IN THE NAME OF GOD,

THE MERCIFUL, THE COMPASSIONATE

And from Him do we seek help.
All praise be to God, the Sustainer of All the Worlds,
and blessings and peace be upon our master Muhammad,
and on all his Family and Companions.
[Brother! You wanted a few words of advice from me, so listen to a few truths included in
eight short stories, which since you are a soldier, are in the form of comparisons of a
military nature. I consider my own soul to need advice more than anyone, and at one time I
addressed my soul at some length with Eight Words inspired by eight verses of the Qur’an
from which I had benefited. Now I shall address my soul with these same Words, but briefly
and in the language of ordinary people. Whoever wishes may listen together with me.]

The First Word

Bismillah, “In the Name of God,” is the start of all things good. We too shall start with it.
Know, O my soul! Just as this blessed phrase is a mark of Islam, so too it is constantly recited
by all beings through their tongues of disposition. If you want to know what an inexhaustible
strength, what an unending source of bounty is Bismillah, listen to the following story which
is in the form of a comparison. It goes like this:
Someone who makes a journey through the deserts of Arabia has to travel in the name of a
tribal chief and enter under his protection, for in this way he may be saved from the assaults
of bandits and secure his needs. On his own he will perish in the face of
innumerable enemies and needs. And so, two men went on such a journey
and entered the desert. One of them was modest and humble, the other
proud and conceited. The humble man assumed the name of a tribal chief,
while the proud man did not. The first travelled safely wherever he went. If
he encountered bandits, he said: “I am travelling in the name of such-and-
such tribal leader,” and they did not molest him. If he came to some tents,
he was treated respectfully due to the name. But the proud man suffered
indescribable calamities throughout his journey. He both trembled before
everything and begged from everything. He was abased and became an
object of scorn.
My proud soul! You are the traveller, and this world is a desert. Your
impotence and poverty have no lim it, and your enemies and needs are
endless. Since it is thus, take the name of the Pre-Eternal Ruler and Post-
Eternal Lord of the desert and be saved from begging before the whole
universe and trembling before every event.
Yes, this phrase is a treasury so blessed that your infinite impotence and
poverty bind you to an infinite power and mercy; it makes your impotence
and poverty a most acceptable intercessor at the Court of One All-Powerful
and Compassionate. The person who acts saying, “In the Name of God,”
resembles someone who enrolls in the army. He acts in the name of the
government; he has fear of no one; he speaks, performs every matter, and
withstands everything in the name of the law and the name of the
government.
At the beginning we said that all beings say “In the Name of God” through
the tongue of disposition. Is that so?
Indeed, it is so. If you were to see that a single person had come and had
driven all the inhabitants of a town to a place by force and compelled
them to work, you would be certain that he had not acted in his own name
and through his own power, but was a soldier, acting in the name of the
government and relying on the power of the king.
In the same way, all things act in the name of Almighty God, for minute
things like seeds and grains bear huge trees on their heads; they raise
loads like mountains. That means all trees say: “In the Name of God,” fill
their hands from the treasury of mercy, and offer them to us. All gardens
say: “In the Name of God,” and become cauldrons from the kitchens of
Divine power in which are cooked numerous varieties of different foods. All
blessed animals like cows, camels, sheep, and goats, say: “In the Name of
God,” and produce springs of milk from the abundance of mercy, offering
us a most delicate and pure food like the water of life in the name of the
Provider. The roots and rootlets, soft as silk, of plants, trees, and grasses
say: “In the Name of God,” and pierce and pass through hard rock and
earth.
Mentioning the name of God, the name of the Most Merciful, everything
becomes subjected to them. The roots spreading through hard rock and
earth and producing fruits as easily as the branches spread through the air
and produce fruits, and the delicate green leaves retaining their moisture
for months in the face of extreme heat, deal a slap in the mouths of
Naturalists and jab a finger in their blind eyes, saying: “Even heat and
hardness, in which you most trust, are under a command. For like the Staff
of Moses, each of those silken rootlets conform to the command of, And
We said, O Moses, strike the rock with your staff,1 and split the rock. And
the delicate leaves fine as cigarette paper recite the verse, O fire be
coolness and peace2 against the heat of the fire, each like the members of
Abraham (UWP).
Since all things say: “In the Name of God,” and bearing God’s bounties in
God’s name, give them to us, we too should say: “In the Name of God.” We
should give in the name of God, and take in the name of God. And we
should not take from heedless people who neglect to give in God’s name.
Question: We give a price to people, who are like tray-bearers. So what
price does God want, Who is the true owner?
The Answer: Yes, the price the True Bestower of Bounties wants in return
for those valuable bounties and goods is three things: one is
remembrance, another is thanks, and the other is reflection. Saying,
“In the Name of God” at the start is remembrance, and, “All praise be to
God” at the end is thanks. And perceiving and thinking of those bounties,
which are priceless wonders of art, being miracles of power of the Unique
and Eternally Besought One and gifts of His mercy, is reflection. However
foolish it is to kiss the foot of a lowly man who conveys to you the precious
gift of a king and not to recognize the gift’s owner, it is a thousand times
more foolish to praise and love the apparent source of bounties and forget
the True Bestower of Bounties.
O my soul! If you do not wish to be foolish in that way, give in God’s name,
take in God’s name, begin in God’s name, and act in God’s name. And
that’s the matter in a nutshell!
____________________
1. Qur’an, 2:60.
2. Qur’an, 21:69.

The Second Word

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
Those who believe in the Unseen.1
If you want to understand what great happiness and bounty, what great
pleasure and ease are to be found in belief in God, listen to this story
which is in the form of a comparison:
One time, two men went on a journey for both pleasure and business. One
set off in a selfish, inauspicious direction, and the other on a godly,
propitious way.
Since the selfish man was both conceited, self-centred, and pessimistic, he
ended up in what seemed to him to be a most wicked country due to his
pessimism. He looked around and everywhere saw the powerless and the
unfortunate lamenting in the grasp of fearsome bullying tyrants, weeping
at their destruction. He saw the same grievous, painful situation in all the
places he travelled. The whole country took on the form of a house of
mourning. Apart from becoming drunk, he could find no way of not
noticing this grievous and sombre situation. For everyone seemed to him
to be an enemy and foreign. And all around he saw horrible corpses and
despairing, weeping orphans. His conscience was in a state of torment.
The other man was godly, devout, fair-minded, and with fine morals so
that the country he came to was most excellent in his view. This good man
saw universal rejoicing in the land he had entered. Everywhere was a
joyful festival, a place for the remembrance of God overflowing with
rapture and happiness; everyone seemed to him a friend and relation.
Throughout the country he saw the festive celebrations of a general
discharge from duties accompanied by cries of good wishes and thanks.
He also heard the sound of a drum and band for the enlistment of soldiers
with happy calls of “God is Most Great!” and “There is no god but God!”
Rather than being grieved at the suffering of both himself and all the
people like the first miserable man, this fortunate man was pleased and
happy at both his own joy and that of all the inhabitants. Furthermore, he
was able to do some profitable trade. He offered thanks to God.
____________________
1. Qur’an, 2:3.

After some while he returned and came across the other man. He
understood his condition, and said to him: “You were out of your mind. The
ugliness within you must have been reflected on the outer world so that
you imagined laughter to be weeping, and the discharge from duties to be
sack and pillage. Come to your senses and purify your heart so that this
calamitous veil is raised from your eyes and you can see the truth. For the
country of an utterly just, compassionate, beneficent, powerful, order-
loving, and kind king could not be as you imagined, nor could a country
which demonstrated this number of clear signs of progress and
achievement.” The unhappy man later came to his senses and repented.
He said, “Yes, I was crazy through drink. May God be pleased with you, you
have saved me from a hellish state.”
O my soul! Know that the first man represents an unbeliever, or someone
depraved and heedless. In his view the world is a house of universal
mourning. All living creature are orphans weeping at the blows of death
and separation. Man and the animals are alone and without ties being
ripped apart by the talons of the appointed hour. Mighty beings like the
mountains and oceans are like horrendous, lifeless corpses. Many
grievous, crushing, terrifying delusions like these arise from his unbelief
and misguidance, and torment him.
As for the other man, he is a believer. He recognizes and affirms Almighty
God. In his view this world is an abode where the Names of the All-Merciful
One are constantly recited, a place of instruction for man and the animals,
and a field of examination for man and jinn. All animal and human deaths
are a demobilization. Those who have completed their duties of life depart
from this transient world for another, happy and trouble-free, world so that
place may be made for new officials to come and work. The birth of
animals and humans marks their enlistment into the army, their being
taken under arms, and the start of their duties. Each living being is a joyful
regular soldier, an honest, contented official. And all voices are either
glorification of God and the recitation of His Names at the outset of their
duties, and the thanks and rejoicing at their ceasing work, or the songs
arising from their joy at working. In the view of the believer, all beings are
the friendly servants, amicable officials, and agreeable books of his Most
Generous Lord and All-Compassionate Owner. Very many more subtle,
exalted, pleasurable, and sweet truths like these become manifest and
appear from his belief.
That is to say, belief in God bears the seed of what is in effect a Tuba-Tree
of Paradise, while unbelief conceals the seed of a Zakkum-Tree of Hell.
That means that salvation and security are only to be found in Islam and
belief. In which case, we should continually say, “Praise be to God for the
religion of Islam and perfect belief.”
 The Third Word
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
O you people, worship...1
If you want to understand what great profit and happiness lie in worship,
and what great loss and ruin lie in vice and dissipation listen to and take
heed of the following story which is in the form of a comparison:
One time, two soldiers received orders to proceed to a distant city. They
set off and travelled together until the road forked. At the fork was a man
who said to them, “The road on the right causes no loss at all, and nine
out of ten of those who take it receive a high profit and experience great
ease. While the road on the left provides no advantages, and nine out of
ten of its travellers make a loss. But they are the same as regards
distance. Only there is one difference: those who take the left-hand road,
which has no rules and no one in authority, travel without baggage and
arms. They feel an apparent lightness and deceptive ease. Whereas those
travelling on the right-hand road, which is under military order, are
compelled to carry a kit-bag full of nutritious rations four okkas or so in
weight and a superb army rifle of about two kiyyes2 which will overpower
and rout every enemy...”
After the two soldiers had listened to what this instructive man had to say,
the fortunate one took the road to the right. He loaded the weight of one
batman onto his back, but his heart and spirit were saved from thousands
of batmans of fear and feeling obliged to others. As for the other, luckless,
soldier, he left the army. He did not want to conform to the order, and he
went off to the left. He was released from bearing a load of one batman,
but his heart was constricted by thousands of batmans of indebtedness,
and his spirit crushed by innumerable fears. He proceeded on his way both
begging from everyone and trembling before every object and every event
until he reached his destination. And there he was punished as a mutineer
and a deserter.
____________________
1. Qur’an, 2:21.
2. 1 okka = approx. 2.8 lbs. or 1,300 grams. Kiyye, another name for okka. 1 batman = 2
- 8 okkas or 5 - 30 lbs. [Tr.]

