Polytheism [shirk] is not
merely the worship of idols. It is also polytheism to yield to your own
passionate desire, and to equate with your Lord anything whatsoever besides Him,
be it of this world and its contents or of the Hereafter and what is contained
therein. What is besides Him (Almighty and Glorious is He) is other than He, so
when you rely on anything other than Him you are associating something else with
Him (Almighty and Glorious is He). Therefore be wary and do not relax your
guard, be fearful and do not develop a sense of security, and keep your wits
about you so that you do not become careless and complacent.
Do not attribute any state or station to yourself, and have no pretensions to
such things. If you are granted a special state, or elevated to some station, do
not become identified with that in any way at all, for ALLAH is every day about
some business, effecting change and transformation. He may intervene between a
man and his heart, thereby separating you from what you had professed to be your
own, and making you different from what you had imagined to be your fixed and
permanent condition. You will then be embarrassed in the presence of those to
whom you made such claims, so you had better keep these things to yourself and
not convey them to others. If something does prove stable and lasting,
acknowledge it as a gift, pray for the grace to be thankful, and keep it out of
sight. But even if it turns out otherwise, it will still bring progress in
knowledge and understanding, enlightenment, alertness and discipline. ALLAH
(Almighty and Glorious is He) has said:
Such of Our revelations as We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, We replace with
one better or as good. Do you notknow that ALLAH has power over all things?
(2:106)
So do not underestimate the extent of ALLAH's power, have no misgivings about
His planning and His management, and never doubt His promise. Take as your model
the fine example set by ALLAH's Messenger (ALLAH bless him and give him peace).
He experienced the abrogation of verses and chapters revealed to him, adopted in
practice, recited in the niches [of the mosques], and written down in books; as
they were withdrawn and changed and replaced by others, the blessed Prophet was
moved to accept the new revelations. This applies to the external dispensation
of the law. As for the inner aspect, the knowledge and spiritual state
experienced in his own relationship with ALLAH, he used to say: "My heart gets
coated with rust, so I beg ALLAH's forgiveness seventy times each day" ("a
hundred times," according to another report).
The Prophet (ALLAH bless him and give him peace) would be moved from one state
of being to another, and made to traverse the stations of divine proximity and
the spheres of the unseen. The robes of light conferred upon him were changed as
he progressed, so that each new stage would make the previous one seem dark,
marred by shortcomings and inadequate observance of the guidelines. Thus he was
trained to practice praying for forgiveness, because that is the best state for
a servant, and constant repentance, because this involves acknowledgment of sin
and shortcoming–properties of human nature inherited from Adam (peace be upon
him), the father of mankind.
When the purity of Adam's spiritual state was stained by forgetfulness of the
promise and covenant, he wished to dwell forever in the abode of peace, in the
vicinity of the All-Merciful and Beneficent Friend, visited by the noble angels
with greeting and salutation, but his self-will had come to be associated with
the will of the Truth. That will of his was therefore broken, that state
disappeared, that intimacy became remote, that station was degraded, those
lights were dimmed, and that purity was spoiled. Then this chosen one of the
All-Merciful recovered his awareness and was reminded. After being instructed in
the acknowledgment of sin and forgetfulness, and trained in confession, he said:
"Our Lord! We have wronged ourselves. If You do not forgive us, and have mercy
on us, we shall surely be among the lost!" (7:23).
Then came to him the light of guidance, the knowledge and inner understanding of
repentance and its hidden benefits, but for which something formerly mysterious
would not have become manifest. That old will was replaced by a different one,
and the original state by another. He received the supreme consecration, and
repose in this world and then in the hereafter, for this world became a home for
him and his offspring, and the hereafter their refuge and eternal resting place.
In ALLAH's Messenger and favorite friend, therefore, as in his father Adam, the
Chosen of ALLAH, ancestor of all dear and loving friends, you have an example to
follow in confessing faults and praying for forgiveness under all circumstances.
Eighth Discourse from Futuh al-Ghaib
On drawing near to ALLAH
The Shaikh (may ALLAH be well pleased with him, and grant him contentment) said:
When you are in a particular condition, do not seek to exchange it for another,
whether higher or lower. If you are at the gate of the King's palace, therefore,
do not seek admittance to the palace itself until you are obliged to enter,
under compulsion and not of your own accord. By compulsion I mean a stern,
insistently repeated command. Do not content yourself with mere permission to
enter, since this may be just a trick and deception on the King's part. You
should rather wait patiently until you are compelled to go in, so that your
entry into the palace will be through sheer coercion and gracious favor from the
King. Then, since the action is the King's own, He will not chastise you for it.
