A Sojourner's Soul-- A general and short introduction

[Mutakalim]

In His Name, the Exalted

 

For those who wish to read this piece, please do so whilst in a state of concentration and spiritual reception. I have simplified the language and the concepts as best as I can. I post it as general information and theoretical knowledge only, for God knows that I am not of those who have reached any station on the way of this journey of purification. May these words lighten the punishment of some of my sins...

 

The journeys we undertake can be divided into two cardinal categories: the voluntary and involuntary

 

The involuntary consists of the stages that take us from the womb to the grave and then to the resurrection, to end at the final abode. Every breath we take is a step closer to that final destination. We are unaware of this journey, because of our distraction by the ornements of this life, and the veils of sins that cover the eyes of our soul.

 

The voluntary journey (the one that is of interest to us, because there is more than one): is that of the heart and the soul. The finality of creation is for the heart to reach such purity and proximity, that it enjoys the pleasures of witnessing the beauty and glory that are the Absolute. "I was a hidden treasure; then I wished to become known. So I created the creation, so that I may be known." But the heart faces obstacles that only intensify the separation between the creature and his Creator. One must recognize these obstacles, understand them, and overcome them, in a continuous and active effort, in order to be ready to go on such a journey.

 

The first of these veils is that of ignorance vis-à-vis the Beloved, of His attributes. "Surely Allah does not forgive that partners be ascribed to Him [. . .]". This is why knowledge is important. It is certainty and knowledge that replace the darkness and perplexity of doubt and igorance. Who would not want to understand his Beloved?

 

As the lover starts understanding the Beloved, his love and understanding will show him the importance of worship, obedience and servitude. The increase, in quality and quantity, of worship is the key to the seeked nearness. The more you love someone, the more you wish to please them, and serve them, and sacrifice yourself for them. Our Beloved has explained to us the means and ways of worship.

 

Now that your external self has shown its good conduct through servitude and subservience, it is time for your internal self to do the same. You must annihilate pride, jealousy, stinginess, ingratitude, hypocrisy, despair, impatience, negligence... and purify your soul from these states at all times. Instead, your inner kingdom must continuously be illuminated by humility, compassion, magnanimity, gratitude, sincerity, hope, patience, tolerance awareness, rememberance... This is all most necessary for he who wishes to make a step on the way towards the Beloved.

 

Our soul is a mirror. The more we purify it, the more and the better we can reflect the Names of the Beloved. This rank, a truly elevated position that reached by chosen ones, is that of being a projection of an attribute, each depending on his purity and capacity.

 

O Allah! Let our souls taste a glimpse of the ecstasy that is your worship, and see a ray of the light that is your Beauty, as you made us taste and see when we were incapable creatures entering into this life, for we are still the same incapable creatures.

 

With Salaams

PK

[Baashi]

Good read. Jazaka Allah Kheyran yaa Mutakalim.

 

This paragraph caught my eye

 

Now that your external self has shown its good conduct through servitude and subservience, it is time for your internal self to do the same. You must annihilate pride, jealousy, stinginess, ingratitude, hypocrisy, despair, impatience, negligence... and purify your soul from these states at all times. Instead, your inner kingdom must continuously be illuminated by humility, compassion, magnanimity, gratitude, sincerity, hope, patience, tolerance awareness, rememberance... This is all most necessary for he who wishes to make a step on the way towards the Beloved.

[Nur]

MaaShaaAllah Tabaarkallah, wa laa nuzakii calaa Allahi axad.

 

A well done reminder, May Allah place this deed in your balance sheeta a day when a soul shall encounter all that it had earned. A great piece by any measure.

 

A very deep piece indeed, if you all allow me to share my thoughts on it:

 

PK writes:

 

Our soul is a mirror. The more we purify it, the more and the better we can reflect the Names of the Beloved. This rank, a truly elevated position that reached by chosen ones, is that of being a projection of an attribute, each depending on his purity and capacity

 

 

Since the soul or its place holder, the heart is a mirror,its job is to show the way, the Xaqq, the purer the mirror is made, the sharper the representation of facts it shows, and nothing can purify the soul or the heart better than the pure love of Allah SWT for whoses sake we engage in doing all the good that He taught us to do on earth, through servitude or Ibaadah, and cleaning our souls from the evils of jealousy, despair, nontolerance, etc as Bro. Mutakallim mentioned above.

