10. Yunus

And when We made people taste of mercy after adversity that had afflicted them: it has already been mentioned how different types of trials in the way of adversities and hardships and all kinds of severe distress [serve to] break the soul's enthusiasm for evil (shirra) and make the heart more tender by removing the veils of the soul's attributes, thinning the densities of nature and lifting of the coverings of vain desire. That is why their hearts incline by nature to their point of origin when in that state [of tasting mercy], since they are then returning to the entailments of their primordial nature, their original luminosity and their primordial faculty, and they are inclining to ascending, something which is rooted in them, once the impediment has been eliminated. Nay to incline to the upper aspect and to the luminous points of origin is a predisposition created in the nature of all spiritual faculties, even the animal soul, if it should cleanse itself of dark corporeal configurations. For to tend to what is low belongs to corporeal accidents. So much so that even beasts and wild animals when in hardship during times of scarcity and days of drought, [you see them] gather in groups with their heads raised towards the heaven as though their spiritual connection senses the coming down of an effusion from the upper aspect so that they might then draw on it [for relief]. Similarly, when outward graces are plentiful for people, the resources of nature in full supply for them and [their] corporeal needs [satisfied], the soul is strengthened [and emboldened] by the reinforcement of the lower aspect and its faculties become arrogant and overbearing towards the heart, the veil becomes denser and harsher, vain desire acquires mastery and becomes victory such that corporeal nature holds sway and dark corporeal configurations pile up. And thus the heart becomes shaped by the configuration of the soul, hardening, becoming harsher and insolent, made recklessly arrogant by [the plentifulness of] grace to the extent that it becomes ungrateful, blind and inclines to the lower aspect remote as it is to luminous configuration in such instances. In the measure that the soul acquires mastery over the heart, so too does the estimative faculty acquire mastery over the intellect, whereupon devilry becomes master, given that the rational faculty is now captive in the shackles of estimation and under its command, exploited by it for its own pursuits and rendering its goals palatable to it as it actualises the pleasures of the soul, reinforcing it [the rational faculty] from the world of abomination and strengthening its attributes with equipment from the world of natural character and tools of the substrata of [worldly] shares through reflection, such that the heart becomes veiled through [the accumulation of] rust to the receptivity of the attributes of the Truth totally.

He it is who makes you journey on land and sea. Even so, when you are in the ship-it takes them along with a goodly breeze, and they rejoice in it; there comes upon them a raging wind, and waves come from every place and they think that they will be encompassed by them; they supplicate God, purifying the religion for Him: " If Thou savest us from this, we shall surely be among the thankful. " In the tongue of the folk of allusion, the journey on land is taking the road to the drinking places of the Shariah through inference by means of the message. The journey on the sea is the overwhelm- ing force of the Real which, at the moment of ecstasy, pulls the reins of the servant's steed without intermediaries through the way stations of the Haqiqah to the places of contemplating holiness. Just as on the sea you make a one-month journey in one day, so also in this field the chevalier traverses the distance of a whole lifetime with one divine attraction. This is why they say, " One attraction of the Real is equivalent to all the deeds of jinn and men. " The journey on land is the journey of the worshipers and renunciants in the desert of struggle on the steed of discipline with the guidance of the Shariah. Their goal is the paradise of approval and everlasting blessings. The journey on the sea is the journey of the recognizers and the sincerely truthful in the ship of kind favor, which is driven by the wind of solicitude in the sea of contemplation. Their goal is the Kaabah of union and the mystery of the Beneficent. It has also been said that land and sea are allusions to the contraction and expansion of the recognizers. Sometimes in contraction they weep between confoundedness and bewilderment, and sometimes in expansion they are delighted between witnessing and finding. When the wind of happiness again blows from the horizon of self-disclosure and the rain of generosity pours down from the cloud of gentleness, they see solicitude and kind favor, and the hard cash of their present moment becomes it takes them along with a goodly breeze, and they rejoice in it: On the carpet of witnessing, in the state of intimacy, joy comes over them.

[O mankind] your insolence is only against your own souls, to the end of this [verse]: insolence is the opposite of justness. So just as justness is a virtue that subsumes all other virtues and configuration from the [inclusive] unity that procures an effusion from the light of the Oneness for the soul, so insolence can only be the result of utter engrossment in vices such that it requires all of them. The one so [insolent] is at extreme distance from the Truth and utter darkness, as it is said [in a ḥadīth]: 'Injustice shall be [a heap of] darknesses on the Day of Resurrection'. That is why He says 'against your souls' and not against the victim of the injustice, because the one suffering the injustice will end up fortunate thereby while the unjust one will be utterly wretched. It is but the enjoyment of the life of this world since all excesses and acts of immoderation that are the counterpart to justice are mere natural enjoyments and animal pleasures that will perish with the perishing of sensory life whose similitude in being quick to disappear and of little endurance is given in the similitude here in which the earth adorns itself with its ornaments by [receiving] rainwater but is then quickly destroyed by some ruinous matter before there is time to profit from the plants [that had shot forth with the rain]. There then follows eternal wretchedness and everlasting painful chastisement. According to the ḥadīth it is said that the good that is quickest to receive reward is kindness to relatives; and the evil that receives its punishment most promptly is insolence and the perjurious oath, since against this latter there accumulate the dues of people and so his punishment cannot be delayed for the length of time that a due of God, exalted be He, can. I have heard one [Sufi] shaykh say: 'Rarely does an insolent [tyrant] die a natural death and rarely does a wicked person reach old age', and that is because they both challenge God, exalted be He, by trying to demolish the order which God's solicitude is devoted to keeping in check and because they both contravene His wisdom and His justice.

