Five Assemblies

Praise to God who made existence out of nothing, so that upon its pages the lights of the ancient mysteries shone forth. Thanks to the God who created being out of nothing, then revealed upon that nothing the lights of the ancient mysteries. He has forever been in His eternity, honored in His majesty, sufficient in His perfection, needing neither servants nor attendants. He is the refuge of every wanderer, the remedy of the helpless, the beloved of every grieving heart, the forgiver of every penitent. His manifestation dazzles the minds, His presence bewitches the hearts; His light is the light of every eye, and hearts stay wakeful with what He has marked upon them. His pain and sorrow are the guests of the heart, His gentle name is the soul of the heart; the heart is His and He is the heart's, so if you are a lover, step forward. Toward His loved ones flow all the kinds of His gracious favor; how bitter the drink of His trial, tempered by the rites of His all encompassing generosity. Call him no beggar, though he has neither breakfast nor supper, and though his heart finds no rest, His love is inscribed upon his soul. Knowledge of Him fully satisfies reason; nothing goes astray in His oneness. Glory be to Him, glory be to Him; every wish falls short, He surpasses all nations. You are higher than anything I could say, better than anything I could want, greater than anything I could know, O soul of all souls, without doubt. Praise of the Chosen Prophet: when the mark of purity had faded, our qualities are guided by him, for by his right guidance he opens the common paths. O strength of hearts, so he said; the seal of guidance rests in his hand; my heart's name is paired with his, the pride of the Arabs, the light of the non Arabs. God's blessing be upon him as long as the lamps of the sky shine; indeed he added goodness, as if by him the best of nations came alive. Reason is at home in his street, the heart bids farewell toward him; souls are sacrificed to his face, for he is exalted, he is revered. It is reported of that leader of the ranks of truth, that commander of the army of the mystic path, that jewel in the ring of glory, that essence of perfection, that one clothed in the satin of 'By the morning brightness,' bound with the silk of 'By the night when it grows still,' and cloaked with 'Your Lord will surely give you, and you will be satisfied,' the bearer of good tidings and 'The hereafter is better for you than the first life,' the master without whose blessed footstep the road of faith would never have been cleansed of the dust of unbelief: 'This day I have perfected your religion for you'; the lord without whose awesome hand the moon's robe would never have split: 'The hour drew near and the moon was cleft asunder.' Hear more than this: Adam the chosen received his robe of purity from him; Idris took his high station through instruction from him; the spirit full of triumph entered the mold of Noah honored by him; upon the head of Hud he drew the cloak of ascent; around the waist of Abraham he tied the belt of the sword of friendship; in the name of Ishmael he wrote the decree of command; upon the finger of Solomon he set the ring of kingship; upon the feet of Moses he placed the sandals of nearness; and upon the head of Jesus he laid the turban of elevation. This lord, this best of all, this master and this leader, a hint of whose praise you have now heard, says this: 'Whoever passes forty years and his good does not overcome his evil, let him prepare for the Fire.' That is, whoever, in this house of decay and goods of delusion that you call the world, reaches the age of forty and whose good does not prevail over his evil, whose obedience does not outweigh his sin, tell him to gather his belongings and take the road to Hell. What a grave warning and mighty threat for the sinners of Ahmad's people, who have sold their precious lives for a grain of the forbidden, burned their harvest in the fire of sin, and come to the Resurrection empty handed. As proof of this saying let me give an example and draw a precious pearl from the sea of the mind. Have you seen the candle they light in a basin, cherishing its love in their hearts, a company gathered around it and the guests of the gathering delighted by it, each one bound in service to it while it sits atop the dish like a king? Then suddenly the true dawn breaks, and you see that very company lean in and cut its neck with knife and blade. Ask them: how strange! All night you served it; what happened that today you cast it aside? That same company will say: the candle was so dear to us that it burned itself and kindled light for our sake; but now that the true dawn has set the crown of the horizon on its head and cast its rays over the world, the candle has no worth left, and we have no bond with it. So, my dear one, do not take this saying as mere figure. The mastery of the world is like that lit candle, and the company gathered around it are its family, children, servants, and dependents. Each in some way rushes to serve it and speaks according to its wishes. Then suddenly the true dawn of death breaks and the fierce wind of mortality blows; you see the master caught in the grip of the angel of death, falling from the throne of desire onto the plank of defeat. When they carry him to the graveyard, children and family, slave and free, all at once turn away from him. Ask them why they turned their faces from the master all at once, and they will say: the master was so dear to us because, like the candle, he burned himself in the basin of the world, hoarding coin by coin from the lawful and unlawful, casting his precious life into ruin, building up wealth and property for our sake. Now the harsh autumn wind of sorrows has torn the root of his life from the soil of living, and the master's hand can no longer reach for gain and business, so what bond have we with him and what use has he for us? They tell that in a garden a nightingale had built its nest on the branch of a tree. By chance a frail ant had made its home beneath that tree and arranged a dwelling for its few short days. Night and day the nightingale flew about the rose garden and tuned the lute of enchanting song, while the ant busied itself gathering through night and day. The thousand voiced bird grew vain with its own singing in the garden. The nightingale whispered secret hints to the rose, and the morning breeze flirted between them. When the frail ant watched the coyness of the rose and the pleading of the nightingale, it said in the language of its state: what does all this chatter accomplish? The truth will show at another time. When spring departed and autumn arrived, the thorn took the rose's place and the crow settled where the nightingale had sung. The autumn wind began to blow and the leaves began to fall from the tree. The face of the leaves turned yellow and the breath of the air grew cold. From the ash of the clouds pearls poured down, and from the sieve of the air camphor sifted. Suddenly the nightingale came to the garden and found no color of rose nor scent of hyacinth. Its tongue fell silent with the thousand voiced bird, no rose whose beauty it might see, no green whose perfection it might behold. From having nothing its strength gave out, and from want it fell mute. Stranded, it remembered: was there not once an ant beneath this tree