🕋 تفسير سورة آل عمران
(Aal-E-Imran) • المصدر: EN-AL-QUSHAIRI-TAFSIR
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ الم
📘 Alif Lām Mīm His saying �Alif� alludes to His being sufficient for you in all of your states. You are captive to heedlessness and have not found the way to right action and thinking. He is the One who sets in motion what restores you and is solely sufficient for you in what helps you. Without your asking-and even without you knowing your own state-He suffices for you even if you do not perceive it. He gives to you without your seeking. The Lām alludes to His kindness luṬf to you at the most subtle and hidden level so much so that the locus of favor by which He strengthens you is not apparent to you. The Mīm alludes to the harmony muwāfaqa of the stream of the [divine] determination of events taqdīr with the circumstances requested by the friends. Nothing in the world moves no particle appears unless it is an occasion of good pleasure with respect to them. It would not be going too far to say that in His words �Every day He is upon some matter� [55:29] the �matter� is an actualization of what the friends desire. It is said that by listening to these disconnected letters [Alif Lām Mīm] which are contrary to the ordinary customs of human discourse every concept disappears from the hearts whether it be a known written cus- tomary or imagined thing and whether it arises from necessity Ḍarūra sensory perception ḥiss or independent reasoning ijtihād. When the hearts are emptied of imagined and known concepts and the innermost selves are purified of customary and familiar things the name Allāh comes to a heart sanctified from everything other [than Him] and to an innermost self purified of every mode [of inquiry] kayf.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَنْ تُغْنِيَ عَنْهُمْ أَمْوَالُهُمْ وَلَا أَوْلَادُهُمْ مِنَ اللَّهِ شَيْئًا ۖ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمْ وَقُودُ النَّارِ
📘 As for the unbelievers, their possessions will not take away their need for God, neither their children, and it is they who will be fuel for the Fire. What a majestic God, generous, lovingly kind, who promises the faithful in the midst of warning the unbelievers and who caresses these while blaming those! He is saying, “Tomorrow at the res- urrection possessions and children will be useless to the unbelievers and will not profit them.” In other words, they will be useful to the faithful whenever they have carried out what is rightfully due to them, making them the snare of their own religion and seeking through them their endless felicity. MuṣṬafā said, “How excellent are wholesome possessions for the wholesome man! What ex- cellent assistance are possessions for being wary of God!” This is just what the Lord of the Worlds says: “And, with what God has given thee, follow after the Last Abode” [28:77]. He is saying, “In that of this world which He has given you, bring the next world to hand! Seek the felicity of the next world!” The felicity of the next world lies in recognition of God. Recognition comes from the light of the heart. The light of the heart comes from the lamp of tawḤīd, and the root of this lamp is the divine bestowal. As for its material, that comes from the deeds and obedient acts of the body. Obedient acts come from the strength of the soul, and the soul's strength comes from food, drink, and clothing. Food, drink, and clothing are nothing but possessions. Hence possessions, by this series of steps, are the cause of endless felicity. But, one must not pass beyond the measure of sufficiency, for then these will become the cause of rebellion, just as He says: “No indeed; surely man is rebellious because he sees himself without needs” [96:6-7]. This is why God's Messenger supplicated, “Lord God, make the food of Muhammad's family in the measure of sufficiency!” When the measure of sufficiency is for the leisure to worship, then it itself is nothing but worship, for it is the supplies for the road, and the road supplies are also part of the road. Shaykh Abu'l-Qāsim Kurragānī had a lawful landed estate from which he received his suffi- ciency.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِنْ تُطِيعُوا فَرِيقًا مِنَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ يَرُدُّوكُمْ بَعْدَ إِيمَانِكُمْ كَافِرِينَ
📘 O you who believe if you obey a party of those who have been given the scripture they will turn you after you have believed into disbelievers. Estrangement is not restricted to just the estranged but also extends to anyone who becomes part of their circle. Whoever follows the enemy of God into this ruinous companionship will be cast down to the same level.
وَكَيْفَ تَكْفُرُونَ وَأَنْتُمْ تُتْلَىٰ عَلَيْكُمْ آيَاتُ اللَّهِ وَفِيكُمْ رَسُولُهُ ۗ وَمَنْ يَعْتَصِمْ بِاللَّهِ فَقَدْ هُدِيَ إِلَىٰ صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ
📘 How can you disbelieve while you have God's verses recited to you and His Messenger is in your midstḍ Whoever holds fast to God he is guided to a straight path. It is not right that the shade of disbelief should pass over one whose heart [has seen] the rising suns of deeper knowledge ʿirfān. For surely when day comes night slips away. Whoever holds fast to God: The one who holds fast to God has [in truth] only found the holding fast from God. How could those who have not been guided by God hold fast to Godḍ The guidance from Him in the beginning bidāya causes you [to] hold fast in the end nihāya. Your holding fast does not cause the guidance hidāya. The true state of affairs of holding fast is sincerity taking oneself to Him persevering in the flight to Him and continuing to appeal for His help. Whoever has the covering of sepa- ration removed from his innermost self realizes that there is not an atom that belongs to or comes from anything other than God. The people who hold fast to Him are those who are held fast by Him. The leader of those who come first and those who come last ﷺ said �I seek refuge in You from You.� Whoever holds fast to Him through himself -without being effaced from his own strength and power in his holding-his homeland is idolatry shirk but he is unaware.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ
📘 O you who have faith, be wary of God as is the rightful due of His wariness. When He says, “O people,” He says, “Be wary of your Lord” along with it. When He says, “O you who have faith,” He says, “Be wary of God” along with it. Be wary of your Lord is addressed to the common people. Their godwariness is based on seeing blessings, and their aspiration is nurturing the body to serve the Real. Be wary of God is addressed to the folk of caresses and generosity. Their godwariness is based on being watchful of the Beneficent and their aim is the repose of the spirit in witnessing the Real. What a difference between the two! Be wary of your Lord is addressed to the wage-earners, and Be wary of God is addressed to the recognizers. The wage-earners are seeking joy and blessings, and the recognizers are seeking the mystery of the Beneficent. From God the wage-earners want other than Him, but the recognizers want God Himself. AḤmad ibn Khiẓrūya saw the Real in a dream. He said, “O AḤmad! Everyone is seeking something from Me, except Abū Yazīd. He is seeking Me.” People are wishing for repose and comfort, but I, O Exalted One, wish to encounter You empty. * On the day I reach union with You I will disdain the state of the paradise-dwellers. It has been said that godwariness is of three sorts: One is wariness of God's punishment by having patience against acts of disobedience, as He says: “Be wary of the Fire that has been prepared for the unbelievers” [3:131]. Second is the godwariness of gratitude for blessings, as He says: “Be wary of your Lord” [4:1]. Third is godwariness at the vision of Unity, without taking into account reward or punishment, as He says: “Be wary of God as is the rightful due of His wariness.” The first is the godwariness of the wrongdoers, the second the godwariness of the moderate, and the third the godwariness of the preceders.
وَاعْتَصِمُوا بِحَبْلِ اللَّهِ جَمِيعًا وَلَا تَفَرَّقُوا ۚ وَاذْكُرُوا نِعْمَتَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذْ كُنْتُمْ أَعْدَاءً فَأَلَّفَ بَيْنَ قُلُوبِكُمْ فَأَصْبَحْتُمْ بِنِعْمَتِهِ إِخْوَانًا وَكُنْتُمْ عَلَىٰ شَفَا حُفْرَةٍ مِنَ النَّارِ فَأَنْقَذَكُمْ مِنْهَا ۗ كَذَٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ آيَاتِهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَهْتَدُونَ
📘 And hold fast to God's bond together and do not scatter; remember God's grace upon you when you were enemies and He brought your hearts together so that by His grace you became brothers; and you were upon the brink of a pit of fire; but He delivered you from it. So God makes clear to you His signs that you might be guided. Holding fast to His bond ������ is clinging to the traces of the intermediary āthār al-wāsiṬa-the noble one ʿazīz ﷺ. This [comes] from confirm- ing what is true and right taḥaqquq and remaining devoted taʿalluq to the Book and the sunna. It is rightly said that [the words] and hold fast to God's bond are spoken to the elite khawāṣṣ while [the words] and hold fast to God [4:146 and 22:78] are spoken to the elect of the elect khāṣṣ al-khāṣṣ. Whoever turns from His auspicious occurrences sawāniḥ back to his own choosing and devising iḥtiyāl his own thinking and reasoning istidlāl his own ways of knowing and behaving ashkāl; and takes refuge in the shade of his own planning tadbīr seeking illumination by the light of his own intel- lect and speculation tafkīr-such a person is denied the shade of divine solicitude and is left with his unfortunate state. And do not scatter: Scattering or separation tafriqa is the most intense punishment. It is the companion to associating others with God shirk. And remember God's grace upon you when you were enemies: They were enemies when they remained with their worldly concerns turning toward the narrowness of human nature and competing with one another as befits the stinginess of [their] lower selves. And He brought your hearts together through deliverance from the cap- tivity of created things. He drove away afflictions from their innermost selves. Then what they sought together became one thing. If a thousand people were to be brought together in one pursuit they would in truth be one. So that by His grace you became brothers: His grace is His safeguard- ing ʿiṣma of you as brothers united in aim and aspiration annihilated from the worldly concerns of the lower self and the furtive impulses of stinginess and avarice. And you were upon the brink of a pit of fire by your being held captive to the objects of your desire munākum and [being] bound by the shackles of your worldly concerns and whims hawākum.
وَلْتَكُنْ مِنْكُمْ أُمَّةٌ يَدْعُونَ إِلَى الْخَيْرِ وَيَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَيَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ ۚ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ
📘 Let there be a community of you inviting to the good. This is an allusion to peoples who stand up for God in God. They are not taken aback by the blame of any blamer nor cut off from God by relying on any causes. They have seen the shortcomings of their own souls and immersed their lives in gaining God's approval. They act for God, give counsel for God's religion, and call God's creatures to God. Their trade has profited them and they do not regret their handshake. This is the description of a people who stand through the Real's making them stand and who have been freed from their own power and strength and disengaged from their own desires and aims. They are outside the circle of deeds and states, free of the captivity of choice and self- determination. They know God, they call upon God, and they strive in God's religion. They do not think about people or their blame. In their hearts they have friendship for the Patron and in their eyes the collyrium of Self-disclosure. They see everything just as it is. Others look from the artisanry to the Artisan, but they look from the Artisan to the artisanry. They are the elect of the Presence, branded by the Empire. Be the elect servant of the king-with his brand you're safe from police by day and patrols by night. They are the ones burnt by union and killed by love. Their blood has been spilled and their prop- erty destroyed, but their hearts are in His grasp, their spirits in His embrace. This is why they say, You have a Heart-taker better than life. Don't grieve-let go of life. “When someone is destroyed in God, God takes his place.”
وَلَا تَكُونُوا كَالَّذِينَ تَفَرَّقُوا وَاخْتَلَفُوا مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَهُمُ الْبَيِّنَاتُ ۚ وَأُولَٰئِكَ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ
📘 And do not be like those who became dispersed and disagreed. Dispersion is one thing and disagreement something else. Dispersion is the opposite of together- ness and disagreement the opposite of agreement. Dispersion is the scatteredness of the folk of the Tariqah and disagreement the scatteredness of the folk of the Shariah. Dispersion is that the servant desires one thing and the Real desires something else. Togeth- erness is that the servant's desire and the Real's desire are one. According to the report, “When someone makes his concerns one concern, God will spare him the concerns of this world and the next world.” It has been said that dispersion is to gaze on the creatures and to see the secondary causes such that you are never relieved of suffering and creaturely antagonism. Togetherness is to gaze on the Real and to know that the Real is one, the work comes from one place, and the decree comes from this one door. As for the disagreement of the lords of the Shariah, that is of two sorts: One is in the principles of the religion, the other in the branches. Disagreement in the principles is terrible and dangerous, since one must be right and the other wrong. When someone's goal lies in the west and he takes the road east, how can he ever reach the goal? The more he goes, the more he moves away from the goal day by day, and he falls farther behind. This is alluded to in His words, “Surely this path of Mine is straight, so follow it. And do not follow the paths, lest they disperse you from His path” [6:153]. As for the disagreement of the community on the branches, it is like a group who set out for one goal by disagreeing roads, some going nearer and some farther. Although they disagree in the traveling, they arrive at one goal and come together. This disagreement is mercy itself. To it the Prophet alluded: “Disagreement in my community is a mercy.” In other words, this disagreement in branches is God's mercy toward the creatures, so that the work of the religion would not become narrow for them and its road would not be difficult. This is in His words, “He placed no hardship upon you in the religion” [22:78]; and in God's words, “God desires for you ease and does not desire for you hardship” [2:185].
يَوْمَ تَبْيَضُّ وُجُوهٌ وَتَسْوَدُّ وُجُوهٌ ۚ فَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ اسْوَدَّتْ وُجُوهُهُمْ أَكَفَرْتُمْ بَعْدَ إِيمَانِكُمْ فَذُوقُوا الْعَذَابَ بِمَا كُنْتُمْ تَكْفُرُونَ
📘 The day when some faces are blackened and some faces whitened. As for those whose faces are blackened �did you disbelieve after you had believedḍ Then taste the chastisement for what you disbelieved!� But for those whose faces are whitened they shall be in God's mercy abiding therein. The faces of the lords of pretensions daʿāwā will be blackened while the faces of the companions of meanings maʿānī will be whitened. The faces of the people of unveilings kushūfāt will be whitened through illumina- tion. The faces of the companions of the veil ḥijāb will be blackened with shame covered with dust taʿlūhā ghabara and overcast with gloom wa-tarhaquhā qatara. It is said that whoever's heart is white today his face will be white in the future and the one who is the opposite his situation will be the reverse. It is said that whoever turns away from created beings before His auspi- cious occurrences sawāniḥ his face will become white with the spirit of having committed his affairs [to God] rūḥ al-tafwīḌ. Whoever's heart is attached to what is other [than God] with wants and needs ḥawāÌij his heart will become black [and] his face [will be] in the dust of covetousness. As for those whose faces have become white they will be in intimacy and ease rawḥ. As for those whose faces have become blackened they will [experience] tribulations and lamentation nawḥ.
وَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ ابْيَضَّتْ وُجُوهُهُمْ فَفِي رَحْمَةِ اللَّهِ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ
📘 The day when some faces are blackened and some faces whitened. As for those whose faces are blackened �did you disbelieve after you had believedḍ Then taste the chastisement for what you disbelieved!� But for those whose faces are whitened they shall be in God's mercy abiding therein. The faces of the lords of pretensions daʿāwā will be blackened while the faces of the companions of meanings maʿānī will be whitened. The faces of the people of unveilings kushūfāt will be whitened through illumina- tion. The faces of the companions of the veil ḥijāb will be blackened with shame covered with dust taʿlūhā ghabara and overcast with gloom wa-tarhaquhā qatara. It is said that whoever's heart is white today his face will be white in the future and the one who is the opposite his situation will be the reverse. It is said that whoever turns away from created beings before His auspi- cious occurrences sawāniḥ his face will become white with the spirit of having committed his affairs [to God] rūḥ al-tafwīḌ. Whoever's heart is attached to what is other [than God] with wants and needs ḥawāÌij his heart will become black [and] his face [will be] in the dust of covetousness. As for those whose faces have become white they will be in intimacy and ease rawḥ. As for those whose faces have become blackened they will [experience] tribulations and lamentation nawḥ.
تِلْكَ آيَاتُ اللَّهِ نَتْلُوهَا عَلَيْكَ بِالْحَقِّ ۗ وَمَا اللَّهُ يُرِيدُ ظُلْمًا لِلْعَالَمِينَ
📘 Those are the verses of God which We recite to you in truth and God desires not any injustice for the worlds. To God belongs all that is in the heavens and in the earth and to Him all matters are returned. We make our address to you continuous in all times in all things small and large a cultivation of the way of love widād. And God desires not any injustice for the worlds: How could it be pos- sible to ascribe injustice to Him in the determining of events taqdīr and existence wujūd when all created beings are His creation and what has been determined for them is His wise determination ḥukmḍ To God belongs all that is in the heavens and in the earth by way of possession milk and to Him all matters are returned by way of determi- nation ḥukm.
وَلِلَّهِ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ ۚ وَإِلَى اللَّهِ تُرْجَعُ الْأُمُورُ
📘 Those are the verses of God which We recite to you in truth and God desires not any injustice for the worlds. To God belongs all that is in the heavens and in the earth and to Him all matters are returned. We make our address to you continuous in all times in all things small and large a cultivation of the way of love widād. And God desires not any injustice for the worlds: How could it be pos- sible to ascribe injustice to Him in the determining of events taqdīr and existence wujūd when all created beings are His creation and what has been determined for them is His wise determination ḥukmḍ To God belongs all that is in the heavens and in the earth by way of possession milk and to Him all matters are returned by way of determi- nation ḥukm.
كَدَأْبِ آلِ فِرْعَوْنَ وَالَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ ۚ كَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِنَا فَأَخَذَهُمُ اللَّهُ بِذُنُوبِهِمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ شَدِيدُ الْعِقَابِ
📘 As the way of Pharoah's folk and the people before them who denied Our signs; God seized them for their sins; God is severe in retribution. �They persisted in insolence according to their way sunna and We brought them retribution according to Our way sunna.� They would not stop their persistent [insolence] fa-lā ʿan al-iṣrār aqlaʿū and did not strive to do anything good wa-lā fī l-mabārri Ṭamiʿū. By my life they are those who suffered regret and distress at what they put forward but by that time they found the door blocked wajadū l-bāba masdūdan and their repentance rejected wa-l-nadama ʿalayhim mardūdan.
كُنْتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ ۗ وَلَوْ آمَنَ أَهْلُ الْكِتَابِ لَكَانَ خَيْرًا لَهُمْ ۚ مِنْهُمُ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ وَأَكْثَرُهُمُ الْفَاسِقُونَ
📘 You are the best community khayra ummatin brought forth to men enjoining decency and forbidding indecency and believing in God. Because MuṣṬafā ﷺ is the most honored of the prophets his community is the best of communities. Because they are the best of communities they are the most desiring ashwāq of communities. Because they are the most desiring of communities their lives are the shortest of lives. He created them as the last of created beings so that their stay beneath the earth would not be long [before the resurrection]. Their goodness khayriyya has been obtained not by the abundance of their prayers and devotional acts but by the intensity with which He has drawn them near and selected them. Surely the standing of the earlier ones at the door has been long but when the permission comes to enter the later ones will go first. How many reach out to connect to us [yet] their palms receive no share. Enjoining decency and forbidding indecency: Decency is service to the Real and indecency is keeping company with the lower self. Decency is to prefer what is due to the Real ḥaqq al-ḥaqq and inde- cency is to choose the worldly concerns of the lower self ḥaẓẓ al-nafs. Decency is what brings you close to Him and indecency is what veils you from Him. In the command to decency you are bound to be characterized by decency and in forbidding indecency you are required to turn away from it. Had the people of the scripture believed it would have been better for them; some of them are believers; but most of them are wicked. If everyone had been included under Our command they would have attained true glory in this world and the hereafter but they were kept away from acceptance in the choice already made-most of them were branded with associating partners with God shirk.
لَنْ يَضُرُّوكُمْ إِلَّا أَذًى ۖ وَإِنْ يُقَاتِلُوكُمْ يُوَلُّوكُمُ الْأَدْبَارَ ثُمَّ لَا يُنْصَرُونَ
📘 They will not harm you except a little hurt; and if they fight against you they will turn their backs to you then they will not be helped. The Real ������ ������ does not give His enemies power over His friends except as much as will prove the sincerity of the flight [of the friends] to God for the reality of their flight firār is nobler before Him than their staying firm qarār. If [the enemies] imagine themselves to be superior to the friends in truth they suffer lowliness and degradation.
ضُرِبَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ الذِّلَّةُ أَيْنَ مَا ثُقِفُوا إِلَّا بِحَبْلٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَحَبْلٍ مِنَ النَّاسِ وَبَاءُوا بِغَضَبٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَضُرِبَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ الْمَسْكَنَةُ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ كَانُوا يَكْفُرُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَيَقْتُلُونَ الْأَنْبِيَاءَ بِغَيْرِ حَقٍّ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ بِمَا عَصَوْا وَكَانُوا يَعْتَدُونَ
📘 Abasement shall be cast upon them wherever they are found save a rope of God and a rope of the people; they have incurred anger from God and poverty shall be cast upon them; that because they disbelieved in God's signs and slew the prophets without right; that because they disobeyed and used to transgress. The sign of being exiled cannot be hidden the mark of distance cannot be concealed and the evidence of being cut off cannot be veiled. They are in the lowly state of having been banished and abased by rejection. Those who have eyes ulū l-abṣar learn from them while those among the dis- believers and the profligates al-kuffār al-fujjār who are of their kind are deceived by them.
۞ لَيْسُوا سَوَاءً ۗ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ أُمَّةٌ قَائِمَةٌ يَتْلُونَ آيَاتِ اللَّهِ آنَاءَ اللَّيْلِ وَهُمْ يَسْجُدُونَ
📘 Yet they are not all alike; some of the people of the scripture are a community upright who recite God's verses in the watches of the night pros- trating themselves. They believe in God and in the Last Day enjoining decency and for- bidding indecency vying with one another in good works; those are of the righteous. Just as the difference between light and darkness is one of contradiction it has likewise been established that the states of the friends and the states of the enemies are mutually exclusive. How can illumination and darkness ẓulma certainty and suspicion tuhma communion and separation furqa distance and intimacy ulfa devotion on the carpet and turning from the door being characterized by friendship walāÌ and departing from fidelity wafāÌ be considered equalḍ How can the two possibly come togetherḍ How can they be compatible or equalḍ
يُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَيَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَيَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ وَيُسَارِعُونَ فِي الْخَيْرَاتِ وَأُولَٰئِكَ مِنَ الصَّالِحِينَ
📘 Yet they are not all alike; some of the people of the scripture are a community upright who recite God's verses in the watches of the night pros- trating themselves. They believe in God and in the Last Day enjoining decency and for- bidding indecency vying with one another in good works; those are of the righteous. Just as the difference between light and darkness is one of contradiction it has likewise been established that the states of the friends and the states of the enemies are mutually exclusive. How can illumination and darkness ẓulma certainty and suspicion tuhma communion and separation furqa distance and intimacy ulfa devotion on the carpet and turning from the door being characterized by friendship walāÌ and departing from fidelity wafāÌ be considered equalḍ How can the two possibly come togetherḍ How can they be compatible or equalḍ
وَمَا يَفْعَلُوا مِنْ خَيْرٍ فَلَنْ يُكْفَرُوهُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِالْمُتَّقِينَ
📘 And whatever good they do they shall not be denied it and God knows the God-fearing. One who is intent shall not be debarred from His door; one who does busi- ness shall not suffer loss on His account; one who desires companionship shall not be lonely with Him; and one who seeks shall not be contemptible before Him.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَنْ تُغْنِيَ عَنْهُمْ أَمْوَالُهُمْ وَلَا أَوْلَادُهُمْ مِنَ اللَّهِ شَيْئًا ۖ وَأُولَٰئِكَ أَصْحَابُ النَّارِ ۚ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ
📘 As for the disbelievers their riches shall not avail them neither their children against God; those are the inhabitants of the fire abiding therein. There is no alternate for them in the situation no substitute for them in the final outcome. They are in a state of loss in the here and now and in the future will be in separation and exile affliction and hurt punishment and rejection: She changed and we changed. Alas to anyone who has sought but did not find a replacement to let him forget.
مَثَلُ مَا يُنْفِقُونَ فِي هَٰذِهِ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا كَمَثَلِ رِيحٍ فِيهَا صِرٌّ أَصَابَتْ حَرْثَ قَوْمٍ ظَلَمُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ فَأَهْلَكَتْهُ ۚ وَمَا ظَلَمَهُمُ اللَّهُ وَلَٰكِنْ أَنْفُسَهُمْ يَظْلِمُونَ
📘 The likeness of what they expend in the life of this world is as the likeness of a wind wherein is a blast that smote the tillage of a people who have wronged themselves and destroyed it. God did not wrong them but they wronged themselves. They found no inheritance for what they spent for other than God except continuous affliction. They obtained nothing from their calculations except one tribulation after another. That is the recompense of those who reject and turn their backs.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُوا بِطَانَةً مِنْ دُونِكُمْ لَا يَأْلُونَكُمْ خَبَالًا وَدُّوا مَا عَنِتُّمْ قَدْ بَدَتِ الْبَغْضَاءُ مِنْ أَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَمَا تُخْفِي صُدُورُهُمْ أَكْبَرُ ۚ قَدْ بَيَّنَّا لَكُمُ الْآيَاتِ ۖ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ
📘 O you who believe do not take as intimates anyone apart from your- selves; such men spare nothing to ruin you; they would love for you to suffer. Hatred is revealed by their mouths; and what their breasts conceal is yet greater. Now We have made clear to you the signs; if you understand. To trust the adversary after difficulties have become apparent is to further facilitate the deception of the enemy. The Real ������ advised the Muslims to be wary of the opposition to declare themselves free of anyone other [than Him] and to continually persist in their devotion to the Real ������ in the heart and innermost self. He stated that from the beginning it was not unexpected that [there would be] opponents of the Messenger ﷺ among the people. How could it not be so when [Muḥammad] ﷺ [was] drawn near and they [were] turned awayḍ How can night be combined with dayḍ
هَا أَنْتُمْ أُولَاءِ تُحِبُّونَهُمْ وَلَا يُحِبُّونَكُمْ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْكِتَابِ كُلِّهِ وَإِذَا لَقُوكُمْ قَالُوا آمَنَّا وَإِذَا خَلَوْا عَضُّوا عَلَيْكُمُ الْأَنَامِلَ مِنَ الْغَيْظِ ۚ قُلْ مُوتُوا بِغَيْظِكُمْ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ بِذَاتِ الصُّدُورِ
📘 Ha! There you are: You love them, but they do not love you. The faithful had limpid hearts and generous natures, and they did not keep tenderness and mercy back from the estranged. They wanted good for them and attached their hearts to their submission. They wanted their salvation and did not hold back God's mercy from them-whether they were acquaintances or strangers. This kept on crossing their minds: Bring the sweetmeat, for it is the heart's beloved, suited for both the elect and the common. This is the same tenderness that MuḤammad showed to the estranged. He said, “O God, guide my people, for they do not know.” As for the unbelievers, those who had no limpidness in their hearts or loyalty in their natures, they never wanted good for the people of faith, nor did they love them. They grieved at the good that reached them and became happy at the bad. God says, “If something beautiful touches you, it vexes them, and if something ugly strikes you, they rejoice at it” [3:120]. Indeed, everyone does what is fitting for him, for “The pot pours what is inside it.” The person of faith is generous and lovingly kind, for what is fitting for faith is generosity and chivalry. The unbeliever is base and bad-wanting, for what is fitting for unbelief is baseness and unseemliness. The person of faith calls God's creatures to salvation and deliverance. The unbeliever calls them to the Fire and captivity. To this He alludes with His words, “O my people! What is it with me that I invite you to salvation and you invite me to the Fire?” [40:41].
قُلْ لِلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا سَتُغْلَبُونَ وَتُحْشَرُونَ إِلَىٰ جَهَنَّمَ ۚ وَبِئْسَ الْمِهَادُ
📘 Say to the disbelievers: �You shall be vanquished and mustered to hell- an evil resting place! He informed them that the speech of the Real will elude them in the future ājil and they will have no delight in living in the present #703;ājil. In the hereafter what they will encounter will be from the severity of the punishment by burning ḥurqa. What [already] afflicts them in this world is absence and separation furqa from God but their faculties of insight have become weak and they do not perceive the pain of [that] punishment.
إِنْ تَمْسَسْكُمْ حَسَنَةٌ تَسُؤْهُمْ وَإِنْ تُصِبْكُمْ سَيِّئَةٌ يَفْرَحُوا بِهَا ۖ وَإِنْ تَصْبِرُوا وَتَتَّقُوا لَا يَضُرُّكُمْ كَيْدُهُمْ شَيْئًا ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ بِمَا يَعْمَلُونَ مُحِيطٌ
📘 If good fortune befalls you it is evil for them; but if evil befalls you they rejoice thereat. Yet if you endure and fear [God] their guile will not hurt you at all; God encompasses what they do. This verse alludes to those who abandon the path of spiritual desire irāda and return to the states of the people of habit ahl al-ʿāda. They are not happy to see an aspirant murīd have a breakthrough nafādh; rather they are glad when they see listlessness in a seeker qāṣid. God in His favor and grace perfects His light for the people of His solicitude and He lets the evildoers stray from His path and their distance is punishment. He is not concerned with what comes to them.
وَإِذْ غَدَوْتَ مِنْ أَهْلِكَ تُبَوِّئُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ مَقَاعِدَ لِلْقِتَالِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ
📘 you went forth at dawn from your family to assign the believers their places for battle and God hears knows. He put [the Prophet] ﷺ in charge of assigning the places for battle del- egating His command to him. Then He made manifest in this matter the hidden things of His secret. The axis revolves around His determination and decree fa-l-madār ʿalā qaḌāÌihi wa-qadarihi and the crossing over is by means of what He brings about and chooses wa-l-iʿtibār bi-ijrāÌihi wa-ikhtiyārihi.
إِذْ هَمَّتْ طَائِفَتَانِ مِنْكُمْ أَنْ تَفْشَلَا وَاللَّهُ وَلِيُّهُمَا ۗ وَعَلَى اللَّهِ فَلْيَتَوَكَّلِ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ
📘 parties of you were about to lose heart; and God was their protector and let the believers rely on God. He brings forth everyone in the vest of free choice ikhtiyār as if their negation and affirmation their acts and abstention from acting were at their [own] command. In truth they are only turned about by the agency of His grasp taṣrīf al-qabḌa and the turning of His deliberative power taqlīb al-qudra.
