A declaration of immunity from God and His Messenger, [to the end of] the verse: when the Messenger was not able to sustain [his] uprightness because of the place of his variegation at times through the manifestation of his attributes and at other times because of the existence of remnants, as indicated by the Qurʾān in those instances of [the Prophet receiving] rebuke and being made firm, such as [in] His saying he frowned and turned away [Q. 80:1]; and His saying And if We had not made you [stand] firm, certainly you might have inclined to them a little [Q. 17:74]; [and His saying] May God pardon you! Why do you give them leave…? [Q. 9:43]; It is not for any prophet to have prisoners [Q. 8:67]; and when his [the Prophet’s] companions from among the believers had not yet arrived at the station of the unity of the Essence, at times because of their veiling themselves with [their] acts and at other times with [their] attributes, there then was between them and the idolaters a correspondence, propinquity in terms of genus and a treaty, and thus by virtue of that genus-correspondence they made a covenant with them given that there was [this] connection between them. But when the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, and the believers then obey His words, exalted be He, So be upright, as you have been commanded and those who repent with you [Q. 11:112], and when he had attained the utmost in fixity and the veils of the acts, thoe of the attributes and those of the essence had been removed from the faces of the wayfarers among his companions until they were able to reach the station of the unity of the Essence, that correspondence between them and the idolaters was [also] removed, and there no longer remained any sort of correspondence between them. Thereupon contrareity and opposition was realised [between them] and separation and enmity became justified and so was revealed: A declaration of immunity from God and His Messenger [Q. 9:1] to the idolaters with whom you made a pact: in other words, this state, the state of total separation and enmity between us and the declaration of true immunity from God, from the point of view of the union, and [from] His Messenger from the point of view of the differentiation given to him. Thus they declared themselves quit of them outwardly just as they were quit of them inwardly and they cast off their covenant [with them] formally just as they cast off the covenant with them in reality.

‘Journey freely in the land for four months: commensurate with the number of their halting places in this world and in the Hereafter, by way of a warning for them. For since they halted in this world with the other in idolatrous association, they were veiled from religion and from the acts, the attributes and the Essence at the interstice of the human realm (nāsūt), and so it became necessary for them to make them halt in the Hereafter before God, then before the realm of divine power, then before the angelic realm, then before the Fire in the blazing furnace of vestiges, as has already been alluded to in [sūrat] al-Anʿām, where they are chastised with all manner of chastisements; and know that you cannot escape God, by virtue of the fact that you must necessarily be detained at these halting places because you halted with the other in idolatrous association: how then can you escape Him? and that God degrades the disbelievers’, those who are veiled from the Truth by being disgracefully exposed upon the manifestation of the level of that which they used to worship besides God and its halting alongside [the disbeliever] before the Fire.

A proclamation, an apprising, from God and His Messenger to mankind on the day of the Greater Pilgrimage, that is, at the moment of the manifestation of the union of the Essence in the form of differentiation, as has already been mentioned; that God is free from obligation to the idolaters, and [so is] His Messenger, in reality, and so the outward conforms to the inward.

Excepting those of the idolaters with whom you have made a pact, and who have not diminished [their commitment to] you in anyway, in other words, this is a declaration of non-obligation towards them, except those [of them] in whom there remains some grip on preparedness or the vestige of a sound primordial nature and so are not involved in the breaking of any covenant, there remaining in them virtuous manliness, an indication of the soundness of [their] primordial nature and their adherence to God’s former covenant by virtue of the existence [within them] still of preparedness and the possibility [for them] of returning to the unity; nor supported anyone against you, because of the lingering presence [within them] of the original connection (wuṣla) and the primordial affinity between you and them and [because of] the non-manifestation of [in them] of that enmity which is earned (kasbiyya); [as for these] fulfil your pact with them until the [conclusion of the] term, that is, the term during which the rust accumulates [on their hearts] and [their] veil is realised should they not relent and repent. Truly God loves those who fear [Him], those who have specifically avoided despicable traits, [such as] the breaking of a covenant, which is the mother of all despicable traits outwardly and inwardly.

