13. Ar-Ra'd

and who fear their Lord, upon the self-disclosure of the attributes at the station of the heart and thus witness the majesty of the attribute of Tremendousness, thereby becoming obliged to be in awe and fear;

such as patiently endure, as they wayfare upon His way, to stay away from familiars, desiring His satisfaction, and such as preoccupy themselves with self-cleansing by means of devotions through [the expending of] wealth and the body, repelling the vice of the soul with virtue; those, theirs shall be the sequel of the [heavenly] Abode, as they are returned to the primordial nature. Or [it refers to] those who endure patiently to stay away from the attributes of their souls, desiring the countenance of their Lord, in other words, out of love for the Essence and not out of love for the attributes; and who establish the prayer of the witnessing and expend of the stations, the states, the unveilings and the deeds which We have provided them with, secretly, by disengaging from the configurations of these and the configurations of finding rest with them and love for them, and [expend] openly, by avoiding them and not turning their attention to them, and who, with the good actualised by the self-disclosure of the divine attribute, repel the evil that is the attribute of the soul: those, theirs shall be the sequel of the [heavenly] Abode, that is, subsistence after annihilation.

Gardens of Eden, that is, all three of them: they enter the Garden of the Essence along with those that were righteous from among the fathers that are the spirits; and the Garden of the attributes with the hearts; and the Garden of the acts with the righteous from among the spouses of the souls and the descendants that are the faculties; and the angels, from among the inhabitants of the realm of divine power and the angelic realm, shall enter to them from every gate, of the gates of the attributes, bidding them peace and greeting them with the salutations of luminous irradiations and holy reinforcements, all of which is the result of their patience in staying away from sensory pleasures.

Say: 'Indeed God sends astray whomever He will: in other words, guidance and error are determined by the signs [sc. the verses of the QurÌān], for there is a sign in every thing and the signs sent down to the Messenger of God are more than sufficient [for those who want to be guided]; rather what determines these is the divine will, so that He sends astray whomever He will because of a lack of preparedness, or because of that person being veiled by dark coverings; and He guides to Him those who turn in penitence', by purifying their preparedness, from among [His] lovers. Since the folk who are sent astray are of two kinds, those who lack preparedness and those who have veiled theirs by the darkness intrinsic to mortal nature, so the guided folk are also of two types, beloved ones who are guided without their turning [to Him] in penitence (ināba), because of the potency of their preparedness, and beloved ones whom God guides after their turning [to Him] in penitence, as He has said God chooses for Himself whomever He will, and He guides to Himself whomever turns penitently [Q. 42:13];

Those who have faith and whose hearts are serene in the remembrance of God. The hearts of one group are serene in the remembrance of God, and the hearts of another group are serene in God's remembrance of them: And surely God's remembrance is greater [29:45]. In the tongue of the folk of allusion, this verse reports about two people, one the desirer and the other the desired. One keeps his hours immersed in the remembrance of the tongue, sometimes prayer, sometimes glorification, and sometimes recitation of the Qur'an. The other is joyful with the remembrance of the Real in the midst of the spirit because he is drowned in the ocean of face- to-face vision. He does not attend to the remembrance of the tongue, but keeps on saying, " O God, as long as I remember Your remembrance, my spirit laments at all remembrance. As long as my heart is happy with Your apparentness, the happiness of the two worlds is but wind. " The first travels on the road of the religion, kept in the bonds of his own remembrance, and it is said to him, " Preserve the remembrance and give ear to the commands and prohibitions. " The other is on the carpet of proximity, snatched away from causes and creation and singled out for the divine attraction, and it is said to the remembrance, " Give ear to him. " This is just like one group hop- ing for paradise, while paradise itself is hoping for another group. That is in the Prophet's words, " Surely the Garden yearns for four individuals: the one who fasts Ramadan, the one who recites the Qur'an, the one who protects the tongue, and the one who feeds the hungry. " It has also been narrated that the Garden yearns for Salmān. The desirer's eyes have come upon this: " Remember Me! " [2:152]. The desired has been shown this: " I will remember you " [2:152]. The desired is seeking remembrance, and remem- brance is seeking the desired. The desirer is seeking the present moment, and the present moment is seeking the desired. The desirer is seeking the heart, and the heart is seeking the desired. The field of the desirer's gaze is the world of setting forth in the wrap of createdness, and the field of the desired's gaze is the air of unity and the space of solitariness.

and, theirs shall be blessedness, by arriving at the primordial nature and the perfection of the attributes, and a fair resort, by admission into the Garden of the heart, the Garden of the attributes.