🕋 تفسير سورة البقرة
(Al-Baqarah) • المصدر: EN-KASHANI-TAFSIR
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ الم
📘 Alif lām mīm. Addressing one another with individual letters is one of the customs of lovers in their love. These are the lovers' secrets with each other so that no one watching will be aware. Between them lovers have a secret not disclosed by word, nor does creation have a pen to record it. * Of the sort of hidden message that He gave not one will be given up for a hundred thousand lives. In the scroll of friendship there is the imprint of a script whose interpretation none but the passion- ate read. In the secluded cell of friendship, there is mystery between friends whose murmur none but the recognizers know. In the picture-gallery of friendship there is a color of colorlessness that none but the enraptured have the eyes to see. If you want to see the beauty of the beloved's face, blind the eyes of your head and look with the eye of your intellect! [DS 495] Though Moses heard a thousand words in a thousand languages, this mystery was given over to MuḤammad in the seclusion of Or closer [53:9] on the carpet of expansiveness: “Alif.” I said to her, “Halt [qifī].” She said, “qāf.” Those thousands of words came to Moses, but the veil stayed in place. This mystery came to MuḤammad at the moment of face-to-face vision. Moses heard the words but did not see the Speaker, MuḤammad heard the mystery while gazing on the Keeper of the Mystery. Moses in seeking was delighted with the seeking; MuḤammad in the Presence was delighted with the Friend. Moses had not found the pleasure of contemplation, so he did not know its taste. He had not gone beyond listening and remembering; his repose was in hearing, which is why He spoke so much to him. But MuḤammad had gone beyond the limit of hearing to the center point of togetherness. The jealousy of the Remembered did not leave him in the remembrance and the wave of light lifted him up from love, so remembrance became lost in the Remembered and love in the Light. The spirit was lost in face-to-face vision, and face-to-face vision is far from explication. When a heart finds delight in His grasp and is inundated by face-to-face vision, what will it do with reports? When the spirit rests in the embrace, why should it busy itself with much remembrance? For him who must have face-to-face vision, reports are the bane. Why would a heart alone with face-to-face vision cling to reports? [DS 110] It has been said that Alif lām mīm caresses the paragon of the world in the tongue of allusion. It means, “Isolate [afrid] your secret core for Me, loosen [layyin] your limbs in My service, and stand [aqim] with Me, effacing your own traces and gaining proximity to Me!” O Master, pass all at once beyond the curtain of Gabriel's intermediacy so that the attribute of passion may pull off the mask of inaccessibility and show you the wonders of the Treasuries and the pearls of the Unseen that He has prepared for you. If Gabriel bothers you there, spill his blood- pay Gabriel's blood-price from mercy's treasure. [DS 592] O paragon, take one step outside of dust so that, when face-to-face vision gives you access, you will be all set and released from others. O paragon, what those chevaliers [the Companions of the Cave] drank down in sleep over three hundred nine years-drink it down in one moment in wake- fulness, for the house is empty, and the Friend is yours. It's night, there's wine, and the lover's alone- get up and come, pretty idol, for tonight is our night. It has been said that alif is an allusion to “I” [ana], lām to “My” [lī], and mīm to “from Me” [minnī]. I: It is I who am the Lord, I who join with the servant in love. I am the light of the name and the light of the message. I am the repose and ease [56:89] of hearts, I am the intimacy and rest of spirits. My: Whatever was, is, and will be is all My kingdom and property, decreed by My prescrip- tion and subjugated to My determination. That which overpowers it is My command, that which penetrates into it is My will. It has its being by My keeping, it is preserved by My help. From Me: Whatever has come has come from My power, whatever has gone forth has gone forth from My knowledge, whatever has been has been from My decree. All this is to admonish the servants: “You should dismiss your own intellect and knowledge so that you may reap the fruit. Leave the work to Me so that you may take a portion. Keep your service limpid so that you may gain access. Take veneration as your companion so that you may be worthy of the gateway. Sit upon the mount of love so that you may quickly reach the Presence. Keep your aspiration one-pointed so that you may look first upon the Friend.” The Pir of the Tariqah, the beauty of the Folk of the Haqiqah, Shaykh al-Islām Anṣārī, has some fine words in unveiling the mysteries of alif and removing its curtain of obscurity. He said, “Alif is the imam of the letters and is well-known among the letters. Alif does not join with the other letters, but the other letters join with alif. Alif has no need of the other letters, but all the other letters need alif. Alif is straight. At first it is one, and at last one. It has one color, but words are many-colored. Alif is the cause of recognition, but its straightness does not accept any cause. In the place where it finds a place, no other letter finds a place, but each letter has a known station in the tablet. In reality it is together, but in gazing it is separate. It descends into each of the stations of the one, so all are one, and duality is unreal.” It has also been said that each letter is a lamp lit from the Greatest Light. Each is a sun risen from the east of the Haqiqah that has advanced to the heaven of jealousy. All the attributes of the creatures and the opacities of mortal man are the veil of that light. As long as the veil is in place, hoping to find the light is an error. The bride of the Qur'an will throw off her veil once she sees the kingdom of faith empty of tumult. [DS 52]
فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ مَرَضٌ فَزَادَهُمُ اللَّهُ مَرَضًا ۖ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْذِبُونَ
📘 In their hearts is a sickness, in other words, doubt and hypocrisy. The use of the indefinite form of maraḍ (sickness) and the adverbial clause is an indication of the fact that [such a] sickness has befallen them and has established itself and taken root in these [hearts of theirs, as we have mentioned in the above structure, for otherwise He would have said: 'Their hearts are sick or [that they are] dead'; and God has increased them in sickness, that is, [with] another [sickness]: [God increases their] spite, envy and rancour by exalting the word of religion and the granting of assistance to the Messenger and the believers. All despicable acts are sicknesses of the heart as they are cause of its weakening and the evil of its private actions and its ruin in the final issue. He distinguishes between the two chastisements by [stipulating] pain for the hypocrites and an awesome [chastisement] for disbelievers, because the chastisement for those who have been banished from pre-eternity is greater. Thus they do not experience the intensity of its painfulness because of the impurity of their hearts' perception, similar to the state of a dead or hemiplegic or numbed limb [that senses nothing] when it undergoes severing or cauterisation and other kinds of pain. As for the hypocrites, they sense the extreme pain because of their established preparedness [for belief] at the outset and the permanence of their [faculties of] perception. Inevitably then their chastisement is painful, caused as it is by the chronic sickness that occurs [in their hearts], namely, mendacity and its [evil] concomitants.and there awaits them a painful chastisement because they used to lie.
أَوَكُلَّمَا عَاهَدُوا عَهْدًا نَبَذَهُ فَرِيقٌ مِنْهُمْ ۚ بَلْ أَكْثَرُهُمْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ
📘 Why, whenever they make a covenant, does a party of them reject itḍ Nay, but most of them are disbelievers.
وَلَمَّا جَاءَهُمْ رَسُولٌ مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّهِ مُصَدِّقٌ لِمَا مَعَهُمْ نَبَذَ فَرِيقٌ مِنَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ كِتَابَ اللَّهِ وَرَاءَ ظُهُورِهِمْ كَأَنَّهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
📘 When there came to them a messenger from God, confirming what was with them, a party of them who were given the Scripture have cast away the Scripture of God behind their backs, as though they did not know.This is manifest [in meaning] and can be known from what has already been [mentioned in previous verses]. The exoteric sense is that Gabriel is the active intellect, Michael is the spirit of the sixth celestial sphere, from his intellect emanates the universal vegetative soul charged with the provision of [God's] servants; Isrāfīl is the spirit of the fourth celestial sphere, from his intellect emanates the universal animal soul that is in charge of the animals; ʿIzrāÌīl is the spirit of the seventh celestial sphere and he is in charge of all human spirits which he seizes by himself or through intermediaries who are his assistants whereupon he hands them over to God, exalted be He.
وَاتَّبَعُوا مَا تَتْلُو الشَّيَاطِينُ عَلَىٰ مُلْكِ سُلَيْمَانَ ۖ وَمَا كَفَرَ سُلَيْمَانُ وَلَٰكِنَّ الشَّيَاطِينَ كَفَرُوا يُعَلِّمُونَ النَّاسَ السِّحْرَ وَمَا أُنْزِلَ عَلَى الْمَلَكَيْنِ بِبَابِلَ هَارُوتَ وَمَارُوتَ ۚ وَمَا يُعَلِّمَانِ مِنْ أَحَدٍ حَتَّىٰ يَقُولَا إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ فِتْنَةٌ فَلَا تَكْفُرْ ۖ فَيَتَعَلَّمُونَ مِنْهُمَا مَا يُفَرِّقُونَ بِهِ بَيْنَ الْمَرْءِ وَزَوْجِهِ ۚ وَمَا هُمْ بِضَارِّينَ بِهِ مِنْ أَحَدٍ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ ۚ وَيَتَعَلَّمُونَ مَا يَضُرُّهُمْ وَلَا يَنْفَعُهُمْ ۚ وَلَقَدْ عَلِمُوا لَمَنِ اشْتَرَاهُ مَا لَهُ فِي الْآخِرَةِ مِنْ خَلَاقٍ ۚ وَلَبِئْسَ مَا شَرَوْا بِهِ أَنْفُسَهُمْ ۚ لَوْ كَانُوا يَعْلَمُونَ
📘 And they follow, that is, the Jews and the spiritual faculties follow, what the devils, the devils of mankind who are the evil disobedient powerful rebels and the devils of the jinn who are the illusions, images and imaginations that are veiled from the light of the spirit that disobeys the command of the intellect and rebels against obedience of the heart, used to relate in, the time of, Solomon's kingdom: [Solomon] the prophet, or Solomon of the spirit, from the books and sciences of sorcery, claiming that this was the knowledge by which Solomon seized kingship and [by which] he subjugated to his service those jinn, humans and birds, as well as the science of trickery, magic, illusions, play-acting and sophistry. Solomon did not disbelieve, by attributing the effects [of such devices] to any other than God, since sorcery is disbelief and a veiling from the effect-creation of God by the attribution of effect to other than Him; but the devils disbelieved, they became veiled and were not aware that there is no Effect other than God; teaching the people sorcery; and that which was revealed to the two angels, namely, the speculative intellect and the practical [one] that incline to the soul, degenerates of the well of nature because of their orientation to it through the soul's enticement of them to it, in Babylon, of the breast [- Hārūt and Mārūt], chastised the two of them by the narrowness of the place between the moistures of the substrata and the fumes of the fires of lust in the way of sciences and deeds in the form of trickery, cartomancy and talismans according to both interpretations. They taught not any man, without them saying, 'We are but a temptation, a test and a trial from God of the power of luminosity and the subsistence of the spiritual [angelic] world within the two [angels], so that they might be alerted to their state by the light of the intellect; do not disbelieve', by employing such science for corrupt purposes and [to commit] what is prohibited and attributing to it the effects. From them they learned how they might cause division between [a man and his wife], [between] the heart and the soul and between the spirit and the soul and the sullying of the heart; yet they did not harm any man thereby save by the leave of God, in other words, except if God willed that he be harmed after that act and does what He wishes so that this ends up being a further trial for the sorcerer and a respite to him in his disbelief and his being veiled since he considers that to be the effects of his sorcery [and not from God]; and they learned what harmed them, by increasing their [state of] being veiled and the intensity of deviation and caprice; and did not profit them, by the lifting of the veil upon their seeing that this was a trial from God and their seeking refuge with God so that He might protect them from its evil.
وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ آمَنُوا وَاتَّقَوْا لَمَثُوبَةٌ مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّهِ خَيْرٌ ۖ لَوْ كَانُوا يَعْلَمُونَ
📘 Yet if only they had believed, in seeing the acts as issuing from God, and been fearful, of associating others with God by attributing effects to other than Him, verily, a reward, everlasting and being, from God, from the spiritual lights and the opening bestowals and the states of the heart and the divine cognitions, would have been better, if they had but known.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَقُولُوا رَاعِنَا وَقُولُوا انْظُرْنَا وَاسْمَعُوا ۗ وَلِلْكَافِرِينَ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
📘 O you who believe, do not say, 'Observe us'; but say, 'Regard us', and give ear; and for disbelievers awaits a painful chastisement.
مَا يَوَدُّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ وَلَا الْمُشْرِكِينَ أَنْ يُنَزَّلَ عَلَيْكُمْ مِنْ خَيْرٍ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ يَخْتَصُّ بِرَحْمَتِهِ مَنْ يَشَاءُ ۚ وَاللَّهُ ذُو الْفَضْلِ الْعَظِيمِ
📘 Those disbelievers of the People of the Scripture and the idolaters, do not wish that any good should be revealed to you from your Lord, but God singles out for His mercy, whom He will; God is of bounty abounding.
۞ مَا نَنْسَخْ مِنْ آيَةٍ أَوْ نُنْسِهَا نَأْتِ بِخَيْرٍ مِنْهَا أَوْ مِثْلِهَا ۗ أَلَمْ تَعْلَمْ أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
📘 Whatever verse We abrogate or cause to be forgotten-We bring better than it or its like. By way of allusion He is saying, “We never make you advance from the locus of servanthood without setting you down in the courtyards of freedom. We never remove from you any of the attributes of mortal nature without making you abide through one of the marks that give witness to the Divinity.” In terms of allusion He is saying, “O paragon of the horizons, O messenger to jinn and men, O quintessence of predetermination, O luminous full moon, O totality of perfection, O kiblah of prosperity, O basis of bounteousness, O displayer of gentleness and majesty, O you whose branch of union is blooming and whose star of exaltedness is always shining, O you whose good fortune has gone beyond the clouds of being and become specific to the marks giving witness to the Lord- hood and the confirmation of the Divinity! Instant by instant the work of your good fortune is advancing. What others have as crowns, you have as sandals. “The sandals that your steed threw from its feet became the crown of sultans-and may it ever be so! [DS 838] “O paragon! Even though the stations beyond which We make you advance are the beautiful deeds of all the friends and the limpid, they are your ugly deeds as long as you remain within them. When you pass beyond them, ask forgiveness for them!” MuṣṬafā said that he asked forgiveness for them seventy times a day: “My heart becomes clouded, so I ask forgiveness from God seventy times a day.” Abū Bakr al-ṣiddīq said, “Would that I could witness that for which God's Messenger asked forgiveness!” Concerning His words, “Whatever verse We abrogate,” it has also been said, “That is, the servant is not transferred from a state without being given what is above and beyond it. 'Whenever We abrogate any trace of worship, We replace it with one of the lights of servanthood. When- ever We abrogate one of the lights of servanthood, We put in its place something of the moons of servitude.'”9 So he continues, being transferred from the lower to the higher, until he falls under one of the attractions of the Real. And “One attraction from the Real is equivalent to all the deeds of jinn and men.
أَلَمْ تَعْلَمْ أَنَّ اللَّهَ لَهُ مُلْكُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ ۗ وَمَا لَكُمْ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ مِنْ وَلِيٍّ وَلَا نَصِيرٍ
📘 Do you not know that to God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, that is to say, to Him belongs the kingdom of the heavens of the world of spirits and the earth of bodies, and He disposes of them by the hand of His power, nay indeed, by His totality, the hidden and the manifest of it, so that there remains no one other than Him to assist you [to victory] and to be your Guardian: [and that you have none, besides God, neither protector, nor helperḍ]
أَمْ تُرِيدُونَ أَنْ تَسْأَلُوا رَسُولَكُمْ كَمَا سُئِلَ مُوسَىٰ مِنْ قَبْلُ ۗ وَمَنْ يَتَبَدَّلِ الْكُفْرَ بِالْإِيمَانِ فَقَدْ ضَلَّ سَوَاءَ السَّبِيلِ
📘 Or do you desire to demand of your Messenger, beforehand sensory religious pleasures and vile lusts of the soul, as was demanded of Moses aforetimeḍ Whoever exchanges [belief for unbelief], light for darkness, has surely strayed from the even way.
وَدَّ كَثِيرٌ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ لَوْ يَرُدُّونَكُمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ إِيمَانِكُمْ كُفَّارًا حَسَدًا مِنْ عِنْدِ أَنْفُسِهِمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُمُ الْحَقُّ ۖ فَاعْفُوا وَاصْفَحُوا حَتَّىٰ يَأْتِيَ اللَّهُ بِأَمْرِهِ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
📘 [Many of the People of the Scripture long that they might make you disbelievers, after you have believed, from the envy of their own souls, after the truth has become clear to them; yet pardon and be forgiving till God brings His command; truly God has power over all things.
وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ لَا تُفْسِدُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ قَالُوا إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُصْلِحُونَ
📘 When it is said to them, 'Do not work corruption on earth', they say, 'We are only putting things right'.
وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتُوا الزَّكَاةَ ۚ وَمَا تُقَدِّمُوا لِأَنْفُسِكُمْ مِنْ خَيْرٍ تَجِدُوهُ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ
📘 And perform the prayer, and pay the alms; whatever good you shall offer for your own souls, you shall find it with God; assuredly God sees what you do].
وَقَالُوا لَنْ يَدْخُلَ الْجَنَّةَ إِلَّا مَنْ كَانَ هُودًا أَوْ نَصَارَىٰ ۗ تِلْكَ أَمَانِيُّهُمْ ۗ قُلْ هَاتُوا بُرْهَانَكُمْ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ
📘 And they say, 'None shall enter the Garden except those who are Jews or Christians', that is to say, the Jews said that none shall enter the Garden promised to them in the covenant, that is, the exoteric Garden and the world of the kingdom, which is the Garden of the acts and the Garden of the soul, except those who were Jews; while the Christians said that none shall enter the Garden promised to them in [their] covenant, that is, the esoteric Garden and the world of the angelic realm, which is the Garden of the attributes and the Garden of the heart except those who were Christians, which is why Jesus, peace be upon him, said, when calling them to their Garden: 'Whoever is not born again and his call is not directed towards the heaven, that is, the spiritual heaven, shall not probe the angelic realm of the heavens'. Such are their desires, that is, the utmost extent of their demands, at the limits of which they stopped, veiling themselves therewith from what is above them. Say, 'Produce your proof, that is, the evidence that demonstrates all except you are denied entry into your Garden, if you speak truth', concerning what you claim, nay, all evidence points to the contrary of what you claim.
بَلَىٰ مَنْ أَسْلَمَ وَجْهَهُ لِلَّهِ وَهُوَ مُحْسِنٌ فَلَهُ أَجْرُهُ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
📘 No, whosoever submits his face to God, doing the beautiful, shall have his wage with his Lord, and no fear shall be upon them, neither shall they grieve. The work is the work of the purifiers, the good fortune the good fortune of the truthful, the con- duct the conduct of the pure, and the hard cash the hard cash in their purse. Today they are on the carpet of service with the light of recognition, tomorrow on the carpet of companionship with the joy of union. Surely We purified them with that which is pure [38:46]. He is saying, “We made them pure and brought them forth pure from the crucible of testing so that they would be worthy for the Presence,” for the Pure Presence gives access only to the pure. “Surely God is goodly and accepts only the goodly.” Nothing is of any use with the Pure Presence save pure activity and pure speech. Then you must become so purified of that pure activity that you do not seek it out in this world or the afterworld. Then you may reach God pure. Surely he shall have nearness to Us, and a beautiful return [38:40]. The secret of this talk is what was said by Abū Bakr Zaqqāq: “The defect in the purity of every purifier is to see his purity. If God desires to purify his self-purification, He will eliminate the seeing of his self-purification from his purification. Then he will be 'purified' [mukhlaṣ], not 'purifying' [mukhliṣ].” He is saying that your self-purification will be pure when it is pure of your seeing it. Know also that this self-purification is not in your hands, nor in your capacity or possession. Rather, it is a secret of the Lord placed there by the Glorified. No one is aware of it, and no one else has any access to it. The Unity says, “It is one of My secrets that I deposit in the hearts of those whom I love among My servants.” He is saying, “I choose a servant and approve him for My love, then I place my deposit in the core of his heart. Satan has no access to it so as to destroy it, nor does the soul's caprice see it so as to change it, nor does the angel reach it so as to write it down.
وَقَالَتِ الْيَهُودُ لَيْسَتِ النَّصَارَىٰ عَلَىٰ شَيْءٍ وَقَالَتِ النَّصَارَىٰ لَيْسَتِ الْيَهُودُ عَلَىٰ شَيْءٍ وَهُمْ يَتْلُونَ الْكِتَابَ ۗ كَذَٰلِكَ قَالَ الَّذِينَ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ مِثْلَ قَوْلِهِمْ ۚ فَاللَّهُ يَحْكُمُ بَيْنَهُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ فِيمَا كَانُوا فِيهِ يَخْتَلِفُونَ
📘 The Jews say, 'The Christians have nothing', because of their being veiled by their religion from their [the Jews'] religion; likewise say the Christians because of their being veiled by the esoteric aspect from the exoteric one, as the Jews are veiled from the esoteric aspect by the exoteric one, which is the situation today with the various schools of Islam; and the Christians say, 'The Jews stand on nothing'; yet they recite the Scripture, which contains what would guide them to the removal of that veil and seeing the truth of every religion and [every] dogmatic school, for the truth of the people of that religion or school is not false since they adhere to those beliefs: otherwise what is the difference between them and those who have neither knowledge nor scripture, as is the case with the polytheists, for what these [latter] say is the same as what the former say, nay they [the polytheists] are less blameworthy since there is only the proof of the intellect against them, while the others have both the proofs of the intellect and those of the Law. [Thus, the ignorant say the like of what these say]; God shall decide between them regarding their differences, [He shall decide between them] with the truth concerning their differences, on the Day of, the event of the major, Resurrection, and the manifestation of the Essential Unity upon the emergence of the Messiah (al-Mahdī), peace be upon him. According to ḥadīth it is that God will disclose Himself to His servants in the form of their belief and they will know Him, whereupon He will transform Himself from that form to another form and they will not know Him: thereupon they will all be misguided and veiled, except what God wills; and He is the One whose Oneness is affirmed but who is not tied to the form of His belief.
وَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنْ مَنَعَ مَسَاجِدَ اللَّهِ أَنْ يُذْكَرَ فِيهَا اسْمُهُ وَسَعَىٰ فِي خَرَابِهَا ۚ أُولَٰئِكَ مَا كَانَ لَهُمْ أَنْ يَدْخُلُوهَا إِلَّا خَائِفِينَ ۚ لَهُمْ فِي الدُّنْيَا خِزْيٌ وَلَهُمْ فِي الْآخِرَةِ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ
📘 Who does greater wrong than he who bars God's places of prostration? In terms of allusion, He is asking, “Who does greater wrong than he who ruins the homeland of worship with appetites? Who does greater wrong than he who ruins the homeland of recognition with attachments? Who does greater wrong than he who ruins the homeland of contemplation by glancing at others?” The homeland of worship is the soul of the renunciants, the homeland of recognition the heart of the recognizers, and the homeland of contemplation the secret core of the friends. When someone keeps his soul away from appetites, the homeland of his worship flourishes and his name is written in the register of the renunciants. Thus Mālik Dīnār lingered in Basra for forty years and never ate or tasted the dates of Basra, dried or fresh, before he died. He was asked about that and he said, “The possessor of appetite is veiled from his Lord.” When someone keeps his heart pure of attachment, the homeland of his recognition flourishes and he belongs to the ranks of the recognizers. Thus one of them said about Ibrāhīm Adham, “I was with Ibrāhīm Adham in a journey, and we were afflicted with hunger. After we settled in a mosque he brought out some sections of the Qur'an he had with him and said, 'Go and pawn these sections and bring us something to eat, for hunger has stricken us.' I went out, and someone came forward to me in front of a fully laden mule. He was saying, 'The one I am seeking is a light- complexioned man called Ibrāhīm ibn Adham.'” “I said, 'What do you desire from him?' “He said, 'I am the slave of his father, and these things belong to him.' So I led him to him. He entered the mosque, put his head and hands on the ground and kissed him. Ibrāhīm said, 'Who are you?' He said, 'I am your father's slave. Your father has died, and I have with me 40,000 dinars, your inheritance from your father. I am your slave. Command me as you wish.' “Ibrāhīm said, 'If you speak the truth, then you are free, for the sake of God. And what you have with you is all a gift to you. Leave us.
وَلِلَّهِ الْمَشْرِقُ وَالْمَغْرِبُ ۚ فَأَيْنَمَا تُوَلُّوا فَثَمَّ وَجْهُ اللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ
📘 And to God belong[s] the east, that is, the realm of light and manifestation, which is the paradise of the Christians and their prayer direction, and is, in reality, His esoteric aspect; and the west, that is, the realm of darkness and concealment, which is the Paradise of the Jews and their prayer direction, and is, in reality, His exoteric aspect whithersoever you turn, that is, in whichever direction you turn outwardly and inwardly, then there is the face of God, that is, the Essence of God self-disclosed through the totality of His attributes. Or [it means] to God belongs the illumination of your hearts by [His[ manifestation in them and [His] self-disclosure to them through the attribute of His beauty in the state of your presential vision and your annihilation [therein]; and [that to God belongs] the alienation in them through His self-covering and His self-veiling in their [your hearts'] forms and essences, and through His self-concealment by the attribute of His majesty in the state of your subsistence after annihilation. Thus, in whichever direction you turn, then there is His face, with no thing there except Him alone. Lo! God is Embracing, of the totality of existence, comprehending all directions and existences, Knowing, of all knowledge and knowables.
وَقَالُوا اتَّخَذَ اللَّهُ وَلَدًا ۗ سُبْحَانَهُ ۖ بَلْ لَهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ ۖ كُلٌّ لَهُ قَانِتُونَ
📘 They say, “God has taken a son.” Glory be to Him! Rather, to Him belongs what is in the heavens and the earth; all are devoted to Him. He is pure, without fault, incomparable, the one Lord-one in forbearance, one in loyalty, one in love. If the servant does harm, He does not cut off from him, for He is one in forbearance. If the servant inclines toward another, He does not so incline, because He is one in loyalty. If the servant breaks the covenant, He does not break it, because He is one in love. He is one in Essence, one in attributes, rid of causes, incomparable with obsequiousness, praised by all expressions, fitting for all allusions, the creator of time and the hours, the determiner of instants and moments. His artisanry has no defect, His determining no contrivance, His descrip- tion no likeness. He is a determiner who has always been. Powerful, Knowing, Alive, Desiring, Hearing, Seeing, clothed in majesty, Hallowed beyond having an equal, transcending opinion and talk. * O Essence of perfection lacking nothing! The effusion of generosity comes from Your hand alone. He is a lord without associate or partner, a king without equal or need. His promise is no lie, His name is no metaphor. The door of withholding is shut and the door of His munificence open. He is a forgiver of sins, a caresser of the faulty. He knows without cause, He is able without artifice. He is alone without paucity, spreader of the creed, outside of number, artisan without toil, self- standing until the Endless, hallowed beyond envy. His name is Subtle, Self-Standing, and Self- Sufficient; He begets not, nor was He begotten, and equal to Him is none [112:2-4]. So much are You face-to-face in my heart, so much hidden from my eyes, that your describer cannot describe You- in Your attributes You are as You are. A renowned Lord, caring for His servants-ears are open to His name, hearts imprisoned by His message, tawḤīd-voicers fallen into His snare, yearners drunk with the love from His cup. He is the lovingly kind such that no one in the universe is like Him in loving kindness. The disobedient and destitute have hope in Him, and the poor are happy in the subsistence of His majesty.
بَدِيعُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ ۖ وَإِذَا قَضَىٰ أَمْرًا فَإِنَّمَا يَقُولُ لَهُ كُنْ فَيَكُونُ
📘 Originator of the heavens and the earth, that is, originating His heavens and earth without there being any preceding substratum or period of time, nay, they are shadows of His essence and the origination point of His knowledge, illumined by His luminous name, existing by His external existence. Were it not for the aspect of contingency and rational consideration as per things known with certainty, their existences would not be [existences] in the first place, since without Him they are nothing. Thus they exist with Him not relatively [speaking] but through the verification of His existence and they cannot be other than Him through separation but by rational consideration, for on the basis of their being entities they are created things and on the basis of their reality they are true; and when He decrees a thing, that is, He rules that it be, He but says to it 'Be', and it is, in other words, all that is needed is the connection between that [thing] and His will and it comes into existence, without the intrusion of time or the mediation of a thing, nay, [it comes into existence] together [with His will]. That connection is His statement ['Be'], for otherwise there would be no words and no sound.
وَقَالَ الَّذِينَ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ لَوْلَا يُكَلِّمُنَا اللَّهُ أَوْ تَأْتِينَا آيَةٌ ۗ كَذَٰلِكَ قَالَ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ مِثْلَ قَوْلِهِمْ ۘ تَشَابَهَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ ۗ قَدْ بَيَّنَّا الْآيَاتِ لِقَوْمٍ يُوقِنُونَ
📘 And those, polytheists, without knowledge, of His Oneness, say, 'Why does God not speak to usḍ; Why does a sign not come to usḍ' So, spoke those before them, the like of what they say; their hearts are much alike, in terms of [their] ignorance of [His] Oneness and the words of God and His signs, since knowledge of these is a branch of the knowledge of [His] Oneness. Yet We have made clear [the signs], the proofs of Oneness and the modality of communion [with God], to a people who are certain.
إِنَّا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ بِالْحَقِّ بَشِيرًا وَنَذِيرًا ۖ وَلَا تُسْأَلُ عَنْ أَصْحَابِ الْجَحِيمِ
📘 We have sent you with the truth, a bearer of good tidings, and warner. You shall not be asked about the inhabitants of Hell-fire, that is to say, you will not be accountable for their being veiled and it is not your concern to save them from the darknesses of their veils, but your duty is to summon them [to religion] through good tidings and warnings.
أَلَا إِنَّهُمْ هُمُ الْمُفْسِدُونَ وَلَٰكِنْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ
📘 Truly, they are the agents of corruption, but they perceive not.
وَلَنْ تَرْضَىٰ عَنْكَ الْيَهُودُ وَلَا النَّصَارَىٰ حَتَّىٰ تَتَّبِعَ مِلَّتَهُمْ ۗ قُلْ إِنَّ هُدَى اللَّهِ هُوَ الْهُدَىٰ ۗ وَلَئِنِ اتَّبَعْتَ أَهْوَاءَهُمْ بَعْدَ الَّذِي جَاءَكَ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ ۙ مَا لَكَ مِنَ اللَّهِ مِنْ وَلِيٍّ وَلَا نَصِيرٍ
📘 [Never will the Jews be pleased with you, neither the Christians, not until you follow their creed,] Say: 'God's guidance is the true guidance', that is to say, the path of Oneness that is specifically qualified by truth is the path and none other, as [Imam] ʿAlī [b. Abī Ṭālib], peace be upon him, said: 'Right and left lead astray, only the middle path [in-between] is the [true] route'. And if you were to follow their whims, after the knowledge that has come to you, that is, the knowledge of Oneness and gnosis, you shall have against God neither friend, nor helper, because of the impossibility of there existing any other than Him.
الَّذِينَ آتَيْنَاهُمُ الْكِتَابَ يَتْلُونَهُ حَقَّ تِلَاوَتِهِ أُولَٰئِكَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِهِ ۗ وَمَنْ يَكْفُرْ بِهِ فَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْخَاسِرُونَ
📘 Those to whom We have given the Book and who recite it with the rightful due of recitation. The rightful due of recitation is that you recite the Qur'an with burning, need, limpidness of heart, and pure belief, with a remembering tongue, a believing heart, and a limpid spirit-the tongue in remembrance, the heart in grief, the spirit with love; the tongue with loyalty, the heart with limpid- ness, the spirit with shame; the tongue in the work, the heart in the mystery, and the spirit in joy. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “In the remembrance the servant reaches a place where the tongue reaches the heart, the heart reaches the spirit, the spirit reaches the secret core, and the secret core reaches the Light. The heart says to the tongue, 'Silence!' The spirit says to the heart, 'Silence!' The secret core says to the spirit, 'Silence!' God says to the traveler, 'My servant, you have been speaking for a while. Now I will speak, you listen.'”
يَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَتِيَ الَّتِي أَنْعَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَأَنِّي فَضَّلْتُكُمْ عَلَى الْعَالَمِينَ
📘 O Children of Israel, remember My favour wherewith I favoured you, and that I have preferred you over all the worlds.
وَاتَّقُوا يَوْمًا لَا تَجْزِي نَفْسٌ عَنْ نَفْسٍ شَيْئًا وَلَا يُقْبَلُ مِنْهَا عَدْلٌ وَلَا تَنْفَعُهَا شَفَاعَةٌ وَلَا هُمْ يُنْصَرُونَ
📘 And beware of a day when no soul shall for another be requited, and no compensation shall be accepted from it, nor any intercession shall benefit it, neither shall they be helped.]
۞ وَإِذِ ابْتَلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ رَبُّهُ بِكَلِمَاتٍ فَأَتَمَّهُنَّ ۖ قَالَ إِنِّي جَاعِلُكَ لِلنَّاسِ إِمَامًا ۖ قَالَ وَمِنْ ذُرِّيَّتِي ۖ قَالَ لَا يَنَالُ عَهْدِي الظَّالِمِينَ
📘 And when his Lord tried Abraham with some words. It has been narrated from al-Ḥasan that he said, “God tried him with the stars, the moon, and the sun, and he spoke beautiful words in that, for he knew that His Lord was constant and never ceas- ing. He tried him with the sacrifice of the son, and he was patient in that and did not fall short.” He is saying that the shining stars and brilliant sun were adorned, and Abraham was tested. “That was so that the one tried would know, not that the one trying him was ignorant.” In other words, this was to show him what comes from him and how he was walking on the road of servanthood. Abraham came out of it extremely virtuous, fortunate, and felicitous. He said, “This is my Lord” [6:76]. It is said that here there is an ellipsis. He means, “They say, 'This is my Lord.' These estranged ones say that this is my God. But it is not, for this is one of the low ones, those taken down. I do not love the low ones and the taken down.” Well done Abraham! He spoke a splendid point. It rose up from the low, but he knew that the Lord is high, beyond His servants. Again, when it went down, he turned away from it and said, “I do not love the low ones, for they are not worthy of Godhood.” Here the lords of realization have voiced another intimation and have seen another subtle point. They say that from the first Abraham's dust was mixed with the water of bosom friendship, his secret core was burned with the fire of passion, his spirit was lit up with the love of eternity, and the ocean of passion was stirring up waves inside him. Then at dawn, at the moment of the morning draft of the passionate, the shouts of joy of the drunkards, and the uproar of those who have lost their hearts, he opened his eyes from the giddiness of the wine of bosom friendship and the drunkenness of passion and said, “This is my Lord.” This is as they say: Your image has so taken my eyes that wherever I look I fancy it's you. Both drunkenness and passion are paths of trial and the basis of trouble.
وَإِذْ جَعَلْنَا الْبَيْتَ مَثَابَةً لِلنَّاسِ وَأَمْنًا وَاتَّخِذُوا مِنْ مَقَامِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ مُصَلًّى ۖ وَعَهِدْنَا إِلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَإِسْمَاعِيلَ أَنْ طَهِّرَا بَيْتِيَ لِلطَّائِفِينَ وَالْعَاكِفِينَ وَالرُّكَّعِ السُّجُودِ
📘 And when We appointed the House, of the heart, to be a place of visitation, a place of return and a place of settlement, for the people, and a sanctuary, a place of security or a cause for security and safety for them in which they shall feel secure and at peace upon their arrival there from the dangers of the attributes of the soul and [from] the havoc of the destructive and corruptive faculties of nature, and [from] the conjurings of the satans of illusion and imagination and their seductions and devices. 'Take to yourselves Abraham's station, which is the station of the spirit and the station of friendship, as a place of prayer', a place for true prayer which is the witnessing and the divine union and the friendship of the tasting; and We made a covenant with Abraham and Ishmael, 'Purify My House, We commanded them to purify the House of the heart from the defilements of the conversations of the soul and the impurities of the evil whisperings of Satan and the filth of the motivations of caprice and the dirt of the attributes of the faculties, for those that shall go round it, that is, for the yearning wayfarers who go round the heart during their journey, and those that cleave to it, those who have arrived at the station of the heart through that reliance that is the affirmation of the unity of the acts, those who reside therein without the variegations of the soul that could drive [them] away from it, to those who bow, that is, those who have submitted, who have reached the station of the self-disclosure of the attributes and the perfect level of satisfaction, and those who prostrate themselves', those annihilated in the Oneness.
وَإِذْ قَالَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ رَبِّ اجْعَلْ هَٰذَا بَلَدًا آمِنًا وَارْزُقْ أَهْلَهُ مِنَ الثَّمَرَاتِ مَنْ آمَنَ مِنْهُمْ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ ۖ قَالَ وَمَنْ كَفَرَ فَأُمَتِّعُهُ قَلِيلًا ثُمَّ أَضْطَرُّهُ إِلَىٰ عَذَابِ النَّارِ ۖ وَبِئْسَ الْمَصِيرُ
📘 And when Abraham said, 'My Lord, make this, breast that is the sanctuary of the heart, a land secure, for its people from the domination of the attributes of the soul and the seizing accursed enemy [Satan] and the snatch of the jinn of the corporeal faculties, and provide its people with fruits, the fruits of the gnoses of the spirit or its wisdoms and lights, such of them as believe in God and the Last Day', such of them as affirm the Oneness of God and know [the truth of] the final return. He said, 'And whoever disbelieves, that is, whoever veils himself also from among those who have inhabited the breast but do not transgress its limits to rise to the station of the eye because of their being veiled by knowledge whose receptacle is the breast, to him I shall give a little enjoyment, of intelligible meanings and universal knowables that come down to them from the world of the spirit in the measure that suffices them to live by, then I shall compel him to the chastisement of the Fire, of privation and veiling - how evil a journey's end!', shall be their journey's end chastised as they shall be by their defeciency and the pain of privation.
وَإِذْ يَرْفَعُ إِبْرَاهِيمُ الْقَوَاعِدَ مِنَ الْبَيْتِ وَإِسْمَاعِيلُ رَبَّنَا تَقَبَّلْ مِنَّا ۖ إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ
📘 And when Abraham raised up the foundations of the House: it is said that the Kaʿba was brought down from the heaven at the time of Adam, having two doors, [one] to the east and [one] to the west. So Adam made the pilgrimage from India and was greeted [there] by [a host of] angels 40 parasangs deep. He performed circumambulations of the House and entered into it. It was then raised [back to the heaven] at the time of Noah's flood, peace be upon him, and was then brought back down another time at the time of Abraham, may God's blessings be upon him; he visited it [the Kaʿba] and raised up its foundations and [re-]made its two doors a single door. It is said that [Mount] Abū Qubays shook violently and became split off from the Black Stone, which was a white ruby from the rubies of Paradise that Gabriel had brought down; it had been hidden away for him [Abraham] from the time of the flood until the time of Abraham, peace be upon him, who then placed it in its place [in the Kaʿba]. It became black from the touch over time of menstruating women. Thus, its [the Kaʿba's] coming down at the time of Adam is an allusion to the manifestation of the heart during his time by virtue of his being upon it [the heart]; its having two doors, a western and an eastern one is an allusion to the manifestation of the knowledge of the origin and the final return and the spiritual knowledge concerning the world of light and the world of darkness during his time but not knowledge of the Oneness. His [Adam's] setting out to visit it from India is an allusion to his heading off, by virtue of engenderment and equilibrium, from the world of dark corporeal nature to the station of the heart. The reception [of him] by the angels is an allusion to the attachment of the animal and vegetative faculties to the body and the manifestation of the effects of these [faculties] in it before the the effects of the heart during the forty days in which his build was being engendered and his clay was fermenting; or [it is an allusion] to his heading off to journey and to wayfare from the world of the soul of darkness to the station of the heart, with the reception of the angels being his reception of the ego-centric and corporeal faculties by accepting obedience and the beautiful character traits and excellent natural disposition, becoming accustomed to them by moving between stations until his arrival at the station of the heart.
رَبَّنَا وَاجْعَلْنَا مُسْلِمَيْنِ لَكَ وَمِنْ ذُرِّيَّتِنَا أُمَّةً مُسْلِمَةً لَكَ وَأَرِنَا مَنَاسِكَنَا وَتُبْ عَلَيْنَا ۖ إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ التَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيمُ
📘 Our Lord! And make us submissive to You, that is, do not assign us to our own selves so that we might submit by our selves, but [that] we should submit [to You] through You and by Your making; [and, of our seed, a community submissive to You; and show us our holy rites, and relent to us. Surely You are the Relenting, the Merciful.]
رَبَّنَا وَابْعَثْ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِنْهُمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِكَ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ ۚ إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ
📘 “Our Lord, and raise up amidst them a messenger from among them, who will recite Thy signs to them, teach them the Book and the Wisdom, and purify them. Surely Thou art the Exalted, the Wise.”
وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ آمِنُوا كَمَا آمَنَ النَّاسُ قَالُوا أَنُؤْمِنُ كَمَا آمَنَ السُّفَهَاءُ ۗ أَلَا إِنَّهُمْ هُمُ السُّفَهَاءُ وَلَٰكِنْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
📘 And when it is said to them, “Have faith as the people have faith,” they say, “Shall we have faith as fools have faith?” Surely it is they who are the fools, but they do not know. O generous Lord, O renowned, wise Enactor! O You who are true in promise, pure in justice, com- plete in bounty, and eternal in love! Whatever You want You show, and as You want, You adorn. Each has a name, and in the heart of each is Your mark. The stamp of worthiness is upon some people, and the brand of unworthiness on others. The worthy are brought by the road of bounty on the steed of approval with the escort of gentleness in the time of generous bestowal at the turn of proximity. The unworthy are driven into the street of justice on the steed of wrath with the escort of abandonment at the turn of deprivation. This deprivation and that proximity did not come from water or dust, for on the day when the two were written out, there was neither water nor dust. There was beginningless bounty and gentleness and everlasting severity and justice. That was the portion of the self-purifiers and this the portion of the hypocrites. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “Alas for the apportioning that has gone before me! Alack for the words spoken by the Self-Seer! What profit if I am happy or distraught? I fear what the Powerful said in the Beginningless.” The hypocrites, who had fallen under the garment of justice, approved of themselves and deemed themselves to have a good name. The purifiers, the truthful, and the Messenger's Com- panions they called “fools.” The Lord of the Worlds in His generosity acted as their deputy in this and answered them: “Those are not the fools, the fools are those who call them fools.” Indeed, when someone does not belong to himself, God belongs to him. When someone tightens his belt in obeying God's commands, God joins with him. “When someone belongs to God, God belongs to him.” The unbelievers said to MuṣṬafā, “You are possessed: O thou unto whom the Remembrance has been sent down, surely thou art possessed [15:6].” God said to MuḤammad, “They call you mad, but you are not mad: Thou art not, by the blessing of thy Lord, possessed [68:2]. You are My friend, approved of by Me. What harm will come to you if they do not approve of you? What you must have is that I approve of you. The friend must be approved of by a friend, not by the city.”
وَمَنْ يَرْغَبُ عَنْ مِلَّةِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ إِلَّا مَنْ سَفِهَ نَفْسَهُ ۚ وَلَقَدِ اصْطَفَيْنَاهُ فِي الدُّنْيَا ۖ وَإِنَّهُ فِي الْآخِرَةِ لَمِنَ الصَّالِحِينَ
📘 And who shrinks from the creed of Abraham but one foolish in himself? We chose him in this world, and in the next world he shall be among the wholesome. One of these two verses is in praise of the Beloved [MuḤammad], the other in praise of the Bosom Friend [Abraham]. Although both are caressed and worthy prophets, adorned by the generous be- stowal and the bounteousness of the Lord, there is a difference between the Beloved and the Bosom Friend! The Bosom Friend is the desirer, and the Beloved the desired. The desirer is the wanter, and the desired the wanted. The desirer is the traveler, and the desired is the snatched away. The desirer stands in the station of service in his traveling, and the desired stands on the carpet of companionship in the pulling of the Real. When someone is in his own traveling, his road will not be empty of deception. This is why the Bosom Friend's road, despite the greatness of his state, was not empty of deception. Thus, when the star of deception came into his road, he said, “This is my Lord” [6:76]. In the same way, the Lordhood kept on opening up ambuscades of deception by means of the moon and the sun. Finally protection took the reins of his bosom friendship and pulled him to itself from the world of deception. He said, “Surely I have turned my face toward Him who originated the heavens and the earth, unswerving” [6:79]. MuṣṬafā, however, was in the pull of the Real. The ambuscade of deception was not able to make his road steep. Rather, on that night everything that was not and then came to be sought his help from deception. They had recourse to the lights of his Shariah against deception and backslid- ing. He was confirmed by the Real's pull to such an extent that he did not look at any of that from the corner of his eye. The eyesight did not swerve, nor did it trespass [53:17]. There is as much difference between the Bosom Friend and the Beloved as there is between the traveler and the snatched away. The Bosom Friend had the attribute of servitors at the threshold of Lordhood, standing on his own feet: “Surely I have turned my face toward Him who originated the heavens and the earth, unswerving.
إِذْ قَالَ لَهُ رَبُّهُ أَسْلِمْ ۖ قَالَ أَسْلَمْتُ لِرَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ
📘 When his Lord said to him, “Submit,” he said, “I submit to the Lord of the Worlds.” When the Bosom Friend began to travel, the command came from the Exalted Presence, “O Abra- ham, anyone who wants Me must belong to Me totally. As long as a sliver of mortal desires and soulish resistance remains with you, you will not pass from the suffering of striving to the ease of the pull. 'The ransomed slave stays a slave so long as a dirham is owed.'” If you want Me, you must want what I desire. You must leave aside yourself totally. The Bosom Friend said, “O Lord, Abraham no longer has any self-governance, any free choice. Now I have come on the feet of poverty, in the state of brokenness, to see what You command. I submit. I have overthrown myself and entrusted my work to You. I have come back to You entirely.” The command came, “O Abraham, that is a very great claim. Every claim must have a mean- ing, and everything rightfully due a reality. Now watch out for the testing!” He was tested by other than himself, by part of himself, and by his whole self. The test by oth- ers was that he had plentiful possessions. They say he had 70,000 sheep in seven thousand herds. Each herd had a dog with a gold collar around its neck. He was commanded to detach his heart from all of it and to toss it away in the path of God. The Bosom Friend tossed it all away and left nothing for himself. In the traditions it has come that the angels said, “Lord God, ever since this call was given out in the World of the Dominion, 'And God took Abraham as a bosom friend' [4:125], our spirits have been in a whirlpool and our gall-bladders have been melting because of this special favor. How is the Bosom Friend worthy of this generosity?” The call came, “Gabriel, open up your peacock-feathers and go from the top of the Lote Tree to the summit of that mountain and test the Bosom Friend.” With the divine determination and facilitation Gabriel came down in the form of a child of Adam. He stood beside that mountain and shouted, “O Holy One!” The Bosom Friend fainted from the pleasure of hearing that.
