🕋 تفسير سورة النساء
(An-Nisa) • المصدر: EN-AL-QUSHAIRI-TAFSIR
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اتَّقُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ مِنْ نَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا وَبَثَّ مِنْهُمَا رِجَالًا كَثِيرًا وَنِسَاءً ۚ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ الَّذِي تَسَاءَلُونَ بِهِ وَالْأَرْحَامَ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيبًا
📘 O people, be wary of your Lord, who created you from one soul, created from it its mate, and scattered forth from the two many men and women. And be wary of God, whom you ask against one another, and of the wombs. Surely God is watcher over you. “O center point of human nature, O attribute of mortal nature, make godwariness your shelter and cling to it, for the life of the servants is through it and the deliverance of the travelers in it.” Godwariness is for the servant to make the commands of the Shariah into his shield so that the arrows of prohibition may not reach him. It has three levels: First, he takes refuge in the sentence of tawḤīd and avoids every associationism. Second he takes refuge in obedience and steps away from the path of disobedience. Third he takes refuge in caution and flees from ambiguity. Anyone who climbs these way stations of godwariness with truthfulness will inescapably reach deliver- ance, for the Qur'an gives this report: “God will deliver those who were godwary in their place of security; ugliness will not touch them, neither shall they sorrow” [39:61]. In another place He says, “Whosoever is wary of God, He will appoint a way out for him and He will provide for him from whence he never reckoned [65:2-3]. Whenever someone takes hold of godwariness, We will ease for him the road of deliverance from every suffering and We will send him provision from whence he has no hope.” It has been said that the sister of Bishr Ḥāfī went to see AḤmad Ḥanbal. She said, “O Imam of the Muslims! I work a spindle on the roof of my house. When the torch of the Tahirids passes by, it may happen that I join threads with the rays of that torch. Is this permissible or not?” AḤmad said, “First tell me who you are. Are you in a walkway of being able to tolerate such godwariness?” She said, “I am the sister of Bishr Ḥāfī.” AḤmad wept and said, “Godwariness like this is permissible only in the household of Bishr Ḥāfī! It is not worthy of you, so be careful not to do it, and Bishr Ḥāfī will be happy with you. Emulate your brother so that perhaps you may be like him. Then, if you want to work your spindle in the glow of the Tahirids' torch, your hand will not obey, for your brother had a degree such that whenever he reached for food that was in any way suspicious, his hand would not obey him.” “When the servant desires to be negligent of Me, I come between him and his negligence of Me.” This is found in the report in which MuṣṬafā said, narrating from his Lord, “When I know that what dominates over My servant's heart is being occupied with Me, I put my servant's ap- petite into supplicating Me and conversing with Me. When My servant is like that, My servant has passion for Me, and I have passion for him. When My servant is like that and he desires to be negligent of Me, I come between him and his negligence of Me. Those are my friends in truth. Those are the champions. They are the ones for whose sake I remove from the earth those whom they desire to be punished.” He is saying: “When My servant wants only Me, knows only Me, and belongs only to Me, I also turn the face of My heart toward him. For him I shut the door of all desires, all appetites, and all wants and I remove all others from his heart. I give passion for speaking to Me and listening to Me dominance over his spirit and heart and I give him ease on the carpet of passion. I hold the sword of beginningless jealousy over his head so that, should he want to look at another, or crave for another, or do business with another, I do not allow it.” I will make night into day and day into night in your work. I will ruin your business with the world's creatures. “Yes, when I want him, I know how he must be plundered. Today I will entrust him to the police- man of godwariness so that I may keep him under the protection of My Shariah, and it will give his movements and stillnesses the condition of courtesy. Tomorrow I will settle him down in the seat of truthfulness [54:55] in the Presence of At-ness.” Have you not heard that tomorrow at the resurrection it will be said to godwariness, “Come, for today is the day of your bazaar! If anyone has a portion of you, settle him down in a domicile in the measure of his portion. Settle down those familiar with you in the Presence of At-ness, for in the beginningless We decreed, Surely the godwary will be in the midst of gardens and a river, in a seat of truthfulness, at an Omnipotent King [54:54-55].” Who created you from one soul, created from it its mate. The Lord who created everything that He created as a pair made a spouse appear for everyone. He joined each with a likeness and at- tached each to a similar, for unity and solitariness are an attribute specific to Him. It is His rightful due and worthy of Him. In has been narrated in one of the books, “I have given the things mates so that My unity will be inferred.” And scattered forth from the two many men and women. He showed the perfect power and majesty of His lordhood to the creatures: “From the offspring of one upright individual I brought forth many thousands of creatures with diverse natures and colors, with different forms and con- ducts. Each has another color, another nature, another character, another state, another aspiration. You will never see two people alike in nature and visage, or in form and manner. So glory be to Him whose predetermined things have no end and whose objects of knowledge have no limit!” Then, at the end of the verse, He says, “Surely God is watcher over you.” The watcher is He who gives ear to hearts without investigating, who is aware of deeds without asking, and who in striving has no need to rest. This is an admonishment of the servant and eloquent advice for the traveler. It means, “Since you know that I give ear to hearts and keep My eyes on deeds and words, put watchfulness to work and carry out My rightful due.” Watchfulness is that the servant constantly looks at the Real with the heart and keeps the gaze of the Real before his eyes. Since he knows that He is not heedless of him, He is always on guard. Hence MuṣṬafā said, “When you do not like people seeing something from you, do not do it while you are alone.” In this meaning they have sung, When you are alone with yourself one day, do not say, “I'm alone.” Say, “Over me is a Watcher.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَأْكُلُونَ أَمْوَالَ الْيَتَامَىٰ ظُلْمًا إِنَّمَا يَأْكُلُونَ فِي بُطُونِهِمْ نَارًا ۖ وَسَيَصْلَوْنَ سَعِيرًا
📘 Surely those who eat the property of orphans wrongly will be eating only fire in their bellies and will roast in a blaze. The majestic compeller, the great Lord, the renowned keeper of servants, the clement, the gener- ous, the loyal, the tremendous, the lord of everyone, the carrier of everything, who takes the hand of the weak and joins with them in love, in this verse caresses the weak and shows love to the orphans. As for those wrongdoers who skewer the livers of orphans and drink the blood of the indigent, He threatens them and warns them of a fearful punishment. He acts as the deputy of the helpless and disputes with the wrongdoers for their sake. For He is the companion of the weak, the helper of the despairing, the responder to the call of the distressed, and the listener to the voice of the grieved. He loves the servant who, when battered, incapable, and destitute, lets out a cold sigh, sheds warm tears, and lifts two empty hands toward Him, asking again to be excused. It has come in the traditions that a man was saying, “O Lord, O Lord! You have written, You have measured out, and You have decreed!” O God, all that was, is, and shall be is what You want, what You bring about, and what You write for the creatures. O God, none of this is outside Your predestination, nor does it happen without Your decree. A call came in his secret core, “That is tawḤīd. Where is servanthood?” What you have said is nothing but tawḤīd and is fit for My Godhood. What then is the mark of your servanthood? The man said, “O Lord, O Lord! Surely I have disobeyed, I have sinned, and I ask.” O God, what comes from me is fitting for me. O God, I have broken the covenant, I have no loyalty, I am disloyal and everything worse. What can I do about this story-I'm all artifice and color. I'm altogether too lame to walk on the straight road. Greed has made me all grasping claws, I'm all war with the Apportioner's apportioning. Surely those who eat the property of orphans wrongly. It is harsh to eat the wealth of orphans and foolishly crave their possessions. They say that once the marvel of the empire, the pure Jesus, was passing by a graveyard.
۞ وَمَنْ يُهَاجِرْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ يَجِدْ فِي الْأَرْضِ مُرَاغَمًا كَثِيرًا وَسَعَةً ۚ وَمَنْ يَخْرُجْ مِنْ بَيْتِهِ مُهَاجِرًا إِلَى اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ ثُمَّ يُدْرِكْهُ الْمَوْتُ فَقَدْ وَقَعَ أَجْرُهُ عَلَى اللَّهِ ۗ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ غَفُورًا رَحِيمًا
📘 Whosoever emigrates in the path of God will find in the earth many a road and expanse. In this verse the Lord of the Worlds, the God of the world's folk, the keeper of all, the knowing and lovingly kind, gives a mark of His mercy and shows His gentleness to the servants. He invites the faithful to emigrate and praises those who do. The emigrants are of three sorts: One sort emigrates for the sake of this world. They under- take trade or the search for livelihood. Even though this is allowed in the Shariah, it is not clear where it will lay down its head at the end and what its outcome will be. MuṣṬafā said, “Love for this world is the beginning of every offense.” He also said, “Do not take a landed estate, lest you become eager for this world.” This sort of emigrant is always in suffering and hardship, caught in the hands of thieves and on the verge of destruction. Hoping to gain something that is allowed, he leaves aside something obligatory. Then he burns, and he loses the basis for both. God says, “You desire the chance goods of this life, and God desires the afterworld” [8:67]. The second sort are the renunciants. Their emigration is for the sake of the afterworld and their traveling goes by way of meanings. They pass over the way stations of obedient acts and tra- verse the stages of worship on the feet of aspiration. Sometimes they make the hajj, go off to battle, struggle, make pilgrimages, perform the prayers, remember God's name, and meditate on God's blessings. Concerning them God's Messenger said, “Travel! The solitary will be the preceders.” They said, “O Messenger of God! Who are the solitary?” He said, “The engrossed-those who are engrossed by the remembrance of God. Remem- brance has lifted away their loads, and they come forth unburdened on the Day of Resurrection.” The Exalted Lord says about them, “Whosoever desires the afterworld and strives after it with proper striving while having faith-those, their striving shall be thanked” [17:19]. The third sort are the recognizers, whose emigration is for the sake of the Patron. They emi- grate within their own makeup. They emigrate inside the curtains of the soul until they reach the heart, they emigrate inside the curtains of the heart until they reach the spirit, and they emigrate inside the curtains of the spirit until they reach union with the Beloved.
وَإِذَا ضَرَبْتُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ فَلَيْسَ عَلَيْكُمْ جُنَاحٌ أَنْ تَقْصُرُوا مِنَ الصَّلَاةِ إِنْ خِفْتُمْ أَنْ يَفْتِنَكُمُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا ۚ إِنَّ الْكَافِرِينَ كَانُوا لَكُمْ عَدُوًّا مُبِينًا
📘 And when you are going forth in the land you would not be at fault if you shorten the prayer if you fear that you may be afflicted by those who do not believe; the disbelievers are a manifest foe to you. The shortening of prayers is the recommended practice sunna in travel. Although first legislated in a time of fear it remained even without the fear [as] a kindness to [God's] servants. When the obligatory prayers were permitted to be shortened because of travel they were given leave to sub- stitute supererogatory devotion on their camel mounts. [This could be done] without seeking the qibla in whichever way [the mount] turned and likewise with a person on foot. This was so that it would be known that permission to engage in talk with God is ongoing at any time. If you wish to take part in it you may do so whenever you wish. If you wish the allowance to refrain you may do as you wish. This is the most extraordi- nary kindness. It is a protection of the practice sunna of the fulfillment [of God's commands] wafāÌ and the consummation of the true meaning of friendship walāÌ.
وَإِذَا كُنْتَ فِيهِمْ فَأَقَمْتَ لَهُمُ الصَّلَاةَ فَلْتَقُمْ طَائِفَةٌ مِنْهُمْ مَعَكَ وَلْيَأْخُذُوا أَسْلِحَتَهُمْ فَإِذَا سَجَدُوا فَلْيَكُونُوا مِنْ وَرَائِكُمْ وَلْتَأْتِ طَائِفَةٌ أُخْرَىٰ لَمْ يُصَلُّوا فَلْيُصَلُّوا مَعَكَ وَلْيَأْخُذُوا حِذْرَهُمْ وَأَسْلِحَتَهُمْ ۗ وَدَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَوْ تَغْفُلُونَ عَنْ أَسْلِحَتِكُمْ وَأَمْتِعَتِكُمْ فَيَمِيلُونَ عَلَيْكُمْ مَيْلَةً وَاحِدَةً ۚ وَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْكُمْ إِنْ كَانَ بِكُمْ أَذًى مِنْ مَطَرٍ أَوْ كُنْتُمْ مَرْضَىٰ أَنْ تَضَعُوا أَسْلِحَتَكُمْ ۖ وَخُذُوا حِذْرَكُمْ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ أَعَدَّ لِلْكَافِرِينَ عَذَابًا مُهِينًا
📘 When you are among them and you stand to lead them in prayer let a party of them stand with you and let them take their weapons. Then when they have performed their prostrations let them be behind you and let another party who have not prayed come and pray with you taking their precautions and their weapons. The disbelievers wish that you should be heedless of your weapons and your baggage that they may descend upon you all at once. You are not at fault if rain bothers you or if you are sick to lay aside your weapons. But take your precautions; God has prepared for the disbelievers a humiliating chastisement. This verse indicates that [the obligation of] prayer is not lifted from the servant so long as there is a breath remaining in him to choose. Not in fear or in security not when you are in a state of separation where the precepts of the law predominate or when overwhelmed by the authority of reality sulṬān al-ḥaqīqa when you are at the source of gathering together ʿayn al-jamʿ.
فَإِذَا قَضَيْتُمُ الصَّلَاةَ فَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ قِيَامًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىٰ جُنُوبِكُمْ ۚ فَإِذَا اطْمَأْنَنْتُمْ فَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ ۚ إِنَّ الصَّلَاةَ كَانَتْ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ كِتَابًا مَوْقُوتًا
📘 When you have completed the prayer, remember God, standing and sitting and on your sides. Know that the prayer is secret whispering between God and the servant. In this secret whisper- ing, there is both need and joy. Today there is need, tomorrow joy; today suffering, tomorrow the treasure; today a heavy burden, tomorrow repose and ease [56:89]; today toil and work, tomorrow pleasure and the bazaar; today bowing and prostrating, tomorrow finding and witnessing. Part of the eminence of the prayer is that the Exalted Lord has mentioned it 102 times in the Qur'an and given it thirteen names: prayer, devotion, Qur'an, glorification, book, remembrance, bowing, prostration, praise, asking forgiveness, declaring greatness, beautiful deeds, and subsistent things. MuṣṬafā said, “The prayer is the miʿrāj of the person of faith.” He said, “The prayer is God's banquet in the earth.” The ulama of the past have said, “The prayer is the throne of the desirers, the pleasure of the recognizers, the means of approach of the sinners, and the scented garden of the renunciants.” They have also said, “The person performing the prayer has received seven generous bestow- als: guidance, sufficiency, expiation, mercy, proximity, degree, and forgiveness.” The first step in associationism is not to say the prayers, for the Exalted Lord will say, “'What brought you into Saqar?' They will say, 'We were not of those who said the prayers'” [74:42-43]. And He placed the name faith in the prayer, where He says, “But God would never leave your faith,” that is, your prayer, “to waste” [2:143]. He promises daily provision with prayer, where He says, “And command thy folk to the prayer, and be thou patient therein. We ask thee for no provi- sion. We shall provide for thee” [20:132]. The number of obligatory prayers came as five in conformity with the roots of the Shari'ite rules. Concerning the roots of the Shari'ite rules MuṣṬafā said, “The submission is built on five.” The roots of the obligatory prayers are five prayers in one day and night. In other words, when the servant performs these five prayers with their stipulations and at their times, the Exalted Lord will give him the reward of all the roots of the Shari'ite rules. The guises of the prayer are four: standing, bowing, prostrating, and sitting.
وَلَا تَهِنُوا فِي ابْتِغَاءِ الْقَوْمِ ۖ إِنْ تَكُونُوا تَأْلَمُونَ فَإِنَّهُمْ يَأْلَمُونَ كَمَا تَأْلَمُونَ ۖ وَتَرْجُونَ مِنَ اللَّهِ مَا لَا يَرْجُونَ ۗ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ عَلِيمًا حَكِيمًا
📘 Be not faint in seeking the enemy; if you are suffering they are also suffering as you are suffering; and you hope from God that for which they cannot hope. God is ever Knower Wise. Stand up for God and let your trust be in God in your struggle jihād. If you are suffering they are also suffering: The enemy shares with you the experience of suffering but they are different from you in the witness- ing of the heart for you witness what they do not witness and you find in your hearts what they do not find. So it is unseemly for you to lag behind them in effort and struggle.
إِنَّا أَنْزَلْنَا إِلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ بِالْحَقِّ لِتَحْكُمَ بَيْنَ النَّاسِ بِمَا أَرَاكَ اللَّهُ ۚ وَلَا تَكُنْ لِلْخَائِنِينَ خَصِيمًا
📘 Surely We have revealed to you the Book with the truth so that you may judge between people by that which God has shown you. And do not be a disputant for traitors. And pray for forgiveness from God; surely God is ever Forgiving Merciful. �We did not command you to judge between them blindly but rather by that which God has shown you that is by that which He unveiled to you from the lights of insight until you understood it by Our teaching you and Our directing you. This is also the case with those from your community who judge with the truth.� And do not be a disputant for traitors: that is do not defend the masters of worldly concerns arbāb al-ḥuẓūẓ but rather be with the children of [God's] rights abnāÌ al-ḥuqūq. Whoever turns to their whim is a trai- tor to the fear of God taqwā entrusted to his soul. Whoever trusts the inclinations of lower desires is a traitor to the shame ḥayāÌ100 required of him before the eyes of the Protector. �And pray for forgiveness from God for your community for surely We suffice for you in Our saying 'that God may forgive you what is past of your sin'� [48:2].
وَاسْتَغْفِرِ اللَّهَ ۖ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ غَفُورًا رَحِيمًا
📘 Surely We have revealed to you the Book with the truth so that you may judge between people by that which God has shown you. And do not be a disputant for traitors. And pray for forgiveness from God; surely God is ever Forgiving Merciful. �We did not command you to judge between them blindly but rather by that which God has shown you that is by that which He unveiled to you from the lights of insight until you understood it by Our teaching you and Our directing you. This is also the case with those from your community who judge with the truth.� And do not be a disputant for traitors: that is do not defend the masters of worldly concerns arbāb al-ḥuẓūẓ but rather be with the children of [God's] rights abnāÌ al-ḥuqūq. Whoever turns to their whim is a trai- tor to the fear of God taqwā entrusted to his soul. Whoever trusts the inclinations of lower desires is a traitor to the shame ḥayāÌ100 required of him before the eyes of the Protector. �And pray for forgiveness from God for your community for surely We suffice for you in Our saying 'that God may forgive you what is past of your sin'� [48:2].
وَلَا تُجَادِلْ عَنِ الَّذِينَ يَخْتَانُونَ أَنْفُسَهُمْ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ مَنْ كَانَ خَوَّانًا أَثِيمًا
📘 And do not dispute on behalf of those who betray themselves; surely God loves not one who is treacherous and sinful. They hide themselves from people but they do not hide themselves from God; for He is with them while they plot at night with discourse displeas- ing to Him. God is ever Encompassing of what they do. Those who prefer their worldly concerns ḥuẓūẓ over His rights ḥuqūq and are content to remain in the familiar territories of their whim without moving to the waystations of the [ultimate] contentment riḌāÌ -God does not love those who are treacherous. He will humble them and most assuredly will not honor them. They hide themselves from people: Their hearts are dominated by what created beings can see [or not see]. Those who have been branded with the mark of separation have no awareness that the Real views their hearts from on high.
يَسْتَخْفُونَ مِنَ النَّاسِ وَلَا يَسْتَخْفُونَ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَهُوَ مَعَهُمْ إِذْ يُبَيِّتُونَ مَا لَا يَرْضَىٰ مِنَ الْقَوْلِ ۚ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ بِمَا يَعْمَلُونَ مُحِيطًا
📘 And do not dispute on behalf of those who betray themselves; surely God loves not one who is treacherous and sinful. They hide themselves from people but they do not hide themselves from God; for He is with them while they plot at night with discourse displeas- ing to Him. God is ever Encompassing of what they do. Those who prefer their worldly concerns ḥuẓūẓ over His rights ḥuqūq and are content to remain in the familiar territories of their whim without moving to the waystations of the [ultimate] contentment riḌāÌ -God does not love those who are treacherous. He will humble them and most assuredly will not honor them. They hide themselves from people: Their hearts are dominated by what created beings can see [or not see]. Those who have been branded with the mark of separation have no awareness that the Real views their hearts from on high.
هَا أَنْتُمْ هَٰؤُلَاءِ جَادَلْتُمْ عَنْهُمْ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا فَمَنْ يُجَادِلُ اللَّهَ عَنْهُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ أَمْ مَنْ يَكُونُ عَلَيْهِمْ وَكِيلًا
📘 Ah! There you are-you have contested on their behalf in the life of this world; but who will contest against God on their behalf on the Day of Resurrection or who will be a guardian for them. That is �We defend them out of respect for you Muḥammad because you are among them but what will their state be on the Day of Resurrection when your blessing O believers will be withdrawn from themḍ�
يُوصِيكُمُ اللَّهُ فِي أَوْلَادِكُمْ ۖ لِلذَّكَرِ مِثْلُ حَظِّ الْأُنْثَيَيْنِ ۚ فَإِنْ كُنَّ نِسَاءً فَوْقَ اثْنَتَيْنِ فَلَهُنَّ ثُلُثَا مَا تَرَكَ ۖ وَإِنْ كَانَتْ وَاحِدَةً فَلَهَا النِّصْفُ ۚ وَلِأَبَوَيْهِ لِكُلِّ وَاحِدٍ مِنْهُمَا السُّدُسُ مِمَّا تَرَكَ إِنْ كَانَ لَهُ وَلَدٌ ۚ فَإِنْ لَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ وَلَدٌ وَوَرِثَهُ أَبَوَاهُ فَلِأُمِّهِ الثُّلُثُ ۚ فَإِنْ كَانَ لَهُ إِخْوَةٌ فَلِأُمِّهِ السُّدُسُ ۚ مِنْ بَعْدِ وَصِيَّةٍ يُوصِي بِهَا أَوْ دَيْنٍ ۗ آبَاؤُكُمْ وَأَبْنَاؤُكُمْ لَا تَدْرُونَ أَيُّهُمْ أَقْرَبُ لَكُمْ نَفْعًا ۚ فَرِيضَةً مِنَ اللَّهِ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلِيمًا حَكِيمًا
📘 God charges you concerning your children to the male the equivalent of the portion of two females; and if they be women more than two then for them two-thirds of what he leaves; but if she be one then to her a half; and to his parents to each one of the two the sixth of what he leaves if he has a child; but if he has no child and his heirs are his parents then to his mother a third; or if he has siblings to his mother a sixth after any bequest that he may bequeath or any debt. The word �charge� waṣiyya here means �command� amr. He ������ established two principles for what is owed to inheritors from the inheri- tance-the obligatory portions farḌ and the inheritance by the group of relatives taʿṣīb. The inheritance by the group of relatives is stronger than the apportionment because it might include all of the wealth [of the estate] whereas the greater part of the portions cannot exceed two-thirds [of it]. The division [of the estate] begins with those who have claim to the ordained portions-those who have the weaker entitlement. Then [the division proceeds to] the group of relatives ʿaṣaba who have the stronger right. [The Prophet] ﷺ said �Whatever remains of the portions goes to the nearest male relative.� Thus is His way sunna forever. Likewise in the words of [God] most high �Then We bequeathed the Book to those of Our servants whom We chose� [35:32] He gave them the Book as the inheritance. Then He showed preference for the wrongdoer over those who take the lead [by beginning with them]. [The wrongdoer] has a weaker claim to put forth for generosity because he is broken-hearted and unable to withstand the prolonged deferral. To the male the equivalent of the portion of two females: If the matter were to be [determined] by analogy qiyās [with the previous examples where the weak are given preference] it would be more appropriate to favor the female because of her weakness and her inability to move about freely. But His determination ������ does not require justification ghayr al-muʿallal. Your parents and children-you know not which of them is nearer in benefit to you a prescription from God; surely God is ever Knowing Wise. Children benefit you with their service khidma and parents with their compassion raḥma-parents in the state of your weakness at the begin- ning of your life and children in your weakness at the end of your life.
وَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ سُوءًا أَوْ يَظْلِمْ نَفْسَهُ ثُمَّ يَسْتَغْفِرِ اللَّهَ يَجِدِ اللَّهَ غَفُورًا رَحِيمًا
📘 Whoever does evil or wrongs himself and then prays for God's forgive- ness he shall find God Forgiving Merciful. �Then� is a particle indicating extended time. That is to say they pass their lives engaged in useless activities and oppositional behaviors and then at the end of their lives pray for God's forgiveness. He shall find God: Finding wujūd is the ultimate event. The disobedient seek only forgiveness but God ������ brings one to the utmost by His grace if He wills. His way sunna is to bring about more than what one hopes for.
وَمَنْ يَكْسِبْ إِثْمًا فَإِنَّمَا يَكْسِبُهُ عَلَىٰ نَفْسِهِ ۚ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ عَلِيمًا حَكِيمًا
📘 And whoever commits a sin commits it against himself only; and God is ever Knower Wise. The Real has no need for the obedience of those who are obedient or the error of the disobedient. So the one who obeys acquires his good for- tune fa-ḥaẓẓuhu ḥaṣṣala and the one who disobeys has abandoned it fa-ḥaẓẓuhu akhalla.
وَمَنْ يَكْسِبْ خَطِيئَةً أَوْ إِثْمًا ثُمَّ يَرْمِ بِهِ بَرِيئًا فَقَدِ احْتَمَلَ بُهْتَانًا وَإِثْمًا مُبِينًا
📘 And whoever commits a mistake or a sin and then casts it upon the innocent he has thereby burdened himself with calumny and a manifest sin. Whoever attributes his own disgraceful acts to an innocent person-God turns the tables on him by clothing the innocent one with the robe of the good deeds of his accuser and by pulling the garment of pardon over his bad deeds. And He reverses the situation for the aggressor by exposing his behaviors to his peers.
وَلَوْلَا فَضْلُ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكَ وَرَحْمَتُهُ لَهَمَّتْ طَائِفَةٌ مِنْهُمْ أَنْ يُضِلُّوكَ وَمَا يُضِلُّونَ إِلَّا أَنْفُسَهُمْ ۖ وَمَا يَضُرُّونَكَ مِنْ شَيْءٍ ۚ وَأَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَعَلَّمَكَ مَا لَمْ تَكُنْ تَعْلَمُ ۚ وَكَانَ فَضْلُ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكَ عَظِيمًا
📘 Were it not for God's bounty to you and His mercy a party of them would have intended to lead you astray; but they lead only themselves astray; they will not hurt you at all. God has revealed to you the Book and wisdom and He has taught you what you did not know; and God's bounty to you is ever great. Bounty faḌl is beneficence iḥsān beyond what is due. �Bounty� alludes to [God's] protection ʿiṣma of [Muḥammad] for the Real ������ protected him with a distinctive protection singled out for him. Just as [God] pro- tected [Muḥammad] from abandoning His right ḥaqq He protected him in averting the deception of His creatures khalq from him saying �Were it not for God's bounty to you and His mercy a party of them would have intended to lead you astray. There is no way that anyone can lead you astray for you are in the grip of the divine power and they lead only themselves astray and they will not hurt you at all for what is guarded maḥfūẓ by Us is secure maḥrūs from everything else. Verily God ������ conferred distinction upon you with the revelation of the Book and made you a special intimate in the ways He preferred and approved of you.� And He has taught you what you did not know. There is nothing like the knowledge He granted to [Muḥammad] alone. It is possible that what He means by this is [Muḥammad's] ﷺ knowledge of God and His majesty and his knowledge of his own servanthood and the worth of his state in strength and beauty. It is said that �He has taught you what you did not know of the propri- eties of service ādāb al-khidma even as a deep knowledge of reality was unambiguous to you.� It is said that �He made you free of the instruction of any others so that none would have a light except what is borrowed from your light. Those who do not walk under your banner will not reach the entirety of Our beneficence nor will they receive the good fortune of nearness and communion with Us.� �And God's bounty to you is ever great in all eternity without end ābād.� You were recognized by Us in the most exalted degree and honorable rank in all eternity without beginning āzāl. It is said that �He has taught you what you did not know concerning the sublimity of your rank over all others.� It is said that �He taught you what you did not know: that one can only value Our measure to the degree108 that one conforms to Our command.�
۞ لَا خَيْرَ فِي كَثِيرٍ مِنْ نَجْوَاهُمْ إِلَّا مَنْ أَمَرَ بِصَدَقَةٍ أَوْ مَعْرُوفٍ أَوْ إِصْلَاحٍ بَيْنَ النَّاسِ ۚ وَمَنْ يَفْعَلْ ذَٰلِكَ ابْتِغَاءَ مَرْضَاتِ اللَّهِ فَسَوْفَ نُؤْتِيهِ أَجْرًا عَظِيمًا
📘 No good is there in much of their whispering, except for him who bids to charity, or the honorable, or making things wholesome among the people. Whosoever does this, seeking God's approval, We shall give him a tremendous wage. The best deeds of the servants are the three things in this verse: charity, the honorable, and making things wholesome among the people. The good in this verse is not specified for one individual, but rather its profit reaches others. The wonder is not that you should open a door for yourself, the wonder and chivalry are that you should open a door to yourself for another. Pir Bū ʿAlī Siyāh said, “So what if you make yourself happy? The work is done by making someone else happy.” MuṣṬafā alluded to this: “The worst of men is he who eats alone.” As for charity, it is of three sorts: with possessions, with the body, and with the heart. Char- ity with possessions is giving comfort to the poor by expending blessings. Charity with the body is undertaking for them the duty of service. Charity with the heart is being loyal to the beauty of intention and the consolidation of aspiration. This is charity toward the poor. There is also charity toward the rich. It is that you act with munificence toward them and do not expose your need to them; you take back your hope from their charitable gifts and do not covet anything from them. When charity, the honorable, and making things wholesome come together in someone, from head to foot he becomes veneration itself, the oyster shell for the mysteries of lordhood, and he is accepted by those who bear witness to the divinity. His name is given out as “sincerely truthful,” and tomorrow he will be gathered up along with the sincerely truthful. This is the great wage that the Exalted Lord has promised: “We shall give him a tremendous wage.”
