6:0 In the name of God, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful.

This is the name of a king who is not backed by armies and provisions, the name of an exalted one who is not exalted by tribes and numbers, the name of a tremendous one who is not constricted by time and duration. He is not grasped by utmost limit or returning place, He transcends likeness, peer, similar, and child. He is the One, the Unique, the Self-Standing, the Self-Sufficient; He begets not, nor was He begotten, and equal to Him is none [112:2-4].

This is the name of a Lord who is subsistent and lasting without duration, overpowering and able without companion or help. In Essence He is one without number, in attributes self-standing and self-sufficient, without associate or equal, without advisor, without child. His bounty has no limit, His decree has no repeller, He begets not, nor was He begotten, from the Beginningless to the Endless. He is a tremendous God, a generous all-compeller, splendorous, renowned, and eternal.

He is the companion of every stranger, the intimate of everyone lonely, the foundation of everyone poor, the shelter of every wounded heart. All His deeds are pure, all His words true. His knowledge is without limit, His mercy without bounds. He is beautiful in artisanry, sweet in making, bestower of blessings, provider of turns, lovingly kind though hidden. He is hidden from the perception of how, outside the reasoning of imaginations, and pure of supposition, fancy, and being thus. He is higher than everything intelligence shows, far from everything on which fancy falls, and pure of every foundation laid down by reflection and investigation. It is forbidden for reflection and investigation to know and understand His Essence and attribute, and our religion is complete when we assent to the outward meaning, accept what has been transmitted, and give up on the meanings.

This indeed is the tongue of learning in the allusion of the Shariah. It is the resource of the wage-earners and the capital of the paradise-seekers. But the recognizers and God-perceivers have another tongue and another intimation. Their tongue is the tongue of unveiling, their intimation the intimation of love. According to the allusion of the Haqiqah, the tongue of learning comes from narration and the tongue of unveiling from solicitude. The narration is a banner flying over the world, the solicitude a sign in the two worlds. The narration is for the wage-earner seeking houris, and the solicitude for the one drowned in light in the ocean of face-to-face vision.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “If the share of the wage-earner is everlasting paradise, the recognizer hopes that the Friend will give him one glance. If the wage-earner is attached to loss and gain, the recognizer is burning in a smokeless fire. If the wage-earner melts in fear of hell, the recognizer is in joy from head to toe.”

So much is the joy in my head from loving You

that I am confused—are You the lover in my arms,

Has Your union struck its tent at my door,

or will my head roll while busy with Your work?

In the name of God belongs to creatures in general, “in God” belongs to the elect of the Threshold, and “God” belongs to the sincerely truthful, secluded with Him. He who says in the name of God sees his own act, the secondary cause, and the Causer. He who says “in God” sees the cause and the Causer, but he does not see his own act. He who says “God” sees neither his own act nor the cause; He sees all as the Causer. Say “God,” then leave them [6:91] is an allusion to this and a mark for the seekers of God.

One breath with the Friend is better than the everlasting kingdom, one blink of intimacy with the Friend is sweeter than the spirit. Exalted is the servant who is worthy for that which is the spirit’s ease, the spirit’s livelihood, and the spirit’s pain.

You are both my heart’s pain and my spirit’s ease—

It is You who stir up trouble and You who quell it.

Say “God,” then leave them. He is saying, “My servant! See only My loving kindness, see only My taking care of you! Do not lay favors on Me with your acts. Look at My success-giving and do not take joy in remembering yourself. Look at My instructions and flee from the marks of yourself. See everything as My loving kindness.”

The tongue of the servant’s state replies, “O Lord, give me the lamp of knowledge and the burning brand of recognition so that I may see only You, I may know only You. O Lord, I have come to the Threshold as a servant. If You like, exalt me, and if You like, lay me low. O bringer of happiness and adorner of the secret cores! O thief of scatteredness and keeper of lights! An eye that does not see You is black, a heart that does not recognize you is carrion.”

When an eye sees You, it is relieved of pain.

When a spirit finds You, it is exempt from death.

6:1 Praise belongs to God who created the heavens and the earth and made the darknesses and the light.

He begins by lauding Himself, thereby praising Himself with His own beginningless laudation and reporting of His own self-sufficient brilliance and unitary elevation.^{1LI 2:154.}

This is praise of the tremendous Lord, the wise Enactor. He is subsistent through His own subsistence, transcendent through His own attributes, magnificent through His own magnificence. His elevation is everlasting, His brilliance self-standing, His existence unitary, His being self-sufficient, His face majestic, His power perfect—Glory be to Him! And God is the One, the All-Subjugating [39:4], the exalted, the all-compeller, the great, the transcendent.

One of the great ones of the religion and leaders of the Tariqah said, “Who is worthy of praise other than He whose power created the heavens and the earth and made the darknesses and the light?” Who is fitting and who is worthy to be praised for purity and named for greatness other than He who created heaven and earth, created day and night, set up heaven like a roof, adorned earth like a cradle, readied the day for your livelihood, and made the night your time of rest?

It has also been said that heaven is an allusion to the heaven of recognition, which is the hearts of the recognizers. Earth is an allusion to the earth of service, which is the souls of the worshipers. He decorated heaven with the form of the stars, adorned it with sun and moon, and made it the gazing place of the earth-dwellers. In the same way, He adorned the heaven of recognition with the sun of knowledge, the moon of tawḥīd, and the stars of thoughts, and then He made it the gazing-place of the heaven-dwellers. Whenever the satans aim to listen stealthily, they are subjugated from the heaven of exaltedness by the stoning of stars. This is why the Exalted Lord said, “We have made them stonings for the satans” [67:5]. In the same way, whenever Satan aims to instill disquiet, a lightning flashes in the heart of the faithful servant from the heaven of recognition and burns Satan. This is why He says, “Surely the godwary, when a visitation from Satan touches them, remember, and then see clearly” [7:201].

On the expanse of the earth there are seven seas in which are benefits and livelihood for creatures. In the same way, in the earth of service there are seven seas in which are the felicity and salvation of the servant. Abū Ṭālib Makkī, author of Nourishment of the Hearts, alluded to all of them by saying that the well-trodden paths of the wayfarers are seven seas: the intoxication of ecstasy, the lightning of unveiling, the bewilderment of witnessing, the light of proximity, the friendship of finding, the splendor of togetherness, and the reality of solitariness. He said that these seven seas have been placed at the top of the street of tawḥīd. God placed the seven depths of hell in the road of paradise for the sake of the mimickers, and until the mimickers and the common people pass them by they will not reach paradise. In the same way, so long as the wayfarers on the road of tawḥīd have not passed over these seven seas, they will not reach the reality of tawḥīd.

And made the darknesses and the light. Wherever there is ignorance, all is darkness, and wherever there is knowledge, all is light. Wherever there are both knowledge and deeds, there is light upon light [24:35]. As long as the servant governs over his own work, he is in the darkness of ignorance and the wrap of heedlessness. As long as he delegates it, he is in the brightness of recognition and the light of guidance. Among the traditions has come the saying, “O child of Adam! You have two great tasks ahead of you. One is putting the commands and prohibitions to work, and this I have placed upon you. Cling to it! The other is governing over your best interests, and that I have accepted for Myself and lifted from you. Do not busy your heart with it. I govern My servants through My knowledge—surely of My servants, I am aware, seeing [35:31].”

6:2 He it is who created you from clay.

Adam was two things: clay and spirituality. His clay pertained to the World of the Creation, and his spirituality to the World of the Command. What pertains to creation is “He fermented Adam’s clay in His hand.” What pertains to the command is I have blown into him of My spirit [15:29]. Surely God chose Adam [3:33] pertains to the beauty of the command, and Adam disobeyed [20:121] to the taint of creation.

In Adam were both rose garden and field of clay, so the clay was the place of roses. Every rose, however, has a thorn. A rose like the bosom friend Abraham had a thorn like the rebellious Nimrod. A rose like Moses had thorns like Pharaoh and Haman. A rose like Jesus had thorns like those impure Jews. A rose like Muḥammad the Arab had a thorn like Abū Jahl the wretched.

