2. Al-Baqara

Those to whom We have given the Book and who recite it with the rightful due of recitation. The rightful due of recitation is that you recite the Qur'an with burning, need, limpidness of heart, and pure belief, with a remembering tongue, a believing heart, and a limpid spirit-the tongue in remembrance, the heart in grief, the spirit with love; the tongue with loyalty, the heart with limpid- ness, the spirit with shame; the tongue in the work, the heart in the mystery, and the spirit in joy. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “In the remembrance the servant reaches a place where the tongue reaches the heart, the heart reaches the spirit, the spirit reaches the secret core, and the secret core reaches the Light. The heart says to the tongue, 'Silence!' The spirit says to the heart, 'Silence!' The secret core says to the spirit, 'Silence!' God says to the traveler, 'My servant, you have been speaking for a while. Now I will speak, you listen.'”

O children of Israel remember My favor wherewith I favored you and that I have preferred you over all the worlds. His ������ way sunna in His address to the people of Moses ���� ������ is to call them by their proper name saying �O children of Israel remember... � that is �O children of Jacob.� But He addresses this community [of Muḥammad] honorifically saying �O you who believe...�

And beware of a day when no soul will be requited for another and no compensation will be accepted from it nor will any intercession benefit it neither will they be helped. As for the enemies nothing [that is no payment or compensation] will be accepted from them. As for the friends [the Prophet] ﷺ said �Protect yourself from the fire even if it be by half a date [given in charity].� The intercession of intercessors will not benefit the disbeliever for this is a determination made for each community with their prophet. As for the believers they will benefit in particular from the Prophet's ﷺ intercession. Everyone on that day will be saying �My soul my soul� but our Prophet ﷺ will say �My community my community.�

And when We appointed the House to be a place of visitation for the people and a sanctuary: �Mention O Muḥammad when We appointed the House meaning the Kaʿba to be a place of visitation for people to come to and a sanctuary for them to return to to make their way to it from every direction. It is a House which I created from stone yet attached to eternity. Whoever looks to the House with the eye of creation is cut off while those who look with the eye of far-reaching vision arrive and connect. Everyone who seeks refuge at that House is secure from the punishment of the hereafter if he seeks refuge to show veneration and respect ʿalā jihati al-iʿẓām wa-l-iḥtirām and repent from sins wa-l-tawbati ʿan al-āthām.� It is said that the House was built of stone but it is a stone that attracts hearts just as a magnet attracts iron. [What kind of house is itḍ] A house... Its shade causes whomever comes to it to remain in the courtyard of security amn. A house... Whoever glances upon it receives the good news of forgive- ness attained. A house... Subtleties circumambulate the heart of whoever circum- ambulates it. One circumambulation is by another circumambulation and one circuit is by another circuit. Is the reward of goodness anything but goodnessḍ [55:60]. A house... Whatever one spends of one's wealth to reach it is not lost. A house... Whatever one withholds from it is without profit. Whoever visits it forgets any other place of visitation and abandons his [own] regions. A house... No distance is reckoned too far to it. Visiting it is not to be neglected for fear of unpleasant occurrences or harmful attacks. This is a house which possesses no harm for the lifeblood of the poor fuqarāÌ. A house... Whoever holds back from visiting it lacks noble-heartedness futuwwa or is deficient in love maḥabba. A house... The heart of the one who holds back from it is harder than stones. A house... When the rays of its lights fall upon someone he is made to forget suns and moons. A house... One is not so much amazed by those who stay away from it but rather by how those who come to it can leave! Take to yourselves Abraham's station for a place of prayer; A servant was raised up on his feet for the sake of God ������ and his footprints made a qibla for all Muslims to honor him for all time until the resurrection.

