Wahdat Al Wujud
Questions: As salaam-u-alaikum Shaykh Abdul Hadi,
QUESTION 1
Ibn al-Arabi stated the concept of “Wahdat-al-wujud.” I’ve heard from scholars that it is a correct principle for Muslims to believe in. However, I’ve also read that Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi refuted this concept. Is this true? Both Ibn al-Arabi and Ahmad Sirhindi were sufis. Why the
disagreement on this concept when both were spreading Ahl al-Sunna da’wa? Is it not only the Wahhabis who call this concept a “bad innovation?”
ANSWER
By asking this question you are touching one of the subtlest aspects of ‘ilm. Unfortunately, it seems that many persons who are not qualified for studying these doctrines think of themselves as experts, and express groundless judgments. Ibn ‘Arabi and Imam Rabbani Sarhindi, radi Allahu ‘anhuma’, were sufis of the highest level and – apart from this – were also muhaddithuns and fuqahas. IMHO, Imam Rabbani reached a higher degree in wilayah. Their respective doctrines (wahdat al-wujud and wahdat as-shuhud) are not theological (kalami), but gnostic (‘irfani). When two theological doctrines are opposite (e.g. Ash’arism and Mu’tazilism), one of them must necessarily be true, and the other necessarily false. But ‘irfani doctrines do not refer to the rational understanding of the nature of Allah, but to a special level of comprehension, depending on the level one reaches during the spiritual journey.
Suppose I tell you: “Your cousin is Allah”. From the point of view of kalam, this affirmation is false (and kufr), and you will answer me: “No, my cousin is a created being”. But, from the point of view of a wali who is in the maqam of ahadiyyah, it could be correct. In the ahadiyyah, the condition of “createdness” (‘ubudiyyah) is dissolved in fana’, and what is left of “your cousin” is only a peculiar manifestation of a divine Name. The Quranic verse “Everything perishes, except His Face” hints to this condition. A wali is compelled to disguise this condition of his, since when he speaks according to it, ordinary Muslims will think he is becoming a kafir. Mansur al-Hallaj was killed since he uttered “Ana ‘l-Haqq”, but this was not a real form of kufr, since his ego was completely in fana’; those who condemned him to capital punishment – in their turn – are not sinners, because the judgment of the Shari’ah is based on exterior acts. All this is clearly explain by Jalal ad-din Rumi in his Mathnawi.
The spiritual journey has two directions: a) from al-khalq to al-Haqq, and b) from al-Haqq to al-khalq. During the first part of the journey, the created world disappears, and the wali sees only Allah. Ibn ‘Arabi’s doctrine is connected to this part of the journey and, for this reason, it can seem that, from an exterior point of view, it contradicts the teaching of Ash’ari kalam. On the contrary, Imam Rabbani’s doctrine refers to the second part, when the world reappears in Allah; for this reason, it fully agrees with ‘ilm al-kalam. Technically speaking, wahdat al-wujud is a “intoxicated” doctrine, and wahdat as-shuhud is a “sober” doctrine. There is no arm in studying and preaching a sober doctrine, but a drunk doctrine can exteriorly appear as kufr. Some Sunni ‘Ulema (like as-Simnani), who have never reach that degree of wilayah, condemned Ibn ‘Arabi, but none of them ever condemned Imam Rabbani. My personal opinion is that everyone can study his Maktubat, while the study of Ibn ‘Arabi’s Futuhat al-Makkiyyah or Fusus al-Hikam must be reserved for those scholars who are experts in Tasawwuf. Notwithstanding this, Imam Rabbani defends Ibn ‘Arabi against those who criticize him.
Why we dont have Visions
“A Persian poet relates the story of a young man who was devoted to worship and who sincerely loved the Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wa salam). This young man wished to see the Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wa salam) in his dreams. But, night after night, even though he prayed and hoped for it, he was not blessed with this vision. He decided to visit a wise shaykh he had heard mention of who lived on the far reaches of town and seek his advice. He made his way to his home one evening, and the shaykh invited him in for discussion and tea. After explaining his situation to him, the shaykh nodded sagely and said, “Be my guest for tonight, and tomorrow morning I will give you some advice.”
That night, the shaykh served the young man dinner. Everything in the simple meal was covered with salt or was dry. Salty fish, dry, hard bread… and not a drop to drink. The young man craved water, but was offered none. His parched throat made him yearn to ask the shaykh for something to drink, but his manners kept him quiet. He ate the food without complaint, his thirst increasing with each bite.
After the Isha prayers the shaykh unfolded a mat, offered it to the young man for his night’s rest, and bade him good night.
That night, the young man dreamed of nothing but water. Cascading fountains, gushing rivers and streams, oceans full of pure, delicious, thirst-quenching water. He dreamed of it until he felt he was swimming in it, drinking huge gulps, until it filled his every pore. He woke before daybreak, one word croaking from his lips: ‘Water….’
The next morning the shaykh asked him if he rested well. The young man then told him about his thirst and his dreams.
The shaykh smiled. He said, “When you begin to have thirst and desire for the Prophet, salAllahu alayhi wa salam, the way you had thirst for water last night, then you will be blessed with his vision.”
[From: http://ilm.sadiqweb.com/?p=332]
The Sufi Paradigm of Peace-Making
There are three stations of peace in Sufism and the traveller on the spiritual path enters one of these stations according to his spiritual state. Of course the dweller at a lower stage has no access to the upper stations, and due to differences in rank, a single criterion is not to be applied to the dwellers of each station.
These three stations consist of peace at the stage of Islam (submission, abandonment to the Divine will), peace at the stage of Iman (the Divine peace that enters the believer’s heart), and peace at the stage of Ihsan (the Sanctifying Virtue through which the sovereignty of evil comes to an end).
Peace at the stage of Islam pertains to the corporeal and social aspects of human beings, whereas at the stage of Iman it pertains to the heart and the microcosm, and finally at the stage of Ihsan peace pertains to the Spirit and to the macrocosm.
[Read the rest at: http://seekeraftertruth.com/?p=569]
The Place of Tasawwuf in Traditional Islam – By Nuh Ha Mim Keller
Perhaps the biggest challenge in learning Islam correctly today is the scarcity of traditional ‘ulama. In this meaning, Bukhari relates the sahih, rigorously authenticated hadith that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “Truly, Allah does not remove Sacred Knowedge by taking it out of servants, but rather by taking back the souls of Islamic scholars [in death], until, when He has not left a single scholar, the people take the ignorant as leaders, who are asked for and who give Islamic legal opinion without knowledge, misguided and misguiding” (Fath al-Bari, 1.194, hadith 100).
The process described by the hadith is not yet completed, but has certainly begun, and in our times, the lack of traditional scholars—whether in Islamic law, in hadith, in tafsir ‘Qur’anic exegesis’—has given rise to an understanding of the religion that is far from scholarly, and sometimes far from the truth. For example, in the course of my own studies in Islamic law, my first impression from orientalist and Muslim-reformer literature, was that the Imams of the madhhabs or ‘schools of jurisprudence’ had brought a set of rules from completely outside the Islamic tradition and somehow imposed them upon the Muslims. But when I sat with traditional scholars in the Middle East and asked them about the details, I came away with a different point of view, having learned the bases for deriving the law from the Qur’an and sunna.
And similarly with Tasawwuf—which is the word I will use tonight for the English Sufism, since our context is traditional Islam—quite a different picture emerged from talking with scholars of Tasawwuf than what I had been exposed to in the West. My talk tonight, In Sha’ Allah, will present knowledge taken from the Qur’an and sahih hadith, and from actual teachers of Tasawwuf in Syria and Jordan, in view of the need for all of us to get beyond clichés, the need for factual information from Islamic sources, the need to answer such questions as: Where did Tasawwuf come from? What role does it play in the din or religion of Islam? and most importantly, What is the command of Allah about it?
As for the origin of the term Tasawwuf, like many other Islamic discliplines, its name was not known to the first generation of Muslims. The historian Ibn Khaldun notes in his Muqaddima:
This knowledge is a branch of the sciences of Sacred Law that originated within the Umma. From the first, the way of such people had also been considered the path of truth and guidance by the early Muslim community and its notables, of the Companions of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), those who were taught by them, and those who came after them.
It basically consists of dedication to worship, total dedication to Allah Most High, disregard for the finery and ornament of the world, abstinence from the pleasure, wealth, and prestige sought by most men, and retiring from others to worship alone. This was the general rule among the Companions of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and the early Muslims, but when involvement in this-worldly things became widespread from the second Islamic century onwards and people became absorbed in worldliness, those devoted to worship came to be called Sufiyya or People of Tasawwuf (Ibn Khaldun, al-Muqaddima [N.d. Reprint. Mecca: Dar al-Baz, 1397/1978], 467).
In Ibn Khaldun’s words, the content of Tasawwuf, “total dedication to Allah Most High,” was, “the general rule among the Companions of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and the early Muslims.” So if the word did not exist in earliest times, we should not forget that this is also the case with many other Islamic disciplines, such as tafsir, ‘Qur’anic exegesis,’ or ‘ilm al-jarh wa ta‘dil, ‘the science of the positive and negative factors that affect hadith narrators acceptability,’ or ‘ilm al-tawhid, the science of belief in Islamic tenets of faith,’ all of which proved to be of the utmost importance to the correct preservation and transmission of the religion.
As for the origin of the word Tasawwuf, it may well be from Sufi, the person who does Tasawwuf, which seems to be etymologically prior to it, for the earliest mention of either term was by Hasan al-Basri who died 110 years after the Hijra, and is reported to have said, “I saw a Sufi circumambulating the Kaaba, and offered him a dirham, but he would not accept it.” It therefore seems better to understand Tasawwuf by first asking what a Sufi is; and perhaps the best definition of both the Sufi and his way, certainly one of the most frequently quoted by masters of the discipline, is from the sunna of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) who said:
Allah Most High says: “He who is hostile to a friend of Mine I declare war against. My slave approaches Me with nothing more beloved to Me than what I have made obligatory upon him, and My slave keeps drawing nearer to Me with voluntary works until I love him. And when I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, his sight with which he sees, his hand with which he seizes, and his foot with which he walks. If he asks me, I will surely give to him, and if he seeks refuge in Me, I will surely protect him” (Fath al-Bari, 11.340–41, hadith 6502);
This hadith was related by Imam Bukhari, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Bayhaqi, and others with multiple contiguous chains of transmission, and is sahih. It discloses the central reality of Tasawwuf, which is precisely change, while describing the path to this change, in conformity with a traditional definition used by masters in the Middle East, who define a Sufi as Faqihun ‘amila bi ‘ilmihi fa awrathahu Llahu ‘ilma ma lam ya‘lam,‘A man of religious learning who applied what he knew, so Allah bequeathed him knowledge of what he did not know.’
To clarify, a Sufi is a man of religious learning,because the hadith says, “My slave approaches Me with nothing more beloved to Me than what I have made obligatory upon him,” and only through learning can the Sufi know the command of Allah, or what has been made obligatory for him. He has applied what he knew, because the hadith says he not only approaches Allah with the obligatory, but “keeps drawing nearer to Me with voluntary works until I love him.” And in turn, Allah bequeathed him knowledge of what he did not know, because the hadith says, “And when I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, his sight with which he sees, his hand with which he seizes, and his foot with which he walks,” which is a metaphor for the consummate awareness of tawhid, or the ‘unity of Allah,’ which in the context of human actions such as hearing, sight, seizing, and walking, consists of realizing the words of the Qur’an about Allah that,
“It is He who created you and what you do” (Qur’an 37:96).
The origin of the way of the Sufi thus lies in the prophetic sunna. The sincerity to Allah that it entails was the rule among the earliest Muslims, to whom this was simply a state of being without a name, while it only became a distinct discipline when the majority of the Community had drifted away and changed from this state. Muslims of subsequent generations required systematic effort to attain it, and it was because of the change in the Islamic environment after the earliest generations, that a discipline by the name of Tasawwuf came to exist.
But if this is true of origins, the more significant question is: How central is Tasawwuf to the religion, and: Where does it fit into Islam as a whole? Perhaps the best answer is the hadith of Muslim, that ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab said:
As we sat one day with the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace), a man in pure white clothing and jet black hair came to us, without a trace of travelling upon him, though none of us knew him.
He sat down before the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) bracing his knees against his, resting his hands on his legs, and said: “Muhammad, tell me about Islam.” The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said: “Islam is to testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and to perform the prayer, give zakat, fast in Ramadan, and perform the pilgrimage to the House if you can find a way.”
He said: “You have spoken the truth,” and we were surprised that he should ask and then confirm the answer. Then he said: “Tell me about true faith (iman),” and the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) answered: “It is to believe in Allah, His angels, His inspired Books, His messengers, the Last Day, and in destiny, its good and evil.”
“You have spoken the truth,” he said, “Now tell me about the perfection of faith (ihsan),” and the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) answered: “It is to worship Allah as if you see Him, and if you see Him not, He nevertheless sees you.”
The hadith continues to where ‘Umar said:
Then the visitor left. I waited a long while, and the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said to me, “Do you know, ‘Umar, who was the questioner?” and I replied, “Allah and His messenger know best.” He said,
“It was Gabriel, who came to you to teach you your religion” (Sahih Muslim, 1.37: hadith 8).
This is a sahih hadith, described by Imam Nawawi as one of the hadiths upon which the Islamic religion turns. The use of din in the last words of it, Atakum yu‘allimukum dinakum, “came to you to teach you your religion” entails that the religion of Islam is composed of the three fundamentals mentioned in the hadith: Islam, or external compliance with what Allah asks of us; Iman, or the belief in the unseen that the prophets have informed us of; and Ihsan, or to worship Allah as though one sees Him. The Qur’an says, in Surat Maryam,
“Surely We have revealed the Remembrance, and surely We shall preserve it” (Qur’an 15:9),
and if we reflect how Allah, in His wisdom, has accomplished this, we see that it is by human beings, the traditional scholars He has sent at each level of the religion. The level of Islam has been preserved and conveyed to us by the Imams of Shari‘a or ‘Sacred Law’ and its ancillary disciplines; the level of Iman, by the Imams of ‘Aqida or ‘tenets of faith’; and the level of Ihsan, “to worship Allah as though you see Him,” by the Imams of Tasawwuf.
The hadith’s very words “to worship Allah” show us the interrelation of these three fundamentals, for the how of “worship” is only known through the external prescriptions of Islam, while the validity of this worship in turn presupposes Iman or faith in Allah and the Islamic revelation, without which worship would be but empty motions; while the words, “as if you see Him,” show that Ihsan implies a human change, for it entails the experience of what, for most of us, is not experienced. So to understand Tasawwuf, we must look at the nature of this change in relation to both Islam and Iman, and this is the main focus of my talk tonight.
At the level of Islam, we said that Tasawwuf requires Islam,through ‘submission to the rules of Sacred Law.’ But Islam, for its part, equally requires Tasawwuf. Why? For the very good reason that the sunna which Muslims have been commanded to follow is not just the words and actions of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), but also his states, states of the heart such as taqwa ‘godfearingness,’ ikhlas ‘sincerity,’ tawakkul ‘reliance on Allah,’ rahma ‘mercy,’ tawadu‘ ‘humility,’ and so on.