وَوَصَّىٰ بِهَا إِبْرَاهِيمُ بَنِيهِ وَيَعْقُوبُ يَا بَنِيَّ إِنَّ اللَّهَ اصْطَفَىٰ لَكُمُ الدِّينَ فَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ
📘 And Abraham enjoined upon his sons this, declaration of the Oneness, and [so did] Jacob, upon his sons in [his] grief, 'My sons, God has chosen for you the [true] religion, that is, His religion by which the one who believes in God's Oneness worships, having no other religion or essence besides it, so that his religion is God's religion and his essence is God's Essence: see that you die not [save in submission], except upon this religion, in other words, do not die a natural death, the death of ignorance, but be dead in your souls, alive in God forever, so that when the death of the body overcomes you, you will be in that state [of submission].
أَمْ كُنْتُمْ شُهَدَاءَ إِذْ حَضَرَ يَعْقُوبَ الْمَوْتُ إِذْ قَالَ لِبَنِيهِ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ مِنْ بَعْدِي قَالُوا نَعْبُدُ إِلَٰهَكَ وَإِلَٰهَ آبَائِكَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَإِسْمَاعِيلَ وَإِسْحَاقَ إِلَٰهًا وَاحِدًا وَنَحْنُ لَهُ مُسْلِمُونَ
📘 [Or, were you witnesses when death came to Jacobḍ When he said to his sons, 'What will you worship after meḍ' They said, 'We will worship your God and the God of your fathers Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac, One God, to Him we submit'.]
تِلْكَ أُمَّةٌ قَدْ خَلَتْ ۖ لَهَا مَا كَسَبَتْ وَلَكُمْ مَا كَسَبْتُمْ ۖ وَلَا تُسْأَلُونَ عَمَّا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ
📘 That is a community that has passed away: in other words, do not be followers of authority (muqallid) and do not be satisfied purely with following authority in terms of religion, for there can be no reliance on transmission since no one possesses but what he has acquired of knowledge, of deeds, of beliefs and behaviour; [theirs is what they have earned, and yours is what you have earned; you shall not be asked about what they did]: no one is requited for the beliefs of another nor for another's deeds. So exercise your insight and ask for certainty and act in that way.
وَقَالُوا كُونُوا هُودًا أَوْ نَصَارَىٰ تَهْتَدُوا ۗ قُلْ بَلْ مِلَّةَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ حَنِيفًا ۖ وَمَا كَانَ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ
📘 And they say, 'Be Jews or Christians [and you shall be guided']: every person who is veiled by his religion claims that his religion and none other is the truth. Say, 'Nay, rather the creed of Abraham [a ḥanīf; and he was not of the idolaters'], for absolute guidance is the affirmation of God's Oneness which comprehends every religion and lifts every veil, as He says next in His statement:
قُولُوا آمَنَّا بِاللَّهِ وَمَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْنَا وَمَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَإِسْمَاعِيلَ وَإِسْحَاقَ وَيَعْقُوبَ وَالْأَسْبَاطِ وَمَا أُوتِيَ مُوسَىٰ وَعِيسَىٰ وَمَا أُوتِيَ النَّبِيُّونَ مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِنْهُمْ وَنَحْنُ لَهُ مُسْلِمُونَ
📘 Say: 'We believe in God, to the end of this [statement: and in that which has been revealed to us, and revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and that which was given to Moses, and Jesus, and the prophets, from their Lord]We make no division between any of them, by denying the religion of some of them or deeming false their creed, while affirming that of others and their truthfulness; nay, we believe that they have all coverged upon the truth and agreed about the Oneness of God; we accept all of these religions on the basis of the [belief in the] Oneness that comprehends all of them; [and to Him we submit'.]
فَإِنْ آمَنُوا بِمِثْلِ مَا آمَنْتُمْ بِهِ فَقَدِ اهْتَدَوْا ۖ وَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَإِنَّمَا هُمْ فِي شِقَاقٍ ۖ فَسَيَكْفِيكَهُمُ اللَّهُ ۚ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ
📘 If they have faith in the like of that in which you have faith, they will have found guid- ance; but if they turn away, they will have split from you. God will suffice you against them; He is the hearing, the knowing. “O master of the east and west and messenger to men and jinn! We have placed these tasks in your tracks and commanded the world's folk to follow you. We wrote the Compact of Love for your servitors and brought them under Our gaze. We threw your opponents into the lowland of abase- ment and feebleness. Whoever opposes you is on the side of the enemies, and whoever serves you is on the side of the friends. When someone wants you, We want him and give him access to Us. When someone turns away, We burn him and throw him down. Whoso obeys the Messenger has obeyed God [4:80]. “O paragon! Do not let your heart be tight because these estranged people have turned away and spoken ill. We will suffice you against their business and We will remove their torment from you. God will suffice you against them.”
صِبْغَةَ اللَّهِ ۖ وَمَنْ أَحْسَنُ مِنَ اللَّهِ صِبْغَةً ۖ وَنَحْنُ لَهُ عَابِدُونَ
📘 God's color-and who is more beautiful in color than God? “Then We will bring a people who have come out in the color of tawḤīd and who are adorned with the attribute of love and clothed in God's color, which is colorlessness. Whoever is pure of the color of the color-mixers is colored by God's color.” He who has painted a thousand worlds with color- why would He buy my color and yours, O bankrupt man! So, when someone reaches God's color and falls back on Him, He colors him in His own color. In the same way, the elixir makes copper and iron the same color as itself and they become precious. If the estranged fall back on Him, they become His familiars, and if the disobedient fall back, they become obedient. On this topic many stories are told about the shaykhs. One of them is narrated from Ibrāhīm Khawāṣṣ. He said, “Once I went into the desert and saw a Christian, who had his sash around his waist. He asked if he could accompany me, so we walked for seven days. He said, 'O monk of the unswerving folk! Bring forth what you have of expansiveness, for we are hungry.' “I said, 'O God, do not disgrace me before this unbeliever.' Then I saw a tray, upon which were bread, roast meat, dates, and a pitcher of water. We ate and drank, and we walked for seven days. Then I became hasty and I said, 'O monk of the Christians, bring what you have, for my turn is finished.' He leaned on his staff and supplicated, and lo there were two trays with double what there had been on my tray. “I was bewildered and upset, and I refused to eat. He insisted, but I did not respond to him. He said, 'Eat, for I have two pieces of good news to give to you. One is that I bear witness that there is no god but God, and I bear witness that MuḤammad is God's messenger,' and he took off the sash. 'The other is that I say, “O God, if there is any danger here, then I will begin with this.”' So he began. “We ate and we walked, and then we made the hajj and took up residence in Mecca for a year. Then he died, and was buried in al-BaṬḤāÌ-God have mercy on him.”
قُلْ أَتُحَاجُّونَنَا فِي اللَّهِ وَهُوَ رَبُّنَا وَرَبُّكُمْ وَلَنَا أَعْمَالُنَا وَلَكُمْ أَعْمَالُكُمْ وَنَحْنُ لَهُ مُخْلِصُونَ
📘 [Say: 'Would you then dispute with us concerning God, and He is our Lord and your Lordḍ Our deeds belong to us, and to you belong your deeds, and to Him we are sincerely devoted'.
وَإِذَا لَقُوا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا قَالُوا آمَنَّا وَإِذَا خَلَوْا إِلَىٰ شَيَاطِينِهِمْ قَالُوا إِنَّا مَعَكُمْ إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُسْتَهْزِئُونَ
📘 When they meet those who believe: a literal quotation of their hypocrisy that is a concomitant of the presence of two [kinds of] preparedness within them, a primordial luminous one that is weak, vanquished and close to being extinguished, and by which they correspond to the believers; and an acquired dark one that is strong and vanquishing by which they are in harmony with the disbelievers. For if they did not possess a minimum of light they would not be able to mix with and befriend believers in the first place as is the case with others like the disbelievers, because of the self-evident mutual incompatibility between light and darkness in all aspects. [The word] shayṭān is constructed to the paradigm fayʿāl from [the infinitive] al-shuṭūn which means 'to go far away', their devils being profoundly removed [from the divine], banished, while their leaders have attained the utmost degree of hypocrisy. Their mocking of the believers is proof of the weakness of the light aspect within them and the strength of the dark aspect, for the one who belittles something is one for whom that thing is slight, of little weight or worth. Thus they belittle those luminous individuals because of the littleness of light within them, since it is [only] by light that the value of light can be known. Given the preponderance of darkness within them, they resort to the disbelievers and become friendly with them.[they say, 'We believe'; but when they go apart to their devils they say, 'We are with you; we were only mocking'.]
أَمْ تَقُولُونَ إِنَّ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَإِسْمَاعِيلَ وَإِسْحَاقَ وَيَعْقُوبَ وَالْأَسْبَاطَ كَانُوا هُودًا أَوْ نَصَارَىٰ ۗ قُلْ أَأَنْتُمْ أَعْلَمُ أَمِ اللَّهُ ۗ وَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنْ كَتَمَ شَهَادَةً عِنْدَهُ مِنَ اللَّهِ ۗ وَمَا اللَّهُ بِغَافِلٍ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ
📘 Or do you say: 'Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac and Jacob, and the Tribes - they were Jews, or they were Christiansḍ' Say: 'Have you then greater knowledge, or has Godḍ And who does greater injustice than he who conceals a testimony received from Godḍ And God is not heedless of what you do'.
تِلْكَ أُمَّةٌ قَدْ خَلَتْ ۖ لَهَا مَا كَسَبَتْ وَلَكُمْ مَا كَسَبْتُمْ ۖ وَلَا تُسْأَلُونَ عَمَّا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ
📘 That is a community that has passed away; theirs is what they have earned, and yours is what you have earned; you shall not be asked about what they did.]
۞ سَيَقُولُ السُّفَهَاءُ مِنَ النَّاسِ مَا وَلَّاهُمْ عَنْ قِبْلَتِهِمُ الَّتِي كَانُوا عَلَيْهَا ۚ قُلْ لِلَّهِ الْمَشْرِقُ وَالْمَغْرِبُ ۚ يَهْدِي مَنْ يَشَاءُ إِلَىٰ صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ
📘 The fools among the people will say: He has called them fools, of slight intellect, because of the failure of their intellects to be true [to their nature] by perceiving the truth of the religion of Islam, and to fulfill this [truth] in accordance with what they knew to be the due of this school and to stop at this [religion]. That is why their dispute concerned God, despite their according with [the principle of] God's Oneness and the singling out of Muslims for singular devotion [to God]. For were they to perceive the truth they would perceive their singular devotion and they would no longer dispute. Were their intellects composed, they would have inferred from signs and perceived what is due to every religion and school of thought, and would have distinguished between that religion of truth [Islam], which is like the spirit in comparison, and the falsehood promoted by its adherents, [falsehood] with which has the religion of Islam has become mixed and draped itself. For it [Islam] is all truth, nay, it is the truth of all truths, which is why they [Muslims] were appointed as a midmost community, that is, a balance between all communities, meritorious over them and witnesses against them. 'What has turned them from the direction they were facing in their prayers formerlyḍ', [they said that] because they were restricted to a specific direction and so they could only accept something restrictive, not knowing the Oneness that accommodates all directions. Say: 'To God belong the east and the west, [to be understood] as has been mentioned according to the two interpretations. He guides whomever He will to a straight path', that is, the path of Oneness in relation to which all directions are the same by virtue of the fact that the Truth to which all is directed is not in any direction and that all directions are contained in Him, through Him and to Him, as He has said: Whithersoever you turn, there is the face of God [Q. 2:115].
وَكَذَٰلِكَ جَعَلْنَاكُمْ أُمَّةً وَسَطًا لِتَكُونُوا شُهَدَاءَ عَلَى النَّاسِ وَيَكُونَ الرَّسُولُ عَلَيْكُمْ شَهِيدًا ۗ وَمَا جَعَلْنَا الْقِبْلَةَ الَّتِي كُنْتَ عَلَيْهَا إِلَّا لِنَعْلَمَ مَنْ يَتَّبِعُ الرَّسُولَ مِمَّنْ يَنْقَلِبُ عَلَىٰ عَقِبَيْهِ ۚ وَإِنْ كَانَتْ لَكَبِيرَةً إِلَّا عَلَى الَّذِينَ هَدَى اللَّهُ ۗ وَمَا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيُضِيعَ إِيمَانَكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ بِالنَّاسِ لَرَءُوفٌ رَحِيمٌ
📘 Thus We appointed you a midmost community.... Surely God is clement, ever-merciful toward the people. It is the wise Lord, the knowing King, whose power and existence-giving bring forth beings. The newly arrived things exist through His exaltedness and His making them manifest, and the earth and the heavens stand forth through His keeping. He created the newly arrived things and chose from among them the animals. From among the animals He chose the Adamites, from the Adamites He chose the faithful, from the faithful He chose the prophets, and from the prophets He chose MuḤammad. He chose his community above the previous communities. This is why MuṣṬafā said, “I was brought forth from the best generation of the children of Adam, generation after generation, until I came to be in the generation in which I am.” He also said, “Surely God chose my companions above all the world's folk save the prophets and the envoys. He chose four of my companions and made them the best of my companions-and in all of my companions there is good-Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, and ʿAlī. He chose my community over the other com- munities, so He sent me forth in the best generation. Then there will be the second and third in succession, then the fourth, one after another.” What is understood from this report is that MuṣṬafā is the best of the Adamites, the chosen from among the world's folk, the leader of the creatures, the adornment of the world, the weighty one of the time, the lamp of the earth, the full moon of heaven, the shelter of the disobedient, the interceder for the sinners, the master of all the messengers and their seal. After MuṣṬafā the best of all creatures is Abū Bakr the sincerely truthful. The Lord of the Worlds placed the cushion of his imamate on the throne of MuṣṬafā's Shariah, turned the lodging place of his servanthood into self-purification and truthfulness, and made trust and certainty the keeper of the rank of his friendship. After him the best of creatures is ʿUmar KhaṬṬāb. The Lord of the Worlds placed the reins of lowering and raising the legal rulings in the hand of his sufficiency and pulled the robe of his rulership over the forehead of the creed. With his harshness and awesomeness the smoke of as- sociationism was subdued by its own misfortune. After him the best of creatures is ʿUthmān ʿAffān. The Lord of the Worlds spread the carpet of his dignity and honor in the seven heavens and in the era of his reign the lights of Islam were lit up in the regions of east and west. After ʿUthmān the best of creatures is ʿAlī Murtaẓā. The Lord of the Worlds unveiled the realities of the Shariah and the marks bearing witness to the Tariqah through his conduct and secret core and made trust and godwariness his watchword and blanket. MuṣṬafā placed each of these masters and caliphs in a rank and gave each a specific charac- teristic. Concerning ṣiddīq he said, “O Abū Bakr, God has bestowed upon you the Greatest Ap- proval.” It was said to him, “O Messenger of God, what is the Greatest Approval?” He said, “God will disclose Himself generally to His faithful servants on the Day of Resurrec- tion and specifically to Abū Bakr.” Concerning ʿUmar he said, “Were there to be a prophet after me, it would be ʿUmar ibn al- KhaṬṬāb.” Concerning ʿUthmān he said, “Every prophet has a close friend, and my close friend in the Garden will be ʿUthmān.” To ʿAlī he said, “In relation to me in my community you are like Aaron in relation to Moses, except that there will be no prophet after me. You are of me, and I am of you.” Concerning all of his Companions generally he said, “None of my companions, dying in the earth, will be stirred up on the Day of Resurrection without having a leader and a light.” He said, “My companions in my community are like salt in food-food is not wholesome without salt.” He said, “Fear God, fear God in my companions! Fear God, fear God in my companions! Do not take them as extraneous after me! When someone loves them, I will love him with my love. When someone hates them, I will hate him with my hate. When someone troubles them, he has troubled me. When someone troubles me, he has troubled God. And when someone troubles God, he will be quickly taken to task.” He said, “Do not revile my companions, for by Him in whose hand is my soul, were any of you to expend the like of Mount UḤud in gold, you would not reach the extent of one of them, or half.
قَدْ نَرَىٰ تَقَلُّبَ وَجْهِكَ فِي السَّمَاءِ ۖ فَلَنُوَلِّيَنَّكَ قِبْلَةً تَرْضَاهَا ۚ فَوَلِّ وَجْهَكَ شَطْرَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ ۚ وَحَيْثُ مَا كُنْتُمْ فَوَلُّوا وُجُوهَكُمْ شَطْرَهُ ۗ وَإِنَّ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ لَيَعْلَمُونَ أَنَّهُ الْحَقُّ مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ ۗ وَمَا اللَّهُ بِغَافِلٍ عَمَّا يَعْمَلُونَ
📘 We have seen thy face turning about in heaven. Now We shall turn thee toward a kiblah that thou shalt approve. He had let him know that he was in the sight of the Real so that he would model his courtesy on the Real's courtesy. When he put courtesy into practice, he did not ask the Real for what his heart wanted and did no more than gaze upon heaven. Then He gave him better than what He gives to those who ask. When the Lord is generous and the servant exalted, He keeps the servant within the stipula- tions of courtesy, shows him the road of deeds, and gives him success. Then He rewards him for the deeds and praises him for his veneration. He says, “How excellent is the wage of the doers!” [3:136]. “How excellent a servant he was; surely he kept on returning” [38:30]. In the same way, He reported to MuṣṬafā, “You are in My vision and My exalted witnessing. Be careful to recognize the respect due to the Presence and to ask in keeping with courtesy.” Hence when his heart was intent on the kiblah, he did not make this manifest, in keeping with courtesy. He kept that wish in his heart and then the Exalted Presence addressed him: “Now We shall turn thee toward a kiblah that thou shalt approve. We have come to know that wish in your heart and We have admired your beautiful courtesy in not asking. We will bestow upon you that of which you approve in the work of the kiblah. O MuḤammad! All the servants in the world are seeking My approval, but I am seeking your approval. All are searching for Me, but I am calling for you. All wish for My caresses, but We are caressing you. Thy Lord shall bestow upon thee so that thou shalt approve [93:5]. Now consider the Kaabah as the kiblah of your soul and Me as the kiblah of your spirit.” When those caresses came forth from the Presence of Unity and those generosities reached him, the tongue of his state said in his yearning, “When your heart reaches out once in love for me, suffering separation from You becomes easy, sweetheart.” Abū Bakr Shiblī said, “The kiblahs are three: the kiblah of the common people, the kiblah of the elect, and the kiblah of the elect of the elect.
وَلَئِنْ أَتَيْتَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ بِكُلِّ آيَةٍ مَا تَبِعُوا قِبْلَتَكَ ۚ وَمَا أَنْتَ بِتَابِعٍ قِبْلَتَهُمْ ۚ وَمَا بَعْضُهُمْ بِتَابِعٍ قِبْلَةَ بَعْضٍ ۚ وَلَئِنِ اتَّبَعْتَ أَهْوَاءَهُمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَكَ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ ۙ إِنَّكَ إِذًا لَمِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ
📘 Yet if you should bring to those who have been given the Scripture every sign, that is proof of the soundness of your prophethood and the validity of your prayer-direction, even if it should be from their own scripture or an incontrovertible rational one, they will not follow your direction, on account of their being veiled by their religion and their intelligibles and their confinement to them; and you are not a follower of their direction, because of your transcending the level of their religion and your rising above their station; neither are they followers of one another's direction, because each of them is veiled by his religion and because of the contradictoriness of their directions that originates in the contradictoriness that is at the centre of [each of] their natures. If you were to follow their, sundry, whims after the knowledge, of unity that comprehends you, has come to you, then you will surely be among [the evildoers], [among] those who have diminished what is your due and what is due to your station [as prophet].
الَّذِينَ آتَيْنَاهُمُ الْكِتَابَ يَعْرِفُونَهُ كَمَا يَعْرِفُونَ أَبْنَاءَهُمْ ۖ وَإِنَّ فَرِيقًا مِنْهُمْ لَيَكْتُمُونَ الْحَقَّ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ
📘 Those to whom We have given the Scripture, a giving [accompanied] with understanding and awareness, they recognise him, as they recognise their own sons, that is, [they recognise him as they would] an object of sensory perception that is witnessed and is near and is ever-sensed because of their proximity to him in reality and their knowing him by clear proofs.[even though there is a party of them that conceal the truth, while they know.
الْحَقُّ مِنْ رَبِّكَ ۖ فَلَا تَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الْمُمْتَرِينَ
📘 The truth comes from your Lord; then be not among the doubters.]
وَلِكُلٍّ وِجْهَةٌ هُوَ مُوَلِّيهَا ۖ فَاسْتَبِقُوا الْخَيْرَاتِ ۚ أَيْنَ مَا تَكُونُوا يَأْتِ بِكُمُ اللَّهُ جَمِيعًا ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
📘 Everyone has a direction to which he turns. The creatures have five kiblahs. First is the Throne, second the Footstool, third the Inhabited House, fourth the Holy House [Jerusalem], and fifth the Kaabah. The Throne is the kiblah of the angels who carry it. The Footstool is the kiblah of the cherubim. The Inhabited House is the kiblah of the spirituals. The Holy House is the kiblah of the prophets. The Kaabah is the kiblah of the faithful. The Throne is of light, the Footstool of gold, the Inhabited House of carnelian, the Holy House of marble, and the Kaabah of stone. This is an allusion for the faithful servant: “If you cannot come to the Throne to circumam- bulate, or to the Footstool to visit, or to the Inhabited House to worship, or to the Holy House to serve, then at least you can turn your face five times a day toward this stone, which is the kiblah of the faithful, and receive the reward for all of them.” Everyone has a direction. One of them has said that the allusion here is this: “All people have been distracted from Me by something that has come between Me and them. So, O faithful, belong to Me and be through Me.” In terms of allusion, He is saying, “All the people have turned away from Me. They have become familiar with others without Me. They have made their sweetheart other than Me and ac- cepted the other in friendship. “You who are the chevaliers of the Tariqah and claim friendship with Me, lift up your eyes from anything beneath Me, even if it be the highest paradise. Then you will go straight in follow- ing the Sunnah and conduct of MuṣṬafā and you will perform the rightful due of emulating that paragon of the world. For, as the greatest of the prophets, his conduct was to turn his eyes away from all beings and not to see any refuge nor to approve of any resting place other than the shelter of Unity.” When a man wears down his spirit in passion's road he'd best incline toward none but the Friend. In passion's road the passionate must not think of hell or paradise. When someone puts himself right in following MuṣṬafā, the candle of friendship with the Real will be lit in his road and he will never fall away from friendship's avenue.
وَمِنْ حَيْثُ خَرَجْتَ فَوَلِّ وَجْهَكَ شَطْرَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ ۖ وَإِنَّهُ لَلْحَقُّ مِنْ رَبِّكَ ۗ وَمَا اللَّهُ بِغَافِلٍ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ
📘 From whatever place you issue forth, out of the paths of your senses and your inclination to your shares and concern for your welfare and the welfare of the believers, turn your face towards the Sacred Mosque, in other words, be present before the Truth in your heart, facing your breast, witnessing therein witnessings and paying attention to its side so that you might be in relation to things through God and not the soul;[it is the truth from your Lord. God is not heedless of what you do.
اللَّهُ يَسْتَهْزِئُ بِهِمْ وَيَمُدُّهُمْ فِي طُغْيَانِهِمْ يَعْمَهُونَ
📘 God [Himself] mocks them, that is, He belittles them because from the aspect in which they find themselves their relationship to the Divine Presence is slight and weak, and so in the same measure that the Divine aspect is diminished in them, they become more firmly attached to their souls, whereas for the believers the more that their ego-centric (nafsānī) make-up is diminished the more that they find themselves by God's side: what a difference between the two [states]! reinforcing them, in their bestial and predatorial darknesses, which are satanic and ego-centric attributes, by setting up [for them] the substrata and causes [of these resultant attributes], namely their passions, sensual delights, property and livelihood in this world, all of which they have chosen on account of their caprice in their state of bewilderment, in their insolence, bewildered (yaʿmahūn): ʿamah is blindness of the heart, while their insolence is their transgressing of the [divinely stipulated] limit which they are supposed to respect. That limit is the breast (ṣadr), that is, the aspect of the heart that is adjacent to the soul (nafs), whereas the inner heart (fuÌād) is that aspect [of the heart] that is adjacent to the spirit (rūḥ), and so it sits in the middle [between the two] with aspects towards both of these: to adhere to that limit is to worship by [adhering to] the commands of God, exalted be He, and [to] His prohibitions, simultaneously turning to Him in order to seek illumination so that this aspect may be illumined and thereby the soul is illuminated. To adhere to the other limit is to receive gnosis, sciences, realities, wisdoms and divine prescriptions so that these might become etched upon the breast and the soul be adorned thereby. Insolence is to be engrossed in the ego-centric, bestial, predatorial and satanic attributes that overcome the heart, blackening it and blinding it, and sullying the spirit [as a result].
وَمِنْ حَيْثُ خَرَجْتَ فَوَلِّ وَجْهَكَ شَطْرَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ ۚ وَحَيْثُ مَا كُنْتُمْ فَوَلُّوا وُجُوهَكُمْ شَطْرَهُ لِئَلَّا يَكُونَ لِلنَّاسِ عَلَيْكُمْ حُجَّةٌ إِلَّا الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا مِنْهُمْ فَلَا تَخْشَوْهُمْ وَاخْشَوْنِي وَلِأُتِمَّ نِعْمَتِي عَلَيْكُمْ وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تَهْتَدُونَ
📘 From whatever place you issue, turn your face towards the Sacred Mosque;] and wherever you may be, O believers, turn your faces [towards it], to the side of the breast witnessing your witnessings in it, paying attention to it and not turning away from it in any state, so that there be not against you, from the people, any argument, any authoritativeness by [the possibility] that they might seem weighty in your eyes, or that you should take them into consideration [unduly] during your absence from the truth, or because of their feigning superiority over you; or [it means] [lest there be] any overpowering [by them of you] through words or deeds with respect to what you are seeking and demanding, for you will be upon the truth in [seeking] these then; nay, let them submit and yield to you: for verily the party of God, they are the victors [Q. 5:56]; excepting [illā] the evildoers among them, namely, the disbelievers, those who have been driven away, who have veiled themselves from the truth absolutely, for they are contemptuous of you, neither submitting nor yielding because of their failure absolutely to act upon the truth. The specious claim which they attempt to present as being [a valid] argument and their objection to the Muslims in both word and deed, and their haughtiness towards them in their souls, He has called an 'argument' [but only] figuratively; a variant reading has alā [instead of illā] as an [interjectory] alert so that a new sentence begins with the evildoers [among them]: do not fear them, because they cannot overpower you or harm you, but fear Me, be in awe of My Grandeur self-disclosing itself, lest they acquire standing in your hearts and eyes, and lest your breasts incline and so you incline to agree with them in reverence and exaltation of them by virtue of your being in absence and [ensconced] in the soul, as the commander of the believers [ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib], peace be upon him, said: '[If you] extol the Creator in yourself, [His] creatures shall seem insignificant in your eyes'; [and that I may perfect My grace upon you, and that you may be guided]: [fear Me] because of My having completed the grace of perfection for you and because of My desire for you to be guided I have commanded you to be constantly present and self-examining.
كَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا فِيكُمْ رَسُولًا مِنْكُمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْكُمْ آيَاتِنَا وَيُزَكِّيكُمْ وَيُعَلِّمُكُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَيُعَلِّمُكُمْ مَا لَمْ تَكُونُوا تَعْلَمُونَ
📘 Just as We have sent, just as you have been remembered by the sending of, a messenger to you, of your kind to enable you to receive and to learn and to accept guidance from him because of the similarity of genus and the human link,[from among yourselves, to recite Our verses to you and to purify you, and to teach you the Book, and wisdom, and to teach you what you knew not.]
فَاذْكُرُونِي أَذْكُرْكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوا لِي وَلَا تَكْفُرُونِ
📘 So remember Me; I will remember you. And be grateful for Me and not ungrateful toward Me. This is to remember the lovingly kind Friend, the heart's ease and the spirit's food. Remembrance is the polo-ball and familiarity with Him is the bat. Its steed is yearning and its field love. Burning for Him is the rose, and recognizing Him the garden. This remembrance makes the Real apparent. It is joined with the Haqiqah and separate from mortal nature. This remembrance is the watering place for the tree of tawḤīd, the fruit and produce of which is friendship with the Real. This is why the Lord of the Worlds said, “My servant does not cease remembering Me, and I remembering him, until he is passionate for Me and I passionate for him.” This is not the remembrance of the tongue that you know-this is inside the spirit. The time came when Abū Yazīd was remembering little with the tongue. When he was asked about that, he said, “I am in wonder at this remembrance of the tongue, and I am more in wonder at him who is a stranger. What would a stranger be doing in the midst? Remembrance of Him is in the midst of the spirit.” In the story of passion for You, many are the hardships. I'm with You, but many are the stations between us. * I wonder at him who says, “I remember my Lord.” Should I forget, then remember what I forgot? That great man of his time said in a whispered prayer, “O Lord! How can I remember You when You Yourself are remembering and I am crying out from forgetfulness. You are the remembrance and the remembered, You are the help in finding Yourself. “O Lord! When someone reaches You, his sorrows are finished; when someone sees You, his spirit laughs. Who has more joy in the two worlds than he who remembers You? Who is more worthy of happiness in You than the servant?” O poor man, you are remembering yourself. What do you know about remembering Him? Not having traveled, what do you know about the way stations? Not having seen the Friend, how can you be aware of His name and mark? You are your own object of worship-you worship yourself: whatever you do, you do it for yourself.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اسْتَعِينُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلَاةِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَ الصَّابِرِينَ
📘 O you who have faith, a faith of eyewitnessing, seek help in patience, with Me during the assaults of the self-disclosures of My greatness and grandeur, and [in] prayer, that is, [in] the true witnessing through Me; surely God is with the patient, those who can bear the self-disclosures of My lights.
وَلَا تَقُولُوا لِمَنْ يُقْتَلُ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أَمْوَاتٌ ۚ بَلْ أَحْيَاءٌ وَلَٰكِنْ لَا تَشْعُرُونَ
📘 Say not of those who are slain in the path of God, “They are dead.” No, they are alive, but you are unaware. The life of this world has left them behind, but they have reached endless life.12 What have they lost by being released from this world's abasement? They have reached union with the exaltedness of the Patron. If I die, don't say about me, “He's dead.” Say, “The dead man came to life in the Friend who took him.” Alive is the one who lives through Him, not through the spirit. Whoever comes to life in the Friend lives forever. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O Lord, if someone is occupied with You, how could his occupa- tion come to an end? When someone lives through You, how could he ever die? If the spirit in the body is deprived of You, it is like an imprisoned corpse. Alive in reality is he who lives with You. God's praise be on those slain concerning whom the King says that they are alive.” No, they are alive, but you are unaware. The cloak of awe is on the shoulders of their exalted- ness, the shadow of the Tremendous Throne is their resting-place of intimacy, and the Presence of the Real's majesty is the place of their spirit's repose, in a seat of truthfulness, at an Omnipotent King [54:55].
وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمْ بِشَيْءٍ مِنَ الْخَوْفِ وَالْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍ مِنَ الْأَمْوَالِ وَالْأَنْفُسِ وَالثَّمَرَاتِ ۗ وَبَشِّرِ الصَّابِرِينَ
📘 And We will indeed try you with something of fear and hunger, and decrease of wealth, souls, and fruits; and give good news to the patient. The custom of the Lord is that whenever He threatens the servant and shows harshness in a verse, then, right after that or before it, He caresses the servant and gives him hope. Thus in this verse He breaks the servant by mentioning those harsh things and varieties of trial. Then He gives good news, He caresses, and He says, “and give good news to the patient.” And, at the beginning of these verses He says, “Surely God is with the patient” [2:153]. Glory be to Him! How gentle and how merciful He is to His servants! And We will indeed try you. He says, “We will test you, sometimes with fear, sometimes with dread, sometimes with poverty, sometimes with hunger, sometimes with outward affliction, sometimes with inward sorrow.” The outward trial and evident affliction are in fact easy work, for sometimes they are there and sometimes not, like the trial of Abraham and the trial of Job. The complete trial is inward sorrow, which does not leave its place for a moment. When someone is closer, more worthy of friendship, and more suitable for union, his sorrow is more. Such was MuṣṬafā's sorrow. He had no capacity for it on the highest horizon, nor did he have any rest from it on the expanse of the earth. He was like a moth before a lamp: It does not have the capacity to stay with the lamp, nor the remedy of staying away from the lamp. With the tongue of his state he was saying, “In separation I make do because of shame before Your image, in union I burn in fear it will cease. Such is the state of the moth with the candle- in separation it burns and in union it burns.” “Yes, everyone who seeks union with Me and wants proximity with Me has no escape from taking on the burden of tribulation and tasting the drink of sorrow.” āsiya, the wife of Pharaoh, sought for the Real's neighborhood and asked for His proximity. She said, “My Lord, build for me a house with Thee in the Garden [66:11]. O Lord, I want a room in Your neighborhood, for it is beautiful to have a room in the street of the Friend.
الَّذِينَ إِذَا أَصَابَتْهُمْ مُصِيبَةٌ قَالُوا إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ
📘 [those who, when they are struck by an affliction,] say, 'Surely we belong to God, that is, they have submitted to, and are certain of, the fact that they are My possession of whom I have free disposal, and to Him we will return', in other words, they have been annihilated in Me and witnessed their destruction in Me by Me.
أُولَٰئِكَ عَلَيْهِمْ صَلَوَاتٌ مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ وَرَحْمَةٌ ۖ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُهْتَدُونَ
📘 Upon those rest blessings, in the way of the existence bestowed upon them after annihilation, [existence] characterised by My attributes and illumined by My lights, and mercy [from their Lord], and light and guidance by which they guide [other] creatures to Me, and those - they are the truly guided, by My guidance, as mentioned in the supplication: 'And appoint us as guides, guided, not straying nor leading astray'.
۞ إِنَّ الصَّفَا وَالْمَرْوَةَ مِنْ شَعَائِرِ اللَّهِ ۖ فَمَنْ حَجَّ الْبَيْتَ أَوِ اعْتَمَرَ فَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْهِ أَنْ يَطَّوَّفَ بِهِمَا ۚ وَمَنْ تَطَوَّعَ خَيْرًا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ شَاكِرٌ عَلِيمٌ
📘 Truly Ṣafā and Marwa, that is, truly the purity (ṣafāÌ) of the existence of the heart and the virtuousness (muruwwa) of the existence of the soul, are among the waymarks of God, among the heart-based milestones and rituals of His religion, [waymarks] such as certainty, satisfaction, sincere devotion, reliance and receptivity, such as the prayer, the fast, and all of the other devotions performed by the body; so whoever makes the Pilgrimage to the House, that is, [whoever] has attained the station of the Essential Unity and entered the Divine Presence by the total annihilation of his essence, or the Visitation, to the fire of the Presence by the affirmation of the unity of the attributes and by his annihilation in the lights of the self-disclosures of the Beauty and the Majesty, he would not be at fault, in that case, if he circumambulates them, that is, [if] he returns to the stations of both and comes and goes between them but not in their engendered existence, for that is indeed a fault and a sin, rather in the existence bestowed after annihilation upon [reaching the station of] stability; that is why He has precluded any [possibility of] fault [on the part of the one circumambulating], for in this [bestowed] existence, as opposed to the former [kind], there is ampleness; and whoever volunteers good, meaning, whoever gives good voluntarily in the way of teachings, compassion for creatures, [good] counsel, love for the good-doing folk who put things right, through the existence of the heart, and [whoever gives good voluntarily] in the way of manners, the acts of righteousness and piety, assisting the weak and the needy and securing kindnesses for them and for his dependants through the existence of the soul after the perfection of the wayfaring and subsistence after annihilation; then truly God is Grateful, thankful for his deeds by rewarding [him] with increase, Knowing, for these [deeds] are [performed] out of the free disposal over things [granted] through God, not through engenderment or affliction or indifference.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَكْتُمُونَ مَا أَنْزَلْنَا مِنَ الْبَيِّنَاتِ وَالْهُدَىٰ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا بَيَّنَّاهُ لِلنَّاسِ فِي الْكِتَابِ ۙ أُولَٰئِكَ يَلْعَنُهُمُ اللَّهُ وَيَلْعَنُهُمُ اللَّاعِنُونَ
📘 Those who conceal the clear proofs and the guidance that We have revealed, that is, [those] who conceal what We have effused upon them of the clear proofs of the lights of gnoses and the knowledge of the self-disclosures of the acts and the attributes and the guidance of the states and the stations, or the guidance to the affirmation of the Unity of the Essence via certain knowledge. For what is eyewitnessed cannot be concealed by means of variegations of the soul or the heart, [variegations] that mask the unveilings in the heart and the mysterious communions of the night and the spiritual witnessings, after We have shown them to the people clearly [in the Scripture], in the Book of their intellects, [intellects] illumined by the light of the pursuit that perceives the vestiges of the lights of the hearts and the spirits with the blessing of companionship - they shall be cursed by God, He will reject them and banish them, and by the cursers, from among the High Council, [who curse them] by forsaking them and refraining from reinforcing them from the world of support and light, and [by the cursers] from among the yearning prepared ones, the light of whose hearts they [the now accursed] had enjoyed the intimacy and on whose effusion of light they [the accursed] had drawn by the strength of their sincerity, and in whose constant companionship they had found rest, enjoying their blessedness and their breaths at the rising radiance of the gleam of their states, [cursing them] by abandoning them and relinquishing their companionship, rejecting them and turning away from them because of their [the accursed ones'] loss of that [light] and their [the cursers'] sensing the sullying of their purity.
أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ اشْتَرَوُا الضَّلَالَةَ بِالْهُدَىٰ فَمَا رَبِحَتْ تِجَارَتُهُمْ وَمَا كَانُوا مُهْتَدِينَ
📘 Those are they who have bought in exchange for guidance error, that is, darkness and being veiled from the path of truth, namely, religion, or from the truth [itself], for error is dispersed in the face of guidance through the original light of preparedness; so their commerce brings no profit [for them], because their capital derives from the world of light and subsistence so that they might acquire by this [capital] what resembles it in the way of effusive, perfecting light through the sciences, deeds, wisdoms, gnosis, character traits and virtuous dispositions becoming thereby rich in reality, deserving of proximity, dignity, exaltation and esteem before God, but they have not profited by acquiring [all of] that; [nor are they guided] and thus the original guidance that had been their commodity and capital is lost by the disappearance of their preparedness and the sullying of their hearts by the rust that necessarily leads to eternal veiling and deprivation and so their loss is an eternal one without beginning or end.
إِلَّا الَّذِينَ تَابُوا وَأَصْلَحُوا وَبَيَّنُوا فَأُولَٰئِكَ أَتُوبُ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ وَأَنَا التَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيمُ
📘 Except those that repent, that is, those who have repented from the sins of their states and realised that it had been a trial from God, and make amends, in their states by returning [to God] and [engaging in] spiritual discipline, and show clearly, that is, [those who], as a result of their truthful conduct towards God and their sincere devotion [to Him], have unveiled and manifested what had been veiled to them - them I shall turn [relenting], I shall accept their repentance and cast upon them [My] relenting; I am the Relenting, the Merciful.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَمَاتُوا وَهُمْ كُفَّارٌ أُولَٰئِكَ عَلَيْهِمْ لَعْنَةُ اللَّهِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةِ وَالنَّاسِ أَجْمَعِينَ
📘 But those who disbelieve, [those who] are veiled from religion or [from] the Truth, and die disbelieving, that is, remained in their [state of] veiling such that their preparedness has disappeared and the light of their primordial nature extinguished by [their adherence to] the religion of the veil, and have been cut off from the means by which they would have able to lift the veil of death - upon them shall be the curse of God and the angels, and of people altogether: in other words, they have merited total distance, privation, banishment from the Truth and from the world of the angelic realm and from the natural human disposition that is represented by obliteration (ṭams).
خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا ۖ لَا يُخَفَّفُ عَنْهُمُ الْعَذَابُ وَلَا هُمْ يُنْظَرُونَ
📘 Abiding therein, because of the obliteration of their preparedness and the extinguishing of the light of their primordial nature; the chastisement shall not be lightened for them, because of the fact that their chastised configurations are deeply rooted in the substances of their souls; nor any respite given to them, because of the attachment to them of those dark configurations.
وَإِلَٰهُكُمْ إِلَٰهٌ وَاحِدٌ ۖ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الرَّحْمَٰنُ الرَّحِيمُ
📘 And your God is one God. There is no god but He, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful. This is the description of the one Lord, the one Lord God and King. He is one in magnanimity and governance, one in forbearance and beautiful doing, one in generosity and peerlessness, one in loving kindness and servant-caressing. Every magnificence is the mantle of His majesty, and in that He is one. Every tremendousness and all-compellingness is the shawl of His lordhood, and in that He is one. He is one in Essence, one in attributes, one in deed and mark, one in loyalty and compact, one in gentleness and caressing, one in love and friendship. On the day of apportioning, who was there but He, the One? Before the day of apportioning who was there? That same One. After the day of apportioning, who handed over those portions? That same One. Who shows? That same One. Who adorns? That same One. He is more apparent than everything in the world of apparentness, and in this apparentness He is one. He is more hidden than anything in the world of hiddenness, and in this hiddenness He is one. O You who are more face-to-face than anything in the world! You are more hidden than the world's most hidden thing! O You who are more distant than all that the servants suppose! You are closer to the servants than the spirit's vein. How disloyal the Adamite who does not know the worth of this declaration and the exaltedness of this ascription! God says, “And your God is one God.” The wonder is not that He ascribed the servants to Himself, joined them to Himself, and said, “Surely My servants” [15:42]. The wonder is that He ascribed Himself to the servants and joined His name to their name, saying, “Your God.” This is not because His lordhood must be joined to the servant's servanthood, or that the servants are deserving of that. Rather, in generosity and loving kindness He Himself is unique and one. In magnanimity He is worthy of every generous bestowal and every gift. In the place of our Heart-taker's beauty and loveliness, we are not suited for Him-He is suited for us. And your God is one God. There was no world and no Adam. There were no tracks and no traces, there was no one in the house.
إِنَّ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلَافِ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ وَالْفُلْكِ الَّتِي تَجْرِي فِي الْبَحْرِ بِمَا يَنْفَعُ النَّاسَ وَمَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مِنْ مَاءٍ فَأَحْيَا بِهِ الْأَرْضَ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا وَبَثَّ فِيهَا مِنْ كُلِّ دَابَّةٍ وَتَصْرِيفِ الرِّيَاحِ وَالسَّحَابِ الْمُسَخَّرِ بَيْنَ السَّمَاءِ وَالْأَرْضِ لَآيَاتٍ لِقَوْمٍ يَعْقِلُونَ
📘 Surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth, the alternation of the night and the day, the ships that run on the sea with what benefits people, the water that God sends down from heaven giving life to the earth after its death, the scattering of every beast therein, the shifting of the winds, the clouds subjected between heaven and earth-there are signs for a people who have intellect. In this verse the Lord of the Universe shows the generality of people the road to Himself, so that they will gaze upon the wonders of the dominion of heaven and earth and on the artisanries of land and sea and then recognize the Artisan and attest to His oneness. Ibn ʿAṬāÌ said, “He made Himself recognized to the common people with His creation, to the elect with His attributes, and to the prophets and the elect of the elect with His Essence.” The gaze of the common people is on the artisanry, the gaze of the elect on the attributes, and the gaze of the prophets and the elect of the elect on the Essence. The generality of the faithful look at the artisanry and from the artisanry reach the Artisan. The elect among the faithful know the attributes and from the attributes reach the Object of attribution and from the name the Named. Thus it was said to the Children of Israel, “Sacrifice a cow” [2:67], but they did not recognize it. So the cow was described to them, they recognized it, and they sacrificed it. As for the prophets and the sincerely truthful, they recognize Him through Him, not through other than Him. They look from Him to Him, not from the other to Him. God alludes to this state when He says, “Dost thou not see thy Lord, how He stretched out the shadow?” [25:45]. He did not say, “Look at the shadow so that you may see My artisanry.” He said, “Look at Me so that you may see My artisanry. O paragon of the world! Look not at Gabriel's coming, look at My sending. Look from Me to him, not from him to Me.” Consider for a moment the female companions of Joseph. When the very entity of Joseph was unveiled to them, they were annihilated from themselves and became absent from Joseph's attributes.
وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَتَّخِذُ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ أَنْدَادًا يُحِبُّونَهُمْ كَحُبِّ اللَّهِ ۖ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَشَدُّ حُبًّا لِلَّهِ ۗ وَلَوْ يَرَى الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا إِذْ يَرَوْنَ الْعَذَابَ أَنَّ الْقُوَّةَ لِلَّهِ جَمِيعًا وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ شَدِيدُ الْعَذَابِ
📘 Among the people are some who take peers apart from God, loving them as if loving God. And those who have faith are more intense in love for God. If this were the only verse in the whole Qur'an about the faithful and God's friends, their eminence and honor would be complete, for the Lord of the Worlds is saying, “They love Me intensely and more completely than the unbelievers love their objects of worship.” Do you not see that every once in a while the unbelievers set up another idol and take up another object of worship. Like poor people, they are content with something carved of wood. Then, when they can, they take down the wooden one and make another from silver or gold. If their love for their object of wor- ship is real, why do they turn away from it toward another? They say that a man met a woman recognizer, and her beauty exercised its influence over his heart. He said, “'My all is busy with your all.' O woman! I have lost myself in love for you.” She said, “Why don't you look at my sister, who is more beautiful and lovely than I?” He said, “Where is your sister so that I may see her?” She said, “Go, idler! Passion is not your work. If your claim to love me were true, you would not care about anyone else.” And those who have faith are more intense in love for God. The Lord of the Worlds says, “The love of the faithful for Me is not like the unbelievers' love for idols, such that every once in a while they incline toward another. Rather, the faithful never turn away from Me and never incline toward anyone else. For, if they did turn away, they would never find someone like Me, no matter how much they sought.” Poor man, God has many servants like you. If something bad is to occur for you, it will occur. How can you turn away, for you will not find a Lord like Him. Shiblī said, “I learned Sufism from a dog that was sleeping at the door of a house. The owner came out and was driving the dog away, but the dog kept on coming back. I said to myself, 'How base this dog is! He drives him away, and he keeps on coming back.' The Exalted Lord brought that dog to speech and it said, 'O Shaykh! Where should I go? He is my owner.'” I will not leave the Friend at a hundred iniquities and cruelties. Even if He increases them, I will not be troubled, It is I who chose Him over everyone else; if I complain about Him, I will have no excuse.
