2. Al-Baqara

As also We have sent among you of yourselves a messenger to recite Our verses to you and to purify you and to teach you the Book and wisdom and to teach you what you knew not. The sending of the Messenger was to open the gates of attainment for it was in His ������ prior knowledge that the hearts of His friends would be thirsty to meet Him. There is no way for anyone to [reach God] except through the intermediary of the messengers. By sending messengers He charged some people with the burdens [of prescriptive law] kulaf and by sending messengers to others He honored them with the arts of drawing near and approaching zulaf. What a difference between one people and another!

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 …

O you who believe seek help through patience and prayer; surely God is with the patient. �Seek the help of [God's] blessing ṣalāt through patience.�That is to say �your being worthy of your Lord's blessing ṣalāt [comes] by your patience at the flow of the decrees of the Real over you.� For that reason God most high said yet give good tidings to the patient [2:155] followed by Upon those rest blessings ṣalawāt and mercy from their Lord [2:157]. It is said that the patient are entitled to the ultimate treasures and the highest ranks inasmuch as they have attained the company maʿiyya of God most high who said �Surely God is with maʿa the patient.�

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?' …

Surely We will try you with something of fear and hunger and diminu- tion of goods and lives and fruits; yet give good tidings to the patient; those who when they are struck by an affliction say �Surely we belong to God and to Him we will return.� He tried them with blessings in order to make their gratitude manifest and He tried them by tribulation in order to make their patience manifest. He caused that which was [already] known of their state to enter into exis- tence marked them with the record that He had decreed and established them with the attribute He [already] knew. He tried them with fear which cleared their breasts and by hunger which cleansed their bodies and by diminution of goods which purified their material blessings. Through the afflictions suffered by [their] lower selves their wages were magnified before God and through the blight of [their] fruits their compensation was doubled from God. Yet give good tidings to the patient meaning those who do not oppose His decree through what He brings to pass. It is said He asked them to fear in their seeking to avoid His punish- ment; then to suffer hunger in their desire for His nearness and generosity; then the dimunition of goods through almsgiving renouncing [the goods] in the hopes of something better which is obtaining knowledge of Him; and lives anfus through their submission to worship of Him; and fruits in abandoning their hope for abundant material blessings. Yet give good tidings to those who are patient in seeking the beautiful in His decree and yielding to the flow of His power. The demands of the unseen muṬālabāt al-ghayb will either be through wealth the self or near relations. Whoever devotes wealth to God will have salvation najāt. Whoever exerts [him]self for His decree will [be raised in] degrees darajāt. Whoever is patient with the misfortunes of near relations will have recompense and stations of nearness qurubāt. Whoever does not hoard the spirit from Him will have perpetual intimate communications muwāṣalāt. Those who when they are struck by an affliction face the matter with patience and even gratitude. Nay [they are] even exultant boastful. Whoever views things as property belonging to the Real sees himself as a stranger between Him and His decree for the One who brought forth creation has more right over created beings than they do themselves.

Upon those rest blessings and mercy from their Lord and those-they are the truly guided. They attained their patience and their ability to withstand the demands of the divine decree from His prior blessings to them. It was not because of their patience or their endurance that they arrived at His blessings for if not for His pre-eternal mercy their obedience would not have arisen through the condition of servitude for His prior solicitude is what brought pure guidance to them. They are the truly guided: Because He blessed them in the beginning lammā raḥimahum fī l-bidāya they were guided in the end ihtadaw fī l-nihāya.

Truly ṣafā and Marwa are among the symbols of God These sites and relics tilka al-mashāhidu wa-l-rusūm these ruins and remains wa-tilka al-aṬlālu wa-l-ruqūm are extolled and visited. One sets out for them because they are the ruins of the lovers where the vestiges [still] gleam: The passions of houses belong to those who have lived in them. There is no concern or joy in the house itself. Truly the earth of their path even the dust of their footprints has tre- mendous value for the lovers. Even the smallest bit of dust that falls upon the edges of their path is more precious than the most fragrant musk: And that is only because Umayma walked beside it in a group [of women] trailing a garment. so whoever makes the pilgrimage to the House or the visitation he would not be at fault if he circumambulates them; and whoever volunteers good God is Grateful Knowing. ṣafā and Marwa were favored by being close to the House. The running between the two became part of the law just as the circumambulation became part of the law for the House. Just as the circumambulation is one of the main rites of the pilgrimage so is the running. The neighbor is honored for the sake of the neighbor.

Those who conceal the clear proofs and the guidance that We have revealed after We have shown them clearly in the scripture-they shall be cursed by God and by those who curse This verse alludes to those to whom the Real ������ has unveiled knowledge of the good manners ādāb of traveling but who have become stingy in revealing [this knowledge] to aspirants [who seek] advice and guidance. In that moment they become worthy of wrath. One fears for them that the blessing will be removed from their knowledge when they fall short in it just as they held back in imparting [that knowledge] to the deserving.