AN ANSWER TO A UNIVERSITY STUDENT

The following is part of the simplified translation of a letter written as an answer to a university student by ’Abdulhakîm-i Arwâsî ‘quddisa sirruh’ as he was the senior professor of Tasawwuf at the Madrasat al-mutahassisîn (Faculty of Theology), which was located in the yard of the Sultân Selîm Mosque in Istanbul during the declining years of the Ottoman Empire:

Go out of the area of the omnipotence of Allâhu ta’âlâ with all your strength, if you can! But you cannot. Outside of this area is nonexistence. And the realm of nonexistence is also under His omnipotence!

As you have not come out of nonexistence to this world of existence on your own, so you cannot go there on your own. The eyes with which you see, the ears with which you hear, the organs with which you perceive, the intellect with which you think, the hands and feet which you use, all the roads you will pass, all the
places you will be, in short, all the members and systems connected with your body and soul, all of them, are Allâhu ta’âlâ’s property and creatures. You cannot misappropriate anything from Him! He is Hayy and Qayyûm, i.e., He sees, knows, and hears, and every moment He keeps in existence everything that exists. Even for a moment, He is never unaware of the state of all things, nor does He ever fail to control all of them. He does not let anybody steal His property. He is never incapable of punishing those who disobey His commands. It would not make any difference if, for instance, He had not created any human being on this globe, as He did not on the moon, on Mars or on other planets; His greatness would not have diminished for this reason.

A hadîth qudsî says: “If [all of] your ancestors and descendants, the young and the old, the alive and the dead, human beings and genies, were like My most devoted, Most obedient human creature "alaihi’s-salâm", My Greatness would not be increased. Conversely, if you all were like My enemy, who opposes Me and despises My Prophets, My Greatness would not ever decrease. Allâhu ta’âlâ is free from needing you; He does not need any of you. As for you, in order that you might exist and keep on existing and in everything you do, you always need Him.”