“My saintly wife, Maryam bint Muḥammad b. `Abdūn said, ‘I have seen in my sleep someone whom I have never seen in the flesh, but who appears to me in my moments of [spiritual] ecstasy. He asked me whether I was aspiring to the Way, to which I replied, I was, but that I did not know by what means to arrive at it. He then told me that I would come to it through five things, trust (tawakkul), certainty (yaqīn), patience (ṣabr), resolution and veracity.’ Thus she offered her vision to me (for my consideration) and I told her that that was indeed the method of the Folk (i.e. the Sufis).”
– Ibn Arabi, cited in Sufis of Andalusia, trans. R. Austin, pp. 22-23.
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Asalamalaikum! Jazak’Allah khair azeem ameen! Thank you for sharing this beautiful story.
I would like to share this one with you:
The Day I Died
I passed from this Earthly existence, and, in the Afterlife, I found myself in the presence of Allah.
Allah said to me, “What present or gift have you brought for me?”
I was caught off guard. What present? What gift? I was not able to bring anything with me, I thought to myself.
“I diligently prayed five times a day while I was on Earth,” I offered, wondering how true this was after saying so.
“No, that is not a gift to me. That was your duty,” Allah replied.
I pondered further: What gift? Ah, I know, “I always gave zakat without exception.”
“Again,” Allah responded without any sense of impatience whatsoever, “that was your duty.” And after a short pause, Allah added, “Besides, the funds that you gave for zakat were from me, don’t you know that?”
I was bewildered. Yes, of course. All good things had come from Allah. Allah ka both shukar. What gift? What present? What gift indeed?, I scrambled these thoughts in my mind leading to a play on words.
“Allah, my presence is my present.”
Allah encouraged this line of thinking:“Say more.”
“My present, my gift to you, is my presence.”
“And what can you offer me with your presence?” Allah inquired.
I paused, and thought again, What present? What gift? What present from my presence?
“Allah, I am a Muslim. I have surrendered myself to You. My body you took away from me in the time that you determined. ButI now come before you with my heart, my mind and my soul.”
“Acha gee,” said Allah, “and the only gift I can accept from you is a clean heart. A clean heart is like a mirror: A mirror in which I can see my own image. Your clean heart reflected me into the Earthly realm. Now, I can see my reflection in your heart.”
I fell to my knees, bowed down before Allah, and said, “Allah-hu-akbar!” The n Allah raised my forehead from the ground, lifted my chin, and when I was fully reclined on bended knees, with my heart fully exposed, Allah smiled.
Allah hafiz, Yousuf