37:1 By the row-keepers in rows!

The lords of realization have said various things about which rows of angels these are. One group has said that what is meant is all the rows of the angels adorning the celestial world, through which the seven heavens have become luminous. In each heaven there is one sort and in each class one description. Some are in the station of service with the watchword of veneration, some in the station of awe with the blanket of watchfulness, some in the state of striving while sniffing the scents of contemplation, some in delight at being attracted by passion for the Friend, some in the market of yearning while whispering secretly with the Friend, some in the dice of love while melting in separation. The chanting of their glorification has deafened the ears of the spheres, their glorifying and hallowing have perfumed the world of holiness, and their flashing words have illumined the courtyard of the Throne. All are sitting in the celestial sky in the gardens of approval, all have bound their belts for the Exalted Threshold within the veils of awe. There is no shortcoming in their worship, no fatigue in their obedience, no slackening in their service. They do not disobey God in what He commands them and they do as they are commanded [66:6].

Another group has said that what is meant by these rows is the angels of the Inhabited House specifically, who are in the fourth heaven. They are like the Adamites in this dusty center, who visit the house of the Kaabah every year for one day. The master of the empire, the lord of the Shariah, the foremost of the prophets, said, “On the night of proximity and honor, the night of nearness and familiarity, the night of the miʿrāj, when we were strolling in that towering garden, we reached the fourth heaven and we went to visit the Inhabited House. We saw several thousand of those given proximity next to the Inhabited House. They were all drunk and intoxicated from the wine of union. They were coming from the right and passing to the left, circumambulating and saying ‘Here I am,’ constantly passing to the left. You would say that their number was more than the stars and greater than the number of leaves on the trees. I could not imagine their number, nor could my understanding perceive how to count them. I said, ‘O Gabriel who are they and whence do they come?’

“Gabriel said, ‘O Master, “None knows the hosts of thy Lord but He” [74:31]. It has been fifty thousand years that I have seen it just like this. They do not rest for an hour. Thousands come from that direction and pass by. I have not seen before those who come, and I never again see those who pass by. I do not know whence they come or where they go. I do not know the beginning of their state, nor do I recognize the end of their work.”

Yes, friend, this is a marvelous business and a wondrous state! The heaven-dwellers set their faces toward a stone, and the earth-dwellers set their faces toward a stone. What do the helpless passionate ones have in their hands other than rushing and running? May the chevaliers who will settle for nothing but the face of the object of passion and play dice in nothing but love for the Friend subsist in a thousand happinesses!

O He to whose face is my hajj and my umrah,

the people make their hajj to dust and stones.

“Here I am, here I am” in proximity or distance,

a secret to a secret, a thought to a thought.

*

In this world and that world and all that is,

the passionate turn to the Beloved’s face, and that’s it.

Even if the world’s kiblah is not mine,

my kiblah is the Beloved’s street—and that’s it.

37:5 The Lord of the heavens and the earth and what is between the two, and the Lord of the easts.

It is God who is the creator and keeper of the seven heavens and the seven earths. He is the form-giver to every form and the embellisher of every picture. He is without associate, without likeness, without equal, and without helper. He is loyal to the friends and lover of the faithful: God is the friend of those who have faith [2:257]. He is generous to the recognizers and gentle and beautiful doing toward the servants: God is gentle to His servants [42:19].

In terms of allusion He is saying, “The creator without cause am I, the enactor without tool am I, the all-subjugating without artifice am I, the all-forgiving without delay am I, the all-curtaining of every slip am I. I created so that you would see power, I show you hell so that you will see punishment, I keep you on the path so that you will see solicitude, I forgive your sins so that you will see bounty and mercy, I convey you to the Garden so that you will see generosity, I place you on the throne so that you will see exaltedness, I give you wine so that you will see pleasure, I greet you with ‘Peace’ so that you will see felicitations, I lift up the veil of majesty so that you will see encounter and vision.”