إِذْ تَبَرَّأَ الَّذِينَ اتُّبِعُوا مِنَ الَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوا وَرَأَوُا الْعَذَابَ وَتَقَطَّعَتْ بِهِمُ الْأَسْبَابُ
📘 When those who were followed declare themselves quit of those who followed them. The unbelievers loved idols in keeping with caprice and nature, not reality. Hence, when they see the beginnings of the chastisement at the resurrection, they will know that they have no place on which to stand and will disown the idols. As for the faithful, their friendship is the fruit of the Real's friend- ship-as He says, “He loves them, and they love Him” [5:54]. Therefore the steep roads and trials that come to them do not bring any defect into their love, so they do not turn away from the Real. First they see the agonies of death. Then their pure spirit is snatched away from them. They are kept for many years in the dust. Then they are frightened many times at the resurrection in those diverse stations. They are rebuked while severity of many sorts is shown to them, and then they are kept for a time in hell. Despite these tribulations and trials that come into their road, at each moment they fall more into passion and expend their spirits and hearts even more in friend- ship for the Real. With the tongue of the state they say, “If You're happy with my grief, give me grief upon grief! Away with a passion that decreases with a hundred cruelties!” This is why He says, “Those who have faith are more intense in love for God” [2:165].
وَقَالَ الَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوا لَوْ أَنَّ لَنَا كَرَّةً فَنَتَبَرَّأَ مِنْهُمْ كَمَا تَبَرَّءُوا مِنَّا ۗ كَذَٰلِكَ يُرِيهِمُ اللَّهُ أَعْمَالَهُمْ حَسَرَاتٍ عَلَيْهِمْ ۖ وَمَا هُمْ بِخَارِجِينَ مِنَ النَّارِ
📘 And those who followed say, 'O, if only we might return again, in other words, O for a return![and disown them, as they have disowned us!']So, God shall show them their works, anguish for them!: in other words, their loves and the deeds that are based on them are turned into anguish for them. Such is the predicament of the spiritual faculties that befriend the ego-centric faculties which are subordinate to them and disposed to them for the actualisation of their pleasures.[Never shall they exit from the Fire].
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ كُلُوا مِمَّا فِي الْأَرْضِ حَلَالًا طَيِّبًا وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا خُطُوَاتِ الشَّيْطَانِ ۚ إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ مُبِينٌ
📘 O people, eat of what is in the earth [lawful and wholesome; and follow not the steps of Satan; he is a manifest foe to you]: that is, partake in the pleasures and the enjoyments that are in the lower direction of the world of the soul and the body in a manner that is lawful and wholesome, that is to say, according to the law of moderation as permitted by the Law and as sanctioned by the intellect in the measure that is needed and is necessary. And do not transgress the limit of moderation, within which these [pleasures and enjoyments] are wholesome and beneficial, into the bounds of immoderation, for these are the footsteps of Satan, which is why God says: Indeed squanderers are brothers of devils [Q. 17:27]. For he [Satan] is an enemy to you, [one] whose enmity is clear; he desires to lead you to perdition and make you odious in the eyes of your Lord by your committing of reprehensible acts of immoderation, as He [God] does not love the immoderate. Know that enmity in the world of the soul corresponds to the shadow of familiarity (ulfa) in the world of the heart, while moderation is its shadow in the world of the body. Familiarity is the shadow of love in the world of the spirit, the latter being the shadow of true Oneness. Thus moderation is the fourth shadow of the Oneness and Satan flees from the shadow of the Truth, unable to endure it, he is forever stepping from the realm of these shadows into the side of immoderation, and if he is unable, then to the side of excess, as happens in the case of love and familiarity; which is why the commander of the believers ʿAlī, peace be upon him, said: 'You find that the ignorant is [one of two], either excessive or prodigal'. Verily the ignorant person is the laughingstock of Satan.
إِنَّمَا يَأْمُرُكُمْ بِالسُّوءِ وَالْفَحْشَاءِ وَأَنْ تَقُولُوا عَلَى اللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
📘 He [Satan] only commands you to evil, to cause harm and hurt, which is the excess of the irascible faculty, and indecency, namely, vile acts that are the excess of the appetitive faculty, and that you should speak against God what you do not know, which is the excess of the faculty of speech as a result of the intellect being sullied by illusion, which is the devil disposed for it.
مَثَلُهُمْ كَمَثَلِ الَّذِي اسْتَوْقَدَ نَارًا فَلَمَّا أَضَاءَتْ مَا حَوْلَهُ ذَهَبَ اللَّهُ بِنُورِهِمْ وَتَرَكَهُمْ فِي ظُلُمَاتٍ لَا يُبْصِرُونَ
📘 Their likeness, that is, to describe them in terms of their hypocrisy is like describing the one seeking to kindle [a fire] and the resultant light which no sooner than it illumines things nearby around him his fire subsides, leaving him bewildered. For the light of their preparedness can be compared to a kindled fire and its illumining of things around them is their being guided to what is in their best interest in terms of their livelihood in the here and now, as opposed to what is in their best interest in terms of the final return that is [seemingly] far away for them, and [their being guided to] companionship of the believers and being in accord with them outwardly; its [his fire's] being extinguished swiftly is the dying out of their light of preparedness and the rapid evanescence of what they had been content with of their world and its imminent termination; [is as the likeness of one who kindled a fire, and when it illumined all about him]God took away their light, of preparedness by reinforcing them in insolence, leaving them veiled from success, in the darknesses of the soul's attributes [and left them in darkness]; unable to see, with the eye of the heart the way out, nor what might benefit them in the way of spiritual knowledge, like the one whose fire is extinguished while he is wandering about between his work and his means of subsistence;
وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمُ اتَّبِعُوا مَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ قَالُوا بَلْ نَتَّبِعُ مَا أَلْفَيْنَا عَلَيْهِ آبَاءَنَا ۗ أَوَلَوْ كَانَ آبَاؤُهُمْ لَا يَعْقِلُونَ شَيْئًا وَلَا يَهْتَدُونَ
📘 And when it is said to them, 'Follow what God has revealed', in terms of taking into consideration the limits of moderation and fairness in all things in the manner prescribed by the Law, they say, 'No; but we follow what we found our fathers doing', in the way of reprehensible acts of immoderation that belong to the age of ignorance, in [blind] imitation of them. Whatḍ, will you follow themḍ Even if their fathers do not understand anything, of religion or knowledge, and they were not guidedḍ, to right deeds because of their ignorance.
وَمَثَلُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا كَمَثَلِ الَّذِي يَنْعِقُ بِمَا لَا يَسْمَعُ إِلَّا دُعَاءً وَنِدَاءً ۚ صُمٌّ بُكْمٌ عُمْيٌ فَهُمْ لَا يَعْقِلُونَ
📘 The likeness of those who disbelieve, the likeness of the one who calls on the rejected disbelievers, is as the likeness of [one who shouts to that which hears nothing, save a call and a cry; deaf, dumb, blind - they do not comprehend], [as the likeness of] one who shouts to beasts who cannot hear anything but sounds and do not understand the meaning: thus is their predicament.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُلُوا مِنْ طَيِّبَاتِ مَا رَزَقْنَاكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوا لِلَّهِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ إِيَّاهُ تَعْبُدُونَ
📘 O you who believe: if you are [true] affirmers of Oneness devoting worship exclusively to God, then do not, eat of, anything but, the good things wherewith We have provided you: in other words, those things provided which justfully ought to be used, and give thanks to God [if it be Him that you worship], by using them for their intended purpose in the proper manner and in the proper measure, for affirmation of Oneness entails paying attention moderation and justice in all things, as the essence entails its shadow and its concomitant. [It is reported] from the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, that God, exalted be He, said: 'Verily I with humankind and the jinn are [involved] in an awesome tiding: I create, yet others are worshipped, and I provide, but others are thanked'.
إِنَّمَا حَرَّمَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْمَيْتَةَ وَالدَّمَ وَلَحْمَ الْخِنْزِيرِ وَمَا أُهِلَّ بِهِ لِغَيْرِ اللَّهِ ۖ فَمَنِ اضْطُرَّ غَيْرَ بَاغٍ وَلَا عَادٍ فَلَا إِثْمَ عَلَيْهِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
📘 He has only forbidden you: carrion, because blood in it is congealed and [because the consumption of] it is far removed from [the principle of] moderation by the deviation of that [creature's] constitution; blood, because it mixes with impure faeces which do not receive life, justice and luminosity and because of its ineligibility for such [things] thereafter on account of the lack of maturity; the flesh of swine, because of the prevalence of predatorialness and voraciousness and because it [swine] by nature openly engages in filth and unrestricted sexual behaviour, and the same is caused by the consumption of it; what has been hallowed to other than God, that for which the voice has been raised that it be sacrificed for other than God, in other words, that by whose sacrifice and consumption association [of things with God] was intended, since this is contradictory to the affirmation of Oneness and revealing of an associationism; from this [statement] one is given to understand that [it] also [includes] whatever encourages the one consuming it to speak of, and raise his voice [in support of], anything other than God. In other words, every thing that is not consumed in affirmation of [His] Oneness is forbidden to the one consuming it. Yet whoever is constrained, from among the community, not desiring, [sinfulness] against another constrained person by withholding it [from him], nor transgressing, but just to stay alive, no sin shall be on him. [God is Forgiving, Merciful.]
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَكْتُمُونَ مَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ وَيَشْتَرُونَ بِهِ ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا ۙ أُولَٰئِكَ مَا يَأْكُلُونَ فِي بُطُونِهِمْ إِلَّا النَّارَ وَلَا يُكَلِّمُهُمُ اللَّهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ وَلَا يُزَكِّيهِمْ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
📘 [Those who conceal what God has revealed of the Scripture, and sell it for a little price] - they shall consume nothing in their bellies but, that is, their bellies' fill is nothing but the fuel of, the Fire, of privation and the cause for the igniting of the fire of nature that veils [one] from the light of the truth and chastises through the dark configurations of evil, [configurations] that lead that person to the hell-fire of corporeal [primordial] matter (hayūlā). God shall not speak to them on the Day of Resurrection [and He will not look at them], neither purify them: an expression of the intensity of His wrath against them and their banishment from Him; [and theirs is a painful chastisement.]
أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ اشْتَرَوُا الضَّلَالَةَ بِالْهُدَىٰ وَالْعَذَابَ بِالْمَغْفِرَةِ ۚ فَمَا أَصْبَرَهُمْ عَلَى النَّارِ
📘 [Those are they that have bought error at the price of guidance, and chastisement at the price of pardon; what makes them so patient for the Fireḍ
ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّ اللَّهَ نَزَّلَ الْكِتَابَ بِالْحَقِّ ۗ وَإِنَّ الَّذِينَ اخْتَلَفُوا فِي الْكِتَابِ لَفِي شِقَاقٍ بَعِيدٍ
📘 That is because God has revealed the Book with the truth; and those that are at variance regarding the Book are in schism, far removed.]
۞ لَيْسَ الْبِرَّ أَنْ تُوَلُّوا وُجُوهَكُمْ قِبَلَ الْمَشْرِقِ وَالْمَغْرِبِ وَلَٰكِنَّ الْبِرَّ مَنْ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةِ وَالْكِتَابِ وَالنَّبِيِّينَ وَآتَى الْمَالَ عَلَىٰ حُبِّهِ ذَوِي الْقُرْبَىٰ وَالْيَتَامَىٰ وَالْمَسَاكِينَ وَابْنَ السَّبِيلِ وَالسَّائِلِينَ وَفِي الرِّقَابِ وَأَقَامَ الصَّلَاةَ وَآتَى الزَّكَاةَ وَالْمُوفُونَ بِعَهْدِهِمْ إِذَا عَاهَدُوا ۖ وَالصَّابِرِينَ فِي الْبَأْسَاءِ وَالضَّرَّاءِ وَحِينَ الْبَأْسِ ۗ أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ صَدَقُوا ۖ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُتَّقُونَ
📘 Piety is not that you turn your faces to the east and the west. Rather, piety is he who has faith in God, the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the prophets; who gives wealth despite lov- ing it to kinsfolk, orphans, the indigent, the son of the road, beggars, and slaves; and who per- forms the prayer and gives the alms tax; those who are loyal to their covenant when they make a covenant; those who are patient in misfortune, hardship, and moments of peril. It is they who have been truthful, and it is they who are the godwary. You have learned what the Shariah stipulates in terms of the outward meaning of this verse. Now listen to the inner meaning in the tongue of allusion and recognize the signs of the Haqiqah, for the Haqiqah is to the Shariah as the spirit is to the body. What is a body without a spirit? Such is the Shariah without the Haqiqah. The Shariah is the house of the servitors. All the people are gathered there. They keep it flourishing with service and worship. The Haqiqah is the house of the sanctuary. The recognizers are gathered there. They keep it flourishing with veneration and contemplation. The distance from service and worship to veneration and contemplation is the same as that from familiarity to love. Familiarity is the attribute of wage-earners, and love is the attribute of recognizers. The wage-earner brings all the varieties of piety mentioned in the verse. Then he says, “Oh, if the wind blows against it, or something of it is taken away, I will lose the wage for that.” The recognizer performs all of it according to its stipulations. Then he says, “Oh, if any of it remains, I will be held back from good fortune.” Any talk that keeps you back from the road-let it be unbelief or faith. Any picture that holds you back from the Friend-let it be ugly or beautiful. [DS 51] The wage-earner says, “My prayer, my fasting, my alms-giving, my patience in trials, my loyalty to covenants!” The recognizer says in the tongue of abasement, “Who am I to wear the cloak of loyalty to You, to have my eyes carry the burden of Your disloyalty, To have the spirit's scent come from my lips and speak of You, to grow an exalted branch in my heart and suffer Your trial?” [DS 933] The Pir of the Tariqah said, “How should I have known that the share of the wage-earner is ever- lasting paradise, and the hope of the recognizer is one glance? How should I have known that the wage-earner is wishing for houris and palaces, and the recognizer is inundated by light in the sea of face-to-face vision?” When he was dying, Abū ʿAlī Rūdbārī said to his sister, “O FāṬima, look, the doors of heaven have opened, the Gardens have been adorned! The maid-servants have gathered at the battlements and they are saying, 'Enjoy yourself, O Abū ʿAlī! All this was built for you!'” The tongue of Abū ʿAlī's state was answering, “O God, how could I be joyful with paradise and houris? If You give me one breath, from that breath I will build a paradise!” Your rightful due is that I look on no one else with the eye of love until I see You. * I will close my eyes and not open them until the day of visiting You, O exalted Friend! Piety is not that you turn your faces. Piety, in brief, is of two sorts: belief and deeds. Belief is to realize the roots, and deeds are to obtain the branches. Inescapably anyone who truly consolidates the roots and performs the stipulated branches is one of the pious. The station of the pious is the Abode of Settledness. That is in His words, “Surely the pious are in bliss” [82:13]. What the Lord of the Worlds clarifies in the course of this verse is exactly that belief and those deeds. He says, “he who has faith in God, the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the prophets.” Up to this point He clarifies belief and lays down the foundations of the roots, and from here on He begins the mention of the deeds. These He set down in two sorts: One sort is taking care of people: keeping company with them, caressing the far and the near, and giving comfort to them. Thus He says, “who gives wealth despite loving it to kinsfolk, orphans, the indigent, travelers, beggars, and slaves.” He begins first with relatives, for their rightful due takes precedence over the rightful due of others. This is why the Prophet said, “Charity will not be accepted if a womb relative is in need. ” Then come orphans, who are the most helpless of people and have no kin. Then the poor, who have no possessions, neither present nor absent. Then the wayfarers, who have nothing in hand, though they may have wealth elsewhere. Then the beg- gars, who are the poor, both those who speak truthfully and those who lie. Then slaves, who have masters to take care of them and attend to them. The Lord of the Worlds preserved the order of their need and worthiness. Whenever someone is more helpless, more needy, and more fitting for charity, He mentions him earlier, for his rightful due is greater. What a generous Lord, who keeps everyone in his own place and conveys to everyone what is fitting as needed! He says, “I govern My servants through My knowledge; surely of My servants I am aware, seeing [35:31].” The other sort of deeds is specific to the worshipful servant and does not go beyond him to anyone else, like performing the prayers, having truthfulness and self-purification in the deeds, coming back to loyalty in covenants, and having patience in trials. This is why the Lord of the Worlds says, “who performs the prayer” to His words “and moments of peril.” Then He says, “It is they who have been truthful, and it is they who are the godwary.” They are the ones who, in the half of piety that is belief, are truthful, and, in the half that is deeds, put godwariness into action. Truthfulness and godwariness are the perfection of faith. They are the ones concerning whom God says, “They are the faithful in truth” [8:4]. The most complete report from MuṣṬafā that is appropriate to this verse and brings together the varieties of piety-the part that is faith, the part that is deeds, and the part that is noble character traits-comes by way of Suwayd Ḥārith. He said, “I was sent as the seventh of seven from my tribe to God's Messenger. When we entered in upon him and spoke to him, he admired what he saw of our appearance and dress. He said, 'What are you?' “We said, 'We are faithful.' “God's Messenger smiled and said, 'Every word has a reality. What is the reality of your words and your faith.' “I said, 'Fifteen traits. We were commanded by your messengers to have faith in five of them.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْقِصَاصُ فِي الْقَتْلَى ۖ الْحُرُّ بِالْحُرِّ وَالْعَبْدُ بِالْعَبْدِ وَالْأُنْثَىٰ بِالْأُنْثَىٰ ۚ فَمَنْ عُفِيَ لَهُ مِنْ أَخِيهِ شَيْءٌ فَاتِّبَاعٌ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَأَدَاءٌ إِلَيْهِ بِإِحْسَانٍ ۗ ذَٰلِكَ تَخْفِيفٌ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ وَرَحْمَةٌ ۗ فَمَنِ اعْتَدَىٰ بَعْدَ ذَٰلِكَ فَلَهُ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
📘 O you who have faith! Written for you is retaliation in the case of the slain. He is addressing the body, heart, and spirit and saying, “O totality of the servant! If you want to step into the street of friendship, first detach your heart from life and toss away everything you know about states and deeds, for in the shariah of friendship your life will be taken as retaliation, and everything you know will be the wergild, though more is needed. Such is the shariah of friend- ship. If you are the man for the work, enter! Otherwise, nothing will get done with self-love and defilement.” In the tracks of manliness plane trees live long, in the tracks of defilement jasmine goes fast. Throw away your life, travel the road, live upright, and be a man! Then you will subsist-when you empty your skirt of these ruins. Yes, it's a marvelous work, the work of friendship! It's a wonderful shariah, the shariah of friend- ship! Whenever someone is killed in the world, retaliation or wergild is mandatory against the killer. In the shariah of friendship, both retaliation and wergild are mandatory for the person killed. The Pir of the Tariqah, “How should I have known that there is retaliation for those killed by friendship? But, when I looked, that was Your transaction with the elect. How should I have known that friendship is sheer resurrection and that those killed by friendship should ask for wer- gild? Glory be to God! What work is this, what work!? He burns some people, He kills some people, and no one burned has regrets, no one killed turns away.” How You kill us and how we love You! O marvel! How we love the killer! * May my eyes' light be the dust beneath Your feet! May my heart's rest be Your curly locks! In passion for You, may my justice be Your cruelty! May my life be sacrificed in grief for You! One person is burnt and left unsettled, another slain and perplexed in the field of solitariness. One is hanging on reports, another mixed with face-to-face vision. Who planted these seeds? Who stirred up this tumult? One is in a whirlpool, another wishing for water, but the drowned is not sated, the thirsty has no sleep.
وَلَكُمْ فِي الْقِصَاصِ حَيَاةٌ يَا أُولِي الْأَلْبَابِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ
📘 There is for you [in retaliation], in God's compensating you in the manner mentioned, a great life, that is, a life whose very essence cannot be described, O people of pith, that is, [O people] of intellect pure of the rind of illusion and the coverings of individual existences and physical bodies; such then is [the case with] this [principle of] retaliation, so that you might be wary, of neglecting it and so that you might adhere to it.
صُمٌّ بُكْمٌ عُمْيٌ فَهُمْ لَا يَرْجِعُونَ
📘 deaf, dumb, blind, in reality because of their hearts being veiled from the light of the intellect by which they hear the truth, utter it and see it. Outwardly, because of their not being beneficial, given that the paths from those sense to the heart are blocked and given the locus of the veil, the light of the heart does not reach them so that they might have preserved their benefits; nor do its perceptions touch the heart so that they might understand and take heed; they shall not return, to God because of the two barriers set upon their hearts, [the two barriers] mentioned in His statement and We have set before them a barrier and behind them a barrier [Q. 36:9]. The use of the simile lies in depicting what is intellectual in tangible form that it might find visible expression in the souls of the common folk. He then likens them to a people who are struck by rain amidst darkness, thunder and lightning: rain is the descent of the divine revelation and the arrival of [divine] mercy as assistance to them through the blessedness of the companionship of the believers and the remainder of their preparedness that might benefit their hearts even minimally; and [the rain] is also the materialisation for them of outward graces consistent with their wishes outwardly. The darknesses are the ego-centric attributes and the imaginal and illusory doubts and the satanic whisperings that bewilder them and fill them with anxiety. Thunder is the divine fulmination and the overwhelmingly powerful threat [of chastisement] mentioned in the QurÌān, its verses and the aurally and visually received reports, that which frightens them and results in the smallest breaking of their insolent hearts and a defeat of their rejecting souls. Lightning is the luminous flashes and the spiritual alerts upon hearing the promise [of reward] and being reminded of the favours and blessings that which entices them and gives them hope [of salvation] and thus profits them with a small yearning and sways them to [hope for] the granting [of their supplications].
كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذَا حَضَرَ أَحَدَكُمُ الْمَوْتُ إِنْ تَرَكَ خَيْرًا الْوَصِيَّةُ لِلْوَالِدَيْنِ وَالْأَقْرَبِينَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ ۖ حَقًّا عَلَى الْمُتَّقِينَ
📘 It is written for you, when death is present for one of you and he is leaving behind some good, to make a will for parents and kinsfolk honorably, as something rightfully due from the godwary. The testament of the lords of wealth is one thing, and the testament of the lords of states is some- thing else. The testament of the lords of wealth goes out from the wealth, and the testament of the poor men from the states. At the end of their lives, the rich give out one-third of their wealth,13 and the poor give out limpidness of states and truthfulness of deeds. As much as the disobedient person is afraid for himself because of his bad deeds, the recogniz- er is afraid for himself ten times more because of the truthfulness of his deeds and the limpidness of his states. But there is a difference between the two: The disobedient person is afraid of the out- come and in dread of punishment, and the recognizer is afraid of the Real's majesty and awareness. When the recognizers are afraid, this is called “awe,” and when the disobedient are afraid, it is called “fear.” Fear occurs because of reports, and awe occurs because of face-to-face vision. Awe is a fear that puts no veil before supplication, no blindfold over perspicacity, and no wall before hope. It is a fear that melts and kills. As long as he does not hear the call, “Fear not and grieve not!” [29:33], he will not reach ease. The owner of this fear is shown generosity, but he burns in dread of losing it. His light is increased, and the terror of alteration is thrown into him. Abu Saʿīd Abi'l-Khayr had this state at the time of death. When he put his head on the pil- low of death, they said to him, “O Shaykh, you were the kiblah of those burned, emulated by the yearners, the sun of the world. Now that you have turned your face to the Exalted Presence, give some advice to these burnt ones, say some words that will be their reminder.” The Shaykh said, “My two eyes full of water, my liver full of fire, my hands full of wind, my head full of dust!” Bishr Ḥāfī had the same state at the time of going.
فَمَنْ بَدَّلَهُ بَعْدَمَا سَمِعَهُ فَإِنَّمَا إِثْمُهُ عَلَى الَّذِينَ يُبَدِّلُونَهُ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ
📘 [Then if anyone changes it after hearing it, the sin shall rest upon those who change it; surely God is Hearing, Knowing.
فَمَنْ خَافَ مِنْ مُوصٍ جَنَفًا أَوْ إِثْمًا فَأَصْلَحَ بَيْنَهُمْ فَلَا إِثْمَ عَلَيْهِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
📘 But if any one fears injustice or sin from one making testament, and so makes things right between them, then no sin shall be upon him; surely God is Forgiving, Merciful.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ
📘 O you who have faith! Written for you is fasting. In the tongue of allusion and the clarification of wisdom, He is saying, “O you who have faith, fasting has been written for you. It has been written because you will be the guests of the Real, and tomorrow in paradise He wants to take hungry guests to a banquet. When the generous take someone to a banquet, they like the guests to be hungry so that the feast will be sweeter in their hearts. The Lord of the Worlds created paradise and everything within it for the faithful. None of it is of any use to Him, nor does He have any need for it.” A pir of the Sufis sent out an invitation, but no one came. The pir lifted up his hands and said, “Lord God, if you send your servants into the fire tomorrow, paradise and perfect bliss will be like my table!” The value of a table is for people to sit there and eat. Indeed, the Lord of the Worlds created all the treasuries of blessing for the faithful and the eaters, but He Himself does not eat. This is why He says, “Fasting belongs to Me, and with it I recompense.” One of them said, “In other words, 'Self-sufficiency belongs to Me. I do not eat or drink. I reward those who fast without reckoning, for they sought conformity with Me by not eating. They sought friendship with Me, for the first station in friendship is conformity.'” Know then that when you gain conformity with the angels by saying “Amen” at the end of the Surah of Praise, your past and future sins are forgiven-as has come in the report. Hence by means of your conformity with God in not eating-even though your not eating is by self-exertion and temporary, and God's not eating is a beginningless attribute-you should know what eminence and nobility accrue to your heart and religion! It has been said that by saying “Fasting is Mine,” He ascribed fasting to Himself so that the hands of the plaintiffs would fall short of that. Tomorrow at the resurrection, when those plaintiffs gather around you and take away your acts of worship by calling you to account for your acts of wrongdoing, the Lord of the Worlds will keep your fasting in the treasury of His bounty and say to the plaintiffs, “This belongs to Me-you have no hand in this.
أَيَّامًا مَعْدُودَاتٍ ۚ فَمَنْ كَانَ مِنْكُمْ مَرِيضًا أَوْ عَلَىٰ سَفَرٍ فَعِدَّةٌ مِنْ أَيَّامٍ أُخَرَ ۚ وَعَلَى الَّذِينَ يُطِيقُونَهُ فِدْيَةٌ طَعَامُ مِسْكِينٍ ۖ فَمَنْ تَطَوَّعَ خَيْرًا فَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لَهُ ۚ وَأَنْ تَصُومُوا خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ ۖ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ
📘 For days numbered; and if any of you be sick, or be on a journey, then a number of other days; and for those who are able to do it, a redemption: the feeding of a poor man. For him who volunteers good; that is good for him; but that you should fast is better for you, if you but knew.
شَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ الَّذِي أُنْزِلَ فِيهِ الْقُرْآنُ هُدًى لِلنَّاسِ وَبَيِّنَاتٍ مِنَ الْهُدَىٰ وَالْفُرْقَانِ ۚ فَمَنْ شَهِدَ مِنْكُمُ الشَّهْرَ فَلْيَصُمْهُ ۖ وَمَنْ كَانَ مَرِيضًا أَوْ عَلَىٰ سَفَرٍ فَعِدَّةٌ مِنْ أَيَّامٍ أُخَرَ ۗ يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ بِكُمُ الْيُسْرَ وَلَا يُرِيدُ بِكُمُ الْعُسْرَ وَلِتُكْمِلُوا الْعِدَّةَ وَلِتُكَبِّرُوا اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ مَا هَدَاكُمْ وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ
📘 The month of Ramadan is that wherein the Qur'an was sent down as guidance. In other words, the month of Ramadan has come to you. He is saying, “Now the month of Rama- dan has turned to the friends. It is a month that both washes and burns. It washes the hearts of the sinners with the water of repentance and burns the bodies of the servants with the fire of hunger.” The word Ramaẓān is derived either from ramẓāÌ or ramaẓī. If it is from ramẓāÌ, it means hot stone, which burns whatever is placed upon it. If it is from ramaẓī, it means rain, which washes whatever it meets. MuṣṬafā was asked, “What is Ramadan?” He replied, “In it God burns the sins of the faithful and forgives them for them.” Anas Mālik said that he heard God's Messenger say, “Ramadan has come. In it the gates of the Garden are opened, the gates of the Fire are shut, and the satans are fettered. If someone reaches Ramadan and is not forgiven, then when?” He also said, “Were God to give the heavens and earth permission to speak, they would give those who fast during Ramadan the good news of the Garden.” Poor man, you do not know the worth of this blessing. You are caressed everywhere in the world, and eminence has been put down next to you, but you are unaware. The submission, which is higher and better than all the creeds, is your religion. The Qur'an, which is more exalted than all the books, is your book. MuṣṬafā, who is the master of Adam's children, the eyes and lamp of the em- pire, the leader of the world's folk at the resurrection, is your messenger. The Kaabah, which is the most eminent of spots, is your kiblah. The month of Ramadan, which is more excellent and eminent than all other months, is your month and the season of your practice. It is a month in which all acts of disobedience are forgiven, the satans subjugated, paradise embellished and its doors open, and the doors of hell shut. In it the bazaar of the workers of corruption is broken, the deeds of the obedient are joined with self-purification, and past sins and recorded defilements are burned. The Commander of the Faithful ʿAlī said, “Had God wanted to chastise MuḤammad's com- munity, He would not have given them the month of Ramadan, nor the surah, 'Say: He is God, One' [112].
وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ ۖ أُجِيبُ دَعْوَةَ الدَّاعِ إِذَا دَعَانِ ۖ فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُوا لِي وَلْيُؤْمِنُوا بِي لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْشُدُونَ
📘 And when My servants ask thee about Me, surely I am near. I respond to the supplication of the supplicator when he supplicates Me. So let them respond to Me and have faith in Me. Perhaps they will be led aright. He is saying, “When My servants ask you about Me, those are the servants who hang on to the ring of veneration for Me. They have fled to My street, put aside everything less than Me, undertaken to serve Me, believed in Me, and cut themselves off from secondary causes. They have wrapped the turban of trial around their heads and bought Our love with spirit and heart. They came into existence with passion, and they are leaving with passion.” With passion my steed set out from nonexistence, my night always bright with union's wine. Of that wine not forbidden by my religion my lips will not stay dry till I'm back in nonexistence. “When servants like this and friends like this ask you about Me and seek My mark from you, know that I am near to them. Uncalled and unsought, I am near. Unhoped for and unperceived, I am near. With My firstness, with My attributes, I am self-standing and near. Not by the worthiness of the servant-I am near by My own description.” This is the same that He said to His speaking companion Moses, on that pitch black night on the edge of the Mount when he was called from the right bank of the watercourse [28:30]. Mo- ses was called from the right bank of the blessed watercourse: “O great Moses!,” for after Adam, no one heard the speech of the Real with the ears of his head except Moses. He was called, “O Moses!” Moses became unsettled, he could not bear it, and his patience fled. How can patience overcome love? Love will always snatch away the hand of patience. In his burning, distraction, and inability to bear, he said to the caller, “You have made me hear You. Where should I seek You?” The call came, “O Moses, seek as you like, for I am with you. I am nearer to you than the spirit is to your body, your life-vein is to you, your speaking is to your mouth. The speech is My speech, the light is My light, and I am the Lord of the Worlds.
أُحِلَّ لَكُمْ لَيْلَةَ الصِّيَامِ الرَّفَثُ إِلَىٰ نِسَائِكُمْ ۚ هُنَّ لِبَاسٌ لَكُمْ وَأَنْتُمْ لِبَاسٌ لَهُنَّ ۗ عَلِمَ اللَّهُ أَنَّكُمْ كُنْتُمْ تَخْتَانُونَ أَنْفُسَكُمْ فَتَابَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَعَفَا عَنْكُمْ ۖ فَالْآنَ بَاشِرُوهُنَّ وَابْتَغُوا مَا كَتَبَ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ ۚ وَكُلُوا وَاشْرَبُوا حَتَّىٰ يَتَبَيَّنَ لَكُمُ الْخَيْطُ الْأَبْيَضُ مِنَ الْخَيْطِ الْأَسْوَدِ مِنَ الْفَجْرِ ۖ ثُمَّ أَتِمُّوا الصِّيَامَ إِلَى اللَّيْلِ ۚ وَلَا تُبَاشِرُوهُنَّ وَأَنْتُمْ عَاكِفُونَ فِي الْمَسَاجِدِ ۗ تِلْكَ حُدُودُ اللَّهِ فَلَا تَقْرَبُوهَا ۗ كَذَٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ اللَّهُ آيَاتِهِ لِلنَّاسِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَّقُونَ
📘 It is permitted to you, that is, it is allowed for you, upon the night of the Fast, that is, at those moments of forgetfulness which intervene in the abstention mentioned during the time of your presence, to go in to your wives, to condescend to the temptations of your souls on account of the shares due to them, since you will not endure staying away from these given that these [temptations] constantly garb you and that you constantly dress yourselves with them, necessarily by virtue of [your souls] being attached [to you]; God knows that you have been betraying yourselves, by stealing [moments for those] shares during various times of such wayfaring, spiritual discipline or presence [that you may be involved in]; and so He has turned to you [relenting], and He has pardoned you. So now, that is, during the time of uprightness and stability in the state of subsistence after annihilation: lie with them, during those moments of forgetfulness, and seek what God has prescribed for you, of fearing God and having power over those shares by allowing for what is due in the way of uprightness and the fulfilment of what God has commanded of servanthood (ʿubūdiyya) and the calling [of others] to Him; and eat and drink, that is, be in the company [ḍ] of these [things], until the white thread is distinct to you from the black thread at daybreak, [that is] until there manifest upon you the glimpses and flashes of the Presence, [until] Its effects and lights prevail against the blackness and darkness of forgetfulness; [then complete the fast to the night; and do not lie with them, while you cleave to the mosques in devotion [to God]: then adhere to the mentioned abstention through [your] presence with the Truth until the time of forgetfulness comes [again]: for were it not for this [return of forgetfulness] a person would not be able to pursue [his] best interests for what concerns livelihood and [the fulfilment of] his duties.[Those are God's bounds; do not approach them]: and do not approach them in your state of spiritual retreat, during your stay and presence in the mosques of your heart, lest your [spiritual] moment be disturbed by the manifestation of these [temptations].[So, God makes clear His signs to people so that they might fear.]
وَلَا تَأْكُلُوا أَمْوَالَكُمْ بَيْنَكُمْ بِالْبَاطِلِ وَتُدْلُوا بِهَا إِلَى الْحُكَّامِ لِتَأْكُلُوا فَرِيقًا مِنْ أَمْوَالِ النَّاسِ بِالْإِثْمِ وَأَنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ
📘 And do not consume your goods, your gnoses and the knowledge that you have acquired, among yourselves in deception, [that is] through the vain passions and pleasures of the soul by the actualisation of the objects of its desires and the acquisition of its sensory and imaginal goals in the use of these [goods]; and proffer them, so that they are sent to [to the judges] to the arbiters of the evil-commanding souls, that you may consume a portion of the goods [of other people], of the spiritual faculties, in sin, that is, out of injustice as you expend these [goods] in [pursuit of] the delights of the ego-centric faculties, while you are aware, that this is a sin and a misuse of a thing.
۞ يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْأَهِلَّةِ ۖ قُلْ هِيَ مَوَاقِيتُ لِلنَّاسِ وَالْحَجِّ ۗ وَلَيْسَ الْبِرُّ بِأَنْ تَأْتُوا الْبُيُوتَ مِنْ ظُهُورِهَا وَلَٰكِنَّ الْبِرَّ مَنِ اتَّقَىٰ ۗ وَأْتُوا الْبُيُوتَ مِنْ أَبْوَابِهَا ۚ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
📘 They ask thee about the new moons. The waxing and waning of the moon and its increase and decrease are allusions to the contraction and expansion of the recognizers and the awe and intimacy of the lovers. The contraction and expansion of the elect are like the fear and hope of the common people. Contraction and expan- sion are higher than fear and hope, and so also awe and intimacy are higher than contraction and expansion. Fear and hope belong to the common people, contraction and expansion to the elect, and awe and intimacy to the elect of the elect. First is the station of the wrongdoers, next the station of the moderate, and third the station of the preceders.14 The furthest limit of all is the intimacy of the lovers. In the state of intimacy, a man reaches a point where, if he enters fire, he is unaware of it and its heat leaves no trace in the repose of his intimacy. Thus Abū Ḥafṣ Ḥaddād was a blacksmith. He had lit up an exceedingly hot fire and placed iron within it, as is the custom of blacksmiths. Someone was passing by and reciting a verse of the Qur'an. The shaykh became happy at that verse and the state of intimacy overcame him. He put his hand into the furnace and pulled out the hot iron. He held it until his apprentice looked at him and said, “O Shaykh! How is that you are holding the hot iron in your hand?!” The shaykh put it aside, and then he left his profession. He said, “I have left this profes- sion many times and then come back to it. This time, the profession left me.”
أَوْ كَصَيِّبٍ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ فِيهِ ظُلُمَاتٌ وَرَعْدٌ وَبَرْقٌ يَجْعَلُونَ أَصَابِعَهُمْ فِي آذَانِهِمْ مِنَ الصَّوَاعِقِ حَذَرَ الْمَوْتِ ۚ وَاللَّهُ مُحِيطٌ بِالْكَافِرِينَ
📘 Or as a cloudburst out of the heaven in which is darkness, and thunder, and lightning -The meaning of they put their fingers in their ears against the thunderclaps, cautious of death: they are distracted from understanding by diversions and play and from listening to the verses that mention the threat [of chastisement], lest this succeeds [in admonishing them] by severing them from the pleasures of the natural world and [preoccupying them] with the burdensome thoughts about the Hereafter. For to desist from the pleasures of the senses is for them to die. But God is all-powerful against them and will cut them off from those pleasures to which they have become accustomed by means of natural death, the power of One who encompasses a thing so that nothing of it can escape Him [and God encompasses the disbelievers].Yet their caution is of no avail [to them].
وَقَاتِلُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ الَّذِينَ يُقَاتِلُونَكُمْ وَلَا تَعْتَدُوا ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ الْمُعْتَدِينَ
📘 And fight in the path of God those who fight against you, but do not transgress. God loves not the transgressors. In the language of the recognizers and the path of the chevaliers, this killing and fighting is another way station of the travelers and another state of the lovers. However, as long as you have not been killed by the sword of struggle in the path of the Shariah and you have not been burned by the fire of love, you will not be allowed to enter by this gate. Take care not to believe that fire is simply the lamp that you know and nothing more; or that killing is simply the state that you know. Those killed by the Real are one thing, those killed by the throat something else. Being burned by the fire of punishment is one thing, being burned by the fire of love something else. Thus that great pir said, “How should I have known that this is the smoke of the burning brand's fire? I fancied that wherever there is fire there is a lamp. How should I have known that in friendship the sin belongs to the killed and the judge gives refuge to the adversary!? How should I have known that the bewilderment of union with You is the path, and he who is drowned in You seeks You all the more?” One day Shiblī went into the desert. He saw forty men, distracted, impassioned, and overcome by this talk. Each of them had gone into the desert, a brick under his head, his life having reached the gullet. The tenderness of affinity appeared in Shiblī's breast and he said, “O God, what do You want from them? You have placed the burden of pain on their hearts, You have struck fire in their haystacks. Will You now kill them all with the sword of jealousy?” His secret core was addressed with the words, “I will kill them. Once I kill them, I will pay them the wergild.” Shiblī said, “What is the wergild?” The address came, “When someone is killed by the sword of My majesty, his wergild is the vision of My beauty.” I will fight against Your passion's army and be killed-someone killed has value. The wergild of the one killed by hand is dinars, the wergild of the one killed by passion is seeing.
وَاقْتُلُوهُمْ حَيْثُ ثَقِفْتُمُوهُمْ وَأَخْرِجُوهُمْ مِنْ حَيْثُ أَخْرَجُوكُمْ ۚ وَالْفِتْنَةُ أَشَدُّ مِنَ الْقَتْلِ ۚ وَلَا تُقَاتِلُوهُمْ عِنْدَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ حَتَّىٰ يُقَاتِلُوكُمْ فِيهِ ۖ فَإِنْ قَاتَلُوكُمْ فَاقْتُلُوهُمْ ۗ كَذَٰلِكَ جَزَاءُ الْكَافِرِينَ
📘 And slay them wherever you come upon them, [wherever] you find them: eliminate the life in them and prevent them from their acts by suppressing their desires which are [the source of] their spirit wherever they may be; and expel them from [where they expelled you]: from the Mecca of the breast when they seize it, as they expelled you from it when they drew you down to the site of the soul and out of the seat of the heart; [seditious temptation is more grievous than slaying]: their seditious trial, that is their worship of its [the soul's] desires and the idols of its [carnal] delights, is more grievous than the suppression of its desires and its total mortification or [it means] that your being tested and tried by their conquest is more grievous for you than being slain which is the obliteration of your animal instincts and the total effacement of your preparedness because of the increased pain [that would ensue] therefrom.But fight them not by the Sacred Mosque, which is the station of the heart, that is, [do not fight them] during the presence of the heart if they accord with your orientation, for they would then be aids to you in your wayfaring, until they should fight you there, and contend with you in pursuit of their demands, dragging away from the heart and the religion of truth towards the station of the soul and their religion, which is the worship of the calf; [then if they fight you, slay them - such, is the requital of disbelievers].
فَإِنِ انْتَهَوْا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
📘 But if they desist, surely God is Forgiving, Merciful.
وَقَاتِلُوهُمْ حَتَّىٰ لَا تَكُونَ فِتْنَةٌ وَيَكُونَ الدِّينُ لِلَّهِ ۖ فَإِنِ انْتَهَوْا فَلَا عُدْوَانَ إِلَّا عَلَى الظَّالِمِينَ
📘 Fight them till there is no sedition, caused by their contention, motives and worship, and the religion is for God, by the orientation of all of these towards the Holy and their falling on the side of the mystery in being oriented towards the Truth, wherein neither Satan nor desire has any share; then if they desist, there shall be no enmity, against them, [save against evildoers], except against the transgressors who overstep their bounds.
الشَّهْرُ الْحَرَامُ بِالشَّهْرِ الْحَرَامِ وَالْحُرُمَاتُ قِصَاصٌ ۚ فَمَنِ اعْتَدَىٰ عَلَيْكُمْ فَاعْتَدُوا عَلَيْهِ بِمِثْلِ مَا اعْتَدَىٰ عَلَيْكُمْ ۚ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَ الْمُتَّقِينَ
📘 The sacred month for the sacred month, in other words, the time during which these [the faculties of the evil-commanding soul] prevent you from [fulfilling] your goals and [the obligations of] your religion is the very time during which you should prevent them from their recalcitrance until they are content to adhere to their bounds; their sacred month is the time for them to fulfil what is due from them; your sacred month is the time for the presence and self-examination;[holy things demand retaliation; whoever commits aggression against you, then commit aggression against him in the manner that he committed against you; and fear God, and know that God is with the God-fearing.]
وَأَنْفِقُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَلَا تُلْقُوا بِأَيْدِيكُمْ إِلَى التَّهْلُكَةِ ۛ وَأَحْسِنُوا ۛ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ الْمُحْسِنِينَ
📘 Expend in the path of God.... And do what is beautiful. Surely God loves the beautiful-doers. The rich remove money from their wallets, the poor remove the rich from their hearts, and the tawḤīd-voicers remove all creatures from their secret cores-to this He alludes with His words, “Say 'God,' then leave them” [6:91]. The rich let wealth go from their wallets for the sake of the reward of that world, the poor let the rich go from their hearts for the sake of the Lord's religion, and the recognizers let the creatures go for the sake of seeing the Glorified. The rich spend their possessions in alms tax and charity in order to escape from hell, the worshipers spend their souls in the duties of worship to reach paradise, and the recognizers spend their spirits and hearts in the realities of witnessing to reach union with the Real. And do what is beautiful. Surely God loves the beautiful-doers. MuṣṬafā said, “Beautiful doing is that you worship God as if you see Him, for if you do not see Him, surely He sees you.” Doing the beautiful is that you worship God in wakefulness and awareness as if you are gazing upon Him, and you serve Him as if you are seeing Him. This hadith alludes to the heart's encounter with the Real, the secret core's convergence with the Unseen, and the spirit's contemplation of the Patron. It is an incitement to self-purification in deeds, curtailment of wishes, and loyalty to what was accepted on the First Day. What was accepted on the First Day? Hearing Am I not your Lord and saying Yes indeed [7:172]. What is loyalty to what was accepted? Serving the Protector. How does one curtail wishes? In “As if you see Him.” Where is self-purification in deeds? In “He sees you.” When an eye has seen Him, how can it busy itself with glancing at others? When a spirit has found companionship with Him, how will it make do with water and dust? The word “Return!” [89:28] is addressed to the pure spirit. How will it make its home in the frame of water and dust? When someone has become accustomed to that Presence, how long will he put up with the abase- ment of the veil? How will the ruler of his own city spend his life in exile? The attribute of the spirit is subsistence. Water and dust undergo annihilation. He who lives in the Real is not like him who lives in this world. The realizer is aware of the secret of the Real: the Real is seeable. “As if you see Him” in the report bears witness to this.
