One day God spoke to Moses and said:
'Visit Satan, question him, use your head.'
So Moses descended to Hells burning halls;
Satan saw him coming, a smile did he install
On his fiery face. Moses proudly asked him
For advice, waiting for Satan's crafty whim;
Satan spoke through his coal-black teeth:
'Remember this rule which sense bequeaths
Never say "I" so that you become like me.'
So long as you live for yourself you'll be
A drum booming pride a cymbal of infidelity.
Vanity, resentment, envy and anger shall be cemented
Into your inner state; you shall be like a demented
Dog with lolling tongue, infected with indolence of sin.
You shall become your own tracked prisoner within.
-Farid ud-Din Attar
The Conference of the Birds
When I saw his light shining forth,
In fear I covered my eyes with my palms,
Afraid for my sight because of the beauty of his form.
So I was scarcely able to look at him at all.
The lights from his light are drowned in his light
and his face shines out like the sun and moon in one.
A spirit of light lodged in a body like the moon,
a mantle made up of brilliant shining stars.
I bore it until I could bear it no longer.
I found the taste of patience to be like bitter aloes.
I could find no remedy to bring me relief
other than delighting in the sight of the one I love.
Even if he had not brought any clear signs with him,
the sight of him would dispense with the need for them.
Muhammad is a human being but not like other human beings.
Rather he is a flawless diamond and the rest of mankind is just stones.
Blessings be on him so that perhaps Allah may have mercy on us
on that burning Day when the Fire is roaring forth its sparks
-Hassan ibn Thabit (R.A)
"O' disciple, strive to purify your heart both from the fear of people and from putting your hopes in them, for this would make you remain silent when faced with falsehood, compromise your religion, and neglect enjoining good and forbidding evil. This would be ample humiliation. A believer is strong by his Lord; he feels no fear nor hope except with regard to Him.
When one of your Muslim brothers offers you something by way of showing affection, take it if you need it, but thank God, for He is the real giver, and thank the one whom God has chosen to deliver it to you. If you do not need it, see whether it would be better for your heart to take it or refuse it. If you refuse, do it tactfully so as not to hurt the heart of the giver, for the feelings of a Muslim are of consequence to God.
Beware of refusing for the sake of acquiring a reputation, or of accepting for your appetites. However, to accept for your appetites is better than turning something down to acquire a reputation of asceticism and of turning away from the world. The truthful will not be confused, for his Lord gives him a light in his heart by which he knows what is required of him. "
-Imam Alawi al-Haddad
"If the forms of phenomenal beings are embedded in the mirror of the heart, how can it be illuminated? If it is fettered by its appetites, how can it travel to Allah? If it is not purified of the great impurity of its heedlessness, how can it aspire to enter the presence of Allah? If it has not turned away in regret from its lapses, how can it hope to grasp the subtleties of secret knowledge? "
-Ibn Arabi
Go sweep out the chamber of your heart.
Make it ready to be the dwelling place of the Beloved.
When you depart out,
He will enter it.
In you, void of yourself,
will He display His beauties.
-Shabistari
Do not think you are veiled from Allah
by something that is not Allah.
There is nothing besides Allah.
You are veiled from Him by the
Illusion that there is something other than Allah.
- Ibn Ata‘ Allah
-Yunus Emre
When my Beloved appears,
With what eye do I see Him?
With His eye, not with mine,
For none sees Him except Himself.
-Ibn Arabi
In the dead of night, a Sufi began to weep.
He said, "This world is like a closed coffin, in which
We are shut and in which, through our ignorance,
We spend our lives in folly and desolation.
When Death comes to open the lid of the coffin,
Each one who has wings will fly off to Eternity,
But those without will remain locked in the coffin.
So, my friends, before the lid of this coffin is taken off,
Do all you can to become a bird of the Way to God;
Do all you can to develop your wings and your feathers."
-Fariduddin Attar
"The sufi is not the one who is always carrying the prayer rug, nor the one who is wearing patched clothes, nor the one who keeps certain customs and appearances; but the sufi is the one to whom everyone's focus is drawn, although he is hiding himself.
