Kashf Al-Asrar Tafsir (Maybudi) — Al-Mu'minun 23:17 – Ar-Rum 30:5

We indeed created above you seven paths and We were not heedless of creation. In the allusion of the lords of recognitions and the deduction of the folk of understanding, the seven paths allude to the seven veils that the Exalted Lord created in the Adamic makeup. With them He keeps him veiled from seeing the subtleties and finding the realities. First is the veil of intel- lect, second the veil of knowledge, third the veil of the heart, fourth the veil of the soul, fifth sense perception, sixth desire, and seventh will. Intellect keeps the Adamite occupied with this world and with governing his livelihood so that he will be held back from the Real. Knowledge pulls him into the playing field of bragging with his peers so that he will stay in the valley of boasting and vying for increase. The heart puts him into the station of courage and stout-heartedness so that he will fall into temptation in the arenas of champi- ons by craving for fame in this world, so much so that he will have no concern for his religion or its victory. The soul is itself the greatest veil and the enemy of the religion. “Your worst enemy is the soul that is between your two sides.” If you gain the upper hand over it, you will win, but otherwise, you will fall such that you will never rise again. Here “sense perception” is appetite, “desire” is dis- obedience, and “will” is lassitude. Appetite and disobedience are the veil of the common people, and lassitude is the veil that keeps the elect of the Presence from the road of the Reality. Any talk that keeps you back from the road-let it be unbelief or faith. Any picture that holds you back from the Friend-let it be ugly or beautiful. [DS 51] He mentioned these seven veils. Then, after that, He said, “And We were not heedless of creation. Despite all these veils before the servant, We do not put him aside, nor are We heedless of him.” With the first part of the verse He threatens the servant with His severity and justice, and at the end He makes him hope for His bounty and generosity. The traveling of the wayfarers is built on this rule: first fear, then hope. Be fearful, O dervish, so that one day it will be said to you, “Fear not and grieve not” [41:30]. In the playing field of hope wait for His pardon until the time it is said, “Rejoice in the Garden” [41:30]. Sahl ibn ʿAbdallāh Tustarī said, “Fear is masculine, hope is feminine, and from the two are born the realities of faith.” Fear and hope are each other's mates. When they come together, the realities of faith are born from them. He gave hope the attribute of femininity and fear the attribute of masculinity because the domination of hope gives rise to lassitude and laziness, attributes of the female. The domination of fear gives rise to briskness and toughness, attributes of the male. The perfection of faith was placed in the subsistence of these two meanings. When these two meanings disappear from the disposition, the result will be either security or despair. Both are the attributes of the unbelievers, for one feels secure from the incapable, and one despairs of the base. Believing that God is incapable or base is sheer unbelief.

And We sent down from heaven water in a measure and settled it in the earth, and surely We are powerful over taking it away. He places a favor on the servants: “With perfect power We sent down from heaven the rain of mercy at the time of spring and the pollination of trees so that the dead earth will thereby come to life.” He gave forth hundreds of thousands of wonders and deposits that were made ready therein, namely the various sorts of plants, fruits, and herbs, as He says:

And therewith We made grow up for you gardens of palms and grape vines. The deducers of the Tariqah and the wayfarers of the road of the Haqiqah have said that the out- wardness of this verse alludes to the springtime of the common people, and the inwardness alludes to the springtime of the elect. “Every verse has an outwardness and an inwardness.” The spring- time of the common people is the signs of the horizons, and the springtime of the elect is the signs of the souls. God says, “We shall show them Our signs on the horizons and in their souls” [41:53]. If the springtime of the common people has raining clouds, the springtime of the elect has weeping eyes. If the springtime of the common people has violent thunder, the springtime of the elect has wailing and remorse. If the springtime of the common people has fiery lightning, the springtime of the elect has the light of perspicacity. In the springtime of the common people, you should open the eyes of taking heed so that you may see the roses. In the springtime of the elect, you should assign the eyes of reflection to seeing the heart. Someone saw a dervish at springtime, his head hung down, and said, “O dervish, lift up your head to see the roses!” He said, “O chevalier, hang down your head to see the heart.”

Surely this community of yours is one community, and I am your Lord, so be wary of Me. By way of allusion he is saying, “The religion of the submission is the unique religion, you are My unique community, and I who am your Lord am the unique Lord. Beware of My anger if you choose another religion and take another god. This submission has the attribute of the All- Compeller. There should be someone with an all-compelling aspiration so that the beauty of the submission will welcome him. The one with an all-compelling aspiration is he who does not bow his head before this world or the afterworld.” It was said to Abraham, “O Abraham, submit! [2:131]. Belong to the submission and make do with the submission!” He said, “The submission has the attribute of all-compellingness and will not give me access to my attachments. Let me come out of the bonds of attachment.” He gave his property to visitors, his son to sacrifice, and his own soul to the burning fire. Then he said, “I submit to the Lord of the worlds [2:131]. Now that I have turned back from all, I have turned to You; having held back from all, I remain for You.”

Do they think that We aid them with possessions and children only that We may hurry good things to them? Why do the chieftains who possess this world, nurture the soul, and worship creation, having placed the mantle of pride on their shoulders and become drunk with appetite, fancy that this world is a generous gift for them, or that possessions and children are a felicity for them. No, of course not! They are not aware that when the vanguard of the army of blessings arrives, it always seeks the threshold of the estranged. It brings along the banner of wretchedness and puts down the brand of estrangement. Again, when the vanguard of the army of tribulation arrives, it always seeks the corner of the dear ones and wanders around the house of the friends. For in shape tribulation [محنة] and love [محبة] are companions and equals, like each other and differentiated only by the dot above and below. Otherwise, they are not separate in shape and form. God gave the miserable Pharaoh four hundred years of the well-being and blessings of this world and did not constrict him in anything. But, if for one hour he had wanted the pain and burning of Moses, He would not have given it to him, for he was not worthy of that pain's beauty. And if we suppose that someone had asked Zachariah what he wanted when the saw was placed on the crown of his head, the cries of passion would have come forth from his parts and motes saying, “I want them to saw me forever!” A report says, “When someone loves Us, let him put on an armor for trial, for trial comes faster to Our lovers than a flood to its resting place.” As long as I live, I will bind my servanthood to Your cloak and put all my safety into the work of Your trials.

Do they think that We aid them with possessions and children only that We may hurry good things to them? Why do the chieftains who possess this world, nurture the soul, and worship creation, having placed the mantle of pride on their shoulders and become drunk with appetite, fancy that this world is a generous gift for them, or that possessions and children are a felicity for them. No, of course not! They are not aware that when the vanguard of the army of blessings arrives, it always seeks the threshold of the estranged. It brings along the banner of wretchedness and puts down the brand of estrangement. Again, when the vanguard of the army of tribulation arrives, it always seeks the corner of the dear ones and wanders around the house of the friends. For in shape tribulation [محنة] and love [محبة] are companions and equals, like each other and differentiated only by the dot above and below. Otherwise, they are not separate in shape and form. God gave the miserable Pharaoh four hundred years of the well-being and blessings of this world and did not constrict him in anything. But, if for one hour he had wanted the pain and burning of Moses, He would not have given it to him, for he was not worthy of that pain's beauty. And if we suppose that someone had asked Zachariah what he wanted when the saw was placed on the crown of his head, the cries of passion would have come forth from his parts and motes saying, “I want them to saw me forever!” A report says, “When someone loves Us, let him put on an armor for trial, for trial comes faster to Our lovers than a flood to its resting place.” As long as I live, I will bind my servanthood to Your cloak and put all my safety into the work of Your trials.

Surely those who tremble in fear of their Lord… it is they who hurry to good deeds. When an intelligent man ponders the meaning of these verses, he will come to know that the obedi- ent are more fearful in their obedience than the disobedient are fearful in their disobedience. Just as the disobedient need His curtaining, so also the obedient need His curtaining. The Real says, “And repent all together to God, O you who have faith! [24:31]. O faithful, you who are obedient and you who are disobedient! All of you return to Our threshold with the attribute of pleading! In the state of poverty and brokenness ask for Our forgiveness, so that We may cover you with the curtain of Our mercy.” I wonder at the empty-headed Qur'an-reciter who makes two cycles of prayer at night and the next day knits the knot of self-seeing on his brow and places the favor of his own being on heaven and earth. All the motes of existence say to him, “What a simpleton you are! It is here that they make a Kaabah into an idol-temple, turn a seven hundred thousand-year worshiper into the forever accursed Satan, and bind Balaam son of Beor-who had God's greatest name in his breast and whose every prayer was answered-in a kennel for dogs. But you make two cycles of prayer one night and the next day you want the whole world to be full of talk of your prayer!” You poor wretch! The realizer fills the east and the west with prostrations of self-purification. Then he dips everything into the water of unneediness and returns with two empty hands to the end of the street of Muhammad MuṣṬafā's intercession and says, “O exalted man, harm has touched us and our folk, and we come with scant goods” [12:88]. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, I have come with two empty hands. I have burned in the hope of better days. What harm if You place a balm on this wounded heart of mine?”

Surely those who tremble in fear of their Lord… it is they who hurry to good deeds. When an intelligent man ponders the meaning of these verses, he will come to know that the obedi- ent are more fearful in their obedience than the disobedient are fearful in their disobedience. Just as the disobedient need His curtaining, so also the obedient need His curtaining. The Real says, “And repent all together to God, O you who have faith! [24:31]. O faithful, you who are obedient and you who are disobedient! All of you return to Our threshold with the attribute of pleading! In the state of poverty and brokenness ask for Our forgiveness, so that We may cover you with the curtain of Our mercy.” I wonder at the empty-headed Qur'an-reciter who makes two cycles of prayer at night and the next day knits the knot of self-seeing on his brow and places the favor of his own being on heaven and earth. All the motes of existence say to him, “What a simpleton you are! It is here that they make a Kaabah into an idol-temple, turn a seven hundred thousand-year worshiper into the forever accursed Satan, and bind Balaam son of Beor-who had God's greatest name in his breast and whose every prayer was answered-in a kennel for dogs. But you make two cycles of prayer one night and the next day you want the whole world to be full of talk of your prayer!” You poor wretch! The realizer fills the east and the west with prostrations of self-purification. Then he dips everything into the water of unneediness and returns with two empty hands to the end of the street of Muhammad MuṣṬafā's intercession and says, “O exalted man, harm has touched us and our folk, and we come with scant goods” [12:88]. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, I have come with two empty hands. I have burned in the hope of better days. What harm if You place a balm on this wounded heart of mine?”

Surely those who tremble in fear of their Lord… it is they who hurry to good deeds. When an intelligent man ponders the meaning of these verses, he will come to know that the obedi- ent are more fearful in their obedience than the disobedient are fearful in their disobedience. Just as the disobedient need His curtaining, so also the obedient need His curtaining. The Real says, “And repent all together to God, O you who have faith! [24:31]. O faithful, you who are obedient and you who are disobedient! All of you return to Our threshold with the attribute of pleading! In the state of poverty and brokenness ask for Our forgiveness, so that We may cover you with the curtain of Our mercy.” I wonder at the empty-headed Qur'an-reciter who makes two cycles of prayer at night and the next day knits the knot of self-seeing on his brow and places the favor of his own being on heaven and earth. All the motes of existence say to him, “What a simpleton you are! It is here that they make a Kaabah into an idol-temple, turn a seven hundred thousand-year worshiper into the forever accursed Satan, and bind Balaam son of Beor-who had God's greatest name in his breast and whose every prayer was answered-in a kennel for dogs. But you make two cycles of prayer one night and the next day you want the whole world to be full of talk of your prayer!” You poor wretch! The realizer fills the east and the west with prostrations of self-purification. Then he dips everything into the water of unneediness and returns with two empty hands to the end of the street of Muhammad MuṣṬafā's intercession and says, “O exalted man, harm has touched us and our folk, and we come with scant goods” [12:88]. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, I have come with two empty hands. I have burned in the hope of better days. What harm if You place a balm on this wounded heart of mine?”

Surely those who tremble in fear of their Lord… it is they who hurry to good deeds. When an intelligent man ponders the meaning of these verses, he will come to know that the obedi- ent are more fearful in their obedience than the disobedient are fearful in their disobedience. Just as the disobedient need His curtaining, so also the obedient need His curtaining. The Real says, “And repent all together to God, O you who have faith! [24:31]. O faithful, you who are obedient and you who are disobedient! All of you return to Our threshold with the attribute of pleading! In the state of poverty and brokenness ask for Our forgiveness, so that We may cover you with the curtain of Our mercy.” I wonder at the empty-headed Qur'an-reciter who makes two cycles of prayer at night and the next day knits the knot of self-seeing on his brow and places the favor of his own being on heaven and earth. All the motes of existence say to him, “What a simpleton you are! It is here that they make a Kaabah into an idol-temple, turn a seven hundred thousand-year worshiper into the forever accursed Satan, and bind Balaam son of Beor-who had God's greatest name in his breast and whose every prayer was answered-in a kennel for dogs. But you make two cycles of prayer one night and the next day you want the whole world to be full of talk of your prayer!” You poor wretch! The realizer fills the east and the west with prostrations of self-purification. Then he dips everything into the water of unneediness and returns with two empty hands to the end of the street of Muhammad MuṣṬafā's intercession and says, “O exalted man, harm has touched us and our folk, and we come with scant goods” [12:88]. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, I have come with two empty hands. I have burned in the hope of better days. What harm if You place a balm on this wounded heart of mine?”

Surely those who tremble in fear of their Lord… it is they who hurry to good deeds. When an intelligent man ponders the meaning of these verses, he will come to know that the obedi- ent are more fearful in their obedience than the disobedient are fearful in their disobedience. Just as the disobedient need His curtaining, so also the obedient need His curtaining. The Real says, “And repent all together to God, O you who have faith! [24:31]. O faithful, you who are obedient and you who are disobedient! All of you return to Our threshold with the attribute of pleading! In the state of poverty and brokenness ask for Our forgiveness, so that We may cover you with the curtain of Our mercy.” I wonder at the empty-headed Qur'an-reciter who makes two cycles of prayer at night and the next day knits the knot of self-seeing on his brow and places the favor of his own being on heaven and earth. All the motes of existence say to him, “What a simpleton you are! It is here that they make a Kaabah into an idol-temple, turn a seven hundred thousand-year worshiper into the forever accursed Satan, and bind Balaam son of Beor-who had God's greatest name in his breast and whose every prayer was answered-in a kennel for dogs. But you make two cycles of prayer one night and the next day you want the whole world to be full of talk of your prayer!” You poor wretch! The realizer fills the east and the west with prostrations of self-purification. Then he dips everything into the water of unneediness and returns with two empty hands to the end of the street of Muhammad MuṣṬafā's intercession and says, “O exalted man, harm has touched us and our folk, and we come with scant goods” [12:88]. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, I have come with two empty hands. I have burned in the hope of better days. What harm if You place a balm on this wounded heart of mine?”

We burden no soul save to its capacity. The highway of the religion has a beginning and an end. The beginning belongs to the folk of the Shariah and the end to the lords of the Haqiqah. The practice of the folk of the Shariah is service according to the Shariah, and the attribute of the lords of the Haqiqah is exile in contemplation. The foundation of the folk of the Shariah was built with easiness. MuṣṬafā said, “I was sent out with easy and indulgent unswervingness.” The weak and the folk of concessions do not have the capacity for heavy burdens. The Exalted Lord put concessions into the Shariah for their sake and set aside heavy burdens: We burden no soul save to its capacity. This is the same as saying, “He placed no hardship upon you in the religion [22:78]. God desires for you ease and does not desire for you hardship [2:185].” As for the traveling of the lords of the Haqiqah, God founded that on discipline and difficulty. They are addressed by the words, “Struggle in God as is the rightful due of His struggle [22:78]. Be wary of God as is the rightful due of His wariness [3:102]. Whether you show what is within your souls or you hide it, God will bring you to account for it [2:284].” The Pir of the Tariqah was asked about Sufism. He said, “It is nothing but throwing away the spirit; otherwise, do not busy yourself with the nonsense of the claimants.” Al-Jurayrī said, “God does not burden the servants with recognizing Him in His measure; He only burdens them in their measure, for He says, 'We burden no soul save to its capacity.' Were He to burden them in His measure, they would be ignorant of Him and would not recognize Him, for no one but He recognizes His measure and no one other than He recognizes Him in reality.” God burdened the servants with recognizing Him in the measure of their obedience and the extent of their ability, not in the measure of His majesty and exaltedness. Everyone can know Him in his own measure, but only He knows and recognizes how He is in Himself. God says, “They encom- pass Him not in knowledge [20:110]. The All-Merciful. So ask about Him from someone who is aware [25:59].” ʿAlī said, “O He who none knows how He is but He!” Were He to make an iota of the recognition of the Haqiqah that He has in Himself apparent to the creatures, all the recalcitrant people in the world and all the satans of the universe would become tawḤīd-voicers, all the sashes of unbelief would become belts of love in the religion, all the thorns of the world would become fragrant herbs, all the dust would become musk and ambergris, and all the attributes of mortal nature would become the good news of the breeze of recognition. Were You to glance once as You are, no idol would remain, no idol-worshiper, no sprite. O God, describing You is not the work of the tongue. Expression of the reality of finding You is calumny. With the onslaught of the heart's union and vision, what can be done? Your beauty is greater than my seeing, Your mystery outside of my knowing.

