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("Because what can you do to me? All you can do is to either bring my life to an end, or spoil my work and service. I am attached to nothing in the world apart from these." içeriğiyle yeni sayfa oluşturdu) Etiketler: Mobil değişiklik Mobil ağ değişikliği |
("====The Ninth====" içeriğiyle yeni sayfa oluşturdu) |
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(Aynı kullanıcının aradaki diğer 69 değişikliği gösterilmiyor) | |||
732. satır: | 732. satır: | ||
==Seventh Section The Seven Signs== | ==Seventh Section The Seven Signs== | ||
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. | |||
So believe in God and His Apostle, the unlettered Prophet, who believes in God and His Words; follow him that [so] you may be guided.(7:158) * Fain would they extinguish God’s Light with their mouths, but God will not allow but that His Light should be perfected, even though the unbelievers may detest [it].(9:32) | |||
[These seven signs are the answers to three questions. The first question consists of four signs.] | |||
===FIRST SIGN=== | |||
Like all the bad things they do, the arguments which those people who are attempting to change the marks of Islam cite to support themselves spring from their blind imitation of Europe. They say: | |||
“In London, Europeans who have embraced Islam translate many things like the call to prayer and iqama into their own languages in their own country. The World of Islam says nothing in the face of this and does not object. That must mean it is permissible according to the Shari‘a, since they are silent?” | |||
'''The Answer:'''There is such a glaring difference here that no conscious being could make such a comparison and imitate them. For the European lands are called the Abode of War in the terminology of the Shari‘a, and there are numerous things that are permissible in the Abode of War that are not lawful in the Abode of Islam. | |||
''' | |||
Furthermore, the lands of Europe are the realm of Christendom. They are not an environment that communicates and instils the meanings of the terms of the Shari‘a and concepts of the sacred words, so necessarily the sacred meanings have been preferred to the sacred words; the words have been abandoned for the meaning; the lesser of two evils has been chosen. | |||
In the Abode of Islam, however, the very environment teaches the people of Islam the abbreviated meanings of those sacred words. The conversations of Muslims about Islamic traditions and Islamic history and the marks of Islam and the pillars of Islam, all continuously instil in them the concise meanings of those blessed words. In this country, besides the mosques and the medreses, even the gravestones in the graveyards inculcate those sacred meanings in believers like teachers and recall them to them. | |||
If for some worldly advantage, someone who calls himself a Muslim learns fifty words a day from a French dictionary, and then in fifty years does not learn the sacred phrases “Glory be to God,” “All praise be to God,” “There is no god but God,” and “God is Most Great,” which are repeated fifty times daily, does he not fall lower than an animal? These sacred words cannot be translated and corrupted and deported for such beasts! To change and deport them means erasing all the gravestones; it means turning all the dead in the graveyards against them, trembling at such an insult. | |||
< | In order to deceive the nation, corrupt religious scholars who have been misled by the irreligious, say that contrary to the other Imams, Imam-i A‘zam(*<ref>*Imam-i A’zam: Abu Hanifa Nu’man b. Thabit (80/699-150/767), the founder of the Hanifi school of law. The founders (Imams) of the other three main Sunni schools of law were Abu ‘Abdullah Malik b. Anas (94/716-179/795); Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Hanbal (164/780-241/855); and Muhammad b. Idris al-Shafi’i (150/767-205/820).</ref>)said: | ||
</ | |||
< | “If the need arises in distant countries, it is permissible for those who know no Arabic at all | ||
to recite the Fatiha in Persian.”(*<ref>*Sarakhsi, al-Mabsut, i, 37, 234; Kashani, Bada’i al-Sana’i, i, 112.</ref>)We are in need of this, so can we recite it in Turkish? | |||
</ | |||
'''The Answer:'''The most important of the leading authorities as well as the other twelve leading mujtahids have given fatwas opposing this fatwa of Imam-i A‘zam. The great highway of the World of Islam is their highway; the Muslim community may follow it. Those who drive the community towards another, special and narrow, way are leading it astray. Imam-i A‘zam’s fatwa is particular in five respects: | |||
''' | |||
'''Firstly:'''It addresses people who are far from the centre of Islam. | |||
''' | |||
'''Secondly:'''It is in consequence of real need. | |||
''' | |||
'''Thirdly:'''According to one narration, it refers only to translations into Persian, which is supposed to be a language of the people of Paradise. | |||
''' | |||
'''Fourthly:'''The ruling is limited to the Fatiha, so that those who do not know it will not give up performing the obligatory prayers. | |||
''' | |||
'''Fifthly:'''Permission was given so that the sacred meanings could be understood by the ordinary people whose Islamic zeal arose from their powerful belief. But to translate them and discard the Arabic original due to weakness of belief, negative nationalism, and hatred for the Arabic language, driven by a destructive urge, will cause people to renounce religion. | |||
''' | |||
< | <span id="İkinci_İşaret"></span> | ||
=== | ===SECOND SIGN=== | ||
The people of innovation who have changed the marks of Islam first of all sought fatwas from corrupt religious scholars. They had previously pointed out that the fatwa we explained was particular in five respects. | |||
Secondly, the people of innovation adopted the following inauspicious idea from the European reformists: being dissatisfied with the Catholic Church foremost the revolutionaries, reformists, and philosophers, who were innovators according to the Church, favoured Protestantism, which was considered to Mu‘tazilite, and taking advantage of the French Revolution they partially destroyed the Catholic Church and proclaimed Protestantism. | |||
Then the pseudo-patriots here, who are accustomed to imitating blindly, said: | |||
“A revolution like that came about in the Christian religion. At first the revolutionaries were called apostates, then later they were again accepted as Christians. So why shouldn’t there be a similar religious revolution in Islam?” | |||
'''The Answer:'''The difference here is even greater than in the false comparison in the First Sign. Because in the religion of Jesus (Upon whom be peace), only the fundamentals of religion were taken from him. Most of the injunctions relating to social life and the secondary matters of the law were formulated by the disciples and other spiritual leaders. The greater part were taken from former holy scriptures. Since Jesus (Upon whom be peace) was not a worldly ruler and sovereign, and since he was not the source of general social laws, the fundamentals of his religion were as though clothed with the garment of common laws and civil rules taken from outside, having been given a different form and called the Christian law. If this form is changed and the garment transformed, the fundamental religion of Jesus (Upon whom be peace) may persist. It does not infer denying or giving the lie to Jesus himself (Upon whom be peace). | |||
''' | |||
However, the Glory of the World (Upon whom be blessings and peace) was the founder of the religion and Shari‘a of Islam. He was the sovereign of this world and the next, and the East and West and Andalusia and India were his seat of rule. He himself therefore both taught the fundamentals of the religion of Islam, and brought its secondary matters and other injunctions, including even minor matters of conduct; he himself taught them; he commanded them. | |||
That is to say, the secondary matters of Islam are not like a garment capable of change, so that if they are changed, the essential religion will persist. They are rather a sort body for the fundamentals of religion, or at least a skin. They have blended and combined with it and cannot be separated. To change them infers direct denial and contradiction of the one who brought the Shari‘a. | |||
< | As for the differences in the schools of law, this has arisen from differences in ways of understanding the theoretical principles shown by the Shari‘a’s owner. Principles called “the essentials of religion,” which are not open to interpretation, and those called “incontrovertible” cannot be changed in any way and may not be interpreted. Anyone who does change them quits the religion and is included under the rule: “They renounce religion as the arrow flies from the bow.”(*<ref>*Bukhari, Anbiya’, 6; Manaqib, 25; Maghazi, 61; Fada’il al-Qur’an, 36.</ref>) | ||
</ | |||
The people of innovation have found the following pretext for their irreligion and deviation from the straight path. They say: | |||
“The French Revolution was the cause of a sequence of events in the world of humanity; the clergy and spiritual leaders and the Catholic Church, which was their Church, were attacked and eliminated. Later the Revolution was condoned by a lot of people; also, the French made greater progress. Is this not so?” | |||
'''The Answer:'''Like with the previous comparisons, the differences here are clear. For in France, the Christian religion and particularly the Catholic Church had for a long time been a means of domination and despotism in the hands of the upper and ruling classes. It was the means by which they perpetuated their hold over the ordinary people. And since it was through the Catholic Church that the patriots were oppressed, who among the common people were awakened and were called “Jacobins,” and the freedom-seeking thinkers were persecuted, who attacked the despotism of the upper class tyrants; and since for nearly four hundred years the Catholic Church had been an imputed cause, through revolutions in Europe, of overturning the stability of social life, it had been attacked, not in the name of irreligion, but by the other Christian sects. A feeling of indignation and enmity arose among the common people and the philosophers as a result of which the above- mentioned historical event took place. | |||
''' | |||
However, no oppressed person and no thinker has the right to complain about the religion of Muhammad (UWBP) and the Shari‘a of Islam. For it does not injure them, it protects them. Islamic history is there for all to see. Apart from one or two incidents, no internal wars of religion have occurred. Whereas the Catholic Church caused four hundred years of internal revolutions. | |||
