4:1 O people, be wary of your Lord, who created you from one soul, created from it its mate, and scattered forth from the two many men and women. And be wary of God, whom you ask against one another, and of the wombs. Surely God is watcher over you.

“O center point of human nature, O attribute of mortal nature, make godwariness your shelter and cling to it, for the life of the servants is through it and the deliverance of the travelers in it.”

Godwariness is for the servant to make the commands of the Shariah into his shield so that the arrows of prohibition may not reach him. It has three levels: First, he takes refuge in the sentence of tawḥīd and avoids every associationism. Second he takes refuge in obedience and steps away from the path of disobedience. Third he takes refuge in caution and flees from ambiguity. Anyone who climbs these way stations of godwariness with truthfulness will inescapably reach deliverance, for the Qur’an gives this report: “God will deliver those who were godwary in their place of security; ugliness will not touch them, neither shall they sorrow” [39:61]. In another place He says, “Whosoever is wary of God, He will appoint a way out for him and He will provide for him from whence he never reckoned [65:2-3]. Whenever someone takes hold of godwariness, We will ease for him the road of deliverance from every suffering and We will send him provision from whence he has no hope.”

It has been said that the sister of Bishr Ḥāfī went to see Aḥmad Ḥanbal. She said, “O Imam of the Muslims! I work a spindle on the roof of my house. When the torch of the Tahirids passes by, it may happen that I join threads with the rays of that torch. Is this permissible or not?”

Aḥmad said, “First tell me who you are. Are you in a walkway of being able to tolerate such godwariness?”

She said, “I am the sister of Bishr Ḥāfī.”

Aḥmad wept and said, “Godwariness like this is permissible only in the household of Bishr Ḥāfī! It is not worthy of you, so be careful not to do it, and Bishr Ḥāfī will be happy with you. Emulate your brother so that perhaps you may be like him. Then, if you want to work your spindle in the glow of the Tahirids’ torch, your hand will not obey, for your brother had a degree such that whenever he reached for food that was in any way suspicious, his hand would not obey him.”

“When the servant desires to be negligent of Me, I come between him and his negligence of Me.” This is found in the report in which Muṣṭafā said, narrating from his Lord, “When I know that what dominates over My servant’s heart is being occupied with Me, I put my servant’s appetite into supplicating Me and conversing with Me. When My servant is like that, My servant has passion for Me, and I have passion for him. When My servant is like that and he desires to be negligent of Me, I come between him and his negligence of Me. Those are my friends in truth. Those are the champions. They are the ones for whose sake I remove from the earth those whom they desire to be punished.”

He is saying: “When My servant wants only Me, knows only Me, and belongs only to Me, I also turn the face of My heart toward him. For him I shut the door of all desires, all appetites, and all wants and I remove all others from his heart. I give passion for speaking to Me and listening to Me dominance over his spirit and heart and I give him ease on the carpet of passion. I hold the sword of beginningless jealousy over his head so that, should he want to look at another, or crave for another, or do business with another, I do not allow it.”

I will make night into day and day into night in your work.

I will ruin your business with the world’s creatures.

“Yes, when I want him, I know how he must be plundered. Today I will entrust him to the policeman of godwariness so that I may keep him under the protection of My Shariah, and it will give his movements and stillnesses the condition of courtesy. Tomorrow I will settle him down in the seat of truthfulness [54:55] in the Presence of At-ness.” Have you not heard that tomorrow at the resurrection it will be said to godwariness, “Come, for today is the day of your bazaar! If anyone has a portion of you, settle him down in a domicile in the measure of his portion. Settle down those familiar with you in the Presence of At-ness, for in the beginningless We decreed, Surely the godwary will be in the midst of gardens and a river, in a seat of truthfulness, at an Omnipotent King [54:54-55].”

Who created you from one soul, created from it its mate. The Lord who created everything that He created as a pair made a spouse appear for everyone. He joined each with a likeness and attached each to a similar, for unity and solitariness are an attribute specific to Him. It is His rightful due and worthy of Him. In has been narrated in one of the books, “I have given the things mates so that My unity will be inferred.”

And scattered forth from the two many men and women. He showed the perfect power and majesty of His lordhood to the creatures: “From the offspring of one upright individual I brought forth many thousands of creatures with diverse natures and colors, with different forms and conducts. Each has another color, another nature, another character, another state, another aspiration. You will never see two people alike in nature and visage, or in form and manner. So glory be to Him whose predetermined things have no end and whose objects of knowledge have no limit!”

Then, at the end of the verse, He says, “Surely God is watcher over you.” The watcher is He who gives ear to hearts without investigating, who is aware of deeds without asking, and who in striving has no need to rest. This is an admonishment of the servant and eloquent advice for the traveler. It means, “Since you know that I give ear to hearts and keep My eyes on deeds and words, put watchfulness to work and carry out My rightful due.” Watchfulness is that the servant constantly looks at the Real with the heart and keeps the gaze of the Real before his eyes. Since he knows that He is not heedless of him, He is always on guard. Hence Muṣṭafā said, “When you do not like people seeing something from you, do not do it while you are alone.” In this meaning they have sung,

When you are alone with yourself one day, do not say,

“I’m alone.” Say, “Over me is a Watcher.”

*

I’m not heedless of your state for one moment, O friend.

I have possessors of awareness where you are.

Ibn ʿUmar passed by a slave-boy, a shepherd who had sheep in a pasture. He said, “Boy, sell me one of these sheep.”

The boy said, “These are not mine.”

Ibn ʿUmar said, “If they ask, say it was eaten by a wolf.”

The boy said, “So where is God?”

Ibn ʿUmar was happy with his words and bought the slave-boy and all the sheep. He freed the slave and gave him the sheep. For a long time Ibn ʿUmar would say, “That slave said, ‘So where is God?’”

4:10 Surely those who eat the property of orphans wrongly will be eating only fire in their bellies and will roast in a blaze.

The majestic compeller, the great Lord, the renowned keeper of servants, the clement, the generous, the loyal, the tremendous, the lord of everyone, the carrier of everything, who takes the hand of the weak and joins with them in love, in this verse caresses the weak and shows love to the orphans. As for those wrongdoers who skewer the livers of orphans and drink the blood of the indigent, He threatens them and warns them of a fearful punishment. He acts as the deputy of the helpless and disputes with the wrongdoers for their sake. For He is the companion of the weak, the helper of the despairing, the responder to the call of the distressed, and the listener to the voice of the grieved. He loves the servant who, when battered, incapable, and destitute, lets out a cold sigh, sheds warm tears, and lifts two empty hands toward Him, asking again to be excused.

It has come in the traditions that a man was saying, “O Lord, O Lord! You have written, You have measured out, and You have decreed!” O God, all that was, is, and shall be is what You want, what You bring about, and what You write for the creatures. O God, none of this is outside Your predestination, nor does it happen without Your decree.

A call came in his secret core, “That is tawḥīd. Where is servanthood?” What you have said is nothing but tawḥīd and is fit for My Godhood. What then is the mark of your servanthood?

The man said, “O Lord, O Lord! Surely I have disobeyed, I have sinned, and I ask.” O God, what comes from me is fitting for me. O God, I have broken the covenant, I have no loyalty, I am disloyal and everything worse.

What can I do about this story—I’m all artifice and color.

I’m altogether too lame to walk on the straight road.

Greed has made me all grasping claws,

I’m all war with the Apportioner’s apportioning.

Surely those who eat the property of orphans wrongly. It is harsh to eat the wealth of orphans and foolishly crave their possessions. They say that once the marvel of the empire, the pure Jesus, was passing by a graveyard. He said, “Lord God, bring one of these servants of Yours to life!” At once a section of dust caved in, and a tall man came out and stood. Jesus was frightened by him and said, “Young man, who are you?”

He said, “I am the son of Taghlab.”

He said, “When did you die?”

He said, “2,700 years ago.”

He said, “Tell me how you have found death.”

He said, “From the moment I went into the dust until now, the bitterness of death has been with me.”

He said, “What has God done with you?”

He said, “O spirit of God! After 2,700 years I am still being called to account for half a piece of silver that I owed to an orphan. Calling to account for that has still not come to an end.” He said this and fell back into the dust.

4:12 For you half of what your wives leave, if they have no children.

Inheritance and worthiness to receive it are established either by means of a cause or by way of a lineage. The cause is marriage and the lineage is kinship. Marriage is the cause of love, as God says, “He placed between you love and mercy” [30:21]. Lineage is assistance and strength, as has come in the report: “A man is many through his brothers.” When one of the relatives by lineage or one of the near ones by cause dies, that will be a wound on a person’s heart and a pain in his spirit. The Lord of the Worlds places balm on the pain. After this suffering He commands consolation through the wealth of the person who passed away. Thus, just as pain came from his passing, so also balm comes from his wealth. This is the custom of the Lord with His friends: If He places suffering on them by prescribing the Law, after the suffering He makes a treasure appear with the attribute of alleviation.

Shaykh al-Islām Anṣārī said, “How should I have known that suffering is the mother of happiness and that beneath one disappointment lie a thousand treasures? How should I have known that hope is the courier of union and that beneath the cloud of munificence despair is impossible? How should I have known that the Lovingly Kind is so forbearing that His gentleness and loving kindness to the sinner are beyond reckoning? How should I have known how servant-caressing is the Possessor of Majesty and how much joy His friends have in Him? How should I have known that what I seek is in the midst of the spirit, and that the exaltation of union with Him is my opening?”

In my whole life one night at the time of dawn,

the image of that comfort of the spirit came to me

And asked, “How are you, wounded one?”

I said, “In my passion for You, that is the first opening.”

4:17 It is for God to turn only toward those who do the ugly in ignorance and then soon turn. Those—God will turn toward them. And God is knowing, wise.

Turning/repentance [tawba] is the mark of the road, the leader to the court, the key to the treasure, the intercessor of union, the head of every happiness, and the basis of freedom. First is regret in the heart, second apology with the tongue, and then cutting off from bad things and bad people.^{1From Ṣad maydān, no. 1 (258).}

It has come in the report that when someone repents but does not put aside bad friends, he is not a repenter. When someone repents but does not put aside food and drink, he is not a repenter. When someone repents but does not put aside his bedclothes and empty his eyes of sleep, he is not a repenter. When someone repents but does not expend the wealth left over after food, he is not a repenter.

The precondition of repentance is that you detach your heart from all existent things and turn it toward the Real. You discipline all the blood and flesh in your seven bodily members. Repentance is the precursor of the fire that comes from the bottom of hell so that today you will do to yourself with the water of your eyes what will be done to you tomorrow by the fire. Repentance is a message sent to you from the Presence: “O chevalier! How long will you make war? How long will you break the covenant? Come back, make peace!

“O falcon taken to the sky, come back, don’t go!

My fingers hold the end of your thread!

“O free man! How long have you been asleep? Wake up, it’s morning, and you are thirsty for the wine of yearning. Look, it’s time for the morning draft! How long will your heart and covenant stay broken? It is time to accept advice and to repent sincerely.”

