10:0 In the name of God, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful.

It is God who brightens the hearts of the friends, the All-Merciful who takes away the grief of the helpless, the Ever-Merciful who forgives the sins of the disobedient. It is God who bestows vision without veil on the servant, the All-Merciful who gives daily provision without reckoning from His treasury, the Ever-Merciful who forgives without rebuke with His bounty. It is God in whose bounty the spirits of the preceders delight, the All-Merciful toward whose love the hearts of the moderate incline, the Ever-Merciful whose pardon washes away the sins of the wrongdoers.

Someone hears the address God and falls into unrest, another listens to the name All-Merciful and begins to seek, still another stays listening to the name Ever-Merciful and comes to revelry.

The body is the locus of the Trust; when addressed by God, it becomes unsettled. The heart is the court of love; on hearing the name All-Merciful, it falls into the circle of seeking and revelry. The spirit is the center point of passion; when it finds the good news of the word Ever-Merciful, it remains in revelry on the carpet of hope. All blessings are showered on the body, all favor given to the heart, and vision and contemplation are made the portion of the spirit.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, Your remembrance is in the midst of the heart and the tongue, Your love in the midst of the secret core and the spirit. Finding You is the life of the spirit and a hidden resurrection. O found without being sought and O perceived without being perceived! Finding You is a day that comes forth suddenly by itself. He who finds You busies himself with neither happiness nor grief.”

10:2 Give good news to those with faith that they have a footing of truthfulness with their Lord.

Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Tirmidhī said, “The footing of truthfulness is the leader of the wholesome and the sincerely truthful, the obeyed interceder, the asker who receives response, Muḥammad.”

It has been said that the footing of truthfulness is the precedence of solicitude and the bounty of guidance. On the first day during the First Compact, He gave the drink of affection to the spirits of the faithful during the session of intimacy from the bowl of love in the cup of kindness. That wine made them drunk and dizzy. He promised them a straight and truthful promise: “We shall bring you back to this domicile of generosity and We shall caress you again with increase over this excellence: He will increase them from His bounty [4:173].” This is why He says,

10:4 To Him is your place of return, all together—God’s promise in truth.

To return is to go back, and going back must have a beginning. To God belongs the command, before and after [30:4].

Concerning the intimations of the verse, “To Him is your place of return, all together,” Junayd said, “From Him is the beginning and to Him the end. What is between these are the pastures of His bounty and the uninterruptedness of His blessings. For those to whom felicity preceded at the beginning, this will be displayed in His pastures and in moving about in His blessings by their making manifest the tongue of gratitude, the state of approval, and the contemplation of the Patron of Blessings. As for those who were not permitted the felicity of the beginning, they will nullify the days of training their souls and collect ephemeral chaff so as to be pushed back to the wretchedness that preceded at the beginning.”

Junayd is saying that all things begin with God and all return to God. In other words, everything is brought forth by His power and returned to His decree. He is the First and the Last. The Beginningless is His predetermination, the Endless His decision. Everything arrives newly through His gentleness, and all the newly arrived things are annihilated by His severity. Between this and that are the pastures of His bounty and the marks giving witness to His blessings. All those whom the beginningless command brought into being inscribed with felicity came forth in the pastures of bounty giving gratitude for blessings and approving of the apportionment, their tongues in remembrance, their hearts grateful, and their spirits limpid and believing. All those who received the beginningless decree of wretchedness had ruined lives, indigent days, and bad outcomes. They were tainted by this world, captivated by the forbidden, and attached to diversions and games. He wanted this for them in the end in order to take them back to the beginningless decree and the First Day. This is what the Lord of the Worlds is saying: “To Him is your place of return, all together—God’s promise in truth.”

It has been said, “Promised to the obedient are the highest paradises, and promised to the disobedient are mercy and approval. The Garden is the Real’s gentleness, and mercy is the Real’s description. Gentleness is an act that was not, then came to be, but the description is an attribute that always was.”^{1Quoted from LI 3:79.}

Abū Bakr al-Wāsiṭī said, “The obedient are porters, and porters have nothing but burdens, and this is the threshold of Him who has no needs. The disobedient are destitute, and the destitute have nothing but destitution, and this is the carpet of the destitute.

“O owners of obedience, I do not say, ‘Do not obey!’, lest you suppose wrongly about the Qur’an. As much as you can and as much as you have the capacity, bring forth acts of obedience! Then, let them go, for they are nonbeing. The obedient person and the obedient act are two, but this is the carpet of oneness.

