[3:183] Those same who said, 'God has already made covenant with us that we should not believe in any messenger until he bring us an offering to be devoured by fire'. Say: 'Messengers have come to you before me with clear proofs, and with that which you said. Why did you slay them, then, if you are truthful?'
They fabricated lies about God (s) in the excuse they put forth for leaving the faith, and they said, 'Verily we have been commanded not to believe anyone if he does not bring us an offering which he presents to the sky and a fire descends from it and takes the offering, and we see this by our own eyes'. God Most High said, 'Say to them that those who have come before me among the prophets (ʿa) have brought you what you have demanded of me in offering but you did not believe. If I were to accede to you in this, you would once again not believe. For anyone distanced by prior decrees, if the sun were to speak to him with a clear tongue or the mountains prostrate before him, and he were to see all this in a moment of truth, knowledge (ʿirfān) would still not enter his heart and he would only increase in doubt upon doubt.
[3:184] But if they deny you, so were denied messengers before you who came bearing clear proofs, and the Scriptures, and the Illuminating Book.
i.e., the habitual practice of the disbelievers was to deny the messengers. This was the custom of their ancestors and their descendents will in turn follow their way.
[3:185] Every soul shall taste of death; you shall surely be paid in full your wages on the Day of Resurrection. Whoever is moved away from the Fire and admitted to Paradise, will have triumphed, the life of this world is but the comfort of delusion.
i.e., the cup of death is placed in the palm of every living being. Whoever's soul finds it sweet and agreeable is brought to the intoxication of ecstatic finding. Whoever swallows it with a frowning face falls into the abyss of rejection and is branded by the burning of obstruction, and then the Day of the Resurrection. Those who are protected from the Fire have reached the greatest repose and those who are roasted in the blazing fire have fallen into the greatest tribulation.
The life of this world is but the comfort of delusion because what is coming is nigh.
[3:186] You shall surely be tried in your property; and in your selves, and you shall bear from those who were given the Scripture before you, and from those who are idolaters, much hurt, but if you are patient, and fear - surely that is true resolve.
He spared them the greater part of the occasions of harm in alerting them to their coming before the attacks. He taught them that the better of the two affairs for them was to prefer patience and to choose to be calm under the streams of the decrees.
[3:187] And when God made covenant with those who had been given the Scripture, 'You shall expound it to people, and not conceal it'. But they rejected it behind their backs, and bought it with a small price; how evil is what they have bought!
He said that they made pledges to not fail in their living up to [the Scripture], but they broke the ties of the covenant by what they turned to in disbelief. Then it became clear that the comfortable substitutions they took in exchange for leaving religion would have no blessings for them.
[3:188] Do not reckon that those who rejoice in what they have brought, and who love to be praised for what they have not done - do not reckon them secure from the chastisement; there shall be a painful chastisement for them.
Surely those whose hearts hold to viewing the creation, there is no portion for them in His secret. Do not think that their punishment will be delayed to the Day of Resurrection. No, they are not secure from the punishment right now. What punishment is more intense than being returned to creation and veiled from the Real?
[3:189] To God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, and God has power over all things.
The allusion in this verse is to His lack of need for what is in engendered existence. How could He have any need of them? But they will not find any substitute for Him, or any equivalent.
[3:190-3:191] Surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the alternation of night and day, there are signs for people of pith. * Those who remember God, standing and sitting and on their sides,
The Real (s) speaks to ordinary people through signs containing admonitions and reports, while He speaks to the elect with regards to their souls. He (s) said: We shall show them Our signs in the horizons and in their own souls (41:53). The outer signs lead to the knowledge of certainty (ʿilm al-yaqīn) while the inner signs lead to the essence of certainty (ʿayn al-yaqīn).
The allusion to the alternation of night and day is to the alternation of the nights of the servants. The nights of the people of communion are short and the nights of the people of separation are long. [One person] said this:
Months pass -
we have not noticed
their midpoints
or ends.
