The first thing incumbent upon you is to seek knowledge of God—He whom it is not permissible for you to be ignorant of. Action becomes sound only through Him, and gnosis (marifet) attains its perfection through Him. The greatness within your heart, the measure of your obedience to Him, your fear of Him, and your hope in Him—these are in proportion to your knowledge of Him. No intelligent person’s intellect or deeds can be complete without knowing God, his Creator and Master.

Action done for God is according to the degree of one’s grasp of His attributes and the realization of His gnosis. Even lengthy reflections fall short of their aim. Those who attempt to describe Him have been unable to apprehend even a fragment of His dominion (melekût). None of His creatures has truly known Him as He deserves. Yet whoever is given even the smallest and least portion of gnosis—such a person perceives his share through it, corrects his deeds, and attains his desire. Then through it he acknowledges God’s oneness (tevhid), His glory, His majesty, and His greatness. He believes in what the Prophet and the Book have brought. He knows the necessity of obedience, and flees from sin and defects.

People are in competition for virtue in the matter of knowing God. They differ in their obedience to Him. Each person’s obedience to Him is according to his knowledge of Him. One who knows Him does not disobey Him. For when a person recognizes his Benefactor and sees the sublimity of the Bestower of blessings, he performs no deed displeasing to Him. When the servant knows his Lord, and knows that all his organs are a blessing given to him by God, and that for every organ there is an obligatory worship and obedience due—then he cannot perform any deed outside of God’s good pleasure. If he knows that God’s blessings upon him are abundant, he turns to Him with every kind of deed and striving, with praise and gratitude, with struggle against the lower self (nefs). If he knows how to be grateful for the blessing given to him, he attains even more in the sight of God.

By His mercy, God has made some of His servants beautiful, guided them to gnosis, enabled them to act through obedience, assisted them in fulfilling their obligations, granted them hearts possessed of certainty (yakîn) and souls inspired with good—through outward organs and right intentions. He looks upon them with the gaze of mercy, and increases their gnosis which they have reached by their will and His will. They compete in drawing near to Him and fear Him. They extend their hand to nothing of religion or world. They see God, and He sees them. Indeed, it is as if He, through the eyes of their hearts, manifests His glory and majesty, making them tremble in awe of His overwhelming power. They are nourished by His remembrance (dhikr), strive to fulfill their gratitude, and occupy themselves with contemplation (tefekkür) of His dominion.

For this—remembrance of God—is the nearest means to Him and the greatest virtue; the purest of spiritual retreats (riyâda); the most liberating from sorrow and grief; the most profitable in merit; the furthest from punishment for sins; the brightest light of hearts; the nearest of ranks and stations; the furthest from blameworthy states; the most joyful for bodies; the most pleasing of devotions to the devils.

The gnosis attained in the stations of the Hereafter is reached only through the intellect—the opposite of ignorance. Then it is obtained by gazing into the mirror of reflection and by the heart’s wandering in the dominion (melekût). This is reached only after all striving is directed toward Him, occupations are abandoned, and empty chatter (kayl-ü kâl) is forsaken. The thing most helpful in reaching Him is: abandoning excess in that which is heard, spoken, seen, eaten, or drunk; persisting in fasting and prayer; leaving passions; valuing solitude (halvet); fleeing from doubts; and keeping distant from dubious matters. For all excesses darken the intellects.

To know the reality of excess is this: When you obtain fresh or dry food and satisfy your hunger with it, knowing that your desire beyond this is excess. When you quench your thirst with the cool water at hand, then desiring more water is excess. You have a garment that covers your nakedness, protects you from heat and cold, whose costliness or cheapness does not bring you fame—desiring anything beyond this is excess. If you are asked about a knowledge you possess, and you find another answering on your behalf while you remain silent, your most beautiful response is your silence. If you cannot find one to answer appropriately, responding with a single word suffices. A second word in this matter is excess. All harmful and injurious desires are likewise. Yet you look to that by which you lose the least, and you respond with it.