 

Sins on the otherhand as the Prophet SAWS said, will make the heart (soul) rusty, so the more sins we commit the darker the more skewed the mirror becomes, in which case it no longer reflects the reality, and that is why Allah SWT says in Quraan that " Allah does not guide al Faasiqiin" , the evil doers, because their evil is interfering with their mirror lenses to see al Xaqq, and the images they see are confused at best, thus becoming unable to see Al Xaqq.

 

This is the month of the purification of the soul, Allah SWT says : " Wa nafsin wa maa sawaahaa, fa alhamahaa fujuurahaa wa taqwaahaa, qad aflaxa man zakaahaa, wa qad khaaba man dassaahaa"

 

 

Ramadaan kariim

[Taqwa]

Assalamu Alaikum Wr Wb,

 

But the heart faces obstacles that only intensify the separation between the creature and his Creator. One must recognize these obstacles, understand them, and overcome them, in a continuous and active effort, in order to be ready to go on such a journey.

Mansha'allah, make's one think for a moment.

[Viking]

Mutakalim,

May Allah SWT reward you for your efforts.

[OG_Girl]

Waaw , nice Mutakallem.

 

Thanks for reminding.

 

Salam

[StarGazer]

Very deep and thought provoking piece. Jazakallah.

[Sakina]

Thank you Mutakallim may Allah help us overcome these obstacles. May Allah reward you for reminding us that we should all take the journey towards purification.

 

"Lo! We purified them with a pure thought, remembrance of the Home (of the Hereafter)"

Quran 37:46

[SomeAlien]

this reminded me of something someone once said to a non believer. he asked "if you knew that you had a piece of excrement hanging from yr ear, yet you couldnt see it, would you try everything you could to clean it? or just leave the house knowing you had feeces hanging from yr ear?" the kid answered hed try to clean himself ofcourse. to which the muslim answered "you see thats the point of islam, we cleanse our souls through daily prayers and fasts and good deeds so that we may be pure on the day we meet our maker".

i dnt know if he got it from a hadith or not, bt it really impressed me.

[- Femme -]

O Allah! Let our souls taste a glimpse of the ecstasy that is your worship, and see a ray of the light that is your Beauty, as you made us taste and see when we were incapable creatures entering into this life, for we are still the same incapable creatures.

Ameen.

Jazakallahu Khayraan PK.

[Mutakalim]

I have written a few "risaalaat" or "treatises" on ma'rifah, 'irfan, or gnosis. Insha Al-Xaq, time permitting, I shall post some of my thoughts on this.

 

With Salaams

PK

[Mutakalim]

It is necessary that you constantly evaulate the the state of your inner-kingdom so as to sustain its structure. Does corruption abound in your kingdom? Is every branch of your state (soldiers, viziers, monarach) performing its given function? Are there any dissidents that need to pay the "wages of disloyalty"?

 

A king who has a tongue so gentle that he does not scold his subjects, a hand so tender that he does not smite those who dispense vain counsel, or a volition so weak that he cannot effect his wishes is not a king proper, even if, in a moment of inspired idiocy, he fancies himself as a soveriegn.

 

Used by the ancients and the gnostics alike, this metaphor encapsulates the ideal designation of the faculties of the rational animal (الحيوان الناطق). Happiness can only be acheived when the order of your inner-kingdom reflects, however remotely, the order of His Kingdom (التخلق باخلاق الله). Order will not be present if the ruler becomes the ruled. Base desires and carnal cravings ought to be subordinated to the soveriengty of reason, which, in its natural state, will rouse you to divine contemplation.

