🕋 تفسير سورة البقرة
(Al-Baqarah) • المصدر: EN-KASHF-AL-ASRAR-TAFSIR
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ الم
📘 Alif lām mīm.Addressing one another with individual letters is one of the customs of lovers in their love. These are the lovers' secrets with each other so that no one watching will be aware.Between them lovers have a secret not disclosedby word, nor does creation have a pen to record it.*Of the sort of hidden message that He gavenot one will be given up for a hundred thousand lives.In the scroll of friendship there is the imprint of a script whose interpretation none but the passion- ate read. In the secluded cell of friendship, there is mystery between friends whose murmur none but the recognizers know. In the picture-gallery of friendship there is a color of colorlessness that none but the enraptured have the eyes to see.If you want to see the beauty of the beloved's face,blind the eyes of your head and look with the eye of your intellect! [DS 495]Though Moses heard a thousand words in a thousand languages, this mystery was given over to MuḤammad in the seclusion of Or closer [53:9] on the carpet of expansiveness: �Alif.�I said to her, �Halt [qifī].� She said, �qāf.�Those thousands of words came to Moses, but the veil stayed in place. This mystery came to MuḤammad at the moment of face-to-face vision. Moses heard the words but did not see the Speaker, MuḤammad heard the mystery while gazing on the Keeper of the Mystery. Moses in seeking was delighted with the seeking; MuḤammad in the Presence was delighted with the Friend. Moses had not found the pleasure of contemplation, so he did not know its taste. He had not gone beyond listening and remembering; his repose was in hearing, which is why He spoke so much to him. But MuḤammad had gone beyond the limit of hearing to the center point of togetherness. The jealousy of the Remembered did not leave him in the remembrance and the wave of light lifted him up from love, so remembrance became lost in the Remembered and love in the Light. The spirit was lost in face-to-face vision, and face-to-face vision is far from explication. When a heart finds delight in His grasp and is inundated by face-to-face vision, what will it do with reports? When the spirit rests in the embrace, why should it busy itself with much remembrance?For him who must have face-to-face vision, reports are the bane.
۞ مَا نَنْسَخْ مِنْ آيَةٍ أَوْ نُنْسِهَا نَأْتِ بِخَيْرٍ مِنْهَا أَوْ مِثْلِهَا ۗ أَلَمْ تَعْلَمْ أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
📘 Whatever verse We abrogate or cause to be forgotten-We bring better than it or its like.By way of allusion He is saying, �We never make you advance from the locus of servanthood without setting you down in the courtyards of freedom. We never remove from you any of the attributes of mortal nature without making you abide through one of the marks that give witness to the Divinity.�In terms of allusion He is saying, �O paragon of the horizons, O messenger to jinn and men, O quintessence of predetermination, O luminous full moon, O totality of perfection, O kiblah of prosperity, O basis of bounteousness, O displayer of gentleness and majesty, O you whose branch of union is blooming and whose star of exaltedness is always shining, O you whose good fortune has gone beyond the clouds of being and become specific to the marks giving witness to the Lord- hood and the confirmation of the Divinity! Instant by instant the work of your good fortune is advancing. What others have as crowns, you have as sandals.�The sandals that your steed threw from its feetbecame the crown of sultans-and may it ever be so! [DS 838]�O paragon! Even though the stations beyond which We make you advance are the beautiful deeds of all the friends and the limpid, they are your ugly deeds as long as you remain within them. When you pass beyond them, ask forgiveness for them!�MuṣṬafā said that he asked forgiveness for them seventy times a day: �My heart becomes clouded, so I ask forgiveness from God seventy times a day.�Abū Bakr al-ṣiddīq said, �Would that I could witness that for which God's Messenger asked forgiveness!�Concerning His words, �Whatever verse We abrogate,� it has also been said, �That is, the servant is not transferred from a state without being given what is above and beyond it. 'Whenever We abrogate any trace of worship, We replace it with one of the lights of servanthood. When- ever We abrogate one of the lights of servanthood, We put in its place something of the moons of servitude.'�9 So he continues, being transferred from the lower to the higher, until he falls under one of the attractions of the Real. And �One attraction from the Real is equivalent to all the deeds of jinn and men.
بَلَىٰ مَنْ أَسْلَمَ وَجْهَهُ لِلَّهِ وَهُوَ مُحْسِنٌ فَلَهُ أَجْرُهُ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
📘 No, whosoever submits his face to God, doing the beautiful, shall have his wage with his Lord, and no fear shall be upon them, neither shall they grieve.The work is the work of the purifiers, the good fortune the good fortune of the truthful, the con- duct the conduct of the pure, and the hard cash the hard cash in their purse. Today they are on the carpet of service with the light of recognition, tomorrow on the carpet of companionship with the joy of union. Surely We purified them with that which is pure [38:46]. He is saying, �We made them pure and brought them forth pure from the crucible of testing so that they would be worthy for the Presence,� for the Pure Presence gives access only to the pure. �Surely God is goodly and accepts only the goodly.� Nothing is of any use with the Pure Presence save pure activity and pure speech. Then you must become so purified of that pure activity that you do not seek it out in this world or the afterworld. Then you may reach God pure. Surely he shall have nearness to Us, and a beautiful return [38:40].The secret of this talk is what was said by Abū Bakr Zaqqāq: �The defect in the purity of every purifier is to see his purity. If God desires to purify his self-purification, He will eliminate the seeing of his self-purification from his purification. Then he will be 'purified' [mukhlaṣ], not 'purifying' [mukhliṣ].� He is saying that your self-purification will be pure when it is pure of your seeing it.Know also that this self-purification is not in your hands, nor in your capacity or possession. Rather, it is a secret of the Lord placed there by the Glorified. No one is aware of it, and no one else has any access to it. The Unity says, �It is one of My secrets that I deposit in the hearts of those whom I love among My servants.� He is saying, �I choose a servant and approve him for My love, then I place my deposit in the core of his heart. Satan has no access to it so as to destroy it, nor does the soul's caprice see it so as to change it, nor does the angel reach it so as to write it down.
وَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنْ مَنَعَ مَسَاجِدَ اللَّهِ أَنْ يُذْكَرَ فِيهَا اسْمُهُ وَسَعَىٰ فِي خَرَابِهَا ۚ أُولَٰئِكَ مَا كَانَ لَهُمْ أَنْ يَدْخُلُوهَا إِلَّا خَائِفِينَ ۚ لَهُمْ فِي الدُّنْيَا خِزْيٌ وَلَهُمْ فِي الْآخِرَةِ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ
📘 Who does greater wrong than he who bars God's places of prostration?In terms of allusion, He is asking, �Who does greater wrong than he who ruins the homeland of worship with appetites? Who does greater wrong than he who ruins the homeland of recognition with attachments? Who does greater wrong than he who ruins the homeland of contemplation by glancing at others?�The homeland of worship is the soul of the renunciants, the homeland of recognition the heart of the recognizers, and the homeland of contemplation the secret core of the friends.When someone keeps his soul away from appetites, the homeland of his worship flourishes and his name is written in the register of the renunciants. Thus Mālik Dīnār lingered in Basra for forty years and never ate or tasted the dates of Basra, dried or fresh, before he died. He was asked about that and he said, �The possessor of appetite is veiled from his Lord.�When someone keeps his heart pure of attachment, the homeland of his recognition flourishes and he belongs to the ranks of the recognizers. Thus one of them said about Ibrāhīm Adham, �I was with Ibrāhīm Adham in a journey, and we were afflicted with hunger. After we settled in a mosque he brought out some sections of the Qur'an he had with him and said, 'Go and pawn these sections and bring us something to eat, for hunger has stricken us.' I went out, and someone cameforward to me in front of a fully laden mule. He was saying, 'The one I am seeking is a light- complexioned man called Ibrāhīm ibn Adham.'��I said, 'What do you desire from him?'�He said, 'I am the slave of his father, and these things belong to him.' So I led him to him. He entered the mosque, put his head and hands on the ground and kissed him. Ibrāhīm said, 'Who are you?' He said, 'I am your father's slave. Your father has died, and I have with me 40,000 dinars, your inheritance from your father. I am your slave. Command me as you wish.'�Ibrāhīm said, 'If you speak the truth, then you are free, for the sake of God. And what you have with you is all a gift to you. Leave us.
وَقَالُوا اتَّخَذَ اللَّهُ وَلَدًا ۗ سُبْحَانَهُ ۖ بَلْ لَهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ ۖ كُلٌّ لَهُ قَانِتُونَ
📘 They say, �God has taken a son.� Glory be to Him! Rather, to Him belongs what is in the heavens and the earth; all are devoted to Him.He is pure, without fault, incomparable, the one Lord-one in forbearance, one in loyalty, one in love. If the servant does harm, He does not cut off from him, for He is one in forbearance. If the servant inclines toward another, He does not so incline, because He is one in loyalty. If the servantbreaks the covenant, He does not break it, because He is one in love.He is one in Essence, one in attributes, rid of causes, incomparable with obsequiousness, praised by all expressions, fitting for all allusions, the creator of time and the hours, the determiner of instants and moments. His artisanry has no defect, His determining no contrivance, His descrip- tion no likeness. He is a determiner who has always been.Powerful, Knowing, Alive, Desiring, Hearing, Seeing, clothed in majesty,Hallowed beyond having an equal, transcending opinion and talk.*O Essence of perfection lacking nothing!The effusion of generosity comes from Your hand alone.He is a lord without associate or partner, a king without equal or need. His promise is no lie, His name is no metaphor. The door of withholding is shut and the door of His munificence open. He is a forgiver of sins, a caresser of the faulty. He knows without cause, He is able without artifice. He is alone without paucity, spreader of the creed, outside of number, artisan without toil, self- standing until the Endless, hallowed beyond envy. His name is Subtle, Self-Standing, and Self- Sufficient; He begets not, nor was He begotten, and equal to Him is none [112:2-4].So much are You face-to-face in my heart, so much hidden from my eyes,that your describer cannot describe You- in Your attributes You are as You are.A renowned Lord, caring for His servants-ears are open to His name, hearts imprisoned by His message, tawḤīd-voicers fallen into His snare, yearners drunk with the love from His cup. He is the lovingly kind such that no one in the universe is like Him in loving kindness. The disobedient and destitute have hope in Him, and the poor are happy in the subsistence of His majesty.
الَّذِينَ آتَيْنَاهُمُ الْكِتَابَ يَتْلُونَهُ حَقَّ تِلَاوَتِهِ أُولَٰئِكَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِهِ ۗ وَمَنْ يَكْفُرْ بِهِ فَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْخَاسِرُونَ
📘 Those to whom We have given the Book and who recite it with the rightful due of recitation.The rightful due of recitation is that you recite the Qur'an with burning, need, limpidness of heart, and pure belief, with a remembering tongue, a believing heart, and a limpid spirit-the tongue in remembrance, the heart in grief, the spirit with love; the tongue with loyalty, the heart with limpid- ness, the spirit with shame; the tongue in the work, the heart in the mystery, and the spirit in joy.The Pir of the Tariqah said, �In the remembrance the servant reaches a place where the tongue reaches the heart, the heart reaches the spirit, the spirit reaches the secret core, and the secret core reaches the Light. The heart says to the tongue, 'Silence!' The spirit says to the heart, 'Silence!' The secret core says to the spirit, 'Silence!' God says to the traveler, 'My servant, you have been speaking for a while. Now I will speak, you listen.'�
۞ وَإِذِ ابْتَلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ رَبُّهُ بِكَلِمَاتٍ فَأَتَمَّهُنَّ ۖ قَالَ إِنِّي جَاعِلُكَ لِلنَّاسِ إِمَامًا ۖ قَالَ وَمِنْ ذُرِّيَّتِي ۖ قَالَ لَا يَنَالُ عَهْدِي الظَّالِمِينَ
📘 And when his Lord tried Abraham with some words.It has been narrated from al-Ḥasan that he said, �God tried him with the stars, the moon, and the sun, and he spoke beautiful words in that, for he knew that His Lord was constant and never ceas- ing. He tried him with the sacrifice of the son, and he was patient in that and did not fall short.� He is saying that the shining stars and brilliant sun were adorned, and Abraham was tested. �That was so that the one tried would know, not that the one trying him was ignorant.� In other words, this was to show him what comes from him and how he was walking on the road of servanthood.Abraham came out of it extremely virtuous, fortunate, and felicitous. He said, �This is my Lord� [6:76]. It is said that here there is an ellipsis. He means, �They say, 'This is my Lord.' These estranged ones say that this is my God. But it is not, for this is one of the low ones, those taken down. I do not love the low ones and the taken down.�Well done Abraham! He spoke a splendid point. It rose up from the low, but he knew that the Lord is high, beyond His servants. Again, when it went down, he turned away from it and said, �I do not love the low ones, for they are not worthy of Godhood.�Here the lords of realization have voiced another intimation and have seen another subtle point. They say that from the first Abraham's dust was mixed with the water of bosom friendship, his secret core was burned with the fire of passion, his spirit was lit up with the love of eternity, and the ocean of passion was stirring up waves inside him. Then at dawn, at the moment of the morning draft of the passionate, the shouts of joy of the drunkards, and the uproar of those who have lost their hearts, he opened his eyes from the giddiness of the wine of bosom friendship and the drunkenness of passion and said, �This is my Lord.� This is as they say:Your image has so taken my eyesthat wherever I look I fancy it's you.Both drunkenness and passion are paths of trial and the basis of trouble.
رَبَّنَا وَابْعَثْ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِنْهُمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِكَ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ ۚ إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ
📘 �Our Lord, and raise up amidst them a messenger from among them, who will recite Thy signs to them, teach them the Book and the Wisdom, and purify them. Surely Thou art the Exalted, the Wise.�
وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ آمِنُوا كَمَا آمَنَ النَّاسُ قَالُوا أَنُؤْمِنُ كَمَا آمَنَ السُّفَهَاءُ ۗ أَلَا إِنَّهُمْ هُمُ السُّفَهَاءُ وَلَٰكِنْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
📘 And when it is said to them, �Have faith as the people have faith,� they say, �Shall we have faith as fools have faith?� Surely it is they who are the fools, but they do not know.O generous Lord, O renowned, wise Enactor! O You who are true in promise, pure in justice, com- plete in bounty, and eternal in love! Whatever You want You show, and as You want, You adorn. Each has a name, and in the heart of each is Your mark. The stamp of worthiness is upon some people, and the brand of unworthiness on others. The worthy are brought by the road of bounty on the steed of approval with the escort of gentleness in the time of generous bestowal at the turn of proximity. The unworthy are driven into the street of justice on the steed of wrath with the escortof abandonment at the turn of deprivation. This deprivation and that proximity did not come from water or dust, for on the day when the two were written out, there was neither water nor dust. There was beginningless bounty and gentleness and everlasting severity and justice. That was the portion of the self-purifiers and this the portion of the hypocrites.The Pir of the Tariqah said, �Alas for the apportioning that has gone before me! Alack for the words spoken by the Self-Seer! What profit if I am happy or distraught? I fear what the Powerful said in the Beginningless.�The hypocrites, who had fallen under the garment of justice, approved of themselves and deemed themselves to have a good name. The purifiers, the truthful, and the Messenger's Com- panions they called �fools.� The Lord of the Worlds in His generosity acted as their deputy in this and answered them: �Those are not the fools, the fools are those who call them fools.� Indeed, when someone does not belong to himself, God belongs to him. When someone tightens his belt in obeying God's commands, God joins with him. �When someone belongs to God, God belongs to him.�The unbelievers said to MuṣṬafā, �You are possessed: O thou unto whom the Remembrance has been sent down, surely thou art possessed [15:6].� God said to MuḤammad, �They call you mad, but you are not mad: Thou art not, by the blessing of thy Lord, possessed [68:2]. You are My friend, approved of by Me. What harm will come to you if they do not approve of you? What you must have is that I approve of you. The friend must be approved of by a friend, not by the city.�
وَمَنْ يَرْغَبُ عَنْ مِلَّةِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ إِلَّا مَنْ سَفِهَ نَفْسَهُ ۚ وَلَقَدِ اصْطَفَيْنَاهُ فِي الدُّنْيَا ۖ وَإِنَّهُ فِي الْآخِرَةِ لَمِنَ الصَّالِحِينَ
📘 And who shrinks from the creed of Abraham but one foolish in himself? We chose him in this world, and in the next world he shall be among the wholesome.One of these two verses is in praise of the Beloved [MuḤammad], the other in praise of the Bosom Friend [Abraham]. Although both are caressed and worthy prophets, adorned by the generous be- stowal and the bounteousness of the Lord, there is a difference between the Beloved and the Bosom Friend! The Bosom Friend is the desirer, and the Beloved the desired. The desirer is the wanter,and the desired the wanted. The desirer is the traveler, and the desired is the snatched away. The desirer stands in the station of service in his traveling, and the desired stands on the carpet of companionship in the pulling of the Real. When someone is in his own traveling, his road will not be empty of deception. This is why the Bosom Friend's road, despite the greatness of his state, was not empty of deception. Thus, when the star of deception came into his road, he said, �This is my Lord� [6:76]. In the same way, the Lordhood kept on opening up ambuscades of deception by means of the moon and the sun. Finally protection took the reins of his bosom friendship and pulled him to itself from the world of deception. He said, �Surely I have turned my face toward Him who originated the heavens and the earth, unswerving� [6:79].MuṣṬafā, however, was in the pull of the Real. The ambuscade of deception was not able to make his road steep. Rather, on that night everything that was not and then came to be sought his help from deception. They had recourse to the lights of his Shariah against deception and backslid- ing. He was confirmed by the Real's pull to such an extent that he did not look at any of that from the corner of his eye. The eyesight did not swerve, nor did it trespass [53:17].There is as much difference between the Bosom Friend and the Beloved as there is between the traveler and the snatched away. The Bosom Friend had the attribute of servitors at the threshold of Lordhood, standing on his own feet: �Surely I have turned my face toward Him who originated the heavens and the earth, unswerving.
إِذْ قَالَ لَهُ رَبُّهُ أَسْلِمْ ۖ قَالَ أَسْلَمْتُ لِرَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ
📘 When his Lord said to him, �Submit,� he said, �I submit to the Lord of the Worlds.�When the Bosom Friend began to travel, the command came from the Exalted Presence, �O Abra- ham, anyone who wants Me must belong to Me totally. As long as a sliver of mortal desires and soulish resistance remains with you, you will not pass from the suffering of striving to the ease of the pull. 'The ransomed slave stays a slave so long as a dirham is owed.'�If you want Me, you must want what I desire.You must leave aside yourself totally.The Bosom Friend said, �O Lord, Abraham no longer has any self-governance, any free choice. Now I have come on the feet of poverty, in the state of brokenness, to see what You command. I submit. I have overthrown myself and entrusted my work to You. I have come back to You entirely.�The command came, �O Abraham, that is a very great claim. Every claim must have a mean- ing, and everything rightfully due a reality. Now watch out for the testing!�He was tested by other than himself, by part of himself, and by his whole self. The test by oth- ers was that he had plentiful possessions. They say he had 70,000 sheep in seven thousand herds. Each herd had a dog with a gold collar around its neck. He was commanded to detach his heart from all of it and to toss it away in the path of God. The Bosom Friend tossed it all away and left nothing for himself.In the traditions it has come that the angels said, �Lord God, ever since this call was given out in the World of the Dominion, 'And God took Abraham as a bosom friend' [4:125], our spirits have been in a whirlpool and our gall-bladders have been melting because of this special favor. How is the Bosom Friend worthy of this generosity?�The call came, �Gabriel, open up your peacock-feathers and go from the top of the Lote Tree to the summit of that mountain and test the Bosom Friend.� With the divine determination and facilitation Gabriel came down in the form of a child of Adam. He stood beside that mountain and shouted, �O Holy One!� The Bosom Friend fainted from the pleasure of hearing that.
