And Were Met By Wealth

Peace, one and all…

‘We sought poverty and were met by wealth.  Others sought wealth and were met by poverty’
Ibrahim ibn Adham, Attar Memorials of the Saints

Hamza Yusuf: Tafsir Surah al-Fatihah

Peace, one and all…

A fascinating exploration of the opening chapter of the Quran.

Surah al-Fatihah (Sahih International translation)

In the name of Allah , the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.
[All] praise is [due] to Allah , Lord of the worlds -
The Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful,
Sovereign of the Day of Recompense.
It is You we worship and You we ask for help.
Guide us to the straight path -
The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor,
not of those who have evoked [Your] anger or of those who are astray.

The Ranks of the Poor

Peace, one and all…

A man once asked Ma`ruf Karkhi, an early Sufi master, for counsel.  In reply he said: ‘Beware lest the Lord sees you when you are not in the ranks of the poor’
Attar Memorials of God’s Friends

Through the Real

Peace, one and all…

‘Forgetting the self is remembering the Real.  Anyone who knows the Real through the Real is alive, and anyone who knows the Real through his self perishes’

Bayazid Bistami, as recorded in Attar’s Memorials of the Saints

Love is the Imam

Peace, one and all…

For us, love is the imam; the heart is the Congregation.
Our qible is the face of the Beloved;
our prayer is continuous.

Upon seeing the Beloved’s face, polytheism was taken away.
That’s why the Holy Law was left at the door.

The heart prostrates itself in the mihrab of the Beloved.
It strikes its head upon the ground
and supplicates God.

There is no ‘time’ like the silent and fervant prayers there.
Whoever is with the Beloved;
that moment is halvet.

The Holy Law says, ‘Be sure you don’t neglect
the sitpulations of the Holy Law.’
But stipulations are for that person who is perfidious.

The breath of those who achieved mystical knowledge
is a fortunate symbol.
With it we became secure from trouble.

At that first time in time, we said, ‘Yes’.
It is still one moment,
from that time to this hour.

Five of us assembled together,
we arrived at one time;
making five one, who will worship

We do not oppose anyone’s religion;
when religion is complete,
love is true.

He who guards Truth at the Beloved’s door,
without doubt
will find divine fortune.

At that door Yunus is the lowest of servants;
this honour of service has lasted
from Eternity without Beginning to Eternity without End.

Yunus Emre, trans. Grace Martin Smith

What Is This World To You?

Peace, one and all…

If you have reached greatness, what is form to you?
If you have found a path to the spiritual realm,
what is this world to you?

Give up this world; come and enter the fire of love.
Reach the stage ahead;
what is this remaining behind of yours?

This body’s property is not just fire and water and earth.
Each one of these returns to its source;
what is this heedlessness of yours?

Idol-temple and wine shop become a mosque to the true soul.
Not one coin of yours will be wasted;
what is this lying to you?

Since you are strong enough to go to the Hereafter,
leave aside the false pretension of this world.
If you are a lover, what is this love of goods and treasures to you?

If you gather goods saying, ‘They are mine,’
do you have pretensions of being God?
The King will not look at your crime;
what is this being lost on the way to you?

Night and day you suffer worries; ‘What should I do? I am a miserable wretch,’ you say.
He is generous; He gives you your daily bread;
what is this worry to you?

Unfortunate one, eat, feed others; if food is lacking, God will provide.
One day your body will enter the earth;
that which is left behind – what is it to you?

Yunus, you have become very drunk from this goblet of love.
While you lost consciousness of self, you reached God;
what is sobriety to you?

Yunus Emre, translated by G.S. Smith

The Ladder of Egotism

Peace, one and all…

Human beings climb the ladder of egotism, but in the
end everyone must fall from this ladder.
The higher you climb, the more foolish you are, for
your bones will be more badly broken.
When you die to yourself and come alive through God,
in truth you have become one with God, in absolute unity
Masnavi 4.2763-2767

Meister Eckhart: Counsels on Discernment 1

Peace, one and all…

The main theme of our first Evrad-i Serif offering is, perhaps, devotion: devotion to God, as the Source of Peace and the Sustainer of All, is the essential first element in any spiritual growth.  Within the Abrahamic family of faiths, this means striving to come into a close and loving relationship with the One Reality, with God.  There is something deep within us that is only activated when we devote ourselves to that loving relationship.  This is often expressed in terms of obedience (though it isn’t the only form by any means).  It is, therefore, not surprising that in his first offering from the Counsels on Discernment Meister Eckhart explores the nature of true obedience.

Counsel 1: First, about true obedience

True and perfect obedience is a virtue above all virtues, and no work is so great that it can be achieved or done without this virtue; and however little and however humble a work may be, it is done to greater profit in true obedience, be it saying Mass, hearing it, praying, contemplating or whatever else you can think of.  But take as humble a work as you like, whatever it may be, true obedience makes it finer and better for you.  Obedience always produces the best of everything in everything.  Truly, obedience never perturbs, never fails, whatever one is doing, in anything that comes from true obedience, for obedience neglects nothing that is good.  Obedience need never be troubled, for it lacks no good thing.