وَأَتِمُّوا الْحَجَّ وَالْعُمْرَةَ لِلَّهِ ۚ فَإِنْ أُحْصِرْتُمْ فَمَا اسْتَيْسَرَ مِنَ الْهَدْيِ ۖ وَلَا تَحْلِقُوا رُءُوسَكُمْ حَتَّىٰ يَبْلُغَ الْهَدْيُ مَحِلَّهُ ۚ فَمَنْ كَانَ مِنْكُمْ مَرِيضًا أَوْ بِهِ أَذًى مِنْ رَأْسِهِ فَفِدْيَةٌ مِنْ صِيَامٍ أَوْ صَدَقَةٍ أَوْ نُسُكٍ ۚ فَإِذَا أَمِنْتُمْ فَمَنْ تَمَتَّعَ بِالْعُمْرَةِ إِلَى الْحَجِّ فَمَا اسْتَيْسَرَ مِنَ الْهَدْيِ ۚ فَمَنْ لَمْ يَجِدْ فَصِيَامُ ثَلَاثَةِ أَيَّامٍ فِي الْحَجِّ وَسَبْعَةٍ إِذَا رَجَعْتُمْ ۗ تِلْكَ عَشَرَةٌ كَامِلَةٌ ۗ ذَٰلِكَ لِمَنْ لَمْ يَكُنْ أَهْلُهُ حَاضِرِي الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ ۚ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ شَدِيدُ الْعِقَابِ
📘 And complete the hajj and the umrah for God. It is narrated from Wahab ibn Munabbih that God sent a revelation to Adam: “O Adam, I am the Lord of the world and the world's folk, the creator of all, the king doing what I desire. I am the Lord of Bakka, and those who dwell there are My neighbors. Those who visit are My delegates, My guests, and under My protection. I will populate this spot with the folk of heaven and earth. They will come in droves from every direction and every region, their hair disheveled and their faces covered with dust from the suffering of the road, saying 'God is greater' and reciting 'Here I am,' their faces turned toward the blessed desert, the earth colored with the blood of sacrifice. “O Adam! When someone visits this house and is self-purifying in that, he is My guest and one of Mine, one of those near to Me. It is worthy of My majesty to honor him and to bring him to forgiveness through the gift of mercy and bestowal. O Adam! Among your children is a prophet by the name of Abraham, My bosom friend, chosen by Me. With his hand I will establish it, and I will command him to build it. I will make its eminence appear, bring to light its watering place, mark its sanctuary, and teach him how to worship Me there. After him I will have the world's folk keep it inhabited and place respect and reverence for it in their hearts. Then will come the turn of MuḤammad the Arab, the Seal of the Prophets, the lamp of heaven and earth. I will make it his birth place and origin, the place where revelation falls upon him, and the domicile of his honor. I will put its watering place, deputyship, and rulership in his hand. Then I will put love for it in the hearts of the faithful from the corners of the earth. They will come, bareheaded and barefoot, their goods and means put aside, their lives placed in their hands, their hair disheveled, their faces covered with dust. They will all go and circumambulate that house, asking Me for forgiveness. O Adam! If someone asks you what I will do with them, say that I am with them in knowledge, I am found by their souls and present in their hearts, and I am the cure of their pain. I am concealed from their eyes, but I am face-to-face with their spirits.” So apparent are You to my heart, so hidden are You from my eyes! And complete the hajj and the umrah for God. The hajj of the common people is one thing, the hajj of the elect something else. The hajj of the common people sets out for the street of the Friend, the hajj of the elect sets out for the face of the Friend. That is going to the Friend's house, this is going to the Friend. I was in pain-not for the Kaabah but for Your face. I was drunk-not from wine but from Your fragrance. The common people went with their souls and saw doors and walls. The elect went with their spir- its and found conversation and vision. The elect travel this path just as that chevalier said: “The blood of the sincerely truthful was purified and made into a road- unless the spirit takes a step in this road, you will have no access.” He who goes with the soul finds suffering and carries burdens in order to circle the Kaabah. He who goes with the spirit finds rest and ease, and the Kaabah itself circles around his house. In this meaning there is the story of Ibrāhīm Khawāṣṣ. He said that once in his deprivation he found him- self wandering in Byzantium, just as the Men fall anywhere, bewildered and perplexed, helpless and having lost the thread. Perplexed in You the Men of the world have not been able to find the end of Your thread. The news in Byzantium was that the king's daughter had become mad, and her father had bound her with the bonds of madmen. The physicians were all helpless to cure her. From time to time she would breathe a cold breath and rain down hot tears, sometimes weeping, sometimes laughing. It occurred to him that something could be done. He went to the door of the king's house and said, “I have come to cure the sick person.” When the king's eyes fell on him, he said, “It seems you have come to cure my daughter. I suppose you are a physician.” He said, “Yes, I have a Lord who is a physician.
الْحَجُّ أَشْهُرٌ مَعْلُومَاتٌ ۚ فَمَنْ فَرَضَ فِيهِنَّ الْحَجَّ فَلَا رَفَثَ وَلَا فُسُوقَ وَلَا جِدَالَ فِي الْحَجِّ ۗ وَمَا تَفْعَلُوا مِنْ خَيْرٍ يَعْلَمْهُ اللَّهُ ۗ وَتَزَوَّدُوا فَإِنَّ خَيْرَ الزَّادِ التَّقْوَىٰ ۚ وَاتَّقُونِ يَا أُولِي الْأَلْبَابِ
📘 The Pilgrimage is in months well-known, in other words, the time for the Pilgrimage is a series of defined periods, namely, from the attainment of physical maturity to the age of forty, as He said in the description of the cow, [that it was] neither old nor virgin, [but] middling between that [Q. 2:68]; whoever undertakes the duty of Pilgrimage during them, upon himself with resolve and commits himself, then no lewdness, that is, [no] lewd act by the manifestation of the appetitive faculty, nor wickedness, no revilement [of others], meaning, the dissent of the irascible faculty against obedience to the heart, or disputing, that is, violating the rational faculty by means of a devilish act, in the Pilgrimage, that is, when seeking the house of the heart. Whatever good you do, in the way of a meritorious act through these three faculties by the command of the Law and that of the intellect, to the exclusion of any despicable acts, God knows it, and will reward you for it. And take provision, from the meritorious aspects [of these faculties] which necessarily means that you avoid the despicable ones; for the best provision is guard oneself, against such [despicable acts], and fear you Me, in your actions and intentions, O people of pith!, for the main issue for the pith [your innermost heart], that is, the intellect that is pure from any of the blemishes of illusion and the husk of matter, is to fear Me.
لَيْسَ عَلَيْكُمْ جُنَاحٌ أَنْ تَبْتَغُوا فَضْلًا مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ ۚ فَإِذَا أَفَضْتُمْ مِنْ عَرَفَاتٍ فَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ عِنْدَ الْمَشْعَرِ الْحَرَامِ ۖ وَاذْكُرُوهُ كَمَا هَدَاكُمْ وَإِنْ كُنْتُمْ مِنْ قَبْلِهِ لَمِنَ الضَّالِّينَ
📘 You would not be at fault if you should seek bounty from your Lord, that is, do not have any inhibitions, upon your return to mutiplicity, about seeking gentle comforts for your souls and giving them the enjoyment of their shares [of this world] in accordance with the Law and as permitted by the Truth, for [the fulfilment of] their shares thus would reinforce their being in harmony with the heart in its pursuit of its goals and because they would not then be transgressors illumined as they would be by the light of the Truth; but when you press on, that is, when you push your souls forward [from ʿArafāt], from the station of complete gnosis, which is the last of the holy rites of the Pilgrimage and the mother of them all, as the Prophet, peace be upon him, said, " The Pilgrimage is essentially ʿArafa " ; then remember God at the Sacred Waymark, that is, witness God's beauty at the spiritual mystery that is called the Hidden (al-khafiyy), for remembrance at this station is to witness, while the sacred waymark is the locus for sensing the beauty which the other is forbidden from reaching; and remember Him as He has guided you, to remembrance of Him at the [various] levels. For He, exalted be He, has guided [you] first to remembrance by the tongue, which is the remembrance of the soul, then to the remembrance by the heart which is is the remembrance of the acts, [remembrance] from which issue forth the graces and favours of God, then to the remembrance of the innermost heart which is the eyewitnessing of the acts and the unveiling of the sciences of the disclosures of the attributes, then to the remembrance of the spirit which is the witnessing of the lights of the disclosures of the attributes together with the observing of the light of the Essence, then to the remembrance of the Hidden which is the witnessing of the beauty of the Essence together with the subsistence of the duality [ḍ], then to the remembrance of the essence which is the witnessing of the essence through the lifting of the subsistence, though previously, that is, before your arrival and stand at the ʿArafāt of gnosis, you were misguided, [away] from these remembrances.
ثُمَّ أَفِيضُوا مِنْ حَيْثُ أَفَاضَ النَّاسُ وَاسْتَغْفِرُوا اللَّهَ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
📘 Then press on from where the people press on, then press on towards the outer forms of devotion and obedience, and all of the duties ordained by the obligations and transactions of the Law, 'from where' meaning from the station from which all people press on [to engage in these devotions] and be like any one of them. Al-Junayd [of Baghdad], God's mercy be upon him, was once asked, �What is the endḍ�. He said, �The return to the beginning�; and seek God's forgiveness, against the soul's manifesting itself and becoming weary of its state and its tyrrany. The Prophet said, �Verily my heart is overcome [by the temptations of the soul] and I so seek God's forgiveness seventy times a day�. And he said, �O God, establish me firmly upon your religion� and he was asked about [why he would say] this, to which he replied, �What [else] would give me security given that the likeness of the heart is as a feather in an open expanse which the winds turn about as they wish�. And when his feet became swollen [from the exertions of prayers], ʿĀÌisha, may God be pleased with her, said to him, �Has not God already forgiven your sins past and futureḍ�, to which he said, �Should I not then be a grateful servantḍ� The Commander of the Believers [ʿAlī], �I seek refuge with God from misguidance after guidance�.
ذَٰلِكَ الْكِتَابُ لَا رَيْبَ ۛ فِيهِ ۛ هُدًى لِلْمُتَّقِينَ
📘 This is the writing in which there is no doubt, a guidance for the godwary. It has been said that This is the writing is an allusion to what God has written against Himself for MuḤammad's community: “Surely My mercy takes precedence over My wrath.” God does that in His words, “Your Lord has written mercy against Himself” [6:54]. It has also been said that it is an allusion to the faith and recognition that God has written upon the hearts of the believers. Thus He says, “He wrote faith in their hearts” [58:22]. In this verse, it is as if God is saying, “My servant, I have written the imprint of faith in your heart, I have mixed in the perfume of friendship, I have decorated paradise for you, I have adorned your heart with the light of recognition, I have lit up the candle of union with Me, I have stamped the seal of love on your heart, and I have written the inscription of passion in your awareness.” “He wrote faith in their hearts: I wrote in the Tablet, but I wrote only your description. I wrote in your hearts, but I wrote only My description. I wrote your description in the Tablet, and I showed it to Gabriel. I wrote My description in your heart-how could I have shown it to an enemy? In the Tablet I wrote your loyalty and disloyalty; in your heart I wrote laudation and rec- ognition. What I wrote about you has not changed. How could what I wrote about Myself change? Moses carved out a stone from the mountain, and, when I wrote the Torah therein, the stone turned into emerald. The recognizer's heart was made of harsh stone-when I wrote My name therein, it turned into a notebook of exaltedness.” A guidance for the godwary. In another place, He said, “It is a guidance and a healing for those who have faith” [41:44]. He is saying that this Qur'an is guidance for the godwary, heal- ing for the faithful, the cause of familiarity, assistance for clarity, a key for the ears, a mirror for the eyes, a lamp for hearts, a healing for pain, a light for the eyes of the familiar, springtime for the spirits of the friends, admonition for the fearful, mercy for the faithful. It is a Qur'an whose eternity's rising place is the brilliance of the Divinity, a book whose coming down was made easy by the Lordhood, a writing whose guardian and protector is the exaltedness of Unity by virtue of jealousy. It is found in the house of the decree and guarded inside the curtain of the Real's guard- ing. God says, “Surely it is We who have sent down the Remembrance, and surely it is We who are its guards” [15:9]. Since you know that the Qur'an is guidance for the godwary, you should establish the lineage of godwariness so that it may take you inside the curtain of its protection. God says, “Surely the noblest of you with God is the most godwary” [49:13]. Tomorrow at the resurrection, every lineage will be broken except the lineage of godwariness. Everyone sheltered by godwariness today will be the neighbor of the Patron tomorrow. Thus it has been reported, “The people will be mustered on the Day of Resurrection. Then God will say to them, 'It is a long time that you have been speak- ing and I have been silent. Today you be silent and I will speak. Surely I took away your lineages but you refused all but your own lineages. I said, 'Surely the most noble of you with God is the most godwary,' but you refused and said, 'So-and-so, son of so-and-so.' So I took away your lineages and put in place My lineage. Today I will take away My lineage and put in place your lineages. The Folk of the Gathering will come to know who are the possessors of nobility and where are the godwary.” ʿUmar KhaṬṬāb said to Kaʿb al-AḤbār, “Speak to me about godwariness.” He said, “O ʿUmar, have you ever passed through a field of thorns?” He said that he had. He said, “What did you do? How did you go into that field of thorns?” ʿUmar said, “I set forth briskly, I kept my clothing close to me, and I avoided the thorns.” He said, “ʿUmar, that is godwariness.” Concerning it a poet said, Let go of sins, the great and the small, for that is godwariness. Be like a walker in a thorn bed, cautious with what he sees. Do not look down on the small-a mountain is made of pebbles. Then He begins with the attribute and adornment of the godwary. He says,
يَكَادُ الْبَرْقُ يَخْطَفُ أَبْصَارَهُمْ ۖ كُلَّمَا أَضَاءَ لَهُمْ مَشَوْا فِيهِ وَإِذَا أَظْلَمَ عَلَيْهِمْ قَامُوا ۚ وَلَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ لَذَهَبَ بِسَمْعِهِمْ وَأَبْصَارِهِمْ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
📘 The lightning, namely, the luminous flash, well-nigh snatches away their sight, that is, their intellects veiled as they are by slumber from the light of guidance and unveiling, for the intellect is the eye of the heart; whensoever it gives them light, they walk in it, that is, they rise [in status] and come closer to accepting the truth and guidance; and when the darkness is over them, they stop, that is, they remain fixed in their [state of] bewilderment in that darkness of theirs; had God willed, He would have taken away their hearing and their sight, He would have obliterated their understanding and intellect and effaced the light of their preparedness as in the case of the former group, and so they are not even affected upon hearing the revelation in the first place. Truly, God has power over all things, [be it] an externally existent thing, necessary or contingent, as well as a mentally existent thing, contingent or impossible. For a non-thing is purely a non-existent, neither in the mind nor externally [sc. in the created universe]; but His power specifically relates to that which is contingent and not to what is necessary or what is impossible, this [is clear] by rational proof. This concludes the discussion of the seven categories in undifferentiated form and a separation between the two groups of wretched ones. The mention of the first group is brief and kept to a minimum because discussion of them is of no use and is fully gleaned from the mention of the second group. Thus the criticism, reviling and censure entailed in the depiction of their status, as well as their being threatened and promised punishment and the condemnation of their conduct and their habits is on account of the possibility of their accepting guidance and the disappearance of the sickness that afflicts them and the kindling of the light of their innate dispositions by the aid of the divine granting of success, that perhaps such rebuke might break the strength of their obstinacy and that such scolding might extirpate the roots of their despicable acts so that their inner aspects might then be purified, their hearts illumined by the light of the will whereafter they follow the path of truth. Perhaps their friendly and gentle attitude towards the believers and their keeping company with them might incline them towards their [the believers'] good nature awakening some love and desire within them by which their hearts then soften to the remembrace of God [cf.
فَإِذَا قَضَيْتُمْ مَنَاسِكَكُمْ فَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ كَذِكْرِكُمْ آبَاءَكُمْ أَوْ أَشَدَّ ذِكْرًا ۗ فَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَقُولُ رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا وَمَا لَهُ فِي الْآخِرَةِ مِنْ خَلَاقٍ
📘 And when you have performed your holy rites, and are finished with the Pilgrimage, remember God as you remember your fathers, or yet more intensely, in other words, do not be like the followers of habit, preoccupied with the remembrance of your lineage and mutual vainglory and all of the worldly states, for all of that sullies your moment and hardens the heart. Rather, occupy yourselves with the various types of invocation and group remembrance with your brothers, just as you used to invoke the states of your lineages and the states of this world before the wayfaring, or as intensely as such people remember these states habitually or more intensely and more profoundly and more frequently than them so that your purity might subsist and people might be guided through you. There are some people who say, 'Our Lord, [give to us in this world]', in other words, they only demand the things of this world and occupy themselves solely with remembrance of them and only worship God for the sake of [securing] these; such people will have no part in the Hereafter, since his orienting of himself towards the lowly prevents him from receiving the nobler because his aspirations never rise to the latter and [because of] the acquisition of the darkness that precludes [the acquisition of] light.
وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَقُولُ رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الْآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ
📘 Among them is he who says, “Our Lord, give us in this world something beautiful, and in the next world something beautiful.” It is said that the beautiful thing of this world wanted by the faithful is knowledge and worship, and the beautiful thing of that world is paradise and vision. That of this world is witnessing the mysteries, and that of that world is seeing with the eyes. This world's is the success of service, and that world's the realization of union. This world's is self-purification through obedience, and that world's deliverance from burning and separation. This world's is the Sunnah and the com- munity, and that world's the encounter and vision. This world's is the firm fixity of faith, and that world's the repose and ease [56:89]. This world's is the sweetness of obedience, and that world's the pleasure of contemplation. For this world's, there must be deeds with obedience, and for that world's there must be pain with recognition. It is a long road from deeds to pain, and he who does not have this eyesight has an excuse. What is obtained from these deeds is houris and palaces, but the possessor of this pain is drowned in light in the ocean of face-to-face vision. O You the guide on whose road is pain! You are solitary and Your familiar solitary! Among them is he who says, “Our Lord…”. There is a subtle point in this verse. When someone wants this world, inevitably he will be held back from the reward of the afterworld, for God says, “He has no share in the next world” [2:102]. MuṣṬafā said, “When someone loves this world of his, that will harm his next world; and when someone loves his next world, that will harm this world of his. So prefer that which subsists to that which undergoes annihilation!” When someone wants both this world and the afterworld, the Exalted Lord does not hold them back from him. He gives him what he wants. The report has come, “God is ashamed when a servant lifts up his hands to Him and He disappoints him.” It is also narrated, “God is ashamed when a person with gray hair who observes propriety and clings to the Sunnah asks Him for something and He does not give it.” There remains another group, who recognize the reality of approval and have surrendered to God's decree and approved of His determination. They do not turn away from lauding Him in order to ask from Him. They do not seek access to this world nor do they ask for the afterworld. Concerning them the Lord of the Worlds says, “When remembering Me busies someone from ask- ing from Me, I bestow upon him the most excellent of what I bestow on the askers.”
أُولَٰئِكَ لَهُمْ نَصِيبٌ مِمَّا كَسَبُوا ۚ وَاللَّهُ سَرِيعُ الْحِسَابِ
📘 Those - they shall have a portion from what they have earned, of the shares of the Hereafter and the lights of the abode of permanence and the pleasures that endure as a result of [their] righteous deeds after the self-reckoning and the removal of some of [their] good deeds by the evil ones and their chastisement commensurate with these [evil deeds] or their being pardoned.
۞ وَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ فِي أَيَّامٍ مَعْدُودَاتٍ ۚ فَمَنْ تَعَجَّلَ فِي يَوْمَيْنِ فَلَا إِثْمَ عَلَيْهِ وَمَنْ تَأَخَّرَ فَلَا إِثْمَ عَلَيْهِ ۚ لِمَنِ اتَّقَىٰ ۗ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّكُمْ إِلَيْهِ تُحْشَرُونَ
📘 And remember God in certain numbered days, but if someone hastens on after two days, no sin shall be upon him. There are three sorts of remembrance: The remembrance of habit, the remembrance of calculation, and the remembrance of companionship. The remembrance of habit has no worth, for it is the se- cret core's heedlessness. The remembrance of calculation has no adornment, for its goal is seeking the wage. The remembrance of companionship is a deposit, for the tongue of him who remembers is a loan in the midst. The remembrance of the fearful is from dread of being cut off, the remembrance of the hopeful is from wishing to find what they seek, and the remembrance of the lovers is from the tenderness of burning. The fearful heard the call of the threat with the ear of fear and clung to supplication. The hopeful heard the call of the promise with the ear of hope and clung to laudation. The lovers heard the call beforehand with the ear of love and did not mix with pretexts. The remembrance of the Beginningless reached the recognizers and they fled from effort to their lot. And remember God in certain numbered days, but if someone hastens on after two days.... This is the attribute of the end of the ritual and the final acts of the hajj. Now let us offer com- prehensive words comprising all the waymarks and rituals along with allusions and subtle points. Know that there are two sanctuaries: the outward sanctuary and the inward sanctuary. The outward sanctuary surrounds the Kaabah, and the inward sanctuary surrounds the heart of the faith- ful. In the midst of the outward sanctuary is the Kaabah, the kiblah of the faithful, and in the midst of the inner sanctuary is a Kaabah that is the target of the All-Merciful's gaze. The former is the goal of the pilgrims, and the latter the locus of lights, so he is upon a light from his Lord [39:22]. The former is free from the hands of evil-doers and unbelievers, and the latter is free from seeing and thinking about others. If some article is found in the outward sanctuary, it is left there so that its owner may appear and find it. If some article is found in the inward sanctuary, there is no way to go after it, for it is nothing but God's secret.
وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يُعْجِبُكَ قَوْلُهُ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَيُشْهِدُ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ مَا فِي قَلْبِهِ وَهُوَ أَلَدُّ الْخِصَامِ
📘 And among people there is he who pleases you, that is, he feigns love, but is most stubborn in dispute, because he stands at the station of the soul as a heretic, which is why He says in his speech in the life of this world, since he has nothing to say through his heart in the Hereafter.
وَإِذَا تَوَلَّىٰ سَعَىٰ فِي الْأَرْضِ لِيُفْسِدَ فِيهَا وَيُهْلِكَ الْحَرْثَ وَالنَّسْلَ ۗ وَاللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ الْفَسَادَ
📘 And when he turns his back, he hastens about the earth [to do corruption there and to destroy the tillage and the stock], because of his disregard of the Law and his heresy, which is the case that you see with most of those who claim love [of God] and affirmation of the Oneness, and God loves not corruption: in other words, he is a worker of corruption but claims to love God. But how would such [love] be forthcoming in his case when the lover only does what his beloved loves and God does not love what he does. Such a person cannot be truthful in his claim, as the poet says:'You disobey the Divine while you outwardly manifest love of Him.That is vile, an act unheard of. For if your love were truthful you would be obedient to Him. Indeed, the lover is to his beloved obedient'.
وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُ اتَّقِ اللَّهَ أَخَذَتْهُ الْعِزَّةُ بِالْإِثْمِ ۚ فَحَسْبُهُ جَهَنَّمُ ۚ وَلَبِئْسَ الْمِهَادُ
📘 And when it is said to him, 'Fear God', he is seized by vainglory in his sin, in other words, egocentric zealotry, the zealotry of pagandom [cf. Q. 48:26] has driven him to sin in obstinacy and insolence because of his soul's becoming manifest at that point and his claim that he is better informed about his actions than the one counselling him; so Gehenna shall be enough for him, that is, his ultimate goal is the very depth of his lowly level, in which he is, and its darkness, for Gehenna means a darkened abyss of unfathomable depth.
وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَشْرِي نَفْسَهُ ابْتِغَاءَ مَرْضَاتِ اللَّهِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ رَءُوفٌ بِالْعِبَادِ
📘 [But there are other men who] sell themselves, desiring God's pleasure, who expend themselves in wayfaring upon the path of God seeking His satisfaction.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا ادْخُلُوا فِي السِّلْمِ كَافَّةً وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا خُطُوَاتِ الشَّيْطَانِ ۚ إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ مُبِينٌ
📘 [O you who believe] come into submission [all of you], meaning, into surrender and the submission of your countenances to God, since the mutual enmity between the faculties and their discord in failing to submit to God's command is proof that you are following [the steps of] Satan, who wishes for you to merit God's subjugation by committing reprehensible acts of excess, because of his instinctive enmity towards you on account of his innate disposition being different from yours and [on account of] his lacking the light of your primordial nature, given that he was created from fire and seeks only that you be fiery like him and not luminous. He is thus an enemy in the form of a lover.
فَإِنْ زَلَلْتُمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَتْكُمُ الْبَيِّنَاتُ فَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌ
📘 But if you slip, from the station of submission to God's command, after the clear proofs, the proofs of the disclosures of the acts and the attributes, have come to you, know then that God is Mighty, Victorious and will vanquish you, Wise, vanquishing only as required by wisdom and wisdom requires the vanquishing of the contending opponent so that the assenting obedient one takes heed and becomes more obedient.
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اعْبُدُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ وَالَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ
📘 O people [worship your Lord Who created you and those that were before you, so that you may be fearful], having concluded His mention of the fortunate and the damned, He calls them to [declaration of] the Oneness of God. The first stage of [declaring] the Oneness of God, is to declare the unity of [His] acts, which is why servanthood is tied to lordship, that they might feel the intimacy when they see the graces [given to them] and love Him, like when He said: 'I made creatures and sought their love through the graces [that I grant them]'. They then thank Him for these, for worship is gratitude and is only forthcoming in return for graces. He singles out His lordship for them so that they might single out their worship for Him. He seeks to lift the first of the three veils which are the veils of the acts, the attributes and [the veil of His] essence by means of the presentation of the self-disclosure of the acts because creatures in terms of the three [veils] are all, as engendered things, veiled from the truth absolutely. Thus the origin of their configuration (inshāÌ) and the configuration of their existence is dependent upon in terms of principles, causes and conditions, is the same as that of their mothers and fathers before them.
هَلْ يَنْظُرُونَ إِلَّا أَنْ يَأْتِيَهُمُ اللَّهُ فِي ظُلَلٍ مِنَ الْغَمَامِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ وَقُضِيَ الْأَمْرُ ۚ وَإِلَى اللَّهِ تُرْجَعُ الْأُمُورُ
📘 What do they wait for that God shall come to them, disclose Himself, in the shadows, in the attributes of Ipseity from among the entirety of the disclosures of [His] attributes and [in] the forms of the angels of the heavenly powers while He has decreed the command for their destruction in the [Preserved] Tablet; and to God all matters are returned, whereupon every man is confronted with his recompense or his soul departs to Him through annihilation.
كَانَ النَّاسُ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً فَبَعَثَ اللَّهُ النَّبِيِّينَ مُبَشِّرِينَ وَمُنْذِرِينَ وَأَنْزَلَ مَعَهُمُ الْكِتَابَ بِالْحَقِّ لِيَحْكُمَ بَيْنَ النَّاسِ فِيمَا اخْتَلَفُوا فِيهِ ۚ وَمَا اخْتَلَفَ فِيهِ إِلَّا الَّذِينَ أُوتُوهُ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَتْهُمُ الْبَيِّنَاتُ بَغْيًا بَيْنَهُمْ ۖ فَهَدَى اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لِمَا اخْتَلَفُوا فِيهِ مِنَ الْحَقِّ بِإِذْنِهِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ يَهْدِي مَنْ يَشَاءُ إِلَىٰ صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ
📘 The people were one community. Then God sent the prophets as bringers of good news and warning. In terms of allusion and according to the tasting of the chevaliers of the Tariqah, this verse has another intimation and another meaning. The king of the universe, the keeper of the world, the knower of the hidden, is saying that when He first created creatures, He created them in the curtain- ing wrap of createdness. When He made them with such a makeup at the beginning, the darknesses of the attributes of createdness surrounded this created nature. They were all one group in the curtain of obscurity. All were gathered in the darkness of absence, all remained in the captivity of their own makeup. It was just like that chevalier said: “The creatures are at ease in the ruins of their own makeup- wink just once to throw the creatures into turmoil!” [DS 696] Then a courier came from the infinite world to their tininess. MuṣṬafā gave this report about that courier: “God created the creatures in darkness. Then He cast upon them something of His light. Whomsoever the light struck was guided, and whomsoever it missed went astray.” When this messenger turned its face from that infinity to their tininess, they all became aware, captive to desire, subjugated by will, wounded by wisdom, their ears fixed on their own fortune and lot: “What is coming to us? What will be decreed for us?” Then the hand of predetermination divided them into two groups: the lucky and the unlucky. He said about the lucky, “These belong to the Garden, and I do not care.” He said about the unlucky, “These belong to the Fire, and I do not care.” In other words, “I have no fear of being blamed. I will do whatever occurs to Me and have no regrets. Some are the folk of felicity without any conformity with Me, and some are the folk of wretchedness without any opposition to Me. 'These belong to the Garden, and I do not care' about their disloyalty, and 'These belong to the Fire, and I do not care' about their loyalty. I receive no profit from loyalty, nor do I lose anything from disloyalty. When someone gains faith, he is the one who profits; I stay exactly as I was, with- out equal or need.
أَمْ حَسِبْتُمْ أَنْ تَدْخُلُوا الْجَنَّةَ وَلَمَّا يَأْتِكُمْ مَثَلُ الَّذِينَ خَلَوْا مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ ۖ مَسَّتْهُمُ الْبَأْسَاءُ وَالضَّرَّاءُ وَزُلْزِلُوا حَتَّىٰ يَقُولَ الرَّسُولُ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَعَهُ مَتَىٰ نَصْرُ اللَّهِ ۗ أَلَا إِنَّ نَصْرَ اللَّهِ قَرِيبٌ
📘 Or do you reckon that you will enter the Garden? This is as they say: You can't speak the words of the good so easily- it is not so easy, easy, to speak their words. “When someone is too timid to engage with fearful things, he will not reach his hopes.” Are you not aware that joining is found in breaking off, life in death, and desires in not reaching your desires? The moth reaches union with the candle when it burns, and the candle finds life when it loses its head. Religion's pain is indeed marvelous, for when you suffer it, you will be like a candle-better once your head's cut off. [DS 485] The high Firdaws is a sweet garden and meadow, but the road there is difficult, a rosebed full of thorns. MuṣṬafā said, “The Garden is surrounded by disliked things,” lest the nobodies and the unqualified claim familiarity. Are they equal, those who know and those who know not? [39:9]. A simile for this rule is the ocean: It was made the resting place for precious pearls and night- brightening gems, and then sharks and huge fish were made the veil of those pearls and gems. Two men set out, pulled into the field of seeking by love for gems. They go to the ocean's shore and see its difficulties, and dread appears in them because of the danger of those sharks. Of the two men who see the terrors and difficult states, one is afraid and he steps back from seeking and declares himself quit of his own words. He had a wish, but his attribute of manliness was not complete. He fancied that this work could be finished merely by wishing and that he could reach the treasure without suffering. The exalted Shariah gives the answer: “The religion is not reached with wishfulness and self-adornment.” With Me you must have a hidden mystery, with Me you must always have need. In truth, black crow, you're a fine bird! You want to mate with a white falcon. The other man is the possessor of desire. Passion for the beauty of that night-brightening pearl cleanses his intellect of the ocean's terrors, so he does not give those meanings access to himself. Hour by hour and moment by moment that beauty discloses itself to him, so he becomes more en- tranced and more passionate. He goes head first into the ocean. If felicity assists him and success- giving becomes his friend, that night-brightening pearl will fall into the grasp of his seeking. If the opposite happens, the sharks will take his life as booty and his name will be written in the register of “I don't care.” The tongue of his state will say, “Each month two thousand of the passionate like me are killed, and not one lets out a sigh.”
يَسْأَلُونَكَ مَاذَا يُنْفِقُونَ ۖ قُلْ مَا أَنْفَقْتُمْ مِنْ خَيْرٍ فَلِلْوَالِدَيْنِ وَالْأَقْرَبِينَ وَالْيَتَامَىٰ وَالْمَسَاكِينِ وَابْنِ السَّبِيلِ ۗ وَمَا تَفْعَلُوا مِنْ خَيْرٍ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ بِهِ عَلِيمٌ
📘 They ask thee what they should expend. Say: “Whatever good you expend should be for parents and kinsmen, orphans, the indigent, and the son of the road.” And whatever good you do, God knows it. Throwing away money in the path of the Shariah is beautiful, but it is not like throwing away the spirit in the field of the Haqiqah and becoming separate from all others at the moment of contem- plation. Keeping to the stipulation of loyalty is beautiful, but not as much as becoming separate from self and stepping onto the carpet of limpidness. Someone asks, “What should we do with our property? How should we spend it?” The Shariah answers, “From 200 dirhams, 5 dirhams; from 20 dinars, one-half dinar.” Someone else asks and the Haqiqah answers, “You will not be with Him along with body and spirit.” Yes, the story of the wage-earners is one thing, the story of the recognizers something else. The wage-earner's recognition reaches recognizing the spirit, but the recognizer's recognition reaches throwing away the spirit. Wealth, gold, things-gamble them away for nothing. When the work reaches your spirit, gamble it away! Those fortunate Companions did not ask how to spend because they had not found their way to poverty, but in hopes that this caress would reach them from the Exalted Presence: “And whatever good you do, God knows it. Whatever you have given and will give, I who am the Lord know it and am aware of it.” This is just like Moses, when he was called during that pitch black night in the desert of the Mount: “O Moses!” In the pleasure of this address Moses was burned by the call. In his burning and yearning he said, “Who is speaking to me?” Moses knew, but he was drowned in the ocean of yearning for the vision of the Real. He was seeking someone to take his hand: “I have burned in this one call. Perhaps He will call out again, and maybe I will light up.” The command came, “O Moses! Do you not know who is calling you?” He said, “I know, but I am waiting for the caller to say, 'Surely I am God, Lord of the worlds' [28:30].” Here I am, My servant, and you're in My embrace, and whatever you have said I know. Ask of Me without shame or dread, and fear not, for surely I am God. Here there are two verses. The verse at the beginning of the section alludes to the worshipers' spending their wealth in order to reach recognition. The verse at the end of the section alludes to the recognizers' spending their own lives for the sake of struggle in order to reach the Recognized. It is His words,
كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْقِتَالُ وَهُوَ كُرْهٌ لَكُمْ ۖ وَعَسَىٰ أَنْ تَكْرَهُوا شَيْئًا وَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ ۖ وَعَسَىٰ أَنْ تُحِبُّوا شَيْئًا وَهُوَ شَرٌّ لَكُمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ وَأَنْتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
📘 Prescribed for you is, to fight against the soul and Satan 'though it be hateful to you', more bitter than the taste of colocynth and more terrible than the bone-crunching bite of a lion. Yet it may happen that you hate a thing which is good for you, because you veil yourselves with the caprice of the soul and the love of quick pleasure from what is within [that struggle] in the way of much good and tremendous spiritual pleasure that scorns that shortlived hardship when compared with that enduring good and timeless everlasting pleasure; the same applies to the opposite [statement] [and it may happen that you love a thing which is bad for you]. And God knows, the good and the evil that affairs entail, and you do not know, these things because of your being veiled by the here and now from what will be and by the manifest from the hidden.
يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الشَّهْرِ الْحَرَامِ قِتَالٍ فِيهِ ۖ قُلْ قِتَالٌ فِيهِ كَبِيرٌ ۖ وَصَدٌّ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَكُفْرٌ بِهِ وَالْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ وَإِخْرَاجُ أَهْلِهِ مِنْهُ أَكْبَرُ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ ۚ وَالْفِتْنَةُ أَكْبَرُ مِنَ الْقَتْلِ ۗ وَلَا يَزَالُونَ يُقَاتِلُونَكُمْ حَتَّىٰ يَرُدُّوكُمْ عَنْ دِينِكُمْ إِنِ اسْتَطَاعُوا ۚ وَمَنْ يَرْتَدِدْ مِنْكُمْ عَنْ دِينِهِ فَيَمُتْ وَهُوَ كَافِرٌ فَأُولَٰئِكَ حَبِطَتْ أَعْمَالُهُمْ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ ۖ وَأُولَٰئِكَ أَصْحَابُ النَّارِ ۖ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ
📘 They ask you about the sacred month, [about] fighting in it: they ask you about the struggle of the soul and its helpers and [about] Satan and his hosts at the moment of orientation and wayfaring to the Truth and the concentration of the hidden aspects, in which any motion of by the inmost consciousness is forbidden. Say: to engage in the spiritual struggle at that [very] moment is a serious and arduous affair; to turn your faces away from the way of God and the station of the mystery and the locus of the presence is to become veiled from the Truth; and to expel the people of the heart, who are the spiritual faculties, from their resting places is more terrible and grave in God's sight; the seditious trial of idolatry and disbelief and the test you have to endure by them is graver than your slaying of them with the swords of spiritual discipline; these egocentric faculties and satanic caprices will not cease to fight against you by driving you away from your religion and your goals and summoning you to the religion of caprice and satanism, until they turn you from your religion if they are able; and whoever of you turns from his religion, by following them - those, their works, which they have done, in terms of their submission and obedience, have failed. Those are the inhabitants of the Fire, of the veil and [its] chastisement, abiding therein.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَالَّذِينَ هَاجَرُوا وَجَاهَدُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أُولَٰئِكَ يَرْجُونَ رَحْمَتَ اللَّهِ ۚ وَاللَّهُ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
📘 Surely those who have faith, those who emigrate, and those who struggle in God's path- it is they who hope for God's mercy, and God is the Forgiving, the Ever-Merciful. After faith, He spoke of emigration. Emigration is of two sorts: one outward, the other inward. Outward emigration has two sides: One side is to emigrate from one's home, homeland, and means and to go forth seeking knowledge. The other side is what comes to be known by seeking. Any traveling that is outside of these two has no weight or worth. The Prophet alluded to this with his words, “People are knowers or learners; the rest of the people are rabble.” You should not say that the seeker of knowledge and the seeker of the Known have one level. The seeker of knowledge is himself traveling, and the seeker of the Known is being pulled by the Real. He who is himself traveling dwells in suffering, distress, and hunger, like Moses in the jour- ney in which he was seeking knowledge: “Bring us our food. We have certainly met with weari- ness on this journey of ours” [18:62]. Another time, when he set off seeking the Known, he was confirmed to such a degree by the Real's protection and pulling that he stayed thirty days waiting for the Real's speech, and he was not aware of being tired or hungry. The master Abū ʿAlī Daqqāq said, “The caressing of the seekers of knowledge reaches a place such that tomorrow, when they rise up from the dust, they will be mounted on the feathers of an- gels, according to the Prophets words, 'Surely the angels will put down their wings for the seeker of knowledge, approving what he is doing.'” Then Abū ʿAlī said, “Since the seekers of knowledge will be mounted on the feathers of angels, how can anyone imagine what the seekers of the Known will be mounted on?” Did we but know that the visit is true, we would make our face an earth so that You might approve. * Beautiful idols walk on forbidden ground. I will make my eyes the ground-come stroll on my eyes! This then was the explanation of outward emigration. Inward emigration is that one goes from the soul to the heart, from the heart to the secret core, from the secret core to the spirit, and from the spirit to the Real.
۞ يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْخَمْرِ وَالْمَيْسِرِ ۖ قُلْ فِيهِمَا إِثْمٌ كَبِيرٌ وَمَنَافِعُ لِلنَّاسِ وَإِثْمُهُمَا أَكْبَرُ مِنْ نَفْعِهِمَا ۗ وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ مَاذَا يُنْفِقُونَ قُلِ الْعَفْوَ ۗ كَذَٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ اللَّهُ لَكُمُ الْآيَاتِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَفَكَّرُونَ
📘 They ask thee about wine and gambling.... And they ask thee what they should expend. God has servants on the earth who drink the wine of recognition and are drunk from the cup of love. There is no more than a whiff of this wine's reality in this world, and nothing but a show of that drunkenness, for this world is a prison, and what can a prison put up with? Today there is no more than that. Nonetheless, wait until tomorrow, the assembly of repose and ease [56:89], the arena of union with the Beloved, when the servants will be gazing on the Real. Hope for union with you has added to my life. What can union itself be, when hope does that!? A man in turmoil entered the shop of a wine merchant with one dirham. He said, “Give me wine for this dirham.” The merchant replied, “There's no wine left.” The man said, “I'm already in turmoil. I can't tolerate wine's reality. Show me a drop so I may smell it-you'll see how drunk I become and what turmoil I'll stir up.” Glory be to God! What is this lightning that has shone from the Beginningless! It has burnt up the two worlds and nothing remains. To someone He gave the wine of bewilderment from the cup of awe, and he became drunk with bewilderment. He said, “I am bewildered in Thee, take my hand, O guide of those bewildered in Thee!” * The work is difficult-how can I make it easy? The pain has no cure-how can I find a remedy? I've become secure from the headache of empty words- what can I do with the stories of the drunkards? To someone else He gave the wine of recognition from the storeroom of hope. At the top of the street of yearning he kept on saying in hope of union, “One day luck will enter the door of my house, one day the sun of elation will rise over me. One day You will glance in my direction, one day this grief of mine will come to an end!” To someone else He gave the wine of union from the cup of love. He showed him the way to the carpet of bold expansiveness and gave him a spot on the leaning place of intimacy.
الَّذِي جَعَلَ لَكُمُ الْأَرْضَ فِرَاشًا وَالسَّمَاءَ بِنَاءً وَأَنْزَلَ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً فَأَخْرَجَ بِهِ مِنَ الثَّمَرَاتِ رِزْقًا لَكُمْ ۖ فَلَا تَجْعَلُوا لِلَّهِ أَنْدَادًا وَأَنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ
📘 He who made for you the earth a carpet and the heaven a building, and who sent down from heaven water by which He brought forth fruits for you as provision. So do not set up peers for God knowingly. The wonders of power and the marvels of wisdom in earth and heaven are evidence of a Lord and Creator and witness to His oneness, knowledge, and ability. He placed those seven green domes upon the wind, one on top of one another, without pillar or joint, as a mark of His power. He placed these seven dust-colored hills on top of the water as a clarification of His wisdom. About the one He says, [“We set in heaven constellations] and We adorned them for the gazers” [15:16] and about the other He says, [“And earth,] We laid it out-what excellent spreaders!” [51:48]. Look then at this likeness: two doves, one black and one white, which have come forth within the space of the blue dome. On the wings of one is Then We effaced the sign of the night [17:12], and on the wings of the other We made the sign of the day, giving sight [17:12]. The black was born of the white, and the white appeared from the black: He rolls up the night in the day, and He rolls up the day in the night [39:5]. He makes the night pass into the day and makes the day pass into the night [22:61]. How pure and faultless is the God who brought forth the brightness of day from the pitch black night and made the darkness of the pitch black night appear from the brightness of day! More wondrous than this is that He placed the brightness of knowing in the center point of the black blood of the heart and the brightness of seeing in the center point of the eye's pupil. Thus will you know that He is the perfectly powerful, the bountiful and bounteous bestower. This bright day is the mark of the compact of good fortune, and this dark night is the likeness of the days of tribulation. He is saying, “O you who have the good fortune of ease in the day's brightness, do not feel secure, for the darkness of tribulation's night is upon its tracks. O you who have been without ease in tribulation's night, do not despair, for the bright day is on its tracks.” Such are the states of the heart: sometimes it is in the night of contraction, sometimes in the day of expansion. In the day of contraction there is awe and confoundedness, and in the day of expansion there is mercy and intimacy. In the state of contraction the servant has nothing but the weeping and the pleading of a wounded heart. In the state of expansion he is all delight and restfulness. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, if I weep for You, weeping is sweet, and if I delight in You, delight is sweet. O God, I am happy because I am weeping at Your threshold in the hope that one day I will delight in the field of Your bounty, that You will receive me and I may turn myself over to You. If You gaze at me once, I will throw the two worlds into the ocean.” The lords of the realities have given this verse another commentary and have seen another intimation. They say that God has placed likenesses in this verse. The earth is the likeness of the body, the heaven the likeness of the intellect, the water that comes down from heaven is the like- ness of the knowledge that is gained by intellect, and the fruits are the likeness of the servant's beautiful deeds done as the requisite of knowledge. He is alluding to the fact that God is the Lord who created you as a person, form, and body, and adorned the body with the beauty of the intellect. Then by means of intellect He bestowed knowledge, cleverness, and learning. From that knowl- edge great fruits grew forth. Those fruits are beautiful deeds, within which are found your soul's nourishment and your goodly life [16:97]. Since the Lord shows such loving kindness and mercy to you, why do you associate others in worship of Him and take partners along with Him? So do not set up peers for God knowingly.
نِسَاؤُكُمْ حَرْثٌ لَكُمْ فَأْتُوا حَرْثَكُمْ أَنَّىٰ شِئْتُمْ ۖ وَقَدِّمُوا لِأَنْفُسِكُمْ ۚ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّكُمْ مُلَاقُوهُ ۗ وَبَشِّرِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
📘 Your women are your tillage, so come to your tillage as you like. The servant has a soul and a heart. The soul is from the low world, and its root is water and dust. The heart is from the high world, that is, the lordly subtlety, and its foundation is pure light. The soul's station is absence, and the heart's station is witnessing. MuṣṬafā alluded to this with his words, “There is no heart that is not between two fingers of God.” God gave the soul, which stays absent, the same living quarters as its similars, and He made this a favor. He said, “Your women are your tillage, so come to your tillage as you like.” In another place He said, “Marry the women who seem goodly to you” [4:3]. In another place He said, “That you may rest in them, and He placed between you love and mercy” [30:21]. Finding one's own shares and inclining toward similars in this manner is the portion of the soul, which remains in the lowland of jealousy. As for the heart, it has the station of contemplation, so it is forbidden to incline toward any others or to come down to any creature. Until it cuts itself off from creation and makes its own secret core pure of other than the Real, it will not come under these words: “He loves those who make themselves pure” [2:222]. The Lord of the Worlds loves those who are pure in this manner. He calls them men when He says, “In it are men who love to make themselves pure, and God loves those who make themselves pure” [9:108]. Know also that in this house of the decree, vile things are of two sorts. One is vileness of entity, which can never become pure by washing. If you put a corpse into the ocean a thousand times, it will never become pure, for the impurity belongs to its own entity. The other is vileness of attribute. At root something is pure, but an impurity has reached it. If you wash it, it becomes pure. This impurity, however, is of two sorts. One is flimsy, so it becomes pure with a single water. The other is heavy, so it must be washed with water and dust to become pure.
لِلَّذِينَ يُؤْلُونَ مِنْ نِسَائِهِمْ تَرَبُّصُ أَرْبَعَةِ أَشْهُرٍ ۖ فَإِنْ فَاءُوا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
📘 For those who forswear their women, a wait of four months. But if they revert, God is forgiving, ever-merciful. In terms of allusion, these verses contain an eloquent admonition and complete advice concern- ing the observation of the rightful dues of the Real: God gives so much weight and gravity to the rightful due of the people that He sends a decisive command concerning it and instills dread into those who put it aside. Hence it is even more appropriate to preserve the rightful due of God and to dread putting it aside. In one of the reports it is mentioned that tomorrow at the resurrection a youth will be brought who had neglected the rightful dues of God. In the attribute of awe and exaltedness the Exalted Lord will address him: “Had you no shame? Had you no fear of My anger and harshness such that you neglected My rightful due and you paid it no reverence and respect? Take him to hell, for he is worthy of fire, and fire is worthy of him.” Ibn ʿAbbās narrated that the Prophet said, “God says, 'I will not look after the rightful due of My servant until the servant looks after My rightful due.'” In the scriptures has come, “I honor those who honor Me and I scorn those who scorn My command.” Look at the vengeance He takes from the servant because of His rightful due, even though His rightful due is built on leniency, and He passes over most of it. As for the rightful dues of created things, in these no leniency is shown, so God's vengeance in them is more. So much is this so that it is said that if someone has the reward of seventy prophets but has one plaintiff whom he has cheated of half a penny, he will not enter paradise until that plaintiff is satisfied with him. So, the rightful dues of the creatures must be preserved, and one must strive mightily to observe them, especially the rightful dues of women and spouses, on whose behalf the Lord of the Worlds acts as deputy in this verse, requesting their husbands to take care of them. MuṣṬafā said, “The best of you is the best of you to his wife, and I am the best of you to my wife.
