Al Qushairi Tafsir — Az-Zukhruf 43:5 – Al-Falaq 113:1

Shall We turn the remembrance away from you because you are an immoderate people? When today He does not cut off His words addressed to those who persist in disobeying Him and who are immoderate in most of what they do, then tomorrow how would He hold back His forgive- ness and the subtle favors of His beautiful doing from those who have not curtailed their faith in Him nor been defective in their recognition of Him, even if they are stained by disobedience? The Pir of the Tariqah said in his whispered prayer, “It is You who see unworthiness from the servant and do not hurry to punish. You hear unbelief from the servant and do not hold back blessings. You offer him repentance and pardon, and You call him back with Your message and address. If he does come back, You promise him forgiveness. 'If they desist, He will forgive them what is past' [8:38]. Since You are like this with the bad-doing enemy, what will You be like with the beautiful-doing friend?”

How many a prophet We sent among the ancients, but a prophet never came to them except that they mocked him. This is a marvelous business. Whenever there is talk of friends, He joins it to the story of the estranged. Whenever He shows gentleness and generosity, He puts it next to severity and harsh- ness. Wherever there is a reality, He creates a metaphor to scatter dust on the reality. Wherever there is an argument, He mixes it with ambiguity to scratch the face of the argument. Wherever there is knowledge, He brings forth ignorance to struggle with the ruling power of the knowledge. Wherever there is tawḤīd, He brings forth associationism to travel the path of quarreling with tawḤīd. For every friend, He creates a thousand enemies. For everyone sincerely truthful, He brings a hundred thousand heretics. Wherever there is a mosque, He builds a church in front of it. Wherever there is a monastery, there is a tavern; wherever a turban, a sash of unbelief; wherever an attestation, a disavowal; wherever a worshiper, someone ignorant; wherever a friend, an enemy; wherever someone truthful, someone ungodly. He has filled from east to west with adornment and blessings, and in every blessing He has prepared a tribulation and trial. “Among the hardships of this world is the harm of almond candy and the benefit of myrobalan.” The poor, incapable Ad- amite! He stays bewildered in the midst of this work and does not have the gall to say a word. He suffers iniquity from those moon-like faces and does not have the gall to sigh, His face is like a mirror and a sigh would ruin it. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “The Adamite has three states with which he is busy: obedience, by which he profits; disobedience, which he regrets; and heedlessness, by which he loses. What counsel is more beautiful than the Qur'an? Who is more lovingly kind as a counselor than the Patron? What capital is vaster than faith? What is more profitable than commerce with God? Is it that the Adamite is content to be in loss and approves of severance? Has when whatever is to arrive for him arrives.” This is the attribute of that people concerning whom the Exalted Lord says,

How many a prophet We sent among the ancients, but a prophet never came to them except that they mocked him. This is a marvelous business. Whenever there is talk of friends, He joins it to the story of the estranged. Whenever He shows gentleness and generosity, He puts it next to severity and harsh- ness. Wherever there is a reality, He creates a metaphor to scatter dust on the reality. Wherever there is an argument, He mixes it with ambiguity to scratch the face of the argument. Wherever there is knowledge, He brings forth ignorance to struggle with the ruling power of the knowledge. Wherever there is tawḤīd, He brings forth associationism to travel the path of quarreling with tawḤīd. For every friend, He creates a thousand enemies. For everyone sincerely truthful, He brings a hundred thousand heretics. Wherever there is a mosque, He builds a church in front of it. Wherever there is a monastery, there is a tavern; wherever a turban, a sash of unbelief; wherever an attestation, a disavowal; wherever a worshiper, someone ignorant; wherever a friend, an enemy; wherever someone truthful, someone ungodly. He has filled from east to west with adornment and blessings, and in every blessing He has prepared a tribulation and trial. “Among the hardships of this world is the harm of almond candy and the benefit of myrobalan.” The poor, incapable Ad- amite! He stays bewildered in the midst of this work and does not have the gall to say a word. He suffers iniquity from those moon-like faces and does not have the gall to sigh, His face is like a mirror and a sigh would ruin it. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “The Adamite has three states with which he is busy: obedience, by which he profits; disobedience, which he regrets; and heedlessness, by which he loses. What counsel is more beautiful than the Qur'an? Who is more lovingly kind as a counselor than the Patron? What capital is vaster than faith? What is more profitable than commerce with God? Is it that the Adamite is content to be in loss and approves of severance? Has when whatever is to arrive for him arrives.” This is the attribute of that people concerning whom the Exalted Lord says,

So We destroyed those stronger than they in seizing, and the example of the first ones passed away. “They have taken Our prophets as liars, ridiculed them, and did not accept their advice. Hence We showed them Our harshness and severity. We overthrew them and pulled them up by the roots. If anyone contends with Us, Our severity will overcome him. We exact justice from the arrogant, We take vengeance on the apostates, and We show the answer to the enemies.”

Bosom friends on that day will be enemies of one another, except for the godwary. Know that in reality God alone deserves friendship, no one else. This is because perfect beauty and never-ending majesty belong to Him, the beginningless Essence and everlasting attributes belong to Him, limitless existence and infinite munificence belong to Him, and non-instrumental knowl- edge and uncontrived power belong to Him. Abū Bakr ṣiddīq said, “When someone tastes of unmixed love for God, that prevents him from seeking this world and alienates him from all mankind.” Whenever the limpidness of the Real's love settles down in someone's heart, the opacity of seeking this world and people's acceptance packs its bags from his heart. If he then loves anyone among the people, it is because that person has an attachment to the Real or an affinity with the Real through His friendship. Whenever any- one has a friend, in reality he also loves his abode, street, and neighborhood. The poet says, My covenant is not because of love for earthly dust, but for that in which the Beloved dwells. * What I want from Your street is Your face. Friendship for the godwary and the pious is what He says: “His friends are only the godwary” [8:34]. Love for God's Messenger is what he himself says: “Love me because of God's love!” So, the final end of all loves is the perfection of the beauty of the Divine Presence. To this He alludes with His words, “Surely the final end is unto thy Lord” [53:42]. The mark of love is that whenever something reaches you that is disliked by your nature and makeup, you accept it gladly. MuṣṬafā said, “The foul odor of the fasting person's mouth is more fragrant with God than the aroma of musk.” The altered smell from the mouth of the fasting per- son comes from the aroma of the pavilion of holiness. Consider it prior to all the perfumes of the world, for the Friend approves of it. Poets have said, Were the Beloved's hand to pour poison for me, poison from His hand would be sweet. * The heart that You burn thanks You, the blood that You shed boasts. * The blood that You spill thanks You, the heart that You scare praises You. * The poison I drink in remembrance of You is sweet, the mad man who sees You comes to his senses. It has also been said, “Whoever sees You recognizes, whoever recognizes clings, and whoever clings burns. The burnt one will not be burned again.” Rather, he will be caressed with this call:

O My servants, no fear is upon you today, neither will you sorrow. Just as He said in the Beginningless, “My servants,” so He Himself will say in the Endless, “My servants.” In the Beginningless He said, “O My servants, you are My creation and I am your Lord, so present your needs to Me.” In the Endless He will say, “My servants, no fear is upon you today, neither will you sorrow.” This indeed will be addressed to the generality of the faithful. As for the sincerely truthful and the near ones, He will address them with this: “My servants, did you yearn for Me? Did you love to encounter Me?” This will be an exalted state and a great rank: the intender will have reached the Intended, the seeker the Sought, the lover the Beloved. The tree of union will bear fruit, the messenger of the Sought will come forth, and the Companion will come out with the stipulation of passion. At last the Friend will come out with the stipulation of passion- the suffering of my passion for Him will come to an end.

For them will be brought around platters and cups of gold. Therein will be whatever the souls hunger for and gives pleasure to the eyes. For them will be brought around platters and cups of gold. This is the portion of the renunciants and worshipers, who kept themselves totally in obedience and worship. They passed their days in hunger and thirst by the decree of discipline and struggle according to the Shariah. They did not take advantage of the tasty foods and drinks of this world, so tomorrow in paradise the serving boys and servants will pass around golden cups and say to them, “Eat and drink pleasantly for what you left behind in bygone days” [69:24]. Therein shall be whatever the souls hunger for and gives pleasure to the eyes. This is the portion of the recognizers and the yearners, who were always wishing for the vision of the Real's majesty and beauty with thirsty hearts, burning breaths, and spirits lit up by passion. A whiff of the world of friendship had reached them, and that whiff distracted and bewildered them. This was a bewilderment within the curtain, not outside the curtain. The bewilderment that takes you outside makes you lose the road, but the bewilderment inside the curtain is one of the traces of the perfect divine majesty. Whoever cannot go from creation to the Real is bewildered by losing the road. Whoever cannot come from the Real to creation is bewildered by the Presence of the Threshold. Wherever he goes, he returns only to Him. From here the Pir of the Tariqah said, “For a long time I was seeking Him and finding myself. Now I seek myself and find Him.” This is the same bewilderment requested by the chevaliers of the Tariqah: “O Guide of the bewildered, increase me in bewilderment!” They sang, “I am bewildered in Thee, take my hand, O guide of those bewildered in Thee!” A group worshiped God with fear and hope and their eyes fell on this: For them will be brought around platters and cups of gold. They are the wage-earners who have stayed attached to the reward and tied their hearts to aching for everlastingness. A group worshiped Him with affection and love, and they are the recognizers. They gave their hearts to His love and burned in wishing to see Him.

We chose them, with a knowledge, above the worlds. We chose them, with a knowledge of their hearts' love for Us despite the multiplicity of their sins against Us. And We chose them, with a knowledge of Our secrets that We deposited within them and of the realities of Our rightful due that We unveiled to them. Although this verse descended specifically concerning the faithful among the Children of Israel, in terms of understanding by way of allusion it is a general declaration of the eminence of the children of Adam and their superiority over all creatures. In the same way, He says in another place, “We indeed honored the children of Adam” [17:70]. He is saying, “We chose them, and We were not wrong in choosing them, for We chose them with pure knowledge. We knew, with complete knowledge, that of all the created things, they were worthy of being chosen. Hence We chose them. Our choosing them was through Our knowledge and desire, without cause. Our ca- ressing them was through Our bounty and generosity, without inducement. We choose and caress whomever We want, and no one can ask how or why about Our activity. We drive away and burn whomever We want, and no one can protest against Our decree.” On the day He drew the circle of engendering over this individual of clay, He announced, “I am creating an individual the like of whom I have never created. Not that it is impossible for My power, but My jealousy holds back the reins of power.” This He expressed like this: “He fastened to them the word of godwariness, to which they have more right and of which they are worthy” [48:26]. O chevalier! His power allows Him to create a hundred thousand like us in an instant, but His love and jealousy do not allow this. This is because the secret of love has no howness, especially in respect to us: He loves them, and they love Him [5:54]. The proximate angels of the Exalted Threshold and the residents of the all-compelling Pres- ence put the finger of bewilderment in the mouth of wonder: “This is a great work and a strange state that has appeared for the dust-dwellers. They are those caressed by His gentleness and pulled up by His compassion.

Surely in the heavens and the earth are signs for the faithful. In this verse He shows to the creatures the perfection of His power in creating heaven and earth.

And in your creation and the beasts He has scattered are signs for a people who have certainty. He is making manifest His gentleness toward all animals and especially the Adamites.

And the difference of night and day, and the provision that God sends down from heaven whereby He brings the earth to life after its death, and the turning about of the winds, are signs for a people who use intelligence. He reminds the creatures of His blessings in creating water, wind, and rain and thereby making ready their daily provision. Then He says, “are signs for a people who use intelligence.” An in- telligent person is someone who ponders and reflects upon the signs. From the first sign [45:3], he will understand His power, and the requisite of power is fear, so he will fear His harshness and forcefulness. From the second sign [45:4], he will understand His gentleness, and the requisite of gentleness is hope, so his heart will attach itself to His generosity. From the third sign he will recognize His blessings, so he will undertake to give gratitude for them. First is the station of the fearful, second the station of the hopeful, and third the station of the grateful. In the station of gratitude, much unveiling and veiling occurs. When the Exalted Lord says, “the difference of night and day,” He is alluding to unveiling and veiling. Bright day is the likeness of unveiling, and dark night is the mark of the veil. The servant passes back and forth between these two states. In the state of unveiling he sees only the Beneficent. He does not become happy in blessings, nor does he become sorrowful in tribulation. He is so busy contemplating the Be- neficent that he does not attend to the blessings nor to the grief and tribulation. In this meaning they have sung, “If I distinguish between Your doing good or bad, I will be busy with the distinction, not You.” In the time of the veil, the contemplation of the Beneficent conceals itself from him. He turns all of his attention to blessings and tribulation. Hence in blessings he beats the drum of happiness, and in tribulation he carries the burden of grief. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “Pain and remedy, grief and happiness, poverty and wealth-these are all attributes of the wayfarers in the way stations of the road. When a man reaches the goal, he has no station or way station, no moment or state, no spirit or heart.” Make not your home in body or spirit, for that is low and this is high. Take a step outside of both-be not here and be not there. [DS 51] O God, sometimes I take joy in pain and make do with its increase, hoping that when I melt in this pain, I will overthrow both pain and comfort.

Then We set thee on a wide road of the command, so follow it, and do not follow the ca- prices of those who know not. In other words, “We singled you out for gentle favors, so recognize them. We set down paths for you, so follow them. We affirmed realities for you, so do not go outside of them and do not incline to follow others.”

Surely they will not make thee unneedy of God in anything. “If God desires a blessing for you, no one will prevent it, and if He desires a trial for you, no one will turn it away. So do not attach your reflection to any created thing and do not turn the attentive- ness of your mind to anything. Depend on your Lord and trust in Him.” “O paragon of the world, O master of Adam's children, O sun of felicity's sphere, O moon of mastery's heaven, O lodging of the world of knowledge, O pearl of the oyster of eminence, O embroidery on the garment of existence! We separated you out from the world's folk, we orphaned you from father and mother, and We brought out your family and relatives against you so that your heart would be free of all and be totally detached for obeying and serving Me. From the wide roads We made for you the road of the religion, and you call the world's folk to that road: Say: 'This is my path; I invite to God' [12:108]. “O paragon! On the night of the miʿrāj, We sat you down in the dome of proximity and scattered a hundred thousand gentle gifts on the head of your good fortune. We made the two worlds the dust beneath your feet and brought the celestial figures and the terrestrial center under the banner of your rulership. What We intended was to give you expansiveness on the carpet of intercession. As long as there is the story of the pain of the disobedient, you should lift it up to Us and apologize for it on their behalf: Take us not to task if we forget or make mistakes [2:286]. O MuḤammad! If tomorrow you ask Us for the two worlds and the world's folk, you will have asked only for the dust beneath your feet. And if We, through eternal gentleness, use the dust of those feet in the work of one of your servants, that is not far-fetched for Our perfection.” The collyrium of insight had been daubed on the eyes of the prophethood of that greatest of the prophets. He knew that dust should be a carrier of burdens, not headstrong, because dust is for carrying burdens, not for being headstrong. Do you not see how the Exalted Lord threatens and warns those who were headstrong and refractory:

Or do those who commit ugly deeds reckon that We will make them like those who have faith and do wholesome deeds, that their living and their dying will be equal? Ugly is what they reckon! About them He also says that they have gone into roadlessness, become headstrong in the tracks of their own caprice, and ridiculed the prophets and those who call to the road of the Real:

Who then will guide them after God? Once God has made them roadless, who in the entire world will bring them back to the road? From whom will they gain the means of approach when the road to the means of approach has been blocked to them? Today the tree of despair has grown old for them, instances of abandonment have come forth, and the destructiveness of justice has brought forth the dust of wealth. Tomorrow the caller of justice will begin the shout of abandonment:

Today We forget you just as you forgot the encounter of this day of yours; your refuge is the Fire. Yes, I said that dust must carry burdens, not be headstrong. If a sultan should pick up a poor beggar from the middle of the road, take him before the throne of his good fortune, and dress him in a robe of elevation, the stipulation for the beggar is that he not forget himself and that he know his own worth. He must always keep that poverty and lack of honor before his eyes. It reached the ears of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz that his son had a ring made, and then bought a stone worth one thousand dirhams and placed it in the ring. He wrote a letter to him: “My son, I hear that you have had a ring made, bought a stone worth one thousand dirhams, and placed it on the ring. If you want to please me, sell the stone, feed a thousand hungry people, and make a ring for yourself from a piece of silver. On it, engrave the words, 'May God have mercy on the man who knows his own worth!'” O chevalier! No garment fits the stature of earth better and more beautifully than the gar- ment of humility: “Anyone who has twice traveled the urinary canal should not be proud.” Greatness, magnificence, exaltedness, height, tremendousness, and splendor are the attributes of the Majestic Lord.

The sending down of the book is from God, the Exalted, the Wise. These words are sent down by the Lord. They are His book and message, His sweet talk and blessed speaking. They are from a Lord whose name is Exalted, which means “exalter.” The name means that He exalted the faithful by making them the object of His address and worthy of His book and message. He made their hearts the quarries of the lights of His secrets. For seven hundred thousand years the pure ones of the Empire and the proximate ones of the Exalted Threshold had put down the prayer carpets of obedient acts in the station of generous gifts. In the khanaqah of sinlessness they leaned in service on the prayer grounds of reverence: We are those in rows, We are the glorifiers [37:165-66]. At the Exalted Threshold they never found the proximity that these dust-dwellers saw, for they were mere servants, but the latter were both ser- vants and friends: He loves them, and they love Him [5:54]. We are your friends [41:31]. Those angels were flying birds, standing, devoted, and prostrating. Their subtle makeups were adorned with sinlessness and trimmed of slips. But the nests of birds are one thing, and the oyster shell of the night-brightening pearl is something else. The Adamite's makeup is the shell for the pearl of the heart, the heart is the shell for the pearl of the secret core, and the secret core is the shell for the pearl of gazing on the Real. You say, “Dust is the cause of ruin.” I say, “Their saying is 'Ruins are the homeland of the Real.'” You say, “That homeland is unknown.” I say, “The unknown homeland is the place of the sultan's treasure.” That exalted man said, “Seek the religion from the poor, for reigning kings have the custom of keeping treasures in ruined places.” [DS 466]

We did not create the heavens and the earth and what is between the two except with the rightful due. This means except for the sake of the rightful due and establishing the rightful due. “When I created the seven heavens and the seven earths, I brought the engendered beings and newly arrived things from nonexistence to existence. I created them so that you would recognize the rightful due of My lordhood and enactorship against yourself and you would acquiesce to My command and bow your head.” O chevalier! Doing servanthood is easy work, but being a servant is a tremendous work and a great trait. For seventy thousand years Iblis the abandoned was doing servanthood, but he was not able to be a servant for one breath. “Servanthood is to abandon free choice in all apportionments that appear.” “Servanthood is to abandon self-governance and to witness predetermination.” In the flow of apportionments you must pull out the thorn of free-choice from the foot of your own work. You must wash your hands of mortal governance in the alterations of the Lordly pre- determination. You must be a praiser beneath the burden of the decree and put a stop to gratifying the soul that seeks its own share. Only then will you reach the station of servanthood. He who worships Him for his own share is the servant of the share, not of Him. Pir Bū ʿAlī Siyāh said, “If you are asked, 'Do you want paradise, or two cycles of the prayer?,' take care not to choose paradise. Choose the two cycles of the prayer, for paradise is your portion, but the prayer is His rightful due. Whenever your portion is in the midst, even if it is a generous gift, it is permissible for it to be the ambush of deception. But performing His rightful due has no mischief or deception.” When Moses came to Khiẓr, he protested to him twice: once because of the rightful due of the boy, and the second time because of breaking the boat. Since his portion was not in the midst, Khiẓr was patient. But, in the third state, when his own portion appeared, he said, “If you wanted, you could have taken a wage for it” [18:77]. Khiẓr said, “There is no way for me to be your companion: This is separation between me and you [18:78].”

So be patient, as the messengers possessed of resoluteness were patient. And seek not to hurry it for them. On the day they see what they were promised, it will be as if they had not delayed for an hour of daytime. God's Messenger heard so many insults and ill words from the unbelievers and underwent so much suffering from them that he became anguished. Because of that anguish he wished in his heart that a punishment would reach them and they would taste chastisement. The Lord of the Worlds sent this verse: “So be patient... and seek not to hurry it. O MuḤammad, be patient with the torment and insults of the associaters and do not hasten to chastise and punish them. Emulate your brothers the prophets. They were patient with the sufferings and repellant things from their people. They knew that all of it was Our decree, so they did not complain or become anguished. You do the same that they did. O MuḤammad, so emulate their guidance [6:90]. Do you not know that one of My names is the Patient? The patient is he who does not hurry to punish: 'He gives respite but does not disregard.'” When the faithful servant believes that the Real is the Patient, he must make patience his own holdfast and support in order to increase in faith. MuṣṬafā said, “Patience is half of faith, and certainty is all of faith.” The station of patience is the station of the worshipers, and the station of certainty is the station of the recognizers. MuṣṬafā said to Ibn ʿAbbās, “If you can act for God with approval and certainty, do so. Other- wise, there is great good in patience with what you dislike.” First he called him to certainty, which is the great station and all of faith. Then he said, “If you do not have the capacity and do not reach this station, keep your feet fixed in the station of the patient, for in patience there is good aplenty. Surely the patient shall be paid their wage in full, without reckoning [39:10].” A great man was asked about the meaning of patience. He said, “Swallowing down trial with- out making claims.” It is to taste the poison of trial and then not to voice any claim.

And God is the Unneedy, and you are the poor. God has no need for your obedience, and you are the poor toward His mercy. God is the Unneedy and has no need for anyone. He is One and has no associate or partner. He is the Compeller, and no one has the color of union with Him. He is the Owner of the Kingdom, and no matter what He does, no one has the gall to protest or a way to fight. If you were to gather all the deeds of the sincerely truthful among the folk of the earth and all the obedient acts of the holy ones of heaven, they would not have the weight of a gnat's wing in the scales of the majesty of the Possessor of Majesty. Beware! Never look at your own distracted deeds or your own tiny intellect with the eye of self-admiration. When you seek Him, seek Him through His bounty, not your intellect and knowledge. Were it not for God's bounty toward you, and His mercy, none of you would ever have become pure [24:21]. O chevalier! Exaltedness is His attribute and unneediness His description. How can knowl- edge, understanding, and intellect have the gall to open up before His exaltedness? Bounty is His attribute and exaltedness His attribute. Who opens up before His attributes? It is His attributes themselves that open up. When someone seeks refuge in intellect, the attribute of exaltedness comes forth and sends him back in despair. When someone seeks refuge in bounty, it escorts him to the highest of the High Chambers. When someone leans on his own deeds, he will be left to himself. When someone clings to His bounty and mercy, he will be taken beyond the Gardens of Bliss to the seat of truthfulness, at an Omnipotent King [54:55]. The Prophet said, “There is none of you who will be saved by his deeds.” They said, “Not even you, O Messenger of God?” He said, “Not even I, unless God envelops me with His mercy.”

Surely We opened up for thee a clear opening. There are several surahs in the Qur'an that begin with surely We [innā]: Surely We sent it down [97:1], Surely We sent [71:1], Surely We gave thee [108:1], Surely We opened up for thee. “The one abandoned by the Threshold, ʿAzāzīl, said, 'I am better' [38:76], and We wreaked havoc on him. We gave his 70,000 years of obedience and service to the wind of unneediness and placed the brand of abandonment and deprivation on his liver. The unaided Pharaoh said, 'Does not the kingdom of Egypt belong to me?' [43:51], and We isolated him from blessing, kingship, and pomp and We killed him with water. Korah said, 'because of a knowledge that I have' [28:78], and We cut off his head with the sword of severity and took him upside-down into the earth. The angels said, 'And We glorify' [2:30]. We burned thousands of them in the fire of majesty so that the world's folk would know that other than We, no one can say 'I' or 'We,' for We are the Lord. It is We who are worthy of Lordhood and We who know God-work. We are one in Essence, peerless in attributes, possessor of exaltedness and magnificence, tremendousness and splendor. 'Magnificence is My cloak and tremendousness My shawl; if anyone contends with Me in either, I will put him in the Fire.'”

The faithful indeed are siblings. O You who make every existent thing appear! O You who accept every burning sigh! O You whose generosity assures the daily provision of the servants! O You whose kingship is secure from annihilation and disappearance! No one debases the one You have exalted. No one throws down the one You have pulled up. No one can covet the one with Your brand. The faithful have all been branded by You. They have been pulled up by Your compassion and caressed by Your gentleness. In the alternations of created nature and the states of mortal nature, they keep their feet within the circle of duty on the center point of approval. Sometimes like a cypress they are in the station of seclusion in the meadow, sometimes like a polo mallet they are in the station of service. It is they who were caressed by the Lord of the Worlds in the Beginningless, when brother- hood was established among them, for the faithful indeed are siblings. This is a brotherhood that will never be cut off, a kinship that will never be broken, a lineage that will be joined with the End- less. It is to this that the report refers, “Every tie and lineage will be cut on the Day of Resurrection, save my tie and my lineage.” What is meant by this is the lineage of the religion and godwariness, not the lineage of water and clay. If it were the lineage of water and clay, Abū Lahab and Abū Jahl would have a portion of it. It is this to which He alludes with the words, “Surely the noblest of you with God is the most godwary” [49:13]. O chevalier! You know that all the faithful are your brothers and kinsmen in the lineage of faith and godwariness. Attend to the rightful due of brotherhood and the stipulations of kinship. Live in agreeableness with them, choose the road of preferring others and chivalry, and serve them without recompense. If they sin, excuse them. If they are ill, visit them. Put your own portion totally off to the side and increase their portion. This is the rightful due of brotherhood. If you have the head for it, then enter. Otherwise, emigrate. Dhu'l-Nūn was asked, “With whom should we be companions and with whom should we come and go?” He said, “With him who does not own, who does not censure any state of yours, and who does not change when you change.

