Shaykh as-Sulami (d. 1021) followed the path of blame. His ties to the Malamatiyya were through his grandfather Ibn Nujayd and his many Malamatiyya mentors. In his Treatise of the People of Blame (Risala al-malamatiyya, which has received a complete translation into French) he places the people of blame at the top of the spiritual hierarchy: The shaykh shows in ascending order: • The exoterists or scholars of the Islamic law • The Sufis or the people of deep inward knowledge • The people of blame. Malama (blame) has LMW as root. This root appears several times in the Qur’an and ahadith. Lawwama (an adjective of intensity) means: One who is constantly blaming others or accusing oneself. It has an…

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…

The month of fasting, Ramadan, is often greeted by the Sufis as a good friend, and as a welcome and honoured guest. They love to see this guest come, but also to see him go. The implication of the first is clear, but perhaps not of the second. The end of the month of fasting is followed by a feast. In ordinary terms it means that you can eat and drink. In Sufi terms the feast implies the meeting with the Beloved. The Beloved is then the cupbearer Who pours out the wine of gnosis and love. Jami writes (ghazal # 1-178 p. 201): Helal-e ‘id jostan kaar-e ‘aam ast Helal-e ‘id-e khaasaan daur-e jaam ast The search of the…

…The one who knows his nafs (soul or self), knows his Lord… In order not to complicate things, I’ll mention only the nafs, which can be translated as soul or self, and not deal with the other faculties like ruh (spirit), qalb (heart), etc. Some Sufis say that the distinction between nafs and ruh is one of degree, implying that the ruh (spirit) is of a higher degree than the nafs (soul or self). It is a wrong habit in fact to translate nafs as “ego”, as in the stages of development of the nafs this refers to the beginning of this development only. There is a saying attributed to the Prophet (but not found in the “Sahih Sitta”, the…

Our shaykh Abu’n Najib as-Suhrawardi [he is the uncle of the author] has informed us: [now the isnad connecting him with the prophet is given, but it is omitted by me] “The messenger of God said: ‘The devil has the habit of whispering [in the hearts of people and the angels do the same. The whisper of the devils points to evil purposes and declares the truth to be a lie, the whisper of the angel points to good purposes and declares the truth to be true. Whosoever experiences the last type should know that it comes from God and who experiences the first type should take his refuge in God for the devil’. Then he recited: ‘The devil threatens…

Ibn al-‘Arabi writes: “Know, o true listener, that the people of God, when the Real One draws them towards Himself…, He places in their hearts something calling them to seek their happiness. So they seek after that and inquire about it until they find in their hearts a certain tenderness and humility and striving for peace and release from the state of ordinary people with their mutual envy, greed, hostility and opposition. Then when they have completed the perfection of their moral qualities or have nearly done so, they find in their nafs something calling them to solitary retreat and withdrawal from ordinary people. So some take to wandering and frequenting the mountains and plains, while others do their wandering…

What is there to read in the following pages? It starts with dreaming and the Chishtis. The next part deals with dreams of the Sufi shaykh ash-Sharani, which are similar to the dreams we, i.e. ordinary people, have. That is why the explanations of such dreams are also useful to us. Then we are confronted with the dreams of a very famous dream interpreter from Damascus, shaykh an-Nablusi. The article concludes with the vision of shaykh ad-Dabbaagh from Africa concerning dream interpretation. A Chishti dream Hazrat Mir Khurd is a murid of Hazrat Nizamuddin Awliya. He often dreams about his pir and his dreams are at times conflicting with one another: He tries in his dreams to kiss the feet…

A gypsy came to a Sufi master as he often received a small amount in charity from him. One day the gypsy told him about his dream, about which the master was very astonished. At the same time the son of an important official came to visit the Sufi, because the parents of the boy wanted the Sufi to give the boy regularly some pocket-money. He asked the young man if he wanted to exchange his pocket-money for the dream of the gypsy. The boy accepted the offer but was not happy with it. A little later he found out what the gypsy had dreamed. The gypsy had dreamed that he would become the Grandvizier and as the boy had…

Dara Shokuh, the prince who has been executed in 1659, and who was an initiate in the Qadiriyya order, is responsible for the “Majma ul-Bahrayn”. This meeting of seas did not only bring the esoterical and the exoterical dimensions together, but was also a junction of the world of Islam and the world of Hinduism. Dara Sokuh at first discerns three kinds of light in a part I’ve selected for translation. He then speaks about the senses in relation to light and continues by equating Islam and Hinduism regarding some aspects of light. He finishes by commenting on the Light verse of the Qur’an, which is one reason for presenting all of this. In the German translation by Richard Gramlich…

The Sufis of the Chishtiyya order, as well of many other orders, have also made a detailed study of the 52nd chapter of ‘Omar as-Sohrawardi’s handbook ‘Awaarif al-ma’arif dealing with The proper rules of behaviour of the shaykh and what he undertakes with his companions and disciples This they studied, if they could read Arabic or in case of knowledge of Persian they studied the book of al-Qashani (partially translated by Wilberforce Clark into English while using the ‘misleading’ title of the Arabic original). My translation is from German (Richard Gramlich; Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden; pp. 359-364. Gramlich has translated the complete book, an excellent achievement not only because it has the size of a telephone directory, but also because…