LETTER 2: REPENTANCE

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate

Dear brother Shamsuddin, God's bounty be upon you! Realize that sincere repentance is like a beautiful carpet on which you perform your devotions. God has said: Turn toward God in repentance, be lieving that you might triumph (Q24:31). This verse was revealed to the companions of the Prophet and all repented and became models of abjuring infidelity and embracing faith in the one true God. Turning their backs on sin, they submitted themselves entirely to God, who has ordained repentance for all. Some of the more noted companions asked what the revelation meant. The Prophet replied that repentance is incumbent upon all, at every hour and at every moment. Infidels should renounce their infidelity and become true believers, sinners should turn aside from their sins and observe God's commandments; those already doing good should progress from what is good to what is still better, those standing still should not linger in the courtyard but come straight up to His door; while those immersed in the affairs of this world should not sink lower into them, but rise to the pinnacle of detachment. It would be a sin for a pilgrim who has already ascended to a certain stage if he were to descend to a lower one. One should turn away from all sorts of greed. There is no room for complacency, since there is always a higher state than the one the pilgrim happens to be in. He must always press on! There is a command in the Law: Walk ahead of those who travel alone.

Moses said, I have repented before You (Q7:143). That is to say. I turned from myself to You because of my passionate desire to see Your Face This is an example of turning away from something good in itself to something infinitely better. The Prophet said, I beg for pardon seventy times a day. For him, seeking pardon meant advanc ing from what was of some merit to what was of much greater merit; to proceed from one stage to a higher one-this is the divine com- mand. A person in the first stage cannot hope to have the repentance of someone in the second. The virtues of the righteous seem to be sins for those closest to God.

The actual meaning of repentance is turning back. There are, however, many ways of turning back, which vary according to the stages, the actions, and the stations of those who repent. Ordinary people, out of fear of punishment, turn from oppressive behavior to being sorry. The elect turn away from their evil deeds because they have become cognizant of their obligation to revere their Master. The elect of the elect, perceiving the insignificance and instability of all creatures and, indeed, their nothingness in the light of the glory of the Maker, are able to turn away from all that is not God. Once this has been grasped it should be noted that repentance, al-though it does not happen once and for all, does not thereby cease to be genuine. If a penitent person, after resolving not to fall into a particular sin again, through negligence actually does so, he can heed the command to repent, consider its merit, and rejoin the ranks of the penitent. Once a man made a resolution in this fashion but again fell. Immediately he went to the shrine of a saint. One of the sheikhs there told him: By the mercy of God I repented seventy times and each time I fell again, but after I begged pardon for the seventy-first time, I fell no more! He also told him of another person who had made a similar resolve and after falling again, he hesitated to return to the shrine How do I know what is my present spiritual state he asked himself. He then heard a voice within him say, You submitted yourself to Me and I forgave you your sins. Again, you were unfaithful and spurned Me. Now I have given you time to repent. If you wish to re- turn, I shall receive you in peace.

Zu'l-Nun Misri expressed the collective view of the great Sheikhs when he said: The repentance of ordinary people is from sinning again, the repentance of the elect, from being negligent again, but the repentance of prophets consists in secing clearly their own paltriness, and in realizing that they have arrived at the state of prophethood without having done anything to merit it. Khwaja Su- hail Tushtari, with many others, is of the opinion that people should not forget the sins of the past but keep them continually in mind so that, despite having much to boast about, they will not grow proud. Khwaja Junaid, along with many supporters, thinks that repentance means forgetting entirely about sins of the past, since the penitent person should become a lover, and for the lover the mere remem- brance of an injustice is itself an injustice. If we look only at the out- ward expression of these two positions there is an apparent contradic- tion, but actually they say the same thing, for the meaning of forgetting is to expunge the attraction of sin from our hearts to such an extent that one could say that it is as if no sin at all had been committed! As Khwaja Junaid said, I have read extensively but found nothing as profitable as this couplet:

When I asked about my sins, Love replied: Your very existence is a sin beyond comparison to any other

O brother, the hour of death lies in ambush! Every moment of reprieve is precious, for the angel of death will suddenly show him self. An old man came up to a saintly man and said, O man of God, 1 want to repent of the many sins that afflict my conscience. You have waited too long, replied the saint. But I came quickly, pro tested the old man. Explain yourself, ordered the saint. If a man fi nally repents before dying, even though he has delayed for years, it is quick (ie, expedient), replied the old man.

O brother, take heart, no matter how sin-stained you may be, you can be sure that you are not more stained than Pharaoh¹¹ was with all his magic nor more defiled than the dog of the Sleepers of the Cave, nor harder than the stone of Mt. Sinai, nor of less value than a slat of wood!

Even if a slave is purchased from Abyssinia, what harm is there if his master calls him Snow White!

[An anecdote about angels follows.]

You saw my faults from head to toe, but still purchased me: How shoddy are the goods, how gracious is the buyer!

