'The Ground of Unification (tawhid)' - Abdullah Ansari

Bismillah.

The ground of unification is the 69th ground or field out of the 'Hundred Fields Between Man and God' - a teaching attributed to Khwaja Abdullah Ansari, a famous Persian Sufi and poet of Herat (1006 - 1089 CE).

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The Ground of Unification (tawhid) arises from the (68th) Ground of Exile (Ghurba). Unification is:

(1) to say One

(2) to see One and

(3) to know One.

As God Almighty says: "So know that there is no God but God."

(1) 'To say One' is the beginning of all science, the gateway to all worldly and spiritual knowledge, and the partition between friend and foe. The profession of faith (in divine Oneness = Unification) is the banner, Sincerity the foundation (it is set upon), and Faithfulness its precondition. The profession (of Unification) has three outward and inward aspects:

i. To bear witness that God, the Most Exalted, is Uniquely One in Essence, exempt from association with any spouse, progeny, partner or associate. May He be Magnified and Exalted!

ii. To bear witness that God is Uniquely One in His Attributes, for in these no one bears Him any resemblance. They are His attributes and beyond our reason; the manner and quality of His attributes are incomprehensible and cannot be encompassed (by rational thought), being beyond imagination. He has no associate or likeness (amongs created things) in these Attributes. May He be Magnified and Exalted!

iii. To bear witness that God is Uniquely One in His pre-eternal Names. Whereas these Names can be ascribed to Him in reality, to others they are something borrowed and derivative. Although His created beings also have 'names', His Names are properly Real, being Eternal and anterior a parte ante to creation, and worthy of Him, while the names of created beings are temporal, in keeping with their contingent nature suitable to them. His truly proper Names are 'Allah' and 'Rahman' alone; by these (two) Names no other being may be addressed.

(2) 'To see Him as One' is in (regard to):

i. His decrees

ii. His allotments and

iii. His bounties.

(i) 'To see Him as One and Unique in His decrees' is (the recognition) that, in the allotment of providence, He is One and Unique in His comprehensively infinite pre-eternal Knowledge and all-embracing pre-eternal Wisdom. None but Him has the knowledge and wisdom to realize this. Vision of this is the fruit of wisdom; true realization of this is the fruit of wonderment; the furtherance of this is the fruit of power - which none but Him possesses!

(ii) 'To see Him as One and Unique in His allotments' is (the recognition) that His boons to creation are meted out each according to his proper share and best interest, and provided at the appropriate time.

(iii) 'To see Him as One and Unique in His bounties' is (the recognition) that He alone, in His singularity, is the Provider. He is the Giver and none else. No one but Him is deserving of gratitude and acknowledgement; His is the Power and the Might, and none else but Him possesses the wherewithal to withold or dispense bounty.

(3) 'To know Him as One' is in one's

i. service

ii. 'spiritual interactions' and

iii. will and aspiration.

(i) In service, it is to abjure leadership, to observe sincere truthfulness and to control (stray) thoughts.

(ii) In one's spiritual interactions, is to purify one's innermost consciousness, realize (the essence of) the recollection of God, and to steadfastly maintain one's confidence (in God's grace).

(iii) In will and aspiration; it is losing sight of everything but Him, forgetting everything save Him, and gaining deliverance through the heart's emancipation, from everything save Him.

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FROM: An essay by A.G. Ravan Farhadi in 'The Heritage of Sufism'. Published by Oneworld Oxford.

Pic: Ansari's Shrine Complex in Gazargah, Afghanistan.
Related Lisan al-Din post: Abdullah Ansari's "Hundred Grounds"

Abdullah Ansari's "Hundred Grounds"

Bismillah.

O son, I pray and I pray I could get hold of the book by Abdullah Ansari and share each of the 100 grounds/fields with you.

Khwaja Abdullah Ansari (1006 - 1089 CE) is a well known Sufi from Herat (Afghanistan) who authored other pertinent works such as the Unveiling of Mysteries (Kashf al-asrar), Dialogues with God (Munajat Namah), Stations of the Wayfares (Manazil al-sa'irin) and Generations of the Sufis (Tabaqat al-sufiya).

