And he said (May Allah be pleased with him)

238. He who attributes humility to himself is really proud, for humility arises only out of a sublime state. So when you attribute humility to yourself, then you are proud.

239. The humble man is not the one who, when humbles, sees that he is above what he does; instead, the humble man is the one who, when humble, sees that he is below what he does.

240. Real humility is the one which arises from the contemplation of His Sublimity and the illumination of His attribute.

241. Only the contemplation of His Attribute can disclose you from your attribute.

242. The believer is he who is diverted from extolling himself by the praise of Allah, and who is diverted from remembering his good fortune by the fulfillment of Allah’s right.

243. The lover (al-muhibb) is not the one who hopes for recompense from his beloved (mahboob) or seeks some object. The lover is indeed the one who spends generously on you; the lover is not the one on whom you spend generously.

244. Were it not for the arenas of the soul (mayaadeenun-nufoos), the progress of the adepts (sayrus-saa’ireen) could not be realized: there is no distance (masaafa) between you and Him that could be traversed by your journey, nor is there any particle between you and Him that could be effaced by your union with Him?

245. He put you in the intermediary world (al-aalam al-muta-wassit) between His Kingdom (Mulk) and His Realm (Malakoot) to teach you the majesty of your rank amongst His created beings and that you are a jewel (jawhara) wherein the pearls of His creations (mukawwanaat) are hidden.

246. The Cosmos (al-kawn) envelops you in respect to your corporeal nature (iuthmaaniyya), but it does not do so with respect to the immutability of your spiritual nature (thubootu roohaaniyyatika). So long as the domains of Invisible Worlds have not been revealed to him, the being in the Cosmos is imprisoned by his surroundings and confined in the temple of his nature.

247. So long as you have not contemplated the Creator, you belong to created beings; but when you have contemplated Him, created beings belong to you.

248. The permanence of sanctity does not necessitate that the attribute of human nature is non-existent. Sanctity is analogous to the illumination of the sun in the daytime: it appears on the horizon but it is not part of it. Sometimes the suns of His Attributes shine in the night of your existence, and sometimes He takes that away from you and returns you to your existence. So daytime is not from you to you, but instead, it comes upon you…

249. By the existence of His created things (aathaar), He points to the existence of His Names (asmaa’), and by the existence of His Names, He points to the immutability of His Qualities (awsaaf), and by the existence of His Qualities, He points to the reality of His Essence (dhaat), since it is impossible for a quality to be self-subsistent. He reveals the perfection of His Essence to the possessors of attraction (arbaabul jadhb); then He turns them back to the contemplation of His Qualities; then he turns them back to dependence (at-ta’lluq) on His Names, and then He turns them back to the contemplation of His created things. The contrary is the case for those who are progressing (as-saalikoon): the end for those progressing (nihaaytus-saalikeen) is the beginning for those progressing is the end for the ecstatics. But this is not to be taken literally, since both might meet in the Path (at-tareeq), one in his descending (fi tadallihi), the other in his ascending (fi taraqqihi).

250. It is only in the invisible world of the Real (fi ghaybil malakoot) that the value of lights of the hearts and of the innermost centers of being (anwaaral quloob wal asraar) is known, just as the light of the sky do not manifest themselves except in the visible world of Kingdom (shaadatul mulk).

251. For those who do good, finding the fruits of acts of obedience in this world is glad tidings of their recompense in the Hereafter.

252. How can you seek recompense for a deed He bestowed upon you out of charity? Or how can you seek recompense for a sincerity He gave you as a gift?

253. The lights of some people precede their invocations (adhkaar), while the invocation of some people precede their lights. There is the invoker (dhaakir) who invokes so that his heart be illumined; and there is the invoker whose hearts has been illumined and he invokes.

254. The outer aspect of an invocation (dhaahiru dhikr) would not be saved for the inner contemplation and mediation (baatinu shuhood wa fikra).

255. He made you witness before He asked you to give witness. Thus, the outer faculties speak of His Divinity while the heart and the innermost consciousness have realized His Unity.

256. He ennobled you with three charismatic gifts (karamat): He made you an invoker (dhaakir) of Him and had it not been for His grace, you would not have been worthy of the flow (jarayaan) of the invocation of Him in you; He made you remembered by Him (madhkoor bihi) since He confirmed His relationship to you; and He made you remembered by those with Him (madhkoor ‘indahu), thereby perfecting His grace upon you.

257. Many a life is long in years but meager in fruits, and many a life is short in years but rich in fruits.

258. He who has been blessed in life attains, in a short time, to such gifts from Allah that no expression or symbolic allusion could describe.

259. It would be disappointing – really disappointing – if you were to find yourself free of distractions and then not head towards Him, or if you were to have few obstacles and then not move on to Him!

260. Mediation (al-fikra) is the voyage of the heart in the domains of alterities (mayaadin al-aghyaar).

261. Mediation is the lamp of the heart (siraaj al-qalb); so when it goes away, the heart has no illumination.

262. Meditation is of two kinds: the meditation of belief (tasdeeq) and faith (imaan), and the meditation of contemplation (shuhood) and vision (‘iyaan). The first is the adepts of reflective thought (arbaab al-i’tibaar), the second is for the adepts of contemplation and intellectual vision (arbaab ash-shuhood wal istibsaar).

The First Treaties, next