وَمَنْ يُشَاقِقِ الرَّسُولَ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُ الْهُدَىٰ وَيَتَّبِعْ غَيْرَ سَبِيلِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ نُوَلِّهِ مَا تَوَلَّىٰ وَنُصْلِهِ جَهَنَّمَ ۖ وَسَاءَتْ مَصِيرًا
📘 But whoever makes a breach with the Messenger after guidance has become clear to him and follows other than the way of the believers We shall turn him over to what he has turned to and We shall expose him in hell-an evil journey's end. Thoughts khawāṬir that come from the Real are His emissaries to the servant. Whoever opposes the subtle directives ishārāt that are demanded by the inner path brings upon himself the punishments of hearts. Included among these is the blinding of his eyes to the perception of what is right rushd. Just as someone who resists consensus ijmāʿ in the [outer] religion leaves the fold so someone who resists what he recognizes as the truth after the path has become clear to him falls away.
إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَغْفِرُ أَنْ يُشْرَكَ بِهِ وَيَغْفِرُ مَا دُونَ ذَٰلِكَ لِمَنْ يَشَاءُ ۚ وَمَنْ يُشْرِكْ بِاللَّهِ فَقَدْ ضَلَّ ضَلَالًا بَعِيدًا
📘 God does not forgive that anything should be associated with Him; He forgives all except that to whomever He will. Whoever associates anything with God verily he has strayed far away. What they pray to instead of Him are but females and they only pray to a rebellious satan. God has cursed him. And he said �Assuredly I will take to myself an appointed portion of Your servants. And I will surely lead them astray and surely I will fill them with desires; and surely I will command them and they will cut up the cattle's ears. And surely I will command them and they will change God's creation.� And whoever takes Satan for a patron instead of God has surely suffered a manifest loss. God does not forgive that anything should be associated with Him: The acknowledgment of anything other than Him imagining even an atom to be a cause of origination is the very essence of associating others with God shirk. There is no possibility of pardon for it while there is a pos- sibility for pardon for other things. Those who seek access to [God] ������ by means of what they imagine are associating others with Him without realizing it. No He is God the One. What they pray to instead of Him are but females: They set up inanimate things with names and plunged forward in their delusion. They relied on the errors of conjecture and therefore strayed far from the truth. And they only pray to a rebellious satan. God has cursed him: that is what they pray to is none other than Iblīs whom the Real has distanced from His mercy and sent away by His distancing. But Iblīs himself is one who is turned about in the grip [of God] according to what the Creator desires. If there was even an atom of [self-sufficiency] that one could affirm in him [that would mean that] there is an associate to divinity in him. Instead it is only the Real ������ who brings about in created beings their states and circumstances aḥwālan and who creates that which follows [satanic] whisperings in being led astray Ḍalālan. For He ������ is the Guide and the One who leads astray and the One who has free disposal over all. [God] most high creates the power of expectations āmālan in [human] hearts after [satanic] whisperings and He makes their ugly actions aʿmālan seem beautiful in their eyes.
إِنْ يَدْعُونَ مِنْ دُونِهِ إِلَّا إِنَاثًا وَإِنْ يَدْعُونَ إِلَّا شَيْطَانًا مَرِيدًا
📘 God does not forgive that anything should be associated with Him; He forgives all except that to whomever He will. Whoever associates anything with God verily he has strayed far away. What they pray to instead of Him are but females and they only pray to a rebellious satan. God has cursed him. And he said �Assuredly I will take to myself an appointed portion of Your servants. And I will surely lead them astray and surely I will fill them with desires; and surely I will command them and they will cut up the cattle's ears. And surely I will command them and they will change God's creation.� And whoever takes Satan for a patron instead of God has surely suffered a manifest loss. God does not forgive that anything should be associated with Him: The acknowledgment of anything other than Him imagining even an atom to be a cause of origination is the very essence of associating others with God shirk. There is no possibility of pardon for it while there is a pos- sibility for pardon for other things. Those who seek access to [God] ������ by means of what they imagine are associating others with Him without realizing it. No He is God the One. What they pray to instead of Him are but females: They set up inanimate things with names and plunged forward in their delusion. They relied on the errors of conjecture and therefore strayed far from the truth. And they only pray to a rebellious satan. God has cursed him: that is what they pray to is none other than Iblīs whom the Real has distanced from His mercy and sent away by His distancing. But Iblīs himself is one who is turned about in the grip [of God] according to what the Creator desires. If there was even an atom of [self-sufficiency] that one could affirm in him [that would mean that] there is an associate to divinity in him. Instead it is only the Real ������ who brings about in created beings their states and circumstances aḥwālan and who creates that which follows [satanic] whisperings in being led astray Ḍalālan. For He ������ is the Guide and the One who leads astray and the One who has free disposal over all. [God] most high creates the power of expectations āmālan in [human] hearts after [satanic] whisperings and He makes their ugly actions aʿmālan seem beautiful in their eyes.
لَعَنَهُ اللَّهُ ۘ وَقَالَ لَأَتَّخِذَنَّ مِنْ عِبَادِكَ نَصِيبًا مَفْرُوضًا
📘 God does not forgive that anything should be associated with Him; He forgives all except that to whomever He will. Whoever associates anything with God verily he has strayed far away. What they pray to instead of Him are but females and they only pray to a rebellious satan. God has cursed him. And he said �Assuredly I will take to myself an appointed portion of Your servants. And I will surely lead them astray and surely I will fill them with desires; and surely I will command them and they will cut up the cattle's ears. And surely I will command them and they will change God's creation.� And whoever takes Satan for a patron instead of God has surely suffered a manifest loss. God does not forgive that anything should be associated with Him: The acknowledgment of anything other than Him imagining even an atom to be a cause of origination is the very essence of associating others with God shirk. There is no possibility of pardon for it while there is a pos- sibility for pardon for other things. Those who seek access to [God] ������ by means of what they imagine are associating others with Him without realizing it. No He is God the One. What they pray to instead of Him are but females: They set up inanimate things with names and plunged forward in their delusion. They relied on the errors of conjecture and therefore strayed far from the truth. And they only pray to a rebellious satan. God has cursed him: that is what they pray to is none other than Iblīs whom the Real has distanced from His mercy and sent away by His distancing. But Iblīs himself is one who is turned about in the grip [of God] according to what the Creator desires. If there was even an atom of [self-sufficiency] that one could affirm in him [that would mean that] there is an associate to divinity in him. Instead it is only the Real ������ who brings about in created beings their states and circumstances aḥwālan and who creates that which follows [satanic] whisperings in being led astray Ḍalālan. For He ������ is the Guide and the One who leads astray and the One who has free disposal over all. [God] most high creates the power of expectations āmālan in [human] hearts after [satanic] whisperings and He makes their ugly actions aʿmālan seem beautiful in their eyes.
وَلَأُضِلَّنَّهُمْ وَلَأُمَنِّيَنَّهُمْ وَلَآمُرَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُبَتِّكُنَّ آذَانَ الْأَنْعَامِ وَلَآمُرَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُغَيِّرُنَّ خَلْقَ اللَّهِ ۚ وَمَنْ يَتَّخِذِ الشَّيْطَانَ وَلِيًّا مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ فَقَدْ خَسِرَ خُسْرَانًا مُبِينًا
📘 Surely I will misguide them and fill them with wishes. When misguidance is consigned to Iblis, this is because of the secondary cause. Otherwise who is Iblis? Yes, he instills disquiet, for that is his job, and then, in the tracks of this disquieting, the Exalted Lord creates misguidance, for guidance and misguidance, felicity and wretchedness, come from God: Whomsoever God guides, he is guided, and whomsoever He misguides, you will not find for him a guiding friend [18:17]. Then He mentions the outcome, the end, the final issue, and the returning place of the two groups: About the misguided sort He says, “Their refuge is Ge- henna” [4:121], and about the guided sort He says, “We shall enter them into gardens underneath which rivers flow, therein dwelling forever and ever” [4:122].
۞ وَلَكُمْ نِصْفُ مَا تَرَكَ أَزْوَاجُكُمْ إِنْ لَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُنَّ وَلَدٌ ۚ فَإِنْ كَانَ لَهُنَّ وَلَدٌ فَلَكُمُ الرُّبُعُ مِمَّا تَرَكْنَ ۚ مِنْ بَعْدِ وَصِيَّةٍ يُوصِينَ بِهَا أَوْ دَيْنٍ ۚ وَلَهُنَّ الرُّبُعُ مِمَّا تَرَكْتُمْ إِنْ لَمْ يَكُنْ لَكُمْ وَلَدٌ ۚ فَإِنْ كَانَ لَكُمْ وَلَدٌ فَلَهُنَّ الثُّمُنُ مِمَّا تَرَكْتُمْ ۚ مِنْ بَعْدِ وَصِيَّةٍ تُوصُونَ بِهَا أَوْ دَيْنٍ ۗ وَإِنْ كَانَ رَجُلٌ يُورَثُ كَلَالَةً أَوِ امْرَأَةٌ وَلَهُ أَخٌ أَوْ أُخْتٌ فَلِكُلِّ وَاحِدٍ مِنْهُمَا السُّدُسُ ۚ فَإِنْ كَانُوا أَكْثَرَ مِنْ ذَٰلِكَ فَهُمْ شُرَكَاءُ فِي الثُّلُثِ ۚ مِنْ بَعْدِ وَصِيَّةٍ يُوصَىٰ بِهَا أَوْ دَيْنٍ غَيْرَ مُضَارٍّ ۚ وَصِيَّةً مِنَ اللَّهِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَلِيمٌ
📘 For you half of what your wives leave, if they have no children. Inheritance and worthiness to receive it are established either by means of a cause or by way of a lineage. The cause is marriage and the lineage is kinship. Marriage is the cause of love, as God says, “He placed between you love and mercy” [30:21]. Lineage is assistance and strength, as has come in the report: “A man is many through his brothers.” When one of the relatives by lineage or one of the near ones by cause dies, that will be a wound on a person's heart and a pain in his spirit. The Lord of the Worlds places balm on the pain. After this suffering He commands consolation through the wealth of the person who passed away. Thus, just as pain came from his passing, so also balm comes from his wealth. This is the custom of the Lord with His friends: If He places suffering on them by prescribing the Law, after the suffering He makes a treasure appear with the attribute of alleviation. Shaykh al-Islām Anṣārī said, “How should I have known that suffering is the mother of happi- ness and that beneath one disappointment lie a thousand treasures? How should I have known that hope is the courier of union and that beneath the cloud of munificence despair is impossible? How should I have known that the Lovingly Kind is so forbearing that His gentleness and loving kind- ness to the sinner are beyond reckoning? How should I have known how servant-caressing is the Possessor of Majesty and how much joy His friends have in Him? How should I have known that what I seek is in the midst of the spirit, and that the exaltation of union with Him is my opening?” In my whole life one night at the time of dawn, the image of that comfort of the spirit came to me And asked, “How are you, wounded one?” I said, “In my passion for You, that is the first opening.”
يَعِدُهُمْ وَيُمَنِّيهِمْ ۖ وَمَا يَعِدُهُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ إِلَّا غُرُورًا
📘 He promises them and fills them with desires; but what Satan prom- ises them is only delusion. For such-their abode shall be hell and they shall find no refuge from it. For those whose allotment is being led astray in the present ḥāl He has decreed punishment in the end maÌāl. He makes appear what appears by His deliberative power-how could even a sliver of being astray or being guided belong to anyoneḍ To fully grasp the truth of [God's] oneness tawḥīd is a rare and precious thing-those who have mastered this are few.
أُولَٰئِكَ مَأْوَاهُمْ جَهَنَّمُ وَلَا يَجِدُونَ عَنْهَا مَحِيصًا
📘 He promises them and fills them with desires; but what Satan prom- ises them is only delusion. For such-their abode shall be hell and they shall find no refuge from it. For those whose allotment is being led astray in the present ḥāl He has decreed punishment in the end maÌāl. He makes appear what appears by His deliberative power-how could even a sliver of being astray or being guided belong to anyoneḍ To fully grasp the truth of [God's] oneness tawḥīd is a rare and precious thing-those who have mastered this are few.
وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ سَنُدْخِلُهُمْ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا أَبَدًا ۖ وَعْدَ اللَّهِ حَقًّا ۚ وَمَنْ أَصْدَقُ مِنَ اللَّهِ قِيلًا
📘 But those who believe and perform righteous deeds We shall admit them to gardens underneath which rivers flow abiding therein for ever; God's promise in truth; and who is truer in utterance than Godḍ �Those whom We have made fortunate by [Our] decree and speech asʿadnāhum ḥukman wa-qawlan were helped at the time We brought them into existence by [Our] generosity and power awjadnāhum kara- man wa-Ṭawlan. Then surely We brought about what had been promised in reward nuḥaqqiqu la-hum al-mawʿūda min al-thawāb through what We gave them in a place of good return bi-mā nukrimuhum bihi min ḥusni al-maÌāb.�
لَيْسَ بِأَمَانِيِّكُمْ وَلَا أَمَانِيِّ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ ۗ مَنْ يَعْمَلْ سُوءًا يُجْزَ بِهِ وَلَا يَجِدْ لَهُ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ وَلِيًّا وَلَا نَصِيرًا
📘 It is not your desires nor the desires of the people of the scripture. Whoever does evil shall be requited for it; and he will not find besides God any friend or helper. And whoever does righteous deeds whether male or female and is a believer-such shall be admitted into paradise and not be wronged the dint in a date-stone. Whoever plants colocynth will not harvest roses and jasmine. Whoever drinks deadly poison will not find the taste of honey. Likewise whoever squanders the duty of service will not become firmly established on the carpet of nearness. Whoever is branded with misfortune wa-man wusima bi-l-shiqwati will not be provided with the best of the best lam yurzaq al-ṣafwati. Whomever the divine decree rejects wa-man nafathu al-qaḌiyyati there is no helper for him in creation fa-lā nāṣira lahu min al-bariyyati. And whoever does righteous deeds... �Whoever labors in Our service khidma will not be kept from attaining Our blessing niʿma. Indeed whomever We have made rich in seeking Us We honor him in finding Us. Whomever We have made to drink from the cup of longing for Us We bring him to the intimacy of meeting Us.�
وَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ مِنَ الصَّالِحَاتِ مِنْ ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنْثَىٰ وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَأُولَٰئِكَ يَدْخُلُونَ الْجَنَّةَ وَلَا يُظْلَمُونَ نَقِيرًا
📘 It is not your desires nor the desires of the people of the scripture. Whoever does evil shall be requited for it; and he will not find besides God any friend or helper. And whoever does righteous deeds whether male or female and is a believer-such shall be admitted into paradise and not be wronged the dint in a date-stone. Whoever plants colocynth will not harvest roses and jasmine. Whoever drinks deadly poison will not find the taste of honey. Likewise whoever squanders the duty of service will not become firmly established on the carpet of nearness. Whoever is branded with misfortune wa-man wusima bi-l-shiqwati will not be provided with the best of the best lam yurzaq al-ṣafwati. Whomever the divine decree rejects wa-man nafathu al-qaḌiyyati there is no helper for him in creation fa-lā nāṣira lahu min al-bariyyati. And whoever does righteous deeds... �Whoever labors in Our service khidma will not be kept from attaining Our blessing niʿma. Indeed whomever We have made rich in seeking Us We honor him in finding Us. Whomever We have made to drink from the cup of longing for Us We bring him to the intimacy of meeting Us.�
وَمَنْ أَحْسَنُ دِينًا مِمَّنْ أَسْلَمَ وَجْهَهُ لِلَّهِ وَهُوَ مُحْسِنٌ وَاتَّبَعَ مِلَّةَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ حَنِيفًا ۗ وَاتَّخَذَ اللَّهُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ خَلِيلًا
📘 Who is more beautiful in religion than he who submits his face to God while he is a beautiful-doer and follows the creed of Abraham, an unswerving man? And God took Abraham as a bosom friend. In this verse the Lord of the Worlds, the God of the world's folk, the Enactor who knows the hid- den, praises the self-purifiers and shows that He is pleased with self-purification in deeds. The first person to dress the Kaabah of deeds in the cloak of self-purification was MuṣṬafā, who said, “Deeds are only through intentions.” Self-purification in deeds does the work of color in jewels. Just as a jewel without the cape of color is a worthless stone, so also deeds without self-purification is to knock oneself out without hitting the mark. Maʿrūf Karkhī used to beat himself with a whip and say, “O soul! Purify thyself and be de- livered!” It has been said that knowledge is the seed, deeds are planting, and self-purification is the water. The work is done by self-purification, salvation lies in self-purification, and endless felicity lies in self-purification, but self-purification itself is exalted and does not come down just any- where, nor does it show its face to just anyone. The Exalted Lord said, “It is one of My secrets that I deposit in the hearts of those whom I love among My servants.” There was a worshiper among the Children of Israel. He was told that in such-and-such a place there is a tree that people worship. For the sake of God and the zeal of the religion he became angry, left his place with a mattock over his shoulder, and went to dig up the tree by its roots. Iblis went into the road with the attributes of an old man. He asked him where he was going and he replied, “To that place to dig up the tree.” Iblis said, “Go, busy yourself with your worship, for this will not done by your hand.” Iblis struggled with him and fell, and the worshiper sat on his chest. Iblis said, “Let go of me and I will speak some beautiful words to you.” He let go of him, and Iblis said, “O worshiper, God has prophets. If this tree needs to be dug up, He will command a prophet to dig it up.
وَلِلَّهِ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ ۚ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ مُحِيطًا
📘 To God belongs everything in the heavens and everything in the earth, and God encom- passes everything. In these verses, He says three times “To God belongs everything in the heavens and everything in the earth.” Each is an admonishment for a different group and specific to a designated meaning. The first is an admonishment for the common Muslims, the second an admonishment for the wor- shipful servants and godwary, and the third an admonishment for the sincerely truthful and elect. First He says for the common Muslims, “Everything in heaven and earth is My possession and kingdom. All is My creation and artisanry. My knowledge reaches all and I am aware of all. I have made certain rightful dues incumbent among you and set apart obligatory acts for you. So comply with the rightful due of women, orphans, and the weak and put My commands into action. Strive to give comfort and achieve peace. Whether you do good or bad, whether you are at peace or war, know that in reality I know and I see, for all is My creation and My artisanry. How can My creation and artisanry be concealed from Me? Does He who created not know, while He is the Gentle, the Aware? [67:14].” In the second verse He says,
وَيَسْتَفْتُونَكَ فِي النِّسَاءِ ۖ قُلِ اللَّهُ يُفْتِيكُمْ فِيهِنَّ وَمَا يُتْلَىٰ عَلَيْكُمْ فِي الْكِتَابِ فِي يَتَامَى النِّسَاءِ اللَّاتِي لَا تُؤْتُونَهُنَّ مَا كُتِبَ لَهُنَّ وَتَرْغَبُونَ أَنْ تَنْكِحُوهُنَّ وَالْمُسْتَضْعَفِينَ مِنَ الْوِلْدَانِ وَأَنْ تَقُومُوا لِلْيَتَامَىٰ بِالْقِسْطِ ۚ وَمَا تَفْعَلُوا مِنْ خَيْرٍ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ بِهِ عَلِيمًا
📘 They will ask you for a pronouncement concerning women. Say: �God pronounces to you concerning them and what is recited to you in the Book concerning the orphan women to whom you do not give what is prescribed for them for you desire to marry them and the oppressed children and that you deal justly with orphans. Whatever good you do God is ever Knower of it.� He prohibited [men] from coveting that which would lead them to do harm or wrong to oppressed women and orphans. He explained that God is their avenger and that whoever is heedful of God regarding them will not lose anything on account of God but rather will find a beautiful recompense jamīl al-jazāÌ. But whoever abuses them will suffer because of that a pain- ful tribulation alīm al-balāÌ.
وَإِنِ امْرَأَةٌ خَافَتْ مِنْ بَعْلِهَا نُشُوزًا أَوْ إِعْرَاضًا فَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْهِمَا أَنْ يُصْلِحَا بَيْنَهُمَا صُلْحًا ۚ وَالصُّلْحُ خَيْرٌ ۗ وَأُحْضِرَتِ الْأَنْفُسُ الشُّحَّ ۚ وَإِنْ تُحْسِنُوا وَتَتَّقُوا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرًا
📘 And if a woman fears from her husband ill-treatment or rejection iʿrāḌ they are not at fault if they are reconciled through some agreement; reconciliation is better. But greed has been made present in the souls. If you are virtuous and fear surely God is ever aware of what you do. When the companionship of created beings becomes disconnected from the discourse of the Real [there is] a risk of alienation and blame al-waḥsha wa-l-malāma and [it] becoming mixed with aversion and disgust al- nafra wa-l-saÌāma. Whoever rejects ʿarada God in his heart-created beings [will] reject consideration for his right. They all come out against him find his affair pathetic bi-istiṣghāri amrihi and regard his worth as contemptible wa-ishtiḥqāri qadrihi. But whoever returns to God in his heart his affair will be restored to balance as a whole and in its particulars. His chest will expand with the capacity to bear the bad traits he finds in others and he will draw the cloak of pardon over the defects of all of them and prefer reconciliation ṣulḥ by abandoning his own portion in favor of theirs. God most high said �Reconciliation is better.� To ignore your aversion to those who quarrel with you is more appro- priate and more advantageous for you than being arrogant with your foe and wanting revenge and the acknowledgment of your privileges. Most people are in the fetters of this tribulation. But greed has been made present in the souls: The greed of the lower self is the concern of the servant for his worldly portion. Whoever is veiled from witnessing the Real is inevitably brought back to witnessing the lower self. If you are virtuous: [This] means that would be better for you. Being virtuous iḥsān is that you worship God as if you see him. And fear: [This] means [fear] to look at your own status and worth. Rather look to your Lord and in seeing Him be annihilated from any vision of your own worth. Surely God is ever aware of what you do: [This] means that once you have been annihilated from yourselves and your acts God suffices as Knower [4:70] after your annihilation and He suffices as the Giver of existence fol- lowing your effacement.
وَلَنْ تَسْتَطِيعُوا أَنْ تَعْدِلُوا بَيْنَ النِّسَاءِ وَلَوْ حَرَصْتُمْ ۖ فَلَا تَمِيلُوا كُلَّ الْمَيْلِ فَتَذَرُوهَا كَالْمُعَلَّقَةِ ۚ وَإِنْ تُصْلِحُوا وَتَتَّقُوا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ غَفُورًا رَحِيمًا
📘 You will never be able to be just to your wives even if you are eager; yet do not turn altogether away so that you leave her like one suspended. If you set things right and fear surely God is ever Forgiving Merciful. [This] means when your concern is for yourself in your affairs the state of your union together is overturned and what was sound becomes ruined. But when you have made God your concern in your affairs the balance of your life together will be restored and at that time will be cleared of turmoil. It is said that if God has decreed deficiency in intellect as someone's state it will not be possible for you to set that deficiency right by your competence. Yet do not turn altogether away: [This] means do not deviate from the clear path of the command. Stop where you have been told to stop and do what you have been commanded to do. So that you leave her like one suspended: [This] means that when you prevent them from being with someone other than you even as you cut them off from any share of you you harm [them] in two ways for there is nothing to be had from you and there [is] no way for them to be with someone else. This harm is very grave. The allusion in this [verse] is that when the path to your share in worldly things is blocked He ������ enables you to witness His reality to you and find His kindness. Surely whoever's annihilation is in God fa-inna man kāna fī Allāh talafuhu the Real is his substitute fa-l-ḥaqq subḥānahu khalafuhu. If you set things right between you and other created beings wa-in tuṣliḥū mā baynakum wa-bayna al-khalq and put your trust in what is between you and the Real wa-tathiqū fīmā baynakum wa-bayna al-ḥaqq surely God is ever forgiving of your failings fa-inna Allāha ghafūrun li-ʿuyūbikum merciful in pardoning your sins raḥīmun bi-l-ʿafwi ʿan dhunūbikum.
تِلْكَ حُدُودُ اللَّهِ ۚ وَمَنْ يُطِعِ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ يُدْخِلْهُ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا ۚ وَذَٰلِكَ الْفَوْزُ الْعَظِيمُ
📘 Those are God's bounds. Whoever obeys God and His Messenger He will admit him to gardens underneath which rivers flow abiding therein; that is the great triumph. His bounds ḥudūd are His commands and prohibitions and that by which His servants ʿibād show their devotion taʿabbada bihi. The root of ser- vanthood ʿubūdiyya is preserving the bounds ḥudūd and maintaining the promises ʿuhūd. Whoever preserves His limit nothing bad or harmful will reach him. The root of every affliction is going beyond the bounds.
وَإِنْ يَتَفَرَّقَا يُغْنِ اللَّهُ كُلًّا مِنْ سَعَتِهِ ۚ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ وَاسِعًا حَكِيمًا
📘 But if they separate God will compensate each of them out of His plenty. God is ever Embracing Wise. The essential companionship is the companionship of the heart in per- petual need of God since there is no separating oneself from the Real. As for everything other than the Real [human beings] have no need for one another except in the external sense-this is the thinking of those in a state of separation aṣḥāb al-tafriqa. As for the people of realization ahl al-taḥqīq they have no doubt that the need of created beings is entirely for God ������.
وَلِلَّهِ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ ۗ وَلَقَدْ وَصَّيْنَا الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ وَإِيَّاكُمْ أَنِ اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ ۚ وَإِنْ تَكْفُرُوا فَإِنَّ لِلَّهِ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ ۚ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ غَنِيًّا حَمِيدًا
📘 To God belongs everything in the heavens and everything in the earth, and We have charged those who were given the Book before you, and you, to be wary of God. “You who are worshipers and abstainers, come totally into the street of godwariness and make godwariness your shelter. Leave aside the road of uncertainty and suspicion.” He says this and commands it. Then He gives success to one group, and He puts another group into the road of abandonment. To all of them He gives awareness: “I am without needs. I have no benefit from the obedience of the one given success, nor any loss from the disobedience of the one abandoned. Everything in the heavens and the earth is My possession and kingdom. All are My predetermined things and artifacts. Had I wanted, I would have created all successful, or all abandoned. No one can protest against Me, and there is no turning away from My decree.” In the third verse, He says,
وَلِلَّهِ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ ۚ وَكَفَىٰ بِاللَّهِ وَكِيلًا
📘 To God belongs everything in the heavens and everything in the earth, and God is suf- ficient as a trustee. This is an admonishment to the sincerely truthful and the lovers: “The seven heavens, the seven earths, and everything within them all belong to Me. I did not create them that you should turn your face toward them and attach your heart to them, remaining with them and being held back from Me. Rather, I created them to show them to you and to adorn them for your soul. Then, when you put aside everything and bring your face to Me, I will bring all of them into your service and put them all in your hands.” This meaning is in the report, “O this world! Serve those who serve Me, and trouble those who serve you!” The story of Sahl Tustarī is well known. The caliph of the day offered great wealth to him, but he did not accept anything. Someone asked him why he had not accepted. Sahl called upon God to lift the veil from the eyes of the questioner, who then looked and saw a world full of gems and pearls. Sahl said, “O chevalier! I have no need for the wealth of the caliph. The whole world is at my command. The storehouses of the earth have been offered to me, but I do not want them.” Why do you stay in this low place like crows looking for carrion? Break the cage and fly at once like peacocks to the heights. All on the face of gold and gems is unbelief and satanity- if you have the religion's fervor, step beyond the gold. [DS 52]
إِنْ يَشَأْ يُذْهِبْكُمْ أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ وَيَأْتِ بِآخَرِينَ ۚ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ عَلَىٰ ذَٰلِكَ قَدِيرًا
📘 If He will He can remove you O people and bring others surely God is ever able to do that. One who is able to do without others in all eternity without beginning man istaghnā ʿanhu fī āzālihi has no need for them in all eternity without end fa-lā ḥājatin lahu ilayhi fī ābādihi. It is said that He has no need for any- one while the servant is unable to do without Him for even a single breath. It is said that there is no limit to the things which are decreed so that if it were not ʿAmr then it would be Zayd. If it were not a servant it would be servants. The only one for whom there is no substitute or replacement is the One the Unique.
مَنْ كَانَ يُرِيدُ ثَوَابَ الدُّنْيَا فَعِنْدَ اللَّهِ ثَوَابُ الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ ۚ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ سَمِيعًا بَصِيرًا
📘 Whoever desires the reward of this world then God has the reward of this world and of the hereafter; God is ever Hearing Seeing. When they attached their hearts to what is transitory in this world He reminded them of what happens in the hereafter saying �then God has the reward of this world and of the hereafter.� This was to inform them that the blessing of the hereafter is far above what they aspire to in this paltry place. When the object of their search was elevated to the hereafter He cut them off from any external or created thing [saying] �And God is better and more enduring� [20:73].