'Hundred Grounds' or 'Hundred Fields Between Man and God' (Sad Maidan) lists 100 stages/spiritual stations, requisites for arriving at the Divine Presence.

The first ten grounds are:

Repentance

Politeness

Returning

Liberality

Desire

Intention

Patience

Struggle

Exercise and

Discipline.

The last ten grounds are:

Time, Self, Unveiling, Joy, Intimacy, Terror, Observation, Seeing, Perishing (fana) and Lasting (baqa).

For now let's look at Ground 1 as quoted from an essay by Ravan Farhadi in the 'The Heritage of Sufism' - a book I had purchased in Glasgow four years ago but only found the time to browse it this morning, Alhamdulillah!

The Ground of Repentance (tawba)

The first ground is the stage of Repentance. Repentance is returning to God. In the words of God Almighty: "Turn unto God in sincere repentance." (Qur'an LXVI:8)

Know that Knowledge is life, Wisdom a mirror, Contentment a fortification, Hope is divine intercession, Recollection (of God) is a medicine, and Repentance is an antidote (for all ills). Repentance is the signpost of the way, the chieftain of admittance (to divine grace), the key to treasure, the Intercessor of Union, the major mediator, the condition for acceptance, and the secret of all joy. The principles of repentance are three: the repentance of the obedient devotee, the repentance of the disobedient sinner and the repentance of the knower.

The obedient devotee repents of overestimating his own devotion; the disobedient sinner repents of underestimating his own subordination and sin; and the knower repents of being oblivious of God's favours conferred on him.

1) Overestimating one's own devotion has three signs: considering oneself worthy of salvation through one's own acts (of devotion), regarding other seekers with disdain, and failing to investigate the flaws of one's own acts (of devotion).

2) Underestimating one's own insubordination and sin has three signs: to consider oneself worthy of God's forgiveness, to be untroubled by persistence in acts of disobedience, and to keep company with bad companions.

3) Being oblivious of God's favour has three signs: ceasing to hold oneself in contempt, highly estimating one's own spiritual state, and ceasing to seek the joy of intimacy with God.

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In the next few days, we shall read the grounds of unification (tawhid), contemplation (mushahada), direct observation (mu'ayana), annihilation (fana) and subsistence (baqa) - INSHA'ALLAH. May Allah increase us in knowledge and gnosis.

Recognize the veils - Teachings of Rumi in "Fihi ma Fihi"

Bismillah.

We said, "Some with a desire to see You kept saying, 'I wish I could have seen the Master'."

That person will not see the Master in reality just now because the desire he has to see the Master is itself a veil over the Master. At this time he will not see the Master without a veil.

All desires, affections, loves and fondness people have for all sorts of things, such as fathers, mothers, friends, the heavens and earth, gardens, pavilions, works, knowledge, food and drink - one should realize that every desire (such as) desire for food, and such things are all 'veils'. When one passes beyond this world and sees that King without these 'veils' then one will realize that all those things were 'veils' and 'coverings' and that what they were seeking was in reality that one thing.

All problems will then be solved. All the heart's questions and difficulties will be answered, and everything will become clear. God's reply is not such that He must answer each and every problem individually. With one answer all problems are solved. In winter everyone bundles himself up and huddles in a warm place to escape the cold. All plants and trees drop their leaves and fruit because of the biting cold, and they conceal their raiment within themselves lest they suffer from the chill. When spring 'answers' them by manifesting itself, all their different 'questions' with regards to living, growing things and dead things are answered at one blow: the secondary causes disappear. Everything sticks its head out and knows what has caused that calamity.

God has created these 'veils' for a good purpose. If He showed His beauty without a veil, we would not be able to hear it or benefit from it because we are benefitted and strengthened indirectly. You see the sun? In its light we come and go; we see, and we are able to distinguish good from bad. In it we warm ourselves. Because of it, trees and gardens bear fruit. In its heat, bitter and sour unripe fruit becomes ripe and sweet. Under its influence, mines of gold, silver, ruby and sapphire come to be. If this same sun, which is so beneficial indirectly were to come closer, not only would it give no benefit but it would cause the whole world and everything in it to burn up and perish. When God manifests himself through a veil to a mountain, the mountain becomes full of trees and flowers, bedecked with greenery. But if He were to manifest Himself without a veil, the mountain would be crushed and crumble to dust. "But when his Lord appeared with glory in the mount, He reduced it to dust." (Qur'an 7:143)

Here someone said, "But the sun in winter is the same sun as in spring."

