24:1 A surah that We have sent down and made obligatory; and We sent down in it clear signs that perhaps you will remember.

A dervish was asked, “What is the evidence for God’s being?”

He replied, “Morning takes away the need for a lamp.” When the sun rises, a lamp is not required. The whole cosmos is the evidence, it needs someone to look. The whole cosmos is fragrant herbs, it needs someone to smell. The whole cosmos is the antidote, it needs someone bitten by a snake. The whole cosmos is the signs and banners of His power, the marks and denotations of His wisdom, the proof of His unity and solitariness.

O chevalier! If one day you see the sun of recognition shining from the sphere of magnificence, and if the eyes of your aspiration see the signs and banners of the exalted majesticness, then this world, which had taken you as its prey, will be made into a shoe and nailed to the hoof of your aspiration’s steed. The afterworld, which had been your shackle, will be made into a ring for the ears of your presence’s servants. Then you will be brought, like a king, into the special court of majesty, in a seat of truthfulness, at an Omnipotent King [54:55].

24:2 The fornicatress and the fornicator—flog each of them a hundred lashes, and let no clemency toward them seize you in God’s religion, if you have faith in God and the Last Day. And let a group of the faithful witness their chastisement.

The world’s folk are three groups: the common people, the elect of the Presence, and the elect of the elect. If the common people fornicate, their penalty, in the tongue of the Shariah, is whipping or stoning. Muṣṭafā said, “Take this from me! Take this from me! God has appointed for them a path: for virgins, one hundred stripes and banishment; for those formerly married, one hundred stripes and stoning.” He also said, “Receive kindly the stumbles of those with positions except in the case of penalties.”

The fornication of the elect is the gazing of the eyes. Muṣṭafā said, “The fornication of the eyes is the gaze.” Their penalty is to cast down the eyesight and to turn the eyes away from the soul’s pleasures and appetites, even if they are licit. The Prophet said, “Cast down your eyes, guard your private parts, and hold back your hands.”

The fornication of the elect of the elect is the heart’s thoughts about anything less than the Real. If they give something else access to their secret core, this is counted in the Tariqah as fornication. Their penalty is disentanglement from attachments and withdrawal from people. God says, “Say ‘God,’ then leave them” [6:91].

Let no clemency toward them seize you in God’s religion, if you have faith in God. One of them said this means, “If you are among the folk of affection and love for Me, oppose those who oppose My command and do what I have prohibited. No one is a lover who has patience with opposition to his beloved.”

Junayd said, “Tenderness toward those in opposition is like turning away from those who conform.” In other words, “Being tender to those who oppose at the moment of opposition is just like turning away from those who conform at the moment of their conformity.”

Having mercy in accordance with the Shariah is beautiful and praiseworthy. “The All-Merciful has mercy on those who are merciful.” But, it is not a stipulation to have mercy as a requisite of nature and habit at the moment of opposition, and it is not allowable to be remiss in enacting the penalties. God says, “Let no clemency toward them seize you in God’s religion.” What is more marvelous is that He commands us to have no mercy, even though He Himself has mercy, for He preserves the person in faith and does not cut off from him because of his disloyalty and acts of disobedience. He offers repentance and pardon to him and promises forgiveness: “He invites you so that He may forgive you some of your sins” [14:10]. When He is like this toward the disobedient sinner, what can I say about what He is like toward the obedient observer of the command?

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O You who plant the sorrow of regret in the hearts of those acquainted with You, O You who throw burning into the hearts of those who repent, O You who accept the sinners and acknowledgers! No one came back whom You did not bring back, no one found the road until You took his hand. Take my hand, for there is no hand-taker but You; come to my help, for there is no refuge but You, no one to answer my asking but You, no remedy for my pain but You, no ease from my grief but You.”

And let a group of the faithful witness their chastisement. He says that a group of the faithful should be present where they may witness the enactment of the penalties of the Shariah in keeping with God’s command. The state of that group will not be outside of two: Either no sin like that has ever appeared from them, God having protected them from that. Or no, it has appeared from them, but God has guarded them with His concealment and has not disgraced them before witnesses. In both cases, they should consider this a tremendous blessing on themselves from God and they should add to their gratitude and thankfulness. With the tongue of pleading they should say, “O God, we are impure and without excuse and we are deluded by the concealment of Your forbearance! O Lord, do not look at the abasement of our defects! Look rather from the exaltedness of Your lack of defects at our inability, look from Your forbearance at our poverty, look from Your loving kindness at the bonds of our servanthood and incapacity! By Your good Godhood and bounty, put aside what is worthy of us for what is worthy of You, our disloyalty for Your loyalty, and what belongs to us for what belongs to You!”

24:11 Those who came with the slander are a band of you. Do not reckon it evil for you; rather, it is good for you. Against every man of them shall be the sin he has earned. Whosoever of them took upon himself most of it will have a great chastisement.

Know that God is jealous over the hearts of His elect servants. So when two of them take repose in each other, God brings to pass what will repel each from his companion and push him back to Himself. Thus have they sung,

When my spirit clings to a beloved and attaches to him,

the changing of the days steal him away from me.^{1The paragraph and poem are from LI 4:268.}

Know, O chevalier, that the hearts of the Real’s friends are inside the curtain of jealousy—today they listen inside the curtain of jealousy, and tomorrow they will see inside the curtain of jealousy.

The Real does not show your heart to anyone, for He keeps it inside the curtain of jealousy. In the grip of the attributes it sees the Real face-to-face on the carpet of joy in the presence of witnessing and seclusion, and the Real gazes upon it. If the heart looks back at another, at once it will see the courtesy-teaching whip.

