3. Aal-i-Imraan

Those who disbelieve in the signs of God, that is, those who are veiled from [the true] religion, and slay the prophets without right, veiled as they are by their [own] religion, refusing all except that to which they are delimited [of beliefs] and which they follow by imitation, while the prophets summon them to the affirmation of Oneness and prohibit them from delimitation, and so they slay them; and slay those who enjoin to equity, from among their followers, for equity is the shadow of the affirmation of Oneness - thus he for whom this [affirmation] has not been perfected is not capable of being equitable. For they, by their delimitation to their religion have become veiled and are consequently veiled by their injustice from equity. That is why they oppose them and slay them.

Those are the ones whose works have failed, those [works] which they performed while following the religion of their prophets and that is because while they were following blindly their prophet they were still saved by virtue of their following [him], since their prophets were their intercessors mediating between them and God in order to procure for them the [divine] effusion; but when they denied the prophets and their just followers they were contravening their particular prophet, since all prophets follow one creed in reality, namely, the belief in the Oneness [of God], without distinguishing between them, being as they are [all] upon the one [single] truth. Thus he who contravenes one [prophet] has in effect contravened all. Likewise, he who contravenes the upholders of justice from among the followers of the prophets is himself unjust and he who is unjust has, by virtue of his injustice, abandoned the following [of prophets]; similarly the denier of the followers is a denier of those who are followed, and the denier of the shadow [of God's Oneness] is a denier of the Essence, abandoning Its light. Once they have contravened their prophet there no longer exists any contact or correspondence between them and him that enables [the procurement of] effusion from His light and they are thus veiled from His light. Although their works had been illumined by His light by virtue of their following [the prophet], not because of any essential light that these [works] possess, since they are not produced out of certainty, once they are veiled from their prophet the accidental light [of these works] disappears and they become dark and like all other evil deeds from among the attributes of the commanding soul. Here [the following comes to mind], something which I have heard on more than one occasion: the slaying of the disbelievers of the faculties of the commanding soul at the hands of the prophets of the hearts and the justice-commanding spiritual faculties.

Say: 'O God, Possessor of Mastery, You possess mastery of the world of bodies absolutely, disposing of it [however You wish], there being none who have mastery or disposal or effect in it other than You. You give mastery to whom You will, granting him disposal over some of it; and seize mastery from whom You will, by assigning that [power of] disposal in the hands of someone other than him, except that there really is no other [than You] there, rather You turn it about from one hand to another, for You are the [only] disposer in all cases in accordance with the different loci of manifestation; You exalt whom You will, by casting upon him a light from the lights of Your glory, for Truly glory belongs altogether to God [Q. 4:139]; and You abase whom You will, by stripping him of the garb of Your glory leaving him abased; in Your hand is good, all of it, and You are the absolute Powerful One, giving in accordance with Your will, at times self-disclosing Yourself in a certain locus of manifestation with the attributes of glory and grandeur, garbing that [locus] with the vestment of glory and splendour, and at others with the attributes of vanquisher and abaser, garbing that [locus] with the vestment of ignominy and lowliness; sometimes with the attribute of exalter but You are [in reality] abasing, and sometimes with the attribute of abaser while You are exalting; sometimes with the attribute of independent and You give wealth, sometimes with the attribute of availer but You make [that person] poor, that is, You avail him of wealth, indigent without need of anything.

You make the night to pass into the day and You make the day to pass into the night: You make the darkness of the soul enter the light of the heart rendering it dark, and You make the light of the heart enter the darkness of the soul so that it is illumined by the mixture of the two despite the lack of correspondence between them. You bring forth the living, that is, the one whose heart is alive, from the dead, that is, from the one whose soul is dead, [and You bring forth] the one with the dead soul from the one with the living heart; indeed, You bring forth the one who is alive with knowledge and gnosis from the one who is dead with ignorance, and You bring forth the one dead with ignorance from the one alive with knowledge veiling him from the light, as was the case with Balʿam b. Bāʿūrā; and You provide whom You will, in the way of both outward and inward graces, or in the way of one of the two, without reckoning'.

Let not the faithful take the disbelievers as friends instead of the faithful…. And God warns you of Himself, and God is clement to the servants. The reality of the servant's faith and the final goal of his traveling on the path of tawḤīd takes him back to God's friendship. The reality of friendship is conformity, that is, being a friend of His friend and an enemy of His enemy. The master of the Shariah alluded to this with his words, “The most reliable handhold of faith is love in God and hate in God.” The traditions say that the Lord of the Worlds sent a revelation to one of the former prophets: “Say to the servants, 'In this world you have taken up renunciation in order to hurry to your own comfort and be relieved of this world's suffering. With your obedience and worship you have sought your own exaltation and your own good name. Now look: What have you done for Me? Have you ever loved My friends? Have you ever taken My enemies as your enemies?” This is exactly what He said to Jesus: “O Jesus, if the worship of all the inhabitants of heaven and earth accompanies you in the path of the religion, but you have no love for My friends and no enmity for My enemies, then your worship has been useless and without profit.” It is reported that Abū Idrīs Khawlānī said to Muʿādh, “I love you in the path of God.” Muʿādh said, “Let it be good news! I heard God's Messenger say that on the Day of Resurrec- tion, God will place seats around the Splendorous Throne for a group whose faces will be like the full moon. Everyone will be fearful because of the awe of the resurrection, but they will be secure. Everyone will be in dread, but they will be still. It was said, 'O Messenger of God! Which group is this?' “He said, 'Those who love each other in God.'” It has also been related that God says, “I have obligated My love on those who love each other in Me, sit with each other in Me, visit each other in Me, and spend freely on each other in Me.” Mujāhid said, “When God's friends smile in each other's faces, their sins fall away like leaves from a tree.

On the day when every soul shall find the good it has done made present, and the ugly it has done. It will wish that there were a far interval between itself and that. God warns you of Himself, and God is clement to the servants. He said this here so that the servant would fall into changing states-sometimes fear, sometimes hope; sometimes contraction, sometimes expansion; sometimes harshness, sometimes generosity. The severity and harshness of God warns you about Himself throws the servant into confounded- ness and bewilderment and he becomes selfless of self. Then He caresses: “And God is clement to the servants.” He sits him on the ship of gentleness and takes him from the whirlpool of con- foundedness to the shore of intimacy. One of the pirs among the great ones of the religion said, “I wonder if I will ever escape the whirlpool of self in the ship of deliverance. Will the hand of compassion ever take my hand among the waves of wishes? Will the proof of unity ever lift the veil of dispersion from before my eyes? Will this heart ever come to rest in this body?” In the road of avarice the purses of a hundred thousand merchants have been emptied of pure gold in search of this alchemy. [DS 210]