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PREFACE

It is an honour to present this important su-fi c text, translated with such precision of its technical terms by the scholar Dr. Yasin Dutton. It is the work of the greatly respected and revered Algerian sufi , Sayyidi Hammoud ibn al-Bashir of Blida.

On a journey to Algeria with my fi rst Sh-aykh, Sidi Muhammad ibn al-Habib, we stayed in the town of Blida at our author’s house. Shaykh ibn al-Habib assigned Sayyidi Hammoud as my fi rst teacher in the science of Tasawwuf. The hours I spent in his compa-ny – in his garden, his library, the mosque and

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walking by the sea at Algiers laid the founda-tion of my later time with our blessed Shaykh and indeed of a lifetime in the company of the Fuqara.

This commentary is vital to all students of Futuwwah which is, at its core, action, and that action an illumination, itself the fruit of refl ection.

Allah spread the knowledges of the Habibiyya Darqawi circles across the world brotherhood of Qadiriyya. Amin.

Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir As-Sufi

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INTRODUCTION

In the Name of AllahThe Compassionate, The Merciful

May Allah bless Sayyiduna Muhammad and his Family and Companions – he who was the beginning of the universe and its light, the rep-resentative of the Real and the one entrusted with His Secret, the one who brought a law by which everything could be judged so that the outward would be set up in the outward, the one who ordered ‘Ibada to be perfected by purifying the inward from all the kinds of temptations and failings that alter it and are incompatible with the clarity and radiance of the path of Ihsan, with blessings and peace for as long as the planets, kingdoms, lights and

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darknesses remain, until the day when the eyes stare fi xedly and lights appear before people, and pages are given to the People of the Right and to the People of the Left, to those who deserve mercy and to the others who deserve subjugation and loss.

Praise be to Allah Who has appointed for this universe a sensory aspect which has been made to go straight but which sometimes returns to, and sometimes is enticed away from, the Real, and Who has appointed for hearts an aspect of meaning which is tasted and witnessed, and Who has fashioned for each of the above-mentioned aspects men who in every age es-tablish the limits of the Shari‘at and clarify its paths, and others who guide the seekers of Haqiqat to the path of Ihsan and who, by clar-ifying the means of approach to Allah and of how to travel on the ways of this Path, have removed from them its veil.

The solace of our hearts and nourisher of our spirits, the Complete Shaykh, the Muhamma-di individual, the unique Gnostic in this age whose station is fi rmly established in the states of Lordship and whose standing and fame in the path of guidance have risen high by call-ing the slaves of Allah to Allah, the teacher Sayyidi Muhammad ibn al-Habib al-Amghari

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al-Hasani al-Fasi, who is now residing in Me-knes – may Allah grant us benefi t from his blessings, amin – gave me his Idhn and order which cannot be gainsaid or opposed, to write a Commentary on the following prayer of his which constitutes part of his well-known Wird which is currently used in all the Zawi-yyas pertaining to his Order:

O Allah! We ask You for a sound Is-lam accompanied by submission to Your orders and prohibitions and for a pure Iman, fi rmly established, enduring, protected from all ambi-guities and dangers, and for an Ihsan that will drive us into the presence of the Unseen. May we be purifi ed by it from every kind of negligence and defect.

We ask for a certainty which will reveal to us the presences of the Names and Attributes by which we will be carried into the witnessing of the lights of the Tajalliyat adh-Dhat, and for use-ful knowledge through which we may understand how to conduct ourselves in Your presence and how to confi de in You in prayer. Fill our hearts with the lights of Your Ma’rifa so that we

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may witness Your Self-Existingness fl owing in all created things. Let us be among the circle of Your Fadhl, beloved in Your presence and among the fi rmly grounded and enduring in reliance and honest dependence on You. Realise our hope with the an-swer to all that we ask, O Generous, O Giving!

O Master, do not let us rely on any other than You in stillness or in ac-tion. You have accustomed us to Your Ihsan before we even asked for it while we were in our mothers’ wombs. You have raised us with the Latif of Your lordship over existence in a manner far beyond the percep-tion of illumined intellects.

We ask You, O Allah, by Your Proph-et, whom You have preferred above all other Prophets and Messengers, and by Your Messenger whose Mes-sage You have made universal and a mercy to all creation, to bless him and his Family and grant them a peace by which we may attain his love and follow him in words, deeds, in Muraqaba, Mushahada, Adab,

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Akhlaq and Ahwal.

We ask You, O Master, by his rank, to grant us that useful knowledge through which every listener may profi t and every heart may be made humble, and at which the skin may tremble and tears fl ow. You are the All-Powerful, the Transformer, the Knowing, the Living, the Vast.

Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of might, above all that they describe, and peace be upon the Messengers, and praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.

He called it, and this was after I had asked him about it, ‘The Hizb of Divine Inspirations in Complete and Comprehensive Du‘as’ – in order for this to be a title and a heading for them all as a whole. I heard him say, radiyal-lahu ‘anhu, that its phrases came to him at the time just before dawn, one after the other until the very last one, and for this reason he called them ‘supplications’, using the plural, because of the kinds of knowledge they include, en-compassing the Pillars of Islam from the point of view of both Shari‘at and Haqiqat. They are universals which contain particulars

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whose judgments are wide-ranging, whose branches are far-reaching, whose meanings are clearly defi ned, and whose structures form solid foundations. Their source is inspiration, and the assistance granted by Allah, and their subject matter is knowledge and realisation. They guide the wanderer and awaken the one who is cold, and they gather the core of the hesitant one in love and obedience to the One King.

An intelligent man seeking benefi t from them should repeat them often and consider them for a long time, by which he will necessarily be guided to gnosis of the worth of the One they are addressed to, and thus be able to appreci-ate Him fully with a sound belief and a sub-mission which saves the one who has it from destructive evil opinion.

May Allah have mercy on any man who sees and follows the Truth, and keeps away from and avoids the false. Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, says in Surat al-Kahf (18:17):

Whomever He leads astrayyou will not fi nd for him

any protecting friend

* * *

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COMMENTARYON

THE HIZB OF GNOSTIC DU‘AS

I begin what I have to say, putting my reliance in Allah, fi rmly resolved, and content that with the permission I have been granted I will fi nd the right path, and absolutely certain about the order I have received with which no-one could ever fi nd fault. For the Murids it will be acceptable, and for the noble people of our circles, with their good opinion, bearable.

Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib, radiyallahu ‘anhu, said:

O Allah, I ask You for a sound Islam accompanied by submission to Your orders and prohibitions.

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What is meant by a ‘sound Islam’ is a com-plete Islam, complete through the practice of its fi ve Pillars, which are:

– Bearing witness that there is no god but Allah alone without any partner, and bearing witness that Muhammad, sallal-lahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is the Messenger of Allah.

– Establishing the Prayer, which means per-forming it while fulfi lling its conditions, both those external to it and those includ-ed in it, such as the conditions for its being obligatory and the conditions for it being valid, while also observing what is obliga-tory (Fard), what is Sunna, and what is recommended (Mustahabb), and the rules regarding what invalidates both the major and minor purifi cations, along with what-ever else there is apart from that.

– Giving Zakat in its various forms, such as coin, gold, silver, and agricultural produce, including those seeds for which Zakat should be paid, such as the seven kinds of pulse and the four kinds of oil-producing seed, all of which are included in the twen-ty kinds decided upon by the Fuqaha, and likewise for the various kinds of livestock, such as cows, sheep, goats and camels.

– Fasting the month of Ramadan which

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Allah ordered to be fasted, which involves abstaining from food, drink and sexual intercourse during the day, protecting the parts of the body from looking at what is Haram, keeping the tongue from back-bit-ing, slander and foolish talk, and occupy-ing oneself with doing more good works than usual and by doing much Dhikr both in the heart and on the tongue, and by spe-cial devotions in its beautiful nights, with prostration and bowing and reading the Qur’an and other kinds of dutiful right ac-tion and Ihsan.

– Performing the Hajj to the House of Allah in Makkah by whomever is able to do so and does not fear for his self, along with fulfi lling its conditions and Pillars and its other rituals so that it is, inshallah, a com-plete and acceptable Hajj which will not be refused.

As for the Shahada we shall make an excep-tion of it by singling it out for special discus-sion in order to give it its full due and credit since it is both the basis and the essence of Iman.

The two Shahadas consist on the one hand of an affi rmation of the oneness of Allah ta‘ala together with an assertion of the true

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nature of His godhead with its necessary at-tributes, and a denial of false and illusory gods, after furnishing proofs, both theoretical and from the Book of Allah and the Hadiths of the Messenger, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, and, on the other hand, of an affi rmation of the certainty of the Message of our master Muhammad, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, con-sisting of the Shari‘at that he brought, the establishment of the outward, and his news about the Unseen, both with regard to the states of the Day of Rising and the other things that the Generous Qur’an and the No-ble Hadith have told us about, and with regard to the nature of the noble phrase which must be both said and acted upon in order for one’s Islam to be complete. This is because to say it fi rst of all with belief is obligatory and to be mentioning it always is ‘Ibada and a means of coming near to Allah ta‘ala. The strongest proof of this is the saying of the Messenger, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam: “The best thing that I and the Prophets before me have said is ‘La ilaha illallah.’”

