Second Fruit
O nafs! ‘Ubûdiyyah is not the cause of the rewards that will be given to you but rather the result of ni’mahs already given to you. Yes, we have received our wage and are assigned to a service and ‘ubûdiyyah accordingly. Because, o nafs, Al-Khâliq Zuljalâl, Who clothed you with existence, which is pure khayr, has placed before you all foods on a table of ni’mahs through His name Razzâq since He has given you a stomach full of appetite. Then, He has given you a life possessing the faculty of perception, and that life, too, requires rizq, like a stomach. All your senses, such as eyes and ears, are like hands before which He has placed a table of ni’mah as broad as the face of the earth. Then, He has given you humanity that requires many ma’nawî rizq and ni’mah, and before that stomach of humanity, He has laid out an extensive table of ni’mah as broad as al-‘âlam al-mulk and al-‘âlam al-malakût that the hand of the mind can reach. Then, He has given you Islam and îmân that are the supreme humanity and nourished with endless fruits of rahmah and require infinite ni’mahs, and He has opened for you a table of ni’mah, pleasure and happiness that comprehends the sphere of asma al-husna and sacred attributes together with the sphere of contingency. Then, by giving you love that is a nûr of îmân, He has bestowed on you endless tables of ni’mah, happiness and pleasure. That is to say, regarding your physical being, you are an insignificant, weak, impotent, lowly, restricted and limited particular; through His bestowal, you arose from being an insignificant particular to a universal and luminous whole because by giving you life, He has elevated you from particularity to a kind of universality, by giving you humanity to true universality, by giving Islam to an exalted, luminous universality, and by giving you ma’rifat and love, He has elevated you to an encompassing nûr.
Thus, o nafs! You have received this wage and are responsible for a pleasurable, bountiful, easy and light service, such as ‘ubûdiyyah, but you are lazy too do it. Even if you perform it half-heartedly, you want greater things in a domineering manner as if the former wages are insufficient. Also, you are complaining, "Why was not my du’â accepted?" Indeed, your right is not to complain but supplicate. Through His pure fadl and munificence, Janâb-i Haqq bestows Jannah and eternal happiness. Therefore seek refuge in His rahmah and munificence constantly. Trust in Him and heed this decree:
قُلْ بِفَضْلِ اللهِ وَبِرَحْمَتِهِ فَبِذٰ لِكَ فَلْيَفْرَحُوا هُوَ خَيْرٌ مِمَّا يَجْمَعُونَ1
If you say: "How can I respond to these infinite and universal ni’mahs with my limited and particular shukr?"
The Answer: With a universal intention and infinite belief... For example, a man enters the sultân's presence with a gift worth five cents, and he sees that gifts worth millions have arrived from acceptable people and have been lined up there. It comes to his heart: "My gift is nothing. What shall I do?" Then he suddenly says, "O my Sayyid! I offer you all these valuable gifts in my name because you are worthy of them. If I had the power, I would have given you gifts equal to all of them." Thus, the sultân, who has no need for those gifts and receives his subjects' gifts as a sign of their loyalty and respect, receives favourably that unfortunate man's such great and universal intention and wish and the worthiness of his beautiful and elevated belief as the greatest gift.
In exactly the same way, an impotent ‘abd, in his salâh, says, "Attahîyyatu Lillâh.” That is, "I offer You in my name all the gifts of ‘ubûdiyyah that all creatures offer You through their lives. If I could, I would offer You as many tahiyyas as them because You are worthy of all of them and more." Such an intention and belief is an extremely extensive universal shukr. The seeds and grains of plants are their intentions.
And, for example, in the form of seeds in its heart, the melon utters a thousand intentions: "O my Khâliq! I want to proclaim the embroideries of Your Asmâ Al-Husnâ in many places on the earth." Since Janâb-i Haqq knows how future things will be, He accepts their intention as an ibâdah performed by action. "A Mu’min's intention is better than his actions" indicates this mystery.
Furthermore, the hikmah of offering tasbîh with infinite numbers, such as,
2 سُبْحَانَكَ وَ بِحَمْدِكَ عَدَدَ خَلْقِكَ وَ رِضَاءَ نَفْسِكَ وَ زِنَةِ عَرْشِكَ وَ مِدَادِ كَلِمَاتِكَ وَ نُسَبِّحُكَ بِجَمِيعِ تَسْبِيحَاتِ اَنْبِيَائِكَ وَ اَوْلِيَائِكَ وَ مَلٰئِكَتِكَ
is understood from this mystery. Just as an officer presents all the duties of his soldiers to the sultân in his name, so man, who performs the duty of an officer to other creatures and commands the animals and plants, who can be the khalîfah over the beings of the earth, and who, in his ‘âlam, considers himself to be a representative for everyone, declares, اِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَاِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ3. He offers to Al-Ma’bûd Zuljalâl the ‘ibâdah and seeking of help of all creation in his name.
He also says, 4 سُبْحَانَكَ بِجَمِيعِ تَسْبِيحَاتِ جَمِيعِ مَخْلُوقَاتِكَ وَ بِاَلْسِنَةِ جَمِيعِ مَصْنُوعَاتِكَ And he makes all beings speak on his behalf.
He also says, اَللّٰهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ بِعَدَدِ ذَرَّاتِ الْكَائِنَاتِ وَ مُرَكَّبَاتِهَا5, and offers a salâwât in the name of everything because everything is connected with the nûr of Ahmad (asm). Thus, you can understand the hikmah of the infinite numbers mentioned in the tasbîhât and salâwât.
1 (Say, 'O Prophet,' ‘Let them rejoice in Allah's fadl and rahmah. That is far better than anything they hoard.')
2 (We offer tasbîh and hamd to You to the number of Your creatures, to the number that may please You, as the weight of Your ‘Arsh and the ink of Your words; we offer tasbîh and hamd to You with all the tasbîhât of Your prophets, awliyâ and malâikah.) (Tr.)
4 (We offer tasbîh to You with all the tasbîhât of all of Your creatures and by the tongue and language of all Your artful creation.) (Tr.)
5 (O Allah! Grant blessings to Muhammad to the number of the particles in the universe and all the compounds of particles.) (Tr.)