33:11 There it was that the faithful were tried and shaken with an intense shaking.

Muṣṭafā reported that the Real undertakes to try His friends, just as you undertake to give food and drink to the ill. He said that in the highest paradises there are many degrees and domiciles that the servants can never reach by their own effort. The trials that the Exalted Lord assigns to them in this world convey them there.

A report has come that one day God’s Messenger was gazing at the sky and laughing. He said that he was marveling at the lordly ruling and the divine decree concerning the faithful servants: If He commands blessings for them, they approve, and their good lies in that. If He commands trial, they approve, and their goods lies in that. In other words, they are patient in trial, they show gratitude for blessings, and in both they find the good.

It has been said that the Real divided Adam’s progeny into one thousand kinds and let them look at the carpet of love. The desire for love rose up in all of them. Then He adorned this world and displayed it to them. When they saw its embellishments and splendors, they became drunk and entranced and remained with this world, except for one group, who stayed on love’s carpet and stuck up their heads in their claim.

Then He divided this group into one thousand kinds and displayed the afterworld to them. When they saw the everlasting joy and bliss, the spreading shade and pouring water [56:30-31], the houris and the castles, they were entranced by it and stayed with it, except for one group who stayed on the carpet and sought the treasuries of recognizing Him.

The address came from the side of all-compellingness, the Exalted Threshold, “What are you seeking and why are you staying?”

They said, “Surely Thou knowest what we desire [11:79]. O Lord! You are the tongue of the tongueless, You are the knower of the secrets and the hidden. You Yourself know what we want.”

We have a reckoning other than that of the world’s folk,

we have an intoxicant other than wine.

The Exalted Lord took them to the top of the street of trial and showed them its deserts and perils. That one kind became a thousand kinds, and they all turned away from the kiblah of trial, saying, “This is not our work. We do not have the capacity to carry this burden.” One group, however, did not turn away and, like the passionate, entered the street of trial. They did not think of trial or suffering. They said, “It is enough good fortune for us that we carry grief for You and that we suffer the sorrow of Your trial.”

Who am I to put on the cloak of loyalty to You,

or to have my eyes carry the burden of Your disloyalty?

But, if You issue the decree to my body, heart, and spirit,

I will pull all three dancing into Your love. [DS 933]

Only those who recognize Him know the measure of pain for Him. If someone does not recognize Him, how will he know the measure?

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, in pain I lament in fear that the pain will cease. Anyone who laments at the Friend’s blows is unmanly in love for the Friend.”

O chevalier, if you have the capacity and gall for this work, then set out on the road! Drink the wine of trial and call the Friend to witness. Otherwise, enjoy your well-being and stop talking. No one ever sacrificed himself by faint-heartedness or raised his head high by leaning on water and clay. You can’t be a pearl-diver when you fear for your life, and you can’t raise your head high by leaning on water and clay. Either take no heed of life, or don’t tangle with yourself.

33:33 God desires only to put away from you filth, O Folk of the House, and to make you completely pure.

The Lord of the Worlds is laying a favor on Muṣṭafā the Arab: “Our wish and Our decree is for the folk of your house to be pure of all the defilements of createdness and the stains of mortal nature so that everything in the house will be like the lord of the house: The goodly women are for the goodly men, and the goodly men for the goodly women [24:26].”

It has been said that here filth is vile acts and base character traits. Vile acts are indecencies, both the outward and the inward [6:151], and base character traits are caprice, innovation, niggardliness, avarice, severing blood relations, and the like. In their case the Lord of the Worlds replaced innovation with the Sunnah, niggardliness with munificence, avarice with contentment, and severance from relatives with joining and tenderness.

Then He says, “And to make you completely pure:” And to keep you pure from admiring yourselves, or considering yourselves pointers to God’s door, or gazing upon your own obedience and deeds.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “The gaze is two, the human gaze and the All-Merciful gaze. The human gaze is that you look at yourself. The All-Merciful gaze is that the Real looks at you. As long as the human gaze does not pack its bags from your makeup, the All-Merciful gaze will not descend into your heart.”

