Second Station
The Second Station
of the Twenty-First Word
[This comprises five cures for five of the heart’s wounds.]
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
And say: “O my Sustainer! I seek refuge with You from the suggestions of the evil ones ∗ And I seek refuge with you, O my Sustainer, lest they should come near me.”(23:97-98)
O you who is afflicted with the sickness of scruples! Do you know what your scruples resemble? A calamity! The more importance they are given, the more they grow. While if you give them no importance, they die away. If you see them as big, they grow bigger. If you see them as small, they grow smaller. If you fear them, they swell and make you ill. If you do not fear them, they are light and remain hidden. If you do not know their true nature, they persist and become established. While if you do know them and recognize them, they disappear. I shall therefore explain only five aspects which, of the many sorts of these calamitous scruples, are those which occur most frequently. Perhaps it may be curative for you and for me, for these scruples are such that ignorance invites them and knowledge repulses them. If you do not recognize them they come, if you do recognize them they go.
First Aspect
FIRST ASPECT – FIRST WOUND
Satan first casts a doubt into the heart. If the heart does not accept it, it turns from a doubt into abuse. It depicts before the imagination some unclean memories and unmannerly, ugly states which resemble abuse, and causes the heart to declare: “Alas!” and to fall into despair. The person suffering from scruples supposes that he has acted wrongfully before his Sustainer and feels a terrible agitation and anxiety. In order to be saved from it, he flees from the divine presence and wants to plunge into heedlessness. The cure for this wound is this:
O wretched man suffering from scruples! Do not be alarmed! For what comes to your mind is not abuse, but something imaginary. And just as to imagine unbelief is not unbelief, so to imagine abuse is not abuse either.