2. Al-Baqara

The likeness of those who disbelieve is as the likeness of one who shouts to that which hears nothing save a call and a cry; deaf dumb blind-they do not comprehend. Without the ears of comprehension and acceptance their bodily hearing did not benefit them. They descended to the status of animals incapable of actualization taḥṣīl. Whoever is content to be like an animal man raḌiya an yakūn ka-l-bahīma does not have much worth lam yaqaʿu ʿalayhi kathīr al-qīma.

O you who believe eat of the good things Ṭayyibāt wherewith We have provided you and give thanks to God if it be Him that you worship. The permitted ḥalāl is that for which there is no [bad] consequence. The good thing Ṭayyib is that thing whose blessing is not attributed to any created thing. When the servant finds something that combines these two qualities it is permitted and good. The true meaning of thankfulness to Him is that you do not take a breath in anything other than the pleasure of the Real so long as the energy given to you by that [permitted and good] food remains.

He has only forbidden you carrion blood the flesh of swine and what has been hallowed to other than God. Yet whoever is constrained not desiring nor transgressing no sin shall be on him. God is Forgiving Merciful. He has forbidden in outward circumstances these specific things which have been hallowed to other than God. He has forbidden to the innermost hearts companionship with other than God and even witnessing anything other than God. Yet whoever is constrained that is anyone who has not found a means to annihilation in the realities of the Real should only travel by way of the law. Either he should be effaced in God or stand by means of God or act for God. Otherwise he is a foolish man of no account.

Those who conceal what God has revealed of the scripture and sell it for a little price-they shall consume nothing in their bellies but the fire; God shall not speak to them on the Day of Resurrection neither purify them; and theirs is a painful chastisement. The scholars ʿulamāÌ are asked to spread the evidentiary proofs of knowl- edge while the friends awliyāÌ are commanded to preserve the trusts of the secret. If [the scholars] conceal the proofs of the different types of knowledge they will be bridled with a bridle of fire nār. By con- trast if [the friends] divulge even a sliver from the secret they [will be] immediately distanced from the secrets asrār and snatched away from the lights anwār they have been given. To each is a limit ḥadd and to each a command amr.

They are those who have bought error at the price of guidance and chastisement at the price of pardon; what makes them so patient for the fireḍ That is because God has revealed the Book with the truth; and those that are at variance regarding the Book are in schism far removed. Truly those that prefer the other ghayr over the unseen ghayb the cre- ation khalq over the Real ḥaqq the lower self nafs over intimacy uns [with God] how hard are their hearts ma aqsā qulūbahum how shameless what they love and seek wa-mā awqaḥa maḥbūbahum wa-maṬlūbahum how cheap their worth and how disgraceful for those who have eyes to see! That is because God has revealed the Book in truth and made its decree and rule come to pass in sincerity and brought them to that for which He prepared them and established them on the way He has fashioned for them.

They are those who have bought error at the price of guidance and chastisement at the price of pardon; what makes them so patient for the fireḍ That is because God has revealed the Book with the truth; and those that are at variance regarding the Book are in schism far removed. Truly those that prefer the other ghayr over the unseen ghayb the cre- ation khalq over the Real ḥaqq the lower self nafs over intimacy uns [with God] how hard are their hearts ma aqsā qulūbahum how shameless what they love and seek wa-mā awqaḥa maḥbūbahum wa-maṬlūbahum how cheap their worth and how disgraceful for those who have eyes to see! That is because God has revealed the Book in truth and made its decree and rule come to pass in sincerity and brought them to that for which He prepared them and established them on the way He has fashioned for them.

