🕋 تفسير سورة إبراهيم
(Ibrahim) • المصدر: EN-KASHANI-TAFSIR
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ الر ۚ كِتَابٌ أَنْزَلْنَاهُ إِلَيْكَ لِتُخْرِجَ النَّاسَ مِنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّورِ بِإِذْنِ رَبِّهِمْ إِلَىٰ صِرَاطِ الْعَزِيزِ الْحَمِيدِ
📘 Alif lām rāÌ. A Book We have revealed to you that you may bring forth mankind, from the darkness of the multiplicity to the light of the unity; or, from the darkness of the attributes of origination to the light of primordial nature; or, form the darkness of the veils of acts and attributes to the light of essence, by the leave of their Lord, by His facilitation in depositing that light in them in the form of preparedness from the Holiest Effusion drawn from the World of the Divinity, and by His granting of success in preparing the means of its emergence into actuality from the Presence of the Lordliness. For His leave is the gift of preparedness and the preparation of the means: otherwise there would be no one to bring them out; to the path of the Mighty, the Strong who vanquishes the darkness of the multiplicity with the light of His unity, the One who is Praised, for the perfection of His Essence. According to the second meaning: the path of the Mighty who vanquishes the attributes of the soul by the light of the heart, the Praised one who bestows the graces of virtues and forms of knowledge when the primordial nature is pure. According to the third: the Mighty who by the august glories of His essence vanquishes the lights of His attributes and annihilates by the Reality of His He-ness all of His creatures, the Praised one who bestows the subsisting existence that is perfect, after the annihilation of vices and the one that is deficient by the existence of His essence and the beauty of His countenance.
۞ قَالَتْ رُسُلُهُمْ أَفِي اللَّهِ شَكٌّ فَاطِرِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ ۖ يَدْعُوكُمْ لِيَغْفِرَ لَكُمْ مِنْ ذُنُوبِكُمْ وَيُؤَخِّرَكُمْ إِلَىٰ أَجَلٍ مُسَمًّى ۚ قَالُوا إِنْ أَنْتُمْ إِلَّا بَشَرٌ مِثْلُنَا تُرِيدُونَ أَنْ تَصُدُّونَا عَمَّا كَانَ يَعْبُدُ آبَاؤُنَا فَأْتُونَا بِسُلْطَانٍ مُبِينٍ
📘 'Can there be doubt concerning God, despite the obviousness of Himḍ In other words, how can you doubt that to which we [the messengers] are calling you to when there is no room for doubt concerning Him on account of the extent of His manifestnessḍ Rather it is that it is necessary to clarify that which clarifies Him. He calls you so that He might forgive you your sins, so that He might shield by His light the darkness of the veils of your attributes so that you do not have any doubt concerning Him at the disclosure of certainty, and defer you to, a felicitous end entailed by your preparedness, since every individual has designated for him, in accordance with his first preparedness, a perfection which constitutes his spiritual term. Likewise for every person, in accordance with his first constitution, there is an end to his life that constitutes his natural term. And just as interfering terms severe life before arrival at that appointed end because of some particular cause, likewise calamities and impediments, which are the veils of preparedness, prevent a person from arriving at that designated perfection.
اللَّهِ الَّذِي لَهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ ۗ وَوَيْلٌ لِلْكَافِرِينَ مِنْ عَذَابٍ شَدِيدٍ
📘 God is He to whom belongs everything in the heavens and everything in the earth. WāsiṬī said, “The realm of being all belongs to Him. When someone seeks the realm of being, He is the Being-Bestower. When someone seeks the Real, he will find that He has subjected the realm of being to him along with everything within it.” Whenever someone gives himself over to the Being-Bestower and his heart busies itself with His companionship, the engendered beings and the newly arrived things will busy themselves entirely with serving him. He is saying, “My servant, the seven heavens, the seven earths, and all that is within them are My property and kingdom. All are My servants and servitors. If you bind your waist in loyalty to My covenant and, like serving-boys, bring your head into the collar of obedience, We will put the ring of serving you in the ear of all things and subject them to you. If you turn your head away from the circle of the command or busy your heart with others, We will set them all on their feet in antagonism toward you and We will make your standing place your prison. One day Solomon the prophet, with his high level and rank, was sitting on the throne of the kingdom. The carpet of the realm was spread and the jinn, mankind, and birds were lined up in ranks. He placed the crown of messengerhood on the head of his prophethood, and it occurred to his mind that today no one surpassed David's son in rank and elevation. Immediately the wind was commanded to take away the mantle from his head. Solomon's face darkened and he said to the wind in his anger, “Return my mantle to me!” The wind answered, “'Return to your heart!' O Solomon, bring your heart back to yourself so that I may bring your mantle back to you.”