"Our intent here, " replied the Master, "is to make a comparison. A consistent parallel is one thing, comparison another."

Even if the intellect, striving with all its might, does not comprehend something, how can it cease to strive? If the intellect ceases its endeavor, then it is not the intellect, because the intellect is by definition that thing, which night and day is restless and in a state of commotion with thought and endeavor to comprehend the Creator - even if He is incomprehensible and inconceivable. The intellect is like a moth and the divine beloved a candle. When the moth hurls himself at the candle, it is inevitable that it burn and perish. A moth is that thing that cannot resist the candle, no matter how much it suffers and burns in agony. Any animal that, like the moth, is unable to resist the candle's light and hurls itself at that light is a 'moth'. A candle into the light of which the moth throws itself but which does not burn the moth is not a 'candle'.

Therefore, a man who can resist God and not strive with all his might to comprehend Him is not a man. A god one can comprehend is not God. 'Men' then is that which is never free of striving: he is that which hovers restlessly around the 'light' of God's Awesomeness. "God" is that which 'burns' man and renders him nought but which no intellect can comprehend.

FROM: The 9th 'Discourses of Rumi' in 'Signs of the Unseen' (based on a translation of Rumi's Fihi ma Fihi published in Tehran in 1330/1952 A.D.)

Picture: The tomb of Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi in Konya, Turkey. Credit: Dinamars.

Toe the line! Toe the line!

Bismillah.

O son, I will say this for the umpteenth time, toe the line! Be with those who have seen the Prophet s.a.w. Believe in the unseen until you see it for yourself bi-iznillah. After all tariqah derives its sanction from ainul yaqin - knowledge through perception. May Allah grant us success here and now, and in the hereafter. Ameen ya Robbal Alameen.

Come take bay'ah with Mawlana Shaykh Nazim Adil Haqqani via his khalifah Shaykh Hisham Kabbani in:

Kuala Lumpur: 16 - 23 October 2009 @ Zawiyah Bukit Damansara

Penang: 23 - 25 October 2009 @ 24, Jalan Cangkat Minden 16, Gelugor

Langkawi: 25 - 28 October 2009 (venue tbc)

INSHA'ALLAH

In the meantime, make friends at Haqqani Fellowship (http://www.haqqanisoul.com/) and watch Mawlana Shaykh Nazim's sohba, LIVE from Cyprus every day 10.15 p.m. Malaysian time at http://www.sufilive.com/

See you there!

Love whoever you wish...

Bismillah.

"My dear son,

Live as long as you may,

for verily you must die.

Love whoever you wish,

for one day you shall taste its separation.

And do what you will,

you will be rewarded accordingly."

by Imam Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali

in his 7th counsel in

Ayyuhal Walad (Dear Beloved Son)

On enduring affliction - Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani

Bismillah.

O son, I am sorry that today's posting came quite late. La hawla wala quwata illah billah. I've been unwell the past 24 hours. Alhamdulillah ala kulli hal. Praise be to Allah in all circumstances. May our sickness be a kifarah (cleansing) for our wrong doings.

As I was feeling slightly better, I picked up a book called Jila' al-Khatir (Purification of the Mind) - an edited book on discourses by Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani. Here are excerpts from the chapter 'On Enduring Affliction.'

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The people of Allah accustom themselves to afflictions and do not get annoyed like your annoyance. One of them used to be afflicted every day with a tribulation that on the day when no affliction comes his way he would say: "O Allah what sins have I done today that You have not sent to me my daily affliction?" Afflictions are various kinds; some affect the body, while some affect the heart. Some of them are suffered in relation to creatures, while others in relation to the Creator. There is no good in someone who has not been subjected to suffering. Afflictions are the hooks of the True One ('Azza wa Jall).