37:24 And halt them. Surely they will be questioned.

One group will be questioned by way of rebuke, and another group will be questioned because of chastisement. Those who are the folk of chastisement will be kept on the bridge of the Narrow Path and will be questioned before witnesses, while God is angry toward them. It will be said to them, “Today I have thrown your judgment back to you: Thy soul suffices thee today as a reckoner against thee [17:14].” Their black register and bad deeds will be held before their faces. It will be said, “When these are someone’s works, what is his recompense?” Unwillingly they will say, “His recompense is the Fire.” Then the call will come, “Enter it by your own judgment!”

It has been reported that when Pharaoh claimed Godhood and said, “I am your Lord the most high” [79:24], Gabriel came into his road in the form of a mortal man and asked him, “What do you say about a chieftain who pulls up his slave, gives him possessions, position, and blessings, and then makes him the headman and paragon for others, but the slave wants to be the paragon over his own chieftain. What is his recompense?”

Pharaoh said, “His recompense is that he be drowned in water so that others may take heed of him.”

From the Exalted Presence the command came, “O Gabriel, remember this fatwa on the day when I pull him into the sea and drown him by his own fatwa.”

As for the group who are questioned by way of rebuke and not because of chastisement, they are those who are faithful in belief, tawḥīd-voicers through the affection in their hearts and the truthfulness of their love, but they are sinners and have fallen short in their deeds. The Real will question them, but He will conceal their defects from the people. He will remind them of their sins, but He will not hold back His pardon and forgiveness from them, and He will question them in seclusion. A sound report says, “God will bring the person of faith close, then place His wing over him and curtain him. He will say, ‘Do you recognize this sin? Do you recognize that sin?’

“He will say, ‘Yes, my Lord,’ until he confirms his sins and sees in himself that he will perish.

“He will say, ‘I curtained them for you in the world, and I forgive you for them today.’”

Once Abū ʿUthmān Ḥīrī was talking about love. A youth stood up and said, “What is the path to His love?” What shall I do to reach His friendship?

Abū ʿUthmān said, “Let go of your opposition!”

The youth said, “How can I claim to love Him if I have not let go of my opposition?” Then he stood up, shouted out, and wept.

Abū ʿUthmān said, “Truthful in love for Him, falling short in His rightfully due!” Outwardly he is among those who fall short, inwardly among the ranks of the friends.

O chevalier! If you are such that you fall short in your effort and deeds, strive not to fall short in the truthfulness of love and the pain of yearning, for truthfulness in love makes up for shortcoming in deeds, but fully performing deeds does not make up for shortcoming in love.

When the angels counted out the defects of the Adamites, He said to them, “Surely I know what you do not know [2:30]. O angels, why do you look at the disloyalty in their deeds? Look at the limpidness of Our knowledge. O Iblis, why do you look at the fetid mud [15:26]? Look at the robe of Our attributes. Even if Our friends should slip and the hard cash of their practice should be adulterated by disobedience, I hold out the crucible of repentance: the repenters, the worshipers [9:112]. The wisdom in the slip is that when the servant looks at himself from the slip, he brings forth poverty. When he looks at Us from obedience, he brings forth boasting.^{1Beginning with the mention of Abū ʿUthmān Ḥīrī, the passage is derived from RA 622-24.} The servant must always be traveling between poverty and boasting, he must be passing back and forth between fear and hope. In fear he weeps in expiation of sins, and in hope he is joyful at finding everlasting bliss.”

This is why the Pir of the Tariqah said, “With reports I went forth seeking certainty, fear my resource, hope my companion. The goal was hidden from me and I was striving in the religion. All at once the lightning of self-disclosure flashed from ambush. With thought they see days like that, with the Friend like this.”

When someone has this state and his traveling has this attribute, the final outcome of his work and the fruit of his passing days will be what the Exalted Lord says:

37:41-42 They will have a known provision; fruits—and they will be honored.

