Himself is in the heart of every servant; rather, what is in the heart is knowledge of Him, love for Him, and worship of Him.

A sleeping person may see in a dream someone who addresses him and whom he beholds, and he may engage in various exchanges with him (1), even though the person he sees is sitting in his own house or is dead in his grave. He has merely seen a representation of him. Likewise, one sees in a mirror the sun, the moon, the stars, and other visible things. He sees them grow larger as the mirror increases in size, grow smaller as it decreases in size, become round when it is round, and become clear when it is clear. These are representations of the visible forms subsisting in the mirror. As for the sun itself in the sky, its very essence has not entered the mirror.

A shaykh belonging to this group once spoke to me about something of this kind. He was one of those who believed that al-Hallāj had said, “I am the Real,” because he had been in this state of tawhīd. He said:

“The difference between Pharaoh and al-Hallāj is that Pharaoh said:

‘I am your lord, the Most High.’

[Surah al-Nāziāt: 24]

He was referring to himself. Al-Hallāj, however, was oblivious to himself (2), and the Real spoke through his tongue.”

I said to him, “Did the Real then come to be in al-Hallāj’s heart and speak through his tongue, just as a jinn speaks through the tongue of a possessed person?!”