🕋 تفسير سورة المائدة
(Al-Maidah) • المصدر: EN-AL-QUSHAIRI-TAFSIR
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَوْفُوا بِالْعُقُودِ ۚ أُحِلَّتْ لَكُمْ بَهِيمَةُ الْأَنْعَامِ إِلَّا مَا يُتْلَىٰ عَلَيْكُمْ غَيْرَ مُحِلِّي الصَّيْدِ وَأَنْتُمْ حُرُمٌ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَحْكُمُ مَا يُرِيدُ
📘 O you who have faith! It is narrated that Jaʿfar ibn MuḤammad said that these words have four traits through which the Lord of the Worlds honored and caressed the community. One is that they are a call, second an intimation, third an allusion, and fourth a bearing witness. O is a call, you is an intimation, who is an allusion, and have faith is a bearing witness. The call is an honor, the intimation of mercy, the allusion to love, and the bearing witness to recognition. “He called them before He made them appear, and He named them before He saw them.” They were in the concealment of nonexistence when He called them to honor. They had not yet come into the circle of existence when He named them with a beautiful name: He named you sub- mitters from before [22:78]. He saw the faults and He approved of the faults. He saw the offenses, and He bought the offenses. He saw the pure ones of the high world, and He chose the tainted ones of the low world, for “The sinner's sobs are more beloved to Me than the glorifier's murmur.” Given the beginningless solicitude of the Unneedy Threshold toward the Adamite, his situ- ation is like that of a child whose mother sews him new clothes. She says, “Beware, beware, O child! Do not let this fancy garment get dirty!” The child goes outside and busies himself playing with the other children and dirties the clothes. He comes back home with dirty clothes, so he hides in a corner, helpless and bewildered. He keeps on saying, “Mother, I'm sleepy.” The mother knows that the child is afraid of her rebuke. “Dearest,” she says, “come. I only sent you outside after I had soap and water in hand, for I knew what you would do.” The Adamite's state is like this. When that center point of good fortune and chosen one of the empire was sent out from the concealment of nonexistence to the confines of existence, the pure spirits and holy ones began to shout, and they aimed arrows of denial at the world that God was setting forth: “Wilt Thou set therein one who will work corruption there? [2:30]. You are creating a group who will blacken the garment of Today I have perfected your religion for you [5:3] with the smoke of disobedience and the dust of associationism.
قُلْ لَا يَسْتَوِي الْخَبِيثُ وَالطَّيِّبُ وَلَوْ أَعْجَبَكَ كَثْرَةُ الْخَبِيثِ ۚ فَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ يَا أُولِي الْأَلْبَابِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
📘 Say: “The vile and the goodly are not equal, even if the manyness of the vile stirs you to admiration.” In the tongue of the Shariah, the vile is the forbidden, and the goodly is the permitted. In the tongue of the Haqiqah, every occupation that is empty of the mention and remembrance of the Real is vile; and every occupation at the beginning of which comes the Real's name, in the middle of which is the witnessing of the Real, and at the end of which is praise and gratitude is goodly. ʿāÌisha the sincerely truthful commanded that a shirt be sewn. The person who was sew- ing seems to have been heedless of remembering the Real. His heedlessness became known to ʿāÌisha. She commanded him to undo the sewing. She said, “This is vile, and the vile is not ap- propriate for me.” It has been said that every wealth from which God's rightful due is taken and the alms tax given is goodly, and everything from which it is not taken is vile and on the edge of destruction. MuṣṬafā said, “No property is wasted in the land and the sea except by holding back its alms tax.” It has also been said that the vile is what you accumulate and store up in this world, holding it back from the hand of expenditure and good. The goodly is what you send forth for yourselves, spend in the good, and store up for the next world. This is the meaning of “What we sent forward was our gain, and what we left behind was our loss,” which was already mentioned.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَسْأَلُوا عَنْ أَشْيَاءَ إِنْ تُبْدَ لَكُمْ تَسُؤْكُمْ وَإِنْ تَسْأَلُوا عَنْهَا حِينَ يُنَزَّلُ الْقُرْآنُ تُبْدَ لَكُمْ عَفَا اللَّهُ عَنْهَا ۗ وَاللَّهُ غَفُورٌ حَلِيمٌ
