And he said (May Allah be pleased with him):

131. Were it not for the kindness of His veiling (jameel sitrih), no deed would be worthy of acceptance.

132. You are more in need in His forbearance (hilm) when you obey Him than you are when you disobey Him.

133. Veiling (as-sitr) is of two kinds: veiling of disobedience, and veiling in it. Common people seek Allah’s veiling in disobedience out of the fear of falling in the rank amongst mankind. The elect seeks the veiling of disobedience out of the fear of falling from the sight of the Real King.

134. Whoever honors you honors only the beauty of His veil in you. Therefore, praise is to Him who veiled you, not to the one who honored and thanked you.

135. No one is a companion of yours except the one who, while knowing your defects, is your companion, and this is only your generous Lord. The best one to take on as a companion is He who does not seek you out for the sake of something coming from you to Him.

136. Were the light of certitude (nur al-yaqin) to shine, you would see the Hereafter so near that you could not move towards it, and you would see that the eclipse of extinction had come over the beauties of the world (mahasin ad-dunya).

137. It is not the existence of any being alongside Him (wudood mawjood ma’ah) that veils you from Allah, for nothing (laa shay’a) is alongside Him. Rather, the illusion of being alongside Him (tawahhum mawjood ma’ah) is what veils you from Him.

138 Had it not been for His manifestation in created beings (al-mukawwanaat), eyesight would not have perceived them. Had His Qualities (sifaat) been manifested, His created beings would have disappeared.

139. He manifests everything because He is the Interior (al-baatin), and He conceals the existence of everything because He is the Exterior (adh-Dhaahir).

140. He has permitted you to reflect on what is in created beings, but He has not allowed you to stop at selfsame creatures. “Say: Behold what is in the heavens and the earth!” [Quran 10:101] Thus, with His words “Behold what is in the heavens” He opened up the door of instruction for you. But He did not say, “Behold the heavens,” so as not to lead you to the mere existence of bodies.

141. The Universe (al-akwaan) is permanent (thaabita) through His making it permanent (bi-ithbaatih), and it is annihilated (mam-huwwa) by the Unity of His Essence (bi-ahadiyyat dhaatih).

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