Unfolding Rose Petals

The reason I had come to Afghanistan in the first place was my love for Afghan culture. I could never forget the sincerity and kindness that I first felt with my Afghan friends in the United States. I was aware of the rich heritage of Afghan culture that reached back into earlier centuries.

For a number of years I had been studying the Persian classics, some of them written by Afghans like the now-famous Jalaluddin Rumi. Later in my journey, I was astonished to find people in the rural valleys of northwestern Afghanistan that still speak a Persian almost identical to the language of Rumi’s masterpieces.

Long before traveling to Afghanistan, I had been deeply moved by the English translations of these poems. And so I had come to Afghanistan searching for traces of this high-minded culture that had kindled the flame of my hopes and dreams. As I rode up the trail on my lethargic horse, I thought about how this brilliant culture of Islamic spirituality was quickly disappearing in the face of the suffering caused by the war. Traditional Afghan culture was being eroded by the fanaticism of the Wahabis. It struck me that this small-minded extremism was incompatible with the Islam that was, at one time, vast enough to hold and cherish the knowledge of the world it had conquered. That world stretched from the Atlantic Ocean into the reaches of China.

I rode along replaying the memory of my chance meeting three years earlier, in 1986, with the extraordinary Afghan poet laureate and mystic, Ustad Khalilullah Khalili. My brief friendship with him near the end of his life had been deeply influential, largely because he openly manifested the wisdom, broad-mindedness, and religious tolerance described in the classical literature of Sufism. He too had voiced the fear that these values were disappearing from Afghanistan.

Riding up the steep, narrow trail, I remembered our warm conversations. Once, out of concern that as a Christian I wouldn’t be able to understand Islamic mysticism, I asked him, “Does a person need to be a Muslim to grasp the spirituality of Sufism?”

“The heart of the lover of God should become purified and polished,” he answered. “Then he would see the meaning of the Qur’an written on the unfolding rose petals of his own heart. Whoever has such a heart as this is a Sufi and a real Muslim.”

I recalled that the Sufis often carry the sobriquet of jasus al-qalb, “the spy of the heart.” I thought of how Ustad Khalili had immediately grasped my essential self. He had sensed my yearning and my disillusionment. He knew that I had come to Afghanistan in search of the meaning of life.

Des Himmels Weise ist wolthun

Celestis Tao natura diat omnes,

Nemini nocet.: Jesuit version.

Il est utile aux etres,

et ne leur nuit point.: Julien version –page 124.

Des Himmels Weise ist wolthun

und nicht beschadigen : V.von Strauss version.

‘The sage does not accumulate (for himself)

The more that he expends for others

The more does he possess of his own;

With all the sharpness of the Way of Heaven

It injures not; with all the doing in the

Way of the Sage, he does not strive’ –page 122

The Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu translated by James Legge,

first published in 1891,Graham Bash Ltd, Singapore

Kao Wan’s playing on the Lute,

Shih Kwang’s indicating Time with his staff,

And Hui Tze giving his insights while leaning

Against a Tree (were all extraordinary).

The knowledge of the three men was nearly perfect.

Therefore the scintillations of light from the midst

Of confusion and perplexity are indeed valued

By the sagely man.

Who knows the argument that need not words,

And the Way that is not to be trodden ?

Relearning Islam From China To Kuala Lumpur

We thanked Allah tabaraka wa taala for His generosity that enabled the Malaysian Chinese Muslim Association (MACMA) for two consective years in 2005 and 2007 to host the 6 months training, visit and dakwah programmes for 30 imams from various provinces of China.
They were also given special lectures and dialogues with scholars such as Ustaz Uthman Muhammady, Dr.Fuad Yeoh, Dato' Mustapha Ma and lecturers from International Islamic University of Malaysia beside visits to States of Kelantan, Sarawak, Terenganu, Johor, Perak, Kedah and Selangor.

Last week on 22 October 2007 , they were attending a special talk at Masjid al-Bukhari of Kuala Lumpur and listening to salawat, prayers and qasidah of Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib, the great alim and sufi of Morocco who taught and transmitted the pure Islam and Tasawwuf to many of his murids and fuqara in the West until it reached Spain, England, Germany, Malaysia and Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa etc today.

“ O Allah, let us receive Your mercy by the esteem of the Vast Quran and make it our guide, leader and source of light. O Allah, remind us when we are forgetful of the Quran, teach us what we ignorant of, inspire us to read, act and understand it day and night, O Lord of the Wolrds ! “

The people of baraka and wisdom

'We ask Allah, subhanahu wa taala, to keep us

in the company of the Arifin (gnostic).

We ask Allah , subhanahu wa taala to let the people

of this dhikr spread out through the whole of Africa

and take the Deen to all of Africa.

We ask Allah , subhanahu wa taala to make the people

of this circle people of baraka, people of wisdom

and people of teaching.

We ask Allah subhnahu wa taala to give benefit

to all the people who see the fuqara and meet the fuqara

so that they love them and respect them.'

Doa by Shaykh Dr.Abdal Qadir as-Sufi

after the tafsir discourse at al-Jamia Mosque

Claremont, Cape Town

May 29th, 2004

Extra prayer from Qasida Tafakur

Diwan Sh.Muhammad ibn al-Habib :

Then you would accept the reality of Tawhid

with all your being, and you would turn away

from illusions, uncetainty and otherness

And you would say, ' My God, You are my desire,

my goal and my impregnable fotress against

evil, injustice and deceit

You are the One I hope will provide all my needs

and You are the One who will rescue us

from all evil and wickedness

You are the Compassionate, the One who answers

all call on You. And You are the One

who enriches the poverty of the faqir

It is to You, O Exalted, that I have raised all

my request, so swiftly bring me the Opening,

the rescue and the secret, O my God

By the rank of the one in whom we hope on the Day

of Distress and Grief-that terrible day when

people come to the Place of Gathering-Masyar

May Allah's blessings be upon him as long

as there is an Arif who reflects on the lights

of His Essence in every manifestation

and upon his family and Companions and everyone

who follows his excellent Sunna in all its

prohibitions and commands'.

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."

What Mencius Said About Superior Man

Our Master Mencius was asked – what do you mean

by a Superior man ? a Real man ?

