23:17 We indeed created above you seven paths and We were not heedless of creation.

In the allusion of the lords of recognitions and the deduction of the folk of understanding, the seven paths allude to the seven veils that the Exalted Lord created in the Adamic makeup. With them He keeps him veiled from seeing the subtleties and finding the realities. First is the veil of intellect, second the veil of knowledge, third the veil of the heart, fourth the veil of the soul, fifth sense perception, sixth desire, and seventh will.

Intellect keeps the Adamite occupied with this world and with governing his livelihood so that he will be held back from the Real. Knowledge pulls him into the playing field of bragging with his peers so that he will stay in the valley of boasting and vying for increase. The heart puts him into the station of courage and stout-heartedness so that he will fall into temptation in the arenas of champions by craving for fame in this world, so much so that he will have no concern for his religion or its victory. The soul is itself the greatest veil and the enemy of the religion. “Your worst enemy is the soul that is between your two sides.” If you gain the upper hand over it, you will win, but otherwise, you will fall such that you will never rise again. Here “sense perception” is appetite, “desire” is disobedience, and “will” is lassitude. Appetite and disobedience are the veil of the common people, and lassitude is the veil that keeps the elect of the Presence from the road of the Reality.

Any talk that keeps you back from the road—let it be unbelief or faith.

Any picture that holds you back from the Friend—let it be ugly or beautiful. [DS 51]

He mentioned these seven veils. Then, after that, He said, “And We were not heedless of creation. Despite all these veils before the servant, We do not put him aside, nor are We heedless of him.” With the first part of the verse He threatens the servant with His severity and justice, and at the end He makes him hope for His bounty and generosity. The traveling of the wayfarers is built on this rule: first fear, then hope. Be fearful, O dervish, so that one day it will be said to you, “Fear not and grieve not” [41:30]. In the playing field of hope wait for His pardon until the time it is said, “Rejoice in the Garden” [41:30].

Sahl ibn ʿAbdallāh Tustarī said, “Fear is masculine, hope is feminine, and from the two are born the realities of faith.” Fear and hope are each other’s mates. When they come together, the realities of faith are born from them. He gave hope the attribute of femininity and fear the attribute of masculinity because the domination of hope gives rise to lassitude and laziness, attributes of the female. The domination of fear gives rise to briskness and toughness, attributes of the male. The perfection of faith was placed in the subsistence of these two meanings. When these two meanings disappear from the disposition, the result will be either security or despair. Both are the attributes of the unbelievers, for one feels secure from the incapable, and one despairs of the base. Believing that God is incapable or base is sheer unbelief.^{1These two paragraphs are slightly rewritten from RA 85.}

23:18 And We sent down from heaven water in a measure and settled it in the earth, and surely We are powerful over taking it away.

He places a favor on the servants: “With perfect power We sent down from heaven the rain of mercy at the time of spring and the pollination of trees so that the dead earth will thereby come to life.” He gave forth hundreds of thousands of wonders and deposits that were made ready therein, namely the various sorts of plants, fruits, and herbs, as He says:

23:19 And therewith We made grow up for you gardens of palms and grape vines.

The deducers of the Tariqah and the wayfarers of the road of the Haqiqah have said that the outwardness of this verse alludes to the springtime of the common people, and the inwardness alludes to the springtime of the elect. “Every verse has an outwardness and an inwardness.” The springtime of the common people is the signs of the horizons, and the springtime of the elect is the signs of the souls. God says, “We shall show them Our signs on the horizons and in their souls” [41:53]. If the springtime of the common people has raining clouds, the springtime of the elect has weeping eyes. If the springtime of the common people has violent thunder, the springtime of the elect has wailing and remorse. If the springtime of the common people has fiery lightning, the springtime of the elect has the light of perspicacity. In the springtime of the common people, you should open the eyes of taking heed so that you may see the roses. In the springtime of the elect, you should assign the eyes of reflection to seeing the heart.

Someone saw a dervish at springtime, his head hung down, and said, “O dervish, lift up your head to see the roses!”

He said, “O chevalier, hang down your head to see the heart.”

23:52 Surely this community of yours is one community, and I am your Lord, so be wary of Me.