وَبَرَزُوا لِلَّهِ جَمِيعًا فَقَالَ الضُّعَفَاءُ لِلَّذِينَ اسْتَكْبَرُوا إِنَّا كُنَّا لَكُمْ تَبَعًا فَهَلْ أَنْتُمْ مُغْنُونَ عَنَّا مِنْ عَذَابِ اللَّهِ مِنْ شَيْءٍ ۚ قَالُوا لَوْ هَدَانَا اللَّهُ لَهَدَيْنَاكُمْ ۖ سَوَاءٌ عَلَيْنَا أَجَزِعْنَا أَمْ صَبَرْنَا مَا لَنَا مِنْ مَحِيصٍ
📘 And they sally forth to God all together: there are three sallies for creatures. A sallying forth at the minor resurrection upon the death of the body; the sallying forth of every person from the veil of his body onto the open space of the Reckoning and the Recompense; and a sallying forth at the middle resurrection upon voluntary death to the veil of the attributes of the soul and the sallying forth to the open space of the heart at the return to primordial nature; and a sallying forth at the major resurrection upon pure annihilation from the veil of the ego to the space of the real unity, which is the sallying forth referred to in His saying and they sally forth to God, the One, the Vanquisher [Q. 14:48]. Those who belong to this [latter] resurrection, He will see them exteriorised (burūz), nothing of them being hidden to God. As for the manifestation of this resurrection for all and the exteriorisation of all before God and the incidence of the speech between the weak and the arrogant, that will be with the presence of the Messiah (mahdī), the one who subsists by [upholding] justice, the one who will discriminate between the inhabitants of the Garden and those of the Fire at the conclusion of the divine affair with the deliverance of the fortunate and the sending of the wretched to perdition.
وَقَالَ الشَّيْطَانُ لَمَّا قُضِيَ الْأَمْرُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَعَدَكُمْ وَعْدَ الْحَقِّ وَوَعَدْتُكُمْ فَأَخْلَفْتُكُمْ ۖ وَمَا كَانَ لِيَ عَلَيْكُمْ مِنْ سُلْطَانٍ إِلَّا أَنْ دَعَوْتُكُمْ فَاسْتَجَبْتُمْ لِي ۖ فَلَا تَلُومُونِي وَلُومُوا أَنْفُسَكُمْ ۖ مَا أَنَا بِمُصْرِخِكُمْ وَمَا أَنْتُمْ بِمُصْرِخِيَّ ۖ إِنِّي كَفَرْتُ بِمَا أَشْرَكْتُمُونِ مِنْ قَبْلُ ۗ إِنَّ الظَّالِمِينَ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
📘 And Satan says: the authority of the Truth triumphs over the Satan of illusion, whos is illumined by His light and so submits and complies, and becomes truthful, knowing that the definitive argument [truly] belongs to God in His calling of creation to the Truth and [belongs] not to him [Satan]; and his [Satan's] call to falsehood by seducing [them] with what is evanescent and adorning for them the life of this world is groundless and devoid of proof. So he [Satan] affirms that His promise, exalted be He, of subsistence after the decay of the body, and of reward and punishment at the sending forth [at the Resurrection] is [a promise of] truth which has been fulfilled; whereas my [Satan's] promise that there is only the life of this world is falsehood, which I invented, and those who deserve to be blamed are only those who accepted the call that was devoid of proof and responded to it and turned away from the call that was accompanied by evidence and did not respond to it: so do not blame me, but blame yourselves.
وَأُدْخِلَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا بِإِذْنِ رَبِّهِمْ ۖ تَحِيَّتُهُمْ فِيهَا سَلَامٌ
📘 Those who have faith and do wholesome deeds were given entry into the Garden....Their greeting therein is “Peace!” The meaning is that tomorrow the faithful and the friends will be brought into paradise, the house of victory, subsistent bliss, and everlasting kingship. The outward meaning of the word were given entry is that this decree was issued on the first day at the Beginningless Covenant and that the faithful were brought into paradise on the day when the decree was issued. It is not a new want that He puts into effect; it is a beginningless deed that He makes appear. He does not caress them today, for He caressed them in the Beginningless and finished the work. The worshipper is always looking toward the Endless, fearing what will be done to him tomor- row. The recognizer is always looking toward the Beginningless, burning because of what may have been done to him then. He who looks toward the Endless sees only bowing and prostrating. He who looks toward the Beginningless sees only ecstasy and finding; absent from seeing himself, he sees neither self nor anything from himself. He sees only the Real and knows only the Real. He who looks at the Endless accepts what he is given and is content with it. He who looks at the Beginningless accepts nothing and is not content with any robe of honor. If he were adorned with every robe of honor in the two realms of being, he would be more naked with every robe. If the whole realm of being were made into a table placed before his heart, he would find no savor in the feast. Both realms of being were made a morsel and placed in Abū Yazīd's maw full of pain, but he gave no mark of surfeit. He kept on shouting out, “I am a captive of face-to-face vision, how can I be content with reports?! I am seeking hard cash, how can hope suffice me?!” Without You, O repose of my spirit, how can I live? If You are not in my embrace, how can I be happy? And those who have faith and do wholesome deeds were given entry into the Garden. They will be settled down tomorrow in the paradises. There is not just one paradise, for there are eight, and not just eight degrees but one hundred.
أَلَمْ تَرَ كَيْفَ ضَرَبَ اللَّهُ مَثَلًا كَلِمَةً طَيِّبَةً كَشَجَرَةٍ طَيِّبَةٍ أَصْلُهَا ثَابِتٌ وَفَرْعُهَا فِي السَّمَاءِ
📘 Hast thou not seen how God has struck a similitude? A goodly word is like a goodly tree. The pure words and true speech of a person of faith are like a pure tree that gives forth good fruit. A pure tree in fine soil and pleasing water gives forth only sweet fruit. This is why He says, “And the goodly land, its plants come forth by the leave of its Lord” [7:58]. The pure soil is the soul of the person of faith, the pure tree is the tree of recognition, the pleas- ing water is the water of regret, and the sweet fruit is the formula of tawḤīd. Just as a tree sends down roots into the earth, so also recognition and faith send down roots into the heart of the person of faith. Just as the branches bring forth fruit in the air, so also the tree of recognizing tawḤīd brings speech to the tongue and deeds to the limbs, and both rise up. This is why the Exalted Lord said, “To Him ascend the goodly words, and He uplifts the wholesome deed” [35:10]. A tree is sustained by three things: roots sent down into the earth, a trunk standing in place, and branches lifted in the air. The tree of recognition has three things perfectly: attesting in the heart, acting with the limbs, and speaking with the tongue. The Prophet said, “Faith is recognizing with the heart, assenting with the tongue, and acting with the body.” The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, the water of Your solicitude reached stone and the stone bore fruit. The stone grew a tree, and the tree gave fruit and produce-a tree whose fruit is all happiness, whose flavor is all intimacy, whose scent is all freedom; a tree whose roots are in the earth of loyalty, its branches in the air of approval, its fruit recognition and limpidness, its outcome vision and encounter.”
تُؤْتِي أُكُلَهَا كُلَّ حِينٍ بِإِذْنِ رَبِّهَا ۗ وَيَضْرِبُ اللَّهُ الْأَمْثَالَ لِلنَّاسِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَذَكَّرُونَ
📘 It gives its fruit every season by the leave of its Lord. Ibn ʿAbbās said, “The tree that the Exalted Lord used as a likeness for the faith of the faithful is a tree in paradise whose fruit is neither cut off nor finished: neither cut off nor withheld [56:33].” In the same way the subtleties of the hearts of the recognizers are among the fruits of the tree of faith, neither cut off nor withheld, and the hearts of the folk of the realities are not turned away from them or veiled. At every moment and breath the subtleties are freely bestowed and not veiled.
وَمَثَلُ كَلِمَةٍ خَبِيثَةٍ كَشَجَرَةٍ خَبِيثَةٍ اجْتُثَّتْ مِنْ فَوْقِ الْأَرْضِ مَا لَهَا مِنْ قَرَارٍ
📘 And the similitude of a bad, soul, is as a bad tree, like colocynth or solanaceae, uprooted from upon the earth, deracinated because of its inconstancy, perturbed belief and lack of stability regarding anything.
