A Recent Sohbet – Abdur Rahman’s Corner
Peace one and all…
I wanted to share the text of a recent sohbet. Entitled ‘The True Qibla’, this sohbet explored looking to Allah within all things, especially within the context of our struggles with the nafs. Essentially, we must strive to see our egos through the prism of looking towards the Real, or else we run the risk of remaining trapped within a self-reinforcing prison.
May the hearts of the lovers be opened.
‘The ruh and the nafs are the same luminous thing from the world of light. Allah knows best, faqir, but it is not two different things even though it has two descriptions: purity and turbidity … If were to you ask, “How is that?” I would reply that as long as the ruh retains its purity … then only the name ‘ruh’ is true for it. When it leaves its original purity … and relying on other than its loved ones, then it is true to call it ‘nafs’… My brother, if you wish to return to your homeland from which you came … then act! If you ask, “How shall I act?” I reply, “Strip yourself of the world of impurity as a sheep is stripped of its skin. Forget it, and do not remember it at all.”
Shaykh Moulay al-Arabi al-Darqawi, The Darqawi Way, Letter 52
‘Whoever directs to this world has cheated you, whoever directs you to deeds has exhausted you; but whoever directs you to Allah has truly counselled you.”
Imam Abūl Hasan ash-Shādhilī
Hear my plea as You heard the plea of Your servant Zakariyya.
And grant me victory through You and for You,
and aid me through You and for You,
and join me and You,
and come between me and other than You.
Allah, Allah, Allah!
Salat ibn Mashish
Mo’in al-Din, the Parvana, asked Mowlana: ‘Shaykhs of the past – God illuminate their proof – have had separate litanies and dhikr-formulas … What then is Khodavandigar’s way of performing the dhikr?’ Mowlana replied: ‘Our dhikr-formula is Allah, Allah, Allah because we are partisans of God (allahiyyan). We come from God and unto God we shall return.’
We are born of Essence and to Essence we travel.
Companions, say blessings on behalf of our travelling.
‘Indeed, having declared abandonment of everything but God,
we have grasped onto God.’
I have cleared away the two worlds from my side.
Like the h I sit at the side of the l in Allah.
Manaqeb al-Arifin, 161
