📘 Alif Lām RāÌ Alif: He makes them “familiar” [alf] with blessings and He commands them to tawḤīd. Lām: He “blames” [lawm] them for their failings and commands them to disengagement. RāÌ: He is “kind” [rifq] to them with His bounty and carries them to solitariness. Alif: He makes the creatures familiar with the blessings of the Patron of Blessings, then He calls them to the Patron of Blessings: “Why do you delight in blessings? Desire the mystery of the Patron of Blessings. Why do you take your ease in blessings? Seek the great ease of the heart. How long will you play the dice of perishing love? Seize hold of endless union!” The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, sometimes You say, 'Come close!' Sometimes You say, 'Flee!' Sometimes You command, 'Come!' Sometimes You say, 'Keep back!' O Lord, is this a mark of proximity? Is this the resurrection itself? I had never seen good news mixed with threats. O clement and lovingly kind, O gentle and good Friend, I have come to Your Threshold. If You want, keep me in joy, if You want, keep me lowly.” God knows that I'll find nothing if I desire to replace your love. Lām. He blames them: “Watch out! Do not busy yourselves with the picture-house and the scented garden, or you will fall behind the friends and not reach them.” In the report has come, “Travel! The solitary will be the preceders.” God says, “The preceders, the preceders-they are the proxi- mate” [56:10-11]. RāÌ. This is an allusion to the deliverance [rahā] of the chevaliers from themselves, like the enraptured in the playing field of euphoria: When will they come to the end of the road? Where will they reach the shore of this drowning ocean? When will the night of their waiting come to an end? When will the dawn of good fortune appear from the horizon of felicity? The Pir of the Tariqah said, “The reality of this work is all need. It is an endless longing, a congenital pain. In it there are both joy and melting, both a hidden resurrection and everlasting life. It is the unsettledness of the hearts of the finders, the trial of the spirits of the proximate, the bewilderment of the knowledge of the realizers, the incinerating passion of the recognizers, the euphoric striving of the friends, and the perplexity of the chevaliers.

📘 (Establish worship at the two ends of the day and in some watches of the night. Lo! good deeds annul ill deeds�) [11:114]. Master Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi informed us> Abu 'Amr ibn Matar> Ibrahim ibn 'Ali> Yahya ibn Yahya> Abu'l-Ahwas> Simak> Ibrahim> 'Alqamah> al-Aswad> 'Abd Allah who said: �A man came to the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, and said: 'O Messenger of Allah, I have fondled a woman at the end of Medina. However, I have touched her without making love to her; here I am, sentence me to whatever judgment you see fit!' 'Umar exclaimed: 'Allah had concealed your sin if only you had kept it concealed'. The Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, did not answer him. The man left. Another man went after him, called him back and recited to him this verse. One man asked: 'O Messenger of Allah, is this for him specifically?' He said: 'No, it is for all people' �. This was narrated by Muslim from Yahya ibn Yahya and by Bukhari from Yazid ibn Zuray'. 'Amr ibn Abi 'Amr informed us> Muhammad ibn Makki> Muhammad ibn Yusuf> Muhammad ibn Isma'il> Bishr ibn Yazid ibn Zuray'> Sulayman al-Taymi> Abu 'Uthman al-Nahdi> Ibn Mas'ud who reported that a man kissed a woman after which he went to the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, and informed him of what he did. Allah, exalted is He, then revealed this verse (Establish worship at the two ends of the day and in some watches of the night�) up to the end of the verse. The man asked: �Does this apply specifically to me?� He said: �It applies to whoever practises it from among my community�. Muhammad ibn Musa ibn al-Fadl informed us> Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Umawi> al-'Abbas al-Duri> Ahmad ibn Hanbal al-Marwazi> Muhammad ibn al-Mubarak> Suwayd> 'Uthman ibn Mawhab> Musa ibn Talhah> Abu'l-Yusr ibn 'Amr who said: �A woman whose husband was sent with an army by the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, came to me and said: 'I want to buy one silver coin worth of dates'. I liked the woman and so I said: 'I have in the house dates which are much better than these, so come with me'. I touched her and kissed her.