< | Furthermore, Islam has been the stronghold of the common people rather than of the upper classes. Through enjoining the payment of zakat and prohibiting usury and interest, it has made the upper classes not despots over the common people but servants in a way! It says: “The master of a people is its servant.”(*<ref>*al-Maghribi, Jami’ al-Shaml, i, 450, no: 1668; al-‘Ajluni, Kashf al-Khafa’, ii, 463.</ref>) | ||
And, “The best of people is the one most useful to people.”(*<ref>*al-‘Ajluni, Kashf al-Khafa’, ii, 463; al-Manawi, Fayd al-Qadir, iii, 481, no: 4044.</ref>) | |||
Also, through sacred phrases like,So will they not think?(6:50) * So will they not reflect on it?(4:82) * So will they not reason?(2:44),the All-Wise Qur’an calls on the intellect to testify; it warns, refers to the reason, it urges investigation. | |||
</ | |||
Through this, it accords scholars and the people of reason a position; it gives them importance. It does not dismiss the reason like the Catholic Church; it does not silence thinkers, or require blind imitation of them. | |||
Since the fundamentals of, not true Christianity, but the present-day Christian religion and the fundamentals of Islam have parted on another important point, they go their separate ways in many respects like the above-mentioned differences. The important point is this: | |||
Islam is the religion of the true affirmation of divine unity (tevhid-i hakikî) so that it dismisses intermediaries and causes. It breaks egotism and establishes sincere worship. It cuts at the root every sort of false dominicality, starting from that of the soul, and rebuffs it. It is because of this that if a person of high position from the upper class is going to be completely religious, he will have to give up his egotism. If he does not give up egotism, he will lose his strength of religion and to an extent give up his religion. | |||
As for the Christian religion of the present day, since it has accepted the belief of Jesus (Upon whom be peace) being the Son of God, it ascribes an actual effect to causes and intermediaries. It cannot break egotism in the name of religion. Rather, saying that egotism is a holy deputy of Jesus (Upon whom be peace), it ascribes it a sacredness. For this reason, members of the Christian upper classes who occupy the highest worldly positions may be completely religious. In fact, there are many like the former American President, Wilson, and the former British Prime Minister, Lloyd George, who were as religious as bigoted priests. | |||
But any Muslims who rise to those positions rarely remain completely religious and firm in their religion, for they cannot give up their pride and egotism. And true taqwa cannot be combined with pride and egotism. | |||
Yes, just as the religious bigotry of the Christian upper class and slackness in religion of the Muslim upper class demonstrate an important difference, so the fact that the philosophers who emerged from Christianity were Furthermore, generally, ordinary Christians who have fallen on hard times or are sent to prison cannot expect assistance from religion. | |||
Formerly, most of them became irreligious. In fact, the revolutionaries famous in history who instigated the French Revolution and were called “irreligious Jacobins,” were mostly disaster-stricken common people. Whereas in Islam, the great majority of those who suffer disaster or imprisonment await succour from religion and they become religious. This situation too, demonstrates an important difference. | |||
< | <span id="Üçüncü_İşaret"></span> | ||
=== | ===THIRD SIGN=== | ||
The people of innovation say: | |||
“Religious bigotry made us backward. Living this age necessitates giving up bigotry. Europe advanced when it abandoned it. Isn’t this so?” | |||
'''The Answer:'''You are wrong and you have been deceived! Or else you are deceiving, for Europe is bigoted in religion. Tell an ordinary Bulgar or an English soldier or a French Jacobin: “Wear this turban, or else you’ll be thrown into prison!”, and their bigotry will force them to reply: “Not prison, if you kill me even, I won’t insult my religion and nation in that way!” | |||
''' | |||
Also, history testifies that whenever the people of Islam have adhered to their religion, they have advanced in relation to the strength of their adherence. And whenever they have become less firm in their religion, they have declined. Whereas with Christianity, it is the opposite. | |||
This too arises from an essential difference. | |||
Also, Islam cannot be compared with other religions; if a Muslim abandons Islam and gives up his religion, he will not accept any other prophet; indeed, he will not acknowledge Almighty God either nor probably recognize anything sacred. He will have no conscience that will allow him moral and spiritual attainment; it will be corrupted. Therefore, in the view of Islam, in wartime, an unbeliever has the right to life. His life is protected according to Islam if he is outside the country and makes peace, or if he is inside the country and pays the head-tax. But an apostate does not have the right to life. For his conscience is corrupted and he becomes like poison in the life of society. | |||
But a Christian may still contribute to society, even if he is irreligious. He may accept some sacred matters and may believe in some of the prophets, and may assent to Almighty God in some respects. | |||
I wonder, what advantage do these innovators, or more accurately deviants or heretics, find in this irreligion? If they are thinking of government and public order, to govern ten irreligious anarchists who do not know God and to repulse their evils is much more difficult than governing a thousand people with religion. | |||
If they are thinking of progress, such irreligious people are an obstacle to progress, just as they are harmful for the administration and government. They destroy security and public order, which are the basis of progress and commerce. In truth, they are destructive due to the very way they have taken. The biggest fool in the world is one who expects progress, prosperity, and happiness from irreligious anarchists like them. | |||
One of those fools who occupied a high position, said: “We said ‘Allah! Allah!’ and remained backward. Europe said ‘Guns and cannons,’ and advanced.” | |||
According to the rule, “A fool should be answered with silence,” the answer for such people is silence. But because behind certain fools there are inauspicious clever people, we say this: | |||
O you wretches! This world is a guesthouse. Every day thirty thousand witnesses put their signature with their corpses to the decree “Death is a reality” and they testify to it. Can you kill death? Can you contradict those witnesses? Since you can’t, death makes people say: “Allah! Allah!” Which of your guns and cannons can illuminate the everlasting darkness confronting someone in the throes of death in place of “Allah! Allah!”, and transform his absolute despair into absolute hope? Since there is death and we shall enter the grave, and this life departs and an eternal life comes, if guns and cannons are said once, “Allah! Allah!” should be said a thousand times. And if it is in Allah’s way, the gun also says “Allah!”, and the cannon booms “Allahu Akbar!” It breaks the fast with “Allah,” and starts it. | |||
< | <span id="Dördüncü_İşaret"></span> | ||
=== | ===FOURTH SIGN=== | ||
The destructive innovators are of two kinds: | |||
'''The First Kind''' say as though on account of religion and out of loyality to Islam, as though to strengthen religion with nationalism: “We want to plant the luminous tree of religion, which has grown weak, in the earth of nationalism, in order to strengthen it.” They appear to be supporting religion. | |||
''' | |||
'''The Second Sort''' say in the name of the nation and on account of nationalism, in order to strengthen racialism, say: “We want to graft Islam onto the nation,” thus creating innovations. | |||
''' | |||
'''To the First Sort, we say:'''O unhappy, corrupt scholars of religion who confirm the saying “loyal fools,” or ecstatic, unthinking, ignorant Sufis! The Tuba-tree of Islam, whose roots are founded in the reality of the universe and whose branches spread through the truths of the universe, cannot be planted in the earth of imaginary, temporary, partial, particular, negative, indeed, baseless, rancorous, tyrannical, and dark racialism! To try to do so is to attempt something foolish, destructive, and innovative. | |||
''' | |||
To the Second Sort of nationalists, we say this: O you drunken pseudo-patriots! Perhaps the previous century could have been the age of nationalism. This century is not the age of racialism! Communism and socialism pervade everything, destroying the idea of racialism. The age of racialism is passing. Eternal, permanent Islamic nationalism cannot be bound onto temporary unstable racialism and grafted onto it. And even if it were to be, it would corrupt the Islamic nation, but it would not reform racialist nationalism. Yes, there appears to be a pleasure and temporary strength in a temporary graft, but it is very temporary and the consequences are dangerous. | |||
Furthermore, it would open up a split in the Turkish people that could not be healed in all eternity. Then the nation’s strength would be reduced to nothing, since one section would have broken the power of the other. If two mountains are placed in the two pans of some scales, a few pounds weight can move the two, raising one, and lowering the other. | |||
'''The Second Question''' consists of two signs: | |||
''' | |||
===The First is the FIFTH SIGN,=== and is a very brief answer to an important question: | |||
=== | |||
'''Question:'''There are numerous authentic narrations about the appearance of the Mahdi at the end of time and his putting the world to rights, which will have been corrupted. However, the present time is the time of the group or social collectivity, not of the individual. However great a genius an individual person is, even a hundredfold genius, if he is not the representative of a group and if he does not represent a group’s collective personality, he will be defeated in the face of the collective personality of an opposing group. At this time, however exalted the power of his sainthood, how can he reform the world amid the widespread corruption of a human group such as that? If all the Mahdi’s works are wondrous, it would be contrary to the divine wisdom and laws in the world. We want to understand the reality of this matter of the Mahdi. How can we? | |||
''' | |||
'''The Answer:'''Out of His perfect mercy, every time the Muslim community has been corrupted, Almighty God has sent a reformer, or a regenerator, or a vicegerent of high standing, or a supreme spiritual pole, or a perfect guide, or blessed persons resembling a Mahdi, as a mark of His protecting the Shari‘a of Islam until eternity; they have removed the corruption, reformed the nation, and preserved Muhammad’s (UWBP) religion. | |||
