LETTER 27: THE IMITATION OF THE MESSENGER

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

God's blessing be with you, brother Shamsuddin! For a servant of God, eternal bliss and glory consists in love of the Lord! It is a sign of riches and honor for a creature if he is concerned with imitating the leader of the Muslims, as the Quran attests: Imitate me [Muhammad] and God will befriend you (Q1:31). Place the necklace of compliance upon your neck, and bend your ears to his directives, show yourself ready to obey what he commands, and flee far from any rejection of him! Hold on firmly to the citadel of faith with all its pillars and, as you pass each one of them, take note of the rights of each with punctiliousness. Thus, the pact of friendship and the knot of love for the Creator, through the guidance of Muhammad, will remain firm When you depart from here, you will be able to bring your fidelity and firm trust to the abode of the Beloved Himself, as promised in the Quran: The abode of the righteous is near the All-Powerful King (Q54:55).

The first stage of Paradise is filled with beautiful damsels, mansions, streams, trees, and purified wine, as has been said: Paradise is where those people will alight (Q18:107). When you step into the second stage, the Gift that is beyond description and the Wealth that eludes the imagination will show Its face to you. For good people has been prepared a place such as no eye has seen, nor has any ear heard its praise, nor has it entered into the heart of man to conceive what it will be like! This is an explanation concerning it. In the third stage, that of those who meet and who attain union with the Friend, this is what will happen to you: Who will taste death in the country of the One who lives forever? There are no limits to the vast expanse of Your dwelling place, just as there are no limits to Your love. One experiences there a stifling like that of a drowning man whose lungs are bursting for the air of Truth!

The explanation of that love is that He loves them, and they love him (Q5:54), but you and I and others like us, by ourselves, know nothing apart from reports of heaven and hell-which is not much at all! One beloved of God has said: The Lord, in creating hell, showed greater mercy than He did when He created heaven. Worldly people, although they run after pleasure and indulge their lusts, still hope to reach heaven, yet they foolishly do not cease to grasp after pleasure or to follow their lustful desires. When they think of hell, however, they reduce their sinful pursuits. The reason is that, al- though they will not desist from the pursuit of transient pleasure for the sake of what is permanent, yet they will do so out of fear of hell and are thus brought to their final end. On the other hand, one who worships in a spirit of praising what God ordains is beloved of God. He hopes to receive his reward from the Lover. What effect will the remembrance of heaven and hell have on his enlightened mind How could the grief of losing heaven or of going to hell trouble him, for the King of love and desire has come! How could he remain preoccupied with the hope of heaven or the affliction of hell?

Compared to the refreshment of union, heaven is a pile of rubbish:

In the path of lovers, it looms as a trivial gain!

As Khwaja Mimshad Dinwari was on his deathbed, a disciple prayed in this fashion. O God, be gracious to him and grant him the wonder of heaven! Khwaja Mumshad opened his eyes and said: Fie upon you! For thirty years now they have been praying that I will enter heaven but I won't even glance at it from the corner of my eye! What sort of prayer is this? The heart of the matter is contained in this, and the basis of confidence consists in the fact that only pure things have been brought from the world of purity and will be taken back there! This is explained thus. The abode of the righteous is near the All-Powerful King (Q54:55). What place is there for reports of heaven and hell? This is a precious secret! He who knows, under- stands, he who is ignorant, remains so. Again, if the soul of man, which originates from there, has flown into this hunting ground, then it has come to hunt the pheasant of mystical knowledge and the partridge of love. It will then sore back to the world of its origin to the drumming of Return to your Lord, joyous, and pleasing in His sight (Q49:28) till it comes to rest on the branch of the tree of union Return is to Him.

O brother, mystical knowledge is the seed of love Everyone who would penetrate further into the world of mystical knowledge will become more inflamed by the fire of love and will receive great delight and preeminence from the face of the Beloved and from the sight of the Desired One for He is the beloved of souls and the de sired of hearts. The souls of lovers are melting in the fire of longing. and whatever He bestowed upon them-life, wealth, wife, and children they return as they keep treading the Path to the Friend. He gave them consolation and told them of His love for them and bore witness to the reality of His love for them. He loves them, and they love Him (Q5:54) From what we know of Him, He is devoid of con- tradiction or fluctuation. Without a shadow of a doubt, His testimony is holy. It is in the same vein that the lord of the two worlds said: God Almighty bestows His splendor on mankind as a whole but on Abu Bakr the Just in particular. In other words, the mystical knowledge enjoyed by Abu Bakr was such that the fragrance of his burning heart used to waft, morning and evening, to the nostrils of the holy ones in their abode of rest. His delight in the Friend was very great. This group asks: Where in the whole wide world can a particle of this knowledge be found? One beloved of God has said that a bolt of lightning from the invisible world strikes suddenly. The souls consumed by this astonishing and head-spinning World remain dumb founded in astonishment, they find no rest anywhere, no stability, no

