Someone, in a fit of anger, killed his mother by stabbing and beating her. Another person said to him, “Because of your bad character, you did not observe your mother’s rights. You vile man, why did you kill your mother! Why don’t you say what she did to you?” The man replied, “She committed a very shameful act, so I killed her. Let the earth cover her shame.” The one who reproached him said, “Man, instead of killing your mother, you should have killed that person.” To this, he replied, “Should I kill a different person every day?”
I killed her and thus saved myself from shedding the blood of the people; instead of slaughtering the throats of the people, I slaughtered her—this is better!” That ill-natured mother, whose corruption is manifest everywhere, is your nafs (the lower self). At every moment, you are plotting against a different saint for its sake; come to your senses and kill it! Because of it, this beautiful world becomes narrow for you. Because of it, you wage war both against Allah and against people.
If you kill your nafs, you will be saved without having to offer excuses, and you will have no enemies in the land. Someone may think of the prophets and the walī (friend[s] of God) and doubt our words. “Were not the nafs of the prophets destroyed? Why then did they have enemies, why were they envied?” If someone says this, O seeker of truth, open your ears!
The answer we will give to this doubt, this hesitation, is as follows: Those deniers were their own enemies; they were harming themselves. An enemy is called such because he seeks to harm life. One who is struggling with himself is not called an enemy. The bat is not the enemy of the sun; it has entered into a veil and become its own enemy. The light of the sun kills it; but does the sun ever suffer any trouble from the bat, can the bat do any harm to the sun?
An enemy is called such because some torment or harm comes from him; he prevents a stone with potential from becoming a ruby through the effect of the sun! However, all the disbelievers prevent themselves from the light in the essence of the prophets! How can the people be a veil over the eye of that one person? Rather, they blind their own eyes, they bring their own eyes to a bad state.
Like the Arab slave who, out of stubbornness and rancor towards his master, kills himself! The slave, in order to harm his master, throws himself headlong from the roof and perishes! The sick person has become the enemy of the doctor; the child harbors enmity towards the one who educates him—(who is harmed?)! In reality, both the sick person and the child are blocking their own path, cutting off the way of their own intellect and soul. If the one who washes cloth gets angry at the sun, if the fish becomes enraged at the sea, look—who is harmed? In the end, whose fortune is darkened because of this anger? If Allah created you ugly, come to your senses and at least do not be both ugly in face and ugly in character!
Even if you have shoes, do not go to the stony ground. If you have two horns, do not become one with four horns! You envy, saying, “Am I lower than so-and-so that my fortune goes so awry?” But in essence, envy is another deficiency, another shame. In fact, it is worse than all other baseness! Satan, too, was ashamed of being low, considered it a disgrace, and thus fell into hundreds of evils.
He wanted to rise out of envy. But where is exaltation? He remained stained with blood. Abū Jahl was ashamed to follow Muhammad, and out of envy, tried to exalt himself, to be higher than him. His name was Abū’l-Ḥakam, but he became Abū Jahl. How many capable people have become unworthy because of envy. In this world of striving and effort, I have seen no qualification better than good character. Leave aside virtue, skill, and talent.
In this path, service and good character are what matter. Allah made the prophets a means so that envy would be revealed through hardship and suffering. For no one is ashamed before Allah, no one envies Allah. But people consider the Prophet to be a man like themselves, and for that reason, they envy him. However, once the greatness of the prophets is realized, no one can envy them anymore, everyone follows them. Thus, in every era, there is a walī in place of the prophet; this trial will continue until the Day of Judgment. Whoever has good character is saved; whoever’s qalb (the heart) is made of glass is shattered.
Thus, the living and active imam is that walī, whether he is from the lineage of ʿUmar or ʿAlī! O seeker of the path, he is the Mahdī, he is the Hādī. He is both hidden and sitting right before you. He is like light; the intellect is his Jibrīl. The walī who is lower than him is his lamp.
The walī who is at a lower degree than this lamp is the place where the lamp is set. There are degrees in rank among the lights. For Allah has seven hundred veils of light. Know that the veils of light are layered in this way! Behind each veil is the abode of a people. Up to the imam, these veils are in rows.
The eyes of those in the last row, due to weakness, cannot bear the light of those in the front row. The eyes of those in the front row, due to weakness of vision, cannot bear the light of those even further ahead. The radiance that is the life of those in the first row is a torment and affliction to the soul of the one who is dazzled. Bewilderments gradually decrease; when a person passes through seven hundred degrees, he becomes like the sea. Does the fire that purifies iron or gold benefit the fresh quince or apple?
Quince and apple may have a little unripe part, but they are not like iron; they require only a gentle heat. However, that heat, those flames, are not sufficient for iron. For iron desires the blaze of fire that is like a dragon. That iron is the poor one who endures hardships. Under the hammer, in the fire, it becomes red-hot and delights in it. Such a poor one is the veil-less intermediary of the fire; without means or mediation, he enters right into the heart of the fire. But water and the sons of water, without a veil, without an intermediary, neither become mature by fire nor are addressed by the fire.
Just as shoes are needed to walk on the ground, so too, to receive effusion from the fire, these need a pot or a pan. Or else, an intermediate place is required so that the air may heat up, become hot, and its heat affect the water. The poor one is called such because he has a direct connection with the flames. In reality, the heart of the world is that. For the body (like the world) receives effusion through this heart; the body (like the universe) is useful because of this heart. If there were no heart, how would the body know how to speak? If the heart did not seek, what would the body understand without investigation? Thus, the focus of the flames is that iron. Therefore, the focus of Allah is the heart, not the body! Then, these individual hearts, compared to the heart of the one who possesses the true mine, are like bodies. This statement requires many examples, much explanation and commentary. But I fear that the understanding of the common people may stumble.
Thus, let not our goodness become evil. Let us not do evil thinking we are doing good; what I have said is only because I do not possess it myself, because my will is not in my own hands. A crooked shoe is better for a crooked foot; the hand of the poor only reaches the door.