In the Mystic Footsteps of Saints, VOLUME 1 (Shaykh Nazim, 153 pages, 3/10)
https://www.nvrislam.net/index.php?j=eng&post=6022
ed in London ot in Cyprus, and it may grow in cither place. le it geows tn London, it will, as a result of the cold and wet climate, remain fresh over a long period of ame, but will not be fragrant. ff it grows in Cyprus, on the other hand, because of the hot and dry chmate it will only remain fresh for a short period of tume, but will be very fragrant while it lasts. Whatever the characteristics of is life, a rose ig a tose, in London or m Cyprus, and never will it be jasmine or lilac
28 Shaykh Nazim Adil Al Haqqani
The point is that the Creator has given each person a umique and distinct personality. Even identical nvins have unnustakably different personalities, so 1 am not referring to “heredity” (as identical twins are genetically identical). | am not promoting the effects of “heredity” over those of “environment, but am referring to another factor, a spititual one, beyond the scope of psychological debate. ur grandshaykh explaine ~“d that each petsonality ts ah emanation of a divine Name, a unique attribute of God, and that there are as maany divine attributes as there are human beings — and more, endlessly, Therefore, on the purest spititual level, each and every tadivt idual is a unique manifestation
of God.
In the Quranic rendering of the story of rhe Last Supper, the twelve apostles asked Jesus: “fy pour Lond able ta cause a supper in descend fo ag from heaven?”
Notice that they did not ask if “our Lord” or “the Lord” could cause the marufesiation of this miracle, but whether “your Lord” could. Don't let this wording lead you to believe that the apostles were skeptics regarding the existence of God, and therefore said “your Lord” rather than “our Lord” or “the Lord.” No, their belief in the existence of God was unshakable. They said “your Lord” because the performance of this miracle was directly related to the attributes of God manifest in and through Jesus Christ, the atteibutes that enabled him to manifest so many miracles.
In the same way that the divine manifested through Jesus in just that way, so does the divine manifest through each and every personality — that is the essence of each soul, and #18 not subject to change. But just as the beauty of a diamond may be enhanced by a beautiful gold ting or be hidden by wrapping it in cotton, so do external influences determine to what extent that divine personality §s able to shine forth.
Question: Psychoanalysis claims that problems stem from the personality, but you are sayine that the personality is beyond these influences, and that only some superficial conditioning causes behavior abnormalities,
ag Mystic Footsteps
Shaki Nagin: The divinely ordained personality is always sound and intact, but as, for example, a consistently strong wind may cause a ttee to grow crooked so one’s environment can affect one’s development. We must draw a distinction between “essence” and “attribute.” ‘There is an essence to everything. You are tall, for example, but without a body “tall” is a meaningless adjective. Similarly, “good” and “bad” manifestations are impossible without a petson to manifest them. It is only the adjectives that are influenced by the atmosphere. One hundred years ago there was a religiously observant atmosphere in this country, now there is an atheist atmosphere, and the manifestations of this atmosphere can only be altered with the greatest difficulty.
(uestion: For example, a man may be raised in a quarrelsome surrounding, and thus be grows up fearful. You may encourage him to leave the situation he is in, but by now he has internalized this quartelsomeness and carries it with him. What can be done to help such a persone
Shayée Nexen It is for this reason that children must be y, in a way that impacts good characteristics to
brought up prope them. Of course this is only possible if we possess these good characteristics ourselves. According to the holy Prophet, newborn babies are all born in perfect harmony with their Lord’s will — iris only the parents who influence them to oppose His will. Despite this, the essenec 1s ever the same manitestation of divine perfection — like indelible ink that can be covered but never removed. In the end, all of those coats of cheap paint will Hake off and there will retain only the original untaded color. This is what is referred to in the holy Quran as “Allah’s dye.”
You may use your position as a psychiatrist in order to apply “paint remover.” You are obliged, however, to quickly apply another layer, but a more acceptable one. Unfortunately, most psychiatrists have ne “paint remover” all, and ate only applying the new coat over the old one. Thus they estranpe cher patients even more from that original divine coat, so that in the end there is even mote to remove.
30 Shaykh Nazim Adil Al Hagqani
Question: Shar method can 1 apply as a “paint remover’? If 1 mention to people anything even remotely related to religion they get angty and stop listening.
dbarah Naive You must locate the open door. People have an allergy agamst religion, so don’t mention ic We have ninety nine methods to be utilized in the treatment of disturbed people, so when you have incorporated enough of this teaching you will teceive inspiration that will guide you to the application of suitable methods. In the meanume vou must keep a journal in which you record the details of your patients’ afflictions, and analyze their petsonalitics.