يُثَبِّتُ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا بِالْقَوْلِ الثَّابِتِ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَفِي الْآخِرَةِ ۖ وَيُضِلُّ اللَّهُ الظَّالِمِينَ ۚ وَيَفْعَلُ اللَّهُ مَا يَشَاءُ
📘 God confirms those who believe, with the faith of certainty by a real proof, in the, sensory, life, for their uprightness with regard to the divine law and for their wayfaring along the path of virtue and justice as they [seek to] secure livelihood, and in the Hereafter, in other words, [and in] the spiritual life, for their being guided by the light of the Truth in following the [Sufi] path, and for following an insight from God and a clear proof from their Lord as they [seek to] actualise gnoses; and God sends astray the evildoers, in both lives, because of the diminishing of their preparedness by the shares of the soul's attributes and their subsisting in bewilderment because of being veiled from the light of the Truth.
۞ أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ بَدَّلُوا نِعْمَتَ اللَّهِ كُفْرًا وَأَحَلُّوا قَوْمَهُمْ دَارَ الْبَوَارِ
📘 [Have you not seen those] who exchanged God's grace, which He bestowed upon them from pre-eternity in terms of original guidance and the light of preparedness which is the merchandise of salvation, for unthankfulness, that is, [in return] for veiledness and misguidance, as He has said, those are they who have bought error for guidance; so their commerce has not profited them, nor are they guided [Q. 2:16], having forfeited the subsisting light and exchanged it for transient sensory pleasure, remaining thus in everlasting darkness; and who caused their people, those of the faculties of their souls or those who follow their ways, emulate their example and imitate them in that, to take up residence in the Abode of Ruinḍ
الَّذِينَ يَسْتَحِبُّونَ الْحَيَاةَ الدُّنْيَا عَلَى الْآخِرَةِ وَيَصُدُّونَ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَيَبْغُونَهَا عِوَجًا ۚ أُولَٰئِكَ فِي ضَلَالٍ بَعِيدٍ
📘 those who prefer the, sensory, life of this world, over the rational once and the formal one over the spiritual one, by virtue of His description of being astray as being remote and by virtue of the fact that the world of the senses is the most distant of the levels from God, exalted be He.
وَجَعَلُوا لِلَّهِ أَنْدَادًا لِيُضِلُّوا عَنْ سَبِيلِهِ ۗ قُلْ تَمَتَّعُوا فَإِنَّ مَصِيرَكُمْ إِلَى النَّارِ
📘 And they have set up rivals to God, in the way of the enjoyments of this world, its wholesome and appetising things, loving these as they love God, since anything the love of which overwhelms becomes an object of worship. God, exalted be He, has said, Beautified for mankind is love of lusts - of women, children to the end [of the verse Q. 3:14], that they might lead [others] astray from His way, all those who look to them from among the juveniles who are prepared and those who follow their religion. Say: 'Enjoy!, go the whole way with that [error of yours] by the command of illusion, for your enjoyment shall be shortlived, quick to disappear, imminently evanescent and its consequence an evil one by ending up in the Fire.
اللَّهُ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ وَأَنْزَلَ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً فَأَخْرَجَ بِهِ مِنَ الثَّمَرَاتِ رِزْقًا لَكُمْ ۖ وَسَخَّرَ لَكُمُ الْفُلْكَ لِتَجْرِيَ فِي الْبَحْرِ بِأَمْرِهِ ۖ وَسَخَّرَ لَكُمُ الْأَنْهَارَ
📘 God it is Who created, the heavens of the spirits and the earth of the body, and He sends down from, the heaven of the world of the Holy the water of knowledge, and with it He brings forth, from the earth of the soul, the fruits of wisdoms and virtues, as sustenance for you, and fortification for the heart. And He has disposed for you, rivers of knowledge by means of reasoning, inference, derivation and differentiation.
وَسَخَّرَ لَكُمُ الشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ دَائِبَيْنِ ۖ وَسَخَّرَ لَكُمُ اللَّيْلَ وَالنَّهَارَ
📘 And He has disposed for you, the sun of the spirit and the moon of the heart, constant, in journeying through unveilings and witnessings, and He has disposed for you, the night that is the darkness of the soul's attributes and the day that is the light of the spirit in order to seek livelihood and [means to] the final return, as well as rest and illumination.
