Among the people [of the Lord],
there are some who must undergo the following experience: At the very point
where the person concerned has come to be completely satisfied with ALLAH
(Almighty and Glorious is He), to the exclusion of his fellow creatures and of
everything else on earth, He saddles him with the responsibility of caring for
dependents and providing for their support. This is to make him go back to his
fellow creatures and accept things from them, so that his receiving from them
may be an act of mercy toward them. Thus poverty will be his outwardly apparent
condition [zahir], while his freedom from want remains as an inner state of
being [batin]. In other words, his freedom from want will be a private matter,
while his poverty is visible to the public at large.
ALLAH (Almighty and Glorious is He) may effect the transformation of His
servants through what He shows them in their dreams, and they will surely
receive an education in the process. First of all, He lets them see the Book and
the Sunna. They practice what they learn from these, and so they become devout [muttaqin].
Then He lets them see the Messenger (ALLAH bless him and give him peace) in
their dreams, telling them to do this and that, and to refrain from doing this
and that. Then they see their Lord (Almighty and Glorious is He) in their
dreams, and He will tell them what they must or must not do. Thus they progress
from grade to grade, from textbook to textbook, from classroom to classroom,
from commemoration to commemoration.
As seen through the eyes of the true believer [mu'min], all creatures are but
one single individual, and that individual is a decrepit invalid, who is capable
neither of procuring any benefit for himself, nor of preventing himself from
suffering any harm. The true believer hates those of his fellow creatures who
disobey his Lord (Almighty and Glorious is He), and he loves those who obey Him,
for he concurs with Him where hating and loving are concerned. He does not love
his fellow creatures on account of what they may give him, and his hatred of
them is not motivated by his self-interest [nafs] or his passionate desires [hawa].
He is always detached from the influence of the lower self, and he only goes
along with it when it is ready to obey ALLAH (Almighty and Glorious is He). He
obliges this world to keep its distance from his heart. He is ever steadfast in
his commitment to the religion [din] of ALLAH (Almighty and Glorious is He),
observing its provisions with the utmost respect, and always prepared to come to
its aid.
Woe unto you! It is the heart that must practice abstinence, not merely the
body. O you who act like a pious ascetic on the surface [mutazahid az-zahir],
your abstinence will be thrown straight back at you. You have seen to it that
your turban and your gown will be kept in fine condition, and you have buried
your gold in the ground, and only then you have donned that coarse hair shirt
[mish] and assumed an attitude of humble piety. May ALLAH cut off your skin and
your head, if you do not repent! You have opened a shop in which you offer
hypocrisy [nifaq] for sale. May ALLAH make your shop collapse on top of you, so
as to flatten you beneath it! Will you never learn? You must repent. You must
cut the waistband [that marks you as an unbeliever].
Woe unto you! In the case of the true believer [mu'min], his abstinence is in
his heart, while the nearness of his Lord (Almighty and Glorious is He) is in
his innermost being [sirr]. Both this world and the hereafter are at his door,
inside his storeroom, not right inside him. His heart is empty of anything other
than his Master [Mawla]. How can he even hear anyone besides Him, when he is
filled with Him, with the remembrance of Him and with His nearness? His heart is
broken on account of his Master, so He must surely be with him, because ALLAH
(Almighty and Glorious is He) has said in one of His utterances:
I am with those whose hearts are broken on My account.
Your lower selves [nufus] are broken on account of the loss of this world, while
their hearts are broken on account of the Master [Mawla].But then, once they are
really and truly broken-hearted, He comes to them and mends their broken state.
The Physician comes along and treats their condition. This is the true bliss,
not the bliss of this world and the hereafter. The people [of the Lord] are
sick, but their Physician is with them. They are sick in the presence of their
Physician, sleeping in the bay of His protection and His tender care, while He
treats them with the hand of grace and kindness and compassion.
If anyone backs away, he will not be the one to succeed. You must sit in the
company of the people [of the Lord] and listen to what they have to say. You
must befriend them for the sake of ALLAH (Almighty and Glorious is He), not for
the sake of this world, for then He will cause you to benefit from them. You
must acquire knowledge and put it into practice, so that you may derive benefit
from the knowledge you acquire. Knowledge is like the sword, while practice is
like the hand. A sword will not cut anything without a hand to wield it, nor can
a hand do any cutting without a sword. You must study outwardly [zahiran] and be
sincere about it inwardly [batinan], for you will not be given a speck of dust
without sincerity [ikhlas] You must listen attentively to the Qur'an, and put
what you hear into practice. The Lord of Truth (Almighty and Glorious is He) has
only sent it down so that you may use it to get in touch with Him. It has two
edges, one edge being in His hand and one edge in our hands. If you put it into
practice, He will cause your hearts to climb up to Him. He will install your
hearts in the abode of His nearness, while you are still here in this world,
before you pass on to the hereafter.
