Breezes of Intimacy 11-15

BREEZES OF INTIMACY- 11
HOUSE OF ALLAH

One murid of Sheikh Rumi had badly broken the heart of another. The victim could not weep enough; he had not deserved the savaging. The sheikh noticed the deep hurt and asked about the reason. Having found out he sent for the culprit and ordered him to take a pickaxe and a shovel, go to Mecca and demolish the Kaaba, the House of Allah. The murid was aghast with shock and asked why such an incredible order. "Because" said Maulana Sheikh Rumi:
" it is greater a crime to break a mu'min's heart, for the real House of Allah is the mu'min's heart".
We are not only breaking our brothers and sisters hearts only too often. Even a cold response or a suspicious attitude can break a heart. What is worse we are also breaking our own hearts when we allow thoughts and emotions Allah and Rasulullah (sws) do not love and endorse to invade our hearts and dwell in there. They are Sinful guests in the House of Allah, Allah's Light out.
Please make sure you keep guard of the gates and windows of your heart lest anything or anybody unacceptable to the Lord sneak or break in. Any burglars and intruders expel with istighfar (hasty and firm repentance).
Do you want a benchmark to measure the purity of your heart? Then check whether you hate or are jealous of a single brother or sister. If so, can't you get rid of it? Then go and weep for your misfortune- you won't be making it to the Garden with Rasulullah (sws) and his good followers.
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BREEZES OF INTIMACY- 12
BEING NOBODY

Once a dervish, thanks to the security being off-guard, walked into a vizier's office. The vizier was surprised but he was even more surprised by the fact that he was unable to be angry with the 'disrespectful boor'. The dervish looked so at ease and innocent (awlia are like that- they are totally harmless).
Still he had to question him. "Who are you man to walk like this into my office?" he demanded to know.
" Who are YOU?" asked back the dervish in an innocent voice who looked equally puzzled.
" What? Don't you know who I am?" asked the vizier.
" Wallahi no, brother" said the dervish.
Seeing that the man was too naive to bother about the vizier relented, "I am the vizier of the sultan".
" Oh, great" said the dervish and added "what are you going to become later?"
" I may become the chief vizier"
" Then what?"
" Well, perhaps even a sultan.”
" Then what?"
The vizier was puzzled. What answer he could give? Eventually "Nothing" he admitted. "Alhamdulillah I am ALREADY NOTHING" said the dervish with relief.

The friends of Allah are like this. Because Allah is ALREADY EVERYTHING for them they need not be anything at all. Does a child fed and fondled by its loving and pampering parent think about abandoning its lap of happiness and become a parent itself?
This reminds me of the turf fights not only between men of the world but even between the ostensible men of religion and even sometimes of tasawwuf. They are jealous of their real or supposed ranks and privileges and are on the lookout to strike down 'upstarts' and eliminate alternatives or rivals as they see them.
What good can come from supposed men of spirit who cannot see Allah as everything and themselves as nothing among other nothings? Do you want to be and win with Allah? Abandon all presumption and ambition. He Almighty then absorbs you into His Light and you become invisible in it yet effective as nobody else in His service.
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BREEZES OF INTIMACY- 13
MATTER AND SPIRIT

People talk about spiritual things as if they are finer extensions of the material. For example, if matter is like thick sackcloth, spirit is like fine cheesecloth. How easy! Furthermore, for any spiritual merit or claim to be credible they think it must duplicate scientific or magical material feats.
For example, we build a flying machine from metal and plastic and fly in it, don't we? Then to prove our spiritual rank we must fly without a machine.
Can we use live TV coverage to make the president appear simultaneously in all living rooms all over the world? Then for anybody to be spiritually credible he or she must also be present at more than one place simultaneously.
Although such feats have been reported throughout religious history they are beside the point and totally inconsequential in the eyes of the masters. In fact obsession with them is a sign that the obsessed does not know what spirituality is all about. Real awlia have always deplored this popular misguidance as well as the populist exploitation of it by big-ego people and stressed that the real proof of sanctity is high piety and high morality as Allah prescribes. This is in fact the real meaning of the oft-quoted Sufi maxim "Ajallu'l karamat dawam'ut- tawfiq". It means:
" Greatest miracle is the uninterrupted continuation of Allah's help in one's virtuous and moral improvement".
Sufi masters insist that physical feats as above may well be magical and they insist that it is perfectly possible to attain extraordinary powers by following certain ascetic practices even as a polytheist or plain infidel. So we must stop liking and admiring the wrong things and shift our attention and allegiance to virtuous and moral improvement as Allah prescribes- no less, no more. What happens next is beyond all expectations: The veils of matter are lifted from our heart's eye and the true perspective of matter and spirit is revealed to us. We like this picture very much and can never go or fall back even if we want to. You see, once awake, always awake. We also find that there is no way of translating this vision of 'real' reality (so-to-speak) at all to anybody who has not been personally privy to it and that also we find good. We then realize the other Sufi maxim: " Those who know don't speak, those who don't know cannot stop speaking about it".
The fact is that spiritual gnosis has one and only one external sign- to the degree that a man or woman is convincingly pious and morally wholesome and a delightfully good and amply generous and kind character he or she has all the spiritual secrets. However these cannot be put to words but can only be owned and enjoyed in their own wonderful category. Those who talk and 'explain,' and their ranks and feats proclaim, don't know what they are talking about and can at best be imaginative wannabes at best and pious liars at worst or hysteric and histrionic quacks out to carve a turf for themselves and make a kill if possible at the very worst. May Allah protect us. Rasulullah (sws) do shafaat for us. Amen.
Poem:
Don't talk man but do Allah's work to become Allah's
Change your metal man, not twist the tongue
So long as you are tinplate and not gold pure
For rust to come and eat you will not take long.
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BREEZES OF INTIMACY-14
DARKNESS IN HEART

