The garden of the Sufis and the Arifin

The garden of the Sufis and the Arifin In the name of Allāh, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful. All praise is due to Allāh,

16/01/2024

Ibn Arabi divides God's people into 3 categories:

1. People of renunciation and devotion to God (zuhd, tabattul) who perform only praiseworthy and virtuous acts. However, these people do not know the states and the stations and divine revelations and secrets. They are afraid of self-conceit
and hypocrisy. If one of them engages in reading, the books appropriate for him are al-Muḥāsibī’s al-Riʿāya and its like.
They are called al-ʿubbād (worshippers).
2. The second kind of people are like the first concerning their personality, but they also regard all acts as deriving from God. They aspire to gain states and stations, divine revelations and secrets and miracles. If they gain some of these things, they show them publicly. They are called Sufis (al-ṣūfiyya), and in relation to the third group they are frivolous and possessors of egos. They also manifest leadership over the people of God.
3. The third group are designated the People of Blame (al-malāmiyya) they are the most sublime people in their ethics and behaviour. However, contrary to the Sufis they conceal themselves from people, because their master, God, is concealed from people.

~Ibn Arabi, Futuhat chapter 309

17/08/2023

If you walk among the people and your self is with you, you will not see the people. You will only see your self. And if you don't see the people you will never see God.

He said, but are not all people in the same situation, walking around with their selves?

I said; Yes, all except the people of the night. They have put the self behind them. Because the self is not a veil to them, all spirits of the unseen rush to expose themselves to them.

~ Ibn Ṭāʾī

15/06/2023

A man came home one night and asked his wife if there was something to eat. When his wife said to him that there was nothing left he said, "Thank God and praise Him. Our home is now like the home of the Prophet."

Related by Ibn Arabi.

Dedicated to all people going through some financial difficulty!

04/06/2023

I am not afraid of death, nor do I fear the enemy I have a sword that is sharp and a horse that is swift I have a heart that is brave and a tongue that is eloquent I have a friend that is loyal and a lord that is generous I have a homeland that is noble and a religion that is true I have a lineage that is pure and a reputation that is high.

If you see me smiling in the face of danger, do not think that I am unaware of its severity, but I have learned from the lions how to hunt and I have learned from the eagles how to soar and I have learned from the stars how to shine and I have learned from the winds how to blow.

~ al-Mutanabbi, one of the greatest poets of the Arabs according to Ibn Arabi. These verses are mentioned on the first pages of the Futuhat al Makkiyya.

16/05/2023

On why all things speak to us and are alive.

First hear a story:

One day a lover gave his very first first gift to his beloved. A beautiful piece of jewelry to hang around her neck.

Through the years that piece of jewelry adquired a special meaning or color that only they could see.

Whenever he saw it, he saw the day he gave it to her. Her smile when he placed it around her neck. How proudly she weared it when they sometimes went out to dinner.

And whenever she saw it, she remembered his mischievious look when he asked her to close her eyes because he had a gift for her. And how she later learned that he spent all of his first salary on that expensive gift for her.

That piece of jewelry adquired a special meaning that only the two lovers could see. Other people were blind to it.

Could anyone else see it? When their friends looked at it, they only saw a piece of gold.

So one could say that this little piece jewerly got a new color for both of them and they were the only persons who could see this color. Did that mean that this new color was not real? And was only in their minds? Perhaps in their hearts?

Consider this; if all people were blind and only one person could see, certainly all would declare green and blue not to be real and the one person who could see these colors mad.

All things are gifts from the Beloved and they all have speech and tell a story because of their association with Him.
Because the things speak, they are also alive.

Friend, do not go blind through life. Look at the colors others don't see. Know that everything speaks, even if outwardly it appears not to, and you must briefly become the thing to hear it speak. It will tell you of its association with the Beloved.

02/02/2023

O, man of importance, perhaps with money and offspring you may start,
But it is clear that with all these after a short time you will have to part.
Happy is he who connects his heart to the Beloved.
And with heart and soul is tied to the folk of heart.

~Jami

P.S in Persian we can appreciate the rhythm and the rhyme;

Aay khwaaja agar maal agar farzand ast
Peydaa-st ke moddat baqaayash chand ast
Khosh aanke delash be delbari darband ast
Kash baa del o jaan ahl-e del peyvand ast.

When you learn from the writings of the ancient Sages that there exists a world possessed of dimensions and extent, othe...
22/01/2023

When you learn from the writings of the ancient Sages that there exists a world possessed of dimensions and extent, other than the pleroma of Intelligences, the world governed by the souls of the spheres, and that in it there are cities beyond number among which the Prophet himself mentioned Jabalqa and Jabarsa, do not hasten to proclaim it a lie for there are pilgrims of the spirit who come to see it with their own eyes and in it find their heart's desire.

~Shihab al-Din al-Suhrawardi, book of conversations

15/01/2023

I considered the circumstances of my life and realized that I was caught in a veritable thicket of attachments. I also considered my teaching and lecturing…(I) examined my motive…and realized that it was not a pure desire for the things of God, that the impulse moving me was the desire for an influential position and public recognition… Worldly desires were striving to keep me by their chains just where I was, while the voice of faith was calling, “To the road! To the road! What is left of life is little and the journey before you is long. All that keeps you busy, both intellectually and practically, is but hypocrisy and delusion as if you do not prepare now for eternal life, when will you sever them?

~Al Ghazali

P.S.
It is known that Al Ghazali worried so much that he was spending his life on vain things, that he lost his voice and was not capable of giving lectures anymore. That was the final straw and he decided to start on the Way of the masters leaving all else behind.

07/01/2023

Because it is so noble it is believed that The Way does not exist The way of the fuqara remains hidden from the world, like the night of destiny (laylat al-qadr) in the month of Ramadan and the hour of Friday (sā'at al-ŷum'a)

Verily, he who strives finds, and he who knocks at the door enters. After someone mentioned that it takes an 'šaykh to ask questions and to receive answers, I asked: How do you say that? How do you say that? The masters' are as extraordinary as the red sulphur (al-kibrīt al-amar) and the phoenix ('anqā')? Who could discover any of them?
How do you tell me to find someone with that status? it is impossible.

He answered me: You will find them when you are sincere in seeking (al-alab) like a child or a thirsty person who finds no rest until he attains what he wants.

How can the masters not exist if the existence of the world depends on them?

~ From the Unwān al-tawfīq, Ibn ‘Atā’ Allāh

A sufi was walking in a city he just entered. As he was walking a man seeing him in his dervish clothes threw ashes upon...
04/01/2023

A sufi was walking in a city he just entered. As he was walking a man seeing him in his dervish clothes threw ashes upon him from a balcony.

The sufi looked up. Not at the man but at the heavens and said; I was worthy of You throwing burning embers upon me, but instead You just threw ashes. Praise be to God! And kept on walking happily.

Author unknown,(for not all sufis are known)

P.S. One of the secrets as to not see fault in others and to not to have ill will towards others even if they have wronged you, is to see their doing as not as their doing.

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