Self-mastery

The secret of the cook is not to lose your self when you search for yourself. Shaykh Yahya Suhrawardî wrote a quatrain about the right kind of orientation: Hân tâ sar rishta-yi-khud gum nakunîKud râ barâ-yi nîk wa bad gum nakunîRah-raw tuî wa râ tuî manzil tuHushdâr ki râh-i-khud be khud gum nakuni Take care not to lose sight of the origin of your self,Lest, for the sake of good and bad, you lose your self.The traveller, the road and the destination, you are yourself.Take care not to lose the road to your self!   There is another version of the first line, mentioning rishta-yi-khirad [instead of rishta-yi-khud], and this can be translated as ‘the thread of wisdom’ or ‘the thread of the intellect’. What causes us to lose self-mastery?…

Light upon Light

You’ll find some Sufi teachings about light here: Flash 1 The well-known Chishti Sufi Amir Khusraw has seen the light: What a glow everywhere I see, Oh mother, what a brilliance! I’ve found the Beloved, yes I found him, In my courtyard. I have found my pir Nizamuddin Awliya. I roamed around the entire world, Looking for an ideal Beloved; And finally this presence has awakened my spirit. Flash 2 Hazrat Nizamuddin Awliya says that the sama’ (audition of Sufi music) confers three blessings, namely: 1. Anwar : lights 2. Ahwal : states 3. Asar : symptoms. These blessings appear from three ‘worlds’: 1. Nasut : the world in which we live. 2. Jabarut : the world or the sphere…

Diwaan-e-Mo’in: Ghazal 2

Here is a ghazal from the Diwaan-e-Mo’in (Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, Patna): Chu man az hastiye-khod dur baasham Ba-khod ham naazer o manzur baasham As I am far from a selfish existence, I am myself both the observer and the observed. Chu jaam o baada o saaqi mohaiyast Rawaa baashad ke man makhmur baasham As the cup, the wine and the wine-poorer are available, It is only proper that I am drunk. Ze jaam-e-wahdatam yak jor’a bakhsh Ke dar daar-e fanaa’ mansur baasham Give me one draught from the cup of union, So that I am a Mansur on the gibbet of extinction. Az aan jaami ke chun serr-e anaa’l-haqq Bar aayad bar zabaan ma’zur baasham From that cup…

The sufi tale of the city of Azalâbâd

Within the shadow of the city wall, at the place where the cypress trees begin a long dark blue march down the mountainside to the ocean, sits the basket weaver. Daily, as his ancestors have done for generations before him, he squats in the dust, surrounded by strands of coloured straw, weaving not only baskets but tales of love, lust and longing; fabricating from the gossip of passers-by new mythologies and legends. He tells them of their own lives, yet they hear them as the stories of others. As they pass in and out of the city on various errands, some people mesmerized by his swiftly moving fingers stop for a moment, sitting next to him to listen, only later…

The stone and the tree

There was once a dervish in Abadan, whose cell was always surrounded by disciples, people who had come from far and near to hear his wisdom and try to achieve knowledge and spiritual fulfilment. Sometimes he spoke to them, sometimes he did not. Sometimes he read from books, and sometimes he made them perform various tasks. The disciples tried, for decades, to understand the purport of his words, to fathom the depth of his signs and symbols, and in every way possible to get closer to his wisdom. Those who understood what he taught, were the ones who did not spend time trying to puzzle out things. They cultivated patience and attention, and refrained from looking for verbal associations from…

The independent man

Many hundreds of years ago there were two man of Kabul who fell upon very hard times. They lost all they owned and suffered great hardship and poverty. So great was their misfortune that, try as they might, they could not improve their position. Always something happened to them to cause them a setback. Great were the bodily hunger and distress of mind, which they suffered. Grief and sorrow lay upon them like a heavy cloud. One day one man said to the other: ‘We have suffered much and have toiled hard, yet there seems no hope of improving our lot. Let us leave this country and seek our fortune elsewhere. Surely that would be a wise move. The good…

I am an Unbeliever of Love

‘Aql âmad dîn u dunyâ shud kharâb‘Ishq âmad har du ‘âlam kâm-yâbReason entered, and religion and planet were ruined.Love entered, and both these worlds were saved. Kâfir-i-‘ishq-am musalmânî marâ dar kâr nîstHar rag-i-man târ gashta hâjat-i-zunnâr nîstI am an unbeliever of love; I have no use for Islam.Every vein of me has become a thread: I don’t need a religious belt. Mâ gharîbân râ tamâshâ-i-chaman dar kâr nîstDâgh-hâ-yi-sîna-yi-mâ kamtar zi gulzâr nîstStrangers like us have no use for a walk in the garden.The scars on my heart are nothing less than a rose garden. Shâd bâsh ai dil ki fardâ bar sar-i-bâzâr-i-‘ishqWa’da-yi-qatl ast garchi wa’da-yi-dîdâr nîstRejoice, o heart! Tomorrow at the gate of love’s market,There’ll be the promise of death,…

Diwaan-e-Mo’in: Ghazal 12

Chashm be-koshaai ke aafaaq por az nur-e-khodaast Khaali az nur-e-khodaa dar hama aafaaq kojaast Open your eyes, because the whole world is full with the light of God. Which place in the whole world is without the light of God? Ma’ni kaz nazar-e-khalq nehaan bud modaam Nek benegar ke namudaar az in surat-e-maast That spiritual meaning which always was hidden from the eyes of creatures, You can now clearly behold in my outward appearance. Aan jamaali ke nazar niz daraan mahram nist Hamchu khurshid darin aayinaye-maa paydaast It is not forbidden to see that beauty therein, Just like the sun gets reflected in my mirror. Goftamash chand buwad hosn-e-to penhaan gofta Hosn paidaast wale dida-e-binanda keraast I asked Him: ‘How…

How He Won the Office of Grandvizier

A king wanted to appoint a grandvizier. Three candidates competed for the king’s nomination to this high office, but the king was unable to decide which one of them was the most intelligent, and the most suitable for the post. At last, he decided to subject them to a competition, the winner of which would be chosen as grandvizier. The king summoned the three candidates and told them that he had prepared five balls, three of which were white and two were black. He said he would place one ball on the turban of each of the three men. Each of them would be able to see the balls on the heads of the other two, but would have to…

Sufi commentaries on the Qur’an

The Sufis have commented on the Qur’an in different ways. Let’s explore some of these esoteric commentaries. 1. CORRESPONDENCE Shaykh al-Qashani is according to me one of the most interesting Sufi commentators on the Qur’an. It so happened that I’ve seen his commentary in a second-hand bookshop and I almost bought it, although I cannot read Arabic. This commentary is wrongly being attributed to shaykh Ibn al-‘Arabi. Shaykh al-Qashani however belonged to the school of shaykh Ibn al-‘Arabi. Shaykh al-Qashani makes use of the method of tatbiq. His method of interpretation of the Qur’an consists of making correspondences. These correspondences connect the macrocosm with the microcosm. The shaykh explains the Qur’anic verses in terms of spiritual psychology and stages of…