Now, it is characteristic of the Islamic ethic that human actions are not simply divided into two shades of morality, right or wrong; but rather five, arranged in order of their consequences in the next world. The obligatory (wajib) is that whose performance is rewarded by Allah in the next life and whose nonperformance is punished. The recommended (mandub) is that whose performance is rewarded, but whose nonperformance is not punished. The permissible (mubah) is indifferent, unconnected with either reward or punishment. The offensive (makruh) is that whose nonperformance is rewarded but whose performance is not punished. The unlawful (haram) is that whose nonperformance is rewarded and whose performance is punished, if one dies unrepentant.
Human states of the heart, the Qur’an and sunna make plain to us, come under each of these headings. Yet they are not dealt with in books of fiqh or ‘Islamic jurisprudence,’ because unlike the prayer, zakat, or fasting, they are not quantifiable in terms of the specific amount of them that must be done. But though they are not countable, they are of the utmost importance to every Muslim. Let’s look at a few examples.
(1) Love of Allah. In Surat al-Baqara of the Qur’an, Allah blames those who ascribe associates to Allah whom they love as much as they love Allah. Then He says,
“And those who believe are greater in love for Allah” (Qur’an 2:165), making being a believer conditional upon having greater love for Allah than any other.
(2) Mercy. Bukhari and Muslim relate that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “Whomever is not merciful to people, Allah will show no mercy” (Sahih Muslim, 4.1809: hadith 2319), and Tirmidhi relates the well authenticated (hasan) hadith “Mercy is not taken out of anyone except the damned” (al-Jami‘ al-sahih, 4.323: hadith 1923).
(3) Love of each other. Muslim relates in his Sahih that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “By Him in whose hand is my soul, none of you shall enter paradise until you believe, and none of you shall believe until you love one another . . . .” (Sahih Muslim, 1.74: hadith 54).
(4) Presence of mind in the prayer (salat). Abu Dawud relates in his Sunan that ‘Ammar ibn Yasir heard the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) say, “Truly, a man leaves, and none of his prayer has been recorded for him except a tenth of it, a ninth of it, eighth of it, seventh of it, sixth of it, fifth of it, fourth of it, third of it, a half of it” (Sunan Abi Dawud, 1.211: hadith 796)—meaning that none of a person’s prayer counts for him except that in which he is present in his heart with Allah.
(5) Love of the Prophet. Bukhari relates in his Sahih that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “None of you believes until I am more beloved to him than his father, his son, and all people” (Fath al-Bari, 1.58, hadith 15).
It is plain from these texts that none of the states mentioned—whether mercy, love, or presence of heart—are quantifiable, for the Shari‘a cannot specify that one must “do two units of mercy” or “have three units of presence of mind” in the way that the number of rak‘as of prayer can be specified, yet each of them is personally obligatory for the Muslim. Let us complete the picture by looking at a few examples of states that are haram or ‘strictly unlawful’:
(1) Fear of anyone besides Allah. Allah Most High says in Surat al-Baqara of the Qur’an,
“And fulfill My covenant: I will fulfill your covenant—And fear Me alone” (Qur’an 2:40), the last phrase of which, according to Imam Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, “establishes that a human being is obliged to fear no one besides Allah Most High” (Tafsir al-Fakhr al-Razi, 3.42).
(2) Despair. Allah Most High says,
“None despairs of Allah’s mercy except the people who disbelieve” (Qur’an 12:87), indicating the unlawfulness of this inward state by coupling it with the worst human condition possible, that of unbelief.
(3) Arrogance. Muslim relates in his Sahih that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “No one shall enter paradise who has a particle of arrogance in his heart” (Sahih Muslim, 1.93: hadith 91).
(4) Envy,meaning to wish for another to lose the blessings he enjoys. Abu Dawud relates that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “Beware of envy, for envy consumes good works as flames consume firewood” (Sunan Abi Dawud, 4.276: hadith 4903).
(5) Showing off in acts of worship. Al-Hakim relates with a sahih chain of transmission that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “The slightest bit of showing off in good works is as if worshipping others with Allah . . . .” (al-Mustadrak ‘ala al-Sahihayn, 1.4).
These and similar haram inward states are not found in books of fiqh or ‘jurisprudence,’ because fiqh can only deal with quantifiable descriptions of rulings. Rather, they are examined in their causes and remedies by the scholars of the ‘inner fiqh’ of Tasawwuf, men such as Imam al-Ghazali in his Ihya’ ‘ulum al-din [The reviving of the religious sciences], Imam al-Rabbani in his Maktubat [Letters], al-Suhrawardi in his ‘Awarif al-Ma‘arif [The knowledges of the illuminates], Abu Talib al-Makki in Qut al-qulub [The sustenance of hearts], and similar classic works, which discuss and solve hundreds of ethical questions about the inner life. These are books of Shari‘a and their questions are questions of Sacred Law, of how it is lawful or unlawful for a Muslim to be; and they preserve the part of the prophetic sunna dealing with states.
Who needs such information? All Muslims, for the Qur’anic verses and authenticated hadiths all point to the fact that a Muslim must not only do certain things and say certain things, but also must be something, must attain certain states of the heart and eliminate others. Do we ever fear someone besides Allah? Do we have a particle of arrogance in our hearts? Is our love for the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) greater than our love for any other human being? Is there the slightest bit of showing off in our good works?
Half a minute’s reflection will show the Muslim where he stands on these aspects of his din, and why in classical times, helping Muslims to attain these states was not left to amateurs, but rather delegated to ‘ulama of the heart, the scholars of Islamic Tasawwuf. For most people, these are not easy transformations to make, because of the force of habit, because of the subtlety with which we can deceive ourselves, but most of all because each of us has an ego, the self, the Me, which is called in Arabic al-nafs, about which Allah testifies in Surat Yusuf:
“Verily the self ever commands to do evil” (Qur’an 12:53).
If you do not believe it, consider the hadith related by Muslim in his Sahih, that:
The first person judged on Resurrection Day will be a man martyred in battle.
He will be brought forth, Allah will reacquaint him with His blessings upon him and the man will acknowledge them, whereupon Allah will say, “What have you done with them?” to which the man will respond, “I fought to the death for You.”
Allah will reply, “You lie. You fought in order to be called a hero, and it has already been said.” Then he will be sentenced and dragged away on his face and flung into the fire.
Then a man will be brought forward who learned Sacred Knowledge, taught it to others, and who recited the Qur’an. Allah will remind him of His gifts to him and the man will acknowledge them, and then Allah will say, “What have you done with them?” The man will answer, “I acquired Sacred Knowledge, taught it, and recited the Qur’an, for Your sake.”
Allah will say, “You lie. You learned so as to be called a scholar, and read the Qur’an so as to be called a reciter, and it has already been said.” Then the man will be sentenced and dragged away on his face to be flung into the fire.
Then a man will be brought forward whom Allah generously provided for, giving him various kinds of wealth, and Allah will recall to him the benefits given, and the man will acknowledge them, to which Allah will say, “And what have you done with them?” The man will answer, “I have not left a single kind of expenditure You love to see made, except that I have spent on it for Your sake.”
Allah will say, “You lie. You did it so as to be called generous, and it has already been said.” Then he will be sentenced and dragged away on his face to be flung into the fire (Sahih Muslim, 3.1514: hadith 1905).
We should not fool ourselves about this, because our fate depends on it: in our childhood, our parents taught us how to behave through praise or blame, and for most of us, this permeated and colored our whole motivation for doing things. But when childhood ends, and we come of age in Islam, the religion makes it clear to us, both by the above hadith and by the words of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) “The slightest bit of showing off in good works is as if worshipping others with Allah” that being motivated by what others think is no longer good enough, and that we must change our motives entirely, and henceforth be motivated by nothing but desire for Allah Himself. The Islamic revelation thus tells the Muslim that it is obligatory to break his habits of thinking and motivation, but it does not tell him how. For that, he must go to the scholars of these states, in accordance with the Qur’anic imperative,
“Ask those who know if you know not” (Qur’an 16:43),
There is no doubt that bringing about this change, purifying the Muslims by bringing them to spiritual sincerity, was one of the central duties of the Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace), for Allah says in the Surat Al ‘Imran of the Qur’an,
“Allah has truly blessed the believers, for He has sent them a messenger of themselves, who recites His signs to them and purifies them, and teaches them the Book and the Wisdom” (Qur’an 3:164),
which explicitly lists four tasks of the prophetic mission, the second of which, yuzakkihim means precisely to ‘purify them’ and has no other lexical sense. Now, it is plain that this teaching function cannot, as part of an eternal revelation, have ended with the passing of the first generation, a fact that Allah explictly confirms in His injunction in Surat Luqman,
“And follow the path of him who turns unto Me” (Qur’an 31:15).
These verses indicate the teaching and transformative role of those who convey the Islamic revelation to Muslims, and the choice of the word ittiba‘ in the second verse, which is more general, implies both keeping the company of and following the example of a teacher. This is why in the history of Tasawwuf, we find that though there were many methods and schools of thought, these two things never changed: keeping the company of a teacher, and following his example—in exactly the same way that the Sahaba were uplifted and purified by keeping the company of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and following his example.
And this is why the discipline of Tasawwuf has been preserved and transmitted by Tariqas or groups of students under a particular master. First, because this was the sunna of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) in his purifying function described by the Qur’an. Secondly, Islamic knowledge has never been transmitted by writings alone, but rather from ‘ulama to students. Thirdly, the nature of the knowledge in question is of hal or ‘state of being,’ not just knowing, and hence requires it be taken from a succession of living masters back to the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), for the sheer range and number of the states of heart required by the revelation effectively make imitation of the personal example of a teacher the only effective means of transmission.
So far we have spoken about Tasawwuf in respect to Islam, as a Shari‘a science necessary to fully realize the Sacred Law in one’s life, to attain the states of the heart demanded by the Qur’an and hadith. This close connection between Shari‘a and Tasawwuf is expressed by the statement of Imam Malik, founder of the Maliki school, that “he who practices Tasawwuf without learning Sacred Law corrupts his faith, while he who learns Sacred Law without practicing Tasawwuf corrupts himself. Only he who combines the two proves true.” This is why Tasawwuf was taught as part of the traditional curriculum in madrasas across the Muslim world from Malaysia to Morocco, why many of the greatest Shari‘a scholars of this Umma have been Sufis, and why until the end of the Islamic caliphate at the beginning of this century and the subsequent Western control and cultural dominance of Muslim lands, there were teachers of Tasawwuf in Islamic institutions of higher learning from Lucknow to Istanbul to Cairo.
But there is a second aspect of Tasawwuf that we have not yet talked about; namely, its relation to Iman or ‘True Faith,’ the second pillar of the Islamic religion, which in the context of the Islamic sciences consists of ‘Aqida or ‘orthodox belief.’
All Muslims believe in Allah, and that He is transcendently beyond anything conceivable to the minds of men, for the human intellect is imprisoned within its own sense impressions and the categories of thought derived from them, such as number, directionality, spatial extention, place, time, and so forth. Allah is beyond all of that; in His own words,
“There is nothing whatesover like unto Him” (Qur’an 42:11)
If we reflect for a moment on this verse, in the light of the hadith of Muslim about Ihsan that “it is to worship Allah as though you see Him,” we realize that the means of seeing here is not the eye, which can only behold physical things like itself; nor yet the mind, which cannot transcend its own impressions to reach the Divine, but rather certitude, the light of Iman, whose locus is not the eye or the brain, but rather the ruh, a subtle faculty Allah has created within each of us called the soul, whose knowledge is unobstructed by the bounds of the created universe. Allah Most High says, by way of exalting the nature of this faculty by leaving it a mystery,
“Say: ‘The soul is of the affair of my Lord’” (Qur’an 17:85).
The food of this ruh is dhikr or the ‘remembrance of Allah.’ Why? Because acts of obedience increase the light of certainty and Iman in the soul, and dhikr is among the greatest of them, as is attested to by the sahih hadith related by al-Hakim that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said,
“Shall I not tell you of the best of your works, the purest of them in the eyes of your Master, the highest in raising your rank, better than giving gold and silver, and better for you than to meet your enemy and smite their necks, and they smite yours?” They said, “This—what is it, O Messenger of Allah?” and he said: Dhikru Llahi ‘azza wa jall, “The remembrance of Allah Mighty and Majestic.” (al-Mustadrak ‘ala al-Sahihayn, 1.496).
Increasing the strength of Iman through good actions, and particularly through the medium of dhikr has tremendous implications for the Islamic religion and traditional spirituality. A non-Muslim once asked me, “If God exists, then why all this beating around the bush? Why doesn’t He just come out and say so?”
The answer is that taklif or ‘moral responsibility’ in this life is not only concerned with outward actions, but with what we believe, our ‘Aqida—and the strength with which we believe it. If belief in God and other eternal truths were effortless in this world, there would be no point in Allah making us responsible for it, it would be automatic, involuntary, like our belief, say, that London is in England. There would no point in making someone responsible for something impossible not to believe.
But the responsibility Allah has place upon us is belief in the Unseen, as a test for us in this world to choose between kufr and Iman, to distinguish believer from unbeliever, and some believers above others.
This why strengthening Iman through dhikr is of such methodological importance for Tasawwuf: we have not only been commanded as Muslims to believe in certain things, but have been commanded to have absolute certainty in them. The world we see around us is composed of veils of light and darkness: events come that knock the Iman out of some of us, and Allah tests each of us as to the degree of certainty with which we believe the eternal truths of the religion. It was in this sense that ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab said, “If the Iman of Abu Bakr were weighed against the Iman of the entire Umma, it would outweigh it.”
Now, in traditional ‘Aqida one of the most important tenets is the wahdaniyya or ‘oneness and uniqueness’ of Allah Most High. This means He is without any sharik or associate in His being, in His attributes, or in His acts. But the ability to hold this insight in mind in the rough and tumble of daily life is a function of the strength of certainty (yaqin) in one’s heart. Allah tells the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) in Surat al-A‘raf of the Qur’an,
“Say: ‘I do not possess benefit for myself or harm, except as Allah wills’” (Qur’an 7:188),
yet we tend to rely on ourselves and our plans, in obliviousness to the facts of ‘Aqida that ourselves and our plans have no effect, that Allah alone brings about effects.
If you want to test yourself on this, the next time you contact someone with good connections whose help is critical to you, take a look at your heart at the moment you ask him to put in a good word for you with someone, and see whom you are relying upon. If you are like most of us, Allah is not at the forefront of your thoughts, despite the fact that He alone is controlling the outcome. Isn’t this a lapse in your ‘Aqida, or, at the very least, in your certainty?
Tasawwuf corrects such shortcomings by step-by-step increasing the Muslim’s certainty in Allah. The two central means of Tasawwuf in attaining the conviction demanded by ‘Aqida are mudhakara, or learning the traditional tenets of Islamic faith, and dhikr, deepening one’s certainty in them by remembrance of Allah. It is part of our faith that, in the words of the Qur’an in Surat al-Saffat,
“Allah has created you and what you do” (Qur’an 37:96);
yet for how many of us is this day to day experience? Because Tasawwuf remedies this and other shortcomings of Iman, by increasing the Muslim’s certainty through a systematic way of teaching and dhikr, it has traditionally been regarded as personally obligatory to this pillar of the religion also, and from the earliest centuries of Islam, has proved its worth.
The last question we will deal with tonight is: What about the bad Sufis we read about, who contravene the teachings of Islam?