فَإِنْ آمَنُوا بِمِثْلِ مَا آمَنْتُمْ بِهِ فَقَدِ اهْتَدَوْا ۖ وَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَإِنَّمَا هُمْ فِي شِقَاقٍ ۖ فَسَيَكْفِيكَهُمُ اللَّهُ ۚ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ
📘 If they have faith in the like of that in which you have faith, they will have found guid- ance; but if they turn away, they will have split from you. God will suffice you against them; He is the hearing, the knowing.�O master of the east and west and messenger to men and jinn! We have placed these tasks in your tracks and commanded the world's folk to follow you. We wrote the Compact of Love for your servitors and brought them under Our gaze. We threw your opponents into the lowland of abase- ment and feebleness. Whoever opposes you is on the side of the enemies, and whoever serves you is on the side of the friends. When someone wants you, We want him and give him access to Us. When someone turns away, We burn him and throw him down. Whoso obeys the Messenger has obeyed God [4:80].�O paragon! Do not let your heart be tight because these estranged people have turned away and spoken ill. We will suffice you against their business and We will remove their torment from you. God will suffice you against them.�
صِبْغَةَ اللَّهِ ۖ وَمَنْ أَحْسَنُ مِنَ اللَّهِ صِبْغَةً ۖ وَنَحْنُ لَهُ عَابِدُونَ
📘 God's color-and who is more beautiful in color than God?�Then We will bring a people who have come out in the color of tawḤīd and who are adorned with the attribute of love and clothed in God's color, which is colorlessness. Whoever is pure of the color of the color-mixers is colored by God's color.�He who has painted a thousand worlds with color-why would He buy my color and yours, O bankrupt man!So, when someone reaches God's color and falls back on Him, He colors him in His own color. In the same way, the elixir makes copper and iron the same color as itself and they become precious. If the estranged fall back on Him, they become His familiars, and if the disobedient fall back, they become obedient.On this topic many stories are told about the shaykhs. One of them is narrated from Ibrāhīm Khawāṣṣ. He said, �Once I went into the desert and saw a Christian, who had his sash around his waist. He asked if he could accompany me, so we walked for seven days. He said, 'O monk of the unswerving folk! Bring forth what you have of expansiveness, for we are hungry.'�I said, 'O God, do not disgrace me before this unbeliever.' Then I saw a tray, upon which were bread, roast meat, dates, and a pitcher of water. We ate and drank, and we walked for seven days. Then I became hasty and I said, 'O monk of the Christians, bring what you have, for my turn is finished.' He leaned on his staff and supplicated, and lo there were two trays with double what there had been on my tray.�I was bewildered and upset, and I refused to eat. He insisted, but I did not respond to him. He said, 'Eat, for I have two pieces of good news to give to you. One is that I bear witness that there is no god but God, and I bear witness that MuḤammad is God's messenger,' and he took off the sash. 'The other is that I say, �O God, if there is any danger here, then I will begin with this.�' So he began.�We ate and we walked, and then we made the hajj and took up residence in Mecca for a year.Then he died, and was buried in al-BaṬḤāÌ-God have mercy on him.�
وَكَذَٰلِكَ جَعَلْنَاكُمْ أُمَّةً وَسَطًا لِتَكُونُوا شُهَدَاءَ عَلَى النَّاسِ وَيَكُونَ الرَّسُولُ عَلَيْكُمْ شَهِيدًا ۗ وَمَا جَعَلْنَا الْقِبْلَةَ الَّتِي كُنْتَ عَلَيْهَا إِلَّا لِنَعْلَمَ مَنْ يَتَّبِعُ الرَّسُولَ مِمَّنْ يَنْقَلِبُ عَلَىٰ عَقِبَيْهِ ۚ وَإِنْ كَانَتْ لَكَبِيرَةً إِلَّا عَلَى الَّذِينَ هَدَى اللَّهُ ۗ وَمَا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيُضِيعَ إِيمَانَكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ بِالنَّاسِ لَرَءُوفٌ رَحِيمٌ
📘 Thus We appointed you a midmost community.... Surely God is clement, ever-merciful toward the people.It is the wise Lord, the knowing King, whose power and existence-giving bring forth beings. The newly arrived things exist through His exaltedness and His making them manifest, and the earth and the heavens stand forth through His keeping. He created the newly arrived things and chose from among them the animals. From among the animals He chose the Adamites, from the Adamites He chose the faithful, from the faithful He chose the prophets, and from the prophets He chose MuḤammad. He chose his community above the previous communities. This is why MuṣṬafā said, �I was brought forth from the best generation of the children of Adam, generation after generation, until I came to be in the generation in which I am.� He also said, �Surely God chose my companions above all the world's folk save the prophets and the envoys. He chose four of my companions and made them the best of my companions-and in all of my companions there is good-Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, and ʿAlī. He chose my community over the other com- munities, so He sent me forth in the best generation. Then there will be the second and third in succession, then the fourth, one after another.�What is understood from this report is that MuṣṬafā is the best of the Adamites, the chosen from among the world's folk, the leader of the creatures, the adornment of the world, the weighty one of the time, the lamp of the earth, the full moon of heaven, the shelter of the disobedient, the interceder for the sinners, the master of all the messengers and their seal.After MuṣṬafā the best of all creatures is Abū Bakr the sincerely truthful. The Lord of the Worlds placed the cushion of his imamate on the throne of MuṣṬafā's Shariah, turned the lodging place of his servanthood into self-purification and truthfulness, and made trust and certainty the keeper of the rank of his friendship.After him the best of creatures is ʿUmar KhaṬṬāb. The Lord of the Worlds placed the reins of lowering and raising the legal rulings in the hand of his sufficiency and pulled the robe of his rulership over the forehead of the creed. With his harshness and awesomeness the smoke of as- sociationism was subdued by its own misfortune.
قَدْ نَرَىٰ تَقَلُّبَ وَجْهِكَ فِي السَّمَاءِ ۖ فَلَنُوَلِّيَنَّكَ قِبْلَةً تَرْضَاهَا ۚ فَوَلِّ وَجْهَكَ شَطْرَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ ۚ وَحَيْثُ مَا كُنْتُمْ فَوَلُّوا وُجُوهَكُمْ شَطْرَهُ ۗ وَإِنَّ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ لَيَعْلَمُونَ أَنَّهُ الْحَقُّ مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ ۗ وَمَا اللَّهُ بِغَافِلٍ عَمَّا يَعْمَلُونَ
📘 We have seen thy face turning about in heaven. Now We shall turn thee toward a kiblah that thou shalt approve.He had let him know that he was in the sight of the Real so that he would model his courtesy on the Real's courtesy. When he put courtesy into practice, he did not ask the Real for what his heart wanted and did no more than gaze upon heaven. Then He gave him better than what He gives to those who ask.When the Lord is generous and the servant exalted, He keeps the servant within the stipula- tions of courtesy, shows him the road of deeds, and gives him success. Then He rewards him for the deeds and praises him for his veneration. He says, �How excellent is the wage of the doers!� [3:136]. �How excellent a servant he was; surely he kept on returning� [38:30].In the same way, He reported to MuṣṬafā, �You are in My vision and My exalted witnessing. Be careful to recognize the respect due to the Presence and to ask in keeping with courtesy.� Hence when his heart was intent on the kiblah, he did not make this manifest, in keeping with courtesy. He kept that wish in his heart and then the Exalted Presence addressed him: �Now We shall turn thee toward a kiblah that thou shalt approve. We have come to know that wish in your heart and We have admired your beautiful courtesy in not asking. We will bestow upon you that of which you approve in the work of the kiblah. O MuḤammad! All the servants in the world are seeking My approval, but I am seeking your approval. All are searching for Me, but I am calling for you.All wish for My caresses, but We are caressing you. Thy Lord shall bestow upon thee so that thou shalt approve [93:5]. Now consider the Kaabah as the kiblah of your soul and Me as the kiblah of your spirit.�When those caresses came forth from the Presence of Unity and those generosities reached him, the tongue of his state said in his yearning,�When your heart reaches out once in love for me,suffering separation from You becomes easy, sweetheart.�Abū Bakr Shiblī said, �The kiblahs are three: the kiblah of the common people, the kiblah of the elect, and the kiblah of the elect of the elect.
وَلِكُلٍّ وِجْهَةٌ هُوَ مُوَلِّيهَا ۖ فَاسْتَبِقُوا الْخَيْرَاتِ ۚ أَيْنَ مَا تَكُونُوا يَأْتِ بِكُمُ اللَّهُ جَمِيعًا ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
📘 Everyone has a direction to which he turns.The creatures have five kiblahs. First is the Throne, second the Footstool, third the Inhabited House, fourth the Holy House [Jerusalem], and fifth the Kaabah. The Throne is the kiblah of the angels who carry it. The Footstool is the kiblah of the cherubim. The Inhabited House is the kiblah of the spirituals. The Holy House is the kiblah of the prophets. The Kaabah is the kiblah of the faithful. The Throne is of light, the Footstool of gold, the Inhabited House of carnelian, the Holy House of marble, and the Kaabah of stone.This is an allusion for the faithful servant: �If you cannot come to the Throne to circumam- bulate, or to the Footstool to visit, or to the Inhabited House to worship, or to the Holy House to serve, then at least you can turn your face five times a day toward this stone, which is the kiblah of the faithful, and receive the reward for all of them.�Everyone has a direction. One of them has said that the allusion here is this: �All people have been distracted from Me by something that has come between Me and them. So, O faithful, belong to Me and be through Me.�In terms of allusion, He is saying, �All the people have turned away from Me. They have become familiar with others without Me. They have made their sweetheart other than Me and ac- cepted the other in friendship.�You who are the chevaliers of the Tariqah and claim friendship with Me, lift up your eyes from anything beneath Me, even if it be the highest paradise. Then you will go straight in follow- ing the Sunnah and conduct of MuṣṬafā and you will perform the rightful due of emulating thatparagon of the world. For, as the greatest of the prophets, his conduct was to turn his eyes away from all beings and not to see any refuge nor to approve of any resting place other than the shelter of Unity.�When a man wears down his spirit in passion's road he'd best incline toward none but the Friend.In passion's road the passionatemust not think of hell or paradise.When someone puts himself right in following MuṣṬafā, the candle of friendship with the Real will be lit in his road and he will never fall away from friendship's avenue.
فَاذْكُرُونِي أَذْكُرْكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوا لِي وَلَا تَكْفُرُونِ
📘 So remember Me; I will remember you. And be grateful for Me and not ungrateful toward Me.This is to remember the lovingly kind Friend, the heart's ease and the spirit's food. Remembrance is the polo-ball and familiarity with Him is the bat. Its steed is yearning and its field love. Burning for Him is the rose, and recognizing Him the garden.This remembrance makes the Real apparent. It is joined with the Haqiqah and separate from mortal nature. This remembrance is the watering place for the tree of tawḤīd, the fruit and produce of which is friendship with the Real. This is why the Lord of the Worlds said, �My servant does not cease remembering Me, and I remembering him, until he is passionate for Me and I passionate for him.�This is not the remembrance of the tongue that you know-this is inside the spirit. The time came when Abū Yazīd was remembering little with the tongue. When he was asked about that, he said, �I am in wonder at this remembrance of the tongue, and I am more in wonder at him who is a stranger. What would a stranger be doing in the midst? Remembrance of Him is in the midst of the spirit.�In the story of passion for You, many are the hardships. I'm with You, but many are the stations between us.*I wonder at him who says, �I remember my Lord.� Should I forget, then remember what I forgot?That great man of his time said in a whispered prayer, �O Lord! How can I remember You when You Yourself are remembering and I am crying out from forgetfulness. You are the remembrance and the remembered, You are the help in finding Yourself.�O Lord! When someone reaches You, his sorrows are finished; when someone sees You, his spirit laughs. Who has more joy in the two worlds than he who remembers You? Who is more worthy of happiness in You than the servant?�O poor man, you are remembering yourself. What do you know about remembering Him? Not having traveled, what do you know about the way stations? Not having seen the Friend, how can you be aware of His name and mark?You are your own object of worship-you worship yourself: whatever you do, you do it for yourself.
وَلَا تَقُولُوا لِمَنْ يُقْتَلُ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أَمْوَاتٌ ۚ بَلْ أَحْيَاءٌ وَلَٰكِنْ لَا تَشْعُرُونَ
📘 Say not of those who are slain in the path of God, �They are dead.� No, they are alive, but you are unaware.The life of this world has left them behind, but they have reached endless life.12 What have they lost by being released from this world's abasement? They have reached union with the exaltedness of the Patron.If I die, don't say about me, �He's dead.�Say, �The dead man came to life in the Friend who took him.�Alive is the one who lives through Him, not through the spirit. Whoever comes to life in the Friend lives forever.The Pir of the Tariqah said, �O Lord, if someone is occupied with You, how could his occupa- tion come to an end? When someone lives through You, how could he ever die? If the spirit in the body is deprived of You, it is like an imprisoned corpse. Alive in reality is he who lives with You. God's praise be on those slain concerning whom the King says that they are alive.�No, they are alive, but you are unaware. The cloak of awe is on the shoulders of their exalted- ness, the shadow of the Tremendous Throne is their resting-place of intimacy, and the Presence of the Real's majesty is the place of their spirit's repose, in a seat of truthfulness, at an Omnipotent King [54:55].
وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمْ بِشَيْءٍ مِنَ الْخَوْفِ وَالْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍ مِنَ الْأَمْوَالِ وَالْأَنْفُسِ وَالثَّمَرَاتِ ۗ وَبَشِّرِ الصَّابِرِينَ
📘 And We will indeed try you with something of fear and hunger, and decrease of wealth, souls, and fruits; and give good news to the patient.The custom of the Lord is that whenever He threatens the servant and shows harshness in a verse, then, right after that or before it, He caresses the servant and gives him hope. Thus in this verse He breaks the servant by mentioning those harsh things and varieties of trial. Then He gives good news, He caresses, and He says, �and give good news to the patient.� And, at the beginning of these verses He says, �Surely God is with the patient� [2:153]. Glory be to Him! How gentle and how merciful He is to His servants!And We will indeed try you. He says, �We will test you, sometimes with fear, sometimes with dread, sometimes with poverty, sometimes with hunger, sometimes with outward affliction, sometimes with inward sorrow.� The outward trial and evident affliction are in fact easy work, for sometimes they are there and sometimes not, like the trial of Abraham and the trial of Job. The complete trial is inward sorrow, which does not leave its place for a moment. When someone is closer, more worthy of friendship, and more suitable for union, his sorrow is more. Such was MuṣṬafā's sorrow. He had no capacity for it on the highest horizon, nor did he have any rest fromit on the expanse of the earth. He was like a moth before a lamp: It does not have the capacity to stay with the lamp, nor the remedy of staying away from the lamp. With the tongue of his state he was saying,�In separation I make do because of shame before Your image, in union I burn in fear it will cease.Such is the state of the moth with the candle- in separation it burns and in union it burns.��Yes, everyone who seeks union with Me and wants proximity with Me has no escape from taking on the burden of tribulation and tasting the drink of sorrow.�āsiya, the wife of Pharaoh, sought for the Real's neighborhood and asked for His proximity. She said, �My Lord, build for me a house with Thee in the Garden [66:11]. O Lord, I want a room in Your neighborhood, for it is beautiful to have a room in the street of the Friend.
وَإِلَٰهُكُمْ إِلَٰهٌ وَاحِدٌ ۖ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الرَّحْمَٰنُ الرَّحِيمُ
📘 And your God is one God. There is no god but He, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful.This is the description of the one Lord, the one Lord God and King. He is one in magnanimity and governance, one in forbearance and beautiful doing, one in generosity and peerlessness, one in loving kindness and servant-caressing. Every magnificence is the mantle of His majesty, and in that He is one. Every tremendousness and all-compellingness is the shawl of His lordhood, and in that He is one. He is one in Essence, one in attributes, one in deed and mark, one in loyalty and compact, one in gentleness and caressing, one in love and friendship.On the day of apportioning, who was there but He, the One? Before the day of apportioning who was there? That same One. After the day of apportioning, who handed over those portions? That same One. Who shows? That same One. Who adorns? That same One.He is more apparent than everything in the world of apparentness, and in this apparentness He is one. He is more hidden than anything in the world of hiddenness, and in this hiddenness He is one.O You who are more face-to-face than anything in the world! You are more hidden than the world's most hidden thing!O You who are more distant than all that the servants suppose!You are closer to the servants than the spirit's vein.How disloyal the Adamite who does not know the worth of this declaration and the exaltedness of this ascription! God says, �And your God is one God.� The wonder is not that He ascribed the servants to Himself, joined them to Himself, and said, �Surely My servants� [15:42]. The wonder is that He ascribed Himself to the servants and joined His name to their name, saying, �Your God.� This is not because His lordhood must be joined to the servant's servanthood, or that the servants are deserving of that. Rather, in generosity and loving kindness He Himself is unique and one. In magnanimity He is worthy of every generous bestowal and every gift.In the place of our Heart-taker's beauty and loveliness, we are not suited for Him-He is suited for us.And your God is one God. There was no world and no Adam. There were no tracks and no traces, there was no one in the house.
إِنَّ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلَافِ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ وَالْفُلْكِ الَّتِي تَجْرِي فِي الْبَحْرِ بِمَا يَنْفَعُ النَّاسَ وَمَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مِنْ مَاءٍ فَأَحْيَا بِهِ الْأَرْضَ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا وَبَثَّ فِيهَا مِنْ كُلِّ دَابَّةٍ وَتَصْرِيفِ الرِّيَاحِ وَالسَّحَابِ الْمُسَخَّرِ بَيْنَ السَّمَاءِ وَالْأَرْضِ لَآيَاتٍ لِقَوْمٍ يَعْقِلُونَ
📘 Surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth, the alternation of the night and the day, the ships that run on the sea with what benefits people, the water that God sends down from heaven giving life to the earth after its death, the scattering of every beast therein, the shifting of the winds, the clouds subjected between heaven and earth-there are signs for a people who have intellect.In this verse the Lord of the Universe shows the generality of people the road to Himself, so that they will gaze upon the wonders of the dominion of heaven and earth and on the artisanries of land and sea and then recognize the Artisan and attest to His oneness.Ibn ʿAṬāÌ said, �He made Himself recognized to the common people with His creation, to the elect with His attributes, and to the prophets and the elect of the elect with His Essence.� The gaze of the common people is on the artisanry, the gaze of the elect on the attributes, and the gaze ofthe prophets and the elect of the elect on the Essence. The generality of the faithful look at the artisanry and from the artisanry reach the Artisan. The elect among the faithful know the attributes and from the attributes reach the Object of attribution and from the name the Named. Thus it was said to the Children of Israel, �Sacrifice a cow� [2:67], but they did not recognize it. So the cow was described to them, they recognized it, and they sacrificed it.As for the prophets and the sincerely truthful, they recognize Him through Him, not through other than Him. They look from Him to Him, not from the other to Him. God alludes to this state when He says, �Dost thou not see thy Lord, how He stretched out the shadow?� [25:45]. He did not say, �Look at the shadow so that you may see My artisanry.� He said, �Look at Me so that you may see My artisanry. O paragon of the world! Look not at Gabriel's coming, look at My sending. Look from Me to him, not from him to Me.�Consider for a moment the female companions of Joseph. When the very entity of Joseph was unveiled to them, they were annihilated from themselves and became absent from Joseph's attributes.
وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَتَّخِذُ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ أَنْدَادًا يُحِبُّونَهُمْ كَحُبِّ اللَّهِ ۖ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَشَدُّ حُبًّا لِلَّهِ ۗ وَلَوْ يَرَى الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا إِذْ يَرَوْنَ الْعَذَابَ أَنَّ الْقُوَّةَ لِلَّهِ جَمِيعًا وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ شَدِيدُ الْعَذَابِ
📘 Among the people are some who take peers apart from God, loving them as if loving God. And those who have faith are more intense in love for God.If this were the only verse in the whole Qur'an about the faithful and God's friends, their eminence and honor would be complete, for the Lord of the Worlds is saying, �They love Me intensely and more completely than the unbelievers love their objects of worship.� Do you not see that every once in a while the unbelievers set up another idol and take up another object of worship. Like poor people, they are content with something carved of wood. Then, when they can, they take down the wooden one and make another from silver or gold. If their love for their object of wor- ship is real, why do they turn away from it toward another?They say that a man met a woman recognizer, and her beauty exercised its influence over his heart. He said, �'My all is busy with your all.' O woman! I have lost myself in love for you.�She said, �Why don't you look at my sister, who is more beautiful and lovely than I?� He said, �Where is your sister so that I may see her?�She said, �Go, idler! Passion is not your work. If your claim to love me were true, you would not care about anyone else.�And those who have faith are more intense in love for God. The Lord of the Worlds says, �The love of the faithful for Me is not like the unbelievers' love for idols, such that every once in a while they incline toward another. Rather, the faithful never turn away from Me and never incline toward anyone else. For, if they did turn away, they would never find someone like Me, no matter how much they sought.�Poor man, God has many servants like you. If something bad is to occur for you, it will occur.How can you turn away, for you will not find a Lord like Him.Shiblī said, �I learned Sufism from a dog that was sleeping at the door of a house. The owner came out and was driving the dog away, but the dog kept on coming back. I said to myself, 'How base this dog is! He drives him away, and he keeps on coming back.' The Exalted Lord brought that dog to speech and it said, 'O Shaykh! Where should I go? He is my owner.'�I will not leave the Friend at a hundred iniquities and cruelties.Even if He increases them, I will not be troubled, It is I who chose Him over everyone else;if I complain about Him, I will have no excuse.
إِذْ تَبَرَّأَ الَّذِينَ اتُّبِعُوا مِنَ الَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوا وَرَأَوُا الْعَذَابَ وَتَقَطَّعَتْ بِهِمُ الْأَسْبَابُ
📘 When those who were followed declare themselves quit of those who followed them.The unbelievers loved idols in keeping with caprice and nature, not reality. Hence, when they see the beginnings of the chastisement at the resurrection, they will know that they have no place on which to stand and will disown the idols. As for the faithful, their friendship is the fruit of the Real's friend- ship-as He says, �He loves them, and they love Him� [5:54]. Therefore the steep roads and trials that come to them do not bring any defect into their love, so they do not turn away from the Real.First they see the agonies of death. Then their pure spirit is snatched away from them. They are kept for many years in the dust. Then they are frightened many times at the resurrection in those diverse stations. They are rebuked while severity of many sorts is shown to them, and then they are kept for a time in hell. Despite these tribulations and trials that come into their road, at each moment they fall more into passion and expend their spirits and hearts even more in friend- ship for the Real. With the tongue of the state they say,�If You're happy with my grief, give me grief upon grief!Away with a passion that decreases with a hundred cruelties!�This is why He says, �Those who have faith are more intense in love for God� [2:165].
