القسم الأول · المبحث الأول · باب ١٠
باب في أسباب الخواطر الباعثة على الأعمال
Five causes - and dreams, which mirror them
The link: bāb 9 gave an inventory of temperaments - what a man is. This bāb asks the next question: where does the impulse behind what he does come from? And while granting that innate nature is the greatest cause, it refuses to let it be the only one.
The real point: having listed five causes, the bāb ties dreams to the same list in one sentence - المناماتُ أمرُها كأمرِ الخواطرِ، غيرَ أنها تتجرّدُ لها النفسُ. The difference is not of cause but of undividedness: awake, those same causes pass as a thought; asleep, the soul comes free for them and they take form. m - the soul's own talk, the satan's frightening, and glad tidings from God.
The bāb's opening sentence is its whole claim:
اعلمْ أن الخواطرَ التي يجدُها الإنسانُ في نفسِه، وتبعثُه على العملِ بموجَبِها - لا جرمَ أن لها أسباباً، كسنّةِ اللهِ تعالى في سائرِ الحوادثِ.
Two expressions carry the weight. One is خواطر: what passes over the heart. Palanpuri's footnote opens both its lexicon and a fact about this bāb's history:
هذا البابُ: فصلٌ في مخطوطةِ كراتشي … والخواطرُ: جمعُ الخاطرِ: ما يخطرُ بالقلبِ … تترشَّحُ على دماغِ الإنسانِ خيالاتٌ كأقطارِ الأمطارِ، فإذا كثُرَت بَدَت منها الإرادةُ (سندي).
Sindhī's image draws the whole bāb in one line: imaginings trickle down like raindrops, and when they gather, the will emerges from them. An act is not born all at once; it is made of drops collecting.
The second expression is كسنّةِ اللهِ تعالى في سائرِ الحوادثِ, and it is what binds this bāb to bāb 4.
And now the declaration about how this is known, which is easy to read past:
والنظرُ والتجربةُ يُظهِرانِ أن منها - وهو أعظمُها - جِبِلّةَ الإنسانِ التي خُلِقَ عليها، كما نبّهَ النبيُّ ﷺ في الحديثِ الذي رويناهُ من قبلُ.
النظرُ والتجربةُ - reasoning and experience. The text does not say the five causes are transmitted; it says they are made apparent by looking and testing. And then it leans on a hadith for the first cause - without quoting it again: الحديثِ الذي رويناهُ من قبلُ, that is, bāb 9's hadith, "if you hear that a man has changed his nature, do not believe it".
The second cause looks like the first, but the text separates them in its very first word: this one is المتغيّرُ - the changing one.
ومنها: مزاجُه الطبيعيُّ، المتغيّرُ بسببِ التدبيرِ المحيطِ به من الأكلِ والشربِ ونحوِ ذلك، كالجائعِ يطلبُ الطعامَ، والظمآنِ يطلبُ الماءَ.
The hungry man seeks food, the thirsty water - so far it is plain. But the text carries it into two worked examples, and both begin with diet:
ورُبَّ إنسانٍ يأكلُ غذاءً يُقوّي الباءةَ، فيميلُ إلى النساءِ، ويحدّثُ نفسَه بأحاديثَ تتعلّقُ بهنَّ، وتصيرُ هذه مُهيّجةً له على كثيرٍ من الأفعالِ؛ ورُبَّ إنسانٍ يتغذّى غذاءً شديداً، فيقسو قلبُه، ويجترئُ على القتلِ، ويغضبُ في كثيرٍ مما لا يغضبُ فيه غيرُه.
Watch the chain: food → temperament → thought → act. The middle link - ويحدّثُ نفسَه بأحاديثَ تتعلّقُ بهنَّ - is the very "prompting" this bāb is about. And the second example runs from diet all the way to hardness of heart and anger.
And then the sentence that turns this cause into a hope:
ثم إذا ارتاضَ هذانِ أنفسَهما بالصيامِ والقيامِ، أو شابّا وكَبِرا، أو مَرِضا مرضاً مُدنِفاً - تغيَّرَ أكثرُ ما كانا عليه، ورقّت قلوبُهما، وعفّت نفوسُهما.
Three routes, and each of a different kind: one chosen (fasting and night prayer), one natural (they were young, and grew old), and one involuntary (a wasting illness). Palanpuri opens مُدنِف:
دَنِفَ المريضُ: ثَقُلَ، وأدنفَه المرضُ: أثقلَه.
And the conclusion is brought down to an everyday observation, with a legal dispensation beside it:
ولذلك ترى الاختلافَ بين الشيوخِ والشبّانِ، ورخّصَ النبيُّ ﷺ للشيخِ في القُبلةِ وهو صائمٌ، ولم يُرخِّصْ للشابِّ.
But in his takhrīj of that dispensation Palanpuri draws a fine distinction, and it is easy to pass over:
رَوى مالكٌ أن عبدَ اللهِ بنَ عباسٍ سُئِلَ عن القُبلةِ للصائمِ؟ فأرخصَ فيها للشيخِ، وكَرِهَها للشابِّ … وأما الحديثُ المرفوعُ ففي المباشرةِ: رُوِيَ عن أبي هريرةَ أن رجلاً سألَ النبيَّ ﷺ عن المباشرةِ للصائمِ؟ فرخّصَ له، وأتاهُ آخَرُ فسألَه فنهاهُ، فإذا الذي رخّصَ له شيخٌ، وإذا الذي نهاهُ شابٌّ. رواه أبو داود.
That is: the report that is marfūʿ concerns mubāshara; the old-man-and-young-man distinction about kissing is narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās. The text gathers both into one sentence, and the footnote pulls them apart again.
