BEŞİNCİ BAB · ÜÇÜNCÜ FASIL · Dördüncü Madde
Fourth Point
It explains that the Sharia is the secret and inner essence of Truth; and by observing the adab (manners/proprieties) of religion,
one who treads the Sufi path reaches the station of spiritual nearness to Allah.
That one who acts impolitely falls into misguidance [and is deprived of] the great blessings of the spiritual realm, and that those who attain all their desires only reach them through worship—through an example.
O esteemed one! Know that the friends of Allah have presented such an example. In this third station, when the witnessing of Truth becomes dominant and the binding rulings of religion seem insignificant in appearance, may the following example make you certain of the inner essence and secret of Truth – that it is the Sharia. May you act according to its rulings and observe its adab. By doing so, you will be protected from evils that can occur in the third station and thus reach the fourth station.
Our aforementioned example is this: A sultan builds a magnificent palace. Such a perfect palace that within it are all things which a person could desire for his world and afterlife. Whatever good or evil he might want or avoid, it is placed there.
For each kind of goodness, he designates a separate door and gives instructions to the slave assigned to each door: “Such will be my custom here. I shall only give this type of goodness through this door, not from elsewhere.” Similarly, for each kind of evil, he designates separate doors and gives instructions to the slave assigned to each door: “Such will be my custom [334/b]. I shall allow passage of this type of evil only through this door, no other.”
For example, a door for water, another for bread, another for meat. For those seeking clothing, he designates and appoints separate doors for every kind of garment. Then, for those who wish to see him, he opens many doors; for those who desire to serve him, many doors; for those who desire to converse with him, many doors; for those who seek his favor, many doors; he has built many doors open to his anger, and countless other situations, each having its own separate doors. Then that sultan sends a vizier to the servants working under him: to announce and bring forth the treasures contained within that palace and to explain the doors through which they are distributed, so that whoever stands by the doors of goodness and seeks good, that appointed good will surely reach him, and the sultan will be pleased with him.
The vizier also warns the servant saying, “But if anyone lingers at a door of evil and demands evil, then the specified evil will strike him, and the sultan will be displeased.”
Now some servants come and, in utmost humility, recount their poverty and stand before the door of goodness. They seek from that sultan the generosity and good which he has designated through his actions. They have not concentrated their efforts on those doors, but having come to value that door because the sultan desires that goodness be sought from it. This class’s valuing of these doors does not deprive them of witnessing the sultan, showing respect to him, and firmly believing in his greatness.
They have not turned away from the doors designated by the ruler, nor have they gone to other doors seeking the blessings they desire. Thus, acting with propriety and not contradicting the ruler's purpose, these servants become close friends in the eyes of the sultan, for they perform each task in its proper place and observe adab meticulously when approaching that exalted sultan.
Now concerning the second class of those servants within that magnificent palace: They have done as the first class did. But when they stand before the doors through which blessings are to be distributed, obeying the sultan’s command, they remain deprived of witnessing the sultan's presence, relying on the doors and becoming filled with self-importance and vanity.
For they consider themselves superior to the servants who do not obey the sultan’s command. When the sultan perceives self-importance and arrogance in them, he does not approve of them and does not bring them close to him as friends, like the first class. However, he still bestows upon them the blessings appointed for them through those doors with his generosity.
Now concerning the third class of servants: They have not stood at the doors of goodness, nor has anything from the announced good reached them. For they thought that these doors had no effect in bringing the blessing to them. “Perhaps there are no doors at all. It is only the sultan who gives the blessing and can give it to his servant without a door,” they said. These ones deemed the sultan’s wisdom nonexistent and abandoned adab entirely. Thus, they have fallen distant from the sultan's presence because they did not understand the sultan’s wisdom and did not stand before the doors through which blessings are distributed. They remained so bewildered and misguided that they were unaware of being banished from his presence and fell into the pursuit of the sultan’s love. But the sultan does not love them, and they have truly transgressed. Thus, the servants in the sultan's palace are divided into three classes:
The first class knew that the sultan gives provisions through the doors he has appointed. The second class saw the first class as such and knew it, but they themselves perceived a presence within their own selves. The third class saw nothing other than the sultan and stood outside of the doors of goodness. Now, in this example, the sultan is a metaphor for Allah Most High…
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