If anyone should ask how this phrase could be something that the Prophets before him, sal-lallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said, whilst the ma-jority of them were not Arabs, nor was their language that of the Arabs, like for instance

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Sayyiduna ‘Isa, ‘alayhi as-salam, and Sayyiduna Musa and Sayyiduna Da‘ud, ‘alayhim as-salam, and that the Books which were revealed to them came down in the Nazarene tongue or in Hebrew or Syriac or other such languag-es from the time of Sayyiduna Adam to ‘Isa, ‘alayhim as-salam, then we would reply:

This question is due to the limited perceptions of the questioner, whereby he imagines that the phrase ‘La ilaha illallah’ is an expression which, had it been articulated in any other way, would have made the Islam of those who went before incomplete. This is despite the fact that Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, created all the various kinds of Messengers and Proph-ets and charged them with what was appropri-ate to their situation, making them speak with an articulation that carried the same meaning as ‘La ilaha illallah’. A suffi cient and stronger proof than that is Allah ta‘ala’s word in Surat Ibrahim (14:5):

We have not sent any Messengerexcept with the language of his peopleso he can make things clear to them.

The meaning of ‘La ilaha illallah’ is that there is nothing truly worthy of worship except Allah. The word ‘ilah’ means one worthy of

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worship in truth, and the word ‘Allah’ is a proper name signifying the necessarily exist-ing Essence worthy of all praise, and this is the name which is known as ‘The Greatest Name’ by all the ‘Ulama.

The phrase ‘La ilaha illallah’ consists of a ne-gation and an affi rmation. ‘La ilaha’ is a nega-tion, and ‘illallah’ is an affi rmation. The au-thor of the Fath ar-Rahman (The Victory of the Merciful) says that the basis of all Dhikr is ‘La ilaha illallah’ which consists of a negation and an affi rmation. With the negation, all the bad elements, from which come sicknesses of the heart arising from objectionable human morals and the bestial qualities dictated by the appetites, vanish. With the affi rmation come all the elements of a sound heart, consisting of the light of Allah ta‘ala and the Tajalli of the spirit by direct witnessing of the Real. Allah ta‘ala says in Surat az-Zumar (39:66):

And the earth will shine with the Pure Light of its Lord.

“And the earth will shine,” that is, the earth of the self, after its blameworthy qualities have vanished, “with the Pure Light of its Lord.”

It is appropriate for the negation to begin on

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the right-hand side because that is the side of the embattled nafs. The heart is on the left-hand side, which is the place of lights and secrets, and the Majestic Name was made to be pronounced there so that it might meet its lights and secrets. The author of the Fath ar-Rahman says that Shaykh al-Islam Zakariyya informed him of this.

From the point of view of Shari‘at, the rul-ing is that this phrase is obligatory on every-body, that is, all those whom the call to Islam has reached and who are responsible and are capable of pronouncing the words. Every re-sponsible believer has to do it with the inten-tion of discharging the obligation at least once in his lifetime. If he does not do this then he is guilty of disobedience though his Iman re-mains sound.

As for a kafi r, his saying of the phrase is ob-ligatory and is a condition for the soundness of the heart’s Iman, provided he is capable of doing so, and this is because it is considered as part of the reality of Iman. What can be said for certain is that it is one of the necessary conditions for implementing the rules that have been laid down for this world, though it is not actually part of the true nature of Iman.

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All of this can be summed up in saying that to declare the Shahada is a duty on everyone, be he Mumin or kafi r, even though the nature of this differs from one to the other since for a Mumin the branches of Iman are obligatory, while for a kafi r it is only the basic root that is obligatory. What is clear is that it is obligatory to say it in the aforementioned way, that is, with a negation and an affi rmation.

Ibn ‘Arafa comes to a similar decision, but says that one must use the words ‘Ash-hadu an la ilaha illallah wa ash-hadu anna Muham-madan Rasulullah’ – I bear witness that there is no god except Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Al-Abbi says that anything which shows there is Iman is enough, so that if somebody says, for example, “Allah is One and Muhammad is a Messenger,” that is enough. [See Note 1].

He then makes the observation that ‘obliga-tory’ (Wajib) is one of the fi ve basic categories in the shari’at, which are: obligatory (Wajib), recommended (Mandub), prohibited (Har-am), not liked but allowed (Makruh), and per-missible (Mubah).

An obligatory thing is what brings a reward when it is done but is punished if it is not done,

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such as belief in Allah and His Messengers and the fi ve Pillars of Islam. Recommended is what brings a reward when it is done but is not punished if it is not done, for example the mid-morning prayer (Salat ad-Duha). Haram is what brings a reward when it is not done but is punished if it is done, such as fornica-tion. Makruh is what brings a reward if it is not done but does not bring a punishment if it is done, such as reading from the Qur’an while in ruku’. Mubah is what neither brings reward if it is done nor punishment if it is not done, such as marriage or buying and selling.

Regarding what he says about Mubah, we have heard from our Shaykh that if something Mubah is done with the intention of helping ‘Ibada, or if whatever results in helping it is done, and done with that intention, then it brings with it a reward when it is done.

Here are some other things which I also not-ed from the above-mentioned book, Fath ar-Rahman, by Ibn Muhanna al-Qusantini, relat-ing to the benefi ts of ‘La ilaha illallah’ and the gains to be got by always repeating it. He says:

The benefi ts of Dhikr are mentioned in many Ayats and Hadiths. Among the Ayats is His word, subhanahu wa ta‘ala

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in Surat al-Baqara (2:151):

Remember Me – I will remember you.

He also says in Surat al-‘Araf (7:205):

Remember your Lord in yourselfhumbly and fearfully,

without loudness of voice,morning and evening.

Do not be one of the unaware.

Among the Hadiths are the Prophet’s words, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam: “He who men-tions Allah among the heedless ones is like a green tree in the midst of stalks of straw.” He also said: “The son of Adam can do nothing more effi cacious in saving himself from the torment of Allah than Dhikr of Allah.” They said, “O Messenger of Allah, not even Jihad in the way of Allah?” and he said, “No, not even Jihad in the way of Allah.” And he also said, “Whoever wishes to graze in the gardens of Paradise should do much Dhikr of Allah.”

Among the transmissions is what Fudayl said: “It has reached us that Allah ta‘ala said: ‘Re-member Me for a while after the Subh prayer and for a while after the ‘Asr prayer, and I will protect you between the two.’” The ‘Ulama

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say that Allah has said: “Whenever I look into the heart of a slave of Mine and see that he is mostly preoccupied with constant Dhikr of Me, then I take care of his affairs, and sit with him and talk to him and keep him company.” It is also related that every self will leave this world thirsty except for those who remember Allah ta‘ala. [See Note 2].

As for the differences of strength and weak-ness in aspirations and degrees, they are only what we understand in terms of our intel-lects, and it is quite possible that with Allah, a strong person and a weak one are equal, since in reality the weak one may be granted mercy because of his weakness in bearing the affl ic-tion with which he has been charged, whereas the strong person does not feel the distress since he is able to cope with it, unlike the weak one, who very much feels and notices in him-self his weakness and incapability, and Allah knows best.

Our Shaykh, Sayyidi Muhammad ibn al-Ha-bib, radiyallahu ‘anhu, says about the meaning of La ilaha illallah in one of his poems rhym-ing in ta’:

La ilaha illallah banishes all whisperings

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along with the instruction of a Shaykh who knows the Haqiqat.

His signs are: a light which shines appearing outwardly,

and a secret which appears inwardly, with Himma.

He elevates you with a glance even before he speaks,

and from this glance comes a Robe of Honour.

By that I mean the secrets

which fl ow rapidly into the heart of the Murid seeking the truth

free of any Shirk.

The staff of his journey is his doing-without among people,

and his concern lies in seeking the Beloved alone in vision.

His speech is by Idhn from the Best of Creation

upon whom the glorious truthful ones depend.

If you attain the goal of fi nding someone like this,

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then set out and offer up the self without delay.

Consider nothing except what I have described here,

for it is enough and it contains every happiness.

Let us now return to the quotations we have been citing. Abul-Qassim al-Qushayri says: “One of the diffi culties that besets the Mu-rid is the hidden envy of his brothers which befalls the self, or the infl uence on him of the forms which Allah has singled out particularly for him in this path.” Part of the Adab of the Murid is that he should avoid being put in the position of being the head of any group, and should be to them instead as a pupil and Mu-rid. If the Murid (willer/seeker), becomes the murad (willed/sought), before the extinction of his humanness and the falling away of his harmful qualities, he will be veiled from Reality and neither his indication nor his teaching will be of any use to anyone. If the Murid serves the Fuqara then the ideas of the Fuqara are their messengers to him. The Murid should not try to oppose the sincerity in service that his inward tells him to have through any prior consideration of whether or not he is capable of doing that service.

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The author of Nasihat al-Ikhwan (Advice for the Brothers) says:

Whoever mentions it will not be sadNeither will he be afraid

It is the fi rmest handleholdLa ilaha illallah

The book’s commentator, Ibn Muhanna al-Qusantini, says:

This verse is an allusion to the Prophet’s words, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam: “No slave who has said ‘La ilaha illallah’ seek-ing the Face of Allah will appear on the Day of Rising without Allah saving him from the Fire.” He also said, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, “Whoever’s last words are ‘La ilaha illallah’ will enter the Gar-den,” and he said, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, “The people who will be most happy with my intercession on the Day of Rising will be those who have said ‘La ilaha illallah’ sincerely with their heart and soul.”

Taken as a whole, these Hadiths show clearly that whoever says this phrase will never be sad, and that for him is the good news of eter-

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nal happiness and the triumph of everlasting bliss.

The teacher Ibn Abi Jamra says that the out-ward meaning of the Hadith is that only someone who says “La ilaha illallah” sincerely with his heart and soul will fi nd happiness in the intercession of the Prophet, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. He then adds: “It is for this reason that he said, ‘Most happy’, intending exaggeration by it, because it is a happiness after which there will never be unhappiness. [See Note 3].

