11:37 Make the ship through Our eyes and Our revelation.
In keeping with the Shariah and by virtue of the outward decree, a command came, "Build a ship from teak and sit in it so as to be delivered from the storm." In keeping with the Haqiqah and by virtue of special favor and the attribute of proximity, a call came to his secret core, "You have the ocean of the soul before you. It is a drowning, destructive ocean in which are waiting whirlpools full of danger and spirit-stealing sharks. You must cross it in order to reach the shore of security. Build a ship of self-purification in three levels: one fear, the second hope, and the third approval. Then attach to it the sail of truthfulness and set it toward the east wind of awareness of Me." This is why He said, "through Our eyes and Our revelation: I Myself will drive it as it should be driven and where it should be driven." He it is who makes you journey on land and sea [10:22]. And We carried them on land and sea [17:70].
By way of allusion He is saying, "My servant, turn over the governance of your work to Me, entrust yourself totally to Me, and keep your self-determination distant. You are being carried by My gentleness, and 'He who is carried by the generous does not fall. And if he does fall, he will find someone to take his hand.'"
This is just what Muṣ?afā said: "You indeed will be threading a bridge of fire. If one of you treads on a spark, the bridge will say, 'Your Lord has said, "Shelter him!"'' This is a great generosity and an infinite gentleness that the Exalted Lord will do for the disobedient servant tomorrow when he crosses the Narrow Path. "So, sometimes he will stop, sometime stumble," falling and getting up. The Exalted Lord knows that the servant has no one to come to his aid but He and no one to take his hand but He.
In the reports it is mentioned that God's mercy toward the servant is more than a mother's mercy toward her child. Supposing that a child's foot gets caught in the mud a thousand times, each time the mother will say, "Rise up, O soul of your mother!" Each time she will be even more tender and lovingly kind toward the child.
The Pir of the Tariqah said, "O God, as soon as Your love appeared, all loves became disloyalty. As soon as Your kindness appeared, all disloyalties became loyalty. O God, it was not that we had worth, and then You chose us, nor that we were worthless and then You chose wrongly. Rather, You gave us worth from Yourself when You chose us, and You concealed the defects that You saw."