Thus it happened to a great one of his time: He was exceedingly happy in a tremendous desire for God. He had complete ecstasy and his work was in total conformity with Him. Then once he heard the call of a bird, and he looked back toward the call. He went beneath the tree and was waiting for the bird to call again. A voice spoke to him, “You have dissolved God’s bond! You have given away the key to My covenant, for you have become intimate with another!”^{2The anecdote is taken from RA 493.}

Muḥammad ibn Ḥassān said, “Once I was wandering in the mountain of Lebanon hoping to see one of the friends of the Real, one of the great ones who take up residence there. I saw a young man come out from a corner. The hot wind of summer had blown against him, and he was burnt and bedraggled. When he saw me, he turned away and entered in among the chestnut trees to conceal himself. I followed him. I said, ‘O chevalier! Give me the benefit of some words, for I came in hope of that.’

“He answered, ‘Beware! He is jealous. He does not love to see other than Himself in the heart of His servant.’”

Adam the Chosen was the center point of the compass of existence, the basis of the creation of mortal man, and the chosen of the empire. He turned his heart toward the bliss of paradise and gave himself over to it. From the Exalted Presence came jealousy’s messenger: “Are you not ashamed to bring your aspiration down to Riḍwān’s house of good fortune and to look back at something other than Me? Now that You have looked back at something else, take your bags and go down to the house of the decree. Throw down your head in incapacity and be broken by shortcoming in the quarry of trial, and wait for My decree!”

In the same way, Abraham’s eyes looked back at Ishmael. He saw an exalted nobility and rectitude, the extract of bosom friendship, the oyster shell for the pearl of the chosen Muḥammad. His heart busied itself with him. The command came, “O My bosom friend! Did I keep you away from the Azari idols so that you could gaze on Ishmael’s beauty? Now, take up knife and rope and sacrifice everything less than Me in the road. Two friendships cannot fit into one heart.”

The same state happened for Muḥammad the Arab, the Master of Adam’s children, the foremost of the prophets and messengers. He had busied a corner of his heart with ʿĀʾisha, so much so that when he was asked, “Which of the people do you love most?,” he said “ʿĀʾisha.”

In one of the reports it has come that ʿĀʾisha said, “O Messenger of God! I love you and I love being near to you!”

When they busied their hearts with love for each other, the ruling power of jealousy opened the curtain of exaltedness and, with the attribute of harshness, showed them a sliver of its ruling authority. The satans of mankind and jinn joined hands, and slanderous talk entered the midst. The lie fabricated by the hypocrites took flight. What is even more wondrous is that in those days the path of perspicacity was shut to Muṣṭafā lest the innocence of ʿĀʾisha should appear to him. He did not know the reality of that business until jealousy had driven home its severity and the turn of trial had come to an end.

The cause of this is that at the time of trial, God blocks the eyes of His friends’ perspicacity in order to complete the trial. This is why Abraham did not distinguish and recognize the angels when he presented to them the roasted calf [11:69] and imagined them to be guests. Lot also did not recognize them as angels until they announced to him that they were angels.^{3This paragraph is from LI 4:269.}

Things reached the point that all the joy, whispered secrets, and gentleness that Muṣṭafā had with ʿĀʾisha came to a halt. Instead of calling her Ḥumayrā by way of endearment, he kept on saying, “How is your family?” ʿĀʾisha was kept away from nearness to Muṣṭafā at her father’s house. She was ill, wailing, burning, weeping, her heart full of pain and her spirit full of remorse. She was looking at her own misery and abasement and saying, “I never fancied that anyone could suspect me of this or bring words like this to the tongue.”

To Him who hears all sounds despite distance

I complained of my pain in remembrance.

Would that I knew, though hopes are many,

if he who left is aware of me—should I await his coming?

*

The friend, it seems, is unaware of my grief,

and sleep no longer comes my way.

Each moment my night becomes darker—

O Lord, it seems the night has no dawn!

Then, when the verses of exoneration came down and the turn of trial came to an end, God’s Messenger gave ʿĀʾisha the good news: “God has revealed your innocence.”

Her mother and father said to her, “O ʿĀʾisha, betake yourself to God’s Messenger and praise him.”

She said, “No, by God, I will not betake myself to him, nor will I praise him, nor will I praise you two. Rather, I will praise God, who revealed my innocence.”

She had given all of her heart to the Messenger’s nearness and love such that she had said, “I love you and I love being near to you.” After being immersed in that, she gave everything over to love for the Unity and busied herself with serving the Divine Threshold. She always used to say, “By the praise of God, not your praise!”

O chevalier, if the accusers of ʿĀʾisha had not voiced that calumny, the verses declaring her eminence would not have descended from heaven. If the Christians had not said, “The Messiah is the son of God” [9:30], Jesus would not have been given the generosity of “Surely I am the servant of God—He gave me the Book and made me a prophet” [19:30]. If the man of faith did not sin, he would not have been honored with the address, “Despair not of God’s mercy” [39:53].

This is why, at the beginning of the story, He said, “Do not count it as evil for you; no, it is good for you. O ʿĀʾisha, do not fancy that what they said was bad for you. If it was bad, it was bad for them. Because of it they became worthy for great chastisement. For you it was all goodness and generosity, the perfection of reward and the elevation of rank.”

