2:152 So remember Me; I will remember you. And be grateful for Me and not ungrateful toward Me.
This is to remember the lovingly kind Friend, the heart's ease and the spirit's food. Remembrance is the polo-ball and familiarity with Him is the bat. Its steed is yearning and its field love. Burning for Him is the rose, and recognizing Him the garden.
This remembrance makes the Real apparent. It is joined with the Haqiqah and separate from mortal nature. This remembrance is the watering place for the tree of tawḥīd, the fruit and produce of which is friendship with the Real. This is why the Lord of the Worlds said, "My servant does not cease remembering Me, and I remembering him, until he is passionate for Me and I passionate for him."
This is not the remembrance of the tongue that you know-this is inside the spirit. The time came when Abū Yazīd was remembering little with the tongue. When he was asked about that, he said, "I am in wonder at this remembrance of the tongue, and I am more in wonder at him who is a stranger. What would a stranger be doing in the midst? Remembrance of Him is in the midst of the spirit."
In the story of passion for You, many are the hardships.
I'm with You, but many are the stations between us.
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I wonder at him who says, "I remember my Lord."
Should I forget, then remember what I forgot?
That great man of his time said in a whispered prayer, "O Lord! How can I remember You when You Yourself are remembering and I am crying out from forgetfulness. You are the remembrance and the remembered, You are the help in finding Yourself.
"O Lord! When someone reaches You, his sorrows are finished; when someone sees You, his spirit laughs. Who has more joy in the two worlds than he who remembers You? Who is more worthy of happiness in You than the servant?"
O poor man, you are remembering yourself. What do you know about remembering Him? Not having traveled, what do you know about the way stations? Not having seen the Friend, how can you be aware of His name and mark?
You are your own object of worship-you worship yourself:
whatever you do, you do it for yourself.
If you pass into the spirit, you will gain dignity. If one day you pass by the lane of the Haqiqah and remember Him in your secret core, you will see "What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what has never passed into the heart of mortal man."
Just once pass by Our lane
and gaze on Our subtle artisanry.
If you want roses, pass into the spirit
and make the heart aware of union with Us.
It is written in one of God's scriptures, "'My servant! You will remember Me when you have tried out the others. I am better for you than anyone else.' My servant, when you have seen and tested others, then you will know My worth and recognize My rightful due. In other words, once you have seen their lack of loving kindness and you have grasped My loving kindness and loyalty, then you will know that I am more lovingly kind to you than anyone else and I am more useful.
"'My servant, did I not remember you before you remembered Me?' My servant, one mark of My loving kindness is that I remembered you first, then you remembered Me.
"'Did I not love you before you loved Me?' First, I wanted you, then you wanted Me.
"'My servant, have you turned away from Me and toward another because you are ashamed to face Me? Where are you going? My door is open, My gifts are bestowed on you.'" This is as someone said:
You have all your brightness from Me,
you wander around, then you come back to Me.
By the exaltation of the Exalted! If you take one step in His path, a thousand generosities will reach you from Him. "From you a little service, from Him much blessing! From you a bit of obedience, from Him great mercy!"
The Prophet alluded to this in recounting from God: "When someone remembers Me in himself, I remember him in Myself; and when someone remembers Me in an assembly, I remember him in an assembly better than his. When someone comes near to Me by a span, I come near to him by a cubit, and when someone comes to Me walking, I come to him rushing."
And be grateful for Me and not ungrateful toward Me. It has been said that "I was grateful for Him" is gratitude at seeing blessings and in respect of activity. But "I was grateful to Him" is gratitude at seeing the Patron of Blessings and contemplating the Essence. The latter is the gratitude of the folk of the end, and the former is the gratitude of the companions of the beginning.
The Lord of the Worlds knew that most servants do not have the capacity for the gratitude of the folk of the end. He made the work easy for them and put aside the great gratitude. He did not say, "Be grateful to Me," but rather, "Be grateful for Me." In other words, be grateful for My blessings, recognize what is rightfully due for them, and then, by recognizing what is rightfully due, despair of what is rightfully due for Me in the contemplation of My Essence. That is not the work of water and clay, nor the talk of spirit and heart. Indeed, what weight has clay, what trace has heart, in this talk? Throw both into the ocean, and give union with the Beloved access to yourself!
How long with low aspiration will we make our homes in the spirit?
Let us pack our bags from spirit and aim for the Beloved!
The mark of "Fear not!" [41:30] has come out from behind the mask.
Lift your heads, cloak-wearers, so that we may throw away our spirits!