الطَّلَاقُ مَرَّتَانِ ۖ فَإِمْسَاكٌ بِمَعْرُوفٍ أَوْ تَسْرِيحٌ بِإِحْسَانٍ ۗ وَلَا يَحِلُّ لَكُمْ أَنْ تَأْخُذُوا مِمَّا آتَيْتُمُوهُنَّ شَيْئًا إِلَّا أَنْ يَخَافَا أَلَّا يُقِيمَا حُدُودَ اللَّهِ ۖ فَإِنْ خِفْتُمْ أَلَّا يُقِيمَا حُدُودَ اللَّهِ فَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْهِمَا فِيمَا افْتَدَتْ بِهِ ۗ تِلْكَ حُدُودُ اللَّهِ فَلَا تَعْتَدُوهَا ۚ وَمَنْ يَتَعَدَّ حُدُودَ اللَّهِ فَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الظَّالِمُونَ
📘 Divorce is twice, then retention with honor or setting free with beautiful doing. This is a recommendation to spread out the divorce so that they will not hurry to complete sepa- ration.19 Spreading out the divorce is recommended because the reality of separation is reprehen- sible. Although divorce is permitted in the Shariah, God hates it, for it is the cause of separating and of cutting the ties of familiarity and union. God's Messenger said, “The most hateful of per- mitted things to me is divorce.” The exalted Qur'an praises people who do not cut bonds and do not seek for separation. It says, “Those who join what God has commanded to be joined and fear their Lord” [13:21]. In the Highest Dominion, He created angels who are half snow and half fire. Through His own power He brought these two opposites together and kept them that way. Their glorification is this: “Glory be to Him who makes fire familiar with snow! O Lord, make the hearts of your faithful servants familiar with each other!” A pir of the Sufis said, “I was walking in the desert. I saw a person I did not recognize, water standing before him, and plants growing from the water. I asked him who he was and he said that he was Abū Murra [the Father of Bitterness].20 I asked him what the water was. He said, 'It is my tears, and these green things and plants are growing up from my tears.' I asked him why he was weeping. He said, 'I weep in the days of separation for the days of union. In the days of separation the murmur of union is the ease of the hearts of the deprived. Leave me to weep for myself, for there is no one in the world more miserable than I.'” I said, “My heart wants to be Your comrade, so I will be worthy of thanks and applause.” By God, I did not think, O Spirit of the world, that all my hopes would come to this. Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī had a wife whom he divorced. Her dower was 40,000 dirhams, so he sent it to her so that her heart would be happy. She put that wealth in front her and began to weep: “'Paltry goods from a departed lover!' What use to me are the goods of the world when my companion is not at my side and my friend is tired of me!” When a viper strikes someone's liver they give him the antidote, not candy.
وَإِنْ كُنْتُمْ فِي رَيْبٍ مِمَّا نَزَّلْنَا عَلَىٰ عَبْدِنَا فَأْتُوا بِسُورَةٍ مِنْ مِثْلِهِ وَادْعُوا شُهَدَاءَكُمْ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ
📘 If you are in doubt about what We have sent down on Our servant, then bring a surah the like of it. The previous verse was an affirmation of tawḤīd, an argument against the Arab associaters. This verse is an affirmation of prophecy, an argument against the Folk of the Book and the Dhimma. The formula of the Shahadah comprises two sides: the affirmation of tawḤīd and the affirmation of prophecy. As long as the servant does not acknowledge and believe in both and does not act as demanded by both, he has not entered into the circle of the submission. Affirming prophecy is to know that MuṣṬafā is the chosen of the Real and the best of creatures. You accept his prophecy with spirit and heart. You take his words, deeds, customs, and conduct as your leader and guide. You know in reality that his words are the revelation of the Real, his expla- nation the road of the Real, his decree the religion of the Real, and his utterances and conveyance of the message in the state of life and death the argument of the Real. Adam was still inside the curtain of water and clay when the secret of MuḤammad's created disposition had bound its waist before the Exalted Threshold and the gaze of the Real's gentleness had reached his spirit. This is alluded to in his words, “I was a prophet when Adam was between water and clay.” Then bring a surah the like of it. This spreads the carpet of the Qur'an's exaltedness from the folds of its holiness. Thus the non-privy will place the hand of rejection on their breasts and He may remove the mask of its beauty for those burnt by passion. Then you will see the unmasked beauty of the Qur'an's face- when it shows its face, speak with the tongue of remembrance. [DS 495]
۞ وَالْوَالِدَاتُ يُرْضِعْنَ أَوْلَادَهُنَّ حَوْلَيْنِ كَامِلَيْنِ ۖ لِمَنْ أَرَادَ أَنْ يُتِمَّ الرَّضَاعَةَ ۚ وَعَلَى الْمَوْلُودِ لَهُ رِزْقُهُنَّ وَكِسْوَتُهُنَّ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ ۚ لَا تُكَلَّفُ نَفْسٌ إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا ۚ لَا تُضَارَّ وَالِدَةٌ بِوَلَدِهَا وَلَا مَوْلُودٌ لَهُ بِوَلَدِهِ ۚ وَعَلَى الْوَارِثِ مِثْلُ ذَٰلِكَ ۗ فَإِنْ أَرَادَا فِصَالًا عَنْ تَرَاضٍ مِنْهُمَا وَتَشَاوُرٍ فَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْهِمَا ۗ وَإِنْ أَرَدْتُمْ أَنْ تَسْتَرْضِعُوا أَوْلَادَكُمْ فَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذَا سَلَّمْتُمْ مَا آتَيْتُمْ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ ۗ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ
📘 Mothers shall suckle their children two whole years-for those who desire to complete the suckling. Great is that Lord who is unique in loving kindness and without peer in caressing servants. He be- stows in testing, He is loyal to assurances. If we call Him, He hears, and if we do not, He knows. He is generous, loving, love-showing, and love-increasing; gentle, defect-hiding, excuse-hearing, a good God. His bounty is beyond all bounty, His generosity beyond all generosity, His mercy greater than all mercies, His love not like other loves. The example given of utmost mercy is the mercy of mothers, but God's mercy toward His servants is more than that, and His love is not like their love. Do you not see that He commands mothers to give milk to their children for two complete years, He urges them to nurture them, and He counsels them to take care of them? He does not confine Himself to the love of mothers and leave it at that. This is so that you will know that God is more lovingly kind to the servant than a mother is to her child. Once MuṣṬafā was passing by when a woman with a child in her arms was baking bread. They had told her that God's Messenger would be passing. She came forward and said, “O Messenger of God! We have heard you say that the God of the world's inhabitants is more lovingly kind to His servants than a mother to her child.” The Messenger said, “Yes, that is so.” That woman became happy and said, “O Messenger of God! A mother would never toss her child into this oven.” MuṣṬafā wept. Then he said, “God chastises in the Fire only those who refuse to say, 'There is no god but God.'” Kaʿb ʿUjra said that one day God's Messenger said to his companions, “What do you say about a man slain in God's path?” They said, “God and His Messenger know best.” He said, “He is in the Garden.” Then he said, “What do you say about a man concerning whom two just men have said that they knew nothing of him but good?” They said, “God and His Messenger know best.” He said, “He is in the Garden.” Then he said, “What do you say about a dead man concerning whom two just witnesses say that they never saw any good from him?” The Companions said, “He is in the Fire.
وَإِنْ طَلَّقْتُمُوهُنَّ مِنْ قَبْلِ أَنْ تَمَسُّوهُنَّ وَقَدْ فَرَضْتُمْ لَهُنَّ فَرِيضَةً فَنِصْفُ مَا فَرَضْتُمْ إِلَّا أَنْ يَعْفُونَ أَوْ يَعْفُوَ الَّذِي بِيَدِهِ عُقْدَةُ النِّكَاحِ ۚ وَأَنْ تَعْفُوا أَقْرَبُ لِلتَّقْوَىٰ ۚ وَلَا تَنْسَوُا الْفَضْلَ بَيْنَكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ
📘 And that you pardon is nearer to godwariness. And forget not bounty among yourselves. Surely God sees what you do. Godwariness lies in pardon, and paradise lies in godwariness, just as He says: “The next world with thy Lord belongs to the godwary” [43:35]. The folk of realization have said that godwariness has a beginning and an end. The beginning is what He says: “And that you pardon is nearer to godwari- ness,” and the end is what He says: “And forget not bounty among yourselves.” Its beginning is that you recognize what is rightfully due to you from your brother, but then you pardon it and let it go. This is the way station of submission and the conduct of the worshipers. Its end is that you recognize what is rightfully due to him from you and you prefer him over yourself. As much as you see disloyalty and offense from him, you offer him your apology. This is the station of tawḤīd and the description of the state of the sincerely truthful. In its meaning they have sung, “When we are ill, we come to you and tend to you. When you sin, we come to you and apologize.” To this the Prophet alluded when he said, “Shall I point you to the best character trait of the folk of this world and the next? You join with him who cuts you off, pardon him who does you wrong, and bestow on him who deprives you.”
حَافِظُوا عَلَى الصَّلَوَاتِ وَالصَّلَاةِ الْوُسْطَىٰ وَقُومُوا لِلَّهِ قَانِتِينَ
📘 Guard over the prayers, and the middle prayer, and stand before God devoutly. In the tongue of allusion to guard over the prayer is that, when the servant comes into the presence of the prayer, he comes with awe, and when he leaves, he leaves with reverence. As long as he is in the prayer, he is described by courtesy. He keeps his body in the outward service, his heart in the realities of union, and his secret core along with his spirit in the ease of whispered prayer. “The praying person is whispering with his Lord.” Abū Bakr Shiblī said, “If I were given the choice to enter the prayer or to go into paradise, I would not chose that high paradise over the prayer. Even if paradise is joy and blessings, the prayer is secret whispering with the Patron of Blessings. That is the place of pleasure for water and clay, and this is the place of gazing for spirit and heart. That is roasted fowl in the garden of approval, and this is repose and ease [56:89] in the garden of the Beloved.” For the sake of gazing stroll once into the Beloved's garden, see the Beloved scattering spirit beneath your feet. MuṣṬafā gave no station the mark he gave to the prayer when he said, “'The delight of my eyes was placed in the prayer.' Amongst the caresses and beauties, the brightness of my eyes lies in being occupied with Him and whispering secretly with Him.” Here is my heart-look into it and see: is there any goal other than You? There was a man called Abū ʿAlī Siyāh, who was unique in his era. Whenever anyone went to see him, he would say, “I'm a carefree man. I have no occupation. The brightness of my eyes lies in seeing a man of His road or talking about Him with someone.” Every night I talk to my heart about You. I seek Your scent from the dawn breeze. The knower of the Tariqah, ʿAbdallāh Anṣārī, said, “O God, O lovingly kind, O helper! Exalted is he who has one breath with You! May I have a breath in which no one mixes, a breath that after- wards has no veil. For me that one breath is enough in the two worlds.
فَإِنْ لَمْ تَفْعَلُوا وَلَنْ تَفْعَلُوا فَاتَّقُوا النَّارَ الَّتِي وَقُودُهَا النَّاسُ وَالْحِجَارَةُ ۖ أُعِدَّتْ لِلْكَافِرِينَ
📘 And if you do not, then be pliant, submit, believe and abandon obstinacy that will eventually lead you to the Fire. The requisite, that is either faith or submission, has been omitted, while the concomitant, which is to guard against the Fire, has replaced it, so that the proof that denial necessarily leads to entering the Fire and the eventuality of chastisement for them is stronger. As for His saying and you will not, is a parenthetical statement informing [them] of the unseen in the knowledge that the intellects of those who are veiled are barred from such [knowledge]; [then fear the Fire] what is meant by the Fire is their being consumed by the upheaval of their souls and the evil of their natures, [natures] which are turned away from the spiritual holy spirit and the breeze of the tasting of the Compassionate, and deprived from the pleasure of the coolness of certainty and the safety of the abode of permanence, severed [as their natures are] by the habits of the senses and corporeal pleasures, prohibited by what they have become addicted and accustomed to, while there remain [within them] the yearning for that [spirit] and the rapture [felt for it], [but] the deeply rooted conditions of attachment to the lower affairs in them and their love of earthly bodies are the causes of the igniting of their fires, which is why He says: whose fuel is men, and stones, that is, the silent sensory lower matters to which they are attached out of love so that the forms of these [matters] have become deeply-rooted in their souls while their souls have become imprisoned by having inclined to these very [forms]. As the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, said: 'Every person is gathered [at the resurrection] with the one that he loves, so that if one of you loved a stone he will be gathered with it'. How can it be otherwise when his own form has fixed itself within him through love so that the form of his heart has become his own form. Know that the [intensity of the] heat of the fire follows from its [arche-]typal form that constitutes its spirituality and its kingdom, for otherwise it would be equal in its specific qualities to all bodies; that spirituality are sparks of the fire of God's overwhelming supra-sensory power after its descent into several ranks, such as its descent into the rank of the soul upon the upheaval of rage, for the upheaval of rage might have the effect of consuming the character traits in a way that not even fire might have on firewood.
۞ أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ خَرَجُوا مِنْ دِيَارِهِمْ وَهُمْ أُلُوفٌ حَذَرَ الْمَوْتِ فَقَالَ لَهُمُ اللَّهُ مُوتُوا ثُمَّ أَحْيَاهُمْ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَذُو فَضْلٍ عَلَى النَّاسِ وَلَٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يَشْكُرُونَ
📘 Have you not seen who went forth from their habitations, that is, from their familiar [spiritual] abodes and the habitual resting-points of their souls and [from] their stations and levels of this world and did not become dependent on them by the exigencies of caprice - such people being numerousḍ, [in their thousands], fearful of deathḍ, [that is, fearful] of ignorance and severance from the real life and [fearful] of falling into the abysses of natural desire; God said to them, 'Die!', in other words, He commanded them to voluntary death or He made them die to their essences by the self-disclosure of His essence so that they were annihilated in the Unity. Then He gave them life, through the real life of knowledge or through Himself by means of the bestowed existence of the Truth and subsistence after annihilation; it is not far-fetched [to say] that what He means by this is what was meant by the story of Ezra: they went forth in flight from natural death, whereupon God made them die and then gave them life by attaching their spirits to bodies of a genus similar to their bodies so that they might actualise therewith their perfection. [Truly God is bounteous to people, but most people are not thankful].
وَقَاتِلُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ
📘 So fight in God's way, [against] the soul and Satan according to the first [interpretation] and the second; according to the third [reading], do not fear death when engaging the enemy for fleeing [from it] shall not avail you just as it did not avail those [mentioned above]: God will give you life as He gave those life; [and know that God is Hearing, Knowing].
مَنْ ذَا الَّذِي يُقْرِضُ اللَّهَ قَرْضًا حَسَنًا فَيُضَاعِفَهُ لَهُ أَضْعَافًا كَثِيرَةً ۚ وَاللَّهُ يَقْبِضُ وَيَبْسُطُ وَإِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ
📘 Who is it that will lend to God a beautiful loan, and He will multiply it for him many times? And God contracts and expands, and to Him you shall be returned. In this verse the generous Lord, He of tremendous and celebrated name, the lovingly kind, the caressing, the holder-majestic is His unity and holy His sanctum-caresses His servants, both the rich and the poor. He caresses the rich by asking loans from them, for loans are asked of friends. YaḤyā Muʿādh said, “I wonder at anyone who still has wealth, when the Lord of the Throne wants to borrow it.” A sound hadith says, “God descends and says, 'Who will supplicate Me that I may respond to him?' Then He spreads His two hands and says, 'Who will lend to one who is neither lacking nor wrongdoing?'” What do you know of the generosity and largesse found in this asking for a loan? This is a largesse that you might say is a painting on the spirit. From it the tree of joy is in fruit and in it the eyes of revelry are awake. He is saying, “Who is it that will give a loan to Him who is neither a wrongdoer that he might take it away, nor a poor man not able to pay it back?” Anyone who rec- ognizes the worth of this declaration will put forth the bounteous wealth of spirit and heart and say, “I will exert my heart and spirit with none but You. My heart is Your property-I will not intervene! If with an allusion You ask for my spirit, I will send it at once without hesitation.” One day ʿAlī Murtaẓā went home, and Ḥasan and Ḥusayn were weeping before FāṬima Zahrā. ʿAlī said, “O FāṬima, what happened to the brightness of my eyes, the fruit of my heart, and the joy of my spirit that they are weeping?” FāṬima said, “O ʿAlī, it seems that they are hungry, for a day has passed and they have eaten nothing.” She had placed a pot on the fire, so ʿAlī said, “What do you have in the pot?” She said, “There is nothing in the pot except plain water. I put it on the fire to keep the children happy, for they think I am cooking something.
وَقَالَ لَهُمْ نَبِيُّهُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ قَدْ بَعَثَ لَكُمْ طَالُوتَ مَلِكًا ۚ قَالُوا أَنَّىٰ يَكُونُ لَهُ الْمُلْكُ عَلَيْنَا وَنَحْنُ أَحَقُّ بِالْمُلْكِ مِنْهُ وَلَمْ يُؤْتَ سَعَةً مِنَ الْمَالِ ۚ قَالَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ اصْطَفَاهُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَزَادَهُ بَسْطَةً فِي الْعِلْمِ وَالْجِسْمِ ۖ وَاللَّهُ يُؤْتِي مُلْكَهُ مَنْ يَشَاءُ ۚ وَاللَّهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ
📘 [Then their prophet said to them, 'Verily as king for you God has raised up] Saul: [he] was a poor man of no [distinguished] lineage and no wealth and so they did not accept him as king, because according to the generality the eligibility for kingship and leadership is through [the manifestation of] outer felicity, that is wealth and lineage, which is why their prophet warned them that eligibility is rather through the other two felicities, that of the spirit, which is knowledge and that of the body, which is increased physical strength and solid build and breadth, by saying [to them]: 'and He has increased him broadly in knowledge and body, and God knows best who is fit for kingship and gives it [the kingship] to whom He will; and God is Embracing, great in gift, giving wealth as He gives kingship, Knowing, who is eligible and what wealth such [a person] would need to support himself and give it to him [accordingly]. He then makes it clear that [an individual's] fitness for kingship entails another sign which is that [God's] creatures submit to him and that awe of him and respect for him alight in their hearts and that their hearts are at peace with him, and that they love him and cede to his command in obedience and compliance; that is what the ancient Persians used to call khoreh that was exclusive to the Kayanian [Persian] Kings. Thereafter, they called [this special aura] farr and said that the farr of kingship was possessed by Fereydun; and that when it had disappeared from Kay Kāvus, they sought the one who possessed this farr and found it in the blessed King Kay Khusrau, who then called it the tābūt, that is, the thing to which he would refer all matters - because tābūt is [based on the grammatical paradigm] faʿlūt from [the infinitive] al-tawb [to return]; in other words, there will come to you from this [tābūt] what will establish his kingship by way of submission, obedience, compliance and love for him which God will cast into your hearts - as the Prophet said, 'I was given victory [over my enemies] through terror [being cast into their hearts] even [they happen to be] at a distance of one month's journeying' - or [it meant] that to which he will refer in terms of his ego-centric condition and his [spiritual] configuration (hayÌa), which will testify to the validity of his kingship.
وَقَالَ لَهُمْ نَبِيُّهُمْ إِنَّ آيَةَ مُلْكِهِ أَنْ يَأْتِيَكُمُ التَّابُوتُ فِيهِ سَكِينَةٌ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ وَبَقِيَّةٌ مِمَّا تَرَكَ آلُ مُوسَىٰ وَآلُ هَارُونَ تَحْمِلُهُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ ۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَةً لَكُمْ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ
📘 Their prophet said to them, “The sign of his kingship is that there will come to you the ark within which is tranquility from your Lord.” Whenever someone finds a drink from the cup of recognition on the carpet of the religion's good fortune, the cupbearer of that drink is the sultan of tranquility. The exalted lodging place of the sultan of tranquility is the capital city of the heart: He it is who sent down tranquility into the hearts of the faithful [48:4]. The subtle reality of the heart is the dwelling place of the attribute of eternity: “Surely the hearts are between two fingers of the All-Merciful.” What a great difference there is between two groups of people! The tranquility of one group was in the ark, and the ark was under the determination of the Children of Israel, sometimes here and sometimes there, sometimes like this and sometimes like that. The tranquility of the other group is in their hearts, in the grasp of the Real's attributes. The Adamite has no hand in it, the angel no access to it. He comes between a man and his heart [8:24]. Shiblī said, “The curtains were taken down and the veils lifted in the realities of the secret core, and many unseen things were unveiled to my secret core. I saw hell like a roaring dragon and rapacious lion. It was playing with the people and pulling them to itself with its tail. It saw me and displayed its mightiness. It wanted its share from me. I gave it all of my outward organs and parts and had no fear of their burning. I had no concern for outward burning because of my inner burning.” The Pir of the Tariqah said, “All fires burn the body, but the fire of friendship burns the spirit. No one can be patient in face of that spirit-burning fire.” If He burns you, say “Burn!”, if He caresses, say “Caress!” It's best for the passionate man to be put between water and fire. Shiblī said, “When I gave my makeup and form to the fire, the turn of the heart arrived. The fire wanted my heart. I said, 'I will toss it away without fear.' A voice came to my secret core, 'O Shiblī, leave the heart alone, for the heart is not yours, nor is it under your determination.
فَلَمَّا فَصَلَ طَالُوتُ بِالْجُنُودِ قَالَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ مُبْتَلِيكُمْ بِنَهَرٍ فَمَنْ شَرِبَ مِنْهُ فَلَيْسَ مِنِّي وَمَنْ لَمْ يَطْعَمْهُ فَإِنَّهُ مِنِّي إِلَّا مَنِ اغْتَرَفَ غُرْفَةً بِيَدِهِ ۚ فَشَرِبُوا مِنْهُ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا مِنْهُمْ ۚ فَلَمَّا جَاوَزَهُ هُوَ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَعَهُ قَالُوا لَا طَاقَةَ لَنَا الْيَوْمَ بِجَالُوتَ وَجُنُودِهِ ۚ قَالَ الَّذِينَ يَظُنُّونَ أَنَّهُمْ مُلَاقُو اللَّهِ كَمْ مِنْ فِئَةٍ قَلِيلَةٍ غَلَبَتْ فِئَةً كَثِيرَةً بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ مَعَ الصَّابِرِينَ
📘 'God will try you with a river, the spring of the corporeal nature; whoever drinks of it, is not of me: meaning whoever gulps from it drinking in immoderation, because the people of [corporeal] nature and the worshippers of passions are lowlier and the most incapacitated of God's creatures, possessing not the strength to fight against the Goliath of the evil-commanding soul nor against Goliath the enemy of religion, since they possess neither [spiritual] zeal nor intensity [and whoever tastes it not, he is of me] except for him who scoops up with his hand, that is, except for the one who contents himself from it in the measure that necessity and need require, without covetousness and over-indulging in it.But they drank of it, that is, they gulped away at it and became engrossed in it, except a few of them: for those who rise above the filth of [physical] nature and sanctify themselves against coming into contact with it and who disengage themselves from its coverings are few in comparison with those others. God, exalted be He, says but few are they [Q. 38:24] and And few indeed of My servants are thankful [Q. 34:13]: and these are the ones who believed with him [Saul] from among the people of certainty (ahl al-yaqīn), those who knew with the certainty of their light that victory comes not with numbers but through divine assistance. Thus they remained steadfast in the face of what they saw with their own eyes because of the power of their certainty and were hence victorious:Scarcely is there one who when he is resolute in a matter which he seeks and takes steadfastness as his companion who does not then win a victory
وَبَشِّرِ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ أَنَّ لَهُمْ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ ۖ كُلَّمَا رُزِقُوا مِنْهَا مِنْ ثَمَرَةٍ رِزْقًا ۙ قَالُوا هَٰذَا الَّذِي رُزِقْنَا مِنْ قَبْلُ ۖ وَأُتُوا بِهِ مُتَشَابِهًا ۖ وَلَهُمْ فِيهَا أَزْوَاجٌ مُطَهَّرَةٌ ۖ وَهُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ
📘 And give good news to those who have faith. This verse is a caress for the friends, giving them hope for everlasting largesse and bliss, and an en- couragement to the faithful, inciting them to obey and to seek increase of blessings. The previous verse warns the strangers against confusion in the heart and associationism on the tongue, and it threatens with the fire of punishment and the harshness of being cut off from the Real. The person of faith is he who becomes frightened and without ease when he hears the first verse and thinks about the chastisement of hell. He becomes happy when he hears the second verse, he makes his heart fast and his hope strong, and he brings ease into his heart. The Lord of the Worlds praises both the frightened and the one at ease. Concerning the frightened He says, “The faithful are only those whose hearts quake when God is remembered” [8:2]. Concerning the one at ease He says, “Those who have faith and whose hearts are serene in the remembrance of God” [13:28]. The custom of the Generous Lord is that whenever He sends a verse of fear with which He frightens the servants, after it He sends down a verse of hope and mercy to give ease to their hearts so that they will not despair. And give good news to those who have faith. Let there be good news for all those who are today in the playing field of service, for tomorrow they will be in the assembly of repose and ease [56:89]. Not everyone who reaches the paradise of approval will reach the generous gift of repose and ease. The paradise of approval is the furthest limit of the pleasure of the worshipful servants, and repose and ease is the kiblah of the spirits of the lovers. The paradise of approval is the High Chambers and the Abode of Peace. Repose and ease in the Presence of At-ness is the gift for the spirit of the passionate. Everyone who watches over his actions will reach the paradise of ap- proval; everyone who watches over his breaths will reach repose and ease. Who can explain this repose and ease and how can it be given expression!? When something does not come to the tongue, how can it be explained? A wind begins to blow from the World of the Unseen that is called “the wind of bounty.
اللَّهُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ ۚ لَا تَأْخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَلَا نَوْمٌ ۚ لَهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ ۗ مَنْ ذَا الَّذِي يَشْفَعُ عِنْدَهُ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِهِ ۚ يَعْلَمُ مَا بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمَا خَلْفَهُمْ ۖ وَلَا يُحِيطُونَ بِشَيْءٍ مِنْ عِلْمِهِ إِلَّا بِمَا شَاءَ ۚ وَسِعَ كُرْسِيُّهُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ ۖ وَلَا يَئُودُهُ حِفْظُهُمَا ۚ وَهُوَ الْعَلِيُّ الْعَظِيمُ
📘 God, there is no god but He, the Living, the Self-Standing. Slumber takes Him not, nor sleep. To Him belong whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth. Who will in- tercede with Him save by His leave? He knows what is before them and what is behind them, and they encompass nothing of His knowledge save as He wills. His Footstool embraces the heavens and the earth, and He is the High, the Tremendous. God is He who has divinity and lordhood, God is He who has unity and self-sufficiency. His fix- ity is unitary, His being self-sufficient, His subsistence beginningless, and His brilliance eternal. God is the name of a lord whose essence is everlasting and whose attributes are eternal. His subsistence is beginningless and His splendor endless. His beauty is self-standing and His majesty constant. He is magnanimous and renowned, great in measure and deed, great in name and word, beyond intelligence and before when, and greater than any measure. O majestic God who is the Enactor and the good sweetheart, the creator of the world and the guardian of the creatures, keeper of enemies and companion of friends, the hard cash of hopes and enough for assurances, the receiver of every plaintiff and the forgiver of every offense, the kiblah of the desirer and the remembrance of the recognizer's heart! In remembrance of You I pass my days without You, in my eyes a picture of Your form. God is the remembrance of the hearts of the friends, God is the witness of the heart of the recogniz- ers, God is the joy of the secret core of the distracted, God is the healing of the hearts of the ill, God is the lamp of the breast of the tawḤīd-voicers, God is the light of the heart of the familiars and the balm of the pain of the burnt. Passion for You in my heart is like the light of certainty, Your name upon my eyes like the seal on a ring. In my nature and aspiration until the day of resurrection love for You will be like the spirit and loyalty to You like religion. The Pir of the Tariqah Junayd said, " If someone says God with his tongue when other than God is in his heart, God will be his adversary in the two abodes. " If someone remembers God with his tongue and delights in His name and then busies his heart with love for another, then-by the maj- esty and exaltedness of the Lord God-tomorrow the whip of rebuke will reach him in the station of harshness, and his adversary will be God. On the night of the miʿrāj He said to the master, " 'O MuḤammad! I wonder how anyone with faith in Me can depend on other than Me. O MuḤammad! Were they to gaze on the subtleties of My kindness and the wonders of My artisanry, they would not worship other than Me': What a wonder is someone who finds Me and then seeks for someone else! How can He who recognizes Me busy himself with other than Me? " When an eye sees You, it is relieved of pain. When a spirit finds You, it is exempt from death. The Pir of the Tariqah said, " O God, O worthy of generosity and caresser of the world! There is no sorrow along with Your union and no grief along with Your remembrance. You are the plaintiff and the interceder, the witness and the judge. As long as I breathe along with Your love, I will be free of the bonds of existence and nonexistence, released from the bother of Tablet and Pen-cups of happiness placed in hand again and again in the session of intimacy! " There is no god but He, a God other than whom there is no worthy object of worship. In the two worlds who else is worthy of Lordhood? There is none to take the hand of the wounded other than the signet of His beauty and gentleness. There is no caresser of the orphans other than the edict of His generosity. He is the Lord God to whose loyalty are bound the hearts of the friends, for whose encounter are wishing the spirits of the yearners, and from the cups of whose trial the spirits of the passionate are drunk in love. The ease of the wounded comes from His name and mark, the joy of the recognizers from His remembrance and message. How beautifully spoke that distracted one of the times: " When will my luck smile at me from Your playing field? When will separation from You strike its tent from my spirit's desert? My ease is Your message, my foot in Your snare, Your prison my spirit's garden because of Your name.
لَا إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ ۖ قَدْ تَبَيَّنَ الرُّشْدُ مِنَ الْغَيِّ ۚ فَمَنْ يَكْفُرْ بِالطَّاغُوتِ وَيُؤْمِنْ بِاللَّهِ فَقَدِ اسْتَمْسَكَ بِالْعُرْوَةِ الْوُثْقَىٰ لَا انْفِصَامَ لَهَا ۗ وَاللَّهُ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ
📘 There is no compulsion in religion, because in reality religion is the guidance that is acquired from the light of the heart that is a concomitant of the human primordial nature and that is required for the faith of certainty, as God, exalted be He, says: so set your purpose for religion as a ḥanīf, a nature given by God, upon which He originated mankind. There is no changing God's creation. That is the upright religion [Q. 30:30], and Islam, which is the exoteric aspect of religion, is built upon this [guidance] and is something in which compulsion can have no place. The proof that the esoteric and true aspect of religion is faith, just as its exoteric aspect and [outer] form is Islam, comes in what follows: Rectitude has become clear, that is, it is distinguished, from error, by means of clear proofs, for the one who possesses insight (baṣīra) and reason (ʿaql), as they say, 'The morning is bright for he who has eyes'; so whoever disbelieves in the false deity, that is, [in] what is other than God and denies its existence and its effect, and believes in God, a belief of witnessing and in truth, has laid hold of the most firm handle [that cannot be split], that is, he has held onto the Essential Unity whose ties and modes of operation are in of Itself, such that there is nothing firmer than It, since every thing that holds onto It is firmly attached, nay, every existence is existent through It and non-existent in itself. Thus if one were to consider such [a thing's] existence, then it is split (infiṣām) in itself because a contigent thing's attachment and existence is only through the Necessary [Existent]. When consideration [of this Existent] is severed from that [contingent] thing then that contingent's existence is terminated and is no longer anything in itself. This [Necessary Existent] cannot be split from the existence of His very essence since He does not entail divisibility (tajazzuÌ) or duality (ithnayniyya). There is a subtle detail in this [concept of] 'splitting' (infiṣām), which is that a splitting (infiṣām) is a breaking (inkisār) but without separation (infiṣāl). Since no contingent can be separated from His Essence, exalted be He, or remove itself from It - given that it would either be an act of His or an attribute of His - there can be absolutely no separation. Nay, if reason would consider such [a contingent] in isolation, it would appear split, that is lacking [independent] existence, its existence attached to His existence, exalted be He. And God is Hearing, hears the speech of those who have religion, Knowing, of their intentions and their faith.
اللَّهُ وَلِيُّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا يُخْرِجُهُمْ مِنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّورِ ۖ وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا أَوْلِيَاؤُهُمُ الطَّاغُوتُ يُخْرِجُونَهُمْ مِنَ النُّورِ إِلَى الظُّلُمَاتِ ۗ أُولَٰئِكَ أَصْحَابُ النَّارِ ۖ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ
📘 God is the friend of those who have faith. Their friend [walī], their patron [mawlā], their ruler [wālī], and their caretaker [mutawallī]-all are alike in meaning. He is saying, " God is the lord of the faithful, their caretaker and helper, their guide and open-hearted friend. " In a report it has come that God's Messenger said, " If someone were to destroy the eminent, great Kaabah, take apart its stones, and set it on fire, his disobedience would not be as much as if he were to denigrate one of God's friends. " A nomad was present. He said, " O Messenger of God! Who are these friends of God? " He replied, " All of the faithful are God's beloved friends. Have you not recited the verse, 'God is the friend of those who have faith?' " The equal of this verse is where He says, " That is because God is the patron of those who have faith, and the unbelievers have no patron " [47:11]. He is the friend and caretaker of the faithful, not only in this world, but also in the next, as He says: " We are your friends in this world's life and in the next world " [41:31]. In the story of Joseph, He quotes his words, " Thou art my friend in this world and the next " [12:101]. There is a great difference between these two verses-We are your friends and Thou art my friend-though anyone who does not have the eyes to see is excused. We are your friends comes from togetherness itself, but Thou art my friend alludes to dispersion. This is not because the friend is superior to the prophet, for the end of the friend's work is but the beginning of the prophet's work. However, the weak are shown greater benevolence, and the incapable are given more caresses, for they are not so bold as to claim familiarity. They see themselves as tainted, so they do not have the tongue to speak. Whoever is more helpless is closer to the Friend. Whoever is more broken is more worthy of love: " I am with those whose hearts are broken for Me. " It has been reported that on the Day of Resurrection, one of the broken and burnt will be taken to the Presence.
أَوْ كَالَّذِي مَرَّ عَلَىٰ قَرْيَةٍ وَهِيَ خَاوِيَةٌ عَلَىٰ عُرُوشِهَا قَالَ أَنَّىٰ يُحْيِي هَٰذِهِ اللَّهُ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا ۖ فَأَمَاتَهُ اللَّهُ مِائَةَ عَامٍ ثُمَّ بَعَثَهُ ۖ قَالَ كَمْ لَبِثْتَ ۖ قَالَ لَبِثْتُ يَوْمًا أَوْ بَعْضَ يَوْمٍ ۖ قَالَ بَلْ لَبِثْتَ مِائَةَ عَامٍ فَانْظُرْ إِلَىٰ طَعَامِكَ وَشَرَابِكَ لَمْ يَتَسَنَّهْ ۖ وَانْظُرْ إِلَىٰ حِمَارِكَ وَلِنَجْعَلَكَ آيَةً لِلنَّاسِ ۖ وَانْظُرْ إِلَى الْعِظَامِ كَيْفَ نُنْشِزُهَا ثُمَّ نَكْسُوهَا لَحْمًا ۚ فَلَمَّا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُ قَالَ أَعْلَمُ أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
📘 Or such as he who passed by a town: in other words, have you considered the example of he who passed by a town whose inhabitants had perished under its fallen roofs and collapsed walls, and who then marvelled that it could be brought back to life, being as he was a wayfaring seeker who had not yet attained the station of certainty and had not been prepared to receive the light of the self-disclosure of the Life-giver. The most widespread opinion is that this [man] was Ezra. So God made him die, that is, He made him subsist upon a death of ignorance, just as He said our Lord You have caused us to die twice [Q. 40:11], according to [the interpretation of] one opinion, and He also said when you were dead and He gave you life [Q. 2:28], a hundred years: it is possible that in their time a single year was based on the lunar cycle, making it 8 [proper] years and 4 months; or it could have been based on the seasons of the year, making it 25 years, and [it is also possible] that at that time their spans of life were [considerably] longer; then He raised him up, with true life and asked him to consider the period he had tarried; he did not think that it had been longer than a day or part of a day, deeming insignificant the duration of time he had tarried in that death of ignorance which is finite in relation to everlasting life and also because he did not sense the passing of this period, as with one who is asleep and oblivious to the passage of time. Then after he had reflected, God pointed out to him how long the period of ignorance and the death of obliviousnessn had been by [informing him] that it had been a hundred years. Or [it could be understood] that He made him die through voluntary death during one of the periods mentioned so that the period then represents the time spent in spiritual discipline, wayfaring and struggling in the way of God. Or [still] that He made him die a natural death such that his spirit became attached to the body of another of his own genus in order to acquire perfection either after a certain period or immediately until one of the three mentioned periods had passed without him looking into his state, unaware of his origination and his [ultimate] return: in this way he had been dead throughout his actual life.
۞ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَسْتَحْيِي أَنْ يَضْرِبَ مَثَلًا مَا بَعُوضَةً فَمَا فَوْقَهَا ۚ فَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا فَيَعْلَمُونَ أَنَّهُ الْحَقُّ مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ ۖ وَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا فَيَقُولُونَ مَاذَا أَرَادَ اللَّهُ بِهَٰذَا مَثَلًا ۘ يُضِلُّ بِهِ كَثِيرًا وَيَهْدِي بِهِ كَثِيرًا ۚ وَمَا يُضِلُّ بِهِ إِلَّا الْفَاسِقِينَ
📘 God is not ashamed, He is not prohibited by what would [normally] prohibit the one who experiences shame, to strike a similitude even of a gnat, or anything above it, for in the eyes of God the disbeliever is lowlier than a gnat and this world [lowlier] than its wings, as stated by the ḥadīth.[as for the believers, they know] it is the truth from their Lord, because of the interrelationship between the thing struck as similitude and the one for whom the similitude has been struck; [but as for disbelievers, they say, 'What did God desire by this for a similitudeḍ' Thereby He leads many astray and thereby He guides many];and thereby He leads none astray except the wicked, those who have departed from the station of the heart to the station of the soul and from obedience to the Compassionate to obedience of Satan, being the second group among the wretched ones and not the first group, for they are in error with regard the same matter in any case neither because of it [the similitude[ or because of any other reason. Their being led into error thereby [i.e. by the similitude struck] is caused by their wickedness in reality, since the fact that the ruling follows from the description gives the impression of it [the description] being the cause, and that is their increasing obstinacy, their denial, their spitefulness and the overpowering of their hearts by the attributes of their souls upon the mention of the QurÌān, increasing their distance and [increasing them] in darkness upon darkness.
وَإِذْ قَالَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ رَبِّ أَرِنِي كَيْفَ تُحْيِي الْمَوْتَىٰ ۖ قَالَ أَوَلَمْ تُؤْمِنْ ۖ قَالَ بَلَىٰ وَلَٰكِنْ لِيَطْمَئِنَّ قَلْبِي ۖ قَالَ فَخُذْ أَرْبَعَةً مِنَ الطَّيْرِ فَصُرْهُنَّ إِلَيْكَ ثُمَّ اجْعَلْ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ جَبَلٍ مِنْهُنَّ جُزْءًا ثُمَّ ادْعُهُنَّ يَأْتِينَكَ سَعْيًا ۚ وَاعْلَمْ أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌ
📘 When Abraham said to his Lord, “Show me how Thou givest life to the dead.” He said, “Dost thou not have faith?” He said, “Yes indeed, but that my heart may be serene.”... And know that God is exalted, wise. In the language of unveiling and in keeping with the tasting of the lords of the realities, this verse has another intimation and explanation. They say that Abraham was yearning for the Real's speech and burning for His address. His burning had reached the limit, the army of his patience had been put to flight, and the fire of his love was shooting up flames. He said, “O Lord, show me how you bring the dead to life.” He said, “O Abraham, dost thou not have faith? Do you not have faith that I bring the dead to life?” He said, “I do, but my heart has been thrown into turmoil by the wish to hear Your speech and by burning passion for Your address. I want You to talk.” Dost thou not have faith? “The goal was exactly that You would talk and ease would enter my heart.” My ease is Your message and my feet are in Your snare. The story is told that a man had fallen for a young woman and wanted to speak with her, but she would not talk and was unwilling to do so. The afflicted man became helplessly captivated by her, hoping to speak with her. He knew that she had a liking for jewels. He went and gave everything he had for one precious gem. He went and placed a stone in front of her in order to break the gem. The object of his passion did not have the capacity to put up with breaking. She said, “Poor man, what are you doing?” He said, “I am doing it so that you will say, 'What are you doing?'” No rest or ease remains in my heart- call me names if you have no message. It has been said that with these words Abraham was asking for the life of the heart and the serenity of the secret core. He knew that as long as a heart is not alive, serenity will not come down into it, and as long as serenity has not come down into it, he would not have reached the final goal of the recognizers. The final goal of the recognizers is the repose of intimacy, the witnessing of the heart, and the constancy of love; the tongue in remembering, the heart in secret whispering, the spirit in joy; the tongue in remembrance, the heart in reflection, the spirit with love; the tongue as spokesman, the heart with explication, and the spirit in face-to-face vision. It was said, “O Abraham, life is found in death and subsistence in annihilation, so go and kill four birds outwardly as We command in order to show reverence for Our command and to make manifest your servanthood.” Inwardly He is telling him to obey these commands: “Hang the peacock of finery on the gal- lows: Take no ease in the blessings of this world or the finery of this world. “Don't be held back by nightingale and peacock- with this you have only calls, with that only color. “Kill the crow of avarice: Be not avaricious for that which does not remain and quickly comes to an end. “Why are you passionate for the companion who took Alexander's life? Why are you in love with the loveless by whom Darius lost his kingdom? [DS 53] “Break the rooster of appetite: Let no appetite enter your heart lest you be held back from Me. “If you come from the field of appetite to the portico of intellect, you'll see yourself like Saturn in the seventh sphere. [DS 705] “Kill the vulture of wishes: Do not stretch out wishes and do not fix your heart on this life of play and diversion. Then you may reach the goodly life [16:97]. O Abraham, the goodly life is what you want: the heart's life and the secret core's serenity!” It has been said that by asking this question, Abraham was seeking vision, just as Moses did. Abraham asked for vision by intimation, not explicitly. Hence the answer was also by intimation, that is, His words, “God is exalted: O Abraham, I heard your asking and I know what you desire, but know that in reality God is exalted. Finding Him is exalted and seeing Him is exalted.” Moses asked explicitly, not through intimation, so he heard the answer explicitly: “Thou shalt not see Me” [7:143]. It has also been said that when Abraham said, “O Lord, show me how You bring the dead to life,” a call came to his secret core: “You also, show Me how you bring the living Ishmael to death.
مَثَلُ الَّذِينَ يُنْفِقُونَ أَمْوَالَهُمْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ كَمَثَلِ حَبَّةٍ أَنْبَتَتْ سَبْعَ سَنَابِلَ فِي كُلِّ سُنْبُلَةٍ مِائَةُ حَبَّةٍ ۗ وَاللَّهُ يُضَاعِفُ لِمَنْ يَشَاءُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ
📘 The likeness of those who expend their wealth in the way of God: Glory be to Him, He mentions three types of expenditure and assigns greater merit for some over others in terms of recompense. The first of these is to expend in the way of God, which is to expend in the world of the kingdom against the self-disclosure of the acts which a person does so that God might reward him and He rewards him seven hundred times what he had given, multiplying it [for him] manifold without limit in accordance with His wish because His hand, exalted be He, is infinitely more open [in generosity] and outreaching than his. And God is Embracing, of great gift, whose gift cannot be compared to ours, Knowing, the intentions of givers and their [varying] convictions that such [gifts] are a result of God's favour and so He rewards them accordingly. The second [type of expenditure] is to expend against the station of the witnessing of the attributes in the manner that will be mentioned, which is to expend for the sake of God's satisfaction, in the same way that the former [type of expenditure] is to expend for the sake of acquiring God's gift. The third [type] is to expend through God which is against the station of the presential vision of the Essence.
الَّذِينَ يُنْفِقُونَ أَمْوَالَهُمْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ ثُمَّ لَا يُتْبِعُونَ مَا أَنْفَقُوا مَنًّا وَلَا أَذًى ۙ لَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
📘 [Those who expend their wealth in the way of God] then do not follow up their expenditure with reminder of their generosity and injury: He [here] warns that expenditure is invalidated by reminding [the recipient] of one's generosity and injury, because expenditure is praiseworthy in all three instances as long as it is in harmony with God's command, exalted be He, and that it removes the vice of greed form the soul of the expender and that it benefits and comforts the deserving [recipient]. But when the [giving] person reminds [the recipient] of his favour, he has then contravened God's command, because such [behaviour] is forbidden, and his soul has manifested itself in arrogance and presumptuous reliance on this blessing with conceit, veiling itself with its [conceited] act and deeming that the blessing is from itself as opposed to from God. All of these are vile traits, more base than greed, that attach themselves to that person: had he only see himself in terms of him being the source of that virtue, it would have sufficed him that that [virtue] was invalidated. As for the third aspect [of expenditure] from the point of view of the one deserving it, the act is invalidated by any injury since that is incompatible with comfort or benefit; the reminder of one's generosity also invalidates that act because it entails haughtiness and the manifestation of artificiality and establishes blame upon that person. He then says:
۞ قَوْلٌ مَعْرُوفٌ وَمَغْفِرَةٌ خَيْرٌ مِنْ صَدَقَةٍ يَتْبَعُهَا أَذًى ۗ وَاللَّهُ غَنِيٌّ حَلِيمٌ
📘 Honourable words and forgiveness are better than a voluntary almsgiving followed by injury, because kind words, even in [a negative] response, delights the heart and revives the spirit. As for the voluntary act of charity, it benefits his body and delights the heart but only secondarily and upon the imagining the [subsequent] benefit. When what benefits the body is compared to what injures the spirit, any [potential] benefit is sullied and spoiled and does not materialise [as anticipated] in return for the delight that would result from kind words, even if it is not spoiled [in the first place] because spiritual matters are nobler, more beautiful and have a greater impact upon the soul; and God is Independent, [without need] of any act of charity that is accompanied by injury and He gives the deserving person from the storehouses of His Unseen, Forbearing, not hastening to punish [the evildoer].