If you wish to attain to contact with Him, you must practice detachment from
this world and your fellow creatures. You must practice detachment from your own
lower self [nafs], your family, your property, your carnal appetites, your
dubious habits, and your fondness for the praise, approval and attention of your
fellow creatures. If you can really experience this, you will find yourself able
to do without them altogether. Your stomach will be fully fed, your liver will
be well and truly irrigated, your inner being [batin] and your private life will
flourish and prosper, your heart and your innermost being [sirr] will glow with
light, and your lower self [nafs] will be calm and tranquil.
All this will come about as the result of your putting into practice what you
learn from the Qur'an. This Qur'an is an illuminating sun, so you must install
it in the houses of your hearts, in order to let it shine its light for you. Woe
unto you! If you put out the lamps, how can you see what is right there in front
of you, in the darkness of the night?
Obey ALLAH and the Messenger when He calls you to that which brings you to life.
(8:24)
A heart that is dead, how can it see? A heart that is dead through the influence
of this world and the love thereof, the love of creatures and their good
opinion, how can it hear? What can it hear and see? Get to know creatures really
well, and you will eventually come to detest them, O you who are dead at heart
through the pursuit of this world, through your eager desire to possess it and
your fondness for what it has to offer!
As for you, O pious abstainers, your quest for the Garden of Paradise has
distracted you from your Lord (Almighty and Glorious is He). Woe unto you! If
you wish to find the right track, you must get your priorities right. The
neighbor must come before the house [al-jar qabla 'd-dar] and the companion
before the path [ar-rafiq qabla 't-tariq].
In your case, O preachers [wu''az], you have promoted yourselves to the position
of the Prophets (may the blessing and peace of ALLAH be upon them all). You have
put yourselves forward into the front rank, but you are not skilled in tactical
maneuver and the art of combat. You must come down to earth and learn some
lessons. You must put what you learn into practice, and you must do so
sincerely. Then you can aspire to the heights.
There can be no success in this business except through combat with the lower
self [nafs], the passions [hawa], the natural inclinations [tab'], the devil [shaitan],
the influence of this world [dunya], and the desires of the flesh [shahawat]. It
also requires detachment from one's fellow creatures, and ceasing to regard them
as the cause of injury or the source of benefit. Once you have gained the upper
hand over all of these adversaries, once you have conquered and subdued them
through the strength of your faith [iman], your conviction [iqan] and your
affirmation of the Divine Unity [tawhid], the Lord of Truth (Almighty and
Glorious is He) will set His seal upon your heart and your innermost being [sirr],
and He will establish their residence in the abode of His nearness. Then He will
command the pair of them [your heart and your innermost being] to go forth and
deal with them [your fellow creatures], for by now you will be an expert in the
tactics of maneuvering among the ranks, knowing how to put up with people and
how to contend with their problems.
O ALLAH, let us devote our energies to work that will earn us Your good
pleasure, and:
Give us in this world good, and good in the hereafter, and guard us against the
torment of the fire! (2:201)
In relation to ordinary people, the friends of ALLAH [awliya'ullah] are deaf,
dumb and blind [summun bukmun 'umyun]..For they are between the Majesty [jalal]
and the Beauty [jamal] (of the Lord), inclining neither to the right nor to the
left. They have a "forwards" [amam] without a "backwards" [wara']...
What I am involved in does not bring about change through the tongue, but only
through the inner core [janan]. No right, no left and no behind, but only
straight ahead. A front without a back.
The distinctive feature of the saint [Wali] is that he is ready to comply with
the wishes of his Lord (Almighty and Glorious is He) under all circumstances...
He will come to be a front without a back, a nearness with no remoteness, a pure
serenity with no murky confusion, a goodness with no evil.
The Thirty-Eighth Discourse
The people [of the Lord] have given up the toil [taraku 'l-'amal], saying:
"Everything apart from Him is merely stuffing and a shell." They have set out in
quest of the kernel [lubb]. They have clung to it with persistent dedication,
and have found it so completely satisfying that they can do without the shell.
They are so content with ALLAH that nothing else is indispensable. There is no
dispensing with the Lord of Truth (Almighty and Glorious is He), while
everything apart from Him can be dispensed with. He has recognized the genuine
sincerity [sidq] of their quest. He has granted them amnesty and well-being
[al-'afw wa 'l-'afiya] and nearness to Him.
