In the Mystic Footsteps of Saints, VOLUME 2 (Shaykh Nazim, 115 pages, 3/7)
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art accepts. The mind denies what the heart believes. That is the important point. So many thousands and thousands of people in your countries, in Europe and America, are seeking to establish the relationship between themselves and their Lord Almighty but they are following dead end ways because they are seeking to establish that relationship through their minds, and it is impossible. The spirit, not the mind, will arrive at the goal. The ego uses the mind to try and
hinder the seeker of spiritual awakening, but with the right training the soul will triumph.
Wa min Allah at Taufiq.
Unity and Duality
The realities of the human soul are unfathomable. Those realities are not subject to the limitations of time and space. Therefore, you shouldn’t imagine that our existence is only of the duration of our brief lifespan— fifty, seventy or eighty years—and that we then disappear and exist no more. Don’t imagine either that our realities are confined to these forms of flesh and bones. If you imagine for yourself such a limited existence, then, in reality, you are denying that your existence is real, as reality is eternal and unchanging.
The only thing changing in our lives is our outward form. It was created from dust and water, then caused to grow and become strong, then to shrivel and die. That form survives for its destined lifespan by means of air, water and food, then it reverts to dust and water, returning to its original form, once it has performed its duty and fulfilled its usefulness. The soul is tied to it for a short time in accordance with the Lord’s will, and when it returns to its original form the soul returns to its reality in the Divine Presence.
Therefore, when Allah Almighty mentions the names of the Holy Prophets in the Holy Qur’an, He is not referring to forms made of clay, which ate food and drank water, but to their real forms in the Divine Presence. And so, when we affirm the prophethood of the Seal of Prophets, Muhammad, peace be upon him, as part of our declaration of the Unity of God Almighty we are referring to that eternal existence in the divine realm.
The existence of Muhammad, peace be upon him, in the Divine Presence is an aspect of Unity; everything in the Divine Presence is eternal and real, so his existence pertains to that realm of absolute existence. There is no
partition in that realm, the realm where all existence is engulfed in Unity Oceans, united in the reality of divine existence.
So don’t imagine that the Qur’an, which is an eternal book in the Divine Presence, refers to the physical temporary existence on earth of the Prophet Muhammad, Abraham, Moses, etc; no, it refers to their heavenly existence in the Divine Presence in Unity Oceans, in absoluteness.
Question: This is a very difficult point to comprehend, because when we say, “Allah, Muhammad, Abraham” these are distinct and separate entities in our minds. In the mind there are partitions: one for Allah, one for Muhammad, one for Abraham. It is difficult to conceptualize Unity and yet have these undeniably distinct categories. The mind cannot encompass this.
The Shaykh: One can only begin to approach such divine realities with the heart. When you say “The Atlantic Ocean”, it includes everything that exists in that ocean, but we do not say that the Atlantic Ocean is fish or ships, even though they are in it; we refer to it only as “The Atlantic Ocean”. Whatever Allah Almighty causes to appear never contradicts His Unity, nor is it considered as being severed therefrom.
Now look in this mirror. Is that you in it, or not?
Please, who is in it, you? “No, I am here.” Then who is that? “It’s a reflection.”
But who is that, someone else or you? “Me.”
Look, it even speaks to you!
And if you put a mirror in front of you and another one in back so that they face each other, then you may see endless images of yourself from this side and from that. Like this, the Unity of Allah is absolute and all shapes are reflections, the prophets being the most perfected reflections.
Don’t imagine that the existence of such a vast universe with so may creatures in it in any way contradicts or detracts from the Unity of Allah; such imaginings would be foolishness. Yes, and you must know as well that everything has a distinct personality because Allah Almighty causes endlessly varying manifestations of His divine names to appear through His creatures.
Question: Does Allah Almighty appear in bad people or only in good people?
The Shaykh: In the sight of Allah Almighty all are His creatures. Allah Almighty created goodness and evil to test His servants. Through good people appear His divine attributes of mercy and beneficence, and through evildoers and tyrants are seen the reflections of His attributes of force, power and retribution. So, one kind of people are manifestations and so are the others. Allah Almighty has endless divine names, and every name is a mirror that has reflections in the creation.
Question: “Then is there nothing bad or evil?”
The Shaykh: In the sight of Allah this may be so, but you must know that Allah Almighty has ordered us to pursue goodness and not evil, and He has made our obedience to this order as a test, a supreme test that is at the very heart of His having created us in this world and in these forms. As His creatures, who find themselves in
the midst of a world which He created in order to test our ability to distinguish good from evil, and to follow goodness despite the attraction of evil that He has caused to be strong in us, it is our duty to stress the distinction between good and evil and not try to downgrade it or cloud it over.