📘 Perhaps thou art putting aside some of what is revealed to thee, and thy breast is strait- ened by it, that they say, " Why has a treasure not been sent down upon him or an angel come with him? " A command came from the Threshold of Unity and the Side of Self-Sufficiency to the paragon of the engendered beings, the master of the masters, the sun of guidance, the alchemy of good fortune, the Canopus of felicity, the ocean of purity: " I sent you to the creatures to be the physician of the hearts of the grief-stricken, the balm of the pain of the burnt, and the ease of the spirits of the faithful. Recite this book of Mine to them and thereby put out the blaze of their passion's fire and the burning of their hearts in their wish to see Me today. Give them the promise of union and vision tomorrow. " Know also that a few of those who have been deprived by My justice and suffered the wound of severance from Me do not want to hear it, for they do not know how to taste it and do not have the capacity for it. Then, when they ask you to put it aside, you set it aside, and, hoping for their wholesomeness and faith, you seek what they desire. Do not do this, O MuḤammad! Do not seek what they desire and do not attach your hearts to them, for I drove them away in the Beginningless and placed upon them the brand of deprivation and abandon- ment. O Master! They are your enemies and they want bad for you. If they say something in criticism or they try to harass you, do not let your heart be tight. If they do not have faith, do not grieve. They are vile, and My Exalted Presence is pure, giving access only to the pure. 'Surely God is goodly and accepts only the goodly.' When someone is not Mine, even if he is purity itself, consider him defiled. God says, 'The associaters are impure' [9:28]. When someone is Mine, even if he is impurity itself, count him as pure, whether he be a man or a dog. God says, 'And their dog was stretching its paws at the doorstep' [18:18]: A dog took a step in loyalty to the religion and We sent Gabriel to be at his service.

📘 Whoso desires the life of this world and its adornment, We shall pay them in full for their deeds therein, and therein they shall not be defrauded. " When someone is satisfied with this world without Me, despite the lowliness of its attributes, I will not hold him back from the enjoyment of some days. But the sweetness of its perfection will be followed by the bitterness of its disappearance. The flavor of its honey will be succeeded by the poison of its colocynth. " When someone wants this world from Me, this world will not be held back from him, but he will be helpless in the next world, and this world also will not stay with him. " It is mentioned in the traditions that whoever turns his face towards this world has turned his back on God. Turning one's back on God is to sleep always with thoughts of this world and to wake with thoughts of this world while one's moments are drowned in them. A poor wretch like this does not know that this world is the enjoyment of delusion [3:185]. It is the carpet of playing and jesting, the toy of the ignorant and the cause of their deception. He who keeps to this world is like a traveler sitting in a ship, this world his traveling supplies. If he takes more supplies than he needs, the ship will sink and cause his destruction. It is said that Dhu'l-Qarnayn went to the land of the west, and the kingdom of that region was held by a woman. Dhu'l-Qarnayn said, " Surrender this kingdom to me. " She said, " No! And there is no honor in it. " He wanted to take the kingdom by severity, but he was ashamed to fight against a woman. The woman said, " I invite you to be my guest. After the invitation is completed, I will surrender the kingdom to you. " When he came to the table, he saw a table laden with gold. All the cups were gold, and in place of food there were pearls and gems. Dhu'l-Qarnayn said, " What will I eat? I need food. None of this is fit for eating. " The woman said, " Since your portion of this world is no more than bread, where will you take the kingdom of the earth? It is fitting that you have no kingdom, for your portion is no more than two loafs of bread.

