Musa saw a shepherd on the road. The shepherd was saying: “O Allah, Lord of grace! Where are You that I, Your servant, may prostrate before You, straighten Your slipper, comb Your hair, wash Your garments, and remove Your fleas? O Mighty God, may I offer you milk. May I kiss your hand and rub your foot. When it is time for sleep, may I smooth out your bedding.”
“May all my goats be sacrificed to You. All my melodies and cries are for Your praise, O Allah!” The shepherd was saying such nonsensical things. “With whom are you speaking?” Musa asked. The shepherd replied, “With the One who created us, with the One who fashioned heaven and earth.” Then Musa said, “Woe, woe to you! You have become a heretic before becoming Muslim. What absurd words these are, what blasphemy, what impossibility! Plug your mouth with cotton, for the stench of your disbelief is polluting the world. Your disbelief has worn out the fabric of religion. A slipper and a simple garment befit you alone. What need has the sun for such things? If you do not restrain your mouth from such words, fire will come and burn the people. And if fire hasn’t come, what is this smoke?”
“Why has the soul turned black, why has the spirit become distraught? How can you dare to indulge in these ravings and this arrogance, knowing that Allah is all-powerful and just in every respect? A foolish friend is truly an enemy. O Mighty God, You are free from these kinds of services. To whom are you saying these things? To your uncle or your aunt?”
“Can Allah have a body within His attributes? Does He need anything? The one who grows and develops drinks milk. If the one whose foot needs it wears a slipper, then this is idle talk and false. Allah has said about him, ‘He fell ill and did not inquire about my condition.’ Not only did he fall ill, but I too became ill.” Such words are falsehood for those who have attained the station of being able to ‘hear with Me and see with Me’.
Speaking impudently with Allah’s attributes kills the heart and blackens the record of deeds. Just as speaking ‘Fatima’ to a man, even though men and women are of the same essence, may incite his blood or affect his very being, the word ‘Fatima’ is a joy for women. But if said to a man, it acts like a sword wound.
Hands and feet are a source of pride for us, but in relation to Allah’s purity, they are imperfections. He is worthy of the attribute “He begets not, nor is He begotten.” He is the one who created the father too; his son is an attribute of being born, of having a body. The born belongs to this face of the river. For the born is from the realm of existence and corruption, it is subsequent. Then the shepherd said to Musa, “O Musa, you have silenced my mouth, you have burned me with regret!” He tore his clothes, wailed, raised his head, and set off into the desert.
Allah sent a revelation to Musa: “You have separated Our servant from Us. Have you come to bring him closer or to separate him? When one is capable, do not tread on separation. In My sight, the most disliked thing is separation. I have given everyone a disposition and everyone a kind of expression. What is praise for him is disgrace for you, what is honey for him is poison for you! But We are free from purity and impurity, from heaviness and lightness!”
“I commanded them to worship Me so that I may obtain benefit from the servants, not so that I may bestow favors upon them. For the people of Hind, the words of the people of Hind are praise. For the people of Sint, the words of the people of Sint. Their glorifying Me purifies Me and makes Me holy. These pearls of glorification purify them by counting them.”
“We do not look at words; We look at hearts. If the heart is full of devotion, We look at the heart, even if his words are of servitude and humility! For the heart is a jewel, and speech is an attribute. Therefore, the attribute is impure, the goal is the jewel. How long will these kinds of words, whose meaning is hidden or different, continue?” I desire to burn, I desire to be burned.
Let him fall into that fire! A fire of love ignites in the soul, consuming thought and speech from head to toe! Musa is one thing for those who understand manners, but another for lovers whose souls are burning. Lovers have a burning with every breath. No tithe is taken from a ruined village. Even if he utters erroneous words, do not call them erroneous. If he becomes a martyr drenched in blood, do not attempt to wash him. Martyrdom is preferable to water; hundreds of truths are preferable to this false word. There is no qibla within the Ka’bah; a diver’s slipper does not cling to it. Go on, seek guidance from the intoxicated. Do not speak of mending his torn clothes until they are in tatters. The law of love is separate from all religions. The Sufi’s law is Allah, and his school is.
Even if he did not have a brand to prove that he is mute, what does it matter? Love does not grieve in the sea of grief!
Then Allah spoke secrets to Musa’s secret, poured words into Musa’s lake. They confused seeing with speaking. Many times He passed through him, many times he came to him. How many times did he fly from eternity to eternity? If I were to attempt to tell more than this, I would be foolish.
For this cannot be explained or described; it is beyond understanding. If spoken, minds would marvel. If written, many pens would break! When Musa heard this rebuke from Allah, he fled into the desert and followed the shepherd. He tracked the footprints of that amazed lover, sweeping away the dust of the grasses in the desert. The footprints of lovers and admirers are different from those of others; they are immediately apparent. The lover throws one foot high and one foot crookedly like an elephant. Sometimes he raises a flag like a wave.
