2:54 When Moses said to his people, “O my people, you have wronged your souls by taking up the calf, so kill your own souls! That is better for you with your Creator.”
Moses said to his people: “Take care not to suppose that your worship of the calf has harmed the majesty of the Self-Sufficient or that it is a defect for His kingship and lordhood. Rather, the harm and bad fortune belong to you. If something bad has happened, it has happened to you by your being held back from a Lord like Him. Otherwise, He has plenty of servants like you.
Sahl ʿAbdallāh Tustarī said, “God spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, and the exaltedness of the Lord God's speech made that mountain like a carnelian. Moses' turned his gaze to himself: 'Who is like me? For the God of the world and the world's folk is talking to me without intermediary, and my standing place has turned into carnelian!'
“God did not let that pass. He said, 'O Moses, look once right and left. What do you see?'
“Moses looked around and saw a thousand mountains of carnelian like Mount Sinai, on each mountain a man in the form of Moses, wearing a blanket like him, a hat on his head, a staff in hand, and talking to the Lord of the universe.” The tongue of Moses' state was saying,
“I fancied that you were one body with me.
How could I know that you're everyone's familiar?”
A poor man was seen whispering secretly with God and saying, “O God, approve of me as your lover. If You do not approve of me as a lover, approve of me as your servant. If You do not approve of my as a servant, approve of me as Your dog.” He was saying, “O Lord, accept me for friendship. If I am not worthy of friendship, accept me for servanthood. If I am not worthy of servanthood, accept me for doghood, so that I may be the dog of Your threshold.”
O friend, if you do not give me the forefront of respect,
at least keep me outside the door like the dogs.
So kill your own souls! That is better for you with your Creator. By way of inwardness, this is addressed to the chevaliers of the Tariqah: “Cut off the heads of your souls with the sword of struggle so that you may reach Me. Those who struggle in Us, We will guide them on Our paths [29:69].”
Be careful not to say that this killing the soul by way of struggle is easier than the killing that happened among the Children of Israel. Their killing was only once, and after that, everything was ease and repose. But these chevaliers have a killing at every hour and every moment.
He who dies and reaches ease is not dead-
the truly dead is dead among the living.
What is strange is that the more they see the blows of trial's sickle, the more their passion increases day by day. Like a moth with the candle, every day they are more troubled by their trouble.
You are my heart's light, though You pair me with fire,
my head's crown, though You keep me in dust,
As dear as the eye, though You keep me lowly-
You make me happy, though You keep me mourning.
It is as if every hour the postman of the Presence sends a message of inspiration from the Exalted Threshold to the spirit of these dear ones: “O chevaliers, the beginning of this work is killing and the end is joy. The outwardness of friendship is peril and its inwardness mystery. 'When someone loves Me, I kill him, and when I kill him, I am his wergild.'”
The wergild of him killed by hand is dinars,
the wergild of him killed by passion is seeing.