7:80 And Lot, when he said to his people, “What, do you bring an indecency with which none in the worlds has preceded you?”
Each person’s indecency is appropriate to his days and states. Look at a man’s station in traversing the road. Where is he located? His indecency follows the measure of his mortal nature right there. The world’s creatures are no more than three groups: the common people, the elect, and the elect of the elect. The indecency of the common people is explained by the tongue of the Shariah, and its penalty
is either the whip or stoning. The indecency of the elect is to look at the pleasures and appetites of this world with the eye of the head, to see their enjoyment and adornment, and to give them access to themselves, even if they are permitted and far from ambiguity. For, in the case of the elect, the blight of the permitted bliss of this world is more than the blight of the forbidden in the case of the common people. In the tongue of the Master of the Shariah, the penalty of this indecency is what he said: “Lower your eyes and hold back your hands.”
The indecency of the elect is that they should gaze at other than the Real with the heart’s awareness despite the fact that this declaration has come from the Real: “Say ‘God,’ then leave them” [6:91]. He is saying, “My servant, do not gaze at yourself—see everything as My act. Do not lay favors on Me with your acts—look at My success-giving. Flee from your own marks—see only My love.” What does someone seized by His love have to do with others? Keep the heart turned toward Him and let the others go.
God says, “I wonder how anyone with faith in Me can depend on other than Me. Were they to gaze on the subtleties of My kindness, they would not worship other than Me.”