the foot of the gardener (Adam), the thief (Satan) found an opportunity and quickly carried off the goods.
As soon as he escaped from bewilderment, he returned into the (right) road; (then) he saw that the thief had carried off the wares from the shop.
He cried, ‘O Lord, we have done wrong,’ and ‘Alas,’ that is to say, ‘darkness came and the way was lost.’
This Divine destiny is a cloud that covers the sun: thereby lions and dragons become as mice.
If I (the hoopoe) do not see a snare in the hour of Divine ordainment, ’tis not I alone who am ignorant in the course of Divine ordainment.”
Oh, happy he that clave to righteousness, he (that) let (his own) strength go and took to supplication!
If the Divine destiny shrouds thee in black like night, yet the Divine destiny will take thy hand (and guide thee) at the last.
If the Divine destiny a hundred times attempts thy life, yet the Divine destiny gives thee life and heals thee.
This Divine destiny, if a hundred times it waylays thee, (nevertheless) pitches thy tent on the top of Heaven.
Know that this is from the loving kindness (of God), that He terrifies thee in order that He may establish thee in the kingdom of security.
This subject hath no end. ’Tis late. Hearken (now) to the story of the hare and the lion.
