7:143 When Moses came to Our appointed time and his Lord spoke to him, he said, “Show me, that I may gaze upon Thee.” He said, “Thou shalt not see Me, but look at the mountain. If it stays firm in its place, thou shalt see Me.” Then, when his Lord disclosed Himself to the mountain, He made it crumble to dust, and Moses fell down thunderstruck. When he recovered he said, “Glory be to Thee! I repent to Thee!”
Moses had two journeys: one was the journey of seeking, the other the journey of revelry. The journey of seeking was the night of the fire, as in His words, “He observed a fire on the side of the Mount” [28:29]. The journey of revelry was this one: When Moses came to Our appointed time. Moses came, having become selfless to self, lost to himself in his own secret core. He wandered around the neighborhoods of the Children of Israel and gathered the words of their messages and goals so that he could draw out his words when he arrived at the Presence.
When he reached the presence of whispered prayer, listening to the Real’s Speech, He forgot everything, and the hard cash of his state appeared like this: “Show me, that I may gaze upon Thee! Accept my excuses, for I did not fall here by myself. I was seeking for fire, and being chosen came forth: I chose thee for Myself [20:41]. I was not aware, and the sun of bringing near rose up—And We brought him near as a confidant [19:52].
The command came to the angels, “Leave Moses alone.
In the realities of those unveilings, Moses tasted the love from the storeroom of gentleness. His heart flew into the air of solitariness, and the breeze of union’s closeness blew on his spirit from the side of proximity. He said, “Show me, that I may gaze upon Thee: Please, at least a look!”
The Pir of the Tariqah said, “Everyone has hope, and the recognizer’s hope is vision. Without vision, the recognizer has no need for any wage, nor any use for paradise. People are all passionate about life, so death for them is difficult. The recognizer needs death in the hope for vision.”
He said, “Thou shalt not see Me.” They say that at the moment Moses heard “Thou shalt not see Me,” his station was higher than at the moment he said, “Show me, that I may gaze upon Thee.” At the former moment, he was in what the Real desired, and at the latter moment, he was in what he desired. Moses’ being was more complete in what the Real desired than in what he desired, for the latter is dispersion and the former togetherness, and inescapably togetherness is more complete. He said, “Thou shalt not see Me, but look at the mountain.” Moses received the blow of Thou shalt not see Me.
Then, when his Lord disclosed His Mark to the mountain. When a sliver of the signs of majesty and a trace of the exaltedness of unity reached the mountain, it returned to the state of nonexistence and no mark of it remained. He said, “O king! If a black stone had the capacity for this talk, it would have accepted the Trust at the beginning of existence and bought it with spirit and heart.” Here there is a subtle point: The mountain with all its tremendousness could not endure, but the hearts of the weak and the old women of Muḥammad’s community could endure. God says, “And they feared it, and a man carried it” [33:72].
And Moses fell down thunderstruck. When Moses’ existence disappeared in that strike and his mortal nature was thrown to the mountain, the self-disclosure fell on the true center point: “Now, We are. When You disappear from the midst, It is We who are seen.”
The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, I seek the Found. I say to the Seen, ‘What do I have, what should I seek, when will I see, what should I say?’ I am entranced by this seeking, I am seized by this speaking. “O God, the splendor of Your exaltation left no room for allusion, the eternity of Your unity took away the road of ascription—I lost all that I had in hand, and everything I fancied came to nothing. O God, Yours kept on increasing and mine decreasing until at last there remained only what there was at first.”
When he recovered he said, “Glory be to Thee! I repent to Thee!” When he came back to his senses, he said, “O Lord, You are far too pure for any mortal to hope to reach Your self-sufficiency, or for anyone to seek You through himself, or for any heart or spirit to talk today about the vision of You. I repent.”
It was said, “O Moses, do people put down the shield all at once the way you do? Do they wander off all at once the way you do? Have you turned back so soon and so easily?”
7:144 O Moses, surely I have chosen thee over the people through My messages and My speaking. So take what I have given thee, and be one of the thankful.
“O Moses, I have held you back from one thing, and that is vision, but I have specified you for many virtues. I have chosen you for messenger hood and I have honored you with the eminence of state. Give thanks for all this and recognize these blessings. And be one of the thankful, and do not expose yourself to the station of the complaint.”