وَلَقَدْ نَصَرَكُمُ اللَّهُ بِبَدْرٍ وَأَنْتُمْ أَذِلَّةٌ ۖ فَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ
📘 God surely helped you at Badr while you were abased. He wrote this inscription of abasement for them in respect of number and the view of the common people. But, in respect of the view of the elect and the reality of the work, how can it be said that someone is lowly and abased when God is his helper? The Pir of the Tariqah said in his whispered prayers, “O Lord, in recognizing You we are alive, with Your help we are happy, with Your generosity we are joyful, through Your exalting we are exalted. O Lord, in You we are alive, so how can we ever die? In You we are happy, so how can we ever be sorrowful? In You we are joyful, so how can we live without You? In You we are exalted, so how can we ever be abased?” A man entered in on Hārūn al-Rashīd and commanded him to do the honorable. Hārūn be- came angry and put him inside a room with a lion, with the door firmly shut. The lion entered in upon the man with humility and did not harm him. After that, they saw him in the midst of the gar- den, happily gazing at it, and the door to the room was firmly locked as it had been. They reported his state to Hārūn, and he summoned him. He said, “Who let you out of the room?” He answered, “The one who brought me into the garden.” He said, “Who brought you into the garden?” He said, “The one who brought me out of the room.” Hārūn commanded that they should put him on a seat with exaltation and honor and carry him around the city, with a caller going before him saying, “Behold, Hārūn al-Rashīd wanted to abase a servant exalted by God, and he was unable to do so.”
إِذْ تَقُولُ لِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَلَنْ يَكْفِيَكُمْ أَنْ يُمِدَّكُمْ رَبُّكُمْ بِثَلَاثَةِ آلَافٍ مِنَ الْمَلَائِكَةِ مُنْزَلِينَ
📘 were saying to the believers �Is it not sufficient for you that your Lord should reinforce you with three thousand angels sent downḍ Yea if you are patient and fear and they come against you instantly your Lord will reinforce you with five thousand angels accoutred.� The tranquility sent by the Real ������ to the heart of MuṣṬafā ﷺ was from God ������ without intermediary while the strengthening of the hearts of the believers was through the intermediary of the Messenger ﷺ. If not for [the doubt that] remained in them he would not have replied to them telling [them] of the help [that would] be sent in the angel malak. Why tell of the angel when the affair is entirely in the hand of the King malikḍ
بَلَىٰ ۚ إِنْ تَصْبِرُوا وَتَتَّقُوا وَيَأْتُوكُمْ مِنْ فَوْرِهِمْ هَٰذَا يُمْدِدْكُمْ رَبُّكُمْ بِخَمْسَةِ آلَافٍ مِنَ الْمَلَائِكَةِ مُسَوِّمِينَ
📘 were saying to the believers �Is it not sufficient for you that your Lord should reinforce you with three thousand angels sent downḍ Yea if you are patient and fear and they come against you instantly your Lord will reinforce you with five thousand angels accoutred.� The tranquility sent by the Real ������ to the heart of MuṣṬafā ﷺ was from God ������ without intermediary while the strengthening of the hearts of the believers was through the intermediary of the Messenger ﷺ. If not for [the doubt that] remained in them he would not have replied to them telling [them] of the help [that would] be sent in the angel malak. Why tell of the angel when the affair is entirely in the hand of the King malikḍ
وَمَا جَعَلَهُ اللَّهُ إِلَّا بُشْرَىٰ لَكُمْ وَلِتَطْمَئِنَّ قُلُوبُكُمْ بِهِ ۗ وَمَا النَّصْرُ إِلَّا مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّهِ الْعَزِيزِ الْحَكِيمِ
📘 What God ordained was only as a good tiding to you and that your hearts might be at peace. Victory comes only from God the Mighty the Wise. God ������ follows His practice sunna with His friends is such a way that when their intentions niyyāt become weak their spiritual desire irāda low or their hearts are on the verge of listlessness fatra He shows them kindnesses alṬāf and special gifts karāmāt. By these the ties of their deeper knowledge ʿirfān are strengthened and the realities of their cer- tainty yaqīn are confirmed. He sent down this address according to this practice sunna. Then He severed their hearts and innermost selves from anything other than Him entirely saying Victory comes only from God.
لِيَقْطَعَ طَرَفًا مِنَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا أَوْ يَكْبِتَهُمْ فَيَنْقَلِبُوا خَائِبِينَ
📘 And that He might cut off a party of the disbelievers or suppress them so that they fall back frustrated. God does not let enemies gloat over the misfortunes of His friends. Even if the believer is struck by a catastrophic defeat nakba there is no doubt that God will cause His enemy to suffer trial and punishment.
لَيْسَ لَكَ مِنَ الْأَمْرِ شَيْءٌ أَوْ يَتُوبَ عَلَيْهِمْ أَوْ يُعَذِّبَهُمْ فَإِنَّهُمْ ظَالِمُونَ
📘 it is no concern at all of yours whether He relents to them or chastises them; for they are indeed evildoers. To God belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth; He forgives whom He wills and chastises whom He wills. And God is Forgiving Merciful. The deity is the One to whom belongs the command and the prohibition. Because there is no counterpart to Him in divinity [the Prophet] ﷺ has nothing to do with the command and the prohibition. It is said that in what He taught him and told him He divested [the Prophet] of everything else and every share or claim inasmuch as He stated that the command was in no way his. If no part of the command is permit- ted for the leader of the first and the last how can there be any part of the command for the one whose rank is lower in stationḍ It is said that He takes for Himself alone the secret of His servants in His decree ḥukm saying �I am the One who relents to whom I will among My servants and I punish whom I will. What happens in the end is hidden from you O Muḥammad and you are not aware of My secret regarding them.� It is said that He raised [the Prophet] up at one time to a station in which He said �and you threw not when you threw but God threw� [8:17]. [The Prophet] threw a handful of earth and hit all the faces [of the enemy]. But in another time He said to him �No part of the command is yours� [3:128] and then added in explanation �To God belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth� [3:129]. Therefore the right to possess is His right to pos- sess mulk the command is His command amr and the decree is His decree ḥukm. He punishes whom He will fa-man shāÌa ʿadhdhabahu and brings closer [to Him] whom He will wa-man shāÌa qarrabahu. He guides whom He will wa-man shāÌa hadāhu and leads astray whom He will wa-man shāÌa aghwāhu.
وَلِلَّهِ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ ۚ يَغْفِرُ لِمَنْ يَشَاءُ وَيُعَذِّبُ مَنْ يَشَاءُ ۚ وَاللَّهُ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
📘 it is no concern at all of yours whether He relents to them or chastises them; for they are indeed evildoers. To God belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth; He forgives whom He wills and chastises whom He wills. And God is Forgiving Merciful. The deity is the One to whom belongs the command and the prohibition. Because there is no counterpart to Him in divinity [the Prophet] ﷺ has nothing to do with the command and the prohibition. It is said that in what He taught him and told him He divested [the Prophet] of everything else and every share or claim inasmuch as He stated that the command was in no way his. If no part of the command is permit- ted for the leader of the first and the last how can there be any part of the command for the one whose rank is lower in stationḍ It is said that He takes for Himself alone the secret of His servants in His decree ḥukm saying �I am the One who relents to whom I will among My servants and I punish whom I will. What happens in the end is hidden from you O Muḥammad and you are not aware of My secret regarding them.� It is said that He raised [the Prophet] up at one time to a station in which He said �and you threw not when you threw but God threw� [8:17]. [The Prophet] threw a handful of earth and hit all the faces [of the enemy]. But in another time He said to him �No part of the command is yours� [3:128] and then added in explanation �To God belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth� [3:129]. Therefore the right to possess is His right to pos- sess mulk the command is His command amr and the decree is His decree ḥukm. He punishes whom He will fa-man shāÌa ʿadhdhabahu and brings closer [to Him] whom He will wa-man shāÌa qarrabahu. He guides whom He will wa-man shāÌa hadāhu and leads astray whom He will wa-man shāÌa aghwāhu.
قَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ آيَةٌ فِي فِئَتَيْنِ الْتَقَتَا ۖ فِئَةٌ تُقَاتِلُ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَأُخْرَىٰ كَافِرَةٌ يَرَوْنَهُمْ مِثْلَيْهِمْ رَأْيَ الْعَيْنِ ۚ وَاللَّهُ يُؤَيِّدُ بِنَصْرِهِ مَنْ يَشَاءُ ۗ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَعِبْرَةً لِأُولِي الْأَبْصَارِ
📘 There has already been a sign for you in two hosts that met; one com- pany fighting in the way of God; and another unbelieving; they saw them twice the like of them; for God confirms with His help whom He will. Surely in that is a lesson for people of vision. When God wants an affair to be accomplished He makes many appear to be few in the eyes of one people and few to appear as many in the eyes of another people. If He covers the inner sight baṣīra of a people the sharpness of their physical eyes abṣār will not benefit them. When He opens the innermost selves of others the obstruction of their faculties of insight baṣāÌir will not harm them.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَأْكُلُوا الرِّبَا أَضْعَافًا مُضَاعَفَةً ۖ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
📘 O you who believe do not exact usury doubled and redoubled. And fear God so that you may prosper. And fear the fire that has been prepared for the disbelievers. [God] has prohibited usury for His servants; this includes loaning one amount and asking twice as much in return. But He has asked you for a loan which He will repay seven hundredfold even up to an infinite repay- ment.This alludes to the magnanimity karam that is not inherent in humans but rather is an attribute of the Real ������. And fear the fire that has been prepared for the disbelievers: These words indicate that the believer will not be chastised by [the fire]. If he is chastised by it for a time he will not abide in it.
وَاتَّقُوا النَّارَ الَّتِي أُعِدَّتْ لِلْكَافِرِينَ
📘 O you who believe do not exact usury doubled and redoubled. And fear God so that you may prosper. And fear the fire that has been prepared for the disbelievers. [God] has prohibited usury for His servants; this includes loaning one amount and asking twice as much in return. But He has asked you for a loan which He will repay seven hundredfold even up to an infinite repay- ment.This alludes to the magnanimity karam that is not inherent in humans but rather is an attribute of the Real ������. And fear the fire that has been prepared for the disbelievers: These words indicate that the believer will not be chastised by [the fire]. If he is chastised by it for a time he will not abide in it.
وَأَطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَالرَّسُولَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُرْحَمُونَ
📘 And obey God and the Messenger so that you may find mercy. [God] tied obedience to the Messenger ﷺ to obedience to Himself. This was to elevate [the Prophet's] rank and to make things easier for the com- munity by handing them over to the company of an individual who was one of them. It is more reassuring to be with one's own kind.
۞ وَسَارِعُوا إِلَىٰ مَغْفِرَةٍ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ وَجَنَّةٍ عَرْضُهَا السَّمَاوَاتُ وَالْأَرْضُ أُعِدَّتْ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ
📘 And vie with one another hastening to forgiveness from your Lord and to a garden as wide as the heavens and the earth that has been prepared for those who fear. Who expend in prosperity and adversity and restrain their rage and pardon their fellow men; and God loves those who are virtuous. The meaning here is vie with one another hastening to act in ways that will bring about forgiveness for you. The hearts [of the believers] were overwhelmed imagining that this was a difficult matter so [the Prophet] ﷺ said �Remorse is repentance� al-nadmu tawba. Nothing but repentance brings about forgiveness because the one who disobeys is the one who is in need of it. The people who vie with one another are of several types. Those who are worshipers ʿābidūn vie with one another by their feet in acts of obedience bi-qadamihim fī l-Ṭāʿāt. Those who have deeper knowledge ʿārifūn vie with one another with their aspirations in acts of drawing near bi-himam- ihim fī l-qurubāt. Those who are disobedient ʿāṣūn vie with one another with their remorse by swallowing their grief bi-nadamihim bi-tajarruʿi al-ḥasarāt. Whoever vies with others by his feet finds [God's] recompense wajada mathwabatahu. Whoever vies with others with his aspirations finds [God's] nearness wajada qurbatahu. Whoever vies with others with his remorse finds [God's] mercy wajada raḥmatahu. When He mentioned the garden He described it by the vastness of its width and in that there is information about its height because the height is comparable to the width. But when He mentioned forgiveness he did not mention height or width so some people have said that forgiveness is from the [divine] attributes of the essence ṣifāt al-dhāt and is part of the meaning of mercy raḥma. According to this way of thinking His forgiveness is His decree ḥukm in overlooking [the misdeeds of] the servant and His speech kalām. The quality of the essence is too holy for size and width. [On the other hand] those who say His forgiveness belongs with the [divine] attributes of actions ṣifāt al-fiʿl say that because of the abundance of sins He did not describe forgiveness as having any end thus indicating that it encompasses all sins. Who expend in prosperity and adversity: They do not hoard anything from God and prefer Him over everything.
الَّذِينَ يُنْفِقُونَ فِي السَّرَّاءِ وَالضَّرَّاءِ وَالْكَاظِمِينَ الْغَيْظَ وَالْعَافِينَ عَنِ النَّاسِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ يُحِبُّ الْمُحْسِنِينَ
📘 Those who spend in prosperity and adversity, those who curb rage, and those who pardon people-and God loves the beautiful-doers. Those who spend in prosperity and adversity. It has been said that in this station people are three groups: First are those who spend nothing, whether in prosperity or adversity, whether in the vast- ness of blessings or in the days of famine and hardship. They are called “base” in an unqualified sense. They have seized the branch of niggardliness, which is a tree whose roots are in hell and whose branches are in this world. This is according to what Anas ibn Mālik reported from God's Messenger: “Openhandedness is a tree in the Garden whose branches are in this world; when someone latches on to one of its branches, it will lead him to the Garden. And niggardliness is a tree in the Fire whose branches are in this world; when someone latches on to one of its branches, it will lead him to the Fire.” Second are those who spend in vastness of blessings but not in narrowness and hardship. Most of God's creatures among the world's folk and those who take care of this world are in this station. In the work of this world they do not have the confidence for open-handedness and they are always in fear of poverty. To them alludes His words, “If He asks you for them, then presses you, you are niggardly, and He brings out your rancor” [47:37]. Third are those who spend in both of these states, both in ease and difficulty. Such a person has one of two states: Either he is an impudent and impure man who does not know whence he takes and where he gives and does not think about the outcome. He is numbered among the broth- ers of Satan. That is in His words, “Surely the squanderers are the brothers of Satan” [17:27]. Or he is a man who is confident in the sufficiency of God and His assignment of daily provision. He has recognized the secret of this report from MuṣṬafā: “Surely the holy spirit breathed into my mind that no one will die until his provision is complete. So be wary of God, and go lightly in your seeking. Never let the tardiness of provision make you seek something of God's bounty through disobedience, for what is with God will only be reached by obeying Him. Surely every man has a provision that will come to him inescapably. If someone approves of it, it will be made blessed for him and be expanded. And if someone does not approve of it, it will not be made blessed for him and it will not expand. Surely provision seeks out a man just as his moment of death seeks him out.” Such a person relies on God's treasury and keeps his heart straight with God. He spends all that he has and holds nothing back. He brings it to hand from its place on condition of the Shariah, and he spends it in its place in conformity with the Shariah. This is why the Lord of the Worlds praises and lauds his spending and says, “Those who spend in prosperity and adversity.” Then He says concerning their attribute, “those who curb rage.” They do not become angry at anyone, for they place all sins on themselves and consider themselves subjected and dominated over by the people. They tolerate suffering, or rather, they welcome it with patience and forbear- ance, for they bear witness that God knows and sees. And those who pardon people. “Pardon” has two meanings: One is to efface, as the Arabs say, “The winds pardoned the tracks.” The other is surplus, as God says, “Take to pardoning” [7:199], that is, take the surplus of their property. Here He alludes to the fact that those who pardon people are those who pass over and efface people's sins, but they do not limit themselves to that. Rather, they caress them and bestow upon them from the surplus of what they own. This is the attribute of the beautiful-doers, and God is their Friend, for He says, “And God loves the beautiful-doers. Beautiful doing in interacting with the Real is “to worship God as if you see Him.” In in- teracting with people, it is that, when someone is bad toward you, you are good toward him; and when someone does not act worthily toward you, you act worthily toward him. This is why God commanded, “Take to pardoning,” that is, take the excellent and beautiful things from among the character traits, and pardon those who wrong you, join with those who cut off from you, and act with beauty toward those who act with ugliness toward you.
وَالَّذِينَ إِذَا فَعَلُوا فَاحِشَةً أَوْ ظَلَمُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ ذَكَرُوا اللَّهَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُوا لِذُنُوبِهِمْ وَمَنْ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَلَمْ يُصِرُّوا عَلَىٰ مَا فَعَلُوا وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ
📘 And who when they commit an indecency or wrong themselves remem- ber God and pray forgiveness for their sins-and who shall forgive sins but Godḍ-and who do not persist in what they did knowing. Those-their requital is forgiveness from their Lord and gardens beneath which rivers flow abiding therein; excellent is the wage of those workers! God most high revealed to Moses ���� ������ �say to those who do wrong 'Until such time as they do not remember Me I have obliged Myself to remember those who remember Me and My remembrance of those who do wrong is the curse.'� But He said to those who do wrong in this community [when] they wrong themselves remember God and then says in the last part of the verse: and who shall forgive sins but Godḍ It is said that one's indecency fāḥisha is according to one's state ḥāl and station maqām as is true of one's wrongdoing ẓulm. The transgres- sions mukhālafāt that occur in the minds of the most respected people are like the actions of others. Their speaker said: You are my eye. Is it not right for my eye to lower its eyelids against the dust in the airḍ The crime on the carpet is not like the sin at the door. It is said that they commit an indecency by relying on their [own] actions or they wrong themselves by regarding their [own] states so they seek forgiveness for their sins by declaring themselves free from what they do and do not do knowing that there are no means to Him except through Him. He has purified them of the wrongdoings of their bodily and lower selves. Looking to states and actions when realities appear is wrongdoing. One whom God has purified by the light of solicitude is protected from entanglement in the delusions of people. Those-their requital is forgiveness from their Lord in returning them to witnessing the Lordship and the best possible outcome and fate that was already theirs. And gardens beneath which rivers flow in the future in paradise and in the here and now in the happiness of whispered conversations and the fullness of intimacy.
أُولَٰئِكَ جَزَاؤُهُمْ مَغْفِرَةٌ مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ وَجَنَّاتٌ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا ۚ وَنِعْمَ أَجْرُ الْعَامِلِينَ
📘 And who when they commit an indecency or wrong themselves remem- ber God and pray forgiveness for their sins-and who shall forgive sins but Godḍ-and who do not persist in what they did knowing. Those-their requital is forgiveness from their Lord and gardens beneath which rivers flow abiding therein; excellent is the wage of those workers! God most high revealed to Moses ���� ������ �say to those who do wrong 'Until such time as they do not remember Me I have obliged Myself to remember those who remember Me and My remembrance of those who do wrong is the curse.'� But He said to those who do wrong in this community [when] they wrong themselves remember God and then says in the last part of the verse: and who shall forgive sins but Godḍ It is said that one's indecency fāḥisha is according to one's state ḥāl and station maqām as is true of one's wrongdoing ẓulm. The transgres- sions mukhālafāt that occur in the minds of the most respected people are like the actions of others. Their speaker said: You are my eye. Is it not right for my eye to lower its eyelids against the dust in the airḍ The crime on the carpet is not like the sin at the door. It is said that they commit an indecency by relying on their [own] actions or they wrong themselves by regarding their [own] states so they seek forgiveness for their sins by declaring themselves free from what they do and do not do knowing that there are no means to Him except through Him. He has purified them of the wrongdoings of their bodily and lower selves. Looking to states and actions when realities appear is wrongdoing. One whom God has purified by the light of solicitude is protected from entanglement in the delusions of people. Those-their requital is forgiveness from their Lord in returning them to witnessing the Lordship and the best possible outcome and fate that was already theirs. And gardens beneath which rivers flow in the future in paradise and in the here and now in the happiness of whispered conversations and the fullness of intimacy.
قَدْ خَلَتْ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ سُنَنٌ فَسِيرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ فَانْظُرُوا كَيْفَ كَانَ عَاقِبَةُ الْمُكَذِّبِينَ
📘 Ways of life have passed away before you; so travel in the land and behold how was the end of those who denied. This is an exposition for mankind and a guidance and an admonition for such as are God-fearing. It means �Take heed from those who came before. Consider how We acted with those who showed friendship and how We took revenge on those who showed enmity.� This is an exposition for mankind: an exposition to some people through rational proofs adillat al-ʿuqūl to others through unveilings of hearts mukāshafāt al-qulūb and to others through the self-disclosure of the Real in the innermost selves tajallī l-ḥaqq fī l-asrār.
هَٰذَا بَيَانٌ لِلنَّاسِ وَهُدًى وَمَوْعِظَةٌ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ
📘 Ways of life have passed away before you; so travel in the land and behold how was the end of those who denied. This is an exposition for mankind and a guidance and an admonition for such as are God-fearing. It means �Take heed from those who came before. Consider how We acted with those who showed friendship and how We took revenge on those who showed enmity.� This is an exposition for mankind: an exposition to some people through rational proofs adillat al-ʿuqūl to others through unveilings of hearts mukāshafāt al-qulūb and to others through the self-disclosure of the Real in the innermost selves tajallī l-ḥaqq fī l-asrār.
وَلَا تَهِنُوا وَلَا تَحْزَنُوا وَأَنْتُمُ الْأَعْلَوْنَ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ
📘 Faint not neither grieve for you shall prevail if you are believers. [This] means when you support or launch an attack by means of [the help of] God you should not be afraid of anything other than God. Nor should you faint or become weak for surely help is from God and the One who prevails is God. Nothing is equal to God. Not even an atom or a particle [originates] from them. His words if you are believers that is it is not right that the believer should be overshadowed by fear of anything other than God.
زُيِّنَ لِلنَّاسِ حُبُّ الشَّهَوَاتِ مِنَ النِّسَاءِ وَالْبَنِينَ وَالْقَنَاطِيرِ الْمُقَنْطَرَةِ مِنَ الذَّهَبِ وَالْفِضَّةِ وَالْخَيْلِ الْمُسَوَّمَةِ وَالْأَنْعَامِ وَالْحَرْثِ ۗ ذَٰلِكَ مَتَاعُ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا ۖ وَاللَّهُ عِنْدَهُ حُسْنُ الْمَآبِ
📘 Adorned for people is love of appetites, like women, children, heaped-up heaps of gold and silver, horses of mark, cattle, and tillage. That is the enjoyment of the life of this world. The paragon of the world and master of the children of Adam, MuṣṬafā, reported that when the Eternal Enactor created paradise, He said to Gabriel, “'O Gabriel! Go look at it.' Go gaze on this paradise and see once what I have made and created for My servants and friends.” Gabriel went and saw those adorned paradises with their infinite joy and bliss, that place of revelry made and prepared in the neighborhood of God's Presence for the exalted ones of the road and God's friends. When Gabriel came back he said, “Lord God, 'By Thy exaltedness, no one will hear of it and not enter into it!' By the exaltedness of Your Lordhood, no one will hear the attributes of this para- dise without aiming for it and becoming obedient so that he may enter it.” Then the Lord of the Worlds surrounded paradise with all the hardship and suffering of unwor- thy things and unreached desires, and He made its road a bridge of trial so that everyone who aims for the Patron must first pass over that bridge of trial. Shaykh al-Islām Anṣārī said, “How should I have known that suffering is the mother of hap- piness and that beneath one disappointment lie a thousand treasures? How should I have known which gate this is or what is the answer to the story of friendship? How should I have known that companionship with You is the greatest Resurrection and that the exaltation of union with You lies in the abasement of bewilderment?” O spirit of the world! The Kaabah is a sweet place, the nest of God's friends and the lodging place of the sincerely truthful, but there is a man-eating desert before it, mile after mile and way station after way station. Who in the end will have the seeking to pass over all those miles and way stations until he reaches the magnificent Kaabah? A world is wandering in the desert of Your love- who will be given access to the Kaabah of Your acceptance? [DS 210] After He made the road of paradise that of unreached desires and disappointment, the command came, “O Gabriel: Look again.
إِنْ يَمْسَسْكُمْ قَرْحٌ فَقَدْ مَسَّ الْقَوْمَ قَرْحٌ مِثْلُهُ ۚ وَتِلْكَ الْأَيَّامُ نُدَاوِلُهَا بَيْنَ النَّاسِ وَلِيَعْلَمَ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَيَتَّخِذَ مِنْكُمْ شُهَدَاءَ ۗ وَاللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ الظَّالِمِينَ
📘 If a wound touches you a like wound already has touched the other people. Such days We deal out in turn among mankind and that God may know those who believe; and that He may take witnesses from among you and God loves not the evildoers. �If a difficulty has come to you for Our sake they have faced something similar before you. They have been given something like what you have been given.� Those who are patient among them will be victorious fa-man ṣabara minhum ẓafira while those who suffer what comes with annoyance and anger will lose wa man Ḍajira min ḥamli ma laqiya khasira. Days come in turns al-ayām nuwabun and circumstances change wa-l-ḥālāt duwalun and nothing is hidden from the Real.
وَلِيُمَحِّصَ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَيَمْحَقَ الْكَافِرِينَ
📘 And that God may prove the believers and efface the disbelievers. The tests of the unseen are a kind of smelting for the servant. Through various stages He purifies him from faults so that he becomes like pure gold without any dross. In this way one becomes clear of defects and purified for God. And efface the disbelievers in the wadis of dispersion tafriqa. As for the scum it passes away as dross [13:17].
أَمْ حَسِبْتُمْ أَنْ تَدْخُلُوا الْجَنَّةَ وَلَمَّا يَعْلَمِ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ جَاهَدُوا مِنْكُمْ وَيَعْلَمَ الصَّابِرِينَ
📘 Or did you suppose that you should enter paradise without God know- ing who among you have struggled and who are patient. The wish of those who think they can arrive at a greatly esteemed place without enduring hardships casts them into the abyss of destruction. On the other hand those who recognize the value of [the place] that is sought will have the exertion of their pains made easy for them: Time is not generous with its pleasures for those who are reluctant to throw off restraints. Their speaker said: When youth is on the lookout for the lightning of meanings al-maʿānī the least valuable use of time is the pleasantry of sleep.
وَلَقَدْ كُنْتُمْ تَمَنَّوْنَ الْمَوْتَ مِنْ قَبْلِ أَنْ تَلْقَوْهُ فَقَدْ رَأَيْتُمُوهُ وَأَنْتُمْ تَنْظُرُونَ
📘 You were longing for death before you met it. Now you have seen it looking on. The pangs of longing come after being patient in enduring difficulties yet When tears flow down cheeks The one who is crying is distinguished from the one who is only pretending.
وَمَا مُحَمَّدٌ إِلَّا رَسُولٌ قَدْ خَلَتْ مِنْ قَبْلِهِ الرُّسُلُ ۚ أَفَإِنْ مَاتَ أَوْ قُتِلَ انْقَلَبْتُمْ عَلَىٰ أَعْقَابِكُمْ ۚ وَمَنْ يَنْقَلِبْ عَلَىٰ عَقِبَيْهِ فَلَنْ يَضُرَّ اللَّهَ شَيْئًا ۗ وَسَيَجْزِي اللَّهُ الشَّاكِرِينَ
📘 MuḤammad is only a messenger. Messengers have passed away before him. What, if he dies or is killed, will you turn back on your heels? If anyone turns back on his heels, he will not harm God in anything, and God will recompense the grateful. As much as MuḤammad is praised and chosen among all men and caressed by the God of the world's folk, as much as he is the pole of the world and the lamp of heaven and earth, the chieftain and full moon of the universe, emulated by the creatures, the paragon of the engendered beings, and the Seal of the Prophets-despite all this, he is a mortal man. Death is fitting for him and an- nihilation applies to him. As many prophets as there have been in the world, all of them went. The Real did not disappear, nor was God harmed. The Real remained after all of them, and God is their keeper in the perfection of His exaltedness. By way of allusion, the folk of realization are being addressed: “The perfection of Our ex- altedness is free of need for that which was not, then came to be. There is no link between Our lordhood and that which was not, then came to be. Our unity does not call for an existence-giver, and Our Being does not need a strengthener. Our exaltedness recognizes Our magnificence, and Our Unity knows Our exaltedness. Her own face had itself as a moon, her own eye had itself as collyrium. A sound report has come that He says, “O My servants! If the first of you and the last of you, the men of you and jinn of you, the living of you and the dead of you, had the heart of the most godwary man among you, that would add nothing to My kingdom. O My servants! If the first of you and the last of you, the men of you and jinn of you, the living of you and the dead of you, had the heart of the most depraved man among you, that would take nothing away from My kingdom.” What, if he dies or is killed, will you turn back on your heels? This verse provides evidence for the eminence of Abū Bakr, for when MuṣṬafā was taken away from this house of decrees and the steed of death was sent for his prophethood's shining face, then in the attribute of exaltedness the Divine Pres- ence snatched that shining face away from the steed of death and took him into the embrace of Unity.
وَمَا كَانَ لِنَفْسٍ أَنْ تَمُوتَ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ كِتَابًا مُؤَجَّلًا ۗ وَمَنْ يُرِدْ ثَوَابَ الدُّنْيَا نُؤْتِهِ مِنْهَا وَمَنْ يُرِدْ ثَوَابَ الْآخِرَةِ نُؤْتِهِ مِنْهَا ۚ وَسَنَجْزِي الشَّاكِرِينَ
📘 It is not for any soul to die save by the leave of God a prescribed term. And whoever desires the reward of this world We will give him of it; and whoever desires the reward of the hereafter We will give him of it; and We will requite the thankful. The breaths have a set duration for which there is no increase or decrease. And whoever desires the reward of this world We will give him of it: The righteous have what comes in the end ʿāqiba and the others have heedlessness ghafla. And whoever desires the reward of the hereafter We will give him of it: The reward of the hereafter is first of all forgiveness ghufrān then the gardens jinān then beatitude riḌwān. And We will requite the thankful: The requital for thankfulness is thankfulness.