The sufi is the one who in the daylight doesn't need the sun and in the night doesn't need the moon. The essence of sufism is absolute nonexistence that has no need of existence because there is no existence besides Allah's existence."
Abul Hassan Ali ibn Jafar Al Kharqani,
the great Naqshbandi sheikh,
may Allah sanctify his soul & bless his secret
Hazrat Pir Aftab Sahib was the eldest son of Hazrat Pir Khan Sahib.
He spent 35 years of his life in travel propagating the sufi message of Mohra Sharif. He was very strict on the rules of Silsila-e-Naqshbandia. He maintained the order according to the founding forefathers. He propagated the Khatm-e-Khwajgan and Zikr of Allah. He was very well known among sufi orders in Europe. Hazrat Peer Aftab Sahib converted many non Muslims to Islam by his spiritual power given by Allah. He was the first sufi from Pakistan to introduce Sufism in Denmark. In 1972 Hazrat Sahib accompanied by Makhdoom-e-Tariqat Hazrat Pir Aurangzeb Badshah was the first sufi in many years to have recited the Azan and performed Salat ul Zuhr and also the recitation of Zikr in the famous Qurtaba Masjid in Spain with a group of 50 followers. During his tours Hazrat Sahib attracted many different type of people both rich and poor, even the royal family of Libya were followers of Hazrat Sahib.
Hazrat Pir Aftab Sahib was a true Ashiq (lover) of Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa (PBUH). Hazrat Pir Aftab’s life and his speeches and his preachings can be summarized in a few words which are “He always stated that you should fear your lord to an to such a point that when you pray in your mind it is Him who is standing in front of you and it is Him you are bowing to and you should love the prophet to such an extent that nothing in the world matters but the Rasool (PBUH)”. Wherever he went he preached the Zikr and Ishq for the Rasool (PBUH). That was his mission and wherever he went he definitely left his mark.
Hazrat Pir Aftab Sahib left this mortal world in the year of 1992 on the 24th of May. He was buried in Mohra Shareef. The light that was shining from his face on the day of funeral was a sign for all of us that the Ashiq of Muhammad (PBUH) will never leave this world without being recognized. Hazrat Pir Auliya Badshah stated at the funeral that the Imam Ghazali of our times have passed away from this mortal world.
In the Name of God I begin, with all my respect,And all praise belongs to God, for my strength and maturity.
I seek the forgiveness of God, our Lord and Creator,For all mankind and for the evils of my [soul’s] turmoil.
I seek the forgiveness of God, motivator of the heavenly spheres in the darkness, For our failure to thank Him enough for His bounty.
I seek the forgiveness of God, the Savior of one who seeks His aid,Whenever he suffers misfortune or calamity.
I seek the forgiveness of God, Forgiver of the sins of one Who comes to Him broken, humiliated, and full of remorse.
I seek the forgiveness of God, Concealer of the faults of The morally deficient, and their Savior from adversity.
I seek the forgiveness of God for my secret thoughts and overt acts,For the fickleness of my heart and for the smile upon my lips.
I seek the forgiveness of God for my speech and my behavior,For my evil character, type, and nature.
I seek the forgiveness of God for my words and deeds,For my vain strivings, and the exhaustion of my abilities.
I seek the forgiveness of God for my ignorance and transgressions,For the greatest of my conscious sins, and the minor ones I have committed.
I seek the forgiveness of God for what my hand has wrought,For my errors and [the sins] toward which I was inclined.
I seek the forgiveness of God for that which my hand did not earn,And for that which I earned upon attaining adulthood.
I seek the forgiveness of God for saying ‘I’ and ‘with me’,[For saying] ‘belonging to me’ and ‘mine’, and for my suspicions and my [limited] understanding.
I seek the forgiveness of God for that which I did not know,For that which I knew, and for that which I wrote by pen.
I seek the forgiveness of God for my sleep, my lethargy,And my wakefulness, and for that which has maintained me [in life].
I seek the forgiveness of God during the day, its night,And, its morrow, before it is created from nothingness.
I seek the forgiveness of God for that which occurred during my youth,And for my disagreements with the aged and mature.
