2. Al-Baqara

But those who disbelieve and die disbelieving-upon them shall be the curse of God and the angels and of people altogether. Abiding therein: the chastisement shall not be lightened for them no respite shall be given them. Here the allusion is to those who after they have traveled the path of spiritual desire irāda find it fitting to return to the states of the people of habit ahl al-ʿāda.261 Then while they are in the grip of this estrange- ment [from the path] and in this condition [they] leave the world. Those are the companions of separation aṣḥāb al-furqa. There is no drawing near for their spirits or setting straight their calamity no asking for mercy from anyone. They have lost in this world and the hereafter. They are cursed by gnats in the air and stagnation in [their] water yalʿanuhum al-baqqu fī l-hawāÌi wa-l-naqʿu ʿalā l-māÌi. Abiding: that is they remain forever in their contemptible position insignificant and [find no] lessening of it or relief without kindness or favors.

But those who disbelieve and die disbelieving-upon them shall be the curse of God and the angels and of people altogether. Abiding therein: the chastisement shall not be lightened for them no respite shall be given them. Here the allusion is to those who after they have traveled the path of spiritual desire irāda find it fitting to return to the states of the people of habit ahl al-ʿāda.261 Then while they are in the grip of this estrange- ment [from the path] and in this condition [they] leave the world. Those are the companions of separation aṣḥāb al-furqa. There is no drawing near for their spirits or setting straight their calamity no asking for mercy from anyone. They have lost in this world and the hereafter. They are cursed by gnats in the air and stagnation in [their] water yalʿanuhum al-baqqu fī l-hawāÌi wa-l-naqʿu ʿalā l-māÌi. Abiding: that is they remain forever in their contemptible position insignificant and [find no] lessening of it or relief without kindness or favors.

And your God is one God. There is no god but He, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful. This is the description of the one Lord, the one Lord God and King. He is one in magnanimity and governance, one in forbearance and beautiful doing, one in generosity and peerlessness, one in loving kindness and servant-caressing. Every magnificence is the mantle of His majesty, and in that He is one. Every tremendousness and all-compellingness is the shawl of His lordhood, and in that He is one. He is one in Essence, one in attributes, one in deed and mark, one in loyalty and compact, one in gentleness and caressing, one in love and friendship. On the day of apportioning, who was there but He, the One? Before the day of apportioning who was there? That same One. After the day of apportioning, who handed over those portions? That same One. Who shows? That same One. Who adorns? That same One. He is more apparent than everything in the world of apparentness, and in this apparentness He is one. He is more hidden than anything in the world of hiddenness, and in this hiddenness He is one. O You who are more face-to-face than anything in the world! You are more hidden than the world's most hidden thing! O You who are more distant than all that the servants suppose! You are closer to the servants than the spirit's vein. How disloyal the Adamite who does not know the worth of this declaration and the exaltedness of this ascription! God says, “And your God is one God.” The wonder is not that He ascribed the servants to Himself, joined them to Himself, and said, “Surely My servants” [15:42]. The wonder is that He ascribed Himself to the servants and joined His name to their name, saying, “Your God.” This is not because His lordhood must be joined to the servant's servanthood, or that the servants are deserving of that. Rather, in generosity and loving kindness He Himself is unique and one. In magnanimity He is worthy of every generous bestowal and every gift. In the place of our Heart-taker's beauty and loveliness, we are not suited for Him-He is suited for us. And your God is one God. There was no world and no Adam. There were no tracks and no traces, there was no one in the house.

Surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth, the alternation of the night and the day, the ships that run on the sea with what benefits people, the water that God sends down from heaven giving life to the earth after its death, the scattering of every beast therein, the shifting of the winds, the clouds subjected between heaven and earth-there are signs for a people who have intellect. In this verse the Lord of the Universe shows the generality of people the road to Himself, so that they will gaze upon the wonders of the dominion of heaven and earth and on the artisanries of land and sea and then recognize the Artisan and attest to His oneness. Ibn ʿAṬāÌ said, “He made Himself recognized to the common people with His creation, to the elect with His attributes, and to the prophets and the elect of the elect with His Essence.” The gaze of the common people is on the artisanry, the gaze of the elect on the attributes, and the gaze of the prophets and the elect of the elect on the Essence. The generality of the faithful look at the artisanry and from the artisanry reach the Artisan. The elect among the faithful know the attributes and from the attributes reach the Object of attribution and from the name the Named. Thus it was said to the Children of Israel, “Sacrifice a cow” [2:67], but they did not recognize it. So the cow was described to them, they recognized it, and they sacrificed it. As for the prophets and the sincerely truthful, they recognize Him through Him, not through other than Him. They look from Him to Him, not from the other to Him. God alludes to this state when He says, “Dost thou not see thy Lord, how He stretched out the shadow?” [25:45]. He did not say, “Look at the shadow so that you may see My artisanry.” He said, “Look at Me so that you may see My artisanry. O paragon of the world! Look not at Gabriel's coming, look at My sending. Look from Me to him, not from him to Me.” Consider for a moment the female companions of Joseph. When the very entity of Joseph was unveiled to them, they were annihilated from themselves and became absent from Joseph's attributes.