“O owners of slips! Do not constrict your hearts, for this burden of disobedience is also His burden, just as obedience is His burden. But, obedience is something that is put in place, and disobedience is something that is lifted away. Putting in place is your act, and lifting away is His act.”

10:5 He it is who made the sun a radiance and the moon a light.

In terms of allusion, this sun is the sun of success-giving, which shines from the constellation of solicitude on the servant’s bodily parts so that they will be adorned with service and obedience. The moon alludes to the light of tawḥīd and the brightness of recognition in the heart of the recognizer, for with this light he takes the road to the Recognized. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, the recognizer knows You with Your light, not with the ray of worship’s light. He burns in the fire of love and does not turn back from joy.”

10:7-8 Surely those who do not hope for Our encounter, are content with the life of this world and at rest with it, and those who are heedless of Our signs, it is they whose refuge will be the Fire for what they were earning.

The unbelievers do not hope for the vision of the Real, for they deny it. Inescapably they will never reach it. The faithful have faith in the vision of the Real and hope that they will reach it. Inescapably they will reach it. This is the same as what Muṣṭafā said: “When someone hears of the Real’s generosity”—that is, he hears a report that the Real is generous toward the servant and will caress him with the vision of Him—“but does not accept the report and does not have faith in the vision, he will never reach that generosity.”

It has been said that they do not hope to see the Real because they have not yearned, they do not yearn because they have not loved, they do not love because they have not recognized, they do not recognize because they have not sought, and they do not seek because the Real has not brought them into seeking and has shut the door of seeking. So, all is from God and according to His desire and will. God says, “Surely the final end is unto thy Lord” [53:42].

Had He desired that they seek Him, they would have sought Him. Had they sought, they would have recognized. Had they recognized, they would have loved. Had they loved, they would have yearned. Had they yearned for Him, they would have hoped for His encounter. Had they hoped for His encounter, they would have seen Him. God says, “And had We willed, We would have given every soul its guidance” [32:13]. As for those who do not hope for His encounter, their home will be chastisement and separation. This declaration shows that the final goal of those who hope for His encounter is union, encounter, and nearness.^{1These two paragraphs are translated and quoted from LI 3:81.}

10:9 Surely those who have faith and do wholesome deeds, their Lord will guide them in their faith.

In terms of allusion according to the tasting of the folk of recognition, this verse has another intimation. He is saying that in reality the faithful and the good men are those whom the Unity keeps under the domes of jealousy through the blessing of generosity. He nurtures them with the beauty of solicitude, He gives them access to recognition of Him, and He brings them close to companionship with Him so that they will become one for Him and estranged from other than Him.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “Tawḥīd is not just that you know Him to be one. True tawḥīd is that you be one for Him and estranged from other than Him.” The beginning of solicitude is that He gives them a goal in the Unseen to take them away from the world. When they become solitary, they are worthy for union with the Solitary.

Your seeker must be solitary like You—

he must be free of every defect and pain.

Until the diver cuts his heart away from the kingdom of life, it is not permissible for the hand of his seeking to reach the desired pearl. What then do you say about someone who, in seeking His majesty and beauty, aims for the greatest salvation? As long as he does not wash his hands of love for life, how will he reach union with the proximity of the Beloved?

In the session of Moses a poor man let out a cry. In anger Moses shouted at him. At once Gabriel came: “O Moses! God says, ‘In your session, the owner of pain and possessor of heart was that one man. It was he who was present in your session for My sake. You shouted at him. Even though you are My speaking companion and My dear one, you do not see the secret that we have placed under a black blanket. It is yearning for My beauty that brings the friends into ecstasy. It is the demand for My beauty that pulls their hearts into the world of fear and hope, contraction and expansion. And God contracts and expands [2:245]. When the eyes are full of this world, they cannot hold the attribute of the afterworld. When the attributes of the afterworld settle down in the eyes, they remain unaware of the majesty of My proximity and the exaltedness of My union.”

Not this world, not the afterworld—rather, union with the Patron! Ah, where is an aspiration not of this world? Where is a desire greater than the afterworld, a yearning to see the Patron? Where is a possessor of good fortune so that we may come out of the status of our mortal nature and grasp the stirrup of that possessor of good fortune—perhaps one day we will reach the Desired.