۞ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُونُوا قَوَّامِينَ بِالْقِسْطِ شُهَدَاءَ لِلَّهِ وَلَوْ عَلَىٰ أَنْفُسِكُمْ أَوِ الْوَالِدَيْنِ وَالْأَقْرَبِينَ ۚ إِنْ يَكُنْ غَنِيًّا أَوْ فَقِيرًا فَاللَّهُ أَوْلَىٰ بِهِمَا ۖ فَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا الْهَوَىٰ أَنْ تَعْدِلُوا ۚ وَإِنْ تَلْوُوا أَوْ تُعْرِضُوا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرًا
📘 O you who believe be upright in justice; witnesses for God even though it be against yourselves; or parents and kinsmen whether the person be rich or poor; God is closer to the two. So do not follow any whim lest you swerve for if you twist or refrain surely God is ever aware of what you do. �Justice� qisṬ is being fair and equitable ʿadl. �To be upright� for God in being fair and equitable is to uphold His rights against yourself and to seek the same from everyone over whom you have authority. This can be accomplished either through an exhortation to act kindly or a rebuke concerning something despicable admonitions direction to a legal issue or guidance to something that is the right thing to do ḥaqq. The deepest realization of what is right and true taḥqīq will not touch the innermost self of one who holds back what is rightly due ḥaqq to God. The founda- tion of religion is to prefer the right of the Real ḥaqq al-ḥaqq over the right of created beings ḥaqq al-khalq. Whoever prefers anyone-a father mother child kinsman or relation-to God or holds back any portion due to Him is not upright in justice.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا آمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ وَالْكِتَابِ الَّذِي نَزَّلَ عَلَىٰ رَسُولِهِ وَالْكِتَابِ الَّذِي أَنْزَلَ مِنْ قَبْلُ ۚ وَمَنْ يَكْفُرْ بِاللَّهِ وَمَلَائِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ فَقَدْ ضَلَّ ضَلَالًا بَعِيدًا
📘 O you who have faith! Have faith in God and His Messenger. Faith is two sorts, one based on proof, the other on face-to-face vision. Faith by proof is the road of inference, and faith by face-to-face vision is finding the day of union. Faith by proof is to employ the evidence of intellects, and faith by vision is to reach the degrees of arrival. In terms of allusion He is saying: “O you have acquired faith by proof, strive to acquire faith by face-to-face vision!” What is faith by face-to-face vision? Gazing with the eye of response on the Responder, gaz- ing with the eye of solitariness on the Solitary, gazing with the eye of presence on the Present, being near to God's nearness by being far from self, being present with His generosity by being absent from self. He-majestic is His majesty!-is not far from the strivers nor absent from the desirers. He says, “We are nearer to him than the jugular vein” [50:16]. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O Lord! You are found by the souls of the chevaliers, You are present to the hearts of the rememberers. They give marks of You up close, but You are far beyond that. They fancy You from afar, but You are closer than the spirit.” Lovely idol! Are you then my beloved? Now that I look close, You are my spirit. It is also said that the meaning of the verse is this: O you who have faith by assenting, have faith by realizing! You have accepted the Shariah, now accept the Haqiqah. What is the Shariah? What the Haqiqah? The Shariah is a lamp, the Haqiqah a burn. The Shariah is a bond, the Haqiqah advice. The Shariah is need, the Haqiqah joy. The Shariah is the outer pillars, the Haqiqah the inner pillars. The Shariah is not having evil, the Haqiqah is not hav- ing self. The Shariah is service based on conditions, the Haqiqah exile based on witnessing. The Shariah is by intermediaries, the Haqiqah by unveiling. The folk of the Shariah keep obedience and leave aside disobedience, the folk of the Haqiqah flee from themselves and take joy in oneness. The folk of the Shariah hope for everlastingness and subsistent bliss, the folk of the Haqiqah boldy busy themselves with the Cupbearer.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا ثُمَّ كَفَرُوا ثُمَّ آمَنُوا ثُمَّ كَفَرُوا ثُمَّ ازْدَادُوا كُفْرًا لَمْ يَكُنِ اللَّهُ لِيَغْفِرَ لَهُمْ وَلَا لِيَهْدِيَهُمْ سَبِيلًا
📘 Verily those who believed and then disbelieved and then believed and then disbelieved and then increased in disbelief-it was not for God to forgive them nor to guide them to a way. Give tidings to the hypocrites that for them there is a painful chastisement. Those whose states have alternated so that they rise and fall then rise up again and then stumble -He has sealed their states in their unseemliness. The arrows of divine power have struck them by decree and the misery of fate has caught up with them as their final state. The Real ������ will not guide them to a purpose nor lead them to good sense. �Give tidings to them of separation without end fa-bashshirhum bi-l-furqati al-abadiyya and tell them of punishment uninterrupted wa-akhbirhum bi-l-ʿuqūbati al-sarmadiyya.�
بَشِّرِ الْمُنَافِقِينَ بِأَنَّ لَهُمْ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا
📘 Verily those who believed and then disbelieved and then believed and then disbelieved and then increased in disbelief-it was not for God to forgive them nor to guide them to a way. Give tidings to the hypocrites that for them there is a painful chastisement. Those whose states have alternated so that they rise and fall then rise up again and then stumble -He has sealed their states in their unseemliness. The arrows of divine power have struck them by decree and the misery of fate has caught up with them as their final state. The Real ������ will not guide them to a purpose nor lead them to good sense. �Give tidings to them of separation without end fa-bashshirhum bi-l-furqati al-abadiyya and tell them of punishment uninterrupted wa-akhbirhum bi-l-ʿuqūbati al-sarmadiyya.�
الَّذِينَ يَتَّخِذُونَ الْكَافِرِينَ أَوْلِيَاءَ مِنْ دُونِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ ۚ أَيَبْتَغُونَ عِنْدَهُمُ الْعِزَّةَ فَإِنَّ الْعِزَّةَ لِلَّهِ جَمِيعًا
📘 Those who take disbelievers for friends instead of believers-do they desire power with themḍ Truly power belongs altogether to God. It has been revealed to you in the Book that: �When you hear God's signs being disbelieved and mocked do not sit with them until they engage in some other talk for otherwise you would surely be like them.� God will gather the hypocrites and disbelievers all together into hell. Whoever clings to a created being has sought refuge with someone other than the One who protects. He relies on a place that will provide no shelter. He has fallen into the abyss of error whose depth is bottomless and ruse calamitous. Do they desire power with those who have themselves been humbled by [the command] to �Be�ḍ How can they have any power to determine the truthḍ How can those who have no power extend power to anyone elseḍ It is said that �We do not know what is more shameless in their condi- tion: seeking power while they are themselves humbled by the [divine] subjugation and held in the [divine] grasp or their thinking and imagining that [power] can be from anything other than God.� It is said that whoever seeks something from any direction other than Him-failure is the ultimate end of his effort fa-l-ikhfāqu ghāyatu jahdihi. Whoever desires wealth in regions of indigence-being reduced to poverty is the outcome of his toil fa-l-imlāqu quṣārā kaddihi. It is said that if they had been rightly guided to finding [the true source of] power their seeking would not have been diverted to those who pos- sess no authority. Truly power belongs altogether to God: The power is of two kinds: an eternal power which is an attribute of God and a contingent power which He ������ apportions to whomever He will. [Power] belongs to God most high as something that is His and is [also] a gift from Him [to human beings]. It has been revealed to you in the Book... Do not make neighbors of those alienated in feeling and affection for the darknesses of their souls extend to your hearts as you seek to inhale the fragrances they refuse to take in. One becomes partner to the state of those with whom one sits. The sit- ting companion of those in a state of intimacy becomes an intimate himself while the sitting companion of those in darkness is himself estranged.
وَمَنْ يَعْصِ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ وَيَتَعَدَّ حُدُودَهُ يُدْخِلْهُ نَارًا خَالِدًا فِيهَا وَلَهُ عَذَابٌ مُهِينٌ
📘 But whoever disobeys God and His Messenger; and transgresses His bounds him He will admit to a fire abiding therein and for him there shall be a humbling chastisement. There are indeed two punishments one immediate and one postponed and ignominy unites the two of them. If created beings were to attempt to debase those who are disobedient with the like of the debasement that has already come to them through their disobedience they would not be able to do it. Because of this their speaker said �Whoever spends the night committing a sin wakes up with his degradation wa-ʿalayhi madhallatuhu. But one says of one who wakes up and passes the day performing pious acts that he has his dignity wa-ʿalayhi mahābatuhu.�
وَقَدْ نَزَّلَ عَلَيْكُمْ فِي الْكِتَابِ أَنْ إِذَا سَمِعْتُمْ آيَاتِ اللَّهِ يُكْفَرُ بِهَا وَيُسْتَهْزَأُ بِهَا فَلَا تَقْعُدُوا مَعَهُمْ حَتَّىٰ يَخُوضُوا فِي حَدِيثٍ غَيْرِهِ ۚ إِنَّكُمْ إِذًا مِثْلُهُمْ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ جَامِعُ الْمُنَافِقِينَ وَالْكَافِرِينَ فِي جَهَنَّمَ جَمِيعًا
📘 Those who take disbelievers for friends instead of believers-do they desire power with themḍ Truly power belongs altogether to God. It has been revealed to you in the Book that: �When you hear God's signs being disbelieved and mocked do not sit with them until they engage in some other talk for otherwise you would surely be like them.� God will gather the hypocrites and disbelievers all together into hell. Whoever clings to a created being has sought refuge with someone other than the One who protects. He relies on a place that will provide no shelter. He has fallen into the abyss of error whose depth is bottomless and ruse calamitous. Do they desire power with those who have themselves been humbled by [the command] to �Be�ḍ How can they have any power to determine the truthḍ How can those who have no power extend power to anyone elseḍ It is said that �We do not know what is more shameless in their condi- tion: seeking power while they are themselves humbled by the [divine] subjugation and held in the [divine] grasp or their thinking and imagining that [power] can be from anything other than God.� It is said that whoever seeks something from any direction other than Him-failure is the ultimate end of his effort fa-l-ikhfāqu ghāyatu jahdihi. Whoever desires wealth in regions of indigence-being reduced to poverty is the outcome of his toil fa-l-imlāqu quṣārā kaddihi. It is said that if they had been rightly guided to finding [the true source of] power their seeking would not have been diverted to those who pos- sess no authority. Truly power belongs altogether to God: The power is of two kinds: an eternal power which is an attribute of God and a contingent power which He ������ apportions to whomever He will. [Power] belongs to God most high as something that is His and is [also] a gift from Him [to human beings]. It has been revealed to you in the Book... Do not make neighbors of those alienated in feeling and affection for the darknesses of their souls extend to your hearts as you seek to inhale the fragrances they refuse to take in. One becomes partner to the state of those with whom one sits. The sit- ting companion of those in a state of intimacy becomes an intimate himself while the sitting companion of those in darkness is himself estranged.
الَّذِينَ يَتَرَبَّصُونَ بِكُمْ فَإِنْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فَتْحٌ مِنَ اللَّهِ قَالُوا أَلَمْ نَكُنْ مَعَكُمْ وَإِنْ كَانَ لِلْكَافِرِينَ نَصِيبٌ قَالُوا أَلَمْ نَسْتَحْوِذْ عَلَيْكُمْ وَنَمْنَعْكُمْ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ ۚ فَاللَّهُ يَحْكُمُ بَيْنَكُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ ۗ وَلَنْ يَجْعَلَ اللَّهُ لِلْكَافِرِينَ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ سَبِيلًا
📘 Those who wait in watch for you and if a victory comes to you from God say �Were we not with youḍ�; but if the disbelievers have some luck they say �did we not gain mastery over you and did we not defend you against the believersḍ� God will judge between you on the Day of Resurrection and God will never grant the disbelievers a way over the believers. Because they lacked sincerity ikhlāṣ in the truest sense and had not tasted true conviction ʿaqīda they showed themselves to be of a different char- acter from those who in the [divine] decree submitted. [Those who sub- mitted] and the disbelievers are not the same. It is necessary for the people of the Real to be wary of [the disbelievers] and to stay aloof from them. Then He ������ included a beautiful expression of His sufficiency for them by His saying �God will never grant the disbelievers a way over the believers� which is an all-encompassing statement. Surely the evil of their deception is diverted back to them fa-inna wabāla kaydihim ilayhim maṣrūfun and the requital for their plotting is reserved for them wa-jazāÌa makrihim ʿalayhim mawqūfun. The right and true reality-its people are aided from the power of the Real ������ wa-l-ḥaqqu min qibali al-ḥaqqi subḥānihi manṣūrun ahluhu. The false-its foundation is uprooted through the help of the Real ������ wa-l-bāṬilu bi-naṣri al-ḥaqqi subḥānihi mujtaththun aṣluhu.
إِنَّ الْمُنَافِقِينَ يُخَادِعُونَ اللَّهَ وَهُوَ خَادِعُهُمْ وَإِذَا قَامُوا إِلَى الصَّلَاةِ قَامُوا كُسَالَىٰ يُرَاءُونَ النَّاسَ وَلَا يَذْكُرُونَ اللَّهَ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا
📘 The hypocrites seek to trick God but He is tricking them. When they stand up to pray they stand up lazily and to be seen by people and they do not remember God save a little. Wavering all the time-not to these neither to those; and he whom God sends astray you will never find for him a way. The trickery of the hypocrites is the outward display of conformity on the path iẓhāru al-wifāqi fī l-Ṭarīqa while inwardly [they] cling to association [of others with God] in [their] creed wa-istishʿāru al-shirki fī l-ʿaqīda. The trickery of the Real toward them is what they imagine regarding salvation [after they] decided they have a special entitlement to it. But when the covering is lifted they will know for certain that what they thought was drink sharāb was a mirage sarāb. God most high said �And there will appear to them from God that which they had never reckoned� [39:47]. When they stand up to pray... The sign of hypocrisy is finding energy when one can be seen by others but then losing resolve when the oppor- tunity to be seen passes. Wavering all the time... Those who are worth the least among created beings are those who remove the vest of servanthood akhassu al-khalqi man yadaʿu ṣidāra al-ʿubūdiyya and have not found a way to true freedom wa-lam yajid sabīlan ilā ḥaqīqati al-ḥurriyya. They do not have even a sliver of precious nobility fa-lā lahu min al-ʿizzi shaẓīyya nor an agree- able way of living in their heedlessness wa-lā fī l-ghaflati ʿīshatu hanīyya.
مُذَبْذَبِينَ بَيْنَ ذَٰلِكَ لَا إِلَىٰ هَٰؤُلَاءِ وَلَا إِلَىٰ هَٰؤُلَاءِ ۚ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلِ اللَّهُ فَلَنْ تَجِدَ لَهُ سَبِيلًا
📘 The hypocrites seek to trick God but He is tricking them. When they stand up to pray they stand up lazily and to be seen by people and they do not remember God save a little. Wavering all the time-not to these neither to those; and he whom God sends astray you will never find for him a way. The trickery of the hypocrites is the outward display of conformity on the path iẓhāru al-wifāqi fī l-Ṭarīqa while inwardly [they] cling to association [of others with God] in [their] creed wa-istishʿāru al-shirki fī l-ʿaqīda. The trickery of the Real toward them is what they imagine regarding salvation [after they] decided they have a special entitlement to it. But when the covering is lifted they will know for certain that what they thought was drink sharāb was a mirage sarāb. God most high said �And there will appear to them from God that which they had never reckoned� [39:47]. When they stand up to pray... The sign of hypocrisy is finding energy when one can be seen by others but then losing resolve when the oppor- tunity to be seen passes. Wavering all the time... Those who are worth the least among created beings are those who remove the vest of servanthood akhassu al-khalqi man yadaʿu ṣidāra al-ʿubūdiyya and have not found a way to true freedom wa-lam yajid sabīlan ilā ḥaqīqati al-ḥurriyya. They do not have even a sliver of precious nobility fa-lā lahu min al-ʿizzi shaẓīyya nor an agree- able way of living in their heedlessness wa-lā fī l-ghaflati ʿīshatu hanīyya.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُوا الْكَافِرِينَ أَوْلِيَاءَ مِنْ دُونِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ ۚ أَتُرِيدُونَ أَنْ تَجْعَلُوا لِلَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ سُلْطَانًا مُبِينًا
📘 O you who believe take not the disbelievers as friends instead of the believers: do you desire to give God over you a clear warrantḍ He repeated the admonition to them and confirmed the command to separate themselves from enemies. This was to emphasize the warning strengthen the prohibition and end the argument by putting a stop to any possible excuses. Do you desire to give God over you a clear warrantḍ He warned them about their friendship with the disbelievers over and above other oppo- sitional acts because it involves a preference for something other than the [appropriate] object of adoration maʿbūd. Preferring another to the beloved maḥbūb is the gravest of sins in the precepts of love aḥkām al-widād. When one's heart becomes engaged with others in the place reserved for believers this necessarily brings about a bad outcome. How should one's heart be engaged with others in the place reserved for the Realḍ The punishment He promised them was to leave them to their own devices and to what they had chosen [when they] sided with the disbeliev- ers. What a wretched substitution! It is the same with those who remain apart from the Real ḥaqq-He leaves them with created beings khalq. He doubles their affliction by their remaining apart from the Real lil-baqāÌi ʿan al-ḥaqq and remaining with created beings wa-l-baqāÌi maʿa al-khalq. Both of these are severe punishments.
إِنَّ الْمُنَافِقِينَ فِي الدَّرْكِ الْأَسْفَلِ مِنَ النَّارِ وَلَنْ تَجِدَ لَهُمْ نَصِيرًا
📘 Verily the hypocrites will be in the lowest level of the fire; and you will never find a helper for them. This verse indicates that the hypocrite is not one who is sincerely seeking the protective trust mustaÌmin for being true to the trust īmān is what brings protection amān. The one who holds true to the trust muÌmin [or �the believer�] is saved by his faith īmān from the fire-that which causes one's falling to the lowest level of the fire cannot be called faith īmān. It is said that this is verified by His words God is the best of schem- ers [3:54 and 8:30] which is to say His scheming makr is superior to all other scheming. When the hypocrites' scheming with the believers was exposed their punishment was more severe than the punishment of those who declared their disbelief openly. Because of what is in the tradition �One meets God in whatever state one is in� it is said that He transfers them from their present state to one like it in the future. Just as today the hypocrites are in the lowest level of being cut off [from the communion of lovers] so will they be transferred to the lowest level of the fire. The lowest level of their being cut off in the present is that they bear the name of �faith� īmān while in fact they do not have even a sliver from God. This is the greatest of afflictions. It is said that they deserve the lowest level of the fire because they kept company here with the greatest name of God without respect ḥurma. It is said that they deserve [the lowest level of the fire] because they were present but lacked any sense of propriety adab in what they said. By this they were driven far away.
إِلَّا الَّذِينَ تَابُوا وَأَصْلَحُوا وَاعْتَصَمُوا بِاللَّهِ وَأَخْلَصُوا دِينَهُمْ لِلَّهِ فَأُولَٰئِكَ مَعَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ ۖ وَسَوْفَ يُؤْتِ اللَّهُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَجْرًا عَظِيمًا
📘 Save those who repent and make amends and hold fast to God and make their religion purely God's; those are with the believers; and God will certainly give the believers a great wage. Although not all of these conditions are ordinarily required to repent of one's sin they are necessary for hypocrites to renounce their hypocrisy because of the recalcitrant nature of their disbelief. For those who meet these conditions He said �those are with maʿa the believers.� He did not say �of � min the believers. In this there is another allusion to the imperfection in their rank even though they have sincerely made amends for the evil they did in the past. Regarding its meaning they have recited: Apologies are easy. What a difference between apologies and thankfulness! [Others] say that the preposition �with� maʿa indicates accompani- ment so that when they were included with the believers they became deserving in the same way as the group of the believers. Here repentance tawba means that they renounce their hypocrisy and make amends in the sincerity ṣidq of their faith and hold fast to God in absolving themselves of their own power and strength and bearing witness to the blessing of God toward them in guiding them and delivering them from their hypocrisy and make their religion purely God's. They regard their deliverance as being by the grace of God not by their newfound faith nor by the renouncement of their past hypocrisy. It is said that they make their religion purely God's means [that they] perpetually seek God's help in strengthening them in faith and protecting them from reverting to their past hypocrisy. It is said that they repent from hypocrisy and make amends through the purification of belief and hold fast to God by asking for His favor and make their religion purely God's in that their deliverance is by the grace and kindness of God not by their having done anything to make it happen.
مَا يَفْعَلُ اللَّهُ بِعَذَابِكُمْ إِنْ شَكَرْتُمْ وَآمَنْتُمْ ۚ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ شَاكِرًا عَلِيمًا
📘 Why would God chastise you if you are thankful and believeḍ God is ever Thankful Knowing. This verse is among the verses which evoke beautiful hope and powerful optimism because He has appointed two things as tokens of protection from punishment. These are thankfulness shukr and belief īmān which are simple and light-hearted qualities. Thankfulness or praise is an asser- tion qāla and belief or faith is a state ḥāla. When He is pleased with a servant's words and state He makes the way easy for him. Thankfulness or praise shukr is only sound when heard from one who is faithful rather than one who is not because it is an act of willing obedience Ṭāʿa. The obedience of those who have no faith is not genuine. And believe that is [believe or come to believe] in the end. It is as if He is explaining that salvation will only be for those who at the end of the day believe. The meaning of the verse then is that God will not chastise you with the chastisement of abiding [in hell] if you are thankful in your present state and believe in the end. It is said that when you are thankful and believe you attest to the fact that your salvation [comes] through God not through your thankfulness or your belief. It is said that thankfulness is witnessing the blessing from God and belief is seeing God in the blessing. It is as if He said �If you understand the blessing as coming from God then let not the witnessing of this blessing cut you off from witnessing the One who gives the blessing.� Wa kāna Allāh shākiran ʿalīman means God is ever Thankful Knowing Allāh shākirun ʿalīmun. The meaning of His being �thankful� is that He is the One who commends the servant and the One who bears witness to him in what he does. This is because the true sense and definition of thankfulness is praise for the one who acts in a beautiful way muḥsin by mentioning the beautiful action he does iḥsān. �The servant gives thanks to God� means he praises Him for His beautiful action iḥsān toward him which is His blessing to him. �The Lord gives thanks to the servant� means that He praises [the servant] for his beautiful action iḥsān which is his willing obedience Ṭāʿa to Him.
۞ لَا يُحِبُّ اللَّهُ الْجَهْرَ بِالسُّوءِ مِنَ الْقَوْلِ إِلَّا مَنْ ظُلِمَ ۚ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ سَمِيعًا عَلِيمًا
📘 God does not like the utterance of evil words out loud unless a person has been wronged. God is ever Hearer Knower. What a person who has been wronged says about the one who has wronged him is not evil in the true sense of the word by the permission of God but it is nonetheless a good thing to let the matter drop. God most high has said �For the requital of an evil is an evil deed like it� [42:40] so requital is not an evil deed. [But whoever pardons and reconciles his reward will be with God. Truly He does not like wrongdoers] [42:40]. It is said that anyone who knows that his Protector hears is ashamed to give free voice to the urgings of his lower self. It is said that evil words out loud are what you hear within yourself [when] you think ill thoughts about others. The elect take responsibility in their inward thoughts for that which if heard [out loud] from ordinary people might be held against them. Unless illā a person has been wronged: Some say [this means] �not even wa-lā the one who has been wronged.� Others say its meaning is this: �But wa-lakinna a person who has been wronged� has the right to mention the one who has intentionally wronged him. It is said that those who do not prefer praise of the Real madḥ al-ḥaqq over defaming one's fellow creatures qadḥ al-khalq have been cheated of the present moment. It is said that those who look to created beings with the eye of connect- ing to the Real [see] that they are servants of God [and] will speak no ill of them. A man says to his companion �Out of respect for you I will bear the lowliest149 service to you even beyond that which I would bear for my son.� When there is commitment like this between human beings how much more worthy is the servant's regard for refined behavior adab between him and His Protector! It is said that God does not like the utterance of evil words out loud among ordinary people nor does He like that in the inward thoughts of the elect. It is said that the utterance of evil words out loud among ordinary people is their description of God in ways [for which they] have no permission or divine sanction.
إِنْ تُبْدُوا خَيْرًا أَوْ تُخْفُوهُ أَوْ تَعْفُوا عَنْ سُوءٍ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَفُوًّا قَدِيرًا
📘 If you show good or conceal it or pardon evil then surely God is ever Pardoning Powerful. If you show good taking on the good manners found in the law takhal- luqan bi-ādābi al-sharīʿa or conceal recognizing the truth in the precepts of the deeper reality taḥaqquqan bi-aḥkāmi al-ḥaqīqa or pardon evil adopting from God what He has entrusted you with in the most beauti- ful ways of behaving then surely God is ever Pardoning of your defects li-ʿuyūbikum Powerful in causing you to attain what you love ʿalā taḥsīli maḥbūbikum and causing you to recognize the true nature of what you seek wa-taḥqīqi maṬlūbikum. It is said that if you show good you will be an example for humankind in what you practice and in what you propose to others who might be guided from the way of your practice. If you conceal it content with only His knowing it and safeguard yourselves from the evils of affectation and trust that those of you who act for Him will be seen and known by Him or pardon evil that is you abandon150 what your lower selves call you to-then God will grant you His pardon for what you do. He [also] has the power to afflict you with that which the oppressor is afflicted with. This then is a warning to them about being heedless in witnessing the favor minna and a way of alerting them to the fact that they should seek refuge from being deprived of protection ʿiṣma and seek refuge from being abandoned so that they fall into discord fitna and trial miḥna. It is said [the verse means] if you show good acting well toward people or conceal it praying for them in secret or pardon evil even if you have been wronged [then surely God is ever Pardoning Powerful]. It is said concerning those who act well toward you show them good outwardly. Those who spare you from their evil be loyal in friendship and pray for them inwardly. Those who act badly toward you pardon them with generosity and graciousness. You will find pardon from God according to what you yourself do for surely your sins are more numerous. He has the power to give you in favor and blessings that which you cannot attain by taking vengeance or revenge.
وَاللَّاتِي يَأْتِينَ الْفَاحِشَةَ مِنْ نِسَائِكُمْ فَاسْتَشْهِدُوا عَلَيْهِنَّ أَرْبَعَةً مِنْكُمْ ۖ فَإِنْ شَهِدُوا فَأَمْسِكُوهُنَّ فِي الْبُيُوتِ حَتَّىٰ يَتَوَفَّاهُنَّ الْمَوْتُ أَوْ يَجْعَلَ اللَّهُ لَهُنَّ سَبِيلًا
📘 As for those of your women who commit lewdness call four of you to witness against them; and if they witness then detain them in their houses until death take them or God appoints for them a way. So as to lower the veil of generosity over the sins of servants [God] made allowances through an excessive number of witnesses [required] to estab- lish proof of lewdness which is fornication. To follow the witnessing pro- cedure in the law makes establishing proof of the circumstances nearly impossible. When Māʿiz [ibn Mālik] told [the Prophet] ﷺ �O Messenger of God may the blessings of God be upon you I have committed fornication� he said �Maybe you [only] kissedḍ� On another occasion [the Prophet] said �smell his breath.� In this there is the strongest proof of what I have mentioned of the lowering of the veil over ugly acts.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَكْفُرُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَيُرِيدُونَ أَنْ يُفَرِّقُوا بَيْنَ اللَّهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَيَقُولُونَ نُؤْمِنُ بِبَعْضٍ وَنَكْفُرُ بِبَعْضٍ وَيُرِيدُونَ أَنْ يَتَّخِذُوا بَيْنَ ذَٰلِكَ سَبِيلًا
📘 Those who disbelieve in God and His messengers and seek to divide between God and His messengers and say �We believe in some and disbelieve in some� and seek to adopt a way between them. Those are the disbelievers truly; and We have prepared for the disbe- lievers a humiliating chastisement. [God] relates that they have added the blameworthy actions enumerated here to the shamefulness of their disbelief. He explains that He has doubled their chastisement as requital for their sin so that you will know that He is ever on the watch [89:14] over those who act in corrupt and harmful ways.
أُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْكَافِرُونَ حَقًّا ۚ وَأَعْتَدْنَا لِلْكَافِرِينَ عَذَابًا مُهِينًا
📘 Those who disbelieve in God and His messengers and seek to divide between God and His messengers and say �We believe in some and disbelieve in some� and seek to adopt a way between them. Those are the disbelievers truly; and We have prepared for the disbe- lievers a humiliating chastisement. [God] relates that they have added the blameworthy actions enumerated here to the shamefulness of their disbelief. He explains that He has doubled their chastisement as requital for their sin so that you will know that He is ever on the watch [89:14] over those who act in corrupt and harmful ways.
وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَلَمْ يُفَرِّقُوا بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِنْهُمْ أُولَٰئِكَ سَوْفَ يُؤْتِيهِمْ أُجُورَهُمْ ۗ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ غَفُورًا رَحِيمًا
📘 And those who believe in God and His messengers and do not seek to divide between any of them those-We shall surely give them their wages. God is ever Forgiving Merciful. When they believed in all of the messengers and confirmed everything to which they were commanded they deserved acceptance and the beautiful recompense. To let go of one's faith in some individuals is to let go of one's faith in [the messages sent in other] time periods. Just as [God] will not accept the faith of a person whose faith does not include all the messages that have come before him likewise He will not accept the faith of a per- son whose faith does not include all that faith demands of him since [God] made that a condition for its actualization taḥqīq and perfection kamāl. This alludes to the fact that anyone who does not wholeheartedly enter into the covenant will not have so much as a sliver of the reality of com- munion [of lovers]. The Prophet ﷺ said �The pilgrimage is [the day of] ʿArafa.� Anyone who traverses the distance even if he comes from a deep ravine but then holds back even a little from ʿArafāt has not experienced the pilgrimage. The Prophet ﷺ said �The servant who has contracted with his master to be freed is still a servant to the last dirham.�
يَسْأَلُكَ أَهْلُ الْكِتَابِ أَنْ تُنَزِّلَ عَلَيْهِمْ كِتَابًا مِنَ السَّمَاءِ ۚ فَقَدْ سَأَلُوا مُوسَىٰ أَكْبَرَ مِنْ ذَٰلِكَ فَقَالُوا أَرِنَا اللَّهَ جَهْرَةً فَأَخَذَتْهُمُ الصَّاعِقَةُ بِظُلْمِهِمْ ۚ ثُمَّ اتَّخَذُوا الْعِجْلَ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَتْهُمُ الْبَيِّنَاتُ فَعَفَوْنَا عَنْ ذَٰلِكَ ۚ وَآتَيْنَا مُوسَىٰ سُلْطَانًا مُبِينًا
📘 The people of the scripture will ask of you to cause a Book to be revealed to them from the heaven. They asked Moses for something greater than that for they said �show us God openly�; so the thunderbolt seized them for their evildoing. They then took to themselves the [golden] calf after clear proofs had come to them; yet We pardoned that; and We bestowed upon Moses clear authority. The verse includes two kinds of unseemly acts. The first was their asking to be shown [God] and the second was their worshiping the calf after clear signs had been made manifest to them. Their asking to be shown [God] was blameworthy because they impudently demanded it and there was no excuse for this after miracles had come to them. Therefore they were not seeking the vision for instruction nor as a means to confirm their faith nor were they brought to that [point] by intense longing. This shows a lack of manners sūÌ adab. There is an allusion [in the reference] to those who are content to have the calf as their object of worship. While submitting themselves to it how can they bear witness to the Realḍ It is said that the innermost selves of the people were untouched by deeper knowledge and they therefore clung with their intellects to a lim- ited thing maḥdūd allowing that to be their object of worship maʿbūd. And we bestowed upon Moses clear authority: a manifest proof-indeed a light that preserved him from declaring any likeness [to God] tamthīl or stripping [Him] of His attributes taʿṬīl. The clear authority is actualization taḥṣīl and declaring God incom- parable tanzīh neither stripping God of His attributes taʿṬīl nor compar- ing Him to His creation tashbīh. It is said that the clear authority is the power to hear the [divine] speech al-khiṬāb without intermediary. It is said that the clear authority belongs to this community in the future and it is their abiding in the state of meeting [God]. In the tradition of the vision [the Prophet] ﷺ said �You will not be gathered together [in one group] in seeing Him.�
وَرَفَعْنَا فَوْقَهُمُ الطُّورَ بِمِيثَاقِهِمْ وَقُلْنَا لَهُمُ ادْخُلُوا الْبَابَ سُجَّدًا وَقُلْنَا لَهُمْ لَا تَعْدُوا فِي السَّبْتِ وَأَخَذْنَا مِنْهُمْ مِيثَاقًا غَلِيظًا
📘 And We raised above them the mount by the covenant with them and We said to them �Enter the gate bowing�; and We said to them �Transgress not the Sabbath and We took from them a firm covenant. The more signs were given to them outwardly the more denial and rejec- tion there was in their hearts. Receiving more communications did not benefit them since the eyes of their hearts were not open to witnessing [these communications]. God most high said �But signs and warners do not avail a folk who will not believe� [10:101].