📘 And what of him who is upon a clear sign from his Lord? The life of the heedless and the life of the recognizers will never be equal. The life of the heedless is what He says: " Whoso desires the life of this world and its adornment " [11:15]. The life of the recognizers is And what of him who is upon a clear sign from his Lord? He is saying: The recog- nizers have the brightness of familiarity based on the light of the religion and the spirit of certainty. They have gone on the road of success and arrived at the goal of realization. Their hearts are filled by disengagement and solitariness. In the tongue of the folk of allusion, the clear sign is the seed of the pain of passion that He scattered on the first day, at the beginningless covenant, in the hearts of His friends. Thus, it has come in the report, " Then He sprinkled them with some of His light. " Their makeup was a sweet clay which, in the era of the creation of Adam, had come from the goodly sort, receptive to the seed of passion's pain. Then the sun of And the earth will shine with the light of its Lord [39:69] shone forth on it and it received a complete nurturing. When the jasmine of the covenant came up, the flower of intimacy bloomed. The breezes of felicity blew over it and it became the place of the gaze of the Divinity, 360 times in a day and night. The servant was asleep all night, and this gaze was flowing over his heart. He slept, and the gaze of God was his protector. If he inclined even once from the avenue of the Haqiqah or took flight in the air of mortal nature, the call came from the World of the Unseen: " Be penitent toward your Lord " [39:54]. O falcon taken to the sky, come back, don't go! My fingers hold the end of your thread!

📘 Surely those who have faith, do wholesome deeds, and are subservient to their Lord-it is they who will be the companions of the Garden, dwelling within it forever. By way of allusion according to the tasting of the chevaliers of the Tariqah, He is saying: " To- morrow, the residents of the Holy Palisades, the kings of the seat of truthfulness [54:55], and the nobles of the degrees of the High Chambers will be those who today have the ring of My command in the ear of servanthood. They are at ease in the house of subservience, their ears toward the command in the highway of approval because of servanthood, and they have left the road of resistance. " It has been said that the reality of servanthood is two traits: you do what He approves and you approve of what He does. You poor wretch! The rebellious Nimrod in his unbelief fired one arrow of denial at the face of faith. You, while being a Muslim, fire several arrows of denial and protest at the face of the decrees of predetermination every day. How will your attribute of servan- thood become sound? What about approval and surrender? Servanthood is that, in the street of the Haqiqah, you bind your waist with the belt of loyalty and you give your hands over to the ties of the Shariah. As long as your hands are tied, they will never be able to undo the belt. You are a servant, but you are walking on the road of the free. You are a servant, but you are seeking what is desired by lords. A servant will never be like a lord, and freedom and servanthood will never come together. She traveled east and I traveled west- how will the east-goer meet the west-goer? This is why the Lord of the Worlds says,

📘 The likeness of the two groups is that of the blind and deaf and the seeing and hearing. Are they equal in likeness? The truly blind are those who do not have the eye of heedfulness to gaze on the signs of the hori- zons by way of inference, nor the heart of reflection to ponder the signs of the souls, nor the insight of the Haqiqah to see the unveilings of the unseen secrets with the light of perspicacity. The truly seeing are those who look with the knowledge of certainty at the marks giving witness to the acts, for Have they not gazed upon the dominion of the heavens and the earth? [7:185]. Again, with the eye of certainty they see the realities of the attributes, for Do they not ponder the Qur'an? [4:82]. Again, with the truth of certainty they see the majesty of the Essence, for Dost thou not see thy Lord? [25:45]. The knowledge of certainty relies on demonstration, the eye of certainty derives from clarity, and the truth of certainty is described by face-to-face vision. The knowledge of certainty belongs to the faithful, the eye of certainty belongs to the prophets, and the truth of certainty belongs to MuṣṬafā. This is why the world's folk have reports, and he has face-to-face vision. All the world is the shell, and he is the pearl. All the world is a hanger-on, and he is the goal. Were it not for you, O lustrous pearl, Adam would not have taken a breath in this ruined street.