If you want to come out of the pit of status like a man,

grab hold of the pearl-encrusted, musk-wafting chain. [DS 719]

Their Lord will guide them through their faith. Wait till tomorrow at the Resurrection when the friends go forth by the light of recognition on the steed of obedience to the carpet of expansiveness. They will be delighted in the station of witnessing, group by group and company by company, just as God said: “We shall muster the godwary to the All-Merciful in droves” [19:85]. In each domicile that appears, a company of angels will come forth by virtue of the command, saying “Peace,” and giving them the good news of everlasting joy and bliss. This is why He says,

10:10 And their greeting therein will be “Peace!,” and the last of their supplication will be “Praise belongs to God, the Lord of the Worlds.”

On that desert of the Mustering and station of the Resurrection, the disobedient of Aḥmad’s community will be kept back at the place of the exposure of the reckoning. The preceders will have gone on ahead with the light of obedience, and the disobedient will stay there alone with the heavy burden of disobedience. In the end, God’s mercy will take them by the hand. He will have pity on their aloneness and helplessness. With the call of generosity, He will say, “My servants!” When this address of exaltedness and call of generosity in the attribute of mercy reaches their ears, it will put their spirits at ease and open up their hearts to repose and ease [56:89]. He will say, “My servants, surely the companions of the Garden are today busy rejoicing [36:55] and have no leisure time for you. The Companions of the Fire have no tenderness for you because of the intensity of the chastisement. O assemblies of the indigent, peace be upon you! How will you be when your similars and companions have preceded you and none of them will be your guide? I then shall be your guide. If I were to treat you as you deserve, would that be generosity?”^{1This paragraph seems to be a loose translation of one of Qushayrī’s several explanations of 36:55 (LI 5:221).}

I would be disloyal like them

were I to leave them as they left Me.

When the Real’s clemency and mercy reach them, He washes away their dread and disobedience with the water of mercy, and the sun of kind favor shines from the constellation of solicitude. With the attribute of boasting and the state of brokenness they will weep sweetly and cry happily at the Court of the Possessor of Majesty. The Exalted Lord will accept their weeping and crying and place a balm on their hearts’ pain. He will open their mouths with praise of Him, and they will laud and praise God in the measure of the capacity of servanthood. The last of their words will be what the Lord of the Worlds says: “And the last of their supplication is ‘Praise belongs to God, the Lord of the Worlds.’” The last of their words will be, “Praise belongs to God, Lord of the Worlds, for the enemies’ schadenfreude has not reached us, and God’s bounty and mercy have embraced us.”

Our only goal was God’s forgiveness—

the favor is God’s, for we have reached our goal.

10:22 He it is who makes you journey on land and sea. Even so, when you are in the ship—it takes them along with a goodly breeze, and they rejoice in it; there comes upon them a raging wind, and waves come from every place and they think that they will be encompassed by them; they supplicate God, purifying the religion for Him: “If Thou savest us from this, we shall surely be among the thankful.”

In the tongue of the folk of allusion, the journey on land is taking the road to the drinking places of the Shariah through inference by means of the message. The journey on the sea is the overwhelming force of the Real which, at the moment of ecstasy, pulls the reins of the servant’s steed without intermediaries through the way stations of the Haqiqah to the places of contemplating holiness.

Just as on the sea you make a one-month journey in one day, so also in this field the chevalier traverses the distance of a whole lifetime with one divine attraction. This is why they say, “One attraction of the Real is equivalent to all the deeds of jinn and men.”

The journey on land is the journey of the worshipers and renunciants in the desert of struggle on the steed of discipline with the guidance of the Shariah. Their goal is the paradise of approval and everlasting blessings.

The journey on the sea is the journey of the recognizers and the sincerely truthful in the ship of kind favor, which is driven by the wind of solicitude in the sea of contemplation. Their goal is the Kaabah of union and the mystery of the Beneficent.

It has also been said that land and sea are allusions to the contraction and expansion of the recognizers. Sometimes in contraction they weep between confoundedness and bewilderment, and sometimes in expansion they are delighted between witnessing and finding. When the wind of happiness again blows from the horizon of self-disclosure and the rain of generosity pours down from the cloud of gentleness, they see solicitude and kind favor, and the hard cash of their present moment becomes it takes them along with a goodly breeze, and they rejoice in it: On the carpet of witnessing, in the state of intimacy, joy comes over them. They see an expansion and are immersed in joy. In that joy and coquetry they say,

“We are the knights, the knights are we—

we tread on the eyes of Jupiter.”

