 Return |
||
m |
THE SHORT WORDS
IN THE NAME OF GOD,
And from Him do we seek help.
[Brother! You wanted a few words of advice from me, so listen to a few truths included in eight short stories, which since you are a soldier, are in the form of comparisons of a military nature. I consider my own soul to need advice more than anyone, and at one time I addressed my soul at some length with Eight Words inspired by eight verses of the Qur’an from which I had benefited. Now I shall address my soul with these same Words, but briefly and in the language of ordinary people. Whoever wishes may listen together with me.]
The First Word Bismillah, “In the Name of
God,” is the start of all things good. We too shall
start with it. Know, O my soul! Just as this blessed
phrase is a mark of Islam, so too it is constantly
recited by all beings through their tongues of
disposition. If you want to know what an inexhaustible
strength, what an unending source of bounty is Bismillah,
listen to the following story which is in the form of a
comparison. It goes like this: Someone who makes a journey through
the deserts of My proud soul! You are the traveller,
and this world is a desert. Your impotence and poverty
have no lim it, and your enemies and needs are endless.
Since it is thus, take the name of the Pre-Eternal Ruler
and Post-Eternal Lord of the desert and be saved from
begging before the whole universe and trembling before
every event. Yes, this phrase is a treasury so
blessed that your infinite impotence and poverty bind you
to an infinite power and mercy; it makes your impotence
and poverty a most acceptable intercessor at the Court of
One All-Powerful and Compassionate. The person who acts
saying, “In the Name of God,” resembles someone who
enrolls in the army. He acts in the name of the
government; he has fear of no one; he speaks, performs
every matter, and withstands everything in the name of
the law and the name of the government. At the beginning we said that all
beings say “In the Name of God” through the tongue of
disposition. Is that so? Indeed, it is so. If you were to see
that a single person had come and had driven all the
inhabitants of a town to a place by force and compelled
them to work, you would be certain that he had not acted
in his own name and through his own power, but was a
soldier, acting in the name of the government and relying
on the power of the king. In the same way, all things act in
the name of Almighty God, for minute things like seeds
and grains bear huge trees on their heads; they raise
loads like mountains. That means all trees say: “In the
Name of God,” fill their hands from the treasury of
mercy, and offer them to us. All gardens say: “In the
Name of God,” and become cauldrons from the kitchens of
Divine power in which are cooked numerous varieties of
different foods. All blessed animals like cows, camels,
sheep, and goats, say: “In the Name of God,” and
produce springs of milk from the abundance of mercy,
offering us a most delicate and pure food like the water
of life in the name of the Provider. The roots and
rootlets, soft as silk, of plants, trees, and grasses
say: “In the Name of God,” and pierce and pass
through hard rock and earth. Mentioning the name of God, the name
of the Most Merciful, everything becomes subjected to
them. The roots spreading through hard rock and earth and
producing fruits as easily as the branches spread through
the air and produce fruits, and the delicate green leaves
retaining their moisture for months in the face of
extreme heat, deal a slap in the mouths of Naturalists
and jab a finger in their blind eyes, saying: “Even
heat and hardness, in which you most trust, are under a
command. For like the Staff of Moses, each of those
silken rootlets conform to the command of, And We
said, O Moses, strike the rock with your staff,1
and split the rock. And the delicate leaves fine as
cigarette paper recite the verse, O fire be coolness
and peace2 against the heat of the fire,
each like the members of Abraham (UWP). Since all things say: “In the Name
of God,” and bearing God’s bounties in God’s name,
give them to us, we too should say: “In the Name of
God.” We should give in the name of God, and take in
the name of God. And we should not take from heedless
people who neglect to give in God’s name. Question: We give a
price to people, who are like tray-bearers. So what price
does God want, Who is the true owner? The Answer: Yes, the
price the True Bestower of Bounties wants in return for
those valuable bounties and goods is three things: one is
remembrance, another is thanks,
and the other is reflection. Saying, “In
the Name of God” at the start is remembrance, and, “All
praise be to God” at the end is thanks. And
perceiving and thinking of those bounties, which are
priceless wonders of art, being miracles of power of the
Unique and Eternally Besought One and gifts of His mercy,
is reflection. However foolish it is to kiss the foot of
a lowly man who conveys to you the precious gift of a
king and not to recognize the gift’s owner, it is a
thousand times more foolish to praise and love the
apparent source of bounties and forget the True Bestower
of Bounties. O my soul! If you do not wish to be
foolish in that way, give in God’s name, take in
God’s name, begin in God’s name, and act in God’s
name. And that’s the matter in a nutshell! ____________________ 1. Qur’an, 2:60. The Second Word In the Name of God, the Merciful,
the Compassionate. If you want to understand what great
happiness and bounty, what great pleasure and ease are to
be found in belief in God, listen to this story which is
in the form of a comparison: One time, two men went on a journey
for both pleasure and business. One set off in a selfish,
inauspicious direction, and the other on a godly,
propitious way. Since the selfish man was both
conceited, self-centred, and pessimistic, he ended up in
what seemed to him to be a most wicked country due to his
pessimism. He looked around and everywhere saw the
powerless and the unfortunate lamenting in the grasp of
fearsome bullying tyrants, weeping at their destruction.
He saw the same grievous, painful situation in all the
places he travelled. The whole country took on the form
of a house of mourning. Apart from becoming drunk, he
could find no way of not noticing this grievous and
sombre situation. For everyone seemed to him to be an
enemy and foreign. And all around he saw horrible corpses
and despairing, weeping orphans. His conscience was in a
state of torment. The other man was godly, devout,
fair-minded, and with fine morals so that the country he
came to was most excellent in his view. This good man saw
universal rejoicing in the land he had entered.
Everywhere was a joyful festival, a place for the
remembrance of God overflowing with rapture and
happiness; everyone seemed to him a friend and relation.
Throughout the country he saw the festive celebrations of
a general discharge from duties accompanied by cries of
good wishes and thanks. He also heard the sound of a drum
and band for the enlistment of soldiers with happy calls
of “God is Most Great!” and “There is no god but
God!” Rather than being grieved at the suffering of
both himself and all the people like the first miserable
man, this fortunate man was pleased and happy at both his
own joy and that of all the inhabitants. Furthermore, he
was able to do some profitable trade. He offered thanks
to God. ____________________ 1. Qur’an, 2:3. After some while he returned and came
across the other man. He understood his condition, and
said to him: “You were out of your mind. The ugliness
within you must have been reflected on the outer world so
that you imagined laughter to be weeping, and the
discharge from duties to be sack and pillage. Come to
your senses and purify your heart so that this calamitous
veil is raised from your eyes and you can see the truth.
For the country of an utterly just, compassionate,
beneficent, powerful, order-loving, and kind king could
not be as you imagined, nor could a country which
demonstrated this number of clear signs of progress and
achievement.” The unhappy man later came to his senses
and repented. He said, “Yes, I was crazy through drink.
May God be pleased with you, you have saved me from a
hellish state.” O my soul! Know that the first man
represents an unbeliever, or someone depraved and
heedless. In his view the world is a house of universal
mourning. All living creature are orphans weeping at the
blows of death and separation. Man and the animals are
alone and without ties being ripped apart by the talons
of the appointed hour. Mighty beings like the mountains
and oceans are like horrendous, lifeless corpses. Many
grievous, crushing, terrifying delusions like these arise
from his unbelief and misguidance, and torment him. As for the other man, he is a
believer. He recognizes and affirms Almighty God. In his
view this world is an abode where the Names of the
All-Merciful One are constantly recited, a place of
instruction for man and the animals, and a field of
examination for man and jinn. All animal and human deaths
are a demobilization. Those who have completed their
duties of life depart from this transient world for
another, happy and trouble-free, world so that place may
be made for new officials to come and work. The birth of
animals and humans marks their enlistment into the army,
their being taken under arms, and the start of their
duties. Each living being is a joyful regular soldier, an
honest, contented official. And all voices are either
glorification of God and the recitation of His Names at
the outset of their duties, and the thanks and rejoicing
at their ceasing work, or the songs arising from their
joy at working. In the view of the believer, all beings
are the friendly servants, amicable officials, and
agreeable books of his Most Generous Lord and
All-Compassionate Owner. Very many more subtle, exalted,
pleasurable, and sweet truths like these become manifest
and appear from his belief. That is to say, belief in God bears
the seed of what is in effect a Tuba-Tree of That means that salvation and
security are only to be found in Islam and belief. In
which case, we should continually say, “Praise be to
God for the religion of Islam and perfect belief.” The Third Word In the Name of God, the Merciful,
the Compassionate. If you want to understand what great
profit and happiness lie in worship, and what great loss
and ruin lie in vice and dissipation listen to and take
heed of the following story which is in the form of a
comparison: One time, two soldiers received
orders to proceed to a distant city. They set off and
travelled together until the road forked. At the fork was
a man who said to them, “The road on the right causes
no loss at all, and nine out of ten of those who take it
receive a high profit and experience great ease. While
the road on the left provides no advantages, and nine out
of ten of its travellers make a loss. But they are the
same as regards distance. Only there is one difference:
those who take the left-hand road, which has no rules and
no one in authority, travel without baggage and arms.
They feel an apparent lightness and deceptive ease.
Whereas those travelling on the right-hand road, which is
under military order, are compelled to carry a kit-bag
full of nutritious rations four okkas or so in
weight and a superb army rifle of about two kiyyes2
which will overpower and rout every enemy...” After the two soldiers had listened
to what this instructive man had to say, the fortunate
one took the road to the right. He loaded the weight of
one batman onto his back, but his heart and spirit
were saved from thousands of batmans of fear and
feeling obliged to others. As for the other, luckless,
soldier, he left the army. He did not want to conform to
the order, and he went off to the left. He was released
from bearing a load of one batman, but his heart
was constricted by thousands of batmans of
indebtedness, and his spirit crushed by innumerable
fears. He proceeded on his way both begging from everyone
and trembling before every object and every event until
he reached his destination. And there he was punished as
a mutineer and a deserter. ____________________ 1. Qur’an,
O rebellious soul, know that one of
those two travellers represents those who submit to the
Divine Law, while the other represents the rebellious and
those who follow their own desires. The road is the road
of life, which comes from the Spirit World, passes
through the grave, and carries on to the hereafter. As
for the kit-bag and rifle, they are worship and fear of
God. There is an apparent burden in worship, but there is
an ease and lightness in its meaning that defies
description. For in the prescribed prayers the worshipper
declares, “I bear witness that there is no god but
God.” That is to say, he finds the door of a treasury
of mercy in everything because he is believing and
saying, “There is no Creator and Provider other than
Him. Harm and benefit are in His hand. He is both
All-Wise; He does nothing in vain, and He is
All-Compassionate; His bounty and mercy are abundant.”
