Tawzifnama 26 to 31

26.

 

“Come on and dive into the sea of wonderment once

And forget yourself and find Him

Throw away heedlessness and be aware

Let us then see what the Lord does

Whatever He does the result is beautiful”

 

How much we are enamoured with our rational minds and analytical treatment of issues.  We invent terms and jargons, pronounce laws and principles and heaping concept upon concept and word upon word, delude ourselves that we are solving the secrets of nature or creating more powerful means for our own worldly satisfaction.  Such mere intellectual wild goose chases may equip us with both more arrogance and powers of corruption and destruction but it will never nurture our sick souls or fill our hearts with genuine bliss.  It will only pump into us more pride and greed and now between Muslims, more rivalry and discord.  If you want real and lasting happiness, you need another altogether different method.  It is that was of “emotion” and not cerebral computer robotics.  Without thinking about or analysing anything first, allow your heart to obliterate your noisy mind and watch the emergence of the Divine face like the rising morning sun.  

 

Do not think about and analyse what you see is nature but simply allow yourself to enjoy their direct beauty.  Feel the warmth of the breeze, both your eyes in the myriads of lovely colours, trembling all over the mountainside in the spring and hold the hand of the little child delighting in the flight of so many beautiful butterflies.  When you forget your ever-lustful, selfish ego and ever-arrogant curious, rational mind and just become absorbed in the contemplation of the Creator as reflected in His creation in your heart, you experience something you never experienced after the few years of your early childhood.  That direct, unthinking perception is of the real which is so close to the Real.  There is no sainthood of perfect faith in and genuine love for Allah until you regain your childhood directness of experiencing of beauty and its innocent abandon and gay spontaneity.  When we rediscover and re- enter our childhood joys, our path of spiritual development closes its full circle and we realise that we returned to the source.  It is only when early childhood perfections are re-instated and integrated into spiritual maturation that we know what real and indestructible happiness is and other notice it too.

 

A saint, in other worse, is that lovely person who in him/her combines the innocence and joy of a young child with the maturity of a most experienced and skilful adult.  Still, in other words, while his/her rational mind is actively studying and solving problems as a most intelligent person would his/her heart is permanently immersed in wonderment and bliss coming from the overpowering consciousness of contemplation of Allah, whose pleasure overrules all other considerations for him/her.  In the saint, there is everything from the loveliness of wild flowers to the glory of the Almighty, from the direct experience of small children to the feelings of all kinds of men and women, and from stratagems of the devils to the counter stratagems of the angels.  They are the ones who really know what good and evil is and what to do about each.  That is why they are called the off the khalifa, the representative agent of Allah on earth.  Only they can solve the problems of men and women and all humanity if they could, but give them a chance.  But few will.

 

27.

 

“In every word there is advice

In every object ornament

In every situation a profit

Let us then see what the Lord does

Whatever He does the result is beautiful”

 

If you but know how to listen and interpret you are sure to learn something useful from anything anybody says or writes.

 

Let us take one hurtful and seemingly unjustified insult from somebody who is angry with you.  You may wonder, “What advice can there be in an insult?”  Suppose the insult goes like this:  “ You are a silly busybody.”  Depending on the context, you can learn a lot from this brief insult and obtain a lot of guidance.  Like what?

 

If you were trying to prevent an accident and that was why you interfered with the insulter, from his insult you learn that he is a proud person who should be left alone.  If you insist interfering not only will he not listen to you, but he may also do something ugly to you.

 

If you had interfered for no good enough reason then his insult, although rude, is justified in part.  You got your punishment and next time think more before you interfere.  You do not have to be the addressee of the remark.  Suppose you overhear or read it somewhere.  If unjustified you understand that the person saying these things or writer, is not a truthful or mature person.  You must be cautious about his any further statements.

