16:1 The command of God is coming, so do not seek to hurry it.

God’s command is many-colored, and obeying Him is many-hued. The servant’s outwardness was commanded one thing, his inwardness something else. The outwardness was commanded to stay with tightened belt on the threshold of worship in the way station of service. The inwardness was commanded to stay quiet on the carpet of recognition with the quality of veneration. The heart was commanded to be constant in watchfulness. The secret core was commanded to seek limpidness in the station of recognition. And the spirit was commanded to cling to the Presence in contemplation itself.

So do not seek to hurry it. Do not hurry to find what is desired and do not go beyond the measure of the command, for everyone truthful will one day reach what he desires, and everyone obedient to the Real has the promise of vision.

16:2 He sends down the angels with the spirit from His command upon whomsoever He will of His servants: “Give warning that there is no god but I, so be wary of Me.”

The reality of the spirit is that within which is the life of the heart and the life of the religion. It is the beauty of the Qur’an’s exaltedness, which reached Muṣṭafā from the Divine Presence with the attribute of the message by the emissary Gabriel.

Give warning that there is no god but I, so be wary of Me: “Report to My servants that I am the One Lord, I am without peer in attributes, I am separate from anything’s resemblance to Me, and I am loyal to My assurances. Whenever someone says these words bearing witness and places the seal of tawḥīd on his heart, he has entered into the pavilion of the submission’s exaltedness.”

But you should know that this pavilion of the submission is set up only on the plain of godwariness, for He says, “There is no god but I, so be wary of Me.”

The reality of godwariness is the heart’s purity of everything other than the Real. Just as submission is obligatory for the world’s creatures, so also godwariness is obligatory. When the foundation of the religion was put down, it was put down on godwariness, for everyone who became a possessor of friendship became so through godwariness. “Surely His friends are only the godwary” [8:34]. Tomorrow the friendship of the next world will be assigned to those who are called godwary: “The outcome belongs to the godwary” [7:128].

The first condition of godwariness is that you be the guardian of your own heart and do three things: You do not give yourself over to wishing, you avoid everything that is not approved, and you not be heedless of the Real for one moment.

On the day when Abū Bakr was buying Bilāl, Bilāl said, “O chief of the sincerely truthful! If you are buying Bilāl for the sake of the business of this world, do not buy him. He can perform no service that you will approve, for Bilāl has dedicated himself to the business of the afterworld.”

God’s mercy be upon those chevaliers who do not turn away from serving the Real to serving the creatures! Every single part of each of them is busy with service, and all their moments are immersed in observing the rightful dues of the Real. None of their parts is free to serve the creatures, none of their moments is wasted in antagonism toward the creatures.

A great man was asked, “Do you love God?”

He said, “I do.”

He was asked, “Do you hate his enemy Iblis?”

He said, “I am too busy with love for the Real to occupy myself with enmity toward someone else.”

16:6 And in them is beauty for you when you bring home to rest and drive forth to pasture.

Some people attach beauty to possessions, some to states. The wealthy find beauty when they bring home to rest and drive forth to pasture, and the poor busy themselves with their Patron when they wake in the morning and rest in the evening.^{1This sentence seems to be from LI 3:286, but with textual variants.}

The rich consider the perfection of their beauty to lie in possessions, and possessions are one of two: permitted or forbidden. If they are permitted, they are a tribulation, and if they are forbidden, they are a curse. The poor consider their status and beauty to lie in union with the Patron and see perfect intimacy in companionship with the Patron.

It is said that Rābiʿa ʿAdawiyya was cut off from a caravan and was wandering lost in the desert. She sat down under a thorn tree and put her head on the knees of remorse. She heard a call from the air of exaltedness, “You feel terrified when I am with you?”

On the night of the miʿrāj all the beauty and wealth of jinn and men were offered as ransom for one footstep of the Master of the Children of Adam, but he did not glance at it. His boast was this: “Replete one day, I praise Thee; hungry one day, I thank Thee.”

16:9 It is for God to point out the path; and some [paths] deviate.