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تُبْطِلُوا صَدَقَاتِكُمْ بِالْمَنِّ وَالْأَذَىٰ كَالَّذِي يُنْفِقُ مَالَهُ رِئَاءَ النَّاسِ وَلَا يُؤْمِنُ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ ۖ فَمَثَلُهُ كَمَثَلِ صَفْوَانٍ عَلَيْهِ تُرَابٌ فَأَصَابَهُ وَابِلٌ فَتَرَكَهُ صَلْدًا ۖ لَا يَقْدِرُونَ عَلَىٰ شَيْءٍ مِمَّا كَسَبُوا ۗ وَاللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الْكَافِرِينَ
📘 O You who have faith, do not void your charity by counting it a favor and causing dis- comfort. Ibn ʿAbbās said, “Do not void your charity by counting it a favor toward God.” God is saying, “O you have faith, who have placed your hands in the chains of Our servanthood and have clung to the rope of Our protection! The path of servanthood is not that of gazing on yourself and counting your obedience a favor to Us, for everything you do comes from Our success-giving and Our desire. When your heart was opened up, We opened it. When you found success, We gave it. When you gave comfort to the poor, We willed that. We made all of that happen, so all should be counted as Our favor. All acting is Ours, and all attending to things is Ours.” BarrāÌ ibn ʿāzib said, “On the Day of the Moat I saw God's Messenger when he was saying these words of Ibn RawāḤa: “O God, if not for You, we would not have been guided, we would not have given charity, we would not have prayed. So send down tranquility upon us, and firm up our feet for the encounter.” He is saying, “O God, were it not for Your solicitude, how could we have found the way to the street of tawḤīd? Were it not for Your success-giving, how could we have had the ability to do good works?” When a poor wretch counts obeying God a favor to Him, this is because he has lost the path of servanthood. He gives weight to his own obedience and sees it as large, so he does not turn the eyes of his heart and head away from it. In the path of chivalry, seeing one's own obedi- ence is idol-worship, and looking back at it is duality itself. If you are martyred a hundred times a day in God's path you'll still be an idol-worshiper if you see yourself in the midst. [DS 708] It has also been said that do not void your charity by counting it a favor and causing discomfort means to void your charity by laying favors on those who ask. He is saying, “Do not ruin your charity by counting it a favor to the poor.
وَمَثَلُ الَّذِينَ يُنْفِقُونَ أَمْوَالَهُمُ ابْتِغَاءَ مَرْضَاتِ اللَّهِ وَتَثْبِيتًا مِنْ أَنْفُسِهِمْ كَمَثَلِ جَنَّةٍ بِرَبْوَةٍ أَصَابَهَا وَابِلٌ فَآتَتْ أُكُلَهَا ضِعْفَيْنِ فَإِنْ لَمْ يُصِبْهَا وَابِلٌ فَطَلٌّ ۗ وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ
📘 But the likeness of those who expend their wealth seeking God's good pleasure: this is the second category of expenditure, which He has given greater merit than the first by likening it to a garden, since the garden by yielding its produce remains upon the [same] state, unlike the grain [of corn]. Thus He alludes to it as [a constant source of] wealth for them, as though it [the expenditure] were an essential attribute [of such individuals], which is why He says, and to confirm their souls, in other words, to make them settle permanently upon [the attribute of] generosity, which is an attribute of the Lord. As for His saying: upon a hill, that is an allusion to the elevated rank of this [type of] expenditure and its ascendancy over the degree of the first [type]; a torrent, that is, a great share of the Merciful's attribute of mercy, smites it, as well as a generous reinforcement from the effusion of His generosity, because it [this attribute] is the trait that connects to God, exalted be He, by the interrelationship of the attribution and the preparedness to receive this attribute and to acquire it as an attribute; and if no torrent smites it, that is, [it does not receive] a great share, then [dew], only a small share; and all that you do God sees, [seeing] from which perspective your deeds are performed.
أَيَوَدُّ أَحَدُكُمْ أَنْ تَكُونَ لَهُ جَنَّةٌ مِنْ نَخِيلٍ وَأَعْنَابٍ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ لَهُ فِيهَا مِنْ كُلِّ الثَّمَرَاتِ وَأَصَابَهُ الْكِبَرُ وَلَهُ ذُرِّيَّةٌ ضُعَفَاءُ فَأَصَابَهَا إِعْصَارٌ فِيهِ نَارٌ فَاحْتَرَقَتْ ۗ كَذَٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ اللَّهُ لَكُمُ الْآيَاتِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَفَكَّرُونَ
📘 Would any of you wish: this is a simile of a state entailing a good deed, be it an [act of] expenditure or otherwise, through which one draws near to God and seeks His satisfaction - as is the case with this category of expenditure. But then his soul manifests itself in this [deed] and stirs so that its stirrings, which are at variance with the motion of the spirit, and its motives, which are different and in opposition to the exigency of the heart, become like a torrent. Satan then exploits its stirrings and makes these a means for his evil whisperings so that he breathes into it [the soul] the seeing of its deed or making a show [of it]. That breath is thus like a fire that consumes his deed, despite his dire need for it, as the commander of the believers ʿAlī, peace be upon him, said: 'O God forgive me that [deed] by which I draw near to You but which my heart then disagrees with'.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَنْفِقُوا مِنْ طَيِّبَاتِ مَا كَسَبْتُمْ وَمِمَّا أَخْرَجْنَا لَكُمْ مِنَ الْأَرْضِ ۖ وَلَا تَيَمَّمُوا الْخَبِيثَ مِنْهُ تُنْفِقُونَ وَلَسْتُمْ بِآخِذِيهِ إِلَّا أَنْ تُغْمِضُوا فِيهِ ۚ وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ غَنِيٌّ حَمِيدٌ
📘 [O you who believe] expend of the good things you have earned: He commands the third category of expenditure, of the good things that you have earned, because the one who chooses through God chooses the most noble in all things on account of the correspondence [of that noble thing to God], just as the commander of the believers ʿAlī, peace be upon him, said: 'Verily God is beautiful and loves beauty'. The one who expends through [the stirrings of] his soul is unable to expend what is the most noble because of the niggardliness of the soul and its love of that [which is most noble] and its preferring it for itself instead of singling it out for God: thus what is done through the soul cannot be piety from the outset, because of what God, exalted be He, says you will not attain piety until you expend of what you love [Q. 3:92]; and seek not the corrupt of it for your expending, singling it out for your expending as is the habit of those who expend through their souls and their [physical] nature; for you would never take it yourselves without closing your eyes to it, because of your love of the best of possessions for your selves given that your love of self is exclusively dedicated to such [acquistions], which is why you do not give preference to expend wealth for the sake of God over them and [why you do not] expend the best for Him; and know that God is Self-sufficient, so acquire His attribute of sufficiency which will then give you an abundance that will avail you of wealth and the love of it, Laudable: He does only what is laudable, so make Him your exemplar.
الشَّيْطَانُ يَعِدُكُمُ الْفَقْرَ وَيَأْمُرُكُمْ بِالْفَحْشَاءِ ۖ وَاللَّهُ يَعِدُكُمْ مَغْفِرَةً مِنْهُ وَفَضْلًا ۗ وَاللَّهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ
📘 Satan promises you poverty and commands you to indecency, and God promises you forgiveness from Him, and bounty. Satan promises you poverty because of his poverty, and God promises you forgiveness because of His generosity. Satan himself is poor toward the Real, so he promises poverty, for that is what he has and that is what his hands reach. His harvest was burned, so he wants the harvest of others to burn as well. The Lord of the Worlds, who is forgiving and servant-caressing, promises forgiveness and gener- osity. Yes, everyone does what is worthy of him, and the pot pours what it has inside. Each acts according to his own manner [17:84]. The Lord's invitation is what He says: “He invites you so that He may forgive you some of your sins” [14:10]. Satan's call is what He says: “He invites his party only so that they may be among the companions of the Blaze” [35:6]. Satan invites to avarice and eagerness for this world, and that in reality is poverty. God invites to contentment and seeking the afterworld, and that is nothing but wealth. The respect due to wealth in the religion is greater, for in this world, the person is content and has no need for the creatures, whispering secretly with the Real in his heart. In the next world he will dwell in the scented garden of bounty and generosity and the ocean of face-to-face vision, drowned in the Greatest Light. Shaykh al-Islām Anṣārī said, “Wealth is three things: wealth of property, wealth of disposi- tion, and wealth of heart. “Wealth of property is three things: The lawful is a tribulation, the unlawful a curse, and the excessive punishment. “Wealth of disposition is three things: contentment, satisfaction, and chivalry. “Wealth of heart is three things: an aspiration greater than this world, an object of desire better than the next world, and a yearning for the vision of the Patron.”
يُؤْتِي الْحِكْمَةَ مَنْ يَشَاءُ ۚ وَمَنْ يُؤْتَ الْحِكْمَةَ فَقَدْ أُوتِيَ خَيْرًا كَثِيرًا ۗ وَمَا يَذَّكَّرُ إِلَّا أُولُو الْأَلْبَابِ
📘 He gives wisdom to whomsoever He wills. It has been said that wisdom has a reality and a fruit. The reality of wisdom is recognizing an affair as suited for the affair, putting a thing in its own place, recognizing everyone in his own frame- work, seeing the end of every statement at its beginning, and recognizing the inwardness of any statement from its outwardness. The fruit of wisdom is balancing interaction with people between tenderness and cajolery, balancing interaction with oneself between fear and hope, and balancing interaction with the Real between awe and intimacy. Wisdom is a light. When its ray shines upon you, it adorns the tongue with right remem- brance, the heart with right thought, and the bodily members with right activity. Then when you speak, you speak with wisdom, snatching away hearts and making spirits your prey. When you reflect, you reflect with wisdom, flying like a falcon, roaming in the highest Dominion, and making a nest only in the Presence of At-ness. May I be a ransom for the men dwelling in the Unseen, their secret cores roaming in all that is there! * Give the strong wings of wisdom to the peacock of the Throne and here in this place of the snare you'll see its nest in joy. If you stroll toward the Holy Presence with exaltedness, you'll see steeds coming forth from the city of the Lord. [DS 706] Yes indeed. And when someone like this acts, he acts with wisdom-coming together with the palisades of the Beloved's approval, sacrificing his desire to God's desire, seeing his intimacy in remembering Him, keeping his gaze in accordance with His gaze, resting in his remembrance no matter what arrives; sometimes burned by passion for Him in the playing field of majesty in the station of need, sometimes at ease with His gentleness in the garden of union on the throne of joy. At times those black locks raise the swords of severity, at times those sweet lips light the candles of gentleness. O You whose perfection has paid purses to the losers at dice! O You whose beauty has sewn the wallets of the destitute!
الَّذِينَ يَنْقُضُونَ عَهْدَ اللَّهِ مِنْ بَعْدِ مِيثَاقِهِ وَيَقْطَعُونَ مَا أَمَرَ اللَّهُ بِهِ أَنْ يُوصَلَ وَيُفْسِدُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ ۚ أُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْخَاسِرُونَ
📘 Those such as break the covenant of God after its solemn binding: this is what is alluded to in His statement: And when your Lord took from the Children of Adam, from their loins, their seed and made them testify against themselves, 'Am I not your Lordḍ', they said, 'Yea, indeed �' [Q. 7:172]. It is mentioned in a ḥadīth that God, exalted be He, stroked Adam's back with His hand and brought forth his seed from him like particles, [to the end of] the ḥadīth. God's hand is the holiest intellect and the first spirit which is the spirit of the world that is referred to as the right-hand of the Compassionate; Adam is the universal reasoning soul which is itself the heart of the world; His stroking of his back constitutes the effect of the intellect upon it [the soul] and its illuminating of it by His light through the spiritual joining; His bringing forth of his seed from him constitutes the bringing into existence of the individual partial souls that had been inside it in potentiality and bringing them out in actuality; God's covenant with them where He says, 'Am I not your Lordḍ', is the depositing of the knowledge of [His] Oneness in their essences; the binding of that covenant is the propping up of the proofs of His Oneness in their intellects and His obligating them to that knowledge, making it a binding aspect of their essences, so that upon their disengagement from the attributes of the soul and the coverings of the body such [knowledge] would [immediately] become clear to them and the most manifest and obvious of things would be disclosed to them, namely, their having been made to testify against themselves, since such knowledge would at that instance become necessary. Their response to that [question] with 'Yea, indeed', constitutes their essential acceptance of that [truth]. Their breaking of that covenant is their total engrossment in the carnal pleasures and the trappings of the physical world and their enslavement by their desires and lusts such that they become veiled by these from [the knowledge of] God's Oneness and His worship. [and such as cut what God has commanded should be joined]: their 'cutting of what God has commanded should be joined' is their turning away from the joining with the Holy Spirit, the highest points of origin [of motion] and the heavenly spirits who are the High Council [cf.
وَمَا أَنْفَقْتُمْ مِنْ نَفَقَةٍ أَوْ نَذَرْتُمْ مِنْ نَذْرٍ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ يَعْلَمُهُ ۗ وَمَا لِلظَّالِمِينَ مِنْ أَنْصَارٍ
📘 And whatever expenditure you expend, and whatever vow you make, surely God knows it, [knows] which type it is and rewards you accordingly. For the evildoers, those who expend to make a show before people, who expend in the wrong way, or who diminish what is their due by contemplating their expenditure or combining it with reminder [of one's favour] or injury, or by expending of what is vile: they have no helpers, to protect them from the might of God.
إِنْ تُبْدُوا الصَّدَقَاتِ فَنِعِمَّا هِيَ ۖ وَإِنْ تُخْفُوهَا وَتُؤْتُوهَا الْفُقَرَاءَ فَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ ۚ وَيُكَفِّرُ عَنْكُمْ مِنْ سَيِّئَاتِكُمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرٌ
📘 [If you proclaim your voluntary almsgivings, it is a fine thing; but if you conceal them, and give them to the poor] that is even better for you: because of this being far removed from making a show and closer to sincerity [of intention].
۞ لَيْسَ عَلَيْكَ هُدَاهُمْ وَلَٰكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَهْدِي مَنْ يَشَاءُ ۗ وَمَا تُنْفِقُوا مِنْ خَيْرٍ فَلِأَنْفُسِكُمْ ۚ وَمَا تُنْفِقُونَ إِلَّا ابْتِغَاءَ وَجْهِ اللَّهِ ۚ وَمَا تُنْفِقُوا مِنْ خَيْرٍ يُوَفَّ إِلَيْكُمْ وَأَنْتُمْ لَا تُظْلَمُونَ
📘 You are not responsible for guiding them, to the three types of expenditure mentioned that are free of reminder, injury, making a show, contemplating the expenditure and its being out of vile [sources]. In other words, you are not responsible for making them guided, rather your responsibility is solely to deliver the [means to] guidance; but God guides whomever He will. And whatever good you expend it is for yourselves, and so why remind people [of the favour] and harm themḍ for then you are expending desiring only God's Face, so what is with you that you act arrogantly in this with people and how can you make a show of itḍ And whatever good you expend, shall be repaid to you in full, none other than you will have a share of it. So in reality do not expend except upon yourselves and not others so that as a result of this [expenditure] nothing of yours is diminished. Why then do you seek to expend of what is vile. Thus the three [types of expenditure] belong to the three categories of expenditure mentioned and by providing similes of the purpose behind them this is a way of warning against the [potential] ruin [that can result] from them.
لِلْفُقَرَاءِ الَّذِينَ أُحْصِرُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ لَا يَسْتَطِيعُونَ ضَرْبًا فِي الْأَرْضِ يَحْسَبُهُمُ الْجَاهِلُ أَغْنِيَاءَ مِنَ التَّعَفُّفِ تَعْرِفُهُمْ بِسِيمَاهُمْ لَا يَسْأَلُونَ النَّاسَ إِلْحَافًا ۗ وَمَا تُنْفِقُوا مِنْ خَيْرٍ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ بِهِ عَلِيمٌ
📘 [It is] for the poor, who are constrained in the path of God and are not able to travel in the earth. The ignorant man counts them as rich because of their self-restraint. Thou shalt rec- ognize them by their mark-they do not ask of the people imploringly. And whatever good you expend, surely God knows it. This is a description of the state of the poor among the Companions and a clarification of their conduct. Until the day of resurrection, this is the balm of the hearts of the burnt and broken. Their first attribute is that they are constrained in the path of God, that is, they have halted at God's decree. They have constrained their souls to obey Him, their hearts to recognize Him, their spirits to love Him, and their secret cores to see Him.23 They have settled down in God's decree and approved of it, they have welcomed His command, they have kept their souls in obedience, they have occupied their hearts with recognition, their spirits have come to be at ease in love, and their secret cores have remained in anticipation of vision, for the Exalted Lord says about them, " They are unable to travel in the earth. " They are so busy with the Real that they attend neither to the creatures nor to themselves. They take no steps in seeking daily provision, nor do they put their hearts into acquisition and trade. This is exactly what He says: " whom neither trade nor buying diverts from the remembrance of God " [24:37]. They are chevaliers whose watchword is God's remembrance and whose blanket is God's love. They have repose and settledness at the threshold of serving Him and their aspiration is free of others. They are the beauty of paradise and the adorn- ment of the abode of settledness [40:39]-a few of the Emigrants and a few of the Helpers. The ignorant man counts them as rich because of their self-restraint. You would say that they are without need and you would number them as wealthy, for, despite the defectiveness of their state and the constraint of poverty, they never ask, whether from creatures or from the Real. Not asking from creatures is precisely trust, and trust is the level of their abode. Not asking from the Real is the reality of approval, and the field of approval is their way station.
الَّذِينَ يُنْفِقُونَ أَمْوَالَهُمْ بِاللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ سِرًّا وَعَلَانِيَةً فَلَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
📘 Those who expend their wealth night and day, secretly and openly, shall have their wage with their Lord, and no fear shall be upon them, neither shall they grieve. As long as they have any wealth, they do not slacken from expending it for an hour, night and day. When the wealth is exhausted, they do not slacken from witnessing Him for a moment, night and day.24 This is as they say: Wealth, gold, things-gamble them away for nothing. When the work reaches your spirit, gamble it away! Spending wealth in the road of the religion according to the Shariah is the work of the faithful, and throwing away the spirit in the contemplation of the majesty and beauty of the Patron in respect of the Haqiqah is the work of the chevaliers. This is the effort of servanthood by the servants. What then is worthy of God and the divine generosity toward the servants?!
الَّذِينَ يَأْكُلُونَ الرِّبَا لَا يَقُومُونَ إِلَّا كَمَا يَقُومُ الَّذِي يَتَخَبَّطُهُ الشَّيْطَانُ مِنَ الْمَسِّ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَالُوا إِنَّمَا الْبَيْعُ مِثْلُ الرِّبَا ۗ وَأَحَلَّ اللَّهُ الْبَيْعَ وَحَرَّمَ الرِّبَا ۚ فَمَنْ جَاءَهُ مَوْعِظَةٌ مِنْ رَبِّهِ فَانْتَهَىٰ فَلَهُ مَا سَلَفَ وَأَمْرُهُ إِلَى اللَّهِ ۖ وَمَنْ عَادَ فَأُولَٰئِكَ أَصْحَابُ النَّارِ ۖ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ
📘 Those who devour usury shall not rise again, to the end of this [statement]: the devourer of usury is worse off in terms of his state than any grave sinner. For, every thing that a person earns constitutes a [source of] dependence in some way in terms of his livelihood, be that [earning] small or great, as is the case with a merchant or a farmer or an artisan since they have not designated their [sources of] provision by their power of reason, nor was it designated for them prior to its being earned, and so in reality they are upon something of which they have no knowledge of, as the Prophet said: 'God refuses to provide for the believer except from where he knows not'. As for the one who consumes [through] usury, he has had his source of earning and provision designated, whether the consumer profits or makes a loss; he is veiled from his Lord by his own soul and from his provision by its being designated: in effect he has no dependence on it whatsoever. Thus God, exalted be He, has made him dependent upon his soul and his reason and has removed him from His protection and preservation such that the jinn have seized him and possessed him and on the day of resurrection he shall rise with no connection between him and God, unlike other people who will be connected to Him through [their] trust (tawakkul) in Him. Thus he will be like the demented one made prostrate by Satan unable to guide himself in any direction; that is because they say, in other words, that is because they veiled themselves behind their [false] analogy, and the first to make such a [false] analogy was Satan and so they will be among his companions, outcasts like him.
يَمْحَقُ اللَّهُ الرِّبَا وَيُرْبِي الصَّدَقَاتِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ كُلَّ كَفَّارٍ أَثِيمٍ
📘 God effaces usury, even if it should outwardly seem like an increase, but He augments voluntary almsgivings with interest, even if it should be a diminution in the [state of] witnessing. That is because increase and diminution are so only when one considers their consequences and benefit in both abodes [this and the next]. Wealth that results from usury entails no blessedness because it has been acquired through the contravention of the truth and hence its consequence is an evil one as that person is committing all manner of disobedient acts because every thing consumed generates, by its very consumption, motivations and acts of the same [evil] kind. Thus if it is illicit it drives that person to illicit acts; if it is reprehensible, then [it drives him] to reprehensible acts; [likewise] if it is permitted, then [it drives him] to permitted acts; if it is consumption from a surplus, then [it drives him] to recommended acts and his acts are voluntary extras and favours; and if it should be simply what is mandatory in terms of what is due, then his acts will be mandatory and necessary; if it should be from surpluses or [unanticipated] shares, then his acts will correspond accordingly. Therefore, the sin for usury and the effects of his illicit acts generated by his consumption [of usury] shall fall upon that person, in the way mentioned in the ḥadīth: 'A sinful act that follows a sinful act is punishment for the former sinful act'. His punishments and sins accumulate continuously while God ruins his wealth in this world such that neither his progeny nor his children and he ends up being among those who have forfeited this world and the Hereafter, that which constitutes total effacement. As for the one who gives voluntary alms, because his wealth is purified, God blesses it so that it bears much fruit as well as retaining for the person the original [reward for the act]. The consumer of such [good acts] can only be an obedient individual in terms of his acts. His wealth will remain for his offspring and his children a source of benefit [for them]: that is the true increase. And even if the only increase [gained] were that it was expended in obedience of God, that would suffice as an increase.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَأَقَامُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتَوُا الزَّكَاةَ لَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
📘 Those who have faith and do wholesome deeds, who perform the prayer and give the alms tax, shall have their wage with their Lord, and no fear shall be upon them, neither shall they grieve. In other words, “Enough for those who come to be Ours will be what they find with Us, for We leave not to waste the wage of those who do beautiful deeds [18:30].” “When someone has recourse to the gate of Our generosity, We give him shelter in the shade of Our blessings. When the dust of Our path falls on someone, the darkness of separation from Us will not fall upon him. When someone takes one step toward Us, he will find a gift with Us.” In other words, “When someone joins with Us, he will escape from the night attack of severance.” Or: “When someone binds his heart to Our generosity, he will pack his bags from the room of sor- rows.” Or: “When someone sees Us, his spirit will laugh. He who reaches himself will reach Us. Nothing can be said about what he who reaches himself will see and hear.” The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, all Your caresses are for our sake, for in each breath ap- pears so much burning with the light of Your solicitude. Who has a patron like You? Where is a friend like You? With the attributes that You have, nothing else is fitting. All this is the mark, and the celebration is tomorrow. This indeed is the message, and the robe of honor is in place.” The robe of honor is what He said: “shall have their wage with their Lord, and no fear shall be upon them, neither shall they grieve.” Wait until tomorrow, when He gives out the generous wage and tremendous caress that He has with Himself, the boundless blessings and everlasting triumph, in the assembly of repose and ease [56:89] and the appointed time of union with the Beloved. When will my luck smile at me from Your playing field? When will separation from You strike its tent from my spirit's desert? What wonderful work is the work of the poor! Gabriel, with six hundred peacock wings, could not take one step beyond the Lote Tree along with that paragon of the world.
كَيْفَ تَكْفُرُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَكُنْتُمْ أَمْوَاتًا فَأَحْيَاكُمْ ۖ ثُمَّ يُمِيتُكُمْ ثُمَّ يُحْيِيكُمْ ثُمَّ إِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ
📘 How do you disbelieve in God, seeing that you were dead, and He brought you to life. Then He shall make you dead, then He shall bring you to life. By way of allusion He is saying, " O you who have lost the end of your own thread! O you who have fallen into the well of your own mortal nature! If you want the road clearer than this, why do you not go forward? If you want the field wider than this, why do you not mount up? If you want the candle brighter than this, why are you falling off the path? O you over whom so many years have passed and you have still not caught a scent! O you who have sat at so many tables and are still hungry! O you who have worn a thousand clothes and are still naked! O Muslim! The playing field is open, where are the mounted riders? The tribunal is open, where are the plaintiffs? The physician is present, where are the ill? The beauty is unveiled, where are the passionate? " You were dead, and He brought you to life. " You were dead, but I brought you to life. Why do you not look? You were ignorant, but I made you knowers. Why do you not perceive? I showed you the road, why do you not go? " It wants a man to catch the scent- otherwise, the world is full of the east wind's fragrance. The Pir of the Tariqah said, " O God, how can the servant overcome the beginningless decree? When he does not have, what can he do? What is the servant's effort? The work is done by what You want. How can the servant save himself with his own effort? " Then He shall make you dead, then He shall bring you to life. It is said that death is of three sorts: death by the curse, death by regret, and death by generous gift. Death by the curse belongs to the disbelievers, death by regret to the disobedient, and death by generous gift to the godwary. Life also is of three sorts: first the life of fear, then the life of hope, then the life of love. The life of fear appears in kindness, the life of hope appears in service, and the life of love appears in remembrance.
لِلَّهِ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ ۗ وَإِنْ تُبْدُوا مَا فِي أَنْفُسِكُمْ أَوْ تُخْفُوهُ يُحَاسِبْكُمْ بِهِ اللَّهُ ۖ فَيَغْفِرُ لِمَنْ يَشَاءُ وَيُعَذِّبُ مَنْ يَشَاءُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
📘 To God belongs whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth. Whether you show what is in your souls or you hide it, God will bring you to account for it. To God belongs whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth as ownership, origina- tion, creation, and devising. He gave them existence from nonexistence, so He owns them with the ownership of exaltedness and powerfulness, not the ownership of gaining and earning. He does in them whatsoever He wills [3:40] and He decrees whatsoever He desires [5:1]. He is saying that everything in the heavens and the earths is owned by God, an ownership of existence-giving and exaltedness, not an ownership of earning and inheritance. It is the owner- ship of the Adamites that is gained by the ruling property of commerce and gift, or acquisition and inheritance. Hence the ruling property that establishes ownership makes the rightful due of what is owned necessary for them. As for God's ownership, it comes by way of bringing nonbeing into being, by creation after nonbeing, and by making new from the outset. Thus His ownership is not like anyone else's ownership, nor does anyone have any ruling property over Him in that. What He does with what He Himself created He does by reason of His own lordhood. From Him it is justice, not injustice. Injustice is when someone does something that is not his to do. But it is God's to do whatever He does because He is creator, enactor, and king. Majestic is His ruling power, tremendous His rank, exalted His magnificence, realized His word, and high His reality beyond the perception of intellects! To God belongs whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth. He did not say this so that you would attach your heart to it and occupy yourself with it, but so that you would attach your heart to its creator and see its artisan. This is the same as He said: “Do not prostrate yourselves to the sun and the moon, but prostrate yourselves to God, who created them” [41:37]. When He created heaven and earth, He created them as the gazing place of the common people, so that they would look at the artisanry and from it reach the Artisan.
آمَنَ الرَّسُولُ بِمَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ رَبِّهِ وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ ۚ كُلٌّ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَمَلَائِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِنْ رُسُلِهِ ۚ وَقَالُوا سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا ۖ غُفْرَانَكَ رَبَّنَا وَإِلَيْكَ الْمَصِيرُ
📘 The Messenger has faith in what was sent down to him from his Lord, and the faithful. Each one has faith in God, His angels, His books, and His messengers: “We make no distinc- tion among any of His messengers.” They say, “We hear and we obey! Thy forgiveness, our Lord! And to Thee is the homecoming.” God takes no soul to task beyond its capacity. It shall have what it has earned, and against it shall be what it has acquired. “Our Lord, take us not to task if we forget or make mistakes. Our Lord, put not upon us a burden such as that Thou hast put on those before us. Our Lord, and do not burden us with what we do not have the strength to bear. And pardon us, and forgive us, and have mercy upon us. Thou art our Patron, so help us against the people of the unbelievers.” This is a declaration of the greatness and eminence of the Messenger at the moment of contemplation. He said, “The Messenger has faith.” He did not say, “Thou hast faith.” This is how masters and kings are addressed in the manner of declaring their greatness. It is exactly like what He said about Himself at the beginning of the Surah of Opening: “Praise belongs to God.” He did not say, “Praise belongs to Me.” This was to declare His own greatness and to make manifest His exaltedness and majesty. The Messenger has faith. Now that He has mentioned faith, the Uprising, the Garden, the Fire, the prayer, the alms tax, retaliation, fasting, hajj, struggle, marriage, divorce, menstruation, the waiting period, expenditure, foster relationship, forswearal, divorce initiated by the wife, in- heritance, charity, vows, buying, selling, usury, debts, and ransom; and He has mentioned the stories of the prophets and the signs of His power, God completes the surah by mentioning that His prophet and the faithful assent to the truthfulness of all of it. Hence He says, The Messenger has faith in what was sent down to him from his Lord, and the faithful. This is praise and laudation of the Prophet, who explained these rulings and delivered the message, and of the faithful, for we have recognized, accepted, and held firm to all the rulings, boundaries, stories of the prophets, and marks of God's power and tremendousness that were mentioned.
لَا يُكَلِّفُ اللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا ۚ لَهَا مَا كَسَبَتْ وَعَلَيْهَا مَا اكْتَسَبَتْ ۗ رَبَّنَا لَا تُؤَاخِذْنَا إِنْ نَسِينَا أَوْ أَخْطَأْنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تَحْمِلْ عَلَيْنَا إِصْرًا كَمَا حَمَلْتَهُ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تُحَمِّلْنَا مَا لَا طَاقَةَ لَنَا بِهِ ۖ وَاعْفُ عَنَّا وَاغْفِرْ لَنَا وَارْحَمْنَا ۚ أَنْتَ مَوْلَانَا فَانْصُرْنَا عَلَى الْقَوْمِ الْكَافِرِينَ
📘 The Messenger has faith in what was sent down to him from his Lord, and the faithful. Each one has faith in God, His angels, His books, and His messengers: “We make no distinc- tion among any of His messengers.” They say, “We hear and we obey! Thy forgiveness, our Lord! And to Thee is the homecoming.” God takes no soul to task beyond its capacity. It shall have what it has earned, and against it shall be what it has acquired. “Our Lord, take us not to task if we forget or make mistakes. Our Lord, put not upon us a burden such as that Thou hast put on those before us. Our Lord, and do not burden us with what we do not have the strength to bear. And pardon us, and forgive us, and have mercy upon us. Thou art our Patron, so help us against the people of the unbelievers.” This is a declaration of the greatness and eminence of the Messenger at the moment of contemplation. He said, “The Messenger has faith.” He did not say, “Thou hast faith.” This is how masters and kings are addressed in the manner of declaring their greatness. It is exactly like what He said about Himself at the beginning of the Surah of Opening: “Praise belongs to God.” He did not say, “Praise belongs to Me.” This was to declare His own greatness and to make manifest His exaltedness and majesty. The Messenger has faith. Now that He has mentioned faith, the Uprising, the Garden, the Fire, the prayer, the alms tax, retaliation, fasting, hajj, struggle, marriage, divorce, menstruation, the waiting period, expenditure, foster relationship, forswearal, divorce initiated by the wife, in- heritance, charity, vows, buying, selling, usury, debts, and ransom; and He has mentioned the stories of the prophets and the signs of His power, God completes the surah by mentioning that His prophet and the faithful assent to the truthfulness of all of it. Hence He says, The Messenger has faith in what was sent down to him from his Lord, and the faithful. This is praise and laudation of the Prophet, who explained these rulings and delivered the message, and of the faithful, for we have recognized, accepted, and held firm to all the rulings, boundaries, stories of the prophets, and marks of God's power and tremendousness that were mentioned. What is even greater and more majestic is that God Himself gives witness to MuṣṬafā and his faith, and He gives witness to the faithful and their faith. This is a witnessing by their God. It is a witnessing that faith comes by bestowal. Where are water and dust? What are the universe and Adam? In beginningless solicitude the unitary majesty gave witness to the servant's faith and placed the crown of friendship on his head. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O Lord, it is You who made an oath of allegiance between Yourself and the servant without the servant. You gave witness to the servant's faith without the servant. You wrote mercy for the servant against Yourself without the servant. You made a pact of friendship between Yourself and the servant without the servant. It is fitting for the faithful ser- vant to be delighted that You have made a pact of friendship with him, for the basis of friendship's treasure is all light, and the fruit of friendship's tree is all joy. The field of friendship is a vast heart, and the kingdom of paradise is one branch of friendship's tree.” The Messenger has faith in what was sent down to him from his Lord, and the faithful. Both the Messenger and the faithful have faith, but how far apart they are! The faith of the faithful is by way of inference, and the faith of the Messenger is by way of union. Their faith is by means of proofs, and the Messenger's faith is through contemplation and face-to-face vision. The following has been narrated from him: “I saw my Lord with my eyes on the night of the miʿrāj. My Lord said to me, 'O MuḤammad! The Messenger has faith in what was sent down to him from his Lord.' “I said, 'Yes.' “He said, 'Who else?' “I said, 'And the faithful. Each one has faith in God, His angels, His books, and His messen- gers; we make no distinction among any of His Messengers, unlike the Jews and the Christians.' “He said, 'And what do they say?' “I said, 'They say “We hear Your words and we obey Your command.”' “He said, 'You have spoken the truth. Ask, and it will be given to you.' “I said, 'Thy forgiveness, our Lord! And to Thee is the homecoming.
هُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ لَكُمْ مَا فِي الْأَرْضِ جَمِيعًا ثُمَّ اسْتَوَىٰ إِلَى السَّمَاءِ فَسَوَّاهُنَّ سَبْعَ سَمَاوَاتٍ ۚ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ
📘 He it is who created for you all that is in the earth, then He went up to heaven and propor- tioned it as seven heavens, and He is knower of everything. In another place He said, “He subjected to you whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth, all together, from Him” [45:13]. He is saying, “I created everything in the empire of the earth for you and subjected it to you. My bestowal is not tiny, My generosity toward those who are burnt for Me is not trivial. There will never be any backsliding in My caressing you. Nor is it as if I limited Myself to the empire of the earth, for I also set up the heavens for your gaze, for the pleasure of your eyes, and as a storehouse for your daily provision. My servant! When you step into the street of My covenant, you do not know what good news reaches the heaven-dwellers and the earth-dwellers and how they congratulate each other. I know, for I know everything and reach everyone.” And He is knower of everything. In this verse there is a subtle point. He did not say, “Who created you for all that is in the earth.” He said, “Who created for you all that is in the earth.” In other words, “I created every- thing that is in the empire of the earth and the heavens for your sake, and I created you for My sake.” Do you not see that He said specifically to Moses, “I chose thee for Myself” [20:41], and generally to the creatures, “I created the jinn and mankind only to worship Me” [51:56]? It was MuṣṬafā who understood the worth of this declaration and gave thanks for this one of His blessings. On the night of proximity and generosity when he was taken to the heavens, all of creation and the empires of the two worlds were scatted at the feet of his truthfulness. That paragon did not look at it from the corner of his eye. He said, “I was not created for this.” The eyesight did not swerve, nor did it trespass [53:17]. Hail to him! Abū Yazīd BasṬāmī, who beautifully traveled in the road of MuṣṬafā's Sunnah and beautifully observed courtesy toward the Presence, said, “I kept on crossing perils until I found the empires.
الَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ وَيُقِيمُونَ الصَّلَاةَ وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ يُنْفِقُونَ
📘 Those who have faith in the Unseen and perform the prayer and spend of what We have provided them. They love God without having seen Him. They attest to His uniqueness and they believe in His oneness in Essence and attributes. They hold firm to His Messenger without having seen him, they accept his messengerhood, and they walk straight on the road of his Sunnah. After five hundred years of blackness on whiteness, they accept him with spirit and heart. The message he conveyed, the reports he gave of the World of Dominion, the Lote Tree of the Final End, the Gardens of the Refuge, the Throne of the Patron, the outcome of this world-they bear witness to its truth and they believe in all of it. They are the ones whom MuṣṬafā called his brothers: “Oh, the yearning to encounter my brothers!” And perform the prayer. They do the prayer such that you would say they are gazing on God and whispering secretly with Him, confirming the truth of the Prophet's words, “Worship God as if you see Him, for if you do not see Him, surely He sees you.” He also said, “When the servant stands for the prayer, he is before the eyes of the All-Merciful. When he looks around, God says, 'Child of Adam! At whom are you looking? Are you looking at someone better for you than I? Child of Adam! Look at Me, for I am better for you than the one at whom you are looking.'” Strive at the time you come to the prayer to keep your thoughts in the prayer and to turn your heart away from the bazaar. Have courtesy, turn your heart away from blessings, and know the worth of whispering secretly with the Patron of Blessings. For it is person of low aspiration and meanness who finds secret whispering with the Patron of Blessings and then busies his heart with the blessings. And spend of what We have provided them. He adds to the attributes of the godwary, saying that the caresses He has placed upon them and the blessings He has given them-they undertake to show gratitude for these blessings and, by the command of the Shariah, they caress the poor, give comfort to them, and consider them the Real's deputies in receiving charity. This indeed is the road of Muslims generally, who discharge the obligatory or add something to it voluntarily. As for the road of the folk of the Haqiqah in this regard, it is something else. Whatever they have they give away and still consider themselves to have fallen short. Someone asked Shiblī, “Of two hundred dirhams, how much alms tax is mandatory?” He said, “Are you asking about yours or mine?” He said, “I did not know that my alms tax is one thing and yours something else. Explain that to me.” He said, “If you give it, five dirhams is mandatory. If I give it, the whole two hundred, with five more as a token of gratitude.” It is mandatory for the common people of the community to discharge the obligatory act of alms tax. The outcome of their work is that they say, “Lord God, are You approving and satisfied with what we have given?” The fruit of the deed of the elect, who give away all their possessions, is that God says, “My servant, are you approving and satisfied with Me in what you have done?” How far apart are the two! The description of the state of Abū Bakr gives witness that this is so. After he had given away all of his possessions, he came one day into the Prophet's presence draped in a white blanket with a pin of date-palm sticking out from the front of the blanket. Gabriel descended and said, “O MuḤammad, God sends you His greeting and says, 'What is it with Abū Bakr that his cloak is pierced by a pin?” He said, “O Gabriel, he spent his possessions before the conquest.” He said, “God says, 'Give him My greetings and ask him if he approves of Me in this poverty of his, or is he angry?'” He said, “What, should I be angry with my Lord? I approve of my Lord.” It has been said that the servant stands upright and straight in his states through three things: heart, body, and possessions. As long as he does not have faith in the Unseen, his heart will not go straight in the religion and neither clarity nor familiarity will appear in him. As long as he does not discharge the obligatory prayers, the soundness and straightness of his body will not be set right with continuity. As long as he does not separate the alms tax from his possessions, these posses- sions will not settle down with him.
وَإِذْ قَالَ رَبُّكَ لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ إِنِّي جَاعِلٌ فِي الْأَرْضِ خَلِيفَةً ۖ قَالُوا أَتَجْعَلُ فِيهَا مَنْ يُفْسِدُ فِيهَا وَيَسْفِكُ الدِّمَاءَ وَنَحْنُ نُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِكَ وَنُقَدِّسُ لَكَ ۖ قَالَ إِنِّي أَعْلَمُ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
📘 And when thy Lord said to the angels, “Surely I am setting in the earth a vicegerent,” they said, “What, wilt Thou set therein one who will work corruption there, and shed blood, while we glorify Thy praise and call Thee holy?” He said, “Surely I know what you do not know.” There was a world at ease. No heart burned with passion and no breast was deluded by mad fervor. Then the ocean of mercy began to boil. The treasuries of obedient deeds were full, and no dust of lassitude had settled on the foreheads of the obedient in their obedience. The banner of their boast- ful claim, “We glorify Thy praise,” was raised to Capella. All those in the cosmos who had any subtle substance began craving for their own selves. The majestic Throne was looking at its own tremendousness and saying, “Perhaps the script of these words is written for me.” The Footstool was looking at its own amplitude-“Perhaps this sermon is being read in my name.” The eight paradises gazed on their own beauty-“Maybe this rulership will be given to us.” None wanted anything to do with dust. Each fell into delusion, each caught by mad fervor. Suddenly, from the Presence of Exaltation and Majesty, this report was given to the world of the angels: “Surely I am setting in the earth a vicegerent.” It was not that He was consulting with the angels. Rather, He was laying the foundation of Adam's exaltation and tremendousness. He was not asking for help, but spreading the carpet of Adam's dignity. He was saying, “The ruling property of My severity has acted. I have commanded the pen of generosity to write out an inscription from the beginning of the world's ledger to its end. This resolution is written for the inhabitants of both worlds, from the top of the Throne to the bottom of the Carpet: 'The dust-dwelling Adam is granted chieftainship over all the empires. His exalted breast will be bright with the light of recognition. In him the subtleties of My generosity and the artifacts of My bounteousness will become apparent.'” This exalted declaration caused the hearts of the proximate angels to quake with awe. They said, “What is this all about? He has not yet been created.” The exalted Qur'an was beating the drum of his vicegerency at the threshold of his beauty even though he had not yet entered into the bonds of creation. The majesty of predetermination was reporting on the basis of the hidden affairs of the Unseen: “You must not come around the field of Adam's good fortune, for you do not recognize the secret of his innate disposition. No falcon of anyone's mind has sat upon the branch of Adam's good fortune! No eye of anyone's insight has grasped the beauty of Adam's limpid sun!” Where did this eminence come from? From whence did this good fortune arise? It came from the fact that Adam was the oyster shell of the mysteries of lordhood and the treasury of the jewels of the empire. How many precious pearls and royal sparklers were placed in that oyster shell! Along with every pearl He arranged a black bead on the string. Along with the pearl of every prophet He placed a black bead as its counterpart: With a pearl like Adam the chosen was a bead like Satan the wretched; with a pearl like Abraham the bosom friend was a bead like Nimrod the rebellious; with a pearl like Moses of ʿImrān was a bead like Pharaoh the unaided; with a pearl like Jesus son of Mary was a bead like the tribe full of misguidance and transgression; with a pearl like MuṣṬafā the Arab was a bead like Abū Jahl full of ignorance. When the angels heard this terrifying declaration, settledness and repose fled from them and they lost the composure of their intellects and their patience. They all spoke up with questions and said, “What, wilt Thou set therein one who will work corruption there, and shed blood? O Lord! O King! O Magnanimous! O Creator! This dust-dwelling Adam will stain the embroidered robe of proximity with disobedience. He will pull his head out from the collar of obedience. You have created us from holiness and declaring holy! You have adorned our breasts with reciting the for- mula of tawḤīd and glorifying! You have made all these our means!” It is said that a fire appeared from the hidden affairs of the Unseen and incinerated a tribe of the angels. This declaration was made with the attribute of exaltedness: “Surely I know what you do not know.” “You who are gazers, just keep on gazing! What do you have to do with the secret treasuries of the divinity? How can you intervene in the hidden affairs of Our unseen lordhood? It is We who know the preparations of Our divinity and the hidden affairs of the mysteries of Our lordhood.
وَعَلَّمَ آدَمَ الْأَسْمَاءَ كُلَّهَا ثُمَّ عَرَضَهُمْ عَلَى الْمَلَائِكَةِ فَقَالَ أَنْبِئُونِي بِأَسْمَاءِ هَٰؤُلَاءِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ
📘 And He taught Adam the names, all of them, that is, He cast upon his heart the specific qualities of things, [the qualities] by which they, their benefits and their harmfulness, can be known. Then He presented them, that is, He presented those named things, to the angels, through their witnessing of the human structure and their accompaniment of Adam in the revelation. The meaning of His words: and He said, 'Now tell Me the names of these if you speak truly', [is] His will that they be revitalised by some of the objects of man's knowledge, as required by the human composition and the conveying of the objects of his senses and his diverse knowledge, temporally originated in him through the specificity of [his] composition and his social condition, to their essences after not having been [there], since their knowledge ensues from his knowledge and that is the sense in which they are dumbfounded [by God] and the connection between that and His will is reflected in the command given to Adam to 'tell', since all of the human faculties and the angels that are in His presence are revitalised by what in a different locus they would not be revitalised; that is the meaning of Adam's telling them [of the names].
قَالُوا سُبْحَانَكَ لَا عِلْمَ لَنَا إِلَّا مَا عَلَّمْتَنَا ۖ إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْعَلِيمُ الْحَكِيمُ
📘 As for the meaning of: They said, 'Glory be to You! We know not except what You have taught us. Surely You are the Knower, Wise', [that is] the testimony of their being through evidence and of the tongues of their state that they fall short of the human perfections and their inability to outdo them; and [testimony] of God's being above an act that would entail corruption in general and their awareness of their inability to rise to their levels by the acquisition of knowledge, since their perfections go hand in hand with their being and that His knowledge, exalted be He, is above their knowledge, for He is the absolute Knower and the Wise that does only what ought to be done, which is why He says:
قَالَ يَا آدَمُ أَنْبِئْهُمْ بِأَسْمَائِهِمْ ۖ فَلَمَّا أَنْبَأَهُمْ بِأَسْمَائِهِمْ قَالَ أَلَمْ أَقُلْ لَكُمْ إِنِّي أَعْلَمُ غَيْبَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَأَعْلَمُ مَا تُبْدُونَ وَمَا كُنْتُمْ تَكْتُمُونَ
📘 He said, 'Adam, tell them their names', and He did not say 'teach them' because acquired knowledge that entails [spiritual] ascension is of the specific qualities of the all-comprehensiveness of humankind. Thus each [quality] accepts only what accords with its nature of that genus of perceptibles and not any other. Just as, for example, vision [exists in humans] because of the many visible things, so it does not increase knowledge or level and accepts only what belongs to the genus of visibles even if these be manifold. Such is the state of every inner faculty. [And when he had told them their names He said] As for the meaning of: 'Did I not tell [you that I know the Unseen in the heavens and the earthḍ] [that is] an affirmation by Him concerning the natures of the angels, that He, exalted be He, knows what they know not of the Unseen in the heavens and the earth, that which is the mystery of spiritual knowledge and [divine] love, deposited in man whose knowledge God has taken unto Himself.And I know what you reveal, of what you know regarding the corrupt acts of man, and what you were hiding, in the way of your deeming your essences preferable to his on account of their purity and sanctity.