Poor wretch, why do you look at your own tainted obedience? How can you measure that against the threshold of His utter lack of needs? Are you unaware that if you gather the deeds of all the sincerely truthful in the earth and the obedient acts of all the holy ones in heaven, these will not have the weight of a gnat’s wing in the scales of the majesty of the Majestic? But He, in His unneediness, approves servanthood in the servants and shows them the road. God is gentle to His servants [42:19]. He says, “Look at My gentleness, consider mercy as coming from Me, and ask for blessings from Me. But ask God of His bounty [4:32].”

33:35 Surely submitted men and submitted women, faithful men and faithful women, devout men and devout women, truthful men and truthful women, patient men and patient women, humble men and humble women, charitable men and charitable women, fasting men and fasting women, men who guard their private parts and women who guard, men who remember God much and women who remember—God has prepared for them forgiveness and a tremendous wage.

In this verse, the Lord of the Worlds makes clear for His servants the way stations of traveling on the road of the religion. Then in His gentleness He praises them for their traveling and with His mercy He gives them a tremendous wage and a generous reward. He Himself shows the road, He keeps them traveling, and then He praises the servants for that. Here you have generosity and gentleness! Here you have mercy and clemency!

Submitted men and submitted women. They are Muslims, having placed the rulings of the Shariah on their necks and having thrown themselves into the road of the Haqiqah. Faithful men and faithful women. They are the faithful through attesting with the tongue, assenting to the truth from the depth of the spirit, and acting with the limbs. Devout men and devout women. They are those who act with obedience and observe the commands, who by day are in the work of the religion and by night drunk with the wine of certainty. Truthful men and truthful women. They are truthful in both speaking and acting, in both compact and covenant. Patient men and patient women. They are patient at the descent of trials and unexpected decrees. Humble men and humble women. They are the broken and the lowly, approving of the decree and standing on the feet of incapacity before the ruling power of the Haqiqah. Charitable men and charitable women. They are the bestowers of their possessions and themselves; they do not put aside anyone’s rightful due against them and have left the road of antagonism toward people. Fasting men and fasting women. They hold themselves back from the unworthy, they are silent toward what is displeasing by the decree of the Tariqah, and they keep the fast according to the Shariah. Men who guard their private parts and women who guard. They watch over their outwardness so that they do not fall into the forbidden, and they guard over their inwardness so that they do not see the creatures. Men who remember much and women who remember. They remember God with the tongue and keep Him remembered in the heart.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O remembrance of the spirits, remembered by the hearts, and mentioned by the tongues! Remember me with Your bounty and make me happy with gentle remembrance! O standing in Your own remembrance, O prior with Your remembrance to everyone who remembers! It is Your remembrance that reaches You as it should—otherwise, what comes from me that is worthy of You? O God, You are in the remembrance of Yourself, and I am in the remembrance of You. You are in Your own wish, and I am as You have made me.”

God has prepared for them forgiveness and a tremendous wage. Today is the ease of worship and the constancy of recognition, tomorrow the realization of what was requested and reaching what is beyond what had been hoped.

33:40 Muḥammad is not the father of any of your men, but rather the messenger of God and the seal of the prophets.

This is a reminder bestowing the recognition, and an explanation declaring the eminence, of the paragon of the world and master of the children of Adam, the pearl of felicity and the foundation of mastery, the kiblah of prosperity and the kaabah of hopes, Muḥammad Muṣṭafā, the eminence of whose messengerhood is bound to the Beginningless and the exaltation of whose good fortune is joined with the Endless. The pulpit and mihrab are adorned with his name. The pillars of the religion and the foundations of belief were laid down by his explanation and clarification. That paragon was outwardly all ease and inwardly all comeliness. His expressions were eloquence, his secret core love. His spirit was from the light of exaltedness, his curtain the divine jealousy. His customs were the Shariah, his robe of honor intercession. Although God stripped the name of fatherhood from him, he was more tender and more lovingly kind than any father. He said, “For you I am like a father toward his children.”

