2. Al-Baqara

When his Lord said to him, “Submit,” he said, “I submit to the Lord of the Worlds.” When the Bosom Friend began to travel, the command came from the Exalted Presence, “O Abra- ham, anyone who wants Me must belong to Me totally. As long as a sliver of mortal desires and soulish resistance remains with you, you will not pass from the suffering of striving to the ease of the pull. 'The ransomed slave stays a slave so long as a dirham is owed.'” If you want Me, you must want what I desire. You must leave aside yourself totally. The Bosom Friend said, “O Lord, Abraham no longer has any self-governance, any free choice. Now I have come on the feet of poverty, in the state of brokenness, to see what You command. I submit. I have overthrown myself and entrusted my work to You. I have come back to You entirely.” The command came, “O Abraham, that is a very great claim. Every claim must have a mean- ing, and everything rightfully due a reality. Now watch out for the testing!” He was tested by other than himself, by part of himself, and by his whole self. The test by oth- ers was that he had plentiful possessions. They say he had 70,000 sheep in seven thousand herds. Each herd had a dog with a gold collar around its neck. He was commanded to detach his heart from all of it and to toss it away in the path of God. The Bosom Friend tossed it all away and left nothing for himself. In the traditions it has come that the angels said, “Lord God, ever since this call was given out in the World of the Dominion, 'And God took Abraham as a bosom friend' [4:125], our spirits have been in a whirlpool and our gall-bladders have been melting because of this special favor. How is the Bosom Friend worthy of this generosity?” The call came, “Gabriel, open up your peacock-feathers and go from the top of the Lote Tree to the summit of that mountain and test the Bosom Friend.” With the divine determination and facilitation Gabriel came down in the form of a child of Adam. He stood beside that mountain and shouted, “O Holy One!” The Bosom Friend fainted from the pleasure of hearing that. When he came to, he said, “O servant of God! Say that name again, and this herd belongs to you.” Gabriel again shouted out, “O Holy One!” The Bosom Friend was rolling in the dust like a half-slaughtered chicken. He was saying, “Say it again, and another herd belongs to you!” You spoke of Him to me, O Saʿd, and you increased my madness. So increase that speaking, O Saʿd! In this manner he was asking for loans, and each time he gave to him a herd with the dog and the gold collar, until he gave it all and lost it all. When he had lost all of it, the knots became tighter, passion and destitution joined together. The Bosom Friend said, “O servant of God! Recite the name of the Friend one more time, and my spirit is yours!” Wealth, gold, things-gamble them away for nothing. When the work reaches your spirit, gamble it away! Gabriel became happy. He spread his peacock feathers and said, “He was right to take you as a bosom friend. If there is any shortcoming, it is in our eyes. You have passion to perfection.” When Gabriel appeared to him, he said to him, “O Bosom Friend, I have no use and no …

And Abraham enjoined upon his sons this and [so did] Jacob 'My sons God has chosen for you the [true] religion see that you die not save in submission.' He related that Abraham ���� ������ enjoined his sons as did Jacob ���� ������ who said �Do not let death come upon you except in the state of submission islām.� Their laws even if they differed in details were of one origin. The spring of unity tawḥīd is not divided into two. words of God most high �God has chosen for you the [true] religion� were good news. By [these words] their desire to meet the demands of submission islām became strong. For when they realized that God ������ had chosen them for that [islām] they knew with certainty that He would help them and make it easy for them to uphold the rightful due of submission islām.

Or were you witnesses when death came to Jacobḍ When he said to his sons �What will you worship after meḍ� They said �We will worship your God All of them ḍ followed one way in declaring [God's] oneness tawḥīd and submission islām. They inherited that one after another from their forefathers and [they] were the people of the house of intimacy deserving of nearness and purified in truth by God. and the God of your fathers Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac One God to Him we submit.� [Jacob's sons] did not say �Our God� out of respect for [Jacob's] special status inasmuch as they accepted his superiority and saw themselves as attached to his station maqām. [Rather] they said of themselves that they were followers of [Abraham Ishmael and Isaac] when they said �and to Him we submit.�

That is a community that has passed away; theirs is what they have earned and yours is what you have earned; you will not be asked about what they did. The Real ������ sent down to each [community] its place and singled out for each one its status according to His decree ḥukm. There is no news about their outward forms and no trace remaining of what distinguished each group from the others. Each is a king in his own region and each has a celestial sphere revolving in felicity.