In the Garden they will have a known provision for their outer skins at designated moments, morning and evening, and they will have a known provision for their secret cores at every moment.^{1Inspired by LI 5:232.}

Yaḥyā Muʿādh was asked, “Does the Beloved ever turn His face toward the lover?”

He said, “When does the Beloved ever turn His face away from the lover?”

May a thousand spirits be sacrificed to the chevalier who knows the intimations of passion!

God nurtures those who have the collar of love around their necks in the lap of bounty, the cradle of the Covenant, and the dome of proximity. He unveils to them His Essence and addresses them through His attributes. The Throne has the attribute of elevation, and elevation is enough for it. The Footstool has the attribute of tremendousness, and tremendousness is enough for it. Heaven has adornment and ornamentation, and adornment and ornamentation are enough for it. The soul has the claim to egoism, and the claim to egoism is enough for it. As for the heart, it does not have the elevation of the Throne, nor does it have the tremendousness of the Footstool, nor does it have the ornamentation of the heaven, nor does it have the expanse of the earth, nor does it have the claim to being and egoism—all it has is brokenness and poverty. “My bounty and mercy are enough for it. Say: ‘In the bounty of God and His mercy—in that let them rejoice’ [10:58].”^{2Beginning with the saying of Yaḥyā Muʿādh, the passage is taken from RA 619-20.}

37:61 For the like of this, then, let the doers do.

If it is suitable to say to the faithful about the hope for joy, the bliss of paradise, and the vision of the serving-boys and youths, “For the like of this, then, let the doers do,” then it is more suitable that the recognizers have hope for seeing the majesty of the Unity and finding the realities of proximity and the good news of union, and that they sacrifice their eyes and heart and expend their lives and spirits for the sake of this good news.

For the likes of Salmā a man would kill himself,

and fixed in despair for Salmā, he would starve.

37:83 And surely among his party was Abraham.

Abraham was of the party of Noah in the principles of tawḥīd, even if they disagreed in the branches of the religion and the shari’ite details. In the shariahs, all the prophets are the same in tawḥīd and the principles of the religion, and there is no disagreement in that. This is exactly what He says: “He has set down for you as the religion that with which He counseled Noah” and so on [42:13]. The disagreement is in the Shariahs and the rulings. This disagreement is a mercy from the Lord so that the work of the religion will not become tight for the people. God desires for you ease and does not desire for you hardship [2:185]. They are like a group who are heading toward a way station, and each of them takes a different road, though the last way station is the same. Some roads are nearer, some farther.

No road is nearer to the felicity of the afterlife than the road of Muṣṭafā and his Shariah. This is why his Shariah abrogated the shariahs and his pact abolished the pacts—a revealed shariah, not newly arrived; a firm pact, not faulty; a holy shariah, not foolish; a confirmed pact, not temporary; a known shariah, not ignored; an expanded pact, not curtailed; a shariah that is as bright as the daytime sun and lights up the hearts of the friends. Muṣṭafā said, “How is it that you are with your religion like the moon when it is full, but only the seeing see it?”

37:84 When he came to his Lord with a sound heart.

Abraham turned his face toward the threshold of the Exalted Lord with a sound heart, without any blight or any discord, released from attachments and having turned away from the share of his soul. This is just what He says:

37:99 He said, “Surely I am going to my Lord; He will guide me.”

That fact that he was going in God necessitated his going to God. He went forth well in God’s work so he went straight in God’s road.

About Abraham the Real says, “Surely I am going to my Lord,” reporting his words. Concerning Moses He says, “Moses came to Our appointed time” [7:143], reporting his attribute. About Muṣṭafā He says, “Who took His servant by night” [17:1], reporting His attribute for his sake. Abraham was in the station of dispersion, Moses in togetherness itself, and Muṣṭafā in the togetherness of togetherness. The mark of Abraham’s dispersion is Surely I have turned my face toward Him who originated the heavens and the earth [6:79]. The mark of Moses’ togetherness is We brought him near as a confidant [19:52]. The mark of Muṣṭafā’s togetherness of togetherness is Then He drew close, and He came down [53:8].