It has come in the stories that paradise has an outskirts, and tomorrow the Exalted Lord will gather the faithful in the outskirts and, before they go into paradise, He will host them in a perfect invitation, a fitting bestowal of eminence, a complete caressing. Then He will place a favor on Muṣṭafā: “O Muḥammad, this invitation is the banquet for your contract of marriage with Mary, daughter of ʿImrān, and Āsiya daughter of Muzāḥim. O Muḥammad, I kept Mary away from companionship with men and brought forth from her a child without a man for the sake of your honor and jealousy. I kept Āsiya next to Pharaoh, but I took away Pharaoh’s manliness and never let him be alone with her. I conveyed her to you pure, without defect, no one’s hand having touched her.”

Now listen to a subtle point: He honored Mary and Āsiya, who will be wives of Muṣṭafā tomorrow in the next world, and He praised them for purity and guarded them from the people. ʿĀʾisha the truthful, who was his wife in this world, who pleased him, who was his companion, whose love was in his heart, and who will be married to him tomorrow in paradise—what wonder that God honored her, sent Qur’anic verses and revelation exonerating her, and Himself gave witness to her purity and approved of her?

24:26 The goodly women are for the goodly men, and the goodly men for the goodly women—these are innocent of what they say. They will have forgiveness and a generous provision.

In the tasting of the lords of recognitions the generous provision is not the provision of the soul that is sometimes there and sometimes not. It is the provision of the spirit and the nourishment of the living self that is never cut off and always arrives continuously, neither cut off nor withheld [56:33]. What is nurtured by bread and water is one thing, what is nurtured by unmixed light is something else.

When Muṣṭafā said, “I spend the night at my Lord; He gives me to eat and drink,” he was talking of the attributes of the spiritual, not the attributes of the bodily. Snow is not the opposite of fire as much as the spiritual is that of the bodily. Two antagonists are kept together in one house, apparently getting along with each other, but inwardly enemies.

Once when his time had become short a great man was seen in revelry and delight. They asked, “What is this revelry?”

He said, “What is surprising about it? Union with the Friend and separation from the enemy are near. Which day will be sweeter than the day when dawn opens up with the arrival of a drink and a blow? Which drink and which blow is that? It will put this idol-worshiper on the gallows and deliver this sultan from the dark fetters, carrying him on the Burāq of good fortune to the Presence of Majesty.”^{1These three paragraphs are derived from RA 348.}

“The spirits of the elect are in the grasp of exaltedness: He unveils His Essence to them and bestows on them the gentle favors of His attributes.”

24:30 Say to the faithful that they cast down their eyes.

That is, the eyes of the heads from forbidden things and the eyes of the hearts from everything other than Him.

He commands the faithful to turn the eyes of the head away from forbidden things and the eye of the secret core from everything less than the Real. They should throw the dust of nonbeing into the eyes of their own being, and from the tablet of their existence they should read out reproach to the deceiving soul. Because of the pain of his own being, Muḥammad the Arab, the unique pearl of the oceans of messengerhood and the centerpiece of the necklace of evidence, used to lament, “Would that the Lord of Muḥammad had never created Muḥammad!” Those who were the preceders, the truthful, and the wayfarers of the road never paid the slightest attention to themselves. They were not happy with their own being and did not look at themselves with the eye of approval.

One day Junayd was sitting with Ruwaym when Shiblī came in, and Shiblī was exceedingly kind-hearted. When Junayd’s words were finished, Ruwaym looked at Junayd and said, “He is a kind-hearted man, this Shiblī.”

Junayd said, “You are talking about someone who is one of those who have been rejected by the Threshold.” When Shiblī heard this, he was broken. He got up in shame and went outside.

Ruwaym, “Junayd, what were those words you said about Shiblī? You know the purity and truthfulness of his state.”

Junayd, “Yes, Shiblī is one of the great ones at the Threshold. But, when you speak to Shiblī, do not speak to him from beneath the Throne, for His swords spill blood. Ruwaym, those words of yours concerning his purification were a sword aimed at his days to hamstring the steed of his practice. I made my words into a shield to repel that sword.”^{1Except for the first sentence, this discussion is taken from RA 126-27 and 128.}

Say to the faithful that they cast down their eyes. One group do not look at this world, and they are the renunciants. Another group do not look at the realm of being, and they are the folk of recognition. Still another group are the companions of guarding and awe; just as they do not look at others with their hearts, so also they do not see themselves worthy of witnessing. Then the Real lifts the veil from them without any choice, endeavor, or self-exertion on their part.^{2LI 4:279-80}

The chevaliers of the Tariqah are those who do not look at the others. They do not open the eyes of their aspiration toward anyone. They have lost themselves in the magnificent wilderness of Unity. The have thrown the fire of longing into the hut of their existence and drowned in the ocean of awesomeness and the waves of confoundedness. Their intellects are bewildered, their hearts lost—without reason or rhyme, without name or sign.

They are rushing, running, wailing in the world,

in the mountain monasteries, in the desert caves.

Totally effaced in the ocean of bewilderment,

of themselves they recite for all, “No home, no possessions.”

The Pir of the Tariqah said in his whispered prayers, “O God, You appeared to Your friends in gentleness so as to make a group drunk with the wine of intimacy and drown another group in the ocean of confoundedness. You made them hear the call up close, and You gave the mark from afar. You called the servants back, then You hid Yourself. You displayed Yourself from behind the curtain and disclosed Yourself in the mark of tremendousness so that You lost the chevaliers in the valley of confoundedness and made them dizzy in their incapacity. What is it that You have done to these helpless creatures!? The judge of these complainants is You, the giver of justice to these aid-seekers is You, the wergild of the slain is You, the hand-taker of the drowning is You, the guide of the lost is You. When will the lost come to the road? When will the drowning reach the shore? When will the wounded in spirit find ease? When will their hidden story find its answer? When will the night of their waiting reach its dawn?”