that had a house and gathered grain? Today I will take my need to its door and, by the nearness of dwelling and the right of neighborhood, ask for something. Ten days hungry, the nightingale went begging to the ant. It said: O dear one, generosity is the sign of good fortune and the capital of success. I spent my precious life in heedlessness while you were clever and stored up provisions; what harm if today you grant me a share of that kindness? The ant said: night and day you were in words while I was in deeds; you were busy a moment with the freshness of the rose and a breath vain with gazing at spring, not knowing that every spring has an autumn and every road an end. O beloved ones, hear the tale of the nightingale and apply its whole meaning to your own condition. Know that every life is followed by a death, and every union has a parting behind it. The pure wine of life is not without dregs, the satin of survival is not without the coarse cloth of extinction. If you set foot on the path of obedience, read 'The righteous are indeed in bliss,' for that is your reward; and if you drag your baggage into the street of sin, read 'The wicked are indeed in Hell,' for that is your due. In the spring of the world do not be heedless like the nightingale, and in the field of the world strive to plant obedience, for 'The world is the tilth of the hereafter,' so that when the icy blast of death arrives you may enter the hole of the grave like the ant, carrying the grains of good deeds. You have been given work; do not be idle, so that on those days when the falcon of 'When the great event befalls' takes flight and spreads the wings of 'No one can deny its coming' and beats the drum of the Calamity, when brains boil from the blaze of the Resurrection's sun and hearts cry out from the terror of the trumpet's blast, you may be excused, and not bite the back of your hand with the teeth of bewilderment in regret that such a day lay ahead of you. Strive, in this ten day respite, to earn a store and lay up provision, for the Day of Resurrection is a day when the creatures of the earth and the angels of the sky stand bewildered and lost in thought, the prophets trembling, the saints afraid, and even the nearest and the present ones seeking help. If on the Day of Gathering He speaks with wrath, what place is there for the prophets to plead? Tell Him to lift the veil from the face of grace, for the wretched still hope for forgiveness. If today you take provision from the field of the world, tomorrow you will arrive at the everlasting paradise. Only that one carries off the prize of fortune from the world who takes a share of it with him to the world beyond.

God the Exalted says: O you who believe, be mindful of God. You who confessed the oneness of the High and Glorious Lord, be pious. He first affirmed faith, then commanded piety, so you would know that the bride of faith, however beautiful, has no perfection without the ornament of piety. It is reported from the Master of the world, peace be upon him, that he said: I heard from God the Mighty, 'Whoever bears witness that I am one and that you are My messenger enters Paradise with whatever deeds he has.' With all the honor the word of faith holds, it still leans upon piety. Surely God invites the believing servant to the station of the saints: whoever speaks the word of faith enters the circle of belief, but whoever walks the path of piety most often reaches the saints. Sainthood has two sides: faith and piety. We hold one, faith, the foundation; let us for the rest of our lives practice piety, that we may not be denied the company of God's saints. Lord, as You have granted the robe of faith, grant also the adornment of piety. Be mindful of God, and let each soul consider what it has sent ahead for tomorrow. He said it twice; the repetition carries wisdom, for a saying repeated becomes fixed, yet its brevity is more eloquent than any other could be. Piety is of two kinds: that of the righteous, born of thinking on the Day of Resurrection, and that of the mystics, born of a present shame before the Lord. When some ugly act is made to seem fair, the righteous picture the reckoning: the blessed crowned with honor, the wretched bowed under shame. So they fear disgrace and keep their hands from sin. Picture yourself standing before God among the crowd on the Day of Mutual Loss, and wake, you who are warned. O Forgiver of sins, are you content for yourself to lie in captivity's chains while brothers rest on couches? On the day of gathering you will see beggars seated on the throne of the kingdom like kings, so radiant with the glory of their worship you would think they were suns and moons. But you, how will you lift your head from shame, with the load of your sins upon your shoulders? If you know you have done wrong and gone astray, come and ask forgiveness before the punishment falls. That was the piety of the righteous. The piety of the mystics is this: if a corner of their mind turns toward the forbidden, they do not merely fear the torment; they feel shame before God, who watches and knows, for ugly deeds are unfitting in the sight of the great. One of the great ones, suffering from knee pain, was told to stretch his leg since he was alone. He said, 'I am not alone, for God is present, and I am ashamed to breach good manners before my Lord.' So, righteous ones, be mindful of God and see what you have sent for the coming Day; and mystics, keep your garment from the dust of stumbling, for God is present and sees. An Abyssinian servant came to the Prophet and said, 'I have committed an indecency; is there repentance for me?' He said, 'There is, and He accepts repentance from His servants.' The man repented and left, then returned and asked, 'Was God seeing me in that state?' The Prophet said, 'Be still, why would He not see? He knows the treachery of the eyes and what the breasts conceal.' Hearing this, the man wept and let the tears of regret pour down, drew one breath from his grieving chest, and gave up his soul to God. The righteous fear the enemy might one day laugh at their ruin, while the mystic feels shame before the Beloved even now; for the Resurrection is far off, yet the Lord is nearer than the jugular vein. Win the Beloved's approval and let the others go; what does a thousand uproars matter if they raise them? Since I have made peace with You, who are all my desire, it is fine if the whole world rises against me in war. Come, let us enjoy life together as we're used to, even if the critic's life is not so sweet. Once we are content and at peace with each other, let people approve one moment and find fault the next. O you who believe, be mindful of God. God commands piety, and the sign of love is obedience. You who claim to love God, practice piety as He commanded; otherwise you have made a claim without proof, and I fear it will not stand. I fear you will not reach the Kaaba, O Bedouin, for this road you are taking leads to Turkestan. Defiance is the trait of enemies, not accepted from friends. Do not be like those who forgot God, so He made them forget themselves; the door of knowing God was shut against them, for whoever knows himself knows his Lord. Knowing oneself is the ladder to knowing God. So devote yourself to service and obedience, for by the light of worship the hearts of believers grow luminous, and by that light come many