۞ لَيْسَ الْبِرَّ أَنْ تُوَلُّوا وُجُوهَكُمْ قِبَلَ الْمَشْرِقِ وَالْمَغْرِبِ وَلَٰكِنَّ الْبِرَّ مَنْ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةِ وَالْكِتَابِ وَالنَّبِيِّينَ وَآتَى الْمَالَ عَلَىٰ حُبِّهِ ذَوِي الْقُرْبَىٰ وَالْيَتَامَىٰ وَالْمَسَاكِينَ وَابْنَ السَّبِيلِ وَالسَّائِلِينَ وَفِي الرِّقَابِ وَأَقَامَ الصَّلَاةَ وَآتَى الزَّكَاةَ وَالْمُوفُونَ بِعَهْدِهِمْ إِذَا عَاهَدُوا ۖ وَالصَّابِرِينَ فِي الْبَأْسَاءِ وَالضَّرَّاءِ وَحِينَ الْبَأْسِ ۗ أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ صَدَقُوا ۖ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُتَّقُونَ
📘 Piety is not that you turn your faces to the east and the west. Rather, piety is he who has faith in God, the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the prophets; who gives wealth despite lov- ing it to kinsfolk, orphans, the indigent, the son of the road, beggars, and slaves; and who per-forms the prayer and gives the alms tax; those who are loyal to their covenant when they make a covenant; those who are patient in misfortune, hardship, and moments of peril. It is they who have been truthful, and it is they who are the godwary.You have learned what the Shariah stipulates in terms of the outward meaning of this verse. Now listen to the inner meaning in the tongue of allusion and recognize the signs of the Haqiqah, for the Haqiqah is to the Shariah as the spirit is to the body. What is a body without a spirit? Such is the Shariah without the Haqiqah.The Shariah is the house of the servitors. All the people are gathered there. They keep it flourishing with service and worship.The Haqiqah is the house of the sanctuary. The recognizers are gathered there. They keep it flourishing with veneration and contemplation.The distance from service and worship to veneration and contemplation is the same as that from familiarity to love. Familiarity is the attribute of wage-earners, and love is the attribute of recognizers.The wage-earner brings all the varieties of piety mentioned in the verse. Then he says, �Oh, if the wind blows against it, or something of it is taken away, I will lose the wage for that.� The recognizer performs all of it according to its stipulations. Then he says, �Oh, if any of it remains, I will be held back from good fortune.�Any talk that keeps you back from the road-let it be unbelief or faith.Any picture that holds you back from the Friend-let it be ugly or beautiful. [DS 51]The wage-earner says, �My prayer, my fasting, my alms-giving, my patience in trials, my loyalty to covenants!� The recognizer says in the tongue of abasement,�Who am I to wear the cloak of loyalty to You,to have my eyes carry the burden of Your disloyalty,To have the spirit's scent come from my lips and speak of You,to grow an exalted branch in my heart and suffer Your trial?� [DS 933]The Pir of the Tariqah said, �How should I have known that the share of the wage-earner is ever- lasting paradise, and the hope of the recognizer is one glance? How should I have known that the wage-earner is wishing for houris and palaces, and the recognizer is inundated by light in the sea of face-to-face vision?�When he was dying, Abū ʿAlī Rūdbārī said to his sister, �O FāṬima, look, the doors of heaven have opened, the Gardens have been adorned! The maid-servants have gathered at the battlements and they are saying, 'Enjoy yourself, O Abū ʿAlī! All this was built for you!'�The tongue of Abū ʿAlī's state was answering, �O God, how could I be joyful with paradise and houris? If You give me one breath, from that breath I will build a paradise!�Your rightful due is that I look on no one else with the eye of love until I see You.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْقِصَاصُ فِي الْقَتْلَى ۖ الْحُرُّ بِالْحُرِّ وَالْعَبْدُ بِالْعَبْدِ وَالْأُنْثَىٰ بِالْأُنْثَىٰ ۚ فَمَنْ عُفِيَ لَهُ مِنْ أَخِيهِ شَيْءٌ فَاتِّبَاعٌ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَأَدَاءٌ إِلَيْهِ بِإِحْسَانٍ ۗ ذَٰلِكَ تَخْفِيفٌ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ وَرَحْمَةٌ ۗ فَمَنِ اعْتَدَىٰ بَعْدَ ذَٰلِكَ فَلَهُ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
📘 O you who have faith! Written for you is retaliation in the case of the slain.He is addressing the body, heart, and spirit and saying, �O totality of the servant! If you want to step into the street of friendship, first detach your heart from life and toss away everything you know about states and deeds, for in the shariah of friendship your life will be taken as retaliation, and everything you know will be the wergild, though more is needed. Such is the shariah of friend- ship. If you are the man for the work, enter! Otherwise, nothing will get done with self-love and defilement.�In the tracks of manliness plane trees live long, in the tracks of defilement jasmine goes fast.Throw away your life, travel the road, live upright, and be a man!Then you will subsist-when you empty your skirt of these ruins.Yes, it's a marvelous work, the work of friendship! It's a wonderful shariah, the shariah of friend- ship! Whenever someone is killed in the world, retaliation or wergild is mandatory against the killer. In the shariah of friendship, both retaliation and wergild are mandatory for the person killed.The Pir of the Tariqah, �How should I have known that there is retaliation for those killed by friendship? But, when I looked, that was Your transaction with the elect. How should I have known that friendship is sheer resurrection and that those killed by friendship should ask for wer- gild? Glory be to God! What work is this, what work!? He burns some people, He kills some people, and no one burned has regrets, no one killed turns away.�How You kill us and how we love You! O marvel! How we love the killer!* May my eyes' light be the dust beneath Your feet!May my heart's rest be Your curly locks!In passion for You, may my justice be Your cruelty!May my life be sacrificed in grief for You!One person is burnt and left unsettled, another slain and perplexed in the field of solitariness. One is hanging on reports, another mixed with face-to-face vision. Who planted these seeds? Who stirred up this tumult? One is in a whirlpool, another wishing for water, but the drowned is not sated, the thirsty has no sleep.
كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذَا حَضَرَ أَحَدَكُمُ الْمَوْتُ إِنْ تَرَكَ خَيْرًا الْوَصِيَّةُ لِلْوَالِدَيْنِ وَالْأَقْرَبِينَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ ۖ حَقًّا عَلَى الْمُتَّقِينَ
📘 It is written for you, when death is present for one of you and he is leaving behind some good, to make a will for parents and kinsfolk honorably, as something rightfully due from the godwary.The testament of the lords of wealth is one thing, and the testament of the lords of states is some- thing else. The testament of the lords of wealth goes out from the wealth, and the testament of the poor men from the states. At the end of their lives, the rich give out one-third of their wealth,13 and the poor give out limpidness of states and truthfulness of deeds.As much as the disobedient person is afraid for himself because of his bad deeds, the recogniz- er is afraid for himself ten times more because of the truthfulness of his deeds and the limpidness of his states. But there is a difference between the two: The disobedient person is afraid of the out- come and in dread of punishment, and the recognizer is afraid of the Real's majesty and awareness.When the recognizers are afraid, this is called �awe,� and when the disobedient are afraid, it is called �fear.� Fear occurs because of reports, and awe occurs because of face-to-face vision. Awe is a fear that puts no veil before supplication, no blindfold over perspicacity, and no wall before hope. It is a fear that melts and kills. As long as he does not hear the call, �Fear not and grieve not!� [29:33], he will not reach ease. The owner of this fear is shown generosity, but he burns in dread of losing it. His light is increased, and the terror of alteration is thrown into him.Abu Saʿīd Abi'l-Khayr had this state at the time of death. When he put his head on the pil- low of death, they said to him, �O Shaykh, you were the kiblah of those burned, emulated by the yearners, the sun of the world. Now that you have turned your face to the Exalted Presence, give some advice to these burnt ones, say some words that will be their reminder.� The Shaykh said,�My two eyes full of water, my liver full of fire, my hands full of wind, my head full of dust!�Bishr Ḥāfī had the same state at the time of going.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ
📘 O you who have faith! Written for you is fasting.In the tongue of allusion and the clarification of wisdom, He is saying, �O you who have faith, fasting has been written for you. It has been written because you will be the guests of the Real, and tomorrow in paradise He wants to take hungry guests to a banquet. When the generous take someone to a banquet, they like the guests to be hungry so that the feast will be sweeter in their hearts. The Lord of the Worlds created paradise and everything within it for the faithful. None of it is of any use to Him, nor does He have any need for it.�A pir of the Sufis sent out an invitation, but no one came. The pir lifted up his hands and said, �Lord God, if you send your servants into the fire tomorrow, paradise and perfect bliss will be like my table!�The value of a table is for people to sit there and eat. Indeed, the Lord of the Worlds created all the treasuries of blessing for the faithful and the eaters, but He Himself does not eat. This is whyHe says, �Fasting belongs to Me, and with it I recompense.� One of them said, �In other words, 'Self-sufficiency belongs to Me. I do not eat or drink. I reward those who fast without reckoning, for they sought conformity with Me by not eating. They sought friendship with Me, for the first station in friendship is conformity.'�Know then that when you gain conformity with the angels by saying �Amen� at the end of the Surah of Praise, your past and future sins are forgiven-as has come in the report. Hence by means of your conformity with God in not eating-even though your not eating is by self-exertion and temporary, and God's not eating is a beginningless attribute-you should know what eminence and nobility accrue to your heart and religion!It has been said that by saying �Fasting is Mine,� He ascribed fasting to Himself so that the hands of the plaintiffs would fall short of that. Tomorrow at the resurrection, when those plaintiffs gather around you and take away your acts of worship by calling you to account for your acts of wrongdoing, the Lord of the Worlds will keep your fasting in the treasury of His bounty and say to the plaintiffs, �This belongs to Me-you have no hand in this.
شَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ الَّذِي أُنْزِلَ فِيهِ الْقُرْآنُ هُدًى لِلنَّاسِ وَبَيِّنَاتٍ مِنَ الْهُدَىٰ وَالْفُرْقَانِ ۚ فَمَنْ شَهِدَ مِنْكُمُ الشَّهْرَ فَلْيَصُمْهُ ۖ وَمَنْ كَانَ مَرِيضًا أَوْ عَلَىٰ سَفَرٍ فَعِدَّةٌ مِنْ أَيَّامٍ أُخَرَ ۗ يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ بِكُمُ الْيُسْرَ وَلَا يُرِيدُ بِكُمُ الْعُسْرَ وَلِتُكْمِلُوا الْعِدَّةَ وَلِتُكَبِّرُوا اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ مَا هَدَاكُمْ وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ
📘 The month of Ramadan is that wherein the Qur'an was sent down as guidance.In other words, the month of Ramadan has come to you. He is saying, �Now the month of Rama- dan has turned to the friends. It is a month that both washes and burns. It washes the hearts of the sinners with the water of repentance and burns the bodies of the servants with the fire of hunger.�The word Ramaẓān is derived either from ramẓāÌ or ramaẓī. If it is from ramẓāÌ, it means hot stone, which burns whatever is placed upon it. If it is from ramaẓī, it means rain, which washes whatever it meets. MuṣṬafā was asked, �What is Ramadan?� He replied, �In it God burns the sins of the faithful and forgives them for them.�Anas Mālik said that he heard God's Messenger say, �Ramadan has come. In it the gates of the Garden are opened, the gates of the Fire are shut, and the satans are fettered. If someone reaches Ramadan and is not forgiven, then when?�He also said, �Were God to give the heavens and earth permission to speak, they would give those who fast during Ramadan the good news of the Garden.�Poor man, you do not know the worth of this blessing. You are caressed everywhere in the world, and eminence has been put down next to you, but you are unaware. The submission, which is higher and better than all the creeds, is your religion. The Qur'an, which is more exalted than all the books, is your book. MuṣṬafā, who is the master of Adam's children, the eyes and lamp of the em- pire, the leader of the world's folk at the resurrection, is your messenger. The Kaabah, which is the most eminent of spots, is your kiblah. The month of Ramadan, which is more excellent and eminent than all other months, is your month and the season of your practice. It is a month in which all acts of disobedience are forgiven, the satans subjugated, paradise embellished and its doors open, and the doors of hell shut. In it the bazaar of the workers of corruption is broken, the deeds of the obedient are joined with self-purification, and past sins and recorded defilements are burned.The Commander of the Faithful ʿAlī said, �Had God wanted to chastise MuḤammad's com- munity, He would not have given them the month of Ramadan, nor the surah, 'Say: He is God, One' [112].
وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ ۖ أُجِيبُ دَعْوَةَ الدَّاعِ إِذَا دَعَانِ ۖ فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُوا لِي وَلْيُؤْمِنُوا بِي لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْشُدُونَ
📘 And when My servants ask thee about Me, surely I am near. I respond to the supplication of the supplicator when he supplicates Me. So let them respond to Me and have faith in Me. Perhaps they will be led aright.He is saying, �When My servants ask you about Me, those are the servants who hang on to the ring of veneration for Me. They have fled to My street, put aside everything less than Me, undertaken to serve Me, believed in Me, and cut themselves off from secondary causes. They have wrapped the turban of trial around their heads and bought Our love with spirit and heart. They came intoexistence with passion, and they are leaving with passion.�With passion my steed set out from nonexistence, my night always bright with union's wine.Of that wine not forbidden by my religionmy lips will not stay dry till I'm back in nonexistence.�When servants like this and friends like this ask you about Me and seek My mark from you, know that I am near to them. Uncalled and unsought, I am near. Unhoped for and unperceived, I am near. With My firstness, with My attributes, I am self-standing and near. Not by the worthiness of the servant-I am near by My own description.�This is the same that He said to His speaking companion Moses, on that pitch black night on the edge of the Mount when he was called from the right bank of the watercourse [28:30]. Mo- ses was called from the right bank of the blessed watercourse: �O great Moses!,� for after Adam, no one heard the speech of the Real with the ears of his head except Moses. He was called, �O Moses!� Moses became unsettled, he could not bear it, and his patience fled. How can patience overcome love? Love will always snatch away the hand of patience. In his burning, distraction, and inability to bear, he said to the caller, �You have made me hear You. Where should I seek You?� The call came, �O Moses, seek as you like, for I am with you. I am nearer to you than the spirit is to your body, your life-vein is to you, your speaking is to your mouth. The speech is My speech, the light is My light, and I am the Lord of the Worlds.
۞ يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْأَهِلَّةِ ۖ قُلْ هِيَ مَوَاقِيتُ لِلنَّاسِ وَالْحَجِّ ۗ وَلَيْسَ الْبِرُّ بِأَنْ تَأْتُوا الْبُيُوتَ مِنْ ظُهُورِهَا وَلَٰكِنَّ الْبِرَّ مَنِ اتَّقَىٰ ۗ وَأْتُوا الْبُيُوتَ مِنْ أَبْوَابِهَا ۚ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
📘 They ask thee about the new moons.The waxing and waning of the moon and its increase and decrease are allusions to the contraction and expansion of the recognizers and the awe and intimacy of the lovers. The contraction and expansion of the elect are like the fear and hope of the common people. Contraction and expan- sion are higher than fear and hope, and so also awe and intimacy are higher than contraction and expansion. Fear and hope belong to the common people, contraction and expansion to the elect, and awe and intimacy to the elect of the elect.First is the station of the wrongdoers, next the station of the moderate, and third the station of the preceders.14 The furthest limit of all is the intimacy of the lovers. In the state of intimacy, a man reaches a point where, if he enters fire, he is unaware of it and its heat leaves no trace in the repose of his intimacy. Thus Abū Ḥafṣ Ḥaddād was a blacksmith. He had lit up an exceedingly hot fire and placed iron within it, as is the custom of blacksmiths. Someone was passing by and reciting a verse of the Qur'an. The shaykh became happy at that verse and the state of intimacy overcame him. He put his hand into the furnace and pulled out the hot iron. He held it until his apprentice looked at him and said, �O Shaykh! How is that you are holding the hot iron in your hand?!� The shaykh put it aside, and then he left his profession. He said, �I have left this profes- sion many times and then come back to it. This time, the profession left me.�
وَقَاتِلُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ الَّذِينَ يُقَاتِلُونَكُمْ وَلَا تَعْتَدُوا ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ الْمُعْتَدِينَ
📘 And fight in the path of God those who fight against you, but do not transgress. God loves not the transgressors.In the language of the recognizers and the path of the chevaliers, this killing and fighting is another way station of the travelers and another state of the lovers. However, as long as you have not been killed by the sword of struggle in the path of the Shariah and you have not been burned by the fire of love, you will not be allowed to enter by this gate.Take care not to believe that fire is simply the lamp that you know and nothing more; or that killing is simply the state that you know. Those killed by the Real are one thing, those killed by the throat something else. Being burned by the fire of punishment is one thing, being burned by the fire of love something else.Thus that great pir said, �How should I have known that this is the smoke of the burning brand's fire? I fancied that wherever there is fire there is a lamp. How should I have known that in friendship the sin belongs to the killed and the judge gives refuge to the adversary!? How should I have known that the bewilderment of union with You is the path, and he who is drowned in You seeks You all the more?�One day Shiblī went into the desert. He saw forty men, distracted, impassioned, and overcome by this talk. Each of them had gone into the desert, a brick under his head, his life having reached the gullet. The tenderness of affinity appeared in Shiblī's breast and he said, �O God, what do You want from them? You have placed the burden of pain on their hearts, You have struck fire in their haystacks. Will You now kill them all with the sword of jealousy?�His secret core was addressed with the words, �I will kill them. Once I kill them, I will pay them the wergild.�Shiblī said, �What is the wergild?�The address came, �When someone is killed by the sword of My majesty, his wergild is the vision of My beauty.�I will fight against Your passion's armyand be killed-someone killed has value. The wergild of the one killed by hand is dinars,the wergild of the one killed by passion is seeing.
وَأَنْفِقُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَلَا تُلْقُوا بِأَيْدِيكُمْ إِلَى التَّهْلُكَةِ ۛ وَأَحْسِنُوا ۛ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ الْمُحْسِنِينَ
📘 Expend in the path of God.... And do what is beautiful. Surely God loves the beautiful-doers.The rich remove money from their wallets, the poor remove the rich from their hearts, and the tawḤīd-voicers remove all creatures from their secret cores-to this He alludes with His words, �Say 'God,' then leave them� [6:91]. The rich let wealth go from their wallets for the sake of the reward of that world, the poor let the rich go from their hearts for the sake of the Lord's religion, and the recognizers let the creatures go for the sake of seeing the Glorified. The rich spend their possessions in alms tax and charity in order to escape from hell, the worshipers spend their souls in the duties of worship to reach paradise, and the recognizers spend their spirits and hearts in the realities of witnessing to reach union with the Real.And do what is beautiful. Surely God loves the beautiful-doers. MuṣṬafā said, �Beautiful doing is that you worship God as if you see Him, for if you do not see Him, surely He sees you.� Doing the beautiful is that you worship God in wakefulness and awareness as if you are gazing upon Him, and you serve Him as if you are seeing Him.This hadith alludes to the heart's encounter with the Real, the secret core's convergence with the Unseen, and the spirit's contemplation of the Patron. It is an incitement to self-purification in deeds, curtailment of wishes, and loyalty to what was accepted on the First Day.What was accepted on the First Day? Hearing Am I not your Lord and saying Yes indeed [7:172]. What is loyalty to what was accepted? Serving the Protector. How does one curtail wishes? In �As if you see Him.� Where is self-purification in deeds? In �He sees you.�When an eye has seen Him, how can it busy itself with glancing at others? When a spirit has found companionship with Him, how will it make do with water and dust? The word �Return!� [89:28] is addressed to the pure spirit. How will it make its home in the frame of water and dust? When someone has become accustomed to that Presence, how long will he put up with the abase- ment of the veil? How will the ruler of his own city spend his life in exile?The attribute of the spirit is subsistence. Water and dust undergo annihilation. He who lives in the Real is not like him who lives in this world. The realizer is aware of the secret of the Real: the Real is seeable. �As if you see Him� in the report bears witness to this.
وَأَتِمُّوا الْحَجَّ وَالْعُمْرَةَ لِلَّهِ ۚ فَإِنْ أُحْصِرْتُمْ فَمَا اسْتَيْسَرَ مِنَ الْهَدْيِ ۖ وَلَا تَحْلِقُوا رُءُوسَكُمْ حَتَّىٰ يَبْلُغَ الْهَدْيُ مَحِلَّهُ ۚ فَمَنْ كَانَ مِنْكُمْ مَرِيضًا أَوْ بِهِ أَذًى مِنْ رَأْسِهِ فَفِدْيَةٌ مِنْ صِيَامٍ أَوْ صَدَقَةٍ أَوْ نُسُكٍ ۚ فَإِذَا أَمِنْتُمْ فَمَنْ تَمَتَّعَ بِالْعُمْرَةِ إِلَى الْحَجِّ فَمَا اسْتَيْسَرَ مِنَ الْهَدْيِ ۚ فَمَنْ لَمْ يَجِدْ فَصِيَامُ ثَلَاثَةِ أَيَّامٍ فِي الْحَجِّ وَسَبْعَةٍ إِذَا رَجَعْتُمْ ۗ تِلْكَ عَشَرَةٌ كَامِلَةٌ ۗ ذَٰلِكَ لِمَنْ لَمْ يَكُنْ أَهْلُهُ حَاضِرِي الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ ۚ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ شَدِيدُ الْعِقَابِ
📘 And complete the hajj and the umrah for God.It is narrated from Wahab ibn Munabbih that God sent a revelation to Adam: �O Adam, I am the Lord of the world and the world's folk, the creator of all, the king doing what I desire. I am the Lord of Bakka, and those who dwell there are My neighbors. Those who visit are My delegates, My guests, and under My protection. I will populate this spot with the folk of heaven and earth. They will come in droves from every direction and every region, their hair disheveled and their faces covered with dust from the suffering of the road, saying 'God is greater' and reciting 'Here I am,' their faces turned toward the blessed desert, the earth colored with the blood of sacrifice.�O Adam! When someone visits this house and is self-purifying in that, he is My guest and one of Mine, one of those near to Me. It is worthy of My majesty to honor him and to bring him to forgiveness through the gift of mercy and bestowal. O Adam! Among your children is a prophet by the name of Abraham, My bosom friend, chosen by Me. With his hand I will establish it, and I will command him to build it. I will make its eminence appear, bring to light its watering place, mark its sanctuary, and teach him how to worship Me there. After him I will have the world's folk keep it inhabited and place respect and reverence for it in their hearts. Then will come the turn of MuḤammad the Arab, the Seal of the Prophets, the lamp of heaven and earth. I will make it his birth place and origin, the place where revelation falls upon him, and the domicile of his honor. I will put its watering place, deputyship, and rulership in his hand. Then I will put love for it in the hearts of the faithful from the corners of the earth. They will come, bareheaded and barefoot, their goods and means put aside, their lives placed in their hands, their hair disheveled, their faces covered with dust. They will all go and circumambulate that house, asking Me for forgiveness. O Adam! If someone asks you what I will do with them, say that I am with them in knowledge, I am found by their souls and present in their hearts, and I am the cure of their pain.