📘 O you who have faith, do not ask about things which would harm you if they were made to appear to you. He is saying, “Do not circle around the stations of the great ones, do not seek access to their states, and do not ask about their way stations, for then you will see that your level falls short of that and you will despair, and despair is the seed of remorse and the foundation of idleness.” A merchant from the bazaar came to Junayd and said, “O Pir of the Tariqah! If servanthood is what you have, then what do we have? What can we hope for? This is a place for despair.” That pir said, “The army of the commander is not all special friends and boon companions. There are also dog-keepers and herdsmen. In the empire, all are useful and all live in their own places and their own measures.” Though you be beautiful, do not disdain the ugly, for in this realm flies are as useful as peacocks. [DS 307] You should consider exalted the state of the dervish who said in his whispered prayer, “O God, approve of me as a lover! If you do not approve of me as a lover, approve of me as a servant! If you do not approve of me as a servant, approve of me as a dog!” O friend, if you won't give me the forefront of respect, at least keep me outside the door like the dogs.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا عَلَيْكُمْ أَنْفُسَكُمْ ۖ لَا يَضُرُّكُمْ مَنْ ضَلَّ إِذَا اهْتَدَيْتُمْ ۚ إِلَى اللَّهِ مَرْجِعُكُمْ جَمِيعًا فَيُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِمَا كُنْتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ
📘 O you who have faith! Against you are your own souls. Those who are misguided cannot hurt you if you are guided. The tongue of commentary is what I explained. The tongue of allusion in keeping with the tasting of the folk of desire is this: “O faithful, beware! Subjugate your own soul before it subjugates you. Busy it with obedience before it busies you with disobedience.” When Abū ʿUthmān was asked about this verse, he replied, “Against you is your own soul. If you occupy yourself with making its corruption wholesome and concealing its shameful parts, you will be too busy to gaze on the creatures and to occupy yourself with them.” Ḥusayn Manṣūr Ḥallāj gave advice to his disciple, saying, “Against you is your own soul-if you do not keep it busy, it will keep you busy.” MuḤammad ibn ʿAlī said, “Against you is your own soul-if you spare the creatures its evil, you will have taken care of most of its rightful due.” The nature of the soul is always to be at rest with this world and to hurry toward disobedience. It counts disobedience as a small thing and is lazy in obedience. It is conceited and acts with eye- service toward the creatures. Within it are found associationism, eye-service, and hypocrisy. It is said, “The soul is duplicitous in all its states, hypocritical in most of its states, and an associater in some of its states.” Abū Yazīd BasṬāmī said, “If in that world the Lord says to me, 'Make a wish,' I will ask per- mission to enter hell to punish this soul, for in this world it has always made me writhe and suffer.” MuṣṬafā said, “Your worst enemy is your soul between your two sides.” He said this because when you get along with an enemy, you become secure from his evil, but when you get along with your own soul, you will perish. If you act well toward someone, he will thank you at the resurrec- tion, and if you act badly, he will complain. The state of the soul is the opposite: If you act well toward it in this house, it will be your antagonist in that house, and if you act badly toward it in this house, it will thank you in that house.
