41:0 In the name of God, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful.

In the name of God reports of the existence of the Real in the attribute of eternity, and the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful reports of His subsistence in the description of highness and generosity. The spirits are confounded in the unveiling of His majesty and the souls are thirsty for the gentleness of His beauty.

Hearing the name God yields awe, and awe is the cause of annihilation and absence. Hearing the name All-Merciful yields presence with the Presence, and presence is the cause of subsistence and proximity. Hearing the name God, one person is confounded by the unveiling of majesty. Hearing the name All-Merciful, another is stunned by the expansion of beauty.

God reports of His power over origination, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful reports of His aid in giving pleasure. What He desires exists through His power, and His servants voice tawḥīd through His aid.^{1These two paragraphs are from RA 10.}

41:1 Ḥāʾ Mīm

In other words, all that will come to be has been decreed [ḥumm]. God is saying: “Whatever is be-able has come to be, whatever is doable I have done, whatever is runable I have run, whatever is choosable I have chosen, whatever is acceptable I have accepted, whatever is liftable I have lifted, whatever is throwable I have thrown. Whatever I wanted, I did; whatever I want, I do. When I have accepted someone, I do not look at the disloyalty I see from him. Rather, I pardon and pass over. I do not turn away from what I have said. With Me the word does not change [50:29].”

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, the whole world wants You. What does the work is what You want. Happy is the one You want, for even if he turns back from You, You will be waiting in his road.”

O chevalier! Whomever He wanted He wanted in the Beginningless, and whomever He caressed, He caressed in the Beginningless. He did the work in the Beginningless, and today He shows what He did. He spoke the words in the Beginningless, and today He lets you hear the spoken words. He sewed the robes of honor in the Beginningless, and today He conveys them: Each day He is upon some task [55:29].

“My servant, you know Me today, but I am not of today. Your knowledge is today; but I am eternal. For some time I have been speaking to you of the mysteries, but you hear now. In the Beginningless I made the eternal hearing your deputy in listening to the beginningless word. In the Beginningless I made the eternal knowledge your deputy in knowing the beginningless attributes. When a guardian has an infant’s property, he has it as the infant’s deputy. When the infant reaches adulthood, he gives the property back to him. You were the infants of nonexistence. The eternal gentleness took care of your work and acted as your deputy. O you who await the arrival of Our gentleness! O you who look for the marks bearing witness to Our Unseen! Nothing drives friendship into your heart other than the ruling power of Our secret. No one strikes the knocker on the door of your heart other than the messenger of Our kindness.”^{1These two paragraphs are mostly derived from RA 304-5; a somewhat different version of the passage is given under 21:101.}

41:2 A sending down from the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful.

This Qur’an was sent down by the Lord whose name is the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful. He is the All-Merciful through kindly acts, the Ever-Merciful through lights; the All-Merciful through blessings, the Ever-Merciful through protection from sin; the All-Merciful through self-disclosure, the Ever-Merciful through befriending; the All-Merciful through alleviating acts of worship, the Ever-Merciful through verifying the most beautiful and an increase [10:26].

When the ocean of mercy sends up the waves of generosity and forgiveness, all slips and acts of disobedience cease to exist and come to nothing, for the slip is the attribute of what was not and then came to be, and the mercy is the attribute of what always was and always will be. How can what was not, then came to be, stand up to what always was and always will be?^{1The two paragraphs are from RA 11-12.}

41:10 He set in it unshakables from above it and He blessed it.

In form the unshakable mountains are the pegs of the earth, but in reality the friends are the pegs of the earth. It is through their blessing that rain comes from heaven and plants from the earth, and through their supplicating God trial is repelled from the people.^{1LI 5:321-22.}

The mountains are the pegs of the earth in terms of form, but God’s friends are the pegs of the earth in terms of reality. The arrangement of the work of the world is tied to the towering mountains, but the straightness of the states and means of people in terms of meaning is tied to the blessedness and supplication of the friends. In body they are present with the people, but in heart they are absent from the people and present with the Real.