 

In brief, every spoken or written statement can be used to extract some guidance one way or another and as a result, save yourself some trouble or help yourself to some benefit.  Immature people on the other hand, get stuck with the literal meaning and superficial purpose of statements and react with anger, disgust or glee and sometimes join a longwinded debate and perhaps end up breaking hearts and even fighting.  A mature, “arif” would not react to statements and events like programmed robots- swiftly and predictably.  Rather, he absorbs and assimilates is and extracting any useful guidance, throws away the rubbish.  In the process, he just keeps calm or makes sensible, measured responses, aimed at defusing and impending evil or re-directing the flow of events towards good if possible.

 

“In every object there is ornament.”  There is something or some aspect to be admired.  Those who do not have the skill of finding beauty in most things and get depressed and complain as a result are fools.  They are unaware that beauty is a subjective judgement and its roots are in our subjective minds.  The faithful person is sure that anything and everything Allah created has a wise purpose and as far as visible objects go, each must have some aesthetic side to it.  To thank and praise Allah you need to see that beautiful side- otherwise you will be “disappointed” with the Creator which is blasphemy.  I hope you know what I mean.  By “beauty” I do not necessarily mean external appeal like nice shape, appealing colour etc.  Something can be found beautiful also by reflecting on its services and uses.  And please stand firm:  The real cause of your seeing beauty in everything Allah made can only be total implicit love for Him.  When you love somebody totally and too much, it is enough for you that something is due or related to Him.  You just love with without reservation.  Read the following story:

 

One day Majnum, the desperately infatuated lover of Leila, was seen hugging and kissing an ugly and filthy dog on the outskirts if Leila’s village.  People wondered, “ O madman of a lover, why do you show so much affection to this impossible dog?”  Majnum answered without stopping his ecstatic adulation of the wretched dog: “ Ha! You ignorant, blind people.  This is not an ordinary dog.  This one lives near where Leila lives.”  In other words, the lover cannot help but project and extend his love to everything that his beloved has some relation with.  Add to this the absolute fact that Allah is indeed worthy of all love and praise and His works are indeed perfect.  It is only when you are imbued with such faith and love that you can really admire and praise your Lord and be able to detect the beauties He put in every object.

 

“In every situation (there is) a profit”

 

Most certainly.  Who is born a great businessman?   He is that extraordinary person who can imagine and put into effort a project for profiting from any turn in economic circumstances.  Read this story:

 

One day a ship sank and three of the survivors ended up in a lifeboat.  When they were spotted by the rescue team, it was found that one of them was selling oranges to the other two.  Being an incorrigible businessman type, he had nabbed just one crate of oranges from the wreck.

 

The “arif” is also like that.  Under whatever circumstances he/she may find themselves in, he/she has the insight and skill to make some profitable use of it in the interests of their relationship with Allah.  Is s/he not well off?  Then s/he spends on charity.  Is he/she then poor?  S/he avoids complaint and begging and instead, keeps earning appreciation from their Creator Who is testing him/her.  Has s/he been insulted?  S/he forgives the offender and earns great profit from Allah.  If s/he were not an arif but a fool, s/he would instead insult back and cause a fight and create a loss.

 

Hence, watch out to see what each situation you find yourself in offers you as an opportunity for spiritual advancement and use it with thanks.

 

28.

 

“All are signs and portents

All are winks of good news

All are the very favours

Let us then see what the Lord does

Whatever He does the result is beautiful”

 

You must be able to read the events in the interests of your spiritual advancement towards the closer and closer friendships of your Lord.  Like a fortune teller reading fortune from tea leaves or coffee grounds, you should be willingly and skilfully busy, all the time interpreting the events so as to extract from them guidance for yourself.  You must be able to detect spiritually helpful opportunities as well as spiritually harmful danger signs (portents) and steer clear of possible evil.