''' | |||
Since His custom has always been thus, certainly at the time of greatest corruption at the end of time He will send a luminous person as both the greatest interpreter of the Law, and the supreme renewer, and ruler, and Mahdi, and guide, and spiritual pole, and that person will be from the Prophet’s (UWBP) Family. | |||
Almighty God fills and empties the world between the heavens and earth with clouds, and in an instant stills the storms of the sea, and in an hour in spring creates samples of the summer and in an hour in summer creates a winter storm. Such an All-Powerful One of Glory can also scatter the darkness covering the World of Islam by means of the Mahdi. He has promised this and certainly He will carry out His promise. | |||
If considered from the point of view of divine power, it is most easy. And if thought of from the point of view of causes and divine wisdom, it is again so reasonable and necessary that thinkers have asserted that even if it had not been narrated from the Bringer of Sure News (UWBP), it still should be thus. And it will be. It is like this: All praise be to God, the prayer, “O God, grant blessings to our master Muhammad and to the Family of our master Muhammad, as you granted blessings to Abraham and to the Family of Abraham, in all the world; indeed You are worthy of all praise, exalted!,” which is repeated by the Muslim community five times every day in all the obligatory prayers, has self-evidently been accepted. For like the Family of Abraham (Upon whom be peace), the members of Muhammad’s (Upon whom be blessings and peace) Family stand as commanders at the heads of all blessed chains of spiritual authorities in the assemblies of all the regions of the world in all centuries.(*<ref>*Just one of them is Sayyid Ahmad al-Sanusi, who commands millions of followers. Another is Sayyid Idrês, who commands more than one hundred thousand. Another Sayyid, Sayyid Yahya, commands hundreds of thousands of men. And so on. Just as among the members of this tribe of Sayyids there are numerous outward commanders, so too there are the champions of spiritual heroes, like Sayyid ‘Abd al-Qadir Gilani, Sayyid Abu’l-Hasan al-Shazali, and Sayyid Ahmad Badawi.</ref>)They are so numerous that together they form a mighty army. | |||
If they took on physical form and with their solidarity were formed into a division, if they awakened the religion of Islam and bound it together in unity and established a sort of sacred nationhood, the army of no other nation could withstand them. | |||
Thus, that numerous, powerful army is the Family of the Muhammad (Upon whom be blessings and peace), the Mahdi’s most select army.Yes, today in the world there is no family distinguished by such high honour and elevated qualities and nobility in its descendants, in unbroken succession and well- documented genealogy, which is as powerful and important as the line of Sayyids of the Family of the Prophet (UWBP). Since early times it is they who have been at the heads of all the groups of the people of truth, and they who have been the renowned leaders of the people of perfection. Now it is a blessed line numbering millions. Vigilant and circumspect, their hearts full of belief and love of the Prophet (UWBP), they are distinguished by the honour of their world- renowned lineage. | |||
Momentous events shall occur which will awaken and arouse that sacred force within the vast community. Certainly, the elevated ardour in that huge force will surge up and the Mahdi shall come to lead it, guiding it to the way of truth and reality. We await from the divine law and divine mercy that it should be such, and its being such, like we await the coming of spring after winter; and we are right to await it. | |||
< | <span id="İkinci_İşaret_yani_ALTINCI_İŞARET"></span> | ||
=== | ===The Second Sign, that is, the SIXTH SIGN=== | ||
The Mahdi’s luminous community will repair the destruction of the innovative regime of the secret society of the Sufyan, and will restore the Prophet’s (UWBP) glorious Sunna. That is to say, the secret society of the Sufyan will try to destroy the Shari‘a of Muhammad (UWBP) in the World of Islam with the intention of denying his messengership, and will be killed and routed by the miraculous immaterial sword of the Mahdi’s community. | |||
Moreover, in the world of humanity, the secret society of the Dajjal will overturn civilization and subvert all mankind’s sacred matters, with the intention of denying the Godhead. A zealous, self-sacrificing community known as a Christian communit y but worthy of being called “Muslim Christians,” will work to unite the true religion of Jesus (Upon whom be peace) with the reality of Islam and will kill and rout that society of the Dajjal under the leadership of Jesus (UWP), thus saving humanity from atheism. | |||
This important mystery is very lengthy. Since we have discussed it briefly in other places, here we make do with this indication. | |||
< | <span id="YEDİNCİ_İŞARET_yani_Üçüncü_Sual"></span> | ||
=== | ===SEVENTH SIGN=== | ||
That is, the Third Question. | |||
They say: “Your former refutations and strivings in the way of Islam were not in your present style. Also you do not defend Islam against Europe in the manner of the philosophers and thinkers. Why have you changed the style of the Old Said? Why do you not act in the same way as those who strive for the cause of Islam by non-physical means? | |||
'''The Answer:'''The Old Said and certain thinkers in part accepted the principles of human and European philosophy, and contested them with their own weapons; they accepted them to a degree. They submitted unshakeably to some of their principles in the form of the physical sciences, and therefore could not demonstrate the true worth of Islam. It was quite simply as though they were grafting Islam with the branches of philosophy, the roots of which they supposed to be ver y deep; as though strengthening it. But since this method produced few victories and it reduced Islam’s worth to a degree, I gave it up, | |||
''' | |||
and I showed in fact that Islam’s principles are so profound that the deepest principles of philosophy cannot reach them; indeed, they remain superficial beside them. The Thirtieth Word, Twenty- Fourth Letter, and Twenty-Ninth Word have demonstrated this truth with proofs. | |||
In the former way, philosophy was supposed to be profound and the matters of Islam, external; it was supposed that by binding it with the branches of philosophy, Islam would be preserved and made to endure. As if the principles of philosophy could in any way reach the matters of Islam! | |||
Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which you have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise!(2:32) | |||
And they shall say: “Praise be to God, Who has guided us to this [felicity]; never could we have found guidance, had it not been for the guidance of God; indeed, it was the truth that the prophets of our Sustainer brought to us!”(7:43) | |||
O God! Grant blessings to our master Muhammad and to the Family of our master Muhammad, as you granted blessings to our master Abraham and to the Family of Abraham, in all the worlds; indeed, You are worthy of all praise, exalted! | |||
< | <span id="Sekizinci_Kısım_Olan_Rumuzat-ı_Semaniye"></span> | ||
== | ==The Eight Symbols, Which is the Eighth Section== | ||
This treatise consists of eight symbols, that is, eight short treatises. The basis of these symbols is coincidence (tevafuk), which is an important principle of the science of jafr, and a valuable key to the occult sciences, and to some of the Qur’an’s mysteries pertaining to the Unseen. | |||
It has not been included here since it is to be published in another collection. | |||
< | <span id="Dokuzuncu_Kısım_Telvihat-ı_Tis’a"></span> | ||
== | ==The Ninth Section Nine Allusions== | ||
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. | |||
Behold! Verily on the friends of God there is no fear, nor shall they grieve.(10:62) | |||
[This section is about the paths of sainthood, and consists of nine allusions.] | |||
< | <span id="Birinci_Telvih"></span> | ||
=== | ===First Allusion=== | ||
Underlying the terms Sufism, path, sainthood, and spiritual journeying is an agreeable, luminous, joyful, and spiritual sacred truth. This truth has been proclaimed, taught, and described in thousands of books written by authoritative scholars among the people of illumination and unveiling, who have told the Muslim community and us about it. | |||
May God reward them abundantly! Now, because of some compelling circumstances at this time, we shall point out a few droplets, like sprinklings, from that vast ocean. | |||
'''Question?'''What is the Sufi path? | |||
''' | |||
'''The Answer:'''The aim and goal of the Sufi path is – knowledge of God and the unfolding of the truths of faith – through a spiritual journeying with the feet of the heart under the shadow of the Ascension of Muhammad (UWBP), to manifest the truths of faith and the Qur’an through tasting and certain enhanced states, and to an extent through direct vision; it is an elevated human mystery and perfection called the Sufi path or Sufism. | |||
''' | |||
Yes, since man is a comprehensive index of the universe, his heart resembles a map of thousands of worlds. For innumerable human sciences and fields of knowledge show that man’s brain in his head is a sort of centre of the universe, like a telephone and telegraph exchange for innumerable lines. Similarly, the millions of light-scattering books written by incalculable saints show man’s heart in his essential being to be the place of manifestation of innumerable cosmic truths, and to be their pivot, and seed. | |||
Since the human heart and brain are thus central, and comprise the members of a mighty tree in the form of a seed, and within them are encapsulated the parts and components of an eternal, majestic machine pertaining to the hereafter, certainly the heart’s Creator willed that it should be worked and brought out from the potential to the actual, and developed, and put into action, for that is what He did. Since He willed it, the heart will certainly work like the mind. And the most effective means of working it is to be turned towards the truths of faith on the Sufi path through the remembrance of God in the degrees of sainthood. | |||
< | <span id="İkinci_Telvih"></span> | ||
=== | ===Second Allusion=== | ||
The keys and means of this journeying of the heart and spiritual progress are remembrance of God and reflective thought. Their virtues are too numerous to be described. Apart from uncountable benefits in the hereafter and human attainments and perfections, a minor benefit pertaining to this tumultuous worldly life is as follows: | |||