Who knows the secret of Adam’s innate disposition? Who recognizes Adam’s good fortune and rank? No eagle of anyone’s mind has alighted on the branch of the tree of Adam’s good fortune. No eye of anyone’s insight has perceived the beauty of the sun of Adam’s limpidness.

When he was at rest in the highest paradises, he supposed that the same tent of safety would be pitched for him endlessly. Then he was addressed by the side of the Compeller and the court of the Exalted: “What, one who is reared amidst ornaments? [43:18]. O Adam, We want to make a man of you. You have become satisfied with color and scent like pretty brides!

“How long will you sit like a woman in hope of color and scent?

Fix your aspiration on the road and set out like a man! [DS 205]

“O Adam! Pull your hands back from the neck of Eve, for you must use your hands for the neck of passion’s crocodile. You must become the drinking companion of the Shariah’s lion. Pull back from the attributes of being, for you must travel with the feet of discipline and the boots of blame into the open horizons of poverty. Go, sit on the dust-pile, and be content with a piece of bread, ragged clothes, and ruins, so that you may become a man.

“Throw away life, travel the road, live upright, and be a man!

Then you will subsist—when you empty your skirt of these ruins.

“O Adam! Look carefully lest you be self-seeing. The angels who sang the song ‘O Glorified! O Holy One!’ to the melody of We glorify Thy praise [2:30] were self-seeing. They kept their eyes on their own beauty, so We emptied their inner selves of passion for the sake of your eminence. We pulled you up from the depths of the sea of omnipotence so that you would sing the song of Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves [7:23] to the melody of your disobedience.

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

Kiss the dust beneath the feet of those who have disowned self!” [DS 972]

6:3 And He is God in the heavens and in the earth.

One can say that He is in heaven through Essence, everywhere through knowledge, in the spirit through companionship, and in the soul through proximity. The soul comes to nothing in Him, and He takes the place of the spirit that comes to nothing in Him. He is in finding where found, and in recognition where recognized. Reports do not spoil the Haqiqah, nor does the Haqiqah nullify the reports. Say “He sat” [7:54], for He is upon the Throne through sitting. Recite “He is with you” [57:4], for He is with you wherever you are. He does not take up place through need, but rather displays places through mercy. He built the Throne for the God-seekers, not for the God-recognizers. If the God-recognizer should take one breath without Him, he would have bound the sash of unbelief.

O boast of my tongue in the two worlds and delight of my spirit in tomorrow’s vision! O my occupation in the two worlds, remake my situation’s occupation with Yourself! I have no spirit to scatter before the finding of You, no tongue to acknowledge Your favors. He who sees You is concealed in vision, and he who seeks You is neither on earth nor in heaven.

6:12 Say: “To whom belongs what is in the heavens and in the earth?” Say: “To God. He has written mercy against Himself.”

Ask them, O Muḥammad! Does anyone dwell in the house? In verified truth, does the rightful due of the realm of being have any weight with the Real? If they fail to answer, that will be a healing. So say, “God in His lordhood is enough.”^{1This paragraph is from LI 2:158.}

God, and that’s it. The rest is folly. O God! It is not from anyone to You, nor from You to anyone—all is from You to You, all is You, and that’s it. Glory be to God! A world full of things and full of people—He overthrows it all in one breath. A hundred eyes would not be enough for me to gaze on this work.

He has written mercy against Himself. Before He began to create the newly arrived things and to originate the engendered beings, He struck the coin of mercy in the mint of the Unseen as the hard cash of the servants’ states and deeds: Surely I am God; there is no god but I [20:14]. “My mercy takes precedence over My wrath.”

Tomorrow on the Day of Mustering, the Messenger will call out at the top of the bazaar of the resurrection: “O King, here is a handful of the disobedient. Let me be instructed to clothe them in the shirt of Your mercy, for You have said, ‘We sent thee only as a mercy to the worlds’ [21:107]. O Lord, it is the day of the bazaar for these beggars. I was catching them with the lasso of the invitation, so I made them many promises. O Lord, do not shame Muḥammad in this gathering of the multitudes! Turn Your promise of mercy and generosity into reality, for You Yourself said, ‘O My servants who have been immoderate against yourselves, despair not of God’s mercy’ [39:53].”

From the Court of Majesty will come the call of generosity and mercy: “O Muḥammad! The work of your community is not outside of three: Either they are people of faith, or they are recognizers, or they are disobedient. If they have faith and are hoping for paradise, then here is My paradise. If they are the disobedient hoping for My forgiveness, then here is My mercy and forgiveness. If they are the recognizers hoping for vision, then here is My vision.”

Thus the road of the servants is to open their mouths in praise and laudation. In the state of brokenness they should keep on saying with the attribute of pleading and poverty, “O closer to us than ourselves! O more lovingly kind to us than ourselves! O caresser of us without us through Your generosity—not because of our worthiness, not because of our works. The burden is beyond our capacity, the practice not proper to us, the favor not within our ability. Whatever we have done has damaged us, whatever You have done subsists for us. Whatever You have done in our place You have done by Yourself, not for our sake.”^{2The saying is by the Pir of the Tariqah (see under 5:89).}

6:13 And His is whatsoever dwells in the night and the day, and He is the Hearing, the Knowing.

The newly arriving things are God’s as a kingdom, in God as manifestation, from God in appearance, and unto God in return. And He is the Hearing of the moans of the yearners, and the Knowing of the longing of the finders.^{1LI 2:158.}

It has been said that night is a general darkness that appears around the world, and day is a general brightness that reaches the whole world. Before the creation of the world and before the creation of light and darkness, there was neither night nor day. In paradise there is no sun, but all is day, for in reality the general brightness is there. Whatever is closer to God has a more complete light and luminosity. ʿAbdallāh ibn Masʿūd said, “Surely there is no day or night with your Lord—He illuminates the heavens with the light of His face.”

It is mentioned in the traditions that the Lord of the Worlds created a tremendous angel, placing night in one of his fists and day in the other. Whenever the angel closes one fist and opens the other, that is the ruling power of the day. When he closes this fist and opens the other, that is the ruling power of the night. By way of allusion, God is saying: “I placed the disk of the sun in the fist of the angel, but I did not give the hearts of My friends to anyone. The angel has no intervention in or power over the hearts of the friends.” Know that the disk of the sun is in the fist of the angel, but the heart of the lovers is in the fist of the King—majestic and high is He! Muṣṭafā said, “The hearts of the servants are between two fingers of the All-Merciful.”

6:14 Say: “Shall I take as friend other than God, the Originator of the heavens and earth, who feeds and is not fed?”

“After He has honored me with His beautiful friendship, shall I take another as friend? After the brightness of His solicitude has fallen upon me, shall I gaze on someone else in the two houses?”^{1LI 2:158.}

“The sun of solicitude and kind favor has shone upon me from the Majestic and Exalted Threshold and taken care of my business without me in the two worlds, lighting up my heart with the eternal love and adorning it with the ornament of intimacy. He gave me such eminence at the forefront of acceptance that sometimes He puts up with my disdain: By thy life! [15:72]. Sometimes the grasp of the attributes explains the polish of my heart’s mirror by virtue of solicitude: Did We not expand for thee thy breast? [94:1]. Sometimes the assessor of the beginningless and endless register turns over the acceptance and rejection of the creatures to my threshold: Whatever the Messenger gives you, take; whatever he prohibits you, forgo [59:7]. With all this good fortune, rank, solicitude, and kind favor, how would it be appropriate for my heart to request someone else or to gaze upon this world and the afterworld?”

Hence he said concerning this world, “What do I have to do with this world?” And concerning the afterworld: “The eyesight did not swerve, nor did it trespass” [53:17]. Neither this world, nor the afterworld—rather, seeing the Patron.

The Originator of the heavens and earth, the God who created earth and heaven. He is the enactor of the world and the world’s folk, the knower of the apparent and the hidden. He does not partake of daily provision, but He assigns daily provision to the servants.