Qāf! By the splendorous Qur'an! Ibn ʿAṬāÌ said, “God swears an oath by the strength [quwwa] of the heart of His beloved, MuḤammad, inasmuch as he carried the discourse that left no trace in him, because of the elevation of his state.” When someone has a dear friend, in every state he seeks his approval. He always looks at him, he whispers his secrets to him, and he swears his oaths by his spirit and secret core. He speaks of him much, and he watches out for him at home and while traveling, in sleep and in wakefulness. He considers whatever he does beautiful, and he never holds back talk and “Peace!” from him. The generous Lord, the ever-merciful king, showered the realities of these meanings on His beloved, the Seal of the Prophets, so that the world's folk would know that in the Exalted Threshold, no one has the rank, level, and distinction held by that paragon. The engendered beings and existent things are all for his sake, and His love for all is love for him. Your creation and your upraising are as but one soul [31:28]. It has been said that this means, “for one soul,” and what is meant by this soul is MuṣṬafā's essence. In all states, He sought his approval, as He says, “And in the hours of the night glorify, and at the ends of the day, that perhaps thou mayest approve” [20:130]. He sought his approval in the kiblah: “Now We shall turn thee to- ward a kiblah that thou shalt approve” [2:144]. He sought his approval in intercession for the com- munity: “Thy Lord shall bestow upon thee so that thou shalt approve” [93:5]. He swore by his life: 'By thy life' [15:72]. He swore by the strength of his heart: “Qāf! By the splendorous Qur'an!” He swore by the limpidness of his love: “Sād! By the Qur'an possessing the remembrance!” [38:1]. He swore by the place of his feet: “Nay, I swear by this land!” [90:1]. He swore by his face and hair: “By the bright morning! And by the night when still!” [93:1-2]. He never veiled him from His gaze: Surely thou art in Our eyes [52:48]. Who sees thee when thou standest [26:218]. In sleep and wakefulness He kept him protected: And God will protect thee from the people [5:67].

When the two receivers receive, sitting on the right and on the left. It is reported that the two angels entrusted with the servant sit like the servant. The one on the right writes his beautiful deeds, and the one on the left writes his ugly deeds. When the servant sleeps, one stands above his pillow, while the other watches over him from his feet. When the servant walks, one goes before him and ones goes behind, both of them protecting him from blights. It has also been said that the angel of beautiful deeds is changed every day and night, another angel being sent. The wisdom in this is that tomorrow he will have many witnesses for his acts of obedience and beautiful deeds. But the angel of ugly deeds is not changed, so only that angel will know his defects. The equivalent of this in the Qur'an is found in the verse, “O My servants who have been immoderate against yourselves” [39:53]. In saying “who have been immoderate” God sums ev- erything up, keeping the lid on and without going into detail. He says: O Gabriel, you deliver the revelation, for they have been immoderate, but know not in detail what they have done. O MuḤammad, you recite the revelation, for they have been immoderate, but know not what they have done. Generous Lord, merciful King! He did not want Gabriel to know the sins of the ser-vants and the Messenger to recite their acts of disobedience. How could He then allow Satan to drive the servant away from His threshold?

Not a word he utters, but by him is an observer ready. The angel on the right is the angel of bounty, the angel on the left the angel of justice. Just as bounty rules over justice, so also the right-hand angel rules over the left-hand angel. O angel on the right! You be the commander. Write down ten beautiful deeds for every beautiful deed he performs. O angel on the left! You be the follower. Write down nothing except what the angel on the right tells you to write. When the servant commits an act of disobedience, the angel on the right says, “Wait seven days before you write it down. Perhaps he will offer an excuse and repent.” What is all this? It is the result of one decree that God issued in the Beginningless: “My mercy precedes My wrath.” Listen to something even more wonderful: When the servant is disobedient, the command comes, “Pull down the curtain of his faith so that his faith may conceal and overpower his offense and sin.” So many offenses and acts of disobedience come together that they say, “O God, there is much offense, and the curtain of faith does not conceal it.” He says, “If the curtain of his faith does not conceal it, then pull down the curtain of My gen- erosity so that it will be concealed.”

And the agony of death comes with the rightful due. Know, O chevalier, that from the era of Adam until the annihilation of the world, no one is released from death. You also will not escape. “Death is a cup, and everyone will drink it.” How will the passing days that were not loyal to Adam be loyal to you? How will the lifespan that ended for Noah keep you in subsistence? How will the moment of death that attacked Abra- ham let you get away? How will the death that ambushed Solomon be lenient toward you? How will the entrusted angel who demanded MuḤammad's spirit treat you kindly? If you bring to hand the lifespan of Noah, the wealth of Korah, the kingdom of Solomon, and the wisdom of Luqmān, they will be useless at the door of death and will show you no favor. A little less than 7000 years have passed since the Adamites began this journey. They come from the loins to the wombs, and they go from the wombs to the face of the earth, and from the face of the earth to its stomach. The whole world is a graveyard. Beneath it is all remorse, above it all remorse. Lift up your head and ask heaven: “How many dear ones do you have in your stomach?” Ask the lofty palace about its inhabitant whom it saved from the hard and soft of life. He established his kingdom and enslaved the people, then death's messenger threw him on his face. O fooled by wishes! O heedless of the moment of death! O prisoner of greed! O servant of need! How long will you grieve for summer in winter and grieve for winter in summer? You do not think about the work that will come about inescapably and you do not gather the supplies for the road that in verified truth will be walked. You arrange the work of this world and do not provide for death. You poor wretch, your death is right behind you. Remember it! Your home is the grave. Make it flourish! Today you are asleep-wait till you wake up. Today you are drunk-wait till you are sober. You gather the chaff of this world and keep back from what deserves to be done.

Surely in that is a reminder for him who has a heart. If you rub your face in the dust a hundred times and traverse the world on your forehead, so long as your obedience is not the bosom friend of the true center point called the “heart,” all will be inscribed with nothingness. A report has come, “The meditation of an hour is better than the wor- ship of jinn and men.” When the servant comes to the Threshold and begins secret whispering while the heart is still captive to this world's preoccupations, abandonment will be inscribed on that obedience and it will be thrown back in his face. It has been said, “When someone's heart is not present in his prayer, his prayer is not accepted.” When a heart is delivered from the shackles of servanthood to others, that heart is one for the Real. It does not have the color of eye-service toward the people, nor the dust of seeking reputation. Nonetheless, it is in the ship of peril, for the Master of the Shariah has made this allusion: “The sincerely truthful are in great peril.” The purer someone becomes, the closer he is to the Real. The closer he is to the Real, the more he trembles. The proximate angels of the Presence, the attendants of the Threshold of the Self-Sufficient, and the pure ones of the Empire are always in fear, for He says, “And they are ap- prehensive in fear of Him [21:28]. The only ones of His servants who are frightened of God are the knowers [35:28].” MuṣṬafā said, “I hope that the most truthful of you toward God's prophet will be the most fearful of you toward God.” The near ones are bewildered for they know the Sultan's harshness. The vizier is always quivering in his watchfulness toward the sultan, but the stableman has no fear, for the vizier's breast is the storehouse of the sultan's secrets, and breaking the seal of the storehouse is full of peril. Ḥudhayfa Yamān was the possessor of the Messenger's secret. He said, “One day I saw Satan weeping. I said, 'O accursed one! What is this wailing and weeping of yours?' “He said, 'It is because of two things. One is that the Threshold has opened me up to cursing, and the other is that He has shut me off from the hearts of the faithful.

By the scatterers scattering. This is an allusion to the dawn winds that carry the moaning of the yearners to the courtyards of exaltedness, then bring the breeze of proximity to the nostrils of the secret cores of the folk of love, letting them find ease from the overpowering force of rapture. I will let the winds guide me to your breeze when their blowing comes from your direction. I will ask them to carry my greetings to you. If they arrive one day, respond to me! When the announcers of the good news of dawn appear, the army of brightness breaks out of its ambush, and the east wind begins to blow love into the world's air, then a dawn wind is sent into the road like a messenger from the Gardens of Eden in order to convey the divine inbreathings to the nostrils of the secret cores of the friends. Exalted is the hour and great the moment when, on the carpet of We are nearer [50:16] in the seclusion of He is with you [57:4], He conveys the wine of “I am the sitting companion of him who remembers Me” to His friends, secret to secret, without the intrusion of others! In the attribute of clemency the caller of exaltedness calls out in the world of being so as to caress the poor: “Who will lend to one who is neither lacking nor wrongdoing?” What wonder if at that moment He says in the heart of the servant, “My servant, fear not, thou art among the secure” [28:31].

Of everything We created a pair. In this verse there is an affirmation of the Lord's solitariness and unity. When God creates newly arrived things and engendered beings, He creates them as pairs, whether linked to each other or opposed to each other. For example: male and female, day and night, light and darkness, heaven and earth, land and sea, sun and moon, jinn and mankind, obedience and disobedience, felicity and wretchedness, guidance and misguidance, exaltation and abasement, power and incapacity, strength and weakness, knowledge and ignorance, life and death. He created the attributes of the creatures in this manner-paired with each other or opposed to each other-so that they would not resemble the attributes of the Creator. Thus His unity and solitariness would become manifest to them, for His exaltation has no abasement, His power no incapacity, His strength no weakness, His knowledge no ignorance, His life no death, His joy no sorrow, His subsistence no annihilation. The uniquely one God is one in Essence and attributes, unique in worthiness. He is incompa- rable with everyone and separate from everything. Nothing is as His likeness [42:11]. No one is like Him and nothing is similar to or resembles Him. Resemblance derives from partnership, and God has no associate or partner. He is without equal and without need. The door of His withholding is shut and the door of His munificence open. He forgives sins and caresses the faulty. He makes His love apparent by caressing servants. He loves His servants, though He has no needs. He brings about love between Himself and the servants without associa- tion or partnership. Thus the servants, no matter what their states-whether wounded by the ar- row of trial or drowned in gentleness and bestowal-should seize hold of His generosity and seek shelter in Him, fleeing to Him from the creatures. This is why He issues the command, “So flee to God!” [51:50].

And an inscribed book. In the tongue of allusion and according to the tasting of the Folk of the Haqiqah, the inscribed book is what He wrote against Himself in the Beginningless Covenant: “My mercy takes precedence over My wrath.” May a thousand dear spirits be sacrificed to that heart-caressing moment when He gave us a place of seclusion without us and opened for us the door of His infinite acts of gentleness! With beginningless solicitude and precedent, endless gentleness He was saying to us, “My mercy takes precedence over My wrath.” O chevalier! Give thanks to the God who, before you asked, gave you something that you would not have reached even if He had left you with yourself and you had thought for a thousand thousand years under your own control. He called you when you were heedless, He taught you when you were ignorant, He created you when you were not a thing remembered [76:1], and He will pour for you from the cup of His kindness in the sitting place of His secret a pure wine [76:21]. All of these are the traces of the precedence of mercy of which He spoke: “My mercy takes precedence over My wrath.” The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, You planted the seed of guidance with beginningless solicitude, You watered it with the messages of the prophets, You made it grow with help and success-giving, and You nurtured it with Your own gaze. Now it will be fitting if You do not let the wind of justice blow, if You do not stir up the poisons of severity, and if You help with endless kind favor what You planted with beginningless solicitude.”

By the Inhabited House. The Inhabited House is an allusion to the hearts of the recognizers, inhabited with recognition and love. This is an allusion to the hearts of recognizers that are inhabited with recognition and love of God, hearts that live through His gaze and are happy with His gentleness. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “There are three things within which lie the servant's felicity and through which servanthood's face is bright: the tongue's occupation with remembering the Real, the heart's immersion in loving the Real, and the secret core's filling with the gaze of the Real. First comes the gaze from the Real, thus adorning the heart with love and keeping the tongue in remembrance.” The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, Your remembrance is my religion, Your love is my way, and Your gaze is the eye of certainty. This is my last word. O Gentle One, You know that this is so.” A great man said, “A tongue that is busy with His remembrance, a heart that is inhabited by His love, a spirit that is joyful with His gaze-in reality, this is the Inhabited House.” This state has three marks in which is the perfection of servanthood: plentiful deeds, being concealed from the people, and a heart always hurrying to the time of devotion.

The day they are driven with a driving to the fire of hell. This verse demands fear.

Surely the godwary will be in gardens and bliss, rejoicing in what their Lord has given them. These verses demand hope. The Lord of the worlds has them follow one after another so that the servant will constantly travel between hope and fear. Hope and fear are each other's mates. When they come together, the beauty of faith's realities shows its face. Any traveling that is empty of these two meanings will result either in security or in despair, and these two are attributes of the unbelievers. This is because one feels secure from the incapable, and to believe that God is incapable is unbelief. One despairs of the base, and to believe that there is baseness in God is associationism. Also, one must not simply fear punishment, nor must one simply hope and wait for mercy. This will become clear to you with an example: When a lamp has no oil, it gives no light. When it has oil but no fire, it gives no illumination. When there are oil and fire but no wick to sacrifice its being, it is not complete. Thus fear is like fire, hope like oil, faith like a wick, and the heart like a lamp-holder. If there is only fear, this is like a lamp that has no oil. If there is only hope, this is like a lamp that has oil but no fire. When fear and hope come together, the result is a lamp that has both the oil to aid subsistence and the fire to give the material of illumination. Thus faith takes help from both, one for subsistence and one for illumination. The person of faith travels on the road with the escort of illumination and walks with the escort of subsistence.

Surely the godwary will be in gardens and bliss, rejoicing in what their Lord has given them. These verses demand hope. The Lord of the worlds has them follow one after another so that the servant will constantly travel between hope and fear. Hope and fear are each other's mates. When they come together, the beauty of faith's realities shows its face. Any traveling that is empty of these two meanings will result either in security or in despair, and these two are attributes of the unbelievers. This is because one feels secure from the incapable, and to believe that God is incapable is unbelief. One despairs of the base, and to believe that there is baseness in God is associationism. Also, one must not simply fear punishment, nor must one simply hope and wait for mercy. This will become clear to you with an example: When a lamp has no oil, it gives no light. When it has oil but no fire, it gives no illumination. When there are oil and fire but no wick to sacrifice its being, it is not complete. Thus fear is like fire, hope like oil, faith like a wick, and the heart like a lamp-holder. If there is only fear, this is like a lamp that has no oil. If there is only hope, this is like a lamp that has oil but no fire. When fear and hope come together, the result is a lamp that has both the oil to aid subsistence and the fire to give the material of illumination. Thus faith takes help from both, one for subsistence and one for illumination. The person of faith travels on the road with the escort of illumination and walks with the escort of subsistence.

By the star when it fell. Know that in this surah the Real reported about the miʿrāj of that paragon of the world and master of the children of Adam, his journey to heaven, and his return from contemplation and face-to-face vision. Thus by knowing this story his community may give repose to their spirits and increase the light and joy of their hearts. At the beginning of the Surah of Banī IsrāÌīl He mentions the story of his going and, to show its greatness, put His own incomparability before it: “Glory to be Him who took His servant by night” [17:1]. In this surah He explains his return from the Presence and, to declare its eminence, swears by his person: “By the star when it fell! By that bright star, by that full moon, by that lit lamp, when he returned from the presence of face-to-face vision!” His person saw the station of proximity, his heart found the repose of contemplation, his secret core reached the good fortune of union, and he listened to the secrets in the secluded cell of Or closer [53:9] on the carpet of expansiveness. Know that the Master's going to that way station is not strange, but his resting in this way station is wondrous, for the people of the world are in the darkness of distance, but he was in the light of nearness and proximity. When that paragon left Gabriel in his known station [37:164] and passed on, he entrusted the luminous secrets of his outwardness and inwardness to the attraction of the Presence. He dove into the sea of light and the ocean of tremendousness and he traversed the canopy of eminence with the feet of aspiration. Just as a magnet attracts iron to itself, so the spires of the Splendorous Throne attracted that paragon to itself. From the Splendorous Throne he aimed for the presence of two-bows' length [53:9], and in the station of two-bows' length he made himself a resting place on the seat of beauty in the description of perfection while contemplating majesty. The exalted revelation explains these intimations in these words:

Then He drew close, so He came down until he was two-bows' length away, or closer. Among all the creatures in the World of the Realities, none was greater than MuḤammad MuṣṬafā. The root desire of the divine decree in accordance with the beginningless knowledge was to bring about the state of that paragon and make manifest his majesty. The first substance that received a robe from the command Be! and upon which shone the sun of the Real's gentleness was his pure spirit. There was still no Throne or Carpet, no nighttime intrusion or daytime mercy, when God's artisanry brought his spirit from the repository of begin- ningless knowledge to the lodging place of endless splendor. He put it on display in the meadow of approval and the station of contemplation. Whatever came into existence afterwards rode on the coattails of his spirit's existence. Whatever people imagine of familiarity, nearness, clemency, mercy, leadership, and felicity, He sprinkled over his spirit's essence and attributes. Then He placed it inside the frame of Adam the Chosen and made it pass over the degrees of variegation and the trails of stability. Then He sat it down in the seat of messengerhood, commanding it to call the people to the presence of the religion, to bring the lost back to the road, and to invite the travelers to the Threshold. You might say that this paragon was a falcon trained on the hand of bounty, nurtured on the carpet of proximity and nearness, and brought forth from the togetherness of contemplation to the dispersion of invitation so that he could hunt a world and place everyone before the gentleness and severity of the Real. Today he makes everyone his prey with the Shariah, and tomorrow, in the station of intercession, he will entrust them all to the Real. When that paragon stepped into the playing field of invitation and when the exalted ones of the Presence responded, the vanguard of trial showed its face from every corner. From the heaven of creativity the rain of tribulation began to fall. The Eternal Qur'an reports the story of their grief as follows: “We will indeed try you with something of fear and hunger” [2:155]. “You will surely be tried in your possessions and your selves and you will hear much hurt from those who were given the Book before you and from the associaters” [3:186].

Then He drew close, so He came down until he was two-bows' length away, or closer. Among all the creatures in the World of the Realities, none was greater than MuḤammad MuṣṬafā. The root desire of the divine decree in accordance with the beginningless knowledge was to bring about the state of that paragon and make manifest his majesty. The first substance that received a robe from the command Be! and upon which shone the sun of the Real's gentleness was his pure spirit. There was still no Throne or Carpet, no nighttime intrusion or daytime mercy, when God's artisanry brought his spirit from the repository of begin- ningless knowledge to the lodging place of endless splendor. He put it on display in the meadow of approval and the station of contemplation. Whatever came into existence afterwards rode on the coattails of his spirit's existence. Whatever people imagine of familiarity, nearness, clemency, mercy, leadership, and felicity, He sprinkled over his spirit's essence and attributes. Then He placed it inside the frame of Adam the Chosen and made it pass over the degrees of variegation and the trails of stability. Then He sat it down in the seat of messengerhood, commanding it to call the people to the presence of the religion, to bring the lost back to the road, and to invite the travelers to the Threshold. You might say that this paragon was a falcon trained on the hand of bounty, nurtured on the carpet of proximity and nearness, and brought forth from the togetherness of contemplation to the dispersion of invitation so that he could hunt a world and place everyone before the gentleness and severity of the Real. Today he makes everyone his prey with the Shariah, and tomorrow, in the station of intercession, he will entrust them all to the Real. When that paragon stepped into the playing field of invitation and when the exalted ones of the Presence responded, the vanguard of trial showed its face from every corner. From the heaven of creativity the rain of tribulation began to fall. The Eternal Qur'an reports the story of their grief as follows: “We will indeed try you with something of fear and hunger” [2:155]. “You will surely be tried in your possessions and your selves and you will hear much hurt from those who were given the Book before you and from the associaters” [3:186].

He revealed to His servant what He revealed. Even though He said these words with the lid on and left them obscure so as to declare the great- ness of that state and the magnificence of MuṣṬafā's measure, it has been mentioned in some books that a group of the Companions asked MuṣṬafā what this revelation was. MuṣṬafā explained as much as their capacity was able to bear. He said that the Lord of the Worlds complained about his community, saying, “O MuḤammad, in holding to the covenant, I who am the Lord did not create any of the depths of hell for your community. But they, in breaking the covenant, are trying to throw themselves into hell. O MuḤammad, I am the Exalter and the Abaser. He is exalted whom I exalt, and He is abased whom I abase. They are seeking exaltation from elsewhere and they see abasement com- ing from elsewhere. O MuḤammad, I do not ask them today for tomorrow's deeds, but today they seek from Me tomorrow's provision. O MuḤammad, the provision that I have put in their name I will not give to another, but they give the deeds that are My rightful due and fitting for Me to others through eye-service. O MuḤammad, the blessings come from Me and they show gratitude to others. O MuḤammad, nonetheless, I am seeking for pretexts to forgive your community. O MuḤammad, were it not that I love to rebuke them and talk with them, I would not call them to account for anything. O MuḤammad, I did four things with previous communities that I will not do with your community: I took a people into the earth, I changed a people's form, I rained down stones on a people, and I destroyed a people with the flames of fire. Because of your eminence and rank, I will not do any of these with your community. O MuḤammad, I secluded you with Me to show the people who you are and to show you who I am.” When God's Messenger saw all this honoring and exalting from the Exalted Threshold, he said, “Lord God, bestow all of my community on me!” The command came, “O MuḤammad, tonight you came alone. As a favor for your coming to this feast, I bestow upon you a third of that. Tomorrow at the resurrection in the Greatest Gather- ing, I will bestow the rest on you. Then the world's folk will know your level and rank with Me.” And God is the success-giver and helper!

Surely We created everything according to a measure. “Everything that was, is, and will be is all My creation by My decree and determination, by My desire and will.” The decree has been made, the judgment issued, the work completed. It is not your desire that He puts into effect today. It is the beginningless deed that He makes apparent. For one person the inscription of bounty was written by the beginningless gentleness. He ac- cepted him before his deeds, He responded to him before his supplication, He bestowed upon him before his asking, He gave a robe of honor before his service, and He pardoned him before his sins. Another person He branded with justice on the first day at the Beginningless Covenant, and He drove him from His threshold. His chastisement was before his disobedience, and His punish- ment before his sins. O indigent man! Ask for nothing of Him but Him. Do not serve Him by making a contract. Making a contract is the creed of Iblis. Iblis said, “Now that You have rejected and cursed me and driven me from Your Presence, give me something: Grant me respite till the day they are raised up [7:14].” He gave him all of this world, but He took Himself back from him. When someone is held back from Him, even if he finds everything, he has found nothing. And when someone finds Him, even if he finds nothing, he has found everything. It is as if God said, “My servant, you were not, but I was there for you. I was there for Myself in exaltedness, I was there for the wage-earner in mercy, and I was there for the friend in compan- ionship. I saw you thrown down and I lifted you up. I saw you put aside and I accepted you. The attribute with which I lifted up is in place. Should I throw down what I lifted up? By My exalted exaltedness, I will not throw down!”

Surely the godwary will be in the midst of gardens and a river. The worth and exaltedness of that region lies not in roasted chicken, flowing rivers, and women good and beautiful [55:70]. The worth of the oyster lies not in the oyster-the oyster's worth lies in the kingly pearl within. The worth of the house of subsistence lies not in the fact it has edibles and drinkables-its worth and eminence lie in that it has the stamp of proximity to the Real and the mark of election. For it is,

In a seat of truthfulness, at an Omnipotent King. In this meaning, someone composed a poem: My covenant is not because of love for earthly dust, but for that in which the Beloved dwells. * What I want from Your street is Your face. The word at has the stamp of proximity and election: “In the abode of the decree We gave this robe of proximity, eminence, and rank to MuṣṬafā the Arab, as he said: 'I spend the night at my Lord.' Tomorrow We will place this same robe and rank next to the faithful in the measure of their travel- ing, for they will be in a seat of truthfulness, at an Omnipotent King.” ṣāliḤ ibn Ḥayyān narrated from ʿAbdallāh ibn Barīda a saying concerning His words, in a seat of truthfulness, at an Omnipotent King: “The folk of the Garden will enter in upon the Compeller twice a day and recite for Him the Qur'an. Each man among them will sit in his own sitting place, on a pulpit of pearls, rubies, emeralds, gold, and silver, in accordance with their deeds. Their eyes will never be so delighted as they are by this. They will never have heard anything more tre- mendous and more beautiful. Then they will turn back to their lodging places, blissful, their eyes delighted, until the like of it on the morrow.”