The reply was undoubtly beuatiful, profound and
similar to our islamic views as below:

A man who commands our liking (instinctual nature/fitra)

is what called
A superior –Good man.( Muslim)
He whose goodness (husni khuluq)
Is part of himself is what Called a Real Man (Mu’min)

He whose goodness has been filled up
(in his whole being) is what called a Beautiful Man ( Muhsin).
He whose completed goodness
is brightly displayed is what
called a great Man ( Ta Ren/ Rijal al-kabir)

when this great man exercise a transforming influence
he is what called a Sage. ( Sheng ren-Wali/Sufi)

when the Sage is beyond our knowledge he is what
is called a Spiritual Man ( Hsien Ren/ Insanul Kamil)

DISCOURSES AT THE 1996 MOUSEEM

GATHERING IN ISTANBUL, TURKEY

Bismi’Llahir-Rahmanir-Rahim.

This gathering is a gathering of baraka and kararnat. The baraka of this gathering and the karamat is by the blessing of the people whom have come here for the sake of Allah. It is very important that you know that in all the Muslim world the people of this great nation and this great city are the leaders of spirituality in the Muslim world. One alim from Morocco said when you go on Hajj the people of Turkey are the hosts of Makkah and Madinah. There is today in this blessed country a very high spiritual power. There is a light from here that shines all around the world. The truth is that we spiritually now can see again that Istanbul is the capital of all the ummah. And maybe we could say that Fatih (mosque) is the Topkapi (centre) of Istanbul because with the people in Fatih you see in the streets, madrasahs and in the mosques you see living Islam. This is by karamat and this is by barakat.

Saving Islam For The Future

If the great shuyukh of Naqshbandiyya had not struggled through these years this would not be the case. The shuyukh of Naqshbandiyya are the people who have saved Islam for our time and for the future. I remember when I went on Hajj over 30 years ago, meeting at the House of Allah meeting Shaykh Sami Affendi RA. My shaykh, Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib RA had died on his way to Hajj and found myself at the wall of the Kaaba and was led by Turkish fuqara to Shaykh Sami Affendi and from that moment a connection between us was born. For all the frrst part of my development in Islam as a Muslim I sought the company of the shayukh living and dead. It was Moulay Abdal Qadir al-Jilani who called me into Islam from the unseen which is why I took his name. Shaykh Moulay Abdas Salam ibn al-Mashish called me. Shaykh Shadhili called me. This was in the days I was studying the fiqh and studying the the Qur'an as a student of it.

As I saw the suffering of the Muslim people and I saw the degradation of the Muslims in the Arab lands then my spiritual light changed and other voices called, other presences came from the unseen Sultan Abdal Hamid RA called me here to Istanbul. Now the doors of this blessed mosque of Sultan Salim RA has brought us to this gathering. The celebration of Sultan Fatih, I was called to attend it. But they too are wali of Allah as are the shayukh.. These great sultans are all wali Allah. And then I realised that the Ummah of Islam is in need. It is calling out for leadership. Now there is no door we can knock on in the Arab world. Because you see the state of the Arabs. The Arabs are broken, the Arabs have been disgraced, they do not know their deen anymore. And we know what has happened in Arabistan with the shayateen of the Saudi regime. So now the ummah is turning to you.

The Real Struggle

The interesting thing is that for the last 40 years the Muslims have understood only to struggle only by young men going out and being killed and never to have success. The Syrians ask us to fight in Syria for jihad. The Egyptians ask us to fight against their leaders. In Algeria, you know the list it goes on and on. Everyone of these causes is a national cause. Now the phrase ummatun wasatan is not a spiritual term, not a batini term it is a political term. Now the bringing together of the Muslims to accept one leadership will not be done by struggle and in fighting among Muslims. Already too many young men have died for nothing. The people of this nation are all Muslims. Some may not call on Allah when they are healthy but they call on Him when they are sick. They may not call on Allah when they are sick but they turn to Allah when that person dies. What now we will see is something else, another struggle.

I wanted to say one thing important that you must understand about the kuffar. Russia was defeated without one missile or one bomb being dropped on them. This enormous state, this great powerful state was broken in pieces because they pulled the paper ruble from under their feet with the paper dollar. The kuffar say they want to make one world and of course that means it will be dominated by this one paper currency of the dollar.

Gold Dinar and Zakat

Allah subhanahu wata'ala says in Qur'an, you were one nation but we meant you to be separate. Now the power of the kuffar on the muslims is this magic of this worthless paper and by that paper the khalifate of Osmaniyya was destroyed. Sultan Abdal Hamid RA paid back the debt and paid back the debt but he had to pay in gold and they gave back in paper. He had almost completely paid the debt at the time he was deposed. Now today that same debt has increased to these trillions you read about in your daily papers. The sword of Islam today is not a scud missile of Saddam Hussein, the sword of Islam is that gold dinar that has been ordered in wahi –revelation of our deen which will cut the dollar. The rejection of the dollar is the beginning of the liberation of all the muslim lands. There will not be a conflict with the state and the republic and the Muslims. All these political conflicts are out of date. The founder of the republic created four banks. These banks will be privatised shortly. Already their capital is not is Turkish hands. And after privatisation none of this will be in Turkish hands. The people of Uzbekistan have declared no one will buy and sell their currency. Zakat has been abolished by the absence of the dinar. Zakat must be taken not given, it is not sadaqa. It must be taken by force. The best I pray for is the the shayukh that you trust in this country begin to take the zakat with zakat collectors in the waiting for that time when the change goes from this secret committee government to another kind of Islamic government.

I want to make a dua now for this great country and its people. And also there was a very old Turkish lady, she rang up, her name is Shukran. She is a very old lady who is now not able to make salat. We will begin the dua by asking Allah's mercy on this old lady Shukran that Allah make the last of her days the best of her days. We ask Allah to protect all the armed forces of this great Turkish nation. We ask Allah to protect the Turkish soldiers and officers against the intrigue of the Americans and the Greeks. We ask Allah as he gave Sayyedina Muhammad salla’Llahu alaihi wasallam Umar from among the strong people of Quraish to give us from among the high command of the army a man who will enter Islam with love and passion for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We ask Allah to protect the government and to give it good Islamic guidance and to understand the intrigues of what is happening on the frontiers of the Republic and to protect us against our enemies who want to take a piece of the Turkish land away from Turkey. And give the baraka from Allah that Turkey can open its arms and become greater and take in Muslims under the authority of Istanbul. Unify Turkey with Turkic speaking Republics beyond the frontiers. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to give a great light to the people of Istanbul and we ask for baraka and the light from the presence of Sultan Salim and from the tomb of Sultan Abdal Hamid RA. To release a great secret from the tomb of Sultan Abdal Hamid in our time and to protect the family of Uthman. And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to give blessing to this mosque and its imam. And we ask that by this gathering that there will be a new opening from the muslims in all the world. Allah accept our dhikr and accept our brotherhood in Islarn, Strengthen us by this gathering. Al fatiha.