The straight road and approved path is that which goes toward the Real and passes over the Real. That road can be traveled with three things: first knowledge, second state, and third eye. Knowledge cannot be put in place without teacher, state cannot be put straight without conformity, and the eye is alone and does not get along with attachment. In knowledge there is fear, in state there is hope, and in eye there is straightness.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “None of His friends traveled this road without first seeing three things together: release from the ruling power of his soul, a heart joined with the Patron, and a secret core adorned with awareness.”

16:10-13 He it is who sends down water from heaven.... Surely in that is a sign for a people who reflect... signs for a people who use intellect... a sign for a people who remember.

He is an allusion to the Essence, who is an intimation of the attributes, and sends down reports about the acts. Thus you will know that God has Essence, attributes, and acts. He is eternal in Essence, noble in attributes, wise in acts; without associate in Essence, without ambiguity in attributes, and without cause in acts. The servants gazes upon His artisanry, then flee from the artisanry to gaze upon the attributes, then flee from the attributes to gaze upon the Essence. These are the stations of the wayfarers’ traveling and the degrees of the recognizers’ recognition.

One must have reflection in gazing upon the artisanry, knowledge in gazing on the attributes, and remembrance in gazing on the Essence. This is why the Lord of the Worlds says, “Surely in that is a sign for a people who reflect.” Then, after that, He says, “signs for a people who use intellect.” Then, after that, He says “a sign for a people who remember.” In other words, recognition will be gained in this order: first reflection, then knowledge, then, at that point, he will remember through the continuity of knowledge. First he reflects, putting his gaze in its place. If no defect falls into his gaze, then inevitably he gains knowledge; and in reality there is no difference between intellect and knowledge. Then, after that, the gaze becomes continuous, and the continuity of the gaze is the remembering of which He speaks.

It has been said that He says “signs for a people who use intellect” in the plural only because someone gains many knowledges in order to become a recognizer, and every part of knowledge is gained through a different sign and indicator. The knower has signs and indicators before he becomes a recognizer of his Lord, because the indicator for one question is different from the indicator for another question. With one indicator he knows the necessity of gazing on Him, with many indicators he becomes a recognizer of his Lord, and with one indicator he knows that it is necessary to remember the various sorts of his knowledge.^{1These two paragraphs are taken almost word for word from LI 3:287-88.}

16:14 He it is who subjected the sea so that you may eat from it fresh flesh.

Outwardly, He subjected the oceans of the earth to the creatures, ships running upon it and benefits appearing from it. Inwardly, He created oceans in the Adamic soul in which the Adamite is drowned: First is the ocean of preoccupation, second the ocean of sorrow, third the ocean of avarice, fourth the ocean of heedlessness, and fifth the ocean of dispersion. These oceans have ships. Whoever sits in the ship of trust on the ocean of preoccupation will reach the shore of detachment. Whoever sits in the ship of approval on the ocean of sorrow will reach the shore of security. Whoever sits in the ship of contentment on the ocean of avarice will reach the shore of renunciation. Whoever sits in the ship of remembrance on the ocean of heedlessness will reach the shore of wakefulness. Whoever sits in the ship of tawḥīd on the ocean of dispersion will reach the shore of togetherness.^{1Translation of LI 3:289 (though the Qushayrī text seems faulty). For a parallel discussion of five oceans and five ships, see under 35:12.}

16:17 Is He who creates like him who does not create?

Will the created thing ever be like the Creator? Will the enacted thing ever be similar to the Enactor? In the seven heavens and seven earths, it is God who is one and unique. In Essence He is without similar, in measure without equal, in attributes without peer. Fancying that the Creator is like the created is an error, and the road of declaring similarity is disloyalty. But affirming attributes is not declaring similarity, and to declare holy by negating attributes is nothing but the position of Iblis. Declaring similarity does not come by way of saying that there is, but rather by saying that there is similarity. Whoever declares similarity is an unbeliever, just as whoever says that there is no similarity is an unbeliever. Whenever someone says that God is like himself has said that God has more than a thousand associates. Whoever declares God’s attributes ineffectual has abased himself in the two worlds.

16:41 Those who emigrate in God after they were wronged—We shall surely build for them something beautiful, and the wage of the next world will be greater.