Over there, protection belongs only to ALLAH, the True. (18:44)
A heart that feels no fear of Him is like a piece of land on which there are no
trees, or a flock of sheep without a shepherd. That land will soon become a
desert waste, and those sheep will soon be eaten by the wolves. When someone is
afraid, he travels under the cover of night. He does not settle in one place,
but is always traveling on toward his final destination. The journey of the
people [of the Lord] is toward the palace of the Lord of Truth (Almighty and
Glorious is He). The traveling is the traveling of their hearts, and the arrival
is the arrival of their innermost beings [asrar]. When the innermost beings have
arrived, they become kings, while the limbs and organs of the body become
steadfast attendants. When the heart arrives at the door, it will ask permission
for the innermost being to be admitted inside, so the innermost being will enter
and then the heart will go in after it.
How great and varied is your knowledge ['ulum], yet how few are your practical
deeds [a'mal] ! You have turned your endowment [hazz] of knowledge into a memory
bank [hifz], while tales and stories have proliferated. How can you hope to
benefit from this? Here we have someone who carefully memorizes a certain Hadith
[tradition of the Prophet (ALLAH bless him and give him peace)], yet he does not
put a single letter of it into practice! This will count as evidence against you
[on the Day of Judgment], not as evidence in your favor.
You go around saying: "My shaikh is so-and-so. I have been a disciple of
so-and-so. I have attended the lectures of so-and-so. I once said to the learned
scholar so-and-so...." All of this, without any practical action, does not
amount to a thing. If a person is truly sincere [sadiq], he will put the truth
into practice. He will say farewell to the sheikhs and take his leave of them,
indicating to them as he goes: "Stay there in your normal surroundings, while I
move on to explore those places to which you have shown me the way." The sheikhs
are a door, but it is not appropriate to cling to the door and never to enter
the house.
And ALLAH coins parables for mankind [in order that they may reflect. (14:25)
Suppose you notice the hardness of a person's heart, the frozen look in his eye,
the far reach of his expectation, his stinginess with what he has in his
possession, his disdainful attitude toward the commandments and prohibitions [of
the sacred law], and his bitter expression of resentment whenever misfortunes
come his way. If you should ever observe someone who matches this description,
you need to be aware that he is in very serious trouble. The core of a heart so
hard can never feel compassion, and his eyes will never turn moist with tears in
a moment of joy or a moment of happiness, because the frozen condition of his
eye is due to the hardness of his heart. How could his heart be anything but
hard, when he is filled with an ardent desire to commit sins and wrongful acts,
with exaggerated expectations, with a greedy longing for things that are not
destined to belong to him, and with a feeling of envy toward their rightful
owners? How could that heart of his be anything but hard, when he is too stingy
to pay the alms-due [zakat] prescribed by the sacred law [mafruda], when he does
not produce the offerings that must be made in order to obtain expiation [kaffarat],
when he does not fulfill his vows [nudhur], when he does not attend to the needs
of his close relatives, when he does not settle his debts in spite of his
ability to do so, but makes his creditors wait indefinitely so that he can evade
repayment altogether, and when he hates giving anything extra, even more than he
hates giving that which is due? All of these characteristics, and others of
similar nature, are symptomatic of serious spiritual disorder [shaqa'].
As ALLAH (Almighty and Glorious is He) has said:
Is not the time now ripe for the hearts of those who believe to be humbled to
the Remembrance of ALLAH and to the Truth which He has sent down? (57:16)
You must not get into arguments with Him on the subject of His decree [qadar].
You must make serious efforts and exert yourselves with diligence. You must
stick to your commitment and continue to pursue your goal. You must offer
earnest entreaties. You must weep and plead for intercession. You must humble
yourselves. You must be steadfast in holding your ground by the door. You must
not run away.
All matters of concern are at the disposal of ALLAH (Almighty and Glorious is
He). He is the One who alerts us and puts us on our guard. He is the One who
makes us wakeful, and He is the One who lulls us to sleep. When our Prophet
(ALLAH bless him and give him peace) heard the summons of the Lord of Truth
(Almighty and Glorious is He):
O you enveloped in your cloak, arise, and warn! (74:1,2)
--he got up from his bed and went forth to answer the call. This is how we
should always hear and respond to the summons of the Lord of Truth (Almighty and
Glorious is He), as we wander in search of Him and yearn to find Him. This is
how ALLAH (Exalted is He) awakens our hearts to the duties they must perform.
