6:125 Whomsoever God desires to guide, He expands his breast to the submission.
The mark of this expansion is that at three moments He throws three lights into the heart of the servant: the light of intellect at the beginning, the light of learning in the middle, and the light of recognition at the end. Then, with the sum total of these lights, all his difficulties are solved and he begins to see something of the Unseen. Muṣṭafā said, “Be wary of the perspicacity of the man of faith, for he gazes with the light of God.”
With the light of the beginning, he knows his own defects, with the light of the middle he recognizes his own loss, and with the light of the end, he perceives his own nonbeing. With the light of the beginning, he escapes from associationism, with the light of the middle he escapes from the opposition, and with the light of the end, he escapes from himself.
6:126 This is the path of thy Lord, straight.
The straight path is undertaking servanthood while realizing Lordhood. This is a dispersion confirmed by togetherness, and a togetherness delimited by the Shariah. Dispersion without togetherness is the effort of the Mu’tazilites, who fell off the road and did not reach the station of the Haqiqah. Togetherness without dispersion is the path of the libertines, who let go of the Shariah and fancied a Haqiqah that was not.
It is said that dispersion is Shariah’s place, and togetherness is Haqiqah’s place. If the Shariah is empty of the Haqiqah, this is deprivation, and if the Haqiqah is empty of the Shariah, this is abandonment. The Shariah is an explication, the Haqiqah face-to-face vision. Muṣṭafā was the possessor of both face-to-face vision and explication. If the Shariah and the Haqiqah are not brought together in the servant, the Abode of Peace will not be his place and home.
6:134 Surely what you are promised will come.
Take what is to come as come, take what is to go as gone, take this bright day as dark, and take this world’s delusion as a day that has ended. The life of this world is wind—as soon as you look, it’s gone. This world is like a mad man’s laughter and a drunkard’s weeping. The mad man laughs without happiness, and the drunkard weeps without grief. This world is like ice placed in the sun, and it passes in anguish. Or it is like a sugar cube put in the mouth, and it falls apart. Yes, the taste is so sweet, but the body melts away. As soon as you put it in your mouth, it melts. This world is a pleasant gazing place, a verdant disclosure, but as soon as you look, it passes. As soon as you bind your heart to it, it goes. “If not for death, every man would claim Lordhood.” Were it not for the abasement of death, from all sides of the world would rise up the call, “I am your Lord the Highest” [79:24].
You will see all these seats of honor emptied of chiefs. They bloomed like roses on the wall, then they dropped from the wall and slept in the dust. Why do you not take heed and think about your final end? The Lord of the Worlds says, “You shall surely know whose outcome shall be the Abode” [6:135]. Yes, know what this world will reach and who shall have the house of triumph and foreverness! See how the poor and broken will be brought on steeds of generosity, and the chieftains empty of meaning will be driven by whips of severity!