حُرِّمَتْ عَلَيْكُمُ الْمَيْتَةُ وَالدَّمُ وَلَحْمُ الْخِنْزِيرِ وَمَا أُهِلَّ لِغَيْرِ اللَّهِ بِهِ وَالْمُنْخَنِقَةُ وَالْمَوْقُوذَةُ وَالْمُتَرَدِّيَةُ وَالنَّطِيحَةُ وَمَا أَكَلَ السَّبُعُ إِلَّا مَا ذَكَّيْتُمْ وَمَا ذُبِحَ عَلَى النُّصُبِ وَأَنْ تَسْتَقْسِمُوا بِالْأَزْلَامِ ۚ ذَٰلِكُمْ فِسْقٌ ۗ الْيَوْمَ يَئِسَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْ دِينِكُمْ فَلَا تَخْشَوْهُمْ وَاخْشَوْنِ ۚ الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِي وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ الْإِسْلَامَ دِينًا ۚ فَمَنِ اضْطُرَّ فِي مَخْمَصَةٍ غَيْرَ مُتَجَانِفٍ لِإِثْمٍ ۙ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
📘 Forbidden to you are carrion and blood, the flesh of swine, that which has been offered up to other than God, the strangled, the beaten down, the fallen, the gored, what has been eaten by predators-except what you slaughter-what is sacrificed on stone alters, and that which you al- lot by divining arrows-that is ungodliness. Today those who disbelieve have despaired of your religion, so fear them not, and fear Me. Today I have perfected for you your religion and I have completed My blessings upon you, and I have approved for you the submission as a religion. Although carrion is vile and forbidden, a measure of it is still allowed at the time of constraint. Among the sorts of carrion is the flesh of a brother Muslim that is eaten by backbiting. In this there is never a concession in any state, whether by constraint or free choice. Hence this carrion is worse than that carrion, and its prohibition is greater. God says, “Do not backbite one another. Would one of you love to eat the dead flesh of his brother? You would abhor it” [49:12]. It has been said that an animal whose flesh is eaten has two states: One is that, when it is killed by the stipulation of the Shariah, it is pure. Taking it is allowed and eating it is permitted. When it dies by itself, it is defiled, and eating it is forbidden. By way of allusion He is saying that when this Adamic soul is killed by the sword of struggle in the path of discipline according to the Shariah-that is, when it has been subjugated by the religion and come to be commanded by the Shariah, made a servant and abased by the burden of obedience-the soul with this description is pure. Nearness to it is allowed, being its companion is lawful, seeing it is the heart's repose, and companionship with it is the spirit's happiness. But whenever a soul dies in the darkness of its own heedlessness such that it no longer perceives the work of the religion and exerts no effort in the limits set down by the Shariah, this soul is like the carrion whose body is defiled and nearness to which is forbidden. The strangled, the beaten down, the fallen to death, the gored.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَابْتَغُوا إِلَيْهِ الْوَسِيلَةَ وَجَاهِدُوا فِي سَبِيلِهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
📘 O you who have faith! Be wary of God, and seek the means of approach to Him. And struggle in His path. Perhaps you will prosper. Here you have a call of generosity, here you have an address with gentleness, and here you have an arrangement to be applauded, sweet to the hearts. It is a cause of familiarity and an aid to clarity. It makes one secure from distance and permits response. He is saying, “O you who are the faith- ful. You have heard the message, bowed your heads, and approved of the intermediary. Be wary of God. Fear God, avoid His anger, and think about Him, for everything is from Him. Say: All is from God [4:78]. Who in the world is like Him in loving kindness and servant-caressing? The hope of the disobedient is in Him, the remedy for trials is with Him. No one has pride save in His name, no one has ease save through His mark. There is no deliverance and joining without His guidance and kind favor.” This is why He says, “Seek the means of approach to Him.” This is the means of nearness, and nearness is the cause of joining and deliverance. The means of approach is the intermediaries that mark the friendship between the servant and the Patron. The cause of the conjunction between the two is obvious. From what come union and conjunction? Revering the commands, respecting the prohibitions, tenderness towards people, serving the Real, striving in the various supererogatory acts, and building up the spirit and heart. Striving in the various supererogatory acts can be done with three things: first, remembering the gaze of God; second, keeping one's days away from damage; and third, recognizing one's pov- erty at the halting place of exposure. When you remember God's gaze, you are one of the godwary. When you keep your days away from damage, you are one of the worshipers. When you recognize your poverty at the halting place of exposure, you are one of the humble. One can build up the heart with three things: listening to knowledge, mixing little with people, and curtailing wishes. As long as you are listening to knowledge, you are in the circle of the an- gels. As long as you are apart from the people, you are counted among the sinless.