As for the soldier who loved the order of the army, had guarded his kit-bag
and rifle, and taken the right-hand road, he had gone on his way being
obliged to no one, fearing no one, and with an easy heart and conscience
until he reached the city he was seeking. There he received a reward
worthy of an honourable soldier who had carried out his duty faithfully.
O rebellious soul, know that one of those two travellers represents those
who submit to the Divine Law, while the other represents the rebellious
and those who follow their own desires. The road is the road of life, which
comes from the Spirit World, passes through the grave, and carries on to
the hereafter. As for the kit-bag and rifle, they are worship and fear of God.
There is an apparent burden in worship, but there is an ease and lightness
in its meaning that defies description. For in the prescribed prayers the
worshipper declares, “I bear witness that there is no god but God.” That is
to say, he finds the door of a treasury of mercy in everything because he is
believing and saying, “There is no Creator and Provider other than Him.
Harm and benefit are in His hand. He is both All-Wise; He does nothing in
vain, and He is All-Compassionate; His bounty and mercy are abundant.”
And he knocks on the door with his supplication. Moreover, he sees that
everything is subjugated to the command of his own Sustainer, so he
takes refuge in Him. He places his trust in Him and relies on Him, and is
fortified against every disaster; his belief gives him complete confidence.
Indeed, like with every true virtue, the source of courage is belief in God,
and worship. And as with every iniquity, the source of cowardice is
misguidance.
In fact, for a worshipper with a truly illuminated heart, it is possible that
even if the globe of the earth became a bomb and exploded, it would not
frighten him. He would watch it with pleasurable wonder as a marvel of
the Eternally Besought One’s power. But when a famous degenerate
philosopher with a so-called enlightened mind but no heart saw a comet in
the sky, he trembled on the ground, and exclaimed anxiously: “Isn’t that
comet going to hit the earth?” (On one occasion, America was quaking
with fear at such a comet, and many people left their homes in the middle
of the night.)
Yes, although man is in need of numberless things, his capital is as
nothing, and although he is subject to endless calamities, his power too is
as nothing. Simply, his capital and power extend only as far as his hand
can reach. However, his hopes, desires, pains, and tribulations reach as far
as the eye and the imagination can stretch. Anyone who is not totally blind
can see and understand then what a great profit, happiness, and bounty
for the human spirit, which is thus impotent and weak, and needy and
wanting, are worship, affirmation of God’s unity, and reliance on God and
submission to Him.

It is obvious that a safe way is preferable to a harmful way, even if the

possibility of its safety is only one in ten. But on the way of worship, which
our matter here, there is a nine out of ten possibility of it leading to the
treasury of eternal happiness, as well as its being safe. While it is
established by the testimony -which is at the degree of consensus- of
innumerable experts and witnesses that besides being without benefit,
and the dissolute even confess to this, the way of vice and dissipation
ends in eternal misery. According to the reports of those who have
uncovered the mysteries of creation this is absolutely certain.
In Short: Like that of the hereafter, happiness in this world too lies in
worship and being a soldier for Almighty God. In which case, we should
constantly say: “Praise be to God for obedience to him and success,” and
we should thank Him that we are Muslims...

The Fourth Word

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
The prescribed prayers are the pillar of religion.1
If you want to understand with the certainty that two plus two equals four
just how valuable and important are the prescribed prayers, and with what
little expense they are gained, and how crazy and harmful is the person
who neglects them, pay attention to the following story which is in the
form of a comparison:
One time, a mighty ruler gave each of two of his servants twenty-four gold
pieces and sent them to settle on one of his rich, royal farms two months’
distance away. “Use this money for your tickets,” he commanded them,
“and buy whatever is necessary for your house there with it. There is a
station one day’s distance from the farm. And there is both road-transport,
and a railway, and boats, and aeroplanes. They can be benefited from
according to your capital.”
The two servants set off after receiving these instructions. One of them
was fortunate so that he spent a small amount of money on the way to the
station. And included in that expense was some business so profitable and
pleasing to his master that his capital increased a thousandfold. As for the
other servant, since he was luckless and a layabout, he spent twenty-three
pieces of gold on the way to the station, wasting it on gambling and
amusements. A single gold piece remained. His friend said to him: “Spend
this last gold piece on a ticket so that you will not have to walk the long
journey and starve. Moreover, our master is generous; perhaps he will take
pity on you and forgive you your faults, and put you on an aeroplane as
well. Then we shall reach where we are going to live in one day. Otherwise
you will be compelled to walk alone and hungry across a desert which
takes two months to cross.” The most unintelligent person can understand
how foolish, harmful, and senseless he would be if out of obstinacy he did
not spend that single remaining gold piece on a ticket, which is like the key
to a treasury, and instead spent it on vice for passing pleasure. Is that not
so?
____________________
1. TirmidhI, Iman, 8; Ibn Maja, Fitan, 12; Musnad, v, 231; al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak, ii, 76

O you who do not perform the prescribed prayers! And O my own soul,
which does not like to pray! The ruler in the comparison is our Sustainer,
our Creator. Of the two travelling servants, one represents the devout who
perform their prayers with fervour, and the other, the heedless who
neglect their prayers. The twenty-four pieces of gold are life in every
twenty-four-hour day. And the royal domain is Paradise. As for the station,
that is the grave. While the journey is man’s passage to the grave, and on
to the resurrection, and the hereafter. Men cover that long journey to
different degrees according to their actions and the strength of their fear
of God. Some of the truly devout have crossed a thousand-year distance in
a day like lightning. And some have traversed a fifty-thousand-year
distance in a day with the speed of imagination. The Qur’an of Mighty
Stature alludes to this truth with two of its verses.
The ticket in the comparison represents the prescribed prayers. A single
hour a day is sufficient for the five prayers together with taking the
ablutions. So what a loss a person makes who spends twenty-three hours
on this fleeting worldly life, and fails to spend one hour on the long life of
the hereafter; how he wrongs his own self; how unreasonably he behaves.
For would not anyone who considers himself to be reasonable understand
how contrary to reason and wisdom such a person’s conduct is, and how
far from reason he has become, if, thinking it reasonable, he gives half of
his property to a lottery in which one thousand people are participating
and the possibility of winning is one in a thousand, and does not give one
twenty-fourth of it to an eternal treasury where the possibility of winning
has been verified at ninety-nine out of a hundred?
Moreover, the spirit, the heart, and the mind find great ease in prayer. And
it is not trying for the body. Furthermore, with the right intention, all the
other acts of someone who performs the prescribed prayers become like
worship. He can make over the whole capital of his life to the hereafter in
this way. He can make his transient life permanent in one respect...

The Fifth Word

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
Indeed, God is with those who fear Him and those who do good.1
If you want to see what a truly human duty and what a natural,
appropriate result of man’s creation it is to perform the prescribed prayers
and not to commit serious sins, listen to and take heed of the following
comparison:
Once, at a time of general mobilization, two soldiers found themselves
together in a regiment. One was well-trained and conscientious, the other,
a raw recruit and self-centred. The conscientious soldier concentrated on
training and the war, and did not give a thought to rations and provisions,
for he knew that it was the state’s duty to feed and equip him, treat him if
he was ill, and even to put the food in his mouth if the need arose. He
knew that his essential duty was to train and fight. But he would also
attend to some of the rations and equipment as part of his work. He would
boil up the saucepans, wash up the mess-tins, and bring them. If it was
then asked him: “What are you doing?”, he would reply: “I am doing
fatigue duty for the state.” He would not say: “I am working for my living.”
The raw recruit, however, was fond of his stomach and paid no attention to
training and the war. “That is the state’s business. What is it to me?”, he
would say. He thought constantly of his livelihood, and pursuing it would
leave the regiment and go to the market to do shopping. One day his well-
trained friend said to him:
“Your basic duty is training and fighting, brother. You were brought here for
that. Trust in the king; he will not let you go hungry. That is his duty.
Anyway, you are powerless and wanting; you cannot feed yourself
everywhere. And this is a time of mobilization and war; he will tell you that
you are mutinous and will punish you. Yes, there are two duties which
concern us. One is the king’s duty: sometimes we do his fatigue duties and
he feeds us for it. The other is our duty: that is training and fighting, and
sometimes the king helps us with it.”
____________________
1. Qur’an, 16:128.

Of course you will understand in what danger the layabout soldier would
be if he did not pay attention to the striving, well-trained one.
O my lazy soul! That turbulent place of war is this stormy worldly life, and
the army divided into regiments, human society. The regiment in the
comparison is the community of Islam in this century. One of the two
soldiers is a devout Muslim who knows the obligations of his religion and
performs them, and struggles with Satan and his own soul in order to give
up serious misdoings and not to commit sins. While the other is a
degenerate wrongdoer who is so immersed in the struggle for livelihood
that he casts aspersions on the True Provider, abandons his religious
obligations, and commits any sins that come his way as he makes his
living. As for the training and instruction, it is foremost the prescribed
prayers and worship. And the war is the struggle against the soul and its
desires, and against the satans among jinn and men, to deliver them from
sin and bad morals, and save the heart and spirit from eternal perdition.
And the first of the two duties is to give life and sustain it, while the other
is to worship and beseech the Giver and Sustainer of life. It is to trust in
Him and rely on Him.
Indeed, whoever made and bestowed life, which is a most brilliant miracle
of the Eternally Besought One’s art and a wonder of dominical wisdom, is
the one who maintains and perpetuates it through sustenance. It cannot
be another. Do you want proof? The most impotent and stupid animals are
the best nourished; like fish, and worms in fruit. And it is the most helpless
and delicate creatures who have the choicest food; like infants and the
young of all species.
For sure, it is enough to compare fish with foxes, newly born animals with
wild beasts, and trees with animals in order to understand that licit food is
obtained not through power and will, but through impotence and
helplessness. That is to say, someone who gives up performing the
prescribed prayers because of the struggle for livelihood resembles the
soldier who abandoned his training and trench and went and begged in
the market. But to seek ones rations from the kitchens of the All-Generous
Provider’s mercy after performing the prayers, and to go oneself so as not
to be a burden on others is fine and manly. It too is a sort of worship.
Furthermore, man’s nature and spiritual faculties show that he is created
for worship. For in respect of the power and actions necessary for the life
of this world, he cannot compete with the most inferior sparrow. While in
respect of knowledge and need, and worship and supplication, which are
necessary for spiritual life and the life of the hereafter, he is like the
monarch and commander of the animals.
O my soul! If you make the life of this world the aim of your life and work
constantly for that, you will become like the lowest sparrow. But if you
make the life of the hereafter your aim and end, and make this life the
means of it and its tillage, and strive in accordance with it, then you will be
like a lofty commander of the animals, and a petted and suppliant servant
of Almighty God, and His honoured and respected guest.
Those are the two ways open to you! You can choose whichever you wish...
So ask for guidance and success from the Most Compassionate of the
Compassionate...

