Feast #51
God has not created two hearts within the chest (Qur’an 33:4). Know that there is only one heart within the chest of each human being. This heart is between the fingers of Rahman (the Most Compassionate). Allah turns it as He wishes. The heart takes on the attributes and colors of that toward which it is inclined. It even becomes the same as that toward which it has turned. If you understand this, you will also have understood the meaning of the saying: zhikr (chanting), zakir(the chanter), and mezkur (that which is chanted) are one thing. This is because the spoken zhikr is a form of the actual zhikr. During the actual zhikr, the heart takes on the form of that zhikr. And so, the heart is also called the zhikr. The heart is Haqq (Truth, Reality).
There is an example for each of these. Water takes the name “wave” due to the waving of the wind; in reality, though, the wave is nothing but water. The heart’s situation with the zhikr is the same. If the zhikr pervades the whole heart, it will completely become the zhikr. The zhikr expressed in words is the form of the zhikr that is within the heart. Yet, though the heart takes on the form of thiszhikr, essentially the heart is pure from any zhikr. It only takes on a form according to the thought that comes to it. It is for this reason that two ideas cannot exist within the heart simultaneously, for the heart takes on completely the form of whatever idea comes to it. The heart becomes that thought itself. Then another thought can no longer be contained within it. It is like the water of the sea: when water forms a wave, that that wave could also take the form of another wave is inconceivable. In the same moment there cannot be two waves in the same place. Understand this.
Sometimes one may see the heart as a sea. The fact that there are many waves does not cause a strain on the heart; but this state doesn’t always occur. It only happens at moments when the absolute body overcomes the particular body. It is like the seed which when sleeping sees itself as a tree.
Within the chest of each human being there is one single heart. Whether this heart inclines to one Self or to many attributes, it takes on the form of whatever it is that it inclines towards.
Always keep in mind the secret of Wherever you turn, there is the Face of God. (Qur’an 2:115) For this is the highest point of view. One who has arrived at this point sees all that can be seen, the whole universe, in the twinkling of an eye. This state is the station of vision of someone who says:
“We were tall letters atop high towers. One night, a cannon ball struck me and turned me to dust. My particles flew out into the skies and into the depths of the earth so that the whole universe became filled with my particles. Then gradually, my particles returned and again came together into my original form. I found myself as I had been previously. The one who wishes to see the beauty of Haqq in each particle must break into pieces like the particles of the world and then come back together again.
“Then another night, I saw myself as having separated from my body. It was as if my body were the fire and my spirit were its smoke. The whole universe became filled with my smoke and my beautiful fragrance. Then slowly, the smoke extinguished back into the fire, and again I found myself as I had been previously, before I had separated from my body. My body had died; but when the smoke returned back into the fire, I found myself alive.”