This
letter was written for Sultan Serhendî. It expatiates on the value
of a Believer’s heart, and dissuades from hurting a heart. The
letter was written in the
Arabic language:
May hamd be to Allâhu ta’âlâ, the Rabb of all beings, and salât and salâm be to His Messenger, Muhammad ‘’alaihis-salâm’, and to
all his âl (family, descendants) and As-hâb (Companions)! The heart is a neighbour of
Allâhu ta’âlâ. Nothing else is as close as the heart to
Allâhu ta’âlâ. Nobody’s heart should be hurt, Believers and disobedient people alike. For, a disobedient neighbour
has to be equally protected. Avoid, and avoid hurting a heart, and avoid it very much! After kufr (unbelief, disbelief, denial), which is the most hurtful ones
of the offenses perpetrated against Allâhu ta’âlâ, no other sin is as grave as hurting a heart. For, of all the things that attain to
Allâhu ta’âlâ, the heart is the closest. All people are the slaves of
Allâhu ta’âlâ. If a person’s slave is beaten and hurt, the slave’s master also will become hurt. We should meditate
over the honour and the greatness of the master, who is the single owner of everything. His creatures can use only what He allows them to and to an extent He
has dictated. To exercise (authority) with His permission does not mean to hurt others. He has commanded that a virgin caught in the act of fornication be
flogged with a hundred stripes. One extra stripe would mean to hurt her by doing an injustice to her.
The heart is the
highest and the most honourable of all creatures. As man is the most valuable
of creatures because he has accumulated in himself all the beings in the ’âlam-i-kebîr, i.e. all beings
outside of man; likewise, the heart is very valuable because it is the
elementary and compact collection of all the things existent in man, who is
called the ’âlam-i-saghîr. It is a treasure of such a large variety of valuables that it is closer than anything else to
Allâhu ta’âlâ. Some of the components of man’s nature are from the ’âlam-i-khalq, and others are from the ’âlam-i-emr. [’Âlam-i-khalq means
creatures that are material and measurable. The ’âlam-i-emr are things that are
not material and which cannot be measured.] The heart is is a berzakh, an isthmus connecting
the two ’âlams (worlds). As a person makes progress in a path of Tasawwuf,
first the latîfas inherent in his nature go up and attain to their essences in
the ’âlam-i-kebîr. For instance, that
person first attains to the essence of the water existent in him, thereafter to
the essence of the air, thereafter to the essence of the heat (, and so
fourth); then he attains to the essences of his latîfas in the ’âlam-i-emr, thereafter to a part of a Name that is his rabb, [i.e. his educator and trainer,] thereafter to the
entirety of that Name of Allâhu ta’âlâ, and thereafter to the high grades determined by
Allâhu ta’âlâ. Not so is the case with the heart, which does not have an essence to go up to, to attain to. It goes up directly to the
Dhât-i-ilâhî. Its destination in upward progress is that Dhât (Person), who cannot be known or comprehended. However, a progress only by way of the heart in the
absence of the aforesaid ways of upward progress is difficult. The easier way is to first go through ways of promotion one by one and then attain to the
destination directly by means of the heart. For, it is after heart has attained to those grades that the heart will be expansive, so that it will contain all.
What we call ‘heart’ here is a latîfa that accumulates all in itself and which is vaster than anything else. It is not the piece of flesh called ‘heart’ among
people.
A rare pearl in the ocean of haqâiq,[1] is
Ârif;[2]
In the rose garden of ma’ârif,[3] rose of grace is ’Ârif.
In eloquence, in rhetoric, in elegance, he is
immaculate;
Of esoteric meanings, a watery store is ’Ârif.
These words say nothing to slaves of their
own nafs;
Yet in the knowledge of heart and soul, a master is ’Ârif.
False pretences pertaining to Tasawwuf
abound;
Islâm, îmân, they know not; in name only are they ’Ârif.
For, being an ’Ârif requires a heavenly life;
Illuminating darkness, full moon of Haqq is ’Ârif.
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[1] Plural for of haqîqa(t), which in turn means
truth, reality, essence.
[2] ’Ârif is
a fortunate person gifted with ‘ma’rifa(t)’, which is defined in footnote [3] in the
preface of the first fascicle of Endless Bliss, and also in footnote [1] in the
thirty-eighth chapter of the same fascicle.
[3] Plural of ma’rifat(t). See above for
‘ma’rifa(t)’.