4:18 This turning will not belong to those who keep on doing ugly deeds until death is present for one of them, and then he says: “Surely now I have turned.”

In the tongue of learning, one must repent before death, even if it be one moment. In the tongue of practice, one must repent before the soul has the habit of seeing itself and worshiping itself. When someone is pleased with himself and gazes upon himself habitually, the door to repentance has been shut to him and the water of deliverance taken away from him.

Quit being the companion of self-nurturing habit-worshipers!

Kiss the dust beneath the feet of those who have disowned self! [DS 972]^{1The translation follows the text as Maybudī gives it under 6:2 rather than that in Sanāʾī’s Divan (khwud-parwar rather than khwud bar dar).}

Not everyone who has repented in the road of the Shariah, thereby reaching pardon and forgiveness, has reached truthfulness in love in respect of the Haqiqah. For a long time David the prophet wept and pleaded. At last it was said to him, “O David! Why do you weep when I have forgiven you, made your adversaries content, and accepted your repentance?”

He said, “Lord God, I know, but give me back those sweet moments I had in Your companionship and those breaths I had with You in seclusion!”

He said, “David, take heed! That is a love that has passed.”

From now on leave the way open for the eyes to weep

for the days of limpidness have no way to return.

*

Oh pain, Oh regret—of that standing and sitting in prayer

I have dust on the head and wind in the hand.

4:19 O you who have faith, it is not lawful for you to inherit women against their will, neither debar them from marriage that you may go off with part of what you have given them, unless they commit a flagrant indecency. Consort with them honorably. For, if you are averse to them, it may be that you are averse to something within which God has placed much good.

This is a call, an admonishment, an allusion, a bearing witness, and a ruling. O is the call, you is the admonishment, who is the allusion, have faith is the bearing witness. It is not lawful for you to inherit women against their will is the ruling.

The explanation of the ruling is that women are considered weak, and they are imprisoned beneath your severity. Beware of tormenting them, and do not rule over them by way of scheming and deceit. Do not be severe, and do not ask of them what the Shariah does not approve. On the contrary, live with them honorably.

Consort with them honorably, that is, with the teachings of the religion and by modeling one’s courtesy on the character traits of the submitted.^{1This sentence is from LI 2:17.} Show them the road of the religion and religiosity and teach them the courteous acts of being a Muslim and the Shariah. And protect them from the Fire, as He says in another place: “Shield yourselves and your families from a fire” [66:6]. Preserve the courteous acts of companionship when consorting with them and tolerate suffering from them, but do not place on them the burden of your service, making them suffer for you.

Although outwardly and specifically He is talking about women, by way of allusion He is talking generally about all Muslims. He is saying, “Watch out so that you never see yourself as having a mandatory rightful due from, or an excellence over, any other Muslim. Do not ask those above you to serve you, and do not push yourself on those beneath you. Do not use force against the folk of weakness, but rather strive to show consideration and give comfort to them and seek proximity to them.”

Revelation came to David: “O David, if you see someone broken in My road, or someone whose heart has been lost in My work, take care to serve him. With a bit of bread, or a drink of water, seek proximity to him and sit next to the sun of his heart’s light. O David, the heart of that pain-stricken poor man is the rising place of My light’s sun. The sun of My majesty’s light is always shining in the chamber of his heart.”

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O miserable man! If you cannot seek proximity to Him, at least seek proximity to the hearts of His friends, for He gazes down on their hearts. Whomsoever He sees in their hearts, He takes as His friend.”

Do you not see how Muṣṭafā used to sit with the weak among the Emigrants, considering himself one of them? He used to say, “Praise belongs to God who placed in my community those with whom He commanded me to make myself patient.” That is in the hadith of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudarī, who 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.’”

If you are averse to them, it may be that you are averse to something within which God has placed much good. Whatever is harder for your soul today will be sweeter for your heart tomorrow. Whatever has the form of suffering today in the house of the decree will be the basis of the treasure tomorrow in the house of union. Today, unreached desires and missed pleasures are mounted on the soul, but what desires and pleasures are contained in this work tomorrow!

And if today in this domicile you have a state of loss,

what fine capital and fervor you’ll see tomorrow! [DS 706]

4:20 If you desire to exchange a wife in place of another...

This is the realization of generosity in the religion of friendship and the smoothing of the foundation of chivalry. He is saying, “Do not join the cruelty of separation with taking back livelihood, for this is not the work of the generous and it is unworthy of the chevaliers! You have put the scar of separation in the poor woman’s heart, so do not cut off the hand of her expenditures! If you take back what you gave, you will place a scar on her scar.”

Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī had a wife whom he divorced, and then he sent her plentiful wealth. He said about her, “The tribulation of our separation is enough. I must not put upon her the suffering of neediness as well.” They say the wealth was 40,000 dirhams. The woman dumped that wealth on the ground and said, “Paltry goods from a departed lover!”

4:23 Forbidden to you are your mothers and daughters, your sisters….

The allusion in this verse is that the Shariah is built on making oneself a servant, not on self-exertion; the canon of the religion is transmitted, not rationally derived; and the basis of the Sunnah is surrender, not looking for reasons.

Surrender is an easy road, its domicile flourishing, its goal the approval of the All-Merciful. Self-exertion and self-determination are a difficult road, their domicile in ruins, their goal unwholesome. Watch out! Jump away from the road of self-exertion and cling to surrender. Avoid self-determination and looking for reasons. Whatever the Shariah has declared forbidden, consider it forbidden—a consignment by the Desire, built upon the Will. If it had been permitted in place of forbidden, the same would be the case, for it would have been current in the holy Shariah and would have no cause or ambiguity. For He is the Real—majestic is His majesty! He does whatsoever He wills [3:40] and decrees whatsoever He desires [5:1]. He forbids what He wills to those whom He wills and He allows what He wills to those whom He wills. His artisanry has no cause and His decree no protester.

4:28 And man was created weak.

Wherever the name “man” comes in the Qur’an, a displeasing attribute is linked to it. Thus He said, “Surely man is a great wrongdoer, ungrateful” [14:34]. “Surely man was created anxious” [70:19]. “Surely man is rebellious” [96:6]. “Surely man is ungrateful to his Lord” [100:6]. “Surely man is in loss” [103:2]. This is because man comes from dust, and dust is the basis of density and the root of opacity. The servant’s hope is that on the day He created, He saw the faults, and then He bought along with the faults.

You bought me with my faults on the first day!

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O Lord, you called me ignorant. What comes from the ignorant other than disloyalty? You called me weak. What comes from the weak other than error? O Lord, take our inability to overcome ourselves as stemming from that weakness. Take our boldness and insolence as stemming from that ignorance. O Lord, You lifted us up and no one said, ‘Lift up!’ Now that You have lifted up, don’t put down! Keep us in the shadow of Your bounty!”

If You water, You Yourself planted.

If you flatten the foundation, You Yourself raised it.

I the servant am just what You fancied.

Don’t throw me down—You lifted me up.

4:31 If you avoid the great sins prohibited to you, We will acquit you of your ugly deeds and admit you to a generous admitting place.

The great sins of the folk of service in the path of the Shariah are what you have heard about. The great sins of the folk of companionship in the street of the Tariqah and in the tongue of allusion are another sort and have another tasting, for the folk of service are one thing, and the folk of companionship something else. Those who serve are the wage-earners, and the companions are the proximate. In the traditions has come the saying, “The beautiful deeds of the pious are the ugly deeds of the proximate.” Of the same sort is the saying of the Pir of the Tariqah, “The hypocrisy of the recognizers is better than the self-purification of the desirers.”

The basis of this rule is the subtle point Muṣṭafā reported about cloudiness and his asking forgiveness for it. He said, “My heart becomes clouded, so I ask forgiveness from God seventy times a day.” Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq said, “Would that I could witness that for which God’s Messenger asked forgiveness.”

The mark of the recognizers’ great sins is that lassitude sometimes comes over them in the world of their own traveling, and thereby their innate disposition is overpowered by human attributes. Their life becomes susceptible to customs and habits, and the realities of their faith come to be mixed with the contaminants of personal motives and marks giving witness to their own shares. In this state of theirs, if a messenger of sound discipline, truthful poverty, and the joy of ecstasy does not come out to welcome them and take their hands, they will not emerge from the pit of their own selfhood.

If you want to come out of the pit of status like a man,

grab hold of the pearl-encrusted, musk-wafting chain. [DS 719]

The great ones of the religion have said that as long as a man does not reach this place of danger and leave behind the station of lassitude, he will not become a pir of the Tariqah and will not be suited to take disciples. A man must have lost the road a thousand times and then returned to it if he is to bring someone who has lost the road back to the road. What is needed first is the road to the road, then the road is needed. Someone who has always been on the road knows the road, but he does not know the road to the road. The secret of the slips of the prophets and their falling into lassitude is this. And God knows best. This is knocking at a magnificent gate. Happy is he for whom it is opened and who is guided to it!

4:32 Do not wish for that whereby God has preferred some of you over others. Men shall have a portion of what they have earned, and women shall have a portion of what they have earned. But ask God of His bounty.

Abū Bakr Kattānī said, “When someone has the opinion that he will arrive without expending effort, he is a wisher, and when someone has the opinion that he will arrive by expending effort, he is a drudge.”

Whoever fancies that he will reach the goal without toiling is a wisher, and “The incapable are those who follow their own caprice and wish for God.” Whoever fancies that he will reach the Sought by toil and by seeking the Sought is a drudge.

Shaykh al-Islām Anṣārī said, “He is not found by seeking, but the seeker finds. Until he finds Him, he will not seek. Whatever can be found by seeking is of little worth. The servant finds the Real before the seeking, but for him seeking is the earliest step. The recognizer finds seeking from finding, not finding from seeking. In the same way, the obedient person finds obedience from self-purification, not self-purification from obedience; he finds the cause from the meaning, not the meaning from the cause. O God, since finding You is before the seeking and the seeker, I am seeking because unsettledness has overpowered me. The seeker is seeking and the Sought is obtained before the seeking. This is a most marvelous business! What is even more marvelous is that finding has become hard cash when seeking has not yet arisen. The Real is seen but the curtain of exaltedness is in place.”

You are a sea of loveliness, a wave of beauty,

the law of generous acts, the essence of life.

The lovers seeking You are full of longing

like Alexander seeking the water of life.

It has also been said that the meaning of the verse is this: “You wish for the station of the masters without traveling in their path, clinging to their conduct, and practicing their practices.”^{1LI 2:23.} You want the state of the great ones, but you have not gone on the great ones’ road. You search for the Kaabah of union with eyes that have not undertaken struggle. You see the great good fortune of the friends, but you have not seen their tribulation. “Your trouble is wishing that you could be like those who have taken trouble.” You fancy that the pen of the covenant was written easily for the passionate, that it wrote the inscription of friendship on their hearts gratis. But they have been wounded in spirit and heart at every moment, and they have tasted a draft laced with poison.

