20:55 From it We created you and to it We shall return you.
Know that the Adamite is two things: spirit and body. The spirit is from light, and light is celestial. The body is from dust, and dust is terrestrial. The spirit wants to go up because it is celestial. The body wants to go down because it is terrestrial. In the perfection of His power, the King bound the two together. The spirit was bound to the body, and the body was bound to the spirit, so both are in bonds. The spirit and the body settled down together.
On the day of death, when the life of the servant comes to an end and the moment of death arrives, the bonds are loosened, as when a bird comes out of its cage. The spirit rises up from the body and goes skyward to its nest. The body takes the road of the earth to its center. The spirit is put into a lantern of light, which is hung from the tree of blessedness. The body is wrapped in a shroud and entrusted to the earth. This is why the Lord says, “From it We created you and to it, We shall return you.” After a few days pass, the spirit comes to gaze on the body. It sees the state of the body changed and it laments. It says, “O heed-taking eyesight, O narcissus-like eyes, where is your seeing? O wisdom-speaking tongue, where is your sweet-talking? O painted, lovely face, where is your adornment and beauty? O you who came from dust, were supported by dust, were provided for by dust, were put back into dust, and became nothing in the dust!”
It is as if the King is saying, “Once I make dust the cause of being, and then again I make it the cause of nonbeing. Thus the world’s folk will know that I am perfectly powerful, and I give being to all that is.”
O chevalier! If you ever pass through a graveyard, be careful to look at that encampment with an eye to taking heed. It is not dust that you see, it is the bodies of the dear ones, the flesh, and skin of the young, the elegant stature of those nurtured in joy, the hair, and beards of the old folk. We have decayed, but the rising stars have not. The mountains remain after us, and the artifacts.
Thābit Bunānī said, “I went to the graveyard with the intention of making a visit. A caller called out, ‘O Thābit! Do not be deluded by the silence of its folk, for there is many a grief-stricken soul within!’”
Mujāhid said, “When the servant is put into the dust, the dust speaks to him, saying, ‘I am the house of worms, the house of loneliness, the house of exile, and the house of darkness. This is what I have prepared for you. What then have you prepared for me?’ “If the servant had been a rememberer in this world, the Exalted Lord will say, ‘My angels! There is an exile whose folk have turned away from him, a lonely man whose relatives have become disloyal toward him. He was remembering Me in the world. O helpless and hapless servant! O you whose hope’s army has taken the road of flight! O you whose life’s furnishings have been plundered! O you whose means and work have been disabled! O you whose spirit reached the edge in the agonies of death! O you whose talking tongue has been silenced! O you whose knowing heart has turned to blood in terror of the Hour! All have gone, and I remain. All have turned back, and I am still loyal. All have left you, and I have picked you up. My servant, they have abandoned you. By My exaltedness and majesty, I will cover you with My mercy!”
From it We created you and to it, We shall return you. The Adamites are frames and deposits. The bodies are the frames, and the spirits are the deposits. The frames are related to dust, and the deposits are described by proximity. He nurtures the frames with His bounteousness, and He nurtures the deposits with the unveiling of His majesty and the gentleness of His beauty. Today the frames cling to the carpet of worshiping Him, and the deposits are qualified by constantly recognizing Him. The deeds of the frames are fasting and prayer and the gifts of the deposits are whispered secrets and delight. He says to the frames, “When thou art idle, labor” [94:7]. He says to the deposits, “And be eager for thy Lord” [94:8]. He gives the caressing of the frames on credit, for He says, “As for him who fears the standing place before his Lord and prohibits the soul its caprice, surely the Garden shall be the shelter” [79:40-41]. The deposits give themselves over only to the hard cash of the present moment, for He says, “I am the sitting companion of him who remembers Me,” “I am with My servant’s opinion of Me,” and “He is with you wherever you are” [57:4].
In the beginningless Covenant, He said to the frames in the manner of the powerful, “I am God.” He said to the deposits in the manner of friends, “I am the friend.” The former was to make manifest Lordhood and power, the latter was to make manifest love and affection. To the frames, He said, “You belong to Me.” To the deposits, He said, “I belong to you.”