And he knocks on the door with his supplication.
Moreover, he sees that everything is subjugated to the
command of his own Sustainer, so he takes refuge in Him.
He places his trust in Him and relies on Him, and is
fortified against every disaster; his belief gives him
complete confidence. Indeed, like with every true virtue,
the source of courage is belief in God, and worship. And
as with every iniquity, the source of cowardice is
misguidance. In fact, for a worshipper with a
truly illuminated heart, it is possible that even if the
globe of the earth became a bomb and exploded, it would
not frighten him. He would watch it with pleasurable
wonder as a marvel of the Eternally Besought One’s
power. But when a famous degenerate philosopher with a
so-called enlightened mind but no heart saw a comet in
the sky, he trembled on the ground, and exclaimed
anxiously: “Isn’t that comet going to hit the
earth?” (On one occasion, Yes, although man is in need of
numberless things, his capital is as nothing, and
although he is subject to endless calamities, his power
too is as nothing. Simply, his capital and power extend
only as far as his hand can reach. However, his hopes,
desires, pains, and tribulations reach as far as the eye
and the imagination can stretch. Anyone who is not
totally blind can see and understand then what a great
profit, happiness, and bounty for the human spirit, which
is thus impotent and weak, and needy and wanting, are
worship, affirmation of God’s unity, and reliance on
God and submission to Him.
In Short: Like that of
the hereafter, happiness in this world too lies in
worship and being a soldier for Almighty God. In which
case, we should constantly say: “Praise be to God for
obedience to him and success,” and we should thank Him
that we are Muslims... The Fourth Word In the Name of God, the Merciful,
the Compassionate. If you want to understand with the
certainty that two plus two equals four just how valuable
and important are the prescribed prayers, and with what
little expense they are gained, and how crazy and harmful
is the person who neglects them, pay attention to the
following story which is in the form of a comparison: One time, a mighty ruler gave each of
two of his servants twenty-four gold pieces and sent them
to settle on one of his rich, royal farms two months’
distance away. “Use this money for your tickets,” he
commanded them, “and buy whatever is necessary for your
house there with it. There is a station one day’s
distance from the farm. And there is both road-transport,
and a railway, and boats, and aeroplanes. They can be
benefited from according to your capital.” The two servants set off after
receiving these instructions. One of them was fortunate
so that he spent a small amount of money on the way to
the station. And included in that expense was some
business so profitable and pleasing to his master that
his capital increased a thousandfold. As for the other
servant, since he was luckless and a layabout, he spent
twenty-three pieces of gold on the way to the station,
wasting it on gambling and amusements. A single gold
piece remained. His friend said to him: “Spend this
last gold piece on a ticket so that you will not have to
walk the long journey and starve. Moreover, our master is
generous; perhaps he will take pity on you and forgive
you your faults, and put you on an aeroplane as well.
Then we shall reach where we are going to live in one
day. Otherwise you will be compelled to walk alone and
hungry across a desert which takes two months to
cross.” The most unintelligent person can understand
how foolish, harmful, and senseless he would be if out of
obstinacy he did not spend that single remaining gold
piece on a ticket, which is like the key to a treasury,
and instead spent it on vice for passing pleasure. Is
that not so? ____________________ 1. TirmidhI, Iman, 8; Ibn
Maja, Fitan, 12; Musnad, v, 231;
al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak, ii, 76 O you who do not perform the
prescribed prayers! And O my own soul, which does not
like to pray! The ruler in the comparison is our
Sustainer, our Creator. Of the two travelling servants,
one represents the devout who perform their prayers with
fervour, and the other, the heedless who neglect their
prayers. The twenty-four pieces of gold are life in every
twenty-four-hour day. And the royal domain is The ticket in the comparison
represents the prescribed prayers. A single hour a day is
sufficient for the five prayers together with taking the
ablutions. So what a loss a person makes who spends
twenty-three hours on this fleeting worldly life, and
fails to spend one hour on the long life of the
hereafter; how he wrongs his own self; how unreasonably
he behaves. For would not anyone who considers himself to
be reasonable understand how contrary to reason and
wisdom such a person’s conduct is, and how far from
reason he has become, if, thinking it reasonable, he
gives half of his property to a lottery in which one
thousand people are participating and the possibility of
winning is one in a thousand, and does not give one
twenty-fourth of it to an eternal treasury where the
possibility of winning has been verified at ninety-nine
out of a hundred? Moreover, the spirit, the heart, and
the mind find great ease in prayer. And it is not trying
for the body. Furthermore, with the right intention, all
the other acts of someone who performs the prescribed
prayers become like worship. He can make over the whole
capital of his life to the hereafter in this way. He can
make his transient life permanent in one respect... The Fifth Word In the Name of God, the Merciful,
the Compassionate. If you want to see what a truly human
duty and what a natural, appropriate result of man’s
creation it is to perform the prescribed prayers and not
to commit serious sins, listen to and take heed of the
following comparison: Once, at a time of general
mobilization, two soldiers found themselves together in a
regiment. One was well-trained and conscientious, the
other, a raw recruit and self-centred. The conscientious
soldier concentrated on training and the war, and did not
give a thought to rations and provisions, for he knew
that it was the state’s duty to feed and equip him,
treat him if he was ill, and even to put the food in his
mouth if the need arose. He knew that his essential duty
was to train and fight. But he would also attend to some
of the rations and equipment as part of his work. He
would boil up the saucepans, wash up the mess-tins, and
bring them. If it was then asked him: “What are you
doing?”, he would reply: “I am doing fatigue duty for
the state.” He would not say: “I am working for my
living.” The raw recruit, however, was fond of
his stomach and paid no attention to training and the
war. “That is the state’s business. What is it to
me?”, he would say. He thought constantly of his
livelihood, and pursuing it would leave the regiment and
go to the market to do shopping. One day his well-trained
friend said to him: “Your basic duty is training and
fighting, brother. You were brought here for that. Trust
in the king; he will not let you go hungry. That is his
duty. Anyway, you are powerless and wanting; you cannot
feed yourself everywhere. And this is a time of
mobilization and war; he will tell you that you are
mutinous and will punish you. Yes, there are two duties
which concern us. One is the king’s duty: sometimes we
do his fatigue duties and he feeds us for it. The other
is our duty: that is training and fighting, and sometimes
the king helps us with it.” ____________________ 1. Qur’an, 16:128. Of course you will understand in what
danger the layabout soldier would be if he did not pay
attention to the striving, well-trained one. O my lazy soul! That turbulent place
of war is this stormy worldly life, and the army divided
into regiments, human society. The regiment in the
comparison is the community of Islam in this century. One
of the two soldiers is a devout Muslim who knows the
obligations of his religion and performs them, and
struggles with Satan and his own soul in order to give up
serious misdoings and not to commit sins. While the other
is a degenerate wrongdoer who is so immersed in the
struggle for livelihood that he casts aspersions on the
True Provider, abandons his religious obligations, and
commits any sins that come his way as he makes his
living. As for the training and instruction, it is
foremost the prescribed prayers and worship. And the war
is the struggle against the soul and its desires, and
against the satans among jinn and men, to deliver them
from sin and bad morals, and save the heart and spirit
from eternal perdition. And the first of the two duties
is to give life and sustain it, while the other is to
worship and beseech the Giver and Sustainer of life. It
is to trust in Him and rely on Him. Indeed, whoever made and bestowed
life, which is a most brilliant miracle of the Eternally
Besought One’s art and a wonder of dominical wisdom, is
the one who maintains and perpetuates it through
sustenance. It cannot be another. Do you want proof? The
most impotent and stupid animals are the best nourished;
like fish, and worms in fruit. And it is the most
helpless and delicate creatures who have the choicest
food; like infants and the young of all species. For sure, it is enough to compare
fish with foxes, newly born animals with wild beasts, and
trees with animals in order to understand that licit food
is obtained not through power and will, but through
impotence and helplessness. That is to say, someone who
gives up performing the prescribed prayers because of the
struggle for livelihood resembles the soldier who
abandoned his training and trench and went and begged in
the market. But to seek ones rations from the kitchens of
the All-Generous Provider’s mercy after performing the
prayers, and to go oneself so as not to be a burden on
others is fine and manly. It too is a sort of worship. Furthermore, man’s nature and
spiritual faculties show that he is created for worship.
For in respect of the power and actions necessary for the
life of this world, he cannot compete with the most
inferior sparrow. While in respect of knowledge and need,
and worship and supplication, which are necessary for
spiritual life and the life of the hereafter, he is like
the monarch and commander of the animals. O my soul! If you make the life of
this world the aim of your life and work constantly for
that, you will become like the lowest sparrow. But if you
make the life of the hereafter your aim and end, and make
this life the means of it and its tillage, and strive in
accordance with it, then you will be like a lofty
commander of the animals, and a petted and suppliant
servant of Almighty God, and His honoured and respected
guest. Those are the two ways open to you!
You can choose whichever you wish... So ask for guidance
and success from the Most Compassionate of the
Compassionate... The Sixth Word In the Name of God, the Merciful,
the Compassionate. If you wish to understand how
profitable a trade it is, and how honour-able a rank, to
sell one’s person and property to God, to be His slave
and His soldier, then listen to the following comparison. Once a king entrusted each of two of
his subjects with an estate, including all necessary
workshops, machinery, horses, weapons and so forth. But
since it was a tempestuous and war-ridden age, nothing
enjoyed stability; it was destined either to disappear or
to change. The king in his infinite mercy sent a most
noble lieutenant to the two men and by means of a
compassionate decree conveyed the following to them: “Sell me the property you now hold
in trust, so that I may keep it for you. Let it not be
destroyed for no purpose. After the wars are over, I will
return it to you in a better condition than before. I
will regard the trust as your property and pay you a high
price for it. As for the machinery and the tools in the
workshop, they will be used in my name and at my
workbench. But the price and the fee for their use shall
be increased a thousandfold. You will receive all the
profit that accrues. You are indigent and resourceless,
and unable to provide the cost of these great tasks. So
let me assume the provision of all expenses and
equipment, and give you all the income and the profit.