Repel the ugly with what is more beautiful. In this verse the generous Lord, the wise and renowned Enactor, commands MuṣṬafā to noble char- acter traits and beautiful habits-a bright face, mild words, a soft heart, and a pleasant character; pardoning the bad-doers, hiding the defects of the defective, and doing good in place of bad. In the tongue of the Tariqah, the more beautiful is for the heart to give fatwas by the Real's dicta- tion. The ugly is for the soul to issue commands by its own caprice. He is saying, “O Master, repel what the soul commands by means of what the Real shows: Repel the ugly with what is more beautiful.” The Prophet always used to say, “'Our Lord, do not entrust us to our souls for the blink of an eye, or less than that.' O God, lift up this curtain of self from before our heart so that the bird of the heart may be completely delivered from the cage of the soul and fly in the air of the Patron's approval! O God, this burden of soul is the burden of selfhood. Lift this burden of selfhood away from us so we may be released from self and turn to You!” O chevalier, take care not to say that his blessed soul was like the souls of others, for if a speck of his soul's shining were to shine forth on the spirits and hearts of the world's sincerely truthful, all of them would go forth to the world of holiness and the gardens of intimacy and settle down in the seat of truthfulness [54:55]. Despite all this, he says, “O Lord, this is our veil on the road of the Haqiqah-lift it up from our road!” The command came, “O MuḤammad, unasked We put Ourself beside you: Did We not expand for thee thy breast and lift from thee thy burden? [94:1-2]. O MuḤammad, We put aside that bur- den of you-ness from you. Our desire took care of your work, Our solicitude lit up your lamp. You did not come by yourself, nor did you come for yourself. You did not come by yourself because We brought you: Who took His servant by night [17:1]. You did not come for yourself because you came as a mercy for the world's folk: We sent thee only as a mercy to the worlds” [21:107].

What, did you reckon that We created you aimlessly and that you would not be returned to Us? Abū Bakr WāsiṬī recited this verse and said, “He made manifest the colors and created the creatures to make manifest His existence, for had He not created, it would not be recognized that He exists; and to make manifest the perfection of His knowledge and power through the manifestation of His acts soundly arranged by wisdom; and to make manifest the signs of friendship on the friends and the signs of wretchedness on the wretched.” He is saying, “The majestic and perfectly powerful Lord, in His majesty and exaltedness and His perfect power, brought the engendered beings and newly arrived things into existence. Thereby they would know His Being, recognize His lordhood, and find evidence of His perfect knowledge and power from His artisanry. In keeping with His knowledge of them, He made ap- parent the mark of friendship on the friends and inscribed enmity on the enemies. He brought them from the concealment of nonexistence into existence in keeping with the knowledge, known in the Beginningless, that He would create creation. He wanted to make His creation come to be in exact correspondence with His knowledge.” David the prophet said in his whispered prayer, “O God, O endless Majesty described by the attribute of perfection and qualified by the description of unneediness! You have no need for anything and You subsist in Your own description. You require nobody and You take help and aid from no one. Why did You create these creatures? What wisdom is there in their existence?” The answer came, “'I was a hidden treasure, and I loved to be recognized.' I was a concealed treasure and no one knew or recognized Me. I wanted to be known and I loved to be recognized.” “I loved to be recognized” is an allusion to the fact that recognition is built on love. Wherever there is love, there is recognition, and wherever there is no love, there is no recognition. The great ones of the religion and the Tariqah have said, “No one recognizes Him save those to whom He has made Himself recognized, no one voices His tawḤīd save those to whom He has shown His tawḤīd, and no one describes Him save those to whose secret cores He has disclosed Himself. ” No one recognizes the Real save someone to whom He shows Himself as the One; no one describes Him save someone to whose secret core He makes Himself appear. Expression is the spokesman of the secret core, and the secret core is gazing on the Real. First there is seeing, then the tongue expresses what the secret core saw. The tongue is the mark of the folk of practice. As for the folk of the Haqiqah, they have no expression or allusion. This is what they have said: “He who recognizes Him does not describe Him, and he who describes Him does not rec- ognize Him.” When someone has received the self-disclosure to the secret core according to the rightful due of the Haqiqah, his secret core is in contemplation itself and his spirit is drowned in the ocean of face-to-face vision. When the Friend is present, giving a mark of the Friend is to abandon veneration. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “When the inwardness's contemplation has been set aright in someone, he does not want to express it with the tongue or have his outwardness become aware of it.” Shiblī said, “On the night they killed Ḥusayn Manṣūr Ḥallāj, I whispered secretly with the Real all night until dawn. Then I placed my head down in prostration and said, 'O Lord, He was a servant of Yours, a man of faith, a tawḤīd-voicer, a firm believer, numbered among Your friends. What was this trial You brought down upon him? How did he come to be considered worthy for this tribulation?' “Then I dreamt, and it was as if I was shown this call of exaltedness reaching my ears: 'He is one of Our servants. We informed him of one of Our secrets and he disclosed it, so We sent down upon him what you saw. It is fine for a green-grocer to call out about his vegetables, but absurd for a jeweler to call out about a night-brightening pearl.'”

A surah that We have sent down and made obligatory; and We sent down in it clear signs that perhaps you will remember. A dervish was asked, “What is the evidence for God's being?” He replied, “Morning takes away the need for a lamp.” When the sun rises, a lamp is not re- quired. The whole cosmos is the evidence, it needs someone to look. The whole cosmos is fragrant herbs, it needs someone to smell. The whole cosmos is the antidote, it needs someone bitten by a snake. The whole cosmos is the signs and banners of His power, the marks and denotations of His wisdom, the proof of His unity and solitariness. O chevalier! If one day you see the sun of recognition shining from the sphere of magnifi- cence, and if the eyes of your aspiration see the signs and banners of the exalted majesticness, then this world, which had taken you as its prey, will be made into a shoe and nailed to the hoof of your aspiration's steed. The afterworld, which had been your shackle, will be made into a ring for the ears of your presence's servants. Then you will be brought, like a king, into the special court of majesty, in a seat of truthfulness, at an Omnipotent King [54:55].

The fornicatress and the fornicator-flog each of them a hundred lashes, and let no clem- ency toward them seize you in God's religion, if you have faith in God and the Last Day. And let a group of the faithful witness their chastisement. The world's folk are three groups: the common people, the elect of the Presence, and the elect of the elect. If the common people fornicate, their penalty, in the tongue of the Shariah, is whipping or stoning. MuṣṬafā said, “Take this from me! Take this from me! God has appointed for them a path: for virgins, one hundred stripes and banishment; for those formerly married, one hundred stripes and stoning.” He also said, “Receive kindly the stumbles of those with positions except in the case of penalties.” The fornication of the elect is the gazing of the eyes. MuṣṬafā said, “The fornication of the eyes is the gaze.” Their penalty is to cast down the eyesight and to turn the eyes away from the soul's pleasures and appetites, even if they are licit. The Prophet said, “Cast down your eyes, guard your private parts, and hold back your hands.” The fornication of the elect of the elect is the heart's thoughts about anything less than the Real. If they give something else access to their secret core, this is counted in the Tariqah as forni- cation. Their penalty is disentanglement from attachments and withdrawal from people. God says, “Say 'God,' then leave them” [6:91]. Let no clemency toward them seize you in God's religion, if you have faith in God. One of them said this means, “If you are among the folk of affection and love for Me, oppose those who oppose My command and do what I have prohibited. No one is a lover who has patience with op- position to his beloved.” Junayd said, “Tenderness toward those in opposition is like turning away from those who conform.” In other words, “Being tender to those who oppose at the moment of opposition is just like turning away from those who conform at the moment of their conformity.” Having mercy in accordance with the Shariah is beautiful and praiseworthy. “The All-Merci- ful has mercy on those who are merciful.” But, it is not a stipulation to have mercy as a requisite of nature and habit at the moment of opposition, and it is not allowable to be remiss in enacting the penalties. God says, “Let no clemency toward them seize you in God's religion.” What is more marvelous is that He commands us to have no mercy, even though He Himself has mercy, for He preserves the person in faith and does not cut off from him because of his disloyalty and acts of disobedience. He offers repentance and pardon to him and promises forgiveness: “He invites you so that He may forgive you some of your sins” [14:10]. When He is like this toward the disobedient sinner, what can I say about what He is like toward the obedient observer of the command? The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O You who plant the sorrow of regret in the hearts of those acquainted with You, O You who throw burning into the hearts of those who repent, O You who accept the sinners and acknowledgers! No one came back whom You did not bring back, no one found the road until You took his hand. Take my hand, for there is no hand-taker but You; come to my help, for there is no refuge but You, no one to answer my asking but You, no remedy for my pain but You, no ease from my grief but You.” And let a group of the faithful witness their chastisement. He says that a group of the faithful should be present where they may witness the enactment of the penalties of the Shariah in keeping with God's command. The state of that group will not be outside of two: Either no sin like that has ever appeared from them, God having protected them from that. Or no, it has appeared from them, but God has guarded them with His concealment and has not disgraced them before witnesses. In both cases, they should consider this a tremendous blessing on themselves from God and they should add to their gratitude and thankfulness. With the tongue of pleading they should say, “O God, we are impure and without excuse and we are deluded by the concealment of Your forbearance! O Lord, do not look at the abasement of our defects! Look rather from the exaltedness of Your lack of defects at our inability, look from Your forbearance at our poverty, look from Your loving kindness at the bonds of our servanthood and incapacity! By Your good Godhood and bounty, put aside what is worthy of us for what is worthy of You, our disloyalty for Your loyalty, and what belongs to us for what belongs to You!”

Those who came with the slander are a band of you. Do not reckon it evil for you; rather, it is good for you. Against every man of them shall be the sin he has earned. Whosoever of them took upon himself most of it will have a great chastisement. Know that God is jealous over the hearts of His elect servants. So when two of them take repose in each other, God brings to pass what will repel each from his companion and push him back to Himself. Thus have they sung, When my spirit clings to a beloved and attaches to him, the changing of the days steal him away from me. Know, O chevalier, that the hearts of the Real's friends are inside the curtain of jealousy-today they listen inside the curtain of jealousy, and tomorrow they will see inside the curtain of jealousy. The Real does not show your heart to anyone, for He keeps it inside the curtain of jealousy. In the grip of the attributes it sees the Real face-to-face on the carpet of joy in the presence of witness- ing and seclusion, and the Real gazes upon it. If the heart looks back at another, at once it will see the courtesy-teaching whip. Thus it happened to a great one of his time: He was exceedingly happy in a tremendous desire for God. He had complete ecstasy and his work was in total conformity with Him. Then once he heard the call of a bird, and he looked back toward the call. He went beneath the tree and was wait- ing for the bird to call again. A voice spoke to him, “You have dissolved God's bond! You have given away the key to My covenant, for you have become intimate with another!” MuḤammad ibn Ḥassān said, “Once I was wandering in the mountain of Lebanon hoping to see one of the friends of the Real, one of the great ones who take up residence there. I saw a young man come out from a corner. The hot wind of summer had blown against him, and he was burnt and bedraggled. When he saw me, he turned away and entered in among the chestnut trees to conceal himself. I followed him. I said, 'O chevalier! Give me the benefit of some words, for I came in hope of that. ' “He answered, 'Beware! He is jealous. He does not love to see other than Himself in the heart of His servant.'” Adam the Chosen was the center point of the compass of existence, the basis of the creation of mortal man, and the chosen of the empire. He turned his heart toward the bliss of paradise and gave himself over to it. From the Exalted Presence came jealousy's messenger: “Are you not ashamed to bring your aspiration down to Riẓwān's house of good fortune and to look back at something other than Me? Now that You have looked back at something else, take your bags and go down to the house of the decree. Throw down your head in incapacity and be broken by shortcoming in the quarry of trial, and wait for My decree!” In the same way, Abraham's eyes looked back at Ishmael. He saw an exalted nobility and rectitude, the extract of bosom friendship, the oyster shell for the pearl of the chosen MuḤammad. His heart busied itself with him. The command came, “O My bosom friend! Did I keep you away from the Azari idols so that you could gaze on Ishmael's beauty? Now, take up knife and rope and sacrifice everything less than Me in the road. Two friendships cannot fit into one heart.” The same state happened for MuḤammad the Arab, the Master of Adam's children, the fore- most of the prophets and messengers. He had busied a corner of his heart with ʿāÌisha, so much so that when he was asked, “Which of the people do you love most?,” he said “ʿāÌisha.” In one of the reports it has come that ʿāÌisha said, “O Messenger of God! I love you and I love being near to you!” When they busied their hearts with love for each other, the ruling power of jealousy opened the cur- tain of exaltedness and, with the attribute of harshness, showed them a sliver of its ruling authority. The satans of mankind and jinn joined hands, and slanderous talk entered the midst. The lie fabricated by the hypocrites took flight. What is even more wondrous is that in those days the path of perspicacity was shut to MuṣṬafā lest the innocence of ʿāÌisha should appear to him. He did not know the reality of that business until jealousy had driven home its severity and the turn of trial had come to an end. The cause of this is that at the time of trial, God blocks the eyes of His friends' perspicacity in order to complete the trial. This is why Abraham did not distinguish and recognize the angels when he presented to them the roasted calf [11:69] and imagined them to be guests. Lot also did not recognize them as angels until they announced to him that they were angels. Things reached the point that all the joy, whispered secrets, and gentleness that MuṣṬafā had with ʿāÌisha came to a halt. Instead of calling her Ḥumayrā by way of endearment, he kept on saying, “How is your family?” ʿāÌisha was kept away from nearness to MuṣṬafā at her father's house. She was ill, wailing, burning, weeping, her heart full of pain and her spirit full of remorse. She was looking at her own misery and abasement and saying, “I never fancied that anyone could suspect me of this or bring words like this to the tongue.” To Him who hears all sounds despite distance I complained of my pain in remembrance. Would that I knew, though hopes are many, if he who left is aware of me-should I await his coming? * The friend, it seems, is unaware of my grief, and sleep no longer comes my way. Each moment my night becomes darker- O Lord, it seems the night has no dawn! Then, when the verses of exoneration came down and the turn of trial came to an end, God's Mes- senger gave ʿāÌisha the good news: “God has revealed your innocence.” Her mother and father said to her, “O ʿāÌisha, betake yourself to God's Messenger and praise him.” She said, “No, by God, I will not betake myself to him, nor will I praise him, nor will I praise you two. Rather, I will praise God, who revealed my innocence.” She had given all of her heart to the Messenger's nearness and love such that she had said, “I love you and I love being near to you.” After being immersed in that, she gave everything over to love for the Unity and busied herself with serving the Divine Threshold. She always used to say, “By the praise of God, not your praise!” O chevalier, if the accusers of ʿāÌisha had not voiced that calumny, the verses declaring her eminence would not have descended from heaven. If the Christians had not said, “The Messiah is the son of God” [9:30], Jesus would not have been given the generosity of “Surely I am the servant of God-He gave me the Book and made me a prophet” [19:30]. If the man of faith did not sin, he would not have been honored with the address, “Despair not of God's mercy” [39:53]. This is why, at the beginning of the story, He said, “Do not count it as evil for you; no, it is good for you. O ʿāÌisha, do not fancy that what they said was bad for you. If it was bad, it was bad for them. Because of it they became worthy for great chastisement. For you it was all goodness and generosity, the perfection of reward and the elevation of rank.” It has come in the stories that paradise has an outskirts, and tomorrow the Exalted Lord will gather the faithful in the outskirts and, before they go into paradise, He will host them in a perfect invitation, a fitting bestowal of eminence, a complete caressing. Then He will place a favor on MuṣṬafā: “O MuḤammad, this invitation is the banquet for your contract of marriage with Mary, daughter of ʿImrān, and āsiya daughter of MuzāḤim. O MuḤammad, I kept Mary away from com- panionship with men and brought forth from her a child without a man for the sake of your honor and jealousy. I kept āsiya next to Pharaoh, but I took away Pharaoh's manliness and never let him be alone with her. I conveyed her to you pure, without defect, no one's hand having touched her.” Now listen to a subtle point: He honored Mary and āsiya, who will be wives of MuṣṬafā tomorrow in the next world, and He praised them for purity and guarded them from the people. ʿāÌisha the truthful, who was his wife in this world, who pleased him, who was his companion, whose love was in his heart, and who will be married to him tomorrow in paradise-what wonder that God honored her, sent Qur'anic verses and revelation exonerating her, and Himself gave wit-ness to her purity and approved of her?

The goodly women are for the goodly men, and the goodly men for the goodly women- these are innocent of what they say. They will have forgiveness and a generous provision. In the tasting of the lords of recognitions the generous provision is not the provision of the soul that is sometimes there and sometimes not. It is the provision of the spirit and the nourishment of the living self that is never cut off and always arrives continuously, neither cut off nor withheld [56:33]. What is nurtured by bread and water is one thing, what is nurtured by unmixed light is something else. When MuṣṬafā said, “I spend the night at my Lord; He gives me to eat and drink,” he was talking of the attributes of the spiritual, not the attributes of the bodily. Snow is not the opposite of fire as much as the spiritual is that of the bodily. Two antagonists are kept together in one house, apparently getting along with each other, but inwardly enemies. Once when his time had become short a great man was seen in revelry and delight. They asked, “What is this revelry?” He said, “What is surprising about it? Union with the Friend and separation from the enemy are near. Which day will be sweeter than the day when dawn opens up with the arrival of a drink and a blow? Which drink and which blow is that? It will put this idol-worshiper on the gallows and deliver this sultan from the dark fetters, carrying him on the Burāq of good fortune to the Pres- ence of Majesty.” “The spirits of the elect are in the grasp of exaltedness: He unveils His Essence to them and bestows on them the gentle favors of His attributes.”