Our Shaykh then says, radiyallahu ‘anhu:

Accompanied by submission to Your orders and prohibitions.

That is, may this sound Islam be accompa-nied, O Lord, by submission, that is, an ability to yield and be led and follow the right exam-ple, which will lead the slave to pleasure from his Lord, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, and to pleasure of his Lord in him in all his states that bear any relation to his slavehood. Allah ta‘ala says (5:121):

Allah is pleased with themand they are pleased with Him.

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This station is experienced when all the blameworthy desires of the self disappear and it leaves the bulk of its evil propensities and ascends through the seven stages of the self well-known to the people of journeying and wayfaring. They are, to mention them al-together:

1. The self inciting to evil – an-Nafs al-Ammara

2. The reproachful self – an-Nafs al-Lawwama

3. The inspired self – an-Nafs al-Mulhama

4. The contented self – an-Nafs al-Mutma’inna

5. The pleasing self – an-Nafs ar-Radiya

6. The pleased self – an-Nafs al-Mardiyya

7. The perfect self – an-Nafs al-Kamila

Following the right example and being able to yield are put into practice by following the commands of Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, that He has ordered us to do, and leaving the things which He has ordered us not to do as far as the Shari‘at is concerned, while at the same time watching Allah in all that and wit-

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nessing His manifestation immediately after that, or during it, or before it.

He then says:

And a pure Iman, fi rmly established, enduring, protected from all ambi-guities and dangers.

The fi rst level of Iman is that the slave should believe in the existence of Allah and His An-gels, His Books, His Messengers, the Last Day and the Decree, both what is sweet of it and what is bitter.

The second level is that this Iman will be free from the blemish of doubts in the heart and of either overt or hidden Shirk, since an Iman which has any of these corrupting qualities in it will necessarily be overcome by them and turned sour.

The third level will be ‘fi rmly rooted’, that is, not weak and precarious, but like a tree which has become fi rmly entrenched with its roots penetrating deeply into the earth and which remains unaffected by the winds.

The fourth level will be constant and enduring for as long as its possessor has life, and will be

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susceptible to neither change nor alteration.

The fi fth level will be protected from all ambi-guities and dangers.

These last levels, together with a desire for protection, are assurances that they are only achieved through hard work and by the help and concern of the Real, subhanahu wa ta‘ala. This is so, even though this help and concern have been with the believing slave in all that has been mentioned right from the very be-ginning.

As for the ambiguities and dangers, the law of Shari‘at confi rms that one should not ap-proach them. In the noble Hadith related by Abu ‘Abdullah an-Nu‘man ibn Bashir, radiy-allahu ‘anhu, he said: “I heard the Messen-ger of Allah, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, say, ‘What is Halal is clear and what is Haram is clear, but between them are ambiguities which most people have no knowledge about. So whoever is careful with regard to these am-biguities will keep his Deen and honour free from blemish, while whoever falls into them will be falling into what is Haram, just like a herdsman who grazes his herd around a for-bidden area and very nearly falls into it. Just so does every king have an area which is pro-

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tected, and the protected area of Allah is what He has forbidden. In the body is a lump of fl esh which, when it is healthy, ensures that the whole body is healthy, and which, when it deteriorates, ensures that the whole body will deteriorate. It is the heart.’” This is related by al-Bukhari and Muslim.

A certain ‘Alim has said:

The main prop of the Deen in our opin-ion, consists of four ‘words’ which are the words of the Best of Creation:

Be careful with ambiguitiesDo withoutLeave what does not concern youAct with intention

Shaykh Hijazi al-Fashani, radiyallahu ‘anhu, says in commentary on the above Hadith, which is in The Forty Hadiths of Imam an-Nawawi:

As for the words, “Between them are ambiguities which most people have no knowledge about,” ‘Mushtabihat’ is the plural of ‘Shubha’, [see Note 4], which is when there seems to the onlooker to be a valid argument for doing something but

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there is not. As for the word ‘Istabra’a’ (to keep free from blemish) which can be either with or without the hamza, it means ‘to seek innocence’, or ‘lack of guilt’: ‘li-Deenihi (for his Deen) that is, from the censure of the Shari‘at: ‘wa ‘ir-dihi’ (and his honour) that is, defending himself from people’s slandering of it. What is meant by that is the self, since that is the place of censure.

It has come down to us in the traditions that whoever is accused of doing anything should not be blamed by anyone who has a bad opin-ion of him. The Prophet, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, was with his wife Safi yya on one oc-casion. Two men passed by him and began to walk faster. He said, “No need to go fast. It is Safi yya.” He said this out of fear of danger for them. They said, “Allah be glorifi ed!” and the Prophet said, “Shaytan fl ows around the son of Adam like his blood. I was afraid lest he put some evil in your hearts.”

Our Shaykh, radiyallahu ‘anhu, then says:

And for an Ihsan that will drive us into the presence of the Unseen. May we be purifi ed by it from every kind of negligence and defect.

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Ihsan is the highest stage of the Deen, and whoever has taken on its teachings and glori-ous qualities has reached the stage of perfec-tion in his Deen. There are differences in the degree of this perfection according to the dif-ferences in the sincerity of purpose of those who are seeking it. This is the result of the different levels of Himma that these people have, and the degree of their connection to it in terms of their ability to taste and the mo-tives of their yearning to ascend and travel on the path of love of Allah and stripping one-self of all except Him. This is a quality which Allah grants only to those who love Him, and He does this by drawing them near and choos-ing them specially. He, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, says in Surat ar-Ra’d (13:28):

Say: “Allah misguides whomever He willsand guides to Himself all who turn to Him.”

The meaning of Ihsan varies according to the various levels at which it can be expressed. Its basic meaning in Shari‘at is that you worship Allah as if you can see Him, for even though you cannot see Him, He sees you. This is one of the things that the Prophet said, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, and for the people of this great lineage it is like the disk of the sun from which rays of light spread out over the rest

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of the world, and from which every gnostic, watcher and witnesser has sought, or is seek-ing, light, each according to the ability which has been granted him for so doing.

The word ‘Zajj’ – which literally means ‘to drive’ – means to push something and plunge it into the sea. The ‘presences of the Unseen’ are those things that are witnessed without any limit in which everyone will swim who is annihilated in them. These witnessings will on occasion be like drunkenness, or the state be-fore it or after it. Those most acquainted with the presences of the Unseen are the spirits of the Prophets, the Angels, and the awliya.

When he says ‘by which we will be purifi ed’, he means purifi ed by Ihsan from the unclean-ness of heedlessness and other faults which detract from perfect slavehood.

He then says, radiyallahu ‘anhu:

We ask for a certainty which will re-veal to us the presences of the Names and the Attributes.

That is, a certainty which will reveal to us a knowledge that has in it certainty about the presences of the Names and the Attributes.

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The ‘presences of the Names’ is what fl oods out from them through their meaning which necessitates one particular existing corollary. For instance, the Name ‘The Creator’ has as a necessary corollary every created man or thing. From ‘The Guider’ comes every guid-ed man or thing. From ‘The One who Leads Astray’ (al-Mudill) comes every man or thing that is led astray. From ‘The One who Over-whelms’ (al-Qahir) comes everyone who is overwhelmed and defeated, and from ‘The Merciful’ comes everyone upon whom He has mercy, and so on for the meanings of all the Names of Allah ta‘ala whether they be ones that restrain or otherwise.

These necessary corollaries are what are some-times referred to as the lights of the names of Allah, but Allah knows best.

Here are some lines on the subject to be found in the Qasida entitled ‘Stimulation of desire for the act of Dhikr’, written by our Shaykh, the author of this majestic prayer, radiyallahu ‘anhu:

By Dhikr of the God of the Throne, you will become Zahid among men,

and you will be in Fana’ from the self, which holds you back on the journey.

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You will become one who sits with Allah, without ceremony,

and you will be safe from doubt, Shirk and otherness.

You will journey from the cosmos to the Presence of Purity

and you will witness the Act of Allah in the creation and the Command.

You will rise to the Names and drink of their light,

and the Attributes will appear to you without any veil.

The meaning of the Essence will emerge from the perfection of Fana’

and you will gain Baqa’, rich with Allah for the rest of your life.

This is part of the complete poem, and the reason why we have quoted it is the line: “You will rise to the Names and drink of their light, and the Attributes will appear to you without any veil.”

The Attributes are the qualities of the Divine and all the lights, conditions, and Tajalliyat that appear from them to the perfect one of anni-hilation, that is, to the one who is perfectly

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annihilated. This is what he means, radiyallahu ‘anhu, when he says:

We ask for a certainty which will re-veal to us the presences of the Names and the Attributes

After this he says:

by which we will be carried into the witnessing of the lights of the Tajal-liyat adh-Dhat.

This is the path of ascent through the differ-ent stages of witnessing, since in his wayfaring the wayfarer begins with a perfect Iman, and then goes on to fi rm certainty, and then onto the source of certainty, and then to annihila-tion, and then to annihilation of annihilation, and then to going-on, which is a return to the level of sensory and Shari‘at judgments from where he set out, since they are the light of the Reality and branches of it.

He then says:

And for useful knowledge through which we may understand how to conduct ourselves in Your presence and how to confi de in You in prayer.

