THE DIFFICULT JOURNEY
by Haji Ahmad Thomson
( Taha Publisher,London 1994)
Book Review by Abuzuhri shin
I bought this book in 1995 at Saba Media Bookstore, Setiawangsa Branch. Its owner Hajjah Sabariah Abdullah was an active and dedicated chinese muslim to the causes of da'wa around Kuala Lumpur. Saba Media had in the past successfully invited many renown islamic speakers to lecture to the public and educational institutions. Just to add a little spices, Haji Ahmad Thomson is no stranger to us. He travelled to Malaysia and stayed briefly with us at the Bukit Kerinci Apartment near University of Malaya, KL in 1980.
This book review was written mainly to show an important aspect of the author journey to perform Hajji or Pilgrimage to Makkah which encompassed his his understanding, guidance, connection and transmission of the living Islam from his Sufic Master of amazing european background. The author himself was a British citizen raised up in Zimbawe, Africa and studied Law at Exeter, Oxford University. He embraced Islam at the blessed presence of sufi Raja Mahmudabad a descendant of the mughal rulers of India. To discover who were this two men blessed by Allah Tabaraka wa Taala and how life changed around them, we need to read more books or encounter the men who actually meet them. He also the author of other books such Jesus The Prophet of Islam, Dajjal The Emperor Without Clothes, The Way Back and Blood On The Cross. He visited Malaysia in 1980, gave talks, attending dhikr circles , visited the pondoks in Kelantan and unsuccessfully attempting his land trip back to Europe through Thailand, Burma and India.
Life is but a journey of return to Allah. I will not using my own words to review this wonderful book but merely make a selection of passages by the author. Each passages or quotations are indicated by the sub-title of the chapters and events related to the journey. The most important thing to remember is to see Ahmad Thomson as a faqir, murid, seeker and traveler on the Path Allah so we may experienced differently the moving nature of the story. Not as a travel book but the reflection of a seeker going out to test his resolve and trust in his sufic teacher and Allah’s vast mercy and gifts along the Way. This book was available in most muslim bookshops in Kuala Lumpur (e.g Saba Media at Setiawangsa and Specialist Bookshop at KLCC).
A Short Preamble : London , Spring 1994
This book would not have been written had it not been for Shaykh Abdal Qadir as-Sufi who showed me the beauty and majesty and truth of Islam and who sent me out on the hajj.
Author’s Note
Most of the definitions in the glossary of Arabic Terms are taken directly
or derive from the books listed.. ..which should all be read in oder to arrive at an understanding which is beyond the scope of this book. They are from the overflowing wisdom of Sidi Shaykh , by the permission of Allah and His Messenger, may Allah bless him and his family and his companions and all those who follow in his footsteps, and grant them peace.
Preface
Each of us lives in a different world, in a different universe, each one true, in a subtle unified patterning that can only be described as perfect. We travel through life, learning as we go, and sometimes we pause.. it was in the summer of 1977 that Abdal Jalil ( another faqir) and I decide to set out to go on the Hajj, the pilgrimage to the House of Allah in Makka, the Difficult Journey as it called. ( I bought the book in 1995 at RM 32.50 . I had read it many times. Ahmad Thomson had traveled to Malaysia in 1980 to visit the fuqara and two muqaddim of sidi Shaykh. He stayed a few days with us in KL. we had gathering of dhikr, sung the Diwan of shaykh Muhammad ibn alHabib and doing the hadra with the students of Yayasan Anda. He also visited the pondok of Tar Tujuh in Kelantan.Now Sidi Ahmad Thomson actively serve at the Europe Muslims Lawyer Society and wrote many books and contributes to magazines etc)
London
‘what do you want ? Shaykh Abdal Qadir looked keenly at me and through me as he spoke, as if he already knew exactly what I wanted to, but was just asking the question so that I would discover the answer for myself. I looked into my heart…I seemed to be living in books. I was tired of words, especially printed ones. I wanted action. I wanted adventure. I wanted to be out on the open road , traveling in the way of Allah. ‘ I want to go on hajj – on foot’, I replied. ‘ it would take far too long! Grinned sidi Shaykh with delight, and that seemed to be that….our only instruction from Sidi Shaykh were to visit the awliya and to sing the Diwan wherever we went. ( There is a malay translation of the Diwan for personal use of the fuqara. UKM is editing a new version to be published soon). We have ticket to Athen and visas to enter Egypt..somehow we quite not sure to make our way to Alexandaria and then down to Sudan, trusting in the truth of shaykh Muhyiddin ibn arabi’s words,’ whoever engages in travel will arrive !’ ( this quotation was found in the the Sidi Shaykh book- The Way of Muhammad 1974. I bought a copy before embracing islam in 1978).
Athens
Accordingly I passed much of the time singing my heart out, sometimes singing my favorites pop songs, sometimes reciting what little Quran I knew by heart, sometimes singing from the Diwan, and sometimes repeating the various forms of dhikr which Sidi Shaykh had given me to do, such as :
Astaghfirullah
Hasbuna Allahu wa ni’mal wakil
La ilaha illa Allah
Allahumma salli ala sayyidina muhammadin abdika
wa rasulika nabiyyil ummiyyi wa ala alihi
wa ashabihi wa salim taslima.
Shaykh Abdal Qadir once said that the effect of reciting ‘ Astaghfirullah’ on the heart is like sweeping away dust with a brush, and that the effect of repeating the prayer on the Prophet on the heart is like washing clothes by hand, and that the recitation of ‘la ilaha illa Allah’ purifies one’s innermost secret.
Having found a secluded spot, we held a short gathering of dhikr, singing from the Diwan of shaykh Muhammad ibn alHabib for an hour or so, and the doing a long strong Hadra – which is the invocation of the name of Allah al-Hayyu done standing. Al-Hayyu means the Living, the Alive, the One who gives Life. Having completed the hadra, we sat down in a small circle, and I recited the ayatul –kursi in the calm serenity that always follows the invocation of Allah.
Alexandaria
In no time at all we had been swallowed up in Alexandaria’s busy street. We have arrived. Alhamdulillah wa syukrillah. We decided that the best and first thing to do was to to go to the tomb of shaykh Abul Abbas alMursi, one of the exalted teachers in the long line of teachers that stretched , without a break in the chain of transmission of wisdom, from the Prophet sallaLlahu alaihi wasallam, and all his true followers, to our teacher (Abul Abbas alMursi was the teacher of Shaykh ibn Ataillah, author of the famous book Hikam ).
We spent the rest of the day resting and catching up with ourselves, not exactly sure what to do next, but in no particular hurry, soaking in the baraka of the presence of abul abbas almursi’s ruh, which is undeniably there. The baraka of the awliya is subtle energy which emanates from the ruh which is pure light. Whoever is near the ruh of a wali, whether it is be in his body or in his grave or in a true dream, experience its baraka, just as those who stand in the sunlight feel its energy, and just as those who dive in the ocean feel its wetness. It was during this resting space, we decided that we must visit the tomb of Shaykh Abul Hassan Shadhili, the renowned teacher of shaykh Abul Abbas alMursi, although we have no idea where he was buried.
Cairo
Perhaps our most memorable meeting in Cairo was with khalifa Ibrahim, the representative of Shaykh al-Fayturi (the second teacher of shaykh Abdal Qadir after shaykh Muhammad ibn alhabib passed away in 1971 ) who was in Benghazi, in Cairo. Just as all the world’s political leaders have representatives in different countries, so do the world’s true spiritual leaders. Just as the world’s embassies are characterize by formality and protocol, so the world’s zawiyyas are characterized by sincere courtesy and good behaviour.
At last we arrived at the tomb of Shaykh Ahmad Ataillah, and the beautiful mosque which had only recently been built there by a wealthy businessmen who loved Allah and His Messenger and His Awliya.
Humaysara
This was a rough country. It is said that it is never easy to reach a great Wali, and that the greater a Wali is, the more difficult the journey is to reach him. If this was true, I thought, then Shaykh as-Shadhili must be a very great wali ! Humaysara was an extraordinary place. We had traveled all day through the desert ,without seeing another living being, and yet here, in the middle of nowhere, suddenly tere was life: a tomb, a mosque, a small village, and people…Like many great walis, shaykh Shadhili knew when he was going to die. When the time was close, he summoned his closest murid, Abul Abbas al-Mursi, and told him to prepare two camels for a long journey. ‘ What for ?’ asked Abul Abbas.’ You will see in Humaysara’ replied his shaykh. Shaykh Abul Hassan as-Shadhili spent the rest of his life on the top of a small hill immersed in the remembrance of Allah.
Aswan
Shaykh Abdal Qadir once said that outwardly the fast of Ramadhan is like an illness, while inwardly it is a journey. We were well and truly on on our way to the Sudan in the all pervading baraka of Ramadhan. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace said that those who fast have two rewards: One when they break their fast, and one when they meet their Lord. The custom official looked at us, at our passports, at our declarations, and back at us again. ‘ No money ?’ He said. ‘ Yes , we had no money’. He paused significantly, looking at our documentation, perhaps s not quite sure what to do about us, and in that moment a bearded turbaned man on the other side of the barrier called out, ‘ Shaykh Abdal Bourhani !’ in a clear strong voice. ‘Yes, I replied, ‘Shaykh Abdal Bourhani’ . ‘ Good’, he said firmly, stamping our passports and letting us through the barrier as if there was nothing more to say. The man who opened the way for us was the muqaddem of the Bourhaniyya zawiya in wadi halfa, and had receive a message from hajj Mustafa in alexandaria that we were on the ferry.
The flat desert reminded me of the descriptions I had read of what will be like on the Last Day, when the oceans have all dried up, and the mountains have disintegrated into dust and dissolved like clouds, so that all that remains is a very vast silvery plain of sand, on which all the people who have ever lived will be brought back to life and gathered together and then separated between the Garden and the Fire.
Omdurman
Only one task remained: before we had left England, Shaykh Abdal Qadir instructed us to visit the awliya and to sing the diwan of shaykh Muhammad ibn alHabib wherever we went. This, to our best ability, we had done. Sidi Shaykh also asked Abdal Jalil to bring him back a hand written Quran from Sudan. This we still had to acquire. Strangely enough, the matter had been clarified for us when we had been in the crater of Daribe. During that very cold night I had a dream just before dawn, that a figure wearing a white robe and turban and holding a tasbih had said to me’ ‘ Whatever you do , don’t visit shaykh Hamza again’. On first awaking, I had not really had time to reflect on the dream….on rerunning the dream through my mind, I had realised what struck me as being rather strange about it. Although the figure in the dream had been dressed like a muslim, there had been fire in his eyes. It must have been shaytan trying to deflect us off course, audhu bi’Llahi minas-syaitanir rajim.
Accordingly, now that we were back in Omdurman, we went round to visit shaykh hamza one vening after maghrib, and told hm what our shaykh had requested. Shaykh Hamza paused. ‘ Hand written Quran are worth a lot of money ‘, he said. ‘ we have only 6 pounds between us’, replied abdal jalil. ‘ keep your money’, he replied’. ‘I was testing your sincerity’. You rea welcome to have one of my hand written Quran. Please give it to your shaykh with my greeting. Only a couple of weeks ago I had a dream in which I met Shaytan riding on a camel . ‘where are you going off now ?’ I asked him. He replied that he was going to England. ‘why there ?’ I asked. He replied, ‘The people over there are intelligent, so I have more work over there than in places like here where people are half asleep !’. Shaykh Hamza who was a large man, laughed heartily. Now we could leave Sudan without regret.
I spent some time making dua , asking Allah for all that I wanted, including a safe journey to Makka, and an acceptable hajj and a safe return to England. I also asked for a wonderful life and an easy death, and peace in the grave, and no fear on the Last Day, a swift entrance into the Garden, both for myself and for everyone that I loved and everyone that I met. Finally, I asked to be given what all the the true Awliya are given, the highest deepest knowledge that there is, gnosis of Allah. We had just left the tomb when the adhan of maghrib rang out.
Perhaps we were just tired from our travels, or perhaps we had just enough of visiting awliyas, whether in their bodies or in their graves. After all the meeting we had had along the way, I knew for certain that the only shaykh with whom I really wanted to be was my own Shaykh. Although one should not really be concerned with comparing different shaykhs, for it is like comparing different mirrors- whatever their outward forms, they are bound to give you basically the same reflection - I met no one who was as balanced or as knowledgeable or as wise or as correctly behaved as Shaykh Abdal Qadir as-Sufi. I realized how pure an Islam it was that he embodied and transmitted, and just how accurate and perceptive and truthful his words were. I could not wished for a better guide and teacher.
Everyone Is Right
The beauty of it all is that every sincere follower of a Shaykh is certain that his or her shaykh is the best Shaykh in the world – and they are all right, for every one is given the Shaykh that they deserve, in accordance with their own sincerity and strength of resolution, the Shaykh who is best suited to guide them along the path that leads to knowledge and wisdom. One may visit many Shaykhs for the baraka and for spiritual gifts and knowledges, but one only takes one Shaykh as one’s spiritual healer and guide along the path that leads to self knowledge and gnosis of Allah.
Loyalty to one’s shaykh and trust in him is part of sincerity. One of the gifts of our journey so far had been the realization and confirmation of this basic truth. I had always trusted Shaykh Abdal Qadir from the first moment that we had met, but it was good to realize more fully just how good and realible a guide he was, and to know with greater certainty that I had no desire or need to look for any other shaykh.
Perhaps also, I realized soon , insya’Allah , we would be visiting the tomb of the man through whom all the Awliya receive their knowledge and wisdom, and without whom there would not have been any Shaykhs to visits or any Hajj to do…even the greatest Shaykh is only a drop compared to the ocean of the Prophet ..further more ,beyond all these considerations was the fact that in only a few more days we would be in Makka, insya’Allah, immersing ourselves deeply in the worship of the One who is the Source of all the Prophets and all the Awliya and indeed everyone and everything in creation. (p.195)
Khartoum
Suddenly, swiftly at the speed of light, time had flashed by. We were at Khartoum airport, waiting for our flight to be called. It had been truly wonderful. Never knowing what would happen next or whether we would ever make it, the adventure had unfolded, permeated with baraka and rahma, until finally , here, we were safe, sound and just waiting to make that short hop over to the Arabian peninsula ! I felt as if I was the most fortunate man in the world !
(review not complete)
Friday, September 29, 2006
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Tuscon Discourse and Faqir Abdullah Koya
Preface by Abu Zuhri Shin of Dailin Nur
In early 1980s, my friend from Petaling jaya, Malaysia named Sidi Abdullah Koya got his father blessing to study in Baytudeen Zahra Institute, San Antonio, Tuscon, USA. He was a great servant among the younger students and children in the small sufic community established by Sh.Fadhllah Haeri. However as Divinely decreed, he passed away and buried there due to a drowning incident. He cannot swim but in reality his spirit fly to the highest realm. His father Hajji Koya Kutty was an active publisher of islamic books and magazines such as Reading of Islam, Islamic Crescent weekly and Islamic book trust. May Allah shower His mercy and forgive Sidi Abdullah Koya and place him among the righteous.
This accompanying discourse by a travelling sufic master many years earlier had briefly visited this small community in a caravan style da'wah trip that finally ended at the coast of Berkeley, California USA. We dedicated all the baraka and affected hearts by this excellent discourse to our readers especially from Malaysia. We were informed one chinese faqir from Penang named Sidi Hashim Lee had also studied briefly at this center in 1990s since then no more news from him but a letter which he stated: " I hope to die in the land of my Teacher'.
Here are the opening lines for you...
Tucson/USA Discourse May 1978 : The Path
Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim
Fuqara'- faqirat. I would like, insha'llah, to say something about Tariq of Allah, the Path to Allah. It can be talked about in different ways, and it can be talked about in different languages, different vocabularies. It is can be talked about using the language of the Qur'an, the language of Allah tabaraka wa ta'ala. It can be talked about using the special language of the people of the Qawm, of the Folk, who have created their own technical vocabulary to describe their ahwal wa'l-maqamat, their inner states and their stations with Allah; the inner states, that only they know about and the maqamat that only Allah knows about, and that the awliya' recognise in them. In other words, they do not recognise their maqam, but they know their hal. You can talk about it in this way.
You can talk about its extraordinary exterior, turuqs: Naqshbandiyya, Shadhiliyya, Darwaqiyya, Chistiyya; about shuyukh: this shaykh and that shaykh; about karamat, about the maqam of this one and the maqam of that one; about Aqtab, Awtad, Salihun – all these different ways you can talk about Tasawwuf. Or you can make up your own story and still talk about it, no one will contradict you. Shaykh al-Fayturi said, "We're not interested in wirds; we're not interested in wazifas, this shaykh and that shaykh, the sadiqun are only interested in one thing: ma'rifa. Recognition of Allah tabaraka wa ta'ala. Nothing else matters. One of the Sufis of the east in Pakistan has said, "Shuyukh do not fly; their murids make them seem to fly. The shuyukh do not fight each other, their murids make them seem to fight each other." In other words, the ahl al-haqiqat, the people of reality, are in complete agreement, in complete harmony, there is no debate between them.
So how are we going to talk about Tariq, about the Way? There is Tariq, and there is Sabil, Sabilillah, fi-sabilillah, in the way of Allah. The tariq, tariqa sufiyya, properly speaking is sabil. Sabil is from a root which means rain. Rain comes out of non-existence, out of the cloud-form and becomes rain. It was cloud, it becomes rain, and it disappears. It completely disappears, and only its results are seen, which is grass and flowers, and food for others. Imam Junayd, radiya'llahu 'anhu, the Imam of the 'Arifeen, and the People of the Tariq, the Tariq of Allah, said, "The Sufi is like dung, turf on the earth and all the different seeds are thrown onto it, and from this, roses and all the beautiful flowers spring up and bloom.
If we want to understand the Tariqa, the Way properly, we must remember the hadith of Sayyiduna Muhammad, salla'llahu 'alayhi wa sallam. He said, "From my time till the end, there will be no time that is not worse than the time before it." He also said, "If anyone in my time omits one of ten things that are commanded, he will go to the Fire" because he has this tremendous example before him of Sayyiduna Muhammad, salla'llahu 'alayhi wa sallam. "But a time will come when, if anyone does one out of ten things, he will achieve the Garden." So we have to things to understand. There is a diminishing of knowledge, a diminishment of knowledge, a disappearance of knowledge off the face of the earth. Also Allah ta'ala's baraka, Allah ta'ala's karamat, the fadl of Allah is so overflowing. Shaykh Ahmad al-Badawi said, radiya'llahu 'anhu, "The fadl of Allah lies in increase." His overflowing is increase. More, more more. This meaning is in an ayat of Qur'an al-Karim, "He never removes an ayat, a sign, but he replaces it with one equal to it, or better than it," meaning in one of its meanings, that when a wali is removed, he is replaced with another wali as good or better than the one who has been.
In this meaning, Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib, radiya'llahu 'anhu, said, "My maqam..." and because of his high station, he spoke of his maqam. But this is not the way of the people of understanding, but he said in a moment of delight, "My maqam, when I was teaching at the Qarawiyyin," this was therefore at the whole beginning of his affair, when he was just begun, on the tariqa sufiyya. "My maqam, when I was teaching at the Qarawiyyin, has never been equalled by any wali except Moulay 'Abdal-Qadir al-Jilani, radiya'llahu 'anhu. Moulay Abdal-Qadir al-Jilani is the great Qutb, to whom we all turn, and to whom we all trace our footsteps. He was indicating by this, that according to the darkness of the age and the ignorance of the age, Allah ta'ala increases blessings among His people. The wali of Bahlil, radiya'llahu 'anhu, said one day while talking with us, "This is an age of shuyukh and no murideen." It's an age of teachers, teachers by the idhn of Allah, and no one will follow them. They are here, there and there, and nobody wants to know. One of the people of the Way used to go into the city and beat a drum and say, "There's knowledge going, who wants knowledge? Come out!" to see who would come, and a few people would come.
Another story told by the men of knowledge is that a faqir was travelling, and he recognised by his heart a great man of Allah coming towards him, and the man was running out of the town, and he said, "Don't go in there." He said, "What is the matter? Is it the plague?" He said, "No, there is a town in which people do not want knowledge." I am speaking in the language of the people of tasawwuf, knowledge, to the people of tasawwuf as we were talking about this morning with one group, is not contained within the realm of information. Information is the lowest, most limited, and first degree of knowledge after which there are two degrees, each one of them higher than the other, each with its own language, each with its own science, and each with its own zone in which it may be experienced. And people do not know it exists, and when they hear it exists, only a small group of people want to have this experience, to have this knowledge. Why is this? Because we are in an age of outward expansion, and inner contraction. People want to expand outwardly, and therefore they contract inwardly. It's an age where people have no adab, as we say, they have not got manners; and manners are the Path: "at-Tariqa, kulluha adab."
