2. Al-Baqara

And when you killed a living soul and disputed thereon-and God disclosed what you were hiding One who is disloyal is afraid and out of fear that his secret will become manifest relies on concealment deception denial and evasion. His fault ʿawāruhu is inevitably discovered his secrets asrāruhu exposed and the coverings astāruhu fall because of the shame of his action. God most high said �and God disclosed what you were hiding.�

so We said �Smite him with part of it�; God brings to life the dead and He shows you His signs so that you might understand. God ������ wanted to give life to the dead man so that he could expose his killer through the testimony [of the slain] so He commanded them to kill one of their animals and made it the cause of bringing the slain man to life. The allusion here is to anyone who desires the life of his heart; he will only attain it by sacrificing his lower self since the heart of anyone who sacrifices his lower self through struggle mujāhadāt comes to life by the lights of witnessing mushāhadāt. Likewise when God wants someone's reputation to live forever He causes his reputation in this world to pass into obscurity.

Then your hearts became hardened after that, so they were like stones or even harder. And there are stones from which rivers come gushing, and among them are those that split and water comes forth from them, and among them are those that fall down in fear of God. In the case of the ignorant, the hardening of the heart is unkindness, lack of mercy, and distance from the path of the Real. In the case of the recognizers, the purifiers, and the limpid, hardening is the strength of the heart, the state of stability, the perfection of knowledge, and the state of limpid- ness. Abū Bakr used to show it from himself. Whenever he saw that someone was weeping and twisting in himself because of listening to the Qur'an, he would say, “I was like that until the hearts became hardened.” This hardening is an allusion to the perfection of the state of the recognizers and the majesty of the level of the sincerely truthful. At the beginning of the work and the outset of desire the beginners shout, wail, cry, and weep, for passion has not yet fully established its rulership. When the work reaches perfection, the limpidness of recognition becomes strong and the ruling power of passion fully establishes its rulership. Then that shouting and wailing are put aside, and joy and revelry arrive. With the tongue of their state they say, “At first when passion for that beauty was new my neighbors did not sleep at night because of my weeping. Now I weep less because my passion has increased- When fire takes over, there's little smoke.” There are stones from which rivers come gushing, and among them are those that split and water comes forth from them, and among them are those that fall down in fear of God. He made hard stones more excellent than cruel hearts and superior to them. He is saying, “Water comes from stone, and it becomes soft, and in fear of God it falls into the desert. But a cruel heart in the makeup of an estranged man does not moan in fear of God or weep in remorse, nor do mercy and tenderness enter into it.” The stories say that one of God's prophets was passing through a desert and saw a small stone from which was flowing a great deal of water, much greater than the measure of the stone.

Are you then so eager that they should believe you seeing there is a party of them that heard God's word and then tampered with it and that after they had comprehended it knowinglyḍ He informed them of [the status] of their belief and related that after hearing the address of God ������ they engaged in tampering [with it] and altering [it]: �Why would they believe you when they already heard by means of the messageḍ How can those who do not remain in a state of faith imān after eyewitnessing ʿiyān believe by means of demonstrative proof burhānḍ That which does not hold true for the Real does not hold true for you. How can those who are not ashamed before the Real be ashamed before youḍ�

And when they meet those who believe they say �We believe�; but when they go in private one to another they say: �Do you speak to them of what God has disclosed to you so that they may thereby dispute with you before your Lordḍ Have you no understandingḍ� Do they not know that God knows what they keep secret and what they proclaimḍ They encouraged one another among themselves to reject the Real and to hide the situation from the Muslims. But they did not know that God was informing His Messenger ���� ������ of their secrets and that a light the Real makes manifest cannot be extinguished by the efforts of anyone other than Him. When the tongue agrees but the mind162 objects it only increases separation.

Do they not know that God knows what they keep secret and what they announce? This is the speech of the Lord who is worshiped by the tawḤīd-voicers, responds to those who call, knows the state of the servants, is aware of the apparent and hidden, and calls back those who have turned away. One He calls with explicit expressions, presenting Himself as the Nurturer. He says, “Be penitent toward your Lord!” [39:54]. Another He calls with His exalted allusions and turns the face of his heart away from others to Himself. He presents His lordhood and kingship to him and says, “Do they not know that God knows what they keep secret and what they announce?” For the recognizers, this is sufficient allusion. When the Lord of the Worlds says that He knows the secret cores and is aware of the hidden things, they sweep the dust of the others from their secret cores and give scatteredness no way into their hearts. When He says that He knows the apparent, they bring truthfulness to bear in their outward interaction with God's creatures. This is why the folk of allusion have said that He knows what they keep secret is a command to watchfulness between servant and Lord, and what they announce is a command to truthfulness in interactions and settling accounts with the creatures. In one of God's books has come, “If you do not know that I see you, that is a defect in your faith. If you do know that I see you, why do you make Me the lowliest of gazers upon you?” Equivalent to this verse is what the Exalted Lord says: “He knows the treachery of the eyes and what the breasts conceal” [40:19]. There are diverse treacheries in the eyes of the lookers, because the travelers are diverse. The treachery of the eyes of the worshipers is that in the dark night, when it is time for whis- pering to God, they fall asleep and the intimacy of seclusion is lost to them. The prophet David received the revelation, “O David, he who claims to love Me is a liar if night comes, and he goes to sleep on Me. Does not every lover love to be secluded with his beloved?” God praised Abraham for this attribute when He said, “When night darkened over him” [6:76].

