In terms of allusion and according to the tasting of the Tariqah, this verse has another closeness and another meaning. The king of the universe, the keeper of the world, the knower of the hidden, is saying that when He first created creatures, He created them in the curtaining wrap of createdness. When He made them with such makeup at the beginning, the darknesses of the attributes of createdness surrounded this created nature. They were all one group in the curtain of obscurity. All were gathered in the darkness of absence, all remained in the captivity of their own makeup.
2:213 The people were one community. Then God sent the prophets as bringers of good news and warning.
Then a courier came from the infinite world to their tininess. Muṣṭafā gave this report about that courier: “God created the creatures in the darkness. Then He cast upon them something of His light. Whomsoever the light struck was guided, and whomsoever it missed went astray.” When this messenger turned its face from that infinity to their tininess, they all became aware, captive to desire, subjugated by will, wounded by wisdom, their ears fixed on their own fortune and lot: “What is coming to us? What will be decreed for us?”
Then the hand of predetermination divided them into two groups: the lucky and the unlucky. He said about the lucky, “These belong to the Garden, and I do not care.” He said about the unlucky, “These belong to the Fire, and I do not care.” In other words, “I have no fear of being blamed. I will do whatever occurs to Me and have no regrets. Some are the folk of felicity without any conformity with Me, and some are the folk of wretchedness without any opposition to Me.
‘These belong to the Garden, and I do not care’ about their disloyalty, and ‘These belong to the Fire, and I do not care about their loyalty. I receive no profit from loyalty, nor do I lose anything from disloyalty. When someone gains faith, he is the one who profits; I stay exactly as I was, without equal or need. When someone becomes an unbeliever, he is the one who loses; I stay exactly as I was, without an associate or partner.
“O My servants! If the first of you and the last of you, the men of you and jinn of you, the living of you and the dead of you, had the heart of the most godwary man among you, that would add nothing to My kingdom. O My servants! If the first of you and the last of you, the men of you and jinn of you, the living of you and the dead of you, had the heart of the most depraved man among you, that would diminish nothing from My kingdom.”
One of the subtle points attached to this verse is that the world’s creatures gathered within Adam’s makeup—the unbeliever and the faithful, the sincerely truthful and the heretic—have the likeness of a merchant carrying musk. Since he goes in dread of highwaymen, he places the musk in the midst of asafetida. The musk pulls the smell of asafetida to itself, and sharp-scented asafetida pulls the musk to itself.
When the merchant reaches his destination and he feels secure, he spreads a cloth, puts the musk and the asafetida there, lets the wind blow against them, and each returns to its original scent and lets go of the borrowed. So also, the fragrance of the faithful in Adam’s makeup reached the unbelievers, and the fragrance of the unbelievers reached the faithful.
The beautiful deeds that come into existence from the unbelievers in this world all come from the fragrance of the faithful that has reached them, and the ugly deeds and disobedient acts that come from the faithful in this world all come from the scent of the unbelievers’ unbelief.
Tomorrow at the resurrection the cloth of justice will be spread and the wind of solicitude will blow. The beautiful deeds of the unbelievers will go to the faithful and the ugly deeds of the faithful will go to the unbelievers. The first judgment and beginningless decree will arrive. It will take away the borrowed, and give the original back to the original. The pure will go with the pure, and the vile with the vile, so that God may distinguish the vile from the goodly [8:37].
