LETTER 49: THE SEEKER OF GOD ALMIGHTY

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate!

Brother Shamsuddin, may you have a long life and gain victory over your lower soul! A seeker has no fixed place in any stage, nor does he rest anywhere along the Way. In fact, he is forbidden to rest contentedly anywhere, in either this world or the next as it has been said: Rest is forbidden for the hearts of God's friends! For themselves, where indeed would the necessity of resting arise? O brother, know that if there was a question of anyone's heart being at peace in His presence, then please indicate where, in either world, that place might be, for this world is a mansion where He remains hidden, while the next is a mansion where He reveals Himself. While He is still hidden, it is not proper for the hearts of seekers to be at rest, nor can there be rest in the mansion where He discloses Himself Contentment in the heart of a seeker arises from one of two causes: Either he finds relief in his quest for the Desired One, because he actually finds Him, or else he becomes negligent with respect to the Beloved.

It is not possible to find the Desired One in this world or the next in such a way that the heart is freed from the pain of seeking Him. Nor should one condone negligence with regard to the Lord, al- lowing the heart to be relieved of the task of running and searching after Him. This is the meaning of what has been described by the author of the Kashf-ul-Mahjub the disclosure of what is hidden) and pointed out in the Sharb-i Ta'arruf [The commentary on mystical knowledge), namely, that the Beloved does not enter a house, while the lover is, as it were, confined to a house. He cannot pass beyond it. The pain in the hearts of lovers and seekers lasts forever, and the grief experienced by their souls is eternal.

O brother, the litter of the Desired One is raised high upon a camel, while the existence of the stage of the seekers is very lowly indeed! It is not fitting for the Desired One to descend from His lofty universe, nor is it possible for seekers to rise up and make progress from their abject state of servitude. The sheikhs of the Way have said that seeking does not abate in either world but, in the next, there would be neither good fortune nor hardship, simply seeking itself, since the beauty as well as the perfection of the Desired One is infinite. Seeking is unceasing; it is forbidden for a seeker to rest in his

heart. How can there appear a limit for our love, Since the Beauty of both worlds has no bounds.

A seeker advances by four stages to that of very great revelation. The first is dread; the second, fear, the third, apprehension; and the fourth, fearing. These fears are inspired, in their respective order, by the punishments to come, by separation from creatures, by seeing some deficiency while contemplating God, and by fearing that union with God might come to an end. The various fruits of these fears are, in order: keeping one's hands off the world, which is the stage of a devotee; cutting oneself off from all except the Friend, the stage of righteous ones; the ability to pass beyond what is not God, the stage of lovers, and, finally, being united to the Lord, the stage of perfected Sufis.

All the sheikhs of the Way are unanimous in affirming that when a servant is delivered from the bonds of stages, has become praised and celebrated for all his spiritual states, and has passed beyond seeing what God is not, his state then becomes hidden from the comprehension of human intellect. His life, freed from opinions and conjectures, becomes hidden from the eyes of strangers behind the curtain of My saints are under My dome. This tradition comes from those whose hearts were aflame. It is not some fable they concocted. This is a road for men to travel, it is not a game for children!

Go play, since a lover's tasks are not for you!

You need the quality of a Zulaikha or the praise of a Majnun in order to listen to the story of Joseph or that of Laila. Certainly, in their stories there are lessons for men of insight (Q12:111). It is all an explanation and description of this group who are men of the Way. Every difficulty that is encountered on the Way of the Lord can be solved by referring to the story of Joseph. It is not a tale that one could forge but a confirmation of previous scriptures, an explanation of all things (Q12:111). When it says, all things, do you know what is meant? If a thousand volumes were written concerning the wonders of that story, it would be but a drop in the ocean or a ray of the sun! One beloved of God said:

Until you become the laughingstock of people and taste derision, and are slandered like the Jew and Christian, and still resolve not to detest your own religion, how can you be born into the assembly of lovers?

Those lovers who tread the path of reprobation, and the seekers who suffer for their unconventional behavior, say to those who follow the safe path

We are not fellow travelers! Take your own road and go! May your way be full of peace and ours full of shame!

If Zulaikha had grown frightened at hearing the women say, The Wife of Pharaoh wants to seduce her own slave (Q12:30) she would certainly not have dared even to take the name of Joseph. O brother, God is infinitely greater than Joseph and Zulaikha!

