Sinners and Saints

My sin that led me to You is better than pretentious worship that led me away from You.
Praise belongs to You. How subtle you are with Guidance.
Bishr Hafi found you in the tavern whilst the man in prostration went astray.

- Khaadim

Demands of Love

If you find it difficult to put up with your beloved's demands and coquetry, how can you expect to live up to Her Love? Abandon now the idea of being Her lover for Her Love demands your very life.


- Khaadim

A Gift

“Love cannot be attained even if the whole world tries for it, nor can it be repelled even if the whole world tries for it. This is because love is a Divine Gift and cannot be achieved by effort. Man is finite but love is infinite, and finite has no control over the infinite. God knows best.”
- Kashful Mahjub, Syed Ali Hujweri

It is one thing to read this statement, and another to come to know of it by experience.

Related post on Love.

flash

Some have found God in the depths of their sin.
-Khaadim

Broken Hearts

"I am with those whose hearts are broken for My sake."

My Prayer

So many You have chosen for Yourself.
Unveiled You have appeared to many of them.
And I, mislead by preacher, kin, and well wishers
falsely believed I have been blessed.

But You alone, O You Master of Disguise.
You know well that my blessings are but a Veil,
Behind which You hide, O Sublte One.
You hide behind noble desires,
You hide behind the wish for a healthy life,
a pious life, a secure life, a complete life.

O Lord of Mercy, O Lord of Compassion
Choose me for Your chosen ones.
Choose me for Yourself. Unveil, unveil.

-Khaadim

"Speak to me, oh Aishah!"

"No one degrades women except vile and contemptible men."

"I was made to love three things from your world: women, perfume, and the comfort my eye is in prayer."

- Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)

"Made attractive to men is love of desires...

God has made (woman) attractive, so how can men escape her?

Even if a man is Rustam and greater than

Hamza, still he is captive to his old women's command.

The Prophet, to whose speech the whole world

Was enslaved, used to say, "Speak to me, oh Aishah"

The Prophet said that women totally dominate men of intellect and possessors of heart

But ignorant men dominate women, for they are shackled by the ferocity of animals.

They have no kindness, gentleness, or love.

Since animality dominates their nature ...

She is the radiance of God, she is not your beloved. She is the Creator -

you could say she is not created."

Maulana Rumi

Ibn Arabi writes:

"In relation to the Prophet, women are as the Universal Nature is to God in which He revealed the forms of the Cosmos by directing toward it the divine will and command, which, at the level of elemental forms, is symbolized by copulation ... Whoever loves a women this way loves with divine love, while he whose love for them is limited to natural lust lacks all true knowledge of that desire ...

... a man is really in love with pleasure itself and, in consequence, loves its repository in women, the real truth and meaning of the act being lost on him. If he knew the truth, he would know whom it is he is enjoying and who it is who is the enjoyer; then would he be perfected."

The preceding text are quotations that Hamza Yusuf used in his scholarly piece titled: Climbing Mount Purgatorio, which was presented at a conference on the harmful effects of pornography.

Rabia Al Adawiyya

"O God the stars are shining;
All eyes have closed in sleep;
The kings have locked their doors,
Each lover is alone, in secret, with the one he loves,
And I am here too; alone, hidden from all of them – With You”

- Rabia Al Adawiyya 

Beloved

If my sweetheart associates one moment with strangers

It wants but little and I die of jealousy.

She said similing: "I am the lamp of the assembly, O Sa'di,

What is it to me if a moth kills itself?

-Saadi

God has not forsaken you

"Thy Lord has neither forsaken thee nor hates thee."

Quran 93:3

"A certain man one night was crying 'Allah!' till his lips were becoming sweet with the mention of his name.

'Why now, chatterbox,' said the Devil, 'where is the answer "Here am I" to all this "Allah" of yours?  Not one answer is coming from the Throne: how long will your grimly go on crying "Allah"?'

The man became broken-hearted, and laid down his head to sleep. He saw in a dream mystic Khazir all in a green garden. 

'Look now,' Khazir called, 'why have you desisted from the mention of God? How is it you repent of having called upon Him?'

'No answering "Here am I" is coming to me,' the man replied, 'and I therefore fear that I may be refused from His door.'

Khazir answered, 'Your cry of "Allah" (God says) is itself My "Here am I"; your pleading and agony and fervour is My messenger. All your twistings and turnings to come to Me were My drawing you that set free your feet. Your fear and love are the lasso to catch My grace. Under each "Allah" of yours whispers many a "Here am I"."