How many nights for the sake of seeing You

have I been slapped in the head by the dogs of Your street!

But not just anyone is suited for His wounds, and not just anyone is worthy of suffering His pain. May God’s mercy be upon those chevaliers who have made their spirits the target of His trial’s arrow and recognized their hearts as the litter for His pain’s burden! Then, in that trial and sorrow, they hum this tune:

If my spirit is worthy of suffering your pain,

this share of passion’s good fortune is enough for me.

Yes, everyone’s wound is in the measure of his faith, and everyone’s burden is in the measure of his strength. Whenever someone’s strength is greater, his burden is heavier. This is the secret of the verse in which He says,

4:34 The men stand over the women through that with which God has preferred some of them over others and that which they expend of their wealth.

He gave the men more than the women because the burden is all on them, for theirs is the perfection of strength and the eminence of aspiration. They carry burdens in the measure of strength or in the measure of aspiration. “Resolutions are made in the measure of the folk of resoluteness.”

4:36 Worship God, and associate nothing with Him, and act beautifully toward parents, and toward kinsfolk, orphans, the indigent, and the neighbor who is of kin, and the neighbor who is a stranger, and the companion at your side, and the son of the road, and what your right hands own.

This verse begins by mentioning tawḥīd, which is the root of the sciences, the secret of the recognitions, the basis of the religion, the foundation of being a Muslim, and the partition between enemy and friend. Any act of obedience without tawḥīd has no value or weight, and its outcome will be nothing but darkness and captivity. Any act of disobedience along with tawḥīd will yield nothing other than familiarity and brightness.

Tawḥīd is that you say that God is one and that you be one for Him. Saying one is the submitter’s tawḥīd, and being one is the basis of the recognizer’s tawḥīd. The submitter’s tawḥīd drives away the devil, washes away sin, and opens up the heart. The recognizer’s tawḥīd cuts away attachments, washes away the creatures, and brings forth the realities.

The submitter’s tawḥīd takes advice, opens the door, and gives fruit. The recognizer’s tawḥīd effaces the customs of human nature and burns away the veil of mortal nature so that the breeze of familiarity may blow, the beginningless reminder may arrive, and the friend may gaze upon the Friend.

The submitter’s tawḥīd is that you bear witness to God’s one Essence, pure attributes, and beginningless names and marks. He is the God other than whom there is no god, the Creator of heaven and earth other than whom there is no enactor. No one has loyalty like Him in the whole cosmos. He is a Lord who is above all in measure, beyond all in Essence and attributes. From the Beginningless to the Endless He is the greatest Lord. When intellect holds that something is impossible, God has perfect power over it. His power makes no use of contrivance, and His self-standing has no change of state. In the kingdom He is safe from disappearance, and in Essence and attributes He is transcendent.

You will never see any created thing without marks of deficiency and fault, but the Eternal Enactor is pure of deficiency, incomparable with fault, free of blights. He does not eat or sleep, nor is He the locus for newly arrived things or changing states. He is not new in attribute, nor does He accept alteration. He stands before “when,” acts before activity, creates before creation, and is powerful before the artisanries.

In His Essence, attributes, and perfection

He has always been just as He is now.

Shaykh al-Islām Anṣārī said, “The tawḥīd of the Muslims amounts to three words: affirmation of attributes without excess, negation of similarity without declaring ineffectuality, and going forward according to the outwardness without mixing.”

The reality of affirmation is that you acknowledge and surrender to whatever God said in explanation and whatever Muṣṭafā said plainly about Him. You stand firm in the outwardness, you offer no likenesses for it, you do not turn it away from its formulation, and you do not wander around it with imagination, for God comes into knowledge but not imagination. You avoid reflective thinking about how it can be so and you do not seek any self-exertion or interpretation. You do not turn away from saying it or listening to it. You know that in reality whatever creatures know about God’s attributes is only the name. To perceive it is to accept it. The stipulation is surrender, and the commentary is to remember.

Know God’s Essence in God’s measure, not as rationally understood by creatures. Know His attributes as is worthy of Him, not as reflected upon by creatures. Know His ability in His measure, not with the artifice of creatures. He is a Being that is one, outside of imaginations and apart from qualification. Whatever He wants, He does, not because of need, for He needs nothing. Rather, He puts things straight by want, pure knowledge, precedent wisdom, and penetrating power. His speech is true, His promise correct, and His Messenger trustworthy. His speech exists in the earth in reality, always joined with Him. His argument stands through it, His decree is irrevocable, His commands and prohibitions firm. Surely His are the creation and the command. Blessed is God, the Lord of the Worlds [7:54].

This is tawḥīd as transmitted and recognition as reported. Through this tawḥīd people reach paradise, escape from hell, and stay free from the Real’s anger. The opposite of this tawḥīd is the great associationism. Whoever is held back from this transmitted tawḥīd remains in the great associationism, far from God’s forgiveness.

The other tawḥīd is the tawḥīd of the recognizers and the adornment of the sincerely truthful. Speaking of this tawḥīd is not the work of water and clay, nor is it the place of tongue and heart. What will the tawḥīd-voicer say here with the tongue? His state is itself tongue. How can he express this tawḥīd? Putting it into expression is calumny itself. This tawḥīd is not from creation, for it is a mark from the Real. It is the resurrection of the heart and the plundering of the spirit.

No one has voiced the unity of the One,

for everyone who voices it denies it.

The tawḥīd of those who talk of its description

is a loan voided by the One.

His tawḥīd is His voicing unity—

its describer’s description deviates.^{1Anṣārī, Manāzil al-sāʾirīn 113.}

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, the recognizer knows You through Your light and cannot express the radiance of finding. The tawḥīd-voicer recognizes You through the light of proximity and burns in the fire of love without turning away from joy. O Lord, in his finding he seeks to find You because he is drowned in bewilderment. He does not know seeking from finding.”

The poor wretch who recognizes Him through the artisanry! The poor man who seeks Him through the evidence! From the artisanry you must seek whatever finds room, and from the evidence you must ask for what is fitting.

How can the reality of tawḥīd cling to the tongue of reports? This is not the tawḥīd reached by inference and striving, nor that proven by evidence and artisanry, nor that realized by any means whatsoever. It is found in the midst of heedlessness, it comes without asking, and it busies the servant with itself. Lit up by the contemplation of the Near and the observation of togetherness, the servant reaps the benefit of beginningless love and loses the two worlds.

If seeing You brings loss to the spirit,

then I’ll buy the spirit’s loss with the spirit.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, the mark of this work has taken the world away from me and concealed me even from the mark. Seeing You has left me without spirit. Love for You took away benefit, and I lost the two worlds.

“O God, do You know what has made me happy? I did not fall to You by myself. You wanted—it was not I who wanted. I saw the Friend at my pillow when I woke up from sleep.”

Her love came to me before I knew love—

it came across a carefree heart and took possession.

Moses had gone in search of fire when he found I chose thee for Myself [20:41]. He was unaware when the sun of good fortune rose over him.

Muḥammad was asleep when the good news came: “Come and see Me, for I am buying you. How long will you sit without Me?”

Moses was not wanting conversation, nor was Muḥammad wanting vision. Finding comes in heedlessness. Do not fancy anything but this.

O God, the splendor of Your exaltedness left no room for allusions, the majesty of Your unity took away the road of ascription—I lost all that I had in hand, and all my fancies turned to nothing. O God, Yours kept on increasing and mine decreasing until at last there remained only what there was at first.^{2This paragraph is attributed to the Pir of the Tariqah under 7:143 and 13:39.}

Tribulation lies only in the makeup of my water and clay.

What was before clay and heart? That is what I will be.

With the first tawḥīd the servant escapes from hell and reaches paradise. With the second tawḥīd he escapes from self and reaches the Friend.

And associate nothing with Him. In the tongue of the Shariah associationism is that you believe in another object of worship and not attest to God’s unity. In the tongue of the Tariqah associationism is that you see among the engendered beings an existent thing other than God and you remain with the secondary causes.

Shaykh al-Islām Anṣārī said, “Not seeing the secondary cause is ignorance, but remaining with the secondary cause is associationism.”^{3He says this in Chihil u daw, Chapter 23 (Rasāʾil 138), and, judging from other passages in Maybudī, it was a favorite saying of his.}

Then, in the course of the verse, He mentioned the neighbors and commanded taking what is rightfully due to them into consideration. He said, “and the neighbor who is of kin, and the neighbor who is a stranger, and the companion at your side.” The neighbors are many, and what is rightfully due to them is in the measure of their proximity. There is the neighbor of the house, the neighbor of the soul, the neighbor of the heart, and the neighbor of the spirit. The neighbor of the house is the Adamite; the neighbor of the soul is the angel; the neighbor of the heart is the tranquility of recognition; and the neighbor of the spirit is the Real—majestic is His majesty!

He called the neighbor of the house “the neighbor who is of kin.” About the neighbor of the soul He said, “Surely there are over you guardians” [82:10]. Concerning the neighbor of the heart He said, “He it is who sent down tranquility into the hearts of the faithful” [48:4]. About the neighbor of the spirit He said, “He is with you wherever you are” [57:4].

The rightful due of the neighbors of the house is that you never leave aside taking them into consideration. By caring for them you should always keep them thankful to you and at ease with you.

The rightful due of the neighbors of the soul is that you keep them happy with your obedience and do not make them suffer by disobedient acts. Then, when they turn away from you, they will turn away satisfied and grateful.

The rightful due of the neighbor of the heart is that you keep your own recognition pure of the stains of innovation and the defilement of bewilderment and you adorn it with the garment of the Sunnah and the ornament of wisdom.

The rightful due of the neighbor of the spirit is that you rectify your character traits, you observe courtesy to all sides, you fill your mind with reverence, you step beyond the two worlds, you escape from yourself, and you become one for the Real.

It has been reported that God said, “O Muḥammad! Belong to Me as you always were, and I will belong to you as I have always been.”

If you are with yourself, how can you sit with Me?

How far it is from you to Me!

You will not reach Me until you become one:

either you’ll find room in passion’s road, or I.

4:43 O you who have faith! Do not approach the prayer when you are intoxicated until you know what you are saying, or defiled—except for travelers on the road—until you have made the full ablution.... Surely God is pardoning, forgiving.

Intoxication is drunkenness. Drunkenness is disparate, and the drunkards diverse. One is drunk with the wine of the grape, another with the wine of heedlessness, another with love for this world, another with the frivolity of the soul and self-love. This last is the most difficult, for self-love is the basis of idol-worship, the seed of estrangement, the curtain of ill fortune, and the root of every darkness.

If you are martyred a hundred times a day in the path of God

you will still be an idol-worshiper if you see yourself in the midst.

When will you be the man to want the heart without caprice?

When you will have the pain to see the body with contempt? [DS 708]

When someone is drunk with wine and is fearful and shaking in dread of punishment, the end of his work will be burning in the fire of punishment—if He does not forgive him. But He may indeed forgive him, for He says, “Surely God forgives the sins altogether” [39:53].