When a man in obedience goes out of himself and renounces what he possesses, God must necessarily respond by going in there, for if anyone does not want something for himself, God must want it as if for Himself.  If I deny my own will, putting it in the hands of my superior, and want nothing for myself, then God must want it for me, and if he fails me in this matter, he will be failing Himself.  So in all things, when I do not want something for myself, God wants it for me.  Now pay good heed.  What is it that God wants for me that I do not want for myself?  When I empty myself of self, He must necessarily want everything for me that He wants for Himself.  And if He were not to do this, by that truth which is God, He would not be just, nor would he be the God that it is His nature to be.

In true obedience there should be no trace of ‘I want it so, or so,’ or ‘I want this or that,’ but there should be a pure going out from what is yours.  And therefore in the best of all prayers that a man can pray, there should not be ‘Give me this virtue, or that way of life,’ but ‘Lord, give me nothing but what you will, and do, Lord, whatever and however you will in every way.’  That is superior to the first way of praying as the heavens are above the earth.  And when one has concluded that prayer, one has prayed well, for then one has in true obedience wholly entered into God.  And just as true obedience should have no ‘I want it so,’ so also one should not hear from obedience ‘I do not want,’ because ‘I do not want’ is a sure poison of all obedience.  That is what Saint Augustine says: ‘God’s faithful servant has no desire for people to say or to give to him, or what he likes to hear or see, for his first and his greatest aim is to hear what is most pleasing to God’

Ask olsun,
Abdur Rahman

A Different Pair of Eyes

Peace, one and all…

‘Reason cannot bear the light of that Face.
For its sake, go find a different pair of eyes’

Mahmud Shabistari, The Garden of Mystery, 102

That His Lovers May Comprehend

Peace, one and all…

‘On the paths of feeling, imagination, understanding and will, the Lover searched for his Beloved.  On those paths the Lover endured perils and griefs for his Beloved’s sake, so he might raise his will and understanding to the Beloved.  For the Beloved wills that His lovers may comprehend and love Him deeply’
Ramon Lull, The Book of the Lover and the Beloved, 314.

Related Post:

• Reflecting on the First of All Commandments

Essentially An Eye

Peace, one and all…

A human being is essentially an eye;
the rest is merely flesh and skin:
whatever the eye had beheld, he is that.
A jar will submerge a mountain with its water
when the eye of the jar is open to the Sea.
When the interior of the jar has a channel to the Sea,
the jar will overwhelm a river as great as the Oxus.
In the same way whatever speech Muhammad uttered,
those words were really uttered by the Sea.
All his words were pearls of the Sea,
for his heart had a passage into that Sea.
Since the bounty of the Sea is poured through our jar,
why should anyone be amazed that the Sea itself
should be contained in a Fish?
Masnavi 6.812-817

Take Care, O Body of Dust!

Peace, one and all…

Take care, O body of dust: don’t speak a word about dust.
Don’t speak about the story of that pure Mirror.
There is an attribute of the Creator of the heavens within you.
Don’t speak except about the Attributes of the Creator of the heavens.
Mevlana, Quatrain 1743

The Inward Companion Who Gives You Breath

Peace, one and all…

The inward Companion who gives you breath
Gives you hope of reaching the sacred place.
Until the last breath, feast upon His breath,
For He gives you that from generosity, not amorous playfulness.
Mevlana, Quatrain 1818

You Are That

Peace, one and all…

If you are in search of the soul’s home, you are the soul.
And if you are in search of a mouthful of bread, you are that bread.
If you understand this secret distinction, you will understand
That anything for which you search, you are that.
Mevlana, Quatrain 1734

But Aren’t Your Feet Unbound?

Peace, one and all…

Your thinking is bound, but aren’t your feet unbound?
You have finally seen that movement is also a secret.
In movement, constriction truly becomes expansion.
The water of the well and the water of the stream are distinguished in this way.
Mevlana, Quatrain 1719

How Many A Noble Sun

Peace, one and all…

How many showers of favour were rained down
so as to make the ocean strew its pearls!

How many a noble sun has blazed to teach
the clouds and oceans generosity!
Masnavi 1.510-511

If You Walk on the Way

Peace, one and all…

If you walk on the Way, the Way will be opened to you.
And if you become non-existent, you will be led to real existence.
If you become humble, you will not be contained in the universe.
And then you will be shown to yourself – without yourself.
Mevlana, Quatrain 1836

As Long As You Don’t…

Peace, one and all…

As long as you don’t feel pain, you’ll never reach the remedy.
As long as you don’t give up your life, you’ll never reach union with the Beloved.
As long as you don’t go into the fire, like Abraham the Friend of God,
You’ll never reach the Fountain of Life, like Khizr
Mevlana, Quatrain 1721