The tariqa is nothing but good manners, and people do not have good manners. They are not able to sit properly. They sit like babies, like children in perambulators: they lounge. Why? Because they are outwardly free. Why? Because they are inwardly imprisoned. Islam is Shari'at. Islam is shahada, salat, siyam, zakat, hajj. All of which are imprisoning, all of which have their conditions, all of which trap you, all of which shrink you, all of which constrict you outwardly, and all of which have their expansion inwardly.
This is an age of freedom. People are free: "I do this. I do that. I go with the flow. I do what I like. It doesn't suit me. I don't like it. I have an opinion." What is opinion? Opinion is something you have been taught by others to have, imagining it is from yourself. Sufis say, "beware of opinion". Why? Not because it is evil or bad or dangerous, but because it gives you kingdom. It enthrones, and it enthrones you in ignorance. Speculation is the way of ignorance. You speculate when you do not know. Tasawwuf is science. Science is from knowledge, and it has no speculation: in its beginning, in its middle, or in its end.
So here we have something called the Tariq of Allah, which has always been used about it, a special vocabulary. This vocabulary has divided people into three groups: the common, the elite, and the elect of the elite, and in every definition the sufis say: the common have this understanding, and the elite have the opposite understanding, and the elect of the elite have both understandings. We have three knowledges, but who takes these knowledges? Who takes them? Who wants them? And where will he get them, and where will he get them? And where will he know he is not getting rubbish? Where will he know he has got the right thing?
Abu'l-'Abbas al-Mursi, radiya'llahu 'anhu, said, "The murid will get the shaykh in accordance with the quality and degree of his himma and his yearning. One shaykh was asked, "Who is the perfect shaykh?" He replied, "Bring me the perfect murid and I will show you the perfect shaykh." Why? Because it's all in the hand of the muridin, but who are the muridin? Murid is from a root which is irada, and irada means will, and it means one who has handed over his will completely to another, that the murid has handed his will completely to his shaykh. Where can you find such people? Only a handful of people. Good weather obedience is no use to anybody. It is only of use when the nafs is constricted, and the nafs rebels and it still obeys: that is the murid. And in that conflict, and in that obedience, is the victory, and the gnosis is glued on to it, by the secret of Allah. And where is that person? That is the murid. That is the one who has the secret already right there at that point, that is the rajulu'llah. It is a tremendous thing. It is a tremendous, tremendous thing.
If I start now, I could go on and never finish, with simply singing the praises of the murid; because all the love of Allah is on him. He is the lover, moving to the Beloved; why is he called the elite if he is not the elite? They are the elite. "The fuqara'," Shaykh Abu Madyan, radiya'llahu 'anhu, said, "are the Sultans." They are the princes. If you are this person, you are this. If you are not, you are not. If you are outwardly a Sultan and outwardly a prince, then know you are not this, because these are sultans of the inward and princes of the inward. Outwardly they are dust and inwardly they are gold. What a rare person that is now.
Imam Junayd, radiya'llahu 'anhu, walked through the streets of Baghdad and said, "Where will I find one man in the whole of Baghdad?" One man is all of Baghdad, at the time of Shibli, Hallaj and Junayd, and all these great awliya', radiya'llahu 'anhum. Al-Hujwiri, radiya'llahu 'anhu, speaking about the time the Companions, said, "Sufism is a name without a reality." So what is it now? "I am this tariq, or I am this tariq. I have this shaykh, or I have this shaykh." Now you have something that is the opposite of Imam al-Junayd. In the days of al-Junayd, if Junayd was there, you clung to him, you would cleave to him, you would not be separate from him, except under his order, and then you wept, and fought, and resisted being separated from him.
And in this age I crossed Islam from one end to the other, and then everywhere in the Umma, I meet people who say, "Oh, I go to Damascus." They say, "I have a shaykh in Cairo. I go to Cairo," and they say, "I have a shaykh in Pakistan. I go to Pakistan." They say, "I have a shaykh in Morocco." What is this? Is this tasawwuf? It's just a picture on the wall. What is that? "I want to be near you." "Go and do your business." "Then we can leave our business and come back": That is the lover. "I don't want to be separate from you." "Go, you have to." Then in going there is a secret, but otherwise you cleave to the shaykh.
Why? Why should you cleave to the shaykh? Is what they say about the Sufis true? Then is it all bida', and someone is being interposed between a man and Allah? No! Who are the Sadiqun? They are those who when you see them, remind you of Allah. They are a mirror for you, in which you may reflect more deeply on the reality of existence, on the truth of existence. What a big thing it is, and when you see these people, when you meet these people, and when you sit with these people. What is it? What is it that passes between you. Someone said to me, "If they knew what we had, they would try to steal it from us." But you cannot steal it. How can you steal it? But what is the murid? Let us go to the source. 'Abdal-Qadir al-Jilani, radiya'llahu 'anhu, is the source of teaching, of tasawwuf. He says, "Be with the shaykh like the dead body is in the hands of the washer." This he says in the 'Ayniyya. Who is this? Who is this person? This is the one who is interesting.
When Hajj 'Isa came out of the khalwa, Shaykh al-Fayturi said to him at the very point that he had arrived at knowledge, gnosis and lights, "Now you are a slave and servant of the fuqara'." When I made Abdal-Kabir muqaddim, and he went to the wali of Bahlil who had told him in advance that he would be made muqaddim, and there was no sign of him being made muqaddim, and he was a perfect nuisance, and he went to him and said, "Now what do I do?" and he said, "The muqaddim is before the fuqara' like a donkey on which all the fuqara' place the load of their troubles and their burdens, and he is behind the fuqara' like a dog, who runs behind them protecting them without them even knowing it. And what is muqaddim? It means the one who goes ahead, and it is a name of Allah, al-Muqaddim, and it is a name of Sayyiduna Muhammad, salla'llahu 'alayhi wa sallam.
What a tremendous name, and in it are the secrets of 'ubudiyya, in it are the secrets of slavehood, because everything that has an attribute of Allah, exalts Allah, and when it relates to us it brings us low. Because He cannot be associated with anything. He is Exalted and High, and we are low. The Lord is the Lord and the slave is the slave. Look at this, can you do this in five minutes? Can you reach it in five minutes? Can you get me this in five minutes?
Can you put a hat on it and be it? Can you give a hand? I have met again, again, and again people who say, "Oh, I've given my hand to a shaykh." Well, what is he doing with this collection of hands? Is he keeping them in a box? What is this? Is this tasawwuf? Where is your heart? I'm not interested in your hands. I don't want one-handed people. Shari'a tells me you are a thief! Shari'a tells me you are a thief! This is not ba'yat. You cannot say it. Lovers hide their love. Real lovers hide their passion. They do not speak about it. False claimants boast about their amatory adventures. The lover hides, quiet, when everyone else is talking, because they are drinking the experience of love. I have given my hand to a shaykh: What use is that to him? What is he to do with it? It is a big thing.
After Moulay 'Arabi ad-Darqawi, radiya'llahu 'anhu, his khalif was Shaykh Ahmad al-Badawi of Fes. This great wali had two zawiyyas: one zawiyya in Fes, and in this zawiyya there were a group of men who great, great awliya' and salihun, the most exalted among the 'arifeen. There was Sidi Tayyib, Sidi Muhammad ibn Huwari. These men were all very exalted walis, and they were all in the zawiyya of Ahmad al-Badawi, radiya'llahu 'anhu. The shaykh was quite old, and one day as happens in the nafs of the great, there rose up in them this desire for leadership, and they started to question who would be the next shaykh, and by ishara the shaykh knew and became very angry. He came in and he said, "All of you fuqara' here get up. I want you to sweep and clean the zawiyya so that there is not one speck of dust." So they rolled up their burnooses and their djellabas and they took the broom and swept the zawiyya until it was spotless. He came down and said, "This is disgusting. Do you call that clean? Look at that over there - it's filthy. Clean it." And they cleaned it. He came down and said, "Tut, tut, tut. You haven't listened to me. What is this? Are you making fun of me? Look at that. Look at that there. Clean it up. Clean it up or you'll all be thrown out," and he went away. And they scrubbed, and they scrubbed, and they scrubbed, until the thing was like mirror. The shaykh came back and said, "What is that? Look there's dust," and the heart of Muhammad al-'Arabi was breaking in his breast, as he got down on his knees and he swept the floor with his beard, and it was by this that Ahmad al-Badawi saw his khalif and his inheritor, and it was this moment the ahl as-sufiyya said in Morocco, at this moment was demonstrated the greatest manzil with Allah that could be shown on the face of the earth. And on this action his name spread right across North Africa, all the way into the Hijaz, to Makka.
Do you understand? Do you understand what I am saying? Not obedient: in love. It is poetry. It is a song. What a thing to do from the heart! How beautiful! It is Majesty becoming beauty. This is tasawwuf. This is knowledge. Where is that out there in the mall? How, where would you begin? What are you to talk of? What are you to talk of? Haqiqa? To savages? Sayyiduna Muhammad, salla'llahu 'alayhi wa sallam, said, "Speak to people according to their understanding."How the understanding of Sufiyya, the understanding of ahl al-haqiqat is so great, is so tremendous, their intellects begin where everybody else's intellects stop.
Not by ratiocination, not by thinking, but by hal, by dhawq, by khawf, by fear, by weeping, and by trembling, and by darkness and dhikr in darkness, outward darkness, inward light, By muraqaba. Muraqaba is watching. You cannot talk about it until there are people who are attuned to it. You cannot attune to it if you cannot even sit down. You cannot attune to it if you cannot sit still. Shaykh Sidi al-Jamal, radiya'llahu 'anhu, used to say, "Fold your hands, lower your eyes, don't move, or I'll fly away and leave you." Do you see? Outwardly you do this, inwardly you do that. That is all. But who can do it for a minute, for five minutes?
How interesting, how fascinating for the human creature is that he wants something he is not prepared to pay for. He would not do it in the mall. He would be arrested, but he will try to do it with haqiqat. You can steal the object, but you cannot steal the subject. Knowledge is not given away, It is already yours. You discover you have it. How do you discover you have it? By adab. at-Tariqa kulluha adab. Manners. You have to start from the beginning. There are groups of Sufis from here to Karachi, from Karachi to Bangladesh, from Bangladesh to Malaysia, from Malaysia to Indonesia, back around to California. But this, a few, just a few, but it is nothing new. There have always been a few. Why are they called the elite?
Shaykh Abu'l-'Abbas al-Mursi, radiya'llahu 'anhu, said, 'It is easy: it is easy to find Allah. It is easy to be gnostic, but it is very difficult to find the shaykh." In other words, when you have found the shaykh, he means then the meeting with Allah is an easy business. Allah is hidden in the matter of the finding of the shaykh. And who is the shaykh? Shaykh Sidi Muhammad ibn al-Habib, radiya'llahu 'anhu, said openly who they are: "There is a light before he speaks, and by the dhikr of la ilaha'llah he removes temptation from you, and he lifts you up. He lifts up your hal, just by a glance, just by looking."
Shaykh Ahmad al-Badawi, radiya'llahu 'anhu, said, "One glance from the shaykh wipes out a thousand wrong actions." But for whom? There is beauty in the glance, and there is majesty in the lowering of the eyes. And the murid is a lover who flutters between beauty and majesty, now looking, and now hiding, stealing glances of the shaykh; and the shaykh, according to Ibn 'Ashir, radiya'llahu 'anhu, makes du'a, presenting his slave to his Lord when he encounters Him, the shaykh puts his slave before his Lord in supplication, that is why Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib, radiya'llahu 'anhu, said, "If you see me you will reach Allah. If you see one who has seen me, you will reach Allah. Because it means this is your mirror. You are the eye looking into your mirror, the world is before you as a mirror, and if you have come to look here, you have come to look into yourself, to see into your heart, that you are the gnostics of Allah. That you are the elite, that you are the selected ones, that you are the beloved ones, of whom Allah ta'ala has made this special compact, and of whom the ordinary ones among you speak of nearness for that would imply two. That would imply dualism, and not tawhid.
These are knowledges, these are awarenesses, these are experiences. Look at the title of al-Makki's book Qut al-Qulub, Nourishment of Hearts. Is your heart nourished? From where will it be nourished? From where will it be nourished if not from the light of Allah? Are you animals or are you khalifs of Allah? Are you khalif? Are you really khalif? One who stands in? In the absence of Allah. What a tremendous thing Allah has made you. Do not belittle yourselves.
The fuqara' they are the princes, they are the sultans. Abu Madyan says, "When will my ear have news of them? When will my eye have the sight of them? "This yearning, this longing for fuqara', why? Because they are the dhakireen, they are the people who love Allah, who speak Allah, who yearn for Allah, whose life is for Allah, who love Allah, who act by Allah, whose existence is by Allah, who cannot settle for dunya, cannot settle for shirk, cannot settle for idolatry, despite themselves, because of themselves, despite themselves, and because of Allah. Because you belong to Him. Even if your love of Him is His decree, gnosis is a gift, but you are a gift, what are you to say of this? Where are you in it? Do you yearn for a gift being already a gift? What place have you? What right have you? What claim have you on anything? Nothing exists except Allah.
Haqiqa is tremendous. If I went out now to the mall and said this, I would be arrested as a lunatic, not as an evangelist. You cannot declare this except to the lovers. When he talked of matters to do with gnosis, Imam Junayd, radiya'llahu 'anhu, locked seven doors. He did not speak until he had locked seven doors. They were behind seven doors before he opened his mouth. Why? Because it is pure knowledge of hadith, because obeying orders of the Allah, "speak to people according to their knowledge," and more than that from that, from the hadith of Abu Hurayra, radiya'llahu 'anhu, in the Sahih collection of Imam al-Bukhari when he says, "I have two bags. I took two bags from the Prophet, salla'llahu 'alayhi wa sallam. One of them I have told you. If I revealed the other to you this throat would be severed from my body."
Shaykh al-Akbar Muhyid-din Ibn al-'Arabi, radiya'llahu 'anhu, says in reference to the throat indicated that he was talking about dhawq, about taste, because the throat is the organ of taste, and so he meant these: I took from him, salla'llahu 'alayhi wa sallam, the knowledge, dhawq, that if I had spoken these, I would have been killed." It is the Sufis who say, 'If he speaks these things, he is halal meat for us." These are the Sufis who say this, not the people of the Shari'a. Outside Shari'a, inside haqiqat. Zawiyya in Thursday, Jumu'a on Friday. The true tariqa sufiyya do not go to their own place on Jumu'a. They go with the people because they are 'abd, they are slave of Allah. Everything confirms Shari'a outwardly. They pray with them, and they fast with them, and they pray 'ids with them. Because all this is nawafil, all this is extra, all this is nobody's business. It is Allah's business. If you speak about it in the market-place, you are not speaking about it among the people of Allah.
Tasawwuf has three rules. One is keeping company, which is what we are doing, sitting, because by this everything happens, transformation of the inner awareness happens. The lubb is transformed by keeping company. Two: listening, listening means that you do not move, not a muscle, that you sit like a slave, not a child, not like a prince. Listening means you listen with your ears and your knees, all of you. Thirdly, acting on what you have heard, in other words when it comes your way and it is for you, you do not spit it out. That's tasawwuf, finish. Who is ready for that? Who wants that? A handful of people. Shaykh Ahmad Zarruq, radiya'llahu 'anhu, shaykh of our shuyukh, has said, "There is nothing worse than an ignorant Sufi." Who is an ignorant Sufi? An ignorant Sufi is a Sufi, say I, who is unbridled, who is not tied up.
When Sidi Muhammad ibn al-Habib, radiya'llahu 'anhu, took a faqir, he said, "I put a halter around your neck. Will you accept it?" That was his opening. If they said, "Yes," there was a contract between them. What a tremendous thing, what a wonderful thing, and how utterly incapable of access to those whose hearts are not desirous of the face of Allah. Al-'Aziz. Huwa'l-ÔAziz, al-'Azizu. 'Aziz means "the Hard of Access, Difficult of Access, Mighty," and the 'Aziz is the Hakim, the Wise. There is wisdom in this, because ma'rifa is for the 'arif, as honey is for the bee, filth is for the fly and honey is for the bee, so the advice of Ahl as-Sufiyya is to advance quickly when you hear this news from the realm of thinking and talking to the realm of action.
Shaykh al-Fayturi says, "Quickly move to deeds. Quickly move to action." What is action? It is to move into the practice of dhikrullah. "Ya ayyuha'lladhina amanu'dhkuru llaha dhikran katheeran wa sabbihuhu bukratan wa asila." (33:41) Dhikr, dhikr, dhikr, with the tongue, dhikr with the members, until you have dhikr of the heart. But dhikr is dhahir, dhikr is outward, on the tongue. Fikr is inward: move from the sensory to the meaning, from the hiss to the ma'na, that you move from ma'na to sirr, from ma'na to secret. This is our business.
It is tiered, it is built on stages, and what are the stages? The stages are service of the fuqara', adab among the fuqara', adab with the shaykh, and the highest adab: adab with the shaykh, and adab with the ikhwan. Then you will arrive at knowledge, you will reach the goal in a short time, Shaykh al-'Alawi, radiya'llahu 'anhu, said, "We do not ask years of you." But to whom does he say this? Not to the common people, but to those people who yearn, at the cost of their life's blood if necessary. Many people have a romance of Sufism, because when they read the thoughts of the east, they thought it was poetry. When they read that the cost of this was tears of blood, they thought it was poetry, romance, and how beautiful, and yes, yes, we all love Allah. And they meant it. Until you're broken, until you're finished, until there's nothing left of you, you are a lover.
[NOTE: The transcription ends at this point, which was not the end of the talk.]
In early 1980s, my friend from Petaling jaya, Malaysia named Sidi Abdullah Koya got his father blessing to study in Baytudeen Zahra Institute, San Antonio, Tuscon, USA. He was a great servant among the younger students and children in the small sufic community established by Sh.Fadhllah Haeri. However as Divinely decreed, he passed away and buried there due to a drowning incident. He cannot swim but in reality his spirit fly to the highest realm. His father Hajji Koya Kutty was an active publisher of islamic books and magazines such as Reading of Islam, Islamic Crescent weekly and Islamic book trust. May Allah shower His mercy and forgive Sidi Abdullah Koya and place him among the righteous.
This accompanying discourse by a travelling sufic master many years earlier had briefly visited this small community in a caravan style da'wah trip that finally ended at the coast of Berkeley, California USA. We dedicated all the baraka and affected hearts by this excellent discourse to our readers especially from Malaysia. We were informed one chinese faqir from Penang named Sidi Hashim Lee had also studied briefly at this center in 1990s since then no more news from him but a letter which he stated: " I hope to die in the land of my Teacher'.
Here are the opening lines for you...
Tucson/USA Discourse May 1978 : The Path
Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim
Fuqara'- faqirat. I would like, insha'llah, to say something about Tariq of Allah, the Path to Allah. It can be talked about in different ways, and it can be talked about in different languages, different vocabularies. It is can be talked about using the language of the Qur'an, the language of Allah tabaraka wa ta'ala. It can be talked about using the special language of the people of the Qawm, of the Folk, who have created their own technical vocabulary to describe their ahwal wa'l-maqamat, their inner states and their stations with Allah; the inner states, that only they know about and the maqamat that only Allah knows about, and that the awliya' recognise in them. In other words, they do not recognise their maqam, but they know their hal. You can talk about it in this way.
You can talk about its extraordinary exterior, turuqs: Naqshbandiyya, Shadhiliyya, Darwaqiyya, Chistiyya; about shuyukh: this shaykh and that shaykh; about karamat, about the maqam of this one and the maqam of that one; about Aqtab, Awtad, Salihun – all these different ways you can talk about Tasawwuf. Or you can make up your own story and still talk about it, no one will contradict you. Shaykh al-Fayturi said, "We're not interested in wirds; we're not interested in wazifas, this shaykh and that shaykh, the sadiqun are only interested in one thing: ma'rifa. Recognition of Allah tabaraka wa ta'ala. Nothing else matters. One of the Sufis of the east in Pakistan has said, "Shuyukh do not fly; their murids make them seem to fly. The shuyukh do not fight each other, their murids make them seem to fight each other." In other words, the ahl al-haqiqat, the people of reality, are in complete agreement, in complete harmony, there is no debate between them.
So how are we going to talk about Tariq, about the Way? There is Tariq, and there is Sabil, Sabilillah, fi-sabilillah, in the way of Allah. The tariq, tariqa sufiyya, properly speaking is sabil. Sabil is from a root which means rain. Rain comes out of non-existence, out of the cloud-form and becomes rain. It was cloud, it becomes rain, and it disappears. It completely disappears, and only its results are seen, which is grass and flowers, and food for others. Imam Junayd, radiya'llahu 'anhu, the Imam of the 'Arifeen, and the People of the Tariq, the Tariq of Allah, said, "The Sufi is like dung, turf on the earth and all the different seeds are thrown onto it, and from this, roses and all the beautiful flowers spring up and bloom.