Who feeds and is not fed. To Him belongs the attribute of generosity, so He feeds. To Him belongs the rightful due of eternity, so He is not fed.^{2These two sentences are from LI 2:158.}

6:17 And if God touches thee with harm, none can remove it but He.

Just as in creating harm, He is one and unique, so also in repelling harm, He is unique and without equal. If all the world’s folk were to gather together, the jinn and mankind holding hands to bring about a pain that is not there, they would not be able to do it; or to remove a pain that is there without God’s wish, they would not find a way. Know that the wellspring of pain and remedy is one! Recognize that the source of blessing and trial is one! And see that the rising place of unbelief and faith is one! In the circle of togetherness these have one color, and in the way stations of dispersion they are multicolored. This is what that chevalier put into verse:

On your two cheeks are both unbelief and faith,

in your two lips are both pain and remedy. [DS 810]

6:18 And He is the Severe over His servants.

He breaks the pleasures of the servants, and in Essence and attributes He is above all the travelers. For the poor He is the good fortune of the heart and the life of the spirit. He perceives the unperceivable and sees the unseen face-to-face. One breath with the Real in exchange for the two worlds is cheap, one vision of Him for a hundred thousand spirits is gratis, one moment of intimacy with Him is sweeter than the spirit. He who is slain in this work is between fire and joy, and he who is unaware of this work is jailed in the prison of mortal nature. O God, vision of You is close, but at such closeness the work is too subtle. O God, everyone is upon something, but I don’t know what I’m upon. I fear only the moment when who I am appears. Since he who is in remembrance is happy with You, why is he who is happy with You lamenting?

When someone has a sweetheart like You in his arms,

how would he be aware of the noise of the Resurrection?

6:19 Say: “What thing is greater in bearing witness?” Say: “God.”

There is no bearing witness more truthful than the Real’s own bearing witness to what He witnessed at the first. That is His words, “God bears witness that there is no god but He” [3:18]. This is the Real’s bearing witness that the Real is the Real.

On the first day, at the beginningless covenant, with true words and pure speech, He reported of the unitary existence, the self-sufficient being, the endless majesty, the eternal beauty, the continuous Essence, and the self-standing attributes.

Abū ʿAbdallāh Qurashī said, “This is a teaching for the servants and a right guidance for the seekers. With His own gentleness He is teaching the servants to bear witness in their measure to His oneness and solitariness, just as He bears witness as is fitting for Him. Put aside the path of resistance, lest you fall into the pit like the abandoned Iblis.”

One of them said, “God bears witness to His oneness, His unity, and His self-sufficiency. Others, like the angels and the possessors of knowledge, bear witness by assenting to the truth of that to which He bears witness concerning Himself.”

He Himself bore witness to His lordhood, greatness, and oneness, for no one else was worthy of bearing witness. The creatures cannot reach the core of His majesty and tremendousness, and their bearing witness is nothing but assenting to the truth of the Real’s bearing witness.

Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad said, “The bearing witness of people is built on four pillars: first following the commands, second avoiding prohibitions, third contentment, and fourth approval.”

It is said that people’s bearing witness is of three sorts: the bearing witness of the common people, the bearing witness of the elect, and the bearing witness of the elect of the elect. The bearing witness of the common people is to emerge from associationism. The bearing witness of the elect is to enter into contemplation. The bearing witness of the elect of the elect is the breeze of companionship from the side of proximity for the sake of union.

The self-purifier sees all from Him, the recognizer sees all in Him, the tawḥīd-voicer sees all as He. Every named being is a loan. True being is He—the rest are suspect.

Say “God,” then leave them [6:91]. Oh, all is You, and that’s it! How could anyone appear alongside You?

6:28 No, what they had been concealing beforehand now appears to them, and even if they were sent back, they would return to what had been prohibited to them.

This is an allusion to the Day of Resurrection, which is the day of the unveiling of states and the manifestation of secrets, the day secret cores will be tried [86:9] and hidden things will become manifest. There will be many who were counted among the renunciants in this world and who wore the color of the friends and the dress of the familiar but who will see on that day the burning brand of wretchedness on their own foreheads, having been brought down to the dwelling place of the strangers. There will also be many whom you recognized as shameless and knew as bound for the manacles, who had nothing in this world, who were no one and nameless, yet in whose name on that day will be brought the treasuries of the unseen and the robes of generosity. The holy ones of the Higher Plenum and the dwellers in the Gardens of the Shelter will be staring and astonished at His work. It will be as the poet said:

Many a prayerful pir will be left behind without steed,

many a tavern-going scoundrel will saddle a roaring lion. [DS 110]

And even it they were sent back, they would return to what had been prohibited to them. Even if the folk of punishment were sent back to this world of theirs, they would return to their refusal and denial. And even if the folk of limpidness and loyalty were sent back to this world of theirs, they would return to the beauty of their deeds.^{1LI 2:162.}

6:40 Say: “Do you see: Were God’s chastisement to come to you or were the Hour to come to you, would you supplicate other than God, if you are truthful?”

If harm touches you, whom will you want to remove it? If an affair turns against you, from whom will you hope for gentleness in it?^{1LI 2:166.}

The poor child of Adam who does not know the worth of this gentleness and does not recognize the danger of this exaltedness! This verse is both a manifestation of His exaltedness, majesty, and unneediness toward the servants, and a preparation for His gentleness, bounteousness, and largesse of mercy toward them. He is saying, “If in My lordhood I should assault these creatures because of justice, who is it that will hold that assault back from them and come to their aid? Were I suddenly to bring forth the banner of the resurrection from the ambush of the Unseen, where will these servants flee? Whose hand will they grasp? Whom will they call?” Then, with His own generosity, he answers:

6:41 No, He it is whom you will supplicate, so He will remove that for which you supplicate Him if He will, and you will forget what you associated with Him.

“You will call upon Me, you will know Me, and you will ask Me to remove the trial. It is I who am powerful to perfection, I who am bounteous with bestowal, I who am the beautiful doing, beautiful-wanting friend and companion.”

In the reports of David has come this: “O David! Ask the earth-dwellers why they do not become friends with Me, for I am worthy of friendship. I am the Lord with munificence and without niggardliness, with knowledge and without ignorance, with patience and without incapacity. There is no change in My attributes and no alteration in My words. I am the bestower upon the servants and vast in mercy. I have never turned back from bounty and generosity. In the Beginningless I wrote mercy toward them against Myself and burned the incense of love. I lit up their hearts with the light of recognition.” The tongue of the servants’ state says in the tune of thanksgiving,

“Love for Your Essence, my God, is the belief of the friends,

remembering Your description, O Lord, dispels the grief of the grieving.

The cash in hand of the servants is the treasure-house of Your bounty,

so the hopeful keep on sewing the purse of hope.”

“O David, if those who turn away from Me knew how I wait for them and how I yearn to put aside their acts of disobedience, they would die in yearning for Me and would cut off all their ties because of love for Me. O David, this is what I desire for those who turn away from Me. How then is My desire for those who turn toward Me?!

“O David! I give blessings, and they show gratitude to others. I fend off trial, and they see that from others. Their shelter is My Presence, and they take shelter in others. All right, let them go, let them flee, and they will return at last.”

You also have brightness from Me—

you’ll keep wandering, then you’ll come to Me.

“O David! I am the friend of him who befriends Me. I am the companion of him who takes Me as companion. I sit with the one who sits with Me in the seclusion of remembrance. I am the intimate of him who becomes the intimate of remembering Me.

“O David! Whosoever seeks Me finds Me, and he who finds Me is worthy of not losing.”

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O Remembered in the proofs, O Reminder of intimacy! Since You are present, of what use to us is seeking? O God, everyone has a hope, and my hope is vision. Without vision I have no need for any wage nor any use for paradise.”

As long as I have this hidden pain

I will be seeking You—You know the remedy.

