Third Volume
O Hüsameddin, illuminated by Divine Light, reveal this third volume as well. It is sunnah (a practice of the Prophet) to perform an action three times. Open the treasures of secrets in this third volume, set aside excuses. Your strength emanates from Allah’s strength; it does not arise from your own vessels. This radiant sunlight isn’t illuminated by a wick, cotton, or oil.
Thus, the heavens remain suspended without rope or pillar. The power of Gabriel comes not from the kitchen, but from the beauty of the Creator. Know that the strength of an Abdal (a Sufi mystic) also originates from Allah; it is not derived from food or a plate. Their bodies are nourished with light. Because of this, they surpass both spirit and angel. You too have been characterized by the attributes of the Almighty.
Just as it happened to Khalil (Abraham), so too has a garden of fire become for you. O elements, you who are enslaved by your temperament, your five senses have succumbed in six directions. Every temperament is the mother of its own essence. But your temperament surpasses every station; it gathers and unites the qualities of unity within this vast, expansive universe.
Alas, the understanding of the common folk is so limited! Yet, O Hüsameddin, the accuracy and power of your judgment are so great that even halva (a sweet confection) will soften stone. Mount Tur (Sinai) was consumed in manifestation, drank wine, and could not bear that wine, shattering into particles. Have you ever seen a mountain play like a camel?
Everyone can offer a morsel to another, but granting sustenance is the work of Allah alone. Allah grants sustenance to both body and soul. He bestows separate sustenance upon each limb. But this generosity is revealed when you have devoted yourself to sublimity and purified yourself from evil and deception; then you cannot present sugar (sweetness) to a fly.
The wine of sublimity is heard by the one who is deaf, yet possesses hundreds of tongues. Allah’s grace bestows sustenance upon the earth so that it may produce hundreds of plants after receiving water. Then He grants sustenance to the creatures created from the earth, giving them lips. They graze on the grasses growing from the earth. When an animal eats grass and grows fat, it becomes nourishment for humankind and vanishes.
But even the earth consumes and exploits humans when the soul departs and human vision fades. I have seen particles; each has opened its mouth. If I were to recount their sustenance, my words would continue endlessly. The sustenance of leaves is from His grace, dwelling in branches; His universal and encompassing generosity provides for all provisions. How can wheat sprout without provision?
This discourse has no end. I have spoken a portion of it; you will understand the rest. Know that the entire universe consists of that which eats and that which is eaten. Those who are eternal with Allah are turned towards Him and are acceptable to Him. This universe also continues to expand, as do those within it. Those who journey from this universe to that universe are eternal and everlasting.
This world also has no end, nor do those who love this world. If the people of that realm are eternal, they are united. They call it “Kerem” (generosity) when a human grants them the water of life to make themselves eternal. The possessor of Kerem is truly the one who possesses “Bakiyat-us salihat” (virtuous remnants). He has been saved from hundreds of calamities, dangers, and fears. Even if they were thousands, they would not be more than one.
Like those lost in dreams, they do not consider numbers. The eater and the eaten have a throat. The victor and the vanquished have reason and judgment. Allah gave the sustenance-giving rod and countless ropes, yet he did not grow fat or swell from it. His eating was not like that of an animal, nor is he an animal.
Allah granted the sustenance-giving rod so that every imagining being may eat near Him. The veil (maani) also has a throat. Allah sustains the maani. No creature exists from fish to fly without a mouth to draw in nourishment. When the nafs (ego) is freed from suspicion, it becomes a guest of sublime revelation.
When the throat of reason and heart is free from ideas, one finds pure sustenance that does not require digestion by the stomach. But know that its condition is to transform the temperament. For the death of the wicked is from a bad temperament. If a human’s temperament becomes accustomed to eating earth, it turns yellow and worsens. The person falls ill and becomes weak.
But if the bad temperament changes, evil disappears, and the face shines like a lamp. A wet nurse nourishes her child with various kinds of blessings. But when she weans him, she opens for him the path to hundreds of gardens and orchards. For the breast is a veil for that weak child, concealing thousands of blessings, thousands of meals, and thousands of loaves of bread.
In summary, our life depends on being weaned from the breast. Strive slowly to detach yourself from sustenance. Peace be upon you. A human consumes blood while in his mother’s womb; existence is realized through blood. The body finds vitality with blood. When he is weaned from blood, his nourishment becomes milk; when weaned from milk, he begins to eat food.
When he is weaned from food, the food is cut off, and he becomes a seeker of the hidden desired. If someone were to say to a child in his mother’s womb: “There exists a beautiful world outside, a vast expanse of land with countless blessings and endless foods; mountains, seas, plains, gardens, vineyards, meadows.”
“A magnificent sky, sunlight, moonlight, hundreds of shining stars. Winds blowing from the stars, the east, and the west adorn and beautify gardens and orchards.” Such wonders cannot be described in that world. Why are you in this dark place, full of hardship?” The child would deny these words, becoming an unbeliever, rejecting this embassy. The understanding of a blind man is far from comprehending it.
Just as he has never seen such a thing, his intellect cannot grasp it. This is what the people of the world are like. When an Abdal speaks to them about the other realm, “This world is a dark, narrow pit,” he says, “There exists a colorless, odorless realm outside this pit.” These words do not enter the ears of any of them.
For worldly greed is strong and great. Greed does not allow the ear to hear anything. Envy blinds the eye and prevents it from understanding anything. Just as that child in his mother’s womb craves blood, so that lower realm becomes his nourishment because he is attached to it. Greed makes him unable to hear words about this world.
You too are craving the beauty of this world, and this greed is a veil over the beauty of that eternal realm. The pleasures of this life, filled with pride, are distancing you from the life of truth. Know well that greed blinds you. Doubt obscures your nearness. Because of greed, falsehood appears to you as truth.
Greed causes blindness to increase within you. Restrain yourself from greed and step over that threshold. When you enter that door, you will be freed from sorrow and step into joy. Your inner eye will be enlightened; you will see the truth and be freed from the darkness of disbelief, and the light of faith will shine.