If we want to understand the Tariqa, the Way properly, we must remember the hadith of Sayyiduna Muhammad, salla'llahu 'alayhi wa sallam. He said, "From my time till the end, there will be no time that is not worse than the time before it." He also said, "If anyone in my time omits one of ten things that are commanded, he will go to the Fire" because he has this tremendous example before him of Sayyiduna Muhammad, salla'llahu 'alayhi wa sallam. "But a time will come when, if anyone does one out of ten things, he will achieve the Garden." So we have to things to understand. There is a diminishing of knowledge, a diminishment of knowledge, a disappearance of knowledge off the face of the earth. Also Allah ta'ala's baraka, Allah ta'ala's karamat, the fadl of Allah is so overflowing. Shaykh Ahmad al-Badawi said, radiya'llahu 'anhu, "The fadl of Allah lies in increase." His overflowing is increase. More, more more. This meaning is in an ayat of Qur'an al-Karim, "He never removes an ayat, a sign, but he replaces it with one equal to it, or better than it," meaning in one of its meanings, that when a wali is removed, he is replaced with another wali as good or better than the one who has been.
In this meaning, Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib, radiya'llahu 'anhu, said, "My maqam..." and because of his high station, he spoke of his maqam. But this is not the way of the people of understanding, but he said in a moment of delight, "My maqam, when I was teaching at the Qarawiyyin," this was therefore at the whole beginning of his affair, when he was just begun, on the tariqa sufiyya. "My maqam, when I was teaching at the Qarawiyyin, has never been equalled by any wali except Moulay 'Abdal-Qadir al-Jilani, radiya'llahu 'anhu. Moulay Abdal-Qadir al-Jilani is the great Qutb, to whom we all turn, and to whom we all trace our footsteps. He was indicating by this, that according to the darkness of the age and the ignorance of the age, Allah ta'ala increases blessings among His people. The wali of Bahlil, radiya'llahu 'anhu, said one day while talking with us, "This is an age of shuyukh and no murideen." It's an age of teachers, teachers by the idhn of Allah, and no one will follow them. They are here, there and there, and nobody wants to know. One of the people of the Way used to go into the city and beat a drum and say, "There's knowledge going, who wants knowledge? Come out!" to see who would come, and a few people would come.
Another story told by the men of knowledge is that a faqir was travelling, and he recognised by his heart a great man of Allah coming towards him, and the man was running out of the town, and he said, "Don't go in there." He said, "What is the matter? Is it the plague?" He said, "No, there is a town in which people do not want knowledge." I am speaking in the language of the people of tasawwuf, knowledge, to the people of tasawwuf as we were talking about this morning with one group, is not contained within the realm of information. Information is the lowest, most limited, and first degree of knowledge after which there are two degrees, each one of them higher than the other, each with its own language, each with its own science, and each with its own zone in which it may be experienced. And people do not know it exists, and when they hear it exists, only a small group of people want to have this experience, to have this knowledge. Why is this? Because we are in an age of outward expansion, and inner contraction. People want to expand outwardly, and therefore they contract inwardly. It's an age where people have no adab, as we say, they have not got manners; and manners are the Path: "at-Tariqa, kulluha adab."
The tariqa is nothing but good manners, and people do not have good manners. They are not able to sit properly. They sit like babies, like children in perambulators: they lounge. Why? Because they are outwardly free. Why? Because they are inwardly imprisoned. Islam is Shari'at. Islam is shahada, salat, siyam, zakat, hajj. All of which are imprisoning, all of which have their conditions, all of which trap you, all of which shrink you, all of which constrict you outwardly, and all of which have their expansion inwardly.
This is an age of freedom. People are free: "I do this. I do that. I go with the flow. I do what I like. It doesn't suit me. I don't like it. I have an opinion." What is opinion? Opinion is something you have been taught by others to have, imagining it is from yourself. Sufis say, "beware of opinion". Why? Not because it is evil or bad or dangerous, but because it gives you kingdom. It enthrones, and it enthrones you in ignorance. Speculation is the way of ignorance. You speculate when you do not know. Tasawwuf is science. Science is from knowledge, and it has no speculation: in its beginning, in its middle, or in its end.
So here we have something called the Tariq of Allah, which has always been used about it, a special vocabulary. This vocabulary has divided people into three groups: the common, the elite, and the elect of the elite, and in every definition the sufis say: the common have this understanding, and the elite have the opposite understanding, and the elect of the elite have both understandings. We have three knowledges, but who takes these knowledges? Who takes them? Who wants them? And where will he get them, and where will he get them? And where will he know he is not getting rubbish? Where will he know he has got the right thing?
Abu'l-'Abbas al-Mursi, radiya'llahu 'anhu, said, "The murid will get the shaykh in accordance with the quality and degree of his himma and his yearning. One shaykh was asked, "Who is the perfect shaykh?" He replied, "Bring me the perfect murid and I will show you the perfect shaykh." Why? Because it's all in the hand of the muridin, but who are the muridin? Murid is from a root which is irada, and irada means will, and it means one who has handed over his will completely to another, that the murid has handed his will completely to his shaykh. Where can you find such people? Only a handful of people. Good weather obedience is no use to anybody. It is only of use when the nafs is constricted, and the nafs rebels and it still obeys: that is the murid. And in that conflict, and in that obedience, is the victory, and the gnosis is glued on to it, by the secret of Allah. And where is that person? That is the murid. That is the one who has the secret already right there at that point, that is the rajulu'llah. It is a tremendous thing. It is a tremendous, tremendous thing.
If I start now, I could go on and never finish, with simply singing the praises of the murid; because all the love of Allah is on him. He is the lover, moving to the Beloved; why is he called the elite if he is not the elite? They are the elite. "The fuqara'," Shaykh Abu Madyan, radiya'llahu 'anhu, said, "are the Sultans." They are the princes. If you are this person, you are this. If you are not, you are not. If you are outwardly a Sultan and outwardly a prince, then know you are not this, because these are sultans of the inward and princes of the inward. Outwardly they are dust and inwardly they are gold. What a rare person that is now.
Imam Junayd, radiya'llahu 'anhu, walked through the streets of Baghdad and said, "Where will I find one man in the whole of Baghdad?" One man is all of Baghdad, at the time of Shibli, Hallaj and Junayd, and all these great awliya', radiya'llahu 'anhum. Al-Hujwiri, radiya'llahu 'anhu, speaking about the time the Companions, said, "Sufism is a name without a reality." So what is it now? "I am this tariq, or I am this tariq. I have this shaykh, or I have this shaykh." Now you have something that is the opposite of Imam al-Junayd. In the days of al-Junayd, if Junayd was there, you clung to him, you would cleave to him, you would not be separate from him, except under his order, and then you wept, and fought, and resisted being separated from him.
And in this age I crossed Islam from one end to the other, and then everywhere in the Umma, I meet people who say, "Oh, I go to Damascus." They say, "I have a shaykh in Cairo. I go to Cairo," and they say, "I have a shaykh in Pakistan. I go to Pakistan." They say, "I have a shaykh in Morocco." What is this? Is this tasawwuf? It's just a picture on the wall. What is that? "I want to be near you." "Go and do your business." "Then we can leave our business and come back": That is the lover. "I don't want to be separate from you." "Go, you have to." Then in going there is a secret, but otherwise you cleave to the shaykh.
Why? Why should you cleave to the shaykh? Is what they say about the Sufis true? Then is it all bida', and someone is being interposed between a man and Allah? No! Who are the Sadiqun? They are those who when you see them, remind you of Allah. They are a mirror for you, in which you may reflect more deeply on the reality of existence, on the truth of existence. What a big thing it is, and when you see these people, when you meet these people, and when you sit with these people. What is it? What is it that passes between you. Someone said to me, "If they knew what we had, they would try to steal it from us." But you cannot steal it. How can you steal it? But what is the murid? Let us go to the source. 'Abdal-Qadir al-Jilani, radiya'llahu 'anhu, is the source of teaching, of tasawwuf. He says, "Be with the shaykh like the dead body is in the hands of the washer." This he says in the 'Ayniyya. Who is this? Who is this person? This is the one who is interesting.
When Hajj 'Isa came out of the khalwa, Shaykh al-Fayturi said to him at the very point that he had arrived at knowledge, gnosis and lights, "Now you are a slave and servant of the fuqara'." When I made Abdal-Kabir muqaddim, and he went to the wali of Bahlil who had told him in advance that he would be made muqaddim, and there was no sign of him being made muqaddim, and he was a perfect nuisance, and he went to him and said, "Now what do I do?" and he said, "The muqaddim is before the fuqara' like a donkey on which all the fuqara' place the load of their troubles and their burdens, and he is behind the fuqara' like a dog, who runs behind them protecting them without them even knowing it. And what is muqaddim? It means the one who goes ahead, and it is a name of Allah, al-Muqaddim, and it is a name of Sayyiduna Muhammad, salla'llahu 'alayhi wa sallam.
What a tremendous name, and in it are the secrets of 'ubudiyya, in it are the secrets of slavehood, because everything that has an attribute of Allah, exalts Allah, and when it relates to us it brings us low. Because He cannot be associated with anything. He is Exalted and High, and we are low. The Lord is the Lord and the slave is the slave. Look at this, can you do this in five minutes? Can you reach it in five minutes? Can you get me this in five minutes?
Can you put a hat on it and be it? Can you give a hand? I have met again, again, and again people who say, "Oh, I've given my hand to a shaykh." Well, what is he doing with this collection of hands? Is he keeping them in a box? What is this? Is this tasawwuf? Where is your heart? I'm not interested in your hands. I don't want one-handed people. Shari'a tells me you are a thief! Shari'a tells me you are a thief! This is not ba'yat. You cannot say it. Lovers hide their love. Real lovers hide their passion. They do not speak about it. False claimants boast about their amatory adventures. The lover hides, quiet, when everyone else is talking, because they are drinking the experience of love. I have given my hand to a shaykh: What use is that to him? What is he to do with it? It is a big thing.
After Moulay 'Arabi ad-Darqawi, radiya'llahu 'anhu, his khalif was Shaykh Ahmad al-Badawi of Fes. This great wali had two zawiyyas: one zawiyya in Fes, and in this zawiyya there were a group of men who great, great awliya' and salihun, the most exalted among the 'arifeen. There was Sidi Tayyib, Sidi Muhammad ibn Huwari. These men were all very exalted walis, and they were all in the zawiyya of Ahmad al-Badawi, radiya'llahu 'anhu. The shaykh was quite old, and one day as happens in the nafs of the great, there rose up in them this desire for leadership, and they started to question who would be the next shaykh, and by ishara the shaykh knew and became very angry. He came in and he said, "All of you fuqara' here get up. I want you to sweep and clean the zawiyya so that there is not one speck of dust." So they rolled up their burnooses and their djellabas and they took the broom and swept the zawiyya until it was spotless. He came down and said, "This is disgusting. Do you call that clean? Look at that over there - it's filthy. Clean it." And they cleaned it. He came down and said, "Tut, tut, tut. You haven't listened to me. What is this? Are you making fun of me? Look at that. Look at that there. Clean it up. Clean it up or you'll all be thrown out," and he went away. And they scrubbed, and they scrubbed, and they scrubbed, until the thing was like mirror. The shaykh came back and said, "What is that? Look there's dust," and the heart of Muhammad al-'Arabi was breaking in his breast, as he got down on his knees and he swept the floor with his beard, and it was by this that Ahmad al-Badawi saw his khalif and his inheritor, and it was this moment the ahl as-sufiyya said in Morocco, at this moment was demonstrated the greatest manzil with Allah that could be shown on the face of the earth. And on this action his name spread right across North Africa, all the way into the Hijaz, to Makka.
Do you understand? Do you understand what I am saying? Not obedient: in love. It is poetry. It is a song. What a thing to do from the heart! How beautiful! It is Majesty becoming beauty. This is tasawwuf. This is knowledge. Where is that out there in the mall? How, where would you begin? What are you to talk of? What are you to talk of? Haqiqa? To savages? Sayyiduna Muhammad, salla'llahu 'alayhi wa sallam, said, "Speak to people according to their understanding."How the understanding of Sufiyya, the understanding of ahl al-haqiqat is so great, is so tremendous, their intellects begin where everybody else's intellects stop.
Not by ratiocination, not by thinking, but by hal, by dhawq, by khawf, by fear, by weeping, and by trembling, and by darkness and dhikr in darkness, outward darkness, inward light, By muraqaba. Muraqaba is watching. You cannot talk about it until there are people who are attuned to it. You cannot attune to it if you cannot even sit down. You cannot attune to it if you cannot sit still. Shaykh Sidi al-Jamal, radiya'llahu 'anhu, used to say, "Fold your hands, lower your eyes, don't move, or I'll fly away and leave you." Do you see? Outwardly you do this, inwardly you do that. That is all. But who can do it for a minute, for five minutes?
How interesting, how fascinating for the human creature is that he wants something he is not prepared to pay for. He would not do it in the mall. He would be arrested, but he will try to do it with haqiqat. You can steal the object, but you cannot steal the subject. Knowledge is not given away, It is already yours. You discover you have it. How do you discover you have it? By adab. at-Tariqa kulluha adab. Manners. You have to start from the beginning. There are groups of Sufis from here to Karachi, from Karachi to Bangladesh, from Bangladesh to Malaysia, from Malaysia to Indonesia, back around to California. But this, a few, just a few, but it is nothing new. There have always been a few. Why are they called the elite?
Shaykh Abu'l-'Abbas al-Mursi, radiya'llahu 'anhu, said, 'It is easy: it is easy to find Allah. It is easy to be gnostic, but it is very difficult to find the shaykh." In other words, when you have found the shaykh, he means then the meeting with Allah is an easy business. Allah is hidden in the matter of the finding of the shaykh. And who is the shaykh? Shaykh Sidi Muhammad ibn al-Habib, radiya'llahu 'anhu, said openly who they are: "There is a light before he speaks, and by the dhikr of la ilaha'llah he removes temptation from you, and he lifts you up. He lifts up your hal, just by a glance, just by looking."
Shaykh Ahmad al-Badawi, radiya'llahu 'anhu, said, "One glance from the shaykh wipes out a thousand wrong actions." But for whom? There is beauty in the glance, and there is majesty in the lowering of the eyes. And the murid is a lover who flutters between beauty and majesty, now looking, and now hiding, stealing glances of the shaykh; and the shaykh, according to Ibn 'Ashir, radiya'llahu 'anhu, makes du'a, presenting his slave to his Lord when he encounters Him, the shaykh puts his slave before his Lord in supplication, that is why Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib, radiya'llahu 'anhu, said, "If you see me you will reach Allah. If you see one who has seen me, you will reach Allah. Because it means this is your mirror. You are the eye looking into your mirror, the world is before you as a mirror, and if you have come to look here, you have come to look into yourself, to see into your heart, that you are the gnostics of Allah. That you are the elite, that you are the selected ones, that you are the beloved ones, of whom Allah ta'ala has made this special compact, and of whom the ordinary ones among you speak of nearness for that would imply two. That would imply dualism, and not tawhid.
These are knowledges, these are awarenesses, these are experiences. Look at the title of al-Makki's book Qut al-Qulub, Nourishment of Hearts. Is your heart nourished? From where will it be nourished? From where will it be nourished if not from the light of Allah? Are you animals or are you khalifs of Allah? Are you khalif? Are you really khalif? One who stands in? In the absence of Allah. What a tremendous thing Allah has made you. Do not belittle yourselves.
The fuqara' they are the princes, they are the sultans. Abu Madyan says, "When will my ear have news of them? When will my eye have the sight of them? "This yearning, this longing for fuqara', why? Because they are the dhakireen, they are the people who love Allah, who speak Allah, who yearn for Allah, whose life is for Allah, who love Allah, who act by Allah, whose existence is by Allah, who cannot settle for dunya, cannot settle for shirk, cannot settle for idolatry, despite themselves, because of themselves, despite themselves, and because of Allah. Because you belong to Him. Even if your love of Him is His decree, gnosis is a gift, but you are a gift, what are you to say of this? Where are you in it? Do you yearn for a gift being already a gift? What place have you? What right have you? What claim have you on anything? Nothing exists except Allah.
Haqiqa is tremendous. If I went out now to the mall and said this, I would be arrested as a lunatic, not as an evangelist. You cannot declare this except to the lovers. When he talked of matters to do with gnosis, Imam Junayd, radiya'llahu 'anhu, locked seven doors. He did not speak until he had locked seven doors. They were behind seven doors before he opened his mouth. Why? Because it is pure knowledge of hadith, because obeying orders of the Allah, "speak to people according to their knowledge," and more than that from that, from the hadith of Abu Hurayra, radiya'llahu 'anhu, in the Sahih collection of Imam al-Bukhari when he says, "I have two bags. I took two bags from the Prophet, salla'llahu 'alayhi wa sallam. One of them I have told you. If I revealed the other to you this throat would be severed from my body."
Shaykh al-Akbar Muhyid-din Ibn al-'Arabi, radiya'llahu 'anhu, says in reference to the throat indicated that he was talking about dhawq, about taste, because the throat is the organ of taste, and so he meant these: I took from him, salla'llahu 'alayhi wa sallam, the knowledge, dhawq, that if I had spoken these, I would have been killed." It is the Sufis who say, 'If he speaks these things, he is halal meat for us." These are the Sufis who say this, not the people of the Shari'a. Outside Shari'a, inside haqiqat. Zawiyya in Thursday, Jumu'a on Friday. The true tariqa sufiyya do not go to their own place on Jumu'a. They go with the people because they are 'abd, they are slave of Allah. Everything confirms Shari'a outwardly. They pray with them, and they fast with them, and they pray 'ids with them. Because all this is nawafil, all this is extra, all this is nobody's business. It is Allah's business. If you speak about it in the market-place, you are not speaking about it among the people of Allah.
Tasawwuf has three rules. One is keeping company, which is what we are doing, sitting, because by this everything happens, transformation of the inner awareness happens. The lubb is transformed by keeping company. Two: listening, listening means that you do not move, not a muscle, that you sit like a slave, not a child, not like a prince. Listening means you listen with your ears and your knees, all of you. Thirdly, acting on what you have heard, in other words when it comes your way and it is for you, you do not spit it out. That's tasawwuf, finish. Who is ready for that? Who wants that? A handful of people. Shaykh Ahmad Zarruq, radiya'llahu 'anhu, shaykh of our shuyukh, has said, "There is nothing worse than an ignorant Sufi." Who is an ignorant Sufi? An ignorant Sufi is a Sufi, say I, who is unbridled, who is not tied up.
When Sidi Muhammad ibn al-Habib, radiya'llahu 'anhu, took a faqir, he said, "I put a halter around your neck. Will you accept it?" That was his opening. If they said, "Yes," there was a contract between them. What a tremendous thing, what a wonderful thing, and how utterly incapable of access to those whose hearts are not desirous of the face of Allah. Al-'Aziz. Huwa'l-ÔAziz, al-'Azizu. 'Aziz means "the Hard of Access, Difficult of Access, Mighty," and the 'Aziz is the Hakim, the Wise. There is wisdom in this, because ma'rifa is for the 'arif, as honey is for the bee, filth is for the fly and honey is for the bee, so the advice of Ahl as-Sufiyya is to advance quickly when you hear this news from the realm of thinking and talking to the realm of action.
Shaykh al-Fayturi says, "Quickly move to deeds. Quickly move to action." What is action? It is to move into the practice of dhikrullah. "Ya ayyuha'lladhina amanu'dhkuru llaha dhikran katheeran wa sabbihuhu bukratan wa asila." (33:41) Dhikr, dhikr, dhikr, with the tongue, dhikr with the members, until you have dhikr of the heart. But dhikr is dhahir, dhikr is outward, on the tongue. Fikr is inward: move from the sensory to the meaning, from the hiss to the ma'na, that you move from ma'na to sirr, from ma'na to secret. This is our business.
It is tiered, it is built on stages, and what are the stages? The stages are service of the fuqara', adab among the fuqara', adab with the shaykh, and the highest adab: adab with the shaykh, and adab with the ikhwan. Then you will arrive at knowledge, you will reach the goal in a short time, Shaykh al-'Alawi, radiya'llahu 'anhu, said, "We do not ask years of you." But to whom does he say this? Not to the common people, but to those people who yearn, at the cost of their life's blood if necessary. Many people have a romance of Sufism, because when they read the thoughts of the east, they thought it was poetry. When they read that the cost of this was tears of blood, they thought it was poetry, romance, and how beautiful, and yes, yes, we all love Allah. And they meant it. Until you're broken, until you're finished, until there's nothing left of you, you are a lover.
[NOTE: The transcription ends at this point, which was not the end of the talk.]
