12. Yusuf

My Lord, indeed You have given me [something] of sovereignty, that is, of the Oneness of sovereignty which is the Oneness of the acts, and You have taught me the interpretation of events, that is, the meanings of things hidden in the Unseen and what a [given] form of the Unseen ultimately refers to, something which belongs to the affirmation of the Oneness of the attributes, Originator, of the heavens of the attributes at the station of the heart and [of] the earth of the affirmation of the Oneness of the acts at the station of the soul. You are my Protector, in the affirmation of the Oneness of the Essence in this world of the sovereignty and the Hereafter of the spiritual [angelic] realm. Receive me in death in submission [to You]: annihilate me from myself in a state of being obedient to Your command and not insolent as a result of the subsisting of [my] ego, and join me to the righteous', who are firmly fixed at the station of uprightness after being annihilated in the affirmation of Oneness.

And most of them when they believe in God, with cognitive faith, only do so by ascribing partners [to Him], by affirming [the existence of] an existent other than Him; or [when they believe] with entific faith, then only by committing idolatry by being veiled in their I-nesses;

Say: 'This, way that I wayfare upon, which is the way of the affirmation of the Oneness of the Essence, is my way, specific to me, upon which is only me alone, I call to, the Essence of the [exclusive] unity that is qualified by all of the attributes at the source of the union, I and whoever follows me, along this path. And all who call to this way are followers of mine, for the prophets before me all called to the principle and to the final return and to the Essence of the [inclusive] unity that is qualified by some of the attributes, with the exception of Abraham, peace be upon him, for he was the pole (quṭb) of affirmation of [God's] Oneness. That is why the Prophet [Muḥammad] was a follower of him, when considering the union without differentiation, since there is none who can complete the differentiations of the attributes except him [Muḥammad], blessings and peace be upon him. Otherwise someone other than him would have been the seal of the way of the truth as he was, because no one can call except to that station of perfection which he has reached. So Glory be to God!, I [Muḥammad] declare Him to be [exalted] above that anyone other than Him should be upon His way. Nay, He is the wayfarer upon His way and the Caller to His Essence, and I am not of the idolaters', who affirm the other at the station of the affirmation of Essential unity, those who are veiled from Him by [their] I-ness; rather I am annihilated by Him from myself, for He is the One who calls to His way.

And We did not send before you [any messengers] save men inspired by revelation, that is, individuals in whom some remnant of manliness subsisted, from among the people of the towns of the attributes and the stations, and not from Egypt of the essence, for the subsistence that is actualised for the folk of fixity can only be in the measure in which they are annihilated and have returned to creation and can only be commensurate with the ascension. Complete annihilation and perfect ascension can only be in the case of the pole who possesses the perfect preparedness, who attains every single level, and in whose case must be the complete return that subsumes all of the differentiations of the attributes upon subsistence: that person is the 'seal' (khātam), That is why the Prophet said: 'It is as though the edifice of prophethood has been completed and built with only one brick remaining to be put in place: I am that [final] brick'. It is to this meaning that he alluded in his statement, 'I was sent to complete the noble character traits (makārim al-akhlāq)'. Have they not travelled, in the land of their preparedness, and seen the nature of the, final, consequence for, the affair of, those who were before them, and the ultimate end of their perfection so that they might attain the full extent of their progress and actualise [the like of] their perfections in accordance with their [individual] preparednesses. For every person there is a specificity and his specific preparedness entails a specific felicity which will be his final sequel, and by acquiring awareness of the specificities of souls and the ultimate ends of their wayfaring there is actualised for the soul from those perfections a unifying configuration which is the perfection of the Muḥammadan community in accordance with their varying preparednesses, and this is the abode of the Hereafter, which is better for those who guard against the attributes of their souls which constitute the veils of [their] preparednesses. Will you not understandḍ, that this station is better than this perishing abode and its enjoyments that you pursue, for, [the Hereafter] it is indeed the [true] Life, if they only knew [Q. 29:64].

Until when the messengers despaired, that is, [until when] they have journeyed and guarded themselves and their conquest and victory over unveilings slackened by the disbelief of the faculties of the soul, until when the messengers, those who are the noble leaders of the people, despaired of attaining perfection, and thought that, their suppositions had deceived them in terms of their preparedness for perfection or their hopes, Our help came to them, in the way of reinforcement and the granting of success by the replenishing [of them] with the lights of the angelic realm and the realm of invincibility, and whomever We wished We delivered, of those messengers and their followers belonging to the folk of [God's] solicitude. And, Our vanquishing by means of veils and chastisement, cannot be averted from the sinning folk, when We make manifest upon their hearts the attributes of their souls so that they then cause them [their hearts] to acquire wicked configurations that veil and harm [them].