24:31 And say to the faithful women that they cast down their eyes, guard their private parts, and not show their adornment, save what is outward thereof.... And repent all together to God, O you who have faith!

The allusion is that the servant has an adornment that it is not permissible to make manifest, just as women have private parts and that it is not permissible for them to show their adornment. In the same way, if someone makes manifest to the people the adornment of his secret core, such as the limpidness of his states and the purity of his acts, the adornment turns into a stain, unless he makes manifest something to someone that he did not do on his own or undertake. That is an exception, because he will not be taken to task for something that he did not himself determine or undertake.^{1LI 4:279.}

And repent all together to God, O you who have faith! He commands the faithful generally to repent. The repentance of the common people is from slips, the repentance of the elect from heedlessness, and the repentance of the elect of the elect from observing the attributes of mortal nature. The repentance of the common people is to turn from disobedience to obedience. The repentance of the elect is to come from seeing obedience to seeing success-giving; instead of seeing their own obedience, they see the Real’s success-giving. The repentance of the elect of the elect is to turn from the contemplation of success-giving to the contemplation of the Success-Giver.

The limit of the gaze of the common people is their own acts. The field of the gaze of the elect is the attributes. The locus of the gaze of the elect of the elect is the majesty of the Essence. “I seek refuge in Thy pardon from Thy punishment” is an allusion to the gaze of the common people. “I seek refuge in Thy approval from Thy anger” is an allusion to the gaze of the elect. “I seek refuge in Thee from Thee” is an allusion to the gaze of the elect of the elect.

It has also been said that He commanded all to repent so that the disobedient would not be shamed by turning back to Him alone. In the same way, at the Resurrection both the obedient and the disobedient will enter the Fire, according to His words, “And none of you there is but will enter it” [19:71]. Thus He will conceal the disobedient with the obedient, and their defects will not be unveiled.

24:35 God is the light of the heavens and the earth. The likeness of His light is as a niche, inside the niche is a lamp, the lamp inside a glass.... Light upon light. God guides to His light whomsoever He will.

In reality light is that which illuminates other than itself. Whatever does not illuminate another is not called light. The sun is light, the moon is light, and the lamp is light—not in the sense that they are bright in themselves, but in the sense that they illuminate others. Mirrors, water, jewels, and the like are not called light, even if they are bright by their own essences, for they do not illuminate others.

Now that this reality is known, know that God is the light of the heavens and the earth: It is God who is the brightener of the heavens and the earths for the faithful and the friends. It is He who gives form to bodies and illuminates spirits. All lights come forth from Him and abide through Him, some outward and some inward. Concerning the outward He says, “And We appointed a blazing lamp” [78:13]. Concerning the inward He says, “Is he whose breast God has expanded for the submission, so he is upon a light from his Lord?” [39:22].

Although the outward light is bright and beautiful, it is subordinate to and servant of the inward light. The outward light is the light of sun and moon; the inward light is the light of tawḥīd and recognition.

The light of sun and moon is lovely and bright, but at the end of the day it will be eclipsed and occulted. Tomorrow at the resurrection it will be opaque and enwrapped, according to His words, “When the sun is enwrapped” [81:1]. As for the sun of recognition and the light of tawḥīd, these rise up from the hearts of the faithful and will never be eclipsed or occulted, nor will they be overcome and enwrapped. They are a rising without setting, an unveiling without eclipse, and a radiance from the station of yearning. A poet has said,

Surely the noonday sun sets at night,

but the heart’s sun never disappears.^{1The line of poetry and most of the preceding text are derived from RA 586.}

Know also that the outward lights are diverse in their levels. The first is the light of submission, and along with submission the light of self-purification. The second is the light of faith, and along with faith the light of truthfulness. The third is the light of beautiful doing, and along with beautiful doing the light of certainty.

The brightness of submission is found in the light of self-purification, the brightness of faith in the light of truthfulness, and the brightness of beautiful doing in the light of certainty. These are the way stations of the Shariah’s road and the stations of the common people among the faithful.

Then the folk of the Haqiqah and the chevaliers of the Tariqah have another light and another state. They have the light of perspicacity, and along with it the light of unveiling; the light of straightness, and along it the light of contemplation; and the light of tawḥīd, and along with it the light of proximity in the Presence of At-ness.

As long as the servant is within the stations, he is bound by his own traveling. It is here that the Real’s pulling begins. The divine attraction joins with him and the lights take each others’ hands—the light of tremendousness and majesty, the light of gentleness and beauty, the light of awesomeness, the light of jealousy, the light of proximity, the light of divinity, the light of the He-ness. This is why the Lord of the Worlds said, “Light upon light.”

The situation reaches the point where servanthood disappears in the light of lordhood. But no one in the whole world has ever had these lights or this proximity to the Possessor of Majesty perfectly save Muṣṭafā the Arab. Everyone has part of it, and he has the whole, for he is the whole of perfection, the totality of beauty, and the kiblah of bounteousness.

It has been narrated from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudarī that he said, “I was with a group among whom were the weak among the Emigrants, and some were curtaining the nakedness of others. A reciter was reciting the Qur’an for us and we were listening to his recitation. The Prophet came and stood over us, and when the reciter saw him, he became silent. He greeted us and said, ‘What are you doing?’