everyone wants a solace and seeks enjoyment in order to be saved a little from the upheavals of life and its heavy burdens, and to take a breather; everyone searches out something friendly to banish the loneliness. For one or two people out of ten, the social gatherings in civilized life offer a temporary, but heedless and drunken familiarity, intimacy, and solace. But eighty per cent live solitary lives in mountains or valleys, or are driven to distant places in search of a livelihood, or due to such agencies as calamities or old age which recall the hereafter, they are deprived of the companionship of human groups and societies. Their circumstances allow them no familiarity, friendliness, or consolation. | |||
For such a person, true solace, intimacy, and sweet pleasure are to be found in addressing his own heart in those distant places and desolate mountains and distressing valleys, in working it through remembrance of God and reflection. Calling on God Almighty, he may become intimate with Him in his heart, and by virtue of that intimacy think of the things around him, which were regarding him savagely, as smiling on him familiarly. He will say: “My Creator, whom I am recollecting, has innumerable servants here in my place of solitude, just as He has everywhere. I am not alone; loneliness has no meaning.” Thanks to his faith, he receives pleasure from that sense of familiarity. He grasps the meaning of life’s happiness, and he offers thanks to God. | |||
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=== | ===Third Allusion=== | ||
Sainthood is a proof of divine messengership; the Sufi path is a proof of the Shari‘a. For the truths of belief which messengership preaches, sainthood sees and confirms with a sort of direct vision with the heart and tasting with the spirit at the degree of the vision of certainty. Its confirmation is a certain proof of the veracity of messengership. Through the experiential knowledge of the Sufi path and its unveilings, and through its benefits and effulgences, it is a clear proof of the truths and the matters which the Shari‘a teaches; it demonstrates that they are the truth and that they come from the truth. | |||
Yes, just as sainthood and the Sufi path are evidence and proof of divine messengership and the Shari‘a, so they are a perfection of Islam and a means of attaining to its lights, and through Islam, a source of humanity’s progress and moral enlightenment. | |||
Although this vast mystery holds such importance, certain deviant sects have tended to deny it. They have been deprived of those lights and they have caused others to be deprived. | |||
The most regretable thing is that making a pretext of abuses and faults they have seen committed by the followers of the Sufi path, some literalist Sunni scholars and some neglectful politicians who are also Sunnis are trying to close up that supreme treasury, indeed, to destroy it, and to dry up that source of Kawthar which distributes a sort of water of life. | |||
However, there are few things and ways and paths that are without fault and are good in every respect. They are bound to contain some faults and abuses. For if the uninitiated embark on something, they are sure to misuse it. But as with the accounting of deeds in the hereafter, Almighty God demonstrates His dominical justice through the weighing up of good deeds and bad deeds. That is to say, if good deeds preponderate and weigh heavier, He accepts them and grants reward; whereas if evil deeds preponderate, he punishes for them and rejects them. The balancing of good and evil deeds looks to quality rather than quantity. It sometimes happens that a single good deed will weigh heavier than a thousand evils, and cause them to be forgiven. | |||
Divine justice judges thus and reality too considers it right. Thus, the evidence that the good deeds of the Sufi path – that is, paths within the bounds of the Prophet’s (UWBP) practices – definitely preponderate over their evils is that those who follow them preserve their belief when attacked by the people of misguidance. A sincere ordinary follower of the Sufi path preserves himself better than a superficial, apparent Muslim with a modern, scientific background. Through the illumination of the Sufi path and the love of the saints, he saves his faith. If he commits grievous sins, he becomes a sinner but not an unbeliever; he is not easily drawn into atheism. No power at all can refute the chain of shaikhs he accepts, with a strong love and firm belief, to be spiritual poles.And because no power can refute it, his confidence in them cannot be shaken. And so long as his confidence is not shaken, he will not accept atheism. In the face of the atheists’ stratagems at the present time, it has become difficult for a person unconnected with the Sufi path, whose heart has not been brought to action, to preserve himself completely, even if he is a learned scholar. | |||
There is another thing; the Sufi path should not be condemned because of the evils of some orders that have adopted practices outside the bounds of taqwa, and even of Islam, and have wrongfully called themselves Sufi paths. | |||
Quite apart from the elevated religious and spiritual fruits of the Sufi path and those that look to the hereafter, Sufi orders were the first, and most effective and ardent, means of spreading and strengthening brotherhood, the sacred bond of the Islamic world. They were also one of the three unassailable strongholds of Islam, which held out against the awesome attacks of the world of unbelief and the politics of Christendom. | |||
What preserved Istanbul, the centre of the Caliphate for five hundred and fifty years against the whole Christian world, were the lights of belief that poured out of five hundred places in Istanbul and the powerful faith of those who recited “Allah! Allah!” in the tekkes behind the big mosques, which were a firm source of support for the people of belief in that centre of Islam, and their spiritual love arising from knowledge of God, and their fervent murmurings. | |||
O you unreasoning pseudo-patriots and false nationalists! What evils are there in the Sufi paths that can negate all this good in the life of your society? You say! | |||
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=== | ===Fourth Allusion=== | ||
Together with being very easy, the way of sainthood is very difficult. Together with being very short, it is very long. In addition to being most valuable, it is very dangerous. And together with being very broad, it is very narrow. | |||
It is because of these points that some of those who take the path drown, others become harmful, and yet others return and lead other people astray. | |||
'''In Short:'''There are two ways on the Sufi path, known by the terms of inner journeying and outer journeying. | |||
The Inner Way starts from the self, and drawing the eyes away from the outer world, looks to the heart. It pierces egotism, opens up a way from the heart, and finds reality. Then it enters the outer world. The outer world then looks luminous. The journey is completed quickly on this way. The reality seen in the inner world, is seen on a large scale in the outer world. Most of the paths that practise silent recollection take this way. Its essential principles are breaking the ego, renouncing the desires of the flesh, and killing the evil-commanding soul. | |||
The Second Way starts from the outer world; it gazes on the reflections of the divine names and attributes in their places of manifestation in the greater sphere, then it enters the inner world. It observes their lights on a small scale in the sphere of the heart and opens up the shortest way within them. It sees that the heart is a mirror to the Eternally Besoughted One, and is united with the goal it is seeking. | |||
If people who travel the first way are unsuccessful in killing the evil- commanding soul, and if they cannot give up the desires of the flesh and break the ego, they fall from the rank of thanks to that of pride, then descend from pride to conceit. If such a person feels the captivation of love and becomes intoxicated by it, he will make high-flown claims far exceeding his mark, called ecstatic utterances. This is harmful both for himself and for others. | |||
For example, if a lieutenant becomes conceited out of pleasure at his position of command, he will suppose himself to be a field marshal and will confuse his small sphere with the universal one. He will confuse a sun that appears in a small mirror with the sun whose manifestation appears in all its splendour on the surface of the sea, due to their similarity in one respect.In just the same way, there are many people of sainthood who, resembling the difference between a fly and a peacock, see themselves as greater than those who in reality are greater than them to the same degree; that is how they see it and they think they are right. | |||
I myself even saw someone whose heart had just been awakened and had faintly perceived in himself the mystery of sainthood; he supposed himself to be the supreme spiritual pole and assumed airs accordingly. I said to him: “My brother, just as the law of sovereignty has particular and universal manifestations from the office of Prime Minister down to that of District Officer, so sainthood and the rank of spiritual pole have varying spheres and manifestations. Each station has many shades and shadows. You have evidently seen the manifestation of the rank of supreme spiritual pole, the equivalent of Prime Minister, in your own sphere, which is like that of a District Officer, and you have been deceived. What you saw was right, but your judgement of it was wrong. To a fly, a cup of water is a small sea.” The person came to his senses, God willing, as a result of this answer of mine, and was saved from the abyss. | |||
I have also seen many people who thought themselves to be Mahdis of a sort, and they proclaimed their Mahdiship. Such people are not liars and deceivers, they are deceived. They suppose what they see to be reality. As the divine names have manifestations from the sphere of the Sublime Throne down to an atom, and their places of manifestation differ to the same degree; so the degrees of sainthood, which consist of manifesting the names, differ in the same way. The most important reason for the confusion is this: | |||
In some of the stations of the saints, the characteristics of the Mahdi’s function may be observed, or a special relation may be formed with the Supreme Spiritual Pole, or with Khidr; certain stations are connected with certain famous persons. In fact, the stations are called the station of Khidr, the station of Uwais, or the station of the Mahdi. | |||
