34:46 Say: "I admonish you with but one thing: that you stand up for God."
It is said that standing up for God is the center point of the compass of the Tariqah and the pivot of the secrets of the Haqiqah. Whoever leaves self-governance behind and places his work with the Real will reap the fruit of the goodly life [16:97]. Do you not see that the chevaliers who were the Companions of the Cave left themselves behind, put aside self-governance, and turned their faces toward the threshold of lordhood, as the Exalted Lord says: "We placed a tie on their hearts when they stood up" [18:14]. Look how He gave them a place in the cave of jealousy with the shade of kind favor and the embrace of friendship. The sunlight of form and its shining had not the gall to circle around their cave of jealousy. The light of the sun was incapable in relation to the lights of their secret cores, for the light of the sun is for brightening creation, and the lights of their secret cores were for recognizing the Real.
Let go of the moons, dimming or brightening-
we have a full moon to which all full moons are abased.
The light of the sun is the light of form, and the light of their hearts was the light of the secret core. When the radiance of the sunlight of form reached them, it pulled back its skirt from the shining radiance of their secret core's light. The Lord of the Worlds says, "Thou wouldst have thought them awake, but they were sleeping" [18:18]. This is the attribute of the Folk of the Tariqah. When you look at their outwardness, you see them busy in the playing fields of deeds. When you look at their secret cores, you see them detached in the gardens of the gentleness of the Possessor of Majesty. Outwardly active, inwardly they gaze on the gentleness of the Beginningless. With Thee alone we worship [1:5] they have bound the belt of struggle. With from Thee alone we ask for help [1:5] they have placed the crown of contemplation on their heads. On the inside they wear the undershirt of surrender, and on the outside they have covered themselves with the caftan of deeds.
Singling out the Companions of the Cave is the clearest evidence and the most lucid path to show that chosenness has no cause and being specified is not achieved by any means. A dog that took a few steps in the tracks of the Real's friends will be read about until the Resurrection: And their dog was stretching its paws at the doorstep [18:18]. So, when a Muslim becomes the companion of the Real's friends for seventy years, with burning and faith, and he takes the blackness of youth to the whiteness of old age, why do you have the opinion that the Real will make him despair on the Day of Resurrection? No, never, He will not do that.