Say to the faithful that they cast down their eyes. That is, the eyes of the heads from forbidden things and the eyes of the hearts from everything other than Him. He commands the faithful to turn the eyes of the head away from forbidden things and the eye of the secret core from everything less than the Real. They should throw the dust of nonbeing into the eyes of their own being, and from the tablet of their existence they should read out reproach to the deceiving soul. Because of the pain of his own being, MuḤammad the Arab, the unique pearl of the oceans of messengerhood and the centerpiece of the necklace of evidence, used to lament, “Would that the Lord of MuḤammad had never created MuḤammad!” Those who were the pre- ceders, the truthful, and the wayfarers of the road never paid the slightest attention to themselves. They were not happy with their own being and did not look at themselves with the eye of approval. One day Junayd was sitting with Ruwaym when Shiblī came in, and Shiblī was exceedingly kind-hearted. When Junayd's words were finished, Ruwaym looked at Junayd and said, “He is a kind-hearted man, this Shiblī.” Junayd said, “You are talking about someone who is one of those who have been rejected by the Threshold.” When Shiblī heard this, he was broken. He got up in shame and went outside. Ruwaym, “Junayd, what were those words you said about Shiblī? You know the purity and truthfulness of his state.” Junayd, “Yes, Shiblī is one of the great ones at the Threshold. But, when you speak to Shiblī, do not speak to him from beneath the Throne, for His swords spill blood. Ruwaym, those words of yours concerning his purification were a sword aimed at his days to hamstring the steed of his practice. I made my words into a shield to repel that sword.” Say to the faithful that they cast down their eyes. One group do not look at this world, and they are the renunciants. Another group do not look at the realm of being, and they are the folk of recognition. Still another group are the companions of guarding and awe; just as they do not look at others with their hearts, so also they do not see themselves worthy of witnessing. Then the Real lifts the veil from them without any choice, endeavor, or self-exertion on their part. The chevaliers of the Tariqah are those who do not look at the others. They do not open the eyes of their aspiration toward anyone. They have lost themselves in the magnificent wilderness of Unity. The have thrown the fire of longing into the hut of their existence and drowned in the ocean of awesomeness and the waves of confoundedness. Their intellects are bewildered, their hearts lost-without reason or rhyme, without name or sign. They are rushing, running, wailing in the world, in the mountain monasteries, in the desert caves. Totally effaced in the ocean of bewilderment, of themselves they recite for all, “No home, no possessions.” The Pir of the Tariqah said in his whispered prayers, “O God, You appeared to Your friends in gentleness so as to make a group drunk with the wine of intimacy and drown another group in the ocean of confoundedness. You made them hear the call up close, and You gave the mark from afar. You called the servants back, then You hid Yourself. You displayed Yourself from behind the curtain and disclosed Yourself in the mark of tremendousness so that You lost the chevaliers in the valley of confoundedness and made them dizzy in their incapacity. What is it that You have done to these helpless creatures!? The judge of these complainants is You, the giver of justice to these aid-seekers is You, the wergild of the slain is You, the hand-taker of the drowning is You, the guide of the lost is You. When will the lost come to the road? When will the drowning reach the shore? When will the wounded in spirit find ease? When will their hidden story find its answer? When will the night of their waiting reach its dawn?”

And say to the faithful women that they cast down their eyes, guard their private parts, and not show their adornment, save what is outward thereof.... And repent all together to God, O you who have faith! The allusion is that the servant has an adornment that it is not permissible to make manifest, just as women have private parts and that it is not permissible for them to show their adornment. In the same way, if someone makes manifest to the people the adornment of his secret core, such as the limpidness of his states and the purity of his acts, the adornment turns into a stain, unless he makes manifest something to someone that he did not do on his own or undertake. That is an exception, because he will not be taken to task for something that he did not himself determine or undertake. And repent all together to God, O you who have faith! He commands the faithful generally to repent. The repentance of the common people is from slips, the repentance of the elect from heed- lessness, and the repentance of the elect of the elect from observing the attributes of mortal nature. The repentance of the common people is to turn from disobedience to obedience. The repentance of the elect is to come from seeing obedience to seeing success-giving; instead of seeing their own obedience, they see the Real's success-giving. The repentance of the elect of the elect is to turn from the contemplation of success-giving to the contemplation of the Success-Giver. The limit of the gaze of the common people is their own acts. The field of the gaze of the elect is the attributes. The locus of the gaze of the elect of the elect is the majesty of the Essence. “I seek refuge in Thy pardon from Thy punishment” is an allusion to the gaze of the common people. “I seek refuge in Thy approval from Thy anger” is an allusion to the gaze of the elect. “I seek refuge in Thee from Thee” is an allusion to the gaze of the elect of the elect. It has also been said that He commanded all to repent so that the disobedient would not be shamed by turning back to Him alone. In the same way, at the Resurrection both the obedient and the disobedi- ent will enter the Fire, according to His words, “And none of you there is but will enter it” [19:71]. Thus He will conceal the disobedient with the obedient, and their defects will not be unveiled.

God is the light of the heavens and the earth. The likeness of His light is as a niche, in- side the niche is a lamp, the lamp inside a glass.... Light upon light. God guides to His light whomsoever He will. In reality light is that which illuminates other than itself. Whatever does not illuminate another is not called light. The sun is light, the moon is light, and the lamp is light-not in the sense that they are bright in themselves, but in the sense that they illuminate others. Mirrors, water, jewels, and the like are not called light, even if they are bright by their own essences, for they do not il- luminate others. Now that this reality is known, know that God is the light of the heavens and the earth: It is God who is the brightener of the heavens and the earths for the faithful and the friends. It is He who gives form to bodies and illuminates spirits. All lights come forth from Him and abide through Him, some outward and some inward. Concerning the outward He says, “And We ap- pointed a blazing lamp” [78:13]. Concerning the inward He says, “Is he whose breast God has expanded for the submission, so he is upon a light from his Lord?” [39:22]. Although the outward light is bright and beautiful, it is subordinate to and servant of the in- ward light. The outward light is the light of sun and moon; the inward light is the light of tawḤīd and recognition. The light of sun and moon is lovely and bright, but at the end of the day it will be eclipsed and occulted. Tomorrow at the resurrection it will be opaque and enwrapped, according to His words, “When the sun is enwrapped” [81:1]. As for the sun of recognition and the light of tawḤīd, these rise up from the hearts of the faithful and will never be eclipsed or occulted, nor will they be overcome and enwrapped. They are a rising without setting, an unveiling without eclipse, and a radiance from the station of yearning. A poet has said, Surely the noonday sun sets at night, but the heart's sun never disappears. Know also that the outward lights are diverse in their levels. The first is the light of submission, and along with submission the light of self-purification. The second is the light of faith, and along with faith the light of truthfulness. The third is the light of beautiful doing, and along with beauti- ful doing the light of certainty. The brightness of submission is found in the light of self-purification, the brightness of faith in the light of truthfulness, and the brightness of beautiful doing in the light of certainty. These are the way stations of the Shariah's road and the stations of the common people among the faithful. Then the folk of the Haqiqah and the chevaliers of the Tariqah have another light and another state. They have the light of perspicacity, and along with it the light of unveiling; the light of straightness, and along it the light of contemplation; and the light of tawḤīd, and along with it the light of proximity in the Presence of At-ness. As long as the servant is within the stations, he is bound by his own traveling. It is here that the Real's pulling begins. The divine attraction joins with him and the lights take each others' hands-the light of tremendousness and majesty, the light of gentleness and beauty, the light of awesomeness, the light of jealousy, the light of proximity, the light of divinity, the light of the He- ness. This is why the Lord of the Worlds said, “Light upon light.” The situation reaches the point where servanthood disappears in the light of lordhood. But no one in the whole world has ever had these lights or this proximity to the Possessor of Majesty perfectly save MuṣṬafā the Arab. Everyone has part of it, and he has the whole, for he is the whole of perfection, the totality of beauty, and the kiblah of bounteousness. It has been narrated from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudarī that he said, “I was with a group among whom were the weak among the Emigrants, and some were curtaining the nakedness of others. A reciter was reciting the Qur'an for us and we were listening to his recitation. The Prophet came and stood over us, and when the reciter saw him, he became silent. He greeted us and said, 'What are you doing?' “We said, 'O Messenger of God, a reciter was reciting for us and we were listening to his recitation.' “God's Messenger said, 'Praise belongs to God who placed in my community those with whom He commanded me to make myself patient. ' Then he sat in our midst so as to be level with us. Then he indicated with his hand that we should form a circle, and their faces were illumined, but God's Messenger did not recognize any of them, for they were the weak among the Emigrants. Then he said, 'To the destitute among the Emigrants give the good news of complete light on the Day of Resurrection! You will enter the Garden a half-day before the rich among the faithful, a half-day whose measure is five hundred years.'” The likeness of this light is the same as what MuṣṬafā said: “God created the creatures in dark- ness, then He sprinkled them with some of His light.” The world's folk were a handful of dust left in their own darkness and bewildered in the darkness of their makeup. They remained unaware in the wrap of their createdness. All at once the rain of the lights of eternity began to pour from the heaven of beginninglessness. The dust became jasmine and the stone became pearls. The color of heaven and earth changed when the dust stepped forth. It was said, “This is a dust, all dismal and dark. A makeup is needed all limpid and pure.” A subtlety joined with that makeup, and this subtlety was expressed as “He sprinkled them with some of His light.” They said, “O Messenger of God, what are the marks of this light?” He said, “'When the light enters the heart, the breast dilates.' When the banner of the just sultan enters the city, no tumult remains. When the breast is opened up by the divine light, the as- piration becomes elevated, sorrow is given ease, enemies become friends, scatteredness is changed into togetherness, the carpet of subsistence is spread, the rug of annihilation is rolled up, the door to the corner of grief is shut, and the door to the garden of union is opened. With the tongue of poverty he will say, 'O God, Your work has a beautiful beginning-without us You lit up Your lamp with loving kindness, without us You sent light from the Unseen with servant-caressing, without us Your gentleness brought the servant to these days. What harm if Your gentleness car- ries through without us?'” It is well-known and transmitted in the traditions that one of the knowers from the second gen- eration went with the army of Islam to battle with Byzantium. He was taken prisoner and remained there for a time. One day he saw that the Byzantines were gathered in the desert and asked the cause. They said that there was a bishop, the leader of the bishops, who came out of the monastery once every four years and gave advice to the people. Today was the promised time of his coming out. The Muslim was present in that session, and they say that 30,000 Byzantines were present. The bishop went to the pulpit and sat silently without saying a word. The people were thirsty for him to speak. Then he said, “My speaking has been shut down. Look around, perhaps a stranger from the folk of Islam is among you.” They said, “We don't know and we don't recognize anyone.” The bishop said with a loud voice, “Whoever is here in this gathering from the community and religion of MuḤammad, stand up!” That Muslim said, “I was afraid to stand up and disregarded him.” The bishop said, “If you do not recognize him, and he does not recognize himself, then I will recognize him, God willing.” Then he pondered and he looked sharply at the faces of the people. He said, “His eyes fell upon me, and quickly he said, 'This is the person I am seeking. Rise up, young man and come close to me so that I may speak with you.' He said to me, 'Are you a Muslim?' I said, 'Yes, I am a Muslim.' He said, 'Are you one of their knowers, or are you one of the ignorant?' I said, 'I know what I know, and I am learning what I do not know, and I am not among the ignorant.' “He said, 'I will ask three questions, and you answer.' I said, 'I will answer with two conditions: First, that you tell me how you recognized me. Second, that I also will ask you three questions.” The two of them agreed on this and made a compact. “Then the bishop placed his mouth to my ear and said softly to me, hidden from the Byzan- tines, 'I recognized you by the light of your faith and your tawḤīd. It was shining from your face.' Then with a loud voice he asked, 'Your messenger said to you that there is a tree in paradise, in every palace and every chamber of which is a branch. What is its likeness in this world?' “I said, 'The likeness of that tree in this world is the sun. Its disk is one, but in every house and every room there is a branch of its shining.' “The bishop said, 'You have spoken the truth.' “He asked the second question: 'Your Messenger reported that the folk of paradise consume food and drink, but no excrement comes from them. What is the likeness of that in this world?' “I said, 'The embryo in the womb of its mother. It nourishes itself but it does not excrete.' “The bishop said, 'You have spoken the truth.' “He asked the third question: 'Your Messenger reported that on the Day of Resurrection, a mouthful, a mote, and a grain of charity will be like a great mountain in the Scales. What is the likeness of this in this world?' “I said, 'In the morning when the sun comes up, or in the evening when it goes down, when you hold before the sun something that itself is short, it shows itself as long and much.' “The bishop said, 'You have spoken the truth.'” Then the Muslim asked him, “How many are the gates to the Gardens.” He said, “Eight.” He asked, “And how many are the gates to the Fires?” He said, “Seven.” He asked, “And what is written on the gates of the Garden?” The Muslim said, “When I asked him what was written on the door of paradise, he was at a loss and did not answer. The Byzantines said, 'Answer, lest this foreign man say that the bishop does not know.' The bishop said, 'If this question must be answered, it will not be truthful with sash and cross. He undid the sash and threw down the cross and said with a loud voice, 'Written on the gate of the Garden is “There is no God but God and MuḤammad is God's Messenger.”' When the Byzantines heard this answer they threw stones and cursed. The bishop turned to that stranger and said, “Do you have anything memorized from the Qur'an?” He said, “I do,” and then he recited the verse, “And God invites to the Abode of Peace” [10:25]. The bishop wept and then said with a loud voice, “O people, the veil has been lifted from my eyes. Right now seven hundred angels are coming from heaven with seven hundred ornamented litters to take the spirits of the martyrs to heaven, and I am certain that seven hundred of you agree with me. Now look at this honor and fear no antagonist. Do not be frightened.” Then a large group of them broke their crosses and cut their sashes and became Muslims. The deniers and unbelievers were killing them, and they also killed the bishop. When they counted the killed, there were seven hundred persons, not one more or less. The point of this story is that the light of that tawḤīd-voicing man of faith shone among a hand- ful of deniers and unbelievers such that the bishop saw him and this affair took place. O chevalier! If assistance is sent in your name from the light of the Unseen, a Byzantine warrior will not take you prisoner the way that that assistance of light will imprison you. But it will not come down because of any cause or travel for the sake of any occasion. The likeness of His light. A group of the commentators have said that the pronoun refers to MuṣṬafā, for his creation was light, his robe of honor light, his lineage light, his birth light, his contemplation light, his practice light, his miracle light, and he himself, in his essence, was light upon light. He was a paragon in whose face was the light of mercy, in whose eyes the light of heedfulness, on whose tongue the light of wisdom, between whose shoulders the light of prophet- hood, on whose palm the light of liberality, in whose feet the light of service, in whose hair the light of beauty, in whose disposition the light of humility, in whose breast the light of contentment, in whose secret core the light of limpidness, in whose essence the light of obedience, in whose obedi- ence the light of tawḤīd, in whose tawḤīd the light of realization, in whose realization the light of success-giving, in whose stillness the light of reverence, in whose reverence the light of surrender. Surely the Messenger is a sword glittering bright, Indian steel, a drawn sword of God. Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr Ḥallāj said, “In the head is the light of revelation, between the eyes the light of whispered prayer, in the ears the light of certainty, in the tongue the light of explication, in the breast the light of faith, and in the natures the light of glorification. When any of these lights blazes up, it dominates over another light and puts it under its ruling power. When it becomes still, the ruling power of the other light comes back, more ample and more complete than it was. When all of them blaze up, that is light upon light.” God guides to His light whomsoever He will. With His light He guides whomsoever He will to His power, with His power to His Unseen, with His Unseen to His eternity, with His eternity to His beginninglessness and endlessness, and with His beginninglessness and endlessness to His unity.

In houses that God has permitted to be raised up and in which His name is mentioned, glorifying Him therein. One view is that these are houses in which needs are raised up to God. These are mosques in which the servants supplicate Him and lift up the story of their needs to God and display their requirements. It is not beautiful for servants to debase themselves before the wishes of just anyone, for the Real Himself has assured for them what they need and what they must have. Bishr Ḥāfī said, “I saw the Commander of the Faithful ʿAlī in a dream and asked him for advice. He said, 'How beautiful it is for the rich to be compassionate toward the poor in seeking God's reward! And more beautiful than that is for the poor to be haughty toward the rich by relying on God.'” How beautiful is the tenderness of the rich toward the poor hoping for reward! And more beautiful than that is the pride of the poor toward the rich by relying on the generosity of the Real. Glorifying Him therein. That is, in the mosques, for the mosques are the houses of worship, just as the hearts are the houses of desire. Through his worship the worshiper reaches God's re- ward, and through his desire the desirer reaches God. It has also been said that the hearts are the houses of recognition, the spirits the places of wit- nessing love, and the secret cores the loci of self-disclosure.

Men whom neither trade nor buying diverts from the remembrance of God. He does not say that they do not trade and they do not buy. He says, “whom neither trade nor buy- ing diverts from the remembrance of God.” If it is possible to combine the two, there is no objec- tion, but this is like something that cannot be done, except for the great ones, over whom affairs flow while they have been taken from them. This is the attribute of men whose outward occupation does not hold them back from remem- bering God. Their outwardness is with people while their inwardness is witnessing the names and attributes of the Real. They are men whose seeking is the equitable, whose remembrance is the evidence, and whose love is the path. In their eyes this world is small. They are men whose watch- word is the remembrance of God, whose blanket is God's love, whose place and settledness is the threshold of God's gentleness, whose aspirations are free from any others. They are the beauty of Firdaws, the ornament of the Abode of Settledness, begrudged by the Emigrants and envied by the Helpers, and they walk on the earth while it boasts of them. Men. These are men who have no crown or hat on their heads, and there is nothing in their hearts but God's friendship. In the street of the Friend they have no friend or companions. “When the sought is great, assistants are few.” What harm to them if in this world they are the specious coin of the bazaars? Their hearts are all hard cash. They are faulted by noblemen and rejected by neighbors, but their names are in the register of the friends. They are lifted up by gentleness, they are caressed by the All-Merciful, and their hearts are always gazing at the Real. They sit on the dust, they sleep on the earth, their hands are their pillow, the mosque is their house. What harm to them are this poverty and indigence? With one allusion of their eye, they bring rain for the world's folk; with one gaze of their heart, they rout the unbelievers; with one sorrow of their heart, they bring Gabriel into the road. And let not thine eyes turn away from them [18:28]. Dhu'l-Nūn Miṣrī said, “There was a time when rain did not come and the people were suffer- ing terribly because of the drought. A group went outside the city to pray for rain, and I went along with them. I saw Saʿdūn Majnūn and said to him, 'All these people that you see gathered here, hands raised in their need-what would it matter if you were to make an allusion?' “He turned his face to heaven and said these words: 'By the rightful due of what happened last night!' He had still not finished the words when the rain began to pour.” Thus you come to know that the allusion of a friend is dear to the Friend.

As for those who disbelieve, their deeds are like a mirage.... Or like darknesses in a deep sea covered with waves, above which are waves, above which are clouds. Darknesses, one on top of another. When he stretches forth his hand, he barely sees it. And he to whom God assigns no light has no light. God strikes a likeness for the person of faith and the unbeliever. He makes the belief of the person of faith light, his activity light, and his final issue at the resurrection light, as He says: “Light upon light” [24:35]. He makes the belief of the unbeliever darkness, his activity darkness, and his final issue at the resurrection darkness, as He says: “darknesses, one on top of another.” Then He says, “And he to whom God assigns no light has no light.” WāsiṬī said, “God does not bring a poor man near because of his poverty, nor does He take a rich man far because of his wealth. Accidental things have no weight with Him such that someone would arrive or be cut off because of them. Were you freely to give Him this world and the next, He would not make you arrive by that, and were you to take it all, He would not cut you off by that. Whoever comes near to Him comes near without cause, and whoever stays far from Him stays far without cause. God says, 'And he to whom God assigns no light has no light.'”