Because of this, people who attain to these stations or to minor samples or shadows of them, suppose themselves to be the famous persons connected with them. They suppose themselves to be Khidr, or the Mahdi, or the Supreme Spiritual Pole. | |||
If such a person’s ego does not seek rank and position, he is not condemned to the state. His excessively high-flown claims are deemed ecstatic utterances for which he is probably not responsible. | |||
But if his ego is secretly set on acquiring rank and position, and if he defeated by it and leaves off thanks and becomes proud, from there he will gradually fall into arrogance, or descend to the depths of madness, or deviate from the path of truth. For he reckons the great saints to be like himself and his good opinion of them is spoiled, for however arrogant a soul is, it still perceives its own faults. Comparing those great saints with himself, he imagines them to be at fault. His respect towards the prophets diminishes, even. | |||
Those suffering from this should hold fast to the balance of the Shari‘a, and adopt the rules of the scholars of the principles of religion, and take as their guides the instructions of such authoritative scholars from among the saints as Imam Ghazali and Imam-i Rabbani. They should constantly accuse their own souls, and attribute nothing to themselves other than fault, impotence, and want. | |||
Ecstatic utterances made by followers of this way arise from love of self, for love-filled eyes see no faults. Because of his self-love, such a person supposes a faulty, unworthy fragment of glass to be a brilliant or a diamond. | |||
The most dangerous of all these faults is that he imagines the partial meanings which occur to his heart in the form of inspiration to be “God’s Word,” and he calls them “verses (âyât).” This infers disrespect towards divine revelation, which is at the most holy and exalted degree. Yes, all inspirations from the inspirations of bees and animals to those of ordinary people and the elite among men, and from the inspirations of ordinary angels to those of the sublime cherubim, are divine words of a sort. But they are dominical speech in conformity with the capacity of the places of manifestation and their stations; they are the varying manifestations of dominical address shining through seventy thousand veils. | |||
However, it is absolutely wrong to use the proper nouns “revelation” and “divine speech” for such inspirations, and the word “verse,” which is a noun proper to the stars of the Qur’an – the most evident exemplification of God’s Word. As is explained and proved in the Twelfth, Twenty-Fifth, and Thirty-First Words, the relation between the inspiration in the hearts of those making the above claims and the verses of the sun of the Qur’an, which is divine speech directly, resembles the relation between the tiny, dim, obscure image of the sun appearing in the coloured mirror in your hand and the sun in the sky. Yes, if it is said that the sun’s reflected images appearing in all mirrors are the sun’s and are related to it, it would be right, but the globe of the earth cannot be attached to the suns in those tiny mirrors, nor be bound by their attraction. | |||
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=== | ===Fifth Allusion=== | ||
An extremely important way within Sufism is the Unity of Witnessing, which is another name for the Unity of Existence. This restricts the gaze to the existence of the Necessarily Existent, and sees other beings to be so weak and shadow-like in relation to Him that it declares that they do not deserve the name of existence. It envelops them in veils of imagination, and in the station of abandoning all things other than God, counts them as nothing. It even imagines them to be non-existent, and goes so far as to belittle the manifestations of the divine names, saying they are mere imaginary mirrors. | |||
A significant fact about this way is that due to the powerful faith it inculcates and the elevated sainthood of those on it advancing to the degree of absolute certainty, the existence of contingent beings is so diminished that nothing remains in its view other than imagination and non-existence; it is as though it denies the universe on account of the Necessarily Existent One. | |||
But this way holds dangers, the first of which is this: there are six pillars of faith, and such pillars as belief in the Last Day and belief in God require the existence of contingent beings. These firmly-founded pillars of belief cannot be constructed on imagination! For this reason, when a person following this way re-enters the world of sobriety from the worlds of ecstasy and intoxication, he should not bring them with him, nor should he act in accordance with them. | |||
Furthermore, he should not convert this way, which pertains to the heart and to illuminations and certain states, into a form that pertains to the reason, knowledge, and words. For the laws and principles related to reason, knowledge, and speech, which proceed from the Qur’an and the practices of the Prophet (UWBP), cannot sustain that way and are inapplicable to it. For this reason, the four Rightly-Guided Caliphs, and the leading authorities and interpreters of the law, and the authorities of the first generations of Islam were not seen to practise it. | |||
This means that it is not the most elevated way. It may be elevated, but it is also deficient. It is very important, but it is also very perilous and difficult. Yet, it is still very pleasurable. Those who embark on it for the pleasure, do not want to leave it, and because of their self-centredness, they suppose it to be the highest degree. | |||
We have explained the basis and nature of this way to an extent in the treatise called Nokta Risalesi, and in some of the Words and Letters, and shall suffice with them. Here, we shall describe one of the serious hazards on that important way. It is as follows: | |||
For the highest of the elite, who pass beyond the sphere of causes and renouncing everything other than God, sever their attachment to contingent beings and enter a state of complete absorption in God, this way is a righteous way. But, to present it in terms of intellectual knowledge to those who are submerged in causes, are enamoured of the world, and are plunged into materialist philosophy and nature, will drown them in nature and materiality and distance them from the reality of Islam. | |||
For those who love the world and are attached to the sphere of causes want to ascribe a sort of permanence to this transitory world. They do not want to lose their beloved. On the pretext of the Unity of Existence, they imagine it to have permanent existence. On account of the world, their beloved, and by ascribing permanence and eternity to it, they make it an object of worship; and, I seek refuge with God, this paves the way to the abyss of denying God. | |||
This century, materialism is so widespread, materiality is thought to be the source of everything. If in such an age, the elite believers consider materiality to be so unimportant as to be non-existent, thus furthering the way of the Unity of Existence, the materialists will lay claim to it, saying: “We say the same thing.” Whereas, among all the ways in the world, the one furthest from that of the materialists and nature- worshippers, is the way of the Unity of Existence. For the followers of the Unity of Existence attach such importance, due to their belief, to the divine existence that they deny the universe and beings. Whereas the materialists attach so much importance to beings that on account of the universe they deny God. How can the two come together or be compared? | |||
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=== | ===Sixth Allusion=== | ||
This consists of three points. | |||
< | <span id="Birinci_Nokta:"></span> | ||
==== | ====First Point:==== | ||
Among the ways of sainthood, the finest, straightest, richest, and most brilliant is following the practices (Sunna) of the Prophet (UWBP). That is, to think of the practices in one’s actions and deeds, and to follow and imitate them. In conduct and dealings with others, it is to think of the rulings of the Shari‘a and take them as one’s guide. | |||
When followed in this way, daily conduct, dealings, and habitual acts become worship, and thinking of the practices and Shari‘a in one’s actions, recalls the injunctions of the Shari‘a. This causes a person to think of the Shari‘a’s owner. By thinking of him, it brings to mind Almighty God, and that induces a sort of sense of His presence. This may transform all the moments of the person’s life into worship in the divine presence. This great highway is the highway of the Companions and the righteous of the first generations of Islam, who received the legacy of prophethood, the greater sainthood. | |||
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==== | ====Second Point:==== | ||
Sincerity is the basis of the ways of sainthood and of the branches of the Sufi path, for through sincerity a person may be saved from implicitly associating partners with God. One who does not obtain sincerity cannot travel those ways. The most powerful force of those ways is love. Yes, love does not seek pretexts for its beloved and does not wish to see the beloved’s faults. It looks on frail signs of its beloved’s perfection as powerful proofs, and always takes the part of its beloved. | |||
It is because of this that those who are turned towards knowledge of God with the feet of love, do not give ear to doubts and objections; they are easily saved. Even a thousand satans can not negate a hint of their true beloved’s perfection. If they do not possess such love, they would struggle desperately in the face of their souls and Satan and the objections of the outside devils. They would have to have heroic fortitude and strength of belief and an attentive gaze in order to save themselves. | |||
It is because of this that in all the degrees of sainthood, the chief leaven and elixir is the love arising from knowledge of God. But love leads to an abyss, which is this: it jumps from beseeching and self-effacement, which are the essence of worship, to complaint and claims and to imbalanced actions. When regarding things other than God, a person ceases to see how they point to their Maker and starts to see them as signifying themselves alone, so while being the cure, love becomes poison. That is to say, although when loving things other than God, the person should fix his heart on them for God’s sake and in His name and because they are mirrors reflecting His names, sometimes he loves them for themselves and on account of their personal perfections and own beauty. He loves them with no thought for God and His Messenger (UWBP). Such love does not lead to love of God; it obscures it. Whereas if the person loves those things as signifying their Maker, it leads to love of God; indeed, such love may be said to be its manifestation. | |||
