Say: “As for me, my Lord has guided me to a straight path.” The straight path has a beginning and an end. The beginning is the Sunnah and the congregation, and the end is the intimacy of finding and the continuity of contemplation. The Sunnah and the congrega- tion are that you accept the verses and reports about the unperceived attributes with spirit and heart. You come forward with assent and surrender and you stand with the name and the outwardness. You do not wander around it with imagination. You avoid self-exertion, interpretation, and reflective thinking about it. You stipulate it in its entirety, without addition or subtraction, without judgment, declaring similarity, or concealment. And you convey it exactly as you received it. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “Everyone who enters by the door of surrender and assent is given one of three drinks: Either he is given the drink of recognition, so his heart comes to life through the Real, or he is given poison through which the commanding soul is slain beneath his own severity, or he is given a wine through the finding of which the spirit becomes drunk and per- plexed. From here begins the finding of the Haqiqah and the intimacy of companionship. He finds the pleasure of service and the sweetness of obedience. He joins with the joy of recognition and reaches the repose of whispered prayer. Then he falls into an occupation that cannot be expressed until he becomes all life in that.” O life of the spirit, what is it with me that I know nothing of my state? The spirit from You fills me, but my heart's blood is empty of You. * You are not empty of me, but I do not see Your face, You are a spirit with me, but I do not see You.