You shall keep it until the time of demobilization. So
see the five ways in which you shall profit! Now if you
do not sell me the property, you can see that no one is
able to preserve what he possesses, and you too will lose
what you now hold. It will go for nothing, and you will
lose the high price I offer. The delicate and precious
tools and scales, the precious metals waiting to be used,
will also lose all value. You will have the trouble and
concern of administering and preserving, but at the same
time be punished for betraying your trust. So see the
five ways in which you may lose! Moreover, if you sell
the property to me, you become my soldier and act in my
name. Instead of a common prisoner or irregular soldier,
you will be the free lieutenant of an exalted monarch.” ____________________ 1. Qur’an, 9:111. After they had listened to this
gracious decree, the more intelligent of the two men
said: The Third Profit: The
value of each limb and each sense is increased a
thousandfold. The intelligence is, for example, like a
tool. If you do not sell it to God Almighty, but rather
employ it for the sake of the soul, it will become an
ill-omened, noxious and debilitating tool that will
burden your weak person with all the sad sorrows of the
past and the terrifying fears of the future; it will
descend to the rank of an inauspicious and destructive
tool. It is for this reason that a sinful man will
frequently resort to drunkenness or frivolous pleasure in
order to escape the vexations and injuries of his
intelligence. But if you sell your intelligence to its
True Owner and employ it on His behalf, then the
intelligence will become like the key to a talisman,
unlocking the infinite treasures of compassion and the
vaults of wisdom that creation contains. To take another example, the eye is
one of the senses, a window through which the spirit
looks out on this world. If you do not sell it to God
Almighty, but rather employ it on behalf of the soul, by
gazing upon a handful of transient, impermanent beauties
and scenes, it will sink to the level of being a pander
to lust and the concupiscent soul. But if you sell the
eye to your All-Seeing Maker, and employ it on His behalf
and within limits traced out by Him, then your eye will
rise to the rank of a reader of the great book of being,
a witness to the miracles of dominical art, a blessed bee
sucking on the blossoms of mercy in the garden of this
globe. Yet another example is that of the
tongue and the sense of taste. If you do not sell it to
your Wise Creator, but employ it instead on behalf of the
soul and for the sake of the stomach, it sinks and
declines to the level of a gatekeeper at the stable of
the stomach, a watchman at its factory. But if you sell
it to the Generous Provider, the the sense of taste
contained in the tongue will rise to the rank of a
skilled overseer of the treasuries of Divine compassion,
a grateful inspector in the kitchens of God’s eternal
power. So look well, O intelligence! See the
difference between a tool of destruction and the key to
all being! And look carefully, O eye! See the difference
between an abominable pander and the learned overseer of
the Divine library! And taste well, O tongue! See the
difference between a stable doorkeeper or a factory
watchman and the superintendent of the treasury of
God’s mercy! Compare all other tools and limbs to
these, and then you will understand that in truth the
believer acquires a nature worthy of The Fourth Profit: Man
is helpless and exposed to numerous misfortunes. He is
indigent, and his needs are numerous. He is weak, and the
burden of life is most heavy. If he does not rely on the
Omnipotent One of Glory, place his trust in Him and
confidently submit to Him, his conscience will always be
troubled. Fruitless torments, pains and regrets will
suffocate him and intoxicate him, or turn him into a
beast. The Fifth Profit: Those
who have experienced illumination and had unveiled to
them the true nature of things, the elect who have
witnessed the truth, are all agreed that the exalted
reward for all the worship and glorification of God
performed by your members and instruments will be given
to you at the time of greatest need, in the form of the
fruits of Paradise. If you spurn this trade with its
fivefold profit, in addition to being deprived of its
profit, you will suffer fivefold loss. The First Loss: The property
and offspring to which you are so attached, the soul and
its caprice that you worship, the youth and life with
which you are infatuated, all will vanish and be lost;
your hands will be empty. But they will leave behind them
sin and pain, fastened on your neck like a yoke. The Second Loss: You will
suffer the penalty for betrayal of trust. For you will
have wronged your own self by using the most precious
tools on the most worthless objects. The Third Loss: By casting
down all the precious faculties of man to a level much
inferior to the animals, you will have insulted and
transgressed against God’s wisdom. The Fourth Loss: In your
weakness and poverty, you will have placed the heavy
burden of life on your weak shoulders, and will
constantly groan and lament beneath the blows of
transience and separation. The Fifth Loss: You will have
clothed in an ugly form, fit to open the gates of Hell in
front of you, the fair gifts of the Compassionate One
such as the intelligence, the heart, the eye and the
tongue, given to you to make preparation for the
foundations of everlasting life and eternal happiness in
the hereafter. Now is it so difficult to sell the
trust? Is it so burdensome that many people shun the
transaction? By no means! It is not in the least
burdensome. For the limits of the permissible are broad,
and are quite adequate for man’s desire; there is no
need to trespass on the forbidden. The duties imposed by
God are light and few in number. To be the slave and
soldier of God is an indescribably pleasurable honour.
One’s duty is simply to act and embark on all things in
God’s name, like a soldier; to take and to give on
God’s behalf; to move and be still in accordance with
His permission and law. If one falls short, then one
should seek His forgiveness, say: “O Lord! Forgive our faults, and
accept us as Your slaves. Make us sure holders of Your
trust until the time comes when it is taken from us.
Amen!”, and make petition unto Him. The Seventh Word If you want to understand what
valuable, difficulty-resolving talismans are the two
parts of the phrase I believe in God and the Last Day,
which solve both the enigmatical riddle of creation and
open the door of happiness for the human spirit, and what
beneficial and curative medicines are reliance on your
Creator and taking refuge in Him through patience and
entreaty, and supplicating your Provider through thanks,
and what important, precious, shining tickets for the
journey to eternity -and provisions for the hereafter and
lights for the grave- are listening to the Qur’an,
obeying its commands, performing the prescribed prayers,
and giving up serious sins, then listen and pay attention
to this comparison: One time a soldier fell into a most
grave situation in the field of battle and examination,
and the round of profit and loss. It was as follows: The soldier was wounded with two deep
and terrible wounds on his right and left sides and
behind him stood a huge lion as though waiting to attack
him. Before him stood a gallows which was putting to
death and annihilating all those he loved. It was
awaiting him too. Besides this, he had a long journey
before him: he was being exiled. As the unfortunate
soldier pondered over his fearsome plight in despair, a
kindly person shining with light like Khidr appeared. He
said to him: “Do not despair. I shall give you two
talismans and teach you them. If you use them properly,
the lion will become a docile horse for you, and the
gallows will turn into a swing for your pleasure and
enjoyment. Also I shall give you two medicines. If you
follow the instructions, those two suppurating wounds
will be transformed into two sweet-scented flowers called
the Rose of Muhammad (PBUH). Also, I shall give you a
ticket; with it, you will be able to make a year’s
journey in a day as though flying. If you do not believe
me, experiment a bit, so that you can see it is true.”
The soldier did experiment a bit, and affirmed that it
was true. Yes, I, that is, this unfortunate Said, affirm
it too. For I experimented and saw it was absolutely
true. Some time later he saw a sly,
debauched-looking man, cunning as the Devil, coming from
the left bringing with him much ornamented finery,
decorated pictures and fantasies, and many intoxicants.
He stopped before the soldier, and said: “Hey, come on,
my friend! Let’s go and drink and make merry. We can
look at these pictures of beautiful girls, listen to the
music, and eat this tasty food.” Then he asked him:
“What is it you are reciting under your breath?” As for the two medicines, one is
trusting in God and patience, and the other is relying on
the power of one’s Creator and having confidence in His
wisdom. Is that the case? Indeed it is. What fear can a
man have, who, through the certificate of his impotence,
relies on a Monarch of the World with the power to
command: “Be!” and it is.1 For in
the face of the worst calamity, he says: Verily, to
God do we belong, and verily to Him is our return,2
and places his trust in his Most Compassionate Sustainer.
A person with knowledge of God takes pleasure from
impotence, from fear of God. Yes, there is pleasure in
fear. If a twelve-month baby was sufficiently intelligent
and it was asked him: “What is most pleasurable and
sweetest for you?”, he might well say: “To realize my
powerlessness and helplessness, and fearing my mother’s
gentle smack to at the same time take refuge in her
tender breast.” But the compassion of all mothers is
but a flash of the manifestation of Divine mercy. It is
for this reason that the wise have found such pleasure in
impotence and fear of God, vehemently declaring
themselves to be free of any strength and power, and have
taken refuge in God through their powerlessness. They
have made powerlessness and fear an intercessor for
themselves. The second medicine is thanks and
contentment, and entreaty and supplication, and relying
on the mercy of the All-Compassionate Provider. Is that
so? Yes, for how can poverty, want and need be painful
and burdensome for a guest of an All-Generous and
Munificent One Who makes the whole face of the earth a
table of bounties and the spring a bunch of flowers, and
Who places the flowers on the table and scatters them
over it? Poverty and need take on the form of a pleasant
appetite. The guest tries to increase his poverty in the
same way he does his appetite. It is because of this that
the wise have taken pride in want and poverty. But
beware, do not misunderstand this! It means to be aware
of one’s poverty before God and to beseech Him, not to
parade poverty before the people and assume the air of a
beggar. As for the ticket and voucher, it is
to perform the religious duties, and foremost the
prescribed prayers, and to give up serious sins. Is that
so? Yes, it is, for according to the consensus of those
who observe and have knowledge of the Unseen and those
who uncover the mysteries of creation, the provisions,
light, and steed for the long, dark road to post-eternity
may only be obtained through complying with the commands
of the Qur’an and ____________________ 1. Qur’an, 2:117, etc. avoiding what it prohibits. Science,
philosophy, and art are worth nothing on that road. Their
light reaches only as far as the door of the grave. And so, O my lazy soul! How little
and light and easy it is to perform the five daily
prayers and give up the seven deadly sins! If you have
the faculty of reason and it is not corrupted, understand
how important and extensive are their results, fruits,
and benefits! Say to the Devil and that man who were
encouraging you to indulge in vice and dissipation: “If
you have the means to kill death, and cause decline and
transience to disappear from the world, and remove
poverty and impotence from man, and close the door of the
grave, then tell us and let us hear it! Otherwise, be
silent! The Qur’an reads the universe in the vast
mosque of creation. Let us listen to it. Let us be
illuminated with that light. Let us act according to its
guidance. And let us recite it constantly. Yes, the
Qur’an is the word. That is what they say of it. It is
the Qur’an which is the truth and comes from the Truth
and says the truth and shows the truth and spreads
luminous wisdom...” O God! Illuminate our hearts with
the light of belief and the Qur’an. O God! Enrich us with the need of
You and do not impoverish us with the lack of need of
You. Make us free of our own strength and power, and
cause us to take refuge in Your strength and power.
