45:3 Surely in the heavens and the earth are signs for the faithful.
In this verse, He shows to the creatures the perfection of His power in creating heaven and earth.
45:4 And in your creation and the beasts He has scattered are signs for a people who have certainty.
He is making manifest His gentleness toward all animals and especially the Adamites.
45:5 And the difference of night and day, and the provision that God sends down from heaven whereby He brings the earth to life after its death, and the turning about of the winds, are signs for a people who use intelligence.
He reminds the creatures of His blessings in creating water, wind, and rain and thereby making ready their daily provision. Then He says, “are signs for a people who use intelligence.” An intelligent person is someone who ponders and reflects upon the signs. From the first sign [45:3], he will understand His power, and the requisite of power is fear, so he will fear His harshness and forcefulness. From the second sign [45:4], he will understand His gentleness, and the requisite of gentleness is hope, so his heart will attach itself to His generosity. From the third sign, he will recognize His blessings, so he will undertake to give gratitude for them. First is the station of the fearful, second the station of the hopeful, and third the station of the grateful.
In the station of gratitude, much unveiling and veiling occur. When the Exalted Lord says, “the difference of night and day,” He is alluding to unveiling and veiling. Bright day is the likeness of unveiling, and dark night is the mark of the veil. The servant passes back and forth between these two states. In the state of unveiling, he sees only the Beneficent. He does not become happy in blessings, nor does he become sorrowful in tribulation. He is so busy contemplating the Beneficent that he does not attend to the blessings nor to the grief and tribulation. In this meaning, they have sung,
In the time of the veil, the contemplation of the Beneficent conceals itself from him. He turns all of his attention to blessings and tribulation. Hence in blessings, he beats the drum of happiness, and in tribulation, he carries the burden of grief. Pain and remedy, grief and happiness, poverty and wealth—these are all attributes of the wayfarers in the way stations of the road. When a man reaches the goal, he has no station or way station, no moment or state, no spirit or heart.”
Make not your home in body or spirit, for that is low and this is high.
Take a step outside of both—be not here and be not there. [DS 51]
45:18 Then We set thee on a wide road of the command, so follow it, and do not follow the caprices of those who know not.
In other words, “We singled you out for gentle favors, so recognize them. We set down paths for you, so follow them. We affirmed realities for you, so do not go outside of them and do not incline to follow others.”
45:19 Surely they will not make thee unneedy of God in anything.
“If God desires a blessing for you, no one will prevent it, and if He desires a trial for you, no one will turn it away. So do not attach your reflection to any created thing and do not turn the attentiveness of your mind to anything. Depend on your Lord and trust in Him.”
“O paragon of the world, O master of Adam’s children, O sun of felicity’s sphere, O moon of mastery’s heaven, O lodging of the world of knowledge, O pearl of the oyster of eminence, O embroidery on the garment of existence! We separated you out from the world’s folk, we orphaned you from father and mother, and We brought out your family and relatives against you so that your heart would be free of all and be totally detached for obeying and serving Me. From the wide roads, We made for you the road of the religion, and you call the world’s folk to that road: Say: ‘This is my path; I invite to God’ [12:108].
“O paragon! On the night of the miʿrāj, We sat you down in the dome of proximity and scattered a hundred thousand gentle gifts on the head of your good fortune. We made the two worlds the dust beneath your feet and brought the celestial figures and the terrestrial center under the banner of your rulership. What We intended was to give you expansiveness on the carpet of intercession. As long as there is the story of the pain of the disobedient, you should lift it up to Us and apologize for it on their behalf: Take us not to task if we forget or make mistakes [2:286]. O Muḥammad! If tomorrow you ask Us for the two worlds and the world’s folk, you will have asked only for the dust beneath your feet. And if We, through eternal gentleness, use the dust of those feet in the work of one of your servants, that is not far-fetched for Our perfection.”
The collyrium of insight had been daubed on the eyes of the prophethood of that greatest of the prophets. He knew that dust should be a carrier of burdens, not headstrong because dust is for carrying burdens, not for being headstrong. Do you not see how the Exalted Lord threatens and warns those who was headstrong and refractory:
45:21 Or do those who commit ugly deeds reckon that We will make them like those who have faith and do wholesome deeds, that their living and their dying will be equal? Ugly is what they reckon!
About them He also says that they have gone into roadlessness, become headstrong in the tracks of their own caprice, and ridiculed the prophets and those who call to the road of the Real:
45:23 Who then will guide them after God?
Once God has made them roadless, who in the entire world will bring them back to the road? From whom will they gain the means of approach when the road to the means of approach has been blocked to them? Today the tree of despair has grown old for them, instances of abandonment have come forth, and the destructiveness of justice has brought forth the dust of wealth. Tomorrow the caller of justice will begin the shout of abandonment:
45:34 Today We forget you just as you forgot the encounter of this day of yours; your refuge is the Fire.
Yes, I said that dust must carry burdens, not be headstrong. If a sultan should pick up a poor beggar from the middle of the road, take him before the throne of his good fortune, and dress him in a robe of elevation, the stipulation for the beggar is that he does not forget himself and that he knows his own worth. He must always keep that poverty and lack of honor before his eyes. It reached the ears of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz that his son had a ring made, and then bought a stone worth one thousand dirhams and placed it in the ring. He wrote a letter to him: “My son, I hear that you have had a ring made, bought a stone worth one thousand dirhams, and placed it on the ring. If you want to please me, sell the stone, feed a thousand hungry people, and make a ring for yourself from a piece of silver. On it, engrave the words, ‘May God have mercy on the man who knows his own worth!’”
O chevalier! No garment fits the stature of earth better and more beautifully than the garment of humility: “Anyone who has twice traveled the urinary canal should not be proud.” Greatness, magnificence, exaltedness, height, tremendousness, and splendor are the attributes of the Majestic Lord.