Question Now Drm going to be a ide more difficult. One notices many personality disorders armong your disciples — myself included — we needy’t talk only of mental patients. Despite the practices we follow and the conscious attempts we make to improve ourseives, the character disorders seem to persist. | am not saying thar there is no improvement or progress, bur it can be observed that many of the problems are sull there, even in some eases after many years.
déayee Nazins No psychiatrist can ever encounter as niuch resistance to the treatment he is giving his patients as we encounter in our training of Sufi aspirants. The epo is allergic to “paint remover”; that is why vou, in your position, can only hope te temove a particularly unsatisfactory layer and quickly replace it with another. My job is one that encounters serious and terrible resistance from the ego, as Tam trying to remove all the paint and lay bare the original “dye of Allah” which pertains to the divine essenee, the ofiginal spiritual personality. Bur the ego wants only that as lavers of paint are never reraoved. Even when people come to see a Sufi shaykh their egos are hoping to obtain more adomments, but itis our duty to take evervthing from the hands of the ege, mot to adorn it far ther: to uadermine its possessiveness and dissipate acquired characteristics in favor of oripmal ones.
Therefore, when people first come 1 ty to give them something, but when T leave 1 collect it from them. If T were to say
3} Mystic Footsteps
this to you at first and immediately set to removing the layers of eee, quickly you would all escape from my hands and T would finally be able to retire. To move a mountain is an easier task than removing onc of the acquired characteristics of our egos. Our egos are but vehicles to make possible for our souls to exist im this realm, but the ego puts forward claims to being the man and not just the horse. Qur job is to ayake this all clear and to help people get their horses under control. If this task were casy, all religious scholars would be shaykhs and ail shaykhe would he Grand Masters. But the ego is so difficult to tackle that we can never find such facility in teaching high stations ~ quite to the contrary. We find most aspirants bogged down at their present lev els and sinking.
As for psychiatrists, only a few of them understand the nature of personality and how to go about changing i. Most of them add only more to the already heavy burden of their customers ~ this you know better than 1. They cannot affect the soul with their methods; at best they can train the horse to behave a litde more obediently. In order to atfect the rider of the horse there must be a murshid (master or guide) at work. A real murshid must know what to do for his patients, or else he is not a guide. [fa doctor doesn’t know how to treat his patients’ ilinesses he is useless. He may have read so many medical books, but if he doesn’t know what to do wherl a sick person comes to him he is useless.
Guestion: You say that every person is gunded by one attribute of Allah. Lfa person Jearns this attribute does it serve as a guideline for bina in his quest to teach his goal?
Shaykh Naxiuw: Yes, and it is important to know it, but it is a cifficule burden of knowledge to catty now. It is of utmost importance that you first arrive to the point of controlling your horses, or you ray attack people with the power you have gained. Who in their tight mind would grant me permission to drive a truck or a bus? I would only leave a trail of wreckape im my wake. I cart even control a small car, so what about those huge vehicles? Therefore, a mueshid will never impart any glimpse of the rcalities
32 Shaykh Nazim Adil Al Hagqani
of the indivicual divine names without having first established that aspirant in the control of his horse.
(westion: Woat happens ifa person dies without these layers of ceo having been removed?
Shaye Nagin: That original deve must still appear. ‘Phat person may appear to you to be under the influence of illusion, but at. the tune of death Allah is pursuing His Claims on His servants, and
though Saten may fighe for him, Allah is always victorious. He says:
“Ok Satan, even though this person may lave followed you in his actions, the essence which I granted him has been preserved intact.” These ace the secrets of destiny, and ne one can speak of them.
feuestion: What about people who refuse to accept a puider
Saiayéh Nason Thee horses ace very strong and wild. If you approach them. from the front they will bite you, if from the back
they will kick.
Guestion: When 1 organize seminars for people, I reahive that they “have a great deal of resistance to this kind of approach, to fighting the ego, rather they want to have access to miraculous powers and insights to travel astrally, read people’s minds, and they want to pain these powers by any means — except Hehtme the ego.
Shaye Nagun Exeryone wants to become a doctor of enginecr without the trouble of going to a university and struggling through long and arduous studies, They all waut to bug imstant diplomas: but what validity do they haver Jf I were to go to your country and claim that I was an espert on anything, even psy chiatry, they would say to me, “Where are you coming from, the moon?” Yes, people are foolish. They want to achierc everything without effort, to ike everpthing wehoat stretching out theic hands. It is not easy to receive spiritual authority.
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Question: Alla Almighty has created distinctions between people. Do these apparent distinctions relate only to the attributes of their egos of also to theit spiritual essences?
Shaves Nazie: Faust as there ate endless stars in the sky, cach having distinct characteristics, so do people’s inser realities differ, If the omer realities of even one person were to be completely uaveiled, the stars and the whole universe would vanish, so don’t think chat we are just caticatn ig an unchanging realty in the Divine Presence, bur Allah Almighty has created so many different kinds of people to benefit each other through theit mteraction, to mutually reveal divine attributes. We can say that, for as many of the children of Adam as appear in existence, there arc as many distinct divine attributes: but that is only an approximation, for the realiry cannot be explained through words nor to the mind.
ss. The essential ceality of cach soul
ntl we are able to rise above the level of the mind, people themselves serve as the means of attaining a state of preparedness for spiritual hfe, and our various conflicts and “scrapes” serve ag a means of polishing the heart.