 

After successful subordination, the impurities and uncleanliness of your slate will be burnished, allowing you to perform your function, to quaff from the divine font (Holy Quran and Sunnah) and uncover the hidden meanings therein. Yu'til xikmata man yashaa'u wa man yu'tal xikmata faqad uutiya khayran kathiiraa wa maa yathakkaru illaa ulul albaab

 

It should not come as a surprise that fasting had been enjoined on previous peoples and nations as it facilitated proper esoteric and exoteric governance. Yaa ayyuhallathiina aamanuu kutiba calaykum assiyaamu kamaa kutiba calallathiina min qablikum lacallakum tattaquun Whoever attempts to taste the ecstasy of worship sans placing the passions and desires (القوة الشهوية) under the rule of reason (القوة العاقلة) is like the man who tried to fetch water in a sieve.

 

Holding the wayward "members of your kingdom" (corrupt officials, dissident soldiers) to account is the warp and woof of Ramadan.

 

Ramadaan Mubaarak, Cimuu Masaa'an

 

With Salaams

PK

[S.O.S]

It is necessary that you constantly evaulate the the state of your inner-kingdom so as to sustain its structure. Does corruption abound in your kingdom? Is every branch of your state (soldiers, viziers, monarach) performing its given function? Are there any dissidents that need to pay the "wages of disloyalty"?

Brother Mutakallim,

Assalaamu calaykum.

 

This is a very interesting post and jazaakal-Laahu khayran for sharing it with us. If I may, I would like to offer a more practical framework concerning what you’ve referred to as “the inner-kingdom†and relate its factual aspects to other forum members, which I believe will do more justice to the importance of this inner-kingdom, than the above technically linguistic mysticism post that cannot be understood by everyone. Also in this post, I’m partly attempting to clear the ruled faculties from any suspicion of dissidence and sabotage, because we don’t want to see people misinterpreting you cry for revenge/justice (wages of disloyalty) and harming themselves not realising the reality of kin-kingdom relationship.

 

To me it is a practical kingdom, where there is a king who rules over his subjects and in sub-sequence these subjects carry out their appropriated tasks. Therefore it is a kingdom of unified action; meaning, the command and obedience is inseparable, because the king is answerable to the Greatest King who granted him his kingdom in the first place. All responsibility rest thus on the shoulders of that king, and Allah, the Most Just, would never undermine him by giving him a rebellious and disobedient subjects, for the inner king-kingdom relationship, the subjects are not answerable to the king and religious logic tells us that there must be a complete sovereignty of will. However, it is always the king himself that commits the crimes against his subjects and turns out to be the tyrant oppressive ruler. This king is the heart!

 

There are two authentic prophetic narrations which can demonstrate that fact quite clearly and easily, and although I can’t remember exact wording, I do remember its meaning and I hope we are all familiar with so that we can post them soon with reference. The first one is recorded in Tirmidi I believe, that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “Every morning all the parts/faculties of the body surrenders in total submission to the commands of the tongue†(or the equivalent), and since the tongue really is nothing other than the manifestation of the heart, the faculties of the body pledge and renew their loyalty to the king every morning when the spirits are returned. The second narration is more famous and states that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “There is one part of the body, which, if pure, the whole body is pure and if corrupted, the whole body is corrupted; alaa hiyal qalb or that place is the heartâ€!

 

The above implicates the picture because our faculties have no will of their own and your sentimental mood of principal-agent problem is partly unjustified (yes there is the problem of the unchaste wife of the king -call it nafs or ego if you must- who is never satisfied, but is not part of the active kigdom of command and obedience beyond advisory role as a member of the royal family). I hope that we have now reduced the whole problem to single focal point (the heart) where we can focus all our efforts if we want better ourselves.