If any punishment is meted out to you, it will only be due to your wrong
motivation, greed, impatience, uncouthness and discontentment with the situation
in which you have been placed. When you do gain an entree to the palace, you
must therefore bow your head in silence, keep your eyes modestly downcast and
mind your manners as you perform the tasks and services assigned to you, without
seeking promotion to the highest summit. Consider the words of ALLAH (Almighty
and Glorious is He):
Strain not your eyes toward that which We have given for some pairs among them
to enjoy–the flower of this world's life, that We may thereby put them to the
test. Your Lord's provision is better and more lasting. (20:131)
This is an admonition by which He instructs His chosen Prophet (ALLAH bless him
and give him peace) regarding attention to one's present state and contentment
with gifts received. To paraphrase His words, "Your Lord's provision is better
and more lasting," He is saying: "What I have given you in the way of good news,
Prophethood, knowledge, satisfaction, patience, the guardianship of religion and
a firm support therein-all this is more fitting and appropriate than anything I
have given [to others]."
Thus all good lies in due attention to one's existing condition, in being
content with it and ceasing to hanker after alternatives, for it can only be
that something is yours by lot or is destined for another, unless it belongs to
nobody and ALLAH has created it only as a trial. If it is destined for you, it
will come to you, like it or not. Any display of unseemly conduct and greed in
its pursuit would therefore be improper on your part, with nothing in knowledge
or reason to commend it. If it is destined for somebody else, spare yourself the
futile effort of chasing something which you cannot get and which will never
come your way. If it is only a trial, not destined to belong to anyone at all,
how could an intelligent person find it worth his while to pursue such a thing
and seek to acquire it for himself? Thus it is proven that all good and safety
lie in properly attending to one's present state.
When you are promoted to the upstairs room, and then to the roof, you must
observe all the proprieties of quiet and polite behavior we have already
mentioned. In fact you should redouble your efforts in that regard, because you
are now closer to the King and nearer to danger. So do not wish for a change of
state whether by promotion or demotion, and desire neither permanence and
continuity nor alteration in your existing condition. You should have no
self-willed option whatsoever, since that would amount to ingratitude for
present blessings, and ingratitude brings disgrace upon him who is guilty
thereof, in this world and the hereafter.
Let your conduct always be as we have told you, until you are promoted to a
position which will become a permanent station for you, from which you will not
be removed. You will then recognize it as a gift, self-explanatory and
self-evident, so cling to it and do not let go. Ordinary saints [Awliya'] have
changeable states, while permanent stations belong to the Abd’al.
ALLAH is in charge of your guidance!
Thirteenth Discourse from Futuh al-Ghaib
On submission to ALLAH's command
The Shaikh (may ALLAH be well pleased with him, and grant him contentment) said:
Do not exert yourself to attract prosperity or to avert misfortune. Prosperity
will come to you if it is your lot, whether you seek to acquire it or view it
with distaste. Misfortune will likewise overtake you if it is meant for you by
destiny's decree, whether you be averse to it, or pray for it to go away, or
confront it with patience and fortitude to please the Lord.
Your only resort is total surrender, allowing the process to work within you. If
the experience proves to be a happy one, you must endeavor to show gratitude.
Should it be an ordeal, you must exercise patience and perseverance, try to
accept it with good grace, or lose yourself in it and become detached by virtue
of the spiritual states [halat] you are given to traverse, and the stations [manazil]
to which you are made to travel on the path of the Lord, whom you are commanded
to obey and befriend, that you may get to meet the Companion Most High.
You will then be installed in a position where your predecessors are the
champions of the truth, the martyrs and the righteous, so that you may see with
your own eyes all those who have gone before you to reach the King, who have
drawn close to Him and found in His presence every exquisite delight, joy and
security, honor and bliss.