The Sixth Word

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
Verily God has purchased from the believers their persons and their
property that Paradise might be theirs.1
If you wish to understand how profitable a trade it is, and how honour-able
a rank, to sell one’s person and property to God, to be His slave and His
soldier, then listen to the following comparison.
Once a king entrusted each of two of his subjects with an estate, including
all necessary workshops, machinery, horses, weapons and so forth. But
since it was a tempestuous and war-ridden age, nothing enjoyed stability;
it was destined either to disappear or to change. The king in his infinite
mercy sent a most noble lieutenant to the two men and by means of a
compassionate decree conveyed the following to them:
“Sell me the property you now hold in trust, so that I may keep it for you.
Let it not be destroyed for no purpose. After the wars are over, I will return
it to you in a better condition than before. I will regard the trust as your
property and pay you a high price for it. As for the machinery and the tools
in the workshop, they will be used in my name and at my workbench. But
the price and the fee for their use shall be increased a thousandfold. You
will receive all the profit that accrues. You are indigent and resourceless,
and unable to provide the cost of these great tasks. So let me assume the
provision of all expenses and equipment, and give you all the income and
the profit. You shall keep it until the time of demobilization. So see the five
ways in which you shall profit! Now if you do not sell me the property, you
can see that no one is able to preserve what he possesses, and you too
will lose what you now hold. It will go for nothing, and you will lose the
high price I offer. The delicate and precious tools and scales, the precious
metals waiting to be used, will also lose all value. You will have the trouble
and concern of administering and preserving, but at the same time be
punished for betraying your trust. So see the five ways in which you may
lose! Moreover, if you sell the property to me, you become my soldier and
act in my name. Instead of a common prisoner or irregular soldier, you will
be the free lieutenant of an exalted monarch.”
____________________
1. Qur’an, 9:111.

After they had listened to this gracious decree, the more intelligent of the
two men said:
“By all means, I am proud and happy to sell. I offer thanks a
thousandfold.”
But the other was arrogant, selfish and dissipated; his soul had become as
proud as the Pharaoh. As if he was to stay eternally on that estate, he
ignored the earthquakes and tumults of this world. He said:
“No! Who is the king? I won’t sell my property, nor spoil my enjoyment.”
After a short time, the first man reached so high a rank that everyone
envied his state. He received the favour of the king, and lived happily in
the king’s own palace. The other by contrast fell into such a state that
everyone pitied him, but also said he deserved it. For as a result of his
error, his happiness and property departed, and he suffered punishment
and torment.
O soul full of caprices! Look at the face of truth through the telescope of
this parable. As for the king, he is the Monarch of Pre-Eternity and Post-
Eternity, your Sustainer and Creator. The estates, machinery, tools and
scales are your possessions while in life’s fold; your body, spirit and heart
within those possessions, and your outward and inward senses such as the
eye and the tongue, intelligence and imagination. As for the most noble
lieutenant, it is the Noble Messenger of God; and the most wise decree is
the Wise Qur’an, which describes the trade we are discussing in this verse:
Verily God has purchased from the believers their persons and property
that Paradise might be theirs.
The surging field of battle is the tempestuous surface of the world, which
ceaselessly changes, dissolves and reforms and causes every man to
think:
“Since everything will leave our hands, will perish and be lost, is there no
way in which we can transform it into something eternal and preserve it?”
While engaged in these thoughts, he suddenly hears the heavenly voice of
the Qur’an saying:
“Indeed there is, a beautiful and easy way which contains five profits
within itself.”
What is that way?
To sell the trust received back to its true owner. Such a sale yields profit
fivefold.
The First Profit: Transient property becomes everlasting. For this waning
life, when given to the Eternal and Self-Subsistent Lord of Glory and spent
for His sake, will be transmuted into eternity. It will yield eternal fruits. The
moments of one’s life will apparently vanish and rot like kernels and seeds.
But then the flowers of blessedness and auspiciousness will open and
bloom in the realm of eternity, and each will also present a luminous and
reassuring aspect in the Intermediate Realm.
The Second Profit: The high price of Paradise is given in exchange.

The Third Profit: The value of each limb and each sense is increased a
thousandfold. The intelligence is, for example, like a tool. If you do not sell
it to God Almighty, but rather employ it for the sake of the soul, it will
become an ill-omened, noxious and debilitating tool that will burden your
weak person with all the sad sorrows of the past and the terrifying fears of
the future; it will descend to the rank of an inauspicious and destructive
tool. It is for this reason that a sinful man will frequently resort to
drunkenness or frivolous pleasure in order to escape the vexations and
injuries of his intelligence. But if you sell your intelligence to its True
Owner and employ it on His behalf, then the intelligence will become like
the key to a talisman, unlocking the infinite treasures of compassion and
the vaults of wisdom that creation contains.
To take another example, the eye is one of the senses, a window through
which the spirit looks out on this world. If you do not sell it to God
Almighty, but rather employ it on behalf of the soul, by gazing upon a
handful of transient, impermanent beauties and scenes, it will sink to the
level of being a pander to lust and the concupiscent soul. But if you sell
the eye to your All-Seeing Maker, and employ it on His behalf and within
limits traced out by Him, then your eye will rise to the rank of a reader of
the great book of being, a witness to the miracles of dominical art, a
blessed bee sucking on the blossoms of mercy in the garden of this globe.
Yet another example is that of the tongue and the sense of taste. If you do
not sell it to your Wise Creator, but employ it instead on behalf of the soul
and for the sake of the stomach, it sinks and declines to the level of a
gatekeeper at the stable of the stomach, a watchman at its factory. But if
you sell it to the Generous Provider, the the sense of taste contained in the
tongue will rise to the rank of a skilled overseer of the treasuries of Divine
compassion, a grateful inspector in the kitchens of God’s eternal power.
So look well, O intelligence! See the difference between a tool of
destruction and the key to all being! And look carefully, O eye! See the
difference between an abominable pander and the learned overseer of the
Divine library! And taste well, O tongue! See the difference between a
stable doorkeeper or a factory watchman and the superintendent of the
treasury of God’s mercy!
Compare all other tools and limbs to these, and then you will understand
that in truth the believer acquires a nature worthy of Paradise and the
unbeliever a nature conforming to Hell. The reason for each of them
attaining his respective value is that the believer, by virtue of his faith,
uses the trust of his Creator on His behalf and within the limits traced out
by Him, whereas the unbeliever betrays the trust and employs it for the
sake of the instinctual soul.
The Fourth Profit: Man is helpless and exposed to numerous
misfortunes. He is indigent, and his needs are numerous. He is weak, and
the burden of life is most heavy. If he does not rely on the Omnipotent One
of Glory, place his trust in Him and confidently submit to Him, his
conscience will always be troubled. Fruitless torments, pains and regrets
will suffocate him and intoxicate him, or turn him into a beast.
The Fifth Profit: Those who have experienced illumination and had
unveiled to them the true nature of things, the elect who have witnessed
the truth, are all agreed that the exalted reward for all the worship and
glorification of God performed by your members and instruments will be
given to you at the time of greatest need, in the form of the fruits of
Paradise.
If you spurn this trade with its fivefold profit, in addition to being deprived
of its profit, you will suffer fivefold loss.
The First Loss: The property and offspring to which you are so attached,
the soul and its caprice that you worship, the youth and life with which you
are infatuated, all will vanish and be lost; your hands will be empty. But
they will leave behind them sin and pain, fastened on your neck like a
yoke.
The Second Loss: You will suffer the penalty for betrayal of trust. For you
will have wronged your own self by using the most precious tools on the
most worthless objects.
The Third Loss: By casting down all the precious faculties of man to a
level much inferior to the animals, you will have insulted and transgressed
against God’s wisdom.
The Fourth Loss: In your weakness and poverty, you will have placed the
heavy burden of life on your weak shoulders, and will constantly groan and
lament beneath the blows of transience and separation.
The Fifth Loss: You will have clothed in an ugly form, fit to open the
gates of Hell in front of you, the fair gifts of the Compassionate One such
as the intelligence, the heart, the eye and the tongue, given to you to
make preparation for the foundations of everlasting life and eternal
happiness in the hereafter.
Now is it so difficult to sell the trust? Is it so burdensome that many people
shun the transaction? By no means! It is not in the least burdensome. For
the limits of the permissible are broad, and are quite adequate for man’s
desire; there is no need to trespass on the forbidden. The duties imposed
by God are light and few in number. To be the slave and soldier of God is
an indescribably pleasurable honour. One’s duty is simply to act and
embark on all things in God’s name, like a soldier; to take and to give on
God’s behalf; to move and be still in accordance with His permission and
law. If one falls short, then one should seek His forgiveness, say:
“O Lord! Forgive our faults, and accept us as Your slaves. Make us sure
holders of Your trust until the time comes when it is taken from us.
Amen!”, and make petition unto Him.

