The Twenty-First Word

[It consists of Two Stations.]

First Station

بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

اِنَّ الصَّلاَةَ كَانَتْ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ كِتَابًا مَوْقُوتًا1

One time, a man great by age, body and rank said to me, "Salâh is fine, but to perform it every day five times is too much. It causes weariness because it never ends."

A long time after that man’s words, I listened to my nafs, and I heard that it said the same words. I looked at my nafs and saw that it receives the same lesson from shaytan with the ear of laziness. Then I understood: It is as if the man said those words in the name of all nafs al-ammarah, or he has been made to say them. So I also said, "Since my nafs is ammarah, one who does not reform his nafs cannot reform others. In which case, I shall start with my nafs."

I said, “O nafs! Listen to the “Five Warnings” in response to those words you said amidst compounded ignorance, on the couch of laziness, in the sleep of ghaflah.”

First Warning: O my wretched nafs! I wonder: is your life eternal? Do you have any definitive proof that you will remain until next year or even tomorrow? What causes you weariness is the imagination of eternity. You complain as though you will eternally remain in this world to enjoy. If you had understood that your life is short, it also passes in vain; surely, spending one hour out of its twenty-four on a beautiful, pleasant, rahmah and easy service, which will be a means of the happiness of true eternal life, excites a serious yearning and agreeable pleasure, let alone cause weariness.

Second Warning: O my nafs that is fond of the stomach! Every day, you eat bread, drink water and breathe air. I wonder: do they cause you weariness? Since they do not, and since the need is repeated, you do not feel weariness but rather pleasure. So, salâh, which is the water of life for my rûh and the sustenance of my heart and which attracts the gentle breeze of my Rabbânî subtle faculties, your companions in the house of my body, should not weary you. Yes, the sustenance and strength of the heart, which is subjected to and afflicted with the infinite sorrows and pains and which became mad with the love of infinite pleasures and desires, can be obtained by knocking on the door of a Rahîm, Who is Karîm and is powerful over all things, through supplication. Yes, the water of life for the rûh, which is connected with most beings and which cries out at the separation and departure from this transitory world with great speed, can be drunk through salâh by turning towards the spring of rahmah of an Eternal Mahbûb, a Ma’bûd, Who is Bâqî and Who takes the place of everything. Yes, a Rabbânî subtle faculty possessing nûr and a sirr of man possessing consciousness, which desire eternity by fitrah and which are created for eternity and are the mirrors of the azalî and eternal One and which are infinitely delicate and subtle, are extremely in need of resting amidst the sorrowful, crushing, troublesome, temporary, dark and suffocating states of the world and can only breathe through the window of salâh.

Third Warning: O my impatient nafs! I wonder: is it an act of an intelligent man to suffer by thinking today of the past burden of ‘ibâdah, the difficulties of salâh and the hardship of calamity, and to display impatience by imagining today the duties of ‘ibâdah, the service of salâh and the sorrows of calamity in the future days?

In being impatient like this, you resemble such a foolish commander, who, although the enemy's right flank joined his right flank and became a fresh force for him, sends his significant force to the right flank and weakens the centre. Then, while there are no enemy soldiers on the left flank and before they come, he sends a large force there and orders them to open fire. He causes the centre to lose all its power. The enemy understands the situation and attacks the centre, defeats the army and scatters it. Yes, you resemble this because the hardship of past days has today transformed into rahmah; its pain has gone and its pleasure has remained; its burden has joined into karâmât; and its difficulty has transformed into sawâb. In which case, it is necessary not to take weariness from it but rather a new enthusiasm, fresh pleasure and a serious zeal to continue. As for the future days, since they have not yet come, to think of them now and to weary and become dispirited is madness, like thinking today of hunger and thirst in those days and starting to shout and cry out. Since this is the haqiqah, if you possess the mind, think only of today regarding ‘ibâdah and say, “I am spending one hour of it on a pleasant, beautiful and elevated service, the reward of which is high and the burden of which is few.” Then your bitter dispiritedness will transform into a sweet zeal.

Thus, O my impatient nafs! You are responsible for three sorts of patience. One is patience with obedience. Another is patience against rebellion and sin. And another is patience in the face of calamity. If you possess the mind, take the haqiqah that is evident in the comparison in this Third Warning as your guide. Say bravely, “O Sabûr!” and shoulder the three sorts of patience. If you do not scatter in the wrong way the power of patience that Janâb-i Haqq has given you, it can be sufficient for every difficulty and calamity; resist with that power!

Fourth Warning: O my foolish nafs! I wonder: is this duty of ‘ubûdiyyah without result, and is its reward so little that it causes weariness in you? Whereas a man makes you work till evening, and you will work without becoming dispirited if he gives you a little money or intimidates you. I wonder: is the salâh, which is the sustenance and wealth for your impotent and weak heart in this guesthouse world, and is the food and light in your grave, which is a certain place of destination for you, and is a document of proof and privilege at the assembly for the last judgment, at which you will anyway be judged, and which will be a nûr and a buraq on the bridge of sirât that will be passed willingly or unwillingly, without result or its reward little? If a man promises you a present worth a hundred dollars, he makes you work for a hundred days. You will trust the man who might break his promise and work without becoming dispirited. I wonder: if One for Whom the breaking of a promise is impossible, promises you a reward like Jannah and a gift like eternal happiness and employs you in a very short time for a very beautiful duty, if you do not perform that service, or you accuse Him in His promise or treat His gift lightly by performing it reluctantly as if someone compelled you to work, or by being weary, or by your half-hearted service, don’t you think that you will deserve a severe chastisement and terrible torment? Although you serve without being dispirited in the heaviest work in this world out of fear of imprisonment, does the fear of eternal imprisonment like Jahannam not give you zeal for a truly light and pleasant service?