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There are various levels of knowledge, of ‘Ilm:

– Knowledge coming directly from the Pres-ence (‘Ilm Laduni), which is given

– Knowledge of Shari’at (‘Ilm Shar‘i), which is acquired

– Necessary Knowledge (‘Ilm Daruri), which is natural

What the Shaykh, radiyallahu ‘anhu, means here, and Allah knows best, is the knowledge of how to behave in the Presence of Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala. For this reason he de-scribed it as useful, that is, useful at the time when He manifests Himself to the heart, whatever the degree of turning of that heart towards the one God who is worshipped in truth. The ones who have this useful knowl-edge, which descends onto the heart that has been polished and purifi ed from the gloomy darknesses and impurities of the self, know by it how to conduct themselves in the pres-ence of the Real, subhanahu wa ta‘ala. This is because it is pure knowledge, free from any corrupting thoughts. Any kind of knowledge, whether of Shari‘at or otherwise, which does not lead those occupied with it to correct be-haviour with the One who “taught you what you did not know before,” (4:112) is a hin-

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drance and an obstacle, without any signifi -cant use in it at all, except in so far as it helps in the enjoyment of the life of this world.

Again, he says: “Through which we may un-derstand how to conduct ourselves in Your presence,” that is, at every instant, “and how to confi de in You,” by the above-mentioned knowledge during times of Prayer, irrespec-tive of whether the prayers are obligatory or superogatory.

Speaking confi dentially in prayer is what is re-ferred to in the tradition where we are told that when a slave of Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, recites, “Praise be to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds,” Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, says in reply: “My slave has spoken well of Me.” When he recites, “The All-Merciful, the Most Merciful, the King of the Day of Judg-ment,” Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, says: “My slave has praised Me,” and so on.

It has also come down to us in a sound Ha-dith that Allah said: “Allah says on the tongue of His slave, ‘Allah has heard the one who praises Him’” – sami’allahu li-man hamidah. This noble tradition informs us that the slave is an instrument on whose tongue and limbs Allah makes happen whatever He wishes there

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to be in His kingdom, since He is the Doer and the Chooser. And as long as the slave sees everything as coming from Him then he has set aside concern for reward and punishment, “and how few they are!” (Surat Sad, 38:24) who see all things as coming from the Real:

The wind plays in the branchesand the gold of the late afternoonfl ows out onto the silver of the sea.

And:

Whoever does not have his existence directly from the Essencehas an existence which is totally impossible.

Here are some lines from The Greater Song, on this subject, by our Shaykh, radiyallahu ‘anhu:

If you wish to ascend as the lovers ascend,

turn to Layla with complete sincerity in love

And dismiss all who criticise Her love, and travel to the lovers in every land.

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If your sincerity in love is real, by it

you will see the lovers without journeying.

If the eye of your hearthas been purifi ed

you will see the lights manifested from Her.

Be Her grateful slave and do not look on otherness.

Every aspect of your happiness has come from Her.

Beware of the deceptions of thoughts which arise.

They weaken good counsel and they are the greatest lies.

What we wish to draw attention to is the line: “If the eye of your heart’s eye has been puri-fi ed, you will see the lights manifested from Her.” Speaking in confi dence with Allah, sub-hanahu wa ta‘ala, is a matter of speaking and of being answered on both sides, with words which can be both from the self and other than the self. The proof of this is in the Pre-cious Book in Surat al-A’raf (7:205):

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Remember your Lord in yourselfhumbly and fearfully,

without loudness of voice,morning and evening.

Do not be one of the unaware.

What we understand by the Shaykh using the word ‘useful’ is the getting away from knowl-edge which is not useful and which drags the one who has it into the abysses of the wrath of the Real and of creation. This is because knowledge should be what takes the one who has it on to eternal happiness, especially if it is used as a means to arrive at, or get nearer to Allah in this fl eeting world, for that is the core of all knowledge and the very essence of hap-piness. Everything else is evil and should be discarded. In Surat ash-Shura (42:18), Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, says:

If anyone desires to cultivate the Akhira,We will increase him in his cultivation.

And the Prophet, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, sought refuge from everything other than this by saying, “O Allah, we seek refuge in You from knowledge which is not useful.”

The greatest calamity associated with knowl-edge is when someone who has it blocks peo-

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ple from the Straight Path and convinces them of his own sick way of understanding things and his sterile way of thinking, whereupon all of them end up in the same situation as a drowning man clutching at a drowning man, and we ask Allah to save us from that!

One should have the utmost caution about any ‘Alim among His slaves who does not fear Allah. Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, says in Surat al-Fatir (35:28):

Only those of His slaves with knowledge have fear of Allah.

The knowledge of ‘Ulama who are on the true Path, however, is like benefi cial water which comes out of the earth. If it should pass through a salt marsh it will be altered by it and drunk in its altered state. Intellects and hearts are altered in the same way. What re-mains clear and pure, however, will be drunk in its most perfect form – intellects will act correctly by it, and hearts will be guided by it to the right path, and there is no true fear of Allah, or right guidance except from pure wa-ters. O Allah, we seek refuge from knowledge which harms us and has no benefi t. Amin.

The Shaykh then says, radiyallahu ‘anhu:

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Fill our hearts with the lights of Your Ma’rifa so that we may witness Your Self-Existingness fl owing in all cre-ated things.

That is, provide us with a gnosis which is con-cerned with what will bring us nearer to You, until from that gnosis lights come into being and fi ll our hearts, and secrets give solace to our breasts. These lights will then lead us to direct witnessing of Your Self-Existingness which fl ows through all created beings.

That is part of the Tawhid of the elite of the perfect people of Allah for they do not see themselves as independent in any way. Rather, they see their shapes and forms as fl owing in the sea of His Self-Existingness, subhanahu wa ta‘ala. Their outward does not veil them from their inward, rather, they are images, about the reality of which the Real has given them knowledge, and He has illuminated their intellects which are like lamp-niches or win-dows where the secrets of that Self-Existing-ness appear. These secrets are none other than the Sultan of the Outward and the judgments of the Shari‘at. So they understood, conduct-ed themselves well and disconnected the Real in the way that the Real disconnected Himself, and they did what they were ordered to do,

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and they knew that anything else was straying from the right path and led to destruction.

On this subject our Shaykh, radiyallahu ‘anhu, says in his poem rhyming in ta’:

After the prayer on the Prophet, recite “La ilaha illallah”.

By it you will expel illusion from the inner eye.

And be swift to negate otherness for there is no doubt

that it is a screen to the people on the Path of Truth.

And witness a Lord Whose Attributes have been manifested

by the secrets of phenomena and the lights of the Garden,

And you will grasp a secret whose true value is only known

By a gnostic of Allah who possesses vision.

So glorify Him with Allah’s glorifi cation that is in His Book,

But take care not to perform Tanzih with reason and thinking.

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And do it in the way that the Truth has purifi ed Himself,

and entrust yourself to Him, and purify Him from contamination

with time-forms and shirk itself. He then says, radiyallahu ‘anhu:

Let us be among the circle of Your Fadhl, beloved in Your presence.

This is a prayer of his, radiyallahu ‘anhu, for which he has made space in order to seek the special favour of overfl owing generosity and entry into the circle of its people. There is no doubt that this overfl owing favour is that which is referred to in Allah ta‘ala’s word (57:20):

That is Allah’s favour which He gives to those He wills.Allah’s favour is indeed immense.

In this Ayat the favour is described as ‘im-mense’ because of its vastness and its many different degrees.

Anyone who enters into a circle where there is this favour of Allah ta‘ala can be named among the People of Favour, though the fa-

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vour varies according to the various degrees of its people. The Prophets and the Messen-gers, ‘alayhim as-salam, are the possessors of the highest favour. After them come the pure ones (al-asfi ya) and the friends of Allah (al-awliya), each according to their different ranks, and they all enter with an entry appro-priate to their high states. There is no doubt that the people of Allah who have only sought His generous Face have a special rank because they have reached the pavilion of the King. They have been at the nearest stopping-place to Him, whereupon He seated them with Him by virtue of His love for them, and they be-came the ones beloved of Him from the pres-ence of His purity and they took pleasure in His love and generosity and it was the cool-ness of their eyes.

They realised in this world what the reality of security and safety was, whereupon their awe and fear of Him, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, became stronger, and their fear and hope increased, and by means of this they attained to the de-gree of achieving balance between reliance on Allah and much action, with their forelocks held by the hand of His concern and their hearts made anxious by striving to reach Him. Whereupon the fetters and chains of man’s ordinary nature broke from them, and they

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took on the qualities of Ihsan toward creation and set off to carry out its tasks of purity on the wings of the lights of their spirits.

Thus were they the pride of Allah in the high-est parts of His dominions in the celestial spheres, and their echo reverberated to the furthest limits of the East and West. May all health and happiness be to those who strive to make themselves like them by following them, loving them and copying their example, and thus becoming those about whom Allah ta‘ala says in Surat Yunus (10:62):

Yes, the friends of Allahwill feel no fear and will know no sorrow.

He then says, radiyallahu ‘anhu:

Let us be among the circle of Your Fadhl, beloved in Your presence and among the fi rmly grounded and en-during in reliance and honest de-pendence on You.

Being fi rmly grounded means that there is no trembling or wavering at the various stages in the Path to one’s Lord. Being fi rmly grounded means being solidly fi xed in a state of endur-ing constancy, which is another way of saying

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that there is constancy of the heart through always having good opinion, and defi nitive realisation through having gained the fruit of reliance and honest dependence on Allah, which is the result of seeing the acceptance of a sincere approach to Him, subhanahu wa ta‘ala.

He then says:

Realise our hope with the answer to all that we ask, O Generous, O Giving!

This is a supplication by which he is asking for realisation of his hope in Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, and for the pleasure of Allah to be made the sign of realisation of his hope that his call be answered. He addresses Him by His Names ‘Generous’ and ‘Giving’, and whoever seeks help from Allah using these two Names will not be disappointed.

