The Opened Door

Bismillah.

Salih always taught his disciples, "Who knocks at the door of someone constantly, one day the door must be opened to him."

Rabia one day heard it and said, "Salih, how long will you go on preaching thus, using the future tense, saying, 'will be opened?' Was the door ever closed?"

Salih bowed in submission to her.

- Fariduddin Attar

From Essential Sufism

Deeds of the heart - Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani

Bismillah.

I've been suffering from a heartache of late. And I don't know a better person who could wake me up from vain preoccupation than the venerated Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani in his Jila' al Khatir (Purification of the Mind).

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Woe unto you! All that you care about and all that you are involved in is an illusion within the illusion which Allah will pay no attention to. This business does not come about through deeds of the body but rather through deeds of the heart. Our Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) said: "Renunciation is here, fear of Allah is here, sincerity is here," and he pointed at his chest.

This heart would not be sound and would not achieve success until it has given up every beloved, cut off every object of attachment and renounced every creature. Give up and you will be rewarded with much better than what you abandoned. The Prophet s.a.w said: "When a person gives up something (for the sake of Allah) Allah compensates him with a better thing." O Allah, wake up our hearts so that they attend to you, awaken us from our forgetfulness of You and give us in this world good and in the hereafter good and protect us from the torment of the Fire!

When this heart has become sound and planted its feet firm at the door of the True One, it will fall in the wilderness of kun fayakun (Be, and it is), in its valleys and in its sea.

It will exist there sometimes with its words, sometimes with its aspiration and sometimes with its sight. It will become the action of Allah and it will become detached. It will remain only in essence. Only a minority of you believe in this, while the majority disbelieve it. Believing in this is sainthood and putting it into practice is attainment. No one would deny the spiritual states of the righteous ones other than a hypocrite, an impostor, one who is riding on his passion. This business is based on having sound belief and applying the outward of the Law which will cause the person to inherit knowingness of Allah and Knowledge of Him. The Law will come to be between him and creatures, while deeds will be as little as an atom in comparison with the mountain of his inward deeds. His limbs and organs will come to rest but his heart will never sleep. His heart will act and remember Allah while he is asleep. When will you come to know this world so that you give it up and divorce it?

Jila'a al-Khatir as translated by Prof Shetha al-Dargazelli & Dr Louay Fatoohi

Put your hope in God

Bismillah.

"God's favor comes unexpectedly

but only to an alert heart

Put not your hope in people,

for you will be wounded.

Put your hope in God

that you may be delivered."

- Ansari

FROM: Essential Sufism

The rich and the poor

Bismillah.

A dervish was praying silently. A wealthy merchant, observing the dervish's devotion and sincerity, was deeply touched by him. The merchant offered the dervish a bag of gold. "I know that you will use the money for God's sake. Please take it."

"Just a moment." the dervish replied. "I'm not sure if it is lawful for me to take your money. Are you a wealthy man? Do you have more money at home?"

"Oh yes, I have at least one thousand gold pieces at home," claimed the merchant proudly.

"Do you want a thousand gold pieces more?" asked the dervish.

"Why yes, of course. Every day I work hard to earn more money."

"And do you wish for yet a thousand gold pieces more beyond that?"

"Certainly. Every day I pray that I may earn more and more money."

The dervish pushed the bag of gold back to the merchant. "I am sorry, but I cannot take your gold," he said. "A wealthy man cannot take money from a beggar."

"How can you call yourself a wealthy man and me a beggar?" the merchant spluttered.

The dervish replied,"I am a wealthy man because I am content with whatever God sends me. You are a beggar, because no matter how much you possess, you are always dissatisfied, and always begging God for more."

- Shaykh Muzaffer

FROM: Essential Sufism

You are still a bad man if...

Bismillah.

If someone remarks,

"What an excellent man you are!"

and this pleases you more than his saying,

"What a bad man you are!"

know that you are still a bad man.

- Sufyan al-Thawri (716-778 CE)

From: Essential Sufism

Pic Credit: Jamylah Estrada of Haqqani Fellowship

Ibn Arabi's Monday Evening Prayer

Bismillah.

O my Lord, instruct me

with the subtle benevolence of Your Lordliness,

as one who is conscious of being in total need of You

should be instructed,

as one who never claims to be independent of You.

Watch over me with the eye of Your Providence,

protecting me from all the knocks that may befall me,

or anything that may afflict me
or cause me to be troubled at any moment or in any perception.

Provide me with the ease of intimacy with You, and raise me to the station of Closeness to You. Revive my spirit with Your remembrance, and draw me on, now with hopeful longing for You, and now with reverent fear of You.

Restore to me the cloak of satisfaction and bring me to the wellsprings of the welcome. Grant me compassion from You, re-establishing harmony in my disorder, perfecting where I am lacking, rectifying where I am deviating, restraining me when I am astray and guiding me when I am perplexed.

Indeed You are the Lord of every thing and its instructor. You mercify the essences (of all beings) and You elevate the degrees. Your closeness is the joy of the spirits and the perfumed sweetness of rejoicing; the epitome of true prosperity and the repose of all those who are at ease.

May You be blessed, Lord of lords! Liberator of slaves! Lifter of suffering! You embrace everything in compassion and in knowledge. You forgive wrongdoing with loving tenderness and clemency. You are the Forgiving, the Merciful, the Clement, the All-Knowing, the High, the Magnificent.

And may the blessing of God be upon our master Muhammad, and upon all his family and companions And upon all the prophets and messengers. Alhamdulillahi rabbil alamin. And praise be to God, Lord of the universes.

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Partial Monday Eve Prayer of Ibn al-Arabi (1165 - 1240 CE)

From Al-Awrad al-yawmiyaa (Daily Prayers)

Translated by Pablo Beneito and Stephen Hirtenstein

Credit: Anqa Publishing Oxford

Taming the lion

Bismillah.

Waman takun bi Rasulillahi nusratuh

In tal qahul usdu fii a-jaa mihaa tajimi

He who obtained the blessings of Rasulullah,

the wildest lion of the jungle will bow to him.

- Stanza 135, Qasidah Burdah

By Imam Muhammad bin Said Al Busiri (1211 -1294 CE)

Pic: Shaykh Hisham Kabbani at Jakarta Zoo, Nov 2009

Pic credit: Rifat Ali of Haqqani Fellowship

Stanza is based upon Shaykh Fahmi Zamzam's Malay translation of Qasidah Burdah