The Next Events

I tell you what may happen. The Americans think that they have this enemy that is Islam and they must fight Islam, I tell you America will collapse from inside. America will collapse internally. America is already in civil war, it is decadent beyond anything you can Imagine. There are 30 million Muslims in Europe. This is not how history will go. Maybe it will go like this, Allahu alim But I see that the Turkish nation will expand, will embrace the Turkish Republic, will take in the Europe that will collapse after the European Union and then you will see the enemy is between the Muslims led by the Turks and the Chinese kuffar. That is the great battle of the future. The real battle will be between the Muslims led by Turkish leadership ? This is what may await your children and this is what we must prepare for. But Allah knows best.

SECOND ISTANBUL DISCOURSE AFTER DHIKR

BismiLlah. Shahada- La ilaha illa Allah

Look at the miracle of this gathering, look at it in the perspective of the passing years. And look at the miracle and power of Allah subhanahu wa ta' ala. La hawla wala quwatta ila billahi alayhi al-adheem. Allah has power over everything. There is no power except the power of Allah. And in the age of darkness what you must know is everything is under the power of Allah. The people who love Allah are the slaves of Allah. But the people who hate Allah are also the slaves of Allah. Allah makes his miracles not only by the friends of Allah but by the enemies of Allah. I am going to give you a proof that takes you around the world.

Transformed By The Love For Jalalludin Rumi

Lessons From The Story of Abu Lahab

Look at the most hated person in the history of Islam Abu Lahab. Allah in Qur'an says Abu Lahab will destroyed/finished. The most dreaded enemy of Rasul salla’Llahu alaihi wassalam. Abu Lahab was the power, he was the state, he was the Quraish leader, he was all the things against Rasul s.a.w. . Rasul s.a.w with his people was weak and Allah subhana wa ta'ala turned everything around. And Rasul s.a.w entered Makkah in triumph. And from this the great deen of Islam unfolded.

But what in this world is the destiny of Abu Lahab? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sends down ayat on Rasul saws and the name Abu Lahab becomes part of the blessed Qur'an al Karim. So this most hated of people's name becomes blessed because it is ayat Quranul-Karim of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's revelation. If the fly falls into the honey slowly, slowly it becomes completely honey. And So Abu Lahab becomes the absolute servant of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and a perpetual dhikr of Allah for all time.

So this changes our understanding of existence. The other day I was sitting with a blessed shaykh of the Naqshbandi tariqa, may Allah give him long years and increase his secret. And a man in his company spoke things against the way the talk was going with the shaykh. But you see when the shaykh heard what the matter was, he withdrew into himself; to his heart. The other man made the argument and very forceful, and very clever. And then after a time the shaykh sat up and he said this matter is very important. So in saying this he confirmed what was to be said and negated this gentleman. So then he said 'Do it'. So I said 'Look what has happened', the heart of the Shaykh has moved, the tongue of the Shaykh has spoken and now action will come. This is how things happen.

The Power of Baraka

The beginning of Qur'an Surat al-Baqarah. This Book is for the people who believe in the ghayb. Things come from the ghayb into the material world. As with you the impulse comes from your heart which is invisible and the act is. visible. So the hidden dominates the visible. The awliyya after their death cannot act, but they do not sleep, they have presence. And this we call baraka. Now if the heart is alive it can taste the baraka. This is not magic. Let me explain it to you in a very simple way. It is of baraka but of its opposite of trouble, stress. If in a family two people have had a row in a room and then you open the door and you come m but as you open the door they become silent and they do not move. Nothing has happened but you then say 'what is wrong?' because your spirit knows there is something not there but it is hidden. When you visit the Shaykh it is the opposite. If your heart is in a good state then Rasul saws said the mumin is the mirror of the mumin but the Shaykn's heart is polished so it is a clear mirror. So then you go and you do not see him you see you.

Secret of The Murid

My second Shaykh, Shaykh al-Fayturi RA (Benghazi, Libya) , he was 97 years and he was very feeble but you would see strong men come in, they would see him, and they would break down and weep. Why did they break down and weep? Not something about him but by him they saw themselves and they did not like it and they cried. Not for the Shaykh for themselves. But then the murid who wants something more, who wants knowledge of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, who wants to taste something of the presence of Allah. Hadrat al rabbani. Then something else happens. The ignorant or the beginner look at the shaykh and see themselves but the traffic is the other way.

With the murid who desires knowledge of Allah. Then the shaykh looks on the murid and that looking fills him up like pouring water from a jug into a cup and it can go on fling up till the cup overflows. So you can't see where the cup stops and where the water stops. And these waridat these openings, these illuminations come by the one who desires knowledge of Allah subhanahu wa ta' ala.

Shaykh ibn Ajiba, one of the scholars of this knowledge, said that the metaphor of this is like the turtle which lays its eggs in the sand and then the mother turtle exhausted having laid the eggs crawls back into the ocean and then just before going into the ocean, the mother turtle turns and glances at her eggs and goes back into the ocean. This he said is like the shaykh when he looks on the murid. The look of the mother turtle is to tell the eggs to come into the ocean so when they hatch they know to head for this great ocean. And this glance is like the glance of the shaykh on the murid to call him into the ocean of divine love.

The Nature and Task of The Khalif of Allah

My first Shaykh, Muhammad ibn al Habib said in his Diwan, if a man knew the meaning of his secret he would shed a tear with every breath he took. Because the real message of tawhid and of the power of Allah is not to make you feel low but to raise you up. And then we find that Allah has said in the Qur'an about man, we have made you a khalif on the earth. So that the real nature of the human being, if he knows from Allah who he is, then his real nature is that he is khalif. He is the representative on earth of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Khalifa in Arabic means the one who stands in in the absence of the King. Now this means that you are not something low but you are something very high with Allah. There is no one more important than you. Allah has made all of creation for you. He has made all of the stars for you. He sent the Prophets for you. They were sent for you. Their business with Allah is complete, it is finished. They came to let you complete your business with Allah. This is the difference between the kuffar and the muminun, that you know that you have a contract with Allah. Allah says in Qur'an, they will ask you 'who created the earth?' and the kuffar will say Allah. That is not what creates the kuffar, this is not what makes the kuffar. The kuffar is that. they cover up, that their destiny is under the power of Allah. They think they are outside the process. They think they will live forever or they say, 'I do not believe.' Not because they are brave on the face of nothingness but because they are afraid of the destiny. That is why properly speaking you cannot be a soldier and an atheist. Not possible. That is why a handful of Chechens defeated the whole Russian army. They should not have won. But they destroyed the Russians because the Russians thought we have our tanks, we have our guns and we are generals and soldiers. And they said these people are wolves. And the whole of Chechnya is one enormous tekke ( place/house of dhikr). They said no, we are khalifs of Allah. Allah knows something about us that the angels do not know. And they cried Allahu Akbar and the blood of the Russians turned to vinegar and they defeated them.

