Say: “My Lord has commanded justice. Set your faces in every place of prostration and supplicate Him, purifying the religion for Him. Just as He began you, so you shall return.” In this verse the Lord of heaven and earth, the Creator of the world and the world's folk, the bestower and forgiver, the lovingly kind toward the servants, brings together the foundations of service, the signposts of practice, and the realities of recognition. He makes the faithful aware of pleasing character traits and He instructs them in beautiful worship of Himself and beautiful living with the creatures. He honors them by letting them recognize the causes of His approval. This verse is one of the all-comprehensive words concerning which MuṣṬafā said, “I was sent out with the all-comprehensive words, and knowledge was made very concise for me.” In the Qur'an there is much of the same sort. Let me speak about one of them: “Surely God is with those who are godwary and those who are beautiful-doers” [16:128]. Consider how such a short verse has so many of the meanings. All of God's caresses, the generous giving and boun- teousness of the Real toward the servant, are included in Surely God is with. All service, such as the sorts of worship and the types of practice that the servant does for God, comes under godwary. All that is rightfully due to people from each other in the various sorts of practices comes under beautiful-doers. In the same way, all the pillars of the religion, the standpoints of the Shariah, and the gates of the Haqiqah are included in the words, “My Lord has commanded justice. Set your faces in every place of prostration and supplicate Him, purifying the religion for Him.” He is saying, “God has commanded me to justice, that is, in my practice with the Real, the creatures, and the soul: with the Real by putting commands and prohibitions to work and approving of His decree in every state; with the creatures by living with good character, observing equity toward them in the varieties of practice, and not asking equity for myself; and with the soul by opposing it, pulling it into the field of struggle and discipline, and shutting the door to appetites and ease.” The equal of this verse in the Qur'an is where He says, “God commands justice and beautiful do- ing” [16:90].