It has been said that his tenderness toward his community is greater than that of fathers, but God did not call him the father of the community because of what preceded in the beginningless decree, the lordly judgment, and the divine predetermination. This is the fact that on the Day of Resurrection—in that greatest gathering place and most tremendous exposure, when the pavilion of all-subjugatingness is pitched, the carpet of tremendousness spread, the scales of justice hung, the prison of chastisement brought out from the veil, spirits come to the throat, eloquent tongues become dumb, all excuses nullified, and all relationships cut—it is then that all fathers will flee from their children, as the Exalted Lord said: “On the day a man will flee from his brother, his mother, his father” [80:34]. Adam, who is the father of all, will come forth and say, “Lord God, let Adam go, and as for his children, You know what You will do.” Noah will say the same, Abraham the same; Moses, Jesus, and the other prophets the same. All will tremble from the harshness of the rising and the terror of the resurrection. They will be helpless for themselves and will not attend to their children. They will say, “‘My soul, my soul!’ O Lord, release me, and do what You want with the children.” In that gathering place of the resurrection, Muṣṭafā the Arab will put his face in the dust, his musky locks falling on his hands, and let loose the tongue of mercy and tenderness: “Lord God, my community is a handful of the weak and hapless. They do not have the capacity for Your chastisement and punishment. Forgive them and have mercy, and do with Muḥammad whatever You want.”

Because of the decree made in the Beginningless that fathers would flee from their children, He did not call him a father, lest on that day he flee from them and not intercede for them.

Listen to another subtle point: He was not called father because, if he had been a father, his testimony as a father against his son would not be accepted by the Shariah. Tomorrow at the resurrection he will testify as to the justice of the community. That is in His words, “That you may be witnesses against the people and the Messenger may be a witness against them” [2:143].

33:41 O you who have faith, remember God with much remembrance!

In terms of allusion what is understood from this verse is calling people to love the Real, for Muṣṭafā said, “When someone loves something, he remembers it much.” The mark of friendship is plentiful remembrance. Friendship does not let the tongue be at ease from remembrance or the heart be empty of remembrance.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “The remembrance of the Friend is the portion of the yearners. It is the brightness of the eyes, the good fortune of the spirit, and the adornment of the world. An iota’s increase in friendship is better than the two worlds. One breath in companionship with the Friend is the everlasting kingdom—exalted is the servant who is worthy of that! What is this work? For it has no name and no mark. It is the servant’s occupation, but hidden from the servant. The servant is unable to bear it but stretches out to reach it. By God, he who seeks it is joyful in the midst of fire.”

Though Your hand be fire, it is my bed of roses.

All that comes from You is sweet, whether healing or pain.

33:44 Their greeting on the day they encounter Him will be “Peace.”

Wait until this poor man reaches the house of good fortune in the Endless. Delay and lingering will let loose the foot of compassion. The clouds of gentleness will rain down generosity, the sun of union will shine from the rising place of finding, and the eyes, heart, and spirit, all three, will gaze upon the Friend.

In the report has come, “The eyes will be filled with gazing on His face and He will speak to them as a man speaks to his sitting companion.” When an eye has seen Him, how will it busy itself with glancing at others? When a spirit has found companionship with Him, how will it make do with water and dust? When someone has become accustomed to the Exalted Presence, how will he put up with the abasement of the veil? How will the ruler of his own city spend his life in exile?

In this world of exile, you become weary because

you must say, “Give us ease, O Bilāl,” for the crowd. [DS 34]

Their greeting on the day they encounter Him will be “Peace.” Tomorrow this caress and rank, this endless good fortune, will be suited for someone who today is separate from the attributes of his own being. All attributes of selfhood are bonds, every bond is a color, and the chevaliers disdain every color.

He who painted a thousand worlds with color—

why would He buy my color or yours, O bankrupt man!

