6. Al-An'aam

They measured not God with the rightful due of His measure.... Say “God,” then leave them to play in their plunging. In other words, they did not recognize Him with the rightful due of His recognition, they did not describe Him with the rightful due of His description, and they did not venerate Him with the right- ful due of His veneration. No one has recognized Him as is worthy of Him. No one has known Him as is worthy of Him. They encompass nothing of His knowledge [2:255]. You have been given no knowledge save a little [17:85]. Majestic is the Unity, so how can there be finding? Holy is the Self-Sufficient, so how can there be arrival? He is known, but encompassing Him in knowledge is absurd; He is seen, but perceiving His attribute is impossible; He is recognized, but having an overview of His descrip- tion is not correct. He took away His attribute and measure so that no one exalted would reach His exaltation, no understanding would perceive His extent, no knower would know His measure. What familiarity has water and dust with Him who always was and always will be? What affinity has eternity with new arrival? How can the subsistent Real join with the trace of what undergoes annihilation? How can the worthy link up with the unworthy? How can the prisoner of variegation reach the guise of stability? If others were of any use in His gentle presence, the passionate for His beauty would have a hope for union. It would be possible to search, were there a way to seek; He would be known in the end, were there a way to ask. Say “God,” then leave them. This is an eloquent allusion to the reality of solitariness, the center point of togetherness, making the aspiration one-pointed, recognizing the Real as one, and turning away from others toward Him. Say “God,” then leave them: Keep the heart turned toward Him and leave aside the others. What does someone seized by His love have to do with others? In this work, this world and the next are like a wall, and, for the recognizer, talking about the two is noth- ing but defect and shame. Shiblī said to one of his companions, “Stick to God, leave everything else, and be with Him. And say, “God,' then leave them to play in their plunging.”

Surely God is the splitter apart of the grain and the date-stone. He splits open the seeds of food so that plants will come out and be suited for nourishment. In the same way He splits open the seed of the heart so that the jewel of self-purification, within which is the servant's deliverance, will show its face. The former becomes the cause of the abidance of the servant's soul, and the latter the cause of the firm fixity of the servant's faith. He Himself nurtures both and provides daily provision to both. He nurtures the heart with witnessing Him, and He nur- tures the soul with His blessings. Then He makes the soul the steed of the heart. It rides upon it in the playing field of worship and makes it pass over the way stations of the acts of worship, arriving at the goal of Surely the final end is unto your Lord [53:42]. This is the day of triumph, endless felicity, and boundless good fortune, risen up gratis for the servant-the fragrant herb of boasting sprung from the thorn of poverty, and the dawn of happiness risen from the horizon of freedom.

Splitter apart of the dawn; and He has made the night as a stillness. If He brightens the regions of the world with the morning of being, what wonder is it that He should brighten the secret regions of the heart with the morning of recognition! One of the pirs of the Tariqah said, “Splitter apart of the dawn means that He splits open the hearts with the explanation of the lights of unseen things and He illuminates the secret cores with the remembrance of the good things and the repose of the reports.”

He it is who has configured you from one soul. By way of allusion He is saying, “I created you from Adam, that unique soul, and among all the created things, I gave no one else the good fortune I gave to him and the rank and level I appointed for him.” He called Himself, “the most beautiful of creators” [23:14], and He said of Adam, “in the most beautiful stature” [95:4]. In other words, God is the most beautiful of creators, and Adam is the most beautiful of creatures. “O Adam, in creativity, I am the unique, and among the creatures you are the unique.” This is the same that is brought in one of the reports concerning the attribute of Adam's creation: The Exalted Lord said, “I loved something, so I created it solitary for the Solitary.”

And He it is who sent down out of heaven water, by which We bring forth the growth of everything.... Gaze at their fruits when they fructify and ripen. Surely in these are signs for a people who have faith. He alludes to the Essence of the Unity, who alludes to the attributes of the Lordhood, sent down alludes to the artisanry of the Divinity. He is a Lord who is existent by Essence, described by at- tributes, and recognized through artifacts and signs. It has also been said that He alludes to what is beyond being, so that the listener will give ear to it, the seeker will find access to it, and the gazer will look to it. Who alludes to being, so that the listener will become familiar, the seeker will come to see, and the wanter will come to know. He it is comes in the Qur'an thirty-nine times, twenty with and, and nineteen without. Sent down out of heaven water until the end of the verse-all these are marks that the Creator is one and has no peer in Godhood. He is without contrivance in power, without changing of state in self-standingness, secure from cease in kingship, transcendent in Essence and description. The Lord of the Worlds is calling the servants to this tawḤīd. Do you not see that at the end of the verse He says “Gaze”? Look carefully so that you may know, and know so that you may perceive! Here He speaks of gazing. Elsewhere He says, “None will remember but those who are penitent” [40:13]: No one will gaze, accept, and recognize the reminder except the one whose heart is right with the Real and who gazes upon Him before his eyes. This is the allusion at the end of the verse: “Surely in that are signs for a people who have faith.” The ones who find access to the signs of power are those who have faith in the signs of the attributes, the ones who have shame before God are those who are aware of His gaze, and the ones who will fear God are those who know that God is powerful over them.

(Yet they ascribe as partners unto Him the jinn�) [6:100]. Al-Kalbi said: �This verse was revealed about the atheists who claimed that Allah and Satan were two brothers; that Allah was the creator of human beings, beasts and cattle whereas Satan was the creator of vipers, predatory animals and scorpions. Hence Allah�s saying (Yet they ascribe as partners unto Him the jinn)�.