Anyone who emigrates from the homelands of heedlessness will be taken by the majesty of Unity to the witnessing places of union.^{1LI 3:298.}

When someone emigrates from the homelands of heedlessness, the majesty of Unity will convey him to the witnessing places of union. When someone emigrates from companionship with the created, the gentle favors of generosity will give him access to His companionship. When someone emigrates from himself and is displeased with dwelling with himself, his heart will become the place where passion for the Haqiqah puts down its saddlebags. Today he will be delighted in the secluded solace of “I am the sitting companion of him who remembers Me,” and tomorrow he will take his ease on the carpet of the expansiveness of “The patient poor are the sitting companions of God on the Day of Resurrection.”^{2The two hadiths are from LI 3:298, and the rest of the paragraph is largely translated from Qushayrī’s discussion.}

This emigration has a beginning and an end. Its beginning is that his makeup becomes obedience itself, not from habit and not from wanting the reward, but rather from being drowned in contemplation itself.

Thus it is recounted of the recognizer Sultan Maḥmūd that he never sat in a session of intimacy with any but Ayāz. The boon companions and special friends began to mutter. The sultan became aware of their jealousy, and he commanded that all the boon companions and special friends be present in a session. Then he had a goblet made of ruby—worth the taxes from one of his provinces—brought forth, along with an iron anvil, and put before him. He commanded the vizier to smash the goblet on the anvil. The vizier, “Protect me, O Sultan! Though the sultan’s command is higher, I do not have the gall to be so bold.” In the same way, he commanded the other boon companions and special friends. All took off their hats, began to tremble, and did not have the gall to break it. Then he pointed at Ayāz. He said, “Slave, strike the goblet on the anvil and break it.” Ayāz struck the goblet on the anvil until it broke into tiny pieces. Then Maḥmūd said, “There are four thousand way stations between obeying the sultan’s command and seclusion with him. When someone still avoids obeying Maḥmūd’s command, how can he have the gall to talk of seclusion and seek companionship?”

As for the end of emigration, it is three things: veneration in seclusion, being ashamed in service, and seeing nothing but shortcoming in oneself despite much obedience.

16:43 Ask the folk of remembrance if you do not know.

This alludes to the fact that knowledge of the Shariah is to be learned and is not correct without an intermediary and teacher. Anyone who fancies that the intermediary is useless in knowledge of the Shariah has no portion of the religion.

In short, know that knowledge is of three sorts: knowledge of the Shariah, knowledge of the Tariqah, and knowledge of the Haqiqah. The Shariah is to be learned, the Tariqah is to be practiced, and the Haqiqah is to be found. Concerning knowledge of the Shariah He says, “Ask the folk of remembrance.” Concerning knowledge of the Tariqah He says, “Seek the means of approach to Him” [5:35]. Concerning knowledge of the Haqiqah He says, “We taught him knowledge from Us” [18:65]. He turned knowledge of the Shariah over to a teacher, He turned knowledge of the Tariqah over to a pir, and He turned knowledge of the Haqiqah over to Himself.

When someone obtains these three knowledges, a light shines in his heart through which he recognizes the essence of prophethood. When he is given this recognition, he finds this eminence and special favor from the threshold of prophethood: “The men of knowledge are the heirs to the prophets.”

16:51 And God says, “And take not two gods. Surely He is only one God, so be in awe of Me.”

This is an affirmation of tawḥīd. Tawḥīd is the basis of the religion and the great pillar of the submission. Without tawḥīd obedience is not accepted, and along with associationism worship is useless.

Know that the reality of tawḥīd is of two sorts: saying one and knowing one. Saying one is the beginning of all the sciences, the basis of all the recognitions, the foundation of the religion, and the partition between enemy and friend. It has three descriptions: first, testifying to God’s oneness in Essence and His being pure of spouse, child, and peer.

Next is testifying to God’s oneness in attributes and to the fact that nothing is similar to or like Him. His attributes are not intelligible, nor is their howness understood, encompassed, or defined. They are outside imagination and no one knows how they are.