Once, in the market of Damascus, | observed a blacksmith polishing some chains. How did he do u? The middle part of the chain was wrapped m a skin, while four, sts or eight people pulled each end back and forth. lhrough this scraping together the chains were polished. We must be open to the wisdom around us.
34 Shaykh Nazim Adil Al Hagqani
*g Some Questions of an Expatriate Muslim
(Guestions One of the points that draws Westerners to Islam is the spirit of universal religion contaied im it, the ideal of one nation, of a brotherhood that potentially encompasses all of mankind, every kitd ated color. Ia practice however, ove sul finds oneself relating mote closely to people of one’s own cultural or ethnic background, than to those whose background is similar in some respects, and only distantly io people whose life experiences have been totally different.
Shayka Nazin: How shall Westerners, people who have lived the much sought after life and have sought after sormething better, feel much affinity with people who are obsessed only with that way of hfe you already found lackinge When you tell them your experiences you should feel only frustrated and as if you are talking to the wall. For them you are strange and threatennap, it is as if you were ridiculing thera and their aspirations, They may feel especially bewildered when you appear in the comfortable nattve clothes of their native lands, when they ane very proud to have finally become “etwilized.” It is necessary for them to think of you as some sort of Afghani mountaineers or Egyptian peasants.
Tt ts matural for people of different cultures to be intrigued by certain aspects of other cultures, ever if in only manifests itself in eating the food of that countey from time to time in a restaurant. Stil, there myuast be that attraction, and it is pleasing to Allah, as He saick
35 Mystic Footsteps
“f Aave made you to be of different colors and languages that you may come to Sow each other, and to xaderstand that the bert of yer is only tbe one who honors bis Lord.”
Tt is also only natutal that there should be some clement of confusion in the attempts by people of one culture to understand those of another.
It is not suepetsing that we should incline towards those things that are familiar to us from childhood, and towards people who share those experiences, Dor’: let chat disturb you, as in reality it is a reflection of our longing for our original spiritual homeland, for as the holy Prophet said, “Love ef ome y bemvedand iv of fateh,”
Grestion: L have been living in Muslim countries for a long time, but stall T clon’t feel entirely at home there, nor any longer, ia the land of my birth,
Shayei Nagi: We shall send you to the moon. Feeling that one is neither Occidental nor Oriental is a sign of real faith, as the holy Quran declares that divine lights are neither Oriental nor Occidental. Your goal must be to belong to your Lord, not to East or to West. Identification with one’s worldly homeland and with all that pettains to it is a teflection of the soul’s longing for its heavenly homeland; but we must remember that it is only a reflection and not the original, Untd we have love for our original homeland we will hate the very thought of death, shrink from our reunion with our Lord, and that is very dangerous. Therefore, we are seeking a way to increase Our faith to the level where we will be burning to meet Him, and we must know that He will be pleased to receive Us.
36 Shaykh Nazim Adil Al Haqqani
§ The Breakdown of the Family
Cuestion: Que of the most alarming developments in modern society is the breakdown of the family. Mirst, the extended frnaily ceased to exert Hs previous influence on peopis, and the nuclear family became the primary identification for individuals. Subsequently, the nuclear family has proved to be built on shaky foundations. Nowadays, so many children grow up with only one parent, and old people are relegated to old age homes. What is happening to mankind?
Shaykh Nustve: AQ these axe symptoms of the disease. The tree of humanity has been stricken with the blight of atheism. | am not referring tou blight that has afflicted « branch or two, but to one that bas eotted all the branches to the core. Therefore, what is ulumately called for is a drastic cutting back of that tree, so that new, healthy and strong branches may emerge from the trunk. But, as Wis not in our power to apply any general measures we must be content with the role of one who digs a well in the middle of a barren wilderness, and thereby extracts enough water ta make a few trees bloom. Tris not in our hands to alter the general condition of mankind, but when that power, the power of the Divine Presence is released, an empowered envoy will come to prune back the diseased branches.
Guestion: Under these circumstances, what can we do in order to raise our chidren to become aware, openhearted and conscientious believers?
Séayka Nasin Onee | went to visit the botanical gardens, Kew Gardens in London. There is a greenhouse with cocorut palms,
37 Mystic Footsteps
citrus tree
sand other tropical aud sub tropical trees and plants in abundance, growing and thriving — but they were protected from the elements. The other trees were so big and proud, saying, “We age notin prison! We arc free?” Each one of those huge trees is getting all that if needs from the northern Buropean climate, but can any of them produce a mango or a coconut? Trees that do produce such exotic fruits in such an inimical clamate cannot be left to prow outside of glass. We must understand the wisdom in this example. Tt is imperative that we imprison our children in a greenhouse, that lets them observe the outside world, but separates them from its cold blasts, that admits the beneficial rays of the san and intensifies them, but keeps out the air pollution.
