His words, Exalted is He:

…To God belongs the command, before and after…

This means, before everything else [existed], and after everything else [ceases to exist]. This is because He is the One who initiates [everything] (al-Mubdiʾ) and brings it back [to its source] (al-Muʿīd). His arrangement (tadbīr) of [the affairs of] His creatures was antecedent [to them] (sabaqa), for He knows them in their origin (aṣl) and what will proceed from them (farʿ).

His words:

God is the One who created you, then provided for you…

He said:

The most excellent provision (rizq) is tranquil reliance (sukūn) upon the Provider (al-Rāziq).

His words:

…then makes you die.

That is, He will destroy you.

He said:

Indeed, God, Exalted is He, has created good and evil and established the command and prohibition. He has made us worship Him through the good and linked that to success (tawfīq), while He has forbidden us from evil and linked the perpetration of it to the relinquishing of [His] protection (ʿiṣma), and abandonment (khidhlān) [by Him]. All of these are of His creation. Whoever is successful in [doing] good has a duty to show gratitude (shukr), and whoever has been left to do evil must ⸢repent and⸣^{1This word tawba appears in all three MSS: Z515, f. 85a, F638, f. 39b and F3488, f. 259a.} cry out for God’s help, Mighty and Majestic is He.

His words, Exalted is He:

Corruption has appeared on land and sea…

He said:

God, Exalted is He, has made the land a similitude of the bodily members and the sea a similitude of the heart. It [the sea, and therefore the heart] is more widely beneficial (aʿamm naf ʿan), and much more dangerous (akthar khaṭaran).^{1That is, translating wa huwa (for the sea or the heart) according to MSS F638, f. 39b and F3488, f. 259a, instead of wa hum in the published edition and MS Z515, f. 85a.} This is the inner meaning of the verse — do you not see that the heart (qalb) was thus named due to its tendency to turn (taqallub), and due to the extent of its depth (ghawr). This is why the Prophet ﷺ said to Abū al-Dardāʾ رضي الله عنه, ‘Overhaul the ship, for the sea is deep.’ In other words, ‘Make afresh your intention (nīya) for God, Exalted is He, from your heart, for the sea is deep.’^{2According to the Firdaws bi-maʾthūr al-khiṭāb, of Shīrawayh b. Shardār al-Daylamī (Beirut, 1986), vol. 5, p. 339, this ḥadīth was addressed by the Prophet to Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī.} Therefore [with this renewed intention (nīya)], when the trafficking (muʿāmala) goes on in the hearts, which [as we have seen] are [like] seas, the self will leave its place at the centre, and the bodily members will come to rest.^{3The meaning of this passage is not entirely clear, but following Tustarī’s comparison of the heart to a sea, with its tendency to turn, along with its depth, we have assumed that the renewed [spiritual] intention, alluded to in the saying of the Prophet, eventually causes the [lower] self to leave its domination of the heart (its being at the centre), after which neither the self nor the limbs will disturb the heart, and it come to will reach its utmost depths, ultimately attaining God.} Thereafter, with each day, the possessor of [the sea of the heart] will find himself closer to its ultimate depth and further away from his self until he reaches ⸢Him⸣.^{4All three MSS (Z515, f. 85a, F638, f. 39b and F3488, f. 259a) have ilayhi following yaṣilu.}

He was asked about the meaning of the [saying of] the Prophet ﷺ, ‘Whoever humbles himself before a person of wealth will lose two thirds of his religion.’^{5Bayhaqī, Shuʿab al-īmān, vol. 6, p. 298.} He replied:

The heart has three stations: the principal part (jumhūr) of the heart; the station of the tongue in relationship to the heart, and the station of the bodily members in relationship to the heart. His words, ‘has lost two thirds of his religion’ means that two out of the three were involved, the tongue and the rest of the bodily members, but the principal part of the heart remained in its place, for no one can reach that because it is the seat of his faith (īmān) within the heart.

Then he said:

Truly, the heart is delicate (raqīq) and everything affects it, so guard over it carefully, and fear God with it.

He was asked, ‘When does the heart become purified of all corruption (fasād) ?’ He replied:

It does not become purified until it abandons all conjecture (ẓann) and scheming (ḥiyal) — for it is as if scheming in the eyes of your Lord is [as bad] as a major sin to our eyes. Indeed, the Prophet ﷺ said: ‘Righteousness (birr)^{6Not al-kabīra as in the published edition.} is what causes an expansion within your breast, and iniquity (ithm) is what sows intrigue (ḥāka) in your breast, even if those who are authorised to give out legal rulings provide you with [legal] fatwā upon fatwā [to the contrary].^{7Ibn Ḥanbal, al-Musnad, vol. 4, p. 194; Tirmidhī, Nawādir al-uṣūl, vol. 1, p. 239.}

Then he [Sahl] said:

If the heart is perturbed, that will be evidence (ḥujja) against you.

His words:

So behold the effects of God’s mercy…

In its outer meaning it refers to the rain, and in its inner meaning it alludes to the life of hearts through remembrance (dhikr). But God, Transcendent and Exalted is He, knows best.