55:19 He mixed the two oceans that meet together.
From the ocean of the secret core, the pearls of contemplation and face-to-face vision come forth, and from the ocean of the heart the coral of conformity and unveiling. That is His words, "From the two come forth pearls and coral" [55:22]. He prepared both of them in his makeup and kept the barrier of power between them: Between the two is an isthmus they do not overpass [55:20]. The one does not exert strength over the other, nor does the other make this one change.
It has also been said that the two oceans here are the hope and fear of the common Muslims, the contraction and expansion of the elect among the faithful, and the awe and intimacy of the prophets and the sincerely truthful. From the ocean of fear and hope come forth the pearls of renunciation and scrupulosity, from the ocean of contraction and expansion come the pearls of poverty and ecstasy, and from the ocean of awe and intimacy the pearl of annihilation shows its face so that they may be at ease with the way stations of subsistence. This is why He says, "From the two come forth pearls and coral."