39:2 Surely We have sent the Book down to thee with the truth, so worship God, purifying the religion for Him.

“O Muḥammad, We sent this Qur’an down to you so that you may call the lost to the road of salvation, bring the deprived from the intrusion of deprivation to the comfort of union, bring the suffering from the darkness of misfortune to the courtyard of prosperity, complete the noble character traits with this Qur’an, and arrange the Shariah in accordance with it. O Muḥammad, when a place does not have the light of your creed, all will be the darkness of associationism. When a place does not have the intimacy of your Shariah, all will be the intrusion of doubt. O Muḥammad, We have joined your exalted good fortune and your eminent messengerhood to the Endless.

“So worship God, purifying the religion for Him. Now belong fully to Me, turning your secret core toward Me, your heart lifted up from all others, released from the bonds of yourself and your own controlling power.”

With this command, the Messenger became so courteous that Gabriel came and said, “O Muḥammad! Have you chosen to be a prophet king, or a prophet servant?”

He said, “O Lord, I want servanthood. I do not want kingship, for kingship is entirely turned over to You, and servanthood is entirely turned over to me. I have no refuge but Your gentleness and no shelter but Your exalted presence. If I were to choose kingship, I would stay with the kingship and boast of my kingship. Rather, I choose servanthood so that I may be under Your kingship and boast of Your kingship.”

This is why he said, “‘I am the master of Adam’s children without boasting’: The boasting that I have is of the Friend, not of other than Him. When someone boasts, he boasts of something that is above him, not below him. In the two worlds, no one is above me except Him. If I were to boast of other than Him, I would have looked at other than Him and left aside the command, ‘So worship God, purifying!’ But there is no command to leave it aside, and no stipulation to look at other than Him. Hence there is no boasting in other than Him.”

You name me “master,” but my master is the one You know.

If You examine my heart, You will see Your remembrance in my breast.

39:3 Does not the pure religion belong to God?

What is worthy of God is pure worship without hypocrisy and obedience along with self-purification and without eye-service. When the pearl of self-purification is found, it is found in the oyster shell of the heart and the ocean of the breast. This is why Ḥudhayfa said, “I asked that paragon of the engendered beings what self-purification is. He said that he asked Gabriel what self-purification is. Gabriel said that he asked the Exalted Lord what self-purification is. He replied, ‘One of My secrets that I deposit in the hearts of those whom I love among My servants.’” He said, “It is a pearl that I have brought out from the treasury of My secrets and deposited in the core of the hearts of My friends.” This self-purification is the result of friendship and the trace of servanthood. When someone puts on the garment of love and takes off the robe of servanthood, he does whatever he does from the midst of the heart.

Friendship for the Real does not come together with scattered desires in one heart. The obligatory acts of the body are prayer and fasting, and the obligatory act of the heart is friendship for the Real. The mark of friendship is that when something comes from the Friend that is disliked by your nature and makeup, you place it upon your very eyes.

Were the Beloved’s hand to pour poison for me,

poison from His hand would be sweet.

*

The heart that You burn thanks You,

the blood that You shed boasts.

*

The blood that You spill thanks You,

the heart that You scare praises You.

*

The poison I drink in remembrance of You is sweet,

the mad man who sees You comes to his senses.^{1The four lines of poetry and the previous paragraph are taken from RA 462. For a more complete version of the passage, see under 43:67.}

39:6 He created you from one soul and then made from it its mate.

He created heaven and earth and day and night to show the creatures the attribute of His power. They come to know that He is perfectly powerful, an artisan without contrivance, and they take His artisanry as evidence of His unity. He created Adam and the Adamites to make them the treasury of the secrets of Eternity and the target of the gentle favors of generosity. “I was a hidden treasure, so I loved to be recognized.”

“I had an incomparable Essence and attributes, so there had to be recognizer. I had infinite majesty and beauty, so there had to be a lover. I was an ocean of mercy and forgiveness beating its waves, so there had to be an object of mercy.”