 

We can even go further and reduce all the possible actions that we can take to purify the king to a single all embracing action. You have rightfully identified the necessity of love for the Divine and its impact on the heart, but we cannot talk about loving Allah without longing for His Love. There are for example many Muslims and non-Muslims (i.e. people of the book) who claim to love Allah/God, but their love is worthless because Allah is not pleased with them and hence don’t qualify for His Love. So this vital aspect of mutual love is central to the single most important action needed to purify the heart from all diseases and plant the true tree of faith whose fruits are so sweet that there are no words of my own to describe them. This is to follow the Sunnah! Just consider the following verse when Allah commands the Prophet (peace be upon him) to say:

 

“If you love Allah, follow me; Allah will love you and forgive you your sins. For Allah is Oft Forgiving, Most Merciful†(3:31)

 

There are many lessons from the above verse and I hope it is clear to every one that to achieve true love for Allah and qualify for His Love, we have to follow the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him) very closely, if we don’t, then our love is a baseless lie and more importantly, Allah won’t love us! It is interesting to note that the position of following of the prophet equates to love too, as we need to love our prophet more than anything else, it becomes inconceivable to be overcome by any obstacles which you love more and can prevent you from following the Prophet (peace be upon him). There is another lesson in “Allah will love you and forgive you your sinsâ€, which shows that Allah can love even those (believers) who have committed sins, and He will be pleased when they show repentance as well. These words of Allah, as they offer us a bargain to benefit from His Gracious promises just by fulfilling what is commanded in the first half of the verse, are unfortunately only comforting for those “who has a heart or gives ear while he is heedful†(50:37).

 

To summarise, the heart needs to be loving, living and pure, and can get to that status by following in loving, in living and in purity the teachings of the Messenger (peace be upon him) and as a consequence, our inner-kingdoms will live in harmony with the outer-Kingdom. Thus healing from all diseases and purification from all corruptions will be achieved that way, and that way only!

 

It doesn’t mean that we will be sinless; we are sinners by nature as made evident in our weaknesses, inclination to erroneous tendencies and our imperfect knowledge. In fact, our secret weapon arises from these weaknesses, which elevated Adam (peace be upon him) to the most honourable being in Allah’s sight, left the angels confused about it and proved to be the downfall of Iblis (cursed is he); and that secret weapon is repentance! In trying to make that point clear to us, our Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “By Him in Whose Hand is my life, if you did not commit sin, Allah would sweep you out of existence and He would replace you with those who would commit sin and seek forgiveness from Allah, and he would pardon themâ€.

 

Some may be amused by the fact that I didn’t mention the Qur’aan, so I’ll explain that issue further, especially for those who don’t understand the unity of purpose between the Qur’aan and the Sunnah. The qur’aan, as Allah (swt) says is “an exhortion from your Lord, a healing for that which is in your hearts, a guidance and mercy for the believers†(10:57) “And we send down of the Qur’aan that which is a healing and a mercy to those who believe†(17:82). The condition therefore is to believe in order to be healed and purified by the Qur’aan, and if you’ve paid attention to the above verses, then you’d have realised that, and only that “It is a guidance and a healing for those who believe†(41:44). So who believes, the one following the footsteps of the Messenger (peace be upon him) or the one who doesn’t?

 

The Qur’aan is not for recitation only, rather, it should be the embodiment of your life and the only way to live by the Qur’aan is to emulate and live a life which is like that of the great example of guide, meaning and message from the Qur’aan whose heart was descended on. It is the life or the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as Aisha (Allah be pleased with her) observed that “his conduct was nothing but the Qur’aan†(reported in Muslim). We should also remember the supplications of a great lover of Allah, whom Allah loved him very much and therefore made His friend, when he said: “Our Lord! Raise up in the midst of our offspring a Messenger from among them who shall recite to them Your verses and instruct them in the Book and in Wisdom and purify their lives. Verily, You are Mighty, Wise. (2:129). So, when I say the Sunnah with regards to the purification of the heart, I’m not disregarding the Qur’aan, instead I’m implementing the instruction of the Qur’aan Itself. I hope that I’ve helped and the framework that I’ve put forward will give us a great deal of freedom to discuss the problem in the depths of pity and the heights of asceticism in our short-lived lives. I will also dearly welcome any comments on this post be it negative or positive.

 

Shams-ud-Din