وَأَنْزَلْنَا إِلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ بِالْحَقِّ مُصَدِّقًا لِمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ وَمُهَيْمِنًا عَلَيْهِ ۖ فَاحْكُمْ بَيْنَهُمْ بِمَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ ۖ وَلَا تَتَّبِعْ أَهْوَاءَهُمْ عَمَّا جَاءَكَ مِنَ الْحَقِّ ۚ لِكُلٍّ جَعَلْنَا مِنْكُمْ شِرْعَةً وَمِنْهَاجًا ۚ وَلَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ لَجَعَلَكُمْ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً وَلَٰكِنْ لِيَبْلُوَكُمْ فِي مَا آتَاكُمْ ۖ فَاسْتَبِقُوا الْخَيْرَاتِ ۚ إِلَى اللَّهِ مَرْجِعُكُمْ جَمِيعًا فَيُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِمَا كُنْتُمْ فِيهِ تَخْتَلِفُونَ
📘 For every one of you We have appointed an avenue and a method.... So vie in good deeds. The avenue is the Shariah, and the method is the Haqiqah. The avenue is the customs of the Sha- riah and the method is the road toward the Real. The avenue is what MuṣṬafā brought, and the method is a lamp that the Real holds next to the heart. The avenue is following the Shariah, and the method is finding access to the light of that lamp. The avenue is the message that you heard from the Messenger, and the method is the light that you find in the secret core. The Shariah belongs to everyone, and the Haqiqah belongs to some rather than others. So vie in good deeds. The vying of the renouncers is through rejecting this world, the vying of the worshipers is through cutting off caprice, the vying of the recognizers is through negating wishes, and the vying of the tawḤīd-voicers is through abandoning people and forgetting both this world and the afterworld.
۞ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُوا الْيَهُودَ وَالنَّصَارَىٰ أَوْلِيَاءَ ۘ بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلِيَاءُ بَعْضٍ ۚ وَمَنْ يَتَوَلَّهُمْ مِنْكُمْ فَإِنَّهُ مِنْهُمْ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ
📘 O you who have faith, take not the Jews and Christians as friends. They are friends of each other. Whoso of you takes them as a friend is one of them. Surely God does not guide the wrongdoers. The majestic compeller, the great Lord, the knower to perfection, the exalted Possessor of Maj- esty, calls to His servants with a call of generosity. By way of gentleness He caresses them and in the attribute of clemency and mercy He turns the faces of their hearts away from others toward Himself. He is saying, “Do not take the stranger as friend, and do not approve of the enemy for your companionship. When you take a friend and take a companion, approve of him for the sake of God. Take the friend in God's work and approve of the companion in God's religion. When you seek the realities of faith, seek them from friendship with God's friends and enmity with the enemies of the religion.” MuṣṬafā said, “The firmest handle of faith is love in God and hate in God.” The enemies of the religion whose enmity is obligatory are first Satan, and second the com- manding soul. The soul is harder than Satan, for Satan does not go after the faith of the faithful, but rather their disobedience. The soul, however, pulls him to unbelief and wants his unbelief. Satan flees from [the formula] “There is no power and no strength but in God,” but the soul does not flee. Joseph the sincerely truthful suffered many trials-he was thrown into the well, sold into slav- ery, and remained in prison for years-but he never lamented the way he did at the commanding soul: “Surely the soul commands to ugliness” [12:53]. MuṣṬafā said, “Your worst enemy is the soul between your two sides.”
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَنْ يَرْتَدَّ مِنْكُمْ عَنْ دِينِهِ فَسَوْفَ يَأْتِي اللَّهُ بِقَوْمٍ يُحِبُّهُمْ وَيُحِبُّونَهُ أَذِلَّةٍ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَعِزَّةٍ عَلَى الْكَافِرِينَ يُجَاهِدُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَلَا يَخَافُونَ لَوْمَةَ لَائِمٍ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ فَضْلُ اللَّهِ يُؤْتِيهِ مَنْ يَشَاءُ ۚ وَاللَّهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ
📘 O you who have faith, if any of you turn back on your religion, God will bring a people whom He loves, and who love Him. This verse contains an allusion for the knowers and good news for the faithful. The allusion is that God is the guardian and defender of the creed of submission, the unswerving religion, the Muhammadan Shariah, and that it will always remain. What will this religion lose if some people turn away? If some people turn back, the Lord of Mightiness will bring others who embrace this religion with spirit and heart and nurture it joyfully. With them God will preserve the signposts of His commands and the foundations of His prohibitions. With their places He will decorate the carpet of the Shariah. Upon them He has inscribed the letters of love, for He says, “whom He loves, and who love Him.” Upon the page of their hearts He has written with the divine script: He wrote faith in their hearts [58:22]. He has illuminated their inmost eye with the lamp of recognition: So he is upon a light from his Lord [39:22]. The Divinity is their nurturer, the lap of prophethood their cradle, beginninglessness and endlessless their warders, the playing field of gentleness the lodge of their gaze, and the carpet of awe the resting place of their aspiration. This is just what God says in another place: “So if they disbelieve, we have already entrusted it to a people who do not disbe- lieve” [6:89]. The Prophet said, “A group among my people will never cease supporting the Real. None who oppose them will harm them, and then God's command will come.” The good news is that whoever does not turn back is counted among the friends, the folk of love and faith. Those who do not fall into the abyss of turning back have the good news that the name of love will fall upon them. God says, “If any of you turn back on your religion, God will bring a people whom He loves, and who love Him.” First He affirms His love, then the servants' love. Thus you know that so long as God does not love the servant, the servant will not love. WāsiṬī said, “Gehenna was nullified when He mentioned His love for them with His words, 'Whom He loves, and who love Him.