Dallas College Cape Town 2005 and Dailin Nur
An Introductory Note by Abuzuhri of Dailin Nur affiliated Teahut of Miyazaki :
Recently in early 2007 our friend Assoc.Professor Dr. Hakimi Ibrahim , Science University of Penang visited us in Putrajaya enroute to KLIA airport. Together with wife Dr.Norizan , they are travelling to visit Dallas College in Cape Town, south Africa and to present a paper in a youth seminar organized by its director Dr. Abdal Basir Ojembara. This college is unique due to its combination of islamic, sufic and contemporary subjects taught and inclusive of leadership cum service training to produce a new core elite capable of understanding the kufr forces and transformation of the self-heart and society. Here we give a glimpse of this hope.
Dallas College Opening Speech By Rais Abu Bakr Rieger
Cape Town , October 2005
One of the weaknesses of the recent Western analyses from Heidegger to Rufin is that despite the obvious urgency of the situation, they fail to define any guidelines for action. Asked about the possibility of action, a concerned Heidegger proclaimed in an interview with Der Spiegel: “Only a god can save us!”
It is here that the masterwork of Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir, ‘Technique of the Coup de Banque’, comes into its own. The book adds to the numerous modern analyses by clearly and boldly naming the ‘invisible hand’ in European history: the Banking Elite. The book completes the story of the much-vaunted Enlightenment by a portrait of the power-games of the financial elite. As in Aristotle but in the modern context, the ‘princip contra naturum’, usury, is openly described in its effects and consequences. After reading this book, the thinking man becomes open to the Qur’anic categorical imperative on the Muslims: Trade is permitted - usury forbidden. The guideline has been found, the lost unity of knowledge and action once again made possible. The European question of how to limit unbridled capitalism is revealed in Islamic Law, since only there is the endless increasing of capital forbidden.
In this place - and here we have Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi to thank - the transmission of knowledge will once again become possible. With the help of the Qur’an and the Sunna, the zone of action of this College and its areas of study in this moment in history can be illuminated:
- In the field of language we move within the contrast between language as Revelation and language as excessive information on the internet.
- In the field of geopolitics we move within the contrast between World Statism and the possibility of order and location.
- In the field of law we move within the contrast between genocidal oligarchies and a just nomos for the Earth.
It is in the field of technology in particular that we confront modern nihilism, which Heidegger described as “a confrontational challenge to the creation”. Of course, this College will also teach all the modern methods of information technology, but in a way which Heidegger defined as “composed”. Only with inner and outer laws can man escape the modern law of technology, a law which Heidegger expressed as follows: “Man believes he has technology in his hands, while in reality it is the other way around.” In other words - in our words as Muslims - man is either a slave of Allah or a slave of the technical project.
This attitude of “Yes” and “No” towards technology is portrayed by Heidegger in his book Gelassenheit, a book which moves unusually clearly towards the Sufic outlook on life. In it he says:
“We can say yes to the inevitable use of technical objects, and we can say no at the same time, in that we refuse to allow them exclusively to make demands on us, and thus bend, confuse and finally make barren our innermost nature.”
Heidegger was asked thereupon, if we are to simultaneously say “Yes” and “No” to the technical objects in this manner, will not our relationship to the technical world become ambiguous and unsure? Heidegger answered as follows - and here his viewpoint peaks in a Sufic confirmation of our relationship to the “Dunya” :
“Quite the opposite. Our relationship to the technical world becomes simple and calm in a most wonderful way. We allow the technical objects into our daily life, yet we leave them out of it at the same time. That means we leave them to be as things; not as something absolute, rather as entities reliant on something Higher. I would like to describe this attitude of a simultaneous Yes and No to the technical world by means of an old word: ‘Composure, in regard to things’.”
The overcoming of the dominance of technology is undoubtedly an inner and an outer project. Every Muslim has the knowledge to undertake it. It requires that we remember Allah and establish a just economic order. It is also doubtless the project of all of the authentic Tariqas and their traditional, living knowledge which peaks in the creative insight that man already knows everything, but that he must remember it.
Even the German founder of the kindergarten, Friedrich Fröbel, was aware of this foundational principle of every education. He taught that “Education means having to bring something out of man, not put something in.”
It is one of the basic principles of our world-view to see people, and especially young people, as our true capital. Above all else, Islam and its great communities bring about People. In this, every Muslim is a knower. Foucault was of course absolutely right when he saw the end of every society and every politique in the establishment of christian, pastoral power. In the secular State this depoliticising function continued with the idea of representation, in the end resulting in the consumer, devoid of meaning and offering up his affairs. Our political thinking is the old platonic concept of the Political embodied in the image of the weaver. The process of weaving does not separate, it joins, reconciles opposites, founds societies, brings about unity, thus revealing in the pattern of the cloth the invisible Hand of Allah ta’ala. So it is that the graduates of this College will not represent - they will weave.
The College, therefore, prepares the last stages of education. “Education,” Mark Twain once said, “is what’s left over when the last dollar is gone.”
I wish the teachers and the students and the community in Cape Town every conceivable success. As Allah says in Ayat 282 of Surat al-Baqara: “Have taqwa of Allah and Allah will give you knowledge. Allah has knowledge of all things.”
Recently in early 2007 our friend Assoc.Professor Dr. Hakimi Ibrahim , Science University of Penang visited us in Putrajaya enroute to KLIA airport. Together with wife Dr.Norizan , they are travelling to visit Dallas College in Cape Town, south Africa and to present a paper in a youth seminar organized by its director Dr. Abdal Basir Ojembara. This college is unique due to its combination of islamic, sufic and contemporary subjects taught and inclusive of leadership cum service training to produce a new core elite capable of understanding the kufr forces and transformation of the self-heart and society. Here we give a glimpse of this hope.
Dallas College Opening Speech By Rais Abu Bakr Rieger
Cape Town , October 2005
One of the weaknesses of the recent Western analyses from Heidegger to Rufin is that despite the obvious urgency of the situation, they fail to define any guidelines for action. Asked about the possibility of action, a concerned Heidegger proclaimed in an interview with Der Spiegel: “Only a god can save us!”
It is here that the masterwork of Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir, ‘Technique of the Coup de Banque’, comes into its own. The book adds to the numerous modern analyses by clearly and boldly naming the ‘invisible hand’ in European history: the Banking Elite. The book completes the story of the much-vaunted Enlightenment by a portrait of the power-games of the financial elite. As in Aristotle but in the modern context, the ‘princip contra naturum’, usury, is openly described in its effects and consequences. After reading this book, the thinking man becomes open to the Qur’anic categorical imperative on the Muslims: Trade is permitted - usury forbidden. The guideline has been found, the lost unity of knowledge and action once again made possible. The European question of how to limit unbridled capitalism is revealed in Islamic Law, since only there is the endless increasing of capital forbidden.
In this place - and here we have Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi to thank - the transmission of knowledge will once again become possible. With the help of the Qur’an and the Sunna, the zone of action of this College and its areas of study in this moment in history can be illuminated:
- In the field of language we move within the contrast between language as Revelation and language as excessive information on the internet.
- In the field of geopolitics we move within the contrast between World Statism and the possibility of order and location.
- In the field of law we move within the contrast between genocidal oligarchies and a just nomos for the Earth.
It is in the field of technology in particular that we confront modern nihilism, which Heidegger described as “a confrontational challenge to the creation”. Of course, this College will also teach all the modern methods of information technology, but in a way which Heidegger defined as “composed”. Only with inner and outer laws can man escape the modern law of technology, a law which Heidegger expressed as follows: “Man believes he has technology in his hands, while in reality it is the other way around.” In other words - in our words as Muslims - man is either a slave of Allah or a slave of the technical project.
This attitude of “Yes” and “No” towards technology is portrayed by Heidegger in his book Gelassenheit, a book which moves unusually clearly towards the Sufic outlook on life. In it he says:
“We can say yes to the inevitable use of technical objects, and we can say no at the same time, in that we refuse to allow them exclusively to make demands on us, and thus bend, confuse and finally make barren our innermost nature.”
Heidegger was asked thereupon, if we are to simultaneously say “Yes” and “No” to the technical objects in this manner, will not our relationship to the technical world become ambiguous and unsure? Heidegger answered as follows - and here his viewpoint peaks in a Sufic confirmation of our relationship to the “Dunya” :
“Quite the opposite. Our relationship to the technical world becomes simple and calm in a most wonderful way. We allow the technical objects into our daily life, yet we leave them out of it at the same time. That means we leave them to be as things; not as something absolute, rather as entities reliant on something Higher. I would like to describe this attitude of a simultaneous Yes and No to the technical world by means of an old word: ‘Composure, in regard to things’.”
The overcoming of the dominance of technology is undoubtedly an inner and an outer project. Every Muslim has the knowledge to undertake it. It requires that we remember Allah and establish a just economic order. It is also doubtless the project of all of the authentic Tariqas and their traditional, living knowledge which peaks in the creative insight that man already knows everything, but that he must remember it.
Even the German founder of the kindergarten, Friedrich Fröbel, was aware of this foundational principle of every education. He taught that “Education means having to bring something out of man, not put something in.”
It is one of the basic principles of our world-view to see people, and especially young people, as our true capital. Above all else, Islam and its great communities bring about People. In this, every Muslim is a knower. Foucault was of course absolutely right when he saw the end of every society and every politique in the establishment of christian, pastoral power. In the secular State this depoliticising function continued with the idea of representation, in the end resulting in the consumer, devoid of meaning and offering up his affairs. Our political thinking is the old platonic concept of the Political embodied in the image of the weaver. The process of weaving does not separate, it joins, reconciles opposites, founds societies, brings about unity, thus revealing in the pattern of the cloth the invisible Hand of Allah ta’ala. So it is that the graduates of this College will not represent - they will weave.
The College, therefore, prepares the last stages of education. “Education,” Mark Twain once said, “is what’s left over when the last dollar is gone.”
I wish the teachers and the students and the community in Cape Town every conceivable success. As Allah says in Ayat 282 of Surat al-Baqara: “Have taqwa of Allah and Allah will give you knowledge. Allah has knowledge of all things.”
Monday, September 25, 2006
Prayer of Ibnu Abbas
We would like to dedicate this excellenet prayer-doa from the Prophet s.a.w related by Companion Ibn Abbas ( in as-Shifa p.41) to all those who seek knowledge and truth in order to live according to the Divine Command and in the footsteps of Rasul al-Mustafa :
“Oh Allah, I ask You for mercy from You
By which my heart will be guided,
My scattered affairs joined together,
My affairs put straight, my unseen part put right,
And part of me that is visible elevated,
My actions purified, by which I will be inspired
To right guidance, my intimacy will be returned ,
And by which I will be proctected from every evil,
Oh Allah ! I ask You for good outcome (husnul-khatima)
In the Decree (Qadha’), (to gain) the food of Martyrs
The life of the blissful and victory over my enemies!”
“Oh Allah, I ask You for mercy from You
By which my heart will be guided,
My scattered affairs joined together,
My affairs put straight, my unseen part put right,
And part of me that is visible elevated,
My actions purified, by which I will be inspired
To right guidance, my intimacy will be returned ,
And by which I will be proctected from every evil,
Oh Allah ! I ask You for good outcome (husnul-khatima)
In the Decree (Qadha’), (to gain) the food of Martyrs
The life of the blissful and victory over my enemies!”
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Maulana Rumi, Master Izi dan Dr.Anqaravi
KISAH DR.ANQARAVI DAN MAULANA RUMI
Kita mesti mencari kitab Maulana Rumi dalam terjemahan bahasa Jepun sekarang. Musim gugur akan tiba dua minggu lagi. Rumah usang the ditepi lereng pekan kecil Miyazaki semakin sibuk. Beberapa tetamu dari Morocco dan Malaysia akan bermalam disitu. Kenji berpesan pada Masako: ‘Jangan lupa masak sup qusqus dan masukkan lebih terung serta Kentang ! Bubuh sedikit gula batu’. Hanya mereka menjilat lidah dari bekasan mangkuk-mangkuk porcelain zaman Shogun Shirata selepas makan akan merasa keberkatan rezeki Ilahi. Dinegeri matahari terbit, tiada lebih mahal dari silau satori. Lupakan semua politik Koizumi dan matawang yen jatuh lagi.
Sementara itu, Atiqako sedang mengemaskan bilik tatami dan memanaskan air. Hidangan teh china shu shien bercampur jasmine akan menjadi pembuka bicara. Chanado memang kaya dengan unsure mistik Tao dan zazen yang mengelirukan akal. Diluar pohon-pohon sakura mulai diselaputi warna kuning dan coklat. Daun-daun akan gugur kebumi dipijak para pendita Zen, murid-murid, tetamu asing dan seorang professor Furuzanfar Anqaravi dari Konya. Institut Andallas Nuri diasaskan oleh Bapak Abu Uraira Shan kira-kira 40 tahun lalu. Sudah beratus-ratus pelajar Malaysia menerima segulung ijazah dan pulang ketanah pertiwi selepas lulus dengan kelas ming-qing. Ada seorang dua anak ulamak sufi berjaya memikat gadis Nippon-nin, dijadikan isteri salihah lagi wara dan dibawa pulang ke semenanjung emas. Ada yang bertemu jodoh disana ketika bunga sakura mengembang dimusim autumn. Ming bu fu shi, hui jia. Sayang aku hanya tahu dua patah : sayonara dan kura-kura !
Masako, gadis berkulit putih merah dari Kyushu sudah dua tahun mengaji dan memasak di Andalllas. Dia amat meminati siri tv Iron Chef dimana 3 Master Chef dibidang masakan China, jepun dan barat akan diuji dan dipertandingkan dengan para pencabar istimewa. Guru Masako bernama Izi Kurosawa berumur hamper 80 tahun mengajar subjek falsafah Zen dan Confucius. Kini di Amerika tertubuh beberapa istitut zen antarabangsa, satunya di Big Sur, California yang sentiasa riang dipukul deru ombak dan tempias angina lautan pasifik. Disanalah 5 tahun dulu aku berkenalan dengan ibu Masako, Nafisa Wan. Gadis kacukan Yunnan dan Melayu Patani. Bapanya telah meninggal semasa menunaikan haji ke Mekah pada tahun 1960. Ibunya amat meminati bahasa dan sejarah China kuno, segala perabot rumah besar pekan Kutan Ali dipenuhi bahan klasik china dan seni kaligrafi dinasti Ming.
Satu malam pada bulan Julai ketika menziarahi sahabatnya di Setapak Indah, Dr.Zulhilmy membongkar rahsia isterinya yang berdarah china satu perempat. Sebab nenek Masako adalah wanita keturunan China yang dikawini oleh Atuknya seorang alim yang pernah mengembara hingga ke Kwangtung, Fujian, Shanghai dan Beijing. Dia hidup sezaman dengan Sheikh Ahmad al-Fatani dan Sultan Abdal Hamid Khan, pemerintah-khalifah Uthmaniyya yang terakhir. He said: ‘ look deeply to your father, there are jewels of knowledge hidden in him. If you managed to acquire even ten percent of his vast erudite wisdom, count yourself lucky’. The river of Knowledge flows endlessly. From whom, where, when and who receives it.
Aku risau, pondok jamuan teh disebelah bangunan zawiya pengetua Izi Kurosawa masih belum disapu bersih dari daun-daun kering dan sampah sarap yang ditiup ribut kecil dua hari lalu. Cuaca musim ini tak menentu. Minggu lepas hurricane Pasifik melanda Taiwan, harta benda rosak teruk dan ramai hilang rumah. Sahabatku Iqrami menelefon dari putrajaya bahawa asap mini tsunami telah melanda lembah klang dengan teruk. API mencapai 500 mata. Sekolah di port klang dan kuala selangor terpaksa ditutup. Lapangan terbang Subang ditutup dan Menteri Eka Firada sakit lutut terjatuh dari tangga ketika menaiki kereta Perdana Execuitive WZA 444 di Bukit Fraser. Aku pernah bermalan di Silver Clouds Park Resort semasa berkursus pada tahun 2000. what a majestic view and sunset beside chilly coldness. At that time, Athaillah still one year old baby wrapped in thick rabbit clothes.
Sayyida Aisha Bewley menukilkan kira-kira 20 tahun lalu:’ A butterfly fluttering its wings in Fez can caused a thypoon in Kyoto, how to explain ?. One thing leads to another in chain reactions across the world. Not atom is destroyable, it only changes form, to energy, movements or disappear into Unseen and reemerged as karma.’ Very sad to hear that a great philosocuter Irtan Nings just passed away in London weeks ago. Maka, Uhan Fajar bekas ketua pengarang NST yang kini bertapa di Ulu Kuang dengan computer Streamyx menukilkan, ‘ seorang pemimpin jatuh dan dijatuhkan atau terjatuh sama saja, dia akan rasa sakit. Dia orang lain dapat menolong. Jika buah tak jatuh kebumi mana ada bibit atau anak pohon baru akan tumbuh menggantikan pokok tua yang hampir reput akarnya dimakan anai-anai’. Maulana Rumi 800 tahun dulu telah menasihati kita : ‘ Hantuk kepalamu ke tembok, hantuk lagi hingga engkau faham bahawa jika orang munafik berkata yang halal itu tidak boleh dipraktik dalam zaman ini kerana yang haram telah dihalalkan.
Ketika menatap Majalah elit inggeris berjudul Islamica Summer 2005, dicetak diTurkey, beribu pejabat di Amerika dan sidang editornya di Amman, muka surat dua: “ HSBC provide the foremost and wide ranging Islamic financial service to customers around the world’. Khwaja Ali Yusuf Hamadhani juga telah berkata: ‘ zaman ini tiada orang mengetahui rahsia nikmat teh timur hakiki, sebab pokok teh pur erh hanya ada dinegeri China. Apa yang manusia jual hari ini adalah teh tiruan. Campur dengan gula dan susu, dipetik dengan tangan-tangan kotor yang tamak, restoran dan kilangnya dibina dengan hutang riba. Pemiliknya Four Seasons adalah elit yahudi bercampur Swiss dan belanda. Titus Bekharth, Frizoj Zuon and Rine Guenun, semua sepakat mempromosi faham mistik Sophia perinnis. Comparative philosophy.
Menjelang esok pagi, Isnin 15 Ogos 2005, semua makanan dan minuman sempurna disiapkan dan disusun rapi dekat pondok Tatami. Tunggu dicurahkan air panas dan sup dituangkan kedalam mangkuk kecil biru. Dr.Anqaravi, Izi Kurosawa, Masako, Atiqato, Sidi Fudul, Amir Rieger dan Nafisa Wan, ah terlupa diriku sendiri Athaillah Shintaro, pencatat nyanyian setia dan pencinta Rumi. Kami akan memasuki pondok Tatami pada pukul 9.00 pagi ketika cahaya Dhuha memancar terang menembusi dinding buluh dan atap bata-bata bakaran gunung berapi Fuji dan lantai kayu cengal yang diimport dan digergaji dari ulu Long Passia,Borneo Utara. Nasib baik Bruno Manser hilang tanpa berita selepas masyur diEropah menentang pembalakan hijau di Sarawak.
Dong …dong .. dong..ding…ding…ding. Loceng besar setinggi 5 kaki dibuat dari tembaga dan besi dipukul oleh sidi Fakirato tepat 9.00 pagi. Tuk..tuk ..tuk, Atiqato knock slowly at the door of room 108 of Western View Block. She greeted the honored occupant: Zhao shan ! Dr. Anqaravi san, we are pleased to invite you to attend the tea ceremony at the request by Master Izi. You will be joined later by Sidi Fudul and Amir Rieger from Fez. Two other Malaysian students of zen and eastern philosophy, Athaillah Shintaro and Masako Arifu will also present to serve you and record your blessed discourse with Master Izi. May I assist you in carrying you brief case and the large painting by Sifu Kitaro ? Arigato..hsie-hsie ni. Wo hen hao.
Sebenarnya pada jam 7.00 pagi, aku mengintai ke arah balkoni Western View tingkat 3 dan mendapati dicelah kabus putih halus dan udara nyaman sejuk kebanggaan penduduk Miyazaki Prefecture sesuatu pergerakan ala tai ji quilin qigong. Kedua tangan diangkat keatas perlahan, membuka dada melayang ke kiri dan kanan, kaki diangkat sebelah melengkung. Sedut nafas dalam-dalam dan hebus diakhiri gerakan bangau. Crouching tiger and the hidden dragon. Baju ala mao tze dong warna biru muda yang pakai oleh Dr. Anqaravi memang unik. Separuh jelabah dan separuh jubah Maharaja Ching, hanya membezakannya lukisan pepohon dan bunga halus pada baju sutera tersebut. Seluar warna coklat tua yang longgar dan lebar memang sesuai untuk senaman pagi dan amalan qigong. Shaykh Alawi, seorang guru sufi pernah berkata:
‘the clothes that the fuqara wear will definitely have effects on them, be careful of what you are wearing.’ Pride, arrogant, humility, wealth, sensuality or detachment can be reflected from what they wear ’ ooops, ini tambahan fiktif dan tiada dalam nota draf cerpen .