Third is testifying to God’s oneness in His true, beginningless names and the fact that for Him these names are realities and for others they are loaned and created. The names He has are His names in reality—eternal and beginningless as is fitting for Him. The names of the creatures are created and newly arrived as is fitting for them. “God” and “All-Merciful” are His names by which no one else is called. Dost thou know any named by His name? [19:65]

As for knowing one, that is in service, practice, and aspiration. In service it is abandoning eye-service and observing self-purification. In practice it is to make the secret core limpid and to realize remembrance. In aspiration it is to lose everything other than Him and to be released through freedom of the heart from everything other than Him.^{1These two paragraphs are based on Ṣad maydān, no. 69 (307-9).}

Become free of everything in the realm of being—

be that Heart-taker’s “companion of the cave.”

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “In all things expression is easy but finding is difficult. In tawḥīd finding is easy but expression is difficult. The expression of tawḥīd is outside of intellect, the essence of tawḥīd is safe against imagination, the newly arrived things are lost in the Beginningless. Tawḥīd is that there is no more than one. There is the Recognized, but not the recognizer; there is the Intended, but not the intender. The tawḥīd-voicer is he who has only Him to the point that his self is not; all is indeed He.”

The tawḥīd of attestation is one thing, the tawḥīd of practice another thing, and the tawḥīd of remembrance and vision still another. Concerning the tawḥīd of attestation He said, “Whoever disbelieves in idols and has faith in God” [2:256]. Concerning the tawḥīd of practice He said, “In whose hands is the dominion of everything” [23:88]. Concerning the tawḥīd of remembrance and vision He said, “Thou didst not throw when thou threwest” [8:17].

Abū Ḥafs Ḥaddād said, “Tawḥīd by discernment is to disown everything other than God. The tawḥīd of the elect is to reach oneness. The tawḥīd of the elect of the elect is to be consumed by oneness.”

O One whose tawḥīd is achieved by none!

You are the Alone, the One, the Unique.

Those who aim for His tawḥīd with their aspiration

deny His tawḥīd inasmuch as they aim.

The tawḥīd of him who confirms His tawḥīd by design

is a design without a path to His tawḥīd.

16:66 And surely in the cattle there is a lesson for you: We give you to drink of that which is in their bellies, between feces and blood, pure milk, delicious for the drinkers.

Two impurities came together, one feces and the other blood. God with His power made pure milk appear between the two. In the same way, two drops came together in the womb. God’s determination and form-giving made a form of such beauty appear from the two! He formed you, so He made your forms beautiful [40:64].

He brings together two difficult tasks for the servant, one the burden of disobedience, the other shortcoming in obedience. Then God’s bounty makes mercy and forgiveness appear between the two: He will make your deeds wholesome for you and forgive you your sins [33:71].

In what preceded all precedents and began all beginnings, the Pen wrote in the Tablet that the candle of the Shariah and the lamp of faith and certainty would light up in someone’s breast. It does not matter if he falls asleep. When he wakes up he will see the lit candle next to his pillow.^{1The commentary on this verse up to here is derived from RA 486. This is the first verse I have found in which Maybudī borrows from Samʿānī’s Rawḥ al-arwāḥ. The second is in Stage Two of the commentary on 17:1 (KA 5:482, from RA 316), and the third is in Stage Three of the commentary on the same verse, quoted below.}

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, do You know what has made me happy? I did not fall to You by myself. You wanted—it was not I who wanted. I saw the Friend at my pillow when I woke up from sleep.”

By way of allusion God is saying, “I took milk, which is your nourishment and your share, and passed it over feces and blood, preserving it from both. As for tawḥīd, it is My rightful due, so it is much more deserving of being preserved by Me. It will pass over this world and the afterworld and not receive any trace. Were the trace of this world or the afterworld to sit on tawḥīd, it would not be worthy of Me.^{2This paragraph to here is based on RA 417-18.} Tawḥīd is pure of this world and the afterworld. The light of tawḥīd is the destruction of water and dust. Turning the eye of the heart away from self is to perceive the finding of tawḥīd.”

16:71 And God has given more bounty in provision to some of you than others.

