The Pilgrimage: al-Hajj
– “Walking the Path of Sufism with Sidi Shaykh Muhammad” chapter 12.
The linguistic meaning in Arabic of the pilgrimage is the complete intention including the meaning of journeying to Makkah and al-Madina, which, for the Folk of Allah, is the absolute intention and attentiveness to this station. The pilgrimage has a station above which there is no other station. Because of this, there is no way to speak about its hidden meaning and reality. There are no words that can help us to express exactly what it is and no letters which could make up words which would be able to convey the truth of its meaning. For this reason, there are very few of the folk, as a rule, who speak about it, and very few of those who have reached it because of their lack of ability to do so. Yet the pilgrimage is for whoever can make his way to it and is a duty for every Muslim to perform once in his lifetime. And know that the pilgrimage is not complete if its hidden pillars are neglected.
The first of these pillars concerns what is forbidden (al-’ihram). This means that as soon as the owner of this station puts on the clothes of al-’ihram everything that was permitted for him before this moment is now forbidden, in addition to what is normally forbidden. This is because of the magnitude and the holiness in this station.
The second pillar is the sa’i, which is the rite of hastening between the signs of safa and marwah. This is the turning of the knower from side to side between the Beauty of Allah (al-jamal) and His Majesty (al-jalal) until the jalal becomes the essence of the jamal for him as a result of the destruction of his self, his desires and his will.
The third pillar is the standing on arafat which is the station of the travellers, according to the words of him who is more than my father, the Prophet Muhammad (salla-llahu ‘alayhi wa-sallam), who said, “The pilgrimage is arafat.” Most of the knowers have tried to explain this station, but because in some way they were incomplete, they were not able to find the right words to speak about the truth of its meaning, and we are even less able to do so. Whenever the owner of this station tries to explain it, the more difficult it becomes. However, a few suitable words have been found to inform about it, but they cannot tell us about its station known to the folk as tams, which can be translated as blindness. It is like an interlude, which is very small and very intense so that there is no space inside it for anything else. Other words which give something of the same meaning are also used. Most knowers are veiled from the hidden face of this station, so that whenever they try to clarify it, the more its complexity increases. And when it is spoken about by him who has reached, he who is veiled does not believe him because he sees it only as one of the amazing things. The knower who stands in this station is satisified with having reached it and does not need to explain anything about it. How then is it when he is told that in this reaching there is yet more to reach? Until you reach something, you may deny it, because when a person is still at the beginning, he does not believe in whatever he himself has not yet realized.
Sidi Ibn al-Farid, may Allah be pleased with him, said:
If anyone, other than I, is satisfied with what he has reached,
I am he who is not satisfied with what he has reached.
Also the owner of the Eye, Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, may Allah be pleased with him, said in a poem:
There are things which it is not possible to unveil,
and by which I was fettered with the chains of the Law.
Some people reject this saying that Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani did not omit anything, but revealed everything and there is nothing more to explain than what he has already explained. I say, “yes”, but he left out something that is very difficult to unveil and he has chosen me to reveal some of this difficult and extraordinary secret, which only a few are able to understand and even fewer to know. When I made someone understand it, in a direct and indirect manner, by explaining it to him with the nearest meaning I was given, he said to me, “By Allah! This is a strange matter!” He was one of the people of witnessing. Therefore, I now begin by saying: Look, my beloveds, how valuable and precious is this state for its people! When they arrive at it, they begin to walk to Him, from Him. First they walk to Allah, then they walk in Allah.
My Master Abu Madyan al-Ghawth, may Allah be pleased with him, said in his wisdom, “Those who journey travel to Him, but the knowers travel in Him.” This is something transmitted to a person which is therefore removed from logical reasoning. For this reason it is not obligatory to perfectly realize this station except for the person who has been given the capacity, as has already been said. This pillar is the essence and everything else follows after it.
The fourth pillar is to circle around (tawaf) the Holy House after the standing on arafat. This requires returning to the manifestation of the essence which has the right to the meanings and abstract relationships of the divine names because it is a commitment into a course of action of understanding the ways in which the Creator and creation manifest. All of this makes up the complete performing of the circumambulation.
And know that in the pilgrimage there are three kinds of action. The first kind are those related to the pillars which are its roots. If they are not performed, the pilgrimage is invalid because there are no other actions which can replace these. The second kind are those concerning the duties for which a substitution can be made by blood shedding. The third kind are those with no blame attached to them if they are not carried out.
Know that, in this case, what is meant by blood is the sacrificing which is the killing of the nafs if its death is realized. Any duty which is imposed in order to destroy the nafs, even if it is only partly completed is acceptable, but this is not the case for the first and second pillars, which can only be completed by acts that are obligatory for them. These pillars can only be perfectly fulfilled by themselves because they concern the essence. When the depth of this station of the essence is realized in accordance with its inner meaning and its Reality, I ask of you, O murid, to bring your heart and to focus your mind in order to have the right understanding, so that when you ask for this station, through your walking in it to Allah, you will receive insight which is better than entering it without having any knowledge of it.
When you come to the place of comfort (rabigh), it is forbidden in the Law of Islam to cross it without first putting on the ritual white seamless garment (ihram), the sacred state. For every knower there is a state that must be entered before crossing the pilgrimage boundary (miqat). This miqat is a covenant or promise at a special time and a special place with conditions that must be satisfied. The miqat of time is when the murid is established in the certainty of the Oneness of Allah by bearing witness that nothing exists in this world except Allah. If he wants the standing, then by clothing himself in the ihram he asks for the complete station preparing him to walk in the station of the essence, to drown in its depths, and to gaze upon its secrets. Before that time, he is not permitted to put on the ihram and the pilgrimage is not required of him and it cannot be entered before its time, which comes in a well-known month.
The miqat of place begins at the borders of the world, or you can say it begins at the sidrat al-muntaha, or you can say it begins at the ultimate limit. The sidrat al-muntaha is the Lote Tree that marks the end of the seventh heaven, the boundary where no creation can pass. Every miqat has its own conditions, as has been mentioned. It is the expression used to refer to the state of the murid and his excitement when he is released from bondage. This is the miqat from all directions, whether above or below, right or left, from the absolute of how, or the absolute of likenesses. It is a release from the limitation of space and time so that the murid is completely absorbed by this release into the complete freedom of Allah. Before he has emerged from his state of bondage and its accompanying burdens, he cannot carry the demands of this station. It can be likened to the complete freedom in Allah from everything, and what he seeks now is the essence of the Hidden. How could he walk to this station if he is chained to the creation, even if he knows Allah in the existence of manifestations? He is obliged to emerge from this knowing, abandoning it, so as to reach a deeper meaning than anything he has known before.
It has been said, “There are some knowers who do not have the words with which to express this knowledge, so we have tried to direct their attention to it, but it proved to be impossible for them to grasp. I then remembered Allah’s words (subhanahu wa-ta’ala) in a saying of His angels, “There is not one of us, but that he has a known station.” [Q37:164]. If the right time arrives for him who seeks to walk in this station and it is the time of his promise with Allah, this gives him dignity and majesty, because it is a station of annihilation like the world of secrets of the lahut, which cannot be reached by any human being.