The other created things had nothing to do with love, for they never saw in themselves a high aspiration. The one with high aspiration is you. The angels have straight and orderly work because there was no talk of love with them. The treasures and intimations put into the Adamic makeup were not placed in them. The ups and downs of the Adamites, their bewilderment and confoundedness, contraction and expansion, sorrow and joy, absence and presence, togetherness and dispersion; the drafts mixed with poison in their hands, the swords hanging over their necks—they have all these because a whiff of love’s rose reached their nostrils.

Passion for You turned me into a tavern-goer like this—

otherwise I was safe and orderly.^{1This line is taken from RA 464, and the two previous paragraphs are rewritings of the discussion there.}

Abū Yazīd Basṭāmī said, “Once I was craving the wine of passion in the seclusion of ‘I am the sitting companion of those who remember Me.’ I was bold, and I carried a heavy load of trials for my boldness. I had tasted many drops of tribulation. I said, ‘O God, Your stream is flowing—how long will I be thirsty? What sort of thirst is this that I see one cup after another?

“Who has ever had a state rarer than this?

I’m thirsty and clear water is flowing before me.

“‘Exalted of the two worlds! How often will you become hidden, how often apparent? The heart is bewildered, the spirit distracted. How long this curtaining and self-disclosing? When at last will there be the everlasting self-disclosure? O God, how long will You call and drive away? I have melted in wanting the day in which You stay. How long will You throw down and pick up? What is this promise so drawn out and late?’”^{2This saying, ascribed here to Abū Yazīd, is more likely by the Pir of the Tariqah, as Maybudī says under 13:1 and 18:14.}

He said, “I received inspiration in my secret core: ‘O Abū Yazīd! Do you not know that they don’t sell meat without liver to this group? In the gathering place of friendship, they wear only the garment of trial. Flee if you have no stomach for trial. Otherwise, they’re going to spill your blood.’”

Abū Yazīd said, “I increased my boldness and said in selflessness, ‘O God, I fled, but Your bounty hung on to me. Your generosity stirred up the fire of finding on top of the light of recognition. Your love stirred up the breeze of proximity from the garden of union. You poured down the rain of solitariness on the dust of human nature.’”^{3Maybudī attributes parts of this saying to the Pir of the Tariqah under 9:60 and 12:52-53.}

First You began this talk of passion,

so take care of our work as is worthy of You.

How can we find room in the pavilion of mystery?

We have nothing in hand but bragging and the edict of need.

He said, “At last a call came to my secret core and the rain of kindness fell from the heaven of gentleness. The tree of hope began to fruit and the instances of triumph began to come out: ‘O stuck in clay, put forth your hands!’”

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “Not apparent are the many sorts of generosity that the exaltedness of Eternity has readied for the servant. First He gives the servant an intention from the Unseen so as to lift him up from the world. Then He gives him a bright light to lift him up from the world’s folk. Then He gives him a pull of proximity to lift him up from water and life. When he becomes solitary, he is worthy of union with the Solitary.”

Your seeker must be solitary like You—

he must be free of every defect and pain.

No one reaches union with You—

it wants a man worthy of suffering for You.

39:9 Is one who does devotions throughout the night, prostrating himself and standing, cautious about the next world and hoping for the mercy of his Lord? Say: “Are they equal, those who know and those who know not?”

“Devotion” is undertaking the courteous acts of service outwardly and inwardly without slackening or shortcoming, being cautious because of the threatened chastisement and hoping for the promised reward.^{1LI 5:271.}

This is the attribute of a group who are constantly at God’s threshold in the station of service. Their makeup at the time of prayer becomes entirely reverence itself, and they are always burning in remorse because of shame for sin. One of the great ones of the religion said, “You must show reverence for God’s commands, for it is not apparent which command brings proximity to God. You must avoid all prohibited things, for it is not apparent which prohibition brings distance from God.”

It has been said that putting God’s commands into practice is of two sorts, one according to the property of servanthood, the other according to the property of love. The property of love is higher than the property of servanthood, because the lover’s constant wish is for the Friend to command a service. Hence his service is all voluntary and nothing of it is coerced. He acknowledges the favors done to him, and he never lays favors on God, nor does he look for recompense.