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==== | ====Third Point:==== | ||
This world is the realm of wisdom, the realm of service; it is not the realm of reward and recompense. The wage for deeds and acts of service here is given in the Intermediate Realm and the hereafter. Acts here produce fruits there. This being the truth of the matter, the results of actions that look to the hereafter should not be sought in this world. If they are given, they should be received not gratefully, but regretfully. For in Paradise, the more fruits are picked the more they grow. So it is hardly sensible to consume in this world in fleeting fashion the fruits of actions that pertain to the hereafter, which are lasting. It is like exchanging a permanent lamp for one that will last a minute and then flicker out. | |||
It is because of this that the people of sainthood look on service, difficulty, misfortune, and hardship as agreeable. They do not complain and lament, but say: “All praise be to God for all situations!” | |||
When illuminations and wonders, unfoldings and lights are bestowed on them, they accept them as divine favours, and try to conceal them. They do not become proud, but offer more thanks and worship. Many of them have wanted those states to be concealed or to cease, lest they spoil the sincerity of their actions. | |||
Yes, the highest divine favour for an acceptable person is not to make him realize the favour, so that he does not give up beseeching and offering thanks, or become complacent and start complaining. | |||
It is because of this truth that if those who seek sainthood and follow the Sufi path do so for illuminations and wonders, which are some of the emanations of sainthood, and they are turned towards those and receive pleasure from them, they as though consume in transient fashion in this transient world the enduring fruits of the hereafter. This too opens up the way to loss of sincerity, the leaven of sainthood, and to sainthood eluding them. | |||
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=== | ===Seventh Allusion=== | ||
This consists of four points. | |||
< | <span id="Birinci_Nükte:"></span> | ||
==== | ====First Point:==== | ||
The Shari‘a is directly, without shadow or veil, the result of the divine address, through the mystery of divine oneness in respect of absolute dominicalitY. The highest degrees of the Sufi path and of reality are like parts of the Shari‘a. Or they are always like its means, introduction, and servant. Their results are the incontrovertible matters of the Shari‘a. | |||
That is to say, the ways of the Sufi orders and of reality are like means, servants, and steps for reaching the truths of the Shari‘a, till at the highest level they are transformed into the meaning of reality and essence of the Sufi way, which are at the heart of the Shari‘a. So then they become parts of the Greater Shari‘a. | |||
It is not right to think of the Shari‘a as an outer shell and reality as its inner part and result and aim, as some Sufis do. | |||
Yes, the Shari‘a unfolds according to the levels of men. It is wrong to suppose that what the mass of people imagine is the external aspect of the Shari‘a is its reality, and to give the names of reality and Sufi path to the degrees of the Shari‘a that are disclosed to the elite. The Shari‘a has degrees which look to all classes. | |||
It is in consequence of this that the further the Sufis and those who seek reality advance, their longing for the truths of the Shari‘a increases, as does their captivation by them and their following them. They consider the most minor aspect of the Prophet’s (UWBP) practices to be their greatest aim, and strive to follow them and imitate them. For however higher divine revelation is than inspiration, the conduct of the Shari‘a, which is the fruit of revelation, is higher to the same degree than the conduct of the Sufi path, the fruit of inspiration. Therefore, following the Prophet’s (UWBP) practices is the basis and principal element of the Sufi path. | |||
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==== | ====Second Point:==== | ||
The Sufi path and way of reality should not exceed being means. If they are made the ultimate aim, the incontrovertible teachings and actions of the Shari‘a and following the practices of the Prophet (UWBP) become merely a matter of form, while the heart looks beyond them. That is to say, such a person thinks of his circle for the remembrance of God rather than the obligatory prayers; he is drawn more to his recitations and supplications than to his religious obligations; he is more concerned with avoiding offending against his order’s rules of behaviour than with avoiding grievous sins. Whereas the recitations of the Sufi path cannot be the equivalent of the obligatory acts that constitute the incontestible matters of the Shari‘a; they cannot take their place. | |||
The etiquette of the Sufi path and its invocations should be a solace and a way of obtaining true pleasure from the obligatory acts; they should not themselves be the source. That is, the tekke should lead a person to perform the five daily prayers assiduously in the mosque. If he performs them there hurriedly as a formality, thinking that he will find true pleasure and perfection in the tekke, he is drawing away from reality. | |||
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==== | ====Third Point:==== | ||
It is sometimes asked: “Can there be any Sufi path outside the practices of the Prophet (UWBP) and matters of the Shari‘a?” | |||
'''The Answer:'''There are some such paths, and there are not. There are, because some of the highest saints were executed by the sword of the Shari‘a. And there are not, because the authoritative scholars among the saints have agreed on this rule of Sa‘di-i Shirazi: | |||
''' | |||
“It is impossible, Sa‘di, to be victorious on the way of felicity, except by following the Chosen One.” | |||
That is, it is impossible for one outside the highway of God’s Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace), who does not follow him, to attain the true lights of reality. The meaning of this is as follows: | |||
God’s Messenger (Peace and blessings be upon him) was the Seal of the Prophets and the addressee of God in the name of all mankind; mankind, therefore, cannot advance outside his highway; it is essential to be under his banner. | |||
But since ecstatics and those immersed in divine contemplation are not responsible for their opposition; and since man possesses certain subtle faculties that are not held accountable, and when such faculties dominate a person, he cannot be held responsible for opposing the obligations of the Shari‘a; and since man possesses subtle faculties that just as they are not accountable, so they are not under the jurisdiction of the will and cannot be controlled by the mind, for they do not heed the heart or the mind; certainly, when those faculties dominate in a person, – but only at that time – he does not fall from the rank of sainthood by opposing the Shari‘a, he is held excused. On condition, however, that he does not deny or insult the truths of the Shari‘a and rules of belief, or display contempt towards them. Even if he does not carry out the injunctions, he has to acknowledge that they are right. But if he is overcome by that state and assumes a position, I seek refuge with God, which infers denial and giving the lie to those incontestible truths, it is the sign that he has deviated from the path! | |||
'''In Short:'''There are two groups that follow the Sufi path outside the bounds of the Shari‘a. | |||
''' | |||
'''One group:'''As described above, these people are either overwhelmed by their mental state, immersion, or ecstasy or intoxication, or they are dominated by some of their subtle faculties that do not heed the injunctions of religion nor listen to the will; they therefore transgress the bounds of the Shari‘a. | |||
''' | |||
But this is not due to their disliking its rulings or not wanting to follow them; they are rather compelled to, involuntarily. Among this group are people of sainthood some of whom have even been temporary saints of high rank. But the authoritative scholars from among the saints have ruled that of these some have been not only outside the bounds of the Shari‘a, but outside the bounds of Islam. But they are considered to be people of sainthood on condition they have not denied any of the injunctions brought by Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him). It is that they do not think of them, or cannot keep them in view, or are not aware of them. They cannot not accept them if they are aware of them. | |||
'''As for the Second Group,'''they are carried away by the brilliant pleasures of the Sufi path and way of reality, and since they cannot attain to the pleasures of the truths of the Shari‘a, which are far more elevated, they suppose them to be dull formalities and are indifferent towards them. They gradually accept the idea that the Shari‘a is an external shell, and that the reality they have found is the essential goal. They say: “I have found it; it is enough for me,” and act in a way contrary to the injunctions of the Shari‘a. Any in this group who are in their right minds are responsible; they stray from the path, indeed, become the playthings of Satan to an extent. | |||
''' | |||
< | <span id="Dördüncü_Nükte:"></span> | ||
==== | ====Fourth Point:==== | ||
Some persons who belong to the divisions of the people of misguidance and innovation are found acceptable by the Muslim community, while others, just like them and not apparently different, are rejected. I always used to wonder about this. | |||
For example, although someone like Zamakhshari was one of the most bigoted members of the Mu‘tazilite sect, the authoritative Sunni scholars did not pronounce him an unbeliever or misguided, despite his severe objections; they rather searched for a way to exonerate him. But then they held that Mu‘tazilite authorities like Abu ‘Ali Jubba’i, who was far less bigoted than Zamakhshari, should be rejected and refuted. | |||
I was curious about this for a long time. Then through divine grace I understood that Zamakhshari’s objections about the Sunnis arose from his love of his way, which he looked on as right.That is to say, for example, in his view God could be truly declared free of all fault and defect by saying that animals create their own actions. It was out of love for declaring God free of all fault that he did not accept the Sunnis’ principles concerning the creation of actions. Whereas the other Mu‘tazilite authorities were rejected because their inadequate intelligences could not aspire to the elevated principles of the Sunnis and they could not fit the Sunnis’ extensive laws within their own narrow ideas, and so denied them. | |||
