Sīdī Ibn ‘Atā’ Allāh’s gift to us is his Book of Wisdom. He opens it thus:
مِْنعَلامَةِالاْعتِمادِعَلىالعَمَِلِ
نُْقصانُالَرّجاءِعِنْدَوُجودِالَزّلِ
One of the signs that you rely on your own work
Is your loss of hope when you’re making a mistake.
Commentary:
Sīdī Ibn ‘Ajība [reading the Book of Wisdom changed his life] urges his students to ask for a vision of the Divine and to open themselves to grace through zeal and the practice of virtues. Your actions along the Sufi path like meditation, retreat, service, dhikr-Allāh, etc. have a value of their own.
It is advisable, however, to rely on the Divine gifts and not to rely on your own actions. Don’t rely on your spiritual practices and your own strength, but rely on the grace of Allāh and the success that He gives. Rely on His guidance leading you away from your ego towards that which is important.
Sīdī Ibn ‘Atā’ Allāh, not for nothing, continues his Book of Wisdom with another wise aphorism dealing with tajrīd [disengagement], the process of peeling away what is superfluous. So don’t be attached to your own work and its positive or negative results.
Sīdī Ibn ‘Ajība quotes the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ: “No one of you will enter paradise because of his works.” He was asked: “Not even you, O Messenger of Allāh?” He answered: “Not even I, if not for Allāh surrounding me with His mercy.”
Shaykh Ibn ‘Ajība adds that the sign that you put your trust in Him, is that your hope doesn’t wane when you’ve committed an act of disobedience or increase when you’ve acted well.
The second council in the Book of Wisdom has to do with tajrīd [disengagement]:
إرَادَتُكَ التَّجْريدَمََع إقَامَةِ اللّٰهِ إِيّاكَ فِي الْأَسْبَابِ مِنَ الشّْهْوَةِ الْخَفِيَّةِ
وَإرادَتُكَ الْأَسْباَبَ مَعَ إِقَامَةِ اللهِ إيَّاكَ فِي التَّجْرِيدِ انْحِطَاطٌ
عَنِ الهِْمَّةِ الْعَلِیَّةِ
Your wish to disengage from everything
When Allah has involved you in the world of means is a hidden wish.
And your wish for involvement with the world of means
When Allah has disengaged you from it is a fall from high aspiration.
Commentary:
Shaykh Farīduddīn ‘Attār describes the travel along the Sufi path as the crossing of seven valleys. These are the valleys of:
- seeking
- love
- intuitive knowledge
- detachment
- union
- perplexity and
- poverty and annihilation
He mentions tajrīd at the beginning of the fifth valley, that is immediately after crossing the valley of detachment. Isolating [tafrīd] yourself from everything but Allāh and your disengagement [tajrīd] from all and everything, except Allāh, from your heart and your innermost consciousness are needed in order to let go duality.
Sīdī ash-Shushtarī teaches that tajrīd has several levels. The start of tajrīd implies the disengagement from blameworthy qualities by clothing yourself in praiseworthy qualities. It is to be followed by the tajrīd from this world and the universe by the contemplation of the Creator.
This contemplation has to be left behind to be followed by even higher stages of disengagement. These become possible by the state of fanā’ [the passing away of the lower self] and then the passing away from this passing away.
Sīdī Ibn ‘Ajība starts his commentary thus: “Tajrīd linguistically means taking off [at-takshīd] and removing [al-izāla]. You use the term for example for things like removing a garment and shedding a skin.
The Sufis fall into three categories of tajrīd: those who strip away only the outward, those who strip away only the inward, and those who strip away both.
Outward disengagement is to abandon worldly causes [al-asbāb ad-dunyāwiyya] and break physical habits. Inward disengagement implies abandoning psychological and illusory attachments. To withdraw from both of them is to abandon both inward attachments and physical habits. You could say that outward tajrīd is abandoning all that distracts the limbs from obeying Allāh. Inward tajrīd is abandoning all that distracts the heart from presence with Allāh, and practising both is the isolation of the heart and the body for Allāh.
Perfect tajrīd implies outwardly to abandon causes and divest the body of clothes you wear out of habit, and inwardly it is to divest the heart of every blameworthy quality and adorn it with every noble quality. This is the perfect tajrīd.”