So you see with us, there is no politics. Once you know that you are khalif in the haqiqat, in the truth, then we remember that Rasul s.a.w said that 'As you are so you have people set over you.' So once you know that with Allah you are khalif~ then you will be governed by khalif. And so you see then you find that Allah says in Qur'an that 'Allah did not change a people until they changed what is in their heart.' Once you know that this instrument is alive, this thing called the heart is alive, everything changes.

What I have seen in Fatih, that has more power, borrowed attribute from Allah than all the kuffar if they came against it could defeat. But it doesn't need a battle because what is spreading is honey. And the people will say I like this honey I twill cure my sickness. But our honey is not the honey of the bee, our honey is the knowledge we get from Qur'an al Karirn. And Allah said Qur'an is a healing for the muminun. And Allah has said in the Qur'an that by the dhikr of Allah the heart of man is made tranquil, the heart is made tranquil.

So this change that is coming in the world is the awakening of Islam from the inward to outward. And this person who knows that they have been appointed to a great task by Allah, they clear everything out of the way. Now I must obey Allah and his Messenger. So what do I have to do? Shahada, salat, zakat, sawm, hajj. So I must confirm my Islam which is to make it public, do not hide it. And also you are a muslim because you are m a register, you are a muslim because you have been witnessed by muslims. Then you find salat, then you find for salat someone must stand in front of you. Who stands in front? The one with the best knowledge of Qur'an and it:is never a.problern you saw you are the Imam. Jamaat makes the Irnam. Not someone in a distant town. And the mosque is not the property of anybody just to close it or open it. Qur'an says - inna masajadi li’Llahi, the mosques belong to Allah.

Establishing Islam

So then you have shahada, salat, now there comes a point of Ramadan and zakat and at that -point you need an Arnir. In all our history, in the great history of the Osmaniyya and the muslims before it, the confirmation and the order of Ramadan came from the Amir after the witnessing of the moon had been confirmed in front of the Qadi. So you need someone over you who is himself the ordering Muslim leader. And that man is the one who says this one and this one are honourable men, they will collect the zakat. And the zakat must be paid in gold and silver. The great Shaykh Allish of Cairo at the time when the paper money came said it is haram to pay zakat by paper money. It is only worth the price of the paper. Something we would all now agree with.

Then for Hajj that power of authority must control Makkah and Madinah to fullfil the orders of Hajj. And this is what we call Sultaniyya. But this will be because of the people who love Allah. And say these things will happen in my lifetime not after my lifetime. We have to answer for what we know. Once you know there is no excuse and that is why we are people of success. And that is why when I sat with the great Naqshbandi shaykh and we were discussing this matter he was filled with great joy and he said 'We are ahlal dhikr, and we have met on the sirat al mustaqeem, so we will have success.' And by this he meant all of us.

Our Supplication To Allah:

May Allah give us success in this world and the next.
Allah increase in knowledge and Allah give us fear of him
and Allah take from us all fear of this world. Allah protect us from the enemies of Islam.

Allah raise up the station of this great Turkish nation. Allah make the people of this land the leaders of all the Muslims. By it bring back great wealth to this country, wealth of this world and the next. Allah restore to us the day when from Istanbul to Makkah /Madinah the caravans go out laden with gold for the Governors of Makkah and Madinah.

We ask Allah to purity the Arabistan from the rabbis and kuffar of the Americans. We ask Allah to give back to this great country those lands that it lost. Allah make it that to be a Turkish nationalist is to be a nationalist of a nation that stretches to the limits of the ummah. Allah give us the victory with Him. And Allah bless all of the people of this great city.

And Allah bless its police and awaken in them love of Allah and obedience to Allah. And help by them to purity this town of things that are forbidden by Allah. Allah bless its mothers and its children. Allah bless its teachers. Allah bless Shaykh Mahmoud Affendi and the great Naqshbandi shaykhs.

Allah give victory to all the muslims in this time. And as you are hosts in Makkah and Madinah Allah make you hosts in Istanbul to all the muslim ummah. Allah bless the son of Othman al Ghazi. Allah waken love in our heart for them.

Allah give light to the tomb of Sultan Abdal Hamid ulu haqan. Allah give us desire to say fatihah for him at his tomb. We now make fatihah that we ask a blessing that covers all the muslim world. Al-Fatiha

Sufism Against Zionism:

Letter of Sultan Abdal Hamid Khan II
To His Sufic Teacher Before Fall of Khalifate:

This message of Abdul-Hamid Khan, the last Sultan (d.1924)

having real power over the Ottoman Empire, was written in the times when the Sufi knowledge was so authoritative that each Islamic Ruler/Sultan/Governor and most of his subjects had their own Murshid (Spiritual Teacher). Unfortunately today not only the rulers, but also a great part of the Muslims, do not even know that it is the duty of every Muslim to follow the Sufi Sheikhs, according to the words of the great Imam Al-Ghazali.

Her is its text:

In the name of Allah the Compassionate, the Merciful! Let Allah, the God of the Worlds, be praised. Let there be peace and blessings upon the Prophet Mohammad, Messenger of Allah , Lord of All the Worlds.

I address the respected Sheikh of the Shazali Tariqat Mohammad Efendi Abu Shamat, the healer of the souls and the flasher of the hearts, the outstanding man of his times. After the greetings I want to say that I got your message of this May 22 and I thank Allah that you are in good health.

My lord, God being my helper, I devote days and nights to reciting wirds and I ask to always remember me in Your prayers. Let me share with You, and with lucid-minded people, my worries in respect of one very important question:

I left the post of the ruler of Caliphate only because of the obstacles and threats on the side of people who call them "Young Turks". "The Committee of Unity and Progress" (Ataturk was one of its leaders, the comment of the translator) obsessively insist on my agreement to form a national Jewish state in the sacred land of Palestine. But in spite of their obstinacy I strongly refused them. In the end they offered me 150 mln English pounds in gold, but again I refused and said the following to them.

" If you offer me all the gold of the world adding it to your 150 man, I won´t agree to give you the land. I have served the Islam and the ummah of Mohammad, peace and blessings be upon him, for more than 30 years, and I won´t cloud the Islamic history, the history of my fathers and grand fathers Ottoman sultans and caliphs".

After my definite refusal they decided to remove me from power, and after that they told me that they would transport me to Salonika and I had to resign. I praise my benefactor who didn´t let me bring shame on the Ottoman state and the Islamic world. I want to stop at this. I praise the Almighty once again and finish my letter.