In the same way that the Mu‘tazilites opposed the Sunnis in theology, so the opposition of some followers of the Sufi path outside the Prophet’s (UWBP) practices is of two kinds: | |||
'''The first:'''Like Zamakhshari, out of love for their way or state, they remain somewhat indifferent towards the conduct of the Shari‘a, because through it they cannot obtain the same degree of pleasure. | |||
''' | |||
'''As for the other kind:'''God forbid! They think the conduct of the Shari‘a is unimportant relatively to the principles of the Sufi path. For their narrow understandings cannot comprehend those broad pleasures, and their short stations cannot attain to that elevated conduct. | |||
''' | |||
< | <span id="Sekizinci_Telvih"></span> | ||
=== | ===Eighth Allusion=== | ||
This describes eight abysses. | |||
< | <span id="Birincisi:"></span> | ||
==== | ====The First:==== | ||
Some people who embark on spiritual journeying do not conform completely to the Prophet’s (UWBP) practices, and fall into the abyss of preferring sainthood to prophethood. | |||
It is proved in the Twenty-Fourth and Thirty-First Words how elevated is prophethood, and how dull sainthood is in relation to it. | |||
< | <span id="İkincisi:"></span> | ||
==== | ====The Second:==== | ||
Some of followers of the Sufi path fall into the abyss of preferring extremist saints to the Prophet’s (UWBP) Companions and even of believing those saints to be prophets. | |||
It is proved decisively in the Twelfth and Twenty-Seventh Words and in the Addendum on the Companions, that the Companions acquired such qualities through conversation with the Prophet (UWBP) that cannot be attained through sainthood, and that the Companions cannot be surpassed, and that the saints can never reach the degree of the Companions. | |||
< | <span id="Üçüncüsü:"></span> | ||
==== | ====The Third:==== | ||
Some of those who are excessively bigoted concerning the Sufi path oppose the practices of the Prophet (UWBP) and give them up because of their preference for the customs, conduct, and recitations of the Sufi way, which they never give up. In this way, they become slack in practising the conduct of the Shari‘a, and fall into that abyss. | |||
As is proved in many of the Words, and as veracious authorities of the Sufi path like Imam Ghazali and Imam-i Rabbani said: “The degree of acceptance gained by following a single of the Prophet’s (UWBP) practices cannot be won through a hundred personal practices and supererogatory acts of worship. And just as a single obligatory act is superior to a thousand acts taken from the Prophet’s practices, so a single of those practices is superior to a thousand practices of Sufism.” | |||
< | <span id="Dördüncüsü:"></span> | ||
==== | ====The Fourth:==== | ||
Some extremist Sufis suppose inspiration to be like divine revelation and of similar kind to revelation, and fall into an abyss. | |||
It has been proved most definitely in the Twelfth Word and in the Twenty-Fifth Word about the miraculousness of the Qur’an, how elevated, universal, and sacred is divine revelation, and how insignificant and dull inspirations are in comparison. | |||
< | <span id="Beşincisi:"></span> | ||
==== | ====The Fifth:==== | ||
Some Sufis who do not understand the essence of the Sufi path, in order to strengthen the weak, encourage the slack, and to lighten the hardships and weariness arising from strenuous service, find the lights, illuminations, and wonders, which are not sought but given, to be pleasurable, and they become captivated by them and fall into the abyss of preferring them to worship, acts of service, and recitation of supplications. | |||
It is mentioned briefly in the Third Point of the Sixth Allusion in the present treatise and proved decisively in others of the Words that this world is the realm of service and not the realm of reward. People who seek their recompense here, both transform enduring, perpetual fruits into a transitory, temporary form, and find permanence in this world pleasing, so they do not yearn for the Intermediate Realm. Quite simply, they love the life of this world in one respect, since they find a sort of hereafter within it. | |||
< | <span id="Altıncısı:"></span> | ||
==== | ====The Sixth:==== | ||
Some of those who embark on spiritual journeying fall into an abyss by confusing the shades and shadows and partial samples of the stations of sainthood with its fundamental, universal stations. | |||
As is proved clearly in the Second Branch of the Twenty-Fourth Word and in others of the Words, the sun becomes numerous by means of mirrors and thousands of its similitudes possess light and heat like the sun itself, despite their paltriness in relation to the actual sun. In exactly the same way, the stations of the prophets and the great saints possess shades and shadows. Those who journey with the spirit enter these, and see themselves as greater than those great saints, or even to have advanced further than the prophets, and so fall into an abyss. | |||
However, the way to avoid this is to always take the principles of belief and fundamentals of the Shari‘a as one’s basis and guide, and to look on one’s illuminations and visions as opposed to them. | |||
< | <span id="Yedincisi:"></span> | ||
==== | ====The Seventh:==== | ||
Some of the people of illumination and ecstasy fall into an abyss in their spiritual journeyings by preferring pride, complaint, ecstatic utterances, public regard, and being referred to, to offering thanks and supplication, beseeching Almighty God, and self-sufficiency. | |||
Whereas the highest degree is Muhammadan worship, which is termed “belovedness.” The basis and essence of worship is to manifest the perfection of that reality b y supplicating and beseeching Almighty God, showing deep humility before Him, offering thanks, and through impotence and want, and by displaying self-sufficiency in the face of others. Some of the great saints have involuntarily and temporarily become proud and made complaints and ecstatic utterances, but they should not be followed voluntarily on such points; they are rightly-guided but not the guide; their way may not be taken! | |||
< | <span id="Sekizinci_Varta:"></span> | ||
==== | ====The Eighth Abyss:==== | ||
Some of those who journey spiritually are self-centred and precipitate and want to consume in this world the fruits of sainthood, which will be given in the hereafter; they fall into an abyss by seeking them on their spiritual journeyings. | |||
But, as such verses as,“The life of this world is but goods and chattels”(3:185)proclaim, and as is proved decisively in many of the Words, a single fruit in the realm of eternity is superior to a thousand gardens in this fleeting world. For this reason, those blessed fruits should not be consumed here. If without being sought they are given to eat here, they should be thanked for, and deemed divine favours bestowed, not as reward, but for encouragement. | |||
< | <span id="Dokuzuncu_Telvih"></span> | ||
=== | ===Ninth Allusion=== | ||
Here we shall describe briefly nine out of the truly numerous fruits and benefits of the Sufi path. | |||
< | <span id="Birincisi:"></span> | ||
==== | ====The First==== | ||
is the unfolding and clarification, by means of the Sufi paths that are on the straight way, of the truths of faith, which are the keys, sources, and springs of the eternal treasuries of everlasting happiness; it is their manifestation at the degree of the vision of certainty. | |||
< | <span id="İkincisi:"></span> | ||
==== | ====The Second:==== | ||
Since the Sufi path is a means of working the heart, the mainspring of the human machine, and of causing it to stir the other subtle faculties into motion, it drives them to fulfil the purposes of their creation and thus makes a person into a true human being. | |||
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==== | ====The Third:==== | ||
On the journey to the Intermediate Realm and the hereafter, it is to join one of the lines of the Sufi orders, and become a member of its luminous caravan on the road to eternity. The person is thus saved from loneliness and finds the friendship of the other members in this world and in the Intermediate Realm; and relying on their consensus and accord in the face of the attacks of doubts and fears, and seeing each of their masters as a powerful support and proof, he repulses through them those doubts and instances of misguidance. | |||
< | <span id="Dördüncüsü:"></span> | ||
==== | ====The Fourth==== | ||
is to understand by means of the pure Sufi way the knowledge of God to be found in belief in God, and the pleasure of love of God within the knowledge of God, and by so understanding, to be saved from the desolation of this world and man’s exile in the universe. | |||
We have proved in many of the Words that the happiness of both worlds, and pain-free pleasure, and intimacy untainted by loneliness, and true delight, and untroubled happiness are all to be found in faith and the reality of Islam. As is explained in the Second Word, faith produces the seed of a Tuba-tree of Paradise. It is through the training and nurturing of the Sufi path that the seed grows and develops. | |||
< | <span id="Beşincisi:"></span> | ||
==== | ====The Fifth==== | ||
is to perceive through an awakening of the heart elicited by the Sufi path and remembrance of God, the subtle truths contained in the obligations of the Shari‘a, and to appreciate them. Then the person obeys and performs his worship, not under compulsion, but with longing. | |||
< | <span id="Altıncısı:"></span> | ||
==== | ====The Sixth==== | ||
is to rise to the station of reliance on God and the rank of submission to Him and winning His pleasure, which are the means of obtaining true delight, real solace, painfree pleasure, and friendship untainted by loneliness. | |||
< | <span id="Yedincisi:"></span> | ||
==== | ====The Seventh==== | ||
The Seventh is, through sincerity, which is the essential precondition for travelling the Sufi way and its most valuable result, to be delivered from base qualities like implicitly associating partners with God, hypocrisy, and artificiality. It is also to be saved, through purifying the soul, which is like the surgical operation of the Sufi path, from the dangers of the evil-commanding soul and the perils of egotism. | |||
< | <span id="Sekizincisi:"></span> | ||
==== | ====The Eighth:==== | ||
