The Great Master Junayd was asked why the Sufis felt such powerful emotions in their spirit and the urge to move their body when listenning to sacred music. This was his reply:

“When God asked the souls in the spirit world, at the moment of the First Covenant ‘Am I not your Lord?’ the gentle sweetness of the divine words penetrated each soul for ever, so that whenever one of them hears music now, the memory of this sweetness is stirred within him causing him to move.”

This post is dedicated to the late muqri and leader of the munshiddin of the Great Ummayad Mosque of Damascus, Shaykh Hamza Shakkur, may God be pleased with him, who passed away last year.

You find a flower half-buried in leaves,
And in your eye its very fate resides.
Loving beauty, you caress the bloom;
Soon enough, you’ll sweep petals from the floor.

Terrible to love the lovely so,
To count your own years, to say “I’m old,”
To see a flower half-buried in leaves
And come face to face with what you are.

- 寒山  Han Shan

O People! the Month of Allah has approached you with His mercies and blessings.  This is the month that is the best of all the months in the estimation of Allah.  Its days are best among the days; its nights are best among the nights.  Its hours are best among the hours. This is a month in which you have been invited by Him.  You have been, in this month, selected as the recipients of the honours from Allah, the Merciful.

In this holy month, when you breathe, it has the thawab of tasbeeh (the praise of Allah on rosary beads), and your sleep has the thawab of worship.

Your good deeds are accepted in this month; so are your invocations. Therefore, you must invoke your Lord in right earnest, with hearts that are free from sins and evils, that Allah may bless you to observe fasting in this month, and to recite the Holy Quran.

While fasting, remember the hunger and thirst of tomorrow in Qiyamat.  Give alms to the poor and the needy.  Pay respects to your elders.  Have pity on your youngers and be kind towards your relatives and kinsmen.  Guard your tongues against unworthy words, and your eyes from such scenes that are not worth seeing and your ears from such sounds that should not be heard by you.

Be kind to orphans so that when your children become orphans they may also be treated with kindness.  Do invoke that Allah may forgive your sins.  Do raise your hands at the time of salat, as it is the best time for asking His mercy.  When we invoke at such times, we are answered by Him, and when we call Him, He responds, and when we ask for anything it is accepted by Him.

O People! you have made your conscience the slave of your desires, make it free, by invoking Him for forgiveness.  Your back is breaking under the heavy load of your sins, so prostrate before Him for long intervals and make it lighter.

Do understand fully well that Allah has promised in the name of His Majesty and Honour that He will not take to task such people who offer salat in this month and perform sajda, and will guard their bodies against the Fire of Hell on the Day of Judgment.

O People! if anyone amongst you arranges for the iftar (food for ending of fast at sunset) of any believer, then Allah will give him the reward as if he has set free a slave.  He will forgive his minor sins.

Then the companions of the Prophet submitted:  But everybody amongst us did not have the means to do so.

The Prophet told them:  Keep yourself away from the fire of Hell, by inviting for iftar, though it may consist of only half a date or simply with water if you have nothing else.

O People! anyone who may cultivate good manners in this month will walk over the Sirat (bridge) in Qiyama’, though his feet may be shaking. Anybody who make take light work from his servants in this month, Allah will make easy his accounting on the Day of Judgment.

Anyone who does not tease others in this month, Allah will keep him safe from His wrath in Qiyamat.  Anyone who respects and treats an orphan with kindness in this month, Allah shall look at him with dignity in Oiyamat.  Anyone who treats well his kinsmen in this month, Allah will bestow His mercy on him in Qiyamat while anybody who mistreats his kinsmen in this month, Allah will keep him away from His Mercy in Qiyamat.

Whoever offers extra prayer in this month Allah will give him freedom from Hell.  Whosoever, offers one obligatory prayer in this month, for him the Angels will write the rewards of 70 such prayers that were offered by him in any other month.

Whosoever recites repeatedly salawat (blessings) upon me, Allah will keep the scales of his deeds heavy, when in Qiyamat the scales of others will be tending towards lightness.  Whosoever recites, in this month, only one ayat of the Qur’an, he will be rewarded in a manner as if he had recited the full Quran in other months.

O People! the Gates of Paradise remain opened in this month.  Do invoke that the gates may not be closed on you; while the Gates of the Hell are closed, do invoke Allah that these gates may never be opened.

‘Ali ibn Abi Talib then said that he stood up and asked:  O Prophet of Allah, what is the best deed in this month?”

The Prophet replied:  O Abul Hasan! abstaining from the matters forbidden by Allah, the Majestic, the Glorified, is the best deed in this month.

May your days during the approaching month be blessed and fruitful and keep me in your du’as please.

On the occasion of the Imam’s birth I have decided to link Du’a al-Husayn, which is a bit out of place, since it was the last thing he recited before his noble martyrdom. Nevertheless, I hope it may come as some benefit to whosoever reads this.

Du’a al-Husayn:

اللّهُمَّ أَنْتَ مُتَعَالي الْمَكَان

عَظِيمُ الْجَبَرُوتِ

شَدِيدُ الْمِحَالِ

غَنِيٌّ عَنِ الْخَلائِقِ

عَرِيضُ الْكِبْرِيَاءِ

قَادِرٌ عَلَى مَا تَشَاءُ

قَرِيبُ الرَّحْمَةِ

صَادِقُ الْوَعْدِ

سَابِغُ النِّعْمَةِ

حَسَنُ الْبَلاءِ

قَرِيبٌ إذَا دُعِيتَ

مُحِيطٌ بِمَا خَلَقْتَ

قَابِلُ التَّوْبَةِ لِمَنْ تَابَ إلَيْكَ

قَادِرٌ عَلَى مَا أَرَدْتَ

وَمُدْرِكٌ مَا طَلَبْتَ

وَشَكُورٌ إذَا شُكِرْتَ

وَذَكُورٌ إذَا ذُكِرْتَ

أَدْعُوكَ مُحْتَاجاً

وَأَرْغَبُ إلَيْكَ فَقِيراً

وَأَفْزَعُ إلَيْكَ خَائِفاً

وَأَبْكِي إلَيْكَ مَكْرُوباً

وَأَسْتَعِينُ بِكَ ضَعِيفاً

وَأَتَوَكَّلُ عَلَيْكَ كَافِياً

احْكُمْ بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَ قَوْمِنَا بِالْحَقِّ

فَإنَّهُمْ غَرُّونَا وَخَدَعُونَا

وَخَذَلُونَا وَغَدَرُوَا بِنَا وَقَتَلُونَا

وَنَحْنُ عِتْرَةُ نَبِيِّكَ

وَوَلَدُ حَبِيبِكَ

مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ عَبْدِاللّهِ

الَّذِي اصْطَفَيْتَهُ بِالرِّسَالَةِ

وَائْتَمَنْتَهُ عَلَى وَحْيِكَ

فَاجْعَلْ لَنَا مِنْ أَمْرِنَا فَرَجاً وَمَخْرَجاً

بِرَحْمَتِكَ يَا أَرْحَمَ الرَّاحِمِينَ.

Translation:

O Allah: You are verily the Elevated in position,
the Magnificent in omnipotence,
the Mighty in prowess,
the Self-Sufficient from the creatures,
the Ample in pride,
the Powerful over all that which You want,
the Close in mercy,
the Truthful in promise,
the Opulent in favors,
the Sympathetic in ordeals,
the Nigh when Your are prayed,
the All-encompassing of all that which You have created,
the Accepter of the repentance of him who repents to You,
the Powerful to do whatever You want,
the Taker in all that which You decide,
the Thankful for those who thank You,
the Rememberer of those who mention You.
I pray You for I need You;
and I desire for You for I am in want of You;
and I resort to You for I am terrified;
and I weep before You for I am distressed;
and I seek Your aid for I am weak;
and I depend upon You for I trust in none save You;
(please do) decide between our people and us with the truth,
for they have deceived us, cheated us,
disappointed us, betrayed us, and killed us.
We are verily the progeny of Your Prophet,
and the sons of Your beloved one,
namely Muhammad ibn `Abdullah,
whom You have chosen for the Divine Mission
and for keeping Your Revelation.
So, (please so) prepare a way out and a relief for us,
out of Your mercy; O the most Merciful of all those who show mercy.

This transition from objectivism to subjectivism reflects and repeats in its own way the fall of Adam and the loss of Paradise; in losing a symbolist and contemplative perspective, founded both on impersonal intelligence and on the metaphysical transparency of things, man has gained the fallacious riches for the ego; the world of divine images has become a world of words.  In all cases of this kind, heaven- or a heaven- is shut off from above us without our noticing the fact, and we discover in compensation an earth long unappreciated, or so it seems to us, a homeland which opens its arms to welcome its children and wants to make us forget all lost Paradises; it is the embrace of Maya, the siren’s song; Maya, instead of guiding us, imprisons us.  The Renaissance thought that it had discovered man, whose pathetic convulsions it admired; from the point of view of laicism in all its forms, man as such had become, to all intents and purposes, good, and the earth too had become good and looked immensely rich and unexplored; instead of living only “by halves” one could at last live fully, be fully man and fully on earth; one was no longer a kind of half-angel, fallen and exiled; one had come a whole being, but by the downward path.”

Praised be God who knows the secret of things, and the proofs of whose existence shines in various phases of nature.  No physical eye has or will ever see Him.  But those who have not seen Him physically cannot deny His existence, yet the minds of those who have accepted His existence cannot grasp the real essence of Diving Nature.  His place is so high that nothing can be imagined higher.  He is so near to us that nothing can be imagined nearer.  The Eminence of His position has not placed him further away from His creatures, and His Nearness has not brought them up to His Level.  He has not permitted the human mind to grasp the Essence of His Being, yet He has not prevented them from realizing His Presence.

-Sermon 54, Nahjul-Balagha, Jafery.  (Also, Sermon 49, Nahjul-Balagha, Reza).

http://www.worldwisdom.com/public/library/videos/default.aspx?ID=121L

Allah Most High created His angels as the manifestation of His attribute Al-Qawi, the Possessor of All Strength. And the strongest amongst them are the angels of Hell. The strength of mankind is limited. Knowing this, Allah only offers man things to do which are within the limits of his strength. It is He who orders the obligation to act and gives others the strength to act with His strength.

And the sincere believer who cannot, on his own, gather the strength to do what he is ordered to do, is helped by Allah’s angels in their manifestation of the Possessor of All Strength.

The strongest among Allah’s creation is woman, for she is the most desired. The one who desires is always weaker that the one who is desired.

Allah says in the Holy Qur’an:

(Oh Aysha and Hafsa) If you are planning to make alliance against your husband, Muhammad, know that Allah and Gabriel and all true believers and angels are his helpers.

In this verse, Allah declares the immense power of women, against which Allah mentions so many material and spiritual forces. Allah has created His most powerful angels from the breath of women. That is why the Messenger of Allah (saws) says:

“Fear the world and fear women.”

Shaikh ‘Abd al-Qadir (may Allah be well pleased with him) became the pupil of Abu ‘l-Khair Hammad ibn Muslim ibn Duruh ad-Dabbas, and from him he acquired knowledge of the Spiritual Path [Tariqa]. From him he received his basic training, and with his help he set out on the spiritual journey. May Allah be well pleased with them both.

Shaikh ‘Abd al-Qadir (may Allah be well pleased with him) took to wearing the noble patched cloak [khirqa], which he received from al-Qadi [the Judge] Abu Sa’id al-Mubarak al-Mukharrimi, to whom mention has previously been made. Al-Mukharrimi had worn it after receiving it from Shaikh Abu ‘l-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Muhammad al-Qurashi, and al-Qurashi had acquired it from Abu ‘l-Faraj at-Tarsusi, to whom it was handed down by Abu ‘l-Fadl ‘Abd al-Wahid at-Tamimi, who had received it from the hand of his own Shaikh, Shaikh Abu Bakr ash-Shibli. Ash-Shibli had acquired it from Shaikh Abu ‘l-Qasim al-Junaid, and al-Junaid had received it from his maternal uncle, as-Sari as-Saqati, who upon whom it had been bestowed by Shaikh Ma’ruf al-Karkhi. Al-Karkhi had received it from Dawud at-Ta’i, who had obtained it from my master, Habib al-’Ajami. It had been given to Habib al-’Ajami by Shaikh al-Hasan al-Basri, and al-Basri had received it from our patron, the Commander of the Believers [Amir al-Mu'minin], ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah ennoble his countenance and be well pleased with him), who had received it from the Chieftain of the Messengers, the Beloved of the Lord of All the Worlds, Muhammad (on him be the most excellent blessing, and the most perfect greeting of peace). As for Muhammad himself (Allah bless him and give him peace), he had received it from Gabriel (peace be upon him), and Gabriel had received it from the Lord of Truth (Magnificent is His Majesty, and Sanctified be His Names).

Someone asked my master, Shaikh ‘Abd al-Qadir what he had received from the Lord of Truth (Glorious and Exalted is He), and he replied: “Knowledge ['ilm] and good manners [adab].”