Abū Yazīd Basṭāmī said, “It is forty years that I have not spoken to anyone. Whatever I have said, I have said to the Real, and whatever I have heard, I have heard from the Real.”

It is from here that Muṣṭafā said, “I spend the night at my Lord; He gives me to eat and drink.” He was present with the people in his person for the sake of discharging the Shariah and expanding the creed, but in his secret core he was with the Real because of the overpowering force of love and the continuity of contemplation. When love overpowers, the lover does not become separate from the beloved.

Master Abu ʿAlī Daqqāq said, “Paradise has no business with me, and hell has nothing to do with me, for there is nothing in my heart but joy in the Real’s subsistence.”

Whatever is other than the Friend, break its snare!

Whatever is other than passion, name it “sorrow”!

*

In my love for Buthayna I desired that we two

be alone on a raft in the ocean.^{2The two poems and the saying about Daqqāq are from RA 21, though there are significant textual differences in the first poem.}

41:30 Those who have said, “Our Lord is God,” then gone straight—the angels will descend upon them saying, “Fear not and grieve not, and rejoice in the Garden that you were promised.”

Those who have said, “Our Lord is God,” is an allusion to the tawḥīd of attestation; then gone straight is an allusion to the tawḥīd of recognition. The tawḥīd of attestation belongs to the generality of the faithful, and the tawḥīd of recognition belongs to the recognizers and the sincerely truthful. The tawḥīd of attestation is that you say that God is one. The tawḥīd of recognition is that you be one for God.

Once Abū Yazīd Basṭāmī was standing in the station of knowledge and giving forth marks of the tawḥīd of attestation. A disciple said, “O shaykh! Do you recognize God?”

He replied, “In the whole world is there anyone at all who does not recognize or know God?”

At another time he was drowned in the ocean of the tawḥīd of recognition, incinerated by the fire of love. He was asked, “Do you recognize God?”

He replied, “Who am I to recognize Him. In the whole world, is there anyone who recognizes Him?”

Who am I in my passion for You that a rose should bloom

in the clay of my house from joining with Your face?

The tawḥīd of recognition, which was expressed here as going straight, is that you reach the utmost limit of realization in assenting, you stroll into the gardens of the realities on the footing of truthfulness [10:2] and certainty, and you have a firmly fixed footing on the avenue of the Straight Path. You bind the collar of disengagement to the neck of solitariness, drink down the wine of love from the hand of the cupbearer of truthfulness, smell the rose of the recognitions from the garden of the subtleties, topple the celestial and terrestrial worlds, and say with the tongue of selflessness,

“Adam set up the banner of passion in the world

and toppled a hundred worlds of knowers.

Having breathed for a time in his own soul

he gambled away paradise and lost both worlds.”

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “Companionship with the Real is two words: response and going straight—response to the Covenant, and going straight in loyalty. Response is the Shariah and going straight is the Haqiqah. One can grasp a thousand years of the Shariah in an hour, but one cannot grasp an hour of the Haqiqah in a thousand years.”

The angels will descend upon them saying, “Fear not and grieve not, and rejoice in the Garden.” These great ones went by the road of straightness and took the ball of tawḥīd to the goal in the playing field of surrender. At the time of the soul’s extraction they are clothed in the robe of generosity. The angels come down from heaven and give them good news: “Fear not that friendship will be extracted, and grieve not for the sins you have sent ahead, and rejoice in the beauty of the solicitude at the beginning.”^{1This sentence is from LI 5:329.} Do not fear, for there is no fear that you will be extracted from the realm of love. Do not grieve, for you will not be taken to task for sins. Be happy, for your only escort and companion is beginningless solicitude. “Fear not, for you were fearful for a long time, and grieve not, for you were among the recognizers, and rejoice in the Garden. How excellent is the wage of the doers! [3:136].” Do not fear, O fearful, for the day of fear has come to an end! Do not grieve, O recognizers, for the time of comfort has arrived! Be happy and joyful in paradise, for the message and news of happiness have come from the Friend!

