2:5 Those are upon a guidance from their Lord.
Here you have the great triumph and the worthy praise. Here you have good fortune without end and generous bounty without limit. He has opened up the door of perspicacity for them and put into effect the gaze of solicitude inside their hearts. He has lit up the lamp of guidance in their hearts so that what is unseen for others is apparent to them. What for others is a report is for them face-to-face vision. Anas ibn Mālik said that he went before ʿUthmān ʿAffān, having seen in the road a woman and considered her beautiful traits. ʿUthmān said, “One of you who has entered in upon me has the traces of adultery appearing in his eyes.”
Anas said, “Is there revelation after God's Messenger?”
He said, “No, but there is insight, proof, and truthful perspicacity. The Prophet said, 'Be wary of the perspicacity of the man of faith, for he gazes with the light of God.'”
A pir was asked what perspicacity is. He answered, “Spirits that move about in the Dominion gazing on the meanings of the unseen things. Then they speak about the secrets of the Real with the speech of contemplation, not the speech of opinion and reckoning.” In this meaning someone sang,
May I be a ransom for the men dwelling in the Unseen,
their secret cores roaming in all that is there!
In the Unseen their secret cores crave from the Real
a locus of witnessing to which the people have no access.
They encounter the holy spirit in their secret cores
and in meaning they remain dwelling with it.
They are men who have proximity and presence in the Unseen,
while their souls have been slain by their finding.
Sarī Saqa?ī was Junayd's master. One day he said to Junayd, “Speak to the people and give them advice, for it is time for you to speak.”
Junayd said, “I did not see myself like that and saw no worthiness in myself. Then one night I saw Muṣ?afā in a dream, and it was the night before Friday. He said to me, 'Speak to the people!' That same night I got up and before morning went to the door of Sarī. I knocked at the door, and Sarī said, 'You will not assent to me before they tell you to do so?'”
The next day Junayd sat in the congregational mosque and news spread in the city that he was going to speak. A young Christian man came in disguise and said, “O shaykh! What is the meaning of the Messenger's saying, 'Be wary of the perspicacity of the man of faith, for he gazes with the light of God'?
Junayd looked down, then he lifted up his head to him and said, “Submit, for the time of your submission has arrived.” So the young man submitted.
Beware, do not object to their states, and do not deny their perspicacity, for this human substance is like a rusted mirror. As long as it has rust on its face, no form appears within it. When you polish it, all forms appear within it.
As long as the opaqueness of disobedience is on the faithful servant's heart, none of the mysteries of the Dominion will appear within it. When the rust of disobedience is removed from it, the mysteries of the Dominion and the states of the Unseen will begin to show themselves. This is the “unveiling” of the heart.
Just as the heart has unveiling, the spirit has face-to-face vision. Unveiling is the lifting of the barriers between the heart and the Real, and face-to-face vision is mutual seeing. As long as someone is with the heart, he has reports. When he reaches the spirit, he reaches face-to-face vision.
The knower of the Path and leader of the Folk of the Haqiqah, Shaykh al-Islām Anṣārī, has let out the secret here in the tongue of unveiling and lifted from it the seal of jealousy. He said:
“On the first day of the beginningless covenant a tale unfolded between heart and spirit. No one was there-not Adam and Eve, not water and clay. The Real was present, the Haqiqah was there. And We bore witness to their judgment [21:78].
“No one has heard such a marvelous tale. The heart was the questioner, the spirit the mufti. The heart had an intermediary in the midst, but the spirit had a face-to-face report. The heart asked a thousand questions from the spirit, and they all turned to nothing-with one word the spirit answered them all.
“For its part the heart did not have its fill of asking, nor the spirit of answering. The questions were not about deeds, nor were the answers about rewards. Whenever the heart asked about reports, the spirit answered from face-to-face vision. Finally, the heart came face-to-face. Then it brought back the report to water and clay.
“If you have the capacity to hear, listen. If not, don't hurry to deny, just stay silent.
“The heart asked the spirit, 'What is loyalty? What is annihilation? What is subsistence?'
“The spirit answered, 'Loyalty is to bind the belt of love, annihilation is to be freed from selfhood, subsistence is to reach the reality of the Real.'
“The heart asked, 'Who is the stranger, who the wage-earner, who the familiar?'
“The spirit replied, 'The stranger is the one driven away, the wage-earner has stayed on the road, the familiar has been called.'
“The heart asked the spirit, 'What is face-to-face vision? What is love? What is joy?'
“The spirit replied, 'Face-to-face vision is the resurrection, love is fire mixed with blood, joy is the handhold of need.'
“The heart said, 'Add to that.'
“The spirit answered, 'Face-to-face vision does not get along with explanation, love is paired with jealousy, and wherever there is joy, the story is long.'
“The heart said, 'Add to that.'
“The spirit replied, 'Face-to-face vision cannot be explained, love takes the sleeper in secret, and anyone joyful in the Beloved will never die.'
“The heart asked, 'Has anyone ever reached that day by himself?'
“The spirit replied, 'I asked that from the Real. The Real said, “Finding Me is by My solicitude. Fancying that you can reach Me by yourself is sin.”'
“The heart asked, 'Is there permission for one glance? I am tired of the spokesman and the reports.'
“The spirit replied, 'Here we have a sleeper, running water, his fingers in his ears. Will he hear the sound of the Pool of Paradise?'
“The discussion of heart and spirit was cut off. The Real began to speak, and spirit and heart listened. The tale unfolded until the words became elevated and the place was emptied of listeners.
“Now the heart finds no rest from joy, and the spirit from gentleness. The heart is in the grasp of generosity, the spirit in the embrace of the sanctuary. No mark of the heart appears, no trace of the spirit. Nonbeing is lost in being, and reports in face-to-face vision. From beginning to end the tale of tawḥīd of simply this. 'I am his hearing through which he hears' gives witness that this is so.”