وَإِذْ قُلْنَا لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ اسْجُدُوا لِآدَمَ فَسَجَدُوا إِلَّا إِبْلِيسَ أَبَىٰ وَاسْتَكْبَرَ وَكَانَ مِنَ الْكَافِرِينَ
📘 And when We said to the angels, “Prostrate yourselves before Adam!” Majestic and all-compelling is the God of the world and the world's folk, the Enactor, the renowned knower of the hidden, the eternal in beautiful doing and tremendous in rank, never ignorant of what He knows, never regretful for what He bestows, never at a loss over what He has done. He is a Lord who adorns what He disapproves for some and makes ugly what He approves for others. He created the despairing Iblis from fire, gave him a place in the Lote Tree of the Final End, and sent the proximate angels of the Presence to seek knowledge from him. Despite such distinction and level, He wrote out the inscription of wretchedness for him and bound his waist with the sash of the curse. He pulled Adam up from dark dust, made the Higher Plenum the bearers of his throne, clothed him in the cape of exaltedness, placed the crown of generosity on his head, and said to the proximate angels of the Presence, “Prostrate yourselves before Adam!” It has come in the traditions that Adam was placed on a throne that had seven hundred legs, the distance of one leg to another a seven-hundred year journey. The command came: “O Gabriel, O Michael, you chiefs of the angels! Lift up Adam's throne and carry it around the heavens so that his eminence and rank may be known to those who said, 'What, wilt Thou set therein one who will work corruption therein, and shed blood?'” [2:30]. Then they placed that throne before the Majestic Throne. The command came to the angels, “All of you go to Adam's throne and prostrate yourself before Adam.” The angels came and gazed upon Adam, and they all became drunk with his beauty. A face adorned by the God of heaven has no need for a hairdresser's touch. They saw a beauty without end, the crown of “He created Adam in His form” on his head, the garb of “I have blown into him of My spirit” [15:29] on his body, the embroidery of the solicitude of “He loves them, and they love Him” [5:54] on the sleeve of his sinlessness. Though we're strangers and our hearts are upset, we're serving-boys of that world-adorning face.
وَقُلْنَا يَا آدَمُ اسْكُنْ أَنْتَ وَزَوْجُكَ الْجَنَّةَ وَكُلَا مِنْهَا رَغَدًا حَيْثُ شِئْتُمَا وَلَا تَقْرَبَا هَٰذِهِ الشَّجَرَةَ فَتَكُونَا مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ
📘 Dwell thou and thy spouse in the Garden! It has been said that once Iblis met Adam and said, “Know that you have been given a white face and I a black face. Do not be deluded, for our likeness is that of an almond tree planted by a gar- dener. The tree bears fruit, and the fruit is taken to a grocery shop. Some of it is sold to a customer who is a happy man, and some to a customer who is afflicted. The afflicted man blackens the face of the almonds and scatters them on the casket of his dead one. The happy man mixes them with sugar and distributes them with their white faces in his happiness. O Adam! I am the black al- monds scattered over caskets, and the almonds distributed by happiness are the work of your good fortune. But you should know that the gardener is one, and we have drunk water from the same stream. If someone should fall to the work of roses, he will smell roses, and if someone should fall into the gardener's thorns, his eyes will be struck by them.” I said, “In my passion I will be like Your hair, always before Your face.” I thought wrongly and fell far away- I'll be the slaveboy of Your street's watchman. Dhu'l-Nūn Miṣrī said, “I was in the desert and saw Iblis, who had not lifted his head from prostra- tion in forty days. I said, 'Poor wretch, after disownment and the curse, what is all this worship?' “He said, 'O Dhu'l-Nūn, though I have been dismissed from servanthood, He has not been dismissed from lordhood.'” O lovely one, my times and yours are in turmoil, talk of us has filled my city and yours. Union was apportioned in the beginningless, and now separation has come and the talk is of you and me. Sahl ibn ʿAbdallāh Tustarī said, “One day I came across Iblis. I said, 'I seek refuge in God from you.' “He said, 'O Sahl, if you are seeking refuge in God from me, I am seeking refuge in God from God. O Sahl, if you say that you are seeking help against the hand of Iblis, I say that I am seeking help against the hand of the All-Merciful.
فَأَزَلَّهُمَا الشَّيْطَانُ عَنْهَا فَأَخْرَجَهُمَا مِمَّا كَانَا فِيهِ ۖ وَقُلْنَا اهْبِطُوا بَعْضُكُمْ لِبَعْضٍ عَدُوٌّ ۖ وَلَكُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ مُسْتَقَرٌّ وَمَتَاعٌ إِلَىٰ حِينٍ
📘 Then Satan made them slip therefrom. Look at this wonder: First He caressed the servant and put all his little jobs in order, then He sent him into tumult and overthrew what He had done for him, and then He rebuked him. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, You show your friends to the enemies and You turn the poor ones over to heartache and grief. You make them ill, and then You take care of them Your- self. You make them helpless, and then You heal them Yourself. “You made Adam out of dust, and then You acted so beautifully toward him. You placed his happiness at the top of the ledger and made him the guest in paradise. You sat him in the garden of approval, You made a compact with him not to eat the wheat, and in Your unseen knowledge You hid the fact that he would in fact eat the wheat. Then You put him in prison, and You made him weep for years. Your all-compellingness does the work of compellers, Your lordhood does the work of lords. All of Your rebukes and war are aimed at Your friends.” The Pir of the Tariqah was asked, “What do you say: Was Adam more complete in this world or in paradise?” He said, “He was more complete in this world, for in paradise he fell into suspicion because of himself, but in this world he fell into suspicion because of passion.” The Pir of the Tariqah said, “Take care not to have the opinion that Adam was taken out of paradise because of his lowliness. It was not that. Rather, it was because of the grandeur of his aspiration. The petitioner of passion came to the door of Adam's breast and said, 'O Adam, the beauty of meaning has been unveiled, but you have stayed in the abode of peace.' Adam saw an infinite beauty, next to which the beauty of the eight paradises was nothing. His great aspiration tightened its belt and said: 'If you ever want to fall in love, you must fall in love with that.'” If there's no escape from feeding passion to the spirit I'll suffer passion's grief for the likes of You. The command came, “Adam, now that you have stepped into the street of passion, leave paradise, for it is the house of ease.
فَتَلَقَّىٰ آدَمُ مِنْ رَبِّهِ كَلِمَاتٍ فَتَابَ عَلَيْهِ ۚ إِنَّهُ هُوَ التَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيمُ
📘 Then Adam received from his Lord some words. Then He spoke with the lid on, not letting out the details, lest the secrets of love fall into the open and so that love's story would stay concealed. I said to her, “Halt [qifī].” She said, “Qāf.” She did not say, “I have halted,” thereby keeping the secret from the watchers. Nor did she say, “I will not halt,” thereby showing consideration for the lover's heart.3 Although the tongue of commentary does not speak of it, the folk of allusion say that it is likely that at the moment of farewell lovers say, “'When you depart from me, do not forget my covenant. Even if awareness of me dwindles one day, do not prefer another over me.'4 O Adam! Do not forget Our compact and do not choose anyone over Me.” The tongue of his state replied, “My heart is Your fellow-traveler and companion- how could it attach its love anywhere else? A heart for whom You are both spirit and awareness- how could it forget Your remembrance?”
قُلْنَا اهْبِطُوا مِنْهَا جَمِيعًا ۖ فَإِمَّا يَأْتِيَنَّكُمْ مِنِّي هُدًى فَمَنْ تَبِعَ هُدَايَ فَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
📘 We said, 'Go down from it all together: He repeats [mention of] this matter of the descent to demonstrate that it was He who wanted that, for were it not for His will Iblīs would not have been able to lead them astray. That is why He attributes the sending down to Himself unattached to the cause after having attributed their being brought out [of the Garden] to Satan. This [instance] is similar to where He says to His Prophet: And you threw not when you threw but God threw [Q. 8:17]. Thus he [Adam] comprehended the mystery of His decree and destiny, and He made clear the wisdom inherent in the sending down [of Adam and Eve] by following it up with His words: yet there shall come to you from Me guidance, and whoever follows My guidance, no fear shall befall them, neither shall they grieve. The use of the [coordinating particle] fāÌ is that were it not for the 'going down', they would not have been able to pursue the guidance, nor would the fortunate be distinguished from the damned, nor would reward and punishment have been forthcoming and the abode of recompense, in the way of the Garden and the Fire, would have become invalid, nay would not have come into existence. 'Guidance' is the Law, and whoever follows it will be secure from evil consequence and will not fear any punishment or annihilation and would have found solace in things other than the passions and the [carnal] pleasure, grieving not for what he will have missed of the ephemeral things of this world or its bliss, as the eye of his heart will have been adorned by the light of the pursuit [of guidance] and his being guided to what cannot be measured in terms of the pleasures of this world in the way of spiritual tastings and the mysterious openings and the witnessings of the heart and the rational sciences and the excitements of the soul.
وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَكَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِنَا أُولَٰئِكَ أَصْحَابُ النَّارِ ۖ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ
📘 As for the disbelievers, those veiled from religion as it corresponds to the pursuit of guidance, and He complements this with His statement: who deny Our signs, those shall be the inhabitants of the Fire, the Fire of privation, abiding therein'.
وَالَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِمَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْكَ وَمَا أُنْزِلَ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ وَبِالْآخِرَةِ هُمْ يُوقِنُونَ
📘 And those who have faith in what has been sent down to thee and what was sent down before thee and who are certain of the next world. This verse is also the attribute of the godwary and the affirmation of their faith in the Qur'an as well as in all the messages and marks that came down from heaven on the tongue of the prophets. The Lord of the Worlds praises them and approves of them because of that, and He accepts their faith. Every eminence and nobility possessed by past communities He gave to them and added to it, and every burden and hardship they had He lifted away from them. Those had longer days of practice, but this community has more reward for obedience. Those had a moment for repentance, but then the punishment of the Hour, but this community's opportunity for repentance of sins extends to the moment of death, and punishment belongs to the Will. Then too the Lord of the Worlds laid a favor on MuṣṬafā and said, “Thou wast not on the side of the Mount when We called out” [28:46]. O paragon, you were not present on that corner of the Mount when We were speaking of you to Moses and talking about your community.” Moses said, “Lord God, in the Torah I read the mention of a community extremely adorned, refined, and approved. They have beautiful conduct and flourishing secret cores. Who are they?” God said, “That is the community of MuḤammad.” Moses began to yearn for this community and said, “Lord God, is there any way You can show them to me?” He said, “No, for it is not the moment for them to come out. If you want, I will convey their voices to your ears.” Then God Himself let out a call in the world, “O community of MuḤammad!” Everyone who would be his community until the coming of the Hour said, “Here I am, obeying Thee!” Since He called them out, He did not send them back without a gift. He said, “I bestowed upon you before you asked from Me, and I forgave you before you asked Me to forgive you.” It is not surprising that God called out to Moses after he had come into existence and received the eminence of prophethood and messengership and whispered prayer at the edge of the Mount.
يَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَتِيَ الَّتِي أَنْعَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَأَوْفُوا بِعَهْدِي أُوفِ بِعَهْدِكُمْ وَإِيَّايَ فَارْهَبُونِ
📘 O children of Israel! Remember My blessings with which I blessed you. And be loyal to My covenant; I will be loyal to your covenant. And of Me have dread. This is an allusion to the Real's gentleness, generosity, and loving kindness toward the servants. He reminds them of His favor toward them: “I am the generous Lord, the thankful, the forgiver of the servants. I have come forth with kindness despite every disloyalty, I invite the servants to praise Me despite all their offenses, and I ask them to be grateful for My blessings.” This is why He says to the children of Israel, “Remember My blessings! O children of Israel, be grateful for My blessings and recognize your duty toward Me so that you will be worthy of increase and have good name and good fortune.” There is a great difference between the children of Israel and this community. To them He said, “Remember My blessings!” To this community He said, “Remember Me!” [2:152]. He gave them blessings and He gave this community companionship. He kept those away from Himself by the witnessing of blessings, and He kept these with Himself by stipulating love. The tongue of this state says, “I traveled to you seeking the highest things, but others traveled seeking a good life.” The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, the one who does the work is he who has work with You, the one who has a friend is he whose friend is the likes of You. How could he who has You in the two worlds leave You aside! The wonder is that he who has You weeps more than anyone else. He who has not found weeps at not having found-why then does he who finds also weep?” When the like of You is someone's friend, if he complains, that's disgraceful. And be loyal to My covenant; I will be loyal to your covenant. There are many verses like this in the Qur'an: “Supplicate Me; I will respond to you [40:60]. So remember Me; I will remember you [2:152]. My servant! Open a door so that I may open a door. Open the door of turning back so that I may open the door of good news: They turned back to God, and for them is good news [39:17].
وَآمِنُوا بِمَا أَنْزَلْتُ مُصَدِّقًا لِمَا مَعَكُمْ وَلَا تَكُونُوا أَوَّلَ كَافِرٍ بِهِ ۖ وَلَا تَشْتَرُوا بِآيَاتِي ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا وَإِيَّايَ فَاتَّقُونِ
📘 And believe in what I have revealed, of the QurÌān to My beloved of the unity of [My] attributes, confirming that which is with you, in the Torah of the unity of [My] acts, and be not the first to disbelieve in it, that is, the first to be veiled therefrom, veiled as you are by your belief. And do not sell, that is, do not exchange, My signs, those indicating the self-disclosures of My essence and attributes, such as the sūrat al-ikhlāṣ [Q. 112] and the kursī-verse [Q. 2:255] and the like, for a small price, that is, for the paradise of your soul because of your habituation to the sensory pleasures and the reward of deeds through the affirmation of the unity of acts. If you [are wont to] guard against association [of others with Me], then guard against the assault of My overwhelming power, majesty and veil by seeking My approval and not affirming an attribute to any other than Me; [and fear Me].
وَلَا تَلْبِسُوا الْحَقَّ بِالْبَاطِلِ وَتَكْتُمُوا الْحَقَّ وَأَنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ
📘 And confuse not truth with falsehood. Be careful not to mix truth and falsehood. Do not put truthfulness together with lying, the ap- proved together with the unapproved. I do not say not to recognize falsehood. You must recognize it so as to avoid it, and you must recognize truth so as go after it. MuṣṬafā said, “O God, show us truth as truth and provide us with choosing it, and show us falsehood as falsehood and provide us with avoiding it.” Concerning the verse, “And confuse not truth with falsehood,” the masters of the realities have said that the meaning is that you should not mix together the share of the soul and the food of the heart, for the two do not get along. The owner of the heart is elated at the rightful due of truth, but the servant of the soul is bound by the share of the soul. How can the two come together? This world is trifling and the next world precious. How can the two get along? Friendship with the Cre- ator is beginningless and endless felicity, but friendship with the created is a ready bane. How can the two come together? God has not given any man two hearts in his breast [33:4]. God-worship and self-worship are opposites. How can the two be brought together in one makeup? Love for both self and the loving Friend won't reach you. Want either this or that-you won't reach both.
وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتُوا الزَّكَاةَ وَارْكَعُوا مَعَ الرَّاكِعِينَ
📘 And establish prayer, and pay the alms, seeking My approval instead of anticipating My reward: this is corroborated by His statement, and bow with those that bow, since the act of bowing is submission and obedience to the object of that act; it is the sign of satisfaction which is the legacy of the self-disclosure of the attributes. The purpose [of that] is to say: be satisfied with what I decree when you inspect My attributes. The orientation upon the performance of the act is the indication that reward and recompense is being sought on account of the soul being independent with its form. Prostration which is the ultimate submission is the sign of being annihilated in the unity upon the self-disclosure of the Essence.
۞ أَتَأْمُرُونَ النَّاسَ بِالْبِرِّ وَتَنْسَوْنَ أَنْفُسَكُمْ وَأَنْتُمْ تَتْلُونَ الْكِتَابَ ۚ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ
📘 Will you bid others to piety, which is the beautiful act that results in purity of the heart and wholesomeness of the soul whose illumination is thereby increased; and forget yourselves: will you not act in accordance with that by which you rise from the station of the self-disclosure of the acts to the self-disclosure of the attributesḍ while you recite the Book, of your primordial nature that commands you to follow Muḥammad in his religion, the one that will lead you to the path of God's unityḍ Do you not understandḍ, a rhetorically powerful rebuke and a provocation of their fanaticism.
وَاسْتَعِينُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلَاةِ ۚ وَإِنَّهَا لَكَبِيرَةٌ إِلَّا عَلَى الْخَاشِعِينَ
📘 And seek help in patience and the prayer, though it indeed is hard, except for the humble. The command came to him, “O Master, tell your community to have patience in their affairs so that they may reach what they desire. 'Patience is the key to relief.'” If someone does not have the patience of the Men, let him not come to the Men's playing field. You have not the legs of men-don't put on men's clothing! You have not the means of no means-don't brag of selflessness! [DS 491] Once that paragon of the world stepped into this playing field, he was not left for one hour without sorrow and grief. If he sat for a while cross-legged, the address came, “Sit like a servant!” If once he put a ring on his finger, the whip of rebuke would come down: “What, did you reckon that We created you aimlessly?” [23:115]. If once he placed his foot on the ground boldly, the command would come, “Walk not in the earth exultantly” [17:37]. When the work reached the limit and he was being tried from every corner, he sighed and said, “No prophet whatsoever has been tormented as I have been tormented.” The address came from the Exalted Presence, “O paragon! When someone's heart and spirit witness Me, will he complain of the burden of trial?” All the venom of grief in the treasuries of the Unseen was poured into one cup and placed in his hand, and then a curtain was lifted from his se- cret core: “O paragon! Drink all this venom while contemplating My beauty! And be patient with thy Lord's decree, for surely thou art in Our eyes [52:48].” The tongue of the state was saying, “Were the Beloved's hand to pour poison for me, poison from His hand would be sweet. * “Though Your hand is fire, it is my bed of roses. All that comes from You is sweet, whether healing or pain.” Though it indeed is hard, except for the humble. Humbleness is a stipulation of the prayer. It is a mark of the servant's need. The humble in the prayer are praised by the Real and chosen among the creatures. Prosperous are the faithful, those who are humble in their prayers [23:1-2]. Humble- ness in the prayer is both outward and inward.
الَّذِينَ يَظُنُّونَ أَنَّهُمْ مُلَاقُو رَبِّهِمْ وَأَنَّهُمْ إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ
📘 [who reckon that they shall meet their Lord], and that to Him they are returning, upon the annihilation of their attributes and their effacement by His attributes.
يَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَتِيَ الَّتِي أَنْعَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَأَنِّي فَضَّلْتُكُمْ عَلَى الْعَالَمِينَ
📘 [O Children of Israel, remember My favour wherewith I favoured you, and that I have preferred you above all the worlds]The address is repeated in order to communicate that the One who guided them first and was gentle to them and favoured them over the two veiled worlds of their time by guiding them to the lifting of the first veil, is One who guides them a second time. So just as He did not desire any evil for them at the time of the first guidance, likewise at the time of the second guidance He only desires good for them;
وَاتَّقُوا يَوْمًا لَا تَجْزِي نَفْسٌ عَنْ نَفْسٍ شَيْئًا وَلَا يُقْبَلُ مِنْهَا شَفَاعَةٌ وَلَا يُؤْخَذُ مِنْهَا عَدْلٌ وَلَا هُمْ يُنْصَرُونَ
📘 and fear the day when, that is, when the attribute of [divine] overwhelming power discloses itself, no soul for another shall give satisfaction, none shall avail [another], because no one will have that power, and no intercession shall be accepted from it, because there will be no intercession or assistance, since they shall all be deprived of attributes and acts, as [the poet] says: 'Nor do you see the lizard slip into its burrow then'; nor any compensation be taken, that is, [no] ransom, since no one will have any possessions, neither shall they be helped, because no one other than Him, exalted be He, will have power and [the power to] provide assistance.
وَإِذْ نَجَّيْنَاكُمْ مِنْ آلِ فِرْعَوْنَ يَسُومُونَكُمْ سُوءَ الْعَذَابِ يُذَبِّحُونَ أَبْنَاءَكُمْ وَيَسْتَحْيُونَ نِسَاءَكُمْ ۚ وَفِي ذَٰلِكُمْ بَلَاءٌ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ عَظِيمٌ
📘 And when We delivered you from the folk of Pharaoh: its exoteric aspect and its explanation is as it appears, reminding [them] of the favours to incite love [on their part], while its esoteric aspect and interpretation [is]: And when We delivered you from the folk of Pharaoh, the [evil-]commanding soul (al-nafs al-ammāra) that is veiled by its own egoism thinks itself superior to the Master of Existence; Egypt is the city of the body which, together with its faculties of estimation, imagination, evacuation, wrath, passion and the spiritual powers, namely the sons of God's close friend, Jacob, have enslaved the spirit, the natural powers of the body in the form of the external senses, as well as the vegetative powers; who were visiting you with evil chastisement, charging you with difficult hardships, toil and heavy labour when you [attempt to] secure goods and and store them away eagerly and expectantly, and [when] you organise your sources of nourishment and clothing and other things for which the eager among the children of this world toil; enslaving you by making you think of and concern yourselves [only] with the supervision of such [matters], while they are concerned in securing their pleasures, which [in fact] is [their] chastisement, since these [pleasures] prevent you from your [own] pleasures, slaughtering your sons, namely, those spiritual powers, [severing them] from the speculative rational [faculties] and the practical rational [faculties], the two that constitute the two eyes of the heart, the speculative right one and the practical left one, as well [slaughtering your] understanding which is the hearing [faculty] of the heart, and the mystery that is the heart of the heart and reflection and remembrance; and sparing your women, the above-mentioned natural powers, by preventing the former group from acts specific to subjugation and seizure, veiling it from the life and support of the light of the spirit; and by enabling and giving stability to the second group over its acts; and therein, [in that] deliverance, for you was a tremendous trial, a tremendous favour, from your Lord, namely the grace of being able to inspect the attributes of His majesty and beauty; or [it means] in that chastisement there is for you a tremendous affliction, namely, the affliction of being veiled, of privation and removal, for a trial, which is a test, ensues from these. God, exalted be He, says: And We tried them with good things and evil things [Q. 7:168].
أُولَٰئِكَ عَلَىٰ هُدًى مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ ۖ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ
📘 Those are upon a guidance from their Lord. Here you have the great triumph and the worthy praise. Here you have good fortune without end and generous bounty without limit. He has opened up the door of perspicacity for them and put into effect the gaze of solicitude inside their hearts. He has lit up the lamp of guidance in their hearts so that what is unseen for others is apparent to them. What for others is a report is for them face-to-face vision. Anas ibn Mālik said that he went before ʿUthmān ʿAffān, having seen in the road a woman and considered her beautiful traits. ʿUthmān said, “One of you who has entered in upon me has the traces of adultery appearing in his eyes.” Anas said, “Is there revelation after God's Messenger?” He said, “No, but there is insight, proof, and truthful perspicacity. The Prophet said, 'Be wary of the perspicacity of the man of faith, for he gazes with the light of God.'” A pir was asked what perspicacity is. He answered, “Spirits that move about in the Dominion gazing on the meanings of the unseen things. Then they speak about the secrets of the Real with the speech of contemplation, not the speech of opinion and reckoning.” In this meaning someone sang, May I be a ransom for the men dwelling in the Unseen, their secret cores roaming in all that is there! In the Unseen their secret cores crave from the Real a locus of witnessing to which the people have no access. They encounter the holy spirit in their secret cores and in meaning they remain dwelling with it. They are men who have proximity and presence in the Unseen, while their souls have been slain by their finding. Sarī SaqaṬī was Junayd's master. One day he said to Junayd, “Speak to the people and give them advice, for it is time for you to speak.” Junayd said, “I did not see myself like that and saw no worthiness in myself. Then one night I saw MuṣṬafā in a dream, and it was the night before Friday. He said to me, 'Speak to the people!' That same night I got up and before morning went to the door of Sarī. I knocked at the door, and Sarī said, 'You will not assent to me before they tell you to do so?'” The next day Junayd sat in the congregational mosque and news spread in the city that he was going to speak.
وَإِذْ فَرَقْنَا بِكُمُ الْبَحْرَ فَأَنْجَيْنَاكُمْ وَأَغْرَقْنَا آلَ فِرْعَوْنَ وَأَنْتُمْ تَنْظُرُونَ
📘 And when We divided, by your presence (wujūd), [for you] the sea, that is, the black clamouring sea that is the corporeal substratum when it was parted by your presence as the earth is parted by [rising] plants; and We delivered you, by disengaging you therefrom, and drowned Pharaoh's folk, namely, [drowning] the ego-centric power in it by forcing it to cling to it and its destruction on account of its corruption, while you were [beholding], witnessing that. Accordingly one can interpret the Children of Israel at the beginning of the address as [representing] those spiritual powers; the favour by which He favoured them as the guidance [He gave them] to the acceptance of the lights effusing upon these [powers] from the world of the spirit and [to] the reception of the gnostic sciences and wisdoms and their fulfilment of the covenant and their projecting forth of what is centred in these [powers] in accordance with the initial preparedness in the way of the proofs of unity and the universal meanings that lie dormant within them through purification and the performance of acts specific to these. His fulfilment of the covenant with them is the effusion of the light of perfection upon these [powers] when they give what is due to the light of preparedness by way of purification and employing what they possess in the way of meanings. If you are to be in awe of something, then be in awe of the veiling [from you] of My lights upon the disappearance of your preparedness; and believe, that is to say, and accept what is effused upon you by Me in the way of luminous radiations and auspicious thoughts form the Unseen as verification [from Me] of the light of primordial nature [contained] within your preparedness. And do not be among the foremost rank of those veiled from the acceptance of these [from Me] by orienting yourselves towards the lower aspect. And do not exchange these for the pleasures of the soul and what it seeks. And do not muddle the truth of the spiritual sciences and the holy lights with the false demands of the senses and the attributes of the soul, suppressing those lights and sciences by allowing these to manifest themselves upon you. And establish and maintain your orientation towards the Presence of the Spirit and towards the fulfilment of Its command.
وَإِذْ وَاعَدْنَا مُوسَىٰ أَرْبَعِينَ لَيْلَةً ثُمَّ اتَّخَذْتُمُ الْعِجْلَ مِنْ بَعْدِهِ وَأَنْتُمْ ظَالِمُونَ
📘 And when We appointed for Moses, after concluding his struggle against Pharaoh's folk and destroying them, forty nights, during which he will devote himself exclusively to Us so that the natural coverings that had veiled his heart from the nature of light would be lifted during the forty [days] in which his body was being created out of the fetal form and while he was veiled as a result of this formation from [his] primordial nature - as reported in a ḥadīth: 'He fermented the clay from which Adam was made in His hand for forty mornings' - [and] from his heart's aspect, and so that the wisdom of the Torah should emerge from his heart and manifest itself upon his tongue; then you took to yourselves [the Calf after him], the calf of the deficient animal soul as a god after his separating himself from you and his absence from you; and you were evildoers, assigning worship where it does not belong.
ثُمَّ عَفَوْنَا عَنْكُمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ ذَٰلِكَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ
📘 Then We pardoned you after that, your grotesque deed and vile transgression, through your repentance upon Moses's return to you, [so that you might be thankful] so that you might be grateful for the grace of My pardon by visualising that grace as coming from the Gracious One and [so that you might] prepare to accept the self-disclosure of the attribute of Grace. According to another interpretation [it means]: 'And We appointed for Moses the heart upon his becoming attached to the body and veiled from his people, the spiritual powers, for the forty nights during which his corporeal structure was being created; then you took to worshipping the calf of the animal soul, [Moses] as the infant, after his absence in the state of childhood; then We pardoned you after that, worship by the real maturation [of Moses] and the self-manifestation of the light of the heart upon your disengagement, so that you might be thankful for the grace of My granting you success in [attaining] that disengagement and My preparing [for you] of the means for your perfection by your following of the path of My attributes.
وَإِذْ آتَيْنَا مُوسَى الْكِتَابَ وَالْفُرْقَانَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَهْتَدُونَ
📘 And when We gave Moses the book and the discernment. He gave Moses' folk the discernment outwardly, and He placed the discernment in the inwardness of MuḤammad's folk in addition to their outwardness. The inner discernment is a light in the heart of the friends through which they separate truth from falsehood. It is alluded to in His words, “If you are wary of God, He will appoint for you a criterion” [8:29]. This is why MuṣṬafā said to Wābisa, “Ask for a pronouncement from your heart!” He also said, “Be wary of the perspicacity of the man of faith, for he gazes with the light of God.” When this discernment appears in someone's inwardness, his drinking and aspiration are purified of the dust of others; the walkway of his desire is protected from the debris of customs, the carpet of his days is shaken loose of the opacities of mortal nature, and the eyes of his moment are kept away from the hand of newly arrived things. Then, things that are reports for others are for him face-to-face vision; what had been the knowl- edge of certainty becomes the eye of certainty. No newly arrived thing enters existence in the empire without his heart being aware of it. MuṣṬafā was asked if this has a mark. He said, “When light enters the heart, the breast is expanded.” Its mark is that the breast is opened up to the divine light. When the breast is opened up, the aspiration becomes high, every sorrow is comforted, scatteredness turns into togetherness, the carpet of subsistence is spread, the rug of annihilation is rolled up, the corner of heartaches is closed off, and the door to the garden of union is opened. In joy and coquetry, he says with the tongue of the state, “In the quarter of hope, I have a delightful home, in the story of passion, I have a delightful problem. Why do you ask details about my heart, O spirit of the world? Know, in short, that I have a delighted heart.”
وَإِذْ قَالَ مُوسَىٰ لِقَوْمِهِ يَا قَوْمِ إِنَّكُمْ ظَلَمْتُمْ أَنْفُسَكُمْ بِاتِّخَاذِكُمُ الْعِجْلَ فَتُوبُوا إِلَىٰ بَارِئِكُمْ فَاقْتُلُوا أَنْفُسَكُمْ ذَٰلِكُمْ خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ عِنْدَ بَارِئِكُمْ فَتَابَ عَلَيْكُمْ ۚ إِنَّهُ هُوَ التَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيمُ
📘 When Moses said to his people, “O my people, you have wronged your souls by taking up the calf, so kill your own souls! That is better for you with your Creator.” Moses said to his people: “Take care not to suppose that your worship of the calf has harmed the majesty of the Self-Sufficient or that it is a defect for His kingship and lordhood. Rather, the harm and bad fortune belong to you. If something bad has happened, it has happened to you by your being held back from a Lord like Him. Otherwise, He has plenty of servants like you. Sahl ʿAbdallāh Tustarī said, “God spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, and the exaltedness of the Lord God's speech made that mountain like carnelian. Moses' turned his gaze to himself: 'Who is like me? For the God of the world and the world's folk is talking to me without intermediary, and my standing place has turned into carnelian!' “God did not let that pass. He said, 'O Moses, look once right and left. What do you see?' “Moses looked around and saw a thousand mountains of carnelian like Mount Sinai, on each mountain a man in the form of Moses, wearing a blanket like him, a hat on his head, a staff in hand, and talking to the Lord of the universe.” The tongue of Moses' state was saying, “I fancied that you were one body with me. How could I know that you're everyone's familiar?” A poor man was seen whispering secretly with God and saying, “O God, approve of me as your lover. If You do not approve of me as a lover, approve of me as Your servant. If You do not ap- prove of my as a servant, approve of me as Your dog.” He was saying, “O Lord, accept me for friendship. If I am not worthy of friendship, accept me for servanthood. If I am not worthy of servanthood, accept me for doghood, so that I may be the dog of Your threshold.” O Friend, if you do not give me the forefront of respect, at least keep me outside the door like the dogs. So kill your own souls! That is better for you with your Creator. By way of inwardness, this is ad- dressed to the chevaliers of the Tariqah: “Cut off the heads of your souls with the sword of struggle so that you may reach Me.
وَإِذْ قُلْتُمْ يَا مُوسَىٰ لَنْ نُؤْمِنَ لَكَ حَتَّىٰ نَرَى اللَّهَ جَهْرَةً فَأَخَذَتْكُمُ الصَّاعِقَةُ وَأَنْتُمْ تَنْظُرُونَ
📘 And when you said, 'O Moses, we will not believe, on account of your guidance to the real faith until you reach the station of witnessing and eyewitness [you till we see God openly']; and the thunderbolt, of death, took you, which is annihilation in the self-disclosure of the Essence, while you were beholding, [while] you were observing and witnessing.
ثُمَّ بَعَثْنَاكُمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَوْتِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ
📘 Then We raised you up, with real life and subsistence after annihilation, after you were dead, so that you might be thankful, so that you might be grateful for the grace of unity and arrival by means of wayfaring to God.
وَظَلَّلْنَا عَلَيْكُمُ الْغَمَامَ وَأَنْزَلْنَا عَلَيْكُمُ الْمَنَّ وَالسَّلْوَىٰ ۖ كُلُوا مِنْ طَيِّبَاتِ مَا رَزَقْنَاكُمْ ۖ وَمَا ظَلَمُونَا وَلَٰكِنْ كَانُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ يَظْلِمُونَ
📘 And We shaded you with clouds. This is an allusion to the Lord's gentleness and generosity. His loving kindness toward the ser- vants is such that the Lord of the Worlds says, “O hapless child of Adam! Why do you not love Me? For I am worthy of love. Why do you not trade with Me? For I am munificent and bounteous. Why do you not engage in transactions with Me? For I am a bestower who is ample in bestowal. My mercy is not tight, nor do I hold back blessings from anyone. “Look at what I did with the Children of Israel, how many blessings I poured down upon them, how much I caressed them in that empty desert! After they had turned away and disobeyed My command, I did not let them go to ruin. I commanded the mist to cast a shadow over them, I com- manded the wind to place roasted birds in their hands, I commanded the clouds to rain down manna and honey on them, I commanded the pillar of light to give them brightness on the nights when there was no moon. When a child came into existence from its mother in that empty desert, it came into existence with the set of clothes that it needed. Then, as the child grew up, those clothes never became too old for it, nor did they become dirty. In the state of that person's life, the clothes were his ornament, and in the state of his death, his shroud. What blessing was there that I did not pour down upon them? In what manner did I fail to caress them? Yet they did not know My measure, nor did they show gratitude for the blessings. “O hapless one! No one wants you the way I want you. When you come, no one will buy you the way I buy. When you sell yourself, others will buy only the faultless, but I buy the faulty. Others call out for the loyal, but I call out for the disloyal. If you come in old age, I will adorn the whole empire to honor you, and if you talk to Me in the fullness of youth, I will take you into My shelter tomorrow on the Day of Resurrection.” People disobey for a lifetime, then return in shame- We say to them, “Welcome, be at ease, greetings!”
وَإِذْ قُلْنَا ادْخُلُوا هَٰذِهِ الْقَرْيَةَ فَكُلُوا مِنْهَا حَيْثُ شِئْتُمْ رَغَدًا وَادْخُلُوا الْبَابَ سُجَّدًا وَقُولُوا حِطَّةٌ نَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ خَطَايَاكُمْ ۚ وَسَنَزِيدُ الْمُحْسِنِينَ
📘 And when We said, 'Enter this city, that is, the lush garden of the sanctified spirit which is the station of the witnessing, [and eat freely therein wherever you will,] and enter it at the gate, of satisfaction, as cited by the ḥadīth - satisfaction with God's decree is the greatest gate to God - prostrating, bent down, submissive to what rushes upon you of the self-disclosures of the descriptions, the acts and the bearing [ḍ]. As for His saying: and say, 'exoneration', that is, ask that God exonerate the sins of your attributes, character traits and acts, and We shall forgive you your transgressions, your variegations and the sins issuing from your states, and We shall give more to those who are virtuous', that is the witnessers - on account of his [the Prophet's] statement: 'Virtuousness is to worship God as though you could see Him; [We shall increase them in] the reward of their virtuousness, which is the unveiling of the Essence, or their virtuousness by wayfaring towards God.
فَبَدَّلَ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا قَوْلًا غَيْرَ الَّذِي قِيلَ لَهُمْ فَأَنْزَلْنَا عَلَى الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا رِجْزًا مِنَ السَّمَاءِ بِمَا كَانُوا يَفْسُقُونَ
📘 Then the evildoers substituted a saying other than that which had been said to them, that is, they demanded to be described by the attributes of the soul desiring its share instead of demanding to be described by the attributes of God and desiring spiritual shares, as is reported of them [that they would say]: ḥinṭan samqāthā, which means, 'we seek the nourishment of the soul'; so We sent down upon the evildoers, specifically, wrath [from the heaven for their wickedness], chastisement, straits, constraint and darkness by the imprisonment of the soul and in captivity with the shackles of desire, and through veiling within the bonds of caprice, and in privation and degradement through love of lower matter and its transformation and evanescence by the overwhelming power of the spirit heaven, and [by] the withholding of gentleness and rest from them on account of their wickedness, that is, their seceding from obedience of the heart to obedience of the soul. We have left out the second interpretation because it is very close to this one.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا سَوَاءٌ عَلَيْهِمْ أَأَنْذَرْتَهُمْ أَمْ لَمْ تُنْذِرْهُمْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ
📘 Surely it is the same for those who disbelieve whether thou warnest them or thou warnest them not; they will not have faith. From the beginning of the surah to this point is an allusion to the Lord's bounty and gentleness with familiars and friends. This verse alludes to His severity and justice toward the strangers and enemies. God has both bounty and justice. If He acts with justice, that is fitting, and if He is bounteous, that is suitable for Him. But not everything that is fitting in justice is suitable for bounty, whereas everything suitable for bounty is fitting for justice. He calls one to bounty, and the decree is His. He drives another to justice, and the will is His. What is good is that bounty rules over justice, and justice is caught in bounty's hand. Justice is silent before bounty, and the ring of union is in bounty's ear. Do you not see that justice travels along with Him, and happy is he whose refuge is bounty? The fruit of bounty is felicity and triumph, and the result of justice is wretchedness and estrangement. Both are deeds already done. “The Pen has dried on what will be until the Day of Resurrection.” It is a beginningless decree and a work discarded and finished. “When someone's lot has set him down, his eagerness will not stir him up.” The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, what will come of what You do not want? And when will he come whom you have not called? What does the unplanted get from water? What answer is given to the unworthy? What use to the bitter that sweet water is its neighbor? What gain to the thorn that the rose's fragrance is next to it? The apportioning has gone before, nothing to be added or taken away. What can be done? The Greatest Judge wants it this way. Satan lived in the highest horizon and performed thousands of acts of worship. What profit did it have, for he was not worthy. 'Since approval and wrath are beginningless attributes, there is no profit in shortened sleeves and determined steps.'” One day ʿUmar KhaṬṬāb came across Iblis. He seized him by the collar and said, “I have been seeking you for a long time.
۞ وَإِذِ اسْتَسْقَىٰ مُوسَىٰ لِقَوْمِهِ فَقُلْنَا اضْرِبْ بِعَصَاكَ الْحَجَرَ ۖ فَانْفَجَرَتْ مِنْهُ اثْنَتَا عَشْرَةَ عَيْنًا ۖ قَدْ عَلِمَ كُلُّ أُنَاسٍ مَشْرَبَهُمْ ۖ كُلُوا وَاشْرَبُوا مِنْ رِزْقِ اللَّهِ وَلَا تَعْثَوْا فِي الْأَرْضِ مُفْسِدِينَ
📘 And when Moses sought water, sought the sending down of the rains of knowledge, wisdoms and meanings from the heaven of the spirit, [for his people,] We said, We commanded him to strike the staff of the soul on which he supported himself in his attachment to the body and his remaining fixed on the earth reflecting upon the rock of the brain, which is the foundation point of the intellect: ['Strike with your staff the rock,] and there exploded from it twelve fountains, of the waters of knowledge according to the number of human emotions, which are the five outer senses, the five inner ones as well as the considerative rational and practical [ones]: that is why the Prophet said: 'Whoever loses a sense, then verily he has lost knowledge'; each people came to know their drinking-place, that is to say, the people of every [kind of] science [came to know] the source of that science, such as the artisans, the scholars working from the source that is the practical intellect; the wise and the gnostics [from the source that is] the considerative [intellect]; the tanners from the science of seeing colours; the music makers from the science of sounds and so on. According to the second interpretation: We commanded Moses, the heart, to strike the staff of the soul upon the rock of the brain and there exploded from it twelve fountains, which are the mentioned emotions each of which is specific to one of the twelve mentioned powers, namely, the tribes of Jacob, the spirit. Each one came to know its drinking-place. 'Eat and drink of that which God has provided, that is, profit from what God has provided you in the way of knowledge, action, states and stations; and do not be degenerate in the earth, seeking corruption', do not go to excess in corruption out of ignorance.
وَإِذْ قُلْتُمْ يَا مُوسَىٰ لَنْ نَصْبِرَ عَلَىٰ طَعَامٍ وَاحِدٍ فَادْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ يُخْرِجْ لَنَا مِمَّا تُنْبِتُ الْأَرْضُ مِنْ بَقْلِهَا وَقِثَّائِهَا وَفُومِهَا وَعَدَسِهَا وَبَصَلِهَا ۖ قَالَ أَتَسْتَبْدِلُونَ الَّذِي هُوَ أَدْنَىٰ بِالَّذِي هُوَ خَيْرٌ ۚ اهْبِطُوا مِصْرًا فَإِنَّ لَكُمْ مَا سَأَلْتُمْ ۗ وَضُرِبَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ الذِّلَّةُ وَالْمَسْكَنَةُ وَبَاءُوا بِغَضَبٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ ۗ ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ كَانُوا يَكْفُرُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَيَقْتُلُونَ النَّبِيِّينَ بِغَيْرِ الْحَقِّ ۗ ذَٰلِكَ بِمَا عَصَوْا وَكَانُوا يَعْتَدُونَ
📘 [And when you said,] 'Moses, we will not endure one sort of food, that is, spiritual nourishment in the way of science, gnosis and widsom; pray to your Lord for us, [that He may bring forth for us of what the earth produces - green herbs, cucumbers, garlic, lentils, onions'; He said, 'Would you exchange what is better with what is lowlierḍ'] Pray to your Lord that provide for us generously and grant us dispensation with regard to what the earth of our souls produces in the way of vile passions, base pleasures and cold amusements and [with regard to] all that comprehends the shares of the soul and its chastisement.'Go down to a city, the city of the body, you shall have, therein, what you demanded'; And abasement, the concomitant of the pursuit of passions and the eager desire to acquire possessions, and wretchedness, that is, constant need and constant abiding in the lower aspect [were cast upon them]; and they incurred, they deserved, God's wrath, distance and banishment, that was because, of their veiling themselves from God's signs and His self-disclosures: the remainder is manifest [enough]. According to the second sense, [because of] their slaying of the prophets of the hearts without any established motive against them that would require such [a response], nay by their sheer falsehood in disobeying the commands of the hearts and the intellects and their animosity towards the manifestation [of these commands] they used to disbelieve the signs of God and slay prophets without right; that was because they disobeyed, and they were transgressors.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَالَّذِينَ هَادُوا وَالنَّصَارَىٰ وَالصَّابِئِينَ مَنْ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا فَلَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
📘 Surely those who believe, out of traditional faith, and [and those of Jewry] the exotericists and [the Christians] the esotericists and those [Sabaeans] who worshipped the angels of the intellects through their being veiled by intelligibles and [those who worshipped] the planets of the ego-centric powers through their being veiled by illusory and imaginative things; whoever, from among them, believes, out of real faith, in God and the Last Day, being certain of the knowledge of Unity and the Resurrection, and performs righteous deeds, that make them good for the encounter with God and the attainment of felicity at the final return - their wage is, their reward shall be the abiding spiritual [reward], with their Lord, in the way of the Gardens of the attributes and the acts, and no fear shall befall them, from the penalties of their acts, neither shall they grieve, because of any passing of the self-disclosures of the attributes. The sentence is a parenthetical one within the address to the Children of Israel.
وَإِذْ أَخَذْنَا مِيثَاقَكُمْ وَرَفَعْنَا فَوْقَكُمُ الطُّورَ خُذُوا مَا آتَيْنَاكُمْ بِقُوَّةٍ وَاذْكُرُوا مَا فِيهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ
📘 And when We made a covenant with you, that is, your former covenant or [your] next one, taken from them in the Torah or [taken from them] on the basis of rational proofs, to affirm the Unity of the acts and the attributes, and We raised above you the Mount, the mountain of the brain to enable [you] to understand and accept meanings, and We said: 'Take, that is, accept, forcefully what We have given you, of the Torah or [of] the Distinguishing Book of the Intellect, [accept it] with earnestness, and remember what is in it, heed what the wisdoms, gnoses, sciences and [divine] laws, so that you might preserve yourselves', so that perhaps you might guard against [succumbing to] associating [others with God], ignorance and wickedness.
ثُمَّ تَوَلَّيْتُمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ ذَٰلِكَ ۖ فَلَوْلَا فَضْلُ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَتُهُ لَكُنْتُمْ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ
📘 Then you turned away, you refrained, thereafter, by turning towards the lower aspect, and but for God's bounty, in guiding the intellect, and His mercy towards you, through the light of insight and [the light of] the Law, you would have been among the losers.
