2. Al-Baqara

Alif lām mīm. Addressing one another with individual letters is one of the customs of lovers in their love. These are the lovers' secrets with each other so that no one watching will be aware. Between them lovers have a secret not disclosed by word, nor does creation have a pen to record it. * Of the sort of hidden message that He gave not one will be given up for a hundred thousand lives. In the scroll of friendship there is the imprint of a script whose interpretation none but the passion- ate read. In the secluded cell of friendship, there is mystery between friends whose murmur none but the recognizers know. In the picture-gallery of friendship there is a color of colorlessness that none but the enraptured have the eyes to see. If you want to see the beauty of the beloved's face, blind the eyes of your head and look with the eye of your intellect! [DS 495] Though Moses heard a thousand words in a thousand languages, this mystery was given over to MuḤammad in the seclusion of Or closer [53:9] on the carpet of expansiveness: “Alif.” I said to her, “Halt [qifī].” She said, “qāf.” Those thousands of words came to Moses, but the veil stayed in place. This mystery came to MuḤammad at the moment of face-to-face vision. Moses heard the words but did not see the Speaker, MuḤammad heard the mystery while gazing on the Keeper of the Mystery. Moses in seeking was delighted with the seeking; MuḤammad in the Presence was delighted with the Friend. Moses had not found the pleasure of contemplation, so he did not know its taste. He had not gone beyond listening and remembering; his repose was in hearing, which is why He spoke so much to him. But MuḤammad had gone beyond the limit of hearing to the center point of togetherness. The jealousy of the Remembered did not leave him in the remembrance and the wave of light lifted him up from love, so remembrance became lost in the Remembered and love in the Light. The spirit was lost in face-to-face vision, and face-to-face vision is far from explication. When a heart finds delight in His grasp and is inundated by face-to-face vision, what will it do with reports? When the spirit rests in the embrace, why should it busy itself with much remembrance? For him who must have face-to-face vision, reports are the bane. Why would a heart alone with face-to-face vision cling to reports? [DS 110] It has been said that Alif lām mīm caresses the paragon of the world in the tongue of allusion. It means, “Isolate [afrid] your secret core for Me, loosen [layyin] your limbs in My service, and stand [aqim] with Me, effacing your own traces and gaining proximity to Me!” O Master, pass all at once beyond the curtain of Gabriel's intermediacy so that the attribute of passion may pull off the mask of inaccessibility and show you the wonders of the Treasuries and the pearls of the Unseen that He has prepared for you. If Gabriel bothers you there, spill his blood- pay Gabriel's blood-price from mercy's treasure. [DS 592] O paragon, take one step outside of dust so that, when face-to-face vision gives you access, you will be all set and released from others. O paragon, what those chevaliers [the Companions of the Cave] drank down in …

This is the writing in which there is no doubt, a guidance for the godwary. It has been said that This is the writing is an allusion to what God has written against Himself for MuḤammad's community: “Surely My mercy takes precedence over My wrath.” God does that in His words, “Your Lord has written mercy against Himself” [6:54]. It has also been said that it is an allusion to the faith and recognition that God has written upon the hearts of the believers. Thus He says, “He wrote faith in their hearts” [58:22]. In this verse, it is as if God is saying, “My servant, I have written the imprint of faith in your heart, I have mixed in the perfume of friendship, I have decorated paradise for you, I have adorned your heart with the light of recognition, I have lit up the candle of union with Me, I have stamped the seal of love on your heart, and I have written the inscription of passion in your awareness.” “He wrote faith in their hearts: I wrote in the Tablet, but I wrote only your description. I wrote in your hearts, but I wrote only My description. I wrote your description in the Tablet, and I showed it to Gabriel. I wrote My description in your heart-how could I have shown it to an enemy? In the Tablet I wrote your loyalty and disloyalty; in your heart I wrote laudation and rec- ognition. What I wrote about you has not changed. How could what I wrote about Myself change? Moses carved out a stone from the mountain, and, when I wrote the Torah therein, the stone turned into emerald. The recognizer's heart was made of harsh stone-when I wrote My name therein, it turned into a notebook of exaltedness.” A guidance for the godwary. In another place, He said, “It is a guidance and a healing for those who have faith” [41:44]. He is saying that this Qur'an is guidance for the godwary, heal- ing for the faithful, the cause of familiarity, assistance for clarity, a key for the ears, a mirror for the eyes, a lamp for hearts, a healing for pain, a light for the eyes of the familiar, springtime for the spirits of the friends, admonition for the fearful, mercy for the faithful. It is a Qur'an whose eternity's rising place is the brilliance of the Divinity, a book whose coming down was made easy by the Lordhood, a writing whose guardian and protector is the exaltedness of Unity by virtue of jealousy. It is found in the house of the decree and guarded inside the curtain of the Real's guard- ing. God says, “Surely it is We who have sent down the Remembrance, and surely it is We who are its guards” [15:9]. Since you know that the Qur'an is guidance for the godwary, you should establish the lineage of godwariness so that it may take you inside the curtain of its protection. God says, “Surely the noblest of you with God is the most godwary” [49:13]. Tomorrow at the resurrection, every lineage will be broken except the lineage of godwariness. Everyone sheltered by godwariness today will be the neighbor of the Patron tomorrow. Thus it has been reported, “The people will be mustered on the Day of Resurrection. Then God will say to them, 'It is a long time that you have been speak- ing and I have been silent. Today you be silent and I will speak. Surely I took away …