“We said, ‘O Messenger of God, a reciter was reciting for us and we were listening to his recitation.’

“God’s Messenger said, ‘Praise belongs to God who placed in my community those with whom He commanded me to make myself patient.’ Then he sat in our midst so as to be level with us. Then he indicated with his hand that we should form a circle, and their faces were illumined, but God’s Messenger did not recognize any of them, for they were the weak among the Emigrants. Then he said, ‘To the destitute among the Emigrants give the good news of complete light on the Day of Resurrection! You will enter the Garden a half-day before the rich among the faithful, a half-day whose measure is five hundred years.’”^{2The text here seems to have some errors (in contrast to the same text in KA 3:472). I have taken help in the translation from the versions of the hadith given in Abū Dāwūd (ʿIlm 13) and Aḥmad 3:63.}

The likeness of this light is the same as what Muṣṭafā said: “God created the creatures in darkness, then He sprinkled them with some of His light.” The world’s folk were a handful of dust left in their own darkness and bewildered in the darkness of their makeup. They remained unaware in the wrap of their createdness. All at once the rain of the lights of eternity began to pour from the heaven of beginninglessness. The dust became jasmine and the stone became pearls. The color of heaven and earth changed when the dust stepped forth. It was said, “This is a dust, all dismal and dark. A makeup is needed all limpid and pure.” A subtlety joined with that makeup, and this subtlety was expressed as “He sprinkled them with some of His light.”^{3Most of this paragraph is derived from RA 587.}

They said, “O Messenger of God, what are the marks of this light?”

He said, “‘When the light enters the heart, the breast dilates.’ When the banner of the just sultan enters the city, no tumult remains. When the breast is opened up by the divine light, the aspiration becomes elevated, sorrow is given ease, enemies become friends, scatteredness is changed into togetherness, the carpet of subsistence is spread, the rug of annihilation is rolled up, the door to the corner of grief is shut, and the door to the garden of union is opened. With the tongue of poverty he will say, ‘O God, Your work has a beautiful beginning—without us You lit up Your lamp with loving kindness, without us You sent light from the Unseen with servant-caressing, without us Your gentleness brought the servant to these days. What harm if Your gentleness carries through without us?’”

It is well-known and transmitted in the traditions that one of the knowers from the second generation went with the army of Islam to battle with Byzantium. He was taken prisoner and remained there for a time. One day he saw that the Byzantines were gathered in the desert and asked the cause. They said that there was a bishop, the leader of the bishops, who came out of the monastery once every four years and gave advice to the people. Today was the promised time of his coming out. The Muslim was present in that session, and they say that 30,000 Byzantines were present. The bishop went to the pulpit and sat silently without saying a word. The people were thirsty for him to speak. Then he said, “My speaking has been shut down. Look around, perhaps a stranger from the folk of Islam is among you.”

They said, “We don’t know and we don’t recognize anyone.”

The bishop said with a loud voice, “Whoever is here in this gathering from the community and religion of Muḥammad, stand up!”

That Muslim said, “I was afraid to stand up and disregarded him.”

The bishop said, “If you do not recognize him, and he does not recognize himself, then I will recognize him, God willing.” Then he pondered and he looked sharply at the faces of the people.

He said, “His eyes fell upon me, and quickly he said, ‘This is the person I am seeking. Rise up, young man and come close to me so that I may speak with you.’ He said to me, ‘Are you a Muslim?’ I said, ‘Yes, I am a Muslim.’ He said, ‘Are you one of their knowers, or are you one of the ignorant?’ I said, ‘I know what I know, and I am learning what I do not know, and I am not among the ignorant.’

“He said, ‘I will ask three questions, and you answer.’ I said, ‘I will answer with two conditions: First, that you tell me how you recognized me. Second, that I also will ask you three questions.”

The two of them agreed on this and made a compact.

“Then the bishop placed his mouth to my ear and said softly to me, hidden from the Byzantines, ‘I recognized you by the light of your faith and your tawḥīd. It was shining from your face.’ Then with a loud voice he asked, ‘Your messenger said to you that there is a tree in paradise, in every palace and every chamber of which is a branch. What is its likeness in this world?’

“I said, ‘The likeness of that tree in this world is the sun. Its disk is one, but in every house and every room there is a branch of its shining.’

“The bishop said, ‘You have spoken the truth.’

“He asked the second question: ‘Your Messenger reported that the folk of paradise consume food and drink, but no excrement comes from them. What is the likeness of that in this world?’

“I said, ‘The embryo in the womb of its mother. It nourishes itself but it does not excrete.’

“The bishop said, ‘You have spoken the truth.’

“He asked the third question: ‘Your Messenger reported that on the Day of Resurrection, a mouthful, a mote, and a grain of charity will be like a great mountain in the Scales. What is the likeness of this in this world?’

“I said, ‘In the morning when the sun comes up, or in the evening when it goes down, when you hold before the sun something that itself is short, it shows itself as long and much.’

“The bishop said, ‘You have spoken the truth.’”

Then the Muslim asked him, “How many are the gates to the Gardens.” He said, “Eight.”

He asked, “And how many are the gates to the Fires?” He said, “Seven.”

He asked, “And what is written on the gates of the Garden?”

The Muslim said, “When I asked him what was written on the door of paradise, he was at a loss and did not answer. The Byzantines said, ‘Answer, lest this foreign man say that the bishop does not know.’ The bishop said, ‘If this question must be answered, it will not be truthful with sash and cross. He undid the sash and threw down the cross and said with a loud voice, ‘Written on the gate of the Garden is “There is no God but God and Muḥammad is God’s Messenger.”’