فَبِمَا نَقْضِهِمْ مِيثَاقَهُمْ وَكُفْرِهِمْ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَقَتْلِهِمُ الْأَنْبِيَاءَ بِغَيْرِ حَقٍّ وَقَوْلِهِمْ قُلُوبُنَا غُلْفٌ ۚ بَلْ طَبَعَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهَا بِكُفْرِهِمْ فَلَا يُؤْمِنُونَ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا
📘 So for their breaking their covenant and disbelieving in the signs of God and slaying the prophets wrongfully and for their saying �Our hearts are covered up�-nay but God sealed them for their disbelief; so they do not believe except for a few. Its meaning is: Because they committed these prohibited acts li-irtikābihim hādhihi al-manāhī and because they were marked by acts that deserve punishment wa-li-ittiṣāfihim bi-hādhihi al-majāzī We caused them to alight at the dwellings of disgrace aḥlalnāhum manāzila al-hawān and sent down upon them punishments of all kinds wa-anzalnā bihim min al-ʿuqūbati funūna al-alwān. It is said that the misfortune of their oppositional acts affected them cumulatively. One of the consequences of acting disobediently is being left to commit even more prohibited acts. By violating the covenant and not repenting they were pulled toward disbelief in [God's] signs. Then because of the misfortune of this disbelief they were left to themselves until they slew the prophets ���� ������ wrongfully. Then because of the misfortune of [these ever more shameful acts] they had the audacity to claim a keen ability to comprehend saying �Our hearts are the vessels for all kinds of knowledge.� God replied to them �but God sealed them for their dis- belief.� He hid the place of deeper knowledge ʿirfān from them and they wandered about in their errors.
وَبِكُفْرِهِمْ وَقَوْلِهِمْ عَلَىٰ مَرْيَمَ بُهْتَانًا عَظِيمًا
📘 And for their disbelief and their uttering against Mary a tremendous calumny. To transgress the limit is error just as it is error to diminish or subtract from the truth. Some people slandered Mary and accused her of fornication. Others transgressed the limit in a terrible calumny saying her son was the son of God. Both of these groups fell into error. It is said that Mary [���� ������] was a friend waliyya of God through whom two groups become miserable: those who exceed all bounds ahl al-ifrāṬ and those who fall short ahl al-tafrīṬ. This is also how it is with His friends-those who reject [the friends] suffer from their lack of respect for them and those who believe things about [the friends] that cannot be said of them suffer from their excessive adulation of them. This is something that most of the great ones have had to endure.
وَقَوْلِهِمْ إِنَّا قَتَلْنَا الْمَسِيحَ عِيسَى ابْنَ مَرْيَمَ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ وَمَا قَتَلُوهُ وَمَا صَلَبُوهُ وَلَٰكِنْ شُبِّهَ لَهُمْ ۚ وَإِنَّ الَّذِينَ اخْتَلَفُوا فِيهِ لَفِي شَكٍّ مِنْهُ ۚ مَا لَهُمْ بِهِ مِنْ عِلْمٍ إِلَّا اتِّبَاعَ الظَّنِّ ۚ وَمَا قَتَلُوهُ يَقِينًا
📘 And for their saying �We slew the Messiah Jesus son of Mary the Messenger of God.� And yet they did not slay him nor did they crucify him but he was given the resemblance. And those who disagree concerning him are surely in doubt regarding him. They do not have any knowledge of him only the pursuit of conjecture; and they did not slay him for certain. Nay God raised him up to Him. God is ever Mighty Wise. It is said that God caused the one who slandered [Jesus] to resemble him and he was killed and crucified in his place. There is a saying that one who digs a grave for his brother falls into it. It is [also] said that Jesus ���� ������ said �Whoever agrees to have my resem- blance cast upon him so that he is killed in place of me will have the garden� and one of his companions agreed. It is said that because [this companion] patiently bore the injury talaf he was not deprived of the recompense khalaf from God. God most high said �Indeed We do not leave the reward of those of good deeds to go to waste� [18:30]. It is said that because this man who was a companion of Jesus ���� ������ was without any imperfection in his lower self nafs he became [Jesus's] friend in spirit rūḥ. When Jesus ���� ������ was raised up to the place of intimacy maḥall al-zulfa the spirit of this one who ransomed [Jesus] with his lower self was raised up to the place of nearness maḥall al-qurba.
بَلْ رَفَعَهُ اللَّهُ إِلَيْهِ ۚ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ عَزِيزًا حَكِيمًا
📘 And for their saying �We slew the Messiah Jesus son of Mary the Messenger of God.� And yet they did not slay him nor did they crucify him but he was given the resemblance. And those who disagree concerning him are surely in doubt regarding him. They do not have any knowledge of him only the pursuit of conjecture; and they did not slay him for certain. Nay God raised him up to Him. God is ever Mighty Wise. It is said that God caused the one who slandered [Jesus] to resemble him and he was killed and crucified in his place. There is a saying that one who digs a grave for his brother falls into it. It is [also] said that Jesus ���� ������ said �Whoever agrees to have my resem- blance cast upon him so that he is killed in place of me will have the garden� and one of his companions agreed. It is said that because [this companion] patiently bore the injury talaf he was not deprived of the recompense khalaf from God. God most high said �Indeed We do not leave the reward of those of good deeds to go to waste� [18:30]. It is said that because this man who was a companion of Jesus ���� ������ was without any imperfection in his lower self nafs he became [Jesus's] friend in spirit rūḥ. When Jesus ���� ������ was raised up to the place of intimacy maḥall al-zulfa the spirit of this one who ransomed [Jesus] with his lower self was raised up to the place of nearness maḥall al-qurba.
وَإِنْ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ إِلَّا لَيُؤْمِنَنَّ بِهِ قَبْلَ مَوْتِهِ ۖ وَيَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ يَكُونُ عَلَيْهِمْ شَهِيدًا
📘 And there is not one of the people of the scripture but will assuredly believe in him before his death; and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them. Because He determined that there will be no protection amān granted to them at the time of despair their faith īmān at that time will not benefit them. This tells us that what is taken into consideration [comes from] the protection āmān granted by the Real not from the faith īmān of the servant.
وَاللَّذَانِ يَأْتِيَانِهَا مِنْكُمْ فَآذُوهُمَا ۖ فَإِنْ تَابَا وَأَصْلَحَا فَأَعْرِضُوا عَنْهُمَا ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ تَوَّابًا رَحِيمًا
📘 And when two of you commit it punish them both; but if they repent and make amends then leave them be. God ever turns [relenting] and is Merciful. The command to various modes of punishment for those who do this act is the strongest way to kindly communicate [the advice] to prevent and stay away from it so that the servant might be on his guard and not become deserving of the greater punishment.
فَبِظُلْمٍ مِنَ الَّذِينَ هَادُوا حَرَّمْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ طَيِّبَاتٍ أُحِلَّتْ لَهُمْ وَبِصَدِّهِمْ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ كَثِيرًا
📘 And for the wrongdoing of those who are Jews, We forbade them certain good things. Embarking on prohibited things necessitates the forbidding of licit things. If you see gentleness and generosity reaching a servant, it is because he has preserved the outward of the Shariah and has wanted to show reverence to it in spirit and heart. Inevitably, he has reached the repose of whispered prayers and the gentle favors of union's gifts. In contrast, if you see harshness and severity, it is because he has looked with denial on the sanctuary of the Shariah and has put to work the religion's prohibited things in following the commanding soul. Yes, that is the way it is: When someone holds back from the outward of the Shariah, the beauty of the Haq- iqah veils its face from him. If someone disdains commands and prohibitions, what wonder if faith and recognition take their bags away from his heart? If not for the Shariah, the turning wheel would stop; if not for the religion, the Twins would quit the sky. [DS 56]
وَأَخْذِهِمُ الرِّبَا وَقَدْ نُهُوا عَنْهُ وَأَكْلِهِمْ أَمْوَالَ النَّاسِ بِالْبَاطِلِ ۚ وَأَعْتَدْنَا لِلْكَافِرِينَ مِنْهُمْ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا
📘 And because of the evildoing of some of those of the Jews We have forbidden them certain good things that were lawful for them and because of their barring from God's way many. And because of their taking usury when they had been forbidden it and their consuming people's wealth through falsehood and We have prepared for the disbelievers among them a painful chastisement. It is said that committing prohibited acts leads to the forbidding of what had been permitted. Whoever commits a prohibited act with his outward self is forbidden that which he used to find in his permitted states and the subtle kindnesses received in his innermost self.
لَٰكِنِ الرَّاسِخُونَ فِي الْعِلْمِ مِنْهُمْ وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِمَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْكَ وَمَا أُنْزِلَ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ ۚ وَالْمُقِيمِينَ الصَّلَاةَ ۚ وَالْمُؤْتُونَ الزَّكَاةَ وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ أُولَٰئِكَ سَنُؤْتِيهِمْ أَجْرًا عَظِيمًا
📘 But those who are firmly rooted in knowledge The firmly rooted in knowledge are those who have obtained the varieties of knowledge: knowl- edge of the Shariah, knowledge of the Tariqah, and knowledge of the Haqiqah. Knowledge of the Shariah is to be learned, knowledge of the Tariqah is to be practiced, and knowledge of the Haqiqah is to be found. Concerning knowledge of the Shariah He says, “Ask the folk of the remembrance” [16:43]. Concerning knowledge of the Tariqah He says, “Seek the means of approach to Him” [5:35]. Concerning knowledge of the Haqiqah He says, “We taught him knowledge from Us” [18:65]. He turned knowledge of the Shariah over to a teacher, He turned knowledge of the Tariqah over to a pir, and He turned knowledge of the Haqiqah over to Himself. Whoever fancies that he has no use for the intermediary of a teacher in knowledge of the Shari- ah is a heretic. Whoever claims that knowledge of the Tariqah is possible without a pir is a tempter. Whoever says that the teacher of knowledge of the Haqiqah is other than the Real is deluded. It has been said that those firmly rooted in knowledge are those who learn the knowledge of the Shariah and then put it into practice with self-purification to the point that they perceive the knowledge of the Haqiqah in their secret core. Thus MuṣṬafā said, “When someone acts on what he knows, God will bequeath him knowledge of what he does not know.” When someone does not put the knowledge of the Shariah into practice, he has wasted his knowledge, and it becomes an argument against him. When someone puts it into practice, his outward knowledge becomes an argument to his benefit, and he receives the knowledge of the Haqiqah as a gift.
۞ إِنَّا أَوْحَيْنَا إِلَيْكَ كَمَا أَوْحَيْنَا إِلَىٰ نُوحٍ وَالنَّبِيِّينَ مِنْ بَعْدِهِ ۚ وَأَوْحَيْنَا إِلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَإِسْمَاعِيلَ وَإِسْحَاقَ وَيَعْقُوبَ وَالْأَسْبَاطِ وَعِيسَىٰ وَأَيُّوبَ وَيُونُسَ وَهَارُونَ وَسُلَيْمَانَ ۚ وَآتَيْنَا دَاوُودَ زَبُورًا
📘 Surely We have revealed to thee as We revealed to Noah, and the prophets after him. The two worlds are built on the foundation of prophethood's exaltedness, and prophethood's fruit is the beauty of the Shariah. The Shariah is the right path, and the prophets are the marks of the path. Until the leader sees the road, he does not lead. I invite to God upon insight, I and whosoever follows me [12:108]. The Exalted Lord sent the prophets to the people so that they would make apparent the road of obedience, and the servants, on the basis of that obedience, might reach gener- ous bestowal and reward; and, so that they would make apparent the road of disobedience and warn against it. Then the servants may avoid disobedience and not be deemed worthy for punishment. This then is infinite bounty and endless generosity. If He had left the servants in place, not sent the Messenger, and not held the lamp of guidance with the hand of the Messenger in their road, the servants would have remained within the wrap of their createdness and the darkness of their own opinions. They would have eaten everything that is their poison and done everything within which is their destruction. So, you should believe that the prophets are mercy and leaders for the world's folk. They are the best of the creatures and the chosen among mortal men. They are the callers at the top of the street of friendship and the cupbearers at the lip of the water of life. They are the title-page of the Shariah and the proof of the Haqiqah. If there is a goal in creating the engendered beings, it is they. If the Haqiqah has a treasure, they are its keepers. Surely We have revealed to thee…. The command came, “O paragon of east and west, O emulated in the two realms of being! A shining light has reached you from the world of revela- tion called 'messengerhood.' Before you We gave to the messengers, each in his own measure. As for that which is beyond the world of messengerhood and accords with the drinking place of your good fortune, it was not fitting to reach any wrongdoer or be grasped by the good fortune of any traveler.” The allusion to this by the paragon of the world was this: “I was given the Qur'an and the like of it along with it.” In other words, “As much as I have spoken to you from the world of prophethood with the tongue of messengerhood, just as much has been spoken to me from the world of the Haqiqah with the tongue of revelation.” This is exactly what he said elsewhere: “I have a moment with God embraced by no proximate angel, nor any sent prophet.”
وَرُسُلًا قَدْ قَصَصْنَاهُمْ عَلَيْكَ مِنْ قَبْلُ وَرُسُلًا لَمْ نَقْصُصْهُمْ عَلَيْكَ ۚ وَكَلَّمَ اللَّهُ مُوسَىٰ تَكْلِيمًا
📘 And messengers We have told you of before and messengers We have not told you of; and God spoke directly to Moses. God's way sunna regarding his friends awliyāÌ is to veil some and to make others known. This is also His way with the prophets [���� ������]. He pro- claims the names of some and refers to others in a general way. Belief is obligatory in all the prophets as a whole and individually just as respect is obligatory for all of the friends as a whole and individually. Likewise He veils some of the states of the servants and makes others apparent. He asks for purity and sincerity with regard to what He makes apparent to them. With regard to what He veils from them He jealously protects their hearts from viewing these states as an entitlement that gives them special claim to the meanings of the realities He has singled out for them. [His words] and God spoke directly to Moses tell of His selecting [Moses] to hear His speech without intermediary.
رُسُلًا مُبَشِّرِينَ وَمُنْذِرِينَ لِئَلَّا يَكُونَ لِلنَّاسِ عَلَى اللَّهِ حُجَّةٌ بَعْدَ الرُّسُلِ ۚ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ عَزِيزًا حَكِيمًا
📘 messengers bearing good tidings and warning so that people might have no argument against God after the messengers. God is ever Mighty Wise. He informed created beings of the measure of [the messengers'] worth. He explained that He sent the messengers to them and that they should look to them alone for the gathering of their reward and to avoid what would make them deserving of punishment. [He explained] that created beings have no [other] way to the comfort they seek or the hurt they wish to avoid in the present or in the end. So that people might have no argument against God after the mes- sengers. God is ever Mighty Wise: How could one who has need ḥāja of God have an argument ḥujja against Godḍ But God addressed them in accordance with their understandings.
لَٰكِنِ اللَّهُ يَشْهَدُ بِمَا أَنْزَلَ إِلَيْكَ ۖ أَنْزَلَهُ بِعِلْمِهِ ۖ وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ يَشْهَدُونَ ۚ وَكَفَىٰ بِاللَّهِ شَهِيدًا
📘 But God bears witness with what He has revealed to you; He has revealed it through His knowledge; and the angels also bear witness; and God suffices as a Witness. In mentioning His knowledge of [the Prophet's] sincerity God consoled him for the lies that created beings told about him. For this reason He said �God suffices as a Witness.�
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَصَدُّوا عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ قَدْ ضَلُّوا ضَلَالًا بَعِيدًا
📘 Surely those who disbelieve and bar [people] from the way of God they have indeed gone far astray. Surely those who disbelieve and who have done wrong it is not for God to forgive them neither to guide them to any path except for the path of hell abiding therein forever; and for God that is an easy matter. He made their barring believers from following the truth the equivalent of their disbelief in God. [In equating these two] God most high treats the rights of His friends as seriously as He treats His own right. Then He said surely those who disbelieve and who have done wrong. He made their wrongdoing ẓulm the same as their disbelief kufr and attached to both of these the justly deserved abiding punishment. Even if wrongdoing is not like disbelief in deserving the threat of endless duration the misfortune of it is that God may abandon those who do it until they succumb to disbelief.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَظَلَمُوا لَمْ يَكُنِ اللَّهُ لِيَغْفِرَ لَهُمْ وَلَا لِيَهْدِيَهُمْ طَرِيقًا
📘 Surely those who disbelieve and bar [people] from the way of God they have indeed gone far astray. Surely those who disbelieve and who have done wrong it is not for God to forgive them neither to guide them to any path except for the path of hell abiding therein forever; and for God that is an easy matter. He made their barring believers from following the truth the equivalent of their disbelief in God. [In equating these two] God most high treats the rights of His friends as seriously as He treats His own right. Then He said surely those who disbelieve and who have done wrong. He made their wrongdoing ẓulm the same as their disbelief kufr and attached to both of these the justly deserved abiding punishment. Even if wrongdoing is not like disbelief in deserving the threat of endless duration the misfortune of it is that God may abandon those who do it until they succumb to disbelief.
إِلَّا طَرِيقَ جَهَنَّمَ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا أَبَدًا ۚ وَكَانَ ذَٰلِكَ عَلَى اللَّهِ يَسِيرًا
📘 Surely those who disbelieve and bar [people] from the way of God they have indeed gone far astray. Surely those who disbelieve and who have done wrong it is not for God to forgive them neither to guide them to any path except for the path of hell abiding therein forever; and for God that is an easy matter. He made their barring believers from following the truth the equivalent of their disbelief in God. [In equating these two] God most high treats the rights of His friends as seriously as He treats His own right. Then He said surely those who disbelieve and who have done wrong. He made their wrongdoing ẓulm the same as their disbelief kufr and attached to both of these the justly deserved abiding punishment. Even if wrongdoing is not like disbelief in deserving the threat of endless duration the misfortune of it is that God may abandon those who do it until they succumb to disbelief.
إِنَّمَا التَّوْبَةُ عَلَى اللَّهِ لِلَّذِينَ يَعْمَلُونَ السُّوءَ بِجَهَالَةٍ ثُمَّ يَتُوبُونَ مِنْ قَرِيبٍ فَأُولَٰئِكَ يَتُوبُ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ ۗ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ عَلِيمًا حَكِيمًا
📘 It is for God to turn only toward those who do the ugly in ignorance and then soon turn. Those-God will turn toward them. And God is knowing, wise. Turning/repentance [tawba] is the mark of the road, the leader to the court, the key to the treasure, the intercessor of union, the head of every happiness, and the basis of freedom. First is regret in the heart, second apology with the tongue, and then cutting off from bad things and bad people. It has come in the report that when someone repents but does not put aside bad friends, he is not a repenter. When someone repents but does not put aside food and drink, he is not a repenter. When someone repents but does not put aside his bedclothes and empty his eyes of sleep, he is not a repenter. When someone repents but does not expend the wealth left over after food, he is not a repenter. The precondition of repentance is that you detach your heart from all existent things and turn it toward the Real. You discipline all the blood and flesh in your seven bodily members. Repentance is the precursor of the fire that comes from the bottom of hell so that today you will do to yourself with the water of your eyes what will be done to you tomorrow by the fire. Repentance is a mes- sage sent to you from the Presence: “O chevalier! How long will you make war? How long will you break the covenant? Come back, make peace! “O falcon taken to the sky, come back, don't go! My fingers hold the end of your thread! “O free man! How long have you been asleep? Wake up, it's morning, and you are thirsty for the wine of yearning. Look, it's time for the morning draft! How long will your heart and covenant stay broken? It is time to accept advice and to repent sincerely.”
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ قَدْ جَاءَكُمُ الرَّسُولُ بِالْحَقِّ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ فَآمِنُوا خَيْرًا لَكُمْ ۚ وَإِنْ تَكْفُرُوا فَإِنَّ لِلَّهِ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ ۚ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ عَلِيمًا حَكِيمًا
📘 O people, the Messenger has come to you with the truth from your Lord, so have faith; that is better for you. But if you disbelieve, to God belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth. The allusion of the verse is that the threshold of Lordhood and the majesty of Unity has no need for the obedience of the obedient. He is pure of the worship of the creatures in heaven and earth. If all that is creation-the spheres and heavens, the existing things and the things coming to nothing- ness-went back to the concealment of nonexistence, that would not harm His purity and lordhood. There is no need for them to be joined with Him. The beauty of His Unity is His eternity, and the majesty of His eternity is His solitariness. There is a sound hadith from Abū Dharr Ghifārī, from God's Messenger, from God, that He said, “O My servants, I have forbidden Myself to do wrong, and all of it is forbidden to you. So My servants, do not wrong each other! Surely you are the ones who err by night and day, and I am the one who forgives sins and does not care. So ask forgiveness of Me, and I will forgive you. “O My servants, if the first of you and the last of you and the men of you and the jinn of you had the heart of the most godwary man among you, that would add nothing to My kingdom. O My servants, if the first of you and the last of you and the men of you and the jinn of you had the heart of the most depraved man among you, that would diminish nothing from My kingdom. O My servants, if the first of you and the last of you and the men of you and the jinn of you were to ask from Me and I were to give every man among them what he asked for, that would diminish nothing from Me, except as the ocean is diminished when a needle is dipped into it once.” But if you disbelieve, to God belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth. He is saying, “If all creatures were to put aside the activity of servants and loosen the belt of obedience, they would not be able to go outside of servanthood, nor could they lift away from themselves the bonds of slavehood in respect of creation.
يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لَا تَغْلُوا فِي دِينِكُمْ وَلَا تَقُولُوا عَلَى اللَّهِ إِلَّا الْحَقَّ ۚ إِنَّمَا الْمَسِيحُ عِيسَى ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ وَكَلِمَتُهُ أَلْقَاهَا إِلَىٰ مَرْيَمَ وَرُوحٌ مِنْهُ ۖ فَآمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَرُسُلِهِ ۖ وَلَا تَقُولُوا ثَلَاثَةٌ ۚ انْتَهُوا خَيْرًا لَكُمْ ۚ إِنَّمَا اللَّهُ إِلَٰهٌ وَاحِدٌ ۖ سُبْحَانَهُ أَنْ يَكُونَ لَهُ وَلَدٌ ۘ لَهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ ۗ وَكَفَىٰ بِاللَّهِ وَكِيلًا
📘 O people of the scripture do not go to extremes in your religion and do not say about God except the truth: the Messiah Jesus the son of Mary was only the Messenger of God and His word which He cast to Mary and a spirit from Him. So believe in God and His messengers and do not say �Three.� Refrain it is better for you. Verily God is but One God. Glory be to Him that He should have a son! To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and in the earth. God suffices as a Guardian. Their going to extremes in their religion [refers to] their following their own opinion since they described what they worshiped in the likeness of created beings. [This] was also contradictory since they said one is three and three is one. To persevere in what is false only increases the falseness.
لَنْ يَسْتَنْكِفَ الْمَسِيحُ أَنْ يَكُونَ عَبْدًا لِلَّهِ وَلَا الْمَلَائِكَةُ الْمُقَرَّبُونَ ۚ وَمَنْ يَسْتَنْكِفْ عَنْ عِبَادَتِهِ وَيَسْتَكْبِرْ فَسَيَحْشُرُهُمْ إِلَيْهِ جَمِيعًا
📘 The Messiah would never disdain to be a servant of God neither would the angels who are nigh. Whoever disdains to worship Him and waxes proud He will assuredly muster them to Him all of them. As for those who believed who did righteous deeds He will pay them their wages in full and He will give them more of His bounty; How can they disdain the worship of Him when one's honor and dignity sharaf [comes] through worshipḍ How can they be too proud to humble themselves when one's ruin talaf [comes] from being too proudḍ Because of this matter the first words the Messiah spoke were Lo! I am God's servant [19:30]. Servants become beautiful in their humility toward [their] masters. This is something well known and without doubt. [The phrase] neither would the angels who are nigh does not imply that [the angels] are superior to the Messiah. Rather [God] was addressing them in accordance with their beliefs-they believed in the superiority of the angels over human beings.and as for those who disdain and are too proud He will chastise them with a painful chastisement and they shall not find for themselves besides God any friend or helper. The painful chastisement is that they will never attain to the communion [of lovers] after they have come to know His majesty. When what they know becomes indisputable they will know that they have been left behind. Their sorrow on that day for what has slipped away from them will be their most intense punishment.
فَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ فَيُوَفِّيهِمْ أُجُورَهُمْ وَيَزِيدُهُمْ مِنْ فَضْلِهِ ۖ وَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ اسْتَنْكَفُوا وَاسْتَكْبَرُوا فَيُعَذِّبُهُمْ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا وَلَا يَجِدُونَ لَهُمْ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ وَلِيًّا وَلَا نَصِيرًا
📘 The Messiah would never disdain to be a servant of God neither would the angels who are nigh. Whoever disdains to worship Him and waxes proud He will assuredly muster them to Him all of them. As for those who believed who did righteous deeds He will pay them their wages in full and He will give them more of His bounty; How can they disdain the worship of Him when one's honor and dignity sharaf [comes] through worshipḍ How can they be too proud to humble themselves when one's ruin talaf [comes] from being too proudḍ Because of this matter the first words the Messiah spoke were Lo! I am God's servant [19:30]. Servants become beautiful in their humility toward [their] masters. This is something well known and without doubt. [The phrase] neither would the angels who are nigh does not imply that [the angels] are superior to the Messiah. Rather [God] was addressing them in accordance with their beliefs-they believed in the superiority of the angels over human beings.and as for those who disdain and are too proud He will chastise them with a painful chastisement and they shall not find for themselves besides God any friend or helper. The painful chastisement is that they will never attain to the communion [of lovers] after they have come to know His majesty. When what they know becomes indisputable they will know that they have been left behind. Their sorrow on that day for what has slipped away from them will be their most intense punishment.
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ قَدْ جَاءَكُمْ بُرْهَانٌ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ وَأَنْزَلْنَا إِلَيْكُمْ نُورًا مُبِينًا
📘 O people, a proof has come to you from your Lord, and We have sent down to you a clear light. The majestic Unity is placing a favor on the center point of mortal nature: “We have lit two lamps for you, one in the heart, the other in front of you. The one in front of you is the lamp of the Sun- nah, which is the proof itself, and the one in the heart is the lamp of faith and the shining light. Happy is the servant who walks between these two lamps! Who is more exalted than he in whose heart the greatest light is shining and the eyes of whose heart sees the eyes and face of the Friend face-to-face! One breath with the Friend is worth the two worlds. One vision of the Friend for a hundred thousand spirits is gratis!” In gratitude I will also send my spirit to You- a whiff of union with You does what a hundred spirits cannot.
فَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَاعْتَصَمُوا بِهِ فَسَيُدْخِلُهُمْ فِي رَحْمَةٍ مِنْهُ وَفَضْلٍ وَيَهْدِيهِمْ إِلَيْهِ صِرَاطًا مُسْتَقِيمًا
📘 As for those who have faith in God and hold fast to Him, He will make them enter into mercy from Him, and bounty, and He will guide them to Him on a straight path. From the servant come faith and holding fast by way of servanthood, and from the Exalted Lord bounty and mercy in the attribute of loving kindness. Then He says, “He will guide them to Him on a straight path.” He will give them the guidance and rectitude to know that the recompense they find and the generosity they see come from God's bounty and mercy, not from their faith and holding fast. As the Prophet said, “There is none of you who will be saved by his deeds.” They said, “Not even you, O Messenger of God?” He said, “Not even I-unless God envelops me with His mercy.”
يَسْتَفْتُونَكَ قُلِ اللَّهُ يُفْتِيكُمْ فِي الْكَلَالَةِ ۚ إِنِ امْرُؤٌ هَلَكَ لَيْسَ لَهُ وَلَدٌ وَلَهُ أُخْتٌ فَلَهَا نِصْفُ مَا تَرَكَ ۚ وَهُوَ يَرِثُهَا إِنْ لَمْ يَكُنْ لَهَا وَلَدٌ ۚ فَإِنْ كَانَتَا اثْنَتَيْنِ فَلَهُمَا الثُّلُثَانِ مِمَّا تَرَكَ ۚ وَإِنْ كَانُوا إِخْوَةً رِجَالًا وَنِسَاءً فَلِلذَّكَرِ مِثْلُ حَظِّ الْأُنْثَيَيْنِ ۗ يُبَيِّنُ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ أَنْ تَضِلُّوا ۗ وَاللَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ
📘 They will ask you for a pronouncement. Say: �God pronounces to you concerning indirect heirs. If a man perishes having no children but he has a sister hers is half of what he leaves and he is her heir if she has no children. If there be two sisters theirs are two-thirds of what he leaves; if there be siblings men and women then the male shall receive the equivalent of the portion of two females. God makes clear to you lest you go astray; and God has knowledge of all things.� He cut short their disputes regarding the apportioning of inheritance by proclaiming the formula determined for them for truly wealth is an object of desire for humankind and the lower selves nufūs are prone to greed. If the appropriate amounts were not decisively determined doubts would arise from the use of independent judgment ijtihād and this would lead to contention and mutual attacks. This summation [of the portions of inheritance] definitively establishes the inheritance amounts for the dispu- tants. His designation of inheritance rights for women-even when their closest relatives do not defend them-shows consideration for their weaker position. [On the other hand] the preference given to males over them is because of the burdens [they have been given] in providing and seeking income and in supporting [women].