Menjelang jam 9.05 pagi, semua tetamu telah masuk dan mengambil tempat khas dalam pondok Tatami. Master Izi disebelah kanan dan duduk betul-betul ditengah meja Tazkiyaten yang tingginya satu kaki dan panjangnya 10 kaki. Lapan cawan teh kecil dan dua teko Kahfizika. Dr.Anqaravi disebelah kiri, Amir Rieger dikanan dan diikuti Sidi Fudul, Masako ditempatkan dihadapan sudut kiri, Nafisa Wan dan aku disudut kanan jauh sekali. Penuang teh adalah Masako dan Nafisa pula akan mengangkat kuih halveti dan biskut oriyagi untuk setiap tetamu dua keping. Tiada gula untuk teh. Lukisan dinding pondok dihiasi potret abstrak zaman Seljuqi Turki abad ke1300. Berpetak-petak empat segi dan Master Izi pernah 3 tahun lalu membisik pada ku : ‘ Jika engkau dapat membaca dan meleraikan maknawi dari lukisan mantra ini yang dikaitkan dengan mistik Bayazid Bistami, aku akan berkan kamu hadiah istimewa !’. Sampai saat ini aku masih belum faham lukisan itu.
Setahun lalu, sahabat karibku Sidi Ridha Lua dari Universiti Urumqi, Xin Qiang, China telah menghantar surat padaku menegaskan :’ Mantra itu mungkin berisi ayat-ayat Quran yang ditulis secara empat segi atau kata hikmah orang sufi. Aku pernah terlihat mantra mirip yang engkau ceritakan dalam sebuah buku terbitan Diwan Press, London, 1974 bertajuk –The Way of Muhammad’. Cuba saudara cari buku ini di Men tzi Bookstore, Ronin Street No.7, Kota Fukuoka. Tuan punya kedai bernama Muhammad Ali Nayabashi adalah kawan rapat kepada mendiang bapaku, Sidi Ariffin Bey. Terdapat sebilah pedang Sahabat Nabi dipamirkan atas dinding kedai buku ini yang diukir dengan perkataan ‘Dzulfiqar dan Qurratul ain’. Aku tersentak bila Master Izi berteriak: ‘Masako, sila tuangkan teh untuk tetamu terhormat kita. Athaillah, biskut dan kuih sila letak dekat sini ‘. Selepas itu…Masako berehat dan termenung sebentar ditepi dapur pondok tatami. Titisan peluh mula mengalir dari wajahnya yang comel merah putih. Mungkin lama tak kena sinar cahaya mentari musim sejuk yang agak panjang tahun ini. Baju kimono warna biru cerah dan bunga-bunga sakura merah halus memancarkan lagi kejelitaannya. Tiba-tiba dia teringatkan Buku ChainnanDo karangan T.Suzuki yang tersimpan dalam beg kecilnya untuk dihadiahkan kepada tetamu istimewa pagi ini.
….bersambung jika ada inspirasi
Friday, September 08, 2006
To seek the lost heart
Seeking The Lost Heart : Notes of Abuzuhri 1995
The Beginning Steps
The Prophet as depicted by chinese scholars –Chin Sheng means
‘the glorious-Eminent Sage’ and ‘Teacher of a thousand generations’.
Shaykh Liu Chih write thus :
The inhabitants of Heaven knew him and his name
was inscribed at the Gate of the Garden’.
All creation originated from his light.
He is a mercy to all the worlds.
Hadith related from Ibnu Abbas from Rasul s.a.w :
Allahumma laka aslam-tu
Wa bika aman-tu
Wa alaika tawakkal-tu
Wa ilaika anab-tu
Wa bika khosam-tu
Wa ilaika hakam-tu
Faghfirli ma qoddam-tu
wa ma akhar-tu
wa ma asrar-tu wa ma a’lan-tu
Antal-Muqaddimu
Wa Antal-Mu’akhiru
La ilaha illa Anta
( Oh Allah, I put my submission, trust, reliance,
returning, protection, judgement with You,
unto You and upon You
forgive me of my future actions
my past actions
what is seen and unseen
Verily You are the Foremost One
And the Last/End of all affairs)
Now we shall compare what the Chinese philosophers say
about this Sage in their ancient texts of Lao Tzu, Mencius,
Confucius, I Ching, Ta Hsue and Chung Yung.
Seek you will find them (Tao)
Neglect you will lose them.
Hold it fast and it remains with you.
Let it go and you will lose it –
p.862 (James Legge: The Four Chinese Classics-
Ta Hsue,Chung Yung, Analects and Mencius)
When a scholar feels that his friendship with all the virtuous scholars
at the empire is not sufficient to satisfy him, he proceeds to ascend to study-
emulate the MEN OF ANTIQUITY (SAGES). p.850
The end of learning is nothing else but to seek
for the lost mind-heart ( marifa/tawhid/fitra) –p.879
One of the Qing scholar says:
‘ The ten thousand words and ten thousand sayings of the sages
and men of wisdom are simply to LEAD MEN to get hold
of their LOST MINDS (DIVINE KNOWLEDGE)
and make them enter again their bodies’.
Mencius said :
Those who follow that part of themselves which is great
are great men, those who follow that part which is little
-low are little men (hsiao ren).
Master Kung said :
To walk slowly by keeping behind his elders,
is to perform the part (duty) of a younger man.
To walk quickly and precede his elders,
is to vilate the duty of a younger brother.
Now, is it that a man cannot walk slowly ? p.896
(there is a riwayat of Sayyidina Ali r.a. being late to attend the group prayer of fajar at the Prophet Mosque in Madina. On being questioned, he said :
This morning, on my way to the mosque, I passed through a narrow street, there was an old jew man infront of me. So I thought to overtake him and then it would upset him. His days are over, being old, slow and no longer respected by the younger ones. So I restrained myself and follow him quietly behind until he was out of the street, thus I arrived late for the fajar prayer. But the Prophet s.a.w commended him for this supreme action and he get all the rewards of the group prayer’). At another time, Our Sufi Master tell his encounter of walking behind an old Chinese man in a garden in England with one of his murid. He says : ssshhh, keep quite and let his noble old man take his strides and practice the tai chi exercise infront of them. After a few steps, this old sensed something behind him and suddenly turned around with a defensive stance, face to face with him and his murid ! The Master make a friendly gesture and smiling to him. Then he understood, he was not in danger being tailed by some strangers. They parted ways in good spirits kow tow to each others.
This story was told by to us about more than 12 years ago while the Venerable Master summoned us to his presence at a private meeting in Bukit Tunku. He had high regards for the noble fitra of Chinese people. He commanded us to study the Chinese language and calling them to Islam. We presented him a Chinese book magnum opus or lexicon of basic meanings and characters. We also informed him that we had read the book of Dr.Isutzu on The Comparative Study of Taoism and Sufism Between Lao Tzu and Ibnul Arabi. He commented this Japanese scholar had not understood Sufism or Islam at all, you are better because you are Muslim ! You possess the secret of iman that Allah Taala put in your heart, not him. We nodded in agreement and had to reflect deeply on this matter.
Alhamdulillah, he saw through our hearts sincerity and later granted the Idhin-Authority as MUQADDIM especially to serve the Chinese people in the East. This is part of fulfillment of what Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib (SMH) envisioned more than 30 years ago that his DIWAN will be sung in the WEST and EAST, although that time in year 1968 there were hardly any murid from the East of Middle East.
When we read first book titled THE BOOK OF STRANGER (Luzac, London) published in 1972 , our wildest dream was fulfilled. The question of are there any Chinese sufic scholars or follower of this spiritual teaching until today were indicated metaphorically in the letter of a Chinese Sage to his disciple unfolded side by side with another letter of Shaykh Abul Hassan as-Shadhili who venture out to seek a Sufi Master. The Chinese sage digusted with the decay and decadent of the Empire (3 Kingdoms) and city life of Beijing, take a journey to the west and in fulfilling the gatekeeper request he wrote the wisdom aphorisms of TAO TE CHING comprise of 3,000 words for future generations. All this happen due to the encoded mantra BARAKATU MUHAMMAD.
Another stronger confirmation coming from our Master was the poem published entitled IHSAN in 1978 in the Journal of Darqawi Institute vol.2. Here the message was mentioned specifically about the intention and action of a man of marifa/hikmah to hunt for new murid in the West and East using the famous Chinese metaphor of A TIGER OUT THE CAVE MATCHING THE WORLDLY STRIPES.
Just remember, this chinese seeker was still not a muslim in 1978 ! Anyway, we found another powerful and secondary booster book entitled THE WAY OF MUHAMMAD in Jubilee Book Store in Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman with the strange kufic design on its cover. Several Chinese philosophical terms were quoted in this book such as : YIN YANG, TAO, CHI , FENG SHUI,
I CHING HEXAGRAM etc.
Back to the poem IHSAN, about dedicated 3 paragraphs using the historical Chinese characters and names to highlight that this ancient sufic teaching were ALMOST SIMILAR to the TAO and the public rejected it. Only a few grasped this wisdom teaching. He called the seeker to the OPEN SPACE OF OPEN SPACE. FEAR NO ONE. GAIN THE FREEDOM- WISDOM !
The Beginning Steps
The Prophet as depicted by chinese scholars –Chin Sheng means
‘the glorious-Eminent Sage’ and ‘Teacher of a thousand generations’.
Shaykh Liu Chih write thus :
The inhabitants of Heaven knew him and his name
was inscribed at the Gate of the Garden’.
All creation originated from his light.
He is a mercy to all the worlds.
Hadith related from Ibnu Abbas from Rasul s.a.w :
Allahumma laka aslam-tu
Wa bika aman-tu
Wa alaika tawakkal-tu
Wa ilaika anab-tu
Wa bika khosam-tu
Wa ilaika hakam-tu
Faghfirli ma qoddam-tu
wa ma akhar-tu
wa ma asrar-tu wa ma a’lan-tu
Antal-Muqaddimu
Wa Antal-Mu’akhiru
La ilaha illa Anta
( Oh Allah, I put my submission, trust, reliance,
returning, protection, judgement with You,
unto You and upon You
forgive me of my future actions
my past actions
what is seen and unseen
Verily You are the Foremost One
And the Last/End of all affairs)
Now we shall compare what the Chinese philosophers say
about this Sage in their ancient texts of Lao Tzu, Mencius,
Confucius, I Ching, Ta Hsue and Chung Yung.
Seek you will find them (Tao)
Neglect you will lose them.
Hold it fast and it remains with you.
Let it go and you will lose it –
p.862 (James Legge: The Four Chinese Classics-
Ta Hsue,Chung Yung, Analects and Mencius)
When a scholar feels that his friendship with all the virtuous scholars
at the empire is not sufficient to satisfy him, he proceeds to ascend to study-
emulate the MEN OF ANTIQUITY (SAGES). p.850
The end of learning is nothing else but to seek
for the lost mind-heart ( marifa/tawhid/fitra) –p.879
One of the Qing scholar says:
‘ The ten thousand words and ten thousand sayings of the sages
and men of wisdom are simply to LEAD MEN to get hold
of their LOST MINDS (DIVINE KNOWLEDGE)
and make them enter again their bodies’.
Mencius said :
Those who follow that part of themselves which is great
are great men, those who follow that part which is little
-low are little men (hsiao ren).
Master Kung said :
To walk slowly by keeping behind his elders,
is to perform the part (duty) of a younger man.
To walk quickly and precede his elders,
is to vilate the duty of a younger brother.
Now, is it that a man cannot walk slowly ? p.896
(there is a riwayat of Sayyidina Ali r.a. being late to attend the group prayer of fajar at the Prophet Mosque in Madina. On being questioned, he said :
This morning, on my way to the mosque, I passed through a narrow street, there was an old jew man infront of me. So I thought to overtake him and then it would upset him. His days are over, being old, slow and no longer respected by the younger ones. So I restrained myself and follow him quietly behind until he was out of the street, thus I arrived late for the fajar prayer. But the Prophet s.a.w commended him for this supreme action and he get all the rewards of the group prayer’). At another time, Our Sufi Master tell his encounter of walking behind an old Chinese man in a garden in England with one of his murid. He says : ssshhh, keep quite and let his noble old man take his strides and practice the tai chi exercise infront of them. After a few steps, this old sensed something behind him and suddenly turned around with a defensive stance, face to face with him and his murid ! The Master make a friendly gesture and smiling to him. Then he understood, he was not in danger being tailed by some strangers. They parted ways in good spirits kow tow to each others.
This story was told by to us about more than 12 years ago while the Venerable Master summoned us to his presence at a private meeting in Bukit Tunku. He had high regards for the noble fitra of Chinese people. He commanded us to study the Chinese language and calling them to Islam. We presented him a Chinese book magnum opus or lexicon of basic meanings and characters. We also informed him that we had read the book of Dr.Isutzu on The Comparative Study of Taoism and Sufism Between Lao Tzu and Ibnul Arabi. He commented this Japanese scholar had not understood Sufism or Islam at all, you are better because you are Muslim ! You possess the secret of iman that Allah Taala put in your heart, not him. We nodded in agreement and had to reflect deeply on this matter.
Alhamdulillah, he saw through our hearts sincerity and later granted the Idhin-Authority as MUQADDIM especially to serve the Chinese people in the East. This is part of fulfillment of what Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib (SMH) envisioned more than 30 years ago that his DIWAN will be sung in the WEST and EAST, although that time in year 1968 there were hardly any murid from the East of Middle East.
When we read first book titled THE BOOK OF STRANGER (Luzac, London) published in 1972 , our wildest dream was fulfilled. The question of are there any Chinese sufic scholars or follower of this spiritual teaching until today were indicated metaphorically in the letter of a Chinese Sage to his disciple unfolded side by side with another letter of Shaykh Abul Hassan as-Shadhili who venture out to seek a Sufi Master. The Chinese sage digusted with the decay and decadent of the Empire (3 Kingdoms) and city life of Beijing, take a journey to the west and in fulfilling the gatekeeper request he wrote the wisdom aphorisms of TAO TE CHING comprise of 3,000 words for future generations. All this happen due to the encoded mantra BARAKATU MUHAMMAD.
Another stronger confirmation coming from our Master was the poem published entitled IHSAN in 1978 in the Journal of Darqawi Institute vol.2. Here the message was mentioned specifically about the intention and action of a man of marifa/hikmah to hunt for new murid in the West and East using the famous Chinese metaphor of A TIGER OUT THE CAVE MATCHING THE WORLDLY STRIPES.
Just remember, this chinese seeker was still not a muslim in 1978 ! Anyway, we found another powerful and secondary booster book entitled THE WAY OF MUHAMMAD in Jubilee Book Store in Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman with the strange kufic design on its cover. Several Chinese philosophical terms were quoted in this book such as : YIN YANG, TAO, CHI , FENG SHUI,
I CHING HEXAGRAM etc.
Back to the poem IHSAN, about dedicated 3 paragraphs using the historical Chinese characters and names to highlight that this ancient sufic teaching were ALMOST SIMILAR to the TAO and the public rejected it. Only a few grasped this wisdom teaching. He called the seeker to the OPEN SPACE OF OPEN SPACE. FEAR NO ONE. GAIN THE FREEDOM- WISDOM !
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Salam From Kazakstan
A Reply To Salam from Kazakhstan Message :
Salam Sidi Nurmakhan Joldabeskov,
We just coming back from this year 2004 Hajj after 44 days in mecca and madinah. Alhamdulillah, greatexperience never forgotten until Day of Rising. Sealed and delivered. Not thetitle of Haji so and so..but deep in our heart we know that He is our sourceof life juorney, knowledge, wills,power and wisdom to move on. His Awliya and salihun are closest to us to reflect and being guided. They had travelled beyond the sensory into the unseen and know all the traps that clouded us...unless we choose to be a faqir. Antumul fuqara ...wa Allahuhuwal-Ghaniyyul Hamid. this world-dunya,wealth,women,family,works etc are endlessly never finished business but our heart must never stop yearning for Him.
Oh Allah, open our inner eyes to Your Muraqaba
and Musyahada by YourEndless Gift and Generosity..
and enlighten our secrets with the tajalli
of Your Noble Names and Attributes
bi-hilmika wa karamika.
Sidi Ghany Abezkhanov is getting well into the cake business with Ibu Stefi, forgot all about the business ventures with people not tested by the fuqara. Be patient and upright, then he bring along his boxer brother to Msia, we dont what he sholud do other than to learn and acquired islam firmly and return to Kazakstan for a new fight fisabilillah. Our Master said there are no greater adventure for a youth than to discover his destiny with His Creator manifested thru His noble creation/beings. Reflect over surah Yusuf,Muzammil,Luqman, Kahfi and Anbiya. To face the enemies, we shall read and apply the instructions/guidance lights from Surah alBaqara,Taubah,Munafiqun,al-Jinn etc where Allah taala mentioned the tricks of shaytan,nafs, jinn, evil rulers, fasiqun, munafiqun,kafirun,dunya,women, wealth,pride,leadership,
usury-riba etc
But Sidi Nurmahan, you will never acquire istiqamah in your deen and certainty unless you are in the company of the Sadiqun/Salihun as many times appear in the blessed ayats. Who are they and where and how I going to meet them ? Ask Allah to open your heart and keep/write a diary as I advised so that you can keep track what happened last few years/months...when you meet us and many other fuqara/strangers.
Generosity is a sign of ikhlas andtawadhu' and Sidi Umar Vadillo strongly recited this ayats : Wa man a'tha wataqa, wa,saddaqa bil-husna, fasanuyasiruhu lil-yusra. Wa man bakhilawastaghna, wa kazzaba bil-husna, fasanuyassiruhu lil-usra.
...So marriage is a sign of trust and generosity bcos we gave our wive her needs and struggle to upkeep the family. All our works are fisabilillah to keep our family in strong Islam and never stop for knowledge and love for the Awliya, ulama,sufis and salihin,those who loved dhikr,salawat,Quran and learning of deen.During hajj we met many people/sufis of Bekhtasi, Nasqabandi Khufiyya and Rifai tariqa from Turkey,China,Tajikstan and Chistiyya from Pakistan.We exchanged kisses,embraces,salams,dua and love for each other. We sang qasidas from Diwan SMH and selawat of Rasul until they eyes almost filled with tears. We as fuqara taught by our Master never afraid to venture out and makefriends with other hajjis. We met people from Meknes, Morocco where Sh Muhammad ibn alHabib had his zawiya and sang the same Qasida Nahnu fi Raudhati Rasuli hudurun-talibina ridha wa husna qabuli...then they cotinue with the second bayt ! Allah..Allah ..Allahu Rabbi..Auni wa Hasbi..Mani Siwahuuu.
Ya Rabbi..salli ala Muhammad, wa alihi waashabihi thuuran.
Sidi Nurmahan, please go and make dua at the tomb of the great Teacher Sh.Ahmad Yasavi- he isthe guardian of sufic knowledge for your regions, may Allah opens up the lands and people to revive such bountiful knowledges and marifa/hikmah granted to the past Awliyas. Pay respect to them and connect with the living Shaykhs, then you are ready for everything. No works, passports/visas ormoney will stop you from travelling for Allah. Or we will travel to help and strenghten you in the vast land of Kazaks and Uzbeks or Tartars. We have fuqara or communities in Germany, Turkey, Emirates and Spain that can easily fly to Kazakstan if you are ready. Recite the Miftah al-Wird given to you, fully or partly or whenever possible, then ask Allah to shower His help thru the creation. Read the homepage of Shaykh Abdal qadir as-sufi in the internet or in Aisha Bewley homepage, Muslims in Europe homepage by Abu Bakr Rieger and you will see wonders if attuned to this spreading light of islam and wisdom of its people and will yearn for more.
The muqadims are the ones who strive forward and along they bring strangerst o the path of Allah and to recognise/surrender to the Shaykh. Too unlucky if you still have doubts about the wilayat and transmission of this sufic teaching. Clear it by constant dhikr and supplications. The modernists and shayatin in human forms are averse to sufism or tasawwuf bcos here their ignorant and evil intents are exposed.They seek to gain and bind their followers by names of Ikhwani,islamic movements,tablighi,haraki etc. We are satisfied being faqir and muridin and salikin..alhtough a tough task at first.
Warmest greeting and to your wife and family.
wassalam cai jian
-----Original Message-----From: Joldasbekov Nurmahan [mailto:nurmahan76@yahoo.com]Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Salam from Kazakhstan!
Assalamualeikym dear all my brothers in Malaysia !
I am Nurmakhan from Kazakhstan. I have arrived homesafely,everything thanks to Allah good.
How are you all, I hope that everything in Malaysia is fine.
I would like to congratulate all with the coming ofRamadhan!
Salamat Puasa! MAy Allah accept our Ibadaat
and guide us on the Sirotal Mustaqiim!
Amin!
Please make Doa for me.Thank you!
Wassalam,
Nurmakhan.