When He wants you to carry out some task, He will equip you for it. This is an
esoteric mystery [sirr batin], for it concerns the decree of destiny [qadar],
preordination [sabiqa] and foreknowledge ['ilm]. It is not permissible for us to
rest our case on this, and we are not allowed to use it as a pretext for
inaction. Not in the least!
We must make strenuous efforts and exert ourselves with diligence. We must dare
to be enterprising, even though we have no guarantee.
O ALLAH, let us be content with Your decree. Let us be patient in the face of
Your affliction. Let us distribute our gratitude for Your blessings. We beg You
to grant us the fullness of grace, the permanence of well-being, and the
constancy of love.
Ibrahim ibn Ad'ham (may ALLAH bestow His mercy upon him) is reported as having
said: "I wept one night from the first part of the night until the last part of
it. All that time I was offering various prayers of supplication [du'a'] to
ALLAH (Almighty and Glorious is He), and all the while I was shedding tears. But
just when the dawn was almost on the point of breaking, my eyelids drooped.
Then, in my sleep, I saw ALLAH (Almighty and Glorious is He). 'O Ibrahim,' said
He, 'it would be better for you to offer Me your prayer of supplication in these
words: "O ALLAH, let me be content with Your decree. Let me be patient in the
face of Your affliction. Let me distribute my gratitude for Your blessings. I
beg You to grant me the fullness of grace, the permanence of well-being, and the
constancy of love."' Then I woke up, to find myself repeating those very words!"
The servant [of the Lord] who makes his servitude a reality [al-muhaqqiq
li'l-'ubudiyya] is the one who is completely satisfied with Him to the exclusion
of His creatures. This servant owes his salvation from the condition of other
servants to His Prophet (may ALLAH bless him and his family and give them peace,
and upon all the other Prophets be the blessings and peace of ALLAH). He is no
longer in need of anything; it is rather the case that things are in need of
him. The people [of the Lord] seek nothing from ALLAH (Almighty and Glorious is
He), other than ALLAH Himself. The are seeking the Benefactor [Mun'im], not the
benefit [ni'ma]. They are seeking the Creator [Khaliq], not the product of
creation [makhluq]. They have run away from food and drink and clothes, from
marriage and from all the goods and chattels of this world. They have run away
to Him from all of this, so how could they be serving Him for the sake of such
things? How could they be seeking such things from Him?
They do not serve Him for the sake of obtaining fodder ['alaf] to feed their
lower selves [nufus]. They do not serve Him for the sake of enjoying access to
the mansion where guests are entertained [dar ad-diyafa]. They say: "We do not
feel the need for human sympathy [rahma]. You may wish for human sympathy, but
all we want is to be alone with the Beloved [Mahbub], without regard for
sympathy. There is no room for any partner [sharik]."
O seeker [murid], you are merely simulating love [mahabba]. The lover is the
guest of the beloved [al-muhibb daif al-mahbub]. Did you ever see a guest having
to bestir himself in order to obtain his food and drink and his other essential
needs? You are merely simulating love. You go to sleep, but the lover never
sleeps. There are only two possible cases: you must be either a lover or one who
is loved. If you are a lover, well, how can the lover fall asleep? But if you
are a loved one, well, in that case the lover is your guest. O you who lay claim
to that which you do not possess, the time will surely come, sooner or later,
when you must learn about the penalty for making that unsubstantiated claim of
yours!
O learned scholars ['ulama'], the acquisition of knowledge ['ilm] is not an end
in itself. The desired object is the fruit of knowledge. What is the use of the
tree if it does not bear fruit? What is the use of knowledge unless it is acted
upon and put into practice with sincerity [ikhlas]? There is no point in
acquiring knowledge of the Book and the Sunna, except for the purpose of putting
them into practice. How could one derive any benefit from them, except through
putting them into practice? The workman gets his wages, but only after he has
done his work and labored at the job.
There is nothing really worth talking about until you come home from the journey
through this world, the realm of physical existence [wujud] and the created
universe [khalq]. Once you have reached your destination, all will be clarified,
revealed and explained.
As ALLAH (Exalted is He) has said:
Observe your duty to ALLAH. ALLAH will teach you. (2:282)
--and as ALLAH (Almighty and Glorious is He) has also said:
And whoever is dutiful toward ALLAH, He prepares a way out for him, and provides
for him from sources he could never imagine. (65:2,3)
Devotion to one's religious duty [taqwa] is the foundation of all that is good;
it is a source of worldly benefit, a source of wisdom [hikma] and all kinds of
knowledge ['ulum], of purity of heart, and of many secrets. You must observe
your duty toward Him, and be patient with Him. Patience [sabr] is the head of
both religion and the worldly life [ra's ad-din wa 'd-dunya], while active work
['amal] is their body. This is why the Prophet (ALLAH bless him and give him
peace) has said:
Patience is to faith as the head is to the body.
