This contentment does not end. God addressed the Prophet saying: “Certainly your Lord will give to you, so that you will be content” (93:5). So, correcting your condition, in terms of contentment with regard to lordship, is servitude. Just as lordship is endless, servitude also has no end.

The Sufi say about servitude that you are in the hands of God, and that Divine Will and Wisdom turn you, just like a corpse turned by the embalmer. “Be in the hands of God like a corpse under the hands of the embalmer,” they insist that you must not object to Him. If you do not object to God, then you will live in the present moment, because you will be contented with all the measures that come from Him—you will not be preoccupied with the coming moment. Everything in that moment, whether given to you or turned away from you, is predestined. Nothing can make you miss what is predestined for you. Thus, preoccupying yourself with the coming moment is not necessary. Wisdom requires you to be contented with whatever might be. A saying attributed to al-Hassan bin Ali goes: “One who relies on the excellence of God’s choices, does not wish to be in other than those situations chosen by God.” In the same context, a Sage said: “There are people who do not grieve, for they are certain that the wealth of their Lord is unlimited. They know that what is destined for them will come and what is turned away from them is because of the excellent assessment of their Lord.”

We have said that servitude is contentment. We have also said that prayer is the greatest thing that leads us to live in the present moment, as living in the present moment is a sign of satisfaction. Life in the present moment is marked by contentment. Regarding the incentive of prayer, God says to the Prophet: “So bear with what they say and exalt your Lord with glory before the rising of the sun and before its setting; and glorify Him during periods of the night and at the ends of the day, that you may be contented” (20:130). Here the word “glorify” means pray, as this verse refers to the five periods of prayer. The incentive of all this is “that you may be contented.” Contentment is the fruit of the great mind, the mind that has been refined by significant knowledge of the exoteric code, significant knowledge of the esoteric code, and significant knowledge of truth. We have discussed the exoteric code, and we have discussed the esoteric code in the sense that it is the path of the Prophet, and we have also discussed the truth. We have mentioned that the Prophet said: “The exoteric code is my words, the esoteric code is my acts, and the truth is my interior state.” Therefore, Islam’s honoring of the minds is unparalleled. But the mind that we mean here is the refined and edified mind. It is the guided and edified mind that knows its limits, shows the way to God and leads to the threshold of the Divine Self, and then lifts its veil by its own strength—when recognizes its true limits. And we have said that the hadith, “One who knows himself would know his Lord,” emphatically declares that the great mind does not lay claim to other than its own station. As soon as it crosses the stage of duality to singularity, where the witnessing of the Divine Self takes place, the mind bewilders, falters, and ceases swinging. At that moment, the heart, which is the organ of singular witnessing, goes before the mind, so the servant would enter the state of witnessing the Divine Self and then see the Lord.

Witnessing the Divine Self does not last. It is not a station, rather it is a spiritual uplifting—one lives up to it and then goes back down. The witnessing experience, during this moment, is like an eternity. The eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, nor has it ever entered into one’s heart, the knowledge that the servant attains during this spiritually uplifting moment. Once again, one goes down to the zone of the swinging of the mind—to the mind’s veil—and then elevates to the state of Divine Self manifestation. That is to say, the servant vacillates between pairness and oneness—between duality and singularity—as duality is on the elevation closest to oneness. God says: “All things We have created in pairs, that you may recall” (51:49). The Lord began creation, at the highest elevation, when creating pairness. Oneness is above pairness. So, the diligent servant vacillates between singularity and duality—between the Divine Self manifestation and the manifestation at the steps of names, attributes, and actions.

We have mentioned that the heart witnesses God while the mind knows God. We also discussed the Divine Self manifestation and the Divine nominal, attributive, and actional manifestation at the steps of names, attributes, and deeds. For instance “Knower” is considered a name, “Willer” is considered an attribute, and “Abler” is considered a deed. In the sense that God has comprehensive knowledge of His creations, subsequently the form of the first creation proceeded from His will, and thereupon His ability brought it into being. This is what is meant by knowledge at the steps of names. As to the knowledge at the level of Divine Self, the minds have absolutely no share in it. It is an acquaintance made by the heart. This acquaintance is called witnessing. We say that the heart witnesses the Divine Self, while the mind knows God. That is to say, the mind knows the Divine Self by its trace.