وَكَأَيِّنْ مِنْ نَبِيٍّ قَاتَلَ مَعَهُ رِبِّيُّونَ كَثِيرٌ فَمَا وَهَنُوا لِمَا أَصَابَهُمْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَمَا ضَعُفُوا وَمَا اسْتَكَانُوا ۗ وَاللَّهُ يُحِبُّ الصَّابِرِينَ
📘 How many a prophet has been killed and with him thousands manifold [fought] but they fainted not in the face of what afflicted them in God's way; they neither weakened nor did they humble themselves. And God loves the patient. Those who followed the course in fidelity who stood fast with regard to purity who did not withdraw from the path ṭarīq and who demanded realization of themselves reproaching themselves by restriction and scrutiny - they found the love of the Real s as a legacy for their patience. The Real was what came after for them at the end of their affair since they did not swerve from the required effort or from the protection of the pact and they submitted themselves utterly abandoning the present world. Every one of them was constant and abiding in holding to the pact and staying true to the condition of service and love.
وَمَا كَانَ قَوْلَهُمْ إِلَّا أَنْ قَالُوا رَبَّنَا اغْفِرْ لَنَا ذُنُوبَنَا وَإِسْرَافَنَا فِي أَمْرِنَا وَثَبِّتْ أَقْدَامَنَا وَانْصُرْنَا عَلَى الْقَوْمِ الْكَافِرِينَ
📘 All that they said was 'Our Lord forgive us our sins and our excesses in our affairs and make firm our feet and help us against the unbelieving folk'. They recognized the realities of meaning ḥaqāÌiq al-maʿnā and held their tongues from making any claims. Then they spoke seeking forgiveness and holding to an attitude of shyness just as it has been said: He avoided misdeeds and then even became afraid of them. Instead it was as if his good deeds were misdeeds.
فَآتَاهُمُ اللَّهُ ثَوَابَ الدُّنْيَا وَحُسْنَ ثَوَابِ الْآخِرَةِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ يُحِبُّ الْمُحْسِنِينَ
📘 God gave them this world's reward and the beauty of the next world's reward, and God loves the beautiful-doers. Concerning the reward of the next world He said “beauty,” which is to say that the reward is beauti- ful, but He did not say that about the reward of this world. This is because the reward of the after- world is lasting, but the reward of this world is passing. The former comes into being constantly without blight and without trouble, but the latter is soon cut off and has blights and tribulations. God loves the beautiful-doers. The beautiful-doers are the “grateful” who are mentioned in verse 3:144. The “recompense” to which He alludes there is the love that He explains here. Beautiful doing is what MuṣṬafā said in answering Gabriel: “It is that you worship God as if you see Him.” Beautiful doing is the attribute of the self-watchful, the state of the finders, the station of the approving, and the mark of the friends. Love for God is their watchword and remembering God their blanket. God's love is pouring down on them, and this pouring is like a sweetheart inside their spirit. From it the tree of happiness gives fruit and the spirit has a happy springtime. Hail, O sweet breeze of early spring! You give off the scent of that idol's tresses.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِنْ تُطِيعُوا الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا يَرُدُّوكُمْ عَلَىٰ أَعْقَابِكُمْ فَتَنْقَلِبُوا خَاسِرِينَ
📘 O you who believe if you obey the disbelievers they will make you turn back on your heels and you will revert as losers. Nay but God is your protector and He is the best of helpers. [This] means that if you obey the adversaries they will pull you into their states and cast you into their darknesses. Nay God is your protector your helper the One who aids you Your Master and the One who sets your affairs aright. And He is the best of helpers because He aids you against your lower selves and protects you from their evil. Anyone other than Him adds to your afflictions when they help you because they aid your lower selves against you. And He is the best of helpers because anyone other than Him holds a favor over you in helping you while He rewards you for your asking for His help. It is said that when you ask someone for help you need to give him something of value and then he may or may not help you. But when you ask [God] ������ for help He gives you every kindness and takes no pleasure in not helping you.
۞ قُلْ أَؤُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِخَيْرٍ مِنْ ذَٰلِكُمْ ۚ لِلَّذِينَ اتَّقَوْا عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ جَنَّاتٌ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا وَأَزْوَاجٌ مُطَهَّرَةٌ وَرِضْوَانٌ مِنَ اللَّهِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ بَصِيرٌ بِالْعِبَادِ
📘 Shall I tell you of something better than that? For those who are godwary there shall be with their Lord gardens beneath which rivers flow, therein dwelling forever, and spouses made pure, and approval from God. After talking about the enemies, describing their life, and explaining their furthest goal, God in this verse comes back to the story of the friends. Tomorrow, the final outcome of those whose watch- word today is godwariness will be paradise and approval. He says, “For those who are godwary there shall be with their Lord gardens.” Just as godwariness has levels, so also paradise has degrees. The first degree is the Garden of the Shelter, and the first level of godwariness is to avoid the forbidden and the soul's caprice. The Splendorous Qur'an ties the two together in its words, “As for him who fears the standing place be- fore his Lord and prohibits the soul its caprice, surely the Garden shall be the shelter” [79:40-41]. The highest degree is the Garden of Eden, and better than the Garden of Eden is the Greatest Approval. So, the furthest goal of the paradise-dwellers is the Greatest Approval, just as the Lord of the Worlds says: “And goodly dwellings in the gardens of Eden; and approval from God is greatest” [9:72] The Greatest Approval belongs to those who reach the utmost godwariness. The utmost god- wariness is that someone takes whatever has the scar of new arrival and the mark of creation as his own enemy, as Abraham said: “Surely they are an enemy to me, save the Lord of the Worlds” [26:77]. You must turn away from all things and, with detached heart, busy yourself with the suf- fering of passion for the Haqiqah. You must know for certain that the intrusion of others finds no room in passion's suffering. You must cut off your heart and spirit from everything. The heart is Your garden-take it all, for this heart has room either for my intrusion or Your image. In gratitude I will also send my spirit to You- a whiff of union with You does what a hundred spirits cannot. Tomorrow, all will be taken to the furthest limit of their goals and aspirations. Here someone hopes for the Garden of the Refuge and is told, “Flee from the unlawful and be just, and that will not be held back from you.
بَلِ اللَّهُ مَوْلَاكُمْ ۖ وَهُوَ خَيْرُ النَّاصِرِينَ
📘 O you who believe if you obey the disbelievers they will make you turn back on your heels and you will revert as losers. Nay but God is your protector and He is the best of helpers. [This] means that if you obey the adversaries they will pull you into their states and cast you into their darknesses. Nay God is your protector your helper the One who aids you Your Master and the One who sets your affairs aright. And He is the best of helpers because He aids you against your lower selves and protects you from their evil. Anyone other than Him adds to your afflictions when they help you because they aid your lower selves against you. And He is the best of helpers because anyone other than Him holds a favor over you in helping you while He rewards you for your asking for His help. It is said that when you ask someone for help you need to give him something of value and then he may or may not help you. But when you ask [God] ������ for help He gives you every kindness and takes no pleasure in not helping you.
سَنُلْقِي فِي قُلُوبِ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا الرُّعْبَ بِمَا أَشْرَكُوا بِاللَّهِ مَا لَمْ يُنَزِّلْ بِهِ سُلْطَانًا ۖ وَمَأْوَاهُمُ النَّارُ ۚ وَبِئْسَ مَثْوَى الظَّالِمِينَ
📘 We will cast terror into the hearts of the disbelievers; for that they have associated with God that for which He sent down no authority; their abode shall be the fire; evil is the abode of the evildoers. God ������ designated our Prophet ﷺ to cast terror ruʿb from Him into the hearts of His enemies. [The Prophet] ���� ������ said: �I was helped by terror ruʿb.� He also follows this way sunna with His friends. He puts fear hayba of them into hearts. Fear hayba and force qahr would hardly be right in hearts were it not from Him and used with those who follow falsehood make false claims and misrepresent [the truth].
وَلَقَدْ صَدَقَكُمُ اللَّهُ وَعْدَهُ إِذْ تَحُسُّونَهُمْ بِإِذْنِهِ ۖ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا فَشِلْتُمْ وَتَنَازَعْتُمْ فِي الْأَمْرِ وَعَصَيْتُمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا أَرَاكُمْ مَا تُحِبُّونَ ۚ مِنْكُمْ مَنْ يُرِيدُ الدُّنْيَا وَمِنْكُمْ مَنْ يُرِيدُ الْآخِرَةَ ۚ ثُمَّ صَرَفَكُمْ عَنْهُمْ لِيَبْتَلِيَكُمْ ۖ وَلَقَدْ عَفَا عَنْكُمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ ذُو فَضْلٍ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
📘 Among you are those who desire this world, and among you are those who desire the next world. The worth of someone is his desire, and the want of someone is his leader. One person wants this world, another the afterworld, another the Patron. Wanting this world is all trickery and delusion, wanting the afterworld is all occupation with the work of wage-earners, and wanting the Patron is all celebration and joy. A seeker of this world is wounded by fantasy and delusion, a seeker of the afterworld is attached to palaces and houris, and a seeker of the Patron is in the ocean of Solitari- ness, inundated by light. Dhu'l-Nūn the Egyptian said, “O God, if I have any share of this world, I have given it to strangers. If I have anything stored up for the afterworld, I give it to the faithful. In this world, remembering You is enough for me, and in the afterworld seeing You is enough for me.” This world and the afterworld are two precious commodities, and vision is the hard cash that is given. The broker of this world is Iblis. He offers his wares at auction in the bazaar of abandon- ment and adorns them for the people. God says, reporting from him, “I shall surely adorn for them what is in the earth”[15:39]. Iblis's buyer is the unbeliever. The price is abandoning the religion and sheer associationism. As for MuṣṬafā, he is the broker of paradise. He makes his offers at the auction of solicitude in the bazaar of the afterworld. The buyer is God and the sellers are the faithful. The price is the formula, “There is no god but God.” The Prophet said, “The price of the Garden is There is no god but God.” The Pir of the Tariqah said, “I see a group distracted from Him by this world, a group dis- tracted from Him by that world, and a group distracted from both worlds by Him. They are waiting to see when the breeze of felicity will blow from the side of proximity and the sun of union will shine from the mansion of solicitude. They weep with the tongue of selflessness and say in hope, 'O generous one! How can someone who yearns for You put up with life? He who hopes for you has a breast full of blood at the hands of Your friendship!'” Without You, O ease of my spirit, how can I live? If You are not by my side, how can I be happy?
۞ إِذْ تُصْعِدُونَ وَلَا تَلْوُونَ عَلَىٰ أَحَدٍ وَالرَّسُولُ يَدْعُوكُمْ فِي أُخْرَاكُمْ فَأَثَابَكُمْ غَمًّا بِغَمٍّ لِكَيْلَا تَحْزَنُوا عَلَىٰ مَا فَاتَكُمْ وَلَا مَا أَصَابَكُمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ خَبِيرٌ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ
📘 When you were ascending not turning around for anyone and the Messenger was calling you from your rear so he rewarded you with grief for grief so that you might not grieve for what escaped you neither for what befell you; and God is aware of what you do. Then He sent down upon you after grief security-a slumber overcom- ing a party of you and a party whose own souls distressed them thinking wrongly of God thoughts of the age of ignorance saying �Have we any part whatever in the affairḍ� Say: �The affair belongs entirely to God.� They conceal within their hearts what they do not disclose to you saying �Had we had any part in the affair we would not have been slain here.� Say: �Even if you had been in your houses those for whom it had been appointed that they be slain would have sallied forth to the places where they were to lie� that God might try what was in your breasts and that He might prove what was in your hearts; and God knows what is in the breasts. The verse alludes to people for whom a period of slackening fatra occurs. The calls of the Real ������ come from within and without so that it is as if the rocks in the streets and the bricks in the walls were crying out to such a one �do not do it O servant of God!� But he is resolved upon his crooked way layy and settled in his error ghayy; [he] refuses to acknowledge what he knows would be more fitting and appropriate for his state. If he were to stay with his [original] aim and follow through with his aspiration by all means he would rein himself in and hold himself back from galloping ahead. [But] he gets nothing but gasping breaths anfās mutaṣāʿida and continuous sorrows ḥasarāt mutawātira-the Real ������ has bequeathed him one lonely estrangement after another. Eventually after he has been in this place of distress for a long time the Real ������ will relieve him with His beautiful kindness and draw him near with His gracious affection. He will deliver him from the narrowness of his captivity to the spaciousness of His pardon and favor. Many of these [people] will reach the place of the most respected and thereupon become still by God for God when they have been negated from station and honor and they will stand by God for God without waiting to be brought near and without looking to be welcomed.
ثُمَّ أَنْزَلَ عَلَيْكُمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ الْغَمِّ أَمَنَةً نُعَاسًا يَغْشَىٰ طَائِفَةً مِنْكُمْ ۖ وَطَائِفَةٌ قَدْ أَهَمَّتْهُمْ أَنْفُسُهُمْ يَظُنُّونَ بِاللَّهِ غَيْرَ الْحَقِّ ظَنَّ الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ ۖ يَقُولُونَ هَلْ لَنَا مِنَ الْأَمْرِ مِنْ شَيْءٍ ۗ قُلْ إِنَّ الْأَمْرَ كُلَّهُ لِلَّهِ ۗ يُخْفُونَ فِي أَنْفُسِهِمْ مَا لَا يُبْدُونَ لَكَ ۖ يَقُولُونَ لَوْ كَانَ لَنَا مِنَ الْأَمْرِ شَيْءٌ مَا قُتِلْنَا هَاهُنَا ۗ قُلْ لَوْ كُنْتُمْ فِي بُيُوتِكُمْ لَبَرَزَ الَّذِينَ كُتِبَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْقَتْلُ إِلَىٰ مَضَاجِعِهِمْ ۖ وَلِيَبْتَلِيَ اللَّهُ مَا فِي صُدُورِكُمْ وَلِيُمَحِّصَ مَا فِي قُلُوبِكُمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِذَاتِ الصُّدُورِ
📘 When you were ascending not turning around for anyone and the Messenger was calling you from your rear so he rewarded you with grief for grief so that you might not grieve for what escaped you neither for what befell you; and God is aware of what you do. Then He sent down upon you after grief security-a slumber overcom- ing a party of you and a party whose own souls distressed them thinking wrongly of God thoughts of the age of ignorance saying �Have we any part whatever in the affairḍ� Say: �The affair belongs entirely to God.� They conceal within their hearts what they do not disclose to you saying �Had we had any part in the affair we would not have been slain here.� Say: �Even if you had been in your houses those for whom it had been appointed that they be slain would have sallied forth to the places where they were to lie� that God might try what was in your breasts and that He might prove what was in your hearts; and God knows what is in the breasts. The verse alludes to people for whom a period of slackening fatra occurs. The calls of the Real ������ come from within and without so that it is as if the rocks in the streets and the bricks in the walls were crying out to such a one �do not do it O servant of God!� But he is resolved upon his crooked way layy and settled in his error ghayy; [he] refuses to acknowledge what he knows would be more fitting and appropriate for his state. If he were to stay with his [original] aim and follow through with his aspiration by all means he would rein himself in and hold himself back from galloping ahead. [But] he gets nothing but gasping breaths anfās mutaṣāʿida and continuous sorrows ḥasarāt mutawātira-the Real ������ has bequeathed him one lonely estrangement after another. Eventually after he has been in this place of distress for a long time the Real ������ will relieve him with His beautiful kindness and draw him near with His gracious affection. He will deliver him from the narrowness of his captivity to the spaciousness of His pardon and favor. Many of these [people] will reach the place of the most respected and thereupon become still by God for God when they have been negated from station and honor and they will stand by God for God without waiting to be brought near and without looking to be welcomed.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ تَوَلَّوْا مِنْكُمْ يَوْمَ الْتَقَى الْجَمْعَانِ إِنَّمَا اسْتَزَلَّهُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ بِبَعْضِ مَا كَسَبُوا ۖ وَلَقَدْ عَفَا اللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ حَلِيمٌ
📘 Truly those of you who turned away the day the two hosts encountered each other-truly Satan made them slip through some of what they had earned; but God pardoned them; God is Forgiving Forbearing. This verse alludes to the states of those whose spiritual desire irāda has become meager and their intentions niyyāt weak. Their whims hawā control them and listlessness fatra rules them. Face to face with the coun- sel of others the call of desires and the whispers of satans they put their trust in false speech. They have preferred their whims over piety and stayed back. But they do not find happiness in what they have chosen.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَكُونُوا كَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَقَالُوا لِإِخْوَانِهِمْ إِذَا ضَرَبُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ أَوْ كَانُوا غُزًّى لَوْ كَانُوا عِنْدَنَا مَا مَاتُوا وَمَا قُتِلُوا لِيَجْعَلَ اللَّهُ ذَٰلِكَ حَسْرَةً فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ يُحْيِي وَيُمِيتُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ
📘 O you who believe be not as the disbelievers who say of their brothers when they travel in the land or are on raiding campaigns 'Had they been with us they would not have died and would not have been slain' - so that God may make that anguish in their hearts. For God gives life and He gives death and God sees what you do. Whoever makes a habit of worrying about what is past and planning for his future and each new moment - the least of his punishment will be the constriction of his heart through disconcerting worries and the disappearance of the quality of life from his heart because of his forgetfulness and his saying 'if only such and such' or 'maybe such and such'. The result of this kind of thinking is estrangement and grief the constriction of the heart and separation.
وَلَئِنْ قُتِلْتُمْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أَوْ مُتُّمْ لَمَغْفِرَةٌ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَرَحْمَةٌ خَيْرٌ مِمَّا يَجْمَعُونَ
📘 And if you are slain in God's way or die forgiveness from God and mercy are better than what they amass. And if you die or are slain it is to God you shall be mustered. To sacrifice the spirit rūḥ in God is better than life with anything other than God. Returning to God is better for one who knows God than staying behind with anything other than God. Whatever the servant prefers over God is not something that is blessed. If you want there is this world and if you want there is the final outcome. And if you die or are slain it is to God you shall be mustered: When the destination is to God the journey is pleasant-surely when a journey to Him comes to an end its hardships seem sweeter than honey!
وَلَئِنْ مُتُّمْ أَوْ قُتِلْتُمْ لَإِلَى اللَّهِ تُحْشَرُونَ
📘 And if you are slain in God's way or die forgiveness from God and mercy are better than what they amass. And if you die or are slain it is to God you shall be mustered. To sacrifice the spirit rūḥ in God is better than life with anything other than God. Returning to God is better for one who knows God than staying behind with anything other than God. Whatever the servant prefers over God is not something that is blessed. If you want there is this world and if you want there is the final outcome. And if you die or are slain it is to God you shall be mustered: When the destination is to God the journey is pleasant-surely when a journey to Him comes to an end its hardships seem sweeter than honey!
فَبِمَا رَحْمَةٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ لِنْتَ لَهُمْ ۖ وَلَوْ كُنْتَ فَظًّا غَلِيظَ الْقَلْبِ لَانْفَضُّوا مِنْ حَوْلِكَ ۖ فَاعْفُ عَنْهُمْ وَاسْتَغْفِرْ لَهُمْ وَشَاوِرْهُمْ فِي الْأَمْرِ ۖ فَإِذَا عَزَمْتَ فَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ الْمُتَوَكِّلِينَ
📘 It was by a mercy of God that thou wert soft with them. Hadst thou been harsh and hard of heart, they would have scattered from around thee. So pardon them, ask forgiveness for them, and consult with them in the affair. And when thou art resolved, trust in God. Surely God loves those who trust. “O master of masters! O paragon of engendered beings! You are generous and lovingly kind, gentle and ever-merciful to everyone. You drive everyone by customs that hit the mark. You call everyone to the table of exaltedness and convey to everlasting felicity. You are like a father for the orphans, a husband for the widowed. You caress the familiar and you show the road to the estranged. You are mercy itself for the world's folk, a cause of generous giving to all the servants. O master, there is all of this, but take care not to see yourself. Do not consider these as your own acquisitions, for all of them are I. It is I who was, I who caressed, I who made, and I put you to that. I gave you a sweet disposition. O paragon, keep on being this way to the faithful and the friends-with the same loving kindness and the same sweet disposition: And lower thy wing to the faithful who follow thee [26:215]. But, with the unbelievers and hypocrites, you should be a bit harder and struggle against them: O Prophet! Struggle against the unbelievers and the hypocrites, and be hard with them [9:73].” There is a great difference between the Beloved [MuḤammad] and the Speaking Companion [Moses]. He commanded the Beloved to be harsh with the unbelievers and he called him back from cajolery, for in his disposition all was softness and benevolence. To the Speaking Companion He said the opposite: “Speak to him with soft words” [20:44]. He commanded him to softness and benevolence, and He called him back from the sharpness and hardness that was within him. Then He says, “Hadst thou been harsh and hard of heart, they would have scattered from around thee. O master, if you were to give the unmixed wine of tawḤīd to your companions, with- out the admixture of their own shares, they would flee and no longer come around you. O master, they do not have the capacity to put up with what your capacity puts up with. When someone's night and morning are in the Presence of Unity, how can others be equal to him or have any affin- ity with him?” The master himself gave this report of himself: “I am not like any of you-I spend the night at my Lord; He gives me to eat and drink.” At another time he said, “I have a moment with God em- braced by no proximate angel, nor any sent prophet.” MuṣṬafā taught this courtesy of the religion to the creatures. He said, “'Speak to the people in the measure of their intellects.' Speak to everyone in the measure of his intellect and do not lay upon him what he is unable to bear.” Give everyone a cup in the size of his spirit- lay down sweets according to each one's intellect. So pardon them. “O master! Pardon their shortcomings toward your rightful due and your work, and pass over it. As for their shortcomings toward My rightful due, you be their intercessor and ask for forgiveness from Me.” So pardon them, and ask forgiveness for them. So pardon them is an allusion to togetherness, for it is a decree. The one who decrees in reality is God, and the Messenger follows. Ask forgive- ness for them is an allusion to dispersion, which is the station of abasement and servanthood. This is the custom of the Lord with the prophets and friends-sometimes He puts them in togetherness, sometimes in dispersion. Togetherness without dispersion is disbelief, and dispersion without togetherness is associationism. Togetherness is the Haqiqah itself, and dispersion is the path of servanthood. When these two traits come together in someone, he is on the road of the Sunnah and the congregation and walks straight on the Tariqah and the Shariah. And consult with them in the affair. “O master! The states of the travelers in this road are diverse. One falls short, so ask pardon for him. One repents, so ask forgiveness for him. One is obedient, so consult with him.” And when thou art resolved, trust in God. Surely God loves those who trust. Resoluteness has a reality, and the basis of that reality is the rightness of what is desired. The togetherness of the heart is the basis of solidity in the religion, jealousy in the affair, and straightness in the present moment. Resoluteness is of three sorts. One sort is the resoluteness of repentance, the second the reso- luteness of service, and the third the resoluteness of the Haqiqah. All three are built on trust, and trust has a root, a precondition, and a fruit. Its root is certainty. Its precondition is faith; this is alluded to in His words, “And in God put your trust, if you have faith” [5:23]. Its fruit is the Real's love; this is in His words, “Surely God loves those who trust.” Master Abū ʿAlī Daqqāq said, “Trust has three levels. First is trust, second is surrender, third is delegation. Trust is the beginning, surrender the middle, and delegation the end. Trust is the attribute of the common people, surrender the attribute of the elect, and delegation the attribute of the elect of the elect. Trust is the attribute of the prophets generally, surrender the attribute of Abraham specifically, and delegation the attribute of the Seal of the Prophets, MuṣṬafā, most specifically. The possessor of trust has his ear to the Real's promise. The possessor of surrender is at ease in knowledge of the Real. The possessor of delegation approves of God's decree. When someone has trust, he is seeking bestowal. When someone has surrender, he is waiting for encoun- ter. When someone has delegation, he is at ease with approval in the gathering place of repose and ease [56:89]. This is why the Lord of the Worlds says, 'And approval from God is greatest-that is the tremendous triumph'” [9:72].
الَّذِينَ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا إِنَّنَا آمَنَّا فَاغْفِرْ لَنَا ذُنُوبَنَا وَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ
📘 Those who say: �O Our Lord we believe; so forgive us our sins and guard us from the chastisement of the fire� that is �they occupy themselves with Us entirely bi-l-kulliya and plead for help before Us at the mention of severe trials and afflictions al-raziyya. Those obtain nearness and intimate friendship al-qurba wa-l-khuṣūṣiyya with Us high degrees wa-l-darajāt al-ʿuliyya and pleasing fates wa-l- qisam al-murḌiyya.�
إِنْ يَنْصُرْكُمُ اللَّهُ فَلَا غَالِبَ لَكُمْ ۖ وَإِنْ يَخْذُلْكُمْ فَمَنْ ذَا الَّذِي يَنْصُرُكُمْ مِنْ بَعْدِهِ ۗ وَعَلَى اللَّهِ فَلْيَتَوَكَّلِ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ
📘 If God helps you then none can overcome you; but if He forsakes you then who is there who can help you after Himḍ Therefore on God let the believers rely. He helps the believers by granting success to the bodily forms bi-l-tawfīqi lil-ashbāḥ and then by granting [spiritual] realization to the spirits thuma bi-l-taḥqīqi lil-arwāḥ. It is said that God helps you by supporting you in your outward cir- cumstances bi-taÌyīdi al-ẓawāhir and by guiding the innermost selves wa-tasdīdi al-sarāÌir. It is said that while [He will] help [you] against the enemy the worst enemy you have is the lower self within you. [His] help against [your] lower self comes when its claims of strength are routed by the guardians of His mercy and the armies of cravings junūd al-shahawāt scatter upon the attacks of the arriving hosts wufūd al-munāzilāt. The protective friend- ship walāya of God will remain purified from the confused clamoring of human qualities and the cravings and desires of the lower selves which are the remaining effects of [what] veils and hinders [people] from nearness. If He forsakes you: The forsaking is the abandonment of those who are disobedient. Those whom He helps He holds back from pursuing what is objectionable and those to whom He gives free rein and leaves to their own bad choices He forsakes. The state [of someone He forsakes] becomes unsettled in the torrents of cravings so he sometimes wanders to the east without shame fa-marratan yusharriqu ghayra muḥtashimin and sometimes to the west without respect wa-tāratan yugharribu ghayra mutaḥrimin. Surely when the Real lets someone go and does not take him by the hand leaving him to himself there is no protector for him. Therefore on God let believers rely in finding security through sincere supplication and laying the robe of pardon over the defects of sin. [This is done] by devoutly seeking refuge and by rejecting any strength or power [other than God]. It is said that when the matter was that of [His] help He said �then none can overcome you.� In the matter of being forsaken He did not say �then there is no helper for you� but rather said more indirectly�then who is there who can help you after Himḍ� Here there is a subtlety regarding the finer properties of the [divine] address.
وَمَا كَانَ لِنَبِيٍّ أَنْ يَغُلَّ ۚ وَمَنْ يَغْلُلْ يَأْتِ بِمَا غَلَّ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ ۚ ثُمَّ تُوَفَّىٰ كُلُّ نَفْسٍ مَا كَسَبَتْ وَهُمْ لَا يُظْلَمُونَ
📘 It is not for a prophet to be fraudulent; whoever defrauds [others] shall bring what he has defrauded on the Day of Resurrection; then every soul shall be paid in full what it has earned and they shall not be wronged. He has made the states of the prophets free of the stain of treacherous actions. �Those to whom We gave the message to bear to Our servants convey it to those who should receive it. They are not concerned with any affair of a close intimate without Our command and they do not hold back harboring malice in passing on anyone's share when We have commanded it.� Do you not see how [the Prophet] said of Abū Ṭālib �Go and bury him� when the Commander of the Believers ʿAlī ��� ���� ��� said to him �Your erring uncle has died�ḍ Do you not see how [Muḥammad] accepted al-Waḥshī the killer of ḥamza when he became a Muslimḍ It is said �It was not for any prophet ﷺ to give Our secrets to any but the people to whom they were meant. Rather to each was revealed what they were meant to hear.� Thus in the tradition �We were commanded to reveal yunzil to the people [what is suitable according to] their stations manāzil.�
أَفَمَنِ اتَّبَعَ رِضْوَانَ اللَّهِ كَمَنْ بَاءَ بِسَخَطٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَمَأْوَاهُ جَهَنَّمُ ۚ وَبِئْسَ الْمَصِيرُ
📘 Is he who follows God's beatitude like him who is laden with God's anger whose abode is hellḍ An evil journey's end! They are of degrees before God; and God sees what they do. The one with whom He is well pleased throughout eternity fī azālihi is not equal to the one with whom He is displeased and has abandoned in his states fī aḥwālihi and left him to rely on his own actions ʿalā aʿmālihi oblivious to the witnessing of His favors li-shuhūdi afḌālihi. To seek God's beatitude [one must] separate oneself mufāraqa from what has been prohibited and embrace muʿānaqa what has been commanded. One who divests himself from the prohibited mazjūr and takes heart in embracing what has been commanded maÌmūr has followed God's beatitude riḌwān and has become deserving of the gardens jinān. They are of degrees before God: that is they possess degrees in the decree ḥukm of God-happy are those who have been brought close and wretched are those who have been kept at a distance.
هُمْ دَرَجَاتٌ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ بَصِيرٌ بِمَا يَعْمَلُونَ
📘 Is he who follows God's beatitude like him who is laden with God's anger whose abode is hellḍ An evil journey's end! They are of degrees before God; and God sees what they do. The one with whom He is well pleased throughout eternity fī azālihi is not equal to the one with whom He is displeased and has abandoned in his states fī aḥwālihi and left him to rely on his own actions ʿalā aʿmālihi oblivious to the witnessing of His favors li-shuhūdi afḌālihi. To seek God's beatitude [one must] separate oneself mufāraqa from what has been prohibited and embrace muʿānaqa what has been commanded. One who divests himself from the prohibited mazjūr and takes heart in embracing what has been commanded maÌmūr has followed God's beatitude riḌwān and has become deserving of the gardens jinān. They are of degrees before God: that is they possess degrees in the decree ḥukm of God-happy are those who have been brought close and wretched are those who have been kept at a distance.