Fifth Warning: O my nafs that worships the world! I wonder: does your dispiritedness in ‘ibâdah and deficiency in salâh arise from the excessive worldly occupations of yours or because you cannot find time due to the occupation of the struggle for livelihood? I wonder if you were created just for the world, so you spend all your time on it?

You know that, regarding your capacities, you are superior to all the animals, but regarding the power of procuring the necessities of worldly life, you cannot reach even a sparrow. Why don’t you understand from it that your fundamental duty is not to struggle like an animal but rather to strive for a true eternal life, like a true human being? In addition, things you call worldly occupations are mostly those that do not belong to you and useless matters that you meddle in and mingle unnecessarily. Leaving the most essential one, you spend your time with the most redundant information, as though you have a life of a thousand years. 

For example, you spend your precious time on valueless things like the condition of the rings around Saturn or how many chickens are there in America. It is as if you will obtain perfection from the sciences of astronomy or statistics.

If you say, “What keeps me from salâh and ‘ibâdah and makes me dispirited is not unnecessary things like that, but necessary matters of the struggle for livelihood,” I will say to you that if you work for a daily wage of one hundred cents, then someone comes to you and says, “Come and dig here for ten minutes; you will find a brilliant and an emerald worth a hundred dollars." If you say to him, “No, I won't come, because ten cents will be cut from my daily wage and my sustenance will be less," you surely know what a lunatic pretext it is. In just the same way, you work in this orchard of yours for your sustenance. If you abandon the fardh salâh, all the fruits of your work will be restricted to only worldly and unimportant sustenance without barakah. If you spend your resting and breathing times on the salâh, which is a means for the ease of the rûh and the breath of the heart, you will find two ma’nawî mines that are important sources of your sustenance and provisions of the âkhirah, as well as the worldly sustenance full of barakah.

First Mine: With a beautiful intention, you will receive a share of the tasbîhât of all the plants and trees — whether flowering or fruit-bearing — that you grow in your orchard. {Note: This Station was a lesson for a person in an orchard, so it was declared in this style.}

Second Mine: Whoever eats from the crops yielded from this orchard — whether animal or man, cattle or fly, buyer or thief — it will be a sadaqah for you. But on condition that you dispose in the name of the True Razzâq and within the sphere of His permission and see yourself as a distribution officer giving His property to His creatures.

Thus, look what a great loss he sustains, the one who abandons salâh and what significant wealth he loses, and he will be deprived of those two results and mines that give zeal to work and ensure a great ma’nawî strength for deeds; he goes bankrupt. As he gets older, he will grow weary of gardening and become dispirited. He will say, “What is it to me? I am leaving this world anyway; why should I suffer this much difficulty?” and throw himself into laziness. But the first man says, “I will work more for the halal endeavour as well as ‘ibâdah so that I will send more abundant light to my grave and procure more provisions for my âkhirah.

In Short: O nafs! Know that yesterday is out of your hands. As for tomorrow, you have no proof that you possess it. In which case, know that your true life is the present day. Throw at least one of its hours in a masjid or a sajjâda, which is a coffer of the âkhirah made for the true future, like a reserve fund. Know too that each new day is the door to a new ‘âlam for you and everyone. If you do not perform salâh, your ‘âlam in that day departs amidst a dark and wretched state and testifies against you in al-‘âlam al-mithâl. Because, every day, everyone has a private ‘âlam out of this ‘âlam. Furthermore, the condition of that ‘âlam is dependent on that man's heart and deeds. Just as a magnificent palace that appears in your mirror takes the colour of the mirror, if it is black, it appears black; if it is red, it appears red. It also takes the mirror’s condition on itself; if the mirror’s glass is smooth, it shows the palace as beautiful; if it is not, it shows it as ugly. It shows the most delicate things as coarse. In the same way, you change the shape of your own ‘âlam with your heart, mind, deeds and feelings. You can make it testify either for you or against you. If you perform salâh and turn towards As-Sâni’ Zuljalâl of that ‘âlam through your salâh, then suddenly, your ‘âlam that looks to you will become luminous. It is as though your salâh is an electric lamp and your intention to perform it is touching its switch; it disperses the darkness of that ‘âlam and shows that the changes and movements amidst disorder and the confused devastation of the world’s turmoil are an order with hikmah and a meaningful writing of Qoudrah. It sprinkles one nûr of the âyah filled with nûr 2 اَللّٰهُ نُورُ السَّمٰوَاتِ وَاْلاَرْضِ over your heart. It illuminates your ‘âlam on that day through the reflection of that nûr and causes it to testify in your favour through its luminosity.

Beware, do not say, “There is no comparison between my salâh and the haqiqah of salâh,” because a seed of a date describes its own tree like a date tree. The difference is only in the summary and details; the salâh of ordinary people like you and me — even if they do not feel it — has a share of that nûr and possesses a mystery from this haqiqah, like the salâh of a great walî, even if your consciousness does not perceive it. However, the unfolding and illumination differ according to the degrees. Just as there are many stages and degrees from the seed of a date to the date tree, so too, there might be more stages and degrees within the degrees of salâh, but the essence of that luminous haqiqah is present in all those degrees.

اَللّٰهُمَّ صَلِّ وَسَلِّمْ عَلَى مَنْ قَالَ اَلصَّلاَةُ عِمَادُ الدِّينِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ اَجْمَعِينَ

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