Let tribulation visit you. Allow it to take its course, and do not fret about
its onset and approach, for its fire is not more terrible than the fire of Hell
and its blazing inferno. According to traditions reliably ascribed to the best
of humankind, the best of those ever carried by the earth and sheltered by the
sky, Muhammad the Chosen (ALLAH bless him and give him peace), he said: "The
fire of Hell will say to the believer, 'Move on, believer! Your light has
extinguished my flame!' "
Is the believer's light that puts out the flame of Hell any other than the one
that escorts him in this world, while disobedient sinners go unguided by it? Let
this same light extinguish misfortune's flame, and let the coolness of your
patience and your harmony with the Lord take the heat out of the suffering you
have to undergo. The affliction will then have come not to destroy you, but to
try you and to confirm the soundness of your faith, to consolidate the strength
of your conviction, and to give you inwardly the good news from your Lord that
He is proud of you. ALLAH (Exalted is He) says:
Indeed We shall try you till We know those among you who strive hard and
persevere in patience, and till We test your record. (47:31)
When your faith has been established with the Lord of Truth, and you have
conformed to His work with full conviction, all through His help and grace, you
must then be ever patient, compliant and submissive. Let nothing happen in
yourself or in others that would go against the commandments or the prohibitions
of the Lord. Then, when an order is received from Him (Almighty and Glorious is
He), give it your full attention and be quick to respond. Get moving and do not
sit around. Far from being passively resigned to the divine decree and its
action, you must exert your faculties and make every effort to carry out the
order.
If you find yourself incapable of this, you must at once take refuge with your
Lord (Almighty and Glorious is He). Resort to Him and humbly beg for pardon.
Look for the cause of your inability to carry out His order, and for what
impedes your inclination to obey Him. The problem may be due to your asking for
trouble and behaving with bad grace in His service, to your frivolous attitude
and confidence in your own ability and strength, to your conceited pride in your
own knowledge, or to your associating your own self and His creatures with Him.
As a result, He has barred you from His door, dismissed you from His obedient
service, deprived you of the support of His helpful guidance, turned His
gracious countenance away from you, treated you with disgust and loathing, and
left you engrossed in your worldly worries, passions, self-will and desires.
Do you not recognize that all of this distracts you from your aim, and keeps you
from the sight of Him who has created you, nourished you, blessed you with many
gifts, and kept you alive?
Beware of being diverted from your Lord by anything other than your Lord.
Everything besides your Lord is other than He, so accept nothing else in
preference to Him, since He has created you for His own sake. Do not wrong your
own soul by being preoccupied with other things to the neglect of His
commandments, for that will cause you to enter the "Fire, whose fuel is men and
stones" (2:24). You will be sorry, but your sorrow will not avail you. You will
make excuses, but no excuse will be accepted. You will plead for another chance,
but your plea will not be granted. You will seek to return to this world to make
amends and put things right, but you will not be allowed to return.
Take pity on your soul and be kind to it. Make good use of the tools and
instruments you have been given, by dedicating your intelligence, faith, inner
awareness and knowledge to the service of your Lord. Let their light provide
illumination amid the darkness of destiny. Hold fast to the divine commands and
prohibitions, use them as guidelines on the path of your Lord, and leave the
rest to the safekeeping of the One who created you and brought you into being.
Be not ungrateful to Him who created you from dust and made you grow, who
developed you from a sperm into a man. Do not wish for anything but that which
He commands, and have no aversion except for that which He forbids. Let this
wish be enough for all purposes of this world and the hereafter, and this
aversion likewise. When you are in conformity with His commandment, all beings
are at your command, and when you detest what He forbids, all loathsome things
will flee from you wherever you happen to be or make your stay. ALLAH (Almighty
and Glorious is He) has said in one of His Books:
O son of Adam, I am ALLAH; there is none worthy of worship besides Me. I say to
a thing, "Be," and it comes into being. Obey Me; I will make you such that you
say to a thing, "Be," and there it will be He has also said (Almighty and
Glorious is He):
O lower world, if anyone serves Me, serve him, and if anyone serves you, give
him trouble.
When His prohibition comes, you should be as if you had gone flabby in the
joints, with your senses out of action, drained of energy, physically
incapacitated, all passion spent, all outer perceptions erased and impressions
effaced, oblivious of any influence, like a toppled throne in an empty room in a
ruined building on a darkened lot, devoid of sensation and out of touch. Let
your ears be deaf as if from birth, your eyes as if blindfold or inflamed or
totally deprived of sight, your lips as if covered with swellings and sores,
your tongue as if it were mute and dumb, your teeth as if they were abscessed
and aching and loose, your hands as if they were paralyzed and without any grip,
your legs and feet as if they were shaky and trembling and bleeding, your
genital organ as if it were impotent and without any interest in sex, your
stomach as if it were bloated and quite indifferent to food, your mind as if it
were crazy and deranged, your body as if you were dead and being carried to your
grave.
An order calls for strict attention and a quick response. A prohibition calls
for holding back, recoil and disengagement. A decree of destiny calls for acting
dead, for disappearing into non-existence. Drink this draught, swallow this
medicine and be nourished by this diet, so that you may flourish in good health,
and be cured of the sicknesses of sin and the diseases of desire, by ALLAH's
leave (Exalted is He) and if He will.
