And who is fairer in religion than he who submits his purpose to God and is virtuous and who follows the creed of Abraham as a ḥanīfḍ And God took Abraham as a close friend. To God belongs all that is in the heavens and in the earth; and God is ever the Encompasser of all things. There is no one fairer in religion than he who submits his purpose to God. It means one who has made seeking God his sole objective and has purified his compact with God from what is other than God. For that reason he submits himself in all of his states to God through God and does not hold back anything from God from his wealth his body his spirit his strength his family and his children. This was the state of Abraham عليه السلام. And is virtuous muḥsin: Being virtuous iḥsān as attested to in the sacred law is to worship God as if you see Him. It is necessary that a rem- nant from the reality of separation ʿayn al-farq remain for the servant so that the performance of [God's] rights سبحانه will be sound for if he were to be completely taken over by the [ultimate] reality his submission and virtue would not be sound. This is following Abraham عليه السلام the ḥanīf. Nothing remained of him which could be described as permanent. And God took Abraham as a close friend khalīl: He separated the event from any effort labor seeking and striving when He said this so that it would be known that friendship khulla is an act of being clothed by the Real not an attribute which the servant acquires. It is said that the friend al-khalīl is entirely in need of the Real at every breath. In every one of his breaths and states there is nothing for him that is not through God and for God. [The word khalīl] is derived from khalla which means poverty khaṣāṣa and need ḥāja. It is [also] said to come from [the word] khulla which means love maḥabba. Friendship khulla is love maḥabba that reaches every part of someone. It permeates takhallala one's innermost self until there is no entry to it for anyone else. When God سبحانه had purified and emptied [Abraham] عليه السلام of [any other] He raised him up in upholding His right after [Abraham's] erasure from everything that is not God سبحانه. Then He said “And announce among the people the [season for] pilgrimage” [22:27]: The pilgrim does not say labayyka except to God and this is an allusion to the gathering of the gathering jamʿ al-jamʿ.