«6,
Your “prison” must be transparent. Your children must be aware of what goes on in the outside world. That transparency allows for the passage of a kind of inoculation against the diseases oF the polluted surroundings. Whoever has no anti boclies qiust perish. Tf the outside world is allowed to oather too much of an aura of mystery, it will seem all the more attractive and they will be all the more valnerable, lo this manner we oust seek a middle way in raising our children. Savyidina Ali once said: “The ways of extremism are the ways of ignorance.” In order to avoid one extreme T have been discouraging our sons and daughters and seekers of truth in general, from establishing communities entirely separate from the community at large. There is a proverb: “Everything prohibited is especially attractive.” You may be mature and developed people who have chosen this way of life, but your children have not, as of yet chosen, and ubimately they must choose, as we are not residing on the moon, established there as a single community wilh one lifestyle. No, they must know that this is a wide world comprising various people and races, abounding in religions and lifestyles.
Tiven if you were to immigrate to a Muslim country, your children would be curious about the land of your ongin, and about their relatives there, [t is umportant that you take them and bring them into contact with their grandparents, aunts, uncles and other
38 Shaykh Nazim Adil Al Haqqani
relations, even if you seem to have very litle in comunon with them.
You must also take your children, from time to time, to the big cities. At first they may God the hustle and bustle exciting, but quickly they will catch “cold”, and om their own arrive at a perception of the special atmosphere, the warmth and blessedness found only in the homes of believers, and will be able to contrast it with the wildness of the city streets. 1f they are kept from those cities long enough and only experience them during or after puberty — watch out! So don’t neglect to give your children their “vaccinations”, and if you see them developing bad traits you may gently nudge them in the right direction.
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®g God is Our Guarantor
Wie pray co our Lore so lift the heaviness off our hearts: and ne one can lift those burdens except He Alone. Nowadays, huge industries have been built up whose only function is to provide diversion and amusement for people. Indeed, most industry fills under this carepory: the product that selis is not simply the one that fulfills a need, but the one that diverts people from the awareness of their misery — thus television, videos, sports cars, fashions, and games are the new necessities of life.
AIL of these products of diversion lave to compete with each other to gain ther portion of the market, thus, another huge industry: advertising. So, as we drive through the streets, beautiful people with clean white smiles come to meet us from their billboards and testify that, if only we ly such and such a product, we will look as good as they do, and abvays be surrounded by orher beautiful people. The same is true of television ads. all are happy and laughing people.
But he to whom Allah Almighty has granted penetrating vision may observe that these people are smuling the “smile of the skeleton”, the smile which ahvays appears on skulls: all is just show, wiside they are enipety. “Thus is a strange glimpse of reality that has been shown to me many umes: what people call pleasure is only a kind of forced enjoyment.
Very young people may perhaps really feel enjoyment, as everything new is tasteful, but as they coatinuc on this way, more atid more they feel boredom setting im, that pleasure becoming Due a routine. As a result they go further and further on the same way,
40 Shaykh Nazim Adil Al Haqqani
to see if they can outreach the shadow of routine char makes all pleasures tasteless. Though they cannot win this race, they keep on running, progressing towards extremes of stimulation, but still fecling ao pleasure. This disappointment and the consequent misery result from the mistaken assumption that “more is better.” For example, a spoonful of honey is sweeter than a cupful which will only make you sick. But because the philosephy of endless greed is now the common creed, people think that finding a beehive would be their greatest good fortune. How wrong they arel
Oh people who claim to possess understanding, you must understand that your Lord bas placed a hindrance before the fulfillment of some of your desires only for your own good, not because He enjoys depriving 3 you of something pood. If something is prohibited by religion it is only because that so called pleasure is a trap to catch you inte suffering. But nowadays no one accepts this reality, or even if enc does accept, or is attracted to any religion, seeks to ignore moral codes, because he has been taupht that exercising absolute freedom is the only way to fulfillment. This is the doctrine that is burning people’s faith, and it is in conflict with all world religions, Fast and West; but onward they march, with grimaces that are supposed to be smiles. They pretend to taste, but taste nothing, because you can’t enjoy > eating unless you are hungry, can’t eajoy drinking unless you are thirsty. Their way is the way of the total destruction of their physical bodies and their spiritual lives.
Later in the day I saw something else that deeply affected my heart. As T looked outside 1] saw some spartows hopping about on the roof We also have sparrows in Cypnas, and I wondered what the ning conditions were ike for sparrows here in London. So 1 asked the sparrow: “Are you in any difficulties Hving here in London? Lf so, ] may ask the sparrows in Cyprus to send you some aid.” lt replied: “Thank you, but we are all satisfied and we are not in need of any assistance ab all. Tt doesn’t matter to us thar we are living in such an expensive country — even in Moscow our kind are alright. We ace happy and tree, never caught up in any crisis. Our salaries are sufficient and always paid on time, and it is all the same
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to us whether we live in Hampstead or Brixton, East End or Buckingham Palace: we receive our sustenance and glorify our Lord, saving, ‘Allah, Allah’. 1f you can be moee like us you may be happy ~ no suffering, no hospitals, no prisons, 10 passports ~ we are tray ching freely from country to country, and we require no expensive msurance policies, our Lord is our guarantor, Oh Son of Adam, you must be more like us, then you will be happy, and have no need to Beht and quarrel.” Then be Hew away.
