The interpretation of a dream

Every Thursday a fellowship of spiritual seekers would meet. Abdur Rahim Khan-e-Khanan, a renowned mystic and poet, was a member of that fellowship. One Thursday evening as they assembled, one of them said: “Friends I have a dream to share”. Others waited with their usual calm and grace. “I saw a vast open space”, he began, “and there was a great fire raging. I saw the figure of Krishna right in the middle of that fire, and the figure of Ram outside of the circle of fire as if he was about to enter”. One of them immediately responded: “Is it not obvious what the dream means? The fire you saw was the fire of hell; Krishna has already been…

Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi

To make a start there is this charming quatrain of Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi (# 1218 in my edition of the Divan): Dar bagh shodam sabuh o gol michiam Vaz didan-e baaghbaan hami tarsidam Shirin sokhani ze baaghbaan be shenidam Gol raa cheh mahall keh baagh raa baghshidam I was in the garden in the morning and I was gathering roses And all the time I was afraid that the gardener would see me. The gardener, however, only spoke these kind words: ‘A few roses are nothing as I give you the complete garden’. Mawlana Rumi writes (# 84 in the edition of Foruzaanfar): Chun gol hamaye tan khandam na az raahe dehaan tanhaa Ziraa keh manam bi man baa shaah-e…

The works of shaykh Ibn al-‘Arabi [part 7]

Laila Khalifa in her Ibn Arabi – L’initiation à la futuwwa; published by Albouraq, dealing with the teachings of the shaykh concerning futuwwa, also gives a deep commentary on the shaykh’s concept of the path of blame. He does not treat it as a historical movement, but exposes the doctrine and the station of the malamiyya: “They have reached the highest station among the friends of God, that of proximity (qurba), after which prophecy comes. They are the masters of the people on the path of God. The Prophet, the master of the world, is one of them.” The malamiyya are in this world to help others without being recognized. Their goal is to remain unknown and they are not…

The Quest of the Dervish

A dervish being questioned by a King as to what revelation, in his quest for knowledge, had seemed to him the one most pregnant with meaning, answered thus: I’ll tell you about the second birth of my soul. My body, like a horse, has carried my soul away in the journey towards God, over the land of bodies and the ocean of spirits. When growth here below had attained its perfection, and my ‘horse’ had lived a long time, my soul left it behind and experienced a second birth. My reborn soul entered into the Eighth Climate, closer to its principles and its goal. Thus did it gradually progressed in perfection of the self, in the construction of its inner…

Khwaja Saiyid Mohammed Gesu Daraz

Khwaja Saiyid Mohammed Gesu Daraz is one of the great Chishti Sufis. He is known and respected throughout the sub-continent of India, Pakistan and Bangla Desh. He is a disciple and a spiritual caliph of Khwaja Nasiruddin Chiragh of Delhi. He was born on the 4th of Rajab in the year 721 A.H. (which is the 30th of July 1321 C.E. according to my computer). His nickname is Abu’l Fatah. He is addressed as Sadruddin, Wali ul akbar us-Sadiq and Gesu Daraz. There are several reasons for calling him Gesu Daraz. He had very long hair and for this reason he came to be called Gesu Daraz, which means ‘one with long locks of hair’. Another reason assigned is this,…

I am the Sun

I’m the sun is a quatrain written by imam al-Ghazzali: If the heart doesn’t travel on the road of union with You, what to do? If the soul doesn’t seek the union with You eagerly, what to do? The moment the sun shines upon a mirror – If the mirror doesn’t say, ‘I’m the sun,’ what to do? دل گر رهء وصل تو نپوید چه کند جان وصل ترا بجان نجوید چه کند آن لحظه که بر آینه تابد خورشید آیینه اناالشمس نگوید چه کند The quatrain is in Persian, except for some words in Arabic in the final line, which are: اناالشمس. This ana’l-shams [I am the sun] has been modelled on the famous ecstatic utterance ana’l-haqq or ‘I…

Meeting Khidr

Meeting Khwaja Khidr is the theme in the eight Sufi tales below: STORY 1 Shaykh Khusraw, who was one of the most important companions of shaykh Bahauddin Naqshband has said: “One day I went for a visit to the shaykh and I found him standing at the edge of a basin, while he was speaking to an unknown person. When I greeted him, the stranger walked away and went to another part of the garden. The shaykh told me: “That man is Khidr!” He said it twice. I, however, did not reply and remained silent and with the assistance of God it so happened that I experienced neither any outward attachment nor any inward inclination in my soul to Khidr….

GOD

Your name is in my mouth, Your image is in my eye, Your remembrance is in my heart: So where are You hidden? A scholar remarked in the presence of Shamsuddin of Tabriz: ‘I have established the existence of God with a categorical proof’. On the next morning our master Shams said: ‘Last night the angels descended and blessed that man, saying ‘Praise be to God, he has proven the existence of our God! May God give him a long life’!’ [Rumi:Fihi ma fihi]. Shabistari writes in his Gulshan-i-Raz: دلی کزمعرفت شهود است زهرچیزی که دید اول خدا دید A witnessing heart illuminated by gnosis, Sees God first in all things it looks upon. Several Sufis never talk or write…

The Parrot of India

Just suppose you are able to make an interview with Amir Khusraw (1253-1325). What would you ask him? Perhaps some of your questions are similar to the ones as given below: Q: Can you tell us how you started as a poet? A: One day my teacher Khwaja Asaduddin was asked to write a letter for Khwaja Asil. My humble self and my respected teacher, together with the inkpot and the pen-case, reached the house of Khwaja Asil. My teacher then said to him: ‘This small boy, my pupil, soars high to the very stars in his poetic skills. Let him recite a verse or two’. I then recited some verses in a tremulous and modulated accent, so that my…

The works of shaykh Ibn al-‘Arabi [part 1]

Shaykh Ibn al-‘Arabi is often called Ibn ‘Arabi. This is done because of two reasons. The first one is to differentiate him from a contemporary Qadi with the name Ibn al-’Arabi. The second reason is the renown of the shaykh in Turkey, Iran and the subcontinent of Indo-Pakistan and Bangladesh, where it is more natural to leave the article al. But as his name is Ibn al-‘Arabi why not use his name? We’ve made several journeys in Europe with a Chishti pir from Ajmer. These were mystical, magical journeys, during the first of which we have been attracted by the birthplace of shaykh Ibn al-‘Arabi, while during the second we actually arrived in Murcia, Spain. This is however not the…