Tuesday, October 09, 2007

The Self At Peace


The Goal of Ihsan : an-nafs al-mutma'inna: the self at peace

Finally there is the self at peace which is illuminated and acts according to the good and is therefore liberated "O self at peace, return to your Lord, well-pleased, well-pleasing. Enter among My servants. Enter My Garden." (89:27)

Shaykh 'Ali al-Jamal, a Moroccan wali (sometimes translated as saint, but which really means a friend of Allah) said when he experienced this,


"A certain state came over me so that the attributes of Allah appeared in manifestation in myself and in all creation...I began to love myself and to love all creation. Whoever I saw, man or woman, old man or child, I loved...I also began to love animals, rivers, trees, birds, the sky and the stars, and the earth and its stones....whatever loved me and I loved whatever did not love me because I saw that my essence contained existence, high and low, and existence was part of me. It was like my limbs and extremities. My love of them appeared to me to be only love of my essence and attributes."

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