In the name of God, a word the hearing of which is everyone’s springtime, whether disobedient or obedient, noble or base. When someone listens to it with the ears of humility, he will abandon the goodliness of slumber, and when someone listens to it with the ears of the lovers, he will abandon the sweetness of food and drink.
Once Majnūn ibn ʿĀmir, the one who had fallen for Laylā, saw the inscription of Laylā’s name on a wall. He became entranced with her name’s inscription. For seven days and nights, he sat contemplating the writing without food or drink. Someone asked him, “O Majnūn, you have not eaten or drunk for seven days and nights. How could you do that?” He said, “Poor man! When someone is happy with the name of his friend, how can he remember food and drink?” This is the state of one created thing claiming passion for another created thing. What then do you say about someone whose soul’s kiblah is the Presence of the Divine Holiness and whose heart is overpowered by love for the Eternal Essence? What fault would there be if he did not remember food and drink while remembering His name?
Abū Bakr Shiblī said, “The remembrance of my Lord is the food of my soul, the praise of my Lord is the garment of my soul, shame before my Lord is the drink of my soul. My soul is a sacrifice to my heart, my heart a sacrifice to my spirit, my spirit a sacrifice to my Lord.”
Moses sat for forty days waiting for the speech of the Real without any thought of food or drink. Then, when he was seeking Khiḍr in the grammar school of knowledge, after a half-day he was impatient without food and drink and said, “Bring us our food” [18:62]. This state is the result of passion, and passion is not acquired through knowledge, cleverness, and the fatwa of intellect. Passion is a thing that comes, not a thing to be learned. When someone has not gone on the road, what does he know about its way-stations? When someone is not a confidant of passion, why does he ask for the marks of the Friend’s sanctuary?
81:1-3 When the sun is enwrapped, and when the stars become opaque, and when the mountains are set moving…
Muṣṭafā said that if someone wants to see the Greatest Resurrection as hard cash, such that the states of the resurrection may become apparent to him, he should be told to recite When the sun is enwrapped so that the harshness and difficulty of that day may be known to him. How much can be shown of the terror and difficulty of that day? The fire of unneediness will be lit in the vestiges and traces of the realm of being and the head of the passing days will be lopped off by the sickle of severity. The world of new arrival will be made scattered dust [25:23], and the sword of harshness will be struck against the top of the spheres. The dust of the others will be swept from the skirt, and the harness of making nonexistent will be pulled over the head of the steed of existence. The luminous sun will be blackened and enwrapped, the shining stars will fall from heaven like rain, the mountains with their hardness and firm fixity will begin to run, having become weightless in fear of the Real. In terror of the resurrection, the world’s folk will give up their treasures and valuables and turn their backs on them. The beasts, birds, and predators for whom the Law is not prescribed will give up their spirits. The oceans of the world will be opened to each other and become boiling water and filth to chastise the enemies. Everyone and everybody will be paired and joined with his own deeds.