Piety is not that you turn your faces to the east and the west. Rather, piety is he who has faith in God, the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the prophets; who gives wealth despite lov- ing it to kinsfolk, orphans, the indigent, the son of the road, beggars, and slaves; and who per- forms the prayer and gives the alms tax; those who are loyal to their covenant when they make a covenant; those who are patient in misfortune, hardship, and moments of peril. It is they who have been truthful, and it is they who are the godwary. You have learned what the Shariah stipulates in terms of the outward meaning of this verse. Now listen to the inner meaning in the tongue of allusion and recognize the signs of the Haqiqah, for the Haqiqah is to the Shariah as the spirit is to the body. What is a body without a spirit? Such is the Shariah without the Haqiqah. The Shariah is the house of the servitors. All the people are gathered there. They keep it flourishing with service and worship. The Haqiqah is the house of the sanctuary. The recognizers are gathered there. They keep it flourishing with veneration and contemplation. The distance from service and worship to veneration and contemplation is the same as that from familiarity to love. Familiarity is the attribute of wage-earners, and love is the attribute of recognizers. The wage-earner brings all the varieties of piety mentioned in the verse. Then he says, “Oh, if the wind blows against it, or something of it is taken away, I will lose the wage for that.” The recognizer performs all of it according to its stipulations. Then he says, “Oh, if any of it remains, I will be held back from good fortune.” Any talk that keeps you back from the road-let it be unbelief or faith. Any picture that holds you back from the Friend-let it be ugly or beautiful. [DS 51] The wage-earner says, “My prayer, my fasting, my alms-giving, my patience in trials, my loyalty to covenants!” The recognizer says in the tongue of abasement, “Who am I to wear the cloak of loyalty to You, to have my eyes carry the burden of Your disloyalty, To have the spirit's scent come from my lips and speak of You, to grow an exalted branch in my heart and suffer Your trial?” [DS 933] The Pir of the Tariqah said, “How should I have known that the share of the wage-earner is ever- lasting paradise, and the hope of the recognizer is one glance? How should I have known that the wage-earner is wishing for houris and palaces, and the recognizer is inundated by light in the sea of face-to-face vision?” When he was dying, Abū ʿAlī Rūdbārī said to his sister, “O FāṬima, look, the doors of heaven have opened, the Gardens have been adorned! The maid-servants have gathered at the battlements and they are saying, 'Enjoy yourself, O Abū ʿAlī! All this was built for you!'” The tongue of Abū ʿAlī's state was answering, “O God, how could I be joyful with paradise and houris? If You give me one breath, from that breath I will build a paradise!” Your rightful due is that I look on no one else with the eye of love until I see You.

In retaliation there is life for you O people of pith so that you might fear. In carrying out the retaliation there is life because when one knows that if he kills he will himself be killed he refrains from killing. In this there is life for the one who kills and the one who is killed. But according to the allusive explanation there is greater life in aban- doning retaliation because when one has been annihilated in Him ������ He is the successor for him and his life from Him is more perfect for him than his remaining with himself. When God has inherited from them and succeeded them the remaining of the Successor is dearer than the life of the one who was annihilated.

It is written for you, when death is present for one of you and he is leaving behind some good, to make a will for parents and kinsfolk honorably, as something rightfully due from the godwary. The testament of the lords of wealth is one thing, and the testament of the lords of states is some- thing else. The testament of the lords of wealth goes out from the wealth, and the testament of the poor men from the states. At the end of their lives, the rich give out one-third of their wealth,13 and the poor give out limpidness of states and truthfulness of deeds. As much as the disobedient person is afraid for himself because of his bad deeds, the recogniz- er is afraid for himself ten times more because of the truthfulness of his deeds and the limpidness of his states. But there is a difference between the two: The disobedient person is afraid of the out- come and in dread of punishment, and the recognizer is afraid of the Real's majesty and awareness. When the recognizers are afraid, this is called “awe,” and when the disobedient are afraid, it is called “fear.” Fear occurs because of reports, and awe occurs because of face-to-face vision. Awe is a fear that puts no veil before supplication, no blindfold over perspicacity, and no wall before hope. It is a fear that melts and kills. As long as he does not hear the call, “Fear not and grieve not!” [29:33], he will not reach ease. The owner of this fear is shown generosity, but he burns in dread of losing it. His light is increased, and the terror of alteration is thrown into him. Abu Saʿīd Abi'l-Khayr had this state at the time of death. When he put his head on the pil- low of death, they said to him, “O Shaykh, you were the kiblah of those burned, emulated by the yearners, the sun of the world. Now that you have turned your face to the Exalted Presence, give some advice to these burnt ones, say some words that will be their reminder.” The Shaykh said, “My two eyes full of water, my liver full of fire, my hands full of wind, my head full of dust!” Bishr Ḥāfī had the same state at the time of going.