It is only through patience under the decree of ALLAH (Almighty and Glorious is
He) that deeds can be truly accomplished. You must be patient. You must be
steadfast. You must practice pious restraint. It is incumbent upon you to
practice pious restraint [wara'] both in your private lives and in your public
activities. It is also incumbent upon you to make a practice of abstinent
detachment [zuhd] from allotted shares [aqsam] that are destined to come your
way, and of indifference toward the allotted shares of other people.
How long will you go on squandering your religion for the sake of worldly
status, for the sake of amassing commercial tokens [ghallat] and gold coins [dananir],
clothes, houses, jewels, horses and servants? All of this stems from idle
fantasy. These things will soon be separated from you. You must turn again to
your Lord (Almighty and Glorious is He). Turn right around and you will prosper!
Abandon this folly, this confusion and craziness! Why should you take such
trouble to accumulate things, when you will have to leave them behind for others
to inherit, and when you alone will be called to account for them at the
Reckoning? Of all that you accumulate, not a single atom is really useful to
you. You will gain nothing from all that you possess, except the burden of
explaining how you came by it, accounting for it, being punished for it, losing
it and regretting it. What is the matter with you? Why don't you buy some common
sense from me? Come here to me! Sit here in front of me and listen to the good
advice I have to offer you. I am well aware of that which you fail to recognize,
and I can see things that belong to the hereafter, things that you cannot see.
Woe unto you! Righteous deeds are those that will keep the torment away from you
in your graves. The Prophet (ALLAH bless him and give him peace) is reported as
having said:
When the believer [mu 'min] is left alone in his grave, his charitable gift [sadaqa]
will come and sit by his head, his ritual prayer [salat] by his right side, his
fasting [siyam] by his left side, and his patience [sabr] by his feet. Then the
torment will approach him near his head, but the charitable gift will say:
"There is no way for you to get past me!" It will then approach him from the
right, but the ritual prayer will say: "There is no way for you to get past me!"
So it will try to reach him from the left, but the fasting will say: "There is
no way for you to get past me!" It will then try from the direction of his feet,
but his patience will say: "I am here at the ready. If you need me, I shall come
to your aid."
O my people! You must see it as your duty to share your own blessings with the
poor [fuqara '], and to treat them with special consideration even when faith [iman]
is weak. Charitable sharing [mu'asat] is appropriate when faith is strong, and
they are entitled to special consideration [ithar] even when you are personally
in distress. You must entertain the poor with generosity, or send them away in
the kindest manner possible when you have nothing to give. The Prophet (ALLAH
bless him and give him peace) is reported as having said:
ALLAH's gift to His servant is the beggar at his door.
Woe unto you! You are unwilling to accept the gift of ALLAH (Almighty and
Glorious is He), so you send it away! In a very short time you will see your
report. Poverty will come to you, to drive out your affluence and take its
place. Sickness will come to you, to drive out your good health and take its
place. Do not gamble with the most important blessings that you now have from
your Lord (Almighty and Glorious is He). The true believer [mu'min] realizes
that the Lord of Truth (Almighty and Glorious is He) would not send the beggar
to him except as an act of love, so he gives that beggar some part of the
bountiful favor that he has himself received. He recognizes that, when he gives
the beggar a gift, treats him with respect, and accepts the fact that he has a
responsibility toward him, he is himself being given the most perfect, the most
abundant and the most excellent gift that he could ever receive in this world
and the hereafter.
O you backslider! You cultivate relations with the sultans, the princes and the
wealthy, in pursuit of worldly status and material gain, but you fail to
cultivate relations with the King of kings [Malik al-muluk], the Wealthiest of
the wealthy [Aghna 'l-aghniya'], the One who never dies, the One who is never in
need. If you lend Him a loan, He will repay you many times over. In return for
one dirham [silver coin] He will give you ten in this world, and your reward in
the hereafter will never be diminished. He will give you blessed grace [baraka]
in this world, and the full reward in the hereafter. Surely you must have heard
how He has said (Exalted is He):
And whatever you spend [in a good cause], He will replace it. (34:39)
O ALLAH, grant us the blessing of Your love [mahabba], and make it a pleasant
experience for us to serve You and to stand in waiting at Your door, in the
company of all the members of Your community [umma], and:
Give us in this world good, and good in the hereafter, and guard us against the
torment of the fire! (2:201)