* O young man! When you come
into my presence, give up your appreciation for your deeds and
self-admiration. Come in with nothing, as one who is bankrupt. If you
have high regard for your deeds and yourself you will be astonished at
what I am talking about and you will hate me because I speak the truth
and disagree with you. No one hates me other than the enemy of Allah and
no one is ignorant of me except one who is ignorant of Allah (mighty
and glorified is He), given to much talk and little action. No one loves
me but one who is knowledgeable of Allah (mighty and glorified is He),
given to much action and little talk. The sincere person loves me,
whereas the hypocrite hates me. One who follows the Sunna1
loves me, whereas one who follows heretical innovations hates me. If
you love me, you are the one who will receive the benefits of that; and
if you hate me, you are the one who will suffer the harm. I pay no
attention to the praise and dispraise of the creatures.
* O hermits and recluses, come and get a taste of my words, if only a single letter! Accompany me for a day or a week so that you may learn something that benefits you. Woe to you! The majority of you are in illusion, worshipping the creatures in your cells. This business does not come about by sitting in retreats while being ignorant. Woe to you! Walk in search of Knowledge and knowledgeable scholars until no further walking is possible. Walk until nothing obeys you [in your wish to walk]. When you become unable to walk, sit down. Walk with your outward, then with your inward,[2] then with your heart, and then with your essence. When you have become totally exhausted outwardly and inwardly and have to sit, nearness to Allah (mighty and glorified is He) and attainment to Him will come to you.
* If you come to me but do not put my teachings into practice you would only be a nuisance to the audience. As long as you are in your shop, you continue to think of your failing business, and when you come to me it is only to comfort yourself. No matter how many times you come to listen, it is as if you heard nothing. O property owner! Forget about your property and come and sit among the poor and be humble to Allah and to them.
* Be sensible, abandon your prestigious position and come and sit here like one of the group so that my words get planted in the land of your heart. If you have sense you will accompany me, be content with a morsel from me every day, and endure with patience the harshness of my words. Anyone who has faith will stand firm and grow, whereas the person who lacks faith will run away from me. Woe to you, O you who claim to know the spiritual states of others! How can we believe you when you have not managed to know your own state? This is nothing but telling of lies, so repent from the telling of lies. O Allah, grant us truthfulness under all conditions and “give us good in this world and good in the hereafter and protect us from the torment of the Fire” (from 2.201).
* Woe to you, O you who associate creatures with God! How often you knock on doors behind which there is none to answer you, and how often you hammer cold iron without heating it with fire! You have no sense, you have no proper reasoning, and you do not know the proper behavior. Woe to you! Come close to me and have a morsel from my food. If you taste my food you will renounce the food of others. If you get a taste of the food of the Creator, your heart and innermost being will renounce the food of the creatures. This takes place in the heart — behind the clothes, the flesh, and the skin. This heart will never be sound as long as it is inhabited by any creature. Certainty [of faith] will remain incomplete as long as there is an atom of love of this world in the heart. When faith has become certitude, certitude has become knowingness, and knowingness has become Knowledge, you will become an expert in distinguishing between the good and the bad in the service of Allah (mighty and glorified is He). You will take from the hand of the rich and give back to the poor. You will become the owner of the kitchen, dishing out sustenance with the hand of your heart and innermost being.
O hypocrite, you are unworthy of respect until you come to be like this! Woe to you! You have not acquired good manners at the hand of an ascetic shaikh who practices pious restraint and is learned in the Law of Allah (mighty and glorified is He) and His Knowledge. Woe to you! You want something in return for nothing, so you will get nothing. Worldly things cannot be earned without diligence, so what of that which is in the presence of Allah (mighty and glorified is He)?
* When the seeker’s company of the shaikh has become sound, the shaikh will feed and nourish him from his heart with the food and drink of knowingness. O seekers, empty your hearts of the creatures and then you will see wonders! Tomorrow it will be said to the people of Paradise: “Enter Paradise,” and today, when the True One (mighty and glorified is He) examines the hearts of the elite of His servants and finds them empty of this world, Paradise, and anything other than Him, He will say to them: “Enter the Paradise of My nearness now and later on.”
* Woe to you! You claim that your heart has attained to Allah when it is in fact fettered and burdened. It is imprisoned behind doors and locked gates. Go and pass off your counterfeit coins on someone else. If you come here to pass off your counterfeit coins on me, do not come, for you will only tire yourself, as I will not accept your counterfeit coins. But if you come so that I cast your gold and separate out from it the impurities, silver, and any covering layer, then come. Have you not known that the people of Allah are money changers, assay the gold coins of religion and distinguish between the good and the bad — between what belongs to Allah (mighty and glorified is He) and what belongs to the creatures? The people of Allah are ambassadors, guides, physicians, experts, diligent workers, agents, and callers on people to their Lord (mighty and glorified is He).