The answer is that there are two meanings of Sufi: the first is “Anyone who considers himself a Sufi,” which is the rule of thumb of orientalist historians of Sufism and popular writers, who would oppose the “Sufis” to the “Ulama.” I think the Qur’anic verses and hadiths we have mentioned tonight about the scope and method of true Tasawwuf show why we must insist on the primacy of the definition of a Sufi as “a man of religious learning who applied what he knew, so Allah bequeathed him knowledge of what he did not know.”
The very first thing a Sufi, as a man of religious learning knows is that the Shari‘a and ‘Aqida of Islam are above every human being. Whoever does not know this will never be a Sufi, except in the orientalist sense of the word—like someone standing in front of the stock exchange in an expensive suit with a briefcase to convince people he is a stockbroker. A real stockbroker is something else.
Because this distinction is ignored today by otherwise well-meaning Muslims, it is often forgotten that the ‘ulama who have criticized Sufis, such as Ibn al-Jawzi in his Talbis Iblis [The Devil’s deception], or Ibn Taymiya in places in his Fatawa, or Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, were not criticizing Tasawwuf as an ancillary discipline to the Shari‘a. The proof of this is Ibn al-Jawzi’s five-volume Sifat al-safwa, which contains the biographies of the very same Sufis mentioned in al-Qushayri’s famous Tasawwuf manual al-Risala al-Qushayriyya. Ibn Taymiya considered himself a Sufi of the Qadiri order, and volumes ten and eleven of his thirty-seven-volume Majmu‘ al-fatawa are devoted to Tasawwuf. And Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya wrote his three-volume Madarij al-salikin, a detailed commentary on ‘Abdullah al-Ansari al-Harawi’s tract on the spiritual stations of the Sufi path, Manazil al-sa’irin. These works show that their authors’ criticisms were not directed at Tasawwuf as such, but rather at specific groups of their times, and they should be understood for what they are.
As in other Islamic sciences, mistakes historically did occur in Tasawwuf, most of them stemming from not recognizing the primacy of Shari‘a and ‘Aqida above all else. But these mistakes were not different in principle from, for example, the Isra’iliyyat (baseless tales of Bani Isra’il) that crept into tafsir literature, or the mawdu‘at (hadith forgeries) that crept into the hadith. These were not taken as proof that tafsir was bad, or hadith was deviance, but rather, in each discipline, the errors were identified and warned against by Imams of the field, because the Umma needed the rest. And such corrections are precisely what we find in books like Qushayri’s Risala,Ghazali’s Ihya’ and other works of Sufism.
For all of the reasons we have mentioned, Tasawwuf was accepted as an essential part of the Islamic religion by the ‘ulama of this Umma. The proof of this is all the famous scholars of Shari‘a sciences who had the higher education of Tasawwuf, among them Ibn ‘Abidin, al-Razi, Ahmad Sirhindi, Zakariyya al-Ansari, al-‘Izz ibn ‘Abd al-Salam, Ibn Daqiq al-‘Eid, Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, Shah Wali Allah, Ahmad Dardir, Ibrahim al-Bajuri, ‘Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi, Imam al-Nawawi, Taqi al-Din al-Subki, and al-Suyuti.
Among the Sufis who aided Islam with the sword as well as the pen, to quote Reliance of the Traveller, were:
such men as the Naqshbandi sheikh Shamil al-Daghestani, who fought a prolonged war against the Russians in the Caucasus in the nineteenth century; Sayyid Muhammad ‘Abdullah al-Somali, a sheikh of the Salihiyya order who led Muslims against the British and Italians in Somalia from 1899 to 1920; the Qadiri sheikh ‘Uthman ibn Fodi, who led jihad in Northern Nigeria from 1804 to 1808 to establish Islamic rule; the Qadiri sheikh ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza’iri, who led the Algerians against the French from 1832 to 1847; the Darqawi faqir al-Hajj Muhammad al-Ahrash, who fought the French in Egypt in 1799; the Tijani sheikh al-Hajj ‘Umar Tal, who led Islamic Jihad in Guinea, Senegal, and Mali from 1852 to 1864; and the Qadiri sheikh Ma’ al-‘Aynayn al-Qalqami, who helped marshal Muslim resistance to the French in northern Mauritania and southern Morocco from 1905 to 1909.
Among the Sufis whose missionary work Islamized entire regions are such men as the founder of the Sanusiyya order, Muhammad ‘Ali Sanusi, whose efforts and jihad from 1807 to 1859 consolidated Islam as the religion of peoples from the Libyan Desert to sub-Saharan Africa; [and] the Shadhili sheikh Muhammad Ma‘ruf and Qadiri sheikh Uways al-Barawi, whose efforts spread Islam westward and inland from the East African Coast . . . . (Reliance of the Traveller,863).
It is plain from the examples of such men what kind of Muslims have been Sufis; namely, all kinds, right across the board—and that Tasawwuf did not prevent them from serving Islam in any way they could.
To summarize everything I have said tonight: In looking first at Tasawwuf and Shari‘a, we found that many Qur’anic verses and sahih hadiths oblige the Muslim to eliminate haram inner states as arrogance, envy, and fear of anyone besides Allah; and on the other hand, to acquire such obligatory inner states as mercy, love of one’s fellow Muslims, presence of mind in prayer, and love of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace). We found that these inward states could not be dealt with in books of fiqh, whose purpose is to specify the outward, quantifiable aspects of the Shari‘a. The knowledge of these states is nevertheless of the utmost importance to every Muslim, and this is why it was studied under the ‘ulama of Ihsan, the teachers of Tasawwuf, in all periods of Islamic history until the beginning of the present century.
We then turned to the level of Iman, and found that though the ‘Aqida of Muslims is that Allah alone has any effect in this world, keeping this in mind in everhday life is not a given of human consciousness, but rather a function of a Muslim’s yaqin, his certainty. And we found that Tasawwuf, as an ancillary discipline to ‘Aqida, emphasizes the systematic increase of this certainty through both mudhakara, ‘teaching tenets of faith’ and dhikr, ‘the remembrance of Allah,’ in accordance with the words of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) about Ihsan that “it is worship Allah as though you see Him.”
Lastly, we found that accusations against Tasawwuf made by scholars such as Ibn al-Jawzi, and Ibn Taymiya were not directed against Tasawwuf in principle, but to specific groups and individuals in the times of these authors, the proof for which is the other books by the same authors that showed their understanding of Tasawwuf as a Shari‘a science.
To return to the starting point of my talk this evening, with the disappearance of traditional Islamic scholars from the Umma, two very different pictures of Tasawwuf emerge today. If we read books written after the dismantling of the traditional fabric of Islam by colonial powers in the last century, we find the big hoax: Islam without spirituality and Shari‘a without Tasawwuf. But if we read the classical works of Islamic scholarship, we learn that Tasawwuf has been a Shari‘a science like tafsir, hadith, or any other, throughout the history of Islam. The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said,
“Truly, Allah does not look at your outward forms and wealth, but rather at your hearts and your works” (Sahih Muslim, 4.1389: hadith 2564).
And this is the brightest hope that Islam can offer a modern world darkened by materialism and nihilism: Islam as it truly is; the hope of eternal salvation through a religion of brotherhood and social and economic justice outwardly, and the direct experience of divine love and illumination inwardly.
Hadrat Ahmed Ziyauddin-I Gumush-Khanewi (QS) – (1813-1893)
(Translated from Hülya Yilmaz, Dünden Bugüne Gümüshànevî Mektebi, Istanbul: Seha Yayinevi, 1997. The article is posted on the web in Turkish, with photos, at www.angelfire.com/ak4/dervisan/silsile/gumushanevi/)
An internationally renowned, rare and famous Scholar of Islam, a true devotee and God-conscious man, an exemplary mujahid, Ahmed Ziyâuddîn Gumush-khanewi was a shaikh of shaikhs in the great path of Naqshibandiyya. He was so advanced that he was regarded as having developed a sub-branch in the Khalidiyya lineage of the Naqshbandiyya Sufi tariqa (order). He wrote a book to explain how love was the ultimate stage in Tasawwuf (Sufism), yet he refused fame, luxury and grandiosity. He summoned both learned-knowledge and inspired-knowledge; he kept Tasawwuf, Tariqa and Sharia together. He was very serious, dignified, and perfectly wise. He raised over one hundred perfect spiritual guides and educators. He was an expert on the hadith, kalam, jurispuridence and tasawwuf and wrote many books on these fields.
Ahmed Ziyauddin al-Gumush-khanewi lived in the 19th century when the Ottomans experienced major crises and turmoil. With his interpretation of the tariqa, with his tekke, and with his way of guidance, he drew a following of over one million disciples. Ottoman sultans revered him. He sent one hundred and sixteen deputies throughout the world. With all of these contributions, his reputation and influence still flourish in the circles of the Naqshbandiyya order.
His Birth and Education — Ahmed Ziyauddin bin Mustafa bin Abdurrahman al-Gumush-khanewi was born in the Emirler district of Gumush-khane in 1228 H (1813 CE). Gumush-khanewi QS had a special interest and ability to seek knowledge from his early childhood. He read the entire Qur’an when he was five, and when he was eight, he received a diploma upon the completion of the works Qasâid, Delâil-i Khayrât and Hizb-i A’zâm.
When he was ten years old, he moved to Trabzon with his family. When his older brother was drafted into the military, he helped his father in his shop. Meanwhile he took courses on sarf (grammar) nahiw (syntax) and fiqh (jurispuridence) from the local scholars. His father worried that the combination of working in the shop and studying might be too heavy a load for young Ahmed, so he promised that when Ahmed�s brother returned from the military service, he would send Ahmed to Dârul-Ulûm (university) in Istanbul. Young Ahmed was very happy to hear this. He completed the memorization of the Qur’an and saved money by knitting purses and selling them. He would go to Istanbul and seek knowledge–that was something he had always dreamed might happen.
Schooling in Istanbul– In his eighteenth year, Ahmed Ziyauddin came to Istanbul with his uncle for trading goods. Because of his father’s promise and because his brother had returned from the military service, Ahmed decided to stay in Istanbul. He purchased some goods for his father and gave them to his uncle to take to Trabzon. He told his uncle that he would not return to Trabzon. He also gave his uncle all the money he had saved for schooling in Istanbul.
He taught “Allah suffices as a helper and friend” and thus he went to Bayezid Madrasa without a penny. He had submitted himself completely to Almighty Allah. At school, he studied Hikma (wisdom) Akhbâr (narratives), Tasawwuf, Science and other branches under the supervision of a spiritual teacher. After the death of this teacher, he moved to Mahmudpasha Madrasa. There he devoted himself to seeking knowledge.
Since his childhood, he had instructions from shaikhs including Shaikh Sâlim, Shaikh Omar al-Baghdâdî, Shaikh Ali al-Wefâî, and Shaikh Ali. With all of this fortunate guidance, Gumush-khanewi QS reached spiritual maturity. One night he had a terrifying dream about Sulaymaniya Mosque. He also saw some spiritual signs in the dream. It appeared related to the appointment of Shaikh Ahmed bin Sulayman al Erwâdî QS by grand Shaikh Mawlânâ Khalid-i Baghdâdî QS –both of whom had origins in Sulaymaniya– for the spiritual training of Gumush-khanewi QS. Also it appeared related to the fact that the grave of Gumush-khanewi is on the premises of Sulaymaniya Mosque.
While he was in the Mahmudpasha Madrasa, he took courses from Shahri Hafiz Muhammed Emir al-Istanbulî, the successor of Abdullah al-Mekkî al-Erzinjanî and the teacher of the Ottoman Sultans Abdulaziz, Abdulmejid and Abdulhamid II, and from Abdurrahman al-Harpûtî, who was known as Naqshî Shaikh Kurd Khawaja of Erzinjan. After a study period of thirteen years in Istanbul, Ahmed Ziyauddin Gumush-khanewi QS received his diploma in 1844.
Gumush-khanewi QS was quite successful while studying under the instruction of famous professors; after graduation, he became a professor in Bayezid and Mahmudpasha Madrasas. He worked over thirty years in writing books and teaching.
His Initiation to Tariqa–While at the peak of Islamic knowledge, he started to search for a spiritual guide from whom he could receive spiritual enlightenment. In 1845, he met Abdulfattah al-Ukarî QS (died in 1864) who was one of the deputies of Mawlânâ Khalid-i Baghdâdî QS, assigned in Istanbul, residing at Uskudar Alaja Minare Tekkesi. Abdulfattah el-Ukarî refused to initiate Ahmed Ziyâuddîn QS to the tariqa, yet told him that somebody else had the permission and instruction to initiate him to the tariqa.
Later, Ahmed Ziyauddin Gumush-khanewi met Shaikh Ahmed bin Suleyman el-Erwâdî QS at the tekke of Abdulfattah Effendi and joined the tariqa. Suleyman el-Erwâdî was also a deputy of Mawlânâ Khalid-i Baghdâdî QS and known as the Mufti of Trablus-Sham. He was sent to Istanbul with the special mission of initiating Ahmed Ziyauddin Gumush-khanewi to the tariqa and supervising his progress in the tariqa. In the following years, Ahmed Ziyauddin QS completed his spiritual training.
After two khalwets (retreats), Gumush-khanewi received his ijazat (authorization) from Shaikh Erwâdî to guide people in Naqshbandiyya, Qadiriyya, Kubrawiyya, Cheshtiyya, Suhrawardiyya, Shadheliyya, Desûkiyya, Khalwetiyya, Mujaddidiyya, Mazhariyya, Rifâiyya, and Khalidiyya. His spiritual training took sixteen years. He became a “pole of spiritial knowledge.”
It is known that many great shaikhs searched for their guides upon receiving some signs. It was the opposite case with Hadrat Gumush-khanewi. Just as Shams-i Tabrizî’s searched for Mawlânâ Jalaladdîn Rumi, Shaikh Erwâdi came from Damascus to Istanbul to meet Ahmed Gumush-khanewi. This was an indication of how significant Gumush-khanewi was seen to be for the tariqa.
Hadrat Erwâdî died in Damascus in 1858. Upon the recommendation of his shaikh, Gumush-khanewî QS attended the discourses of Shaikh Ukarî. Although Gumush-khanewî QS lived in Cagaloglu while Ukârî QS lived in Uskudar, they visited one another once a week. Gumush-khanewi avoided taking the lead in the tariqa while Shaikh Ukarî QS was alive, thus complying with the instruction of Shaikh Mawlânâ Khalid-i Baghdâdî QS that among the deputies in Istanbul, seniority in the order should be respected.
Until the death of Abdulfattah Effendi QS in 1864, Gumush-khanewî QS concentrated his efforts on teaching at the madrasa and writing books rather than guiding people spiritually. In that year, he started weekly discourses in which he interpreted ahadith from his book Ramuz-ul-Ahadith. These discourses resulted in his book Lewâmiu’l-Uqûl. For sixteen years, he practiced dhikr and Khatme Khawajagan with his disciples in the Naqshbandi and Khalidî ways.
In this period, he intensified his spiritual guidance work, and raised many students. He authored many works and authorized some students to teach all of his works. He was so advanced in spirituality that one of his teachers, Shahr-i Hafiz Muhammed Emin el-Istanbulî who had been authorized to be a shaikh by Abdullah-i Mekkî QS, became a disciple of Gumush-khanewi.
His Tekke–When Ahmed Ziyauddin Gumush-khanewi QS started spreading the tariqa, he used his small room in Mahmudpasha Madarasa. As the number of his disciples increased, he moved to Fatma Sultan Mosque, which was an abandoned place no longer used for prayers. With the efforts of Hasan Hilmi Effendi of Kastamonu, one of his deputies, the mosque was restored and opened for daily prayers. Hadrat Gumush-khanewi QS had a sixteen-room house and a tekke built adjacent to this mosque. After the construction, the shaikh moved there, and the mosque and its premises became Gumush-khanewî Dargah.
