O Lord, bring to pass the promise that You Yourself made, bring to fruit the tree that You Yourself planted, brighten the lamp that You Yourself lit, and keep the blight of us away from the love that You gave by Your own bounty. O Lord, we are happy that You were and we were not. Your work caught on and ours did not. You put forth Your own worth, You sent Your own Messenger. O Lord, You lifted us up and no one said, “Lift up!” Now that You have lifted up, don’t put down! Keep us in the shadow of gentleness and entrust us to none but Your bounty!
3:194 Our Lord, and give us what Thou hast promised us through Thy messengers.
3:195 And their Lord responded to them, “I will not waste the deed of any doer among you, male or female. One of you is as the other. And those who emigrated were expelled from their homes, were tormented in My path, who fought and were killed, I shall surely acquit them of their ugly deeds and enter them into Gardens under which rivers flow, a reward from God.”
This is loyalty to the promise that He gave to the faithful: “Supplicate Me; I will respond to you” [40:60]. The verification of this loyalty is that He responded to the caller, He bestowed upon the asker, He assisted the striver, He gave increase to the grateful, He bestowed insight on the patient, He rewarded the obedient, He absolved the disobedient, He had mercy on the regretful, He honored the lover, He gave vision to the yearner.
The command came, “O Muḥammad! There is no reason for despair. In triumph the work of the servant is not outside of three traits: If he is obedient, then his reward is in place. If he is disobedient, then your intercession is in place. And no matter how much he is held back, My mercy toward him is in place.” And those who emigrated were expelled from their homes, were tormented in My path, who fought and were killed. This is the attribute of the friends, the custom of the yearners, the story of those who gamble away their spirits, and the final outcome of the work of the passionate: They have given away their hearts and gambled away their spirits. Wounded by the arrow of trial, their status, and respect overthrown by the sword of the decree, they have been exiled from their homes and families.
The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, whoever seeks for You needs a resurrection as hard cash, or he needs his blood to be shed with the sword of disappointment. Exalted of the two worlds! When someone aims for Your threshold, his days are like this—or is it that my portion is like this?” I will surely acquit them of their ugly deeds and enter them into Gardens under which rivers flow, a reward from God. There must be a pain of that sort of a balm of this sort is to appear—blessedness, the most beautiful, and union with the Patron in the Gardens of the Refuge! One group has the sweet drink of blessedness and the bliss of paradise, another group holds to its breast the vision and approval of the Patron! The tongue of the servant’s state says in joy and coquetry, “O God, You were my tribulation, You became my good fortune! You were my sorrow, You became my ease! You were my burning brand, You became my lamp! You were my wound, You became my balm!”