In contrast, a service that is done because of servanthood has both free choice and coercion. The person is seeking a reward and expecting recompense.

The latter is the station of the worshipers and the common faithful, and the former is the attribute of the recognizers and the sincerely truthful. The two groups can never be equal. The worshipers are satisfied with the blessings and held back from the Beneficent, but the recognizers have reached the Presence and take ease in contemplating the Friend.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “How should I have known that reward is a freckle on the face of friendship? I always fancied that the greatest robe of honor was the reward. Now I have found out that in finding friendship all found things are nothing.”

Say: “Are they equal, those who know and those who know not?” Knowledge is three: reported knowledge, inspired knowledge, and knowledge of the Unseen. Reported knowledge is heard by ears, inspired knowledge is heard by hearts, and knowledge of the Unseen is heard by spirits.

Reported knowledge comes to outwardness so that the tongue may speak of it, inspired knowledge comes to the heart so that explication may speak of it, and knowledge of the Unseen comes to the spirit so that the present moment may speak of it. Reported knowledge comes from narration, inspired knowledge comes from guidance, and knowledge of the Unseen comes from solicitude.

Concerning reported knowledge He said, “Know that there is no god but God” [47:19]. Concerning inspired knowledge He said, “Surely those who were given knowledge before it” [17:107]. Concerning knowledge of the Unseen He said, “We taught him knowledge from Us” [18:65].

Beyond all these is a knowledge never reached by the Adamite’s imagination or grasped by his understanding. It is God’s knowledge of Himself in keeping with His reality. God says, “They encompass Him not in knowledge” [20:110].

Someone said to Junayd, “From where do you speak of this knowledge?”

He said, “If it were ‘from where,’ would you have asked?”

39:22 Is he whose breast God has expanded for the submission, so he is upon a light from his Lord? Woe to those whose hearts are hardened against the remembrance of God.

Know that the Adamite’s heart has four curtains: The first curtain is the breast, the lodging place of the submission’s covenant, in accordance with His words, “Is he whose breast God has expanded for the submission?” The second curtain is the heart, which is the locus of the light of faith, in accordance with His words, “He wrote faith in their hearts” [58:22]. The third curtain is the mindful heart, the pavilion of contemplating the Real, in accordance with His words, “His mindful heart did not lie about what he saw” [53:11]. The fourth curtain is the smitten heart, the place of putting down the saddle-bags of love, in accordance with His words, “He smote her heart with love” [12:30].

Each of these four curtains has a characteristic, and the Real gazes upon each. When the Lord of the Worlds desires to pull one who has fled from Him with the lasso of gentleness into the road of His religion, He first gazes upon his breast, so that it may become pure of caprice and innovation and so that his feet may go straight on the avenue of the Sunnah.

Then He turns His gaze to his heart so that it may become pure of this world’s defilements and of blameworthy character traits, such as self-admiration, envy, pride, eye-service, greed, enmity, and frivolity. Then he may go forth on the road of scrupulosity.

Then He gazes on his mindful heart and keeps him back from attachments and created things. He opens the fountainhead of knowledge and wisdom in his heart. He bestows the light of guidance on his heart’s center point, as He said, “so he is upon a light from his Lord.”

Then He gazes on his smitten heart—a gaze, and what a gaze! A gaze that embellishes the spirit, brings the tree of joy to fruit, and awakens the eye of revelry; a gaze that is a tree whose shadow is companionship with the Friend, a gaze that is a wine whose cup is the recognizer’s heart.

When this gaze reaches the smitten heart, it lifts it up from water and clay, and the lover steps into the street of annihilation. Three things cease to be in three things: Seeking ceases to be in the Found, recognition ceases to be in the Recognized, and friendship ceases to be in the Friend.^{1The description of annihilation is partly from Anṣārī’s Ṣad maydān, no. 99 (332).}

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “The two worlds were lost in friendship, and friendship lost in the Friend. Now I dare not say that I am, nor can I say that He is.”

I have an eye, all of it filled with the form of the Friend.

