The Sixth Word

‌بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ‌

1 ‌اِنَّ اللّٰهَ اشْتَرٰى مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ اَنْفُسَهُمْ وَ اَمْوَالَهُمْ بِاَنَّ لَهُمُ الْجَنَّةَ‌

If you want to understand how profitable trade and honourable rank to sell one’s nafs and property to Allah and to be His ‘abd and soldier are, listen to this short story in the form of a comparison:

One time, as an amanah, one sultân gives each of two men from amongst his subjects a farm on which everything is present, like factory, machines, horses and weapons. But because it is a tempestuous time of war, nothing can remain permanent. It will either be destroyed, changed, or lost. The sultân sent his most honourable assistant out of his perfect mercy to those two soldiers. With a most compassionate decree, he was saying to them:

"Sell me my amanah that you hold in your hands so that I shall protect it for you. Let it not be destroyed without purpose. Furthermore, after the war is over, I shall return it to you in a better condition. Also, it is as if that amanah were your property, I shall give you a very high price. Furthermore, the tools in the factory and the machines will be operated in my name and on my workbench. Both their prices and payments will rise from one to a thousand. I shall give you all the profit. Furthermore, you are impotent and poor; you cannot provide for the cost of those great works. I shall undertake all the expenses and equipment and give you all the income and benefits. Furthermore, I shall leave my amanah in your possession until the time of demobilisation. Here, profit within profit, by five degrees!

If you do not sell it to me, you already see that no one can preserve what they have in their hands. You will lose, like everyone else. Furthermore, it will be lost for no purpose; you will also be deprived of that high price. Furthermore, those fragile and precious tools and scales will lose all their value since wonderful minerals to be used and valuable services to be performed are not found. Furthermore, the hardship and burden of management and preservation will be yours. Also, you will receive punishment for betraying the amanah. Here, loss within loss, by five degrees!

As for selling it to me, it means becoming my soldier and acting in my name. Instead of an ordinary prisoner and irregular soldier, you will be a private and free assistant soldier of a mighty sultân."

After they had listened to this kindness and decree, the mindful one of those two men said:

"With pleasure, I will proudly sell. I offer a thousandfold thanks as well."

The other one was proud, self-centred and fond of merriment, his nafs had become a Pharaoh, and he did not know anything about the earthquakes and tempests of the world, as if he were to stay eternally on that farm. He said:

“No, no! Who is the sultân? I do not sell my property nor spoil my pleasure.”

After some time, the first man has reached such a rank that everyone envies his state. He has been honoured with the sultân’s kindness and favour and lives happily in his private palace. The other was subjected to such a state where everyone pities him but also says, “He deserves it” because, as a result of his error, he has both lost his happiness and property and suffers punishment and torment.

Thus, O nafs full of desires! Look at the face of haqiqah through the telescope of this comparison. As for the sultân, He is your Rabb and Khâliq, Who is the Sultân of azal and eternity. As for the farms, machines, tools and scales, they are your possessions in the sphere of your life, and your body, rûh and heart within those possessions, and your outer and inner senses like the eye, tongue, mind and imagination within them. As for the most honourable assistant, he is Ar-Rasûl Al-Akram ‘Alayhissalâtu Wassalâm. As for the firmest decree, it is Al-Qur’an Al-Hakîm; through the following ayah, it declares the immense trade we discuss:

اِنَّ اللّٰهَ اشْتَرٰى مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ اَنْفُسَهُمْ وَ اَمْوَالَهُمْ بِاَنَّ لَهُمُ الْجَنَّةَ‌

As for the tempestuous field of battle, it is the stormy face of the world that never stops; it turns and decays and gives the following thought to the mind of each man:

"Since everything will go out of our hands, be destroyed and be lost, is there no remedy to make them permanent by transforming them to be eternal?"

While thinking, the samâwî voice of the Qur'an is heard. It says, "Indeed, there is! There is a beautiful and easy solution in a five-degree profitable way."

Question: What is it?

The Answer: To sell the amanah to its true owner... Thus, in that sale, there is profit within profit, by five degrees.

The First Profit: Transient property becomes eternal. For this fading life, which is given to the Zuljalâl One, Who is Al-Qayyûm Al-Bâqî, and is spent for His sake, transforms into an eternal one and gives eternal fruits. Then, the moments of life appear to die and rot, like seeds and kernels, but they bloom and sprout the flowers of happiness in al-‘âlam-al-baqâ, and each becomes a luminous and companionable view in al-‘âlam al-barzakh.

The Second Profit: A price like Jannah is given.

The Third Profit: The value of each of limbs and senses increases from one to a thousand.

