21:69 We said, “O fire, be coolness and safety!”
For the companions of recognitions and the lords of realities, there is another closeness in this verse. They have said that this was a call to a fire that was made ready in the fireplace of Abraham’s spirit. When Nimrod placed him in the mangonel, Abraham placed his own secret core in the mangonel of contemplation. As soon as he came near the fire of Nimrod, the burn of witnessing the Real made him want to sigh so as to extinguish Nimrod’s fire. The call came, “O fire,” that is, “O fire of witnessing, be coolness. Be cold toward Nimrod’s fire and do not exercise your ruling authority over it, for We have decreed that We will bring forth from the midst of the fire a scented garden full of flowers and blossoms to honor Our bosom friend and make manifest a miracle for him. If you extinguish it, it will not become a garden and the miracle will not appear. Be cold toward Nimrod’s fire so that the garden may appear, and be safety for Abraham so that the miracle may appear.”
Listen to another subtle point, more wonderful than that: Your soul is like Nimrod, the soul’s caprice is fire, and your burnt heart is Abraham. The soul has lit up the fire of caprice, placed the heart in the mangonel of disobedient acts with the chains of deception and the fetters of appetite, and thrown it into the fire of caprice. Before it takes one step, intellect comes like someone distracted, a servant boy to the heart, and says, “Have you any need?” The heart responds, “‘Of you, no.’ O intellect, do you remember when it was said to you, ‘Come!’, and you came? It was said, ‘Go!,’ and you went? It was said, ‘Who are you?’, and you were at a loss? On that day you did not know your own road. How do you know what is right for me today?” When the heart enters the fire of caprice, the command arrives, “O fire, be coolness! O fire of caprice, be cold for the heart, for it is already burned by love for Me.”
The burnt one will not be burned again. When this command comes to the fire of caprice, at once it dies down, and a wondrous garden appears in the midst of the recognizer’s heart, a hundred thousand marvels with all sorts of flowers and trees full of fruit. On the garden’s caprice, the clouds of bounteousness pour down the rain of welcome; on the soul, the rain of sufficiency so that obedience and loyalty grow from it; on the heart, the rain of guidance so that yearning and limpidness grow from it; on the tongue, the rain of subtlety so that praise and laudation grow from it; on the eye, the rain of generosity, so that vision and encounter grow from it.