unseen unveilings. The Prophet says: Whoever devotes himself sincerely to God for forty mornings, the springs of wisdom will flow from his heart onto his tongue. So know the worth of your precious moments and do not waste them, for abandoning obedience brings darkness, and in a darkened mirror nothing can be seen. Sadi, there is no veil; only keep your mirror clean. How can a rust-eaten mirror show the Beloved's beauty? Do not be like those who forgot God, so He made them forget themselves; those who would not bow to counsel, nor heed the scholars, nor obey God and His Messenger. What reward did they see? Their insight was sewn shut; they forgot the very making of their own being and remained in bewilderment, unable to grasp the verse: 'We created man from an extract of clay, then a drop, then a clot, then a lump, then bones clothed with flesh, then brought him forth as another creation. So blessed be God, the best of creators.' This is the knowledge of knowing oneself. He said, 'Travel through the earth and see how He began creation'; the realized ones say this means travel through the earth of your own being, for a moment's journey through your own existence is nobler than measuring the whole world on foot. Though He said, 'We will show them Our signs in the horizons,' He also says, 'and within yourselves; do you not see?' For years we roamed with our soul in pursuit of our goal; the Beloved was at home, and we wandered the world around. The pavilion of His majesty was beyond all place, yet in seeking Him we circled through space and place. Never having seen Joseph's face, we described it; when it came before us we lost our mind and speech. Like the nightingale we cried out all night, until the sun showed its face and we hid away like bats. Let us return to the first point: do not be like those who forgot God, so He made them forget themselves. The unbeliever grieves nothing over neglecting worship, for he lacks the root of belief; without the root, what use is the branch? But you who believe, do not permit shortcoming in worship, lest you be marked with a trait of the strangers, which would look worse coming from you. If the enemy does wrong, that is simply his way; but you, do no wrong, for you are the beloved and the friend. Do not be like those who forgot God; those are the transgressors. They went out and are strangers, stamped with estrangement, while for you the proof of intimacy is established, for it is by opposites that things are made clear. The unbelievers are outside the circle of awakening; obedience and sin make no difference to them. But you, in the sanctuary of safety, guard your honor, for with such nobility you do not resemble the others. The companions of the Fire and of the Garden are not equal. How is lasting bliss like a painful torment? Their groaning, 'Call upon your Lord to lighten our torment for one day,' bears no likeness to those the angels greet from every gate, 'Peace be upon you for your patience; how excellent is the final home.' O God, make us among Your righteous servants and Your noble intimates, the guides who are guided, and settle us in the enclosure of Your holiness among the prophets and messengers to whom You said, 'they shall have no fear, nor shall they grieve.' And seal our lives with the guardianship of Muhammad, peace be upon him, the seal of the prophets and messenger of the Lord of the worlds.

The Messenger of God (peace be upon him) said: Whoever wakes with a single concern, God suffices him against all the cares of this world and the next; but whoever is scattered among many concerns, God does not care in which valley he perishes. The chief of the world and lord of Adam's children (peace be upon him) says this: whoever rises in the morning from his bed of sleep, and in his heart there is the care of faith, and in his breast the sorrow of Islam, and in his soul the love of the Most High, then God, in His generosity and grace, sends His eternal favor to be his everlasting sufficiency. But whoever has some other passion in his heart, or some other grief lodged in his breast, God sends the armies of His wrath to raid his very being, and with the sword of His majesty's power He strikes off the head of his rebellion, and no one has the right to ask why this, or how that. At the threshold of Your glory all creatures are humbled; no one may ask why this, or how that. You who have hoarded love for every unworthy stranger inside you, how long will this scattering last? You who have sold your heart in a thousand markets of others' love, how long will this turmoil go on? You brought your heart to my market and sold it; once sold to me, do not sell it in another market. You who do not keep our words on your tongue, how long this silence? You who never remember your friend, how long this forgetting? You who set up a market with everyone, how long this disgrace? You who make yourself agreeable to all, how long this unevenness? You who find a place among all the worthless, how long this humiliation? Whoever makes forgetting us his trade, and does not melt soul, body, and heart in the fire of our love, then We too, in Our justice, proclaim throughout the realm of dominion and the unseen: 'They forgot God, so He forgot them; truly the hypocrites are the corrupt.' And We make them part of Satan's army: 'Satan overcame them and made them forget the remembrance of God; those are the party of Satan.' This is the mark of strangers and the brand of the banished. Come, let us tell the sign of the intimate and speak of true men. You who at dawn lift your head from the pillow and drink the draught of our love, may it be sweet to you. You who each night roast your heart on the fire of our love and turn your liver to blood from longing for us, blessed be you. You whose body burns in our pain and whose soul is kindled by our love, may this burning increase in you. Noble one, never imagine that love of this world and longing for the next can go together. This world and the hereafter are two rival wives: when you please one, you anger the other. You can have this world or the next; you can have desire or you can have God. But whoever wants both this world and the hereafter, that comes to nothing, for the friendship of the Beloved is a sovereignty that shares with no one; on the road of love, either you fit or I do. Kindle a fire from His love, then burn the world in that fire, then the hereafter. Once you have burned world and hereafter, burn yourself, for on His road, just as world and hereafter are obstacles, your own being is an obstacle too. As long as the burden of your existence remains, the sovereign of His presence stays hidden behind the veil of His majesty. Love came charging upon Moses (peace be upon him). He climbed the mountain, stood firm with the step of sincerity, and said, 'Show me.' The answer came: O Moses, you still hold on to your own self, adding it to yourself when you say 'Show me.' This matter cannot bear the burden of your existence; either you can be, or We can, 'You will never see Me.' The sovereign of Our presence cast a shadow over his being, so that he became nothing and hid himself in the concealment of non-existence; only then did We reveal Ourself. With Moses, leave the self behind, and turn to Us; see Us, for whoever sees Us sees only by Us. They asked the Commander of the Faithful, Ali (may God be pleased with him): How did