وَآتَاكُمْ مِنْ كُلِّ مَا سَأَلْتُمُوهُ ۚ وَإِنْ تَعُدُّوا نِعْمَتَ اللَّهِ لَا تُحْصُوهَا ۗ إِنَّ الْإِنْسَانَ لَظَلُومٌ كَفَّارٌ
📘 And He gives you of all that you ask of Him, by the tongues of your preparednesses, for every thing that asks of Him perfection by the tongue of its preparedness, He effuses upon it at the request without delay or languor, as He has said, All that is in the heavens and the earth implore Him. Every day He is upon some matter [Q. 55:29]. And if you were to enumerate God's grace, of those matters that precede your existence, effused from the Divine Presence, and of those [matters] that come to you in the way of the reinforcement of [spiritual] nurturing that arrives [to you] from the Lordly Presence, you could never number it, because of its endlessness, as affirmed by [His] wisdom. Lo! man is verily a wrong-doer, by placing the light of preparedness and the substratum of subsistence in the darkness of nature and the locus of annihilation and expending that [light] therein, or by diminishing what is due to God or what is due to his own soul by annulling his preparedness, and unthankful, for those graces, which cannot be enumerated, by using them for what they should not be used, and [unthankful] by being heedless of the One bestowing these graces on him and veiling himself from Him with these [graces].
وَإِذْ قَالَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ رَبِّ اجْعَلْ هَٰذَا الْبَلَدَ آمِنًا وَاجْنُبْنِي وَبَنِيَّ أَنْ نَعْبُدَ الْأَصْنَامَ
📘 And when Abraham said, “My Lord, make this land secure, and keep me and my sons away from worshiping idols.” In this verse Abraham asked two things from the Real: First, Mecca's security from mastery by enemies, and second, the heart's security from domination by the ruling power of caprice. He said, “Lord God, make this city of Mecca into a secure sanctuary far from the hand of any tyrant and free of fear for all the people.” The Lord of the Worlds responded to his supplication and made it into a blessed sanctuary and a place of security, as He says, “[And when We made the House] a place of gathering for the people, and a sanctuary” [2:125]. Never will the hand of any tyrant reach it; whoever goes into the sanctuary-whether Adamite or non-Adamite, wild prey or bird of the air-will have no fear. He asked for the heart's security in terms of allusion with his words, “Keep me and my sons away from worshiping idols.” Whenever something holds you back from the Real, that is your idol. Whenever your heart inclines and looks to something other than the Real, that is your caprice. The Exalted Lord says, “Hast thou seen him who has taken his caprice as his god?” [25:43]. One person looks to property and trade, another to wife and children, another to position and respect. One person has remained in the bonds of venerating piety and self-restraint and has not taken a step beyond that. Another has made obedience and worship his kiblah-looking at it and leaning on it have become the veil of his road. The Lord of the Worlds says, “And repent all together to God, O you who have faith! Perhaps you will prosper [24:31]. O you who have faith, if you want Me to make your hearts the sanctuary of My gaze and to keep you secure from the veil of severance, turn your faces totally to Me and turn away from everything else!” Sometimes He calls to His road with the tongue of the artifacts to make people realize familiarity. Sometimes He calls to Himself with the tongue of unveiling to confirm friendship. He is saying: “Turn away from yourself and totally to Him so as to recognize what is right- fully due to Him.
رَبِّ إِنَّهُنَّ أَضْلَلْنَ كَثِيرًا مِنَ النَّاسِ ۖ فَمَنْ تَبِعَنِي فَإِنَّهُ مِنِّي ۖ وَمَنْ عَصَانِي فَإِنَّكَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
📘 My Lord, truly they have led astray many of mankind, by causing them to be attached to these, being attracted to them and being veiled by them from the unity. So whoever follows me, in the wayfaring along the path of the affirmation of the Oneness, verily belongs with me, and whoever disobeys me, truly You are Forgiving, concealing for him that dark configuration by Your light, Merciful, to him by effusing upon him perfection after forgiveness.
