24:11 Those who came with the slander are a band of you. Do not reckon it evil for you; rather, it is good for you. Against every man of them shall be the sin he has earned. Whosoever of them took upon himself most of it will have a great chastisement.
Know that God is jealous over the hearts of His elect servants. So when two of them take repose in each other, God brings to pass what will repel each from his companion and push him back to Himself. Thus have they sung,
When my spirit clings to a beloved and attaches to him,
the changing of the days steal him away from me.
Know, O chevalier, that the hearts of the Real's friends are inside the curtain of jealousy-today they listen inside the curtain of jealousy, and tomorrow they will see inside the curtain of jealousy.
The Real does not show your heart to anyone, for He keeps it inside the curtain of jealousy. In the grip of the attributes it sees the Real face-to-face on the carpet of joy in the presence of witnessing and seclusion, and the Real gazes upon it. If the heart looks back at another, at once it will see the courtesy-teaching whip.
Thus it happened to a great one of his time: He was exceedingly happy in a tremendous desire for God. He had complete ecstasy and his work was in total conformity with Him. Then once he heard the call of a bird, and he looked back toward the call. He went beneath the tree and was waiting for the bird to call again. A voice spoke to him, "You have dissolved God's bond! You have given away the key to My covenant, for you have become intimate with another!"
Muḥammad ibn Ḥassān said, "Once I was wandering in the mountain of Lebanon hoping to see one of the friends of the Real, one of the great ones who take up residence there. I saw a young man come out from a corner. The hot wind of summer had blown against him, and he was burnt and bedraggled. When he saw me, he turned away and entered in among the chestnut trees to conceal himself. I followed him. I said, 'O chevalier! Give me the benefit of some words, for I came in hope of that.'
"He answered, 'Beware! He is jealous. He does not love to see other than Himself in the heart of His servant.'"
Adam the Chosen was the center point of the compass of existence, the basis of the creation of mortal man, and the chosen of the empire. He turned his heart toward the bliss of paradise and gave himself over to it. From the Exalted Presence came jealousy's messenger: "Are you not ashamed to bring your aspiration down to Ri?wān's house of good fortune and to look back at something other than Me? Now that You have looked back at something else, take your bags and go down to the house of the decree. Throw down your head in incapacity and be broken by shortcoming in the quarry of trial, and wait for My decree!"
In the same way, Abraham's eyes looked back at Ishmael. He saw an exalted nobility and rectitude, the seed of bosom friendship, the oyster for the pearl of the chosen Muḥammad. His heart busied itself with him. The command came, "O My bosom friend! Did I keep you away from the Azari idols so that you could gaze on Ishmael's beauty? Now, take up knife and rope and sacrifice everything less than Me in the road. Two friendships cannot fit into one heart."
The same state happened for Muḥammad the Arab, the Master of Adam's children, the foremost of the prophets and messengers. He had busied a corner of his heart with ʿĀÌisha, so much so that when he was asked, "Which of the people do you love most?," he said "ʿĀÌisha."
In one of the reports it has come that ʿĀÌisha said, "O Messenger of God! I love you and I love being near to you!"
When they busied their hearts with love for each other, the ruling power of jealousy opened the curtain of exaltedness and, with the attribute of harshness, showed them a sliver of its ruling authority. The satans of mankind and jinn joined hands, and slanderous talk entered the midst. The lie fabricated by the hypocrites took flight. What is even more wondrous is that in those days the path of perspicacity was shut to Muṣ?afā lest the innocence of ʿĀÌisha should appear to him. He did not know the reality of that business until jealousy had driven home its severity and the turn of trial had come to an end.
The cause of this is that at the time of trial, God blocks the eyes of His friends' perspicacity in order to complete the trial. This is why Abraham did not distinguish and recognize the angels when he presented to them the roasted calf [11:69] and imagined them to be guests. Lot also did not recognize them as angels until they announced to him that they were angels.
Things reached the point that all the joy, whispered secrets, and gentleness that Muṣ?afā had with ʿĀÌisha came to a halt. Instead of calling her Ḥumayrā by way of endearment, he kept on saying, "How is your family?" ʿĀÌisha was kept away from nearness to Muṣ?afā at her father's house. She was ill, wailing, burning, weeping, her heart full of pain and her spirit full of remorse. She was looking at her own misery and abasement and saying, "I never fancied that anyone could suspect me of this or bring words like this to the tongue."
To Him who hears all sounds despite distance
I complained of my pain in remembrance.
Would that I knew, though hopes are many,
if he who left is aware of me-should I await his coming?
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The friend, it seems, is unaware of my grief,
and sleep no longer comes my way.
Each moment my night becomes darker-
O Lord, it seems the night has no dawn!
Then, when the verses of exoneration came down and the turn of trial came to an end, God's Messenger gave ʿĀÌisha the good news: "God has revealed your innocence."
Her mother and father said to her, "O ʿĀÌisha, betake yourself to God's Messenger and praise him."
She said, "No, by God, I will not betake myself to him, nor will I praise him, nor will I praise you two. Rather, I will praise God, who revealed my innocence."
She had given all of her heart to the Messenger's nearness and love such that she had said, "I love you and I love being near to you." After being immersed in that, she gave everything over to love for the Unity and busied herself with serving the Divine Threshold. She always used to say, "By the praise of God, not your praise!"
O chevalier, if the accusers of ʿĀÌisha had not voiced that calumny, the verses declaring her eminence would not have descended from heaven. If the Christians had not said, "The Messiah is the son of God" [9:30], Jesus would not have been given the generosity of "Surely I am the servant of God-He gave me the Book and made me a prophet" [19:30]. If the man of faith did not sin, he would not have been honored with the address, "Despair not of God's mercy" [39:53].
This is why, at the beginning of the story, He said, "Do not count it as evil for you; no, it is good for you. O ʿĀÌisha, do not fancy that what they said was bad for you. If it was bad, it was bad for them. Because of it they became worthy for great chastisement. For you it was all goodness and generosity, the perfection of reward and the elevation of rank."
It has come in the stories that paradise has an outskirts, and tomorrow the Exalted Lord will gather the faithful in the outskirts and, before they go into paradise, He will host them in a perfect invitation, a fitting bestowal of eminence, a complete caressing. Then He will place a favor on Muṣ?afā: "O Muḥammad, this invitation is the banquet for your contract of marriage with Mary, daughter of ʿImrān, and Āsiya daughter of Muzāḥim. O Muḥammad, I kept Mary away from companionship with men and brought forth from her a child without a man for the sake of your honor and jealousy. I kept Āsiya next to Pharaoh, but I took away Pharaoh's manliness and never let him be alone with her. I conveyed her to you pure, without defect, no one's hand having touched her."
Now listen to a subtle point: He honored Mary and Āsiya, who will be wives of Muṣ?afā tomorrow in the next world, and He praised them for purity and guarded them from the people. ʿĀÌisha the truthful, who was his wife in this world, who pleased him, who was his companion, whose love was in his heart, and who will be married to him tomorrow in paradise-what wonder that God honored her, sent Qur'anic verses and revelation exonerating her, and Himself gave witness to her purity and approved of her?