Purification

This is part of a commentary by Sidi Fudul ibn Muhammad al-Hawari of Fes on an ode by Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib called 'Purification':

This ode from the Diwan of Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib consists of seven verses. The first verse announces what is desired and the rest describe the means to achieve it. So the Shaykh said:

If you truly want purification
From all shirk and self-regard,
And to drink from the spring of Tasnimi
Till your thirst is satisfied,

This verse arrays the Travellers in three categories: two are blameworthy and one is praiseworthy. The first blameworthy category consists of those who make false claims. What they say about themselves is not the same as what they actually do and their true state. They seek union without its cause and they desire Nearness in their heads while they are lazy. They are engrossed in the sea of their desires, blind in their absence from reality. Ibn 'Ata'llah said: "Hope is yoked to action. Otherwise it is merely wishful thinking." Allah Almighty says: "So worship Him and put your trust in Him." (11:123)

So if someone wishes to attain his goal, achieve his desire for gnosis of his Lord, and obtain Allah's pleasure and His Nearness while he evades action and starts off with false claims and laziness, then he is merely one of the people of false claims lost in the ocean of the desires of the self and passion. Do you not see that when someone makes a god of his own whim Allah leads him away from knowledge?

The second category consists of those who possess action who rely on their own actions to achieve their hope. They act for Allah with a view of gain for themselves and out of love of position in the hearts of others. Thus they associate other-than-Allah with Him. They are both the slaves of Allah and the slaves of passion. This comes from hidden shirk. Thus the action of these people is defective and comes to nothing. Whoever hopes to encounter his Lord should act with sincerity and not associate anything with the worship of his Lord. In a hadith qudsi, Allah Almighty says, "I have no need of those who associate, so if someone performs an action and connects other than Me to it, I abandon him and consider him an idolater."

If someone does an action, even if it is for Allah, and then sees his own interest in it and regards the action itself, that arises from hidden shirk which is blameworthy among the gnostics. My shaykh said, "When your heart is free from the illness of hidden shirk, then it becomes pleased with tasting, drinking, and intoxication."

As for the third and praiseworthy category, its people are those who strive to make use of means and action while having total reliance on Allah in achieving the goal and hope for success based on the words of Allah, "So worship Him and put your trust in Him." They are those who enjoy the worth of their action and their sincerity in the pleasure of drinking the nectar of union and the wine of love and unification. Allah has purified their hearts from hidden shirk and false claims. They look at their deeds in respect to the Reality rather than to creation and passion, and so they are the slaves of Allah in all states. Whoever wishes to reach their station and to travel in their Path will find it necessary to follow what the Shaykh has guided him to in the second verse:

You must wrap yourself up in endurance,
Wind repentance around your head,
Wear the tunic of firm self-denial,
And in it exhaust your strength.

The shaykh addresses the murid who wishes to embark on the spiritual journey from the presence of creation and beings to the presence of the Reality, direct seeing and vision as a recompense for his preparation, service, longing and love. The end is to your Lord and there is no end. Union to Allah is union to His gnosis and only those who are steadfast obtain it, and it is the one who is immensely fortunate who obtains it. Anyone who wishes to reach this station should tighten his belt in order to get to that yearning. Before everything else he should him wrap himself in steadfastness and endurance.

Steadfastness if the key to every good. It confines the self to what it dislikes to enable it reach what it loves and desires, and this is obtained by seeking help from Allah to end difficulty and cast away screens and obstacles. Steadfastness in obeying Allah is like iron in construction. If it were not for steadfastness, there would be no repentance, self-renewal, self-denial, trust, fear or hope.

So after preparation by binding on steadfastness, let him wind on the turban of repentance and self-renewal, that is, a general shedding of wrong actions, great and small, old and new, dropping all that cuts him off from Allah in his Path so that he ceases to see his own action or power or force. The murid therefore begins with repentance and self-renewal because relinquishment (takhalli) precedes adornment (tahalli). Repentance is both remorse for past mistakes and becoming lost, and also the act of devoting oneself to Allah through all acts of obedience to Allah, drawing near to Him, and foregoing prohibited and doubtful things. Thus the Station of Hope grows from doing acts of obedience and the Station of Fear from avoiding prohibited things. Indicating this the shaykh says:

And you need a good pair of strong sandals,
One of hope and one of fear,
With a staff made of certainty by you,
And a store of pure taqwa.

