From the Twenty-First Discourse—page 460-461
in Irshad: Wisdom of a Sufi Master, by Sheikh Muzaffer Ozak Al-Jerrahi, trans. Muhtar Holland. An Ashki Book of Amity House, Warwick: 1988.
…My God, without Your grace, we shall perish. We have no escape from grief. Unless You help us, who will give us aid? We are weak unless you give us strength. Unless You revive us with Your remembrance, we are dead.
Said the most noble Messenger: “My Lord, how can I earn Your noble approval?”
The Exalted One replied: “My beloved, between you and Me, no veil is drawn. Come to Me whenever you with. O Muhammad, do you know why I created you superior to the other Prophets?”
When the Messenger said: “My Lord, I do not know”, the Lord said: “Your being is very beautiful to me. Your beautiful character, your generosity, your humility and your compassion for my servants are the reason why I love you more than the other Prophets. Because of these qualities of yours, I have made you superior to them all.
“My beloved, let me tell you about the joy of faith, then you tell My servants! Let them fast and refrain from too much talk. Let them prefer silence. Let their hearts be one. Let them fear Me and love you. If they behave like this, they will discover the joy of faith. If they act in this way, they will be safe from My torment.” Our Master relates that the Glorious Lord said: “If a servant of Mine is smitten with love of Me and if he bears this affliction patiently, Paradise is his reward. If a servant longs to meet Me, I also long to encounter that servant. If a servant does not wish to meet Me, I have no wish to meet that servant.”
Our Master also relates that Allāh said: “When the Day of Resurrection comes, I shall take issue with three types of people:
- Those who do good to someone to please Me, but then wrong that person by taunting him with the favor done,
- Those who sell an emancipated slave and consume the price, or who enslave free men;
iii. Those who do not give people their due for work performed.”
According to our Master, Allāh will say to a servant on the Day of Resurrection: “I became ill, but you did not come to ask how I was.” That servant will reply: “My Lord, You are the Lord of All Worlds. How could you fall ill?” but the Lord will say: “My servant so-and-so became sick; if you had visited him, you would have visited Me, for by doing so you have pleased Me.”
The exalted One said: “My servants, without My guidance, you would all be left in error. I am the Provider. It is I who feed you. Ask Me for guidance and provision, that I may give them to you. I created you from clay. Ask me for clothing and I shall clothe you.
“My servants, you sin and disobey Me night and day. Repent to Me that I may pardon you. Ask Me for forgiveness that I may forgive you. Be obedient to Me, all of you, the first and the last, men and jinn. There is nothing superfluous in my Kingdom. If you are disobedient, nothing will be lacking from My Kingdom. For My devout and righteous servants, I have created bounties in Paradise, such as no eyes ever saw and no ears ever heard of. The human mind cannot conceive of them. These bounties can be comprehended only when they are seen and tasted. Only then will they be appreciated.”
Our Master says: “On theat night I begged my Lord for my Community seven hundred times and my Lord gave me my Community. He promised Paradise and its beauty to my Community. That night, my Community attained divine pardon and grace.”
Our Master said: “When, by divine decree, I came back to the house of the venerable Umm Hāni’, my bed was still warm. Time had been created within time and space within space. Thus did my Lord show me His favor toward my Community that night.
“I saw a pavilion in Paradise, made of red ruby. ‘My Lord’, I said: ‘to which Prophet does this pavilion belong?’ and He said: ‘This pavilion does not belong to any Prophet. If a member of your Community takes a blind man by the arm and leads him a few steps, I shall present him with this pavilion.’”
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As for those unbelievers who had insulted and abused our Master that day, they were all afflicted with some agony. The souls of some of them went to Hell at the Battle of Badr. In fact, all who despise our Master, the Lord’s beloved, will certainly suffer some incurable affliction or else die like animals and enter the fire of Hell.