Sixteenth Discourse from Futuh al-Ghaib
On trust and its stages
The Shaikh (may ALLAH be well pleased with him, and grant him contentment) said:
Nothing blocks you from direct receiving of ALLAH's grace and favor except your
reliance upon people and connections, on good turns and handouts. Thus creatures
are your obstacle to gaining a proper livelihood, in keeping with the exemplary
practice of the Prophet. As long as you continue to depend on fellow creatures,
hoping for their gifts and favors, going from door to door with your requests,
you are associating His creation with ALLAH. He will therefore punish you with
deprivation of that proper livelihood, namely the lawful earnings of this world.
Then, when you have renounced the habit of depending on people and associating
them with your Lord (Almighty and Glorious is He), and have resorted to earning
your own livelihood, you get to rely on this earning power and become complacent
about it, forgetting the gracious favor of your Lord. You are once again
behaving like a polytheist [mushrik], only now the polytheism [shirk] is
concealed, of a subtler nature than the previous kind. ALLAH (Almighty and
Glorious is He) will therefore punish you by depriving you of His favor and of
direct access to Him.
When you turn from this in repentance, ceasing to allow the encroachment of
polytheism, and forsaking reliance on your own earning power and abilities, you
will see that ALLAH (Almighty and Glorious is He) is the Provider. It is He who
supplies the means, the facilities and the energy one needs to make a living,
and He is the One who enables all good results to be achieved. All sustenance is
in His hand. At times He may supply it to you by way of other people, through
your appealing to them while in distress or trying straits, or in response to
your appeal to Him (Almighty and Glorious is He), sometimes by way of earned
remuneration, and at still other times by His spontaneous favor, in such a way
that you do not see the intervening cause and means.
You have turned again to Him, casting yourself down before Him, and He has
lifted the veil between you and His favor. He has made Himself accessible to
you, and graciously ministers to all your needs in the measure appropriate to
your condition, acting like a kind and tactful physician who is also a friend to
the patient. As a precaution on His part, and to purge you of any attachment to
anyone but Him, He satisfies you with His favor.
Once your heart has been detached from all self-will, all lust and indulgence,
craving and desire, there is nothing left in your heart except His will
(Almighty and Glorious is He). So when He wishes to send you your allotted share
(which you are bound to receive and which is not earmarked for any of His
creatures apart from you), He will cause a desire for that share to arise within
you, and will dispatch it to you so that it reaches you when you need it. Then
He will help you to recognize that it comes from Him and to acknowledge Him with
conscious gratitude as the sender and supplier of what you have received. As
this moves you further away from attachment to creatures, from involvement with
people, your inner being is emptied of all besides Him (Almighty and Glorious is
He).
Then, when your knowledge and conviction have been fortified, when your feelings
have been expanded and your heart has been enlightened, and your nearness to
your Lord and your standing in His sight have thereby increased, as well your
competence for the guarding of secrets, you will be allowed to know beforehand
when you are to receive your allotted share. This privilege will be granted in
your honor, to exalt your dignity, as a gracious favor and guidance from Him.
ALLAH (Almighty and Glorious is He) has said:
And We appointed from among them leaders guiding by Our command, when they
endured patiently, and had sure faith in Our signs. (32:24)
ALLAH (Exalted is He) also says:
As for those who strive in Our cause, We surely guide them in Our ways. (29:69)
And the Exalted One says:
Observe your duty to ALLAH. ALLAH will teach you. (2:282)
Then He will invest you with creative power, which you may exercise with clear
and unambiguous permission, with tokens brilliant as the radiant sun, with His
sweet words far sweeter than all sweetness, with inspiration true and
unequivocal, untainted by the promptings of the self and the whisperings of
Satan the accursed. ALLAH (Exalted is He) has said in one of His scriptures:
O son of Adam, I am ALLAH. There is none worthy of worship but I alone. I say to
a thing, "Be," and it comes into being. Obey Me and I will make you such that
you say to a thing, "Be," and it will come into being.
Thus He has dealt with many of His Prophets, His saints, and His special
favorites among the children of Adam.
