[3:133-134] And vie with one another hastening to forgiveness from your Lord, and to a garden as wide as the heavens and the earth that has been prepared for those who fear. * Who expend in prosperity and adversity, and restrain their rage, and pardon their fellow-men; and God loves those who are virtuous.
The meaning here is 'vie one another in acting in ways that will bring about forgiveness for you'. Hearts were tormented, imagining that that was a difficult matter, so [the Prophet] (ṣ) said: Remorse is repentance. Repentance brings about forgiveness because the one who disobeys is the one who is in need of forgiveness.
The people who vie with one another are of several types. Those who are worshippers vie with one another by their feet in acts of obedience. Those who have mystical knowledge (ʿārifūn) vie one another by their aspirations in acts of drawing near. Those who are disobedient vie one another by their remorse in choking on their grief. Whoever vies with others by his feet [in acts of obedience] finds His recompense. Whoever vies with others by his aspirations finds His nearness. Whoever vies with others by his remorse finds His mercy.
When He mentioned the garden, He described it by the vastness of its width, and in that there is information about its height because the height is comparable to the width. But when He mentioned forgiveness, he did not mention height or width, so some people have said that forgiveness is from the qualities of the Essence and is part of the meaning of mercy. According to this (way of thinking), His forgiveness is His decision (ḥukm) in passing over [the punishment] of the servant. It is His Speech (kalām), and the quality of the Essence is too holy for size and width. [On the other hand], those who say His forgiveness belongs with the Attributes of His acting say that because of the abundance of sins, He did not describe ultimate forgiveness, which would indicate His inclusion of all sins.
Who expend in prosperity and adversity: They do not hoard anything from God and prefer Him to all things. They expend their bodies in acts of obedience and all kinds of litanies and effort; their wealth in the spreading of good things and striving for acts of drawing near by different kinds of alms; their hearts in seeking and then continual observation; their spirits according to the purity of their objects of love and the fulfillment of the totality of states; and their innermost selves in witnessings in all moments, waiting for allusions to the things sought, exerting their utmost in hastening to the subtlety of things sought.
And restrain their rage: The pass over [the faults] of people because they regard them with the eye of kinship. Some people are forbearing with others, having come to know their sin and viewing them with the eye of superiority. Others restrain their rage in recognition that the Real (s) knows what they endure and so bearing the burden becomes easy for them. Others have passed away from the mortal human properties (aḥkām al-bashariyya) and have found the purest comforts in abasement (dhull) because their lower selves have fallen away and have been annihilated. Others see not even an atom of anything other [than God] in creation and performance, since they know that the One Who creates is God. Therefore their disputes and quarrels with anything other than God have disappeared, for when they have singled out Him alone as the cause of origination, they yield to His decree and with Him they see no other way other than submission to it. The Real (s) has bestowed upon them the coolness of contentment (ri?āÌ) and they stand for Him in the condition of harmony.
And pardon their fellow men: They see it as an obligation on themselves, not a favor from them to their fellow men. Their speaker said:
Many have thrown stones of harm
for my sake.
I have not found any escape
except compassion for them.
God loves those who are virtuous: Virtuousness is that you worship God as if you see Him, and this is the right conduct with the Real. As for right conduct with people, virtuousness is that you give up your right (ḥaqq) entirely, to the amount one deserves; that you meet a person half way; and that you do not hold any favors against him in that.