Those who believe, cognitively, and have emigrated, away from the desired sensory things and the abodes of the soul by wayfaring in the way of God and have struggled with those possessions of theirs that are their knowledge, their desired goals, and their abilities by effacing their attributes with the attributes of God, and [with] their souls, by annihilating them in the Essence of God, those they are greater in degree, in terms of the affirmation of Oneness, in the eyes of God.

Their Lord gives them good tidings of mercy, [of] the reward for deeds, from Him and [divine] satisfaction, [His] attributes, for them shall be gardens, from among the three Gardens, wherein is bliss, the presential vision of the Essence, that is enduring, fixed forever.

O you who believe, do not take your fathers, to the end of this [verse]: in other words, do not let the aspect of formal kinship and natural connection prevail in you over the aspect of spiritual kinship and real connection such that there would then be bewteen you and those from among your kin who prefer the veil to unveiling a friendship that results from a formal connection [but] with loss of spiritual connection and a difference in aspect which [in itself] necessarily brings about spiritual rupture and true enmity. This is a weakness of faith and feeble resolve: faith is the opposite of that. God, exalted be He, says: but those who believe love God more ardently [Q. 2:165]. A sage [once] said, ‘The Truth is beloved to us and [His] creatures are beloved to us. But if the two are at variance, then the Truth is more beloved to us.

Say: ‘If, these formal ties of kinship and familiar sensory things, are dearer to you than God and His Messenger, then your faith stands weak and its vestige is not manifest in your souls or upon your limbs so as to comply with His judgements, and that is because you have halted with the vestiges of the human realm, [a halting] which would necessarily result in chastisement and veiling; then wait until God brings about His, chastisement. How can it be otherwise, when you follow the path of [physical] nature and abide by its judgements in place of the wayfaring on the path of the Truth and obeying His command. That is wickedness on your part, and the wicked one is veiled from God. He does not guide him to Him because of his failure to orient himself [towards God] and his lack of will, indeed, because of his refusal and his turning away, for which he deserves chastisement, being forsaken, veiling and privation.

And those who hoard up gold and silver, to the end of this [verse]: the amassing of wealth and the hoarding of it without expending [any of it] can only be the result of the taking root [within that person] of the vice of avarice and love of property. As for every burning vice with which that person will be chastised in the Hereafter and suffer degradation in this world, because the substratum with which that vice becomes firmly rooted and established is itself that wealth, then it is that [wealth itself] which is heated in the fire of the Hell of [physical] nature and the abyss of vain desire and with which he is branded. These parts of the body are specified because avarice is concentrated in the soul and the soul overpowers the heart from these aspects, and neither from the higher aspect which is the aspect in which the spirit has mastery and the passage for realities and lights, nor from the lower aspect which is from the aspect of corporeal nature because [physical] nature has no power over that. This leaves the remaining aspects from which he then suffers hurt through the four aspects and is chastised, and you also see that he is disgraced thereby in this world and degraded through these aspects, either by being confronted with it [his hoarding] openly so that he is exposed, or it is secretly mentioned to him from one side, or he is slandered for it from behind his back.

[…] God was averse that they should be sent forth, so He slowed them down: that is to say, they were wretched and there did not remain any good in their preparedness such that God would desire it from them, which is why He was averse to their being sent forth. In other words, they belonged to the latter group, the wretched rejects of whom mentioned has been made more than once.