No, He it is whom you will supplicate. Concerning the intimations of this verse Jurayrī said, “The recognizers return to Him at the first beginnings, and the common people return to Him after despair of the creatures.” At the first of the work and the beginning of their states with the Real, the recognizers flee to the Real, do not set their hearts on the creatures, and do not see the secondary causes. The common people get caught up with the secondary causes and set their hearts on the creatures. Finally, once they despair of the creatures, they return to the Real.

Junayd said, “Those who supplicate the creatures are supplicating Him, for God says, ‘No, He it is whom you will supplicate.’”

By putting the pronoun referring to the Real first and placing the call of the creatures afterwards, He is alluding to the fact that the servant reaches supplication by means of the response of the Real; he does not reach the response of the Real by his own supplication. This is the same as saying that the recognizer finds seeking from finding, not finding from seeking. This question has details, which were explained in the Surah of al-Fātiḥa.

6:42 Indeed We sent to nations before thee, and We seized them with misery and hardship that perhaps they would plead.

Ibn ʿAṭāʾ said, “‘We seized from them all the paths so that they would return to Us.’^{1Sulamī, Ḥaqāʾiq 6:42.} I shut down all the roads to them so that they would turn away totally from the realm of being and busy themselves with My companionship, putting love for Me in their hearts.”

Conforming with this is the story of Majnūn. He was seen circumambulating the Kaabah, out of touch with himself and agitated. The sea of passion was sending up waves in his breast, and his hands were raised in prayer: “‘O God, increase me in love for Laylā!’ Lord God, increase the passion for Laylā in my heart and multiply the trial of her love a thousand times!”

His father, who was the prince of the time, said, “O Majnūn! Many antagonists have risen up against you. Go away for a few days, and perhaps they will forget about you, and this madness for Laylā will become less.”

Majnūn went and on the third day came back. He said, “Father, excuse me. Passion for Laylā has closed all the roads to me, and I can only take the road to Laylā’s street.”

Each has a prayer-niche in some direction,

but Sanāʾī’s prayer-niche is Your street. [DS 1004]

6:52 And drive not away those who supplicate their Lord morning and evening, desiring His face.

The unbelievers came before Muṣṭafā and said, “O Muḥammad, we want to have faith in you, but it is beneath our dignity to sit with these beggars and smell the unpleasant scent of their shabby clothes. Keep them away from you so that we may have faith in you.”

God’s Messenger desired eagerly for them to have faith, which is why God said, “Perhaps thou art consuming thyself with grief that they do not have faith in this talk” [18:6].

One narrative has reported that God’s Messenger sent ʿUmar with a message to these poor men, telling them to come less often for a few days so that perhaps those people would have faith. ʿUmar had not taken three steps before Gabriel came and brought this verse—“And drive not away! O Muḥammad, do not drive them away, for I have not driven them away. Do not caress those whom I have not called.”

Yes, those accepted by the Presence are one thing, those driven away by severance something else! Those poor men were the ones called by And God invites to the abode of peace [10:25], and those estranged ones were the ones driven away by Slink into it, and do not talk to Me! [23:108].

God’s Messenger called ʿUmar back. The unbelievers returned and said, “If you can, at least give us a turn one day and them a turn another day, and then we may have faith in you.” God’s Messenger aspired to set these turns as they wanted. Gabriel came and brought this verse: “And keep thy soul patient with those who supplicate their Lord [18:28]. Be with them, for I am with them. You should want them, for I want them.”

When the unbelievers despaired of his setting down turns day by day, they returned and said, “If you do not set down turns, we allow that. We will sit along with them for a time, and you look at us, not at them. You show respect to us, and then we will have faith in you.”

Muṣṭafā called ʿUmar and sent him to the poor men to make their hearts happy and to seek their heart’s approval for this so that perhaps those unbelievers would have faith. But the goal of the unbelievers in what they were asking was not to have faith. Rather, they wanted to torment the hearts of the poor so that perhaps they would find Muṣṭafā repellant and leave his religion. When ʿUmar set out on the road to take this message, Gabriel came and brought this verse: “And let not thine eyes turn away from them” [18:28], O Muḥammad, do not turn your face away from these poor men and do not lift your eyes away from them, for I am always gazing upon them.” God’s Messenger turned totally to the poor and sat with them. He always used to say, “Welcome to those concerning whom my Lord counseled me.”

Desiring His face. Abū Yaʿqūb Nahrjūrī was asked, “What is the attribute of the desirer?”

He recited the verse, “Those who supplicate their Lord morning and evening, desiring His face” [18:28]. Then he said, “They wake up and have nothing to ask from this world of theirs, nor any demand for their afterworld. Their only aspiration is to talk with their Patron. When they become disengaged for God, the Real’s solicitude devotes itself to them and undertakes to speak for them. Hence He said, ‘And drive them not away, O Muḥammad!’”

Desiring His face. The meaning of desire is a man’s wanting as he travels the road. It is of three sorts: One is desiring only this world, another is desiring only the next world, and the third is desiring only the Real.

Desiring this world is what He says: “You desire the chance goods of this life [8:67]. Whosoever desires this hasty world [17:18]. Whosoever desires the tillage of this world [42:20]. If you desire the life of this world and its adornment [33:28].” The mark of desiring this world is two things: approving of increase in this world by means of decrease in the religion; and turning away from the poor among the Muslims.

Desiring the afterworld is what He says: “Whosoever desires the afterworld [17:19]. Whosoever desires the tillage of the next world [42:20].” Its mark is two things: approving of the safety of the religion by decreasing in this world, and bosom friendship with the poor.

Desiring the Real is what God says: “Desiring His face [6:52]. If you desire God and His Messenger [23:29].” Its mark is stepping beyond the two worlds, becoming free of the creatures, and escaping oneself.^{1These three paragraphs are based on Ṣad maydān, no. 5 (262-63).}

This was an explication in terms of learning and the verification of the expression. As for the explication in terms of understanding in the tongue of allusion, it is what the Pir of the Tariqah said when he was asked about desire: “It is a breath between knowledge and the present moment in the quarter of joy, the neighborhood of friendship, and the house of nonbeing. The house has four borders: one with the distraught, another with the strangers, a third with the heart-lost, and a fourth with the yearners.”

Then he said, “O helping and lovingly kind! Exalted is he who has one breath with You. O Found and Findable! What mark does the desirer show other than selflessness? Everyone’s tribulation is because of distance, but the desirer’s because of nearness! Everyone is thirsty from not finding water, but the desirer is thirsty from being quenched.

“O God, I seek the Found. I say to the Seen, ‘What do I have, what should I seek, when will I see, what should I say?’ I am entranced by this seeking, I am seized by this speaking.”

As long as I have the spirit, I will suffer in grief for You.

Without the spirit I will not entrust Your passion’s pain to anyone.

6:54 And when those who have faith in Our signs come to thee, say, “Peace be upon you. Your Lord has written mercy against Himself, that whosoever of you does an ugly deed in ignorance, and thereafter repents and makes wholesome, He is forgiving, ever-merciful.”

“The faithful are one thing, the recognizers something else. The faithful first look at the artifacts and the signs, then they reach Us from the signs. The recognizers first reach Us, then they return from Us to the signs.

“O Muḥammad! Unto those who have faith in Us by the intermediary of the signs, convey Our greeting of peace by the intermediary of yourself! Unto those who recognize Us without intermediary and find Us without the artifacts, We will convey Our greetings of peace without intermediary.” That is in His words, “Peace—a word from an ever-merciful Lord” [36:58].

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, he who recognizes You through the artifacts depends on the secondary causes, he who recognizes You through the attributes is imprisoned by reports, and he who recognizes You by allusion seeks companionship. He who is snatched away by You is protected from himself.”

Although He has turned you over to the angel who writes your slips against you, He Himself has undertaken to write mercy for you. His writing for you is beginningless, and that writing against you is temporal. The temporal does not nullify the beginningless.^{1This paragraph is derived from LI 2:172.}

Wāsiṭī said, “By His mercy they arrived at worshiping Him. It is not that by worshiping Him they arrived at His mercy. By His mercy they attained what is with Him, not by their acts, for the Prophet said, ‘Not even I, unless God envelops me with His mercy.’”

