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وَآمِنُواْ بِمَآ أَنزَلْتُ مُصَدِّقاً لِّمَا مَعَكُمْ وَلاَ تَكُونُوۤاْ أَوَّلَ كَافِرٍ بِهِ وَلاَ تَشْتَرُواْ بِآيَٰتِي ثَمَناً قَلِيلاً وَإِيَّٰيَ فَٱتَّقُونِ
٤١
-Al-Baqarah ( البقرة )

Tafsir al-Tustari

…And fear Me When asked about this verse, Sahl replied:What He means by this is [their being aware] of His prior knowledge concerning them, that is, ‘You should never feel secure from the [divine] ruse (makr), nor of His act of giving respite (istidrāj), such that your hearts become complacent in the observance of your security in this world while you persist in falling short [in good works]; nor should you rely upon My leniency towards you in the matter of [not] hastening your punishment, in that same [false] sense of security, and in your delusion (ightirār) and heedlessness (ghafla), lest you perish.’ The Prophet said: ‘Had Jesus the son of Mary had greater certainty (yaqīn) he would have walked in the air as he walked on water.’ And truly our Prophet traversed the air on the Night Journey (Isrāʾ) due to the strength of the light of his certainty, [a certainty] which God, Exalted is He, granted to him from His light, as an increase in light to the light that he already possessed from God, Exalted is He. The Prophet also said: ‘If gnosis (maʿrifa) had remained firmly rooted in the heart of David and he had not slipped into negligence, he would not have fallen into disobedience.’ By my life, truly gnosis (maʿrifa) was enclosed within its own abodes (udrijat fī awṭānihā), in order that what was contained within God’s prior knowledge concerning him would befall him. This is because it [God’s prior knowledge] inevitably had to be manifested in his qualities, since God’s knowledge is a final decree that cannot change to other than what the All-Knowing knows, Mighty and Majestic is He. Indeed God, Mighty and Majestic is He, concealed [from David] in David’s realm, the light of certainty (nūr al-yaqīn) by which he could have perceived [with] the eye of certainty (ʿayn al-yaqīn) and the wholeness [of its vision], in order that His decree could thereby be fulfilled, Exalted is He. Do you not see that in reality the servant only beholds God by means of a subtle ‘substance’ (laṭīfa) from God, through its connection to his heart (bi-wuṣūlihā ilā-qalbihi). This subtle substance pertains to the attributes of the essence of his Lord. It is neither brought into being (mukawwana), nor created (makhlūqa), neither conjunct [with God] (mawṣūla), nor cut off [from Him] (maqṭūʿa). It is a secret (sirr) from a secret to a secret, an unseen [mystery] (ghayb) from an unseen to an unseen. Certainty is through God, and the servant finds certainty due to a cause that comes directly from Him to the servant, according to the measure of the gifts that God has apportioned him, and the wholeness (jumla) of his innermost heart (suwaydāʾ qalbihi).Faith has two abodes (waṭanān), and it is that which settles and does not leave. The light of certainty, [however] comes in momentary [flashes] and when it settles and takes root, it becomes faith. Thereafter certainty comes in flashes and increases in this manner indefinitely.

Tafsīr al-Tustarī, trans. Annabel Keeler and Ali Keeler
© 2021 Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, Amman, Jordan (http://www.aalalbayt.org) ® All Rights Reserved.
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