In the tasting of the folk of recognition, Surely I am going to my Lord alludes to the disentanglement of the servant. The meaning of disentanglement is to be cut off from all along with the Real, in the beginning through effort and in the end totally. In the beginning, the body is striving, the tongue is in remembrance, and one’s lifespan is in effort. At the end, one is on loan to the people, estranged from oneself, and at ease from attachment. For one hundred years the sun will rise in the east and set in the west before a disentangled man is given the eyes to discern the station of creation from the station of the Real and know the difference between the beginning and the end.

Wāsiṭī said, “Abraham was going from creation to the Real, and Muḥammad was coming from the Real to creation. Someone who goes from creation to the Real recognizes the Real through evidence, and someone who goes from the Real to creation recognizes the evidence through the Real. Do you not see that Abraham came by way of the evidence? When he arrived at a bit of evidence, he would say, ‘This is my Lord’ [6:76]. This was the beginning of his state. When he reached the end, he saw the beauty of tawḥīd with the eyes of face-to-face vision and said, ‘I am going to my Lord; He will guide me.’”

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, he who seeks the Real from the evidence worships in hope and fear, he who loves the Real for His beautiful doing will turn back on the day of tribulation, and he who seeks the Real through himself will fancy that the not found is found. O God, the recognizer knows You through light, but he cannot express the radiance of Finding. He burns in the fire of love and does not turn away from the fire.”

37:102 And when he reached the age of striving with him, he said “O my son! I see in a dream that I will sacrifice thee. Look, what dost thou see?” He said, “O my father! Do as thou art commanded. Thou shalt find me, God willing, one of the patient.”

Ishmael was a child increasing day by day. He grew up noble and stood up exalted. He was the extract of bosom friendship and the oyster shell for the pearl of Muḥammad the emissary. The corner of Abraham’s heart became attached to him and looked upon him while deeming him beautiful. A rebuke came from the threshold of Exaltedness: “O Bosom Friend, I did not preserve you from Azar’s idols so that you could attach your heart to passion for Ishmael. Whatever veils the road of bosom friendship—whether Azarite idol or passion for Ishmael!”

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]

“O Bosom Friend, you claimed friendship with Me and like a desirer you came into the road of desire: ‘Surely I have turned my face toward Him who originated the heavens and the earth’ [6:79]. You disowned creatures and attachments: Surely they are an enemy to me, save the Lord of the Worlds [26:77]. Now you have come with a heart that is dedicated to love for My majesty and beauty and you have turned it toward him, placing love’s seal on him. Make a sacrifice of him for Me, and sever yourself completely for Me! If you want Me, apply the remedy to your pain.”

As long as your heart has not done away with attachments,

not one of your arrows will reach its mark.

As long as you have not removed both worlds from the midst,

the ship will not reach the shore of safety.

At the beginning of desire, the pirs of the Tariqah have the desirers keep their eyes down so that they will not look at anything, for whenever they look at something, that thing will become their bond and the basis of tribulation. One day Jacob gazed at Joseph’s beauty with an eye that deemed him beautiful—look at the tribulation he suffered and how he was afflicted by separation from Joseph! One day Muṣṭafā said, “I love ʿĀʾisha” He suffered what he suffered and saw what he saw because of the words and calumny of the hypocrites! The same state occurred for Abraham. He gave the corner of his heart over to love for Ishmael. He fell into trial and threw Ishmael into tribulation as well. He told him the story of his dream, saying, “I see in a dream that I will sacrifice thee.”

Ishmael himself was brave, noble in nature, and beautiful in character. He answered, “O my father, do as thou art commanded. Thou shalt find me, God willing, one of the patient. O father, bring to pass what you have been commanded. The road of your bosom friendship must be pure and approved. As for me, whether I have a head—or not.”