Look, those sparrows are pleased with their Lord, and Allah is pleased with those who are pleased with Him. Therefore, you must scek ways to make Allah pleased with you. We walk this carth with a heavy burden of ego, and of course it is impossthle for us to be so Heht, to fl
Link: https://www.nvrislam.net/index.php?j=eng&post=6022
ed in London ot in Cyprus, and it may grow in cither place. le it geows tn London, it will, as a result of the cold and wet climate, remain fresh over a long period of ame, but will not be fragrant. ff it grows in Cyprus, on the other hand, because of the hot and dry chmate it will only remain fresh for a short period of tume, but will be very fragrant while it lasts. Whatever the characteristics of is life, a rose ig a tose, in London or m Cyprus, and never will it be jasmine or lilac
28 Shaykh Nazim Adil Al Haqqani
The point is that the Creator has given each person a umique and distinct personality. Even identical nvins have unnustakably different personalities, so 1 am not referring to “heredity” (as identical twins are genetically identical). | am not promoting the effects of “heredity” over those of “environment, but am referring to another factor, a spititual one, beyond the scope of psychological debate. ur grandshaykh explaine ~“d that each petsonality ts ah emanation of a divine Name, a unique attribute of God, and that there are as maany divine attributes as there are human beings — and more, endlessly, Therefore, on the purest spititual level, each and every tadivt idual is a unique manifestation
of God.
In the Quranic rendering of the story of rhe Last Supper, the twelve apostles asked Jesus: “fy pour Lond able ta cause a supper in descend fo ag from heaven?”
Notice that they did not ask if “our Lord” or “the Lord” could cause the marufesiation of this miracle, but whether “your Lord” could. Don't let this wording lead you to believe that the apostles were skeptics regarding the existence of God, and therefore said “your Lord” rather than “our Lord” or “the Lord.” No, their belief in the existence of God was unshakable. They said “your Lord” because the performance of this miracle was directly related to the attributes of God manifest in and through Jesus Christ, the atteibutes that enabled him to manifest so many miracles.
In the same way that the divine manifested through Jesus in just that way, so does the divine manifest through each and every personality — that is the essence of each soul, and #18 not subject to change. But just as the beauty of a diamond may be enhanced by a beautiful gold ting or be hidden by wrapping it in cotton, so do external influences determine to what extent that divine personality §s able to shine forth.
Question: Psychoanalysis claims that problems stem from the personality, but you are sayine that the personality is beyond these influences, and that only some superficial conditioning causes behavior abnormalities,
ag Mystic Footsteps
Shaki Nagin: The divinely ordained personality is always sound and intact, but as, for example, a consistently strong wind may cause a ttee to grow crooked so one’s environment can affect one’s development. We must draw a distinction between “essence” and “attribute.” ‘There is an essence to everything. You are tall, for example, but without a body “tall” is a meaningless adjective. Similarly, “good” and “bad” manifestations are impossible without a petson to manifest them. It is only the adjectives that are influenced by the atmosphere. One hundred years ago there was a religiously observant atmosphere in this country, now there is an atheist atmosphere, and the manifestations of this atmosphere can only be altered with the greatest difficulty.
(uestion: For example, a man may be raised in a quarrelsome surrounding, and thus be grows up fearful. You may encourage him to leave the situation he is in, but by now he has internalized this quartelsomeness and carries it with him. What can be done to help such a persone
Shayée Nexen It is for this reason that children must be y, in a way that impacts good characteristics to
brought up prope them. Of course this is only possible if we possess these good characteristics ourselves. According to the holy Prophet, newborn babies are all born in perfect harmony with their Lord’s will — iris only the parents who influence them to oppose His will. Despite this, the essenec 1s ever the same manitestation of divine perfection — like indelible ink that can be covered but never removed. In the end, all of those coats of cheap paint will Hake off and there will retain only the original untaded color. This is what is referred to in the holy Quran as “Allah’s dye.”
You may use your position as a psychiatrist in order to apply “paint remover.” You are obliged, however, to quickly apply another layer, but a more acceptable one. Unfortunately, most psychiatrists have ne “paint remover” all, and ate only applying the new coat over the old one. Thus they estranpe cher patients even more from that original divine coat, so that in the end there is even mote to remove.
30 Shaykh Nazim Adil Al Hagqani
Question: Shar method can 1 apply as a “paint remover’? If 1 mention to people anything even remotely related to religion they get angty and stop listening.
dbarah Naive You must locate the open door. People have an allergy agamst religion, so don’t mention ic We have ninety nine methods to be utilized in the treatment of disturbed people, so when you have incorporated enough of this teaching you will teceive inspiration that will guide you to the application of suitable methods. In the meanume vou must keep a journal in which you record the details of your patients’ afflictions, and analyze their petsonalitics.