لَقَدْ مَنَّ اللَّهُ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ بَعَثَ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِنْ أَنْفُسِهِمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِهِ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَإِنْ كَانُوا مِنْ قَبْلُ لَفِي ضَلَالٍ مُبِينٍ
📘 Truly God was gracious to the believers when He sent to them a mes- senger from among their own to recite to them His verses and to purify them and to teach them the Book wisdom though before they were in clear error. [God] gave goodness to them in abundance and favored them with gener- ous blessings for He sent someone like MuṣṬafā the leader of mankind ﷺ to them. [The Prophet] taught them their religion and made their proofs clear to them. He belonged to them in every way but they were not grateful for his blessings did not respect his right and were not able to see what he guided them to nor refrain from straying in error-this is a description of his enemies who denied and were arrogant. As for the believers they were adorned with grace in the [divine] choice ikhtiyār. They received the command to hear and obey to the utmost of their capacity iqtidār so they were happy in this world and the hereafter ʿuqbā and became deserving of generosity and nearness zulfa from God.
أَوَلَمَّا أَصَابَتْكُمْ مُصِيبَةٌ قَدْ أَصَبْتُمْ مِثْلَيْهَا قُلْتُمْ أَنَّىٰ هَٰذَا ۖ قُلْ هُوَ مِنْ عِنْدِ أَنْفُسِكُمْ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
📘 And why when distress befell you and you had afflicted twice the like of it did you say �How is thisḍ� Say: �It is from yourselves. Surely God has power over everything.� Human beings usually forget their own error and disobedience ʿiṣyān and turn instead to accuse God of what comes to them in trials loss khusrān and all kinds of unpleasant and difficult things iftitān. It would be better for those who pursue various crimes ṣunūf al-ijrām not to forget the requital to come ḥulūl al-intiqām.
وَمَا أَصَابَكُمْ يَوْمَ الْتَقَى الْجَمْعَانِ فَبِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ وَلِيَعْلَمَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
📘 And what afflicted you the day the two hosts encountered was by God's leave and that He might know the believers. And that He might also know the hypocrites when it was said to them �Come now fight in the way of God or defend [yourselves]� they said �If we knew how to fight we would follow you.� That day they were nearer to unbelief than to belief saying with their mouths that which was not in their hearts. And God knows best what they hide. He lightened the grave calamity met by the believers and possessors of insight on the Day of Uḥud by saying that the encounter was by God's leave. Surely a trial that afflicts [one] by God's leave is sweeter than honey and more desirable than any blessing. Then He spoke of those who were not sincere comrades how they offered excuses and were lazy. Similarly when the one who is tired wants to break things off he becomes weary of being together and says �That was that.� Saying with their mouths that which was not in their hearts: Verily they gave honey to drink [to their enemies] but He plotted to put poison in it for them. And they schemed; and God schemed; and God is the best of schemers [3:54].
وَلِيَعْلَمَ الَّذِينَ نَافَقُوا ۚ وَقِيلَ لَهُمْ تَعَالَوْا قَاتِلُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أَوِ ادْفَعُوا ۖ قَالُوا لَوْ نَعْلَمُ قِتَالًا لَاتَّبَعْنَاكُمْ ۗ هُمْ لِلْكُفْرِ يَوْمَئِذٍ أَقْرَبُ مِنْهُمْ لِلْإِيمَانِ ۚ يَقُولُونَ بِأَفْوَاهِهِمْ مَا لَيْسَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا يَكْتُمُونَ
📘 And what afflicted you the day the two hosts encountered was by God's leave and that He might know the believers. And that He might also know the hypocrites when it was said to them �Come now fight in the way of God or defend [yourselves]� they said �If we knew how to fight we would follow you.� That day they were nearer to unbelief than to belief saying with their mouths that which was not in their hearts. And God knows best what they hide. He lightened the grave calamity met by the believers and possessors of insight on the Day of Uḥud by saying that the encounter was by God's leave. Surely a trial that afflicts [one] by God's leave is sweeter than honey and more desirable than any blessing. Then He spoke of those who were not sincere comrades how they offered excuses and were lazy. Similarly when the one who is tired wants to break things off he becomes weary of being together and says �That was that.� Saying with their mouths that which was not in their hearts: Verily they gave honey to drink [to their enemies] but He plotted to put poison in it for them. And they schemed; and God schemed; and God is the best of schemers [3:54].
الَّذِينَ قَالُوا لِإِخْوَانِهِمْ وَقَعَدُوا لَوْ أَطَاعُونَا مَا قُتِلُوا ۗ قُلْ فَادْرَءُوا عَنْ أَنْفُسِكُمُ الْمَوْتَ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ
📘 Those who said to their brothers while they themselves stayed put �Had they obeyed us they would not have been slain.� Say: �Then avert death from yourselves if you speak the truth.� Those who relied upon their lower selves-having been seduced by them to prefer their own whims-and then opposed those who gave themselves over to the decrees of divine fate said �If only they had heeded the warning about going out to the battle they would have been safe.� These thoughts are blameworthy and these hearts have retreated from witnessing the true nature of things. Say to them O Muḥammad �[Then] extend the life of your souls istadīmū lil-anfusikum al-ḥayāt and defend them from the attacks of death wa-idfaʿū ʿanhā hujūma al-wafāt.� How would they be able to do thatḍ How preposterous!
وَلَا تَحْسَبَنَّ الَّذِينَ قُتِلُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أَمْوَاتًا ۚ بَلْ أَحْيَاءٌ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ يُرْزَقُونَ
📘 Count not those who were killed in God's path as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, provided for. O life of the spirit, what is it with me that I know nothing of my state? The spirit from You fills me, but my heart's blood is empty of You. O God, our life lies in remembering You, our happiness in finding You, our spirit in recognizing You! The Pir of the Tariqah said, “The living are three: one lives through the spirit, one lives through knowledge, and one lives through the Real. He who lives through the spirit lives on food and wind. He who lives through knowledge lives on love and remembrance. He who lives through the Real is happy indeed with Him. “O God, if the body's spirit is deprived of You, it will be a captive corpse, but if someone is killed in Your path hoping for union with You, he will live forever.” You said, “Don't pass by my street drunk lest you be killed, for my suitor is jealous.” Let me say a word, my dear, perhaps I'll be excused- “Killed in your street is better than far from your face.” Indeed, when friends are wounded in the Friend's street, that is a good omen, for gambling away the spirit in the gaming-house of passion is their habit and disposition. Wealth, gold, things-gamble them away for nothing. When the work reaches your spirit, gamble it away! Beware, beware! Take care not worry that your spirit will perish in the Friend's path. When the spirit perishes in loyalty to the Friend, that is true eminence. The precondition for your spirit's undertaking friendship's rightful due is its destruction. Love is intoxication, its craving destruction, its wilting and emaciation beautiful. He has clothed me with abasement in His love- abasement in love for the likes of Him is eminence. That tumultuous one of the time, Shiblī, said, “When someone is destroyed in God, God takes his place.” When you are loyal in friendship and gamble away your spirit, you will receive good fortune for free, for you will have the Friend in place of the spirit. If you had a hundred thou- sand spirits, you should sacrifice them to this union, for in truth that would still be something for nothing.
الصَّابِرِينَ وَالصَّادِقِينَ وَالْقَانِتِينَ وَالْمُنْفِقِينَ وَالْمُسْتَغْفِرِينَ بِالْأَسْحَارِ
📘 The patient, the truthful, the devoted, the expenders, those who ask forgiveness at dawn. The patient, that is, with their hearts, the truthful with their spirits, the devoted with their souls, the expenders of what they are able, those who ask forgiveness with their tongues.2 The chevaliers are those whose speaking is this and whose doing is this. In the heart they are patient with the Real's command, in the spirit they walk straight in the Real's covenant, in the body they observe the right- ful due of the Real's command, with wealth they spend in the Real's road, with tongue they ask forgiveness and seek from the Real's generosity. The patient: That is, they are patient in trial and they reject complaint until they reach the Patron, nothing of this world or the afterworld holding them back. They are patient in every trial and put aside complaint. They turn their faces away from both this world and the afterworld until they reach the Patron. The truthful: That is, they speak the truth in seeking, so they aim straight, then they speak the truth until they witness. They speak truthfully and begin traveling. They travel truthfully to reach the domicile. They think truthfully to reach the destination. Then they put aside the marks bearing witness to truthfulness and throw themselves into the ocean to reach the shore of security and the seat of truthfulness, at an Omnipotent King [54:55]. The devoted: That is, in clinging to the door, drinking down sorrow, leaving aside loved ones, and rejecting companions until they realize proximity. They put on the clothing of poverty and hold up the hands of need at the door of the house of generosity: “Until You open, we will not leave, and until You caress, we will not go away.” Sometimes they are in prostration, sometimes standing, sometimes in fear, sometimes in hope. From the Exalted Presence comes this caress: “The field of friendship's road is solitariness, and the drinker of its wine is promised vision. Who- ever is truthful will one day reach his desire.” Some day good fortune will enter my door, some day the sun of elation will rise, Some day You will cast a glance at me, some day this sorrow of mine will end. The expenders: That is, they are munificent with their property to the extent they are able, then with their souls in respect of deeds, then with their hearts through truthfulness of states.
فَرِحِينَ بِمَا آتَاهُمُ اللَّهُ مِنْ فَضْلِهِ وَيَسْتَبْشِرُونَ بِالَّذِينَ لَمْ يَلْحَقُوا بِهِمْ مِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ أَلَّا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
📘 Count not those who were slain in God's way as dead but rather liv- ing with their Lord provided for [by Him]. Rejoicing in what God has given them of His bounty and rejoicing for the sake of those who have not joined them but are left behind that no fear shall befall them neither shall they grieve. Life in remembrance of the Real-after the lower selves have been anni- hilated in the good pleasure of the Real-is more perfect than remaining with the blessings of created beings and being veiled from the Real. It is said that the one whose heir is the Living is one who does not disappear and cannot die even if he is killed: Surely bodies have been brought into existence for death so the slaying of a human being in God without doubt is best. And rejoicing for the sake of those who have not joined them but are left behind: Those who know that their loved ones are waiting for them while they are in comfort and ease [in the garden] would not take pleasure in living without being with them.
۞ يَسْتَبْشِرُونَ بِنِعْمَةٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَفَضْلٍ وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُضِيعُ أَجْرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
📘 They rejoice in blessings from God and bounty, and that God does not leave to waste the wage of the faithful, those who answered God and the Messenger after the wound had befallen them. Those who bow their heads before the command of God and the Messenger in passion for the religion made their own dear spirits the target of the enemy's arrows. They made their spirits a gift, their bodies a path, and their hearts a sacrifice. They bought that suffering and wounding with spirit and heart. Sarī SaqaṬī said, “God appeared to me in a dream saying, 'O Sarī! We created the creatures. Some of them saw this world and clung to it. Some of them saw trial, and they fled to paradise and well-being. Some of them thought nothing of trial and took the tribulation into their spirits and hearts, asking for union with Us. Which one of these are you? What do you want?'” Sarī said, “I answered, 'You know what I desire.'” How often will you ask, why do you make me suffer? In truth you know my state better than I. “He said, 'O Sarī! By the majesty of Our measure, We will strike your head with the whip of trial, and We will make the millstone of tribulation revolve on your head.'” Sarī said, “I replied with the light of recognition by lordly inspiration, 'Are You not the one who sends trials?'” The lover's soul is patient with illness- perhaps He who made him ill will one day make him well. * Since the healing, O Heart-taker, is from Your wound and pain, make no balm for the wounded, don't cure the pain!
الَّذِينَ اسْتَجَابُوا لِلَّهِ وَالرَّسُولِ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا أَصَابَهُمُ الْقَرْحُ ۚ لِلَّذِينَ أَحْسَنُوا مِنْهُمْ وَاتَّقَوْا أَجْرٌ عَظِيمٌ
📘 They rejoice in blessings from God and bounty, and that God does not leave to waste the wage of the faithful, those who answered God and the Messenger after the wound had befallen them. Those who bow their heads before the command of God and the Messenger in passion for the religion made their own dear spirits the target of the enemy's arrows. They made their spirits a gift, their bodies a path, and their hearts a sacrifice. They bought that suffering and wounding with spirit and heart. Sarī SaqaṬī said, “God appeared to me in a dream saying, 'O Sarī! We created the creatures. Some of them saw this world and clung to it. Some of them saw trial, and they fled to paradise and well-being. Some of them thought nothing of trial and took the tribulation into their spirits and hearts, asking for union with Us. Which one of these are you? What do you want?'” Sarī said, “I answered, 'You know what I desire.'” How often will you ask, why do you make me suffer? In truth you know my state better than I. “He said, 'O Sarī! By the majesty of Our measure, We will strike your head with the whip of trial, and We will make the millstone of tribulation revolve on your head.'” Sarī said, “I replied with the light of recognition by lordly inspiration, 'Are You not the one who sends trials?'” The lover's soul is patient with illness- perhaps He who made him ill will one day make him well. * Since the healing, O Heart-taker, is from Your wound and pain, make no balm for the wounded, don't cure the pain!
الَّذِينَ قَالَ لَهُمُ النَّاسُ إِنَّ النَّاسَ قَدْ جَمَعُوا لَكُمْ فَاخْشَوْهُمْ فَزَادَهُمْ إِيمَانًا وَقَالُوا حَسْبُنَا اللَّهُ وَنِعْمَ الْوَكِيلُ
📘 Those to whom people said �The people have gathered against you therefore fear them�; but that increased them in faith and they said �God is sufficient for us an excellent Guardian is He.� [Whenever] events in the present world confused them outwardly the gleams from unveilings Ṭawāliʿ min al-kushūfāt opened up for them in their innermost selves asrār and they increased in one level of certainty after another. Among the signs of certainty is the reliance of hearts in God alone with the severing of any hope of imagined aid and support from created beings.
فَانْقَلَبُوا بِنِعْمَةٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَفَضْلٍ لَمْ يَمْسَسْهُمْ سُوءٌ وَاتَّبَعُوا رِضْوَانَ اللَّهِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ ذُو فَضْلٍ عَظِيمٍ
📘 So they returned with grace and bounty from God and no evil touched them and they followed the beatitude of God; and God is of bounty abounding. Such is the way sunna of the Real ������ with those who are sincere in taking refuge with Him in that He prepares a resting place in the shadow of His sufficiency. No affliction touches them no pains distress them and no hardships overcome them.
إِنَّمَا ذَٰلِكُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ يُخَوِّفُ أَوْلِيَاءَهُ فَلَا تَخَافُوهُمْ وَخَافُونِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ
📘 That is only Satan making fear his friends therefore do not fear them; but fear Me if you are believers. The allusion in [God's] granting power to the calls of Satan in the hearts of [His] friends is [to the test] that confirms their flight to God. This is like a child who has been frightened by one of those things that frighten children and when he is afraid he goes only to his mother. When he comes to her she takes him to herself hugs him and presses her cheek to his. Likewise when the servant is sincere in beseeching God and returns to Him from his oppositional tendencies He takes him under the wing of His closeness and overtakes him with His beautiful kindness.
وَلَا يَحْزُنْكَ الَّذِينَ يُسَارِعُونَ فِي الْكُفْرِ ۚ إِنَّهُمْ لَنْ يَضُرُّوا اللَّهَ شَيْئًا ۗ يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ أَلَّا يَجْعَلَ لَهُمْ حَظًّا فِي الْآخِرَةِ ۖ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ
📘 Let them not grieve you those that vie with one another in unbelief; they will not hurt God at all. God desires not to assign them any portion in the hereafter and theirs is a mighty chastisement. He strengthened [Muḥammad's] heart by renewing the firmness of the pact in that He would not allow any enemy to gloat over his misfortune nor allow any evil from them to reach him.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ اشْتَرَوُا الْكُفْرَ بِالْإِيمَانِ لَنْ يَضُرُّوا اللَّهَ شَيْئًا وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
📘 Those who purchase unbelief at the price of faith they will not hurt God at all and there awaits them a painful chastisement. If they cause harm aḌarrū it is only to themselves. If they persist aṣarrū they persist only to their own loss. We did not suffer from the distance to their abodes nor did longings drive us toward them.
وَلَا يَحْسَبَنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا أَنَّمَا نُمْلِي لَهُمْ خَيْرٌ لِأَنْفُسِهِمْ ۚ إِنَّمَا نُمْلِي لَهُمْ لِيَزْدَادُوا إِثْمًا ۚ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ مُهِينٌ
📘 And let not the disbelievers suppose that what We indulge them in is better for their souls. We grant them indulgence only that they may increase in sinfulness and theirs is a humbling chastisement. �Part of the perfection of the ruse against them and the intensification in their punishment is that We are punishing them even as they do not perceive it: We will draw them on by degrees whence they do not know [7:182]. We indulge them and they think that it is an act of favor inʿām; [they do] not consider that it might be an act of revenge intiqām.� When the underlying forces of the divine preordination are made clear to them [in] their hiding places they will know that they have lost khusrān. It is already clear to anyone possessing insight that that which brings about disobedience ʿiṣyān or causes forgetfulness nisyān cannot be counted among the acts of favor inʿām.
مَا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيَذَرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ عَلَىٰ مَا أَنْتُمْ عَلَيْهِ حَتَّىٰ يَمِيزَ الْخَبِيثَ مِنَ الطَّيِّبِ ۗ وَمَا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيُطْلِعَكُمْ عَلَى الْغَيْبِ وَلَٰكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَجْتَبِي مِنْ رُسُلِهِ مَنْ يَشَاءُ ۖ فَآمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَرُسُلِهِ ۚ وَإِنْ تُؤْمِنُوا وَتَتَّقُوا فَلَكُمْ أَجْرٌ عَظِيمٌ
📘 It is not God's purpose to leave the believers in the state in which you are till He shall distinguish the evil one from the good. And it is not God's purpose to apprise you of the unseen but God chooses of His messengers whom He will. So believe in God and His messengers; and if you believe and guard [against evil] then yours shall be a great wage. He has gathered [humankind] together in the here and now with respect to bodies and forms mabānī but has separated them in the deeper realities and meanings maʿānī. Some of them are good Ṭayyib in their natural disposition and some are evil khabīth. Even if their constitutions are mixed they are differentiated in the inner sight of the elect. And it is not God's purpose to apprise you of the unseen: Surely the secrets of the unseen do not appear to those who are sullied by the pollu- tions of mortal human nature bashariyya. Only the Real ������ possesses knowledge of that which is great and small and He selects whomever He will among His prophets for knowledge of some of His secrets.
شَهِدَ اللَّهُ أَنَّهُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ وَأُولُو الْعِلْمِ قَائِمًا بِالْقِسْطِ ۚ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ
📘 God bears witness that there is no god but He-and the angels, and the possessors of knowledge-upholding justice; there is no god but He, the Exalted, the Wise. The Real bears witness to the Real that He is the Real. He Himself praised Himself and He Him- self gave witness to Himself concerning His attributes as is worthy of Himself. In His speech He reported of His existence, His self-sufficiency, His self-standingness, and His self-lastingness. He bore witness to the majesty of His measure and the perfection of His exaltedness while there was no refusal, no ignorance, no recognition by any created thing, no intellect, no conformity, no hy- pocrisy, no new arrival, no heaven, no space, no shadows, no brightness. There was no universe and no Adam, no air and no space, no land and no sea, no light and no darkness, no understanding and no virtue, no conformity and no hypocrisy when the Lord of the Worlds spoke in the majesty of His measure and the perfection of His exaltedness, giving witness to His oneness and peerlessness and reporting of His attributes and Essence. Today He is exactly what He was and will be forever. It has never been that He was not, and it will never be that He will not be. He is the First and the Last, the Outward and the Inward. He is the First who always is and who knows the beings and nonbeings. He is the Last who always will be, and He will know what He knew. He is the Outward through His enactorship, dominating over everyone through His all-compellingness and above everything through His greatness. He is too inward for the percep- tion of how, outside the reasoning of imaginations, and pure of supposition, fancy, and being thus. In Your subtle Essence thoughts are bewildered, in Your eternal knowledge hidden things appear. And the angels, and the possessors of knowledge. Great is the eminence of the angels, the prophets, and the knowers, and magnificent the result of their work, that God should join their bearing witness to His bearing witness! This is not because His bearing witness to His unity needs to be joined with bearing witness by created things. No, no, for it is His exaltedness that recognizes Him and His exaltedness that knows His unity. There cannot be joining from something that was not, then came to be. There is no tawḤīd-voicer that perceives His unity, nor any attester that perceives His being. Heaven and the heaven-dwellers, earth and the earth-dwellers, do not perceive the permanence of His kingdom. This world and the next, paradise and hell, do not perceive the perfection of His divinity. It is His exaltedness that perceives His magnificence and His exaltedness that knows His unity. Her own face has itself as a moon, her own eye has itself as collyrium. * Who knows You? It is You who know You, You. No one knows You-You alone know You. Yes, it was He who wanted and brought about the felicity of the angels, the prophets, and the know- ers, bestowing eminence and honor on them, and singling them out from the creatures, caressing them and giving them access to recognizing Him. And God singles out for His mercy whomsoever He will [2:105].
وَلَا يَحْسَبَنَّ الَّذِينَ يَبْخَلُونَ بِمَا آتَاهُمُ اللَّهُ مِنْ فَضْلِهِ هُوَ خَيْرًا لَهُمْ ۖ بَلْ هُوَ شَرٌّ لَهُمْ ۖ سَيُطَوَّقُونَ مَا بَخِلُوا بِهِ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ ۗ وَلِلَّهِ مِيرَاثُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرٌ
📘 Let not those who are niggardly with the bounty that God has given them reckon that it is better for them. In the language of knowledge and according to the Shariah, “niggardliness” is withholding the in- cumbent. The incumbent in wealth is a little bit of a lot, so a man gives the poor a little and keeps a lot for himself. But in the language of the Tariqah and the folk of allusion, niggardliness is leaving a little for oneself, a tiny amount of property, or a moment of the state. “The ransomed slave stays a slave so long as a dirham is owed.” Wealth and states in the path of these chivalrous men have the form of a dog, and passion in its own world has the form of an angel. MuṣṬafā's Shariah reports that the angel gets along badly with the dog and never descends into a house that has one. “No angel enters the house within which there is a dog or pictures.” When will the angel come forth if you do not take the dog from the door and the painting from the wall? When will you arrive at AḤmad and Abū Bakr, with a spider spinning its web at the door of the cave? Lift up the veil so that down may come a litter of magnificence to the bench of the threshold. [DS 200]
لَقَدْ سَمِعَ اللَّهُ قَوْلَ الَّذِينَ قَالُوا إِنَّ اللَّهَ فَقِيرٌ وَنَحْنُ أَغْنِيَاءُ ۘ سَنَكْتُبُ مَا قَالُوا وَقَتْلَهُمُ الْأَنْبِيَاءَ بِغَيْرِ حَقٍّ وَنَقُولُ ذُوقُوا عَذَابَ الْحَرِيقِ
📘 Verily God has heard the saying of those who said �Indeed God is poor and we are rich.� We shall write down what they have said and their slaying the prophets without right and We shall say �Taste the chastisement of the burning. That is for what your hands have sent before; for God is never unjust toward His servants.� If this address were between created beings it would be a complaint and the complaint to friends about enemies is the way of lovers sunnat al-aḥbāb. It is said that He knew that there were those among the believers who were slandering people and this was an ugly way to speak but He exposed a greater ugliness. This was to show that the ugly speech of the believers was paltry in comparison to the ugliness of the speech of the disbelievers. It is as if He said �Their speech has been ugly in its defamation but the speech of the disbelievers is even uglier since they have described Us in a way that is not appropriate for Us.� [This verse] also alludes to the call to humankind and the [divine] for- bearance with those who quarrel [with that call] for surely God ������ did not deprive them of what He had given them [in this world] in spite of their disregard for His rights. We shall write down what they have said: These words are cause for embarrassment for the neglectful through the most delicate allusion. It means that even if they have forgotten their states and words �We will resurrect for them what We have written against them.� Their speaker said: I have pages in which blame is buried. One day they will be published and the blame will linger. I will be patient until God brings us together and if we meet one day I will speak. That is for what your hands have sent before: for God is never unjust toward His servants: If this were from one created being to another it would be like absolving oneself of blame for what one has done. It is as if He ������ is saying �My servant the punishment that will come to you on that day is because of your sin. If you had not done it We would not punish you.�
ذَٰلِكَ بِمَا قَدَّمَتْ أَيْدِيكُمْ وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ لَيْسَ بِظَلَّامٍ لِلْعَبِيدِ
📘 Verily God has heard the saying of those who said �Indeed God is poor and we are rich.� We shall write down what they have said and their slaying the prophets without right and We shall say �Taste the chastisement of the burning. That is for what your hands have sent before; for God is never unjust toward His servants.� If this address were between created beings it would be a complaint and the complaint to friends about enemies is the way of lovers sunnat al-aḥbāb. It is said that He knew that there were those among the believers who were slandering people and this was an ugly way to speak but He exposed a greater ugliness. This was to show that the ugly speech of the believers was paltry in comparison to the ugliness of the speech of the disbelievers. It is as if He said �Their speech has been ugly in its defamation but the speech of the disbelievers is even uglier since they have described Us in a way that is not appropriate for Us.� [This verse] also alludes to the call to humankind and the [divine] for- bearance with those who quarrel [with that call] for surely God ������ did not deprive them of what He had given them [in this world] in spite of their disregard for His rights. We shall write down what they have said: These words are cause for embarrassment for the neglectful through the most delicate allusion. It means that even if they have forgotten their states and words �We will resurrect for them what We have written against them.� Their speaker said: I have pages in which blame is buried. One day they will be published and the blame will linger. I will be patient until God brings us together and if we meet one day I will speak. That is for what your hands have sent before: for God is never unjust toward His servants: If this were from one created being to another it would be like absolving oneself of blame for what one has done. It is as if He ������ is saying �My servant the punishment that will come to you on that day is because of your sin. If you had not done it We would not punish you.�
الَّذِينَ قَالُوا إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَهِدَ إِلَيْنَا أَلَّا نُؤْمِنَ لِرَسُولٍ حَتَّىٰ يَأْتِيَنَا بِقُرْبَانٍ تَأْكُلُهُ النَّارُ ۗ قُلْ قَدْ جَاءَكُمْ رُسُلٌ مِنْ قَبْلِي بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ وَبِالَّذِي قُلْتُمْ فَلِمَ قَتَلْتُمُوهُمْ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ
📘 [They are the] same who said �God has already made a covenant with us that we should not believe in any messenger until he brings us an offering to be devoured by fire.� Say: �Messengers have come to you before me with clear proofs and with that which you said. Why did you slay them then if you are truthfulḍ� They fabricated lies about God ������ to excuse their lack of faith saying �Verily we have been commanded not to believe anyone if we do not see him with our own eyes bringing us an offering. He will offer it to the sky and then a fire will come down to take it.� God most high said �say to them that those who have come before me among the prophets [���� ������] have brought you what you have demanded of me in offering but you did not believe. If I were to accede to you in this you would once again not believe.� Whoever has been kept at a distance by what has already been decreed-if the sun were to speak to him with a clear tongue or the mountains prostrate before him and he were to see all this in a moment of truth deeper knowledge ʿirfān would still not enter his heart and he would only increase in doubt after doubt.
فَإِنْ كَذَّبُوكَ فَقَدْ كُذِّبَ رُسُلٌ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ جَاءُوا بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ وَالزُّبُرِ وَالْكِتَابِ الْمُنِيرِ
📘 But if they deny you so were denied messengers before you who came bearing clear proofs and the scriptures and the illuminating Book. That is the habitual practice of disbelievers is to deny the messengers. This is what their ancestors used to do ʿalā hadhā l-naḥwi daraja salafuhum and their descendants follow their way wa-bi-hadyihi iqtadā khalafuhum.
كُلُّ نَفْسٍ ذَائِقَةُ الْمَوْتِ ۗ وَإِنَّمَا تُوَفَّوْنَ أُجُورَكُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ ۖ فَمَنْ زُحْزِحَ عَنِ النَّارِ وَأُدْخِلَ الْجَنَّةَ فَقَدْ فَازَ ۗ وَمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا إِلَّا مَتَاعُ الْغُرُورِ
📘 Every soul shall taste of death; you shall surely be paid in full your wages on the Day of Resurrection. Whoever is moved away from the fire and admitted to paradise will have triumphed the life of this world is but the comfort of delusion. That is �The cup of death is placed in the palm of every living being. Whoever's soul nafs finds it sweet and agreeable-I bequeath to him the intoxication of ecstatic finding wajd. Whoever swallows it with a frowning face falls into the abyss of rejection radd and is branded by the burning of obstruction ṣadd. Then [there is the Day] of the Resurrection. Whoever is protected from the fire reaches the greatest repose waṣala ilā l-rāḥati al-kubrā and whoever is made to burn in the blazing fire falls into the greatest tribulation waqaʿa fī l-miḥnati al-kubrā.� The life of this world is but the comfort of delusion because what is coming is nigh.
۞ لَتُبْلَوُنَّ فِي أَمْوَالِكُمْ وَأَنْفُسِكُمْ وَلَتَسْمَعُنَّ مِنَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ وَمِنَ الَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا أَذًى كَثِيرًا ۚ وَإِنْ تَصْبِرُوا وَتَتَّقُوا فَإِنَّ ذَٰلِكَ مِنْ عَزْمِ الْأُمُورِ
📘 You shall surely be tried in your property; and in your selves and you shall bear from those who were given the scripture before you and from those who are idolaters much hurt but if you are patient and fear-surely that is true resolve. [God] spared [the believers] from what would have been even greater occa- sions of harm by alerting them before the attacks. He taught them two of the best precepts: to prefer patience and to choose to remain still under the streams of the decrees.