you know your Lord? He said: I knew my Lord through my Lord. I knew Him by Him, and knew that had I not known Him through Him, I would never have found the way to the pavilions of His glory and knowledge. Beware the insight of the believer, for he sees by the light of God. The peacock of the knowers, Bayazid Bastami (may God sanctify his soul), one night in the private chamber of revelations flung the lasso of longing over the battlement of God's grandeur, kindled the fire of love in his being, opened his tongue in helplessness and weakness, and said: O Lord, when will I reach You? My God, how long shall I burn in the fire of Your separation? When will You give me the draught of union? A voice came within him: Bayazid, you are still your own 'you'; your self travels with you. If you wish to reach Us, leave your self at the door and come in. How glorious the chief of the world and the best of Adam's children, that you alone can say, 'Were Moses alive, he would have no choice but to follow me.' Moses and all others must learn love-making from you, for he says 'Show me' and is told 'You are still your own you; your self travels with you.' When fortune's turn reaches you, who are the master of all beings and the lord of all creation, you say: 'As for me, I do not say I.' I will never say 'I,' for in the presence of the Beloved nothing suits us but nothingness; since existence is His, nothing but non-being can unpack its baggage for us. 'Have you not seen your Lord?' I do not know what tenderness the very first letter of 'Have you not seen' holds within itself, nor what flirtations it plays with the souls of lovers. Noble one, which lover has the right to command the Beloved? If the Beloved, out of generosity, lays a hand of grace on someone's head, that is another matter, but the lover is dismissed from all initiative, and if he presumes to act, that act is unacceptable. When Muhammad, the Messenger of God (peace be upon him), walked the road with perfect courtesy and saw his own unworthiness, he knew that the ornament and adornment fitting him was this: 'The eye did not swerve, nor did it transgress.' Since 'the eye did not swerve' was his trait, they said to him, 'Have you not seen your Lord?' But when Moses passed judgment upon the Eternal and Everlasting, a right that was not his, they branded the mark of deprivation on the brow of his desire, forged a nail from 'You will never see Me,' and drove it into the pupils of his longing, so that his eye might learn courtesy. Noble one, the Beloved is all glory, majesty, and grandeur, and the lover is all submission, humility, and lowliness. The lover keeps saying: 'Show me, that I may look upon You.' The Beloved proclaims throughout the realm of dominion and the unseen: 'You will never see Me.' And the fallen ones of love's desert cry out: 'O mighty one, hardship has touched us and our people, and we have come with meager goods, so give us full measure and be charitable to us; truly God rewards the charitable.'

In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate: the name of the Lord without whose will the morning breeze cannot open the veil of a rose, nor stir the flowing hair of the boxtree. Without His command no emerald bud becomes a red gem, without His craft no tulip is jeweled with dew. It is the name of a King who, with the hands of the breeze as His workers, has shaped the cypress upright and, beneath the curls of the branch, adorned the face of the rose. It is the name of the Majestic One, without whose will no angel flies and no sphere turns, without whose command no root moves and no gnat circles. May every eye that does not gaze on the beauty of that name be sewn shut; may every heart that does not settle in the love of this name be burned; may every foot that does not walk the road of agreement with the Truth be hobbled by the sword of separation. Yahya ibn Muadh of Rey, may God sanctify his soul, used to say: My God, I made the whole world into a field and my heart into a ball within it, and I struck it with the mallet of trial, and it found no rest except with Your name; and I made the whole hereafter into a field and my heart into a ball within it, and I struck it in every direction, and it found no rest except with the sight of You. Then he said: My King, of all the world Your name is enough for me, and of all the hereafter Your beauty is enough. My life and my whole world, come from the realm of the name into the realm of the message. If you have the strength to be martyred by the sword of Our glory, say 'God' and give up your life so you may be blessed, and recite: Know that the life of this world is only play, distraction, and adornment. What does the Lord of earth and heaven say? O My servants, know! Lord, what should we know? 'The life of this world is only play, distraction, and adornment.' Truly the life of this world is play, and play is the work of children; adornment and decoration are the work of women; 'and boasting among you and rivalry in wealth and children,' and boasting to one another over abundance of wealth and offspring, this is the work of strangers. Lord, what is the likeness of the life of this world? 'Like a rain whose growth pleases the farmers.' It is a rain that falls on the earth and makes green grass grow that stays fresh a few days and amazes the people; 'then it withers and you see it turn yellow,' then in a short while it dries and yellows; 'then it becomes chaff,' then it turns to dust and none of that greenness and freshness remains. 'And in the hereafter there is severe punishment, and forgiveness from God, and His good pleasure.' In the hereafter there are two states and two dwellings: hell for the wretched and paradise for the fortunate. 'And the life of this world is nothing but the goods of delusion,' and the life of this world is nothing but something people take advantage of and are deceived and beguiled by. My soul, come to the heart of the verse: 'Know that the life of this world is only play, distraction, and adornment.' The King of the world exposes the flaw of the world and shows its worthlessness to the people, so that the believer will not give his heart to it nor busy himself seeking it, and so may deserve paradise and forgiveness. Noble one, do not bind your heart to the world, for the world has no permanence; do not bind your heart to people, for people have no loyalty; bind your heart to God, for the servant has nothing better than God. 