Appoint us among those who place their trust in You, and
do not entrust us to ourselves. Protect us with Your
protection. Have mercy on us and have mercy on all
believing men and women. And grant blessings and peace to
our Master Muhammad, Your Servant and Prophet, Your
Friend and Beloved, the Beauty of Your Dominion and the
Sovereign of Your Art, the Essence of Your Favour and the
Sun of Your Guidance, the Tongue of Your Proof and the
Exemplar of Your Mercy, the Light of Your Creation and
the Glory of Your Creatures, the Lamp of Your Unity in
the Multiplicity of Your Creatures and the Discloser of
the Talisman of Your Beings, the Herald of the
Sovereignty of Your Dominicality and the Announcer of
those things pleasing to You, the Proclaimer of the
Treasuries of Your Names and the Instructor of Your
Servants, the Interpreter of Your Signs and the Mirror of
the Beauty of Your Dominicality, the Means of witnessing
You and bearing witness to You, Your Beloved and Your
Messenger whom You sent as a Mercy to All the Worlds, and
to all his Family and Companions, and to his brothers
among the prophets and messengers, and to Your angels and
to the righteous among Your servants. AMEN. The Eighth Word In the Name of God, the Merciful,
the Compassionate. If you want to understand this world,
and man’s spirit within the world, and the nature and
value of religion for man, and how the world is a prison
if there is no True Religion, and that without religion
man becomes the most miserable of creatures, and that it
is O God! and, There is no god but God that
solve this world’s talisman and deliver the human
spirit from darkness, then listen to and consider this
comparison: Long ago, two brothers set off on a
long journey. They continued on their way until the road
forked. At the fork they saw a serious-looking man and
asked him: “Which road is good?” He told them: “On
the road to the right one is compelled to comply with the
law and order, but within that hardship is security and
happiness. However, on the left-hand road there is
freedom and no restraint, but within its freedom lie
danger and wretchedness. Now, the choice is yours!” After listening to this, saying, I
place my trust in God,3 the brother with a
good character took the right road and conformed to the
order and regulations. The other brother, who was immoral
and a layabout, chose the road to the left just for the
lack of restrictions. With our imaginations, we shall
follow this man in his situation, which was apparently
easy but in reality burdensome. Thus, this man went up hill and down
dale until he found himself in a desolate wilderness. He
suddenly heard a terrifying sound and saw that a great
lion had come out of the forest and was about to attack
him. He fled. He came across a waterless well sixty yards
deep, and in his fear jumped into it. He fell half-way
down it where his hands met a tree. He clung on to it.
The tree, which was growing out of the walls of the well,
had two roots. ____________________ 1. Qur’an, 3:2; 2:255. Two rats, one white and one black,
were attacking and gnawing through them. He looked up and
saw that the lion was waiting at the top of the well like
a sentry. He looked down and saw a ghastly dragon. It
raised its head and drew it close to his foot thirty
yards above. Its mouth was as big as the mouth of the
well. Then he looked at the well’s walls and saw that
stinging, poisonous vermin had gathered round him. He
looked up at the mouth of the well and saw a fig-tree.
But it was not an ordinary tree; it bore the fruit of
many different trees, from walnuts to pomegranates. Thus, due to his lack of thought and
foolishness, the man did not understand that this was not
just some ordinary matter, these things were not here by
chance, and that there were mysterious secrets concealed
in these strange beings. And he did not grasp that there
was someone very powerful directing them. Now, although
his heart, spirit, and mind were secretly weeping and
wailing at this grievous situation, his evil-commanding
soul pretended that it was nothing; it closed its ears to
the weeping of his heart and spirit, and deceiving
itself, started to eat the tree’s fruit as though it
was in a garden. But some of the fruit were poisonous and
harmful. Almighty God says in a Divine Hadith: “I am
according to how my servants think of Me.”4 Thus, through his foolishness and
lack of understanding, this unhappy man thought what he
saw to be ordinary and the actual truth. So that is the
way he was treated, and is treated, and will be treated.
He neither dies so that he is saved from it, nor does he
live - he is in such torment. Now we shall leave this
ill-omened man in his torment and return, so that we may
consider the situation of the other brother. This fortunate and intelligent person
went on his way, but he suffered no distress like his
brother. For, due to his fine morals, he thought of good
things and imagined good things. Everything was friendly
and familiar to him. And he did not suffer any difficulty
and hardship like his brother, for he knew the order and
followed it. He found it easy. He went on his way freely
and in peace and security. Then he came across a garden
in which were both lovely flowers and fruits, and, since
it was not looked after, rotting and filthy things. His
brother had also entered such a garden, but he had
noticed and occupied himself with the filthy things and
they had turned his stomach, so he had left it and moved
on without being able to rest himself. But this man acted
according to the rule, ‘look on the good side of
everything,’ and had paid no attention to the rotting
things. He had benefited a lot from the good things, and
taking a good rest, he had left and gone on his way. Later, also like the first brother,
he had entered a vast desert, and had suddenly heard the
roar of a lion which was attacking him. He was
frightened, ____________________ 4. Bukhari, Tawhid, 15, 35;
Muslim, Tawba, 1; Dhikr, 2, 19; Tirmidhi,
Zuhd, 51; Da’wat, 131; Ibn Maja,
Adab, 58; Darimi, Riqaq, 33; Musnad,
ii, 251, 315, 391, 412, 445, 482, 516. but not as much as his brother. For,
because of his good thoughts and positive attitude, he
thought to himself: “This desert has a ruler, and it is
possible that this lion is a servant under the ruler’s
command,” and found consolation. But he still fled
until he came across an empty well sixty yards deep. He
threw himself into it. Like his brother, his hand clasped
a tree half-way down and he remained suspended in the
air. He looked and saw two animals gnawing through the
tree’s two roots. He looked up and saw the lion, and
looked down and saw the dragon. Just like his brother he
was seeing a most strange situation. He was terrified
like him, but his terror was a thousand times less than
his brother’s. For his good morals had given him good
thoughts, and good thoughts show the good side of
everything. So, because of this, he thought as follows: “These strange happenings are
connected to someone. Also it seems that they are acting
in accordance with a command. In which case, these
matters contain a talisman. Yes, everything is happening
at the command of a hidden ruler. Therefore, I am not
alone; the hidden ruler is watching me, he is testing me,
he is impelling me somewhere for some purpose, and
inviting me there. A curiosity arising from this pleasant
fear and these agreeable thoughts prompt me to say: I
wonder who it is that is testing me, wants to make
himself known, and is impelling me for some purpose on
this strange road.” Then, love for the owner of the
talisman arose out of the desire to know him, and from
that love arose the desire to solve the talisman. And
from that desire arose the will to acquire good qualities
which would please and gratify the talisman’s owner.
Then he looked at the tree and saw it was a fig-tree, but
it was bearing the fruits of thousands of trees. So then
all his fear left him, for he understood that for certain
the fig-tree was a list, an index, an exhibition. The
hidden ruler must have attached samples of the fruits in
the garden to the tree through a miracle and with a
talisman, and must have adorned the tree in a way that
would point to each of the foods he had prepared for his
guests. For there is no other way a single tree could
produce the fruits of thousands of different trees. Then
he began to entreat that he would be inspired with the
key to the talisman. He called out: “O ruler of this place! I have
happened upon you and I take refuge with you. I am your
servant and I want to please you. I am searching for
you.” After he had made this supplication, the walls of
the well suddenly parted, and a door opened onto a
wonderful, pleasant, quiet garden. Indeed, the dragon’s
mouth was transformed into the door, and both it and the
lion took on the forms of two servants; they invited him
to enter. The lion even became a docile horse for him. O my lazy soul! And O my imaginary
friend! Come! Let us compare the position of these two
brothers so that we can see how good comes of good and
evil comes of evil. Let us find out. Look, the unhappy
traveller on the left road is all the time trembling with
fear waiting to enter the dragon’s mouth, while the
fortunate one is invited into a blooming, splendid garden
full of fruit. And the unfortunate one’s heart is being
pounded by an awful terror and grievous fear, while the
fortunate one is gazing at and observing strange things
as a delightful lesson, with a pleasant fear and loving
knowledge. Also the miserable one is suffering torments
in desolation, despair, and loneliness, while the
fortunate one is enjoying himself, full of hope, longing,
and a sense of belonging. Furthermore, the unfortunate
one sees himself as a prisoner subject to the attacks of
wild beasts, while the fortunate one is an honoured guest
who is on friendly terms and enjoying himself with the
strange servants of his generous host. Also the unhappy
one is hastening his torments by indulging in fruits
which are apparently delicious but in fact poisonous. For
the fruits are samples; there is permission to taste them
so as to seek the originals and become customers for
them, but there is no permission to devour them like an
animal. But the fortunate one tastes them and understands
the matter; he postpones eating them and takes pleasure
in waiting. Moreover, the unfortunate one is wronging
himself. Through his lack of discernment, he is making a
truth and a situation which are as clear and bright as
daylight into a dark and oppressive fear, into a hellish
delusion. He does not deserve pity, nor does he have the
right to complain to anyone. For example, if a person at a
pleasant banquet in a beautiful garden in summer among
his friends makes himself drunk through filthy
intoxicants, then imagines himself hungry and naked in
the middle of winter among wild animals and starts
shouting out and crying, he does not deserve to be
pitied; he is wronging himself, and he is insulting his
friends by imagining them to be wild beasts. Thus, the
unfortunate brother is like this. But the fortunate one
sees the truth. And the truth is good. Through perceiving
the beauty of the truth, the fortunate brother is being
respectful towards the truth’s owner. So he deserves
his mercy. Thus, the meaning of the Qur’anic decree:
“Know that evil is from yourself, and good is from God”5
becomes clear. If you make a comparison of other
differences in the same way, you will understand that the
evil-commanding soul of the first brother has prepared a
sort of hell for him, while the good intention, good
will, good character, and good thoughts of the other have
allowed him to receive abundant bounty, experience true
happiness and prosperity, and display shining virtue. O my soul! And O you who is listening
to this story together with my soul! If you do not want
to be the unfortunate brother and want to be the
fortunate one, listen to the Qur’an, obey its decrees,
adhere to them, and act according to them. ____________________ 5. See, Qur’an, 4:79. If you have understood the truths in
this comparison, you will be able to make them correspond
to the truths of religion, the world, man, and belief in
God. I shall say the important ones, then you deduce the
finer points yourself. So, look! Of the two brothers, one is
a believing spirit and a righteous heart. The other is an
unbelieving spirit and a depraved heart. Of the two
roads, the one to the right is the way of the Qur’an
and belief in God, while the left one is the road of
rebellion and denial. The garden on the road is man’s
fleeting life in human society and civilization, where
good and evil, and things good and bad and clean and
dirty are found side by side. The sensible person is he
who acts according to the rule: ‘Take what is pleasant
and clear, and leave what is distressing and turbid,’
and goes on his way with tranquillity of heart. As for
the desert, it is the earth and this world. And the lion
is death and the appointed hour. The well is man’s body
and the time of his life, while its sixty-yard depth
points to the normal life-span of sixty years. And the
tree is the period of life and the substance of life. The
two animals, one white and one black, are night and day.