Question Now Drm going to be a ide more difficult. One notices many personality disorders armong your disciples — myself included — we needy’t talk only of mental patients. Despite the practices we follow and the conscious attempts we make to improve ourseives, the character disorders seem to persist. | am not saying thar there is no improvement or progress, bur it can be observed that many of the problems are sull there, even in some eases after many years.
déayee Nazins No psychiatrist can ever encounter as niuch resistance to the treatment he is giving his patients as we encounter in our training of Sufi aspirants. The epo is allergic to “paint remover”; that is why vou, in your position, can only hope te temove a particularly unsatisfactory layer and quickly replace it with another. My job is one that encounters serious and terrible resistance from the ego, as Tam trying to remove all the paint and lay bare the original “dye of Allah” which pertains to the divine essenee, the ofiginal spiritual personality. Bur the ego wants only that as lavers of paint are never reraoved. Even when people come to see a Sufi shaykh their egos are hoping to obtain more adomments, but itis our duty to take evervthing from the hands of the ege, mot to adorn it far ther: to uadermine its possessiveness and dissipate acquired characteristics in favor of oripmal ones.
Therefore, when people first come 1 ty to give them something, but when T leave 1 collect it from them. If T were to say
3} Mystic Footsteps
this to you at first and immediately set to removing the layers of eee, quickly you would all escape from my hands and T would finally be able to retire. To move a mountain is an easier task than removing onc of the acquired characteristics of our egos. Our egos are but vehicles to make possible for our souls to exist im this realm, but the ego puts forward claims to being the man and not just the horse. Qur job is to ayake this all clear and to help people get their horses under control. If this task were casy, all religious scholars would be shaykhs and ail shaykhe would he Grand Masters. But the ego is so difficult to tackle that we can never find such facility in teaching high stations ~ quite to the contrary. We find most aspirants bogged down at their present lev els and sinking.
As for psychiatrists, only a few of them understand the nature of personality and how to go about changing i. Most of them add only more to the already heavy burden of their customers ~ this you know better than 1. They cannot affect the soul with their methods; at best they can train the horse to behave a litde more obediently. In order to atfect the rider of the horse there must be a murshid (master or guide) at work. A real murshid must know what to do for his patients, or else he is not a guide. [fa doctor doesn’t know how to treat his patients’ ilinesses he is useless. He may have read so many medical books, but if he doesn’t know what to do wherl a sick person comes to him he is useless.
Guestion: You say that every person is gunded by one attribute of Allah. Lfa person Jearns this attribute does it serve as a guideline for bina in his quest to teach his goal?
Shaykh Naxiuw: Yes, and it is important to know it, but it is a cifficule burden of knowledge to catty now. It is of utmost importance that you first arrive to the point of controlling your horses, or you ray attack people with the power you have gained. Who in their tight mind would grant me permission to drive a truck or a bus? I would only leave a trail of wreckape im my wake. I cart even control a small car, so what about those huge vehicles? Therefore, a mueshid will never impart any glimpse of the rcalities
32 Shaykh Nazim Adil Al Hagqani
of the indivicual divine names without having first established that aspirant in the control of his horse.
(westion: Woat happens ifa person dies without these layers of ceo having been removed?
Shaye Nagin: That original deve must still appear. ‘Phat person may appear to you to be under the influence of illusion, but at. the tune of death Allah is pursuing His Claims on His servants, and
though Saten may fighe for him, Allah is always victorious. He says:
“Ok Satan, even though this person may lave followed you in his actions, the essence which I granted him has been preserved intact.” These ace the secrets of destiny, and ne one can speak of them.
feuestion: What about people who refuse to accept a puider
Saiayéh Nason Thee horses ace very strong and wild. If you approach them. from the front they will bite you, if from the back
they will kick.
Guestion: When 1 organize seminars for people, I reahive that they “have a great deal of resistance to this kind of approach, to fighting the ego, rather they want to have access to miraculous powers and insights to travel astrally, read people’s minds, and they want to pain these powers by any means — except Hehtme the ego.
Shaye Nagun Exeryone wants to become a doctor of enginecr without the trouble of going to a university and struggling through long and arduous studies, They all waut to bug imstant diplomas: but what validity do they haver Jf I were to go to your country and claim that I was an espert on anything, even psy chiatry, they would say to me, “Where are you coming from, the moon?” Yes, people are foolish. They want to achierc everything without effort, to ike everpthing wehoat stretching out theic hands. It is not easy to receive spiritual authority.
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Question: Alla Almighty has created distinctions between people. Do these apparent distinctions relate only to the attributes of their egos of also to theit spiritual essences?
Shaves Nazie: Faust as there ate endless stars in the sky, cach having distinct characteristics, so do people’s inser realities differ, If the omer realities of even one person were to be completely uaveiled, the stars and the whole universe would vanish, so don’t think chat we are just caticatn ig an unchanging realty in the Divine Presence, bur Allah Almighty has created so many different kinds of people to benefit each other through theit mteraction, to mutually reveal divine attributes. We can say that, for as many of the children of Adam as appear in existence, there arc as many distinct divine attributes: but that is only an approximation, for the realiry cannot be explained through words nor to the mind.
ss. The essential ceality of cach soul
ntl we are able to rise above the level of the mind, people themselves serve as the means of attaining a state of preparedness for spiritual hfe, and our various conflicts and “scrapes” serve ag a means of polishing the heart.
