What one should know...

What one should know, however, in this stage, is that to satisfy oneself with the appearance and outer form of the Salat , and to be deprived of its blessings and inner perfections which bring about eternal happiness, or rather, bring one to the proximity of the Lord of Might, and set up the ladder of ascent to the stage of meeting the Absolute Beloved the Ultimate Goal of the godly men and the Final Hope of the people of knowledge and those who have “hearts”, or rather, the Beloved of the Master of the Messengers ( s )[^9] is one of the heavier losses, as it will be after leaving this world and entering the reckoning (day) of Allah the cause of so great regrets that our minds are incapable of comprehending them.

As long as we are enwrapped in the veils of this world, and live in the covers of nature, we cannot have knowledge of the other world, and cannot keep warm by a remote fire.

What regret, remorse and loss can be greater than that after forty or fifty years of toiling for the sake of attaining a thing which is the means of man's perfection and happiness, and the remedy for the pains of the cordial deficiencies, and it is, in fact, the image of the human perfection, we cannot be spiritually benefited by it, and rather, it becomes the cause of tarnishing the heart and brings dark veils, and what is the pleasure of the Messenger ( s ) causes the weakness of our insight: “ …Alas for me, for what I fell short of my duty to Allah…” [^10] So, dear, tuck up the skirt of aspiration, extend the hand of demand, bear every labor and hardship in order to reform your affairs and acquire the spiritual conditions of the Salat of the people of knowledge, and make use of this divine mixture [ ma'jūn ], which is prepared with the complete understanding [ kashf ] of Muhammad ( s ) for the sake of soothing all the pains and deficiencies of the souls.

Since it is still not too late, try to break camp and leave this dungeon of darkness, regret and remorse, this deep pit, which is far away from the holy presence of the Lord, the Exalted and Most High. Release yourself and try to reach the ascension [ mi'rāj ] of union [ wisāl ] and the proximity of perfection. Beware!