The creatures have five kiblahs. First is the Throne, second the Footstool, third the Inhabited House, fourth the Holy House [Jerusalem], and fifth the Kaabah. The Throne is the kiblah of the angels who carry it. The Footstool is the kiblah of the cherubim. The Inhabited House is the kiblah of the spirituals. The Holy House is the kiblah of the prophets. The Kaabah is the kiblah of the faithful. The Throne is of light, the Footstool of gold, the Inhabited House of carnelian, the Holy House of marble, and the Kaabah of stone.
This is an allusion for the faithful servant: “If you cannot come to the Throne to circumambulate, or to the Footstool to visit, or to the Inhabited House to worship, or to the Holy House to serve, then at least you can turn your face five times a day toward this stone, which is the kiblah of the faithful, and receive the reward for all of them.”
Everyone has a direction. One of them has said that the allusion here is this: “All people have been distracted from Me by something that has come between Me and them. So, O faithful, belong to Me and be through Me.”
In terms of allusion, He is saying, “All the people have turned away from Me. They have become familiar with others without Me. They have made their sweetheart other than Me and accepted the other in friendship.
“You who are the chevaliers of the Tariqah and claim friendship with Me, lift up your eyes from anything beneath Me, even if it be the highest paradise. Then you will go straight in following the Sunnah and conduct of Muṣṭafā and you will perform the rightful due of emulating that paragon of the world. For, as the greatest of the prophets, his conduct was to turn his eyes away from all beings and not to see any refuge nor to approve of any resting place other than the shelter of Unity.”
2:148 Everyone has a direction to which he turns.
When someone puts himself right in following Muṣṭafā, the candle of friendship with the Real will be lit in his road and he will never fall away from friendship’s avenue. To this is the allusion in the verse, “Follow me; God will love you” [3:31]. Whenever someone goes straight on friendship’s avenue, he will be secure from all the directions that are the kiblahs of the mimickers. Since all claim friendship with the Real, He strikes them with the touchstone of trial in order to show them to themselves without Him.
He threw something into them and made it their kiblah, so they turned their faces to it. In one it was wealth, in another position, in another a spouse, in another a lovely face, in another boasting, in another knowledge, in another renunciation, in another worship, in another fancy.
He threw all these into the people, so they busied themselves with them, and no one spoke of Him. They all stayed empty of the road of seeking Him.
This is why Abu Yazīd Basṭāmī said, “I passed by His gate, but I did not see any crowding there. The folk of this world was veiled by this world, the folk of the afterworld was veiled by the afterworld, and the Sufi claimants were veiled by eating, drinking, and praying. There were others among them of a higher level who were veiled by lovely faces. But the great leaders of the Sufis were not veiled by any of these. Rather, I saw that they were bewildered”.
