He created man. He taught him the explication. Some people say that He created man means all people generally-faithful and unbeliever, self- purifier and hypocrite, truthful and heretic. Whoever is human is included in this address. They say that He created everyone and taught them all explication. In other words, He gave everyone intellect, understanding, and upbringing so that they would find the road to their own best interests and discern between good and bad. He gave everyone language so that they would know each other's desires-in every region a language; or rather, in every city a language; or rather, in every neighborhood a language. He specified the human individual for this and separated him out from other animals with this specification and bestowal of eminence. It has also been said that He created man means all the faithful of MuḤammad's community. He taught him the explication means the road of the Real, the pure Shariah, the unswerving reli- gion. He taught it to them and showed its road to them: Say: “This is my path. I invite to God” [12:108]. Invite to the path of thy Lord with wisdom! [16:125]. He set this road up in three stations: first, recognition of the outward Shariah; second, recognition of the inward struggle and discipline; third, talk of the heart and its Beloved and the story of the friends. Then He turned this over to three groups and taught the people on the tongues of these three groups: “Ask the ulama, mix with the possessors of wisdom, and sit with the great ones.” Learn the science of the Shariah from the ulama, the science of discipline from the possessors of wisdom, and the science of recognition from the great ones. It has also been said that man in He created man is Adam the Chosen. This is the same man about whom He says, “He created man of dried clay, like pottery” [55:14]. Although in form he is pottery and clay, in conduct he is worthy of the pavilion of proximity and union. Outwardly, he is sculpted from water and clay; inwardly he is the carrier of the ruling power of love. Outwardly he is an extraction of clay [23:12]; inwardly he is the precious stone in the seal-ring of good fortune. “What should be considered is the joining, not the root.