رَبَّنَا إِنِّي أَسْكَنْتُ مِنْ ذُرِّيَّتِي بِوَادٍ غَيْرِ ذِي زَرْعٍ عِنْدَ بَيْتِكَ الْمُحَرَّمِ رَبَّنَا لِيُقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ فَاجْعَلْ أَفْئِدَةً مِنَ النَّاسِ تَهْوِي إِلَيْهِمْ وَارْزُقْهُمْ مِنَ الثَّمَرَاتِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَشْكُرُونَ
📘 Our Lord, indeed I have made some of, the seed of my faculties, to dwell in a valley where there is no sown land, that is to say, the valley of corporeal nature that is devoid of the sown land of perception, knowledge, gnosis and virtue, by Your Sacred House, which is the heart, our Lord, that they may establish, the prayer of communion and unveiling. So make some of the hearts, of the men of the senses, yearn towards them, so that they are provisioned with all types of sensations, reinforced with the capacity to perceive particulars and take their side to avoid contravention by inclining to the lower aspect and to corporeal pleasures. And provide them, with the fruits of gnoses and realities of universals, that they might be thankful, for Your grace and thus use those perceptions to seek perfection.
رَبَّنَا إِنَّكَ تَعْلَمُ مَا نُخْفِي وَمَا نُعْلِنُ ۗ وَمَا يَخْفَىٰ عَلَى اللَّهِ مِنْ شَيْءٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَلَا فِي السَّمَاءِ
📘 Our Lord, You know what we hide, of what is in us in potential, and what we proclaim, of what we have projected into actuality of perfections. And nothing is hidden from God, in the earth of preparedness or in the heaven of the spirit.
الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي وَهَبَ لِي عَلَى الْكِبَرِ إِسْمَاعِيلَ وَإِسْحَاقَ ۚ إِنَّ رَبِّي لَسَمِيعُ الدُّعَاءِ
📘 Praise be to God Who has given me, at the advanced age of perfection, Ishmael, the considerative rational faculty, and Isaac, the cognitive one. Lo! my Lord is indeed the Hearer of supplication, that is, [He is indeed] the Hearer of the supplication of the preparedness, as one [of them] said, 'Suffice it as my supplication [of Him] that He should have knowledge of my state'.
وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا مِنْ رَسُولٍ إِلَّا بِلِسَانِ قَوْمِهِ لِيُبَيِّنَ لَهُمْ ۖ فَيُضِلُّ اللَّهُ مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَيَهْدِي مَنْ يَشَاءُ ۚ وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ
📘 And We have not sent any Messenger except with the tongue of his people, that is, with speech that corresponds with the state in which they are in, in accordance with their preparedness and commensurate with their intellects. For otherwise they would not understand, as that meaning would then be remote from their understanding and would not correspond with their station; and he would not be able to make clear for them the potential in their first preparedness in the way of perfection that befits it and what their ipseities entail according to primordial nature; God then sends astray whomever He will, because of the disappearance of that person's preparedness through dark configurations that have taken deep root [in him] and false beliefs that have settled [in him]; and He guides whomever He will, whomever has remained upon his preparedness, or in whom the veils of his configurations and the forms of his beliefs have not taken deep root; and He is the Mighty, the Strong whose will cannot be overcome and so He guides whomever He wishes to send astray and sends astray whomever He wishes to be guided; the Wise, who manages the affair of guiding the one to be guided by all manner of graces and the affair of the sending astray of the one to be sent astray by all manner of forsaking, as required by [His] ultimate wisdom.
رَبِّ اجْعَلْنِي مُقِيمَ الصَّلَاةِ وَمِنْ ذُرِّيَّتِي ۚ رَبَّنَا وَتَقَبَّلْ دُعَاءِ
📘 My Lord, make me an establisher, of the prayer of presential vision, and [also] of my seed, each one of them an establisher of a prayer specific to him. Our Lord! And accept my supplication, that is, my request for complete annihilation in You.
رَبَّنَا اغْفِرْ لِي وَلِوَالِدَيَّ وَلِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ يَوْمَ يَقُومُ الْحِسَابُ
📘 Our Lord, forgive me, with the light of Your essence the sin of my existence so that I might not become veiled in insolence, and my parents, and the causes of my existence in the way of recipient entities and agents, such that I do not see anything other than You and that I might not turn my attention to anything besides You, lest I be afflicted with deviating vision, and [forgive also] the believers of the spiritual faculties, on the day when, the reckoning of luminous spiritual configurations and ego-centric dark ones - depending on which is the preponderant - shall come to pass'.
