📘 ḤāÌ Mīm ḤāÌ is an allusion to love [maḤabba] and Mīm is an allusion to favor [minna]. He is saying, “O you who have become a friend through the ḤāÌ of My love, not through your own excellence! O you have found Me through the Mīm of My favor, not through your obedience! O you whom I took as My friend when you did not recognize Me! O you whom I wanted when you did not know Me! O you to whom I belonged when you did not belong to Me! A hundred thousand were stand- ing at My threshold wanting Me and making their supplications. I paid no attention to them and I said to you without your asking, 'O community of AḤmad, I bestowed upon you before you asked from Me, I responded to you before you called upon Me, and I forgave you before you asked Me to forgive you.' “The previous prophets were eager and yearning for you. Abraham said, 'Make for me a tongue of truthfulness among the later folk' [26:84], and Moses said, 'Make me one of the commu- nity of AḤmad.' This was not because We explained your acts to them, for if We had talked about your acts to them, all would have pulled back from you. It was because I explained My bounteous- ness and beneficence toward you. Before you, I chose everyone I chose one by one. Thus, 'Surely God chose Adam and Noah and the House of Abraham and the House of Imran' [3:33]. When your turn came, I spoke generally and inclusively: 'You are the best community' [3:110]. All of you are My chosen ones.” In another place He says, “The ones We chose from among Our servants” [35:32]. Included in this address are worshippers, wrongdoers, and disobedient.

📘 Uplifter of degrees is He, Possessor of the Throne. He uplifts the degrees of the disobedient to salvation, of the obedient to rewards, of the possessors of needs to sufficiency, of the friends to charismatic gifts, and of the recognizers to states of watch- fulness and encounter. He lifts up the degrees of the servants. He keeps each in a station and gives to each of them what is suitable for him. To the disobedient He gives salvation, to the obedient rewards, to the requesters sufficiencies, to the friends charismatic gifts, to the recognizers states of watchfulness and encounter. The degrees of the faithful and the friends are first today and then tomorrow. Today they are in knowledge and faith, as He says, “He will lift up in degrees those among you who have faith and those who have been given knowledge” [58:11]. Tomorrow they will be in the garden of ap- proval with repose and ease [56:89] in the neighborhood of the All-Merciful, as He says: “They are degrees with God” [3:163]. As for the degrees of the folk of form tomorrow in paradise, they are one thing, and the degrees of the folk of attributes are another thing, for the folk of form are one thing and the folk of attributes are another. The folk of form are in the valley of dispersion, the folk of attributes in the center point of togetherness. “The faithful indeed are siblings” [49:10]; this is in the world of form. As for what MuṣṬafā said, “The faithful are like one soul,” that is in the world of attributes. One of the nomad leaders came before MuṣṬafā and asked, “What has been put away for us in paradise, and how high will be our degrees?” This man was one of the folk of form. God's Messenger replied, “'Therein are rivers of water unstaling' [47:15], and therein are such and such and so on.” He counted out the flowing water, the roasted fowl, the various sorts of fruit, just as the Qur'an speaks of them. Someone else, one of the folk of attributes, asked him about this meaning. God's Messenger knew he was a man of attributes, not a man of form, so he said, “Within it are what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what has never passed into the heart of any mortal.

📘 Forgiver of sins and Accepter of repentance, Intense in punishment, Possessor of boons. Bounty and generosity demanded that repentance be posterior and forgiveness prior: “If I had said that I accept repentance, then I forgive sins, people would fancy that God would not forgive until the servant repented. But first I forgive, then I accept repentance, so that the world's folk will know that just as I forgive through repentance, so also I forgive without repentance. If repentance were prior, forgiveness would be posterior and repentance would be the cause of forgiveness. But Our forgiveness has no cause and Our act has no contrivance. First I forgive and make the servant pure with the clear water of bounteousness so that, when he steps onto My carpet, he will step with purity. When he comes to Us, he comes with the attribute of purity.” This is just what He says in another place: “Then He turned toward them so that they would repent” [9:118]. “I am Forgiver of those disobedient acts of which he did not repent, and I am Accepter of him who repents.” What is meant by forgiveness of sins here is the forgiveness of the sins of those who have not repented, because He brought the conjunction “and” in the middle. The first phrase is one thing, and the phrase added to it is something else, though they have the same ruling property. Thus you say, “Zayd and ʿAmr came to me.” Zayd is one person, and ʿAmr is someone else, but the two have the same ruling property in their coming. If the ruling property were different, that conjunction would be a mistake, and if the two were identical, mentioning both would be a mistake. Listen to a beautiful subtlety concerning the forgiveness of sins and the acceptance of repen- tance: First He mentioned His own attributes and said, “Forgiver of sins and Accepter of repen- tance.” His attributes are not the locus of intervention, nor do they accept change and alteration. Then, when He spoke of punishment, He said “Intense in punishment.” He made intense the attri- bute of punishment, and punishment is a locus of modification, so it accepts change and alteration. He is saying: “I am hard in punishment, but if I want to be, I am soft and I change it, for it has room for modification and it accepts change and alteration.

📘 God is He who made the earth for you a settledness and the heaven a building. And He formed you, so He made your forms beautiful, and He provided you with the goodly things. This is another blessing and gentleness of which He reminds the servants, thus making the road of servanthood clear for them, showing them the traces of generosity and the indications of power, and placing a favor upon them. He is saying: “When I created heaven and earth, I created them for your sake. I made the earth your settledness, I built the heaven as your gazing place.” If from time to time there were no gazing on heaven, how would heaven have received this bestowal of eminence? We adorned the lowest heaven with lamps [41:12]. If earth were not the encampment of your majestic ruling authority, how would it have seen this caress? And earth, We laid it out-what excellent spreaders! [51:48]. The light of the moon, the brightness of the sun, the adornment of the stars-all is for you. The sun is your cook, the moon is your candle, the stars are your guideposts, heaven your roof, earth your carpet. Tomorrow when you are not there, the roof will be taken down, the carpet rolled up, and the stars will fall. When a carpet is spread for a friend and then the friend goes, the carpet will surely be taken away. “My servant, I created heaven to be your cupbearer: And We sent down from heaven pure water [25:48]. For today is the day of the veil, and there is no escape from the intermediary. But tomorrow will be the day of contemplation, and the intermediary will be of no use. The cupbearer will be My gentleness: And their Lord will pour for them a pure wine [76:21]. I built the earth as an intermediary to give you food: And therein We made grains grow, and vines and herbs, and olives and date-palms [80:27- 29]. Tomorrow will be the day of contemplation, and the intermediary will be of no use. I Myself will say, 'Eat and drink pleasantly' [69:24]. I created the sun to give you light, for today in the world of form the light of recognition is hidden within the curtains of the secret cores of the lovers' hearts.

📘 He is the Living, there is no god but He. Who is the painter of the forms of the Adamites, the shower of powers in earth and heaven, the con- veyer of daily provisions to the servants? He is the Living: That living, lasting one who has always been, is, and will be. His being has no first, His existence no last, He subsists after the world and the world's folk. The creatures' work goes back to Him forever.