They spoke to see which of them was more generous—he who was sacrificing his son, or he who was sacrificing his life and body. Abraham said, “My work is more wondrous, for I am sacrificing my precious child.”

Ishmael said, “My generosity is more tremendous, for I am sacrificing my dear life and my precious body.”

Abraham said, “For you, it is not more than an hour’s pain, and for me it will be pain with every breath and grief at every instant—that I sacrificed my own child with my own hand.”

It is as if the Exalted Lord said to them, “I am more munificent and more generous than both of you, for I will take the unslain as slain, and I will send a sacrifice unasked for. ‘And We ransomed him with a tremendous sacrifice’ [37:107].” Why should the sacrifice sent by God not be greater and more tremendous? Gabriel brought it, Abraham accepted it, and it became Ishmael’s ransom.^{1Maybudī explains in Stage Two (KA 8:293) that the “tremendous sacrifice” was a white ram brought by Gabriel.}

37:139 Jonah too was one of the envoys.

When the generous, lovingly kind Lord, gentle and merciful to the servants, imprisoned Jonah in the belly of the fish, He made His remembrance and name his intimate, so he kept on saying, “There is no god but Thou! Glory be to Thee!” [21:87]. God’s remembrance was his intimate in his trouble and God’s love was the cause of his comfort. Whenever someone’s heart is inscribed with God’s love,

Though he be in water or fire,

his life will be sweet with God’s love.

Your name became the lamp of Jonah’s darkness,

the adornment of every session in the world.

Although outwardly the fish’s belly was Jonah’s trial, in terms of inwardness, it was his place of seclusion. He wanted to talk secretly with the Friend without the intrusion of others. Just as the fish’s belly was made into Jonah’s place of retreat, so also the middle of Nimrod’s fire was made into Abraham’s retreat, and the corner of that cave was made into Abū Bakr’s place of retreat with the paragon of the world. In the same way, wherever there is a person of faith, a tawḥīd-voicer, he has a place of retreat in his own exalted breast. The cave of his secret core is the descending place of the divine gentleness and the site of the lordly gaze.

O tawḥīd-voicing man of faith, if you are delighted, that is fitting, and if you revel, that is fitting, for He Himself says, “The cave of the faithful man’s heart is the place made ready for Our divine secrets. On the tree of the faithful man’s faith is the nest of the bird of Our good fortune. In the meadow of the faithful man’s heart is the wellspring of the effusion of Our majesty’s gaze. Here is your blessed place of retreat! Here is your garden of pleasure! Here is your springhead of pure water without blight! When We make a cave in your breast, that is not the devil’s place of refuge. When We plant a tree in your inwardness, the bird of Satanic disquiet will not take it as a nesting place. When We make a wellspring from the courtyard of your breast, nothing will gush forth but the water of bounteousness. A cave that We made in your breast—We are its attendant. A tree that We planted in your breast—We are its nursery man. The pearl of recognition that We put into the oyster shell of the heart—We are the guardian of that pearl.”

In the stories it has come that after Jonah was delivered from the darkness and released from tribulation, he went back among his people. Revelation came to him saying, “Tell so-and-so, the potter, to take all the pots and utensils that he has made over the past year and to break and destroy them.”

Jonah became sorrowful at this command and had pity on the potter. He said, “Lord God, I feel mercy for that man, for You want to destroy and bring to nothing one year of his work.”

God said, “O Jonah! You show pity for a man whose one year of work will be destroyed and come to nothing, but you showed no pity for one hundred thousand of My servants and you asked for their destruction and chastisement. O Jonah, you did not create them. Had you created them, you would have had mercy on them.”

Bishr Ḥāfī was seen in a dream and asked, “What did the Real do with you?”

He said, “He rebuked me. He said, ‘O Bishr, what was all your fear and dread in the world all about? Did you not know that mercy and generosity are My attribute?’”