The new center for the activities of the tariqa was across from the main government office, Bâb-i Alî, in Istanbul. The selection of such a place as the tekke of the tariqa was a demonstration that Gumush-khanewî QS intended to form the ideal society made of perfect individuals and Muslims conscious in thoughts, in belief, and in manners. Since the administration had a great effect on the society, he had to influence the administrative staff first.
During his time, the tekke became a “Dâr-ul Hadith–Institute of Hadith.” Among the attendees were the Ottoman sultans Abdulmejid, Abdulaziz, and Abdulhamid II as well as other high government administrators. Some administrators including Arab Mehmed Agha, General Munib Bey, Dr. Emin Pasha, and Reîsul-Ulemâ Tiskveshli Yusuf Ziyâeddîn Effendi became his disciples. This indicates the high degree of respect and reverence shown to him. Sultan Abdulhamid II maintained a close relationship with the Shaikh and consulted him on various matters.
Ahmed Ziyauddîn Gumush-khanevi QS was concerned with all problems of society. For instance, he formed an interest-free credit union with the liquid funds that belonged to his disciples. It was an alternative to the banks that had just been established then. These funds were available for borrowing and for investment.
The entrance of the gate of the tekke had these lines:
Naqshbandî Dargâhidir bu maqâm-i dil-kushâ,
Ishte meydân-i muhabbet gel azîzim merhaba!
This is the Naqshbandi Dargah a joy-giving place,
A square of love; my dear, come and join in peace!
This famous tekke was closed in the early years of the Republic Era when a law was passed to ban all tariqa and tekke activities. Nevertheless, the mosque stayed open until 1942. Despite the decree by the High Council of Monuments, this historical mosque and the tekke were demolished with the lame excuse of “widening the street.” Today only the bricks of the minaret and a sign “Gumush-khanewi Ahmed Ziyauddin Street” can be found there. On the lot of the tekke, there is a building: Istanbul Defterdarligi (tax office).
His Jihad –Ahmed Ziyaeddin Gumush-khanewi QS took part in jihad, too. While striving with his pen and words to improve individuals and better society, he volunteered to go to the front in the Ottoman-Russian war of 1293R (1877 CE). During a period of cease-fire, he came to Of district of Trabzon and resumed tariqa activities there. When the war resumed, he went back to the front.
Gumush-khanewi QS was keen in serving society and organizing activities to improve the state of society. His zeal in this originates from the Naqshbandi tariqa. In his tariqa, the guidance work is carried out while being among people and paying utmost attention to serving people. Yet one of the principles of this tariqa is “Khalwet der Enjuman” meaning that a seeker participates in lawful activities for people while he is with Almighty Allah in his heart.
His Scholarship — In a diploma he gave one of his students, Gumush-khanewi wrote the following: “Almighty Allah has been very gracious to this servant and honored him with the business of seeking knowledge. It is the highest form of worship. With his knowledge, a person should seek the consent of Allah sincerely and stay away from all kinds of show-off and fame. If he does that, he will be distinguished, excelled and honored among people; otherwise, the knowledge will be a burden on him in the hereafter.”
To him the purpose of creation is reaching the Unity of Almighty Allah, and sacred knowledge is the prime element in this course. In his works and discourses, he emphasized the importance of knowledge and of seeking knowledge. In his will, he stated: “Be scholars in your deeds, education and manners. Talk to people according to their level of understanding. Do not be an oppressive and stubborn scholar. Continue studying and increasing your knowledge so that the truth is revealed.”
Hadrat Gumush-khanewi allocated little time for sleep. According to Hasan Hilmi Effendi of Kastamonu, one of his deputies, during one period of six months, Gumush-khanewi QS would not sleep at night. During this period, he would turn to qibla some time before the noon, cover his face with a towel and try to get some sleep. He would ask to be awakened before the call for the prayer, yet he would wake up by himself. Nobody had the chance to awaken him.
Hadrat Gumush-khanewi QS established a printing shop with the funds accumulated in the credit union. He had many important books printed and distributed as gifts to those who taught or sought knowledge. He established four libraries, each with eighteen thousand volumes of books, in Istanbul, Bayburt, Rize and Of. Hence, he contributed handsomely to the spread of knowledge in the country. With such magnanimous educational activities, his tekke was unique and well appreciated among all tekkes.
He paid so much importance on the Hadith studies that it became one of the main characteristics of the tariqa. He compiled ahadith in alphabetical order in two volumes to form the book Ramuz-al Ahadith. He had study sessions two days a week on this book, and answered questions in each session. He completed the book seventy times in such sessions throughout his life. His students and successors kept the same method. For instance, Mehmed Zahid Kotku RhA (died in 1980) kept this tradition in Iskenderpasha Mosque. [Then, Prof. Mahmud Es'ad Cosan RhA (died in 2001), the successor of Mehmed Zahid Kotku RhA, resumed the hadith discourses in Iskenderpasa as well as other locations in Turkey, in Europe and in Australia. He conducted weekly radio broadcasts via satellite.]
The works he carried out on ahadith earned him the title “Muhaddithîn-i Rûm” and “Hâtimetul Muhaddithîn.” He turned his tekke into an Institute of Hadith, and raised hundreds of hadith scholars. Many of his students including Ismail Nejati Effendi of Safranbolu and Omar Ziyauddîn Effendi of Daghistan became professors of Hadith.
His Works — Ahmed Ziyaeddin Effendi wrote close to sixty books. He was very fluent in Arabic and wrote all of his works in Arabic. [He also taught lectures in Egypt in Arabic.] Most of these books were on Ahadith and tasawwuf.
Here is a partial list of his works:
Ramuz-ul Ahadith: A collection of ahadith that had few words yet extended meanings (2 vols).
Lewâimul-Ukûl: Explanation of the ahadith in Ramuz-ul Ahadith (5 vols)
Ajâibun-Nubuwwa, Latâiful-Hikem, Hadith-i Arbaîn: Books of ahadith.
Jâmi’ul-Usûl, Mejmu’atul-Ahzâb, Rûhul-’Arifîn: Books on tasawwuf.
Najâtul-Ghafilîn, Dewâul-Muslimîn, Netâijul-Ikhlâs: Books on manners.
Fadhâil-al-Jihad, Lawamî al Fusul, Aqâid-al-Ahli-Sunnah: Books on Miscellaneous topics.
Personality–Hadrat Gumush-khanewi lived an ascetic and God-conscious life. He would eat little, sleep little, and talk little. He would not eat any meal without a guest. He would observe all voluntary fasts. Twice a week he would do Khatme-i Khawaja dhikr. Tuesday nights he would do seventy-thousand Kalima-i Tawhîd dhikr [recitations].
He would stay in a tent at the Yûshâ hill in Beykoz during the summers. One summer when he was there, a man with a violin passed by. The Shaikh asked that the man to be brought in his tent. The man refused to go to the tent: “I have no business with your Khawaja. You would not ask me to play violin and give money, either. Besides, I would not listen to your words. You mind your own business, I do mine.” Despite the objection, he was brought to Hadrat Gumush-khanewi. Gumush-khanewi whispered something into the man’s ear. Hearing that, the man went into a state of rapture and screamed. He repented and then lived a pious life. For a long time he did not reveal what the shaikh whispered into his ear. Finally he explained: “In my youth, I was initiated to the tariqa by a Baktâshî shaikh who adhered the
principles of ahl-i sunnah wal Jamâ’ah. Before he died he told me that he had entrusted me to a great shaikh and that I should not refuse that shaikh. He prayed for me to become a good person. Hadrat Gumush-khanewi whispered into my ears that my late shaikh had entrusted me to him. I could not hold myself and screamed.”
Gumush-khanewi QS would pay attention to Khalwet (retreat) as required by the Naqshbandiyye and Khalidiyya paths. Twice a year, in the months Dhul-Hijja and Rajab, he would do khalwet and take disciples into khalwets if they wanted to.
When he lay down, he would not stretch his legs because he thought it would be improper to do something like that in the presence of Allah. Once his legs were stretched by a physician who wanted to examine him while he was in bed with an illness. Upon this, he turned red out of his shyness and opened his eyes to say, “Please do not let me go to my Lord with an offense of stretching the legs in His presence.”
Gumush-khanewi often advised his disciples: “Do not get involved with anybody’s beard, mustache, way of doing things, and smoking.” Two of his disciples decided to watch the whirling dervishes at a Mawlawî tekke. They remember the advice of Gumush-khanewi, and they decided not to be concerned with other people’s business. During the whirling, one of the disciples noticed the thick mustache of the Mawlawî shaikh and whispered something
improper into the ear of the other disciple. At that moment, the shaikh turned to them and stared at them with an unbearable look. They felt terribly uncomfortable, got up and left right away. They returned to their own tekke. Hadrat Gumush-khanewi met them: “What a look it was! He had a right to stare at you like that. Didn’t I tell you not to get involved with anybody’s mustache?”
Many years after Hadrat Gumush-khanewi died, a scholar was on his deathbed. He requested, “Let the women leave this room or put on hijab because my shaikh Hadrat Ahmed Ziyauddîn is coming.” After a short while he said, “Alhamdulillah, my shaikh said, ‘Almighty Allah has forgiven you your sins. You will join us soon.’” He cried, uttered the Kalima-i Shahâda, and died soon after making that statement.
Hadji Yusuf Effendi was one of the deputies of Hadrat Gumush-khanewi and lived in Of, Trabzon. Anytime he left Trabzon to take the ship to Istanbul, Gumush-khanewi RhA would say. “I can smell my Yusuf.”
When Gumush-khanewi was alive, there was a man named Muhammad who lived in Madina and belonged to the family of the Prophet. He had a dream in which a mysterious man told him, “Come to Istanbul.” So he obediently took the ship to Istanbul. However, he had no address or name to contact. He got off the ship and started to walk. Then somebody approached him and asked, “Are you Muhammad from Madina?” “Yes, I am.” “Then follow me!”
They walked to the Gumush-khanewi Tekke and entered the room of Ahmed Gumush-khanewi. Muhammad realized that the mysterious man of his prior dream was sitting right there before him. His guide kissed the hand of the Shaikh. Muhammad did likewise, then asked the guide: “Where are we? Who is this man?” The guide responded: “Here is Gumush-khanewi tekke, and this is Hadrat Ahmed Ziyauddîn Gumush-khanewi.” [Such paranormal forms of knowledge and action at a distance were commonplace for this great wali, who was so utterly surrendered to his beloved Allah."]
The Shaikh would do dhikr, grant discourse, and perform prayers throughout the nights of Eid and other special nights with his disciples. He fasted every day in the last eighteen years of his life except for the Eid days.
He never enjoyed unnecessary talk; he would study or write books when he had time–especially during the nights. After the fajr prayer, he would not utter any worldly words until the time of Ishraq, nor would he speak after the time of Isha. He would recite Surah Yasin before going to bed. When he felt no energy to do so, he would ask somebody to recite it for him to listen.
His journeys and Marriage–Hadrat Ahmed Ziyauddîn Gumush-khanewi performed twice in his life the Pilgrimage, or Hajj, to Makka and Madina. In the first one, he stopped at Alexandria in Egypt. He visited the grave sites of prophets and awliya. He met with Kuchuk Ashiq Effendi who had been a disciple of Mawlana Khalid-i Baghdâdî. After his first Hajj, he married Hawwa Seher Khanim, the daughter of Shaikh-ul Harem-i Nabawî Mehmed Emin Pasha.
He took his family with him for the second Hajj. He met with many personages in Makka and Madina. He taught hadith to some, and initiated new disciples into the tariqa. On the return trip, he stopped in Egypt and lived there three years. While in Egypt, he held Ramuz-al Ahadith discourses in Tanta, Cairo, Nâsiriyye, Jâmiul Azhar and Sayyidinâ Hussain mosques. He also authorized five disciples to guide people in the tariqa.
His Appearance –Shaikh Ahmed Ziyauddîn Gumush-khanewî lived to be over 80 years old. During the latter years of his life, his body grew weak: he could not sit without leaning on something or walk without a cane. His speech deteriorated in a way that it could be understood only by those who attend his discourses regularly. Despite his physical weakness, the light coming out of his eyes and the brightness of his face had quite an inspiring effect on his disciples.
Eyewitnesses who saw him in these late years of his life describe a man with a balanced figure, slightly taller in stature than average. His round face, framed by a shaved head and white beard, featured red cheeks, fair complexion, a clear forehead, and moles below his dark eyes. The Shaikh wore a white turban and a long skirted-shirt over a cloak. Not fond of the color black, he preferred to wear white clothes in summer and green ones in winter. He kept his feet covered at all times by wearing shoes.
His Death –Hadrat Gumush-khanewi died on Dhul Qàdah 7, 1311 (May 13, 1893). About 10 o’clock in the morning, he opened his eyes in his death bed said, “I want it all, Oh Kibriyâ!” These were his final words. His grave is located at he Qibla side of the tomb of Qanûnî Sultan Sulayman in the premises of Sulaymaniye Mosques. The grave next to his belongs to his wife Hawwa Seher Khanim.
His Deputies –The founder of the Ziyâiyya (Gumush-khanewiyya) sub-branch of the Khalidiyya branch of the Naqshbandiyya, Ahmed Ziyauddîn Gumush-khanewi, not only authored many books as a mutasawwif, but also he trained over one-hundred deputies and spiritual guides. He sent deputies to many locations in a large geographical area from Kazan to Komor Islands, from Egypt to Madina, from China to Africa. His deputies spread and maintained his understanding of the tariqa. He had over one million disciples. He tried to awaken Muslims and enliven Islam.
Shaikh Ahmed Ziyauddîn Gumush-khanewi sent one of his favorite deputies, Muhammad Eshraf Effendi of Luleburgaz, to Peking, China. On his return, Muslims in Peking started constructing a university in the name of Sultan Abdulhamid II.
When an Islamic conference was held in Istanbul in 1976, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Komor Islands visited Mehmed Zahid Kotku RhA and told him that there was an active Gumush-khanewi Dargah in Komor Islands.
Hadrat Gumush-khanewi lived three years in Egypt after his second Hajj. He trained five deputies there: The Grand Mufti of Egypt, Muhammad bin Salim Tamum al-Manufî, ash-Shaikh Jawded, Sayyid Muhammad bin Abdurrahim at-Tantâwî, ash-Shaikh Mustafa bin Yusuf as-Sa’dî, and Shaikh Rahmetullah al-Hindî. There is an active Gumush-khanewi Dargah in Tanta. The presiding Shaikh of the Dargah is Jûde Ebu’l-Yazîd al-Mahdî, who is a professor of Tafsîr at Azhar University.
One of the deputies of Hadrat Gumush-khanewi was Ahmed Ziyâuddîn Effendi. He was an imam in a mosque. After he retired, he moved to Madina and served there for forty years.
Another deputy of Hadrat Gumush-khanewi was Zeynullah al-Kazânî. He was sent to Kazan and Caucus to spread the tariqa.