Unity (Vahdet) is the greatest aid to the purification of hearts and the cleansing of souls. The body’s rest and the mind’s collectedness, the perfection of intellect, the preservation of religion, the use of reflection, occupation with admonitions, remembrance and hidden devotion, deliverance through worship, seeking knowledge, learning forbearance (hilm), the correctness of understanding, the completion of character, the purification of deeds, and the benefit of contemplating wisdom—the first of these is unity. Unity assists you in matters of commanding good and forbidding evil; it delivers you from the orbit of the corrupt and the violent enmity of fools. It cleanses your heart of every subtle cloud and impurity; it warns your soul against every heedlessness (gaflet); it delivers you from backbiting and pretension, from discord and vain desire. This word summarizes it: All sins are dualistic; one who is united has been delivered from sin.

One who enters solitude (halvet) occupies himself there with submission to God and remembrance of Him. When a person finds in his soul a whispering (vesvese) that stands as a veil between him and his Lord, he cannot taste the sweetness of remembrance and finds hardness in his soul. Perhaps this whispering comes unbidden during his ritual prayers while reciting, and continues until he finishes the whole chapter—yet he does not consider what he is reading or the malady within it.

Remembrance is of two kinds: The first is fearful remembrance done with awe and guidance; the second is remembrance done heedlessly (gaflet), secure from God’s chastisement. If remembrance occurs through fear, in this state of wakefulness the devil suffers loss and cannot draw him to himself, and the whispering departs. If remembrance occurs with the heart’s collectedness and the correctness of intention, there is no place there for the devil and he cannot deceive him. For the devil’s power and whispering are accompanied by heedlessness. If remembrance is done heedlessly, secure from God’s chastisement, even if the servant persists in recitation during and outside of prayer, the whispering does not leave him. For the heart of the heedless is veiled. One who does remembrance in this manner cannot find the taste of remembrance. When the heart of one doing remembrance is occupied with whose remembrance it is, to whom his intention, desire, and longing are directed—his recitation attains that. The heart, through false accusation (bûhtan) and slander, through severity of passion and heedlessness, is tormented and becomes enamored of its vain desire and passion. Yet perhaps it weeps in a graceless manner, shedding excessive tears. It grieves in its prayer, likening its recitation to the weeping of wild beasts. How wretched is its grief! If it regards hatred and aversion as befitting them, it abandons them.

Every obstacle between a person and what he desires in his soul arises only from his heedlessness and the whisperings of the accursed one. God has declared his enmity. He has mentioned that He gives the servant, between his heart and himself, things as whisperings. In this regard, God the Exalted says: *”Surely Satan is an enemy to you, so take him as an enemy.”*⁴³

O brother! Take him as an enemy as you have been commanded, and protect yourself from him as much as you are able. Occupy yourself with reflection upon the Hereafter; protect your heart from corruption. For he lies in wait, watching for heedlessness, making the forbidden permissible, exploiting religion. Do not make forbidden to the heart things more difficult and more severe than making your wealth and children permissible. His affliction is great and many. Whoever makes His forbidden permissible, strips his religion and clothes himself in disgrace—the enemy’s deed reaches him, and if his opinion confirms him, in the end he becomes his partisan.

Let not one who has a governor over himself betray God in matters of secrets. If he does so, the sublimity of his intention is corrupted.

Protect your religion from the enemy’s corruption. For he is connected to your protection and your covenant. You cannot distance him from your rank or drive him from your homeland. You are only permitted to struggle against him. Do not seek his friendship; do not ask him for protection from his assault; do not be heedless in seeking from him. Hold fast to your bond. Ask God for help, trust in Him, rely upon Him. Surely He will not degrade or humiliate you.

God the Exalted says: *”Those who strive in Our path—We shall surely guide them to Our ways. And God is surely with the good-doers.”*⁴⁴ Ask help from God; attach yourself to His power and might. Cling to the weapon with which God has armed you. It is such a weapon that God’s saints are protected by it. This is the fortress of those servants regarding whom God has said: *”Surely You have no authority over My servants.”*⁴⁵ Thus, if you turn to your Lord with asceticism (zühd) through God’s help, He becomes your helper and protector.

