Section 8: The Veils of Man

Attention to other than God covers man with veils of darkness and light. If any worldly affair is a cause for man’s attention to be directed toward the world and to neglect God, the Exalted, it raises dark veils. All of the corporeal worlds are dark veils. If the world is a means of directing attention to the Truth and for arriving at the abode of the Hereafter, which is the “abode of honor,” then the dark veils are transformed into veils of light. “Being perfectly cut off from all else” means tearing and pushing aside all the dark and light veils, until one is able to enter the divine guest house which is the “source of greatness.” Hence, in this intimate devotion [munâjât] there is a request to God, the Exalted, for vision and brightness of the heart so one may tear the veils of light and reach the source of greatness: “Until the vision of the heart tears through the veils of light, so that there is union with the source of greatness.”

However, one who has not yet torn the veils of darkness, one who directs all of his attention to the natural world and, God forbid, becomes deviated from Allah, and one who is basically unaware of the world beyond and the spiritual worlds, and has retrogressed to a state of nature, who has never decided to refine himself, to set into motion his spiritual powers, to push aside the curtains of darkness which are a cloud over his heart, he is lodged in ‘the deepest of the depths’ [of hell] which is the ultimate veil: “Then We render him the lowest of the low”(Q 95:5), while the God of the worlds has created man in the most lofty state and station: “Indeed We have created man in the best of molds” (Q 95:4). If one follows the desires of the self and from the day he becomes acquainted with himself pays no attention to anything other than the dark wilderness[46] and never thinks that it is possible that aside from this polluted dark world that there exists another place and station, then he will have sunk into the veil of darkness and have become an instance of: “but he clung to the earth and followed his low desire” (Q 7:176). With such a heart polluted by sin that he has been covered by the curtain of darkness, and with such a gloomy spirit that due to the effect numerous sins he has become far from God, the Exalted, that worship of desire and seeking after the world have blinded the intellect and eyes of truth, then he cannot be released from the veils of darkness, let alone to tear the veils of light and detach himself from all but Allah. The strongest sort of belief he might have would be not to deny the position of the saints [awliyâ] of God, and not to consider as myths the worlds of the barzakh, the sirât, the resurrection, the accounting, the book, heaven, and hell. Due to the effects of sins and the attachment of the heart to this world, one comes to gradually deny these truths, to deny the positions of the saints [awliyâ] of God, positions which are mentioned in not more than a few lines of prayers and intimate devotions.

Section 9: Knowledge and Faith

Sometimes you see that one has knowledge of these realities but has no faith. Undertakers are not afraid of the dead, for they have certainty that the dead cannot harm one, even when he was alive and had a spirit in his body he was not harmful, so what harm can he be now as an empty frame? However, those who are afraid of the dead are afraid because they do not have faith in this truth. They merely have knowledge. They know about God and the Day of Atonement, but they lack certainty. The heart is unaware of that which the intellect has understood. They know the proofs for the existence of God and the reality of the Resurrection, but these very same intellectual proofs may be veils covering the heart which do not permit the light of faith to shine in. Until God, the Exalted, frees them from the darknesses and obscurities and leads them to enter the worlds of light and radiances: “Allah is the Guardian [walî] of those who believe; He brings them out of the darkness into the light” (Q 2:257). He whose Guardian [walî] is God, the Blessed and Exalted, and who is taken by Him out from the darknesses never commits another sin, never backbites, never slanders others, and he is never vengeful or envious of his brothers in faith. His own heart is filled with a feeling of luminosity and he no longer holds the world or what it contains in high esteem. As Imâm ‘Alî (‘a) said, “If all the world and what it contains were offered to me to cruelly and unjustly take the skin of a grain of barley from the mouth of an ant, I would never accept it.”[47] But some of you trample over everything, and you backbite the great [scholars] of Islam. If others speak ill of the grocers and perfume sellers on the street and backbite them, for your part some of you relate unfair things, insult and are impudent toward the scholars of Islam, because you are not firmly grounded in faith and you do not believe in [divine] retribution for your own deeds.

Impeccability [ismat] is nothing but perfect faith. The meaning of the impeccability of the prophets and the Friends of God [awliyâ] is not that, for instance, Gabriel took them by the hand. Of course, if Gabriel had taken the hand of Shimr,[48] he would never have committed a sin. However, impeccability is the offspring of faith. If a man had faith in God, the Exalted, and if he saw God Almighty with the eyes of his heart as one sees the sun, it would not be possible for him to commit a sin, just as if he were standing before an armed power, he would find some ‘impeccability’. This fear comes from committing sin. The Impeccable, [ma‘sûmin], peace be with them, after their creation from pure clay, because of the effects of their spiritual discipline, and acquisition of radiance and virtuous character traits, always see themselves as being in the presence of God, who knows all things and encompasses all affairs. They have faith in the meaning of the words, “Lâ ilâha illallâh” [There is no god but Allah], and they believe that other than God, all persons and all things are perishing and have no role in determining man’s destiny: “All things are perishing but His Face” (Q28:88). If man is certain and has faith that all the outward and inward worlds are in the presence of the Lord, and that God, the Exalted, is present everywhere and sees everything, in the presence of God and God’s blessings there would be no possibility for committing sins. Man is not able to commit sins before a discerning child, and he does not expose his private parts; so how could he expose his private parts before God, the Exalted, and not dread to commit a crime? This is because he has faith in the presence of the child, however, with regard to the divine presence, if he has knowledge, he still lacks faith. Due to the multiplicity of his sins which have darkened and blackened his heart, he is totally unable to accept such truths, and may not even consider them to be likely.

Actually, man would not recklessly run wild if he considered it all likely—he need not have certainty—that which is reported in the Noble Qur’an is right, the promises and the threats, and that he should amend his ways and deeds. If you consider it all likely that ferocious beasts are to be found along the path which might harm you, or that there are armed bandits who might hold you up, you would refrain from taking that path, and you would try to ascertain the correctness or incorrectness of these reports. Is it possible for someone to consider it possible that hell exists and that one may remain forever in its fire while at the same time doing wrong? Can it be said that one who considers God Almighty to be present and watching and Who sees himself to be in the presence of the Lord, and who considers it possible that there should be retribution for his words and deeds, a reckoning and chastisement, and that in this world every word he speaks, every step he takes, every deed he does, is recorded by angels of Allah called ‘Râqib and ‘Atîd,’[49] and they carefully record all his words and deeds, and in such a state, could he fearless of his own doing? It is painful [to realize] that they do not even consider these truths to be possible. From the manners of some and their way of living it is obvious that they do not even consider the existence of a supernatural world to be possible, since the mere consideration of this possibility keeps man from committing many wrongs.