Therefore, before you walk in this station, I want to inform you of its practices and rules. The state of comfort is a place of purification and necessary good manners. This means the divestment of everything to be pure and leaving both the material world and the Hereafter to be with Allah. This is a duty under the Law and in the murid’s promise by which he is bound in this station. In this station he is cleansed of his existence so that it no longer mingles with the Existence of the Beloved. This station is at the limit of all human achievement and is the order of the first pillar which concerns the rules and restraints necessary to fulfill the laws of the pilgrimage. By this is meant the annihilation of all aspects of high and low and time and space, which is represented by the taking off of all seamed clothing. This rite is a sign of leaving all material restrictions and being wrapped by a seamless garment symbolizing the enfolding into the Unity.
If the owner of this station does not relinquish all limitations of time and space, and lingering manifestations of the universe, all of which are related to the outer meaning of this station, he will not reach his goal. In its inner meaning there is neither time nor space, because there is only Allah, for Whom there is no time or space. He is now as He always was. When the Majesty of this creation is manifested to the eyes of the murid, he will begin to purify his conception of the Truth (al-haqq) from any ideas related to time and space and direction, and from the established pillars, because from preexistence, the Truth has been free of all attributes. And if we do accord them any existence, what are these pillars in front of the Omnipotence of Allah, except, according to what some say, like a mustard seed or even smaller and more fragile than that. But the Might of the Truth does not permit the making of any comparisons, as some in the divine Presence have stated.
Is there any travelling that leads to any but Me?
Is there any emptiness? I fill all of space!
I am the Hidden of the Essence,
I am the Revealed through the attributes in multiplicity and in singularity.
There is no direction without My Being the Lord of it,
and nothing other than I has appearance; I am the Gatherer of all.
My Essence is the essence of creation, and it is as you see.
My Omnipotence has no limits and it is the measure of a mustard seed.
When the murid leaves this world behind and begins to walk without body or soul, and comes to be for his Lord and in his Lord, then the hidden Truths call to him with the divine tongue, speaking of the Presence of the Unity, saying: “Have you found existence for anything except My name? If you have found existence for anything except Me, then bring proof of what the purpose is of the attributes by which I have established for you that I am the First, the Last, the Revealed, the Hidden, the Hearer and the Seer, and I am with you, hearing and seeing.”
The knowers say, “We see them looking at You, but they do not see.” And the Lofty Presence answers from its sublime light, “The eye does not see its Eye.” And whenever the call is repeated, and he is permitted to draw near, he says, “Here I am. Here I am in front of You.” And he also renews his answer, “Here I am, O Lord, at Your service,” whenever he hears the call.
If you reach the Presence of the Unity, O beloved, which is known as Makkah and referred to as the essence worthy of divinity by special people, and if you become it, you must refine your manners. Each station and state necessitates its own manners. The manners of divinity and lordship are not like those of the names of Allah, and the same is true for the other presences.
It is difficult for the murid to enter this presence because of its manifestation and the effect of its attributes and wonders upon him. In addition, what makes this station difficult for the human being is that he must abandon both his existence and everything he has which, in the Truth, is nonexistent. This is arduous for most people whose existence is built upon the contradictory states of existent yet nonexistent. It is required that the slave’s existence pass away and at the same time he is not described as being existent. However, it is necessary for him to know the truth of every quality. The owner of wisdoms said, “The universes are immutable through His immutability yet they vanish in the Unity of the essence.” In this station the universe is lost in relation to the eternal essence in the image of the attributes which are a simulation with no effect, except upon those things which are other than Allah in His Unity.
Therefore nothing can help a person in this station except the surrender, and he can only enter through this door. After that, know that the benefits of being obedient will be manifested to him. He may also appear to be separated from proximity because of being overwhelmed by the Majesty and losing all sense of himself. What use would it be for him to ask for proximity when he is already near? This would mean that he abandons the manners which helped him to leave everything behind, even to his own name. It has been said about this: “Allah does not call the person who can see Him and he who does not call Him, cannot see Him.”
The good conduct and manners required by this presence concerns seeing Allah and surrendering everything that is His due to Him. This means to surrender to everything that manifests from His actions, and this is His universe. The sign of this surrender is the kissing of the Black Stone, which is therefore known as the Right of Allah.
Know that if a knower reaches this station, he will understand how the heavens and earths are folded into the right hand of Allah. This veils him from seeing all material things, because they do not manifest from His right hand side. Then, when all things are revealed and unraveled through His Majesty, the eyes of a knower see the essence before they see the things. If he praises a thing, he praises the right hand of Allah. This is all he sees because before he praises a thing, he has witnessed the essence of Allah in it.
It is also from the required good manners to circle the House seven times reflecting on the seven attributes – the living (al-hayy), the willing (al-‘iradah), the knowing (al-‘alım), the hearing (as-sami‘), the seeing (al-basir), the power, (al-qadir), and the speaking (al-kalam) – and the possibility of putting them in their true order in relation to each other. This is the station of elaboration and of details, the knowledge of which accepts neither summary nor concept, which was previously the case of the murid. Now it is his duty to not shorten his circumambulations, but to completely taste the meanings of the attributes, to realize the unifying bond between them, and to kiss the Black Stone, revealed to him through the attributes, saying, “Allah (subhanahu wa-ta‘ala) the Best of Creators.” The Truth (subhanahu wa-ta‘ala) shows Himself in this form to His saints (awliya’) with His names and attributes. The revelation of His attributes then becomes so intense that it comes to be the complete essence manifesting in each attribute separately. This is the state of particularization and diffusion.
And know that the knowers are part of the manifestations of this universe and sometimes Allah manifests in them and at other times, He manifests upon them. If He exalts him and reveals himself to himself, he returns to be like water and if He reveals Himself through him, he may say whatever he wishes, because he is giving expression to the essence of the Truth with the tongue of the Truth and not with his own tongue. It is said, “This is the station of negation which I have reached, so say what you wish, either in detail or summary.”
When a pilgrim enters the Kafibah, he finds the six directions all facing towards Allah. What is it like then for a knower who is folded up in the essence of his Creator when he enters the Ka‘bah? From the truth of His words, Ibn al-Farid said, “All directions face toward Me after my worship, my pilgrimage, and my ‘umrah.”
Know, my beloveds, all that I reveal in this station of the forms of worship is only manifesting separation because this is a station of separation, although all that is revealed about this station on the tongues of the knowers, comes from the radiance of the Presence of the Unity. It is not permitted to speak about the Unity and the Treasury revealed in the station of the standing on Arafat and in the coming out from this station. Anyone who desires to continue in the proximity of this station, must stand in the House, in the station of Ibrahim, may peace be upon him. Allah (subhanahu wa-ta‘ala) says, “And whoever enters it is safe.” [Q3:97]. The murid who wishes to remain in the station of the standing place of the Unity or the Treasury is not safe because of the fear that accompanies this station. He must therefore go to the Ka‘bah, the Holy House, circumambulate it, and pray seven times because in that place it is possible to worship and to see. Whoever enters this place, the station of Ibrahim, is safe. This is not the case with the standing on Arafat. The murid is unable to do anything there and should not linger, because the devil is strong. Arafat is like being in an ocean and if anyone remains there too long, delusion and fantasy appear to him because he is between his nafs and the shaytan. This case is well known to the special people of Allah because they are always aware of the cunning and temptation of the shaytan who has enticed many of them from this station. We ask Allah to protect us from the devil wherever he is.
