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جَنَّاتِ عَدْنٍ ٱلَّتِي وَعَدَ ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنُ عِبَادَهُ بِٱلْغَيْبِ إِنَّهُ كَانَ وَعْدُهُ مَأْتِيّاً
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-Maryam ( مريم )

Tafsir al-Tustari

Gardens of Eden, which the Compassionate One has promised to His servants in the unseen…This means the ‘visual’ beholding (muʿāyana) of God, in the sense of nearness which He appointed between Him and them, so that the servant sees his heart in the proximity of God, witnessed (mashhūd) in the unseen of the unseen (ghayb al-ghayb). The unseen of the unseen is the spiritual self (nafs al-rūḥ), the understanding of the intellect (fahm al-ʿaql), and the discernmentof meaning by the heart (fiṭnat al-murād bi’l-qalb). The spiritual self is the seat of the intellect (ʿaql), which is the seat of the Holy (al-Quds). This Holy is linked with the Throne (ʿarsh), and is one of the names of the Throne. God, Exalted is He, apportioned for the self one part in a thousand parts [i.e. one thousandth] of the spirit (rūḥ) — or rather, even less than that. When the will (irāda) of the spirit becomes the will of the self (nafs) [as in the spiritual self], they are given between them discernment (fiṭna) and intuition (dhihn). Discernment is the guide (imām) of understanding (fahm), and understanding is the guide of intuition (dhihn). Discernment (fiṭna) is life (ḥayāt) and understanding (fahm) is livelihood (ʿaysh).There are but two [kinds of] men who understand the Word [of God]: the first wants to understand so he can speak about it from a position [of authority] and his lot is nothing but that; the other hears it and is occupied with acting upon it to the exclusion of all else. This person is rarer than red sulphur (al-kibrīt al-aḥmar) and more precious than all that is dear. He is among those who love one another for God’s sake (al-mutaḥābbūn fī’Lllāh). Trying to understand (tafahhum) is an exertion of effort (takalluf), yet discernment (fiṭna) cannot be attained through effort, but rather by acting in sincerity (al-ʿamal bi’l-ikhlāṣ) for Him. Truly God, Exalted is He, has servants in Paradise who, if they were veiled from the encounter (liqāʾ) [with their Lord] for a blinking of the eye, would cry out for help against it, just as the inhabitants of the Hellfire plead for help against the Hellfire. This is because they have come to know Him (ʿarafūhu). See how God’s Interlocutor [Moses] could not wait to see Him on account ofthe sweetness he had experienced in communion with Him, so that he said, ‘O my Lord what is that Hebrew voice from You which has seized my heart so! Indeed, I have heard the voice of the caring mother, and the sound of birds in flight, but I have never heard a sound more alluring to my heart than that voice.’ Henceforth, whenever Moses saw a mountain he would rush towards it and climb it, yearning [to hear] His speech, glorified be His majesty. There was a man from among the Children of Israel who would walk in the footsteps of Moses wherever he went, and would sit wherever he sat, until Moses became annoyed with him. Someone said to him, ‘You have offended the prophet of God.’ He replied, ‘All I desire is to look at the mouth which spoke to God.’Then he [Moses] said, My Lord! Show me [Yourself], that I may behold You! [7:143], and God replied, ‘O Moses! No creature will see me on earth without dying.’ So he said, ‘O Lord! Let me behold You and die, for that is preferable to me than not seeing You and remaining alive.’ Thus, whoever gives his heart solely to God and longs for Him, will reach Him.Abū ʿUbayd Allāh al-Khawwāṣ used to shout in Baghdad: ‘Your remembrance (dhikr) has given me a hunger that I cannot satisfy. Your remembrance has given me a thirst that I cannotquench. Oh, how I long for the One who sees me, but whom I see not!’ Then he came to the Tigris river and threw himself in the river with his clothes on, plunging into the water at one place and emerging in another, shouting all the while: ‘Your remembrance has given me a hunger that I cannot satisfy. Your remembrance has given me a thirst that I cannot quench. Oh, how I long for the One who sees me but, but whom I see not!’ Meanwhile, all the people on the banks of the river wept.One day a man came to Sahl while people were gathered around him and said, ‘O Abū Muḥammad! Look what He has done with you and how He has elevated you!’ However, this did not affect Sahl and he said, ‘It is He who is sought, He who is sought!’His words, Exalted is He:

Tafsīr al-Tustarī, trans. Annabel Keeler and Ali Keeler
© 2021 Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, Amman, Jordan (http://www.aalalbayt.org) ® All Rights Reserved.
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