Once, in the market of Damascus, | observed a blacksmith polishing some chains. How did he do u? The middle part of the chain was wrapped m a skin, while four, sts or eight people pulled each end back and forth. lhrough this scraping together the chains were polished. We must be open to the wisdom around us.
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*g Some Questions of an Expatriate Muslim
(Guestions One of the points that draws Westerners to Islam is the spirit of universal religion contaied im it, the ideal of one nation, of a brotherhood that potentially encompasses all of mankind, every kitd ated color. Ia practice however, ove sul finds oneself relating mote closely to people of one’s own cultural or ethnic background, than to those whose background is similar in some respects, and only distantly io people whose life experiences have been totally different.
Shayka Nazin: How shall Westerners, people who have lived the much sought after life and have sought after sormething better, feel much affinity with people who are obsessed only with that way of hfe you already found lackinge When you tell them your experiences you should feel only frustrated and as if you are talking to the wall. For them you are strange and threatennap, it is as if you were ridiculing thera and their aspirations, They may feel especially bewildered when you appear in the comfortable nattve clothes of their native lands, when they ane very proud to have finally become “etwilized.” It is necessary for them to think of you as some sort of Afghani mountaineers or Egyptian peasants.
Tt ts matural for people of different cultures to be intrigued by certain aspects of other cultures, ever if in only manifests itself in eating the food of that countey from time to time in a restaurant. Stil, there myuast be that attraction, and it is pleasing to Allah, as He saick
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“f Aave made you to be of different colors and languages that you may come to Sow each other, and to xaderstand that the bert of yer is only tbe one who honors bis Lord.”
Tt is also only natutal that there should be some clement of confusion in the attempts by people of one culture to understand those of another.
It is not suepetsing that we should incline towards those things that are familiar to us from childhood, and towards people who share those experiences, Dor’: let chat disturb you, as in reality it is a reflection of our longing for our original spiritual homeland, for as the holy Prophet said, “Love ef ome y bemvedand iv of fateh,”
Grestion: L have been living in Muslim countries for a long time, but stall T clon’t feel entirely at home there, nor any longer, ia the land of my birth,
Shayei Nagi: We shall send you to the moon. Feeling that one is neither Occidental nor Oriental is a sign of real faith, as the holy Quran declares that divine lights are neither Oriental nor Occidental. Your goal must be to belong to your Lord, not to East or to West. Identification with one’s worldly homeland and with all that pettains to it is a teflection of the soul’s longing for its heavenly homeland; but we must remember that it is only a reflection and not the original, Untd we have love for our original homeland we will hate the very thought of death, shrink from our reunion with our Lord, and that is very dangerous. Therefore, we are seeking a way to increase Our faith to the level where we will be burning to meet Him, and we must know that He will be pleased to receive Us.
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§ The Breakdown of the Family
Cuestion: Que of the most alarming developments in modern society is the breakdown of the family. Mirst, the extended frnaily ceased to exert Hs previous influence on peopis, and the nuclear family became the primary identification for individuals. Subsequently, the nuclear family has proved to be built on shaky foundations. Nowadays, so many children grow up with only one parent, and old people are relegated to old age homes. What is happening to mankind?
Shaykh Nustve: AQ these axe symptoms of the disease. The tree of humanity has been stricken with the blight of atheism. | am not referring tou blight that has afflicted « branch or two, but to one that bas eotted all the branches to the core. Therefore, what is ulumately called for is a drastic cutting back of that tree, so that new, healthy and strong branches may emerge from the trunk. But, as Wis not in our power to apply any general measures we must be content with the role of one who digs a well in the middle of a barren wilderness, and thereby extracts enough water ta make a few trees bloom. Tris not in our hands to alter the general condition of mankind, but when that power, the power of the Divine Presence is released, an empowered envoy will come to prune back the diseased branches.
Guestion: Under these circumstances, what can we do in order to raise our chidren to become aware, openhearted and conscientious believers?
Séayka Nasin Onee | went to visit the botanical gardens, Kew Gardens in London. There is a greenhouse with cocorut palms,
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citrus tree
sand other tropical aud sub tropical trees and plants in abundance, growing and thriving — but they were protected from the elements. The other trees were so big and proud, saying, “We age notin prison! We arc free?” Each one of those huge trees is getting all that if needs from the northern Buropean climate, but can any of them produce a mango or a coconut? Trees that do produce such exotic fruits in such an inimical clamate cannot be left to prow outside of glass. We must understand the wisdom in this example. Tt is imperative that we imprison our children in a greenhouse, that lets them observe the outside world, but separates them from its cold blasts, that admits the beneficial rays of the san and intensifies them, but keeps out the air pollution.
«6,
Your “prison” must be transparent. Your children must be aware of what goes on in the outside world. That transparency allows for the passage of a kind of inoculation against the diseases oF the polluted surroundings. Whoever has no anti boclies qiust perish. Tf the outside world is allowed to oather too much of an aura of mystery, it will seem all the more attractive and they will be all the more valnerable, lo this manner we oust seek a middle way in raising our children. Savyidina Ali once said: “The ways of extremism are the ways of ignorance.” In order to avoid one extreme T have been discouraging our sons and daughters and seekers of truth in general, from establishing communities entirely separate from the community at large. There is a proverb: “Everything prohibited is especially attractive.” You may be mature and developed people who have chosen this way of life, but your children have not, as of yet chosen, and ubimately they must choose, as we are not residing on the moon, established there as a single community wilh one lifestyle. No, they must know that this is a wide world comprising various people and races, abounding in religions and lifestyles.