power either to stand firm or to flee. All cry out, There is no steadfastness with You, nor is there the option to escape from You! Such is the saying of the great. One of the seekers came to Abu Bakr and requested him to intercede with God of his behalf so that he might be granted mystical knowledge. That sincere and just man, by virtue of his righteousness and purity, placed the petitioner's re- quest before God; immediately the man became conjoined to God. He was thrown into complete confusion and remained utterly astonished, his head swimming. When he related his condition to Abu Bakr, the latter, out of compassion for him, sought to discern the real state of affairs. A divine decree came to Abu Bakr: The state of knowledge that you requested of Me on his behalf has been requested formerly by thousands of travelers along the Way. I have bestowed. the merest particle of this knowledge uponthera. All those who have been favored are in a state of astonishment similar to the one that you are witnessing.

O brother, the inhabitants of the consecrated world say, We have not been able to render You Your due, and the dwellers of that hallowed world say, We have not attained the knowledge of You that we should have Even though this field of battle has claimed many a life (everyone who contests with Rustum falls), it can be traversed by one who strides into this kingdom.

The work really originates from God bestows His mercy on whom He pleases (Q3:73). The work does not proceed from you! The magicians of Pharaoh were steeped in infidelity and crime. They believed that their magic could never be put aside, but when the wind of the wealth of the gracious Lover blows, it does not bypass either magic or magician, infidelity, or infidel. Dawn can find a person immersed in the error of infidelity, but by evening, he can be clothed with the robe of faith and repentance. The Lord can open up the Path to peace for a brother by conferring His favor and the perfection of His grace upon him. Know the Truth, that you will not look with a sinful glance at your own devotion, nor place a special claim on your own intrinsic qualities. Do not consider an alley dog to be better than yourself, neither demean yourself in the palaces of the great! Stop heaping thousands upon thousands of the stones and bricks of unfulfilled desires and intentions upon your head! One who stands at a threshold of dust must be humble! He must also be devoid of all claims on his own behalf. If you place thousands of angelic crowns on your head, you still retain a beggar's face with its sullied complex-ion-it is nothing but mere dust! What will you do? Dust, if it merely cakes your face, can easily be washed off with water, but water can- not wash away your very complexion!

Peace!

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

God's blessing be with you, brother Shamsuddin! For a servant of God, eternal bliss and glory consists in love of the Lord! It is a sign of riches and honor for a creature if he is concerned with imitating the leader of the Muslims, as the Quran attests: Imitate me [Muhammad] and God will befriend you (Q1:31). Place the necklace of compliance upon your neck, and bend your ears to his directives, show yourself ready to obey what he commands, and flee far from any rejection of him! Hold on firmly to the citadel of faith with all its pillars and, as you pass each one of them, take note of the rights of each with punctiliousness. Thus, the pact of friendship and the knot of love for the Creator, through the guidance of Muhammad, will remain firm When you depart from here, you will be able to bring your fidelity and firm trust to the abode of the Beloved Himself, as promised in the Quran: The abode of the righteous is near the All-Powerful King (Q54:55).

The first stage of Paradise is filled with beautiful damsels, mansions, streams, trees, and purified wine, as has been said: Paradise is where those people will alight (Q18:107). When you step into the second stage, the Gift that is beyond description and the Wealth that eludes the imagination will show Its face to you. For good people has been prepared a place such as no eye has seen, nor has any ear heard its praise, nor has it entered into the heart of man to conceive what it will be like! This is an explanation concerning it. In the third stage, that of those who meet and who attain union with the Friend, this is what will happen to you: Who will taste death in the country of the One who lives forever? There are no limits to the vast expanse of Your dwelling place, just as there are no limits to Your love. One experiences there a stifling like that of a drowning man whose lungs are bursting for the air of Truth!

The explanation of that love is that He loves them, and they love him (Q5:54), but you and I and others like us, by ourselves, know nothing apart from reports of heaven and hell-which is not much at all! One beloved of God has said: The Lord, in creating hell, showed greater mercy than He did when He created heaven. Worldly people, although they run after pleasure and indulge their lusts, still hope to reach heaven, yet they foolishly do not cease to grasp after pleasure or to follow their lustful desires. When they think of hell, however, they reduce their sinful pursuits. The reason is that, al- though they will not desist from the pursuit of transient pleasure for the sake of what is permanent, yet they will do so out of fear of hell and are thus brought to their final end. On the other hand, one who worships in a spirit of praising what God ordains is beloved of God. He hopes to receive his reward from the Lover. What effect will the remembrance of heaven and hell have on his enlightened mind How could the grief of losing heaven or of going to hell trouble him, for the King of love and desire has come! How could he remain preoccupied with the hope of heaven or the affliction of hell?