So, our level, the level of all who find themselves in this world, is to distinguish; but the Creator is never in this situation, far exalted be He above all limitations. You may follow the stream to its source. If we follow creation to the Main Source, we may find, coming from the same source, a stream gushing forth with sweet fresh water, and another, taking another course, salty and bitter. So, if you follow everything to its main source, that source is Allah; but right from the Source the two streams part; this means that mankind (and we are always included in that category, no matter who we are and no matter what we accomplish) experiences the distinction between the fresh and the salty.
He is the Creator. It is His way to test His servants. He is free. He is not under the command of anyone, and He does what He wills according to His own wisdom. No one can command Him, but He commands all—and He commands us to do good and avoid evil.
Question: But many people, especially unbelievers, ask, “Why does Allah create badness if He is supposedly so good?”
The Shaykh: They would be better off, much better off, not asking such questions! Satan asked, “Why?” and he became Satan. How can weak mankind ask such a question of the Lord Almighty? What daring they exhibit in relation to their Lord, when, by contrast, they are quick to refrain from asking their bosses and directors at work “why?” for fear of losing their jobs. They are ready to
accept the dictates of the powerful in this world without question from fear of crossing them, yet they venture to cross examine the Lord of the worlds! They are very bad mannered people indeed to ask of their Lord, “Why did You create evil?”
Yes, this life is full of every variety of good and bad, at every corner a chance to demonstrate your adherence to good or fall into temptation, every day many tests to face. And He Almighty declared, “I am going to try My servants”—finished! You can’t ask why, as He has clearly said why: to test His servants.
If you can’t distinguish good from evil then you are on the level of animals and you have no responsibility for your actions. But if you lay claim to being intelligent, clever, learned, refined, perceptive, etc, then you must know that you are responsible, and that you must ultimately answer the question, “Why did you do evil?”
Question: Many people ask, if Allah Almighty has fore ordained everything that would come to pass in this world from the Day of Creation to the Resurrection Day, how can we be responsible for our actions?
The Shaykh: Ask him if he has reached such a level where he can say that or not. If he claims to have reached the level where he sees everything as proceeding from Allah Almighty, please bring him here that we may make a little test. I will first slap him across the face, then hit him over the head with my stick, and if he is not reacting or getting angry, then I will confirm that this claim is valid: that he is living on that level, seeing all as proceeding from his Lord. But if he reacts and gets angry, or moves to defend himself then I shall confirm that his is a liar and a pretender.
Years ago, as I was walking with my grandshaykh in Damascus, a football that some boys were playing
with hit me on the head and knocked off my turban. I got very angry and turned around shouting, “Oh you miserable, misbehaved brat!” Grandshaykh said, “Oh Nazim Effendi, you have just lost your faith. How can you claim to believe that everything comes from Allah Almighty when you are ready to blame someone for something that hits you on the head. Do you not know that Allah is the Original Cause of that event? So why are you blinded by secondary causes? When that ball hit you why did you look to see which one threw it in order to quarrel with him? Do you not know that it is from Allah?” Then I recited the confession of faith to renew my faith.
The level of faith that our grandshaykh was referring to is the level of prophets and saints. We are trying to attain to that level, and when men reason for all troubles on earth, for all wars and suffering, people have lost sight of their Lord’s will behind all events. They have lost sight of the hand of the One Who is testing them through those events. They have stopped seeing events as tests from their Lord, therefore they continue failing those tests.
Inspirations vs. Delusions
Question: How can we distinguish between what comes to the heart through inspiration from Allah, the Prophet or our Shaykh, and what invades the heart from the “inspirations of Satan?
The Shaykh: Our grandshaykh taught us a method we can use right from the outset of our connection with the way in order to distinguish real inspirations from stray thoughts and the whisperings of Satan. That method is simply to wait and see whether that inspiration recurs or not. If it comes to your heart repeatedly it may be a sign that it is real. Grandshaykh compared this to the labor pains of birth. If the contractions a pregnant woman feels occur repeatedly and in decreasing intervals, then the birth is really at hand.
Real inspirations occur in the same way. Once they come to a murid they come again and again, but if they are only stray thoughts they will not persist, and if they are evil whisperings, even if they persist, it will become clear that they are no good by a kind of disturbance he feels in his heart. In this way even beginners can distinguish real inspiration sent to their hearts by the Prophet through their Shaykh, from any other stirrings.
As far as spiritual visions are concerned, they are not necessary, nor necessarily desirable for beginners in the Naqshbandi Way. In our way, spiritual visions are given only upon arriving at the destination, while in other tariqahs visions may play a major role right from the beginning. The reason for this discrepancy in method is that we are very careful to preserve our followers from stumbling into dangerous traps.