When the Byzantines heard this answer they threw stones and cursed. The bishop turned to that stranger and said, “Do you have anything memorized from the Qur’an?”

He said, “I do,” and then he recited the verse, “And God invites to the Abode of Peace” [10:25]. The bishop wept and then said with a loud voice, “O people, the veil has been lifted from my eyes. Right now seven hundred angels are coming from heaven with seven hundred ornamented litters to take the spirits of the martyrs to heaven, and I am certain that seven hundred of you agree with me. Now look at this honor and fear no antagonist. Do not be frightened.” Then a large group of them broke their crosses and cut their sashes and became Muslims. The deniers and unbelievers were killing them, and they also killed the bishop. When they counted the killed, there were seven hundred persons, not one more or less.

The point of this story is that the light of that tawḥīd-voicing man of faith shone among a handful of deniers and unbelievers such that the bishop saw him and this affair took place. O chevalier! If assistance is sent in your name from the light of the Unseen, a Byzantine warrior will not take you prisoner the way that that assistance of light will imprison you. But it will not come down because of any cause or travel for the sake of any occasion.^{4The story of the bishop is from RA 587-89.}

The likeness of His light. A group of the commentators have said that the pronoun refers to Muṣṭafā, for his creation was light, his robe of honor light, his lineage light, his birth light, his contemplation light, his practice light, his miracle light, and he himself, in his essence, was light upon light. He was a paragon in whose face was the light of mercy, in whose eyes the light of heedfulness, on whose tongue the light of wisdom, between whose shoulders the light of prophethood, on whose palm the light of liberality, in whose feet the light of service, in whose hair the light of beauty, in whose disposition the light of humility, in whose breast the light of contentment, in whose secret core the light of limpidness, in whose essence the light of obedience, in whose obedience the light of tawḥīd, in whose tawḥīd the light of realization, in whose realization the light of success-giving, in whose stillness the light of reverence, in whose reverence the light of surrender.

Surely the Messenger is a sword glittering bright,

Indian steel, a drawn sword of God.^{5This paragraph and the line of poetry are based on RA 524, 526-27.}

Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr Ḥallāj said, “In the head is the light of revelation, between the eyes the light of whispered prayer, in the ears the light of certainty, in the tongue the light of explication, in the breast the light of faith, and in the natures the light of glorification. When any of these lights blazes up, it dominates over another light and puts it under its ruling power. When it becomes still, the ruling power of the other light comes back, more ample and more complete than it was. When all of them blaze up, that is light upon light.”

God guides to His light whomsoever He will. With His light He guides whomsoever He will to His power, with His power to His Unseen, with His Unseen to His eternity, with His eternity to His beginninglessness and endlessness, and with His beginninglessness and endlessness to His unity.

24:36 In houses that God has permitted to be raised up and in which His name is mentioned, glorifying Him therein.

One view is that these are houses in which needs are raised up to God.^{1LI 4:286.} These are mosques in which the servants supplicate Him and lift up the story of their needs to God and display their requirements.

It is not beautiful for servants to debase themselves before the wishes of just anyone, for the Real Himself has assured for them what they need and what they must have. Bishr Ḥāfī said, “I saw the Commander of the Faithful ʿAlī in a dream and asked him for advice. He said, ‘How beautiful it is for the rich to be compassionate toward the poor in seeking God’s reward! And more beautiful than that is for the poor to be haughty toward the rich by relying on God.’” How beautiful is the tenderness of the rich toward the poor hoping for reward! And more beautiful than that is the pride of the poor toward the rich by relying on the generosity of the Real.^{2This paragraph is from RA 100.}

Glorifying Him therein. That is, in the mosques, for the mosques are the houses of worship, just as the hearts are the houses of desire. Through his worship the worshiper reaches God’s reward, and through his desire the desirer reaches God.

It has also been said that the hearts are the houses of recognition, the spirits the places of witnessing love, and the secret cores the loci of self-disclosure.^{3Both paragraphs are from LI 4:286.}

24:37 Men whom neither trade nor buying diverts from the remembrance of God.

He does not say that they do not trade and they do not buy. He says, “whom neither trade nor buying diverts from the remembrance of God.” If it is possible to combine the two, there is no objection, but this is like something that cannot be done, except for the great ones, over whom affairs flow while they have been taken from them.^{1LI 4:286.}

This is the attribute of men whose outward occupation does not hold them back from remembering God. Their outwardness is with people while their inwardness is witnessing the names and attributes of the Real. They are men whose seeking is the equitable, whose remembrance is the evidence, and whose love is the path. In their eyes this world is small. They are men whose watchword is the remembrance of God, whose blanket is God’s love, whose place and settledness is the threshold of God’s gentleness, whose aspirations are free from any others. They are the beauty of Firdaws, the ornament of the Abode of Settledness, begrudged by the Emigrants and envied by the Helpers, and they walk on the earth while it boasts of them.

Men. These are men who have no crown or hat on their heads, and there is nothing in their hearts but God’s friendship. In the street of the Friend they have no friend or companions. “When the sought is great, assistants are few.” What harm to them if in this world they are the specious coin of the bazaars? Their hearts are all hard cash. They are faulted by noblemen and rejected by neighbors, but their names are in the register of the friends. They are lifted up by gentleness, they are caressed by the All-Merciful, and their hearts are always gazing at the Real. They sit on the dust, they sleep on the earth, their hands are their pillow, the mosque is their house. What harm to them are this poverty and indigence? With one allusion of their eye, they bring rain for the world’s folk; with one gaze of their heart, they rout the unbelievers; with one sorrow of their heart, they bring Gabriel into the road. And let not thine eyes turn away from them [18:28].