As for those who disbelieve, their deeds are like a mirage.... Or like darknesses in a deep sea covered with waves, above which are waves, above which are clouds. Darknesses, one on top of another. When he stretches forth his hand, he barely sees it. And he to whom God assigns no light has no light. God strikes a likeness for the person of faith and the unbeliever. He makes the belief of the person of faith light, his activity light, and his final issue at the resurrection light, as He says: “Light upon light” [24:35]. He makes the belief of the unbeliever darkness, his activity darkness, and his final issue at the resurrection darkness, as He says: “darknesses, one on top of another.” Then He says, “And he to whom God assigns no light has no light.” WāsiṬī said, “God does not bring a poor man near because of his poverty, nor does He take a rich man far because of his wealth. Accidental things have no weight with Him such that someone would arrive or be cut off because of them. Were you freely to give Him this world and the next, He would not make you arrive by that, and were you to take it all, He would not cut you off by that. Whoever comes near to Him comes near without cause, and whoever stays far from Him stays far without cause. God says, 'And he to whom God assigns no light has no light.'”

Dost thou not see how God drives the clouds, then combines them, then makes them a heap? Then thou seest the rain coming out from their midst. He drives the clouds of His compassion, then pours down the rain of His munificence on His friends with His gentleness. He rolls up the carpet of decorum from the courtyards of His nearness, He strikes the domes of awe with the loci of witnessing His unveiling, and He spreads over them the flowers of His intimacy. Then He discloses Himself to them in the realities of His holiness and pours for them with His own hand the wine of His love. Afterwards He effaces their descriptions from them and awakens them not to themselves but to Him. In the tasting of the chevaliers of the Tariqah the clouds are the clouds of compassion, the rain the rain of compassion that His gentleness rains down on the secret cores of His friends. From the soil of loyalty the fragrant herb of limpidness grows up. The sun of beginningless gentleness shines upon it and in the garden of holiness the rose of intimacy blooms. The wind of happiness blows from the horizon of self-disclosure, snatching the servant away from water and dust. Delay and lingering leave the feet of gentleness, and the breeze of beginninglessness blows from the side of proximity. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “It is You who shone the light of self-disclosure on the hearts of the friends, set the springs of affection flowing in their secret cores, and made those hearts Your own mirror and a locus of limpidness. You appeared therein, and with Your appearance You made the two worlds disappear. O light of the eyes of the familiar, celebration of the hearts of the friends, joy of the spirits of the near! All was You and all is You. You are not far that they should seek, nor absent that they should ask. They will not find You other than through You.” “By God, if not for God, we would not have been guided.” How could a bit of water and dust have the gall to talk about eternity if not for eternal solicitude and desire? Had He not in His generosity and bounty invited this handful of dust to the threshold of eter- nity and spread the carpet of expansiveness in the house of guidance, how could this woebegone of existence and this mote of impure dust have the gall to take a step on the edge of the carpet of kings? What is suited for dust is to say with the attribute of brokenness and the tongue of incapac- ity and poverty, “We've come to shame at our own existence, we've encountered stone because of the decree. On the surface of the rug of misfortune, our black days have come in place of color.”

God turns about the night and the day. Surely in that is a lesson for the possessors of eyes. WāsiṬī said, “No one has ever opposed Him and no one has ever conformed with Him. All of them are put to use by His will and His power. How can there be conformity and opposition when He turns about the night and the day along with what is within them and He stands over the things and in the things through their subsistence and their annihilation. Finding does not become intimate with Him, nor does not finding bring about alienation.” Whatever the ulama have said is a report and whatever the shaykhs have said is a tradition. The reality of the Real is beyond reports and traditions. A field has been placed before the creatures and the call has gone out, “O folk of the world! Step into this field and walk in the veil. Know not where you go, and know not whence you are coming. Set out from the threshold of Our knowledge and settle down at the threshold of Our de- cree. Tighten the belt of serving Us and keep watch over Our will. Be ready for Our power, which comes along with Our pardon and forgiveness and Our severity and punishment. 'The power of the powerful suspends every contrivance.'” When someone's secret core is the mine of secret whispering, his heart is in the grasp of joy, his forehead has the mark of prosperity, and the eye of his certainty sees with the light of learn- ing lessons from the acts of the Majestic, then he will be aware of the secrets and intimations in these verses and understand these states, for the Exalted Lord says, “Surely in that is a lesson for the possessors of eyes.” In another place He says, “Surely in that is a reminder for him who has a heart” [50:37].

God promises those of you who have faith and do wholesome deeds that He will surely make you vicegerents in the earth. The verse makes an allusion to leaders, those who are the pillars of the creed, the props of the sub- mission, and the counselors of God's religion. They are three sorts: One sort are the ulama and the jurists, those to whom reference is made in the sciences of the Shariah, such as acts of worship, transactions, and so on. They stand with the Real in their tawḤīd through the marks giving witness to their souls and their shares. They intervene in the secondary causes through the Real, but their souls, their shares, and their love for this world veil them from the realities of tawḤīd. The second sort are the folk of recognition and the companions of the realities. In the religion they are like the elect of a king. They are described by purity of desire, beauty of aim, and truthful- ness in intention. They stand with the Real along with what gives witness to their states and their desire. They act freely in all the secondary causes through the Real, but they are veiled from the disengagement of tawḤīd by seeing their own states and desires and the marks giving witness to their aims. The third sort are the elect of the elect because of their recognition. They stand with the Real contemplating the Real in the manner of the disengagement of tawḤīd and the realization of soli- tariness. Thus the religion is kept flourishing with these sorts, despite all their disagreement, until the Day of Resurrection. Know that the vicegerents in the earth to whom the Exalted Lord alludes in this verse are three groups. Each group has a known station in tawḤīd and a defined limit in making servanthood manifest. The first are the ulama of the religion of submission and the jurists of the Shariah, the guard- ians of the creed and the counselors of the community. Their limit in making servanthood manifest goes no further than hoping to recognize the Real and fearing punishment. The fruit of their tawḤīd is confined to safety in this world and well-being in that world. Their submission and faith are the Real's gentle favors and succor, but these are mixed with the contaminants of personal motives and the marks bearing witness to the soul's own shares. Their innate disposition has been overcome by the attributes of mortal nature, and their life put under the sway of habits and customs. In the world of servanthood, they are called those who mimic the folk of No god but God. They are veiled from the world of realities by the attributes of mortal nature. They are headed for paradise, but their state is as Junayd said to Nūrī: “These are the stuffing of the Garden, which has companions other than these. The stuffing of the Garden are its prisoners, and the companions of the Garden are its commanders.” The next group are called the elect of the empire. They abide through self-purification in obedience, soundness of desire, and truthfulness in poverty and intention. They are far from the contaminants of personal motives and the soul's shares and protected from lassitude and backslid- ing, but the hand of mortal nature displays the mirror of their attributes to their eyes, so they see that they abide on the carpet of tawḤīd by the Real's succor. Their seeing of their own present moment in the mirror of limpidness keeps them on the carpet of being. They have an excuse, but they are far from the world of nonbeing. Their vision of truthfulness and their observation of the marks bearing witness to self-purification block them from the world of nonbeing. Until someone reaches the world of nonbeing, the realities of tawḤīd will not show their face to him. The third group are the elect of the elect. They abide through the Real's making them abide, not through their own abiding. They live through the opening that disengages, not the spirit that mobilizes. They have been emancipated from their own power and strength and disengaged from their own desires and aims. They do not remain in the circle of their own deeds and states, nor are they captive to self-determination and free choice. They do not read the edict of felicity and wretchedness. They are not brought out from the pavilion of the Unseen, nor are they recorded in the registers of effacement and affirmation. In face of the severity of lordhood they are like balls in the bend of the sultan's polo stick. They say, “We must stay in the bend of the sultan's polo stick, whether he sends the ball right or left. ” The first group are the self-purifiers who see that all is from Him. The second group are the recognizers who see that all is in Him. The third group are the tawḤīd-voicers who see that all is He. The first two groups dwell in the marks giving witness to service and have not been released from the intrusions of dispersion. The third group are in companionship itself. They have reached the center point of togetherness. One breath as His companion is better than a thousand years of living in service. AḤmad Khiẓrūya sent a prayer carpet to Abū Yazīd and asked him by letter to pray on the carpet. In his answer to the letter Abū Yazīd wrote, “I gathered the worship of the first folk and the last folk and placed it on a pillow. I was commanded to put my head on it so that my sleep would be permissible for it.” Of the same sort is the story of Junayd and Shiblī who were going on a road. Junayd said to Shiblī, “Be with God for an hour until I come back.” Junayd went and Shiblī stood reciting the Qur'an. Junayd returned and shouted at him, “Did I not tell you to busy yourself with God?” Shiblī said, “I had come to know that when I read the Qur'an, I am busy with Him.” Junayd said, “Don't you know that wherever God is, no one can speak?” Shiblī said what he said from dispersion, and Junayd answered him from the center point of togetherness. In the same way, the letter that AḤmad Khiẓrūya wrote to Abū Yazīd was written in dispersion, and Abū Yazīd answered from the center point of togetherness. It is reported that when Moses wanted to go and whisper secretly with the Real, he circled around the neighborhoods of the Children of Israel and asked for their stories so that he could pres- ent them to the Exalted Presence. With this pretext he could whisper secretly with the Real and listen to the beginningless address, even if the dust of Moses' dispersion was more exalted than the center point of togetherness of all the friends and the sincerely truthful. Nonetheless, in relation to our Messenger, it was dispersion itself that he had to beg stories from the neighborhoods so that he would have a pretext to speak a great deal with the Real. The Messenger, whose center point of gathering was his gate, had no need to ask for stories. On the contrary, the exaltedness itself said to his sinlessness, “With all the stories of the messengers that We recount to thee, We make thy heart firm” [11:120].

We shall advance on what deeds they have done and make them scattered dust. One of the pirs of the Tariqah recited this verse and said, “Of all the Qur'an's verses, this is the sweetest. When He throws these tainted deeds of ours to the wind of unneediness, He will act to- ward us with bounty alone. What He does with His bounty will be fitting for His generosity. What is fitting for His generosity is better than what is fitting for our deeds.” Then he said, “He has things rightfully due against us, like obedience and worship, but we in our makeup are destitute, and He has decreed our destitution. When the decreer decrees that someone be destitute, the plaintiff can have nothing against him. 'If he has suffered hardship, that has comfort in view.' “Whenever someone is destitute, it is incumbent to give him respite so that he may acquire some capital. But, we will never acquire capital until that world, when He will pour down the treasure of His bounty on our heads. We are not wealthy through our own being-we are wealthy through His attributes. Nothing comes from us or our deeds. When an affair is opened up for us, it opens up from His bounty. “When He accepts us, He does not accept us because of the form of our practice. He accepts us because of the readiness that He gazed upon in His beginningless knowledge. Whatever there may be in the world follows upon that readiness. Wait until tomorrow when He makes that readiness apparent and opens the doors of the treasuries. He will give the treasury of mercy to the disobedi- ent and the treasury of bounty to the destitute so that they may discharge what is rightfully due to Him from His treasury, for the servants cannot discharge His rightful due from what belongs to them.” The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, whatever I counted as a mark curtained me and whatever I considered a basis was foolish. O God, lift up this curtain from me totally, remove from me the defect of my being, and do not leave me in the hand of striving! O God, let none of our deeds circle around us! Lift us up from our loss! O Beautiful-Doer, straighten out what You made without us! Entrust us not to what You can put up with!”

Dost thou not see thy Lord, how He stretched out the shadow? Had He willed, He would have made it still. Then We made the sun an indicator of it. In terms of outwardness, this verse explains a miracle of MuṣṬafā, but in the meaning understood by the folk of the realities, it alludes to the special favors and redoublings of generosity he received. The explanation of the miracle is that during one of his journeys, God's Messenger dismounted under a tree at the time of the afternoon nap. All the companions were with him, but the tree's shadow was small. To make manifest a miracle for MuḤammad, the Exalted Lord pulled out that shadow by His power such that the whole army of Islam had a place in the tree's shadow. In that state the Exalted Lord sent down this verse, and this miracle became manifest. As for the explanation of his being singled out for proximity and nearness, it is that Dost thou not see thy Lord is addressed to those who have presence and declares the eminence of the proxi- mate. In the station of whispered prayer Moses wanted to see the Real: “Show me, that I may gaze upon Thee!”[7:143]. The exalted majesty of the Unity pulled the bodkin of severity across the eyes of his holiness: “Thou shalt not see Me” [7:143]. To MuṣṬafā He said, “Dost thou not see thy Lord?”: “Do you not see Me and gaze upon Me? What do you want with another?” O chevalier! Do not suppose that when someone reaches the contemplation of the exaltedness of the Possessor of Majesty, his passion and yearning will become less by one iota. In the liver of a fish there is a heat that will not settle down by one iota even if you gather together all the oceans of the world. A heart that is a heart is at work today and it will also be at work tomorrow. Today it is in yearning itself and tomorrow it will be in tasting itself. One of the secrets of Dost thou not see thy Lord? is that mortal man, though he is singled out for the special favors of proximity, would never reach the point where he requests the vision of the exaltedness of the Possessor of Majesty if mutual seeing had not come at the request of Beauty. The explanation of this intimation is found in the report of MuṣṬafā where he says, “When the folk of the Garden enter the Garden, they will be called, 'O folk of the Garden, God has promised you something that He desires to fulfill for you,'” and so on to the end. This indeed is the degree of the common people among the faithful. First they will reach their own degrees and domiciles and become familiar with their own followers, stewards, and servitors as well as the folk of their em- pire, and then they will reach the contemplation of Unity at the request of the Exaltedness. There is another group who are the lords of the eye. They had become disengaged from their own attributes and reached the eye of their own innate disposition. Before they join with the ascending steps of paradise's good fortune, the beauty of the lordhood will block their road and unveil the Cloak of Magnificence. He will let them witness His beauty and disclose Himself to them in His majesty before they arrive at the domiciles and degrees. That is His words, “Surely thy Lord lies in wait” [89:14]. It has also been said that Dost thou not see thy Lord, how He stretched out the shadow? means that “He stretched out the shadow of protection from sin before He sent thee as a messenger to the people. Had He willed, He would have made it still,” that is, “He would have neglected it and not done so. On the contrary, He made the sun, which rose up from thy breast, an indicator of it.”

Then We contracted it to Us with an easy contracting. This is addressed to those from whom He made the traces and intermediaries fall away.

And He it is who has sent the winds, bearing good news before His mercy. And We sent down from heaven pure water. This is an allusion to the wind of kind favor from the direction of solicitude, which blows over the hearts of the faithful to sweep away completely the rubbish of opposition and the varieties of opacity. Then the hearts will be worthy of receiving the generous arrivals from the Real. When the scent of the repose of those winds reaches the breast of the servants, they seek for increase in those influxes and search out the fragrance of those arrivals and that solicitude. In loving kindness and gentleness, the Exalted Lord opens four doors for them: The door of beautiful doing, the door of blessings, the door of obedience, and the door of love. By virtue of mortal nature the servant enters the road of his own ingratitude, for Surely man is ungrateful to his Lord [100:6], so he closes the door of beautiful doing to himself. The Real sends the messenger of generosity with the key of disregard and pardon: “I will curtain your ugly-doing with My mercy, for I am the kind Master and you are the weak servant.” That is His words, “He it is who accepts repentance from His servants and pardons the ugly deeds” [42:25]. In the same way, the Exalted Lord opens the door of blessings for the servant. The servant comes forward with ingratitude, for Surely man is a clear ingrate [43:15], so he closes that door to himself with shortcoming in giving thanks. The Real sends the messenger of bounty with the key of favor and says, “Though you have fallen short in giving thanks, I do not fall short in My kind-ness.” That is His words, “In the bounty of God, and His mercy [in that let them rejoice]” [10:58]. The third door that God opens for the servant is the door of obedience. The servant closes that door to himself with disobedience. The Real sends the messenger of forgiveness with the key of repentance: “When you commit a sin, I will forgive you, and I do not care.” That is His words, “Surely God forgives the sins altogether” [39:53]. The fourth is the door of love, which God opens for the servant with His own bounty. The servant comes forth with disloyalty and closes that door to himself with impudence and breaking the covenant. The Exalted Lord sends the messenger of clemency with the key of curtaining: “My servant, though you have dared to act with ugly deeds, I will let that go, for I am your Beloved and I am the one who says, 'He loves them, and they love Him' [5:54].” And We sent down from heaven pure water, thereby giving life to a dead earth and giving drink to many cattle and men that We created. And We sent down from heaven pure water. Naṣrābādī said, “This is the sprinkles of the waters of love that He sprinkles on the hearts of the recognizers, thereby bringing their souls to life by putting their nature to death. Then He makes their hearts a leader for the people, effusing His blessings upon them, and the blessings of their heart's light reaches everything that has a spirit. God says, 'thereby giving life to a dead earth and giving drink to many cattle and men that We created.'”

