[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.