24:37 Men whom neither trade nor buying diverts from the remembrance of God.
He does not say that they do not trade and they do not buy. He says, "whom neither trade nor buying diverts from the remembrance of God." If it is possible to combine the two, there is no objection, but this is like something that cannot be done, except for the great ones, over whom affairs flow while they have been taken from them.
This is the attribute of men whose outward occupation does not hold them back from remembering God. Their outward self is with people while their inwardness is witnessing the names and attributes of the Real. They are men whose seeking is the balance, whose remembrance is the evidence, whose love is the path, and in whose eyes this world is small. They are men whose watchword is the remembrance of God, whose blanket is God's love, whose place and settledness is the threshold of God's gentleness, whose aspirations are free from any others, who are the beauty of Firdaws and the ornament of the Abode of Settledness, who are begrudged by the Emigrants and envied by the Helpers, and who walk on the earth while it boasts of them.
Men. These are men who have no crown or hat on their heads, and there is nothing in their hearts but God's friendship. In the lane of the Friend they have no friend or companions. "When the sought is great, assistants are few." What harm to them if in this world they are the specious coin of the bazaars? Their hearts are all hard cash. They are faulted by noblemen and rejected by neighbors, but their names are in the register of the friends. They are lifted up by gentleness, they are caressed by the All-Merciful, and their hearts are always gazing at the Real. They sit on the dust, they sleep on the earth, their hands are their pillow, the mosque is their house. What harm to them are this poverty and indigence? With one allusion of their eye, they bring rain for the world's folk; with one gaze of their heart, they rout the unbelievers; with one sorrow of their hearts, they bring Gabriel into the road. And let not thy eyes turn away from them [18:28].
Dhu'l-Nūn Miṣrī said, "There was a time when rain did not come and the people were suffering terribly because of the drought. A group went outside the city to pray for rain, and I went along with them. I saw Saʿdūn Majnūn and said to him, 'All these people that you see gathered here, hands raised in their need-what would it matter if you were to make an allusion?'
"He turned his face to heaven and said these words: 'By the rightful due of what happened last night!' He had still not finished the words when the rain began to pour." Thus you come to know that the allusion of a friend is dear to the Friend.