اعْتَزَلَ أَهْلَ الدُّنْيَا وَ الرَّاغِبِينَ فِيهَا ١وَ رَغِبَ فِيمَا عِنْدَ رَبِّهِ وَ كَانَ أُنْسَهُ فِي الْوَحْشَةِ وَ صَاحِبَهُ فِي الْوَحْدَةِ وَ غِنَاهُ فِي الْعَيْلَةِ وَ مُعِزَّهُ فِي غَيْرِ عَشِيرَةٍ.
withdraws from the people of this world and from those who desire it (1), and desires what is with his Lord; and He is his intimate in desolation, and his companion in solitude, and his sufficiency in want, and his strengthener without a clan.
بيان: عقل عن اللّٰه أي حصل له معرفة ذاته و صفاته و أحكامه و شرائعه أو أعطاه اللّٰه العقل أو علم الأمور بعلم ينتهي إلى اللّٰه بأن أخذه عن أنبيائه و حججه إما بلا واسطة أو بلغ عقله إلى درجة يفيض اللّٰه علومه عليه بغير تعليم بشر و غناه أي مغنية أو كما أن أهل الدنيا غناهم بالمال هو غناه باللّٰه و قربه و مناجاته و العيلة الفقر و في الكافي من غير عشيرة و هي القبيلة و الرهط ٢الأدنون.
Elucidation: "understands from God" — that is, there is attained for him knowledge of His essence, His attributes, His rulings and His laws; or God gives him the intellect; or he knows matters by a knowledge that goes back to God, in that he took it from His prophets and His proofs, either without intermediary, or his intellect reached a degree at which God effuses His sciences upon him without the teaching of a human being. "And his sufficiency" — that is, what makes him sufficient; or, just as the people of the world have their sufficiency by wealth, his sufficiency is by God and by His nearness and by intimate converse with Him. And al-'ayla is poverty. And in al-Kafi: "without a clan"; and it is the tribe and the nearest kin (2).
يَا هِشَامُ نُصِبَ الْخَلْقُ لِطَاعَةِ اللَّهِ وَ لَا نَجَاةَ إِلَّا بِالطَّاعَةِ وَ الطَّاعَةُ بِالْعِلْمِ وَ الْعِلْمُ بِالتَّعَلُّمِ وَ التَّعَلُّمُ بِالْعَقْلِ يُعْتَقَدُ وَ لَا عِلْمَ إِلَّا مِنْ عَالِمٍ رَبَّانِيٍّ وَ مَعْرِفَةُ الْعَالِمِ بِالْعَقْلِ.
Hisham, creation was set up for the obedience of God; and there is no deliverance save by obedience; and obedience is by knowledge; and knowledge is by learning; and learning is made firm by the intellect. And there is no knowledge save from a godly scholar; and the knowing of the scholar is by the intellect.
بيان: في الكافي نصب الحق و نصب إما مصدر أو فعل مجهول أي إنما نصب اللّٰه الخلق أو الحق و الدين بإرسال الرسل و إنزال الكتب ليطاع في أوامره و نواهيه و التعلم بالعقل يعتقد أي يشتد و يستحكم أو من الاعتقاد بمعنى التصديق و الإذعان و معرفة العالم و في الكافي و معرفة العلم أي علم العالم و ما هنا أظهر و الغرض أن احتياج العلم إلى العقل من جهتين لفهم ما يلقيه العالم و لمعرفة العالم الذي ينبغي أخذ العلم عنه.
Elucidation: in al-Kafi, "the truth was set up". And nusiba is either a verbal noun or a passive verb — that is, God set up creation, or the truth and the religion, by the sending of the messengers and the sending down of the books, so that He might be obeyed in His commands and His prohibitions. "And learning is made firm by the intellect" — that is, it grows strong and firmly established; or from al-i'tiqad in the sense of assent and acknowledgement. "And the knowing of the scholar" — and in al-Kafi, "and the knowing of the knowledge", that is, the knowledge of the scholar; and what is here is the more evident. And the purpose is that knowledge's need for the intellect is from two aspects: for the understanding of what the scholar casts, and for the knowing of the scholar from whom knowledge ought to be taken.
يَا هِشَامُ قَلِيلُ الْعَمَلِ مِنَ الْعَاقِلِ مَقْبُولٌ مُضَاعَفٌ وَ كَثِيرُ الْعَمَلِ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْهَوَى وَ الْجَهْلِ مَرْدُودٌ.
Hisham, little work from the man of intellect is accepted and multiplied; and much work from the people of caprice and of ignorance is rejected.
بيان: في الكافي من العالم.
Elucidation: in al-Kafi, "from the scholar".
يَا هِشَامُ إِنَّ الْعَاقِلَ رَضِيَ بِالدُّونِ مِنَ الدُّنْيَا مَعَ الْحِكْمَةِ وَ لَمْ يَرْضَ بِالدُّونِ مِنَ الْحِكْمَةِ مَعَ الدُّنْيَا فَلِذَلِكَ رَبِحَتْ تِجَارَتُهُمْ.
Hisham, the man of intellect was content with the lesser of this world along with wisdom, and was not content with the lesser of wisdom along with this world; and for that their trade profited.