6. Al-An'aam

They indeed are losers who, are veiled, who are deniers of the encounter with the Truth, until when, the minor resurrection, comes upon them, they are remorseful for being remiss about it, and they shall be bearing their loads, in the way of the burdens of attachment [to the material] and the acts arising from the love of corporeal things, as well as the evil consequences of misdeeds and the sins arising from the configurations of sensory things, on their backs: in other words, these [burdens] shall mount them and assume mastery over them, firmly rooted as these are in their souls, veiling them, causing them [to suffer] chastisement and impeding them from what they desire.

The life of this world, that is, the sensory life - since what is sensory is closer to creatures than what is intelligible - is nothing but a game, nothing but something without foundation or reality, quick to perish and become extinct; surely the abode of the Hereafter, that is, the world of spiritual beings, is better for those who, disengage from the vestments of the attributes of mortals and corporeal pleasures. What, do you not understandḍ, so as to prefer the nobler, the more wholesome to the viler, the lowlier that is perishing.

We know indeed that it grieves you: this is a reprimand to the Messenger of God for the manifestation of his soul by means of grief; they do not deny you, to the end [of the verse]: that is, their denial is not a denial of you, since in this summoning you do not subsist by means of your own soul, nor is this speech an attribute of yours. Rather you summon them by means of God and His attributes: this is an established habit [of God].

And if their aversion is grievous for you, then, if you can, to the end [of the verse] is lest that his soul should manifest itself by means of its attributes. So do not be among the ignorant, who are unaware of the wisdom [inherent] in the discrepancy between preparednesses, and then be sorry about the veiledness of those who are veiled. For the divine will has decreed that some be guided and some be deprived because of the wisdom with which the [spiritual] system is organised and [because of] the manifestation of outer and inner perfections. So the only ones to respond [to God] are those the auditory channels of whose hearts God has opened by means of primordial guidance (hidāya aṣliyya) and on whom He has bestowed true life by means of the attributes of preparedness and the light of primordial nature. Not the dead of ignorance [is it who respond to God], whose natural instincts are dead by means of composite ignorance or by means of the veils of innate disposition, or who did not possess any preparedness in accordance with primordial nature. Such are unable to hearm, rather:

God will resurrect them, through restoration at the second creation, and then to Him they will be returned, at the source of nondelimited union for the recompense or reward, despite their veiledness. It is possible the veils are removed in the Hereafter for the latter group exceptionally from among all of the rest.

[And they say, 'Why has a sign not been sent down to him from his Lordḍ' Say, 'Surely God has the power to send down a sign] but most of them have no knowledge': about the sending down of signs. For the manifestation of each one of His attributes in every one of the loci of engendered beings is a sign of Him by which those who have knowledge are able to know Him.

There is no animal on the earth, to the end [of the verse], but can undergo transfiguration (maskh), being communities like you in terms of veiledness, enmity, and the commission of vices, such as the people of the [breaking of the] Sabbath, who were transfigured into apes and swine. We have not neglected, We have not diminished [anything] of their Book which contains the forms of their deeds, which is the scroll of the soul of the celestial sphere, or the scroll of their intention in which the forms of their deeds are fixed; then to their Lord they shall be gathered, for the recompense, veiled at the source of the nondelimited union. Manifestly it seems that what is meant [here] is that they are communities like you under the care of a Lord in terms of what they need in the way of their [sources of] livelihood, with their provisions sufficiently taken care of by a measure determined by God and [by] His wisdoms. We have not left out anything from the Book of the Preserved Tablet that might benefit them; rather We have fixed therein their provisions, terms of life, deeds and everything which they might need; then to their Lord they shall be gathered to be recompensed for their deeds, as related in a ḥadīth about the gathering of beasts and the mutual retaliation between them for deeds [committed in this life], every one of which is a sign for you [a sign] by which your states, your provisions, your terms of life and your deeds can be known. Heed these [signs] then and do not expend your resolves (himam) and your efforts in the pursuit of provision or to rectify the affairs of the life of this world and then end up forsaking your souls, harming them and being wretched because of them in the Hereafter.

And those who deny, the self-disclosures of Our attributes, because of their being veiled by the coverings of the attributes of their souls; are deaf, in the ears of their hearts and thus do not hear the words of truth, and dumb, in the tongues of these [hearts], which constitute their intellects and so they cannot speak the truth in the darknesses of the attributes of their souls and the cloaks of their bodies and the coverings of their natural traits, like animals: how then are they to affirm your truthfulness when God has not through His facilitation guided them theretoḍ He whom God wills, He sends astray, by letting the veils of His Majesty hang down, and whom He wills, He sets him on a straight path, by allowing for the irradiation of the light of His face and the august glories of His beauty.

Say: “Do you see: Were God's chastisement to come to you or were the Hour to come to you, would you supplicate other than God, if you are truthful?” If harm touches you, whom will you want to remove it? If an affair turns against you, from whom will you hope for gentleness in it? The poor child of Adam who does not know the worth of this gentleness and does not recog- nize the danger of this exaltedness! This verse is both a manifestation of His exaltedness, majesty, and unneediness toward the servants, and a preparation for His gentleness, bounteousness, and largesse of mercy toward them. He is saying, “If in My lordhood I should assault these creatures because of justice, who is it that will hold that assault back from them and come to their aid? Were I suddenly to bring forth the banner of the resurrection from the ambush of the Unseen, where will these servants flee? Whose hand will they grasp? Whom will they call?” Then, with His own generosity, he answers: