All the great shaykhs of the way of tasawwuf - that is, the mystical science of love, truth, and Self-realization, have taught there is a huge difference in understanding between those who have, by the grace of Allah, attained to a station of Divine intimacy and those who, unfortunately, have not. This difference in knowledge, wisdom, and insight has a great many ramifications in the nature and quality of life, but, perhaps, one of the most critical differences revolves around the consequences of ignorance.
Individuals who have been blessed by unveiling know - in a profound, intense, intimate, varied, and on-going manner - that all of creation is woven together as a set of manifestations giving expression to an underlying Divine Purpose which is complex, yet, unified. The nature of this unity is such that whatever we do affects the rest of Creation ... for better or worse.
Our actions cannot alter or undermine the Divine Purpose being manifested through creation, but we serve as loci through which certain kinds of Divine transactions enter into the world of appearances. And, the sort of transactions for which we are the cosmic doorway can be affected, within certain degrees of freedom, by the way we filter what is being transmitted through us.
The 'Divine transactions' mentioned above have to do, in part, with the realm of 'rizq' which determines, from birth to the grave, what will be provided to us, as well as whether we will have to: (a) satisfy certain conditions in order to draw from the Divine storehouse, or (b) merely be given certain things independently of effort. Whatever comes to us - through efforts, or not - in the way of material goods, possessions, career achievement, health, family, monetary wealth, fame, physical qualities, intellectual abilities, talents, friends, and spirituality is pre-set, so to speak.
There are many things that we all receive quite apart from any efforts on our part. Existence, air, oceans, sun, mountains, the moon, earth, stars, rain, consciousness, seasons, weather, night, day, and a soul, are just a few examples of this.
Furthermore, each of us receives certain 'gifts' in life which find their way to us even if we do not seek them or try to acquire them. These sorts of things vary from person to person.
On the other hand, there are other facets of life for which conditions have been laid down. For these, aspects of life, efforts must be made.
Looked at from the foregoing perspective, life consists of an extremely large collection of rizq transactions, and you and I serve as so many loci of manifestation through which many, but not all, of these sorts of transaction are conducted. However, our intentions, attitudes, understanding, and spiritual condition can lend 'color' to these events.
More specifically, while Divinity establishes the parameters of conditions, gifts, and assigned portions which are destined for us in relation to every dimension of our lives, and while fundamental aspects of these parameters are entangled in struggle, you and I tend to filter the character of what is being transmitted through us in positive and negative ways. These positive and negative qualities are the ways in which we lend color to those facets of rizq transactions with which we are associated - facets, one might add, that give expression to part of our assigned rizq even as we are serving as loci of manifestation for rizq transactions that are being directed to others.
For example, if we are charitable - the positive way in which we serve as a loci for giving, is part of our rizq destiny, just as the giving that flows through us to someone else is part of the other individual's rizq destiny. At the same time, our charitable nature may be a gift of God for which little, or no, effort needed to be expended in order to be acquired, or we may have had to struggle long and hard to be able to act in a charitable fashion.
Alternatively, if we are selfish, resentful, and/or hateful with respect to various rizq transactions that are manifested through us and in which something we have (possessions, money, time, talents, and so on) is transferred to someone else to whom it has been assigned by God - at least on a temporary basis - then, although we serve as a locus of transference, we have colored the transaction with various sorts of negative attitudes, feelings, and intentions. In short, we have added a certain degree of malevolence, negativity, destructiveness, or evil, if you will, to the transaction.
The person who has been assigned, by Divinity, to be the recipient in the foregoing transaction is acquiring at least three portions of rizq. First, there is whatever money, material object, possession, help and so on which is being transmitted through the person who has been assigned to serve as locus of giving. Secondly, there is the negative coloring of the transaction which has been added by the one through whom the giving is manifested. Thirdly, there is the opportunity being extended to the recipient, by God, to deal with both the giving and the 'value added' coloring in a spiritually appropriate or inappropriate manner - and the choices made concerning the form that this 'dealing' will take becomes a locus through which further rizq transactions are conducted.
The individual who, by the grace of God, has been given knowledge of the Self, understands that all of existence is a theater of Divine manifestation which gives expression to Creation's Purpose by means of a woven mosaic of rizq transactions in which human beings - and, indeed, all created being - are rooted as loci of transmission and receipt with respect to the play of Divine Names and Attributes - a play which is for the benefit of all Creation. The individual who, through the blessings of Divinity, has attained to Self-knowledge understands her or his role in the scheme of things and seeks to be a loci - whether of transmission or receipt - that filters the rizq transactions through a pure process of submission to Divine purpose and a desire to serve all of Creation, not to rule over Creation. The person who, by the mercy of Allah, has had the nature of the Self unveiled, understands that God's Purpose intends nothing but good for all of Creation, including human kind, and such people dedicate their lives to doing whatever they can to share with others whatever they know concerning this good.
The individual who has not, by the grace of his or her own lower self, attained to knowledge of the Self, and, as a result, knows only the 'self', has not acquired something of the 'taste' of Divine purpose, and, consequently, fails to grasp the manner in which all of creation is united in the tapestry of rizq transactions for a common Divine Purpose. The person who, due to the ignorance in which such an individual is entangled, does not grasp his or her role in the scheme of things, and, therefore, tends, in a variety of ways, to resist and rebel against the rizq transactions which are being transmitted through that person - ways which may not serve the best, long-term interests of the individual but which do not deter the Divine Purpose from being given unfettered manifestation through a multiplicity of dimensions entailed by the complex set of rizq transactions that constitute Creation. The person who, through self-absorption, tends to undermine and sacrifice the Divinely-given opportunity to be opened up to spiritual unveiling, does not understand that God's intentions toward creation and human kind are beneficent in nature.
Ignorance sees though lenses of spiritual darkness. All events in the view of ignorance are filtered through, and colored by, those lenses.
Ignorance seeks to usurp the role of God, because the nature of ignorance is not to know any better since ignorance veils, and is veiled from, the truth of Divine Purpose. Ignorance, by 'virtue' of the very nature of ignorance, is steeped in impatience and wishes to place its own time table upon God's Plan. Ignorance, due to its essential lack of knowledge and understanding, seeks to impose its darkness on everyone else, and will not be content until all of creation falls beneath its shadow.
The shaykhs of the path of tasawwuf indicate that one must struggle toward repentance, sincerity, tolerance, patience, forgiveness, nobility, justice, kindness, love, compassion, and remembrance because the way to Self-realization is lit by these spiritual stations. Ignorance has little regard for such qualities and believes that, somehow, a lack of wisdom, insight, and understanding will be triumphant.
The nature of ignorance is to not understand its own presence. Ignorance is inclined to miss the fact that the shapes it sees are merely ones that have been superimposed upon reality by the character of the ignorance involved.
Ignorance kills. Ignorance destroys. Ignorance tortures. Ignorance distorts. Ignorance persecutes. Ignorance oppresses. Ignorance terrorizes.
To whatever extent we permit ourselves to filter the network of Divinely ordained rizq transactions that give expression to the Purpose of Creation through the lenses of ignorance, to that extent will we be inclined to kill, destroy, torture, distort, persecute, oppress, and terrorize - both others and ourselves. If we wish to understand the origins of evil, then let us look to the spiritual ignorance within us - for, that is where it all begins.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Monday, January 04, 2010
States, Stations, Stages, and Practice
To borrow a phrase from fractal mathematics, the Sufi path tends to be ‘self-similar’, rather than ‘self-same’, when considering the experience of different individuals. In other words, since every human being is unique, even while sharing in the general set of properties which differentiate human beings from other species of being, and since the tajalli of Divinity (the descent or rupture of Divine modalities into manifested form) do not repeat themselves in any self-same manner, one cannot necessarily speak of suluk, or spiritual travel, as consisting of a linear sequence of states (hal) and stations (maqam).
Different individuals have outlined the path in varied ways which reflects their own experience of suluk rather than necessarily reflecting some set of hard and fast steps which must be taken in a ‘just so’ order. Thus, some people say the Sufi path consists of ‘x’ number of states and ‘y’ number of stations, while other commentators say that tasawwuf entails ‘r’ number of states, and ‘t’ number of stations.
In addition, there are, sometimes, disagreements about whether a certain stage of spiritual travel involves a hal or a maqam. Again, such variation in opinion are more indicative of the differences which people bring with them to the path than they are necessarily reflective of ‘truths’ independent of human engagement of reality.
Generally speaking, a hal is characterized as a temporary spiritual condition in relation to which intentional effort of striving has not been expended or directed, and, therefore, comes as a gift of Divinity. Maqam, or station, on the other hand, is often characterized as more permanent than are hal, and, as well, are said to be spiritual conditions for which struggle and striving must be exerted in a concerned manner. As such, maqam tend to be described as spiritual conditions which must be earned, while hal are not earned, per se.
However, since spiritual effort does not cause spiritual progress, but is, at best, a necessary condition, then, whether one is talking about states or stations, these are both gifts of God and could not be experienced or sustained without Divine succor. Moreover, although there are instances in which individuals who are not on any particular spiritual path are recipients of Divine Grace in the form of this or that manner of hal, the likelihood of undergoing one or another spiritual hal tends to be increased when one is actively and sincerely pursuing the mystical path under the guidance and care of an authentic shaykh.
Yet, one might keep in mind that the Qur’an stipulates: “If Allah were to take humankind to task for their wrong-doing, God would not leave hereon a living creature, but God reprieves them to an appointed term.” (16:61) So, whether one is talking about hal or maqam, neither is deserved but comes by the Grace of Allah.
Finally, some expressions of hal are longer lived than are other manifestations of hal. Therefore, whether one believes one is talking about a condition of hal rather than maqam may be somewhat arbitrarily decided.
Spiritual conditions share some of the same qualities as dreams. This is especially so in the sense that both dreams and spiritual conditions require the presence of insight by an experienced guide or knowledgeable and Divinely supported individual in order to properly appreciate the nature of what is transpiring through either the dream or a given spiritual condition.
Najm al-Din Razi (may Allah be pleased with him), in his book: The Path of God’s Bondsmen from Origin to Return uses the example of fire to illustrate the complexity of the problem. Someone who is traversingthe path of tasawwuf may see the attribute of fire and, depending on the nature of one’s spiritual condition, this attribute will have a different meaning in different states and stations.
For some, the appearance of fire is an indication that the quality of anger is dominant. For others, the presence of fire may signify the light of zikr or the individual’s ardor for the spiritual quest. For still others, the fire may exemplify the presence of guidance as with the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him), or it may give expression to the quality of devilry as with Iblis. And, for still other individuals, the quality of fire may symbolize the condition of gnosis or love or witnessing. There also are additional modalities of fire which indicate the presence of other manner of states and stations.
The attribute of fire is but one of many, many qualities which may emerge within an individual’s experience and serve as a tell-tale sign of a person’s spiritual condition. However, as with dreams, insight is needed to understand the significance of the presence of a given quality.
Similarly, when an individual passes through stations involving the attributes of clay, water, air, fire, firmaments, heavenly bodies, the malakut (or soul) of the planets and the stars, animals, and a thousand other realms, different kinds of tajalli may be manifested according to circumstances and an individual’s spiritual condition. Just as there is no reliable book of dream interpretation in which all one has to do is scour the index for a given dream and, then, proceed to the page with ‘the’ correct interpretation, so, to, there is no standard dictionary of spiritual states and stations which always are manifested in the same way across individual experiences.
I recall, once, when my shaykh, Dr. Baig (may Allah be pleased with him), talked about such matters. He indicated that in very special cases - and he referred to such instances as being among the most supreme of spiritual conditions - an individual may traverse the journey of suluk and not have even one ‘mystical’ or anomalous, non-ordinary experience. These are individuals from whom God has kept secret the nature of their own spiritual condition.
Many people speak about the alleged great differences between, say, the doctrine of Wahdat-i-Shuhud (the Unity or Oneness of Witnessing) and Wahdat-i-Wujud (the Unity or Oneness of Being). In fact, great controversies have been instigated on the basis of such differences of approach to the hermeneutics of experience, and, yet, again, I remember that my shaykh, Dr. Baig (may Allah be pleased with him), said that after all was said and done, there really wasn’t much difference between the two.
I might add a brief note at this point to indicate that Dr. Baig (may Allah be pleased with him) wrote his doctoral dissertation on the life and teachings of Ahmad Sirhindi (may Allah be pleased with him). The latter shaykh was a champion of the doctrine of Wahdat-i-Shuhud. One of the examiners for Dr. Baig's (may Allah be pleased with him) thesis was no less an authority than A.J. Arberry who considered the thesis to be the best exposition of the Sufi path to be written in the English language up to that time.
Following many of his 40-day seclusions, Dr. Baig (may Allah be pleased with him) would set about revising and improving his thesis on the basis of what had been experienced and disclosed during the previous period of seclusion. In many ways this was a life-long project for him which never saw the light of day - that is, it was never released to either the general public or even to his mureeds.
Among other things, the process of constant revision in the light of subsequent experience is a hallmark of the path. This process of needing to continuously revise one's understanding represents one of the reasons why one should refrain from speaking about the path as if it were a static thing in which one can sum up its components in some simple, linear fashion.
When I first stepped onto the path, more than 30 years ago, I must confess that my head was filled, to a certain extent, with ideas of ‘wondrous deeds, powers, exalted, non-ordinary states of consciousness, and other such artifacts of ignorance. Dr. Baig (may Allah be pleased with him) had an interesting way of dealing with such nonsense.
To those who came to the path from a very conceptually- laden direction - treating the Sufi Path as if it were just another species of philosophy about which one could read, learn, and debate - Dr. Baig (may Allah be pleased with him) would assign some treatise of one, or another, Sufi Shaykh which was of such a difficult nature that the individual would soon come to the realization that he or she didn’t really know much of anything, irrespective of how much they had read. To others, such as myself, whose heads were preoccupied with other-worldly states and stations, he would assign the book Introduction to Islam by Dr. Muhammad Hamidullah (may Allah be pleased with him) which was quite excellent, but very down-to-earth, dry, and rooted in practicality.
Many people are familiar with the following prayer of Ra’bia of Basra (may Allah be pleased with her). “O Lord, if I worship Thee out of desire of Paradise, then, deny me Paradise, and if I worship Thee out of fear of Hell, then, throw me into Hell, but if I worship Thee out of love for Thee and Thee alone, then, grant me Thy vision.”
Without wishing to criticize this great saint - because I really am not fit to carry her sandles (if she had any) - nevertheless, I do have a question. Why make the last part of the prayer conditional?
Is not Divinity present in the state and/or station of sincere love? Is not Divinity present in every aspect of experience, and, indeed, experience is not possible without giving expression to the underlying play of Divine Names and Attributes which makes such experiences possible and provides them with their structural character?
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is reported to have said: “This world is prohibited to the people of the next world, and the next world is forbidden to the people of this world, and they are both forbidden to the people of Allah.”
Seekers are seeking what? They are seeking something beyond what they believe to be present, and, yet, what they are actually seeking - as a poem of Hazrat Muin-ud-deen Chishti (May Allah be pleased with him) points out - is with us night and day ... hiding in plain sight. And, yet, we go seeking - from horizon to horizon - for what is already present.
Instead of seeing Divinity, we see veils. The veils, of course, mark the presence of Divinity, as well, but we want an unveiled look at Divinity, when, in truth, we can only see what God has given us the capacity to see at any given time or instance.
All practices - from: shahadah, to: prayers, zikr, fasting, seclusion, fatiha, hajj, contemplation, meditation, sacred turning, various forms of charitableness, service to the shaykh, and the performance of good deeds - have one thing in common: namely, the realization and expression of truth. Each kind of practice engages the truth, reality, Haqq from the perspective of its own form and character.
When we exclude practices, then, we cut ourselves off from ways of engaging different facets and dimensions of the truth. As one friend of Allah said, ‘there are many keys to spiritual realization, if one key does not work, then, try another’ - and one might add, if it is not already implicit in what was said, one should not just try a given key once but on many different occasions, because one never knows when all the tumblers will fall into place and be receptive to the use of a given key.
Similarly, each state and station serves as a locus of manifestation for the kind of truth to which such a state or station gives expression. The truth of expansion is not the truth of contraction. The truth of patience is not the truth of repentance. The truth of longing is not the truth of arrival. The truth of love is not the truth of dependence. The truth of difficulty is not the truth of ease. The truth of chastisement is not the truth of ascension.
Yet, when one weaves together all of these different modalities of truth in the form of experiential tajalli, then, an individual approaches the fullness of truth as a limit, and in mathematics, as in life, a limit is a function which approaches more and more closely to a given point, without ever reaching that point except, theoretically, at infinity. However, in the latter case, the Qur’an has something of relevance to say here: “and over every lord of knowledge, there is one more knowing.” (12:76)
The truth - reality - cannot be exhausted. It is infinite, and, consequently, there are no set of stages, states, or conditions which can encompass the infinite.
We engage truth according to our essential capacity, fitra, or ‘ayn al-thabita. We engage truth according to the condition of being veiled which constitutes our spiritual condition and degree to which our spiritual potential has been realized.
Different individuals have different capacities. The spiritual capacity of the Prophets is not the spiritual capacity of non-Prophetic saints, and the spiritual capacity of ordinary believers is not the spiritual capacity of the saints, whether Prophets or other manner of awliya. Moreover, within these different categories of human beings, there are gradations - as indicated in the Qur’an: “We have made some of these prophets to excel others” (17:55) and, “We raise by grades (of Mercy) whom We will.” (12:76)
Mind, heart, sirr, ruh, kafi, and aqhfah are potentials of fitra. Consequently, these potentials cannot exceed their limits.
On one occasion, the son of Ahmad Sirhindi (may Allah be pleased with him) came to the shaykh and presented something of a conundrum to the shaykh. The young man indicated that he had an experience in which he seemed to rise higher than the station of the Prophets, and, since this contradicted what was understood to be possible, the young man was confused by the experience.
Ahmad Sirhindi (may Allah be pleased with him) resolved the problem in the following manner. He said that associated with every human being, there are two points - one marking the station of origin and the other marking the station of ascension.
He further indicated that, on occasion, the ascension of a non-Prophet might rise higher than the station of origin of a Prophet. However, in no case would the station of ascension of a non-Prophet ever rise higher or approach the station of ascension of a Prophet of God.
Thus, for each of us, the station of origin and the station of ascension are fixed within the degrees of freedom which are permitted by Divinity. Consequently, the ways in which mind, heart, sirr, kafi, ruh, and aqfah are given expression depends on the character of the fitra or fixed form in question.
Some people define heart, mind, spirit, and soul in ways which are all-inclusive. In other words, for such people, the heart constitutes our entire potential for realizing the truth, and, then, they proceed to describe different stages, states and stations of the heart which outline the path to ultimate realization - such as: (a) breast, (b) qalb, (c) the aspect of the heart which is preoccupied with the love of human kind; (d) fo’ad (the seat of vision), (e) the dimension of the heart which gives expression to an exclusive love for Divinity; (f) the core of the heart which involves spiritual kashf or unveiling concerning the realms of the unseen about which angels have no knowledge; and, finally, (g) mohjat al-qalb which, when realized, gives expression to the lights of Divine attributes.
Other people do this in conjunction with the nafs. For example, people speak in terms of: (1) nafs-i-ammara (the soul which commands to evil); (2) nafs-i-mulhameh (the soul which is inspired by God with knowledge of lewdness and God-fearing; (3) nafs-i-lawwama ( the reproachful soul); (4) nafs-i-mutma’inneh (the tranquil soul); (5) nafs-i-radiya (the contented soul in which God is well pleased with them, and they are well-pleased with God); and, (6) nafs-i-safiya, the pure soul.
Others talk about the attributes of the spirit: (1) luminosity (with its branches of hearing, speech, and vision); (2) love (with its branches of sincerity, yearning and seeking); (3) knowledge (with its branches of will and cognition); (4) forbearance (with its branches of modesty, tranquility, dignity, and endurance); (5) familiarity or uns (which gives expression to a primordial intimacy with one’s Creator and encompasses the branches of compassion and pity);(6) permanence or baqa (with its branches of persistence and steadfastness); and, finally, (7) life (with its branches of intelligence and understanding).
However one parses human nature - and, therefore, irrespective of where in one’s theoretical typography one locates such faculties as mind, heart, sirr, ruh, kafi, and aqfah - there have been different practices which have been recommended by shaykhs down through the ages as aides to drawing out the potential of such faculties. For example, the practice of zikr is often mentioned in conjunction with the qualities of the heart - as the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is reported to have said: “There is a polish for everything which takes away the rust of that which is polished, and the polish for the heart is the remembrance (zikr) of God.”
Nevertheless, there are many forms of zikr, and different shaykhs go about this in different ways. Zikrs vary in length, content, whether they are open-ended (said as many times as one likes), or closed-ended), said aloud or quietly, as well as the time of day and circumstances in which they are said.
Moreover, the nature of zikr may not be encapsulated within a certain Quranic formula. In other words, since every event is a word in the lexicon of the All Merciful which is Self-referential, there are many ways of doing remembrance which are not necessarily tied to the saying of phrase or ayat from the Qur'an.
Furthermore, some may suppose one can remove a zikr from the context of its spiritual ecology and the zikr will continue to operate with the same efficacy as is the case when that zikr is recited within the context of a specific spiritual ecology - that is, having a relationship with an authentic shaykh in a given silsilah. This is not necessarily so, and one proceeds at one’s own risk.
Another practice is that of muraqabah. This is described, alternatively, as a careful watching of, or over, of the condition of the heart or as an emptying out of the sirr which, when the latter is operating properly, is said to guard the heart from being receptive to any influences which are other than the remembrance of God.
Alternatively, there is the process of fana in which - seemingly sequentially, but, in reality, these are all different variations on the same theme - one ‘passes away’ in a loving awareness of one’s shaykh, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and, ultimately, Divinity. There is no one way or no one set of steps which leads to the evaporation of self (small-s)-awareness.
Ahmad Sirhindi (may Allah be pleased with him) described the process of fana in the following way. If one is outside at night on a clear evening and far from the lights of a city, one can see the stars very clearly. But, when the sun rises, the starts are no longer visible to the naked eye due to the over-powering radiance of the sun.
Similarly, when something of the reality of one’s shaykh, the Prophet, or Divinity rises in one’s consciousness, then, awareness of the self disappears. Yet, the self still exists just as the stars continue to exist despite being rendered invisible by the presence of the sun.
There are many ways to help an individual to struggle toward fana. There are many ways to induce an individual to remember Allah. There are many ways to assist a person to empty the sirr of all other influences other than Allah and to keep a close watch on the condition of the heart. There are many ways to illumine the heart. There are many ways to traverse the stations of repentance, longing, dependence, sincerity, gratitude, patience, piety, and love.
How does one clean and furnish a house? One uses whatever works as long as such means fall within the code book for permissible house cleaning practices, and as long as the method of equipping the house takes into account the structural limitations of that house .
Similarly, there is no set recipe for spiritual realization, although there are a variety of general guidelines which are intended to be used in flexible ways within variable contexts. Everything depends on the nisbath or relationship between an authentic shaykh and the seeker.
Whatever is given, whatever is undertaken, the purpose is always to provide one with another opportunity to engage the Real and to revise one’s understanding of the True and to act in accordance with what one knows on the basis of what has been disclosed to one through direct experience. There are many ways, God willing, of helping to transform the nafs, or purify the heart, or illumine the spirit. These ways are overlapping, reinforcing and not mutually exclusive in the sense that, for instance, what helps the heart, helps the nafs to transform, and the spirit to be enlivened, and, similarly, what transforms the nafs also has benefits for the heart and spirit, and so on.
Ultimately, the only thing which really matters is the presence of Divine Grace. Talk of methodology, states, stations and stages have their place, but one should never confuse the surface phenomenon for the Realities which make such contingencies possible.
One follows the teachings and practices of a shaykh because, God willing, these have the capacity to help open us up to the barakah which courses through these practices and teachings as extensions of the presence and support of a silsilah rooted in the Prophetic tradition. These practices and teachings are the excuses which Divinity uses to extend different kinds of blessings to us, and through these blessings our understanding and behavior are affected.
Once, back in my days of even greater ignorance, I happened into a store in a rural area and, along with some friends, got an ice cream cone - one which was hand-scooped by one of the employees of the store. The ice cream cone I got was enormous, and I muttered words to the effect of: “Boy, I’ll have to remember this place.” The person behind the counter responded with: “You should remember the person who gave you the cone.”
Many people think aboutf the Sufi path as a supply depot from which one can acquire whatever one needs in the way of teachings, practices, and format in order to be able to make progress on the spiritual path. In truth, as with the ice cream story above, one needs to remember the person through whom one gets whatever one gets for it is the person who, by the Grace of Allah, makes all the difference ... not the place.
Different individuals have outlined the path in varied ways which reflects their own experience of suluk rather than necessarily reflecting some set of hard and fast steps which must be taken in a ‘just so’ order. Thus, some people say the Sufi path consists of ‘x’ number of states and ‘y’ number of stations, while other commentators say that tasawwuf entails ‘r’ number of states, and ‘t’ number of stations.
In addition, there are, sometimes, disagreements about whether a certain stage of spiritual travel involves a hal or a maqam. Again, such variation in opinion are more indicative of the differences which people bring with them to the path than they are necessarily reflective of ‘truths’ independent of human engagement of reality.
Generally speaking, a hal is characterized as a temporary spiritual condition in relation to which intentional effort of striving has not been expended or directed, and, therefore, comes as a gift of Divinity. Maqam, or station, on the other hand, is often characterized as more permanent than are hal, and, as well, are said to be spiritual conditions for which struggle and striving must be exerted in a concerned manner. As such, maqam tend to be described as spiritual conditions which must be earned, while hal are not earned, per se.
However, since spiritual effort does not cause spiritual progress, but is, at best, a necessary condition, then, whether one is talking about states or stations, these are both gifts of God and could not be experienced or sustained without Divine succor. Moreover, although there are instances in which individuals who are not on any particular spiritual path are recipients of Divine Grace in the form of this or that manner of hal, the likelihood of undergoing one or another spiritual hal tends to be increased when one is actively and sincerely pursuing the mystical path under the guidance and care of an authentic shaykh.
Yet, one might keep in mind that the Qur’an stipulates: “If Allah were to take humankind to task for their wrong-doing, God would not leave hereon a living creature, but God reprieves them to an appointed term.” (16:61) So, whether one is talking about hal or maqam, neither is deserved but comes by the Grace of Allah.
Finally, some expressions of hal are longer lived than are other manifestations of hal. Therefore, whether one believes one is talking about a condition of hal rather than maqam may be somewhat arbitrarily decided.
Spiritual conditions share some of the same qualities as dreams. This is especially so in the sense that both dreams and spiritual conditions require the presence of insight by an experienced guide or knowledgeable and Divinely supported individual in order to properly appreciate the nature of what is transpiring through either the dream or a given spiritual condition.
Najm al-Din Razi (may Allah be pleased with him), in his book: The Path of God’s Bondsmen from Origin to Return uses the example of fire to illustrate the complexity of the problem. Someone who is traversingthe path of tasawwuf may see the attribute of fire and, depending on the nature of one’s spiritual condition, this attribute will have a different meaning in different states and stations.
For some, the appearance of fire is an indication that the quality of anger is dominant. For others, the presence of fire may signify the light of zikr or the individual’s ardor for the spiritual quest. For still others, the fire may exemplify the presence of guidance as with the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him), or it may give expression to the quality of devilry as with Iblis. And, for still other individuals, the quality of fire may symbolize the condition of gnosis or love or witnessing. There also are additional modalities of fire which indicate the presence of other manner of states and stations.
The attribute of fire is but one of many, many qualities which may emerge within an individual’s experience and serve as a tell-tale sign of a person’s spiritual condition. However, as with dreams, insight is needed to understand the significance of the presence of a given quality.
Similarly, when an individual passes through stations involving the attributes of clay, water, air, fire, firmaments, heavenly bodies, the malakut (or soul) of the planets and the stars, animals, and a thousand other realms, different kinds of tajalli may be manifested according to circumstances and an individual’s spiritual condition. Just as there is no reliable book of dream interpretation in which all one has to do is scour the index for a given dream and, then, proceed to the page with ‘the’ correct interpretation, so, to, there is no standard dictionary of spiritual states and stations which always are manifested in the same way across individual experiences.
I recall, once, when my shaykh, Dr. Baig (may Allah be pleased with him), talked about such matters. He indicated that in very special cases - and he referred to such instances as being among the most supreme of spiritual conditions - an individual may traverse the journey of suluk and not have even one ‘mystical’ or anomalous, non-ordinary experience. These are individuals from whom God has kept secret the nature of their own spiritual condition.
Many people speak about the alleged great differences between, say, the doctrine of Wahdat-i-Shuhud (the Unity or Oneness of Witnessing) and Wahdat-i-Wujud (the Unity or Oneness of Being). In fact, great controversies have been instigated on the basis of such differences of approach to the hermeneutics of experience, and, yet, again, I remember that my shaykh, Dr. Baig (may Allah be pleased with him), said that after all was said and done, there really wasn’t much difference between the two.
I might add a brief note at this point to indicate that Dr. Baig (may Allah be pleased with him) wrote his doctoral dissertation on the life and teachings of Ahmad Sirhindi (may Allah be pleased with him). The latter shaykh was a champion of the doctrine of Wahdat-i-Shuhud. One of the examiners for Dr. Baig's (may Allah be pleased with him) thesis was no less an authority than A.J. Arberry who considered the thesis to be the best exposition of the Sufi path to be written in the English language up to that time.
Following many of his 40-day seclusions, Dr. Baig (may Allah be pleased with him) would set about revising and improving his thesis on the basis of what had been experienced and disclosed during the previous period of seclusion. In many ways this was a life-long project for him which never saw the light of day - that is, it was never released to either the general public or even to his mureeds.
Among other things, the process of constant revision in the light of subsequent experience is a hallmark of the path. This process of needing to continuously revise one's understanding represents one of the reasons why one should refrain from speaking about the path as if it were a static thing in which one can sum up its components in some simple, linear fashion.
When I first stepped onto the path, more than 30 years ago, I must confess that my head was filled, to a certain extent, with ideas of ‘wondrous deeds, powers, exalted, non-ordinary states of consciousness, and other such artifacts of ignorance. Dr. Baig (may Allah be pleased with him) had an interesting way of dealing with such nonsense.
To those who came to the path from a very conceptually- laden direction - treating the Sufi Path as if it were just another species of philosophy about which one could read, learn, and debate - Dr. Baig (may Allah be pleased with him) would assign some treatise of one, or another, Sufi Shaykh which was of such a difficult nature that the individual would soon come to the realization that he or she didn’t really know much of anything, irrespective of how much they had read. To others, such as myself, whose heads were preoccupied with other-worldly states and stations, he would assign the book Introduction to Islam by Dr. Muhammad Hamidullah (may Allah be pleased with him) which was quite excellent, but very down-to-earth, dry, and rooted in practicality.
Many people are familiar with the following prayer of Ra’bia of Basra (may Allah be pleased with her). “O Lord, if I worship Thee out of desire of Paradise, then, deny me Paradise, and if I worship Thee out of fear of Hell, then, throw me into Hell, but if I worship Thee out of love for Thee and Thee alone, then, grant me Thy vision.”
Without wishing to criticize this great saint - because I really am not fit to carry her sandles (if she had any) - nevertheless, I do have a question. Why make the last part of the prayer conditional?
Is not Divinity present in the state and/or station of sincere love? Is not Divinity present in every aspect of experience, and, indeed, experience is not possible without giving expression to the underlying play of Divine Names and Attributes which makes such experiences possible and provides them with their structural character?
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is reported to have said: “This world is prohibited to the people of the next world, and the next world is forbidden to the people of this world, and they are both forbidden to the people of Allah.”
Seekers are seeking what? They are seeking something beyond what they believe to be present, and, yet, what they are actually seeking - as a poem of Hazrat Muin-ud-deen Chishti (May Allah be pleased with him) points out - is with us night and day ... hiding in plain sight. And, yet, we go seeking - from horizon to horizon - for what is already present.
Instead of seeing Divinity, we see veils. The veils, of course, mark the presence of Divinity, as well, but we want an unveiled look at Divinity, when, in truth, we can only see what God has given us the capacity to see at any given time or instance.
All practices - from: shahadah, to: prayers, zikr, fasting, seclusion, fatiha, hajj, contemplation, meditation, sacred turning, various forms of charitableness, service to the shaykh, and the performance of good deeds - have one thing in common: namely, the realization and expression of truth. Each kind of practice engages the truth, reality, Haqq from the perspective of its own form and character.
When we exclude practices, then, we cut ourselves off from ways of engaging different facets and dimensions of the truth. As one friend of Allah said, ‘there are many keys to spiritual realization, if one key does not work, then, try another’ - and one might add, if it is not already implicit in what was said, one should not just try a given key once but on many different occasions, because one never knows when all the tumblers will fall into place and be receptive to the use of a given key.
Similarly, each state and station serves as a locus of manifestation for the kind of truth to which such a state or station gives expression. The truth of expansion is not the truth of contraction. The truth of patience is not the truth of repentance. The truth of longing is not the truth of arrival. The truth of love is not the truth of dependence. The truth of difficulty is not the truth of ease. The truth of chastisement is not the truth of ascension.
Yet, when one weaves together all of these different modalities of truth in the form of experiential tajalli, then, an individual approaches the fullness of truth as a limit, and in mathematics, as in life, a limit is a function which approaches more and more closely to a given point, without ever reaching that point except, theoretically, at infinity. However, in the latter case, the Qur’an has something of relevance to say here: “and over every lord of knowledge, there is one more knowing.” (12:76)
The truth - reality - cannot be exhausted. It is infinite, and, consequently, there are no set of stages, states, or conditions which can encompass the infinite.
We engage truth according to our essential capacity, fitra, or ‘ayn al-thabita. We engage truth according to the condition of being veiled which constitutes our spiritual condition and degree to which our spiritual potential has been realized.
Different individuals have different capacities. The spiritual capacity of the Prophets is not the spiritual capacity of non-Prophetic saints, and the spiritual capacity of ordinary believers is not the spiritual capacity of the saints, whether Prophets or other manner of awliya. Moreover, within these different categories of human beings, there are gradations - as indicated in the Qur’an: “We have made some of these prophets to excel others” (17:55) and, “We raise by grades (of Mercy) whom We will.” (12:76)
Mind, heart, sirr, ruh, kafi, and aqhfah are potentials of fitra. Consequently, these potentials cannot exceed their limits.
On one occasion, the son of Ahmad Sirhindi (may Allah be pleased with him) came to the shaykh and presented something of a conundrum to the shaykh. The young man indicated that he had an experience in which he seemed to rise higher than the station of the Prophets, and, since this contradicted what was understood to be possible, the young man was confused by the experience.
Ahmad Sirhindi (may Allah be pleased with him) resolved the problem in the following manner. He said that associated with every human being, there are two points - one marking the station of origin and the other marking the station of ascension.
He further indicated that, on occasion, the ascension of a non-Prophet might rise higher than the station of origin of a Prophet. However, in no case would the station of ascension of a non-Prophet ever rise higher or approach the station of ascension of a Prophet of God.
Thus, for each of us, the station of origin and the station of ascension are fixed within the degrees of freedom which are permitted by Divinity. Consequently, the ways in which mind, heart, sirr, kafi, ruh, and aqfah are given expression depends on the character of the fitra or fixed form in question.
Some people define heart, mind, spirit, and soul in ways which are all-inclusive. In other words, for such people, the heart constitutes our entire potential for realizing the truth, and, then, they proceed to describe different stages, states and stations of the heart which outline the path to ultimate realization - such as: (a) breast, (b) qalb, (c) the aspect of the heart which is preoccupied with the love of human kind; (d) fo’ad (the seat of vision), (e) the dimension of the heart which gives expression to an exclusive love for Divinity; (f) the core of the heart which involves spiritual kashf or unveiling concerning the realms of the unseen about which angels have no knowledge; and, finally, (g) mohjat al-qalb which, when realized, gives expression to the lights of Divine attributes.
Other people do this in conjunction with the nafs. For example, people speak in terms of: (1) nafs-i-ammara (the soul which commands to evil); (2) nafs-i-mulhameh (the soul which is inspired by God with knowledge of lewdness and God-fearing; (3) nafs-i-lawwama ( the reproachful soul); (4) nafs-i-mutma’inneh (the tranquil soul); (5) nafs-i-radiya (the contented soul in which God is well pleased with them, and they are well-pleased with God); and, (6) nafs-i-safiya, the pure soul.
Others talk about the attributes of the spirit: (1) luminosity (with its branches of hearing, speech, and vision); (2) love (with its branches of sincerity, yearning and seeking); (3) knowledge (with its branches of will and cognition); (4) forbearance (with its branches of modesty, tranquility, dignity, and endurance); (5) familiarity or uns (which gives expression to a primordial intimacy with one’s Creator and encompasses the branches of compassion and pity);(6) permanence or baqa (with its branches of persistence and steadfastness); and, finally, (7) life (with its branches of intelligence and understanding).
However one parses human nature - and, therefore, irrespective of where in one’s theoretical typography one locates such faculties as mind, heart, sirr, ruh, kafi, and aqfah - there have been different practices which have been recommended by shaykhs down through the ages as aides to drawing out the potential of such faculties. For example, the practice of zikr is often mentioned in conjunction with the qualities of the heart - as the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is reported to have said: “There is a polish for everything which takes away the rust of that which is polished, and the polish for the heart is the remembrance (zikr) of God.”
Nevertheless, there are many forms of zikr, and different shaykhs go about this in different ways. Zikrs vary in length, content, whether they are open-ended (said as many times as one likes), or closed-ended), said aloud or quietly, as well as the time of day and circumstances in which they are said.
Moreover, the nature of zikr may not be encapsulated within a certain Quranic formula. In other words, since every event is a word in the lexicon of the All Merciful which is Self-referential, there are many ways of doing remembrance which are not necessarily tied to the saying of phrase or ayat from the Qur'an.
Furthermore, some may suppose one can remove a zikr from the context of its spiritual ecology and the zikr will continue to operate with the same efficacy as is the case when that zikr is recited within the context of a specific spiritual ecology - that is, having a relationship with an authentic shaykh in a given silsilah. This is not necessarily so, and one proceeds at one’s own risk.
Another practice is that of muraqabah. This is described, alternatively, as a careful watching of, or over, of the condition of the heart or as an emptying out of the sirr which, when the latter is operating properly, is said to guard the heart from being receptive to any influences which are other than the remembrance of God.
Alternatively, there is the process of fana in which - seemingly sequentially, but, in reality, these are all different variations on the same theme - one ‘passes away’ in a loving awareness of one’s shaykh, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and, ultimately, Divinity. There is no one way or no one set of steps which leads to the evaporation of self (small-s)-awareness.
Ahmad Sirhindi (may Allah be pleased with him) described the process of fana in the following way. If one is outside at night on a clear evening and far from the lights of a city, one can see the stars very clearly. But, when the sun rises, the starts are no longer visible to the naked eye due to the over-powering radiance of the sun.
Similarly, when something of the reality of one’s shaykh, the Prophet, or Divinity rises in one’s consciousness, then, awareness of the self disappears. Yet, the self still exists just as the stars continue to exist despite being rendered invisible by the presence of the sun.
There are many ways to help an individual to struggle toward fana. There are many ways to induce an individual to remember Allah. There are many ways to assist a person to empty the sirr of all other influences other than Allah and to keep a close watch on the condition of the heart. There are many ways to illumine the heart. There are many ways to traverse the stations of repentance, longing, dependence, sincerity, gratitude, patience, piety, and love.
How does one clean and furnish a house? One uses whatever works as long as such means fall within the code book for permissible house cleaning practices, and as long as the method of equipping the house takes into account the structural limitations of that house .
Similarly, there is no set recipe for spiritual realization, although there are a variety of general guidelines which are intended to be used in flexible ways within variable contexts. Everything depends on the nisbath or relationship between an authentic shaykh and the seeker.
Whatever is given, whatever is undertaken, the purpose is always to provide one with another opportunity to engage the Real and to revise one’s understanding of the True and to act in accordance with what one knows on the basis of what has been disclosed to one through direct experience. There are many ways, God willing, of helping to transform the nafs, or purify the heart, or illumine the spirit. These ways are overlapping, reinforcing and not mutually exclusive in the sense that, for instance, what helps the heart, helps the nafs to transform, and the spirit to be enlivened, and, similarly, what transforms the nafs also has benefits for the heart and spirit, and so on.
Ultimately, the only thing which really matters is the presence of Divine Grace. Talk of methodology, states, stations and stages have their place, but one should never confuse the surface phenomenon for the Realities which make such contingencies possible.
One follows the teachings and practices of a shaykh because, God willing, these have the capacity to help open us up to the barakah which courses through these practices and teachings as extensions of the presence and support of a silsilah rooted in the Prophetic tradition. These practices and teachings are the excuses which Divinity uses to extend different kinds of blessings to us, and through these blessings our understanding and behavior are affected.
Once, back in my days of even greater ignorance, I happened into a store in a rural area and, along with some friends, got an ice cream cone - one which was hand-scooped by one of the employees of the store. The ice cream cone I got was enormous, and I muttered words to the effect of: “Boy, I’ll have to remember this place.” The person behind the counter responded with: “You should remember the person who gave you the cone.”
Many people think aboutf the Sufi path as a supply depot from which one can acquire whatever one needs in the way of teachings, practices, and format in order to be able to make progress on the spiritual path. In truth, as with the ice cream story above, one needs to remember the person through whom one gets whatever one gets for it is the person who, by the Grace of Allah, makes all the difference ... not the place.
Saturday, January 02, 2010
Bilquees Press
Bilquees Press books by Bill Whitehouse (Anab) are now available at Amazon.com in the UK, France, Germany, and Canada.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Happy New Year!
Wishing you all a happy New Year from Anab, Bilquees Press, and the Interrogative Imperative Institute. Thank you for helping us to make 2009 a wonderful year.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Rizq or Divine Apportionment
There is a concept of rizq in Islam which, usually, is rendered as referring to the Divine apportionment for Creation - both collectively and individually. Often times, when people speak about rizq, they do so in terms of permissible and impermissible means of striving for what is fated for one.
Rizq does not refer to just material goods. It encompasses everything, on every level, in every realm within Creation.
The rizq of spirituality transpires at the same time as the rizq of material gain and losses. In fact, Creation gives expression to a multi-dimensional set of rizq transactions ... everything which occurs is the manifestation of the principles of rizq at work, and rizq is but a simple term which is underwritten by the Divine play of Names and Attributes in accordance with Divine purpose.
The profits, the losses, the blessings, the Divine gifts, expansion, contraction, illness, well-being, family, talents, birth, death, spiritual progress, sin, repentance, wisdom, understanding, learning, forgetting, insight, faith, unbelief, redepmption, food, comforts, difficulties, poverty, and wealth are all manifestations of the principles of rizq transactions at work. Human beings stand at the heart of such transactions and, unlike the rest of creation (with the exception of the species of being known as jinn) have a unique role to play with respect to rizq transactions.
More specifically, through our choices, through the degrees of freedom which are extended to us, we align ourselves or oppose ourselves to the rizq transactions which take place. The choices we make will not affect the rizq transactions which take place one way or the other, but the intentions with which we engage those transactions matter - to us and to God.
To engage rizq transactions with the right intention is what forms the basis of, among other things, right livelihood. When the right intention is present, then, work becomes a form of ibadat and zikr, for one realizes that whatever happens this is a manifestation of the Divine Himma in the form of a rizq transaction of which one is a part.
All rizq transactions have a right over us because such transactions constitute the way in which God wishes events to unfold. We can work with such wishes or we can seek to treat them with kufr and shirk - that is, we can cover up/deny the truth of what is transpiring or we can propose alternative ways of accounting for what is going on that give explanations which are dependent on something other than Divinity as the causal principle for what takes place.
Everything in existence is unique - even if it shares some similarities with other beings of its class of Creation. The nature of Divine creation is such that nothing is repeated - everything manifests ever different modalities of Divine beauty and majesty in infinite combinations of possibility.
Each human being is unique. Each human being has a unique role to play with respect to the realm of rizq transactions. God uses each of us differently to serve as loci of manifestation for rizq transactions.
Our souls have a right over us in this respect for each of must seek to find what is uniquely inherent in the fitra which is our spiritual potential and, then, we must strive to, God willing, give expression to this. There is a beauty, harmony and spiritual quality which arises from rizq transactions which are engaged through the right niyat or intention ... a niyat which is rooted in awareness, understanding, faith, integrity, submission, dependence, love, and character ... such beauty, harmony and spiritual quality are, themselves, part of the rizq transactions which God ordains.
The lives of the prophets and saints bear witness to the foregoing. There is the aura of beauty, harmony, and spiritual quality emanating from their lives as they engage in the dance of rizq transactions which is utterly captivating.
One’s heart and mind are drawn to the purity and sincerity of intention by means of which rizq transactions are manifested through their lives. We seek to follow their example as best we can, according to the rizq of spiritual potential we have been apportioned.
To do what is right for oneself and, simultaneously, right for the world is to enter into rizq transactions with the quality of intention which is most pleasing to God. To achieve this level of quality is a very difficult thing to do for it consists of, God willing, purifying, calibrating, and bringing into active form all of the different dimensions of the human being - including mind, heart, sirr, spirit, kafi, and aqfah - which give expression to the ‘so-called’ perfect human being - which is not really perfection per se (for only God is perfect) but rather the expression of capacity to its fullest extent ... something which varies from person to person.
No matter what one does for an occupation, there should be a vocation or calling which underwrites it. The vocational aspect is the spiritual quality with which one seeks to embrace all of life, including the means through which God uses to provide one with the material rizq of day-to-day living.
There are many people who earn their livelihood through permissible means. There are very few people who do this with the sort of spiritual balance, beauty, wisdom, and quality which transforms such means of livelihood into the acts of worship and zikr which human beings have been given the capacity to achieve if God wishes.
Rizq does not refer to just material goods. It encompasses everything, on every level, in every realm within Creation.
The rizq of spirituality transpires at the same time as the rizq of material gain and losses. In fact, Creation gives expression to a multi-dimensional set of rizq transactions ... everything which occurs is the manifestation of the principles of rizq at work, and rizq is but a simple term which is underwritten by the Divine play of Names and Attributes in accordance with Divine purpose.
The profits, the losses, the blessings, the Divine gifts, expansion, contraction, illness, well-being, family, talents, birth, death, spiritual progress, sin, repentance, wisdom, understanding, learning, forgetting, insight, faith, unbelief, redepmption, food, comforts, difficulties, poverty, and wealth are all manifestations of the principles of rizq transactions at work. Human beings stand at the heart of such transactions and, unlike the rest of creation (with the exception of the species of being known as jinn) have a unique role to play with respect to rizq transactions.
More specifically, through our choices, through the degrees of freedom which are extended to us, we align ourselves or oppose ourselves to the rizq transactions which take place. The choices we make will not affect the rizq transactions which take place one way or the other, but the intentions with which we engage those transactions matter - to us and to God.
To engage rizq transactions with the right intention is what forms the basis of, among other things, right livelihood. When the right intention is present, then, work becomes a form of ibadat and zikr, for one realizes that whatever happens this is a manifestation of the Divine Himma in the form of a rizq transaction of which one is a part.
All rizq transactions have a right over us because such transactions constitute the way in which God wishes events to unfold. We can work with such wishes or we can seek to treat them with kufr and shirk - that is, we can cover up/deny the truth of what is transpiring or we can propose alternative ways of accounting for what is going on that give explanations which are dependent on something other than Divinity as the causal principle for what takes place.
Everything in existence is unique - even if it shares some similarities with other beings of its class of Creation. The nature of Divine creation is such that nothing is repeated - everything manifests ever different modalities of Divine beauty and majesty in infinite combinations of possibility.
Each human being is unique. Each human being has a unique role to play with respect to the realm of rizq transactions. God uses each of us differently to serve as loci of manifestation for rizq transactions.
Our souls have a right over us in this respect for each of must seek to find what is uniquely inherent in the fitra which is our spiritual potential and, then, we must strive to, God willing, give expression to this. There is a beauty, harmony and spiritual quality which arises from rizq transactions which are engaged through the right niyat or intention ... a niyat which is rooted in awareness, understanding, faith, integrity, submission, dependence, love, and character ... such beauty, harmony and spiritual quality are, themselves, part of the rizq transactions which God ordains.
The lives of the prophets and saints bear witness to the foregoing. There is the aura of beauty, harmony, and spiritual quality emanating from their lives as they engage in the dance of rizq transactions which is utterly captivating.
One’s heart and mind are drawn to the purity and sincerity of intention by means of which rizq transactions are manifested through their lives. We seek to follow their example as best we can, according to the rizq of spiritual potential we have been apportioned.
To do what is right for oneself and, simultaneously, right for the world is to enter into rizq transactions with the quality of intention which is most pleasing to God. To achieve this level of quality is a very difficult thing to do for it consists of, God willing, purifying, calibrating, and bringing into active form all of the different dimensions of the human being - including mind, heart, sirr, spirit, kafi, and aqfah - which give expression to the ‘so-called’ perfect human being - which is not really perfection per se (for only God is perfect) but rather the expression of capacity to its fullest extent ... something which varies from person to person.
No matter what one does for an occupation, there should be a vocation or calling which underwrites it. The vocational aspect is the spiritual quality with which one seeks to embrace all of life, including the means through which God uses to provide one with the material rizq of day-to-day living.
There are many people who earn their livelihood through permissible means. There are very few people who do this with the sort of spiritual balance, beauty, wisdom, and quality which transforms such means of livelihood into the acts of worship and zikr which human beings have been given the capacity to achieve if God wishes.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Ascension
Ascension is any spiritual experience which brings one closer to God. However, because God is always near, ascension involves any spiritual experience that brings one to a realization, of whatever degree, of God's nearness. In this sense, ascension involves a falling away of the veils obstructing the individual's awareness and understanding with respect to the intimate presence of God in our lives.
Since there are thousands of veils of darkness and ignorance and density which obscure our relationship with God, there can be many different kinds of ascension. Just because one has had certain experiences in which some of these veils are lifted, does not mean one has realized the presence of God to the fullest extent possible.
There can be much confusion about this on the Sufi path in particular, and with mystical journeys in general. More specifically, there have been instances in which people have had one, or more, intense spiritual experiences and concluded, incorrectly, that all veils between themselves and God had been removed. These are very subtle matters in which one can be easily led astray unless one clings tightly to the garment of the counsel of one's spiritual guide.
One can be making progress on the spiritual path and still be in considerable ignorance and darkness. Indeed, this is part and parcel of what a path is. It is a way filled with: twists and turns; hills and valleys, as well as dangers and places of relative safety.
One may come to know something of the portions of the path one has traversed or is currently traveling through. Nonetheless, what lies ahead is largely unknown.
There is often a very strong tendency on the part of travelers to believe - due to imperfections such as impatience, pride or arrogance - that they are near, or at, journey's end. Consequently, such people believe they have ascended to the heights of spiritual possibility.
However, as has been said in another context: "It ain't over & #145;till it's over". The spiritual journey is a very long one.
In fact, from a certain perspective, there really is no end to the process of ascension. God is infinite and, therefore, can be engaged through ever-new modalities of spiritual experience.
Some experiences of ascension are short-lived. They are transitory states which descend on the individual in the blink of an eye and may depart just as quickly. Such experiences may range from: the momentary feeling of compassion one may have for another human being, to flashes of insight which may be bestowed on the individual concerning some aspect of one's spiritual life or the nature of existence.
Some experiences of ascension last longer and may mark important way stations along the path. Qualities of: repentance, longing, patience, dependence, gratitude and love, when absorbed into the fabric of the individual's life, can all give expression to significant experiences of ascension.
Sometimes we are raised up to a certain height by the Grace of God, only to be lowered down again. Sometimes this happens as a sort of foretaste of what is to come at a later time in a more permanent manner. Sometimes this occurs in order to motivate the individual to struggle harder. Sometimes it is done to show the individual what might have been but will never be due to some flaw in that individual.
There are occasions in which people are transported tremendous spiritual distances as a pure gift of God's Grace. Unfortunately, people respond to this possibility in different ways.
Some try to make such a gift a function of causality in which they are, somehow, deserving recipients due to their character or devotions or the like. Such people fail to understand that gift's of Grace are entirely independent of considerations of being deserved. One could be a scoundrel and still be the beneficiary of God's magnanimity.
Other people hear about the possibility of what amounts to a "free lunch", spiritually speaking, and become like members of some modern day cargo cult. They just sit and wait for the Grace to descend and do nothing in the mean time, allowing their lives to slip away into stagnation and indolence.
On the spiritual path, one is either ascending, descending or standing still. If one is standing still, the slippery slope of descent is dangerously close by. If one is descending, reversing course may not always be possible.
Sometimes experiences of spiritual ascent are, from a certain perspective, a curse in disguise. This is so in those instances when a person permits his or her ego to assert its acquisitive nature and claim the experience for its own.
The desires of the ego undermine the whole purpose of the process of spiritual ascent. This process is designed to diminish, if not eliminate, one's awareness of the presence of the ego, while enhancing awareness of the presence of God.
This draws attention to one of the biggest obstacles - and some might say the only obstacle - on the path of ascent toward God, namely: our awareness of ourselves as beings separate from God. This awareness disguises itself in many different ways at various points along the path. In fact, we are so good at deluding ourselves that the very quest for spirituality can be feeding our ego rather than our essential selves.
In the foregoing sense, we all are truly our own worst enemies as far as spiritual ascent is concerned. Like golf duffers, we keep wanting to see how far we have hit the spiritual ball and what this says about us as individuals. We would be much better off paying attention to form, technique and discipline, and let the distance factor take care of itself.
Quite frequently, people - even people on the Sufi path, have a very distorted idea about the process of spiritual ascension. We read about the wondrous, reason-defying deeds of some of the practitioners of the path, and fantasize about having such powers and abilities ourselves. Sometimes we get so caught-up in all the talk about miracles, that the idea of spiritual ascent becomes, in our minds and hearts, reduced down to being nothing more than this.
To put the foregoing in perspective, one Sufi has indicated there are at least 100 stages to the spiritual path. The capacity to be a locus of manifestation for miracles weighs in at about the 17th stage.
If one's spiritual horizons are limited to this aspect of things, one will be deprived of the other 83 stages of spiritual ascent. In short, one will have completely misunderstood the nature and purpose of the spiritual path by getting mesmerized by peripheral matters involving miraculous deeds.
The spiritually mature people of the Sufi path consider such powers and gifts to be, at best, distractions, and, at worst, severe tests of one's spiritual character. From time to time, and for various constructive purposes, such powers and gifts may be exercised.
Among Sufi masters, however, the tendency to use the gifts of God is done sparingly. This is so, God willing, one will not become seduced by, and preoccupied with, such activities rather than concentrating on the real business of the path - becoming more and more immersed in the nearness and presence of God in one's life.
Spiritual ascent is about the process of coming to know one's essential self and how that dimension of being is capable of reflecting the Names and Attributes of God. To realize this kind of knowledge, and to engage existence through such knowledge, and to act in the light of that knowledge, is to fulfil the purpose of the quest for spiritual ascension.
Since there are thousands of veils of darkness and ignorance and density which obscure our relationship with God, there can be many different kinds of ascension. Just because one has had certain experiences in which some of these veils are lifted, does not mean one has realized the presence of God to the fullest extent possible.
There can be much confusion about this on the Sufi path in particular, and with mystical journeys in general. More specifically, there have been instances in which people have had one, or more, intense spiritual experiences and concluded, incorrectly, that all veils between themselves and God had been removed. These are very subtle matters in which one can be easily led astray unless one clings tightly to the garment of the counsel of one's spiritual guide.
One can be making progress on the spiritual path and still be in considerable ignorance and darkness. Indeed, this is part and parcel of what a path is. It is a way filled with: twists and turns; hills and valleys, as well as dangers and places of relative safety.
One may come to know something of the portions of the path one has traversed or is currently traveling through. Nonetheless, what lies ahead is largely unknown.
There is often a very strong tendency on the part of travelers to believe - due to imperfections such as impatience, pride or arrogance - that they are near, or at, journey's end. Consequently, such people believe they have ascended to the heights of spiritual possibility.
However, as has been said in another context: "It ain't over & #145;till it's over". The spiritual journey is a very long one.
In fact, from a certain perspective, there really is no end to the process of ascension. God is infinite and, therefore, can be engaged through ever-new modalities of spiritual experience.
Some experiences of ascension are short-lived. They are transitory states which descend on the individual in the blink of an eye and may depart just as quickly. Such experiences may range from: the momentary feeling of compassion one may have for another human being, to flashes of insight which may be bestowed on the individual concerning some aspect of one's spiritual life or the nature of existence.
Some experiences of ascension last longer and may mark important way stations along the path. Qualities of: repentance, longing, patience, dependence, gratitude and love, when absorbed into the fabric of the individual's life, can all give expression to significant experiences of ascension.
Sometimes we are raised up to a certain height by the Grace of God, only to be lowered down again. Sometimes this happens as a sort of foretaste of what is to come at a later time in a more permanent manner. Sometimes this occurs in order to motivate the individual to struggle harder. Sometimes it is done to show the individual what might have been but will never be due to some flaw in that individual.
There are occasions in which people are transported tremendous spiritual distances as a pure gift of God's Grace. Unfortunately, people respond to this possibility in different ways.
Some try to make such a gift a function of causality in which they are, somehow, deserving recipients due to their character or devotions or the like. Such people fail to understand that gift's of Grace are entirely independent of considerations of being deserved. One could be a scoundrel and still be the beneficiary of God's magnanimity.
Other people hear about the possibility of what amounts to a "free lunch", spiritually speaking, and become like members of some modern day cargo cult. They just sit and wait for the Grace to descend and do nothing in the mean time, allowing their lives to slip away into stagnation and indolence.
On the spiritual path, one is either ascending, descending or standing still. If one is standing still, the slippery slope of descent is dangerously close by. If one is descending, reversing course may not always be possible.
Sometimes experiences of spiritual ascent are, from a certain perspective, a curse in disguise. This is so in those instances when a person permits his or her ego to assert its acquisitive nature and claim the experience for its own.
The desires of the ego undermine the whole purpose of the process of spiritual ascent. This process is designed to diminish, if not eliminate, one's awareness of the presence of the ego, while enhancing awareness of the presence of God.
This draws attention to one of the biggest obstacles - and some might say the only obstacle - on the path of ascent toward God, namely: our awareness of ourselves as beings separate from God. This awareness disguises itself in many different ways at various points along the path. In fact, we are so good at deluding ourselves that the very quest for spirituality can be feeding our ego rather than our essential selves.
In the foregoing sense, we all are truly our own worst enemies as far as spiritual ascent is concerned. Like golf duffers, we keep wanting to see how far we have hit the spiritual ball and what this says about us as individuals. We would be much better off paying attention to form, technique and discipline, and let the distance factor take care of itself.
Quite frequently, people - even people on the Sufi path, have a very distorted idea about the process of spiritual ascension. We read about the wondrous, reason-defying deeds of some of the practitioners of the path, and fantasize about having such powers and abilities ourselves. Sometimes we get so caught-up in all the talk about miracles, that the idea of spiritual ascent becomes, in our minds and hearts, reduced down to being nothing more than this.
To put the foregoing in perspective, one Sufi has indicated there are at least 100 stages to the spiritual path. The capacity to be a locus of manifestation for miracles weighs in at about the 17th stage.
If one's spiritual horizons are limited to this aspect of things, one will be deprived of the other 83 stages of spiritual ascent. In short, one will have completely misunderstood the nature and purpose of the spiritual path by getting mesmerized by peripheral matters involving miraculous deeds.
The spiritually mature people of the Sufi path consider such powers and gifts to be, at best, distractions, and, at worst, severe tests of one's spiritual character. From time to time, and for various constructive purposes, such powers and gifts may be exercised.
Among Sufi masters, however, the tendency to use the gifts of God is done sparingly. This is so, God willing, one will not become seduced by, and preoccupied with, such activities rather than concentrating on the real business of the path - becoming more and more immersed in the nearness and presence of God in one's life.
Spiritual ascent is about the process of coming to know one's essential self and how that dimension of being is capable of reflecting the Names and Attributes of God. To realize this kind of knowledge, and to engage existence through such knowledge, and to act in the light of that knowledge, is to fulfil the purpose of the quest for spiritual ascension.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Our ebooks at Barnes and Noble
Our ebooks are now at Barnes and Noble. To locate them at the Barnes and Noble website, just do a search for Bill Whitehouse.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Bilquees Press eBooks are now available at smashwords through the Stanza catalog
Anab's book are in the Stanza iPhone app bookstore smashwords catalog.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Signs
Signs are the signatures which mark the presence of the dialectic of Divine Names and Attributes. Signs are the ephemeral traces of continuously novel manifestation of God's uniqueness.
Signs are the transitory forms that give expression to the Divine Will which is producing, scripting, staging and directing the passion play of existence. Signs are the visible waves of the Divine Ocean which come into being and then disappear in accordance with the currents and eddies of the Unseen realm.
Signs exist within us. They are as plentiful as the molecules from which our bodies are fashioned and shaped.
Signs are manifested through the physiological and biochemical processes which set the parameters of our biological being. Signs are inherent in the various aspects of the immune system which differentiate self from non-self. Signs mark the stages of embryological unfolding. Signs are conducted through every neural impulse and muscle contraction.
Our capacity for consciousness, choice, language, rationality, creativity, emotion, and spirituality are all signs. Our tendencies toward rebellion, doubt, and selfishness are also signs, as are our potential for submission, certainty and love.
Signs exist everywhere in nature. The mineral, plant and animal realms are replete with signs. The sun, the moon, the stars, the heavens, and the earth each give expression to numerous signs.
There are signs manifest in realms beyond the physical/material universe. There are worlds no human eye has seen, nor mind conceived, yet which are, nonetheless, signs. There are many different "species" of angels, each giving expression to particular signs. There are signs of the Unseen.
Signs are one of the ways in which God communicates with Creation. Different signs address different dimensions and levels of being.
Signs are appropriate objects of contemplation. Signs provide material for reflection. Signs have meaning, significance, purpose and value.
Signs place things in perspective. Signs give evidence of God's love, compassion, generosity, patience, power, transcendence, nearness, mercy, kindness, justice, richness, subtlety and independence.
Signs are indices of God's gifts and favors. Signs reflect Divine warnings.
Signs offer us hope, as well as give us reason to fear. Signs are about the future and the past and the present.
Signs existed for millions of years prior to the current "Information Age". Signs were being decoded long before the emergence of algorithms, semiotics and hermeneutics. Signs were when time was not.
Signs are mysteries to be unraveled. Signs are clues to the nature of existence. Signs are problems to be solved.
Signs are maps that point the way to essential identity. Signs are keys to purpose and meaning. Signs provide a forum for exercises in humility.
Signs are veils that both conceal and disclose the reality of things. Signs live in what can be said as well as what cannot be said.
Within us are different instruments for engaging different kinds of signs. The language of mathematics is one kind of instrument for, among other things, examining some of the signs of nature. However, not all signs are capable of being fit into the structures and functions of mathematics.
There are signs which can be detected through various kinds of scientific instruments but which we are not yet able to capture in mathematical language. On the other hand, not all signs can be seen through microscopes or telescopes or particle detectors and so on.
The language of dreams is another kind of instrument for exploring some of the signs which manifest themselves during the state of sleep. Such signs, when properly understood, can provide deep insight into our spiritual condition and the nature of our lives.
There are other spiritual instruments within us which are capable of carrying us beyond the realm of the signs of the world of dreams. These spiritual instruments can, with God's blessings, allow the individual to have access to the significance(s) of many different kinds of sign on many different levels of existence.
The Sufi is someone who has undertaken a journey to explore, study and try to understand the meaning and function of signs in the context of human existence. The Sufi is someone who seeks to merge horizons with the character or nature of signs to whatever extent one's capacity and God permit.
The Sufi is an individual who wishes to know what is entailed by the significance of signs on different levels. A Sufi also wishes to incorporate such knowledge into his or her life in a way that will constructively shape, color and orient behavior.
Signs are the transitory forms that give expression to the Divine Will which is producing, scripting, staging and directing the passion play of existence. Signs are the visible waves of the Divine Ocean which come into being and then disappear in accordance with the currents and eddies of the Unseen realm.
Signs exist within us. They are as plentiful as the molecules from which our bodies are fashioned and shaped.
Signs are manifested through the physiological and biochemical processes which set the parameters of our biological being. Signs are inherent in the various aspects of the immune system which differentiate self from non-self. Signs mark the stages of embryological unfolding. Signs are conducted through every neural impulse and muscle contraction.
Our capacity for consciousness, choice, language, rationality, creativity, emotion, and spirituality are all signs. Our tendencies toward rebellion, doubt, and selfishness are also signs, as are our potential for submission, certainty and love.
Signs exist everywhere in nature. The mineral, plant and animal realms are replete with signs. The sun, the moon, the stars, the heavens, and the earth each give expression to numerous signs.
There are signs manifest in realms beyond the physical/material universe. There are worlds no human eye has seen, nor mind conceived, yet which are, nonetheless, signs. There are many different "species" of angels, each giving expression to particular signs. There are signs of the Unseen.
Signs are one of the ways in which God communicates with Creation. Different signs address different dimensions and levels of being.
Signs are appropriate objects of contemplation. Signs provide material for reflection. Signs have meaning, significance, purpose and value.
Signs place things in perspective. Signs give evidence of God's love, compassion, generosity, patience, power, transcendence, nearness, mercy, kindness, justice, richness, subtlety and independence.
Signs are indices of God's gifts and favors. Signs reflect Divine warnings.
Signs offer us hope, as well as give us reason to fear. Signs are about the future and the past and the present.
Signs existed for millions of years prior to the current "Information Age". Signs were being decoded long before the emergence of algorithms, semiotics and hermeneutics. Signs were when time was not.
Signs are mysteries to be unraveled. Signs are clues to the nature of existence. Signs are problems to be solved.
Signs are maps that point the way to essential identity. Signs are keys to purpose and meaning. Signs provide a forum for exercises in humility.
Signs are veils that both conceal and disclose the reality of things. Signs live in what can be said as well as what cannot be said.
Within us are different instruments for engaging different kinds of signs. The language of mathematics is one kind of instrument for, among other things, examining some of the signs of nature. However, not all signs are capable of being fit into the structures and functions of mathematics.
There are signs which can be detected through various kinds of scientific instruments but which we are not yet able to capture in mathematical language. On the other hand, not all signs can be seen through microscopes or telescopes or particle detectors and so on.
The language of dreams is another kind of instrument for exploring some of the signs which manifest themselves during the state of sleep. Such signs, when properly understood, can provide deep insight into our spiritual condition and the nature of our lives.
There are other spiritual instruments within us which are capable of carrying us beyond the realm of the signs of the world of dreams. These spiritual instruments can, with God's blessings, allow the individual to have access to the significance(s) of many different kinds of sign on many different levels of existence.
The Sufi is someone who has undertaken a journey to explore, study and try to understand the meaning and function of signs in the context of human existence. The Sufi is someone who seeks to merge horizons with the character or nature of signs to whatever extent one's capacity and God permit.
The Sufi is an individual who wishes to know what is entailed by the significance of signs on different levels. A Sufi also wishes to incorporate such knowledge into his or her life in a way that will constructively shape, color and orient behavior.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Friday, August 07, 2009
Mapping Mental Spaces - Two new books by Anab Whitehouse
The two volumes which give expression to 'Mapping Mental Spaces' are a series of working exercises involving different problems which are entailed by issues of: hermeneutics, innate ideas, apodicticity or certainty, belief, meaning, model-building, psychology, mythology, mysticism, logic, fields, mathematics, quantum mechanics, and holographic theory. Perhaps, what is most important about these exercises is that they provide an individual with opportunities to engage issues, topics, and questions while critically reflecting on not only what is being said by the author but, as well, to critically reflect on what is going on within the reader as she or he works through the material.
To find out more, click on the "Mapping Mental Spaces" links to the right of the blog under "Anab's Books."
Monday, July 06, 2009
Friday, July 03, 2009
We are all equal before God
Inequalities seem to permeate every level of human existence. Only a little observation and reflection is required to confirm the seeming omnipresence of inequalities.
Intelligence is not distributed equally across humanity. There are huge discrepancies between, say, severely challenged Down's syndrome individuals and the intellectually gifted.
The chasm between the rich and poor appears to have existed since the beginning of recorded history. In between these two extremes has been a fluctuating number of moderately rich and moderately poor people.
Any quality one cares to mention reflects this same inequality of distribution. Creativity, health, beauty, handsomeness, spirituality, talent, ambition, leadership, business sense, athletic ability, power, charisma, status, illness, fame, honesty, kindness, and so on, are all unequally distributed.
This is true within, as well as across, all racial, ethnic, and national groups. Moreover, it holds, as well, across history.
The distribution of most, perhaps all, of these qualities probably could be reflected fairly accurately by a bell-curve. In other words, there would be relatively few people on the low and high ends of a scale depicting the degree to which a person possessed a given quality. As one approached the median from either end of the scale, the numbers would gradually increase until they peaked at the median point.
Despite all of this inequality, Sufi masters maintain we are all equal before God. How does one reconcile the overwhelming evidence of inequality with the statement of Sufi masters concerning our equality in relation to God?
According to the practitioners of the Sufi path, we each have a unique essential or spiritual capacity. This capacity refers to our potential for reflecting the Names and Attributes of Divinity. Consequently, no two individuals have the same reflective properties of spirituality.
Sufi masters indicate every modality of spiritual reflectivity is precious to God. God cherishes each capacity because each potential has a uniqueness about it.
Uniqueness does not fit a normal distribution. Indeed, God has equipped essential human capacity for maximum distributive dispersal. Nothing is ever repeated.
According to Sufi masters, the Divine will desires for all uniqueness to be manifested. Every instance of uniqueness displays, in reflected form, more and more of Divine beauty and majesty. Every modality of uniqueness brings into existence a potential for unique reflectivity which has not been displayed previously and which will not be displayed again.
No matter how beautiful a given expression of spiritual reflection may be, there are other potentials for reflection which have a dimension of uniqueness to them not found in the first potential. The reverse, of course, is also true.
We each have been brought into existence to bring to dynamic realization our respective unique capacities for spiritual reflection of the Divine Names and Attributes. Since our potentials are unique, different circumstances are necessary to activate them.
The package of qualities associated with each of us is not arbitrary, nor is it a matter of the luck of the draw. These packages of qualities have been assigned to us by God.
The assignment of these qualities is related to our essential spiritual capacity for reflecting Divine Names and Attributes in a unique fashion. More specifically, each package of qualities is uniquely designed to provide the individual to whom they have been assigned with the sort of experiential challenges, struggles and possibilities out of which essential capacity may be brought to mature fruition.
The inequalities inherent in the various quality packages are necessary so that the different capacities for uniqueness can develop. However, one must be careful not to misunderstand what is being said here.
There is often a difference between the quality package which God assigns to certain individuals and the quality package which people try to impose on those same individuals. The quality packages which people try to impose are shaped by ignorance, bias, injustice, evil and so on. These human generated quality packages are not, taken in and of themselves, conducive to the realization of our unique spiritual capacities. For example, if a government or ruler wanted to impose hunger, poverty, torture, danger, homelessness, and various forms of other abuse on a given group of people, this "quality" package could generate many problems for individuals trying to realize their essential spiritual capacity.
At the same time, the attempted imposition of such human generated quality packages is part of the quality package which God has assigned to us. The attempted imposition of the human generated quality packages constitutes obstacles, challenges and injustice which we are being asked to struggle with and against.
Consequently, one is not being asked by God to endorse those processes involving the attempted imposition of human generated quality packages onto humanity. One is being asked to resist them but to do so in ways which will help one to realize one's essential spiritual capacity. Knowing how to accomplish this is very difficult.
The challenge each of us faces is to engage and embrace the quality package assigned to us by God in accordance with the manner in which God intended such packages to be used. Those packages, when properly understood and utilized, become the key to finding our way to realization of our essential spiritual capacity.
Among other things, the quality packages assigned to each of us by God involve a mixture of trials, tests, struggles, conflicts, and challenges. Those packages also contain what ever assets are necessary for the realization of our capacity for spiritual reflection.
The assets necessary for spiritual realization are not necessarily money, power, status, education, talent, creativity and so on. In fact, such qualities, more often than not, can be obstacles and trials with which one must struggle in order to overcome their potential for undermining one's quest for spiritual realization.
On the other hand, low-tech and low-capital qualities such as kindness, perseverance, simplicity, openness, sincerity, and so on, may be very important assets to have in one's quality package. What counts as a potential asset and what counts as a potential liability will vary from case to case, according to what is necessary for spiritual realization.
Having something can be just as much a problem as not having something. Each of these conditions entails its own brand of difficulty. Each of these conditions contains its own potential for benefit and development.
We each are being given, by God, an equal opportunity, in the form of our present lives, to realize our unique, essential, spiritual capacity. Each of these unique capacities has a dimension which renders them equally important to God as far as God's desire for the manifestation of all uniqueness is concerned.
Each of us has been given a quality package of equal functional value with respect to what is necessary for the realization of our essential spiritual capacity. Since the quality package assigned by God fits essential spiritual capacity like an appropriate key fits a certain lock, any given individual's quality package is useless to everyone else. This is so because that package has the potential for unlocking only a specific lock in the form of a certain capacity.
Ultimately, no quality is of value unless it can be utilized advantageously in the quest for the realization of our spiritual uniqueness. According to Sufi masters, whatever inequalities exist in the composition of the qualities in the packages that have been assigned to us by God, such inequalities need to be seen in the light of the underlying equalities which they are intended to serve.
Apparent exceptions to the foregoing relationship between inequality and equality do exist. For example, there are people (i.e., infants, children and some adolescents) who do not seem to live long enough to really say they are being given an equal opportunity to realize their unique spiritual capacity.
However, for every departure from the relationship between inequality and equality, there are Divine concessions and compensations which become operative. Those who have not had an equal opportunity in the above sense will be subject to different considerations, none of which will be to the person's disadvantage.
These exceptions to the rule give expression to their own mode of uniqueness. As such, they are exceptions which prove the rule concerning God's desire for all modes of uniqueness to be manifested.
(This essay is from the book Streams to the Ocean by Dr. Anab Whitehouse,)
Intelligence is not distributed equally across humanity. There are huge discrepancies between, say, severely challenged Down's syndrome individuals and the intellectually gifted.
The chasm between the rich and poor appears to have existed since the beginning of recorded history. In between these two extremes has been a fluctuating number of moderately rich and moderately poor people.
Any quality one cares to mention reflects this same inequality of distribution. Creativity, health, beauty, handsomeness, spirituality, talent, ambition, leadership, business sense, athletic ability, power, charisma, status, illness, fame, honesty, kindness, and so on, are all unequally distributed.
This is true within, as well as across, all racial, ethnic, and national groups. Moreover, it holds, as well, across history.
The distribution of most, perhaps all, of these qualities probably could be reflected fairly accurately by a bell-curve. In other words, there would be relatively few people on the low and high ends of a scale depicting the degree to which a person possessed a given quality. As one approached the median from either end of the scale, the numbers would gradually increase until they peaked at the median point.
Despite all of this inequality, Sufi masters maintain we are all equal before God. How does one reconcile the overwhelming evidence of inequality with the statement of Sufi masters concerning our equality in relation to God?
According to the practitioners of the Sufi path, we each have a unique essential or spiritual capacity. This capacity refers to our potential for reflecting the Names and Attributes of Divinity. Consequently, no two individuals have the same reflective properties of spirituality.
Sufi masters indicate every modality of spiritual reflectivity is precious to God. God cherishes each capacity because each potential has a uniqueness about it.
Uniqueness does not fit a normal distribution. Indeed, God has equipped essential human capacity for maximum distributive dispersal. Nothing is ever repeated.
According to Sufi masters, the Divine will desires for all uniqueness to be manifested. Every instance of uniqueness displays, in reflected form, more and more of Divine beauty and majesty. Every modality of uniqueness brings into existence a potential for unique reflectivity which has not been displayed previously and which will not be displayed again.
No matter how beautiful a given expression of spiritual reflection may be, there are other potentials for reflection which have a dimension of uniqueness to them not found in the first potential. The reverse, of course, is also true.
We each have been brought into existence to bring to dynamic realization our respective unique capacities for spiritual reflection of the Divine Names and Attributes. Since our potentials are unique, different circumstances are necessary to activate them.
The package of qualities associated with each of us is not arbitrary, nor is it a matter of the luck of the draw. These packages of qualities have been assigned to us by God.
The assignment of these qualities is related to our essential spiritual capacity for reflecting Divine Names and Attributes in a unique fashion. More specifically, each package of qualities is uniquely designed to provide the individual to whom they have been assigned with the sort of experiential challenges, struggles and possibilities out of which essential capacity may be brought to mature fruition.
The inequalities inherent in the various quality packages are necessary so that the different capacities for uniqueness can develop. However, one must be careful not to misunderstand what is being said here.
There is often a difference between the quality package which God assigns to certain individuals and the quality package which people try to impose on those same individuals. The quality packages which people try to impose are shaped by ignorance, bias, injustice, evil and so on. These human generated quality packages are not, taken in and of themselves, conducive to the realization of our unique spiritual capacities. For example, if a government or ruler wanted to impose hunger, poverty, torture, danger, homelessness, and various forms of other abuse on a given group of people, this "quality" package could generate many problems for individuals trying to realize their essential spiritual capacity.
At the same time, the attempted imposition of such human generated quality packages is part of the quality package which God has assigned to us. The attempted imposition of the human generated quality packages constitutes obstacles, challenges and injustice which we are being asked to struggle with and against.
Consequently, one is not being asked by God to endorse those processes involving the attempted imposition of human generated quality packages onto humanity. One is being asked to resist them but to do so in ways which will help one to realize one's essential spiritual capacity. Knowing how to accomplish this is very difficult.
The challenge each of us faces is to engage and embrace the quality package assigned to us by God in accordance with the manner in which God intended such packages to be used. Those packages, when properly understood and utilized, become the key to finding our way to realization of our essential spiritual capacity.
Among other things, the quality packages assigned to each of us by God involve a mixture of trials, tests, struggles, conflicts, and challenges. Those packages also contain what ever assets are necessary for the realization of our capacity for spiritual reflection.
The assets necessary for spiritual realization are not necessarily money, power, status, education, talent, creativity and so on. In fact, such qualities, more often than not, can be obstacles and trials with which one must struggle in order to overcome their potential for undermining one's quest for spiritual realization.
On the other hand, low-tech and low-capital qualities such as kindness, perseverance, simplicity, openness, sincerity, and so on, may be very important assets to have in one's quality package. What counts as a potential asset and what counts as a potential liability will vary from case to case, according to what is necessary for spiritual realization.
Having something can be just as much a problem as not having something. Each of these conditions entails its own brand of difficulty. Each of these conditions contains its own potential for benefit and development.
We each are being given, by God, an equal opportunity, in the form of our present lives, to realize our unique, essential, spiritual capacity. Each of these unique capacities has a dimension which renders them equally important to God as far as God's desire for the manifestation of all uniqueness is concerned.
Each of us has been given a quality package of equal functional value with respect to what is necessary for the realization of our essential spiritual capacity. Since the quality package assigned by God fits essential spiritual capacity like an appropriate key fits a certain lock, any given individual's quality package is useless to everyone else. This is so because that package has the potential for unlocking only a specific lock in the form of a certain capacity.
Ultimately, no quality is of value unless it can be utilized advantageously in the quest for the realization of our spiritual uniqueness. According to Sufi masters, whatever inequalities exist in the composition of the qualities in the packages that have been assigned to us by God, such inequalities need to be seen in the light of the underlying equalities which they are intended to serve.
Apparent exceptions to the foregoing relationship between inequality and equality do exist. For example, there are people (i.e., infants, children and some adolescents) who do not seem to live long enough to really say they are being given an equal opportunity to realize their unique spiritual capacity.
However, for every departure from the relationship between inequality and equality, there are Divine concessions and compensations which become operative. Those who have not had an equal opportunity in the above sense will be subject to different considerations, none of which will be to the person's disadvantage.
These exceptions to the rule give expression to their own mode of uniqueness. As such, they are exceptions which prove the rule concerning God's desire for all modes of uniqueness to be manifested.
(This essay is from the book Streams to the Ocean by Dr. Anab Whitehouse,)
Monday, June 15, 2009
New Book: Sufi Reflections by Bill Whitehouse
554 pages
The fifty-three chapters (not counting five appendices) which make up the main body of this book encompass lectures, articles, and letters/e-mails written over a period of about eleven years (from about 1998 through 2009). The material covers a variety of thematic topics both within Islam, in general, as well as with respect to its mystical dimension of tasawwuf - known in the West as 'the Sufi path' or 'sufism' - in particular. Taken collectively, the chapters and appendices provide a very good introduction to both the Sufi path and Islam.
To purchase Sufi Reflections, you may either click on the following link or go directly to Amazon: Sufi Reflections
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