Dhu’l-Nūn Miṣrī said, “There was a time when rain did not come and the people were suffering terribly because of the drought. A group went outside the city to pray for rain, and I went along with them. I saw Saʿdūn Majnūn and said to him, ‘All these people that you see gathered here, hands raised in their need—what would it matter if you were to make an allusion?’

“He turned his face to heaven and said these words: ‘By the rightful due of what happened last night!’ He had still not finished the words when the rain began to pour.” Thus you come to know that the allusion of a friend is dear to the Friend.^{2The story of Dhu’l-Nūn is from RA 622.}

24:39-40 As for those who disbelieve, their deeds are like a mirage.... Or like darknesses in a deep sea covered with waves, above which are waves, above which are clouds. Darknesses, one on top of another. When he stretches forth his hand, he barely sees it. And he to whom God assigns no light has no light.

God strikes a likeness for the person of faith and the unbeliever. He makes the belief of the person of faith light, his activity light, and his final issue at the resurrection light, as He says: “Light upon light” [24:35]. He makes the belief of the unbeliever darkness, his activity darkness, and his final issue at the resurrection darkness, as He says: “darknesses, one on top of another.” Then He says, “And he to whom God assigns no light has no light.”

Wāsiṭī said, “God does not bring a poor man near because of his poverty, nor does He take a rich man far because of his wealth. Accidental things have no weight with Him such that someone would arrive or be cut off because of them. Were you freely to give Him this world and the next, He would not make you arrive by that, and were you to take it all, He would not cut you off by that. Whoever comes near to Him comes near without cause, and whoever stays far from Him stays far without cause. God says, ‘And he to whom God assigns no light has no light.’”

24:43 Dost thou not see how God drives the clouds, then combines them, then makes them a heap? Then thou seest the rain coming out from their midst.

He drives the clouds of His compassion, then pours down the rain of His munificence on His friends with His gentleness. He rolls up the carpet of decorum from the courtyards of His nearness, He strikes the domes of awe with the loci of witnessing His unveiling, and He spreads over them the flowers of His intimacy. Then He discloses Himself to them in the realities of His holiness and pours for them with His own hand the wine of His love. Afterwards He effaces their descriptions from them and awakens them not to themselves but to Him.

In the tasting of the chevaliers of the Tariqah the clouds are the clouds of compassion, the rain the rain of compassion that His gentleness rains down on the secret cores of His friends. From the soil of loyalty the fragrant herb of limpidness grows up. The sun of beginningless gentleness shines upon it and in the garden of holiness the rose of intimacy blooms. The wind of happiness blows from the horizon of self-disclosure, snatching the servant away from water and dust. Delay and lingering leave the feet of gentleness, and the breeze of beginninglessness blows from the side of proximity.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “It is You who shone the light of self-disclosure on the hearts of the friends, set the springs of affection flowing in their secret cores, and made those hearts Your own mirror and a locus of limpidness. You appeared therein, and with Your appearance You made the two worlds disappear. O light of the eyes of the familiar, celebration of the hearts of the friends, joy of the spirits of the near! All was You and all is You. You are not far that they should seek, nor absent that they should ask. They will not find You other than through You.”

“By God, if not for God, we would not have been guided.” How could a bit of water and dust have the gall to talk about eternity if not for eternal solicitude and desire?

Had He not in His generosity and bounty invited this handful of dust to the threshold of eternity and spread the carpet of expansiveness in the house of guidance, how could this woebegone of existence and this mote of impure dust have the gall to take a step on the edge of the carpet of kings? What is suited for dust is to say with the attribute of brokenness and the tongue of incapacity and poverty,

“We’ve come to shame at our own existence,

we’ve encountered stone because of the decree.

On the surface of the rug of misfortune,

our black days have come in place of color.”^{1Paragraph and poetry from RA 17.}

24:44 God turns about the night and the day. Surely in that is a lesson for the possessors of eyes.

Wāsiṭī said, “No one has ever opposed Him and no one has ever conformed with Him. All of them are put to use by His will and His power. How can there be conformity and opposition when He turns about the night and the day along with what is within them and He stands over the things and in the things through their subsistence and their annihilation. Finding does not become intimate with Him, nor does not finding bring about alienation.”

Whatever the ulama have said is a report and whatever the shaykhs have said is a tradition. The reality of the Real is beyond reports and traditions.

A field has been placed before the creatures and the call has gone out, “O folk of the world! Step into this field and walk in the veil. Know not where you go, and know not whence you are coming. Set out from the threshold of Our knowledge and settle down at the threshold of Our decree. Tighten the belt of serving Us and keep watch over Our will. Be ready for Our power, which comes along with Our pardon and forgiveness and Our severity and punishment. ‘The power of the powerful suspends every contrivance.’”^{1These two paragraphs are from RA 575.}

When someone’s secret core is the mine of secret whispering, his heart is in the grasp of joy, his forehead has the mark of prosperity, and the eye of his certainty sees with the light of learning lessons from the acts of the Majestic, then he will be aware of the secrets and intimations in these verses and understand these states, for the Exalted Lord says, “Surely in that is a lesson for the possessors of eyes.” In another place He says, “Surely in that is a reminder for him who has a heart” [50:37].

