The Fourth Letter

In His Name be He glorified!

And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.(17:44)

May God’s peace and mercy and blessings be upon you, and upon my brothers especially...

My Dear Brothers!

I am now on a high peak on Çam Dağı (Pine Mountain), at the top of a might y pine-tree in a tree-house. In lonely solitude far from men, I have grown accustomed to this isolation. When I wish for conversation, I imagine you to be here with me, and I talk with you and find consolation. If there is nothing to prevent it, I would like to remain alone here for a month or two. When I return to Barla,[1] I shall search for some means for the verbal conversation with you I so long for, if you would like it. For now I am writing two or three things that come to mind here in this pine-tree.

The First: This is somewhat confidential, but no secrets are concealed from you. It is as follows:

Some of the people of reality manifest the divine name of Loving One, and with its manifestations at a maximum degree look to the Necessarily Existent One through the windows of beings. In the same way – but only when he is employed in service of the Qur’an and is the herald of its infinite treasuries – this brother of yours who is nothing, but nothing, is given a state whereby he manifests the divine names of All- Compassionate  and All-Wise. God willing, the Words manifest the meaning of the verse: “He who has been given wisdom, has been given great good.”(2:269)

The  Second:  This  excellent  saying  about  the  Naqshbandi  Order  suddenly occurred to me: “On the Naqshbandi way one has to abandon four things: the world, the hereafter, existence, and abandoning itself.” It gave rise to the following thought:

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[1] Barla: the village in Isparta Province in S. W. Turkey where Bediuzzaman spent eight years in exile, from 1926-1934. (Tr.)