If a murid easily sees visions he may become pre occupied with those experiences and forget to seek improvement. Pride and a false sense of accomplishment may destroy him as well. He may say, “This is great! I have never seen anything like this on earth!” and he gets stuck where he is. He may become complacent at his present station and think that he has reached the ultimate goal. It may be lost on him that so much, far more excellent, is yet to come.
In order to avoid such “derailment” the Masters of the Naqshbandi Way guide their followers towards perfection without visions, so that the followers may learn to work on purifying themselves for the sake of Allah Almighty, not for the sake of amazing visions or mystical powers.
We worship our Lord for His sake alone, to reach His Divine Presence, not for anything else at all, and certainly not in order to gain access of visions. If a Naqshbandi dervish ever thinks of doing something for the sake of seeing a supernatural vision, he should consider himself ritually impure and take a shower (the complete ablution for ritual impurity, “ghusl”) immediately, in order to rid himself of that spiritual impurity that makes him unable to approach the Divine Presence. Such a thought indicated that the murid has given up approaching the Divine Presence—the main goal of Tariqah—and prefers to play and amuse himself along the way.
Yes, beginners and those on the way have been protected from visions. The veils are lifted only when the murid has arrived at the Station of Safety. Just as the Holy Qur’an refers to Mecca as the place where one is safe, (killing and fighting being forbidden within the holy precincts) so, there is a spiritual station of safety. There is a long arduous journey ahead of you between
your present station and that one; indeed, those who attain to that unveiling are few.
But those who do arrive at that station will experience such visions, and they are unique for each real murid. If both of you arrive at that station, your visions will be distinct: the colors, the fragrances, the manifestations are never the same. But for now your duty is to persevere and to move patiently towards your Lord’s pleasure.
Wa min Allah at Taufiq.
A Mass Meeting One Hundred Years from Now
India is a land of many wonders, where strange and unusual customs abound. In a certain region of India it used to be the custom to call a general meeting of the populace once a century. Yes, only one time every one hundred years, but everyone living at that time in that kingdom, without exception, was obliged to attend. Even newborn babies had to be brought by their mothers. At this mass meeting, held only once a century, only one person would speak and address the assembled masses.
Who would that person be? The one who had attended the previous meeting and was still alive—he would speak, not anyone else. And that ancient person would say, “Oh my sons and my daughters, one hundred years ago I was a small child and my grandfather caught me by the hand and brought me here. Oh my sons and daughters, except for me, not one person who attended that previous meeting is still alive: all of them have passed away. Now all of you are here, living and breathing, but at the next meeting a century from now, none of you will be in attendance except for maybe one or two of these babies and small children.”
That was a strange custom in India, but not a useless one; a custom through which people were taught, guided and awakened to the realization that they will not be on this earth forever. This lesson was an effective one for the whole population, to remind everyone that he is but a passenger on a caravan passing through this life. In particular this custom was designed to remind young people of the transitory nature of life on this earth, as young people in the heat of their youthful power can easily forget this. They were alerted to the fact that youth,
that treasure which they temporarily possess, is a fading treasure.
When people look at their own lives in perspective, they may see that youthful period as being the most precious and wonderful time of their lives. Once they have wasted that treasure there is no way of regaining it, and along their lives they will feel regret and sorrow for how they have squandered that treasure and have nothing to show for it. Had they but used that treasure wisely, and not let their possession of it drive them mad, then they might have found they can recall their youthful days with happiness and not severe remorse, and also that they may even carry something of that treasure with them throughout their lives, having resources of physical and spiritual energy at their disposal.
But nowadays, people are so wanton that youth no longer extends to the age of thirty three as it used to, but may be completely burnt out at the age of twenty three— and in the future it may be thirteen—so that the young are drained physically, mentally and spiritually like decrepit and hopeless old people.
When a young person reaches puberty he (or she) discovers that he has fallen into the huge ocean of life and is swimming in it. Little children are also in that ocean, but they cannot yet understand what it means. The onset of puberty coincides with the onset of wonderment and confusion. At this period of life, if young people are not prepared to understand what is really happening, they will be like a person happily engaged in a pleasure swim in a warm ocean, swimming and splashing this way and that, thinking only to enjoy himself.
Sooner or later, though, he feels tired from his frolic and looks for the shore, but, alas, he has been caught unawares in a current that is rapidly carrying him away
from shore. Depending upon just how soon or late he discovers that he is caught in that dangerous current, he may be still within reach of the shore or he may be already too far out to save himself.