The Seventh Word

If you want to understand what valuable, difficulty-resolving talismans are
the two parts of the phrase I believe in God and the Last Day, which solve
both the enigmatical riddle of creation and open the door of happiness for
the human spirit, and what beneficial and curative medicines are reliance
on your Creator and taking refuge in Him through patience and entreaty,
and supplicating your Provider through thanks, and what important,
precious, shining tickets for the journey to eternity -and provisions for the
hereafter and lights for the grave- are listening to the Qur’an, obeying its
commands, performing the prescribed prayers, and giving up serious sins,
then listen and pay attention to this comparison:
One time a soldier fell into a most grave situation in the field of battle and
examination, and the round of profit and loss. It was as follows:
The soldier was wounded with two deep and terrible wounds on his right
and left sides and behind him stood a huge lion as though waiting to
attack him. Before him stood a gallows which was putting to death and
annihilating all those he loved. It was awaiting him too. Besides this, he
had a long journey before him: he was being exiled. As the unfortunate
soldier pondered over his fearsome plight in despair, a kindly person
shining with light like Khidr appeared. He said to him: “Do not despair. I
shall give you two talismans and teach you them. If you use them
properly, the lion will become a docile horse for you, and the gallows will
turn into a swing for your pleasure and enjoyment. Also I shall give you
two medicines. If you follow the instructions, those two suppurating
wounds will be transformed into two sweet-scented flowers called the Rose
of Muhammad (PBUH). Also, I shall give you a ticket; with it, you will be
able to make a year’s journey in a day as though flying. If you do not
believe me, experiment a bit, so that you can see it is true.” The soldier
did experiment a bit, and affirmed that it was true. Yes, I, that is, this
unfortunate Said, affirm it too. For I experimented and saw it was
absolutely true.
Some time later he saw a sly, debauched-looking man, cunning as the
Devil, coming from the left bringing with him much ornamented finery,
decorated pictures and fantasies, and many intoxicants. He stopped
before the soldier, and said: “Hey, come on, my friend! Let’s go and drink
and make merry. We can look at these pictures of beautiful girls, listen to
the music, and eat this tasty food.” Then he asked him: “What is it you are
reciting under your breath?”
“A talisman,” came the reply.
“Stop that incomprehensible nonsense! Let’s not spoil our present fun!”
And he asked a second question: “What is that you have in your hand?”
“Some medicine,” the soldier replied.
“Throw it away! You are healthy, there is nothing wrong with you. It is the
time of cheer.” And he asked: “What is that piece of paper with five marks
on it?”
“It is a ticket and a rations card.”
“Oh, tear them up!”, the man said. “What need do we have of a journey
this beautiful spring?” He tried to persuade him with every sort of wile,
and the poor soldier was even a bit persuaded. Yes, man can be deceived.
I was deceived by just such cunning deceptions.
Suddenly from the right came a voice like thunder. “Beware!”, it said. “Do
not be deceived! Say to that trickster: ‘If you have the means to kill the
lion behind me, remove the gallows from before me, repulse the things
wounding my right and my left, and prevent the journey in front of me,
then come on and do so! Show that you can and let us see it! Then say,
come on, let’s go and enjoy ourselves. Otherwise be silent!’ Speak in the
same way as that Khidr-like God-inspired man.”
O my soul, which laughed in its youth and now weeps at its laughter! Know
that the unfortunate soldier is you, and man. The lion is the appointed
hour. As for the gallows, it is death, decline, and separation, through
which, in the alternation of night and day, all friends bid farewell and are
lost. Of the two wounds, one is man’s infinite and troublesome impotence,
while the other is his grievous and boundless poverty. The exile and
journey is the long journey of examination which passes from the world of
spirits through the womb and childhood to old age; through the world and
the grave and the intermediate realm, to the resurrection and the Bridge
of Sirat. As for the two talismans, they are belief in Almighty God and the
hereafter.
Yes, through the second sacred talisman, death takes on the form of a
mastered horse, a steed to take believing man from the prison of this
world to the gardens of Paradise and the presence of the Most Merciful
One. It is because of this that the wise who have seen death’s reality have
loved it. They have wanted it before it came. And through the talisman of
belief in God, the passage of time, which is decline and separation, death
and decease and the gallows, takes on the form of the means to observe
and contemplate with perfect pleasure the miracles of the All-Glorious
Maker’s various, multicoloured, ever-renewed embroideries, the wonders of His power,
and the manifestations of His mercy. Yes, when mirrors reflecting the colours of the sun’s
light are changed and renewed, and the images of the cinema changed, better, more beautiful
scenes are formed.
As for the two medicines, one is trusting in God and patience, and the other is relying on the
power of one’s Creator and having confidence in His wisdom. Is that the case? Indeed it is.
What fear can a man have, who, through the certificate of his impotence, relies on a Monarch
of the World with the power to command: “Be!” and it is.1 For in the face of the worst
calamity, he says: Verily, to God do we belong, and verily to Him is our return,2 and places
his trust in his Most Compassionate Sustainer. A person with knowledge of God takes
pleasure from impotence, from fear of God. Yes, there is pleasure in fear. If a twelve-month
baby was sufficiently intelligent and it was asked him: “What is most pleasurable and
sweetest for you?”, he might well say: “To realize my powerlessness and helplessness, and
fearing my mother’s gentle smack to at the same time take refuge in her tender breast.” But
the compassion of all mothers is but a flash of the manifestation of Divine mercy. It is for this
reason that the wise have found such pleasure in impotence and fear of God, vehemently
declaring themselves to be free of any strength and power, and have taken refuge in God
through their powerlessness. They have made powerlessness and fear an intercessor for
themselves.
The second medicine is thanks and contentment, and entreaty and supplication, and relying on
the mercy of the All-Compassionate Provider. Is that so? Yes, for how can poverty, want and
need be painful and burdensome for a guest of an All-Generous and Munificent One Who
makes the whole face of the earth a table of bounties and the spring a bunch of flowers, and
Who places the flowers on the table and scatters them over it? Poverty and need take on the
form of a pleasant appetite. The guest tries to increase his poverty in the same way he does his
appetite. It is because of this that the wise have taken pride in want and poverty. But beware,
do not misunderstand this! It means to be aware of one’s poverty before God and to beseech
Him, not to parade poverty before the people and assume the air of a beggar.
As for the ticket and voucher, it is to perform the religious duties, and foremost the prescribed
prayers, and to give up serious sins. Is that so? Yes, it is, for according to the consensus of
those who observe and have knowledge of the Unseen and those who uncover the mysteries
of creation, the provisions, light, and steed for the long, dark road to post-eternity may only be
obtained through complying with the commands of the Qur’an and
____________________
1. Qur’an, 2:117, etc.
2. Qur’an, 2:156.

avoiding what it prohibits. Science, philosophy, and art are worth nothing
on that road. Their light reaches only as far as the door of the grave.
And so, O my lazy soul! How little and light and easy it is to perform the
five daily prayers and give up the seven deadly sins! If you have the
faculty of reason and it is not corrupted, understand how important and
extensive are their results, fruits, and benefits! Say to the Devil and that
man who were encouraging you to indulge in vice and dissipation: “If you
have the means to kill death, and cause decline and transience to
disappear from the world, and remove poverty and impotence from man,
and close the door of the grave, then tell us and let us hear it! Otherwise,
be silent! The Qur’an reads the universe in the vast mosque of creation.
Let us listen to it. Let us be illuminated with that light. Let us act according
to its guidance. And let us recite it constantly. Yes, the Qur’an is the word.
That is what they say of it. It is the Qur’an which is the truth and comes
from the Truth and says the truth and shows the truth and spreads
luminous wisdom...”
O God! Illuminate our hearts with the light of belief and the Qur’an.
O God! Enrich us with the need of You and do not impoverish us with the
lack of need of You. Make us free of our own strength and power, and
cause us to take refuge in Your strength and power. Appoint us among
those who place their trust in You, and do not entrust us to ourselves.
Protect us with Your protection. Have mercy on us and have mercy on all
believing men and women. And grant blessings and peace to our Master
Muhammad, Your Servant and Prophet, Your Friend and Beloved, the
Beauty of Your Dominion and the Sovereign of Your Art, the Essence of
Your Favour and the Sun of Your Guidance, the Tongue of Your Proof and
the Exemplar of Your Mercy, the Light of Your Creation and the Glory of
Your Creatures, the Lamp of Your Unity in the Multiplicity of Your Creatures
and the Discloser of the Talisman of Your Beings, the Herald of the
Sovereignty of Your Dominicality and the Announcer of those things
pleasing to You, the Proclaimer of the Treasuries of Your Names and the
Instructor of Your Servants, the Interpreter of Your Signs and the Mirror of
the Beauty of Your Dominicality, the Means of witnessing You and bearing
witness to You, Your Beloved and Your Messenger whom You sent as a
Mercy to All the Worlds, and to all his Family and Companions, and to his
brothers among the prophets and messengers, and to Your angels and to
the righteous among Your servants. AMEN.

The Eighth Word

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
God, there is no god but He, the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsistent.1
Verily, the religion before God is Islam.2
If you want to understand this world, and man’s spirit within the world, and
the nature and value of religion for man, and how the world is a prison if
there is no True Religion, and that without religion man becomes the most
miserable of creatures, and that it is O God! and, There is no god but God
that solve this world’s talisman and deliver the human spirit from
darkness, then listen to and consider this comparison:
Long ago, two brothers set off on a long journey. They continued on their
way until the road forked. At the fork they saw a serious-looking man and
asked him: “Which road is good?” He told them: “On the road to the right
one is compelled to comply with the law and order, but within that
hardship is security and happiness. However, on the left-hand road there is
freedom and no restraint, but within its freedom lie danger and
wretchedness. Now, the choice is yours!”
After listening to this, saying, I place my trust in God,3 the brother with a
good character took the right road and conformed to the order and
regulations. The other brother, who was immoral and a layabout, chose
the road to the left just for the lack of restrictions. With our imaginations,
we shall follow this man in his situation, which was apparently easy but in
reality burdensome.
Thus, this man went up hill and down dale until he found himself in a
desolate wilderness. He suddenly heard a terrifying sound and saw that a
great lion had come out of the forest and was about to attack him. He fled.
He came across a waterless well sixty yards deep, and in his fear jumped
into it. He fell half-way down it where his hands met a tree. He clung on to
it. The tree, which was growing out of the walls of the well, had two roots.
____________________
1. Qur’an, 3:2; 2:255.
2. Qur’an, 3:19.
3. Qur’an, 11:56

Two rats, one white and one black, were attacking and gnawing through
them. He looked up and saw that the lion was waiting at the top of the well
like a sentry. He looked down and saw a ghastly dragon. It raised its head
and drew it close to his foot thirty yards above. Its mouth was as big as the
mouth of the well. Then he looked at the well’s walls and saw that
stinging, poisonous vermin had gathered round him. He looked up at the
mouth of the well and saw a fig-tree. But it was not an ordinary tree; it
bore the fruit of many different trees, from walnuts to pomegranates.
Thus, due to his lack of thought and foolishness, the man did not
understand that this was not just some ordinary matter, these things were
not here by chance, and that there were mysterious secrets concealed in
these strange beings. And he did not grasp that there was someone very
powerful directing them. Now, although his heart, spirit, and mind were
secretly weeping and wailing at this grievous situation, his evil-
commanding soul pretended that it was nothing; it closed its ears to the
weeping of his heart and spirit, and deceiving itself, started to eat the
tree’s fruit as though it was in a garden. But some of the fruit were
poisonous and harmful. Almighty God says in a Divine Hadith: “I am
according to how my servants think of Me.”4
Thus, through his foolishness and lack of understanding, this unhappy man
thought what he saw to be ordinary and the actual truth. So that is the
way he was treated, and is treated, and will be treated. He neither dies so
that he is saved from it, nor does he live - he is in such torment. Now we
shall leave this ill-omened man in his torment and return, so that we may
consider the situation of the other brother.
This fortunate and intelligent person went on his way, but he suffered no
distress like his brother. For, due to his fine morals, he thought of good
things and imagined good things. Everything was friendly and familiar to
him. And he did not suffer any difficulty and hardship like his brother, for
he knew the order and followed it. He found it easy. He went on his way
freely and in peace and security. Then he came across a garden in which
were both lovely flowers and fruits, and, since it was not looked after,
rotting and filthy things. His brother had also entered such a garden, but
he had noticed and occupied himself with the filthy things and they had
turned his stomach, so he had left it and moved on without being able to
rest himself. But this man acted according to the rule, ‘look on the good
side of everything,’ and had paid no attention to the rotting things. He had
benefited a lot from the good things, and taking a good rest, he had left
and gone on his way.
Later, also like the first brother, he had entered a vast desert, and had
suddenly heard the roar of a lion which was attacking him. He was
frightened,
____________________
4. Bukhari, Tawhid, 15, 35; Muslim, Tawba, 1; Dhikr, 2, 19; Tirmidhi, Zuhd, 51; Da’wat, 131; Ibn Maja, Adab,
58; Darimi, Riqaq, 33; Musnad, ii, 251, 315, 391, 412, 445, 482, 516.