إِنَّمَا وَلِيُّكُمُ اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا الَّذِينَ يُقِيمُونَ الصَّلَاةَ وَيُؤْتُونَ الزَّكَاةَ وَهُمْ رَاكِعُونَ
📘 Your friend is only God, and His Messenger. Abū Saʿīd Kharrāz said, " When God desires to take one of His servants as a friend, He opens for him the door to His remembrance. When he takes pleasure in the remembrance, He opens for him the door to proximity. Then He lifts him up to the sitting place of intimacy. Then He seats him on the throne of tawḤīd. Then He lifts the veils from him, puts him into the abode of solitariness, and unveils majesty and tremendousness to him. When his eyesight falls on majesty and tremendous- ness, he remains without himself. At this point he becomes a servant in annihilation, so he falls under His protection and is rid of the claims of his soul. " Abū Saʿīd is saying, " When God wants to choose a servant and make him His friend among His servants, the first caress that He places upon him is to keep him in His remembrance such that he turns away from his own work toward the Real's work and turns away from remember- ing himself to remembering the Real. He comes forth from love for himself to love for the Real. Once he is at rest in remembering and loving the Real, He brings him near to Himself. The mark of nearness is the sweetness of obedience, dislike of disobedience, retiring from the people, and pleasure in seclusion. Then He sits him in the sitting place of seclusion, on the carpet of inti- macy, on the throne of tawḤīd, free of creatures, happy with the Real, unsettled in passion, the veils lifted, brought into the playing field of solitariness, with majesty and tremendousness un- veiled. He is a stranger to himself, one with the Real, consumed within himself, having reached the Patron. " He keeps on saying, " With reports I went forth seeking certainty, fear my resource, hope my companion. The goal was hidden from me and I was striving in the religion. All at once the lightning of self-disclosure flashed from ambush. With thought they see days like that, with the Friend like this. " Listen with your spirit to these words spoken beautifully by the Pir of the Tariqah: " O most generous supervisor! O most merciful Fount of Bounty! O veiled by majesty and disclosed by generosity, apportioner before Tablet and Pen, displayer of the celebration of guidance after a thousand misfortunes! May I be delivered one day from the bother of Eve and Adam and be freed from the bonds of existence and nonexistence! May I remove this remorse and regret from my heart and take ease with the Beloved for a breath, the cup of happiness in hand again and again in the sitting place of intimacy! " How long talk of Adam's attributes and creation? How long debate about the world's time and eternity? How long ambushing the servants, how long not disowning the world and Adam?