Trust in God (Tevekkül) is your spear and helmet, the sword of dignity, the shield of intention, the quiver of certainty and awe, the provision of lowliness, the ship of return, the storehouse of trust, the drivers of hope, the produce of faith, the blessing of gnosis, the abundance of truth, the companion of zeal, the banner of sincerity, the proof of the Qur’an, the vizier of knowledge, the nobility of love, the modesty of shame, the companion of gratitude, the friend of patience, the comrade of intellect and thought, the refuge of seeking protection from God the Exalted. Then by God’s blessing you rise to struggle with it and strive against it. For He exhausts its power, sends its soldiers to perdition, buries its snares in the ground. *”God is with the God-fearing and the good-doers.”*⁴⁶ This is only a gift from God. I have explained this to you before. For it has been given to you to struggle with your enemy. These are the obligations God has made incumbent upon hearts. These are the foundations of worship and the principles of piety.

God the Exalted has made outward actions obligatory upon the organs, just as He has made inward actions obligatory upon hearts. One possessed of intellect perceives this; the ignorant does not know it. When the servant outwardly humbles himself, the blessing of modesty returns. Outward submission to the inward delivers one to salvation.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) established this with his saying: *”When it is sound, the whole body is sound. When it is corrupted, the other organs of the body are corrupted.”*⁴⁷ The words of the Pious Predecessors (Selef) also exist on this matter. If this heart obeys, its soldiers submit. Do you not see? God the Exalted has adorned His servant with mercy and grace. He has made him love, through the tranquility and dignity manifest in him and with which He has honored him, His creatures.

God the Exalted, saying *”Walk modestly and lower your voice,”*⁴⁸ has set a limit for you. He has taught you the opposite of this—the voice of the donkey. Thus He completed the definition. Beyond this: boasting (fahr), arrogance (tekebbür), haughtiness (heyûlâ), looking down upon others (teazzuz), disdaining to condescend (istinkâf), being elevated through blessings given to servants—all these are manifestations of self-admiration (ucûb), which is the root of aversion from God, from His mercy, and from all His guidance, and of being pleased with His good treatment. The ignorant servant is content with distance from his Lord’s good treatment through the thought of his own sufficiency. Distance, disdaining to condescend, and being content with rejecting the Truth with whom he is angry—these suffice him. The soul denies God and the Book, the Prophet and all Muslims, and the counsel and love that are for their sake; it does not accept them. One who rejects the Truth, denies and belies it, belies what He has brought and what He has conveyed to His servants—truly this returns to God who sent the prophets, who sent down books out of His mercy, generosity, and grace for His servants to convey. Thus it belongs to God to judge that His servants should not be in need of anything besides Himself.

God the Exalted, saying *”Let there be no argument for people against God after the messengers,”*⁴⁹ has desired that they obey His command in a complete manner.

May God bestow mercy and grace! Look with the eye of the heart and reflect. Perceive with your intellect that God has elevated him above His other servants by His grace. God says: *”To those to whom We have given it”*⁵⁰ and *”We have sent down to you the Remembrance that you may explain to people what has been sent down to them, and that they may reflect.”*⁵¹ To complete His grace to His servants, He has said: *”We have sent no messenger except with the language of his people.”*⁵² To indicate His justice, He has said: *”We would not punish until We have sent a messenger”*⁵³ and *”When your Lord destroyed the towns unjustly”*⁵⁴ and in another verse *”When its people were heedless”*⁵⁵—meaning until He explained to them. And He has said: “The destruction of the ruined one is by a clear proof” and *”and the living one by a clear proof”*⁵⁶—that is, after seeing with the eye—and that He did likewise. Fear heedlessness in matters heard and learned, like the fear of Hellfire. May this benefit you, God willing.