O people, love your Lord (mighty and glorified is He) and make His creatures recognize that He is worthy of all love! Love Him and guide the creatures to Him so that they join you in loving Him. Remind those who are forgetful of Him. Remind them of His favor to them so that they come to love Him. Allah (mighty and glorified is He) revealed to David (prayer and peace be on our Prophet and on him) the following: “O David, make My creatures love Me!” He has foreknowledge of whom will love Him. He ordered David (prayer and peace be on our Prophet and on him) to make His creatures love Him in order for that foreknowledge to become manifest. If you were inside a dark house, with a fire iron and a flint, and you rub the two together, would not that generate fire? The fire that was in the fire iron is old but the act of rubbing made it appear. Similarly, the duties imposed by the Creator reveal and unveil the foreknowledge about the creatures. The commandments and prohibitions differentiate between the obedient servant and the disobedient one. They distinguish between the good debtor who pays his dues and the bad debtor who defaults.
The people of the innermost being were few in ancient times, and today they are the fewest of the few. The believer loves Allah (mighty and glorified is He) even if He tests him with afflictions; reduces his share of food, drink, clothing, social prestige, and well‑being; and drives creatures away from him. He does not run away from His door but rather sleeps at it, taking its doorstep as a pillow; and he does not feel alienated from Him. He does not object to Him should He give favors to others and deprive him. If He grants him favors, he offers thanks to Him, and if He withholds things from him, he endures that with patience. His aim is not to receive favors, but his goal is to see Him, come near to Him, and enter into His presence.
*
It is being said to you: “Only if you listen and put into practice what
you hear!” How often you attend these sessions with passion,
disobedience, and objection! Your attendance is a falsehood with no
truth, punishment with no reward, evil with no good. Repent and stop
attending in this manner. Attend with the intention of deriving benefits
and then you will benefit. I hope and pray that Allah (mighty and
glorified is He) will benefit you through me and amend your hearts,
intentions, and aims. I do not lose hope of you, in compliance with His
words: “Allah may bring after that something new to pass” (from 65.1). You will wake up: “And you will know its tidings after a while” (38.88).
O Allah! Grant us the wakefulness of the vigilant. Treat us like You treated them. Let us enter their spiritual states with forgiveness, good health, and permanent well‑being in religion in this world and the hereafter. O Allah, grant us Your nearness with forgiveness and well‑being. Grant us the goodness of today and the goodness of every day! Grant us the goodness of those who are present and the goodness of those who are absent. Drive away from us the evil of the present and the absentees. Grant us the goodness of the sultans whom you put in charge of Your land and guard us against their evil. Guard us against the evil of the wicked, the scheming of the disbelievers, the evil of all of your servants and lands, and the evil of every crawling creature You grasp “by the forelock. Certainly, My Lord is on a straight Path” (from 11.56). Give the disobedient persons to the obedient ones, the ignorant persons to the knowers, the absentees from Your presence to those who are in Your presence, the idle ones to those who have put their knowledge into practice, and those who have gone astray to the guided ones. Amen.
* O young man, what is yours will not go past you or be consumed by others. What is others’ will not come to you by wishing for it and being keen on obtaining it. There is only yesterday that has already past, today that you are in, and tomorrow that is yet to come. Yesterday of yours is a lesson for you, today of yours is your current state, and tomorrow that is yet to come you may or may not witness. You do not know what your name will be tomorrow.
You will remember what I am saying and regret. Woe to you! You trade being in my presence for earning a grain or two! What cuts you off from me is your ignorance of what I am involved in and what I teach. You are ignorant of its root and branch. You are ignorant of its stream, mountain, and source. If you have known and understood what I do and say you would not have left me. You will remember after a while the advice that I am giving you. You will see after death the aftermath that I am talking about: “So you shall remember what I say to you, and I entrust my affair to Allah” (from 40.44). Say: “There is no might or strength but by Allah, the High, the Great (lā ḥawla wa lā quwwata illā billāhi al‑‘Aliy al‑‘Adhīm)”.
* Learn from me, O ignorant ones! Follow me for I guide you to the way of righteousness. Woe to you! You claim that you seek obedience to me, yet you hide your wealth from me! You have lied in your claim. The seeker has no shirt, turban, gold, or wealth in addition to his shaikh. He eats from his shaikh’s plate what he orders him to eat, while he is in a state of extinction, waiting for the commandments and prohibitions of his shaikh. He knows that this has benefits from Allah (mighty and glorified is He) for him and is a tightening of His ropes. If you harbor doubts about your shaikh, you better leave his company, for in this case accompanying him and obeying him would bring no benefit to you. If the patient develops doubts about his physician, he cannot be cured by his medicine.
* Accompany the people of Allah, for one of their attributes is that if they look at a person and direct to him their spiritual influence they love him, even if the person they looked at was a Jew, Christian, or fire‑worshipper. And if he was a Muslim, his faith, certitude, and steadfastness will increase. If he was in a different state, Allah will expand his breast to Islam.
2 The dhāhir (outward) refers to the body, appearance, and visible actions. The bāṭin(inward) denotes inner feelings, thoughts …etc.
*
The person who wishes for success must become a piece of ground under
the feet of shaikhs. What are the attributes of these shaikhs? They are
those who have abandoned this world and the creatures and have bidden
farewell to everything from beneath the Throne down to beneath the
surface of the earth — that is the heavens and what is therein and the
earths and what is therein. They are those who have given up all things
and bidden them the farewell of one who will never return to them again.