Happy am I with my eye so long as the Friend is within it.

Separating the eye from the Friend is not good—

either He’s in place of the eye, or the eye itself is He.

So he is upon a light from his Lord. Know that lights are of three sorts: of the tongue, of the heart, and of the body. The light of the tongue is tawḥīd and bearing witness, the light of the body is service and obedience, and the light of the heart is yearning and love. The light of the tongue conveys to the Garden, in accordance with His words, “God rewarded them for what they said with Gardens” [5:85]. The light of the body conveys to Firdaws, in accordance with His words, “Those who have faith and do wholesome deeds—the Gardens of Firdaws shall be theirs as hospitality” [18:107]. The light of the heart conveys to the encounter with the Friend, in accordance with His words, “Faces that day will be radiant, gazing upon their Lord’ [75:22-23]. When someone finds these three lights in this world, he will be given three robes of honor already in this world: First dignity, so people will see splendor from him without fearing him; second sweetness, so they will seek him out without having any tie to him; third love, so they will love him without being his relative.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “This dignity, sweetness, and love are because he has the light of proximity shining in his heart, and seeing the Friend is face-to-face with his heart’s eye.”

Woe to those whose hearts are hardened against the remembrance of God. Know that this hardness of heart rises up from much disobedience, much disobedience rises up from many appetites, and many appetites rise up because of the fullness of the stomach. ʿĀʾisha the sincerely truthful said, “After God’s Messenger, the first innovation that arose among the people was eating their fill. They gave their souls repletion such that the inward and outward appetites stuck up their heads and began to rebel.”

Dhu’l-Nūn Miṣrī said, “I never ate my fill without doing a disobedient act.”

Abū Sulaymān Dārānī said, “If anyone eats his fill, six bad traits will appear in him: First, the sweetness of worship will not come. Second, his memory in recalling wisdom will be bad. Third, he will be deprived of tenderness toward the creatures, for he will fancy that they are full like him. Fourth, appetites will force themselves upon him and increase. Fifth, obedience and worship of God will become heavy for him. Sixth, when the faithful are going to the mosque and the prayer-niche, he will be looking for the privy.”

A report has come that Muḥammad said, “Bring your heart to life by eating little and make it pure by hunger so that it will become limpid and beautiful.” He also said, “When someone keeps himself hungry, his heart becomes clever and his thoughts great.”

Shiblī said, “I never sat down hungry without finding a new wisdom and heedfulness in my heart.”

The Prophet said, “The most excellent of you with God are those of you who go longest in hunger and reflection, and the most hated of you to God are those who eat, drink, and sleep. You should eat and drink to the middle of your stomachs, for that is one part of prophethood.”

39:33 And he who brought truthfulness and he who assented to it, those are the godwary.

Know that truthfulness [ṣidq] means truthfulness [rāstī]. There is truthfulness in four things: words, promises, resoluteness, and deeds. Truthfulness in words is what the Real says about Muṣṭafā: “And he who brought truthfulness.” Truthfulness in promises is what He says about Ishmael the prophet: “Surely he was truthful in the promise” [19:54]. Truthfulness in resoluteness is what He says about the Messenger’s companions: “Men truthful in the covenant they made with God” [33:23]. Truthfulness in deeds is what He says about the faithful: “It is they who have been truthful” [2:177].

When these traits are brought together in someone, he is called “sincerely truthful.” Abraham was in this station, for the Exalted Lord said concerning him, “Surely he was sincerely truthful, a prophet” [19:41].

Muṣṭafā was asked, “What is the perfection of the religion?”

He said, “Speaking with truth and acting with truthfulness.”

A pir was asked, “What is truthfulness?”

He said, “You do what you say, you have what you show, and you are whence you call out.”^{1Ṣad maydān, no. 65 (305).}

Truthfulness in words is that the servant in whispered prayer with the Real seeks truthfulness from himself. If his face is turned toward this world in the state when he says, “Surely I have turned my face toward Him who originated the heavens and the earth” [6:79], then that is a lie. When he says, “Thee alone we worship” [1:5], if he is in bondage to this world and to appetite, then he has spoken a lie, for a man is the servant of that to which he is in bondage. This is why Muṣṭafā said, “Miserable is the servant of dirhams, miserable the servant of dinars!” He called him the servant of gold and silver because he is in bondage to gold and silver. The servant must be free of this world and appetites as well as himself if servanthood to the Real is to be set right for him.