Tomorrow, Muṣṭafā the Arab will intercede in the work of the community’s sinners to the point that he will say, “O Lord, let me intercede for those who never did any good.”

God will say, “O Muḥammad, this belongs to Me.” This one is mine—what is appropriate and fitting for Me. Then the address will come forth, “Anyone who mentioned Me once in any station or feared Me once at any moment, come out of the Fire!”

This is the mercy in which asking is lost. This is the gentleness in which thought ceases to be. This is the generosity in which imagination is bewildered. This is the bounty whose limit passes beyond the furthest measure. “My servant, if you obey, acceptance is on Me. If you ask, bestowal is on Me. If you sin, pardon is on Me. The water is in My stream, the comfort in My street, the rejoicing in My seeking, the intimacy with My beauty, the joy with My subsistence, the happiness in My encounter.”^{1Beginning with the anecdote about Bishr, the passage is taken from RA 560-61.}

37:164 None of us there is but has a known station.

In the tongue of the Tariqah this verse alludes to the states of encounter and the unveilings of the masters of the Haqiqah. One is gratitude for ecstasies, another the lightning of unveiling, another the bewilderment of witnessing, another the light of proximity, another the friendship of finding, another the splendor of togetherness, and another the reality of solitariness.

These are seven oceans placed at the top of tawḥīd’s street. As long as the traveler in the road does not pass over these seven oceans, he will not be allowed to reach the end of the street. He must seek water from these oceans through the seven thresholds of the Qur’an, about which Muṣṭafā reported: “The Qur’an was sent down according to seven letters, each of which is a sufficiency and a healing. Every verse has an outwardness and an inwardness, and each letter has a limit and an overview.”

The sincerely truthful and the wayfarers on the road have said that you must pass over these oceans to reach tawḥīd. Concerning these seven oceans, the command has come: “Pass through the gate of the message brought by that paragon of the world. From every wave, take a signet from his Shariah, and from every drop, seek the help of his covenant. Then you will be worthy for the way stations of Our friends.”

This is what the Pir of the Tariqah intimated with his words, “When any reality sticks up its head from the recognizer’s breast, it is not acceptable to the Real until two witnesses from the Shariah bear witness to its correctness.”

37:171 Already Our word has preceded to the envoys.

Word here comprises three roots: knowledge, desire, and wisdom. First is the precedence of knowledge: Before the doing, He knew what He must do. Second is the precedence of desire: What He knew He must do, He wanted to do. Third is the precedence of wisdom: What He did He did rightly and properly.

Know also that God has no need of duration, for duration is a cause, and His doing has no cause. For Him the not-yet-come is hard cash and the past is retained. It is you who must think about the not-yet-come, you who must remember what is past, and you who must preserve what is present.

He has no need to remember the past, for it is in His knowledge. He has no need to think about the not-yet-come, for it is in His decree. He has no need to preserve what it is present, for it is in His kingdom. For Him, from the Beginningless to the Endless is less than one breath, and one hundred years is less than one instant. With Him there is neither yesterday nor tomorrow. He is constant in exaltedness and abides in His measure. This is the secret of the words of ʿAbdallāh ibn Masʿūd, “With your Lord is neither day nor night.”

For the equivalent of this verse, recite “those to whom the most beautiful has preceded from Us” [21:101]: “My servant, before you said that you are My servant, I said that I am your Lord: Your god is only God, other than whom there is no god [20:98]. Before you said that you are My friend, I said that I am your friend: He loves them, and they love Him [5:54]. My servant, you were not, but I was there for you. I was there for Myself in exaltedness, and I was there for you in mercy. ‘Belong to Me as you always were, and I will belong to you as I have always been.’”

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “Where will I find again the day when You belonged to me and I was not? Until I reach that day again, I will be in the midst of fire and smoke. If I find that day again in the two worlds, I will profit. If I find Your Being, I will be pleased with my own nonbeing.”