3:31 Say: If you love God, follow me; God will love you and forgive you your sins.
In terms of the Haqiqah this verse has another intimation and another taste. He is saying: "Whoever has fervor in his breast because of these words, say to him: 'Come out in my tracks, for all the work has been made ready in my footsteps. Do not bind your heart to intellect, for intellect is a watchman, not a leader to whom the reins should be given. It is not a road that you should set out in it. Do not seek what you are seeking from intellect, seek it from prophethood. Intellect carries the saddle-cloth of the religion's ruling. The exalted magnificence of the religion does not fit into the scales of intellect, not does it come under the confines of substance and accident.'"
Our religion is the same as the religion of the 124,000 prophets and messengers. The testimony of the Qur'an contains these words, for He says, "He has laid down for you as the religion that with which He counseled Noah" and so on [42:13].
That which holds up the level of our religion is two things: "God said" and "God's Messenger said." If everything that is the basis of the religion of the innovators-the substances, accidents, and specific differences of the Kalam experts and the determinations of their intellects-suddenly ceased to be in creation, came to nothing, and entered into the concealment of nonexistence, not an iota of deficiency would reach the threshold of the religion's exaltedness or the gate of the Sunnah's tremendousness. By the decree of good fortune this address has come from the Exalted Lord to the folk of the Sunnah: "Today I have perfected your religion for you and I have completed My blessings upon you" [5:3]. Here there is no room for the Kalam of the theologians and the meddling of the philosophizers, nor for their explanations of substance and accident.
The path of Kalam is the path of shadows,
and the worst shadows are the shadows of Kalam.
You should take the road of the folk of Hadith-
it is enough to have Muṣ?afā as imam.
Put away confusion, for the religion is "the religion of old women."
You should have that, and the religion of servants.
Say: If you love God, follow me. "Many thousands of years before the existence of the world and of Adam's dust, We gathered together the spirits of the creatures and made a covenant with the spirits of the prophets and messengers: 'Say: If you love God, follow me.' Whoever wants to serve the threshold of that chieftain of the empire and the center point of good fortune, from now on let him tighten his belt in serving him and assent to be his helper. This is why the Lord of the worlds recounted from them, 'They said, "We assent." He said, "So bear witness"' [3:81]. Then We took them all at once to the concealment of nonexistence. We took a few breaths in the playing field of power and decree, and one by one We gave them entrance into this world. Adam came and went, Abraham came and went, Moses came and went, Jesus came and went. In the same way, many thousands of prophets entered the dust. Then We called out, 'O Muḥammad! Now the playing field is empty, and the moment is yours.'"
That master took a step into the empire, and fourteen battlements fell from the castle of Caesar. In the Kaabah there were 360 idols and all of them fell on their faces. From the four corners of the world the call arose, "The truth has come, and falsehood has vanished away" [17:81]. The pearl of prophethood settled down on the carpet of exaltedness and the pavilion of messengerhood was pitched on the face of the earth, its ropes reaching from the east to the west of the world. The mask was lifted from the face of beauty, and because of the scattering of sweet words the world was filled with pearls and gems and adorned and trimmed with the noble character traits of the noble. Thus he said, "I was sent out with the all-comprehensive words to complete the noble character traits."
As soon as he lifted the mask from the face of his sanctified spirit,
every possessor of eyes detached spirit from heart.
In the whole ocean of love he saw no one's mark-
he opened one shell, and the ocean was filled with pearls.
Say: If you love God. The beginning of this verse goes back to what the Folk of the Tariqah call togetherness and dispersion. You love God is dispersion, and God will love you is togetherness. You love God is to serve the Shariah, and God will love you is the generosity of the Haqiqah.
Service on the part of the servant rises up to God. To this alludes the verse, "To Him ascend the goodly words" [35:10]. Generosity on the part of God comes down to the servant. To this alludes the verse, "We fortified their hearts" [18:14].
Whatever comes from the servant is dispersion-defective in motive and joined with scatteredness. Whatever comes from God is togetherness-pure of motive and free of every defect.
