6. Al-An'aam

Say: “To whom belongs what is in the heavens and in the earth?” Say: “To God. He has written mercy against Himself.” Ask them, O MuḤammad! Does anyone dwell in the house? In verified truth, does the rightful due of the realm of being have any weight with the Real? If they fail to answer, that will be a healing. So say, “God in His lordhood is enough.” God, and that's it. The rest is folly. O God! It is not from anyone to You, nor from You to anyone-all is from You to You, all is You, and that's it. Glory be to God! A world full of things and full of people-He overthrows it all in one breath. A hundred eyes would not be enough for me to gaze on this work. He has written mercy against Himself. Before He began to create the newly arrived things and to originate the engendered beings, He struck the coin of mercy in the mint of the Unseen as the hard cash of the servants' states and deeds: Surely I am God; there is no god but I [20:14]. “My mercy takes precedence over My wrath.” Tomorrow on the Day of Mustering, the Messenger will call out at the top of the bazaar of the resurrection: “O King, here is a handful of the disobedient. Let me be instructed to clothe them in the shirt of Your mercy, for You have said, 'We sent thee only as a mercy to the worlds' [21:107]. O Lord, it is the day of the bazaar for these beggars. I was catching them with the lasso of the invitation, so I made them many promises. O Lord, do not shame MuḤammad in this gathering of the multitudes! Turn Your promise of mercy and generosity into reality, for You Yourself said, 'O My servants who have been immoderate against yourselves, despair not of God's mercy' [39:53].” From the Court of Majesty will come the call of generosity and mercy: “O MuḤammad! The work of your community is not outside of three: Either they are people of faith, or they are recognizers, or they are disobedient. If they have faith and are hoping for paradise, then here is My paradise. If they are the disobedient hoping for My forgiveness, then here is My mercy and forgiveness.

And His is whatsoever dwells in the night and the day, and He is the Hearing, the Knowing. The newly arriving things are God's as a kingdom, in God as manifestation, from God in appear- ance, and unto God in return. And He is the Hearing of the moans of the yearners, and the Knowing of the longing of the finders. It has been said that night is a general darkness that appears around the world, and day is a general brightness that reaches the whole world. Before the creation of the world and before the creation of light and darkness, there was neither night nor day. In paradise there is no sun, but all is day, for in reality the general brightness is there. Whatever is closer to God has a more complete light and luminosity. ʿAbdallāh ibn Masʿūd said, “Surely there is no day or night with your Lord- He illuminates the heavens with the light of His face.” It is mentioned in the traditions that the Lord of the Worlds created a tremendous angel, plac- ing night in one of his fists and day in the other. Whenever the angel closes one fist and opens the other, that is the ruling power of the day. When he closes this fist and opens the other, that is the ruling power of the night. By way of allusion, God is saying: “I placed the disk of the sun in the fist of the angel, but I did not give the hearts of My friends to anyone. The angel has no interven- tion in or power over the hearts of the friends.” Know that the disk of the sun is in the fist of the angel, but the heart of the lovers is in the fist of the King-majestic and high is He! MuṣṬafā said, “The hearts of the servants are between two fingers of the All-Merciful.”

Say: “Shall I take as friend other than God, the Originator of the heavens and earth, who feeds and is not fed?” “After He has honored me with His beautiful friendship, shall I take another as friend? After the brightness of His solicitude has fallen upon me, shall I gaze on someone else in the two houses?”5 “The sun of solicitude and kind favor has shone upon me from the Majestic and Exalted Threshold and taken care of my business without me in the two worlds, lighting up my heart with the eternal love and adorning it with the ornament of intimacy. He gave me such eminence at the forefront of acceptance that sometimes He puts up with my disdain: By thy life! [15:72]. Some- times the grasp of the attributes explains the polish of my heart's mirror by virtue of solicitude: Did We not expand for thee thy breast? [94:1]. Sometimes the assessor of the beginningless and endless register turns over the acceptance and rejection of the creatures to my threshold: Whatever the Messenger gives you, take; whatever he prohibits you, forgo [59:7]. With all this good fortune, rank, solicitude, and kind favor, how would it be appropriate for my heart to request someone else or to gaze upon this world and the afterworld?” Hence he said concerning this world, “What do I have to do with this world?” And concerning the afterworld: “The eyesight did not swerve, nor did it trespass” [53:17]. Neither this world, nor the afterworld-rather, seeing the Patron. The Originator of the heavens and earth, the God who created earth and heaven. He is the enactor of the world and the world's folk, the knower of the apparent and the hidden. He does not partake of daily provision, but He assigns daily provision to the servants. Who feeds and is not fed. To Him belongs the attribute of generosity, so He feeds. To Him belongs the rightful due of eternity, so He is not fed.

