40:15 Uplifter of degrees is He, Possessor of the Throne.
He uplifts the degrees of the disobedient to salvation, of the obedient to rewards, of the possessors of needs to sufficiency, of the friends to charismatic gifts, and of the recognizers to states of watchfulness and encounter.
He lifts up the degrees of the servants. He keeps each in a station and gives to each of them what is suitable for him. To the disobedient He gives salvation, to the obedient rewards, to the requesters sufficiencies, to the friends charismatic gifts, to the recognizers states of watchfulness and encounter.
The degrees of the faithful and the friends are first today and then tomorrow. Today they are in knowledge and faith, as He says, "He will lift up in degrees those among you who have faith and those who have been given knowledge" [58:11]. Tomorrow they will be in the garden of Ri?wān with repose and ease [56:89] in the neighborhood of the All-Merciful, as He says: "They are degrees with God" [3:163].
As for the degrees of the folk of form tomorrow in paradise, they are one thing, and the degrees of the folk of attributes are another thing, for the folk of form are one thing and the folk of attributes are another. The folk of form are in the valley of dispersion, the folk of attributes in the center point of togetherness. "The faithful indeed are siblings" [49:10]; this is in the world of form. As for what Muṣ?afā said, "The faithful are like one soul," that is in the world of attributes.
One of the nomad leaders came before Muṣ?afā and asked, "What has been put away for us in paradise, and how high will be our degrees?" This man was one of the folk of form.
God's Messenger replied, "'Therein are rivers of water unstaling' [47:15], and therein are such and such and so on." He counted out the flowing water, the roasted fowl, the various sorts of fruit, just as the Qur'an speaks of them.
Someone else, one of the folk of attributes, asked him about this meaning. God's Messenger knew he was a man of attributes, not a man of form, so he said, "Within it are what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what has never passed into the heart of any mortal."
Wait, O heart-rent dervish, until this bodily mold is broken apart by death and is turned into specks in the dust of the grave. It will be placed in the crucible of hell, from there taken to the River of Life and made pure, and from there to Firdaws and perfumed. It will be clothed in seventy robes. That robe will have one collar and seventy skirts, like a hundred-petalled rose. From it will come forth an emerald box. The collar will be one, the skirt one-hundred. Then the exalted embroidery of subsistence will be pulled over the clothing of your exaltedness. Sometimes the drink of ginger [76:17] will be given, sometimes the drink of camphor [76:5], sometimes the drink of Tasnīm [83:27]. The outward will have become the inward, and the inward the outward. The form will have become the heart, and the heart the form. Just as you know the Real today without suspicion, tomorrow you will see without ambiguity.
The Pir of the Tariqah said, "Little remains before what has been reported becomes face-to-face vision. The sun of union will shine from the rising place of finding, the water of contemplation will flow in the stream of gentle favor, the story of water and clay will be concealed, the beginningless Friend will appear face-to-face, and the eyes, heart, and spirit, all three, will gaze upon Him."
It has also been said that Uplifter of degrees is He means that He is high in attributes and majestic in measure. No one reaches His core, no one recognizes His measure, and no one perceives His extent. He took away His measure and kept His attributes in the veils of exaltedness so that no one exalted would reach His exaltation, no understanding would perceive His extent, no knower would know His measure, no one's attribute would be placed next to His attributes, no one would know His knowledge, no one would have His ability, and no one would reach His measure: They measured not God with the rightful due of His measure [22:74], which is to say that they did not show reverence with the rightful due of His reverence.
What familiarity has water and dust with Him who always was and always will be? What affinity has eternity with new arrival? How can the subsistent Real join with the trace of what undergoes annihilation? How can the prisoner of variegation reach the guise of stability? When He gives vision tomorrow, He will give it as a bestowal, not as is worthy. No eye is worthy of seeing Him, no ear is worthy of His speech, no heart is worthy of His recognition, no foot is worthy of His road, and no one is worthy of His path.
My eyes always want to see You,
my ears always want Your speech-
Both have high aspirations
but are not worthy of You.