ذَٰلِكَ الْكِتَابُ لَا رَيْبَ ۛ فِيهِ ۛ هُدًى لِلْمُتَّقِينَ
📘 This is the writing in which there is no doubt, a guidance for the godwary.It has been said that This is the writing is an allusion to what God has written against Himself for MuḤammad's community: �Surely My mercy takes precedence over My wrath.� God does that in His words, �Your Lord has written mercy against Himself� [6:54]. It has also been said that it is an allusion to the faith and recognition that God has written upon the hearts of the believers. Thus He says, �He wrote faith in their hearts� [58:22].In this verse, it is as if God is saying, �My servant, I have written the imprint of faith in your heart, I have mixed in the perfume of friendship, I have decorated paradise for you, I have adornedyour heart with the light of recognition, I have lit up the candle of union with Me, I have stamped the seal of love on your heart, and I have written the inscription of passion in your awareness.��He wrote faith in their hearts: I wrote in the Tablet, but I wrote only your description. I wrote in your hearts, but I wrote only My description. I wrote your description in the Tablet, and I showed it to Gabriel. I wrote My description in your heart-how could I have shown it to an enemy? In the Tablet I wrote your loyalty and disloyalty; in your heart I wrote laudation and rec- ognition. What I wrote about you has not changed. How could what I wrote about Myself change? Moses carved out a stone from the mountain, and, when I wrote the Torah therein, the stone turned into emerald. The recognizer's heart was made of harsh stone-when I wrote My name therein, it turned into a notebook of exaltedness.�A guidance for the godwary. In another place, He said, �It is a guidance and a healing for those who have faith� [41:44]. He is saying that this Qur'an is guidance for the godwary, heal- ing for the faithful, the cause of familiarity, assistance for clarity, a key for the ears, a mirror for the eyes, a lamp for hearts, a healing for pain, a light for the eyes of the familiar, springtime for the spirits of the friends, admonition for the fearful, mercy for the faithful.
وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَقُولُ رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الْآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ
📘 Among them is he who says, �Our Lord, give us in this world something beautiful, and in the next world something beautiful.�It is said that the beautiful thing of this world wanted by the faithful is knowledge and worship, and the beautiful thing of that world is paradise and vision. That of this world is witnessing the mysteries, and that of that world is seeing with the eyes. This world's is the success of service, and that world's the realization of union. This world's is self-purification through obedience, and that world's deliverance from burning and separation. This world's is the Sunnah and the com- munity, and that world's the encounter and vision. This world's is the firm fixity of faith, and that world's the repose and ease [56:89]. This world's is the sweetness of obedience, and that world's the pleasure of contemplation. For this world's, there must be deeds with obedience, and for that world's there must be pain with recognition. It is a long road from deeds to pain, and he who does not have this eyesight has an excuse. What is obtained from these deeds is houris and palaces, but the possessor of this pain is drowned in light in the ocean of face-to-face vision.O You the guide on whose road is pain!You are solitary and Your familiar solitary!Among them is he who says, �Our Lord��. There is a subtle point in this verse. When someone wants this world, inevitably he will be held back from the reward of the afterworld, for God says, �He has no share in the next world� [2:102]. MuṣṬafā said, �When someone loves this world of his, that will harm his next world; and when someone loves his next world, that will harm this world of his. So prefer that which subsists to that which undergoes annihilation!� When someone wantsboth this world and the afterworld, the Exalted Lord does not hold them back from him. He gives him what he wants. The report has come, �God is ashamed when a servant lifts up his hands to Him and He disappoints him.� It is also narrated, �God is ashamed when a person with gray hair who observes propriety and clings to the Sunnah asks Him for something and He does not give it.� There remains another group, who recognize the reality of approval and have surrendered to God's decree and approved of His determination. They do not turn away from lauding Him in order to ask from Him. They do not seek access to this world nor do they ask for the afterworld. Concerning them the Lord of the Worlds says, �When remembering Me busies someone from ask-ing from Me, I bestow upon him the most excellent of what I bestow on the askers.�
۞ وَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ فِي أَيَّامٍ مَعْدُودَاتٍ ۚ فَمَنْ تَعَجَّلَ فِي يَوْمَيْنِ فَلَا إِثْمَ عَلَيْهِ وَمَنْ تَأَخَّرَ فَلَا إِثْمَ عَلَيْهِ ۚ لِمَنِ اتَّقَىٰ ۗ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّكُمْ إِلَيْهِ تُحْشَرُونَ
📘 And remember God in certain numbered days, but if someone hastens on after two days, no sin shall be upon him.There are three sorts of remembrance: The remembrance of habit, the remembrance of calculation, and the remembrance of companionship. The remembrance of habit has no worth, for it is the se- cret core's heedlessness. The remembrance of calculation has no adornment, for its goal is seeking the wage. The remembrance of companionship is a deposit, for the tongue of him who remembers is a loan in the midst.The remembrance of the fearful is from dread of being cut off, the remembrance of the hopeful is from wishing to find what they seek, and the remembrance of the lovers is from the tenderness of burning. The fearful heard the call of the threat with the ear of fear and clung to supplication. The hopeful heard the call of the promise with the ear of hope and clung to laudation. The lovers heard the call beforehand with the ear of love and did not mix with pretexts. The remembrance of the Beginningless reached the recognizers and they fled from effort to their lot.And remember God in certain numbered days, but if someone hastens on after two days.... This is the attribute of the end of the ritual and the final acts of the hajj. Now let us offer com- prehensive words comprising all the waymarks and rituals along with allusions and subtle points. Know that there are two sanctuaries: the outward sanctuary and the inward sanctuary. The outward sanctuary surrounds the Kaabah, and the inward sanctuary surrounds the heart of the faith- ful. In the midst of the outward sanctuary is the Kaabah, the kiblah of the faithful, and in the midst of the inner sanctuary is a Kaabah that is the target of the All-Merciful's gaze. The former is the goal of the pilgrims, and the latter the locus of lights, so he is upon a light from his Lord [39:22].The former is free from the hands of evil-doers and unbelievers, and the latter is free from seeing and thinking about others.If some article is found in the outward sanctuary, it is left there so that its owner may appear and find it. If some article is found in the inward sanctuary, there is no way to go after it, for it is nothing but God's secret.
كَانَ النَّاسُ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً فَبَعَثَ اللَّهُ النَّبِيِّينَ مُبَشِّرِينَ وَمُنْذِرِينَ وَأَنْزَلَ مَعَهُمُ الْكِتَابَ بِالْحَقِّ لِيَحْكُمَ بَيْنَ النَّاسِ فِيمَا اخْتَلَفُوا فِيهِ ۚ وَمَا اخْتَلَفَ فِيهِ إِلَّا الَّذِينَ أُوتُوهُ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَتْهُمُ الْبَيِّنَاتُ بَغْيًا بَيْنَهُمْ ۖ فَهَدَى اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لِمَا اخْتَلَفُوا فِيهِ مِنَ الْحَقِّ بِإِذْنِهِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ يَهْدِي مَنْ يَشَاءُ إِلَىٰ صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ
📘 The people were one community. Then God sent the prophets as bringers of good news and warning.In terms of allusion and according to the tasting of the chevaliers of the Tariqah, this verse has another intimation and another meaning. The king of the universe, the keeper of the world, the knower of the hidden, is saying that when He first created creatures, He created them in the curtain- ing wrap of createdness. When He made them with such a makeup at the beginning, the darknesses of the attributes of createdness surrounded this created nature. They were all one group in the curtain of obscurity. All were gathered in the darkness of absence, all remained in the captivity of their own makeup. It was just like that chevalier said:�The creatures are at ease in the ruins of their own makeup- wink just once to throw the creatures into turmoil!� [DS 696]Then a courier came from the infinite world to their tininess. MuṣṬafā gave this report about that courier: �God created the creatures in darkness. Then He cast upon them something of His light. Whomsoever the light struck was guided, and whomsoever it missed went astray.�When this messenger turned its face from that infinity to their tininess, they all became aware, captive to desire, subjugated by will, wounded by wisdom, their ears fixed on their own fortune and lot: �What is coming to us? What will be decreed for us?�Then the hand of predetermination divided them into two groups: the lucky and the unlucky. He said about the lucky, �These belong to the Garden, and I do not care.� He said about the unlucky, �These belong to the Fire, and I do not care.� In other words, �I have no fear of being blamed. I will do whatever occurs to Me and have no regrets. Some are the folk of felicity without any conformity with Me, and some are the folk of wretchedness without any opposition to Me. 'These belong to the Garden, and I do not care' about their disloyalty, and 'These belong to the Fire, and I do not care' about their loyalty. I receive no profit from loyalty, nor do I lose anything from disloyalty. When someone gains faith, he is the one who profits; I stay exactly as I was, with- out equal or need.
أَمْ حَسِبْتُمْ أَنْ تَدْخُلُوا الْجَنَّةَ وَلَمَّا يَأْتِكُمْ مَثَلُ الَّذِينَ خَلَوْا مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ ۖ مَسَّتْهُمُ الْبَأْسَاءُ وَالضَّرَّاءُ وَزُلْزِلُوا حَتَّىٰ يَقُولَ الرَّسُولُ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَعَهُ مَتَىٰ نَصْرُ اللَّهِ ۗ أَلَا إِنَّ نَصْرَ اللَّهِ قَرِيبٌ
📘 Or do you reckon that you will enter the Garden?This is as they say:You can't speak the words of the good so easily- it is not so easy, easy, to speak their words.�When someone is too timid to engage with fearful things, he will not reach his hopes.� Are you not aware that joining is found in breaking off, life in death, and desires in not reaching your desires? The moth reaches union with the candle when it burns, and the candle finds life when it loses its head.Religion's pain is indeed marvelous, for when you suffer it,you will be like a candle-better once your head's cut off. [DS 485]The high Firdaws is a sweet garden and meadow, but the road there is difficult, a rosebed full of thorns. MuṣṬafā said, �The Garden is surrounded by disliked things,� lest the nobodies and the unqualified claim familiarity. Are they equal, those who know and those who know not? [39:9].A simile for this rule is the ocean: It was made the resting place for precious pearls and night- brightening gems, and then sharks and huge fish were made the veil of those pearls and gems. Two men set out, pulled into the field of seeking by love for gems. They go to the ocean's shore and see its difficulties, and dread appears in them because of the danger of those sharks. Of the two men who see the terrors and difficult states, one is afraid and he steps back from seeking and declares himself quit of his own words. He had a wish, but his attribute of manliness was not complete. He fancied that this work could be finished merely by wishing and that he could reach the treasure without suffering. The exalted Shariah gives the answer: �The religion is not reached with wishfulness and self-adornment.�With Me you must have a hidden mystery, with Me you must always have need.In truth, black crow, you're a fine bird!You want to mate with a white falcon.The other man is the possessor of desire. Passion for the beauty of that night-brightening pearl cleanses his intellect of the ocean's terrors, so he does not give those meanings access to himself. Hour by hour and moment by moment that beauty discloses itself to him, so he becomes more en- tranced and more passionate. He goes head first into the ocean. If felicity assists him and success- giving becomes his friend, that night-brightening pearl will fall into the grasp of his seeking. If the opposite happens, the sharks will take his life as booty and his name will be written in the register of �I don't care.� The tongue of his state will say,�Each month two thousand of the passionate like me are killed, and not one lets out a sigh.�
يَسْأَلُونَكَ مَاذَا يُنْفِقُونَ ۖ قُلْ مَا أَنْفَقْتُمْ مِنْ خَيْرٍ فَلِلْوَالِدَيْنِ وَالْأَقْرَبِينَ وَالْيَتَامَىٰ وَالْمَسَاكِينِ وَابْنِ السَّبِيلِ ۗ وَمَا تَفْعَلُوا مِنْ خَيْرٍ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ بِهِ عَلِيمٌ
📘 They ask thee what they should expend. Say: �Whatever good you expend should be for parents and kinsmen, orphans, the indigent, and the son of the road.� And whatever good you do, God knows it.Throwing away money in the path of the Shariah is beautiful, but it is not like throwing away the spirit in the field of the Haqiqah and becoming separate from all others at the moment of contem- plation.Keeping to the stipulation of loyalty is beautiful, but not as much as becoming separate from self and stepping onto the carpet of limpidness.Someone asks, �What should we do with our property? How should we spend it?� The Shariah answers, �From 200 dirhams, 5 dirhams; from 20 dinars, one-half dinar.�Someone else asks and the Haqiqah answers, �You will not be with Him along with body and spirit.�Yes, the story of the wage-earners is one thing, the story of the recognizers something else. The wage-earner's recognition reaches recognizing the spirit, but the recognizer's recognition reaches throwing away the spirit.Wealth, gold, things-gamble them away for nothing. When the work reaches your spirit, gamble it away!Those fortunate Companions did not ask how to spend because they had not found their way to poverty, but in hopes that this caress would reach them from the Exalted Presence: �And whatever good you do, God knows it. Whatever you have given and will give, I who am the Lord know it and am aware of it.�This is just like Moses, when he was called during that pitch black night in the desert of the Mount: �O Moses!� In the pleasure of this address Moses was burned by the call. In his burning and yearning he said, �Who is speaking to me?� Moses knew, but he was drowned in the ocean of yearning for the vision of the Real. He was seeking someone to take his hand: �I have burned in this one call. Perhaps He will call out again, and maybe I will light up.�The command came, �O Moses! Do you not know who is calling you?�He said, �I know, but I am waiting for the caller to say, 'Surely I am God, Lord of the worlds' [28:30].�Here I am, My servant, and you're in My embrace, and whatever you have said I know.Ask of Me without shame or dread, and fear not, for surely I am God.Here there are two verses. The verse at the beginning of the section alludes to the worshipers' spending their wealth in order to reach recognition. The verse at the end of the section alludes to the recognizers' spending their own lives for the sake of struggle in order to reach the Recognized. It is His words,
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَالَّذِينَ هَاجَرُوا وَجَاهَدُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أُولَٰئِكَ يَرْجُونَ رَحْمَتَ اللَّهِ ۚ وَاللَّهُ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
📘 Surely those who have faith, those who emigrate, and those who struggle in God's path- it is they who hope for God's mercy, and God is the Forgiving, the Ever-Merciful.After faith, He spoke of emigration. Emigration is of two sorts: one outward, the other inward.Outward emigration has two sides: One side is to emigrate from one's home, homeland, and means and to go forth seeking knowledge. The other side is what comes to be known by seeking. Any traveling that is outside of these two has no weight or worth. The Prophet alluded to this with his words, �People are knowers or learners; the rest of the people are rabble.�You should not say that the seeker of knowledge and the seeker of the Known have one level. The seeker of knowledge is himself traveling, and the seeker of the Known is being pulled by the Real. He who is himself traveling dwells in suffering, distress, and hunger, like Moses in the jour- ney in which he was seeking knowledge: �Bring us our food. We have certainly met with weari-ness on this journey of ours� [18:62]. Another time, when he set off seeking the Known, he was confirmed to such a degree by the Real's protection and pulling that he stayed thirty days waiting for the Real's speech, and he was not aware of being tired or hungry.The master Abū ʿAlī Daqqāq said, �The caressing of the seekers of knowledge reaches a place such that tomorrow, when they rise up from the dust, they will be mounted on the feathers of an- gels, according to the Prophets words, 'Surely the angels will put down their wings for the seeker of knowledge, approving what he is doing.'� Then Abū ʿAlī said, �Since the seekers of knowledge will be mounted on the feathers of angels, how can anyone imagine what the seekers of the Known will be mounted on?�Did we but know that the visit is true,we would make our face an earth so that You might approve.*Beautiful idols walk on forbidden ground.I will make my eyes the ground-come stroll on my eyes!This then was the explanation of outward emigration. Inward emigration is that one goes from the soul to the heart, from the heart to the secret core, from the secret core to the spirit, and from the spirit to the Real.
۞ يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْخَمْرِ وَالْمَيْسِرِ ۖ قُلْ فِيهِمَا إِثْمٌ كَبِيرٌ وَمَنَافِعُ لِلنَّاسِ وَإِثْمُهُمَا أَكْبَرُ مِنْ نَفْعِهِمَا ۗ وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ مَاذَا يُنْفِقُونَ قُلِ الْعَفْوَ ۗ كَذَٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ اللَّهُ لَكُمُ الْآيَاتِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَفَكَّرُونَ
📘 They ask thee about wine and gambling.... And they ask thee what they should expend.God has servants on the earth who drink the wine of recognition and are drunk from the cup of love. There is no more than a whiff of this wine's reality in this world, and nothing but a show of that drunkenness, for this world is a prison, and what can a prison put up with? Today there is no more than that. Nonetheless, wait until tomorrow, the assembly of repose and ease [56:89], the arena of union with the Beloved, when the servants will be gazing on the Real.Hope for union with you has added to my life.What can union itself be, when hope does that!?A man in turmoil entered the shop of a wine merchant with one dirham. He said, �Give me wine for this dirham.�The merchant replied, �There's no wine left.�The man said, �I'm already in turmoil. I can't tolerate wine's reality. Show me a drop so I may smell it-you'll see how drunk I become and what turmoil I'll stir up.�Glory be to God! What is this lightning that has shone from the Beginningless! It has burnt up the two worlds and nothing remains.To someone He gave the wine of bewilderment from the cup of awe, and he became drunk with bewilderment. He said,�I am bewildered in Thee, take my hand,O guide of those bewildered in Thee!�*The work is difficult-how can I make it easy?The pain has no cure-how can I find a remedy?I've become secure from the headache of empty words- what can I do with the stories of the drunkards?To someone else He gave the wine of recognition from the storeroom of hope. At the top of the street of yearning he kept on saying in hope of union,�One day luck will enter the door of my house, one day the sun of elation will rise over me.One day You will glance in my direction,one day this grief of mine will come to an end!�To someone else He gave the wine of union from the cup of love. He showed him the way to the carpet of bold expansiveness and gave him a spot on the leaning place of intimacy.
الَّذِي جَعَلَ لَكُمُ الْأَرْضَ فِرَاشًا وَالسَّمَاءَ بِنَاءً وَأَنْزَلَ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً فَأَخْرَجَ بِهِ مِنَ الثَّمَرَاتِ رِزْقًا لَكُمْ ۖ فَلَا تَجْعَلُوا لِلَّهِ أَنْدَادًا وَأَنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ
📘 He who made for you the earth a carpet and the heaven a building, and who sent down from heaven water by which He brought forth fruits for you as provision. So do not set up peers for God knowingly.The wonders of power and the marvels of wisdom in earth and heaven are evidence of a Lord and Creator and witness to His oneness, knowledge, and ability. He placed those seven green domes upon the wind, one on top of one another, without pillar or joint, as a mark of His power. He placed these seven dust-colored hills on top of the water as a clarification of His wisdom. About the one He says, [�We set in heaven constellations] and We adorned them for the gazers� [15:16] and about the other He says, [�And earth,] We laid it out-what excellent spreaders!� [51:48].Look then at this likeness: two doves, one black and one white, which have come forth within the space of the blue dome. On the wings of one is Then We effaced the sign of the night [17:12], and on the wings of the other We made the sign of the day, giving sight [17:12]. The black was born of the white, and the white appeared from the black: He rolls up the night in the day, and He rolls up the day in the night [39:5]. He makes the night pass into the day and makes the day pass into the night [22:61]. How pure and faultless is the God who brought forth the brightness of day from the pitch black night and made the darkness of the pitch black night appear from the brightness of day! More wondrous than this is that He placed the brightness of knowing in the center point of the black blood of the heart and the brightness of seeing in the center point of the eye's pupil. Thus will you know that He is the perfectly powerful, the bountiful and bounteous bestower.This bright day is the mark of the compact of good fortune, and this dark night is the likeness of the days of tribulation. He is saying, �O you who have the good fortune of ease in the day's brightness, do not feel secure, for the darkness of tribulation's night is upon its tracks.
نِسَاؤُكُمْ حَرْثٌ لَكُمْ فَأْتُوا حَرْثَكُمْ أَنَّىٰ شِئْتُمْ ۖ وَقَدِّمُوا لِأَنْفُسِكُمْ ۚ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّكُمْ مُلَاقُوهُ ۗ وَبَشِّرِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
📘 Your women are your tillage, so come to your tillage as you like.The servant has a soul and a heart. The soul is from the low world, and its root is water and dust. The heart is from the high world, that is, the lordly subtlety, and its foundation is pure light. The soul's station is absence, and the heart's station is witnessing. MuṣṬafā alluded to this with his words, �There is no heart that is not between two fingers of God.�God gave the soul, which stays absent, the same living quarters as its similars, and He made this a favor. He said, �Your women are your tillage, so come to your tillage as you like.� In another place He said, �Marry the women who seem goodly to you� [4:3]. In another place He said, �That you may rest in them, and He placed between you love and mercy� [30:21].Finding one's own shares and inclining toward similars in this manner is the portion of the soul, which remains in the lowland of jealousy. As for the heart, it has the station of contemplation, so it is forbidden to incline toward any others or to come down to any creature. Until it cuts itself off from creation and makes its own secret core pure of other than the Real, it will not come under these words: �He loves those who make themselves pure� [2:222]. The Lord of the Worlds loves those who are pure in this manner. He calls them men when He says, �In it are men who love to make themselves pure, and God loves those who make themselves pure� [9:108].Know also that in this house of the decree, vile things are of two sorts. One is vileness of entity, which can never become pure by washing. If you put a corpse into the ocean a thousand times, it will never become pure, for the impurity belongs to its own entity.The other is vileness of attribute. At root something is pure, but an impurity has reached it. If you wash it, it becomes pure. This impurity, however, is of two sorts. One is flimsy, so it becomes pure with a single water. The other is heavy, so it must be washed with water and dust to become pure.