Abū Yazīd Basṭāmī said, “The Real made me stand before Him in one thousand standing places. In each standing place He offered me the empire. I said, ‘I do not desire it.’

“He said to me in the last standing place, ‘O Abū Yazīd, what do you desire?’

“I said, ‘I desire not to desire.’

“He said, ‘You are My servant in truth.’”

Abū Yazīd is saying, “The Real made me advance in the World of Realities by way of inspiration and kept me in one thousand standing places. In each of the standing places, He offered me the empire of the two worlds. By the divine success-giving I saw that I was free of bondage to all of that. I said, ‘I want nothing of these treasuries and these pearls of the Unseen that You have poured out before me.’ Then, in the last standing place, He said, ‘So what do you want?’ I said, ‘I want not to want. Who am I that I should have a want? Who am I that I should have an I?’ The soul is an idol, the heart a ghoul, knowledge an adversary, allusion associationism, expression a cause. So what remains? One, and that’s it. The rest is folly.”

As for truthfulness in loyalty to resoluteness, it is that a man be solid in the religion, have jealousy for the command, and be straight in the present moment. Thus the Companions of the Messenger were loyal to their resoluteness, and in fighting the enemy they made their bodies the path and sacrificed their lives. Then the Exalted Lord praised them in that loyalty to resoluteness and that realization of the covenant: “Men truthful in the covenant they made with God” [33:23].

There was also the hypocrite who made a covenant with God and had resoluteness in his heart—“If He gives me possessions, I will spend them freely and I will make them into a mount on the road of godwariness”—but then he broke his resoluteness and was not loyal to the covenant. The Exalted Lord said about him, “And among them is he who made a covenant with God: ‘If He gives us of His bounty, we will surely give charity and we will surely be among the wholesome’” [9:75]. The passage continues to where He says, “for having failed God in what they promised Him and for having lied” [9:77]. He called him a speaker of lies and named him a liar because of his failure in the promise and his breaking the covenant that had gone before.

As for the truthfulness of the truthful in traveling the road of the religion and in their deeds, it is that they seek from themselves the reality of each one of the stations of the religion—like repentance, patience, renunciation, fear, hope, and so on. They are not satisfied with the outward aspects and beginnings. Do you not see what the Exalted Lord says in describing the faithful? “The faithful are only those who have faith in God and His Messenger, then do not doubt, and who struggle in the path of God with their property and themselves; it is they who are the truthful” [49:15]. In another place He says, “Piety is not that you turn your faces.” Then, at the end of the verse, He says “It is they who have been truthful” [2:177]. If the stipulations of faith had not been brought together in them, He would not have called them truthful.

For example, when someone fears something, the mark of his truthfulness is that his body trembles, his face is yellow, and he is held back from food and drink. Thus a minor slip happened to David the prophet. For forty days he put his head on the ground in the manner of prostrators. He wept to the point that plants grew up in the earth from his tears. A call came, “O David, why are you weeping? If you are hungry, let Me give you food. If you are thirsty, let Me give you water. If you are naked, let Me clothe you.” David was so burnt that when he moaned in his weeping, wood caught fire from his breath. He said, “Lord God, have mercy on my weeping and engrave my sin on the palm of my hand so that I will never forget.” The Lord of the Worlds recognized his truthfulness in his practice and accepted his repentance and answered his prayer.

It has also come in the reports about David that when he wanted to mourn because of his sin, first he did not eat anything for seven days, nor did he go around women, and then he went out into the desert. He said to Solomon that he should announce in the gathering of the Children of Israel that anyone who wanted to hear the mourning of David should be present. Many people gathered, as well as the birds of the air and the beasts of the desert. David began by glorifying and lauding God. Then he continued by describing paradise and hell, and finally he mourned for his own sin. He spoke about fear such that many people gave up their spirits from listening to that. Finally Solomon stood up next to him and said, “O father, enough, for a great multitude have perished.” It is said that on one day forty thousand were present, and of those thirty thousand perished. This is the mark of truthfulness in the varieties of practice.