The provision of the soul is one thing, the provision of the heart another, and the provision of the spirit still another. For some the provision of the soul is the success of obedience and for some it is abandonment to disobedience. For some the provision of the heart is the heart’s presence with constant remembrance and for some it is the attribute of heedlessness with constant hardness. For some the provision of the spirit is the perfection of recognition and the limpidness of love and for some it is love for this world and occupation with attachments.

Fuḍayl said, “The greatest thing provided to man is deeds that will lead him to rectitude and recognition that will bequeath on him contemplation of his Lord.”

The Prophet said, “I spend the night at my Lord; He gives me to eat and drink.”

16:83 They recognize God’s blessings, then they deny them.

Some people say that this concerns the Muslims. For a time they occupy themselves with obedience and undertake the path of discipline and struggle according to the Shariah. But in the end, self-admiration comes and ambushes them, destroying their obedience. Their self-admiration is that they consider their obedience and worship as service pleasing to God, and this brings them to exultation and happiness: “This is my attribute and my strength.” They remain heedless that it is God’s blessings and bounty toward them. Then they do not fear the disappearance of the blessings and they go forth feeling secure.

Muṣṭafā said, “A man’s destruction lies in three things: One is niggardliness that he obeys, another is the soul’s caprice that he follows, and the third is admiring himself.”

One of the great ones of the religion said, “If I sleep all night and in the morning feel broken and fearful, I like that more than spending the night in prayer and admiring myself in the morning.”

ʿAbdallāh ibn Masʿūd said, “The destruction of a man’s religion lies in two things: self-admiration and despair.” He said this because anyone who loses hope will stop seeking and be overcome by lassitude, so he will not worship. So also, anyone who admires himself will fancy that he does not need to seek, for his work is right and he has been forgiven.

16:90 Surely God commands justice and beautiful doing and giving to kinsmen, and He prohibits indecency, the improper, and rebelliousness. And He admonishes you, that perhaps you may remember.

In this verse the Creator of the world and the world’s folk, the lovingly kind Lord, brings together in succession the foundations of service and the guideposts of interaction. He makes the faithful aware of the pleasing character traits and He honors them by letting them recognize the causes of His approval. He instructs them in beautiful worship of Him and in living with His creatures.

We have already explained some of this in the tongue of unveiling according to the Shariah. In terms of the Haqiqah and the tongue of allusion, it is that God commands the servant to have justice in interaction with the Real, in interaction with people, and in interaction with the soul. Interaction with the Real is through acknowledgment, interaction with people through justice, and interaction with the soul through opposition. One must have conformity with the Real, sincerity with the people, and opposition to the soul.

The meaning of conformity is for the servant to welcome the Real’s decree before it appears and to leave aside free choice, such that he recognizes all of it without having perceived it and loves it not having seen it.

The meaning of sincerity is that he walk straight with the people in word, deed, aspiration, and resoluteness. He is fair to them, he does not place his burden on them, he conceals their faults, he does not take back his tenderness no matter what states he sees, he does not hold back his good from them, he lives with character, he respects elders, and he is tender toward young people and merciful toward children. This is the meaning of justice in interaction with people.

As for the reality of justice in interaction with the soul, it is to hold back the soul from that in which its destruction lies. God says, “As for him who fears the standing place before his Lord and prohibits the soul its caprice, surely the Garden shall be the shelter” [79:40-41].

Ibrāhīm Adham said, “In my whole life in this world, my heart was happy three times, and in those three times I was happy because I acted with severity toward my own soul. I was walking in Antioch, barefoot and bare-headed, and various people were insulting me. In the end one of them said, ‘He’s a runaway slave.’ Those words were pleasing to me, for in reality that is what I was. I said to myself, ‘O you who have escaped and fled, when will you come back to the path of peace?’

“The second happiness was when I was sitting in a ship. There was a buffoon among the passengers who would come by every hour and slap the back of my head, for he saw that I was the lowliest of all the people.

