3. Aal-i-Imraan

Whoever holds fast to God, by severing himself from all that is other than Him and [by] holding on to true affirmation of Oneness, he is guided to a straight path. For the straight path is the way of the Truth, exalted be He, as He has said: Surely my Lord is on a straight path [Q. 11:56]. Thus whoever severs himself in devotion solely to Him through annihilation in the Unity, his path becomes the path of God.

O you who have faith, be wary of God as is the rightful due of His wariness. When He says, “O people,” He says, “Be wary of your Lord” along with it. When He says, “O you who have faith,” He says, “Be wary of God” along with it. Be wary of your Lord is addressed to the common people. Their godwariness is based on seeing blessings, and their aspiration is nurturing the body to serve the Real. Be wary of God is addressed to the folk of caresses and generosity. Their godwariness is based on being watchful of the Beneficent and their aim is the repose of the spirit in witnessing the Real. What a difference between the two! Be wary of your Lord is addressed to the wage-earners, and Be wary of God is addressed to the recognizers. The wage-earners are seeking joy and blessings, and the recognizers are seeking the mystery of the Beneficent. From God the wage-earners want other than Him, but the recognizers want God Himself. AḤmad ibn Khiẓrūya saw the Real in a dream. He said, “O AḤmad! Everyone is seeking something from Me, except Abū Yazīd. He is seeking Me.” People are wishing for repose and comfort, but I, O Exalted One, wish to encounter You empty. * On the day I reach union with You I will disdain the state of the paradise-dwellers. It has been said that godwariness is of three sorts: One is wariness of God's punishment by having patience against acts of disobedience, as He says: “Be wary of the Fire that has been prepared for the unbelievers” [3:131]. Second is the godwariness of gratitude for blessings, as He says: “Be wary of your Lord” [4:1]. Third is godwariness at the vision of Unity, without taking into account reward or punishment, as He says: “Be wary of God as is the rightful due of His wariness.” The first is the godwariness of the wrongdoers, the second the godwariness of the moderate, and the third the godwariness of the preceders.

Let there be a community of you inviting to the good. This is an allusion to peoples who stand up for God in God. They are not taken aback by the blame of any blamer nor cut off from God by relying on any causes. They have seen the shortcomings of their own souls and immersed their lives in gaining God's approval. They act for God, give counsel for God's religion, and call God's creatures to God. Their trade has profited them and they do not regret their handshake. This is the description of a people who stand through the Real's making them stand and who have been freed from their own power and strength and disengaged from their own desires and aims. They are outside the circle of deeds and states, free of the captivity of choice and self- determination. They know God, they call upon God, and they strive in God's religion. They do not think about people or their blame. In their hearts they have friendship for the Patron and in their eyes the collyrium of Self-disclosure. They see everything just as it is. Others look from the artisanry to the Artisan, but they look from the Artisan to the artisanry. They are the elect of the Presence, branded by the Empire. Be the elect servant of the king-with his brand you're safe from police by day and patrols by night. They are the ones burnt by union and killed by love. Their blood has been spilled and their prop- erty destroyed, but their hearts are in His grasp, their spirits in His embrace. This is why they say, You have a Heart-taker better than life. Don't grieve-let go of life. “When someone is destroyed in God, God takes his place.”

And do not be like those who became dispersed and disagreed. Dispersion is one thing and disagreement something else. Dispersion is the opposite of together- ness and disagreement the opposite of agreement. Dispersion is the scatteredness of the folk of the Tariqah and disagreement the scatteredness of the folk of the Shariah. Dispersion is that the servant desires one thing and the Real desires something else. Togeth- erness is that the servant's desire and the Real's desire are one. According to the report, “When someone makes his concerns one concern, God will spare him the concerns of this world and the next world.” It has been said that dispersion is to gaze on the creatures and to see the secondary causes such that you are never relieved of suffering and creaturely antagonism. Togetherness is to gaze on the Real and to know that the Real is one, the work comes from one place, and the decree comes from this one door. As for the disagreement of the lords of the Shariah, that is of two sorts: One is in the principles of the religion, the other in the branches. Disagreement in the principles is terrible and dangerous, since one must be right and the other wrong. When someone's goal lies in the west and he takes the road east, how can he ever reach the goal? The more he goes, the more he moves away from the goal day by day, and he falls farther behind. This is alluded to in His words, “Surely this path of Mine is straight, so follow it. And do not follow the paths, lest they disperse you from His path” [6:153]. As for the disagreement of the community on the branches, it is like a group who set out for one goal by disagreeing roads, some going nearer and some farther. Although they disagree in the traveling, they arrive at one goal and come together. This disagreement is mercy itself. To it the Prophet alluded: “Disagreement in my community is a mercy.” In other words, this disagreement in branches is God's mercy toward the creatures, so that the work of the religion would not become narrow for them and its road would not be difficult. This is in His words, “He placed no hardship upon you in the religion” [22:78]; and in God's words, “God desires for you ease and does not desire for you hardship” [2:185].

The day when some faces are blackened, and some faces whitened: the whitening of the face is a reflection of the illumination of the countenance of the heart by the light of the Truth by virtue of its [the heart's] orientation toward it and its turning away from the lower egocentric darkened aspect. That can only come about as a result of affirming the Oneness [of God] and remaining upright upon it by the illumination of the soul, in addition, with the light of the heart, so that the totality becomes illumined by the light of God. [As for] its blackening, that is [the result of] the darkness of the countenance of the heart when it pursues the soul that seeks its shares [of this world] and turns away from the luminous aspect of the truth, the consequence of its [the heart's] befriending of the soul and the following after desires in order to actualise pleasures, all of which ensues from following the divided satanic paths. As for those whose faces are blackened, it is said to them: 'Did you disbelieve after you had believedḍ, that is, have you veiled yourselves from the light of the Truth by the dark attributes of the soul and have taken up abodes in these darknesses after you had been guided and illumined by the light of preparedness and the purity of primordial nature and the guidance of the intellectḍ Then taste, the chastisement of privation for veiling yourselves from the Truth.

But as for those whose faces are whitened, they shall be in God's mercy, which is the spirit of connectedness and the holy light and the presential visions of [God's] beauty, abiding therein.

You are the best community [brought forth to men], by virtue of being affirmers of the Oneness and upholders of justice, which is His shadow, enjoining decency and forbidding indecency, since none but the just one who is an affirmer of the Oneness is able to do that, since he knows what is decent and what is indecent, as has been mentioned already in the interpretation of His words Thus We appointed you a midmost community [Q. 2:143]. The Commander of the Believers [ʿAlī], peace be upon him, said, 'We are the midmost saddle, with whom the [ultimate] interpretation ends and to whom the zealous extremist refers�. Thus upon the one who has fallen short [in his behaviour] they enjoin the decency that will help him attain the station of Oneness; and they forbid the zealous extremist veiled by the union from [the level of] differentiation and by the Oneness from [the level of] multiplicity; and believing in God, that is, you stand firm at the station of the Oneness which is the midmost. Such [you are] in every act of excess, immoderation and moderation in matters of character traits. Had the People of the Scripture believed, they would have been like you.