When someone is drunk with the soul’s arrogance and with pride and self-worship, his work is in peril. His basis is loss, his deeds damage him, and he dwells in the peril of being led on and deceived and the danger of everlasting separation.

Or defiled—except for travelers on the road—until you have made the full ablution. If the religion were based on reasoning, then the greater ablution would be incumbent after urination, and the minor ablution after ejaculation. Urine is impure and semen is pure. With impure urine, the lesser purity is mandatory, but with pure semen the greater purity. This is so that you will know that the religion is founded on the transmitted, not on the rationally derived; on the Book, not on reasoning; on making oneself a servant, not on self-exertion.

The origin of the major ablution is from the era of Adam. When Adam came from paradise to this world, he fell into companionship with Eve. Gabriel came and said, “O Adam, make a full ablution, for God commands you to do so.”

Adam obeyed the command and then said, “O Gabriel, what is the reward for this ablution?”

Gabriel said, “For every hair on your body, a one-year’s reward will be written for you in the ledger. For every drop of water that passes over your body, God will create an angel that will obey and worship until the Day of Resurrection, and He will give its reward to you.”

He said, “O Gabriel, is this for me specifically? Or is it for me and my children generally?”

Gabriel said, “It is for you, the faithful, and your children until the resurrection.”

Thus the ablution for defilement was made mandatory in all the shariahs of the prophets from the era of Adam until the time of the Master of the World—upon all of them be God’s blessings and peace! One of the imams even said, “The Trust that Adam lifted up, concerning which God said, ‘And man carried it’ [33:72], was the trust of the ablution for defilement.”

Then at the end of the verse He says, “Surely God is pardoning, forgiving.” God passes over sins, curtains the defects of those who apologize, and conceals the offenses of the sighers. The meaning of bringing these two names of pardon and forgiveness in this place is this: “Before I sent the commands and prohibitions I took away whatever you have done up until today, and I have passed over you. My servant, no one’s sin can overcome My solicitude. And who finds My bounty other than the one on whom the sun of solicitude shines? My servant, if you straighten your aim, I am there for you in the road. If you ask forgiveness from Me, I am aware of your heart’s thoughts. I am the forgiver of your offenses and I want good for you. Wherever there is someone with ruined life and destitute days, I buy him. Wherever there is a poor man, wounded by offenses, helpless in the hands of an adversary, I am his Patron! Wherever there is someone weeping in shame, his head bowed because of not having anyone, I am his proof. Wherever there is someone burnt because of having lost his heart, someone in pain from selflessness, I am the happiness of his spirit.”

Be wherever you will in the land

and you will be near My remembrance.

4:48 Surely God does not forgive that anything be associated with Him, but less than that He forgives for whomsoever He wills.

The associationism of the common people is one thing, and the associationism of the elect something else. The associationism of the common people is the greater associationism, and the associationism of the elect the lesser associationism.

The greater associationism is that they should say that the tremendous Enactor, the eternal Artisan, has an associate and partner, or they should consider Him to have an equal and peer, or they should make Him similar to something of creation. Whenever someone says this, he is not a worshiper of God, for he has called upon an idol. In reality, he has been held back from the religion of guidance. The right belief and pure religion is that you consider the God of the world’s folk and Creator of all to be pure of and incomparable with spouse, child, and partner. He did not give birth, nor did anyone give birth to Him. He is free of new arrival, change, and birth, hallowed beyond defect, incapacity, and need, pure in attribute, fitting in artisanry, sweet in speech, and complete in love. He is pure of fault in attributes, pure of blunder in deeds, pure of negligence in speech, and pure of doubt in love. He is a God who is outside of imaginations, and no one knows how He is. He is worthy of Godhood, knower of God-work, separate from faults, without peer in Essence and attributes. Whoever believes this has been released from the greater associationism and has joined with the root of faith.

As for the lesser associationism, it is of two sorts and belongs to two groups. For the faithful it is eye-service and letting go of self-purification in deeds. For the recognizers, it is paying regard to deeds and seeking deliverance thereby. Its trace in the faithful is to decrease their faith, to bring fissures into their certainty, and to close down the door of clarity. Muṣṭafā said, “I am very frightened of the ancient associationism for my community.” He was asked what ancient associationism was, and he said, “That someone does good deeds along with eye-service in the deeds.”

Shaddād ibn Aws said, “I saw God’s Messenger weeping. I asked him why he was weeping and he said, ‘I fear that my community will bring forth associationism. Not that they will worship idols, or worship the sun and moon, but that they will worship with eye-service, thus making people God’s partner in their deeds.’”

Also, God says, “Of the associates, I am the least in need of associationism. If someone does a deed in which he associates another with Me, I am quit of it, and it belongs to the one who is associated.” He is saying: “Whenever someone does a deed and takes someone as My partner in that deed, I have less need than all the partners, so I will give the deed to the partner.”

The commander of the Faithful ʿAlī saw a man with his head turned down, meaning “I am pious.” He said, “O chevalier! Bring this crick in your neck into your heart, for God looks at the heart.”

He also said, “On the Day of Resurrection, it will be said to hypocritical Qur’an-reciters, ‘Are you not the ones to whom the goods of the world were sold more cheaply? Are you not the ones at the doors of whose houses people stood? Are you not the ones whom they greeted first? This belongs to the recompense of your deeds that We have conveyed to you. Today nothing rightfully due remains for you.’”

This is why some of the great ones of the religion did not accept the benevolence of friends during distress and poverty. Thus several days passed during which Sufyān Thawrī had no food in his house. On the last day a man brought him two money-bags and said, “You know that my father was your friend and was scrupulous in livelihood. This is the inheritance that he left, and I know that it is lawful and has no place for suspicion. Why do you not accept this and make me happy?”

Sufyān said, “May God reward you for your beautiful aspiration, but I will not accept it, for my friendship with your father was for the sake of God. I do not consider it permissible to receive compensation for it.”

This indeed is the degree of the scrupulous and the path of the pious. Higher than this is the degree of the recognizers. In their case the smaller associationism is that, after self-purification in obedience and truthfulness in deeds, if their eyes fall on their pure deeds, or if seeking a reward for them occurs to their minds, or if they see their own salvation in those deeds, they count this as associationism in the road of the religion and they repent of it.

4:49 Hast thou not seen those who deem themselves pure? No, God alone deems pure whomsoever He will.

Do not praise yourselves, do not approve of others deeming you pure, do not look at your own good deeds, give no weight to your own traveling, and consider yourselves lower than everyone low.

A friend asked, “Which group is it

who have stolen reality’s ball from the world’s creatures?”

I said, “Why do you ask for the marks of that group, for they

have not shown themselves to themselves for the sake of showing.

They never walk on the edge of making claims,

nor do they ever sleep in the circle of meaning.

More wondrous is that their worthlessness and abasement

makes them like Christians and Jews in people’s eyes.”

Yes, at the threshold of a generous man, the more abased you make yourself, the more exalted you become. Your abasement is not despair of the Friend. Rather, it testifies to your truthfulness and straightness.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, I lament at my abasement, for I have seen no one with misery like mine. I lament at the burning because You are lost to my spirit. There is no one in the world to have pity on my days and time. O God, I wept so many tears in longing that I sowed the seeds of pain with my eyes’ water. If I find endless felicity, I will approve of all this pain. If my eyes fall upon You once, I will not have seen myself with those eyes.”

No, God alone deems pure whomsoever He will. When God’s deeming pure reaches someone, its mark is that he is released from companionship with the scatter-hearted ones who have stooped to the path of demons and idols [4:51] and he does not again open himself up to them. But you should not fancy that the worshipers of demons and idols are simply those idol-worshipers. Anyone who is at ease with the caprice of his own soul and remains bound to what his soul desires is a man of idols and a servant of demons.

The creatures are at ease in the ruins of their own makeup—

wink once and throw the creatures into turmoil! [DS 696]

In the tongue of the folk of allusion, placing your foot on your own soul and bringing your caprice under your own severity is the tremendous kingdom concerning which God says,

4:54 And We gave them a tremendous kingdom.

It has been said, “The tremendous kingdom is having an overview of the secrets of the creatures,” or it is “gazing upon the secrets of the empire such that nothing is hidden.”^{1LI 2:35.}

This is why Abū ʿUthmān Maghribī said, “When someone responds to the Real, the empire responds to him.” In other words, when something appears to him in the empire, he is given news of it. Ibn al-Barqī was one of the great shaykhs of Egypt and possessed perspicacity. Once he became ill and was given medicine. He said, “I will not drink it, for some disaster has happened in the empire. Until I find out what happened, I will not drink it.” Thirteen days passed before news arrived that the Qarmatians and fallen on the Sanctuary, killed many people, and worked great destruction.

Shaykh al-Islām Anṣārī said, “Servanthood cannot bear more than knowing some and not knowing some, for God says, ‘He does not show His unseen to anyone except someone He approves as a messenger’ [72:26-27]. ‘And God will not inform you of the unseen’ [3:179]. God knows all—no one else.”

It has also been said that the tremendous kingdom is recognition of the tremendous King. When someone recognizes Him, he has found the kingdom of both worlds.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, who is like me in becoming worthy for this work? Enough for me is that I have the worth of Your companionship.”

Tell them to call me nothing but lord—

that’s a name suited for Your serving boy.

4:58 Surely God commands you to deliver trusts back to their owners.

In this verse the lovingly kind Lord, the generous and right-knowing, the care-taker of the servants, commands His servants to give back trusts. He is saying, “Return the trusts at your own liability to their folk.” In other words, do not intervene in them, and avoid betrayal, for after the faith and recognition of the servant, there is no attribute greater than holding in trust; and after unbelief, there is no attribute uglier than betrayal. The servant’s obedience comes forth from holding in trust, and disobedience comes from betrayal. Betrayal is the basis of corruption, the beginning of every misfortune, and the foundation of disobedience. Holding in trust is the pillar of the religion, the perfection of tawḥīd, and the attribute of the prophets and the angels. In the firm text of the revealed book, the Lord of the Worlds describes Gabriel by saying, “brought down by the trustworthy spirit” [26:193]. In another place He says, “obeyed, and also trustworthy” [81:21]. He reported from the daughter of Shuʿayb that she said to her father about Moses, God’s speaking companion, “O my father, hire him! Surely the best you can hire is the strong, the trustworthy” [28:26]. And in describing Joseph the sincerely truthful He says, quoting the king of Egypt, “Surely today with us thou art emplaced, trustworthy” [12:54].

The trusts about which the Book and the Sunnah talk are three things: One is obedience and the religion, for the Lord of the Worlds calls them a trust. He says, “Surely We offered the Trust” [33:72]. Next are women, who are held as a trust by men. Muṣṭafā said, “You have taken them as a trust from God, and you have made their private parts lawful to you by God’s word.” Third is the property you leave with someone, or the secret you tell to him, for that is a trust. The Lord of the Worlds says, “Let him who has been entrusted deliver back his trust” [2:283]. Muṣṭafā said, “Deliver the trust back to the one who entrusted you.” He also said, “If a man relates some words, pay regard, for it is his trust.”

