15:0 In the name of God, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful.

In the name of Him, for tongues become speaking in His name, spirits become distracted in His name, strangers become familiar in His name, ugly things become comely in His name, works become obvious in His name, and roads become apparent in His name! In the name of Him, for the eyes of the yearners weep in His name, the hearts of the recognizers burn in His name, the secret cores of the enraptured shout in His name, the bodies of the passionate twist in His name! In the name of Him, for spirits are captive to His message, the recognizers have fallen into His snare, the yearners are drunk with love from His cup! Blessed is he who has thrown back a draft from this cup or taken up a dwelling in this road! His heart is lit up by the Greatest Light, he lives in the repose of familiarity, and he rejoices in the exaltedness of union. Sometimes majesty is unveiled for him in the bewilderment of witnessing, sometimes he is drowned by gentleness and beauty in the ocean of finding. With the tongue of delight and coquetry he keeps on saying,

“Who am I in my passion for You that a rose should bloom

in the clay of my house from joining with Your face?

Is it not enough for me that in passion for You

my heart is adorned by joining with You?”

15:20 And therein We placed for you livelihoods.

The cause of each person’s livelihood is different. The livelihood of the desirers is the auspiciousness of turning toward Him, the livelihood of the recognizers is the gentleness of His beauty, and the livelihood of the tawḥīd-voicers is the unveiling of His majesty. Each is connected to his own state, and each has a portion of His bounteousness. But the Real is incomparable with beautifying Himself through His acts.^{1This Arabic paragraph seems to be an expansion of LI 3:266.}

15:21 Naught is there but its storehouses are with Us.

God’s storehouses in the earth are the hearts of the recognizers.^{1LI 3:266.}

God has storehouses in the earth, and those storehouses are the hearts of the recognizers and the secret cores of the desirers. They have storehouses of night-brightening pearls and precious deposits and are adorned and decorated by them. Some are adorned by the subtleties of knowledge, and these are the hearts of the knowers. Some are decorated with the realities of intelligence, and these are the hearts of the worshipers. Some are polished with the marvels of the secret core, and these are the hearts of the recognizers. Then the seal of lordhood’s love is placed upon them and they are put into the oyster shell of eternity, for “The hearts of the servants are between two fingers of the All-Merciful.”

Someone may ask what the mark of this is. I would reply that its mark is the glitter of the rays of the pearl shining on the servant’s bodily members such that he is always serving God. He stays up at night in worship and fasts during the daytime. His heart always inclines toward obedience, he hurries to the good, and he does not stoop to concessions. He stays pure of doubtful things, far from the forbidden, and renounces the permitted. He is pained about the past, thoughtful in the present moment, trembling about the rest of his life, and fleeing from hell. He is content with a morsel and a tattered cloak. He has put aside the world for the world’s folk and busied himself with serving God. His body burns in yearning, his heart reaches for the Friend, and his spirit is laughing with the Friend.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, everyone destitute has a portion of Your munificence, everyone in pain has a physician from Your generosity. Everyone has a portion from the all-embracingness of Your mercy and all the needy have the raindrops of Your kindness. On the head of everyone with faith is a crown from You, in the heart of every lover a lamp from You. Everyone entranced has business with You and everyone waiting will have wine and vision at day’s end.”

15:22 And We sent forth the winds as pollinators.

At the time of spring when the Real’s gaze falls on the earth and the world is joyful, He sends down the pollinating wind. He loosens the fastened bonds, and the veins of the trees open their mouths so that their branches may pull water by way of the veins and bring forth subtle fruit.

In the same way, the Exalted Lord gazes on the heart of the faithful servant with affection and love and sends down the wind of solicitude, opening up the road of hearing and obeying. Then he may become worthy of accepting admonition and turn back to the Real by repentance and penitence: eager in service, occupied with worship, constant in remembering the Real, and persevering in severity toward the soul; the call of kindness always in his ears, the blossom of hope grown up, the fruit of wanting tied to the branch of bounty. Here you have the traces of the wind of solicitude, here you have the pollinators of the breeze of generosity!

God says, “We sent forth the winds as pollinators.” When the winds of generosity blow on the secret cores of the recognizers, they are liberated from the fanciful notions of their souls, the frivolities of their natures, and the corruptions of their caprices and desires. The effects of generosity appear in their hearts, so they hold fast to God, depend on Him, and cut off from everything other than Him.

The mark of the servant’s felicity is that all at once the wind of solicitude blows from the direction of success-giving and piles up the clouds of practice. Then the clouds go down to the ocean of the eye of certainty and pick up the water of regret. The lightning of remembrance flashes, the thunder of desire laments, the rain of reflective thought falls, and the desert of the heart comes to life through that rain. Such are His words, “He gives life to the earth after its death” [30:19]. The servant returns entirely to the Real, with a soul dead in itself, a heart alive through the Real, a tongue let loose in remembrance, and a spirit alive through love.

Neither in the heart nor in the mind

is any place empty for other than the Beloved.

“You are my beloved, my want, my desire!”

In Him I live, my pleasure goodly,

And when illness descends into my heart,

none other than He is my physician.

15:23 Surely We give life and We make die.

We give the hearts of the recognizers life through contemplation, and We make their souls die through struggle.^{1LI 3:268.}

We bring the hearts of the recognizers to life with contemplation, and We make their bodies die through struggle. The soul is the veil of the heart. As long as the veil is before the heart, the heart is deprived of contemplation. When the soul is killed by struggle according to the Shariah, the life of the heart begins. Guidance arrives, contemplation joins. Those who struggle in Us, We will guide them on Our paths [29:69].

It has also been said, “We give the desirers life through remembering Us and We make the heedless die through separation from Us.”^{2LI 3:268.}

15:24 We indeed know those of you who go forward and We indeed know those of you who fall behind.

It has been said that those who go forward are those who hurry to good deeds, and those who fall behind are those who are lazy in good deeds.^{1LI 3:268.} It has also been said that its meaning is “We have recognized those who are eager in Us and those who have turned away from Us.”

15:26 Surely We created man of a dried clay of fetid mud.

It has been narrated that Ibn ʿUmar had taken up the sessions. Kaʿb said to a man among those sitting with him, “Ask Ibn ʿUmar from what God created Adam.”

Ibn ʿUmar said, “He created Adam from five things: clay, water, fire, light, and wind.”

At Ibn ʿUmar’s response, Kaʿb said, “Sit with him, for surely he is a man of knowledge.”

What is understood from this report is that the Exalted Lord created Adam from five things: clay, water, fire, light, and wind. The wisdom in this is that the Exalted Lord created every one of His creatures from one kind. He created the angels from light and He created the jinn from fire. These are the light of exaltedness and the fire of exaltedness, which is why Iblis swore by exaltedness [38:82], for he was created from the fire of exaltedness and the angels from the light of exaltedness.

God created the birds from wind, He created the beasts and the crawling things of the earth from dust, and He created the creatures of the sea from water. He created each from one kind, but He created Adam from all of these kinds so as to honor him and make him eminent. Thus he would be superior to all the creatures of the world. All are subjected to him, and he is given ruling power over all. This is why the Lord of the Worlds says, “We indeed honored the children of Adam, and We carried them on land and sea, and We provided them with goodly things, and We made them much more excellent than many of those We created” [17:70].