As recompense for what they were doing. This is the prize for the deeds of the faithful and the rewards for their acts of obedience and wor- ship. It is the attribute of wage-earners who do the work and want the wage. But God has friends who do not bow their heads to the paradise of His approval, nor do they hunt the maidens, castles, rivers, and trees. They are servants at the house of the Sultan of tawḤīd, the residents of the world of love, the sultans of the realm of recognition, yearning for the wine of nonbeing. The Paradise of Everlastingness presents its adornment and beauty to them, and they dis- close their certainty and recognition to it. Paradise presents its rivers of wine, milk, and honey to them, and they disclose the springs of tawḤīd and the oceans of solitariness to it. Paradise presents its trees full of fruits with their flowers and blossoms to them, and they disclose the green shoots of pain and bewilderment to it. Paradise presents to them the wide-eyed maidens, adorned and trimmed, and they disclose to it the veiled virgins of recognition and the hidden secrets of witnessing. Finally, paradise turns away from them in shame, and they pass on to the seat of truthfulness, at an Omnipotent King [54:55]. They do not open the eyes of their aspira- tion toward anyone.