Through the regard, sense of the divine presence, and powerful intentions of the Sufi path, gained by recalling God with the heart and reflecting on Him with the mind, this is to transform customary actions into worship and make mundane dealings into actions benefiting the hereafter. Utilizing the capital of life, it is to make all its minutes into seeds that will produce the shoots of eternal happiness. | |||
< | <span id="Dokuzuncusu:"></span> | ||
==== | ====The Ninth==== | ||
is to struggle to be a perfect human being through journeying with the heart and striving with the spirit and spiritual progress; that is to say, to be a true believer and total Muslim; that is, to gain not superficial belief, but the reality of belief and the reality of Islam; that is, to be directly the bondsman of the Glorious Creator of the Universe, in the universe and in one respect as the universe’s representative, and to be His addressee, and friend, and beloved, and to be a mirror to Him; and through showing man to be on the best of patterns, it is to prove man’s superiority to the angels. It is to fly through the lofty stations with the Shari‘a’s wings of faith and works, and to behold eternal happiness in this world, and even to enter upon it. | |||
Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise!(2:32) | |||
O God! Grant blessings and peace to the Supreme Help in every age and the Sublime Spiritual Pole at all times, our master Muhammad, the magnificence of whose sainthood was manifested in his Ascension, as was the station of his being the beloved of God, and under the shadow of whose Ascension are included all sainthoods, and to all his Family and Companions. Amen. And all praise be to God, the Sustainer of All the Worlds. | |||
< | <span id="Zeyl"></span> | ||
== | ==Addendum== | ||
[This short addendum has great importance;] | |||
it is beneficial for everyone. | |||
The ways leading to Almighty God are truly numerous. While all true ways are taken from the Qur’an, some are shorter, safer, and more general than others. Of these ways taken from the Qur’an is that of impotence, poverty, compassion, and reflection, from which, with my defective understanding, I have benefited. | |||
Like ecstatic love, impotence is a path which, by way of worship, leads to winning God’s love; but it is safer. | |||
Poverty too leads to the divine name of All- Merciful. | |||
And, like ecstatic love, compassion leads to the name of All- Compassionate, but it is a swifter and broader path. | |||
Also like ecstatic love, reflection leads to the name of All-Wise, but it is richer, broader, and more brilliant path. | |||
This path consists not of ten steps like the ten subtle faculties of some of the Sufi paths employing silent recollection, nor of seven stages like the seven souls of those practising public recitation, but of four steps. It is reality (hakikat), rather than a Sufi way (tarikat). It is Shari‘a.However, let it not be misunderstood. It means to see one’s impotence, poverty and faults before Almighty God, not to fabricate them or display them to people. | |||
The method of this short path is to follow the practices of the Prophet (UWBP), perform the religious obligations and give up serious sins. It is especially to perform the prescribed prayers correctly and with attention, and following them to say the tesbihat. | |||
The verse, “Therefore, do not justify yourselves,”(53:32) points to the first step. | |||
The verse, “And be not like those who forget God, and He therefore makes them forget their own selves,”(59:19) points to the second step. | |||
The verse, “Whatever good happens to you is from God, but whatever evil befalls you is from yourself,”(4:79) points to the third step. | |||
The verse, “Everything will perish save His countenance,”(28:88) points to the fourth step. | |||
A brief explanation of these four steps is as follows: | |||
< | <span id="Birinci_hatvede"></span> | ||
=== | ===First Step=== | ||
As the verse, “Therefore, do not justify yourselves” suggests, it is to not purify the soul. For on account of his nature and innate disposition, man loves himself. Indeed, he loves himself before anything else, and only himself. He sacrifices everything other than himself to his own soul. He praises himself in a manner befitting some object worthy of worship. He absolves and exonerates himself from faults in the same way. As far as he possibly can, he does not see faults as being appropriate for him, and does not accept them. He defends himself passionately as though worshipping himself. Even, using on himself the members and faculties given him as part of his nature in order to praise and glorify the True Object of Worship, he displays the meaning of the verse,“Who takes as his god his own desires.”(25:43; 45:23)He considers himself, he relies on himself, he fancies himself. | |||
Thus, his purification and cleansing at this stage, in this step, is to not purify himself; it is not to absolve himself. | |||
< | <span id="İkinci_hatvede"></span> | ||
=== | ===Second Step=== | ||
As the verse, “And be not like those who forget God, and He therefore makes them forget their own selves” teaches, man is oblivious of himself and not aware of himself. If he thinks of death, it is in relation to others. If he sees transience and decline, he does not attribute them to himself. His evil-commanding soul demands that when it comes to inconvenience and service of others, he forgets himself, but when it comes to receiving his recompense, and to benefits and enjoyment, he thinks of himself and takes his own part fervently. | |||
His purification, cleansing, and training at this stage is the reverse of this. That is to say, when oblivious of himself, it is not to be oblivious. That is, to forget himself when it comes to pleasure, and ambition and greed, and to think of himself when it comes to death and service of others. | |||
< | <span id="Üçüncü_hatvede"></span> | ||
=== | ===Third Step=== | ||
As the verse, “Whatever good happens to you is from God, but whatever evil befalls you is from yourself” teaches, the nature of the evil-commanding soul demands that it always considers goodness to be from itself and it becomes vain and conceited. Thus, at this step, a person sees only faults, defects, impotence, and poverty in himself, and understands that all his good qualities and perfections are bounties bestowed on him by the All- Glorious Creator. He gives thanks instead of being conceited, and offers praise instead of boasting. | |||
According to the meaning of the verse,Truly he succeeds who purifies it,(91:9)his purification at this stage is to know his perfection to lie in imperfection, his power in impotence, and his wealth in poverty. | |||
< | <span id="Dördüncü_hatvede"></span> | ||
=== | ===Fourth Step=== | ||
As the verse, “Everything will perish save His countenance” teaches, the evil- commanding soul considers itself to be free and independent and to exist of itself. Because of this, man claims to possess a sort of dominicality. He harbours a hostile rebelliousness towards his True Object of Worship. Thus, through understanding the following fact, he is saved from this. | |||
The fact is this:According to the apparent meaning of things, which looks to each thing itself, everything is transitory, wanting, accidental, non-existent. But according to the meaning that signifies something other than itself and in respect of each thing being a mirror to the All-Glorious Maker’s names and charged with various duties, each is a witness, it is witnessed, and it is existent. | |||
The purification and cleansing of a person at this stage is as follows: In his existence he is non-existent, and in his non-existence he has existence. That is to say, if he values himself and attributes existence to himself, he is in the darkness of non-existence as great as the universe. That is, if he relies on his individual existence and is unmindful of the True Giver of Existence, he has an individual light of existence like that of a fire-fly and is submerged in an endless darkness of non- existence and separation. But if he gives up egotism and sees that he is a mirror of the manifestations of the True Giver of Existence, he gains all beings and an infinite existence. For he who finds the Necessary Existent, the manifestation of whose names all beings manifest, finds everything. | |||
< | <span id="Hâtime"></span> | ||
=== | ===Conclusion=== | ||
The four steps in this way of impotence, poverty, compassion, and reflection have been explained in the twenty-six Words so far written, which are concerned with knowledge of reality, the reality of the Shari‘a, and the wisdom of the Qur’an. So here, we shall allude briefly to only one or two points, as follows: | |||
This path is shorter, because it consists of four steps. When impotence causes a person to give up the soul, it turns him directly to the All-Powerful One of Glory. Whereas when a person on the way of ecstatic love, the swiftest way, gives up the soul, his way directs him to a temporary beloved. Only when he discovers the beloved’s impermanence does he turn to the True Beloved. | |||
Also, this path is much safer, because the ravings and high-flown claims of the soul are not present on it. For apart from impotence, poverty, and defect, the soul possesses nothing so that it oversteps its mark. | |||
Also, this path is much broader and more universal. For in order to attain to a constant awareness of God’s presence, a person is not compelled to imagine the universe to be condemned to non-existence and to declare: “There is no existent but He,” like those who believe in the Unity of Existence, nor to suppose the universe to be condemned to imprisonment in absolute oblivion and to say, “There is nothing witnessed but He,” like those who believe in the Unity of Witnessing. Rather, since the Qur’an has most explicitly pardoned the universe and released it from execution and imprisonment, the person on this path disregards the above, and dismissing beings from working on their own account and employing them on account of the All- Glorious Creator, and in the duty of manifesting the Most Beautiful Names and being mirrors to them, he considers them from the point of view of signifying something other than themselves; and being saved from absolute heedlessness, he enters the divine presence permanently; he finds a way leading to the Almighty God in everything. | |||
'''In Short:'''Dismissing beings from working on account of other beings, this way is to not look at them as signifying themselves. | |||
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<center> [[Yirmi Sekizinci Mektup]] ⇐ | [[Mektubat]] | ⇒ [[ | <center> [[Yirmi Sekizinci Mektup/en|TheTwenty-Eighth Letter]] ⇐ | [[Mektubat/en|The Letters]] | ⇒ [[Hakikat Çekirdekleri/en|Seeds of Reality]] </center> | ||
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