Among the reports from Muṣṭafā is this: “Gabriel never came down to me from heaven when I did not see him fearful and trembling in fear of the Real.”

ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn was seen, having finished with purity, standing at the door of the mosque, his face yellow and his body trembling. He was asked about his state. He said, “Do you not know before whom I am going and in whose presence I will be standing?”

Dāwūd Ṭāʾī was the scholar of the time, the unique one of the era in jurisprudence. In the station of truthfulness he was such that on the night when he left the world, a call came from the middle of heaven: “O folk of the earth! Surely Dāwūd Ṭāʾī has stepped forth to his Lord, and He approves of him.”

Abū Bakr ʿAyyāsh recounts, “I went to Dāwūd’s chamber and saw him sitting and weeping with a piece of dry bread in his hand. I asked him what was wrong and he said, ‘I desire to eat this, but I do not know if it is permitted or forbidden.’”

In truth, when someone recognizes the exaltedness of the religion, the caprice of mortal nature will never reap its fruit from him. If one of the sincerely truthful were to show his head from beneath the cloak of his attributes and look down on us, he would see nothing but the worthlessness of our description.^{2These last three paragraphs are from RA 581.}

39:53 Say: “O My servants who have been immoderate against yourselves, despair not of God’s mercy. Surely God forgives the sins altogether.”

Know that among God’s creatures, perfect honor belongs to two groups: angels and Adamites. This is why He appointed prophets and messengers from among these two groups rather than any others. Their utmost eminence lies in two things: servanthood and love. Sheer servanthood is the attribute of the angels, and servanthood and love are both attributes of the Adamites.

He gave the angels sheer servanthood, which is the attribute of creation. Along with servanthood He gave the Adamites the robe of love, which is the attribute of the Real. Thus He says concerning this community, “He loves them, and they love Him” [5:54]. He also gave the Adamites superiority over the angels in servanthood, for He said that servanthood is the angels’ attribute, but without ascription to Himself: “Nay, but they are honored servants” [21:26]. He ascribed the Adamites’ servanthood to Himself: “O My servants!”^{1These two paragraphs are derived from RA 469.}

Then, according to the requirement of love, He completed His bounty on them. He concealed their defects and disobedient acts with the lights of love and did not tear away their curtain. Do you not see that He decreed slips for them, yet, despite all those slips, He did not remove the name servant from them? Despite mentioning the slips and disobedience, He did not take away the eminence of ascription? He said, “O My servants who have been immoderate against yourselves, despair not of God’s mercy.”

Then He kept the curtain over them and did not make the sins manifest, instead mentioning them in sum, with the lid on. He concealed them and said, “who have been immoderate.” They were immoderate, they were extravagant. But He desired to forgive them, so He did not tear away the curtain, nor did He throw away the name servant. Glory be to Him—how clement He is to His servants!^{2These two paragraphs are partly inspired by RA 370.}

It has been related that Moses said, “‘O God, You desire disobedience from the servants, but You hate it.’ The servants disobey because of Your desire, but then You hate it and You make the servant Your enemy because of the disobedience.”

The Real said, “‘O Moses, that is the foundation of My pardon.’ That is to lay the foundation of My pardon and generosity. The treasury of My mercy is full. If no one is disobedient, it will go to waste.”

The report has come: “If you did not sin, God would bring a people who did sin, and then He would forgive them.”

Wait until tomorrow at the Resurrection. The command of the Real will come as a plaintiff against the servant, but the bounty of the Real will shelter him. The Shariah will seize his skirt, but mercy will intercede.

It has been reported that the servant will be given his book in his hand and he will see his acts of disobedience. He will be ashamed to read them out. The Real will address him and say, “On the day when you were doing that and you had no shame, I did not disgrace you but instead concealed it. Today when you are ashamed, how could I disgrace you?” This is what the Prophet said: “God does not curtain a servant’s sin in this world to reproach him with it on the Day of Resurrection.”