By way of allusion he is saying, “The religion of the submission is the unique religion, you are My unique community, and I who am your Lord am the unique Lord. Beware of My anger if you choose another religion and take another god. This submission has the attribute of the All-Compeller. There should be someone with an all-compelling aspiration so that the beauty of the submission will welcome him. The one with an all-compelling aspiration is he who does not bow his head before this world or the afterworld.”

It was said to Abraham, “O Abraham, submit! [2:131]. Belong to the submission and make do with the submission!”

He said, “The submission has the attribute of all-compellingness and will not give me access to my attachments. Let me come out of the bonds of attachment.” He gave his property to visitors, his son to sacrifice, and his own soul to the burning fire. Then he said, “I submit to the Lord of the worlds [2:131]. Now that I have turned back from all, I have turned to You; having held back from all, I remain for You.”

23:55-56 Do they think that We aid them with possessions and children only that We may hurry good things to them?

Why do the chieftains who possess this world, nurture the soul, and worship creation, having placed the mantle of pride on their shoulders and become drunk with appetite, fancy that this world is a generous gift for them, or that possessions and children are a felicity for them. No, of course not! They are not aware that when the vanguard of the army of blessings arrives, it always seeks the threshold of the estranged. It brings along the banner of wretchedness and puts down the brand of estrangement. Again, when the vanguard of the army of tribulation arrives, it always seeks the corner of the dear ones and wanders around the house of the friends. For in shape tribulation [محنة] and love [محبة] are companions and equals, like each other and differentiated only by the dot above and below. Otherwise, they are not separate in shape and form.

God gave the miserable Pharaoh four hundred years of the well-being and blessings of this world and did not constrict him in anything. But, if for one hour he had wanted the pain and burning of Moses, He would not have given it to him, for he was not worthy of that pain’s beauty. And if we suppose that someone had asked Zachariah what he wanted when the saw was placed on the crown of his head, the cries of passion would have come forth from his parts and motes saying, “I want them to saw me forever!”^{1These two paragraphs are largely derived from RA 431.}

A report says, “When someone loves Us, let him put on an armor for trial, for trial comes faster to Our lovers than a flood to its resting place.”

As long as I live, I will bind my servanthood to Your cloak

and put all my safety into the work of Your trials.

23:57-61 Surely those who tremble in fear of their Lord… it is they who hurry to good deeds.

When an intelligent man ponders the meaning of these verses, he will come to know that the obedient are more fearful in their obedience than the disobedient are fearful in their disobedience. Just as the disobedient need His curtaining, so also the obedient need His curtaining. The Real says, “And repent all together to God, O you who have faith! [24:31]. O faithful, you who are obedient and you who are disobedient! All of you return to Our threshold with the attribute of pleading! In the state of poverty and brokenness ask for Our forgiveness, so that We may cover you with the curtain of Our mercy.”

I wonder at the empty-headed Qur’an-reciter who makes two cycles of prayer at night and the next day knits the knot of self-seeing on his brow and places the favor of his own being on heaven and earth. All the motes of existence say to him, “What a simpleton you are! It is here that they make a Kaabah into an idol-temple, turn a seven hundred thousand-year worshiper into the forever accursed Satan, and bind Balaam son of Beor—who had God’s greatest name in his breast and whose every prayer was answered—in a kennel for dogs. But you make two cycles of prayer one night and the next day you want the whole world to be full of talk of your prayer!”

You poor wretch! The realizer fills the east and the west with prostrations of self-purification. Then he dips everything into the water of unneediness and returns with two empty hands to the end of the street of Muhammad Muṣṭafā’s intercession and says, “O exalted man, harm has touched us and our folk, and we come with scant goods” [12:88].^{1Most of these two paragraphs are from RA 88.}

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, I have come with two empty hands. I have burned in the hope of better days. What harm if You place a balm on this wounded heart of mine?”

23:62 We burden no soul save to its capacity.

The highway of the religion has a beginning and an end. The beginning belongs to the folk of the Shariah and the end to the lords of the Haqiqah. The practice of the folk of the Shariah is service according to the Shariah, and the attribute of the lords of the Haqiqah is exile in contemplation.