The All-Merciful-He taught the Qur'an. No one's hand will reach the knocker on the Qur'an's gate simply and easily, unless with the suc- cess-giving and facilitating of the All-Merciful. If anyone could reach this good fortune without the help of the All-Merciful, that would be MuṣṬafā, the Seal of the Prophets. But there is no one among the creatures with the majesty and rank that he had. Concerning him the Real says, “The All-Merciful-He taught the Qur'an,” that is, He taught MuḤammad the Qur'an. As much as teachers strive in teaching, masters instruct, and memorizers keep classes going, all of these are secondary causes, and the teacher in reality is God. Whenever someone comes to be taught, He is the teacher. Whenever someone lights up, He is the light-giver. Whenever someone burns, He is the burner. Whenever something is made, He is the maker. He taught Adam the knowledge of the names: And He taught Adam the names, all of them [2:31]. He taught David chain-mail making: And We taught him the artisanry of garments for you [21:80]. He taught Jesus the science of medicine: And He will teach him the book and the wisdom [3:48]. He taught Khiẓr the science of recognition: We taught him knowledge from Us [18:65]. He taught MuṣṬafā the secrets of the divinity: He taught thee what thou didst not know [4:113]. He taught the folk of the world explication:

The All-Merciful-He taught the Qur'an. No one's hand will reach the knocker on the Qur'an's gate simply and easily, unless with the suc- cess-giving and facilitating of the All-Merciful. If anyone could reach this good fortune without the help of the All-Merciful, that would be MuṣṬafā, the Seal of the Prophets. But there is no one among the creatures with the majesty and rank that he had. Concerning him the Real says, “The All-Merciful-He taught the Qur'an,” that is, He taught MuḤammad the Qur'an. As much as teachers strive in teaching, masters instruct, and memorizers keep classes going, all of these are secondary causes, and the teacher in reality is God. Whenever someone comes to be taught, He is the teacher. Whenever someone lights up, He is the light-giver. Whenever someone burns, He is the burner. Whenever something is made, He is the maker. He taught Adam the knowledge of the names: And He taught Adam the names, all of them [2:31]. He taught David chain-mail making: And We taught him the artisanry of garments for you [21:80]. He taught Jesus the science of medicine: And He will teach him the book and the wisdom [3:48]. He taught Khiẓr the science of recognition: We taught him knowledge from Us [18:65]. He taught MuṣṬafā the secrets of the divinity: He taught thee what thou didst not know [4:113]. He taught the folk of the world explication:

He created man. He taught him the explication. Some people say that He created man means all people generally-faithful and unbeliever, self- purifier and hypocrite, truthful and heretic. Whoever is human is included in this address. They say that He created everyone and taught them all explication. In other words, He gave everyone intellect, understanding, and upbringing so that they would find the road to their own best interests and discern between good and bad. He gave everyone language so that they would know each other's desires-in every region a language; or rather, in every city a language; or rather, in every neighborhood a language. He specified the human individual for this and separated him out from other animals with this specification and bestowal of eminence. It has also been said that He created man means all the faithful of MuḤammad's community. He taught him the explication means the road of the Real, the pure Shariah, the unswerving reli- gion. He taught it to them and showed its road to them: Say: “This is my path. I invite to God” [12:108]. Invite to the path of thy Lord with wisdom! [16:125]. He set this road up in three stations: first, recognition of the outward Shariah; second, recognition of the inward struggle and discipline; third, talk of the heart and its Beloved and the story of the friends. Then He turned this over to three groups and taught the people on the tongues of these three groups: “Ask the ulama, mix with the possessors of wisdom, and sit with the great ones.” Learn the science of the Shariah from the ulama, the science of discipline from the possessors of wisdom, and the science of recognition from the great ones. It has also been said that man in He created man is Adam the Chosen. This is the same man about whom He says, “He created man of dried clay, like pottery” [55:14]. Although in form he is pottery and clay, in conduct he is worthy of the pavilion of proximity and union. Outwardly, he is sculpted from water and clay; inwardly he is the carrier of the ruling power of love. Outwardly he is an extraction of clay [23:12]; inwardly he is the precious stone in the seal-ring of good fortune. “What should be considered is the joining, not the root.

He created man. He taught him the explication. Some people say that He created man means all people generally-faithful and unbeliever, self- purifier and hypocrite, truthful and heretic. Whoever is human is included in this address. They say that He created everyone and taught them all explication. In other words, He gave everyone intellect, understanding, and upbringing so that they would find the road to their own best interests and discern between good and bad. He gave everyone language so that they would know each other's desires-in every region a language; or rather, in every city a language; or rather, in every neighborhood a language. He specified the human individual for this and separated him out from other animals with this specification and bestowal of eminence. It has also been said that He created man means all the faithful of MuḤammad's community. He taught him the explication means the road of the Real, the pure Shariah, the unswerving reli- gion. He taught it to them and showed its road to them: Say: “This is my path. I invite to God” [12:108]. Invite to the path of thy Lord with wisdom! [16:125]. He set this road up in three stations: first, recognition of the outward Shariah; second, recognition of the inward struggle and discipline; third, talk of the heart and its Beloved and the story of the friends. Then He turned this over to three groups and taught the people on the tongues of these three groups: “Ask the ulama, mix with the possessors of wisdom, and sit with the great ones.” Learn the science of the Shariah from the ulama, the science of discipline from the possessors of wisdom, and the science of recognition from the great ones. It has also been said that man in He created man is Adam the Chosen. This is the same man about whom He says, “He created man of dried clay, like pottery” [55:14]. Although in form he is pottery and clay, in conduct he is worthy of the pavilion of proximity and union. Outwardly, he is sculpted from water and clay; inwardly he is the carrier of the ruling power of love. Outwardly he is an extraction of clay [23:12]; inwardly he is the precious stone in the seal-ring of good fortune. “What should be considered is the joining, not the root.

He mixed the two oceans that meet together. From the ocean of the secret core, the pearls of contemplation and face-to-face vision come forth, and from the ocean of the heart the coral of conformity and unveiling. That is His words, “From the two come forth pearls and coral” [55:22]. He prepared both of them in his makeup and kept the barrier of power between them: Between the two is an isthmus they do not overpass [55:20]. The one does not exert strength over the other, nor does the other make this one change. It has also been said that the two oceans here are the hope and fear of the common Muslims, the contraction and expansion of the elect among the faithful, and the awe and intimacy of the prophets and the sincerely truthful. From the ocean of fear and hope come forth the pearls of renunciation and scrupulosity, from the ocean of contraction and expansion come the pearls of poverty and ecstasy, and from the ocean of awe and intimacy the pearl of annihilation shows its face so that they may be at ease with the way stations of subsistence. This is why He says, “From the two come forth pearls and coral.”

All that is upon it undergoes annihilation, and there subsists the face of thy Lord, Pos- sessor of Majesty and Generous Giving. This is the same that He says elsewhere: “What is with you runs out, but what is with God subsists” [16:96]. MuṣṬafā said, “Prefer what subsists over what undergoes annihilation.” This world is the Abode of Delusion, the afterworld the Abode of Joy. This world is the Abode of Annihilation and the afterworld the Abode of Subsistence. The breeze of intelligence does not reach those who choose what undergoes annihilation over the subsistent, who put aside the Abode of Joy and build up the Abode of Delusion. Even if the empire of the world and the empire of Adam's children were beneath your seal ring and the keys to this world's treasures given to you, the outcome of all would be annihilation, so fixing the heart on it would be an error. Listen to these words of wisdom, testaments of the sages, and words of advice of the great: “Being satisfied with words without deeds is the work of the deluded.” “Depending on the resources of others is the vocation of the indigent.” “Delighting in borrowed clothes is the custom of the idle.” “Being happy with others' robes of honor is the conduct of the unintelligent.” “Being disloyal and hoping for loyalty is the act of double-dealers.”

All that is upon it undergoes annihilation, and there subsists the face of thy Lord, Pos- sessor of Majesty and Generous Giving. This is the same that He says elsewhere: “What is with you runs out, but what is with God subsists” [16:96]. MuṣṬafā said, “Prefer what subsists over what undergoes annihilation.” This world is the Abode of Delusion, the afterworld the Abode of Joy. This world is the Abode of Annihilation and the afterworld the Abode of Subsistence. The breeze of intelligence does not reach those who choose what undergoes annihilation over the subsistent, who put aside the Abode of Joy and build up the Abode of Delusion. Even if the empire of the world and the empire of Adam's children were beneath your seal ring and the keys to this world's treasures given to you, the outcome of all would be annihilation, so fixing the heart on it would be an error. Listen to these words of wisdom, testaments of the sages, and words of advice of the great: “Being satisfied with words without deeds is the work of the deluded.” “Depending on the resources of others is the vocation of the indigent.” “Delighting in borrowed clothes is the custom of the idle.” “Being happy with others' robes of honor is the conduct of the unintelligent.” “Being disloyal and hoping for loyalty is the act of double-dealers.”

Whatever is in the heavens and the earth asks of Him. Each day He is upon some task. The faithful are two groups: the worshipers and the recognizers. The asking of each group is in the measure of their aspirations, and the caressing of each is suited to their capacity. The worshipers want everything from Him, the recognizers want Him Himself. AḤmad ibn Abi'l-Ḥawārī saw the Real in a dream. He said, 'O AḤmad, all the people are seek- ing from Me, except Abū Yazīd-he is seeking Me.” I set out for You seeking the heights, and others set out for their livelihood. * Each has a prayer-niche in some direction, but SanāÌī's prayer-niche is Your street. [DS 1004] At this threshold everyone has a station and each has what is suited for him. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, everyone indigent has a portion of Your munificence, everyone in pain has a physician from Your generosity, and all have a portion from the embracing- ness of Your mercy.” Each He keeps in a place and each He dyes in a color. This is why He says, “Each day He is upon some task.” He lifts up one group and puts down others. He puts one at the front of the hall of worth with the attribute of exaltedness, He keeps another at the back with the shoes, in abasement itself. He seats one on the carpet of gentleness, He puts another under the carpet of severity. He pulled Adam the dust-dweller up from the dust of abasement and placed the throne of prosperity on the head of his aspiration, without bias. He pulled down ʿAzāzīl, who was the teacher of the angels, from the celestial world and hung him at the crossroads of the causeless desire from the rack of punishment, without iniquity. To one group He says, “So rejoice!” [9:111], to another group He says, “Die in your rage!” [3:119]. Moses the speaking-companion set off in search of fire. When he left he was a shepherd in a blanket, when he came back he was a prophet, God's speaking-companion. Balaam Beor, who knew the greatest name, went up a mountain as a friend by virtue of form, but came back down as a dog by virtue of attribute and meaning.

As recompense for what they were doing. This is the prize for the deeds of the faithful and the rewards for their acts of obedience and wor- ship. It is the attribute of wage-earners who do the work and want the wage. But God has friends who do not bow their heads to the paradise of His approval, nor do they hunt the maidens, castles, rivers, and trees. They are servants at the house of the Sultan of tawḤīd, the residents of the world of love, the sultans of the realm of recognition, yearning for the wine of nonbeing. The Paradise of Everlastingness presents its adornment and beauty to them, and they dis- close their certainty and recognition to it. Paradise presents its rivers of wine, milk, and honey to them, and they disclose the springs of tawḤīd and the oceans of solitariness to it. Paradise presents its trees full of fruits with their flowers and blossoms to them, and they disclose the green shoots of pain and bewilderment to it. Paradise presents to them the wide-eyed maidens, adorned and trimmed, and they disclose to it the veiled virgins of recognition and the hidden secrets of witnessing. Finally, paradise turns away from them in shame, and they pass on to the seat of truthfulness, at an Omnipotent King [54:55]. They do not open the eyes of their aspira- tion toward anyone.

Have you seen the seed that you spill? Do you create it, or are We its creators? In this noble verse of the eternal, beginningless speech, the Presence of the Real makes manifest His power of creation over the world's folk so that they will know that the artisan without cause is He, the enactor without tool is He, the all-subjugating without cause is He, the all-forgiving with- out delay is He, the all-curtaining of every slip is He. He is the Lord who created a subtle form from frail water and showed firm artisanry to a feeble sperm-drop. He set up many diverse paintings with “Be!”, so it comes to be [2:117]: mu- tually similar limbs, opposites like unto each other, every limb adorned with one sort of beauty, not more than its limit, not less than its measure. To each He gave an attribute, and in each He placed a strength: senses in the brain, splendor on the forehead, beauty in the nose, sorcery in the eye, sauciness in the lips, comeliness in the cheek, perfect loveliness in the hair, envy in the liver, rancor in the spleen, appetite in the veins, faith in the heart, love in the secret core, recognition in the spirit. It is not apparent whether the artisanries in the natures are more beautiful, or if the governance of the form-giving is sweeter. What is this sculpture doing between subtle water and gross dust?! Since the Sculptor is one, how is it that there is this lowliness in individuals? So many marvels and wonders from a drop of water! The intelligent man gazes on His artisanry, but the heedless man is asleep. O chevalier! How long will you look with the outward eye at the marks giving witness? Look once with the inner eye at the marks of the subtleties. It is as if the Exalted Lord is saying, “My servant, I adorned your face and I adorned your heart. I adorned your face for gazing on creation. I adorned your heart for gazing on Me. It is your face that the creatures see, and your heart that I see. I did not allow exacting the penalty of the Shariah from your face, which is the gazing place of the creatures. How can I allow conveying the pain of severance to your essence, which is My gazing place? I am that Lord in the attribute of whose power is both creating and making to die.” Of creation He reports, “Do you create it, or are We its creators?” Of making to die He re- ports,

Have you seen the seed that you spill? Do you create it, or are We its creators? In this noble verse of the eternal, beginningless speech, the Presence of the Real makes manifest His power of creation over the world's folk so that they will know that the artisan without cause is He, the enactor without tool is He, the all-subjugating without cause is He, the all-forgiving with- out delay is He, the all-curtaining of every slip is He. He is the Lord who created a subtle form from frail water and showed firm artisanry to a feeble sperm-drop. He set up many diverse paintings with “Be!”, so it comes to be [2:117]: mu- tually similar limbs, opposites like unto each other, every limb adorned with one sort of beauty, not more than its limit, not less than its measure. To each He gave an attribute, and in each He placed a strength: senses in the brain, splendor on the forehead, beauty in the nose, sorcery in the eye, sauciness in the lips, comeliness in the cheek, perfect loveliness in the hair, envy in the liver, rancor in the spleen, appetite in the veins, faith in the heart, love in the secret core, recognition in the spirit. It is not apparent whether the artisanries in the natures are more beautiful, or if the governance of the form-giving is sweeter. What is this sculpture doing between subtle water and gross dust?! Since the Sculptor is one, how is it that there is this lowliness in individuals? So many marvels and wonders from a drop of water! The intelligent man gazes on His artisanry, but the heedless man is asleep. O chevalier! How long will you look with the outward eye at the marks giving witness? Look once with the inner eye at the marks of the subtleties. It is as if the Exalted Lord is saying, “My servant, I adorned your face and I adorned your heart. I adorned your face for gazing on creation. I adorned your heart for gazing on Me. It is your face that the creatures see, and your heart that I see. I did not allow exacting the penalty of the Shariah from your face, which is the gazing place of the creatures. How can I allow conveying the pain of severance to your essence, which is My gazing place? I am that Lord in the attribute of whose power is both creating and making to die.” Of creation He reports, “Do you create it, or are We its creators?” Of making to die He re- ports,

Do you create it, or are We its creators? Of making to die He reports,

We have determined death among you. “In creation, I showed the attributes of gentleness, and in making to die I showed the perfection of severity. I created so that you would see power and gentleness. I make to die so that you may see harshness and severity. Again I bring to life so that you may see awesomeness and ruling authority. Since you know that I am powerful and able, wise and knowing, peerless in ability and knowledge, then you should

Glorify the name of your Lord the Tremendous! “Come, praise Me and remember My oneness and greatness, so that tomorrow I may bring you forth in the ranks of the proximate ones of repose and ease, for this is what I have decreed in the Beginningless. In My eternal speech I have said,

If he is one of those brought near, then repose and ease and a garden of bliss. One of the great ones of the religion said that repose and ease will be both in this world and in the afterworld. The repose is in this world and the ease will be in the afterworld. The repose is that He adorns the heart of the faithful servants with His gaze so that they will discern truth from falsehood. Then He makes them wide in knowledge so that they will find there the vision of His power. Then He makes them seeing so that they will have the light to see His favors. He makes them hearing so that they will listen to the beginningless advice. He makes them pure so that they will seek only His companionship. He makes them happy with the fragrance of union so that their love for the Friend will grow. He makes them bright with His light so that they will gaze from Him to Him. He scours them with the file of solicitude so that they will see Him wherever they look. When the servants go to the house of felicity with these attributes, they will see the ease of generosity. The breeze of intimacy will be blowing, the seat of approval will be set up under the tree of finding, the carpet of intimacy will be spread, the candle of compassion lit. The servants will sit like kings and the beginningless Friend will lift up the curtain, greeting their ears with “peace” and showing the vision of the Possessor of Majesty:

If he is one of those brought near, then repose and ease and a garden of bliss. One of the great ones of the religion said that repose and ease will be both in this world and in the afterworld. The repose is in this world and the ease will be in the afterworld. The repose is that He adorns the heart of the faithful servants with His gaze so that they will discern truth from falsehood. Then He makes them wide in knowledge so that they will find there the vision of His power. Then He makes them seeing so that they will have the light to see His favors. He makes them hearing so that they will listen to the beginningless advice. He makes them pure so that they will seek only His companionship. He makes them happy with the fragrance of union so that their love for the Friend will grow. He makes them bright with His light so that they will gaze from Him to Him. He scours them with the file of solicitude so that they will see Him wherever they look. When the servants go to the house of felicity with these attributes, they will see the ease of generosity. The breeze of intimacy will be blowing, the seat of approval will be set up under the tree of finding, the carpet of intimacy will be spread, the candle of compassion lit. The servants will sit like kings and the beginningless Friend will lift up the curtain, greeting their ears with “peace” and showing the vision of the Possessor of Majesty:

If he be one of the companions of the right hand, then “Peace to you from the com- panions of the right hand.” The companions of the right hand are lower in station and rank than the preceders and the proximate. They are the worshipers, those who worship in order to reach the joy and bliss of paradise. They are the doers, those who do deeds in this world to find reward in the afterworld. The Exalted Lord says, “We leave not to waste the wage of those who do beautiful deeds [18:30]. We will not leave to waste the wage of the beautiful-doers. We will not make them despair of the permanent good fortune and generous kingdom that they want. We will give them their wage completely: He will give them their wages in full [4:173]. And We will place Our bounty on top of that: He will increase them from His bounty [4:173].” They will have adorned sitting places and refined dwellings. The lights of gentle favors will be lit and varieties of incense will be burning; serving boys and servants, servitors and retinue, will be standing in wait; heart-entrancing cup-bearers will have cups of wine placed in their hands, and tumult-inducing minstrels will be playing heart-stealing tunes. Each one will be seated like a king, leaning back on an exalted throne in his own chambers, towers, gardens, and forests, a crown of rulership studded with the pearls of solicitude on his head, on the carpet of expansiveness, with jus- tice given to the contemplation of the Contemplated. The necklace of beauty will be hung around the neck of union, and his voice will be raised in praise and magnification. The Patron will lift up the curtain and “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what has never passed into the heart of any mortal” will become hard cash. By the majesty of the Lord God, no loving mother has ever caressed a weeping child more than God will caress the disobedient servant at the moment of face-to-face vision!

If he be one of the companions of the right hand, then “Peace to you from the com- panions of the right hand.” The companions of the right hand are lower in station and rank than the preceders and the proximate. They are the worshipers, those who worship in order to reach the joy and bliss of paradise. They are the doers, those who do deeds in this world to find reward in the afterworld. The Exalted Lord says, “We leave not to waste the wage of those who do beautiful deeds [18:30]. We will not leave to waste the wage of the beautiful-doers. We will not make them despair of the permanent good fortune and generous kingdom that they want. We will give them their wage completely: He will give them their wages in full [4:173]. And We will place Our bounty on top of that: He will increase them from His bounty [4:173].” They will have adorned sitting places and refined dwellings. The lights of gentle favors will be lit and varieties of incense will be burning; serving boys and servants, servitors and retinue, will be standing in wait; heart-entrancing cup-bearers will have cups of wine placed in their hands, and tumult-inducing minstrels will be playing heart-stealing tunes. Each one will be seated like a king, leaning back on an exalted throne in his own chambers, towers, gardens, and forests, a crown of rulership studded with the pearls of solicitude on his head, on the carpet of expansiveness, with jus- tice given to the contemplation of the Contemplated. The necklace of beauty will be hung around the neck of union, and his voice will be raised in praise and magnification. The Patron will lift up the curtain and “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what has never passed into the heart of any mortal” will become hard cash. By the majesty of the Lord God, no loving mother has ever caressed a weeping child more than God will caress the disobedient servant at the moment of face-to-face vision!

Whatsoever is in the heavens and the earth glorifies God. The maker of the world and the world's folk, the nurturer of mankind and jinn, the creator of earth and heaven, the wonder-worker of the emplaced and place, reports that everything in heaven and earth, whether wind, fire, water, mountains, seas, sun, moon, stars, trees, and all animate and in- animate things, praise Him for purity, mention His name with honor, and testify to His oneness. This glorification and tawḤīd throw tumult into the Adamic heart and are rejected by intellect, but the religion of the submission accepts them and the Creator of the creatures testifies to their cor- rectness. Whenever success-giving is someone's companion and felicity his helper, he will accept them, unperceived, with spirit and heart and will come forth with reverence, surrender, and attesta- tion. Then tomorrow, he will find his place in the gathering place of the sincerely truthful and the assemblies of the friends on the seat of everlasting exaltedness. Beware, O chevalier! Take care not to give one iota of innovation access to your heart. When you hear something that your intellect does not perceive, suspect only your intellect. Do not take the road of interpretation, because going after interpretation is a tested poison. It is to remove a thorn from the foot with a thorn. A knowing man will not test poison, for that would be to hurry to his own destruction. He will not pull a thorn from his foot with a thorn, for he knows it would only increase the pain. That chevalier said it beautifully: “Seek not the road of tawḤīd with intellect, scratch not the spirit's eye with a thorn. By God, can anyone ever take benefit from God without God? As trainer and leader on the path of the religion- consider none better than the Qur'an and the reports. Only the hand of MuḤammad's heart can undo the locks on the treasury of secrets.” [DS 201-2]

To Him belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth. The seven heavens and the seven earths are His kingdom and property. They are kept by His help, penetrated by His will, and driven by His decree. All creatures are incapable, and He is powerful and potent. All are weak, and He is subjugating and strong. All are ignorant, and He is knowing and knowledgeable. The artifacts and determined things are a mark of His power, the beings and newly arrived things are the explication of His wisdom, the existents and the known things are the proof of His existence. Increase does not befall Him, nor does decrease come upon Him. He is the powerful, eternal, knowing, wise, the God of all.

He is the First, the Last, the Outward, and the Inward, and He is knower of everything. He is the First, for He knew the nonbeings, the Last for He knows what He knew, the Outward through what He made, the Inward, hidden from imaginations. He is the First: He was before every created thing, without beginning. He is the Last: He will be after everything, without end. He is the Outward: He stands over everyone, without any one to overpower or prevent. He is the Inward: He knows all hidden things, without veil. He is the First through beginninglessness, the Last through endlessness, the Outward through unity, and the Inward through eternity. He is the First through awesomeness, the Last through mercy, the Outward through proofs, the Inward through blessings. He is the First through be- stowal, the Last through recompense, the Outward through laudation, the Inward through loyalty. He is the First through guidance, the Last through sufficiency, the Outward through rulership, the Inward through kind favor. He is the First of every blessing, the Last of every tribulation, the Outward of every argument, the Inward of every wisdom. In terms of allusion He is saying, “O child of Adam, in relation to you the people of the world are four groups: A group who are useful to you at the beginning of the state and the first of life, and they are parents. A group who are useful to you at the end of life and the weakness of old age, and they are children. Third is the group of friends, brothers, and all the Muslims who are with you outwardly and show tenderness. Fourth is the group of wives and women, who are your inner, inside realm and are useful to you.” The Lord of the Worlds is saying, “Do not rely and depend on these and do not fancy that they themselves are your caretakers and caregivers, for I am the First and the Last. I am suited to be the beginning and end of your work and state. I am the Outward and the Inward. I keep you in My own keeping and I set straight your final ends. I am the First, for I tightly bound the hearts of the passionate with beginningless compacts. I am the Last, for I hunt the spirits of the truthful with My promises.

And He is with you wherever you are. “My servants! My creatures! Wherever you are, I am with you through solicitude, mercy, and kind favor. Wherever in the world there is someone poor, wounded by offenses, helpless in the hand of an adversary, I am his patron. Wherever there is someone with a ruined life, made indigent by the passing days, I am looking after him. Wherever there is someone burnt, struck by grief, I am the happiness of his spirit. Wherever there is someone weeping in shame, his head turned while not having anyone, I am his proof. I am the Lord who is far from the path of retribution. I lift up all those thrown down and fleeing, for I am clement and ever-merciful to the servants.”