Sometimes he goes through the water like a fish, unseen. Sometimes he writes his state on the ground like a sand artist. Finally, Musa found him and said: “Here is my good news! Allah has given permission. Do not seek any reason or scheme; say what your heart desires! Your disbelief is the light of religion. You have attained safety, and the whole world is safe because of you.”
“O Allah, go forth with boldness, O one who has attained the secret ‘Allah does as He wills’ and has been forgiven for everything! Open your mouth!” The shepherd said, “O Musa, I have passed that state, that word. Now my own heart is stained with blood. I have surpassed even Sidrat al-Muntaha, gone thousands of years beyond it. You struck me with a whip, and my steed reared and leaped over the universe. Let our nafs be Lahut now.”
“Bravo to your hands and arms! My state is beyond words now. And what I have said is not even my own state. The mirror sees an image, but it is your image, not that of the mirror. The Ney player blows the Ney. But this breath and the sound coming from this breath, is it of the Ney or the Ney player? Is this sound the essence of the Ney or the essence of the Ney player?” He said. “Come to yourself, come to yourself! Praising Allah, but know that your praise is like the praise of a shepherd who is not worthy. But in relation to Allah, even that has no value, it has no end. How long will you keep saying ‘I glorify Allah’? When the veil is lifted, many things that were thought to be will be seen as non-existent. My remembrance of Allah is a grace from Allah.”
“It is like a permission for a woman who performs ablution to pray. Just as blood has stained her prayer, so too has resemblance and assumption tainted my remembrance of Allah! Blood is impure but cleansed with a drop of water. But there are impurities within that cannot be purified except by the grace of Allah from the heart of the worshiper.”
“If only you had turned your face away from the qibla in prostration and attained the meaning of ‘Subhan Rabbiyyal A’la’! You should have said, ‘My Lord, my prostration is not worthy of You as Your essence is. You respond to evil with good.’ There is wisdom of Allah on this earth; it removes impurities and kills flowers. It covers our impurities, and in return, flowers bloom from it.
The disbeliever is more worthless than the earth in charity and generosity, and he sees that nothing grows from it, nor does it produce anything but corruption and impurity – then he says, ‘I have misunderstood, I have erred; if only I were earth! If only I had not set out from the earth!’
The disbeliever finds no benefit from his journey, so he is inclined towards the earth. Turning one’s face back is due to greed and avarice. Turning one’s face toward the path is devotion and supplication. Every grass that tends to grow grows day by day, lives and develops. But if it bows its head, it shrinks day by day, withers, becomes deficient, and perishes. The inclination of my soul is towards exaltation; you will rise as long as you ascend. Conversely, if you bow your head, you have fallen. Allah says, ‘I do not love those who fall.’”
Musa said, “O Lord of grace, O He who does every thing, O Allah whose mention is worth a long life! I saw a crooked trace in this world of clay. The soul objected like angels. ‘What is the purpose of making an incision and planting seeds of corruption? What wisdom is there in igniting the fire of oppression and burning the mosque and those who prostrate?’
‘Why stir up the source of blood and pus for a single supplication?’ I know that these are the same wisdom. But my purpose is to have this wisdom fully revealed and for me to see it clearly. He said to me, ‘Be silent,’ but the passion for seeing says, ‘No, be exuberant!’ You showed the angels Your secret. Such pleasure is worth torment and bliss! You presented the light of Adam to the angels, and you resolved their difficulties.”
“The secret of death is told by those who are dedicated, and the wisdom of the leaf is told by the fruits. The secret of blood and sperm is the feeling of man; every increase has its end in diminution!” The writer first breaks and cleans the tablet before writing on it; Allah also first blackens the heart, washes it with tears of humility, then records secrets upon that heart. It is necessary to know that to make something a register by washing it.
When those who are going to lay the foundation of a house demolish the old and previous structure there? Finally, to extract pure water, they remove earth from the ground. Children cry during cupping. Because they do not know the wisdom of the matter! But the man pays the cupper, shows favor to the lancet that draws blood. The carrier runs under the heavy load, takes the load from others. Look at the wars of carriers for the load.
Working in religion is like that. Just as ease is the origin of hardship, hardships are also the prelude to blessings. Paradise is covered with things we dislike, and hell is full of things we enjoy. As the original of fire is a living tree, so has he who burns reached the River of Abundance. The dungeon is where those who fall into trials have fallen because of a single bite or pleasure. He who attains a state in a palace has found that state as a reward for a war and a trial.
If you see someone possessing gold and silver, attaining a degree beyond which no one can surpass, know that he has been patient with the hardship of earning. The eye that sees this knows it is a wisdom from Allah. But if you are in the realm of feelings, listen to causes! Do not cling to causes, do not look at them – that is the station of him who has escaped the world of the soul. Such a person sees the miracles of the prophets without cause.
He does not know that they come from water and grass. These causes are like a doctor and a patient, like a candle and a wick. The night candle lights a new wick, but do not think the sun candle is in need of them. Prepare clay with straw for the roof of the house. But know that the universe is not in need of it. Ah, our beloved burns us with grief and destroys us!
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