الْوَاسِعُ

أصلُ السَّعة في الكلام كثرةُ أجزاء الشيء، يقال: إناءٌ واسع، وبيتٌ واسع، ثم قد يُستعمل في الغنى، يقال: فلانٌ يعطي من سَعة، أي من غنًى وجِدَة، وفلانٌ واسعُ الرَّحل، وهو الغنيّ، كما قال الزجّاج. وقال الخطّابي: الواسعُ الغنيُّ الذي وسع غناه مفاقرَ عباده، ووسع رزقُه جميعَ خلقه، والسَّعةُ في كلام العرب الغنى. وقال الزجّاجي: الواسعُ قد يتضمّن من المعنى ما لا يتضمّنه الغنيّ، كقولنا: يا واسعَ الفضل، يا واسعَ الرحمة.

The root of saʿah, width, in speech is a thing’s having many parts — a wide vessel, a wide house; then it is used for wealth: one gives “from saʿah”, from riches and plenty, and a man is “wide of saddle”, a rich man, as az-Zajjāj says. Al-Khaṭṭābī says: al-Wāsiʿ is the Rich whose riches cover every want of His servants, and whose provision reaches all His creatures; and saʿah in the speech of the Arabs is riches. Az-Zajjājī says: al-Wāsiʿ may carry a meaning that al-Ghanī does not, as when we say, “O You of wide bounty, O You of wide mercy.”

قال الغزالي: الواسعُ مشتقٌّ من السعة، والسعةُ تُضاف مرّةً إلى العلم إذا اتّسع وأحاط بالمعلومات الكثيرة، وتُضاف أخرى إلى الإحسان وبسط النعم؛ وكيفما قُدّر، وعلى أيّ شيءٍ نزل، فالواسعُ المطلق هو الله سبحانه، لأنه إن نُظر إلى علمه فلا ساحلَ لبحر معلوماته، وإن نُظر إلى إحسانه ونعمه فلا نهايةَ لمقدوراته؛ وكلُّ سعةٍ وإن عظُمت فتنتهي إلى طرف، والذي لا ينتهي إلى طرفٍ أحقُّ باسم السعة. وقال القشيري: قيل معناه العالم، وقيل هو الغنيّ، وقيل هو الواسعُ العطاء الكثيرُ الخير، وهو أقوى الأقوال، وكثرةُ عطائه لا تُعدّ ولا تُحصى. ونعمُه نوعان: نعمةُ نفع، وهي ما أولانا إيّاه، فنحن نراها ونعلمها؛ ونعمةُ دفع، وهي ما دفعه عنّا من أنواع البلاء والآفات، وهي نعمةٌ مجهولة، لأنّا لا نعلم منها إلا اليسيرَ النادر، وهي أتمّ، لأنّ دفعَ الضرر يُقدَّم على جلب النفع.

Al-Ghazālī says: al-Wāsiʿ is taken from saʿah, width. Width is sometimes said of knowledge, when it is wide and takes in many things known, and sometimes of doing good and spreading blessings. However it is taken and to whatever it is applied, the absolutely Wide is Allah, glory be to Him: look to His knowledge, and the sea of what He knows has no shore; look to His goodness and blessings, and what He can do has no end. Every width, however great, reaches an edge; and what reaches no edge is most deserving of the name. Al-Qushayrī says: some say it means the Knowing, some the Rich, and some the One of wide giving and abundant good — the strongest of the sayings — and His giving is beyond counting and reckoning. His blessings are of two kinds: the blessing of benefit, what He has given us, which we see and know; and the blessing of warding off, the trials and harms He has turned away from us — an unknown blessing, for we know only a rare little of it, and it is the more complete, since warding off harm comes before bringing benefit.

قال الغزالي: سعةُ العبد في معارفه وأخلاقه: فإن كثرت علومه فهو واسعٌ بقدر سعة علمه، وإن اتّسعت أخلاقُه حتى لم يضيّقها خوفُ الفقر، وغيظُ الحسد، وغلبةُ الحرص، وسائرُ الصفات، فهو واسع؛ وكلُّ ذلك فهو إلى نهاية، وإنما الواسعُ الحقُّ هو الله تعالى. ومن سعة الصدر ألّا يضيق العبدُ بالخلق وأخطائهم، ولا بالقدر وتقلّباته؛ فالضيّقُ من ضاق عن الناس، والواسعُ من وسعهم بحلمه كما وسعهم ربُّه برزقه. وقال القشيري: نعمةُ الله على عبده فيما يقبضه عنه من الدنيا أكثرُ وأوفرُ من نعمته عليه فيما يبسط له منها، لأنّ قربه منه بقدر بعده عن الدنيا.

Al-Ghazālī says: the width of a servant is in his knowledge and his character. If his learning is great, he is wide in the measure of his knowledge; if his character is so wide that fear of poverty, the rage of envy, the grip of greed and the rest cannot narrow it, he is wide. Yet all that has an end; the truly Wide is Allah, exalted is He. Of width of heart is that the servant does not grow narrow with people and their faults, nor with decree and its turns: the narrow one is he who has no room for people, and the wide one is he who makes room for them with his forbearance, as his Lord makes room for them with His provision. Al-Qushayrī says: Allah’s blessing on His servant in what He withholds from him of the world is greater and fuller than His blessing in what He spreads out for him of it, for his nearness to Him is in the measure of his distance from the world.

في الحديث القدسيّ أنّ الخلق لو قاموا في صعيدٍ واحدٍ فسألوه، فأعطى كلَّ إنسانٍ مسألته، ما نقص ذلك ممّا عنده إلا كما ينقص المِخيَط إذا أُدخل البحر؛ وتلك سعةٌ لا يُدرك طرفُها. وقال القشيري: نعمةُ الدفع شاملةٌ للخلق كلّهم، لا يعلمون منها إلا اليسيرَ النادر؛ فكم من بلاءٍ مرّ بك ولم تره، وكم من آفةٍ صُرفت عنك قبل أن تُخلق لها خاطرة. وحُكي عن أبي الحسين النوري أنه قسم مالًا بين الفقراء، وقال لكلٍّ منهم: خذ بقدر حاجتك، فلمّا خرجوا قال: قربُكم من الحقّ وبعدكم على مقدار ما أخذتم. فمن ذاق اسم الواسع لم يستكثر عطاءً يأخذه، بل يستكثر ما يتركه لله، ولم يضق صدرُه بفوت شيء، لأنّ من وسعه الواسعُ لا يضيق عليه شيء.

In the ḥadīth qudsī, were all creatures to stand on one plain and ask of Him, and He gave every one of them what he asked, it would take from what He has no more than a needle takes from the sea when it is dipped in it — a width whose edge cannot be reached. Al-Qushayrī says: the blessing of warding off takes in all creatures, and they know only a rare little of it. How many a trial has passed you by unseen, how many a harm was turned away before a thought of it was created in you. It is told of Abu-l-Ḥusayn an-Nūrī that he divided some money among the poor, telling each to take what he needed, and when they had gone out he said: “Your nearness to the Real, and your distance, are in the measure of what you took.” Whoever tastes the name al-Wāsiʿ does not think much of any gift he takes, but thinks much of what he leaves for Allah’s sake; and his heart does not narrow at anything lost, for nothing is narrow for one whom al-Wāsiʿ has made room for.