Masnavi of Mawlana Rumi

http://www.khamush.com/tales_from_masnavi.htm#65Theprayerthatwasandwered

http://www.dar-al-masnavi.org/n.a-III-0180.html

Think well of your Lord

Abu Hurayrah r.a. reported that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said that God says: I am as My servant thinks of Me. If he thinks well of Me, I am good to him. If he thinks ill of Me, I am bad to him. (Bukhari)

According to Ibn Masud r.a., the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: I swear upon the one and only God who created all and everything that He only offers you what you hope for from Him. All good is in His power. (Tabarani)

And Abu Hurayrah r.a. reported the hadith: To think well of God is one of the best forms of worship. (Abu Dawud)

Jabir ibn Abdullah r.a. said, “When your life in this world ends, hope for God’s mercy at your last breath.”

Abu Hurayrah reported that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said:On the day of judgement, God will condemn a sinner to Hellfire. When he is brought to the edge of the fire, he will look back and say, “O my Lord, I always thought well of You!” Then God will pull him back from the fire and say, ‘I am as My creature thinks of Me.” (Bayhaqi)

Taken from Imam Birgivi’s book “The Path of Muhammed”, peace and blessings be upon him.

He Loved them and they love Him

“O Ridhwan, paradise belongs to you!

O Malik, hell belongs to you!

O cherubim, the Throne belongs to you!

O you with the burnt heart, you who carry the seal of My Love!

You Belong to Me, and I belong to You”

- Ahmad Sam’ani

The Body Melting, Heart Burning Verse of Love (Ahmed Sam'ani Part 2)

Chittick quotes Sam’ani: “Quran has set up opposites between the Creator and creature in many ways, constantly asserting divine greatness and human insignificance. Only in talk of love does the Quran speak of mutuality.”

Ahmad Sam’ani illustrates the above point in the following manner:

“God gave news of the attribute of His Knowledge –Surely God knows everything 29:62.
He also gave news of the attribute of our ignorance –Surely he is very ignorant, a great wrongdoer 33:72

He gave news of the attribute of His power –Surely God is powerful over everything 2:109.
He also gave news of the attribute of our incapacity –God strikes a likeness: a servant possessed by his master, having no power over anything 16:75.

He gave news of the attribute of His exaltation –Surely the exaltation, all of it, belongs to God 4:139.
He also gave news of our abasement –And faces are humbled to the Living, the Self subsistent. 20:111”

“However when he gave news of Love, just as He affirmed love for Himself, so also He affirmed love for us –He loves them, and they love Him 5:54

“Here there must be a secret that will increase the refreshment of the lovers’ spirits: Knowledge, power, life, holiness, subsistence, and unity are the attribute of His Essence, and His Essence is holy and incomparable.”

William Chittick further elaborates this point: “Angels are cut from love because they cannot taste wrath, severity, and distance, and the beasts are far from love because they cannot experience beauty, gentleness, and nearness. Human beings are woven from both nearness and distance, both gentleness and severity. All the contradictory divine attributes are brought together in him.”

And then so beautifully and and ecstatically Ahmad Sam’ani writes:

“From the Throne down to the earth, no love whatsoever is sold except in the house of human grief and joy. Many sinless and pure angels were in the Court, but only this handful of dust was able to carry the burden of this body-melting, heart-burning verse: He loves them, and they love Him”

That Lord who was able to protect Joseph from committing an ugly act could have prevented Adam from tasting of the tree. But since the world has to be full of tumult and affliction, what could be done?

Adam was brought into paradise, made to slip, then brought out. “Adam, this is not a business that you could have handled yourself. On the day that the angels prostrated themselves, you were not alone. On the day of the binding of the Covenant, you were not alone. There was no stipulation that you should be alone in paradise. “The most evil of men is he who eats alone.”It is not the work of a noble youth to eat all alone. Come into this world, which is the workshop of seeking. The teacher, who is poverty, will write out for you the alphabet of love.”

The last paragraph is enlightening. All of humanity took upon itself the Covenant with Allah swt, then why should it not also enjoy nearness in paradise? Why should only Adam be in paradise? Thus, Shaykh Ahmad Sam’ani says “It is not the work of the noble youth to eat all alone …” Adam was “punished”, so that all of humanity could enjoy nearness.