And He it is who has sent the winds, bearing good news before His mercy. And We sent down from heaven pure water. This is an allusion to the wind of kind favor from the direction of solicitude, which blows over the hearts of the faithful to sweep away completely the rubbish of opposition and the varieties of opacity. Then the hearts will be worthy of receiving the generous arrivals from the Real. When the scent of the repose of those winds reaches the breast of the servants, they seek for increase in those influxes and search out the fragrance of those arrivals and that solicitude. In loving kindness and gentleness, the Exalted Lord opens four doors for them: The door of beautiful doing, the door of blessings, the door of obedience, and the door of love. By virtue of mortal nature the servant enters the road of his own ingratitude, for Surely man is ungrateful to his Lord [100:6], so he closes the door of beautiful doing to himself. The Real sends the messenger of generosity with the key of disregard and pardon: “I will curtain your ugly-doing with My mercy, for I am the kind Master and you are the weak servant.” That is His words, “He it is who accepts repentance from His servants and pardons the ugly deeds” [42:25]. In the same way, the Exalted Lord opens the door of blessings for the servant. The servant comes forward with ingratitude, for Surely man is a clear ingrate [43:15], so he closes that door to himself with shortcoming in giving thanks. The Real sends the messenger of bounty with the key of favor and says, “Though you have fallen short in giving thanks, I do not fall short in My kind-ness.” That is His words, “In the bounty of God, and His mercy [in that let them rejoice]” [10:58]. The third door that God opens for the servant is the door of obedience. The servant closes that door to himself with disobedience. The Real sends the messenger of forgiveness with the key of repentance: “When you commit a sin, I will forgive you, and I do not care.” That is His words, “Surely God forgives the sins altogether” [39:53]. The fourth is the door of love, which God opens for the servant with His own bounty. The servant comes forth with disloyalty and closes that door to himself with impudence and breaking the covenant. The Exalted Lord sends the messenger of clemency with the key of curtaining: “My servant, though you have dared to act with ugly deeds, I will let that go, for I am your Beloved and I am the one who says, 'He loves them, and they love Him' [5:54].” And We sent down from heaven pure water, thereby giving life to a dead earth and giving drink to many cattle and men that We created. And We sent down from heaven pure water. Naṣrābādī said, “This is the sprinkles of the waters of love that He sprinkles on the hearts of the recognizers, thereby bringing their souls to life by putting their nature to death. Then He makes their hearts a leader for the people, effusing His blessings upon them, and the blessings of their heart's light reaches everything that has a spirit. God says, 'thereby giving life to a dead earth and giving drink to many cattle and men that We created.'”

He it is who mixed the two oceans, this one sweet, delicious; that one salty, bitter. Hū [He] is one solitary letter that alludes to the solitary Lord. It is neither a name nor an attribute, but an allusion to a Lord who has no name and no attribute. The one letter is the h. The ū is the resting place of the breath. Do you not see that when you make its dual, you say humā, not hūmā? This is so that you will know that it is indeed one letter pointing to the One Lord. Whenever you say any of the names and attributes, you say them from the tip of the tongue, in contrast to hū, which comes forth from the midst of the spirit and goes by way of the core of the breast and the depth of the heart. The tongue and lips have nothing to do with it. When this word comes from the depths of the breasts of the men of the religion's road and the lords of the eye of certainty-those who have limpid hearts, high aspirations, and empty breasts- what they mean and understand is nothing but the Real. Unless someone becomes a chevalier of this sort, the reality of the He-ness will not be unveiled to him. A great man was walking on a road, and a dervish was coming toward him. He said, “Where are you coming from?” He said, “He.” He said, “Where are you going?” He said, “He.” He said, “What is your goal?” He said, “He.” No matter what he asked, he replied “He.” This is like what someone said: “So much is your image in my eyes that whatever I see I fancy is you.” And He it is who mixed the two oceans, this one sweet, delicious; that one salty, bitter. The salty ocean has no sweetness, and the sweet no saltiness. The two are one in substantiality, but God in His power made them differ in attribute. In the same way He created hearts, some of which are quarries of certainty and recognition and others of which are loci of doubt and ingratitude. Sweet, delicious is an allusion to the hearts of the friends, which are bright with the light of guidance and adorned with the ornament of faith and within which is shining the radiance of tawḤīd's sun. Salty, bitter is an allusion to the hearts of the estranged, which have become dark through the darknesses of unbelief and the opacities of doubt and remained in the bewilderment of ignorance. One has put on the robe of elevation without deviation, and the other's foot is shackled with abasement and degradation, without iniquity. Indeed, when the Exalted Lord wants to place the crown of exaltation on a servant's head, He gives him access to the carpet of secret whispering and keeps the road of faith bright for him. When He wants to place the scar of loss on his cheek, He drives him from the station of proximity with the whip of vengeance. And he to whom God as- signs no light has no light [24:40].

The servants of the All-Merciful are those who walk in the earth in lowliness. It has been narrated from Abū Baraza al-Aslamī that God's Messenger said, “I saw a people from my community, not yet created, who will come into being after this day and whom I love and who love me. They counsel each other, act with kindness to each other, and walk gently among the people with the light of God, in hiddenness and godwariness. They are secure from the people, and the people are secure from them because of their patience and forbearance. Their hearts are serene in the remembrance of God, their mosques flourishing with their prayers. They have mercy on their young and revere their old. They share what they own among themselves; their rich visit their poor and their strong visit their weak. They visit their ill, and they follow in funeral processions.” One of the group said, “They are being benevolent to their close friends.” God's Messenger turned to him and said, “Not at all. They have no close friends. They are serving their own souls. That is nobler with God than those who are openhanded to people, because of the lowliness of this world in the Lord's view.” Then God's Messenger recited, “The servants of the All-Merciful are those who walk in the earth in lowliness.” The Persian of this report is this: MuṣṬafā said, “I saw,” that is, in his unveilings and visionary encounters, or in a dream, “a people of my own community whose persons and semblances had not yet entered into the bonds of created nature. The compass of power had not yet turned on the circle of their existence, for today is not the time of their manifestation. That will come in other days and another time, when the desire moves and the apportionings join with their designated times. This is a people whom I love and who love me. Each of them would love to see me along with his family and possessions. They are chevaliers who always want good for each other. Whatever they have, whether possessions or position, they do not hold back from one another. They put aside their own rightful dues and shares and put forward the rightful dues of their brothers. They are leaders to the Real who travel with the light of God. They travel the road of the religion with the lamp of guidance, the candle of faith, and the light of certainty. They go forward among the people softly, easily, and harmlessly. Their hearts are at ease in the remembrance of God and they keep their mosques flourishing with prayer and worship. With their old folk they live with respect and honor, toward their children they have mercy and clemency, and they give comfort and show consideration to everyone. Their wealthy do not disdain to visit the poor. They look after the weak, they ask after the ill, and they go out to take part in funeral processions.” A man said, “O Messenger of God! If they have this attribute and conduct, it seems that they are showing benevolence and kindness to their slaves and mercenaries.” God's Messenger said, “Not at all, it is not as you say. For they themselves do not have servants and slaves, and they have no one and accept no one to serve themselves but themselves. They are more honored by God than those who give away this lowly, trifling world.” Then the Messenger recited this verse: “The servants of the All-Merciful are those who walk in the earth in lowliness.” The elect servants and creatures of the All-Merciful are those who pull out the thorn of free choice from their own feet in the midst of the flow of apportionments. They have lopped off the head of the portion-seeking soul with the sword of humility and thereby reached the station of servanthood. His servants in reality are those who are always performing the command. They are pure of portion and far from free choice. They have disowned their own wants. In the world you see a hundred thousand ʿAbd al-RaḤmāns [Servant of the All-Merciful], ʿAbd al-Razzāqs [Servant of the Provider], and ʿAbd al-Wahhābs [Servant of the Bestower], but you do not see one ʿAbdallāh [Servant of God]. Or rather, you see them in name, but seldom in meaning. Their servanthood is mixed with their portions and tainted by their own shares. He who seeks or worships the Real for his portion is a servant of the portion, not a servant of Him. Pir Bū ʿAlī Siyāh said, “If you are asked, 'Do you want paradise, or two cycles of the prayer?,' do not choose paradise. Choose the two cycles of the prayer, for paradise is your portion, but the prayer is service to Him.” When Moses, who was God's speaking companion and honored by the Exalted Presence, came to Khiẓr, he protested twice: once because of killing the boy, and again because of breaking the boat. Since his portion was not in the midst, Khiẓr was patient. But when Moses was moved by his portion and said, “If you wanted, you could have taken a wage for it” [18:77], Khiẓr said, “This is separation between me and you [18:78]. Now that your own portion has come into view, there is no way for me to be your companion, for wages are not a condition of companionship.” The Pir of the Tariqah said, “The lord of companionship is not a wage-earner. In reality, the wage-earner is deluded. As long as a man is a wage-earner, he is far from companionship, and as long as he makes claims he is deceived. As long as the commands are revered and the prohibitions inviolable, he is drowned in light. The servants of the All-Merciful in truth are those whose out- wardness is bound by the command and whose inwardness has the largesse of the All-Merciful's bounty. The bond of the command in the outwardness is the mark of the fearful, and the largesse of the All-Merciful's bounty in the inwardness is the mark of the proximate.” It has been recounted that Jesus passed by three people and saw them weak and emaciated, their outsides withered and shrunken. He asked them the cause of their withering and emaciation. They said, “Fear of the Fire.” He said, “It is rightfully due to God that He keep the fearful secure from the Fire.” When he had passed them by, he saw three other people, even more emaciated and weak, their faces like mirrors to the light. He said, “What is it that has brought you to this state and made you so weak?” They said, “Love for God.” He said, “'You are the proximate.' Your state is something else, and your passion something else. You are the proximate and the friends, the chosen and near ones.” Among the reports has come this: “O David, My remembrance is for the rememberers, My Garden for the obedient, My visitation for the grateful, and I belong specifically to the lovers.” Within the curtain of friendship, things happen that outside the curtain of friendship are faults. It is as if God has said, “When We brought them into existence and knew that they would stumble and slip, first We spread the carpet of love and put forth this call of generosity: 'He loves them, and they love Him' [5:54]. Thus whatever they do will be lifted away from them and repelled because of love.” On the day that the beauty of Adam's limpidness lifted its head from the World of the Unseen, he had a stature like an alif, a straight shape, and an upright makeup. His outwardness and inward- ness were joined together, and the bonds of his elements had been tied by the hand of power. The eyes of the angels did not pass beyond the outward contours of his body. They did not know which oyster lay in the depths of his breast's ocean and which pearl was inside that oyster. They gazed briefly at his outwardness and said, “What, wilt Thou set therein one who will work corruption there?” [2:30]. Then the call of the Unseen came: “You gaze on the outward disobedience, but We judge in keeping with the inner recognition. If the outwardness of this vicegerent becomes dusty with a slip, or if his children step into the trap of pleasures, their adorned inwardness and their tongue trimmed by asking pardon and forgiveness will beg pardon for that offense and We, at the intercession of a heart purified by faith and a tongue purified by the remembrance of the All-Merciful, will wash away that outward slip.” When the beloved comes with one sin, his beautiful traits come with a thousand interceders. One of them said in describing the servants of the All-Merciful, “Worship is their adornment, poverty their nobility, obedience to God their sweetness, love for God their pleasure, their need for God alone, godwariness their traveling supplies, guidance their mount, the Qur'an their talk, remembrance their ornament, contentment their possessions, worship their acquisition, Satan their enemy, the Real their protector, day their heedfulness, night their reflective thought, life a leg of their journey, death their way station, the grave their fortress, paradise their dwelling place, and gazing upon the Lord of the Worlds their wish. These are the elect among His servants, those about whom God says, 'The servants of the All-Merciful are those who walk in the earth in lowliness.'”

ṬāÌ Sīn Mīm ṬāÌ is an allusion to the purity [Ṭahāra] of His exaltedness, sīn an allusion to the brilliance [sināÌ] of His all-compellingness, and mīm an allusion to the splendor [majd] of His majesty. He is the Lord whose love is the repose of hearts, whose remembrance is the adornment of the eras, whose words are the banquet of the ears, whose seeing is the celebration of the eyes, whose assurance is the promise of caresses, whose face-to-face vision is the ease of the spirits, whose street is the home of the chevaliers, whose conversation is the goal of the recognizers, and from whose direc- tion blows the breeze of union. All is from Him, all is in Him and indeed, all is He. Say “God,” then leave them [6:91].

Perhaps thou tormentest thyself because they are not of the faithful. He is saying, “O master, they are a handful of the estranged, the objects of My harsh and forceful severity. Why do you occupy your heart with them? Why do you make yourself suffer because they will not believe? Turn them over to My decree and busy your heart with My love and com- panionship. Whenever a heart takes its ease in My love and companionship, it has no room for any other.” Sahl ʿAlī Marwazī was asked, “What is the greatest of God's generous gifts to the servant?” He said, “That He empty his heart of everyone but Him.” Junayd was asked, “When is the heart happy?” He said, “When He is inside the heart.” Shaykh al-Islām said, “He is not in the heart by His Essence. Rather the remembrance of Him is in the heart, love for Him in the secret core, and gazing upon Him in the spirit. In contemplation there is first the heart's vision, then the heart's proximity, then the heart's finding, then the heart's seeing face-to-face, then proximity's mastery over the heart, then the heart's dissolution in face-to- face vision. Beyond that, nothing can be expressed.” I set off on the oceans of love not knowing their measure- oceans that do not quench the fire of those who drown.

And the blessing that you have laid on me as a favor is that you have enslaved the Chil- dren of Israel. When Moses came to Pharaoh, inviting him to tawḤīd and making manifest a few signs and mira- cles for him, Pharaoh refused to accept tawḤīd, and then he laid gratitude and obligation on Moses: “Was it not I who brought you up from childhood and conveyed you to adulthood?” In denial Moses answered, “Why are laying gratitude on me for the fact that you took the Children of Israel into servanthood? Indeed, who can take servants and act as a lord other than the God of the world's folk, the Enactor of the universe and its folk?”

Pharaoh said, “And what is the Lord of the worlds?” “What and who is this 'Lord of the worlds'?” Pharaoh asked this question in a discourteous man- ner, but Moses showed reverence and said,

“The Lord of the heavens and the earth and whatsoever is between the two.” “Pharaoh, even if you do not know and do not have access to His tawḤīd, nonetheless the seven heavens, the seven earths, and everything in between are the mark and testimony of the Lord and His oneness. The engendered and newly arrived things are all the signs and banners of His power.” In each thing He has a sign showing that He is one. The chronicle of the Beginningless and the Endless is one instant at the beginning of His welcome, the blessings of both houses are a dust mote in the ray of the sun of His bounteousness, those pre- pared for service are the ones burned by His love, and those wounded by tribulation are the ones exalted by His presence. He is the Lord who is worthy of all laudations, with no equal in Essence and no companion in attributes. He does what He wants according to His choice, takes care of things without testing, forgives the disobedient, does the beautiful toward the destitute, brings forth the darknesses, brings out the lights, sees the states, and knows the secrets. Next to the color of your face, tulips are worthless; next to the scent of your tresses' tips, perfume is trifling. Know that in these verses, the Real ascribes creation to Himself in four places. He says, “the Lord of the worlds” [26:23], “the Lord of the heavens, the earth, and whatsoever is between the two” [26:24], “The Lord of you and your fathers, the first ones” [26:26], and “the Lord of the east, the west, and what is between the two” [26:28]. This sort of ascription-that is, of God's Essence to His creation-comes in the Qur'an in two respects: one is partial ascription, and the other univer- sal ascription. Thus He says to MuṣṬafā, “Remember thy Lord [7:205], And worship thy Lord [15:99], And when thy Lord said [2:30], And for thy Lord be patient [74:7], And thy Lord magnify [74:3], And thy Lord creates [28:68].” In the Qur'an there are many examples of this, and all of them bestow eminence and honor on MuṣṬafā. The Real is the Lord of all created and newly arrived things, but He singled out MuṣṬafā by mentioning him in order to make him great in the hearts of the servants. In the same way, He is the king of all sites, but He singled out the Kaabah by mentioning it in order to make it great in the hearts of the servants: “Surely I have been commanded to worship the Lord of this city [27:91]. So let them worship the Lord of this house [106:3].” As for the universal ascription, it is like what He says in these four verses, similar to which there are many more in the Qur'an. The purpose is to explain power and to make manifest awe- someness and exaltedness.

“No indeed, surely with me is my Lord; He will guide me.” Do not despair, for the hidden gentleness is our guide and the concealed artisanry is lying in wait for Pharaoh. Surely with me is my Lord. In this statement Moses made himself solitary. He did not say “with us is our Lord,” because the decree had already gone forth that after the destruction of Pha- raoh and the Egyptians, a group of the Children of Israel would become calf-worshipers. This is why he made himself solitary. Again, when MuṣṬafā was in the cave with Abū Bakr, the greatest of the sincerely truthful, he had recognized the realities and meanings of the states of that sincerely truthful man, so he joined him with himself in declaring with-ness. He said, “Surely God is with us” [9:40]. A subtle point: Moses brought forth with me because he was looking from himself to the Real. But MuṣṬafā said, “Surely God is with us” because he was looking from the Real to himself. This is like His words, “Dost thou not see thy Lord, how He stretched out the shadow?” [25:45]. He did not say, “the shadow, how thy Lord stretched it out.” Moses had the state of the desirers, but MuṣṬafā had the state of the desired. The former is the road of the travelers, the latter the attribute of those snatched away. It has been said that when Pharaoh reached the shore and saw the sea split open and the roads apparent, he said to his people, “This sea has split in fear of me, and I am your Lord the most high [79:24].” When he said that, Gabriel wanted to chastise him, so he spread his wings to knock him to the ground. The command came from the Compeller of the World, “No, Gabriel. Only those who fear death should be hurried to punishment.” It has also been said that Moses said about himself, “Surely with me is my Lord,” and the Exalted Lord said about the community of AḤmad, “Surely God is with those who are godwary” [16:128]. God did not reject what Moses said about himself, for He showed him the road of de- liverance and lifted the deceit of the enemy away from him. What then do you say about what the Real Himself said concerning the community of AḤmad? It is even more appropriate that He fulfill the promise He gave, deliver them from the sorrow of sins, and convey them to His mercy and forgiveness.