The Shaykh Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “The devil called to me in this station, saying, ‘O My slave! I have freed you from prohibitions.’ When I turned around, I felt a constraint inside my heart saying that Allah does not command abomination and I answered him as my inner voice told me to do. He said, ‘O Abd al-Qadir, I have taken many people before from this station.’”
One of the main excuses offered by the knowers in this station for falling into the devil’s trap and being taken by him just as their parents Adam and Eve were taken from the Garden, is that they are not aware that the devil sits in this station. And even if a knower were to be forewarned about the devil in this station, he may still be deceived by him, unless he looks deeply into his heart which is firmly grounded in the Truth. If he looks deeply and rejects the devil’s temptation, this is what is required of him.
It is said that when a knower finishes circling the House and has absorbed the reality of conjunction, meaning, the gathering together of the attributes through tasting and realization, he then reaches the Stone, the symbol for the knowledge of the seven attributes – the living (al-hayy), the willing (al-‘iradah), the knowing (al-‘alim), the hearing (as-sami‘), the seeing (al-basir), the power, (al-qadir), and the speaking (al-kalam) – and from there he moves swiftly between safa and marwa, the majesty (al-jalal) and the beauty (al-jamal) until the rank of completion (al-kamal).
You can see the knowers moving between these two stations as a child moves from side to side in its cradle. Their turning comes from the Hand of Care which keeps them in both these states so that they do not lose anything they have received from the circumambulation and from resting in the Presence of the Unity until they become a part of it. Neither the manifestation of the jalal nor that of the jamal affect their inner being because they touch only their outer bodies. This is the case of the people of Allah. For others everything is a trial and their entire being enters the Fire. Allah says, “We test you by evil and good.” [Q21:35].
For the true knower, majesty (al-jalal) becomes a source of beauty (al-jamal), so they are able to be pleased with either state. Our Shaykh Sidi Muhammad al-Buzaydi, may Allah be pleased with him, used to say, if he was touched by the pain of the jalal that it was from the beauty of the jamal, and you would see him happier then and more full of wisdom than when he was in a state of jamal. An extrodinary thing happened one day when his students visited him. They felt pity for him because he was in deep pain, having lost the use of one of his hands and one of his legs. He, may Allah be pleased with him, began to speak to them about something which had happened to him when he first entered the path. He said, “Once I was sleeping on one of the holy nights and when I awoke, I touched the hand that I could not move with the one that I could move. The hand that I could not move felt as though it was attached to me but that it did not belong to me. I felt as though it was dead and thought it was strange. I called the people of the house to light a lamp, and said, ‘The Living One (al-hayy) is with us and I have caught hold of Him.’ This was because the lifeless hand had started to move. When the people lit the lamp, I found that my hand had caught hold of the other hand, and there was no other living thing and no other parts of my body. I said, ‘Praise be to Allah!’ This is an example of how illusion takes hold of the murid before he knows Allah.”
Then look my beloveds at the state of the special people! They are able to drink from the jalal because they are neither with the jalal nor with the jamal, but they are with Allah in all their states. They see contraction (qabd) and expansion (bast) as they see night and day.
Allah says, “And We made the night as a garment and We made the day by which one lives.” [Q78:10-11]. These two states are necessary for the human being to know because contraction is an attribute of spirits and expansion is an attribute of souls. And, “Surely it is Allah who contracts and expands.” [Q2:245]. If the knower is with Allah, he is with the Grasper and the Withholder, and he is not with what is withheld and he is with the Expander, and not with what is expanded, because he knows that Allah is the Doer and also the Receiver of actions. When you understand and truly know this, you become one of those whom nothing is able to overwhelm.
O murid, be with Allah in everything and you will see that He is with you and He is following you. You are like a prince because fire is a blessing and the hands of mercy, grace and compassion move you about. Nothing can harm you and you do not yearn for anything. Let the station call to you and do not be the caller because it has been created for you, but you were not created for it. Walk straight to Allah and devote yourself, above everything else, to saying, “la ’ilaha ’illa-llah” and “allahu akbar” full of reverence until you find the balance between both states. Then move to marwah and stand at safa, meaning, cast yourself into the rite of throwing at marwah, a symbol of the severity (jalal) and safa, a symbol of beauty (jamal). But you, O knower, be described by perfection or completion (al-kamal), meaning, accept both marwah and safa because he who knows Allah only in the beauty and denies Him in the severity, loses the right to completion, illusion turns him away from the path, and he does not find satisfaction in Allah and Allah will not be well pleased with him.
In one of his wisdoms Sidi Muhammad al-Harraq al-Maghribi said, “The truthful knower retains his good manners (adab) with Allah in all His appearances and does not ignore Him in any of His aspects, because he is not present only with Allah in some of His faces while ignoring Him in others. He gives their names to all His faces and is not influenced by them.”
My beloveds, do not worship the revelations while ignoring the withholding of revelations, so that the words of Sidi al-Maghribi do not apply to you. It is your duty to stand up and walk to completion through every station so that your nafs, through the anxiety of being confronted with something unpleasant, is not halted by this and at the same time moves on to another station without having completed the one before. But be like the people of the Cave about whom Allah (subhanahu wa-ta‘ala) says, “And We caused them to turn over to the right and to the left,” [Q18:18] because they did not allow their nafs to be reassured by some things and deterred by others. Walk until the hand of the eternal mercy moves you to the essence of the Severity and the essence of the Beauty, and you are like a dead person in the hands of those washing his body. Then you can call for whatever you want because the Examiner has marked you down as worthy of trust. And if anyone does not accept this, that most probably reveals that he is a liar.
After moving between safa and marwah and circling the House, the murid abandons everything. Before this, as has been said, he is not permitted to say “I,” because the Examiner will mark anyone down as a liar who makes any claim to what he does not possess. He is permitted if he has reached this state of purity from the knowledge of his nafs and complete acceptance of the jalal and jamal, contraction and expansion, poverty and wealth, death and life because this is the proper balance for the nafs of the murid. Then if he lays claim to anything, he must give proof of it and if he relies on one thing and ignores another, he does not have the right to claim what is not his. Allah (subhanahu wa-ta‘ala) says, “If the Final Abode with Allah is to be yours alone without any other people, then long for death if you are honest.” [Q2:94]. One of them said, “A man is not complete until his heart is ripe for four things – for accepting what is prohibited, for giving, for honor, and for humility.”
It is said that Ibrahım Ibn Adham, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “I was seldom contented in Islam, except once when I was in a boat. There was a man telling funny stories to make the people laugh. This was at the time of the war with the Turks. This huge man came toward me and seized me by my beard. He thrust his head onto my throat and the people in the boat were all laughing at what he was doing to me until I felt that there was no one in the boat smaller than I, or more despised. I was happy about that. And another time, I was sitting and a man came and urinated on me.”
These stories and others similar to them are manifestations of the state which is necessary. If a human being reaches this state, he can count himself as being in an elevated pure rank, because he fears Allah. “And it will be said to those who, conscious of Allah, guarded themselves from evil, ‘What did your Lord send down?’ They will say, ‘Goodness!’” [Q16:30].