[And of them are those who injure the Prophet] and say, ‘He is only a listener!’: they used to injure the Prophet and slander him because of the goodness of [his] heart and his being quick to accept and believe what he hears and so He affirms the truth of that and submits to them that he [the Prophet] is indeed like that, but [he is so] in terms of goodness. For the recalcitrant, coarse, crude, loathsome and harsh soul that is unyielding in matters and is not affected is not one that is prepared for perfection, since human perfection can only be [attained] through acceptance, being affected and being acted upon. Thus the more that a soul’s temperament is malleable, its heart sound and more given to acceptance, the more it is receptive to perfection and the more intensely prepared it is for that [perfection]. This malleability is not a type of weakness or simple-mindedness which entails being acted upon by all that one hears, even the impossible and being affected by all that he comes across and sees, even lies, evil and error. Rather, this [malleability] is a kind of gentleness and readiness to accept the goodness and truth that corresponds to him, which is why He says: Say: ‘A listener to good, because the purity of preparedness and the gentleness of soul requires acceptance of what corresponds to him of good things and not what is incompatible with him in the way of evil. Good preparedness does not accept evil, is not affected by it nor imprinted upon it, being as it is incompatible with it and remote therefrom; for you, in other words, he listens to what is beneficial for you and that wherein lies your welfare and nothing else; one who believes in God: an explanation of his malleability and receptivity, since faith can only come with soundness of heart and the gentleness and malleability of the soul; and has faith in the believers, believing their statements concerning good things and listens to what they say regarding these and accepts it; and who is a mercy to those of you who believe, being compassionate and tender towards them, delivering them thus from chastisement by purifying [them] and teaching [them], rectifying the matter of their mode of living and their final return through piety, dutiful contact and [by] teaching [them] virtuous character traits such as forbearance, compassion, enjoining decency by their emulating of him in that respect, and by laying down the divine prescriptions that bring about the [good] ordering of their affair in both abodes and inciting them to all kinds of piety, verbal and in terms of action, as well as in other ways.

God has promised the believers, both men and women, Gardens underneath which rivers flow, being the Gardens of the souls, and dwellings, that are blessed, being the stations of the masters of trust [in God] in the Gardens of the acts, as evidenced in His words, exalted be He: and a greater beatitude from God, for beatitude belongs to the Gardens of the attributes. That, beatitude, is the supreme triumph, because of the nobleness of those who receive it in the eyes of God and their extreme closeness to Him.

And the first to lead the way, that is, those who led the way to the unity from among the folk of the first rank, of the Emigrants, who have emigrated from the abodes of the soul, and the Helpers, who have helped the heart against the soul by means of true knowledge, and those who follow them, by acquiring the attributes of the Truth, by being virtuous, that is, by means of a witnessing from among the witnessings of the Beauty and the Majesty, God will be pleased with them, because they have all participated in the unveiling of the attributes and in arriving at the station of satisfaction, which is the greatest way to God; and He has prepared for them Gardens, from among the Gardens of the acts and the attributes — with rivers, of the knowledge of trust, satisfaction, and what corresponds to these two, flowing beneath them: this does not preclude the existence of another Garden for those who were the first to lead the way, this being the Garden of the Essence and their being singled out for it is because of the participation of the All therein.

And [there are] others, who have confessed their sins: confession of sin is the preservation of the light of preparedness, a malleability of disposition and where the trait of sin has not taken firm root in that person, as he possesses the capacity to return and to repent as well as [possessing] the guiding proof [that allows] for perceiving the vileness of sin, which [perception] can only be through the light of insight and the opening of the eye of the heart. For if darkness were to accumulate and the vice were to take firm root, he would not deem it vile and would not perceive it as sin, nay, he would see it as being a virtuous act corresponding as it would be to his state. If he is able to recognise the sin [as sin], then there is [still] some good in him; they have mixed a righteous deed with another that was bad, in other words they were at the level of the self-reproaching soul whose connection to the heart and illumination by its light so that this becomes a natural disposition has not occurred and which has not yet submitted in [complete] obedience to the heart, and so sometimes the heart has mastery over it and it does yield and becomes pliant and is illumined by its [the heart’s] light and performs righteous deeds, while at other times it manifests itself through those attributes of its that veil the heart’s light from it and veils itself with its darkness and performs evil acts. But if the lights of the heart and righteous deeds prevail over it and angelic thoughts come over it in succession such that its connection with the heart and its obedience to it as a natural disposition takes place, then its affair will be good and it will find salvation. That is the significance of His words: It may be that God will relent to them. However, if the dark configurations, which it earns from its being overcome [by its attributes] and its frequent engaging in evil deeds, accumulate in it, then the opposite will be the case: its preparedness will disappear totally and it will deserve everlasting chastisement. The prevalence of either of these sides over the other only comes as a result of companionship and keeping company with individuals from either of the two kinds and the mixing with good folk or evil folk. If, on the one hand, divinely-bestowed success reaches that person, destiny will lead him to the company of the righteous and the emulation of their character traits and deeds so that they become of them; if, on the other hand, forsakenness attaches to him, it will lead him to the company of the corrupt and to mixing with them so that he will end up one among the losers: may God give us refuge from such [a predicament]. Truly God is Forgiving, forgiving them their dark misdeeds and curtains these from them, Merciful, to them by facilitating [for them the performance of] righteous deeds and by accepting [their] repentance.

