Surely thou dost not guide whom thou lovest, but God guides whomsoever He will. “O MuḤammad, guidance is one of the characteristics of lordhood, so it is not proper for anyone described by mortal nature.” Giving the success of felicity and the realization of guidance is a characteristic of lordhood. Human nature has no access to it, and no one is suited for this attribute other than the majestic Unity. “O MuḤammad, you have the eminence of prophethood, the rank of messengerhood, the beauty of mediation, the praiseworthy station [17:79], and the Visited Pool. You are the Seal of the Prophets, the master of the messengers, the interceder for the sinners, and the candle of earth and heaven. The reins of your steed have passed beyond the heavens, and the courtyard of the Splendorous Throne was made the place for the soles of your feet. But guiding the servants and showing them the road to faith is not your work, nor is it in your hands. Surely thou dost not guide whom thou lovest. We drive those We want into the desert of bewilderment and We drag those We want by the chain of severity. In the beginninglessness beginning and in what preceded all prec- edents, We placed the crown of felicity on the heads of the folk of good fortune, and We beat this drum: 'These are in the Garden, and I don't care.' We wrote the inscription of wretchedness on the foreheads of another group, and We struck this knocker: 'These are in the Fire, and I don't care.'” O chevalier, no attribute of God inflicts more pain than the attribute of “I don't care.” When the Prophet said, “Would that MuḤammad's Lord had not created MuḤammad,” he was wailing in fear of these words. What was said by Abū Bakr-“Would that I were a tree to be lopped”-is the pain of this talk. Beautiful words were spoken by the Pir of the Tariqah: “What does the work is not that some- one has indolence and someone else has deeds. What does the work is that someone is unworthy in the Beginningless. The greatest of the abandoned ones, called Iblis, was busy in the workshop of deeds for many years. The folk of the Dominion were all beating the drum of his good fortune. They did not know that a garment of a different color had been woven for him in the workshop of the Beginningless. In the workshop of his deeds they saw scissors and silk, but from the workshop of the Beginningless appeared a black kilim: 'And he was one of the unbelievers' [2:34].”
