ʿAbd al-Raʾūf

The person whom Allah has made a locus of His gentleness and mercy shows mercy and compassion to the people whom Allah has created. However, situations involving the legal punishments (ḥudūd, sharia-prescribed penalties) are an exception. For according to this, the ḥudūd (legal penalties) and the situations in which a servant has committed a sin requiring punishment, even though they outwardly appear to be punishment, in reality occur by Allah's decree and judgment as a mercy to His servant. Only those who have tasted the experience of maʿrifa (gnosis, experiential knowledge of God), the ahass al-khawass (the most select of the elite), can understand this. Outwardly, the application of the ḥadd (legal penalty) to him is, inwardly, nothing other than the very mercy shown to him. (Kāshānī, 126; Jāmiʿ, 12)