One who has frolicked in that current must make double efforts to reach the shore, as he must not only cover the distance, but he must swim twice as hard and never may stop, to avoid being pulled back out by the current and losing all the distance he has covered. To make it safely to shore will be the struggle of his life.
The youths of our times are all facing such a struggle in their lives, as they have neither been trained to be strong swimmers nor has their attention been drawn to the fact that there is a current dragging them rapidly out to sea.
If young people have been prepared for this situation they may swim towards shore without difficulty, and enjoy themselves all the while. Instead of swimming around heedlessly in circles, if they know to swim always towards shore they will enjoy their swim and even have the energy to swim in that sea throughout their lives without peril, having become familiar with its currents and with the extent of their own power, so that they are never caught unawares.
But without attaining that shore, the shore of rest and safety, no one can keep himself afloat indefinitely. Even machines made of hardened steel need rest, so what about a bag of flesh and bones? Instead of running around a hill ten times go towards a destination! But youth is wasting all its energies uselessly. That youth energy is not replenishable, not like the gas tank of a car that can be refilled.
Therefore, divine guidance sets limits for youth, so that young people may be prevented from wasting their
treasures. If the young heed the wisdom of divine guidance they will keep the gem of youth along their lives; if they don’t they will become like “walking corpses” at a very early age.
But the person who seeks to open his spiritual life and is careful of over indulgence even in those enjoyments permitted by the divine law, he is the one who will keep his youthfulness more than anyone. Part of the discipline for attaining spiritual awakening is to live a simple life, not seeking to enjoy everything that the law permits. Our grandshaykh was over one hundred years old, but he was as strong as a young man. Once when he had a medical check up the doctors were astounded to find that his blood pressure and pulse were like that of a much younger person.
Our grandshaykh drew my attention to a tradition of the Holy Prophet in which he advised a shepherd to leave some milk in the udder of a ewe rather than milking it to the last drop. The Prophet, peace be upon him, explained that if a little milk remains in the udder more milk will easily be produced to fill it up again; but if it is greedily squeezed out to the last drop it will fill again only with difficulty.
We must draw a wide ranging conclusion from this tradition. The total freedom in our time awakens the kind of greed that impels young people to drain themselves of youthful energy to such an extent that it becomes impossible to replace it. Look, the teachings of our Prophet, peace be upon him, have such wide ranging implications: he was talking to one man about milking sheep, but the import encompasses the very heart of the problems of our time.
The people of the twentieth century are in dire need of the teachings of the last Prophet, especially the young
people. Otherwise even millions of psychiatrists will not be enough to help them deal with their psychological problems, nor millions of doctors and tons of drugs will be enough to cure them of their diseases. All efforts to deal with their problems will be but a drop in the mouth of a person dying of thirst. This is the clang of the alarm bell: if no one heeds it and stands up to say “stop”, the world will sink deeper and deeper into the swamp.
Wa min Allah at Taufiq.
Depression
Question: As a psychiatrist, what can I do for patients suffering from depression?
The Shaykh said: In Arabic there is a proverb: “Madness manifests in at least seventy different varieties.” This proverb implies that one can easily count at least seventy distinct varieties of madness. That is a minimum, only a broad categorization; actually, there is no limit, no maximum.
In fact every person has a distinct and unique type of madness within himself: in some people it is latent and in some it has taken over; but it is present and must be present in all people. How does each person’s individual madness become manifest? By means of depression.
Depression is the medium in which madness develops, a means by which that sleeping beast is awakened. If a patient comes to you in a depressed state, you may diagnose the particular aspects of the madness that is developing through the depression and use that knowledge to help him out of his depression, otherwise he will become truly mad.
Therefore, we must all do what we can to avoid waking up our latent madness. We must avoid depression and the causes of depression, to never allow the seed of madness to germinate or sprout. Psychiatrists, and people in general, must understand the causes of depression. The causes of depression may be the same for all people, but each person may react differently to the same thing, as human beings are subtle and manifest endlessly varying reactions to the same causes.
Because human beings are subtle, psychiatrists must be masters of subtlety to be able to help their patients;
they must be able to diagnose the direction of the depression and its development in a unique personality, and they must be clever enough to know how to approach that depressed person.
The way to conquer depression is to eliminate its causes, but to be able to do that they must know how to advise a patient, how to address him. Speaking is an art, especially speaking to depressed people who are in such a delicate state.
The way of phrasing one’s speech is the key; one obtains either the desired result or its opposite, as the following story will show.
Once a king dreamt that all his teeth had fallen out. He was disturbed by this dream, so he called for a man who interpreted dreams. The interpreter listened to the dream, then he told him, “Oh my king, all of your relatives are going to die before you.” The king became very angry upon hearing this and ordered the interpreter of dreams to be beaten one hundred whiplashes and thrown out of the palace.