The foundation of the folk of the Shariah was built with easiness. Muṣṭafā said, “I was sent out with easy and indulgent unswervingness.” The weak and the folk of concessions do not have the capacity for heavy burdens. The Exalted Lord put concessions into the Shariah for their sake and set aside heavy burdens: We burden no soul save to its capacity. This is the same as saying, “He placed no hardship upon you in the religion [22:78]. God desires for you ease and does not desire for you hardship [2:185].”

As for the traveling of the lords of the Haqiqah, God founded that on discipline and difficulty. They are addressed by the words, “Struggle in God as is the rightful due of His struggle [22:78]. Be wary of God as is the rightful due of His wariness [3:102]. Whether you show what is within your souls or you hide it, God will bring you to account for it [2:284].”

The Pir of the Tariqah was asked about Sufism. He said, “It is nothing but throwing away the spirit; otherwise, do not busy yourself with the nonsense of the claimants.”^{1This is an Arabic saying, which is unusual for quotations from Anṣārī. I suspect Maybudī has taken it from RA 113, where Samʿānī provides the following text, with “Sufis” instead of “claimants”: “The short of it is that the blood of the friends’ livers was mixed with the tears of their eyes to make the mortar for the bricks of passion’s castle. Then they sent the crier of unneediness to the top of the castle to convey this call to the ears of the passionate: ‘This is nothing but throwing away the spirit. Otherwise, do not busy yourself with the nonsense of the Sufis.’” By changing the text this way, Maybudī is clarifying which “Sufis” Samʿānī has in mind (compare the reference to “Sufi claimants” in the saying ascribed to Abū Yazīd under 2:148).}

Al-Jurayrī said, “God does not burden the servants with recognizing Him in His measure; He only burdens them in their measure, for He says, ‘We burden no soul save to its capacity.’ Were He to burden them in His measure, they would be ignorant of Him and would not recognize Him, for no one but He recognizes His measure and no one other than He recognizes Him in reality.” God burdened the servants with recognizing Him in the measure of their obedience and the extent of their ability, not in the measure of His majesty and exaltedness. Everyone can know Him in his own measure, but only He knows and recognizes how He is in Himself. God says, “They encompass Him not in knowledge [20:110]. The All-Merciful. So ask about Him from someone who is aware [25:59].” ʿAlī said, “O He who none knows how He is but He!”

Were He to make an iota of the recognition of the Haqiqah that He has in Himself apparent to the creatures, all the recalcitrant people in the world and all the satans of the universe would become tawḥīd-voicers, all the sashes of unbelief would become belts of love in the religion, all the thorns of the world would become fragrant herbs, all the dust would become musk and ambergris, and all the attributes of mortal nature would become the good news of the breeze of recognition.

Were You to glance once as You are,

no idol would remain, no idol-worshiper, no sprite.

O God, describing You is not the work of the tongue. Expression of the reality of finding You is calumny. With the onslaught of the heart’s union and vision, what can be done?

Your beauty is greater than my seeing,

Your mystery outside of my knowing.

23:96 Repel the ugly with what is more beautiful.

In this verse the generous Lord, the wise and renowned Enactor, commands Muṣṭafā to noble character traits and beautiful habits—a bright face, mild words, a soft heart, and a pleasant character; pardoning the bad-doers, hiding the defects of the defective, and doing good in place of bad.

In the tongue of the Tariqah, the more beautiful is for the heart to give fatwas by the Real’s dictation. The ugly is for the soul to issue commands by its own caprice. He is saying, “O Master, repel what the soul commands by means of what the Real shows: Repel the ugly with what is more beautiful.”

The Prophet always used to say, “‘Our Lord, do not entrust us to our souls for the blink of an eye, or less than that.’ O God, lift up this curtain of self from before our heart so that the bird of the heart may be completely delivered from the cage of the soul and fly in the air of the Patron’s approval! O God, this burden of soul is the burden of selfhood. Lift this burden of selfhood away from us so we may be released from self and turn to You!”