Yet another deputy of Shaikh Gumush-khanewi was Hasan Hilmi bin Ali Al-Kawtharî QS–the father of the famous Muhammad Zaîd Al-Kawtharî. As a deputy, he taught Râmûz and Garâib books in Duzce for many years. He was a professor at the madrasa by the Yeni Jâmi’ in Duzce. Upon the instructions of Shaikh Gumush-khanewi, in 1892 he built a tekke by the madrasa. He served until his death in1926.
Yusuf Bahri Effendi of Unye, too, was one of the deputies of Shaikh Gumush-khanewi. He received his authorization in 1869. He was a professor at Unye Sadullah Bey Madrasa. In 1872 he was appointed as the Mufti of Unye.
Another deputy of Gumush-khanewi was Hasan Ziyâuddîn Effendi of Nallihan. He received his authorization in 1886. He returned to Nallihan to teach Haji Mehmed Agha Madrasa and to guide people in tariqa.
Ahmed Hilmi Efendi of Ankara also received authorization from Shaikh Gumush-khanewi. He served in the mosques of Fevziye, Tashjilar Bashi and Yeni Jum’a in Izmit. He had great zeal in spreading the tariqa.
Hamza Effendi was deputized by Hadrat Gumush-khanewi. He served in Tarsus over fifty years until his death in 1955.
Chirpilarli Ali Efendi, a mufti of Bayramic, too was a deputy of Shaikh Gumush-khanewi. Born in 1863, he received training in the Gumush-khanewi Dargah. In 1910, he returned to his village and constructed a mosque and a madrasa with 24 rooms. He continued teaching and spreading the tariqa until the madrasas were closed by the government in 1924.
One of the recent shaikhs of Gumush-khanewi Dargah, Mahmud Es’ad Cosan RhA [died in 2001] had a link to Chirpilarli Ali Efendi. His great grandfather, Molla Abdullah Efendi, brought his father Halil Necati Efendi to Chirpilarli Ali Efendi’s madrasa when he was 17.
Molla Abdullah Efendi brought his three sons to Istanbul to register them to Fatih Madrasa. He then went to Hadrat Gumush-khanewi and joined the tariqa. He earned the love and appreciation of Shaikh Gumush-khanewi QS. Whenever Molla Abdullah Efendi visited Chirpilarly Ali Efendi, he would attempt to kiss Ali Efendi’s hand, yet in a counter attempt, Ali Efendi would try to kiss Molla Abdullah Efendi’s hand. Molla Huseyin Efendi, the
younger brother of Molla Abdullah Efendi, was initiated to the tariqa by Chirpilarli Ali Efendi RhA.
Chirpilarli Ali Efendi participated in the War of Independence to represent Bayramic locality in the Turkish Armed Forces. Later he served as the Mufti of Bayramic. He died in 1947 at an age of 82.
One of the deputies of Shaikh Gumush-khanewi was Osman Niyazi Efendi (1828-1909). He was sent to Black Sea region. He was known as the “Shaikh Efendi.” He served in Varda, which is the Guneyce locality of Ikizdere County in Rize, as the imam of the Varda Buyuk Jâmi’ and as an instructor in the Buyuk Jâmi’ Madrasa. Later he moved to Kolekli district and built a mosque and a tekke there. He served for 14 year until his death in that tekke. He was in charge of the libraries established by Hadrat Gumush-khanewi.
Other deputies of Shaikh Gumush-khanewi included: Yusuf an-Nashuqî in Damascus (d.1900), Ismail Al Qirimî in Cremea, Hasan al-Erzinjânî in Erzincan, Mahmud al-Bosnewî of Bosnia, Mustafa al-Kurdî al-Harputî (d.1910) in Adapazari, Hasan Hulûsî Efendi in Düzce, and Yusuf Shawqi al-Ofî, who is the author of Hujjatu’s-Sâlikîn, and who lived in Of county of Trabzon.
The epitaph on the grave of Hadrat Gumush-khanewi has the following words:
Nazar qil cheshm-i ibretle, maqâm-i iltijâdir bu!
Erenler dergâhi, bâb-i fuyûzât-i Khudâ’dir bu!
Ziyâuddîn-i Ahmed, mawlidi âning Gumush-khâne,
Shehir-i shark-i gharbing, murshid-i râh-i Khudâ’dir bu!
Muhaqqaq ehl-i Haqq olmez, ebed haydir bil ey zâir!
Saray-i qalbini pâk eyle, bâb-i awliyâdır bu!
Shu’a-i durr-i wahdet, menba’-i ilm-i ledunnîdir.
Mukemmel wâris-i sher’-i Muhammed Mustafâ’dir bu.
Khilâfet muddetinden, “irji’i” vaktine dek Hakk’a,
Tarîq-i Khâlidî’yi neshr eden, Hakk-reh-nümâdir bu.
Jilâ-yi ruhdur zikri, murîdana gidâdir bu!
Sene 1311, 7 Zilka’de
Observe with care, for this is a station of refuge
The dargah of the sage, the gate of the Divine light
Ziyâuddîn-i Ahmed, born in Gumush-khane,
For towns of the east and west, a guide in Divine path.
Verily, people of truth never die; they stay alive forever,
Keep your palace in heart clean, this is the gate for awliya.
The ray of the pearl of unity, the fountain of secret knowledge,
A perfect and legitimate heir of Muhammad Mustafâ.
From the time of eligibility to the time he returned to Allah,
He spread the Khâlidî Path and guided to the way to the Truth.
His dhikr brightens the spirit and nourishes the disciples.
–Year 1311 H, Dhul-Qa’da 7 (May 13, 1893)
A letter –While residing in Egypt, Ahmed Ziyauddin Gumush-khanevi QS wrote a letter to Hasan Hilmi Effendi QS, who was his deputy in Istanbul. In the letter he addressed all of his disciples and described ten principles of his path:
1. Finding a perfect shaikh, and pledging allegiance to him with repentance and full submission.
2. Learning the essentials of being a disciple and a shaikh, attending the discourses, participating in the activities, and serving the shaikh without any objections.
3. Maintaining the pledge while upholding the righteousness, sincerity and trust in Allah and being straight in desire and purpose.
4. Abandoning ornaments and showing off, which would lead to self-bragging, and paying attention to cleanliness.
5. Soundly maintaining the wuqûf-i qalbi, dhikri-dâimî, and râbita [establishing deep connection with the shaikh and with Allah].
6. Overcoming the nafs and lust, improving one�s code of conduct, and getting closer to Allah with prayers and worship.
7. Staying away from comfort, seeking progress in the tariqa, and preferring retreat [over casual socializing].
8. Trying to overcome the nafs, Satan, desires and the carnal prompting of the passions.
9. Being humble, thankful and content.
10. Acquiring contemplation, scrutinizing, pondering and discernment skills for spiritual yearning.
His Recommendations
1. When at least 10 of you are together, do the Khatme-i Khawaja dhikr in the morning and in the evening. If possible, read the entire Qur’an or one-third of it. If the juz� booklets are not available, do dhikr together instead. Keep turning to Allah and ask things from Him while observing the râbita and being aware that you are in His presence all the time.
2. Eat and drink what is lawful while observing the Sunnah of the Prophet and being aware that you are in the presence of Allah all the time.
3. Be in peace with neighbors, people of the town, parents and friends, for the beginning of Tasawwuf is to avoid hurting the creatures.
4. Do your daily dhikr duties just as described to you and observe the special blessed nights in prayers and worship.
5. A person who is in tariqa must visit the graves of the awliya and attend the discourse of his shaikh to eliminate possession. He must do plenty of dhikr, keep his love and connection, and read tasawwuf books.
6. To get rid of the sleepiness and lull, the dervish must change the place of dhikr, establish râbita, and write a letter to his shaikh. He must take refuge and try to regain the zeal and energy to do dhikr.
7. The dervish must maintain patience, thankfulness and contentment, attend the congregation, and greet people. He must appreciate the time, restore the town, reinvigorate creatures, and have perseverance in his worship.
Some of His Words
1. There are four kinds of love: love of Allah, love of what Allah loves, love for the sake of Allah, and love with Allah.
2. Love means leaving all senses, desires and thoughts and turning to Allah with the greatest desire. It means disconnecting oneself from the wealth, belonging, children and other worldly things and having a longing for the Creator.
3. The fastest way for leaving the offenses is love of Allah, a strong tie to the beauty of Allah. This is achieved through abundant worship, full repentance, thorough envisioning of death and hellfire, enlivening one�s nights in prayer and meditation, being affectionate to creatures, holding a good opinion of people, and persevering against lust, hatred and illicit thoughts.
4. Looking around weakens the heart; closing the eyes strengthens it and brings serenity.
5. If a person avoids looking at haram, protects his nafs from lust, beautifies his heart and spirit, and feeds himself with halal food, he will not be mistaken in his intuition and sagacity. Yet the intuition is acquired not through the domination of the nafs over the body, but through the achievement of vision with the light of Allah.
6. There are principles in all tariqat, yet the common principle in all of them is servitude. As a person serves, he deserves the blessings and gifts, and he is rewarded with honors and happiness in this world and in the hereafter.
Sufi Essence:Chishti Stages of Love
The pen faces difficulties or even fails when trying to describe love. As you know steps can be seen leading up to the ocean, but what happens then? The well-known Chishti Sufi Khwaja Nasiruddin Cheragh (the “lamp”) of Delhi, who was the successor of Nizamuddin Awliya has described the indescribable. He not only described ten stages and fifty phases of love, but he also experienced them. I’m grateful to the work of Mir Valiuddin in this respect. I’ve at places added some relevant anecdotes. Scholars say that the description of the Chishti stages of love has not been written by the aforesaid Sufi. It does not really matter, as the only thing of importance is the experience of love.
The first stage of love is olfat (friendship, attachment, familiarity, companionship, intimacy). It is another name for the inclination of the heart towards the object of love.The five phases of olfat are distinguished as follows:
1. A person hears of the beauty of a lovely person and a desire rises in him or her to have some sort of contact with this person. A qawwal (a Sufi troubadour) once sang some poetry when visiting Nizamuddin Awliya at a time when Nizamuddin Awliya had not yet been initiated into the Sufi path and had not yet found a shaykh. The singer first described the inner qualities of shaykh Bahauddin Zakariya of Multan. His words had no effect at all on the young listener, but when he paid attention in his songs to Baba Farid, Nizamuddin Awliya, felt a great love entering his heart although he had never met Baba Farid. This psychological accident has been described by a poet in the following couplet:Hadies-e hosn-e u naagaah firo khaandand dar gusham
Dar aamad ‘eshq o yakbare be-bord ‘aql az man o husham.Suddenly the description of his beauty
came to the ears of mine, Love entered and at once took away the reason and understanding of mine.This is olfat, the first phase of love.
2. The second phase is ketmaan-e-mailaan (hiding one’s inclinations). This implies that you keep your love as a close secret and that you bear the agony thereof. A poet expresses his experience thus:
Man az tabieb o parastaar har do aazaadam Davaa’iye dard-e man in dard bi davaa’iye man ast.
I need no physician or servant to attend on me,
The remedy for my pain is this pain itself without a remedy for me.
There is an expression among the Sufis. It is the ‘secret of the Friend’. Everything that is confided to you by the Beloved should be kept a secret. You also do not speak about the pain of love to others.
3. In the third phase a sort of yearning (tamannaa = wishing, asking for) sets in the heart of the lover which urges him or her to come into direct contact with his Beloved. In this state the lover neither cares for his/her life nor is afraid of death. If union with the Beloved is difficult or impossible, the lover prefers to die pining for Him. So Farhaad died in his passion to secure his beloved Shirin. This experience has been expressed by a poet thus:Agar Farhaad raa haasel nashod paiwand baa Shirin Ham agar jaan-e shirinash bar aamad dar tamannaa-yashWhen Farhaad could not gain union with his sweetheart, Shirin Then he even offered his own sweet life in his yearning for her.
4. The fourth phase is styled ekhbaar o estekhbaar (informing and asking for news), i.e. the desire to be fully aware of each other’s condition. An aspect of this phase is reflected by Hafez when he exclaims:
Har chand duram az to keh dur az to kas mabaad
Liken omied vasl-e to-am ‘an qarib hast
Whenever I am far from You – O, let nobody be far from You!
Then I hope that soon I will meet You.
5. The fifth phase is called tazarro’ o tamalloq or humility and making professions of love (tazarro’ means: humbling oneself; self-abasement, humility; earnest supplication; complaining, lamenting, whereas tamalloq means: flattering, cajolement, fawning; making professions of love; blandishment; adulation; dalliance; ceremony).
The lover sheds tears and says, to use the language of Amir Khosraw:
Belab aamad-ast jaanam to biaa keh zende maanam
Pas az aan keh man na maanam becheh kaar khaahi aamad
You will know that the expression ‘my soul has come to my lips’ means:
‘I am on the verge of dying’:
My soul has come to my lips, so, in order that I may live, come!
When I am no longer here, what will be the use if You should come?
Hafez has written:
Ai paadeshah-e khubaan daad az gham-e tanhaa’i
Del bi to bejaan aamad vaqt-ast keh baaz aa’i
O, King of the fair! I complain to You about my pain of loneliness.
Without You I’m close to death – it is time that You return
The second stage of love is sadaaqat (true friendship, sincerity, candour, loyalty, fidelity). In this stage the heart remains unaffected by the Beloved’s fidelity or infidelity, disregards and denials, and by bestowal of favours. You can recognise it by five marks:
1. When you have reached it, then you regard carnal desires as foes, you are antagonistic to your heart’s passion, you forsake sensual pleasures and you keep your heart devoid of the love of the world. In such a state the harshness by the Beloved is welcomed as a pleasant gift:
Zahr az kaf-e dust hamchonaan shahd
Baa shauq fero beravam degar ham
Poison becomes like honey when offered by the Friend,
I desire to sip more of it eagerly.
And:
Har dard o ranj kaz to rasad bar del-e hazin
Aan mahz raahat-ast maraa ‘ain-e ‘aafist
Every pain or suffering You inflict on my sad heart,
Is to me but a pleasure and the source of well-being.
2. The second phase is ghairat (jealousy). On reaching this phase the lover becomes jealous and on account of jealousy does not appreciate anyone even to utter the name of one’s Beloved or steal a glance at ‘that twig of a rose’:
Beh golshan miravad aan shaakh-e gol man miram az ghairat
Kaf-e khaaki bedast aar ai sabaa dar cheshm-e gol afgan
That twig of a rose entered the garden and I am dying of jealousy.
O, gentle breeze! Take a handful of dust and throw it into the eyes of the flowers.
Sa’di is not open in regard to his experiences as well:
Hadies-e ‘eshq-e to baa kas namitavanam goft
Keh ghairat-am nagozaarad keh beshnovad aghiaar
The tale of Your love I cannot tell to anyone,
Because my jealousy does not permit that others hear it.
When the lover progresses further in this phase, he or she feels jealous of his or her own self. Shibli had prayed to God thus (as this text is in Arabic and not in Persian I cannot give a proper transcription):
O, Allah! You are almighty and great!
Resurrect me blind on the Day of Judgement,
So that even my eyes may not behold You!Amir Qasem has expressed these experiences in the following couplet:
Ze del rashq aaiadam chun begozarad dar dil khiaal-e to
Chonaan binam keh oftad cheshm-e ghairi bar jamaal-e toI feel jealous of my heart when the thought of You passes into my heart,
How can I tolerate others beholding Your beauty?