And they say �Be Jews or Christians and you will be guided.� Say �Nay rather the creed of Abraham a ḥanīf; and he was not of the idolaters.� [That is] �When the groups contended with you [Muḥammad] they demanded that you agree muwāfaqa with them. Stand firm in opposing that to which they call you and turn your attention increasingly to Us. Follow the way of the Friend al-khalīl in withdrawing from the group whether it be one's own father or anyone else who is not in accord lā yuwāfiqu with his Protector.� Thus he said �And I shall shun you and that which you call upon besides God� [19:48]. The ḥanīf is the �one who leans� toward the straight truth on the path the truth free from any defect of creation. [He is] in agreement wāfiq with the truth by the Truth.

If they have faith in the like of that in which you have faith, they will have found guid- ance; but if they turn away, they will have split from you. God will suffice you against them; He is the hearing, the knowing. “O master of the east and west and messenger to men and jinn! We have placed these tasks in your tracks and commanded the world's folk to follow you. We wrote the Compact of Love for your servitors and brought them under Our gaze. We threw your opponents into the lowland of abase- ment and feebleness. Whoever opposes you is on the side of the enemies, and whoever serves you is on the side of the friends. When someone wants you, We want him and give him access to Us. When someone turns away, We burn him and throw him down. Whoso obeys the Messenger has obeyed God [4:80]. “O paragon! Do not let your heart be tight because these estranged people have turned away and spoken ill. We will suffice you against their business and We will remove their torment from you. God will suffice you against them.”

God's color-and who is more beautiful in color than God? “Then We will bring a people who have come out in the color of tawḤīd and who are adorned with the attribute of love and clothed in God's color, which is colorlessness. Whoever is pure of the color of the color-mixers is colored by God's color.” He who has painted a thousand worlds with color- why would He buy my color and yours, O bankrupt man! So, when someone reaches God's color and falls back on Him, He colors him in His own color. In the same way, the elixir makes copper and iron the same color as itself and they become precious. If the estranged fall back on Him, they become His familiars, and if the disobedient fall back, they become obedient. On this topic many stories are told about the shaykhs. One of them is narrated from Ibrāhīm Khawāṣṣ. He said, “Once I went into the desert and saw a Christian, who had his sash around his waist. He asked if he could accompany me, so we walked for seven days. He said, 'O monk of the unswerving folk! Bring forth what you have of expansiveness, for we are hungry.' “I said, 'O God, do not disgrace me before this unbeliever.' Then I saw a tray, upon which were bread, roast meat, dates, and a pitcher of water. We ate and drank, and we walked for seven days. Then I became hasty and I said, 'O monk of the Christians, bring what you have, for my turn is finished.' He leaned on his staff and supplicated, and lo there were two trays with double what there had been on my tray. “I was bewildered and upset, and I refused to eat. He insisted, but I did not respond to him. He said, 'Eat, for I have two pieces of good news to give to you. One is that I bear witness that there is no god but God, and I bear witness that MuḤammad is God's messenger,' and he took off the sash. 'The other is that I say, “O God, if there is any danger here, then I will begin with this.”' So he began. “We ate and we walked, and then we made the hajj and took up residence in Mecca for a year. Then he died, and was buried in al-BaṬḤāÌ-God have mercy on him.”

Say: �Would you then dispute with us concerning God and He is our Lord and your Lordḍ Our deeds belong to us and to you belong your deeds and to Him we are sincerely devoted.� How can dispute with strangers be appropriate when they are covered by absence and shaded by concealment while the friends are lit by unveiling and the bright noon of witnessingḍ When is the state of one who is bankrupt by his absence equal to one whose selection and sincere devotion [and] immersion in acts of drawing near to Him has [already been] decreedḍ It is preposterous-there is no equality!

Or do you say: �Abraham Ishmael Isaac and Jacob and the tribes- they were Jews or they were Christiansḍ� Say: �Have you then greater knowl- edge or has Godḍ And who does greater injustice than he who conceals a testimony received from Godḍ And God is not heedless of what you do.� Whoever looks from himself to creation forms an image of each thing based on his own character and considers everything to be something like him. When they by virtue of being outsiders [to the Real] judged the prophets [���� ������] according to their own state the Real ������ threw their conjecture back upon them and left them with their own opinion. Are those who have been drawn away from their own testimony like those who are veiled by itḍ Is the one who is snatched away from all of it equal to the one who is thrown back to what is like himḍ That is the conjecture of those who disbelieve-what misery is theirs!