يَوْمَ تُبَدَّلُ الْأَرْضُ غَيْرَ الْأَرْضِ وَالسَّمَاوَاتُ ۖ وَبَرَزُوا لِلَّهِ الْوَاحِدِ الْقَهَّارِ
📘 The day when the earth will be changed to other than the earth: the earth of nature is changed to the earth of the soul upon the arrival at the station of the heart and the heaven of the heart [is changed] to the heaven of the mystery. Similarly, the earth of the soul is changed to the earth of the heart and the heaven of the mystery to the heaven of the spirit. Likewise is the case with every station which the wayfarer crosses: what is above it and what is below is changed, as with the changing of the heaven of trust, in the affirmation of the unity of the acts, to the heaven of satisfaction in the affirmation of the unity of the attributes, then the heaven of satisfaction to the heaven of the affirmation of Oneness upon the unveiling of the Essence, whereafter all is 'rolled up' and they (people) sally forth to God, the One, other than Whom there is no existent, the Vanquisher, by Whose self-disclosure all that is other than Him is annihilated.
وَتَرَى الْمُجْرِمِينَ يَوْمَئِذٍ مُقَرَّنِينَ فِي الْأَصْفَادِ
📘 And you shall see the sinners, those veiled by the attributes of the souls and the configurations of vices, coupled, in their places in the Sijjīn [cf. Q. 83:7-8] of nature and the Abyss [cf. Q. 101:9] of the vain desire of the soul in the chains that are the attachments to natural things and the halters that are the love of lowly things;
وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا مُوسَىٰ بِآيَاتِنَا أَنْ أَخْرِجْ قَوْمَكَ مِنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّورِ وَذَكِّرْهُمْ بِأَيَّامِ اللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِكُلِّ صَبَّارٍ شَكُورٍ
📘 And We sent Moses with our signs: “Bring thy people out from the darknesses into the light and remind them of the days of God.” “O My MuḤammad! I commanded Moses exactly as I command you. I said to all: 'Light up the lamp of the invitation, call people from the darknesses of doubt to the light of certainty, bring them from the shadow of ignorance to the brightness of knowledge, leave aside self-governance, see the Real's predetermination, do not set down or approve of innovation, and follow the path of the Sunnah and the congregation.'” Remind them of the days of God. These are the days when the servants were in the conceal- ment of nonexistence and the Real was saying with beginningless speech, “My servants!” “O MuḤammad, remind them of the days when you were not and I was there for you. Without you I took care of your work. I bound the compact of love and I wrote mercy against myself: Your Lord has written mercy against Himself [6:54].'” This is what the Pir of the Tariqah intimated in his whispered prayer: “O God, where will I find again the day when You belonged to me and I was not? Until I reach that day again, I will be in the midst of fire and smoke. If I find that day again in the two worlds, I will profit. If I find Your Being for myself, I will be pleased with my own nonbeing. “O God, where was I when You called me? I am not I when You remain for me. “O God, when You call someone, do not make manifest the offenses that You have concealed! “O God, 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 gentleness! Entrust us to none but Your bounty and mercy!”
سَرَابِيلُهُمْ مِنْ قَطِرَانٍ وَتَغْشَىٰ وُجُوهَهُمُ النَّارُ
📘 their shirts [made] of pitch, by virtue of the mastery acquired [over them] by the blackness of dark configurations from the attachments to substances that cast their darkness on them, and their faces are engulfed, by the fire of being vanquished, humiliated and veiled from the pleasure of perfection. Therein lies another mystery which is only unveiled to the folk of the resurrection, those who have witnessed the sending forth and the rising. But God knows best.
وَإِذْ تَأَذَّنَ رَبُّكُمْ لَئِنْ شَكَرْتُمْ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ ۖ وَلَئِنْ كَفَرْتُمْ إِنَّ عَذَابِي لَشَدِيدٌ
📘 When your Lord proclaimed, “If you give thanks, I will surely increase you.” In other words: “If you give thanks for submission, I will increase you in faith. If you give thanks for faith, I will increase you in beautiful doing. If you give thanks for beautiful doing, I will in- crease you in recognition. If you give thanks for recognition, I will increase you in union. If you give thanks for union, I will increase you in contemplation. If you give thanks for the gifts that I bestow upon you, I will increase you in the encounter I have promised you.” It has been narrated that David said, “My Lord, how should I give thanks to You, for my giving thanks is a renewal of Your favor toward me.” He said, “O David, what you said now is giving thanks to Me.”
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