56:24 As recompense for what they were doing.
This is the prize for the deeds of the faithful and the rewards for their acts of obedience and worship. It is the attribute of wage-earners who do the work and want the wage. But God has friends who do not bow their heads to the paradise of His approval, nor do they hunt the maidens, castles, rivers, and trees. They are servants at the house of the Sultan of tawḥīd, the residents of the world of love, the sultans of the realm of recognition, yearning for the warmth of nonbeing. The Paradise of Everlastingness presents its adornment and beauty to them, and they disclose their certainty and recognition to it.
Paradise presents its rivers of wine, milk, and honey to them, and they disclose the springs of tawḥīd and the oceans of solitariness to it. Paradise presents its trees full of fruits with their flowers and blossoms to them, and they disclose the green shoots of pain and bewilderment to it. Paradise presents to them the wide-eyed maidens, adorned and trimmed, and they disclose to it the veiled virgins of recognition and the hidden secrets of witnessing. Finally, paradise turns away from them in shame, and they pass on to the seat of truthfulness, at an Omnipotent King [54:55]. They do not open the eyes of their aspiration toward anyone.
56:58-59 Have you seen the seed that you spill? Do you create it, or are We its creators?
In this noble verse of the eternal, beginningless speech, the Presence of the Real makes manifest His power of creation over the world’s folk so that they will know that the artisan without cause is He, the enactor without tool is He, the all-subjugating without cause is He, the all-forgiving without delay is He, the all-curtaining of every slip is He. He is the Lord who created a subtle form from frail water and showed firm artisanry to a feeble sperm-drop. He set up many diverse paintings with “Be!”, so it comes to be [2:117]: mutually similar limbs, opposites like unto each other, every limb adorned with one sort of beauty, not more than its limit, not less than its measure.
To each, He gave an attribute, and in each He placed a strength: senses in the brain, splendor on the forehead, beauty in the nose, sorcery in the eye, sauciness in the lips, comeliness in the cheek, perfect loveliness in the hair, envy in the liver, rancor in the spleen, appetite in the veins, faith in the heart, love in the secret core, recognition in the spirit. It is not apparent whether the artisanries in the natures are more beautiful, or if the governance of the form-giving is sweeter. What is this sculpture doing between subtle water and gross dust?! Since the Sculptor is one, how is it that there is this lowliness in individuals? So many marvels and wonders from a drop of water! The intelligent man gazes on His artisanry, but the heedless man is asleep. How long will you look with the outward eye at the marks giving witness? Look once with the inner eye at the marks of the subtleties. It is as if the Exalted Lord is saying, “My servant, I adorned your face and I adorned your heart. I adorned your face for gazing on creation. I adorned your heart for gazing on Me. It is your face that the creatures see, and your heart that I see. I did not allow exacting the penalty of the Shariah from your face, which is the gazing place of the creatures. How can I allow conveying the pain of severance to your essence, which is My gazing place? I am that Lord in the attribute of whose power is both creating and making to die.” Of creation He reports, “Do you create it, or are We its creators?” Of making to die He reports,
56:61 We have determined death among you.
In creation, I showed the attributes of gentleness, and in making to die I showed the perfection of severity. I created it so that you would see power and gentleness. I make to die so that you may see harshness and severity.
Again I bring to life so that you may see awesomeness and ruling authority. Since you know that I am powerful and able, wise and knowing, peerless in ability and knowledge, then you should
56:74 Glorify the name of your Lord the Tremendous!
“Come, praise Me and remember My oneness and greatness, so that tomorrow I may bring you forth in the ranks of the proximate ones of repose and ease, for this is what I have decreed in the Beginningless. In My eternal speech, I have said,
56:88-89 If he is one of those brought near, then repose and ease and a garden of bliss.
One of the great ones of the religion said that repose and ease will be both in this world and in the afterworld. The repose is in this world and the ease will be in the afterworld. The repose is that He adorns the heart of the faithful servants with His gaze so that they will discern truth from falsehood. Then He makes them wide in knowledge so that they will find there the vision of His power. Then He makes them seeing so that they will have the light to see His favors. He makes them hear so that they will listen to the beginningless advice. He makes them pure so that they will seek only His companionship. He makes them happy with the fragrance of union so that their love for the Friend will grow. He makes them bright with His light so that they will gaze from Him to Him. He scours them with the file of solicitude so that they will see Him wherever they look.
When the servants go to the house of felicity with these attributes, they will see the ease of generosity. The breeze of closeness will be blowing, the seat of approval will be set up under the tree of finding, the carpet of closeness will be spread, the candle of compassion lit. The servants will sit like kings and the beginningless Friend will lift up the curtain, greeting their ears with “peace” and showing the vision of the Possessor of Majesty:
56:90-91 If he be one of the companions of the right hand, then “Peace to you from the companions of the right hand.”
The companions of the right hand are lower in station and rank than the preceders and the proximate. They are the worshipers, those who worship in order to reach the joy and bliss of paradise. They are the doers, those who do deeds in this world to find reward in the afterworld. The Exalted Lord says, “We leave not to waste the wage of those who do beautiful deeds [18:30]. We will not leave to waste the wage of the beautiful-doers. We will not make them despair of the permanent good fortune and generous kingdom that they want. We will give them their wage completely: He will give them their wages in full [4:173]. And We will place Our bounty on top of that: He will increase them from His bounty [4:173].”
They will have adorned sitting places and refined dwellings. The lights of gentle favors will be lit and varieties of incense will be burning; serving boys and servants, servitors and retinue, will be standing in wait; heart-entrancing cup-bearers will have cups of wine placed in their hands, and tumult-inducing minstrels will be playing heart-stealing tunes. Each one will be seated like a king, leaning back on an exalted throne in his own chambers, towers, gardens, and forests, a crown of rulership studded with the pearls of solicitude on his head, on the carpet of expansiveness, with justice given to the contemplation of the Contemplated. The necklace of beauty will be hung around the neck of union, and his voice will be raised in praise and magnification. The Patron will lift up the curtain and “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what has never passed into the heart of any mortal”. By the majesty of the Lord God, no loving mother has ever caressed a weeping child more than God will caress the disobedient servant at the moment of face-to-face vision!
