﴿ قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ ٱللَّهَ فَٱتَّبِعُونِى يُحْبِبْكُمُ ٱللَّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ غَفُورٌۭ رَّحِيمٌۭ ﴾

“Say [O Prophet]: "If you love God, follow me, [and] God will love you and forgive you your sins; for God is much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace."”

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.