O chevalier! Take care not to suppose that the yearning of those who went straight on the road of the religion, who yearned for the threshold of the Lord of the Worlds, and who were drowned in the ocean of certainty will decrease by one iota when they arrive tomorrow at the contemplation of the Possessor of Majesty. In the liver of a fish there is a heat that will not become less by one iota even if you gather all the oceans of the world. Today they are in yearning itself, and tomorrow in tasting itself on top of yearning’s burn.^{2The paragraph is derived from RA 26.}

Tomorrow, all the shariahs will be scratched out by the pen of abrogation. It is permissible that prayer, fasting, hajj, and struggle come to an end and be abrogated. But it will never be fitting for the pact of love and the covenant of recognition to be abrogated. When you enter paradise, every day that passes will open you up to a world of recognition of the Real that was not there before. This is a work that will never come to an end, and may it never come to an end!

As long as I live, this will be my craft and work,

this will be my ease, stability, and grief-dispeller,

This will be my day, this will be my time—

I will be a hunter, and this will be my prey.^{3The paragraph and the poetry are taken from RA 77-78.}

41:31 We are your friends in this world’s life and in the next world.

In this world’s life through faith and in the next world through forgiveness, in this world’s life through the realization of recognition and in the next world by gaining forgiveness, in this world’s life through approval of the decree and in the next world through encounter in the abode of subsistence, in this world through love and in the next world through proximity, in this world through contemplation and in the next world through face-to-face vision.^{1LI 5:330.}

If the Adamite were given the life of Noah and he were to spend all his days showing gratitude for the blessing and generosity in this saying of the Exalted Lord— “We are your friends in this world’s life and in the next world”—his life would come to an end and he would never be grateful enough for the blessings, or recognize the generosity, in God’s words: “We are your friend, your lovingly kind companion, and your helper in this world and the afterworld.”

In this world, think how the Real answered the angels for your sake when they said, “What, wilt Thou set therein one who will work corruption there?” [2:30]. God did not say that they would not work corruption. He said, “Surely I know what you do not know [2:30]. You have no awareness of the secrets of My Divinity and no cognizance of the gentle favors of My Lordhood toward the Adamites.”

The slanderers do not diminish your level

with Me, nor do the backbiters harm you.

It is as if they praise you unknowingly

in My sight with the faults they find.

“If they are unworthy, I will make them worthy. If they are far, I will bring them near. If they are abased, I will make them exalted. Though you see their outward disloyalty, I see their inward loyalty. Though you gaze on the opposition of their limbs and bodily parts, I gaze on the conformity of their hearts and secret cores. Though you wear the waistcoat of obedience, they wear the shirt of union. Though you have the robe of worship, they have the hat of forgiveness. Though you have clung to your own sinlessness, they have clung to My mercy. What would it matter if I did not accept your sinlessness? What harm is there in their disobedience when there is My pardon and forgiveness? They are lifted up by the beginningless gentleness and caressed by the endless bounty. Faults do not intrude on the Beginningless.”

Abū Yazīd Basṭāmī was walking in a road and heard the sound of group of people. He wanted to know what their state was all about. He went forward and saw an infant fallen in black mud, the people standing there watching. All of a sudden the child’s mother ran forth from the side and threw herself into the mud. She lifted up the child and went. When Abū Yazīd saw that, he became happy. He shouted out while standing there and said, “Tenderness came and took away the defilement. Love came and took away the disobedience. Solicitude came and took away the sin.”

Your excuse with Me is elaborate

and sin from the likes of you is slight.^{2From the verse, “What, will You place therein” to the end of the passage is derived from RA 81-82, 223-24.}

41:37 And of His signs are the night and the day, the sun and the moon. Do not prostrate yourselves to the sun and the moon, but prostrate yourselves to God, who created them.

