6. Al-An'aam

No, He it is whom you will supplicate, so He will remove that for which you supplicate Him if He will, and you will forget what you associated with Him.�You will call upon Me, you will know Me, and you will ask Me to remove the trial. It is I who am powerful to perfection, I who am bounteous with bestowal, I who am the beautiful doing, beautiful- wanting friend and companion.�In the reports of David has come this: �O David! Ask the earth-dwellers why they do not be- come friends with Me, for I am worthy of friendship. I am the Lord with munificence and without niggardliness, with knowledge and without ignorance, with patience and without incapacity. There is no change in My attributes and no alteration in My words. I am the bestower upon the servants and vast in mercy. I have never turned back from bounty and generosity. In the Beginningless I wrote mercy toward them against Myself and burned the incense of love. I lit up their hearts with the light of recognition.� The tongue of the servants' state says in the tune of thanksgiving,�Love for Your Essence, my God, is the belief of the friends,remembering Your description, O Lord, dispels the grief of the grieving.The cash in hand of the servants is the treasure-house of Your bounty, so the hopeful keep on sewing the purse of hope.��O David, if those who turn away from Me knew how I wait for them and how I yearn to put aside their acts of disobedience, they would die in yearning for Me and would cut off all their ties be- cause of love for Me. O David, this is what I desire for those who turn away from Me. How then is My desire for those who turn toward Me?!�O David! I give blessings, and they show gratitude to others. I fend off trial, and they seethat from others. Their shelter is My Presence, and they take shelter in others. All right, let them go, let them flee, and they will return at last.�You also have brightness from Me-you'll keep wandering, then you'll come to Me.�O David! I am the friend of him who befriends Me. I am the companion of him who takes Me as companion.

Indeed We sent to nations before thee, and We seized them with misery and hardship that perhaps they would plead.Ibn ʿAṬāÌ said, �'We seized from them all the paths so that they would return to Us.'9 I shut down all the roads to them so that they would turn away totally from the realm of being and busy them- selves with My companionship, putting love for Me in their hearts.�Conforming with this is the story of Majnūn. He was seen circumambulating the Kaabah, out of touch with himself and agitated. The sea of passion was sending up waves in his breast, and his hands were raised in prayer: �'O God, increase me in love for Laylā!' Lord God, increase the passion for Laylā in my heart and multiply the trial of her love a thousand times!�His father, who was the prince of the time, said, �O Majnūn! Many antagonists have risen up against you. Go away for a few days, and perhaps they will forget about you, and this madness for Laylā will become less.�Majnūn went and on the third day came back. He said, �Father, excuse me. Passion for Laylā has closed all the roads to me, and I can only take the road to Laylā's street.�Each has a prayer-niche in some direction,but SanāÌī's prayer-niche is Your street. [DS 1004]