Then the king called in a different interpreter
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art accepts. The mind denies what the heart believes. That is the important point. So many thousands and thousands of people in your countries, in Europe and America, are seeking to establish the relationship between themselves and their Lord Almighty but they are following dead end ways because they are seeking to establish that relationship through their minds, and it is impossible. The spirit, not the mind, will arrive at the goal. The ego uses the mind to try and
hinder the seeker of spiritual awakening, but with the right training the soul will triumph.
Wa min Allah at Taufiq.
Unity and Duality
The realities of the human soul are unfathomable. Those realities are not subject to the limitations of time and space. Therefore, you shouldn’t imagine that our existence is only of the duration of our brief lifespan— fifty, seventy or eighty years—and that we then disappear and exist no more. Don’t imagine either that our realities are confined to these forms of flesh and bones. If you imagine for yourself such a limited existence, then, in reality, you are denying that your existence is real, as reality is eternal and unchanging.
The only thing changing in our lives is our outward form. It was created from dust and water, then caused to grow and become strong, then to shrivel and die. That form survives for its destined lifespan by means of air, water and food, then it reverts to dust and water, returning to its original form, once it has performed its duty and fulfilled its usefulness. The soul is tied to it for a short time in accordance with the Lord’s will, and when it returns to its original form the soul returns to its reality in the Divine Presence.
Therefore, when Allah Almighty mentions the names of the Holy Prophets in the Holy Qur’an, He is not referring to forms made of clay, which ate food and drank water, but to their real forms in the Divine Presence. And so, when we affirm the prophethood of the Seal of Prophets, Muhammad, peace be upon him, as part of our declaration of the Unity of God Almighty we are referring to that eternal existence in the divine realm.
The existence of Muhammad, peace be upon him, in the Divine Presence is an aspect of Unity; everything in the Divine Presence is eternal and real, so his existence pertains to that realm of absolute existence. There is no
partition in that realm, the realm where all existence is engulfed in Unity Oceans, united in the reality of divine existence.
So don’t imagine that the Qur’an, which is an eternal book in the Divine Presence, refers to the physical temporary existence on earth of the Prophet Muhammad, Abraham, Moses, etc; no, it refers to their heavenly existence in the Divine Presence in Unity Oceans, in absoluteness.
Question: This is a very difficult point to comprehend, because when we say, “Allah, Muhammad, Abraham” these are distinct and separate entities in our minds. In the mind there are partitions: one for Allah, one for Muhammad, one for Abraham. It is difficult to conceptualize Unity and yet have these undeniably distinct categories. The mind cannot encompass this.
The Shaykh: One can only begin to approach such divine realities with the heart. When you say “The Atlantic Ocean”, it includes everything that exists in that ocean, but we do not say that the Atlantic Ocean is fish or ships, even though they are in it; we refer to it only as “The Atlantic Ocean”. Whatever Allah Almighty causes to appear never contradicts His Unity, nor is it considered as being severed therefrom.
Now look in this mirror. Is that you in it, or not?
Please, who is in it, you? “No, I am here.” Then who is that? “It’s a reflection.”
But who is that, someone else or you? “Me.”
Look, it even speaks to you!
And if you put a mirror in front of you and another one in back so that they face each other, then you may see endless images of yourself from this side and from that. Like this, the Unity of Allah is absolute and all shapes are reflections, the prophets being the most perfected reflections.
Don’t imagine that the existence of such a vast universe with so may creatures in it in any way contradicts or detracts from the Unity of Allah; such imaginings would be foolishness. Yes, and you must know as well that everything has a distinct personality because Allah Almighty causes endlessly varying manifestations of His divine names to appear through His creatures.
Question: Does Allah Almighty appear in bad people or only in good people?
The Shaykh: In the sight of Allah Almighty all are His creatures. Allah Almighty created goodness and evil to test His servants. Through good people appear His divine attributes of mercy and beneficence, and through evildoers and tyrants are seen the reflections of His attributes of force, power and retribution. So, one kind of people are manifestations and so are the others. Allah Almighty has endless divine names, and every name is a mirror that has reflections in the creation.
Question: “Then is there nothing bad or evil?”
The Shaykh: In the sight of Allah this may be so, but you must know that Allah Almighty has ordered us to pursue goodness and not evil, and He has made our obedience to this order as a test, a supreme test that is at the very heart of His having created us in this world and in these forms. As His creatures, who find themselves in
the midst of a world which He created in order to test our ability to distinguish good from evil, and to follow goodness despite the attraction of evil that He has caused to be strong in us, it is our duty to stress the distinction between good and evil and not try to downgrade it or cloud it over.