وَإِذْ أَخَذَ اللَّهُ مِيثَاقَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ لَتُبَيِّنُنَّهُ لِلنَّاسِ وَلَا تَكْتُمُونَهُ فَنَبَذُوهُ وَرَاءَ ظُهُورِهِمْ وَاشْتَرَوْا بِهِ ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا ۖ فَبِئْسَ مَا يَشْتَرُونَ
📘 And when God made a covenant with those who had been given the scripture �You shall expound it to people and not conceal it.� But they rejected it behind their backs and bought it with a small price; how evil is what they have bought! [God] said that they had vowed to uphold their agreements but broke the ties of the covenant in turning to disbelief. Then it became clear that what they took as cheap substitutes for leaving religion would have no blessings for them.
لَا تَحْسَبَنَّ الَّذِينَ يَفْرَحُونَ بِمَا أَتَوْا وَيُحِبُّونَ أَنْ يُحْمَدُوا بِمَا لَمْ يَفْعَلُوا فَلَا تَحْسَبَنَّهُمْ بِمَفَازَةٍ مِنَ الْعَذَابِ ۖ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
📘 Do not reckon that those who rejoice in what they have brought and who love to be praised for what they have not done-do not reckon them secure from the chastisement; there shall be a painful chastisement for them. Surely those whose hearts look only to created beings and whose innermost secrets regard only [created beings]-do not think that their punishment will be delayed to the Day of Resurrection. No they are not secure from the punishment in the here and now. What punishment is more intense than being thrown back to created beings khalq and veiled from the Real ḥaqqḍ
وَلِلَّهِ مُلْكُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
📘 To God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and God has power over all things. This verse alludes to [God's] lack of need for anyone in existence. How could He have any need of themḍ But they [on the other hand] will find no one to stand in for Him and no substitute for Him.
إِنَّ الدِّينَ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ الْإِسْلَامُ ۗ وَمَا اخْتَلَفَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ إِلَّا مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَهُمُ الْعِلْمُ بَغْيًا بَيْنَهُمْ ۗ وَمَنْ يَكْفُرْ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ سَرِيعُ الْحِسَابِ
📘 Surely the religion with God is the submission. The approved religion-by which people look up to God in servanthood, worship Him according to His decree, seek for His approval, and go back to Him-is the religion of the submission. The submission has three way stations. The first way station is the acknowledgment that spares blood and wealth: the person's neck is safe from the sword and his wealth is left with him, whether he is a conformer or a hypocrite, a follower or an innovator. The next way station is the acknowledgment that is right belief, following the Sunnah, and the loyalty of deeds. The third way station of submission is surrender, which is the utmost end of the work. It is pleasing to God and is the refuge of recognition. It is to throw oneself on the Real's exalted thresh- old and follow Him, approving of His decree, not protesting against it or turning away from it, and having reverence and respect for it. What Abraham asked for himself and Ishmael in his supplica- tion-that they be submitters-is the utmost end of this third way station: “Our Lord, make us submitters to Thee!” [2:128]. This is the same as when it was said to him, “Submit!,” he said, “I submit to the Lord of the worlds” [2:131]. It is also alluded to in His words telling about Joseph: “Receive me as a submitter and join me with the wholesome” [12:101].
إِنَّ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلَافِ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ لَآيَاتٍ لِأُولِي الْأَلْبَابِ
📘 Surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth and in the alterna- tion of night and day there are signs for people of pith. Those who remember God standing and sitting and on their sides The signs which the Real ������ presents to ordinary people are from the lessons and the vestiges [of people gone by] in the regions [of the heavens and the earth]. The signs which He presents to the elect are within their souls. [God] ������ said �We shall show them Our signs in the horizons and in their own souls� [41:53]. The outer signs lead to the knowledge of certainty ʿilm al-yaqīn while the inner signs lead to the eye of certainty ʿayn al-yaqīn. The alternation ikhtilāf of night and day alludes to the different responses ikhtilāf to the night among the servants. The nights of the people of communion are short and the nights of the people of separation are long. [Someone] said: Months pass- we have not noticed their midpoints nor their ends. And he said: For you morning is drunkenness and the night a hangover. You slept even as the days of happiness were short. A second [poet] said: After they departed the nights were long in so many ways- [once short] the night of the lovers is [now] long. A third [poet] had nothing to say about the length or brevity of the night for he said because of what had overwhelmed him: How should I know whether the night was long or notḍ How can one who is on fire know thatḍ If I had paid attention to the length of the night I would have been deprived of watching the stars. For people of pith: The people of pith ulū l-albāb are those whose intellects have been kept sound from the drunkenness of forgetfulness and inattention. The sign of one like this is that his gaze will be through the Real. When he gazes from the Real to the Real his gaze is in the right direction. But when he gazes from created beings and things to the Real his thoughts are thrown into upheaval which causes a state of confusion. Those who remember God standing and sitting: Remembrance dhikr permeates their every moment. If they stand it is in remembrance of Him.
الَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ اللَّهَ قِيَامًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىٰ جُنُوبِهِمْ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقْتَ هَٰذَا بَاطِلًا سُبْحَانَكَ فَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ
📘 Who remember God, standing and sitting and on their sides, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth. Those who remember are three: One remembers God with the tongue and is heedless with the heart. This is the remembrance of the wrongdoer, who is aware neither of the remembrance nor of the Remembered. Another remembers Him with the tongue and is present with the heart. This is the remem- brance of the moderate and the state of the wage-earner. He is seeking reward and excused in his seeking. The third remembers Him with the heart; the heart is filled with Him, and his tongue is silent in remembrance. “When someone recognizes God, his tongue is mute.” This is the remembrance of the preceder. His tongue is lost in the remembrance, and the remembrance is lost in the Remem- bered. The heart is lost in love, and love in the Light. The spirit is lost in face-to-face vision, and face-to-face vision is far from explication. Remembrance set a trap whose bait was jealousy. The wage-earner saw the trap and fled, the recognizer saw the bait and clung to the trap. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “Remembrance is not simply what you have on the tongue. True remembrance is what you have in the midst of the spirit. TawḤīd is not simply that you know that He is one. True tawḤīd is that you be one for Him and a stranger to other than Him.” And reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth. Abū ʿAlī Daqqāq asked Abū ʿAbd al-RaḤmān Sulamī whether remembrance was more complete or reflection. Abū ʿAbd al-RaḤmān answered, “Remembrance is more complete than reflection because remembrance is an attribute of the Real and reflection an attribute of creation. That by which the Real is described is more complete than that which is specific to creation.” Reflecting for the heart is like sniffing for the breath. Reflecting on one's own deeds and words is mandatory, on the artifacts of the Artisan recommended, and on the Artisan's Essence for- bidden. In the report has come, “Do not reflect upon God, for surely you are not able to judge His measure.” He is saying: “Do not reflect on God's Essence, for you will not reach His measure, nor will you recognize Him as is proper to Him, nor will you perceive the foundations of His majesty and tremendousness. ” This is not because His majesty is hidden from the creatures. No, rather, it is extremely manifest and clear, but the insight of the Adamite is extremely weak and incapable, so he does not have the capacity to perceive it. On the contrary, he becomes confounded, bewildered, and perplexed. He is like a bat that does not come out in daytime because its eyes are weak, for it does not have the capacity for sunlight. But this indeed is the degree of the common people. As for the great ones and the sincerely truthful, sometimes they have the strength for this gaze, but not continuously. They are like people who can take one look at the sun's disk, but not more than one look, for if they continue to look, there is fear that they will go blind. So, if someone wants to reflect, he does so on the wonders of His artisanry, for everything in existence is one of the lights of the Real's power and tremendousness. If someone does not have the capacity to look at the sun's disk continuously, he does have the capacity to look at rays of light upon the earth, and from them nothing increases but brightness and knowledge.
رَبَّنَا إِنَّكَ مَنْ تُدْخِلِ النَّارَ فَقَدْ أَخْزَيْتَهُ ۖ وَمَا لِلظَّالِمِينَ مِنْ أَنْصَارٍ
📘 Our Lord whomever You admit into the fire You will have abased and the evildoers shall have no helpers. �Whomever You put to the test in the future by burning ḥurqa You will have abased him. And whomever you put to the test by separation furqa in the present you will have made him miserable. Whomever you have entrusted with the good fortune of communion wuṣla You will have sheltered him and brought him close.�
رَبَّنَا إِنَّنَا سَمِعْنَا مُنَادِيًا يُنَادِي لِلْإِيمَانِ أَنْ آمِنُوا بِرَبِّكُمْ فَآمَنَّا ۚ رَبَّنَا فَاغْفِرْ لَنَا ذُنُوبَنَا وَكَفِّرْ عَنَّا سَيِّئَاتِنَا وَتَوَفَّنَا مَعَ الْأَبْرَارِ
📘 �Our Lord we have heard a caller calling to belief saying 'Believe in your Lord!' And we believed. So our Lord forgive us our sins and absolve us of our evil deeds and take us [in death] with the pious. It means �We have answered the caller dāʿī but You are the guide hādī so do not leave us to ourselves and do not raise the shadow of your care from us.� Faith īmān is entering into that which brings security amān and one only has faith in the Real from the Real granting him security. The security of the Real for the servant which is His granting him protection brings about the faith of the servant in the Real which is his affirmation taṣdīq of Him and his deep recognition maʿrifa of Him. And take us [in death] with the pious: They are those chosen for the proper ways of declaring oneness ḥaqāÌiq al-tawḥīd those who stand for God [according] to the conditions of utter devotion sharāÌiṬ al-tafrīd and stay with God by the special characteristics of disengaging [from anything other than Him] khaṣāÌiṣ al-tajrīd.
رَبَّنَا وَآتِنَا مَا وَعَدْتَنَا عَلَىٰ رُسُلِكَ وَلَا تُخْزِنَا يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ ۗ إِنَّكَ لَا تُخْلِفُ الْمِيعَادَ
📘 Our Lord, and give us what Thou hast promised us through Thy messengers. O Lord, bring to pass the promise that You Yourself made, bring to fruit the tree that You Yourself planted, brighten the lamp that You Yourself lit, and keep the blight of us away from the love that You gave by Your own bounty. O Lord, we are happy that You were and we were not. Your work caught on and ours did not. You put forth Your own worth, You sent Your own Messenger. O Lord, You lifted us up and no one said, “Lift up!” Now that You have lifted up, don't put down! Keep us in the shadow of gentleness and entrust us to none but Your bounty! If You water, You Yourself planted. If You flatten the foundation, You Yourself raised it. I the servant am just what You fancied. Don't throw me down-You lifted me up.
فَاسْتَجَابَ لَهُمْ رَبُّهُمْ أَنِّي لَا أُضِيعُ عَمَلَ عَامِلٍ مِنْكُمْ مِنْ ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنْثَىٰ ۖ بَعْضُكُمْ مِنْ بَعْضٍ ۖ فَالَّذِينَ هَاجَرُوا وَأُخْرِجُوا مِنْ دِيَارِهِمْ وَأُوذُوا فِي سَبِيلِي وَقَاتَلُوا وَقُتِلُوا لَأُكَفِّرَنَّ عَنْهُمْ سَيِّئَاتِهِمْ وَلَأُدْخِلَنَّهُمْ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ ثَوَابًا مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّهِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عِنْدَهُ حُسْنُ الثَّوَابِ
📘 And their Lord responded to them, “I will not waste the deed of any doer among you, male or female. The one of you is as the other. And those who emigrated, were expelled from their homes, were tormented in My path, who fought and were killed, I shall surely acquit them of their ugly deeds and enter them into Gardens under which rivers flow, a reward from God.” This is loyalty to the promise that He gave to the faithful: “Supplicate Me; I will respond to you” [40:60]. The verification of this loyalty is that He responded to the caller, He bestowed upon the asker, He assisted the striver, He gave increase to the grateful, He bestowed insight on the patient, He rewarded the obedient, He absolved the disobedient, He had mercy on the regretful, He honored the lover, He gave vision to the yearner. The command came, “O MuḤammad! There is no reason for despair. In triumph the work of the servant is not outside of three traits: If he is obedient, then his reward is in place. If he is dis- obedient, then your intercession is in place. And no matter how much he is held back, My mercy toward him is in place.” If I wipe clean all the sins of the creatures, what will be lost from My kingdom? A handful of clay. And those who emigrated, were expelled from their homes, were tormented in My path, who fought and were killed. This is the attribute of the friends, the custom of the yearners, the story of those who gamble away their spirits, and the final outcome of the work of the passionate: They have given away their hearts and gambled away their spirits. Wounded by the arrow of trial, their status and respect overthrown by the sword of the decree, they have been exiled from their homes and families. Totally effaced in the ocean of thought, of themselves they recite for all, “No home, no possessions.” Sometimes burning and melting, sometimes weeping and wailing, they see the burn but not the burner, they see the tumult but not the tumult-inciter, they see the pain but not the remedy. What is even more wondrous is that they are happy with their pain and lament at the lack of pain.
لَا يَغُرَّنَّكَ تَقَلُّبُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا فِي الْبِلَادِ
📘 Let it not delude you that the disbelievers go to and fro in the land a little enjoyment; then their abode is hell-an evil cradling! �Do not let any doubt seize you thinking that they have any value or worth with Us. Rather the days are few and breaths limited. Afterward there will be grief upon grief ḥasarāt mutarādifa and sorrow upon sorrow aḥzān mutaḌāʿifa.�
مَتَاعٌ قَلِيلٌ ثُمَّ مَأْوَاهُمْ جَهَنَّمُ ۚ وَبِئْسَ الْمِهَادُ
📘 Let it not delude you that the disbelievers go to and fro in the land a little enjoyment; then their abode is hell-an evil cradling! �Do not let any doubt seize you thinking that they have any value or worth with Us. Rather the days are few and breaths limited. Afterward there will be grief upon grief ḥasarāt mutarādifa and sorrow upon sorrow aḥzān mutaḌāʿifa.�
لَٰكِنِ الَّذِينَ اتَّقَوْا رَبَّهُمْ لَهُمْ جَنَّاتٌ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا نُزُلًا مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّهِ ۗ وَمَا عِنْدَ اللَّهِ خَيْرٌ لِلْأَبْرَارِ
📘 But those who fear their Lord-for them shall be gardens underneath which rivers flow abiding therein; a hospitality from God Himself. That which is with God is better for the pious. �The state of those whom we have branded with the ignominy of separation is wretched while the state and intimacy of those whom We have raised in degrees for Our sake is blessed.� They attain the lasting reward waṣalū ilā l-thawābi al-muqīm and remain in communion and felicity wa-baqū fī l-wuṣlati wa-l-naʿīm. What God has stored away for them is better than what they had hoped for by their own choosing.
وَإِنَّ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ لَمَنْ يُؤْمِنُ بِاللَّهِ وَمَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْكُمْ وَمَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْهِمْ خَاشِعِينَ لِلَّهِ لَا يَشْتَرُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا ۗ أُولَٰئِكَ لَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ سَرِيعُ الْحِسَابِ
📘 Verily there are some among the people of the scripture who believe in God and what has been revealed to you and what has been revealed to them humble before God not purchasing with the verses of God a small price. Those-their wage is with their Lord. God is swift at reckoning. He means those who have been favored by a beautiful destiny-they are with the friends of God in being blessed fa-hum maʿa awliyāÌ Allāh niʿmatan just as they are with them in their destiny kamā kānū maʿahum qismatan.
اللَّهُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ
📘 God! There is no god except Him the Living the Eternal. He is the One who is not diverted so as to be too busy for you nor is He inattentive so that you are left without Him. He is the attentive observer raqībover all of the states of your innermost self. If you are alone He is watchful over you. If you are in the midst of human beings He is watch- ful over you. In sum however your states circle around you He is your Beloved ḥabīb.
فَإِنْ حَاجُّوكَ فَقُلْ أَسْلَمْتُ وَجْهِيَ لِلَّهِ وَمَنِ اتَّبَعَنِ ۗ وَقُلْ لِلَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ وَالْأُمِّيِّينَ أَأَسْلَمْتُمْ ۚ فَإِنْ أَسْلَمُوا فَقَدِ اهْتَدَوْا ۖ وَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَإِنَّمَا عَلَيْكَ الْبَلَاغُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ بَصِيرٌ بِالْعِبَادِ
📘 So if they dispute with you say: �I have surrendered my countenance to God and whoever follows me�: and say to those who have been given the scripture and to the uninstructed: �Have you submittedḍ� And so if they have submitted they have been guided but if they turn their backs your duty is only to deliver; and God sees His servants. �Look at them through the eye of [God's] free disposal taṣrīf so that your state does not become unsettled at the differences and the disparity of their stages. One who looks at created beings through the eye of [God's] delib- erative power qudra knows that the One who determines for all based on what He has chosen for each is One. Call them publicly when in public and bear witness privately to Our free disposal taṣrīf with regard to them when in private.� Occupy your tongue by counseling them but empty your heart of their talk and separate your innermost self from witnessing them for We have not charged you with their affairs [but only] with deliver[ing] [the message]. The One who brings about affairs and originates is Us.�
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اصْبِرُوا وَصَابِرُوا وَرَابِطُوا وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
📘 O you who have faith! Be patient, vie in patience, be steadfast, and be wary of God. Perhaps you will prosper. This again is another balm, another caress, a call of bounteousness, an address of generosity, and it gives witness to the servant's faith and obedience. Be patient is addressed to the soul, vie in pa- tience to the heart, and be steadfast to the spirit. He says to the soul, “Be patient in obedience and service.” He says to the heart, “Be patient in trial and adversity. He says to the spirit, “Be patient with the burn of yearning and the pain of love.” And God it is who is patient. If like Joseph you want to come out of this prison, be patient like Zulaykhā in the pain of distance from Joseph. It has also been said, “Be patient in God, vie in patience through God, and be steadfast with God.” Patience in God is the patience of the worshipers in the station of service with the hope of reward. Patience through God is the patience of the recognizers in the station of honoring with the hope of union. Patience with God is the patience of the lovers in the state of contemplation at the moment of self-disclosure, when they are looking with gazing eyes, their hearts bewildered in what is seen, their spirits lamenting at the hand of love. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, everyone is burning in separation, but the lover in vi- sion. Now that he has come to see the Friend, what does the lover have to do with patience and settledness?” And be wary of God. Godwariness is a tree whose roots are in the earth of loyalty, its branches in the air of approval, its water from the wellspring of limpidness. It is not reached by the heat of regret, nor the cold of quenching, nor the wind of farness, nor the blight of scatteredness. The fruit it brings forth is the fruit of triumph, endless prosperity, everlasting worthiness, subsistent bliss, and the kingdom of forever. This is why the Lord of the Worlds says, “Perhaps you will prosper.” The Prophet said, “You should be wary of God, for this brings together every good; you should have struggle, for it is the submitter's monasticism; and you should have the remembrance of God, for it is your light.”
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَكْفُرُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَيَقْتُلُونَ النَّبِيِّينَ بِغَيْرِ حَقٍّ وَيَقْتُلُونَ الَّذِينَ يَأْمُرُونَ بِالْقِسْطِ مِنَ النَّاسِ فَبَشِّرْهُمْ بِعَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ
📘 Those who disbelieve in the signs of God and slay the prophets without right and slay those who enjoin to equity. So give them good tidings of a painful chastisement. �Those whom We have bound to disappointment khidhlān and branded with the state of deprivation ḥirmān-tell them that Our turning away from them is perpetual and that We have already determined their transference from one abode of disgrace hawān to another from disap- pointment khidhlān and deprivation ḥirmān to punishment and fires nīrān.�
أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ حَبِطَتْ أَعْمَالُهُمْ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ وَمَا لَهُمْ مِنْ نَاصِرِينَ
📘 Those are the ones whose works have failed in this world and the here- after; they have no helpers. Those are the ones for whom no success is granted in their works tawfīq bi-aʿmāl today nor realization of their hopes taḥqīq li-āmāl tomorrow. That is only because they have lost Our help in both abodes and did not bear witness to Our might and power.
أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا نَصِيبًا مِنَ الْكِتَابِ يُدْعَوْنَ إِلَىٰ كِتَابِ اللَّهِ لِيَحْكُمَ بَيْنَهُمْ ثُمَّ يَتَوَلَّىٰ فَرِيقٌ مِنْهُمْ وَهُمْ مُعْرِضُونَ
📘 Have you not seen those who were given a portion of the Book being called to the Book of God that it might decide between them and then a party of them turned away yatawallā opposedḍ [This means] �We have tested you with calling those whom We already know will not answer. So be patient with what you have been commanded regarding them. Know the misfortune of their states. They are the people who turn away ahl al-tawallī from answering ijāba because they have been deprived of the beauty of divine self-disclosure ḥusn al-tajallī by Our prior will irāda.�
ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَالُوا لَنْ تَمَسَّنَا النَّارُ إِلَّا أَيَّامًا مَعْدُودَاتٍ ۖ وَغَرَّهُمْ فِي دِينِهِمْ مَا كَانُوا يَفْتَرُونَ
📘 That because they said �the fire shall not touch us except for a number of days�; and the lies they used to invent have deluded them in their religion. We have punished them in this world drawing them on by degrees bi-l- istidrāj until they [presume to] determine salvation and the lessening of punishment for themselves but they will come to know the doubling of affliction upon them. They think they understand something but they tell a lie. Those in error think that [what they have said] is a determination ḥukm.
فَكَيْفَ إِذَا جَمَعْنَاهُمْ لِيَوْمٍ لَا رَيْبَ فِيهِ وَوُفِّيَتْ كُلُّ نَفْسٍ مَا كَسَبَتْ وَهُمْ لَا يُظْلَمُونَ
📘 But how will it be when We gather them for a day of which there is no doubt and every soul shall be paid in full what it has earned and they shall not be wrongedḍ This address is remarkable because by it He gives information about the imposing grandeur and intensity of the [Day of Gathering] at which point the intellects [of those who turned away] will be perplexed their innermost selves astonished their pretensions cut off their hearts torn from their hidden places and [their souls] will rise to their collar bones. Then there will be what will meet them from the reckoning and censure al-ḥisāb wa-l- ʿitāb the torment and punishment al-ʿadhāb wa-l-ʿiqāb and the lack of honoring and approval ʿadam al-ikrām wa-l-ījāb etc. The resurrection of the disbelievers will take place on the Day of Gathering while the resurrection of the lovers takes place in the present moment; to explain this fully would take a long time.
قُلِ اللَّهُمَّ مَالِكَ الْمُلْكِ تُؤْتِي الْمُلْكَ مَنْ تَشَاءُ وَتَنْزِعُ الْمُلْكَ مِمَّنْ تَشَاءُ وَتُعِزُّ مَنْ تَشَاءُ وَتُذِلُّ مَنْ تَشَاءُ ۖ بِيَدِكَ الْخَيْرُ ۖ إِنَّكَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
📘 Say: �O God Allāhumma Master of the kingdom Allāhumma: Its meaning is �O God yā Allāh.� The letter mīm at the end of the word is a substitute for the vocative particle yā. This is a teaching of the Real on how to praise the Real that is �describe Me as I should be described in exalted measure� by saying: �O Master of the kingdom there is no associate to You no assistant no helper no companion no partner to You in essence no sharer in the kingdom no competitor in creating.� you give the kingdom to whom You will and seize the kingdom from whom You will; �... so that we will know that You are the King.� Among created beings the king is he before whom one is humbled and the kingdom that is seized is the kingdom of those who are haughty toward him. [In a similar manner] created beings are beautified tajammul by abasing themselves tadhallul60 before the Real. Their honor and might ʿizz61 is in their effacement maḥw in Him and their remaining baqāÌ is in their annihilation fanāÌ in Him. You exalt tuʿizzu whom You will by the might ʿizz of Your essence. and You abase tudhillu whom You will; by Your forsaking. You exalt whom you will guiding him to witness You and declare Your oneness and You abase whom You will such that he denies You and is deprived of You. You exalt whom you will with the good fortune of Your drawing near and You abase whom You will by the estrangement of Your turning away. You exalt whom You will by bringing him to intimacy with You and You abase whom You will by estranging him from You. You exalt whom You will by occupying him with You and You abase whom You will by distracting him from You. You exalt whom You will by eliminating the controlling elements of his lower self and You abase whom You will by giving the upper hand to its clamor. You exalt whom You will by the gleams of the rising Ṭawāliʿ of his intimacy [with You] and You abase whom You will by the night visitors Ṭawāriq of his lower self. You exalt whom You will by expanding basṬ him through You and You abase whom You will by constricting qabḌ him from You.
تُولِجُ اللَّيْلَ فِي النَّهَارِ وَتُولِجُ النَّهَارَ فِي اللَّيْلِ ۖ وَتُخْرِجُ الْحَيَّ مِنَ الْمَيِّتِ وَتُخْرِجُ الْمَيِّتَ مِنَ الْحَيِّ ۖ وَتَرْزُقُ مَنْ تَشَاءُ بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ
📘 You make the night pass into the day and You make the day to pass into the night; You bring forth the living from the dead and You bring forth the dead from the living You provide whom You will without reckoning. You make the night pass into the day such that the authority of the light of unity tawḥīd prevails and nothing remains of the traces of the lower self and its darknesses. You make the day pass into the night so that it is as if the suns of the hearts were eclipsed or as if the night continued and the morning never came. You bring forth the living from the dead such that it is as if listlessness was no more and the pledge of union returned as a youth and the prom- ises of hearts became young and fresh. You bring forth the dead from the living such that it is as if the tree of discontent sprouted and blossomed thorns and as if the hopeless found nothing good and could not smell [the fragrance] and their hearts and eyes were confounded just as they did not believe in it the first time [6:110]. You provide whom You will without reckoning such that there is no labor kadd no exertion jahd no sweat on the brow jabīn and no toil of the right hand yamīn. His night is refreshment and repose rāḥa and His day is joy and delight bahja. His hours are special gifts karāmāt and His moments are ways of drawing near qurubāt. The different kinds of acts of His favoring cannot be enumerated by the tongue lisān and the inquiry into their full depth cannot be given expression or explanation bayān. But in the glimmers we have given here there is some indication of how to speak of this. It is said that when He said �and seize the kingdom from whom You will� [3:26] anyone who thinks that he is a king [experiences] a rude awakening from [his] drunken intoxication because he now sees [that] his kingdom is vulnerable to extinction and [he] knows that abasing himself to [God] in preserving His kingdom is worthier than vainglorious delusion and pomposity. It is said that the king-in the true sense of the word-is someone who is not distracted by anything from witnessing the One who is the real King.
لَا يَتَّخِذِ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ الْكَافِرِينَ أَوْلِيَاءَ مِنْ دُونِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ ۖ وَمَنْ يَفْعَلْ ذَٰلِكَ فَلَيْسَ مِنَ اللَّهِ فِي شَيْءٍ إِلَّا أَنْ تَتَّقُوا مِنْهُمْ تُقَاةً ۗ وَيُحَذِّرُكُمُ اللَّهُ نَفْسَهُ ۗ وَإِلَى اللَّهِ الْمَصِيرُ
📘 Let not the faithful take the disbelievers as friends instead of the faithful…. And God warns you of Himself, and God is clement to the servants. The reality of the servant's faith and the final goal of his traveling on the path of tawḤīd takes him back to God's friendship. The reality of friendship is conformity, that is, being a friend of His friend and an enemy of His enemy. The master of the Shariah alluded to this with his words, “The most reliable handhold of faith is love in God and hate in God.” The traditions say that the Lord of the Worlds sent a revelation to one of the former prophets: “Say to the servants, 'In this world you have taken up renunciation in order to hurry to your own comfort and be relieved of this world's suffering. With your obedience and worship you have sought your own exaltation and your own good name. Now look: What have you done for Me? Have you ever loved My friends? Have you ever taken My enemies as your enemies?” This is exactly what He said to Jesus: “O Jesus, if the worship of all the inhabitants of heaven and earth accompanies you in the path of the religion, but you have no love for My friends and no enmity for My enemies, then your worship has been useless and without profit.” It is reported that Abū Idrīs Khawlānī said to Muʿādh, “I love you in the path of God.” Muʿādh said, “Let it be good news! I heard God's Messenger say that on the Day of Resurrec- tion, God will place seats around the Splendorous Throne for a group whose faces will be like the full moon. Everyone will be fearful because of the awe of the resurrection, but they will be secure. Everyone will be in dread, but they will be still. It was said, 'O Messenger of God! Which group is this?' “He said, 'Those who love each other in God.'” It has also been related that God says, “I have obligated My love on those who love each other in Me, sit with each other in Me, visit each other in Me, and spend freely on each other in Me.” Mujāhid said, “When God's friends smile in each other's faces, their sins fall away like leaves from a tree.
قُلْ إِنْ تُخْفُوا مَا فِي صُدُورِكُمْ أَوْ تُبْدُوهُ يَعْلَمْهُ اللَّهُ ۗ وَيَعْلَمُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
📘 Say: �Whether you hide what is in your breasts or disclose it God knows it and knows what is in the heavens and what is in the earth; and God is Able to do all things.� There is nothing that escapes His knowledge so do not be grieved by any calamity that afflicts you. Soon He will bring you succor and response and soon the affliction and trial will disappear. He will hasten [His] assistance and protection.