Know, that it is necessary for him who holds the station of circling the House to be in a state of purity and concealment. We have spoken about purity and as for concealment, this is safeguarding and restraining the self with the truths and preserving the divine secrets. This is a duty upon the person in this station, because it is a distinguished station which is able to bring together the differences between the jalal and the jamal through the realization of the meaning of the rites of sa‘i – the running between al-marwah and as-safa, and the circumambulation back through the attributes to the Unity of Allah – all of which demand the observance of Orders and the safeguarding of the condition of secrecy. He who is in the Presence of the Unity is required, as far as he is able, to preserve the secrets of this Presence because he witnesses Him Who is the Causer of all things, as well as what He causes, and the influences and effects of His attributes. For this reason it is said:
Be wary and preserve the veil, for these are the beautiful bounds of Allah.
Secure them, for only in preserving the secret resides reverence and dignity.
Pride in Allah and His Glorification is the source of strength
among the Friends of Allah.
Be satisfied with blessing from Allah from wherever it comes,
and keep it as a treasure from those who deny His attributes.”
In this station it can be more difficult for a person who is absent from everything about which we have just spoken to preserve the secret. If he reveals it, he is forgiven because he is overwhelmed in his intoxication and has lost his mind. Mindlessness is beyond the state of being commanded.
Know, my beloved, that he who enters the state of restraint or prohibition should remain there until he reaches the House and the Unity where he leaves behind all obedience to what is impermanent and becomes content with his new existence. When it is the time for him to move on to another station and he remains waiting to know whether he should reenter the state of prohibition or not, then he should again and again pass through that state of restraint until he reaches his goal and is folded into it, as he was in the stations before. In truth, whenever he enters a new station there are conditions, just as there were for the stations before. He must understand that he has to continue until he reaches and realizes the meaning of each station and is annihilated in that which has been decreed for that station. This means that he must follow the complete message coming from each presence of the attributes.
After tawaf and the sa‘i, the murid must be prepared to continue walking to a state of worthiness, or it can be said, to a state beyond which there is nothing and for which the order is the abandoning of everything that he has known and every realization that he has so far received. Now, O murid, you must leave everything described as either inner or outer and absent or present because the station to which you are now travelling does not accept any of these manifestations, or the witnessing of any names or attributes, or the possibility of attachment to any created thing. If you do not reach what we have just mentioned, you will not smell the fragrance of the World of Divinity. It is difficult for most knowers to enter this station, because of the extent of its emptiness. This presence may require him to relinquish any vestige of his shadow existence – his soul, his nafs and his mind, the names and attributes – and all fragrances of manifestations. You are required to unite and fold up all appearances into the Inner (batin) and this Inner into the Outer (zahir). This means to unite the all in the All, and fold all your appearances into nonmanifestations and your existence into witnessing. If you realize this, you ascend the mountain which is described as the standing (wuquf) on the mountain, other than which there is nothing. Your existence is now complete because of your absence from the creation in the Truth. In this station there is no tearing asunder or mending. It is referred to as the station of oblivion or blindness.
Imam Abd al-Karim al-Jili, may Allah be pleased with him, spoke about this station saying, “Blindness is a means of speaking about the Truth of the Truths, which is not preceded either by the Reality (al-haqiqa) or by vicegerency (al-khalifa). It is the purest uniqueness to which neither the Reality nor vicegerency can add anything and it cannot be brought to an end, because the names and attributes are nonexistent in proximity to it.” And this is the meaning of his words, “Oblivion or blindness is that above which there is no air and beneath which there is no air.” No meanings can be given to this station and it is therefore referred to as the standing, or the bewilderment, or the divinity, or the obliteration, or the great fear. There is really no name for this station, but these words are used by the Sufis for it can neither be reached nor realized except through itself.
The knower is therefore in a state of obedience so long as he is walking toward this station until he descends from Arafat. This descent is referred to as coming down because of the love for the attraction of being absent in the Unseen (al-ghayb), concealed in the Concealer, united in the Unity, and diminished in the Reduction and Restriction (taqsir). O All-Mighty God, how precious is this station! We see that even the special people are confused about how to speak of it and they are cautious when describing it. It is as if they are blind and deaf from the astonishment of not knowing where they are.
Know that the standing comes after all that is visible has vanished and after the turning inward of what is outspread. Allah (subhanahu wa-ta‘ala) says, “When the sun is folded up and when the stars fall, losing their brilliance.” [Q81:1]. In this station of obliteration there is no male or female, so that he (salla-llahu ‘alayhi wa-sallam) describing it said, “Above it there is no air and beyond it there is no air.” It is very deep and its rewards come only after much enduring effort. For these reasons, it is important to descend without lingering as soon as one has reached to a standing in it. It has also been said that this is a station of fear which should not be dwelt upon, so that without delay the knower must relinquish it, lest he be harmed by the fire which overspreads it. After this, for fear of being enveloped, the murid should go to a place which is far removed. He should hasten to the proximity of muzdalifah so that in descending from the station of standing, the knower becomes known and recognized by existence, in which both He Whom he worships and he who is the worshipper are made secure to him. The Lord is the Truth and the slave is the truth and he has become a true worshipper of Him Who is worshipped because His secret resides in His slave. After this he has a known station and a recognized secret.
The knower in this station is taken by the Existence in which both the seer and what is seen is confirmed to him. This manifests in his prostration and the tongue of his state calls out, “Allah! The Truth of Existence is that You are the worshipper and You are He Who is worshipped. You are the Seer and what is seen. You are the Eye. You are the Beauty and You are the Where. You are I and no I is there, but You. There is no other essence with You, so destroy me through Your Soul, O Soul of the souls.”
O Soul, the Soul of the soul, the Great Sign! O Last Consolation, the free heart.
O Eternal Hope, the final destiny, how beautiful are Your words to me and how bitter.
Know that when true existence merely touches a person in this station so that he enters the witnessing, he must be aware of the onslaught of the shaytan, because this station is surrounded by deception and a multitude of enviers. In this station the shaytan stands in the path of the knowers the moment they become separated from Allah. Therefore, when returning from this station it is important to hasten on until you reach the safety of Makkah. That is the Presence of the Unity in which the knower is secure. What the Truth (al-haqq) tells us about the shaytan and about how he greets travellers on the straight path suffices us. He (subhanahu wa-ta‘ala) says, Iblıs said, “Then I shall fall upon them from before them and behind them and upon their right and upon their left,” [Q7:17] and in their belief and in their hearing. But Allah protects His believers from this evil and the shaytan has no power over those whom He has taken by His hand. He (subhanahu wa-ta‘ala) says, “Truly he has no authority over those who believe and who place their trust in their Lord. He only has authority over those who take him as their protector and those who set up partners for worship alongside Allah.” [Q16:99-100].
It is because of the wiles of the shaytan that the knower is asked to hasten from this place of danger. When he finds tranquility again, he should stop to pray the morning prayer. In so doing, he purifies the reason for which he is travelling and walking from place to place. By this I mean that after having lost his soul, he needs to be reunited with it so that he can worship in his new found existence.
