Alif Lām Mīm His saying “Alif” alludes to His being sufficient for you in all of your states. You are captive to heedlessness and have not found the way to right action and thinking. He is the One who sets in motion what restores you and is solely sufficient for you in what helps you. Without your asking-and even without you knowing your own state-He suffices for you even if you do not perceive it. He gives to you without your seeking. The Lām alludes to His kindness luṬf to you at the most subtle and hidden level so much so that the locus of favor by which He strengthens you is not apparent to you. The Mīm alludes to the harmony muwāfaqa of the stream of the [divine] determination of events taqdīr with the circumstances requested by the friends. Nothing in the world moves no particle appears unless it is an occasion of good pleasure with respect to them. It would not be going too far to say that in His words “Every day He is upon some matter” [55:29] the “matter” is an actualization of what the friends desire. It is said that by listening to these disconnected letters [Alif Lām Mīm] which are contrary to the ordinary customs of human discourse every concept disappears from the hearts whether it be a known written cus- tomary or imagined thing and whether it arises from necessity Ḍarūra sensory perception ḥiss or independent reasoning ijtihād. When the hearts are emptied of imagined and known concepts and the innermost selves are purified of customary and familiar things the name Allāh comes to a heart sanctified from everything other [than Him] and to an innermost self purified of every mode [of inquiry] kayf.