Whosoever of you does an ugly deed in ignorance, and thereafter repents and makes wholesome, He is forgiving, ever-merciful. It has been narrated in a report, “You called upon Me, and I said ‘Here I am!’ You asked from Me, and I bestowed upon you. You stood up against Me, and I gave you respite. You left Me, and I took care of you. You disobeyed Me, and I curtained you. If you return to Me, I will accept you. If you turn away from Me, I will wait for you.” He is saying, “My servants, My creatures! You called out to Me, I answered you with ‘Here I am!’ You asked for blessings from Me, I bestowed gifts upon you. You came out foolishly, and I gave you respite. You put aside My command, and I did not take away kind favor from you. You disobeyed, and I lowered the curtain over you. With all of this, if you come back, I will accept you, and if you turn away, I will await your coming back. I am the most munificent of the munificent, the most generous of the generous, and the most merciful of the merciful.”

6:75-79 So also We were showing Abraham the dominion of the heavens and the earth, that he might be one of those with certainty. When night darkened over him, he saw a star. He said, “This is my Lord.” When it set he said, “I love not those that set.”... Then when he saw the sun rising, he said, “This is my Lord, this is greater.” When it set he said, “O my people, I am quit of what you associate. Surely I have turned my face toward Him who originated the heavens and the earth, unswerving, and I am not of the associaters.”

First He showed him the dominion of heaven and earth so that he would derive evidence of the existence of the Artisan by way of inference. He looked at the stars and said, “This is my Lord,” that is, “evidence of my Lord, for my Lord has no beginning or end, but this has set.” He said, “I love not those that set.” At last the beauty of the Haqiqah showed its face to him. By means of inference and proofs he went back to witnessing and face-to-face vision. He turned away from everything and said, “Surely they are an enemy to me, save the Lord of the Worlds” [26:77]. He said to Gabriel, “As for turning toward you, no.” First he was like a knower, then he became like a recognizer.

Wāsiṭī said, “The world’s creatures are going to Him, but the recognizers are coming from Him.”

He also said, “If someone says, ‘I recognized God through the evidence,’ ask him how he recognized the evidence.’”

True, at the beginning there is no escape from evidence, as was the beginning of Abraham’s path. All that evidence came into Abraham’s path—the star, the moon, the sun. When he reached each piece of evidence, he would cling to it and say, “This is my Lord.” When he passed beyond the degrees of the evidence, he saw the beauty of tawḥīd with the eye of face-to-face vision. He said, “O my people, I am quit of what you associate,” that is, I am quit of inference from the creatures to the Creator, for there is no evidence for Him save Himself.

This is the same as that great one of the religion said: “I recognized God through God, and I recognized that which is beneath God through God’s light.” This is alluded to in His words, “And the earth will shine with the light of its Lord” [39:69].

Here a chevalier of the Tariqah made an exalted point and clarified the traveling of the travelers and the pull that takes those who are snatched away. He said, “When the caress of And God took Abraham as a bosom friend [4:125] reached Abraham from the court of Unity in the attribute of clemency and mercy, the command came, ‘O Abraham, there is no stipulation that you stand still in the road of bosom friendship. Go higher than the way station of I submit to the Lord of the Worlds [2:131]. Make the journey that is called the journey of solitariness. ‘Travel with the precedence of the solitary!’”

Abraham was a fast-going seeker, looking for the reminder of the Beginningless. He put the sandals of intention on the feet of his aspiration and went forth on the journey of I am going to my Lord [37:99]. The treasuries of exaltedness were opened up from the hiding place of the Unseen, and many pearls of the Unseen and wonders of the treasuries were strewn in the road of I am going.

Abraham was still a traveler and became attached to I am going. He had not yet reached the center point of togetherness. He looked back and saw plunder, so he busied himself with the plunder. The beauty of tawḥīd unveiled itself to him: “Why did you look back?” Finally he asked forgiveness with I love not those that set.

He still saw those pearls of the Unseen and he stood back: “This is my Lord, this is my Lord,” for those pearls of the Unseen were so heart-deceiving and preoccupying.

It was said to him, “O Abraham, you should not have halted like this. Why did you go forth on the road of I am going to my Lord and then look back at the plunder and treasures? Why did you not turn the eye of aspiration away from that? Why did you not put to use the Sunnah of the eyesight did not swerve, nor did it trespass [53:17]?”

This is the Sunnah of that paragon of the world and the characteristic of that master of Adam’s children. On the night of nearness and familiarity, the greatest signs [53:28] disclosed themselves in his road, and he remained in this courtesy: The eyesight did not swerve, nor did it trespass.

“O Abraham! When someone is searching for the reminder of the Beginningless and the mystery of the Beneficent, what use has he for plunder and treasures?”

When a serpent bites a man’s liver,

they give him the antidote, not candy.

Abraham pulled the hand of disengagement from the sleeve of solitariness and turned away from the secondary causes: Surely I have turned my face toward Him who originated the heavens and the earth, unswerving, and I am not of the associaters. In other words: “I aim solely for God, I have made myself pure of ties to anything but God, I have preserved my covenant in God for God, I have purged my finding through God. I belong to God in God, or rather, I am effaced in God, and God is God.”

6:91 They measured not God with the rightful due of His measure.... Say “God,” then leave them to play in their plunging.

In other words, they did not recognize Him with the rightful due of His recognition, they did not describe Him with the rightful due of His description, and they did not venerate Him with the rightful due of His veneration. No one has recognized Him as is worthy of Him. No one has known Him as is worthy of Him. They encompass nothing of His knowledge [2:255]. You have been given no knowledge save a little [17:85].

Majestic is the Unity, so how can there be finding? Holy is the Self-Sufficient, so how can there be arrival? He is known, but encompassing Him in knowledge is absurd; He is seen, but perceiving His attribute is impossible; He is recognized, but having an overview of His description is not correct. He took away His attribute and measure so that no one exalted would reach His exaltation, no understanding would perceive His extent, no knower would know His measure.

What familiarity has water and dust with Him who always was and always will be? What affinity has eternity with new arrival? How can the subsistent Real join with the trace of what undergoes annihilation? How can the worthy link up with the unworthy? How can the prisoner of variegation reach the guise of stability?

If others were of any use in His gentle presence,

the passionate for His beauty would have a hope for union.

It would be possible to search, were there a way to seek;

He would be known in the end, were there a way to ask.

Say “God,” then leave them. This is an eloquent allusion to the reality of solitariness, the center point of togetherness, making the aspiration one-pointed, recognizing the Real as one, and turning away from others toward Him. Say “God,” then leave them: Keep the heart turned toward Him and leave aside the others. What does someone seized by His love have to do with others? In this work, this world and the next are like a wall, and, for the recognizer, talking about the two is nothing but defect and shame.

Shiblī said to one of his companions, “Stick to God, leave everything else, and be with Him. And say, “God,’ then leave them to play in their plunging.”

6:93 Who does greater wrong than he who forges a lie against God?

In the tongue of commentary placing lies on God and tying lies to Him is what we explained and clarified in the story of Musaylima and ʿAnsī.^{1In Stage Two (3:428-29), Maybudī provides traditional accounts of two pretenders to prophecy during the lifetime of the Prophet: “The liar of Yamāma,” Musaylima ibn Ḥabīb, and “The liar of Sanʿāʾ,” Aswad ibn Kaʿb al-ʿAnsī.} As for the tongue of the folk of allusion and the tasting of the chevaliers of the Path, this has another secret and intimation, by virtue of the report given by Muṣṭafā, “Every verse has an outwardness and an inwardness.” The reality of this secret is that anyone who claims recognition of God is a forger in reality, for the majesty of Unity is pure and not in any need of recognition by water and dust. This is why the pirs of the Tariqah have said, “Whoever remembers has forged, whoever shows patience has been audacious, and whoever recognizes is cut off.”