Surely they are an enemy to me, save the Lord of the Worlds, who created me, so He is guiding me. The mark of love is that, when the lover comes to the description of the Beloved, he turns his heart away from others. He remembers only the Beloved and speaks only in laudation of the Beloved. He does not become sated by remembering Him, lauding Him, and thanking Him, nor can he re- main silent. This was the case when Abraham began to remember and praise God. Look how he clung to plentiful remembrance and laudation and much supplication and pleading! What a difference between these two groups-the owners of requests and the companions of the realities! The owners of requests strive, bring forth obedience, and count out litanies, and then, after that, they present their requests. Their hearts are attached to the reward, and they implore by supplicating and requesting what they want. A report has come: “Surely God loves those who implore in their supplications.” This is the station of the lords of the Shariah. Moses was in this station when he said, “My Lord, open my breast and ease my task!” [20:26] and so on. Above this is the station of the companions of the realities. In remembering and lauding the Beloved they never turn to requesting what they want. Sometimes their tongues cling to lauda- tion and sometimes their hearts are mixed with contemplation, their secret cores having reached union. Annihilated from themselves, they subsist through the Real. This was the state of Abraham when he said, “who created me, so He is guiding me.” In other words: “He is guiding me from me to Him, for my existence has been effaced, and none but the Object of my worship guides me in myself.” This is why the Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, show me the road to Yourself and release me from the bonds of myself. O He who makes arrive, make me arrive at Yourself, for no one arrives by himself! “O God, remembering You is delight, loving You celebration, recognizing You the kingdom, finding You joy, companionship with You the spirit's repose, proximity to You light. Your seeker is slain though alive, and finding You is the resurrection without Trumpet.”

Surely they are an enemy to me, save the Lord of the Worlds, who created me, so He is guiding me. The mark of love is that, when the lover comes to the description of the Beloved, he turns his heart away from others. He remembers only the Beloved and speaks only in laudation of the Beloved. He does not become sated by remembering Him, lauding Him, and thanking Him, nor can he re- main silent. This was the case when Abraham began to remember and praise God. Look how he clung to plentiful remembrance and laudation and much supplication and pleading! What a difference between these two groups-the owners of requests and the companions of the realities! The owners of requests strive, bring forth obedience, and count out litanies, and then, after that, they present their requests. Their hearts are attached to the reward, and they implore by supplicating and requesting what they want. A report has come: “Surely God loves those who implore in their supplications.” This is the station of the lords of the Shariah. Moses was in this station when he said, “My Lord, open my breast and ease my task!” [20:26] and so on. Above this is the station of the companions of the realities. In remembering and lauding the Beloved they never turn to requesting what they want. Sometimes their tongues cling to lauda- tion and sometimes their hearts are mixed with contemplation, their secret cores having reached union. Annihilated from themselves, they subsist through the Real. This was the state of Abraham when he said, “who created me, so He is guiding me.” In other words: “He is guiding me from me to Him, for my existence has been effaced, and none but the Object of my worship guides me in myself.” This is why the Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, show me the road to Yourself and release me from the bonds of myself. O He who makes arrive, make me arrive at Yourself, for no one arrives by himself! “O God, remembering You is delight, loving You celebration, recognizing You the kingdom, finding You joy, companionship with You the spirit's repose, proximity to You light. Your seeker is slain though alive, and finding You is the resurrection without Trumpet.”

Surely they are an enemy to me, save the Lord of the Worlds, who created me, so He is guiding me. The mark of love is that, when the lover comes to the description of the Beloved, he turns his heart away from others. He remembers only the Beloved and speaks only in laudation of the Beloved. He does not become sated by remembering Him, lauding Him, and thanking Him, nor can he re- main silent. This was the case when Abraham began to remember and praise God. Look how he clung to plentiful remembrance and laudation and much supplication and pleading! What a difference between these two groups-the owners of requests and the companions of the realities! The owners of requests strive, bring forth obedience, and count out litanies, and then, after that, they present their requests. Their hearts are attached to the reward, and they implore by supplicating and requesting what they want. A report has come: “Surely God loves those who implore in their supplications.” This is the station of the lords of the Shariah. Moses was in this station when he said, “My Lord, open my breast and ease my task!” [20:26] and so on. Above this is the station of the companions of the realities. In remembering and lauding the Beloved they never turn to requesting what they want. Sometimes their tongues cling to lauda- tion and sometimes their hearts are mixed with contemplation, their secret cores having reached union. Annihilated from themselves, they subsist through the Real. This was the state of Abraham when he said, “who created me, so He is guiding me.” In other words: “He is guiding me from me to Him, for my existence has been effaced, and none but the Object of my worship guides me in myself.” This is why the Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, show me the road to Yourself and release me from the bonds of myself. O He who makes arrive, make me arrive at Yourself, for no one arrives by himself! “O God, remembering You is delight, loving You celebration, recognizing You the kingdom, finding You joy, companionship with You the spirit's repose, proximity to You light. Your seeker is slain though alive, and finding You is the resurrection without Trumpet.”

And who gives me to eat and gives me drink. Abraham was shunning delicious and refreshing foods and clear and refined drinks. They said to him, “Why do you not want this and why do you not eat?” He answered, “Surely His are the creation and the command [7:54]. This form of ours is commanded by His creation, and this soul of ours is commanded by His command. We have tied ourselves to His desire and pulled ourselves into the stable of His graciousness so that He will not leave us without nourishment.” The compass of Power had not yet turned around the circle of existence when He gave every- one what was suited for him and was done with him. “God is finished with creation, character, moment of death, and provision.” One person is in bondage to the nourishment of the soul, another hopes for the nourishment of the heart. The nourishment of the soul is food and drink, and the nourishment of the heart is recognition and love. One person lives through the soul-he lives by food and air. Another lives through the Real-he lives by love and remembrance. Whenever this verse was recited Dhu'l-Nūn Miṣrī would say, “Who gives me to eat of the food of recognition, and gives me to drink of the wine of love.” Then he would sing, “The wine of love is the best wine- every other wine is a mirage.” Abū Bakr al-Warrāq said, “Who gives me to eat without food and gives me to drink without drink. Metaphorically, 'He satiates me and quenches me without attachment.' There is evidence for this in the account of the cup-bearer during the era of God's Messenger. For three days the Prophet was heard reciting 'There is no creature crawling on the earth but that its provision rests on God' [11:6]. He had doubts about his proximity. Then someone came to him in a dream with a cup of the wine of the Garden and gave him to drink of it. Anas said, 'After that he lived twenty-some years never eating or drinking because of appetite.'”

The people of Noah cried lies to the messengers when their brother Noah said to them, “Will you not be godwary?” The purport of this verse is to explain how to invite and to explain the attribute of the inviter. Whenever someone invites and calls another to God, his road is first to command godwariness, just as God recounts from the prophets that they said, “Will you not be godwary?” Then, when they speak to them, they should speak with the utmost gentleness so that the words will get to them and be easier for them to accept. Do you not see that the Exalted Lord sent Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh and commanded them to speak gently? He said, “Speak to him with soft words. Perhaps he will remember or fear” [20:44]. He commanded MuṣṬafā in the same way: “Say: 'I admonish you in but one thing, that you stand up for God'” [34:46]. In these accounts, when the prophets spoke to their communities with gentleness saying, “Will you not be godwary?,” they did not say, “Be wary of God,” or “Be wary of His punishment,” for in that there would have been a kind of harshness, and the hearts of the people would have found it repellent. This is like when someone says to someone else, “Do such and such!” This is a peremp- tory command, empty of benevolence and gentleness. If he were to say, “Will you not do such and such?,” this is the same command, but mixed with a gentleness and benevolence that will cling to the listener's heart. Will you not be godwary? is a command to godwariness, and godwariness is the root of all excellent qualities and the basis of all obedient acts. For the lords of certainty, there are no supplies for the promised return other than godwariness: And take along supplies, but the best of supplies is godwariness [2:197]. There are all sorts of clothing. The clothing that you yourself can put on and take off is trifling. What does the work is the clothing of godwariness that the Real puts on someone. One person is draped in the clothing of submission, and he then sometimes falls and sometimes rises; finally, at the end, he is saved. Another is given the clothing of faith. He also falls and rises, but he seldom falls and mostly rises, so he is saved quickly. Another is draped in the clothing of godwariness. He lives happy, dies happy, and rises up happy. Another is draped in the clothing of love. He lives unsettled, dies yearning, and rises up drunk. Know also that the aspects of godwariness in the Qur'an are many, and all go back to five meanings: One is to be wary of associationism by means of tawḤīd: He said to Moses, “I shall write it for those who are wary of Me” [7:156], that is, in the next world He will make it, that is, mercy, necessary for those who were wary of associationism. Second is to be wary by purifying oneself of hypocrisy, as He says, “O you who have faith, be wary of God! [9:119]: O you who have faith, avoid rising up against My torment. Do not mix hypocrisy and doubt with purifying your deeds. Flee from My torment, know your own measure, and rise beyond the road of delusion so that you will not burn in the fire of severance. And be with the truthful [9:119]: Be with the upright and the straight speakers.” Third is to be wary by truthfulness against eye-service, as the Exalted Lord says in the story of Abel: “God accepts only from the godwary” [5:27]. Yes, the work of the worthy is worthy and that of the washed washed, but what will be accepted from a striver who is not wanted? How can the one whose feet are tied with the bonds of unwantedness arrive? Musk did not buy its scent, nor did honey search for its sweetness. Colocynth and dates grow in the same soil and the same water. So, the work is tied to solicitude, not to obedience. He does what He wants, and He does not add or subtract from what He wants. The desire is His desire, the will His will: God does whatsoever He wills [14:27] and He decrees whatsoever He desires [5:1]. Fourth is to be wary of innovation in the Sunnah, as the Exalted Lord says: “Surely those who lower their voices with God's Messenger, they are the ones whose hearts God has tested for god- wariness” [49:3]. God made the hearts of the Sunnis clean and pure for abstaining. He scoured their hearts of innovation and adorned them with the Sunnah. He tanned them with fear, brought them to life with shame, and brightened them with purification for the sake of companionship with Him. Fifth is godwariness by avoiding acts of disobedience, as He says in the story of Joseph: “Surely whosoever is godwary and patient” [12:90]. This godwariness is an allusion to the day when he was alone with Rāʿīl, and the patience is an allusion to the day when he was thrown into the well. Whoever avoids acts of disobedience and is patient in tribulation, surely God does not leave to waste the wage of the beautiful-doers [12:90].

The people of Noah cried lies to the messengers when their brother Noah said to them, “Will you not be godwary?” The purport of this verse is to explain how to invite and to explain the attribute of the inviter. Whenever someone invites and calls another to God, his road is first to command godwariness, just as God recounts from the prophets that they said, “Will you not be godwary?” Then, when they speak to them, they should speak with the utmost gentleness so that the words will get to them and be easier for them to accept. Do you not see that the Exalted Lord sent Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh and commanded them to speak gently? He said, “Speak to him with soft words. Perhaps he will remember or fear” [20:44]. He commanded MuṣṬafā in the same way: “Say: 'I admonish you in but one thing, that you stand up for God'” [34:46]. In these accounts, when the prophets spoke to their communities with gentleness saying, “Will you not be godwary?,” they did not say, “Be wary of God,” or “Be wary of His punishment,” for in that there would have been a kind of harshness, and the hearts of the people would have found it repellent. This is like when someone says to someone else, “Do such and such!” This is a peremp- tory command, empty of benevolence and gentleness. If he were to say, “Will you not do such and such?,” this is the same command, but mixed with a gentleness and benevolence that will cling to the listener's heart. Will you not be godwary? is a command to godwariness, and godwariness is the root of all excellent qualities and the basis of all obedient acts. For the lords of certainty, there are no supplies for the promised return other than godwariness: And take along supplies, but the best of supplies is godwariness [2:197]. There are all sorts of clothing. The clothing that you yourself can put on and take off is trifling. What does the work is the clothing of godwariness that the Real puts on someone. One person is draped in the clothing of submission, and he then sometimes falls and sometimes rises; finally, at the end, he is saved. Another is given the clothing of faith. He also falls and rises, but he seldom falls and mostly rises, so he is saved quickly. Another is draped in the clothing of godwariness. He lives happy, dies happy, and rises up happy. Another is draped in the clothing of love. He lives unsettled, dies yearning, and rises up drunk. Know also that the aspects of godwariness in the Qur'an are many, and all go back to five meanings: One is to be wary of associationism by means of tawḤīd: He said to Moses, “I shall write it for those who are wary of Me” [7:156], that is, in the next world He will make it, that is, mercy, necessary for those who were wary of associationism. Second is to be wary by purifying oneself of hypocrisy, as He says, “O you who have faith, be wary of God! [9:119]: O you who have faith, avoid rising up against My torment. Do not mix hypocrisy and doubt with purifying your deeds. Flee from My torment, know your own measure, and rise beyond the road of delusion so that you will not burn in the fire of severance. And be with the truthful [9:119]: Be with the upright and the straight speakers.” Third is to be wary by truthfulness against eye-service, as the Exalted Lord says in the story of Abel: “God accepts only from the godwary” [5:27]. Yes, the work of the worthy is worthy and that of the washed washed, but what will be accepted from a striver who is not wanted? How can the one whose feet are tied with the bonds of unwantedness arrive? Musk did not buy its scent, nor did honey search for its sweetness. Colocynth and dates grow in the same soil and the same water. So, the work is tied to solicitude, not to obedience. He does what He wants, and He does not add or subtract from what He wants. The desire is His desire, the will His will: God does whatsoever He wills [14:27] and He decrees whatsoever He desires [5:1]. Fourth is to be wary of innovation in the Sunnah, as the Exalted Lord says: “Surely those who lower their voices with God's Messenger, they are the ones whose hearts God has tested for god- wariness” [49:3]. God made the hearts of the Sunnis clean and pure for abstaining. He scoured their hearts of innovation and adorned them with the Sunnah. He tanned them with fear, brought them to life with shame, and brightened them with purification for the sake of companionship with Him. Fifth is godwariness by avoiding acts of disobedience, as He says in the story of Joseph: “Surely whosoever is godwary and patient” [12:90]. This godwariness is an allusion to the day when he was alone with Rāʿīl, and the patience is an allusion to the day when he was thrown into the well. Whoever avoids acts of disobedience and is patient in tribulation, surely God does not leave to waste the wage of the beautiful-doers [12:90].

I ask from you no wage for this; surely my wage falls on God, the Lord of the Worlds. This is a report about each of the prophets. Each of them said, “I ask from you no wage for this.” Thus everyone who acts for God's sake will know that it is not appropriate to seek wages from other than God. If one day someone takes a step in God's road and desires a reward or lifts up a request, let him never desire it from other than Him! To Moses it was revealed, “Lift up your request to Me! Whatever you ask for, ask from Me, even the salt for your dough or the straw for your sheep.” This indeed is the degree of the wage-earners, for they act with an ear to the reward. The rec- ognizers have another state and another work. When they act, they do not do so for the sake of the reward. They consider reward a freckle on the face of the deed. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “In any case, calling to account will be for the wage-earners. What calling to account could there be for the recognizers? The recognizer is indeed a guest. The wage of the wage-earner befits the wage-earner, and the feast of the guest befits the host. The resource of the wage-earner is bewilderment, and the resource of the recognizer is face-to-face vision. “The recognizer's spirit is radiant with His love; his spirit is all eye, his secret core all tongue. His eye and tongue are helpless in the light of face-to-face vision. “The wage-earner's heart has the shining light of hope, but the recognizer's spirit has face-to- face vision. The wage-earner wanders in the midst of blessings, but the recognizer cannot fit into expression.” The worth of the recognizer's spirit is not apparent. Do you know why? Because his spirit is not separate from the Presence. His bodily frame is like a shell, and his soul is like a pearl that originated from the Presence and returned to the Presence. If the soul had come from here, it would be soulish, and if it were soulish, the veil of dispersion would not have been incinerated. The fire of hell does not burn like the fire that burns in the recognizer's soul, for his fire is lit by friendship. For in the lover's heart is the fire of love, hotter than the hottest fire of hell. How can the recognizer be aware of the sound of the Trumpet, or preoccupied with the terror of the Resurrection, or touched by the smoke of hell, or cling to the bliss of paradise? Today, the whole world is preoccupied, but the recognizers 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.

And We gave David and Solomon knowledge. In this verse the Lord of the Worlds lays a favor on David and Solomon, for He taught them the knowledge of the religion. Religion is a comprehensive name that comprises submission, faith, the Sunnah and the congregation, performing obedient acts and worship, and avoiding unbelief and disobedience. This is the religion of the angels by which they worship and obey God, and it is the religion of the prophets and messengers from Adam to MuḤammad. The prophets and messengers invited their communities to it, as the Lord of the Worlds says: “He has set down for you as the religion that with which He counseled Noah, and what We have revealed to thee, and that with which We charged Abraham, Moses, and Jesus: Uphold the religion, and scatter not regarding it” [42:13]. This religion is extremely obvious and unveiled to the folk of felicity, but extremely hidden from the folk of wretchedness. The Real gives religion-recognizing eyesight only to the folk of felicity. Only the folk of this eyesight recognize the religion, as the Prophet said: “How is it that you are with your religion like the moon when it is full, but only the seeing see it?” It has also been narrated that he said, “I have brought you a white, immaculate splendor whose night is like its day. For those of you who live, a great diversity will be seen among you after me concerning my Sunnah and that of the rightly guided vicegerents, so hold fast to it.” The religion in its totality is built on two things: listening and following. Listening is that you accept with spirit and heart the revelation sent down on MuṣṬafā. Then you go straight by follow- ing him. That is His words, “Whatever the Messenger gives you, take” [59:7]. And We gave David and Solomon knowledge. In the tongue of the folk of recognition and the tasting of the lords of finding, this is the knowledge of understanding. The knowledge of under- standing is the knowledge of the Haqiqah. Junayd was asked, “What is the knowledge of the Haqiqah?” He said, “The God-given, lordly knowledge-the attributes gone, the Haqiqah staying.” The state of the recognizer is exactly this: the attributes gone, the Haqiqah staying. The com- mon people are in a station in which the attributes are apparent and the Haqiqah concealed. As for the folk of election, the attributes have ceased to be and the Haqiqah stays. That chevalier has said this beautifully in the line, Endless passion has nothing to do with a heart that stays firm in its own attributes. [DS 209] First there is the knowledge of the Haqiqah, above this the eye of the Haqiqah, and beyond that the truth of the Haqiqah. The knowledge of the Haqiqah is recognition, the eye of the Haqiqah is finding, and the truth of the Haqiqah is annihilation. The knowledge of the Haqiqah is what you have of the Real. The eye of the Haqiqah is the Real through which you are. The truth of the Haqiqah is your dissolution in the Real. Recognition means shinākht [in Persian], and finding [wujūd] means yāft. Between recogni- tion and finding are more than a thousand valleys. Junayd said, “This group did not come down from the Patron for the sake of recognition-they seek so as to find.” Poor man, how will you find Him when you are incapable of recognition? It is also Junayd who was asked, “How is it that one finds Him?” He did not answer, but stood up from his place. In other words, this answer is given by the heart, not the tongue. He who has it knows. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “The light of faith comes from finding God. It is not that finding God comes from the light of faith.” Ḥallāj said, “When someone seeks God with the light of faith, that is like seeking the sun with a star's light. He, however, stands in His measure and abides in His exaltedness. He is far in His exaltedness and near in His gentleness.”