A poet has expressed the psychological reasons for this experience of jealousy in the following couplet:Ze ghairat khelvat del raa ze ghairat kardeh-am khaali
Keh ghairat raa namizibad dar in khelvat sara (?) raftan
Out of jealousy I’ve cleared the privacy of my heart of all others but You,
For nobody but You is worthy to enter this place of retreat.
3. The third phase is eshtiyaaq (ardour, wishing, longing, desiring, craving, yearning) in which the desire to meet the Beloved blazes into a conflagration and the poor lover involuntarily complains:Moshtaaqi o saburi az hadd gozasht yaaraa
Gar to shikeb daari taaqat namaanad maaraaMy longing and patience have passed beyond all boundaries, o Friend!
If You’d be patient in meeting me, then no strength will remain to me.And:
Ai bi to haraam zendegaani
Khod bi to kodaam zendegaani
O, without You life is forbidden to me!
What life is a life without You to me?
The Persian text is not given for the two final lines:To live without beholding Your pleasing countenance,
Is to treat a state of death as life.
4. The fourth phase is zekr-e mahbub or remembrance of the Beloved. You will know this saying (given without transcription from Arabic):He who loves a thing speaks of it often.Once a lover fell ill. His friends inquired of him whether they should call a physician. He replied: “My physician is the recitation of the name of my Beloved”.Ai naam-e to shefaa’iye amraaz
O ze naam-e to aam hosul-e aghraazO, Your name is a healing for all my ailments,
And by Your name I’ll attain all my ends.5. The fifth phase is tahaiyor (bewilderment, astonishment). Because of his exalted rank the prophet addressed Allah as ‘the Guide of the bewildered’ and finally prayed:O, Lord! Increase my bewilderment at You!When the Beloved is sublime and it is impossible to have access to Him, what remains there except awe and bewilderment?To’i sultaan-e molk-e-hosn man bichaareh darvisham
Bejoz-e hairat degar nabud nasieb-e jaan bi hoshamYou are the King of the realm of beauty and I am a poor dervish.
Only bewilderment and nothing else has been my share in my foolish life.The third stage of love is termed mavaddat (friendship, love, benevolence), which is marked by the excitation of the heart and passionate desire (hayajaan-e qalb o ettisaafe baa-l havaa) for the Beloved. Its phases are also five.1. The first phase is niyaahat o ezteraar, which means lamentation and perturbation. The lover now moans, groans and expresses great agony in regard to the moon-faced, that is, beautiful, Beloved:Dar havaa’i to ai bot-e mah-rui
Mikonad nawhe bar tanam har mu’iIn my passion for You, o moon-faced idol
Every hair of my body is wailing.2. The second phase is gerya o boka, which means weeping and wailing. It is said about the prophet of Islam that ‘he was always sorrow-stricken and shed tears’. In his prayer he would humbly say:O, Allah! Bless us with a weeping eye.
As a lover has said:Jaanaan-e man az feraq-e to chandaan geristam
Kin aab-e chashm-e man hame ru’ye zamien gereft
Sereshkam rafteh rafteh bi to daryaa shod
Biyaa dar kashti chashmam neshin o sair-e daryaa kon O, my Beloved. I wept so copiously in separation with You,
That from my tears the entire surface of the earth turned wet.
My tears gradually swelled into a river in separation with You,
Come and sit down in the boat of my eye and go a-sailing in the river.
3. The third phase is hasrat or regret. On reaching this phase the lover casts a sorrowful glance on the life wasted and feels sad in the memory of the time spent without the Beloved:‘Omri keh bi to miravad az marq badtar ast
Ruzi keh bi to migozarad ruz-e mahshar astWorse than death: a life that passes without You;
The Day of Judgment: a day that passes without You.
4. The fourth phase is fekr-e mahbub or letting the thought of the Beloved seize the lover. This is the stage of intense meditation. Such a meditation brings the Beloved close to the mind of the lover. That is why an hour of meditation has been regarded as of greater value than sixty years of ritualistic prayers. A Sufi has expressed this idea in the following couplet:Nakhaaham joz-e to yak saa’at tafakkor darad gar kardan
Keh dar ham do jahaan jaanaan nadaaram chun to deldaariI do not desire to think of anyone but You, not even for a moment:
For in both worlds I have got only You as a Beloved to hold my heart.
5. The fifth phase is moraaqabat-e mahbub (watchful contemplation of the Beloved). This is a sublime stage. It is said that once ‘Ali was saying his prayers and suddenly people witnessed that his face turned pale and he fell down unconscious on the prayer-mat. When he recovered he said: “During the prayers I contemplated on God and I felt ashamed of my shortcomings”.According to the Chishtiyya Sufis the fourth stage of love is styled havaa
(passionate desire; affection; favour; love; desire). In this stage the lover is always inclined towards the Beloved or longs for Him. It also has five phases:
1. The first phase is khozu’ (humility). Hasan says:
For meeting the Beloved face to face,
Nothing is better than presenting yourself
With humility at the threshold of the Beloved. As a lover has said:
Yak jaan cheh mataa’-st keh saaziem fedaa’iyat
Ammaa cheh tavaan kard keh maujud hamien ast
What is the value of this one life, that I sacrifice it for You?
But what can I do, as I only have this very life.
2. The second phase is etaa’at-e mahbub (obedience to the Beloved). It implies to spend your life in obedient devotion to your Beloved and to dedicate to Him all that you have:Maraa taa jaan buvad ‘eshq-e to baazam
Maraa taa sar buvad gui-e to saazamAs long as I am alive I’ll love You!
As long as I have my head, it is a ball to play with for You.
And:
Maa naqd-e ‘omr sarf rah-e yaar kardeh-iem
Kaari keh kardeh-iem hamien kaar kardeh-iem
Our entire life has been spent in the service of the Friend,
Our work is just this very service!
3. According to the Chishti Sufis the third phase is sabr (patience). As someone has said:
Endure and gulp in all pain without remonstrance.The only way open for a lover is tacit endurance: The Beloved does what pleases Him. A tradition of the prophet observes:
When Allah loves anyone devoted to Him,
He puts him to severe tests.
When he endures them steadfastly,
He is marked out for distinction,
With all his imperfections overlooked
And with unasked for spiritual favours conferred on him,
For no special effort on his part to deserve them.It goes without saying that the above tradition is true for all lovers, male and female. Such is the love of Allah to you in case you love Him ardently. Some Sufi has rightly remarked:Joz sabr nist saiqal-e delhaa’i bi-qaraar
Chun istaad aab be-aayine mirasad
Only patience can polish restless hearts,
When water stands still, it resembles a mirror.
4. The fourth phase is in Persian pronunciation tazarro’ (humbling oneself; self-abasement, humility; earnest supplication; complaining, lamenting). The Qur’an 7: 205 commands:Wadhkor-Rabbaka fi nafseka tadarro’anw-wa khifatan…And remember your Lord in yourself, in humility…When matters come to such a pass for the lover, that neither meeting the Beloved lies in your power, nor the breeze of the garden of proximity reaches you, and when neither you possess the physical strength to speak, nor is your soul strong enough to soar high, what else can you do except to weep and feel helpless!
Chun nist dast zuram o yaaraa’i taaqatam
Inak rah-e tazarro’ … gerefteh-im
Because my hands are without strength
and my power of resistance has waned,
I have now taken the path
of humility and prayer.
5. The fifth phase is that of redaa (satisfaction). There is no consensus of opinion, among the Sufis, whether redaa is a maqaam (station) or a haal (state). To some Sufis is identical with the utmost trust in Allah. There are others however who hold that redaa is not acquired by individual effort, but that it is a gift of Allah. Abu ?Ali ad-Daqqaaq (d. 1015) is of the opinion that redaa implies that one should not criticise fate. When once the heart of an individual is at peace, then it can be concluded that he has attained redaa. According to Dhu’n-Nun (d. 860) to be satisfied with one’s fate means redaa. Al-Junayd of Baghdad (d. 910) took a different view. According to him redaa means and implies self-surrender. To renounce the limited will constitutes redaa.
The object of redaa is belief. Beshr ebn al-Haareth (d. 841) treats redaa as higher and greater than piety. The reason that he gives is that whilst a pious man is on the way, one who submitted to the will of Allah has already reached the destination.
A lover addresses the Beloved in this way:Ai sarv-e boland bustani
Dar pish derakht qaamat-at post
Gar sar nah neham bar aastaanat
Digar cheh konam dar degar hast
O the tall cypress of Your garden
Dwarfs before Your stature
If I do not put my head on Your threshold
What else can I do? Is there any other door for me?
The fifth stage of love according to the Chishtiyya Sufis is called shaghaf (violent affection, violent love; alacrity; love, longing, yearning; joy). The word has been used in Qur’an 12:30 in connection with the love affair of Zulaykha with Joseph:Qad shaghafa-haa hobbaaTruly he has inspired her with violent love.It also has five phases:1. The first phase is the obedience to the commands of the Beloved and the carrying out of His orders, willingly and spontaneously. One of these commandment can be found in Qur’an 11:112 and is given now:Fas-taqem kamaa omertaBe then upright as you have been commandedAnd what has been commanded? See Qur’an 73:8 for an answer:Wadhkoresma Rabbeka
wa tabattal elayhe tabtilaaAnd remember the name of your Lord
And devote yourself wholeheartedly to Him.A Sufi has expressed it in this quatrain:Moshghal-e toraa khabr ze ‘aalam nabovad
Majruh-e toraa haajat-e marham nabovad
Dar ‘eshq-e to gar hazaar gham pish aayad
Chun dar nazar-e to-am az aan gham nabovadOblivious of the world: the one who is concentrated on You,,
Not in need of any salve: the one wounded by You,
If I suffer even a thousand woes in Your love,
I do not feel their sting in case I am seen by You.2. The second phase is the guarding of the inward against all, except the Beloved. A Sufi has remarked:If you guard your heart from turning to an ‘other’,
God fills it with light.The reason for this appears to be that ‘God is single (wetr) and appreciates singularity alone’. As inspired in the Rose of Baghdad, the popular name of shaykh ‘Abd al-Qaader Jilaani, the Beloved says:Live for Me and guard your mind
Against the thought of any other.The following attitude now is clear:Joz-e dust na biniem o na khahim o na ju’im
Az khish gozashtim o ze aghiaar berastimWe see none but the Friend, we long only for Him, we seek Him alone.
We have passed beyond ourselves; we are free from all except Him alone.
3. The third phase of love according to the Chishtiyya Sufis is to shun everything that is distasteful to the Beloved.Nawab Khadim Hasan (d. 1970) has said:A dervish is a friend of God
And a friend’s friend is a friend;
So when you become a friend of a dervish
You become a friend of God.
4. The fourth phase of love according to the Sufis of the Chishtiyya way is regard for the friends of the Beloved. The prophet, therefore, has mentioned it in his prayer:
I pray for your love
And for the love of him,
Who loves You.
Muhammad (s.a.w.) has disclosed his method thus:
For the sake of Your love only,
We love those who are devoted to You.
Baba Taher has written this quatrain:
Agar del delbar delbar che numa
O gar delbar dela del az che numa
Del o delbar beham aamita
Nazunam del keha delbar karuma
If my heart is my sweetheart, for the sweetheart, which name to use?
And if my sweetheart is my heart, for the heart, which name to use?
My heart and my sweetheart are so intimately interwoven
That I do not know – my heart or my sweetheart – which name to use?
4. The fifth phase of love is keeping one’s own counsel regarding love, during the love affair between the lover and the Beloved. Mo’inoddin Chishti has made long travels, but he never disclosed his Sufi background. He stayed often at lonely places. In case people realized who and what he was, he travelled on. Consequently Shebli has said:Love requires that it should be concealed from others.
A Sufi has said:If only you could hold back
Your tears of love from flowing -
Tears which betray love –
You will indeed be ranked very high
Among the lovers.Some lover has stated his own case as follows:Ghamat har chand mipusham bedaaman
Fazihat mikonad cheshm-e ravaanam
Rokh zardam nadaarad taaqat hejr
Birun mi-afganad raaz-e nehaanamHowever much I may hide the pain of my love for You,
My foolish tears are a disgrace for me.
My pale face shows my inability to be away from You,
It throws into the open the secret hidden in me.
Siraj
The sixth stage of love is exclusive attachment to the Beloved. It means emptying the heart of all save the Beloved. Shaykh Baha’i (d. 1621) has written this beautiful poem:
Har dar keh zanam saheb-e-khane to-i to
Har ja keh rawam par to kashane to-i to
Dar maykade o dayr janane to-i to
Maqsud-e-man az ka’ba o butkhane to-i to
Maqsud-e-to-i ka’ba o butkhane bahane
Every door that I knock on, the Lord of the house is You, You!
Every place that I go to, the light in the house is You, You!
In the tavern and in the convent, the Beloved is You, You!
The One I seek in the Ka’ba and the idol temple is You, You!
Your purpose behind the Ka’ba and the idol temple
is to create but a pretext.
The following quatrain is by Amir Khusraw (d. 1325), the best poet among the Chishti Sufis:
‘Eshq amad-o shod chu khunam andar rag-o pust
Ta kard mara tahi-o por kard ze dust
Ajza’-ye-wojudam hamagi dust gereft
Namist mara bar man baqi hama ust.
Love came and spread like blood in my veins and the skin of me,
It filled me with the Friend and completely emptied me.
The Friend has taken over all parts of my existence,
Only my name remains, as all is He.
Amir Khusraw in these simple and beautiful lines stresses that by love of God he experienced unity. The last three words (all is He) belong to the technical vocabulary used by the Sufis to refer to unity of existence.
The stage of exclusive attachment to the Beloved also has five phases.
1. The first phase of exclusive attachment to the Beloved is called mu’aanadat (enmity). What happens that when the lover moves in company, she or he feels ill at ease with strangers and is afraid of being laughed at. People become her or his enemies and are prone to ridicule this lover. To explain this the author of Resaala-e-‘eshqia (The Epistle of Love) has quoted the following verse of Qur’an 22:52
We have not sent a messenger or prophet before you
but when he recited the devil would intrude into his recitation
Yet Allah annuls what the devil has cast.
Then Allah establishes his revelations.
Allah is All-knowing, Wise.
This shows that the forces of evil prepare their front against the lover, worry him (her) and try to scandalize him (her). They do not take notice of those who are not progressing along the spiritual path, but this is of course not the case in regard to the lover. It cannot be avoided that there is calumny or malicious misrepresentation in love. A Sufi has said:
Az paride nehaayate rang o az tapide nehaayate del
‘Aasheq bichaareh har jaa hast rosva mishavad
The extremely pale face and heavy beating of his heart
Expose the poor lover to ridicule on all hands.
2. The second phase of exclusive attachment to the Beloved is called sedq (truth, veracity, sincerity). It has been said:
Affectionate love is truth and sincerity
And the one who is true and sincere,
Is the friend of Allah.
Qur’an 39:33 has hinted at it in the following verse:
And he who brings the truth
And he who confirms it –
Those are the ones who are god-wary.
Some of the Sufis have placed the position of that friend of Allah who is really truthful and sincere, directly below the one of the prophets.
Sa’di has said:
Raasti mujeb-e rezaa’i khodaa
Kas nadidam keh gom shod az rah-e raast.
Truthfulness is an attribute that pleases God.
I have never seen one get lost who trod on the right path.
3. The third phase of exclusive attachment to the Beloved is eshtehaar (publicity; divulging; proclamation). It is the publicity of the state of the lover. At this point the lover steps out of her or his egotism and does not care whether (s)he is held in respect or disgrace. The Beloved gives publicity to the lover’s condition and spreads it far and wide. Some lover prayed to God: ‘Keep me in concealment’. In reply he was told: ‘O, Man! God never conceals anything’.