They have said farewell to all creatures including their own selves,
for they are in the presence of their Lord (mighty and glorified is He)
in all of their states. Anyone who seeks a company that guides him to
the True One (mighty and glorified is He) yet keeps his lower self is in
illusion and fantasy.
The person whose renunciation and belief in the
oneness of God are sound does not see the existence of the creatures,
does not see a giver other than the True One (mighty and glorified is
He), and does not see a benefactor other than Him. How great your need
is, O all of you people of this world, to listen to these words! How
great your need is, O ignorant ascetics, to listen to these words! Most
ascetic worshippers are servants of the creatures, associating them with
God.* O hermits and recluses, come and get a taste of my words, if only a single letter! Accompany me for a day or a week so that you may learn something that benefits you. Woe to you! The majority of you are in illusion, worshipping the creatures in your cells. This business does not come about by sitting in retreats while being ignorant. Woe to you! Walk in search of Knowledge and knowledgeable scholars until no further walking is possible. Walk until nothing obeys you [in your wish to walk]. When you become unable to walk, sit down. Walk with your outward, then with your inward,[2] then with your heart, and then with your essence. When you have become totally exhausted outwardly and inwardly and have to sit, nearness to Allah (mighty and glorified is He) and attainment to Him will come to you.
* If you come to me but do not put my teachings into practice you would only be a nuisance to the audience. As long as you are in your shop, you continue to think of your failing business, and when you come to me it is only to comfort yourself. No matter how many times you come to listen, it is as if you heard nothing. O property owner! Forget about your property and come and sit among the poor and be humble to Allah and to them.
* Be sensible, abandon your prestigious position and come and sit here like one of the group so that my words get planted in the land of your heart. If you have sense you will accompany me, be content with a morsel from me every day, and endure with patience the harshness of my words. Anyone who has faith will stand firm and grow, whereas the person who lacks faith will run away from me. Woe to you, O you who claim to know the spiritual states of others! How can we believe you when you have not managed to know your own state? This is nothing but telling of lies, so repent from the telling of lies. O Allah, grant us truthfulness under all conditions and “give us good in this world and good in the hereafter and protect us from the torment of the Fire” (from 2.201).
* Woe to you, O you who associate creatures with God! How often you knock on doors behind which there is none to answer you, and how often you hammer cold iron without heating it with fire! You have no sense, you have no proper reasoning, and you do not know the proper behavior. Woe to you! Come close to me and have a morsel from my food. If you taste my food you will renounce the food of others. If you get a taste of the food of the Creator, your heart and innermost being will renounce the food of the creatures. This takes place in the heart — behind the clothes, the flesh, and the skin. This heart will never be sound as long as it is inhabited by any creature. Certainty [of faith] will remain incomplete as long as there is an atom of love of this world in the heart. When faith has become certitude, certitude has become knowingness, and knowingness has become Knowledge, you will become an expert in distinguishing between the good and the bad in the service of Allah (mighty and glorified is He). You will take from the hand of the rich and give back to the poor. You will become the owner of the kitchen, dishing out sustenance with the hand of your heart and innermost being.
O hypocrite, you are unworthy of respect until you come to be like this! Woe to you! You have not acquired good manners at the hand of an ascetic shaikh who practices pious restraint and is learned in the Law of Allah (mighty and glorified is He) and His Knowledge. Woe to you! You want something in return for nothing, so you will get nothing. Worldly things cannot be earned without diligence, so what of that which is in the presence of Allah (mighty and glorified is He)?
* When the seeker’s company of the shaikh has become sound, the shaikh will feed and nourish him from his heart with the food and drink of knowingness. O seekers, empty your hearts of the creatures and then you will see wonders! Tomorrow it will be said to the people of Paradise: “Enter Paradise,” and today, when the True One (mighty and glorified is He) examines the hearts of the elite of His servants and finds them empty of this world, Paradise, and anything other than Him, He will say to them: “Enter the Paradise of My nearness now and later on.”
*Adhering
to what I say is a sign of faith and running away from it is a sign of
hypocrisy. O Allah, forgive us, do not expose us in this world and the
hereafter, and “give us good in this world and good in the hereafter and protect us from the torment of the Fire.”
*
Refined behavior is as much an obligatory duty on the knower as is
repentance on the disobedient person. How can he fail to be
well‑mannered when he is the nearest of all creatures to the Creator? If
someone builds social relationships with kings but behaves ignorantly,
his ignorance will bring him near to being put to death. Everyone who
lacks polite behavior is detested by the creatures and the Creator. Any
time in which good manners are lacking is loathed. Refined behavior in
the company of Allah (mighty and glorified is He) is essential.
O young man, if you know me you will
not leave me and you will follow me wherever I go. You will be incapable
of leaving whether I assign you work to do or leave you without work,
take from you or give you, impoverish you or enrich you, tire you or
rest you. The requirements for becoming like this are to think well [of
me] and cultivate good intention, both of which you lack. How could you,
then, be fit for my company and benefit from my words? Victory lies in
cultivating good behavior in the company of the Creator (mighty and
glorified is He) and the creatures. O Allah, do not let their hearing of
these words be evidence against them but render it evidence in their
favor! “O our Lord, give us good in this world and good in the hereafter and protect us from the torment of the Fire!”