24:55 God promises those of you who have faith and do wholesome deeds that He will surely make you vicegerents in the earth.

The verse makes an allusion to leaders, those who are the pillars of the creed, the props of the submission, and the counselors of God’s religion. They are three sorts: One sort are the ulama and the jurists, those to whom reference is made in the sciences of the Shariah, such as acts of worship, transactions, and so on. They stand with the Real in their tawḥīd through the marks giving witness to their souls and their shares. They intervene in the secondary causes through the Real, but their souls, their shares, and their love for this world veil them from the realities of tawḥīd.

The second sort are the folk of recognition and the companions of the realities. In the religion they are like the elect of a king. They are described by purity of desire, beauty of aim, and truthfulness in intention. They stand with the Real along with what gives witness to their states and their desire. They act freely in all the secondary causes through the Real, but they are veiled from the disengagement of tawḥīd by seeing their own states and desires and the marks giving witness to their aims.

The third sort are the elect of the elect because of their recognition. They stand with the Real contemplating the Real in the manner of the disengagement of tawḥīd and the realization of solitariness.

Thus the religion is kept flourishing with these sorts, despite all their disagreement, until the Day of Resurrection.

Know that the vicegerents in the earth to whom the Exalted Lord alludes in this verse are three groups. Each group has a known station in tawḥīd and a defined limit in making servanthood manifest.

The first are the ulama of the religion of submission and the jurists of the Shariah, the guardians of the creed and the counselors of the community. Their limit in making servanthood manifest goes no further than hoping to recognize the Real and fearing punishment. The fruit of their tawḥīd is confined to safety in this world and well-being in that world. Their submission and faith are the Real’s gentle favors and succor, but these are mixed with the contaminants of personal motives and the marks bearing witness to the soul’s own shares. Their innate disposition has been overcome by the attributes of mortal nature, and their life put under the sway of habits and customs. In the world of servanthood, they are called those who mimic the folk of No god but God. They are veiled from the world of realities by the attributes of mortal nature. They are headed for paradise, but their state is as Junayd said to Nūrī: “These are the stuffing of the Garden, which has companions other than these. The stuffing of the Garden are its prisoners, and the companions of the Garden are its commanders.”

The next group are called the elect of the empire. They abide through self-purification in obedience, soundness of desire, and truthfulness in poverty and intention. They are far from the contaminants of personal motives and the soul’s shares and protected from lassitude and backsliding, but the hand of mortal nature displays the mirror of their attributes to their eyes, so they see that they abide on the carpet of tawḥīd by the Real’s succor. Their seeing of their own present moment in the mirror of limpidness keeps them on the carpet of being. They have an excuse, but they are far from the world of nonbeing. Their vision of truthfulness and their observation of the marks bearing witness to self-purification block them from the world of nonbeing. Until someone reaches the world of nonbeing, the realities of tawḥīd will not show their face to him.

The third group are the elect of the elect. They abide through the Real’s making them abide, not through their own abiding. They live through the opening that disengages, not the spirit that mobilizes. They have been emancipated from their own power and strength and disengaged from their own desires and aims. They do not remain in the circle of their own deeds and states, nor are they captive to self-determination and free choice. They do not read the edict of felicity and wretchedness. They are not brought out from the pavilion of the Unseen, nor are they recorded in the registers of effacement and affirmation. In face of the severity of lordhood they are like balls in the bend of the sultan’s polo stick. They say, “We must stay in the bend of the sultan’s polo stick, whether he sends the ball right or left.”

The first group are the self-purifiers who see that all is from Him. The second group are the recognizers who see that all is in Him. The third group are the tawḥīd-voicers who see that all is He.

The first two groups dwell in the marks giving witness to service and have not been released from the intrusions of dispersion. The third group are in companionship itself. They have reached the center point of togetherness. One breath as His companion is better than a thousand years of living in service.

Aḥmad Khiḍrūya sent a prayer carpet to Abū Yazīd and asked him by letter to pray on the carpet. In his answer to the letter Abū Yazīd wrote, “I gathered the worship of the first folk and the last folk and placed it on a pillow. I was commanded to put my head on it so that my sleep would be permissible for it.”

Of the same sort is the story of Junayd and Shiblī who were going on a road. Junayd said to Shiblī, “Be with God for an hour until I come back.” Junayd went and Shiblī stood reciting the Qur’an. Junayd returned and shouted at him, “Did I not tell you to busy yourself with God?”

Shiblī said, “I had come to know that when I read the Qur’an, I am busy with Him.”

Junayd said, “Don’t you know that wherever God is, no one can speak?”

Shiblī said what he said from dispersion, and Junayd answered him from the center point of togetherness. In the same way, the letter that Aḥmad Khiḍrūya wrote to Abū Yazīd was written in dispersion, and Abū Yazīd answered from the center point of togetherness.

It is reported that when Moses wanted to go and whisper secretly with the Real, he circled around the neighborhoods of the Children of Israel and asked for their stories so that he could present them to the Exalted Presence. With this pretext he could whisper secretly with the Real and listen to the beginningless address, even if the dust of Moses’ dispersion was more exalted than the center point of togetherness of all the friends and the sincerely truthful. Nonetheless, in relation to our Messenger, it was dispersion itself that he had to beg stories from the neighborhoods so that he would have a pretext to speak a great deal with the Real. The Messenger, whose center point of gathering was his gate, had no need to ask for stories. On the contrary, the exaltedness itself said to his sinlessness, “With all the stories of the messengers that We recount to thee, We make thy heart firm” [11:120].