I seek the forgiveness of God, as often as I have feared what He has bestowed,And [as often as] the clouds have rained on the plains and hills.
I seek the forgiveness of God, as often as the number of pilgrims, goingToward lands characterized by purity and sanctity.
I seek the forgiveness of God, as often as the breaking of dawn, and as oftenAs the doves coo their songs in the branches.
I seek the forgiveness of God, as often as the number of letters [in the Qur’an] and multiplicity ofQur’anic verses and aphorisms recited during invocation.
I seek the forgiveness of God, as often as the number of riding animals,Worlds beyond the horizons, and landmarks in the earth.
I seek the forgiveness of God, as often as the number of plants andSheep on the land and [the amount of] bounty in the sea.
I seek the forgiveness of God, as often as the number of heavenly bodiesEncompassed by knowledge, and for everything that is apparent and hidden.
I seek the forgiveness of God, as often as the number of [grains of] sand,And the [amount of] rain that falls continuously on the earth.
I seek the forgiveness of God, as often as the number of created things—Of human beings and jinn, or Arabs and non-Arabs.
I seek the forgiveness of God, as often as the number of thoughts inThe breasts of those endowed with trust, authority, and wisdom.
I seek the forgiveness of God—all majesty be to God, our Creator,Creator of mankind and the One who brought us forth from nothingness.
I seek the forgiveness of God—all majesty be to God, Who provided for usPrior to physical existence, and Who apportions all the shares [of worldly destiny].
I seek the forgiveness of God, Whose bounties are without number,The All-Encompassing, the Most Excellent, [the One] noted for generosity.
I seek the forgiveness of God—all majesty be to God, Who gathers us in [at death],The annihilator of centuries, and annihilator of all nations.
I seek the forgiveness of God—all majesty be to God, Who resurrects usAfter death, and Who gives life to decaying bones.
I seek the forgiveness of God, innumerable times,As often as the number of known species and breaths of life.
I seek the forgiveness of God—on Him be praises without number,[For] He causes Himself to be praised pre-eternally.
I seek the forgiveness of God, the Forgiver of sins Who, wheneverThe slave disobeys, forgives him with indulgence and generosity.
So forgive me the greatest of my transgressions, and[On] the Day of Judgment, when my feet are about to stumble.
Then may blessings be on the Chosen One from Mudhar,The Best of Mankind, among those who weep or smile.
And may his family and companions be preserved
By our Lord, along with all of [their] followers.
-Shaykh Abu Madyan
A person who is concerned for himself is like a servant whose master has dispatched him on a mission. The master has sent him to some land that the master owns in order to procure some cloth there for him. When the servant arrives in that place, he begins to say to himself, “Where will I reside? Whom will I marry?” He gets preoccupied with these questions, expending all his energy on anxiety about these concerns, until he is delinquent in executing the commands for which his master had sent him. When his master calls on him, his reward from the master will be that the master cuts him off and separates himself from the servant, since he was totally preoccupied by his own affairs rather than observing the prerogatives and rights of his master.
So it is with you, my fellow believer. The True One has dispatched you to this world and commanded you to serve in it faithfully, and has undertaken to support and sustain your existence contingent on your service. If you become engrossed in worrying about your own concerns for yourself and neglect the rights held over you by your master, then you have turned aside from the path of right guidance and slid down the low road to ruin.
-Imam Ibn ‘Ata’Allah al-Iskandari
God Most High has said, "As for him who fears to stand before his Lord and restrains the ego [animal soul] its desires, the garden is shelter" (79:40)
Ali bin Ahmad bin Abdan informed us through Jabir that the Messenger of God said, "The worst of what I fear for my community is the pursuit of passion and ambition for the future, for the passions leads away from the truth, while ambition makes one forget the next world." So know that opposing the ego (nafs ammarah, the animal soul, the passions throughout the chapter) is the beginning of worship.
The shaykhs, asked about submission to God - Islam - have said that it means to slaughter the ego with the swords of opposition to it. You should know that when the disasters of the ego rise in a person, the glories of intimacy with God set.