“Third was in the city of Malatya. I was in a mosque, my head placed on the knees of remorse, and I had fallen into the valley of my own insignificance. A shameless man came, undid the belt of his pants, and said, ‘Old man, take this rose water!’ My soul ceased to be in that lowliness, and my heart became happy at that. I found that happiness to be a gift of felicity for me from the Exalted Threshold.”

The great ones of the religion were like this—always acting with severity toward their own souls and striving in the abasement of their own persons. They concealed the faults of the people and saw their own faulty attributes. The people were always at ease and in comfort from them, but their souls were always in suffering and tribulation.

Surely God commands justice and beautiful doing. It has been said that justice is the heart’s equilibrium with the Real and beautiful doing is interacting with things while seeing the Real. Muṣṭafā said, “Beautiful doing is that you worship God as if you see 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 and everlasting happiness while the servant is drowned in the light of contemplation and the call of gentleness flows in his spirit.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “When an eye has seen Him, how can it busy itself with seeing other than Him? When a spirit has found companionship with Him, how long will it make do with water and dust? When someone has become accustomed to the Presence of Union, how long will he put up with the abasement of the veil? How will the ruler of his own city spend his life in exile?”

When You are the soul’s food, then You leave it,

the soul whose food You are does not linger.

It remains like a lizard thrown into water or

a fish living in the open desert.

How can a lizard live in water or a fish in the desert? Do not take away our spirit’s food, O God!

Surely God commands justice and beautiful doing. In this verse God commands the servant to three things that save, and He prohibits him from three things that destroy. When he keeps back from the three things that destroy, he will escape from hell, and when he carries out the three that save, he will reach paradise and have listening, drinking, and seeing with the Real.

Then, after listing the commands and prohibitions, He says at the end of the verse, And He admonishes you, that perhaps you may remember. God gives you advice so that perhaps you will fear and accept the advice. He calls and offers His generosity so that perhaps you will respond. He shows His gentleness so that perhaps you will place your love in Him. He conceals faults so that perhaps you will incline toward Him. From the clouds of the gentleness of His artisanries He rains down kindness so that perhaps you will stay at His threshold. He brightens hearts so that you may see His gentleness. He shakes with the marks of rebuke so that you will keep on remembering Him. He reduces burdens and increases the fruit so that you may perceive His good Godhood.

16:96 What is with you runs out, but what is with God subsists.

What is with you runs out is the attribute of this world, its annihilation; and what is with God subsists is the attribute of the afterworld and everlasting subsistence.

Jesus was asked, “Why don’t you make a house for yourself?”

He said, “I have no stomach for busying myself with something that will not be my companion forever.”

The Commander of the Faithful ʿAlī put a dinar in his hand and said, “‘O yellow thing, make my face yellow. O white thing, make me white and delude other than me.’ O world and O bliss of this world! Go, for you are an adorned bride, and you cannot break the claws of a lion with a bride’s fingers. Go, delude someone else, for the son of Abū Ṭālib has no stomach for falling into the snare of your delusion.” The life of this world is nothing but the enjoyment of delusion [3:185].

What is with you runs out, but what is with God subsists. In other words, “What is with you, namely the yearning you have to encounter Me, is susceptible to disappearance and accepts cessation. But My description of Myself subsists, namely in the tradition, ‘Surely the yearning of the pious to encounter Me has become protracted, but My yearning to encounter them is more intense.’”

Whatever comes from the servant—obedience, service, affection, love—even if it is continuous, is susceptible to disappearance, for it is an attribute of newly arrived things, and annihilation has access to them. It is only the welcoming of the divine majesty and exaltation and the Lord’s caressing of the servant that never finish and remain untouched by annihilation. Whatever comes from us is suited to us, infected by our own shares and described by dispersion. Whatever comes from God comes with the attribute of infinite exaltedness and majesty, for the reality of togetherness is that it is necessarily subsistent and permanent.

These generous, gentle favors, infinite caresses, and lordly welcoming that set forth from the side of All-compellingness lodge only at the core of the friends’ hearts. It is they whose life in this world is the goodly life and whose conduct and path are wholesome deeds along with faith; this is their attribute, for the Exalted Lord says,

16:97 Whoever does a wholesome deed, male or female, while having faith, We shall surely give him to live a goodly life.