'Do you perceive a single one of them, or hear the faintest sound from them?' Noble one, the world had many lovers like you and stayed loyal to none; it will not stay loyal to you either. No human has lived as long as the sage Luqman: his life was three thousand years. When his life reached its end and the Angel of Death came, he found him sitting in a reed bed weaving a basket. The Angel of Death said, Luqman, you wove three thousand years of life; why did you never build a house? He said, Azrael, a fool is the one who has someone like you on his trail and yet bothers to build a house. The world is only a fading shadow, or a guest who lodges one day and then departs. Or it is a dream a sleeper has seen, and when the night is over it comes to nothing. Noah, peace be upon him, lived a thousand two hundred years. They asked him: O longest-lived of the prophets, how did you find the world? He said: Like a house with two doors, I entered by the first and went out by the other. I found this world like a house with two doors: I came in through one and left through the other. One day Ibrahim ibn Adham, may God illumine his grave, was sitting at the gate of his palace with his servants lined up in ranks. Suddenly a dervish came in with a patched cloak, a sack, and a staff, meaning to enter Ibn Adham's palace. The servants said, Old man, where are you going? He said, I am going into this inn. They said, This is the palace of the king of Balkh. He said, It is a caravanserai. Ibrahim ordered them to bring him in. He said, Dervish, this is my palace, not an inn. The man said, Ibrahim, whose was this palace before you? He said, My grandfather's. He said, When he died? He said, It went to my father. He said, When he died, whose did it become? He said, Mine. He said, When you die, whose will it become? He said, My son's. He said, Ibrahim, a place where one goes in and another comes out is an inn, not a home. Noble one, Abdullah ibn Umar relates: one day I was doing some building work with my father on the roof of our house. The Chosen One, may God bless him and grant him peace, passed by us and said, Abdullah, tell your father that the Resurrection is nearer than you think, and yet you are busy building a house. My dear one, love of the world is a firm snare, the world's bounty is a carcass that looks bright and sweet, Satan is a master hunter, and the lover of the world is a blind, heedless bird. If this heedless bird keeps its claws and beak from this snare of temptation, frees its heart from this dread bait of desire, and slips its neck out of that master hunter's noose, from the depths of the Throne a call will come: 'As for those who are made happy, they are in paradise, abiding there forever.' But if, God forbid, the thorn of these deceitful goods catches the hem of his cloak, and the sweetness of this devil's carcass, this napkin of Pharaoh and Haman, reaches his throat, and his foot slips on the road of dealing in God's oneness, let him beware of being among the people of whom it is said: 'As for those who are made wretched, they are in the Fire, where for them is sighing and groaning.' Noble one, you have the bride of faith, but you have no ornament of practice. You have the tree of God's oneness, but you have no fruit of obedience. You have the ring of confession, but you have no gemstone of service. Did you not know that a bride without ornaments deserves to be abandoned, a tree without fruit deserves to be cut down, a ring without a stone deserves to be melted, and a servant without meaning deserves to be burned? Beware: do not dismiss the pass of death, do not raise your head in the collar of safety and calm, for many a ship sinks within sight of the shore, and many a caravan is robbed at its very destination. You wretched, helpless one, what kind of faith is it that you sell for a false coin? What kind of Islam that you surrender for the tipping of a scale? What kind of knowledge that for a headache you fling a stone at the sky? What kind of trust in God that for a single morsel you do not believe in Him? What kind of religion that you scatter to the wind for the praise of a tyrant or for an unlawful coin? You who have made an idol of every particle of your being, do not fault the idol worshippers, do not blame the fire tenders. If they worship idols, you worship the dinar and the dirham. My dear one, the matter comes to one of two things: either they have tailored for you the robe of union or the garment of separation, either they have branded your brow with the mark of abandonment or set on your head the crown of acceptance. If from the unseen your portion is the vest of union, do not rest from giving thanks. Noble one, what will you do with a house whose beginning is frailty, whose middle is lowness, and whose end is nothingness? A house bounded on one side by annihilation, on the second by decay, and on the third by ruin? As I have heard, the Master, may God bless him and grant him peace, went to visit Fatima. He found her asleep on a reed mat, with a pillow made of palm fiber and sheepskin, and a length of coarse camel wool about a cubit long thrown over her head in place of a veil. Fatima complained to the Master, peace be upon him, of the severity of her poverty. The Master of the world said, both hinting and openly, O soul of your father, 'when the trumpet is blown, there will be no kinship between them.' Do not rely on the fact that I am the Prophet's daughter, and Haydar's wife, and the mother of Shabbir and Shabbar. By the honor of that God from whom come command and prohibition, contracting and expanding, tomorrow in the fields of Judgment you will not be permitted to move one step from another until you have answered for this coarse wool. Mahran Maymun says: once, during his caliphate, I went to greet Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz. I found him sitting on the bare ground, with no cushion, no bedding, no couch, and no carpet, a patched cloak in his hands, which he was mending. Three times I gave the greeting, and he was so absorbed that he was unaware of it. The fourth time I greeted him, he answered and said: Maymun, know that my end has drawn near, the ship of my life has reached the place of drowning, the mount of departure has been brought to my door, and the fruit of strength and ease has fallen from the tree of my life. I have no act of obedience fit for the gathering of Judgment except a good opinion of God's grace and mercy. Maymun, hear three counsels from me, engrave them with the pen of need on the tablet of your soul, and keep them ever before your heart, for in them lie salvation, honor, and dignity. Do not fall short in prayer, for the one who does not pray has no worth in either world; do not go along with any tyrant in any matter, for helping tyrants brings nothing but punishment; and hold God so firmly to His promise that you set your resolve on lawful sustenance. Noble one, if you are a believer, make obedience your habit, for paradise is a lush garden; shun sin, for hell is a hot prison; and surrender your heart and soul to the Truth, for He is the Generous, the Glorious. If you are a lover, make your heart the target of affliction; if you are a knower, make your soul a shield against hardship and fate; if you are a servant, be content with whatever He does, and in all matters place your trust in God. Set the crown of need on your head, take the honey of witness on your tongue, put the sugar of thanks in your mouth, tie the belt of nobility around your waist, wear the shirt of pain, kindle the spark of longing in your breast, drown the shine and freshness of your life in the water of having nothing. In His presence always be turned upside down. Strip off the shirt of misfortune, tear open the vest of cruelty, cast malice, envy, and hatred into the sea of counsel, give away all you have at once so you become stripped bare, sweep out with the broom of poverty whatever hypocrisy and self-conceit is in your breast, and set fire entirely to lordship, arrogance, robe and turban and mantle, image and dwelling. When you have become like this, We who are the Lord will line your eyes with the kohl of felicity through devotion, and open in you the sight of insight. As He, the Exalted, said: 'So We have removed from you your covering, and your sight today is sharp.'