When our father Adam and mother Eve ate of the forbidden tree, a darkness enveloped them. So they called out "Rabbana inna zalamna anfusana fe'in lem taghfir lana wa tarhamna lenakunanna minal khasireen".
Which means "Our Lord we have abused ourselves, if You do not forgive and have
pity on us we shall most surely be of the lost."
Please understand that all stories about our first parents are intended as lessons for us and in fact fully apply to us. WE ARE EXACTLY LIKE THEM. In this instance the lesson is this:
Our heart darkens as soon as we do something
wrong. But we cannot avoid doing wrong sometimes. Again the lesson applies:
Like our parents we beg Allah, confessing our wrongs to Him and asking for His
pardon. If enough of this is done the sun again shines in our heart. The
surest way to have our wrongs wiped out is by doing the right thing. Allah said "Innal
hasanat yuzhibnas sayyiat" (good deeds wipe out the bad). Therefore, is your
heart gloomy? Then go out and do some good to somebody for Allah's sake.
Especially something you should have done long ago but didn't. I am guaranteeing
you that you will again enter a spring weather in your heart where all the roses will
be opening up and canaries and nightingales chirping and singing in you.
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BREEZES OF INTIMACY- 15
SHARING ALL

One who is a believer not only believes in the existence of God but also LOVES God. The Satan has far more certainity about God's existence than most Muslims, for he has been with God a very long time and spoke to Him as well. But he is a KAFIR, in fact the most terrible enemy of God. Many intellectual believers are a bit like him. They easily reason out that God must exist, for creation needs a good explanation which only God can supply. But such mere philosophical believers do not appreciate and love Him enough. Their relations with God are strained and always problematic. For example they RESENT His sharing of favours among His servants. They feel God has not been fair to them as well as to most others. That He has been biased towards a few unfairly lucky
people etc.
Now, forgive me, this is not faith. It is kufr (blasphemy) in the form of not denying Allah but something even worse- accusing Allah. A sure recipe for burning in Hell forever. The cure?
The cure is appreciating that Allah can only be and has been fair in all His dealings and sharings. It is that you have been given no less than anybody else including Allah's nearest and dearest servants. How come? Because Allah guarantees you that if you approve His upfront dealings and sharings He will eventually give you ALL, repeat ALL He gave to all. That is why we are promised to join our beloved Muhmmad (sws) and all Allah's prophets and saints in the pinnacle of glory in the world of eternity. Read if you wish "Ulaaika minallazeena an'amallahu alyahim minan-nabiyyina was siddqeena wash shuhadaai was saliheena hasuna ulaaika rafeeqa" which means:
" Who lovingly obeys Allah and His Messenger then they are with the prophets, the top saints the siddiqs, the martyrs and the good in general. What superb companions are they to be with" (An- Nisa: 69)
Had Iblis bowed to Adam (i.e., accepted Allah's sharing) he would share in Adam's every blessing- without exception. So o brothers and sisters let us stop being jealous and envious of others and resentful of Allah's lot for us. Then I am guaranteeing you that all will be with all awlia and all anbiya, equally feasted, toasted, honored and embraced by Allah the Most Glorious and Gracious in His most loving and closest embrace hearing Allah's supreme compliment pour through his or her ears into his or her thirsty loving heart:
" MY BELOVED, MY BELOVED- I LOVE YOU".
Read if you wish:
" (O Moses), I have thrown on you Love from Me and arranged that you grow up nicely before Mine Eye" (Ta Ha: 39).
You see we are all Moses’, reared, tried and tested in the lap of the enemy. Now please wipe away your tears and accept the cure. You have missed nothing, you shall have everything.
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