but not as much as his brother. For, because of his good thoughts and
positive attitude, he thought to himself: “This desert has a ruler, and it is
possible that this lion is a servant under the ruler’s command,” and found
consolation. But he still fled until he came across an empty well sixty yards
deep. He threw himself into it. Like his brother, his hand clasped a tree
half-way down and he remained suspended in the air. He looked and saw
two animals gnawing through the tree’s two roots. He looked up and saw
the lion, and looked down and saw the dragon. Just like his brother he was
seeing a most strange situation. He was terrified like him, but his terror
was a thousand times less than his brother’s. For his good morals had
given him good thoughts, and good thoughts show the good side of
everything. So, because of this, he thought as follows:
“These strange happenings are connected to someone. Also it seems that
they are acting in accordance with a command. In which case, these
matters contain a talisman. Yes, everything is happening at the command
of a hidden ruler. Therefore, I am not alone; the hidden ruler is watching
me, he is testing me, he is impelling me somewhere for some purpose,
and inviting me there. A curiosity arising from this pleasant fear and these
agreeable thoughts prompt me to say: I wonder who it is that is testing
me, wants to make himself known, and is impelling me for some purpose
on this strange road.”
Then, love for the owner of the talisman arose out of the desire to know
him, and from that love arose the desire to solve the talisman. And from
that desire arose the will to acquire good qualities which would please and
gratify the talisman’s owner. Then he looked at the tree and saw it was a
fig-tree, but it was bearing the fruits of thousands of trees. So then all his
fear left him, for he understood that for certain the fig-tree was a list, an
index, an exhibition. The hidden ruler must have attached samples of the
fruits in the garden to the tree through a miracle and with a talisman, and
must have adorned the tree in a way that would point to each of the foods
he had prepared for his guests. For there is no other way a single tree
could produce the fruits of thousands of different trees. Then he began to
entreat that he would be inspired with the key to the talisman. He called
out:
“O ruler of this place! I have happened upon you and I take refuge with
you. I am your servant and I want to please you. I am searching for you.”
After he had made this supplication, the walls of the well suddenly parted,
and a door opened onto a wonderful, pleasant, quiet garden. Indeed, the
dragon’s mouth was transformed into the door, and both it and the lion
took on the forms of two servants; they invited him to enter. The lion even
became a docile horse for him.
O my lazy soul! And O my imaginary friend! Come! Let us compare the
position of these two brothers so that we can see how good comes of good
and evil comes of evil. Let us find out. Look, the unhappy traveller on the
left road is all the time trembling with fear waiting to enter the dragon’s
mouth, while the fortunate one is invited into a blooming, splendid garden
full of fruit. And the unfortunate one’s heart is being pounded by an awful
terror and grievous fear, while the fortunate one is gazing at and
observing strange things as a delightful lesson, with a pleasant fear and
loving knowledge. Also the miserable one is suffering torments in
desolation, despair, and loneliness, while the fortunate one is enjoying
himself, full of hope, longing, and a sense of belonging. Furthermore, the
unfortunate one sees himself as a prisoner subject to the attacks of wild
beasts, while the fortunate one is an honoured guest who is on friendly
terms and enjoying himself with the strange servants of his generous host.
Also the unhappy one is hastening his torments by indulging in fruits which
are apparently delicious but in fact poisonous. For the fruits are samples;
there is permission to taste them so as to seek the originals and become
customers for them, but there is no permission to devour them like an
animal. But the fortunate one tastes them and understands the matter; he
postpones eating them and takes pleasure in waiting. Moreover, the
unfortunate one is wronging himself. Through his lack of discernment, he is
making a truth and a situation which are as clear and bright as daylight
into a dark and oppressive fear, into a hellish delusion. He does not
deserve pity, nor does he have the right to complain to anyone.
For example, if a person at a pleasant banquet in a beautiful garden in
summer among his friends makes himself drunk through filthy intoxicants,
then imagines himself hungry and naked in the middle of winter among
wild animals and starts shouting out and crying, he does not deserve to be
pitied; he is wronging himself, and he is insulting his friends by imagining
them to be wild beasts. Thus, the unfortunate brother is like this. But the
fortunate one sees the truth. And the truth is good. Through perceiving the
beauty of the truth, the fortunate brother is being respectful towards the
truth’s owner. So he deserves his mercy. Thus, the meaning of the Qur’anic
decree: “Know that evil is from yourself, and good is from God”5 becomes
clear. If you make a comparison of other differences in the same way, you
will understand that the evil-commanding soul of the first brother has
prepared a sort of hell for him, while the good intention, good will, good
character, and good thoughts of the other have allowed him to receive
abundant bounty, experience true happiness and prosperity, and display
shining virtue.
O my soul! And O you who is listening to this story together with my soul!
If you do not want to be the unfortunate brother and want to be the
fortunate one, listen to the Qur’an, obey its decrees, adhere to them, and
act according to them.
____________________
5. See, Qur’an, 4:79.
If you have understood the truths in this comparison, you will be able to
make them correspond to the truths of religion, the world, man, and belief
in God. I shall say the important ones, then you deduce the finer points
yourself.
So, look! Of the two brothers, one is a believing spirit and a righteous
heart. The other is an unbelieving spirit and a depraved heart. Of the two
roads, the one to the right is the way of the Qur’an and belief in God, while
the left one is the road of rebellion and denial. The garden on the road is
man’s fleeting life in human society and civilization, where good and evil,
and things good and bad and clean and dirty are found side by side. The
sensible person is he who acts according to the rule: ‘Take what is pleasant
and clear, and leave what is distressing and turbid,’ and goes on his way
with tranquillity of heart. As for the desert, it is the earth and this world.
And the lion is death and the appointed hour. The well is man’s body and
the time of his life, while its sixty-yard depth points to the normal life-span
of sixty years. And the tree is the period of life and the substance of life.
The two animals, one white and one black, are night and day. The dragon
is the road to the Intermediate Realm and pavilion of the hereafter, whose
mouth is the grave. But for the believer, that mouth is a door opening from
a prison onto a garden. As for the poisonous vermin, they are the
calamities of this world. But for the believer they are like gentle Divine
warnings and favours of the Most Merciful One to prevent him slipping off
into the sleep of heedlessness. The fruits on the tree are the bounties of
this world which the Absolutely Generous One has made in the form of a
list of the bounties of the hereafter, and both as examples of them, and
warnings, and samples inviting customers to the fruits of Paradise. And the
tree producing numerous different fruits despite being a single tree
indicate the seal of the ower of the Eternally Besought One, to the stamp
of Divine dominicality and sovereignty. For ‘to make everything from one
thing,’ that is, to make all plants and fruits from earth, and create all
animals from a fluid, and to create all the limbs and organs of animals
from a simple food, together with ‘making everything one thing,’ that is,
arts like weaving a simple skin and making flesh particular to each animal
from the great variety of foods that animals eat, is an inimitable stamp
and seal peculiar to the Ruler of Pre-Eternity and Post-Eternity, Who is the
Single, Eternally-Besought One. For sure, to make one thing everything,
and everything one thing is a sign, a mark, peculiar to the Creator of all
things, the One Powerful over all things.
As for the talisman, it is the mystery of the purpose of creation which is
solved through the mystery of belief. And the key is There is no god but
God, and, God, there is no god but He, the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsistent.
The dragon’s mouth being transformed into the door into the garden is a
sign that, although for the people of misguidance and rebellion the grave
is a door opening, in desolation and oblivion, onto a grave distressing as a
dungeon and narrow as a dragon’s stomach, for the people of the Qur’an
and belief, it is a door which opens from the prison of this world onto the
fields of immortality, from the arena of examination onto the gardens of
Paradise, and from the hardships of life onto the mercy of the All-Merciful
One. The savage lion turning into a friendly servant and a docile mount is
a sign that, although for the people of misguidance, death is a bitter,
eternal parting from all their loved ones, and the expulsion from the
deceptive paradise of this world and the entry in desolation and loneliness
into the dungeon of the grave, for the people of guidance and the Qur’an it
is the means of joining all their old friends and beloved ones who have
already departed for the next world, and the means of entering their true
homeland and abode of everlasting happiness. It is an invitation to the
meadows of Paradise from the prison of this world, and a time to receive
the wage bestowed out of the generosity of the Most Merciful and
Compassionate One for services rendered to Him, and a discharge from
the hardship of the duties of life, and a rest from the drill and instruction of
worship and examination.
In Short: Whoever makes this fleeting life his purpose and aim is in fact in
Hell even if apparently in Paradise. And whoever is turned in all
seriousness towards eternal life receives the happiness of both worlds.
However difficult and distressing this world is for him, since he sees it as
the waiting-room for Paradise, he endures it and offers thanks in
patience...
O God! Appoint us among the people of happiness, safety, the
Qur’an, and belief. Amen. O God! Grant peace and blessings to our
Master Muhammad, and to his Family and Companions, to the
number of all the letters of the Qur’an formed in all its words,
represented with the permission of the Most Merciful One in the
mirrors of the air waves on the recital of each of those words by all
the Qur’an’s reciters from its first revelation to the end of time, and
have mercy on us and on our parents, and have mercy on all
believing men and women to the number of those words, through
Your mercy, O Most Merciful of the Merciful. Amen. And All praise be
to God, the Sustainer of All the Worlds.

The Ninth Word

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
So glorify God when you reach evening and when you rise in the
morning; for all praise is His in the heavens and on earth, and
towards the end of the day and when you have reached noon.1
Brother! You ask me concerning the wisdom in the specified times of the
five daily prayers. I shall point out only one of the many instances of
wisdom in the times.
Yes, like each of the times of prayer marks the start of an important
revolution, so also is each a mirror to Divine disposal of power and to the
universal Divine bounties within that disposal. Thus, more glorification and
extolling of the All-Powerful One of Glory have been ordered at those
times, and more praise and thanks for all the innumerable bounties
accumulated between each of the times, which is the meaning of the
prescribed prayers. In order to understand a little this subtle and profound
meaning, you should listen together with my own soul to the following five
‘Points’.
FIRST POINT
The meaning of the prayers is the offering of glorification, praise, and
thanks to Almighty God. That is to say, uttering Glory be to God by word
and action before God’s glory and sublimity, it is to hallow and worship
Him. And declaring God is Most Great through word and act before His
sheer perfection, it is to exalt and magnify Him. And saying All praise be to
God with the heart, tongue, and body, it is to offer thanks before His utter
beauty. That is to say, glorification, exaltation, and praise are like the
seeds of the prayers. That is why these three things are present in every
part of the prayers, in all the actions and words. It is also why these
blessed words are each repeated thirty-three times after the prayers, in
order to strengthen and reiterate the prayers’ meaning. The meaning of
the prayers is confirmed through these concise summaries.
____________________
1. Qur’an, 30:17-18.

SECOND POINT
The meaning of worship is this, that the servant sees his own faults,
impotence, and poverty, and in the Divine Court prostrates in love and
wonderment before dominical perfection, Divine mercy, and the power of
the Eternally Besought One. That is to say, just as the sovereignty of
dominicality demands worship and obedience, so also does the holiness of
dominicality require that the servant sees his faults through seeking
forgiveness, and through his glorifications and declaring Glory be to God
proclaims that his Sustainer is pure and free of all defects, and exalted
above and far from the false ideas of the people of misguidance, and
hallowed and exempt from all the faults in the universe.
Also, the perfect power of dominicality requires that through
understanding his own weakness and the impotence of other creatures,
the servant proclaims God is Most Great in admiration and wonder before
the majesty of the works of the Eternally Besought One’s power, and
bowing in deep humility seeks refuge in Him and places his trust in Him.
Also, the infinite treasury of dominicality’s mercy requires that the servant
makes known his own need and the needs and poverty of all creatures
through the tongue of entreaty and supplication, and proclaims his
Sustainer’s bounties and gifts through thanks and laudation and uttering
All praise be to God. That is to say, the words and actions of the prayers
comprise these meanings, and have been laid down from the side of
Divinity.