The wholesome deed is that which is worthy of acceptance, for it accords with the command. Then He says, while having faith, that is, assenting to the truth that his salvation is by God’s bounty, not by his own deeds. He is saying that the goodly life is appropriate for him whose deeds are beautiful, whose conduct is pure, who has the togetherness of aspiration, and who believes that his salvation is by the divine bounty, not by the activity of servanthood.^{1This paragraph is a translation with some quotation of LI 3:319.}

We shall surely give him to live a goodly life. Today there are the sweetness of obedience, the breeze of proximity, and the reminder of the Endless, and tomorrow there will be the Palisades of Holiness in the Presence of At-ness with blessedness, nearness, and the most beautiful.

16:110 Then surely thy Lord—toward those who emigrated after they were tormented, then struggled and were patient—surely thy Lord after that is forgiving, ever-merciful.

The reality of emigration is that you emigrate from your own makeup, you abandon yourself and your desires, and you place the foot of nonbeing on top of your own attributes. Beginningless love may then lift the curtain and endless passion may show its beauty. How beautifully that chevalier spoke!

Endless passion has nothing to do with a heart

that stays firm in its own attributes. [DS 209]

The paragon of the world and master of Adam’s children, who was the goal of existent things and the center point in the circle of newly arrived things, always used to recite this supplication: “‘O God, do not entrust us to our own souls for the blink of an eye, or less than that!’ Lord God! Remove from before us this makeup stamped by createdness and the relationships of opposition! Lift the burden of our souls away from us so that we may travel in the world of tawḥīd!”

The command came, “O master, before you wanted, My want took care of your work and put aside the burden of you-ness from you. [Did We not] lift from thee thy burden? [94:2]. O Muḥammad! If anyone came by his own selfhood, you did not come by yourself, because I brought you: Who took His servant by night [17:1]. Nor did you come for yourself, because you came as a mercy for the world’s folk: We sent thee only as a mercy to the worlds [21:107].

The state of Abraham was the same. Adam was still in the concealment of nonexistence when the Exalted Lord inscribed the stamp of bosom friendship on that paragon. He placed the fire of yearning for Him in his inwardness, and the beauty of beginningless passion toward him. He alludes to this with His words, “We gave Abraham his rectitude from before” [21:51]. Then, when he came into existence, on the day when he stood in the desert of bewilderment, his heart was lit up with love for the Eternal and his spirit was drunk with the wine of nonbeing. At the moment of the morning draft of the passionate, the shouting of the drunkards, and the uproar of the heart-lost, he was driven by craving the wine of nonbeing to say with the tongue of helplessness concerning whatever he looked upon, “This is my Lord” [6:76]. He saw himself consumed in witnessing the Real’s majesty and beauty and was unaware of creation’s being and his own being. Hence the Exalted Lord increased His caressing of him and counted him as one community:

16:120-21 Surely Abraham was a community, devoted to God and unswerving, not among the associaters, grateful for His blessings. He chose him and guided him to a straight path.

Abraham said, “O Lord, You were all [that I saw], and You are all.”

So God said, “The community is you yourself. You are the togetherness of all, and that’s it.” Indeed, “When someone belongs to God, God belongs to him.”

Then He says, “grateful for His blessings.” Abraham discharged gratitude for blessings, for he recognized the Patron of Blessings. He accepted the decree without protest and he approved of whatever came forth without unwillingness. He chose him and guided him to a straight path. He saw the road of servanthood and he went straight in servanthood. He knew that he did not see that road by himself, for it was shown to him, nor did he reach it by the effort of servanthood, for he was made to reach it.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, do You know what has made me happy? I did not fall to You by myself. O God, You wanted—it was not I who wanted. I saw the Friend at my pillow when I woke up from sleep.”

Her love came to me before I knew love—

it came across a carefree heart and took possession.

16:123 Then We revealed to thee, “Follow the creed of Abraham, an unswerving man.”

