2. Al-Baqara

So remember Me; I will remember you. And be grateful for Me and not ungrateful toward Me. This is to remember the lovingly kind Friend, the heart's ease and the spirit's food. Remembrance is the polo-ball and familiarity with Him is the bat. Its steed is yearning and its field love. Burning for Him is the rose, and recognizing Him the garden. This remembrance makes the Real apparent. It is joined with the Haqiqah and separate from mortal nature. This remembrance is the watering place for the tree of tawḤīd, the fruit and produce of which is friendship with the Real. This is why the Lord of the Worlds said, “My servant does not cease remembering Me, and I remembering him, until he is passionate for Me and I passionate for him.” This is not the remembrance of the tongue that you know-this is inside the spirit. The time came when Abū Yazīd was remembering little with the tongue. When he was asked about that, he said, “I am in wonder at this remembrance of the tongue, and I am more in wonder at him who is a stranger. What would a stranger be doing in the midst? Remembrance of Him is in the midst of the spirit.” In the story of passion for You, many are the hardships. I'm with You, but many are the stations between us. * I wonder at him who says, “I remember my Lord.” Should I forget, then remember what I forgot? That great man of his time said in a whispered prayer, “O Lord! How can I remember You when You Yourself are remembering and I am crying out from forgetfulness. You are the remembrance and the remembered, You are the help in finding Yourself. “O Lord! When someone reaches You, his sorrows are finished; when someone sees You, his spirit laughs. Who has more joy in the two worlds than he who remembers You? Who is more worthy of happiness in You than the servant?” O poor man, you are remembering yourself. What do you know about remembering Him? Not having traveled, what do you know about the way stations? Not having seen the Friend, how can you be aware of His name and mark? You are your own object of worship-you worship yourself: whatever you do, you do it for yourself. If you pass into the spirit, you will gain dignity. If one day you pass by the street of the Haqiqah and remember Him in your secret core, you will see “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what has never passed into the heart of any mortal.” Just once pass by Our street and gaze on Our subtle artisanry. If you want roses, pass into the spirit and make the heart aware of union with Us. It is written in one of God's scriptures, “'My servant! You will remember Me when you have tried out the others. I am better for you than anyone else.' My servant, when you have seen and tested others, then you will know My worth and recognize My rightful due. In other words, once you have seen their lack of loving kindness and you have grasped My loving kindness and loyalty, then you will know that I am more lovingly kind to you than anyone else and I am more useful. “'My servant, did I not remember you before you remembered Me?' My servant, one mark of My loving kindness is that I remembered you first, then you remembered Me. “'Did I not love you before you loved Me?' First, I …

Say not of those who are slain in the path of God, “They are dead.” No, they are alive, but you are unaware. The life of this world has left them behind, but they have reached endless life.12 What have they lost by being released from this world's abasement? They have reached union with the exaltedness of the Patron. If I die, don't say about me, “He's dead.” Say, “The dead man came to life in the Friend who took him.” Alive is the one who lives through Him, not through the spirit. Whoever comes to life in the Friend lives forever. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O Lord, if someone is occupied with You, how could his occupa- tion come to an end? When someone lives through You, how could he ever die? If the spirit in the body is deprived of You, it is like an imprisoned corpse. Alive in reality is he who lives with You. God's praise be on those slain concerning whom the King says that they are alive.” No, they are alive, but you are unaware. The cloak of awe is on the shoulders of their exalted- ness, the shadow of the Tremendous Throne is their resting-place of intimacy, and the Presence of the Real's majesty is the place of their spirit's repose, in a seat of truthfulness, at an Omnipotent King [54:55].

And We will indeed try you with something of fear and hunger, and decrease of wealth, souls, and fruits; and give good news to the patient. The custom of the Lord is that whenever He threatens the servant and shows harshness in a verse, then, right after that or before it, He caresses the servant and gives him hope. Thus in this verse He breaks the servant by mentioning those harsh things and varieties of trial. Then He gives good news, He caresses, and He says, “and give good news to the patient.” And, at the beginning of these verses He says, “Surely God is with the patient” [2:153]. Glory be to Him! How gentle and how merciful He is to His servants! And We will indeed try you. He says, “We will test you, sometimes with fear, sometimes with dread, sometimes with poverty, sometimes with hunger, sometimes with outward affliction, sometimes with inward sorrow.” The outward trial and evident affliction are in fact easy work, for sometimes they are there and sometimes not, like the trial of Abraham and the trial of Job. The complete trial is inward sorrow, which does not leave its place for a moment. When someone is closer, more worthy of friendship, and more suitable for union, his sorrow is more. Such was MuṣṬafā's sorrow. He had no capacity for it on the highest horizon, nor did he have any rest from it on the expanse of the earth. He was like a moth before a lamp: It does not have the capacity to stay with the lamp, nor the remedy of staying away from the lamp. With the tongue of his state he was saying, “In separation I make do because of shame before Your image, in union I burn in fear it will cease. Such is the state of the moth with the candle- in separation it burns and in union it burns.” “Yes, everyone who seeks union with Me and wants proximity with Me has no escape from taking on the burden of tribulation and tasting the drink of sorrow.” āsiya, the wife of Pharaoh, sought for the Real's neighborhood and asked for His proximity. She said, “My Lord, build for me a house with Thee in the Garden [66:11]. O Lord, I want a room in Your neighborhood, for it is beautiful to have a room in the street of the Friend. ” “Yes, it is beautiful, but its price is very expensive. Everything is sold for gold and silver, but this is sold for spirit and heart.” āsiya said, “That's nothing to fear. And if its price were a thousand spirits instead of one, there would be no holding back.” So they crucified āsiya and drove iron nails into her eyes. But she, in that chastisement was laughing and happy. This is as they say: When it's the heart-taker's desire, one thorn is better than a thousand dates. Bishr Ḥāfī said, “I was passing through the bazaar in Baghdad. They were whipping someone with one thousand strokes, but he did not let out a sigh. Then they took him to prison. I went in his tracks and asked him, 'Why all those blows?' He said, 'Because I am entranced by passion.' “I said, 'Why did you not weep so that they might lighten them?' He said, 'Because my beloved was watching. I was so drowned in the contemplation of my beloved that I had no concern for weeping.' “I said, 'If you had been gazing on the Greatest Beloved, how would that have been?' …