*
My enemy and one who loves me are both equal in my sight. I have no
friend or foe left on the face of the earth. This happens only after one
loves Allah, cultivates sound belief in His oneness, and sees the
creatures as powerless. One who is pious to Allah (mighty and glorified
is He) is my friend, whereas one who disobeys Him is my enemy. The
former is the friend of my faith and the latter is its enemy. O Allah,
let this be always true of me, establish it firmly, and make me totally
committed to it! Make it a genuine attribute of mine, not merely
something that I pretend. You know that I twine the fibers of the ropes
of Your religion and of the ropes of Your will, and that I am the
servant of Your servants — those who have renounced everything other
than You in seeking Your satisfaction.
*
O ignorant one, O you who embrace the gold coin and the silver one, O
you who rejoice in the praise and commendation of the creatures! You are
the servant of praise, applause, and rewards. If you have sense you
will weep over yourself. “We belong to Allah, and to Him we return”
(from 2.156). There is no might or strength but by Allah, the High, the
Great. O Allah, grant us fulfilling the servitude to You and being
truthfulness in seeking You and “give us good in this world and good in the hereafter and protect us from the torment of the Fire!”
O young man, the truthful person has
no backward movements. He is always moving forward. He has a front but
no back. He keeps to his truthfulness until his atom becomes a mountain,
his drop a sea, his little bit so much, his lamp a sun, and his shell a
kernel. If you are ever fortunate to come across a truthful person,
stay always close to him. If you are ever fortunate to meet one who has
your remedy, keep always close to him. If you ever have the good fortune
to come across one who guides you to what you have lost, remain always
close to him. You may never get to know such people for they are a few,
rare individuals. The shell is abundant but the kernel is rare. The
shells are in the garbage dumps, whereas the kernel is in the treasuries
of the kings.
*
The people of Allah are ill and their Physician is with them. They are
ill in the presence of their Physician, on the lap of His generosity and
His subtle kindness. He handles them with His favor, grace, and mercy.
One who does not see a successful person will never succeed. Sit in the
presence of the people of Allah, listen to their utterances, and
accompany them for the sake of Allah (mighty and glorified is He) not
for the sake of this world, and then you will benefit from them.
*
You are unworthy of respect! I speak the truth to you so it is up to
you whether you wish to come or not, whether you wish to praise or
dispraise me. The Invincible One has said: “And say [O Muhammad!] ‘[this is] the truth from your Lord,’ so let him who will, believe; and let him who will, disbelieve”
(from 18.29). No one runs away from the sharpness of my words other
than one who is a hypocrite, impostor, swindler, follower of his
passion, obedient to his lower self; violates the Book of Allah (mighty
and glorified is He) and the Sunna of the Messenger of Allah (Allah’s
prayer and peace be on him); hates the truth; loves falsehood; takes no
steps with his heart to draw near to his Master (mighty and glorified is
He).
O young man, hear and look with your heart without
doubts and you will see wonders! Relinquish your doubts about the
people of Allah. Believe them and believe in them without asking “why”
and “how,” so they will accept you in their company, admit you to their
service, and give you a share of what has been sent down to them. Favors
and graces come down from the heaven on the hearts of the truthful, and
the rewards of the innermost beings come down on their innermost
beings, by night and day. If you wish them to accept you for their
service you must purify your outward and inward. Be at the ready before
them. Purify your heart of any heretical innovation, for the doctrine of
the people of Allah is the doctrine of the prophets, the messengers,
and the truthful (Allah’s prayer and peace be on all of them). They
follow in the footsteps of the righteous predecessors. Their creed is
the creed of the elderly. They do not lay claim to anything unless they
have evidence on it.* Woe to you! You claim that your heart has attained to Allah when it is in fact fettered and burdened. It is imprisoned behind doors and locked gates. Go and pass off your counterfeit coins on someone else. If you come here to pass off your counterfeit coins on me, do not come, for you will only tire yourself, as I will not accept your counterfeit coins. But if you come so that I cast your gold and separate out from it the impurities, silver, and any covering layer, then come. Have you not known that the people of Allah are money changers, assay the gold coins of religion and distinguish between the good and the bad — between what belongs to Allah (mighty and glorified is He) and what belongs to the creatures? The people of Allah are ambassadors, guides, physicians, experts, diligent workers, agents, and callers on people to their Lord (mighty and glorified is He).
O people, love your Lord (mighty and glorified is He) and make His creatures recognize that He is worthy of all love! Love Him and guide the creatures to Him so that they join you in loving Him. Remind those who are forgetful of Him. Remind them of His favor to them so that they come to love Him. Allah (mighty and glorified is He) revealed to David (prayer and peace be on our Prophet and on him) the following: “O David, make My creatures love Me!” He has foreknowledge of whom will love Him. He ordered David (prayer and peace be on our Prophet and on him) to make His creatures love Him in order for that foreknowledge to become manifest. If you were inside a dark house, with a fire iron and a flint, and you rub the two together, would not that generate fire? The fire that was in the fire iron is old but the act of rubbing made it appear. Similarly, the duties imposed by the Creator reveal and unveil the foreknowledge about the creatures. The commandments and prohibitions differentiate between the obedient servant and the disobedient one. They distinguish between the good debtor who pays his dues and the bad debtor who defaults.
