القسم الأول · المبحث الأول · باب ١
باب الإبداع والخلق والتدبير
The book's very first bāb - and its foundation
Note where we are: this is the book's first bāb - and the title of Part One already announces what the whole work is after: القواعد الكلية التي تُستنبط منها المصالح المرعية في الأحكام الشرعية, the universal principles from which the مصالح - the benefits attended to in the rulings of the law - are derived. Keep that word مصلحة in mind: it will turn up again inside the definition of governance.
The real point: that last example is the doorway to the entire book. If the sending of a prophet is itself an act of governance, and governance by definition runs toward حكمة and مصلحة - then looking for wisdom in the rulings of the law is neither strained nor presumptuous. It is simply recognising the order one is already inside. That is why this bāb comes first.
Shah Waliullah's whole book rests on one claim: the rulings of the law are not arbitrary - there is wisdom in them, and that wisdom is within reach of human reason.
But the claim only means anything in a universe that is ordered. If God's acting were irregular - one principle today, another tomorrow - then the search for the secrets of the law would be meaningless from the start. To recognise the wisdom of a ruling, there must be standing regularities in the world.
So the arrangement is not incidental. This is bāb 1, and immediately after it come the bābs on عالم المثال and الملأ الأعلى - settling first what God's relation to the world is and through what intermediaries He acts; and only then أسباب التكليف والمجازاة, the causes of obligation and recompense. Foundation first, building afterwards.
The bāb opens with this sentence:
اعلمْ أنَّ للهِ تعالى بالنسبةِ إلى إيجادِ العالمِ ثلاثَ صفاتٍ مترتبةٍ.
Notice the qualifier: the attributes are related to bringing the world into being. This is not an analysis of the divine essence; these are three aspects of God's relation to the world. And they are مترتبة: in an order. (Which order? That is section 7.)
origination out of no prior thing
إحداها: الإبداعُ، وهو إيجادُ شيءٍ لا مِن شيءٍ، فيَخْرُجُ الشيءُ مِن كَتْمِ العَدَمِ بغيرِ مادةٍ.
وسُئل رسولُ اللهِ ﷺ عن أوَّلِ هذا الأمرِ، فقال: «كان اللهُ ولم يكن شيءٌ قبلَه».
كَتْمِ العَدَم - "the concealment of non-being". The phrase draws its own picture: the thing was not carved from some existing stuff, it came out from behind the veil of not being - بغير مادة, with no matter.
And note that he does not leave this to philosophy: he brings a hadith. "God was, and there was nothing before Him." Which is to say, the question "before" is itself dropped. (One of Bukhārī's transmissions has ولم يكن شيء غيره - "there was nothing besides Him"; the footnote cites Ibn Ḥajar to the effect that this indicates there was nothing besides Him at all - no water, no throne.)
An illustration m - a novelist thinking up a character is not carving existing clay. But the comparison is incomplete: language, concepts, their own mind - all of it is already there. In origination nothing whatever is "already there".
bringing forth out of something already there
والثانيةُ: الخَلْقُ، وهو إيجادُ الشيءِ مِن شيءٍ، كما خَلَقَ آدمَ مِن التُّرابِ، وخَلَقَ الجانَّ مِن مارِجٍ مِن نارٍ.
The whole distinction turns on one thing: لا من شيء against من شيء. And he gives two examples, both Qur'anic: Adam من التراب, and the jinn من مارج من نار (al-Raḥmān 15 - a flame of smokeless fire).
So creation is not the opposite of origination but rests on it - because that "something already there" was itself originated. The dust was there first; Adam was made from it.
An illustration m - a potter and clay. But here is the difference: a potter did not originate the clay. Here the clay is itself the origination of the one shaping it.
governing the world of generated things
والثالثةُ: تدبيرُ عالمِ المَواليدِ؛ ومَرْجِعُه إلى تَصْيِيرِ حوادثِها موافقةً للنظامِ الذي تَرْتَضِيه حِكْمَتُه، مُفْضِيةً إلى المصلحةِ التي اقتضاها جُودُه.
This definition matters a great deal, and it is easy to loosen it into "running the universe" - the text is finer than that. Three restrictions:
One - the subject is عالم المواليد: the world of things that come to be and pass away. Two - the work is تصيير حوادثها موافقة للنظام: bringing events into conformity with an order. Three - and that order is not purposeless: it is the one His حكمته approves, leading to المصلحة التي اقتضاها جوده.
Here is the heart of the book: حكمة and مصلحة - both words stand inside the definition of governance. And Part One is titled المصالح المرعية في الأحكام الشرعية. The purpose of the book is already lodged in this definition.