In the meaning of togetherness and dispersion, this verse is like the verse in which the Lord of the Worlds says, "When Moses came to Our appointed time and his Lord spoke to him" [7:143]. Moses came is the same as dispersion, and His Lord spoke to him is the same as togetherness.
Dispersion is the attribute of the folk of variegation, and togetherness is the attribute of the folk of stability.
Moses was in the station of variegation. Do you not see that when God spoke to him, he went from state to state, changed, and was variegated? For no one could gaze on His face.
Muṣ?afā was one of the folk of stability and stood in togetherness itself. At the time of vision and conversation, he remained in the state of resoluteness and stability, not one hair of his body changing. The fruit of Moses' path in dispersion was this: "And We brought him near as a confidant" [19:52]. The fruit of Muṣ?afā's attraction in togetherness itself was this: "Then He drew close, so He came down" [53:8]. In other words, "The Compeller, the Exalted Lord, drew close, so He came down." In such a way did the Messenger interpret it.
His words, "Follow me; God will love you": What a great difference between these words of the Beloved [Muḥammad], and those of the Bosom Friend [Abraham]: "Whoso follows me belongs to me" [14:36]. Love and bosom friendship are as far apart as these two sayings. The Bosom Friend said, "Whoever follows in my tracks belongs to me." The Beloved said, "Whoever follows in my tracks is God's beloved." There is no state higher than friendship, there are no days sweeter than the days of friendship.
Friendship has three way stations: caprice is the attribute of the body, love the attribute of the heart, and passion the attribute of the spirit. Caprice abides through the soul, love abides through the heart, and passion abides through the spirit. The soul is not empty of caprice, the heart not empty of love, and the spirit not empty of passion.
Passion is the home of the passionate, and the passionate the home of trial. Passion is the chastisement of the passionate, and the passionate the chastisement of trial.
In passion for You I will be a pure fire-worshiper-
I will be burnt in heart, roasted in spirit!
I will dwell in hot fire and water,
night and day I will be chastised!
The passion that is the spirit's attribute has three sorts: First is truthfulness, second drunkenness, third nonbeing. Truthfulness belongs to the recognizers, drunkenness to the enraptured, nonbeing to the selfless.
Truthfulness is that you do what you say, you have what you show, and you are whence you call out.
Drunkenness is unsettledness and rapture. When the gaze of the Protector becomes constant, the heart is enraptured. When the bestowal becomes great, it passes the capacity for reception.
Drunkenness belongs to the soul, the heart, and the spirit. When the wine forces itself on the intellect, the soul becomes drunk. When familiarity forces itself on awareness, the heart becomes drunk. When unveiling gains force over intimacy, the spirit becomes drunk. When the Cupbearer Himself is disclosed, being begins and drunkenness turns into sobriety.
O Sweetheart, I am not-make me be!
Pour me a draught of union's wine!
Sit with me alone and make me drunk!
When You're tired of me, flatten me with a fine point.
Nonbeing is that you become lost in friendship-you appear neither in this world, nor in that world. The two worlds become lost in friendship, and friendship becomes lost in the Friend. Now I cannot say that I am, nor can I say that He is.
Separating the eye from the Friend is not good-
either He's in the place of the eye, or the eye itself is He.
The Pir of the Tariqah said: "O Lord! I seek the Found, I say to the Seen, 'What do I have, what should I seek, when will I see, what should I say?' I am entranced by this seeking, I am seized by this speaking.
"O Lord! I did it myself, I bought it myself-I lit myself on fire. I called out from friendship, I gave my heart and spirit to joy.
"O Kind One! Now that I'm in the whirlpool, take my hand, for I've fallen hard."
From now on, SanāÌī, don't speak of passion's pain-
many like you are lost in passion's world.
Take some advice: Don't try so hard for passion,
for passion's pain stirs up dust from running water. [DS 1150]
Indeed, the yearner is killed by friendship, even if his head is on a pillow. Even finer is that someone killed by friendship is better than someone killed by the sword: Blood does not come from the one killed by friendship, nor smoke from the one burnt by it. The killed is content with the killing, and the burnt happy with the burning!
How You kill us and how we love You!
O marvel! How we love the killer!
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Though Your ache has put me in the fire,
how I will ache if Your ache ever leaves me!