While it is good that murids in the beginning of their path emulate the behaviour of their murshid, it is important that in due course of time this doesn’t turn into a blind following (taqlid) of their spiritual guide and teacher. A Sufi shaykh visited some dervishes in Misr during his travels. When he was with them, he taught some apes to do a dance. They learned to do it very quickly. Dressed in golden robes and wearing impressive crowns, they went through the steps and, for a while, put on a very good show. This show took place in front of the dervishes the shaykh had visited. They responded with enthusiasm to the dance of the apes. Something unexpected…
Magical Mystery Tour
Several years ago a Chishti shaykh and his son arrived from the East for a visit in England. The English disciples invested lots of energy in trying to get visa for the two of them for France and Spain and all in vain. The shaykh could get a visa, but the authorities refused to give a visa for the son as they were afraid that he would stay in Europe and try to find a job. They did not know that there was no economic motive for the journey. Anyhow neither of them obtained the necessary visa. The idea was to travel to the Spanish town of Granada in order to visit a Sufi community in that town. But how…
Seeking
Khwaja ‘Abdullah Ansari said in his intimate conversations with God: I’m drunk from You freeing me from wine and cup.I’m Your bird free from grain and being hunted.What I desire from the Ka’aba and idols is You!Otherwise, I seek nothing from these two. Talab [seeking] has as its root T-L-B and is connected to these meanings: seeking, researching, asking something from someone, pursuing, being far away, not being present, claiming, soliciting, desiring, having a liking for or sympathy for something [Maurice Gloton: Une Approche du Coran par la Grammaire et le Lexique; p. 523]. Serge de Laugier de Beaureceuil, the most important connaisseur of the life and teachings of Khwaja ‘Abdullah Ansari, states in his Chemin de Dieu, p. 249-250…
The works of shaykh Ibn al-‘Arabi [part 10]
Here are some observations of shaykh Ibn al-‘Arabi in regard to ascetic practices. These remarks are to be found in his Ornaments of the Abdal (Hilyat al–abdal), which has been translated into French by Michel Valsân, aka shaykh Mustafa ‘Abd-al-‘Aziz. Two of the closest murids of shaykh Ibn al-‘Arabi had asked him to write something for them from which they could benefit concerning the path of the hereafter. Stephen Hirtenstein has presented us with an English translation, which he called The Four Pillars of Spiritual Transformation: The Adornment of the Spiritually Transformed. Shaykh Ibn al- ‘Arabi wrote this short work in the space of an hour in January 1203 in Ta’if, while on a visit to the tomb of the…
Chishti stages of love – Part 3
Love (‘eshq) has five phases: 1. The first phase is fuqdaan-e-qalb (the losing of one’s heart). It is a well-known saying in the Arab language: He who has not lost his heart is not a lover. A poet expresses this idea in his own words: Ze delam neshaan che khaahi ke ze del khabr nadaaram To begu ke del che baashad man azu asar nadaaram Why do you make a search for my heart for I am myself unaware thereof? Tell me yourself: What is a heart? I do not find any sign thereof. The reason for this is that whosoever has a heart heeds its presence alone and is oblivious of love: Ke goft man khabri daaram az haqiqat-e…
The World of Imagination
“This world of imagination is the world of eternity; it is the divine bosom into we shall all go after the death of the vegetated body. This world of imagination is infinite and eternal, whereas the world of generation, or vegetation, is finite and temporal. There exist in that eternal world the permanent realities of every thing we see reflected in this vegetable glass of nature.” – William Blake You may have seen the movie “What dreams may come”. It gives a depiction of what happens to a husband and his wife after death. When the two of them were still alive, then the place where they first met became a place of their happiest memories, a place they often…
The tale of the three questions
A certain Sultan owned everything a man could wish for and still he did not know the purpose of life. The answer to three questions made his life difficult: 1. What should I do? 2. With which people should I do the things God asks me to do? 3. When should I do it? The Sultan asked the advice of all kinds of wise people, and then he was told that there was a Chishti dervish, who lived far away, and who might give him a satisfactory answer. The Sultan immediately left and after a journey of several weeks he met the dervish. The dervish was cultivating his own land. He was a simple man, but no simpleton, as he…
Adherence to habits
Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti has said: “There is no greater or more awful calamity in your own existence than the adherence to habits. There is no poison deadlier than this, that you may desire to enrol spiritual disciples. The traveller in search of the truth who longs to have spiritual disciples does not reach the high station”.
In the darkness I was given the water of life
Sa’di has written: “I have travelled in many lands, I have visited many peoples and plucked an ear of corn from every cornfield, for it is better to go barefoot than to wear tight boots, better to endure the hardships of travel than to stay at home… And I would add: with every returning spring one needs must choose a new love – for last year’s calendar, my friend, is of no use today!” Sufis have travelled a lot. For them travelling is a spiritual practice. Here is an account of such a travel. A Chishti shaykh made a travel and arrived in the house of one of his mureeds. A small ceremony was taking place starting with the recitation…
The Egyptian Elder
Just suppose you are able to make an interview with shaykh ‘Abd al-Wahhâb ash-Sha’râni. What would you ask him? Perhaps some of your questions are similar to the ones as given below: Q: Can you tell us something about yourself? A: My birth took place in Egypt in 1493 C.E. in a village in the province of Qalyubiyya. One of my ancestors, Musâ Abu ‘Emrân, was the son of the sultan of Tlemcen, and was a disciple of the famous Sufi shaykh Abu Madyan. This shaykh ordered him to settle with his family in 1307 C.E. I went to Cairo to study Islamic sciences, but soon afterwards I have been initiated into Sufism by several shaykhs among which I like…