67:1 Blessed is He in whose hand is the kingdom, and He is powerful over everything.
The kingdom of the 18,000 worlds is in His hand. The heads of all the headmen are in the grasp of His predetermination, the necks of all the proud wear the collar of His subjection, the forelocks of all the tyrants are acquiescent to the severity of His all-compellingness. It has come in a report, “‘I am the King. The hearts and the forelocks of the kings are in My hand, and I make them fluctuate as I will.’ I am the king, I am king over all kings. Exalting and abasing the servants is in My hand. The hearts of the world’s folk are in My grasp. I turn them any way I want and I drive their secret cores according to My desire. If I want, I call them and make them laugh. If I want, I drive them away and make them weep.
“O you who are the world’s folk! Do not busy your breasts because of kings and do not attach your hearts to them. Attach your hearts to My religion, trust in My generosity, and turn your face to the threshold of obedience to Me. Serve the religion so that this world may follow you. Serve the King of kings, so that the kings of this world may serve you.”
The kingdom of human nature is one thing, the kingdom of the heart another, and the kingdom of the spirit still another. Human nature runs the kingdom in this world, the heart runs the kingdom in the next world, and the spirit runs the kingdom in the World of the Haqiqah. The kingdom of human nature is this: Surely the life of this world is but play, diversion, and adornment [57:20]. The kingdom of the heart is this: He loves them, and they love Him [5:54]. The kingdom of the spirit is this: Faces that day will radiant, gazing upon their Lord [75:22-23]. That exalted man of the road said, “Tomorrow when the banner of His magnificence is raised at the resurrection—Whose is the kingdom? [40:16] with His permission I will open up a door in the corner of my heart and give out some of my pain for Him. Then dust will rise up from the resurrection and it will say, ‘Whose is the kingdom?’ If someone comes into the road to protest, I will say, ‘He who has weak and indigent ones like us.’ “He will say, ‘Whose is the kingdom?’ “Ours, for we have an all-compelling King. Why should it not be we who say, ‘Whose is the kingdom?’ Though He has servants like us, we have a Lord like Him.”
When someone is given access to the sanctuary of the Qur’an, for a time he wears this robe: As for My servants, thou shalt have no ruling power over them [17:65]. Then for a time he finds this bestowal of eminence: He loves them, and they love Him. Then for a time he drinks this draft: And their Lord will pour for them [76:21]. Why should it not happen that such a person rule over the newly arrived things and say morning and evening, “Whose is the kingdom?” Tell them to call me nothing but Lord.