Speaking of singularity perception and duality perception, the mind is the organ of duality perception. Earlier, we mentioned that the mind perceives things through contraries. But at the level of the Divine Self, where comparison ceases to exist, the mind ceases to fluctuate and is bewildered. This bewilderment is viewed by Sages as real perception; they say: “Real perception is feeling helpless to attain perception, while pondering the Divine Self is a form of polytheism.” One should not ponder the Essence, but rather ponder his own helplessness to understand it. This is called the stage where the mind ceased to fluctuate—the stage where the mind’s veil is lifted.

About the verse “or from behind a veil,” we have said that this veil is the mind. The final and finest veil between us and God is the mind. The mind, after passing the steps of deeds, attributes, and names, will cease to fluctuate and is bewildered. This bewilderment is because the Divine Self has no opposite as is the case with the names. Here the mind’s veil can be lifted, thanks to God and thanks to the strong neutral mind, which recognizes its true limits. About this matter, the Sufi poet Ibn al-Farid says: “Increase my bewilderment of the beauty flowing from you.” At the moment of bewilderment, the mind swinging will come to a standstill. That is because this swinging occurs only within the sphere of time.

Swinging of intellect between opposites, which we discussed earlier, occurs only within the sphere of time. So, as we said, when the servant transcends time and is liberated from time and place, he will experience the same acquaintance experienced by the Prophet on the night of his ascension, where the Quran says: “the eyesight did not turn back, nor did it transgress” (53: 17). That means the swinging of the intellect ceases, there is no past and no future—time becomes a collapsed unit. This temporal unit is so infinitesimal that it transcends time. So when the Prophet transcended time by lifting the veil of intellect, he witnessed the Divine Self. This has been emphatically declared in a hadith that we discussed earlier: “On the night of my ascent to the heavens, the sight of my eye and the sight of my heart coalesced into one, and so I saw God.”

The “how” is out of place in the Divine Self manifestation. Divine Self-manifestation is not a state of learning; rather, it is a state of eternal life. When witnessing the Divine Self, one’s learning obliterates and life continues. One’s life, in a moment of witnessing the Divine Self, is perfect. It is eternal, broad, and deep. We have said that the Divine Self manifestation is not a station. It is a short lived moment of spiritual ascension enjoyed by those who have profound knowledge of God. The Quran alludes to them through the organ of the mind: “O people of Yethrib there is no station here for you, so return home” (33:13). So, they return from the state of singularity to the station of duality—they return to the sphere of learning.

To grand Sages, sojourning, between state and station or between singularity and duality or between heart perception and mind perception, is eternal. In the course of our talk, we gave illustrations of a football fan and a movie lover to explain the Divine Self manifestation experienced by the Prophet during the significant acquaintance made on the night of his ascension to the heavens. This is alluded to in the Quran: “When that which shrouds did enshroud the Sidr, the eyesight did not turn back, nor did it transgress” (53:16-17). The Prophet also refers to this expressly: “On the night of my ascent to the heavens, the sight of my eye and the sight of my heart coalesced into one, and so I saw God” This imposing encounter granted the Prophet a personal unity, which is almost as good as absolute unity. He was unified personally, spatially, and temporally. Therefore, he witnessed the One. We have explained this by giving the examples of the football fan and the movie lover, illustrating the relative engrossment one may experience while watching a great movie in the theater. The movie lover is so engrossed that he forgets the time, for he is not preoccupied with the past or the future; rather, he is engrossed in the present moment when the white screen displays scenes performed by brilliant actors. He is so taken by their movement, expressions, and features that he almost loses his sense of time; two hours pass without him feeling them. This illustration only gives an inkling of the experience, for there is truly no parallel in the comparison of the engrossment of the movie lover and that of the all-encompassing engrossment of the Prophet at the moment of Divine Self manifestation. But there are some similarities that can impart a sensory image. That is to say, witnessing the Divine Self manifestation is experienced and lived, not learned

