Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi

Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi — Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi

God desires only to put away from you filth, O Folk of the House, and to make you com- pletely pure. The Lord of the Worlds is laying a favor on MuṣṬafā the Arab: “Our wish and Our decree is for the folk of your house to be pure of all the defilements of createdness and the stains of mortal nature so that everything in the house will be like the lord of the house: The goodly women are for the goodly men, and the goodly men for the goodly women [24:26].” It has been said that here filth is vile acts and base character traits. Vile acts are indecencies, both the outward and the inward [6:151], and base character traits are caprice, innovation, nig- gardliness, avarice, severing blood relations, and the like. In their case the Lord of the Worlds replaced innovation with the Sunnah, niggardliness with munificence, avarice with contentment, and severance from relatives with joining and tenderness. Then He says, “And to make you completely pure:” And to keep you pure from admiring yourselves, or considering yourselves pointers to God's door, or gazing upon your own obedience and deeds. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “The gaze is two, the human gaze and the All-Merciful gaze. The human gaze is that you look at yourself. The All-Merciful gaze is that the Real looks at you. As long as the human gaze does not pack its bags from your makeup, the All-Merciful gaze will not descend into your heart.” Poor wretch, why do you look at your own tainted obedience? How can you measure that against the threshold of His utter lack of needs? Are you unaware that if you gather the deeds of all the sincerely truthful in the earth and the obedient acts of all the holy ones in heaven, these will not have the weight of a gnat's wing in the scales of the majesty of the Majestic? But He, in His unneediness, approves servanthood in the servants and shows them the road. God is gentle to His servants [42:19]. He says, “Look at My gentleness, consider mercy as coming from Me, and ask for blessings from Me. But ask God of His bounty [4:32].”

Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi — Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi

Surely submitted men and submitted women, faithful men and faithful women, devout men and devout women, truthful men and truthful women, patient men and patient women, humble men and humble women, charitable men and charitable women, fasting men and fasting women, men who guard their private parts and women who guard, men who remember God much and women who remember-God has prepared for them forgiveness and a tremendous wage. In this verse, the Lord of the Worlds makes clear for His servants the way stations of traveling on the road of the religion. Then in His gentleness He praises them for their traveling and with His mercy He gives them a tremendous wage and a generous reward. He Himself shows the road, He keeps them traveling, and then He praises the servants for that. Here you have generosity and gentleness! Here you have mercy and clemency! Submitted men and submitted women. They are Muslims, having placed the rulings of the Shariah on their necks and having thrown themselves into the road of the Haqiqah. Faithful men and faithful women. They are the faithful through attesting with the tongue, assenting to the truth from the depth of the spirit, and acting with the limbs. Devout men and devout women. They are those who act with obedience and observe the commands, who by day are in the work of the religion and by night drunk with the wine of certainty. Truthful men and truthful women. They are truthful in both speaking and acting, in both compact and covenant. Patient men and patient women. They are patient at the descent of trials and unexpected decrees. Humble men and humble women. They are the broken and the lowly, approving of the decree and standing on the feet of incapacity before the ruling power of the Haqiqah. Charitable men and charitable women. They are the bestowers of their possessions and themselves; they do not put aside anyone's rightful due against them and have left the road of antagonism toward people. Fasting men and fasting women. They hold themselves back from the unworthy, they are silent toward what is displeasing by the decree of the Tariqah, and they keep the fast according to the Shariah. Men who guard their private parts and women who guard. They watch over their outwardness so that they do not fall into the forbidden, and they guard over their inwardness so that they do not see the creatures.