وَلَيْسَتِ التَّوْبَةُ لِلَّذِينَ يَعْمَلُونَ السَّيِّئَاتِ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا حَضَرَ أَحَدَهُمُ الْمَوْتُ قَالَ إِنِّي تُبْتُ الْآنَ وَلَا الَّذِينَ يَمُوتُونَ وَهُمْ كُفَّارٌ ۚ أُولَٰئِكَ أَعْتَدْنَا لَهُمْ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا
📘 This turning will not belong to those who keep on doing ugly deeds until death is present for one of them, and then he says: “Surely now I have turned.” In the tongue of learning, one must repent before death, even if it be one moment. In the tongue of practice, one must repent before the soul has the habit of seeing itself and worshiping itself. When someone is pleased with himself and gazes upon himself habitually, the door to repentance has been shut to him and the water of deliverance taken away from him. Quit being the companion of self-nurturing habit-worshipers! Kiss the dust beneath the feet of those who have disowned self! [DS 972] Not everyone who has repented in the road of the Shariah, thereby reaching pardon and forgive- ness, has reached truthfulness in love in respect of the Haqiqah. For a long time David the prophet wept and pleaded. At last it was said to him, “O David! Why do you weep when I have forgiven you, made your adversaries content, and accepted your repentance?” He said, “Lord God, I know, but give me back those sweet moments I had in Your companion- ship and those breaths I had with You in seclusion!” He said, “David, take heed! That is a love that has passed.” From now on leave the way open for the eyes to weep for the days of limpidness have no way to return. * Oh pain, Oh regret-of that standing and sitting in prayer I have dust on the head and wind in the hand.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا يَحِلُّ لَكُمْ أَنْ تَرِثُوا النِّسَاءَ كَرْهًا ۖ وَلَا تَعْضُلُوهُنَّ لِتَذْهَبُوا بِبَعْضِ مَا آتَيْتُمُوهُنَّ إِلَّا أَنْ يَأْتِينَ بِفَاحِشَةٍ مُبَيِّنَةٍ ۚ وَعَاشِرُوهُنَّ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ ۚ فَإِنْ كَرِهْتُمُوهُنَّ فَعَسَىٰ أَنْ تَكْرَهُوا شَيْئًا وَيَجْعَلَ اللَّهُ فِيهِ خَيْرًا كَثِيرًا
📘 O you who have faith, it is not lawful for you to inherit women against their will, neither debar them from marriage that you may go off with part of what you have given them, unless they commit a flagrant indecency. Consort with them honorably. For, if you are averse to them, it may be that you are averse to something within which God has placed much good. This is a call, an admonishment, an allusion, a bearing witness, and a ruling. O is the call, you is the admonishment, who is the allusion, have faith is the bearing witness. It is not lawful for you to inherit women against their will is the ruling. The explanation of the ruling is that women are considered weak, and they are imprisoned beneath your severity. Beware of tormenting them, and do not rule over them by way of scheming and deceit. Do not be severe, and do not ask of them what the Shariah does not approve. On the contrary, live with them honorably. Consort with them honorably, that is, with the teachings of the religion and by modeling one's courtesy on the character traits of the submitted.3 Show them the road of the religion and religios- ity and teach them the courteous acts of being a Muslim and the Shariah. And protect them from the Fire, as He says in another place: “Shield yourselves and your families from a fire” [66:6]. Preserve the courteous acts of companionship when consorting with them and tolerate suffering from them, but do not place on them the burden of your service, making them suffer for you. Although outwardly and specifically He is talking about women, by way of allusion He is talking generally about all Muslims. He is saying, “Watch out so that you never see yourself as having a mandatory rightful due from, or an excellence over, any other Muslim. Do not ask those above you to serve you, and do not push yourself on those beneath you. Do not use force against the folk of weakness, but rather strive to show consideration and give comfort to them and seek proximity to them.” Revelation came to David: “O David, if you see someone broken in My road, or someone whose heart has been lost in My work, take care to serve him.
وَآتُوا الْيَتَامَىٰ أَمْوَالَهُمْ ۖ وَلَا تَتَبَدَّلُوا الْخَبِيثَ بِالطَّيِّبِ ۖ وَلَا تَأْكُلُوا أَمْوَالَهُمْ إِلَىٰ أَمْوَالِكُمْ ۚ إِنَّهُ كَانَ حُوبًا كَبِيرًا
📘 Give the orphans their property and do not exchange the evil for the good and absorb not their property into your property; surely that is a great crime: Whoever has been given charge over others and then acts unjustly toward those under his charge his adversary is his Lord for He ������ avenges His servants what He will not avenge for His own sake. If the protector of the orphan acts with justice and beneficence then his right is protected by God and if he behaves badly and aggressively God is his adversary.
وَإِنْ أَرَدْتُمُ اسْتِبْدَالَ زَوْجٍ مَكَانَ زَوْجٍ وَآتَيْتُمْ إِحْدَاهُنَّ قِنْطَارًا فَلَا تَأْخُذُوا مِنْهُ شَيْئًا ۚ أَتَأْخُذُونَهُ بُهْتَانًا وَإِثْمًا مُبِينًا
📘 If you desire to exchange a wife in place of another... This is the realization of generosity in the religion of friendship and the smoothing of the founda- tion of chivalry. He is saying, “Do not join the cruelty of separation with taking back livelihood, for this is not the work of the generous and it is unworthy of the chevaliers! You have put the scar of separation in the poor woman's heart, so do not cut off the hand of her expenditures! If you take back what you gave, you will place a scar on her scar.” Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī had a wife whom he divorced, and then he sent her plentiful wealth. He said about her, “The tribulation of our separation is enough. I must not put upon her the suffering of neediness as well.” They say the wealth was 40,000 dirhams. The woman dumped that wealth on the ground and said, “Paltry goods from a departed lover!”
وَكَيْفَ تَأْخُذُونَهُ وَقَدْ أَفْضَىٰ بَعْضُكُمْ إِلَىٰ بَعْضٍ وَأَخَذْنَ مِنْكُمْ مِيثَاقًا غَلِيظًا
📘 How shall you take it when each of you has been privily with the other and they have taken from you a solemn covenant. It means that the prior companionship has a firm inviolability so out of respect to its due stop and keep to what the covenant requires.
وَلَا تَنْكِحُوا مَا نَكَحَ آبَاؤُكُمْ مِنَ النِّسَاءِ إِلَّا مَا قَدْ سَلَفَ ۚ إِنَّهُ كَانَ فَاحِشَةً وَمَقْتًا وَسَاءَ سَبِيلًا
📘 And do not marry women whom your fathers married unless it be a thing of the past; surely that is obscene and abominable an evil way. This verse alludes to the protection of honor and staying within the limits of respect. If it is natural for a man to hate that another should bed his wife then sons should be forbidden from disregarding the rights of their fathers in seeking to bed their [fathers'] wives.
حُرِّمَتْ عَلَيْكُمْ أُمَّهَاتُكُمْ وَبَنَاتُكُمْ وَأَخَوَاتُكُمْ وَعَمَّاتُكُمْ وَخَالَاتُكُمْ وَبَنَاتُ الْأَخِ وَبَنَاتُ الْأُخْتِ وَأُمَّهَاتُكُمُ اللَّاتِي أَرْضَعْنَكُمْ وَأَخَوَاتُكُمْ مِنَ الرَّضَاعَةِ وَأُمَّهَاتُ نِسَائِكُمْ وَرَبَائِبُكُمُ اللَّاتِي فِي حُجُورِكُمْ مِنْ نِسَائِكُمُ اللَّاتِي دَخَلْتُمْ بِهِنَّ فَإِنْ لَمْ تَكُونُوا دَخَلْتُمْ بِهِنَّ فَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَحَلَائِلُ أَبْنَائِكُمُ الَّذِينَ مِنْ أَصْلَابِكُمْ وَأَنْ تَجْمَعُوا بَيْنَ الْأُخْتَيْنِ إِلَّا مَا قَدْ سَلَفَ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ غَفُورًا رَحِيمًا
📘 Forbidden to you are your mothers and daughters, your sisters…. The allusion in this verse is that the Shariah is built on making oneself a servant, not on self-exer- tion; the canon of the religion is transmitted, not rationally derived; and the basis of the Sunnah is surrender, not looking for reasons. Surrender is an easy road, its domicile flourishing, its goal the approval of the All-Merciful. Self-exertion and self-determination are a difficult road, their domicile in ruins, their goal un- wholesome. Watch out! Jump away from the road of self-exertion and cling to surrender. Avoid self-determination and looking for reasons. Whatever the Shariah has declared forbidden, consider it forbidden-a consignment by the Desire, built upon the Will. If it had been permitted in place of forbidden, the same would be the case, for it would have been current in the holy Shariah and would have no cause or ambiguity. For He is the Real-majestic is His majesty! He does whatso- ever He wills [3:40] and decrees whatsoever He desires [5:1]. He forbids what He wills to those whom He wills and He allows what He wills to those whom He wills. His artisanry has no cause and His decree no protester.
۞ وَالْمُحْصَنَاتُ مِنَ النِّسَاءِ إِلَّا مَا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَانُكُمْ ۖ كِتَابَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ ۚ وَأُحِلَّ لَكُمْ مَا وَرَاءَ ذَٰلِكُمْ أَنْ تَبْتَغُوا بِأَمْوَالِكُمْ مُحْصِنِينَ غَيْرَ مُسَافِحِينَ ۚ فَمَا اسْتَمْتَعْتُمْ بِهِ مِنْهُنَّ فَآتُوهُنَّ أُجُورَهُنَّ فَرِيضَةً ۚ وَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْكُمْ فِيمَا تَرَاضَيْتُمْ بِهِ مِنْ بَعْدِ الْفَرِيضَةِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلِيمًا حَكِيمًا
📘 And wedded women save what your right hands own this is what God has prescribed for you. Lawful for you beyond all that is that you seek using your wealth in wedlock and not illicitly. Such wives as you enjoy thereby give them their wages as an obligation; you are not at fault in agreeing together after the obligation. God is ever Knowing Wise. When you stay mindful of the limits ḥudūd respect agreements ʿuhūd and obtain mutual consent with women33 according to the law there will be no enmity in it for people and no punishment to follow from it from the Real ������ for that is lawful and without further restriction.
وَمَنْ لَمْ يَسْتَطِعْ مِنْكُمْ طَوْلًا أَنْ يَنْكِحَ الْمُحْصَنَاتِ الْمُؤْمِنَاتِ فَمِنْ مَا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَانُكُمْ مِنْ فَتَيَاتِكُمُ الْمُؤْمِنَاتِ ۚ وَاللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِإِيمَانِكُمْ ۚ بَعْضُكُمْ مِنْ بَعْضٍ ۚ فَانْكِحُوهُنَّ بِإِذْنِ أَهْلِهِنَّ وَآتُوهُنَّ أُجُورَهُنَّ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ مُحْصَنَاتٍ غَيْرَ مُسَافِحَاتٍ وَلَا مُتَّخِذَاتِ أَخْدَانٍ ۚ فَإِذَا أُحْصِنَّ فَإِنْ أَتَيْنَ بِفَاحِشَةٍ فَعَلَيْهِنَّ نِصْفُ مَا عَلَى الْمُحْصَنَاتِ مِنَ الْعَذَابِ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ لِمَنْ خَشِيَ الْعَنَتَ مِنْكُمْ ۚ وَأَنْ تَصْبِرُوا خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
📘 And whoever has not the means wherewith to be able to marry believing women in wedlock let him take believing maids whom your right hands own. God knows very well your faith; the one of you is as the other. So marry them with the permission of their folk and give them their wages honorably as women in wedlock not illicitly or taking lovers. But when they are given in wedlock if they commit lewdness they shall be liable to half the chastisement of married women. That is for those of you who fear the distress of sin yet it is better for you to be patient. God is Forgiving Merciful. Concessions have been granted for the weak. As for the strong He bids them to serious endeavor and the adoption of what is most comprehen- sive and restrictive in the law since there is no work for them except to uphold the right of the Real ḥaqq al-ḥaqq. When an external matter distracts them from their attention to the heart so that they adopt what is easier and less this takes them farther away from their attention to the innermost self for it is an abandonment of the most important and sublime matters. Whoever descends in degree from adopting that which is strongest and most comprehensive-[this decline] to what is permissible for him [is actually] a decline into the state of indulgence. Then He said at the end of the verse yet it is better for you to be patient. This means [patient] in enduring what is difficult in [your situation]. This is a soothing way [of speaking] to the servant since He did not say �Be patient� but rather yet it is better for you to be patient.
يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ لِيُبَيِّنَ لَكُمْ وَيَهْدِيَكُمْ سُنَنَ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ وَيَتُوبَ عَلَيْكُمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ
📘 God desires to make clear to you and to guide you in the ways of those before you and to turn [in forgiveness] toward you; God is Knowing Wise. When He told the Prophet ﷺ and his community the stories of those from past communities and what they did and how they were dealt with they looked to what would be done with them since there were among them those who also did the impermissible. So they said �If only we knew in what way [God] will deal with us. Will it be abasement metamorphosis35 punishment or whatḍ� So God most high said and to guide you in the ways of those before you We will inform you of that which we did with them and to turn [in forgiveness] toward you. As for you I turn [in forgiveness] to you and as for those who came before you I have already destroyed them utterly. It is said that God desires to make clear to you by unveiling His secrets to you so that what was hidden from others will be made manifest to you. It is said that God desires to make clear to you His singularity in bring- ing things into existence and originating new things-no one else has any part in this. And to guide you in the ways of those before you: the path of the prophets and the friends. This [guidance] is entrusting [everything to God] being content and surrendering completely to the [divine] decree and judgment. It is said: And to turn [in forgiveness] toward you that is He accepts your repentance after having created it and then repays you according to what He has created for you in your repentance.
وَاللَّهُ يُرِيدُ أَنْ يَتُوبَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَيُرِيدُ الَّذِينَ يَتَّبِعُونَ الشَّهَوَاتِ أَنْ تَمِيلُوا مَيْلًا عَظِيمًا
📘 And God desires to turn [forgivingly] toward you but those who follow their passions desire that you deviate with a terrible deviation. God desires to lighten things for you; for man was created weak. He separates here the story of the former from the story of the latter. Whenever God desires to turn toward someone He will not let an enemy gloat over him and He will not give him anything bad in the two abodes. But those who follow their passions shahawāt desire...: Their desire irāda becomes weak enfeebled and held back before the desire irāda of the Real ������. God desires to lighten things for you. This means [the lightening of] the weight of litanies37 through intermittent incomings wāridāt to your hearts. It is said that God desires to lighten what you endure in struggles mujāhadāt with the lights of witnessings mushāhadāt that enter deeply into your hearts. It is said that God desires to lighten the burdens of service for you with the sweetness of acts of obedience. It is said that He lightens the difficulties of the trust amāna for you by carrying its burden for you. It is said that He lightens the hardships of seeking with the refreshment of arriving. For man was created weak: He describes by this their need and affliction Ḍurr but does not accept40 by this their excuse ʿudhr.
يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ أَنْ يُخَفِّفَ عَنْكُمْ ۚ وَخُلِقَ الْإِنْسَانُ ضَعِيفًا
📘 And man was created weak. Wherever the name “man” comes in the Qur'an, a displeasing attribute is linked to it. Thus He said, “Surely man is a great wrongdoer, ungrateful” [14:34]. “Surely man was created anxious” [70:19]. “Surely man is rebellious” [96:6]. “Surely man is ungrateful to his Lord” [100:6]. “Sure- ly man is in loss” [103:2]. This is because man comes from dust, and dust is the basis of density and the root of opacity. The servant's hope is that on the day He created, He saw the faults, and then He bought along with the faults. You bought me with my faults on the first day! The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O Lord, you called me ignorant. What comes from the ignorant other than disloyalty? You called me weak. What comes from the weak other than error? O Lord, take our inability to overcome ourselves as stemming from that weakness. Take our boldness and inso- lence as stemming from that ignorance. O Lord, You lifted us up and no one said, 'Lift up!' Now that You have lifted up, don't put down! Keep us in the shadow of Your bounty!” If You water, You Yourself planted. If you flatten the foundation, You Yourself raised it. I the servant am just what You fancied. Don't throw me down-You lifted me up.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَأْكُلُوا أَمْوَالَكُمْ بَيْنَكُمْ بِالْبَاطِلِ إِلَّا أَنْ تَكُونَ تِجَارَةً عَنْ تَرَاضٍ مِنْكُمْ ۚ وَلَا تَقْتُلُوا أَنْفُسَكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ بِكُمْ رَحِيمًا
📘 O you who believe consume not your goods between you wrongly except it be trading through mutual agreement. And kill not yourselves. Surely God is ever Merciful to you. And whoever does that through aggression and injustice him We shall certainly expose to a fire; and that for God is an easy matter. Every thing spent for something other than God is capital spent for nothing. It is said that [this refers] to withholding in a heedless way and expend- ing from a place other than that of bearing witness to the true reality ḥaqīqa. All of that comes to nothing. And kill not yourselves that is by committing sins. It is said that it is an indirect reference to those things that would incur His wrath ������. It is said [kill not yourselves] by looking to and paying mind to [your lower selves]. It is said [kill not yourselves] by being pleased with [your lower selves] or giving preference to them over the good pleasure of the Real. And whoever does that through aggression and injustice We will not spare him from a fierce punishment. We will entrust [the fire] with its rightful inhabitant nakilahā ilā ṣāḥibihā and give it free rein wa-nalqā ḥablahā ʿalā ghāribihā.
وَإِنْ خِفْتُمْ أَلَّا تُقْسِطُوا فِي الْيَتَامَىٰ فَانْكِحُوا مَا طَابَ لَكُمْ مِنَ النِّسَاءِ مَثْنَىٰ وَثُلَاثَ وَرُبَاعَ ۖ فَإِنْ خِفْتُمْ أَلَّا تَعْدِلُوا فَوَاحِدَةً أَوْ مَا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَانُكُمْ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ أَدْنَىٰ أَلَّا تَعُولُوا
📘 If you fear that you will not act justly toward the orphans marry such women as seem good to you two or three or four but if you fear you will not be equitable then only one or what your right hands own; thus it is likelier that you will not be unjust. And give women their dowries as a free gift; God granted free men the right to marry four women at the same time. He mandated justice between [these wives] so the servant must respect what is obligatory. If he knows that he can uphold this obligation in a proper manner the choice is a permitted one. But if he knows that he will fall short in meeting this obligation he should not do it for he is accountable for what is obligatory. but if they are pleased to offer you any of it of their own accord consume it with wholesome appetite. This suggests that the food of the chivalrous fityān and generous askhiyāÌ is wholesome because they only feed others from good-hearted- ness. The food of the miserly is rotten because they look only to themselves and feed others out of obligation not good-heartedness. [The Prophet] ﷺ said �The food of the generous is a remedy while the food of the miser is a disease.�
وَمَنْ يَفْعَلْ ذَٰلِكَ عُدْوَانًا وَظُلْمًا فَسَوْفَ نُصْلِيهِ نَارًا ۚ وَكَانَ ذَٰلِكَ عَلَى اللَّهِ يَسِيرًا
📘 O you who believe consume not your goods between you wrongly except it be trading through mutual agreement. And kill not yourselves. Surely God is ever Merciful to you. And whoever does that through aggression and injustice him We shall certainly expose to a fire; and that for God is an easy matter. Every thing spent for something other than God is capital spent for nothing. It is said that [this refers] to withholding in a heedless way and expend- ing from a place other than that of bearing witness to the true reality ḥaqīqa. All of that comes to nothing. And kill not yourselves that is by committing sins. It is said that it is an indirect reference to those things that would incur His wrath ������. It is said [kill not yourselves] by looking to and paying mind to [your lower selves]. It is said [kill not yourselves] by being pleased with [your lower selves] or giving preference to them over the good pleasure of the Real. And whoever does that through aggression and injustice We will not spare him from a fierce punishment. We will entrust [the fire] with its rightful inhabitant nakilahā ilā ṣāḥibihā and give it free rein wa-nalqā ḥablahā ʿalā ghāribihā.
إِنْ تَجْتَنِبُوا كَبَائِرَ مَا تُنْهَوْنَ عَنْهُ نُكَفِّرْ عَنْكُمْ سَيِّئَاتِكُمْ وَنُدْخِلْكُمْ مُدْخَلًا كَرِيمًا
📘 If you avoid the great sins prohibited to you, We will acquit you of your ugly deeds and admit you to a generous admitting place. The great sins of the folk of service in the path of the Shariah are what you have heard about. The great sins of the folk of companionship in the street of the Tariqah and in the tongue of allusion are another sort and have another tasting, for the folk of service are one thing, and the folk of com- panionship something else. Those who serve are the wage-earners, and the companions are the proximate. In the traditions has come the saying, “The beautiful deeds of the pious are the ugly deeds of the proximate.” Of the same sort is the saying of the Pir of the Tariqah, “The hypocrisy of the recognizers is better than the self-purification of the desirers.” The basis of this rule is the subtle point MuṣṬafā reported about cloudiness and his asking for- giveness for it. He said, “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.” The mark of the recognizers' great sins is that lassitude sometimes comes over them in the world of their own traveling, and thereby their innate disposition is overpowered by human attri- butes. Their life becomes susceptible to customs and habits, and the realities of their faith come to be mixed with the contaminants of personal motives and marks giving witness to their own shares. In this state of theirs, if a messenger of sound discipline, truthful poverty, and the joy of ecstasy does not come out to welcome them and take their hands, they will not emerge from the pit of their own selfhood. If you want to come out of the pit of status like a man, grab hold of the pearl-encrusted, musk-wafting chain. [DS 719] The great ones of the religion have said that as long as a man does not reach this place of danger and leave behind the station of lassitude, he will not become a pir of the Tariqah and will not be suited to take disciples. A man must have lost the road a thousand times and then returned to it if he is to bring someone who has lost the road back to the road. What is needed first is the road to the road, then the road is needed. Someone who has always been on the road knows the road, but he does not know the road to the road. The secret of the slips of the prophets and their falling into lassitude is this. And God knows best. This is knocking at a magnificent gate. Happy is he for whom it is opened and who is guided to it!
وَلَا تَتَمَنَّوْا مَا فَضَّلَ اللَّهُ بِهِ بَعْضَكُمْ عَلَىٰ بَعْضٍ ۚ لِلرِّجَالِ نَصِيبٌ مِمَّا اكْتَسَبُوا ۖ وَلِلنِّسَاءِ نَصِيبٌ مِمَّا اكْتَسَبْنَ ۚ وَاسْأَلُوا اللَّهَ مِنْ فَضْلِهِ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمًا
📘 Do not wish for that whereby God has preferred some of you over others. Men shall have a portion of what they have earned, and women shall have a portion of what they have earned. But ask God of His bounty. Abū Bakr Kattānī said, “When someone has the opinion that he will arrive without expending ef- fort, he is a wisher, and when someone has the opinion that he will arrive by expending effort, he is a drudge.” Whoever fancies that he will reach the goal without toiling is a wisher, and “The incapable are those who follow their own caprice and wish for God.” Whoever fancies that he will reach the Sought by toil and by seeking the Sought is a drudge. Shaykh al-Islām Anṣārī said, “He is not found by seeking, but the seeker finds. Until he finds Him, he will not seek. Whatever can be found by seeking is of little worth. The servant finds the Real before the seeking, but for him seeking is the earliest step. The recognizer finds seeking from finding, not finding from seeking. In the same way, the obedient person finds obedience from self-purification, not self-purification from obedience; he finds the cause from the meaning, not the meaning from the cause. O God, since finding You is before the seeking and the seeker, I am seeking because unsettledness has overpowered me. The seeker is seeking and the Sought is obtained before the seeking. This is a most marvelous business! What is even more marvelous is that finding has become hard cash when seeking has not yet arisen. The Real is seen but the curtain of exaltedness is in place.” You are a sea of loveliness, a wave of beauty, the law of generous acts, the essence of life. The lovers seeking You are full of longing like Alexander seeking the water of life. It has also been said that the meaning of the verse is this: “You wish for the station of the masters without traveling in their path, clinging to their conduct, and practicing their practices.”4 You want the state of the great ones, but you have not gone on the great ones' road. You search for the Kaabah of union with eyes that have not undertaken struggle. You see the great good fortune of the friends, but you have not seen their tribulation. “Your trouble is wishing that you could be like those who have taken trouble.” You fancy that the pen of the covenant was written easily for the passionate, that it wrote the inscription of friendship on their hearts gratis. But they have been wounded in spirit and heart at every moment, and they have tasted a draft laced with poison. How many nights for the sake of seeing You have I been slapped in the head by the dogs of Your street! But not just anyone is suited for His wounds, and not just anyone is worthy of suffering His pain. May God's mercy be upon those chevaliers who have made their spirits the target of His trial's arrow and recognized their hearts as the litter for His pain's burden! Then, in that trial and sorrow, they hum this tune: If my spirit is worthy of suffering your pain, this share of passion's good fortune is enough for me. Yes, everyone's wound is in the measure of his faith, and everyone's burden is in the measure of his strength. Whenever someone's strength is greater, his burden is heavier. This is the secret of the verse in which He says,
وَلِكُلٍّ جَعَلْنَا مَوَالِيَ مِمَّا تَرَكَ الْوَالِدَانِ وَالْأَقْرَبُونَ ۚ وَالَّذِينَ عَقَدَتْ أَيْمَانُكُمْ فَآتُوهُمْ نَصِيبَهُمْ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ شَهِيدًا
📘 To each We have appointed heirs of that which parents and kinsmen leave and to those to whom your right hands were pledged. So give them their share. God is ever Witness over everything. In the beginning of Islam He made relationships by mutual commitment the equal of relationships of kin in determining inheritance. While this ruling was later abrogated the rule to respect [one another] remained. If this is the manner of relationships by mutual commitment muʿāqada between men what do you think of the mutual covenant muʿāhada with Godḍ God most high said �men who are true to the covenant they made with God� [33:23]. They have recited: Verily those who have died to the religion of whims find the decree of death a sweet watering place.
الرِّجَالُ قَوَّامُونَ عَلَى النِّسَاءِ بِمَا فَضَّلَ اللَّهُ بَعْضَهُمْ عَلَىٰ بَعْضٍ وَبِمَا أَنْفَقُوا مِنْ أَمْوَالِهِمْ ۚ فَالصَّالِحَاتُ قَانِتَاتٌ حَافِظَاتٌ لِلْغَيْبِ بِمَا حَفِظَ اللَّهُ ۚ وَاللَّاتِي تَخَافُونَ نُشُوزَهُنَّ فَعِظُوهُنَّ وَاهْجُرُوهُنَّ فِي الْمَضَاجِعِ وَاضْرِبُوهُنَّ ۖ فَإِنْ أَطَعْنَكُمْ فَلَا تَبْغُوا عَلَيْهِنَّ سَبِيلًا ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلِيًّا كَبِيرًا
📘 The men stand over the women through that with which God has preferred some of them over others and that which they expend of their wealth. He gave the men more than the women because the burden is all on them, for theirs is the perfec- tion of strength and the eminence of aspiration. They carry burdens in the measure of strength or in the measure of aspiration. “Resolutions are made in the measure of the folk of resoluteness.”
وَإِنْ خِفْتُمْ شِقَاقَ بَيْنِهِمَا فَابْعَثُوا حَكَمًا مِنْ أَهْلِهِ وَحَكَمًا مِنْ أَهْلِهَا إِنْ يُرِيدَا إِصْلَاحًا يُوَفِّقِ اللَّهُ بَيْنَهُمَا ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلِيمًا خَبِيرًا
📘 And if you fear a breach between the two send forth an arbiter from his folk and an arbiter from her folk if they desire to set things right God will grant them success. Surely God is ever Knower Aware. It is said that you have the right to her obedience in terms of the body but as for love and inclination toward you in the heart that is up to God. So do not burden her with what God has not provided for you from her. Hearts are in the power of God and He causes love within them toward whom He will and makes them hate whom He will. It is said that if they then obey you do not seek a way against them that is do not forget her loyalty in the past because of a single incident of antipa- thy in the present for perhaps the situation will become amicable again.