Seventeenth Discourse from Futuh al-Ghaib
On how the contact [wusul] with ALLAH is attained
The Shaikh (may ALLAH be well pleased with him, and grant him contentment) said:
When you attain the contact with ALLAH and get close to Him through His
attraction and His helpful guidance–what is meant by attaining the contact with
ALLAH (Almighty and Glorious is He) is that you make your exit from the sphere
of creation, from passion and will and desire, and become securely linked to His
action, so that no movement of yours affects either you or His creation unless
by His decree, at His command and through His action this is the state of
annihilation [fana'], which is another term for that contact. But attaining to
the contact with ALLAH (Almighty and Glorious is He) is not like what we
ordinarily understand by making contact with one of His creatures.
There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.
(42:11)
The Creator is far above comparison with His creatures or analogy with His
artifacts. When someone attains to the contact with Him (Almighty and Glorious
is He), that person becomes known, through His introduction, to others who have
already experienced the contact. In each case the experience is unique and
peculiar to the individual concerned.
With each of His Messengers, Prophets and Saints, ALLAH (Almighty and Glorious
is He) shares a secret to which no one else is privy. It may even be that a
pupil holds a secret with which his Shaikh is not acquainted, just as the Shaikh
may hold a secret unknown to a pupil whose progress has brought him to the very
threshold of his Sheikh’s spiritual state.
When the pupil does reach the spiritual state of his Shaikh, he is separated
from the Shaikh and his connection with him is severed. The Lord of Truth
(Almighty and Glorious is He) becomes his guardian, and weans him from creatures
altogether. The Shaikh is therefore like a wet nurse. Just as the
foster-mother's suckling does not continue beyond two years, dependence on
creatures does not outlast the cessation of passion and self-will. The Shaikh is
needed as long as passion and self-will are still there to be broken, but not
after these have been eradicated, leaving no stain or blemish.
When you have attained to the contact with the Lord of Truth (Almighty and
Glorious is He) in the way we have explained, you must always feel safe from
whatever is besides Him, for you will not see anything other than Him as having
any existence at all. Whether in loss or in profit, in giving or withholding, in
fear or in hope, you will see only Him (Almighty and Glorious is He), who is
worthy of pious devotion and deserves to be begged for forgiveness. You must
therefore be ever alert to His action, ready for His command, employed in His
obedient service, aloof from all worldly or otherworldly beings of His creation.
Do not attach your heart to any kind of creature.
Regard the entire created universe as a man who has been clapped in irons by a
ruler of vast authority and stern command, of terrifying might and power. He has
had the man shackled by the neck and legs, then crucified him on a cedar tree on
the bank of a very turbulent river, of great width and depth and with a rapid
current. Now the ruler is seated on his colossal throne, which towers high
beyond reach. Stacked by his side are piles of darts, spears, bows and arrows
and all sorts of weapons, in quantities that only he could estimate. He starts
pelting the crucified victim with anything he fancies from that arsenal ...
Well, let me ask you: Would it make good sense for a person witnessing all this
to stop paying attention to the ruler as the focus of his fears and hopes, and
to direct his attention, with all his fears and hopes, toward the crucified
victim instead? Surely the sensible verdict on someone who acted like that would
be to call him mentally deficient, idiotic, crazy, and more animal than human?
We seek refuge with ALLAH from blindness after sight, from separation after
contact, from alienation after closeness and proximity, from error after
guidance, and from unbelief after true faith.
This world is like the great swift-flowing river referred to above. Each day it
carries more water, symbolic of the carnal appetites of mankind, their
indulgence of those appetites, and the disasters that befall them in
consequence. As for the arrows and assorted weapons, these represent the trials
that destiny brings their way. For the most part, what human beings experience
in this world is a series of misfortunes and woes, sufferings and adversities.
Any comforts and pleasures they happen to find there are subject to pernicious
contaminants.
The lesson drawn from this by any intelligent observer must be that he has no
real life or relaxation except in the hereafter–provided he is a believer [mu'min],
for this applies exclusively to believers. As the Prophet (ALLAH bless him and
give him peace) said: "There is no life except the life of the hereafter." He
also said: "There is no comfort for the believer this side of meeting his Lord."
This has relevance for believers, like another saying of his (ALLAH bless him
and give him peace): "This world is the believer's prison and the unbeliever's
paradise." He also said: "The virtuous man is bridled."
In the light of all these traditions and our own direct experience, how can a
case be made in favor of life in this world? The only true comfort lies in
exclusive contact with ALLAH (Almighty and Glorious is He), in being in harmony
with Him, and in casting oneself down in absolute surrender before Him. This is
how the servant can find freedom from this world, to bask thenceforth in
compassion and mercy, kindness and charity and gracious favor.
Only ALLAH is All-Knowing!
Eighteenth Discourse from Futuh al-Ghaib