Mustāfā also said, “Sitting together is a trust.” In other words, when you sit with people, it must be on condition of holding in trust. Keep whatever you hear in your heart, and do not repeat what should not be said. The Lord of the Worlds created the Adamite’s ears open, without bonds. Whether he wants it or not, his ears hear and his heart knows. Hence he will not be called to account for hearing or knowing in the heart, for the servant has no choice in that. As for eyes and tongue, He created both with bonds. The Adamite is able not to look at what should not be looked at and not to say what should not be said. He can bring into place the condition of holding what is seen and said in trust, thereby taking care of God’s trust in these two. This is why Muṣṭafā said, “Sitting together is a trust.”

Moreover, at the end of the era of the submission, the first thing that will be decreased from the unswerving religion and turn its face back to the veil of unneediness will be trust. God’s Messenger said, “The first thing you will lose of your religion is trust, and the last thing you will lose is the ritual prayer.”

The explanation I just gave was in terms of the outward Shariah. In terms of allusion and according to the tasting of the chevaliers of the Tariqah, the trusts are first submission, placed in the servant’s breast; second faith, placed in the servant’s mindful heart; third recognition, put in the servant’s heart; and fourth love, concealed in the secret core. Each of these trusts has room for betrayal. Disquieting thoughts find room in the breast from the direction of the devil. Uncertainty finds room in the mindful heart from the direction of the soul. Swerving finds room in the heart from the direction of caprice. Angels go into the secret core, and seeing angels when making the secret core ready is a betrayal of the trust of love. This is why Junayd, when asked about making the secret core ready, said, “It is a secret between God and the servant, not known by the angel that he should write it down, nor by Satan that he should corrupt it, nor by caprice that it should make it deviate.”

Keep the hand of the devil away from the breast by remembering the Real, for He says, “[Surely the godwary,] when a visitation from Satan touches them, remember, and then see clearly” [7:201]. Keep the hand of the soul away from the mindful heart with the weapon of struggle, for He says, “Those who struggle in Us, We will guide them on Our paths” [29:69]. Keep the hand of caprice away from the heart by surrender, for He says, “We have faith in it; all is from our Lord” [3:7]. Keep the angel away from the secret core by jealousy, for jealousy is the precondition of friendship, just as love is the pillar of friendship. Sometimes loving kindness lifts the curtain so that the traveler comes to happiness and rest, and sometimes jealousy lets down the curtain so that the traveler comes to pleading. Sometimes love opens the door so as to caress the traveler with face-to-face vision, sometimes jealousy closes the door so the servant weeps in hope of face-to-face vision.

When someone must have face-to-face vision, reports are absurd for him.

When a heart is secluded with vision, how can it look at reports?

4:64 We sent not any messenger but that he should be obeyed by God’s leave.

From the first to the last of this section is an allusion to the greatness of Muṣṭafā’s rank in God’s sight. It is one of the robes of honor given to him by God, for He has lifted up the intermediary and made his decree equal to His own decree. Just as approving of the Real’s decision brings about the certainty of the tawḥīd-voicers, so also approving of the Messenger’s decree brings about the faith of the faithful. Thus the world’s folk will know that obeying the Messenger is to obey the Real, disobeying the Messenger is to disobey the Real, the words of the Messenger are the revelation of the Real, the explanations of the Messenger are the road of the Real, the acts of the Messenger are the argument of the Real, the Shariah of the Messenger is the creed of the Real, the decree of the Messenger is the religion of the Real, and following the Messenger is friendship with the Real. Thus He says, “Follow me; God will love you” [3:31]. He is saying, “O master of masters! O paragon of engendered beings! O center point of the circle of newly arrived things! Say to My servants, ‘If you want God to give you access to His friendship and approve of your servanthood, travel in my tracks, for I am His Messenger. Bind the belt of following me, receive my decrees in spirit and heart without resistance. Put forth your body, put down your neck, throw yourself into the decree, and do not give narrowness and tightness any access to yourself.’” This is why He says,

4:65 Then they will not find in themselves any tightness from what thou decreest and will surrender with full submission.

“Do you not know that all the work has been bound to my tracks, and both houses have been attached to my street?” What rank and good fortune! What nobility and excellence! From the era of Adam until today, who has had such complete bounty and such well-arranged work, such celestial exaltedness and such god-like luster?

After 500 and some years, the pillar of his Shariah’s good fortune is flourishing, his branches blooming, his wood yielding fruit, his eminence elevated, his decree predominant. His splendor is in this world, his fame in the next. Each heart has a lamp from him, each tongue a burning brand from him, each heart a splendor from him, each head a call from him, each spirit a place for him.

If you fancy that there is none of God’s gentleness—there is.

That above the world’s beauties there is no king—there is.

If you suppose that the spirits of good men in their passion

have no familiarity with the beauty of the dust of your feet—they do.

And if you think that when you lift up your tresses from your cheek

the lamp of the spheres has no brightness from you—it does. [DS 821-22]

4:69 Whosoever obeys God and the Messenger—they will be with those whom God has blessed: the prophets, the sincerely truthful, the witnesses, and the wholesome. What beautiful companions they!

Ibn ʿAbbās says that this verse came down concerning Thawbān, who had become wasted and weak in love for God’s Messenger, his back bent and his face yellow. One day the Messenger said to him, “O Thawbān, what is it with you? Has your face turned yellow because you stay awake at night?”

He said, “O Messenger of God, this and that, as you know.”

He said, “O Thawbān, are you placing a great deal of suffering on yourself through various sorts of discipline? You have become so weak and your back is bent over!”

Thawbān said, “Yes, O Messenger of God, it has been something of all that.”

The Messenger said, “O Thawbān, is it that you are desiring?” Thawbān’s eyes filled with tears when he heard talk of desire.

How long will you ask me, “Why are you suffering?”

In truth, you know my state better than I.

“O Messenger of God, I do not know how the nights pass until day comes and I see you again.”

Wishing for you by day is the veil of my idleness,

aching for you by night is the chamber of my wakefulness.

Separation from you is the adornment of my sorrow,

fervor for you is the capital of my awareness.

“O Messenger of God! The hardest sorrow is that in the next world you will be in the highest of the High Chambers, and I will be held back from seeing you.”

While they were in the midst of this came Gabriel, the messenger of the Presence, the courier of mercy, bringing a verse: “Whosoever obeys God and the Messenger—they will be with those whom God has blessed,” and so on to the end. God’s Messenger recited it to him and made his heart happy, placing a balm on his woundedness. Yes, it wants a pain like this for there to appear a balm like that! Until you burn, you will not find a way out. Until you drown in Remember Me! in the ocean of remembrance, you will not reach the shore of security by the hand of I will remember you [2:152].

A man with nothing will never find an accomplished friend—

pain for Ishmael calls for the burn of Abraham.

4:86 When you are greeted with a greeting, greet with one more beautiful than it, or return it.

In this verse, the majestic compeller, the magnificent God, the lovingly kind beautiful-doer, teaches His servants the courteous acts of social intercourse and companionship, for anyone not adorned with courtesy is not worthy of companionship.

Companionship is of three sorts: the courtesy of conformity with the Real, the courtesy of sincerity with people, and the courtesy of opposition to the soul. Anyone not nurtured by these sorts of courtesy has nothing to do with the path of Muṣṭafā and has no worth in the world of No god but God. The exalted Lord first adorned Muṣṭafā with courtesy, as his come in the report: “My Lord taught me courtesy, so how beautifully I have been made courteous!” Thus on the night of the miʿrāj in that most tremendous station, he acted courteously toward the Presence, such that the exalted Lord says about him, “The eyesight did not swerve, nor did it trespass” [53:17]. He observed the courtesy of companionship with people, such that He says about him, “Surely thou hast a tremendous character” [68:4].

The principles of the courteous acts of companionship in interacting with the Real are that you put knowledge to work in every interaction, you revere the Shariah, you avoid putting into practice what your wishes command, you honor the Sunnah and its folk, you avoid innovation and its folk, you leave aside suspicion and supposition, you stay far from disquieting thoughts and the habits of eye-service, ignorance, and laziness in worshiping God, you avoid adorning yourself as a worshipful servant in other than the Sunnah, you keep supererogatory acts hidden, you not mention the name God in heedlessness, you not mix levity with seriousness, you not play with the Shariah and the religion, and you put scrupulosity to work in speaking, acting, seeing, eating, sleeping, moving, and resting. Even if you pass your days with truthfulness and limpidness, you never approve of yourself. Rather, you must always be displeased with yourself, and you must make it incumbent upon yourself to repent in every state. The Messenger said, “My heart becomes clouded, so I ask forgiveness from God one hundred times a day.”

Abū Yazīd Basṭāmī was so displeased with his own limpidness and self-purification that his glorification sometimes consisted of pointing at himself with his finger and saying, “You are the miserable man of the time.”

The Companions of Muṣṭafā were so displeased with themselves in the limpidness of their religion that it is narrated from Muʿādh that he used go to the doors of houses and say, “Come, let us have faith for an hour.”

The Pir of the Tariqah said something appropriate for this place: “O Lord, I have a heart full of pain and a spirit full of suffering. Exalted of the two worlds! What can this poor wretch do? O Lord, I am not helpless because of You, but helpless in You. Whenever I am absent, You say, ‘Where are you?’ When I come to the Threshold, You do not open the door!

“O Lord, since despair in the submission’s outwardness is deprivation, and in the Haqiqah itself hope is no doubt a deficiency, between this and that what is my remedy? Since in the Shariah patience is a mark of being pleased, but in the Haqiqah impatience is the very command, between this and that what proof can I offer You?

“O Lord, everyone has fire in the heart, and this poor wretch in the spirit, for everyone has rhyme and reason, but my poor self has nothing at all.”

As for the principles of the courteous acts of companionship in interacting with people, these are that you never hold back good advice and tenderness from any Muslim, you consider yourself less than everyone else, you place everyone’s rightful due before yourself, and you are fair to everyone with respect to yourself by way of largesse, giving comfort, and having beauty of character. You avoid opposing and confronting the brothers and lying to them. You do not make requests from them by explicit command or explicit prohibition, you do not speak harsh words to them, and you do not reply to them unpleasantly.

Yūsuf Ḥusayn Rāzī said, “I asked Dhu’l-Nūn Miṣrī with whom I should be a companion. He said, ‘He who does not own, does not censure any of your states, and does not change when you change, even if the change be great, for surely the more needy you are, the more severe will be your changing.”

Dhu’l-Nūn said, “Be a companion of someone who has no property,” that is, who does not consider what he has as his own and belonging to himself, for whenever there is antagonism, it occurs because “you and I” are in the midst. When you and I disappear from the midst, no antagonism remains.