He then says:

O Master, do not let us rely on any other than You in stillness or in ac-tion.

This follows the pattern of what has come

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down to us in the supplication: “O Allah, do not entrust us to ourselves for even the blink of an eye,” that is, in all our states of stillness and action, to anyone other than You, O Lord. And Allah does not entrust the people of Allah to anyone other than Himself, for it is He Who takes control of their affairs, as He says in Surat al-Baqara (2:256):

Allah is the Protecting Friend of those who have Iman.

Allah is the Protecting Friend of those who have Iman, without any intermediary, and He is with them in His special way of being with people (16:128):

Allah is with those who have Taqwa of Himand with those who have Ihsan.

They live under the aegis of His decree and custody, and they are the ones from among the Prophets and Truthful ones upon whom Allah has bestowed His blessings. How then could He entrust them to anyone other than Himself seeing that they have made their own existence dissolve away into His Exist-ence and have covered up their attributes with His Attributes and are always waiting for spe-cial moments of inspiration from Him and

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for renewals of His generosity? Indeed, the waves of His abundance never stop fl owing over them and His gifts never cease coming to them, and thus they become drowned in the sea of His Light and slain by the sword of His Love.

He then says:

You have accustomed us to Your Ih-san before we ever asked for it, while we were still in our mothers’ wombs.

On this subject Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib has said in the Song at Departure:

How many blessings You pour on me

and You do not cease Your goodness to me!

You fed me as an embryo in the womband You were mine before my parents.

You created me Muslim and had it not been for Your gift,

I would not have known the Prophet.

In truth I prostrate on my forehead –yes, and on my cheek and my eyes.

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O Lord, bless the Prophet as long asthe Surat al-Mathani is recited,

And his Family and all the Companions,as long as people profi t by Iman.

I ask the Real for blissfor all whom my age comprises.

Allah ta‘ala says (14:36):

If you tried to number Allah’s blessings,you could never count them.

And how can His blessings be counted among all the wonders of His kingdom, or His acts of generosity be investigated, or His overfl owing favour be analysed among all the stupendous varieties of His ever-original handiwork? He appeared to His creation after He had made them appear without limit, and then He hid Himself behind the veil of His beauty and majesty, while the truth of the situation is that He is both the Outwardly Manifest and the Inwardly Hidden, the First without any be-ginning before any existent thing, and, by the same basic truth, the Last after them without any end. So see, and there is nothing harmful in doing so, how great He is!

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He accustoms His slave to His Ihsan and never stops giving it even if His slave should act wrongly, and without being asked He gives from His vast bounty to those who forget Him, or are heedless of Him and at great dis-tance from Him. The waves of His gifts fol-low one another continuously, and the fl ow of mercy from the full seas of His generosity is never-ending.

He then says, radiyallahu ‘anhu:

You have raised us with the Latif of Your lordship over existence in a manner far beyond the perception of illumined intellects.

It is said that the Lord is called ‘Lord’ (Rabb) because He brings up and educates (yurabbi) His slave and makes good this education (tar-biya). The wisdom of the Lord, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, necessitates that He, in His pre-eternity (Azal) and His knowledge of all future events created from every element, whether natu-ral or otherwise, a creation which was suited to that element. Thus from light He created Angels, from the world of His Command He created the spirits, from fi re He created the jinn and shaytans, from air He created birds and the like, and from water there was a spe-

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cial creation, which are the fi sh in all their wondrous forms and varieties. And to this creation must be added something even more wondrous than the coral and jewels and splen-did pearls to be found in the depths of the sea. As someone said, using this idea:

The one who seeks pearls dives into the seaBut the one who seeks sublimity stays up at night

From the above-mentioned elements, He, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, created man. Included in man are: light, whose centre is the intellect, spirit – whose centre is the heart, fi re – whose centre is the liver, air – whose centre is the lungs and chest, and water and earth – whose centre is man’s fl esh, blood and bones. This is how man is constituted. Those parts of his being which consist of light and spirit relate to the hidden world, that part which has to do with the shaytans and the jinn relates to what is above the world of dense form, and that part which has to do with air, water, and earth relates to the lower world. And in all this there is an immense indication and news of great signifi cance.

The indication is that we understand that the

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Real, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, never creates any-thing without following it up with another creation which goes beyond the fi rst, either for the purpose of showing man his weak-ness, or as a necessary demonstration to him of Allah’s Power, or to increase his fear of his Lord.

As for showing man his weakness, Allah, sub-hanahu wa ta‘ala, make this weakness a part of his being because of what happened when all the Angels prostrated themselves except Iblis. Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, has kept this case as a means of measuring the weight of pride that was in Iblis’s self, which then became the reason for his being expelled from the Garden and cursed. As for the case of the admiration, astonishment and pride on the part of the Angels when Allah spoke to them saying:

When your Lord said to the Angels,“I am putting a Khalif on the earth,”

they said, “Why put on it one who will cause corruption on it

and shed bloodwhen we glorify You with praise

and proclaim Your purity?”

– to the end of the Ayat in Surat al-Baqara (2:26). The result was that Adam was set

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above the Angels by the knowledge that Allah had taught him and which they had not had before. That was the reason for their weak-ness and their saying (2:31):

“Glory be to You! We have no knowledgeexcept what You have taught us.

You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.”

Allah then brought out from among mankind – and this was something that overwhelmed them by showing them what could happen with Allah with respect to this form of cre-ation – those who were nearer to Him than they were, such as the Prophets and the Mes-sengers, ‘alayhim as-salam. The fact that the Messengers had preference over the Angels in terms of nearness to Allah was not known except to Sayyiduna Muhammad, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam.

This is the most important way that we in Islam have benefi tted from the Book of Allah and the words of the Messenger of Mercy, sal-lallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, and the other things that we have clear proofs about. There is no doubt that the rest of the Prophets and Mes-sengers follow on behind him, sallallahu ‘alay-hi wa sallam, in this absolute pre-eminence.

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Or else the situation is that what we have men-tioned above in terms of miracles and such-like is for the purpose of creating fear in man, as we have just said. This fear can only be of Him and from Him because of the greatness of His overwhelming power, subhanahu wa ta‘ala. If it were not for the differences be-tween creation and the creatures of it there would never be any enduring fear in the hearts of those among His creation who do in fact have this fear, and on whom has been passed the judgment of happiness and the best out-come both in this world and the Next.

The one who had the most fear of Allah, sub-hanahu wa ta‘ala, was Sayyiduna Muhammad, who said, and his word is truth: “I am the one who fears Allah most among you.” Allah ta‘ala says in Surat Fatir (35:28):

The ones who fear Allah among His slaves are the ones who have knowledge.

So the ones who fear Allah among His slaves are the ones who have knowledge (al-‘Ulama), and the Prophets and the Messengers, ‘alayhim as-salam, were the greatest men of knowledge of them all.

All the above mentioned degrees that we have

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so far considered are degrees of His education and upbringing in creation, by virtue of which He is called Lord, as we have seen. They are the fundamental elements of man’s make-up, and this is what the Shaykh, radiyallahu ‘anhu, means by: “And you brought us up with an upbringing which goes far beyond the percep-tion of illumined intellects.”

What we have mentioned here and what we have fallen short of mentioning could include everything about human creation, the fi rst of whom was Adam, ‘alayhi as-salam, the Father of Mankind, and of what has been mentioned, and of more than that. And it is indeed most certainly true that illumined intellects, that is, those who have been granted the light of Iman and confi rmation, are incapable of per-ceiving this, while those who do not have illu-mined intellects are veiled from seeking gnosis of this in order that they might arrive by it to perfect Iman.

He then says:

We ask You, O Allah, by Your Prophet, whom You have preferred above all other Prophets and Messen-gers, and by Your Messenger whose Message You have made universal

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and a mercy to all creation, to bless him and his Family and grant them a peace by which we may attain his love and follow him in words, deeds, in Muraqaba, Mushahada, Adab, Character and States.

This is a request for him, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sal-lam, which is certain to be accepted, since it is the most perfect of supplications and the most far-reaching, and since he is asking this of Allah by the most perfect of His creation in terms of pre-emi-nence, degree, standing, and nearness to Him, sub-hanahu wa ta‘ala, and since it is also a general call to Allah with all the mercy that comes to creation as a result, and since he intends by this suppli-cation that the presents and gifts of light that come from this blessing should reach his noble and generous spirit, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, and not only reach him, but also his Family and whomever follows him up until the Day of Judg-ment.

What he has chosen to ask for in this request is that he be granted love of the Prophet and the ability to follow him in all words and deeds, and in his watching and witnessing, together with everything else that a gnostic of his Lord would wish for, both for himself and for who-ever else was with him.

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This supplication of his, radiyallahu ‘anhu, incorporates things which can be gained in abundant quantity but only from far-off drink-ing places, that is, by loving him and following him, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, in his words and deeds, behaviour and character, and these are things which are only achieved by rising high on the mounts of personal endeavours and the wings of yearning and the Buraq of love and honesty. He is requesting Divine as-sistance for whenever this situation may exist.

As for what he asks for regarding watching and witnessing, it is fair to assume that this witnessing will be in particular by means of the Prophet’s beauty and good qualities, sal-lallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. The same thing can be said about watching him, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, because the ones who watch the Prophet, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, are those who are sincere in their love for him and hon-est in their turning of themselves in his direc-tion, since this turning towards him is a special kind of ‘Ibada which the Real, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, takes pleasure in and has ordered to be done by His word, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, in Su-rat al-Ahzab (33:56):

Allah and His Angels call down blessings on the Prophet.