Attributes are steps of eternal life. The higher attribute ‘Alive is followed in succession by ‘Knower’, ‘Willer’, and ‘Abler’. All of the seven Divine attributes (Alive, Knower, Willer, Abler, Hearer, Sighted, and Speaker) are successively included in the attribute of life, as life is a Divine attribute. At the moment of Divine Self manifestation there is eternal life, while during the nominal manifestation, learning begins. That is because the steps of nominal manifestation involve duality.

Duality is a stage of learning. Minds perceive only within the sphere of duality. The rule is: “Things are more manifest by their opposites.” The reason is that perceptions come into the mind via the senses, which are dual. The eyes, ears, nostrils, and the like are in pairs. Perceptions come into our minds as dual. Our minds perceive at the stage of duality, but fall short and cease to fluctuate at the stage of singularity. This is because pondering is out of place at the stage of singularity, as is asserted in the hadith: “Ponder the creation of God and not about His Self, otherwise you will go astray.” The Lord descending from singularity to duality has also been alluded to in the Quran: “All things We have created in pairs, that you may recall” (51:49).

Throughout our entire life, as we have said, there is not any honor that does not involve the mind. When the Lord began creation, He created in pairs, because singularity is exclusively for His Self alone. This is why we believe that singularity is the stage of the annihilation of learning; it is subsistence in eternal life. This is known as Divine Self manifestation, during which the “how” is out of place, so there is no room for learning. But below that, at the steps of names, attributes, and deeds, learning takes place.

To honor our minds, the Quran was revealed in the Arabic language. The true nature of the Quran is not in Arabic. The Quran is the Speech of God. But God does not speak with an organ, He speaks with His Self. We say that, the Quran is the Speech of God. That only after descending was this speech revealed in the Arabic language and included in the Holy Book. The legible Quran, in Arabic, between the covers of the Holy Book, is the Speech of God. But it is the Speech of God descended from the Divine Self into the nominal, attributive, and actional steps. The Quran refers to this expressly: “Ha Mim (the Arabic letters ‘laryngeal H’ and ‘M’). I swear by the Book that makes things clear: We have made it a Quran in Arabic that you may understand. As, in the Mother of Scriptures with Us, it is truly elevated, full of wisdom” (43:1-4). We have made it a Quran in Arabic that you may understand. The Quran lowered to the level of Arabic language so that we can understand. The very same verse emphatically declares an enigmatic “HM.” No one knows what HM stands for. All the commentators say, in their interpretation, “God knows better what is intended in meaning.” Some people tried to endeavor and interpret it, but they were at the end of their wits. But certainly, this enigma has nothing to do with the Arabic language. We, also, ignore the fact that when reading “Ha Mim,” where “Ha” and “Mim” are Arabic letters, we think that they relate to the Arabic language. In fact, the relationship came from our nomenclature for terming sounds as “Ha Mim,” or “Alif Lam Mim.” Actually, the sound is what is intended, not the letter representing it. What is intended is “Aa, La, Ma.” These sounds are termed differently in different languages.

Sound is common among all languages. In fact, it is common among all moving objects. Sound is, of course, distinctly common among animals and humans. But, generally, every moving object makes sound. The Arabic speakers specified this sound with “Alif Lam Mim,” which are Arabic letters. Speakers of English, French, Chinese, each have their own terms to specify these common sounds. All nations that have written languages, of any form, specified the sounds with symbols, with which their languages are written.

So, what matters is not the letter, but the sound. We, the Arabic speakers, specified the sound with twenty eight alphabetic letters. Alphabetic letters are also known as written letters, which means handwritten, traced, or imprinted in an agreed upon form.

There, greater in number than the written letters, are the sonant letters. The range of sonant letters is immeasurably broader than the range of written letters.