The people of the innermost being were few in ancient times, and today they are the fewest of the few. The believer loves Allah (mighty and glorified is He) even if He tests him with afflictions; reduces his share of food, drink, clothing, social prestige, and well‑being; and drives creatures away from him. He does not run away from His door but rather sleeps at it, taking its doorstep as a pillow; and he does not feel alienated from Him. He does not object to Him should He give favors to others and deprive him. If He grants him favors, he offers thanks to Him, and if He withholds things from him, he endures that with patience. His aim is not to receive favors, but his goal is to see Him, come near to Him, and enter into His presence.
* O you who waste your time in your houses and cells in the company of the lower self, natural inclination (ṭab‘),
passion, and little knowledge! You have to accompany practicing
knowledgeable shaikhs. Obey them and follow in their footsteps. Show
humility to them and be patient with their humiliation of your lower
selves until your passions have disappeared, your lower selves have been
subjugated, and the fire of your natural inclination has been put out.
Only then will you come to know this world and so you will avoid it. It
will become your maidservant and it will give you what it has been
ordered to give you, which are your allotted worldly shares. It will
then bring your shares to you while you are at the door of your nearness
to your Lord (mighty and glorified is He). It and the hereafter are
both maidservants for the person who serves the True One (mighty and
glorified is He).
*
This business cannot be done by merely sitting in retreats in the
company of ignorance. Woe to you! Walk in search of Knowledge and
practicing knowledgeable scholars until no further walking can be done.
Keep walking until your legs no longer obey you. So, when you become
unable to walk, sit down with your outward, then with your inward, then
with your heart, and then with your essence. When you become totally
exhausted outwardly and inwardly and have to sit, nearness to Allah
(mighty and glorified is He) and attainment to Him will come to you. If
the footsteps of your heart come to a halt and you lose all your energy
in your way to Him, that will be a sign of your nearness to Him. At that
point, surrender and throw yourself prostrate. Then, He will either
build a cell for you in the wilderness and lodge you in the ruins, or
return you to society and order this world, the hereafter, jinn, people,
angels, and spirits to be at your service.
O Allah! Grant us the wakefulness of the vigilant. Treat us like You treated them. Let us enter their spiritual states with forgiveness, good health, and permanent well‑being in religion in this world and the hereafter. O Allah, grant us Your nearness with forgiveness and well‑being. Grant us the goodness of today and the goodness of every day! Grant us the goodness of those who are present and the goodness of those who are absent. Drive away from us the evil of the present and the absentees. Grant us the goodness of the sultans whom you put in charge of Your land and guard us against their evil. Guard us against the evil of the wicked, the scheming of the disbelievers, the evil of all of your servants and lands, and the evil of every crawling creature You grasp “by the forelock. Certainly, My Lord is on a straight Path” (from 11.56). Give the disobedient persons to the obedient ones, the ignorant persons to the knowers, the absentees from Your presence to those who are in Your presence, the idle ones to those who have put their knowledge into practice, and those who have gone astray to the guided ones. Amen.
* O young man, what is yours will not go past you or be consumed by others. What is others’ will not come to you by wishing for it and being keen on obtaining it. There is only yesterday that has already past, today that you are in, and tomorrow that is yet to come. Yesterday of yours is a lesson for you, today of yours is your current state, and tomorrow that is yet to come you may or may not witness. You do not know what your name will be tomorrow.
You will remember what I am saying and regret. Woe to you! You trade being in my presence for earning a grain or two! What cuts you off from me is your ignorance of what I am involved in and what I teach. You are ignorant of its root and branch. You are ignorant of its stream, mountain, and source. If you have known and understood what I do and say you would not have left me. You will remember after a while the advice that I am giving you. You will see after death the aftermath that I am talking about: “So you shall remember what I say to you, and I entrust my affair to Allah” (from 40.44). Say: “There is no might or strength but by Allah, the High, the Great (lā ḥawla wa lā quwwata illā billāhi al‑‘Aliy al‑‘Adhīm)”.
* Learn from me, O ignorant ones! Follow me for I guide you to the way of righteousness. Woe to you! You claim that you seek obedience to me, yet you hide your wealth from me! You have lied in your claim. The seeker has no shirt, turban, gold, or wealth in addition to his shaikh. He eats from his shaikh’s plate what he orders him to eat, while he is in a state of extinction, waiting for the commandments and prohibitions of his shaikh. He knows that this has benefits from Allah (mighty and glorified is He) for him and is a tightening of His ropes. If you harbor doubts about your shaikh, you better leave his company, for in this case accompanying him and obeying him would bring no benefit to you. If the patient develops doubts about his physician, he cannot be cured by his medicine.
* Accompany the people of Allah, for one of their attributes is that if they look at a person and direct to him their spiritual influence they love him, even if the person they looked at was a Jew, Christian, or fire‑worshipper. And if he was a Muslim, his faith, certitude, and steadfastness will increase. If he was in a different state, Allah will expand his breast to Islam.