Salam Sidi Nurmakhan Joldabeskov,
We just coming back from this year 2004 Hajj after 44 days in mecca and madinah. Alhamdulillah, greatexperience never forgotten until Day of Rising. Sealed and delivered. Not thetitle of Haji so and so..but deep in our heart we know that He is our sourceof life juorney, knowledge, wills,power and wisdom to move on. His Awliya and salihun are closest to us to reflect and being guided. They had travelled beyond the sensory into the unseen and know all the traps that clouded us...unless we choose to be a faqir. Antumul fuqara ...wa Allahuhuwal-Ghaniyyul Hamid. this world-dunya,wealth,women,family,works etc are endlessly never finished business but our heart must never stop yearning for Him.
Oh Allah, open our inner eyes to Your Muraqaba
and Musyahada by YourEndless Gift and Generosity..
and enlighten our secrets with the tajalli
of Your Noble Names and Attributes
bi-hilmika wa karamika.
Sidi Ghany Abezkhanov is getting well into the cake business with Ibu Stefi, forgot all about the business ventures with people not tested by the fuqara. Be patient and upright, then he bring along his boxer brother to Msia, we dont what he sholud do other than to learn and acquired islam firmly and return to Kazakstan for a new fight fisabilillah. Our Master said there are no greater adventure for a youth than to discover his destiny with His Creator manifested thru His noble creation/beings. Reflect over surah Yusuf,Muzammil,Luqman, Kahfi and Anbiya. To face the enemies, we shall read and apply the instructions/guidance lights from Surah alBaqara,Taubah,Munafiqun,al-Jinn etc where Allah taala mentioned the tricks of shaytan,nafs, jinn, evil rulers, fasiqun, munafiqun,kafirun,dunya,women, wealth,pride,leadership,
usury-riba etc
But Sidi Nurmahan, you will never acquire istiqamah in your deen and certainty unless you are in the company of the Sadiqun/Salihun as many times appear in the blessed ayats. Who are they and where and how I going to meet them ? Ask Allah to open your heart and keep/write a diary as I advised so that you can keep track what happened last few years/months...when you meet us and many other fuqara/strangers.
Generosity is a sign of ikhlas andtawadhu' and Sidi Umar Vadillo strongly recited this ayats : Wa man a'tha wataqa, wa,saddaqa bil-husna, fasanuyasiruhu lil-yusra. Wa man bakhilawastaghna, wa kazzaba bil-husna, fasanuyassiruhu lil-usra.
...So marriage is a sign of trust and generosity bcos we gave our wive her needs and struggle to upkeep the family. All our works are fisabilillah to keep our family in strong Islam and never stop for knowledge and love for the Awliya, ulama,sufis and salihin,those who loved dhikr,salawat,Quran and learning of deen.During hajj we met many people/sufis of Bekhtasi, Nasqabandi Khufiyya and Rifai tariqa from Turkey,China,Tajikstan and Chistiyya from Pakistan.We exchanged kisses,embraces,salams,dua and love for each other. We sang qasidas from Diwan SMH and selawat of Rasul until they eyes almost filled with tears. We as fuqara taught by our Master never afraid to venture out and makefriends with other hajjis. We met people from Meknes, Morocco where Sh Muhammad ibn alHabib had his zawiya and sang the same Qasida Nahnu fi Raudhati Rasuli hudurun-talibina ridha wa husna qabuli...then they cotinue with the second bayt ! Allah..Allah ..Allahu Rabbi..Auni wa Hasbi..Mani Siwahuuu.
Ya Rabbi..salli ala Muhammad, wa alihi waashabihi thuuran.
Sidi Nurmahan, please go and make dua at the tomb of the great Teacher Sh.Ahmad Yasavi- he isthe guardian of sufic knowledge for your regions, may Allah opens up the lands and people to revive such bountiful knowledges and marifa/hikmah granted to the past Awliyas. Pay respect to them and connect with the living Shaykhs, then you are ready for everything. No works, passports/visas ormoney will stop you from travelling for Allah. Or we will travel to help and strenghten you in the vast land of Kazaks and Uzbeks or Tartars. We have fuqara or communities in Germany, Turkey, Emirates and Spain that can easily fly to Kazakstan if you are ready. Recite the Miftah al-Wird given to you, fully or partly or whenever possible, then ask Allah to shower His help thru the creation. Read the homepage of Shaykh Abdal qadir as-sufi in the internet or in Aisha Bewley homepage, Muslims in Europe homepage by Abu Bakr Rieger and you will see wonders if attuned to this spreading light of islam and wisdom of its people and will yearn for more.
The muqadims are the ones who strive forward and along they bring strangerst o the path of Allah and to recognise/surrender to the Shaykh. Too unlucky if you still have doubts about the wilayat and transmission of this sufic teaching. Clear it by constant dhikr and supplications. The modernists and shayatin in human forms are averse to sufism or tasawwuf bcos here their ignorant and evil intents are exposed.They seek to gain and bind their followers by names of Ikhwani,islamic movements,tablighi,haraki etc. We are satisfied being faqir and muridin and salikin..alhtough a tough task at first.
Warmest greeting and to your wife and family.
wassalam cai jian
-----Original Message-----From: Joldasbekov Nurmahan [mailto:nurmahan76@yahoo.com]Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Salam from Kazakhstan!
Assalamualeikym dear all my brothers in Malaysia !
I am Nurmakhan from Kazakhstan. I have arrived homesafely,everything thanks to Allah good.
How are you all, I hope that everything in Malaysia is fine.
I would like to congratulate all with the coming ofRamadhan!
Salamat Puasa! MAy Allah accept our Ibadaat
and guide us on the Sirotal Mustaqiim!
Amin!
Please make Doa for me.Thank you!
Wassalam,
Nurmakhan.
Kisah Malam Jumaat Di UIA
KISAH MALAM JUMAAT
DI KAMPUS UNIVERSITI ISLAM ANTARABANGSA
-Abu Zuhri Shin
Cahaya suria masih merah dikaki langit disulami kehijauan Banjaran Titiwangsa disebelah utara kota Kuala Lumpur. Entah macamana, disuatu malam Jumaat dalam bulan April tahun alaf 2000, aku tergerak hati ingin ziarah sahabatku bernama Ikmal dikampus UIA Gombak. Tiada agenda khas kecuali aku mencintai saudaraku macam diri sendiri dari segi perjalanan sufiyya dan limpah baraka dari para guru Awliya. Jenerasi muda kini jauh dari kefahaman ilmu tasawuf. Nak kenal orang sufi lagi susah. Sebab ada beranika pendapat, pandangan dan kritikan terhadap ilmu sufi dan amalan yang salah. Imam Ghazali sudah menerangkan golongan yang tersasar dan terpedaya dalam bab al-ghurur dalam kitab Ihya. Dicampur dengan kemunculan puak modenis , wahabiyya dan pseudo sufi dibarat , ilmu tasawuf dianggap satu bidaah. Alhamdulillah, aku telah menempuhi detik getir dan kekalutan ini pada tahun 1970an. Dengan berkat doa serta bimbingan guru yang arif bi’Llah , kini aku sedang menyusuri jejak para salikin dan muridin dengan istiqamah.
Lepas salat maghrib dirumah dikaki banjaran titiwangsa, aku pun berwirid secara ringkas dan berdoa :
Allahumma ainni ala zikrika
wa syukrika wa husni ibadatika
( Ya Allah , beri pertolongan bagi
diriku berzikir mengingatiMu,
memanjat syukur pada nikmatMu dan
memperbaiki ibadatku kepadaMu ).
Kemudian aku membaca salawat Kanzul Haqaiq dari nukilan Shaykh Muhammad ibnul Habib, Shaykh pertama kepada guruku seperti berikut :
‘Allahumma salli ala sayyidina Muhammadin abdika wa rasulika nabiyyi ummiyyi wa ala alihi wa ashabi
wa sallim tasliman
adada khalqika wa ridha-a nafsika
wa zinata arasyika wa
midada kalimatika’.
Mudah-mudahan dengan zikir dan selawat ini membantuku dalam perjalanan fisabilillah malam jumaat. Orang lain mungkin sibuk baca yasin dan tahlil ,mendengar ceramah politik atau kempen reformasi. Yang lain mungkin menonton forum islam perdana dalam kotak tv. Dimanakah keberkatan malam ini berada ? Malam kebanyakan orang mukmin dan salihin berzikir ,bermunajat dan berwirid mahu mendekati Hadrat Ilahiyya. Mereka mahu mensucikan nafsu dan qalbu dari kesibukan duniawi dan tarikan sensasi manusiawi, media hiburan dan kelalaian waktu yang membunuh rohani.
Maka, beruntunglah mereka yang memulakan langkah pertama sang sufi. Apakah aku layak mengikut jejak mereka, para imam, shaykh ,awliya dan arifin macam imam ghazali , imam nawawi, ibnu athaillah, imam junaid, shaykh abdul qadir jilani, shaykh daud fatani, shaykh abdul samad palembani, ibnul arabi dan hamzah fansuri ?
Aku memecut perlahan kereta kancilku ditepi lebuhraya taman melati menuju kampus UIA, Gombak. Nama glamour sebab ramai teringin masuk ‘U’ tapi hanya dapat sebut ‘ I and you’. Sayang, setelah aku singgah dan jenguk bilik G33 diblok B, sahabatku Ikmal tiada didalam. Mana pergi dia agaknya ? Salat berjemaah dimasjid atau pergi jumpa kawan ? Tak apa, asal niat aku ikhlas kerana Allah Taala dapat pahala biar pulang dengan tangan kosong. Allah. Allah . Allah. Ya Hayyu ya Qayyum. Ya Dzal Jalai wal-Ikram. Ya Arhamar Rahimin. Engkau maha Mengetahui disebalik urusan sang hamba dhaif ini.
Dengan hati sedih, aku pun putar balik keretaku turun bukit menuju kemasjid baru uia yang jarak hanya 0.5 km dari asrama. Hebat juga masjid ini ,menaranya nampak dari jauh. Boleh isi lebih 50,000 jemaah. Warna biru langit. Waktu hampir masuk salat Isyak. Jadi aku ambil peluang salat jemaah dan buat zikir senyap disebalik tiang masjid. Orang tak nampak. Tiada gangguan. Juga aku boleh sandar. Habis juga Miftah al-Wirid aku baca dalam masa 20 minit lepas Isyak. Sekitar masjid, ramai siswa lelaki buat kelompok usrah atau muzakarah. Ada seorang dua khusyuk berdoa dan berzikir sendirian. Ini mesti ada wirid khas dari guru kesayangan mereka. Mungkin wirid Imam Ghazali atau Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani macam aku temui disebuah pondok diKelantan bulan April lalu. Siapa sangka ditahun 2000 ini kita dapat menilik kitab arab al-Fayudhat Rabbaniyya awrad amalan Tariqa Qadiriyya cetakan Darul Maarif tahun 1960an dulu.
Aku tak puas hati lalu bertanya kepada ustaz Mukhtar yang empuya pemilik kitab ini. ‘ Ustaz , masih adakah pewaris tariqat atau guru yang mengajar atau mengamalkan kitab ini di Malaysia pada zaman sekarang ? ‘ Dia menjawap dengan sedih, ‘ Aku jumpa kitab ini kat kedai, orang dah tak nak benda ini lagi. Halamannya sudah uzur dan kuning. Tapi masyaa’ Allah , isinya memang untuk mereka yang dahagakan pengisian rohani. Tuan punya pewaris ilmu ini mungkin sudah tiada lagi’. Aku turut simpati dengan keterangan ustaz tersebut.
Diakhir zikir dalam masjid, aku berdoa hiba dalam hati : “ Ya Allah, malam ini aku tak berhasil menemui sahabatku yang dihajati dikampus ini. Maka, pertemukan aku dengan sesiapa saja yang mencintaiMu dari kalangan pelajar yang ada’. Dalam hati, aku teringat nama saudara azmi kelantan , saudara ibrahim atau redhuan dari korea. Mungkin mereka boleh mengisi kekosongan ini . Aku tak pasti mana blok asrama mereka tinggal. Susah nak cari. Nak tanya semua orang, rasa segan.
Aku pun melangkah turun ditangga bucu kanan depan masjid. Turun tangga nak menuju tempat parking keretaku. Alhamdulillah, tepi koridor bangunan masjid ada sebuah kafe ala barat. Aku pun jenguk, biar aku rehat nikmati rezeki chicken soup dan teh tarik. Ya Allah ,aku telah pertama kali menghabiskan bacaan wirid melalui izin muqadim sidi umar pada tahun 1979 dimasjid UIA ini , maka tunjukkanlah rahsia barakaMu. Aku tak mengetahui langkah seterusnya. Aku teringat wirid fajar yang berbunyi:
Ya Awwalu ya Akhiru ya Zahiru ya Batin
–biyadika khair, yuhyi wa yumit.
Inna Allaha ala kulli syain qadir
(Ya Allah ..ditangan genggamanMu
terletak segala kebaikan . Engkau maha berkuasa menentu segala urusan)
Aku mulai mencecahkan sudu ke sup ayam cendawan dengan bacaaan BismiLlah. Tiba-tiba sekonyong-konyong ,muncul saudara Ikmal berjalan betul-betul dihadapan mejaku ! Masya Allah, sungguh cepat doaku ditunaikan Allah Taala. Aku mencari Ikmal atau dia yang mencari aku setelah hati kami digerakkan Allah ? Kenapa pertemuan dikafe bukan dibilik asrama atau dalam masjid ?
Rupanya Ikmal memang ada tujuan mulia singgah dikafe ini selepas selesai usrah dengan pelajar lain diasrama. Pelajar UIA memang diwajibkan berusrah dalam kurikulum. Rupanya Ikmal pergi kesana untuk ambil 2 naskhah fotostat buku- The Darqawi Way – dikedai berhampiran. Satu untuk dirinya dan satu lagi untuk sahabatnya bernama Azmi berasal dari Kelantan. Sama-sama belajar jurusan kejurute-raan tahun tiga.
‘ Assalamualaikum , Ikmal ! Allahu akbar. Dapat juga jumpa saudara walaupun aku gagal jumpa diasrama tadi !’ Lepas bersalam , aku peluk dia dengan erat dengan dakapan ukhuwah. ‘ Sila duduk, ikut sama aku makan atau minum. Sila buat pesanan , aku bayar ! Dia pun minta dari pelayan kafe itu dua keeping chicken pie dan segelas air milo panas.
Aku membelek buku fotostat bercorak sufi dalam bahasa Inggeris. Dia pinjam dari jemaah Murabitun Kuala Lumpur . SubhanaLlah , inilah tanda seorang faqir atau murid yang ikhlas mengaji. Dia dahagakan ilmu. Dia mahu tahu apa syarat dan rahsia jalan tariqa Darqawiyya Shadhiliyya yang masyur diAfrika dan Timur Tengah. Pengarang buku ini bernama Mulay Arabi ad-Darqawi hidup pada zaman 1700an seorang sufi besar dan pernah mendidik hampir 40,000 anak muridnya yang diberi izin membimbing manusia kejalan Malikul Haqq. Dia dikurnia Allah Taala menyibar marifa diBarat dan Timur. Ini satu kelebihan awliya tertentu dan dia juga insan unik dizamannya. Bagaimana jalan sufi ini sampai keMalaysia ? Dan dibincangkan oleh dua orang fuqara, seorang melayu dan seorang berbangsa china muslim ?
Mukadimmah buku – The Darqawi Way ini ditulis oleh Shaykh Abdul Qadir as-Sufi yang berbangsa eropah. Dia menerima Islam di Masjid Fez, Maghribi dan berguru dengan Shaykh Muhammad ibnul Habib. Kemudian berguru dan menghabiskan suluk sufiyya ditangan Shaykh al-Fayturi diBenghazi, Libya pada tahun 1977. Aku berbicara dengan Ikmal darihal ‘transmission of sufic teaching from one shaykh to another’. Semua ini telah didokumenkan dan dicatitkan dengan teliti oleh para shuyukh dijalan Darqawi Shadhiliyya kami. Tiada orang boleh menolak atau menjumpai kecacatan sanad atau dakwaan palsu/rekaan nafsu sendiri dalam perkara penting . jika seorang guru sufi berbohong maka senang kita kenal. Dan kita kena tinggalkan dia, kemudian cari guru lain yang bias membawa kita kehadrat keagungan ilmu, qudrah dan hikmah kurnia Allah Tabaraka wa Taala.
Aku mulai bicara dengan bertanya :
‘saudara Ikmal , cuba kau baca sajak pada mukaddimah buku ini dan beritahu apa yang kau faham ?’.
Oh Mulay al-Arabi ! I greet you.
The West greets the West.
Although the four corner had gone
And the season are joined
In the Tongue of the People
I welcome you –the man of the time.
Wild, in rags, with three hats
And wisdom underneath them.
You flung dust in the enemy’s face
Scattering them by the secret
Of a rare sunna the ulama’ forgot.
Oh Mulay al-Arabi ! The Pole greets the Pole
- the center is everywhere.
Aku pun memberi keterangan kepada bahasa isyarat yang dipakai orang sufi. Mereka jarang mahu menggunakan perkataan – aku, diriku atau dia. Mereka telah menfanakan dakwa atau wujud nafsu diri, maka mereka akan membicarakan kurnia Allah dan rahsia yang mereka rasai atau tempohi.
Ayat sajak diatas bermaksud : sang Guru Barat sekarang memberi salam dan penghormatan lansung kepada Mulay Darqawi yang juga berasal dari barat iaitu negeri Maghiribi. Mereka adalah mercu ilmu dan pemimpin agung dizaman masing-masing. Tanda mereka sudah mencapai makam sufi sejati. Jadi , apa pilihan atau tindakan sang murid sekarang setelah mengenali hajat yang terpendam ?
Baris sajak seterusnya berbunyi :
‘This is one hadra, one circle
one grain of sand beneath
the sandal of Muhammad
sallaLlahu alayhi wa salam’
Ayat diatas meletakkan semua ilmu dan kemuliaan serta rahsia jalan sufi yang dilalui dan diajarkan kedua Guru Shaykh ini adalah berasal dari limpahan keagungan Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa salam. Macam sebiji debu halus dibawah tapak kasut Nabi kita. Mereka begitu merendah diri, tawadhuk bila berhadapan dengan ukuran dan hubungan rohani atau zahir dengan seorang Rasul al-Mustafa.
Ada seorang sufi lain berkata –
‘ cukuplah jika aku dapat menjadi seorang yang mengikat tali kasut Rasulullah bagi merasakan kemuliaan yang Allah curahkan kepada hamba yang berkhidmat kepada seorang Rasul yang dikasihi Allah Taala’.
Shaykh Muhammad ibnul Habib pernah menulis dalam Kitab Diwannya :
‘Ukuran ilmu / makam / nur seorang wali qutub dengan Nur Rasul seperti satu titik air dari lautan samudera yang luas tak bertepi’.
Jadi semua dalil dan bahasa isyarat sufi adalah bagi mengukuhkan keyakinan dan himma sang murid supaya terus maju dan mujahadah bagi mencapai matlamat agung yang menanti, sesuai dengan seruanNya :
‘Ya ayyatatuhal nafsul muthmainna
Irji ila Rabbiki , radhiyyatan mardhiyya
Fadkhuli fi-ibadi , wadkhuli jannati’
Dan ayat :
‘Allahu waliyyul lazina amanu
Yukhriju minaz zulumati ilan-nur’.
Alhamdulillah, selepas habis minum, kami pun balik kebilik asrama Idrus. Kemudian berjumpa dengan Azmi , Fauzi dan Ibrahim. Sempat juga aku nasihatkan mereka agar sentiasa menilik apakah disebalik perjalanan orang sufi dizaman moden ini. Agar kita tidak diperlekehkan oleh jemaah politik, birokrasi, intelektual akademik yang gersang rohani, alim secular dan alim tablighi yang hilang peta dan izin guru sufiyya. Pendekata tidak mudah untuk pelahar universiti keluar dari jerat maklumat dan gelaran imej akademik yang mengabui ilmu haiqat sebenar.
Aku juga berpesan agar mereka menatap kembali apa doa Shaykh Daud Patani amalkan diakhir kitab Munyatul Musalli . aku hanya ingat sebaris saja :
Allahumma inni as-aluka taufiqa
ahlul-huda wa amala ahlil-yaqin
wa munasahata ahlit-tauba
wa azma ahlis-sabri
wa jiddan ahlil-khasyiati
wa irfana ahlil-ilmi hatta akhafaka.
Jam didinding blik Ikmal sudah melebihi jam 12.00 malam , maka aku pun minta diri untuk beredar. Esok kena kerja makan gaji dan punch kad jam 7.30 pagi. Tapi sebenarnya kita boleh mencuri atau membelahi masa yang lembut dengan gerak hati dan amalan zikir sirr serta menyembunyikan wujud kerdil ini dengan langkah seribu tatkala insan lain terlupa kepada saat-saat mustajab siang dan malam. Aku akhiri majlis muzakarah malam itu dengan ayat Quran –kenalilah para guru dan arifun yang meniru jejak Rasul iaitu :
‘Ya ayyuhan nabiyyu
Inna arsalnaka syahidan
wa mubasyiran
Wa naziran wa daiyyan
ilaLLahi bi-iznihi
Wa Sirajan muniran’
Yakni mereka yang menyeru insan atau mengajar ilmu al-haqq dengan penuh kesaksian dari Allah , dari Rasul , dari Awliya dan Imam besar. Mereka menyaksikan alam nasut dan malakut.