After that, O knower, hasten onwards and be careful of your self so that the shaytan cannot seize you unaware from in front of you or from behind you and do not trust him, but stone him before he reaches you. If you stone him, he will fear you instead of you fearing him. Do not fear him, but fear Allah! He is the One Who protects you. Allah (subhanahu wa-ta‘ala) says, “It is only shaytan who instills in you fear of his allies, so do not fear them, but fear Me, if you are believers.” [Q3:175]. At the same time be careful. The state of the knower does not become steady, nor does fear leave him until he reaches the House, which is the symbol of the Unity, the station of Ibrahim, where all those who enter it are protected. There is no safety before reaching and entering this stronghold, the Presence of la ilaha illa llah. This is what is meant in Hadith Qudsi. Allah (subhanahu wa-ta‘ala) spoke through His Prophet Muhammad (salla-llahu ‘alayhi wa-sallam) saying: “la ilaha illa llah is My stronghold and whoever enters My stronghold is safe from My punishment.”
This is the Presence which is worthy of the worshipper and Him Who is worshipped and the seer and what is seen. This Presence is unlike the presence which we mentioned earlier, which is that of total annihilation. For this reason we have said that the knower must not linger in that station and not even on the path to it. He must completely abandon it because the shaytan lies in wait in front of the knowers on this path, receiving each one of them with a special exclusiveness with which he deceives them, confusing knowledge with ignorance.
Do not think that the shaytan lies in wait only on this path. We are referring here to the shaytan of the mind and the senses. Each presence has its own shaytan. For this reason it is said that the king is the shaytan of the World of the Kingdom (al-malakut), and the malakut is the shaytan of the World of Dominion (al-jabarut). Each of these worlds has a shaytan of its own nature. The knower is approached by the same door from which he enters, so that the shaytan takes him from the very place where he is. The shayatin are everywhere in all the stations. “Water is the color of the glass which contains it.” Even when the knower is in the Presence of Allah, without anything and seeing nothing but Him, the shaytan calls to him with the tongue of divinity. One of those to whom this happened said, “The devil called to me in the presence of proximity and witnessing, saying, ‘O my slave, I free you from all prohibitions!’ If Allah had not joined my heart to His, the devil would have taken me from a place in which I was not aware of him because I was witnessing only Allah.”
Most of the knowers have been seized in this state, but what excuses them is that they do not realize that the state has a shaytan until he is made visible to them. The knower is taken because of being unaware, but if he is made knowledgeable of the problem and vigilant, the shaytan is not able to take him. I have met some knowers in this state, in the midst of the valley of fire, and I warned them of the wiles of the shaytan and of his deceptions and told them to be on the alert and watchful for him. Some of them listened to my advice and were forewarned, and said, “No one is safe from deception except the people who are lost.” Others did not believe my words, and answered me, “You are veiled from Allah because where is the shaytan in this presence? We see nothing but Allah!” Their estimation of me became low in their eyes. So some were saved and some were drowned. When I later met some of them whom I had warned, I asked them, “How did my station manifest to you and how did you find my advice?” They answered, “We did not become aware of what you forewarned us of and we ask the Truth (al-haqq) to be merciful to us, so that we may return because we are being sorely oppressed.”
Therefore, O traveller on the path, be informed! I am the faithful guide for you and warn you about the whisperings of the shayatin. I inform you about the states on your path and about what may meet you. If you are successful in the presence of actions and annihilated from your own individual actions in the actions of Allah, He will speak to you in the secret with beneficial words, being drowned by Him in the witnessing of actions. And there exists a deadly poison for you, if you are not aware of the deceptions of the devil, when he says to you, “All that you see are performing the actions of Allah, but they are veiled because they are annihilated in the actions.” And you answer him, “Yes!” Then he says to you, “How do you know? I do not see that you are absent from your actions because you look upon your actions as coming from yourself.” And you say, “This is forbidden and this is permitted, so where is your knowledge of His words, ‘Allah has created you and what you make.’” [Q37:96].
At this moment, if the Divine Care was not present, you would be taken like the wretched ones. If you are in the presence of attributes, annihilated from your own attributes in Allah’s attributes, the shaytan says to you, “Say, O Allah! Who is beyond everything! There is no seer, or hearer, or speaker, or capable one, or knower, or living, or seeker to the Truth, except Allah.” You then say to him, “Yes,” and shaytan says to you, “The knowers are annihilated from their attributes and Allah has taken charge of their concern. If goodness comes from them, they do not ask for a reward and if evil comes from them, blood money is due because he is dead and not alive.”
If the knower is in the Presence of the essence annihilated from his own essence in the essence of his Creator, the shaytan comes to him at the shore of the Presence and calls saying, “There is no existence but Allah’s Existence.” The knower turns towards these Noble Words, which are most precious to him and when he meets with the shaytan, the knower says, “The Truth (al-haqq) manifests in all things – a Mighty Manifestation – and it is the Ultimate Truth of Existence.” He who cannot be pleased with the manifestations, in which Allah is the Manifester, has missed many wonderful and praiseworthy things. What is the benefit of knowing that you know Him in some manifestations, but you do not know Him in this manifestation? He who is permitted to see Him in both what is prohibited and what is permitted, says, “All beauty is the Beauty of Allah.” If you are still fearful of punishment, what is the benefit of removing the veil? Do you not know that the reason for suffering is the existence of the veil? If the knower listens to his advice, the shaytan takes him just as he took his parents before him. May Allah protect us from this evil.
He who is taken by the hand of Allah does not turn to the shaytan because Allah has made him understand about the shaytan from the beginning, and he sees that every word which he hears coming from Allah is like the beautiful cloth (kiswa) which shrouds the Ka‘bah. He sees also that it is in this way that Allah obscures His words, but this does not deter him and he does not follow the words of the devil. It is for this reason and meaning that the owner of this station is required to stone the shaytan with three stones. The people of the path say that the devil misleads in three ways and when the knower reaches any one of them, he must stone him and not be beguiled by his deceiving suggestions. If he does not throw stones at him, he will incline towards his words and the shaytan will take hold of him with nothing but evil consequences, and he does not allow him to escape his clutches. If this happens, the light of the Truth is changed into falsehood and a false reality, the soul gives place to the nafs, the king is replaced by the devil, and the armies of darkness, repression, and disappointment conquer him. “Truly we belong to Allah and truly to Him we return.” [Q2:156].
This is a very difficult station which only a few reach. Whoever tries to walk in it must be steadfast within himself and in what he has realized of understanding and knowledge. He must keep the prayer and not to lose any of the pillars of the religion, but remain well grounded in the wisdoms of the Law. Whoever cannot follow this or be in this state, should stay away. We are therefore required to stone the shaytan wherever he manifests and stands in our path. We must always remain vigilant of him and be aware of what his reality demands of us. Therefore, O murid, you are ordered to stone him and to not turn away from him, or turn on your heels before him. And know that strength comes to the knower with the throwing of the very first stone because this is a sign and a proof of his willingness, his standing firm at the door of his heart, and of his intention to purify it for the Truth and rid it of falsehood. After facing up to the shaytan things become easier because you are aware of his tricks when he begins to play and tempt and you also know how to discharge him from your path. It is for this reason that we say, “He who is illuminated in the beginning, will be illuminated in the end.”
O murid, if you find safety and protection in such difficult places, you will reach what is required of you, because in this way, you become one who knows that the devil is one of the manifestations of the creation and that each manifestation, according to its reality, demands an answer from him who walks on the path of Allah. The devil is only fulfilling his appointed role, just as you are ordered to fulfill the role for which you have been created.