I kiss your noble hands (my Sheikh) and hope that you won´t refuse my respect for you.

Greet all our brothers and friends, oh, my Excellent Teacher. Forgive me for such a long letter but I wanted you to be informed.
Peace, blessings and mercy of Allah upon You.

Verger of the Believers,

Abdul-Hamid ibn Abdul-Majid.
29 Ramadan 1329.
September 22 1911.

The Resume of the Letter :

- The Sufi sheikhs are not only teachers on the way of spiritual perfection, but also in usual daily life of the Muslims. And Sheikh Mohammad Abu Shamat (of Shadzili-Darqawi Tariqa) , who worried about the wealth of the Muslims no less than about the matters of the Almighty worshipping, which proves the inseparability of religion and the state in the Ottoman Caliphate, is an example of such behavior.

- The West trying to speed up the process of the Ottoman Islamic statehood began to form in its center an extremely aggressive Zionist state. At the same time the colonizers pursued a policy of division of the former Caliphate territories between local leaders who began to build their own authoritarian regimes afterwards. As a result Middle East remains the center of instability and political contradictions.

- The Zionist plan to occupy Palestine and to reinforce their influence was realized by making Ottoman Caliphate weak. The bribery of high-ranking officials and even state leaders is one of the Zionist methods.

- In his letter sultan Abdul-Hamid refused to cahoots with the Jews in order "not to cloud the Islamic history". But today we can see that many politicians have done the contrary by agreeing to partition Palestine.

The Discourse on Tawhid of Allah , Cape Town 2004

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

For example, the Shah of Iran in his heyday held a great pagan, pre-Islamic celebration in Iran and he gave all his guests golden lavatories, and he exalted them in the most vulgar way. When one sufi saw that one said, “Now he is absolutely finished,” but they said, “Why? It is not possible! He has the CIA, he has the American support, he has the worst secret service in the world, Savak, he cannot be defeated.” “But he has gone too high, so he will be defeated when someone goes into sajda, because that is the opposite, and the thing will turn over.”

So things are hidden in their form. That is what inspires the people of this spiritual quality to have wara’, to be careful. You want to be careful because you want that the form you are on is not one which is going to crash. That is why it is said that the true Sufi is like a black insect on a black stone in a room in the middle of the night — you do not even see him, because his carefulness, his wara’, his scrupulousness is his protection against the inexorability of the world’s actions.

Thus you will realise causes, and at last you will step on the path of iskat. You will step onto the path of being able to cast away the viewing of new events. This is an extraordinary statement: “The casting away of new events.” The people who see new events think that the world is in command of itself, that things are being determined by other people’s actions whereas the reality is that the new event has no newness and there is no reality of events — Allah is the Actor. Allah is making it happen. So what looks like a victory is a defeat, and what looks like a defeat is a victory.

When the Mongol armies came pouring down from Asia into the Subcontinent towards Europe, on the face of it, it was the greatest catastrophe possible. When Rumi’s father, who was a very great ‘alim, got to Baghdad he went to warn the people, but they did not listen. He told them this thing was happening. When the great Khan came and slaughtered these people, he mounted the mimbar and made his famous statement, “I am the scourge of Allah.” He did not say that he was the scourge against Allah, but, “I am the scourge of Allah.” He had the tawhid which they had lost! — because it was a punishment from Allah.

Rasul, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said, “The child is the hidden secret of the father,” and the grandchild of the Mongol leader became the first of the Muslim rulers who then dominated the whole world. All the Moghul inheritance came from his sons. So what had looked like a disaster had in fact, hidden in it, this tremendous event.

Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi puts it another way, he says, “There is nothing in this world that is not a blessing for one person and a curse for somebody else.” He said, “The sultan dies and some of his family are executed and the others are mourning and they lose their positions, their palaces, and at the same time the new sultan comes and he gives amnesty and hundreds of prisoners are released from prison.”

So the one event, for some it brings them low and for others it raises them up. This is the tawhid of the khass and it comes with fana’ and it is clarified by jam’. Jam’ is a very important word for the Sufis, and it means gatheredness. It is when the slave does not experience himself as separate and distinct, but where all existence is somehow gathered together in his experience, so his reality does not end with his limbs or his intellect.

This knowledge will be one which attracts those who aspire to tawhid. In other words, the people of the elite are like the red sulphur. They draw to them those people who wish to have this same quality of knowledge. This understanding of tawhid is something that transmits, and the model of this is Rasul, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, who poured out this knowledge onto the people around him, and it pours from the people of knowledge onto the ones who desire this knowledge. It is an alchemical process that transforms the hearts.

Allahumma! Oh Allah give us an Iman that is lasting.

O Allah, give us knowledge throughout our life that draws us near to You.

We ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta’ala, to keep us among the company of the Salihun.

We ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta’ala, for a taste of the company of the Salihun.

We ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta’ala, to keep us in the circles of knowledge,

to keep us in the company of the people of knowledge.

We ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta’ala, to make us lovers of Him.

We ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta’ala, to give us a destiny

which draws us always nearer to Him.

We ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta’ala, to give us a great expectation

of His mercy and His light.

The Gold Thread : Confucian or Sufic Way

Through The Wheat Fields of China and Fez –(Robert Luongo, New York 1995)

(Note: Subtle warning. This essay is a long reflection, abstruse, true and misleading.

It is real plus fictional encounters from multi-sources.At the end, the reader had to make a choice. Be free or perplexed. A seeker with six masks. Ask Wu Ming, Shabistari, Hafiz or Chuang Tzi. Attar is too fragrant. )

This morning after Dawn Fajar prayer at 5.38 am Nov.2006, as the seeker goes down to his Library room and his eyes fall unto a little grey Book. In the centre, two Strange Chinese characters in Red appear in a Green background. Bingo…Nothing is Coincidence as my forward oriented Friend from Jakarta named his avatar.

Published by Stranger Press c/o Portobello Books, 328 Portobello Road, London W10 5RM.
Library of Congress Catalog No.95-0722311.

ISBN 0-9631722-4-7 Remember this book. Will quoted later as ..GT.RL.SQ. Not written for the over fed. Guide To Kulchur, printed in 1938. Ezra Pound- Cantos/Confucian Way

One two-one two flowing football run with Cesc Fabregas and Theo Walcott will kick your nuts to arrived at Jakarta sufi teahut. Nothing is true Today. We all lived in a world of Netscape..controlled by a tiny usurocracy elite. Their best joke is..the Bankers are laughing all the way to Hollywood. Throw away your worthless US dollars. Buy and use Gold dinars instead.