This is the speech of the Lord whose kingship has no removal, whose seriousness has no levity, whose exaltedness has no abasement, and whose decree has no rejection. He has no peer, and from Him there is no escape. He is a God other than whom there is no king, and His kingship is not through army and retinue. His exaltedness is not with drums and flags, horse and servants.^{1From RA 13.}

He is a king, the portico of whose threshold is the seven lofty heavens, and the resting place of whose elect is the seven inaccessible carpets. The world-adorning sun is like a quicksilver goblet through His wisdom. The moon’s figure is sometimes like a gold horseshoe and sometimes like a silver shield through His power. The celestial world and the terrestrial world are both marks of His unity and solitariness.

There are countless proofs of God’s artisanry,

a thousand colors concealed in the petal of a rose.

Though the day is white, bright, and brilliant,

day and night are the same for those without eyes.

If someone wants to know and recognize a king as is fitting, first he should look at his realm, then he should look at his army, then he should look at his artisanry and acts. After that, he should look at him himself so as to know him as is fitting. It is as if the Exalted Lord is saying, “My servant, if you want to look at My realm, to God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth [5:120]. If you want to look at My acts, gaze on the traces of God’s mercy, how He brings the earth to life after its death [30:50]. If you want to look at My artisanry, of His signs are the night and the day, the sun and the moon. If you want to look at Me tomorrow, look today from My artisanry to Me with the eye of the heart: Dost thou not see thy Lord, how He stretched out the shadow [25:45]? Then tomorrow look at My bounty with the eye of the secret core: Faces that day will be radiant, gazing upon their Lord [75:22-23].”

O chevalier! When someone knows God’s majesty and looks at Him from His artisanry, his destination will be God’s threshold. His hands will be held back from acting freely in the two worlds, his passion’s feet will always be in the road, his heart will be in the grasp of the King’s exaltedness, he will have the cape of servanthood on his outwardness, and he will be adorned in his inwardness with gazing on the secrets of lordhood. By day he will be in secret whispering, by night in joy.^{2This paragraph is derived from RA 14.}

When the Exalted Lord said, “And of His signs are the night and the day, the sun and the moon,” He did not say it so that you would see the form and pass over it. Rather, He said it so that you would reflect upon the form, seek out its realities, and become aware of its intimations and allusions.

Know that night is the place of seclusion for friends, the meeting place and promised time of the seekers of peace, the moment for desirers to show their need, the time for the passionate to have whispered secrets and delight. The servants should be with the Real by day in the lodging of secret whispering, by night in the litter of joy. By day they should gaze upon the artifacts, by night contemplate the beauty of the Artisan. By day they should be with the people in good character and by night with the Real in the footing of truthfulness [10:2]. By day they should be with the work, by night with drunkenness. By day they should seek the road, by night speak of the mysteries. Then they will have given night and day their rightful due.^{3The paragraph is based on RA 172.}

As for His words, “the sun and the moon,” you should understand them as the sun of solicitude and the moon of recognition shining from the constellation of beginninglessness. They rise from the horizon of proximity and shine in the breasts of the friends. The sun and moon are the form of heaven’s adornment, as He says: “We adorned the lowest heaven with lamps” [41:12]. The sun of solicitude and the moon of recognition are the adornment of the hearts of the faithful for, as He says, “And He adorned it in your hearts” [49:7]. Sometimes the moon in heaven is concealed by clouds, but it is not nullified. This alludes to the fact that sometimes disobedience conceals recognition, but it never nullifies it.

Do not prostrate yourselves to the sun and the moon, but prostrate yourselves to God, who created them. When Adam was afflicted by the slip, he wept a great deal and at the end made a prostration of repentance. While he was making the prostration, his repentance was accepted. Gabriel came and told Adam that his repentance had been accepted. Adam lifted his head from the prostration and heard this good news from Gabriel. In gratitude for receiving this good news, he hurried to make another prostration. The first was the prostration of apology, and the second the prostration of gratitude. This is a teaching for the servants: During the prayer, perform two prostrations, one to apologize for slips and the other to show gratitude for blessings.