As soon as expansion reaches its limit, they enter by way of power into awe and confoundedness. The ocean of tremendousness throws up the waves of awe, and the poor servants fall into the lowland of veiling. They loose the tongue of pleading and say with weeping and lowliness,

“I am bewildered in Thee, take my hand,

O guide of those bewildered in Thee!”

This is why He says, “There comes upon them a raging wind, and waves come from every place.”

That distracted one of the time and leader of the Tariqah, Shiblī, gave reports of both sides in his traveling and passed over both stations. In the station of expansion at the time of happiness and joy, he was saying, “Where are the heavens and the earth that I may carry them on a hair of my eyelid!” In the station of contraction at the time of weeping and lowliness, he was saying, “My abasement suspends the abasement of the Jews.”

The witness to this story in the holy Shariah is that Muṣṭafā would sometimes say, “I am the master of the children of Adam, without boasting.” Sometimes he would say, “Do not consider me more excellent than Jonah the son of Mattā.”

10:25 And God invites to the Abode of Peace, and He guides whomsoever He will to a straight path.

Invitations are four: First is the invitation to tawḥīd and bearing witness. That is His words, “He invites you so that He may forgive you some of your sins” [14:10]. Second is the invitation to praise and response. That is His words, “He will invite you, and you will respond to Him” [17:52]. Third is the invitation to following and leadership. That is His words, “We shall invite all the people by their leader” [17:71]. Fourth is the invitation to generosity and hospitality. That is His words, “And God invites to the Abode of Peace.”

When someone wants to invite someone and to make his friends and dear ones his guests, the condition of the entertainment is that first he sends one of those close to him, one of his own special friends, to inform them and give them the good news. Then, when they come, he sends his dear ones to welcome them. He does not invite any of them alone, but rather he invites their friends and relatives as well. He sends steeds and torches in the road, and when they come their place is made up and ready. When they sit, he first gives them rosewater, then fruit is brought. The prepared food is placed, and the serving boys and servants stand by. When that is finished, they listen to music. It is also a condition that the host not hold himself back from being seen by the guests, and finally that he send them back with respect and honor.

The Lord of the Worlds has made all of this ready and set it up for the entertainment of paradise, and He reports of it and explains it in the Qur’an. The first to call them and give them good news is Muṣṭafā, who is, the Real says, “inviting to God by His leave” [33:46]. Then the angels and Riḍwān will come to welcome them: and the angels will receive them [21:103]. He will send them mounts: We shall muster the godwary to the All-Merciful in droves [19:85], which is to say that they will be mounted on noble steeds of light. He will send lamps of light for their road: their light running before them, and on their right hands [57:12]. He will not call them alone, but He will also call their relatives and near ones: and those who are wholesome among their fathers, spouses, and offspring [40:8]. Then He will make their place be paradise and gardens of bliss [5:65]—a garden whose breadth is the heavens and the earth, made ready for the godwary [3:133]. Their beverage will be they are poured sealed, fine wine, whose seal is musk [83:25-26]. Their fruit will be much fruit, neither cut off nor withheld [56:32-33]. Their food will be the flesh of birds as much as they have appetite [56:21]. Their slave-boys and servants will be with them: going around them are youths for them, as if they were hidden pearls [52:24]. Their listening: they will be made happy in a garden [30:15]. More exalted than all this is that He will turn them toward the vision of Himself so that they may see Him and be delighted, as He says: “Faces that day will be radiant, gazing upon their Lord” [75:22-23]. Their fresh and delighted faces will gaze on the majesty and beauty of the Real, and their faces will be brighter than the sun at daytime, having won the self-disclosure of the Possessor of Majesty.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “The vision of the Friend is the portion of the yearners, the brightness of eyes, the good fortune of the spirit, and the adornment of the world. It is the comfort of the spirit, the delight of the spirit, and the pain of the spirit.”

Both my heart’s pain and my spirit’s comfort are You.

O chevalier, wait until you see happiness and you sit secure once and for all on the carpet of union with the Friend. From the Friend you will see “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what has never passed into the heart of any mortal.”

This is why the Lord of the Worlds says,

10:26 Those who do what is beautiful shall have the most beautiful and an increase. Neither dust nor abasement shall overcome their faces. It is they who will be the companions of the Garden, dwelling within it forever.

