He also wrote:

“Before You I renounce my words and deeds,
And my very self, as one seeking release.
I am nothing in the fabric of the universe,
For I am like a shifting shadow.”

Al-‘Afīf al-Tilimsānī wrote:

“I yearn for Him, yet He is my heart;
Has anyone seen another ardent lover yearning for his own heart?
My sight is veiled from Him, for He is my very eye;
He is distant only because He is exceedingly near.”

One of the predecessors said:

“The affirmation of divine oneness has no tongue, yet all tongues are its tongue.”

Another such statement is:

“Only the One knows the affirmation of divine oneness, and the One cannot properly be expressed in words, for He can only be expressed through something other than Himself. Whoever affirms an other has not affirmed oneness.”

He said:

“I heard Shaykh Muhammad ibn Bishr al-Nawāwī say: ‘Our master, Shaykh ‘Alī al-Harīrī, came to the congregational mosque of Nawā.’ Shaykh Muhammad said: ‘I went to him, kissed the ground before him, and sat down. He said: “My son, I devoted myself to love for a time, but found that it was not the intended goal, because love can only be from one being for another, and there is no other there. Then I devoted myself to affirming divine oneness for a time and found it likewise, because affirming divine oneness can only be from a servant to a Lord. If people were fair, they would see neither a servant nor one worshipped.”’”

It also contains:

“I heard Shaykh Najm al-Dīn ibn Isrā’īl confide to me that he had heard from