A Word of Advice for the Sake of Allah, for a People Who Do Not Know

O ulema, sheikhs, and jurists! I have observed your feigned blindness in your writings. Hence, my heart has burnt on account of your foolishness. You traverse obscure tracts of land and do not hesitate to rush into dangers. I held back from setting out your condition in detail and exposing your statements. Are you pretending to be blind despite having healthy eyes and feigning ignorance despite possessing knowledge and information? You had pure and clear reason and understanding but your very self has become the abode of every kind of evil. The love of riches has blinded you and the greed for the generosity of people has taken away the light of your eyes.

Did you study the [Islamic] sciences solely to enjoy feasts, and did you acquire knowledge to live off the loaves of bread of the villagers? You have departed far from sincerity, which is the hallmark of the Prophets and the Auliya’ [Friends of Allah]. You have abandoned the Shariah and followed your baser selves and ended up as the losing people. You swallowed the world through a variety of abominable lies and no one from among the high and the low was saved from your trap. At times, you sting [people] by wearing the garb of admonition and at other times through provocative words. I see in you such characteristics as spoil morals, and do not find a trace of charming qualities. We can only say [inna lillah]1 concerning the plight of Islam and the barrenness of the gardens of the Best of Creation [the Holy Prophet(sa)]. I am writing your account while repressing rage and abstaining from exaggerated tales. You have made Islam a place of assembly for the critics and an abode for the worldly and the boastful. So, fear Allah in these days of horror, calamities, and vicissitudes of circumstances! Remember the assault of death and disease, and beware of the humiliation in the hereafter and of a terrible end. Renounce pride, vanity, and haughtiness, for they will not increase you except in ignorance.

The attribute of ‘ubudiyyah [servitude of the Divine] is perfected only after the dissolution of satanic passions; namely, the selfish desires that are like scum on the ocean of suluk [the spiritual journey]. So, do not yield to this scum like a slave, and seek the ocean of pure, sweet water.

O seeker of momentous truth! Remember, the utterances of evil ulema are more harmful to people than poison or any other affliction on the surface of the earth. This is because the toxins cause harm only to bodies, while their words bring harm to souls and ruin the masses. Nay, their harm is greater and deadlier than that of Iblis, the accursed. They confuse truth with falsehood and draw swords of deceit like a murderer and insist on their own words even if they are in manifest error. Therefore, seek refuge with Allah from them and their words and keep away from them and their ignorance. And be with the truthful ulema. Do not mock the intuitive states of the Auliya’ and the secrets revealed to the elect, for they are the manifestations of divine light and the fountains of Rabbul-‘alamin [the Lord of all the worlds]. Know that they are truthful in every circumstance and protected [from sin] in all actions and deeds. They are bestowed with such knowledge of things as cannot be comprehended by the intellect of the ulema. They are granted such knowledge as is not granted to any intellectual. Only he rejects them who is touched by Satan and influenced by the jinn. Only the blind one, who concerns himself with nothing but excommunicating the righteous, declares them as disbelievers.

Hearken! There are indeed servants of God Almighty whom He loves and who love Him. He has chosen them and filled their hearts with His love and the love of His pleasure. Thus, they have forgotten their selves on account of being immersed in love for His Being and attributes. So, do not seek to hurt those whose knowledge and station you know not.

You do not look at them except like the blind. They are above the kind of creation that resembles your being. They strove for a sublime station and rose far above your limits and attained a station that can neither be reached by your eyes nor conceived by your thoughts. They are bestowed with such a lofty rank which is known only to Rabbul-‘alamin. So, do not quibble about their sayings like the insolent ones, nor treat them with suspicion and disrespect like the transgressors, lest your Lord becomes your enemy and you end up among the losers. Therefore, my brother, avoid falling into the abyss of rejection and ending up among the wicked so that you may not perish. And know that the Book of the Gracious God is like seven oceans filled with diverse verities of divine knowledge, from which every bird drinks according to the capacity of its beak; one takes only a tiny bit and drinks but a little from it.

However, those endowed with great capabilities by their bounteous Lord, drink water in abun dance. They are the Auliya’ of the Gracious God and loved ones of the Best of Creators. Fragrant, divine breezes blow over their hearts, and thus their words are exalted, but the intellects of the non-gnostics remain unaware of them. And do not be surprised if those who are granted extraordinary deeds and actions beyond reason, thought, and intention are bestowed with such words [of wisdom] and points [of understanding] which cannot be understood by the ulema. So, do not hastily stand up [against them], and if you are among those through whom God wishes good, then hasten and march to them at once and abstain from falsehood and tyranny and be among those who are resolute. How many unusual—nay, provocative—words are uttered by men of God as per revelation from God, who is the Helper of the recipients of revelation. They rise up only for the sake of Allah, preaching and propagating these words. Those words become a haven of refuge for the appointed ones due to God’s pleasure. Yet, when those exact same words without any change are uttered by someone else, they cast him among the disrespectful and insolent ones, and thus he ends up among the wicked. So, revere the men of God and do not hasten to oppose them on account of some of their words, for you have no inkling of their intentions. They speak only by their Lord’s command. Therefore, do not destroy yourself like the presumptuous ones. So great is their stature that it lies beyond the grasp of man; then how will a mischievous person like you understand it?