And if God touches thee with harm, none can remove it but He. Just as in creating harm, He is one and unique, so also in repelling harm, He is unique and without equal. If all the world's folk were to gather together, the jinn and mankind holding hands to bring about a pain that is not there, they would not be able to do it; or to remove a pain that is there with- out God's wish, they would not find a way. Know that the wellspring of pain and remedy is one! Recognize that the source of blessing and trial is one! And see that the rising place of unbelief and faith is one! In the circle of togetherness these have one color, and in the way stations of dispersion they are multicolored. This is what that chevalier put into verse: On your two cheeks are both unbelief and faith, in your two lips are both pain and remedy. [DS 810]

And He is the Severe over His servants. He breaks the pleasures of the servants, and in Essence and attributes He is above all the travelers. For the poor He is the good fortune of the heart and the life of the spirit. He perceives the unper- ceivable and sees the unseen face-to-face. One breath with the Real in exchange for the two worlds is cheap, one vision of Him for a hundred thousand spirits is gratis, one moment of intimacy with Him is sweeter than the spirit. He who is slain in this work is between fire and joy, and he who is unaware of this work is jailed in the prison of mortal nature. O God, vision of You is close, but at such closeness the work is too subtle. O God, everyone is upon something, but I don't know what I'm upon. I fear only the moment when who I am appears. Since he who is in remembrance is happy with You, why is he who is happy with You lamenting? When someone has a sweetheart like You in his arms, how would he be aware of the noise of the Resurrection?

Say: “What thing is greater in bearing witness?” Say: “God.” There is no bearing witness more truthful than the Real's own bearing witness to what He wit- nessed at the first. That is His words, “God bears witness that there is no god but He” [3:18]. This is the Real's bearing witness that the Real is the Real. On the first day, at the beginningless covenant, with true words and pure speech, He reported of the unitary existence, the self-sufficient being, the endless majesty, the eternal beauty, the con- tinuous Essence, and the self-standing attributes. Abū ʿAbdallāh Qurashī said, “This is a teaching for the servants and a right guidance for the seekers. With His own gentleness He is teaching the servants to bear witness in their measure to His oneness and solitariness, just as He bears witness as is fitting for Him. Put aside the path of resistance, lest you fall into the pit like the abandoned Iblis.” One of them said, “God bears witness to His oneness, His unity, and His self-sufficiency. Oth- ers, like the angels and the possessors of knowledge, bear witness by assenting to the truth of that to which He bears witness concerning Himself.” He Himself bore witness to His lordhood, greatness, and oneness, for no one else was worthy of bearing witness. The creatures cannot reach the core of His majesty and tremendousness, and their bearing witness is nothing but assenting to the truth of the Real's bearing witness. Jaʿfar ibn MuḤammad said, “The bearing witness of people is built on four pillars: first fol- lowing the commands, second avoiding prohibitions, third contentment, and fourth approval.” It is said that people's bearing witness is of three sorts: the bearing witness of the common people, the bearing witness of the elect, and the bearing witness of the elect of the elect. The bear- ing witness of the common people is to emerge from associationism. The bearing witness of the elect is to enter into contemplation. The bearing witness of the elect of the elect is the breeze of companionship from the side of proximity for the sake of union. The self-purifier sees all from Him, the recognizer sees all in Him, the tawḤīd-voicer sees all as He. Every named being is a loan. True being is He-the rest are suspect. Say “God,” then leave them [6:91]. Oh, all is You, and that's it! How could anyone appear alongside You?