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You who have Iman! Call down blessings on himand ask for complete peace

and safety for him.

Allah also says, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, in Surat Al ‘Imran (3:31):

Say, “If you love Allah, then follow meand Allah will love you.”

So turning towards the Prophet, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, by praying for blessings on him and seeking to be like him, and by extol-ling him and honouring him, is a special act of ‘Ibada for Allah, and the recompense is two-fold. Firstly there is a reward from the Real, and then from him, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sal-lam, there is sympathy, approval and interces-sion for one’s wrong actions. For this reason watching him is a duty and is the Diwan of those who are sincere in their love for him and truthful in their courteous behaviour towards him. He, on his part, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sal-lam, will perhaps have close contact with them through his spirit or his noble barzakh-form in the world of the Khayal and in the world of the spirits, since he, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, has quite clearly stated: “Whoever sees me in a dream has truly seen me, since

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Shaytan cannot take my form.” He also said, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam: “Whoever sees me in a dream will see me when he is awake.”

This capacity to see him while awake is only for those whose endeavours to turn towards him are constant. The great ones have seen his bazakh-form and he has had direct encoun-ters with them behind this world after leaving it, and he still talks to them and gives them good news and shows them that he is hap-py with them and pleased with the mercies, prayers, and lights that have reached him from them. You can see them, radiyallahu ‘anhum, watching him with constant resumption and return, and that is the state of witnessing and watching him.

It is also possible that the Shaykh, radiyallahu ‘anhu, is asking the Real, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, by bringing down blessings on His Prophet in the above-mentioned manner, to grant him success in achieving constant witnessing of Allah Himself, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, without any interruption or diminishment. This wit-nessing would then be directly connected to the majesty and beauty of His Essence.

If this is the case, then we should mention that the gnostics of Allah divide the witnessing of

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the Real, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, into fi ve divi-sions, according to the states of every group among them, radiyallahu ‘anhum.

Sayyidi Ibn ‘Ata’illah says in his Hikam:

Phenomenal being is utter and total darkness. It is the manifestation of the Real in it that illumines it. When you see phenomenal being and do not see Him in it, with it, before it, or after it, then you are indeed in need of the existence of lights. You are veiled from the suns of gnosis by the clouds of the traces.

Ibn ‘Abbad, one of the commentators of Ibn ‘Ata’illah’s Hikam, said, radiyallahu ‘anhu: “People’s states differ in this respect. Some of them witness only created beings and are veiled by that from seeing the Creator. These people are wandering aimlessly in the dark-ness, veiled by the clouds of the traces. Others are not veiled from the Creator by created be-ings, though there are differences in how they witness Him. Some of them see the Creator before they see created beings, and these are the ones for whom existence of the Creator is proof that there are created beings.

Then there are others for whom the exist-

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ence of created beings is proof that there is a Creator. Then there are those who witness Him while He is with created beings. This be-ing with them can either be that He is with them and connected to them, which is seeing Him in created beings, or that He is with them but disconnected from them, which is seeing Him in the presence of created beings. These aforementioned prepositional phrases relate neither to space nor time, since space and time are among created things, and the two terms mentioned above, that is, linked (ittisal) and unlinked (infi sal), do not come under what is understood by the words ‘space’ and ‘time’. However, they too are among created things.

A detailed knowledge of these matters and the differences between these various truths as they really are is the business of those who know about them. Let what we have men-tioned here be enough, for it is at this point that the feet of many have slipped, and they have spoken with words of pure illusion and expressed themselves by using phrases which are reprehensible in Shari‘at and have thus be-come guilty of kufr and innovation.

So believe in the perfection of His discon-nection (tanzih) from anything, and the falsity of His connection (tashbih) to anything, and

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hold fi rmly to the words of the Almighty and Majestic in Surat ash-Shura (42:9):

Nothing is like Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.

Be He glorifi ed – there is no god other than Him. The verifi er Shaykh ‘Abdullah ash-Shar-qawi, who is the author of the marginal notes in Ibn ‘Abbad’s book, says about the words, “You are veiled from the suns of gnosis by the clouds of the traces,” that the traces (athar) which are created beings (akwan) are like clouds (suhub), which is the plural of sahab, which means altogether that everything veils whatever is behind it. The author, radiyallahu ‘anhu, is indicating by this the different states of the witnesses in their witnessing. Some of them see the Creator before they see created beings, so that when their glance falls, say, on something like an animal, they see by it only how the Real exists, and how He is outwardly manifest in it, and how He is the One Who causes all stillness and motion, before it oc-curs to them to think of the thing as a human being or a sheep, or whether it is short or tall, or whatever.

There are others who only see this after they have thought of the thing as being an animal.

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And there are yet others who see Him with it and others who see Him in it but this is a prepositional phrase with a very broad mean-ing and what we have said here is only an ap-proximation to help one understand some-thing which can only really be grasped by direct tasting, for things of this nature cannot be expressed in words.

The author of the Hikam, radiyallahu ‘anhu, then says:

Part of what shows you the existence of His overwhelming power is that He veiled you from Him by that which does not exist with Him.

All the treatises and indications of the gnos-tics and verifi ers are agreed upon what we have just mentioned – that anything other-than-Allah is pure non-existence in terms of whether it has any essence or not. Nothing can be said to have any existence alongside Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, and if anything like this were said it would be dualism and Shirk, which is contradictory to sincere Tawhid. Allah ta‘ala says in Surat al-Qasas (28:88):

All things are passing except His Face.

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And the Messenger, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sal-lam, said: “The truest thing that any poet has said is:

Everything apart from Allah alone will come to naughtAnd every good thing will disappear there is no doubt!”

Some of the gnostics say that the verifi ers re-fuse to see anything other-than-Allah because of how He has confi rmed in them witness-ing of His Stillness – Qayyumiyya, and His Everlastingness – Daymumiyya. Sayyidi Abul-Hasan ash-Shadilli, radiyallahu ‘anhu, said:

We look to Allah with the sight of Iman and certainty, and that makes proofs and evidence unnecessary for us. It is by this that we draw conclusions about crea-tion. Is there anything in existence save the One Real? Accordingly we do not see them. Or, if we have to see them, we see them as particles of dust in the air, which, if you examine them closely, you fi nd are really nothing.

He also said, radiyallahu ‘anhu:

On one occasion my witnessing became

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so strong that I asked Him to veil it from me, and someone said to me, “If you were to ask for what Musa, the one He talked to, asked for or what ‘Isa, His Spirit, asked for, or what Muhammad, His sincerest friend asked for, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, He would not do it. Ask Him rather to make you strong-er.” So I asked Him for that, and He strengthened me.

Ibn ‘Ata’illah says in his book at-Tanwir (Illumination):

With the people of gnosis nothing oth-er-than-Allah can be described as having existence or temporary non-existence, since nothing other-than-Him can exist along with Him because of His immu-table oneness, and nothing other-than-Him can be temporarily non-existent since only that which can be existent can be temporarily non-existent. If the veil of illusion were torn away from them, people would then see their individual selves as no longer existent. Then the light of certainty would shine forth and the existence of created beings would be covered.

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These words are a basic exposition of what he says in his book. One of the gnostics once said: “Even if I tried to entrust something to other-than-Him, I would not be able to, for there is no other-than-Him that I can see with Him.” And a certain poet has written:

Since I have known Allah I have never seen other-than-Him.And in this way the ‘other’ is, with us, forbidden.

Since I have gathered what I feared would be separated,I have now arrived and am gathered.

Another poet said:

Say “Allah!” and leave existence and what it containsif you are desirous of reaching perfection,

For everything short of Allah, if you have realised its true nature,is non-existent both in details and as a whole.

Know that both you and all the worlds would,

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if it were not for Him, be wiped out and fade from existence.

He who has no existence for himself from his self –his existence would, without Him, be totally impossible.

The gnostics have achieved annihilation becausethey have not seen anything other than the Great and Almighty.

They have seen that all else is, in truth, in destructionin the present and the past and in the future.

The gnostics have written many things in clar-ifi cation of this matter and they have shown great expertise in their way of using words to talk about the subject, both in poetry and prose, with each one expressing himself ac-cording to what he has drunk and tasted. May Allah repay them for us with good.

Were we to establish the point for certain, we would fi nd that most people are veiled from Allah ta‘ala either by their worldly ap-petites, or by their degrees with regard to the

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Next World, or by their high stations, all of which derive from what are non-existent oth-ers and things which only exist in illusion, from which we have learnt about the exist-ence of His overwhelming power, since one of His Names, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, is the Overwhelmingly Powerful. If the veil were to be lifted from them they would achieve anni-hilation from themselves and from their will, and they would go-on by their Lord and be His slaves in truth.

Abu Sa‘id Ibn al-‘Arabi, radiyallahu ‘anhu, was once asked about annihilation, and he replied:

Annihilation is when His Greatness and Majesty become clear to the slave and make him forget about both this world and the Next, and about states, degrees and stations and the various kinds of Dhikr, and annihilate him beyond eve-rything – beyond his intellect, beyond his self, beyond his annihilation beyond things, and beyond the annihilation be-yond his annihilation – because his mind becomes drowned in the Grandeur of Allah.

They say that annihilation is of three kinds: annihilation in deeds, under which category

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comes the saying: ‘There is no doer except Allah’, then annihilation in the Attributes, that is, that there is no living, no knower, no pow-erful one, no willer, no seer, and no speaker except Allah, and then annihilation in the Essence, that is, that there is nothing in exist-ence at all except Allah ta‘ala. On this the fol-lowing has been written:

He is annihilated,then annihilated,then annihilated –

and so his annihilationbecame his actual going-on.

