18:60 When Moses said to his chevalier, “I will continue on until I reach the meeting place of the two seas.”
Moses had four journeys: One was the journey of flight, as God says recounting from Moses, “So I fled from you when I was afraid of you” [26:21]. The second was the journey of seeking on the night of the fire. That is His words, “He was called from the right bank of the watercourse” [28:30]. Third was the journey of revelry: “When Moses came to Our appointed time” [7:143]. Fourth was the journey of toil: “We have certainly met with weariness on this journey of ours” [18:62].
His journey of flight was at the beginning of the work. He fled from the enemy and turned his face toward Midian, having killed the Egyptian man, as the Exalted Lord says: “So Moses struck him and gave him the decree” [28:15]. When there is solicitude, how can prosperity and victory be ended? Since God had solicitude toward Moses' work, He excused him for that killing. He said, “Moses struck him and My decree reached him.” Then He said, “Moses had no sin in that. The sin belonged to the devil and the act was from the devil: He said, 'This is the work of Satan' [28:15].” In the same way, He will excuse the faithful servant with His bounty and convey His pardon to him. He says, “Satan made them slip for something they had earned, but God has surely pardoned them” [3:155]. God overlooked their sin. It was Satanic disquiet and the devil's work.
The second was the journey of seeking on the night of the fire. Moses set out seeking fire. What sort of fire was it, for it placed the whole world on fire! Wherever talk of Moses' fire goes, the whole world takes on the scent of passion because of its turmoil. Moses set off in search of fire and found light. These chevaliers set off in search of light and find fire. If the sweetness of listening to the Real's speech without intermediary reached Moses, what wonder is it that His friends catch a scent of that? If the fire of Moses was apparent, the fire of these chevaliers is hidden. If the fire of Moses was in a tree, the fire of these chevaliers is in the spirit. He who has it knows that this is so: All fires burn the body, but the fire of friendship burns the spirit. There is no patience with the spirit-burning fire.
The journey of revelry was mentioned [in the commentary] under His words, “When Moses came to Our appointed time” [7:143].
The fourth journey of Moses was the journey of toil. This is an allusion to the journey of the desirers at the beginning of desire, the journey of discipline and of tolerating the hardship of the rectification of three things: the soul, the disposition, and the heart.
The rectification of the soul is three things: bringing it from complaint to gratitude, from heedlessness to wakefulness, and from foolishness to awareness. The rectification of the disposition is three things: You come forth from annoyance to patience, from niggardliness to liberality, and from retribution to pardon. The rectification of the heart is three things: You come forth from the ruins of feeling secure to fear, from the calamity of despair to the blessing of hope, and from the tribulation of the heart's scatteredness to the heart's freedom.
The material of this rectification is three things: following knowledge, permitted food, and constant devotions. Its fruit is three things: a secret core adorned with awareness of the Patron, a spirit lit up with the love of eternity, and knowledge from God found without intermediary. This is why the Lord of the Worlds honors Khi?r and says about him,