📘 Make the ship through Our eyes and Our revelation. In keeping with the Shariah and by virtue of the outward decree, a command came, " Build a ship from teak and sit in it so as to be delivered from the storm. " In keeping with the Haqiqah and by virtue of special favor and the attribute of proximity, a call came to his secret core, " You have the ocean of the soul before you. It is a drowning, destructive ocean in which are waiting whirlpools full of danger and spirit-stealing sharks. You must cross it in order to reach the shore of security. Build a ship of self-purification in three levels: one fear, the second hope, and the third approval. Then attach to it the sail of truthfulness and set it toward the east wind of awareness of Me. " This is why He said, " through Our eyes and Our revelation: I Myself will drive it as it should be driven and where it should be driven. " He it is who makes you journey on land and sea [10:22]. And We carried them on land and sea [17:70]. By way of allusion He is saying, " My servant, turn over the governance of your work to Me, entrust yourself totally to Me, and keep your self-determination distant. You are being carried by My gentleness, and 'He who is carried by the generous does not fall. And if he does fall, he will find someone to take his hand.' " This is just what MuṣṬafā said: " You indeed will be threading a bridge of fire. If one of you treads on a spark, the bridge will say, 'Your Lord has said to shelter him!' " This is a great generos- ity and an infinite gentleness that the Exalted Lord will do for the disobedient servant tomorrow when he crosses the Narrow Path. " So, sometimes he will stop, sometime stumble, " falling and getting up. The Exalted Lord knows that the servant has no one to come to his aid but He and no one to take his hand but He. In the reports it is mentioned that God's mercy toward the servant is more than a mother's mercy toward her child. Supposing that a child's foot gets caught in the mud a thousand times, each time the mother will say, " Rise up, O soul of your mother! " Each time she will be even more tender and lovingly kind toward the child.

📘 (Lo! now they fold up their breasts that they may hide (their thoughts) from Him�) [11:5]. This verse was revealed about al-Akhnas ibn Shurayq who was good looking and sweet talking. When he met the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, he pleased him but he always kept in his heart that which displeased him. Al-Kalbi said: �He used to sit with the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, and display things that pleased the Prophet while hiding in his heart the opposite of what he displayed. And so Allah, exalted is He, revealed (Lo! now they fold up their breasts that they may hide (their thoughts)) their thoughts of enmity to Muhammad, Allah bless him and give him peace�.

📘 And ask forgiveness from your Lord, then repent to Him. Surely my Lord is ever-merciful, loving. He says, " Ask forgiveness from your Lord, for He is the forgiver and the servant-caresser-not as is fitting for the servant, but as is fitting for Him. No matter how many offenses the servant may have, in the end the Patron's bounty is more. It is the gentleness of lordhood that offers its gentle- ness to the attribute of servanthood: Whatever shortcoming servants may have, My unneediness is equal to it. Whatever may be unapproved from him, My loving kindness is on top of that. What- ever the servant may hope, My bounty is greater than that. " Surely my Lord is ever-merciful, loving. The loving is He who shows His love to His servants by His beautiful doing toward them. The loving is He who caresses the servant with His loving kindness and pours over him continual blessings so that the servant will become His friend. This is why He said to David, " O David, make Me beloved to My servants. Make My path clear to My servants and throw friendship for Me into their hearts. Teach them about My blessings and make My words sweet in their hearts. Tell them that I am the Lord with munificence and no niggardli- ness, with knowledge and no ignorance, with patience and no incapacity, with wrath but no annoy- ance. There is no change in My attributes and no alteration in My words. With Me the word does not change, and I do not wrong the servants [50:29]. " So, if the servant should fall short, not recognize what is rightfully due to this generosity, and not show gratitude for blessings, He will rebuke and say, " O son of Adam! You have not been fair to Me! I showed My love for you through blessings, and you showed your hate for Me through acts of disobedience. My good descends upon you, and your evil rises up to Me. " ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib narrated this hadith from the Prophet, who narrated it from God.