O you who are forgetful of the True
One (mighty and glorified is He), it is piety and righteous works that
draw you near to Him! The disbelievers used to draw close to the sultans
and kings by means of their wealth and sons, and they used to say: “If
on the Day of Resurrection Allah (mighty and glorified is He) wishes us
to draw near to Him by means of our property and sons we will do,” so
Allah (mighty and glorified is He) revealed: “It
is not your wealth or your children that bring you near to Us, but [our
nearness is for] those who believe and do righteous deeds — these will
have a double reward for what they did, and they shall be safe in the
chambers” (34.37). If you draw
near to Allah (mighty and glorified is He) by means of your property
while you are still in this world, this will be beneficial to you. If
you teach your children how to write, how to read the Qur’an, and how to
worship with the intention of drawing near to Allah (mighty and
glorified is He), you will benefit from this. You will get the rewards
for this after your death. I am telling you that all that you are
involved in will bring you no benefit. It is faith, righteous deeds,
truthfulness, and belief that are beneficial.
The believer who has become a knower
(may Allah be satisfied with him) keeps on pleasing the Messenger
(Allah’s prayer and peace be on him) by working with him until his heart
asks for the permission to enter into the presence of his Lord (mighty
and glorified is He). He will be like a servant before him, and after he
has served him for a long time, he will say to him: “O Master, show me
the King’s door. Make me do business with Him. Put me in a position
where I can see Him. Let me hold with my hand the ring of the door of
His nearness.” He will then take him along with him and bring him near
to the door. Then it will be said to him: “O Muhammad (Allah’s prayer
and peace be on him), who is the person with you, O ambassador, O guide,
O teacher?” To this he will reply: “You already know, a young bird that
I have brought up and accepted for Your service.” Then he will say to
his (the servant’s) heart: “Here you are with your Lord,” as Gabriel
(peace be on him) said to him when he flew him to heaven and he drew
near his Lord (mighty and glorified is He): “Here you are with your
Lord.”
* Piety is the key to repentance, and adhering to it is the key to the nearness to Allah (mighty and glorified is He). Repentance is the root and branch of every goodness, which is why the righteous people never abandon it under any circumstances. Repent, O backsliders, O disobedient ones! Seek reconciliation with your Lord by means of repentance. This heart remains undeserving of the True One (mighty and glorified is He) as long as it contains an atom of this world and longing for any creature. Therefore, when you seek His company, evict both of these attachments from your hearts. This will not cause you any harm. For once you have established a connection with Him, this world and the creatures will both come to you while you are with Him, at His door. This is an experienced thing; it has been experienced by the ascetics who renounced everything.
*
O young man, you have piled up sins one on top of another, and you are
heading toward a vague, ambiguous end which may be good or bad. Pay
attention to death as there is no way that you can escape it. Give up
indulging in idle gossip and getting involved in matters that are
irrelevant to you. Curtail your hopes and reduce your greedy keenness on
obtaining worldly things because you will be dead soon. Your death is
so close that it may come while you are sitting here. In this case you
would have come here on foot but would be carried back to your house in a
coffin.
* Piety is the key to repentance, and adhering to it is the key to the nearness to Allah (mighty and glorified is He). Repentance is the root and branch of every goodness, which is why the righteous people never abandon it under any circumstances. Repent, O backsliders, O disobedient ones! Seek reconciliation with your Lord by means of repentance. This heart remains undeserving of the True One (mighty and glorified is He) as long as it contains an atom of this world and longing for any creature. Therefore, when you seek His company, evict both of these attachments from your hearts. This will not cause you any harm. For once you have established a connection with Him, this world and the creatures will both come to you while you are with Him, at His door. This is an experienced thing; it has been experienced by the ascetics who renounced everything.
* Repent
and acknowledge your shortcomings and weaknesses. Repentance is the
water of the True One (mighty and glorified is He). He revives the earth
after its death with rain and quickens the hearts after their death
with repentance and wakefulness. O disobedient ones, repent, never
despair of the mercy of Allah (mighty and glorified is He), and never
lose hope of His mercifulness!
* You
must repent and ask for forgiveness frequently, for these are two great
means to achieving success in the affairs of this world and the
hereafter. Noah (prayer and peace be on our Prophet and on him) ordered
his people to pray for forgiveness, and he promised them that He will
respond by granting them forgiveness and putting this world at their
command and at their service. So he said, quoting Him (high is He): “And
ask forgiveness of your Lord, He is Forgiving. He will send the rain on
you in torrents, help you with wealth and sons, appoint for you
gardens, and appoint for you rivers”
(from 71.10‑12). Repent from your sins and turn away from your current
attribution of partners to God so that He will grant you all that you
wish for of things of this world and the hereafter.
You
have sinned as your father Adam (prayer and peace be on our Prophet and
on him) sinned, so repent as he did. When he and his wife Eve (prayer
and peace be on our Prophet and on them) ate from the tree that their
Lord forbade them to eat, He punished them with remoteness and stripped
them of the rewards of His generosity. He left them naked, so they
picked up leaves from Paradise [to cover their bodies]. But the leaves
dried up and fell, so they remained naked. They were then sent down to
earth. All that occurred as a result of the evil of disobedience and
noncompliance. The poison of disobedience flowed in their bodies so He
expelled them. Then Allah (mighty and glorified is He) taught them how
to repent and ask for forgiveness. They repented and asked for
forgiveness, so He pardoned and forgave them.
