28:22 When he turned his face toward Midian, he said, "Perhaps my Lord will guide me on the even way."
In what preceded all precedents, the scented garden of recognition was adorned with the trees of love. The playing field of bewilderment and love was placed in front of it and made its access-way. "The Garden is surrounded by disliked things." Whenever they wanted to bring someone into the garden of recognition, they first brought him into the playing field of bewilderment, and they made his head the polo-ball of tribulation. Thus he would taste the flavor of bewilderment and tribulation, and then he would reach the fragrance of love. This was the state of Moses, God's speaking companion.
When they wanted to garb him in the clothing of prophethood and take him to the presence of messengerhood and conversation, first they put him in the bend of trial's polo stick until he was cooked in those trials and troubles. Thus the Exalted Lord says, "We tried thee with trials" [20:40]. In other words: "We cooked you well with trial until you became limpid and immaculate."
He came out of Egypt fearful and trembling. In terror of his enemy he was looking right and left, just as a fearful person does. That is His words, "So he left there, fearful and vigilant" [28:21]. In the end he wept to God and complained of his burning liver. He said, "My Lord, deliver me from the wrongdoing people" [28:21]. The Lord of the Worlds answered his supplication and kept him safe from the enemy. Tranquility came down into his heart and took up residence. It was said to his secret core, "Have no fear and no sorrow. The Lord who kept you under His protection and guarding and did not give you over to the enemy when you were an infant in Pharaoh's chamber and you were slapping his face will today also keep you in His protection and not give you over to the enemy."
Then he set off in the desert all at once, not aiming for Midian. The Exalted Lord threw him to Midian for the sake of a secret that He had prepared there. Shuʿayb was God's prophet and dwelled in Midian. He was a worshipful man, overcome by fear. In the moments of his seclusion he wept so much that he lost his eyesight from weeping, but the Exalted Lord gave him back his eyesight through a miracle. He still kept on weeping until he became blind again and the Exalted Lord again gave him eyesight. For the second time, for the third time, he kept on weeping until he lost his eyesight. Revelation came to him, "Why are you weeping so much, O Shuʿayb? If you fear hell, I have made you secure from hell, and if you hope for paradise, I have permitted that to you."
Shuʿayb said, "No, O Lord, but in yearning for You. I am not weeping in fear of hell or in hope of paradise, but I am burning in my wish for the Possessor of Majesty."
God revealed to him, "Because of this, I will put My prophet and speaking companion in your service for ten years."
When he turned his face toward Midian. In his person Moses went to Midian and fell into the service of Shuʿayb. In his heart he went toward the Real and fell into prophethood and messengerhood. He said, "Perhaps my Lord will guide me on the even way." In terms of allusion in the tongue of unveiling, the even way is the perseverance of the soul in service and the resting of the soul in straightness. Until the man traveling the road traverses the road's way stations, he will not reach the top of tawḥīd's lane.
At the beginning of the work when Abraham was brought to the threshold, he was sent to the lane of the star until he said, "This is my Lord" [6:76]. Then he left the lane of the star and entered the lane of the moon. He left the lane of the moon and entered the lane of the sun. He saw that every lane had a defect. In the lane of the star he saw the blight of change. In the lane of the moon he saw the fault of transition. In the lane of the sun he saw the defect of disappearance. He came to know that this is not the highway of straightness nor the top of tawḥīd's lane. All the roads were blocked for him. He stood with the feet of reflection at the top of bewilderment's lane, bewildered, languishing, seeking the Friend. Anyone who saw him would have said that he was captive to the dust at the top of friendship's lane.
The dust at the top of the Friend's lane has become jasmine-
everyone who passes by that dust becomes like me.
When Abraham saw that all the roads were blocked, he knew that the Presence is one. He cried out, "Surely I have turned my face toward Him who originated the heavens and the earth" [6:79]. The manly man is not he who rides on the highway when the road is open. The man is he who goes in the darkness of night on a narrow road without a guide to the top of the Friend's lane.