And those who disbelieved and denied Our signs, those are the companions of the Hellfire.

The denial of the signs of God Almighty is conjoined with disbelief—even though it is a type of it—because the intention is to clarify the state of the deniers and mention them in contrast to those who believe in them, so that the warning may be paired with the glad tidings; for it is by their opposites that things become clear.

As for the symbolic interpretation (isharah) regarding some of the preceding verses: "O Messenger, announce that which has been revealed to you from your Lord, and if you do not, then you have not conveyed His message." Many of our masters among the Sufis hold that this is a command from Him—exalted is His majesty—for His Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace, to convey what He revealed to him concerning the rulings of servanthood (ubudiyyah). He did not command him—glorified be His majesty—to inform the people of the secrets that exist between Him and His servant, for even an atom of His secrets—glorified is He—could not be borne by the heavens and the earth. These secrets are what are alluded to in His saying: "And He revealed to His servant what He revealed." It is for this reason that He—glorified is He—said, "that which has been revealed to you," and did not say, "that with which We singled you out" or "that which We have made known to you."

Some of them—and this is the supported view—say that the relative pronoun (alladhi) is general and includes revelation, inspirations, dreams, visions, and all other gifts. The Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace, is commanded to convey all of that, except that the ranks of conveyance differ according to the differences in capacities. There is conveyance by expression, conveyance by indication, conveyance by spiritual resolve (himmah), and conveyance by divine attraction (jadhbah), and so forth. So glorified is He who sent down water from the sky, and valleys flowed according to their capacity. "And God will protect you from the people" by means of the secrets of divinity He has deposited within you, so they shall be unable to reach you to cut you off from God Almighty. Similar to this is what has been said: "He protects you from them" means that you shall have no preoccupation with them. It is also said: "He protects you from" seeing anything for yourself in them; rather, you see everything as coming from Him—glorified is He—and through Him.

"Say, 'O People of the Scripture, you are not standing on anything'" that is worth counting "until you uphold the Torah," thereby giving the outward (zahir) its due and acting upon the Sharia in the most perfect manner, along with the unification of actions (tawhid al-af'al); "and the Gospel," thereby giving the inward (batin) its due and acting upon the Path (tariqah) in the most complete manner, along with the unification of attributes (tawhid al-sifat); "and [the rest of] what has been revealed to you," thereby giving the Reality (haqiqah) its due, witnessing the multiplicity in the essence of unity and the unity in the essence of multiplicity, with neither the multiplicity veiling you from the unity, nor the unity from the multiplicity. "And there will surely increase many of them, [in] what has been revealed to you from your Lord, transgression and disbelief" due to their ignorance of it and their lack of capacity to know its secrets.

It is related from some of the masters—may God Almighty sanctify their secrets—that the Quran revealed to the Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace, possesses two qualities: a quality of overpowering (qahr) and a quality of gentleness (lutf). Whoever has the Quran manifest to him through the quality of gentleness, the light of his insight, wisdom, the realities of its secrets, and the subtleties of its expression increases, and the outward and inward aspects of the discourse increase through that. As for the one to whom it manifests through the quality of overpowering, the darkness of his transgression increases, and the door of his gnosis is closed against him, such that he does not perceive the secret of the discourse, and doubts and illusions multiply for him. This is alluded to in His saying—glorified is He—"a guidance for the righteous," and His saying—glorified is He—"He misleads many thereby and guides many thereby. And He misleads not except the defiantly disobedient." Some have likened this to the light of the sun: those who benefit from it do so, while the bat and its likes are harmed by it.

Among such things are the books of many Sufis—may God Almighty sanctify their secrets—for the possessors of pure hearts have been guided by them, while many have gone astray through them, to the point of abandoning prayer, following desires, neglecting the laws, and deeming prohibited things lawful, claiming—may God Almighty protect us—that this is what is necessitated by the doctrine of the Unity of Existence (wahdat al-wujud), which is the belief of this group. May God Almighty benefit us with their spiritual openings. It has been reported to me concerning someone whom God Almighty has led astray through preoccupation with the books of this group, while he had not grasped the reality of the situation, that there is no difference between a man putting his finger in his mouth and him putting his penis in a forbidden private part, because everything is one, and that there is no difference between him marrying a foreign woman and him marrying his mother or sister. This is manifest disbelief—may God Almighty protect us and the Muslims from it. The origin of this is looking into the books of this group without understanding their intent. This poor man did not know that observing the ranks (maratib) is a mandatory matter among them, and that abandoning this is heresy (zandaqah). They have explicitly stated that the Sharia is the greatest manifestation, because it is the manifestation of the name of God Almighty, "The Outward" (al-Zahir), and that it is impossible for anyone to reach God Almighty while neglecting it. It has come from more than one of the gnostics: "The paths to God Almighty are blocked, except for him who follows the footsteps of the Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace." If you see a man flying in the air, yet he has violated a single ruling of the Sharia, say: "He is a heretic." How excellent is the one who said, addressing the Muhammadan Presence: "You are the door to God; whoever comes to Him through other than you shall not enter."

"And you will surely find the most intense of the people in animosity toward those who believe"—the true faith—"the Jews," and that is due to the strength of the divergence, for they are veiled from the unification of attributes and the unification of the Essence, and they possess nothing but the unification of actions. "And those who associate" are likewise; rather, their divergence from the believers is more intense and stronger, because they are veiled absolutely. The Jews were mentioned first because the discussion concerns them; this is contrary to what the scholars of expression hold.

"And you will surely find the nearest of them in affection to those who believe [to be] those who say, 'We are Christians,'" because they have emerged from the veil of attributes, and nothing remains for them but the veil of the Essence. This is alluded to in His saying—glorified is He—"That is because among them are priests and monks and because they are not arrogant," as they were praised for knowledge, action, and the lack of arrogance. This implies that they reached the unification of actions and attributes, and that they did not see their own selves as characterized by the quality of knowledge and action, nor did they attribute their actions and knowledge to them, but rather to God Almighty; otherwise, they would have been arrogant and shown vanity. When they hear what has been revealed to the Messenger of the types of monotheism, among which is the unification of the Essence, their eyes overflow with tears because of what they have known through evidence and by means of spiritual discipline. "From the Truth"—which was revealed to the Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace—"they say, 'Our Lord, we have believed, so register us among the witnesses'"—those who see this directly. "And why should we not believe in God" collectively, "and what has come to us of the Truth" in detail, "and we aspire that our Lord will admit us with the righteous people"—those who remain firm in existence after annihilation (fana').

"So God rewarded them for what they said with gardens beneath which rivers flow," from the three manifestations along with their sciences, "and that is the reward of the doers of good"—those who witness the unity in the essence of multiplicity through steadfastness in God—"exalted is He. But those who disbelieved"—meaning those who were veiled from the Essence—"and denied Our signs," which indicate the Unity, "those are the companions of the Hellfire," due to their total deprivation and their being veiled by their own selves and their attributes. And God Almighty is the Grantor of success.