Lesson 3: Telling miracle from magic, and believer from hypocrite

The ignorant one has measured magic against prophetic miracle, wrongly assuming that both are rooted in trickery and deceit.

The sorcerers in the time of Moses, out of defiance, took up their rods just as Moses had taken up his.

But between this rod and that rod lies a vast difference, and from this action (magic) to that action (miracle) is a wondrous distance.

God’s curse follows upon this action (magic), whereas God’s Mercy and blessing are granted in reward for that action (miracle).

In their stubborn defiance, disbelievers possess the nature of an ape, and an (evil) disposition has become a canker within their breasts.

Whatever a person does, the monkey imitates, for it watches and follows every move the human makes moment by moment.

He thinks, “I have acted like him”: how should that quarrelsome-looking one know the difference?

This one (the holy man) acts by divine Command, while the other (the apish imitator) acts out of sheer defiance; pour dust upon the heads of such stubborn defiers.

The hypocrite stands alongside the believer in prayer, yet comes not out of need and devotion but out of defiance and pretence.

In prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, and almsgiving, the believers and hypocrites are engaged in a contest of victory and defeat.

In the end, victory belongs to the believers, and in the Hereafter, defeat and checkmate fall upon the hypocrites.

Although both seem to be engaged in the same game (acts of worship), they are as far apart from each other as a man of Merv and a man of Rayy.

Each goes to their own proper station and destination, and each travels according to their own name and disposition.

If the hypocrite is called a believer, his soul rejoices, but if he is called a hypocrite, he becomes fierce and filled with rage.

The believer’s name is beloved because of his pure essence, while the hypocrite’s name is loathed because of his inner flaws and corruption.

The letters mim and waw and mim and nun (that make up the word “believer”) carry no honour in themselves, and the word “believer” is nothing but a means of describing and pointing to that inner reality.

If you call the hypocrite a hypocrite, this vile name stings him inwardly like a scorpion.

If this name (the hypocrite) is not derived from Hell, then why does it carry the very taste and burning sense of Hell?

The ugliness of that ill name (the hypocrite) does not come from its letters, just as the bitterness of the seawater does not come from the container that holds it.

The letter is like a container, and the meaning within it is like water, but the boundless sea of meaning abides with God in the Mother of the Book (Ummu ’l-Kitab).

The bitter sea and the sweet sea flow in this world, and between them stands a barrier which neither overtakes the other.

And yet both of these seas flow from a single origin; so pass beyond both of them and journey on towards their origin.