Compared to the refreshment of union, heaven is a pile of rubbish:

In the path of lovers, it looms as a trivial gain!

As Khwaja Mimshad Dinwari was on his deathbed, a disciple prayed in this fashion. O God, be gracious to him and grant him the wonder of heaven! Khwaja Mumshad opened his eyes and said: Fie upon you! For thirty years now they have been praying that I will enter heaven but I won't even glance at it from the corner of my eye! What sort of prayer is this? The heart of the matter is contained in this, and the basis of confidence consists in the fact that only pure things have been brought from the world of purity and will be taken back there! This is explained thus. The abode of the righteous is near the All-Powerful King (Q54:55). What place is there for reports of heaven and hell? This is a precious secret! He who knows, under- stands, he who is ignorant, remains so. Again, if the soul of man, which originates from there, has flown into this hunting ground, then it has come to hunt the pheasant of mystical knowledge and the partridge of love. It will then sore back to the world of its origin to the drumming of Return to your Lord, joyous, and pleasing in His sight (Q49:28) till it comes to rest on the branch of the tree of union Return is to Him.

O brother, mystical knowledge is the seed of love Everyone who would penetrate further into the world of mystical knowledge will become more inflamed by the fire of love and will receive great delight and preeminence from the face of the Beloved and from the sight of the Desired One for He is the beloved of souls and the de sired of hearts. The souls of lovers are melting in the fire of longing. and whatever He bestowed upon them-life, wealth, wife, and children they return as they keep treading the Path to the Friend. He gave them consolation and told them of His love for them and bore witness to the reality of His love for them. He loves them, and they love Him (Q5:54) From what we know of Him, He is devoid of con- tradiction or fluctuation. Without a shadow of a doubt, His testimony is holy. It is in the same vein that the lord of the two worlds said: God Almighty bestows His splendor on mankind as a whole but on Abu Bakr the Just in particular. In other words, the mystical knowledge enjoyed by Abu Bakr was such that the fragrance of his burning heart used to waft, morning and evening, to the nostrils of the holy ones in their abode of rest. His delight in the Friend was very great. This group asks: Where in the whole wide world can a particle of this knowledge be found? One beloved of God has said that a bolt of lightning from the invisible world strikes suddenly. The souls consumed by this astonishing and head-spinning World remain dumb founded in astonishment, they find no rest anywhere, no stability, no

power either to stand firm or to flee. All cry out, There is no steadfastness with You, nor is there the option to escape from You! Such is the saying of the great. One of the seekers came to Abu Bakr and requested him to intercede with God of his behalf so that he might be granted mystical knowledge. That sincere and just man, by virtue of his righteousness and purity, placed the petitioner's re- quest before God; immediately the man became conjoined to God. He was thrown into complete confusion and remained utterly astonished, his head swimming. When he related his condition to Abu Bakr, the latter, out of compassion for him, sought to discern the real state of affairs. A divine decree came to Abu Bakr: The state of knowledge that you requested of Me on his behalf has been requested formerly by thousands of travelers along the Way. I have bestowed. the merest particle of this knowledge uponthera. All those who have been favored are in a state of astonishment similar to the one that you are witnessing.

O brother, the inhabitants of the consecrated world say, We have not been able to render You Your due, and the dwellers of that hallowed world say, We have not attained the knowledge of You that we should have Even though this field of battle has claimed many a life (everyone who contests with Rustum falls), it can be traversed by one who strides into this kingdom.

The work really originates from God bestows His mercy on whom He pleases (Q3:73). The work does not proceed from you! The magicians of Pharaoh were steeped in infidelity and crime. They believed that their magic could never be put aside, but when the wind of the wealth of the gracious Lover blows, it does not bypass either magic or magician, infidelity, or infidel. Dawn can find a person immersed in the error of infidelity, but by evening, he can be clothed with the robe of faith and repentance. The Lord can open up the Path to peace for a brother by conferring His favor and the perfection of His grace upon him. Know the Truth, that you will not look with a sinful glance at your own devotion, nor place a special claim on your own intrinsic qualities. Do not consider an alley dog to be better than yourself, neither demean yourself in the palaces of the great! Stop heaping thousands upon thousands of the stones and bricks of unfulfilled desires and intentions upon your head! One who stands at a threshold of dust must be humble! He must also be devoid of all claims on his own behalf. If you place thousands of angelic crowns on your head, you still retain a beggar's face with its sullied complex-ion-it is nothing but mere dust! What will you do? Dust, if it merely cakes your face, can easily be washed off with water, but water can- not wash away your very complexion!

Peace!