Why do you paint yourself, poor wretch! Self-painting has no worth. Why do you adorn yourself? Self-adornment has no value. Let it go, so that He adorned it in your hearts [49:7] may adorn you without you. Let it go, and then He loves them, and they love Him [5:54] will approve of you without you.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “Look from Him to Him, not from self to Him, for the eyes belong to what they saw at first and the heart to the first Friend. Everyone with a chamber in this street knows that this is so. Seeing the Friend is the spirit’s law and throwing away life in the Shariah of Friendship is its religion.”

33:45-46 O Prophet! Surely We sent thee as a witness, a good-news bringer, and a warner, inviting to God by His leave, and a light-giving lamp.

“O paragon of the world! O master of the children of Adam! O pride of the Arabs and the Persians! O caressed by the gentleness of eternity! O foremost in earth and honored in heaven! You are a paragon whose explications are the arrangement of the necklace of salvation, whose proofs are the untying of the knots of difficulties, whose sayings are the edict of felicities, whose doings are the guidebook of generous acts, whose utterances are the capital of noble qualities, whose glances are the adornment of beautiful deeds”—upon him be the most excellent of prayers and the most ample of felicitations!

Surely We sent thee with the truth [2:119]. “We, who are unique in divinity and peerless in unity, separate from creation in Essence and attributes, qualified by magnificence, creator of earth and heaven, shelter of every beggar and comfort of everyone familiar, knower of the secrets of creation and witness of the deeds of all, We sent thee as a witness, a good-news bringer, and a warner. We sent you to the creatures to give news of Our gentleness to the familiar, for they are worthy of caresses, and to warn the strangers, for they are worthy of being melted. Give good news to the friends that the house of felicity has been decorated for them and warn the enemies that the prison of hell has been heated up for them.”

And a light-giving lamp. “O paragon! The sun is the lamp of heaven, and you are the lamp of earth. The sun is the lamp of this world, and you are the lamp of the religion. The sun is the lamp of the spheres, and you are the lamp of the kingdom. The sun is the lamp of water and clay, and you are the lamp of spirit and heart. The sun is the lamp of this world, and you are the lamp of both this world and that world.

“O Adam, though you are the chieftain in the register of the chosen and the title-page of the book of the prophets, how can you be on the same road with Muḥammad? For you were struck by the pain of the address of Fall down from it, all together [2:38], and he is celebrating the joy of who took His servant by night [17:1].

“O Noah, though you are the elder of the prophets and your prayers are answered in the prophetic covenant, how can you have the capacity to be Muḥammad’s companion? You were distracted by the wound of ask Me not for that of which thou hast no knowledge [11:46], and he was taught by the gentle hand of thy Lord shall bestow upon thee so that thou shalt approve [93:5].

“O Abraham, though you are the leader of the creed and the embroidery on the robe of bosom friendship, you cannot be equal to Muḥammad, for you hid yourself with the accusation of no, it was the large one of them that did it [21:63], and he was in the rank of the sinlessness of to make him prevail over every religion [9:33].

“O Moses the speaking companion, though you are the confidant of the All-Merciful and made for the divine gentleness, how can you compete with Muḥammad? You were deprived by the blow of thou shalt not see Me [7:143], and he is intoxicated with the wine of dost thou not see thy Lord? [25:45].”

33:47 And give good news to the faithful that they will have a great bounty from God.

“O Muḥammad! Give good news to the faithful that they will have a beautiful caress from Me, an endless generosity, a complete bounty—response for the supplicator, bestowal for the asker, help for the striver, increase for the grateful, reward for the obedient. Give them the good news that when I chose them, I saw the faults. I did not approve before I had examined the hidden things. With My own unneediness I chose the servants as they are. Give them the good news that what was there at first is today the same—a cloud raining down everlasting kindness for the faithful, bounty without end, favor without bounds. Give them the good news that even if a servant has many offenses, the bounty of the Patron is more than that, for every deed of a doer in every state is worthy of himself.”