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِذَا قُمْتُمْ إِلَى الصَّلَاةِ فَاغْسِلُوا وُجُوهَكُمْ وَأَيْدِيَكُمْ إِلَى الْمَرَافِقِ وَامْسَحُوا بِرُءُوسِكُمْ وَأَرْجُلَكُمْ إِلَى الْكَعْبَيْنِ ۚ وَإِنْ كُنْتُمْ جُنُبًا فَاطَّهَّرُوا ۚ وَإِنْ كُنْتُمْ مَرْضَىٰ أَوْ عَلَىٰ سَفَرٍ أَوْ جَاءَ أَحَدٌ مِنْكُمْ مِنَ الْغَائِطِ أَوْ لَامَسْتُمُ النِّسَاءَ فَلَمْ تَجِدُوا مَاءً فَتَيَمَّمُوا صَعِيدًا طَيِّبًا فَامْسَحُوا بِوُجُوهِكُمْ وَأَيْدِيكُمْ مِنْهُ ۚ مَا يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ لِيَجْعَلَ عَلَيْكُمْ مِنْ حَرَجٍ وَلَٰكِنْ يُرِيدُ لِيُطَهِّرَكُمْ وَلِيُتِمَّ نِعْمَتَهُ عَلَيْكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ
📘 O you who have faith, when you stand for the prayer, wash your faces and your hands up to your elbows.... If you find no water, have recourse to goodly dust. Outward purity has three sections: First is purity after impurity. Second is purity after excretion and sexual activity. Third is purity from the sheddings of the body, such as nails, hair, dirt, and so on. Each of these three sections has an explanation and an explication, and these will be spoken of elsewhere, God willing. Inward purity has three duties: First, purity of the limbs from disobedience, such as back- biting, lying, eating the forbidden, betrayal, and looking at women illicitly. When this purity is gained, the servant is adorned with obedience and reverence. This is the degree of the faith of the pious. Its mark is that the remembrance of the Real is always on their tongue, the fruit of the prom- ise in their heart, the freshness of His favors in their spirit. They are always visiting the sick, going to cemeteries, hurrying to supplicate for good people, and reaching for paradise. The second duty is purity of the heart from unapproved character traits, such as self-admira- tion, envy, pride, hypocrisy, avarice, animosity, and frivolity. Self-admiration ruins the mirror of friendship, envy reduces the worth of people, pride darkens the mirror of the heart, hypocrisy dries up the wellspring of obedience, avarice puts aside respect for people, animosity blocks up the water of familiarity, and frivolity takes away the tent-pole of companionship. When the servant has be- come pure of these defilements, he is numbered among the godwary. His mark is that he flees from concessions, he does not cling to ambiguity, he is always fearful, trembling, and fleeing from hell; he is content with a morsel and a tattered cloak, he has put aside the world and the world's folk, and he has melted himself in the crucible of sorrow. Faith is his basis, godwariness his traveling sup- plies, the grave his way station, and the afterworld his goal. With all this, he constantly weeps with the tongue of pleading and says, “O God, everyone is upon something, but I don't know what I'm upon. I fear only the moment when who I am appears. O God, I am always talking and speaking.
وَإِذَا سَمِعُوا مَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَى الرَّسُولِ تَرَىٰ أَعْيُنَهُمْ تَفِيضُ مِنَ الدَّمْعِ مِمَّا عَرَفُوا مِنَ الْحَقِّ ۖ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا آمَنَّا فَاكْتُبْنَا مَعَ الشَّاهِدِينَ
📘 And when they hear what has been sent down to the Messenger, thou seest their eyes over- flow with tears because of the truth they recognize. They say, “Our Lord, we have faith, so write us down among the witnesses.” This verse alludes to the fact that faith is to be heard, seen, recognized, spoken, and done. They hear is evidence that it is to be heard. Thou seest their eyes overflow with tears is evidence that it is to be seen. Because of the truth they recognize is evidence that it is to be recognized. They say is evidence that it is to be spoken. Then, at the end of the verse, He says “That is the recompense of the beautiful-doers” [5:85]. Beautiful-doers is evidence that its deeds are to be done. He began with hearing because first there is hearing. The servant hears the truth, it makes him happy, he accepts it, he comes into work, and he acts upon it. The Lord of the Worlds is pleased with the group in whom all these traits are found. It has been said that three things are the marks of recognition, and that this group has all three to perfection: weeping, supplication, and approval-weeping for disloyalty, supplication for be- stowal, and approval of the decree. Anyone who claims to have recognition and does not have these traits is not truthful in his claim, is not counted among the recognizers, and has no standing among the chevaliers and the religious. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “Recognition is two: the recognition of the common people and the recognition of the elect. The recognition of the common people is by hearsay, and the recogni- tion of the elect is by face-to-face vision. The recognition of the common people comes from the source of munificence, but the recognition of the elect comes from what they find.” Concerning the recognition of the common people He says, “When they hear what has been sent down to the Messenger.” Concerning the recognition of the elect He says, “He will show you His signs, and you will recognize them” [27:93]. When they hear is praise of the folk of the Shariah, and He shall show you His signs is a felici- tation for the folk of the Haqiqah. When someone speaks of the Shariah and turns his back in any respect, he becomes a heretic. When someone speaks of the Haqiqah and looks at himself in any respect, he becomes an associater.