Sayyidi Muhyiddin Ibn al-‘Arabi said:

Whoever sees that created things do not act at all has triumphed, and whoever sees that they have no life has achieved victory, and whoever sees them as non-existence itself has arrived.

About this the following lines have been written:

He who sees creation as a miragehas risen above the veil.

He has risen to an existence

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which he seeswithout going far away or coming near.

He has not witnessed with Him any other-than-Himand in that is guidance to the right Path.

There is no speech either by Him or with Himnor anyone to indicate any need for speech.

– And so to the end of what the poet says on the subject of direct witnessing, radiyallahu ‘anhu, which our Shaykh, radiyallahu ‘anhu, asked to be doing always.

He then says, radiyallahu ‘anhu:

We ask You, O Master, by his rank, to grant us that useful knowledge through which every listener may profi t and every heart may be made humble, and at which the skin may tremble and tears fl ow. You are the All-Powerful, the Transformer, the Knowing, the Living, the Vast.

By this supplication he is asking, radiyallahu ‘anhu, and entreating Allah by the rank of

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the Prophet, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, for Him to grant him useful knowledge, that is, knowledge whose usefulness will lead every-one who hears it to happiness in this world and the Next. This knowledge is one which is free from any taint of hypocrisy and pride, so that it comes out from the one who gives it adorned in a way that infl uences hearts and makes them humble, and from which fl ow fl oods of tears.

This knowledge is only for the men of knowl-edge and action among the truthful People of Allah, because their hearts are fi lled with fear of Allah. Humility can only come from humil-ity, and words uttered by the tongue can only have an effect through something given from a heart which is already full of that something, because an inward which is affected by the Truth will result in its like being produced in the outward. This is why we see the people of Allah extending a helping hand to creation everywhere and at all times, according to the words of a certain poet:

The Truth appearsfrom meaningand from words.

O Allah, You are the only one Who can will

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this if You want it. You are the One with the power to make this knowledge grow in peo-ple’s hearts if You wish it and You are the Vast in bestowing mercy and generosity, and in conferring benefi t and giving from Your overfl owing Favour.

He then ends this majestic Du‘a by citing Allah’s words, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, in Surat as-Saffat (37:180-182):

Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of Might, beyond anything they de-scribe. And peace be upon the Mes-sengers. And praise be to Allah, The Lord of all the worlds.

Baydawi, in his commentary on the Qur’an, says about the phrase “Beyond anything they describe” that it means ‘beyond anything the Mushrikun say about Him’, according to the surface meaning, at any rate. ‘Might’ (‘izza) is linked with ‘Lord’ because might is His special province, since all might belongs to Him, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, or to whomever He gives might to. Included in the word ‘might’ are all the enduring attributes, together with an indication of Tawhid. “Peace be upon the Messengers” is a general prayer for peace on all the Messengers, having referred specifi cally

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to just one of them. “And praise be to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds” for the blessings and good health He has bestowed so abun-dantly on them and on those who have fol-lowed them. This is why He left praise of Himself until after the prayer asking for peace on the Messengers.

Sayyiduna ‘Ali, karramallahu wajhahu, said: “Whoever wants to have the fullest meas-ure of reward meted out to him on the Day of Rising should, whenever he gets up from where he has been sitting, let the last thing he says be, “Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of Might, beyond anything they describe. And peace be upon the Messengers. And praise be to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds.”

The Messenger, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said:

Whoever reads Surat As-Saffat will be given the reward of ten times as many blessings as there are jinn and shaytans. The evil spirits of the jinn and shaytans will keep away from him, and he will be made free from Shirk, and his two pro-tecting Angels will bear witness for him on the Day of Rising that he is a believer in the Messengers.

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ENDING

Praise be to Allah at the beginning and at the end for having come to the end, and thanks be to Allah for having reached the goal and succeeded in the completion of the whole. We ask Allah that it be dedicated to His noble Face and that it be acceptable, useful, and a thing of splendour to whomever looks at it seriously and makes an effort in so doing. And I entreat every one of noble temperament to give it his share of attention with fairness, without necessarily looking at all of it since it is not of great standing in this domain and lacks great style and fi nesse.

I ask for blessings and peace on the Seal of every ending in this existence, and the Abro-

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gator of every announcement that has been made in this expanse of time, and on his Fam-ily as well, for as long as blessings continue to come down upon everyone, be he of those accepted or those expelled.

So ends this compendium of items written by the one who seeks pleasure from the People of Pleasure, Hammoud ibn Bashir an-Nasiri al-Bulaydi, during the fi rst ten days of Shaw-wal 1371 H.

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POSTFACE

There follows the text of what was written by the great ‘Alim Sayyidi Bashir Muhammad ar-Rabhi, the Mufti of the town of Blida in Al-geria, after reading the blessed ‘Du‘as’ and this commentary on it:

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, and blessings and peace be upon Sayyiduna Muhammad and on his Family and Compan-ions altogether.

I have read this marvellous essay with its fi ne expressions and its subtle indications, by the illumined scholar and man of letters, the teacher and educator Sayyidi Hammud ibn Bashir an-Nasiri al-Bulaydi, which is a com-mentary on the ‘Du‘as’ of the Shaykh of the Time and of Haqiqat, and the Imam of the

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Shari‘at and of the Tariqat – Sayyidi Muham-mad ibn al-Habib al-Idrisi al-Hasani, may Al-lah lengthen his days and make His concern among his greatest guardians.

After I had gone through its pages I came to the main bough by breaking away the branch-es from their root, which in turn has branches which take their sustenance from the sky of meanings. I swear by the Truth that it is a gar-den of elegant fl owers, redolent with musk-laden breezes. So let he who seeks by Shari‘at to attain to a Tawhid of stripping away which is surrendered to sound disclosure and excel-lent action pluck from them as he will. How excellent is both the one of the root and the one of the branches, since both are looking by the eye of inner sight to the place of separa-tion and gatheredness. And no wonder, since the subject has taken its full due, and the Mu-rid has been given it in plenty.

May Allah cause to continue those pure breaths of the meanings of realities, both those fi rmly established and those quickly passing, and may He provide us with the se-cret of knowledge by rightness of action, and Allah is the one who grants success, and Allah knows best.

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NOTES

1.

Tawhid is an expression used in knowledge to say that a thing is one. In the Shari‘at it means the singleness of the worshipped One togeth-er with actual worship of Him and conviction and belief in the unity of His Essence, Attrib-utes and Actions. It is that there is no essence like His Essence, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, that His Essence is not capable of any division, that there are no attributes like His Attributes and that there cannot be more than one of any one Attribute so that He, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, might have, for example, two kinds of power, and that there is no partnership in-volved in His Actions, since no other than He,

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subhanahu wa ta‘ala, can create action. Rather, action is attributed to Him absolutely.

Dhun-Nun al-Misri says in his book Ash-Shi-fa’ (The Healing): “Tawhid is that you know that the power of Allah is in all things without Him concerning Himself about them, that His making of them is without any mixing, that the only defi ciency anything has is that it was made, although there is no fault in its making, and that however in your imagination you may imagine Allah to be, He is not like that.”

These are rare and precious words, verifying that “There is nothing like Him,” and “He will not be asked about what He does but they will be asked,” and “If He wishes a thing, His command is only to say, ‘Be!’ and it is.” There is a verse of poetry on the subject:

Whenever you rise higher to Him in your imagination(Thinking) of His majesty, power and sublimity

Then the One Who set creation in be-ing is higher than that,May He be glorifi ed, the Setter in Being of all things.

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2.

A Murid is one who is beginning wayfaring (Suluk), and thinks that he has existence and power to act. This is how Shaykh al-Islam Zakariyya puts it. With the People, the Murid is the one who is divested of his own will and totally opposes his ordinary norms. On this subject the following has been said:

You are a Murid,but then there appears in you some volition.

When you want nothing,then you are a Murid.

It has also been said that the Murid is one whose heart has been excited into seeking his Lord.

They say that the Murid in the outward is char-acterised by his efforts, while in the inward he is characterised by the nature of his sufferings. He has given treatment to his morals and has suffered diffi culties. He has seen terrifying things and has left the world of forms. His sleep is a victory, his food is a need, and his

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words are a necessity. The Murid’s beginning is that he fi nds Allah ta‘ala by indication, and his end is that he fi nds Allah without indica-tion.

Suhrawardi says that the most important thing for the Murid in the beginning is for him to enter the Path of the Sufi s, to dress in their clothing and to sit in their company. His en-tering onto their path is both a hijra from his state and from his time. He then has to go out to the path of the People and if he arrives at the ends of the People then he has reached the People in their stage. If death should reach him before he arrives at the goal then his reward is with Allah.

At the start of wayfaring on this Path, the Mu-rid needs to make his intention fi rm. Making it fi rm means purifying it from all the calls of appetites and everything in which the self has an immediate share, until his going out on the Path is for Allah.

Sahl says that the fi rst thing the Murid is or-dered to do is to free himself from all the blameworthy movements, then to move on to praiseworthy ones, then on to being granted success in fi nding right guidance, then endur-ance as things become clear, then nearness,

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then permissible things, then sincere deal-ings, and then constancy of action. Content-ment and submission will be his goal, and en-trustment and reliance will be his state, and after that Allah will bestow blessings on him by granting him gnosis, and his station with Allah will be the station of those who re-nounce claim to any might or power. This is the station of those who carry the Throne and there is no station beyond this.