Those who have faith in the Unseen and perform the prayer and spend of what We have provided them. They love God without having seen Him. They attest to His uniqueness and they believe in His oneness in Essence and attributes. They hold firm to His Messenger without having seen him, they accept his messengerhood, and they walk straight on the road of his Sunnah. After five hundred years of blackness on whiteness, they accept him with spirit and heart. The message he conveyed, the reports he gave of the World of Dominion, the Lote Tree of the Final End, the Gardens of the Refuge, the Throne of the Patron, the outcome of this world-they bear witness to its truth and they believe in all of it. They are the ones whom MuṣṬafā called his brothers: “Oh, the yearning to encounter my brothers!” And perform the prayer. They do the prayer such that you would say they are gazing on God and whispering secretly with Him, confirming the truth of the Prophet's words, “Worship God as if you see Him, for if you do not see Him, surely He sees you.” He also said, “When the servant stands for the prayer, he is before the eyes of the All-Merciful. When he looks around, God says, 'Child of Adam! At whom are you looking? Are you looking at someone better for you than I? Child of Adam! Look at Me, for I am better for you than the one at whom you are looking.'” Strive at the time you come to the prayer to keep your thoughts in the prayer and to turn your heart away from the bazaar. Have courtesy, turn your heart away from blessings, and know the worth of whispering secretly with the Patron of Blessings. For it is person of low aspiration and meanness who finds secret whispering with the Patron of Blessings and then busies his heart with the blessings. And spend of what We have provided them. He adds to the attributes of the godwary, saying that the caresses He has placed upon them and the blessings He has given them-they undertake to show gratitude for these blessings and, by the command of the Shariah, they caress the poor, give comfort to them, and consider them the Real's deputies in receiving charity. This indeed is the road of Muslims generally, who discharge the obligatory or add something to it voluntarily. As for the road of the folk of the Haqiqah in this regard, it is something else. Whatever they have they give away and still consider themselves to have fallen short. Someone asked Shiblī, “Of two hundred dirhams, how much alms tax is mandatory?” He said, “Are you asking about yours or mine?” He said, “I did not know that my alms tax is one thing and yours something else. Explain that to me.” He said, “If you give it, five dirhams is mandatory. If I give it, the whole two hundred, with five more as a token of gratitude.” It is mandatory for the common people of the community to discharge the obligatory act of alms tax. The outcome of their work is that they say, “Lord God, are You approving and satisfied with what we have given?” The fruit of the deed of the elect, who give away all their possessions, is that God says, “My servant, are you approving and satisfied with Me in what you have done?” How far apart are the two! The description of the state of Abū …

And those who have faith in what has been sent down to thee and what was sent down before thee and who are certain of the next world. This verse is also the attribute of the godwary and the affirmation of their faith in the Qur'an as well as in all the messages and marks that came down from heaven on the tongue of the prophets. The Lord of the Worlds praises them and approves of them because of that, and He accepts their faith. Every eminence and nobility possessed by past communities He gave to them and added to it, and every burden and hardship they had He lifted away from them. Those had longer days of practice, but this community has more reward for obedience. Those had a moment for repentance, but then the punishment of the Hour, but this community's opportunity for repentance of sins extends to the moment of death, and punishment belongs to the Will. Then too the Lord of the Worlds laid a favor on MuṣṬafā and said, “Thou wast not on the side of the Mount when We called out” [28:46]. O paragon, you were not present on that corner of the Mount when We were speaking of you to Moses and talking about your community.” Moses said, “Lord God, in the Torah I read the mention of a community extremely adorned, refined, and approved. They have beautiful conduct and flourishing secret cores. Who are they?” God said, “That is the community of MuḤammad.” Moses began to yearn for this community and said, “Lord God, is there any way You can show them to me?” He said, “No, for it is not the moment for them to come out. If you want, I will convey their voices to your ears.” Then God Himself let out a call in the world, “O community of MuḤammad!” Everyone who would be his community until the coming of the Hour said, “Here I am, obeying Thee!” Since He called them out, He did not send them back without a gift. He said, “I bestowed upon you before you asked from Me, and I forgave you before you asked Me to forgive you.” It is not surprising that God called out to Moses after he had come into existence and received the eminence of prophethood and messengership and whispered prayer at the edge of the Mount.