My King, keep us safe from every sin, and grant us the grace of obedience and worship. God of all worlds, your forgiveness, our Lord, and to you is the return. Dear one, the people of the world are two groups: some are busy remembering God, and some are busy with themselves. The one absorbed in God is a stranger to the crowd, and the one absorbed in himself never turns to God. Whatever is inside you is a veil, whether it is your own ego, or your possessions and family. Until you wash your hands of it all, you will never walk the dust around God's threshold. A man came to Bayazid of Bastam, the sultan of the knowers of God, and said: Master, I have spent my whole life searching for God. I made the pilgrimage on foot many times, cut the heads of the faith's enemies in holy war, endured countless struggles, and swallowed my heart's blood again and again, yet I reach nothing. The more I search, the less I find. Can you tell me when I will arrive at what I seek? The Sheikh said: Young man, here there are two steps. The first step is the creation, the second is God. Take one step away from the creation and you have reached God. As long as you are caught up in what shall I eat that pleases my throat, and what shall I say that pleases people about me, no word of God will come from you. Young man, every trade you do with people brings you loss; do your trading with God and you will gain everything. God the Exalted says: helpless servant, I will trade with you for a single drop and a single stirring. Bring one drop from your head and one stir from your heart, and take away the treasure of happiness from our majestic presence. The drop that comes from your head is called a tear, the stir that comes from your heart is called regret. Let a tear fill your eye for not having recognized God, and let regret fill your heart for having disobeyed. From the wet tear and the burning regret, your heart turns to repentance, repentance turns to intention, intention turns to resolve, resolve reaches the presence, and from the presence comes the call of mercy. The heart says: I have repented; the head says: I am filled with sorrow; the King says: I have shown mercy. Young man, there are two fires: the fire of livelihood and the fire of sin. The fire of livelihood is quenched by the water of the sky; the fire of sin is quenched by the water of the eyes. And the fire of sin can also be put out with two things, earth and water: with the earth of the forehead and the water of remorse. The earth of the forehead is in prostration, and the water of remorse is weeping from the fear of the loving Lord. Young man, any eye that does not weep from the fear of God is a debt weighing on its owner, and any heart that does not seek union with God is a ruin. That old sage said: How sad that people pass through this world and never taste the sweetest thing of all. They asked: What is that thing? He said: A single grain of sincerity, of which God says: worship God, keeping your faith pure for him alone. If the poor servant had tasted even one grain of sincerity, he would care nothing for the two worlds, for gain or objection. Young man, the mark of acceptance is stamped only on the obedience that has sincerity beside it. They asked Bishr the Barefoot: What is sincerity? He said: Sincerity is bankruptcy. Sincerity is destitution, helplessness, weakness, and being at a loss. My dear one, if you do not have the rosy cheeks of the beloved, then bring the pale face of the lover. If you do not have the beauty of Joseph, then bring the grief of Jacob. If you do not have the humility of the obedient, then bring the cry of the helpless. The Prophet, peace be upon him, says: no sound is dearer to God than the sound of a suffering servant. No voice is more beloved at God's threshold than the voice of a sinful servant who moans from the depth of his helplessness, destitution, and bankruptcy and says: Lord, I have done wrong and wronged myself. From the majestic presence the call comes: My servant, imagine you never did it; call on me and I will answer you. Whatever you want, want it from me; leave your affairs to me, for I am God. It is I who am beyond questioning, matchless in kingship, faithful to my promises, answering every prayer, hearing every praise, worthy of all praise. A hundred thousand households were laid to ruin in the search for me; a hundred thousand precious bodies melted away seeking me; a hundred thousand holy souls were left wandering in the desert of longing for me; a hundred thousand travelers to my glorious threshold beat their heads under the stone of struggle; a hundred thousand seekers of my majestic presence burned in the crucibles of self-discipline. The Throne asks the Footstool: Do you have any news? The Footstool asks the Throne: Do you have any command? When those on earth pray, they turn their faces to the sky, imagining the sky holds a cure for their heartache. When those in the sky ask for a need, they turn their faces to earth, imagining earth holds a remedy for their sickness. Every day when the sun sets, the angels set over it say: Sun, did you shine today on anyone who had news of him? The sun says: If only I knew who that one was, I would make the very heaven the dust of his footsteps. Yes, young man, what has dust to do with the Lord of lords? What link does water and clay have with the pure Essence? What bond does the transient have with the Eternal? What connection does the unjust and ignorant have with the All Holy? What a strange thing: the devout say in prayer, Lord, do not cut me off from you. You of low aspiration, when was I ever joined that I could be cut off? When was I ever cut off that I could be joined? When was there hope of union, that there should be fear of separation? Neither joining nor parting, neither nearness nor distance, neither safety nor despair; no place to speak, no place to be silent; no way to arrive, no path to return; no thought of patience, no idea of crying out; no place for imagination to land, no time for understanding to reach. In the hands of the scholars, nothing but talk; among the jurists, nothing but searching. If you go to the Kaaba, nothing but a stone; if you enter the mosque, nothing but a wall. If you look at the earth, nothing but affliction; if you look at the sky, nothing but bewilderment. In minds, nothing but bile; in heads, nothing but madness. From the light of day, nothing but fire; from the darkness of night, nothing but terror. From the faith of the believers, nothing but adornment; from the heresy of the heretics, nothing but defilement. No profit from Moses who spoke with God, no loss from Pharaoh who made his false claim. If you come, come, for there is no doorkeeper; if you leave, leave, for there is no guard. Ibrahim Khawwas, the