As the ordinary traveller on his journey needs a pair of sandals - fear of exposure to plagues and harmful situations, in the same way the traveller on the Path to union as a Wayfarer to the Presence of the King of Kings must have a fear which makes him give up conflicts and a hope which gives him courage to perform actions agreeable to Allah. So he should have both fear and hope. Whether he is one of the people of justice and balance or one of the people of overflowing and gifts, he must still rely only upon Allah, and when he sees his own well-being and good fortune he must have certainty that it is Allah Almighty who brings his desire to him. Then his certainty will enrich his good opinion of his Lord in being united with His gnosis and nearness. This certainty and reliance is designated by the statement of the shaykh, "a staff made of certainty." As for his words, "a store of taqwa (fear of Allah)", that is the obedience and the avoidance which grow from the fear and hope mentioned above.

Knowledge is the key to action and the precondition for obtaining every wish. Allah is only worshipped by knowledge and is only known by knowledge. He said:

You need also the bridle of knowledge
For the steed of high desire,
With protection of trusty companions
Which will keep your limbs from harm.

There are two types of knowledge: knowledge of the rules of the ShariÔa and knowledge of the adab (spiritual courtesy) of the Reality and the Path, and the possessors of the second knowledge are the gnostics and the teaching shaykhs. They are the ones who inform the murid of the faults of his self, its illnesses, its treatment and its cures. "Whoever knows himself, knows his Lord" and whoever knows his Lord has been given His gnosis and nearness.

There are also two sorts of wayfarers, according to their goal, intention and aspiration. Among them are those who want the Garden and its degrees through actions, and among them are those who desire the Presence of Reality and its manifestations. They are the people of high aspiration and glorious Stations. He refers to that with his words, "The steed of high desire", meaning a desire and aspiration which goes beyond forms and is only content with the Fashioner-of Forms, the Giver-of-Forms. Thus through his knowledge and action, the murid aims for the approval and pleasure of Allah by elevating his aspiration beyond the world and its energies, and beyond the Garden and its degrees, so that he worships Him by Him and to Him, and has love for Him and hope of His pleasure and nearness. So there are some people who worship for the reward and some who worship for the hope of drawing near. He called it a 'steed' because the rider of the steed is in a high place, and the one with aspiration has a high place. Then he said:

Press on quickly to your destination,
Being careful not to stop
To reflect on material existence -
That will veil you from your home.

The shaykh means that the Wayfarer must guard his limbs on the journey and in his wayfaring. He must guard and preserve them from falling into grave wrong actions and conflicts. Whenever they are inclined to go off the Path he must restrain them and hold them back because he knows that Allah Almighty watches him and knows his Secret and what he conceals. "And He is nearer to him than his jugular vein". (50:16) Then, O murid, if you are successful in your journey, turning to your Lord with your heart and spirit, be careful. Do not pay attention to what appears to you of flashes and miracles and miraculous occurrences, for that will cut you off from your journey and will hinder you from obtaining your goal and desire. The shaykh indicates that by this statement, 'press on quickly'.

So, O murid, if you wish for the means to be easy for you and the gates to be opened to you, then be annihilated to your action, your power, and your force, and see directly the action of Allah on you, His granting success to you, and being generous to you. Give thanks with a powerless gratitude and give praise with an inadequate praise. As the shaykh says in another ode: "Be a pure slave to Him and you will be free from other-than-Allah." When what pleases Him issues from you, and you remember His blessing on you and what He opens to you, then say, "Praise be to Allah who has guided us to this! We would not have been guided, had Allah not guided us." (7:43) This is the meaning of the words of the shaykh:

But reflect on God's kindness towards you,
Be sincere in thanking Him.
And get up before dawn and be humble
And to Him address your plea.

Here he mentioned practical gratitude with his statement: "get up before dawn" .The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, stood in prayer until his feet were swollen. When he was asked, "Do you bother yourself with this while Allah has forgiven your wrong errors, past and recent?" He replied, "Am I not a thankful slave?"

Lastly, the shaykh tells of the mighty intermediary and most glorious refuge, saying:

Blessings be on the Pole of existence
And on those who follow him,
In a way that will broadcast our secret
And make it known to all.

So the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is the intemediary in every blessing and cause and in every good thing.

On Dhikr

Taken from Miftah al-Falah (The Key to Success) by Ibn 'Ata'llah al-Iskandari

On Dhikr

Dhikr is a fire which does not stay or spread – so if it enters a house saying, "Me and nothing other than me," which is one of the meanings of "la ilaha illa'llah' (There is no god but Allah), and there is firewood in the house, it burns it up and it becomes fire. If there is darkness in the house, it becomes light. If there is light in the house, it becomes 'light upon light'.

