2:106 Whatever verse We abrogate or cause to be forgotten-We bring better than it or its like.
By way of allusion He is saying, “We never make you advance from the locus of servanthood without setting you down in the courtyards of freedom. We never remove from you any of the attributes of mortal nature without making you abide through one of the marks that give witness to the Divinity.”
In terms of allusion He is saying, “O paragon of the horizons, O messenger to jinn and men, O quintessence of predetermination, O luminous full moon, O totality of perfection, O kiblah of prosperity, O basis of bounteousness, O displayer of gentleness and majesty, O you whose branch of union is blooming and whose star of exaltedness is always shining, O you whose good fortune has gone beyond the clouds of being and become specific to the marks giving witness to the Lordhood and the confirmation of the Divinity! Instant by instant the work of your good fortune is advancing. What others have as crowns, you have as sandals.
“The sandals that your steed threw from its feet
became the crown of sultans-and may it ever be so! [DS 838]
“O paragon! Even though the stations beyond which We make you advance are the beautiful deeds of all the friends and the limpid, they are your ugly deeds as long as you remain within them. When you pass beyond them, ask forgiveness for them!”
Muṣ?afā said that he asked forgiveness for them seventy times a day: “My heart becomes clouded, so I ask forgiveness from God seventy times a day.”
Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq said, “Would that I could witness that for which God's Messenger asked forgiveness!”
Concerning His words, “Whatever verse We abrogate,” it has also been said, “That is, the servant is not transferred from a state without being given what is above and beyond it. “Whenever We abrogate any trace of worship, We replace it with one of the lights of servanthood. Whenever We abrogate one of the lights of servanthood, We put in its place something of the moons of servitude.'” So he continues, being transferred from the lower to the higher, until he falls under one of the attractions of the Real. And “One attraction from the Real is equivalent to all the deeds of jinn and men.”
When someone is lifted up by the court of Lordhood and received by the marks bearing witness to Divinity, Unity nurtures him in the domes of exaltation with the attribute of love and takes him from state to state, conveying him from this station to the next station until he falls under the attraction of the Real. After having been a traveler, he is snatched away. Then, wherever he may have gone in his whole life in the state of traveling, he is taken beyond that at the first step in the state of being pulled, for “One attraction from the Real is equivalent to all the deeds of jinn and men.” Indeed, just as He is not similar to anyone, so also His pulling is not similar to the traveling of the creatures. To the lords of traveling, He says, “Preserve the commands and prohibitions.” To the commands and prohibitions He says, “Preserve the lords of attraction, for in the world of realities the descendents of Adam remain alive through them. The well-trodden path of truthfulness is filled with the firm fixity of their feet.”
In the world of realities they are called “the strangers among the tribes”-like Bilāl from Abyssinia, Ṣuhayb from Byzantium, Salmān from Persia, and Uways from Qaran. How beautifully has this been said by that chevalier:
Nothing comes from a handful of frivolous seekers of leadership-
learn being a Muslim from Salmān and religion's pain from Abū Dardā.
[DS 55]
It is they who knew the worth of Muṣ?afā's Shariah and recognized the rightful due of his Sunnah. When the limpidness of the secret core of such sincerely truthful men shines on a thorn, it becomes the jasmine of the religion. If it shines on the obedient, they are accepted; if it shines on the disobedient, they are forgiven; and if it shines on the ungodly, they become friends. Thus it is told that Ḥātim Aṣamm and Shaqīq Balkhī went on a journey. An ungodly old man, a minstrel, became their companion in the road. Most of the time he was busy with the tools of corruption and the instruments of ungodliness. Ḥātim kept on waiting for Shaqīq to prevent him from doing that and to blame him, but he did not do so, and the journey came to an end. At the moment of parting, the ungodly old man said, “What kind of people are you? I have never seen anyone heavier. You never danced once, you never clapped your hands.”
Ḥātim said, “Excuse us. I am Ḥātim, and that's Shaqīq.”
When the old man heard their names, he fell to their feet in repentance and became their disciple, eventually becoming one of the friends. Afterwards Shaqīq said to Ḥātim, “I saw with the patience of Men and I hunted with the hunting of Men.”