Sīdī Ibn ‘Ajība comments that Sīdī Ibn ‘Atā’ Allāh writes in at-Tanwīr, “That which Allāh demands of you is that you stay where He establishes you until Allāh is the One to remove you as He brought you in. It is not your concern to abandon means. Your concern is that the means abandon you.”
“Someone said: Once I abandoned a certain means and then I returned to it and then the means left me and I did not return to it. I went to shaykh Abū’l-‘Abbās al-Mursī when I had resolved to disengage from the world [tajrīd]. I told myself that it is unlikely I will reach Allāh in the state I have, which is occupation with exoteric knowledge and socialising with people.”
“Before I even spoke to him, he told me: A man who was occupied with exoteric knowledges and had a high rank in them, kept me company and tasted something of this Path. He came to me and told me: Sidī, I will leave what I am doing and devote myself to your company. I responded to him thus: This is not what is expected of you. Rather persevere in what you are doing now and the part that Allāh has allotted you from us will reach you.”
“Then shaykh Abū’l-‘Abbās al-Mursī looked at me and said: That is how the sincere men are. They do not leave anything until Allāh is the One to remove them. So I left him and Allāh purified my heart from those thoughts and I found rest in submission to Allāh. The Messenger of Allāh ﷺ stated about this kind of people: These are people whose companion is not miserable.”
“He said, The master forbade the student tajrīd because of the greed of his lower self for it. When this self is greedy for something, it is easy for it, and that which is easy for it is not good. What is easy for it is only because it has a share in it.”
Sīdī Ibn ‘Ajība comments that Sidī Ibn ‘Atā’ Allāh writes in at-Tanwīr, “That which Allāh demands of you is that you stay where He establishes you until Allāh is the One to remove you as He brought you in. It is not your concern to abandon means. Your concern is that the means abandon you.”
“Someone said: Once I abandoned a certain means and then I returned to it and then the means left me and I did not return to it. I went to shaykh Abū’l-‘Abbās al-Mursī when I had resolved to disengage from the world [tajrīd]. I told myself that it is unlikely that I will reach Allāh in the state I have, which is occupation with exoteric knowledge and socialising with people.”
“Before I even spoke to him, he told me: A man who was occupied with exoteric knowledge and had a high rank in them, kept me company and tasted something of this Path. He came to me and told me: Sidī, I will leave what I am doing and devote myself to your company. I responded to him thus: This is not what is expected of you. Rather persevere in what you are doing now and the part that Allah has allotted you from us will reach you.”
“Then shaykh Abū’l-‘Abbās al-Mursī looked at me and said: That is how the sincere men are. They do not leave anything until Allāh is the One to remove them. So I left him and Allāh purified my heart from those thoughts and I found rest in submission to Allāh. The Messenger of Allāh ﷺ stated about this kind of people: These are people whose companion is not wretched.”
“He said, The master forbade the student tajrīd because of the greed of his lower self for it. When this self is greedy for something, it is easy for it, and that which is easy for it is not good. What is easy for it is only because it has a share in it.”
سوَابُِقالهِمَِملا َتخْرُِقَأْسوارَالَأقْدارِ
Preceding aspirations can’t break through the walls of destiny.
Commentary:
Himma [aspiration, intention] has been defined by Sīdī Ibn ‘Ajība as the determination of the heart to obtain something, this with the necessary concentration to obtain it. When this thing is spiritually elevated, like the gnosis of Allāh or seeking His pleasure, then it concerns an elevated aspiration [himma ‘āliyya]. When, on the other hand, it is a base thing, like the seeking of this world and its pleasures, then it concerns a base aspiration [himma daniyya].
Aspirations are called preceding [sawābiq] as they are prior to the possibility that they get realized. Sīdī Ibn ‘Atā’ Allāh was afraid that someone might imagine that aspirations can accomplish what the decree did not bring. Your aspirations cannot change what destiny has decreed for you. The aspirations of a Sufi can, however, be so strong that they coincide with the Divine will, which will actualize it immediately.
The shaykh of our shaykh, Mawlāy al-Arabī, has said something almost the same: “When the sincere student is annihilated in the Divine name, whenever he aspires to something, it is actually there. When he is annihilated in the Essence, the thing actualizes itself even before he aspires to it.”
