It is the repose of the spirit of the friends, the healing of the hearts of the ill, a mercy to the faithful.
This is why God says, “He it is Who sent it down upon thy heart.” Elsewhere He says, “Brought down by the trustworthy spirit upon thy heart” [26:193-94]. When Gabriel conveyed the pure revelation, sometimes he came in the form of a mortal man, sometimes in the form of an angel.
Whenever he brought verses about permitted and forbidden and the explication of the shariah and rulings, he would be in human form, and there was no talk of the heart. Thus He says, “He it is who sent down upon thee the Book” [3:7]; “Does it not suffice them that We sent down upon thee the Book?” [29:51].
Then again, whenever there was talk of love, the attributes of passion, and the closeness of friendship, he would come in the form of an angel, spiritual and subtle, and he would join with Muṣṭafā’s heart. He would convey the revelation of the Qur’an secretly to his secret core, and no one else was aware of him. When he returned and left behind the realm of his heart, Muṣṭafā would say, “He broke away from me while I was aware of him.”
It is said that when he was inundated by contemplation in this speech, the revelation would first descend to his heart, for He said to him, “who sent it down upon thy heart.” Then it would turn away from his heart to his understanding and his hearing.
Then he would descend from the summit of companionship to the lowland of service for the sake of the people’s shares. This is the level of the elect. It may also happen that revelation descends on the hearing of certain people first, then on their understanding, then on their hearts, advancing from the lowness of struggle to the highness of contemplation. This is the level of the wayfarers and desirers. How far apart they are!
2:106 Whatever verse We abrogate or cause to be forgotten—We bring better than it or its like.
By way of allusion, He is saying, “We never make you advance from the locus of servanthood without setting you down in the courtyards of freedom. We never remove from you any of the attributes of mortal nature without making you abide through one of the marks that give witness to the Divinity.”
In terms of allusion, He is saying, “O paragon of the horizons, O messenger to jinn and men, O quintessence of predetermination, O luminous full moon, O totality of perfection, O kiblah of prosperity, O basis of bounteousness, O displayer of gentleness and majesty, O you whose branch of union is blooming and whose star of exaltedness is always shining, O you whose good fortune has gone beyond the clouds of being and become specific to the marks giving witness to the Lordhood and the confirmation of the Divinity! Instant by instant the work of your good fortune is advancing.