Say: " The praise belongs to God, and peace be upon His servants whom He has chosen. " Know that the stations of the religion's road are of two sorts: One sort are called the preliminar- ies, for they are not the goal in themselves. These are like repentance, patience, fear, renuncia- tion, poverty, and self-accounting, all of which are the means of approach to something beyond themselves. The second sort are called the destinations or the ends, for they are the goal in themselves. These are like love, yearning, approval, tawḤīd, and trust, all of which are goals in themselves. They are not needed as the means of approach to something else. Praise of God and thanking and lauding Him are of this sort, for they are goals in themselves. Anything that is a goal in itself will remain at the resurrection and will never be cut off in paradise. Praise pertains to this category because the Exalted Lord says about the attribute of the par- adise-dwellers, " And the last of their supplication will be 'Praise belongs to God, the Lord of the worlds' " [10:10]; " Praise belongs to God, who has put away sorrow from us " [35:34]; " Praise belongs to God, who was truthful in His promise to us " [39:74]. In the Splendorous Qur'an He linked gratitude and praise with remembrance when He says, " So remember Me; I will remember you. And be grateful for Me and not ungrateful toward Me " [2:152]. Tomorrow, at the most tremendous courtyard and greatest gathering place, when the portico of magnificence is raised and the carpet of tremendousness spread, a caller will call out, " Let the praisers stand up! " At this time no one will stand up except those who in all states and times were constantly praising and thanking God and showing the rightful due of gratitude for His blessings. The servant will not become sound in the station of gratitude and praise unless three things exist in him: first knowledge, second state, and third deed. First is knowledge; from knowledge the state is born, and from state the deed rises up. Knowledge is recognizing the blessings from the Lord. State is the heart's happiness with those blessings. He alludes to this with His words, " In that let them rejoice " [10:58]. Deed is putting the blessings to work in that which is desired and approved by the Lord; He alludes to this with His words, " Do, O family of David, in gratitude! " [34:13] And peace be upon His servants whom He has chosen. One opinion is that these servants are the Companions of the Messenger-the paragons of the presence of messengerhood, the stars in the heaven of the creed, and those adorned with the attribute of limpidness. In the presence of messengerhood they were like the stars in heaven with the shining sun. Just as the stars take help from the light of the sun and receive the luster of felicity from it, so also that paragon of the world and master of the children of Adam is like the sun in the heaven of the religion's good fortune. Those great Companions are like the stars in the presence of messengerhood and are adorned by it. It is the clemency and mercy of prophethood that has refined them by teaching them courtesy and rectifying them. The tongue of prophethood alluded to this meaning: " My Companions are like the stars; whichever you emulate, you will be guided. " That paragon of the world is seated at the front, and the Companions are present in keeping with the levels of their states: One is the vizier, one the advisor, one the planner, one the assistant. One is the root of truthfulness, one the basis of justice, one the comrade of shame, one the mine of liberality. One is the chieftain of the sincerely truthful, one the commander of the just, one the paragon of the expenders, one the king of the chevaliers. One is like hearing, one like eyesight, one like smell, one like speech. Just as the beauty of most people lies in these four attributes, so also the perfection of the state of faith lies in these four attributes-truthfulness, justice, shame, and liberality. These are the at- tributes of the chevaliers, for the Lord of the Worlds says, " And peace be upon His servants whom He has chosen. " It has also been said, " He chose them in the eras of His beginninglessness, then guided them in the eras of His endlessness. " The chosen servants are those who found chosenness in the begin- ningless and reached guidance in the endless. They found the road because they were shown the road. They went straight because they were chosen. They obeyed because they were approved. They receive three sorts of peace from the Real: On the Day of the Compact they heard peace in their spirits: " And peace be upon His servants whom He has chosen. " Today they hear peace on the tongue of the emissary with the intermediary of prophethood: " And when those who have faith in Our signs come to thee, say 'Peace be upon you' " [6:54]. Tomorrow-which is the day of the bazaar and the time of access-they will hear it without emissary and without intermediary: " 'Peace!'-a word from an ever-merciful Lord " [36:58].

Who is it that made the earth a settledness, made rivers in its midst, made for it firm mountains, and made a barrier between the two oceans? Is there a god along with God? No, but most of them know not. The souls of the worshipers are where their obedience settles, the hearts of the recognizers are where their recognition settles, the spirits of the finders are where their love settles, and the secret cores of the tawḤīd-voicers are where their contemplation settles. In their spirits are the rivers of union and the springs of proximity. Thereby the thirst of their yearning and the agitation of their burning are quenched. Made for it firm mountains, namely the Substitutes, the friends, and the Pegs. Through them He continually holds fast to the earth and through their blessings trials are repelled from the creatures. It has also been said that the firm mountains are the ones who guide those who ask for directions to the Lord of the Worlds. Who is it that made the earth a settledness: Who is it that brought the earth of the submission under the feet of the tawḤīd of the tawḤīd-voicers? Made rivers in its midst: Who is it that made the springs of wisdom appear in the hearts of the recognizers? Made for it firm mountains: Who is it that built the fortresses of recognition in the secret cores of the friends? Made a barrier between the two oceans: Who is it that set up the clouds of going straight between the oceans of fear and hope? Is there a god along with God? Do you know of another god who did this? Do you know of another object of worship who made all this? It has also been said that made a barrier between the two oceans means between the heart and the soul, so that neither will overpower its companion. In the human makeup, there are both the Kaabah of the heart and the tavern of the soul, two opposite substances joined in creation and separate in path, each open toward the other, but between the two God's power has placed a barrier. Whenever the commanding soul raids the heart's pavilion, the afflicted heart goes to the Exalted Threshold to complain, and from the gardens of Eternity the robe of the gaze reaches it. This is the secret of the report, “Surely in every day and night God has 360 gazes at the hearts of the servants.” The equivalent of this verse is in Surah al-Furqān: “And He it is who mixed the two oceans, that one sweet, delicious, this one salty, bitter” [25:53]. In the tongue of the folk of recognition, these two oceans are the attributes of the heart of the faithful person. The two sorts of water are the attributes of opposite meaning that he has within himself: fear and hope, doubt and certainty, misguidance and guidance, avarice and contentment, heedlessness and wakefulness. The Exalted Lord made a barrier and obstacle appear between the two opposites. Between fear and hope there is the barrier of a beautiful opinion so that the bitterness of fear will not destroy the sweetness of hope. Between doubt and certainty there is the barrier of recognition so that the saltiness of doubt will not destroy the sweetness of certainty. Between misguidance and guidance there is the bar- rier of protection so that the bitterness of misguidance will not destroy the sweetness of guidance. Between avarice and contentment there is the barrier of godwariness so that the opacity of avarice will not destroy the limpidness of contentment. Between heedlessness and wakefulness there is the barrier of observation by gazing so that the darkness of heedlessness will not destroy the light of wakefulness. Is there a god along with God? Other than God do you know of another god who makes such artisanry and has such power?

Surely thou wilt not make the dead to hear. In reality, life is three things, and any heart that is empty of these three things is in fact carrion and counted as dead: the life of fear along with knowledge, the life of hope along with knowledge, and the life of friendship along with knowledge. The life of fear keeps a man's skirt pure of defilement, his eyes awake, and his road straight. The life of hope keeps a man's steed quick, his traveling supplies complete, and the road near. The life of friendship makes a man's measure great, his secret core free, and his heart happy. Fear without knowledge is the fear of the Khawarij, hope without knowledge is the hope of the Murji'ah, and friendship without knowledge is the friendship of the libertines. Anyone who combines these three traits with knowledge will reach a pure life and be released from death. The Lord of the Worlds says, “We shall surely give him to live a goodly life [16:97]. I will make them live a pure life, disowned of self and free of the whole world.” Disown everything in the realm of being- be that Heart-taker's “companion of the cave.” The chevaliers are those to whom He gave access to face-to-face vision, and they made do with that. When the veil was lifted, they turned away from all creation. They took back the skirt of at- tachments from the hands of the creatures. Her love came to me before I knew love- it came across an empty heart and took possession.

Say: “Praise belongs to God. He will show you His signs, and you will recognize them.” This road can be traversed with three way stations: first showing, then traveling, then being pulled. Showing is this: “He will show you His signs, and you will recognize them.” Traveling is what He said: “And He created you in stages” [71:14]; “You shall surely ride stage after stage” [84:19]. Being pulled is what He said: “Then He drew close, so He came down” [53:8]. About showing He said in the case of Abraham, “We were showing Abraham the dominion of the heavens and the earth” [6:75]. Again, He spoke of traveling on the part of Moses: “Surely with me is my Lord; He will guide me” [26:62]. He spoke of being pulled in the case of MuṣṬafā the Arab: “Who took His servant by night” [17:1]. You poor wretch! You have lost the road, you have remained in yourself, you have not taken the road to the road. You have traveled lifetimes in yourself and not reached anywhere. Your traveling is like that great pir said: I was young when He said, “May your nights be sweet!” I became old in passion but my night did not become day. O chevalier! Take a step outside of yourself so that the road may become clear and your Compan- ion may appear to you. Have you not heard the words spoken by the Pir of the Tariqah: “O gone out of yourself with- out reaching the Friend! Do not let your heart be tight, for in each breath your companion is He. Exalted is he who is scarred by Him! On His road is he who has His lamp! This is why the Lord of the Worlds said, 'So he is upon a light from his Lord' [39:22].”

ṬāÌ Sīn Mīm ṬāÌ alludes to the recognizer's heart, its purity [Ṭahāra] of everything other than He. Sīn alludes to His secret [sirr] with His friends in their contemplation of His majesty and beauty. Mīm alludes to His favors [minna] toward the faithful in His blessings and bounties. Wherever talk of Him goes, the session becomes fragrant. Wherever there is listening to His name and mark, the spirits become luminous. In the 18,000 worlds, no one can step on the carpet of His success-giving without His help and gentleness. In the two realms of being and the two worlds, life is not given over to anyone unless by His protection and kind favor. The great ones of the religion have said that the chevaliers and the friends of the Real have three sorts of life: life through remembrance, life through recognition, and life through finding. The fruit of the life of remembrance is intimacy, the fruit of the life of recognition is stillness, and the fruit of the life of finding is annihilation. In reality, this annihilation is subsistence. Until you have been annihilated from yourself you will not subsist through Him. Abū Saʿīd Kharrāz said, “I was at Arafat on the Day of Arafa and I saw that the hajjis were making supplications and weeping beautifully: on every tongue a remembrance, in every heart a fervor, in every soul a passion, in every corner a burning and a need, with everyone a pain and a melting. The wish arose in me that I also should make a supplication and ask for something. I asked myself what supplication I should make and what I should ask, since everything needed is given unasked for; it is made ready and taken care of without being spoken. In the end I made the intention to open up the road of the Haqiqah to Him and to supplicate. He inspired in my secret core, 'You want something from Me after finding Me?'” In wonder the violet keeps on saying, “Strange- if someone has the Friend's tresses, why would he pick me?” Abū Saʿīd stepped back from that and kept on reciting this verse: “Your loyalty clings inside my heart, Your love is my goal, yearning my supplies.”

When he turned his face toward Midian, he said, “Perhaps my Lord will guide me on the even way.” In what preceded all precedents, the scented garden of recognition was adorned with the trees of love. The playing field of bewilderment and love was placed in front of it and made its access-way. “The Garden is surrounded by disliked things.” Whenever they wanted to bring someone into the garden of recognition, they first brought him into the playing field of bewilderment, and they made his head the polo-ball of tribulation. Thus he would taste the flavor of bewilderment and tribulation, and then he would reach the fragrance of love. This was the state of Moses, God's speaking companion. When they wanted to garb him in the clothing of prophethood and take him to the presence of messengerhood and conversation, first they put him in the bend of trial's polo stick until he was cooked in those trials and troubles. Thus the Exalted Lord says, “We tried thee with trials” [20:40]. In other words: “We cooked you well with trial until you became limpid and immaculate.” He came out of Egypt fearful and trembling. In terror of his enemy he was looking right and left, just as a fearful person does. That is His words, “So he left there, fearful and vigilant” [28:21]. In the end he wept to God and complained of his burning liver. He said, “My Lord, deliver me from the wrongdoing people” [28:21]. The Lord of the Worlds answered his supplication and kept him safe from the enemy. Tranquility came down into his heart and took up residence. It was said to his secret core, “Have no fear and no sorrow. The Lord who kept you under His protection and guarding and did not give you over to the enemy when you were an infant in Pharaoh's chamber and you were slapping his face will today also keep you in His protection and not give you over to the enemy.” Then he set off in the desert all at once, not aiming for Midian. The Exalted Lord threw him to Midian for the sake of a secret that He had prepared there. Shuʿayb was God's prophet and dwelled in Midian. He was a worshipful man, overcome by fear. In the moments of his seclusion he wept so much that he lost his eyesight from weeping, but the Exalted Lord gave him back his eyesight through a miracle. He still kept on weeping until he became blind again and the Exalted Lord again gave him eyesight. For the second time, for the third time, he kept on weeping until he lost his eyesight. Revelation came to him, “Why are you weeping so much, O Shuʿayb? If you fear hell, I have made you secure from hell, and if you hope for paradise, I have permitted that to you.” Shuʿayb said, “No, O Lord, but in yearning for You. I am not weeping in fear of hell or in hope of paradise, but I am burning in my wish for the Possessor of Majesty.” God revealed to him, “Because of this, I will put My prophet and speaking companion in your service for ten years.” When he turned his face toward Midian. In his person Moses went to Midian and fell into the service of Shuʿayb. In his heart he went toward the Real and fell into prophethood and mes- sengerhood. He said, “Perhaps my Lord will guide me on the even way.” In terms of allusion in the tongue of unveiling, the even way is the perseverance of the soul in service and the resting of the soul in straightness. Until the man traveling the road traverses the road's way stations, he will not reach the top of tawḤīd's street. At the beginning of the work when Abraham was brought to the threshold, he was sent to the street of the star until he said, “This is my Lord” [6:76]. Then he left the street of the star and en- tered the street of the moon. He left the street of the moon and entered the street of the sun. He saw that every street had a defect. In the street of the star he saw the blight of change. In the street of the moon he saw the fault of transition. In the street of the sun he saw the defect of disappearance. He came to know that this is not the highway of straightness nor the top of tawḤīd's street. All the roads were blocked for him. He stood with the feet of reflection at the top of bewilderment's street, bewildered, languishing, seeking the Friend. Anyone who saw him would have said that he was captive to the dust at the top of friendship's street. The dust at the top of the Friend's street has become jasmine- everyone who passes by that dust becomes like me. When Abraham saw that all the roads were blocked, he knew that the Presence is one. He cried out, “Surely I have turned my face toward Him who originated the heavens and the earth” [6:79]. The manly man is not he who rides on the highway when the road is open. The man is he who goes in the darkness of night on a narrow road without a guide to the top of the Friend's street.

When he entered upon the water of Midian. He entered the water of Midian with his outwardness, and he entered the influxes of intimacy with his heart. The influxes of intimacy are the courtyards of tawḤīd. When the servant enters the court- yards of tawḤīd, the lights of contemplation are unveiled for him and he becomes absent from his senses in his soul. Rulership then belongs to God alone, for there is no soul, no sense perception, no heart, no intimacy. This is dissolution in the self-sufficiency and total annihilation. When the servant reaches the courtyards of tawḤīd, he is drowned in the light of contemplation, absent from himself, and present with the Real. Seeking ceases to be in the Found, recognition ceases to be in the Recognized, and seeing ceases to be in the Seen-attachments cut, causes dissolved, traces nullified, limits come to nothing, allusions and expressions negated. When rain arrives at the ocean, it arrives. Stars disappear in daytime. He who arrives at the Patron arrives at himself. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O Found and Findable! What mark is given of a drunkard but selflessness? Everyone's tribulation is because of distance, but this poor wretch's because of near- ness. Everyone is thirsty from not finding water, but I from being quenched. “O God, all friendship is between two, with no room for a third. In this friendship, all is You, with no room for me. If this work is from my side, I have nothing to do with it. If it is from Your side, all is You. What business have I to meddle and make claims?”

Surely thou dost not guide whom thou lovest, but God guides whomsoever He will. “O MuḤammad, guidance is one of the characteristics of lordhood, so it is not proper for anyone described by mortal nature.” Giving the success of felicity and the realization of guidance is a characteristic of lordhood. Human nature has no access to it, and no one is suited for this attribute other than the majestic Unity. “O MuḤammad, you have the eminence of prophethood, the rank of messengerhood, the beauty of mediation, the praiseworthy station [17:79], and the Visited Pool. You are the Seal of the Prophets, the master of the messengers, the interceder for the sinners, and the candle of earth and heaven. The reins of your steed have passed beyond the heavens, and the courtyard of the Splendorous Throne was made the place for the soles of your feet. But guiding the servants and showing them the road to faith is not your work, nor is it in your hands. Surely thou dost not guide whom thou lovest. We drive those We want into the desert of bewilderment and We drag those We want by the chain of severity. In the beginninglessness beginning and in what preceded all prec- edents, We placed the crown of felicity on the heads of the folk of good fortune, and We beat this drum: 'These are in the Garden, and I don't care.' We wrote the inscription of wretchedness on the foreheads of another group, and We struck this knocker: 'These are in the Fire, and I don't care.'” O chevalier, no attribute of God inflicts more pain than the attribute of “I don't care.” When the Prophet said, “Would that MuḤammad's Lord had not created MuḤammad,” he was wailing in fear of these words. What was said by Abū Bakr-“Would that I were a tree to be lopped”-is the pain of this talk. Beautiful words were spoken by the Pir of the Tariqah: “What does the work is not that some- one has indolence and someone else has deeds. What does the work is that someone is unworthy in the Beginningless. The greatest of the abandoned ones, called Iblis, was busy in the workshop of deeds for many years. The folk of the Dominion were all beating the drum of his good fortune. They did not know that a garment of a different color had been woven for him in the workshop of the Beginningless. In the workshop of his deeds they saw scissors and silk, but from the workshop of the Beginningless appeared a black kilim: 'And he was one of the unbelievers' [2:34].”