 

Apart from this necessity of telling good prospects from evil prospects, the underlying message in all the events for you is good news and it is as if the Most Merciful and Generous Creator is winking at you humorously, signalling to you that despite the apparently terrifying appearances, underneath it is all well and good and the result will be marvellous.  It is like your mother wearing a horrifying mask and playing with you to frighten you a bit for fun, but she is still winking at you and mixing in other funny gestures in order to show you that it is only a joke -noticing that you are rolling in laughter despite the fact that you are also a little bit scared because of the mischievous mask.

 

All in all, Allah only intends eventual happiness for us and the more you are convinced of this, the more able you become to read the events in that context.  What an excellent quality is this in the friends of Allah, the true believers and lovers!

 

29.

 

“Listen to all who talk

And understand what the One who causes them to speak

Wants to tell you through them.

And accept with joy the messages received

Let us then see what the Lord does

Whatever He does the result is beautiful”

 

Nobody talks on his own.  It is only Allah that makes everybody talk and say the things they say.  Listen carefully to every speaker (or read carefully every writer you read) in order to see what message from Allah is hidden behind the literal or contextual meanings of the statements made.   For example, try to detect whether Allah is pleased or displeased with you are that instant and what He wants from you.  Dear reader, do you know that in each and every creature it is Allah the Creator Who is sitting behind the innermost veil and watching and corresponding with you?  For example, a dog will not bark at you and block your way for nothing.  He may be trying to make you change your path because there is a danger where you are going.  A heavy rain will not suddenly explode just when you are stepping out to go somewhere.  It is quite possible that Allah is asking you to wait and do something else.  A disbeliever will not make fun of your faith or pick up an argument with you on the existence of Allah bit the reason can be that Allah wants you to help him to be persuaded of faith through you.  As you may know, people are more excited about things they are internally curious about and some express this inner interest and curiosity by challenging those who seem to have satisfied it already.

 

Therefore, wisely see what each happening is trying to convey to you or asking from you to do, and accept the message you received because all is from Allah.  Please do not foolishly ask, “ What about when somebody is inviting you to sin?”  The apparent message there may be an invitation but the hidden message is the opposite.  Allah is saying to you, “ O my servant, I am now trying you with this new trial and expect you to triumph over the temptation I am exposing you to.”

 

I hope you now understand.

 

30.

 

“Know the tongues of the creatures

They are all pens, o Haqqi, of the Real

Learn good manners and high morality

Let us then see what the Lord does

Whatever He does the result is beautiful”

 

As already explained, every creature is conveying us messaged from the Creator through the events and circumstances we and those creatures come in contact with.  Recognise this giant and total channel of communication with the Creator and as much as you learn religious knowledge and spiritual secrets from books, learn as well how to listen to or read these creatures and circumstances in order to get live messages from the Creator.

 

These creatures we find ourselves in contact with and the events we partake are pens in the hand of the Author of this Universe and every movement they make writes down something for us to read and be guided by.  In other words, they are the true messages from the Real Author.

 

Knowing this, equip yourself with good manners and high morality all of which will smoothen your relations with other creatures and especially your fellow men and raise your standing in the sight of your Creator.  A lot of would- be good servants of Allah, those defective Muslims, confine their care to the formal obligations of Islam like namaz (salat) and fasting (sawm) while they do little to improve and embellish their manners and elevate their morals.  As a result, they persist in casting an image of rudeness, threat, coldness etc. and thus, they fail to make real spiritual progress.  All “arifs” are unanimous that the sure sign of acceptance of your devotions by Allah is the improvement you display in your manners and morals and nothing else.  Unless you are becoming a sweeter, more benevolent, helpful and lovable person day-by-day or year-by-year, the bet is that your devotions are not being accepted as they should and you better be careful.

 

Had our Muslims used this fail-proof test regularly and universally, the condition of the “ummah” (Muslim nation) would be fat better than it has been for a long while now.  As long as our “ Islamic Movements” or “struggles” remain directed more towards the procurement of a political change than towards self-improvement as above, they will either not success or even if successful, will degenerate into tyrannies under another name.

