26:79 And who gives me to eat and gives me drink.
Abraham was shunning delicious and refreshing foods and clear and refined drinks. They said to him, “Why do you not want this and why do you not eat?” He answered, “Surely His are the creation and the command [7:54]. This form of ours is commanded by His creation, and this soul of ours is commanded by His command. We have tied ourselves to His desire and pulled ourselves into the stable of His graciousness so that He will not leave us without nourishment.”
The compass of Power had not yet turned around the circle of existence when He gave everyone what was suited for him and was done with him. “God is finished with creation, character, a moment of death, and provision.” One person is in bondage to the nourishment of the soul, another hope for the nourishment of the heart. The nourishment of the soul is food and drink, and the nourishment of the heart is recognition and love. One person lives through the soul—he lives by food and air. Another life through the Real—he lives by love and remembrance.
Abū Bakr al-Warrāq said, “Who gives me to eat without food and gives me to drink without a drink. Metaphorically, ‘He satiates me and quenches me without attachment.’ There is evidence for this in the account of the cup-bearer during the era of God’s Messenger. For three days the Prophet was heard reciting ‘There is no creature crawling on the earth but that its provision rests on God’ [11:6]. He had doubts about his proximity. Anas said, ‘After that, he lived twenty-some years never eating or drinking because of appetite.’”
26:105-6 The people of Noah cried lies to the messengers when their brother Noah said to them, “Will you not be Godwary?”
The purport of this verse is to explain how to invite and to explain the attribute of the inviter. Whenever someone invites and calls another to God, his road is first to command Godwariness, just as God recounts from the prophets that they said, “Will you not be Godwary?” Then, when they speak to them, they should speak with the utmost gentleness so that the words will get to them and be easier for them to accept. Do you not see that the Exalted Lord sent Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh and commanded them to speak gently? He said, “Speak to him with soft words. Perhaps he will remember or fear” [20:44]. He commanded Muṣṭafā in the same way: “Say: ‘I admonish you in but one thing, that you stand up for God’” [34:46].
In these accounts, when the prophets spoke to their communities with gentleness saying, “Will you not be Godwary?,” they did not say, “Be wary of God,” or “Be wary of His punishment,” for in that there would have been a kind of harshness, and the hearts of the people would have found it repellent. This is like when someone says to someone else, “Do such and such!” This is a peremptory command, empty of benevolence and gentleness. If he were to say, “Will you not do such and such?” this is the same command, but mixed with gentleness and benevolence that will cling to the listener’s heart.
Will you not be Godwary? is a command to Godwariness, and Godwariness is the root of all excellent qualities and the basis of all obedient acts. For the lords of certainty, there are no supplies for the promised return other than Godwariness: And take along supplies, but the best of supplies is Godwariness [2:197].
There are all sorts of clothing. The clothing that you yourself can put on and take off is trifling. What does the work is the clothing of Godwariness that the Real puts on someone. One person is draped in the clothing of submission, and he then sometimes falls and sometimes rises; finally, in the end, he is saved. Another is given the clothing of faith. He also falls and rises, but he seldom falls and mostly rises, so he is saved quickly. Another is draped in the clothing of Godwariness. He lives happy, dies happy, and rises up happy. Another is draped in the clothing of love. He lives unsettled, dies yearning. Know also that the aspects of Godwariness in the Qur’an are many, and all go back to five meanings.
One is to be wary of associationism by means of tawḥīd: He said to Moses, “I shall write it for those who are wary of Me” [7:156], that is, in the next world He will make it, that is, mercy, necessary for those who were wary of associationism.
Second is to be wary by purifying oneself of hypocrisy, as He says, “O you who have faith, be wary of God! [9:119]: O you who have faith, avoid rising up against My torment. Do not mix hypocrisy and doubt with purifying your deeds. Flee from My torment, know your own measure, and rise beyond the road of delusion so that you will not burn in the fire of severance. And be with the truthful [9:119]: Be with the upright and the straight speakers.”
Third is to be wary by truthfulness against eye-service, as the Exalted Lord says in the story of Abel: “God accepts only from the Godwary” [5:27]. Yes, the work of the worthy is worthy and that of the washed, but what will be accepted from a striver who is not wanted? How can the one whose feet are tied with the bonds of unwantedness arrive? Musk did not buy its scent, nor did honey search for its sweetness. Colocynth and dates grow in the same soil and the same water. So, the work is tied to solicitude, not to obedience. He does what He wants, and He does not add or subtract from what He wants. The desire is His desire, the will His will: God does whatsoever He wills [14:27] and He decrees whatsoever He desires [5:1].
Fourth is to be wary of innovation in the Sunnah, as the Exalted Lord says: “Surely those who lower their voices with God’s Messenger, they are the ones whose hearts God has tested for Godwariness” [49:3]. God made the hearts of the Sunnis clean and pure for abstaining. He scoured their hearts of innovation and adorned them with the Sunnah. He tanned them with fear, brought them to life with shame, and brightened them with purification for the sake of companionship with Him.
Fifth is Godwariness by avoiding acts of disobedience, as He says in the story of Joseph: “Surely whosoever is Godwary and patient” [12:90]. This Godwariness is an allusion to the day when he was alone with Rāʿīl, and the patience is an allusion to the day when he was thrown into the well. Whoever avoids acts of disobedience and is patient in tribulation, surely God does not leave to waste the wage of the beautiful-doers [12:90].
26:109 I ask from you no wage for this; surely my wage falls on God, the Lord of the Worlds.
This is a report about each of the prophets. Each of them said, “I ask from you no wage for this.” Thus everyone who acts for God’s sake will know that it is not appropriate to seek wages from other than God. If one day someone takes a step in God’s road and desires a reward or lifts up a request, let him never desire it from other than Him! To Moses it was revealed, “Lift up your request to Me!
Whatever you ask for, ask from Me, even the salt for your dough or the straw for your sheep.” This indeed is the degree of the wage-earners, for they act with an ear to the reward. The recognizers have another state and another work. When they act, they do not do so for the sake of the reward. They consider rewarding a freckle on the face of the deed.
In any case, calling to an account will be for the wage-earners. What calling to account could there be for the recognizers? The recognizer is indeed a guest. The wage of the wage-earner befits the wage-earner, and the feast of the guest befits the host. The resource of the wage-earner is bewilderment, and the resource of the recognizer is face-to-face vision. “The recognizer’s spirit is radiant with His love; his spirit is all eye, his secret core all tongue. His eye and tongue are helpless in the light of face-to-face vision. “The wage-earners heart has the shining light of hope, but the recognizer’s spirit has a face-to-face vision. The wage-earner wanders in the midst of blessings, but the recognizer cannot fit into expression.” The worth of the recognizer’s spirit is not apparent. Do you know why? Because his spirit is not separate from the Presence. His bodily frame is like a shell, and his soul is like a pearl that originated from the Presence and returned to the Presence.
If the soul had come from here, it would be soulish, and if it were soulish, the veil of dispersion would not have been incinerated. The fire of hell does not burn like the fire that burns in the recognizer’s soul, for his fire is lit by friendship. How can the recognizer be aware of the sound of the Trumpet, or preoccupied with the terror of the Resurrection, or touched by the smoke of hell, or cling to the bliss of paradise? Today, the whole world is preoccupied, but the recognizers are with the One. Tomorrow, all creatures will be drowned in bliss, but they will still be with the One.
Everyone’s heart has a different goal—
enough goal for my heart is Your image