And he said:
Your morning is drunkenness
and the night is a hangover.
You slept while
the days of happiness are short.
The second one said:
Nights after the travelers left
have long shapes.
[Now] the night of the lovers
is long.
The third one had nothing to say about the length or brevity of the night, for he said, because of what overwhelmed him:
How should I know
whether the night was long or not?
How can one
who is roasting know that?
If I had been occupied
with the length of the night,
I would have been deprived
of watching the stars.
For people of pith: The people of pith are those whose intellects have been kept sound from the drunkenness of forgetfulness. The sign of one who is like that is that his gaze will be through the Real. When he gazes from the Real to the Real, his gaze is direct. But when he gazes from the creation to the Real, his characteristic is the opposite and his thoughts are altered, causing confusion.
Those who remember God, standing and sitting: Remembrance has claimed every one of their moments, so that if they stand it is in remembrance of Him. If they sit or sleep or prostrate, all of their states are consumed in the realities of remembrance. They stand in the proper manner of remembering Him and they refrain from [literally, 'sit from'] opposing His command. They stand by means of the clarity of states but refrain from observing them or claiming anything concerning them. They remember God standing on the carpet of service, and then they sit on the carpet of nearness. Those who are not safe in the beginning of their standing from negligence will not be safe in their sitting in the end in the quality of presence (ḥu?ūr). Remembrance is the path (?arīq) of the Real (s). The aspirants (murīdūn) cannot travel a path that is more sound or clear than the path of remembrance. If there were only His words, 'I sit among those who remember Me', concerning it, that would be sufficient.
Those who remember are of several types and that is because of the difference in their states. There is a remembrance which causes the contraction (qab?) of the one who remembers because of what he remembers of a prior deficiency of his, or something ugly which came from him, so his embarrassment holds him back from his remembrance. That is a remembrance of contraction (qab?). There is a remembrance which causes the expansion (bas?) of the one who remembers because of what he finds in the pleasures of remembrance, and then from the approach of the Real to him in the beauty of His drawing him close to Him. There is the one who remembers who is effaced in the witnessing of what he remembers. The remembrance flows from his tongue habitually and his heart has been cut off in what has appeared to it. There is the one who remembers who is the locus for exaltation, and he abstains from remembering Him and considers the mentioning of Him unclean. It is as if, because of his adopting contemptibility with regards to [remembrance], he does not want there to be any praise for Him in the world and the Hereafter, nor remaining, nor being, nor splendor. Their speaker said:
I cannot remember you
without an anxiety that curses me,
my heart, my spirit, my innermost self
upon remembering you.
It is as if a lookout from you
called to me,
'Watch out!', 'woe unto you!'
and 'beware of this remembrance!'
Remembrance is the sign of divine friendship (walāya), the clear evidence of communion (wusla), the verification of desire (irāda), the mark of the soundness of the beginning and the indicator of the purity of the end. There is nothing beyond remembrance. All of the praiseworthy qualities return to remembrance and arise from it.
[3:191 cont'd] and reflect upon the creation of the heavens and the earth: 'Our Lord, You have not created this in vain.
Reflection is the attribute of every seeker and its fruit is union, provided there is knowledge. When reflection becomes free of defects, its possessor will arrive at the watering places of realization. When he has obtained witnessing and presence, he will rise from reflection to the outer limits of remembrance and remembrance is endless. Then the ascetics (zāhidūn) reflect upon the passing away of the present world and the insignificance of its promise to those who seek it, and by that reflection they increase in their asceticism towards it. The worshippers (ʿābidūn) reflect upon the beautiful reward, and they increase in their eagerness and longing for it. Those who know (ʿārifūn) reflect upon blessings and kindnesses, and they increase in their love for the Real (s).
[3:191 cont'd] Glory be to You! So guard us against the chastisement of the Fire.
The glorification (tasbīḥ) alludes to the swimming (sabḥ) of the innermost selves in the sea of grandeur.