His command is decisive and wise, and His pleasure is security and mercy. He judges with His knowledge and forgives with His forbearance. O Allah! Praise and extol are for You for whatever You (take after giving) and whatever You bestow, and whatever (diseases) You heal, and whatever trials You put (us in). Such praise that pleases You to the utmost degree and is beloved to You to the utmost degree, and is greater than all praise to You. Such praise that fills the universe and reaches the limit of what You have willed. Such praise that there is no veil before reaching Your presence, nor is there any barrier for it. Such praise whose count does not break anywhere, nor does its chain end. We do not know the reality of Your greatness and grandeur except that You are the Living and Active (Knower). Neither does drowsiness come to You, nor does sleep. Neither can the thread of sight reach You, nor can gazes see You. You have captured the sights and encompassed the ages, and have taken the hair of the foreheads into grasp (joining them with the feet). What is this creation of Yours that we see, and we wonder at Your power (workings) in it, and praise it for Your great dominion (workings), while in reality, those (creatures) that are hidden from our eyes, and reaching which our sights are helpless and intellects are bewildered, and between us and which are the veils of faults, are far more great. Whoever wants to know how You established the Throne, and how You created the creatures, and how You hung the heavens in space, and how You spread the earth on the waves of water, by emptying his heart (from whisperings) and using reflection (powers), his eyes will return tired, intellect overcome, ears amazed and bewildered, and thought lost and astray. A part of this sermon is: He becomes a claimant in his thought that the hem of his hope is attached to Allah. By Allah the Exalted, he is a liar. (If it is so) then why is the reflection of this hope not apparent in his deeds, while in every hopeful's works, the recognition of hope becomes known? Except for that hope that is placed in Allah, that fault is found in it, and every fear and terror that (is from others) has an established reality. But the fear of Allah is uncertain. He becomes hopeful of greater things from Allah and smaller things from servants, yet the attitude of humility that he keeps with servants, he does not keep that attitude with Allah. So what is the matter that even that much is not done for Allah's right as is done for servants? Have you ever feared that perhaps you are false in these hopes (claims)? Or that you do not consider Him as the place of hope? Similarly, if a person fears any servant from His servants, the form of fear that he adopts for him, he does not adopt such form for Allah. He has kept the fear of humans in the form of cash, and the fear of Allah is only postponement and (wrong) promises. Similarly, whoever's eyes see the world gaining greatness, and its greatness and value increases in his heart, then he prefers it over Allah and turns toward it and remains its servant. For you, the saying and action of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) is sufficient for following, and his essence is a guide to show the faults and defects of the world and its disgraces and evils in abundance. For the hems of this world were gathered from them, and its expanses were made available for others, and (from the breasts of this base world) his milk was weaned, and his face was turned from its adornments. If you want another example, then there is Musa, the one who spoke with Allah, who said to his Allah: 'O Lord! Whatever little blessing You send at this time, I am in need of it.' By Allah, they had only asked for bread to eat. Since they used to eat the greens of the earth, and due to emaciation and (lack of) flesh on the body, the greenness of greens was visible from the delicate skin of their stomach. If you want, then place the third example of Dawud (peace be upon him), who is the possessor of the Zabur and the reciter of the people of Paradise. They used to make baskets from palm leaves with their hands and used to say to their companions: 'Who among you will sell them and help me?' (Then) whatever price they got, they used to eat barley bread from it. If you want, I will tell the condition of Isa ibn Maryam, who used to keep a stone pillow (under the head), wear rough and coarse clothes, and in (eating), instead of curry, hunger, and instead of the night's lamp, the moon, and in winters, instead of shade, (on their head) the canopy of the earth's east and west, and the earth that grows grass and fodder for cattle was the place of fruits and flowers for them. They had neither wives who would involve them in the world (troubles), nor children who would become a cause of worry and sorrow for them, nor wealth and property that would turn their attention, nor any greed that would disgrace them. Their mount was their two feet, and their servant was their two hands. Follow your pure and clean Prophet, for his essence is encouragement for the follower. The one who follows them and walks on their footsteps is the most beloved to Allah. Those who tasted the world (only as much as needed) and did not look at it with full gaze, they were the most empty-stomached and empty-bellied in the world. When the world was offered to them, they refused to accept it, and (when) they learned that Allah considered a thing bad, they also considered it bad, and when Allah considered a thing low, they also considered it low, and when Allah placed a thing as base, they also placed it as base. If we only have this one thing that we start desiring that thing which Allah and the Messenger consider bad, and start considering bad that thing which they consider low, then this is enough for disobedience to Allah and rebellion against His command. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) used to eat sitting on the ground and used to sit like slaves. They used to mend their sandals with their hands and used to patch their clothes with their hands, and used to ride a donkey without a saddle, and used to seat someone behind them. On the house's door (once) there was such a curtain that had pictures in it. So he addressed one of his wives and said: Remove it from my sight. When my eyes fall on it, I remember the world and its adornments. He had turned his heart away from the world and had erased even its memory from his self, and wanted that its decoration remain hidden from the eyes, so that he neither obtain fine clothes from it, nor consider it his destination, nor have hope of staying in it much. He had removed its thought from the self and had removed it from the heart, and had kept it hidden from the eyes. Similarly, whoever considers a thing bad, he neither wants to see it nor wants to hear its mention. In the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) (habits and qualities), there are such things that will inform you of the faults and defects of the world. While he used to remain hungry in this world along with his special people, and despite the utmost nearness of status, its adornments were kept away from them. The observer should see in the light of intellect whether Allah increased their honor or degraded them by not giving them the world. If someone says that He degraded them, he has lied and made a very great slander, and if he says that He increased honor, then he should know that Allah showed the degradation of others while giving them the maximum expanse of the world, and turned its face from His closest servant. The follower should follow them and walk on their footsteps and come to their destination, otherwise he cannot remain safe from destruction. For Allah has placed them as a sign of (the nearness of) the Resurrection and as the one who gives glad tidings of Paradise and warns of punishment. He left the world hungry and reached the Hereafter with safeties. He never placed stone upon stone for construction. Until he took to the path of the Hereafter and said 'Here I am' to the voice of the one calling toward Allah. What a great favor of Allah on us is this that He gave us such a great blessing as a predecessor and leader, whom we follow and walk step by step (in their following). By Allah, I have patched this shirt of mine so much that I began to feel ashamed before the patcher. A speaker said to me: Will you not take it off? So I said to him: Get away from my (sight), for it is only in the morning that people realize the value of the night's walking, and they praise in this way.