The dragon is the road to the Intermediate Realm and
pavilion of the hereafter, whose mouth is the grave. But
for the believer, that mouth is a door opening from a
prison onto a garden. As for the poisonous vermin, they
are the calamities of this world. But for the believer
they are like gentle Divine warnings and favours of the
Most Merciful One to prevent him slipping off into the
sleep of heedlessness. The fruits on the tree are the
bounties of this world which the Absolutely Generous One
has made in the form of a list of the bounties of the
hereafter, and both as examples of them, and warnings,
and samples inviting customers to the fruits of As for the talisman, it is the
mystery of the purpose of creation which is solved
through the mystery of belief. And the key is There is
no god but God, and, God, there is no god but He,
the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsistent. The dragon’s
mouth being transformed into the door into the garden is
a sign that, although for the people of misguidance and
rebellion the grave is a door opening, in desolation and
oblivion, onto a grave distressing as a dungeon and
narrow as a dragon’s stomach, for the people of the
Qur’an and belief, it is a door which opens from the
prison of this world onto the fields of immortality, from
the arena of examination onto the gardens of Paradise,
and from the hardships of life onto the mercy of the
All-Merciful One. The savage lion turning into a friendly
servant and a docile mount is a sign that, although for
the people of misguidance, death is a bitter, eternal
parting from all their loved ones, and the expulsion from
the deceptive paradise of this world and the entry in
desolation and loneliness into the dungeon of the grave,
for the people of guidance and the Qur’an it is the
means of joining all their old friends and beloved ones
who have already departed for the next world, and the
means of entering their true homeland and abode of
everlasting happiness. It is an invitation to the meadows
of Paradise from the prison of this world, and a time to
receive the wage bestowed out of the generosity of the
Most Merciful and Compassionate One for services rendered
to Him, and a discharge from the hardship of the duties
of life, and a rest from the drill and instruction of
worship and examination. In Short: Whoever makes
this fleeting life his purpose and aim is in fact in Hell
even if apparently in O God! Appoint us among the people
of happiness, safety, the Qur’an, and belief. Amen. O
God! Grant peace and blessings to our Master Muhammad,
and to his Family and Companions, to the number of all
the letters of the Qur’an formed in all its words,
represented with the permission of the Most Merciful One
in the mirrors of the air waves on the recital of each of
those words by all the Qur’an’s reciters from its
first revelation to the end of time, and have mercy on us
and on our parents, and have mercy on all believing men
and women to the number of those words, through Your
mercy, O Most Merciful of the Merciful. Amen. And All
praise be to God, the Sustainer of All the Worlds. The Ninth Word In the Name of God, the Merciful,
the Compassionate. Brother! You ask me concerning the
wisdom in the specified times of the five daily prayers.
I shall point out only one of the many instances of
wisdom in the times. Yes, like each of the times of prayer
marks the start of an important revolution, so also is
each a mirror to Divine disposal of power and to the
universal Divine bounties within that disposal. Thus,
more glorification and extolling of the All-Powerful One
of Glory have been ordered at those times, and more
praise and thanks for all the innumerable bounties
accumulated between each of the times, which is the
meaning of the prescribed prayers. In order to understand
a little this subtle and profound meaning, you should
listen together with my own soul to the following five
‘Points’. FIRST POINT The meaning of the prayers is the
offering of glorification, praise, and thanks to Almighty
God. That is to say, uttering Glory be to God by
word and action before God’s glory and sublimity, it is
to hallow and worship Him. And declaring God is Most
Great through word and act before His sheer
perfection, it is to exalt and magnify Him. And saying All
praise be to God with the heart, tongue, and body, it
is to offer thanks before His utter beauty. That is to
say, glorification, exaltation, and praise are like the
seeds of the prayers. That is why these three things are
present in every part of the prayers, in all the actions
and words. It is also why these blessed words are each
repeated thirty-three times after the prayers, in order
to strengthen and reiterate the prayers’ meaning. The
meaning of the prayers is confirmed through these concise
summaries. ____________________ 1. Qur’an, 30:17-18. SECOND POINT The meaning of worship is this, that
the servant sees his own faults, impotence, and poverty,
and in the Also, the perfect power of
dominicality requires that through understanding his own
weakness and the impotence of other creatures, the
servant proclaims God is Most Great in admiration
and wonder before the majesty of the works of the
Eternally Besought One’s power, and bowing in deep
humility seeks refuge in Him and places his trust in Him. Also, the infinite treasury of
dominicality’s mercy requires that the servant makes
known his own need and the needs and poverty of all
creatures through the tongue of entreaty and
supplication, and proclaims his Sustainer’s bounties
and gifts through thanks and laudation and uttering All
praise be to God. That is to say, the words and
actions of the prayers comprise these meanings, and have
been laid down from the side of Divinity. THIRD POINT Just as man is an example in
miniature of the greater world and Sura al-Fatiha a
shining sample of the Qur’an of Mighty Stature, so are
the prescribed prayers a comprehensive, luminous index of
all varieties of worship, and a sacred map pointing to
all the shades of worship of all the classes of
creatures. FOURTH POINT The second-hand, minute-hand,
hour-hand, and day-hand of a clock which tells the weeks
look to one another, are examples of one another, and
follow one another. Similarly, the alternations of day
and night, which are like the seconds of this world -a
vast clock of Almighty God- and the years which tell its
minutes, and the stages of man’s life-span which tell
the hours, and the epochs of the world’s life-span
which tell the days look to one another, are examples of
one another, resemble one another, and recall one
another. For example: The time of Fajr,
the early morning: This time until sunrise resembles
and calls to mind the early spring, the moment of
conception in the mother’s womb, and the first of the
six days of the creation of the heavens and earth; it
recalls the Divine acts present in them. The time of Zuhr,
just past The time of ‘Asr,
afternoon: This is like autumn, and old age, and the
time of the Final Prophet (PBUH), known as the Era of
Bliss, and recalls the Divine acts and favours of the
All-Merciful One present in them. The time of Maghrib,
sunset: Through recalling the departure of many
creatures at the end of autumn, and man’s death, and
the destruction of the world at the commencement of the
resurrection, this time puts in mind the manifestations
of Divine glory and sublimity, and rouses man from his
slumbers of heedlessness. The time of ‘Isha,
nightfall. As for this time, by calling to mind the
world of darkness veiling all the objects of the daytime
world with a black shroud, and winter hiding the face of
the dead earth with its white cerement, and even the
remaining works of departed men dying and passing beneath
the veil of oblivion, and this world, the arena of
examination, being shut up and closed down for ever, it
proclaims the awesome and mighty disposals of the
All-Glorious and Compelling Subduer. As for the nighttime, through
putting in mind both the winter, and the grave, and the
Intermediate Realm, it reminds man how needy is the human
spirit for the Most Merciful One’s mercy. And the tahajjud
prayer informs him what a necessary light it is for the
night of the grave and darkness of the Intermediate
Realm; it warns him of this, and through recalling the
infinite bounties of the True Bestower, proclaims how
deserving He is of praise and thanks. And the second morning calls
to mind the Morning of the Resurrection. For sure,
however reasonable and necessary and certain the morning
of this night is, the Morning of the Resurrection and the
spring following the Intermediate Realm are certain to
the same degree. That is, just as each of these five
times marks the start of an important revolution and
recalls other great revolutions, so through the awesome
daily disposals of the Eternally Besought One’s power,
each calls to mind the miracles of Divine power and gifts
of Divine mercy of both every year, and every age, and
every epoch. That is to say, the prescribed prayers,
which are an innate duty and the basis of worship and an
incontestable debt, are most appropriate and fitting for
these times. FIFTH POINT By nature man is extremely weak, yet
everything touches him, and saddens and grieves him. Also
he is utterly lacking in power, yet the calamities and
enemies that afflict him are extremely numerous. Also he
is extremely wanting, yet his needs are indeed many. Also
he is lazy and incapable, yet life’s responsibilities
are most burdensome. Also his humanity has connected him
to the rest of the universe, yet the decline and
disappearance of the things he loves and with which he is
familiar continually pains him. Also his reason shows him
exalted aims and lasting fruits, yet his hand is short,
his life brief, his power slight, and his patience
little. It can be clearly understood from
this how essential it is for a spirit in this state at
the time of Fajr in the early morning to
have recourse to and present a petition to the Court of
an All-Powerful One of Glory, an All-Compassionate
All-Beauteous One through prayer and supplication, to
seek success and help from Him, and what a necessary
point of support it is so that he can face the things
that will happen to him in the coming day and bear the
duties that will be loaded on him. The time of Zuhr just
past As for the time of Asr
in the afternoon, it calls to mind the melancholy season
of autumn and the mournful state of old age and the
sombre period at the end of time. It is also when the
matters of the day reach their conclusion, and the time
the Divine bounties which have been received that day
like health, well-being, and beneficial duties have
accumulated to form a great total, and the time that
proclaims through the mighty sun hinting by starting to
sink that man is a guest-official and that everything is
transient and inconstant. Now, the human spirit desires
eternity and was created for it; it worships benevolence,
and is pained by separation. Thus, anyone who is truly a
human being may understand what an exalted duty, what an
appropriate service, what a fitting way to repay a debt
of human nature, indeed, what an agreeable pleasure it is
to perform the afternoon prayer. For by offering
supplications at the Eternal Court of the Everlasting
Pre-Eternal One, the Eternally Self-Subsistent One, it
has the meaning of taking refuge in the grace of
unending, infinite mercy, and by offering thanks and
praise in the face of innumerable bounties, of humbly
bowing before the mightiness of His dominicality, and by
prostrating in utter humility before the everlastingness
of His Godhead, of finding true consolation of heart and
ease of spirit, and being girded ready for worship in the