Junayd said, “My greatest sin is my recognition of Him.” In other words, “It is that I should fancy and claim that I have recognized Him as is fitting for Him in the rightful due of His reality and the limits of His exaltedness.” But such recognition does not come from the Adamite, nor do his understanding and imagination reach it. This recognition fits only into the Lordhood’s own knowledge, for in reality He recognizes Himself and knows Himself. God says, “They measured not God with the rightful due of His measure” [6:91]. The attributes of new arrival have no access to eternity, and everything that comes from the compass of power to the world of ignorance is imprisoned by variegation, and variegated things have no access to stability. Whenever someone is guided by gazing and inference, he is walking in his own tracks. Whoever walks in his own tracks is nothing but deluded. Whoever hopes for recognition is seeking his own portion, and whoever seeks his own portion is nothing but self-nurturing and self-worshiping.

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

Kiss the dust beneath the feet of those who have disowned self! [DS 972]

The Adamite was not, then he was. That which was not, then was, is nonbeing. How can recognition of being come from nonbeing? Someone who exists between two nonexistences is nothing at all. How can all things come to a nothing?

Good fortune does not come by artifice, nor recognition by causes. Felicity does not come by worship, nor recognition by sufficiency. Shiblī said, “You did not recognize Him with your recognition. On the contrary, you perceived Him with your knowledges and your opinions and you intellected Him with your imaginations and your understandings. You measured Him with your beliefs and your hearts, and all that is turned back upon you and created like you.”

6:95 Surely God is the splitter apart of the grain and the date-stone.

He splits open the seeds of food so that plants will come out and be suited for nourishment. In the same way He splits open the seed of the heart so that the jewel of self-purification, within which is the servant’s deliverance, will show its face. The former becomes the cause of the abidance of the servant’s soul, and the latter the cause of the firm fixity of the servant’s faith. He Himself nurtures both and provides daily provision to both. He nurtures the heart with witnessing Him, and He nurtures the soul with His blessings. Then He makes the soul the steed of the heart. It rides upon it in the playing field of worship and makes it pass over the way stations of the acts of worship, arriving at the goal of Surely the final end is unto your Lord [53:42]. This is the day of triumph, endless felicity, and boundless good fortune, risen up gratis for the servant—the fragrant herb of boasting sprung from the thorn of poverty, and the dawn of happiness risen from the horizon of freedom.

6:96 Splitter apart of the dawn; and He has made the night as a stillness.

If He brightens the regions of the world with the morning of being, what wonder is it that He should brighten the secret regions of the heart with the morning of recognition! One of the pirs of the Tariqah said, “Splitter apart of the dawn means that He splits open the hearts with the explanation of the lights of unseen things and He illuminates the secret cores with the remembrance of the good things and the repose of the reports.”

6:98 He it is who has configured you from one soul.

By way of allusion He is saying, “I created you from Adam, that unique soul, and among all the created things, I gave no one else the good fortune I gave to him and the rank and level I appointed for him.”

He called Himself, “the most beautiful of creators” [23:14], and He said of Adam, “in the most beautiful stature” [95:4]. In other words, God is the most beautiful of creators, and Adam is the most beautiful of creatures. “O Adam, in creativity, I am the unique, and among the creatures you are the unique.” This is the same that is brought in one of the reports concerning the attribute of Adam’s creation: The Exalted Lord said, “I loved something, so I created it solitary for the Solitary.”^{1See the full text of this report under 2:34.}

6:99 And He it is who sent down out of heaven water, by which We bring forth the growth of everything.... Gaze at their fruits when they fructify and ripen. Surely in these are signs for a people who have faith.

He alludes to the Essence of the Unity, who alludes to the attributes of the Lordhood, sent down alludes to the artisanry of the Divinity. He is a Lord who is existent by Essence, described by attributes, and recognized through artifacts and signs. It has also been said that He alludes to what is beyond being, so that the listener will give ear to it, the seeker will find access to it, and the gazer will look to it. Who alludes to being, so that the listener will become familiar, the seeker will come to see, and the wanter will come to know.

He it is comes in the Qur’an thirty-nine times, twenty with and, and nineteen without.

Sent down out of heaven water until the end of the verse—all these are marks that the Creator is one and has no peer in Godhood. He is without contrivance in power, without changing of state in self-standingness, secure from cease in kingship, transcendent in Essence and description. The Lord of the Worlds is calling the servants to this tawḥīd. Do you not see that at the end of the verse He says “Gaze”? Look carefully so that you may know, and know so that you may perceive! Here He speaks of gazing. Elsewhere He says, “None will remember but those who are penitent” [40:13]: No one will gaze, accept, and recognize the reminder except the one whose heart is right with the Real and who gazes upon Him before his eyes. This is the allusion at the end of the verse: “Surely in that are signs for a people who have faith.” The ones who find access to the signs of power are those who have faith in the signs of the attributes, the ones who have shame before God are those who are aware of His gaze, and the ones who will fear God are those who know that God is powerful over them.

6:111 Were We to send down the angels to them, were the dead to speak to them, and were We to muster all things in front of them, they would still not have faith, unless God willed.

He is speaking about those rejected by the Presence, those driven away by severance. “If We were to send the angels of heaven—the proximate and the cherubim, the emissaries and the pious, the watchers over the decree and the measuring out, the trustees of the Exalted Threshold—to the earth to invite the abandoned to Us and to report about Us; and if We were to muster the dead in the earth to direct them to Our threshold; and if We were to bestow eloquence on all the animals and inanimate things, the entities and bodies of the created things, the form and essence of the determined things, and the instances and individuals of the known things and send these to them to offer them the signs of Our divinity and the signposts of Our lordhood so that they may see and know all of the reports, still, as long as I, who am the Lord, did not want and did not show them the road, they would not have faith and they would not find the way to recognize Us. How can a handful of dust talk about the eternal were it not for the eternal solicitude and want of the Generous?”

Who is the heart that it should scatter pearls without You?

What is the body that it should run a kingdom without You?

By God, intelligence does not know the way without You,

the spirit has not the gall to remain without You

The belief of the Folk of the Sunnah is that as long as the Exalted Lord does not make Himself recognized to the servant’s heart, and as long as He does not fix the marks that bear witness to the eternal attributes in the servant’s heart, the servant will not find the road to recognition of Him. This is why the ulama of the Sunnah and the leaders of emulation have said, “Recognition becomes necessary when transmitted, requisite when conveyed, and acquired when made known.” Indeed, it is a candle, but when will He light it? It is a pearl, but where will He deposit it? God says, “It is one of My secrets that I deposit in the hearts of those whom I love among My servants.”

One must have both recognition and familiarity to be the target of this work and worthy for this robe. Claiming familiarity without recognition is rejecting the truth, just as He reports about those estranged ones who said, “We are God’s children and His loved ones” [5:18]. Claiming recognition without familiarity is nothing but deception, as in the case of him who was abandoned by the Threshold, the head of the wretched, Iblis, who had recognition, but not familiarity. Both his beginning and his end were nothing but deception, concealed in the depths of unbelief. Outwardly he had the angelic form, wearing the mask of calling God holy, but inwardly he was corrupt. For thousands of years he had walked on the carpet of worship in the hope of union. When he fancied that the eye of his hope would be opened, or the breath of union would blow inside him, he fell from the heaven of loftiness to the dust of the curse: Upon thee shall be My curse [38:78].

I said, “My heart wants to be Your comrade,

so I will be worthy of thanks and applause.”

By God, I did not think, O Spirit of the world,

that all my hopes would come to this.

6:112 Thus have We made for every prophet an enemy, satans of jinn and men.

When someone’s rank is higher, his trial will be more complete. When someone is nearer to the Real and his heart more limpid, his soul will be more captured by the hand of the enemy. Yes, without the grief of tribulation, the story of love cannot be told. Without the venom of trial, the honey of friendship cannot be found. Look at what Adam the Chosen, that sapling honored by the Real and nurtured by hallowing, saw from his enemy Iblis. God says, “Then Satan made them slip therefrom and brought them out from what they were in” [2:36].

