18:7 Surely We have made all that is on the earth an adornment for it.
The folk who recognize God, love Him, and yearn for Him are the adornment of the earth: its stars, moons, and suns. When the lights of tawḥīd shine in the secret cores of the tawḥīd-voicers, all of the horizons become radiant with their brightness. The adornment of the earth is the friend of God. The cosmos is decorated with them and the world is painted with them. Their hearts are lit by the light of recognition, their secret cores are given access to the presence of proximity by the mediation of wisdom, their faces are turned toward the presence of proximity by the well-trodden path of rectitude, and the avenue of the Tariqah and the Sunnah has been placed before them. They are the signposts of the religion and the Pegs of the earth, the lamps of the world, and the keys to the Gardens. They lay down the foundations of friendship and prop up the portico of truthfulness. God’s gentleness toward the creatures comes through them and the goal in the creation of the realm of being is they. In name and mark, they are the poor, and in reality, they are the kings of the earth—kings in tatters. Anyone who wants to know their conduct and adornment should recite the story of the Companions of the Cave, for God displays them in the Qur’an:
18:10 When the chevaliers took refuge in the cave and said, “Our Lord, give us mercy from Thee and furnish us with right conduct in our affair.”
It was said to them, “Go into this cave and sleep sweetly. Put down your heads on the pillow of security, for We will take a sleep from you in place of the worship of the world’s folk.”
Listen to a beautiful, subtle point: The Exalted Lord made a cave appear to them in that mountain, and when the faithful servants leave this world He makes the four walls of the grave their cave. Just as He gave them security from enemies in that cave, so also He will give the faithful servants security from Satan in the grave, saying, “Fear not and grieve not” [41:30]. In that cave He showed mercy to them: Your Lord will unfold for you of His mercy [18:16]. In the same way, He will show mercy to the faithful in this cave of the grave: Repose and ease and a garden of bliss [56:89]. Just as He made that cave vast for them, for He says, “while they were in a broad space in it” [18:17], so also He will make this grave vast for the faithful servant with wholesome deeds. He says, “Whoever does wholesome deeds—for their own souls they are making provision” [30:44].
And a sound report has come, “His grave will be made spacious for him.” Just as He opened up the top of the cave for them so that fresh air and the breeze of the morning wind would not be cut off from them, so also He will open up a door from paradise to the faithful servants’ garden-plots so that a sweet-smelling breeze will pass over them from the direction of the Gardens of Eden and keep their beds sweet.