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O young man, when Allah causes you any harm or affliction, no one will be able to remove it except He. Then why do you ask someone who is powerless like yourself: "Remove from me what I have fallen in"? If sickness or harm from creatures come your way causing you loss of worldly possessions and properties, there will be no remover for that except He. If you suffer loss of properties, hunger in your belly and abandonment by brothers and neighbors to the extent that they refuse to give you a morsel or an atom, and if this world, for all that it is wide, looked too strait for you, be certain wholeheartedly that all of that is from Allah and that there is no remover for all of that except He. It is He who takes it away.

Be sensible and not associate creatures and means with Allah. Believe in one Lord only, not in many lords. It is He who put things at the command of others, the One who grants authority for someone over another, the Ruler, the Judge and the Doer. His destiny comes with sickness in its hand and knocks on the door of your good health. His destiny comes with hardship in its hand and knocks on the door of your prosperity. His destiny comes with grief in its hand and knocks on the door of your happiness. His destiny comes with fear in its hand and knocks on the door of your sense of security. All these come from Him and there is no one to remove them except Him.

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O young man, do not escape from affliction but endure it with patience. It is inevitable and enduring it with patience is also inevitable. How could the nature of this world and the characteristics with which it was created be changed for your sake? The Prophets, who are the best of all creatures, had always to suffer afflictions. The same applies to their followers who emulate them., who walk on their path and who follow in their footsteps. Our Prophet Muhammad s.a.w was the beloved of the True One, yet was constantly afflicted with poverty, need, hunger, fighting, wars and harm from creatures until he departed from this world. Moses a.s was also afflicted with those (known) calamities that happened to him, and each one of the Prophets had his own peculiar affliction. This is what He did to the Prophets who are His beloved ones, so who are you to wish that the foreknowledge of Allah about you and about this world be changed?

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Renounce your will and your choice. Renounce your conversation with creatures and your intimacy with them. If you accomplish this, the conversation of your heart will come to be with your Lord and your intimacy will come to be with Him. His remembrance will camp in your heart. You will be remembering Him and He will be remembering you. He will draw your heart and your limbs and organs to Him and keep them in His presence. You will come to wish for what He wishes. Anything other than that will be resented by you. (Such a person) will become one of the spiritual beings who have attained to Him. He will go among the servants of Allah and the countries, and He will use him to protect creatures from tribulations and afflictions. He will take what His Lord has given him. This is the real gift, while eveything else is a symbol.

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Jila' al Khatir (Purification of the Mind) is edited by Shaykh Muhammad al-Casnazani al-Husseini

What would take you to Him?

Bismillah.

"The spiritual aim is reached neither by many works, nor by few, but by Grace alone. As the Saint Ibn Atha'illah says in his Hikam: 'If you were destined to reach Him only after the destruction of your faults and the abandonment of all your claims, you would never reach Him. But when He wishes to bring you back toward Him, He absorbs your quality into His and your attributes into His and thus brings you back by means of what comes to you from Him, NOT by means of what comes to Him from you."

- Shaykh al-Arabi ad-Darqawi

O son, this does not mean that you should be passive and wait for His grace. You should try to win His grace by loving the one man He loves - His Beloved, Muhammad Rasulullah s.a.w. Did you know that He does not really care about the long petition you make in your du'a which is often selfish and tainted by wordly matters? Those words you utter have no value to Him apart from the salutation you make to His Beloved in between your du'a. That, O son is a lot dearer to Him. So love the man He loves!

إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا صَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيمًاInna Allaha wa malaaikatahu yusalloona `ala an-nabiyyi ya ayyuha alladheena amanoo salloo `alayhi wa sallimoo tasleema(Qur'an Al-Ahzab 33:56)

"Surely, Allah and His angels send blessings to the Prophet. O you who believe, do pray Allah to bless him, and send your Salam (prayer for his being in peace) to him in abundance."

(Translation by Mufti Muhammad Taqi Uthmani)

Allahumma salli 'ala

sayyidina Muhammad wa sallim

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Picture credit: Abdul Ghani of Haqqani Fellowship