"The world can point to more than itself"
TJ Winters

Letter by Abdul-Qadir al-Jilani

Dear friend, 

   Your heart is a polished mirror. You must wipe it clean of the veil of dust which has gathered upon it, because it is destined to reflect the light of divine secrets.

   When the light from Allah (Who) is the light of the heavens and the earth … begins to shine upon the regions of your heart, the lamp of the heart will be lit. The lamp of the heart is in a glass, the glass is as it were a brightly shining star… Then within that heart, the lightning-shaft of divine discoveries strikes. This lightning-shaft will emanate from the thunderclouds of meaning neither of the East nor of the West, lit from a blessed olive tree … and throw light upon the tree of discovery, so pure, so transparent that it sheds light though fire does not touch it. Then the lamp of wisdom is lit by itself. How can it remain unlit when the light of Allah’s secrets shines over it?

   If only the light of divine secrets shines upon it, the night sky of secrets is lit with thousands of stars… and by the stars (you) find (your) way…  It is not the stars that guide us but the divine light. For Allah has … decked the lower heaven with beauty (in) the stars. If only the lamp of divine secrets be kindled in your inner self the rest will come, either all at once or little by little. Some you already know, some we will tell you here. Read, listen, try to understand. The dark skies of unconsciousness will be lit by divine presense and the peace and beauty of the full moon, which will rise from horizon shedding light upon light, ever rising in the sky, passing through its appointed stages as Allah has … ordained for it mansions, until it shines in glory in the center of the sky, dispersing the darkness of heedlessness. (I swear) by the night when it is still… By the glorious morning light… your night of unconsciousness will see the brightness of the day. Then you will inhale the perfume of remembrance and repent in the early hours of the morning of unconsciousness and regret your life spent in sleep. You will hear the songs of the morning nightingales and you will hear them say

They were In the habit of sleeping but little by night, and in the hours of early dawn they (were found) praying for forgiveness.

Allah guides to His light whom He pleases.

Then you will see from the horizon of Divine Reason the sun of inner knowledge rising. It is your private sun, for you are the one whom Allah guides and are on the right path and not the one He leaves in error, And you will understand the secret that

It is not given to the sun to catch up with the moon, nor can the night outstrip the day. Each swims along in (its appointed) orbit.

Finally, the knot will be untied in accordance with the parables which Allah sets forth for men, and Allah is the Knower of all things, and the veils will lift and shells will shatter, revealing the fine beneath the coarse; the truth will uncover her face.

   All this will begin when the mirror of your heart is cleansed. The light of the divine secrets will fall upon it if you are willing and ask for Him, from Him, with Him.

 

Good Opinions

Reflecting on if you should care what people think of you and I recalled the following sayings of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):

Sahih Al-Bukhari - Book 23 - Chapter 85

Narrated Anas bin Malik (RA): A funeral procession passed and the people praised the deceased. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "It has been affirmed to him." Then another funeral procession passed and the people spoke badly of the deceased. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "It has been  affirmed to him." Umar bin Al-Khattab (RA) asked, "What has been affirmed?" He (Peace and blessings be upon him) replied, "You have praised this one, so Paradise has been affirmed to him; and you have dispraised (spoken badly of) the other, so Fire (Hell) has been affirmed to him. You people are Allah's witnesses on earth."

Narrated Abu Al-Aswad: I came to Al-Madina when an epidemic disease had broken out. While I was sitting with Umar bin Al-Khattab (RA) a funeral procession passed by and the people praised the deceased. Umar (RA) said, "It has been affirmed to him." And another funeral procession passed by and the people praised the deceased. Umar said, "It has been affirmed to him." A third passed by and the people spoke badly of the deceased. He said, "It has been affirmed to him." I asked, "O chief of the believers! What has been affirmed?" He replied, "I said the same as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had said, that is: if four persons testify the piety of a Muslim, Allah will grant him paradise." We asked, "If three persons testify his piety?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) Replied, "Even three." Then we asked, "If two?" He replied "Even two." We did not ask him regarding one witness."

It goes without saying, this does not in the least way suggest you should do anything for people's good opinion. Intentions for your actions should always be kept pure. You should however not give people a reason to think ill of you.

"No one will enter paradise by his/her actions alone."
Perhaps God will allow me in The Garden by his mercy because two or more people thought better of me than I am.

Please have a good opinion of me.

Excerpts from "Mutual Reminding"

"Mutual Reminding" by Imam Abdallah ibn Alawi Al-haddad

Sayings of the Prophet (Sal-allah alaihi wa sal-lam):

"Had this World weighed with God the wing of a gnat, He would not have allowed a disbeliever a sip of it's water." 

"God keeps the world away from His believing servant, just as a careful shepherd keeps his flock away from dangerous pastures."