Among the people are some who take peers apart from God, loving them as if loving God. And those who have faith are more intense in love for God. If this were the only verse in the whole Qur'an about the faithful and God's friends, their eminence and honor would be complete, for the Lord of the Worlds is saying, “They love Me intensely and more completely than the unbelievers love their objects of worship.” Do you not see that every once in a while the unbelievers set up another idol and take up another object of worship. Like poor people, they are content with something carved of wood. Then, when they can, they take down the wooden one and make another from silver or gold. If their love for their object of wor- ship is real, why do they turn away from it toward another? They say that a man met a woman recognizer, and her beauty exercised its influence over his heart. He said, “'My all is busy with your all.' O woman! I have lost myself in love for you.” She said, “Why don't you look at my sister, who is more beautiful and lovely than I?” He said, “Where is your sister so that I may see her?” She said, “Go, idler! Passion is not your work. If your claim to love me were true, you would not care about anyone else.” And those who have faith are more intense in love for God. The Lord of the Worlds says, “The love of the faithful for Me is not like the unbelievers' love for idols, such that every once in a while they incline toward another. Rather, the faithful never turn away from Me and never incline toward anyone else. For, if they did turn away, they would never find someone like Me, no matter how much they sought.” Poor man, God has many servants like you. If something bad is to occur for you, it will occur. How can you turn away, for you will not find a Lord like Him. Shiblī said, “I learned Sufism from a dog that was sleeping at the door of a house. The owner came out and was driving the dog away, but the dog kept on coming back. I said to myself, 'How base this dog is! He drives him away, and he keeps on coming back.' The Exalted Lord brought that dog to speech and it said, 'O Shaykh! Where should I go? He is my owner.'” I will not leave the Friend at a hundred iniquities and cruelties. Even if He increases them, I will not be troubled, It is I who chose Him over everyone else; if I complain about Him, I will have no excuse.

When those who were followed declare themselves quit of those who followed them. The unbelievers loved idols in keeping with caprice and nature, not reality. Hence, when they see the beginnings of the chastisement at the resurrection, they will know that they have no place on which to stand and will disown the idols. As for the faithful, their friendship is the fruit of the Real's friend- ship-as He says, “He loves them, and they love Him” [5:54]. Therefore the steep roads and trials that come to them do not bring any defect into their love, so they do not turn away from the Real. First they see the agonies of death. Then their pure spirit is snatched away from them. They are kept for many years in the dust. Then they are frightened many times at the resurrection in those diverse stations. They are rebuked while severity of many sorts is shown to them, and then they are kept for a time in hell. Despite these tribulations and trials that come into their road, at each moment they fall more into passion and expend their spirits and hearts even more in friend- ship for the Real. With the tongue of the state they say, “If You're happy with my grief, give me grief upon grief! Away with a passion that decreases with a hundred cruelties!” This is why He says, “Those who have faith are more intense in love for God” [2:165].

And those who followed say �O if only we might return again and disown them as they have disowned us!� So God shall show them their works anguish for them! Never shall they exit from the Fire. At that time they will know the bitter taste of the companionship of created things but they will not be able to attain anything but anguish.

O people eat of what is in the earth lawful and wholesome; and fol- low not the steps of Satan; he is a manifest foe to you; That which is forbidden even if it is pleasing now is contaminated in the end. That which is permitted even if it is hateful now is wholesome in the end. The pure and permitted [can be understood as] that which is acquired without forgetting the Real. It is said that that which is permitted is what the gatherer obtains for His sake and acquires while witnessing the Real in every state. Anything that causes you to forget the Real or disobey the Real is from the steps of Satan.

And when it is said to them �Follow what God has revealed� they say �No; but we follow what we found our fathers doing.� Whatḍ Even if their fathers do not understand anything and they were not guidedḍ There is no raising their eyes beyond that which is like them in form class kind and ancestry for they are set on their way. Without a doubt they have plunged into the fire on their path. Had they known that their ancestors had no intelligence to restrain them nor guidance to unite them they would have withdrawn from them [understanding them to be] hostile and resisted them [understanding them to be] oppositional [to God's com- mand]. But the lights of insight were snatched from them and they were deprived of the proofs of certainty.