We have been speaking about the station of the standing on Arafat. It is one of complete drowning. The owner of this station neither sees nor hears anything. He has no cares and his treasure is sealed because he is in an ocean without shores. Does he then take heed of prohibitions in this ocean? Your answer is, “He is absent and not able to see what is permitted, so how can he see what is not permitted?” Therefore we say that when he is in this ocean, it is not permitted for him to hunt on the land. This means that he is required to keep the separation between his self and his senses and the metaphor for this separation is that while he is wearing the garments of the pilgrimage, the pilgrim is not permitted to hunt on land. Allah (subhanahu wa-ta‘ala) says, “Permitted to you is the game of the sea and its food as provision for you travellers, but wild game from the land is forbidden you as you are in ihram.” [Q5:96]. This means that as long as you are drowned in the great ocean and have abandoned your senses, everything connected with the senses has no meaning. When you emerge from the ocean of drowning to the self and you see the land, then the rules of the Law (ash-shari‘ah) should be followed because you have now returned to the awareness of your senses, and, as the special people say, then the permitted (halal) and the forbidden (haram) return to their usual domain. In the ocean there are no pictures and no vessels, but when the knower comes out of the ocean and is received by the land, he finds that there are dense objects and distinctions written on the faces of manifestations which indicate to him that this is permitted and this is forbidden. The state in which there are no pictures, no names, no manifestations and no wisdom is like the obscurity of a dark night, one layer above another. Who then allows what is permitted and upon whom were all things which are not permitted made forbidden? Allah (subhanahu wa-ta‘ala) says, “To Whom does the sovereignty belong today? To Allah, the One, the All-Prevailing.” [Q40:16]. When the heart of the knower is not open to leave this station in the perfect way, meaning to leave it not only in his soul, but also in the deeper place of the secret inside his heart, then he emerges from it incompleted. In this case he has not abandoned the ocean in all his states and conditions. In the truth, everything is under the protection of this ocean when he understands how to emerge perfectly from it. What can the knower do with this ocean which is now a part of himself?
The ocean is an ocean as it has been eternally,
and happenings are its waves and rivers.
Therefore, if the knower hunts in the sea, he does not harm anything because ultimately everything is in or from the ocean. In the eyes of the knower this ocean includes all things. Since the devil is one of the creatures of creation, how can the knower not throw stones at him?
I answer, “The devil is part of what Allah has created of the land game and were the ocean to absorb him completely, we would be required to stone him, not only on the Mountain of fiArafah, but also in every place, because he would then exist between the state of annihilation and the state of the Presence of the Unity. And if we were to find the devil in the ocean during the state of drowning, we would eat him, and eating him would be permitted, according to Allah’s words, “Permitted to you is the game of the sea.” [Q5:96].
It is for this reason that you see that most of those who are attracted to Allah in a state of intoxication (majdhub) who are drowned in the ocean of the Oneness, do not find any meaning or sense of the devil and they are not subjected to any of his tricks. If they were to find him, they would swallow him up, as if he were a piece of food. But this would not bring them any closer to destroying him, because whenever the majdhub happens to find the shaytan, he disappears to another hunting ground, because the devil only hunts the murid who is on land where he is likely to be overmastered by his senses, and to taste the desires of his nafs. If the devil found the knower free from the imprisonment of his human nature, how could he reach him in order to tempt him, because he whom he is trying to entice is not able to hear him? This is the case of the special people of drowning.
The masters of the art of blending or mixing (mazj), those who are well grounded and established between intoxication and sobriety, follow a different law. They can distinguish between what is beneficial and what is harmful, and are always in a balanced state of being able to see and be aware of all things. Although their eyes glorify and exalt their Lord, they remain in fear of the harmful things of creation, such as scorpions, owls, fierce dogs, and the suggestions of the raven. These are all metaphors for the nafs, the shaytan, the dunya, and human inclinations, which are found on the land and exist with the human being rooted in his senses, which is the case of all those who are drowned in this lower material world.
The knower is nevertheless required to accept, recognize and realize the meanings coming from his senses as being a part of the totality of all created things. Therefore, he should have respect for them, but not be caught by them, because both the nafs and the shaytan, the material world, and everything to which they incline, are in opposition to the Oneness of the Unity, which is the goal of the knowers and the intention of the Unity, and the knower truly fears whatever prevents him from meeting with his Lord. He fears both the dunya and the inclinations of his desires (hawa) when he comes to realize their harmfulness. But when he is absent in witnessing the Truth (al-haqq) and enjoying His protection, nothing can harm him. In that case he takes whatever he needs from everything and at the same time, nothing can take away anything he has of true knowledge. Everything yearns for him, but he does not yearn for anything. This is the state which no other state can deny, but the shaytan will enter it if he finds the slightest inclination in his favor, an opening through which he can enter. It is from that door that he has to be stoned. The human being is never free or safe because of his nature from the invasion of the shaytan who, like the nafs, is very persistent in his demands and enticements.
In this station, therefore, the stoning is a holy law, which the pilgrim is obliged to honor and fulfill. Whenever the knower returns to his nafs and acts in accordance with its desires – drinking, eating and clothing himself – he begins to recognize what pleases him in the way of deceptions, and of appraisal and approval. He must be wary of every one of these manifestations in face of what the Truth demands of him. When he is veiled by words or thoughts and does not know what Allah wants from him, let him refer to the ancient words of the straight path, which have been laid down and ordered for him to follow: “This is My Straight Path, so follow it.” [Q6:153]. In the Holy Quran there are righteous norms for reference, so leave aside and do not follow any word that does not carry the might of the Quran, because Allah (subhanahu wa-ta‘ala) says, “No single thing have We omitted from the Book.” [Q6:38].
Let us return to what we spoke about earlier regarding what is forbidden on the pilgrimage. For example, it is forbidden to hunt even in retaliation because meanness does not exist in this presence. How can a person hunt when he sees everything to be the Presence of Allah? It is said in the story of Majnün and Layla that Majnün found a dog and took it into his house. He fed, respected and occupied himself in caring for it, but people mocked him and said, “What are you doing with this dog?” He said to them, “How can I not respect this dog when I found it in Layla’s quarter of the town?”
I pass by houses, the houses of Layla,
and kiss these walls and those walls.
It is not the love of the houses that fills my heart,
but love for the One who lives in the houses.
Say, “Observe what is in the heavens and the earth.” [Q10:101].
I have found in this station that most knowers observe good manners toward the creation, as if they are with the Truth Himself. Our Master Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, may Allah be pleased with him, said:
In the Truth there is nothing but Allah,
so smell His fragrance, for He is the fragrance in creation.
The people who enjoy this presence never hurt anything and even if there are only a few, they are enough. The wisdom of the state of the pilgrim is such that he neither harms nor kills anything, not even a louse, because he finds that he and all the creation of Allah exist in this noble presence and he is polite with everything. I remained in this state for more than five years, witnessing the lights of this presence surrounding the creation, which overflowed with its secrets. You could see me absorbed by its creatures in deep politeness, even if I was attacked by them because I reached a great peace and a state of deep expansion until Allah moved me to another station, and I became occupied with Him, not knowing if I was impolite with the creation or not.
