10. Yunus

Surely God's friends-no fear shall be upon them, neither shall they sorrow. God's friends are those who dive for the pearl of wisdom in the oceans of knowledge, who are the sun of desire and the resting place of the covenant of good fortune in the heaven of the innate dis- position, who are accepted by the Divine Presence and the oyster shell of the secrets of Lordhood, who are the title-page of the Shariah and the proof of the Haqiqah. Through them the lineage of MuṣṬafā is alive in the World of the Realities, the pathway of truthfulness is filled with the firm fixity of their feet, their outwardness is adorned with the rulings of the Shariah, their inwardness is illumined by the pearl of poverty. When the traces of the gaze of these exalted ones reach the thorn-bed of deprivation, the jasmine of the religion blooms. When the blessings of their breaths shine upon the salt-waste of misery, the ambergris of passion wafts its scent. If they gaze on a disobedient person, he becomes obedient. If they open their eyes on someone wearing a sash of unbelief, he is accepted and protected by the Exalted Threshold. Thus it is told that once the exalted one of his time and the master of his era, Shiblī, became ill. The caliph of the time liked him, and it reached him that Shiblī was ill. There was a Christian physician, ex- tremely skillful, so he sent him to Shiblī to cure him. The physician came and said to Shiblī, " O shaykh! If I have to make your medicine from my own skin and flesh, I will not hold it back and I will heal you. " Shiblī said, " My medicine is less than that. " He said, " What is it? " He said, " Cut off that sash, and you will have cured me. " The physician said, " It is no stipulation of chivalry that I make a claim and not carry it through. If your healing lies in my cutting off the sash, that's an easy job. " When the physician cut off his sash, Shiblī got up from the illness. The news of what happened reached the caliph. He became happy and said, " I thought I was sending a physician to someone ill.

Those who believe and fear [God]: if [this clause is] understood as an adjectival qualification of 'God's friends', then the meaning is: those who believe with the faith of the Truth and who guard against any remnants from themselves or the manifestation of any variegations in them;

For them is good news in the life of this world and the next world. They have two sorts of good news, one today and one tomorrow. Today: " Give good news to those with faith that they have a footing of truthfulness with their Lord " [10:2]. Tomorrow: " Their Lord will give them the good news of mercy from Him, approval, and the Gardens " [9:21]. Here you have boundless caresses, everlasting bliss, the happiness of friends, a satisfied King, and joyful ser- vants: " My servants, whatever you seek, seek for nothing greater than My satisfaction. Whatever you reach, you will reach nothing better than My bounty. Whomever you choose in friendship, you will choose no one like Me. Whomever you see, you will see no one like Me. 'This house is your house, and I am your neighbor.' " Great are those days whose final outcome is this! Exalted is that servant who is worthy for this! Beautiful is that seed whose fruit is this! Blessed is that night whose morning is this! A house of light, everlasting happiness, and the Forgiving Patron! Say to Our friends, " Let your eyes be delighted- the ruined house has come to Me in safety. "

And let not what they say grieve you: in other words, do not be affected by it, for it is [mere] contentiousness [on their part]. Rather, witness the might of God and His vanquishing power so that you might look upon them in light of the annihilation and see their deeds and statements and their threats to you as [scattered] dust. For he who witnesses God's power and might, will see that all power and might belongs [only] to Him and that there is no power or strength in anyone else. He is the Hearer, of what they say about you and will requite them [for it], the Knower, of what ought to be done with them. He then demonstrates their weakness, incapacity and the impossibility of their overcoming him with His words:

Why, surely to God belongs all who are in the heavens and all who are in the earth, all being under His dominion, disposal and subjugation and have no power over anything other than through His Essence and His will and His empowering of them. Those who call upon besides God are not following associates: what thing can those who call upon besides God follow as associateḍ In other words, if all are under His subjugation and dominion, then what they call upon besides God cannot be anything, nor can it have any effective agency or power; they are following nothing but, the illusions of their conjecture and what they conjure up in their imagination, and they are but reckoning the existence of something which has no existence in reality.

He it is Who made for you the night, of the body, that you should rest therein, and the day, of the spirit that you should perceive thereby the realities of things and that by which you might be guided to Him. Surely in that are signs for a folk who are able to hear, the speech of God and thus understand its esoteric meanings and bounds and discover thereby His attributes and His names and thus witness Him as He is described and qualified by these.