لَا يُؤَاخِذُكُمُ اللَّهُ بِاللَّغْوِ فِي أَيْمَانِكُمْ وَلَٰكِنْ يُؤَاخِذُكُمْ بِمَا عَقَّدْتُمُ الْأَيْمَانَ ۖ فَكَفَّارَتُهُ إِطْعَامُ عَشَرَةِ مَسَاكِينَ مِنْ أَوْسَطِ مَا تُطْعِمُونَ أَهْلِيكُمْ أَوْ كِسْوَتُهُمْ أَوْ تَحْرِيرُ رَقَبَةٍ ۖ فَمَنْ لَمْ يَجِدْ فَصِيَامُ ثَلَاثَةِ أَيَّامٍ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ كَفَّارَةُ أَيْمَانِكُمْ إِذَا حَلَفْتُمْ ۚ وَاحْفَظُوا أَيْمَانَكُمْ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ آيَاتِهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ
📘 God will not take you to task for idle talk in your oaths, but He will take you to task for the oaths you have bound. The expiation thereof is the feeding of ten indigent people with what you usually feed your own family, or clothing them, or freeing a slave. When overpowered by ecstasy the chevaliers of the Tariqah sometimes swear oaths renewing the covenant and affirming the compact. They say things like, “By your rightful due, I will not gaze at other than You, I will not speak to other than You, and I will not leave Your covenant!” By virtue of tawḤīd these oaths are idle talk and negligence in the witnessing of Unity. How can it be the servant's place to give himself worth, to fancy that he is someone, or to consider his own words to have such status that he can swear an oath to Him? Rather, what is fitting for the servant is to welcome His rulings with beautiful approval. Whether He summons or drives away, he should not protest and not turn away. He should not speak of the realities of union and separation. He should take what He gives, and accept what comes. He should know that in reality it is He who is lovingly kind to perfection and it is He who determines and governs in every state. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O closer to us than ourselves, O more lovingly kind to us than ourselves, O caresser of us without us by Your generosity-not because of our worthiness, not because of our works. The burden is beyond our capacity, the practice not proper to us, the favor not within our ability. Whatever we have done has damaged us, whatever You have done subsists for us. Whatever You have done in our place You have done by Yourself, not for our sake.” Expiation in the Shariah is well-known to the folk of knowledge-freeing slaves, feeding people, and clothing them. So also, in the tongue of allusion, expiation in the Tariqah is of three sorts: expending the spirit by virtue of ecstasy, expending the heart in the soundness of intention, and expending the soul by constant effort. If you are not able to do this, then abstain and fast from prohibited and blamable things.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِنَّمَا الْخَمْرُ وَالْمَيْسِرُ وَالْأَنْصَابُ وَالْأَزْلَامُ رِجْسٌ مِنْ عَمَلِ الشَّيْطَانِ فَاجْتَنِبُوهُ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
📘 O you who have faith! Wine, arrow-shuffling, idols, and divining arrows are a filth and of the deeds of Satan. The Prophet said, “Wine is the gatherer of sin and the mother of loathsome things”: Wine is the root of loathsome things and the key to great sins, the basis of misdeeds, the seed of misguided acts, and the source of discord. It dries up the springhead of obedience, holds back the water of remembrance, and opens the door to heedlessness. The soul becomes drunk from wine and is held back from the prayer. The heart becomes drunk from heedlessness and is held back from secret whispering. The Pir of the Tariqah spoke to these heedless people in the tongue of admonition: “O drunk- ards full of appetite! O sleepers in heedlessness! Have shame before that Lord who knows the treachery of the eyes and sees the inside of the hearts! He knows the treachery of the eyes and what the breasts conceal [40:19]. Oh, where is a whip like that of ʿUmar or a sword like that of ʿAlī to give these discourteous drunkards the Shari'ite punishment in the world of justice and to get these sleeping, heedless people to move! Does the poor wretch who drinks wine not know that when he puts the cup in his hand, the Throne