In every case, the owner of this station does not harm anything of Allah’s creation, except as we have mentioned when he fears the existence of any separation of a harmful nature, in which case he must ward off evil before it oppresses him. And the most dangerous source of separation is the nafs, so he must put an end to its evil and in no case trust it. Allah (subhanahu wa-ta‘ala) says, “And even though on the Day of Judgment the soul may offer every compensation for its wrongdoings, yet it shall not be accepted.” [Q6:70]. If the murid does not control his nafs it will obtain mastery over him and once it does this, it is difficult to ward off its evil. Therefore, he should fear his nafs from the very beginning.
It has been mentioned that the owner of this station is beyond the confines of the universe, both in space and time, and if he is not completely free from his surroundings and from the most seemingly insignificant thing of the dunya, as was the case of the murid with his shaykh and the needle mentioned in our chapter on fasting, he will not reach the complete freedom.
Let us now speak about what he is supposed to do. We have mentioned that if the murid remains in this state and becomes immersed and absent in the Hidden, even though his vision of the universe is cut off from all influences of material existence, he does not say, “I have understood the meaning of this.” If he does say this, it means that he has returned to his senses. So long as he is in the station of total effacement without any trace of the senses, he is not permitted to say that he has understood the meaning. It should be clear to him that he cannot penetrate deeper into this state. It is only possible when he no longer has perception of time or space, as the great master Ibn al-Arabi explained, “He who is not grounded in this knowledge of ours, dies insisting upon the big sins.” He, may Allah be pleased with him, refers to him who has not completed his drowning in the ocean and is not deepened by the ocean until he becomes unaware of its waves, absent from all his senses so that it is impossible for him to see anything which is not now necessary for him to see. It should be known that the owner of this station of drowning cannot return to any of his customary habits.
The proof of this is his travelling ever more deeply into the center of the Unity. This being his goal, he abandons all his usual ways. He is now in a state in which it is impossible for him to see himself, because he has surrendered all control, as if he were unaware of himself. Allah and those who are deeply rooted in knowledge know his state. He cannot do anything to make himself appear pleasing, and he does not cease to abandon things that exhaust him. For the special people everything is praiseworthy when they destroy their nafs, throw off all restraints, shame and dignity, which the nafs hates because of the humility which it feels. In front of this the nafs flees far away. About this Ibn al-Farid has said:
I have thrown off all my restraints and my excuses,
and wear the gown of depravity,
happy with the way by which they have been torn off.
It is my duty to You to throw off all restraints,
and through You I come closer to my people,
My depravity is my sunnah.
those who mock my shamefulness are not my people,
They have distanced themselves from me,
pleased, thinking You have pushed me away,
abandoned me because of my behavior.
My family in the religion of love are His family,
content with my shamelessness, finding my dishonor delightful.
The knowers, may Allah be pleased with them, have experienced what is an unimaginable indifference for their skins, because of their immersion in tasting the secret of the Unity hidden in the manifestation of the ramifications of distinctions and separation. They know that they cannot dissolve, alter, or discard anything, because they are also held and encompassed by the vision of all things in wholeness and Unity, all of which make up the divine Presence.
When first entering this Presence it is known that the pilgrim should forego intercourse. You see the pilgrim and his or her spouse not fulfilling duties toward each other in this way and they exhibit complete firmness, because they are in a state of exaltation, far removed from desires. You see them following this manner, although in the beginning, a spouse may be angered, accusing the other of failings. This all comes from the state of complete bliss in which the knower now finds himself, a state of witnessing the delight of being rescued and saved.
Do not think that the knower has abandoned all that his humanity demands of him in this life, because this is not so. Only when he enters this station, and begins to flee in the witnessing is it forbidden for him. When he is established in the station, has gained knowledge of it, and is moving out of it into the station of the subsistence (baqa’), then, it is not forbidden for him to be in the complete love with his wife, and she with her husband. He can then be busy with his human needs, so that what was forbidden is now permitted, and he participates in the usual manners as is the case of the human being. He has returned to the world of bodies and because he is a member of the human race, what is permitted to them is also permitted to him, even though his soul is removed from the normal senses and is absent in the Unity. And after this he sometimes returns to the humanity because this is necessary for him and it is permitted.
It is also permitted for the knower in the highest of heights, which is the Throne, to be sometimes shaded from it and yet he has not left it. He remains under its protection, which is the case about which we have now been speaking. At those times, it is necessary for him to trust and to know with certainty that when returning to the creation, nothing can harm him from human states, even though those who do not know him may imagine that his himma is no longer upheld and protected by the Throne. Because he has been annihilated from all illusions, it is possible for him to be embraced by the Throne sometimes, yet not at all times. In the times of his being in the embrace of the height of the Throne, meaning the state of returning to its center, it is possible for him to deal with the creation and at the same time, to love his wife. So do not understand from this that his himma is reduced to coming only from the creation, as is the case for people generally. He is always aware of the sun of the Truth which is behind the clouds. He who is shaded from the zenith of the light of the sun is not deterred by this because he is neither completely absent, nor completely present. No one understands this state except he who has tasted it. He is always aware of the Unity in the midst of opposition. This is accepted by special people, who say:
If I wanted to see nothing but Allah always, I could not.
If I insist, I find it is a mirage in the air.
If I look for them I do not find them
they are a mirage which does not truly exist.
These are the well known facts of the pilgrimage, the standing which the knower should observe at least once in his life, which is the absorption into the Unity. Now we will speak about the presence which is required by the essence, which the pilgrim can enter into at any time.
The Lesser Pilgrimage
al-‘umra
The word ‘umra means a state of mind necessary for being in the holy presence because it is a fortress in which the owner of this state does not fear either difficulty or severity. For that reason it is referred to as the House, the Stronghold of Allah, which brings security from suffering, as we have said, because the Umra does not include the pillar of the standing on Arafah. The participant of the ‘umra is required to circle around the Ka‘bah and to complete the sa‘i, which is the hurrying seven times between safa and marwah, and to witness as much as possible of the House, which is the Presence of Him Who is worshipped and of the worshipper.
The knower should be knowledgeable in every aspect of this presence by realizing all that it manifests and reveals, so that he will accept and face everything that appears to him from all the faces of this Presence.
My pilgrimage is like the standing;
to be at its door is like all standings up,
At its door, all standings are nullified;
all the lands of Allah appearing therein,
But I do not see them, my eyes see only Makkah,
where all places are brought together and joined
and every place has its dwelling in the migration (hijrah).
If the knower understands the meaning of the rites of the lesser pilgrimage, he will be protected in the same manner in which he preserves it so that he will never want to leave it. In this way he reaches an elevated station, and his attention is absorbed by his realization and understanding of the meanings of the many diverse revelations and lights coming from the attributes of Allah. The creation is illuminated to him through the Light of Him Who Exists, the earth shines with His attributes, and the book of the manners of the knower is written down in this Presence.
The state of the knower, when he comes to the other side of the standing on Arafat, has already been spoken about and of what he should accomplish in the pilgrimage, in both the presence of the circumambulation and in that of the sa‘i, all of which are metaphors and signs for those who possess the science of the knowledge of Allah. So let them fulfill it in the ‘umra just as they do in the greater pilgrimage.
Then know that this station is a mighty and important one. To realize it, you must make use of all the existing kinds of manners required by it. One of these manners is to regard it with humility and modesty, because these are the qualities needed in this Presence.