THIRD POINT
Just as man is an example in miniature of the greater world and Sura al-
Fatiha a shining sample of the Qur’an of Mighty Stature, so are the
prescribed prayers a comprehensive, luminous index of all varieties of
worship, and a sacred map pointing to all the shades of worship of all the
classes of creatures.
FOURTH POINT
The second-hand, minute-hand, hour-hand, and day-hand of a clock which
tells the weeks look to one another, are examples of one another, and
follow one another. Similarly, the alternations of day and night, which are
like the seconds of this world -a vast clock of Almighty God- and the years
which tell its minutes, and the stages of man’s life-span which tell the
hours, and the epochs of the world’s life-span which tell the days look to
one another, are examples of one another, resemble one another, and
recall one another. For example:
The time of Fajr, the early morning: This time until sunrise resembles and
calls to mind the early spring, the moment of conception in the mother’s
womb, and the first of the six days of the creation of the heavens and
earth; it recalls the Divine acts present in them.
The time of Zuhr, just past midday: This resembles and points to
midsummer, and the prime of youth, and the period of man’s creation in
the lifetime of the world, and calls to mind the manifestations of mercy
and the abundant bounties they contain.
The time of ‘Asr, afternoon: This is like autumn, and old age, and the time
of the Final Prophet (PBUH), known as the Era of Bliss, and recalls the
Divine acts and favours of the All-Merciful One present in them.
The time of Maghrib, sunset: Through recalling the departure of many
creatures at the end of autumn, and man’s death, and the destruction of
the world at the commencement of the resurrection, this time puts in mind
the manifestations of Divine glory and sublimity, and rouses man from his
slumbers of heedlessness.
The time of ‘Isha, nightfall. As for this time, by calling to mind the world of
darkness veiling all the objects of the daytime world with a black shroud,
and winter hiding the face of the dead earth with its white cerement, and
even the remaining works of departed men dying and passing beneath the
veil of oblivion, and this world, the arena of examination, being shut up
and closed down for ever, it proclaims the awesome and mighty disposals
of the All-Glorious and Compelling Subduer.
As for the nighttime, through putting in mind both the winter, and the
grave, and the Intermediate Realm, it reminds man how needy is the
human spirit for the Most Merciful One’s mercy. And the tahajjud prayer
informs him what a necessary light it is for the night of the grave and
darkness of the Intermediate Realm; it warns him of this, and through
recalling the infinite bounties of the True Bestower, proclaims how
deserving He is of praise and thanks.
And the second morning calls to mind the Morning of the Resurrection. For
sure, however reasonable and necessary and certain the morning of this
night is, the Morning of the Resurrection and the spring following the
Intermediate Realm are certain to the same degree.
That is, just as each of these five times marks the start of an important
revolution and recalls other great revolutions, so through the awesome
daily disposals of the Eternally Besought One’s power, each calls to mind
the miracles of Divine power and gifts of Divine mercy of both every year,
and every age, and every epoch. That is to say, the prescribed prayers,
which are an innate duty and the basis of worship and an incontestable
debt, are most appropriate and fitting for these times.

FIFTH POINT
By nature man is extremely weak, yet everything touches him, and
saddens and grieves him. Also he is utterly lacking in power, yet the
calamities and enemies that afflict him are extremely numerous. Also he is
extremely wanting, yet his needs are indeed many. Also he is lazy and
incapable, yet life’s responsibilities are most burdensome. Also his
humanity has connected him to the rest of the universe, yet the decline
and disappearance of the things he loves and with which he is familiar
continually pains him. Also his reason shows him exalted aims and lasting
fruits, yet his hand is short, his life brief, his power slight, and his patience
little.
It can be clearly understood from this how essential it is for a spirit in this
state at the time of Fajr in the early morning to have recourse to and
present a petition to the Court of an All-Powerful One of Glory, an All-
Compassionate All-Beauteous One through prayer and supplication, to
seek success and help from Him, and what a necessary point of support it
is so that he can face the things that will happen to him in the coming day
and bear the duties that will be loaded on him.
The time of Zuhr just past midday is the time of the day’s zenith and the
start of its decline, the time when daily labours approach their
achievement, the time of a short rest from the pressures of work, when the
spirit needs a pause from the heedlessness and insensibility caused by
toil, and a time Divine bounties are manifested. Anyone may understand
then how fine and agreeable, how necessary and appropriate it is for the
human spirit to perform the midday prayer, which means to be released
from the pressure, shake off the heedlessness, and leave behind those
meaningless, transient things, and clasping one’s hands at the Court of the
True Bestower of Bounties, the Eternally Self-Subsistent One, to offer
praise and thanks for all His gifts, and seek help from Him, and through
bowing to display one’s impotence before His glory and tremendousness,
and to prostrate and proclaim one’s wonder, love, and humility. One who
does not understand this is not a true human being.
As for the time of Asr in the afternoon, it calls to mind the melancholy
season of autumn and the mournful state of old age and the sombre
period at the end of time. It is also when the matters of the day reach their
conclusion, and the time the Divine bounties which have been received
that day like health, well-being, and beneficial duties have accumulated to
form a great total, and the time that proclaims through the mighty sun
hinting by starting to sink that man is a guest-official and that everything
is transient and inconstant. Now, the human spirit desires eternity and was
created for it; it worships benevolence, and is pained by separation. Thus,
anyone who is truly a human being may understand what an exalted duty,
what an appropriate service, what a fitting way to repay a debt of human
nature, indeed, what an agreeable pleasure it is to perform the afternoon
prayer. For by offering supplications at the Eternal Court of the Everlasting
Pre-Eternal One, the Eternally Self-Subsistent One, it has the meaning of
taking refuge in the grace of unending, infinite mercy, and by offering
thanks and praise in the face of innumerable bounties, of humbly bowing
before the mightiness of His dominicality, and by prostrating in utter
humility before the everlastingness of His Godhead, of finding true
consolation of heart and ease of spirit, and being girded ready for worship
in the presence of His grandeur.
The time of Maghrib at sunset recalls the disappearance amid sad
farewells of the delicate, lovely creatures of the worlds of summer and
autumn at the start of winter. It calls to mind the time when through his
death, man will leave all those he loves in sorrowful departure and enter
the grave. It brings to mind when at the death of this world amid the
convulsions of its death-agonies, all its inhabitants will migrate to other
worlds and the lamp of this place of examination will be extinguished. It is
a time which gives stern warning to those who worship transient,
ephemeral beloveds.
Thus, at such a time, for the Maghrib prayer, man’s spirit, which by its
nature is a mirror desirous for an Eternal Beauty, turns its face towards the
throne of mightiness of the Eternal Undying One, the Enduring Everlasting
One, Who performs these mighty works and turns and transforms these
huge worlds, and declaring God is Most Great over these transient beings,
withdraws from them. Man clasps his hands in service of his Lord and rises
in the presence of the Enduring Eternal One, and through saying: All praise
be to God, he praises and extols His faultless perfection, His peerless
beauty, His infinite mercy. Through declaring: You alone do we worship
and from You alone we seek help,2 he proclaims his worship for and seeks
help from His unassisted dominicality, His unpartnered Godhead, His
unshared sovereignty. Then he bows, and through declaring together with
all the universe his weakness and impotence, his poverty and baseness
before the infinite majesty, the limitless power, and utter mightiness of the
Enduring Eternal One, he says: All glory to My Mighty Sustainer, and
glorifies his Sublime Sustainer. And prostrating before the undying Beauty
of His Essence, His unchanging sacred attributes, His constant everlasting
perfection, through abandoning all things other than Him, man proclaims
his love and worship in wonder and self-abasement. He finds an All-
Compassionate Eternal One. And through saying, All glory to my Exalted
Sustainer, he declares his Most High Sustainer to be free of decline and
exalted above any fault.
Then, he testifies to God’s unity and the prophethood of Muhammad
(Peace and blessings be upon him). He sits, and on his own account offers
as
____________________
2. Qur’an,1:5.

a gift to the Undying All-Beauteous One, the Enduring All-Glorious One the
blessed salutations and benedictions of all creatures. And through greeting
God’s Most Noble Messenger, he renews his allegiance to him and
proclaims his obedience to his commands. In order to renew and illuminate
his faith, he observes the wise order in this palace of the universe and
testifies to the unity of the All-Glorious Maker. And he testifies to the
Messengership of Muhammad the Arabian (Peace and blessings be upon
him), who is the herald of the sovereignty of God’s dominicality, the
proclaimer of those things pleasing to Him, and the interpreter of the signs
and verses of the book of the universe. To perform the Maghrib prayer is
this. So how can someone be considered a human being who does not
understand what a fine and pure duty is the prayer at sunset, what an
exalted and pleasurable act of service, what an agreeable and pleasing act
of worship, what a serious matter, and what an unending conversation and
permanent happiness it is in this transient guest-house?
At the time of ‘Isha at nightfall, the last traces of the day remaining on the
horizon disappear, and the world of night enfolds the universe. As the All-
Powerful and Glorious One, The Changer of Night and Day, turns the white
page of day into the black page of night through the mighty disposals of
His dominicality, it recalls the Divine activities of that All-Wise One of
Perfection, The Subduer of the Sun and the Moon, turning the green-
adorned page of summer into the frigid white page of winter. And with the
remaining works of the departed being erased from this world with the
passing of time, it recalls the Divine acts of The Creator and Life and
Death in their passage to another, quite different world. It is a time that
calls to mind the disposals of The Creator of the Heavens and the Earth’s
awesomeness and the manifestations of His beauty in the utter
destruction of this narrow, fleeting, and lowly world, the terrible death-
agonies of its decease, and in the unfolding of the broad, eternal, and
majestic world of the hereafter. And the universe’s Owner, its True
Disposer, its True Beloved and Object of Worship can only be the One Who
with ease turns night into day, winter into spring, and this world into the
hereafter like the pages of a book; Who writes and erases them, and
changes them.
Thus, at nightfall, man’s spirit, which is infinitely impotent and weak, and
infinitely poor and needy, and plunged into the infinite darkness of the
future, and tossed around amid innumerable events, performs the ‘Isha
prayer, which has this meaning: like Abraham man says: I do not love
those that set,3 and through the prayers seeks refuge at the Court of an
Undying Object of Worship, an Eternal Beloved One, and in this transient
world and fleeting life and dark world and black future he supplicates an
Enduring,
____________________
3. Qur’an, 6:76.

Everlasting One, and for a moment of unending conversation, a few

seconds of immortal life, he asks to receive the favours of the All-Merciful
and Compassionate One’s mercy and the light of His guidance, which will
strew light on his world and illuminate his future and bind up the wounds
resulting from the departure and decline of all creatures and friends.
Temporarily man forgets the hidden world, which has forgotten him, and
pours out his woes at the Court of Mercy with his weeping, and whatever
happens, before sleeping -which resembles death- he performs his last
duty of worship. And in order to close favourably the daily record of his
actions, he rises to pray; that is to say, he rises to enter the presence of an
Eternal Beloved and Worshipped One in place of all the mortal ones he
loves, of an All-Powerful and Generous One in place of all the impotent
creatures from which he begs, of an All-Compassionate Protector so as to
be saved from the evil of the harmful beings before which he trembles.
He starts with the Sura al-Fatiha, that is, instead of praising and being
obliged to defective, wanting creatures, for which they are not suited, he
extols and offers praise to The Sustainer of All the Worlds, Who is
Absolutely Perfect and Utterly Self-Sufficient and Most Compassionate and
All-Generous. Then he progresses to the address: You alone do we worship.
That is, despite his smallness, insignificance, and aloneness, through
man’s connection with The Owner of the Day of Judgement, Who is the
Sovereign of Pre-Eternity and Post-Eternity, he attains to a rank whereat
he is an indulged guest in the universe and an important official. Through
declaring: You alone do we worship and from You alone do we seek help,
he presents to Him in the name of all creatures the worship and calls for
assistance of the mighty congregation and huge community of the
universe. Then through saying: Guide us to the Straight Path, he asks to
be guided to the Straight Path, which leads to eternal happiness and is the
luminous way.
And now, he thinks of the mightiness of the All-Glorious One, of Whom, like
the sleeping plants and animals, the hidden suns and sober stars are all
soldiers subjugated to His command, and lamps and servants in this
guest-house of the world, and uttering: God is Most Great, he bows down.
Then he thinks of the great prostration of all creatures. That is, when, at
the command of “Be!,” and it is,4 all the varieties of creatures each year
and each century -even the earth, and the universe- each like a well-
ordered army or an obedient soldier, is discharged from its duty, that is,
when each is sent to the World of the Unseen, through the prostration of
its decease and death with complete orderliness, it declares: God is Most
Great, and bows down in prostration. Like they are raised to life, some in
part and some the same, in the spring at an awakening and life-giving
trumpet-blast from the command
____________________
4. Qur’an, 2:117, etc.