presence of His grandeur. The time of Maghrib at
sunset recalls the disappearance amid sad farewells of
the delicate, lovely creatures of the worlds of summer
and autumn at the start of winter. It calls to mind the
time when through his death, man will leave all those he
loves in sorrowful departure and enter the grave. It
brings to mind when at the death of this world amid the
convulsions of its death-agonies, all its inhabitants
will migrate to other worlds and the lamp of this place
of examination will be extinguished. It is a time which
gives stern warning to those who worship transient,
ephemeral beloveds. Thus, at such a time, for the Maghrib
prayer, man’s spirit, which by its nature is a mirror
desirous for an Eternal Beauty, turns its face towards
the throne of mightiness of the Eternal Undying One, the
Enduring Everlasting One, Who performs these mighty works
and turns and transforms these huge worlds, and declaring
God is Most Great over these transient beings,
withdraws from them. Man clasps his hands in service of
his Lord and rises in the presence of the Enduring
Eternal One, and through saying: All praise be to God,
he praises and extols His faultless perfection, His
peerless beauty, His infinite mercy. Through declaring: You
alone do we worship and from You alone we seek
help,2 he proclaims his worship for and
seeks help from His unassisted dominicality, His
unpartnered Godhead, His unshared sovereignty. Then he
bows, and through declaring together with all the
universe his weakness and impotence, his poverty and
baseness before the infinite majesty, the limitless
power, and utter mightiness of the Enduring Eternal One,
he says: All glory to My Mighty Sustainer, and
glorifies his Sublime Sustainer. And prostrating before
the undying Beauty of His Essence, His unchanging sacred
attributes, His constant everlasting perfection, through
abandoning all things other than Him, man proclaims his
love and worship in wonder and self-abasement. He finds
an All-Compassionate Eternal One. And through saying, All
glory to my Exalted Sustainer, he declares his Most
High Sustainer to be free of decline and exalted above
any fault. Then, he testifies to God’s unity
and the prophethood of Muhammad (Peace and blessings be
upon him). He sits, and on his own account offers as ____________________ 2. Qur’an,1:5. a gift to the Undying All-Beauteous
One, the Enduring All-Glorious One the blessed
salutations and benedictions of all creatures. And
through greeting God’s Most Noble Messenger, he renews
his allegiance to him and proclaims his obedience to his
commands. In order to renew and illuminate his faith, he
observes the wise order in this palace of the universe
and testifies to the unity of the All-Glorious Maker. And
he testifies to the Messengership of Muhammad the Arabian
(Peace and blessings be upon him), who is the herald of
the sovereignty of God’s dominicality, the proclaimer
of those things pleasing to Him, and the interpreter of
the signs and verses of the book of the universe. To
perform the Maghrib prayer is this. So how
can someone be considered a human being who does not
understand what a fine and pure duty is the prayer at
sunset, what an exalted and pleasurable act of service,
what an agreeable and pleasing act of worship, what a
serious matter, and what an unending conversation and
permanent happiness it is in this transient guest-house? At the time of ‘Isha
at nightfall, the last traces of the day remaining on the
horizon disappear, and the world of night enfolds the
universe. As the All-Powerful and Glorious One, The
Changer of Night and Day, turns the white page of day
into the black page of night through the mighty disposals
of His dominicality, it recalls the Divine activities of
that All-Wise One of Perfection, The Subduer of the
Sun and the Moon, turning the green-adorned page of
summer into the frigid white page of winter. And with the
remaining works of the departed being erased from this
world with the passing of time, it recalls the Divine
acts of The Creator and Life and Death in their
passage to another, quite different world. It is a time
that calls to mind the disposals of The Creator of the
Heavens and the Earth’s awesomeness and the
manifestations of His beauty in the utter destruction of
this narrow, fleeting, and lowly world, the terrible
death-agonies of its decease, and in the unfolding of the
broad, eternal, and majestic world of the hereafter. And
the universe’s Owner, its True Disposer, its True
Beloved and Object of Worship can only be the One Who
with ease turns night into day, winter into spring, and
this world into the hereafter like the pages of a book;
Who writes and erases them, and changes them. Thus, at nightfall, man’s spirit,
which is infinitely impotent and weak, and infinitely
poor and needy, and plunged into the infinite darkness of
the future, and tossed around amid innumerable events,
performs the ‘Isha prayer, which has this
meaning: like Abraham man says: I do not love those
that set,3 and through the prayers seeks
refuge at the Court of an Undying Object of Worship, an
Eternal Beloved One, and in this transient world and
fleeting life and dark world and black future he
supplicates an Enduring, ____________________ 3. Qur’an, 6:76. Everlasting One, and for a moment of
unending conversation, a few seconds of immortal life, he
asks to receive the favours of the All-Merciful and
Compassionate One’s mercy and the light of His
guidance, which will strew light on his world and
illuminate his future and bind up the wounds resulting
from the departure and decline of all creatures and
friends. Temporarily man forgets the hidden
world, which has forgotten him, and pours out his woes at
the Court of Mercy with his weeping, and whatever
happens, before sleeping -which resembles death- he
performs his last duty of worship. And in order to close
favourably the daily record of his actions, he rises to
pray; that is to say, he rises to enter the presence of
an Eternal Beloved and Worshipped One in place of all the
mortal ones he loves, of an All-Powerful and Generous One
in place of all the impotent creatures from which he
begs, of an All-Compassionate Protector so as to be saved
from the evil of the harmful beings before which he
trembles. He starts with the Sura al-Fatiha,
that is, instead of praising and being obliged to
defective, wanting creatures, for which they are not
suited, he extols and offers praise to The Sustainer
of All the Worlds, Who is Absolutely Perfect and
Utterly Self-Sufficient and Most Compassionate and
All-Generous. Then he progresses to the address: You
alone do we worship. That is, despite his smallness,
insignificance, and aloneness, through man’s connection
with The Owner of the Day of Judgement, Who is the
Sovereign of Pre-Eternity and Post-Eternity, he attains
to a rank whereat he is an indulged guest in the universe
and an important official. Through declaring: You
alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek
help, he presents to Him in the name of all creatures
the worship and calls for assistance of the mighty
congregation and huge community of the universe. Then
through saying: Guide us to the Straight Path, he
asks to be guided to the Straight Path, which leads to
eternal happiness and is the luminous way. And now, he thinks of the mightiness
of the All-Glorious One, of Whom, like the sleeping
plants and animals, the hidden suns and sober stars are
all soldiers subjugated to His command, and lamps and
servants in this guest-house of the world, and uttering: God
is Most Great, he bows down. Then he thinks of the
great prostration of all creatures. That is, when, at the
command of “Be!,” and it is,4 all
the varieties of creatures each year and each century
-even the earth, and the universe- each like a
well-ordered army or an obedient soldier, is discharged
from its duty, that is, when each is sent to the World of
the Unseen, through the prostration of its decease and
death with complete orderliness, it declares: God is
Most Great, and bows down in prostration. Like they
are raised to life, some in part and some the same, in
the spring at an awakening and life-giving trumpet-blast
from the command ____________________ 4. Qur’an, 2:117, etc. of “Be!” and it is, and
they rise up and are girded ready to serve their Lord,
insignificant man too, following them, declares: God
is Most Great! in the presence of the All-Merciful
One of Perfection, the All-Compassionate One of Beauty in
wonderstruck love and eternity-tinged humility and
dignified self-effacement, and bows down in prostration;
that is to say, he makes a sort of Ascension. For sure
you will have understood now how agreeable and fine and
pleasant and elevated, how high and pleasurable, how
reasonable and appropriate a duty, service, and act of
worship, and what a serious matter it is to perform the ‘Isha
prayer. Thus, since each of these five times
points to a mighty revolution, is a sign indicating the
tremendous dominical activity, and a token of the
universal Divine bounties, it is perfect wisdom that
being a debt and an obligation, the prescribed prayers
should be specified at those times. Glory be unto You! We have no
knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed You
are All-Knowing, All-Wise.5 O God! Grant blessings and peace
to the one whom You sent as a teacher to Your servants to
instruct them in knowledge of You and worship of You, and
to make known the treasures of Your Names, and to
translate the signs of the book of the universe and as a
mirror to its worship of the beauty of Your dominicality,
and to all his Family and Companions, and have mercy on
us and on all believing men and women. Amen. Through Your
Mercy, O Most Merciful of the Merciful! ____________________ 5. Qur’an, The Eleventh Word In the Name of God, the Merciful,
the Compassionate. By the sun and its glorious
splendour; * By the moon as it follows it; * By the day
as it shows [the sun’s] glory; * By the night as it
conceals it; * By the firmament and its wonderful
structure; * By the earth and its wide expanse; * By the
soul and the order and proportion given it.1 Brother! If you want to understand a
little about the talisman of the wisdom of the world and
the riddle of man’s creation and the mystery of the
reality of the prescribed prayers, then consider this
short comparison together with my own soul. One time there was a king. As wealth
he had numerous treasuries containing diamonds and
emeralds and jewels of every kind. Besides these he had
other, hidden, wondrous treasuries. By way of attainment
he had consummate skill in strange arts, and encompassing
knowledge of innumerable wondrous sciences, and great
erudition in endless branches of abstruse learning. Now,
like every possessor of beauty and perfection wants to
see and display his own beauty and perfection, that
glorious king wanted to open up an exhibition and set out
displays within it in order to make manifest and display
in the view of the people the majesty of his rule, his
glittering wealth, the wonders of his art, and the
marvels of his knowledge, and so that he could behold his
beauty and perfection in two respects: The First Respect: so that he
himself could behold them with his own discerning eye. The Other: so that he could
look through the view of others. With this purpose in mind, the king
started to construct a vast and majestic palace. He
divided it into magnificent apartments and dwellings, and
decorated it with every sort of jewel from his
treasuries, and with his own hand so full of art adorned
it with the finest and most beautiful works. He ordered
it with the subtlest of the arts of his wisdom, and
decked it out with the miraculous works of his knowledge.