For example, the mind is a tool. It will become such an inauspicious, troublesome and annoying tool that it descends to the level of an unfortunate and detrimental tool that will load all the sad sorrows of the past and the frightening states of the future onto your unfortunate head if you do not sell it to Janâb-i Haqq but rather employ it on behalf of nafs. Thus, it is for this reason that a fâsiq man generally runs to drunkenness or amusements in order to be saved from being disturbed and troubled by the mind. If the mind is sold to its True Mâlik and if you employ it on His behalf, it becomes such a key with talisman that it opens the infinite treasures of rahmah and the troves of hikmah that the universe contains, and with them, it rises to the degree of a Rabbânî guide (Murshid) that prepares its owner for eternal happiness.

For example, the eye is a sense that, through that window, the rûh beholds this ‘âlam. If you do not sell it to Janâb-i Haqq but rather employ it on behalf of nafs, by watching some temporary, impermanent beauties and views, it will be a servant of the lust and desires of the nafs at the level of being a pander. If you sell the eye to its Sâni’, Who is Basîr, and employ it on His behalf and within the sphere of His permission, then the eye will rise to the rank of a reader of the great book of the universe, a spectator of the miracles of art of Ar-Rabb in this ‘âlam and a blessed bee of the flowers of rahmah in the garden of the globe of the earth.

For example, if you do not sell the sense of taste in the tongue to its Fâtir, Who is Hakîm, but rather employ it on behalf of nafs and for the sake of the stomach, then it will decrease and decline to the level of a doorkeeper to the barn and factory of the stomach. If you sell it to Ar-Razzâq, Who is Karîm, then the sense of taste in the tongue will rise to the rank of a skilled treasurer of the treasuries of Allah’s rahmah and an inspector, who offers shukr, of the kitchens of the qoudrah of As-Samad.

So be careful, O mind! Is there any comparison between an inauspicious tool and the key to the universe? O eye, look beautifully! Is there any comparison between a base pander and the versed spectator of Allah’s library? And, O tongue, taste well! Is there any comparison between a barn doorkeeper or a factory watchman and the treasurer of the private treasury of rahmah?

If you compare all the other tools and limbs like these, you can understand that, in truth, the mu’min attains an essence worthy of Jannah, and the kâfir attains an essence conforming to Jahannam. The reason for each of them attaining such a value is: with his îmân, the mu’min uses the amanah of his Khâliq on His behalf and within the sphere of His permission. And betraying the amanah, the kâfir employs it on account of nafs al-ammarah.

The Fourth Profit: Man is weak, but his troubles are numerous. He is poor, but his needs are numerous. He is impotent, but the burden of life is very heavy. If he does not do tawakkul by relying on Al-Qadîr Zuljalâl and does not submit to Him by trusting Him, his conscience will always remain in torment. Fruitless hardships, pains and regrets suffocate him, make him drunk, or turn him into a beast.

The Fifth Profit: The people of zawq and kashf, the people who witness the truths of religion and the people who are devotedly attached to the Islamic sciences all agreed that all the ‘ibâdah and tasbihât of those limbs and tools and their high rewards will be given to you in the form of the fruits of Jannah at the time that you are most needy.

Here! If you do not do this trade, which has profit within profit by five degrees, you will fall into loss within loss by five degrees, apart from being deprived of those profits.

The First Loss: The property and offspring that you greatly love, the nafs and its desires that you worship and the youth and life with which you are madly in love will be destroyed and lost; they will go out of your possession, but they will leave their sins and pains to you and load them on your neck.

The Second Loss: You will suffer the punishment of betraying the amanah because you perpetrated a dhulm against your nafs by using the most precious tools on the most worthless things.

The Third Loss: By causing all those precious faculties of man to decrease to a level much lower than animality, you slandered and perpetrated a dhulm against the hikmah of Allah.

The Fourth Loss: You will always say “Ah and alas!” beneath the blows of fade and separation since you loaded the extremely heavy burden of life on your weak back, although you are impotent and poor.

The Fifth Loss: It is to transform the beautiful gifts of Ar-Rahmân, such as the mind, the heart, the eye and the tongue, that are given to you to supply the provisions of happiness in the âkhirah and the foundations of eternal life, into an ugly form that will open the gates of Jahannam to you.

We should strive to sell it now. I wonder, is it such a burdensome thing that many people shun selling it? No! By no means! It is not burdensome at all because the sphere of halal is broad and sufficient for pleasure. There is no need to enter into haram. The fardh of Allah are light and few. To be the ‘abd and soldier of Allah is such a pleasurable honour that cannot be described. As for the duty, one should work and start only on behalf of Allah, like a soldier, give and take on account of Allah, and act and be still in the sphere of His permission and law. If he commits a fault, he should offer istighfâr. He should say, "O Rabb! Forgive our faults, accept us as Your servants and make us trustworthy with the amanah until the time of its being taken. Âmîn!", and He should be beseeched.

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