He said, “He does not censure any of your states.” He knows that you are not without sins such that defects would have no access to you. It is absurd in friendship to censure the state of your friend. Friendship is there when no censure is in the midst. It is recounted that a man had a wife and was far gone on her. One of the woman’s eyes was white, but the man was unaware of that defect because of the excess of love. When the love decreased, he said to the woman, “When did this whiteness appear?” She said, “When love for me diminished in your heart.”

He said, “Who does not change when you change, even if it is a great change.” For the more you are changing, the more you need a friend. And it may be that the meaning of these words is that you should be a companion of the Real, not the creatures who change when you change. The one who does not change when the creatures change is the Real. Hence this is to show the road of cutting off from the creatures and joining with the Real.

4:94 O you who have faith! When you strike forth on the path of God, look clearly, and say not to him who offers you peace, “You are not of the faithful,” seeking the chance goods of this world’s life.

By way of allusion, He is saying that when you go on a journey, go for the sake of reaching one of the friends of God so that he may be the intimate of your days and the witness of your heart and spirit. No matter how far you go, never be at ease from seeking and do not hold back the foot of effort. The friends are the favorites of the Exalted Threshold and accepted by the Presence of Divinity. Not everyone sees them, not every eyesight perceives them. When you find them, give ear, and when you see them, cling to them, for the brightness of the heart lies in witnessing them and endless felicity in being their companion.

The pir of the Tariqah Junayd was asked, “Which do you prefer? Two cycles of voluntary prayer or an hour of witnessing the poor.”

He said, “An hour of witnessing the poor, for witnessing the poor is God’s love, for He says, ‘It is incumbent on Me to love those who love each other in Me and who visit each other in Me.’ Bringing God’s love to hand is an obligatory act for everyone. Leaving aside this obligatory act and choosing a supererogatory act is not the work of the clever and the conduct of the chevaliers.”

4:100 Whosoever emigrates in the path of God will find in the earth many a road and expanse.

In this verse the Lord of the Worlds, the God of the world’s folk, the keeper of all, the knowing and lovingly kind, gives a mark of His mercy and shows His gentleness to the servants. He invites the faithful to emigrate and praises those who do.

The emigrants are of three sorts: One sort emigrates for the sake of this world. They undertake trade or the search for livelihood. Even though this is allowed in the Shariah, it is not clear where it will lay down its head at the end and what its outcome will be. Muṣṭafā said, “Love for this world is the beginning of every offense.” He also said, “Do not take a landed estate, lest you become eager for this world.”

This sort of emigrant is always in suffering and hardship, caught in the hands of thieves and on the verge of destruction. Hoping to gain something that is allowed, he leaves aside something obligatory. Then he burns, and he loses the basis for both. God says, “You desire the chance goods of this life, and God desires the afterworld” [8:67].

The second sort are the renunciants. Their emigration is for the sake of the afterworld and their traveling goes by way of meanings. They pass over the way stations of obedient acts and traverse the stages of worship on the feet of aspiration. Sometimes they make the hajj, go off to battle, struggle, make pilgrimages, perform the prayers, remember God’s name, and meditate on God’s blessings. Concerning them God’s Messenger said, “Travel! The solitary will be the preceders.”

They said, “O Messenger of God! Who are the solitary?”

He said, “The engrossed—those who are engrossed by the remembrance of God. Remembrance has lifted away their loads, and they come forth unburdened on the Day of Resurrection.”

The Exalted Lord says about them, “Whosoever desires the afterworld and strives after it with proper striving while having faith—those, their striving shall be thanked” [17:19].

The third sort are the recognizers, whose emigration is for the sake of the Patron. They emigrate within their own makeup. They emigrate inside the curtains of the soul until they reach the heart, they emigrate inside the curtains of the heart until they reach the spirit, and they emigrate inside the curtains of the spirit until they reach union with the Beloved.

I said, “Where should I seek You, O heart-stealing moon?”

He said, “My resting place is the spirit of the friends.”

A man came before Abū Yazīd Basṭāmī and said, “Why do you not emigrate and travel to benefit the people?”

He said, “My Friend has settled down and I am busy with Him.”

The man said, “When water stays in one place for a long time, it becomes stagnant.”

Abū Yazīd said, “You should be the ocean, and then you will never become stagnant.” Then he recited the verses,

“I see the hajjis urging on their steeds,

but here I am, urging on the steed of yearning.

Their goal in pilgrimage is the Kaabah—

my kiblah is Your face, my pilgrimage to You.”

4:103 When you have completed the prayer, remember God, standing and sitting and on your sides.

Know that the prayer is secret whispering between God and the servant. In this secret whispering, there is both need and joy. Today there is need, tomorrow joy; today suffering, tomorrow the treasure; today a heavy burden, tomorrow repose and ease [56:89]; today toil and work, tomorrow pleasure and the bazaar; today bowing and prostrating, tomorrow finding and witnessing.

Part of the eminence of the prayer is that the Exalted Lord has mentioned it 102 times in the Qur’an and given it thirteen names: prayer, devotion, Qur’an, glorification, book, remembrance, bowing, prostration, praise, asking forgiveness, declaring greatness, beautiful deeds, and subsistent things.

Muṣṭafā said, “The prayer is the miʿrāj of the person of faith.”

He said, “The prayer is God’s banquet in the earth.”

The ulama of the past have said, “The prayer is the throne of the desirers, the pleasure of the recognizers, the means of approach of the sinners, and the scented garden of the renunciants.”

They have also said, “The person performing the prayer has received seven generous bestowals: guidance, sufficiency, expiation, mercy, proximity, degree, and forgiveness.”

The first step in associationism is not to say the prayers, for the Exalted Lord will say, “‘What brought you into Saqar?’ They will say, ‘We were not of those who said the prayers’” [74:42-43]. And He placed the name faith in the prayer, where He says, “But God would never leave your faith,” that is, your prayer, “to waste” [2:143]. He promises daily provision with prayer, where He says, “And command thy folk to the prayer, and be thou patient therein. We ask thee for no provision. We shall provide for thee” [20:132].

The number of obligatory prayers came as five in conformity with the roots of the Shari’ite rules. Concerning the roots of the Shari’ite rules Muṣṭafā said, “The submission is built on five.” The roots of the obligatory prayers are five prayers in one day and night. In other words, when the servant performs these five prayers with their stipulations and at their times, the Exalted Lord will give him the reward of all the roots of the Shari’ite rules.

The guises of the prayer are four: standing, bowing, prostrating, and sitting. The wisdom in this is that the existent things in their entirety have four shapes. Some are straight in the guise of standers, namely the trees. Some have the guise of bowers with their heads turned down, namely the beasts. Some have the guise of prostrators with their faces placed on the earth, namely the crawling things. Some sit on the earth like sitters, namely grass and plants. It is as if the Exalted Lord said, “O servant with faith! In serving Us, bring forth these four guises—standing, bowing, prostrating, and sitting—so that you may find the reward of all the creatures’ glorifications.”

Then He commanded some of these prayers to be two cycles, like the morning prayer, and some three cycles, like the evening prayer, and some four, like the noon, afternoon, and night prayers. This is because the servant is two sorts, spirit and body. Of the two-part prayer, one is the spirit’s gratitude, the other the body’s gratitude. Also, inside the Adamite are three exalted pearls: heart, intellect, and faith. The three-part prayer is gratitude for these three robes of honor. Again, the Adamite is compounded of the four natures;^{1The four natures (ṭabʿ) are typically understood to designate the qualities of the four elements and the four humors, that is, heat, cold, wetness, and dryness. Thus earth and black bile are cold and dry, water and phlegm are cold and wet, air and blood are hot and wet, and fire and yellow bile are hot and dry.} the four-part prayer is gratitude for these four natures.

In terms of allusion He is saying: “My servant, show gratitude for body and spirit with the two-part prayer; show gratitude for faith, heart, and intellect with the three-part prayer; and show gratitude for the four elements with the four-part prayer, in the measure of capacity and possibility.” Then it will become apparent that the servant is more obedient than all, his work is more eminent, and his degree with the Real more elevated.

It has also been said that the prayer is a necklace made of pearls of many colors. Each color is the gift of someone exalted and the state of a messenger: Purity is the act of Job: Stamp thy foot: here is a cool washing place and drink [38:42]. Saying “God is greater” is the word of remembrance of Abraham: And We ransomed him with a tremendous sacrifice [37:107]. Standing is the service of Zachariah: While he was standing, praying in the sanctuary [3:39]. Bowing is the act of David: He sank down, bowing, and was penitent [38:24]. Prostration is the state of Ishmael: He threw him down on his forehead [37:103]. Bearing witness is the act of Jonah: When he ran away to the laden ship [37:140]. Glorification is the act of the angels: Glorifying the praise of their Lord [39:75]. When the faithful servant performs two cycles of prayer with humility and reverence, the Exalted Lord gives him the honor of these messengers and conveys him to their degrees.

Listen to something even more subtle: When you consider it, every act of worship done by the servants and every remembrance by the angels are all brought together in two cycles of the prayer: the struggle, the hajj, the alms tax, and the fasting. As for struggle: When warriors go to battle against the unbelievers, first they line up in rows, they prepare for the battle, and they set out to fight. A brave man puts on armor, goes to the front of the rows, calls the enemy to the field, and engages in combat with him. That heroic man is in front, and the others stand behind, shouting encouragement and saying “God is greater!” and entering into battle. In the prayer all these meanings are found: The man of faith first makes the full ablution, which is the chain mail that he puts on. When he makes the ablution, that is his armor that he puts on. Then he stands in the row of the worshipers and the reverent, and like a warrior the imam goes out in front. He battles against Satan and his own soul in the prayer niche, which is the field of battle against Satan. The others gaze upon him, their hearts attached to his victory. This struggle is more magnificent and greater than that struggle, which is why Muṣṭafā said, “We have returned from the lesser struggle to the greater struggle.”

In the prayer there is also the meaning of the alms tax. The alms tax is the purity of possessions, and the prayer is the purity of the body: “Take charity from their wealth, thereby to make them pure and to purify them” [9:103]. “Surely beautiful deeds take away ugly deeds” [11:114]. The latter is the purity of the spirit, and the former is the purity of the body. The latter is more complete and more eminent than the former. In this meaning it has been narrated that God’s Messenger saw a man saying, “O God, forgive me! But I do not see You forgiving me.”

The Prophet said, “How ugly is your opinion of your Lord!”

He said, “O Messenger of God! I sinned when I was ignorant, and I sinned after submitting.”

He said, “As for what happened in the time of ignorance, that was effaced by your submission. And as for what was during the submission, that is effaced by the five prayers, for God sent down the verse, ‘And perform the prayer at the two ends of the day and in the near part of the night’ [11:114].”

In the prayer is also the meaning of the hajj, for the hajj is consecration and deconsecration, and the prayer is also consecrating and then bringing the consecration to an end. In the prayer the meaning of the hajj is more complete, more eminent, and more inclusive. And God knows better.

4:114 No good is there in much of their whispering, except for him who bids to charity, or the honorable, or making things wholesome among the people. Whosoever does this, seeking God’s approval, We shall give him a tremendous wage.

