2:148 Everyone has a direction to which he turns.
The creatures have five kiblahs. First is the Throne, second the Footstool, third the Inhabited House, fourth the Holy House [Jerusalem], and fifth the Kaabah. The Throne is the kiblah of the angels who carry it. The Footstool is the kiblah of the cherubim. The Inhabited House is the kiblah of the spirituals. The Holy House is the kiblah of the prophets. The Kaabah is the kiblah of the faithful. The Throne is of light, the Footstool of gold, the Inhabited House of carnelian, the Holy House of marble, and the Kaabah of stone.
This is an allusion for the faithful servant: "If you cannot come to the Throne to circumambulate, or to the Footstool to visit, or to the Inhabited House to worship, or to the Holy House to serve, then at least you can turn your face five times a day toward this stone, which is the kiblah of the faithful, and receive the reward for all of them."
Everyone has a direction. One of them has said that the allusion here is this: "All people have been distracted from Me by something that has come between Me and them. So, O believers, belong to Me and be through Me."
In terms of allusion, He is saying, "All the people have turned away from Me. They have become familiar with others without Me. They have made their sweetheart other than Me. They have accepted the other as a beloved.
"You who are the chevaliers of the Tariqah and claim to love Me, lift up your eyes from anything beneath Me, even if it be the highest paradise. Then you will go straight in following the Sunnah and conduct of Muṣ?afā and you will perform the rightful due of emulating that paragon of the world. For, as the greatest of the prophets, his conduct was to turn his eyes away from all beings and not to see any refuge nor to approve of any resting place other than the shelter of Unity."
When a man wears down his spirit in passion's road
he'd best incline toward none but the Friend.
In passion's road the passionate
must not think of hell or paradise.
When someone puts himself right in following Muṣ?afā, the candle of friendship with the Real will be lit in his road and he will never fall away from friendship's avenue. To this is the allusion in the verse, "Follow me; God will love you" [3:31]. Whenever someone goes straight on friendship's avenue, he will be secure from all the directions that are the kiblahs of the mimickers. One of the distracted said in his state,
"So what if I don't have the world's kiblah-
my kiblah is the Beloved's lane, just that.
Take this world, that world, and all that exists-
the passionate have the Beloved's face, just that."
Ḥallāj alluded to the kiblahs of the mimickers when he said, "The desirers have been turned over to what they desire." Everyone has been sat down with his own beloved.
The truth of this work is that all creatures have claimed friendship with the Real, but there was no one who did not want to be someone in His court.
Whoever finds a name for himself finds it from that Court-
belong to Him, brother, and think of no one else.
Since all claim friendship with the Real, He strikes them with the touchstone of trial in order to show them to themselves without Him. He threw something into them and made it their kiblah, so they turned their faces to it. In one it was wealth, in another position, in another a spouse, in another a lovely face, in another boasting, in another knowledge, in another renunciation, in another worship, in another fancy. He threw all these into the people, so they busied themselves with them, and no one spoke of Him. They all stayed empty of the road of seeking Him.
This is why Abu Yazīd Bas?āmī said, "I passed by His gate, but I did not see any crowding there. The folk of this world were veiled by this world, the folk of the afterworld were veiled by the afterworld, and the Sufi claimants were veiled by eating, drinking, and begging. There were others among them of a higher level who were veiled by music and lovely faces. But the great leaders of the Sufis were not veiled by any of these. Rather, I saw that they were bewildered and intoxicated."
The Pir of the Tariqah said something with the taste of these words: "I recognize the drinking place, but I'm not able to drink. Heart-thirsty, I weep in hope of a drop. The fountain cannot quench me-I'm seeking the ocean. I passed by a thousand springs and rivers in hopes of finding the ocean. Have you ever seen someone drowning in fire? I'm like that. Have you ever seen someone thirsty in a lake? That's what I am. I'm exactly like someone lost in the desert. I keep on saying, 'Help! I'm at wit's end! I've lost my heart!'"