4. An-Nisaa

Have you not seen, to the end [of the verse where it says]: they believe in al-Jibt and al-Ṭāghūt, by their affirmation of the existence of other [than God], and that is the way in which they lead [others] astray from religion, which is the path of the affirmation of [His] Oneness, and say, to those who have been veiled from the Truth, 'These are more rightly guided, than the affirmers of the Oneness, in their way'ḍ, since they are like them in associating [others with God], in contrast to the believers who are opposed to them in both way and goal. For when those who affirm the Oneness go astray in their way, they do not arrive at the goal which they affirmed. They are thus guilty of a subtle association (shirk) that approximates the state of those who are veiled from the Truth, those who have committed a manifest association, and thus they correspond to them and are directed towards them, claiming to be the most rightly-guided of the affirmers of Oneness, as we see is the case with certain exoterics [today] who belong to the Muslim community.

Those are the ones whom God has cursed, by transfiguring [their] preparedness: the one whom God banishes, none can help him through guidance or bringing [him] near or deliverance.

And We gave them a tremendous kingdom. It has been said, “The tremendous kingdom is having an overview of the secrets of the creatures,” or it is “gazing upon the secrets of the empire such that nothing is hidden.” This is why Abū ʿUthmān Maghribī said, “When someone responds to the Real, the empire re- sponds to him.” In other words, when something appears to him in the empire, he is given news of it. Ibn al-Barqī was one of the great shaykhs of Egypt and possessed perspicacity. Once he became ill and was given medicine. He said, “I will not drink it, for some disaster has happened in the em- pire. Until I find out what happened, I will not drink it.” Thirteen days passed before news arrived that the Qarmatians and fallen on the Sanctuary, killed many people, and worked great destruction. Shaykh al-Islām Anṣārī said, “Servanthood cannot bear more than knowing some and not knowing some, for God says, 'He does not show His unseen to anyone except someone He ap- proves as a messenger' [72:26-27]. 'And God will not inform you of the unseen' [3:179]. God knows all-no one else.” It has also been said that the tremendous kingdom is recognition of the tremendous King. When someone recognizes Him, he has found the kingdom of both worlds. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, who is like me in becoming worthy for this work? Enough for me is that I have the worth of Your companionship.” Tell them to call me nothing but lord- that's a name suited for Your serving boy.

Surely those who disbelieve in Our signs, that is, [those] who have been veiled from the self-disclosures of Our attributes and acts, since the point of departure of the verse is His being self-disclosed through knowledge and wisdom in the family of Abraham - We shall expose them, to the fire of the yearning for perfection since this is what is entailed in their natural impulses and traits in accordance with their preparedness in addition to the deep-rootedness of the veil and its adherence [to them]; or [We shall expose them] to the fire of vanquishing through the self-disclosures of the attributes of His vanquishing power, [a fire] that corresponds to their states; or to the fire of the evilness of their souls and the vehemence of their yearning and pursuit of the perfections of their attributes and their lusts which have been provoked in them but of which they are deprived; as often as their skins are consumed, [as often as] their corporeal veils are removed [from them] when they abandon them, We shall replace them, with new veils other than those, that they may taste the chastisement, the fires of privation. Surely God is ever Mighty, powerful. He vanquishes them and disgraces them by abasing the attributes of their souls and He burns them with the fires of their longing for their perfections by depriving them [of these] forever; Wise, requiting them with the chastisement which is appropriate to them and which they have chosen for their souls by their irascible and concupiscent exigencies and other [such motivations] and their inclination to corporeal pleasures; that is why veils of darkness are successively replaced for them.

And those that believe, by affirming the unity of [God's] attributes, and perform, what makes them righteous by virtue of [their] acceptance of the self-disclosures of these [attributes], We shall admit them to the Gardens, of those who have assumed these attributes and the stations thereof, underneath which rivers flow, that is, the rivers of the knowledge deriving from the self-disclosures of these [attributes] in the way of the knowledge of the heart. Here the [purified] spouses are the sanctified spirits which are the loci of the manifestations of the divine attributes that are purified through the corporeal configurations; and We shall admit them to plenteous shade, that is, [to] the shade of the divine attributes whose spirit lasts forever by the effacement of the human attributes.

Surely God commands you to deliver trusts back to their owners. In this verse the lovingly kind Lord, the generous and right-knowing, the care-taker of the servants, commands His servants to give back trusts. He is saying, “Return the trusts at your own liability to their folk.” In other words, do not intervene in them, and avoid betrayal, for after the faith and recognition of the servant, there is no attribute greater than holding in trust; and after unbelief, there is no attribute uglier than betrayal. The servant's obedience comes forth from holding in trust, and disobedience comes from betrayal. Betrayal is the basis of corruption, the beginning of every mis- fortune, and the foundation of disobedience. Holding in trust is the pillar of the religion, the per- fection of tawḤīd, and the attribute of the prophets and the angels. In the firm text of the revealed book, the Lord of the Worlds describes Gabriel by saying, “brought down by the trustworthy spirit” [26:193]. In another place He says, “obeyed, and also trustworthy” [81:21]. He reported from the daughter of Shuʿayb that she said to her father about Moses, God's speaking companion, “O my father, hire him! Surely the best you can hire is the strong, the trustworthy” [28:26]. And in describing Joseph the sincerely truthful He says, quoting the king of Egypt, “Surely today with us thou art emplaced, trustworthy” [12:54]. The trusts about which the Book and the Sunnah talk are three things: One is obedience and the religion, for the Lord of the Worlds calls them a trust. He says, “Surely We offered the Trust” [33:72]. Next are women, who are held as a trust by men. MuṣṬafā said, “You have taken them as a trust from God, and you have made their private parts lawful to you by God's word.” Third is the property you leave with someone, or the secret you tell to him, for that is a trust. The Lord of the Worlds says, “Let him who has been entrusted deliver back his trust” [2:283]. MuṣṬafā said, “Deliver the trust back to the one who entrusted you.” He also said, “If a man relates some words, pay regard, for it is his trust.” Mustāfā also said, “Sitting together is a trust.” In other words, when you sit with people, it must be on condition of holding in trust.

Have you not seen, that is, have you not marvelled at, those who claim that they believe in what has been revealed to you, of the knowledge of the affirmation of the Oneness, and what was revealed before you, of the knowledge of the point of origin and the final return, desiring to take their disputes to a false deity, when it is incompatible with their claim. For if their faith was sound, they would not have affirmed an other [in the first place] for that [other] to then have any power to arbitrate. Indeed they, by virtue of true belief, are obliged to disbelieve in any other than Him. The one who has not been stripped of his attributes and acts and whose essence has not been obliterated in God, exalted be He, constitutes some other [than God]; and the one who orients himself towards some other has verily obeyed Satan. But Satan only desires that they be led far astray, which is to deviate from the truth through association [of others with God], since to incline away from religion is to be in clear error.