37:24 And halt them. Surely they will be questioned.
One group will be questioned by way of rebuke, and another group will be questioned because of chastisement. Those who are the folk of chastisement will be kept on the bridge of the Narrow Path and will be questioned before witnesses, while God is angry toward them. It will be said to them, "Today I have thrown your judgment back to you: Thy soul suffices thee today as a reckoner against thee [17:14]." Their black register and bad deeds will be held before their faces. It will be said, "When these are someone's works, what is his recompense?" Unwillingly they will say, "His recompense is the Fire." Then the call will come, "Enter it by your own judgment!"
It has been reported that when Pharaoh claimed Godhood and said, "I am your Lord the most high" [79:24], Gabriel came into his road in the form of a mortal man and asked him, "What do you say about a chieftain who pulls up his slave, gives him possessions, position, and blessings, and then makes him the headman and paragon for others, but the slave wants to be the paragon over his own chieftain. What is his recompense?"
Pharaoh said, "His recompense is that he be drowned in water so that others may take heed of him."
From the Exalted Presence the command came, "O Gabriel, remember this fatwa on the day when I pull him into the sea and drown him by his own fatwa."
As for the group who are questioned by way of rebuke and not because of chastisement, they are those who are faithful in belief, tawḥīd-voicers through the affection in their hearts and the truthfulness of their love, but they are sinners and have fallen short in their deeds. The Real will question them, but He will conceal their defects from the people. He will remind them of their sins, but He will not hold back His pardon and forgiveness from them, and He will question them in seclusion. A sound report says, "God will bring the person of faith close, then place His wing over him and curtain him. He will say, 'Do you recognize this sin? Do you recognize that sin?'
"He will say, 'Yes, my Lord,' until he confirms his sins and sees in himself that he will perish.
"He will say, 'I curtained them for you in the world, and I forgive you for them today.'"
Once Abū ʿUthmān Ḥīrī was talking about love. A youth stood up and said, "What is the path to His love?" What shall I do to reach His friendship
Abū ʿUthmān said, "Let go of your opposition!"
The youth said, "How can I claim to love Him if I have not let go of my opposition?" Then he stood up, shouted out, and wept.
Abū ʿUthmān said, "Truthful in love for Him, falling short in His rightfully due!" Outwardly he is among those who fall short, inwardly among the ranks of the friends.
O chevalier! If you are such that you fall short in your effort and deeds, strive not to fall short in the truthfulness of love and the pain of yearning, for truthfulness in love makes up for shortcoming in deeds, but full exertion in deeds does not make up for shortcoming in love.
When the angels counted out the defects of the Adamites, He said to them, "Surely I know what you do not know [2:30]. O angels, why do you look at the disloyalty in their deeds? Look at the limpidness of Our knowledge. O Iblis, why do you look at the fetid mud [15:26]? Look at the robe of Our attributes. Even if Our friends should slip and the hard cash of their practice should be adulterated by disobedience, I hold out the crucible of repentance: the repenters, the worshipers [9:112]. The wisdom in the slip is that when the servant looks at himself from the slip, he brings forth poverty. When he looks at Us from obedience, he brings forth boasting. The servant must always be going forth between poverty and boasting, he must be passing back and forth between fear and hope. In fear he weeps in expiation of sins, and in hope he is joyful at finding everlasting bliss."
This is why the Pir of the Tariqah said, "With reports I went forth seeking certainty, fear my resource, hope my companion. The goal was hidden from me and I was striving in the religion. All at once the lightning of self-disclosure flashed from ambush. With thought they see days like that, with the Friend like this."
When someone has this state and his traveling has this attribute, the final outcome of his work and the fruit of his passing days will be what the Exalted Lord says: