20:83 “And what has made thee hurry from thy people, O Moses!”
This is a rebuke of Moses, for he left his people behind and went on ahead of them. He hurried to the promised meeting with the Real, who said: “O Moses, do you not know that I love the weak and I caress the broken more than others? I am always looking into their hearts, and I love all those in whose hearts I look.” Then Moses offered an excuse:
20:84 He said, “They are close upon my footsteps, and I hurried to Thee, my Lord, that Thou mayest approve.”
“They are close upon my footsteps. I did not leave them behind out of neglect, and I hurried to Thee, my Lord, that Thou mayest approve. O Lord, You Yourself know and You are aware of my secret core. With this hurry I did not want to neglect them, nor was I aiming to abandon attending to the rightful due of companionship with them. Rather, I wanted Your approval and I was seeking an increase in Your satisfaction.”
He said, “O Moses, My approval lies in taking care of their hearts. ‘I am with those whose hearts are broken for My sake.’ ‘I am the sitting-companion of him who remembers Me.’ O Moses, when you seek Me, seek Me in their hearts, for I sit with the rememberers in the solitariness of And He is with you [57:4]. I am the close to the hearts of the poor, the remembrance of the spirits of the recognizers, present with the mystery of the lovers, the light of the eyes of the familiar, the resource of the frightened, the traveling supplies of the distressed, and the refuge of the weak. O Moses, wherever you see a poor man, thrown down by the iniquity of the days, wounded by the times, be his servitor. As long as you can, do not seek to be apart from him. Be the purchaser of his companionship, for his makeup is the storehouse of the secrets of the Beginningless and preparation for the bazaar of the Endless.”
He gave Muṣṭafā the same advice: “And let not thine eyes turn away from them [18:28]. O Muḥammad, be careful not to turn your eyes away from them. Do not sell them to others, for they are the ones pulled up by My remembrance, named by My bounty, adorned by My gentleness, lifted up by My will. They have come forth from knowledge, are displayed by predetermination, have found the mark of the desire, and were pulled up by the signet of the decree.
“In the Beginningless they were made apparent by My knowledge, today they are existent by My command, tomorrow they will be kept by My decree. Knowledge has the rulership of the Beginningless, the command has the rulership of the present moment, the decree has the rulership of the Endless.
“When a sultan has special friends, he gives each of their rulerships. The rulerships are three: the rulership of the Beginningless, the rulership of the present moment, the rulership of the Endless. O knowledge, you take the side of the Beginningless! O command, you take the road of the present moment! O decree, you seize the skirt of the Endless!
“O child of Adam! I gave you three attributes, and in the end, I conveyed you to Myself. First I entrusted you to the sultan of knowledge, then I gave you to the king of the command, then I surrendered you to the emperor of the decree. Then I gave this call in the world: ‘Surely the final end is unto thy Lord’ [53:42]. O knowledge, you give to the command. O command, you give to the decree. O decree, you give to Me.” Knowledge is all limpidness, the command is all trial, the decree is all subsistence. Who knows what is made ready inside these secrets?
20:105-6 They ask thee about the mountains. Say, “My Lord will scatter them as ashes.”
In the outwardness, He is showing His awesomeness, forcefulness, and exaltation to the creatures. In the inwardness He is bestowing eminence on His servants and friends: “We turned this earth into your bedspread and made it your carpet. If you are not there, of what use is the carpet? We made heaven your roof, the stars your indications, the sun your cook, the moon your burning candle. When you go, of what use is the candle, what will be done by the indications? When a carpet is prepared for a friend and he goes, it must be taken up. When you go, We will take up this carpet, for We will not create anyone else. He it is Who created for you all that is in the earth [2:29]. Heaven and earth, moon and sun, unshakeable mountains and surging oceans—these are the go-betweens of your road. Each has a torch in its hand and holds it over your road. “Tomorrow at the time of gazing, We will lift away everything from before you. We will say, ‘The reports have gone, the gaze has come.’”
Proofs are needed when there is no face-to-face vision. When a face-to-face vision comes, what good are proofs? Go-betweens are useful as long as the friend has not reached the friend. When the friend reaches the friend, what use are go-betweens? Since the days were the days of reports, the hoopoe was needed to give the reports [to Solomon]. But when the era of the gaze arrives, the hoopoe is of no use. As long as Muṣṭafā was in Mecca, Gabriel used to come and go. When he reached the Lote Tree of the Final End, Gabriel stood still. He said, “Now I have become a veil. The friend has reached the friend, and the intermediary is of no use, the go-between is nothing more than a veil.”