نَزَّلَ عَلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ بِالْحَقِّ مُصَدِّقًا لِمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ وَأَنْزَلَ التَّوْرَاةَ وَالْإِنْجِيلَ
📘 He has revealed to you the Book by the truth �You did not know O Muḥammad what the Book was nor the story of the lovers. But a matter of pre-eternal choosing came suddenly upon you and cast you into an amazing affair its proof sublime its place of descent and occurrence precious.� confirming what was before it that is verifying His promise to you in the books that came through the prophets [���� ������]. and He revealed the Torah and the Gospel before as guidance to people and He revealed the criterion. That is to say �Even though We revealed Our books to the messengers before you We did not omit the remembrance dhikr of you from any book.� The one who spoke for them said: With me from our absent beloveds are pages. The remembrance of you is their title page. �Just as We have extended the lights of the prophets through you We have adorned all that We have revealed in remembrances with your remembrance.� As for those who disbelieve in God's signs for them awaits a terrible chastisement. [The chastisement] is the ignominy of the veil but they do not perceive [this]. God is Precious ʿazīz to His friends Lord of Retribution to His enemies. Everyone seeks what is precious but most do not find it.
يَوْمَ تَجِدُ كُلُّ نَفْسٍ مَا عَمِلَتْ مِنْ خَيْرٍ مُحْضَرًا وَمَا عَمِلَتْ مِنْ سُوءٍ تَوَدُّ لَوْ أَنَّ بَيْنَهَا وَبَيْنَهُ أَمَدًا بَعِيدًا ۗ وَيُحَذِّرُكُمُ اللَّهُ نَفْسَهُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ رَءُوفٌ بِالْعِبَادِ
📘 On the day when every soul shall find the good it has done made present, and the ugly it has done. It will wish that there were a far interval between itself and that. God warns you of Himself, and God is clement to the servants. He said this here so that the servant would fall into changing states-sometimes fear, sometimes hope; sometimes contraction, sometimes expansion; sometimes harshness, sometimes generosity. The severity and harshness of God warns you about Himself throws the servant into confounded- ness and bewilderment and he becomes selfless of self. Then He caresses: “And God is clement to the servants.” He sits him on the ship of gentleness and takes him from the whirlpool of con- foundedness to the shore of intimacy. One of the pirs among the great ones of the religion said, “I wonder if I will ever escape the whirlpool of self in the ship of deliverance. Will the hand of compassion ever take my hand among the waves of wishes? Will the proof of unity ever lift the veil of dispersion from before my eyes? Will this heart ever come to rest in this body?” In the road of avarice the purses of a hundred thousand merchants have been emptied of pure gold in search of this alchemy. [DS 210]
قُلْ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللَّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللَّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
📘 Say: If you love God, follow me; God will love you and forgive you your sins. In terms of the Haqiqah this verse has another intimation and another taste. He is saying: “Who- ever has fervor in his breast because of these words, say to him: 'Come out in my tracks, for all the work has been made ready in my footsteps. Do not bind your heart to intellect, for intellect is a watchman, not a leader to whom the reins should be given. It is not a road that you should set out in. Do not seek what you are seeking from intellect, seek it from prophethood. Intellect carries the saddle-cloth of the religion's ruling. The exalted magnificence of the religion does not fit into the scales of intellect, nor does it come under the confines of substance and accident.'” Our religion is the same as the religion of the 124,000 prophets and messengers. The testi- mony of the Qur'an contains these words, for He says, “He has set down for you as the religion that with which He counseled Noah” and so on [42:13]. That which holds up the level of our religion is two things: “God said” and “God's Messenger said.” If everything that is the basis of the religion of the innovators-the substances, accidents, and specific differences of the Kalam experts and the determinations of their intellects-suddenly ceased to be in creation, came to nothing, and entered into the concealment of nonexistence, not an iota of deficiency would reach the threshold of the religion's exaltedness or the gate of the Sun- nah's tremendousness. By the decree of good fortune this address has come from the Exalted Lord to the folk of the Sunnah: “Today I have perfected your religion for you and I have completed My blessings upon you” [5:3]. Here there is no room for the Kalam of the theologians and the med- dling of the philosophizers, nor for their explanations of substance and accident. The path of Kalam is the path of shadows, and the worst shadows are the shadows of Kalam. You should take the road of the folk of Hadith- it is enough to have MuṣṬafā as imam. Put away confusion, for this is “the religion of old women.” You should have that, and the religion of servants. Say: If you love God, follow me. “Many thousands of years before the existence of the world and of Adam's dust, We gathered together the spirits of the creatures and made a covenant with the spirits of the prophets and messengers: 'Say: If you love God, follow me.' Whoever wants to serve the threshold of that chieftain of the empire and that center point of good fortune, from now on let him tighten his belt in serving him and assent to be his helper. This is why the Lord of the worlds recounted from them, 'They said, “We assent.” He said, “So bear witness”' [3:81]. Then We took them all at once to the concealment of nonexistence. We took a few breaths in the playing field of power and decree, and one by one We gave them entrance into this world. Adam came and went, Abraham came and went, Moses came and went, Jesus came and went. In the same way, many thousands of prophets entered the dust. Then We called out, 'O MuḤammad! Now the playing field is empty, and the moment is yours.'” That master took a step into the empire, and fourteen battlements fell from the castle of Caesar. In the Kaabah there were 360 idols and all of them fell on their faces. From the four corners of the world the call arose, “The truth has come, and falsehood has vanished away” [17:81]. The pearl of prophethood settled down on the carpet of exaltedness and the pavilion of messengerhood was pitched on the face of the earth, its ropes reaching from the east to the west of the world. The mask was lifted from the face of beauty, and because of the scattering of sweet words the world was filled with pearls and gems and adorned and trimmed with the noble character traits of the noble. Thus he said, “I was sent out with the all-comprehensive words to complete the noble character traits.” As soon as he lifted the mask from the face of his sanctified spirit, every possessor of eyes detached spirit from heart. In the whole ocean of love he saw no one's mark- he opened one shell, and the ocean was filled with pearls. Say: If you love God. The beginning of this verse goes back to what the Folk of the Tariqah call togetherness and dispersion. You love God is dispersion, and God will love you is togetherness.
قُلْ أَطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَالرَّسُولَ ۖ فَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ الْكَافِرِينَ
📘 Say: �Obey God and the Messenger.� But if they turn their backs God loves not the disbelievers. He commanded them to obedience and then He said �But if they turn their backs� that is fall short in obedience by opposing [God's command] then God loves not the disbelievers. He did not say �the disobedient� ʿāṣūn but rather �the disbelievers� kāfirūn so the address indicates that He loves the believers even if they are disobedient.
۞ إِنَّ اللَّهَ اصْطَفَىٰ آدَمَ وَنُوحًا وَآلَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَآلَ عِمْرَانَ عَلَى الْعَالَمِينَ
📘 Lo! God preferred Adam and Noah and the house of Abraham and the house of ʿImrān above the worlds the seed of one another; God is Hearer Knower. Adam and his seed are made of the same substance but the characteristic of being chosen iṣṬifāÌ is something that comes from [God] not through lineage or relation.
ذُرِّيَّةً بَعْضُهَا مِنْ بَعْضٍ ۗ وَاللَّهُ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ
📘 Lo! God preferred Adam and Noah and the house of Abraham and the house of ʿImrān above the worlds the seed of one another; God is Hearer Knower. Adam and his seed are made of the same substance but the characteristic of being chosen iṣṬifāÌ is something that comes from [God] not through lineage or relation.
إِذْ قَالَتِ امْرَأَتُ عِمْرَانَ رَبِّ إِنِّي نَذَرْتُ لَكَ مَا فِي بَطْنِي مُحَرَّرًا فَتَقَبَّلْ مِنِّي ۖ إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ
📘 When the wife of ʿImrān said �Lord I have vowed to You what is within my womb as a consecration muḥarraran. Accept this from me. Lo! It is You who are the Hearer Knower. [3:36] And when she gave birth to her she said �Lord I have given birth to a female�-and God knew very well what she had given birth to-the male is not as the female. �And I have named her Mary and commend her to You with her seed to protect them from the accursed Satan.� The one who is consecrated muḥarrar is someone who is not in bondage to any created being. The Real ������ in His prior decree has emancipated such a person from the bondage of preoccupation [with anything other than the Real] in all aspects and states. When the mother of Mary made this vow and gave birth to a female she was ashamed. When she saw her she said �Lord I have given birth to a female who cannot be consecrated.� God most high said �and God knew very well what she had given birth to.� By my life the male is not like the female outwardly but when the Real ������ ������ accepted her every miracle appeared from her. When she said �I have vowed to You what is within my womb as a consecration� she added �Accept this from me.� He granted her request and the effects of the acceptance appeared in [Mary] and her son. One set of beings was saved by their story and another was destroyed and expe- rienced a trial fitna because of the two of them. She said �And I have named her Mary and commend her to You with her seed to protect them from the accursed Satan.� She sought protection from God from anything in her words that [might] belong to Satan.
فَلَمَّا وَضَعَتْهَا قَالَتْ رَبِّ إِنِّي وَضَعْتُهَا أُنْثَىٰ وَاللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا وَضَعَتْ وَلَيْسَ الذَّكَرُ كَالْأُنْثَىٰ ۖ وَإِنِّي سَمَّيْتُهَا مَرْيَمَ وَإِنِّي أُعِيذُهَا بِكَ وَذُرِّيَّتَهَا مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ
📘 When the wife of ʿImrān said �Lord I have vowed to You what is within my womb as a consecration muḥarraran. Accept this from me. Lo! It is You who are the Hearer Knower. [3:36] And when she gave birth to her she said �Lord I have given birth to a female�-and God knew very well what she had given birth to-the male is not as the female. �And I have named her Mary and commend her to You with her seed to protect them from the accursed Satan.� The one who is consecrated muḥarrar is someone who is not in bondage to any created being. The Real ������ in His prior decree has emancipated such a person from the bondage of preoccupation [with anything other than the Real] in all aspects and states. When the mother of Mary made this vow and gave birth to a female she was ashamed. When she saw her she said �Lord I have given birth to a female who cannot be consecrated.� God most high said �and God knew very well what she had given birth to.� By my life the male is not like the female outwardly but when the Real ������ ������ accepted her every miracle appeared from her. When she said �I have vowed to You what is within my womb as a consecration� she added �Accept this from me.� He granted her request and the effects of the acceptance appeared in [Mary] and her son. One set of beings was saved by their story and another was destroyed and expe- rienced a trial fitna because of the two of them. She said �And I have named her Mary and commend her to You with her seed to protect them from the accursed Satan.� She sought protection from God from anything in her words that [might] belong to Satan.
فَتَقَبَّلَهَا رَبُّهَا بِقَبُولٍ حَسَنٍ وَأَنْبَتَهَا نَبَاتًا حَسَنًا وَكَفَّلَهَا زَكَرِيَّا ۖ كُلَّمَا دَخَلَ عَلَيْهَا زَكَرِيَّا الْمِحْرَابَ وَجَدَ عِنْدَهَا رِزْقًا ۖ قَالَ يَا مَرْيَمُ أَنَّىٰ لَكِ هَٰذَا ۖ قَالَتْ هُوَ مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّهِ ۖ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَرْزُقُ مَنْ يَشَاءُ بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ
📘 Her Lord accepted the child with gracious acceptance and made her grow excellently and Zachariah took charge of her. He caused [Mary] to attain more than what her mother had wished for. It is said that [God] accepted her with a gracious acceptance qabūl ḥasan by making her unique in obedience to Him and entrusting her with that which He entrusts His friends awliyāÌ-so much so that every person of her time was astonished by the excellence ḥusn of that which He had entrusted to her even though she was a girl. It is said that the gracious acceptance was the excellence ḥusn of [God's] care for her in spite of His ������ knowing what would be said about Him because of her for He is not concerned with the shamefulness of the words of enemies. I find blame in passion for you sweet. Out of love of hearing you mentioned let them blame me. Just as it is said: Let anyone who wishes say what he wishes. I do not care! It is also said that the gracious acceptance was His causing her to grow preserved [from sin and error] ʿiṣma until she said: Lo! I seek refuge in the Compassionate One from you! If you fear God [19:18]. And made her grow excellently until she stood straight in obedience and preferred His ������ good pleasure in every moment and until the fruit from her was such a person as Jesus ���� ������. This was the excellent growth. Zachariah took charge of her and it was part of [God's] gracious acceptance and [His granting her] excellent growth that He made one such as Zachariah ���� ������ among the prophets her guardian and the caretaker and protector of her affairs. God revealed to David ���� ������ �If you see someone seeking me become a servant to him in raÌayta lī Ṭāliban fa-kun lahu khādiman.� Whenever Zachariah went into the sanctuary where she was he found her with provisions. �O Mary� he said�Whence comes this to youḍ� She said �From God. Truly God provides for whomever He will without reckoning.� Among the signs of [God's] gracious acceptance was that she could never be found anywhere except in the sanctuary miḥrāb. Whoever dwells and stays where He is worshiped where the sanctuary is-that is a rare and precious servant.
هُنَالِكَ دَعَا زَكَرِيَّا رَبَّهُ ۖ قَالَ رَبِّ هَبْ لِي مِنْ لَدُنْكَ ذُرِّيَّةً طَيِّبَةً ۖ إِنَّكَ سَمِيعُ الدُّعَاءِ
📘 Then Zachariah prayed to his Lord saying �Lord bestow upon me from You a goodly offspring verily You are the Hearer of supplication.� That is when he saw the special gift karāma of God ������ with her he grew increasingly certain and ever more hopeful so he asked for a son in spite of his advanced age. The granting of his request was a rupture of ordinary reality naqḌ al-ʿāda. It is said that Zachariah ���� ������ asked for a son to help him in obedience and an heir from his progeny in prophethood so that he might uphold the right of God ḥaqq Allāh. So it was a request which deserved to be granted. When a request is for the right of the Real ḥaqq al-ḥaqq and not for the worldly concerns of the lower self ḥaẓẓ al-nafs He will not refuse it. Zachariah ���� ������ saw Mary with summer fruits in the winter and winter fruits in the summer so he asked for a son in his old age so that it might be a sign āya and a miracle muʿjiza.
فَنَادَتْهُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ وَهُوَ قَائِمٌ يُصَلِّي فِي الْمِحْرَابِ أَنَّ اللَّهَ يُبَشِّرُكَ بِيَحْيَىٰ مُصَدِّقًا بِكَلِمَةٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَسَيِّدًا وَحَصُورًا وَنَبِيًّا مِنَ الصَّالِحِينَ
📘 And the angels called to him as he stood praying in the sanctuary at worship When the petitioner asks and remains at the door the request is granted to him. This alludes to the fact that anyone who needs something from kings should remain at the door until the request is granted. It is said that the ruling of God ������ is such that He only responds to the request of those who embrace service khidma to Him and He casts those who turn away from obedience into the lowliness of estrangement. that �God gives you good tidings of John who shall confirm a word from God; a lord and one chaste and a prophet of the righteous.� It is said that he named him John Yaḥyā because of the life ḥayāt of his heart through God. Exegetical writings tell us that the barrenness of his mother was brought to life ḥayy through him. It is said that [the name means] the quickening of life in the heart of one who believes in Him. His saying who shall confirm a word from God Allāh means his con- firmation of the word Allāh by which he worshiped Him or that he was brought into being by the word of God. His saying a lord: The lord is one who is not in bondage to any created thing. He has been freed taḥarrara from captivity to whims and from [captivity to] any created thing. It is said that the lord is someone who has actualized his servanthood ʿubūdiyya to [God] ������. It is said that the lord is the one who is superior to the people of his age and John was such. It is said lord because he did not seek any station for himself nor did he view himself as having any worth. When he dedicated himself in humility to God in every way [God] caused him to rise above the group and made him a lord to all. His saying and one chaste that is liberated from passions and spared from carnal human properties despite being human. It is said that [it means] being protected from the demands of his lower self restrained from that through [his] engagement in exaltation [of God] and seeking to draw near [to Him]. It is said his restraint came from being uprooted by the intuitions of realities coming to him such that he no longer had any preference for worldly things. And a prophet of the righteous that is he was worthy of attaining their rank.
مِنْ قَبْلُ هُدًى لِلنَّاسِ وَأَنْزَلَ الْفُرْقَانَ ۗ إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ شَدِيدٌ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَزِيزٌ ذُو انْتِقَامٍ
📘 He has revealed to you the Book by the truth �You did not know O Muḥammad what the Book was nor the story of the lovers. But a matter of pre-eternal choosing came suddenly upon you and cast you into an amazing affair its proof sublime its place of descent and occurrence precious.� confirming what was before it that is verifying His promise to you in the books that came through the prophets [���� ������]. and He revealed the Torah and the Gospel before as guidance to people and He revealed the criterion. That is to say �Even though We revealed Our books to the messengers before you We did not omit the remembrance dhikr of you from any book.� The one who spoke for them said: With me from our absent beloveds are pages. The remembrance of you is their title page. �Just as We have extended the lights of the prophets through you We have adorned all that We have revealed in remembrances with your remembrance.� As for those who disbelieve in God's signs for them awaits a terrible chastisement. [The chastisement] is the ignominy of the veil but they do not perceive [this]. God is Precious ʿazīz to His friends Lord of Retribution to His enemies. Everyone seeks what is precious but most do not find it.
قَالَ رَبِّ أَنَّىٰ يَكُونُ لِي غُلَامٌ وَقَدْ بَلَغَنِيَ الْكِبَرُ وَامْرَأَتِي عَاقِرٌ ۖ قَالَ كَذَٰلِكَ اللَّهُ يَفْعَلُ مَا يَشَاءُ
📘 He said �My Lord! How shall I have a boy when old age has overtaken me and my wife is barrenḍ� He said 'so it will be.� �God does what He will.� It is said that there was a long time between his petition and the reply and because of that he said �How shall I have a boyḍ� It may mean that he said �By what right would I receive a response [to my prayer] if not by Your favorḍ�93 It may mean that he said �How shall this be: by adoption or sexual procreationḍ� It may mean that [he questioned] whether this was to be from a woman other than his wife since she was [also] of advanced age [that is] from taking a slave as a concubine. So it was said to him �No not through these means for both you and your wife have suffered loneliness together so the good news of the son is for both of you.�
قَالَ رَبِّ اجْعَلْ لِي آيَةً ۖ قَالَ آيَتُكَ أَلَّا تُكَلِّمَ النَّاسَ ثَلَاثَةَ أَيَّامٍ إِلَّا رَمْزًا ۗ وَاذْكُرْ رَبَّكَ كَثِيرًا وَسَبِّحْ بِالْعَشِيِّ وَالْإِبْكَارِ
📘 He said, “My Lord, appoint for me a sign.” He said, “Your sign is that you shall not speak to the people for three days, except by intimation. And remember thy Lord often and glorify Him at evening and dawn.” Zachariah asked for a mark of his child's existence. It was said to him, “The mark is that I will stop your tongue from talking to the people for three days so that all your secret whispering will be with Me, and all on your tongue will be talk of Me.” By way of allusion He is saying, “I will give you a child whom I will cut off from this world and the creatures and the face of whose heart I will turn toward Me. Then he will know that his kiblah is nothing but My Presence and he will be at ease only in talking with Me.” Only Your name, image, and passion, O Spirit of the world, appear to me in speech, heart, and eyes. This is why He commanded Zachariah, “And remember thy Lord often and glorify Him at evening and dawn.” He commanded the faithful in general to the same thing: “And remember your Lord often” [8:45]. He is saying, “Remember God, and carry out your days in obedience and service to Him. Belong totally to Him, calling upon Him and knowing Him in every state and every work! If you are at ease, be at ease with His remembrance and message, and if you are joyful, be joyful in His name and mark. Once in a while knock on the door of My house- it is not right to pass by like a stranger. And if you talk, talk only of Me, and if you drink, drink only in remembrance of Me. And remember thy Lord often. It is said that remembrance of God has three degrees: The first is outward remembrance with the tongue of laudation and supplication. God says, “And remember thy Lord often.” Second is concealed remembrance in the heart. Thus God says, “Or with more intense remem- brance” [2:200]. The Prophet said, “The best remembrance is the concealed and the best provision the sufficient.” Third is true remembrance, which is witnessing God's remembrance of you. That is His words, “And remember thy Lord when thou forgettest” [18:24].
وَإِذْ قَالَتِ الْمَلَائِكَةُ يَا مَرْيَمُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ اصْطَفَاكِ وَطَهَّرَكِ وَاصْطَفَاكِ عَلَىٰ نِسَاءِ الْعَالَمِينَ
📘 And when the angels said �O Mary God has preferred you and made you pure; He has preferred you above all women of the worlds.� It is possible that this was the beginning of a message from the angels to Mary elevating her state. It is possible that she may have heard their words and seen them or that she did not see them but heard them as a voice call- ing out to her: �God has preferred you by your being favored and singled out from among your kind and peers and made you pure from what is indecent and sinful with a beautiful immunity and [pure] from having physical contact with men. He has preferred you above all women of the worlds in your time.� The point of repeating the mention of her being preferred is first �He has chosen you through special gifts position and an exalted state�; and second �He has chosen you to bear Jesus ���� ������ without a father and no woman can ever be compared to you until the Day of Resurrection.� Because of that He said �above all women of the worlds.�
يَا مَرْيَمُ اقْنُتِي لِرَبِّكِ وَاسْجُدِي وَارْكَعِي مَعَ الرَّاكِعِينَ
📘 �O Mary be obedient to your Lord prostrating and bowing with those who bow.� �Persevere on the carpet of worship and practice obedience continually. Do not fall short from continuous service khidma. The Real has singled you out by your station so be without equal in your time in your worship of Him.�
ذَٰلِكَ مِنْ أَنْبَاءِ الْغَيْبِ نُوحِيهِ إِلَيْكَ ۚ وَمَا كُنْتَ لَدَيْهِمْ إِذْ يُلْقُونَ أَقْلَامَهُمْ أَيُّهُمْ يَكْفُلُ مَرْيَمَ وَمَا كُنْتَ لَدَيْهِمْ إِذْ يَخْتَصِمُونَ
📘 That is of the tidings of the unseen. We reveal it to you for you were not with them when they were casting quills which of them should have charge of Mary; nor were you with them when they were disputing. That is �We have told you [Muḥammad] of these stories and have spoken with you about their meanings. Although We have related these stories to you Our speech is rare and precious-it is more valuable and more perfect than if you yourself had been a witness to [these events].�
إِذْ قَالَتِ الْمَلَائِكَةُ يَا مَرْيَمُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُبَشِّرُكِ بِكَلِمَةٍ مِنْهُ اسْمُهُ الْمَسِيحُ عِيسَى ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ وَجِيهًا فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ وَمِنَ الْمُقَرَّبِينَ
📘 When the angels said, “O Mary, surely God gives thee the good news of a word from Him, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, celebrated in this world and the next, and one of those given proximity.” In this verse the God of the universe, the enactor of the world's folk, the assigner of daily provi- sions to the servants, the bestower of bounty and the lovingly kind, the caresser of the friends, caresses Mary and honors her. With this honoring He gives her excellence over the women of the world and separates her from all of them. First, He calls her with the vocative of honor, saying “O Mary.” Exalted is this address! Exalted is this call! Thousands of thousands of prophets and friends went, either in the repose of having found it, or in remorse and hope for it. O spirit of the world! If a thousand times you call on Him saying, “My Lord, my Lord,” that is not like His calling on you once, “My servant, My servant.” Even if you accept Him in lordhood, that gains you nothing, for in any case His lordhood is inseparable from you. What does the work is that once He should accept you for servanthood. Abū Yazīd BasṬāmī said, “God stood me before Him in a thousand standing places, presenting the empire to me, but I was saying, 'I do not desire it.' In the last standing place He said to me, 'O Abū Yazīd, what do you desire?' I said, 'I desire not to desire,'” that is, I desire what You desire. “Then He said, 'You are My servant in truth.'” Even if you do not have the gall to speak with God like Abū Yazīd, you are not too small to present your need to Him, to show Him your burning and hope, and to say, “O Lord, a name and mark is enough for me! You have come from Your threshold to place a name on me. Whatever name You want, let it be.” A man went to the bazaar to buy a slave. They presented the slaves to him and he chose one to buy. He said, “O slave, what's your name?” He said, “First buy me so that I may belong to you. Then call me by whatever name you want.
وَيُكَلِّمُ النَّاسَ فِي الْمَهْدِ وَكَهْلًا وَمِنَ الصَّالِحِينَ
📘 When the angels said �O Mary God gives you good tidings of a word from Him whose name is the Messiah Jesus son of Mary honored shall he be in this world and the hereafter and of those brought close. He shall speak to mankind in the cradle and in his manhood and he is of the righteous.� She was not given good tidings about her portion in this world or her fortunes in the hereafter. Rather she was given good tidings verifying that [she was receiving a] tremendous sign in [the birth of Jesus] and [that] he was a prophet of God-it was a confirmation of the miracle. It is said that He informed her that whoever succumbs to the over- whelming force of the divine power qudra and ends up before His ruling ḥukm will encounter miracles of that power the likes of which no one has experienced. Mary had surely lived for a long time with an excellent reputation and was well-known as a chaste [woman] but then [God] caused confusion about her situation [when she] appeared in a state deemed blame- worthy by people. In actuality it was not as the foolish thought. Their eyes were blocked from seeing the flow of the divine decree jaryān al-taqdīr. It is said that He informed her of what would happen to [her son] step by step and in detail. He told her that he would live in such as way that he shall speak to mankind as a young child and in his manhood and that the deception of [his] enemies would not affect him. It is said in manhood [means] after his descent from the heavens. It is said that He fortified her heart by informing her that while she herself would hold her tongue regarding her innocence [after the birth] God would cause Jesus ���� ������ to speak [as a child] as proof of her sincerity and exalted honor.
قَالَتْ رَبِّ أَنَّىٰ يَكُونُ لِي وَلَدٌ وَلَمْ يَمْسَسْنِي بَشَرٌ ۖ قَالَ كَذَٰلِكِ اللَّهُ يَخْلُقُ مَا يَشَاءُ ۚ إِذَا قَضَىٰ أَمْرًا فَإِنَّمَا يَقُولُ لَهُ كُنْ فَيَكُونُ
📘 She said �Lord how shall I have a child when no mortal has touched meḍ� He said �It is such. God creates what He will. Just as you witnessed the appearance of things contrary to ordinary reality in the provision We gave [to you] likewise We will break with ordinary reality by creating a son without a man having touched [you]. When He decrees a thing that is He desires a ruling ḥukm to come to pass He says to it only: 'Be' and it is. Producing [things] from the beginning and bringing [them] forth are not difficult for Him. When they began to blame her God caused Jesus ���� ������ to speak when he was [only] one day old; [he] said �I have come to you with a sign from your Lord� [3:49].
وَيُعَلِّمُهُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَالتَّوْرَاةَ وَالْإِنْجِيلَ
📘 And He will teach him the Book, the wisdom, the Torah, and the Gospel. Until the end of these verses are all his miracles. Because it was in God's knowledge that the Christians would exaggerate concerning him, the Lord of the Worlds gave him speech in the cradle in the state of infancy to reject those Christians, so he said, “Surely I am the servant of God” [19:30]. In other words, it is not as the Christians say. Rather, “I am the servant of God, created by Him, and He is my Lord.” It is also a rejection of those who criticized his mother: “O sister of Aaron! Your father was not a man of ugliness” [19:28]. The Lord of the Worlds declared her in- nocence and, to brighten her eyes, He made those words come to his tongue in the state of infancy. Here there is an exalted point: Since it was in God's knowledge that Jesus would be the brightness of Mary's eyes and the joy of her heart in this world and the afterworld, the Lord of the Worlds placed the burden and pain of Jesus on her at the time of birth. That is in His words, “And the birth pangs took her to the trunk of a date palm” [19:23]. Thus what was rightfully due became incumbent for her. As the counterpart of that suffering and hardship, blessings and ease reached her. MuṣṬafā's state with his mother was the opposite of this. Since it was in God's knowledge that his mother would have no portion of him, whether in this world or in the next, He did not place the burden of MuṣṬafā upon her, and at the time of birth no suffering reached her, so that no rightful due would become incumbent for her. Similar to this is the story of Noah and his community and that of MuṣṬafā and his community. It was said to Noah, “Do not let yourself suffer for the community and do not carry the load of their trial, for they will never give you brightness of the eyes and joy of the heart: None of your community will have faith except those who already have faith” [11:36]. It was in keeping with this address that he supplicated, “My Lord, leave no disbeliever dwelling on the earth” [71:26], and God did that.
وَرَسُولًا إِلَىٰ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ أَنِّي قَدْ جِئْتُكُمْ بِآيَةٍ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ ۖ أَنِّي أَخْلُقُ لَكُمْ مِنَ الطِّينِ كَهَيْئَةِ الطَّيْرِ فَأَنْفُخُ فِيهِ فَيَكُونُ طَيْرًا بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ ۖ وَأُبْرِئُ الْأَكْمَهَ وَالْأَبْرَصَ وَأُحْيِي الْمَوْتَىٰ بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ ۖ وَأُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِمَا تَأْكُلُونَ وَمَا تَدَّخِرُونَ فِي بُيُوتِكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَةً لَكُمْ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ
📘 And He will teach him the Book wisdom and the Torah and the Gospel. To be a messenger to the children of Israel �I have come to you with a sign from your Lord I will create for you out of clay [something] like the shape of a bird then I will breathe into it and it will be a bird by the leave of God. I will also heal the blind and the leper; and I bring the dead to life by the leave of God. I will inform you too of what things you eat and what you treasure up in your houses. Surely in that is a sign for you if you are believers.� These were His outward signs and dazzling overpowering proofs: bring- ing life to the dead healing the blind and the leper telling [them] what they did secretly and other miracles. [God] stated that [Jesus] confirmed what came before him in laws but was chosen to abrogate part of what came before and to establish another part for them according to the details articulated in the QurÌān.
إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَخْفَىٰ عَلَيْهِ شَيْءٌ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَلَا فِي السَّمَاءِ
📘 Nothing whatever is hidden in heaven and earth from God. A servant does not breathe a single breath without God ������ ������ counting it muḥṣīhi. Not a particle exists in the heaven and earth unless He is its originator and creator mubdiʿ hi. No one has any quality or attribute except He is its governor mutawallīhi. This is the view of ordinary people ʿumūm. As for the elect khuṣūṣ no one presents a need to Him except He satisfies it qāḌīhā and no one has any resource in a calamity except He suffices for it kāfīhā.