لِلَّذِينَ يُؤْلُونَ مِنْ نِسَائِهِمْ تَرَبُّصُ أَرْبَعَةِ أَشْهُرٍ ۖ فَإِنْ فَاءُوا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
📘 For those who forswear their women, a wait of four months. But if they revert, God is forgiving, ever-merciful.In terms of allusion, these verses contain an eloquent admonition and complete advice concern- ing the observation of the rightful dues of the Real: God gives so much weight and gravity to the rightful due of the people that He sends a decisive command concerning it and instills dread into those who put it aside. Hence it is even more appropriate to preserve the rightful due of God and to dread putting it aside.In one of the reports it is mentioned that tomorrow at the resurrection a youth will be brought who had neglected the rightful dues of God. In the attribute of awe and exaltedness the Exalted Lord will address him: �Had you no shame? Had you no fear of My anger and harshness such that you neglected My rightful due and you paid it no reverence and respect? Take him to hell, for he is worthy of fire, and fire is worthy of him.�Ibn ʿAbbās narrated that the Prophet said, �God says, 'I will not look after the rightful due of My servant until the servant looks after My rightful due.'�In the scriptures has come, �I honor those who honor Me and I scorn those who scorn My command.�Look at the vengeance He takes from the servant because of His rightful due, even though His rightful due is built on leniency, and He passes over most of it. As for the rightful dues of created things, in these no leniency is shown, so God's vengeance in them is more. So much is this so that it is said that if someone has the reward of seventy prophets but has one plaintiff whom he has cheated of half a penny, he will not enter paradise until that plaintiff is satisfied with him. So, the rightful dues of the creatures must be preserved, and one must strive mightily to observe them, especially the rightful dues of women and spouses, on whose behalf the Lord of the Worlds acts as deputy in this verse, requesting their husbands to take care of them.MuṣṬafā said, �The best of you is the best of you to his wife, and I am the best of you to my wife.
الطَّلَاقُ مَرَّتَانِ ۖ فَإِمْسَاكٌ بِمَعْرُوفٍ أَوْ تَسْرِيحٌ بِإِحْسَانٍ ۗ وَلَا يَحِلُّ لَكُمْ أَنْ تَأْخُذُوا مِمَّا آتَيْتُمُوهُنَّ شَيْئًا إِلَّا أَنْ يَخَافَا أَلَّا يُقِيمَا حُدُودَ اللَّهِ ۖ فَإِنْ خِفْتُمْ أَلَّا يُقِيمَا حُدُودَ اللَّهِ فَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْهِمَا فِيمَا افْتَدَتْ بِهِ ۗ تِلْكَ حُدُودُ اللَّهِ فَلَا تَعْتَدُوهَا ۚ وَمَنْ يَتَعَدَّ حُدُودَ اللَّهِ فَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الظَّالِمُونَ
📘 Divorce is twice, then retention with honor or setting free with beautiful doing.This is a recommendation to spread out the divorce so that they will not hurry to complete sepa-ration.19 Spreading out the divorce is recommended because the reality of separation is reprehen- sible. Although divorce is permitted in the Shariah, God hates it, for it is the cause of separating and of cutting the ties of familiarity and union. God's Messenger said, �The most hateful of per- mitted things to me is divorce.� The exalted Qur'an praises people who do not cut bonds and do not seek for separation. It says, �Those who join what God has commanded to be joined and fear their Lord� [13:21].In the Highest Dominion, He created angels who are half snow and half fire. Through His own power He brought these two opposites together and kept them that way. Their glorification is this: �Glory be to Him who makes fire familiar with snow! O Lord, make the hearts of your faithful servants familiar with each other!�A pir of the Sufis said, �I was walking in the desert. I saw a person I did not recognize, water standing before him, and plants growing from the water. I asked him who he was and he said that he was Abū Murra [the Father of Bitterness].20 I asked him what the water was. He said, 'It is my tears, and these green things and plants are growing up from my tears.' I asked him why he was weeping. He said, 'I weep in the days of separation for the days of union. In the days of separation the murmur of union is the ease of the hearts of the deprived. Leave me to weep for myself, for there is no one in the world more miserable than I.'�I said, �My heart wants to be Your comrade,so I will be worthy of thanks and applause.� By God, I did not think, O Spirit of the world,that all my hopes would come to this.Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī had a wife whom he divorced. Her dower was 40,000 dirhams, so he sent it to her so that her heart would be happy. She put that wealth in front her and began to weep: �'Paltry goods from a departed lover!' What use to me are the goods of the world when my companion is not at my side and my friend is tired of me!�When a viper strikes someone's liverthey give him the antidote, not candy.
وَإِنْ كُنْتُمْ فِي رَيْبٍ مِمَّا نَزَّلْنَا عَلَىٰ عَبْدِنَا فَأْتُوا بِسُورَةٍ مِنْ مِثْلِهِ وَادْعُوا شُهَدَاءَكُمْ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ
📘 If you are in doubt about what We have sent down on Our servant, then bring a surah the like of it.The previous verse was an affirmation of tawḤīd, an argument against the Arab associaters. This verse is an affirmation of prophecy, an argument against the Folk of the Book and the Dhimma. The formula of the Shahadah comprises two sides: the affirmation of tawḤīd and the affirmation of prophecy. As long as the servant does not acknowledge and believe in both and does not act as demanded by both, he has not entered into the circle of the submission.Affirming prophecy is to know that MuṣṬafā is the chosen of the Real and the best of creatures. You accept his prophecy with spirit and heart. You take his words, deeds, customs, and conduct as your leader and guide. You know in reality that his words are the revelation of the Real, his expla- nation the road of the Real, his decree the religion of the Real, and his utterances and conveyance of the message in the state of life and death the argument of the Real. Adam was still inside the curtain of water and clay when the secret of MuḤammad's created disposition had bound its waist before the Exalted Threshold and the gaze of the Real's gentleness had reached his spirit. This is alluded to in his words, �I was a prophet when Adam was between water and clay.�Then bring a surah the like of it. This spreads the carpet of the Qur'an's exaltedness from the folds of its holiness. Thus the non-privy will place the hand of rejection on their breasts and He may remove the mask of its beauty for those burnt by passion.Then you will see the unmasked beauty of the Qur'an's face-when it shows its face, speak with the tongue of remembrance. [DS 495]
۞ وَالْوَالِدَاتُ يُرْضِعْنَ أَوْلَادَهُنَّ حَوْلَيْنِ كَامِلَيْنِ ۖ لِمَنْ أَرَادَ أَنْ يُتِمَّ الرَّضَاعَةَ ۚ وَعَلَى الْمَوْلُودِ لَهُ رِزْقُهُنَّ وَكِسْوَتُهُنَّ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ ۚ لَا تُكَلَّفُ نَفْسٌ إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا ۚ لَا تُضَارَّ وَالِدَةٌ بِوَلَدِهَا وَلَا مَوْلُودٌ لَهُ بِوَلَدِهِ ۚ وَعَلَى الْوَارِثِ مِثْلُ ذَٰلِكَ ۗ فَإِنْ أَرَادَا فِصَالًا عَنْ تَرَاضٍ مِنْهُمَا وَتَشَاوُرٍ فَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْهِمَا ۗ وَإِنْ أَرَدْتُمْ أَنْ تَسْتَرْضِعُوا أَوْلَادَكُمْ فَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذَا سَلَّمْتُمْ مَا آتَيْتُمْ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ ۗ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ
📘 Mothers shall suckle their children two whole years-for those who desire to complete the suckling.Great is that Lord who is unique in loving kindness and without peer in caressing servants. He be- stows in testing, He is loyal to assurances. If we call Him, He hears, and if we do not, He knows. He is generous, loving, love-showing, and love-increasing; gentle, defect-hiding, excuse-hearing, a good God. His bounty is beyond all bounty, His generosity beyond all generosity, His mercy greater than all mercies, His love not like other loves.The example given of utmost mercy is the mercy of mothers, but God's mercy toward His servants is more than that, and His love is not like their love. Do you not see that He commands mothers to give milk to their children for two complete years, He urges them to nurture them, and He counsels them to take care of them? He does not confine Himself to the love of mothers and leave it at that. This is so that you will know that God is more lovingly kind to the servant than a mother is to her child.Once MuṣṬafā was passing by when a woman with a child in her arms was baking bread. They had told her that God's Messenger would be passing. She came forward and said, �O Messenger of God! We have heard you say that the God of the world's inhabitants is more lovingly kind to His servants than a mother to her child.�The Messenger said, �Yes, that is so.�That woman became happy and said, �O Messenger of God! A mother would never toss her child into this oven.�MuṣṬafā wept. Then he said, �God chastises in the Fire only those who refuse to say, 'There is no god but God.'�Kaʿb ʿUjra said that one day God's Messenger said to his companions, �What do you say about a man slain in God's path?�They said, �God and His Messenger know best.�He said, �He is in the Garden.� Then he said, �What do you say about a man concerning whom two just men have said that they knew nothing of him but good?�They said, �God and His Messenger know best.�He said, �He is in the Garden.� Then he said, �What do you say about a dead man concerning whom two just witnesses say that they never saw any good from him?�The Companions said, �He is in the Fire.
وَإِنْ طَلَّقْتُمُوهُنَّ مِنْ قَبْلِ أَنْ تَمَسُّوهُنَّ وَقَدْ فَرَضْتُمْ لَهُنَّ فَرِيضَةً فَنِصْفُ مَا فَرَضْتُمْ إِلَّا أَنْ يَعْفُونَ أَوْ يَعْفُوَ الَّذِي بِيَدِهِ عُقْدَةُ النِّكَاحِ ۚ وَأَنْ تَعْفُوا أَقْرَبُ لِلتَّقْوَىٰ ۚ وَلَا تَنْسَوُا الْفَضْلَ بَيْنَكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ
📘 And that you pardon is nearer to godwariness. And forget not bounty among yourselves. Surely God sees what you do.Godwariness lies in pardon, and paradise lies in godwariness, just as He says: �The next world with thy Lord belongs to the godwary� [43:35]. The folk of realization have said that godwariness has a beginning and an end. The beginning is what He says: �And that you pardon is nearer to godwari- ness,� and the end is what He says: �And forget not bounty among yourselves.� Its beginning is that you recognize what is rightfully due to you from your brother, but then you pardon it and let it go. This is the way station of submission and the conduct of the worshipers. Its end is that you recognize what is rightfully due to him from you and you prefer him over yourself. As much as you see disloyalty and offense from him, you offer him your apology. This is the station of tawḤīd and the description of the state of the sincerely truthful. In its meaning they have sung,�When we are ill, we come to you and tend to you. When you sin, we come to you and apologize.�To this the Prophet alluded when he said, �Shall I point you to the best character trait of the folk of this world and the next? You join with him who cuts you off, pardon him who does you wrong, and bestow on him who deprives you.�
حَافِظُوا عَلَى الصَّلَوَاتِ وَالصَّلَاةِ الْوُسْطَىٰ وَقُومُوا لِلَّهِ قَانِتِينَ
📘 Guard over the prayers, and the middle prayer, and stand before God devoutly.In the tongue of allusion to guard over the prayer is that, when the servant comes into the presence of the prayer, he comes with awe, and when he leaves, he leaves with reverence. As long as he is in the prayer, he is described by courtesy. He keeps his body in the outward service, his heart in the realities of union, and his secret core along with his spirit in the ease of whispered prayer. �The praying person is whispering with his Lord.�Abū Bakr Shiblī said, �If I were given the choice to enter the prayer or to go into paradise, I would not chose that high paradise over the prayer. Even if paradise is joy and blessings, the prayer is secret whispering with the Patron of Blessings. That is the place of pleasure for water and clay, and this is the place of gazing for spirit and heart. That is roasted fowl in the garden of approval, and this is repose and ease [56:89] in the garden of the Beloved.�For the sake of gazing stroll once into the Beloved's garden, see the Beloved scattering spirit beneath your feet.MuṣṬafā gave no station the mark he gave to the prayer when he said, �'The delight of my eyes was placed in the prayer.' Amongst the caresses and beauties, the brightness of my eyes lies in being occupied with Him and whispering secretly with Him.�Here is my heart-look into it and see: is there any goal other than You?There was a man called Abū ʿAlī Siyāh, who was unique in his era. Whenever anyone went to see him, he would say, �I'm a carefree man. I have no occupation. The brightness of my eyes lies in seeing a man of His road or talking about Him with someone.�Every night I talk to my heart about You.I seek Your scent from the dawn breeze.The knower of the Tariqah, ʿAbdallāh Anṣārī, said, �O God, O lovingly kind, O helper! Exalted is he who has one breath with You! May I have a breath in which no one mixes, a breath that after- wards has no veil. For me that one breath is enough in the two worlds.
مَنْ ذَا الَّذِي يُقْرِضُ اللَّهَ قَرْضًا حَسَنًا فَيُضَاعِفَهُ لَهُ أَضْعَافًا كَثِيرَةً ۚ وَاللَّهُ يَقْبِضُ وَيَبْسُطُ وَإِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ
📘 Who is it that will lend to God a beautiful loan, and He will multiply it for him many times? And God contracts and expands, and to Him you shall be returned.In this verse the generous Lord, He of tremendous and celebrated name, the lovingly kind, the caressing, the holder-majestic is His unity and holy His sanctum-caresses His servants, both the rich and the poor.He caresses the rich by asking loans from them, for loans are asked of friends.YaḤyā Muʿādh said, �I wonder at anyone who still has wealth, when the Lord of the Throne wants to borrow it.�A sound hadith says, �God descends and says, 'Who will supplicate Me that I may respond to him?' Then He spreads His two hands and says, 'Who will lend to one who is neither lacking nor wrongdoing?'�What do you know of the generosity and largesse found in this asking for a loan? This is a largesse that you might say is a painting on the spirit. From it the tree of joy is in fruit and in it the eyes of revelry are awake. He is saying, �Who is it that will give a loan to Him who is neither awrongdoer that he might take it away, nor a poor man not able to pay it back?� Anyone who rec- ognizes the worth of this declaration will put forth the bounteous wealth of spirit and heart and say,�I will exert my heart and spirit with none but You. My heart is Your property-I will not intervene!If with an allusion You ask for my spirit,I will send it at once without hesitation.�One day ʿAlī Murtaẓā went home, and Ḥasan and Ḥusayn were weeping before FāṬima Zahrā. ʿAlī said, �O FāṬima, what happened to the brightness of my eyes, the fruit of my heart, and the joy of my spirit that they are weeping?�FāṬima said, �O ʿAlī, it seems that they are hungry, for a day has passed and they have eaten nothing.�She had placed a pot on the fire, so ʿAlī said, �What do you have in the pot?�She said, �There is nothing in the pot except plain water. I put it on the fire to keep the children happy, for they think I am cooking something.
وَقَالَ لَهُمْ نَبِيُّهُمْ إِنَّ آيَةَ مُلْكِهِ أَنْ يَأْتِيَكُمُ التَّابُوتُ فِيهِ سَكِينَةٌ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ وَبَقِيَّةٌ مِمَّا تَرَكَ آلُ مُوسَىٰ وَآلُ هَارُونَ تَحْمِلُهُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ ۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَةً لَكُمْ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ
📘 Their prophet said to them, �The sign of his kingship is that there will come to you the ark within which is tranquility from your Lord.�Whenever someone finds a drink from the cup of recognition on the carpet of the religion's good fortune, the cupbearer of that drink is the sultan of tranquility. The exalted lodging place of the sultan of tranquility is the capital city of the heart: He it is who sent down tranquility into the hearts of the faithful [48:4]. The subtle reality of the heart is the dwelling place of the attribute of eternity: �Surely the hearts are between two fingers of the All-Merciful.�What a great difference there is between two groups of people! The tranquility of one group was in the ark, and the ark was under the determination of the Children of Israel, sometimes here and sometimes there, sometimes like this and sometimes like that. The tranquility of the other group is in their hearts, in the grasp of the Real's attributes. The Adamite has no hand in it, the angel no access to it. He comes between a man and his heart [8:24].Shiblī said, �The curtains were taken down and the veils lifted in the realities of the secret core, and many unseen things were unveiled to my secret core. I saw hell like a roaring dragon and rapacious lion. It was playing with the people and pulling them to itself with its tail. It saw me and displayed its mightiness. It wanted its share from me. I gave it all of my outward organs and parts and had no fear of their burning. I had no concern for outward burning because of my inner burning.�The Pir of the Tariqah said, �All fires burn the body, but the fire of friendship burns the spirit.No one can be patient in face of that spirit-burning fire.�If He burns you, say �Burn!�, if He caresses, say �Caress!�It's best for the passionate man to be put between water and fire.Shiblī said, �When I gave my makeup and form to the fire, the turn of the heart arrived. The fire wanted my heart. I said, 'I will toss it away without fear.' A voice came to my secret core, 'OShiblī, leave the heart alone, for the heart is not yours, nor is it under your determination.
وَبَشِّرِ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ أَنَّ لَهُمْ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ ۖ كُلَّمَا رُزِقُوا مِنْهَا مِنْ ثَمَرَةٍ رِزْقًا ۙ قَالُوا هَٰذَا الَّذِي رُزِقْنَا مِنْ قَبْلُ ۖ وَأُتُوا بِهِ مُتَشَابِهًا ۖ وَلَهُمْ فِيهَا أَزْوَاجٌ مُطَهَّرَةٌ ۖ وَهُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ
📘 And give good news to those who have faith.This verse is a caress for the friends, giving them hope for everlasting largesse and bliss, and an en- couragement to the faithful, inciting them to obey and to seek increase of blessings. The previous verse warns the strangers against confusion in the heart and associationism on the tongue, and it threatens with the fire of punishment and the harshness of being cut off from the Real. The person of faith is he who becomes frightened and without ease when he hears the first verse and thinks about the chastisement of hell. He becomes happy when he hears the second verse, he makes his heart fast and his hope strong, and he brings ease into his heart. The Lord of the Worlds praises both the frightened and the one at ease. Concerning the frightened He says, �The faithful are only those whose hearts quake when God is remembered� [8:2]. Concerning the one at ease He says, �Those who have faith and whose hearts are serene in the remembrance of God� [13:28]. The custom of the Generous Lord is that whenever He sends a verse of fear with which He frightens the servants, after it He sends down a verse of hope and mercy to give ease to their hearts so that they will not despair.And give good news to those who have faith. Let there be good news for all those who are today in the playing field of service, for tomorrow they will be in the assembly of repose and ease [56:89]. Not everyone who reaches the paradise of approval will reach the generous gift of repose and ease. The paradise of approval is the furthest limit of the pleasure of the worshipful servants,and repose and ease is the kiblah of the spirits of the lovers. The paradise of approval is the High Chambers and the Abode of Peace. Repose and ease in the Presence of At-ness is the gift for the spirit of the passionate. Everyone who watches over his actions will reach the paradise of ap- proval; everyone who watches over his breaths will reach repose and ease.Who can explain this repose and ease and how can it be given expression!? When something does not come to the tongue, how can it be explained? A wind begins to blow from the World of the Unseen that is called �the wind of bounty.
اللَّهُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ ۚ لَا تَأْخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَلَا نَوْمٌ ۚ لَهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ ۗ مَنْ ذَا الَّذِي يَشْفَعُ عِنْدَهُ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِهِ ۚ يَعْلَمُ مَا بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمَا خَلْفَهُمْ ۖ وَلَا يُحِيطُونَ بِشَيْءٍ مِنْ عِلْمِهِ إِلَّا بِمَا شَاءَ ۚ وَسِعَ كُرْسِيُّهُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ ۖ وَلَا يَئُودُهُ حِفْظُهُمَا ۚ وَهُوَ الْعَلِيُّ الْعَظِيمُ
📘 God, there is no god but He, the Living, the Self-Standing. Slumber takes Him not, nor sleep. To Him belong whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth. Who will in- tercede with Him save by His leave? He knows what is before them and what is behind them, and they encompass nothing of His knowledge save as He wills. His Footstool embraces the heavens and the earth, and He is the High, the Tremendous.God is He who has divinity and lordhood, God is He who has unity and self-sufficiency. His fix- ity is unitary, His being self-sufficient, His subsistence beginningless, and His brilliance eternal.God is the name of a lord whose essence is everlasting and whose attributes are eternal. His subsistence is beginningless and His splendor endless. His beauty is self-standing and His majesty constant. He is magnanimous and renowned, great in measure and deed, great in name and word, beyond intelligence and before when, and greater than any measure.O majestic God who is the Enactor and the good sweetheart, the creator of the world and the guardian of the creatures, keeper of enemies and companion of friends, the hard cash of hopes and enough for assurances, the receiver of every plaintiff and the forgiver of every offense, the kiblah of the desirer and the remembrance of the recognizer's heart!In remembrance of You I pass my days without You, in my eyes a picture of Your form.God is the remembrance of the hearts of the friends, God is the witness of the heart of the recogniz- ers, God is the joy of the secret core of the distracted, God is the healing of the hearts of the ill, God is the lamp of the breast of the tawḤīd-voicers, God is the light of the heart of the familiars and the balm of the pain of the burnt.Passion for You in my heart is like the light of certainty, Your name upon my eyes like the seal on a ring.In my nature and aspiration until the day of resurrectionlove for You will be like the spirit and loyalty to You like religion.The Pir of the Tariqah Junayd said, " If someone says God with his tongue when other than God is in his heart, God will be his adversary in the two abodes.
اللَّهُ وَلِيُّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا يُخْرِجُهُمْ مِنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّورِ ۖ وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا أَوْلِيَاؤُهُمُ الطَّاغُوتُ يُخْرِجُونَهُمْ مِنَ النُّورِ إِلَى الظُّلُمَاتِ ۗ أُولَٰئِكَ أَصْحَابُ النَّارِ ۖ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ
📘 God is the friend of those who have faith.Their friend [walī], their patron [mawlā], their ruler [wālī], and their caretaker [mutawallī]-all are alike in meaning. He is saying, " God is the lord of the faithful, their caretaker and helper, their guide and open-hearted friend. "In a report it has come that God's Messenger said, " If someone were to destroy the eminent, great Kaabah, take apart its stones, and set it on fire, his disobedience would not be as much as if he were to denigrate one of God's friends. "A nomad was present. He said, " O Messenger of God! Who are these friends of God? "He replied, " All of the faithful are God's beloved friends. Have you not recited the verse, 'God is the friend of those who have faith?' "The equal of this verse is where He says, " That is because God is the patron of those who havefaith, and the unbelievers have no patron " [47:11]. He is the friend and caretaker of the faithful, not only in this world, but also in the next, as He says: " We are your friends in this world's life and in the next world " [41:31].In the story of Joseph, He quotes his words, " Thou art my friend in this world and the next " [12:101]. There is a great difference between these two verses-We are your friends and Thou art my friend-though anyone who does not have the eyes to see is excused. We are your friends comes from togetherness itself, but Thou art my friend alludes to dispersion. This is not because the friend is superior to the prophet, for the end of the friend's work is but the beginning of the prophet's work. However, the weak are shown greater benevolence, and the incapable are given more caresses, for they are not so bold as to claim familiarity. They see themselves as tainted, so they do not have the tongue to speak. Whoever is more helpless is closer to the Friend. Whoever is more broken is more worthy of love: " I am with those whose hearts are broken for Me. "It has been reported that on the Day of Resurrection, one of the broken and burnt will be taken to the Presence.