*
When will you repent, O backsliders, O disobedient ones? Be reconciled
with your Lord (mighty and glorified is He) by means of repentance. Was
it not for my sense of shame in the presence of Allah (mighty and
glorified is He) and in relation to His patience, I would get up and
grab each one of you by the hand and say to him: “You have committed
such and such. Repent to Allah (mighty and glorified is He)”. You must
not speak and you will not be spoken to until your faith, certitude, and
knowingness of your Master (mighty and glorified is He) have
strengthened. Then, you will clinch to the firm handhold, which is the
attainment of your heart to Him. The Prophet (Allah’s prayer and peace
be on him) will be proud of you before the nations. O you who have
believed with your tongue, how long will it be before you believe with
your heart? O you who are a believer in your public life, how long will
it be before you become a believer in your private life? Combining faith
of the heart with striving against the lower self is useful. Combining
faith of the tongue with disbelief in your heart is useless. The faith
of the hypocrite is the faith of one who is afraid of the sword [of
punishment].
* O
disobedient ones, repent from your disobedience, for your Lord (mighty
and glorified is He) is forgiving, merciful! He accepts repentance from
His servants and covers the sins and erases them. Repent with your
tongues and hearts. O Allah, we repent to you for every sin and guilt
and we will never commit them again! “O our Lord, do not condemn us if we forget or make mistake!” (from 2.286). “O our Lord, do not make our hearts deviate after You have guided us!”
(from 3.8). O Forgiver of sins, forgive us! O You who cover the
shortcomings, draw a veil over our shortcomings! Ask Him for
forgiveness, for He (high is He) forgives the sins, accepts the
righteous deeds no matter how few they are, and rewards in return with
things that are even better, for He is generous and bountiful. He gives
rewards without asking for something in return and for no reason, so
what if there is a reason?
Deal
with Him by means of believing in His oneness, performing good works,
being detached from this world and turning away from it, choosing the
hereafter and welcoming and wishing for it, and giving up the acts of
disobedience and sins and forsaking them. The seeker of the True One
(mighty and glorified is He) does not wish for His Paradise and does not
fear His Fire, but only wishes to see His face. He wishes for nearness
to Him and fears remoteness from Him. You are a prisoner of Satan,
passion, the lower self, this world, and lustful desires, but you do not
have a clue. Your leg and heart are in shackles, but you are totally
unaware. O Allah, deliver him from his captivity and deliver us! Amen.
You
must keep the fast, perform the five daily prayers at their prescribed
times, and honor all the limits of the Law. After performing the
obligatory worship duties, start supererogation. Impose on yourself
observing the strictest laws of religion (‘azīma) and avoid following the allowed concessions (rukhṣa).
If the person resorts to these concessions and gives up observing the
strictest laws, it is feared that he would totally lose his religion.
Observing the strictest laws is for grown‑up men, because it is about
enduring what is most dangerous, hardest, and most difficult. Following
the allowed concessions is for the youngsters and women because it is
the easiest.
*
O young man, if you keep to repentance and proper reflection, you will
give up all interests in worldly things and become occupied with those
that are relevant to the hereafter! You will give up your interest in
what belongs to the creatures and become occupied with what belongs to
the Creator, and you will give up committing evil and do only good. O
you who have relinquished reflection and repentance, you are a loser but
you do not have a clue! You are a loser not a winner. Your likeness is
as the likeness of a man who sells and buys without keeping account of
his expenditure or counting the cash. He will soon find out that his
capital has disappeared and what is left with him is bad, pseudo‑silver
coins. Woe to you! Your capital, which is your lifetime, has gone to
waste while you do not have a clue! Everything that you have earned is
counterfeit whereas everything that the believers have earned is a gem.
The believer will soon fulfill his commitments, whereas you will be
taken and thrown in prison. The True One will not accept a single atom
of what you have, for the True One (mighty and glorified is He) accepts
only sincerity, which you do not have. Have you not heard these words of
the Prophet (Allah’s prayer and peace be on him): “Call
yourselves to account before you are called to account, weigh
yourselves before you are weighed, and smarten yourselves up for the
greatest parade”?
It
has been said that whomever Allah (mighty and glorified is He) wishes
to be a knower of Him (mighty and glorified is He), one of His saints,
one of His lovers, one of His sought after ones, He assigns an angel to
look after him in both his private and public lives, foster his heart
and his intention, drive evil away from him, and allow only what is good
to reach him. This is similar to what He (high is He) said about Joseph
(prayer and peace be on our Prophet and on him): “thus [it was] so that We turned evil and lewdness away from him; [for] he is one of Our chosen servants”
(from 12.24). This is what He did for the prophets, the messengers, the
saints, and the truthful (Allah’s prayer and peace be on all of them).
