6th to 8th Wisdom

SIXTH WISDOM

          O seeker, know that spiritual goals are just the opposite of worldly goals in more than one way and one of these differences and the most important for you to know is that unlike the worldly goals, the spiritual goals are not endangered by the multiplicity of their seekers!  As you know, the worldly goals from a desired prospective spouse to a political position (e.g. prime minister’s) are plagued with rivals who feel like mortal enemies towards each other.  You get hurt whether you attain your goal or not.  What is more you cannot enjoy the goal once you obtain it so fully.  Your defeated rivals rankle with resentment and vengefulness and will lie in ambush to do whatever harm they can do you until the day you lose your prize one way or another e.g. death, downfall etc.

Against this sordid and sorry fact, a spiritual goal, like attaining Allah’s company is a personal, private and utterly lone path for every aspirant and what Allah gives to each will not deduct from or infringe upon any one else’s.  Hence it is a sign of spiritual ignorance to claim exclusive ranks and positions in a spiritual world which ranks, positions etc. it is supposed no one else can attain.  Nobody can limit the mercy and generosity of Allah Who said”

“No soul knows what has been in concealment (store) for them (the pious hard working servants) as a reward for what they have been doing”  (32; 17)

This is the greatest good news for you, for you see that on this path you have no rivals to fear from although you have many enemies.  Nothing whatsoever can be ruled out as ungivable to you by Allah, the best of which is His company as Allah said:

“The God-observant (muttaqin) are in gardens and rivers; owners of the seat of truthfulness in the Company of a Capable King”  (54: 54-55)

Knowing this, will you now see that none of your Muslim brothers or sisters are your rivals endangering your acquirement of divine nearness.  Millions and billions of them may attain it as you hope to do and everyone of you will have the full measure of everything.  Hence, there is not the flimsiest reason to resent the existence of co-aspirants or fear that their attainment will in any way jeopardise or harm yours.  But what do we see among Muslims, especially among Sufi aspirants?  The sad fat is that, most of them are ignorant of this law of spirituality (somehow their teachers having failed to teach it to them- perhaps themselves unaware of it.  They eye each other, especially more promising looking ones with desperate jealousy hoping for their skipping or fall and even better, their expulsion from the circle in disgrace and indeed sometimes working at it actively, like reporting his supposed misdemeanours to the teacher (and others as well).  The more promising-looking pupils are thrown out or fallen from favour the more elated these foolish coveters feel and unbeknown to them the more grief and disaster await them.  Once, a long-standing and apparently bright and promising ‘murid’ who was very much resented out of jealousy had been reported to be caught fornicating and there was a carnival atmosphere among most murids who actively spread the news and delighted in the elaboration in its narration.  Subsequently it became clear that the reports were false and the enjoyers of the scandal were even more angry with the slandered murid because of its acquittal.  So much for many ‘tariqas’ and their members.

The sure sign of your right-guidance and increasing maturity is that you feel elated every time the members and the achievements of the aspirants increase because Allah is pleased with such events and you as a godly person cannot help but be pleased together with your Lord.  It is only the Satan and people still in his palm that are saddened by an increase in the number of the seekers and an increase in the attainment of other seekers.

To sum up:  Now you choose:  Do you want to be of Allah or of the Devil?  Watch yourself and aspire at any nearness to Allah with hope and good deeds and you will be given more than you can imagine.  Nobody else’s achievements or claimed achievements can bar you from achieving the same or more.  It is Allah swt Who is the Limit of every soul and Allah is Infinite, Unlimited.

SEVENTH WISDOM

          Learn to recognise the elect and show deference to them.  If you do, you become one of them, if you don’t you are cast away into the company of the devils.

Who are the elect?  They are those who are nearer to Allah either actually or potentially than you appear to be at any given time.  Ignorant and undeveloped people, especially those strongly trapped by the devil (i.e. those particularly suffering from devilish sentiments like a readiness for jealousy, resentment, vindictiveness etc..)  become disturbed and hostile when shown one of the elect and this is a universal acid test to find out whether a person is Satan-or God-oriented in the first place.