Surely God is to you clement, ever-merciful. Part of His clemency and mercy was that the servant was in the concealment of nonexistence and He was taking care of his work with perfect bounty and generosity. The servant was in the conceal- ment of nonexistence and He chose him over the whole world. Part of His mercy is that He gives the servant the success to be on guard against the hidden sorts of associationism and the subtle sorts of eye-service. He said, “I am clement and ever- merciful” so that the disobedient would not despair and would have a strong hope in His bounty and generosity. YaḤyā ibn Muʿādh Rāzī said, “You were gentle to Your friends, so they recognized You. Had you been gentle to Your enemies, they would not have refused You.” You made the jasmine of Your gentleness grow in the garden of the hearts of Your friends such that, by means of Your gentleness and bounty, the Abode of Peace was their place. But, One group reached the spheres, another the pit- alas at Your threats toward a handful of dust! On the heads of one group He placed the crown of generosity:

Their light running before them, and on their right hands. On another group He placed the brand of deprivation:

And a wall will be set up between them, inside of which is mercy and outside of which is chastisement. Pharaoh's sorcerers dwelt in nothing but unbelief and sin, but it is said that sorcery has no effect unless a man is polluted. When the wind of good fortune blew from the direction of gentleness and generosity, it left neither sorcery nor any sorcerer, neither unbelief nor any unbeliever. In the morning they were busy with the sin of unbelief and denial, and in the evening they were at the side of faith and asking forgiveness. Shaykh Abū Saʿīd Abu'l-Khayr said, “Whoever picks up a burden from the garden of solici- tude will put it down in the playing field of friendship. Whoever sucks milk from the breast of kind favor will be nurtured in the embrace of protection.” [The Master Abū ʿAlī said,] “Whoever is given familiarity in the morning can hope for for- giveness in the evening.”

God has heard the words of her who disputes with thee concerning her husband and complains to God. The weaker someone is, the gentler is the Lord. The lord of lords, the master of all masters, the gentle, generous, and lovingly kind, takes care of the work of the weak in a way that leaves all the strong in wonder. A hundred thousand proximate angels, glorifying and hallowing, were diving in the oceans of bows and prostrations and raising the voices of glorification and hallowing at the Exalted Threshold, but no one talked about them. But that poor, weak woman-the disputer who wept before the Threshold in burning and bewilderment and who complained of her despair-look how the Splendorous Qur'an wrote the inscription of exaltation on the cape of her secret whis- pering: “God has heard the words of her who disputes with thee concerning her husband and complains to God. We have heard her complaint, We have listened to her lamenting and supplicat- ing, and We have made apparent the opening up of the suffering and tightness in which she has remained because of her husband's repudiation of her. We are the Lord who is the good companion of everyone helpless and without a companion, We untie the knots of everyone in bonds, We dispel the sorrows of everyone sorrowful. We hear the voice of the poor, We listen to the whispering of the miserable, We respond to the need of the helpless.” It has come in a report that one day this woman who disputed came to ʿUmar KhaṬṬāb during the days of his caliphate for a business she had with him. She spoke harshly with him. Those who were with him shouted at her, saying, “Do you not know that you must not speak harsh words to the Commander of the Faithful?” ʿUmar said to them, “Be silent! Have respect for this poor woman! She is the woman whose words the Real heard from beyond the seven levels of heaven, and upon whom He placed this caress and generosity: “God has heard the words of her who disputes with thee concerning her husband and complains to God.” O Muslims! Respect the poor and seek proximity to God by taking care of them and giving comfort to them. Although today they are helpless and poor, tomorrow they will be the kings of the Garden of Refuge and the great ones of the Highest Paradise.

O you who have faith, when you whisper with the Messenger, offer charity before you whisper. It is narrated that the Commander of the Faithful ʿAlī said that when this verse came down, he gave one dinar in charity and asked ten questions from God's Messenger. He said, “'O Messenger of God! How should I supplicate God?': How should I call upon God and worship Him?” The Messenger answered, “'With truthfulness and loyalty': Be loyal to the covenant that was made with Him on the Day of Alast and be truthful in your speaking and doing. Have what you show, do what you say, and be whence you call out.” ʿAlī said, “What should I ask for from God?” He answered, “'For safety in this world and the next:' In this world and the next the safety of the heart from the blights of mortal nature and the well-being of the body in the varieties of trial.” ʿAlī said, “'What should I make ready for my salvation?': What should I do so that in the gathering place of the resurrection I may be delivered, secure from the terrors of the resurrection and arrived at the degrees of the Garden?” He answered, “'Eat the permitted and speak with truthfulness': When you eat something, eat the permitted, and when you speak, speak with truthfulness. Do not give the forbidden access to yourself, for the forbidden has a bad outcome. Avoid lying, for anyone who lies will have a bad name in the two worlds.” He said, “'What is the stratagem?': What stratagem should I use so that things will come out as I want?” He answered, “'The stratagem is to abandon stratagems': Let go of stratagems and know that everything is as God wants and that the stratagems and governance of the servant will never over- come God's predetermination.” He said, “'What must I do?': What are the rules that I must discharge?” He answered, “'The command of God and His Messenger': Everything mandatory and oblig- atory commanded by God, and everything set down as Sunnah and recommended by the Mes- senger.” He said, “'What is ease?': What is ease and comfort?” He answered, “'The Garden': Ease is that you settle down in paradise and its blessings and that you stay secure from hell and its punishment.

Whatever the Messenger gives you, take; whatever he prohibits you, forgo. The call came from the Real: “Whatever drink comes to you from the auspicious hand of MuḤammad the Arab, the Hashimite prophet, take, for your life lies in that. Read the tablet that he writes, learn servanthood from his character traits, take seeking from his aspiration, put his Sunnah to work, walk behind him in all states. The final goal of the traveling of the servants and the perfection of their states is My love, and My love lies in following the Sunnah and conduct of your prophet. Whoever walks straight in his tracks is in reality My friend. Say: 'If you love God, follow me; God will love you' [3:31].” The faithful Companions came back to being loyal to the beginningless Covenant and kept their feet straight in following MuṣṬafā's Sunnah. They put to work truthfulness in acts, and the Lord of the Worlds praised them for their truthfulness:

Those-they are the truthful. Truthfulness [ṣidq] is the charity [ṣadaqa] of the secret core, the dower [ṣidāq] of the Garden, and the true friend [ṣadīq] of the Real. Make truthfulness your trade, for among the ranks at the resurrection, none are delivered from God's anger but the truthful. [DS 188]

O you who have faith, be wary of God and let every soul consider what it has sent on ahead for tomorrow, and be wary of God. In this one verse He mentions godwariness twice. First is the godwariness of the common people, namely the avoidance of forbidden things. Second is the godwariness of the elect, namely the avoidance of everything other than the Real. It has also been said that the first alludes to the root of godwariness and the second to the perfection of godwariness. No one can pass over the steep road of the resurrection without the perfection of godwariness. One must be detached from all objects of desire, one must seize on not reaching one's desires, and one must consider all sweet drinks as poison. When someone's feet reach this point, he has reached the perfection of godwariness. WāsiṬī said, “When the folk of godwariness act proudly toward the sons of this world, they are making claims in godwariness.” For, if this world had no impact on their hearts, they would not be proud about turning away from it. A great one said, “This world is a shard of pottery seen in a dream. The next world is a pearl found in wakefulness. The man is not someone who is wary of a shard in a dream-the manly man is he who is wary of a pearl found in wakefulness.” In short, know that the steps of the travelers in the road of godwariness are three: The step of the Shariah illuminates the door of the bodily frame. The step of the Tariqah illuminates the door of the heart. The step of the Haqiqah illuminates the door of the spirit. When those who travel in the bodily frame arrive, the hospitality of Surely the godwary will be in the midst of gardens and a river [54:54] will be brought for them. When those who travel in the heart arrive, the hospitality of a seat of truthfulness [54:55] will be brought for them. When those who travel in the spirit arrive, the hospitality of at an Omnipotent King [54:55] will be brought for them.

O you who have faith, take not My enemy and your enemy as friends. “O you who have faith, who have seen the Messenger as truthful, and who have accepted My message with spirit and soul, do not take My enemy and your enemy as your friend. No enemy of yours is greater than the commanding soul. Beware lest you feel secure from it. Always be on guard against it.” MuṣṬafā said, “Your worst enemy is your soul that is between your two sides.” Your worst enemy is the disobedient soul. It always wants that in which is your loss. Anyone who lets the soul have what it wants is planting the seeds of his own remorse. Among the reports from David is this: “O David, be the enemy of your own soul, for no one in the empire contends with Me except it.” The soul [nafs] is dust-dwelling, terrestrial, and dark. It is a treacherous and deceiving enemy. Its root is from “rivalry” [tanāfus], and rivalry is the beginning of rancor, envy, hatred, and enmity. MuṣṬafā was not exaggerating when he said, “We have returned from the lesser struggle to the greater struggle.” He called war against Byzantium the smaller war and war against the soul the greater war. For, you can take Byzantium from the emperor with a small army, but you cannot take the soul from someone with all the friends on the face of the earth. This is because an unbeliever in Byzantium struggles face-to-face and shows impudence and wrath against the warriors and calls them to do improper acts. But the soul does not struggle face-to-face. It shows him affection and kindness and calls him to do honorable acts. This is why the men of religion's road leave aside many of the obedient acts, for they know that those are the decoys of the soul; a hunter catches birds with birds. AḤmad Khiẓrūya Balkhī said, “I had severely put down my soul with various sorts of disci- pline and struggle. One day it became elated by war. I was surprised, because the soul does not become elated by obedience. I asked myself what sort of deception was hidden there. Perhaps it could not put up with hunger, for I was always commanding it to fast. It wanted to travel so as to break its fast while traveling.

Everything in the heavens and the earth glorifies God, and He is the Exalted, the Wise. He who desires to make his glorification of Him limpid should make his heart limpid without the traces of his soul, and he who desires his life in the Garden to be limpid should make his religion limpid without the filth of caprice. The world's folk are two groups: The life of one group is with the Real's gentleness and bounty, and their ease is the glorification and remembrance of the Real. The life of the other group is a mark of the Real's justice, and their ease is found in the shares of the soul. Those who are the folk of gentleness and bounty have a heart that is limpid, an aspiration that is high, and a breast that is empty for the divine remembrance. Their tongue is given over to bearing witness, their heart turned over to recognition, their spirit mixed with love, their secret core fled to God, and their own attributes disowned. It has been said that every attribute of selfhood is an attachment, every attach- ment a color, and every color a disgrace in the road of men. He who painted a thousand worlds with color- why would He buy my color and yours, O bankrupt man! The glorification and remembrance of this group come from the pure quarry and reach the pure Lord, accepted and approved by God, as He says: “To Him ascend the goodly words, and He uplifts the wholesome deed” [35:10]. As for those who are the mark of the Real's justice and who live through the shares of the soul, their breast is tainted with appetite, their heart is the quarry of trouble, and their inwardness is dif- ferent from their outwardness. Their names are written in the register of the hypocrites. Their acts are different from their words, just as the Lord of the Worlds says:

O you who have faith, why do you say what you do not do? Concerning the hypocrites to whom these words refer, the Lord of the Worlds says,

Greatly hateful to God is it that you say what you do not do. Very ugly, inappropriate, and hated by God are words that do not bring deeds in conformity, or preaching in which the preacher has no portion of the practice. Do not prohibit the people and then do the like of that! Your disgrace is tremendous when you do so. God revealed to Jesus, “O son of Mary! Counsel yourself. If you take the counsel, counsel the people. Otherwise, have shame before Me.”

Everything in the heavens and the earth glorifies God, the King, the Holy, the Exalted, the Wise. He is the King, the Owner, the Owner of the Kingdom, and the King of Kings. The king in reality is He, for His kingship has no removal, His seriousness no levity, His exaltedness no abasement, His decree no rejection. He has no peer, and from Him there is no escape. When the faithful, believing servant comes to know that the owner in reality is He, he will break the tablet of making claims, roll up the carpet of folly, pull his skirt back from the two worlds, surrender possessions and the kingdom to the Absolute Owner, and consider His desire prior to his own desire. He will be ashamed to abase himself before any created thing or to bend his upright neck for the sake of a grain or a mouthful. “He who aims for the ocean has no need for rivulets.” “He who recognizes God will not put up with the abasement of the creatures.” Whoever knows the Real's majesty will not give himself over to creatures' abasing. The hand of his truthful- ness will be held back from the two worlds, the foot of his love will always be in the road, his heart will be in the grasp of the King's exaltation, and his secret core will be the quarry of the secret of the Possessor of Majesty. On his forehead will be the mark of prosperity, in the eye of his certainty the light of taking heed of God's acts, in his nose the fragrance of the garden of union. People have states, pleasures, and names, but he is without states, pleasures, and names. What then has he lost? For tomorrow in the house of the afterworld he will be the nightingale of the garden of At-ness and the falcon of the mystery of unity. Ḥallāj was asked about renunciation. He said, “Putting aside the enjoyment of this world is the soul's renunciation. Putting aside the bliss of the next world is the heart's renunciation. Abandon- ing one's own self in this road is the spirit's renunciation. Those who are renunciants in this world settle down in the abode of approval. Those who are renunciants in paradise settle down in the Palisades of Holiness. As for the group that renounce their own selfhoods, they will be snatched away by a flood in the valley of No god but God. There will be no news of them in this abode and no trace of them in that abode. They will settle down in the Pavilion of Jealousy with access to the dome of the Self-Sufficiency's proximity.”

When the hypocrites come to thee they say, “We bear witness that thou art indeed the Messenger of God.” On the first day in the era of the Beginningless He sent the diver of power into the ocean of Adam's loins to bring out the night-brightening pearls and the black beads to the shore of existence. There were both faithful and hypocrites, and just as He brought forth the faithful, so also He brought forth the hypocrites. But with His bounty He kept the faithful at the front of the hall of exaltedness on the carpet of gentleness, without bias; and with His justice He kept the hypocrites in the back with the shoes beneath the carpet of severity and abasement, without iniquity. He placed the crown of felicity on the heads of the faithful, and their portion of the Book was this: “So rejoice in your sale you have made to Him” [9:111]. He placed the bonds of abasement and the shackles of deg- radation on the feet of the hypocrites, and their portion of the Book came to be this: “Die in your rage!” [3:119]. This is why the Lord of the Worlds says, “Those-their portion of the Book will reach them” [7:37]. About the faithful He says, “in a seat of truthfulness, at an Omnipotent King” [54:55], and about the hypocrites He says, “in the lowest reach of the Fire” [4:145]. Be as your luck lets you be, I'll be as my lot allows. Tomorrow in the courtyards of the resurrection the hypocrites will ride on the coattails of the faithful and will go with their brightness until they reach the Narrow Path. Then the faithful will go ahead and cross over the bridge with the light of their faith and self-purification. The unbelief and hypocrisy of the hypocrites will seize their skirts so that they remain in darkness and bewilder- ment. They will call out, “Wait for us so that we may borrow some of your light” [57:13]. They will ask for light and brightness from the faithful, but the faithful will respond, “Turn back behind and request a light” [57:13], that is, “'Turn back to the decree of the Beginningless and seek light from the apportioning.' Seek for the light from the decree of the Beginningless, not from us.

Everything in the heavens and everything in the earth glorifies Him. His is the kingdom and His is the praise, and He is powerful over everything. The meaning of glorification is to declare holy and incomparable. Declaring holy is that you know that God is incomparable with and hallowed beyond unworthy attributes and the descriptions of newly arrived things; pure of defect, far from imagination, outside of intellect, and hallowed beyond reasoning. He is described but not caused, recognized but not intelligible, apparent but disregarded. His howness is not known, intellect in Him is dismissed, and understanding in Him is bewildered. His being is to be seen, His Essence and attributes to be accepted but not perceived, and His howness to be heard but not known. He is saying, “The seven heavens and the seven earths and everything within them glorify God and praise Him for purity and peerlessness.” From creatures He asks for acceptance and firm fixity, for they do not perceive and know that. Have you not read that God says, “But you do not understand their glorification” [17:44]? You do not perceive the glorification of heaven and earth, water, fire, wind, and earth, mountains and seas, and all animate and inanimate things. He has made faith in it mandatory but He has made the creatures despair of perceiving it. Since you do not perceive the created things with intellect, how will you determine God's Essence and attributes with mere intellect? Accept the outwardness, give over the inwardness, leave it with what God desires, and remember to stay safe. Know also that in twenty attributes, God is incomparable with and pure of twenty attributes. In unity He is pure of associate and partner, in self-sufficiency He is pure of being grasped, in first- ness He is pure of beginning, in lastness He is pure of end, in eternity He is pure of new arrival, in existence He is pure of encompassment, in witnessing He is pure of perception, in self-standing He is pure of change, in power He is pure of weakness, in patience He is pure of incapacity, in withholding He is pure of niggardliness, in vengeance He is pure of rancor, in all-compellingness He is pure of iniquity, in magnificence He is pure of rebellion, in wrath He is pure of annoyance, in artisanry He is pure of need, in guile He is pure of delusion, in shame He is pure of regret, in deception He is pure of contrivance, in wonder He is pure of not knowing, in subsistence He is pure of annihilation.

He it is who created you. Among you are unbelievers and among you are faithful. The work is what He did in the Beginningless, the decree is what He issued in the Beginningless, the robe of honor what He bestowed in the Beginningless. The apportioning was made, not to be increased or decreased. One was washed with the water of solicitude, another fastened by the nail of rejection-a decree without bias, a judgment without iniquity. The name of one was recorded in the ledger of the felicitous and accepted for beginningless bounty, without any cause in the midst. The name of another was recorded in the register of the wretched, the belt of rejection bound to his waist; he was driven from the threshold of acceptance and good fortune, and he has not the gall to say a word. “One group sought Him, and He abandoned them; another group fled from Him, and He grasped them.” One group never rested from the road of seeking night and day, making themselves emaciated and wasted with acts of struggle and discipline, but He placed the hand of rejection on their breasts, for “The seeking is rejected, the path blocked.” Another group became the devotees of idol-temples, prostrating themselves before Lat and Hubal, but the call of exaltedness had been set in place for their sake: “You are Mine, and I am yours.” Ibrāhīm Khawāṣṣ said, “Once I was walking in the desert for the sake of disengagement. I saw an old man sitting there, a hat on his head, and he was weeping in lowliness and misery. I said, 'Hello, who are you?' “He said, 'I am Abū Murra [the Father of Bitterness].' “I said, 'Why are you weeping?' “He said, 'Who is more worthy of weeping than I? For forty thousand years I was serving that threshold, and in the Highest Horizon no one was placed before me. Now look at the divine predetermination and the unseen decree-what days have been brought for me! “'O questioner! How will it be for you after me? I met what was ugly and it made Him happy. I had become conceited in union and over time became secure from His deception. Such has the aversion burnt me that not a speck of what I witnessed remains.

So be wary of God as much as you are able. In another place, He says, “Be wary of God as is the rightful due of His wariness” [3:102]. One of these verses is the abrogater, the other the abrogated. One alludes to what is necessary by the command, the other alludes to what is necessary by rightful due. What is necessary by the com- mand came and abrogated what is necessary by rightful due. This is because when the Real calls the servants to account, He does so by what the command makes necessary so that He may then pardon their acts. If He were to take them to task for what is necessary by rightful due, then a thousand years of obedience would have the same color as a thousand years of disobedience. If all the prophets, the friends, and the limpid, and all the recognizers and lovers, came together, which of them would have the capacity to undertake His rightful due or to answer to His rightful due? His command is finite, but His rightful due is infinite. This is because the command subsists as long as the prescription of the Law subsists, but the prescription of the Law pertains to this world, which is the abode of prescription. The rightful due subsists through the subsistence of the Essence, and the Essence is infinite. Hence the subsistence of the rightful due is infinite. What is necessary by the command will disappear, but what is necessary by the rightful due will never disappear. This world will pass away, and the turn of the command will pass away along with it. But the turn of the rightful due will never pass away. Today everyone has a mad fervor in his head because he is looking at the command. The prophets and messengers look at their own prophethood and messengerhood, and the angels look at their own obedience and worship. The tawḤīd-voicers, the strugglers, the faithful, and the purifiers look at their own tawḤīd, faith, and self-purification. Tomorrow, when the pavilions of the lordly rightful due are thrown open, the prophets, de- spite the perfection of their state, will speak of their own knowledge of the Subsistent: “We have no knowledge” [5:109]. The angels of the Dominion will strike fire to the monasteries of their obedience, saying, “We have not worshiped You with the rightful due of Your worship.” The rec- ognizers and tawḤīd-voicers will say, “We have not recognized You with the rightful due of Your recognition.” And God knows best what is correct.

O Prophet, when you divorce women, divorce them for the set period. This explains the ruling on divorce. Although the Shariah permits divorce, God hates it, for it is the cause of separation. MuṣṬafā said, “Among the permitted things most hateful to God is divorce.” He also said, “Take spouses and do not divorce, for the Throne shudders at divorce. Whenever a woman asks her husband for divorce, the ease of the Garden is forbidden to her.” He is saying, “Get married and do not seek divorce, for the Tremendous Throne trembles at divorce and separa- tion. Any woman who seeks divorce from her husband without his having harmed her or made her suffer will never smell the scent of the eight paradises.” Marriage is the cause of joining, and God loves union. Divorce is the cause of parting, and God hates separation. The wall of separation's world is affliction, and the water of separation's ocean is the bloody tears of remorse. The day of separation has no sun and the night of severance no day. If there were any drink more bitter than separation, it would have been placed on that rejected one of the Threshold, Iblis. A bowl was prepared of curses, the drink of severance and separation was poured into it, and it was put in his hand. He drank it all down, not leaving a drop. That was expressed like this: “Upon thee shall be My curse until the Day of Doom” [38:78]. The great ones of the religion have said that two goblets appeared from the Unseen. One was And he was one of the unbelievers [2:34] and the other was He is Ever-Merciful toward the faithful [33:43]. The cup of unbelief was full of the drink of separation and the cup of mercy full of the drink of union. He sent the cup of mercy on the hand of welcome with the escort of bounty to the spirit of MuṣṬafā the Arab. God says, “Surely God's bounty upon thee is magnificent” [4:113]. The cup of unbelief was given by the hand of justice with the description of abasement to Iblis the abandoned. It was said, “I shall surely fill Gehenna with thee and whosoever follows thee, all together” [38:85]. Rābiʿa ʿAdawī said, “Unbelief has the flavor of separation, and faith has the pleasure of union.

O you who have faith, repent to God with true repentance. “O believers, familiars, and friends, all of you repent! Come back to My threshold! Turn to Me! Though you have done what comes from you, I will do what comes from Me! Nobody accepts the defective except here. Come back! No threshold forgives sins but here. Seek shelter in Me! Come from the unkindly to the Lovingly Kind! Come from the pain of despair to hope! I have no fear of forgiving sins, come back! I am not ashamed to accept the defective, return!” Read the equivalent of this verse in “Be penitent toward your Lord” [39:54]. The station of penitence is higher than the station of repentance. Penitence is the servant's return to his Lord with heart and aspiration, and repentance is the servant's return from disobedience to obedience. What is penitence? Coming from the valley of hypocrisy on the feet of truthfulness to the valley of tranquility, coming from the valley of innovation on the feet of surrender to the valley of the Sunnah, coming from the valley of dispersion on the feet of disentanglement to the valley of togetherness, coming from the valley of making claims on the feet of poverty to the valley of solitariness, coming from the valley of intelligence on the feet of indigence to the Real. What is repentance? An obeyed interceder, tender trustee, and generous deputy effaces the imprint of sin and at his intercession the Real pardons the sinful servant. He cleanses and makes pure the servant's ledger of disobedience and makes the repentant man equal to a man without sin. This is why MuṣṬafā said, “He who repents of sin is like him who has no sin.” He also said, “Surely God is happier at His servant's repentance than a thirsty man who comes upon a spring, a man who has lost his camel and finds it, and a barren woman who gives birth.” He is saying, “The Real is more quickly pleased by the repentance of the repenters than by any other act of obedience. Know that His approval of the repentance of the sinner is like the happiness of a thirsty man in the middle of a dry, waterless desert who suddenly comes across pure water. Or it is like that of a traveler who has lost his goods and mount in the middle of a perilous desert and then, after despairing, he suddenly comes across his mount and his goods.