Dhu-l-Nun al-Misri said, "The key to worship is reflection. The sign of attaining the mark is to oppose the ego and its desires. To oppose the ego is to abandon what it craves." Ibn Ata said, "The ego is disposed to bad conduct while the servant is commanded to observe the rule of behavior, so the ego falls by its nature into the arena of things to be actively resisted, and the servant with effort can turn it back from the evil of its wishes. He who gives it free rein is partner to its corruption."
I heard Abu Abd al-Rahmah al-Sulami say Junayd said, "The ego [animal soul] summons to dangers, assists enemies, pursues whims, and is to be suspected of every sort of wickedness." Abu Hafs said, "Whoever does not suspect his ego at every moment, oppose it in all circumstances, and drag it toward what it hates for all his days, has been fooled. Whoever looks at it expecting any good from it has caused his ruins."
How can an intelligent person be satisfied with himself while the noble, son of the noble, son of the noble, son of the noble - Joseph the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham the Friend of God - says, "I do not absolve myself, for the ego [animal soul] commands to wrongdoing" (12:53)!
I heard Muhammad bin al-Husayn say that Junayd said, "One night I could not sleep. I got up to make my private devotions but was unable to find the sweetness and delight I usually find in conversations with my Lord. I was troubled and amazed. I wanted to sleep but was not able. I sat but could not endure the sitting. So I opened the door and went outside. There in the street lay a man wrapped in a cloak. When he felt my presence he raised his head and said, 'O Abu-l-Qasim, finally!' 'Sir,' I said, 'no appointment was made.' 'Rather I asked the Mover of the Hearts to move your heart towards me,' he replied. 'He has done that,' I told him. 'What is your need?' 'When does the disease of the ego [animal soul] become its cure?' he asked. 'When the ego [animal soul] opposes its desire, its disease becomes its cure,' I answered. Directing himself to his ego, he said, 'Listen! I have given you this answer seven times and you refused to hear it except from Junayd. So now you have heard it!' He turned away from me. I did not know him, and I have never come across him again."
Abu Bakr al-Tamastani said, "The greatest blessing is to escape from the ego, because the ego is the greatest veil between you and God Almighty and Glorious." Sahl ibn Abd Allah said, "There is no way to worship God equal to opposing the ego and its caprice."
I heard Muhammad bin al-Husayn say that Ibn Ata was asked what thing most quickly brings on God's wrath. He said, "Looking upon the ego and its states, the worst of which is the expectation of compensation for its acts." And I heard him say that Ibrahim al-Khawwas said, "I was on the mountain of al-Lukam [in Damascus] when I saw some pomegranates and wanted them. I came up, took one, and broke it open, but finding it sour I went away and left them. Then I saw a man lying on the ground. He was covered with hornets. 'Peace be upon you,' I greeted him. 'And upon you be peace, Ibrahim!' he replied. 'How do you know me?' I asked. 'Nothing is hidden from one who knows God Most High,' said he. 'I see that your state is with God Most High,' I said. 'If only you would ask Him to shelter and protect you from the torment of those hornets!' 'And I see that your state is with God Most High.' He returned. 'If only you would ask him to protect you from the desire for pomegranates! For a man but finds the pain of the sting of hornets in this world, while he finds the pain of the sting of pomegranates in the next!' So I left him and went away."
It is told that Ibrahim bin Shayban said, "I did not sleep under my own roof or in any place that had a lock upon it for forty years. Many times I desired to eat a meal of lentils, but it did not come about. Then one time in Damascus, an earthen vessel full of lentils was presented to me. I ate out of it and was leaving when I saw glasses to which were clinging what seemed to be drops of liquid. I had thought the vessel clean, but somebody said to me, 'What are you looking at? Those are wine dregs, and that jug is a wine jug!' 'I must carry out a duty.' I said to myself. So I went into the wineseller's shop and kept pouring out that jug. He supposed I was emptying it by order of the Sultan. When he knew that it was not so, he dragged me to the judge Ibn Tulun who ordered that I be flogged with 200 lashes and thrown me into prison. There I stayed for awhile, until my teacher, Abu Abd Allah al-Maghribi, came to that city. He interceded for me. When his eyes fell upon me, he asked me 'What have you done?' 'A meal of lentils and two hundred lashes,' I said. 'You have been protected by shields against the true punishment,' he told me."
