Death & Taking Lessons from It

Bismillāh ar-Rahmān ar-Rahīm
In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

If you could see that has been seen by those of you who have died, you would be puzzled and troubled. Then you would have listened and obeyed; but what they have seen is yet curtained off from you. Shortly, the curtain would be thrown off. You have been shown, provided you see and you have been made to listen provided you listen, and you have been guided if you accept guidance. I spoke unto you with truth. You have been called aloud by (instructive) examples and warned through items full of warnings. After the heavenly messengers (angels), only man can convey message from Allah. (So what I am conveying is from Allah.)

A sermon of Sayyidina Ali krw.

Nahjul Balagha
The Peak of Eloquence

Contraction and Expansion

Bismillāh ar-Rahmān ar-Rahīm
In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Seldom is the servant free from these two states that come on us alternately as the succession of night and day, and God requires of you an attitude of servitude with respect to both.

Anyone whose soul experiences a time of contraction either knows the cause for it or does not know it. There are three causes of contraction: some sin which you have committed; or some worldly goods that you have lost or that are lacking; or an evil-doer who injures you or your honor, or imputes to you irreligion or something else.

When contraction comes from one of these causes, servantship consists in returning to knowledge of the faith, dealing with it as the religious law has commanded you - in respect to the sin, with repentance, contrition, and seeking cancellation (iqala); in respect to some worldly goods that you have lost or that you lack, with resignation, acquiescence, and reckoning a recompense from God; and in respect to injury done you by an evil-doer, with patience and forbearance. Take care not to harm yourself, lest two harms unite to injure you - the harm of others toward you, and your harming of yourself.

If you exercise the requisite patience and forbearance, He will recompense you with ease of heart so that you pardon and forgive. Perhaps He will provide you with such light of contentment that you will be able to have compassion on him who has wronged you, or so that you will supplicate for him and your supplication will be answered in his favor. How excellent is your condition whenever God shows mercy on your account toward someone who has wronged you! This is the grade of the veritable mystics (siddiqin) and the merciful. So trust in God, for God loves the trustful.

Whenever there comes over you a feeling of contraction for which you do not know a cause, know that time is in two periods - night and day. Contraction is an experience most resembling the night, while expansion resembles the day. So, when contraction comes from no cause known to you, your duty is to remain quiet. Quietness refers to three things: utterances, desires, and movements. If you do that, the night will soon depart from you with the rising of your day, or a star will appear to guide you, or a moon will appear to provide illumination.

The stars are the stars of knowledge of the faith. The moon is the moon of Unity(tawhid). The sun is the sun of intuitive knowledge (ma’rifa). If you move about in the darkness of your night, you will hardly be saved from destruction. Ponder this saying of God: “Out of His mercy He has appointed for you the night and the day that you may be at rest and seek earnestly after His bounty, and perchance you will give thanks “ (Qur’an 28:73). This is the rule of servantship in relation to contraction as a whole.

With regard to him whose time (waqt) is expansion, inevitably he either knows or does not know a cause for it. There are three causes. The first is an increase of spiritual blessings through obedience, or the receiving of something from the One obeyed, such as faith, knowledge, and intuitional knowledge. The second cause is an increase of earthly goods by acquisition, miraculous supply, gift, or present. The third cause is praise and commendation of men by their flocking to you, asking of you an invocation, and kissing your hand.

Whenever expansion comes upon you for one of these causes, servantship (‘ubudiya) requires that you consider the grace and favor upon you to be from God. Take care lest you hold any part of them to be from yourself, and beware of them lest fear take hold of you - fear of being bereft of what He has bestowed upon you, so that you become as one despised. This is relative to the act of obedience and the favor from God.

The increase of worldly goods is a grace also like the preceding. However, be cautious of their hidden perils. In respect to men’s praising and commending you, servantship requires thanksgiving for His favor in covering your faults. Also, servantship requires fear, lest He bring to light an atom of any hidden part of you so that men nearest you loathe you. These are, on the whole, the rules of conduct for contraction and expansion in respect of servantship. Our help is with God.

With regard to expansion for which you do not know a cause, servantship demands that you refrain from questioning, acting affectedly, and rushing upon women and men. Only say, “Lord, save, save, until death.” So this is the matter, if you understand. Peace to you.

al-Imām ash-Shaykh ‘Abu’l Hasan ash-Shādhilī

‘Istiqama

Bismillāh ar-Rahmān ar-Rahīm
In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

‘Istiqama is being straight. Its definition is to put in practice the sunna of the Messenger SAW - his words, his acts and his states - according to your knowledge of them and your capacity to follow them. Remember that no one can attain to his station of gnosis and radiance, while it is incumbent on us to follow in the dust of his footsteps.

‘Istiqama is taking on the character of one who fulfills the obligations. When someone washes and prays, when they fast and give sadaqa, when they move among the people of knowledge, when they visit the House of Allah, and the resting place of the Messenger, and sit in the Rowdah, they take on the colour of the people of these acts. By these acts even the bones become luminous. By these states, experienced among that company, the heart itself is illuminated.

It may seem outwardly to be narrow while the people of this world are outwardly broad - yet see how they are inwardly narrow while the people of ‘istiqama are inwardly wide. ‘Istiqama results in one who is outwardly dark and inwardly light, while the people of illusory freedoms are outwardly light while inwardly dark. The fruit of ‘istiqama is serenity while the fruit of unlimited behaviour is terror. One is sanity, the other is madness.

Shaykh ‘Abdalqadir as-Sufi
The Hundred Steps