Nor can He be counted along with Majnun and Laila, and yet neither you nor I have the inner eye that is required to see this. First con- struct the wall, and then decorate it! The firm conviction of the orthodox Sunnis is that lovers have existed, do exist, and will exist: but what profit is there for those unfortunate ones who are not destined for this bliss? Realize that it has been attested in the Quran: That it the Quran) should be a healing and mercy for believers! (Q17:82). What do infidels have to do with such things? What is the benefit of the sun's shining brightly on an unfortunate bat who has no eyes? Since we have come luckless from the very loins of our father and the womb of our mother, because everything and each person that exists is such as it is, then what adjustment can be expected? The unfortunate one is branded as such from his mother's womb! He has been nailed up by the Quranic dictum: You wish nothing at all: whatever God wishes comes to pass (Q81:29). This dictum has been stamped on mankind and its secret meaning has been thus expressed:

Look at the one who, even out of fear of You, cannot move his tongue except to bless You.

O brother, every lament is because of our ill fortune, and every complaint springs from our own ill luck. If it were not so, the door of mercy would remain open. The sun of fortune shines equally on a rubbish heap and on a rose garden; from the rose garden a very pleas ant odor arises, whereas a foul smell issues forth from the rubbish heap. The difference arises here: It has nothing to do with the sun! To speak at any greater length about this would be to enter the domain of fate and predestination and knowing that is neither your task nor mine. It simply perplexes the mind!

One people reach the empyrean; another is plunged into hell: This is the cry, out of fear of You, arising from a handful of dust!

With every quality, and for every possible cause, give praise, whether you be a man or a woman! Never cease to hope, for He turns a robber into a pilgrim, a fire worshiper into a leader, a Brahmin into a Muslim, and an idol worshiper into a friend. Man, though mere water and dust, has a noble task to perform. He has a great calling. He is poor and indigent in his origins; still, when the sun of the di vine trust began to shine in the sky, the angels in the angelic kingdom, who for seven hundred thousand years had been engaged in the difficult task of sanctifying themselves and who had shouted out, We proclaim Your praise (Q2:30), fled from the portal of divine effulgence and admitted their own inability. They refused to bear the di- vine trust (Q24-72). In the same way the sky said: I have the quality of exaltation. The earth said: I am clothed with a vast expanse. The mountains said: Stability is our hallmark Mines of precious stones said: It is not fitting that we be destroyed!

Yet the particle of dust stretched forth his hands in supplication from the sleeves of wretchedness and, taking the burden of seeking upon his soul, gave no thought to either world. He said: What is it to me that I am afflicted? Everything that is eaten turns into dust. What can dust be rubbed into? Place manliness before you and take upon your shoulders the burden that could not be borne by the seven heavens or the earth, and say: Are there anymore? (Q50:30).

Peace

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate!

Brother Shamsuddin, may you have a long life and gain victory over your lower soul! A seeker has no fixed place in any stage, nor does he rest anywhere along the Way. In fact, he is forbidden to rest contentedly anywhere, in either this world or the next as it has been said: Rest is forbidden for the hearts of God's friends! For themselves, where indeed would the necessity of resting arise? O brother, know that if there was a question of anyone's heart being at peace in His presence, then please indicate where, in either world, that place might be, for this world is a mansion where He remains hidden, while the next is a mansion where He reveals Himself. While He is still hidden, it is not proper for the hearts of seekers to be at rest, nor can there be rest in the mansion where He discloses Himself Contentment in the heart of a seeker arises from one of two causes: Either he finds relief in his quest for the Desired One, because he actually finds Him, or else he becomes negligent with respect to the Beloved.

It is not possible to find the Desired One in this world or the next in such a way that the heart is freed from the pain of seeking Him. Nor should one condone negligence with regard to the Lord, al- lowing the heart to be relieved of the task of running and searching after Him. This is the meaning of what has been described by the author of the Kashf-ul-Mahjub the disclosure of what is hidden) and pointed out in the Sharb-i Ta'arruf [The commentary on mystical knowledge), namely, that the Beloved does not enter a house, while the lover is, as it were, confined to a house. He cannot pass beyond it. The pain in the hearts of lovers and seekers lasts forever, and the grief experienced by their souls is eternal.

O brother, the litter of the Desired One is raised high upon a camel, while the existence of the stage of the seekers is very lowly indeed! It is not fitting for the Desired One to descend from His lofty universe, nor is it possible for seekers to rise up and make progress from their abject state of servitude. The sheikhs of the Way have said that seeking does not abate in either world but, in the next, there would be neither good fortune nor hardship, simply seeking itself, since the beauty as well as the perfection of the Desired One is infinite. Seeking is unceasing; it is forbidden for a seeker to rest in his

heart. How can there appear a limit for our love, Since the Beauty of both worlds has no bounds.

A seeker advances by four stages to that of very great revelation. The first is dread; the second, fear, the third, apprehension; and the fourth, fearing. These fears are inspired, in their respective order, by the punishments to come, by separation from creatures, by seeing some deficiency while contemplating God, and by fearing that union with God might come to an end. The various fruits of these fears are, in order: keeping one's hands off the world, which is the stage of a devotee; cutting oneself off from all except the Friend, the stage of righteous ones; the ability to pass beyond what is not God, the stage of lovers, and, finally, being united to the Lord, the stage of perfected Sufis.