I heard Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami say that Sari al-Saqati said, "My ego has been pleading with me for thirty or forty years to dip a carrot into date syrup, and I have not fed it!" And I heard him say that he heard my grandfather say, "The bane of the servant is his satisfaction with himself as he is." I also heard him say that Husayn bin Ali al-Qirmisini said, "I am ibn Yusuf, the Amir of Balkh, who sent a gift to Hatim al-Asamm, who received it from him." Asked why he did so, he said, "In accepting it I found humiliation for me and honor for him, while in returning it was honor for me and humiliation for him, so I chose his honor over mine and my humiliation over his."
Someone told a Sufi, "I want to go on the pilgrimage free of material support." He answered, "First free your heart from distraction, your ego from frivolity, and your tongue form nonsense - then travel however you wish!"
Abu Sulayman al-Darani said, "Whoever does good at night is rewarded during the day and whoever does good during the day is rewarded at night. Whoever is sincere in abandoning a desire is saved from catering to it. God is too noble to punish a heart that has abandoned a desire for His sake."
God, glory to Him, revealed to David, "O David, beware! Warn your companions about devouring the objects of desire. When people's hearts are tied to the desires of this world, their intelligence is veiled from Me."
A man was seen seated in mid-air. Someone asked him, "Why were you granted this?" "I gave up idle desire (hawa)," he said, "and the air (hawa; a play on words because hawa means both) became subject to me."
It is said that if a thousand desires were presented to a believer he would drive them away through fear of God, while if a single desire were presented to a libertine, it would drive fear of God away from him. It is said, "Do not give your bridle into the hand of caprice, for it will lead you into darkness."
Yusuf bin Asbat said, "Nothing will extinguish desires from the heart except an unsettling fear or a troubled yearning." Al-Khawwas said, "Whoever gives up a desire and does not find the recompense for it in his heart is lying about having given it up."
Jafar bin Nisar said, "Junayd gave me a dirham and said, 'Go and buy me Waziri figs.' I bought them, and when he broke fast he took one and put it in his mouth. Then he spit it out, wept, and said, 'Take them away!' I asked him about this. He said, 'A voice spoke in my heart saying, "Aren't you ashamed? A desire you gave up for My sake - now you are returning to it!"'"
They recite:
The last letter of disgrace has been stolen from desire.
The victim of every desire is a victim of disgrace.
Know that the ego possesses contemptible characteristics, and one of them is envy.
-Imam Abu-l-Qasim al-Qushayri
Risalah Qushayriyyah (Principles of Sufism)
Indeed the whole world is imagination.
Only He is the real in Reality.
Whoever understands this
knows the secrets of the spiritual path.
-Ibn Arabi
The scriptures of old report that when Allah created the intellect, He said, "O intellect go back," and it went back. (Then He said.) "O intellect come forward," and it came forward. (He then said,) "O intellect who am I," and it said, "You are Allah, the Lord of the universes."
Similarly, when He created the nafs, He said, "O nafs come forth," yet it went back. Then He said "O nafs go back," and it came forward. "O Nafs who am I?" and it said, "You are you and I am I." Thus Allah imposed hunger upon it and weakness crept into it until it became subdued and obedient. He then said, "O nafs go back," and it went back, and "O nafs come forward," and it came forward. He said, "O nafs who am I?" and it said, "You are Allah, the lord of all the universes."
Thus weakening the desires of the nafs proved of great importance in the realm of seeking nearness to Allah
-Habib 'Ali Zain Al 'Abideen Al Jifri
Ma'alim as-Suluk (Wayfarers to God)
Your Saying “God is Most Great” does not mean that He is greater than something else, since there is nothing else alongside of Him, so that it could be said that He is greater than it… Rather, the meaning of Allahu Akbar is that He is much too great to be perceived by the senses or for the depths of His Majesty to be reached by reason and logic, and indeed, that He is much too great to be known by an other-than-Him for truly, no one knows God but God.
-Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah
If you could get rid
of yourself just once,
The secret of secrets
Would open to you.
The face of the unknown,
Hidden beyond the universe
Would appear
on theMirror of your perception.
-Rumi-
The Prophet, may Allah grant blessings and peace upon him, says, 'The one who has not experienced ecstasy and thereby received the manifestation of divine wisdom and truth has not lived'.
Hadrat Junayd, may Allah be pleased with him, said, 'When ecstasy meets the divine manifestations inside one, one is either in a state of the highest joy or the deepest sorrow'.
There are two kinds of ecstasy: physical ecstasy and spiritual ecstasy. Physical ecstasy is a product of the ego. It does not give one any spiritual satisfaction. It is under the influence of the senses. Often it is hypocritical, occurring so that others see or hear about it. This kind of ecstasy is totally devoid of value because it is purposeful, it is willed: the one who experiences it still thinks that he can do, that he can choose. It is not good to give any importance to such experiences.
Spiritual ecstasy, however, is a totally different state, a state caused by the overflow of spiritual energy. Ordinarily, exterior influences—such as a beautifully recited poem, or the Qur'an chanted by a beautiful voice, or the excitement brought on by the ceremony of remembrance of the Sufis—may cause this spiritual elevation. This happens because at such moments the physical resistance of the being is obliterated. The will, the ability of the mind to choose and to decide, is overcome. When the powers of both the body and the mind are undermined, the ecstatic state is purely spiritual. To go along with that kind of experience is beneficial to one.
The influences which incite spiritual ecstasy are described in the words of the Prophet, may Allah grant blessings and peace upon him, 'The verses of the Qur'an, the wise and wondrous poems of love and sounds and voices of yearning illuminate the face of the soul'.
The Prophet, may Allah grant blessings and peace upon him, says, 'The one who has not experienced ecstasy does not have the taste of his religion'.
There are ten states of ecstasy. Some of these are apparent and their signs visible, and some are hidden and unobservable by others, like the inner consciousness and remembrance of Allah, or a silent reading of the Holy Qur'an. To shed tears, to have deep feeling of regret, fear of Allah's punishment, longing and sorrow, shame for one's moments of unconsciousness; when one grows pale, or the face flushes with excitement from states within and from events around one, burning with the yearning for Allah—these and all physical and spiritual anomalies caused by such things are signs of ecstasy.
- Shaykh 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani
Sirr al-Asrār (Secret of Secrets)
Once Junaid’s eye pained him, and he sent for the doctor.“If your eye is throbbing, do not let any water get to it,” the doctor advised.
When he had gone, Junaid performed his ablutions and prayed, and then went to sleep. When he awoke, his eye was well again. He heard a voice saying, “Junaid forsook his eye to gain Our good pleasure. If with the same intention he had begged of Us all the inhabitants of Hell, his petition would have been granted.”
The physician called and saw that his eye was healed.“What did you do?” he asked.“I performed the ablutions for prayer,” Junaid answered.
Thereupon the physician, who was a Christian, declared his conversion.
“This is the Creator’s cure, not the creature’s,” he commented. “It was my eye that was sick, not yours. You were the physician, not I.”
-Farid al-Din Attar
Tadhkirat al-Awliya'
The Prophet said that Allah has said,
"I cannot be contained in hallowed places.
Heaven and earth cannot hold Me.
But I am contained by true hearts.
If you seek Me, search in those hearts."
-Rumi
Liberate yourself from the fetters of the ego
and surrender yourself before God.
Let the Lord be your shepherd,
allow Him to attend to all your cares,
and do not allow temptations to entice you.
Aspirations of this world are the cause of all concern.
Aspire to God and obtain freedom.
-Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani
On Dhikr
Dhikr is a fire which does not stay or spread – so if it enters a house saying, "Me and nothing other than me," which is one of the meanings of "la ilaha illa'llah' (There is no god but Allah), and there is firewood in the house, it burns it up and it becomes fire. If there is darkness in the house, it becomes light. If there is light in the house, it becomes 'light upon light'.
