God's Mercy

Image source: flickr

Punjabi Sufi Poetry:

Jai main wekhan amlaan walle, kuch naeen mere palle
Jai wekhan teri rehmat walle, balle, balle, balle
Maali da kam paani deina, par par mashkaan paawe
Maalik da kam phal phool laana, lawe ya na laawe

(Mian Muhammad Bukhsh)

text source: external link

Translation:
If i look at my deeds.. i have nothing as good deeds
if i look towards Yours (Allah) mercy.. then everything is OK (no need to worry)
the gardener's job is to water plants with the due diligency
and then it is upon the will of Lord (Allah) whether He may give fruit to the plant or not

love & enemy!!

A punjabi Sufi poet said:

Dushman Mare Ta Khushi Na Kariye Sajna Vi Mar Jana Eh
Degar De Din Gaya Mohammad Ohruk Nu Dub Jana Eh
(Muhammad Bukhsh)


Do not be happy over enemy's death, because somedays friends would also die!
The day has went, the twilight will also go (?)

Quotation: Human love & real love

Ordinary human love is capable of raising man to the experience of real love.

(Jami)

Source: "The Way of The Sufi", by Idries Shah

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The beloved

One went to the door of the beloved and knocked. A voice asked: 'Who is there?'
He answered: 'It is I.'
The voice said: 'There is no room here for me and thee.' The door was shut.
After a year of solitude and deprivation this man returned to the door of the beloved. He knocked.
A voice from within asked. 'Who is here?'
Tha man said: 'It is thou.'
The door was opened for him.
(Rumi)

Source: "The Way of The Sufi", by Idries Shah
Note: Errors & omissions are expected

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selflessness & service

"Hypocrite"

Prayer for the Dead

Sufian Thauri heard that a funeral was to take place, and he followed the coffin. He prayed at the graveside.

After the service, people began to say what a good man the deceased had been.

'I should not have prayed for that man', said Sufian, 'for when you hear people speak well of a man, it is generally because he is a hypocrite, whether he knew it or not. If a man is not a hypocrite, there are always many who do not speak well of him.'

Source: "The Way of The Sufi", by Idries Shah

States and Jackals

The jackal thinks that he has feasted well, when he has in fact only eaten the leavings of the lion.

I transmit the science of producing 'states'. This , used alone, causes damage. He will lead man to worship 'States', until they will almost be unable to return to the Sufi Path.

(Abdul-Qadir of Gilan)

Source: "The Way of The Sufi", by Idries Shah

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Three Forms of Knowledge

Al-Maktub or Written

There was a good text written in urdu language at backside of a Pakistani truck:

"NA WAQT SE PEHLEY, NA MUQADDAR SE ZIYADA"

Niether before the time (fixed in fate), Nor more than what fixed (in the fate).

Three Forms of Knowledge

ISLAMIC MYSTICISM (TASAWWUF)

image source: flickr photos
Text source: "The Way of The Sufi", by Idries Shah


Ibn El-Arabi of Spain instructed his followers in this most ancient dictum:

There are there forms of knowledge. The first is intellectual knowledge, which is in fact only information and the collection of facts, and the use of these to arrive at further intellectual concepts. This is intellectualism.

Second comes the knowledge of states, which includes both emotional feelings and strange states of being in which man thinks that he has perceived something supreme but cannot avail himself of it. This is emotionalism.

Third comes real knowledge, which is called the knowledge of Reality. In this form, man can perceive what is right, what is true, beyond the boundaries of thought and sense. Scholastics and scientists concentrate upon the first form of knowledge. Emotionalists and experientialists use the second form. Others use the two combined, or either one alternatively.

But people who attain to truth are those who know how to connect themselves with the reality which lies beyond both these forms of knowledge. These are the real Sufis, the Dervishes who have attained.

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Quotation

Stop boasting of intellect and learing. For here (in Tasawwuf or Sufi way) intellect is hampering and learning is stupidity!

Source: Idries Shah's "The Way of The Sufi"

Lost but faithful..

At a little hut (cheap restaurant) near Margala Hills, Shamsher was telling me the strange story.

Once upon a time, a man came back to his native village after living for a long time in the city. The train stopped at the little desolate station at a late hour of night. The man disembarked the train. There was complete loneliness. The village was at a little distance from the station. So, the man decided to pass the night at a dilapidated little mosque near the railway station. He entered the mosque and lay down to sleep.