“O Muḥammad, go in the tracks of Abraham’s creed.” Abraham’s creed was upright character, generosity, largesse, and loyalty. So the Prophet followed him and surpassed him to the point that he gave away the two worlds in exchange for the Real.^{1Based on LI 3:328.} God says, “Surely thou hast a tremendous character” [68:4].

16:125 Invite to the path of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful admonition.

In another place He says, “Say: ‘This is my path. I invite to God upon insight, I and whosoever follows me’” [12:108]. Inviting to God’s road is one thing, and inviting to God is something else. The former has an intermediary in the midst, and the latter has the Real as spokesman. The result of what He said with intermediary is obedience and abandoning opposition. The fruit of what He said without intermediary is solitariness and abandoning self-governance. Solitariness is to make the aspiration one-pointed in both remembrance and gazing. In remembrance it is that you want only Him in remembering Him and you fear none but Him in remembering Him. In gazing it is that at whatever you gaze you see Him and you put down your head before no one but Him.

The secret of these words is that whenever He brings an intermediary on the path into the midst, of all His names He mentions Lord, for it is the portion of the common people, and its meaning is nurturing. Whenever the path has no intermediary, He says God—of Him the creatures have no portion, and in His beginningless majesty He is without need.

O chevalier! Were it not for His intimacy with the spirits of the passionate, why did He disclose the beauty of the name God in the unneediness of His majesty and exaltation to the spirits and hearts of the passionate? If not that it would be a salve for the pain of the burnt and a mercy on the weakness of the helpless, why did He say, “Invite to the path of thy Lord”? Yes, He calls and invites to see who is worthy to accept and answer the Real’s call with heart and spirit.

The world’s folk are two groups: One group came forth and placed their own spirits and hearts like incense on the fire of love in the censer of recognition, and they burned. They are the ones who heard the Real’s call, accepted and responded to the Messenger’s invitation with spirit and heart, and came back to the loyalty of the day of Yes indeed [7:172]: They are loyal to God’s covenant and do not break the compact [13:20].

The spirits of the other group were inscribed by the Beginningless Threshold with the sigil of severity and stamped with the brand of abandonment, so they made their hearts the kingdom of satans. The Real’s call did not reach their hearts’ ears, nor were they worthy to respond to the Messenger’s invitation. About the two groups the Lord of the Worlds says, “Surely thy Lord knows better who is misguided from His path and He knows better who are the guided” [6:117]. He says, “I am aware of the states of both groups and I have given to everyone what is fitting for him. I see the pearl of the recognizer’s makeup, and I know the disposition of the denier’s attributes. Tomorrow I will convey everyone to the fitting recompense and settle each of them down in their own places and dwellings. I am the Lord who is vast in ability, without guidebook and helper, able to do any work before that work. Nothing is far from Me, nor is any work difficult for Me.”

16:128 Surely God is with those who are godwary and those who are beautiful-doers.

This is one of the all-comprehensive verses of the Qur’an. All of God’s caresses of His servant in the two worlds, the rewards and the generous gifts, are included in what He says: “Surely God is with.” Every sort of service, every type of obedience, and all the roots of worship that the servant performs for God come under godwary. All that is rightfully due to people from each other in the various sorts of interactions come under beautiful-doers.

In reality the godwary and the beautiful-doers are such that the scent of love’s breeze comes from the dust beneath their feet. If the tears of their eyes were to fall on the ground, the narcissus of desire would bloom. If the disclosure of their present moment were to fall on a stone, it would turn into a carnelian. If it fell on water, it would become wine. If the fire of their yearning were to flame up, the world would burn. If the light of their recognition were to shine, the universe would be radiant. They have no station in the cities, no ease with the people.

The common people have two festivals in the year, but they have a festival with every breath. The common people have festivals because of seeing the moon, but they have their festival because of contemplating God. The common people have festivals because of the turning of the year, but they have their festival because of the bounteousness of the Possessor of Majesty. For thousands of years the moon-faced beauties of Firdaws and the houris of paradise have been standing in wait in that busy bazaar: When will they convey the fortunate procession of the godwary and beautiful-doers to High Chambers so that they, as hangers-on, may step into the pageant of good fortune in a seat of truthfulness, at an Omnipotent King [54:55].