﴿ صِرَٰطَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ غَيْرِ ٱلْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا ٱلضَّآلِّينَ ﴾

“The way of those upon whom Thou hast bestowed Thy blessings, not of those who have been condemned [by Thee], nor of those who go astray!”

The path of those whom Thou hast blessed, not of those who incur wrath, nor of the misguided. It has been said that this is the road and traveling of the Companions of the Cave. The faithful want to say, “O Lord, complete for us our road without us, just as You were bountiful toward the Companions of the Cave and placed Your caress upon them. You placed them on the cushion of intimacy and You Yourself undertook to pull them. You said, 'Go into this cave and sleep well, for We have taken your sleep to be as the worship of the world's folk.' O Lord, give us a portion of that blessing and caress! Just as You with Your bounty completed their work without them, so also with Your bounty complete our work without us. For, whatever we do is to our loss, and whatever You do is the foundation of exaltedness in the two worlds.” The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, we cannot complete this work without You, nor do we have the gall to complete it away from You. Whenever we fancy we have arrived, we fall back in the bewilderment of our account. O Lord, where will we find again that day when You belonged to us and we were not? Until we reach that day again, we will be in the midst fire and smoke. If we find that day again in the two worlds, we will profit. If we find Your being for ourselves, we will be pleased with our own nonbeing.” It has also been said, “Those whom Thou hast blessed with the submission and the Sunnah.” He tied the submission and the Sunnah together because, as long as the two are not joined, the ser- vant will not have the straightness of the religion. It is mentioned in the traditions that Shāfiʿī said, “I saw the Real in a dream. He said to me, 'Ask a favor of me, O son of Idrīs!' I said, 'Make me die in the submission.' God said, 'Say, “And in the Sunnah.” Ask for both from Me.'” This is because there is no submission without the Sunnah, and whatever is with the Sunnah is the true religion. Hence MuṣṬafā said, “There are no words without deeds, no words and deeds without intention, and no words, deeds, and intention without hitting the mark in the Sunnah. ” It has been said that the submission is like a spring of water. Trees have no escape from a spring of water, and in the same way the submission has no escape from the Sunnah. Every breast that comes to be adorned with the exaltedness of the submission has become a place where the light of the Sunnah has appeared to the submission. This is why the Lord of the Worlds says, “Is he whose breast God has expanded for the submission, so he is upon a light from his Lord…” [39:22]. It has been said that this is the light of the Sunnah. It has come in the reports that tomorrow at the gathering place of the resurrection and the assembly of harshness, when the folk of the seven heavens and the seven earths are mustered, everyone's feet will be stuck in his own deeds, his head thrown down, helpless in his own work, confounded and bewildered, falling and getting up, thirsty and naked. All at once a fragrant and perfumed person will stroll out from the hiding places of the Unseen and disclose himself. The breeze of that fragrance will reach the nostrils of the folk of felicity. Everyone will become sweet smelling and will rejoice. They will say, “Lord God, what fragrance and comfort is this? What beauty and perfection is this?” The address will come, “This is the face of the beauty of Our Mes- senger's Sunnah. Whoever was a follower of the Sunnah in the house of the decree, I give him permission to set the foot of security in the pavilion of his exaltedness. Whoever was a stranger to the Sunnah in that house-I will send him down to the Fire. I will give him over to hell, for today also he is stranger and rejected.” Become a Sunni and keep to the religion so that you may live, for everything but the religion is death, all but the Sunnah is grief. [DS 489] Not of those who incur wrath, nor of the misguided. O Lord, do not make us be among those whom You have turned over to themselves so that they have been wounded by the sword of separation and fastened by the nail of rejection. Indeed, what burden can be pulled by a broken rope? What use is the striving of an unworthy servant, living in estrangement? Today he has fallen from the road and fancied the crooked road to be straight.