After sometime, he felt as if someone was entering the mosque. He felt the strange man’s voice. He surprised to listen his voice reciting niyya for entering the Fajar (morning) prayer at that hour of night. But he felt as if morning has begun. After sometime time the strange man said niyya for Zuhr (noon) prayer. And the visitor felt as if noon has come and the sunlight entering the mosque. In this way, the man said payers of 5 different times and the time changed in accordance with his prayers. In the last and 5th time, the man said niyya for Isha (night) Prayer and with his niyya the time changed and the night fell again.

The visitor was much surprised and got impressed at this Kirama (short miracle). He decided to see the face of that strange man. The strange man had finished his prayers and now he was going out of the mosque. The visitor rose up and headed toward the strange man to get sight of his face. He again surprised. He was a madman who used to roam around the village streets. A Majzub (obsessed or lost)!

Note: Indefinite source of story

related posts:
Madman's perception
Majnu's Love


(obsession, lost, obsessed, preoccupation, absorption, attention, concentration, malamtia)

The perception of the madman

From Idries Shah's, "The Way of The Sufi"



There was a certain madman who would not take part in congregational prayers. One friday, after much difficulty, people induced him to attend.



But as soon as the leader of the prayer started to recite, the madman started to bellow like an ox.



The people assuming that he was only reverting to madness, but at the same time desirous of helping him, challanged him afterwards:



'Have you no idea of God, that you should make a noise like an animal in the middle of a believing congregation?'



But the madman said:
'I was only doing what the prayer-leader was doing. When he intoned, he was buying an ox, and I spoke like an ox!'

When this strange remark was reported to the leader of the prayer, he confessed:
'When I was saying GOD IS GREATEST OF ALL, I was in fact thinking about my form. And when I got to the phrase PRAISE TO GOD, I thought that I could buy an ox. It was at that moment that I heard something bellowing'

Read related post

Why?

why not there is prosperity everywhere instead of poverty, and youth instead of old age, and life forever instead of death?

Reply: If there were prosperity everywhere and no poverty, then who would thank (shukr) God after getting prosperous !?
if there were youth and no old age, then how one would know about humility (ijz) !?
if there were eternal life and no death, then who would remember (zikr) God !?

Sufi Graciousness: Sincerity & Love

Moulana Rumi's Ruba'i:

The sufi opens his hands to the universe
and gives away each instant, free.
Unlike someone who begs on the street for money to survive,
a dervish begs to give you his life.

http://www.rumi.org.uk/rubaiyat.htm

Hunger for knowledge or indigestion of teachings!

FULL UP
(from Idries Shah's book, 'Wisdom of the Idiots')

A man came to Bahaudin Naqshband, and said:
'I have travelled from one teacher to another, and I have studied many Paths, all of which have given me great benefits and many advantages of all kinds.
'I wish to be enrolled as one of your disciples, so that I may drink from the well of knowledge, and thus make myself more and more advanced in Tariqa, the Mystic Way.
Bahaudin, instead of answering the question directly, called for dinner to be served. When the dish of rice and meat stew was brought, he pressed plateful after plateful upon his guest. The he gave him fruits and pastries, and then he called for more pilau (rice), and more and more courses of food, vegetables, salads, confitures.
At first the man was flattered, and as Bahaudin showed pleasure at every mouthful he swallowed, he ate as much as he could. When his eating slowed down, the Sufi Sheikh seemed very annoyed, and to avoid his displeasure, the unfortunate man ate virtually another meal.
When he could not swallow even another grain of rice, and rolled in great discomfort upon a cushion, Bahaudin addressed him in this manner:
'When you came to see me, you were as full of undigested teachings as you now are with meat, rice and fruit. You felt discomfort, and, because you are unaccustomed to spiritual discomfort of the real kind, you interpreted as a hunger for more knowledge. Indigestion was your real condition.
'I can teach you if you will now follow my instructions and stay here with me digesting by means of activities which will not seem you to be initiatory, but which will be equal to the eating of something which will enable your meal to be digested and transformed into nutrition, not weight.'
The man agreed. He told his story many decades later, when he became famous as the great teacher Sufi Khalili Ashrafzada.