Dhikr expels from the body impure substances produced by excess in eating or from the consumption of unlawful food. As for food which is lawful, it does not touch it. So the harmful components are burned up and the good components remain.
Dhikr is heard by every part as if it were blowing on a trumpet. When dhikr first occurs in the head, the sound of trumpets and cymbals is experienced there. Dhikr is a sultan – when it descends in a place, it descends with its trumpets and cymbals because dhikr is opposed to all that is other than the Truth. When it descends in a place, it occupies itself with negating what is contrary to the Truth, as we find in the union of water and fire. After these sounds, different sounds are heard: like the ripple of water, the sound of the wind, the sound of fire when it is kindled, the sounds of galloping of horses, and the sound of leaves of the trees rustling in the wind.
This is because man is a combination of every noble and low substance: dust, water, fire, air and earth, and heaven and earth and what is between them: these sounds issue from every source and element of these substances. Whoever has heard these sounds in dhikr praises Allah and glorifies Him with his entire tongue. This is the result of the dhikr with the tongue with the force of complete absorption. Perhaps the worshipper will reach the state where, if he falls silent from dhikr, the heart will stir in his breast, like the movement of the child in the womb, seeking dhikr.
Some say that he heart is like 'Isa, the son of Mary, peace be upon him, and dhikr is its milk. When it grows and becomes strong, longing for the Truth audibly springs from it and pangs of yearning craving for dhikr and the One invoked. The dhikr of the heart is like the sound of the bee, neither a confused high noise nor a very low hidden sound. When the One invoked takes possession of the heart and the dhikr is obliterated and vanishes, and the invoker does not pay attention to the dhikr nor to the heart. If during this, he notices the dhikr or the heart, that is a distracting veil.
This is state is annihilation (fana') – and it is that man is annihilated in respect to his self (nafs), and he feels nothing in his limbs nor things outside of him or things inside of him. If, during that, it occurs to him that he is totally annihilated in respect to himself, that then is a blemish and turbidity. Perfection is that he be annihilated to himself and to annihilation, and the annihilation of annihilation is the goal of annihilation. Annihilation is the earliest of the Path (Tariq) since it is travelling towards Allah Almighty, and then guidance follows. By guidance I mean the guidance of Allah as the Prophet Ibrahim said, "I am going to my Lord, and He will guide me." (37:99)
This absorption is seldom stable and rarely continues. If the invoker continues, it becomes a fixed habit and a permanent state by which he may ascend to the celestial world. Then the purest real Being emerges and he is imprinted with nature of the invisible world (malakut) and the holiness of Divinity (lahut) is manifested to him. The first thing manifested to him from that world are the essences of the angels and the spirits of the Prophets and saints in beautiful forms through which some of the realities overflow onto him. That is the beginning. This continues until his degree is higher than forms and he encounters the Truth in everything with clarity.
This is the fruit of the core of dhikr. Its beginning is only the dhikr of the tongue; and then the dhikr of the heart is stimulated. Then the dhikr becomes natural; and then the One invoked takes possession and the invoker is obliterated. This is the inner secret of the words of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: "Whoever wish to abide in the Garden of Paradise should invoke Allah much" and the secret of his words "Hidden dhikr is seventy times preferable to dhikr which is heard by listeners."
The sign of dhikr moving to the inner conscience (sirr) is the absence of the invoker from dhikr and the One invoked, and the dhikr of the inner conscience is frantic thirst and drowning in it.
Among its signs is that when you ceasing doing dhikr, it does not leave you, and the ascendancy of dhikr in you stirs you from absence to presence.
Among its signs is that dhikr presses against your heads and limbs so that they seem as if they were bound with shackles and chains.
Among its signs is that its fires do not abate and its light does not depart. Rather you always see its lights rising and descending while the fires around you are pure, aflame and brightly burning. When dhikr reaches the inner conscience when the invoker falls silent from dhikr, it is as if needles had been thrust through his tongue or as if his entire face were a tongue invoking, light pouring from it.
- Ibn 'Ata'llah al-Iskandari
From Miftah al-Falah (The Key to Success)