Plate I
Mind map - ثلاث صفات مترتبة
Press a branch, or use the buttons above, to focus one branch at a time. Each branch's points are taken from the words of the text.
Here the bāb takes a turn that looks incidental and is in fact the spine of the whole book. Having defined creation, Shah Waliullah goes on:
وقد دلَّ العقلُ والنقلُ على أنَّ اللهَ تعالى خَلَقَ العالمَ أنواعاً وأجناساً، وجَعَلَ لكلِّ نوعٍ وجنسٍ خواصَّ.
The world, then, is not a heap of unsorted particles - it was made in species and genera, and each was given its own خواص. And his examples are entirely concrete:
And then comes the sentence that ties it all together: God's عادة runs such that these properties do not depart from their places. Fire's property is burning, and it does not come apart from it - اللهم إلا بطريق خرق العادة, except where the custom itself is broken, as it was made برداً وسلاماً for Abraham (this detail is in the footnote).
(In the same connection he sets out the ladder of genera and species - from جنس الأجناس down to نوع الأنواع: existence, substance, body, growing body, animal, human - and cites several hadiths of prophetic medicine, which are the practical confirmation of these same properties.)
Plate II
The structure of the definition of governance - in the words of the text
Governance is not merely ‘running things’ - it is bringing events into conformity with an order, and that order is the one wisdom approves and which leads toward benefit. Which is why the benefits behind the rulings of the law can be discovered: they are part of that same order.
The diagram is the definition’s own parts - تدبير عالم المواليد؛ ومرجعه إلى تصيير حوادثها موافقةً للنظام الذي ترتضيه حكمته، مفضيةً إلى المصلحة التي اقتضاها جوده.
After the definition Shah Waliullah gives four examples, and their sequence is itself an argument. They climb:
After the examples Shah Waliullah says وتفصيلُ ذلك and opens up the machine - the most technical part of the bāb, and the most useful. First the groundwork:
أنَّ القوى المُودَعةَ في المَواليدِ التي لا تَنْفَكُّ عنها، لما تَزاحَمَتْ وتَصادَمَتْ، أوجبَتْ حِكْمةُ اللهِ حُدوثَ أطوارٍ مختلفةٍ: بعضُها جواهرُ وبعضُها أعراضٌ.
The قوى deposited in generated things - and inseparable from them - when they crowd and collide, God's wisdom requires that various أطوار, states, come about. Some substances, some accidents; and the accidents are either acts or volitions. Governance works through these forces, not by suspending them - the same point returns in bāb 3 in the image of the net and the fish.
And now the question that rises in every mind: if the order is one of wisdom, why is there evil in the world? The answer is given by one precise distinction - separate two senses of "evil":
وتلك الأطوارُ لا شَرَّ فيها بمعنى عدمِ صُدورِ ما يَقْتَضيه سببُه، أو صُدورِ ضِدِّ ما يَقْتَضيه. والشيءُ الذي اعْتُبِرَ بسببِه المُقْتَضي لوجودِه كان حَسَناً لا مَحالةَ - كالقَطْعِ: حَسَنٌ مِن حيثُ أنه يَقْتَضيه جَوهرُ الحديدِ، وإنْ كان قبيحاً مِن حيثُ فَوْتُ بِنْيةِ إنسانٍ.
لكن فيها شَرٌّ بمعنى حُدوثِ شيءٍ غيرُه أوْفَقُ بالمصلحةِ منه باعتبارِ الآثارِ، أو عدمِ حُدوثِ شيءٍ آثارُه محمودةٌ.
The first sense - this evil does not exist. If "evil" means that a cause fails to produce what it entails, or produces its contrary, then there is no such thing. There is no fault in the order. And anything considered with respect to its cause is necessarily good.
And here comes the example that puts the whole discussion in your hand: القَطْع - cutting. With respect to the substance of iron, cutting is good, because that is what iron of itself entails. And that same cutting is ugly with respect to the ruin of a human frame. One act, two respects, two verdicts. A knife's being sharp is not the fault; a knife falling in the wrong place is.
The second sense - this evil does exist. Yes, there is evil in the sense that something comes about when some other thing would, in its effects, have fitted the benefit better; or that something whose effects would have been praiseworthy fails to come about. Evil, then, is not a breakdown of the order but a missed preference - the absence of a better possible.
And when the causes of that second kind of evil have gathered, what then? Here the text lists four acts - the most practical part of the bāb:
وإذا تَهَيَّأَتْ أسبابُ هذا الشرِّ، اقْتَضَتْ رحمةُ اللهِ بعبادِه ولُطْفُه بهم، وعمومُ قدرتِه على الكلِّ، وشُمولُ عِلْمِه بالكلِّ - أن يَتَصَرَّفَ في تلك القوى والأمورِ الحاملةِ لها بالقَبْضِ والبَسْطِ والإحالةِ والإلهامِ، حتى تُفْضِيَ تلك الجملةُ إلى الأمرِ المطلوبِ.