Surely it is the same for those who disbelieve whether thou warnest them or thou warnest them not; they will not have faith. From the beginning of the surah to this point is an allusion to the Lord's bounty and gentleness with familiars and friends. This verse alludes to His severity and justice toward the strangers and enemies. God has both bounty and justice. If He acts with justice, that is fitting, and if He is bounteous, that is suitable for Him. But not everything that is fitting in justice is suitable for bounty, whereas everything suitable for bounty is fitting for justice. He calls one to bounty, and the decree is His. He drives another to justice, and the will is His. What is good is that bounty rules over justice, and justice is caught in bounty's hand. Justice is silent before bounty, and the ring of union is in bounty's ear. Do you not see that justice travels along with Him, and happy is he whose refuge is bounty? The fruit of bounty is felicity and triumph, and the result of justice is wretchedness and estrangement. Both are deeds already done. “The Pen has dried on what will be until the Day of Resurrection.” It is a beginningless decree and a work discarded and finished. “When someone's lot has set him down, his eagerness will not stir him up.” The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, what will come of what You do not want? And when will he come whom you have not called? What does the unplanted get from water? What answer is given to the unworthy? What use to the bitter that sweet water is its neighbor? What gain to the thorn that the rose's fragrance is next to it? The apportioning has gone before, nothing to be added or taken away. What can be done? The Greatest Judge wants it this way. Satan lived in the highest horizon and performed thousands of acts of worship. What profit did it have, for he was not worthy. 'Since approval and wrath are beginningless attributes, there is no profit in shortened sleeves and determined steps.'” One day ʿUmar KhaṬṬāb came across Iblis. He seized him by the collar and said, “I have been seeking you for a long time.

God has sealed their hearts. The seal of estrangement was placed on someone's heart, and he remained in unbelief. The seal of perplexity was placed on another's heart, and he remained in lassitude. That one was a stranger, driven away, the road lost, and this one was helpless, stuck in the road, kept back from the Friend by other than the Friend. 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] Not everyone who escapes from unbelief joins with the Real, unless he has escaped from himself. Someone who escapes from unbelief reaches familiarity, but someone who escapes from himself reaches friendship. A thousand way stations stand between familiarity and friendship, and a thou- sand valleys between love and the Friend. In love for You I have never arrived at a way station in which the mind was not bewildered at the arrival.

Among the people are those who say, “We have faith in God.” This is the story of the hypocrites. The secret of the hypocrites' hypocrisy goes back to the emi- nence of MuṣṬafā in two respects, one in respect of jealousy and the other in respect of mercy. MuṣṬafā was the Real's beloved. His beauty and perfection passed beyond the limits of un- derstanding and imagination, so by virtue of jealousy God kept him behind the curtain of His protection and made the hypocrites' hypocrisy the mask of his beauty. He was veiled from the world's folk so that no one recognized him in reality, and He did not show him to anyone as he was. Thou seest them looking at thee, but they do not see [7:198]. If the hypocrites' hypocrisy had not been the mask of that shining face, all the creatures would have thrown dust on the light of the Unseen. With such a sun, such a light, and such a brilliance, a hypocrisy was needed such as that of ʿAbdallāh Ubayy Salūl and his likes. Otherwise, the radiance of that beauty would have done more to the Adamites than the beauty of Jesus did to his people such that they said, “The Messiah is the son of God” [9:30]. This can be said with a simile: The sun's disk, whose rays shine forth from the fourth heaven, has turned its face toward the fifth heaven. God created angels and entrusted that disk to them, and He created deserts full of snow in front of those angels. They lift mountain after mountain of snow from those deserts and dash them against the sun's disk so that its heat will be broken. Oth- erwise, the world would burn because of its shine and heat. In the same way, the hypocrisy of the hypocrites was thrown against the presence of that sun of good fortune. Otherwise, the creatures would all have bound the belt of associationism. But, that paragon of the world was all gentleness and mercy, as he said: “I am a guided mercy.” God says, “We sent thee only as a mercy to the worlds” [21:107].