6:1 Praise belongs to God who created the heavens and the earth and made the darknesses and the light.
He begins by lauding Himself, thereby praising Himself with His own beginningless laudation and reporting of His own self-sufficient brilliance and unitary elevation.
This is praise of the tremendous Lord, the wise Enactor. He is subsistent through His own subsistence, transcendent through His own attributes, magnificent through His own magnificence. His elevation is everlasting, His brilliance self-standing, His existence unitary, His being self-sufficient, His face majestic, His power perfect-Glory be to Him! And God is the One, the All-Subjugating [39:4], the Exalted, the all-compeller, the great, the transcendent.
One of the great ones of the religion and leaders of the Tariqah said, "Who is worthy of praise other than He whose power created the heavens and the earth and made the darknesses and the light?" Who is fitting and who is worthy to be praised for purity and named for greatness other than He who created heaven and earth, created day and night, set up heaven like a roof, adorned earth like a cradle, readied the day for your livelihood, and made the night your time of rest?
It has also been said that heaven is an allusion to the heaven of recognition, which is the hearts of the recognizers. Earth is an allusion to the earth of service, which is the souls of the worshipers. He decorated heaven with the form of the stars, adorned it with sun and moon, and made it the gazing place of the earth-dwellers. In the same way, He adorned the heaven of recognition with the sun of knowledge, the moon of tawḥīd, and the stars of thoughts, and then He made it the gazing-place of the heaven-dwellers. Whenever the satans aim to listen stealthily, they are subjugated from the heaven of exaltedness by the stoning of stars. This is why the Exalted Lord said, "We have made them stonings for the satans" [67:5]. In the same way, whenever Satan aims to instill disquiet, a lightning flashes in the heart of the faithful servant from the heaven of recognition and burns Satan. This is why He says, "Surely the godwary, when a visitation from Satan touches them, remember, and then they see clearly" [7:201].
On the expanse of the earth there are seven seas in which are benefits and livelihood for creatures. In the same way, in the earth of service there are seven seas in which are the felicity and salvation of the servant. Abū Ṭālib Makkī, author of Food of the Hearts, alluded to all of them by saying that the well-trodden paths of the wayfarers are seven seas: the intoxication of ecstasy, the lightning of unveiling, the bewilderment of witnessing, the light of proximity, the friendship of finding, the splendor of togetherness, and the reality of solitariness. He said that these seven seas have been placed at the top of the lane of tawḥīd. God placed the seven depths of hell in the road of paradise for the sake of the mimickers, and until the mimickers and the common people pass them by they will not reach paradise. In the same way, so long as the wayfarers on the road of tawḥīd have not passed over these seven seas, they will not reach the reality of tawḥīd.
And made the darknesses and the light. Wherever there is ignorance, all is darkness, and wherever there is knowledge, all is light. Wherever there are both knowledge and deeds, there is light upon light [24:35]. As long as the servant governs over his own work, he is in the darkness of ignorance and the wrap of heedlessness. As long as he delegates it, he is in the brightness of recognition and the light of guidance. Among the traditions has come the saying, "O child of Adam! You have two great tasks ahead of you. One is putting the commands and prohibitions to work, and this I have placed upon you. Cling to it! The other is governing over your best interests, and that I have accepted for Myself and lifted from you. Do not busy your heart with it. I govern My servants through My knowledge-surely of My servants, I am aware, seeing [35:31]."