And that other elder of the prophets and father of the world’s folk, Noah—look at what he saw from his own people. For nine hundred and some years he invited them, and every day they beat him so much that he became unconscious, and they advised his own children to be his enemies. That paragon was patient in this trial and he kept hoping that they would have faith. Finally it was said to him, “None of your community will have faith except those who already have faith” [11:36]. He said, “Lord God, since my hope has been cut off and there is no way to wholesomeness, their being in this world will do nothing but increase corruption and cause ruin. Leave no disbeliever dwelling on the earth [71:26].”

After that Abraham, the prophet who was the tree of tawḥīd, fell to his knees night and day, placing his white old age in his hands: “Keep me and my sons away from worshiping idols” [14:35]. Look at what reached him from the rebellious Nimrod and what hardship he suffered from his arrogance and obstinacy!

So also the prophets one by one—Hūd, Ṣāliḥ, Lot, Zachariah, John, Jesus, Moses—came to lamentation at the hands of the tyrants, the arrogant, and the refractory, weeping to the Real. Then, after all of them, Muḥammad Muṣṭafā’s trial was more complete and his torment from enemies greater. Thus he said, “No prophet whatsoever has been tormented as I have been tormented.” Those estranged and disrespectful people did not know the measure of that paragon. They did not have the eyes to recognize him. They set out to kill him and bound their belts in cruelty toward him. The elders ridiculed him, the poets lampooned him, the children threw stones at him, the women poured dust on him from the roofs. Then they came to an agreement and made a compact among themselves to remove him and to help their own gods. At that point Gabriel came and said, “O Master! Get up, and leave the city to them. Set out for exile, for ‘Seeking the Real is exile.’”

In commanding him to exile there is a secret that a chevalier has brought out in his verses of poetry:

O you who were an orphan, now be gentle to orphans!

O you who were a stranger, now be kind to strangers!

The generosity We showed to you in your poverty and orphanhood—

you show the same, O generous in character, to Our creatures!

Be a mother to orphans, nurture them with gentleness,

be noble to askers, fulfill their requests. [DS 36]

6:114 What, shall I want other than God as a judge?

“Shall I take other than God as an object of worship? Certainly not! Should I know a god other than God? No, never.” The object of worship without peer is He, for He is one and unique. In activity and all-compellingness He has no equal, in running the work and mastering the work He has no similar. In caressing servants He is well known, in loving kindness and showing love, He is the one described.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, You are found by the recognizers, You are the wish of the hearts of the yearners, You are mentioned on the tongue of the praisers! How should I not want You, for You hear the voice of the supplicators. How should I not praise You, for You make the hearts of the servants happy. How should I not know You, for You are the adornment of the universe. How should I not love You, for You are the delight of the spirit.”

6:116 Wert thou to obey most of those in the earth, they would misguide thee from the path of God.

In terms of number, God’s delegates are few, but they have weight and gravity. The folk of falsehood are many, but they have no weight or meaning. For a world of metaphor, one iota of reality is enough. For a world of foolishness and falsehood, one breath of the lords of finding is enough.

One swat of the Lion for a world full of carrion-eaters,

one blast of the Trumpet for a hundred thousand Pharaoh-natures! [DS 184]

“O Muḥammad! If you see them in terms of number and manyness, they will throw you into trouble. If you seek to get along with them, they will hold you back from the Real. Obey Our command, and turn away from them. So shout out what thou art commanded, and turn away from the associaters” [15:94].

6:120 Leave aside the outward of sin and its inward.

Know that the Exalted Lord created the creatures with His majestic power and perfect exaltation and arranged them in keeping with His subtle artisanry, wise gaze, and limitless generosity. He completed their limitless blessings both outwardly and inwardly. He said, “He has lavished on you His blessings, outward and inward” [31:20]. Then He asked the servants to be grateful for the blessings: “And be grateful for the blessings of God, if He it is whom you worship” [16:114]. If you want to show what is stipulated for servanthood, then display gratitude for His blessings and do not employ the blessings of your Lord in opposing Him, whether outwardly or inwardly. This is why He said, “Leave aside the outward sin and the inward.”

Just as He made blessings two sorts, the outward and the inward, so also He made opposition two sorts, the outward and the inward. The outward blessing is the perfection of creation, and the inward blessing is the beauty of character. The counterparts of these are outward sin, which is opposition that enters the outward bodily parts, and inward sin, which is love for disobedience that enters the heart. This is why Sahl Tustarī said concerning the meaning of this verse, “Abandon acts of disobedience with your limbs and also love for those acts in your heart.”

It has also been said that outward sin is seeking this world and inward sin is seeking paradise. Even though seeking paradise is not disobedience in the tongue of learning, in the path of the chevaliers and the tasting of the recognizers, seeking paradise is to seek blessings. When someone seeks blessings, he is held back from the mystery of the Beneficent and the joy of the Presence. They count anything that holds you back from that mystery and joy as association and disobedience, even if, for some people, it is obedience and worship. In this meaning they sang,

Any talk that keeps you back from the road—let it be unbelief or faith.

Any picture that holds you back from the Friend—let it be ugly or beautiful. [DS 51]

6:122 What, is he who was dead, and We gave him life, making for him a light whereby he walks among the people, like one who is in the darknesses, not coming out from them?

The life of recognition is one thing, and the life of mortal nature something else. The world’s folk live through the life of mortal nature, and the friends live through the life of recognition. The life of mortal nature comes to an end when this world ends and the term arrives. When their term comes, they shall not put it back by an hour, nor put it forward [7:34]. But it is fitting that the life of recognition never come to an end, for recognition will never be finished. Day by day it is more and closer to the Real. God says, “We shall surely give him to live a goodly life” [16:97].

Junayd was washing the corpse of one of his disciples. He took hold of Junayd’s index finger and said, “This one is being transferred from abode to abode. His friends do not die. Rather, they are taken from their secret cores to another house.”

Junayd said, “Yes, I know, such is the case. But you must let go of my finger so that I can wash you and carry out the custom of the Shariah.”

Abū ʿAbdallāh Khafīf said that Abu’l-Ḥasan Muzayyan said, “I went to Mecca, and Shaykh Abū Yaʿqūb Aqṭaʿ was in the state of going. They said to me, ‘If he looks at you, present the Shahadah to him.’ They took me as inexperienced because I was a child. I sat at his pillow, and he looked at me. I said, ‘O Shaykh, bear witness that there is no god but God!’”

He said, “You mean me? By the exaltedness of Him who does not taste death! Nothing remains between Him and me save the veil of exaltedness.”

Shaykh al-Islām said, “The curtain of His exaltedness is He, for He indeed is He, and you are you.”

Abū ʿAbdallāh Khafīf said, “A man was burning in the Divinity beyond the curtain of exaltedness, and they came and presented him with the Shahadah!”

Abu’l-Ḥusayn Muzayyan for a time used to say, “A beggar like me came so that I could present the Shahadah to His friends!”

Shāh Kirmānī recited this verse and then said, “The mark of this life is three things: Finding intimacy by losing dread, being filled with solitariness by the constancy of remembrance, and being aware of awe by the purity of watchfulness.” It is retirement from the creatures and solitariness with the Real, the tongue with the remembrance and the heart with reflection; sometimes in awe from gazing upon majesty and exaltedness, sometimes in hope from gazing upon gentleness during watchfulness. One’s spirit is constantly roasted in the pan of passion and burnt like a moth. In the dark night, at wit’s end like the distracted, one hopes that by dawn the morning of “God descends” will arrive, for He attends to the ill. He says, “O angels, you circumambulate their hearts so that I may place a balm on their wounds.” The tongue of the servant’s state keeps on saying in the attribute of need,

“O branch of the passionate man’s hope for union, grow!

O moon, leave the mansion of disloyalty!

O morning of union with the Friend, come one day!

O dark night of separation, come entirely to an end!”