As you know this test was originally applied to Iblis and the elect he was presented with for the test was our father Adam (a.s).  Allah created Adam (a.s) as the most comprehensive of His creation, combining in Him every other created thing as ingredients, from mineral to air, and water to fire as well as the angelic and satanic spirits.  On top of all and indeed accommodating them He inspired in Him of His Own Spirit so that he could be like a god to the rest of the creation if he chose to develop his potential.  Beware I said like a god and not Allah.  Certainly there is and can never be a god other than Allah.  It is intended as a metaphor which perhaps explains the saying of Allah:

“I am placing on earth a successor/vicegerent (Kalifah)”  (2:30)

Now who is an elect exactly and a ‘Kalifah’?  In the most special and spiritually significant sense the elect are those who are brought nearer to Allah (al-muqarrabun) in that they reflect in their morals, manners and attitudes the grace qualities of Allah, from the all-inclusive quality of mercy in general to the specials like justice, generosity, truthfulness, politeness, charity etc. and perhaps great spiritual knowledge in itself as well.  Top among them are the Prophets of Allah and then His saintly servants.  Unlike the Satan, we must be able to recognise and accept them or we can end up as the Satan did – rejected and outcast, eternally burning with angry and insolent revengefulness all of which are the true fuels of hell.  But are most of us doing it?  Hardly.  To show us how we may fail the test, Allah is telling us in His Qur’an the story of Joseph (a.s) and his brothers, presenting it as “the best story” (Ahsan al Qasas).  Why is it the best story and not the story of Moses (a.s) or Adam (a.s), or Abraham (a.s) or Jesus (a.s), also fund in the Qur’an?  Because this story of Joseph (a.s) and his brothers hit the nail on the head so precisely and unambiguously in the course of a single, long, unbroken story occupying a whole longish sura in the book, except the last few verses.  What is the gist of this ‘best story’? 

It is that human condition is such that even when people are the children of a holy prophet (who is the best father and teacher imaginable) still they are initially possessed by their egos and its partner the Satan and just like the Satan, they do fail the test of recognising and accepting the elect, in this case Joseph (a.s).  They were dead jealous of him and actively conspired to get rid of him altogether.  Had they recognised and accepted him Allah would give them everything He would have give Joseph (a.s) as He certainly would give to Iblis everything He gave to Adam (a.s).  Today in many Muslim organisations and Islamic movements those closer to the leader like sons of Jacob (a.s) and brothers of Joseph (a.s) can’t help busying themselves with conspiracies against the most promising one among themselves and will leave no trick undone or no pious mask unworn to persuade the leader that the promising one (whom they regard as a dangerous rival with too good a chance against theirs) is in fact a fake or one full of defects and failures not detected before.  That is why we Muslims and our movements are never prospering in a satisfactory sense and will never prosper.  This ‘Joseph (a.s) and his brothers syndrome’ must be cured.  As Allah said:

“Verily Allah will not make the affairs of the wreckers to prosper”  (10:81)

A group of people who persistently cannibalise its best leadership candidates will only produce worse leaders, will be led in disastrous ways to meet more disaster!  Compare this with the behaviour of the Sahaba after the death of the Prophet (saaws) in choosing and pledging allegiance to the best among them, Sayidina Abu Bakr (ra) and then Umar (ra) and remember the results achieved!  As the Prophet said “Man is with whom he loves”.  If we allow the elect to take their rightful positions we allow ourselves to share in their good fortune, all of it.  No Prophet or near one to Allah likes his ‘less fortunate’ brothers and sisters on earth to be deprived of what they eventually are given and Allah is no less merciful than them.  At this juncture you may ask:  “But what about the evil people who persist in their evil ways all their lives?  Won’t they be thrown in hell, perhaps forever?”  That is a too profound matter for the present to look into and nobody should deny the genuineness of this threat by Allah.

