THE SIXTIETH DISCOURSE On the beginning and the end

The beginning of spiritual life (spiritual journey) is to get out of the natural urges into the path of the law and then into the way of destiny, and still onward to be back to the natural urges but in keeping with preservation of the law. You should get out of your urges of nature in the matter of food and drink, and dress and marital relations and place of residence, and tendencies and habits, into the injunctions and prohibitions of the law. You are to follow the Book of God and the practice of His Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), as God says: And whatever the Messenger gives you, accept it, and whatever he forbids you, abstain (therefrom) (59:7). He also says: Say: If you love Allah, follow me: Allah will love you (3:30). You will be made to vanish from your desires and your self and your disobedience both outwardly and inwardly; then there will remain nothing in your inside except the unity of God, and nothing in your outside except obedience and servitude to God in what He has enjoined and forbidden. This will remain in your manner and way and be a kind of garment for you in your movements and restful conditions, during your nights and your days and in your journey, and when you are in good health, and when you are suffering from bad health and in all your conditions. Then you will be carried to the valley of Destiny and you will be controlled by Destiny. Then you will vanish from your efforts and your struggle and from your power and your strength, and portions will be brought to you, the writing of which has rendered the pen dry and the knowledge of which has gone beforehand. Then you will be a partaker in these portions and will be given protection and safety in their midst and the boundaries of the law will be preserved in them, and harmony with the act of God will be obtained therein, and the regulation of law will not be broken therein, so as to make the unlawful thing permissible and to minimise the gravity of the commandment. God says: Surely We have revealed the reminder and We will most surely be its Guardian (15:9). And He also says: ' Thus (it was) that We might turn away from him evil and indecency. Surely he was one of Our chosen servants (12:24). The protection and guardianship of God will be accompanying you till you meet your Lord by His Mercy. It is your portion fixed for you; and it was withheld from you during your journey through wildernesses and deserts of desires and urges of nature, because it would be a heavy burden. So you were unburdened of it lest it should be heavy on you and you become weakened and diverted from your purpose and your objective and this up to the time of your reaching the threshold of annihilation, and this is the attainment of nearness to God and of knowledge of Him and of being particularly favoured with secrets and different kinds of knowledge and entrance into the sea of lights in such a way that the darkness of nature does not endanger the lights. So the nature remains in man to the point of the separation of the soul from the body, in order that the portions may be fully received, because had the nature disappeared from man, he would have been in the category of the angels and the system, would have been distorted and the wisdom of God be frustrated. So the nature will linger in order that you may take full share of your portions and enjoyments. This will be an allowance, not the original thing, as the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) has said: "Three things from your world have been made dear to me — perfumes and women and the coolness of my eyes is reposed in prayer." When the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) vanished from the world and what is in it, his portions were returned to him, portions that were withheld from him while he was on his journey towards his Lord; so he took full share of it to be in accord with his Lord and to be pleased in His act and obedience to His commandment. His attributes are holy and His mercy universal and His grace accompanies his saints and His Prophet. The wali is like this in this matter — his portions and enjoyments are given back to him after his annihilation and this together with the guarding of the bounds of law. This is a return from the destination towards the start (in the terminology of the sufis).