In the name of God is a word that makes him who has faith in it secure from the disappearance of blessings. He who mentions it wins the bliss of this world and the afterworld. He who recognizes it and believes in it will be felicitous with a felicity that is never wretched, he will find a kingdom that never decays, and he will subsist in exaltedness and elevation.
This is the name of the Renowned, whose name is the reminder of spirits, the everlasting happiness of hearts, the repose of the spirits of the friends, and the ease of the sorrowful. It is the title page of a book that is a mark of the Friend and whose purport is eternal love. This book is the remedy for unsettledness and the security against severance. Burning for Him is the rose, and recognizing Him the garden.
It is the book from which the tree of tawḥīd drinks water and whose fruit and produce is friendship with the Real. God says, “The servant does not cease remembering Me nor I remembering him until he loves Me and I love him.”
One of the great ones said, “When I remember who I am, I feel lowly, but when I recall to whom I belong, I boast. When I look at myself and see my own doing, I ask who is more miserable than I. When I look at You and see myself as Your servant, I ask who is greater than I.”
“When I look at myself, I become all burning and need. When I look at Him, I become all caresses and mysteries. When I look at myself I say, “My two eyes full of water, my liver full of fire, my hands full of wind, my head full of dust! “When I look at Him I say, “What does the Throne do that it does not carry my saddlecloth? In my heart, I carry the saddlecloth of Your ruling and decree. The scent of the spirit comes to my lips when I speak of You, the branch of exaltedness grows from my heart when I suffer Your trial.” [DS 933]
102:1 Vying for increase distracts you.
This is an address of admonishment and assertion. He is saying, “O child of Adam! Why do you boast of relationships that will soon be severed?
Why do you vainly lift your heads over your many relatives, your property, and your position?
Why are you deluded by the fact that you have been given respite and left without shame?
Will you not look back before you reach the four walls of the grave, thrown down in exile and aloneness?
Will you not apologize? You are not on guard because you are not aware.”
102:3-4 But no, you will know. Then but no, you will know.
Indeed, you will know. You will see into your own work on the day when knowing and seeing have no profit when repentance and apology are useless.
102:5 But no. Did you but know with the knowledge of certainty.
If you had the knowledge of certainty and the eye of certainty that you must pass over the steep road of death and you must prepare what you need for the journey of the resurrection, then surely your boasting and vying for an increase in property and provisions would be less and your eagerness for obedience and worship would be more.
102:6-7 You shall surely see the Blaze, then you shall see it with the eye of certainty.
This surely is that of an oath. The Lord of the Worlds is swearing an oath and saying, “In truth, you servants will all see hell with the eye of certainty, a seeing without supposition or doubt.” This is just what He says elsewhere: “And none of you there is but will enter it” [19:71]. The person of faith will see it while passing by, and the unbeliever will see it as a settling place. Muṣṭafā said, “The best thing cast into the heart is a certainty, and certainty is faith, all of it. Surely God in His equity and justice placed repose and joy in certainty and approval, and He placed concerns and sorrow in doubt and anger.”
He is saying, “The best seed that is planted in the faithful person’s breast is the seed of certainty, and all of faith is a certainty. Certainty is a fortified fortress for faith and a firm cord for the possessor of faith. With beautiful gentleness, perfect generosity, bounty without inclination, justice without iniquity, and gentleness without cause, the Real placed all ease and comfort, all security and unconcern, all happiness and revelry, in the right hand of certainty and the garden of approval. Then with a decree without ulterior motive and knowledge without suspicion, He placed all grief and misfortune, suffering and tribulation, in doubt and disapproval.
It has also been said that certainty has three pillars: the knowledge of certainty, the eye of certainty, and the truth of certainty. The knowledge of certainty settles down in the breast, the eye of certainty settles down in the secret core, and the truth of certainty settles down in the spirit. The knowledge of certainty discourses on faith, the eye of certainty gives marks of self-purification, and the truth of certainty throws into the rightful due of recognition. Blessedness belongs to him who walks in the world of certainty’s knowledge! Nearness belongs to him who sees a trace of the face-to-face vision of certainty’s eye! The most beautiful belongs to him who finds awareness of the reality of certainty’s truth!