That is the abode of the next world-We appoint it for those who do not desire elevation in the earth, nor corruption. Tomorrow in the house of the afterworld, those residing in the seat of truthfulness [54:55] and those in proximity with the All-Compelling Presence will be a group who in this world did not seek to be higher and greater than others. Here they considered themselves lesser and smaller than oth- ers and never looked upon themselves with the eye of approval. Thus that chevalier of the Tariqah was returning from the halting place of Arafat. It was said to him, “How did you see the folk of the standing place?” He replied, “I saw a people whom I would have hoped, had it not been for the fact that I was among them, God would forgive.” O chevalier! Do not look at yourself with the eye of approval! Do not go into the road of “I,” for no one has ever seen any benefit from I-ness. What happened to Iblis happened because of I- ness, for he said, “I am better” [38:76]. One of the great ones of the religion saw Iblis. He said, “Give me some advice.” He said, “Do not say I, lest you become like me.” This indeed is the road of the wayfarers on the Tariqah and the chevaliers of the Haqiqah. Nonetheless, it is not permissible to throw away I-ness in the road of the Shariah, because things in the Shariah have been turned over to you, and that continues. Shaykh Abū ʿAbdallāh Khafīf said, “Throwing away I-ness in the Shariah is heresy, and af- firming I-ness in the Haqiqah is associationism. When you are in the station of the Shariah, say I. When you are on the road of the Haqiqah, say He. Indeed, all is He. The Shariah is the acts, the Haqiqah the states. The acts abide through you, the states are arranged by Him.”

He who made the Qur'an obligatory upon thee shall restore thee to a place of return. Outwardly, the place of return is Mecca. The Prophet often used to say, “The homeland! The homeland!” and God made his request into reality. In secret and allusion, however, the meaning is this: “He appointed for you the attributes of dispersion so that you may convey the message and spread the Shariah. He will restore you to togetherness through your realization of annihilation from creation.” As long as MuṣṬafā was busy conveying the message, spreading the Shariah, and laying down the foundations of the religion, he was in the station of dispersion for the sake of the people's salvation. With this verse, he was taken from the narrow pass of dispersion to the vast plain of togetherness, the drinking place of His elect. Thus he said, “No one embraces me in my present moment save my Lord.” The Pir of the Tariqah said, “When someone's togetherness is sound, dispersion will not harm him. When someone's lineage is sound, recalcitrance will not cut it off. Speaking of togetherness is not the work of the tongue, and expressing its reality is calumny. How can the one destroyed by the ocean of trial explain? What mark has he who has drowned in annihilation itself? This is the talk of the heart's resurrection and the spirit's plundering. With the onslaught of union, what can be done by heart and eyes? When someone is bewildered in the breeze of his own union, his spirit has long been in hock to beginningless love. May he be lost-hearted, for he is wailing in the tracks of the heart! May he be lost-spirited, for he regrets traveling to the Friend!”

Everything is perishing but His face; to Him belongs the decree, and to Him you will be returned. Whatever was not, then came to be, is under the sway of disappearance and the blow of annihila- tion. Yesterday it was not and tomorrow it will not be. But in the Essence and attributes of self- sufficiency the Unity's majesty subsists and lasts. He is alive before all the living, the Lord of life and the living, inheritor of the world and the world's folk, subsistent after the world's folk and the world-the return of everything and all creatures is to Him everlastingly. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, O knower of everything, maker of every work, and keeper of all, no one is Your partner and none are without need for You. You throw down the work with wisdom, you act with gentleness. There is neither injustice nor games. O God, the servant knows nothing of the whyness of Your work, and no one rules over You. You have made the suitable things and have wanted the riches. Not from anyone to You, not from You to anyone-all is from You in You, all is You, and that's it.” “Is not everything but God unreal?” God, and that's it-attachments cut, causes dissolved, traces nullified, creatures negated, and the one Real subsisting in His rightful due.

Do the people reckon they will be left to say, “We have faith,” and not be tried? Do the people reckon they will be left simply to claim to have faith without trial being demanded from them? That will never happen, for the worth of every man lies in his trial. So when the mea- sure of someone's meaning is more, the measure of his trial will be more. The Prophet said, “Surely the people most severely tried are the prophets, then the next best, then the next best.” He also said, “When God desires good for a people, He tries them.” The lordly likeness from the Presence of Lordhood is this: Trial from Our threshold is a robe of honor for the friends. Whoever seeks a level above others in the station of friendship will smell more of the rose of tribulation in the pleasure-garden of the friends. If you want to know this, then look at the state of that master of Adam's children, the one emulated by the folk of the Shariah, and the foremost and chieftain of the folk of the Haqiqah. When that paragon walked into this street, he was not left without heartache and grief for an hour. If he sat for a while cross-legged, the address would come, “Sit like a servant!” If once he put a ring on his finger, the whip of rebuke would come down: “What, did you reckon that We created you aimlessly?” [23:115]. If once he placed his foot on the ground boldly, the command would come, “Walk not in the earth exultantly” [17:37]. If one day he said, “I love ʿāÌisha,” he would see what he saw. When his trial reached the extreme from the words of the hypocrites, he complained inwardly to God. He was addressed: “O paragon, when someone's heart and spirit witness Me, does he complain of trial?” All the venom in the treasuries of the Unseen was poured into one cup and put in his hand, and then a curtain was lifted from his secret core. It was said, “O MuḤammad, drink this venom while contemplating My beauty! And be patient with thy Lord's decree, for surely thou art in Our eyes” [52:48]. Were the Beloved's hand to pour poison for me, poison from His hand would be sweet. * Your curse, O Friend, is my praise and laudation, Your iniquity my justice, Your cruelty loyalty.

Whoso hopes to encounter God, God's term is coming, and He is the Hearing, the Knowing. When someone passes his life hoping for Our encounter, We will permit him to gaze upon Us and he will be delivered from absence and separation. And He is the Hearing of the moans of the yearners, the Knowing of the longing of the enraptured lovers. The price of seeing the Friend is the spirit. If you find that for one hundred thousand spirits, that is cheap. Who is more victorious than the servant who sees the Friend face-to-face? Hoping to see the Friend is the attribute of the Men. Great is the aspiration of the eye that wants to see You- is it not enough for an eye that You see him who sees You? Wait until tomorrow, when the servant will sit at the table of everlastingness, drinking the wine of union. He will see blessedness, nearness, and the most beautiful and will arrive at hearing, drink- ing, and seeing. This is just what the Exalted Lord says: “Faces that day will be radiant, gazing upon their Lord” [75:22-23]. The faces of the faithful and the self-purifiers, the faces of the sin- cerely truthful and the witnesses, will be like glowing moons, shining suns, garden violets, fragrant jasmine, red anemones, flashing lightning, rising suns, the vast paradise. On whom will these faces be gazing? They will be gazing upon their Lord, upon their creator, upon their nurturer. What is the attribute of that day? The day of proximity and union, the day of kindness and bounteousness, the day of giving and bestowal, the day of gazing on the Possessor of Majesty. In hoping for this station the yearners dedicated their bodies, and for the sake of this way station the passionate put rings in their ears. The recognizers will have three eyes in vision: The eye of the head will see, and that is for pleasure. The eye of the heart will see, and that is for recognition. The eye of the spirit will see, and that is for contemplation. He will fill the eye of the head with the light of bounty, the eye of the heart with the light of proximity, and the eye of the spirit with the light of finding. The servant will gaze on the Real with these three eyes. This is why the report has come, “The eyes will be filled with gazing on His face and He will speak to them as a man speaks to his sitting companion.” The disparity in vision tomorrow will be just like the disparity in recognition today. Everyone will see Him in the measure of his own recognition and according to his own portion. It may be that the vision will dazzle him, it may be that it will bring splendor, and it may be that he will reach the Seen. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, the one who will see You saw You in the Beginning- less. He will see You because the two worlds came not to be seen. He who sees You approved of the not seen.” ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿUmayr said, “It has reached us that the Exalted Lord said, 'I have given you the power to see Me, I have let you hear My words, and I have let you smell My scent.' I have given you the ability to bear seeing Me, I have given you hearing so that you could bear My words, and I have breathed into you My scent so that you could become aware of Me and stay with Me.”

Have they not seen how God originates creation, then makes it return? In terms of the outwardness, originating creation and making it return are this world and the next world. In terms of the inwardness, these allude to the changing of the moments and the recurrence of states for the possessors of hearts. Sometimes they are in contraction, sometimes expansion, sometimes awe, sometimes intimacy. For a time absence dominates over them, for a time pres- ence; for a time intoxication, for a time sobriety; for a time subsistence, for a time annihilation. When the servant is in contraction and awe, he manifests servanthood by craving forgiveness and fearing punishment, just as the Exalted Lord said: “They were supplicating Us in eagerness and dread” [21:90]. Then, when he steps into the world of expansion, he sees the marks bearing witness to intimacy. He is freed from his own power and strength and disengaged from his own desires and aims. He lives in the opening of disengagement and his aspiration's goal and kiblah becomes desiring His face [6:52]. In this state his soul will be like what Shiblī said because of drunkenness and selflessness: “At the resurrection, everyone will have an antagonist, and I will be Adam's. Why did he make my road steep so that I was held back by the mud?” When he was in expansion he spoke like that, and when he was in contraction he used to say, “My abasement suspends the abasement of the Jews.” Once again he would be given over to expansion and intimacy such that he said, “Where are the heavens and the earths that I may carry them on one of my eyelashes?” This then is the meaning of the recurrence of the states alluded to by originating and making return. The proof text of this in the exalted Qur'an is His words, “You shall surely ride stage after stage” [84:19], that is, state after state. Part of the conduct and traveling of MuṣṬafā was that one day he would say, “I am the master of Adam's children.” Then in the state of contraction he would say, “I do not know what He will do with me or with you. Would that MuḤammad's Lord had not created MuḤammad!” Again, in the state of intimacy, he would say, “I am not like any of you-I spend the night at my Lord; He gives me to eat and drink. ” The Pir of the Tariqah gave out this meaning with a marvelous intimation: “O God, You made me pass over a thousand steeps, but one still remains. My heart is ashamed of calling on You so much. O God, You washed me with a thousand waters till You made me familiar with love, but one thing is still to be washed: Wash me of me so that I may disappear from myself and You re- main. O God, will I ever see a day without the tribulation of me? Will I ever open my eyes and not see myself?”

He chastises whom He will and has mercy on whom He will. When He wants He acts with justice toward someone and drives him away from His kindness, and when He wants He acts with bounty toward him and calls him to His gentleness. All is tied to His beginningless will, and He issues the decree without any cause. It is not that He shows bounty toward someone because of his obedience, nor that He acts with justice toward someone because of his disobedience. That is a work that was taken care of in the Beginningless, a decree that went out as God wanted. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “Alas for the apportioning that has gone before me! Alack for the words spoken by the Self-Seer! What profit if I live happily or distraught? I fear what the Power- ful said in the Beginningless.” He chastises whom He will through abandonment and He has mercy upon whom He will through giving the success of beautiful doing. He chastises whom He will through ingratitude and He has mercy upon whom He will through faith. He chastises whom He will through dispersion of the heart and He has mercy upon whom He will through the togetherness of aspiration. He chas- tises whom He will by casting him into the darkness of self-governance and He has mercy upon whom He will by giving him to witness the flow of predetermination. He chastises whom He will by his love for this world and being held back from it and He has mercy upon whom He will by his renunciation of it and its expansion for him. He chastises whom He will by His turning away from him and He has mercy upon whom He will by His turning toward him.

To God belongs the command, before and after. And on that day the faithful will rejoice in God's help. Here before is the Beginningless, and after is the Endless. The meaning is that the beginningless command belongs to God and the endless command belongs to God, because the beginningless Lord and the endless Master is God. In the Beginningless and the Endless it is God who is one and unique. In the command He is without end, in knowledge He is without limit, and in decree He is without why. He is before when and in place before place. Before us He was there for Us in the Beginningless, and without us He will be our portion in the Endless. This is the intimation that He voiced to the paragon of the world on the night of the miʿrāj: “O MuḤammad, be for Me as if you were not, and I will be for you as I have always been.” The Pir of the Tariqah said, “Look at proximity so that intimacy may be born, look at tremen- dousness so that veneration may increase. Wait and see between this and that what indeed will be displayed by the precedent solicitude. To God belongs the command, before and after.” In another place He says, “Surely His are the creation and the command” [7:54]. The world of the creation comes to an end, but the world of the command has no end. It is permissible for the world of the creation to disappear, but the world of the command is necessarily permanent. As long as a man does not pass beyond the world of the creation, he is not allowed to enter the world of the command. He must become naked of his own makeup and cut off the relation of createdness from the innate disposition of recognition. If you want to pass into the world of the command, to rise up from your ungrateful makeup, and to cut away your ascription to great wrongdoing and deep ignorance, you can only do so by lingering and passing time. Just as you must linger in coming, so also you must linger in leav- ing. Just as the sperm-drop is held back for a while before it becomes a clot-and so on with the clot until it becomes bones, the bones until it becomes flesh, which is then kept for a time until it comes into movement-so also in the measure that a man comes up from under his own hand he becomes familiar with the command of the Real. When he passes beyond all of his own attributes, he becomes worthy of the command and reaches the maturity that is manliness. At that point this inscription will be written for him: “Among the faithful are men” [33:23]. And on that day the faithful will rejoice in God's help. Today is distress, tomorrow rejoic- ing; today is heedfulness, tomorrow bewilderment; today is regret, tomorrow gentleness; today is weeping, tomorrow encounter. Today in this house of trial and trouble, all that the friends have is pain and grief, remorse and burning, but they buy this grief and burning with spirit and heart and they sacrifice all that they know to this pain, just as that chevalier said: “Now at least I have the hard cash of pain- I won't give up this pain for a hundred thousand remedies.” When that minor slip went forth from David the prophet and he was rebuked by the Real, he never lifted his head to heaven as long as he was alive, nor did he stop pleading for one hour. With all this, he was saying happily, “O God, what a sweet confection this is, what a sweet pain this is! O God place a seed from this weeping and grief in my breast so that I may never be empty of this pain.” Poor wretch, you have always been without pain. You know nothing of the burning of those stricken by pain, you've seen no mark of their weeping in happiness and their laughter in grief! I keep on joining my tears with laughter, silently I weep, openly I laugh. O friend, don't think I'm content, you're not aware how needy I am. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, this poor wretch's portion of this work is all pain. May it be blessed, for this pain is terribly fitting for me. The poor wretch is he who has none of this pain. In truth, anyone who does not find joy in this pain is no chevalier.”

To God belongs the command, before and after. And on that day the faithful will rejoice in God's help. Here before is the Beginningless, and after is the Endless. The meaning is that the beginningless command belongs to God and the endless command belongs to God, because the beginningless Lord and the endless Master is God. In the Beginningless and the Endless it is God who is one and unique. In the command He is without end, in knowledge He is without limit, and in decree He is without why. He is before when and in place before place. Before us He was there for Us in the Beginningless, and without us He will be our portion in the Endless. This is the intimation that He voiced to the paragon of the world on the night of the miʿrāj: “O MuḤammad, be for Me as if you were not, and I will be for you as I have always been.” The Pir of the Tariqah said, “Look at proximity so that intimacy may be born, look at tremen- dousness so that veneration may increase. Wait and see between this and that what indeed will be displayed by the precedent solicitude. To God belongs the command, before and after.” In another place He says, “Surely His are the creation and the command” [7:54]. The world of the creation comes to an end, but the world of the command has no end. It is permissible for the world of the creation to disappear, but the world of the command is necessarily permanent. As long as a man does not pass beyond the world of the creation, he is not allowed to enter the world of the command. He must become naked of his own makeup and cut off the relation of createdness from the innate disposition of recognition. If you want to pass into the world of the command, to rise up from your ungrateful makeup, and to cut away your ascription to great wrongdoing and deep ignorance, you can only do so by lingering and passing time. Just as you must linger in coming, so also you must linger in leav- ing. Just as the sperm-drop is held back for a while before it becomes a clot-and so on with the clot until it becomes bones, the bones until it becomes flesh, which is then kept for a time until it comes into movement-so also in the measure that a man comes up from under his own hand he becomes familiar with the command of the Real. When he passes beyond all of his own attributes, he becomes worthy of the command and reaches the maturity that is manliness. At that point this inscription will be written for him: “Among the faithful are men” [33:23]. And on that day the faithful will rejoice in God's help. Today is distress, tomorrow rejoic- ing; today is heedfulness, tomorrow bewilderment; today is regret, tomorrow gentleness; today is weeping, tomorrow encounter. Today in this house of trial and trouble, all that the friends have is pain and grief, remorse and burning, but they buy this grief and burning with spirit and heart and they sacrifice all that they know to this pain, just as that chevalier said: “Now at least I have the hard cash of pain- I won't give up this pain for a hundred thousand remedies.” When that minor slip went forth from David the prophet and he was rebuked by the Real, he never lifted his head to heaven as long as he was alive, nor did he stop pleading for one hour. With all this, he was saying happily, “O God, what a sweet confection this is, what a sweet pain this is! O God place a seed from this weeping and grief in my breast so that I may never be empty of this pain.” Poor wretch, you have always been without pain. You know nothing of the burning of those stricken by pain, you've seen no mark of their weeping in happiness and their laughter in grief! I keep on joining my tears with laughter, silently I weep, openly I laugh. O friend, don't think I'm content, you're not aware how needy I am. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, this poor wretch's portion of this work is all pain. May it be blessed, for this pain is terribly fitting for me. The poor wretch is he who has none of this pain. In truth, anyone who does not find joy in this pain is no chevalier.”