۞ وَاعْبُدُوا اللَّهَ وَلَا تُشْرِكُوا بِهِ شَيْئًا ۖ وَبِالْوَالِدَيْنِ إِحْسَانًا وَبِذِي الْقُرْبَىٰ وَالْيَتَامَىٰ وَالْمَسَاكِينِ وَالْجَارِ ذِي الْقُرْبَىٰ وَالْجَارِ الْجُنُبِ وَالصَّاحِبِ بِالْجَنْبِ وَابْنِ السَّبِيلِ وَمَا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَانُكُمْ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ مَنْ كَانَ مُخْتَالًا فَخُورًا
📘 Worship God, and associate nothing with Him, and act beautifully toward parents, and toward kinsfolk, orphans, the indigent, and the neighbor who is of kin, and the neighbor who is a stranger, and the companion at your side, and the son of the road, and what your right hands own. This verse begins by mentioning tawḤīd, which is the root of the sciences, the secret of the recogni- tions, the basis of the religion, the foundation of being a Muslim, and the partition between enemy and friend. Any act of obedience without tawḤīd has no value or weight, and its outcome will be nothing but darkness and captivity. Any act of disobedience along with tawḤīd will yield nothing other than familiarity and brightness. TawḤīd is that you say that God is one and that you be one for Him. Saying one is the submit- ter's tawḤīd, and being one is the basis of the recognizer's tawḤīd. The submitter's tawḤīd drives away the devil, washes away sin, and opens up the heart. The recognizer's tawḤīd cuts away at- tachments, washes away the creatures, and brings forth the realities. The submitter's tawḤīd takes advice, opens the door, and gives fruit. The recognizer's tawḤīd effaces the customs of human nature and burns away the veil of mortal nature so that the breeze of familiarity may blow, the beginningless reminder may arrive, and the friend may gaze upon the Friend. The submitter's tawḤīd is that you bear witness to God's one Essence, pure attributes, and beginningless names and marks. He is the God other than whom there is no god, the Creator of heaven and earth other than whom there is no enactor. No one has loyalty like Him in the whole cosmos. He is a Lord who is above all in measure, beyond all in Essence and attributes. From the Beginningless to the Endless He is the greatest Lord. When intellect holds that something is impossible, God has perfect power over it. His power makes no use of contrivance, and His self- standing has no change of state. In the kingdom He is safe from disappearance, and in Essence and attributes He is transcendent. You will never see any created thing without marks of deficiency and fault, but the Eternal Enactor is pure of deficiency, incomparable with fault, free of blights. He does not eat or sleep, nor is He the locus for newly arrived things or changing states. He is not new in attribute, nor does He accept alteration. He stands before “when,” acts before activity, creates before creation, and is powerful before the artisanries. In His Essence, attributes, and perfection He has always been just as He is now. Shaykh al-Islām Anṣārī said, “The tawḤīd of the Muslims amounts to three words: affirmation of attributes without excess, negation of similarity without declaring ineffectuality, and going for- ward according to the outwardness without mixing.” The reality of affirmation is that you acknowledge and surrender to whatever God said in explanation and whatever MuṣṬafā said plainly about Him. You stand firm in the outwardness, you offer no likenesses for it, you do not turn it away from its formulation, and you do not wander around it with imagination, for God comes into knowledge but not imagination. You avoid reflec- tive thinking about how it can be so and you do not seek any self-exertion or interpretation. You do not turn away from saying it or listening to it. You know that in reality whatever creatures know about God's attributes is only the name. To perceive it is to accept it. The stipulation is surrender, and the commentary is to remember. Know God's Essence in God's measure, not as rationally understood by creatures. Know His attributes as is worthy of Him, not as reflected upon by creatures. Know His ability in His measure, not with the artifice of creatures. He is a Being that is one, outside of imaginations and apart from qualification. Whatever He wants, He does, not because of need, for He needs nothing. Rather, He puts things straight by want, pure knowledge, precedent wisdom, and penetrating power. His speech is true, His promise correct, and His Messenger trustworthy. His speech exists in the earth in reality, always joined with Him. His argument stands through it, His decree is irrevocable, His commands and prohibitions firm. Surely His are the creation and the command. Blessed is God, the Lord of the Worlds [7:54]. This is tawḤīd as transmitted and recognition as reported. Through this tawḤīd people reach paradise, escape from hell, and stay free from the Real's anger. The opposite of this tawḤīd is the great associationism. Whoever is held back from this transmitted tawḤīd remains in the great as- sociationism, far from God's forgiveness. The other tawḤīd is the tawḤīd of the recognizers and the adornment of the sincerely truthful. Speaking of this tawḤīd is not the work of water and clay, nor is it the place of tongue and heart. What will the tawḤīd-voicer say here with the tongue? His state is itself tongue. How can he ex- press this tawḤīd? Putting it into expression is calumny itself. This tawḤīd is not from creation, for it is a mark from the Real. It is the resurrection of the heart and the plundering of the spirit. No one has voiced the unity of the One, for everyone who voices it denies it. The tawḤīd of those who talk of its description is a loan voided by the One. His tawḤīd is His voicing unity- its describer's description deviates. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, the recognizer knows You through Your light and cannot express the radiance of finding. The tawḤīd-voicer recognizes You through the light of proximity and burns in the fire of love without turning away from joy. O Lord, in his finding he seeks to find You because he is drowned in bewilderment. He does not know seeking from finding.” The poor wretch who recognizes Him through the artisanry! The poor man who seeks Him through the evidence! From the artisanry you must seek whatever finds room, and from the evi- dence you must ask for what is fitting. How can the reality of tawḤīd cling to the tongue of reports? This is not the tawḤīd reached by inference and striving, nor that proven by evidence and artisanry, nor that realized by any means whatsoever. It is found in the midst of heedlessness, it comes without asking, and it busies the servant with itself. Lit up by the contemplation of the Near and the observation of togetherness, the servant reaps the benefit of beginningless love and loses the two worlds. If seeing You brings loss to the spirit, then I'll buy the spirit's loss with the spirit. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, the mark of this work has taken the world away from me and concealed me even from the mark. Seeing You has left me without spirit. Love for You took away benefit, and I lost the two worlds. “O God, do You know what has made me happy? I did not fall to You by myself.
الَّذِينَ يَبْخَلُونَ وَيَأْمُرُونَ النَّاسَ بِالْبُخْلِ وَيَكْتُمُونَ مَا آتَاهُمُ اللَّهُ مِنْ فَضْلِهِ ۗ وَأَعْتَدْنَا لِلْكَافِرِينَ عَذَابًا مُهِينًا
📘 And worship God and associate nothing with Him. Be kind to parents and near kindred and to orphans and to the needy and to the neighbor who is near and to the neighbor who is a stranger and to the friend at your side and to the wayfarer and to what your right hands own. Surely God loves not the conceited and the boastful. Those who are niggardly and bid other people to be niggardly and conceal what God has bestowed upon them of His bounty. And We have prepared for those that disbelieve a humbling chastisement. And worship God: Servanthood is attaching yourself closely to the com- mand al-ʿubūdiyyatu muʿānaqatu al-amr and separating yourself from the rebuke wa-mufāraqatu al-zajr. And associate nothing with Him: The outward form of associating another with God shirk is to believe in objects of worship other than Him iʿtiqādu maʿbūdin siwāhi while its hidden form is looking to any existing thing other than Him mulāḥaẓatu mawjūdin siwāhi. Declaring His unity is to recognize that all contingent things are brought into being by God and subsist through Him. He is the One who causes things to happen brings things forth and causes them to remain. There is not an atom a splinter a particle or the slightest trace that belongs to anyone [other than Him that has the capacity to] bring things into existence or orginate new things. The subtle forms of showing off the hidden acts of guile the secret places of pride acting to be seen by created beings seeking the pleasure of their praise and wilting at their rejection and censure-all that is hidden idolatry shirk khafī. Be kind to parents: Acting kindly iḥsān follows degrees of association for you have been commanded to observe [your parents'] rights first because they are your kin and you were raised by them and reached your full maturity and knowledge through them. When your association and companionship have become sound and good with your near kindred the poor the needy the orphans and those of their class you will be raised up from that to become worthy of His companionship ������. And to the neighbor who is near and to the neighbor who is a stranger and to the friend at your side: Among your neighbors are your two angels so do not annoy them with your disobedience bi-ʿiṣyānika and observe their right in what you give them to record in your acts of kindness min iḥsānika.
وَالَّذِينَ يُنْفِقُونَ أَمْوَالَهُمْ رِئَاءَ النَّاسِ وَلَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَلَا بِالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ ۗ وَمَنْ يَكُنِ الشَّيْطَانُ لَهُ قَرِينًا فَسَاءَ قَرِينًا
📘 And those who expend of their substance to show off to people and believe not in God and the Last Day. Whoever has Satan for a comrade then an evil comrade has he. These are also included in His words �surely God loves not the conceited and the boastful fakhūr� [4:36]. Their immediate punishment is that they are not in the group of those whom He loves. That is tribulation enough. The conceited are those who look to themselves while those who show off look to others like them. Both of them are branded by hidden idolatry shirk khafī and God does not love those who associate others with Him. Among camels the fakhūr is a she-camel in the flock whose teats are blocked so that a large amount of milk collects in the udder. The buyer thinks that that is normal for her but it is not so. Likewise anyone who looks only to himself and his standing in the present moment is making false claims-he is fakhūr and God does not love him. This is also the case for the one who expends his substance to show off to people.
وَمَاذَا عَلَيْهِمْ لَوْ آمَنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَأَنْفَقُوا مِمَّا رَزَقَهُمُ اللَّهُ ۚ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ بِهِمْ عَلِيمًا
📘 And what burden is on them if they were to believe in God and the Last Day and expend of what God has provided themḍ God is ever Aware of them. There is no difficulty for them in putting their faith and trust in God. Indeed if they were to have faith they would attain glorious honor in this world and the hereafter. Nothing prompts them to turn away from [God] but their lack of commitment and respect.
وَآتُوا النِّسَاءَ صَدُقَاتِهِنَّ نِحْلَةً ۚ فَإِنْ طِبْنَ لَكُمْ عَنْ شَيْءٍ مِنْهُ نَفْسًا فَكُلُوهُ هَنِيئًا مَرِيئًا
📘 If you fear that you will not act justly toward the orphans marry such women as seem good to you two or three or four but if you fear you will not be equitable then only one or what your right hands own; thus it is likelier that you will not be unjust. And give women their dowries as a free gift; God granted free men the right to marry four women at the same time. He mandated justice between [these wives] so the servant must respect what is obligatory. If he knows that he can uphold this obligation in a proper manner the choice is a permitted one. But if he knows that he will fall short in meeting this obligation he should not do it for he is accountable for what is obligatory. but if they are pleased to offer you any of it of their own accord consume it with wholesome appetite. This suggests that the food of the chivalrous fityān and generous askhiyāÌ is wholesome because they only feed others from good-hearted- ness. The food of the miserly is rotten because they look only to themselves and feed others out of obligation not good-heartedness. [The Prophet] ﷺ said �The food of the generous is a remedy while the food of the miser is a disease.�
إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَظْلِمُ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ ۖ وَإِنْ تَكُ حَسَنَةً يُضَاعِفْهَا وَيُؤْتِ مِنْ لَدُنْهُ أَجْرًا عَظِيمًا
📘 Surely God shall not wrong so much as the weight of an atom; and if it be a good deed He will double it and give from Himself a great wage. He does not deprive them of anything in their reward but rather is first with his bounty for them without their having deserved [it] and He doubles the wages for their works. It is impossible to describe what [God] has decreed as wrongdoing because the creation is His creation and the kingdom is His kingdom. The wrongdoer is one who transgresses a limit which has been ordained for him-it is impossible to describe the glory of [God's] sublime measure in this way.
فَكَيْفَ إِذَا جِئْنَا مِنْ كُلِّ أُمَّةٍ بِشَهِيدٍ وَجِئْنَا بِكَ عَلَىٰ هَٰؤُلَاءِ شَهِيدًا
📘 So how shall it be when We bring forward from every community a witness; and We bring you as witness against theseḍ Upon that day the disbelievers those who have disobeyed the Messenger will wish that the earth might be leveled with them. And they will not hide from God any talk. Since the Messenger ﷺ will be the witness against his community as well as their intercessor he will only bear witness to that which can be the object of [his] intercession. Upon that day the disbelievers... They will become remorseful but it will not benefit them. They will bite their fingertips but their anguish will not subside. They will be wrapped in the veil of ignominy and transferred to the homesteads of tribulation and adversity.
يَوْمَئِذٍ يَوَدُّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَعَصَوُا الرَّسُولَ لَوْ تُسَوَّىٰ بِهِمُ الْأَرْضُ وَلَا يَكْتُمُونَ اللَّهَ حَدِيثًا
📘 So how shall it be when We bring forward from every community a witness; and We bring you as witness against theseḍ Upon that day the disbelievers those who have disobeyed the Messenger will wish that the earth might be leveled with them. And they will not hide from God any talk. Since the Messenger ﷺ will be the witness against his community as well as their intercessor he will only bear witness to that which can be the object of [his] intercession. Upon that day the disbelievers... They will become remorseful but it will not benefit them. They will bite their fingertips but their anguish will not subside. They will be wrapped in the veil of ignominy and transferred to the homesteads of tribulation and adversity.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَقْرَبُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَأَنْتُمْ سُكَارَىٰ حَتَّىٰ تَعْلَمُوا مَا تَقُولُونَ وَلَا جُنُبًا إِلَّا عَابِرِي سَبِيلٍ حَتَّىٰ تَغْتَسِلُوا ۚ وَإِنْ كُنْتُمْ مَرْضَىٰ أَوْ عَلَىٰ سَفَرٍ أَوْ جَاءَ أَحَدٌ مِنْكُمْ مِنَ الْغَائِطِ أَوْ لَامَسْتُمُ النِّسَاءَ فَلَمْ تَجِدُوا مَاءً فَتَيَمَّمُوا صَعِيدًا طَيِّبًا فَامْسَحُوا بِوُجُوهِكُمْ وَأَيْدِيكُمْ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَفُوًّا غَفُورًا
📘 O you who have faith! Do not approach the prayer when you are intoxicated until you know what you are saying, or defiled-except for travelers on the road-until you have made the full ablution.... Surely God is pardoning, forgiving. Intoxication is drunkenness. Drunkenness is disparate, and the drunkards diverse. One is drunk with the wine of the grape, another with the wine of heedlessness, another with love for this world, another with the frivolity of the soul and self-love. This last is the most difficult, for self-love is the basis of idol-worship, the seed of estrangement, the curtain of ill fortune, and the root of every darkness. If you are martyred a hundred times a day in the path of God you will still be an idol-worshiper if you see yourself in the midst. When will you be the man to want the heart without caprice? When you will have the pain to see the body with contempt? [DS 708] When someone is drunk with wine and is fearful and shaking in dread of punishment, the end of his work will be burning in the fire of punishment-if He does not forgive him. But He may indeed forgive him, for He says, “Surely God forgives the sins altogether” [39:53]. When someone is drunk with the soul's arrogance and with pride and self-worship, his work is in peril. His basis is loss, his deeds damage him, and he dwells in the peril of being led on and deceived and the danger of everlasting separation. Or defiled-except for travelers on the road-until you have made the full ablution. If the religion were based on reasoning, then the greater ablution would be incumbent after urination, and the minor ablution after ejaculation. Urine is impure and semen is pure. With impure urine, the lesser purity is mandatory, but with pure semen the greater purity. This is so that you will know that the religion is founded on the transmitted, not on the rationally derived; on the Book, not on reasoning; on making oneself a servant, not on self-exertion. The origin of the major ablution is from the era of Adam. When Adam came from paradise to this world, he fell into companionship with Eve. Gabriel came and said, “O Adam, make a full ablution, for God commands you to do so. ” Adam obeyed the command and then said, “O Gabriel, what is the reward for this ablution?” Gabriel said, “For every hair on your body, a one-year's reward will be written for you in the ledger. For every drop of water that passes over your body, God will create an angel that will obey and worship until the Day of Resurrection, and He will give its reward to you.” He said, “O Gabriel, is this for me specifically? Or is it for me and my children generally?” Gabriel said, “It is for you, the faithful, and your children until the resurrection.” Thus the ablution for defilement was made mandatory in all the shariahs of the prophets from the era of Adam until the time of the Master of the World-upon all of them be God's blessings and peace! One of the imams even said, “The Trust that Adam lifted up, concerning which God said, 'And man carried it' [33:72], was the trust of the ablution for defilement.” Then at the end of the verse He says, “Surely God is pardoning, forgiving.” God passes over sins, curtains the defects of those who apologize, and conceals the offenses of the sighers. The meaning of bringing these two names of pardon and forgiveness in this place is this: “Before I sent the commands and prohibitions I took away whatever you have done up until today, and I have passed over you. My servant, no one's sin can overcome My solicitude. And who finds My bounty other than the one on whom the sun of solicitude shines? My servant, if you straighten your aim, I am there for you in the road. If you ask forgiveness from Me, I am aware of your heart's thoughts. I am the forgiver of your offenses and I want good for you. Wherever there is someone with ruined life and destitute days, I buy him. Wherever there is a poor man, wounded by offenses, helpless in the hands of an adversary, I am his Patron! Wherever there is someone weeping in shame, his head bowed because of not having anyone, I am his proof. Wherever there is someone burnt because of having lost his heart, someone in pain from selflessness, I am the happiness of his spirit.” Be wherever you will in the land and you will be near My remembrance.
أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا نَصِيبًا مِنَ الْكِتَابِ يَشْتَرُونَ الضَّلَالَةَ وَيُرِيدُونَ أَنْ تَضِلُّوا السَّبِيلَ
📘 Have you not seen those who were given a share of the Book purchas- ing error and desiring that you should err from the wayḍ God has better knowledge of your enemies. God suffices as a Protector God suffices as a Helper. Some from among the Jews distort the words from their contexts and they say �We have heard and we disobey and hear as one who does not hear� and �Mind us� twisting with their tongues and slandering religion. If they had said �We have heard and obey� and �Hear� and �Consider us� it would have been better for them and more upright but God has cursed them for their unbelief so they believe not except a few. They practiced a deception but did not realize the way in which He deceived them in that they were given the book and then were deprived of the bless- ing of understanding so that they distorted [the words] and persisted [in their unbelief]. Some from among the Jews distort the words... They acted shamelessly toward the Messenger ﷺ and refused to show him respect so they were punished with doubt concerning his affair. Those who acted shamelessly devised a barrier between themselves and the blessing of [the Prophet's] companionship and the bounties of serving him. If they had hastened [instead] to reject the envy they felt and had accepted his state with venera- tion and honored [him] they would have found blessing in following him and happiness in both abodes. But how could they be otherwise when what had already been determined distanced themḍ They were kept back by fate qisma from the carpet of service khidma. There is no maneuvering that can help those held back by the [divine] decrees.
وَاللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِأَعْدَائِكُمْ ۚ وَكَفَىٰ بِاللَّهِ وَلِيًّا وَكَفَىٰ بِاللَّهِ نَصِيرًا
📘 Have you not seen those who were given a share of the Book purchas- ing error and desiring that you should err from the wayḍ God has better knowledge of your enemies. God suffices as a Protector God suffices as a Helper. Some from among the Jews distort the words from their contexts and they say �We have heard and we disobey and hear as one who does not hear� and �Mind us� twisting with their tongues and slandering religion. If they had said �We have heard and obey� and �Hear� and �Consider us� it would have been better for them and more upright but God has cursed them for their unbelief so they believe not except a few. They practiced a deception but did not realize the way in which He deceived them in that they were given the book and then were deprived of the bless- ing of understanding so that they distorted [the words] and persisted [in their unbelief]. Some from among the Jews distort the words... They acted shamelessly toward the Messenger ﷺ and refused to show him respect so they were punished with doubt concerning his affair. Those who acted shamelessly devised a barrier between themselves and the blessing of [the Prophet's] companionship and the bounties of serving him. If they had hastened [instead] to reject the envy they felt and had accepted his state with venera- tion and honored [him] they would have found blessing in following him and happiness in both abodes. But how could they be otherwise when what had already been determined distanced themḍ They were kept back by fate qisma from the carpet of service khidma. There is no maneuvering that can help those held back by the [divine] decrees.
مِنَ الَّذِينَ هَادُوا يُحَرِّفُونَ الْكَلِمَ عَنْ مَوَاضِعِهِ وَيَقُولُونَ سَمِعْنَا وَعَصَيْنَا وَاسْمَعْ غَيْرَ مُسْمَعٍ وَرَاعِنَا لَيًّا بِأَلْسِنَتِهِمْ وَطَعْنًا فِي الدِّينِ ۚ وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ قَالُوا سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا وَاسْمَعْ وَانْظُرْنَا لَكَانَ خَيْرًا لَهُمْ وَأَقْوَمَ وَلَٰكِنْ لَعَنَهُمُ اللَّهُ بِكُفْرِهِمْ فَلَا يُؤْمِنُونَ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا
📘 Have you not seen those who were given a share of the Book purchas- ing error and desiring that you should err from the wayḍ God has better knowledge of your enemies. God suffices as a Protector God suffices as a Helper. Some from among the Jews distort the words from their contexts and they say �We have heard and we disobey and hear as one who does not hear� and �Mind us� twisting with their tongues and slandering religion. If they had said �We have heard and obey� and �Hear� and �Consider us� it would have been better for them and more upright but God has cursed them for their unbelief so they believe not except a few. They practiced a deception but did not realize the way in which He deceived them in that they were given the book and then were deprived of the bless- ing of understanding so that they distorted [the words] and persisted [in their unbelief]. Some from among the Jews distort the words... They acted shamelessly toward the Messenger ﷺ and refused to show him respect so they were punished with doubt concerning his affair. Those who acted shamelessly devised a barrier between themselves and the blessing of [the Prophet's] companionship and the bounties of serving him. If they had hastened [instead] to reject the envy they felt and had accepted his state with venera- tion and honored [him] they would have found blessing in following him and happiness in both abodes. But how could they be otherwise when what had already been determined distanced themḍ They were kept back by fate qisma from the carpet of service khidma. There is no maneuvering that can help those held back by the [divine] decrees.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ آمِنُوا بِمَا نَزَّلْنَا مُصَدِّقًا لِمَا مَعَكُمْ مِنْ قَبْلِ أَنْ نَطْمِسَ وُجُوهًا فَنَرُدَّهَا عَلَىٰ أَدْبَارِهَا أَوْ نَلْعَنَهُمْ كَمَا لَعَنَّا أَصْحَابَ السَّبْتِ ۚ وَكَانَ أَمْرُ اللَّهِ مَفْعُولًا
📘 O you who have been given the scripture believe in what We have revealed confirming what is with you before We obliterate faces and turn them inside out or curse them as We cursed those of the Sabbath and God's command is done. In We obliterate faces and turn them inside out the allusion is to the turn- ing away of hearts from spiritual desire irāda to the states of the people of habit ahl al-ʿāda so that despite the abundance of His calls to reject the present world they no longer pay any attention to them.
إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَغْفِرُ أَنْ يُشْرَكَ بِهِ وَيَغْفِرُ مَا دُونَ ذَٰلِكَ لِمَنْ يَشَاءُ ۚ وَمَنْ يُشْرِكْ بِاللَّهِ فَقَدِ افْتَرَىٰ إِثْمًا عَظِيمًا
📘 Surely God does not forgive that anything be associated with Him, but less than that He forgives for whomsoever He wills. The associationism of the common people is one thing, and the associationism of the elect some- thing else. The associationism of the common people is the greater associationism, and the asso- ciationism of the elect the lesser associationism. The greater associationism is that they should say that the tremendous Enactor, the eternal Artisan, has an associate and partner, or they should consider Him to have an equal and peer, or they should make Him similar to something of creation. Whenever someone says this, he is not a worshiper of God, for he has called upon an idol. In reality, he has been held back from the religion of guidance. The right belief and pure religion is that you consider the God of the world's folk and Creator of all to be pure of and incomparable with spouse, child, and partner. He did not give birth, nor did anyone give birth to Him. He is free of new arrival, change, and birth, hallowed beyond defect, incapacity, and need, pure in attribute, fitting in artisanry, sweet in speech, and complete in love. He is pure of fault in attributes, pure of blunder in deeds, pure of negligence in speech, and pure of doubt in love. He is a God who is outside of imaginations, and no one knows how He is. He is worthy of Godhood, knower of God-work, separate from faults, without peer in Essence and attributes. Whoever believes this has been released from the greater associationism and has joined with the root of faith. As for the lesser associationism, it is of two sorts and belongs to two groups. For the faithful it is eye-service and letting go of self-purification in deeds. For the recognizers, it is paying regard to deeds and seeking deliverance thereby. Its trace in the faithful is to decrease their faith, to bring fissures into their certainty, and to close down the door of clarity. MuṣṬafā said, “I am very fright- ened of the ancient associationism for my community.” He was asked what ancient associationism was, and he said, “That someone does good deeds along with eye-service in the deeds.” Shaddād ibn Aws said, “I saw God's Messenger weeping.
أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ يُزَكُّونَ أَنْفُسَهُمْ ۚ بَلِ اللَّهُ يُزَكِّي مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَلَا يُظْلَمُونَ فَتِيلًا
📘 Hast thou not seen those who deem themselves pure? No, God alone deems pure whom- soever He will. Do not praise yourselves, do not approve of others deeming you pure, do not look at your own good deeds, give no weight to your own traveling, and consider yourselves lower than everyone low. A friend asked, “Which group is it who have stolen reality's ball from the world's creatures?” I said, “Why do you ask for the marks of that group, for they have not shown themselves to themselves for the sake of showing. They never walk on the edge of making claims, nor do they ever sleep in the circle of meaning. More wondrous is that their worthlessness and abasement makes them like Christians and Jews in people's eyes.” Yes, at the threshold of a generous man, the more abased you make yourself, the more exalted you become. Your abasement is not despair of the Friend. Rather, it testifies to your truthfulness and straightness. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, I lament at my abasement, for I have seen no one with misery like mine. I lament at the burning because You are lost to my spirit. There is no one in the world to have pity on my days and time. O God, I wept so many tears in longing that I sowed the seeds of pain with my eyes' water. If I find endless felicity, I will approve of all this pain. If my eyes fall upon You once, I will not have seen myself with those eyes.” No, God alone deems pure whomsoever He will. When God's deeming pure reaches someone, its mark is that he is released from companionship with the scatter-hearted ones who have stooped to the path of demons and idols [4:51] and he does not again open himself up to them. But you should not fancy that the worshipers of demons and idols are simply those idol-worshipers. Any- one who is at ease with the caprice of his own soul and remains bound to what his soul desires is a man of idols and a servant of demons. The creatures are at ease in the ruins of their own makeup- wink once and throw the creatures into turmoil! [DS 696] In the tongue of the folk of allusion, placing your foot on your own soul and bringing your caprice under your own severity is the tremendous kingdom concerning which God says,
وَلَا تُؤْتُوا السُّفَهَاءَ أَمْوَالَكُمُ الَّتِي جَعَلَ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ قِيَامًا وَارْزُقُوهُمْ فِيهَا وَاكْسُوهُمْ وَقُولُوا لَهُمْ قَوْلًا مَعْرُوفًا
📘 But do not give to the foolish your property which God has assigned to you as maintenance; provide for them thereof and clothe them and speak to them decent words. The foolish are those who keep you from the Real and distract you from the Lord. The foolish are those dependents and children who prefer their worldly portions over the rights of God most high. Which God has assigned to you as maintenance: To keep to pleasing actions in the situation is better for you than exposing yourself to disgrace petitioning begging and contriving. For the liberation of the heart it is better to be generous than withholding and [better] to rely on patience. But as for forming the intention to beg or making yourself and your dependents a burden on other people it is more appropriate to hold on to a sufficient amount from what God has assigned to you. Then you can be generous with what is in excess of your needs. Provide for them thereof and clothe them and speak to them decent words: If you have more than enough to help them today do not with- hold that which you know they need out of fear of future poverty. If your hand is constrained from providing support do not let your tongue loose in speaking ill. It is said that when your lower self calls you to spend in a useless way you are the most foolish of the foolish so do not yield to it.
انْظُرْ كَيْفَ يَفْتَرُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ الْكَذِبَ ۖ وَكَفَىٰ بِهِ إِثْمًا مُبِينًا
📘 Have you not seen those who praise themselves for purityḍ Nay God purifies whom He will and they shall not be wronged a single date-thread. Consider how they invent falsehood against God and that suffices for a clear sin. Whoever relies on what people say about his purity or seeks the satisfaction of the elite over that of ordinary people is someone who praises himself for purity. Looking to the self is the greatest veil. Whoever imagines that he is purifying himself with litanies or efforts he undertakes by what he does or does not do is veiled by his own ignorance. Consider how they invent... alludes to those who let loose their tongues and claim what they have not actualized. The one who invents in this way does not say anything but that ears reject him and hearts are driven away. Then when he becomes silent he returns to a heart laid waste.
أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا نَصِيبًا مِنَ الْكِتَابِ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْجِبْتِ وَالطَّاغُوتِ وَيَقُولُونَ لِلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا هَٰؤُلَاءِ أَهْدَىٰ مِنَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا سَبِيلًا
📘 Have you not seen those who were given a share of the Book how they believe in al-Jibt and al-Ṭāghūt and say to the disbelievers �These are more rightly guided than the believers�ḍ Those are the ones whom God has cursed; and he whom God has cursed you will never find for him any helper. The Ṭāghūt of each person is his lower self and his whim-the idol he seeks among that which is other than [God]. When someone pays heed to a person or looks to a reason or turns to a cause or obeys a whim that thing is his jibt and his Ṭāghūt.61 The companions of al-Jibt and al-Ṭāghūt deserve the curse which is being expelled from the carpet of service ʿubūdiyya and veiled from witnessing lordship rubūbiyya.
أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ لَعَنَهُمُ اللَّهُ ۖ وَمَنْ يَلْعَنِ اللَّهُ فَلَنْ تَجِدَ لَهُ نَصِيرًا
📘 Have you not seen those who were given a share of the Book how they believe in al-Jibt and al-Ṭāghūt and say to the disbelievers �These are more rightly guided than the believers�ḍ Those are the ones whom God has cursed; and he whom God has cursed you will never find for him any helper. The Ṭāghūt of each person is his lower self and his whim-the idol he seeks among that which is other than [God]. When someone pays heed to a person or looks to a reason or turns to a cause or obeys a whim that thing is his jibt and his Ṭāghūt.61 The companions of al-Jibt and al-Ṭāghūt deserve the curse which is being expelled from the carpet of service ʿubūdiyya and veiled from witnessing lordship rubūbiyya.
أَمْ لَهُمْ نَصِيبٌ مِنَ الْمُلْكِ فَإِذًا لَا يُؤْتُونَ النَّاسَ نَقِيرًا
📘 Or have they a share in the kingdomḍ then they would not give the people a single date spot naqīr. Or are they jealous of people for the bounty that God has bestowed upon them. For We gave the House of Abraham the Book and wisdom and We gave them a mighty kingdom. And there are some of them who believe in him and some of them who bar [others] from him. Hell suffices for a blaze. When those prone to avarice receive abundance it only increases their distress at the comfort others receive. It is as if such a person drinks water sparingly drop by drop yet gulps down and even drains the very water of his life. Or are they jealous of people... Indeed out of jealousy they reject the choice of the Real ������ [who has chosen] whom He will for His friends and they do notapproach them withreverence. The way sunna of God������with His friends entails [His] elevation and protection of their honor. The custom of disbelievers is to question and doubt the [divine] power of deliberation so there are some who believe and accept [the friends of God] and some who reject and deny. The punishment of God is sufficient as an avenger to them. And We gave them a mighty kingdom: The mighty kingdom mulk is true knowledge maʿrifa of the King. It is said that it is dominion mulk over the lower self. It is said that it is standing above the secrets of the realm mamlaka so that nothing is hidden. It is said that it is the viewing of the secrets of creation from on high.