All this that you have heard comes from the great bounty, but it is not the great bounty itself, for the great bounty is indeed another state and another caress—a spiritual life of delight with a hundred thousand hidden drums, an everlasting resurrection. The soul is mixed with companionship, the spirit clinging to its desire, the heart drowned in the light of finding. Because of the drowning, the servant does not discern the seeking from the finding. Because of the radiance of finding, it cannot be expressed. He burns in the fire of love and does not turn back from joy. With the tongue of his state he keeps on saying,

“I keep on throwing the spirit-incense on the fire of passion.

The spirit is Your servant—it is not that I am generous.

When passion for You has burned away my spirit,

I will contrive to find a hundred spirits more.”

33:54 If you show something or hide it, surely God is knower of everything.

Since you know that the Real is aware of your deeds and states, that He knows and sees both what you hide and what you show, well then, always be at His threshold. Keep your activity rectified by following knowledge, eating permitted food, and constant devotions. Discipline your words by recitation of the Qur’an, constant apology, and giving good advice. Keep your character traits pure from everything that is dust on the religion’s road and blockage of the well-trodden path of the Tariqah, such as niggardliness, eye-service, rancor, avarice, and covetousness.

A great man was asked, “What is the precondition of servanthood?”

He said, “Purity and truthfulness. Purity from every defilement, and truthfulness in every adornment.”

The defilements are niggardliness, eye-service, and craving. The adornments are generosity, trust, and contentment. The sentence, “No god but God,” includes both statements. No god is the negation of defilement, but God is the affirmation of adornment. When the servant says “No god,” he uproots every defilement and every veil of the road. Then the beauty of the words “but God” shows its face and adorns the servant with the attributes of adornment. Then he is taken, adorned and trimmed, before Muṣṭafā so that he may receive him with “My community!”

If the influence of No god does not appear to Muṣṭafā and if he does not see the beauty of the robe of but God, he will not receive him with “My community!” Rather, he will say, “Away with you, away!”

33:70 O you who have faith, be wary of God and speak proper words.

Proper words are the words of tawḥīd. Tawḥīd is the basis of the religion and the greatest pillar of the submission. The beginning of all the sciences is tawḥīd, the basis of all the recognitions is tawḥīd. The partition between enemy and friend is tawḥīd, the fixity of the seven heavens and the seven earths is through tawḥīd. The light of the two realms of being and the two worlds comes from the light of tawḥīd. The first pearl from the oyster shell of recognition is tawḥīd, the first mark of finding the Haqiqah tawḥīd.

When you put tawḥīd in place, your gaze takes on the form of heedfulness, your tongue becomes the treasury of wisdom, your hearing the oyster shell of the pearl of the Trust, your heart the center point of contemplation, your secret core the place where passion puts down its saddlebags.

Muṣṭafā said, “Tawḥīd is the fee to the Garden, and tawḥīd is sufficient as worship”: Tawḥīd is the price of the Garden and tawḥīd suffices for all acts of worship.

Tawḥīd is not that you say that He is one. True tawḥīd is that you be one for Him. He—majestic is His majesty—is solitary and unique. He wants the servant solitary and unique.

The unique man has no use for middling passion;

middling passion is not fit for the unique man.

Either passion, or blame, or the road of safety—

the arrow of trial has no target but man’s spirit.

If you are passionate, toss your shield into the ocean—

otherwise, stick to the shore, or your grief will have no end.

33:72 Surely We offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to carry it and feared it, and man carried it. Surely he was a great wrongdoer, deeply ignorant.

For a time Adam the Chosen—that first wayfarer, that wellspring of beginningless gentleness, that coffer of the wonders of omnipotence, that jewel-box of the gentleness of the Haqiqah, that shoot in the garden of generosity—was kept between Mecca and Taif in the cradle of the covenant of recognitions. The ill-fortuned, ill-eyed Iblis passed by. With the hand of envy he shook Adam’s makeup and found it empty. He said, “This creature will not be self-possessed. He is empty, and nothing comes forth from something empty.”

