THE TWENTY-FOURTH DISCOURSE On cleaving to Allah’s door

Keep away from disobedience to God, the Exalted, the Glorious with utmost effort, and cling to His door with truth. Apply all your power and effort in obeying Him with apologies and entreaties and show your neediness in utmost submissiveness and humility, in silence and with downcast look, not looking at people, nor following your animal desires, nor seeking any recompense whether of this world or of the hereafter, nor yet any promotion to higher positions and honourable stations. Know it for certain that you are His servant, and that the servant and all that he possesses belongs to his Master, so that he cannot claim anything as against Him. Observe good manners and do not blame your Master. Everything is in an appointed measure with Him. What He puts forward no one can push back and whatever He keeps back no one can push forward. In this way God acquits Himself with regard to your affairs. He has given you the abode of permanence in the Hereafter and made you the master of it and will bestow on you such gifts in the Hereafter as no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has felt. God says: So no soul knows what refreshment of the eyes is hidden for them: a reward for what they did (32; 17), that is, a reward for their actions in this world in carrying out the injunctions, and in exhibiting patience in eschewing what is forbidden, and in surrendering and making oneself completely over to Him in all that is decreed by Him and in reconciling oneself to Him in all affairs. But as for him whom God has given worldly things and made him master of them and blessed him in them and conferred His favour, He has done so because the position of this man's faith is like a barren and hard land in which it is not possible for water to stay, nor for trees, crops and fruits to grow. Then He casts in it various kinds of manure and similar things which cause the plants and trees to grow, and these are the world and its materials, in order to secure by these what He has grown in it of the tree of faith and plant of deeds. If, however, these things are removed from it, the ground, the plants and the trees will be dried and the fruit will drop and the whole countryside will be desolate. And God, the Mighty and Glorious, wants it to be populated and to be in a flourishing condition. Thus the tree of faith in a rich man is weak of growth in its root and is empty of what fills the tree of your faith, O Dervish, whereas the strength of the other thing and its continuity of existence depend on the world and its various amenities that you see with its possessor, and there is nothing with him more preferable to what I have described to you. May God give us and you power to achieve what He loves and is pleased with, by His kindness. Thus the strength and the continuity of the provisions of this world that you find with him together with various blessings, — if these things are removed from him while the tree is weak, the tree will be dried up and this rich man will become an unbeliever and will join the company of hypocrites and apostates and unbelievers; o my God, unless You send to this rich man armies of patience and cheerful forbearance and certainty and knowledge and various kinds of spiritual enlightenment and thereby strengthen his faith. Then of course he will not mind the disappearance of wealth and blessings.