He is the Truth.
All praise and gratitude is due to God, the Wise and the Merciful; the God Who enables His slaves to travel through the horizons (afaq) so that they may observe the wonders of His Might and Wisdom and discover the proofs of His Majesty, as well as the signs of His Grace and Mercy in all directions and corners of the world; the God Who makes the (satanic) selves of ‑ the wayfarers to die and makes manifest the hidden secret of their inner selves, and brings what is concealed to light through the hardships of journey, the taking of risks, and the separation from home and children and the avoidance of association with others (than Allah) and shunning all except Allah, the Master of the Kingdom (Malik al‑Mulk). May God's peace and praise be upon the chief of mankind and the noblest of the human species, Muhammad al‑Mustafa, his pure Family, his Companions and his Ummah. Therefore, surrender yourself totally to Hadrat‑e Haqq (The Truth, i.e. God).
O slave of Allah! Know that you are a wayfarer (salik) seeking your Lord and ultimately one day you would meet Him, as said in a tradition: Whoever hopes to meet God should know that the time of the meeting will come. And you should know that God, the Exalted, by leis perfect Might and Wisdom has destined two journeys for the Children of Adam. One of them is involuntary (qahri), and the other one is voluntary (ikhtiyari).
As to the involuntary journey, the starting point is the father's loins (sulb); the second stage is the mother's womb; the third stage is the physical world; and the fourth stage is that of the grave, which is either a garden out of the gardens of paradise or is a pit out of the pits of hell. The fifth stage is the Day of Resurrection, which is equal to fifty thousand years of this world. After that stage you will reach your eternal home and attain the real abode ‑ that is, the abode of peace (dar al‑salam)and the paradise of security and peace, in case you are among the felicitous and the friends of the Haqq; or your home will be the abode of fire and torture, if, God forbid, you should be among the wretched and the enemies of the Haqq, as Allah has said: "On the Day of Resurrection a group will be in paradise and a group in hell." Every breath that you take is a step towards the stage of death. Every day of your life is equal to a parsang. Each month is like a stage (marhalah)and each year like a station (manzil). Your journey is like the movement of the sun and the moon ‑ yet you are oblivious of this journey and movement ‑ and in your ignorance and forgetfulness you have failed to make ready and equip yourself properly for the station (manzil)of the grave and the onward journey to the station of the Day of Resurrection and your eternal and real home.
But the voluntary journey is of two kinds: one is the journey of the souls and the hearts toward the Almighty and All‑powerful King of the world. The second is a physical journey (safar jismani)in the earth of God. We will devote a separate chapter to each one of these two journeys, so that you receive the required guidance for attaining their goals and are guided in preparing the means, in opening the gates, and in learning the principles (adab), which will be your companion and assistant in matters relating to every good and piety, and so that it assists the people of love (`ishq)and yearning during their journey, and serve insha' Allah ta’ala, for the compiler as a provision for the Day of Resurrection vis‑a‑vis his Lord (Mawla).
O Lord, open the gates of Your grace and mercy to us! O Lord, Who art Bounteous and Magnanimous!
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