Surah 33: al-Aḥzāb
33:11 There it was that the faithful were afflicted and shaken with an intense shaking.
Muṣ?afā reported that the Real undertakes to try His friends, just as you undertake to give food and drink to the ill. He said that in the highest paradises there are many degrees and domiciles that the servants can never reach by their own effort. The trials that the Exalted Lord assigns to them in this world convey them there.
A report has come that one day God's Messenger was gazing at the sky and laughing. He said that he was marveling at the lordly ruling and the divine decree concerning the faithful servants: If He commands blessings for them, they approve, and their good lies in that. If He commands trial, they approve, and their goods lies in that. In other words, they are patient in trial, they show gratitude for blessings, and in both they find the good.
It has been said that the Real divided Adam's progeny into one thousand kinds and let them look at the carpet of love. The desire for love rose up in all of them. Then He adorned this world and displayed it to them. When they saw its embellishments and splendors, they became drunk and entranced and remained with this world, except for one group, who stayed on love's carpet and stuck up their heads in their claim.
Then He divided this group into one thousand kinds and displayed the afterworld to them. When they saw the everlasting joy and bliss, the spreading shade and pouring water [56:30-31], the houris and the castles, they were entranced by it and stayed with it, except for one group who stayed on the carpet and sought the treasuries of recognizing Him.
The address came from the side of all-compellingness, the Exalted Threshold, “What are you seeking and why are you staying?”
They said, “Surely Thou knowest what we desire [11:79]. O Lord! You are the tongue of the tongueless, You are the knower of the secrets and the hidden. You Yourself know what we want.”
We have a reckoning other than that of the world's folk,
we have an intoxicant other than wine.
The Exalted Lord took them to the top of the lane of trial and showed them its deserts and perils. That one kind became a thousand kinds, and they all turned away from the kiblah of trial, saying, “This is not our work. We do not have the capacity to carry this burden.” One group, however, did not turn away and, like the passionate, entered the lane of trial. They did not think of trial or suffering. They said, “It is enough good fortune for us that we carry grief for You and that we suffer the sorrow of Your trial.”
Who am I to put on the cloak of loyalty to You,
or to have my eyes carry the burden of Your disloyalty?
But, if You issue the decree to my body, heart, and spirit,
I will pull all three dancing into Your love.
Only those who recognize Him know the measure of pain for Him. If someone does not recognize Him, how will he know the measure?
The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, in pain I lament in the fear that the pain will cease. Anyone who laments at the Friend's blows is unmanly in love for the Friend.”
O chevalier, if you have the capacity and gall for this work, then set out on the road! Drink the wine of trial and call the Friend to witness. Otherwise, enjoy your well-being and stop talking. No one ever sacrificed himself by faint-heartedness or distinguished himself by leaning on water and clay. You can't be a pearl-diver when you fear for your life, and you can't distinguish yourself by leaning on water and clay. Either take no heed of life, or don't tangle with yourself.