sultan of the true seekers, God's mercy on him, always told his disciples: I wish I were the dust under the feet of that veiled woman. They said: Master, you keep mentioning and praising her, yet you never tell us her story. He said: One day my heart was filled with joy. I set foot in the desert and walked in ecstasy until I reached the land of the unbelievers. I saw a palace with three hundred heads hanging from its battlements, and I was astonished. I asked what this was and whose palace it was. They said: It belongs to a king who has a daughter who has gone mad, and these are the heads of the physicians who failed to cure her. Into the depth of my heart passed the thought of attempting to heal that girl. When I stepped into the palace, they took me before the king, and when I sat, he treated me with great honor and generosity. Then he said: Young man, what do you need here? I said: I heard you have a mad daughter, and I have come to treat her. He said: Look at the battlements of the palace. I said: I looked, then I came in. He said: These are the heads of those who claimed to be physicians and failed to cure her. Know that if you cannot cure her, your head too will hang here. Then he ordered them to take me to the girl. When I stepped into her room, the girl told her servant: Bring the veil so I may cover myself. The servant said: My lady, so many male physicians have come and you never covered yourself from any of them; why do you cover yourself from this one? She said: Those were not men. A real man is the one who has just entered. I said: Peace be upon you. She said: And upon you, son of Khawwas. I said: How did you know I am the son of Khawwas? She said: The one who guided you to me inspired me so that I recognized you. Do you not know that the believer is the mirror of the believer? When a mirror is free of rust, every image appears in it. Son of Khawwas, I have a heart full of pain; do you have any medicine that could bring my heart peace? This verse passed over my tongue: those who believe, their hearts find peace in the remembrance of God. When she heard this verse she sighed and fainted. When she came back to her senses I said: Girl, rise so I may take you to the land of Islam. She said: Master, what is in the land of Islam that is not here? I said: There is the honored and glorious Kaaba. She said: Simple hearted one, if you saw the Kaaba, would you recognize it? I said: Yes. She said: Look above my head. I looked, and I saw the Kaaba circling around the girl's head. She said to me: Pure hearted one, do you not even know this much, that whoever goes to the Kaaba on foot circles the Kaaba, but whoever goes to the Kaaba with the heart, the Kaaba circles around him? Wherever you turn, there is the face of God. Young man, from you to God is a single step. Shall I tell you what to do, or not? Forget yourself and, through his grace, embrace him, for whoever draws near to me by a span, I draw near to him by a cubit, and whoever draws near to me by a cubit, I draw near to him by an arm's length. His care has brought you to himself, because within you a jewel is hidden, and this is what is meant by: I breathed into him of my spirit. It is like this: they shot an arrow at a bird. The bird looked back and said to the arrow, in the tongue of its state: How did you reach me? The arrow said: Something of yours was placed within me that made me reach you. It was you yourself who brought us to you, for you set this hidden thing in our nature. I knew my Lord through my Lord, and were it not for my Lord I would not have known my Lord. It is he who has made himself known to you and given you the key to the house of knowing. The Master of the celestial kingdom, peace be upon him, says: whoever knows himself has known his Lord. Whenever you know yourself, you know God. Your own self is the key by which you know him, and this knowing varies. If you know yourself through helplessness, you know him through power; if you know yourself through weakness, you know him through strength. This is one way, open to everyone. The other way is to know that in your body there is a soul present everywhere, and everywhere the Creator of the world is present. But just as the soul cannot be pinned down, if you say it is in the hand or foot or head, it is everywhere and its place is not fixed, so too God is present everywhere, yet he cannot be located. They have not measured God with the measure due to him. Young man, the God fearing and the sincere pass through the stations of the path and leave them behind, but the knowers of God settle at no station; rather their station is the circle of bewilderment. However far they go forward, they remain where they are. The merchant's camel travels night and day and covers real distance, but the oil presser's ox is also moving night and day, eyes blindfolded, going round and round the same wheel, thinking to itself: how many stations have I crossed? At night, when they lift the cover from its eyes, it looks and finds itself in the very same step where it began. If you say I have known him, they will say: how have you known one to whom no how applies? And if you say I have known him through my own existence, they will say: how can what does not truly exist know the One who truly is? Being unable to grasp is itself the grasping. How can the small eye of the moth ever behold the sun? May a hundred thousand holy souls be sacrificed for the dust on the sandals of that dervish. Listen to what he himself says. Do not step into the field of the true men, for there the blood is flowing. After Junayd died, God's mercy on him, someone saw him in a dream and asked: What did God do with you? He said: The forms of worship blew away, the subtle signs vanished, and nothing benefited me except two units of prayer in the heart of the night. All those acts of worship were scattered to the wind and did me no good, except two cycles of prayer I offered in the dark of night. Young man, strive so that when the terror of the Angel of Death casts its shadow over you, you have the escort of obedience with you, at the moment when eyes weep and hearts burn, when Satan sets his greed on your faith and aims the spear of death's wrath at your chest. There, if the scent of the Friend and of harmony comes, you will hear this glad tidings: do not fear and do not grieve. But if, God forbid, the scent of hypocrisy and enmity comes, they will brand your forehead with despair: no glad tidings that day for the guilty, and they will say, a forbidden barrier. How many have worn the robe of friendship while their names are written in the register of the enemies, and they do not know it. And how many have worn the garment of the enemies while their names are recorded in the roll of the friends, and