Those who bow their heads before the command of God and the Messenger in passion for the religion made their own dear spirits the target of the enemy’s arrows. They made their spirits a gift, their bodies a path, and their hearts a sacrifice. They bought that suffering and wounding with spirit and heart.
3:171-72 They rejoice in blessings from God and bounty, and that God does not leave to waste the wage of the faithful, those who answered God and the Messenger after the wound had befallen them.
Sarī Saqaṭī said, “God appeared to me in a dream saying, ‘O Sarī! We created the creatures. Some of them saw this world and clung to it. Some of them saw trial, and they fled to paradise and well-being. Some of them thought nothing of trial and took the tribulation into their spirits and hearts, asking for union with Us. Which one of these are you? What do you want?’”
Sarī said, “I answered, ‘You know what I desire.’” How often will you ask, why do you make me suffer? In truth, you know my state better than I.
“He said, ‘O Sarī! By the majesty of Our measure, We will strike your head with the whip of trial, and We will make the millstone of tribulation revolve on your head.’”
Sarī said, “I replied with the light of recognition by lordly inspiration, ‘Are You not the one who sends trials?’”