وَلَقَدْ عَلِمْتُمُ الَّذِينَ اعْتَدَوْا مِنْكُمْ فِي السَّبْتِ فَقُلْنَا لَهُمْ كُونُوا قِرَدَةً خَاسِئِينَ
📘 And verily you know [that there were those among you who transgressed the Sabbath]: know that if mankind were neglected, abandoned and left to their own natures, they would have delved into and ensconced themselves in carnal pleasures and coverings of darkness because of their voracious appetite for and their being accustomed to these since infancy and childhood, until finally their preparednesses would disappear and they descend from the level of humanity and are transfigured, as God has said: Those whom God has cursed and with whom He is wroth, and some of whom He has turned into apes and swine [Q. 5:60]. But if they are guarded and kept in check by means of rational and divine rules as well as wisdoms, manners, admonitions containing the promise of reward and the threat of punishment, they can progress and be illuminated. As the poet says:Such is the soul: if neglected it clings to vileness, but if dispatched towards virtues it is resplendent.That is why devotions have been instituted and [why] they are obligated to repeat them at specified times, in order to remove from them thereby the filth of [human] natures that accumulates during moments of forgetfulness and in the darkness of distractions that appear at times of engaging in pleasures and committing of lustful acts, so that then their inner being might become illumined by the light of the Presence and their hearts be revitalised in orienting themselves towards [God] the Truth instead of falling and stumbling into the abyss of the capricious soul; and that it might find rest in the refreshment of the spirit and the love of the Oneness from the estrangement of caprice and attachment of multiplicity, as he [the Prophet] said: 'Between the [obligatory] prayer and the next there is expiation for the minor sins committed as long as the grave sins are avoided'. Do you not see that he commanded them [believers] to perform the purificatory wash when in a state of greater impurity from indulging in lustful acts; ablutions when in a state of minor impurity; and upon engaging in the activities of this world during the hours of daylight and night [he commanded them] the five [ritual] prayers that remove the filth of the five senses that accumulates in the soul as a result.
فَجَعَلْنَاهَا نَكَالًا لِمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهَا وَمَا خَلْفَهَا وَمَوْعِظَةً لِلْمُتَّقِينَ
📘 [And We made it an exemplary punishment for all the former times and for the latter, and an admonition to such as who fear.]Thus for the Jews was assigned the first day of the week on account of their being the people of the origin and the manifest, and for the Christians the following [day] as they are the people of the final return, the spiritual and the hidden who relative to us come after the origin and the manifest; while for the Muslims [was assigned] the last [day of the week] which is Friday because at the end of time they would be the people of the sealing [final] prophethood and the all-comprehensive universal unity. If Saturday is taken to be the last day, according to what has been transmitted, that it is the seventh [day], then in relation to God the Truth, that is because it constitutes the world of the senses to which was made the call of the Jews, being the last of the worlds; then the world of the intellect to which was made the call of the Christians is the first [of these worlds], while Friday is the day of union and the sealing: whoever does not take into account these conventions and observances in the first place the light of his preparedness disappears and is transfigured in the way that the people of the Sabbath were transfigured because of the interdiction concerning fishing [symbolising], that is, the securing and acquisition of ego-centric shares on the Saturday. They connived regarding it by creating a pool on the seashore in which the fish would be trapped [on the Saturday] and they would fish them out on Sunday. In other words, throughout the days of the week they would store up from the waters of the sea of primordial matter (hayūla) physical mass in the pools of their homes gathering thereby a variety of foods and drinks, pleasures and distractions so that there accumulated for them ego-centric shares on the day of the Sabbath what sufficed them for the remaining days of the week during which they would be free to engage in livelihoods, artisanship and trades, as is the custom of the Jews and certain cunning Muslims to this day in some communities, so that most of their wicked dealings take place therein.
وَإِذْ قَالَ مُوسَىٰ لِقَوْمِهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُكُمْ أَنْ تَذْبَحُوا بَقَرَةً ۖ قَالُوا أَتَتَّخِذُنَا هُزُوًا ۖ قَالَ أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ أَنْ أَكُونَ مِنَ الْجَاهِلِينَ
📘 And When Moses said to his people, “God commands you to sacrifice a cow.” This story of the cow of the Children of Israel in these verses and the mention of its attributes is one of the subtle points of wisdom and exalted pearls of the Qur'an. The Qur'an itself is the all-encom- passing ocean. Many are the kingly pearls and night-brightening gems found in the ocean's depths. You should read everything that the Exalted Lord said about the cow of the Children of Israel as an allusion to your own attributes. Then you will reach the station of worthiness to dive into this ocean and He will give you access to its deposited wonders and unseen pearls. Altogether the attributes that He clarified in these verses are three: first, neither old nor virgin [2:68]; second, golden, bright her color [2:69]; third, not abased to plow the earth [2:71]. First, neither old nor virgin. He says it should not be broken down and old, nor newly born and immature. In other words, the feet of these chevaliers will go straight in the circle of the Tariqah when the intoxication and greediness of youth no longer veil them, and when the weakness of old age does not hinder them. Do you not see that revelation reached MuṣṬafā when he was not a newly born youngster, nor had his days reached the worst state of life [16:70]? If there had been a state more complete, revelation would have reached him at its time. Whenever desire for God pairs itself with the intoxication of youth, there is fear of the high- waymen. It is rare that a youngster in his new desire remains secure from the highwaymen. If it does happen in the empire, it seldom does. This is why MuṣṬafā said, “Your Lord marvels at a young man who has no youthful fervor.” The second attribute is golden, bright her color, gladdening the gazers. When the chevaliers step into the field of the Tariqah in the state of the perfection of mortal nature and stand straight in it, the Unity will bring them into the color of love, and the color of love is colorlessness. It will wash them of anything mixed with colors-We shall strip away all the rancor that is in their breasts [7:43].
قَالُوا ادْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ يُبَيِّنْ لَنَا مَا هِيَ ۚ قَالَ إِنَّهُ يَقُولُ إِنَّهَا بَقَرَةٌ لَا فَارِضٌ وَلَا بِكْرٌ عَوَانٌ بَيْنَ ذَٰلِكَ ۖ فَافْعَلُوا مَا تُؤْمَرُونَ
📘 They said, 'Pray to your Lord for us, that He may make clear to us what she may be', that is, ask your Lord for us, 'What is itḍ' He said, 'He says she is a cow neither old, in other words, neither of old age such that its preparedness has disappeared and it is engrained in its convictions with its voraciousness for its habits, as with the Sufi after who after the age of 40 becomes [spiritually] 'cold'; nor virgin, a youth, whose preparedness falls short of what is [spiritually] required of her and who finds it difficult to bear spiritual discipline, subjugated as she is by the natural powers and her own power; middling, halfway, between that, mentioned; [so do what you have been commanded'].
قَالُوا ادْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ يُبَيِّنْ لَنَا مَا لَوْنُهَا ۚ قَالَ إِنَّهُ يَقُولُ إِنَّهَا بَقَرَةٌ صَفْرَاءُ فَاقِعٌ لَوْنُهَا تَسُرُّ النَّاظِرِينَ
📘 [They said, 'Pray to your Lord for us, that He make clear to us what her colour may be'. He said, 'He says she shall be a cow] golden, because the colour of the body is black, lacking as it is in luminosity in the first place; the colour of the vegetative soul is green because of the manifestation in it of luminosity, while the prevalence of black in it is on account of its inability to perceive; the colour of the heart is white because of its being disengaged from the body, its perceptive capability and the perfection of its luminosity. Necessarily then the colour of the animal soul in speechless animals is red because of the composite nature of the luminosity of its perception and the blackness of its attachment to the body, since 'red' is a colour between white and black and is composed of them both, albeit the black predominates; it [the soul] is yellow in human beings because the luminosity of its perception predominates by its adjacency to the heart, for yellow is red coloured by white; bright in colour, due to the purity of its preparedness and the radiance of the beam of the heart's light upon it; gladdening to beholders', because of the strength of its preparedness and its radiance. The 'beholders' are the perfect individuals who look upon preparednesses because of their obligatory love for the prepared who are able to see and their tasting in their presence.
خَتَمَ اللَّهُ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِمْ وَعَلَىٰ سَمْعِهِمْ ۖ وَعَلَىٰ أَبْصَارِهِمْ غِشَاوَةٌ ۖ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ
📘 God has sealed their hearts. The seal of estrangement was placed on someone's heart, and he remained in unbelief. The seal of perplexity was placed on another's heart, and he remained in lassitude. That one was a stranger, driven away, the road lost, and this one was helpless, stuck in the road, kept back from the Friend by other than the Friend. Any talk that keeps you back from the road-let it be unbelief or faith. Any picture that holds you back from the Friend-let it be ugly or beautiful. [DS 51] Not everyone who escapes from unbelief joins with the Real, unless he has escaped from himself. Someone who escapes from unbelief reaches familiarity, but someone who escapes from himself reaches friendship. A thousand way stations stand between familiarity and friendship, and a thou- sand valleys between love and the Friend. In love for You I have never arrived at a way station in which the mind was not bewildered at the arrival.
قَالُوا ادْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ يُبَيِّنْ لَنَا مَا هِيَ إِنَّ الْبَقَرَ تَشَابَهَ عَلَيْنَا وَإِنَّا إِنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ لَمُهْتَدُونَ
📘 [They said, 'Pray to your Lord for us, that He make clear to us what she may be;] the cows are all alike to us, because of the multiplicity of cows with such descriptions, that is, the multipicity of the kinds of prepared individuals; but not every prepared one is a seeker, for, as they say, not every nature accepts and not every accepting one is a seeker and not every seeker is patient and not every patient one is a finder; and if God wills, we shall then be guided', to the sacrifice of this cow. Their saying 'if God wills' is evidence of their preparedness, knowing as they do that affairs are [always] dependent upon the will of God and facilitated by His granting of success; that is why the Messenger of God said, 'Had they not made it conditional [upon God's will], they would not have found her for all eternity'.
قَالَ إِنَّهُ يَقُولُ إِنَّهَا بَقَرَةٌ لَا ذَلُولٌ تُثِيرُ الْأَرْضَ وَلَا تَسْقِي الْحَرْثَ مُسَلَّمَةٌ لَا شِيَةَ فِيهَا ۚ قَالُوا الْآنَ جِئْتَ بِالْحَقِّ ۚ فَذَبَحُوهَا وَمَا كَادُوا يَفْعَلُونَ
📘 [He said, 'He says she shall be a cow] not broken, made submissive and pliant to the command of the Law, to plough the earth, the earth of preparedness with righteous deeds and acts of worship, or to water the tillage, the tillage of gnoses and wisdoms that reside therein potentially by exhausting the waters of acquired sciences and piercing reflections, since a cow of this kind does not need to be sacrificed; one handed over, its owners had left it to graze without being shepherded by exotericisms (rusūm), habits, laws and manners; with no blemish on her', that is, it does not have any convictions or dogma engrained in it for not being suitable for sacrifice. [They said, 'Now] you have brought the truth', firm [truth] illustrating the prepared one who yearns and seeks perfection] and so they sacrificed her, even though they very nearly did not, because of their many questions, exaggerations and probing in the search and scrutiny of her state, and [because of] their superfluous talk in the attempt to seek clarification regarding her, all of which proves how the soul refuses to submit quickly and refrain from spiritual discipline and the prevalence upon it of curiosity: their difficulty in [finding] what they sought and their procrastination regarding it is because of that. That is why the Messenger of God said: 'Had they seized the nearest cow and sacrificed them it would have sufficed them, but they made it more difficult and so God made it more difficult for them. In other words, had they not been so obstrusive in seeking her out and asking [about her] what they sought would not have been so difficult for them on account of the strength of their acceptance and their will: the one who is compliant is easy to lead. The Prophet forbade excessive questioning, saying 'Verily too much questioning destroyed those before you'. God, exalted be He, says: do not ask about things, which if disclosed to you, would trouble you [Q. 5:101]. The story of this is that a calf with that description was born to an old man from among the Children of Israel who had an infant son. He brought it to his old wife and told her that it would be this infant's and that she should let it graze freely until he comes of age, that perhaps it might be of benefit to him.
وَإِذْ قَتَلْتُمْ نَفْسًا فَادَّارَأْتُمْ فِيهَا ۖ وَاللَّهُ مُخْرِجٌ مَا كُنْتُمْ تَكْتُمُونَ
📘 And when you killed a living soul, and disputed thereon, an allusion to the elucidation of the reason behind the command to sacrifice a cow, which is that a rich old man from among the Children of Israel had a son, a young man, and he was killed by two of his paternal cousins, or others as well, who coveted the inheritance he would have received from his father. They dumped him on the road somewhere between [the dwelling-places of] the [twelve] tribes of the Children of Israel and each denied his murder. The command then came to sacrifice a cow and strike him with parts of her to bring him back to life so that he might inform [them] of his murderer. The young man then is the heart and the son of the spirit who was rich through the wealth of gnoses and wisdoms; his murder was a denial to him of his true life and the removal from him of true love which was his life after being captured by the two faculties of lust and wrath, namely, his two cousins - the animal soul or the totality of its powers. For the spirit and the soul are brothers by virtue of their effusion and birth from the same father, the active intellect, referred to as the Holy Spirit, [if understood] by analogy with what the ḥadīth states: 'Be kind to your aunt, the date-palm, for it was created from the surplus of Adam's clay'. The animal soul is the aunt of the perfect vegetative soul, if this [latter] is taken to be the aunt of the human soul. They slew him because they coveted the use of the rational meanings and wisdoms - that which constituted his inheritance from his father - to actualise their demands, their perfections and their pleasures by all manner of tricks, strategem and the concocting of ideas. They dumped him on the roads of spiritual and natural powers between where they lie. Their denial to one another of his murder was [the attempt] to transfer every faculty that produces corruption and sin to the other, and [to transfer] righteousness and innocence to itself, because of the mutual struggling and contending [of these powers] with regard to their acts and their pleasures, and [because of] the fact that each of these is veiled behind what suits it and [veiled] from what suits another, as well its deeming its own as righteous while that of its counterpart as corrupt; and God disclosed what you were hiding, of the light of the heart and its life by your capture of it.
فَقُلْنَا اضْرِبُوهُ بِبَعْضِهَا ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ يُحْيِي اللَّهُ الْمَوْتَىٰ وَيُرِيكُمْ آيَاتِهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ
📘 So We said, 'Smite him with part of it', with its tail or its tongue, according to what is recounted in the story, so that he might come back to life and inform you of the [identity of his] killer. The smiting [of him] with the tail is alludes to rendering the soul dead while keeping alive its weakest and last faculties and that aspect [of it] that adjoins the vegetative soul and constitutes a link with it, such as the sense of touch, for example, and all of the external senses, namely, its [the cow's] tail. The smiting [of the dead man] with the tongue alludes to the rectification of its character traits and its faculties, while keeping alive its [faculty of] reflection, namely, its tongue. Both of these [smitings] represent two paths: [the first is] the path of spiritual discipline and the mortification of wrath and lust, as is the way of the Sufi, [a path] which is more befitting of those powerful criminal souls of conquest and transgression' [the second is] the path of securing and rectifying character traits, which is the way of the scholars and the sages and which is more befitting of those weak souls and those that are pure and easily-led. They smote him and he rose, the blood gushing forth from his veins, and he informed them of [the identity of] his killers, in other words, he became alive subsisting through true life while the traces of the killing were on him because of his attachment to the body and his being polluted by his demands according to necessity. And he came to know the state of the corporeal powers in preventing him from perceiving and their veiling of him from his light. Thus God brings to life the dead, in other words, in the manner of that tremendous bringing back to life does God bring to life those who are dead through their ignorance of true practical life; and He shows you [His signs], His proofs and the signs of His attributes, so that you might understand.
ثُمَّ قَسَتْ قُلُوبُكُمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ ذَٰلِكَ فَهِيَ كَالْحِجَارَةِ أَوْ أَشَدُّ قَسْوَةً ۚ وَإِنَّ مِنَ الْحِجَارَةِ لَمَا يَتَفَجَّرُ مِنْهُ الْأَنْهَارُ ۚ وَإِنَّ مِنْهَا لَمَا يَشَّقَّقُ فَيَخْرُجُ مِنْهُ الْمَاءُ ۚ وَإِنَّ مِنْهَا لَمَا يَهْبِطُ مِنْ خَشْيَةِ اللَّهِ ۗ وَمَا اللَّهُ بِغَافِلٍ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ
📘 Then your hearts became hardened after that, so they were like stones or even harder. And there are stones from which rivers come gushing, and among them are those that split and water comes forth from them, and among them are those that fall down in fear of God. In the case of the ignorant, the hardening of the heart is unkindness, lack of mercy, and distance from the path of the Real. In the case of the recognizers, the purifiers, and the limpid, hardening is the strength of the heart, the state of stability, the perfection of knowledge, and the state of limpid- ness. Abū Bakr used to show it from himself. Whenever he saw that someone was weeping and twisting in himself because of listening to the Qur'an, he would say, “I was like that until the hearts became hardened.” This hardening is an allusion to the perfection of the state of the recognizers and the majesty of the level of the sincerely truthful. At the beginning of the work and the outset of desire the beginners shout, wail, cry, and weep, for passion has not yet fully established its rulership. When the work reaches perfection, the limpidness of recognition becomes strong and the ruling power of passion fully establishes its rulership. Then that shouting and wailing are put aside, and joy and revelry arrive. With the tongue of their state they say, “At first when passion for that beauty was new my neighbors did not sleep at night because of my weeping. Now I weep less because my passion has increased- When fire takes over, there's little smoke.” There are stones from which rivers come gushing, and among them are those that split and water comes forth from them, and among them are those that fall down in fear of God. He made hard stones more excellent than cruel hearts and superior to them. He is saying, “Water comes from stone, and it becomes soft, and in fear of God it falls into the desert. But a cruel heart in the makeup of an estranged man does not moan in fear of God or weep in remorse, nor do mercy and tenderness enter into it.” The stories say that one of God's prophets was passing through a desert and saw a small stone from which was flowing a great deal of water, much greater than the measure of the stone. The prophet stood there and wondered at its state. “What is the state of this stone? What is this water flowing from it?” The Exalted Lord brought that stone into speech for him. It said, “O prophet of the Real! This water you see is my weeping. From the day it reached me that the Exalted Lord says, 'Its fuel is men and stones' [66:6], I have wept in remorse and fear.” The prophet said, “Lord God, give it security from the Fire!” Revelation came to him, “I have given it security from the Fire.” The prophet went away and came back another day. He saw that the stone was weeping just like before-the water was flowing. He remained in wonder at that. The Exalted Lord made the stone speak again. It said, “O prophet of God! Why do you wonder at my weeping? God has given me security from the Fire. My first weeping was from remorse and sorrow, but this weeping is from happiness and gratitude.” The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, I have a long weeping in my head. I do not know if I weep from remorse or from joy. Weeping from remorse is the portion of an orphan, weeping from joy the portion of a candle. What is it to weep from joy? That story is long.”
۞ أَفَتَطْمَعُونَ أَنْ يُؤْمِنُوا لَكُمْ وَقَدْ كَانَ فَرِيقٌ مِنْهُمْ يَسْمَعُونَ كَلَامَ اللَّهِ ثُمَّ يُحَرِّفُونَهُ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا عَقَلُوهُ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ
📘 Are you then so eager [that they should believe you], that they should affirm [His] Oneness by affirming the Unity of the attributes [just] because you have been guided, seeing there is a party of them [that heard God's word, and then tampered with it], [a party them] that accepted God's attributes then distorted these by attributing them to themselves, after they had comprehended it, that is, [after] they had acted in accordance with the affirming of the unity of the attributes and what they discovered through eyewitness, even though they knew, that those attributes belonged to God, but their souls claimed these for themselves in an [impious] act of partnership [with God] when, at the point of their overwhelming of the heart, the intellect is heedless, and that is because their affirmation of the Oneness is not by any natural disposition or [spiritual] state but out of knowledge: so woe to those who write the Scripture with their hands [Q. 2:79], in other words, woe to the one in whom there subsists the remains of the attributes of the soul while he is unaware of them, or he is aware but then resorts to trickery or does not pay attention to them, so that he does and says through his own soul and its attributes and then imputes it to God in order to earn a share of the shares of the soul, nay indeed, he specifies that statement or deed and its attribution to God as a complete share for it [his soul]: but what a sin [this is] greater than which there is no [other] sin! The first three verses can be interpreted in another sense, based on correspondence (taṭbīq), so that one reads: Are you then so eager, O spiritual powers that these ego-centric powers should believe obediently because of your guidance, even as a party of them, such as [the faculties of] estimation and imagination, hear the words of God, that is to say, they seize the meanings that issue forth from God onto the heart and distort them by means of recounting [them] and many transferals and making these [meanings] partial and assigning them the laws pertaining to particulars, as in the context of dreams or incidents, and that, after they had understood these [words of God], that is to say, [after] they had perceived them in their state, even as they were aware of the distortion of these [words] as they are transferred into concomitants, similars and contraries.
وَإِذَا لَقُوا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا قَالُوا آمَنَّا وَإِذَا خَلَا بَعْضُهُمْ إِلَىٰ بَعْضٍ قَالُوا أَتُحَدِّثُونَهُمْ بِمَا فَتَحَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْكُمْ لِيُحَاجُّوكُمْ بِهِ عِنْدَ رَبِّكُمْ ۚ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ
📘 But when they encounter you upon directing themselves to you and receiving your objects of perception at the moment of your presence and when these [meanings] stand by your side or are ascending, they yield and accept the truth. [And when they meet those who believe, they say, 'We believe']but when they go in private one to another, at moments of forgetfulness they prevent one another from casting [onto others] what God has disclosed to them in the way of objects of perception that may be sensory, imaginal or estimative, so that they might compose therefrom arguments and dispute with them thereby in the Spiritual Presence before their Lord; [they say: 'Do you speak to them of what God has disclosed to you, so that they may thereby dispute with you before your Lordḍ Have you no understandingḍ'].
أَوَلَا يَعْلَمُونَ أَنَّ اللَّهَ يَعْلَمُ مَا يُسِرُّونَ وَمَا يُعْلِنُونَ
📘 Do they not know that God knows what they keep secret and what they announce? This is the speech of the Lord who is worshiped by the tawḤīd-voicers, responds to those who call, knows the state of the servants, is aware of the apparent and hidden, and calls back those who have turned away. One He calls with explicit expressions, presenting Himself as the Nurturer. He says, “Be penitent toward your Lord!” [39:54]. Another He calls with His exalted allusions and turns the face of his heart away from others to Himself. He presents His lordhood and kingship to him and says, “Do they not know that God knows what they keep secret and what they announce?” For the recognizers, this is sufficient allusion. When the Lord of the Worlds says that He knows the secret cores and is aware of the hidden things, they sweep the dust of the others from their secret cores and give scatteredness no way into their hearts. When He says that He knows the apparent, they bring truthfulness to bear in their outward interaction with God's creatures. This is why the folk of allusion have said that He knows what they keep secret is a command to watchfulness between servant and Lord, and what they announce is a command to truthfulness in interactions and settling accounts with the creatures. In one of God's books has come, “If you do not know that I see you, that is a defect in your faith. If you do know that I see you, why do you make Me the lowliest of gazers upon you?” Equivalent to this verse is what the Exalted Lord says: “He knows the treachery of the eyes and what the breasts conceal” [40:19]. There are diverse treacheries in the eyes of the lookers, because the travelers are diverse. The treachery of the eyes of the worshipers is that in the dark night, when it is time for whis- pering to God, they fall asleep and the intimacy of seclusion is lost to them. The prophet David received the revelation, “O David, he who claims to love Me is a liar if night comes, and he goes to sleep on Me. Does not every lover love to be secluded with his beloved?” God praised Abraham for this attribute when He said, “When night darkened over him” [6:76].
وَمِنْهُمْ أُمِّيُّونَ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ الْكِتَابَ إِلَّا أَمَانِيَّ وَإِنْ هُمْ إِلَّا يَظُنُّونَ
📘 And among them are the unlettered. In this verse the attribute of unletteredness is a censure of the estranged and a mark of their short- coming. In the verse where He says, “Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered prophet” [7:157], it is a praise of MuṣṬafā and a mark of his perfection. This alludes to the fact that having the same name does not mean being of the same kind. The congruence of names does not require the congruence of meanings. The position of the Folk of the Sunnah in affirming the attributes of the Real was established according to this rule: the agreement of one name with another does not bring about the agreement of meanings. God has attributes and descriptions fitting for Godhood, and creatures are far from that. Created things have created attributes, and God is pure of that. Do you not see that “exalted” is a name of God, and He called Joseph exalted [12:78]? God's exalted- ness is worthy of Him and the created thing's exaltedness is worthy of it. By the agreement of the Muslims and the attestation of most of the unbelievers, God is existent and the creatures are existent. But, the creatures exist by God's existence-giving, and God exists by His own abidance and His own being and subsistence. The Muslims agree that God is alive, and there are many living things among the created. The created thing is alive through breath and through appropriate and timely nourishment, but God is alive through His life and subsistence and through His firstness and lastness-without when, how many, or how. All the opponents of the Folk of the Sunnah say that God is maker and the created thing maker. But the created thing is maker through artifice, instrument, striving, and measure, and God is maker through power and wisdom-whatever He wants, as He wants, and whenever He wants. There are many similar things in the Qur'an. In short, God knows how He is, and He is just as He said He is, but the servant is incapable of knowing His howness. What God said about Himself should be accepted from the eyeteeth and assented to from the depth of the spirit. When someone fancies that having the same meaning is to be of the same kind, that is to go by the road of the road- less, and it is nothing but rebellion. Hoping to grasp God by imagination and seeking is absurd, and everything gained in this way will be faulty. Safety in the religion lies in accepting the mes- sage, approving of him who conveyed it, bowing the head, and putting aside seeking. Anyone who has this as his belief has gone on the right path, and his outcome will be as the Exalted Lord says:
فَوَيْلٌ لِلَّذِينَ يَكْتُبُونَ الْكِتَابَ بِأَيْدِيهِمْ ثُمَّ يَقُولُونَ هَٰذَا مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّهِ لِيَشْتَرُوا بِهِ ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا ۖ فَوَيْلٌ لَهُمْ مِمَّا كَتَبَتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَوَيْلٌ لَهُمْ مِمَّا يَكْسِبُونَ
📘 [So woe to those who write the Scripture with their hands then say, 'This is from God' that they may sell it for a small price. So woe to them for what their hands have written, and woe to them for their earnings.]
وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَقُولُ آمَنَّا بِاللَّهِ وَبِالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَمَا هُمْ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ
📘 Among the people are those who say, “We have faith in God.” This is the story of the hypocrites. The secret of the hypocrites' hypocrisy goes back to the emi- nence of MuṣṬafā in two respects, one in respect of jealousy and the other in respect of mercy. MuṣṬafā was the Real's beloved. His beauty and perfection passed beyond the limits of un- derstanding and imagination, so by virtue of jealousy God kept him behind the curtain of His protection and made the hypocrites' hypocrisy the mask of his beauty. He was veiled from the world's folk so that no one recognized him in reality, and He did not show him to anyone as he was. Thou seest them looking at thee, but they do not see [7:198]. If the hypocrites' hypocrisy had not been the mask of that shining face, all the creatures would have thrown dust on the light of the Unseen. With such a sun, such a light, and such a brilliance, a hypocrisy was needed such as that of ʿAbdallāh Ubayy Salūl and his likes. Otherwise, the radiance of that beauty would have done more to the Adamites than the beauty of Jesus did to his people such that they said, “The Messiah is the son of God” [9:30]. This can be said with a simile: The sun's disk, whose rays shine forth from the fourth heaven, has turned its face toward the fifth heaven. God created angels and entrusted that disk to them, and He created deserts full of snow in front of those angels. They lift mountain after mountain of snow from those deserts and dash them against the sun's disk so that its heat will be broken. Oth- erwise, the world would burn because of its shine and heat. In the same way, the hypocrisy of the hypocrites was thrown against the presence of that sun of good fortune. Otherwise, the creatures would all have bound the belt of associationism. But, that paragon of the world was all gentleness and mercy, as he said: “I am a guided mercy.” God says, “We sent thee only as a mercy to the worlds” [21:107].
وَقَالُوا لَنْ تَمَسَّنَا النَّارُ إِلَّا أَيَّامًا مَعْدُودَةً ۚ قُلْ أَتَّخَذْتُمْ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ عَهْدًا فَلَنْ يُخْلِفَ اللَّهُ عَهْدَهُ ۖ أَمْ تَقُولُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
📘 And they say, 'the Fire shall not touch us, to the end [of the verse: save a number of days'. Say: 'Have you taken with God a covenantḍ God will not fail in His covenant, or say you against God what you do not knowḍ] They believed that the duration of punishment was commensurate with the duration in which the sin was being committed, not knowing that if the sin constituted a corrupt belief fixed within the soul and a condition deeply-rooted in it so that it becomes a natural disposition, a form of its essence, then it [the sin] becomes a cause for eternal punishment, which is the very meaning of His statement:
بَلَىٰ مَنْ كَسَبَ سَيِّئَةً وَأَحَاطَتْ بِهِ خَطِيئَتُهُ فَأُولَٰئِكَ أَصْحَابُ النَّارِ ۖ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ
📘 [Not so; whoever earns evil and] is encompassed by his transgression, that is, it has complete mastery of him absorbing him as black absorbs [the form of] a dress; were it otherwise, obedience would not have been a cause also for eternal reward [- those are the inhabitants of the Fire, therein abiding].
وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ أُولَٰئِكَ أَصْحَابُ الْجَنَّةِ ۖ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ
📘 Those who have faith and do wholesome deeds-those are the companions of the Garden, and they shall be there forever. It has been said that those who have faith is an allusion to the tree of faith and its being planted in the heart of the faithful. Do wholesome deeds is an allusion to the branches of that tree and its nurturing and growing. Those are the companions of the Garden is an allusion to the produce of the tree and the ripening of its fruit. This is the tree about which the Lord of the Worlds speaks and reports in another place: “Its roots fixed, and its branches in heaven. It gives its fruit every season by the leave of its Lord” [14:24-25]. The fruit of this tree is not like the fruit of other trees, which bring forth fruit once year after year. Rather, this tree brings forth new fruit every hour, or rather every moment. Each has another color, another taste, and another fragrance. The sweetness of worshipers is a fruit of this tree, the feast of the desirers' heart is a fruit of this tree, the limpid- ness of the recognizers' present moment is a fruit of this tree. Today in the house of service on the carpet of obedience they have the paradise of recognition, neither turned aside from them nor veiled. Tomorrow in the house of union on the carpet of friendship they will have the paradise of approval, neither cut off nor withheld, and upraised carpets [56:33-34].
وَإِذْ أَخَذْنَا مِيثَاقَ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ لَا تَعْبُدُونَ إِلَّا اللَّهَ وَبِالْوَالِدَيْنِ إِحْسَانًا وَذِي الْقُرْبَىٰ وَالْيَتَامَىٰ وَالْمَسَاكِينِ وَقُولُوا لِلنَّاسِ حُسْنًا وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتُوا الزَّكَاةَ ثُمَّ تَوَلَّيْتُمْ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا مِنْكُمْ وَأَنْتُمْ مُعْرِضُونَ
📘 And when We made a covenant with the Children of Israel, We made a covenant with them concerning the affirmation of [Our] Oneness, the requirement of which is the observing of the Lordly Presence and the witnessing of its self-disclosures in their loci, as well as the fulfilment of what is due to it in accordance with what is manifested of its descriptions. The first to bear the manifestation and vestiges of the lordly attributes outwardly and in the world of the witnessing are the parents on account of their being the source of lineage, their rearing and their affection, all of which are the vestiges of the Existentiator, the Merciful Lord within them for that [child]. For, goodness towards them must follow from the worship of God in accordance with the manifestation of that [goodness] within them as loci [of that manifestation]; then come the near of kin because of the manifestation of mutual kindness and divine mercy within them in relation to that [child]; then come the orphans because of the fact that His guardianship and preservation is singled out for them above all others, since He is the Guardian of those who have none; then come the needy because of the fact that He takes upon Himself to look after them and provide for them without any intermediary other than Him; then come all other people because of the mutual mercifulness between them that which is the shadow of [the Divine] Mercifulness [on earth]. Thus the goodness enjoined in this verse, in all of its degrees and various levels of merit, is the specification of worship for God coupled with the witnessing of His attributes in their loci of manifestation and the fulfilment of what is due to the self-disclosures and rulings of these [attributes].['You shall not worship any other than God; and to be good to parents, and the near of kin; and to orphans, and to the needy; and speak well to men; and observe prayer and pay the alms', then you turned away; all but a few of you, rejecting]
وَإِذْ أَخَذْنَا مِيثَاقَكُمْ لَا تَسْفِكُونَ دِمَاءَكُمْ وَلَا تُخْرِجُونَ أَنْفُسَكُمْ مِنْ دِيَارِكُمْ ثُمَّ أَقْرَرْتُمْ وَأَنْتُمْ تَشْهَدُونَ
📘 And when We made a covenant with you: 'Do not shed your own blood, by desiring the abodes and attributes of the soul and by inclining towards its caprices and natures, while abandoning your true life and the specific qualities of your acts for the sake of securing its goals and pleasures; neither expel your selves, your essences since the essence is represented by the self, from your habitations', that is, from your spiritual abodes and the holy gardens. Then you confirmed it, by accepting that [covenant], and you bore witness, to it through your initial states of preparedness and your primordial intellects.
ثُمَّ أَنْتُمْ هَٰؤُلَاءِ تَقْتُلُونَ أَنْفُسَكُمْ وَتُخْرِجُونَ فَرِيقًا مِنْكُمْ مِنْ دِيَارِهِمْ تَظَاهَرُونَ عَلَيْهِمْ بِالْإِثْمِ وَالْعُدْوَانِ وَإِنْ يَأْتُوكُمْ أُسَارَىٰ تُفَادُوهُمْ وَهُوَ مُحَرَّمٌ عَلَيْكُمْ إِخْرَاجُهُمْ ۚ أَفَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِبَعْضِ الْكِتَابِ وَتَكْفُرُونَ بِبَعْضٍ ۚ فَمَا جَزَاءُ مَنْ يَفْعَلُ ذَٰلِكَ مِنْكُمْ إِلَّا خِزْيٌ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا ۖ وَيَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ يُرَدُّونَ إِلَىٰ أَشَدِّ الْعَذَابِ ۗ وَمَا اللَّهُ بِغَافِلٍ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ
📘 Then there you are those very [ones], [those] who have fallen from the primordial nature and who are veiled from the original light of preparedness, killing yourselves, as a result of your succumbing to temptation and pursuit of caprice, and expelling a party of you from their habitations, their original eternal domiciles by tempting them, misguiding them and inciting them to the commission of acts of disobedience and the pursuit of caprice, conspiring against them, assisting one another against them, in sin, by committing lewd acts and acts of disobedience so that they might see you and follow suit, and enmity, and overbearingness against people so that your insolence might pass on to them, and in your binding them to the despicable acts of the bestial and predatorial faculties and your inciting them to such [acts] and your adorning these for them, as is the custom of the heretics among the Muslims of those who permit the impermissible and allege that they affirm the Oneness of God; and if they come to you as captives, shackled by the consequences of acts they have committed and the disgrace of their vile acts, you become regretful; and their intellect and the intellect of the offspring of their kind rebukes them for the shame and ignominy that has befallen them; you ransom them, with the words of wisdom, admonition and counsel that prove that the highest pleasures are the intellectual and spiritual ones; and that the consequence of following caprice and the soul and Satan is an evil one, and that to act like beasts and wild animals is reprehensible and base, so that they might then awaken by these [words] and rid themselves of the fetters of caprice for a little while, as we observe in the case of the foreign infidels who allege knowledge of God's Oneness, gnosis and wisdom together with those who follow them in this day and age; [yet their expulsion was forbidden you].What, do you believe in part of the Book, that is, the Book of the Intellect and the Law in word and [by your own] affirmation, so that you affirm It and believe in its truth, namely, that the pursuit of caprice and the soul is reprehensible and necessarily brings about perdition, destruction and loss; and disbelieve in part, in deed and in [your failure to] act by it, so that you do not refrain from what It has prohibited you, namely, your deeming permissible and wholesome the violation of what is sancrosanct and that which is forbiddenḍ What then shall be the requital of those of you who do that, but degradation, disgrace and humiliation, in the life of this world; and on the Day of Resurrection, that is, upon separation, which is the minor resurrection, to be returned to the most terrible of chastisement, which is their chastisement through those dark miens that are deeply-embedded within their souls and their being consumed by the fires of these [miens], or [chastisement] by their being totally transfigured from their forms and the doubling of their afflictionḍ And God is not heedless of what you do, of your deeds, for He has kept count of them and registered them within your souls and recorded them against you, as He says: The Day when God will raise them, He will then inform them of what they did.
أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ اشْتَرَوُا الْحَيَاةَ الدُّنْيَا بِالْآخِرَةِ ۖ فَلَا يُخَفَّفُ عَنْهُمُ الْعَذَابُ وَلَا هُمْ يُنْصَرُونَ
📘 [Those are the ones who have purchased the life of this world at the price of the Hereafter - for them the punishment shall not be lightened, neither shall they be helped.]
وَلَقَدْ آتَيْنَا مُوسَى الْكِتَابَ وَقَفَّيْنَا مِنْ بَعْدِهِ بِالرُّسُلِ ۖ وَآتَيْنَا عِيسَى ابْنَ مَرْيَمَ الْبَيِّنَاتِ وَأَيَّدْنَاهُ بِرُوحِ الْقُدُسِ ۗ أَفَكُلَّمَا جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ بِمَا لَا تَهْوَىٰ أَنْفُسُكُمُ اسْتَكْبَرْتُمْ فَفَرِيقًا كَذَّبْتُمْ وَفَرِيقًا تَقْتُلُونَ
📘 And verily We gave Moses the Scripture, to where He says as though they did not know [Q. 2:101] �[and after him We sent successive messengers, and We gave Jesus son of Mary the clear proofs, and We confirmed him with the Holy Spirit, and whenever there came to you a messenger, with what your souls did not desire, you became arrogant; and some, you called liars, and some you slayḍ
وَقَالُوا قُلُوبُنَا غُلْفٌ ۚ بَلْ لَعَنَهُمُ اللَّهُ بِكُفْرِهِمْ فَقَلِيلًا مَا يُؤْمِنُونَ
📘 And they say: 'Our hearts are encased'. Nay, but God has cursed them for their unbelief; and little will they believe.
وَلَمَّا جَاءَهُمْ كِتَابٌ مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّهِ مُصَدِّقٌ لِمَا مَعَهُمْ وَكَانُوا مِنْ قَبْلُ يَسْتَفْتِحُونَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا فَلَمَّا جَاءَهُمْ مَا عَرَفُوا كَفَرُوا بِهِ ۚ فَلَعْنَةُ اللَّهِ عَلَى الْكَافِرِينَ
📘 When there came to them a Book from God, confirming what was with them - and they formerly prayed for victory over the disbelievers; but when there came to them what they recognised, they disbelieved in it; and the curse of God is on the disbelievers.
يُخَادِعُونَ اللَّهَ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَمَا يَخْدَعُونَ إِلَّا أَنْفُسَهُمْ وَمَا يَشْعُرُونَ
📘 [They would deceive God and the believers; and only themselves they deceive; and they are not aware.] Deception (mukhādaʿa) is the act of deceit from two parties. It is to manifest good [intentions] while concealing evil [ones]. To deceive God is to deceive His Messenger, on account of God's saying whoever obeys the Messenger, verily obeys God [Q. 4:80] and His saying and you threw not when you threw but God threw [Q. 8:17]; and because he [the Prophet] is His beloved. A ḥadīth has it that: 'And My servant does not cease to approach me through supererogatory acts until I love him. And when I love him, I become his hearing with which he hears and his sight with which he sees and his tongue with which he speaks and his hand with which he strikes and his foot with which he walks'.Their deceit of God and the believers is their outward display of belief and love while concealing disbelief and enmity; while God's and the believers' deception of these [aforementioned] is keeping the peace [with them] and applying the rules of Islam in their case by deeming their blood illicit and giving protection to their possessions and otherwise, while what lies in store for them is a painful chastisement, an evil end and a terrible outcome, as well as their degradation in this world on account of their being exposed by God's informing them [the believers, of this reality] and the revelation about their status. However, the difference between the two acts of deception is that theirs [the disbelievers'] only succeeds in destroying their souls, filling them with anguish, leaving them with nothing but the evil consequence of their deeds and punishment, multiplying for them the darkness, disbelief and hypocrisy and bringing together the reasons for the perishing, banishment and wretchedness of these [souls]; whereas, [their] being deceived by God affects to the ultimate degree and brings them the most severe destruction, as where God says And they schemed, and God schemed, and God is the best of schemers [Q. 3:54]. As a result of being extremely engrossed in this ignorance of theirs, they do not sense this manifest matter [at all].
بِئْسَمَا اشْتَرَوْا بِهِ أَنْفُسَهُمْ أَنْ يَكْفُرُوا بِمَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ بَغْيًا أَنْ يُنَزِّلَ اللَّهُ مِنْ فَضْلِهِ عَلَىٰ مَنْ يَشَاءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ ۖ فَبَاءُوا بِغَضَبٍ عَلَىٰ غَضَبٍ ۚ وَلِلْكَافِرِينَ عَذَابٌ مُهِينٌ
📘 Evil is that for which they sell their souls; that they disbelieve in that which God has revealed, grudging that God should reveal of His bounty to whomever He will of His servants; and they were laden with anger upon anger; and for the disbelievers there shall be a humiliating chastisement.
وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ آمِنُوا بِمَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ قَالُوا نُؤْمِنُ بِمَا أُنْزِلَ عَلَيْنَا وَيَكْفُرُونَ بِمَا وَرَاءَهُ وَهُوَ الْحَقُّ مُصَدِّقًا لِمَا مَعَهُمْ ۗ قُلْ فَلِمَ تَقْتُلُونَ أَنْبِيَاءَ اللَّهِ مِنْ قَبْلُ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ
📘 And when it was said to them, 'Believe in what God has revealed', they said, 'We believe in what was revealed to us', and they disbelieve in what is beyond that; yet it is the truth, confirming what is with them. Say: 'Why then were you slaying the prophets of God formerly, if you were believersḍ'
۞ وَلَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ مُوسَىٰ بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ ثُمَّ اتَّخَذْتُمُ الْعِجْلَ مِنْ بَعْدِهِ وَأَنْتُمْ ظَالِمُونَ
📘 And Moses came to you with clear proofs; then you took to yourselves the calf after him, and you were evildoers.
وَإِذْ أَخَذْنَا مِيثَاقَكُمْ وَرَفَعْنَا فَوْقَكُمُ الطُّورَ خُذُوا مَا آتَيْنَاكُمْ بِقُوَّةٍ وَاسْمَعُوا ۖ قَالُوا سَمِعْنَا وَعَصَيْنَا وَأُشْرِبُوا فِي قُلُوبِهِمُ الْعِجْلَ بِكُفْرِهِمْ ۚ قُلْ بِئْسَمَا يَأْمُرُكُمْ بِهِ إِيمَانُكُمْ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ
📘 And when We made a covenant with you, and raised over you the Mount, 'Take forcefully what We have given you, and listen', they said, 'We hear and disobey'; and they were made to drink the calf in their hearts on account of their unbelief. Say: 'Evil is that which your belief enjoins on you, if you are believers'.
قُلْ إِنْ كَانَتْ لَكُمُ الدَّارُ الْآخِرَةُ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ خَالِصَةً مِنْ دُونِ النَّاسِ فَتَمَنَّوُا الْمَوْتَ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ
📘 Say: 'If the Abode of the Hereafter with God is purely yours, and not for other people, then long for death - if you speak truly'.
وَلَنْ يَتَمَنَّوْهُ أَبَدًا بِمَا قَدَّمَتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِالظَّالِمِينَ
📘 But they will never long for it, because of that which their own hands have sent before them. God knows the evildoers.
وَلَتَجِدَنَّهُمْ أَحْرَصَ النَّاسِ عَلَىٰ حَيَاةٍ وَمِنَ الَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا ۚ يَوَدُّ أَحَدُهُمْ لَوْ يُعَمَّرُ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ وَمَا هُوَ بِمُزَحْزِحِهِ مِنَ الْعَذَابِ أَنْ يُعَمَّرَ ۗ وَاللَّهُ بَصِيرٌ بِمَا يَعْمَلُونَ
📘 And you shall find them the people most covetous of life, and the idolaters; any one of them would love that he might be given life for a thousand years; yet, his being given life shall not budge him from the chastisement. God sees what they do.
قُلْ مَنْ كَانَ عَدُوًّا لِجِبْرِيلَ فَإِنَّهُ نَزَّلَهُ عَلَىٰ قَلْبِكَ بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ مُصَدِّقًا لِمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ وَهُدًى وَبُشْرَىٰ لِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ
📘 Say: “Whoever is an enemy of Gabriel-he it is who sent it down upon thy heart.” Magnanimous and beautiful is the Qur'an that Gabriel brought down from the All-Merciful. It is the repose of the spirit of the friends, the healing of the hearts of the ill, a mercy to the faithful. This is why God says, “he it is who sent it down upon thy heart.” Elsewhere He says, “Brought down by the trustworthy spirit upon thy heart” [26:193-94]. When Gabriel conveyed the pure revelation, sometimes he came in the form of a mortal man, sometimes in the form of an angel. Whenever he brought verses about permitted and forbidden and the explication of the shariahs and rulings, he would be in human form, and there was no talk of the heart. Thus He says, “He it is who sent down upon thee the Book” [3:7]; “Does it not suffice them that We sent down upon thee the Book?” [29:51]. Then again, whenever there was talk of love, the attributes of passion, and the intimations of friendship, he would come in the form of an angel, spiritual and subtle, and he would join with MuṣṬafā's heart. He would convey the revelation of the Qur'an secretly to his secret core, and no one else was aware of him. When he returned and left behind the realm of his heart, MuṣṬafā would say, “He broke away from me while I was aware of him.” It is said that when he was inundated by contemplation in this speech, the revelation would first descend to his heart, for He said to him, “who sent it down upon thy heart.” Then it would turn away from his heart to his understanding and his hearing. Then he would descend from the summit of companionship to the lowland of service for the sake of the people's shares. This is the level of the elect. It may also happen that revelation descends on the hearing of certain people first, then on their understanding, then on their hearts, advancing from the lowness of struggle to the highness of contemplation. This is the level of the wayfarers and desirers. How far apart they are!
مَنْ كَانَ عَدُوًّا لِلَّهِ وَمَلَائِكَتِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَجِبْرِيلَ وَمِيكَالَ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ عَدُوٌّ لِلْكَافِرِينَ
📘 Whoever is an enemy to God and His angels and His messengers, and Gabriel and Michael - then surely God is an enemy to the disbelievers'.
وَلَقَدْ أَنْزَلْنَا إِلَيْكَ آيَاتٍ بَيِّنَاتٍ ۖ وَمَا يَكْفُرُ بِهَا إِلَّا الْفَاسِقُونَ
📘 And We have revealed to you clear proofs; and none disbelieves in them except the wicked.
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