Jonah too was one of the envoys. When the generous, lovingly kind Lord, gentle and merciful to the servants, imprisoned Jonah in the belly of the fish, He made His remembrance and name his intimate, so he kept on saying, “There is no god but Thou! Glory be to Thee!” [21:87]. God's remembrance was his intimate in his trouble and God's love was the cause of his comfort. Whenever someone's heart is inscribed with God's love, Though he be in water or fire, his life will be sweet with God's love. Your name became the lamp of Jonah's darkness, the adornment of every session in the world. Although outwardly the fish's belly was Jonah's trial, in terms of inwardness, it was his place of seclusion. He wanted to talk secretly with the Friend without the intrusion of others. Just as the fish's belly was made into Jonah's place of retreat, so also the middle of Nimrod's fire was made into Abraham's retreat, and the corner of that cave was made into Abū Bakr's place of retreat with the paragon of the world. In the same way, wherever there is a person of faith, a tawḤīd-voicer, he has a place of retreat in his own exalted breast. The cave of his secret core is the descending place of the divine gentleness and the site of the lordly gaze. O tawḤīd-voicing man of faith, if you are delighted, that is fitting, and if you revel, that is fit- ting, for He Himself says, “The cave of the faithful man's heart is the place made ready for Our divine secrets. On the tree of the faithful man's faith is the nest of the bird of Our good fortune. In the meadow of the faithful man's heart is the wellspring of the effusion of Our majesty's gaze. Here is your blessed place of retreat! Here is your garden of pleasure! Here is your springhead of pure water without blight! When We make a cave in your breast, that is not the devil's place of refuge. When We plant a tree in your inwardness, the bird of Satanic disquiet will not take it as a nesting place. When We make a wellspring from the courtyard of your breast, nothing will gush forth but the water of bounteousness.