 

31.

 

“I swear that He has done well

I am sure that He has done well

I have no doubt things couldn’t be better

Let us then see what the LORD DID

WHATEVER HE DID COULD ONLY BE THE BEST”

 

The Creator, being Perfect and Most Merciful, created things with such perfect mastery and merciful considerations in mind that no better universe, no better events could be imagined.  This does not mean that there are no sorry events, evil persons or that we shouldn’t be sorry for or displeased with anything.  It only means that the ultimate design and purpose is for good and good only.”  With this rock-solid condition at the foundation of all our impressions and expectations, we can only praise Allah fully and unreservedly for everything He does and makes.  You may ask, “ But what about the things I don’t like?  Should I not be unhappy about them and if possible try to change them?”  The answer is, it depends.  Let me explain.

 

If the things you don’t like are things beyond your power it is also beyond your responsibility and most probably, beyond your understanding as well.  Don’t you see, people support opposing political parties despite the fact that they receive roughly the same information from the media about those party’s activities and programmes.  Each cannot either prove their party’s case or disprove the others.  The more distant and greater the issue the more difficult it becomes to reach a universally agree judgement.  To come back to our question, we can now see that not only have opinion about issues whose pacts and factors we do not control and therefore we should realise this and avoid being carried away with our opinions as if they were proven facts or truths.  As for action, it is a fact that the more an issue exceeds out grasp, the less we can influence its outcome and this is exactly how it should be.  That is why “revolutions” and coups d’etats are essentially wrong as they are based on partially known facts and subjective and usually self-seeking motives.  Any changes should rather be gradual, cautiously attempted and supported by a many diverse groups as possible to succeed and succeed well.  Hence, avoid being too convinced of and committed to ideas and objectives whose facts and depth you cannot reasonably know and master or you may be exploited and punished.  Read if you want, “Do not follow what you do not have knowledge of.  The hearing, the sight and the heart will be held responsible for it.”  

 

Today the media spread and indoctrination of the masses are so enveloping, and demagogues are so numerous and varied that the populace are constantly at risk from acting harmfully for and against things they have little grasp of- not that similar demagogic exploitation did not happen in past ages.  From the martyrdom of our master Uthman (ra) the Caliph of the Messenger of Allah and later of out master Ali (ra) our Muslim history has never been devoid of hotheads and agitating manipulators, exploiting the immaturity and credulity of the masses to stir and enact mass disturbance and political coups.  It is stock in trade of all politically rabidly ambitious rascals, whether posing as Islamic, secular or other ideological idealists.

 

The second case is when the thing you don’t like is something you can control and influence.  In this case there are two sub- cases.  The first applies is you are sure, after all conscious efforts on your part to rule out your ignorance and any selfish motives and you can you must do something to change it for the better, to the best of your ability.  What is more, this is part of Allah’s own work, worked through you the good servant, for it is the law of creation that everything done in this world is done through creation and not obviously by Allah.  You are part of His creation and your turn also comes to do something.

 

The second applies if you are unsure and/or you cannot do anything about it (i.e. the glass is already broken) then you must do something until you become sure, even if it is part of the problem or else accept the inevitable in a courageous way and be patient.  Too much acting is as harmful as too little acting.  Thoughtless acts can do far more damage than too hesitant behaviour.

As in everything, we must seek more wisdom and aim at best possible balance, because no problem on earth is without alternatives pulling and pushing it in demanding attention.

 

And what a great favour from Allah it is to us that unlike the rest of creation, He have us the potential to mature and attain wisdom so as to be judges over many things and exercise free will in settling them.  If, despite our goodwill we choose the wrong option, still we shall be rewarded as the Prophet (sws) said, “ For the conscientious judge there is only reward.  If he is right in his judgement he gets two rewards.  If he lapses (despite his best effort) he still gets one reward.” 

 

So, with goodwill we cannot possibly lose in the sight of our Merciful Lord.
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