Observe that the disposing is in the forces and in the things that carry them - the forces are not annulled. Four modes, each with its example from the text itself:
| Mode | What it means | The text's example |
|---|---|---|
| القَبْض | Withholding - the force is there, but is not let take effect | The Dajjāl wants to kill the believing servant a second time, and God does not give him the power - although the motive to kill is intact and the instruments are sound |
| البَسْط | Expanding - carrying a force past its usual measure | For Job a spring gushed up at the stamp of a foot, though customarily a stamp brings no water; and in battle certain sincere servants were given a strength that such bodies - or several times such bodies - could not account for |
| الإحالة | Transmuting - turning a thing into another thing | Making the fire a pleasant coolness for Abraham |
| الإلهام | Inspiring - working by way of the will | Holing the boat, setting the wall straight, killing the boy (the account of Moses and Khiḍr) - and the sending down of the scriptures and the laws upon the prophets |
Three of the four work on things; the fourth works on hearts. And the text adds one fine qualification: والإلهامُ تارةً يكون للمُبتلى، وتارةً يكون لغيرِه لأجلِه - inspiration is sometimes given to the afflicted person himself, and sometimes to someone else on his account. The solution to your difficulty may be put into another person's heart.
Shah Waliullah's word is مترتبة - the three attributes stand in an order. The question is: which order?
Not an order in time. These are not three separate events that happened in turn. Time is itself created; and the hadith says in so many words that "there was nothing before Him" - so by what would "before" be measured? The order is one of rank and logic: the concept of creation presupposes origination, because من شيء only means something if some thing has already been brought into being. And governance presupposes creation, because the ordering of the events of عالم المواليد is only possible once generated things exist.
One thing I cannot settle, and which you should pursue in the text and its commentators: he calls these صفات. Is this, for him, a real plurality in the divine essence, or three respects of a single act that our regard separates? That is a question for theology. The text gives one hint: the footnote, discussing the ordering, has لا ندري كيف تترتب؟ ولكن نستيقن أنها مترتبة - "we do not know how they are ordered, but we are certain that they are ordered." Not a decision, but a direction: affirm the order, suspend judgement on its manner.
| Term | The text's words | Why it is needed |
|---|---|---|
| الإبداع | إيجاد شيء لا من شيء - من كتم العدم بغير مادة | The starting point of the chain. Without it, "where did that first thing come from?" has no answer |
| الخَلْق | إيجاد الشيء من شيء | Multiplicity and variety - how species, genera and their properties came to be |
| التدبير | تصيير حوادث عالم المواليد موافقةً للنظام … مفضيةً إلى المصلحة | That there is purpose in the world - and this is the doorway to the wisdom of the law |
| خواص | جعل لكل نوع وجنس خواصَّ | Each species' standing property - the unit of regularity |
| عادة الله | That the properties do not depart (except by خرق العادة) | This is the "rule" on whose basis wisdom becomes discoverable |
| قوى مُودَعة | القوى المُودَعة في المواليد … تزاحمت وتصادمت | The instruments through which governance is carried out |
"First origination happened, then creation, then governance." - مترتبة does not mean a sequence in time. Time is itself created, and the text's own hadith drops the word "before". The order is logical and hierarchical, not historical.
"Governance means God made the universe and left it." - the definition says the opposite: governance is تصيير حوادثها, the continual bringing of events into conformity with the order. It is an ongoing act, not a finished one.
The difference between origination and creation is not "measuring out". People import the lexical sense of خلق (to proportion, to measure) here. That lexical point is true in itself, but in this bāb the criterion is plain: لا من شيء against من شيء. Mixing the two blurs the distinction.
The subject of governance is not the whole universe but عالم المواليد. The text sets the restriction. Generalising it into "running the universe" loosens the definition and severs its link with the bābs that follow (the world of images, the highest council).
A miracle does not negate the rule. The phrase خرق العادة says as much on its own: there is a custom, and it was broken. An exception establishes a rule rather than erasing it - which is why fire turning cool for Abraham is no argument against the order of properties.
These terms are not Shah Waliullah's invention - they are the shared inheritance of philosophy and theology. His achievement is not coining them but joining them to hadith, jurisprudence and Sufism to build a connected account of "the wisdom of the law" - and laying its foundation in the very first bāb of the book.
This bāb's Arabic is from the scan of Palanpuri's edition, checked against the Shamela digital text.
The edition, the commentary, the searchable printings ▸Keyboard: ← previous · → next · Esc contents · the button below opens the Arabic