All Money is False. Replace first number with first alphabet. 1221 and ends with Special letter no.19. Guess it, then you can read those blogs.

( Are you confused. Enter the wrong page. Where reality start and fiction ends. Jean Rufin Globalia revisited by Abu Bakr Rieger).

BismiLlahir- Rahmanir- Rahim, a sufi pointed out it consist of 19 Letters and cover 24 Hours if counted in romanized scripts. Try it. No Coincidence. We had met before and we will encounter you soon.

Our best Grammy award this 2009 Year of the Phoenix goes to Satria Neo. The rejunevated Matrix filasufer. Much older now at age eighty eight minus two. Why, Sidi Oracle had annihilated his alter ego and cold storaged from 2003-2005 to the Nusantara Archipelago Orchid Farms at remote Bandung mountains. While the Trilogy Ring hobbits conjured up the Desert Storm operation at faraway which costs millions of innocent Iraqis women and children lives. Two years ..is a long time in Politics. Now it is Time ripe for Bliar and Blush to go fishing at Cape Bloom. Lots of salmon and bears at the Mckenzie River. Enron USD30 billion collapse hardly noticed. Where all the iraqi men gone ? Bombing and killing each others. Civilians are only collateral casualties. Lebanon suddenly wrecked by 200,000 tonnes of missiles and bombs and need USD50.0 billion from IMF,World Bank and UE funds to rebuild.

Ask the I Ching hexagram number 86: May be IMF Rule No.74. In mandarin means, Quick Death. Refer to Joel Yap weekly Feng Shui column in STAR:

1. Rebels must be dealt harshly.

2. Sage kings or Amirs cannot be disobeyed.

3. The Empire shall be attacked by quitoxic hackers..

4. Yunus Emre can sing and travels freely in Anatolia and Riau

5. China hold USD300.0 billion US Treasury Bonds. Poorer every day.

6. (Oxford Dictionary on azzuri : tied up, not free, slavery, spies)

7. USA National Debt stands at US100.0 Trillions, just a guess.

8. Let us remake Wagner Trilogy of the Rings.

Now this is my Acknowledgment to the old company of Fez fuqara :

Credit is to Dr. Abdal Alim Palmer for his assistant with the etymology of the Chinese characters.

( Who can get me a copy of his book-

The Pattern of Man, maybe published in New York in 1980)

I would like to thank Abdassamad Clarke of Norwich, England and Nick Feher of Northern California, two talented and exceedingly patient proof readers and editors, for their help in preparing the manuscript for print.

Appropriately left to Last, as the single most important influence and aid in my own life’s Journey, is my Sufic Master Shaykh Dr.Abdal Qadir as-Sufi , whom I thank for his pre-eminent contribution toward my accomplishing this study of Ezra Pound. His first novel The Book of Strangers-1972, Luzac, London planted the seeds of this literary adventure almost like Szuma Chien- Record of The Historians.

Miftah al-Wird: Key to the Source. Now we are going to unravel the 2 Chinese characters at

The ideogram depicts the sun’s silk descending as tensile rays:

Making Clear (bayan), Discriminating (furqan),

Revealing ( kasyfu), Manifesting ( izhar ):

descending light held taut between the Celestial

and the Terrestial ( samawi /ardhi ), intersecting

with Leaves or layers of shale, as horizontals:

descending warp threads as they cross the woof.

An elite is distinguished by those who, while seeking that ‘blinding light’, recognized that they are charged in this world with stabling ‘order’ and ‘brotherly deference’. Hence, no Taozers mooching about, begging for alms to build gold palaces for the ‘Bhud’. And since young Sidhartha rejected all that and set out to travel, what makes them think he would want that place. ‘No Monkery’, said the Prophet. Confucius, too were not no taozer, while he was on the Tao(Path) of the Ancients. Unlike the passive interpretation that led to a spiritual decadence, Master Kung Fu Tze and rulers who followed him in his mobilized understanding were concerned with ‘order-tao’ and ‘brotherly deference’.

At the end of his life, Pound believed he didn’t know much. He was freed of a great illusion.

Do not Move ( oh seeker )

Let the Wind speak ( put forward by the One )

That is Paradise (of Gnosis- Gatheredness without Frontier)

: Notes and Fragments ( p.112)

Post Face (page 113)

There was a great man of the 18th century by the name of Mawlay al-Arabi ad-Darqawi who said an extraordinary thing. This man who is called Shaykh of Instruction, said about the path (the Way) of Knowledge that lies through the Wheat Field. He meant by this that the way (tao or tariqa) is Service : serving people. In this we can hear the words of the ancient Chinese sages who, while occupied with the rectification and purification of their hearts, simultaneously were engaged in establishing justice, maintaining the granaries (food supply), facilitating irrigation and cultivation of the land and proctecting the channels of distribution and commerce.

They were the preservers of the forms of courtesy (adab) and noble character (khulq) through the remembrance of the still more ancient odes and rituals. It is precisely by turning away (tajrid) from the self and its arena of worldly ambition (zuhd) together with turning towards the needs of the others (pillar of zakat) and accepting ( and taking) authority (amirship) that real leadership (khalifate-sultaniyya) comes about.

Living today there is a teacher who is the inheritor of this knowledge and is the heir of Shaykh ad-Darqawi. Having benefit and privilege of sitting in his company I will relate what he explained as a further clarification of the line by the Master ad-Darqawi:

‘the Way leads through the Wheat Fields’

Paraphrasing from memory, the understanding gathered was this:

‘Those people who seek that knowledge which leads

on to perfection of Absolute Being in which all existence

other than the Existent (Real)

is annihilated are like growing field of wheat.

These people, bowing and bending in the wind, rising up

and standing golden brown in the summer’s sun are the shafts

that will make the autumn’s harvest.

Now this wheat must be cut, threshed and the chaff separated, then ground under the weight of enormous stones to be turned into flour. This flour must be salted and yeasted, allowed to rise, then punched down to rise again. The dough is then molded and shaped and put into ovens and baked under s great heat. What come out is bread that now must be sliced and given to people to eat.

The kernel of this metaphor is that those people of Knowledge are the leaders : they establish governance based on justice; they clean up and purify the trading markets, I mean by prohibiting usury, fraud and any form of monopoly.

Such a people, no longer driven by ambition and pride, no longer imagining that they are creators of their actions, are set Free.

This is the condition of those that rule and are caretakers of traditions and the preservers of language’.

Ezra Pound recognized the existence of this quality of being in the great Chinese sages and to, a somewhat more limited degree, in other of his heroes who appear in the Cantos.