Blessed is He in whose hand is the kingdom, and He is powerful over everything. The kingdom of the 18,000 worlds is in His hand. The heads of all the headmen are in the grasp of His predetermination, the necks of all the proud wear the collar of His subjection, the forelocks of all the tyrants are acquiescent to the severity of His all-compellingness. It has come in a report, “'I am the King. The hearts and the forelocks of the kings are in My hand, and I make them fluctuate as I will.' I am the king, I am king over all kings. Exalting and abasing the servants is in My hand. The hearts of the world's folk are in My grasp. I turn them any way I want and I drive their secret cores according to My desire. If I want, I call them and make them laugh. If I want, I drive them away and make them weep. “O you who are the world's folk! Do not busy your breasts because of kings and do not attach your hearts to them. Attach your hearts to My religion, trust in My generosity, and turn your face to the threshold of obedience to Me. Serve the religion so that this world may follow you. Serve the King of kings, so that the kings of this world may serve you.” Serve Him so that kings may serve you, be His boy and the sultan will be your servant. The kingdom of human nature is one thing, the kingdom of the heart another, and the kingdom of the spirit still another. Human nature runs the kingdom in this world, the heart runs the kingdom in the next world, and the spirit runs the kingdom in the World of the Haqiqah. The kingdom of human nature is this: Surely the life of this world is but play, diversion, and adornment [57:20]. The kingdom of the heart is this: He loves them, and they love Him [5:54]. The kingdom of the spirit is this: Faces that day will radiant, gazing upon their Lord [75:22-23]. That exalted man of the road said, “Tomorrow when the banner of His magnificence is raised at the resurrection-Whose is the kingdom? [40:16]-with His permission I will open up a door in the corner of my heart and give out some of my pain for Him.

Nūn. By the Pen and what they inscribe. Nūn is one of the letters of the alphabet. The alphabet's letters are the roots of words, the connec- tors of phrases, and the separators of verses. All indicate generosity and bounty, some in brief and some in detail. They allude to gentleness, the good news of love, expiation of offenses, and the plundering of the hearts of the friends. They are the foundation of words and the adornment of speakers. Understanding them is the mark of those who conform. They are burdens on the neck of the enemies and thorns in the eyes of the innovators. It is the belief of the faithful that these letters are the speech of the Lord of the world. He is a Lord who has knowledge and power. His knowledge is without reflective thought and His power without tools. His kingship is without end, His solicitude without bribery, His bestowal without obligation. He is a Lord who is the artisan of the universe and the protector of creation, the keeper of enemies and the companion of friends. He is in everyone's eyes through artisanry and settled down in the hearts of His lovers, the hard cash of every hope and enough for every assurance. Though the servant be heavily burdened by offenses, He is clement and forbearing. The Pir of the Tariqah said in his whispered prayers, “O God, no matter how sinful we are, You are forgiving. No matter how ugly our deeds, You are the concealer. O King, You have the treasure of bounty, without equal or help. It is worthy that You pass over our disloyal acts.” Nūn. By the Pen. Nūn is the inkwell, and the Pen is a pen of light. The writer is the Forgiving Lord. He wrote with the Pen in the emerald Tablet, He wrote with the ink of light, He wrote on the notebook of carnelian, He wrote the story and the deeds of the created things. He wrote the heart of the recognizer with the Pen of generosity, He wrote with the ink of bounty, He wrote on the notebook of gentleness, He wrote the attribute and description of the honorable: He wrote faith in their hearts [58:22]. He wrote in the Tablet, and He wrote it all for you.

The Realizing! What is the Realizing? What is the resurrection? That resurrection is real, and it is what will be. It is true, and it is what will happen. Everyone will reach what is suited for him and will receive the reward for the good and evil in his register. It is said that the resurrection is two, one today and one tomorrow. Today's is death, as has come in the report: “When someone dies, his resurrection arrives.” Whoever is certain of this res- urrection is always terrified and fearful of death. He is always burnt and melted in fear of this res- urrection. He keeps himself busy with the provisions of the road and the makings of that journey. The great ones of the religion have said that the Adamite is one of two: either like a beast held in a stable, or like a bird imprisoned in a cage. The poor wretch who is like a beast fears and trem- bles because of death. He knows that when the beast is taken out of the stable, it will be quickly slaughtered. The chevalier who is like a bird is constantly waiting for death, for the happiness and ease of the bird lies in the breaking of the cage. Thus that chevalier said, “When will I be released from this cage to make a nest in the divine garden?” [DS 371] As for tomorrow's resurrection, that is the resurrection when all the people from the first to the last will be gathered in that plain of awe, as the Exalted Lord says, “And We will muster them such that We leave none of them behind” [18:47]. It is a tremendous day, a difficult work, a limitless harshness. The portico of magnificence will be set up, the scales of justice hung, the narrow path of rightness pulled out, the paradises of beauty adorned, the hell of awesomeness stirred up. This is the day when the curtains will be lifted, the secrets made apparent, the crowns of levity thrown in the dust, the hats of folly taken off. Fancies will be cleared of water and dust, and the rewards of good and evil will be placed next to each other.

The Realizing! What is the Realizing? What is the resurrection? That resurrection is real, and it is what will be. It is true, and it is what will happen. Everyone will reach what is suited for him and will receive the reward for the good and evil in his register. It is said that the resurrection is two, one today and one tomorrow. Today's is death, as has come in the report: “When someone dies, his resurrection arrives.” Whoever is certain of this res- urrection is always terrified and fearful of death. He is always burnt and melted in fear of this res- urrection. He keeps himself busy with the provisions of the road and the makings of that journey. The great ones of the religion have said that the Adamite is one of two: either like a beast held in a stable, or like a bird imprisoned in a cage. The poor wretch who is like a beast fears and trem- bles because of death. He knows that when the beast is taken out of the stable, it will be quickly slaughtered. The chevalier who is like a bird is constantly waiting for death, for the happiness and ease of the bird lies in the breaking of the cage. Thus that chevalier said, “When will I be released from this cage to make a nest in the divine garden?” [DS 371] As for tomorrow's resurrection, that is the resurrection when all the people from the first to the last will be gathered in that plain of awe, as the Exalted Lord says, “And We will muster them such that We leave none of them behind” [18:47]. It is a tremendous day, a difficult work, a limitless harshness. The portico of magnificence will be set up, the scales of justice hung, the narrow path of rightness pulled out, the paradises of beauty adorned, the hell of awesomeness stirred up. This is the day when the curtains will be lifted, the secrets made apparent, the crowns of levity thrown in the dust, the hats of folly taken off. Fancies will be cleared of water and dust, and the rewards of good and evil will be placed next to each other.

What is it with you that you do not hope for God with dignity? And He created you in stages. “What has happened to you that you do not show gratitude for blessings and you do not recognize the rightful due of My nurturing, even though you know from what you were created and how you were created, state by state and stage by stage. First I brought a sperm drop from weak loins into a weak womb. I kept it in that firm settledness [77:21] and fortified place. Look at how I painted it with the pen of power. I turned that drop of water into blood and turned that blood into flesh. Then I brought forth bones and joined them together. When the formed and determined frame was completed, I commanded the subtle spirit to go into the body, like a sultan to a castle or a phoenix to its nest, so that it might give a robe of honor to each bodily part: seeing to the eye, speaking to the tongue, hearing to the ear, taking to the hand, walking to the feet. O servant, I adorned you beautifully, in the most beautiful stature [95:4]. I refined your stature, I created you more beautiful than all the beings, and I sculpted you more lovely than all the existent things.” No idol like your form is sculpted in the country, no cypress with your stature is planted in Kishmar. When your picture is painted before Azar's idol, Azar's painted idol shatters in shame. The wise Enactor, the generous Lord, added to the beauty of form and showed you the marvels of power in your own created disposition. He adorned your heart with tawḤīd, scouring away the rust of denial. What do you say about His wisdom and His mercy? Is it suitable that He burn what He himself adorned and trimmed? No, of course not. When you ponder this state and reflect on the artisanry of the Creator, you will say with the tongue of thanksgiving, “He sculpted me from a drop of sperm, He appointed me to serve Him in His bounty He lifted my head above all creatures- thanks be to God for acting so beautifully toward me!” Having reminded them of all the blessings and generosity of the Real, Noah heard no gratitude. It only increased them in unbelief and denial, so he turned his face away from them and said,

What is it with you that you do not hope for God with dignity? And He created you in stages. “What has happened to you that you do not show gratitude for blessings and you do not recognize the rightful due of My nurturing, even though you know from what you were created and how you were created, state by state and stage by stage. First I brought a sperm drop from weak loins into a weak womb. I kept it in that firm settledness [77:21] and fortified place. Look at how I painted it with the pen of power. I turned that drop of water into blood and turned that blood into flesh. Then I brought forth bones and joined them together. When the formed and determined frame was completed, I commanded the subtle spirit to go into the body, like a sultan to a castle or a phoenix to its nest, so that it might give a robe of honor to each bodily part: seeing to the eye, speaking to the tongue, hearing to the ear, taking to the hand, walking to the feet. O servant, I adorned you beautifully, in the most beautiful stature [95:4]. I refined your stature, I created you more beautiful than all the beings, and I sculpted you more lovely than all the existent things.” No idol like your form is sculpted in the country, no cypress with your stature is planted in Kishmar. When your picture is painted before Azar's idol, Azar's painted idol shatters in shame. The wise Enactor, the generous Lord, added to the beauty of form and showed you the marvels of power in your own created disposition. He adorned your heart with tawḤīd, scouring away the rust of denial. What do you say about His wisdom and His mercy? Is it suitable that He burn what He himself adorned and trimmed? No, of course not. When you ponder this state and reflect on the artisanry of the Creator, you will say with the tongue of thanksgiving, “He sculpted me from a drop of sperm, He appointed me to serve Him in His bounty He lifted my head above all creatures- thanks be to God for acting so beautifully toward me!” Having reminded them of all the blessings and generosity of the Real, Noah heard no gratitude. It only increased them in unbelief and denial, so he turned his face away from them and said,

My Lord, forgive me and my parents, and those who enter my house with faith, and the faithful men and women. “My Lord, forgive me and my parents, and those who enter my house with faith: O Lord, forgive me and the two who gave birth to me, and everyone who enters into my covenant with faith. And the faithful men and women: and the faithful among the community of AḤmad, the men and the women, who will come into existence at the end of the era as the best of all communities and ap- proved by You, the Lord.”

O enwrapped in thy robe, stand at night save for a little. “O prophet made pure! O master most pure! O greatest messenger! O emulated by mortal man! O luminous moon in the tower of majesty! O most manifest pearl in the jewel box of messengerhood! O you whose name is the title of the book of majesty! O you whose decrees are the embroidery on the robe of messengerhood, whose speech is the capital of the religion, whose announcements are the ornament of the Shariah! O arranger of the collar of prophethood! O disseminator of the an- nouncement of messengerhood! O confirmer of the pillars of guidance! O unveiler of the secrets of friendship! O founder of the path of the Shariah! O raiser of the miʿrāj of the Haqiqah! “Stand at night: Get up and do the night prayer. Be awake some of the night, interceding for the community; and sleep some of the night, giving ease to your soul. O master, if you sleep all night, your community will be neglected, and if you stay awake all night, you will suffer, but I do not want your suffering. When you stay awake I will forgive some of the disobedient because of your wakefulness so as to confirm the truth of intercession. While you sleep I will forgive the rest to realize mercy. O master, when you found the robe of My proximity, you found it in sleep. So also at night be in My service. Just as you found the robe at night, so also give thanks for that robe by serving at night.” O chevalier! The servant is shown no greater generosity than when he rises furtively from his warm bed on a dark night and enters into whispered prayer at God's threshold with weeping and pleading, lifting up the story of his own pain to Him. He says in the tongue of need before the Presence of Mystery, “O God, give me access so I may lift up the story of my pain to You. I weep before Your threshold and I am joyful in hope mixed with fear. O God, receive me so that I may turn myself over to You. Gaze at me once so that I may throw the two worlds into the ocean.” My dear, be awake and aware at night, for night is the scented garden of the friends and the springtime of the recognizers. Night is the meadow of the lovers and the light of the truthful. Night is the joy of the yearners and the ease of the spirits of the obedient.

O enwrapped in thy robe, stand at night save for a little. “O prophet made pure! O master most pure! O greatest messenger! O emulated by mortal man! O luminous moon in the tower of majesty! O most manifest pearl in the jewel box of messengerhood! O you whose name is the title of the book of majesty! O you whose decrees are the embroidery on the robe of messengerhood, whose speech is the capital of the religion, whose announcements are the ornament of the Shariah! O arranger of the collar of prophethood! O disseminator of the an- nouncement of messengerhood! O confirmer of the pillars of guidance! O unveiler of the secrets of friendship! O founder of the path of the Shariah! O raiser of the miʿrāj of the Haqiqah! “Stand at night: Get up and do the night prayer. Be awake some of the night, interceding for the community; and sleep some of the night, giving ease to your soul. O master, if you sleep all night, your community will be neglected, and if you stay awake all night, you will suffer, but I do not want your suffering. When you stay awake I will forgive some of the disobedient because of your wakefulness so as to confirm the truth of intercession. While you sleep I will forgive the rest to realize mercy. O master, when you found the robe of My proximity, you found it in sleep. So also at night be in My service. Just as you found the robe at night, so also give thanks for that robe by serving at night.” O chevalier! The servant is shown no greater generosity than when he rises furtively from his warm bed on a dark night and enters into whispered prayer at God's threshold with weeping and pleading, lifting up the story of his own pain to Him. He says in the tongue of need before the Presence of Mystery, “O God, give me access so I may lift up the story of my pain to You. I weep before Your threshold and I am joyful in hope mixed with fear. O God, receive me so that I may turn myself over to You. Gaze at me once so that I may throw the two worlds into the ocean.” My dear, be awake and aware at night, for night is the scented garden of the friends and the springtime of the recognizers. Night is the meadow of the lovers and the light of the truthful. Night is the joy of the yearners and the ease of the spirits of the obedient.

And recite the Qur'an with measured recitation. “O MuḤammad, at night recite the Qur'an in order and with measure. In the night prayer recite the Qur'an aloud so that My friends may nurture their spirits in the playing fields of holiness to the tune of intimacy in the pleasure of listening to My speech and the comfort of My message so that they may perfume and refresh their secret cores. O MuḤammad, say to My friends, 'When you want to whisper secretly with Me, turn your faces to the kiblah of the Shariah and step into the presence of the prayer.” “The praying person is whispering with his Lord.” The prayer is to tell secrets and knock at the door of hope. The prayer is the cause of salvation and whispering with the Friend. The prayer is the utmost limit of struggle and the beginning of contemplation. The prayer is to snatch oneself away from the hand of the soul, to strive in servanthood, and to praise the Friend. Through the prayer friends appear differently from enemies and familiars are separated from strangers. “Be- tween the servant and unbelief stands abandoning the prayer.” The person of faith saying the prayer is like a rosebush. Recognition in him is like the scent, and the prayer is like the roses. Anyone can pick the rose from the bush and tear apart its petals, but no one can reduce its scent and take away its fragrance. In the same way, Satan can whisper in the outward prayer so as to snatch something away from it, but he cannot take away recognition from the inwardness.

And remember the name of thy Lord and devote thyself to Him devoutly. Devotion is one of the states of the travelers, those who, in their states of encounter and unveilings, have reached the point that paradise with all its trees and streams does not enter into the beauty of their imagination; hell, with all its fetters and shackles, trembles in fear at the burning in their breasts. The viper of this world's avarice cannot put its fangs into the days of their delight, thorns from the thickets of envy and pride fail to catch in their skirts, dust from the desert of the com- manding soul does not sit on the robe of their submission, smoke from the abyss of caprice never reaches their eyes. They look at people with the eye of heedfulness, they speak with the tongue of tenderness, they become familiar with the heart of mercy. They are kings in attribute and beggars in form, sultans of the road in the garment of the indigent, travelers who have nothing of distance, fliers without the causality of wings and feathers, drunk with the wine of passion, alive with the life of proximity. A group who have cleared away everything other than Us, striking the fire of their hearts' grief into the spheres. Distant from everything outside of Us, they reached the Throne, their tents set up in the dust.

Lord of the east and the west, there is no god but He, so take Him as a trustee. Since you know that He is the God of the world and the world's folk, that He is their keeper, nurturer, work-knower, and guardian, consider Him your trustee and caretaker, for He is more suf- ficient than all caretakers. Come totally outside your rushing and running, your preoccupations, and entrust yourself totally to Him. Turn away from all and lean on His assurance. Lift your heart away from creatures and put aside self-governance. Put all of your self in the hands of His prede- termination so that the road of seeking may become clear to you. He is one Lord, and He wants a servant who is one in aspiration and one in seeking. These words will be not set in place by a man of every door and every place. Be the man whose feet are on the ground and whose aspiration's head is in the Pleiades. * The unique man has no use for middling passion; middling passion is not fit for the unique man. Either passion, or blame, or the road of safety- the arrow of trial has no target but man's spirit.

And be patient with what they say, and keep apart from them beautifully. We indeed know that thy breast is straitened by what they say [15:97]. And be patient with beauti- ful patience [70:5]. So be patient, as the possessors of resoluteness among the messengers were pa- tient [46:35]. Be patient with thy Lord's decree, for surely thou art in Our eyes [52:48]. In several places in the Qur'an that paragon of the world is commanded to have patience, for patience is the antidote to the poison of trial. The mark of the folk of love and friendship is patience. Patience in tribulation is no great work, for it is indeed people's habit. The manly man is he who is patient in blessings and keeps his feet on the road of servanthood. He does not step out- side of the blessings written for himself. Nimrod, Korah, Pharaoh, Haman, and their likes were drowned in the ocean of destruction only as a result of impatience. In blessings the Adamites have ungratefulness and ingratitude. Their feet do not remain in the blessings; rather, they pass beyond their limit and bring forth impudence and exultation. This is why the Exalted Lord says, “No indeed; surely man is rebellious because he sees himself without needs” [96:6-7]. Hence the final end of their work in this world is this: “How many a city We destroyed who exulted in their delightful life” [28:58]; and in the afterworld, what the Lord of the Worlds says in this surah: “Surely with Us there are shackles and hellfire, choking food and a pain- ful chastisement” [73:12-13].

O enwrapped in thy cloak, stand up and warn! “O source of bounteousness, O rising place of beauty, O chosen by the Majestic! O you who have pulled the cloak of mortal nature over your head and covered yourself with the rug of human na- ture. If you want proximity to Me, stand up through Me and drop from yourself everything other than Me. Rise up from yourself and rise up from your own rising up! Flee to the sanctuary of My exaltedness! Lift off the cloak of mortal nature from yourself, remove the rug of human nature from the road of the heart so that the heart may be a vast plain! Let it fly like a bird in the world of desire on the air of seeking until it arrives at the nest of proximity.” A great man was asked, “What is the meaning of proximity?” “If you mean the servant's proximity to the Real, expressing that is easy and alluding to it simple: It is service in seclusion, hidden from the people; the unveiling of the Haqiqah, hidden from the angels; immersion in companionship, hidden from oneself. “If you are talking about the Real's proximity to the servant, that cannot be put into words, nor do expression and allusion have any access to it. It is nothing but what He Himself says: 'Surely I am near [2:186]: Unsought, uncalled, unperceived, I am near. Compared to My closeness, the eye's blackness is distant from the eye's whiteness, for I am nearer than that, and the breath is far from the lips, for I am nearer than that. I am not near to your intellect's preserve, for I am near to My own attributes in the description of My own firstness.'” The Pir of the Tariqah said, “If people were to see the light of proximity in the recognizer, they would all be burned away, and if the recognizer were to see the light of proximity in himself, he would burn away. The knowledge of proximity does not fit into tongue and ear. It is a narrow road, and proximity disdains companionship with the tongue's water and clay. Whenever proxim- ity shows its face, how can the universe and man wait around?” As long as you are with you, what good is this talk to you? For this is the Fountain of Life, the world disowned.

O enwrapped in thy cloak, stand up and warn! “O source of bounteousness, O rising place of beauty, O chosen by the Majestic! O you who have pulled the cloak of mortal nature over your head and covered yourself with the rug of human na- ture. If you want proximity to Me, stand up through Me and drop from yourself everything other than Me. Rise up from yourself and rise up from your own rising up! Flee to the sanctuary of My exaltedness! Lift off the cloak of mortal nature from yourself, remove the rug of human nature from the road of the heart so that the heart may be a vast plain! Let it fly like a bird in the world of desire on the air of seeking until it arrives at the nest of proximity.” A great man was asked, “What is the meaning of proximity?” “If you mean the servant's proximity to the Real, expressing that is easy and alluding to it simple: It is service in seclusion, hidden from the people; the unveiling of the Haqiqah, hidden from the angels; immersion in companionship, hidden from oneself. “If you are talking about the Real's proximity to the servant, that cannot be put into words, nor do expression and allusion have any access to it. It is nothing but what He Himself says: 'Surely I am near [2:186]: Unsought, uncalled, unperceived, I am near. Compared to My closeness, the eye's blackness is distant from the eye's whiteness, for I am nearer than that, and the breath is far from the lips, for I am nearer than that. I am not near to your intellect's preserve, for I am near to My own attributes in the description of My own firstness.'” The Pir of the Tariqah said, “If people were to see the light of proximity in the recognizer, they would all be burned away, and if the recognizer were to see the light of proximity in himself, he would burn away. The knowledge of proximity does not fit into tongue and ear. It is a narrow road, and proximity disdains companionship with the tongue's water and clay. Whenever proxim- ity shows its face, how can the universe and man wait around?” As long as you are with you, what good is this talk to you? For this is the Fountain of Life, the world disowned.

No! I swear by the Day of Resurrection. The Lord of the Worlds swears an oath by the Day of Resurrection. That is the day when the pavil- ions of the rightful due of lordhood will be opened, the carpet of majesty and tremendousness spread, and the banner of all-compellingness brought out to the desert of all-subjugatingness. The portico of magnificence will be raised, the scales of justice will be hung, and the harshness of the exalted all-compellingness will make everyone confounded and senseless. The prophets will come in their perfection and put away talk of their knowledge: “We have no knowledge” [5:109]. The angels of the Dominion will come and strike fire to the monasteries of their worship: “We have not worshiped You with the rightful due of Your worship.” The recognizers and tawḤīd-voicers will come and disown their own recognition: “We have not recognized You with the rightful due of Your recognition.” What great remorse-if on that day His bounty does not take your hand! What tremendous affliction-if in that assembly His generosity does not come to your aid! If His solicitude does not take your hand, what good will obedience have done? If He shows the face of His justice, that will be your destruction. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, You know that I do not have these days by myself. I do not light the candle of guidance with my sufficiency. What comes from me? What opens up from my doing? My obedience is through Your success-giving, my service through Your guidance, My repentance through Your kind favor, my gratitude through Your beneficence, my remembrance through Your inspiration. All is You! Who am I? If not for Your bounty, what do I have?”

No! I swear by the blaming soul. Among the words of the commentators is that the blaming soul is the soul of the person of faith which is always in remorse for its own days and blaming itself for its own shortcomings. It strikes fear and dread into itself and looks upon itself with the eyes of disdain and abasement and says, O soul mean in aspiration and deluded, on whatever stone I strike you, you come up false. O you who fell short in the road of seeking the Real at the first step! O you who were cut off in the desert of the Law's prescription despite a thousand steeds! O you who have never seen the tip of the hair of good fortune despite a thousand candles and lamps! O you who fell into the treasury of Tibet but did not catch the scent of musk! O you who dove into the ocean with all the divers with- out finding anything at all but losing your own self! O you who came late and went back early! O you who bought the mirage of delusion in place of the wine of joy and sold your heart and religion for a price! They deemed the life of this world more worthy of love than the next world [16:107]. You'll see when the dust clears away if you're seated on a horse or an ass. * How long making the abode of delusion an abode of joy! How long making the abode of flight an abode of lodging! Wait until the jolt of Seraphiel's trumpet hides your pretty face and shows your ugly character! One swat of the Lion for a world full of carrion-eaters, one blast of the Trumpet for a hundred thousand Pharaoh-natures! [DS 182, 184] A great man was asked, “Where does the road begin?” He said, “Not with you. When you go off to the side, the road begins everywhere.” There is never a day when this call does not come from the World of Infinity: “O you whom We called but you turned away from Us! O you whom We called, morning and night, to the good fortune of companionship, but you pulled your feet back from Our street! It is We whom you can- not avoid.

Faces that day will be radiant, gazing upon their Lord. The servant with faith is like a falcon. When they catch a falcon and want to make it worthy for the hand of the king, they sew its eyes shut for a while. They put a tie on its foot and keep it in a dark house, separate from its mate. For a time they afflict it with hunger so that it becomes weak and emaciated. It forgets its homeland and gains the nature of being left aside. Finally they open up its eyes. They light a candle and beat a drum for it. They put a piece of meat in front of it and they make the hand of the king its resting place. The falcon says to itself, “In the whole world, who has this honor that I have? A candle before my eyes, the beating of a drum my tune, bird meat my food, the king's hand my place!” In a similar way, when they want to clothe the faithful servant in the robe of bosom friendship and let him drink the wine of love, they do so with the same practice. For a time they keep him in within the four walls of the grave. They take away his hands' holding and his feet's walking. They remove sight from his eyes and leave him in this state for some time. Then all of a sudden they beat the drum of the resurrection. The servant lifts his head from the dust of the grave, opens his eyes, and sees the light of paradise: Their light running before them [57:12]. He forgets this world, drinks the wine of union, and sits at the table of everlastingness. Just as the falcon opened its eyes and saw itself on the hand of the king, the faithful servant opens his eyes and sees himself in the seat of truthfulness [54:55]. He hears the greeting of the King and sees the vision of the King. The servant is happy and joyful in the midst of blessedness, nearness, and the most beauti- ful, gazing on the beauty and majesty of the Real. This is why the Lord of the Worlds says, “Faces on that day will be radiant, gazing upon their Lord.” The faces of the faithful and the obedient, the faces of the sincerely truthful and the witnesses, the faces of the passionate and the yearners, will be shining like the moon and sparkling like the sun.