So, our level, the level of all who find themselves in this world, is to distinguish; but the Creator is never in this situation, far exalted be He above all limitations. You may follow the stream to its source. If we follow creation to the Main Source, we may find, coming from the same source, a stream gushing forth with sweet fresh water, and another, taking another course, salty and bitter. So, if you follow everything to its main source, that source is Allah; but right from the Source the two streams part; this means that mankind (and we are always included in that category, no matter who we are and no matter what we accomplish) experiences the distinction between the fresh and the salty.
He is the Creator. It is His way to test His servants. He is free. He is not under the command of anyone, and He does what He wills according to His own wisdom. No one can command Him, but He commands all—and He commands us to do good and avoid evil.
Question: But many people, especially unbelievers, ask, “Why does Allah create badness if He is supposedly so good?”
The Shaykh: They would be better off, much better off, not asking such questions! Satan asked, “Why?” and he became Satan. How can weak mankind ask such a question of the Lord Almighty? What daring they exhibit in relation to their Lord, when, by contrast, they are quick to refrain from asking their bosses and directors at work “why?” for fear of losing their jobs. They are ready to
accept the dictates of the powerful in this world without question from fear of crossing them, yet they venture to cross examine the Lord of the worlds! They are very bad mannered people indeed to ask of their Lord, “Why did You create evil?”
Yes, this life is full of every variety of good and bad, at every corner a chance to demonstrate your adherence to good or fall into temptation, every day many tests to face. And He Almighty declared, “I am going to try My servants”—finished! You can’t ask why, as He has clearly said why: to test His servants.
If you can’t distinguish good from evil then you are on the level of animals and you have no responsibility for your actions. But if you lay claim to being intelligent, clever, learned, refined, perceptive, etc, then you must know that you are responsible, and that you must ultimately answer the question, “Why did you do evil?”
Question: Many people ask, if Allah Almighty has fore ordained everything that would come to pass in this world from the Day of Creation to the Resurrection Day, how can we be responsible for our actions?
The Shaykh: Ask him if he has reached such a level where he can say that or not. If he claims to have reached the level where he sees everything as proceeding from Allah Almighty, please bring him here that we may make a little test. I will first slap him across the face, then hit him over the head with my stick, and if he is not reacting or getting angry, then I will confirm that this claim is valid: that he is living on that level, seeing all as proceeding from his Lord. But if he reacts and gets angry, or moves to defend himself then I shall confirm that his is a liar and a pretender.
Years ago, as I was walking with my grandshaykh in Damascus, a football that some boys were playing
with hit me on the head and knocked off my turban. I got very angry and turned around shouting, “Oh you miserable, misbehaved brat!” Grandshaykh said, “Oh Nazim Effendi, you have just lost your faith. How can you claim to believe that everything comes from Allah Almighty when you are ready to blame someone for something that hits you on the head. Do you not know that Allah is the Original Cause of that event? So why are you blinded by secondary causes? When that ball hit you why did you look to see which one threw it in order to quarrel with him? Do you not know that it is from Allah?” Then I recited the confession of faith to renew my faith.
The level of faith that our grandshaykh was referring to is the level of prophets and saints. We are trying to attain to that level, and when men reason for all troubles on earth, for all wars and suffering, people have lost sight of their Lord’s will behind all events. They have lost sight of the hand of the One Who is testing them through those events. They have stopped seeing events as tests from their Lord, therefore they continue failing those tests.
Inspirations vs. Delusions
Question: How can we distinguish between what comes to the heart through inspiration from Allah, the Prophet or our Shaykh, and what invades the heart from the “inspirations of Satan?
The Shaykh: Our grandshaykh taught us a method we can use right from the outset of our connection with the way in order to distinguish real inspirations from stray thoughts and the whisperings of Satan. That method is simply to wait and see whether that inspiration recurs or not. If it comes to your heart repeatedly it may be a sign that it is real. Grandshaykh compared this to the labor pains of birth. If the contractions a pregnant woman feels occur repeatedly and in decreasing intervals, then the birth is really at hand.
Real inspirations occur in the same way. Once they come to a murid they come again and again, but if they are only stray thoughts they will not persist, and if they are evil whisperings, even if they persist, it will become clear that they are no good by a kind of disturbance he feels in his heart. In this way even beginners can distinguish real inspiration sent to their hearts by the Prophet through their Shaykh, from any other stirrings.
As far as spiritual visions are concerned, they are not necessary, nor necessarily desirable for beginners in the Naqshbandi Way. In our way, spiritual visions are given only upon arriving at the destination, while in other tariqahs visions may play a major role right from the beginning. The reason for this discrepancy in method is that we are very careful to preserve our followers from stumbling into dangerous traps.