When you find yourself in Makkah and near the House, come with respect for this place and be even more of a slave, because this Presence knows you as a slave and therefore requires politeness from you. If you are not in the right state of surrender and readiness in this station, you will not find ease. It will not receive you to itself, because this Presence calls only to those who are perfectly polite. When you are polite and this Presence seizes you, it will be content to give itself to you, and you, on your part, will receive from it the very best of behaviour and manners.
For this reason, it is necessary to stand in this Presence in simplicity and to expand and grow in it. In this Presence there is a scale which measures everything that comes from you. So be noble, because many revelations are contained in this Presence and many possibilities for growth and expansion. You must accept and respect each unlimited revelation as completely as you can. Therefore, as we have said, in this station the knower, so far as he is able, should have complete politeness with every manifestation. It is also the duty of the owner of this station to always strive, even in states of serenity and delight.
If your intention is the presence of Muhammad (salla-llahu ‘alayhi wa-sallam), in the truth, this does not mean any departure from where you are in the station of the presence of the ‘umra, because the presence of Muhammad is one of the manifestations of the Presence of the Unity. However, there can be no real peace for the knower until he enters into the presence of Muhammad, which is realized through visiting the most excellent of leaders, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, and his family.
Visiting the Beloved Prophet, salla-llahu ‘alayhi wa-sallam
Know, my beloved, that when the knower reaches whatever he has reached and has not entered the presence of Muhammad to travel according to his politeness until its lights shine upon him, we are concerned about him, because he has reached without going through this station. It is necessary for him to return to it. It is said, “The Reality of the end is the return to the beginning.” And it has been said, “How can anyone who loves, not love the Prophet and give his attention to him because he is the door to Allah, and entering the Presence of Allah can only happen through His door.”
If the murid manifests the presence of Muhammad on his path in witnessing the presence of the Unity, he must go through the Owner of this Presence (salla-llahu ‘alayhi wa-sallam). If it were not for the light of Mustafa, which protects him, he would not be able to move even one step forward and if he tried to do so, he would be burnt up. It is therefore a duty for every knower to return to this presence and to be humble at its threshold because it is the perfection of completion and the completion of perfection, and any other perfection without it is useless. He who does not establish himself in this presence is lacking and imperfect and it can be said that he has been turned upside down. If he is not subverted or veiled, then he returns back and is veiled.
In this station, the Truth of the Prophet answerable to Allah of the Oneness of Existence is revealed to the knowers. About this, the owner of the Qasidat al-Burda, which is an ode of praise for the Prophet Muhammad, by al-Busiri, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “How can sleeping people in the dunya dream that they can get his truth without effort?” The Truth of Mustafa is the Truth of the Unity of Existence and when it is revealed, the veil of its face is lifted, disclosing the Light of the Beauty of Existence. Every prophet is from this light and this light is everything and the light of everything is part of the light of the Prophet Muhammad’s light. The knower reaches certainty of the Muhammadan Truth and begins to give expression to such sayings as, “If the Prophet of Allah was veiled from me for one moment, I would not consider myself to be a Muslim.” Others have said, “If he vanished from me for one hour, I would die immediately.”
And I say, “Those to whom the Truth of Muhammad (salla-llahu ‘alayhi wa-sallam) is revealed have uttered many sayings, some of which can be glimpsed in the following verses:
She told me I am the Pole of Beauty, the Essence of Perfection, which is the goal,
the Secret of Life, the Light of the attributes, the Fortress of Safety, and the House of Peace.
My intention is my earth, my wine, my intoxication,
the source of the essence in this world, the unifier of the Unity, the cave of yearning,
Every knower cares for him!
The Secret of the Truth, the meaning of the Path, the strong bond that does not sever.
A branch of the divinity of the Light of Lahut;
his is the station of the Mercy of Allah, the Treasury of meanings, the Secret of time,
the Soul of the special of the special, and I said: Yes!
Know that he to whom the Reality has been revealed must observe the most complete politeness, which is known to the special people. Therefore, go to the grave of the Prophet in politeness, which means to put every effort into behaving in the correct manner for which this station has been created. The fana’ approaches some in this presence so that they speak with the tongue of the Owner of this Presence (salla-llahu ‘alayhi wa-sallam), which is the state of most of the knowers who have witnessed him in this place. The deeper the knower penetrates into this presence, the closer he comes to Allah until neither the caller nor his calling can be refused. Know also that the owner of this station should not cease asking and if he reaches, he should continue his invocation as long as he is able to do so.
In this way, the visit of the knower to Mustafa, the Chosen One is a revelation of the Truth, whose station the special people refer to as subsistence of subsistence (al-baqa’ li-l-baqa’). He who carries the attributes of this station is more complete than others because he is firmly grounded between a state of sobriety and intoxication.
The knower should emerge from these three presences so that his vision is from the Muhammadan Presence and the Presence of the Unity. Then his hidden presence is in the Presence of the Unity, just as his revealed presence should be in the Law (ash-shari‘ah), and his soul in the Path (at-tariq), and his secret in the Reality (al-haqiqah). In this way he unites the three presences. If he is confirmed in the Muhammadan Truth he is then removed from considering anything else. In this Truth the worlds are dissolved in the Oneness in both their hidden and revealed manifestations. And when you have affirmed and have deeply realized the name of the Owner of this Presence, you will find a mighty sign in the words: “Muhammad the Messenger of Allah” (muhammadun rasulallah). Muhammad is the Kingdom (al-mulk), and the Messenger is the Dominion (al-malakut), and Allah is the World of Omnipotence (al-lahut). This knowing is contained in his name, so how is the case of he who carries this name? You could ask: “How is his Truth?” And he who knows the Truth of Muhammad is not satisfied with anything else: “He who obeys the Messenger has obeyed Allah.” [Q4:80].
He who knows the Reality of the Messenger of Allah must speak, but he who does not know it should remain silent. Allah says in His Quran, “He let loose the two bodies of water that they might meet and placed between them a barrier beyond which they do not pass.” [Q55:19-20]. These are two opposites that do not meet, meaning there is a boundary and what is transient and ephemeral cannot meet with what is eternal. Muhammad (salla-llahu ‘alayhi wa-sallam) is the barrier between the two boundaries, the land of the two seas, having two sides and faces.
As for his (salla-llahu ‘alayhi wa-sallam) revealed face, he is a spot in the soil and as for his hidden face, he is the vicegerent of the Lord of All the Worlds. He is therefore addressed as Mu˛ammad Rasulallah. With these words you can reach to its complete meaning and order. If you take away the word rasul, the meaning changes, so that the ephemeral muhammad meets with the eternal, which is Allah. Then what is ephemeral disappears and only the eternal remains and you say, “Muhammad Allah.” The pillar of this meaning becomes the source upon which you lean and it does not need any connector. This is the meaning of the revelation from Allah. It is not possible to be in the deep politeness with these Presences except through the word Muhammad Rasul Allah and through the standing in the presence of each name in the dutiful manner required. The name Muhammad demands that the knower should worship Allah, and the name messenger demands that we come to proximity with Him and to fear Him, and the name Allah demands us to see Him and to look upon His face. Allah! Praise is to Allah, the Lord of All the Worlds!