The best deeds of the servants are the three things in this verse: charity, the honorable, and making things wholesome among the people. The good in this verse is not specified for one individual, but rather its profit reaches others. The wonder is not that you should open a door for yourself, the wonder and chivalry are that you should open a door to yourself for another.

Pir Bū ʿAlī Siyāh said, “So what if you make yourself happy? The work is done by making someone else happy.”

Muṣṭafā alluded to this: “The worst of men is he who eats alone.”

As for charity, it is of three sorts: with possessions, with the body, and with the heart. Charity with possessions is giving comfort to the poor by expending blessings. Charity with the body is undertaking for them the duty of service. Charity with the heart is being loyal to the beauty of intention and the consolidation of aspiration. This is charity toward the poor.

There is also charity toward the rich. It is that you act with munificence toward them and do not expose your need to them; you take back your hope from their charitable gifts and do not covet anything from them.

When charity, the honorable, and making things wholesome come together in someone, from head to foot he becomes veneration itself, the oyster shell for the mysteries of lordhood, and he is accepted by those who bear witness to the divinity. His name is given out as “sincerely truthful,” and tomorrow he will be gathered up along with the sincerely truthful. This is the great wage that the Exalted Lord has promised: “We shall give him a tremendous wage.”

4:119 Surely I will misguide them and fill them with wishes.

When misguidance is consigned to Iblis, this is because of the secondary cause. Otherwise who is Iblis? Yes, he instills disquiet, for that is his job, and then, in the tracks of this disquieting, the Exalted Lord creates misguidance, for guidance and misguidance, felicity and wretchedness, come from God: Whomsoever God guides, he is guided, and whomsoever He misguides, you will not find for him a guiding friend [18:17]. Then He mentions the outcome, the end, the final issue, and the returning place of the two groups: About the misguided sort He says, “Their refuge is Gehenna” [4:121], and about the guided sort He says, “We shall enter them into gardens underneath which rivers flow, therein dwelling forever and ever” [4:122].

4:125 Who is more beautiful in religion than he who submits his face to God while he is a beautiful-doer and follows the creed of Abraham, an unswerving man? And God took Abraham as a bosom friend.

In this verse the Lord of the Worlds, the God of the world’s folk, the Enactor who knows the hidden, praises the self-purifiers and shows that He is pleased with self-purification in deeds. The first person to dress the Kaabah of deeds in the cloak of self-purification was Muṣṭafā, who said, “Deeds are only through intentions.” Self-purification in deeds does the work of color in jewels. Just as a jewel without the cape of color is a worthless stone, so also deeds without self-purification is to knock oneself out without hitting the mark.

Maʿrūf Karkhī used to beat himself with a whip and say, “O soul! Purify thyself and be delivered!”

It has been said that knowledge is the seed, deeds are planting, and self-purification is the water. The work is done by self-purification, salvation lies in self-purification, and endless felicity lies in self-purification, but self-purification itself is exalted and does not come down just anywhere, nor does it show its face to just anyone. The Exalted Lord said, “It is one of My secrets that I deposit in the hearts of those whom I love among My servants.”

There was a worshiper among the Children of Israel. He was told that in such-and-such a place there is a tree that people worship. For the sake of God and the zeal of the religion he became angry, left his place with a mattock over his shoulder, and went to dig up the tree by its roots. Iblis went into the road with the attributes of an old man. He asked him where he was going and he replied, “To that place to dig up the tree.”

Iblis said, “Go, busy yourself with your worship, for this will not done by your hand.” Iblis struggled with him and fell, and the worshiper sat on his chest. Iblis said, “Let go of me and I will speak some beautiful words to you.” He let go of him, and Iblis said, “O worshiper, God has prophets. If this tree needs to be dug up, He will command a prophet to dig it up. He has not commanded you to do so.”

The worshiper said, “No, because the tree must be dug up, and I will not turn back from this work until I finish that.”

Again they struggled together, and the worshiper was better, so Iblis fell down. Iblis said, “O chevalier, you are a poor man, and the people have to provide you with food. What would it matter if you stop this work, for it is not up to you and you have not been commanded to do it, and every day I will place two dinars under your pillow. That would be good for both you and the worshipers, for you can spend it on them.”

At these words of his the worshiper paused. He said to himself, “Spending one dinar as alms and putting the other to use is better than pulling up this tree, for I have not been commanded to do so. I am no prophet that it should be mandatory for me.” Hence with these words he went back. The next morning he saw two dinars under his pillow, and the same on the second day. But on the third day he saw nothing. He became angry, picked up his mattock, and went to dig up the tree. Iblis came into his road and said, “O man, give up this work, for it will never be done at your hand.” They struggled together, the worshiper fell, and he was helpless at the hands of Iblis. Iblis aimed to kill him. The worshiper, “Let me go and I will go back. But first tell me why at first I came out better, and now you have come out better.”

Iblis replied, “Because at first you rose up for the sake of God and were angry because of God’s religion, so the Exalted Lord subjected me to you. When someone does something for God with self-purification, my hand will not reach him. This time you became angry for the sake of your own wanting and for the sake of this world. You became the follower of your caprice. Hence you could not defeat me and were subjugated by me.”

When Muṣṭafā was asked what self-purification is, he said, “It is that you say, ‘My Lord is God,’ then you go straight as you have been commanded.”

Who is more beautiful in religion than he who submits his face to God while he is a beautiful-doer? Wāsiṭī said, “The meaning of while he is a beautiful-doer is that he is doing the beautiful by submitting his face to God.” He is saying, “The pure road and beautiful religion belongs to him who turns his face toward the Real. He knows and recognizes as good this turning of the face to the Real and being a self-purifier, for not everyone reaches the threshold of the Sultan. It is he who recognizes the courtesy of the Presence.”

Then He says, “and follows the creed of Abraham, an unswerving man.” This alludes to the state of Abraham, who turned his face to the Real and observed the courtesy of the Presence, not leaving any portion for himself. He tossed it all away—his soul, his wealth, and his child. He tossed away his own soul for the sake of the Real’s approval, he tossed away his child for the sake of following His command, and he tossed away his wealth because of tenderness toward the people. Hence the Exalted Lord praised him and called him His bosom friend: “And God took Abraham as a bosom friend.”

It has been narrated that God revealed to him, “You are My bosom friend and I am your bosom friend, so be careful that I not become aware in your secret core that you have become attached to other than Me, lest you cut off your bosom friendship from Me.”

It has also been said that when the Exalted Lord wrote down bosom friendship for him, He gave out this call in the world: “And God took Abraham as a bosom friend.” The angels raised their voices and said, “O Lord, what did Abraham do that you have given him this honor and singled him out from all the world’s folk?”

The command came, “O Gabriel, open up your peacock-feathers and go from the top of the Lote Tree to the summit of that mountain, and convey My name to his hearing.” He stood behind the mountain. The Bosom Friend had three hundred herds of sheep, and each herd had a dog with a gold collar around its neck. Gabriel shouted out, “O Holy One!” The Bosom Friend fainted from the pleasure of hearing that. When he came to, he said, “O speaker! Say that once more, and this herd of sheep with its dog and gold collar belongs to you.” Gabriel once more raised up his voice, “O Holy One!” The Bosom Friend was rolling in the dust like a half-slaughtered chicken. He was saying, “Say it again, and another herd belongs to you!”

You spoke of Him to me, O Saʿd, and you increased

my madness, so increase that speaking, O Saʿd!

He kept on asking him like this until he gave away the three hundred herds. Once he had given all, the knots became tighter, passion and destitution joined together. The Bosom Friend said, “O servant of God! Recite the name of the Friend one more time, and my spirit is yours!”

Wealth, gold, things—gamble them away for nothing.

When the work reaches your spirit, gamble it away!

Gabriel became happy. He spread his peacock feathers and said, “If there is any shortcoming, it is in our eyes. You have passion to perfection. He was right to take you as a bosom friend.”

4:126 To God belongs everything in the heavens and everything in the earth, and God encompasses everything.

In these verses, He says three times “To God belongs everything in the heavens and everything in the earth.” Each is an admonishment for a different group and specific to a designated meaning. The first is an admonishment for the common Muslims, the second an admonishment for the worshipful servants and godwary, and the third an admonishment for the sincerely truthful and elect.

First He says for the common Muslims, “Everything in heaven and earth is My possession and kingdom. All is My creation and artisanry. My knowledge reaches all and I am aware of all. I have made certain rightful dues incumbent among you and set apart obligatory acts for you. So comply with the rightful due of women, orphans, and the weak and put My commands into action. Strive to give comfort and achieve peace. Whether you do good or bad, whether you are at peace or war, know that in reality I know and I see, for all is My creation and My artisanry. How can My creation and artisanry be concealed from Me? Does He who created not know, while He is the Gentle, the Aware? [67:14].”

In the second verse He says,

4:131 To God belongs everything in the heavens and everything in the earth, and We have charged those who were given the Book before you, and you, to be wary of God.

“You who are worshipers and abstainers, come totally into the street of godwariness and make godwariness your shelter. Leave aside the road of uncertainty and suspicion.” He says this and commands it. Then He gives success to one group, and He puts another group into the road of abandonment. To all of them He gives awareness: “I am without needs. I have no benefit from the obedience of the one given success, nor any loss from the disobedience of the one abandoned. Everything in the heavens and the earth is My possession and kingdom. All are My predetermined things and artifacts. Had I wanted, I would have created all successful, or all abandoned. No one can protest against Me, and there is no turning away from My decree.”

In the third verse, He says,

4:132 To God belongs everything in the heavens and everything in the earth, and God is sufficient as a trustee.

This is an admonishment to the sincerely truthful and the lovers: “The seven heavens, the seven earths, and everything within them all belong to Me. I did not create them that you should turn your face toward them and attach your heart to them, remaining with them and being held back from Me. Rather, I created them to show them to you and to adorn them for your soul. Then, when you put aside everything and bring your face to Me, I will bring all of them into your service and put them all in your hands.” This meaning is in the report, “O this world! Serve those who serve Me, and trouble those who serve you!”

The story of Sahl Tustarī is well known. The caliph of the day offered great wealth to him, but he did not accept anything. Someone asked him why he had not accepted. Sahl called upon God to lift the veil from the eyes of the questioner, who then looked and saw a world full of gems and pearls. Sahl said, “O chevalier! I have no need for the wealth of the caliph. The whole world is at my command. The storehouses of the earth have been offered to me, but I do not want them.”

Why do you stay in this low place like crows looking for carrion?

Break the cage and fly at once like peacocks to the heights.

All on the face of gold and gems is unbelief and satanity—

if you have the religion’s fervor, step beyond the gold. [DS 52]

4:136 O you who have faith! Have faith in God and His Messenger.

Faith is two sorts, one based on proof, the other on face-to-face vision. Faith by proof is the road of inference, and faith by face-to-face vision is finding the day of union. Faith by proof is to employ the evidence of intellects, and faith by vision is to reach the degrees of arrival. In terms of allusion He is saying: “O you have acquired faith by proof, strive to acquire faith by face-to-face vision!”

