him and grant him peace—as in His words, exalted is He:

‘It was not you who threw when you threw, but Allah who threw.’

‘Indeed, those who pledge allegiance to you are pledging allegiance to Allah. Allah’s hand is above their hands.’”

It also contains these verses by Awhad al-Dīn al-Kirmānī:

“You have never been absent from my heart or my eyes;
There is no separation between you and us.”

Another poet said:

“Do not suppose that through prayer and fasting you attain
Closeness and nearness to Beauty and Majesty.
Leave behind your nature’s wrongdoing and become united
With Allah; otherwise, all your claims are impossible.”

And these verses are by al-Hallāj:

“When the ardent lover reaches perfection in love
And loses awareness of the One remembered under remembrance’s overpowering force,
He truly beholds, when love grants him vision,
That the prayer of those who know Allah is unbelief.”

Shaykh Najm al-Dīn ibn Isrā’īl wrote:

“The universe calls to you: ‘Do you not hear me?
Who gathered my scattered parts, and who dispersed me?
Look, and see in me a sight worthy of reflection:
Within me is nothing but the existence of Him who brought me into being.’”

He also wrote:

“The particles of the universe’s existence bear witness to the Real:
Nothing that exists has existence apart from the Real.
Though the universe’s constituents are many,
From Him it emerges, and to His sublimity it returns.”