Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Two: On Knowing the Station of Certainty and Its Secrets
Certainty is knowledge’s resting place within the heart,
in every state, through the promise of the One, the Everlasting Refuge.
The certainty that realization has attained—
devote yourself to it and look toward no one.
If it wavers from the ruling of stability,
it is not the certainty through which my heart is strengthened.
Certainty is His saying to His Prophet, God bless him and grant him peace, “Worship your Lord until certainty comes to you” [al-Hijr 15:99]. Its ruling is the soul’s rest in what is certain, or its movement toward what is certain. It is that in which the human being has insight, whatever it may be. When what is sought has the same ruling within the soul as what is attained, that is certainty, whether the thing certain has been attained or has not been attained at that moment. It is like His saying, “God’s command has come” [al-Nahl 16:1], although it has not yet come. The believing soul is decisive concerning its coming, so for it there is no difference between its occurrence and its not yet occurring. This is the saying of one who said, “Were the covering lifted, I would not increase in certainty,” although the thing certain has not come to be in concrete existence.
God therefore said to His Prophet and to every