6:125 Whomsoever God desires to guide, He expands his breast to the submission.

The mark of this expansion is that at three moments He throws three lights into the heart of the servant: the light of intellect at the beginning, the light of learning in the middle, and the light of recognition at the end. Then, with the sum total of these lights, all his difficulties are solved and he begins to see something of the Unseen. Muṣṭafā said, “Be wary of the perspicacity of the man of faith, for he gazes with the light of God.”

With the light of the beginning he knows his own defects, with the light of the middle he recognizes his own loss, and with the light of the end he perceives his own nonbeing. With the light of the beginning he escapes from associationism, with the light of the middle he escapes from opposition, and with the light of the end he escapes from himself.

Disown yourself, for what harms you is you.

Don’t talk about stars, for your heaven is you.

6:126 This is the path of thy Lord, straight.

The straight path is undertaking servanthood while realizing lordhood. This is a dispersion confirmed by togetherness, and a togetherness delimited by the Shariah. Dispersion without togetherness is the effort of the Mu’tazilites, who fell off the road and did not reach the station of the Haqiqah. Togetherness without dispersion is the path of the libertines, who let go of the Shariah and fancied a Haqiqah that was not.

It is said that dispersion is the Shariah’s place, and togetherness is the Haqiqah’s place. If the Shariah is empty of the Haqiqah, this is deprivation, and if the Haqiqah is empty of the Shariah, this is abandonment.

The Shariah is explication, the Haqiqah face-to-face vision. Muṣṭafā was possessor of both face-to-face vision and explication. If the Shariah and the Haqiqah are not brought together in the servant, the Abode of Peace will not be his place and home.

6:134 Surely what you are promised will come.

Take what is to come as come, take what is to go as gone, take this bright day as dark, and take this world’s delusion as a day that has ended.

A chevalier was seen limping without a cause. They asked him, “Why are you limping?”

He said, “Tomorrow I am going to the thorn-field.”

They said, “Then tomorrow!”

He said, “Take tomorrow as come, take this curtain as torn, and take the disgrace as arrived!”

How long making the abode of delusion an abode of joy?

How long making the abode of flight an abode of lodging? [DS 182]

O chevalier! The life of this world is wind—as soon as you look, it’s gone. This world is like a mad man’s laughter and a drunkard’s weeping. The mad man laughs without happiness, and the drunkard weeps without grief. This world is like ice placed in the sun, and it passes in anguish. Or it is like a sugar cube put in the mouth, and it falls apart. Yes, the taste is so sweet, but the body melts away. As soon as you put it in your mouth, it melts. This world is a pleasant gazing place, a verdant disclosure, but as soon as you look, it passes. As soon as you bind your heart to it, it goes.

“If not for death, every man would claim lordhood.” Were it not for the abasement of death, from all sides of the world would rise up the call, “I am your Lord the most high” [79:24].

You will see all these seats of honor emptied of chiefs. They bloomed like roses on the wall, then they dropped from the wall and slept in the dust. Why do you not take heed and think about your final end? The Lord of the Worlds says, “You shall surely know whose outcome shall be the Abode” [6:135]. Yes, know what this world will reach and who shall have the house of triumph and foreverness! See how the poor and broken will be brought on steeds of generosity, and the chieftains empty of meaning will be driven by whips of severity!

Wait—you’ll find those you see as parts today are wholes.

Wait—you’ll see those you see as thorns today are roses.

The exalted ones who’ll be good fortune’s garden there—

don’t take and treat them like lowly thorns here.

The rosebush that yesterday’s cruelty makes appear to you like firewood—

wait till the hand of Spring’s justice brings it to display! [DS 185]

6:160 Whoso brings a beautiful deed shall have ten the like of it, and whoso brings an ugly deed shall be recompensed only with its like.

The former will be bounty and the latter justice.

O Lord, if You show bounty, Your bounty has no limit, and if You show justice, Your justice cannot be rejected. If You show bounty, let others be just or unjust! If You show justice, others’ bounty is like the wind. If You show bounty, bounty is appropriate for You. If You show justice, not increasing is appropriate for You.

Part of His bounty is that one beautiful deed of the servant becomes ten, and by His bounty, ugly deeds change into beautiful deeds. God says, “Those—God shall change their ugly deeds into beautiful deeds” [25:70].

Abū Dharr narrates: “I said, ‘O Messenger of God, teach me a deed that will bring me near to the Garden and keep me far from the Fire.’

“He said, ‘When you do an ugly deed, follow it with a beautiful deed.’”

“I said, ‘Is “There is no god but God” one of the beautiful deeds?’

“He said, ‘It is the most beautiful of the beautiful deeds.’’

The beautiful deeds of the worshipers are one thing, the beautiful deeds of the recognizers something else. The worshipers are in the station of service, but the recognizers are on the carpet of witnessing in the station of nearness and the intimacy of contemplation.

Each one’s beautiful deeds are in the measure of his traveling. The beautiful deeds of the renunciants are an aspiration greater than this world, the beautiful deeds of the desirers are an object of desire greater than the afterworld, the beautiful deeds of the sincerely truthful are a yearning to see the Patron. The renunciants have service according to the Sunnah, the desirers have recognition in contemplation, the sincerely truthful have laudation in the Reality. This is the end of the traveling of the wayfarers, the final goal of the levels of the sincerely truthful, and the beginning of the Real’s attraction. Muṣṭafā was in this station when he opened the tongue of laudation and said in the attribute of confoundedness, “I do not number Thy laudations—Thou art as Thou hast lauded Thyself.”

6:161 Say: “As for me, my Lord has guided me to a straight path.”

The straight path has a beginning and an end. The beginning is the Sunnah and the congregation, and the end is the intimacy of finding and the continuity of contemplation. The Sunnah and the congregation are that you accept the verses and reports about the unperceived attributes with spirit and heart. You come forward with assent and surrender and you stand with the name and the outwardness. You do not wander around it with imagination. You avoid self-exertion, interpretation, and reflective thinking about it. You stipulate it in its entirety, without addition or subtraction, without judgment, declaring similarity, or concealment. And you convey it exactly as you received it.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “Everyone who enters by the door of surrender and assent is given one of three drinks: Either he is given the drink of recognition, so his heart comes to life through the Real, or he is given poison through which the commanding soul is slain beneath his own severity, or he is given a wine through the finding of which the spirit becomes drunk and perplexed. From here begins the finding of the Haqiqah and the intimacy of companionship. He finds the pleasure of service and the sweetness of obedience. He joins with the joy of recognition and reaches the repose of whispered prayer. Then he falls into an occupation that cannot be expressed until he becomes all life in that.”

O life of the spirit, what is it with me that I know nothing of my state?

The spirit from You fills me, but my heart’s blood is empty of You.

*

You are not empty of me, but I do not see Your face,

You are a spirit with me, but I do not see You.

6:162 Say: “My prayer and my sacrifice, my life and my death, belong to God.”

He who knows that he is in God knows that he belongs to God. When he knows that his soul belongs to God, no portion of him remains for other than God. He surrenders to God’s decree, he does not protest against God’s predetermination, he does not oppose God’s chosen ones, and he does not turn away from embracing God’s command.

This verse about Muṣṭafā alludes to the station of union. Union is joining with the Real and being released from oneself. The mark of this work is a heart alive through meditation and a tongue loosed in remembrance. One becomes a loan to the creatures, a stranger to oneself, at ease from attachment, at rest with the Real.

The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, ever since You called me, I have been alone in the crowd. When You said ‘Come!,’ my seven bodily parts heard. What comes forth from the Adamite? The Adamite’s worth is clear: His purse is empty, he treads on air.

“This work was before Adam and Eve, a bestowal before fear and hope, but the Adamite undergoes trials because of seeing. He alone is joyful who is free of seeing causes and disloyal toward his own self. Though the millwheel of the states is turning, so what? The pivot of His will is in place.”

O friend, I have become all yours.

In truth these words have no lying, no deceit.

Were you to jump right out of your own selfhood,

I would likely be there in your place, my dear.