9. At-Tawba

Their Lord gives them good tidings of mercy, [of] the reward for deeds, from Him and [divine] satisfaction, [His] attributes, for them shall be gardens, from among the three Gardens, wherein is bliss, the presential vision of the Essence, that is enduring, fixed forever.

O you who believe, do not take your fathers, to the end of this [verse]: in other words, do not let the aspect of formal kinship and natural connection prevail in you over the aspect of spiritual kinship and real connection such that there would then be bewteen you and those from among your kin who prefer the veil to unveiling a friendship that results from a formal connection [but] with loss of spiritual connection and a difference in aspect which [in itself] necessarily brings about spiritual rupture and true enmity. This is a weakness of faith and feeble resolve: faith is the opposite of that. God, exalted be He, says: but those who believe love God more ardently [Q. 2:165]. A sage [once] said, 'The Truth is beloved to us and [His] creatures are beloved to us. But if the two are at variance, then the Truth is more beloved to us.

Say: 'If, these formal ties of kinship and familiar sensory things, are dearer to you than God and His Messenger, then your faith stands weak and its vestige is not manifest in your souls or upon your limbs so as to comply with His judgements, and that is because you have halted with the vestiges of the human realm, [a halting] which would necessarily result in chastisement and veiling; then wait until God brings about His, chastisement. How can it be otherwise, when you follow the path of [physical] nature and abide by its judgements in place of the wayfaring on the path of the Truth and obeying His command. That is wickedness on your part, and the wicked one is veiled from God. He does not guide him to Him because of his failure to orient himself [towards God] and his lack of will, indeed, because of his refusal and his turning away, for which he deserves chastisement, being forsaken, veiling and privation.

God has already helped you in many homesteads, and on the Day of Hunain, when you admired your own multitude. Self-admiration is the ghoul of the road. It is the blight of the religion, the cause of the disappear- ance of blessings, the key to separation, and the basis of heedlessness. Self-admiration is that you consider your own obedience important, you consider yourself the source of your service, and you look upon your service with the eye of approval. By the decree of the reports and the fatwa of prophethood, the obedience of such a person will never go any further than his own head. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, I am trying to avoid two claims, and from each I ask the help of Your bounty: fancying that I have something of my own, and fancying that I have a right- ful due against You. “O God, I have risen up from where I was, but I have not yet reached where I want to go. “O God, anyone who has not yet been killed by selflessness is a corpse. When someone's por- tion of friendship is talk, he has been defrauded. When someone's religion is not the road of spirit and heart, what business has he with the Friend?” MuṣṬafā said, “If you did not sin, I would be afraid that you would have something worse than sin: self-admiration! self-admiration!” He also said, “What a bad servant! A servant who imagines, becomes conceited, and forgets the Great, the Transcendent. What a bad servant! A servant who dominates, transgresses, and for- gets the All-Compelling, the Highest. What a bad servant! A servant who is negligent, inattentive, and forgets the tomb and disintegration. What a bad servant! A servant who is worried, oversteps, and forgets the beginning and the end.”