Only he can understand them who has trodden their path and tasted what they have tasted and has entered their streets. So, look not at the faces of the [so-called] scholars of Islam and the elders of the age, for those faces are devoid of the light of God the Gracious and are empty of the signs of lovers. And do not compare the words of the Muhaddathin—who are honoured with divine converse—to your words or to those of the unjust people like you. Their words issue from the pure breaths and souls of the recipients of revelation. These ever new words from Almighty Allah are like fresh fruit taken from a blessed tree for those who eat. When people fail to understand their subtle, fine, and profoundly divine words, they regard them [the Auliya’] as transgressors, heretics, infidels, and among those succumbing to selfish desires. Alas for them and their opinions! Unless they desist from this and show contrition and repentance, they will definitely perish. The liberated ones move from the [physical] form to the heart, but these people have moved from the heart to the [physical] form and turned their backs on their knowledge due to their extreme miserliness. So they have become like a shell without a kernel.

They devoured carrion like foxes, declaring me a disbeliever and cursing me without knowledge so that they might conceal this matter from a seeker [after truth]. And they proclaimed [that I am a] kafir and liar. They adopted the manner of the perished ones who had gone before them. Earlier, they used to say that no one is excluded from the circle of Faith because of differences that do not expressly entail the rejection of Quranic teachings; and that the decree of disbelief applies only to the one who openly declares his disbelief and adopts it as his faith, rejects the religion of God the Omnipotent, repudiates the Islamic profession of faith like wicked enemies, and who departs from the religion of Islam and becomes an apostate. They said if they had seen any good in this person or found any trace of faith, they would not have declared him a disbeliever, nor rejected him, nor sought to humiliate him. Nay, but their hearts have become hardened on account of their insistent rejection, hypocritical claims, and prideful fatwas. So, He has set a seal upon their hearts and they were not able to repent alongside those who repent. Had God so willed, He would have reformed them, purified their words, pulled them towards Himself, and showed them their error. But they had deviated [from the right path] and loved their vices on account of which Allah’s wrath descended upon them, and He made their hearts crooked and abandoned them in darkness. He made them like the deaf and the blind.

O hasty one! Fear Allah and be afraid of the Auliya’ of the Most Loving God. Your fear should not be like the fear of lions. And when you see a person who has devoted himself wholly to God so that nothing makes him heedless of his Lord, then do not speak against him nor dare to abuse him. O helpless mortal! Will you fight Allah or kill yourself like the mad?

Know that, in the beginning, the Auliya’ of the Gracious Lord are rejected, cursed, and denounced as disbelievers, and all manner of ill words are spoken about them. They hear every kind of absurd talk and hurtful words from their own people as well as enemies. People regard them as most ignorant and misguided, while the fact is that they are men of goodness and knowledge. Moreover, they name them dajjals [deceivers] and servants of the Devil. Yet, God changes circumstances in their favour. They are helped and supported, and are absolved of whatever is said against them. Ultimately, they triumph and receive divine help from Allah the Benefactor. It is the continuous practice of Allah the Just that He grants a good end to the righteous. When His help comes, you will see as if the hearts of people have been created anew and a profound change has been effected in them. You will also see, by the command of the Almighty, the Ever-Sustaining, the Helper, that the earth turns green after its barrenness; the minds become sound after their weakness; the intellects become clean and the hearts pure. Thereafter [the opponents] will rush towards them with love and affection, feeling ashamed of their days of enmity. They will praise them with tears, saying, ‘We have repented so forgive us, our Lord! Surely, we were sinners.’ Who can have mercy except Him and He is the Most Merciful of those who show mercy. This shall be the end of those who are blessed and whose eyes have been opened so that they are drawn [towards God]. As for the wretched ones, they will not see until they are driven to a humiliating punishment.

Our Lord! Show us Your days and make Your words true and remove our sufferings, and forgive our mistakes. Be pleased with us and fulfil the promises You made to us and help us against the disbelievers. And send down blessings, peace, and favours upon Your Messenger, the Seal of the Prophets. Amin! Our Lord, Amin!