Tiven if you were to immigrate to a Muslim country, your children would be curious about the land of your ongin, and about their relatives there, [t is umportant that you take them and bring them into contact with their grandparents, aunts, uncles and other
38 Shaykh Nazim Adil Al Haqqani
relations, even if you seem to have very litle in comunon with them.
You must also take your children, from time to time, to the big cities. At first they may God the hustle and bustle exciting, but quickly they will catch “cold”, and om their own arrive at a perception of the special atmosphere, the warmth and blessedness found only in the homes of believers, and will be able to contrast it with the wildness of the city streets. 1f they are kept from those cities long enough and only experience them during or after puberty — watch out! So don’t neglect to give your children their “vaccinations”, and if you see them developing bad traits you may gently nudge them in the right direction.
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®g God is Our Guarantor
Wie pray co our Lore so lift the heaviness off our hearts: and ne one can lift those burdens except He Alone. Nowadays, huge industries have been built up whose only function is to provide diversion and amusement for people. Indeed, most industry fills under this carepory: the product that selis is not simply the one that fulfills a need, but the one that diverts people from the awareness of their misery — thus television, videos, sports cars, fashions, and games are the new necessities of life.
AIL of these products of diversion lave to compete with each other to gain ther portion of the market, thus, another huge industry: advertising. So, as we drive through the streets, beautiful people with clean white smiles come to meet us from their billboards and testify that, if only we ly such and such a product, we will look as good as they do, and abvays be surrounded by orher beautiful people. The same is true of television ads. all are happy and laughing people.
But he to whom Allah Almighty has granted penetrating vision may observe that these people are smuling the “smile of the skeleton”, the smile which ahvays appears on skulls: all is just show, wiside they are enipety. “Thus is a strange glimpse of reality that has been shown to me many umes: what people call pleasure is only a kind of forced enjoyment.
Very young people may perhaps really feel enjoyment, as everything new is tasteful, but as they coatinuc on this way, more atid more they feel boredom setting im, that pleasure becoming Due a routine. As a result they go further and further on the same way,
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to see if they can outreach the shadow of routine char makes all pleasures tasteless. Though they cannot win this race, they keep on running, progressing towards extremes of stimulation, but still fecling ao pleasure. This disappointment and the consequent misery result from the mistaken assumption that “more is better.” For example, a spoonful of honey is sweeter than a cupful which will only make you sick. But because the philosephy of endless greed is now the common creed, people think that finding a beehive would be their greatest good fortune. How wrong they arel
Oh people who claim to possess understanding, you must understand that your Lord bas placed a hindrance before the fulfillment of some of your desires only for your own good, not because He enjoys depriving 3 you of something pood. If something is prohibited by religion it is only because that so called pleasure is a trap to catch you inte suffering. But nowadays no one accepts this reality, or even if enc does accept, or is attracted to any religion, seeks to ignore moral codes, because he has been taupht that exercising absolute freedom is the only way to fulfillment. This is the doctrine that is burning people’s faith, and it is in conflict with all world religions, Fast and West; but onward they march, with grimaces that are supposed to be smiles. They pretend to taste, but taste nothing, because you can’t enjoy > eating unless you are hungry, can’t eajoy drinking unless you are thirsty. Their way is the way of the total destruction of their physical bodies and their spiritual lives.
Later in the day I saw something else that deeply affected my heart. As T looked outside 1] saw some spartows hopping about on the roof We also have sparrows in Cypnas, and I wondered what the ning conditions were ike for sparrows here in London. So 1 asked the sparrow: “Are you in any difficulties Hving here in London? Lf so, ] may ask the sparrows in Cyprus to send you some aid.” lt replied: “Thank you, but we are all satisfied and we are not in need of any assistance ab all. Tt doesn’t matter to us thar we are living in such an expensive country — even in Moscow our kind are alright. We ace happy and tree, never caught up in any crisis. Our salaries are sufficient and always paid on time, and it is all the same
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to us whether we live in Hampstead or Brixton, East End or Buckingham Palace: we receive our sustenance and glorify our Lord, saving, ‘Allah, Allah’. 1f you can be moee like us you may be happy ~ no suffering, no hospitals, no prisons, 10 passports ~ we are tray ching freely from country to country, and we require no expensive msurance policies, our Lord is our guarantor, Oh Son of Adam, you must be more like us, then you will be happy, and have no need to Beht and quarrel.” Then be Hew away.
Look, those sparrows are pleased with their Lord, and Allah is pleased with those who are pleased with Him. Therefore, you must scek ways to make Allah pleased with you. We walk this carth with a heavy burden of ego, and of course it is impossthle for us to be so Heht, to fl
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