The Twenty-Third Letter: It includes answers to seven questions on various issues.

The Twenty-Third Letter

In His Name, be He glorified!

And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.

Peace be upon you, and Allah’s blessings and mercy for ever, to the number of the seconds of the minutes of your life and the particles of your body!

My Dear, Enterprising, Serious, True, Sincere, and Sagacious Brother!

For brothers of the hereafter and the truth like us, differences of time and place form no obstacle to their conversing and intimacy. Even if one is in the East, one in the West, one in the past, one in the future, one in this world, and one in the hereafter, they still may be considered as being together and they may talk together. Especially those who have undertaken the same duty to achieve the same goal; they may all be considered to be the same. Every morning I imagine that you are here with me, and I make over a part, a third, of my spiritual gains to you. May Allah find them acceptable! You are together with Abdülmecid¹ and Abdurrahman² in my prayers; God willing, you always receive your share. Your suffering certain difficulties in regard to worldly life saddened me a little, for your sake. But since this world is not eternal and there is a form of good present in disasters, it occurred to me to say, “This too will pass,” on your behalf. I thought of the Hadith: “There is no livelihood, save that of the hereafter.”³ I recited the verse: “Allah is with those who patiently persevere.”⁴ I said: “To Allah do we belong, and to Him is our return.”⁵ I found consolation in place of you. If Almighty Allah loves a servant of His, He makes him feel disgust with the world, showing it to be ugly. God willing, you belong to that class of those beloved by Allah. Do not let the multiplication of the obstacles preventing the spreading of the Words upset you. God willing, when the amount you have distributed come to manifest Divine mercy, those light-filled seeds will open a profusion of flowers.

You asked a number of questions. My dear brother! The majority of the Words and Letters which have been written occurred to my heart instantaneously, without the exercise of will; and they turned out very well. If I reply to you relying on my will and strength of knowledge and thought like the Old Said, the answers will turn out dull and deficient. For some time now, the inspirations of the heart have ceased and the whip of the memory been broken; but so that you should not be deprived of an answer, I shall reply extremely briefly to each of them.
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1. See, page 30, fn. 2.
2. See, page 30, fn. 3.
3. Bukhari, Riqaq 1; Jihad 33, 110; Manaqib al-Athar 9; Maghazi 29; Muslim, Jihad 126, 129; Tirmidhi, Manaqib 55; Ibn Maja, Masajid 3; Musnad ii, 381; iii, 172, 180, 216, 276; v, 332.
4. Qur’an, 2:153, etc.
5. Qur’an, 2:156.