وَمُصَدِّقًا لِمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيَّ مِنَ التَّوْرَاةِ وَلِأُحِلَّ لَكُمْ بَعْضَ الَّذِي حُرِّمَ عَلَيْكُمْ ۚ وَجِئْتُكُمْ بِآيَةٍ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ فَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُونِ
📘 Likewise confirming that which was before me of the Torah and to make lawful for you some of that which was forbidden to you. I have come to you with a sign from your Lord: so fear God and obey me. Surely God is my Lord and your Lord so worship Him. This is a straight path.� And when Jesus sensed their disbelief he said �Who will be my helpers [in the cause of] Godḍ� The disciples said �We will be helpers of God; we believe in God; witness that we have submitted. When the message reached them and they differed-some of them believed him and some of them called him a liar and they were the majority-he came to know that prophecy does not spare one from affliction and the oppression of enemies. So [Jesus] separated his heart from them and held to his goal qaṣd. He said to his people �Who will be my helpers [in the cause of] God so that they may help me in my exclusive devotion to His true reality and sincere dedication to His goalḍ� Then those who were touched by the effects of [God's] providence āthār al-ʿināya and chosen through the effects of [divine] selection āthār al-takhṣīṣ said �We will be helpers of God; we believe in God; bear witness to us in truth and let nothing come from us that would cast doubt on you.�
إِنَّ اللَّهَ رَبِّي وَرَبُّكُمْ فَاعْبُدُوهُ ۗ هَٰذَا صِرَاطٌ مُسْتَقِيمٌ
📘 Likewise confirming that which was before me of the Torah and to make lawful for you some of that which was forbidden to you. I have come to you with a sign from your Lord: so fear God and obey me. Surely God is my Lord and your Lord so worship Him. This is a straight path.� And when Jesus sensed their disbelief he said �Who will be my helpers [in the cause of] Godḍ� The disciples said �We will be helpers of God; we believe in God; witness that we have submitted. When the message reached them and they differed-some of them believed him and some of them called him a liar and they were the majority-he came to know that prophecy does not spare one from affliction and the oppression of enemies. So [Jesus] separated his heart from them and held to his goal qaṣd. He said to his people �Who will be my helpers [in the cause of] God so that they may help me in my exclusive devotion to His true reality and sincere dedication to His goalḍ� Then those who were touched by the effects of [God's] providence āthār al-ʿināya and chosen through the effects of [divine] selection āthār al-takhṣīṣ said �We will be helpers of God; we believe in God; bear witness to us in truth and let nothing come from us that would cast doubt on you.�
۞ فَلَمَّا أَحَسَّ عِيسَىٰ مِنْهُمُ الْكُفْرَ قَالَ مَنْ أَنْصَارِي إِلَى اللَّهِ ۖ قَالَ الْحَوَارِيُّونَ نَحْنُ أَنْصَارُ اللَّهِ آمَنَّا بِاللَّهِ وَاشْهَدْ بِأَنَّا مُسْلِمُونَ
📘 Likewise confirming that which was before me of the Torah and to make lawful for you some of that which was forbidden to you. I have come to you with a sign from your Lord: so fear God and obey me. Surely God is my Lord and your Lord so worship Him. This is a straight path.� And when Jesus sensed their disbelief he said �Who will be my helpers [in the cause of] Godḍ� The disciples said �We will be helpers of God; we believe in God; witness that we have submitted. When the message reached them and they differed-some of them believed him and some of them called him a liar and they were the majority-he came to know that prophecy does not spare one from affliction and the oppression of enemies. So [Jesus] separated his heart from them and held to his goal qaṣd. He said to his people �Who will be my helpers [in the cause of] God so that they may help me in my exclusive devotion to His true reality and sincere dedication to His goalḍ� Then those who were touched by the effects of [God's] providence āthār al-ʿināya and chosen through the effects of [divine] selection āthār al-takhṣīṣ said �We will be helpers of God; we believe in God; bear witness to us in truth and let nothing come from us that would cast doubt on you.�
رَبَّنَا آمَنَّا بِمَا أَنْزَلْتَ وَاتَّبَعْنَا الرَّسُولَ فَاكْتُبْنَا مَعَ الشَّاهِدِينَ
📘 Lord we believe in what You have revealed and we follow the Messenger; write us down therefore with those who bear witness. As for the remainder they worked to create dissension and intensified their enmity. They plotted and schemed against him but God made them taste the evil of their scheming. They imagined that they had crucified and killed Jesus ���� ������ but that was from their ignorance and confusion. God ������ raised Jesus ���� ������ as His prophet nabī and His friend walī. Banishment and cursing was the rightful due of his enemies-this was [God's] schem- ing with them. And they schemed; and God schemed; and God is the best of schemers.
وَمَكَرُوا وَمَكَرَ اللَّهُ ۖ وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ
📘 And they deceived, and God deceived, and God is the best of deceivers. Ibn ʿAbbās said, “The deception of God is that when they increased in unbelief and sin, He in- creased their blessings until He pulled them into total recklessness. They brought immense unbe- lief and applied their heads to rebellion and misguidance. Then He took them little by little from whence they did not know.” It has come in the traditions that someone tormented Abū Dardā. Abū Dardā said, “Lord God, bestow upon him a healthy body, long life, and great wealth!” An intelligent man who ponders these words will know that this is the worst of supplications. When anyone is given this, recklessness and heedlessness will make him heedless of the next world so that he will be de- stroyed.
إِذْ قَالَ اللَّهُ يَا عِيسَىٰ إِنِّي مُتَوَفِّيكَ وَرَافِعُكَ إِلَيَّ وَمُطَهِّرُكَ مِنَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَجَاعِلُ الَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوكَ فَوْقَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ ۖ ثُمَّ إِلَيَّ مَرْجِعُكُمْ فَأَحْكُمُ بَيْنَكُمْ فِيمَا كُنْتُمْ فِيهِ تَخْتَلِفُونَ
📘 When God said �O Jesus I am gathering you and raising you to Me and I am cleansing you of those who disbelieved The allusion in it: �I am gathering you from yourself seizing you from yourself raising you above the mortal human attributes and purifying you from your own desire irāda completely so that you will act as Our agent muṣarrif through Us and for Us. You will have no free choice ikhtiyār in anything. In its place divine governorship tawallī will descend upon you and stand in for you.� By this quality the dead were brought to life through the hands [of Jesus]. These were occurrences that could only happen by the divine deliberative power may it be exalted. It is said that He purified his heart from looking to others aghyār and from seeing simulacra and traces al-amthāl wa-l-āthār in all states and phases al-aḥwāl wa-l-aṬwār. and I am setting those who follow you above those who disbelieved until the Day of Resurrection In help nuṣra force qahr and proof ḥujja. His followers-those who have not changed his religion dīn and those who follow his creed ʿaqīda in the declaration of oneness tawḥīd-are believers muÌminūn. They are in the right until the Day of Resurrection and they will be helped [by God] until the Day of Resurrection. Then God ������ will judge between them and their enemies on that day. The disbelievers will be in hellfire ammā l-kuffār fa-fī l-jaḥīm and the believers will be in felicity wa-ammā l-muÌminūn fa-fī l-naʿīm. Then to Me shall be your return and I will decide between you as to what you were at variance about.
فَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا فَأُعَذِّبُهُمْ عَذَابًا شَدِيدًا فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ وَمَا لَهُمْ مِنْ نَاصِرِينَ
📘 As for the disbelievers I will chastise them with a terrible chastisement in this world and the hereafter; they shall have no helpers. But as for the believers who do deeds of righteousness He will pay them in full their wages. God loves not the evildoers. This We recite to you of verses and wise remembrance. �This We recite to you O Muḥammad to inform you of the meanings of what We have revealed to you. [These meanings do not reach you] through your exertion to attain knowledge nor by your learning from parables nor by your deduction by any sort of reasoning.�
وَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ فَيُوَفِّيهِمْ أُجُورَهُمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ الظَّالِمِينَ
📘 As for the disbelievers I will chastise them with a terrible chastisement in this world and the hereafter; they shall have no helpers. But as for the believers who do deeds of righteousness He will pay them in full their wages. God loves not the evildoers. This We recite to you of verses and wise remembrance. �This We recite to you O Muḥammad to inform you of the meanings of what We have revealed to you. [These meanings do not reach you] through your exertion to attain knowledge nor by your learning from parables nor by your deduction by any sort of reasoning.�
ذَٰلِكَ نَتْلُوهُ عَلَيْكَ مِنَ الْآيَاتِ وَالذِّكْرِ الْحَكِيمِ
📘 As for the disbelievers I will chastise them with a terrible chastisement in this world and the hereafter; they shall have no helpers. But as for the believers who do deeds of righteousness He will pay them in full their wages. God loves not the evildoers. This We recite to you of verses and wise remembrance. �This We recite to you O Muḥammad to inform you of the meanings of what We have revealed to you. [These meanings do not reach you] through your exertion to attain knowledge nor by your learning from parables nor by your deduction by any sort of reasoning.�
إِنَّ مَثَلَ عِيسَىٰ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ كَمَثَلِ آدَمَ ۖ خَلَقَهُ مِنْ تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ قَالَ لَهُ كُنْ فَيَكُونُ
📘 Truly the likeness of Jesus in God's sight is as Adam's likeness. He chose to purify the spirit rūḥ in them from the act of passing from one body to another tanāsukh in the loins but He singled out Adam as the first [of men] while He singled out Jesus ���� ������ for the special distinc- tion of breathing the spirit into him in the most exalted way. But even though these two were weighty beings the imperfection of being in time and being mortal was nonetheless unavoidable for them: He created him of dust then He said to him �Be� and he was [3:59].
هُوَ الَّذِي يُصَوِّرُكُمْ فِي الْأَرْحَامِ كَيْفَ يَشَاءُ ۚ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ
📘 He it is who forms you in the wombs as He wills. Talk of this has two sides: the affirmation of the form of the Creator, and the explication of His power over creatures and favor toward them through predetermination and form-giving. As for affirming the form of the Creator, in a sound report MuṣṬafā said, “God created Adam in His form, and his height was sixty cubits.” It has also been narrated as, “in the form of His face.” The folk of interpretation-the foundation of whose religion is adulteration, interpretation, and negation-have turned the referent of the pronoun away from the Real and rejected the out- wardness. The folk of the Sunnah-the foundation of whose religion is hearing, accepting, and surrendering-have left aside interpretation and gone by the outwardness. They say that in this report the pronoun refers to God, that investigation, reflection, and interpretation are not allowed, and that fancying similarity is an error, for the Real is without peer in all attributes. Concerning vision there are many reports that the Real has a shining face and form. Ibn ʿAbbās narrates that MuṣṬafā said, “I saw my Lord in the most beautiful form.” In the narrative of Abū Umāma Bāhilī, MuṣṬafā said, “My Lord was shown to me in the most beautiful form. He said, 'O MuḤammad!' I said, 'Here I am, obeying Thee.' About what are the Higher Plenum disput- ing?” This report is a long one and will be discussed in its place, God willing. The narrative of Jābir ibn Samura is this: “Surely God disclosed Himself to me in the most beautiful form.” The narrative of Anas is this: “My Lord came to me in the most beautiful form.” Anas also said, “Among the favors God will bestow on Adam on the Day of Resurrection is that He will say, 'Did I not bestow upon you My form?” Ibn ʿAbbās said, “Moses was angry with the Children of Israel, so when he came down with interdiction, he said to them, 'Drink this, you donkeys!' God said to him, 'Do you liken creatures whom I created in My form to donkeys?'” It is well known that in the reports of the resurrection MuṣṬafā said, “God will come to them in other than the form in which they recognize Him.
الْحَقُّ مِنْ رَبِّكَ فَلَا تَكُنْ مِنَ الْمُمْتَرِينَ
📘 The truth is from thy Lord, so be not among the doubters. “O MuḤammad, take care not to suppose that I have associates and partners in the power of ex- istence-giving. I do not need or require anyone in that. No one besides Me has the power of existence-giving and devising.” One of the pirs of the Tariqah said in his whispered prayer, “O Lord, the one who does the work is the one who can, and the one who bestows is the one who has. What do I have and what can I do? Who has ability like Your ability? In praising You who has a tongue? Without Your love, who has the joy of spirit?” Without the breeze of the heart-taker's love, the garden has no ease, without the radiance of that rose-colored face, there's no light or fire.
فَمَنْ حَاجَّكَ فِيهِ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَكَ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ فَقُلْ تَعَالَوْا نَدْعُ أَبْنَاءَنَا وَأَبْنَاءَكُمْ وَنِسَاءَنَا وَنِسَاءَكُمْ وَأَنْفُسَنَا وَأَنْفُسَكُمْ ثُمَّ نَبْتَهِلْ فَنَجْعَلْ لَعْنَتَ اللَّهِ عَلَى الْكَاذِبِينَ
📘 And whoever disputes with you concerning him after the knowledge that has come to you say: �Come! Let us call our sons and your sons our wives and your wives our selves and your selves then let us humbly pray and invoke God's curse upon those who lie.� And whoever disputes with you concerning him means that �After you have sincerely proclaimed what you were told and have come to know the truth of the knowledge We imparted to you in your heart do not be reticent in challenging them to mutual cursing. Trust that you have the force qahr and help nuṣra and that We are protecting you and have sheltered you in the wing of Our nearness.� If they had sought this mutual cursing the valley would have rained fire down upon them but God ������ gave them respite because He knew of the believers [yet to come] of their progeny. This verse alludes to those whose states are no longer those of the sincere ṣiddīqūn. When the lights [of the sincere] appear what remains in [the others] fades away completely.
إِنَّ هَٰذَا لَهُوَ الْقَصَصُ الْحَقُّ ۚ وَمَا مِنْ إِلَٰهٍ إِلَّا اللَّهُ ۚ وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ لَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ
📘 This is the true story. There is no god but God and assuredly God is Mighty Wise. This is the true story: The dust of confusion has no authority over the wit- nessings of divine unity. No delusion of any created being reaches the secret of His ruling ḥukm. Nothing that is known in existence can come close to it and nothing that is imagined can conceive of the divine decree taqdīr.
فَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ بِالْمُفْسِدِينَ
📘 And if they turn their backs God knows the agents of corruption. �And if they turn their backs O Muḥammad the confusion of those who talk falsely cannot withstand the rays of your light.� God knows the agents of corruption: either He will sweep them away or He will forbear until their conjectures have become firmly established. Then He will seize them suddenly and [then] they cannot be helped.
قُلْ يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ تَعَالَوْا إِلَىٰ كَلِمَةٍ سَوَاءٍ بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكُمْ أَلَّا نَعْبُدَ إِلَّا اللَّهَ وَلَا نُشْرِكَ بِهِ شَيْئًا وَلَا يَتَّخِذَ بَعْضُنَا بَعْضًا أَرْبَابًا مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ ۚ فَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَقُولُوا اشْهَدُوا بِأَنَّا مُسْلِمُونَ
📘 Say: “O Folk of the Book! Come to a word common between us and you: that we worship none but God, that we associate nothing with Him, and that some of us not take others of us as lords apart from God.” In terms of realization, this is addressed to the folk of tawḤīd and the desirers on the road of the Haqiqah. He is saying, “If you who are traveling on the path of truthfulness today want to be dwellers in the seat of truthfulness [54:55] tomorrow, be careful to protect your walkway from the debris of customs, to sweep away the opacities of mortal nature from the carpet of your present moment, and to make the drinking place of your aspiration pure of the dust of others. Be one in heart, one in desire, and one in aspiration. 'When someone comes to have one concern, God will suffice him against the concerns of this world and the next.'” This is why He says, “and that some of us do not take others of us as lords apart from God”: Do not settle down in every street with each scatteredness of the heart. Do not obey the commanding soul, do not worship blameworthy caprice, and take not two gods; surely He is but One God [16:51]. As long as the talk of some defiled fellow grabs you, you're the servant of your own fancy, not a servant of God.
يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لِمَ تُحَاجُّونَ فِي إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَمَا أُنْزِلَتِ التَّوْرَاةُ وَالْإِنْجِيلُ إِلَّا مِنْ بَعْدِهِ ۚ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ
📘 �O people of the scripture Why do you argue about Abrahamḍ when the Torah was not revealed neither the Gospel but after him. What do you not comprehendḍ He put a cloak niqāb of possessiveness and a veil ḥijāb of jealousy over His friend ���� ������ and severed his connection to all of them after their accusation about him and [thus he] decisively contradicted their confused arguments. How could Abraham ���� ������ belong to the religion of those who came after himḍ This makes no sense.
هَا أَنْتُمْ هَٰؤُلَاءِ حَاجَجْتُمْ فِيمَا لَكُمْ بِهِ عِلْمٌ فَلِمَ تُحَاجُّونَ فِيمَا لَيْسَ لَكُمْ بِهِ عِلْمٌ ۚ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ وَأَنْتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
📘 Lo! You are those who dispute about what you know; why do you then dispute concerning that of which you have no knowledgeḍ; and God knows and you know not. That is �Your scripture includes clear evidence bayān that should be a proof burhān for you. Regarding that [evidence or proof] you have chosen either truly or falsely. As for that for which you have no defini- tive evidence dalīl or any way of knowing maʿrifa how can you begin to judge it or make claims to have comprehended itḍ�
مَا كَانَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ يَهُودِيًّا وَلَا نَصْرَانِيًّا وَلَٰكِنْ كَانَ حَنِيفًا مُسْلِمًا وَمَا كَانَ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ
📘 No; Abraham in truth was not a Jew neither a Christian but he was a Muslim and a ḥanīf The ḥanīf is one who stands straight mustaqīm in truth while the aḥnaf stands straight mustaqīm with curved legs-one who leans on a [twisted] foot is called mustaqīm optimistically. Abraham ���� ������ was a ḥanīf not bend- ing from the truth not swerving from the law and not stumbling this way and that with every promise of personal gain. He surrendered his wealth his self his son-everything altogether-to the decree of God and [stood in] a state of readiness for His command. and he was never of the idolators.
إِنَّ أَوْلَى النَّاسِ بِإِبْرَاهِيمَ لَلَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوهُ وَهَٰذَا النَّبِيُّ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا ۗ وَاللَّهُ وَلِيُّ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
📘 Surely the people with the best claim Abraham are those who followed him and this Prophet and those who believe; and God is the Protector of the believers. Whereas whims ahwāÌ and blameworthy innovations bidaʿ break up [a group] so that each faction ends up in error the people of truth ahl al-ḥaqq in every era and every time and moment hold to the best proof and will be a single party. They will be those with the best claim [to Abraham] over others. Abraham was a companion of truth ṣāḥib al-ḥaqq. Whoever professes his religion dīn-as in the example of our Messenger ﷺ and his community-belongs to the religion of Abraham ���� ������ which is the declara- tion of the unity tawḥīd of God ������ ������. And God is the Protector walī of the believers because they have been entrusted108 with His religion dīn and they act in harmony with the declaration of His unity tawḥīd. The protecting friendship walāya of God comes with aid ʿawn help nuṣra selection takhṣīṣ and nearness qurba.
وَدَّتْ طَائِفَةٌ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ لَوْ يُضِلُّونَكُمْ وَمَا يُضِلُّونَ إِلَّا أَنْفُسَهُمْ وَمَا يَشْعُرُونَ
📘 There is a party of the people of the scripture who yearn to make you go astray; yet they cause none to stray except themselves; but they are not aware. Those who had succumbed to discord who had been afflicted by tribulation and seduced by temptation wished for all people what had befallen them. Although [this party of] the people of the scripture wanted the believers to turn from the truth God refused to do other than perfect His light and sent back upon them the evil consequences of their actions.
هُوَ الَّذِي أَنْزَلَ عَلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ مِنْهُ آيَاتٌ مُحْكَمَاتٌ هُنَّ أُمُّ الْكِتَابِ وَأُخَرُ مُتَشَابِهَاتٌ ۖ فَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ زَيْغٌ فَيَتَّبِعُونَ مَا تَشَابَهَ مِنْهُ ابْتِغَاءَ الْفِتْنَةِ وَابْتِغَاءَ تَأْوِيلِهِ ۗ وَمَا يَعْلَمُ تَأْوِيلَهُ إِلَّا اللَّهُ ۗ وَالرَّاسِخُونَ فِي الْعِلْمِ يَقُولُونَ آمَنَّا بِهِ كُلٌّ مِنْ عِنْدِ رَبِّنَا ۗ وَمَا يَذَّكَّرُ إِلَّا أُولُو الْأَلْبَابِ
📘 He it is who has sent down upon thee the Book, wherein are firm verses, which are the mother of the Book, and others ambiguous. He is neither a name nor an attribute. Rather, it is an allusion to being. It means that our Lord is, He is fitting to be, and He has been-beyond location and transcendent in attributes. ShurayḤ ʿābid said, “I saw a dervish in the mosque of the Sanctuary calling upon God by saying, 'O He who is He! O He other than whom there is no he! Forgive me.' A voice came from the Unseen: 'O dervish, you received so much reward for saying that the first time that the angels will be writ- ing it out until the resurrection.'” Huwa is two letters, h and w. The place of articulation of h is the last part of the throat, and the place of articulation of the w is the first part of the throat. This alludes to the fact that the letters begin from Him at first and return to Him at last. From Him they begin and to Him they return. It has also been said it alludes to the created things and engendered beings: all things come in the beginning from His power and return in the end by His decree. A dervish in the state of rapture was asked, “What is your name?” He answered, “He.” They said, “Where have you come from?” He said, “He.” They said, “What do you want?” He said, “He.” They said, “Perhaps you mean 'God'.” When the dervish heard the name God, he gave his spirit to the name and left this world. The painters depict Your name in a hundred meanings; remembering You and Your name they give up their spirits. They scatter their lives for the scent of union with You with nothing in hand of Your description but incapacity. Wherein are firm verses, which are the mother of the Book, and others ambiguous. These are the two great divisions of the Qur'an, one apparent and clear, the other abstruse and difficult. The ap- parent belongs to the majesty of the Shariah, and the difficult belongs to the beauty of the Haqiqah. The apparent is so the common people may reach joy and blessings by perceiving it and putting it into practice.
يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لِمَ تَكْفُرُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَأَنْتُمْ تَشْهَدُونَ
📘 O people of the scripture! Why do you disbelieve in God's verses when you yourselves bear witnessḍ �[You bore witness] before his mission ﷺ to the authenticity of his prophecy. What is it that brings you to error so that you disavow what you knowḍ�
يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لِمَ تَلْبِسُونَ الْحَقَّ بِالْبَاطِلِ وَتَكْتُمُونَ الْحَقَّ وَأَنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ
📘 O people of the scripture! Why do you confound truth with falsehood and conceal the truth while you knowḍ �You conceal the truth regarding the affair of Muḥammad ﷺ while you know that he is the Prophet who speaks truly.� Can this be anything other than the divine ruling to forsake ḥukm al-khidhlān and the decision to deprive qaḌiyyat al-ḥirmān [those who confound and conceal the truth]ḍ Then He informed them that among them there were some hypocrites. They wanted to forestall any trouble with the Muslims while also avoiding conflict with their brothers among the disbelievers. Thus they conspired to pretend to agree publicly with the Messenger ﷺ and the Muslims while secretly to remain true among themselves to their corrupt beliefs.
وَقَالَتْ طَائِفَةٌ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ آمِنُوا بِالَّذِي أُنْزِلَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَجْهَ النَّهَارِ وَاكْفُرُوا آخِرَهُ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ
📘 A party of the people of scripture say �Believe in what has been revealed to those who believe at the beginning of the day and disbelieve at the end of it so that they might then turn back. [By this verse] God ������ showed that their hypocrisy was exposed to the Muslims and that it had not benefited them either in this world because God informed His Prophet ���� ������ and the believers of it or in the hereafter because [their hypocrisy] deprived them of sincere devotion [toward God].
وَلَا تُؤْمِنُوا إِلَّا لِمَنْ تَبِعَ دِينَكُمْ قُلْ إِنَّ الْهُدَىٰ هُدَى اللَّهِ أَنْ يُؤْتَىٰ أَحَدٌ مِثْلَ مَا أُوتِيتُمْ أَوْ يُحَاجُّوكُمْ عِنْدَ رَبِّكُمْ ۗ قُلْ إِنَّ الْفَضْلَ بِيَدِ اللَّهِ يُؤْتِيهِ مَنْ يَشَاءُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ
📘 Do not have faith in any but those who follow your religion. Say: “Surely the guidance is God's guidance,” lest anyone should be given the like of what you have been given, or dispute with you before your Lord. Say: “Surely the bounty is in God's hand. He gives it to whomso- ever He wills.” And God is all-embracing, knowing. Some of the commentators have said that here God is addressing the Muslims and caressing the folk of recognition and faith. He is reminding them of His favor toward them with the religion of the submission. The address then has two paths. In one respect it is addressed to the common faithful of this community, and in the other respect it is addressed to the recognizers and the elect among the folk of the Tariqah. The first respect is this: “O assembly of submitters! Do not suppose or hold firm that anyone has been given what has been given to you. There is no religion like the religion of the submission, and it was given to you. There is no book like the Qur'an, and it was given to you. There is no prophet like MuḤammad, and he was given to you. There is no month like Ramadan, and it belongs to you. There is no day like Friday, and it belongs to you. All the shariahs have been abrogated by your shariah, and all the compacts have been abrogated by your compact. The perfection of the religion and the Shariah and the beauty of the Tariqah and the Haqiqah are all in your covenant.” This is in His words, “Today I have perfected your religion for you and I have completed My bless- ings upon you and I have approved the submission for you as a religion” [5:3]. “Now give gratitude for this blessing, give thanks to your Object of worship, and obey the command. The command is this: 'Do not have faith in any but those who follow your religion.' Do not exercise friendship with any but those who share your religion, and do not show brother- hood to any but the faithful. Keep away from the irreligious and the estranged.” This is just what He says in this verse: “Do not lean upon those who do wrong, lest the Fire touch you” [11:113].
يَخْتَصُّ بِرَحْمَتِهِ مَنْ يَشَاءُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ ذُو الْفَضْلِ الْعَظِيمِ
📘 He singles out for His mercy whomsoever He will. That is, He singles out for His blessings whomsoever He will. He singles out a group for provisions, He singles out a group for the blessing of character traits, He singles out a group for the blessing of worship, others for the blessing of desire, others for the success of outwardness, others for the realiza- tion of the secret cores, others for the gift of outer skins, others for the encounter with the secrets. God says, and His words are truth: “If you count God's blessings, you will not enumerate them” [14:34].7 He singles out for His mercy whomsoever He will. He brought them together obscurely and did not specify anyone so that the hopeful would increase in their hope and the fearful would not remain in their fear. In the station of worship and obedience the servants will not find any states better than hope and fear, for the Lord of the Worlds praises the servants in these two states and says, “They hope for His mercy and fear His chastisement” [17:57]. He is also calling attention to the fact that even if the servants strive to the utmost in obedience and perform all the conditions of servanthood, in the end it is God's mercy that will deliver them. Concerning this the following has been narrated from the Prophet: “No one will enter the Garden by his deeds.” It was said to him, “Not even you, O Messenger of God!” He said, “Not even I, unless God envelops me with His mercy.”
۞ وَمِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ مَنْ إِنْ تَأْمَنْهُ بِقِنْطَارٍ يُؤَدِّهِ إِلَيْكَ وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ إِنْ تَأْمَنْهُ بِدِينَارٍ لَا يُؤَدِّهِ إِلَيْكَ إِلَّا مَا دُمْتَ عَلَيْهِ قَائِمًا ۗ ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَالُوا لَيْسَ عَلَيْنَا فِي الْأُمِّيِّينَ سَبِيلٌ وَيَقُولُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ الْكَذِبَ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ
📘 And of the people of the scriptures is he who if you trust him with a hundredweight he will return it to you; and of them is he who if you trust him with one dinar will not return it to you; unless you keep standing over him. That is because they say �We have no duty toward the Gentiles. They speak falsehood against God while they are aware. He relates that [the people of the scripture] notwithstanding their error and disbelief vary in their moral qualities. All of them have broken the trust amāna of the religion dīn but among them are those who have regard for proper [human] interactions. Even though they interact with sincerity it will not benefit them in receiving reward but it will benefit them in lessening [their] punishment since disbelievers are held accountable in the details of the laws. If in their disbelief they sinned less they will suf- fer less punishment than those who have lost the most even though their punishment will also be in perpetuity. Then He explained that the judgment is not theirs so that when they say �We have no duty toward the Gentiles� the situation is not as they would have it nor will these words benefit them. Rather the judgment belongs to God ������.
بَلَىٰ مَنْ أَوْفَىٰ بِعَهْدِهِ وَاتَّقَىٰ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ الْمُتَّقِينَ
📘 Nay but whoever fulfils his covenant and has fear for truly God loves the God-fearing. Those who hold to the covenant are deserving of being united in friendship honor and the garden. Those who are in error are deserving of aversion ignominy and shame.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَشْتَرُونَ بِعَهْدِ اللَّهِ وَأَيْمَانِهِمْ ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا أُولَٰئِكَ لَا خَلَاقَ لَهُمْ فِي الْآخِرَةِ وَلَا يُكَلِّمُهُمُ اللَّهُ وَلَا يَنْظُرُ إِلَيْهِمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ وَلَا يُزَكِّيهِمْ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
📘 Those that sell God's covenant and their own oaths for a small price there shall be no share for them in the hereafter; and God shall not speak to them nor look upon them on the Day of Resurrection nor will He purify them and theirs will be a painful chastisement. Those who prefer their caprice hawāhum over their final outcome ʿuqbāhum and have given priority to their desires munāhum over har- monious agreement with their Protector mawlāhum will have no share in the hereafter. Because they have chosen to seek pleasure in the present they have lost in the two abodes and they remain apart from the Real. The pleasure they sought in worldly things ḥaẓẓ has brought upon them all kinds of tribulations but they are not aware of what has happened to them: God shall not speak to them nor look upon them on the Day of Resurrection nor will He purify them. Moreover He will cause them to remain in the punishment beyond the count of time.