When the Murid has taken a fi rm hold on hon-esty and sincerity, he has reached the ranks of the Rijal, and there is nothing better in helping him to achieve this honesty and sincerity than to follow the Shari‘at and avoid looking at cre-ation. The Murid must leave wealth and fame until he grasps the Names of Allah fi rmly and learns the true nature of passion and the hid-den desires of the self.

The most useful thing for the Murid is knowl-edge of the self, and no-one can know it as it should be known while there is still some need in him to seek things in this world of secondary and subordinate importance. He must have a desire for Taqwa, and he must also have intention in everything, be it food or drink, or the clothes he wears, so that, for example, he dresses only for Allah and sleeps

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only for Allah. He should examine all his ac-tions and states and everything he says, and not allow his self to make a single move or say a single word except for Allah.

Some of the Shaykhs say that the Faqir is the son of his time. I say that the meaning of the phrase ‘the son of his time’ can be taken to re-fer to the states in which he fi nds himself and which he is in only by virtue of Allah’s over-whelming power. It follows from this that not all the truths that have been said in past times apply to the states of Murids now, since every truth has to be related to its time, and we have not stopped holding to the belief that time, space, and man are things created by Allah, and that there are special moments of inspi-ration which come from Allah and which are neither capable of being encompassed, nor reached by annihilation, and that the People of the Path are exposed to these special mo-ments of inspiration and acts of mercy.

Allah, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, says in Surat at-Tur (52:19) – and His word is Decisive Truth:

And We will unite those who had Iman with their offspring,

who followed them in Iman.

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There are different degrees of Iman. There is the Iman of the People of the Path, and there is the Iman of the common people. All the Prophets and Messengers, ‘alayhim as-salam, were sent in a particular condition appropri-ate to the people of their time. So we see with Sayyiduna Sulayman and his son Dawud, ‘alay-him as-salam, how Allah bestowed upon them wisdom and a vast kingdom, that is, a vast worldly wealth, and told them to be Khalifs on the earth.

We see with Sayyiduna ‘Isa, the son of Maryam, ‘alayhim as-salam, how Allah bestowed upon him doing-without and poverty, which was a state appropriate to him by virtue of what Allah manifest in him of what He wanted to be a special quality for him, which is what is tyrannising his followers right up to the pre-sent day in terms of monasticism and other things, without considering who amongst them is telling the truth and who is lying.

On Sayyiduna Muhammad, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, He bestowed all the degrees of prophethood and messengerhood, and made all of these to appear in him Umma, that is, all the degrees which Sayyiduna Muhammad, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, embodied. And in-shallah no harm will come to the Umma from

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this as long as there is a desire to live rightly and respect the Shari‘at.

I add that it will not harm it, that is, it will not harm the Umma of Muhammad in its inher-itance of glory and the things of this world, if this is hand in hand with right living and protection of the Shari‘at. The Shaykhs who call to Allah fi t in to this pattern according to the times and places in which they fi nd them-selves, and in all this their Murids follow in their footsteps.

This kind of generous treatment is from His overfl owing favour, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, in order that specifi c and general guardianship be not cut off from a door as appropriate and deserving as the Umma of Islam.

3.

Shaykh al-Islam Zakariyya says: “Verifi ers are agreed that deeds are not the cause of either happiness or unhappiness. On the contrary, these latter precede them because of the an-tecedent will of Allah ta‘ala. Actions are only

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the outward signs of worship, are subsequent to the will of Allah, and are an indication of it.”

Despite this they are agreed that Allah ta‘ala rewards and punishes people for their deeds, because He has given a promise to those who do good actions, and a warning to those who do bad ones, and He fulfi ls His promises and implements His threats, because He, subhan-ahu wa ta‘ala, is honest and what He has told us is true.

If you should say that in that case our works have no effect and that all we can do is put our reliance in Him, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, then I would reply that doing them is obligatory pro-vided there is the intention of putting orders into practice. The Prophet, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: “Work, and everyone is eased to that for which he has been created.” And despite the fact that although in reality our works may not have any effect, they do have an effect in terms of custom and tradition, going by Allah ta‘ala’s word in Surat al-A’raf (7:42):

It will be proclaimed to them:“This is your Garden

which you have inherited for what you did.”

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Also Allah’s word, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, in Su-rat Ash-Shura (42:28):

Any disaster that strikes youis through what your own hands have earned.

Also Allah’s word, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, in Surat an-Nisa’ (4:154):

Allah has stamped them with kufr,so that they do not have Iman

except for very few.

And also the saying of the Prophet, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, “Whoever acts by what he knows, Allah will teach him what he does not know.”

As for the phrase, “Neither will he be afraid,” in the line of poetry quoted above, the au-thor of the Misbah says that the verb ‘fariqa, faraqan’, which is like the verb ‘ta‘iba’ in form, means ‘to be afraid’. In this instance the ob-ject has been left out and faraqan is really the subject since the meaning is that fear does not reach the one who does Dhikr. So it is not grammatically correct for the subject to be the pronoun in the verb and for faraqan to be the object because that has no real meaning since the meaning would then be ‘the one who does

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Dhikr does not reach fear’, and that is not what is intended. He then says that the phrase ‘Dhakiruha’ (whoever mentions it) is the sub-ject clause and ‘la yashqa’ (is not sad) is the predicate, and the meaning is ‘will not be sad’ in the future. The point of making the predi-cate a verb, as we know from the science of meanings, is that it is then restricted to one of the three tenses, to put it as simply as possible.

By saying, “Neither will he be afraid,” he is al-luding to the words of the Prophet, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam: “There will be no desolation for the people of ‘La ilaha illallah’ either in their graves or when they are raised up from the dead. It is as if I am looking at them at the time of the Shout and they are shaking the dust off their heads and saying, ‘Praise be to Allah who has made all sadness leave us. Surely our Lord is Forgiving, Grateful.’”

By the phrase, “It is the fi rmest handlehold,” he is referring to an interpretation of Allah ta‘ala’s word (2:255):

Anyone who rejects false gods and has Iman in Allah

has grasped the Firmest Handlehold,which will never give way.

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This way of interpreting the phrase, that it is the ‘Firmest Handlehold’ of ‘La ilaha illal-lah’, has come down to us in the Hadith. The Prophet, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said, “All of you will most certainly enter the Garden except whoever refuses and runs away from Allah as a camel runs away from its people.” Someone then asked, “Who are those who refuse?” and he, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, replied, “Those who have not said ‘La ilaha illallah’ and then continued to refuse many times before they are prevented from doing so any longer.” It is the word of Taqwa, the word of sincerity, it is the ‘the good word’, it is the call of Truth and it is the Firmest Han-dlehold. The best meaning is the one I have explained by using what has come down to us in the Hadith, that is, that it is what one can be confi dent will save one from the Fire, since anyone who catches hold of it is saved from the Fire.

He says that the root meaning of ‘urwa (han-dlehold) is the piece of wood on a leather bucket or suchlike vessel to which the rope is tied. The image then is of a ‘kuz’ which is a small clay pot with a spout and a handle (‘urwa), which is used in the Qur’anic phrase to cover the idea of something which you use for seeking help to attain a goal in something.

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Baydawi says about the phrase: “Fa qad istam-saka bil-‘urwatil-wuthqa” that it means, “has sought a fi rm hold on his fi rmest self using a strong rope,” and that it is being used as a metaphor for taking hold of the Truth by sound thinking and correct opinion.

4.

The ‘Ulama have different opinions about the meaning of the word ‘shubha’ in the above-mentioned Hadith. Some of them say that it is actually something Haram, going by the Prophet’s words: “So whoever is careful with regard to these ambiguities will keep his Deen and his honour free from blemish,” while oth-ers say that it is in fact something Halal, going by the Prophet’s words, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, “Just like a herdsman who grazes his herd around a forbidden area and very nearly falls into it,” which indicates that it is Halal, but to leave it alone is scrupulousness and the correct thing to do. Saying that whoever falls into ambiguities, since he has not left them alone but done them, has fallen into what is defi nitely Haram, or has very nearly fallen into

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it, means that whoever is very much in con-tact with such ambiguities will necessarily fi nd himself coming up against what is Haram, even if unintentionally, and may well commit wrong action if he is one to whom any short-coming has been ascribed.

Otherwise the meaning is that he will get used to being more and more careless, venturing into one ambiguity, and then another, and then another even heavier, and then another yet heavier still, and so on until he falls into what is Haram intentionally. Various Hadiths show that acts of disobedience lead to kufr, may Allah protect us. About this Allah, sub-hanahu wa ta‘ala, has said in Surat al-Baqara (2:187):

These are Allah’s limits, so do not come near them

– to the end of what He, subhanahu wa ta‘ala, says, which concerns the meaning of the word ‘ambiguity’ in the Hadith cited above.

I say however, that there is no doubt that the degrees of these ambiguities differ accord-ing to the different degrees of people. What might be envisaged as an ambiguous thing for a gnostic of Allah or an ‘Alim is not the same

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as it would be for the average god-fearing person. What might happen with the people of high degrees comes into the category of ‘the good deeds of the right-acting are the bad deeds of the ones who are brought near’, since if a gnostic or scholar were to engage, for instance, in frivolous conversation such as would lower his standing and state, he would thereby be falling into an ambiguity consid-ered Haram by those like him, and that ambi-guity would, for whoever saw it in him, be a reproach to his high standing, and so on.

For this reason, the generally accepted view about the greatest of men is that their words and actions consist entirely of either what is obligatory or what is Sunna or what is recom-mended and that they follow in the footsteps of the Prophets and Messengers in that they never leave the protected zone (haram) of faultlessness, and that they are specially pro-tected, and never leave the protection and care of Allah, and Allah knows best.

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