It cannot be said however that Pound possessed the Science how to make men and women who are able to change both themselves and the world around them. That is another matter. The fact that he was able to see some of the triumphant possibilities that belong to man, expressing their deepest nature, raises him up as signpost on the road side. Herein lies the epitaph of the poet.

The analogy of the wheat field is drawn from a source that affirms a knowing of how to guide and instruct, through the steps of transformation, those people who desire it. This is the highest knowledge. My teacher Shaykh Abdal Qadir as-sufi who

encouraged me to write this book (in mind of the need of future

Eastern disciples), is such a rare model teacher.

The knowledge that is gained, as I understand it, changes one’s inwardness as well as how one lives. How are we in our homes, how we transact in the world, the money we use, must all be different.

The gold thread in the pattern goes on and on. We must realize our Need and it must be Great. Unable to accept being a slave to tyranny, man needs courage to change.

The terra firma of our very existence is under siege. How we transact in our lives, what in Arabic called Deen, must be freed from the impediments of ignorance and tyranny.

I keep hearing the lines from the Cantos LXXXI ’. The man saw it all ! exclaimed my campanero’ as we sat in the Cypriot café across from Kensington Garden. London, England. Hold your breath. Whisper :

‘Andiamo’. Fa ayna tazhabun. Antumul fuqara.

The ideogram ‘hsien’ a pierching light, is enormously important to the understanding of Pound. It is the light that descend upon man, Dante’s Divine Intellect. ..the pre-Socratic philosophers and Ibn Rushd and Ibn Sina and al-Kindi come into it. The Neo-Confucian sages, also, of course, are present. These are the men of great intellect within the discourse of The Cantos IV.

From the well planned gardens of the Confucian China,

through the date groves of Madinah and on into Andalucia

(Averroes was born in Cordoba), a well Trodden Path can be Found.

At the age of sixteen, this seeker set off for the University of Pennsylvania. Hilda said: ‘ He was immensely sophiscated, immensely superior, rough and ready..One would dance with him for what he might say !’. He publish his first volume of poems- A Lume Spento. He also met T.S.Elliot, who also endured trials of brotherhood and intimate collaboration that spanned more than 50 years. He nailed a notice of the Wall Street:

A NATION

THAT WILL NOT GET ITSELF

INTO DEBT

DRIVES THE USURERS

TO FURY

‘I o venni in luogo d’ogni luce muto’

This corrupting the ‘word’, abuse of ‘real money’ in its deepest Confucian sense, give rise to usury. Aristotle said;

‘ Money is not energy nor it is procreative.

You cannot inseminate (sexualize) with it or plant it.

Money is not a commodity and therefore not to be rented

(what do we say today about Loan, Credit, Treasury Bills, Future-Junks Bond, Stocks and Shares that fluctuate its values every seconds on

the Dow Jones, Nikkei, LSE, NasdaQ… currencies cyber robotic numbers moving across the world to suck up men women children bloods, sweats and tears. More Mr. Smiths replicate and enter into your friends bodies and troubling us unknowingly. Kill the self. Wipe out the Nafs. Get unwired from blue rated Mirrors to your desires.

In Malaysia, one advert proudly said : Get your Islamic Platinum Mastercard. No compounding interest monthly, Unsurpassable spending power to Muslims world wide..”. Islamic bond markets worth RM1.5 trillions are ripe for takings.

PART TWO – THE GOLD THREAD – ROBERT LUONGO

Nine Sages taught us : ‘ Keep to silent, when in unknown spiritual states. But only One Sage whispering to us : Speak little, swim in your own ocean, before emerging to flash your Dragon-like wisdom Fire’.

Canto XCVIII :

The Praiseworthy in sympathy : ‘is part of Religion’

It’s passion would be ‘ seeking knowledge even unto China.

The strength of men Kuan Nine decrees, 8th essay.

Is in grain Tzu Canto CVI.

The ideogram Kuan = To Govern.

Second ideogram Tzu = the Master

( Very close the the meaning of Khalifa in Arabic. Ba’aya is to obey/give authority-power to a ruler, demanded by Shariat/Sunna).

When joined give us the acronym name for the Neo Confucian

Kuan Chung, minister (Wazir) of one Province. ( Is he both a Ruler and

A Sagely man who wrote the 9th Decrees (Fatwa)

The Prophet said in sixth century C.D. ;

‘ Leadership is a responsibility Binding on good men’.

‘ His wanting it disqualified him from having it’.

Making a Scene Shift, a literary device or trick as Ezra called them

To show two correlatives in history (two ends of one tally stick).

Consequently we will ask:

Why are Scottish and Irish people are not allowed

To have free lands ? Why, with both Spain and

France being great leaders of democracies, are

The neighboring people of the Basque nation

Not allowed to exist as such ? Not free to Govern my own people.

Mencius , the Confucian who lived 100 years after the Master, said :

‘ None of our Sages ever wanted or sought public office. They took it as obligation binding upon them. When out of office, they returned to their original work of rectifying (purification-illumination) their hearts ‘

Motto : It is a bank privilege to earn interest

On money which it create out of nothing.

Ask the International Hedge Fund Managers – reported by NST 12 September 2006 and praised by Sekuntrate Fizance Minstor’ , Qarazya welcome the USD300 billions hot money , foreign ventures capital to invest in our local financial Markets.

When the Master was asked about how to rule, Confucius warned ;

“First act of the Government-Rulers is to call things by their Right Names, Ming Qing ’. What is the World Money now ? Can we use any currency we like when we travel ? No. Just a Plastic Card will Do !. Give me your Golden Secret PIN Account Number !.

Gentle Man, your are just a Number and Computer Code. The Matrix has invaded your Consciousness, no way out. May trekking into the Desert of Tafilalet south Maghribi or Rajastan desert , Ajmer Sharif where the great Chistiyya masters used to roam and do da’wah among the poors..

Now in order to Survive, crafty Old Chuang Tzu give us several pathways as follow :

Hold on to the Unwobbling Pivot ( Chung Yung )

Sit with teachers who Instruct from the Great Learning (Ta Hsio)

Few will understand from The Analect (Lun Yun)

Then refer to Ernest Fenollosa, Gaudier Brzeska.

The Century of Usurocracy brought about the final

Destruction of all Europe’s ruling monarchies as well

As the Islamic Caliphate.

