Attaining True Servitude – Abdur Rahman’s Corner

Peace, one and all…

Beloved Dhu al-Nun al-Misri is recorded as saying:

‘The sign that a man is attaining the stage of true servitude is that he opposes desire and abandons lusts’.
Quoted in Attar’s Tazkerat al-Owliya

The words of the Awliya are both an expression of their state and a means by which we might grow. That is, they are a technology of inward growth. To be a true servant is to surrender one’s will to God. It is to perform every commanded act, and to avoid every prohibited deed. This is Islam itself. More deeply, it is to come into harmony with the divine, whereby our selfish desires gradually dissolve. Beyond that, it is said, lies the realm of ma’rifah, of ihsan, where the servant’s separative identity passes away in the Divine, and they are made anew, abiding in God.

Our workaday selves contain so many opposing desires, so many conflicting preoccupations, that it is almost impossible to see beyond them. But, al hamdu lillah, God’s liberational grace exists! Opposing the wayward desires of our lower selves, our nafs-i ammarah, frees the heart to see more clearly, to escape from automatic, mindless programming. It is when we begin to see just how addicted to our senses, and this sensory world, we are. We can find a spaciousness within that we never knew existed, or at most, only in passing moments. God calls us to freedom, to liberation from every other thing. This is the work. This is the path.

We seek God’s aid in all things and a Mighty Aid is He!