Kemudian ,mereka memberi khabar gembira akan kemuliaan insaniah yang Allah sembunyikan dalam tiap diri jika digali dan di suburkan dengan mujahadah ikhlas pasti bersinar hati mereka dengan furqan dan petunjuk. Mereka juga memiliki ilmu menilik perkara yang menyesatkan dan membinasa-kan manusia, jadi mereka beri amaran halus dan keras ikut keadaan.
Ramai umat sekarang tersalah anggap dapat Islam warisan datuk nenek dan ustaz pondok sudah cukup. Dapat salat dan berjemaah disurau atau masjid serta dengar pengajian/syarahan agama sudah hebat. Sudah selamat. Tapi belum lagi. Guru atau awliya yang menyeru kita kepada hadrat Allah amat menakutkan nafsu yang cintakan dunia. Mereka berpegang dengan amal atau kekayaan atau ilmu yang secebis..tapi bagi alim ulamak muhaqiqin mereka adalah laksana lampu bercahaya gemilang ( sirajan munira atau matahari bercahaya). Yakni ilmu dan ihwal rohaniah insan begini menerangi jalan hidup kita dengan kasih sayang, adab dan bertanggung jawab. Kena bersahabat dan bermuzakarah dengan mereka yang maju dihadapan.As-sabiqunal muqarrabun.
Jadi, tilik diri kita apakah sudah bersedia menjadi muridin , salikin, faqir ilaLlah atau salihin, muttaqin , siddiqin dan sehingga mencapai taraf tertinggi sang ariffin. Tak ada nama pun selamat asalkan ada ikatan hati dan nur dari mereka yang kita terima didikan kerana Allah Taala. Aku ingin mengakhiri catatan ini dengan ungkapan bernas Jalaluddin Rumi tokoh sufi Parsi dan Turki yang terkenal dengan kitab Mathnawi seperti berikut :
You are your own bird , you are your own prey and you are your own trap. You got the whole thing.
Beliau memberi isyarat bahawa setiap muslim yang beramal dan berjalan menuju keridhaan Tuhan boleh terbang tinggi , bebas dan mencapai maqam rohaniah para sufi jika kita ikhlas berjuang. Kita juga akan tersekat menjadi mangsa sendiri apabila dunia atau hawa nafsu menguasai diri yang rendah. Kita juga memasang perangkap sendiri dengan khayalan dan cita-cita duniawi yang menghalang kita dari menjejaki tariqa menuju Allah Taala. Tiada orang lain dapat menolong jika kita ambil keputusan untuk tidak berguru , berzikir , mengembara dan berkhidmat kepada para awliya serta alim ulama.
AlhamduliLlah, alam melayu kini tidak kurang dengan kebangkitan jemaah sufiyya yang tulin mengabungkan jihad ekonomi dan politik sunna. Islam tidak terpisah dari arus cabaran perdana yang melanda dunia. Rumi juga berkata :’islam is war and terror’ bermaksud islam ditegakkan atas jihad dan kuasa, baik menakluki musuh zahir atau batin. Yang batin kita sedia faham iaitu nafsu , syaitan dan seribu satu penyakit hati –nifaq, takut mati, kedekut, riyak dan berbagai lagi. Musuh zahir mungkin sulit ditewaskan kerana terlampau banyak ! Terpulanglah kepada pilihan saudara untuk memulakan langkah pertama.
Imam Ghazali berkata : orang yang baru menjejaki tariqa sufi ibarat bintang. Dia yang sudah jauh dihadapan ibarat bulan. Mereka yang sudah sampai kehujung tariqa ibarat matahari. Siapa yang jahil dan tak kenal jalan sufi ini , hatinya ibarat batu, keras degil dan susah diperbaiki.
DI KAMPUS UNIVERSITI ISLAM ANTARABANGSA
-Abu Zuhri Shin
Cahaya suria masih merah dikaki langit disulami kehijauan Banjaran Titiwangsa disebelah utara kota Kuala Lumpur. Entah macamana, disuatu malam Jumaat dalam bulan April tahun alaf 2000, aku tergerak hati ingin ziarah sahabatku bernama Ikmal dikampus UIA Gombak. Tiada agenda khas kecuali aku mencintai saudaraku macam diri sendiri dari segi perjalanan sufiyya dan limpah baraka dari para guru Awliya. Jenerasi muda kini jauh dari kefahaman ilmu tasawuf. Nak kenal orang sufi lagi susah. Sebab ada beranika pendapat, pandangan dan kritikan terhadap ilmu sufi dan amalan yang salah. Imam Ghazali sudah menerangkan golongan yang tersasar dan terpedaya dalam bab al-ghurur dalam kitab Ihya. Dicampur dengan kemunculan puak modenis , wahabiyya dan pseudo sufi dibarat , ilmu tasawuf dianggap satu bidaah. Alhamdulillah, aku telah menempuhi detik getir dan kekalutan ini pada tahun 1970an. Dengan berkat doa serta bimbingan guru yang arif bi’Llah , kini aku sedang menyusuri jejak para salikin dan muridin dengan istiqamah.
Lepas salat maghrib dirumah dikaki banjaran titiwangsa, aku pun berwirid secara ringkas dan berdoa :
Allahumma ainni ala zikrika
wa syukrika wa husni ibadatika
( Ya Allah , beri pertolongan bagi
diriku berzikir mengingatiMu,
memanjat syukur pada nikmatMu dan
memperbaiki ibadatku kepadaMu ).
Kemudian aku membaca salawat Kanzul Haqaiq dari nukilan Shaykh Muhammad ibnul Habib, Shaykh pertama kepada guruku seperti berikut :
‘Allahumma salli ala sayyidina Muhammadin abdika wa rasulika nabiyyi ummiyyi wa ala alihi wa ashabi
wa sallim tasliman
adada khalqika wa ridha-a nafsika
wa zinata arasyika wa
midada kalimatika’.
Mudah-mudahan dengan zikir dan selawat ini membantuku dalam perjalanan fisabilillah malam jumaat. Orang lain mungkin sibuk baca yasin dan tahlil ,mendengar ceramah politik atau kempen reformasi. Yang lain mungkin menonton forum islam perdana dalam kotak tv. Dimanakah keberkatan malam ini berada ? Malam kebanyakan orang mukmin dan salihin berzikir ,bermunajat dan berwirid mahu mendekati Hadrat Ilahiyya. Mereka mahu mensucikan nafsu dan qalbu dari kesibukan duniawi dan tarikan sensasi manusiawi, media hiburan dan kelalaian waktu yang membunuh rohani.
Maka, beruntunglah mereka yang memulakan langkah pertama sang sufi. Apakah aku layak mengikut jejak mereka, para imam, shaykh ,awliya dan arifin macam imam ghazali , imam nawawi, ibnu athaillah, imam junaid, shaykh abdul qadir jilani, shaykh daud fatani, shaykh abdul samad palembani, ibnul arabi dan hamzah fansuri ?
Aku memecut perlahan kereta kancilku ditepi lebuhraya taman melati menuju kampus UIA, Gombak. Nama glamour sebab ramai teringin masuk ‘U’ tapi hanya dapat sebut ‘ I and you’. Sayang, setelah aku singgah dan jenguk bilik G33 diblok B, sahabatku Ikmal tiada didalam. Mana pergi dia agaknya ? Salat berjemaah dimasjid atau pergi jumpa kawan ? Tak apa, asal niat aku ikhlas kerana Allah Taala dapat pahala biar pulang dengan tangan kosong. Allah. Allah . Allah. Ya Hayyu ya Qayyum. Ya Dzal Jalai wal-Ikram. Ya Arhamar Rahimin. Engkau maha Mengetahui disebalik urusan sang hamba dhaif ini.
Dengan hati sedih, aku pun putar balik keretaku turun bukit menuju kemasjid baru uia yang jarak hanya 0.5 km dari asrama. Hebat juga masjid ini ,menaranya nampak dari jauh. Boleh isi lebih 50,000 jemaah. Warna biru langit. Waktu hampir masuk salat Isyak. Jadi aku ambil peluang salat jemaah dan buat zikir senyap disebalik tiang masjid. Orang tak nampak. Tiada gangguan. Juga aku boleh sandar. Habis juga Miftah al-Wirid aku baca dalam masa 20 minit lepas Isyak. Sekitar masjid, ramai siswa lelaki buat kelompok usrah atau muzakarah. Ada seorang dua khusyuk berdoa dan berzikir sendirian. Ini mesti ada wirid khas dari guru kesayangan mereka. Mungkin wirid Imam Ghazali atau Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani macam aku temui disebuah pondok diKelantan bulan April lalu. Siapa sangka ditahun 2000 ini kita dapat menilik kitab arab al-Fayudhat Rabbaniyya awrad amalan Tariqa Qadiriyya cetakan Darul Maarif tahun 1960an dulu.
Aku tak puas hati lalu bertanya kepada ustaz Mukhtar yang empuya pemilik kitab ini. ‘ Ustaz , masih adakah pewaris tariqat atau guru yang mengajar atau mengamalkan kitab ini di Malaysia pada zaman sekarang ? ‘ Dia menjawap dengan sedih, ‘ Aku jumpa kitab ini kat kedai, orang dah tak nak benda ini lagi. Halamannya sudah uzur dan kuning. Tapi masyaa’ Allah , isinya memang untuk mereka yang dahagakan pengisian rohani. Tuan punya pewaris ilmu ini mungkin sudah tiada lagi’. Aku turut simpati dengan keterangan ustaz tersebut.
Diakhir zikir dalam masjid, aku berdoa hiba dalam hati : “ Ya Allah, malam ini aku tak berhasil menemui sahabatku yang dihajati dikampus ini. Maka, pertemukan aku dengan sesiapa saja yang mencintaiMu dari kalangan pelajar yang ada’. Dalam hati, aku teringat nama saudara azmi kelantan , saudara ibrahim atau redhuan dari korea. Mungkin mereka boleh mengisi kekosongan ini . Aku tak pasti mana blok asrama mereka tinggal. Susah nak cari. Nak tanya semua orang, rasa segan.
Aku pun melangkah turun ditangga bucu kanan depan masjid. Turun tangga nak menuju tempat parking keretaku. Alhamdulillah, tepi koridor bangunan masjid ada sebuah kafe ala barat. Aku pun jenguk, biar aku rehat nikmati rezeki chicken soup dan teh tarik. Ya Allah ,aku telah pertama kali menghabiskan bacaan wirid melalui izin muqadim sidi umar pada tahun 1979 dimasjid UIA ini , maka tunjukkanlah rahsia barakaMu. Aku tak mengetahui langkah seterusnya. Aku teringat wirid fajar yang berbunyi:
Ya Awwalu ya Akhiru ya Zahiru ya Batin
–biyadika khair, yuhyi wa yumit.
Inna Allaha ala kulli syain qadir
(Ya Allah ..ditangan genggamanMu
terletak segala kebaikan . Engkau maha berkuasa menentu segala urusan)
Aku mulai mencecahkan sudu ke sup ayam cendawan dengan bacaaan BismiLlah. Tiba-tiba sekonyong-konyong ,muncul saudara Ikmal berjalan betul-betul dihadapan mejaku ! Masya Allah, sungguh cepat doaku ditunaikan Allah Taala. Aku mencari Ikmal atau dia yang mencari aku setelah hati kami digerakkan Allah ? Kenapa pertemuan dikafe bukan dibilik asrama atau dalam masjid ?
Rupanya Ikmal memang ada tujuan mulia singgah dikafe ini selepas selesai usrah dengan pelajar lain diasrama. Pelajar UIA memang diwajibkan berusrah dalam kurikulum. Rupanya Ikmal pergi kesana untuk ambil 2 naskhah fotostat buku- The Darqawi Way – dikedai berhampiran. Satu untuk dirinya dan satu lagi untuk sahabatnya bernama Azmi berasal dari Kelantan. Sama-sama belajar jurusan kejurute-raan tahun tiga.
‘ Assalamualaikum , Ikmal ! Allahu akbar. Dapat juga jumpa saudara walaupun aku gagal jumpa diasrama tadi !’ Lepas bersalam , aku peluk dia dengan erat dengan dakapan ukhuwah. ‘ Sila duduk, ikut sama aku makan atau minum. Sila buat pesanan , aku bayar ! Dia pun minta dari pelayan kafe itu dua keeping chicken pie dan segelas air milo panas.
Aku membelek buku fotostat bercorak sufi dalam bahasa Inggeris. Dia pinjam dari jemaah Murabitun Kuala Lumpur . SubhanaLlah , inilah tanda seorang faqir atau murid yang ikhlas mengaji. Dia dahagakan ilmu. Dia mahu tahu apa syarat dan rahsia jalan tariqa Darqawiyya Shadhiliyya yang masyur diAfrika dan Timur Tengah. Pengarang buku ini bernama Mulay Arabi ad-Darqawi hidup pada zaman 1700an seorang sufi besar dan pernah mendidik hampir 40,000 anak muridnya yang diberi izin membimbing manusia kejalan Malikul Haqq. Dia dikurnia Allah Taala menyibar marifa diBarat dan Timur. Ini satu kelebihan awliya tertentu dan dia juga insan unik dizamannya. Bagaimana jalan sufi ini sampai keMalaysia ? Dan dibincangkan oleh dua orang fuqara, seorang melayu dan seorang berbangsa china muslim ?
Mukadimmah buku – The Darqawi Way ini ditulis oleh Shaykh Abdul Qadir as-Sufi yang berbangsa eropah. Dia menerima Islam di Masjid Fez, Maghribi dan berguru dengan Shaykh Muhammad ibnul Habib. Kemudian berguru dan menghabiskan suluk sufiyya ditangan Shaykh al-Fayturi diBenghazi, Libya pada tahun 1977. Aku berbicara dengan Ikmal darihal ‘transmission of sufic teaching from one shaykh to another’. Semua ini telah didokumenkan dan dicatitkan dengan teliti oleh para shuyukh dijalan Darqawi Shadhiliyya kami. Tiada orang boleh menolak atau menjumpai kecacatan sanad atau dakwaan palsu/rekaan nafsu sendiri dalam perkara penting . jika seorang guru sufi berbohong maka senang kita kenal. Dan kita kena tinggalkan dia, kemudian cari guru lain yang bias membawa kita kehadrat keagungan ilmu, qudrah dan hikmah kurnia Allah Tabaraka wa Taala.
Aku mulai bicara dengan bertanya :
‘saudara Ikmal , cuba kau baca sajak pada mukaddimah buku ini dan beritahu apa yang kau faham ?’.
Oh Mulay al-Arabi ! I greet you.
The West greets the West.
Although the four corner had gone
And the season are joined
In the Tongue of the People
I welcome you –the man of the time.
Wild, in rags, with three hats
And wisdom underneath them.
You flung dust in the enemy’s face
Scattering them by the secret
Of a rare sunna the ulama’ forgot.
Oh Mulay al-Arabi ! The Pole greets the Pole
- the center is everywhere.
Aku pun memberi keterangan kepada bahasa isyarat yang dipakai orang sufi. Mereka jarang mahu menggunakan perkataan – aku, diriku atau dia. Mereka telah menfanakan dakwa atau wujud nafsu diri, maka mereka akan membicarakan kurnia Allah dan rahsia yang mereka rasai atau tempohi.
Ayat sajak diatas bermaksud : sang Guru Barat sekarang memberi salam dan penghormatan lansung kepada Mulay Darqawi yang juga berasal dari barat iaitu negeri Maghiribi. Mereka adalah mercu ilmu dan pemimpin agung dizaman masing-masing. Tanda mereka sudah mencapai makam sufi sejati. Jadi , apa pilihan atau tindakan sang murid sekarang setelah mengenali hajat yang terpendam ?
Baris sajak seterusnya berbunyi :
‘This is one hadra, one circle
one grain of sand beneath
the sandal of Muhammad
sallaLlahu alayhi wa salam’
Ayat diatas meletakkan semua ilmu dan kemuliaan serta rahsia jalan sufi yang dilalui dan diajarkan kedua Guru Shaykh ini adalah berasal dari limpahan keagungan Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa salam. Macam sebiji debu halus dibawah tapak kasut Nabi kita. Mereka begitu merendah diri, tawadhuk bila berhadapan dengan ukuran dan hubungan rohani atau zahir dengan seorang Rasul al-Mustafa.
Ada seorang sufi lain berkata –
‘ cukuplah jika aku dapat menjadi seorang yang mengikat tali kasut Rasulullah bagi merasakan kemuliaan yang Allah curahkan kepada hamba yang berkhidmat kepada seorang Rasul yang dikasihi Allah Taala’.
Shaykh Muhammad ibnul Habib pernah menulis dalam Kitab Diwannya :
‘Ukuran ilmu / makam / nur seorang wali qutub dengan Nur Rasul seperti satu titik air dari lautan samudera yang luas tak bertepi’.
Jadi semua dalil dan bahasa isyarat sufi adalah bagi mengukuhkan keyakinan dan himma sang murid supaya terus maju dan mujahadah bagi mencapai matlamat agung yang menanti, sesuai dengan seruanNya :
‘Ya ayyatatuhal nafsul muthmainna
Irji ila Rabbiki , radhiyyatan mardhiyya
Fadkhuli fi-ibadi , wadkhuli jannati’
Dan ayat :
‘Allahu waliyyul lazina amanu
Yukhriju minaz zulumati ilan-nur’.
Alhamdulillah, selepas habis minum, kami pun balik kebilik asrama Idrus. Kemudian berjumpa dengan Azmi , Fauzi dan Ibrahim. Sempat juga aku nasihatkan mereka agar sentiasa menilik apakah disebalik perjalanan orang sufi dizaman moden ini. Agar kita tidak diperlekehkan oleh jemaah politik, birokrasi, intelektual akademik yang gersang rohani, alim secular dan alim tablighi yang hilang peta dan izin guru sufiyya. Pendekata tidak mudah untuk pelahar universiti keluar dari jerat maklumat dan gelaran imej akademik yang mengabui ilmu haiqat sebenar.
Aku juga berpesan agar mereka menatap kembali apa doa Shaykh Daud Patani amalkan diakhir kitab Munyatul Musalli . aku hanya ingat sebaris saja :
Allahumma inni as-aluka taufiqa
ahlul-huda wa amala ahlil-yaqin
wa munasahata ahlit-tauba
wa azma ahlis-sabri
wa jiddan ahlil-khasyiati
wa irfana ahlil-ilmi hatta akhafaka.
Jam didinding blik Ikmal sudah melebihi jam 12.00 malam , maka aku pun minta diri untuk beredar. Esok kena kerja makan gaji dan punch kad jam 7.30 pagi. Tapi sebenarnya kita boleh mencuri atau membelahi masa yang lembut dengan gerak hati dan amalan zikir sirr serta menyembunyikan wujud kerdil ini dengan langkah seribu tatkala insan lain terlupa kepada saat-saat mustajab siang dan malam. Aku akhiri majlis muzakarah malam itu dengan ayat Quran –kenalilah para guru dan arifun yang meniru jejak Rasul iaitu :
‘Ya ayyuhan nabiyyu
Inna arsalnaka syahidan
wa mubasyiran
Wa naziran wa daiyyan
ilaLLahi bi-iznihi
Wa Sirajan muniran’
Yakni mereka yang menyeru insan atau mengajar ilmu al-haqq dengan penuh kesaksian dari Allah , dari Rasul , dari Awliya dan Imam besar. Mereka menyaksikan alam nasut dan malakut.
Kemudian ,mereka memberi khabar gembira akan kemuliaan insaniah yang Allah sembunyikan dalam tiap diri jika digali dan di suburkan dengan mujahadah ikhlas pasti bersinar hati mereka dengan furqan dan petunjuk. Mereka juga memiliki ilmu menilik perkara yang menyesatkan dan membinasa-kan manusia, jadi mereka beri amaran halus dan keras ikut keadaan.
Ramai umat sekarang tersalah anggap dapat Islam warisan datuk nenek dan ustaz pondok sudah cukup. Dapat salat dan berjemaah disurau atau masjid serta dengar pengajian/syarahan agama sudah hebat. Sudah selamat. Tapi belum lagi. Guru atau awliya yang menyeru kita kepada hadrat Allah amat menakutkan nafsu yang cintakan dunia. Mereka berpegang dengan amal atau kekayaan atau ilmu yang secebis..tapi bagi alim ulamak muhaqiqin mereka adalah laksana lampu bercahaya gemilang ( sirajan munira atau matahari bercahaya). Yakni ilmu dan ihwal rohaniah insan begini menerangi jalan hidup kita dengan kasih sayang, adab dan bertanggung jawab. Kena bersahabat dan bermuzakarah dengan mereka yang maju dihadapan.As-sabiqunal muqarrabun.