Beginningless good fortune replied on behalf of Adam: “Wait a few days until the falcon of his mystery takes flight! The first prey it hunts will be you.”

The abandoned and accursed Iblis saw Adam’s clay, but he did not see his heart. He saw the form, but he did not see the attribute. He saw his outwardness but did not see his inwardness.

No one can put a seal on fire. You can put a seal on dust, because dust is receptive to seals. “When We brought Adam into existence from dust and clay, the wisdom was to place the seal of the Trust on the clay of his heart, for We offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth.”

He brought a handful of dust into existence and burned it with the fire of love. He gave it a place on the carpet of expansiveness. Then He offered the Trust to the world of form. The heavens, the earths, and the mountains refused. Adam came forth like a man and put out his hand. It was said, “O Adam, it is not being offered to you. Why do you want to receive it?”

He said, “Because I am burnt, and someone burnt can only receive.”

On the day when fire was deposited in stone, the stone was made to promise not to submit its head until it saw someone burnt. Do you fancy that this fire is going to come out into the open with the strength of your forearm? No, no, don’t suppose that. It will only come out with the intercession of someone burnt.

We offered the Trust: O chevalier! Strive to preserve that first covenant with that first seal. Then the angels will praise you: The angels will descend upon them saying, “Fear not! Grieve not!” [41:30].

It is people’s custom when they leave a precious trust with someone to put a seal on it. On the day they want it back, they examine the seal. If the seal is in place, they praise him.

A trust was placed with you at the Covenant of Lordhood—Am I not your Lord? Upon that was put the seal of Yes indeed. When your life reaches its end, you will be taken to the domicile of dust. The angel will come and say, “Who is your Lord?” This is an examination to see whether or not the seal of the First Day is in place.

“O poor man! A seal was put on you, from the top of your head to your feet. That was the seal [muhr] of love [mihr]. A seal was put on the place of love. O Riḍwān, paradise is yours! O Mālik, hell is yours! O cherubim, the Throne is yours! O burnt heart upon which is the seal of love, you are Mine, and I am yours.”^{1The discussion of 33:72 to this point is from RA 597-98.}

We offered the Trust. The mountains did not have the capacity for this burden of the Trust, nor did the earth, the Throne, or the Footstool. Do you not see that the Exalted Lord reports about the incapacity of the mountains? “If We had sent this Qur’an down on a mountain, you would have seen it humbled, split apart by the fear of God” [59:21]. You see an angel, one of whose wings spread out would bring the two horizons beneath it, but it does not have the capacity to carry this meaning. Then you see the poor wretch of an Adamite, skin stretched across bones. Like a fearless warrior he drinks down the wine of trial in the goblet of friendship, and no change appears in him. Why is that? Because he is the possessor of the heart, and the heart carries what the body does not.^{2This paragraph is derived from RA 203-4.}

When Adam the Chosen, who was the marvel of creation and unique in the Desire, saw that the heaven and the earth would not carry the burden of the Trust, he came forth like a man and lifted that burden. He said, “They looked at the tremendousness of the burden and refused it. I looked at the generosity of Him who was placing the Trust.”

The burden of the Trust of the Generous is carried by aspiration, not strength. When Adam lifted the burden, he was addressed with the words, “We carried them on land and sea” [17:70]. “Is the recompense of beautiful doing anything but beautiful doing?” [55:60].

There is a likeness for this in the outward realm. When trees have sturdier roots and more branches, their fruit is smaller and lighter. Trees that are weaker and softer have thicker and larger fruit, like melon and squash. Here, however, there is a subtle point: When a tree’s fruit is thicker and larger and it does not have the capacity to carry it, they say to it, “Take the heavy burden from your shoulders and put it on top of the earth.” This is so that the world’s folk will know that wherever there is someone frail, he is being nurtured by the gentleness of the Exalted Presence.^{3These three paragraphs are from RA 205.} This is the secret of We carried them on land and sea.