Indeed, in the view of the grieving one it addresses, it becomes a gathering of friends. On every side mutual love and response, which cause no distress.
The friendliness at every corner draws the melancholy person into society, giving him a yearning sorrow, an elevated feeling; not a dejected mournfulness.
Both give rise to eagerness. But through the eagerness provoked by the foreign literature, the soul becomes excited, the desires are stimulated; its gives no joy to the spirit.
The Qur’an’s eagerness, however, fires the spirit, gives rise to a lofty eagerness. It is for this reason that the Shari’a of Muhammad (PBUH) wants no amusements or diversion.
It has forbidden some musical instruments, for amusement, and permitted others. That is to say, instruments producing Qur’anic sorrow or revelational eagerness are not harmful.
But if it produces the woebegone grief of the orphan or carnal thrills, the instrument is prohibited. It changes from person to person, not everyone is the same.
Branches Offer Fruits In the Name of Mercy
On every side the branches of the tree of creation apparently extend the fruits of bounties to the hands of beings with spirits.
But in reality it is a hand of mercy, a hand of power, which holds out to us those branches and fruits.
You should kiss that hand of mercy in gratitude; you should proclaim the holiness of that hand of power thankfully.
An Explanation of the Three Ways Indicated at the End of Sura al-Fatiha
O brother full of hope! Take your imagination and come with me. See, we are in a land, we look around. There is no one to see us.
A layer of black cloud has settled on the high mountains, like tent-posts. The cloud has covered too the whole face of the earth.
It forms a solid ceiling, but its six sides are open, so the sun is visible. We are under the cloud, the darkness oppresses us.
The distress is suffocating, the airlessness is killing us. Now three ways are open to us. One is a luminous world, I beheld it once, that metaphorical land.