But at this point there are many difficulties to tide over.
Khwaja Mo’inuddin Chishti preferred to remain concealed to the public eye. He stayed at lonely places and when people got to know about his inner attainments he moved on to a place where no one knew him. One day, however, he received the order to go to Ajmer in India and to settle there. From that time on he was well known. It is said that after his death he was found with these words written on his forehead:
He was a Beloved of Allah
He died in the love of Allah.
This may be a legend, but it is given as an example of the stage of publicity.
4. The fourth phase of exclusive attachment to the Beloved is shakwa or complaint, i.e. bewailing the distraction caused and the anguish suffered. This is why the prophet Jacob has said: ‘I only complain of my distraction and anguish to God’.
The prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) exclaimed: ‘Praise be to You alone and before You alone I complain of my anguish’.
How can a lover complain of his Beloved? However he or she can express his or her humility, distraction and helplessness before the Beloved alone and not before anyone else.
When the prophet Job in his distress complained to Allah: ‘Affliction has touched me, but You are the most Merciful of the merciful’. Allah said this about him: ‘We have indeed found him steadfast, a blessed servant. He did ever return (to Us)’.
The complaint of the lover amounts to this: ‘Is there anyone save You before whom I may complain of my woe and anguish’.
Again:
Har kasi dar jahaan kasi daarad
Man toraa daaram o toraa o toraa
Chu hich baab az-in dar tariq raftan nist
Kojaa ravim o az dar kodaam dar daarim.
Az dast-e to ham pish-e to feryaad konam ze aankeh
Chun joz-e to namibinam feryaad rasi raa.
Everyone has someone in this world to look after him,
I have none but You, You and You.
As there is no other door to enter on the path I am following,
How can I leave this door? Which other door is open to me?
From You I complain to You alone!
For – beside You – I see no one to whom I may appeal.
The fifth phase of exclusive attachment to the Beloved is – according to the Chishti Sufis – hozn (grief, sadness. affliction, sorrow). You may know that to the qualities of the heart belong:
a. will
b. reason
c. passionate love
d. the urge for self-assertion or negativism
e. contentment and displeasure
f. cheerfulness and grief
g. eloquence of speech and the capacity to express its will effectively
It has been said:
Verily Allah regards as a friend
The heart that is agonised for Him.
Allah says:
I am found in those hearts,
Which are broken for My sake.
The prayer of the lover is nothing but this:
Joz ‘eshq-e to ‘aishhaa faraamusham baad
Hozn-e to be-jaaiye jaan dar aaghosham baad
Would that I forget all pleasures instead of the love of You,
Would that instead of my life I may embrace the pain of You.
The seventh phase according to the Chishtiyya Sufis has been styled mahabbat (love, affection; friendship, esteem, benevolence). This is a sublime phase and it has been mentioned in Qur’an 5:54 thus:
Allah will certainly produce a people
Whom He will love
And they will love Him.
Love is a gift. You cannot start to love somebody. In the above Qur’anic sign the love of Allah precedes human love, the Beloved is in fact the first lover…
Mahabbat has also five phases.
1. The first phase is that of hosn-e akhlaaq or good morals and good conduct, in private and in public, in prosperity and in adversity. At this phase the acts and deeds of the lover are praiseworthy and earn for him public esteem. His or her eyes behold none except the Friend and the heart of the lover does not think of anyone save the Beloved.
The lover is aloof, yet in society, considering that men are fellow-creatures, he or she is polite to them. But inwardly the lover is aloof and is distant from his/her fellow-beings and remains attached to the Beloved only. The modus operandi of the lover is that the lover now combines in him/herself both singularity and plurality.
Some Sufi has made the Beloved say:
Gar ba hame’iye chu bi mani bi hame’iye
Var bi hame’ie chu ba mani baa hame’iye
If you are with all, but since you are not with Me, you are with nobody.
If you are not with anybody, but since you are with Me, you are with all.
2. The second phase is that of malaama wa izhaar-e sokr wa haira or the courting of blame in a state of intoxication and bewilderment. At this level the lover is intoxicated and loses the consciousness of his/her own self by drinking deep of the cup of love. The lover is neither afraid of disgrace nor does he fear ignominy; distraught he charges forth and like one drunk finds the way to the kharaabaat or ‘tavern’:
‘Eshq-e to maraa kharaabaati kard
Var na man bichaareh ba-saamaan budam
Your love turned me into a haunter of taverns,
Else I would have been tranquil in mind.
Many stories are known about shaykh Hasan of Basra – a Sufi who has been mentioned in the beginning of the Chishtiyya line of succession – and in most of them someone else comes out as ‘better’ than him, while Hasan Basri’s ‘faults’ clearly have been depicted. It is, however, important to know that these reports often come from a single source: Hasan Basri himself!
Now innumerable favours are showered on the lover and (s)he has to pass through many tribulations also. Sometimes the prophet of Islam is told:
If you had not been,
I would not have manifested My Lordship.
And sometimes – like in Qur’an 17:86 – he is informed:
If We so wish,
We certainly can blot out
That which We have revealed to you;
Then you would find no advocate
To assist you against Us.
Sometimes Moses, the interlocutor of Allah, is told (see Qur’an 20:41):
I have chosen you for Myself.
And sometimes he is warned (see Qur’an 7:143):
You will not see Me.
Allah says in Qur’an 2:30 with regard to Adam:
I will create a vicegerent on earth.
And sometimes – as in Qur’an 20:121) – it is said about him:
Adam thus disobeyed his Lord
And so went astray.
In this way Allah sometimes raises the rank of the lover and sometimes puts him/her to an ordeal. But if the lover is perfect, (s)he never takes his eyes off the Beloved and in all his/her ways desires nothing but what the Beloved desires and exclaims:
Agar moraad-e to ay dust na moraadi maa-st
Moraad-e khish az-in bish man nakhaaham daasht
If it is Your wish, o Friend, that I give up my own wish,
Your wish is then best and I’ll no longer have any wish of my own.
3. The third phase is that of moshaahadat-e ghaib (contemplation of the mystery, witnessing the unseen). On reaching this phase the lover becomes someone of ‘insight’ and the Beloved reveals to him/her some of His ways and attributes, infuses into his/her heart the effulgence of His love and draws his/her mind to the very source of knowledge.
But this stage is beset with innumerable pitfalls; many heads roll here in the dust and not a few lives are lost. I’ve met a Chishti shaykh who recited some appropriate verses of Hafez about the ‘victims’ of this phase. Tears were running down his cheeks… But if the Beloved continues to favour the lover and the latter closes his/her eyes to all but the Beloved as has been said in Qur’an 53:17 of the prophet of Islam that his
Sight never swerved,
Nor did it go wrong.
then it is the assumption with Allah of the position of qaaba qawsain as Qur’an 53:9 puts it:
Coming thus within two bows’ length or closer.
It is in such a situation that you are allowed the privilege of beholding His countenance. Qur’an 25:45 expresses it thus:
Have you not turned your vision to your Lord?
This is the highest favour that you may receive from the Beloved:
Chu az jomleye jahaan boridi man toraa aam
When you have severed your connections
With all, then I am yours.
This has been hinted at in the following verse of Qur’an 18:16 also:
When you withdrew from them
And what they worship apart from Allah,
Take refuge in the Cave.
Here kahf or cave means the cave of union (kahf al-wesaal). This point comes at the end of the journey to Allah.
The fourth phase is that of aarzu-e molaaqaat or the wish to meet the Beloved. Someone who is not in love with the Beloved cannot stand the tribulations at this stage. The difficulties experienced will be overwhelming and the meaning of these difficulties will then be unclear to you. Hafez has written:
Nai dawlat-e donya besetam miarzad
Nai lazzat-e hastiyash-e alam miarzad
Na haft hezar saleh shadiye jahan
In mehnat-e haft ruz-e gham miarzad
During tyranny the treasures of the world have no value;
During grief the delights of existence have no value;
The seven thousand years of joy of the world
Compared to the sorrow of seven days of adversity have no value.
With the lover having reached the fourth phase of aarzu-e molaaqaat as referred to above by the Chishtiyya Sufis, the case is completely different. Even if this lover is bathed a hundred times in his own blood and even if the lover is hanged a hundred times on the gallows of tribulations, the longing for union with the Beloved and the desire of meeting Him face to face grows stronger in the lover’s heart. The thought of acceptance and rejection does not cross his/her mind. If (s)he received like Moses a hundred lashes of lan taraani or ‘by no means you can see Me (direct)’ (see Qur’an 7:143) on his/her back, even then (s)he will go on reiterating the cry (see Qur’an 7:143):
Show Yourself to me,
So that I may look upon You.
As a lover has said:
Agar be tir zanandam o gar be tigh koshand
Be hich zarb o siyaasat ze to nadaaram dast
Even if I’m hit by arrows or killed by a sword
None of these blows or punishments will deter me from seeking You.
The fifth phase has been styled estinaas (desire for intimacy) according to the Chishti Sufis:
The sign of attachment with the Beloved
Is detachment from all else.
The lover’s cry is:
Ai baadshaah-e hosn khodaaraa besukhtim
Yakrah su’aal kon keh gadaaraa che haajatast
O, beautiful King, for God’s sake, I am in flames!
Ask, at least once, what this beggar needs!
The eight stage is ‘eshq (love), which is another name of excessive and intense affection. At this stage one looses one’s reason and senses:
Ketaab-e hosn-e to ruzi qadaa mikhaanad dar gusham
Shodam az ‘eshq-e begaana na ‘aqlam maanad na husham
One day fate related in my ear the tale of Your beauty,
An unknown love seized me and reason and understanding left me.
Love is the conflagration which burns the hay-stick of existence to ashes and uproots the tree of life. Shebli has said:
Love is the fire, which once kindled in the heart,
Consumes everything other than the Beloved.
A Sufi has said:
‘Eshq aamad o kard khaane khaali
Bar daashte tigh-e laa obaali
Haasel-e ‘eshq in sokhan bish nist
Sukhtam o sukhtam o sukhtam
Love entered and turned my house empty,
It carried the sword of ‘I-don’t-care’
The outcome of love amounts to nothing but this:
I am burnt, I am burnt, I am burnt!
Faith does not reach perfection without love. Qur’an 2: 165 emphatically says:
The believers are overflowing in their love for Allah.
But love is something spontaneous and not acquired. In Qur’an 2:247 it is given:
Allah grants His power to whom He pleases.
In the words of al-Hujwiri, near whose grave Mo’inoddin Chishti sat in meditation: ‘Love is a divine gift, not a thing that can be acquired by human effort without divine grace … If the whole universe wished to attract love, it could not. If it made the utmost effort to repel it, it also could not’.
Ghaaleb has expressed this fact thus:
Love, O Ghaaleb is not controllable
This is a fire
Which neither can be kindled
Nor extinguished at will.
The Chishti shaykh Mohammad Gisu Daraaz says:
‘Eshq wahabiye serf ast o bakhsheshi khaase ast
Love is an unmixed gift and a special boon.
The following is one of his couplets:
Love-making is not our own choice,
God crowns the head He likes.
All Sufis unanimously agree that love is a gift of God.
Love (‘eshq) has five phases:
1. The first phase is fuqdaan-e-qalb (the losing of one’s heart). It is a well-known saying in the Arab language:
He who has not lost his heart is not a lover.
A poet expresses this idea in his own words:
Ze delam neshaan che khaahi ke ze del khabr nadaaram
To begu ke del che baashad man azu asar nadaaram
Why do you make a search for my heart for I am myself unaware thereof?
Tell me yourself: What is a heart? I do not find any sign thereof.
The reason for this is that whosoever has a heart heeds its presence alone and is oblivious of love:
Ke goft man khabri daaram az haqiqat-e ‘eshq
Dorugh goft ke az khish-e u khabr daarad
He said that he was aware of the essence of love.
He lied for he was only aware of himself.
When Dhu’n Nun, the Egyptian Sufi, was asked: ‘Who is the true lover?’ – he replied: ‘When you see someone who wears a worried look, has lost his heart and has no control over reason, sheds tears very often and is desirous of death and extinction and likes all that is modest and well-behaved, and finds time for devotion, know that he is a true lover’.
However it can be said that there are people who are able to hide all these things from others. They may shed a tear in the night but during the day they appear to be quite cheerful. The path of love, of course, ever goes on.
2. The second phase is taa’assof (grief, regret). Here the lover who has lost his heart and is separated from his Beloved is always in grief. Qur’an 12:84 has described the plight of the prophet Jacob in the following verse:
How great is my grief for Joseph!
And his eyes became white with sorrow
And he fell into silent melancholy.
3. The third phase is wajd (ecstasy; wajada is to find) and ecstasy is such an inner state that it cannot really be described. Hafez, as ‘tongue of the unseen’, however writes:
Motreb che parde saakht ke dar parde-ye samaa’
Bar ahl-e wajd o haal dar-e haa-i o hu-i bebast
What note played the minstrel in the circle of music,
That the people of ecstasy and spiritual state closed the door to all noise?
For the ecstatic the whole universe becomes narrow like the circle of a ring. Even the vast world of the angels (malakut) appears to him or her of no consequence. In case you experience this phase you’ll not find comfort and rest anywhere.
4. The fourth phase is bi-sabri or impatience. During this phase the lover loses his or her vigour and strength. When you experience this then your life catches fire, as it were, in its yearning for the Beloved. The flame of longing is then keeping you excited and you’ll pass night and day in shouting and clamouring for your Beloved:
Taa bud maraa taaqat budam ba shekebaa’i
Chun kaar bajaan aamad zin pas man o rosvaai
Sar-panje sabram raa pichied o berun shod del
Ai sabr hamien budat baazu-i tavaanaa’i
I was patient, as long as I had strength.
I suffered humiliation after the departure of my strength.
Overcoming patience my heart rebelled.
O patience! Could you only muster this much of strength?
A Sufi has said: ‘Love and patience are the two antonyms, which can never be reconciled’. These are the words of a lover:
Deli ke ‘aasheq o saaber bud magar sang ast
Ze ‘eshq taa besaburi hazaar farsang ast.
The heart of a lover who is patient is nothing but a stone.
Between love and patience are a thousand miles.
5. The fifth phase in the description of the path of the lover has been called by the Chishtiyya Sufis siyaanat (preserving; defence, protection; preservation; support). The lover’s behaviour becomes like that of a madman with eyes shedding tears, the heart being seared, running distracted here and there in lanes and streets, and wandering in lonely places. He or she does not know anything but the Beloved and utters no words except the names of the Beloved. In his or her madness he talks to stones and grass. He tells his message to the morning breeze. Inanimate things – so it appears – talk to the lover, who may have the experience described by Shakespeare:
And this our life,
Exempt from public haunts,
Finds tongues in trees,
Books in running brooks,
Sermons in stones…
Lovers keep alive by the scent of the Beloved alone and are resurrected uttering His name. One of the Sufis has written (and please correct possible mistakes):
Buy-e mahbub chu bar khaak-e ahbaab gozarad
Che ‘ajab gar beshavad zende azu ‘azm-e ramim.
When the scent of the Beloved passes over the mortal remains of the lovers
Then it is not strange that even decayed bones may come to life.