Faces that day will be radiant, gazing upon their Lord. The servant with faith is like a falcon. When they catch a falcon and want to make it worthy for the hand of the king, they sew its eyes shut for a while. They put a tie on its foot and keep it in a dark house, separate from its mate. For a time they afflict it with hunger so that it becomes weak and emaciated. It forgets its homeland and gains the nature of being left aside. Finally they open up its eyes. They light a candle and beat a drum for it. They put a piece of meat in front of it and they make the hand of the king its resting place. The falcon says to itself, “In the whole world, who has this honor that I have? A candle before my eyes, the beating of a drum my tune, bird meat my food, the king's hand my place!” In a similar way, when they want to clothe the faithful servant in the robe of bosom friendship and let him drink the wine of love, they do so with the same practice. For a time they keep him in within the four walls of the grave. They take away his hands' holding and his feet's walking. They remove sight from his eyes and leave him in this state for some time. Then all of a sudden they beat the drum of the resurrection. The servant lifts his head from the dust of the grave, opens his eyes, and sees the light of paradise: Their light running before them [57:12]. He forgets this world, drinks the wine of union, and sits at the table of everlastingness. Just as the falcon opened its eyes and saw itself on the hand of the king, the faithful servant opens his eyes and sees himself in the seat of truthfulness [54:55]. He hears the greeting of the King and sees the vision of the King. The servant is happy and joyful in the midst of blessedness, nearness, and the most beauti- ful, gazing on the beauty and majesty of the Real. This is why the Lord of the Worlds says, “Faces on that day will be radiant, gazing upon their Lord.” The faces of the faithful and the obedient, the faces of the sincerely truthful and the witnesses, the faces of the passionate and the yearners, will be shining like the moon and sparkling like the sun.

Has an era come upon man when he was not a thing remembered? The commentators say that man here means Adam and that era alludes to the days when he was thrown down for forty years as a body without spirit between Mecca and Taif. Someone may ask what wisdom there was in leaving Adam like that for forty years between Mecca and Taif and in delaying his creation. The answer is that although Adam was made outwardly from clay, with which there is no need for delay, delay is needed with the heart. I am not talking about the delay of power, but rather the delay of greatness. Adam was not like the other created things, which were created with “Be!”, so it comes to be [2:117]. In creation Adam was the root, and the other crea- tures were his followers. He created whatever He created for Adam's sake, and He created Adam for Himself: “You I created solitary for the Solitary.” “In Adam's makeup there must be a heart that recognizes Me, a tongue that praises Me, an eye that sees Me, a hand that takes the cup of union, a foot that walks in My road. If I were to bring him into existence in an instant, I would make My power apparent. By putting many years in the midst, I make apparent his greatness and magnificence. I would rather make the greatness of My friends apparent than show My own power.” What good fortune and generosity the Exalted Threshold placed before Adam! He brought him into the road with a hundred thousand endearments and exaltations, placing the embroidery of Surely God chose Adam [3:33] on the cape of his good fortune. He fixed the prosperous mole of I have blown into him of My spirit [15:29] on the beautiful cheek of his chosenness. He clothed him in the elevated robe of what I created with My two hands [38:75]. He conveyed him to a station where He gave him the wine of love in the row of chosenness on the carpet of witnessing. From the tip of the Pleiades to the end of the earth, He made him the trustee of greatness. He commanded the angels of the Dominion to prostrate themselves before him. Then, despite all this honor done toward him, his greatness, level, and rank had still not appeared.

Surely the pious shall drink of a cup whose mixture is of camphor. In truth tomorrow in paradise the good people and the good men will drink wine from the cup of gentleness, a wine in the color of camphor with the scent of musk, a wine in worthy measure- nothing less than worthy measure, nothing added to it. Less and unworthy are both defects, but paradise is free of defects.

A fountain from which drink the servants of God, making it gush forth with a gushing. This is a spring that flows forth from the region of paradise, and it flows forth at the paradise- dwellers' command. They will make it flow as they want wherever they want, up or down, over the palaces and chambers, over the rugs and carpets, flowing on the silk and brocade [18:31], over- flowing, traveling, and inanimate. No cloth will become wet from it, nor will it pass over anything opaque. Eyes will be open while shut. Camphor will be in the ginger, ginger in the camphor, the latter released from its cold, the former far from its heat, each one kept in equilibrium. It will not be the artifact of creatures, nor will they be kept back from it: a wine without opacity, a drinker without intoxication, a cup-bearer who sees-the wine of intimacy in the cup of holiness in the session of finding on the carpet of witnessing from the hand of the Friend in face-to-face vision itself, without any trouble in the midst. O chevalier, wine is that wine, poured by the hand of the Unseen into the cup of the heart and drunk by the eye of the spirit. The people became drunk with the passing of the cup but I became drunk with the one who passed it. “The wine made a group drunk, but for me it was seeing the cupbearer. Hence they were annihi- lated in that drunkenness, and I subsisted in this drunkenness.” A great man was shown in a dream that Maʿrūf Karkhī was circumambulating the Throne and the Exalted Lord was saying to the angels, “Do you recognize him?” They said they did not. He said, “That is Maʿrūf Karkhī, drunk from Our love. He will not become sober until his eyes fall on Me.” When friendship makes someone drunk, the world is debased before his aspiration. In his friendship nonbeing is made being, and he is made drunk with the wine of union. Wines are two: one is today, the other tomorrow. Today's is the wine of intimacy, tomorrow's the wine of the cup. Today the wine flows from the source of gentleness, tomorrow the pure wine will come from the hand of the All-Merciful:

And their Lord will pour for them a pure wine. Whoever does not have the wine of love today will not have the pure wine tomorrow. Today they swallow down the wine of love from the cup of recognition, tomorrow they drink the pure wine in the presence of the Forgiving King-today the wine of love in the paradise of recognition, tomor- row the pure wine in the paradise of approval. Today the paradise of recognition is the heart of the recognizers. Its walls are faith and sub- mission, its floor self-purification and recognition, its trees glorification and reciting the formula of tawḤīd, its rivers godwariness and trust, its abodes and palaces knowledge and abstinence, its rooms and views truthfulness and certainty, its approval approval of the decree. Today when someone has adorned the paradise of his heart with obedience and worship, tomorrow he will have the paradise of approval. The walls of that paradise are silver and gold, the floor ruby and emerald, the soil musk and ambergris, and the rivers water, milk, wine, and honey. The wine is Tasnīm [83:27], fine wine [83:25], and Salsabīl [76:18], the food the flesh of birds [56:21] on the table of everlastingness, the servants the serving boys and slaves, the sympathizers houris and wide- eyed maidens, the kind companions MuḤammad and Abraham, the comrades Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, and ʿAlī. The sitting place will be goodly dwellings [9:72] and the gazing place the seat of truthfulness [54:55]. The Palisades of Holiness will be the place of seeing the Real's majesty and beauty. Tomorrow all the faithful will see the Real, but each in the measure of his own recognition. “God discloses Himself to the faithful generally and to Abū Bakr specifically.” Since no one has the recognition of Abū Bakr, no one will share with him in that vision. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “What sort of pleasure is there in shared seeing? There must be a session empty of the intrusion of others, the Friend disclosing Himself and the gazer annihilated in what is seen. The eye that gazes on Him is never shut, the eye that sees Him has no partner. The one called by Him is never unfortunate, the one brought near to Him has no place in the two worlds, the one made His companion has no need for paradise, the one drunk with Him has only Him to pour: And their Lord will pour for them a pure wine.”

By those that pluck harshly, by those that draw fiercely. These verses allude to the artifacts of power, the marvels of creativity, and the subtleties of wisdom in the creation of the creatures. All are the place of the gaze of the common people and the cause of their finding the road. The common people gaze with the eye of the head on the artifacts and marvels and they see the traces of mercy and power. They take the artisanry as the evidence of the existence of the Artisan. They start their traveling from the causes so as to reach the Presence of the Causer. To this allude His words, “Have they not gazed upon the dominion of the heavens and the earth? [7:185]. Have they not gazed upon the heaven above them? [50:6]. Have they not traveled in the earth to gaze? [30:9]. So gaze on the traces of God's mercy [30:50]. He it is who shows you His signs [40:13]. We shall show them Our signs on the horizons and in their souls until it is clear to them that He is the Real [41:53].” Then the recognizers of the road and the sincerely truthful of the threshold have another state and another gaze. They gaze at the Artisan with the eye of the secret core and see the secrets of solicitude. They gaze at the Innovator with the eye of the heart and see the lights of guidance. They gaze at the Real with the eye of the spirit and see the flag of existence. They gaze at the Witnessed with the eye of witnessing and see the Friend face-to-face. O indigent man! How long will you look at the artifacts and wonders? Look once at the Arti- san and Wonder-Worker to see the marvels of the subtleties. From the artifacts and wonders you see what arises from Him. From the Artisan and Wonder-Worker you see what is worthy of Him. When someone gazes only at the marks giving witness to His artifacts, he has not stepped into the road of the chevaliers. No whiff has reached his nostrils of this talk. It is often the case that there are neither artifacts nor wonders, neither creatures nor attachments, neither time nor the earth, neither place nor the emplaced, neither Throne nor Carpet, neither Heaven nor Samak, neither sphere nor angel, neither moon nor Fish, neither entities nor traces, neither face-to-face vision nor reports-the Real is present and the Haqiqah is there.

On the day when the trembler trembles and the successor follows it, hearts on that day will be quivering, their eyes humbled. O indigent man! Today's disregard is tomorrow's loss. You have been given an ornament and some capital. The ornament is your soul and the capital is your breath. Put your soul to work and do not waste your breath! Keep the one flourishing and trade with the other so that tomorrow you may see the profit of the trade. How beautifully that chevalier said it in these lines! “And if today in this domicile you have a state of loss, what fine capital and fervor you'll see tomorrow! If you come from the field of appetite to the portico of intellect, you'll see yourself like Saturn in the seventh sphere. If you stroll toward the Holy Presence with exaltedness, you'll see steeds coming forth from the city of the Lord.” [DS 705-6]

On the day when the trembler trembles and the successor follows it, hearts on that day will be quivering, their eyes humbled. O indigent man! Today's disregard is tomorrow's loss. You have been given an ornament and some capital. The ornament is your soul and the capital is your breath. Put your soul to work and do not waste your breath! Keep the one flourishing and trade with the other so that tomorrow you may see the profit of the trade. How beautifully that chevalier said it in these lines! “And if today in this domicile you have a state of loss, what fine capital and fervor you'll see tomorrow! If you come from the field of appetite to the portico of intellect, you'll see yourself like Saturn in the seventh sphere. If you stroll toward the Holy Presence with exaltedness, you'll see steeds coming forth from the city of the Lord.” [DS 705-6]

On the day when the trembler trembles and the successor follows it, hearts on that day will be quivering, their eyes humbled. O indigent man! Today's disregard is tomorrow's loss. You have been given an ornament and some capital. The ornament is your soul and the capital is your breath. Put your soul to work and do not waste your breath! Keep the one flourishing and trade with the other so that tomorrow you may see the profit of the trade. How beautifully that chevalier said it in these lines! “And if today in this domicile you have a state of loss, what fine capital and fervor you'll see tomorrow! If you come from the field of appetite to the portico of intellect, you'll see yourself like Saturn in the seventh sphere. If you stroll toward the Holy Presence with exaltedness, you'll see steeds coming forth from the city of the Lord.” [DS 705-6]

On the day when the trembler trembles and the successor follows it, hearts on that day will be quivering, their eyes humbled. O indigent man! Today's disregard is tomorrow's loss. You have been given an ornament and some capital. The ornament is your soul and the capital is your breath. Put your soul to work and do not waste your breath! Keep the one flourishing and trade with the other so that tomorrow you may see the profit of the trade. How beautifully that chevalier said it in these lines! “And if today in this domicile you have a state of loss, what fine capital and fervor you'll see tomorrow! If you come from the field of appetite to the portico of intellect, you'll see yourself like Saturn in the seventh sphere. If you stroll toward the Holy Presence with exaltedness, you'll see steeds coming forth from the city of the Lord.” [DS 705-6]

As for him who deemed himself without need, to him dost thou attend. “This man has shown himself to have no need for Me and worshiped another in place of Me, and he is deluded by his wealth and blessings: He reckons that his wealth will make him last forever [104:3]. He fancies that the property will keep him in this world forever. He does not know that the wealth is the cause of his punishment and increase in his chastisement.” One of the great ones of the religion said, “Gold, silver, and the various sorts of wealth are not this world itself, but the vessels and containers of this world. In the same way, the servant's movements and stillnesses and his acts of obedience are not the religion itself, but the vessels and containers of the religion. Religion is all burning and pain, and this world is all remorse and cold wind. All the gold, silver, and sorts of wealth that belonged to Korah were not reprehensible. But, when the rightful due of the Real was sought from him, he refused and would not discharge it. The pull of his heart toward gold, silver, and the wealth of this world was reprehensible. “There is many a person who has not seen a penny in his dreams but who tomorrow will be the Pharaoh of the folk of this world, for his heart is defiled by avarice for this world. And there is many a person who has been given possession of the wealth of this world who tomorrow will give back his heart without any apparent scar from this world.” The final end of a man who keeps the religion and lets go of this world is what He says at the end of the surah:

As for him who deemed himself without need, to him dost thou attend. “This man has shown himself to have no need for Me and worshiped another in place of Me, and he is deluded by his wealth and blessings: He reckons that his wealth will make him last forever [104:3]. He fancies that the property will keep him in this world forever. He does not know that the wealth is the cause of his punishment and increase in his chastisement.” One of the great ones of the religion said, “Gold, silver, and the various sorts of wealth are not this world itself, but the vessels and containers of this world. In the same way, the servant's movements and stillnesses and his acts of obedience are not the religion itself, but the vessels and containers of the religion. Religion is all burning and pain, and this world is all remorse and cold wind. All the gold, silver, and sorts of wealth that belonged to Korah were not reprehensible. But, when the rightful due of the Real was sought from him, he refused and would not discharge it. The pull of his heart toward gold, silver, and the wealth of this world was reprehensible. “There is many a person who has not seen a penny in his dreams but who tomorrow will be the Pharaoh of the folk of this world, for his heart is defiled by avarice for this world. And there is many a person who has been given possession of the wealth of this world who tomorrow will give back his heart without any apparent scar from this world.” The final end of a man who keeps the religion and lets go of this world is what He says at the end of the surah:

There will be faces that day shining, laughing, joyous. As for the final end of the man who keeps this world and lets go of the religion, it will be as He says:

There will be faces that day shining, laughing, joyous. As for the final end of the man who keeps this world and lets go of the religion, it will be as He says:

And there will be faces that day dusty, overspread with darkness-those are the unbe- lievers, the depraved.

And there will be faces that day dusty, overspread with darkness-those are the unbe- lievers, the depraved.

And there will be faces that day dusty, overspread with darkness-those are the unbe- lievers, the depraved.

When the sun is enwrapped, and when the stars become opaque, and when the moun- tains are set moving... MuṣṬafā said that if someone wants to see the Greatest Resurrection as hard cash, such that the states of the resurrection may become apparent to him, he should be told to recite When the sun is enwrapped so that the harshness and difficulty of that day may be known to him. How much can be shown of the terror and difficulty of that day? The fire of unneediness will be lit in the vestiges and traces of the realm of being and the head of the passing days will be lopped off by the sickle of severity. The world of new arrival will be made scattered dust [25:23], and the sword of harshness will be struck against the top of the spheres. The dust of the others will be swept from the skirt, and the harness of making nonexistent will be pulled over the head of the steed of existence. The luminous sun will be blackened and enwrapped, the shining stars will fall from heaven like rain, the mountains with their hardness and firm fixity will begin to run, having become weightless in fear of the Real. In terror of the resurrection the world's folk will give up their treasures and valuables and turn their backs on them. The beasts, birds, and predators for whom the Law is not prescribed will give up their spirits. The oceans of the world will be opened to each other and become boiling water and filth to chastise the enemies. Everyone and everybody will be paired and joined with his own deeds.

When the sun is enwrapped, and when the stars become opaque, and when the moun- tains are set moving... MuṣṬafā said that if someone wants to see the Greatest Resurrection as hard cash, such that the states of the resurrection may become apparent to him, he should be told to recite When the sun is enwrapped so that the harshness and difficulty of that day may be known to him. How much can be shown of the terror and difficulty of that day? The fire of unneediness will be lit in the vestiges and traces of the realm of being and the head of the passing days will be lopped off by the sickle of severity. The world of new arrival will be made scattered dust [25:23], and the sword of harshness will be struck against the top of the spheres. The dust of the others will be swept from the skirt, and the harness of making nonexistent will be pulled over the head of the steed of existence. The luminous sun will be blackened and enwrapped, the shining stars will fall from heaven like rain, the mountains with their hardness and firm fixity will begin to run, having become weightless in fear of the Real. In terror of the resurrection the world's folk will give up their treasures and valuables and turn their backs on them. The beasts, birds, and predators for whom the Law is not prescribed will give up their spirits. The oceans of the world will be opened to each other and become boiling water and filth to chastise the enemies. Everyone and everybody will be paired and joined with his own deeds.

When the sun is enwrapped, and when the stars become opaque, and when the moun- tains are set moving... MuṣṬafā said that if someone wants to see the Greatest Resurrection as hard cash, such that the states of the resurrection may become apparent to him, he should be told to recite When the sun is enwrapped so that the harshness and difficulty of that day may be known to him. How much can be shown of the terror and difficulty of that day? The fire of unneediness will be lit in the vestiges and traces of the realm of being and the head of the passing days will be lopped off by the sickle of severity. The world of new arrival will be made scattered dust [25:23], and the sword of harshness will be struck against the top of the spheres. The dust of the others will be swept from the skirt, and the harness of making nonexistent will be pulled over the head of the steed of existence. The luminous sun will be blackened and enwrapped, the shining stars will fall from heaven like rain, the mountains with their hardness and firm fixity will begin to run, having become weightless in fear of the Real. In terror of the resurrection the world's folk will give up their treasures and valuables and turn their backs on them. The beasts, birds, and predators for whom the Law is not prescribed will give up their spirits. The oceans of the world will be opened to each other and become boiling water and filth to chastise the enemies. Everyone and everybody will be paired and joined with his own deeds.

O Man! What has deluded thee about thy generous Lord? Look at this wonder-a threat mixed with gentleness. He asks the question, and in the question it- self He instructs the servant how to answer by saying “thy generous Lord.” He reminds the servant of the name Generous so that the servant will say, “Your generosity deluded me about You. Were it not for Your generosity, I would not have done what I did. You saw, but You curtained. You predestined, but You gave respite.” My Patron says, “Are you not ashamed of the ugly acts I see from you?” I said, “O Patron, benevolence! Your bounty has corrupted me.” YaḤyā Muʿādh said, “On the Day of Resurrection the creatures from first to last will be put in that station of harshness and awesomeness and questioned. If I am addressed by the side of All-com- pellingness and the Exalted Threshold, 'What has deluded thee about Me?', with God's success- giving and the Lordly confirmation I will answer, 'Your former and latter kindness deluded me'”: It is the old and new beautiful doing and the hidden and evident caresses that I have found from Your bounty and kindness that have deceived my eyes! Abū Bakr Warrāq said, “If it is said to me, 'What has deluded thee about thy generous Lord?,' I will say, 'The generosity of the Generous deluded me.'” It was said to Fuẓayl, “If God places you before Himself on the Day of Resurrection and says, What has deluded thee about thy generous Lord?, what will you say?” He said, “I will say, 'The curtain You let down has deluded Me.” This was put into verse by MuḤammad ibn Sammāk: O you who conceal your sins! Are you not ashamed before God, who is with you in your solitude? You have been deluded by your Lord's giving respite and all His curtaining of your ugly deeds. This has come in a sound hadith: “Surely God will bring the person of faith close, then place His wing over him and curtain him. He will say, 'Do you recognize this sin? Do you recognize that sin?' “He will say, 'Yes my Lord' until he confirms his sins and he sees in himself that he will perish. “He will say, 'I curtained them for you in the world, and I forgive you for them today.'”

A book inscribed, witnessed by those given proximity. Those given proximity are the folk of proximity. I am not talking about the proximity of distance, but the proximity of friendship. Today they are near, and tomorrow they will be near, living above the Throne. It is not that today they are far and tomorrow they will be near, or today they are ab- sent and tomorrow they will be present. Today they are exactly what they will be tomorrow, and tomorrow they will be exactly what they are today. He who is given proximity is he whose ears will not be distracted by the sound of the Trum- pet, nor his eyes by paradise. When someone sees Him, what else will come into his eyes? When someone hears from Him, what else will enter his ears? When someone has found the good news of proximity with Him, how can he be happy with anything other than Him? How can he who is given proximity be aware of the sound of the Trumpet, or be preoccu- pied by the terror of the Resurrection, or be touched by the smoke of hell, or cling to the bliss of paradise? Today the whole world is full of creatures, but they are with the One. Tomorrow all creatures will be drowned in bliss, but they will still be with the One. In glorifying You enough for me is to describe Your beauty. Of the eight paradises enough for me is union with You. Everyone's heart has a different goal- enough goal for my heart is Your image.

A book inscribed, witnessed by those given proximity. Those given proximity are the folk of proximity. I am not talking about the proximity of distance, but the proximity of friendship. Today they are near, and tomorrow they will be near, living above the Throne. It is not that today they are far and tomorrow they will be near, or today they are ab- sent and tomorrow they will be present. Today they are exactly what they will be tomorrow, and tomorrow they will be exactly what they are today. He who is given proximity is he whose ears will not be distracted by the sound of the Trum- pet, nor his eyes by paradise. When someone sees Him, what else will come into his eyes? When someone hears from Him, what else will enter his ears? When someone has found the good news of proximity with Him, how can he be happy with anything other than Him? How can he who is given proximity be aware of the sound of the Trumpet, or be preoccu- pied by the terror of the Resurrection, or be touched by the smoke of hell, or cling to the bliss of paradise? Today the whole world is full of creatures, but they are with the One. Tomorrow all creatures will be drowned in bliss, but they will still be with the One. In glorifying You enough for me is to describe Your beauty. Of the eight paradises enough for me is union with You. Everyone's heart has a different goal- enough goal for my heart is Your image.

When heaven is split open.

“O Man! Thou art toiling to thy Lord with toil, and thou shalt encounter Him.” Some commentators have said that there is a transposition here, so the meaning is this: O Man! Thou art toiling to thy Lord with toil, and thou shalt encounter Him when heaven is split open.” In other words, “O child of Adam! The Day of Resurrection is the day of uprising and upstirring, the day of decision and judgment. God's awesomeness and harshness and the resurrection's hardness and tremendousness will split open the heavens. In humility and submissiveness the heavens will come under and acquiesce to the Real's command, and so also the earths. On that day, O Adamite, you will see whatever you did in this world-the troubles you took and the good and the evil you stored away-and you will find a recompense appropriate to your own doing and speaking.” O indigent man! If you want not to have wasted your life and not to be disgraced before witnesses tomorrow at the greatest gathering place and most tremendous courtyard, then put into practice today the advice that the Pir of the Tariqah used to give to his disciples: “Yesterday passed you by in your ignorance, and you cannot know what you will find tomorrow. Take advantage of today, for this is where you are and where you can act. Then tomorrow there will be no regrets.” A man must be the owner of the present moment. The owner of the present moment is some- one whose occupation at the moment goes by with neither thought of the past nor reflection on the future. Reflecting on days past and pondering days future are to waste the moment. Anyone who recognizes his own present moment and accepts his moment will at once keep himself so busy with the religion that he will have no concern for yesterday and tomorrow. The great ones have said, “The Sufi is the child of the moment.” The man who is a Sufi, that is, in a state of “limpidness” [ṣafāÌ], is the child of his own moment, far from everything familiar to his nature. Ḥasan Baṣrī said, “I have found people who were chevaliers and generous with this world. They would give away the whole world without reminding anyone of the favor, but with their own present moments they were so stingy that they would not give one breath of their own days to their fathers or children.