And when Abraham said �My Lord make this land secure and pro- vide its people with fruits; such of them as believe in God and the Last Day� He said �And whoever disbelieves to him I shall give enjoyment a little then I shall compel him to the chastisement of the fire-how evil a journey's end!� And when Abraham said 'My Lord make this land secure': The request was answered because it was not adulterated by the worldly concern of the servant. Abraham's request was not for his own concern ḥaẓẓ but rather for the right ḥaqq of his Lord may He be exalted and glorified. When Abraham was mindful of the required etiquette in seeking provision for those who believed they were granted that-but so were those who did not believe. [On the other hand] when he spoke about leadership saying �And of my seedḍ� [2:125] without [divine] permission [the request] was denied and it was said to him �My covenant shall not reach the evildoers� [2:125].

And when Abraham raised up the foundations of the House and Ishmael with him: �Our Lord! Receive this from us. Truly You are the Hearing the Knowing. The success of the request is in the sincerity of the supplication nujḥu al-suÌāl fī ṣidqi al-ibtihāl. When the two of them humbly sought aid in prayer He gave them help and fulfilled the request. Truly You are the Hearing of our speech the Knowing of our states.

Our Lord! And make us submissive to You and of our seed a com- munity submissive to You; and show us our holy rites and relent to us. Surely You are the Relenting the Merciful. [That is] �Submissive muslimīn yielding to Your decree so that not one vein of ours throbs without Your good pleasure. Make from our seed a community submissive to You so that after us they will take our place in upholding Your rights.� What a difference between one who seeks someone to inherit his wealth man yaṬlubu wārithan li-mālihi and one who seeks a deputy after him to perform acts of obedience to Him in his states man yaṬlubu nāÌiban... fī aḥwālihi. [That is] �Show us our holy rites since there is no way to know what conforms [to Your will] except by the path that God granted success and communication.� [That is] �And relent to us after we carry out all that You have com- manded us to do so that we do not look to what we do and do not do but turn back to You from witnessing our actions so there is no danger of hidden idolatry al-shirk al-khafī in imagining anything from us or through us.�

“Our Lord, and raise up amidst them a messenger from among them, who will recite Thy signs to them, teach them the Book and the Wisdom, and purify them. Surely Thou art the Exalted, the Wise.”

And who shrinks from the creed of Abraham but one foolish in himself? We chose him in this world, and in the next world he shall be among the wholesome. One of these two verses is in praise of the Beloved [MuḤammad], the other in praise of the Bosom Friend [Abraham]. Although both are caressed and worthy prophets, adorned by the generous be- stowal and the bounteousness of the Lord, there is a difference between the Beloved and the Bosom Friend! The Bosom Friend is the desirer, and the Beloved the desired. The desirer is the wanter, and the desired the wanted. The desirer is the traveler, and the desired is the snatched away. The desirer stands in the station of service in his traveling, and the desired stands on the carpet of companionship in the pulling of the Real. When someone is in his own traveling, his road will not be empty of deception. This is why the Bosom Friend's road, despite the greatness of his state, was not empty of deception. Thus, when the star of deception came into his road, he said, “This is my Lord” [6:76]. In the same way, the Lordhood kept on opening up ambuscades of deception by means of the moon and the sun. Finally protection took the reins of his bosom friendship and pulled him to itself from the world of deception. He said, “Surely I have turned my face toward Him who originated the heavens and the earth, unswerving” [6:79]. MuṣṬafā, however, was in the pull of the Real. The ambuscade of deception was not able to make his road steep. Rather, on that night everything that was not and then came to be sought his help from deception. They had recourse to the lights of his Shariah against deception and backslid- ing. He was confirmed by the Real's pull to such an extent that he did not look at any of that from the corner of his eye. The eyesight did not swerve, nor did it trespass [53:17]. There is as much difference between the Bosom Friend and the Beloved as there is between the traveler and the snatched away. The Bosom Friend had the attribute of servitors at the threshold of Lordhood, standing on his own feet: “Surely I have turned my face toward Him who originated the heavens and the earth, unswerving.