First He showed him the dominion of heaven and earth so that he would derive evidence of the existence of the Artisan by way of inference. He looked at the stars and said, “This is my Lord,” that is, “evidence of my Lord, for my Lord, has no beginning or end, but this has set.” He said, “I love not those that set.” At last, the beauty of the Haqiqah showed its face to him. By means of inference and proof, he went back to witnessing and face-to-face vision. He turned away from everything and said, “Surely they are an enemy to me, save the Lord of the Worlds” [26:77]. He said to Gabriel, “As for turning toward you, no.” First, he was like a knower, then he became like a recognizer.
Wāsiṭī said, “The world’s creatures are going to Him, but the recognizers are coming from Him.” He also said, “If someone says, ‘I recognized God through the evidence,’ ask him how he recognized the evidence.’”
6:75-79 So also We were showing Abraham the dominion of the heavens and the earth, that he might be one of those with certainty. When night darkened over him, he saw a star. He said, “This is my Lord.” When it set he said, “I love not those that set.”… Then when he saw the sun rising, he said, “This is my Lord, this is greater.” When it set he said, “O my people, I am quit of what you associate. Surely I have turned my face toward Him Who originated the heavens and the earth, unswerving, and I am not of the associators.”
True, at the beginning there is no escape from evidence, as was the beginning of Abraham’s path. All that evidence came into Abraham’s path—the star, the moon, the sun. When he reached each piece of evidence, he would cling to it and say, “This is my Lord.” When he passed beyond the degrees of the evidence, he saw the beauty of tawḥīd with the eye of face-to-face vision. He said, “O my people, I am quit of what you associate,” that is, I am quit of inference from the creatures to the Creator, for there is no evidence for Him save Himself.
This is the same as that great one of the religion said: “I recognized God through God, and I recognized that which is beneath God through God’s light.” This is alluded to in His words, “And the earth will shine with the light of its Lord” [39:69].
Here a chevalier of the Tariqah made an exalted point and clarified the traveling of the travelers and the pull that takes those who are snatched away. He said, “When the caress of And God took Abraham as a bosom friend [4:125] reached Abraham from the court of Unity in the attribute of clemency and mercy, the command came, ‘O Abraham, there is no stipulation that you standstill in the road of bosom friendship. Go higher than the way station of I submit to the Lord of the Worlds [2:131]. Make the journey that is called the journey of solitariness. ‘Travel with the precedence of the solitary!’”
Abraham was a fast-going seeker, looking for the reminder of the Beginningless. He put the clock of the intention of his aspiration and went forth on the journey of I am going to my Lord [37:99]. The treasuries of exaltedness were opened up from the hiding place of the Unseen, and many pearls of the Unseen and wonders of the treasuries were strewn in the road of I am going. Abraham was still a traveler and became attached to I am going. He had not yet reached the center point of togetherness. He looked back and saw plunder, so he busied himself with the plunder. The beauty of tawḥīd unveiled itself to him: “Why did you look back?” Finally, he asked forgiveness with I love not those that set.
He still saw those pearls of the Unseen and he stood back: “This is my Lord, this is my Lord,” for those pearls of the Unseen were so heart-deceiving and preoccupying. It was said to him, “O Abraham, you should not have halted like this. Why did you go forth on the road of I am going to my Lord and then look back at the plunder and treasures? Why did you not turn the eye of aspiration away from that? Why did you not put to use the Sunnah of the eyesight did not swerve, nor did it trespass [53:17]?”
This is the Sunnah of that paragon of the world and the characteristic of that master of Adam’s children. On the night of nearness and familiarity, the greatest signs [53:28] disclosed themselves in his road, and he remained in this courtesy: The eyesight did not swerve, nor did it trespass.“O Abraham! When someone is searching for the reminder of the Beginningless and the mystery of the Beneficent, what use has he for plunder and treasures?”
Abraham pulled the hand of disengagement from the sleeve of solitariness and turned away from the secondary causes: Surely I have turned my face toward Him Who originated the heavens and the earth, unswerving, and I am not of the associators. In other words: “I aim solely for God, I have made myself pure of ties to anything but God, I have preserved my covenant in God for God, I have purged my finding through God. I belong to God in God, or rather, I am effaced in God, and God is God.”