He shall surely be called to account with an easy accounting and he shall return joyful to his folk. The unseen subtleties will appear to you from behind this curtain:

He shall surely be called to account with an easy accounting and he shall return joyful to his folk. The unseen subtleties will appear to you from behind this curtain:

You shall surely ride stage after stage. You will be taken to this elevated place:

They shall have a reward unfailing. A reward that is not cut off and not curtailed. It has also been said that you shall surely ride stage after stage alludes to the stations of MuṣṬafā. Before the Exalted Lord placed his pure and luminous spirit in the oyster of dust, He kept him in three stations: the station of proximity so that he would find familiarity, the station of gentleness so that he would find expansiveness, and the station of awe so that he would find cour- tesy. He took care of his business with His gentleness, He caressed him with His proximity, and He melted him with His awe in the crucible of fear. Then, when he came into the world, whoever gazed upon him found fear from his station of awe, hope from his station of familiarity, and love from his station of proximity. Some of the commentators have said that stage after stage alludes to the degrees and way sta- tions of his elevation and proximity on the night of the miʿrāj. The Real attracted his secret core, his secret core attracted his spirit, his spirit attracted his heart, and his heart attracted his soul. The engendered being began to seek the soul, the soul began to seek the heart, the heart began to seek the spirit, the spirit began to seek the secret core, the secret core began to seek the contemplation of the Real. The engendered being shouted out, “Where is the soul? I have no rest without the soul.” The soul began to shout, “Where is the heart? I have no rest without the heart.” The heart began to shout, “Where is the spirit? I have no rest without the spirit.” The spirit began to shout, “Where is the secret core? I have no rest without the secret core.” The secret core began to shout, “Where is the contemplation of the Real? I have no rest without the contemplation of the Real.” Then he drew close in his soul, and he came down in his heart, until he was two-bows' length away in his spirit or closer [53:8-9] in his secret core. This is the meaning of His words, “You shall surely ride stage after stage.”

Over every soul there is a guardian. This is the answer to the oath, “By heaven and the night star!” [86:1]. He swears an oath that there is no one without a guardian but that he has a guardian and defender. This is just what He says in another place: “Surely there are over you guardians” [82:10]. Over you there are guardians, that is, angels who are scribes and writers. He has entrusted you to them so that they may write down your words and deeds and then present them to MuṣṬafā, as has come in the report: “Your deeds will be presented to me. When any of them is beautiful, I will praise God for it, and when any is ugly, I will ask God to forgive you.” When the tawḤīd-voicing, believing person of faith knows that the Real is his guardian and protector, he must put on the clothing of watchfulness and pay attention to his own states, words, and deeds. He must keep the courtyard of his breast pure of the stain of heedlessness. He should make Does he not know that God sees? [96:14] his constant litany, keep There are over you guard- ians [82:10] before his eyes, and turn We were not heedless of creation [23:17] into the imprint on the seal-ring of his certainty. It is said that there was a depraved woman in Mecca who said, “I will turn Ṭāwūs Yamānī away from the road of obedience and pull him into disobedience.” Ṭāwūs was a man of beautiful face, sweet character, and good nature. The woman came to Ṭāwūs and began talking with him in a joking way. Ṭāwūs knew her goal. He said, “Yes, be patient, until we reach such a place.” When they reached that place, he said, “If you have a goal, this can be the place for it.” The woman said, “Glory be to God! How is this the place for that work? It is a gathering place for people to watch.” Ṭāwūs said, “Does not God see us in every place? O woman, are you ashamed of being seen by the people, but not ashamed before God who is watching us?” These words took hold in that woman and opened up the ambush of solicitude to her. She repented and became one of God's friends.

So let man consider of what he was created. Let the human individual look carefully at himself: From what was he created and why was he cre- ated? God created a face that is suited for prostration, eyes suited for taking heed, a body suited for service, a heart suited for recognition, a secret core suited for love. So remember God's blessings upon you [2:231], for He adorned your tongues with the Shahadah, your hearts with recognition and felicity, and your bodies with service and worship.

He was created of gushing water, emerging from between the loins and the chest. When the human individual was created, he was created from water thrown and spilled, a water that came forth from the back of the man and from the bones within the woman's breast. First he was a sperm drop, which God then made into a clot with His power. Then with His will He built tissue, with His desire He made bones appear, and with His munificence He clothed the bones in the cloak of flesh. When He wanted to display you to your mother and father, He adorned you in a beautiful form in the oyster shell of the womb, just as a slave-trader adorns a slave girl at the time of presenting her. In the same way, after He turns you into dust in your grave He will adorn you for the Day of Presentation to the messengers and the Lord of the Worlds. God says, “They will be presented to their Lord in rows” [18:48]. When you turn a pot full of water upside down, nothing stays inside. The Lord of the Worlds put the sperm drop into the womb and turned it upside down with His power. So glory be to Him who compounded Adam with a composition that contains everything created in the macrocosm! The exalted Lord created some creatures in the form of prostrators, like snakes, fish, and crawling things. He created some in the form of those who bow, like cattle and predators; some in the form of standers, like trees and plants; some in the form of sitters, like the unshakeable mountains. All of these are compelled to prostrate, bow, and sit, and they receive no praise for that. But He created the Adamite in a form that has the power to prostrate, bow, sit, and stand, and in that He gave him choice and ability, so he is worthy of praise and laudation: The repenters, the worship- ers, the praisers, the journeyers, the bowers, the prostrators, the commanders to the honorable and prohibiters of the improper, the keepers of God's bounds-give good news to the faithful! [9:112]. Glory be to Him who creates the son of Adam to manifest power, gives him provision to manifest generosity, makes him die to manifest all-compellingness, and then brings him to life to manifest reward and punishment! So blessed is God, the most beautiful of creators! [23:14].

He was created of gushing water, emerging from between the loins and the chest. When the human individual was created, he was created from water thrown and spilled, a water that came forth from the back of the man and from the bones within the woman's breast. First he was a sperm drop, which God then made into a clot with His power. Then with His will He built tissue, with His desire He made bones appear, and with His munificence He clothed the bones in the cloak of flesh. When He wanted to display you to your mother and father, He adorned you in a beautiful form in the oyster shell of the womb, just as a slave-trader adorns a slave girl at the time of presenting her. In the same way, after He turns you into dust in your grave He will adorn you for the Day of Presentation to the messengers and the Lord of the Worlds. God says, “They will be presented to their Lord in rows” [18:48]. When you turn a pot full of water upside down, nothing stays inside. The Lord of the Worlds put the sperm drop into the womb and turned it upside down with His power. So glory be to Him who compounded Adam with a composition that contains everything created in the macrocosm! The exalted Lord created some creatures in the form of prostrators, like snakes, fish, and crawling things. He created some in the form of those who bow, like cattle and predators; some in the form of standers, like trees and plants; some in the form of sitters, like the unshakeable mountains. All of these are compelled to prostrate, bow, and sit, and they receive no praise for that. But He created the Adamite in a form that has the power to prostrate, bow, sit, and stand, and in that He gave him choice and ability, so he is worthy of praise and laudation: The repenters, the worship- ers, the praisers, the journeyers, the bowers, the prostrators, the commanders to the honorable and prohibiters of the improper, the keepers of God's bounds-give good news to the faithful! [9:112]. Glory be to Him who creates the son of Adam to manifest power, gives him provision to manifest generosity, makes him die to manifest all-compellingness, and then brings him to life to manifest reward and punishment! So blessed is God, the most beautiful of creators! [23:14].

By the even and the odd! By the even! By all the creatures of the cosmos! For He created them all in pairs, two by two, whether linked to each other or opposed to each other, like male and female, day and night, light and darkness, heaven and earth, ocean and land, sun and moon, jinn and mankind, obedience and disobedience, felicity and wretchedness, exaltation and abasement, power and incapacity, strength and weakness, knowledge and ignorance, life and death. He created the attributes of creatures like this-opposed to each other or paired with each other-so that they would not resemble the attributes of the Creator, for His exaltation has no abasement, His power no incapacity, His strength no weakness, His knowledge no ignorance, His life no death, and His subsistence no annihilation. Hence, He is the odd: alone and unique. The rest are all the even: paired with each other. Some of the scholars have said that the even are Mount Safa and Mount Marwa, and the odd is the Kaabah. The even are Holy Mosque and the mosque of Medina, and the odd is the Aqsa Mosque. The even are day and night, paired with each other, and the odd is the Day of Resurrection, which has no day and night. The even are the soul and spirit, which are linked today, and the odd is the spirit tomorrow when it is separate from the frame. The even are desire and intention, and the odd is aspiration, a stranger without anyone. The even are the renouncer and the worshiper, each other's comrades, and the odd is the desirer, who travels alone, without comrade and companion. Isolated from friends in every land- the greater the sought, the fewer the helpers. Abraham claimed to be a desirer and said, “And I will withdraw from you and what you call upon apart from God [19:48]. Surely they are an enemy to me, save the Lord of the Worlds [26:77]. Surely I have turned my face toward Him who originated the heavens and the earth, unswerving [6:79].” Wherever in the world there was a link or a joining, he disowned it. He raised up his voice: “Surely I am going to my Lord; He will guide me” [37:99]. A little something remained with him, but he did not know it.

O serene soul, return to thy Lord, approving, approved! Three hundred sixty gazes come from the Holy Dominion and with each gaze the request, “Re- turn!: Is it not yet time to come back to Me and make do with Me? Is it not yet time to be Mine? “O falcon taken to the sky, come back, don't go! My fingers hold the end of your thread! “And beware! When you come, do not come by way of this world, lest your feet sink in the mud, and do not come by way of the soul, lest you not reach Us. The heart has access to Our Threshold, and nothing else has any road or access.” A great man was asked, “What is the road to the Real?” He said, “It is not step by step, rather heart by heart, and spirit by spirit. Go by the spirit to reach the Threshold, go by the heart to reach the Gate.” The blood of the sincerely truthful was purified and made into a road- unless the spirit takes a step in this road, you will have no access. Happy will be the day when they break this cage and call back the captive bird, removing the cus- toms of dust-dwellers from the road of those given proximity. The satan concealed in the form of Adamic nature will leave and the angelic substance will show the face of its beauty. Enemy will be separated from friend. My dear, do not suppose that Azrael has been sent to turn you away from what you are. He pulls the wrap of human nature away from the heart's face and looks at the heart's scars. If he sees the mark of recognition in the scars of servanthood, he goes back with respect and says, “I cannot intervene in this quarry, for these goods belong to the Real.” He says, “O Exalted Lord! I do not have the gall to intervene there.” Such a man is one of those concerning whom the Splendorous Qur'an reports, “God takes the souls at the time of their death” [39:42]. My dear, be careful not to be one of those whose souls Azrael is ashamed to take. Rather, be one of those into the presence of whose spirit Azrael does not dare to enter.

O serene soul, return to thy Lord, approving, approved! Three hundred sixty gazes come from the Holy Dominion and with each gaze the request, “Re- turn!: Is it not yet time to come back to Me and make do with Me? Is it not yet time to be Mine? “O falcon taken to the sky, come back, don't go! My fingers hold the end of your thread! “And beware! When you come, do not come by way of this world, lest your feet sink in the mud, and do not come by way of the soul, lest you not reach Us. The heart has access to Our Threshold, and nothing else has any road or access.” A great man was asked, “What is the road to the Real?” He said, “It is not step by step, rather heart by heart, and spirit by spirit. Go by the spirit to reach the Threshold, go by the heart to reach the Gate.” The blood of the sincerely truthful was purified and made into a road- unless the spirit takes a step in this road, you will have no access. Happy will be the day when they break this cage and call back the captive bird, removing the cus- toms of dust-dwellers from the road of those given proximity. The satan concealed in the form of Adamic nature will leave and the angelic substance will show the face of its beauty. Enemy will be separated from friend. My dear, do not suppose that Azrael has been sent to turn you away from what you are. He pulls the wrap of human nature away from the heart's face and looks at the heart's scars. If he sees the mark of recognition in the scars of servanthood, he goes back with respect and says, “I cannot intervene in this quarry, for these goods belong to the Real.” He says, “O Exalted Lord! I do not have the gall to intervene there.” Such a man is one of those concerning whom the Splendorous Qur'an reports, “God takes the souls at the time of their death” [39:42]. My dear, be careful not to be one of those whose souls Azrael is ashamed to take. Rather, be one of those into the presence of whose spirit Azrael does not dare to enter.

By the soul and that which proportioned it and inspired it with its depravity and godwariness. The poor Adamite who does not recognize his own exaltedness and eminence! Of this dust-dwell- ing frame he finds his way only to a name, a body, a trace. He does not know what is the secret of And We honored the children of Adam [17:70], what is the wisdom of And He created you in stages [71:14], what is the explication of in the most beautiful stature [95:4], or what is the face-to-face vision in And He formed you, so He made your forms beautiful [40:64]. O chevalier! Of the human makeup and the Adamic individual, first think about the form! What artisanry the Lord of the worlds has shown with a drop of spilled water! What diverse paint- ings have been achieved through “Be!”, so it comes to be [2:117]! Mutually similar limbs, oppo- sites like unto each other-each one He has made in its own scale. He has adorned each limb with one sort of beauty, not more than its limit, not less than its measure. To each He gave an attribute, and in each He placed a strength: senses in the brain, splendor on the forehead, beauty in the nose, sorcery in the eye, sauciness on the lips, comeliness in the cheek, perfect loveliness in the hair. It is not apparent whether the artisanries in the natures are more beautiful, or if the governance in the form-giving is sweeter. He has created so many marvels and wonders from a drop of water! The intelligent man gazes on His artisanry, but the heedless man is asleep. Once you have looked with the outward eye on the marks giving witness to His power, look also with the inward eye on the subtleties of His wisdom. Then you will see the proofs of love and the traces of solicitude. The mortal nature is the world of form, but the heart is the world of the attributes. The mortal nature is the heart's shell, but the heart is the shell of the center point that is the secret core. It is such that the orbs and bodies of the cosmos are bewildered by the form of the Adamic nature, the Adamic nature is bewildered by the form of the heart, the heart is bewildered by the center point of the secret core, and the secret core stays on the borderline between annihila- tion and subsistence.

By the soul and that which proportioned it and inspired it with its depravity and godwariness. The poor Adamite who does not recognize his own exaltedness and eminence! Of this dust-dwell- ing frame he finds his way only to a name, a body, a trace. He does not know what is the secret of And We honored the children of Adam [17:70], what is the wisdom of And He created you in stages [71:14], what is the explication of in the most beautiful stature [95:4], or what is the face-to-face vision in And He formed you, so He made your forms beautiful [40:64]. O chevalier! Of the human makeup and the Adamic individual, first think about the form! What artisanry the Lord of the worlds has shown with a drop of spilled water! What diverse paint- ings have been achieved through “Be!”, so it comes to be [2:117]! Mutually similar limbs, oppo- sites like unto each other-each one He has made in its own scale. He has adorned each limb with one sort of beauty, not more than its limit, not less than its measure. To each He gave an attribute, and in each He placed a strength: senses in the brain, splendor on the forehead, beauty in the nose, sorcery in the eye, sauciness on the lips, comeliness in the cheek, perfect loveliness in the hair. It is not apparent whether the artisanries in the natures are more beautiful, or if the governance in the form-giving is sweeter. He has created so many marvels and wonders from a drop of water! The intelligent man gazes on His artisanry, but the heedless man is asleep. Once you have looked with the outward eye on the marks giving witness to His power, look also with the inward eye on the subtleties of His wisdom. Then you will see the proofs of love and the traces of solicitude. The mortal nature is the world of form, but the heart is the world of the attributes. The mortal nature is the heart's shell, but the heart is the shell of the center point that is the secret core. It is such that the orbs and bodies of the cosmos are bewildered by the form of the Adamic nature, the Adamic nature is bewildered by the form of the heart, the heart is bewildered by the center point of the secret core, and the secret core stays on the borderline between annihila- tion and subsistence.

Did We not expand for thee thy breast, and lift from thee thy burden that weighed down upon thy back, and raise up for thee thy mention? Know that when God brought the creatures from the concealment of nonexistence to the confines of existence with the command “Be!” and when He scattered over them the treasuries of mercy and the gardens of blessings, He showed largesse to that master of the world, that greatest child of Adam, through exalted bounties, generous gifts, and various sorts of favor. From the begin- ning of the cosmos to the annihilation of the children of Adam, all creatures are his followers. The first thing desired by the beginningless gentleness was he. He is the king, and the rest of the creatures are his army and horse. He is the dear guest, and the dear ones are all his followers and hangers-on. Look carefully at the edict of his splendor and the book of his good fortune to see if the specification and explicit statement of this announcement of generosity and elevation was given to any other prophet. Did We not expand for thee thy breast? “O paragon of the universe! O honored chosen one! O foremost messenger! O ennobled eminent one! Did We not brighten your heart with the light of recognition, give it courtesy and rectification with the subtleties of contemplation and unveiling, give it goodliness and proximity with the generous gifts of exaltedness and elevation, and give your clay the cape of adornment and the robe of elevation? “O master! The goal of creation was to unveil the sign of your perfection, the flag of your majesty, and the form of your beauty. 'But for thee, I would not have created the spheres. But for thee, the world would have neither bottom nor top.' “O master! You were the first in prophethood and the last to be sent out. You are the manifest in union and the nonmanifest in blessings. You are the first of all creatures in nearness and famil- iarity and the last in judgment and felicity. You are the manifest in sinlessness and greatness and the nonmanifest in the majesty of state.” In the reports about the miʿrāj it has come that MuṣṬafā said, “The All-Compeller said to me, 'Ask, O MuḤammad!' “I said, 'My Lord, You took Abraham as a bosom friend, You gave David a tremendous king- dom [4:54] and forgave him his slip, You bestowed on Solomon a kingdom such as no one after me will have [38:35], You spoke to Moses directly [4:164], You raised Idris to a high place [19:57], You taught Jesus the Torah and the Gospel [3:48] and You made him heal the blind and the leper and give life to the dead with Your permission [3:49].

Did We not expand for thee thy breast, and lift from thee thy burden that weighed down upon thy back, and raise up for thee thy mention? Know that when God brought the creatures from the concealment of nonexistence to the confines of existence with the command “Be!” and when He scattered over them the treasuries of mercy and the gardens of blessings, He showed largesse to that master of the world, that greatest child of Adam, through exalted bounties, generous gifts, and various sorts of favor. From the begin- ning of the cosmos to the annihilation of the children of Adam, all creatures are his followers. The first thing desired by the beginningless gentleness was he. He is the king, and the rest of the creatures are his army and horse. He is the dear guest, and the dear ones are all his followers and hangers-on. Look carefully at the edict of his splendor and the book of his good fortune to see if the specification and explicit statement of this announcement of generosity and elevation was given to any other prophet. Did We not expand for thee thy breast? “O paragon of the universe! O honored chosen one! O foremost messenger! O ennobled eminent one! Did We not brighten your heart with the light of recognition, give it courtesy and rectification with the subtleties of contemplation and unveiling, give it goodliness and proximity with the generous gifts of exaltedness and elevation, and give your clay the cape of adornment and the robe of elevation? “O master! The goal of creation was to unveil the sign of your perfection, the flag of your majesty, and the form of your beauty. 'But for thee, I would not have created the spheres. But for thee, the world would have neither bottom nor top.' “O master! You were the first in prophethood and the last to be sent out. You are the manifest in union and the nonmanifest in blessings. You are the first of all creatures in nearness and famil- iarity and the last in judgment and felicity. You are the manifest in sinlessness and greatness and the nonmanifest in the majesty of state.” In the reports about the miʿrāj it has come that MuṣṬafā said, “The All-Compeller said to me, 'Ask, O MuḤammad!' “I said, 'My Lord, You took Abraham as a bosom friend, You gave David a tremendous king- dom [4:54] and forgave him his slip, You bestowed on Solomon a kingdom such as no one after me will have [38:35], You spoke to Moses directly [4:164], You raised Idris to a high place [19:57], You taught Jesus the Torah and the Gospel [3:48] and You made him heal the blind and the leper and give life to the dead with Your permission [3:49].

Did We not expand for thee thy breast, and lift from thee thy burden that weighed down upon thy back, and raise up for thee thy mention? Know that when God brought the creatures from the concealment of nonexistence to the confines of existence with the command “Be!” and when He scattered over them the treasuries of mercy and the gardens of blessings, He showed largesse to that master of the world, that greatest child of Adam, through exalted bounties, generous gifts, and various sorts of favor. From the begin- ning of the cosmos to the annihilation of the children of Adam, all creatures are his followers. The first thing desired by the beginningless gentleness was he. He is the king, and the rest of the creatures are his army and horse. He is the dear guest, and the dear ones are all his followers and hangers-on. Look carefully at the edict of his splendor and the book of his good fortune to see if the specification and explicit statement of this announcement of generosity and elevation was given to any other prophet. Did We not expand for thee thy breast? “O paragon of the universe! O honored chosen one! O foremost messenger! O ennobled eminent one! Did We not brighten your heart with the light of recognition, give it courtesy and rectification with the subtleties of contemplation and unveiling, give it goodliness and proximity with the generous gifts of exaltedness and elevation, and give your clay the cape of adornment and the robe of elevation? “O master! The goal of creation was to unveil the sign of your perfection, the flag of your majesty, and the form of your beauty. 'But for thee, I would not have created the spheres. But for thee, the world would have neither bottom nor top.' “O master! You were the first in prophethood and the last to be sent out. You are the manifest in union and the nonmanifest in blessings. You are the first of all creatures in nearness and famil- iarity and the last in judgment and felicity. You are the manifest in sinlessness and greatness and the nonmanifest in the majesty of state.” In the reports about the miʿrāj it has come that MuṣṬafā said, “The All-Compeller said to me, 'Ask, O MuḤammad!' “I said, 'My Lord, You took Abraham as a bosom friend, You gave David a tremendous king- dom [4:54] and forgave him his slip, You bestowed on Solomon a kingdom such as no one after me will have [38:35], You spoke to Moses directly [4:164], You raised Idris to a high place [19:57], You taught Jesus the Torah and the Gospel [3:48] and You made him heal the blind and the leper and give life to the dead with Your permission [3:49].

Did We not expand for thee thy breast, and lift from thee thy burden that weighed down upon thy back, and raise up for thee thy mention? Know that when God brought the creatures from the concealment of nonexistence to the confines of existence with the command “Be!” and when He scattered over them the treasuries of mercy and the gardens of blessings, He showed largesse to that master of the world, that greatest child of Adam, through exalted bounties, generous gifts, and various sorts of favor. From the begin- ning of the cosmos to the annihilation of the children of Adam, all creatures are his followers. The first thing desired by the beginningless gentleness was he. He is the king, and the rest of the creatures are his army and horse. He is the dear guest, and the dear ones are all his followers and hangers-on. Look carefully at the edict of his splendor and the book of his good fortune to see if the specification and explicit statement of this announcement of generosity and elevation was given to any other prophet. Did We not expand for thee thy breast? “O paragon of the universe! O honored chosen one! O foremost messenger! O ennobled eminent one! Did We not brighten your heart with the light of recognition, give it courtesy and rectification with the subtleties of contemplation and unveiling, give it goodliness and proximity with the generous gifts of exaltedness and elevation, and give your clay the cape of adornment and the robe of elevation? “O master! The goal of creation was to unveil the sign of your perfection, the flag of your majesty, and the form of your beauty. 'But for thee, I would not have created the spheres. But for thee, the world would have neither bottom nor top.' “O master! You were the first in prophethood and the last to be sent out. You are the manifest in union and the nonmanifest in blessings. You are the first of all creatures in nearness and famil- iarity and the last in judgment and felicity. You are the manifest in sinlessness and greatness and the nonmanifest in the majesty of state.” In the reports about the miʿrāj it has come that MuṣṬafā said, “The All-Compeller said to me, 'Ask, O MuḤammad!' “I said, 'My Lord, You took Abraham as a bosom friend, You gave David a tremendous king- dom [4:54] and forgave him his slip, You bestowed on Solomon a kingdom such as no one after me will have [38:35], You spoke to Moses directly [4:164], You raised Idris to a high place [19:57], You taught Jesus the Torah and the Gospel [3:48] and You made him heal the blind and the leper and give life to the dead with Your permission [3:49].

By the fig, by the olive, by Mount Sinai, and by this secure land! At the beginning of this surah, God swears an oath by four created things in order to introduce this:

By the fig, by the olive, by Mount Sinai, and by this secure land! At the beginning of this surah, God swears an oath by four created things in order to introduce this:

By the fig, by the olive, by Mount Sinai, and by this secure land! At the beginning of this surah, God swears an oath by four created things in order to introduce this:

Surely We created man in the most beautiful stature. Man is Adam. In other words: “I created Adam in the most beautiful form and chose him out from among all the creatures. I wrote the inscription of love on him and made him worthy of My car- pet. I made apparent in his frame the elements of sense perception, the pearls of holiness, and the sources of intimacy. Then I gave this command to the proximate angels of the Presence and the beings of the realm of creativity: 'Put your foreheads on the ground before his throne and prostrate yourselves before him like servants, for he is the chief and you are the serving-boys. He is a friend, and you are servants.'” Dust be on the heads of those who do not know the exaltedness of their father Adam, who do not recognize his eminence, status, and rank! In this dust-dwelling frame they find their way only to a name, a body, a trace. They are not aware that Adam himself is another world. The worlds are two. One is the world of the horizons, the other the world of the souls. This is in His words, “We shall show them Our signs on the horizons and in their souls” [41:53]. The world of the souls is Adam and those born of Adam. Just as the world of the horizons has earth and heaven, sun, moon, and stars, light and darkness, thunder and lightning, and so on, so also does the world of the souls. Its earth is belief, its heaven recognition, its stars thoughts, its moon reflective thought, its sun perspicacity, its light obedience, its darkness disobedience, its thunder fear and fright, its lightning hope and wishing, its clouds aspiration, its rain mercy, its trees wor- ship, its fruit wisdom. Who is the king of this world? The heart. Who is this king's vizier? The intellect. His army is the senses, his serving-boys hands and feet, his spies ears, his watchers eyes, his spokesman tongue, his summoner thought, his messenger inspiration, his envoy knowledge, his sultan the Real. Pure and great is the Lord who brought such an artifact into appearance from a handful of dust and made manifest His power by creating it! Even more marvelous is that He created a cosmos from a pearl, He created Jesus son of Mary from a wind, He created the camel of ṣāliḤ from a stone, He created a serpent from Moses' staff, He created heaven from a smoke, He created the angels from a light, fragrant musk from a deer's navel, pure ambergris from the sea-cow, the basis of silk from a worm, limpid honey from a fly, red roses from thorns, healing halva from a plant.