Quote of Ali Ibn Abi Talib (radhiallahu anhu)

"I found this world to be six things: That which is eaten, the best tasting is honey, and it is the secretion of an insect; that which is drunk, the best is water, and in this both the righteous and the depraved are equal; that which is smelled, the most fragrant is must, and it is the blood of an animal; that which is worn, the softest is silk, and it is the weaving of a worm; that which is ridden, the worthiest is the mare, and it is that on whose back men are slain; those which one marries, it is but base fluid in base fluid. It is sufficient for you to know that although the woman adorns herself with the best she has, your desire for her is for the basest she has!"

The Flower that Smiles Today

The Flower that Smiles Today

by Percy Shelley

The flower that smiles today

    Tomorrow dies;

All that we wish to stay

    Tempts and then flies;

What is this world's delight?

Lightning, that mocks the night,

    Bright even as bright. -

Virtue, how frail it is! -

    Friendship, how rare! - 

Love, how it sells poor bliss

    For proud despair!

But these, though soon they fall,

Survive their joy, and all

    Which ours we call. -

Whilst skies are blue and bright,

    Whilst flowers are gay,

Whilst eyes that change ere night

    Make glad the day;

Whilst yet the calm hours creep,

Dream thou - and from thy sleep

    Then wake to weep

What Survives - Rainer Maria Rilke

Who says that all must vanish?
Who knows, perhaps the flight
of the bird you wound remains,
and perhaps flowers survive
caresses in us, in their ground.

It isn't the gesture that lasts,
but it dresses you again in gold
armor --from breast to knees--
and the battle was so pure
an Angel wears it after you.

Fear of the Inexplicable - Rainer Maria Rilke

But fear of the inexplicable has not alone impoverished

the existence of the individual; the relationship between

one human being and another has also been cramped by it,

as though it had been lifted out of the riverbed of 

endless possibilities and set down in a fallow spot on the 

bank, to which nothing happens. For it is not inertia alone

that is responsible for human relationships repeating

themselves from case to case, indescribably monotonous and

unrenewed: it is shyness before any sort of new,unforeseeable

experience with which one does not think oneself able to cope.

But only someone who is ready for everything, who excludes
nothing, not even the most enigmatical, will live the relation
to another as something alive and will himself draw exhaustively
from his own existence. For if we think of this existence of
the individual as a larger or smaller room, it appears evident
that most people learn to know only a corner of their room, a
place by the window, a strip of floor on which they walk up and
down. Thus they have a certain security. And yet that dangerous
insecurity is so much more human which drives the prisoners in
Poe's stories to feel out the shapes of their horrible dungeons
and not be strangers to the unspeakable terror of their abode.

We, however, are not prisoners. No traps or snares are set about
us, and there is nothing which should intimidate or worry us.
We are set down in life as in the element to which we best
correspond, and over and above this we have through thousands of
years of accommodation become so like this life, that when we
hold still we are, through a happy mimicry,scarcely to be
distinguished from all that surrounds us. We have no reason to
mistrust our world, for it is not against us. Has it terrors,
they are our terrors; has it abysses, those abuses belong to us;
are dangers at hand, we must try to love them. And if only we
arrange our life according to that principle which counsels us
that we must always hold to the difficult, then that which now
still seems to us the most alien will become what we most trust
and find most faithful. How should we be able to forget those
ancient myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into
princesses; perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses
who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps
everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless
that wants help from us. 

Nasamatu Hawaka - translation

The cool breezes of your love have a fragrance
That is life giving and by which hearts live
People are not the same; there are those who know You
and others who are mere rabble

They entered this world as needy ones
And just as they entered, so shall they leave it
A group who did good and were thus raised
And on the exalted way, they advanced

O he who makes claims to their way
Hasten, for your way is crooked
You love Layla yet sleep all night?
By your life, this is an ugly claim

Kinds of Reflection

Ascetics reflect on the evanescent nature of this world, and the way in which it betrays those to pursue it. This gives them patience, which causes their detachment to grow.
Worshippers reflect on the beautiful reward which is in store for them, so that their ardor and enthusiasm for is wax stronger.
Gnostics reflect on the favors and blessed gifts of God and on the secrets of the Names and Attributes. In this way they increase in love for their Exalted and Majestic Creator.
Ordinary people reflect on the proofs and evidences which lead to faith.
Exalted, then, is the state of he who does all four!

Chapter 35 - "Key's to the Garden" - Habib Ahmad Mashhur al-Haddad

quote and poem from "Key to the Garden"

"A donkey has more knowledge of God than someone who seeks proof of God's oneness"

All you grasp with your imagination;
Majesty, ability and exaltation,
Higher is He who originated creation,
Transcendent is He to whom belongs origination!

Chapter 81 - Te-Tao Ching

Sincere words are not showy;
Showy words are not sincere.
Those who know are not "widely learned";
Those "widely learned" do not know.
The good do not have a lot;
Those with a lot are not good.

the Sage accumulates nothing.
Having used what he had for others,
He has even more.
Having given what he had to others,
What he has is even greater.
There, the Way of Heaven is to benefit and not cause any harm;
The Way of Man is to act on behalf of others and not to compete with them.