The emperor of Persia had prepared a tremendous feast. A chamberlain pocketed a gold goblet and no one saw him but the emperor, who was sitting alone in that chamber. As much as they looked for it they could not find it. The emperor said, “Stop searching, because the one who found it will not give it back, and the one who saw him will not tell.”

Then one day the chamberlain was standing next to the emperor pouring water for him and wearing beautiful clothes. The emperor said, “Is this from that?” He replied, “This and a hundred times more are from that.”^{3Beginning with the hadith, “If you did not sin,” the paragraphs are from RA 560.}

39:54 Be penitent toward your Lord and submit to Him before the chastisement comes to you—then you will not be helped.

Penitence is of three sorts: one is the penitence of the prophets. He says about Abraham, “Surely Abraham was clement, a sigher, penitent” [11:75]. He says about David, “He sank down, bowing, and was penitent” [38:24]. He says quoting Shuʿayb, “In Him I trust and toward Him I am penitent” [11:88]. The mark of the penitence of the prophets is three things: having fear along with the good news of freedom, serving along with the eminence of prophethood, and bearing burdens in the heart along with happiness. Other than the prophets, no one has the capacity for this penitence.

Another is the penitence of the recognizers. It is to turn toward God in every state with the whole heart. God says, “None will remember but those who are penitent” [40:13]. The mark of the penitence of the recognizers is three things: being in pain from disobedience, being ashamed of obedience, and being intimate with the Real in seclusion. Rābiʿa ʿAdawiyya reached the point in the state of intimacy where she said, “‘Enough for me in this world is remembering You and in the next world seeing You.’ O Lord, in this world Your remembrance is enough for me, and in the afterworld Your vision is enough for me.”

O chevalier, when someone is intimate with the mystery of the Patron of Blessings, how could he be quenched by seeing the blessings and bliss of paradise?

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, how could I be joyful with paradise and houris? If You give me one breath, from that breath I will build a paradise!”

By God, the sun has never risen or set

unless Your remembrance was linked to my breaths.

I never sat with people talking to them

unless You were my talk with my companions.

O Majestic One! When someone turns his face to Your Presence, all the motes of the world make the dust under his feet the collyrium of their eyes. Whenever someone seeks shelter in the threshold of Your exaltedness, all creatures attach themselves to the saddle-straps of his good fortune. From his own state of intimacy a dear one advises,

“If you are given access one day to the palace of the yearning,

what will you have to do with the grief of passion for this sorcery?

If you see one hue from the rose-garden of His talk,

all the roses of the garden will be thorns in your eyes.”

The third sort is the penitence of tawḥīd, to which He calls the enemies and the estranged by saying, “Be penitent toward your Lord and submit to Him.” The mark of the penitence of tawḥīd is that someone considers God as one by the attestation of the tongue and the self-purification of the heart—that He is one and unique, without similar in Essence, without equal in measure, and without peer in attributes.^{1The discussion of three sorts of penitence is partly derived from Ṣad maydān, no. 3 (260-61).}

It has been said that tawḥīd is of two sorts, the tawḥīd of attestation and the tawḥīd of recognition. The tawḥīd of attestation belongs to the generality of the faithful and the tawḥīd of recognition belongs to the recognizers and the sincerely truthful. The tawḥīd of attestation comes into outwardness so that the tongue may report of it, and the tawḥīd of recognition comes to the spirit so that the present moment and state may report of it. When someone reports of the tawḥīd of attestation, this world is his domicile and he is seeking paradise. When someone reports of the tawḥīd of recognition, paradise is his domicile and he is seeking the Patron.

The people become drunk with the passing of the cup

but I became drunk with the one who passed it.

When someone has business with the roses, he smells the roses. When someone has business with the gardener, he kisses the thorns. In the same way, that chevalier said,

“The rose is the student of the color of His face—

if you have a thousand kisses, give them to a thorn.” [DS 720]