17. Al-Israa

And say to My servants that they should say what is more beautiful. “O MuḤammad, say to My servants that the words they speak should be more beautiful, more true, and more pleasing. That is remembering and lauding God, mentioning Him on the tongue, and keeping His remembrance in the heart.” The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O You who open the tongues of those who whisper in prayer, who increase the intimacy of the seclusions of the rememberers, and who are present in the souls of the keepers of the mystery! I have no traveling companion but the mention of You, no supplies but keeping Your remembrance, no guidepost and no one to show the road to You but You. O God, look upon the need of someone who has nothing other than one need!” It has also been said, “The most beautiful word of sinners is attesting to offenses, and the most beautiful word of recognizers is attesting to the incapacity to recognize. The Prophet said, 'I do not number Thy laudations: Thou art as Thou hast lauded Thyself.'” The most beautiful words that a sinful man may say is to attest to his own offense and ac- knowledge his own sin so that the Exalted Lord may bestow on him the success of repentance and complete the work of his repentance for him by forgiving his sins, for that is the promise He has given: “And others who have acknowledged their sins. They mixed a wholesome deed with another, an ugly deed. Perhaps God will turn toward them” [9:102]. And the most beautiful word that a recognizing man may say is to attest to his own incapacity to recognize the Real. He knows that no one recognizes Him, nor can anyone do so, as is worthy of Him in the reality of His rightful due and the limits of His exaltedness. This is why Abū Bakr ṣiddīq said, “Glory be to Him who made no path for the creatures to recognize Him save the incapacity to recognize Him!” Pure and faultless is the Lord, who considers the servant's incapacity to recognize Him as recognition! Abū ʿAlī Daqqāq said, “O God, he who recognizes You has not recognized You. What then about the state of him who in fact has not recognized You?!” Naṣrābādī and Shāh [Kirmānī] disagreed with each other.

And We made some of the prophets more excellent than others. The prophets have the generous gifts of states and the specific characteristics of proximity. One of them has chosenness [Adam], another bosom friendship [Abraham], another speaking with God [Moses], and still another the miʿrāj, intercession, and vision. Then He made some of them su- perior to others in specific characteristics. He made the prophets superior to the world's folk, He made the messengers superior to the prophets, He made the Possessors of Resoluteness superior to the messengers, and He made MuṣṬafā superior to the Possessors of Resoluteness. The furthest limits of the stations of all of them are the beginning of the station of MuṣṬafā; the furthest limits of their stations is apparent, but the end of his station is not apparent. He is aware of the secret core of all of them, but no one other than the Real is aware of his secret core. That is why he said, “'I am the master of the children of Adam, without boasting.' How should I boast of that? For I am separate from them in my state and I stand with the Real in beautiful courtesy. Were I to boast, I would boast of the Real, proximity, and closeness, for He says, 'Then He drew close, so He came down' [53:8]. If I do not boast about the place of closeness and proximity, how could I boast about being the master of all the races?” That paragon of the world was a sun whose eastern horizon was Mecca and whose western horizon was Yathrib. Its eclipse was in the cave, but that was an eclipse within which a hundred thousand deposits of gentle favor were unveiled. On his forehead was the splendor of By thy life [15:72], on the sleeve of his covenant the exalted embroidery of MuḤammad is God's mes- senger [48:29], on the door of the pavilion of his secret core this flag of rulership: Surely We have opened up for thee a clear opening [48:1]. The rug of that paragon's messengerhood was thrown from the east of the world to the west of the world, the carpet of his prophethood was spread from Qāf to Qāf, the shadowy banners of unbelief were overthrown with his appearance, the seat of his secret core's joy was set up higher than the throne of Ursa Major.

(Naught hindereth Us from sending portents�) [17:59]. Sa�id ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Ja�far informed us> Zahir ibn Ahmad> Abu�l-Qasim al-Baghawi> �Uthman ibn Abi Shaybah> Jarir ibn �Abd al-Hamid> al-A�mash> Ja�far ibn Iyas> Sa�id ibn Jubayr> Ibn �Abbas who said: �The people of Mecca asked the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, to turn al-Safa hill into gold and remove the mountains [surrounding Mecca] for them so that they can engage in agriculture. It was said to him: �If you wish to wait for them until We may select people from them [to believe in you], or you can give them what they have asked for. But if they disbelieve after that, We will destroy them like We destroyed those before them�. He said: �No, I would rather wait�. And so Allah, glorious and majestic is He, revealed this verse (Naught hindereth Us from sending portents save that the folk of old denied them�)�.

(�and (likewise) the Accursed Tree in the Qur�an�) [17:60]. Isma�il ibn �Abd al-Rahman ibn Ahmad al-Wa�iz informed us> Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Faqih> Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Qattan> Ishaq ibn �Abd Allah ibn Zurayr> Hafs ibn �Abd al-Rahman> Muhammad ibn Ishaq> Hakim ibn �Abbad ibn Hunayf> �Ikrimah> Ibn �Abbas that he said: �When the tree of al-Zaqqum was mentioned in the Qur�an [37:62; 44:43 and 56:52], the Quraysh were threatened with it. Abu Jahl said: �Do you know what this Zaqqum, with which Muhammad threatens you, is?� They said: �No!� He said: �Meat and broth with cream. By Allah, if he let us put our hands on it we will devour it!� Allah, glorious and exalted is He, revealed (�and (likewise) the Accursed Tree in the Qur�an�) saying: this tree is repulsive (We warn them, but it increaseth them in naught save gross impiety)�.