The companions of the Garden are one thing, the lords of companionship something else. About the companions of the Garden He says, “And God invites to the Abode of Peace” [10:25]. About the lords of companionship He says, “And He guides whomsoever He will to a straight path” [10:25]. The most beautiful, blessedness, and nearness belong to the folk of the Garden. Increase, proximity, and companionship belong to the folk of recognition.

I envy your house because of your neighborhood—

blessed is he who becomes a neighbor of your house!

God’s Messenger said, “When God settles the folk of the Garden in the Garden and the folk of the Fire in the Fire, He will send the Faithful Spirit to the folk of the Garden. He will say, ‘O Folk of the Garden! Your Lord greets you and commands you to visit the courtyard of the Garden.’ It is the bed of the Garden, and its soil is of musk. Its pebbles are pearls and carnelians, its trees are gold and dates, and its leaves emeralds. The folk of the Garden will go out happy and joyful. Then there will be an assembly, and therein God’s generosity will alight upon them, and they will gaze on His face. It is this that was promised by God, and He fulfills it for them.”

He said, “God will give them permission to listen to music, eat, and drink, and wear the clothing of generosity. Then a caller will call out: ‘O friends of God! Does anything of what your Lord promised you remain?’

“They will say, ‘No. He has fulfilled what He promised us, and there remains nothing but gazing at the face of our Lord.”

He said, “So the Lord will disclose Himself to them in veils and say, ‘O Gabriel, lift My veils for My servants so that they may gaze at My face.’ He will left the first veil, so they will gaze at a light from the Lord and fall prostrate before it. The Lord will call to them, ‘My servants, lift your heads. This is not the abode of deeds, it is the abode of reward.’ Then he will lift the second veil, and they will gaze on something even more tremendous and more majestic. They will fall before God, praising, prostrating themselves, and recognizing. The Lord will call to them, ‘Lift your heads. This is not the abode of deeds, it is the abode of reward and permanent bliss.’ Then he will lift the third veil, and at that they will be gazing on the face of the Lord of the Worlds. They will say as they gaze on His face, ‘Glory be to You! We have not worshiped You with the rightful due of Your worship!’

“He will say, ‘My generosity has given you the ability to gaze at My face and to alight in My abode.’

Then God will give permission to the Garden to speak, and it will say, “Blessedness belongs to Him who has made me everlasting! And blessedness belongs to those for whom I have been made ready!” That is His words, “Blessedness belongs to them, and a beautiful place of return” [13:29].

10:35 Say: Is there any of those whom you associate who guides to the Real?

Real is one of the names of the Lord. The commentary is that in truth He is God; He is worthy of Godhood, and His measure is in place. What was, is, and will be must go, but He subsists. He is found in the hearts of the friends and known to the spirits of the recognizers. He does not accept alteration or change of state, and He is everlasting in worthiness for Godhood.

The name Real often comes forth from the tongue of the Folk of the Tariqah. This is because upon witnessing the acts, this group began to witness the attributes, and then, upon witnessing the attributes, they fell to witnessing the Essence. First they gazed on the artisanry, then they passed beyond the artisanry and gazed on the attributes, then again they passed from gazing on the attributes to gazing on the Essence.

About gazing on the artisanry He says, “Have they not gazed upon the dominion of the heavens and the earth?” [7:185]. About gazing on the attributes He says, “Thou art not upon any task, neither dost thou recite any of the Qur’an, nor do you do any deed, unless We are witnesses over you when you go forth into it” [10:61]. About gazing on the Essence He says, “Say ‘God,’ then leave them” [6:91].

About gazing on the acts Muṣṭafā said, “I seek refuge in Thy pardon from Thy punishment.” About gazing on the attributes he said, “I seek refuge in Thy approval from Thy anger.” About gazing on the Essence he said, “I seek refuge in Thee from Thee.” Then he passed beyond his own seeing and became disengaged from his own attributes, and he spoke from the station of annihilation: “I do not number Thy laudations.” Again, he stepped higher to the station of subsistence and gave a mark of the reality of solitariness. He said, “Thou art as Thou hast lauded Thyself.”

First is the station of inference, second the station of poverty, third the station of contemplation, fourth the station of life, and fifth the station of subsistence.

