The Fourth Assembly

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.'