Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi

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

He created you from one soul and then made from it its mate. He created heaven and earth and day and night to show the creatures the attribute of His power. They come to know that He is perfectly powerful, an artisan without contrivance, and they take His artisanry as evidence of His unity. He created Adam and the Adamites to make them the treasury of the secrets of Eternity and the target of the gentle favors of generosity. “I was a hidden treasure, so I loved to be recognized.” “I had an incomparable Essence and attributes, so there had to be recognizer. I had infinite majesty and beauty, so there had to be a lover. I was an ocean of mercy and forgiveness beating its waves, so there had to be an object of mercy.” The other created things had nothing to do with love, for they never saw in themselves a high aspiration. The one with high aspiration is you. The angels have straight and orderly work because there was no talk of love with them. The treasures and intimations put into the Adamic makeup were not placed in them. The ups and downs of the Adamites, their bewilderment and confounded- ness, contraction and expansion, sorrow and joy, absence and presence, togetherness and disper- sion; the drafts mixed with poison in their hands, the swords hanging over their necks-they have all these because a whiff of love's rose reached their nostrils. Passion for You turned me into a tavern-goer like this- otherwise I was safe and orderly. Abū Yazīd BasṬāmī said, “Once I was craving the wine of passion in the seclusion of 'I am the sitting companion of those who remember Me.' I was bold, and I carried a heavy load of trials for my boldness. I had tasted many drops of tribulation. I said, 'O God, Your stream is flowing-how long will I be thirsty? What sort of thirst is this that I see one cup after another? “Who has ever had a state rarer than this? I'm thirsty and clear water is flowing before me. “'Exalted of the two worlds! How often will you become hidden, how often apparent? The heart is bewildered, the spirit distracted. How long this curtaining and self-disclosing? When at last will there be the everlasting self-disclosure? O God, how long will You call and drive away? I have melted in wanting the day in which You stay.

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

Is one who does devotions throughout the night, prostrating himself and standing, cau- tious about the next world and hoping for the mercy of his Lord? Say: “Are they equal, those who know and those who know not?” “Devotion” is undertaking the courteous acts of service outwardly and inwardly without slacken- ing or shortcoming, being cautious because of the threatened chastisement and hoping for the promised reward. This is the attribute of a group who are constantly at God's threshold in the station of ser- vice. Their makeup at the time of prayer becomes entirely reverence itself, and they are always burning in remorse because of shame for sin. One of the great ones of the religion said, “You must show reverence for God's commands, for it is not apparent which command brings proxim- ity to God. You must avoid all prohibited things, for it is not apparent which prohibition brings distance from God.” It has been said that putting God's commands into practice is of two sorts, one according to the property of servanthood, the other according to the property of love. The property of love is higher than the property of servanthood, because the lover's constant wish is for the Friend to command a service. Hence his service is all voluntary and nothing of it is coerced. He acknowledges the favors done to him, and he never lays favors on God, nor does he look for recompense. In contrast, a service that is done because of servanthood has both free choice and coercion. The person is seeking a reward and expecting recompense. The latter is the station of the worshipers and the common faithful, and the former is the at- tribute of the recognizers and the sincerely truthful. The two groups can never be equal. The worshipers are satisfied with the blessings and held back from the Beneficent, but the recognizers have reached the Presence and take ease in contemplating the Friend. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “How should I have known that reward is a freckle on the face of friendship? I always fancied that the greatest robe of honor was the reward. Now I have found out that in finding friendship all found things are nothing.” Say: “Are they equal, those who know and those who know not?” Knowledge is three: report- ed knowledge, inspired knowledge, and knowledge of the Unseen.