The Five Sacred Realities of Revelation and Their Testimonies

someone exists who wishes to make Himself known through the incalculable number of these artful, ornamented creations in this observed, physical world. Through His endless sweet, adorned and ornamented blessings, He wishes to endear Himself. He wishes to give news of His hidden perfections through His limitless, miraculous and wondrous effects. He wants all this in a more manifest way than mere words and speaking about it - He manifests that He wants it through action. He reveals this through the language of state (lisānu’l-ḥāl). There is no doubt that He speaks with words just as He speaks through action and state, and that He makes Himself known and endears Himself. We must then come to know Him through His manifestation in the unseen world.’

He said this and then his heart entered inside. There, with the eye of his intellect, he saw that the [metaphysical] reality of revelation controls the entire unseen world at every moment, through an immensely powerful manifestation. He saw that the testimonies of Existence and Unity themselves were stronger than the testimonies of the creatures and of the universe, for they come from the presence of the Knower of the Unseen (‘Allāmu’l-Ghuyūb) through the realities of revelation and inspiration.

He does not leave His Essence, Existence and Unity to be testified to by His creatures alone. He rather speaks with a beginninglessly eternal speech befitting Him. In every place, He is present and watching, through His Knowledge and His Power. His speech is limitless. His speech makes Him known by His Attributes (ṣifāt), just as the meaning of His speech also makes Him known. 

Yes, he had understood that the existence and certainty of the [metaphysical] reality of revelation is known self-evidently by the unanimous testimony of a hundred thousand prophets (‘alayhimussalām) in the agreement of their reports concerning their receiving Divine revelation. It is [also] known through the proofs and miracles contained within the sacred books and heavenly scriptures, that constitute the visible revelation, and the fruits of revelation. They have been given credence by the absolute majority of men, their guides and exemplars. He understood now that the [metaphysical] reality of revelation conveys and emanates five sacred realities.

The first sacred reality of revelation

 التنزلات الإلهية إلى عقول البشر (a) That is, speech that is suited to the intellect of human beings and their levels of understanding constitutes a Divine descent (tanazzul). Indeed, He Who causes all of His spirit-endowed creations to speak, and knows their speech, indubitably interposes His own Speech within their speech, as a necessary entailment of His Lordship (rubūbiyyah).

The second sacred reality of revelation

The One who created the universe through limitless expenditure, and filled it with magnificent creations in order to make Himself known, causing them, in thousands of languages, to speak of His perfections, indubitably also makes Himself known through His own Speech.

The third sacred reality of revelation

Through action, He responds to the prayers and gratitude of true men. For they are the best of existing beings, they are in the greatest need, and they are most subtle, the most delicate,

_____

a 'The Divine [ontological] descent to the [level of] human intellect'.