If a murid easily sees visions he may become pre occupied with those experiences and forget to seek improvement. Pride and a false sense of accomplishment may destroy him as well. He may say, “This is great! I have never seen anything like this on earth!” and he gets stuck where he is. He may become complacent at his present station and think that he has reached the ultimate goal. It may be lost on him that so much, far more excellent, is yet to come.
In order to avoid such “derailment” the Masters of the Naqshbandi Way guide their followers towards perfection without visions, so that the followers may learn to work on purifying themselves for the sake of Allah Almighty, not for the sake of amazing visions or mystical powers.
We worship our Lord for His sake alone, to reach His Divine Presence, not for anything else at all, and certainly not in order to gain access of visions. If a Naqshbandi dervish ever thinks of doing something for the sake of seeing a supernatural vision, he should consider himself ritually impure and take a shower (the complete ablution for ritual impurity, “ghusl”) immediately, in order to rid himself of that spiritual impurity that makes him unable to approach the Divine Presence. Such a thought indicated that the murid has given up approaching the Divine Presence—the main goal of Tariqah—and prefers to play and amuse himself along the way.
Yes, beginners and those on the way have been protected from visions. The veils are lifted only when the murid has arrived at the Station of Safety. Just as the Holy Qur’an refers to Mecca as the place where one is safe, (killing and fighting being forbidden within the holy precincts) so, there is a spiritual station of safety. There is a long arduous journey ahead of you between
your present station and that one; indeed, those who attain to that unveiling are few.
But those who do arrive at that station will experience such visions, and they are unique for each real murid. If both of you arrive at that station, your visions will be distinct: the colors, the fragrances, the manifestations are never the same. But for now your duty is to persevere and to move patiently towards your Lord’s pleasure.
Wa min Allah at Taufiq.
A Mass Meeting One Hundred Years from Now
India is a land of many wonders, where strange and unusual customs abound. In a certain region of India it used to be the custom to call a general meeting of the populace once a century. Yes, only one time every one hundred years, but everyone living at that time in that kingdom, without exception, was obliged to attend. Even newborn babies had to be brought by their mothers. At this mass meeting, held only once a century, only one person would speak and address the assembled masses.
Who would that person be? The one who had attended the previous meeting and was still alive—he would speak, not anyone else. And that ancient person would say, “Oh my sons and my daughters, one hundred years ago I was a small child and my grandfather caught me by the hand and brought me here. Oh my sons and daughters, except for me, not one person who attended that previous meeting is still alive: all of them have passed away. Now all of you are here, living and breathing, but at the next meeting a century from now, none of you will be in attendance except for maybe one or two of these babies and small children.”
That was a strange custom in India, but not a useless one; a custom through which people were taught, guided and awakened to the realization that they will not be on this earth forever. This lesson was an effective one for the whole population, to remind everyone that he is but a passenger on a caravan passing through this life. In particular this custom was designed to remind young people of the transitory nature of life on this earth, as young people in the heat of their youthful power can easily forget this. They were alerted to the fact that youth,
that treasure which they temporarily possess, is a fading treasure.
When people look at their own lives in perspective, they may see that youthful period as being the most precious and wonderful time of their lives. Once they have wasted that treasure there is no way of regaining it, and along their lives they will feel regret and sorrow for how they have squandered that treasure and have nothing to show for it. Had they but used that treasure wisely, and not let their possession of it drive them mad, then they might have found they can recall their youthful days with happiness and not severe remorse, and also that they may even carry something of that treasure with them throughout their lives, having resources of physical and spiritual energy at their disposal.
But nowadays, people are so wanton that youth no longer extends to the age of thirty three as it used to, but may be completely burnt out at the age of twenty three— and in the future it may be thirteen—so that the young are drained physically, mentally and spiritually like decrepit and hopeless old people.
When a young person reaches puberty he (or she) discovers that he has fallen into the huge ocean of life and is swimming in it. Little children are also in that ocean, but they cannot yet understand what it means. The onset of puberty coincides with the onset of wonderment and confusion. At this period of life, if young people are not prepared to understand what is really happening, they will be like a person happily engaged in a pleasure swim in a warm ocean, swimming and splashing this way and that, thinking only to enjoy himself.
Sooner or later, though, he feels tired from his frolic and looks for the shore, but, alas, he has been caught unawares in a current that is rapidly carrying him away
from shore. Depending upon just how soon or late he discovers that he is caught in that dangerous current, he may be still within reach of the shore or he may be already too far out to save himself.
One who has frolicked in that current must make double efforts to reach the shore, as he must not only cover the distance, but he must swim twice as hard and never may stop, to avoid being pulled back out by the current and losing all the distance he has covered. To make it safely to shore will be the struggle of his life.
