2:219 They ask thee about wine and gambling.... And they ask thee what they should expend.
God has servants on the earth who drink the wine of recognition and are drunk from the cup of love. There is no more than a whiff of this wine's reality in this world, and nothing but a show of that drunkenness, for this world is a prison, and what can a prison put up with? Today there is no more than that. Nonetheless, wait until tomorrow, the place of the togetherness of repose and ease [56:89], the arena of union with the Beloved, when the servants are gazing upon the Real.
Hope for union with you has added to my life.
What can union itself be, when hope does that!?
A man in turmoil entered the shop of a wine merchant with one dirham. He said, “Give me wine for this dirham.”
The merchant replied, “There's no wine left.”
The man said, “I'm already in turmoil. I can't tolerate wine's reality. Show me a drop so I may smell it-you'll see how drunk I become and what turmoil I'll stir up.”
Glory be to God! What is this lightning that has shone from the Beginningless! It has burnt up the two worlds and nothing remains.
To someone He gave the wine of bewilderment from the cup of awe, and he became drunk with bewilderment. He said,
“I am bewildered in Thee, take my hand,
O guide of those bewildered in Thee!”
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The work is difficult-how can I make it easy?
The pain has no cure-how can I find a remedy?
I've become secure from the headache of empty words-
what can I do with the stories of the drunkards?
To someone else He gave the wine of recognition from the storeroom of hope. At the top of the lane of yearning he kept on saying in hope of union,
“One day luck will enter the door of my house,
one day the sun of elation will rise over me.
One day You will glance in my direction,
one day this grief of mine will come to an end!”
To someone else He gave the wine of union from the cup of love. He showed him the way to the carpet of bold expansiveness and gave him a spot on the leaning place of intimacy. With joyful disdain and coquetry he said,
“On the branch of revelry, we're Your nightingales.
Our hearts are devoted to singing about You.
Don't let us go, for we're Your helpers!
Pass over our sins, for we're drunk with You.”
Still another was so busy seeing the Cupbearer that he paid no attention to the wine!
You poured me a cup and made me drunk!
So I'm drunk from You, not the cup.
The women of Egypt blamed Zulaykhā for her passion toward Joseph, but when they reached the contemplation of Joseph, they became so selfless that they cut their hands and tore their clothing. The drunkenness of contemplating Joseph so overcame them that they were not aware of cutting their hands or tearing their clothes. Jacob had the same state. The overpowering force of his yearning to see Joseph was such that wherever he looked, he saw Joseph, and whenever he talked, he spoke of Joseph.
With whomever I speak, whether I want it or not,
your name comes to my mouth from the first.
One day Gabriel came and said, “No longer bring Joseph's name to your tongue, for that is the command.” Then whenever Jacob met anyone, he would say, “What is your name?” Perhaps there would appear in the midst someone named Joseph, and he would find consolation in that.
I want a heart for choosing only You,
a spirit for breathing the pain of Your passion,
A body for desiring only Your love,
an eye for seeing You and only You.
And they ask thee what they should expend. The lords of the meanings have said that there are three sorts of asking: One is the asking of assertion and making known. Thus the Exalted Lord says, “So, by thy Lord, We shall surely ask all of them about what they were doing” [15:92-93]. The Prophet alluded to this when he said, “On the day of resurrection the servant will stay on his feet until he is asked about four things: about his youth and how he wasted it, about his lifespan and how he ruined it, about his wealth and whence he gathered it and where he spent it, and about how he put into practice what he knew.”
The second asking is that of harassment. Thus the estranged asked Muṣ?afā when the resurrection would be, but they themselves had no faith in the resurrection. They asked in order to harass him. Thus He says, “They ask thee about the Hour, when it will come” [7:187]. So also are His words, “They ask thee about the mountains” [20:105].
The third is seeking for understanding and searching for right guidance, as He says in this verse: “They ask thee about wine and gambling, … and they ask thee what they should expend.” They ask thee about the orphans [2:220]. They ask thee about menstruation [2:222]. All of these are asking in order to seek right guidance, and in this sort of asking people are diverse. One asks about states, and he hears the answer from the tongue of an intermediary. But he who asks about Him who transforms the states hears the answer without intermediary from the Exalted Presence with the attribute of generosity, for surely I am near' [2:186].
The Pir of the Tariqah said, “There are many at His door who want from Him, but those who want Him are few. There are many who talk of pain without His pain, but those who have the pain are few. In commentary it has come that the Lord of the worlds said, 'Some of you desire this world, and some of you desire the next world-where is someone who desires Me?'”