And among them are the unlettered. In this verse the attribute of unletteredness is a censure of the estranged and a mark of their short- coming. In the verse where He says, “Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered prophet” [7:157], it is a praise of MuṣṬafā and a mark of his perfection. This alludes to the fact that having the same name does not mean being of the same kind. The congruence of names does not require the congruence of meanings. The position of the Folk of the Sunnah in affirming the attributes of the Real was established according to this rule: the agreement of one name with another does not bring about the agreement of meanings. God has attributes and descriptions fitting for Godhood, and creatures are far from that. Created things have created attributes, and God is pure of that. Do you not see that “exalted” is a name of God, and He called Joseph exalted [12:78]? God's exalted- ness is worthy of Him and the created thing's exaltedness is worthy of it. By the agreement of the Muslims and the attestation of most of the unbelievers, God is existent and the creatures are existent. But, the creatures exist by God's existence-giving, and God exists by His own abidance and His own being and subsistence. The Muslims agree that God is alive, and there are many living things among the created. The created thing is alive through breath and through appropriate and timely nourishment, but God is alive through His life and subsistence and through His firstness and lastness-without when, how many, or how. All the opponents of the Folk of the Sunnah say that God is maker and the created thing maker. But the created thing is maker through artifice, instrument, striving, and measure, and God is maker through power and wisdom-whatever He wants, as He wants, and whenever He wants. There are many similar things in the Qur'an. In short, God knows how He is, and He is just as He said He is, but the servant is incapable of knowing His howness. What God said about Himself should be accepted from the eyeteeth and assented to from the depth of the spirit. When someone fancies that having the same meaning is to be of the same kind, that is to go by the road of the road- less, and it is nothing but rebellion. Hoping to grasp God by imagination and seeking is absurd, and everything gained in this way will be faulty. Safety in the religion lies in accepting the mes- sage, approving of him who conveyed it, bowing the head, and putting aside seeking. Anyone who has this as his belief has gone on the right path, and his outcome will be as the Exalted Lord says:

And there are some of them that are illiterate not knowing the scripture but only desires and mere conjectures. So woe to those who write the scripture with their hands then say �This is from God� that they may sell it for a small price. He related that they differed in the shortcomings of their disbelief. One group is the most contemptible while the majority relied on blind fol- lowing taqlīd out of ignorance. It was not that doubt seized them but rather that they were misled by conjecture and speculation. They have no share in their scriptures other than to recite them without knowledge of their meanings. Among this group are those who are mostly concerned with what they desire for themselves. There is no possibility of their being helped and no definitive way of finding the truth among their conjectures. Then He related the bad outcome for them in His words may His men- tion be exalted: So woe to them for what their hands have written and woe to them for their earnings. It means they have lost in the present and in the end. This verse alludes to those who lack sincerity ikhlāṣ in companionship ṣuḥba165 on the path of the Real. They associate with the friends awliyāÌ [of God] externally but they possess no true spiritual desire irāda so they are companions of the heedless with only a partial view of this path Ṭarīqa. Whenever the clamor of worldly fortunes call they rush to respond will- ingly but when the demands of the Real ������ direct them to some endeavor their situation is a bad one since they are not sincere. How intense will be their remorse for what they have hoarded from God! They will not prosper.

And they say �the fire shall not touch us save a number of days.� Say: �Have you taken a covenant with Godḍ God will not fail in His covenant or say you against God what you do not knowḍ This verse alludes to those whose hearts are filled with false claims. Their conjecture has gotten the better of them for out of extreme foolishness they judge themselves to be among the people of the story ahl al-qiṣṣa. Such a person abides yakhlud with the murmurings of his lower desires. He judges the unseen by what he has himself neglected having forgotten the ugliness of what he has done and remembering [only] the errors of his false thinking. He is a servant of his lower self whose good opinion of himself has gotten the better of him. In reality the results of his neglect and deceit possess him. God most high said �And that supposition of yours which you supposed of your Lord has ruined you. So you have become among the losers� [41:23].