وَإِذْ قَالَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ رَبِّ أَرِنِي كَيْفَ تُحْيِي الْمَوْتَىٰ ۖ قَالَ أَوَلَمْ تُؤْمِنْ ۖ قَالَ بَلَىٰ وَلَٰكِنْ لِيَطْمَئِنَّ قَلْبِي ۖ قَالَ فَخُذْ أَرْبَعَةً مِنَ الطَّيْرِ فَصُرْهُنَّ إِلَيْكَ ثُمَّ اجْعَلْ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ جَبَلٍ مِنْهُنَّ جُزْءًا ثُمَّ ادْعُهُنَّ يَأْتِينَكَ سَعْيًا ۚ وَاعْلَمْ أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌ
📘 When Abraham said to his Lord, �Show me how Thou givest life to the dead.� He said, �Dost thou not have faith?� He said, �Yes indeed, but that my heart may be serene.�... And know that God is exalted, wise.In the language of unveiling and in keeping with the tasting of the lords of the realities, this verse has another intimation and explanation. They say that Abraham was yearning for the Real's speech and burning for His address. His burning had reached the limit, the army of his patience had been put to flight, and the fire of his love was shooting up flames. He said, �O Lord, show me how you bring the dead to life.�He said, �O Abraham, dost thou not have faith? Do you not have faith that I bring the dead to life?�He said, �I do, but my heart has been thrown into turmoil by the wish to hear Your speech and by burning passion for Your address. I want You to talk.�Dost thou not have faith? �The goal was exactly that You would talk and ease would enter my heart.�My ease is Your messageand my feet are in Your snare.The story is told that a man had fallen for a young woman and wanted to speak with her, but she would not talk and was unwilling to do so. The afflicted man became helplessly captivated by her, hoping to speak with her. He knew that she had a liking for jewels. He went and gave everything he had for one precious gem. He went and placed a stone in front of her in order to break the gem. The object of his passion did not have the capacity to put up with breaking. She said, �Poor man, what are you doing?�He said, �I am doing it so that you will say, 'What are you doing?'�No rest or ease remains in my heart-call me names if you have no message.It has been said that with these words Abraham was asking for the life of the heart and the serenity of the secret core. He knew that as long as a heart is not alive, serenity will not come down into it, and as long as serenity has not come down into it, he would not have reached the final goal of the recognizers.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تُبْطِلُوا صَدَقَاتِكُمْ بِالْمَنِّ وَالْأَذَىٰ كَالَّذِي يُنْفِقُ مَالَهُ رِئَاءَ النَّاسِ وَلَا يُؤْمِنُ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ ۖ فَمَثَلُهُ كَمَثَلِ صَفْوَانٍ عَلَيْهِ تُرَابٌ فَأَصَابَهُ وَابِلٌ فَتَرَكَهُ صَلْدًا ۖ لَا يَقْدِرُونَ عَلَىٰ شَيْءٍ مِمَّا كَسَبُوا ۗ وَاللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الْكَافِرِينَ
📘 O You who have faith, do not void your charity by counting it a favor and causing dis- comfort.Ibn ʿAbbās said, �Do not void your charity by counting it a favor toward God.� God is saying, �O you have faith, who have placed your hands in the chains of Our servanthood and have clung to the rope of Our protection! The path of servanthood is not that of gazing on yourself and counting your obedience a favor to Us, for everything you do comes from Our success-giving and Our desire. When your heart was opened up, We opened it. When you found success, We gave it. When you gave comfort to the poor, We willed that. We made all of that happen, so all should be counted as Our favor. All acting is Ours, and all attending to things is Ours.�BarrāÌ ibn ʿāzib said, �On the Day of the Moat I saw God's Messenger when he was saying these words of Ibn RawāḤa:�O God, if not for You, we would not have been guided,we would not have given charity, we would not have prayed.So send down tranquility upon us,and firm up our feet for the encounter.�He is saying, �O God, were it not for Your solicitude, how could we have found the way to the street of tawḤīd? Were it not for Your success-giving, how could we have had the ability to do good works?� When a poor wretch counts obeying God a favor to Him, this is because he has lost the path of servanthood. He gives weight to his own obedience and sees it as large, so he does not turn the eyes of his heart and head away from it. In the path of chivalry, seeing one's own obedi-ence is idol-worship, and looking back at it is duality itself.If you are martyred a hundred times a day in God's pathyou'll still be an idol-worshiper if you see yourself in the midst. [DS 708]It has also been said that do not void your charity by counting it a favor and causing discomfort means to void your charity by laying favors on those who ask. He is saying, �Do not ruin your charity by counting it a favor to the poor.
الشَّيْطَانُ يَعِدُكُمُ الْفَقْرَ وَيَأْمُرُكُمْ بِالْفَحْشَاءِ ۖ وَاللَّهُ يَعِدُكُمْ مَغْفِرَةً مِنْهُ وَفَضْلًا ۗ وَاللَّهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ
📘 Satan promises you poverty and commands you to indecency, and God promises you forgiveness from Him, and bounty.Satan promises you poverty because of his poverty, and God promises you forgiveness because of His generosity.Satan himself is poor toward the Real, so he promises poverty, for that is what he has and that is what his hands reach. His harvest was burned, so he wants the harvest of others to burn as well. The Lord of the Worlds, who is forgiving and servant-caressing, promises forgiveness and gener- osity. Yes, everyone does what is worthy of him, and the pot pours what it has inside. Each acts according to his own manner [17:84]. The Lord's invitation is what He says: �He invites you so that He may forgive you some of your sins� [14:10]. Satan's call is what He says: �He invites his party only so that they may be among the companions of the Blaze� [35:6]. Satan invites to avarice and eagerness for this world, and that in reality is poverty. God invites to contentment and seeking the afterworld, and that is nothing but wealth.The respect due to wealth in the religion is greater, for in this world, the person is content and has no need for the creatures, whispering secretly with the Real in his heart. In the next world he will dwell in the scented garden of bounty and generosity and the ocean of face-to-face vision, drowned in the Greatest Light.Shaykh al-Islām Anṣārī said, �Wealth is three things: wealth of property, wealth of disposi- tion, and wealth of heart.�Wealth of property is three things: The lawful is a tribulation, the unlawful a curse, and the excessive punishment.�Wealth of disposition is three things: contentment, satisfaction, and chivalry.�Wealth of heart is three things: an aspiration greater than this world, an object of desire better than the next world, and a yearning for the vision of the Patron.�
يُؤْتِي الْحِكْمَةَ مَنْ يَشَاءُ ۚ وَمَنْ يُؤْتَ الْحِكْمَةَ فَقَدْ أُوتِيَ خَيْرًا كَثِيرًا ۗ وَمَا يَذَّكَّرُ إِلَّا أُولُو الْأَلْبَابِ
📘 He gives wisdom to whomsoever He wills.It has been said that wisdom has a reality and a fruit. The reality of wisdom is recognizing an affairas suited for the affair, putting a thing in its own place, recognizing everyone in his own frame- work, seeing the end of every statement at its beginning, and recognizing the inwardness of any statement from its outwardness. The fruit of wisdom is balancing interaction with people between tenderness and cajolery, balancing interaction with oneself between fear and hope, and balancing interaction with the Real between awe and intimacy.Wisdom is a light. When its ray shines upon you, it adorns the tongue with right remem- brance, the heart with right thought, and the bodily members with right activity. Then when you speak, you speak with wisdom, snatching away hearts and making spirits your prey. When you reflect, you reflect with wisdom, flying like a falcon, roaming in the highest Dominion, and making a nest only in the Presence of At-ness.May I be a ransom for the men dwelling in the Unseen, their secret cores roaming in all that is there!*Give the strong wings of wisdom to the peacock of the Throne and here in this place of the snare you'll see its nest in joy.If you stroll toward the Holy Presence with exaltedness,you'll see steeds coming forth from the city of the Lord. [DS 706]Yes indeed. And when someone like this acts, he acts with wisdom-coming together with the palisades of the Beloved's approval, sacrificing his desire to God's desire, seeing his intimacy in remembering Him, keeping his gaze in accordance with His gaze, resting in his remembrance no matter what arrives; sometimes burned by passion for Him in the playing field of majesty in the station of need, sometimes at ease with His gentleness in the garden of union on the throne of joy.At times those black locks raise the swords of severity,at times those sweet lips light the candles of gentleness. O You whose perfection has paid purses to the losers at dice!O You whose beauty has sewn the wallets of the destitute!
لِلْفُقَرَاءِ الَّذِينَ أُحْصِرُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ لَا يَسْتَطِيعُونَ ضَرْبًا فِي الْأَرْضِ يَحْسَبُهُمُ الْجَاهِلُ أَغْنِيَاءَ مِنَ التَّعَفُّفِ تَعْرِفُهُمْ بِسِيمَاهُمْ لَا يَسْأَلُونَ النَّاسَ إِلْحَافًا ۗ وَمَا تُنْفِقُوا مِنْ خَيْرٍ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ بِهِ عَلِيمٌ
📘 [It is] for the poor, who are constrained in the path of God and are not able to travel in the earth. The ignorant man counts them as rich because of their self-restraint. Thou shalt rec- ognize them by their mark-they do not ask of the people imploringly. And whatever good you expend, surely God knows it.This is a description of the state of the poor among the Companions and a clarification of their conduct. Until the day of resurrection, this is the balm of the hearts of the burnt and broken.Their first attribute is that they are constrained in the path of God, that is, they have halted at God's decree. They have constrained their souls to obey Him, their hearts to recognize Him, their spirits to love Him, and their secret cores to see Him.23 They have settled down in God's decree and approved of it, they have welcomed His command, they have kept their souls in obedience, they have occupied their hearts with recognition, their spirits have come to be at ease in love, and their secret cores have remained in anticipation of vision, for the Exalted Lord says about them, " They are unable to travel in the earth. " They are so busy with the Real that they attend neither to the creatures nor to themselves. They take no steps in seeking daily provision, nor do they put their hearts into acquisition and trade. This is exactly what He says: " whom neither trade nor buying diverts from the remembrance of God " [24:37]. They are chevaliers whose watchword is God's remembrance and whose blanket is God's love. They have repose and settledness at the threshold of serving Him and their aspiration is free of others. They are the beauty of paradise and the adorn- ment of the abode of settledness [40:39]-a few of the Emigrants and a few of the Helpers.The ignorant man counts them as rich because of their self-restraint. You would say that they are without need and you would number them as wealthy, for, despite the defectiveness of their state and the constraint of poverty, they never ask, whether from creatures or from the Real. Notasking from creatures is precisely trust, and trust is the level of their abode. Not asking from the Real is the reality of approval, and the field of approval is their way station.
الَّذِينَ يُنْفِقُونَ أَمْوَالَهُمْ بِاللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ سِرًّا وَعَلَانِيَةً فَلَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
📘 Those who expend their wealth night and day, secretly and openly, shall have their wage with their Lord, and no fear shall be upon them, neither shall they grieve.As long as they have any wealth, they do not slacken from expending it for an hour, night and day. When the wealth is exhausted, they do not slacken from witnessing Him for a moment, night and day.24 This is as they say:Wealth, gold, things-gamble them away for nothing. When the work reaches your spirit, gamble it away!Spending wealth in the road of the religion according to the Shariah is the work of the faithful, and throwing away the spirit in the contemplation of the majesty and beauty of the Patron in respect of the Haqiqah is the work of the chevaliers. This is the effort of servanthood by the servants. What then is worthy of God and the divine generosity toward the servants?!
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَأَقَامُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتَوُا الزَّكَاةَ لَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
📘 Those who have faith and do wholesome deeds, who perform the prayer and give the alms tax, shall have their wage with their Lord, and no fear shall be upon them, neither shall they grieve.In other words, �Enough for those who come to be Ours will be what they find with Us, for Weleave not to waste the wage of those who do beautiful deeds [18:30].��When someone has recourse to the gate of Our generosity, We give him shelter in the shade of Our blessings. When the dust of Our path falls on someone, the darkness of separation from Us will not fall upon him. When someone takes one step toward Us, he will find a gift with Us.� In other words, �When someone joins with Us, he will escape from the night attack of severance.� Or: �When someone binds his heart to Our generosity, he will pack his bags from the room of sor- rows.� Or: �When someone sees Us, his spirit will laugh. He who reaches himself will reach Us. Nothing can be said about what he who reaches himself will see and hear.�The Pir of the Tariqah said, �O God, all Your caresses are for our sake, for in each breath ap- pears so much burning with the light of Your solicitude. Who has a patron like You? Where is a friend like You? With the attributes that You have, nothing else is fitting. All this is the mark, and the celebration is tomorrow. This indeed is the message, and the robe of honor is in place.�The robe of honor is what He said: �shall have their wage with their Lord, and no fear shall be upon them, neither shall they grieve.� Wait until tomorrow, when He gives out the generous wage and tremendous caress that He has with Himself, the boundless blessings and everlasting triumph, in the assembly of repose and ease [56:89] and the appointed time of union with the Beloved.When will my luck smile at me from Your playing field?When will separation from You strike its tent from my spirit's desert?What wonderful work is the work of the poor! Gabriel, with six hundred peacock wings, could nottake one step beyond the Lote Tree along with that paragon of the world.
كَيْفَ تَكْفُرُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَكُنْتُمْ أَمْوَاتًا فَأَحْيَاكُمْ ۖ ثُمَّ يُمِيتُكُمْ ثُمَّ يُحْيِيكُمْ ثُمَّ إِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ
📘 How do you disbelieve in God, seeing that you were dead, and He brought you to life. Then He shall make you dead, then He shall bring you to life.By way of allusion He is saying, " O you who have lost the end of your own thread! O you who have fallen into the well of your own mortal nature! If you want the road clearer than this, why do you not go forward? If you want the field wider than this, why do you not mount up? If you want the candle brighter than this, why are you falling off the path? O you over whom so many years have passed and you have still not caught a scent! O you who have sat at so many tables and are still hungry! O you who have worn a thousand clothes and are still naked! O Muslim! The playing field is open, where are the mounted riders? The tribunal is open, where are the plaintiffs? The physician is present, where are the ill? The beauty is unveiled, where are the passionate? "You were dead, and He brought you to life. " You were dead, but I brought you to life. Why do you not look? You were ignorant, but I made you knowers. Why do you not perceive? I showed you the road, why do you not go? "It wants a man to catch the scent-otherwise, the world is full of the east wind's fragrance.The Pir of the Tariqah said, " O God, how can the servant overcome the beginningless decree? When he does not have, what can he do? What is the servant's effort? The work is done by what You want. How can the servant save himself with his own effort? "Then He shall make you dead, then He shall bring you to life. It is said that death is of three sorts: death by the curse, death by regret, and death by generous gift. Death by the curse belongs to the disbelievers, death by regret to the disobedient, and death by generous gift to the godwary.Life also is of three sorts: first the life of fear, then the life of hope, then the life of love. The life of fear appears in kindness, the life of hope appears in service, and the life of love appears in remembrance.
لِلَّهِ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ ۗ وَإِنْ تُبْدُوا مَا فِي أَنْفُسِكُمْ أَوْ تُخْفُوهُ يُحَاسِبْكُمْ بِهِ اللَّهُ ۖ فَيَغْفِرُ لِمَنْ يَشَاءُ وَيُعَذِّبُ مَنْ يَشَاءُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
📘 To God belongs whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth. Whether you show what is in your souls or you hide it, God will bring you to account for it.To God belongs whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth as ownership, origina- tion, creation, and devising. He gave them existence from nonexistence, so He owns them with the ownership of exaltedness and powerfulness, not the ownership of gaining and earning. He does in them whatsoever He wills [3:40] and He decrees whatsoever He desires [5:1].He is saying that everything in the heavens and the earths is owned by God, an ownership of existence-giving and exaltedness, not an ownership of earning and inheritance. It is the owner- ship of the Adamites that is gained by the ruling property of commerce and gift, or acquisition and inheritance. Hence the ruling property that establishes ownership makes the rightful due of what is owned necessary for them. As for God's ownership, it comes by way of bringing nonbeing into being, by creation after nonbeing, and by making new from the outset. Thus His ownership is not like anyone else's ownership, nor does anyone have any ruling property over Him in that. What He does with what He Himself created He does by reason of His own lordhood. From Him it is justice, not injustice. Injustice is when someone does something that is not his to do. But it is God's to do whatever He does because He is creator, enactor, and king. Majestic is His ruling power, tremendous His rank, exalted His magnificence, realized His word, and high His reality beyond the perception of intellects!To God belongs whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth. He did not say this so that you would attach your heart to it and occupy yourself with it, but so that you would attach your heart to its creator and see its artisan. This is the same as He said: �Do not prostrate yourselves to the sun and the moon, but prostrate yourselves to God, who created them� [41:37]. When He created heaven and earth, He created them as the gazing place of the common people, so that they would look at the artisanry and from it reach the Artisan.
آمَنَ الرَّسُولُ بِمَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ رَبِّهِ وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ ۚ كُلٌّ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَمَلَائِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِنْ رُسُلِهِ ۚ وَقَالُوا سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا ۖ غُفْرَانَكَ رَبَّنَا وَإِلَيْكَ الْمَصِيرُ
📘 The Messenger has faith in what was sent down to him from his Lord, and the faithful. Each one has faith in God, His angels, His books, and His messengers: �We make no distinc- tion among any of His messengers.� They say, �We hear and we obey! Thy forgiveness, our Lord! And to Thee is the homecoming.� God takes no soul to task beyond its capacity. It shall have what it has earned, and against it shall be what it has acquired. �Our Lord, take us not to task if we forget or make mistakes. Our Lord, put not upon us a burden such as that Thou hast put on those before us. Our Lord, and do not burden us with what we do not have the strength to bear. And pardon us, and forgive us, and have mercy upon us. Thou art our Patron, so help us against the people of the unbelievers.�This is a declaration of the greatness and eminence of the Messenger at the moment of contemplation. He said, �The Messenger has faith.� He did not say, �Thou hast faith.� This is how masters and kings are addressed in the manner of declaring their greatness. It is exactly like what He said about Himself at the beginning of the Surah of Opening: �Praise belongs to God.� He did not say, �Praise belongs to Me.� This was to declare His own greatness and to make manifest His exaltedness and majesty.The Messenger has faith. Now that He has mentioned faith, the Uprising, the Garden, the Fire, the prayer, the alms tax, retaliation, fasting, hajj, struggle, marriage, divorce, menstruation, the waiting period, expenditure, foster relationship, forswearal, divorce initiated by the wife, in- heritance, charity, vows, buying, selling, usury, debts, and ransom; and He has mentioned the stories of the prophets and the signs of His power, God completes the surah by mentioning that His prophet and the faithful assent to the truthfulness of all of it. Hence He says, The Messenger has faith in what was sent down to him from his Lord, and the faithful. This is praise and laudation of the Prophet, who explained these rulings and delivered the message, and of the faithful, for we have recognized, accepted, and held firm to all the rulings, boundaries, stories of the prophets, and marks of God's power and tremendousness that were mentioned.
لَا يُكَلِّفُ اللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا ۚ لَهَا مَا كَسَبَتْ وَعَلَيْهَا مَا اكْتَسَبَتْ ۗ رَبَّنَا لَا تُؤَاخِذْنَا إِنْ نَسِينَا أَوْ أَخْطَأْنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تَحْمِلْ عَلَيْنَا إِصْرًا كَمَا حَمَلْتَهُ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تُحَمِّلْنَا مَا لَا طَاقَةَ لَنَا بِهِ ۖ وَاعْفُ عَنَّا وَاغْفِرْ لَنَا وَارْحَمْنَا ۚ أَنْتَ مَوْلَانَا فَانْصُرْنَا عَلَى الْقَوْمِ الْكَافِرِينَ
📘 The Messenger has faith in what was sent down to him from his Lord, and the faithful. Each one has faith in God, His angels, His books, and His messengers: �We make no distinc- tion among any of His messengers.� They say, �We hear and we obey! Thy forgiveness, our Lord! And to Thee is the homecoming.� God takes no soul to task beyond its capacity. It shall have what it has earned, and against it shall be what it has acquired. �Our Lord, take us not to task if we forget or make mistakes. Our Lord, put not upon us a burden such as that Thou hast put on those before us. Our Lord, and do not burden us with what we do not have the strength to bear. And pardon us, and forgive us, and have mercy upon us. Thou art our Patron, so help us against the people of the unbelievers.�This is a declaration of the greatness and eminence of the Messenger at the moment of contemplation. He said, �The Messenger has faith.� He did not say, �Thou hast faith.� This is how masters and kings are addressed in the manner of declaring their greatness. It is exactly like what He said about Himself at the beginning of the Surah of Opening: �Praise belongs to God.� He did not say, �Praise belongs to Me.� This was to declare His own greatness and to make manifest His exaltedness and majesty.The Messenger has faith. Now that He has mentioned faith, the Uprising, the Garden, the Fire, the prayer, the alms tax, retaliation, fasting, hajj, struggle, marriage, divorce, menstruation, the waiting period, expenditure, foster relationship, forswearal, divorce initiated by the wife, in- heritance, charity, vows, buying, selling, usury, debts, and ransom; and He has mentioned the stories of the prophets and the signs of His power, God completes the surah by mentioning that His prophet and the faithful assent to the truthfulness of all of it. Hence He says, The Messenger has faith in what was sent down to him from his Lord, and the faithful. This is praise and laudation of the Prophet, who explained these rulings and delivered the message, and of the faithful, for we have recognized, accepted, and held firm to all the rulings, boundaries, stories of the prophets, and marks of God's power and tremendousness that were mentioned.
هُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ لَكُمْ مَا فِي الْأَرْضِ جَمِيعًا ثُمَّ اسْتَوَىٰ إِلَى السَّمَاءِ فَسَوَّاهُنَّ سَبْعَ سَمَاوَاتٍ ۚ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ
📘 He it is who created for you all that is in the earth, then He went up to heaven and propor- tioned it as seven heavens, and He is knower of everything.In another place He said, �He subjected to you whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth, all together, from Him� [45:13]. He is saying, �I created everything in the empire of the earth for you and subjected it to you. My bestowal is not tiny, My generosity toward those who are burnt for Me is not trivial. There will never be any backsliding in My caressing you. Nor is it as if I limited Myself to the empire of the earth, for I also set up the heavens for your gaze, for the pleasure of your eyes, and as a storehouse for your daily provision. My servant! When you step into the street of My covenant, you do not know what good news reaches the heaven-dwellers and the earth-dwellers and how they congratulate each other. I know, for I know everything and reach everyone.� And He is knower of everything.In this verse there is a subtle point. He did not say, �Who created you for all that is in the earth.� He said, �Who created for you all that is in the earth.� In other words, �I created every- thing that is in the empire of the earth and the heavens for your sake, and I created you for My sake.� Do you not see that He said specifically to Moses, �I chose thee for Myself� [20:41], and generally to the creatures, �I created the jinn and mankind only to worship Me� [51:56]? It was MuṣṬafā who understood the worth of this declaration and gave thanks for this one of His blessings. On the night of proximity and generosity when he was taken to the heavens, all of creation and the empires of the two worlds were scatted at the feet of his truthfulness. That paragon did not look at it from the corner of his eye. He said, �I was not created for this.� The eyesight did not swerve, nor did it trespass [53:17]. Hail to him!Abū Yazīd BasṬāmī, who beautifully traveled in the road of MuṣṬafā's Sunnah and beautifully observed courtesy toward the Presence, said, �I kept on crossing perils until I found the empires.
الَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ وَيُقِيمُونَ الصَّلَاةَ وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ يُنْفِقُونَ
📘 Those who have faith in the Unseen and perform the prayer and spend of what We have provided them.They love God without having seen Him. They attest to His uniqueness and they believe in His oneness in Essence and attributes. They hold firm to His Messenger without having seen him, they accept his messengerhood, and they walk straight on the road of his Sunnah. After five hundred years of blackness on whiteness, they accept him with spirit and heart. The message he conveyed, the reports he gave of the World of Dominion, the Lote Tree of the Final End, the Gardens of the Refuge, the Throne of the Patron, the outcome of this world-they bear witness to its truth andthey believe in all of it. They are the ones whom MuṣṬafā called his brothers: �Oh, the yearning to encounter my brothers!�And perform the prayer. They do the prayer such that you would say they are gazing on God and whispering secretly with Him, confirming the truth of the Prophet's words, �Worship God as if you see Him, for if you do not see Him, surely He sees you.� He also said, �When the servant stands for the prayer, he is before the eyes of the All-Merciful. When he looks around, God says, 'Child of Adam! At whom are you looking? Are you looking at someone better for you than I? Child of Adam! Look at Me, for I am better for you than the one at whom you are looking.'�Strive at the time you come to the prayer to keep your thoughts in the prayer and to turn your heart away from the bazaar. Have courtesy, turn your heart away from blessings, and know the worth of whispering secretly with the Patron of Blessings. For it is person of low aspiration and meanness who finds secret whispering with the Patron of Blessings and then busies his heart with the blessings.And spend of what We have provided them. He adds to the attributes of the godwary, saying that the caresses He has placed upon them and the blessings He has given them-they undertake to show gratitude for these blessings and, by the command of the Shariah, they caress the poor, give comfort to them, and consider them the Real's deputies in receiving charity.
وَإِذْ قَالَ رَبُّكَ لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ إِنِّي جَاعِلٌ فِي الْأَرْضِ خَلِيفَةً ۖ قَالُوا أَتَجْعَلُ فِيهَا مَنْ يُفْسِدُ فِيهَا وَيَسْفِكُ الدِّمَاءَ وَنَحْنُ نُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِكَ وَنُقَدِّسُ لَكَ ۖ قَالَ إِنِّي أَعْلَمُ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
📘 And when thy Lord said to the angels, �Surely I am setting in the earth a vicegerent,� they said, �What, wilt Thou set therein one who will work corruption there, and shed blood, while we glorify Thy praise and call Thee holy?� He said, �Surely I know what you do not know.�There was a world at ease. No heart burned with passion and no breast was deluded by mad fervor. Then the ocean of mercy began to boil. The treasuries of obedient deeds were full, and no dust oflassitude had settled on the foreheads of the obedient in their obedience. The banner of their boast- ful claim, �We glorify Thy praise,� was raised to Capella.All those in the cosmos who had any subtle substance began craving for their own selves. The majestic Throne was looking at its own tremendousness and saying, �Perhaps the script of these words is written for me.� The Footstool was looking at its own amplitude-�Perhaps this sermon is being read in my name.� The eight paradises gazed on their own beauty-�Maybe this rulership will be given to us.� None wanted anything to do with dust. Each fell into delusion, each caught by mad fervor.Suddenly, from the Presence of Exaltation and Majesty, this report was given to the world of the angels: �Surely I am setting in the earth a vicegerent.� It was not that He was consulting with the angels. Rather, He was laying the foundation of Adam's exaltation and tremendousness. He was not asking for help, but spreading the carpet of Adam's dignity. He was saying, �The ruling property of My severity has acted. I have commanded the pen of generosity to write out an inscription from the beginning of the world's ledger to its end. This resolution is written for the inhabitants of both worlds, from the top of the Throne to the bottom of the Carpet: 'The dust-dwelling Adam is granted chieftainship over all the empires. His exalted breast will be bright with the light of recognition. In him the subtleties of My generosity and the artifacts of My bounteousness will become apparent.'�This exalted declaration caused the hearts of the proximate angels to quake with awe. They said, �What is this all about? He has not yet been created.�The exalted Qur'an was beating the drum of his vicegerency at the threshold of his beauty even though he had not yet entered into the bonds of creation.
وَإِذْ قُلْنَا لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ اسْجُدُوا لِآدَمَ فَسَجَدُوا إِلَّا إِبْلِيسَ أَبَىٰ وَاسْتَكْبَرَ وَكَانَ مِنَ الْكَافِرِينَ
📘 And when We said to the angels, �Prostrate yourselves before Adam!�Majestic and all-compelling is the God of the world and the world's folk, the Enactor, the renowned knower of the hidden, the eternal in beautiful doing and tremendous in rank, never ignorant of what He knows, never regretful for what He bestows, never at a loss over what He has done. He is a Lord who adorns what He disapproves for some and makes ugly what He approves for others. He created the despairing Iblis from fire, gave him a place in the Lote Tree of the Final End, and sent the proximate angels of the Presence to seek knowledge from him. Despite such distinction and level, He wrote out the inscription of wretchedness for him and bound his waist with the sash of the curse. He pulled Adam up from dark dust, made the Higher Plenum the bearers of his throne, clothed him in the cape of exaltedness, placed the crown of generosity on his head, and said to the proximate angels of the Presence, �Prostrate yourselves before Adam!�It has come in the traditions that Adam was placed on a throne that had seven hundred legs, the distance of one leg to another a seven-hundred year journey. The command came: �O Gabriel, O Michael, you chiefs of the angels! Lift up Adam's throne and carry it around the heavens so that his eminence and rank may be known to those who said, 'What, wilt Thou set therein one who will work corruption therein, and shed blood?'� [2:30].Then they placed that throne before the Majestic Throne. The command came to the angels, �All of you go to Adam's throne and prostrate yourself before Adam.� The angels came and gazed upon Adam, and they all became drunk with his beauty.A face adorned by the God of heavenhas no need for a hairdresser's touch.They saw a beauty without end, the crown of �He created Adam in His form� on his head, the garbof �I have blown into him of My spirit� [15:29] on his body, the embroidery of the solicitude of �He loves them, and they love Him� [5:54] on the sleeve of his sinlessness.Though we're strangers and our hearts are upset, we're serving-boys of that world-adorning face.
وَقُلْنَا يَا آدَمُ اسْكُنْ أَنْتَ وَزَوْجُكَ الْجَنَّةَ وَكُلَا مِنْهَا رَغَدًا حَيْثُ شِئْتُمَا وَلَا تَقْرَبَا هَٰذِهِ الشَّجَرَةَ فَتَكُونَا مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ
📘 Dwell thou and thy spouse in the Garden!It has been said that once Iblis met Adam and said, �Know that you have been given a white face and I a black face. Do not be deluded, for our likeness is that of an almond tree planted by a gar- dener. The tree bears fruit, and the fruit is taken to a grocery shop. Some of it is sold to a customer who is a happy man, and some to a customer who is afflicted. The afflicted man blackens the face of the almonds and scatters them on the casket of his dead one. The happy man mixes them with sugar and distributes them with their white faces in his happiness. O Adam! I am the black al- monds scattered over caskets, and the almonds distributed by happiness are the work of your good fortune. But you should know that the gardener is one, and we have drunk water from the same stream. If someone should fall to the work of roses, he will smell roses, and if someone should fall into the gardener's thorns, his eyes will be struck by them.�I said, �In my passion I will be like Your hair, always before Your face.�I thought wrongly and fell far away-I'll be the slaveboy of Your street's watchman.Dhu'l-Nūn Miṣrī said, �I was in the desert and saw Iblis, who had not lifted his head from prostra- tion in forty days. I said, 'Poor wretch, after disownment and the curse, what is all this worship?' �He said, 'O Dhu'l-Nūn, though I have been dismissed from servanthood, He has not beendismissed from lordhood.'�O lovely one, my times and yours are in turmoil, talk of us has filled my city and yours.Union was apportioned in the beginningless,and now separation has come and the talk is of you and me.Sahl ibn ʿAbdallāh Tustarī said, �One day I came across Iblis. I said, 'I seek refuge in God from you.'�He said, 'O Sahl, if you are seeking refuge in God from me, I am seeking refuge in God from God. O Sahl, if you say that you are seeking help against the hand of Iblis, I say that I am seeking help against the hand of the All-Merciful.
فَأَزَلَّهُمَا الشَّيْطَانُ عَنْهَا فَأَخْرَجَهُمَا مِمَّا كَانَا فِيهِ ۖ وَقُلْنَا اهْبِطُوا بَعْضُكُمْ لِبَعْضٍ عَدُوٌّ ۖ وَلَكُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ مُسْتَقَرٌّ وَمَتَاعٌ إِلَىٰ حِينٍ
📘 Then Satan made them slip therefrom.Look at this wonder: First He caressed the servant and put all his little jobs in order, then He sent him into tumult and overthrew what He had done for him, and then He rebuked him.The Pir of the Tariqah said, �O God, You show your friends to the enemies and You turn the poor ones over to heartache and grief. You make them ill, and then You take care of them Your- self. You make them helpless, and then You heal them Yourself.�You made Adam out of dust, and then You acted so beautifully toward him. You placed his happiness at the top of the ledger and made him the guest in paradise. You sat him in the garden of approval, You made a compact with him not to eat the wheat, and in Your unseen knowledge You hid the fact that he would in fact eat the wheat. Then You put him in prison, and You made him weep for years. Your all-compellingness does the work of compellers, Your lordhood does the work of lords. All of Your rebukes and war are aimed at Your friends.�The Pir of the Tariqah was asked, �What do you say: Was Adam more complete in this world or in paradise?�He said, �He was more complete in this world, for in paradise he fell into suspicion because of himself, but in this world he fell into suspicion because of passion.�The Pir of the Tariqah said, �Take care not to have the opinion that Adam was taken out of paradise because of his lowliness. It was not that. Rather, it was because of the grandeur of his aspiration. The petitioner of passion came to the door of Adam's breast and said, 'O Adam, the beauty of meaning has been unveiled, but you have stayed in the abode of peace.' Adam saw an infinite beauty, next to which the beauty of the eight paradises was nothing. His great aspiration tightened its belt and said: 'If you ever want to fall in love, you must fall in love with that.'�If there's no escape from feeding passion to the spirit I'll suffer passion's grief for the likes of You.The command came, �Adam, now that you have stepped into the street of passion, leave paradise, for it is the house of ease.
فَتَلَقَّىٰ آدَمُ مِنْ رَبِّهِ كَلِمَاتٍ فَتَابَ عَلَيْهِ ۚ إِنَّهُ هُوَ التَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيمُ
📘 Then Adam received from his Lord some words.Then He spoke with the lid on, not letting out the details, lest the secrets of love fall into the open and so that love's story would stay concealed.I said to her, �Halt [qifī].� She said, �Qāf.�She did not say, �I have halted,� thereby keeping the secret from the watchers. Nor did she say, �I will not halt,� thereby showing consideration for the lover's heart.3Although the tongue of commentary does not speak of it, the folk of allusion say that it is likely that at the moment of farewell lovers say, �'When you depart from me, do not forget my covenant. Even if awareness of me dwindles one day, do not prefer another over me.'4 O Adam! Do not forget Our compact and do not choose anyone over Me.� The tongue of his state replied,�My heart is Your fellow-traveler and companion- how could it attach its love anywhere else?A heart for whom You are both spirit and awareness- how could it forget Your remembrance?�
وَالَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِمَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْكَ وَمَا أُنْزِلَ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ وَبِالْآخِرَةِ هُمْ يُوقِنُونَ
📘 And those who have faith in what has been sent down to thee and what was sent down before thee and who are certain of the next world.This verse is also the attribute of the godwary and the affirmation of their faith in the Qur'an as well as in all the messages and marks that came down from heaven on the tongue of the prophets. The Lord of the Worlds praises them and approves of them because of that, and He accepts their faith.Every eminence and nobility possessed by past communities He gave to them and added to it, and every burden and hardship they had He lifted away from them. Those had longer days of practice, but this community has more reward for obedience. Those had a moment for repentance, but then the punishment of the Hour, but this community's opportunity for repentance of sins extends to the moment of death, and punishment belongs to the Will.Then too the Lord of the Worlds laid a favor on MuṣṬafā and said, �Thou wast not on the side of the Mount when We called out� [28:46]. O paragon, you were not present on that corner of the Mount when We were speaking of you to Moses and talking about your community.�Moses said, �Lord God, in the Torah I read the mention of a community extremely adorned, refined, and approved. They have beautiful conduct and flourishing secret cores. Who are they?�God said, �That is the community of MuḤammad.�Moses began to yearn for this community and said, �Lord God, is there any way You can show them to me?�He said, �No, for it is not the moment for them to come out. If you want, I will convey their voices to your ears.� Then God Himself let out a call in the world, �O community of MuḤammad!� Everyone who would be his community until the coming of the Hour said, �Here I am, obeying Thee!� Since He called them out, He did not send them back without a gift. He said, �I bestowed upon you before you asked from Me, and I forgave you before you asked Me to forgive you.� It is not surprising that God called out to Moses after he had come into existence and received the eminence of prophethood and messengership and whispered prayer at the edge of the Mount.
يَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَتِيَ الَّتِي أَنْعَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَأَوْفُوا بِعَهْدِي أُوفِ بِعَهْدِكُمْ وَإِيَّايَ فَارْهَبُونِ
📘 O children of Israel! Remember My blessings with which I blessed you. And be loyal to My covenant; I will be loyal to your covenant. And of Me have dread.This is an allusion to the Real's gentleness, generosity, and loving kindness toward the servants. He reminds them of His favor toward them: �I am the generous Lord, the thankful, the forgiver of the servants. I have come forth with kindness despite every disloyalty, I invite the servants to praise Me despite all their offenses, and I ask them to be grateful for My blessings.� This is why He says to the children of Israel, �Remember My blessings! O children of Israel, be grateful for My blessings and recognize your duty toward Me so that you will be worthy of increase and have good name and good fortune.�There is a great difference between the children of Israel and this community. To them He said, �Remember My blessings!� To this community He said, �Remember Me!� [2:152]. He gave them blessings and He gave this community companionship. He kept those away from Himself by the witnessing of blessings, and He kept these with Himself by stipulating love. The tongue of this state says,�I traveled to you seeking the highest things, but others traveled seeking a good life.�The Pir of the Tariqah said, �O God, the one who does the work is he who has work with You, the one who has a friend is he whose friend is the likes of You. How could he who has You in the two worlds leave You aside! The wonder is that he who has You weeps more than anyone else. He who has not found weeps at not having found-why then does he who finds also weep?�When the like of You is someone's friend, if he complains, that's disgraceful.And be loyal to My covenant; I will be loyal to your covenant. There are many verses like this in the Qur'an: �Supplicate Me; I will respond to you [40:60]. So remember Me; I will remember you [2:152]. My servant! Open a door so that I may open a door. Open the door of turning back so that I may open the door of good news: They turned back to God, and for them is good news [39:17].
وَلَا تَلْبِسُوا الْحَقَّ بِالْبَاطِلِ وَتَكْتُمُوا الْحَقَّ وَأَنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ
📘 And confuse not truth with falsehood.Be careful not to mix truth and falsehood. Do not put truthfulness together with lying, the ap- proved together with the unapproved. I do not say not to recognize falsehood. You must recognize it so as to avoid it, and you must recognize truth so as go after it. MuṣṬafā said, �O God, show us truth as truth and provide us with choosing it, and show us falsehood as falsehood and provide us with avoiding it.�Concerning the verse, �And confuse not truth with falsehood,� the masters of the realities have said that the meaning is that you should not mix together the share of the soul and the food of the heart, for the two do not get along. The owner of the heart is elated at the rightful due of truth, but the servant of the soul is bound by the share of the soul. How can the two come together? This world is trifling and the next world precious. How can the two get along? Friendship with the Cre- ator is beginningless and endless felicity, but friendship with the created is a ready bane. How can the two come together? God has not given any man two hearts in his breast [33:4]. God-worship and self-worship are opposites. How can the two be brought together in one makeup?Love for both self and the loving Friend won't reach you.Want either this or that-you won't reach both.
وَاسْتَعِينُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلَاةِ ۚ وَإِنَّهَا لَكَبِيرَةٌ إِلَّا عَلَى الْخَاشِعِينَ
📘 And seek help in patience and the prayer, though it indeed is hard, except for the humble.The command came to him, �O Master, tell your community to have patience in their affairs so that they may reach what they desire. 'Patience is the key to relief.'�If someone does not have the patience of the Men, let him not come to the Men's playing field.You have not the legs of men-don't put on men's clothing!You have not the means of no means-don't brag of selflessness! [DS 491]Once that paragon of the world stepped into this playing field, he was not left for one hour without sorrow and grief. If he sat for a while cross-legged, the address came, �Sit like a servant!� If once he put a ring on his finger, the whip of rebuke would come down: �What, did you reckon that We created you aimlessly?� [23:115]. If once he placed his foot on the ground boldly, the command would come, �Walk not in the earth exultantly� [17:37]. When the work reached the limit and he was being tried from every corner, he sighed and said, �No prophet whatsoever has been tormented as I have been tormented.�The address came from the Exalted Presence, �O paragon! When someone's heart and spirit witness Me, will he complain of the burden of trial?� All the venom of grief in the treasuries of the Unseen was poured into one cup and placed in his hand, and then a curtain was lifted from his se- cret core: �O paragon! Drink all this venom while contemplating My beauty! And be patient with thy Lord's decree, for surely thou art in Our eyes [52:48].� The tongue of the state was saying,�Were the Beloved's hand to pour poison for me, poison from His hand would be sweet.*�Though Your hand is fire, it is my bed of roses.All that comes from You is sweet, whether healing or pain.�Though it indeed is hard, except for the humble. Humbleness is a stipulation of the prayer. It is a mark of the servant's need. The humble in the prayer are praised by the Real and chosen among the creatures. Prosperous are the faithful, those who are humble in their prayers [23:1-2]. Humble- ness in the prayer is both outward and inward.
أُولَٰئِكَ عَلَىٰ هُدًى مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ ۖ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ
📘 Those are upon a guidance from their Lord.Here you have the great triumph and the worthy praise. Here you have good fortune without end and generous bounty without limit. He has opened up the door of perspicacity for them and put into effect the gaze of solicitude inside their hearts. He has lit up the lamp of guidance in their hearts so that what is unseen for others is apparent to them. What for others is a report is for them face-to-face vision. Anas ibn Mālik said that he went before ʿUthmān ʿAffān, having seen in the road a woman and considered her beautiful traits. ʿUthmān said, �One of you who has entered in upon me has the traces of adultery appearing in his eyes.�Anas said, �Is there revelation after God's Messenger?�He said, �No, but there is insight, proof, and truthful perspicacity. The Prophet said, 'Be wary of the perspicacity of the man of faith, for he gazes with the light of God.'�A pir was asked what perspicacity is. He answered, �Spirits that move about in the Dominion gazing on the meanings of the unseen things. Then they speak about the secrets of the Real with the speech of contemplation, not the speech of opinion and reckoning.� In this meaning someone sang,May I be a ransom for the men dwelling in the Unseen, their secret cores roaming in all that is there!In the Unseen their secret cores crave from the Reala locus of witnessing to which the people have no access.They encounter the holy spirit in their secret cores and in meaning they remain dwelling with it.They are men who have proximity and presence in the Unseen, while their souls have been slain by their finding.Sarī SaqaṬī was Junayd's master. One day he said to Junayd, �Speak to the people and give them advice, for it is time for you to speak.�Junayd said, �I did not see myself like that and saw no worthiness in myself. Then one night I saw MuṣṬafā in a dream, and it was the night before Friday. He said to me, 'Speak to the people!' That same night I got up and before morning went to the door of Sarī. I knocked at the door, and Sarī said, 'You will not assent to me before they tell you to do so?'�The next day Junayd sat in the congregational mosque and news spread in the city that he was going to speak.