Since they were also granted success to [being of] the former division^{1That is to say, those who become righteous by keeping company with righteous folk.} by the blessedness of companionship with the Messenger and his purification of them and his [moral] training of them, He says: Take of their wealth some alms, since wealth is the cause of the manifestation of the soul and of its being overpowered by its attributes and the [source of] reinforcement of its faculties and the substratum of its vain desires, as the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, said: ‘Wealth is the substance of passionate desires’. Thus their initial state must be one of disengagement from wealth so that the faculties of the soul might be broken and its vain desires and attributes might be weakened so as to be cleansed from the dark configurations that are in it and to be purified from the vileness of sins and the impurity of Satanic motivations. That is the significance of His words: to purify them and to cleanse them thereby, and pray for them, by extending [your] aspiration [to include them] and by effusing the light of [your] companionship upon them; truly your prayers are a peacefulness for them, that is, truly the light that you effuse upon them by turning the attention of your mind to them and the potency of your aspiration and the blessedness of your companionship are the cause for the coming down of the divine peace (sakīna) upon them, their hearts finding peace therein and reassurance. The divine peace is a light that settles in the heart, remaining firm with it in the orientation to the Truth and by which certainty is strengthened and by which is removed that inconstancy which is the result of Satan’s touch and his evil whisperings, as well as the conversations of the soul and its murmurings, since that person will no longer accept them then. And God is Hearer, hearing their humble beseechings and admission of their sins, Knower, of their intentions and resolve and of the remorse and distress in their consciences.

[…] A mosque which was founded upon [pious] fear of God: since the world of the Kingdom is subject to the dominion of the world of the angelic realm and subjugated to it, the intentions and configurations of souls must concomitantly exercise an effect upon the deeds it engages in. Thus everything that is performed with sincere intention for God, exalted be He, issuing from a luminous configuration, then companionship of it is blessedness, all-comprehensiveness and purity. Everything which is performed with a corrupt Satanic intention, issuing from a dark configuration, companionship of it will result in schism, impurity, effacement and evil omen. Do you not see how the Kaʿba is honoured and exalted and a source of blessedness because it was built by the hands of one of God’s prophets with sincere intention and with a noble and pure soul, as well as with perfect sincere devotion to God, exalted be He, and that we still witness the vestiges of that in people’s deeds and we also find the vestiges of purity and concentration in some places and regions, as well as impurity and schism in others, and this is so only because of that [fact]. That is why He says that a mosque founded upon [pious] fear of God, from the first day is worthier for you to stand in, because corporeal configurations exercise an effect on souls, just as ego-centric configurations exercise an effect on bodies. Thus if the place in which one stands has been founded upon [pious] fear of God and purity of soul, the soul will be affected by way of the concentration of single-minded concern (hamm) and the purity of the moment and the pleasantness of state and the tasting of ecstatic consciousness. If it is founded, however, upon the desire to make a show and to [cause] harm, it [the soul] will be affected by way of impurity, schism and constriction; in it are men who love to purify themselves, that is, a folk who have the will and make the effort to purify themselves from sins. He is cautioning here that the company of the righteous folk from among the folk of volition has a tremendous effect: it must therefore be chosen, for it affects others. Similarly, a station has an effect of which one must be mindful and to which one must be committed, which is why according to the convention of our [Sufi] folk it is mentioned that one must be mindful of the time, the place and the brethren when actualising the concentration (jamʿiyya). They made this a precondition for the latter. There is a notification therein that the spiritual cleanliness of the soul of the founder as well as the sincerity of this intention leaves its trace on the thing built, and that the blessedness of the place and the fact that is founded upon goodness entails that there be in it the folk of goodness and righteousness, those whose states correspond to the state of the founder and that God’s love is assured for the folk of will and purity given His words: and God loves those who purify themselves. How could it be otherwise, when were it not for God’s love of them, they would not love to purify themselves.