The ninth of the Chishti stages of love is called enslavement (taim; Is this a case of a spelling-mistake? It has not been translated by Steingass as enslavement but as: a servant. I wonder if there is a word in Arabic or Persian looking like taim but with a somewhat different rendering in Roman characters? Suggestions?). At this stage the manacles of humiliation and submission are put around the neck of the lover whose feet are bound by the fetters of slavery. The ring in the ear of a Chishtiyya Sufi can be seen as a symbol of this slavery.
A Chishti pir has put these lines of Jami (d. 1492) into English:
Notwithstanding a king You are and we beggars in abjection,
Do not remove the skirt, for we are delved deep in devotion.
As we have the mark of Your slavery engraved,
Wherever we go, we are a king without doubt and discussion.
Jami be used to tyranny and hardships,
You know that we are not fit for faithfulness and submission.
The ninth stage has also five phases.
1. The first phase is called tafarrod (isolation, detachment, singularity, separation, i.e separation from the rest of the world). Reaching this phase the lover is isolated from all except the Beloved, and thus he attains union with the Beloved:
Dar khish gomam keh man cheh naamam
Ma’shuqam o ‘aasheqam kodaamam.
I am lost to myself, what is my name?
Am I a beloved or a lover, what am I?
The lover is now freed of his ego:
Hadith-e man varaqi baaz kon keh man nah manam
Hame to gashtam o inak hadith shod kutaah
My story is a page, turn it so that I am not there!
I have completely been transformed into You and now the story ends.
The lover and the Beloved are one, there is no more duality:
‘Aasheq o ma’shuq o ‘eshq har seh yaki daan dar asl
Farq-e miyaan man o to hast haqiqat hu ast
Know this: The lover, the Beloved and love are in fact one!
There may appear to be a difference between you and me, but in reality only He exists.
Rumi states:
‘Aasheq mahv dar ‘eshq o ‘eshq mahv dar ma’shuq
The lover has been effaced in love and love has been effaced in the Beloved.
These verses of shaykh Mansur al-Hallaaj are well-known:
I am He Whom I love and He Whom I love is I,
We are two spirits dwelling in one body.
If you’d see me, you’d see Him,
If you’d see Him, you’d see both of us.
Experiencing this phase of detachment shaykh Mansur al-Hallaaj involuntarily cried out:
Is it You or I? No, both of us are one!
I shun and avoid positing duality.
During this phase the Beloved’s jealousy is stirred. The veil of duality is lifted! It is in this sense that Qur’an 55:27 has been understood by the Sufis:
Everyone upon it will perish,
But the face of your Lord, full of majesty and nobility, will abide.
A Sufi poet has said:
‘Eshq o ‘aasheq mahv gardad zin maqaam
Khud hamaan ma’shuq maanad vas-salaam
Love and the lover have been effaced at this place,
Only the Beloved remains and goodbye!
2. The second phase is estetaar (occultation; being hid; concealment). Here concealment is solicited and desired by both sides, but the jealousy of the Beloved exceeds that of the lover. The Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) has said:
I am jealous and Allah is more jealous than I.
What takes place is thus described by a lover:
Del pish to-am dide bejaa’i degarastam
Taa khalq nadaanad ke toraa minegarestam
My heart is with you; my eyes are at another place
So that people may not know I’m looking at you.
This is an unusual phase. People who have reached it may express themselves in the language of signs and symbols:
Raazi-st maraa baa shab o serri-st ‘ajab
Shab daanad o man daanam o shab
Alef laam mim – alef laam mim saad
I share a secret with the night and it is a strange secret.
The night knows and I know and the night:
A, l, m – a, l, m, s
The above and other abbreviated letters are symbols of the same kind. As Qur’an 53:10 hinted at:
Then He revealed to His servant what He revealed.
3. The third phase is that of the giving of your life (bazl-e-ruh). When you experience this you do not feel concern for your life. Some lover has said:
Az man gomaan mabar ke del az dust bar konam
Taa jaan dar-in tan ast dam az ‘eshq barzanam
Gar beshenovi ke qaafela mord dar ghammat
Avval kasi ke jan dehad az bahr-e tu manam
Don’t imagine that my heart will get tired of the Friend.
As long as I’m alive every breath will be out of love.
If You hear that the caravan perished in grief for You,
Know then, that I was the first one to die for Your sake.
4 and 5. The fourth and the fifth phases are – according to the Chishtiyya Sufis – that of fear and hope. During these phases, the lover, due to the dread of the termination of his or her love with the Beloved, trembles and shudders, and the hope of meeting the Beloved gladdens the heart of the lover. Keeping in view God Almighty’s attributes of dominance, dignity and unconcern the lover fears that his or her love for God at some moment may get transferred to someone else besides Him or any of the lover’s acts may displease Him. It is evident that when a person is deep in love with some object, he or she will be afraid of losing it. Now, if the Beloved is such that losing Him is probable, the lover will certainly feel alarmed at the very idea crossing his/her mind. The Gnostics hold that (s)he who worships God merely on the basis of love and forsaken fear, may due to pride and taking undue liberty with God, perish. And (s)he who worships God due to fear alone and does not feel love for Him drifts away and is severed from Him. On the other hand God makes that person His beloved and draws that person near to Him, who worships Him and is devoted to Him both due to fear and love. It follows that fear is a sine qua non for the lover and love is necessary for him or her who is afraid. The following tradition conveys the same: ‘Faith is midway between fear and hope’.
Ke natarsad ze bi niyaaziye u
Ke nanaazad ze kaarsaaziye u
Who is not afraid of His unconcern?
Who does not rely on His providence?
10. The tenth and final stage of the Chishti stages of love is valah or bewilderment (other translations are: being frightened; being sad, afflicted, sorrowful, distracted o impatient from love or grief; fear; terror, grief, perturbation of mind, stupor). This stage is beset with tremendous dangers, consequently it has been said:
In distance there is torment
And in nearness bewilderment.
This sense can be grasped in the following words uttered by a lover:
Gar binamat jaan miravad
Var nanegaram khod chun ziyam
Hairaanam andar kaar-e khod
Kit jaan daham yaa nanegaram
If I see You I lose my life!
If I don’t see You, how can I live?
Confusion has come to my affair:
Should I offer my life or should I abstain from seeing You?
Ahmad al-Ghazzaali (the brother of the more famous Muhammad al-Ghazzaali. Ahmad is in fact the more interesting of the two brothers. Unlike his brother he has acted as a Sufi shaykh by accepting personal disciples. Ahmad has left a very subtle bequest to us in the shape of his teachings on love) in his treatise Risaala-e Savaaneh (which has completely been translated into English!) writes: ‘The beloved is always a beloved. His attributes are unconcern and freedom from want. The lover is always a lover, his/her attributes are want and poverty. Thus as a lover will always require a beloved, want will always be his/her attribute, and as a beloved is not in need of anything, unconcern will always be his attribute’.
The same sense has been expressed by a lover thus (I am not quite sure of the following transliteration):
Hamvaare to del robude ma’zuri
Gham hich niyaaz mawadde ma’zuri
Man bi to hazaar shab bekhun dar budam
To bi to shabi nabude ma’zuri
You always captured my heart and cannot help it.
You have not gauged the grief You have causes and cannot help it.
I have passed a thousand nights in anguish without You,
Not for a night You were other than You are and cannot help it.
The Beloved, regardless of the attributes of loveliness, is independent of the lover. But if the attribute of loveliness is taken into consideration, the Beloved too, may be considered to be in want of love and the lover. The Beloved, however, exists and for His existence does not require anything. The same cannot be said of the lover. Khwaajaa Abu’l-Wafaa of Khwarazm says: ‘If the famous tradition “I was a hidden treasure, I desired to become known and I created the world in order to be known” be kept in view, it could be said that the divines and Gnostics have an assignment in the world of love of the Absolute. The verse of the Qur’an: “He loves them and they love Him” shows that lovers too are held in high regard in the Sanctorum of love of the Absolute. But it is better to dispel false hopes, for the reason that He does not stand in need of anybody’.
Aayine dar rui khod midaashte ast
Taa bekhod ‘aasheq zaar aamade ast
U ze jomle faaregh ast o har kasi
Andarin da’va bedidaar aamade ast
U-st ‘aasheq u-st ma’shuq u-st ‘eshq
Kisti to jomle chun yaar aamade ast
The Beloved placed a mirror before Him
And has fallen in love with Himself.
He is independent of all and everything.
He has appeared with the claim to see Himself.
He is the lover, He is the Beloved and He is love.
Who are you when the Friend is all these?
Now what remains there except astonishment and bewilderment?
Hairat andar hairat ast o vaalehi dar vaalehi
Andar in rah sad hazaaraan ‘aql-e ‘aaqel mobtalaa ast
Astonishment after astonishment and bewilderment after bewilderment:
On this path the intellect of thousands of sages will be sorely tried.
This stage, too, has five phases:
1. The first phase is that of ebtehaal (supplication; lamenting, deprecating; being sincere in prayer). The lover takes recourse to it in all humbleness and meekness. The lover begs of the Beloved nothing but the Beloved Himself. It is totally wrong if the lover begs of his or her Beloved anything except the Beloved Himself. He or she would not be a lover at all, in the true sense of the word. The object most desired by the lover is the Beloved Himself. His or her cry is: “You are the goal of my quest!”
In a frenzy of helplessness the lover cries out:
Man chun ziyam keh ruye degar khush namikonad
In chesham ru-siyah keh beruye to khu gereft
How can I be alive as no other face appeals to me?
This unfortunate eye of mine is used to seeing You!
2. The second phase of the final stage among the Chishti stages of love is that of ‘the drinking of the wine of love’. In this phase the lovers have different tastes. Some quaff this wine in the goblet of pain and some sip it out of the cup of longing and say:
I drank cup after cup of the wine of love.
Neither I felt satisfied nor the wine was finished.
Some drink it out of the cup of grief, some out of the cup of toil, some out of the cup of fear and a few out of the cup of hope. And everyone has to undergo toil and tribulation of every kind.
3. The third phase is sokr (intoxication. It has been observed by some gnostic:
The one whom the goblet of love inebriated,
Will be awakened by the sight of the Beloved.
Some say:
Love is intoxication in astonishment
And there is astonishment in intoxication
And the lover is usually intoxicated.
That is the reason why the seekers had begged:
Ay saaqi az aan mey keh din o aa’ien-e man ast
Bi khisham kon keh masti aa’ien-e man ast
O, cupbearer! Serve me the wine which is my faith and my custom!
Let me lose my consciousness for intoxication is my custom.
4. The fourth phase according to the Chishtiyya is that of ezteraab (distraction, agitation, disturbance of mind, perturbation, commotion; anxiety, anguish, trouble; perplexity, restlessness, distraction; precipitation) and bikhodi (selflessness, ecstasy; rapture; being out of one’s senses; madness). A story can be told. Once a love was weeping in loneliness and was crying: ‘Fire! Fire!’ People rushed to her and finding there no fire, asked: ‘What is on fire?’ The lover sobbed bitterly and pointing to her heart, said (Qur’an 104:6-7):
It is God’s kindled fire,
Which attains even the hearts.
This malady from which a lover suffers, is usually a prolonged one and recovery is possible only by seeing the Beloved. It is the property of love that it always keeps the lover uneasy and restless. Love inflicts on the lover various diseases, as has been said by Fayzi:
Khaasiyat-e simaab bud ‘aasheq raa
Taa koshte nagardad ezteraabash naravad
The lover has the property of mercury:
His restlessness will not go away until he is killed.
5. The fifth phase, which concludes the Chishti stages of love is talaf (destruction; ruin). An ‘aref (a gnostic) was asked to enumerate the stages of love. He said: ‘It begins with a gift, then death by consent, then you can guess what follows’:
Dar rah-e ‘eshq tavaazo’ nabud ghayr fanaa
Dast bar daashtan az khish salaam-ast injaa
On the path of love the only humility is annihilation
To leave the self here brings about salvation.
Now the lover arrives at the point of annihilation and is lost even to annihilation itself. In this annihilation she or he gains everlasting life in the Beloved. The Qur’an 44:56 hints at it in the following verse:
They do not taste death therein,
Except for the first death;
And He guards them…
A Sufi has written this poem:
Taa mard ze khish faani motlaq na shavad
Asbaat ze nafiye u mohaqqaq na shavad
Az khish berun aa’i keh u to baashi
Var na bagozaaf aadami haqq na shavad
Until you have not completely annihilated yourself,
Affirmation of Him compared to denial of Him cannot be verified.
Step out from yourself, so that He may become you,
Or else you cannot attain to the truth just like that.
Here we come to the real meaning of love: ‘Love is the negation of all the attributes of the lover and the putting the Beloved Himself in their place’. This means, that the lover does not now subsist by her or his attributes. The lover now subsists by the very essence of the Beloved alone. Someone saw Majnun making Laila’s and his own sketches simultaneously on the ground. Then he effaced Laila’s sketch. It was remarked: ‘What sort of love it is, which makes the lover efface the sketch of the beloved. Majnun said in reply: ‘If you do not find Laila in me, then make another drawing of her’.
This story has been related by a poet thus:
Chun ‘aasheq raa kasi bekaarad
Ma’shuqe az u berun aarad.
When someone draws the lover’s picture,
The Beloved comes out of it.
The existence of the lover is made manifest by the existence of the Beloved only. As a lover you have no separate or independent existence of your own:
Man aangeh khod kasi baasham keh dar maydaan-e muhkam-u
Na del baasham na jaan baasham na sar baasham na tan baasham.
I am somebody when I’m in His clear field:,
I have neither a heart, nor a soul, nor a head, nor a body.
The being of the lover is dependent on the being of the Beloved alone. The lover has no being by her/himself, but exists in the Beloved alone:
Chun hast baqaa’iye man baaqi beh baqaa’iye to
Pas ham to hamaan baaqi khod raa cheh baqaa’ khaaham
As my existence is dependent on Your existence,
Then You alone exist, so why should I desire for an existence of my own?
The Chishti stages of love show that a true lover, due to the prompting of the feeling of love, merges totally in the Beloved, effaces her or his soul and body in this love and with all energy available wants the Beloved alone. As it has been said: ‘If you seek an object and strive for it, you will find it’. You will succeed and the promise of ‘The one who seeks Me, finds Me’ is fulfilled. Ebn-e-‘Abbaas has said that God said: “I am present. Seek Me and you will find Me. If you seek anything else besides Me, you will never find Me’.
For this very reason all the eminent Sufis have regarded the path of love as the most effective approach to God.
Sharia, Tariqa, Haqiqa, and Marifa
The way of Islam consists of four ways (or stations). These four ways are:
1. Sharia (sacred laws)
2. Tariqa (sacred path)
3. Haqiqa (divine reality)
4. Marifa (gnosis or certain knowledge of God)
According to Prophetic tradition (hadith):
. Sharia consists of the words of the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace,
. Tariqa consists of the actions of the Prophet,
. Haqiqa consists of the state of the Prophet, and
. Marfia consists of the secrets of the Prophet.
These four ways are very closely linked together and cannot be separated one from the other.
The Kalima (the sacred mantra of Islamic faith, La ilaha illallah) has four meanings according to these four ways.
According to Sharia the meaning is:
“There is nothing in the world that can be worshipped with certainty except Allah.”
According to Tariqa the meaning is:
“There is none that can do a thing except Allah.”
According to Haqiqa the meaning is:
“There is none who is sought after except Allah.”
According to Marifa the meaning is:
“There is nothing existent except Allah.”