All the sheikhs of the Way are unanimous in affirming that when a servant is delivered from the bonds of stages, has become praised and celebrated for all his spiritual states, and has passed beyond seeing what God is not, his state then becomes hidden from the comprehension of human intellect. His life, freed from opinions and conjectures, becomes hidden from the eyes of strangers behind the curtain of My saints are under My dome. This tradition comes from those whose hearts were aflame. It is not some fable they concocted. This is a road for men to travel, it is not a game for children!

Go play, since a lover's tasks are not for you!

You need the quality of a Zulaikha or the praise of a Majnun in order to listen to the story of Joseph or that of Laila. Certainly, in their stories there are lessons for men of insight (Q12:111). It is all an explanation and description of this group who are men of the Way. Every difficulty that is encountered on the Way of the Lord can be solved by referring to the story of Joseph. It is not a tale that one could forge but a confirmation of previous scriptures, an explanation of all things (Q12:111). When it says, all things, do you know what is meant? If a thousand volumes were written concerning the wonders of that story, it would be but a drop in the ocean or a ray of the sun! One beloved of God said:

Until you become the laughingstock of people and taste derision, and are slandered like the Jew and Christian, and still resolve not to detest your own religion, how can you be born into the assembly of lovers?

Those lovers who tread the path of reprobation, and the seekers who suffer for their unconventional behavior, say to those who follow the safe path

We are not fellow travelers! Take your own road and go! May your way be full of peace and ours full of shame!

If Zulaikha had grown frightened at hearing the women say, The Wife of Pharaoh wants to seduce her own slave (Q12:30) she would certainly not have dared even to take the name of Joseph. O brother, God is infinitely greater than Joseph and Zulaikha!

Nor can He be counted along with Majnun and Laila, and yet neither you nor I have the inner eye that is required to see this. First con- struct the wall, and then decorate it! The firm conviction of the orthodox Sunnis is that lovers have existed, do exist, and will exist: but what profit is there for those unfortunate ones who are not destined for this bliss? Realize that it has been attested in the Quran: That it the Quran) should be a healing and mercy for believers! (Q17:82). What do infidels have to do with such things? What is the benefit of the sun's shining brightly on an unfortunate bat who has no eyes? Since we have come luckless from the very loins of our father and the womb of our mother, because everything and each person that exists is such as it is, then what adjustment can be expected? The unfortunate one is branded as such from his mother's womb! He has been nailed up by the Quranic dictum: You wish nothing at all: whatever God wishes comes to pass (Q81:29). This dictum has been stamped on mankind and its secret meaning has been thus expressed:

Look at the one who, even out of fear of You, cannot move his tongue except to bless You.

O brother, every lament is because of our ill fortune, and every complaint springs from our own ill luck. If it were not so, the door of mercy would remain open. The sun of fortune shines equally on a rubbish heap and on a rose garden; from the rose garden a very pleas ant odor arises, whereas a foul smell issues forth from the rubbish heap. The difference arises here: It has nothing to do with the sun! To speak at any greater length about this would be to enter the domain of fate and predestination and knowing that is neither your task nor mine. It simply perplexes the mind!

One people reach the empyrean; another is plunged into hell: This is the cry, out of fear of You, arising from a handful of dust!

With every quality, and for every possible cause, give praise, whether you be a man or a woman! Never cease to hope, for He turns a robber into a pilgrim, a fire worshiper into a leader, a Brahmin into a Muslim, and an idol worshiper into a friend. Man, though mere water and dust, has a noble task to perform. He has a great calling. He is poor and indigent in his origins; still, when the sun of the di vine trust began to shine in the sky, the angels in the angelic kingdom, who for seven hundred thousand years had been engaged in the difficult task of sanctifying themselves and who had shouted out, We proclaim Your praise (Q2:30), fled from the portal of divine effulgence and admitted their own inability. They refused to bear the di- vine trust (Q24-72). In the same way the sky said: I have the quality of exaltation. The earth said: I am clothed with a vast expanse. The mountains said: Stability is our hallmark Mines of precious stones said: It is not fitting that we be destroyed!

Yet the particle of dust stretched forth his hands in supplication from the sleeves of wretchedness and, taking the burden of seeking upon his soul, gave no thought to either world. He said: What is it to me that I am afflicted? Everything that is eaten turns into dust. What can dust be rubbed into? Place manliness before you and take upon your shoulders the burden that could not be borne by the seven heavens or the earth, and say: Are there anymore? (Q50:30).

Peace