Dhikr expels from the body impure substances produced by excess in eating or from the consumption of unlawful food. As for food which is lawful, it does not touch it. So the harmful components are burned up and the good components remain.

Dhikr is heard by every part as if it were blowing on a trumpet. When dhikr first occurs in the head, the sound of trumpets and cymbals is experienced there. Dhikr is a sultan – when it descends in a place, it descends with its trumpets and cymbals because dhikr is opposed to all that is other than the Truth. When it descends in a place, it occupies itself with negating what is contrary to the Truth, as we find in the union of water and fire. After these sounds, different sounds are heard: like the ripple of water, the sound of the wind, the sound of fire when it is kindled, the sounds of galloping of horses, and the sound of leaves of the trees rustling in the wind.

This is because man is a combination of every noble and low substance: dust, water, fire, air and earth, and heaven and earth and what is between them: these sounds issue from every source and element of these substances. Whoever has heard these sounds in dhikr praises Allah and glorifies Him with his entire tongue. This is the result of the dhikr with the tongue with the force of complete absorption. Perhaps the worshipper will reach the state where, if he falls silent from dhikr, the heart will stir in his breast, like the movement of the child in the womb, seeking dhikr.
Some say that he heart is like 'Isa, the son of Mary, peace be upon him, and dhikr is its milk. When it grows and becomes strong, longing for the Truth audibly springs from it and pangs of yearning craving for dhikr and the One invoked. The dhikr of the heart is like the sound of the bee, neither a confused high noise nor a very low hidden sound. When the One invoked takes possession of the heart and the dhikr is obliterated and vanishes, and the invoker does not pay attention to the dhikr nor to the heart. If during this, he notices the dhikr or the heart, that is a distracting veil.

This is state is annihilation (fana') – and it is that man is annihilated in respect to his self (nafs), and he feels nothing in his limbs nor things outside of him or things inside of him. If, during that, it occurs to him that he is totally annihilated in respect to himself, that then is a blemish and turbidity. Perfection is that he be annihilated to himself and to annihilation, and the annihilation of annihilation is the goal of annihilation. Annihilation is the earliest of the Path (Tariq) since it is travelling towards Allah Almighty, and then guidance follows. By guidance I mean the guidance of Allah as the Prophet Ibrahim said, "I am going to my Lord, and He will guide me." (37:99)

This absorption is seldom stable and rarely continues. If the invoker continues, it becomes a fixed habit and a permanent state by which he may ascend to the celestial world. Then the purest real Being emerges and he is imprinted with nature of the invisible world (malakut) and the holiness of Divinity (lahut) is manifested to him. The first thing manifested to him from that world are the essences of the angels and the spirits of the Prophets and saints in beautiful forms through which some of the realities overflow onto him. That is the beginning. This continues until his degree is higher than forms and he encounters the Truth in everything with clarity.

This is the fruit of the core of dhikr. Its beginning is only the dhikr of the tongue; and then the dhikr of the heart is stimulated. Then the dhikr becomes natural; and then the One invoked takes possession and the invoker is obliterated. This is the inner secret of the words of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: "Whoever wish to abide in the Garden of Paradise should invoke Allah much" and the secret of his words "Hidden dhikr is seventy times preferable to dhikr which is heard by listeners."

The sign of dhikr moving to the inner conscience (sirr) is the absence of the invoker from dhikr and the One invoked, and the dhikr of the inner conscience is frantic thirst and drowning in it.
Among its signs is that when you ceasing doing dhikr, it does not leave you, and the ascendancy of dhikr in you stirs you from absence to presence.

Among its signs is that dhikr presses against your heads and limbs so that they seem as if they were bound with shackles and chains.

Among its signs is that its fires do not abate and its light does not depart. Rather you always see its lights rising and descending while the fires around you are pure, aflame and brightly burning. When dhikr reaches the inner conscience when the invoker falls silent from dhikr, it is as if needles had been thrust through his tongue or as if his entire face were a tongue invoking, light pouring from it.

Subtle point: Know that every dhikr which you heart feels is heart by listeners, if their awareness match your awareness. There is a secret in it: when your dhikr vanishes from your awareness since you have departed to the One invoked, your dhikr vanishes altogether from the awareness of listeners.

Subtle point: The dhikr of the letters is without the presence of the dhikr of the tongue. The dhikr of the presence in the heart is the dhikr of the heart; and the dhikr of absence from presence with the One Invoked is the dhikr of the inner conscience (sirr), and it is hidden dhikr.