Sword of the Prophet (pbuh)

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

It is related that this phrase is inscribed on the hilt of the blessed Prophet’s (pbuh) sword:

Forgive him who wrongs you; join him who cuts you off; do good to him who does evil to you, and speak the truth although it be against yourself.

From the Threshold Society website, originally posted by our poetic brother Abdur Rahman on The Corner blog.

Ya Haqq!

Speech and Silence

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

One of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah used to put pebbles in his mouth. When he wanted to say something he knew was to Allah, in Allah, and for the sake of Allah, he would remove them from his mouth. 

People’s destruction or salvation lies in speech and silence. Good fortune belongs to those who are given knowledge of what is incorrect and correct in speech, and the science of silence and its advantages, for it is one of the qualities of the prophets and one of the distinguishing marks of the select. Whoever knows the value of speech is an expert in the company of silence: once a person has been exposed to the subtleties of silence, and has been entrusted with its treasures, then both his speech and silence are worship. No one is privy to this worship except the King of all, the All-Compelling.

From Lantern of the Path by Imam Jaffar Al-Sadiq

Ya Haqq!

The Humbled Spirit

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

Thus sayeth the Lord:

With heaven My throne, and the earth My footstool, what house could you build Me, what place for Me to rest, when all these things were made by Me, and all belong to Me? But My eyes are drawn to the person of humbled and contrite spirit, who trembles at My word.

- Isaiah 66:1

Ya Haqq!

The Thankfulness of Forgiving

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

“Be reconciled with the one who has broken with you, pardon the one who has been unjust to you, and forgive the one who denies you.”

- A hadith of the Prophet (pbuh)

How many of us live up to this blessed hadith, instead of carrying around past resentments, slights, hurts, angers, injustices, and injuries, like chains weighing down our lives, and veils over our hearts. I know I have been guilty of this, may Allah forgive me. And yet we still find it hard to let go and forgive, even though we pray and hope and beg and plead for Allah forgiveness.

Alhamdulillah! How great is Allah’s bounty that just yesterday we gave thanks for all that He has bestowed upon us, and yet what thanks are accepted by Him when we are thankless to those that grieved us by not also forgiving them, and in doing so, forgiving ourselves.

In the words of Sa’di from the Gulistan (The Rose Garden):

When you are mistreated, put up with it;

Forgiving purifies you from sin.

As you will turn to dust in the end,

Become dust before you reach that end.

Ya Haqq!

2000 Fiery Mountains

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

While the Sufi Master Amr ibn Othman was residing in Mecca, he wrote to the Sufis Junayd, Jorairi, and Shebli in Baghdad. This is the postscript of that letter:

“Say to every one who yearns after the Carpet of Intimacy and the Court of Glory: If there be any of you who entertains high aspirations, say to him, ‘Come upon this road wherein there are two thousand fiery mountains and two thousand stormy and perilous seas. If you are not of this rank, make no false pretensions, for to false pretensions nothing is given.’”

When the letter reached Junayd, he gathered the elders of Iraq together and read it to them. Then he said, “Come, say what he means by these mountains.”

“By these mountains,” they replied, “he means naughting (negation of self). Until a person is naughted a thousand times and a thousand times revived, he does not attain the Court of Glory.”

“Of these two thousand fiery mountains,” Junayd remarked, “I have crossed only one.”

“You are lucky to have crossed one,” replied Jorairi. “Up to now I have gone only three steps.”

Shebli burst into tears. “You are fortunate, Junayd, to have crossed one mountain. And you are fortunate, Jorairi, to have gone three steps. Up to now, I have not even seen their dust from afar.”

- From Attar’s Memorial of the Saints.

Ya Haqq!

Civilizing the Earth

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

“The Qur’an describes the moment of creation as the moment in which humanity was entrusted with a heavy responsibility…God made human beings God’s agents or viceroys on the earth and entrusted them with the responsibility to civilize the land.

“Civilizing the earth does not mean constructing buildings or paving roads. It means striving to spread on the earth the Divine attributes such as justice, mercy, compassion, goodness, and beauty. In doing so, human beings spread Divinity itself upon the earth. In contrast, corrupting the earth – spreading violence, hatred, vengeance, and ugliness – means failure in discharging one’s obligations toward God. The Qur’an teaches that the act of destroying or spreading ruin on this earth is one of the gravest sins possible – fasad fi al-ard – which means to corrupt the earth by destroying the beauty of creation, and is considered an ultimate act of blasphemy against God.”

From The Great Theft: Wresting Islam from the Extremists by Dr. Khaled M. Abou El Fadl

Excerpted from a longer essay by Dr. Hesham A. Hassaballa on his excellent blog, God, Faith, and a Pen.

Ya Haqq!

The Prayer of Rabi’a

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

“O God, whatsoever Thou hast apportioned to me of worldly things, do Thou give that to Thy enemies; and whatsoever Thou hast apportioned to me in the world to come, give that to Thy friends; for Thou sufficest me.”

- Rabi’a al-Adawiya

From the Tadhkirat al-Auliya (The Memorial of the Saints) by Farid al-Din Attar

Ya Haqq!

Let Me Dwell With You

Let me dwell

with you;

my law was written

my attributes

are known.

My fate set

I shall transcend

for I have known

your love.

The desolation of my youth

I shall pass

for I love your name,

more then mine.

- Michaela Sefler

To read more of Michaela’s spiritual poetry, go to her website here.

Ya Haqq!

Wear a Hijab Day

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

November 13th is Wear a Hijab Day in memory of Alia Ansari, a very worthy cause for a dear Sister who was killed while walking her toddler to school to pick up her other children. The suspected reason is racism. She was wearing her hijab. See my previous posts in her memory and how to contribute to the trust fund set up for her family.

Our Sister Samaha has a more complete post which you can read here.

May Allah bless her memory with good works by the living.

Ya Haqq!

Carnival of Islam in the West

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

The Carnival of Islam in the West has been posted on the Travellers on the Path of Knowledge blog.  It is an excellent collection, filled with wisdom, beautiful and powerful writing, and many interesting and varied points of view.  Please go and support the effort by clicking here. 

Darvish is honored to also be represented by an excerpt from the novel Master of the Jinn called The Judgement of God – A Sufi Tale, which you can read here. 

Ya Haqq!