Jadi, tilik diri kita apakah sudah bersedia menjadi muridin , salikin, faqir ilaLlah atau salihin, muttaqin , siddiqin dan sehingga mencapai taraf tertinggi sang ariffin. Tak ada nama pun selamat asalkan ada ikatan hati dan nur dari mereka yang kita terima didikan kerana Allah Taala. Aku ingin mengakhiri catatan ini dengan ungkapan bernas Jalaluddin Rumi tokoh sufi Parsi dan Turki yang terkenal dengan kitab Mathnawi seperti berikut :
You are your own bird , you are your own prey and you are your own trap. You got the whole thing.
Beliau memberi isyarat bahawa setiap muslim yang beramal dan berjalan menuju keridhaan Tuhan boleh terbang tinggi , bebas dan mencapai maqam rohaniah para sufi jika kita ikhlas berjuang. Kita juga akan tersekat menjadi mangsa sendiri apabila dunia atau hawa nafsu menguasai diri yang rendah. Kita juga memasang perangkap sendiri dengan khayalan dan cita-cita duniawi yang menghalang kita dari menjejaki tariqa menuju Allah Taala. Tiada orang lain dapat menolong jika kita ambil keputusan untuk tidak berguru , berzikir , mengembara dan berkhidmat kepada para awliya serta alim ulama.
AlhamduliLlah, alam melayu kini tidak kurang dengan kebangkitan jemaah sufiyya yang tulin mengabungkan jihad ekonomi dan politik sunna. Islam tidak terpisah dari arus cabaran perdana yang melanda dunia. Rumi juga berkata :’islam is war and terror’ bermaksud islam ditegakkan atas jihad dan kuasa, baik menakluki musuh zahir atau batin. Yang batin kita sedia faham iaitu nafsu , syaitan dan seribu satu penyakit hati –nifaq, takut mati, kedekut, riyak dan berbagai lagi. Musuh zahir mungkin sulit ditewaskan kerana terlampau banyak ! Terpulanglah kepada pilihan saudara untuk memulakan langkah pertama.
Imam Ghazali berkata : orang yang baru menjejaki tariqa sufi ibarat bintang. Dia yang sudah jauh dihadapan ibarat bulan. Mereka yang sudah sampai kehujung tariqa ibarat matahari. Siapa yang jahil dan tak kenal jalan sufi ini , hatinya ibarat batu, keras degil dan susah diperbaiki.
Discourse of Umar Vadillo
DISCOURSE
BY SIDI UMAR VADILLO
24 MAC 2005 PUTRAJAYA (as recorded by sidi kharazi al-juhuri)
Bismillahi rahmanir rahim.
First, we thank the host of gathering in honor for the presence and visit of sidi umar from cape town to kuala Lumpur, muqadim abu zuhri shin tonight who gave a short speech on the important of following the shaykh, his khalifa/muqadims and the amirs with proper adab and acceptance of their instructions. Any fuqara who argue or debate or having contrary actions with them are in danger of falling out and causing conflicts. He related the teaching of Shaykh Ali alJamal which two times reject and fiercely chasing out Sh.darqawi (a faqir then) from his zawiya with the broom just to test him and broke his pride/nafs. He returned the third time, the shaykh accepeted and embraced him as the perfect murid. He then became a great shaykh, a qutb/pole of his time.
The same happened with sh.shadhili , an alim and faqih who went to makkah and madinah but to be told go back to morocco. Your shaykh is waiting for you in the mountain ! He climbed the high mountain, reach the top and meet a guardian of the wali, only to be told : you are still dirty, go down to clean yourself before fit to see the shaykh. The second time he was still rejected. At the third attempt, he wash himself at a spring at the mountain base, ghusul major purification and says: Oh Allah, I washed myself from all my previous knowledge, my reputation as alim and faqih, I have nothing before this wali of Yours, please guide me and take me to my desired goal. He went up again with humility and broken hearted. Sh Ibnu Mashish then accepted him as a murid, entered a cave for khalwa, doing the Ismul Azim and finished his suluk/marifa opening. From this overflowing, we honored our tariqa by his name which spread to the West and East by the idhin of Allah through his Awliya.
What is the lessons for us. Those who come with pride and thinking they possess actions, power, knowledge and reputation before the fuqara are totally missing this knowledge. A faqir thanks Allah for all His gifts- his life, his wealth, his family, his striving, his knowledge, his company with the awliya – all proceed from Allah loves and generosity to his slave. We cannot make any claims that we achieved this through our own actions. We must have patient, patient and to see the unfolding events before us. We come and travel for Allah, we don’t care about our jobs, our buildings, cars or the number of people following us or how successful our outward projects. I had poured out this matters from my heart and now invite sidi umar to guides us further and enlightening us by his blessed company with sidi shaykh.
Alhamdulillah, those desire this knowledge as outlined earlier, shall take notice how we must grasp this knowledge with full concentration and valued it highly as nothing is comparable. It is our pivot of existence. Why, if don’t know we came from Him and this knowledge coming from Him to draw us closer, then don’t expect everybody understand what this path all about. Without this knowledge, the world will collapse. How ? Because all existence come Allah and He sustains it by His qudra and set it up bil-haqq. By the truth, it means with must live within His shariat and a embedded law. This is halal and that is haram does not change with what people says and how they act. Riba is haram whether you discover it or not, whether you use money or not, the finance system engulf us all. We live under the law of Allah, so if we do it correctly it bring knowledge and opening to unexpected things.
Sh Darqawi says amazing things in his letters –Rasail –about the nafs. The faqir look at the world differently from others. He sees people problems as created by their own illusions and limitations. When you greedy to want more, then you busy with the world until you have little time for dhikr and reflection. For being poor before Allah means you want something not of this world. What is it ? We thanks Allah taala when He gave us a man who had gone beyond and wish to impart this precious knowledge to us.
Sh.Muhammad ibn alHabib was very angry when a man said infront of him : ‘ today there is no more awliya or people of marifa’. He answered the man : Don’t dare you said that, if not for these people (awliya), the sustenance or existence of this world will last any longer. But it is not easy to recognize this man of knowledge if we judge ourself or our goal in terms of material things and what our nafs wanted.
Shaykh abdal qadir told us this story. A man come to the zawiya and visited sidi shaykh and asked for real sufic knowledge. I mean the special knowledge, the secrets of the unseen ? The shaykh said : recite and study the wird of SMH. What, this wird I know already and this is not what I want ? The shaykh was angry with this man. Look, do you even understand one word from this wird that will take you to Allah ? Had we understand the secret of La haula wa la quwwata illa biLlahil aliyyil azim ? Had we submitted to the power and qudra of Allah or tasted it like no one before ? For us, this matter of dhikr and desire for nearness to Allah can make us cry like babies for 3 days. This neediness and brokenness is our attribute before Him and then He gave the overflowing so the slave can move forward. He can shrug off all this time and place limitations.
Our sign of need for Him is like day of festivals where gifts were overflowing. We will not survive if the tests face by this people of Allah were similarly placed on us. When we see huge problem and difficulty, they see it as great opportunity and openings. Why, because Allah has placed the wisdom existence in their opposites. Only the Sufis saw through this barriers, veils and illusions set up by people own opinions and limitations. Oh I cant do this and do that. I only do so much, this is what we can act now. So many obstacles outside, this rule, that rule, regulation and that authority and that system had set it that way. Our stance are, forgot about others, how powerful and how dominant they are, we have nothing to lose by acting on the command of Allah who said –this things are halal, therefore do it. We don’t wait for the governments to declare this dinar is valid and practical. Once we done our job and the dinar spread, we withdraw again to the zawiya/ribat for dhikr and tasting.
This knowledge changes our life, the way we deal with the world. SAQ send his murid out, go and go, don’t sit in the zawiya. Get out. He forced them to taste this knowledge in real battlefields. How can I tell people this secret of the nafs so overhelming and nothing of this dunya can satisfy me. We can only get this knowledge face to face. By keeping company with a man of Allah and he get it from another people of Allah, the awliyas. It is not the books or the information in your heads. We cannot pretend to have or faked this knowledge and soon it will exposed when we go into action.
People now make use of islam are marketing products/tools, to gain profit by selling the Islamic labels of dubious transactions, all haram with riba. If a thing does not make you close to Allah, it will make far from Allah. Do you understand ?
So with a dinar, a business, a house or governing a state. There is nothing wrong with the dinar or the house or businees you do, but how is your heart with these things ? How is nafs is cleaned from attachments to material things, reputation or the ibadah you do. Everywhere this sort of man goes, he cause troubles and mess things up. He had not tasted the sweetness of this surrender, giving up of choice and management to Allah taala in the face of impossible tasks. Like bringing down the dollar or super powers. It is not our action counts but our obeying Him and borrowing His attributes to deal with creation or existence that He sets up. So He will give the knowledge of existence to those not veiled by it.
This knowledge is not easy if we have bad adab or opinion of the fuqara. Beware, they are the least of people who want to meddle in your endless private problems. Three men came from faraway Iraq to the desert of Morocco to see a shaykh. They reached the village and entered the zawiyya, they announced : we want to see the shaykh, convey our message to his people. They were given food and lodging at the zawiya. Do dhikr and sit with the fuqara, chanting qasida after qasida, more food and drinks. But they were exasperated, asked : where is the shaykh ? We had wasted our time for 2 days still no news of the shaykh ? This people are useless and had bad adab to us not fulfilling our goal of traveling here. Where are the Sufis ? On the third day, they left the zawiyya. What they don’t know were that man serving them for 3 days was sidi muhammad ibn kursi who were specially instructed by SMH to be hidden in the desert away from the trouble makers. He guarded this knowledge like a candle light blown by strong winds.
We must cling to the shaykh like a desperate exhausted man to be rescued , hoping to taste a drop from his deep being. From the presence of hadratu rabbani. How can we measure this knowledge whereas all other knowledges you can give away but not this. This world will not last if deprive of the people with this high maqam and love of Allah and Rasul sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. All our knowledge come from this source, face to face since the beginning. Some may not be taught openly. Only very few come near to this matter. This is our trademarks wherever we goes, knowledge embedded deep and we express it to the seekers, the right people at the corners of zawiyya.
Like Malaysian government fascinated with technology, progress …wawasan 2020 more technology for better society. All this cannot replace the deen as our core business. We live here by the mercy of Allah a very short time. This dunya will melt away, Akhira is so near. Our homeland is there, not here. Look at the ruh/spirit where it comes from and flying back.
But we have business of Sharia to do, establish the dinar, the market, qirad, education, da’wa and apply the rules of fiqh. Make sure things are halal, not what they say is halal. Islamic banking, this and that. Imam Junayd says that if men know, they will crawling toward this knowledge.
We ask Allah to bless our shaykh abdal qadir as-sufi. To him give all his needs in doing works fisabilillah. We ask Allah to make us worthy of receiving his tremendous knowledge and wisdom and spreading it. We ask Allah to give and open us more to the knowledge of the deen. We ask Allah to enable us to keep company of the Awliyas and give awakening to the muslims.
We ask Allah taala to advance on the path and proctect us from the enemies. We ask Allah to teach us adab toward the shuyukh and awliya and amirs in order to obey and fulfill their instructions. Amin.
Later the gathering of fuqara sang the qasida of
Lakal-Hamd and Salamun ala hima from the Diwan of Shaykh Ibnul al-Habib.
About 30 seekers from all over Malaysia : Penang, Johor,Klang, Shah Alam and Kuala Lumpur were present at the blessed night of Jumaat which include two Kazakstan friends namely Sidi Ghany and his brother Sidi Rustam, Amir Redhuan Oon and Dr.Daud Fattah Batchelor of Australia.
BY SIDI UMAR VADILLO
24 MAC 2005 PUTRAJAYA (as recorded by sidi kharazi al-juhuri)
Bismillahi rahmanir rahim.
First, we thank the host of gathering in honor for the presence and visit of sidi umar from cape town to kuala Lumpur, muqadim abu zuhri shin tonight who gave a short speech on the important of following the shaykh, his khalifa/muqadims and the amirs with proper adab and acceptance of their instructions. Any fuqara who argue or debate or having contrary actions with them are in danger of falling out and causing conflicts. He related the teaching of Shaykh Ali alJamal which two times reject and fiercely chasing out Sh.darqawi (a faqir then) from his zawiya with the broom just to test him and broke his pride/nafs. He returned the third time, the shaykh accepeted and embraced him as the perfect murid. He then became a great shaykh, a qutb/pole of his time.
The same happened with sh.shadhili , an alim and faqih who went to makkah and madinah but to be told go back to morocco. Your shaykh is waiting for you in the mountain ! He climbed the high mountain, reach the top and meet a guardian of the wali, only to be told : you are still dirty, go down to clean yourself before fit to see the shaykh. The second time he was still rejected. At the third attempt, he wash himself at a spring at the mountain base, ghusul major purification and says: Oh Allah, I washed myself from all my previous knowledge, my reputation as alim and faqih, I have nothing before this wali of Yours, please guide me and take me to my desired goal. He went up again with humility and broken hearted. Sh Ibnu Mashish then accepted him as a murid, entered a cave for khalwa, doing the Ismul Azim and finished his suluk/marifa opening. From this overflowing, we honored our tariqa by his name which spread to the West and East by the idhin of Allah through his Awliya.
What is the lessons for us. Those who come with pride and thinking they possess actions, power, knowledge and reputation before the fuqara are totally missing this knowledge. A faqir thanks Allah for all His gifts- his life, his wealth, his family, his striving, his knowledge, his company with the awliya – all proceed from Allah loves and generosity to his slave. We cannot make any claims that we achieved this through our own actions. We must have patient, patient and to see the unfolding events before us. We come and travel for Allah, we don’t care about our jobs, our buildings, cars or the number of people following us or how successful our outward projects. I had poured out this matters from my heart and now invite sidi umar to guides us further and enlightening us by his blessed company with sidi shaykh.
Alhamdulillah, those desire this knowledge as outlined earlier, shall take notice how we must grasp this knowledge with full concentration and valued it highly as nothing is comparable. It is our pivot of existence. Why, if don’t know we came from Him and this knowledge coming from Him to draw us closer, then don’t expect everybody understand what this path all about. Without this knowledge, the world will collapse. How ? Because all existence come Allah and He sustains it by His qudra and set it up bil-haqq. By the truth, it means with must live within His shariat and a embedded law. This is halal and that is haram does not change with what people says and how they act. Riba is haram whether you discover it or not, whether you use money or not, the finance system engulf us all. We live under the law of Allah, so if we do it correctly it bring knowledge and opening to unexpected things.
Sh Darqawi says amazing things in his letters –Rasail –about the nafs. The faqir look at the world differently from others. He sees people problems as created by their own illusions and limitations. When you greedy to want more, then you busy with the world until you have little time for dhikr and reflection. For being poor before Allah means you want something not of this world. What is it ? We thanks Allah taala when He gave us a man who had gone beyond and wish to impart this precious knowledge to us.
Sh.Muhammad ibn alHabib was very angry when a man said infront of him : ‘ today there is no more awliya or people of marifa’. He answered the man : Don’t dare you said that, if not for these people (awliya), the sustenance or existence of this world will last any longer. But it is not easy to recognize this man of knowledge if we judge ourself or our goal in terms of material things and what our nafs wanted.
Shaykh abdal qadir told us this story. A man come to the zawiya and visited sidi shaykh and asked for real sufic knowledge. I mean the special knowledge, the secrets of the unseen ? The shaykh said : recite and study the wird of SMH. What, this wird I know already and this is not what I want ? The shaykh was angry with this man. Look, do you even understand one word from this wird that will take you to Allah ? Had we understand the secret of La haula wa la quwwata illa biLlahil aliyyil azim ? Had we submitted to the power and qudra of Allah or tasted it like no one before ? For us, this matter of dhikr and desire for nearness to Allah can make us cry like babies for 3 days. This neediness and brokenness is our attribute before Him and then He gave the overflowing so the slave can move forward. He can shrug off all this time and place limitations.
Our sign of need for Him is like day of festivals where gifts were overflowing. We will not survive if the tests face by this people of Allah were similarly placed on us. When we see huge problem and difficulty, they see it as great opportunity and openings. Why, because Allah has placed the wisdom existence in their opposites. Only the Sufis saw through this barriers, veils and illusions set up by people own opinions and limitations. Oh I cant do this and do that. I only do so much, this is what we can act now. So many obstacles outside, this rule, that rule, regulation and that authority and that system had set it that way. Our stance are, forgot about others, how powerful and how dominant they are, we have nothing to lose by acting on the command of Allah who said –this things are halal, therefore do it. We don’t wait for the governments to declare this dinar is valid and practical. Once we done our job and the dinar spread, we withdraw again to the zawiya/ribat for dhikr and tasting.
This knowledge changes our life, the way we deal with the world. SAQ send his murid out, go and go, don’t sit in the zawiya. Get out. He forced them to taste this knowledge in real battlefields. How can I tell people this secret of the nafs so overhelming and nothing of this dunya can satisfy me. We can only get this knowledge face to face. By keeping company with a man of Allah and he get it from another people of Allah, the awliyas. It is not the books or the information in your heads. We cannot pretend to have or faked this knowledge and soon it will exposed when we go into action.
People now make use of islam are marketing products/tools, to gain profit by selling the Islamic labels of dubious transactions, all haram with riba. If a thing does not make you close to Allah, it will make far from Allah. Do you understand ?
So with a dinar, a business, a house or governing a state. There is nothing wrong with the dinar or the house or businees you do, but how is your heart with these things ? How is nafs is cleaned from attachments to material things, reputation or the ibadah you do. Everywhere this sort of man goes, he cause troubles and mess things up. He had not tasted the sweetness of this surrender, giving up of choice and management to Allah taala in the face of impossible tasks. Like bringing down the dollar or super powers. It is not our action counts but our obeying Him and borrowing His attributes to deal with creation or existence that He sets up. So He will give the knowledge of existence to those not veiled by it.
This knowledge is not easy if we have bad adab or opinion of the fuqara. Beware, they are the least of people who want to meddle in your endless private problems. Three men came from faraway Iraq to the desert of Morocco to see a shaykh. They reached the village and entered the zawiyya, they announced : we want to see the shaykh, convey our message to his people. They were given food and lodging at the zawiya. Do dhikr and sit with the fuqara, chanting qasida after qasida, more food and drinks. But they were exasperated, asked : where is the shaykh ? We had wasted our time for 2 days still no news of the shaykh ? This people are useless and had bad adab to us not fulfilling our goal of traveling here. Where are the Sufis ? On the third day, they left the zawiyya. What they don’t know were that man serving them for 3 days was sidi muhammad ibn kursi who were specially instructed by SMH to be hidden in the desert away from the trouble makers. He guarded this knowledge like a candle light blown by strong winds.
We must cling to the shaykh like a desperate exhausted man to be rescued , hoping to taste a drop from his deep being. From the presence of hadratu rabbani. How can we measure this knowledge whereas all other knowledges you can give away but not this. This world will not last if deprive of the people with this high maqam and love of Allah and Rasul sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. All our knowledge come from this source, face to face since the beginning. Some may not be taught openly. Only very few come near to this matter. This is our trademarks wherever we goes, knowledge embedded deep and we express it to the seekers, the right people at the corners of zawiyya.
Like Malaysian government fascinated with technology, progress …wawasan 2020 more technology for better society. All this cannot replace the deen as our core business. We live here by the mercy of Allah a very short time. This dunya will melt away, Akhira is so near. Our homeland is there, not here. Look at the ruh/spirit where it comes from and flying back.
But we have business of Sharia to do, establish the dinar, the market, qirad, education, da’wa and apply the rules of fiqh. Make sure things are halal, not what they say is halal. Islamic banking, this and that. Imam Junayd says that if men know, they will crawling toward this knowledge.
We ask Allah to bless our shaykh abdal qadir as-sufi. To him give all his needs in doing works fisabilillah. We ask Allah to make us worthy of receiving his tremendous knowledge and wisdom and spreading it. We ask Allah to give and open us more to the knowledge of the deen. We ask Allah to enable us to keep company of the Awliyas and give awakening to the muslims.
We ask Allah taala to advance on the path and proctect us from the enemies. We ask Allah to teach us adab toward the shuyukh and awliya and amirs in order to obey and fulfill their instructions. Amin.
Later the gathering of fuqara sang the qasida of
Lakal-Hamd and Salamun ala hima from the Diwan of Shaykh Ibnul al-Habib.
About 30 seekers from all over Malaysia : Penang, Johor,Klang, Shah Alam and Kuala Lumpur were present at the blessed night of Jumaat which include two Kazakstan friends namely Sidi Ghany and his brother Sidi Rustam, Amir Redhuan Oon and Dr.Daud Fattah Batchelor of Australia.
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