and the Footstool tremble? From the Exalted Presence comes the call, 'By My exaltation and majesty, I will give them to taste of My chastisement in boiling water and Zaqqūm!'” Arrow-shuffling is gambling. When someone plays everything and loses all in a gambling house, he is considered great and recognized as a preceder. This is an allusion to the path of the chevaliers: They throw themselves down on the highway of predetermination so as to become abased before every piece of straw and to come out from the bonds of every color, counting them- selves as nothing. As long as you stay in bond to color, nature, the spheres, and the stars, how can you be allowed to say, “Speak like a Qalandar”? [DS 972]
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَقْتُلُوا الصَّيْدَ وَأَنْتُمْ حُرُمٌ ۚ وَمَنْ قَتَلَهُ مِنْكُمْ مُتَعَمِّدًا فَجَزَاءٌ مِثْلُ مَا قَتَلَ مِنَ النَّعَمِ يَحْكُمُ بِهِ ذَوَا عَدْلٍ مِنْكُمْ هَدْيًا بَالِغَ الْكَعْبَةِ أَوْ كَفَّارَةٌ طَعَامُ مَسَاكِينَ أَوْ عَدْلُ ذَٰلِكَ صِيَامًا لِيَذُوقَ وَبَالَ أَمْرِهِ ۗ عَفَا اللَّهُ عَمَّا سَلَفَ ۚ وَمَنْ عَادَ فَيَنْتَقِمُ اللَّهُ مِنْهُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَزِيزٌ ذُو انْتِقَامٍ
📘 O you who have faith, do not slay game when you are ritually consecrated. He forbade hunting to the ritually consecrated because such a person has the intention of visiting the Kaabah. In terms of allusion, He is saying, “When someone aims for My house and turns his face to the eminent, holy Kaabah, hoping to be in My neighborhood, at least desert game should be protected and secure from him, for in his undertaken goal he has brought himself into the crowd of the pious and the good, and the attribute of the pious is this: 'They do not harm an ant, nor do they have hidden thoughts of evil.'” It has been said that ritual consecration is of two sorts: the hajji's consecration in the body, and the recognizer's consecration in the heart. As long as the hajji is consecrated in the body, game is forbidden to him. As long as the recognizer is consecrated in the heart, seeking, wanting, and free choice are forbidden to him. The mark of the heart's consecration is three things: to be on loan to the creatures, to be a stranger to oneself, and to be at ease from attachment. The fruit of the heart's consecration is three things today and three things tomorrow. Today it is the sweetness of whispered prayer, the birth of wisdom, and the soundness of perspicacity; tomorrow it will be the light of contemplation, the call of gentleness, and the cup of wine.
اعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ شَدِيدُ الْعِقَابِ وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
📘 Know that God is intense in punishment and that God is forgiving, ever-merciful. He is intense in punishment toward the enemies and forgiving, ever-merciful toward the friends.5 The intense in punishment is severity and harshness toward the enemies. The forgiving, ever- merciful is caresses and generosity for the friends. He combined severity and gentleness in one verse so that the servant would live in fear and hope between severity and gentleness. When he looks at severity, he fears, and when he sees gentleness, he hopes. Fear is the fortress of faith, the antidote to caprice, and the weapon of the faithful. Hope is the steed of service, the supplies for striving, and the provision of worship. It has also been said that the servant's faith and certainty have two wings: fear and hope. How can a bird fly with one wing? In the same way, the faithful cannot travel the road of the religion in fear without hope or in hope without fear. True faith is like a balance: One pan is fear, the other pan hope, and the beam is love. The pans are hung from knowledge. Just as a balance must have pans, so hope and fear must have knowledge, which is why He put Know that at the beginning of the verse. Fear without knowledge is the fear of the Khawarij, hope without knowledge is the hope of the Murji'ah, and love without knowledge is the love of libertines.
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