No, whosoever submits his face to God, doing the beautiful, shall have his wage with his Lord, and no fear shall be upon them, neither shall they grieve. The work is the work of the purifiers, the good fortune the good fortune of the truthful, the con- duct the conduct of the pure, and the hard cash the hard cash in their purse. Today they are on the carpet of service with the light of recognition, tomorrow on the carpet of companionship with the joy of union. Surely We purified them with that which is pure [38:46]. He is saying, “We made them pure and brought them forth pure from the crucible of testing so that they would be worthy for the Presence,” for the Pure Presence gives access only to the pure. “Surely God is goodly and accepts only the goodly.” Nothing is of any use with the Pure Presence save pure activity and pure speech. Then you must become so purified of that pure activity that you do not seek it out in this world or the afterworld. Then you may reach God pure. Surely he shall have nearness to Us, and a beautiful return [38:40]. The secret of this talk is what was said by Abū Bakr Zaqqāq: “The defect in the purity of every purifier is to see his purity. If God desires to purify his self-purification, He will eliminate the seeing of his self-purification from his purification. Then he will be 'purified' [mukhlaṣ], not 'purifying' [mukhliṣ].” He is saying that your self-purification will be pure when it is pure of your seeing it. Know also that this self-purification is not in your hands, nor in your capacity or possession. Rather, it is a secret of the Lord placed there by the Glorified. No one is aware of it, and no one else has any access to it. The Unity says, “It is one of My secrets that I deposit in the hearts of those whom I love among My servants.” He is saying, “I choose a servant and approve him for My love, then I place my deposit in the core of his heart. Satan has no access to it so as to destroy it, nor does the soul's caprice see it so as to change it, nor does the angel reach it so as to write it down.