The youths of our times are all facing such a struggle in their lives, as they have neither been trained to be strong swimmers nor has their attention been drawn to the fact that there is a current dragging them rapidly out to sea.
If young people have been prepared for this situation they may swim towards shore without difficulty, and enjoy themselves all the while. Instead of swimming around heedlessly in circles, if they know to swim always towards shore they will enjoy their swim and even have the energy to swim in that sea throughout their lives without peril, having become familiar with its currents and with the extent of their own power, so that they are never caught unawares.
But without attaining that shore, the shore of rest and safety, no one can keep himself afloat indefinitely. Even machines made of hardened steel need rest, so what about a bag of flesh and bones? Instead of running around a hill ten times go towards a destination! But youth is wasting all its energies uselessly. That youth energy is not replenishable, not like the gas tank of a car that can be refilled.
Therefore, divine guidance sets limits for youth, so that young people may be prevented from wasting their
treasures. If the young heed the wisdom of divine guidance they will keep the gem of youth along their lives; if they don’t they will become like “walking corpses” at a very early age.
But the person who seeks to open his spiritual life and is careful of over indulgence even in those enjoyments permitted by the divine law, he is the one who will keep his youthfulness more than anyone. Part of the discipline for attaining spiritual awakening is to live a simple life, not seeking to enjoy everything that the law permits. Our grandshaykh was over one hundred years old, but he was as strong as a young man. Once when he had a medical check up the doctors were astounded to find that his blood pressure and pulse were like that of a much younger person.
Our grandshaykh drew my attention to a tradition of the Holy Prophet in which he advised a shepherd to leave some milk in the udder of a ewe rather than milking it to the last drop. The Prophet, peace be upon him, explained that if a little milk remains in the udder more milk will easily be produced to fill it up again; but if it is greedily squeezed out to the last drop it will fill again only with difficulty.
We must draw a wide ranging conclusion from this tradition. The total freedom in our time awakens the kind of greed that impels young people to drain themselves of youthful energy to such an extent that it becomes impossible to replace it. Look, the teachings of our Prophet, peace be upon him, have such wide ranging implications: he was talking to one man about milking sheep, but the import encompasses the very heart of the problems of our time.
The people of the twentieth century are in dire need of the teachings of the last Prophet, especially the young
people. Otherwise even millions of psychiatrists will not be enough to help them deal with their psychological problems, nor millions of doctors and tons of drugs will be enough to cure them of their diseases. All efforts to deal with their problems will be but a drop in the mouth of a person dying of thirst. This is the clang of the alarm bell: if no one heeds it and stands up to say “stop”, the world will sink deeper and deeper into the swamp.
Wa min Allah at Taufiq.
Depression
Question: As a psychiatrist, what can I do for patients suffering from depression?
The Shaykh said: In Arabic there is a proverb: “Madness manifests in at least seventy different varieties.” This proverb implies that one can easily count at least seventy distinct varieties of madness. That is a minimum, only a broad categorization; actually, there is no limit, no maximum.
In fact every person has a distinct and unique type of madness within himself: in some people it is latent and in some it has taken over; but it is present and must be present in all people. How does each person’s individual madness become manifest? By means of depression.
Depression is the medium in which madness develops, a means by which that sleeping beast is awakened. If a patient comes to you in a depressed state, you may diagnose the particular aspects of the madness that is developing through the depression and use that knowledge to help him out of his depression, otherwise he will become truly mad.
Therefore, we must all do what we can to avoid waking up our latent madness. We must avoid depression and the causes of depression, to never allow the seed of madness to germinate or sprout. Psychiatrists, and people in general, must understand the causes of depression. The causes of depression may be the same for all people, but each person may react differently to the same thing, as human beings are subtle and manifest endlessly varying reactions to the same causes.
Because human beings are subtle, psychiatrists must be masters of subtlety to be able to help their patients;
they must be able to diagnose the direction of the depression and its development in a unique personality, and they must be clever enough to know how to approach that depressed person.
The way to conquer depression is to eliminate its causes, but to be able to do that they must know how to advise a patient, how to address him. Speaking is an art, especially speaking to depressed people who are in such a delicate state.
The way of phrasing one’s speech is the key; one obtains either the desired result or its opposite, as the following story will show.
Once a king dreamt that all his teeth had fallen out. He was disturbed by this dream, so he called for a man who interpreted dreams. The interpreter listened to the dream, then he told him, “Oh my king, all of your relatives are going to die before you.” The king became very angry upon hearing this and ordered the interpreter of dreams to be beaten one hundred whiplashes and thrown out of the palace.
Then the king called in a different interpreter
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