Then We shall restore him to the lowest of the low. If he is bound for paradise,

They shall have a wage unfailing. May God bestow honor with His bounty and generosity!

Prostrate thyself and draw near. The servant has no state in which he is closer to the Exalted Presence and the largesse of mercy than the state of prostration. When the servant puts his head down in prostration, he becomes a banner of light from the top of his head to the furthest ends of the world. The line of his light's brightness goes from the crown of his head to the highest, and mercy pours down on his head from the highest. MuṣṬafā said, “There is no pride along with prostration.” Whenever someone prostrates him- self, he becomes far from pride and finds the eminence of the humble at God's threshold. When the servant humbles himself in the prostration, his reward is that the Real bestows upon him special favor and proximity. This is why He says, “Prostrate thyself and draw near.” In the state of pros- tration the servant has togetherness, but in every other state he is dispersed. In the state of standing and bowing he is near the gaze of people, but in the state of prostration he is farther from their gaze. The farther someone is from the people, the closer he is to the Real. The less weight someone has in the eyes of the people, the more weight he has in the eyes of the Real. It is said that when the Lord of the Worlds commanded the angels to prostrate themselves before Adam, the first to prostrate himself was Seraphiel. When he lifted his head from prostra- tion, the Compeller of the universe made the divine books and heavenly revelation appear on his forehead, such that his forehead became the tablet for God's books. How marvelous! When someone prostrated himself by command to Adam, the form of God's books appeared in his forehead. When a person of faith prostrates himself to God for seventy years, why should it be strange that he be exempted from the fire of punishment? Seraphiel pros- trated himself to Adam at the Real's command, and speech appeared written on his forehead. He wrote faith in the heart of the faithful person, as He says: “He wrote faith in their hearts” [58:22]. In terms of allusion He is saying, “Someone prostrated himself to someone beneath Me by My command, so I made unwritten speech appear on his forehead. When someone prostrates himself to Me for seventy years by My command, how can I take away the faith written in his heart?” The Prophet said, “When you bow, magnify God, and when you prostrate yourself, strive in supplicating Him, for He will respond to you.”

They were commanded only to worship God, purifying the religion for Him as unswerv- ing ones, and to perform the prayer and pay the alms tax; that is the enduring religion. In this verse God commands the servants to worship and to have self-purification in worship. Self-purification in worship does the work of color in jewels. A jewel without color is a worthless stone. Worship without self-purification is to knock oneself out without reward. Self-purification is a fire lit up in the faithful person's breast such that everything less than the Real that enters the breast is burnt away. With the rope of self-purification his hands are tied back from forbidden things, so he touches nothing but the licit. He does not look upon others with the eyes and does not think about this world and the afterworld in the breast. The strength of appetite acquiesces to him. The purifier is he in whom his own soul is bewildered. He has bid farewell to avarice, and niggardliness has been put to flight. The root of envy has been pulled out of his breast, and he is a brother to the world's people. He has put pride out of his head, donned the clothing of humility, and loosed the tongue of good advice. The rose of tenderness has bloomed and the causes of dispersion have left his road. When his feet reach this point, he has reached the top of the road of self-purification. One of the pillars of worship is to perform the obligatory and recommended acts, as He says: “And to perform the prayer and pay the alms tax; that is the enduring religion.” The lasting re- ligion is that they should put the prayer on its feet at the proper time. They should perform the stipulations and pillars. They should have humility and humbleness in their hearts: those who are humble in their prayers [23:2]. They should keep God's gaze before their eyes, for “The praying person is whispering with his Lord.” At the time of the takbīr he should turn his face to the world of magnificence. He should give flight to Satan with the words, “I seek refuge in God.” He should hunt auspiciousness and blessing with the net of in the name of God. He should make the Surah al-FātiḤa the key to good things.

They were commanded only to worship God, purifying the religion for Him as unswerv- ing ones, and to perform the prayer and pay the alms tax; that is the enduring religion. In this verse God commands the servants to worship and to have self-purification in worship. Self-purification in worship does the work of color in jewels. A jewel without color is a worthless stone. Worship without self-purification is to knock oneself out without reward. Self-purification is a fire lit up in the faithful person's breast such that everything less than the Real that enters the breast is burnt away. With the rope of self-purification his hands are tied back from forbidden things, so he touches nothing but the licit. He does not look upon others with the eyes and does not think about this world and the afterworld in the breast. The strength of appetite acquiesces to him. The purifier is he in whom his own soul is bewildered. He has bid farewell to avarice, and niggardliness has been put to flight. The root of envy has been pulled out of his breast, and he is a brother to the world's people. He has put pride out of his head, donned the clothing of humility, and loosed the tongue of good advice. The rose of tenderness has bloomed and the causes of dispersion have left his road. When his feet reach this point, he has reached the top of the road of self-purification. One of the pillars of worship is to perform the obligatory and recommended acts, as He says: “And to perform the prayer and pay the alms tax; that is the enduring religion.” The lasting re- ligion is that they should put the prayer on its feet at the proper time. They should perform the stipulations and pillars. They should have humility and humbleness in their hearts: those who are humble in their prayers [23:2]. They should keep God's gaze before their eyes, for “The praying person is whispering with his Lord.” At the time of the takbīr he should turn his face to the world of magnificence. He should give flight to Satan with the words, “I seek refuge in God.” He should hunt auspiciousness and blessing with the net of in the name of God. He should make the Surah al-FātiḤa the key to good things.

Vying for increase distracts you. This is an address of admonishment and assertion. He is saying, “O child of Adam! Why do you boast of relationships that will soon be severed? Why do you vainly lift your heads over your many relatives, your property, and your position? Why are you deluded by the fact that you have been given respite and left without shame? Will you not look back before you reach the four walls of the grave, thrown down in exile and aloneness? Will you not apologize? You are not on guard because you are not aware. In no way do you take the road to wholesomeness and deliverance, for you are drunk on avarice and appetite.”

But no, you will know. Then but no, you will know. Indeed, you will know. You will see into your own work on the day when knowing and seeing have no profit, when repentance and apology are useless.

But no, you will know. Then but no, you will know. Indeed, you will know. You will see into your own work on the day when knowing and seeing have no profit, when repentance and apology are useless.

But no. Did you but know with the knowledge of certainty. If you had the knowledge of certainty and the eye of certainty that you must pass over the steep road of death and you must prepare what you need for the journey of the resurrection, then surely your boasting and vying for increase in property and provisions would be less and your eagerness for obedience and worship would be more.

You shall surely see the Blaze, then you shall see it with the eye of certainty. This surely is that of an oath. The Lord of the Worlds is swearing an oath and saying, “In truth, you servants will all see hell with the eye of certainty, a seeing without supposition or doubt.” This is just what He says elsewhere: “And none of you there is but will enter it” [19:71]. The person of faith will see it while passing by, and the unbeliever will see it as a settling place. MuṣṬafā said, “The best thing cast into the heart is certainty, and certainty is faith, all of it. Surely God in His equity and justice placed repose and joy in certainty and approval, and He placed concerns and sorrow in doubt and anger.” He is saying, “The best seed that is planted in the faithful person's breast is the seed of certain- ty, and all of faith is certainty. Certainty is a fortified fortress for faith and a firm cord for the pos- sessor of faith. With beautiful gentleness, perfect generosity, bounty without inclination, justice without iniquity, and gentleness without cause, the Real placed all ease and comfort, all security and unconcern, all happiness and revelry, in the right hand of certainty and the garden of approval. Then with a decree without ulterior motive and a knowledge without suspicion, He placed all grief and misfortune, suffering and tribulation, in doubt and disapproval. It has also been said that certainty has three pillars: the knowledge of certainty, the eye of certainty, and the truth of certainty. The knowledge of certainty settles down in the breast, the eye of certainty settles down in the secret core, and the truth of certainty settles down in the spirit. The knowledge of certainty discourses on faith, the eye of certainty gives marks of self-purifi-cation, and the truth of certainty throws into the rightful due of recognition. Blessedness belongs to him who walks in the world of certainty's knowledge! Nearness be- longs to him who sees a trace of the face-to-face vision of certainty's eye! The most beautiful belongs to him who finds awareness of the reality of certainty's truth!

You shall surely see the Blaze, then you shall see it with the eye of certainty. This surely is that of an oath. The Lord of the Worlds is swearing an oath and saying, “In truth, you servants will all see hell with the eye of certainty, a seeing without supposition or doubt.” This is just what He says elsewhere: “And none of you there is but will enter it” [19:71]. The person of faith will see it while passing by, and the unbeliever will see it as a settling place. MuṣṬafā said, “The best thing cast into the heart is certainty, and certainty is faith, all of it. Surely God in His equity and justice placed repose and joy in certainty and approval, and He placed concerns and sorrow in doubt and anger.” He is saying, “The best seed that is planted in the faithful person's breast is the seed of certain- ty, and all of faith is certainty. Certainty is a fortified fortress for faith and a firm cord for the pos- sessor of faith. With beautiful gentleness, perfect generosity, bounty without inclination, justice without iniquity, and gentleness without cause, the Real placed all ease and comfort, all security and unconcern, all happiness and revelry, in the right hand of certainty and the garden of approval. Then with a decree without ulterior motive and a knowledge without suspicion, He placed all grief and misfortune, suffering and tribulation, in doubt and disapproval. It has also been said that certainty has three pillars: the knowledge of certainty, the eye of certainty, and the truth of certainty. The knowledge of certainty settles down in the breast, the eye of certainty settles down in the secret core, and the truth of certainty settles down in the spirit. The knowledge of certainty discourses on faith, the eye of certainty gives marks of self-purifi-cation, and the truth of certainty throws into the rightful due of recognition. Blessedness belongs to him who walks in the world of certainty's knowledge! Nearness be- longs to him who sees a trace of the face-to-face vision of certainty's eye! The most beautiful belongs to him who finds awareness of the reality of certainty's truth!

By the era! Surely man is in loss. The Real swears an oath by the days and the time, which are the locus of taking heed for the gazer and the trace of the power of the Powerful: The Adamite is always in decrease and loss, his life in ruins. He is destitute and bewildered in the passing days. Every day that passes him by in his heedlessness is one part of his decreasing life, bringing him closer to the Last Day. He travels in decrease and fancies that he is increasing. He brings forth disobedience as ready cash and throws off obedience for tomorrow. You said you'd do the work fully tomorrow. Who gives you the assurance of tomorrow? God's Messenger, who was the paragon and the best of creation, the chosen and pulled up by the Real, said that he never got up in the morning expecting to reach the evening, and he never slept in the evening expecting to reach the morning; that he never put a morsel in his mouth supposing that he would finish eating it before he died. That paragon often used to say in supplication, “O Lord, give me a life in the sweetness of obedience, give me a death pure of alienation and slipping, and bring me into Your Presence neither shamed by my deeds nor embarrassed by the passing days.”

By the era! Surely man is in loss. The Real swears an oath by the days and the time, which are the locus of taking heed for the gazer and the trace of the power of the Powerful: The Adamite is always in decrease and loss, his life in ruins. He is destitute and bewildered in the passing days. Every day that passes him by in his heedlessness is one part of his decreasing life, bringing him closer to the Last Day. He travels in decrease and fancies that he is increasing. He brings forth disobedience as ready cash and throws off obedience for tomorrow. You said you'd do the work fully tomorrow. Who gives you the assurance of tomorrow? God's Messenger, who was the paragon and the best of creation, the chosen and pulled up by the Real, said that he never got up in the morning expecting to reach the evening, and he never slept in the evening expecting to reach the morning; that he never put a morsel in his mouth supposing that he would finish eating it before he died. That paragon often used to say in supplication, “O Lord, give me a life in the sweetness of obedience, give me a death pure of alienation and slipping, and bring me into Your Presence neither shamed by my deeds nor embarrassed by the passing days.”

He reckons that his wealth will make him last forever. They fancy that they will be in this world forever and that their wealth will always stay with them.

But no, he will be thrown into the Crusher. It will not be like what they fancy and will not be as they hope. In truth, at the resurrection they will be thrown into hell. They will be held captive in abasement and misery in the depths of the Crusher, their hands and feet fettered, stretched with a chain of seventy gaz, without hope for the mercy of the Real.

And what will let thee know what is the Crusher? And how would you know, O MuḤammad, how hard are the depths of the Crusher? And how burning is its fire!

The lit-up fire of God. If a speck of that fire were to appear in this world, it would burn all the folk of this world. The mountains would melt and the earth would sink down. So, what is the state of someone who is in the midst of this fire? He has the attribute that the Lord of the Worlds says:

Roaring over the hearts, coming down on them in outstretched columns. In the tongue of the folk of allusion and in keeping with the tasting of the folk of understanding, the lit-up fire of God is what the Pir of the Tariqah said: “It is a fire set by the limpidness of love that spoils the delights of life and strips away solace. Nothing can hold it back short of the encounter.” This is the state of that chevalier of the Tariqah, Ḥallāj, who said, “They struck the lit-up fire of God in my inwardness seventy years before it burned.” Then the kindling of the present moment of “I am the Real” sent out sparks. The sparks fell on that burnt one and took flame, so nothing was left of him but sparks. O assemblies of the Muslims! Where is a heart burnt by the lit up fire of God so that at the time of dawn a fire may catch in it from the flint of “God descends” and they may say, “Is this the one burned by the fire of love?” With the tongue of his state the lover says, “I keep on throwing the spirit-incense on the fire of passion. The spirit is Your servant-it is not that I am generous. When passion for You has burned away my spirit, I will contrive to find a hundred spirits more.”

Roaring over the hearts, coming down on them in outstretched columns. In the tongue of the folk of allusion and in keeping with the tasting of the folk of understanding, the lit-up fire of God is what the Pir of the Tariqah said: “It is a fire set by the limpidness of love that spoils the delights of life and strips away solace. Nothing can hold it back short of the encounter.” This is the state of that chevalier of the Tariqah, Ḥallāj, who said, “They struck the lit-up fire of God in my inwardness seventy years before it burned.” Then the kindling of the present moment of “I am the Real” sent out sparks. The sparks fell on that burnt one and took flame, so nothing was left of him but sparks. O assemblies of the Muslims! Where is a heart burnt by the lit up fire of God so that at the time of dawn a fire may catch in it from the flint of “God descends” and they may say, “Is this the one burned by the fire of love?” With the tongue of his state the lover says, “I keep on throwing the spirit-incense on the fire of passion. The spirit is Your servant-it is not that I am generous. When passion for You has burned away my spirit, I will contrive to find a hundred spirits more.”

Roaring over the hearts, coming down on them in outstretched columns. In the tongue of the folk of allusion and in keeping with the tasting of the folk of understanding, the lit-up fire of God is what the Pir of the Tariqah said: “It is a fire set by the limpidness of love that spoils the delights of life and strips away solace. Nothing can hold it back short of the encounter.” This is the state of that chevalier of the Tariqah, Ḥallāj, who said, “They struck the lit-up fire of God in my inwardness seventy years before it burned.” Then the kindling of the present moment of “I am the Real” sent out sparks. The sparks fell on that burnt one and took flame, so nothing was left of him but sparks. O assemblies of the Muslims! Where is a heart burnt by the lit up fire of God so that at the time of dawn a fire may catch in it from the flint of “God descends” and they may say, “Is this the one burned by the fire of love?” With the tongue of his state the lover says, “I keep on throwing the spirit-incense on the fire of passion. The spirit is Your servant-it is not that I am generous. When passion for You has burned away my spirit, I will contrive to find a hundred spirits more.”

Say: “O unbelievers!” ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAbbās said that no surah is more difficult and harsher for Satan than this surah, because it is sheer tawḤīd and disavowal of associationism. TawḤīd is of two sorts: the tawḤīd of attestation and the tawḤīd of recognition. The tawḤīd of attestation is to say one, and the tawḤīd of recognition is know one. “To say one” is to bear witness to God's oneness and purity in Essence and attributes. In Es- sence He is pure of spouse, child, and partner, and in attributes He is pure of similar, equal, and pointer. His attributes are not intelligible, their “how” is not understood, comprehended, or lim- ited. They are outside of imagination and understanding, and no one knows how they are. “To know one” is to know that He is one in blessings and bounties, that the giver and bestower is He, and that He is one in apportioning and beneficence. It is He who is one in word and deed, He who is one in bounty and gentleness, He who is one in mercy and favor. He is one-gratitude and favors belong to no one but Him. No one has power and strength but He, and no one has with- holding and bestowal but He. When the rays of the sun of tawḤīd shine on the faithful, tawḤīd-voicing servant, his mark is that he is watchful over his rest and his movement. He does not take one breath without the permis- sion of the Shariah and the Tariqah. He weighs his outwardness in the scales of the Shariah and pulls his inwardness into the playing field of the Tariqah. He keeps his center point pure of relying upon either of them, for, as has been said, “The felicitous person is he who has an outwardness conforming to the Shariah, an inwardness following the Haqiqah, and a secret core quit of relying on his Shariah and his Haqiqah.” If he should rely one iota on himself, this is sheer Zoroastrianism and utter Judaism. O chevalier, if you fill up everything from the highest of the high to what is beneath the earth with acts of obedience and worship, that would not be equal to letting go of one iota of your self- hood so that you do not see yourself.

Perish the hands of Abū Lahab, and perish he! What did Abū Lahab do in the Beginningless that his portion was the brand of deprivation? What did Abū Bakr bring forth in the Beginningless that the crown of felicity and generosity was placed on the head of his passing days? You say that Abū Lahab came to be wretched because he was an unbeliever and that Abū Bakr came to be felicitous because he was a submitter. The reality is the opposite. Know that unbelief lies in wretchedness, not wretchedness in unbelief, and submis- sion lies in felicity, not felicity in submission. This is a work that was over and done with in the Beginningless. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “Alas for the decree that has gone before me! Alack for the words spoken by the Self-Seer! I do not know if I should live happy or distraught. I fear what the Power- ful said in the Beginningless.” The dog of the Companions of the Cave had the color of unbelief, and the garment of Balaam Beor had the embroidery of the religion. But beginningless wretchedness and felicity were waiting in ambush from both directions. Hence, when good fortune showed its face, the form of that dog's skin was placed on Balaam: So his likeness is the likeness of a dog [7:176]. And Balaam's cloak was put on that dog, for it was said, “They were three, and the fourth of them was their dog” [18:22].

Say: “He is God, One; God, the Self-Sufficient....” “O MuḤammad! The estranged have asked you about My lineage. Say: 'God, One.'” God is one and unique, one in Essence and attributes, one in exaltedness and power, one in divinity and lord- hood, one in beginninglessness and endlessness. He is worthy of Godhood, knower of God-work, generous and lovingly kind, gentle and ever-merciful, the good God. He is the knower of secrets and whispers, the holder of the highest horizon, the creator of the Throne and the earth, near to everyone familiar, worthy of every laudation, the light of solicitude, apparent in the hearts of His friends, hidden from the eyes, manifest through artisanry. O far from the eyes, You and my heart are in one place! You are apparent to the heart but not to the eyes. God, the Self-Sufficient. It is He from whom sufficiency is sought in needs and in whom refuge is sought in turns of fortune. The Self-Sufficient is He whom the servants need and require. The hope of the disobedient and the destitute is in Him, the remedy of trials comes from His generosity, the hap- piness of the poor is in His majesty and beauty. Blessed is he whose intimate is His name, exalted is he whose portion is remembering Him, happy is the heart that is bound to Him, pure the tongue that is mentioning Him, delighting in life is he whose days pass in love and affection for Him! One person is joyful in paradise, another in the Friend. The Friend is the portion of him whose aspiration is all He. I have an eye, all of it filled with the form of the Friend. Happy am I with my eye so long as the Friend is within it. Separating the eye from the Friend is not good- either He's in place of the eye, or the eye itself is He. The Self-Sufficient is He who is hallowed beyond comprehension by the knowledge of created things, the perception of their eyes, or the view of their recognitions. The Self-Sufficient is He in whose majesty intellects are bewildered, in whose beauty intelligences are distracted, in perceiving whose secret core understandings are incapable, from whose command thoughts are turned upside down, from whose severity livers are bloodied, and from whose recognition hearts melt.

Say: “He is God, One; God, the Self-Sufficient....” “O MuḤammad! The estranged have asked you about My lineage. Say: 'God, One.'” God is one and unique, one in Essence and attributes, one in exaltedness and power, one in divinity and lord- hood, one in beginninglessness and endlessness. He is worthy of Godhood, knower of God-work, generous and lovingly kind, gentle and ever-merciful, the good God. He is the knower of secrets and whispers, the holder of the highest horizon, the creator of the Throne and the earth, near to everyone familiar, worthy of every laudation, the light of solicitude, apparent in the hearts of His friends, hidden from the eyes, manifest through artisanry. O far from the eyes, You and my heart are in one place! You are apparent to the heart but not to the eyes. God, the Self-Sufficient. It is He from whom sufficiency is sought in needs and in whom refuge is sought in turns of fortune. The Self-Sufficient is He whom the servants need and require. The hope of the disobedient and the destitute is in Him, the remedy of trials comes from His generosity, the hap- piness of the poor is in His majesty and beauty. Blessed is he whose intimate is His name, exalted is he whose portion is remembering Him, happy is the heart that is bound to Him, pure the tongue that is mentioning Him, delighting in life is he whose days pass in love and affection for Him! One person is joyful in paradise, another in the Friend. The Friend is the portion of him whose aspiration is all He. I have an eye, all of it filled with the form of the Friend. Happy am I with my eye so long as the Friend is within it. Separating the eye from the Friend is not good- either He's in place of the eye, or the eye itself is He. The Self-Sufficient is He who is hallowed beyond comprehension by the knowledge of created things, the perception of their eyes, or the view of their recognitions. The Self-Sufficient is He in whose majesty intellects are bewildered, in whose beauty intelligences are distracted, in perceiving whose secret core understandings are incapable, from whose command thoughts are turned upside down, from whose severity livers are bloodied, and from whose recognition hearts melt.

Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of the daybreak. The road of the common servants, in keeping with the outwardness of this verse, is continually to seek refuge in the Lord of the world's folk from the evil of the bad, the deceit of the deceivers, the envy of the enviers, and the bad things that happen in the world. This is why MuṣṬafā said, “Seek refuge in God from the effort of trial, the grasp of wretchedness, the ugliness of the decree, and the schadenfreude of enemies.” He also used to say, “O God, I seek refuge in Thee from incapac- ity, indolence, cowardice, miserliness, senility, and the chastisement of the grave. O God, I seek refuge in Thee from poverty, paucity, and abasement, and I seek refuge in Thee from wronging and being wronged. I seek refuge in Thee from dissension, hypocrisy, and ugly character traits.” Such is the path of the common faithful: putting the outwardness of the Shariah into practice and, at the time of trial, lifting up the hands in supplication and pleading and asking for well-being from the Real. As for the road of the chevaliers of the Tariqah and the lords of the Haqiqah, it is surrender and approval. To this He alludes with His words, “Except for him who comes to God with a sound heart” [26:89]. It has been said, “Leave the governance to Him who created you and you will be at ease.” Leave the governance of the work to the Lord of the work. Surrender intervention in created things to the Creator. Put aside the road of protest. Do not oppose and meddle. Do not turn away from His threshold. Consider Him your trustee, guarantor, and care-taker. Then you will have acqui- esced to this command: “Take Him as a trustee” [73:9]. Whenever surrender to Him and approval of Him come together in a heart, that person will be joined with soundness as hard cash and that breast will be exempted from the blights of mortal nature. Surrender is the degree of Ishmael and Abraham. Abraham was addressed with the word “Submit!,” and he answered, “I submit” [2:131]. His son saw the mark of surrender from his father and, by his father's teaching, he put on the garment of surrender. The splendorous Qur'an reports the surrender of father and son: “When the two of them submitted” [37:103]. In this world sur- render is the peg of the religion and in that world it is the key to the Abode of Peace. Approval is that you be a servant who is pleased and happy with everything that happens, and you await God's decree. Surrender is that you turn over the work of the created things to the Creator.