أَمْ يَحْسُدُونَ النَّاسَ عَلَىٰ مَا آتَاهُمُ اللَّهُ مِنْ فَضْلِهِ ۖ فَقَدْ آتَيْنَا آلَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَآتَيْنَاهُمْ مُلْكًا عَظِيمًا
📘 And We gave them a tremendous kingdom. It has been said, “The tremendous kingdom is having an overview of the secrets of the creatures,” or it is “gazing upon the secrets of the empire such that nothing is hidden.” This is why Abū ʿUthmān Maghribī said, “When someone responds to the Real, the empire re- sponds to him.” In other words, when something appears to him in the empire, he is given news of it. Ibn al-Barqī was one of the great shaykhs of Egypt and possessed perspicacity. Once he became ill and was given medicine. He said, “I will not drink it, for some disaster has happened in the em- pire. Until I find out what happened, I will not drink it.” Thirteen days passed before news arrived that the Qarmatians and fallen on the Sanctuary, killed many people, and worked great destruction. Shaykh al-Islām Anṣārī said, “Servanthood cannot bear more than knowing some and not knowing some, for God says, 'He does not show His unseen to anyone except someone He ap- proves as a messenger' [72:26-27]. 'And God will not inform you of the unseen' [3:179]. God knows all-no one else.” It has also been said that the tremendous kingdom is recognition of the tremendous King. When someone recognizes Him, he has found the kingdom of both worlds. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, who is like me in becoming worthy for this work? Enough for me is that I have the worth of Your companionship.” Tell them to call me nothing but lord- that's a name suited for Your serving boy.
فَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ آمَنَ بِهِ وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ صَدَّ عَنْهُ ۚ وَكَفَىٰ بِجَهَنَّمَ سَعِيرًا
📘 Or have they a share in the kingdomḍ then they would not give the people a single date spot naqīr. Or are they jealous of people for the bounty that God has bestowed upon them. For We gave the House of Abraham the Book and wisdom and We gave them a mighty kingdom. And there are some of them who believe in him and some of them who bar [others] from him. Hell suffices for a blaze. When those prone to avarice receive abundance it only increases their distress at the comfort others receive. It is as if such a person drinks water sparingly drop by drop yet gulps down and even drains the very water of his life. Or are they jealous of people... Indeed out of jealousy they reject the choice of the Real ������ [who has chosen] whom He will for His friends and they do notapproach them withreverence. The way sunna of God������with His friends entails [His] elevation and protection of their honor. The custom of disbelievers is to question and doubt the [divine] power of deliberation so there are some who believe and accept [the friends of God] and some who reject and deny. The punishment of God is sufficient as an avenger to them. And We gave them a mighty kingdom: The mighty kingdom mulk is true knowledge maʿrifa of the King. It is said that it is dominion mulk over the lower self. It is said that it is standing above the secrets of the realm mamlaka so that nothing is hidden. It is said that it is the viewing of the secrets of creation from on high.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا بِآيَاتِنَا سَوْفَ نُصْلِيهِمْ نَارًا كُلَّمَا نَضِجَتْ جُلُودُهُمْ بَدَّلْنَاهُمْ جُلُودًا غَيْرَهَا لِيَذُوقُوا الْعَذَابَ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَزِيزًا حَكِيمًا
📘 Surely those who disbelieve in Our signs-We shall expose them to a fire; as often as their skins are consumed We shall replace them with other skins that they may taste the chastisement. Surely God is ever Mighty Wise. This alludes to those who deny the signs of the friends. He causes them to remain in a state of insignificance yuqīmuhum bi-waṣfi al-ṣighār and leaves them to the estrangement of denial wa-yabqiyahum fī waḥshati al-inkār. Whenever something appears to their hearts from this story their rejection leads them to abandon faith in it and to dismiss its people with contempt so they are punished over and over again.
وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ سَنُدْخِلُهُمْ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا أَبَدًا ۖ لَهُمْ فِيهَا أَزْوَاجٌ مُطَهَّرَةٌ ۖ وَنُدْخِلُهُمْ ظِلًّا ظَلِيلًا
📘 And those that believe and perform righteous deeds We shall admit them to gardens underneath which rivers flow wherein they abide: they shall have therein spouses purified and We shall admit them to plenteous shade. Today they are in the shade of [God's] care riʿāya and tomorrow in the shade of [His] protection ḥimāya and sufficiency kifāya. Indeed they are in the shade of solicitude ʿināya in this world and the next. People in this group are of different types: There are those who are in the shade of His mercy those who are in the shade of His care those who are in the shade of His special generosity those who are in the shade of His solicitude and those who are in the shade of His nearness.
۞ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُكُمْ أَنْ تُؤَدُّوا الْأَمَانَاتِ إِلَىٰ أَهْلِهَا وَإِذَا حَكَمْتُمْ بَيْنَ النَّاسِ أَنْ تَحْكُمُوا بِالْعَدْلِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ نِعِمَّا يَعِظُكُمْ بِهِ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ سَمِيعًا بَصِيرًا
📘 Surely God commands you to deliver trusts back to their owners. In this verse the lovingly kind Lord, the generous and right-knowing, the care-taker of the servants, commands His servants to give back trusts. He is saying, “Return the trusts at your own liability to their folk.” In other words, do not intervene in them, and avoid betrayal, for after the faith and recognition of the servant, there is no attribute greater than holding in trust; and after unbelief, there is no attribute uglier than betrayal. The servant's obedience comes forth from holding in trust, and disobedience comes from betrayal. Betrayal is the basis of corruption, the beginning of every mis- fortune, and the foundation of disobedience. Holding in trust is the pillar of the religion, the per- fection of tawḤīd, and the attribute of the prophets and the angels. In the firm text of the revealed book, the Lord of the Worlds describes Gabriel by saying, “brought down by the trustworthy spirit” [26:193]. In another place He says, “obeyed, and also trustworthy” [81:21]. He reported from the daughter of Shuʿayb that she said to her father about Moses, God's speaking companion, “O my father, hire him! Surely the best you can hire is the strong, the trustworthy” [28:26]. And in describing Joseph the sincerely truthful He says, quoting the king of Egypt, “Surely today with us thou art emplaced, trustworthy” [12:54]. The trusts about which the Book and the Sunnah talk are three things: One is obedience and the religion, for the Lord of the Worlds calls them a trust. He says, “Surely We offered the Trust” [33:72]. Next are women, who are held as a trust by men. MuṣṬafā said, “You have taken them as a trust from God, and you have made their private parts lawful to you by God's word.” Third is the property you leave with someone, or the secret you tell to him, for that is a trust. The Lord of the Worlds says, “Let him who has been entrusted deliver back his trust” [2:283]. MuṣṬafā said, “Deliver the trust back to the one who entrusted you.” He also said, “If a man relates some words, pay regard, for it is his trust.” Mustāfā also said, “Sitting together is a trust.” In other words, when you sit with people, it must be on condition of holding in trust.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُوا الرَّسُولَ وَأُولِي الْأَمْرِ مِنْكُمْ ۖ فَإِنْ تَنَازَعْتُمْ فِي شَيْءٍ فَرُدُّوهُ إِلَى اللَّهِ وَالرَّسُولِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ تُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ خَيْرٌ وَأَحْسَنُ تَأْوِيلًا
📘 O you who believe obey God and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you. If you should quarrel about anything refer it to God and the Messenger if you believe in God and the Last Day; that is better and more excellent in interpretation. He compares obedience to Him with obedience to the Messenger ﷺ hon- oring his affair and elevating his status. Those in authority ulū l-amr: In scholarly terms this means the [worldly] ruler sulṬān. According to the explanation of deeper knowl- edge maʿrifa the one who has deeper knowledge ʿārif has authority dhū l-amr over the one who is just starting out. The shaykh has authority over the aspirant murīd. The leader imām of each group has authority over [the members of the group]. It is said that the friend and guardian walī of the aspirant is better awlā for the aspirant than the aspirant [himself]. If you should quarrel about anything refer it to God: In scholarly lan- guage this means the Book and the sunna. [But] according to the explana- tion of God's unity bayān al-tawḥīd it is to commit and entrust knowledge of [the matter] to God ������. When two conflicting inclinations arise in the heart of a believer and [the believer] has [access to] the reasoning provided by religious scholars he can contemplate what he understands from their understanding. A master of the heart [on the other hand] entrusts [the matter] to the Real ������ and pays heed to what is said to him in his inner- most self and what has been cast into his heart without any intermediary.
وَابْتَلُوا الْيَتَامَىٰ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا بَلَغُوا النِّكَاحَ فَإِنْ آنَسْتُمْ مِنْهُمْ رُشْدًا فَادْفَعُوا إِلَيْهِمْ أَمْوَالَهُمْ ۖ وَلَا تَأْكُلُوهَا إِسْرَافًا وَبِدَارًا أَنْ يَكْبَرُوا ۚ وَمَنْ كَانَ غَنِيًّا فَلْيَسْتَعْفِفْ ۖ وَمَنْ كَانَ فَقِيرًا فَلْيَأْكُلْ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ ۚ فَإِذَا دَفَعْتُمْ إِلَيْهِمْ أَمْوَالَهُمْ فَأَشْهِدُوا عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ وَكَفَىٰ بِاللَّهِ حَسِيبًا
📘 Try well the orphans until they reach the age of marrying; then if you perceive in them maturity rushd deliver their property to them; consume it not wastefully and in haste lest they should grow up. If any man is rich let him be abstinent; if he is poor let him consume honorably. And when you deliver to them their property take witnesses over them. God suffices as a reckoner. To perceive maturity means [to perceive] decency and integrity. It is gen- erosity and the preservation of honor keeping company with elders and striving to look to the good and to perform acts of devotion as decreed by the command. It is said that the one who is mature rashīd is the one who is guided to his Lord. When a need arises in him he does not rely on his own power or strength his own planning or choosing.
أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ يَزْعُمُونَ أَنَّهُمْ آمَنُوا بِمَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْكَ وَمَا أُنْزِلَ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ يُرِيدُونَ أَنْ يَتَحَاكَمُوا إِلَى الطَّاغُوتِ وَقَدْ أُمِرُوا أَنْ يَكْفُرُوا بِهِ وَيُرِيدُ الشَّيْطَانُ أَنْ يُضِلَّهُمْ ضَلَالًا بَعِيدًا
📘 Have you not seen those who claim that they believe in what has been revealed to you and what was revealed before you desiring to take their disputes to a false deity when they have been commanded to renounce himḍ But Satan desires to mislead them far astray. Outwardly they proclaimed sincerity while acting hypocritically in secret. He ������ exposed them through the tongue of Gabriel ���� ������ saying �desir- ing to take their disputes to a false deity when they have been commanded to renounce him yakfurū bihi� that is reject him. Whoever abandons his path and returns to anyone other than his master ustādh becomes deserving of exclusion and condemnation.
وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ تَعَالَوْا إِلَىٰ مَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ وَإِلَى الرَّسُولِ رَأَيْتَ الْمُنَافِقِينَ يَصُدُّونَ عَنْكَ صُدُودًا
📘 And when it is said to them �Come to what God has revealed and the Messenger� you see the hypocrites turn away from you vehemently. Everything other than the word of the Real is easy for hypocrites [to hear]. [On the other hand] the declaration of God's unity is heard only by those who are sincere. Those who are listless and those who are hostile do not hear that which is true since it is difficult for those who are not sincere to oppose personal whims. Just as the eye of the bat is incapable of facing the sun the hypocrites were unable to stand firm before [the Prophet] ﷺ and that was the cause of their vehemently turning away.
فَكَيْفَ إِذَا أَصَابَتْهُمْ مُصِيبَةٌ بِمَا قَدَّمَتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ ثُمَّ جَاءُوكَ يَحْلِفُونَ بِاللَّهِ إِنْ أَرَدْنَا إِلَّا إِحْسَانًا وَتَوْفِيقًا
📘 How would it be when an affliction befalls them for what their own hands have sent before them! They then come to you swearing by God that �We sought only virtue and harmony.� The beseeching of the insincere at the attacks of misfortune is without foundation. It deserves no consideration because it only lasts until the tribulation has passed. The greater affliction is being indifferent to the affliction [brought on by what their own hands have sent before them]. It is said that part of the affliction is being deprived [of the blessing] in the present moment by that which is of no use to you.
أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ يَعْلَمُ اللَّهُ مَا فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ فَأَعْرِضْ عَنْهُمْ وَعِظْهُمْ وَقُلْ لَهُمْ فِي أَنْفُسِهِمْ قَوْلًا بَلِيغًا
📘 Those-God knows what is in their hearts; so turn away from them and admonish them and say to them regarding their souls penetrating words. �Be generous with them in admonition as sympathy dictates but hold your heart back from being overly concerned for them or putting your trust in them. Know that you will not be able to help those whom We do not sup- port in any way.�
وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا مِنْ رَسُولٍ إِلَّا لِيُطَاعَ بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ ۚ وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ إِذْ ظَلَمُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ جَاءُوكَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُوا اللَّهَ وَاسْتَغْفَرَ لَهُمُ الرَّسُولُ لَوَجَدُوا اللَّهَ تَوَّابًا رَحِيمًا
📘 We sent not any messenger but that he should be obeyed by God's leave. From the first to the last of this section is an allusion to the greatness of MuṣṬafā's rank in God's sight. It is one of the robes of honor given to him by God, for He has lifted up the intermediary and made his decree equal to His own decree. Just as approving of the Real's decision brings about the certainty of the tawḤīd-voicers, so also approving of the Messenger's decree brings about the faith of the faithful. Thus the world's folk will know that obeying the Messenger is to obey the Real, disobeying the Messenger is to disobey the Real, the words of the Messenger are the revelation of the Real, the explanations of the Messenger are the road of the Real, the acts of the Messenger are the argument of the Real, the Shariah of the Messenger is the creed of the Real, the decree of the Messenger is the religion of the Real, and following the Messenger is friendship with the Real. Thus He says, “Follow me; God will love you” [3:31]. He is saying, “O master of masters! O paragon of engendered beings! O center point of the circle of newly arrived things! Say to My servants, 'If you want God to give you access to His friendship and approve of your servanthood, travel in my tracks, for I am His Messenger. Bind the belt of following me, receive my decrees in spirit and heart without resistance. Put forth your body, put down your neck, throw yourself into the decree, and do not give narrowness and tightness any access to yourself.'” This is why He says,
فَلَا وَرَبِّكَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ حَتَّىٰ يُحَكِّمُوكَ فِيمَا شَجَرَ بَيْنَهُمْ ثُمَّ لَا يَجِدُوا فِي أَنْفُسِهِمْ حَرَجًا مِمَّا قَضَيْتَ وَيُسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيمًا
📘 Then they will not find in themselves any tightness from what thou decreest and will sur- render with full submission. “Do you not know that all the work has been bound to my tracks, and both houses have been at- tached to my street?” What rank and good fortune! What nobility and excellence! From the era of Adam until today, who has had such complete bounty and such well-arranged work, such celestial exaltedness and such god-like luster? After 500 and some years, the pillar of his Shariah's good fortune is flourishing, his branches blooming, his wood yielding fruit, his eminence elevated, his decree predominant. His splendor is in this world, his fame in the next. Each heart has a lamp from him, each tongue a burning brand from him, each heart a splendor from him, each head a call from him, each spirit a place for him. If you fancy that there is none of God's gentleness-there is. That above the world's beauties there is no king-there is. If you suppose that the spirits of good men in their passion have no familiarity with the beauty of the dust of your feet-they do. And if you think that when you lift up your tresses from your cheek the lamp of the spheres has no brightness from you-it does. [DS 821-22]
وَلَوْ أَنَّا كَتَبْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ أَنِ اقْتُلُوا أَنْفُسَكُمْ أَوِ اخْرُجُوا مِنْ دِيَارِكُمْ مَا فَعَلُوهُ إِلَّا قَلِيلٌ مِنْهُمْ ۖ وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ فَعَلُوا مَا يُوعَظُونَ بِهِ لَكَانَ خَيْرًا لَهُمْ وَأَشَدَّ تَثْبِيتًا
📘 And had We prescribed for them: �slay yourselves� or �Leave your habitations� they would not have done it save a few of them; yet if they had done what they were admonished to do it would have been better for them and a firmer position. And then We would have surely given them from Us a great wage. And We would have guided them to a straight path. [God] exposed the weakness of their sincerity akhbara ʿan suqmi ikhlāṣihim and the extent of their bankruptcy wa-quwwati iflāsihim and informed [the Prophet and the believers] of their failings by His knowl- edge. Although [God] let [the hypocrites] go their own way in many of the tests He said �If they had been inclined to serve and had put on the belt of obedience it would have been better for them than their persisting in their disbelief and pride. If they had done that We would have given them a great reward thawāb ʿaẓīm from Us and would have guided them on a straight path ṣirāṬ mustaqīm and rendered to them an enduring gift ʿaṬāÌ muqīm. In the explanation by allusion bayān al-ishāra this matter refers to opposing personal whims and sacrificing the lower selves by holding them back from familiar and comfortable things. It is leaving [your] habitations and parting from the familiar territories of desire for the present world.
وَإِذًا لَآتَيْنَاهُمْ مِنْ لَدُنَّا أَجْرًا عَظِيمًا
📘 And had We prescribed for them: �slay yourselves� or �Leave your habitations� they would not have done it save a few of them; yet if they had done what they were admonished to do it would have been better for them and a firmer position. And then We would have surely given them from Us a great wage. And We would have guided them to a straight path. [God] exposed the weakness of their sincerity akhbara ʿan suqmi ikhlāṣihim and the extent of their bankruptcy wa-quwwati iflāsihim and informed [the Prophet and the believers] of their failings by His knowl- edge. Although [God] let [the hypocrites] go their own way in many of the tests He said �If they had been inclined to serve and had put on the belt of obedience it would have been better for them than their persisting in their disbelief and pride. If they had done that We would have given them a great reward thawāb ʿaẓīm from Us and would have guided them on a straight path ṣirāṬ mustaqīm and rendered to them an enduring gift ʿaṬāÌ muqīm. In the explanation by allusion bayān al-ishāra this matter refers to opposing personal whims and sacrificing the lower selves by holding them back from familiar and comfortable things. It is leaving [your] habitations and parting from the familiar territories of desire for the present world.
وَلَهَدَيْنَاهُمْ صِرَاطًا مُسْتَقِيمًا
📘 And had We prescribed for them: �slay yourselves� or �Leave your habitations� they would not have done it save a few of them; yet if they had done what they were admonished to do it would have been better for them and a firmer position. And then We would have surely given them from Us a great wage. And We would have guided them to a straight path. [God] exposed the weakness of their sincerity akhbara ʿan suqmi ikhlāṣihim and the extent of their bankruptcy wa-quwwati iflāsihim and informed [the Prophet and the believers] of their failings by His knowl- edge. Although [God] let [the hypocrites] go their own way in many of the tests He said �If they had been inclined to serve and had put on the belt of obedience it would have been better for them than their persisting in their disbelief and pride. If they had done that We would have given them a great reward thawāb ʿaẓīm from Us and would have guided them on a straight path ṣirāṬ mustaqīm and rendered to them an enduring gift ʿaṬāÌ muqīm. In the explanation by allusion bayān al-ishāra this matter refers to opposing personal whims and sacrificing the lower selves by holding them back from familiar and comfortable things. It is leaving [your] habitations and parting from the familiar territories of desire for the present world.
وَمَنْ يُطِعِ اللَّهَ وَالرَّسُولَ فَأُولَٰئِكَ مَعَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ مِنَ النَّبِيِّينَ وَالصِّدِّيقِينَ وَالشُّهَدَاءِ وَالصَّالِحِينَ ۚ وَحَسُنَ أُولَٰئِكَ رَفِيقًا
📘 Whosoever obeys God and the Messenger-they will be with those whom God has blessed: the prophets, the sincerely truthful, the witnesses, and the wholesome. What beautiful compan- ions they! Ibn ʿAbbās says that this verse came down concerning Thawbān, who had become wasted and weak in love for God's Messenger, his back bent and his face yellow. One day the Messenger said to him, “O Thawbān, what is it with you? Has your face turned yellow because you stay awake at night?” He said, “O Messenger of God, this and that, as you know.” He said, “O Thawbān, are you placing a great deal of suffering on yourself through various sorts of discipline? You have become so weak and your back is bent over!” Thawbān said, “Yes, O Messenger of God, it has been something of all that.” The Messenger said, “O Thawbān, is it that you are desiring?” Thawbān's eyes filled with tears when he heard talk of desire. How long will you ask me, “Why are you suffering?” In truth, you know my state better than I. “O Messenger of God, I do not know how the nights pass until day comes and I see you again.” Wishing for you by day is the veil of my idleness, aching for you by night is the chamber of my wakefulness. Separation from you is the adornment of my sorrow, fervor for you is the capital of my awareness. “O Messenger of God! The hardest sorrow is that in the next world you will be in the highest of the High Chambers, and I will be held back from seeing you.” While they were in the midst of this came Gabriel, the messenger of the Presence, the courier of mercy, bringing a verse: “Whosoever obeys God and the Messenger-they will be with those whom God has blessed,” and so on to the end. God's Messenger recited it to him and made his heart happy, placing a balm on his woundedness. Yes, it wants a pain like this for there to appear a balm like that! Until you burn, you will not find a way out. Until you drown in Remember Me! in the ocean of remembrance, you will not reach the shore of security by the hand of I will remember you [2:152]. A man with nothing will never find an accomplished friend- pain for Ishmael calls for the burn of Abraham.
لِلرِّجَالِ نَصِيبٌ مِمَّا تَرَكَ الْوَالِدَانِ وَالْأَقْرَبُونَ وَلِلنِّسَاءِ نَصِيبٌ مِمَّا تَرَكَ الْوَالِدَانِ وَالْأَقْرَبُونَ مِمَّا قَلَّ مِنْهُ أَوْ كَثُرَ ۚ نَصِيبًا مَفْرُوضًا
📘 To the men belongs a share of what parents and kinsmen leave and to the women belongs a share of what parents and kinsmen leave whether it be little or much-an obligatory share. The determining of inheritance does not vary according to virtue or good qualities nor is it different due to fault defect or sin. If a man dies leav- ing two sons their rights are equivalent even if one of them is pious and God-fearing and the other wicked and disobedient. The God-fearing one does not get more because of his fear of God and the wicked one does not get less because of his wickedness. The deeper meaning in this is that inheritance is a gift from God that comes before [any action or virtue] so it is shared equally by the pious and the wicked. Likewise the determining of faith is a gift that comes before [any action or virtue] for Muslims. God most high said �Then We bequeathed the Book to those of Our servants whom We chose [35:32]. Then He said Yet some of them are those who wrong themselves and some of them are moderate and some are those who take the lead in [performing] good works by the leave of God. That is the greatest favor!� [35:32].
ذَٰلِكَ الْفَضْلُ مِنَ اللَّهِ ۚ وَكَفَىٰ بِاللَّهِ عَلِيمًا
📘 Whoever obeys God and the Messenger they are with those whom God has blessed of the prophets and the truthful and the martyrs and the righteous. What fine companions they are! That is bounty from God. God suffices as Knower. He made obedience to the Chosen One al-MuṣṬafā ﷺ72 the key to attain- ing the stations of the prophets the truthful and the martyrs in a manner that is suitable for the community and appropriate for the high rank of [the Prophet] ���� ������. That is bounty from God: He detached their situation from every cause merit and reason for surely what comes to them and what happens to them is the disbursement of His bounty and originates from His generosity.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا خُذُوا حِذْرَكُمْ فَانْفِرُوا ثُبَاتٍ أَوِ انْفِرُوا جَمِيعًا
📘 O you who believe take your precautions then move forward in com- panies or move forward all together. Verily there are some of you who tarry; then if an affliction befalls you he says �God has been gracious to me for I was not a witness with them.� But if a bounty from God befalls you he will surely cry as if there had never been any affection between you and him: �Oh would that I had been with them so that I might have won a great triumph!� Fleeing toward firār ilā God is among the attributes of those who seek qāṣidūn. Fleeing with firār maʿa God is among the attributes of those who arrive wāṣilūn. Rest qarār with God cannot be found except by those who are sincere in fleeing to God. Fleeing from everything other [than God] is the concern of anyone who declares His unity. Verily there are some of you who tarry... that is their beliefs are not firmly established in one state. They are tied to worldly concerns so when they see something unpleasant approaching the Muslims they are grateful and say �Praise be to God who has protected us from following them and afflicting us with what He has afflicted them.� But if you have a blessing or something good they incline toward you and wish that they had been with you. They have lost in the present world and the hereafter. They are not completely73 disbelievers nor are they loyal believers. As if there had never been any affection between you and him: It means they had already dropped the commitment to protect and defend your lives property and honor.
وَإِنَّ مِنْكُمْ لَمَنْ لَيُبَطِّئَنَّ فَإِنْ أَصَابَتْكُمْ مُصِيبَةٌ قَالَ قَدْ أَنْعَمَ اللَّهُ عَلَيَّ إِذْ لَمْ أَكُنْ مَعَهُمْ شَهِيدًا
📘 O you who believe take your precautions then move forward in com- panies or move forward all together. Verily there are some of you who tarry; then if an affliction befalls you he says �God has been gracious to me for I was not a witness with them.� But if a bounty from God befalls you he will surely cry as if there had never been any affection between you and him: �Oh would that I had been with them so that I might have won a great triumph!� Fleeing toward firār ilā God is among the attributes of those who seek qāṣidūn. Fleeing with firār maʿa God is among the attributes of those who arrive wāṣilūn. Rest qarār with God cannot be found except by those who are sincere in fleeing to God. Fleeing from everything other [than God] is the concern of anyone who declares His unity. Verily there are some of you who tarry... that is their beliefs are not firmly established in one state. They are tied to worldly concerns so when they see something unpleasant approaching the Muslims they are grateful and say �Praise be to God who has protected us from following them and afflicting us with what He has afflicted them.� But if you have a blessing or something good they incline toward you and wish that they had been with you. They have lost in the present world and the hereafter. They are not completely73 disbelievers nor are they loyal believers. As if there had never been any affection between you and him: It means they had already dropped the commitment to protect and defend your lives property and honor.
وَلَئِنْ أَصَابَكُمْ فَضْلٌ مِنَ اللَّهِ لَيَقُولَنَّ كَأَنْ لَمْ تَكُنْ بَيْنَكُمْ وَبَيْنَهُ مَوَدَّةٌ يَا لَيْتَنِي كُنْتُ مَعَهُمْ فَأَفُوزَ فَوْزًا عَظِيمًا
📘 O you who believe take your precautions then move forward in com- panies or move forward all together. Verily there are some of you who tarry; then if an affliction befalls you he says �God has been gracious to me for I was not a witness with them.� But if a bounty from God befalls you he will surely cry as if there had never been any affection between you and him: �Oh would that I had been with them so that I might have won a great triumph!� Fleeing toward firār ilā God is among the attributes of those who seek qāṣidūn. Fleeing with firār maʿa God is among the attributes of those who arrive wāṣilūn. Rest qarār with God cannot be found except by those who are sincere in fleeing to God. Fleeing from everything other [than God] is the concern of anyone who declares His unity. Verily there are some of you who tarry... that is their beliefs are not firmly established in one state. They are tied to worldly concerns so when they see something unpleasant approaching the Muslims they are grateful and say �Praise be to God who has protected us from following them and afflicting us with what He has afflicted them.� But if you have a blessing or something good they incline toward you and wish that they had been with you. They have lost in the present world and the hereafter. They are not completely73 disbelievers nor are they loyal believers. As if there had never been any affection between you and him: It means they had already dropped the commitment to protect and defend your lives property and honor.
۞ فَلْيُقَاتِلْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ الَّذِينَ يَشْرُونَ الْحَيَاةَ الدُّنْيَا بِالْآخِرَةِ ۚ وَمَنْ يُقَاتِلْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ فَيُقْتَلْ أَوْ يَغْلِبْ فَسَوْفَ نُؤْتِيهِ أَجْرًا عَظِيمًا
📘 So let them fight in the way of God those who sell the life of this world for the hereafter; and whoever fights in the way of God and is slain or conquers We shall give him a great wage. The struggle jihād of someone who has not slain the lower self in himself is not sound. The removal of the fear of death from the heart comes first and then the surrender of the lower self to it. We shall give him a great wage means �Our remaining after him is better for him than his life through his lower self.� Their speaker said: Are you not my compensation for myselfḍ That is honor enough. Besides you I have no goal nor anything to request.
وَمَا لَكُمْ لَا تُقَاتِلُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَالْمُسْتَضْعَفِينَ مِنَ الرِّجَالِ وَالنِّسَاءِ وَالْوِلْدَانِ الَّذِينَ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا أَخْرِجْنَا مِنْ هَٰذِهِ الْقَرْيَةِ الظَّالِمِ أَهْلُهَا وَاجْعَلْ لَنَا مِنْ لَدُنْكَ وَلِيًّا وَاجْعَلْ لَنَا مِنْ لَدُنْكَ نَصِيرًا
📘 What is wrong with you that you do not fight in the way of God and for the oppressed men women and children who say �Our Lord bring us forth from this town whose people are evildoers and appoint for us a protector from You and appoint for us a helper from You.� �What is it that prevents you from fighting in the way of Godḍ What holds you back from desiring to give your lifeblood for Godḍ How would it be to your disadvantage to offer up your spirits in God and for Godḍ Are you afraid that you will give less than what is due to Godḍ Or do you not know that you will be gathered to Godḍ Why is it not enough that He remains after you have been annihilated in Godḍ
الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا يُقَاتِلُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ ۖ وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا يُقَاتِلُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ الطَّاغُوتِ فَقَاتِلُوا أَوْلِيَاءَ الشَّيْطَانِ ۖ إِنَّ كَيْدَ الشَّيْطَانِ كَانَ ضَعِيفًا
📘 Those who believe fight in the way of God and those who disbelieve fight in the way of a false deity. Fight therefore against the friends of Satan; surely the plotting of Satan is ever feeble. Those who are sincerely devoted to God do not prefer anything to God and they do not hold anything back from God. They are ever against their lower selves for the sake of God. The states of those who disbelieve are the reverse of [those of] the believers. Therefore He strengthened and encouraged [the believers] saying Fight therefore against the friends of Satan that is �do not feel any fear toward them for I am taking care of your affairs and will suffice for you against your enemies.�
أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ قِيلَ لَهُمْ كُفُّوا أَيْدِيَكُمْ وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتُوا الزَّكَاةَ فَلَمَّا كُتِبَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْقِتَالُ إِذَا فَرِيقٌ مِنْهُمْ يَخْشَوْنَ النَّاسَ كَخَشْيَةِ اللَّهِ أَوْ أَشَدَّ خَشْيَةً ۚ وَقَالُوا رَبَّنَا لِمَ كَتَبْتَ عَلَيْنَا الْقِتَالَ لَوْلَا أَخَّرْتَنَا إِلَىٰ أَجَلٍ قَرِيبٍ ۗ قُلْ مَتَاعُ الدُّنْيَا قَلِيلٌ وَالْآخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ لِمَنِ اتَّقَىٰ وَلَا تُظْلَمُونَ فَتِيلًا
📘 Say �The enjoyment of this world is trifling; and the hereafter is bet- ter for him who fears; and you shall not be wronged a single date thread. He gave you power over this world but then said �The enjoyment of this world is trifling� so it is of no account for you. If you were to give alms from it so much as half a date you would be saved from the fire and reach the garden. This is the most extraordinary generosity. Caring little about what comes to you-because of your beloved-is the strongest indicator of your relationship. It is said that when He wants you to forsake the present world He makes it seem meager in your eyes so that abandoning it will be easy for you. It is said: Say �The enjoyment of this world-the sum total of it-is trifling. Since your portion is less than [this] trifling [amount] why would He quarrel with you over the details of what is permitted taḥlīl so long as your pact remains secure from alteration tabdīlḍ If the value of this world is trifling then the cheapest of the cheap are those who are content with the cheap khasīs in lieu of the precious nafīs. The believer is torn from the worlds of being kawn in degrees. First He said �say 'The enjoyment of this world is trifling; and the hereafter is better'�-He seizes them from the present world by what comes next. Then He robs them of both worlds saying But what is with God is better and more lasting [42:36].
