The Rules Of Conduct Of The Eye

(Excerpted from Futuwat namah by Khwaja Husayn Wa’iz Kashifi Sabzawari An Naqshbandi Translated by M. Nur Abdussalam)

If asked: How many are the rules of conduct of the eye? Say: Two: First, that it open to look upon four things, and second, that it close upon seeing four things. 

1.      It must open to see the path in order to see the ground so that care may be taken in the placement of the foot while traveling.

2.      It must open to contemplate the celestial and earthly dominions, for God says: Did they not look in the dominions of the heavens and the earth? (7:185)

3.      It must open to moral lessons so as the benefit from them, as God says: Verily, in that there is a lesson for the perspicacious (3:12; 24:44)

4.      It must open to witness the wonders of God’s creation and to observe the prodigies of His boundless invention. In every atom of the world there is a clear proof and sign of the Divine Unity if one studies it with the eye of profound reflection. As has been said: 

There is in everything a sign
That proves He is truly One.