Allāh says in a sound tradition: “When I love him, I am the hearing with which he hears, the sight with which he sees, the hand with which he seizes…” and Allāh adds: “If he asks Me, I give to him, and when he puts himself under my protection, I give him My protection.”
أَرِ حْ نَْفسَكَ مِنَ التَّدْبِيرِ
فَمَا قَامَ بِهِ غَْيرُكَ عَنْكَ لَاتَقُمْ بِهِ لِنَفْسِكَ
Unburden your soul from self-determination;
Don’t occupy your soul with what Someone Else does on your behalf.
Commentary:
The term tadbīr, here translated as self-determination, expresses concepts as ‘governance’, ‘management’, ‘control’ and ‘planning’ in order to accomplish things. Sufis consider it to be an egoistic self-chosen act when it is not in line with the will of ‘Someone Else’, i.e. the Divine will. Qur’ān 13:2 states: “He determines the affair.”
Sīdī Ibn ‘Ajība quotes shaykh ash-Shādhilī as saying: “Don’t choose any of your affairs. Choose not to choose and flee from that choice, from your flight and from everything to Allāh… If you have to manage, then manage not to manage.” Another Sufi master remarked: “Whoever doesn’t manage is managed.”
A poet tells us:
Surrender yourself to Salma and go where she goes.
Follow the winds of Destiny and whirl where they whirl.
Let’s whirl to another wise saying in the Book of Wisdom:
لاتَتْرُِكالذِّكْرَلِعَدَمِ حُضُورِ قَلْبِكَ مَعَ الله فِیهِ
لِأَنَّ غَفْلَتَكَ عَنْ وُجُودِ ذِكْرِهِ أَشَدُّ مِنْ غَفْلَتِكَ فِیی وُجُودِ ذِكْرِهِ
فَعَسَ أَنْ یَرْ فَعَكَ مِنْ ذِكْرٍ مَعَ وُجُودِ غَفْلَةٍ
إِلَى ذِکْرٍ مَعَ وُجُودِ يَقْظَةٍ
وَ مِنْ ذِکْرٍ مَعَ وُجُودِ يَقْظَةٍ
إِلَى ذِکْرٍ مَعَ وُجُودِ حُضُورٍ
وَ مِنْ ذِکْرٍ مَعَ وُجُودِ حُضُورٍ
إِلَى ذِکْرٍ مَعَ غَيْبَةٍ عَنْ عَمَّا سِوى الْمَذْکُورِ وَمَا ذَلِكَ عَلَى اللهِ بِعَزِيْزٍ
Don’t abandon the invocation because of your lack of presence with Allāh in it;
For truly your negligence of the invocation is worse than your negligence in it.
And it may be that Allāh will raise you
from invocation with negligence to invocation with vigilance,
and from invocation with vigilance to invocation with presence,
and from invocation with presence to invocation with absence from everything except the Invoked. And that is not difficult for Allāh [Q. 14:20].
Commentary:
Sīdī Ibn ‘Atā’ Allāh in his Sufi manual for invocation writes: “Dhikr removes hardness from the heart and engenders tenderness and mildness. Forgetfulness [negligence] of the heart is a disease and an ailment, while remembrance is a cure for the invoker from every malady and symptom, as was said by a poet:
إذا مَر ضنْا تداوَینا بذکْرِ کُمْ
و نترك الذِّکْرَ أحْیاناً فَنَنْتَکِسُ
When we became ill, by Your invocation we were cured,
And when at times we neglect it, a relapse we suffer.
Sīdī Ibn ‘Ajība makes it clear that Hadhrat ‘Alī said: “O Messenger of Allāhﷺ , which is the shortest path to Allāh, the easiest for His servants, and most excellent before Him?” He answered: “O ‘Alī, I urge you to invoke Him unceasingly.” He answered: “All people invoke Allāh.” He said: “O ‘Alī, the hour shall not arise until there is no one left upon the face of the earth who says, Allāh.”
He then asked: “How do I invoke, O Messenger of Allāhﷺ?” He answered: “Close your eyes and listen to me three times, then say as I say.” And Hadhrat ‘Ali said: “Then I listened and he said: Lā ilāha illā-llāh three times, his eyes closed. I said it the same way.”