John
(prayer and peace be on our Prophet and on him) was passing by children
who were playing who said to him: “Play with us.” He replied: “Glory be
to Allah, it is not for playing that we have been created.” The lower
selves of the people of Allah urge them to do good not evil. They have
joined their hearts after being subjected to striving. Whenever their
lower selves were subjected to strife, they gained comfort and longing
for the Highest Companion. Listening to the Qur’an comes to be all their
business. Before this, they used to hear only the sound and miss the
meaning. Do not listen to or participate in prattle. The Qur’an is the
source of life for the hearts and of purity for the innermost beings,
and it lays the foundation for neighboring Allah (mighty and glorified
is He) in Paradise.
* The mediator is essential. Ask your Lord for a physician who can treat the illnesses
of your hearts, a healer who can heal you, a guide who can guide you
and take you by the hand. Draw near to those whom He has brought near to
Him, His elite, the ushers of His nearness, the keepers of His door.
You have consented to serving your lower selves and pursuing your
passions and natural inclinations. You work hard to fully satisfy and
satiate your lower selves in this world, although this is something that
you will never achieve. You keep to this state hour after hour, day
after day, month after month, and year after year, until you find that
death has suddenly come to you and you cannot release yourselves from
its grip.
* The Prophet (Allah’s prayer and peace be on him) is reported to have said: “In every craft seek the expertise of its experts.”
Worshipping is a craft, and its experts are those whose deeds are
righteous; those who are knowledgeable of the Law and have put it into
practice; those who have bidden farewell to all creatures after knowing
them; those who have run away from their lower selves, their
possessions, their children, and everything other than their Lord
(mighty and glorified is He) on the feet of their hearts and their
innermost beings. Their bodies are in populated places, in the midst of
the creatures; but their hearts are in the wilderness and deserts. They
keep to this until their hearts grow and their wings strengthen and fly
to heaven. Their spiritual aspirations ascended, so their hearts flew up
and reached the True One (mighty and glorified is He). Thus, they
became among those about whom Allah (mighty and glorified is He) has
said: “And in Our sight they are among the righteous elect” (38.47).
You
have this world in your hearts. You have acts of disobedience in your
hearts. Let me take charge of you to cleanse and purify you with drinks I
offer you. The drinks that I give you are pious restraint,
renunciation, piety, faith, certitude, knowingness, Knowledge,
forgetting everything, and being in a state of extinction with respect
to everything. After reaching this state, existence through your Lord
(mighty and glorified is He), nearness to Him, and remembrance of Him
will come to you. When all of this has become true of someone, he
becomes a sun, moon, and guide for the creatures — taking them by their
hands from the river of this world to the shore of the hereafter.
Woe
to you! You depend exclusively on your opinion and say: “What do I do
with the company of the jurisprudents and scholars?” You think you have
been created only for earning worldly things, eating, drinking, and
having sexual intercourse. Repent and return before the Angel of Death
(prayer and peace be on our Prophet and on all prophets and angels)
comes to you and takes you while you are amid the worst of deeds.
Everyone of you is told to observe the commandments and prohibitions and
endure with patience whatever destiny brings.
*
Moses (prayer and peace be on our Prophet and on him) came to his
people carrying the Torah which contained the commandments and
prohibitions. They said to him: “We will not accept what you say unless
we see Allah’s face and hear His speech.” He said to them: “He has not
shown His face to me so how would He show it to you?” They replied: “If
you do not show us His face and let us hear His speech, we will not
accept His words.” Therefore, Allah (mighty and glorified is He)
revealed to Moses (prayer and peace be on our Prophet and on him) the
following: “Tell them if they want to hear My speech, they must fast for
three days, and on the fourth day purify themselves and dress up in
new, clean clothes, then bring them to hear My speech.” Moses told them
that, so they did so.
Then
they came to the place on the mountain where Moses used to privately
converse with His Lord (mighty and glorified is He). Moses had chosen
seventy men from the scholars and ascetics of his people. Then the True
One (mighty and glorified is He) addressed them, and they were all
thunderstruck, with Moses (prayer and peace be on our Prophet and on
him) remaining alone. He said, “O Lord! You have killed the elite of my
nation,” and he wept. Allah responded to his weeping with mercy and
revived them. They stood on their feet and said: “O Moses, we do not
have the capacity to hear the speech of Allah (high is He), so be the
mediator between us and Him!” Thus, Allah spoke to Moses who, in turn,
enabled his people to hear Him by repeating His words.
Moses
could hear the speech of Allah (mighty and glorified is He) because of
the strength of his faith and the realization of his obedience and
servitude, whereas they failed to hear Him because of the weakness of
their faith. If they had accepted from him what was brought to them of
the Torah, had acted with obedience on the commandments and
prohibitions, had kept to good manners, had not tried a test, and had
not dared to say what they said, they would have been able to hear the
speech of Allah (mighty and glorified is He).Footnotes
1 The Arabic word sunna generally means “way” or “method.” Usually written in English with a capital S, the term Sunna refers specifically to the way of life of Prophet Muhammad (prayer and peace be upon him), including his sayings and doings.2 The dhāhir (outward) refers to the body, appearance, and visible actions. The bāṭin(inward) denotes inner feelings, thoughts …etc.
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