they are unaware. They tell that among the Children of Israel there was a worshipper named Barsisa, who had withdrawn from the world for forty years, turned away from his own ego and from worldly things, and sown the seed of divine knowledge in his heart. If he gazed at the sky he saw all the way to the Throne, and if he looked at the earth he beheld the back of the great fish that bears it. He had such virtues and merits that the tongue fell short of describing them, and such praises and beauties that the mind and understanding could not contain them. Each year several thousand of the sick, the afflicted, and the maimed gathered toward his hermitage: some clothed in leprosy, some born blind from their mothers, others afflicted with wasting sickness, jaundice, and dropsy. They all came and sat around his hermitage. When the disk of the sun rose and planted its banners of light in the world, Barsisa would climb to the roof of his hermitage and breathe a single breath over those sufferers, and at once they were freed from their ailments. What a strange thing: outwardly so many doors of the treasuries of grace were open to him, yet inwardly the arrow of severance was set in the bow of separation. Outwardly he was lovely to the eyes of the people, but inwardly he was wounded by the sword of separation. Alas, outwardly plated with silver, inwardly stripped of all reality. That poor man imagined he was somebody, that he came from somewhere and was worthy of the Friend's presence. He did not know that from the Tablet and the Pen a call was coming: We do not want you. During this time Satan had hidden the chain of temptation in his hermitage, hoping to hang a single thorn of disgrace on his skirt, and each day Satan grew more agitated with envy and rage, while the tree of Barsisa's obedience grew ever more adorned with all kinds of good deeds. Then a sickness appeared in the daughter of the king of that age, one the physicians were unable to cure. The girl had three brothers, each a king of a region. On one night all three dreamed that they should present their sister's illness to Barsisa. The next day they told one another their dreams and found them in agreement, nothing more, nothing less. All three rose, took their beautiful sister, and brought her to Barsisa's hermitage. Barsisa was at prayer, and when he finished, the brothers described the illness, the physicians' failure, and the coincidence of their dreams. Barsisa said: My prayer has a certain time when it meets the seal of acceptance. When that time comes, I will not withhold my prayer. The brothers entrusted their sister to Barsisa and went out to wander in the wilderness. Satan found the place empty and said: Now is the time to drown the soul and the years long safety of this worshipper in the waves of the sea of lust. He breathed a wind into the woman's mind until she fainted. The worshipper's eye fell on her beauty, and Satan placed the fire of temptation in his mind and let his heart slip until he followed his desire, obeyed Satan's whisper, and committed adultery. Then Satan came in through the door in the form of an old man and asked what had happened. Barsisa told him. Satan said: Take heart, for if a mistake was made, mistakes are permitted for the children of Adam; God is generous and the door of repentance is open. But the way to handle this is to keep it hidden from her brothers so they never know. Barsisa said: Impossible, how can I smear mud over the sun, or hide broad daylight from a wise man? Satan said: It is easy. Kill her and bury her in the ground. When the brothers come, your answer will be: I was at prayer and she left the hermitage. So Barsisa killed the girl, carried her out of the hermitage, and buried her under the earth. After a while the brothers came in with their retinue and troops, like enraged lions, thinking the ascetic had prayed and their sister had been healed. When they did not see her, they searched. He said what Satan had taught him. They trusted the ascetic's word and went out to look for their sister. Then Satan came before them on the road in the form of an old woman, a staff in her hand and a band tied around her forehead. When they saw her, they asked: Have you seen a woman of such description? She said: Are you perhaps looking for the king's daughter? They said: Yes. She said: The ascetic committed adultery with her, killed her, and buried her under the earth. She led them to the grave. They dug and found their sister killed and soaked in blood. They cleaned the corpse, put chains around Barsisa's neck, and headed for the city. An outcry rose from the people of the city that such a thing had happened. They set up a gallows and hanged Barsisa on it. The people who had once carried off the water of his ablutions as a blessing and rubbed the dust of his feet in their eyes like kohl now came, each with a lap full of stones, and stoned him. Suddenly Satan appeared before him in the form of a radiant old man and said: Barsisa, I am the god of the earth, and the one you served all these years is the god of the sky. This was your reward for so many years of service, that he sent you to the gallows. Prostrate to me just once and I will save you. So he made a sign of prostration with his head. From the seven heavens a call came: Send his soul to hell, throw his body to the dogs, and divide the brains of his head among the birds of the air. So they carried out this call, and their end was that they abide in the fire forever. Young man, this is a secret hidden from the servants, and no one has news of it. The prophet David, peace be upon him, said: My God, reveal your secret to me, for I am greatly afraid and bewildered. He kept saying this and weeping until daybreak. A call came: David, even if you weep so much that you split solid rock into pieces, I will not tell you this secret. David, do not ask to know my secret in this world; I will make it clear to you at death. He said: Lord, how will you reveal this secret at death? The call came: My whole secret with the servant is two words, and both are no: either I say do not fear, or I say no glad tidings. Either a voice rises from the right, take heart, or a voice rises from the left, lose all hope. At the moment of death, no color remains on anyone's face from the dread of these two words of no. When the soul reaches the chest, the face turns pale and the heart fills with pain, and one begins to look right and left to see from which side the voice will come. Salvation and damnation appear in that final breath. Often the wretched become blessed, and the blessed become wretched. God erases what he wills and confirms, and with him is the Mother of the Book. The ledger is with me: I write and I erase. I inform no one, and I consult no one.