Then after completing it, he set up in the palace broad
tables containing the most delicious of every kind of
food ____________________ 1. Qur’an, 91:1-7. and every sort of bounty. He
specified an appropriate table for each group. He set out
such a munificent and artful banquet that it was as
though the boundless priceless bounties he spread out had
come into existence through the works of a hundred subtle
arts. Then he invited his people and subjects from all
the regions of his lands to feast and behold the
spectacle. Later the king appointed a Supreme
Commander (PBUH) as teacher, to make known the purposes
of the palace and the meanings of its contents; to
describe its Maker and its contents to the people, make
known the secrets of the palace’s embellishments, teach
what the arts within it were pointing to, and to explain
what the well-set jewels were, and the harmonious
embroideries; and to explain to those who entered the
palace the way in which they indicated the perfections
and arts of the palace’s owner, and to inform them of
the correct conduct in beholding them, and to explain the
official ceremonies as the king, who did not appear,
wished them to be. The teacher and instructor had an
assistant in each area of the palace, while he himself
remained in the largest apartment among his students,
making the following announcement to all the spectators.
He told them: “O people! By making this palace
and displaying these things our lord, who is the king of
the palace, wants to make himself known to you. You
therefore should recognize Him and try to get to know
Him. And with these adornments He wants to make Himself
loved by you. Also, He shows His love for you through
these bounties that you see, so you should love Him too
by obeying Him. And through these bounties and gifts
which are to be seen He shows His compassion and kindness
for you, so you should show your respect for Him by
offering thanks. And through these works of His
perfection He wants to display His transcendent beauty to
you, so you should show your eagerness to see Him and
gain His regard. And through placing a particular stamp
and special seal and an inimitable signet on every one of
these adorned works of art that you see, He wants to show
that everything is particular to Him, and is the work of
His own hand, and that He is single and unique and
independent and removed. You therefore should recognize
that He is single and alone, and without peer or like or
match, and accept that He is such.” He spoke further
fitting words to the spectators like these concerning the
King and this station. Then the people who had entered
the palace separated into two groups. The First Group: Since these people had self-knowledge, were intelligent, and their hearts were in the right place, when they looked at the wonders inside the palace, they declared: “There are great matters afoot here!” They understood that it was not in vain or some trifling plaything. They were curious, and while wondering: “I wonder what the talisman to this is and what it contains,” they suddenly heard the speech the Master and Instructor was giving, and they realized that the keys to all the mysteries were with him. So they approached him and said:
“Peace be upon you, O Master! By rights, a truthful and
exact instructor like you is necessary for a magnificent
palace such as this. Please tell us what our Lord has
made known to you!” First of all the Master repeated
the speech to them. They listened carefully, and
accepting it, profited greatly. They acted as the King
wished. And because the King was pleased at their
becoming conduct and manners, he invited them to another
special, elevated, ineffable palace. And he bestowed it
on them in a way worthy of such a munificent king, and
fitting for such obedient subjects, and suitable for such
well-mannered guests, and appropriate to such an elevated
palace. He made them permanently happy. As for the Second Group,
because their minds were corrupted and their hearts
extinguished, when they entered the palace, they were
defeated by their evil-commanding souls and took notice
of nothing apart from the delicious foods; they closed
their eyes to all the virtues and stopped up their ears
to the guidance of the Master (PBUH) and the warnings of
his students. They stuffed themselves like animals then
sank into sleep. They quaffed elixirs which had been
prepared for certain other matters and were not to have
been consumed. Then they became drunk and started
shouting so much they greatly upset the other spectating
guests. They were ill-mannered in the face of the
Glorious Maker’s rules. So the soldiers of the
palace’s owner arrested them, and cast them into a
prison appropriate to such unmannerly people. O friend who is listening to this
story with me! Of course you have understood that the
Glorious Creator built this palace for the
above-mentioned aims. The achievement of these aims is
dependent on two things: The First: The existence of
the Master (PBUH) whom we saw and whose speech we heard.
Because if it was not for him, all these aims would be in
vain. For if an incomprehensible book has no author, it
consists only of meaningless paper. The Second is the people
listening the Master’s words and accepting them. That
is to say, the Master’s existence is the cause of the
palace’s existence, and the people’s listening to him
is the cause of the continuation of the palace’s
existence. In which case it can be said that if it was
not for the Master (PBUH), the Glorious King would not
have built the palace. And again it may be said that when
the people do not heed the Master’s (PBUH)
instructions, the palace will of a certainty be
transformed and changed. Friend! The story ends here. If you
have understood the meaning of the comparison, come and
behold its reality. The palace is this world. Its roof is the heavens illuminated with smiling stars, and its floor, the face of the earth adorned from east to west with multifarious flowers. As for the King, he is the Most Holy One, the Pre-Eternal and Post-Eternal Monarch, Whom all things in the seven heavens and the earth glorify and extol, each with
its particular tongue. He is a king so powerful He
created the heavens and earth in six days, then abided on
the Throne. One of Power and Majesty, Who, alternating
night and day like two threads, one white and one black,
writes His signs of the page of the universe; One to
Whose command the sun, moon, and stars are subjugated.
The apartments of the palace are the eighteen thousand
worlds, each of which has been set in order and decorated
in a fashion suitable to it. The strange arts you saw in
the palace are the miracles of Divine power you see in
this world, and the foods you saw there allude to the
wonderful fruits of Divine mercy in this world,
especially in summer, and above all in the gardens of
Barla. The stove and kitchen there is the earth here,
which has fire in its heart, and the face of the earth.
While the jewels of the hidden treasuries you saw in the
comparison are the similitudes of the manifestations of
the sacred Divine Names. And the embroideries there, and
the signs of the embroideries, are the well-ordered and
finely worked beings and the harmonious impresses of the
pen of power which adorn this world and point to the
Names of the All-Powerful One of Glory. As for the Master, he is our Master
Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him). His
assistants are the prophets (Peace be upon them), and his
students, the saints and purified scholars. The ruler’s
servants in the palace indicate the angels (Peace be upon
them) in this world. And the guests invited to the
banquet to spectate in the comparison are the jinn and
mankind in this guest-house of the world, and the
animals, who are the servants of mankind. As for the two
groups, one of them here consists of the people of
belief, who are the students of the All-Wise Qur’an,
the interpreter of the verses and signs of the book of
the universe. The other group are the people of unbelief
and rebellion, who follow Satan and their evil-commanding
souls; deaf and dumb, like animals, or even lower, they
form the group of the misguided, who recognize the life
of this world only. FIRST GROUP: These are
the felicitous and the good, who listened to the Master,
‘the Possessor of Two Wings.’ He is both the
worshipping servant of God; in regard to worship he
describes his Sustainer so that he is like the envoy of
his community at the Court of Almighty God. And he is
also God’s Messenger; with regard to Messengership he
conveys his Sustainer’s decrees to men and the jinn by
means of the Qur’an. This happy community heeded the
Messenger and listened to the Qur’an. They saw
themselves invested with the prescribed prayers, which
are the index of all the varieties of worship, and
numerous subtle duties within elevated stations. Indeed,
they saw in detail the duties and stations which the
prayers point to with their various formulas and actions.
It was like this: Firstly: Since they observed the Divine works, and in the form of a transaction in the absence of the person concerned, saw themselves in the station of observing the wonders of the
sovereignty of dominicality, they performed the duty of
extolling and glorifying God, declaring: “God is
Most Great!” Secondly: Through being
seen in the station of herald of His brilliant and
wonderful works, which are the manifestations of the
sacred Divine Names, exclaiming: “Glory be to God!
All praise be to God!”, they performed the duty
of hallowing and praising God. Thirdly: In the station
of perceiving and understanding with their inner and
outer senses the bounties stored up in the treasuries of
Divine mercy, they started to carry out the duty of
thanks and praise. Fourthly: In the
station of weighing up with the scales of their spiritual
faculties the jewels in the treasuries of the Divine
Names, they began the duty of praise and declaring God to
be free of all fault. Fifthly: In the station
of studying the Sustainer’s missives, written with the
pen of power on the plan of Divine Determining, they
began the duty of contemplation and appreciation. Sixthly: With beholding
the subtle, delicate, fine beauties in the creation of
things and in the art in beings, in the station of
declaring God to be free of all defect, they took up the
duty of love and yearning for their All-Glorious Creator,
their All-Beauteous Maker. That is to say, after looking
at the universe and works and performing the duties in
the above-mentioned stations through transactions in the
object of worship’s absence, they rose to the degree of
also beholding the transactions and acts of the All-Wise
Maker, whereby, in the form of a transaction in the
presence of the person concerned, they responded with
knowledge and wonder in the face of the All-Glorious
Creator’s making Himself known to conscious beings
through the miracles of His art, and declared: “Glory
be unto You! How can we truly know you? What makes You
known are the miracles of the works of Your art!” Then, they responded with love and
passion to that Most Merciful One’s making Himself
loved through the beautiful fruits of His mercy. “You
alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek
help!”, they declared. Then they responded with thanks and
praise to the True Bestower’s showing His mercy and
compassion through His sweet bounties, and exclaimed:
“Glory be unto You! All praise is Yours! How can we
thank You as is Your due? You are utterly worthy of
thanks! For all Your bounties spread through all the
universe hymn Your praises and thanks through the clear
tongues of their beings. All Your bounties lined up in
the market of the world and scattered over the face of
the earth proclaim Your praises and extol You. Through
testifying to Your munificence and generosity, all the
well-ordered and well-proportioned fruits of Your mercy
and bounty offer You thanks before the gazes of Your
creatures.”