أَيْنَمَا تَكُونُوا يُدْرِكْكُمُ الْمَوْتُ وَلَوْ كُنْتُمْ فِي بُرُوجٍ مُشَيَّدَةٍ ۗ وَإِنْ تُصِبْهُمْ حَسَنَةٌ يَقُولُوا هَٰذِهِ مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّهِ ۖ وَإِنْ تُصِبْهُمْ سَيِّئَةٌ يَقُولُوا هَٰذِهِ مِنْ عِنْدِكَ ۚ قُلْ كُلٌّ مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّهِ ۖ فَمَالِ هَٰؤُلَاءِ الْقَوْمِ لَا يَكَادُونَ يَفْقَهُونَ حَدِيثًا
📘 Wherever you may be death will overtake you though you should be in raised-up towers.� And if a good thing befalls them they say �This is from God�; but if an evil thing befalls them they say �This is from you.� Say �Everything is from God.� What is wrong with this people that they do not understandḍ Death is joy to the believer and the news of its drawing near is good news to him because it is a means of reaching the Real. Whoever loves to meet God God loves to meet him. It is said that since death is inevitable submitting to His decree willingly is better than tolerating it unwillingly. Moreover He told them that because of the weakness of their facul- ties of insight and the infirmity of their beliefs they are joyful and show gratitude when a good thing befalls them. But if an evil thing befalls them they are not guided to God. The Magian disposition flows in them so that they attribute aḌāfū [the evil thing] to something that is created. [God] replied to them saying �say to them O Muḥammad 'Everything is from God through [the acts of] creating and originating producing and invent- ing decreeing and facilitating.'�
مَا أَصَابَكَ مِنْ حَسَنَةٍ فَمِنَ اللَّهِ ۖ وَمَا أَصَابَكَ مِنْ سَيِّئَةٍ فَمِنْ نَفْسِكَ ۚ وَأَرْسَلْنَاكَ لِلنَّاسِ رَسُولًا ۚ وَكَفَىٰ بِاللَّهِ شَهِيدًا
📘 Whatever good befalls you it is from God; whatever evil befalls you is from yourself. We have sent you to people as a messenger and God suffices as Witness. Whatever good befalls you is a bounty from God and whatever evil befalls you is from yourself through acquisition kasb. Both of them are created by God ������.
وَإِذَا حَضَرَ الْقِسْمَةَ أُولُو الْقُرْبَىٰ وَالْيَتَامَىٰ وَالْمَسَاكِينُ فَارْزُقُوهُمْ مِنْهُ وَقُولُوا لَهُمْ قَوْلًا مَعْرُوفًا
📘 And when the division is attended by kinsmen and orphans and the poor grant them out of it; and speak to them honorable words. When the division of the inheritance is attended by those who are [to be] the possessors of its shares and are the legal heirs and others [also] attend who have no [legal] portion and who are poor do not deprive them of that. If the legal heir is a minor make to [the poor] a goodly promise saying to them �When the child grows up we will tell him to give you something.� This is the meaning of His words and speak to them honorable words. In this is a subtle allusion to those who have sinned. When they are present at His court in the future and the Real ������ pardons those who were obedient and gives them the rewards for their deeds He will not deprive the poor Muslims18 among you of the pardon if God wills after their having been among the family of faith ahl al-īmān. Similarly you were not present on the day of the division19-you have no prior entitlement. In what you know of [God] He has made you deserving ahhala20 by His favor in spite of His knowledge of the lapses that will occur in your states.
مَنْ يُطِعِ الرَّسُولَ فَقَدْ أَطَاعَ اللَّهَ ۖ وَمَنْ تَوَلَّىٰ فَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ عَلَيْهِمْ حَفِيظًا
📘 Whoever obeys the Messenger verily obeys God; and whoever turns his back We have not sent you as a watcher over them. This verse alludes to the gathering jamʿ of the state of the Messenger ﷺ for He ������ said �Obedience to him is obedience to Us. Whoever draws near to him draws near to Us. Whoever is accepted by him is accepted by Us maqbūluhu maqbūlunā and whoever is rejected by him is rejected by Us wa-mardūduhu mardūdunā.�
وَيَقُولُونَ طَاعَةٌ فَإِذَا بَرَزُوا مِنْ عِنْدِكَ بَيَّتَ طَائِفَةٌ مِنْهُمْ غَيْرَ الَّذِي تَقُولُ ۖ وَاللَّهُ يَكْتُبُ مَا يُبَيِّتُونَ ۖ فَأَعْرِضْ عَنْهُمْ وَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِ ۚ وَكَفَىٰ بِاللَّهِ وَكِيلًا
📘 They say obedience; but when they sally forth from you a party of them harbor other than what they say. God writes down what they harbor [in themselves]. So turn away from them rely on God and God suffices as a Guardian. This means that �when they come to you [Muḥammad] they surrender to your witnessing mushāhada but when they leave the light of your approach iqbāl is cut off and they return to darknesses� just as they say: Whenever he repents he returns to his ignorance just as the one who is feeble suffers a relapse.
أَفَلَا يَتَدَبَّرُونَ الْقُرْآنَ ۚ وَلَوْ كَانَ مِنْ عِنْدِ غَيْرِ اللَّهِ لَوَجَدُوا فِيهِ اخْتِلَافًا كَثِيرًا
📘 What do they not ponder yatadabbarūna the QurÌānḍ If it had been from other than God surely they would have found therein much inconsistency. And when there comes to them an issue be it of security or of fear they broadcast it. If they had referred it to the Messenger and to those in authority among them those among them who are able to think it out yastanbiṬūnahu would have known it from them. And but for the bounty of God to you and His mercy you would surely have followed Satan except a few [of you]. �Pondering� tadabbur is an allusion to meanings acquired through immersing [oneself] deeply in contemplation. The mining of the jewels of meanings is through precise �extraction� istinbāṬ. And when there comes to them an issue... Because they are heedless of the Real they have no one to whom they can transmit their secrets so they reveal the secret to each other. As for the believers the Knower of their secrets is their Friend and Protector. They speak with Him about what comes to them and have no need to broadcast the secret to any created being. The Hearer of their whispered confidence is God and the Knower of their hidden affairs is God. If they had referred it to the Messenger and to those in authority among them... that is if they had brought their secrets to those who are respected and those among the people of the story it would have dispelled their doubts and helped them through the light of guidance and spiritual instruction. And but for the bounty of God with His friends they would wander in every wadi of separation of the moment just as those outwardly like them do.
وَإِذَا جَاءَهُمْ أَمْرٌ مِنَ الْأَمْنِ أَوِ الْخَوْفِ أَذَاعُوا بِهِ ۖ وَلَوْ رَدُّوهُ إِلَى الرَّسُولِ وَإِلَىٰ أُولِي الْأَمْرِ مِنْهُمْ لَعَلِمَهُ الَّذِينَ يَسْتَنْبِطُونَهُ مِنْهُمْ ۗ وَلَوْلَا فَضْلُ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَتُهُ لَاتَّبَعْتُمُ الشَّيْطَانَ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا
📘 What do they not ponder yatadabbarūna the QurÌānḍ If it had been from other than God surely they would have found therein much inconsistency. And when there comes to them an issue be it of security or of fear they broadcast it. If they had referred it to the Messenger and to those in authority among them those among them who are able to think it out yastanbiṬūnahu would have known it from them. And but for the bounty of God to you and His mercy you would surely have followed Satan except a few [of you]. �Pondering� tadabbur is an allusion to meanings acquired through immersing [oneself] deeply in contemplation. The mining of the jewels of meanings is through precise �extraction� istinbāṬ. And when there comes to them an issue... Because they are heedless of the Real they have no one to whom they can transmit their secrets so they reveal the secret to each other. As for the believers the Knower of their secrets is their Friend and Protector. They speak with Him about what comes to them and have no need to broadcast the secret to any created being. The Hearer of their whispered confidence is God and the Knower of their hidden affairs is God. If they had referred it to the Messenger and to those in authority among them... that is if they had brought their secrets to those who are respected and those among the people of the story it would have dispelled their doubts and helped them through the light of guidance and spiritual instruction. And but for the bounty of God with His friends they would wander in every wadi of separation of the moment just as those outwardly like them do.
فَقَاتِلْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ لَا تُكَلَّفُ إِلَّا نَفْسَكَ ۚ وَحَرِّضِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ ۖ عَسَى اللَّهُ أَنْ يَكُفَّ بَأْسَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا ۚ وَاللَّهُ أَشَدُّ بَأْسًا وَأَشَدُّ تَنْكِيلًا
📘 So fight in the way of God; you are charged only with yourself. And urge on the believers; maybe God will restrain the might of the disbelievers; God is mightier and more severe in castigation. �Rise up [Muḥammad] with Us in surrendering everything from you to Our command. Just as there is no one to compare to you in your rank because of your elevated status over all We likewise do not charge anyone but you with the like of what you have been charged and We do not burden anyone but you with what you have been burdened. This is because of your singular worth among those otherwise like you in outward form.�
مَنْ يَشْفَعْ شَفَاعَةً حَسَنَةً يَكُنْ لَهُ نَصِيبٌ مِنْهَا ۖ وَمَنْ يَشْفَعْ شَفَاعَةً سَيِّئَةً يَكُنْ لَهُ كِفْلٌ مِنْهَا ۗ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ مُقِيتًا
📘 Whoever intercedes with a good intercession shall receive a share of it; and whoever intercedes with an evil intercession shall receive the like from it. God conserves all things. �The intercessor liberates the state of the one for whom he intercedes. The intercessor becomes worthy of a weighty rank from God ������ by virtue of his intercession while the one who hastens to do corruption with regard to Our command bears the responsibility and carries the weight of the sin.�
وَإِذَا حُيِّيتُمْ بِتَحِيَّةٍ فَحَيُّوا بِأَحْسَنَ مِنْهَا أَوْ رُدُّوهَا ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ حَسِيبًا
📘 When you are greeted with a greeting, greet with one more beautiful than it, or return it. In this verse, the majestic compeller, the magnificent God, the lovingly kind beautiful-doer, teach- es His servants the courteous acts of social intercourse and companionship, for anyone not adorned with courtesy is not worthy of companionship. Companionship is of three sorts: the courtesy of conformity with the Real, the courtesy of sincerity with people, and the courtesy of opposition to the soul. Anyone not nurtured by these sorts of courtesy has nothing to do with the path of MuṣṬafā and has no worth in the world of No god but God. The exalted Lord first adorned MuṣṬafā with courtesy, as his come in the report: “My Lord taught me courtesy, so how beautifully I have been made courteous!” Thus on the night of the miʿrāj in that most tremendous station, he acted courteously toward the Presence, such that the exalted Lord says about him, “The eyesight did not swerve, nor did it trespass” [53:17]. He observed the courtesy of companionship with people, such that He says about him, “Surely thou hast a tremendous character” [68:4]. The principles of the courteous acts of companionship in interacting with the Real are that you put knowledge to work in every interaction, you revere the Shariah, you avoid putting into practice what your wishes command, you honor the Sunnah and its folk, you avoid innovation and its folk, you leave aside suspicion and supposition, you stay far from disquieting thoughts and the habits of eye-service, ignorance, and laziness in worshiping God, you avoid adorning yourself as a worship- ful servant in other than the Sunnah, you keep supererogatory acts hidden, you not mention the name God in heedlessness, you not mix levity with seriousness, you not play with the Shariah and the religion, and you put scrupulosity to work in speaking, acting, seeing, eating, sleeping, moving, and resting. Even if you pass your days with truthfulness and limpidness, you never approve of yourself. Rather, you must always be displeased with yourself, and you must make it incumbent upon yourself to repent in every state. The Messenger said, “My heart becomes clouded, so I ask forgiveness from God one hundred times a day.” Abū Yazīd BasṬāmī was so displeased with his own limpidness and self-purification that his glorification sometimes consisted of pointing at himself with his finger and saying, “You are the miserable man of the time.
اللَّهُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ ۚ لَيَجْمَعَنَّكُمْ إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ لَا رَيْبَ فِيهِ ۗ وَمَنْ أَصْدَقُ مِنَ اللَّهِ حَدِيثًا
📘 God-there is no god except Him He will surely gather you on the Day of Resurrection whereof there is no doubt. And who is truer in state- ment than Godḍ This address contains both a negation and an affirmation. The negation concerns what is other than God-what is negated is impossible for them. The affirmation belongs to Him through [His] divinity. It is not possible to deny what He has affirmed for Himself.
۞ فَمَا لَكُمْ فِي الْمُنَافِقِينَ فِئَتَيْنِ وَاللَّهُ أَرْكَسَهُمْ بِمَا كَسَبُوا ۚ أَتُرِيدُونَ أَنْ تَهْدُوا مَنْ أَضَلَّ اللَّهُ ۖ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلِ اللَّهُ فَلَنْ تَجِدَ لَهُ سَبِيلًا
📘 What is wrong with you that you have become two parties regarding the hypocrites when God has overthrown them for what they earnedḍ What do you desire to guide him whom God has sent astrayḍ And he whom God sends astray you will never find for him a way. �Hold to the covenant regarding them for they are My enemies aʿdāÌī. Neither in this world or the next will they receive My good pleasure riḌāÌī. Your concern for them will not save them from what has been determined by My decree qismatī. The decrees do not revolve around [human] anxieties.�
وَدُّوا لَوْ تَكْفُرُونَ كَمَا كَفَرُوا فَتَكُونُونَ سَوَاءً ۖ فَلَا تَتَّخِذُوا مِنْهُمْ أَوْلِيَاءَ حَتَّىٰ يُهَاجِرُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ ۚ فَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَخُذُوهُمْ وَاقْتُلُوهُمْ حَيْثُ وَجَدْتُمُوهُمْ ۖ وَلَا تَتَّخِذُوا مِنْهُمْ وَلِيًّا وَلَا نَصِيرًا
📘 They long that you should disbelieve as they disbelieve so then you would be equal; therefore do not take friends from among them until they emigrate in the way of God; then if they turn away take them and slay them wherever you find them; and do not take any of them as a patron or as a helper. Except those who attach themselves to a people between whom and you there is a covenant or come to you with their breasts constricted about the prospect of fighting you or fighting their people. Had God willed He would have given them sway over you so that assuredly they would have fought you. And so if they stay away from you and do not fight you and offer you peace then God does not allow you any way against them. [This] alludes to those in confused and sickly states-they wish that the sincere would be like them. How absurd that their desire should come true! Until your antagonists stop trying to thwart you separate yourselves from them oppose them and do not change your state to suit them. Do not associate with them and do not take any of them as a patron or as a helper. Someone who is in harmony with your goal is better for you than forced association with someone who opposes you. Except those who attach themselves to a people... This verse is an allusion to [the fact] that He gives leave with these exceptions to associate outwardly in a kindly manner with those who are in a weak and oppressed condition. And so if they stay away from you... this alludes to [the case] when someone who is not one of the people of the story associates with you. If they are intent on remaining in their familiar areas of worldly concerns do not call them to your path but leave them be in peace. If [God] gives you the opportunity to look to them with mercy follow your good intentions with them. But if not leave them be in peace.
وَلْيَخْشَ الَّذِينَ لَوْ تَرَكُوا مِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ ذُرِّيَّةً ضِعَافًا خَافُوا عَلَيْهِمْ فَلْيَتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَلْيَقُولُوا قَوْلًا سَدِيدًا
📘 And let them fear those who if they leave behind them weak offspring would be afraid for them; let them fear God and speak pertinent words. He explained in this verse that what the Muslim should accumulate for his dependents is not wealth but fear of God taqwā and righteousness ṣalāḥ for He did not say �so let them gather their wealth let them multiply real estate for them and let them leave behind household goods.� Rather He said let them fear God for He looks after the righteous.
إِلَّا الَّذِينَ يَصِلُونَ إِلَىٰ قَوْمٍ بَيْنَكُمْ وَبَيْنَهُمْ مِيثَاقٌ أَوْ جَاءُوكُمْ حَصِرَتْ صُدُورُهُمْ أَنْ يُقَاتِلُوكُمْ أَوْ يُقَاتِلُوا قَوْمَهُمْ ۚ وَلَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ لَسَلَّطَهُمْ عَلَيْكُمْ فَلَقَاتَلُوكُمْ ۚ فَإِنِ اعْتَزَلُوكُمْ فَلَمْ يُقَاتِلُوكُمْ وَأَلْقَوْا إِلَيْكُمُ السَّلَمَ فَمَا جَعَلَ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ عَلَيْهِمْ سَبِيلًا
📘 They long that you should disbelieve as they disbelieve so then you would be equal; therefore do not take friends from among them until they emigrate in the way of God; then if they turn away take them and slay them wherever you find them; and do not take any of them as a patron or as a helper. Except those who attach themselves to a people between whom and you there is a covenant or come to you with their breasts constricted about the prospect of fighting you or fighting their people. Had God willed He would have given them sway over you so that assuredly they would have fought you. And so if they stay away from you and do not fight you and offer you peace then God does not allow you any way against them. [This] alludes to those in confused and sickly states-they wish that the sincere would be like them. How absurd that their desire should come true! Until your antagonists stop trying to thwart you separate yourselves from them oppose them and do not change your state to suit them. Do not associate with them and do not take any of them as a patron or as a helper. Someone who is in harmony with your goal is better for you than forced association with someone who opposes you. Except those who attach themselves to a people... This verse is an allusion to [the fact] that He gives leave with these exceptions to associate outwardly in a kindly manner with those who are in a weak and oppressed condition. And so if they stay away from you... this alludes to [the case] when someone who is not one of the people of the story associates with you. If they are intent on remaining in their familiar areas of worldly concerns do not call them to your path but leave them be in peace. If [God] gives you the opportunity to look to them with mercy follow your good intentions with them. But if not leave them be in peace.
سَتَجِدُونَ آخَرِينَ يُرِيدُونَ أَنْ يَأْمَنُوكُمْ وَيَأْمَنُوا قَوْمَهُمْ كُلَّ مَا رُدُّوا إِلَى الْفِتْنَةِ أُرْكِسُوا فِيهَا ۚ فَإِنْ لَمْ يَعْتَزِلُوكُمْ وَيُلْقُوا إِلَيْكُمُ السَّلَمَ وَيَكُفُّوا أَيْدِيَهُمْ فَخُذُوهُمْ وَاقْتُلُوهُمْ حَيْثُ ثَقِفْتُمُوهُمْ ۚ وَأُولَٰئِكُمْ جَعَلْنَا لَكُمْ عَلَيْهِمْ سُلْطَانًا مُبِينًا
📘 You will find others desiring to have security from you and security from their own people; yet whenever they are returned to sedition they are overwhelmed by it. So if they do not stay away from you and offer you peace and restrain their hands then take them and slay them wherever you come upon them; against them We have given you clear warrant. The effort of anyone who desires to combine two opposing things is ruined and his resolve does not grow. Just as an individual cannot be both a hypo- crite and one who wholeheartedly submits muslim no individual can be desirous of the Real and remain with the precepts of the people of habit. Spiritual desire irāda and habit ʿāda are opposites. It is necessary to abandon contradictory stances and to distance yourself from that which has no relation to you.
وَمَا كَانَ لِمُؤْمِنٍ أَنْ يَقْتُلَ مُؤْمِنًا إِلَّا خَطَأً ۚ وَمَنْ قَتَلَ مُؤْمِنًا خَطَأً فَتَحْرِيرُ رَقَبَةٍ مُؤْمِنَةٍ وَدِيَةٌ مُسَلَّمَةٌ إِلَىٰ أَهْلِهِ إِلَّا أَنْ يَصَّدَّقُوا ۚ فَإِنْ كَانَ مِنْ قَوْمٍ عَدُوٍّ لَكُمْ وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَتَحْرِيرُ رَقَبَةٍ مُؤْمِنَةٍ ۖ وَإِنْ كَانَ مِنْ قَوْمٍ بَيْنَكُمْ وَبَيْنَهُمْ مِيثَاقٌ فَدِيَةٌ مُسَلَّمَةٌ إِلَىٰ أَهْلِهِ وَتَحْرِيرُ رَقَبَةٍ مُؤْمِنَةٍ ۖ فَمَنْ لَمْ يَجِدْ فَصِيَامُ شَهْرَيْنِ مُتَتَابِعَيْنِ تَوْبَةً مِنَ اللَّهِ ۗ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ عَلِيمًا حَكِيمًا
📘 It is not for a believer to slay a believer except by mistake. He who slays a believer by mistake then let him set free a believing slave and blood- money is to be submitted to his family unless they remit it as a charity. If he belongs to a people at war with you and is a believer then the setting free of a believing slave. If he belongs to a people between whom and you there is a covenant then the blood-money must be paid to his family and the setting free of a believing slave. But if he has not the wherewithal then the fasting of two successive months a relenting from God. And God is ever Knowing Wise. [God] mitigated the matter of someone who mistakenly [slays a believer] by giving the burden of restitution to the larger group responsible for the blood-money ʿāqila. The elite are responsible for the blood-money for the weak and oppressed mustaḌʿafūn in the community. The people of deeper knowledge ahl al-maʿrifa are responsible for the blood-money for the aspirants murīdūn. The shaykhs are responsible for the blood-money for the poor fuqarāÌ. Their way is to bear the burdens that afflict the weak and oppressed.
وَمَنْ يَقْتُلْ مُؤْمِنًا مُتَعَمِّدًا فَجَزَاؤُهُ جَهَنَّمُ خَالِدًا فِيهَا وَغَضِبَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَلَعَنَهُ وَأَعَدَّ لَهُ عَذَابًا عَظِيمًا
📘 And whoever slays a believer deliberately his requital is hell abiding therein and God's wrath is with him and has cursed him and has prepared for him a mighty chastisement. Just as the slaying of another [human being] has been prohibited to you so is slaying yourself: whoever follows his whims sets out to shed his own blood. Whoever does not give good counsel and admonition to an aspirant and does not assist him in his resolve is endeavoring to shed [the aspirant's] blood. Such a person is held captive to his own state-it is fitting that the consequence to him should be an unpleasant one for he should not enjoy [the states] from which he has held aspirants back. [God] ������ said �O David when you see someone seeking me become a servant to him.�
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِذَا ضَرَبْتُمْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ فَتَبَيَّنُوا وَلَا تَقُولُوا لِمَنْ أَلْقَىٰ إِلَيْكُمُ السَّلَامَ لَسْتَ مُؤْمِنًا تَبْتَغُونَ عَرَضَ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا فَعِنْدَ اللَّهِ مَغَانِمُ كَثِيرَةٌ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ كُنْتُمْ مِنْ قَبْلُ فَمَنَّ اللَّهُ عَلَيْكُمْ فَتَبَيَّنُوا ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرًا
📘 O you who have faith! When you strike forth on the path of God, look clearly, and say not to him who offers you peace, “You are not of the faithful,” seeking the chance goods of this world's life. By way of allusion, He is saying that when you go on a journey, go for the sake of reaching one of the friends of God so that he may be the intimate of your days and the witness of your heart and spirit. No matter how far you go, never be at ease from seeking and do not hold back the foot of effort. The friends are the favorites of the Exalted Threshold and accepted by the Presence of Divinity. Not everyone sees them, not every eyesight perceives them. When you find them, give ear, and when you see them, cling to them, for the brightness of the heart lies in witnessing them and endless felicity in being their companion. The pir of the Tariqah Junayd was asked, “Which do you prefer? Two cycles of voluntary prayer or an hour of witnessing the poor.” He said, “An hour of witnessing the poor, for witnessing the poor is God's love, for He says, 'It is incumbent on Me to love those who love each other in Me and who visit each other in Me.' Bringing God's love to hand is an obligatory act for everyone. Leaving aside this obligatory act and choosing a supererogatory act is not the work of the clever and the conduct of the chevaliers.”
لَا يَسْتَوِي الْقَاعِدُونَ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ غَيْرُ أُولِي الضَّرَرِ وَالْمُجَاهِدُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ بِأَمْوَالِهِمْ وَأَنْفُسِهِمْ ۚ فَضَّلَ اللَّهُ الْمُجَاهِدِينَ بِأَمْوَالِهِمْ وَأَنْفُسِهِمْ عَلَى الْقَاعِدِينَ دَرَجَةً ۚ وَكُلًّا وَعَدَ اللَّهُ الْحُسْنَىٰ ۚ وَفَضَّلَ اللَّهُ الْمُجَاهِدِينَ عَلَى الْقَاعِدِينَ أَجْرًا عَظِيمًا
📘 The believers who sit at home other than those who have an injury are not the equals of those who struggle in the way of God with their possessions and their lives. God has preferred those who struggle with their possessions and their lives over the ones who sit at home by a degree; yet to each God has promised the goodly reward and God has preferred those who struggle over the ones who sit at home with a great reward degrees from Him and forgiveness and mercy. Surely God is ever Forgiving Merciful. The Real ������ has gathered together all of His friends in His favors but He distinguishes between them in degrees. Whether one is rich or a servant there is one richer than him. With one who is great there is one greater than him. The stars glisten but the moon is above them and when the sun appears it outshines all by its light.
دَرَجَاتٍ مِنْهُ وَمَغْفِرَةً وَرَحْمَةً ۚ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ غَفُورًا رَحِيمًا
📘 The believers who sit at home other than those who have an injury are not the equals of those who struggle in the way of God with their possessions and their lives. God has preferred those who struggle with their possessions and their lives over the ones who sit at home by a degree; yet to each God has promised the goodly reward and God has preferred those who struggle over the ones who sit at home with a great reward degrees from Him and forgiveness and mercy. Surely God is ever Forgiving Merciful. The Real ������ has gathered together all of His friends in His favors but He distinguishes between them in degrees. Whether one is rich or a servant there is one richer than him. With one who is great there is one greater than him. The stars glisten but the moon is above them and when the sun appears it outshines all by its light.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ تَوَفَّاهُمُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ ظَالِمِي أَنْفُسِهِمْ قَالُوا فِيمَ كُنْتُمْ ۖ قَالُوا كُنَّا مُسْتَضْعَفِينَ فِي الْأَرْضِ ۚ قَالُوا أَلَمْ تَكُنْ أَرْضُ اللَّهِ وَاسِعَةً فَتُهَاجِرُوا فِيهَا ۚ فَأُولَٰئِكَ مَأْوَاهُمْ جَهَنَّمُ ۖ وَسَاءَتْ مَصِيرًا
📘 And those whom the angels take [in death] while they are wronging their souls the angels will say �What was your predicamentḍ� They will say �We were oppressed in the land.� The angels will say �But was not God's earth spacious that you might have emigrated thereinḍ� As for such their abode shall be hell-an evil journey's end! This alludes to one whose time comes while he is still trapped in his lower self and enslaved to his desires-there is no excuse for him since he did not emigrate to the protection of His nearness so that he could be saved from the contemptible nature of his lower self. There is no veil between you and this talk except your whims.
إِلَّا الْمُسْتَضْعَفِينَ مِنَ الرِّجَالِ وَالنِّسَاءِ وَالْوِلْدَانِ لَا يَسْتَطِيعُونَ حِيلَةً وَلَا يَهْتَدُونَ سَبِيلًا
📘 Except the oppressed among the men women and children who are unable to devise a plan and are not guided to a way. As for such perhaps God will pardon them for God is ever Pardoning Forgiving. This alludes to those who are overwhelmed and annihilated by meanings maʿānī and then continue on as those who act on His behalf.97 They do not have power or strength [of their own] and what appears to them are [the decrees] He ������ causes to flow over them. After the return of their selves through the reality of the Real ḥaqq al-ḥaqq they are effaced from themselves and are not guided to anything other than Him as a way and do not take so much as a breath for anything other than Him. In accordance with the outward aspect of the verse it is said that per- haps the Real ������ will grant His pardon to those whose excuses held them back from choosing [to emigrate].
فَأُولَٰئِكَ عَسَى اللَّهُ أَنْ يَعْفُوَ عَنْهُمْ ۚ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ عَفُوًّا غَفُورًا
📘 Except the oppressed among the men women and children who are unable to devise a plan and are not guided to a way. As for such perhaps God will pardon them for God is ever Pardoning Forgiving. This alludes to those who are overwhelmed and annihilated by meanings maʿānī and then continue on as those who act on His behalf.97 They do not have power or strength [of their own] and what appears to them are [the decrees] He ������ causes to flow over them. After the return of their selves through the reality of the Real ḥaqq al-ḥaqq they are effaced from themselves and are not guided to anything other than Him as a way and do not take so much as a breath for anything other than Him. In accordance with the outward aspect of the verse it is said that per- haps the Real ������ will grant His pardon to those whose excuses held them back from choosing [to emigrate].
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