Peace!

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate

Dear brother Shamsuddin, God's bounty be upon you! Realize that sincere repentance is like a beautiful carpet on which you perform your devotions. God has said: Turn toward God in repentance, be lieving that you might triumph (Q24:31). This verse was revealed to the companions of the Prophet and all repented and became models of abjuring infidelity and embracing faith in the one true God. Turning their backs on sin, they submitted themselves entirely to God, who has ordained repentance for all. Some of the more noted companions asked what the revelation meant. The Prophet replied that repentance is incumbent upon all, at every hour and at every moment. Infidels should renounce their infidelity and become true believers, sinners should turn aside from their sins and observe God's commandments; those already doing good should progress from what is good to what is still better, those standing still should not linger in the courtyard but come straight up to His door; while those immersed in the affairs of this world should not sink lower into them, but rise to the pinnacle of detachment. It would be a sin for a pilgrim who has already ascended to a certain stage if he were to descend to a lower one. One should turn away from all sorts of greed. There is no room for complacency, since there is always a higher state than the one the pilgrim happens to be in. He must always press on! There is a command in the Law: Walk ahead of those who travel alone.

Moses said, I have repented before You (Q7:143). That is to say. I turned from myself to You because of my passionate desire to see Your Face This is an example of turning away from something good in itself to something infinitely better. The Prophet said, I beg for pardon seventy times a day. For him, seeking pardon meant advanc ing from what was of some merit to what was of much greater merit; to proceed from one stage to a higher one-this is the divine com- mand. A person in the first stage cannot hope to have the repentance of someone in the second. The virtues of the righteous seem to be sins for those closest to God.

The actual meaning of repentance is turning back. There are, however, many ways of turning back, which vary according to the stages, the actions, and the stations of those who repent. Ordinary people, out of fear of punishment, turn from oppressive behavior to being sorry. The elect turn away from their evil deeds because they have become cognizant of their obligation to revere their Master. The elect of the elect, perceiving the insignificance and instability of all creatures and, indeed, their nothingness in the light of the glory of the Maker, are able to turn away from all that is not God. Once this has been grasped it should be noted that repentance, al-though it does not happen once and for all, does not thereby cease to be genuine. If a penitent person, after resolving not to fall into a particular sin again, through negligence actually does so, he can heed the command to repent, consider its merit, and rejoin the ranks of the penitent. Once a man made a resolution in this fashion but again fell. Immediately he went to the shrine of a saint. One of the sheikhs there told him: By the mercy of God I repented seventy times and each time I fell again, but after I begged pardon for the seventy-first time, I fell no more! He also told him of another person who had made a similar resolve and after falling again, he hesitated to return to the shrine How do I know what is my present spiritual state he asked himself. He then heard a voice within him say, You submitted yourself to Me and I forgave you your sins. Again, you were unfaithful and spurned Me. Now I have given you time to repent. If you wish to re- turn, I shall receive you in peace.

Zu'l-Nun Misri expressed the collective view of the great Sheikhs when he said: The repentance of ordinary people is from sinning again, the repentance of the elect, from being negligent again, but the repentance of prophets consists in secing clearly their own paltriness, and in realizing that they have arrived at the state of prophethood without having done anything to merit it. Khwaja Su- hail Tushtari, with many others, is of the opinion that people should not forget the sins of the past but keep them continually in mind so that, despite having much to boast about, they will not grow proud. Khwaja Junaid, along with many supporters, thinks that repentance means forgetting entirely about sins of the past, since the penitent person should become a lover, and for the lover the mere remem- brance of an injustice is itself an injustice. If we look only at the out- ward expression of these two positions there is an apparent contradic- tion, but actually they say the same thing, for the meaning of forgetting is to expunge the attraction of sin from our hearts to such an extent that one could say that it is as if no sin at all had been committed! As Khwaja Junaid said, I have read extensively but found nothing as profitable as this couplet:

When I asked about my sins, Love replied: Your very existence is a sin beyond comparison to any other

O brother, the hour of death lies in ambush! Every moment of reprieve is precious, for the angel of death will suddenly show him self. An old man came up to a saintly man and said, O man of God, 1 want to repent of the many sins that afflict my conscience. You have waited too long, replied the saint. But I came quickly, pro tested the old man. Explain yourself, ordered the saint. If a man fi nally repents before dying, even though he has delayed for years, it is quick (ie, expedient), replied the old man.

O brother, take heart, no matter how sin-stained you may be, you can be sure that you are not more stained than Pharaoh¹¹ was with all his magic nor more defiled than the dog of the Sleepers of the Cave, nor harder than the stone of Mt. Sinai, nor of less value than a slat of wood!

Even if a slave is purchased from Abyssinia, what harm is there if his master calls him Snow White!

[An anecdote about angels follows.]

You saw my faults from head to toe, but still purchased me: How shoddy are the goods, how gracious is the buyer!

Peace!