O chevalier, take care not to say that his blessed soul was like the souls of others, for if a speck of his soul’s shining were to shine forth on the spirits and hearts of the world’s sincerely truthful, all of them would go forth to the world of holiness and the gardens of intimacy and settle down in the seat of truthfulness [54:55]. Despite all this, he says, “O Lord, this is our veil on the road of the Haqiqah—lift it up from our road!”

The command came, “O Muḥammad, unasked We put Ourself beside you: Did We not expand for thee thy breast and lift from thee thy burden? [94:1-2]. O Muḥammad, We put aside that burden of you-ness from you. Our desire took care of your work, Our solicitude lit up your lamp. You did not come by yourself, nor did you come for yourself. You did not come by yourself because We brought you: Who took His servant by night [17:1]. You did not 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].

23:115 What, did you reckon that We created you aimlessly and that you would not be returned to Us?

Abū Bakr Wāsiṭī recited this verse and said, “He made manifest the colors and created the creatures to make manifest His existence, for had He not created, it would not be recognized that He exists; and to make manifest the perfection of His knowledge and power through the manifestation of His acts soundly arranged by wisdom; and to make manifest the signs of friendship on the friends and the signs of wretchedness on the wretched.”

He is saying, “The majestic and perfectly powerful Lord, in His majesty and exaltedness and His perfect power, brought the engendered beings and newly arrived things into existence. Thereby they would know His Being, recognize His lordhood, and find evidence of His perfect knowledge and power from His artisanry. In keeping with His knowledge of them, He made apparent the mark of friendship on the friends and inscribed enmity on the enemies. He brought them from the concealment of nonexistence into existence in keeping with the knowledge, known in the Beginningless, that He would create creation. He wanted to make His creation come to be in exact correspondence with His knowledge.”

David the prophet said in his whispered prayer, “O God, O endless Majesty described by the attribute of perfection and qualified by the description of unneediness! You have no need for anything and You subsist in Your own description. You require nobody and You take help and aid from no one. Why did You create these creatures? What wisdom is there in their existence?”

The answer came, “‘I was a hidden treasure, and I loved to be recognized.’ I was a concealed treasure and no one knew or recognized Me. I wanted to be known and I loved to be recognized.”

“I loved to be recognized” is an allusion to the fact that recognition is built on love. Wherever there is love, there is recognition, and wherever there is no love, there is no recognition.

The great ones of the religion and the Tariqah have said, “No one recognizes Him save those to whom He has made Himself recognized, no one voices His tawḥīd save those to whom He has shown His tawḥīd, and no one describes Him save those to whose secret cores He has disclosed Himself.”

No one recognizes the Real save someone to whom He shows Himself as the One; no one describes Him save someone to whose secret core He makes Himself appear. Expression is the spokesman of the secret core, and the secret core is gazing on the Real. First there is seeing, then the tongue expresses what the secret core saw. The tongue is the mark of the folk of practice.

As for the folk of the Haqiqah, they have no expression or allusion. This is what they have said: “He who recognizes Him does not describe Him, and he who describes Him does not recognize Him.” When someone has received the self-disclosure to the secret core according to the rightful due of the Haqiqah, his secret core is in contemplation itself and his spirit is drowned in the ocean of face-to-face vision. When the Friend is present, giving a mark of the Friend is to abandon veneration.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “When the inwardness’s contemplation has been set aright in someone, he does not want to express it with the tongue or have his outwardness become aware of it.”^{1In the source of this passage (RA 417), Samʿānī attributes this saying to “the realizers.”}

Shiblī said, “On the night they killed Ḥusayn Manṣūr Ḥallāj, I whispered secretly with the Real all night until dawn. Then I placed my head down in prostration and said, ‘O Lord, He was a servant of Yours, a man of faith, a tawḥīd-voicer, a firm believer, numbered among Your friends. What was this trial You brought down upon him? How did he come to be considered worthy for this tribulation?’

“Then I dreamt, and it was as if I was shown this call of exaltedness reaching my ears: ‘He is one of Our servants. We informed him of one of Our secrets and he disclosed it, so We sent down upon him what you saw. It is fine for a green-grocer to call out about his vegetables, but absurd for a jeweler to call out about a night-brightening pearl.’”^{2The last five paragraphs are taken from RA 416-17 (with a good deal of abridgment).}