The Pir of the Tariqah alluded to the intimations of these meaning when he said, “O resurrection of the marks bearing witness and destruction of the traces! The recognizer is alive through his own nonbeing. O Splendorous and Self-Standing, everyone hopes for vision, and I am lost in vision. When the flood reaches the ocean, what then is known of the flood? The world is full of day, and the poor blind man is deprived.”

The antagonists say, “These are not suitable words.”

The sun does not sin if someone is blind.

10:42 Among them are those who listen to thee.

The listeners are diverse and their degrees disparate. One hears through nature with the ear of the head; he was sleeping and listening wakes him up and relieves him of sorrow. Another hears through the state with the ear of the heart; he was resting and listening brings him into movement until the breeze of intimacy blows. Another hears through the Real with a soul that is dead, a heart that is thirsty, and a burning breath; the beginningless reminder arrives, the spirit takes its ease in loving kindness, and the secret core is filled with love.

Bū Sahl Ṣuʿlūk said, “In listening the listener is between curtaining and self-disclosure. The curtaining of the Real belongs to the beginners. It is the mark of mercy’s gaze on the work of the Men, for in their weakness and incapacity they are not able to bear the unveiling of the ruling power of the Haqiqah.”

In this meaning it has been recounted from Manṣūr Maghribī that he said, “I alighted at a camp of nomads. A young man made me his guest. Suddenly he fell down unconscious, so I asked about his state. I was told that he was in love with the daughter of his uncle, and that she had just come out of her tent. The youth had seen the dust of her garment as she went, so he fell down unconscious. I got up and went to the doorway of that tent and interceded for the youth. I said, ‘A stranger among you has respect and safeguards. I have come to intercede with you in the business of this young man. Be kind to him in his longing.’

“The woman said to me, ‘You have a sound heart. He is not able to put up with witnessing the dust from my dress. How will he put up with my love?’

This is the state of the desirer, for He keeps him covered by the curtain of selfhood so that he will not be totally burnt and melted by the assaults of the Haqiqah. He sees no more than one flash of the lightning of the Haqiqah, and it brings him into movement; he shouts out, tears his clothing, and weeps. Again, when he reaches the place of straightness and achieves stability in the reality of solitariness, the breeze of proximity begins to blow on him from the horizon of self-disclosure. His movement is changed to stillness, for the influxes of awesomeness bring forth courtesy with the Presence. This is why the Lord of the Worlds says, “When they were in [the Qur’an’s] presence, they said, ‘Give ear!’”[46:29].

10:58 Say: “In the bounty of God and His mercy—in that let them rejoice, for it is better than what they gather.”

“O Muḥammad! Give the faithful good news and tell them that they should be happy in the bounty and mercy of God: ‘I have honored you with faith, the Qur’an, submission, and Muḥammad, so be delighted! Become intimate with remembering Me. Accept My covenant in your spirit. Delight in My love. A happy servant is he who is happy with Me. There is no happiness but happiness with Me. May he who is not happy with Me never be happy! The servant has two happinesses in Me: today he is happy with Me, and tomorrow he will be happy along with Me.’”

My face is happy with Your face when You are present.

May my spirit be happy with remembering You when You are absent!

It has been said that the bounty of God and His mercy that you have with Him in the precedent apportioning is better than the varieties of obedience and the kinds of service that are your own self-exertion.^{1LI 3:103.}

In terms of allusion He is saying, “My servant, have confidence in My bounty and mercy, not in your own worship and service, for there is no confidence in anything other than My bounty and no ease in other than My mercy. Everyone has a resource, and the resource of the faithful is My bounty; everyone has a storehouse, and the storehouse of the poor is My mercy; everyone has a leaning place, and the leaning place of the recognizers is My precedence; everyone has a treasure, and the treasure of those who trust is My assurance; everyone has a delight, and the delight of the rememberers is remembering Me; everyone has a hope, and the hope of the friends is seeing Me.”

There was a renunciant among the Children of Israel who sat for seventy years in a monastery worshiping God. After seventy years revelation came to the prophet of the time: “Say to that renunciant, ‘You have completed beautiful days and passed a life in worshiping Me. I promise you that I will forgive you by My bounty and mercy.’”

The renunciant said, “He will take me to paradise by His bounty? Where then will that seventy years of worship be seen? What about that?”

In that very hour, the Exalted Lord placed a tremendous pain in one of his teeth. He began to lament and went before the prophet. He wept and asked for healing. Revelation came to the prophet, “Tell the renunciant that I want the seventy years of worship to heal him.”