Indeed God has purchased from the believers their souls and their possessions: because when He guided them to cognitive faith they were still afflicted with love of possessions and [their] souls, He brought them down, by His excessive solicitude for them, from the station of the love of possessions and the soul by means of a profitable trade and a desirable transaction in that He made the Garden of the soul the price [to be paid] in exchange for their possessions and their souls so that the price to be paid might be of the same genus as that of the thing valued, which is that with which they were familiar, except that it was more pleasurable, more appetising, more desirable and more enduring and hence they came to desire what He had to offer, believing by the power of certainty in His promise. Then after having disengaged from these [possessions and souls] they came to taste the pleasure of avoidance and the sweetness of the light of certainty, they retreated from the station of the pleasure of the soul and repented from its vain desires and lusts and there no longer remained any value in the Garden of the soul for them.

Thus He described them as the truly repentant, those who have rejected the pursuit of the pleasures of the soul and the expectation of reward for it, the worshippers who, upon rejecting the love of the soul and possessions and the pursuit of wage and reward, have come to worship God as He ought to be worshipped, neither out of some desire or some awe, but rather in imitation of His angelic realm in their fulfilling of what is due to Him, exalted be He, by submission and heartfelt humility and by yielding humbly before His tremendousness and exaltedness, in reverence of His tremendousness and His majesty. They then praised God as He ought to be praised by manifesting practical perfections of character and the practical perfections that are hidden in their preparednesses in potentiality a praise through act and through state. They then travelled to Him by emigrating from the station of primordial nature and seeing the fixed perfections as well as their acquainting themselves with, depending on, and being gladdened by these [perfections] in the open expanses of [His] attributes and the waystations of [His] august glories. They then bowed down at the station of the effacement of attributes, then prostrated themselves by the annihilation of the essence. They then fulfilled [the duty of] enjoining decency and forbidding indecency and the maintaining of God’s bounds at the station of subsistence after annihilation; and give good tidings to the believers, who have true faith, those who reside at the station of uprightness.

It is not for the Prophet, and those who believe, to ask forgiveness, to the end of this [verse]: in other words, when they discovered the mystery of divine predestination (qadar) and stood aware of what God has decreed and determined and came to know what sequels of affairs will be, it was not for them to request the opposite of that. Thus they were satisfied with the matter that God has ordained, even if in their natures there was something that entailed the opposite of that. And this is because they have detached themselves from the entailments of their natures. Thus if natural kinship and formal relationship entails excessive compassion and gentleness towards someone who corresponds to them and is connected to them in that respect but they witness God’s judgement against him that he should be subjugated and chastised, their religious zeal drives them to endure patiently if they do not possess the station of satisfaction. Nay indeed, separation on the basis of religion prevails over them against natural kinship and they therefore declare themselves innocent of him and do not request from God what is the opposite of His wisdom and His command. That is why they say: ‘The aspiration of the [mystical] knower has no effective power after his knowledge has been perfected’. In other words, when a person is certain that everything happens by His determination and that it is impossible for something to happen in contravention of what God has determined in pre-eternity, he will know that what God wills will be and what He wills not will not be, and neither his aspiration nor anything else can have an effect on anything and hence he does not unleash his aspiration on any matter, unlike the veiled one who ascribes effective agency to something other than God and does not know the mystery of [divine] determination.

And God would never, send them astray from the path of submission and obedience to His command and of satisfaction with His judgement, after He had guided them, to the cognitive affirmation of Oneness and to seeing that everything happens according to His decree and His determination, until He had made clear to them, all that which they ought to be wary of in every one of the stations of their wayfaring and [every one] of the levels of their arrival. So, if they engage in some station of theirs in something which it had been made clear to them that they ought to be wary of, then He will send them astray because they will have been engaging in what is the sin of their state, which is a wickedness in terms of their religion. And refuge is sought with God from error after guidance. Surely God is Knower of all things, knowing the intricate details of the sins of their states, even if no one [else] should discern them, and consequently He requites the guided ones from among His friends for these [sins], as mentioned in the lordly ḥadīth: ‘Warn the truthful ones that I am a jealous One’.