of “Be!” and it is, and they rise up and are girded ready to serve their Lord,
insignificant man too, following them, declares: God is Most Great! in the
presence of the All-Merciful One of Perfection, the All-Compassionate One
of Beauty in wonderstruck love and eternity-tinged humility and dignified
self-effacement, and bows down in prostration; that is to say, he makes a
sort of Ascension. For sure you will have understood now how agreeable
and fine and pleasant and elevated, how high and pleasurable, how
reasonable and appropriate a duty, service, and act of worship, and what a
serious matter it is to perform the ‘Isha prayer.
Thus, since each of these five times points to a mighty revolution, is a sign
indicating the tremendous dominical activity, and a token of the universal
Divine bounties, it is perfect wisdom that being a debt and an obligation,
the prescribed prayers should be specified at those times.
Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have
taught us; indeed You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.5
O God! Grant blessings and peace to the one whom You sent as a
teacher to Your servants to instruct them in knowledge of You and
worship of You, and to make known the treasures of Your Names,
and to translate the signs of the book of the universe and as a
mirror to its worship of the beauty of Your dominicality, and to all
his Family and Companions, and have mercy on us and on all
believing men and women. Amen. Through Your Mercy, O Most
Merciful of the Merciful!

____________________
5. Qur’an, 2:32

The Eleventh Word

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
By the sun and its glorious splendour; * By the moon as it follows it; * By
the day as it shows [the sun’s] glory; * By the night as it conceals it; * By
the firmament and its wonderful structure; * By the earth and its wide
expanse; * By the soul and the order and proportion given it.1
Brother! If you want to understand a little about the talisman of the
wisdom of the world and the riddle of man’s creation and the mystery of
the reality of the prescribed prayers, then consider this short comparison
together with my own soul.
One time there was a king. As wealth he had numerous treasuries
containing diamonds and emeralds and jewels of every kind. Besides these
he had other, hidden, wondrous treasuries. By way of attainment he had
consummate skill in strange arts, and encompassing knowledge of
innumerable wondrous sciences, and great erudition in endless branches
of abstruse learning. Now, like every possessor of beauty and perfection
wants to see and display his own beauty and perfection, that glorious king
wanted to open up an exhibition and set out displays within it in order to
make manifest and display in the view of the people the majesty of his
rule, his glittering wealth, the wonders of his art, and the marvels of his
knowledge, and so that he could behold his beauty and perfection in two
respects:
The First Respect: so that he himself could behold them with his own
discerning eye.
The Other: so that he could look through the view of others.
With this purpose in mind, the king started to construct a vast and
majestic palace. He divided it into magnificent apartments and dwellings,
and decorated it with every sort of jewel from his treasuries, and with his
own hand so full of art adorned it with the finest and most beautiful works.
He ordered it with the subtlest of the arts of his wisdom, and decked it out
with the miraculous works of his knowledge. Then after completing it, he
set up in the palace broad tables containing the most delicious of every
kind of food
____________________
1. Qur’an, 91:1-7.

and every sort of bounty. He specified an appropriate table for each group. He set out such a
munificent and artful banquet that it was as though the boundless priceless bounties he spread
out had come into existence through the works of a hundred subtle arts. Then he invited his
people and subjects from all the regions of his lands to feast and behold the spectacle.
Later the king appointed a Supreme Commander (PBUH) as teacher, to make known the
purposes of the palace and the meanings of its contents; to describe its Maker and its contents
to the people, make known the secrets of the palace’s embellishments, teach what the arts
within it were pointing to, and to explain what the well-set jewels were, and the harmonious
embroideries; and to explain to those who entered the palace the way in which they indicated
the perfections and arts of the palace’s owner, and to inform them of the correct conduct in
beholding them, and to explain the official ceremonies as the king, who did not appear,
wished them to be. The teacher and instructor had an assistant in each area of the palace,
while he himself remained in the largest apartment among his students, making the following
announcement to all the spectators. He told them:
“O people! By making this palace and displaying these things our lord, who is the king of the
palace, wants to make himself known to you. You therefore should recognize Him and try to
get to know Him. And with these adornments He wants to make Himself loved by you. Also,
He shows His love for you through these bounties that you see, so you should love Him too
by obeying Him. And through these bounties and gifts which are to be seen He shows His
compassion and kindness for you, so you should show your respect for Him by offering
thanks. And through these works of His perfection He wants to display His transcendent
beauty to you, so you should show your eagerness to see Him and gain His regard. And
through placing a particular stamp and special seal and an inimitable signet on every one of
these adorned works of art that you see, He wants to show that everything is particular to
Him, and is the work of His own hand, and that He is single and unique and independent and
removed. You therefore should recognize that He is single and alone, and without peer or like
or match, and accept that He is such.” He spoke further fitting words to the spectators like
these concerning the King and this station. Then the people who had entered the palace
separated into two groups.
The First Group: Since these people had self-knowledge, were intelligent, and their hearts
were in the right place, when they looked at the wonders inside the palace, they declared:
“There are great matters afoot here!” They understood that it was not in vain or some trifling
plaything. They were curious, and while wondering: “I wonder what the talisman to this is
and what it contains,” they suddenly heard the speech the Master and Instructor was giving,
and they realized that the keys to all the mysteries were with
him. So they approached him and said: “Peace be upon you, O Master! By rights, a truthful
and exact instructor like you is necessary for a magnificent palace such as this. Please tell us
what our Lord has made known to you!” First of all the Master repeated the speech to them.
They listened carefully, and accepting it, profited greatly. They acted as the King wished. And
because the King was pleased at their becoming conduct and manners, he invited them to
another special, elevated, ineffable palace. And he bestowed it on them in a way worthy of
such a munificent king, and fitting for such obedient subjects, and suitable for such well-
mannered guests, and appropriate to such an elevated palace. He made them permanently
happy.
As for the Second Group, because their minds were corrupted and their hearts extinguished,
when they entered the palace, they were defeated by their evil-commanding souls and took
notice of nothing apart from the delicious foods; they closed their eyes to all the virtues and
stopped up their ears to the guidance of the Master (PBUH) and the warnings of his students.
They stuffed themselves like animals then sank into sleep. They quaffed elixirs which had
been prepared for certain other matters and were not to have been consumed. Then they
became drunk and started shouting so much they greatly upset the other spectating guests.
They were ill-mannered in the face of the Glorious Maker’s rules. So the soldiers of the
palace’s owner arrested them, and cast them into a prison appropriate to such unmannerly
people.
O friend who is listening to this story with me! Of course you have understood that the
Glorious Creator built this palace for the above-mentioned aims. The achievement of these
aims is dependent on two things:
The First: The existence of the Master (PBUH) whom we saw and whose speech we heard.
Because if it was not for him, all these aims would be in vain. For if an incomprehensible
book has no author, it consists only of meaningless paper.
The Second is the people listening the Master’s words and accepting them. That is to say, the
Master’s existence is the cause of the palace’s existence, and the people’s listening to him is
the cause of the continuation of the palace’s existence. In which case it can be said that if it
was not for the Master (PBUH), the Glorious King would not have built the palace. And again
it may be said that when the people do not heed the Master’s (PBUH) instructions, the palace
will of a certainty be transformed and changed.
Friend! The story ends here. If you have understood the meaning of the comparison, come and
behold its reality.
The palace is this world. Its roof is the heavens illuminated with smiling stars, and its floor,
the face of the earth adorned from east to west with multifarious flowers. As for the King, he
is the Most Holy One, the Pre-Eternal and Post-Eternal Monarch, Whom all things in the
seven heavens and the
earth glorify and extol, each with its particular tongue. He is a king so powerful He created
the heavens and earth in six days, then abided on the Throne. One of Power and Majesty,
Who, alternating night and day like two threads, one white and one black, writes His signs of
the page of the universe; One to Whose command the sun, moon, and stars are subjugated.
The apartments of the palace are the eighteen thousand worlds, each of which has been set in
order and decorated in a fashion suitable to it. The strange arts you saw in the palace are the
miracles of Divine power you see in this world, and the foods you saw there allude to the
wonderful fruits of Divine mercy in this world, especially in summer, and above all in the
gardens of Barla. The stove and kitchen there is the earth here, which has fire in its heart, and
the face of the earth. While the jewels of the hidden treasuries you saw in the comparison are
the similitudes of the manifestations of the sacred Divine Names. And the embroideries there,
and the signs of the embroideries, are the well-ordered and finely worked beings and the
harmonious impresses of the pen of power which adorn this world and point to the Names of
the All-Powerful One of Glory.
As for the Master, he is our Master Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him). His
assistants are the prophets (Peace be upon them), and his students, the saints and purified
scholars. The ruler’s servants in the palace indicate the angels (Peace be upon them) in this
world. And the guests invited to the banquet to spectate in the comparison are the jinn and
mankind in this guest-house of the world, and the animals, who are the servants of mankind.
As for the two groups, one of them here consists of the people of belief, who are the students
of the All-Wise Qur’an, the interpreter of the verses and signs of the book of the universe. The
other group are the people of unbelief and rebellion, who follow Satan and their evil-
commanding souls; deaf and dumb, like animals, or even lower, they form the group of the
misguided, who recognize the life of this world only.
FIRST GROUP: These are the felicitous and the good, who listened to the Master, ‘the
Possessor of Two Wings.’ He is both the worshipping servant of God; in regard to worship he
describes his Sustainer so that he is like the envoy of his community at the Court of Almighty
God. And he is also God’s Messenger; with regard to Messengership he conveys his
Sustainer’s decrees to men and the jinn by means of the Qur’an.
This happy community heeded the Messenger and listened to the Qur’an. They saw
themselves invested with the prescribed prayers, which are the index of all the varieties of
worship, and numerous subtle duties within elevated stations. Indeed, they saw in detail the
duties and stations which the prayers point to with their various formulas and actions. It was
like this:
Firstly: Since they observed the Divine works, and in the form of a transaction in the absence
of the person concerned, saw themselves in the station
of observing the wonders of the sovereignty of dominicality, they performed the duty of
extolling and glorifying God, declaring: “God is Most Great!”
Secondly: Through being seen in the station of herald of His brilliant and wonderful works,
which are the manifestations of the sacred Divine Names, exclaiming: “Glory be to God! All
praise be to God!”, they performed the duty of hallowing and praising God.
Thirdly: In the station of perceiving and understanding with their inner and outer senses the
bounties stored up in the treasuries of Divine mercy, they started to carry out the duty of
thanks and praise.
Fourthly: In the station of weighing up with the scales of their spiritual faculties the jewels in
the treasuries of the Divine Names, they began the duty of praise and declaring God to be free
of all fault.
Fifthly: In the station of studying the Sustainer’s missives, written with the pen of power on
the plan of Divine Determining, they began the duty of contemplation and appreciation.
Sixthly: With beholding the subtle, delicate, fine beauties in the creation of things and in the
art in beings, in the station of declaring God to be free of all defect, they took up the duty of
love and yearning for their All-Glorious Creator, their All-Beauteous Maker. That is to say,
after looking at the universe and works and performing the duties in the above-mentioned
stations through transactions in the object of worship’s absence, they rose to the degree of also
beholding the transactions and acts of the All-Wise Maker, whereby, in the form of a
transaction in the presence of the person concerned, they responded with knowledge and
wonder in the face of the All-Glorious Creator’s making Himself known to conscious beings
through the miracles of His art, and declared: “Glory be unto You! How can we truly know
you? What makes You known are the miracles of the works of Your art!”
Then, they responded with love and passion to that Most Merciful One’s making Himself
loved through the beautiful fruits of His mercy. “You alone do we worship and from You alone
do we seek help!”, they declared.
Then they responded with thanks and praise to the True Bestower’s showing His mercy and
compassion through His sweet bounties, and exclaimed: “Glory be unto You! All praise is
Yours! How can we thank You as is Your due? You are utterly worthy of thanks! For all Your
bounties spread through all the universe hymn Your praises and thanks through the clear
tongues of their beings. All Your bounties lined up in the market of the world and scattered
over the face of the earth proclaim Your praises and extol You. Through testifying to Your
munificence and generosity, all the well-ordered and well-proportioned fruits of Your mercy
and bounty offer You thanks before the gazes of Your creatures.”