It has also been said that of the two prostrations that the servant makes in the state of worship, one recounts the beginningless state, the day when the Exalted Lord said, “Am I not your Lord?” [7:172]. Everyone fell down in prostration in that state on hearing the address of the Real. The other prostration is the likeness of the endless state at the time of seeing the Majestic Lord in paradise, as has come in the report: “When a light shines for them, they fall down in prostration. Then it is said to them, ‘This is not the time for prostration—this is the time for finding.’” One prostration is in the state of finding, the other in the state of witnessing. When the faithful servant makes these two prostrations at the moment of prayer and the time of whispering in secret, he should number himself among those exalted ones. He should consider the first prostration as the state of finding and he should consider the second prostration as the state of witnessing. Then it will be as if he passes from the Beginningless to the Endless in prostration.

41:53 We shall show them Our signs on the horizons and in their souls until it is clear to them that He is the Real.

It is said that the Lord’s religion, which is the cause of the deliverance of the servants and the foundation of their familiarity with Him, is built on two things: One is showing on the part of the Real, and the other traveling on the part of the servant. Showing is what He says: “We shall show them Our signs on the horizons.” Traveling is what He says: “Whoso does a wholesome deed, it is for himself” [41:46]. As long as there is no showing on the Real’s part, there will be no traveling on the servant’s part.

Showing takes place in both the signs of the horizons and the signs of the souls. In the signs of the horizons, it is what He says: “Have they not gazed upon the dominion of the heavens and the earth?” [7:185]. In the signs of the souls, it is what He says: “And in your souls; what, do you not see?” [51:21]. He is saying, “Do you not look at yourself and do you not think about your own makeup?”

This is because the Lord of the Worlds has written out many fine points of wisdom and many realities of artisanry with the pen of eternal gentleness on the tablet of this makeup. He has inscribed on it the lights of fabrication and the traces of honoring. He made the round head—the pavilion of intellect and the gathering place of knowledge—a monastery for the senses. Whatever worth has been acquired by this hollow makeup and composite person has been acquired from intellect and knowledge. The worth of the Adamite lies in intellect and his respectability in knowledge, his perfection in intellect and his beauty in knowledge.

God created his forehead like a bar of silver. He strung the two bows of his eyebrows with pure musk. He deposited the two dots of his eyes’ light into two figures of darkness. He made a hundred thousand red roses grow up in the garden of his two cheeks. He concealed thirty-two teeth like pearls in the oyster shell of his mouth. He sealed his mouth with glistening agate. From the beginning of his lips to the end of his throat He created twenty-nine way stations, making them the places of articulation for the twenty-nine letters. From his heart He brought a sultan into existence, from his breast a field, from his aspiration a fleet-footed mount, from his thought a swift messenger. He created two taking hands and two running feet.

All the aforementioned is but the robe of creation and the beauty of outwardness. Beyond this is the perfection and beauty of inwardness. For a moment ponder the Lord’s subtleties and compassionate acts and the traces of the divine solicitude and kind favor that have been made ready in this handful of dust. Look at the different kinds of generosity and the special favors of proximity that He has placed within them: He created the whole cosmos, but He never looked at any creature with the eye of love. He sent no messenger to any existent thing and gave no message to any creature until it was the turn of the Adamites. They were pulled up by gentleness, caressed by bounty, and turned into quarries of light. He made their secret cores the locus of His own gaze, He sent them prophets, He set angels over them as watchers, He placed the burn of passion in their hearts, and He sent them incitements to yearn and motivations to desire one after another.

What is intended by these expressions and allusions is that the Adamite is a handful of dust. Whatever bestowals of eminence and honor he has received derive from the gentleness and solicitude of the Pure Lord. When He gives, He gives because of His own generosity, not because of your worthiness. He gives because of His magnanimity, not because of your prostration. He gives because of His bounty, not because of your acts. He gives because of His Godhood, not because you are lord of the manor.^{1After the first paragraph, this section is a rewriting of RA 63-64.}