O you who believe, beware of God, with regard to all vices by avoiding them, specifically the vice of mendacity, which is the significance of His words: and be with those who are truthful. For mendacity is the worst and vilest of vices as it is incompatible with virtuous manliness, for it is said, ‘There can be no manliness in an inveterate liar’. That is because the purpose of speech, by which man is distinguished from all animals, is to inform the other of what he does not know. So when [this] information does not correspond [to the reality], the benefit of speech will not have been actualised and there will result from that a belief that does not correspond [to the truth], which is one of the specific qualities of satanic nature. A liar is thus a satan. And since mendacity is the vilest of vices, so truthfulness is the most virtuous of excellent qualities and the root of every good deed and the substratum of every praiseworthy characteristic and the foundation of all good and felicity, through which is actualised every perfection and every state. Its origin is truthfulness with regard to God’s covenant, exalted be He, which is [itself] the result of sincere fulfilment of the compact of primordial nature or [the compact] itself, as He says: men who are true to the covenant they made with God [Q. 33:23] in the binding of resolve and the promise of creatures, as He says with regard to Ishmael: Indeed he was true to his promise [Q. 19:54]. If such [truthfulness] is borne in mind in all abodes, including those of incoming thought, consideration, intention, speech, deeds, then dreams, inrushes, states, stations, divine bestowals, and witnessings will all be true, as though it [truthfulness] were the root of the tree of perfection and the seed of the fruit of states.

[It is not for the believers to go forth altogether.] Why should not a party of every section of them [go forth]: in other words, every prepared person from a [particular] group must wayfare along the path of the pursuit of knowledge, since it is not possible for all of them [to do so], either outwardly [impossible] because of the [potential] forfeiting of [the groups’s] welfare, or inwardly [impossible] because there is no preparedness [for it in each of them]. ‘To gain understanding in religion’ (tafaqquh) is a kind of knowledge that belongs to the heart and not one that is earned^{1According to Ibn ʿArabī’s hermeneutics, there are two kinds of knowledge, one that is bestowed (mawhūb) and which is the result of God-fearing (taqwā) [cf. Q. 2:282 and 8:29], and another that is earned (muktasab)}. For not every person who earns knowledge gains understanding, as He says And We have placed covers upon their hearts so that they do not understand it (yafqahūn) [Q. 6:25]: these covers (akinna) are natural overlays and ego-centric veils. Thus whoever desires to gain understanding, let him go forth in the way of God and let him wayfare the path of self-cleansing and self-purification until knowledge manifests itself from his heart onto his tongue, as was revealed to one of the prophets of the Children of Israel: ‘O Children of Israel: do not say that knowledge is in the heavens and so who will bring it down, or that it is at the furthest edges of the earth and so who will bring it out, or that it is beyond the sea and so who will traverse [it] and bring it over? Knowledge has been placed in your hearts. Acquire [spiritual] refinement at my hands through the refined dispositions of the spiritual ones and assume the character traits of the truthful ones so that I might make manifest the knowledge that is in your hearts until your are immersed and covered in it. Thus what is meant by ‘gaining understanding’ (tafaqquh) is [the gaining of] knowledge that is firmly rooted in the heart, striking its roots [deep] within the soul, its effect being manifest upon the limbs such that the one possessing it is unable to commit anything that stands in opposition to that knowledge. For otherwise, he would not be a learned one (ʿālim). Do you know not see how God has deprived of understanding (fiqh) that person in whom the awe of God does not prevail over the awe of people, where He says: You indeed rouse greater awe in their hearts than God. That is because they are a people who do not have understanding [Q. 59:13], since awe of God is a corollary of knowledge (ʿilm), as He says [elsewhere]: Indeed only those of God’s servants who have knowledge fear Him [Q. 35:28]. He has also stripped knowledge from one who does not use it, where He says: Are those who know equal with those who do not know? [Q. 39:9]. Once they have gained understanding and their knowledge manifests itself upon their limbs, it will have an effect on others who will be affected in turn thereby because they will be quenched and sprinkled by it, as was the state of the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, which is why the warning was necessary, that being the purpose [ultimately], as He says: and that they may warn their folk when they return to them, so that they may beware? The one who dedicates himself to gaining [such] understanding, then [for him] comes the greater struggle, followed by the lesser struggle, which is why He then says:

O you who believe, fight those [of the disbelievers] who are near to you, from among the disbelieving faculties of your souls, which are the most hostile of your enemies, and let them find harshness in you, that is, a vanquishing and a severity until you attaint the degree of God-fearing so that there then descends upon you assistance from God as He says: and know that God is with the God-fearing.