Then they responded, saying: “God is Most Great!” before the manifestation of Divine
beauty, glory, perfection, and majesty in the mirrors of beings, ever changing on the face of
the universe; they bowed reverently in their impotence, and prostrated in humility with love
and wonder.
Then announcing their poverty and need, they responded with supplication and beseeching to
the Possessor of Absolute Riches’ displaying the abundance of His wealth and breadth of His
mercy, and declared: “From You alone do we seek help!”
Then they responded appreciatively to the All-Glorious Maker’s displaying the subtleties and
wonders of His antique art in the exhibition of creatures, exclaiming: “What wonders God has
willed!” Observing and applauding them, they declared, “How beautifully they have been
made! What blessings God has bestowed!” Holding everyone witness, they said in wonder:
“Come! Look at these! Hasten to the prayers and to prosperity!”
And they responded with submission and obedience to the Monarch of Pre-Eternity and Post-
Eternity’s proclamation of the sovereignty of His dominicality in every corner of the universe
and the manifestation of His unity. Declaring: “We hear and we obey!”, they affirmed His
unity.
Then, before the manifestation of the Godhead of that Sustainer of All the Worlds, they
responded with worship and humble veneration, which consists of proclaiming their poverty
within need, and with the prescribed prayers, which are the summary of worship. Thus,
through performing their various duties of worship in the mighty mosque known as the abode
of this world, they carried out the obligations and duties of their lives, and assumed ‘the finest
of forms.’ They ascended to a rank above all creatures by which, through the auspiciousness
of belief and assurance and ‘the Trust,’ they became trustworthy Vicegerents of God on the
Earth. And after this field of trial and place of examination, their Munificent Sustainer invited
them to eternal happiness in recompense for their belief, and to the Abode of Peace in reward
for their adhering to His religion of Islam. There, He bestowed on them out of His mercy
bounties so dazzling that no eye has seen them, nor ear heard them, nor have they occurred to
the heart of man2 - and so He does bestow these on them, and He gave them eternity and
everlasting life. For the desirous, mirror-bearing lovers of an eternal, abiding beauty who gaze
upon it will certainly not perish, but will go to eternity. The final state of the Qur’an’s students
is thus. May Almighty God include us among them, Amen!
As for the other group, the sinners and the wicked, when they entered the palace of this world
at the age of discretion, they responded with unbelief to
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22. Bukhari, Bad'ul-Khalq, 8; Tafsir al-Sura, xxxii, 1;Tawhid, 35; Muslim, Iman, 312.

all the evidences of Divine unity, and with ingratitude towards all the bounties, and by
accusing all creatures of being valueless, insulted them in an unbelieving manner. And since
they rejected and denied all the manifestations of the Divine Names, they committed a
boundless crime in a short time and became deserving of endless punishment. For the capital
of life and the human faculties were given to man for the duties mentioned above.
O my senseless soul and foolish friend! Do you suppose your life’s duty is restricted to
following the good life according to the requisites of civilization, and, if you will excuse the
expression, to gratifying the physical appetites? Do you suppose the sole aim of the delicate
and subtle senses, the sensitive faculties and members, the well-ordered limbs and systems,
the inquisitive feelings and senses included in the machine of your life is restricted to
satisfying the low desires of the base soul in this fleeting life? God forbid! There are two main
aims in their creation and inclusion in your essential being:
The First consists of making known to you all the varieties of the True Bestower’s bounties,
and causing you to offer Him thanks. You should be aware of this, and offer Him thanks and
worship.
The Second is to make known to you by means of your faculties all the sorts of the
manifestations of the sacred Divine Names manifested in the world and to cause you to
experience them. And you, by recognizing them through experiencing them, should come to
believe in them.
Thus, man develops and is perfected through the achievement of these two basic aims.
Through them, man becomes a true human being.
Look through the meaning of the following comparison, and see that the human faculties were
not given in order to gain worldly life like an animal.
For example, someone gave one of his servants twenty gold pieces, telling him to have a suit
of clothes made out of a particular cloth. The servant went and got himself a fine suit out of
the highest grade of the cloth, and put it on. Then he saw that his employer had given another
of his servants a thousand gold pieces, and putting in the servant’s pocket a piece of paper
with some things written on it, had sent him to conclude some business. Now, anyone with
any sense would know that the capital was not for getting a suit of clothes, for, since the first
servant had bought a suit of the finest cloth with twenty gold pieces, the thousand gold pieces
were certainly not to be spent on that. Since the second servant had not read the paper in his
pocket, and looking at the first servant, had given all the money to a shopkeeper for a suit of
clothes, and then received the very lowest grade of cloth and a suit fifty times worse that his
friend’s, his employer was bound to reprimand him severely for his utter stupidity, and punish
him angrily.
O my soul and my friend! Come to your senses! Do not spend the capital and potentialities of
your life on pleasures of the flesh and this fleeting life like an animal, or even lower.
Otherwise, although you are fifty times superior with regard to capital than the highest
animal, you will fall fifty times lower than the lowest.
O my heedless soul! If you want to understand to a degree both the aim of your life and its
nature, and the form of your life, and the true meaning of your life, and its perfect happiness,
then look! The summary of the aims of your life consists of nine matters:
The First is this: To weigh up on the scales of the senses put in your being the bounties stored
up in the treasuries of Divine mercy, and to offer universal thanks.
The Second: To open with the keys of the faculties placed in your nature the hidden treasuries
of the sacred Divine Names.
The Third: To consciously display and make known through your life in the view of the
creatures in this exhibition of the world the wondrous arts and subtle manifestations which the
Divine Names have attached to you.
The Fourth: To proclaim your worship to the Court of the Creator’s dominicality verbally
and through the tongue of your disposition.
The Fifth: Like on ceremonial occasions a soldier wears all the decorations he has received
from his king, and through appearing before the him, displays the marks of his favour towards
him, this is to consciously adorn yourself in the jewels of the subtle senses which the
manifestations of the Divine Names have given you, and to appear in the observant view of
the Pre-Eternal Witness.
The Sixth: To consciously observe the salutations of living beings to their Creator, known as
the manifestations of life, and their glorifications of their Maker, known as the signs of life,
and their worship of the Bestower of Life, known as the aims of life, and by reflecting on
them to see them, and through testifying to them to display them.
The Seventh: Through taking as units of measurement the small samples of attributes like the
partial knowledge, power, and will given to your life, it is to know through those measures the
absolute attributes and sacred qualities of the All-Glorious Creator. For example, since,
through your partial power, knowledge, and will, you have made your house in well-ordered
fashion, you should know that the Maker of the palace of the world is its Disposer, and
Powerful, Knowing, and Wise to the degree it is greater than your house.
The Eighth: To understand the words concerning the Creator’s unity and Maker’s
dominicality uttered by each of the beings in the world in its particular tongue.

The Ninth: To understand through your impotence and weakness, your poverty and need, the
degrees of the Divine power and dominical riches. Just as the pleasure and degrees and
varieties of food are understood through the degrees of hunger and the sorts of need, so you
should understand the degrees of the infinite Divine power and riches through your infinite
impotence and poverty. The aims of your life, then, briefly, are matters like these. Now
consider the nature of your life; its summary is this:
It is an index of wonders pertaining to the Divine Names; a scale for measuring the Divine
attributes; a balance of the worlds within the universe; a list of the mighty world; a map of the
cosmos; a summary of the vast book of the universe; a bunch of keys with which to open the
hidden treasuries of Divine power; and a most excellent pattern of the perfections scattered
over beings and attached to time. The nature of your life consists of matters like these.
Now, the form of your life and the manner of its duty is this: your life is an inscribed word, a
wisdom-displaying word written by the pen of power. Seen and heard, it points to the Divine
Names. The form of your life consists of matters like these.
Now the true meaning of your life is this: its acting as a mirror to the manifestation of Divine
oneness and the manifestation of the Eternally Besought One. That is to say, through a
comprehensiveness as though being the point of focus for all the Divine Names manifested in
the world, it is its being a mirror to the Single and Eternally Besought One.
Now, as for the perfection of your life, it is to perceive the lights of the Pre-Eternal Sun which
are depicted in the mirror of your life, and to love them. It is to display ardour for Him as a
conscious being. It is to pass beyond yourself with love of Him. It is to establish the reflection
of His light in the centre of your heart. It is due to this mystery that the Hadith Qudsi was
uttered, which is expressed by the following lines, and will raise you to the highest of the
high:
The heavens and the earth contain me not;
Yet, how strange! I am contained in the hearts of believers.3
And so, my soul! Since your life is turned towards such elevated aims and gathers together
such priceless treasuries, is it at all worthy of reason and fairness that you should spend it on
temporary gratification of the instinctual soul and fleeting worldly pleasures, and waste it? If
you do not want to fritter away your life, ponder over the oaths in this Sura of the Qur’an,
which allude to the above comparison and truths, and act accordingly:
By the sun and its [glorious] splendour; * By the moon as it
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3. See, al-‘Ajluni, Kashf al-Khafa, ii, 165; Ghazzali, Ihya’l-‘Ulum al-Din, iii, 14.

follows it; * By the day as it shows up [the sun’s] glory; * By the night as it conceals it; * By
the firmament and its [wonderful] structure; * By the earth and its [wide] expanse; * By the
soul and the order and proportion given it; * And its enlightenment to its wrong and its right.
* Truly he succeeds that purifies it, * And he fails that corrupts it.4
O God, grant blessings and peace to the Sun of the Skies of Messengership, the Moon of the
Constellation of Prophethood, and to his Family and Companions, the stars of guidance, and
grant mercy to us and to all believing men and all believing women. Amen. Amen. Amen.

____________________
4. Qur’an, 91:1-10.