And God invites to the Abode of Peace, and He guides whomsoever He will to a straight path. Invitations are four: First is the invitation to tawḤīd and bearing witness. That is His words, " He invites you so that He may forgive you some of your sins " [14:10]. Second is the invitation to praise and response. That is His words, " He will invite you, and you will respond to Him " [17:52]. Third is the invitation to following and leadership. That is His words, " We shall invite all the people by their leader " [17:71]. Fourth is the invitation to generosity and hospitality. That is His words, " And God invites to the Abode of Peace. " When someone wants to invite someone and to make his friends and dear ones his guests, the condition of the entertainment is that first he sends one of those close to him, one of his own special friends, to inform them and give them the good news. Then, when they come, he sends his dear ones to welcome them. He does not invite any of them alone, but rather he invites their friends and relatives as well. He sends steeds and torches in the road, and when they come their place is made up and ready. When they sit, he first gives them rosewater, then fruit is brought. The prepared food is placed, and the serving boys and servants stand by. When that is finished, they listen to music. It is also a condition that the host not hold himself back from being seen by the guests, and finally that he send them back with respect and honor. The Lord of the Worlds has made all of this ready and set it up for the entertainment of para- dise, and He reports of it and explains it in the Qur'an. The first to call them and give them good news is MuṣṬafā, who is, the Real says, " inviting to God by His leave " [33:46]. Then the angels and Riẓwān will come to welcome them: and the angels will receive them [21:103]. He will send them mounts: We shall muster the godwary to the All-Merciful in droves [19:85], which is to say that they will be mounted on noble steeds of light.

Those who do what is beautiful shall have the most beautiful and an increase. Neither dust nor abasement shall overcome their faces. It is they who will be the companions of the Garden, dwelling within it forever. The companions of the Garden are one thing, the lords of companionship something else. About the companions of the Garden He says, " And God invites to the Abode of Peace " [10:25]. About the lords of companionship He says, " And He guides whomsoever He will to a straight path " [10:25]. The most beautiful, blessedness, and nearness belong to the folk of the Garden. Increase, proxim- ity, and companionship belong to the folk of recognition. I envy your house because of your neighborhood- blessed is he who becomes a neighbor of your house! God's Messenger said, " When God settles the folk of the Garden in the Garden and the folk of the Fire in the Fire, He will send the Faithful Spirit to the folk of the Garden. He will say, 'O Folk of the Garden! Your Lord greets you and commands you to visit the courtyard of the Garden.' It is the bed of the Garden, and its soil is of musk. Its pebbles are pearls and carnelians, its trees are gold and dates, and its leaves emeralds. The folk of the Garden will go out happy and joyful. Then there will be an assembly, and therein God's generosity will alight upon them, and they will gaze on His face. It is this that was promised by God, and He fulfills it for them. " He said, " God will give them permission to listen to music, eat, and drink, and wear the cloth- ing of generosity. Then a caller will call out: 'O friends of God! Does anything of what your Lord promised you remain?' " They will say, 'No. He has fulfilled what He promised us, and there remains nothing but gazing at the face of our Lord. " He said, " So the Lord will disclose Himself to them in veils and say, 'O Gabriel, lift My veils for My servants so that they may gaze at My face.' He will left the first veil, so they will gaze at a light from the Lord and fall prostrate before it.

And for those who earn, all kinds of, evil deeds, in the way of deeds, words and beliefs that veil their preparedness from the reception of perfection, [there shall be] the requital of an evil deed by the like thereof, in terms of the configuration that has been perpetrated by their hearts by way of their evil deeds, preventing them from purity and light, and ignominy, inclination to the lower aspect, shall overcome them - they have no protector against God, to protect them from that ignominy and forsaking on account of the presence of the veil and the non-receptivity for protection by virtue of the impurities becoming fixed [therein] - as if their faces had been covered with strips of darkest night, because of the excessive extent to which they have acquired that dark configuration through their natural inclinations and despicable deeds. Those, they are the inhabitants of the Fire, which their state entails in tending to the lower [aspect] in the way of the fires of [their] vestiges and [evil] acts.

And the day on which We shall gather them all together, at the greatest gathering, the source of the non-delimited union of existence; then We shall say to those who associated others [with God], from among them, that is, the veiled ones who have halted with the other in love and obedience: 'In your place!, that is, hold your place. You and your associates!': the meaning [of this] is that they are made to halt with that with which they had halted [in their idolatry] at the halting place in addition to the severing of the union (waṣl) and the means (asbāb) which are the very causes of their love and their worship, with the worshipped being dissociating from the worshipper because of the absence of corporeal instruments and natural individual desires which necessitated that union. That is the meaning of His words: Then We shall make a separation between them, in other words, even though they are together at the halting place, We shall make a separation between them in terms of direction, in that the level of the worshipped ends up being higher while the level of the worshipper ends up lower in addition to the discrepancy between their two states, if the worshipped being was a noble being, such as the angels, Jesus or Ezra and their like from among those who have a preceding reward from God, as He says: Indeed those to whom [the promise of] the fairest reward went beforehand from Us, those, they will be kept away from it [Q. 21:101]; and their associates will say: 'It was not us that you were worshipping, rather you were worshipping Satan by your obedience of him and what you fancifully invented by your estimations in the way of corrupt falsehoods and fallacious wishes.

God suffices as a witness, to the end of this [verse]: in other words, God knows that we did not command to you this and we did not desire that you worship us.

There, that is, at that halting place, every soul, shall be tested and made to taste, what it did before, in this world, and they shall be returned to God, at the halting place for recompense having been cut off from their deities and being isolated from them [and along with], their rightful Lord, who takes charge of requiting them justly and equitably, and that which they were forging, in the way of their fanciful inventions, the principles of their religion, their creed, their fictitious estimations and false wishes, shall fail them.