Then they responded, saying: “God
is Most Great!” before the manifestation of Divine
beauty, glory, perfection, and majesty in the mirrors of
beings, ever changing on the face of the universe; they
bowed reverently in their impotence, and prostrated in
humility with love and wonder. Then announcing their poverty and
need, they responded with supplication and beseeching to
the Possessor of Absolute Riches’ displaying the
abundance of His wealth and breadth of His mercy, and
declared: “From You alone do we seek help!” Then they responded appreciatively to
the All-Glorious Maker’s displaying the subtleties and
wonders of His antique art in the exhibition of
creatures, exclaiming: “What wonders God has willed!”
Observing and applauding them, they declared, “How
beautifully they have been made! What blessings God has
bestowed!” Holding everyone witness, they said in
wonder: “Come! Look at these! Hasten to the prayers and
to prosperity!” And they responded with submission
and obedience to the Monarch of Pre-Eternity and
Post-Eternity’s proclamation of the sovereignty of His
dominicality in every corner of the universe and the
manifestation of His unity. Declaring: “We hear and we
obey!”, they affirmed His unity. Then, before the manifestation of the
Godhead of that Sustainer of All the Worlds, they
responded with worship and humble veneration, which
consists of proclaiming their poverty within need, and
with the prescribed prayers, which are the summary of
worship. Thus, through performing their various duties of
worship in the mighty mosque known as the abode of this
world, they carried out the obligations and duties of
their lives, and assumed ‘the finest of forms.’ They
ascended to a rank above all creatures by which, through
the auspiciousness of belief and assurance and ‘the
Trust,’ they became trustworthy Vicegerents of God on
the Earth. And after this field of trial and place of
examination, their Munificent Sustainer invited them to
eternal happiness in recompense for their belief, and to
the Abode of Peace in reward for their adhering to His
religion of Islam. There, He bestowed on them out of His
mercy bounties so dazzling that no eye has seen them, nor
ear heard them, nor have they occurred to the heart of
man2 - and so He does bestow these on them,
and He gave them eternity and everlasting life. For the
desirous, mirror-bearing lovers of an eternal, abiding
beauty who gaze upon it will certainly not perish, but
will go to eternity. The final state of the Qur’an’s
students is thus. May Almighty God include us among them,
Amen! As for the other group, the sinners
and the wicked, when they entered the palace of this
world at the age of discretion, they responded with
unbelief to ____________________ 22. Bukhari, Bad'ul-Khalq, 8; Tafsir
al-Sura, xxxii, 1;Tawhid, 35; Muslim, Iman, 312.
O my senseless soul and foolish
friend! Do you suppose your life’s duty is restricted
to following the good life according to the requisites of
civilization, and, if you will excuse the expression, to
gratifying the physical appetites? Do you suppose the
sole aim of the delicate and subtle senses, the sensitive
faculties and members, the well-ordered limbs and
systems, the inquisitive feelings and senses included in
the machine of your life is restricted to satisfying the
low desires of the base soul in this fleeting life? God
forbid! There are two main aims in their creation and
inclusion in your essential being: The First consists of
making known to you all the varieties of the True
Bestower’s bounties, and causing you to offer Him
thanks. You should be aware of this, and offer Him thanks
and worship. The Second is to make
known to you by means of your faculties all the sorts of
the manifestations of the sacred Divine Names manifested
in the world and to cause you to experience them. And
you, by recognizing them through experiencing them,
should come to believe in them. Thus, man develops and is perfected
through the achievement of these two basic aims. Through
them, man becomes a true human being. Look through the meaning of the
following comparison, and see that the human faculties
were not given in order to gain worldly life like an
animal. For example, someone gave one of his
servants twenty gold pieces, telling him to have a suit
of clothes made out of a particular cloth. The servant
went and got himself a fine suit out of the highest grade
of the cloth, and put it on. Then he saw that his
employer had given another of his servants a thousand
gold pieces, and putting in the servant’s pocket a
piece of paper with some things written on it, had sent
him to conclude some business. Now, anyone with any sense
would know that the capital was not for getting a suit of
clothes, for, since the first servant had bought a suit
of the finest cloth with twenty gold pieces, the thousand
gold pieces were certainly not to be spent on that. Since
the second servant had not read the paper in his pocket,
and looking at the first servant, had given all the money
to a shopkeeper for a suit of clothes, and then received
the very lowest grade of cloth and a suit fifty times
worse that his friend’s, his employer was bound to
reprimand him severely for his utter stupidity, and
punish him angrily. O my soul and my friend! Come to your
senses! Do not spend the capital and potentialities of
your life on pleasures of the flesh and this fleeting
life like an animal, or even lower. Otherwise, although
you are fifty times superior with regard to capital than
the highest animal, you will fall fifty times lower than
the lowest. O my heedless soul! If you want to
understand to a degree both the aim of your life and its
nature, and the form of your life, and the true meaning
of your life, and its perfect happiness, then look! The
summary of the aims of your life consists of nine
matters: The First is this: To
weigh up on the scales of the senses put in your being
the bounties stored up in the treasuries of Divine mercy,
and to offer universal thanks. The Second: To open
with the keys of the faculties placed in your nature the
hidden treasuries of the sacred Divine Names. The Third: To
consciously display and make known through your life in
the view of the creatures in this exhibition of the world
the wondrous arts and subtle manifestations which the
Divine Names have attached to you. The Fourth: To proclaim
your worship to the Court of the Creator’s dominicality
verbally and through the tongue of your disposition. The Fifth: Like on
ceremonial occasions a soldier wears all the decorations
he has received from his king, and through appearing
before the him, displays the marks of his favour towards
him, this is to consciously adorn yourself in the jewels
of the subtle senses which the manifestations of the
Divine Names have given you, and to appear in the
observant view of the Pre-Eternal Witness. The Sixth: To
consciously observe the salutations of living beings to
their Creator, known as the manifestations of life, and
their glorifications of their Maker, known as the signs
of life, and their worship of the Bestower of Life, known
as the aims of life, and by reflecting on them to see
them, and through testifying to them to display them. The Seventh: Through
taking as units of measurement the small samples of
attributes like the partial knowledge, power, and will
given to your life, it is to know through those measures
the absolute attributes and sacred qualities of the
All-Glorious Creator. For example, since, through your
partial power, knowledge, and will, you have made your
house in well-ordered fashion, you should know that the
Maker of the palace of the world is its Disposer, and
Powerful, Knowing, and Wise to the degree it is greater
than your house. The Eighth: To
understand the words concerning the Creator’s unity and
Maker’s dominicality uttered by each of the beings in
the world in its particular tongue.
The Ninth: To understand
through your impotence and weakness, your poverty and
need, the degrees of the Divine power and dominical
riches. Just as the pleasure and degrees and varieties of
food are understood through the degrees of hunger and the
sorts of need, so you should understand the degrees of
the infinite Divine power and riches through your
infinite impotence and poverty. The aims of your life,
then, briefly, are matters like these. Now consider the
nature of your life; its summary is this: It is an index of wonders pertaining
to the Divine Names; a scale for measuring the Divine
attributes; a balance of the worlds within the universe;
a list of the mighty world; a map of the cosmos; a
summary of the vast book of the universe; a bunch of keys
with which to open the hidden treasuries of Divine power;
and a most excellent pattern of the perfections scattered
over beings and attached to time. The nature of your life
consists of matters like these. Now, the form of your life and the
manner of its duty is this: your life is an inscribed
word, a wisdom-displaying word written by the pen of
power. Seen and heard, it points to the Divine Names. The
form of your life consists of matters like these. Now the true meaning of your life is
this: its acting as a mirror to the manifestation of
Divine oneness and the manifestation of the Eternally
Besought One. That is to say, through a comprehensiveness
as though being the point of focus for all the Divine
Names manifested in the world, it is its being a mirror
to the Single and Eternally Besought One. Now, as for the perfection of your
life, it is to perceive the lights of the Pre-Eternal Sun
which are depicted in the mirror of your life, and to
love them. It is to display ardour for Him as a conscious
being. It is to pass beyond yourself with love of Him. It
is to establish the reflection of His light in the centre
of your heart. It is due to this mystery that the Hadith
Qudsi was uttered, which is expressed by the following
lines, and will raise you to the highest of the high: The heavens and the earth contain
me not; Yet, how strange! I am contained
in the hearts of believers.3 And so, my soul! Since your life is
turned towards such elevated aims and gathers together
such priceless treasuries, is it at all worthy of reason
and fairness that you should spend it on temporary
gratification of the instinctual soul and fleeting
worldly pleasures, and waste it? If you do not want to
fritter away your life, ponder over the oaths in this
Sura of the Qur’an, which allude to the above
comparison and truths, and act accordingly: By the sun and its [glorious]
splendour; * By the moon as it ____________________ 3. See, al-‘Ajluni, Kashf al-Khafa,
ii, 165; Ghazzali, Ihya’l-‘Ulum al-Din, iii, 14. follows it; * By the day as it
shows up [the sun’s] glory; * By the night as it
conceals it; * By the firmament and its [wonderful]
structure; * By the earth and its [wide] expanse; * By
the soul and the order and proportion given it; * And its
enlightenment to its wrong and its right. * Truly he
succeeds that purifies it, * And he fails that corrupts
it.4 O God, grant blessings and peace
to the Sun of the Skies of Messengership, the Moon of the
Constellation of Prophethood, and to his Family and
Companions, the stars of guidance, and grant mercy to us
and to all believing men and all believing women. Amen.
Amen. Amen. ____________________ 4. Qur’an, 91:1-10. |
|