وَإِنَّ مِنْهُمْ لَفَرِيقًا يَلْوُونَ أَلْسِنَتَهُمْ بِالْكِتَابِ لِتَحْسَبُوهُ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ وَمَا هُوَ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ وَيَقُولُونَ هُوَ مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّهِ وَمَا هُوَ مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّهِ وَيَقُولُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ الْكَذِبَ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ
📘 And there is a group of them who twist their tongues with the Book so that you may suppose it as part of the Book; yet it is not part of the Book; and they say �It is from God� yet it is not from God and they speak falsehood against God while they know. This verse alludes to those who are false in their claims on this path Ṭarīqa. They embellish what they say and let loose their tongues concerning what their hearts have no information or verification about. In this they deceive the foolish ordinary people and novices. They imagine that they have attained realization of what they say. In describing them God most high said so that you might suppose it is as part of the Book; yet it is not part of the Book. In a similar manner the lords of deception and fraud direct their talk to the weak so that the secrets of the people of realities ahl al-ḥaqāÌiq are exposed before them. God most high said and they speak falsehood against God while they know that is they know that they are speaking falsely. Thus the people of falsehood and deception on this way Ṭarīqa speak from hearts qulūb that are ruined and innermost selves asrār that are veiled. We seek refuge in God from deserving wrath.
مَا كَانَ لِبَشَرٍ أَنْ يُؤْتِيَهُ اللَّهُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحُكْمَ وَالنُّبُوَّةَ ثُمَّ يَقُولَ لِلنَّاسِ كُونُوا عِبَادًا لِي مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ وَلَٰكِنْ كُونُوا رَبَّانِيِّينَ بِمَا كُنْتُمْ تُعَلِّمُونَ الْكِتَابَ وَبِمَا كُنْتُمْ تَدْرُسُونَ
📘 It belongs to no mortal man that God should give him the Book, the judgment, and prophet- hood, and then he should say to the people, “Be servants of me instead of God!” But, “Be you lordly ones from having taught the Book and from having studied!” Before giving existence to the universe and creating Adam, the majestic compeller, the great God, the renowned enactor, knew in His eternal knowledge who among the children of Adam would be worthy of prophethood and friendship and who would be qualified for love and suited for messen- gerhood. God knows better where to place His message [6:124]. How can he upon whom He has placed the brand of deprivation and the inscription of unawareness be sinless and truthful on the road today? And how can he to whom He has given good fortune gratis and whom He has placed on the road of truthfulness and sinlessness be roadless and bad in state today? So, what will take form and how can it enter into imagination? It could never happen that the chosen MuṣṬafā and the caressed Jesus, after the honor of prophethood, the confirmation of sinlessness, and the strength of messengerhood, take a step out of line and say to the people, “Be servants of me instead of God!” By virtue of the beginningless choice and eternal solicitude, the Lord of the Worlds answered on their behalf as their deputy: “They do not say this. Rather they say, 'Be you lordly ones!'” In other words: Be among those singled out for God, those who are described by His words, “When I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears and his eyesight with which he sees.” In keeping with the tasting of the folk of recognition, the lordly ones are those who become one for God with disengaged intention, sound trust, and intimacy's breeze. They step beyond the two worlds and seize hold of the gentleness of the Patron's love. They say the prayer of the dead for their own attributes. When someone steps into the field of passion for the beautiful, night and day will recite for him the prayer of the dead. [DS 210] They have souls undergoing annihilation and hearts full of thirst. They have burnt souls, secret cores lit by passion, and spirits hanging in hope. I want a heart for choosing only You, a spirit for breathing the pain of Your passion, A body for desiring only Your love, an eye for seeing You and only You. Their aspiration goes beyond this world, their desire beyond paradise, their repose beyond heaven and earth. They are waiting: When will the sun of love rise, when will the moon of good fortune come forth, when will the breeze of felicity blow, when will the beginningless remembrance bear fruit? When will I throw off this cage and build a nest in the divine garden!? It is also said that the lordly ones are those singled out for God. Through this they are ascribed to Him, described by His attributes, and come forth with His character traits as long as their servant- hood lasts and their makeup stays in place. This view is taken from the saying of MuṣṬafā, “Be- come characterized by the character traits of God!” He also said, “God has a number of character traits. Whoever becomes characterized by one of them will enter the Garden.” The folk of knowledge have said that the commentary on these character traits is the meaning of the ninety-nine names of God. In his traveling, the servant must pass by way of these meanings to reach union with God. The Pir of Khurasan, Abu'l-Qāsim Kurragānī, said, “As long as the servant is acquiring these meanings and bringing together these descriptions, he is still in the path and has not yet reached the goal. He is traveling on his own and has not yet received God's attraction. As long as he stays in recognition, he is held back from the Recognized. As long as he is seeking love, he is unaware of the Beloved.” Hurry to passion and don't sit in attachment, take a few steps beyond passion and being passionate! A great man was asked, “When does the servant reach the Patron?” He said, “When he reaches himself.” They asked, “How does he reach himself?” He said, “Seeking becomes lost in the Sought and recognition in the Recognized.” They said, “Explain more.” He said, “Of the body the tongue remains, and that's it. Of the heart the mark remains, and that's it. Of the spirit face-to-face vision remains, and that's it. Hearing goes, the Heard remains, and that's it. The heart goes, the Shown remains, and that's it.
رَبَّنَا لَا تُزِغْ قُلُوبَنَا بَعْدَ إِذْ هَدَيْتَنَا وَهَبْ لَنَا مِنْ لَدُنْكَ رَحْمَةً ۚ إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْوَهَّابُ
📘 Our Lord, let not our hearts stray after Thou hast guided us, and give us mercy from Thee. When they were truthful in the beauty of asking for help, He assisted them with the lights of suf- ficiency. When the heart is limpid, the present moment empty, and the tongue flowing with the Real's remembrance, the arrow of supplication inevitably reaches the target of response. But the work is in this: When will this limpidness, loyalty, and supplication come together and how will they join with each other? The meaning of this supplication is this: “O God, keep our hearts far from confusion and straying and make us firm on the carpet of service with the stipulation of the Sunnah.” And give us mercy from Thee: And give what you give, O Lord, as Your bounty and mercy, not as the recompense for our works or the compensation for our acts of obedience! Our acts of obedience are not worthy for the Presence of Your Majesty, so the only thing to do is to efface them and ignore them. One of the pirs of the Tariqah said, “The gall-bladders of the travelers and the obedient ser- vants burst in fear at the verse: 'We shall advance upon what deeds they have done and make them scattered dust' [25:23]. But, of all the Qur'an's verses, I find this the sweetest.” He was asked, “What does it mean?” He said, “We will finally be released from these displeasing deeds and unworthy acts of obedi- ence and attach our hearts totally to His bounty and mercy.”
وَلَا يَأْمُرَكُمْ أَنْ تَتَّخِذُوا الْمَلَائِكَةَ وَالنَّبِيِّينَ أَرْبَابًا ۗ أَيَأْمُرُكُمْ بِالْكُفْرِ بَعْدَ إِذْ أَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ
📘 He would never order you to take the angels and the prophets as lords. Would He order you to disbelieve after you have submittedḍ That is �do not attribute to them so much as an atom in the establishment of good and evil ithbāt al-khayr wa-l-sharr.� It is said that He is informing you of the boundary of human nature ḥadd al-bashariyya and the truth of lordship ḥaqq al-rubūbiyya. It is said that He orders you to respect tawqīr them with regard to the command and the law sharīʿa but to disdain taḥqīr the worth of cre- ated things in comparison to lordship rubūbiyya. Would He order you to disbelieve after you have submittedḍ �Would He order you to affirm ithbāt created things after bearing witness shuhūd to the Realḍ� It is said: �Would He order you to look to outward appearances ashkāl and to attribute events to simulacra amthāl after the lights of unity tawḥīd have appeared in your innermost selves and after the suns of singular devotion tafrīd have arisen in your heartsḍ�
وَإِذْ أَخَذَ اللَّهُ مِيثَاقَ النَّبِيِّينَ لَمَا آتَيْتُكُمْ مِنْ كِتَابٍ وَحِكْمَةٍ ثُمَّ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ مُصَدِّقٌ لِمَا مَعَكُمْ لَتُؤْمِنُنَّ بِهِ وَلَتَنْصُرُنَّهُ ۚ قَالَ أَأَقْرَرْتُمْ وَأَخَذْتُمْ عَلَىٰ ذَٰلِكُمْ إِصْرِي ۖ قَالُوا أَقْرَرْنَا ۚ قَالَ فَاشْهَدُوا وَأَنَا مَعَكُمْ مِنَ الشَّاهِدِينَ
📘 And when God took the compact of the prophets, “I have given you of the Book and wis- dom. Then a messenger will come to you confirming what is with you. You shall surely have faith in him and you shall surely help him.” In the whole Qur'an, there is no verse more complete in explaining the excellence of MuṣṬafā, to whom this verse is devoted without the association of anyone else. The Lord of the Worlds made two covenants with His creatures and took two compacts from them. One was the compact He took from the creatures concerning His Godhood and Enactorship, as He said: “When your Lord took from the children of Adam, from their loins, their offspring and made them bear witness concern- ing themselves. 'Am I not your Lord?' They said, 'Yes indeed'” [7:172]. The other is the compact He took with the angels and the prophets concerning MuḤammad's prophethood and helping him, as He says, “And when God took the compact of the prophets.” This is an utmost bestowal of eminence and a perfect acknowledgment of excellence, for He made his name great with His own name and lifted up his measure with His measure. Several thousand years before the existence of MuḤammad, a command came, “O Gabriel! I will have a friend whose name is MuḤammad. He will be praised and caressed by Me, his name will be placed next to My name, his measure will be lifted up by My bounty, his being obeyed will be obedience to Me, his words will be My revelation, and following him will be friendship with Me. O Gabriel! You make a covenant with Me to have faith in him and help him.” This was when He said, “You shall surely have faith in him and you shall surely help him.” Gabriel said, “O Lord, I make a covenant that my hand will be one with his hand, I will help, and I will have faith in him.” God said, “O Gabriel! Keep to this covenant and do not oppose it.” He said, “O Lord, who would have the gall to oppose You?!” Then He said, “O Michael! You be a witness to Gabriel's covenant.” Then in the same way He made a covenant with Michael, and He told Gabriel to be witness to Michael's covenant.
فَمَنْ تَوَلَّىٰ بَعْدَ ذَٰلِكَ فَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْفَاسِقُونَ
📘 Then whoever turns his back after that they are the wicked. This alludes to whoever abandons [the Prophet's] way sunna or wan- ders [away] from following his path Ṭarīqa after the appearance of [the Prophet's] evidence and the clarity of his miracle. They are those whose condition has become corrupted. They have become deserving of wrath because of their denial and the breaking of their attachment to the divine solicitude.
أَفَغَيْرَ دِينِ اللَّهِ يَبْغُونَ وَلَهُ أَسْلَمَ مَنْ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ طَوْعًا وَكَرْهًا وَإِلَيْهِ يُرْجَعُونَ
📘 What! Do they desire other than God's religion when to Him has sub- mitted whoever is in the heavens and the earth willing or unwillingly and to Him they shall be returnedḍ Anyone who pays attention to what is not real ghayr al-ḥaqīqa or looks to what is other than Him in imagining divinity ilāhiyya is like one who sees a mirage he thinks is water māÌ but when he comes to it he finds only dust habāÌ. The errors of mere suppositions cut one off and confuse; those who descend into them have entered a desolate wadi. To Him has submitted whoever is in the heavens and the earth willingly because of the lights of divine self-disclosure coming down continually to their innermost selves or unwillingly because of the flow of the divine decree overpowering them.
قُلْ آمَنَّا بِاللَّهِ وَمَا أُنْزِلَ عَلَيْنَا وَمَا أُنْزِلَ عَلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَإِسْمَاعِيلَ وَإِسْحَاقَ وَيَعْقُوبَ وَالْأَسْبَاطِ وَمَا أُوتِيَ مُوسَىٰ وَعِيسَىٰ وَالنَّبِيُّونَ مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِنْهُمْ وَنَحْنُ لَهُ مُسْلِمُونَ
📘 Say: �We believe in God and that which has been revealed to us and that which has been revealed to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes; and in that which was given to Moses and Jesus and the prophets from their Lord; we make no division between any of them; and to Him we submit.� We believe in God not our lower selves nor our strength or our power. We believe through God in that which has been revealed to us and through God ������ we make no division between any of them-not through our own strength choice effort or acquisition. If He had not taught us who He is we would never have known-for otherwise how could we have learned thisḍ
وَمَنْ يَبْتَغِ غَيْرَ الْإِسْلَامِ دِينًا فَلَنْ يُقْبَلَ مِنْهُ وَهُوَ فِي الْآخِرَةِ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ
📘 Whosoever wants a religion other than the submission, it will not be accepted from him. Any religion that is not the submission is false. Any deed that is not following the Sunnah is the seed of remorse. The submission is the tree, the Sunnah is its water source, faith its fruit, and the Real the one who planted and nurtured it. When the wellspring of the Sunnah takes replenishment, it takes it from divine solicitude. If-refuge in God!-He should take back the solicitude, the wellspring would go dry. The tree would become ineffectual and barren, it would not give the fruit of faith, and it would be on the verge of disappearance and destruction. This is like the group who became apostates and turned away from the submission. Again, if the lordly solicitude should go forth and replenish the wellspring of the Sunnah, then the branches of the tree will be made from the goodly word [14:24] and its fruit from pure belief. The heaven of guidance will make the branch into a ladder, and in the state of life and death its fruit will become constant and never be cut off. This is why the Lord of the Worlds says by way of similitude, “God has struck a similitude: A goodly word is like a goodly tree, its roots fixed, and its branches in heaven. It gives its fruit every season by the leave of its Lord” [14:24-25]. It has also been said that if a similitude is struck for the submission, it is a lamp that has been lit by the Most Tremendous Light, its material and nurture made to appear from the light of the Sunnah. To this is the allusion in His words, “Is he whose breast God has expanded for the sub- mission, so he is upon a light from his Lord [...]?” [39:22]. He is saying, “Whenever the Exalted Lord lights the lamp of the submission in a breast, assistance from the light of the Sunnah makes it appear so that the breast may always be adorned and lit. Hence, whenever someone does not have a whiff of the Sunnah, he will have no portion of the submission. It is narrated from Shāfiʿī that he said, “I saw God in a dream and He said to me, 'Ask a wish from Me.
كَيْفَ يَهْدِي اللَّهُ قَوْمًا كَفَرُوا بَعْدَ إِيمَانِهِمْ وَشَهِدُوا أَنَّ الرَّسُولَ حَقٌّ وَجَاءَهُمُ الْبَيِّنَاتُ ۚ وَاللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ
📘 How shall God guide a people who have disbelieved after their belief and bore witness that the Messenger is true and after the clear signs had come to themḍ God guides not the evildoing folk. Those whom He made unsuitable for the communion [of lovers] in His prior decree-how shall He draw them near to Him on the carpet of service through His favor nowḍ It is said [with regard to] those whom He made far removed in the pre- eternal decree-when would He bring them nearer to sincerity in [their] actionsḍ God prevails over His affair.
أُولَٰئِكَ جَزَاؤُهُمْ أَنَّ عَلَيْهِمْ لَعْنَةَ اللَّهِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةِ وَالنَّاسِ أَجْمَعِينَ
📘 Those-their requital is that there shall rest on them the curse of God and of the angels and of men altogether. Those-their state in the end is the same as it was from His decree in the beginning of their affair. The beginning for them is fate's rejection radd al-qisma [of them] their middle part is being turned away from service al-ṣaddu ʿan al-khidma and then finally [their] outcome is banishment and abasement al-Ṭard wa-l-madhalla.
خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا لَا يُخَفَّفُ عَنْهُمُ الْعَذَابُ وَلَا هُمْ يُنْظَرُونَ
📘 Abiding therein the chastisement shall not be lightened for them and they shall not be reprieved. Abiding in that abasement [their] punishment will not abate for even a moment lā yaftur ʿanhum al-ʿadhāb laḥẓatan nor will the separation be lightened for them for even an hour lā yukhaffafu dūnihim al-firāq sāʿatan.
إِلَّا الَّذِينَ تَابُوا مِنْ بَعْدِ ذَٰلِكَ وَأَصْلَحُوا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
📘 But those who repent thereafter and make amends then truly God is Forgiving Merciful. [Those who repent] are those whom mercy reaches. They were not among the group [distanced by the prior decree] although people imagined them to be part of it.
رَبَّنَا إِنَّكَ جَامِعُ النَّاسِ لِيَوْمٍ لَا رَيْبَ فِيهِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُخْلِفُ الْمِيعَادَ
📘 Our Lord You shall gather mankind for a day of which there is no doubt; verily God will not fail the tryst. Today is the gathering of the lovers on the carpet of approach iqtirāb and tomorrow will be the gathering of all in the place of reward thawāb and punishment ʿiqāb. Today is the gathering of innermost selves asrār for the unveiling of [divine] Majesty jalāl and Beauty jamāl and tomor- row will be the gathering of human beings abshār to witness the terrors ahwāl and endure what has been told of these states aḥwāl.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا بَعْدَ إِيمَانِهِمْ ثُمَّ ازْدَادُوا كُفْرًا لَنْ تُقْبَلَ تَوْبَتُهُمْ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الضَّالُّونَ
📘 Surely those who disbelieve after they have believed and then increase in unbelief their repentance shall not be accepted; those are the ones who go astray. This alludes to those who return to the states of the people of habit ahl al-ʿāda after having traveled the path of spiritual desire Ṭarīq al-irāda. They prefer this world and to submit to their whims over seeking the Real ������ ������. Then they renounce the people of the path ahl al-Ṭarīqa and become ever more alone in their [inner] darknesses. Their repentance shall not be accepted; those are the ones who go astray from the path of the Real for trust amāna cannot be regained once treachery khiyāna has been displayed. As the days pass their punishment is the increasing estrange- ment of [their] hearts from the path and they are not distressed by the felicitous state that has slipped away from them. If they had persevered their repentance would have been accepted but the Real ������ follows His way sunna with those who are listless on this path when they revert to habitual states aḥwāl al-ʿāda and do not feel regret for the moments that have passed away from them. God most high said �And We shall confound their hearts and eyes; just as they did not believe in it the first time� [6:110]. The apostate from Islam is a more powerful enemy to Muslims than the original disbeliever. Likewise the one who reverts from this path is more powerful in rejecting it and more oppositional to its people than those who were always alien to it.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَمَاتُوا وَهُمْ كُفَّارٌ فَلَنْ يُقْبَلَ مِنْ أَحَدِهِمْ مِلْءُ الْأَرْضِ ذَهَبًا وَلَوِ افْتَدَىٰ بِهِ ۗ أُولَٰئِكَ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ وَمَا لَهُمْ مِنْ نَاصِرِينَ
📘 Surely those who disbelieve and die disbelieving the whole earth full of gold shall not be accepted from any one of them if he would ransom himself thereby; for them awaits a painful chastisement and they shall have no helpers. This alludes to the one who dies after becoming listless. Even if he had a beautiful beginning he will not be gathered in the hereafter with the people of this story ahl hādhi al-qiṣṣa even if a thousand of those with deeper knowledge were to intercede for him. Indeed the perfection of the ruse with him is that his image will be cast onto someone else in the hereafter so that his acquaintances among the people of deeper knowledge ahl al-maʿrifa will think that it is him but it will not occur to anyone that he should intercede for him.
لَنْ تَنَالُوا الْبِرَّ حَتَّىٰ تُنْفِقُوا مِمَّا تُحِبُّونَ ۚ وَمَا تُنْفِقُوا مِنْ شَيْءٍ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ بِهِ عَلِيمٌ
📘 You will not attain piety birr until you expend of what mimmā = min mā you love; and whatever thing you expend God knows of it. When the object of seeking is piety and goodness birr [the preposition] min is used which is [the particle of speech] for dividing something into portions. He said �of what mimmā = min mā you love.� Whoever desires piety and goodness birr should expend some portion of what he loves while whoever desires the One who is All-Goodness al-bārr should expend everything he loves. Whoever expends what he loves in this world will find what he seeks from the Real most high. Whoever is attached to the fortunes of the lower self man kāna marbūṬan bi-ḥuẓūẓi nafsihi will not find fortune in nearness to his Lord lam yaḥaẓẓu bi-qurbi rabbihi. It is said that if you can only attain piety and goodness birr by expend- ing what you love how will you ever reach the One who is All-Goodness al-bārr so long as you prefer your worldly fortunes to Himḍ And whatever thing you expend God knows of it. There are those who expend looking for reward and compensation those who expend looking to defend themselves from affliction and tribulations and those who expend content with His knowing. One of them said: He wishes to walk in a weak way so that she might when she hears of his suffering send a message to him. He trembles because of what has become known in seeking the sublime that his qualities might be mentioned one day before Salmā.
۞ كُلُّ الطَّعَامِ كَانَ حِلًّا لِبَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ إِلَّا مَا حَرَّمَ إِسْرَائِيلُ عَلَىٰ نَفْسِهِ مِنْ قَبْلِ أَنْ تُنَزَّلَ التَّوْرَاةُ ۗ قُلْ فَأْتُوا بِالتَّوْرَاةِ فَاتْلُوهَا إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ
📘 All food was lawful to the children of Israel save what Israel forbade for himself before the Torah was revealed. Say: �Bring the Torah now and recite it if you are truthful.� Whoever invents falsehood against God after that those are the evildoers. [God] does not declare things permissible or prohibited in their original state; in [this state] there is no divine ordinance ḥadd regarding them. That is a liberality and kindness from the Real ������ [and this state exists] until such a [time] as a command or a law comes regarding it. God ������ has eased the precepts of religious obligation aḥkām al-taklīf for advanced disciples ahl al-nihāya. Their way is to adopt what is easiest in order to perfect what comes to them from the precepts of the hearts aḥkām al-qulūb-surely the difficulties made incumbent on their hearts are harder for them. As for novices ahl al-bidāya the affair is made difficult for them with tasks and litanies-their way is to adopt what is more onerous and difficult [in these areas] so as to empty their hearts of thoughts. Whoever thinks otherwise is in error. This verse also alludes in His saying �Whoever invents falsehood against God� to the states of the people of false claims and errors. They absolve themselves and attribute to God ������ their false notions hawājis but God is free of these. It is a rare servant who can distinguish between [true] incoming thoughts khawāṬir and false notions hawājis.
فَمَنِ افْتَرَىٰ عَلَى اللَّهِ الْكَذِبَ مِنْ بَعْدِ ذَٰلِكَ فَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الظَّالِمُونَ
📘 All food was lawful to the children of Israel save what Israel forbade for himself before the Torah was revealed. Say: �Bring the Torah now and recite it if you are truthful.� Whoever invents falsehood against God after that those are the evildoers. [God] does not declare things permissible or prohibited in their original state; in [this state] there is no divine ordinance ḥadd regarding them. That is a liberality and kindness from the Real ������ [and this state exists] until such a [time] as a command or a law comes regarding it. God ������ has eased the precepts of religious obligation aḥkām al-taklīf for advanced disciples ahl al-nihāya. Their way is to adopt what is easiest in order to perfect what comes to them from the precepts of the hearts aḥkām al-qulūb-surely the difficulties made incumbent on their hearts are harder for them. As for novices ahl al-bidāya the affair is made difficult for them with tasks and litanies-their way is to adopt what is more onerous and difficult [in these areas] so as to empty their hearts of thoughts. Whoever thinks otherwise is in error. This verse also alludes in His saying �Whoever invents falsehood against God� to the states of the people of false claims and errors. They absolve themselves and attribute to God ������ their false notions hawājis but God is free of these. It is a rare servant who can distinguish between [true] incoming thoughts khawāṬir and false notions hawājis.
قُلْ صَدَقَ اللَّهُ ۗ فَاتَّبِعُوا مِلَّةَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ حَنِيفًا وَمَا كَانَ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ
📘 Say: �God has spoken the truth therefore follow the creed of Abraham a ḥanīf and he was not an idolater.� The creed milla of Abraham was complete abandonment to God al-khurūju ilā Allāh bi-l-kulliya and surrender to His decree without hold- ing back in any way wa-l-taslīmu li-ḥukmihi min ghayri an tabqā baqiyya. In truth to affirm ithbāt anything [other than God] in accounting for what comes into being is idolatry shirk.
إِنَّ أَوَّلَ بَيْتٍ وُضِعَ لِلنَّاسِ لَلَّذِي بِبَكَّةَ مُبَارَكًا وَهُدًى لِلْعَالَمِينَ
📘 The first house established for the people was that at Bakka a blessed place and a guidance to all the worlds. Therein are clear signs the station of Abraham; and whoever enters it is secure. It is the duty of people toward God to make the pilgrimage to the House if he is able to make his way there. As for the one who disbelieves God is independent of all the worlds. The House is a bit of stone ḥajara and the servant is a bit of mud madara. The bit of mud is bonded to the bit of stone rabaṬa al-madara bi-l-ḥajara so that mud madar is with stone ḥajar and the One who has always been is magnified and sanctified. It is said that the House is the object of the circumambulation of bodily selves nufūs while the Real ������ is the object of the quest of hearts qulūb. The House consists of the remains and traces [of the past]. These are but relics and stones yet These traces of ours point to us. So after we [are gone] look to the traces. It is said that the House is stone but not all stone is alike. [It is] stone but it causes the hearts of the lovers to awaken muzʿij and the souls of the poor fuqarāÌ to leap munfij. Indeed for the hearts of some it is cooling and pleasant muthlij wa-mubhij and for the hearts of others [it is] stimulating and arousing munfij wa-muzʿij. [What people see in the House depends on the] different types [of people]: A House that is a place you go to seek out your loved ones and visit them mazār [or] where you hear news akhbār of them and see the traces āthār [of their having been there]. A House-whoever looks to it with the eye of separation returns with an innermost self laid waste kharāb. Whoever observes it with the eye of connection wins every approach and approval ījāb. As it is said: Truly houses even when they are silent have a pact with Our lovers since they stop at them. A House-whoever visits it with his bodily self finds His kindnesses and whoever visits it with his heart finds His unveilings. It is said that He said �and purify My House� [2:125 and 22:26] attrib- uting it to Himself.
فِيهِ آيَاتٌ بَيِّنَاتٌ مَقَامُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ ۖ وَمَنْ دَخَلَهُ كَانَ آمِنًا ۗ وَلِلَّهِ عَلَى النَّاسِ حِجُّ الْبَيْتِ مَنِ اسْتَطَاعَ إِلَيْهِ سَبِيلًا ۚ وَمَنْ كَفَرَ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَنِيٌّ عَنِ الْعَالَمِينَ
📘 The first house established for the people was that at Bakka a blessed place and a guidance to all the worlds. Therein are clear signs the station of Abraham; and whoever enters it is secure. It is the duty of people toward God to make the pilgrimage to the House if he is able to make his way there. As for the one who disbelieves God is independent of all the worlds. The House is a bit of stone ḥajara and the servant is a bit of mud madara. The bit of mud is bonded to the bit of stone rabaṬa al-madara bi-l-ḥajara so that mud madar is with stone ḥajar and the One who has always been is magnified and sanctified. It is said that the House is the object of the circumambulation of bodily selves nufūs while the Real ������ is the object of the quest of hearts qulūb. The House consists of the remains and traces [of the past]. These are but relics and stones yet These traces of ours point to us. So after we [are gone] look to the traces. It is said that the House is stone but not all stone is alike. [It is] stone but it causes the hearts of the lovers to awaken muzʿij and the souls of the poor fuqarāÌ to leap munfij. Indeed for the hearts of some it is cooling and pleasant muthlij wa-mubhij and for the hearts of others [it is] stimulating and arousing munfij wa-muzʿij. [What people see in the House depends on the] different types [of people]: A House that is a place you go to seek out your loved ones and visit them mazār [or] where you hear news akhbār of them and see the traces āthār [of their having been there]. A House-whoever looks to it with the eye of separation returns with an innermost self laid waste kharāb. Whoever observes it with the eye of connection wins every approach and approval ījāb. As it is said: Truly houses even when they are silent have a pact with Our lovers since they stop at them. A House-whoever visits it with his bodily self finds His kindnesses and whoever visits it with his heart finds His unveilings. It is said that He said �and purify My House� [2:125 and 22:26] attrib- uting it to Himself.
قُلْ يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لِمَ تَكْفُرُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَاللَّهُ شَهِيدٌ عَلَىٰ مَا تَعْمَلُونَ
📘 Say: �O people of the scripture why do you disbelieve in God's verses when God is witness of what you doḍ� The divine address in this verse is meant to confirm the obligation of the pilgrimage [for the people of the scripture]. With respect to the law the pilgrimage is obligatory for them166 but with respect to the true state of affairs ḥaqīqa and [divine] subjugation qahr the pilgrimage is barred to them. They are called by the law and command hum madʿuwūna sharʿan wa-amran but banished by the decree and the subjugation maṬrūdūna ḥukman wa-qahran.
قُلْ يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لِمَ تَصُدُّونَ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ مَنْ آمَنَ تَبْغُونَهَا عِوَجًا وَأَنْتُمْ شُهَدَاءُ ۗ وَمَا اللَّهُ بِغَافِلٍ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ
📘 Say: �O people of the scripture why do you bar believers from God's way desiring to make it crooked while you yourselves are witnesses. God is not heedless of what you do.� How can one who is barred himself bar anotherḍ Surely in this is a secret belonging to the [divine] Lordship.
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