There can be no doubt that people who deliberately and against their better judgement choose to commit evil acts and refuse to repent and amend do deserve all the hell they can get and the surest sign of that is the awful load of guilt they carry in their wretched consciences.  Know that death is the uttermost isolation of a soul – isolation from the world and all company with other beings and events as a result of which all his good and evil wrap him like his skin in life and he is elated by any good and tormented by every evil he prepared before his death.  In the case of excess evil, there is no place to run, no time to serve and nobody to appeal to.  This is what torment of the grave (azab al qabr) means and we should always beware of it and behave accordingly while on this earth.  The real helplessness is in the grave which is a post-mortem spiritual station symbolised by the physical grave, Amen.  Still, it is no crime to hope that Allah might improve the condition of his servants even post-mortem but that is little comfort and guarantee and we should rather try to achieve salvation while still capable of it in this world.  Even if a confirmed evil person is saved eventually the stages of torment he will have to go through before that eventuality is blood-curdlingly horrible as Allah intimated to His Prophets and saints and even to this humble nobody at one stage.  I take refuge in Him the Most Merciful against that torment.  I am afraid I am not allowed to say more than this on this extremely subtle and profound subject and we better leave it at that.

To return to our subject.  Yes, take extreme heed that you are prepared to recognise those whom, at least for a while Allah made superior to you.  A purer heart recognises and loves them instantly but more impure ones like us can hopefully do the same by means of a more elaborate and indirect way of testing.

A person is probably your spiritual superior (an elect in relation to you) if you have the impression that,

1.

He is observant of Allah’s law and the Prophet’s ways, especially the Prophet’s morals and manners, more so than the prophet’s dress and mannerisms with which many otherwise well-meaning aspirants are so obsessed.  In other words, a Muslim with a Prophet-like moral character (like mercy, charity, generosity, honesty, truthfulness, politeness, tact, chivalry etc..)  is more an elect than another not so distinguished in these moral traits even if the latter displays more of the formal side of the Prophet like dressing in the manner reported about him and wielding a ‘miswaq’ all the while etc..  It is possible that the formal and especially personal peculiarities of the prophet was not meant to be eternal models for all Muslims to come in all times and climates, but there is no doubt that the prophet’s moral qualities are eternally valid and most perfect.  Hence you should give that your priority if you have to choose among the so many of his peculiarities and not the other way round i.e. ‘ahklaq’ and manners first.

2.

He is, fairly speaking, more intelligent, knowledgeable and skilful than you in human affairs, especially in inspiring people with god-consciousness.  Since Allah intends His prophets and saints to be guides to his servants, those prophets and saints should be more intelligent, more informed of the kinds of knowledge that rearlly matter (which may or may not include ordinary formal religious knowledge i.e. a saint may not be capable of being an official mufti but can judge people’s spiritual needs more than a mere ‘faqih’).

Again and unfortunately among a group of Muslims ‘the Joseph syndrome’ (if we may call it so) do not delay to show its ugly head and ‘brothers’ unite against the ‘Joseph’ among them who is the most intelligent and spiritually gifted one and conspire to ruin him.  Hence, this ‘best of stories’ is enacted and re-enacted until the Last Day, Josephs being thrown into dry wells, slandered, sold into slavery or even at times actually killed while at the best of the times he will eventually attain his deserved station and his betrayers will be reduced to his regretful servants; as it happened to Joseph (a.s) himself and to our master the Messenger of Allah towards the end of his sacred life, when all Quraish succumbed to him.  Sallallahu aleyhi wa sellim tesleema.

3.

More sadly you may feel threatened by his existence and feel hostile and jealous towards him, unable to help looking for ways for opposing and persecuting him.  Know that your jealousy is a sure sign that the person in question is your superior and you owe him recognition and service.  Another way of looking for this sign is identifying an apparently impressive person among the Muslims who is somehow the most misunderstood and maligned by others for no convincing apparent reason.  He may well be the Joseph or Jesus destined for intial persecution and eventual triumph and honour.  So, recognise and accept him in good time to benefit from him.