وَإِذْ آتَيْنَا مُوسَى الْكِتَابَ وَالْفُرْقَانَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَهْتَدُونَ
📘 And when We gave Moses the book and the discernment.He gave Moses' folk the discernment outwardly, and He placed the discernment in the inwardness of MuḤammad's folk in addition to their outwardness. The inner discernment is a light in the heart of the friends through which they separate truth from falsehood. It is alluded to in His words, �If you are wary of God, He will appoint for you a criterion� [8:29]. This is why MuṣṬafā said to Wābisa, �Ask for a pronouncement from your heart!� He also said, �Be wary of the perspicacity of the man of faith, for he gazes with the light of God.� When this discernment appears in someone's inwardness, his drinking and aspiration are purified of the dust of others; the walkway of his desire is protected from the debris of customs, the carpet of his days is shaken loose of the opacities of mortal nature, and the eyes of his moment are kept away from the hand of newly arrived things.Then, things that are reports for others are for him face-to-face vision; what had been the knowl- edge of certainty becomes the eye of certainty. No newly arrived thing enters existence in the empire without his heart being aware of it. MuṣṬafā was asked if this has a mark. He said, �When light enters the heart, the breast is expanded.� Its mark is that the breast is opened up to the divine light. When the breast is opened up, the aspiration becomes high, every sorrow is comforted, scatteredness turns into togetherness, the carpet of subsistence is spread, the rug of annihilation is rolled up, the corner of heartaches is closed off, and the door to the garden of union is opened. In joy and coquetry, he says with the tongue of the state,�In the quarter of hope, I have a delightful home,in the story of passion, I have a delightful problem.Why do you ask details about my heart, O spirit of the world?Know, in short, that I have a delighted heart.�
وَإِذْ قَالَ مُوسَىٰ لِقَوْمِهِ يَا قَوْمِ إِنَّكُمْ ظَلَمْتُمْ أَنْفُسَكُمْ بِاتِّخَاذِكُمُ الْعِجْلَ فَتُوبُوا إِلَىٰ بَارِئِكُمْ فَاقْتُلُوا أَنْفُسَكُمْ ذَٰلِكُمْ خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ عِنْدَ بَارِئِكُمْ فَتَابَ عَلَيْكُمْ ۚ إِنَّهُ هُوَ التَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيمُ
📘 When Moses said to his people, �O my people, you have wronged your souls by taking up the calf, so kill your own souls! That is better for you with your Creator.�Moses said to his people: �Take care not to suppose that your worship of the calf has harmed the majesty of the Self-Sufficient or that it is a defect for His kingship and lordhood. Rather, the harm and bad fortune belong to you. If something bad has happened, it has happened to you by your being held back from a Lord like Him. Otherwise, He has plenty of servants like you.Sahl ʿAbdallāh Tustarī said, �God spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, and the exaltedness of the Lord God's speech made that mountain like carnelian. Moses' turned his gaze to himself: 'Who is like me? For the God of the world and the world's folk is talking to me without intermediary, and my standing place has turned into carnelian!'�God did not let that pass. He said, 'O Moses, look once right and left. What do you see?' �Moses looked around and saw a thousand mountains of carnelian like Mount Sinai, on eachmountain a man in the form of Moses, wearing a blanket like him, a hat on his head, a staff in hand, and talking to the Lord of the universe.� The tongue of Moses' state was saying,�I fancied that you were one body with me.How could I know that you're everyone's familiar?�A poor man was seen whispering secretly with God and saying, �O God, approve of me as your lover. If You do not approve of me as a lover, approve of me as Your servant. If You do not ap- prove of my as a servant, approve of me as Your dog.� He was saying, �O Lord, accept me for friendship. If I am not worthy of friendship, accept me for servanthood. If I am not worthy of servanthood, accept me for doghood, so that I may be the dog of Your threshold.�O Friend, if you do not give me the forefront of respect, at least keep me outside the door like the dogs.So kill your own souls! That is better for you with your Creator. By way of inwardness, this is ad- dressed to the chevaliers of the Tariqah: �Cut off the heads of your souls with the sword of struggle so that you may reach Me.
وَظَلَّلْنَا عَلَيْكُمُ الْغَمَامَ وَأَنْزَلْنَا عَلَيْكُمُ الْمَنَّ وَالسَّلْوَىٰ ۖ كُلُوا مِنْ طَيِّبَاتِ مَا رَزَقْنَاكُمْ ۖ وَمَا ظَلَمُونَا وَلَٰكِنْ كَانُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ يَظْلِمُونَ
📘 And We shaded you with clouds.This is an allusion to the Lord's gentleness and generosity. His loving kindness toward the ser- vants is such that the Lord of the Worlds says, �O hapless child of Adam! Why do you not love Me? For I am worthy of love. Why do you not trade with Me? For I am munificent and bounteous. Why do you not engage in transactions with Me? For I am a bestower who is ample in bestowal. My mercy is not tight, nor do I hold back blessings from anyone.�Look at what I did with the Children of Israel, how many blessings I poured down upon them, how much I caressed them in that empty desert! After they had turned away and disobeyed My command, I did not let them go to ruin. I commanded the mist to cast a shadow over them, I com- manded the wind to place roasted birds in their hands, I commanded the clouds to rain down manna and honey on them, I commanded the pillar of light to give them brightness on the nights when there was no moon. When a child came into existence from its mother in that empty desert, it came into existence with the set of clothes that it needed. Then, as the child grew up, those clothes never became too old for it, nor did they become dirty. In the state of that person's life, the clothes were his ornament, and in the state of his death, his shroud. What blessing was there that I did not pour down upon them? In what manner did I fail to caress them? Yet they did not know My measure, nor did they show gratitude for the blessings.�O hapless one! No one wants you the way I want you. When you come, no one will buy you the way I buy. When you sell yourself, others will buy only the faultless, but I buy the faulty. Others call out for the loyal, but I call out for the disloyal. If you come in old age, I will adorn the whole empire to honor you, and if you talk to Me in the fullness of youth, I will take you into My shelter tomorrow on the Day of Resurrection.�People disobey for a lifetime, then return in shame- We say to them, �Welcome, be at ease, greetings!�
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا سَوَاءٌ عَلَيْهِمْ أَأَنْذَرْتَهُمْ أَمْ لَمْ تُنْذِرْهُمْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ
📘 Surely it is the same for those who disbelieve whether thou warnest them or thou warnest them not; they will not have faith.From the beginning of the surah to this point is an allusion to the Lord's bounty and gentleness with familiars and friends. This verse alludes to His severity and justice toward the strangers and enemies.God has both bounty and justice. If He acts with justice, that is fitting, and if He is bounteous, that is suitable for Him. But not everything that is fitting in justice is suitable for bounty, whereas everything suitable for bounty is fitting for justice. He calls one to bounty, and the decree is His. He drives another to justice, and the will is His. What is good is that bounty rules over justice, and justice is caught in bounty's hand. Justice is silent before bounty, and the ring of union is in bounty's ear. Do you not see that justice travels along with Him, and happy is he whose refuge is bounty? The fruit of bounty is felicity and triumph, and the result of justice is wretchedness and estrangement. Both are deeds already done. �The Pen has dried on what will be until the Day of Resurrection.� It is a beginningless decree and a work discarded and finished. �When someone's lot has set him down, his eagerness will not stir him up.�The Pir of the Tariqah said, �O God, what will come of what You do not want? And when will he come whom you have not called? What does the unplanted get from water? What answer is given to the unworthy? What use to the bitter that sweet water is its neighbor? What gain to the thorn that the rose's fragrance is next to it? The apportioning has gone before, nothing to be added or taken away. What can be done? The Greatest Judge wants it this way. Satan lived in the highest horizon and performed thousands of acts of worship. What profit did it have, for he was not worthy. 'Since approval and wrath are beginningless attributes, there is no profit in shortened sleeves and determined steps.'�One day ʿUmar KhaṬṬāb came across Iblis. He seized him by the collar and said, �I have been seeking you for a long time.
وَإِذْ قَالَ مُوسَىٰ لِقَوْمِهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُكُمْ أَنْ تَذْبَحُوا بَقَرَةً ۖ قَالُوا أَتَتَّخِذُنَا هُزُوًا ۖ قَالَ أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ أَنْ أَكُونَ مِنَ الْجَاهِلِينَ
📘 And When Moses said to his people, �God commands you to sacrifice a cow.�This story of the cow of the Children of Israel in these verses and the mention of its attributes is one of the subtle points of wisdom and exalted pearls of the Qur'an. The Qur'an itself is the all-encom- passing ocean. Many are the kingly pearls and night-brightening gems found in the ocean's depths.You should read everything that the Exalted Lord said about the cow of the Children of Israel as an allusion to your own attributes. Then you will reach the station of worthiness to dive into this ocean and He will give you access to its deposited wonders and unseen pearls.Altogether the attributes that He clarified in these verses are three: first, neither old nor virgin [2:68]; second, golden, bright her color [2:69]; third, not abased to plow the earth [2:71].First, neither old nor virgin. He says it should not be broken down and old, nor newly born and immature. In other words, the feet of these chevaliers will go straight in the circle of the Tariqah when the intoxication and greediness of youth no longer veil them, and when the weakness of old age does not hinder them. Do you not see that revelation reached MuṣṬafā when he was nota newly born youngster, nor had his days reached the worst state of life [16:70]? If there had been a state more complete, revelation would have reached him at its time.Whenever desire for God pairs itself with the intoxication of youth, there is fear of the high- waymen. It is rare that a youngster in his new desire remains secure from the highwaymen. If it does happen in the empire, it seldom does. This is why MuṣṬafā said, �Your Lord marvels at a young man who has no youthful fervor.�The second attribute is golden, bright her color, gladdening the gazers. When the chevaliers step into the field of the Tariqah in the state of the perfection of mortal nature and stand straight in it, the Unity will bring them into the color of love, and the color of love is colorlessness. It will wash them of anything mixed with colors-We shall strip away all the rancor that is in their breasts [7:43].
خَتَمَ اللَّهُ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِمْ وَعَلَىٰ سَمْعِهِمْ ۖ وَعَلَىٰ أَبْصَارِهِمْ غِشَاوَةٌ ۖ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ
📘 God has sealed their hearts.The seal of estrangement was placed on someone's heart, and he remained in unbelief. The seal of perplexity was placed on another's heart, and he remained in lassitude. That one was a stranger, driven away, the road lost, and this one was helpless, stuck in the road, kept back from the Friend by other than the Friend.Any talk that keeps you back from the road-let it be unbelief or faith.Any picture that holds you back from the Friend-let it be ugly or beautiful. [DS 51]Not everyone who escapes from unbelief joins with the Real, unless he has escaped from himself. Someone who escapes from unbelief reaches familiarity, but someone who escapes from himself reaches friendship. A thousand way stations stand between familiarity and friendship, and a thou- sand valleys between love and the Friend.In love for You I have never arrived at a way stationin which the mind was not bewildered at the arrival.
ثُمَّ قَسَتْ قُلُوبُكُمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ ذَٰلِكَ فَهِيَ كَالْحِجَارَةِ أَوْ أَشَدُّ قَسْوَةً ۚ وَإِنَّ مِنَ الْحِجَارَةِ لَمَا يَتَفَجَّرُ مِنْهُ الْأَنْهَارُ ۚ وَإِنَّ مِنْهَا لَمَا يَشَّقَّقُ فَيَخْرُجُ مِنْهُ الْمَاءُ ۚ وَإِنَّ مِنْهَا لَمَا يَهْبِطُ مِنْ خَشْيَةِ اللَّهِ ۗ وَمَا اللَّهُ بِغَافِلٍ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ
📘 Then your hearts became hardened after that, so they were like stones or even harder. And there are stones from which rivers come gushing, and among them are those that split and water comes forth from them, and among them are those that fall down in fear of God.In the case of the ignorant, the hardening of the heart is unkindness, lack of mercy, and distance from the path of the Real. In the case of the recognizers, the purifiers, and the limpid, hardening is the strength of the heart, the state of stability, the perfection of knowledge, and the state of limpid- ness. Abū Bakr used to show it from himself. Whenever he saw that someone was weeping and twisting in himself because of listening to the Qur'an, he would say, �I was like that until the hearts became hardened.�This hardening is an allusion to the perfection of the state of the recognizers and the majesty of the level of the sincerely truthful. At the beginning of the work and the outset of desire the beginners shout, wail, cry, and weep, for passion has not yet fully established its rulership. Whenthe work reaches perfection, the limpidness of recognition becomes strong and the ruling power of passion fully establishes its rulership. Then that shouting and wailing are put aside, and joy and revelry arrive. With the tongue of their state they say,�At first when passion for that beauty was newmy neighbors did not sleep at night because of my weeping.Now I weep less because my passion has increased- When fire takes over, there's little smoke.�There are stones from which rivers come gushing, and among them are those that split and water comes forth from them, and among them are those that fall down in fear of God. He made hard stones more excellent than cruel hearts and superior to them. He is saying, �Water comes from stone, and it becomes soft, and in fear of God it falls into the desert. But a cruel heart in the makeup of an estranged man does not moan in fear of God or weep in remorse, nor do mercy and tenderness enter into it.�The stories say that one of God's prophets was passing through a desert and saw a small stone from which was flowing a great deal of water, much greater than the measure of the stone.
أَوَلَا يَعْلَمُونَ أَنَّ اللَّهَ يَعْلَمُ مَا يُسِرُّونَ وَمَا يُعْلِنُونَ
📘 Do they not know that God knows what they keep secret and what they announce?This is the speech of the Lord who is worshiped by the tawḤīd-voicers, responds to those who call, knows the state of the servants, is aware of the apparent and hidden, and calls back those who have turned away. One He calls with explicit expressions, presenting Himself as the Nurturer. He says, �Be penitent toward your Lord!� [39:54]. Another He calls with His exalted allusions and turns the face of his heart away from others to Himself. He presents His lordhood and kingship to him and says, �Do they not know that God knows what they keep secret and what they announce?� For the recognizers, this is sufficient allusion. When the Lord of the Worlds says that He knows the secret cores and is aware of the hidden things, they sweep the dust of the others from their secret cores and give scatteredness no way into their hearts. When He says that He knows the apparent, they bring truthfulness to bear in their outward interaction with God's creatures. This is why the folk of allusion have said that He knows what they keep secret is a command to watchfulness between servant and Lord, and what they announce is a command to truthfulness in interactions and settling accounts with the creatures.In one of God's books has come, �If you do not know that I see you, that is a defect in your faith. If you do know that I see you, why do you make Me the lowliest of gazers upon you?�Equivalent to this verse is what the Exalted Lord says: �He knows the treachery of the eyes and what the breasts conceal� [40:19]. There are diverse treacheries in the eyes of the lookers, because the travelers are diverse.The treachery of the eyes of the worshipers is that in the dark night, when it is time for whis- pering to God, they fall asleep and the intimacy of seclusion is lost to them. The prophet David received the revelation, �O David, he who claims to love Me is a liar if night comes, and he goes to sleep on Me. Does not every lover love to be secluded with his beloved?�God praised Abraham for this attribute when He said, �When night darkened over him� [6:76].
وَمِنْهُمْ أُمِّيُّونَ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ الْكِتَابَ إِلَّا أَمَانِيَّ وَإِنْ هُمْ إِلَّا يَظُنُّونَ
📘 And among them are the unlettered.In this verse the attribute of unletteredness is a censure of the estranged and a mark of their short- coming. In the verse where He says, �Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered prophet� [7:157], it is a praise of MuṣṬafā and a mark of his perfection. This alludes to the fact that having the same name does not mean being of the same kind. The congruence of names does not require the congruence of meanings. The position of the Folk of the Sunnah in affirming the attributes of the Real was established according to this rule: the agreement of one name with another does not bring about the agreement of meanings. God has attributes and descriptions fitting for Godhood, and creatures are far from that. Created things have created attributes, and God is pure of that. Do you not see that �exalted� is a name of God, and He called Joseph exalted [12:78]? God's exalted- ness is worthy of Him and the created thing's exaltedness is worthy of it.By the agreement of the Muslims and the attestation of most of the unbelievers, God is existent and the creatures are existent. But, the creatures exist by God's existence-giving, and God exists by His own abidance and His own being and subsistence. The Muslims agree that God is alive, and there are many living things among the created. The created thing is alive through breath and through appropriate and timely nourishment, but God is alive through His life and subsistence and through His firstness and lastness-without when, how many, or how. All the opponents of the Folk of the Sunnah say that God is maker and the created thing maker. But the created thing is maker through artifice, instrument, striving, and measure, and God is maker through power and wisdom-whatever He wants, as He wants, and whenever He wants.There are many similar things in the Qur'an. In short, God knows how He is, and He is just as He said He is, but the servant is incapable of knowing His howness. What God said about Himself should be accepted from the eyeteeth and assented to from the depth of the spirit. When someone fancies that having the same meaning is to be of the same kind, that is to go by the road of the road- less, and it is nothing but rebellion. Hoping to grasp God by imagination and seeking is absurd, and everything gained in this way will be faulty. Safety in the religion lies in accepting the mes- sage, approving of him who conveyed it, bowing the head, and putting aside seeking. Anyone who has this as his belief has gone on the right path, and his outcome will be as the Exalted Lord says:
وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَقُولُ آمَنَّا بِاللَّهِ وَبِالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَمَا هُمْ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ
📘 Among the people are those who say, �We have faith in God.�This is the story of the hypocrites. The secret of the hypocrites' hypocrisy goes back to the emi- nence of MuṣṬafā in two respects, one in respect of jealousy and the other in respect of mercy.MuṣṬafā was the Real's beloved. His beauty and perfection passed beyond the limits of un- derstanding and imagination, so by virtue of jealousy God kept him behind the curtain of His protection and made the hypocrites' hypocrisy the mask of his beauty. He was veiled from the world's folk so that no one recognized him in reality, and He did not show him to anyone as he was. Thou seest them looking at thee, but they do not see [7:198]. If the hypocrites' hypocrisy had not been the mask of that shining face, all the creatures would have thrown dust on the light of the Unseen. With such a sun, such a light, and such a brilliance, a hypocrisy was needed such as that of ʿAbdallāh Ubayy Salūl and his likes. Otherwise, the radiance of that beauty would have done more to the Adamites than the beauty of Jesus did to his people such that they said, �The Messiah is the son of God� [9:30].This can be said with a simile: The sun's disk, whose rays shine forth from the fourth heaven, has turned its face toward the fifth heaven. God created angels and entrusted that disk to them, and He created deserts full of snow in front of those angels. They lift mountain after mountain of snow from those deserts and dash them against the sun's disk so that its heat will be broken. Oth- erwise, the world would burn because of its shine and heat. In the same way, the hypocrisy of the hypocrites was thrown against the presence of that sun of good fortune. Otherwise, the creatures would all have bound the belt of associationism. But, that paragon of the world was all gentleness and mercy, as he said: �I am a guided mercy.� God says, �We sent thee only as a mercy to the worlds� [21:107].
وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ أُولَٰئِكَ أَصْحَابُ الْجَنَّةِ ۖ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ
📘 Those who have faith and do wholesome deeds-those are the companions of the Garden, and they shall be there forever.It has been said that those who have faith is an allusion to the tree of faith and its being planted in the heart of the faithful. Do wholesome deeds is an allusion to the branches of that tree and its nurturing and growing. Those are the companions of the Garden is an allusion to the produce of the tree and the ripening of its fruit. This is the tree about which the Lord of the Worlds speaks and reports in another place: �Its roots fixed, and its branches in heaven. It gives its fruit every season by the leave of its Lord� [14:24-25]. The fruit of this tree is not like the fruit of other trees, which bring forth fruit once year after year. Rather, this tree brings forth new fruit every hour, or rather every moment. Each has another color, another taste, and another fragrance. The sweetness of worshipers is a fruit of this tree, the feast of the desirers' heart is a fruit of this tree, the limpid- ness of the recognizers' present moment is a fruit of this tree. Today in the house of service on the carpet of obedience they have the paradise of recognition, neither turned aside from them nor veiled. Tomorrow in the house of union on the carpet of friendship they will have the paradise of approval, neither cut off nor withheld, and upraised carpets [56:33-34].
قُلْ مَنْ كَانَ عَدُوًّا لِجِبْرِيلَ فَإِنَّهُ نَزَّلَهُ عَلَىٰ قَلْبِكَ بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ مُصَدِّقًا لِمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ وَهُدًى وَبُشْرَىٰ لِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ
📘 Say: �Whoever is an enemy of Gabriel-he it is who sent it down upon thy heart.�Magnanimous and beautiful is the Qur'an that Gabriel brought down from the All-Merciful. It is the repose of the spirit of the friends, the healing of the hearts of the ill, a mercy to the faithful. This is why God says, �he it is who sent it down upon thy heart.� Elsewhere He says, �Brought down by the trustworthy spirit upon thy heart� [26:193-94]. When Gabriel conveyed the pure revelation, sometimes he came in the form of a mortal man, sometimes in the form of an angel. Whenever he brought verses about permitted and forbidden and the explication of the shariahs and rulings, he would be in human form, and there was no talk of the heart. Thus He says, �He it is who sent down upon thee the Book� [3:7]; �Does it not suffice them that We sent down upon thee the Book?� [29:51].Then again, whenever there was talk of love, the attributes of passion, and the intimations of friendship, he would come in the form of an angel, spiritual and subtle, and he would join with MuṣṬafā's heart. He would convey the revelation of the Qur'an secretly to his secret core, and no one else was aware of him. When he returned and left behind the realm of his heart, MuṣṬafā would say, �He broke away from me while I was aware of him.�It is said that when he was inundated by contemplation in this speech, the revelation would first descend to his heart, for He said to him, �who sent it down upon thy heart.� Then it would turn away from his heart to his understanding and his hearing. Then he would descend from the summitof companionship to the lowland of service for the sake of the people's shares. This is the level of the elect. It may also happen that revelation descends on the hearing of certain people first, then on their understanding, then on their hearts, advancing from the lowness of struggle to the highness of contemplation. This is the level of the wayfarers and desirers. How far apart they are!
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