357 - Some of the wise men said: What has delayed you, O you who are weary in a life whose existence does not last, and whose courtyards are not clear of incidents and changes, from that to which the Qur'an has summoned you and for which it has torn away the veil of doubts for you? Perhaps you are diverted from that by glances at a mortal cheek, the fresh perfection of which is removed by illnesses, and the form of whose beauty is severed by events, and which decays, and the freshness of its youth is in the dust, and decay soils the splendor of its form. Are you infatuated with it and content with looking at it, or with a house in the engraving of whose portico the youth of your body has worn out, and in the decoration of which your soul has striven and tired, and curtains that the winds soil, and which the days are tasked with tearing? Have you taken this as a substitute—when it will not remain for you—for the abode of life and its place, from which death and the cycles of change have been banished, and which He has shielded with everlasting bliss from distress and servitude, and filled with types of [228] joy that do not perish?

Woe to you! Answer your Lord, Blessed and Exalted, since He has invited you to His neighborhood, and earnestly desire Him so that you may accompany His friends in His abode, in a courtyard surrounded by bliss, whose inhabitants are singled out for honor, and which your Lord, Mighty and Majestic, named the Abode of Peace when He built it with His Hand. He filled it with the desires of the hearts' thoughts, so its inhabitants triumphed in their asking of God, Mighty and Majestic, through its exclusivity, and He sent down the desires of appetites upon the sides of its courtyards. An abode that has fulfilled the reward of the righteous who cast off the instrument of comfort and fulfilled the covenant. And an abode which He founded with remembrance when He built it, and raised the nobility of its peaks with pearls and rubies, and clothed the dunes of pungent musk and grey ambergris in its domes, and upholstered it with carpets in its tents, and spread exquisite carpets in the depths of its vast expanses, and adorned it with the shimmering of its thick silk, and surrounded its cushions with brocade, and clothed it in a garment of the light of His Throne, so it radiated. And whatever is in it, if it were to be unveiled to the sun, its gleaming would touch it. And if this [sun] were to appear, attempting to boast against it, it would become murky and dark in the light of its upper chambers.

In the fronts of those tents are surrounded thrones crowned with jewels, connected by rods of pearls and red rubies, moving with the friends of God, Mighty and Majestic, along with the youthful, sociable maidens in the porticoes of pearls, among those garments on beds of thick silk and the rarities of the seating places, with those [women] from the water of whose cheeks the gazes of the eyes are almost fatigued, and thought is guided, without succeeding, to the description of youths as if they were hidden pearls. So how about the white, hidden maiden in her domes, restraining her glance, confined in her tent, and the sociable, crowned maiden in her palaces? So where is the one yearning to descend into her abode, who will expend effort to dwell in Paradise with its houris, and enjoy its upper chambers and dwellings in its pavilions? And the greeting of the angels with glad tidings from their Lord when he arrives at it, and they hasten to his wife to gladden her with him before he reaches her. Then the maidservants dress her in garments plucked from the calyxes of its trees, and they adorn her with necklaces of its precious jewels on strings of fresh pearls, whose light radiates on her neck, and shines and gleams due to the beauty of her neck, and with strings of rubies along with its luxurious chrysolite. And the bracelets of pearls are let down over the light of her cheek, and the sash has been draped over the softness of her neck, and her eyes rival [229] the purity of the beauty of her pearls, and it is as if light has been settled between the partings of her hair. When she steps, you would think musk is boiling up from her hems, and grey ambergris from between her garments. So who can describe her?

Wrapped above her crowns when they tie their cloaks and the bands of her light, and she trails her garments among them to ascend her throne, swaying gracefully among them, dragging the ends of her tresses, leaning and swaying among her noble maidservants, and she ascends to the joyful one upon the throne of her kingdom. She embraces him and he embraces her for the lifespan of the world, without him tiring of her. Never, by my Lord! Rather, he increases in admiration of her the longer he prolongs his embrace of her, because she multiplies in beauty in his eyes, and he multiplies in beauty in her eyes. So how will it be when he contends with her for a cup of flowing wine by its rivers, and she greets him with bundles of sweet basil steeped in its ambergris, and a messenger from his Lord, Mighty and Majestic, comes to him with a gift, and she is brought as a bedfellow, and he desires an appetite, and it is in his mouth before he asks for it, and he desires another, so that one transforms into its taste, and a third occurs to his mind, so he finds its pleasure between the two of them. And the taste of one of them never ceases from his palate in its state. And he turns to the pleasing one, turning the beauty of her hand with his hand, and he looks at his face in the light of her tresses, and he desires a garment, so the calyxes of trees close to her split open, and garments fly from them, descending upon them both, and his gaze has encompassed all the colors of her clothing, the distinction of the color of the colors that follow it. And the folding of those belly creases adorns what is upon her, and the glow of light gleams from the eyelashes of her eyes, and one would think the light is flowing when she reclines in the front of her hall, and a depth of water is poured out there from the water of her face.

So O deluded one who amuses himself, or does not desire it, and neglects it out of ignorance, and does not obey its Creator! If I had resolve, I would have melted from fear and burning, and my heart would have flown to Paradise in yearning. But I am an ally of false hopes, my resolve is delusion; I have been blind to what the God-fearing have looked upon, those who purified the resolve of their intentions for God Almighty, and were truthful in the hidden aspects of their obedience, and drew near to Him with sincerity in their deeds, and attached weariness to diligence in their fasting, and delivered the burning of hunger to their insides out of awe for Him, along with roughness they endured upon their bodies, and protected their souls from enjoying what was made permissible for them, and aimed for the eternity of an abode whose joy they looked upon with the eyes of their contemplation. So they surrendered the eyelids of their eyes over the gazes of the eyes, having been lined with the pain of sleeplessness, and they forgot about sleep through prolonged thought about the immense terrors and massive dangers before them. Thus, the treasures of thought settled in their hearts, so they almost burst apart when the terror of the Day of the Threat crowded upon them.