Living The Quran
From Issue: 1033 [Read full issue]
Divine Invitation
Yunus (Jonah) Sura 10: Verse 25
"And God invites to the Abode of Peace, and He guides whomsoever He will to a straight path."
Invitations are four: First is the invitation to tawhid and bearing witness. Second is the invitation to praise and response. Third is the invitation to following and leadership. Fourth is the invitation to generosity and hospitality.
When someone wants to invite someone and to make his friends and dear ones his guests, the condition of the entertainment is that first he sends one of those close to him, one of his own special friends, to inform them and give them the good news. Then, when they come, he sends his dear ones to welcome them. He does not invite any of them alone, but rather he invites their friends and relatives as well. He sends steeds and torches in the road, and when they come their place is made up and ready. When they sit, he first gives them rosewater, then fruit is brought. The prepared food is then served. It is also a condition that the host not hold himself back from being seen by the guests, and finally that he send them back with respect and honour.
The Lord of the Worlds has made all of this ready and set it up for the entertainment of paradise, and He reports of it and explains it in the Quran. The first to call them and give them good news is Mustafa (peace be upon him). Then the angels and Ridwan will come to welcome them. He will send them noble steeds of light as mounts. He will send lamps of light for their road. He will not call them alone, but He will also call their relatives and near ones. Then He will make their place be paradise and gardens of bliss. Their beverage is poured sealed, fine wine, whose seal is musk. Their fruit will be much fruit, neither cut off nor withheld. Their food will be the flesh of birds as much as they have appetite. More exalted than all this is that He will turn them toward the vision of Himself so that they may see Him and be delighted. Their fresh and delighted faces will gaze on the majesty and beauty of the Real, and their faces will be brighter than the sun at daytime, having won the self-disclosure of the Possessor of Majesty.
O Chevalier, wait until you see happiness and you sit secure once and for all on the carpet of union with the Friend. From the Friend you will see "What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what has never passed into the heart of any mortal."
Compiled From:
"Kashf al-Asrar wa Uddat al-Abrar" - Rashid al-Din Maybudi. pp. 240, 241