Many Islamic movements suffer from this ‘Joseph syndrome’.  Those who are mainly externally pious and are otherwise impure and immature in heart and politically ambitious usually share out the top positions and act in predatory concert to identify and eliminate any ‘Josephs’.  In this manner, those movements degenerate into political self-seeking plots cloaked in religion and if at all successful, liable to establish another oppressive regime which substitutes ‘Das Kapital’ with the Qur’an (to use the Qur’an to boss over others).

To sum up:  Allah tries us with an Adam as He tried Iblis and with Joseph as He tried his brothers and with a Jesus as He tried the Pharisees and with an orphan, poor Muhammad as He tried the Quraishites.  This is His way and you also will be tried with one or more of His elects.  Take heed and do your best to recognise and accept tham so that you may get the stations and rewards awaiting them and be honoured as their companion for all eternity, in the company of Allah.  Amen.

EIGHTH WISDOM

          Bother or sister, Know that everything you need to do at any moment in time is given in that moment and you either do it or miss the chance forever.  Weather he realises it or not man lives only in the time called now, which is an ever-renewing instant, sometimes and aptly called the ‘eternal now’.  In relation to this now, past is only a memory and future is only an uncertain expectation both of which thoughts are also within this now and nowhere else.  Unwise people are crushed by the memories of the past and tyrannised by the thoughts of the future and between these two self-made monsters they are paralysed to do anything now.  They drift helplessly and full of horrors, terrors and complaints to where they know not until death claims them in this miserable condition.  Wise people on the other hand view what is past as past and dwell on it only so far as it helps them to extract valuable lessons from it to be employed now and nothing else.  Not that man can forsee everything and even if he can see something(s) in advance he may not be able to influence their happenings too much.  But what we are concerned with here is not so much the wordly future but our spiritual future and that is eminently helpable now.  Let us take an example.

Suppose you see signs of a civil war coming.  Unless you are a top politician or something similar, usually there is little you can do to prevent it.  The only options open to you are either staying put and take things as they come or go and live somewhere else.  So, your influence and possible precautions are limited.  Against this take a spiritual problem.  Suppose that you are afraid of falling victim to your own weakness for woman and contract a bad marriage some day.  Before that happens you can choose to look for a satisfactory lady yourself as well as through friends and relatives.  If you persist and avoid being too fault- finding eventually you will come across a pleasantly satisfactory woman for you to marry which should include her finding you desirable as well.  Since your original fear was foolishly falling for the wrong woman this wisely chosen woman will see to it that she mothers you well so that your attachment to her takes care of your correct behaviour towards other woman.  And now even a more specific spiritual problem.  Suppose you want to habituate yourself to fasting which you always found daunting.  You don’t have to suffer torn between your desire of fasting and fear of extended hunger or thirst.  You can, if need be, seek advise and help from others, devise a method best suited to your temperament whereby, for example, you will fast for only six hours a day for one week, then seven hours, then eight hours…etc.  During subsequent weeks achieving a full day’s fasting capacity after several weeks drilling like this.  The only thing you will really do will be just keeping your fast now and feeling assured that it will not last forever, try to keep a cool head throughout every now that continues anew.  By this means you are very probably assured of securing your goal; anxiety-free skill of proper fasting.  Nobody can interfere with your spiritual endeavour unless you let them yourself.  Conclusion:  The more private and spiritual the goal the more chance you have to attain it through your own correct use of now.  And the good news is that our state in the next world shall be exactly as we prepared it here and now and nowhere and at any other time.

To sum up:  Learn to recognise persistently that all your real chances in life are contained in now’s and work at grabbing them as they pop up within now one by one without a miss, as one will lead to another.  Remember, most of hell consists of the regret and lament of missed opportunities which boil down misused now’s.  A sufi is called ‘ibn al waqt’ which means an awakened person who performs his duties as each duty presents itself within the sufi’s now-no evasion, no postponement.