What is faith by face-to-face vision? Gazing with the eye of response on the Responder, gazing with the eye of solitariness on the Solitary, gazing with the eye of presence on the Present, being near to God’s nearness by being far from self, being present with His generosity by being absent from self. He—majestic is His majesty!—is not far from the strivers nor absent from the desirers. He says, “We are nearer to him than the jugular vein” [50:16].

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O Lord! You are found by the souls of the chevaliers, You are present to the hearts of the rememberers. They give marks of You up close, but You are far beyond that. They fancy You from afar, but You are closer than the spirit.”

Lovely idol! Are you then my beloved?

Now that I look close, You are my spirit.

It is also said that the meaning of the verse is this: O you who have faith by assenting, have faith by realizing! You have accepted the Shariah, now accept the Haqiqah.

What is the Shariah? What the Haqiqah? The Shariah is a lamp, the Haqiqah a burn. The Shariah is a bond, the Haqiqah advice. The Shariah is need, the Haqiqah joy. The Shariah is the outer pillars, the Haqiqah the inner pillars. The Shariah is not having evil, the Haqiqah is not having self. The Shariah is service based on conditions, the Haqiqah exile based on witnessing. The Shariah is by intermediaries, the Haqiqah by unveiling.

The folk of the Shariah keep obedience and leave aside disobedience, the folk of the Haqiqah flee from themselves and take joy in oneness. The folk of the Shariah hope for everlastingness and subsistent bliss, the folk of the Haqiqah boldy busy themselves with the Cupbearer.

The Haqiqah begins when He appears. The longing that overcomes you makes the wide world too narrow for you and makes the inside of your shirt a prison. It strikes fire in your spirit and throws thirst into your heart. You see the burning, but not the Burner. You see the tumult, but not Him who stirs it up. There is no one to assist you, no one with whom to speak, no sympathizer with whom you can sit for a while.

Isolated from friends in every land—

the greater the sought, the fewer the helpers.

In the end, the chevalier lets out a sigh in his longing and bewilderment: “O God, my tree has been burnt by thirst. How long will it take before You look after it? O Generous One! I am weeping over You! It is not beneath You to answer. Pour water once on my field!

“O God, if I am not worthy for what I desire, how can I love with a heart plucked of its feathers? If the hand of my need will not reach the branch of hope, how can I get on my feet? If You do not give me access to Yourself, how can I flee to You? O Generous One, give me access, so that I may weep at Your threshold and rejoice in hope mixed with fear. Receive me, O Gentle One, so that I may turn myself over to You. Gaze at me once so that I may throw the two worlds into the ocean.”

The Majestic Lord caresses the traveler with the attribute of generosity: “Fear not! Not every bite is poisoned. When a mother bites her child, she does so because of love.”

4:160 And for the wrongdoing of those who are Jews, We forbade them certain good things.

Embarking on prohibited things necessitates the forbidding of licit things.^{1LI 2:84.}

If you see gentleness and generosity reaching a servant, it is because he has preserved the outward of the Shariah and has wanted to show reverence to it in spirit and heart. Inevitably, he has reached the repose of whispered prayers and the gentle favors of union’s gifts. In contrast, if you see harshness and severity, it is because he has looked with denial on the sanctuary of the Shariah and has put to work the religion’s prohibited things in following the commanding soul. Yes, that is the way it is: When someone holds back from the outward of the Shariah, the beauty of the Haqiqah veils its face from him. If someone disdains commands and prohibitions, what wonder if faith and recognition take their bags away from his heart?

If not for the Shariah, the turning wheel would stop;

if not for the religion, the Twins would quit the sky. [DS 56]

4:162 But those who are firmly rooted in knowledge

The firmly rooted in knowledge are those who have obtained the varieties of knowledge: knowledge of the Shariah, knowledge of the Tariqah, and knowledge of the Haqiqah.

Knowledge of the Shariah is to be learned, knowledge of the Tariqah is to be practiced, and knowledge of the Haqiqah is to be found. Concerning knowledge of the Shariah He says, “Ask the folk of the remembrance” [16:43]. Concerning knowledge of the Tariqah He says, “Seek the means of approach to Him” [5:35]. Concerning knowledge of the Haqiqah He says, “We taught him knowledge from Us” [18:65]. He turned knowledge of the Shariah over to a teacher, He turned knowledge of the Tariqah over to a pir, and He turned knowledge of the Haqiqah over to Himself.

Whoever fancies that he has no use for the intermediary of a teacher in knowledge of the Shariah is a heretic. Whoever claims that knowledge of the Tariqah is possible without a pir is a tempter. Whoever says that the teacher of knowledge of the Haqiqah is other than the Real is deluded.

It has been said that those firmly rooted in knowledge are those who learn the knowledge of the Shariah and then put it into practice with self-purification to the point that they perceive the knowledge of the Haqiqah in their secret core. Thus Muṣṭafā said, “When someone acts on what he knows, God will bequeath him knowledge of what he does not know.” When someone does not put the knowledge of the Shariah into practice, he has wasted his knowledge, and it becomes an argument against him. When someone puts it into practice, his outward knowledge becomes an argument to his benefit, and he receives the knowledge of the Haqiqah as a gift.

4:163 Surely We have revealed to thee as We revealed to Noah, and the prophets after him.

The two worlds are built on the foundation of prophethood’s exaltedness, and prophethood’s fruit is the beauty of the Shariah. The Shariah is the right path, and the prophets are the marks of the path. Until the leader sees the road, he does not lead. I invite to God upon insight, I and whosoever follows me [12:108]. The Exalted Lord sent the prophets to the people so that they would make apparent the road of obedience, and the servants, on the basis of that obedience, might reach generous bestowal and reward; and, so that they would make apparent the road of disobedience and warn against it. Then the servants may avoid disobedience and not be deemed worthy for punishment. This then is infinite bounty and endless generosity.

If He had left the servants in place, not sent the Messenger, and not held the lamp of guidance with the hand of the Messenger in their road, the servants would have remained within the wrap of their createdness and the darkness of their own opinions. They would have eaten everything that is their poison and done everything within which is their destruction.

So, you should believe that the prophets are mercy and leaders for the world’s folk. They are the best of the creatures and the chosen among mortal men. They are the callers at the top of the street of friendship and the cupbearers at the lip of the water of life. They are the title-page of the Shariah and the proof of the Haqiqah. If there is a goal in creating the engendered beings, it is they. If the Haqiqah has a treasure, they are its keepers.

Surely We have revealed to thee…. The command came, “O paragon of east and west, O emulated in the two realms of being! A shining light has reached you from the world of revelation called ‘messengerhood.’ Before you We gave to the messengers, each in his own measure. As for that which is beyond the world of messengerhood and accords with the drinking place of your good fortune, it was not fitting to reach any wrongdoer or be grasped by the good fortune of any traveler.” The allusion to this by the paragon of the world was this: “I was given the Qur’an and the like of it along with it.” In other words, “As much as I have spoken to you from the world of prophethood with the tongue of messengerhood, just as much has been spoken to me from the world of the Haqiqah with the tongue of revelation.” This is exactly what he said elsewhere: “I have a moment with God embraced by no proximate angel, nor any sent prophet.”

4:170 O people, the Messenger has come to you with the truth from your Lord, so have faith; that is better for you. But if you disbelieve, to God belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth.

The allusion of the verse is that the threshold of Lordhood and the majesty of Unity has no need for the obedience of the obedient. He is pure of the worship of the creatures in heaven and earth. If all that is creation—the spheres and heavens, the existing things and the things coming to nothingness—went back to the concealment of nonexistence, that would not harm His purity and lordhood. There is no need for them to be joined with Him. The beauty of His Unity is His eternity, and the majesty of His eternity is His solitariness.

There is a sound hadith from Abū Dharr Ghifārī, from God’s Messenger, from God, that He said, “O My servants, I have forbidden Myself to do wrong, and all of it is forbidden to you. So My servants, do not wrong each other! Surely you are the ones who err by night and day, and I am the one who forgives sins and does not care. So ask forgiveness of Me, and I will forgive you.

“O My servants, if the first of you and the last of you and the men of you and the jinn of you had the heart of the most godwary man among you, that would add nothing to My kingdom. O My servants, if the first of you and the last of you and the men of you and the jinn of you had the heart of the most depraved man among you, that would diminish nothing from My kingdom. O My servants, if the first of you and the last of you and the men of you and the jinn of you were to ask from Me and I were to give every man among them what he asked for, that would diminish nothing from Me, except as the ocean is diminished when a needle is dipped into it once.”

But if you disbelieve, to God belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth. He is saying, “If all creatures were to put aside the activity of servants and loosen the belt of obedience, they would not be able to go outside of servanthood, nor could they lift away from themselves the bonds of slavehood in respect of creation. Thus the exalted Qur’an gives this report: “None is there in the heavens and the earth that comes not to the All-Merciful as a servant” [19:93]. But there is a difference between a servant upon whom the name of servanthood has fallen in respect of creation and a servant upon whom it has fallen in respect of caressing and gentleness. Who took His servant by night [17:1]. The servants of the All-Merciful [25:63]. Give good news to My servants [39:17]. Surely My servants, thou hast no ruling power over them [15:42]: These are the ones accepted by the Presence, and those are the ones driven away by severance. Not everyone who is a servant is caressed by gentleness or in the bond of love. Do you know who the true servant is? The one adorned with beneficence and generous giving, who has a cup full of the wine of love in the presence of union and the session of intimacy.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, my beauty lies in servanthood. Otherwise, what is my tongue that it should remember You? My good fortune is that I am remembered by You. Otherwise, what value does my remembrance have for me?”

4:174 O people, a proof has come to you from your Lord, and We have sent down to you a clear light.

The majestic Unity is placing a favor on the center point of mortal nature: “We have lit two lamps for you, one in the heart, the other in front of you. The one in front of you is the lamp of the Sunnah, which is the proof itself, and the one in the heart is the lamp of faith and the shining light. Happy is the servant who walks between these two lamps! Who is more exalted than he in whose heart the greatest light is shining and the eyes of whose heart sees the eyes and face of the Friend face-to-face! One breath with the Friend is worth the two worlds. One vision of the Friend for a hundred thousand spirits is gratis!”

In gratitude I will also send my spirit to You—

a whiff of union with You does what a hundred spirits cannot.

4:175 As for those who have faith in God and hold fast to Him, He will make them enter into mercy from Him, and bounty, and He will guide them to Him on a straight path.

From the servant come faith and holding fast by way of servanthood, and from the Exalted Lord bounty and mercy in the attribute of loving kindness. Then He says, “He will guide them to Him on a straight path.” He will give them the guidance and rectitude to know that the recompense they find and the generosity they see come from God’s bounty and mercy, not from their faith and holding fast. As the Prophet said, “There is none of you who will be saved by his deeds.”

They said, “Not even you, O Messenger of God?”

He said, “Not even I—unless God envelops me with His mercy.”