ومنها: العاداتُ والمألوفاتُ، فإن مَن أكثرَ مُلابسةَ شيءٍ، وتمكّنَ من لوحِ نفسِه ما يناسبُه من الهيئاتِ والأشكالِ - مالَ إليه كثيرٌ من خواطرِه.
The word مُلابسة repays attention: not merely doing, but being clothed in - as a garment is to the body. And where does the effect land? On لوحِ نفسِه. There الهيئاتِ والأشكالِ settle, and after that the promptings lean that way of themselves.
The last two causes do not rise from within a man; they arrive upon him. And both use bāb 3's furniture.
ومنها: أن النفسَ الناطقةَ في بعضِ الأوقاتِ تنفلتُ من أسرِ البهيميةِ، فتختطفُ من حيّزِ الملأِ الأعلى ما يُيَسَّرُ لها من هيئةٍ نورانيةٍ، فتكونُ تارةً من بابِ الأُنسِ والطمأنينةِ، وتارةً من بابِ العزمِ على الفعلِ.
Three words do a great deal here. تنفلتُ - to slip free, as from captivity; and the captivity is named: أسرِ البهيميةِ. تختطفُ - to snatch, so this meeting is no settled station but a swoop. And ما يُيَسَّرُ لها - as much as is made easy for it, not as much as it wants.
And the outcome has two aspects: sometimes from the register of الأُنسِ والطمأنينةِ - a state; and sometimes from the register of العزمِ على الفعلِ - a resolve.
ومنها: أن بعضَ النفوسِ الخسيسةِ تتأثّرُ بالشياطينِ، وتنصبغُ ببعضِ صِبغِهم، وربما اقتضت تلك الهيئةُ خواطرَ وأفعالاً.
And one qualification that slips past easily: the text says بعضَ النفوسِ الخسيسةِ - some souls, not all.
Plate I
Five causes - and where they come from
The text’s own list is of five, numbered; the grouping into three is mine - from within, from acquisition, from outside. The last leaf is the text’s own sentence, which ties dreams to this same list.
The bāb ends with a sentence that applies the whole list to another field:
واعلمْ أن المناماتِ أمرُها كأمرِ الخواطرِ، غيرَ أنها تتجرّدُ لها النفسُ، فتتشبّحُ لها صوَرُها وهيئاتُها.
There is only one difference, and it comes after غيرَ أنها: تتجرّدُ لها النفسُ - the soul comes free for them. Awake it is busy with the senses and the body, so those same causes pass merely as a thought; asleep the business is lifted, and the same causes تتشبّحُ - they take on form. Palanpuri glosses the word in one word:
فتتشبّحُ: أي تتمثّلُ.
And then Ibn Sīrīn's well-known saying:
وقال محمدُ بنُ سيرينَ: الرؤيا ثلاثٌ: حديثُ النفسِ، وتخويفُ الشيطانِ، وبُشرى من اللهِ.
رُوِيَ قولُ محمدِ بنِ سيرينَ في حديثٍ متفقٍ عليه، وكذا رُوِيَ مرفوعاً عن أبي هريرةَ رضي الله عنه، رواه الدارميُّ والترمذيُّ في أبوابِ الرؤيا.
The text quotes the saying and offers no reconciliation - it leaves it as it stands. But with the list above in view, the three kinds find their own places:
the first three causes, reflected
The first three causes are inward, and in sleep they show their own shape. The text's own example sits on this exactly: the man who eats that food يحدّثُ نفسَه بأحاديثَ تتعلّقُ بهنَّ - and this "talk of the soul" is the same awake as asleep.
the fifth cause, in the idiom of dreams
The text's fifth cause - تتأثّرُ بالشياطينِ، وتنصبغُ ببعضِ صِبغِهم - and there too it said ربما اقتضت تلك الهيئةُ خواطرَ وأفعالاً. In sleep that same form takes the shape of a fright.
a form snatched from the highest council
The fourth cause - فتختطفُ من حيّزِ الملأِ الأعلى ما يُيَسَّرُ لها من هيئةٍ نورانيةٍ. And there too two registers were named: الأُنسِ والطمأنينةِ and العزمِ على الفعلِ - glad tidings, and impulse.
"Innate nature is the greatest cause, so the rest are idle." - the text counted five, not one; and within the second cause it named three routes by which temperament changes - austerity, age, illness - with the result رقّت قلوبُهما، وعفّت نفوسُهما. أعظمُها means greatest in weight, not sole.
"Temperament and innate nature are the same thing." - the text separates the second cause in its very first word: المزاجُ الطبيعيُّ المتغيّرُ. Innate nature is what one was made upon; temperament is what keeps changing through التدبيرِ المحيطِ به. Collapsing them destroys the chapter's entire practical side.
The fasting dispensation: what is marfūʿ and what is not. By the footnote, the old-man-and-young-man distinction about kissing is narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās, while the marfūʿ report concerns mubāshara. The text gathers both into one sentence; quoting it as a marfūʿ hadith in those terms goes past the takhrīj.
The fourth cause is not "unveiling". The text's words are measured: تختطفُ (snatches) and ما يُيَسَّرُ لها (what is made easy for it). This is a swoop, not a station; and on bāb 9's scale it may well fall to the man whose angelic power is the low kind.
"Base souls" is not "all souls". The fifth cause is bounded by بعضَ النفوسِ الخسيسةِ. Drop that bound and the bāb makes the satan the cause of every thought - which is precisely what this list was built to break.
This is a bāb in Palanpuri's edition and a faṣl in the Karachi manuscript. The footnote says so plainly. It changes nothing in the content, but it indicates whether this short chapter is a heading in its own right or an appendix to the one before - and the manuscripts do not agree.
This bāb's Arabic is from the scan of Palanpuri's edition, checked against the Shamela digital text.
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