Sought the Four Axis (Awtad) who will often have

To speak the Language of the Time, the

Dialect of the Place

( p. 8 first line, no fiction here, check GT.RLSQ)

More Quotation From The Gold Thread

Robert Luongo’s study of Ezra Pound’s reveals a fundamental awareness; that whenever men are truly free they will chose leaders from amongst themselves who have placed self discipline and the preservation of values as their guiding principles. Natural order emerges whereby leadership becomes an ‘ obligation binding on good men’

Returning to an example from Pound’s translation of the Ta Hsio of Confucius, a definitive clarification of the ageless wisdom follows:

‘ The men of old (ancient sages), wanting to clarify and diffuse throughout the empire that light which comes from looking into the heart and when then acting , first set up good government in their own states; wanting good government in their states, they first establish order in their own families; wanting order in home, they first disciplined themselves; desiring self-discipline, they rectified their hearts and wanting to rectify their hearts, they sought precise verbal definitions of their thoughts (tones given off by the heart), wishing to attain precise definition (of words/language), they set out to extend their knowledge to utmost. This completion of knowledge is rooted in sorting things (reality) into organic categories (of meanings/usage).’

The sickness of our age can be traced to the perversion of ‘money, culminating in deaths of countless numbers, the devastation taking place in Brazil, Mexico, Somalia, along with the destruction of the very lungs of our planets (forests)…this all due to humanly and mathematically impossible national debts.

DILIGITE IUSTITIAM QUI IUDICATIS TERRAM.

..that will exist between men of knowledge, regardless of the varying times and places in which they lived, is true, it is imperative

to seek new Terrain.

The highest role for man is to point towards those of knowledge.

“ There came a man running from the furthest part of the city calling: follow the Messengers’ is a verse from the Koran that points to a person who will speak up.

Mencius said : Is there any difference between killing him

With a sword and with a system of government ?”

The Cantos are as much a great telling of history, seen from the perspicacious prow of the poet’s craft , as they are one man’s passionate response to the Divine. His search for knowledge was never divorce from action.

Oh you who believe, fear God

And give up what remains of your demand

For usury, if you are indeed believers.

If you do not, take notice

Of War from God and His Messenger -Quran: 2:275-279

P.104. Without the love of learning, good men become bad ones.

You have heard the Six Words and the Six Becloudings ?

There is love of being benevolent

Without the love of learning, the

Beclouding here leads to foolish simplicity.

The love of knowing without the love

Of learning, whereof the beclouding brings

Dissipation of mind.

Of being sincere without the love of learning

Here beclouding causes disregard of the consequence.

Of straight forwardness without the

Love of learning whereof beclouding leads to rudeness.

Of boldness, without the love of learning, whereof

The beclouding bring insubordination.

The love of firmness with the love of learning,

Whereof the beclouding conduces to extravagant conduct.

Until this lines, reader should realize that Robert Luongo from New York is a daring sophisicated muslim and far more significant he had sat at the circle of the Master as an American faqir.

Meanwhile we heard that Master Izi, Dr.Zuigan and Prof. Anqaravi last year had successfully renovated their Dailin Nur Institute in the hilly Miyazaki Prefecture, Kyoto, Japan. New students intake will begin in summer June 2007. Are you interested or your friends.

Zen Dialogue At Putrajaya Lake Club:Part 2

1. We wish to recapture the unique encounter with Mr.Shu Ming at Putrajaya Mosque (new capital city of Malaysia situated 40 km from Kuala Lumpur) and Dinner at Perdana Lake Club last Wednesday night (28 .11.2006) for the benefit of posterity.

2. We told him, “ Mr Shu, make tonight meeting the once in a life time experience you never forget ! By the courtesy and sacrifice of my close friend Mr.Lua Baoxin , he brought this new stranger from Beijing, China to see us, to discuss about Islam, about his research and seeking the True Path and to get direct knowledge of Sufism from the wonderful people. The vast freedom, peaceful life and hectic materialism also, and if not careful will be overhelmed by torrents of biased information and imaginative rebranding of islamic institutions and islamic products and labels.


3. Shu Ming was very fascinated by a sufic book presented by Mr.Lua- ‘The Sky Is Not The Limit’ by Amatullah Amstrong describing the spiritual journey of an Australian women in 21st century. Here are the few conversation, questions and aswers that we managed to record from the blessed memory of that night as follow :


Mr.Shu, there is Zen saying, “ If you meet Buddha on the road of your travel for knowledge and seeking the realization of truth, then kill him ! “. The stone bridge of Chau Chao both asses and horses galloping across. Do you see it or it is a wooden bridge ?.


4. Have you heard of this story ? Can you explain why the student/monk was advised to kill the Buddha ? Mr. Shu was smiling, thinking hard and we turned to Mr.Lua, “ Can you explain it , dont worry , as there are not right or wrong answers, just what come across your mind ! “.


5. Rumi said: ‘You are your own bird. You are prey , you set trap. You breaks free !


6. Here is Mr.Lua’s answer : “ You see, what important in the story is that most ordinary monks or students are too engrossed in meditation to attain buddhahood...or as if they really imagine going to meet and encounter the Honored One on the road ! What the Masters taught here : Let destroy this imaganitaion ! - hence –‘Kill buddha ‘. Finish it off, throw away this illusion, this word and this fabricated story. Do you ever think to meet real Buddha in your present realm, your age now ? So where is the real wisdom lies ? Where we can attain this Path, this Truth as one inward reality with our self ?


7. Mr.Lua continues : “ In my humble opinion, the real buddhahood/dharma is inside each person, only he had to uncover it by the right practice, right teaching and the right moment when the seeker are willing to transcend the worldly limitations. The duty of the Masters are merely to assist this process, to push the seekers to the abyss where no escape route is possible. To make a jump of life and death. To cut off attachment, to immerse in the Power of Te’ or Oneness of Tao, annihilated in the inter-play of Yin-Yang life forces. La haula wa quwwata illa bi’Llahil-Aliyyil Azim.


8. There is no change/transformation or action or anything else that can alters what Allah decreed planning and the unfolding of the creational event. If anyone who are doing something in this world without knowing it to accord or against the Divine Orders, then they are still in the guessing game. Glory to the One whose Hands hold the Dominion of Existence and Unto Him are our Returning (Surah Yasin).


9. Mr.Shu Ming told us, he went the Book Shop Kinokuniya at Kuala Lumpur City C entre and suprised at the rich varities of chinese, english and islamic books that satiated his spiritual hunger which he cannot find in Beijing, Shanghai or Hong Kong.


10. We recalled one of Master Izi poem in written in 1998 :


“ Some matters are beyond the gnostic/wali hands.
Some seekers are raw, some old and blind.
Yet they see , hear and can question but got lost.
Honey and Poison both exist in my Tea Garden,
who dare to enter and drink it ? “.


11. One cup of Real Tea refresh the spirit. Ippuku Qing Shan !