The renunciant said, “I approve. I want the healing in hard cash. You know about tomorrow—if You want, send me to hell, if You want, paradise.”

The command came from the Compeller of all engendered beings: “All of your worship fell before that one toothache. What remains now but My bounty and mercy?” So in that let them rejoice, for it is better than what they gather and hope for as the reward for their activities.

10:62 Surely God’s friends—no fear shall be upon them, neither shall they sorrow.

God’s friends are those who dive for the pearl of wisdom in the oceans of knowledge, who are the sun of desire and the resting place of the covenant of good fortune in the heaven of the innate disposition, who are accepted by the Divine Presence and the oyster shell of the secrets of Lordhood, who are the title-page of the Shariah and the proof of the Haqiqah. Through them the lineage of Muṣṭafā is alive in the World of the Realities, the pathway of truthfulness is filled with the firm fixity of their feet, their outwardness is adorned with the rulings of the Shariah, their inwardness is illumined by the pearl of poverty. When the traces of the gaze of these exalted ones reach the thorn-bed of deprivation, the jasmine of the religion blooms. When the blessings of their breaths shine upon the salt-waste of misery, the ambergris of passion wafts its scent. If they gaze on a disobedient person, he becomes obedient. If they open their eyes on someone wearing a sash of unbelief, he is accepted and protected by the Exalted Threshold.

Thus it is told that once the exalted one of his time and the master of his era, Shiblī, became ill. The caliph of the time liked him, and it reached him that Shiblī was ill. There was a Christian physician, extremely skillful, so he sent him to Shiblī to cure him. The physician came and said to Shiblī, “O shaykh! If I have to make your medicine from my own skin and flesh, I will not hold it back and I will heal you.”

Shiblī said, “My medicine is less than that.”

He said, “What is it?”

He said, “Cut off that sash, and you will have cured me.”

The physician said, “It is no stipulation of chivalry that I make a claim and not carry it through. If your healing lies in my cutting off the sash, that’s an easy job.” When the physician cut off his sash, Shiblī got up from the illness.

The news of what happened reached the caliph. He became happy and said, “I thought I was sending a physician to someone ill. I did not know I was sending someone ill to a physician.”

Surely God’s friends. It has been said that the mark of the friend is that from head to foot he is nothing but veneration. His eyes have been adorned with reverence so that he does not look at anything unworthy. His tongue has been bound by courtesy so that he does not talk foolishly. His feet have been bound by the Haqiqah so that he does not walk down every street. His gullet has been bound by the Shariah so that he gives nothing access to himself but the permitted. His limbs have been bound by servanthood so that he does not bind his waist with anything but the belt of serving the Real. He is kept like this in this world, and in the next world, no fear shall be upon them, neither shall they sorrow. In this world he is adorned with service and reverence; in the afterworld he reaches blessing and vision; in this world he has recognition and love, in the afterworld caresses and contemplation. In this world he sees limpidness and loyalty, in the afterworld he reaches encounter and approval. This is why the Lord of the Worlds says,

10:64 For them is good news in the life of this world and the next world.

They have two sorts of good news, one today and one tomorrow. Today: “Give good news to those with faith that they have a footing of truthfulness with their Lord” [10:2]. Tomorrow: “Their Lord will give them the good news of mercy from Him, approval, and the Gardens” [9:21]. Here you have boundless caresses, everlasting bliss, the happiness of friends, a satisfied King, and joyful servants: “My servants, whatever you seek, seek for nothing greater than My satisfaction. Whatever you reach, you will reach nothing better than My bounty. Whomever you choose in friendship, you will choose no one like Me. Whomever you see, you will see no one like Me. ‘This house is your house, and I am your neighbor.’”

Great are those days whose final outcome is this! Exalted is that servant who is worthy for this! Beautiful is that seed whose fruit is this! Blessed is that night whose morning is this! A house of light, everlasting happiness, and the Forgiving Patron!

Say to Our friends, “Let your eyes be delighted—

the ruined house has come to Me in safety.”

10:71 And recite to them the story of Noah when he said to his people, “If my station and my reminding you of God’s signs are too much for you, then in God I trust, so gather together your affair and those whom you associate, and let not your affair be obscure for you. Then decide about me, and do not leave me waiting.”

