24:30 Say to the faithful that they cast down their eyes.
That is, the eyes of the heads from illicit things and the eyes of the hearts away everything other than Him.
He commands the faithful to turn the eyes of the head away from illicit things and the eye of the secret core from everything less than the Real. They should throw the dust of nonbeing into the eyes of their own being, and from the tablet of their existence, they should read out reproach to the deceiving soul. Because of the pain of his own being, Muḥammad the Arab, the unique pearl of the oceans of messengerhood and the centerpiece of the necklace of evidence, used to lament, "Would that the Lord of Muḥammad had never created Muḥammad!" Those who were the preceders, the truthful, and the wayfarers of the road never paid the slightest attention to themselves. They were not happy with their own being and did not look at themselves with the eye of approval.
One day Junayd was sitting with Ruwaym when Shiblī came in, and Shiblī was exceedingly kind-hearted. When Junayd's words were finished, Ruwaym looked at Junayd and said, "He is a kind-hearted man, this Shiblī."
Junayd said, "You are talking about someone who is one of those who have been rejected by the Threshold." When Shiblī heard this, he was broken. He got up in shame and went outside.
Ruwaym, "Junayd, what were those words you said about Shiblī? You know the purity and truthfulness of his state."
Junayd, "Yes, Shiblī is one of the great ones at the Threshold. But, when you speak to Shiblī, do not speak to him from beneath the Throne, for His swords spill blood. Ruwaym, those words of yours concerning his purification were a sword aimed at his days to hamstring the steed of his practice. I made my words into a shield to repel that sword."
Say to the faithful that they cast down their eyes. One group do not look at this world, and they are the renunciants. Another group do not look at the realm of being, and they are the folk of recognition. Still another group are the companions of guarding and awe; just as they do not look at others with their hearts, so also they do not see themselves worthy of witnessing. Then the Real lifts the veil from them without any choice, endeavor, or self-exertion on their part.
The chevaliers of the Tariqah are those who do not look at the others. They do not open the eyes of their aspiration toward anyone. They have lost themselves in the magnificent wilderness of Unity. The have thrown the fire of longing into the hut of their existence and drowned in the ocean of awesomeness and the waves of confoundedness. Their intellects are bewildered, their hearts lost-without reason or rhyme, without name or sign.
They are rushing, running, wailing in the world,
in the mountain monasteries, in the desert caves.
Totally effaced in the ocean of bewilderment,
of themselves they recite for all, "No home, no possessions."
The Pir of the Tariqah said In his whispered prayers, "O God, You appeared to Your friends in gentleness so as to make a group drunk with the wine of intimacy and drown another group in the ocean of confoundedness. You made them hear the call up close, and You gave the mark from afar. You called the servants back, then You hid Yourself. You displayed Yourself from behind the curtain and disclosed Yourself in the mark of tremendousness so that You lost the chevaliers in the valley of confoundedness and made them dizzy in their incapacity. What is it that You have done to these helpless creatures!? The judge of these complainants is You, the giver of justice to these aid-seekers is You, the wergild of the slain is You, the hand-taker of the drowning is You, the guide of the lost is You. When will the lost come to the road? When will the drowning reach the shore? When will the wounded in spirit find ease? When will their hidden story find its answer? When will the night of their waiting reach its dawn?"