Do they not see that they are tried, [to the end of] the verse: trial is a steersman from God, exalted be He, that steers people to Him. It is mentioned in the ḥadīth: ‘Trial is one of God’s scourges, exalted be He, by which He drives His servants towards Him’. Every illness, impoverishment, or evil state that befalls a person breaks the vehemence of his soul and its faculties, curbs its attributes and its vain desires so that the heart becomes tender and emerges from its veiling and is roused from its reliance on this world and its pleasures, becoming constricted and recoiling in disgust from it, orienting itself instead towards God. The least of the degrees of this [trial] is that if he should discover that there is no escape from Him except to Him and should find no flight from or way out of the trial besides [through] Him, he submits humbly and yields before Him, as He says: And if waves cover them like awnings, they call on God, sincere before Him in their faith [Q. 31:32]; and [also where He says]: If misfortune should befall a man, he calls upon Us on his side, or sitting or standing [Q. 10:12]. In sum, it [trial] necessarily brings about a thinning of the veil or its [complete] removal, so let him make the most of his moment, seek refuge [with God] and adopt a [virtuous] character trait that will always define him so that awareness and remembrance might be established and presence and repentance might be facilitated [for that person] so that he no longer habituates himself to forgetfulness upon deliverance [from trial] and that the soul is not fortified when security reigns, lest it prevail and [lest] the veil is drawn down [even a] denser [veil] than the one before, as He has said: but when He delivers them to land, behold! they ascribe partners to Him [Q. 29:65], [and] but when We have relieved him of his misfortune, he passes on as if he had never called upon Us because of a misfortune that befell him [Q. 10:12].

[Verily there has come to you] a messenger from among yourselves, so that there might be genus-correspondence in terms of the soul between you and him, [a correspondence] by means of which affinity comes to exist between you and him and you mix with him by virtue of that genus-correspondence and become mixed with him, such that your souls are affected by the luminosity of that [genus of his] that is derived from the light of his heart and they are thus illumined by it and the darkness of innate disposition and habit is removed from them; for whom it is grievous, it is harsh and burdensome for him that you should suffer, be wretched or encounter [God] as loathsome ones, [and this] because of his compassion, which itself is a concomitant of the divine love that he possesses for His servants, and because he sees them as being like his own organs and limbs, since he considers [them] through the eyes of the unity. And so just as it would grieve any of us that an organ should be painful, so for him [the Prophet] it is grievous that any one from among his community should be chastised; who is full of concern for you, because of his intense concern for your preservation; in the same way that one of us would be intensely concerned for every single part of his body and limbs, and would not accept that the slightest part of him should be missing or that it should suffer, so is the case with him [the Prophet]. Nay, his concern is greater by virtue of the precision of his consideration; to the believers full of pity, saving them from punishment by warning them against sins and acts of disobedience by virtue of his pity; merciful, effusing upon them forms of knowledge, gnoses, and perfections that bring propinquity [to the divine] by instructing [them in it] and making [them] desire them by virtue of his mercifulness.

So if they turn away, and refuse to receive [your] pity and mercy, because of their unpreparedness or because of the disappearance of this [preparedness], and have exposed themselves to eternal wretchedness, say: ‘God suffices me: I have no need of you, nor of your assistance, in the same way that a man has no need of a painful and gangrenous appendage, which, on the basis of reason, must be amputated. In other words, God avails me [of all else]. There is nothing in existence except Him and hence there is no effective agent other than Him and no helper except Him. In Him I trust: I cannot see that any [other than Him] possesses [the power to] act and there is no might or strength except in Him, and He is the Lord of the Tremendous Throne’, that encompasses all things, from which issue His judgement and command for all.