This is a lordly example from the Glorious Presence. He is saying, “Trial from My court is a robe of honor for the friends, and drinking the draft of tribulation from the cup of love is the job of men. If someone’s makeup is not worthy to be a target for the arrow of My trial, his countenance will also not be worthy of My love and beauty.”

When people choose someone for friendship, it is their habit to want every ease and comfort for their friend. The divine custom is contrary to this: Whenever He approves of someone for friendship, He sends him the drink of tribulation with the robe of love. “Surely the people most severely tried are the prophets, then the friends, then the next best, then the next best.” “When God loves a servant, trial is poured down all over him.”

For a moment look at the state of Noah, the elder of the envoys and the leader of the godwary: What suffering he saw from his own community, what tribulation, and what a load of trial and trouble he carried in inviting them! For a thousand years less fifty he was inviting them, and every day they would beat him such that he lost consciousness, and they advised his own children to strike and beat him. With all this tribulation and trial he used to say, “I have so much sorrow that I care nothing for your beating.” He said to them, “In God I trust, so gather together your affair and those whom you associate: Do whatever you want, and prepare whatever deception you can, for I am leaning on my Lord and have accepted Him as my caretaker, for in God I trust.”

Trust is the bridge to certainty and the pillar of faith. The Exalted Lord says, “And in God put your trust, if you have faith” [5:23]. “Whosoever trusts in God, He will be enough for him” [65:3]. When someone leans on God, God will be enough for him and he will need no other. On the night of the miʿrāj He said, “O master, O Muḥammad, I wonder how anyone with faith in Me can depend on other than Me.” When someone has My remembrance in his heart, how can he busy himself with remembering others? If someone has love for Me in his spirit, he should let his spirit be lost in that.

In God I trust. Trust is the courier of the Presence of Approval and the mark of truthfulness in the Covenant and limpidness in the Haqiqah. Trust has a beginning and an end. In the beginning are the sweetness of service, tenderness toward all living things, and self-purification in the invitation. In the end are freedom, happiness, and unsettledness. In the beginning there appears what Moses said to his people: “Then trust in Him, if you are submitters” [10:84]. In the end is seen what the Real said to Muṣṭafā: “And trust in the Living who does not die” [25:58].

Shaykh Abu’l-Qāsim Naṣrābādī sent a disciple to Shaykh Abū ʿAlī Siyāh, telling him to ask where he had arrived in trust. Shaykh Abū ʿAlī sent the reply, “Abū ʿAlī is an idle man who does not recognize trust. But he has become so busy in his idleness that he has no concern for creation.” All the leaders of the Tariqah agree that no wayfarer on the road has spoken words more beautiful and more complete than these. Seeing the perfection of the realization of servanthood in faultiness itself is not the work of just any idle and defiled person. You must yourself become an unbeliever if you want to be a true Muslim.

10:105 Set thy face to the religion.

In other words, “Purify your intention for the religion and disengage your heart from affirming anything touched by the severity of the bestowal of being.”^{1LI 3:118.}

He is saying, “Cleanse your religion from the contamination of eye-service and fix your intention on seeking the alchemy of the Haqiqah—your heart cut off from attachments, your belt tightened, and the ring of service on the ear of loyalty. Let your wants be sacrificed to the beginningless want, your soul to approval, your heart to loyalty, your eyes to subsistence.”

My soul wants life only for union with You,

my spirit wants ease for joining with You.

My ears want hearing for the sake of Your words,

my eyes want sight to yearn for Your beauty.

From here the light of the Haqiqah begins, the falcon of love flies in the air of solitariness, and the divine attraction arrives. It takes the servant away from the hand of self-determination. None of the intrusive dust of hoping for paradise settles on his present moment, no dread of hell blocks his path. With the tongue of his state he says,

“In the road of passion the passionate

must remember neither hell nor paradise.”

Up to this point the servant was seeking, but now he is the sought. He was the lover, but now he is the beloved. He was desiring, but now he is the desired. He saw the carpet of oneness and hurried until he found the proximity of the Friend. Reports turned into face-to-face vision. The obscure became clear. The servant arrived at himself when he reached the Friend. He did not see himself, for he saw the Friend.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, when I learned what was to be learned, I burned all the learning. I overthrew the collected and collected the overthrown. I sold nonbeing to illuminate being. O God, when I recognized oneness, I melted in the hope of happiness. When will I be able to say, ‘I threw away the cup, I turned away from attachments, I gambled away all my being’?”

When will I throw off this cage

and build a nest in the divine garden?!