translated & edited by G.N. Jalbani and David Pendlebury (Octagon Press 1982)
Purification according to "the Way" and "Deep Knowledge"
According to Junaid of Baghdad, the Lord of the Sufis [died 910 A.D.] the purification of the five faculties is known as the Way and "Deep Knowledge".
After the era of the Companions of the Prophet and of those who followed them, there appeared certain people who immersed themselves in holy law and showed extreme rigidity in their scrupulous obedience to its injunctions concerning self-mortification and similar matters which they happened to have heard about. Thus, without taking into account the question of proportion, and without making a proper diagnosis of the disease, they proposed one single medicine for every ailment. They maintained that man's only obstacle was his own self, his habits and customs, and that for this reason the utmost effort should be made to tame the fury of both the carnal and the aggressive self.
Accordingly, they opted to refrain from sexual contact, delicious food and fine clothing, and in so doing became weak and effete, through neglect of the legitimate requirements of the self.
Or else they chose a hard and austere way of life, ignoring the comforts enjoyed by city dwellers. They took care, however , to fulfill the minimal necessities of life and maintained their bodies with a bitter medicine. They plunged into introspection with similar zeal and were fond of undertaking journeys. They engaged their minds in such pursuits as would make them completely forget any yearning after pomp, dignity and renown, and desire for power or wealth. They spent their life in the desert, constantly mindful that death, natural or violent, was an ever-present fact. They had no commerce with the world, nor did the world have any business with them.
They trained their mental powers to such an extent that, to the exclusion of all else, they were able to penetrate to the true essence of prayer without the slightest prompting of the self ever occuring in their minds. In both worship and worldy transactions they made it their aim to steer clear of the controversies of the legists and they turned their back on anything that might cause doubt.
This is the mysticism of the masses: undergoing severe exercises without any due proportion-- failing from start to finish to recognize the right path....
Through such austerities, certain worthy aspirants were creating in
themselves a state similar to that of the inferior angels. Such people were known as "the changed ones".
There were others however, who were not inspired in this way, and yet at times certain visionary powers would make an appearance of sorts in them. As a result they would receive mystical revelations or hear voices from the unseen or even traverse the earth or walk on water.
The Sufi Master Junaid is the first person who went beyond such mystification and who , by adopting the middle course, was able to place every spiritual exercise where it rightly belonged. Every would-be sufi who came after him followed in Junaid's footsteps and is thus under an obligation to him whether he is aware of it or not.
The Teaching of Junaid
Briefly, the path of the Master, Junaid, is based on the purification of the five faculties-- namely, the self, the heart, the intellect, the spirit and the secret. There is a particular method of purification for each of them; and they each have their own properties and location in the human body.
In sufi terminology, the purification of the self, the heart and the intellect is known as the Way, whilst that of the spirit and the secret is termed "deep knowledge."
Confusion has arisen at this point as a result of careless interpretation of Sufi teaching. I should like to point out the principal cause of this confusion once and for all, so that it is not necessary to give a detailed account of it in every chapter. It should be realized that words like ruh (soul, spirit) and nafs (self, soul) are used in a great many senses. For example, sometimes the word "self" is used to mean the source of life; in this sense , the self is synonymous with the soul. Sometimes people use the word self to mean human nature, with its needs for food and drink, etc. On other occasions, where the word self is mentioned, what is meant is the carnal self...
As we have seen, human nature rules the heart and the intellect and has enslaved them both with the result that a great number of vices
arise. We name the sum total of these evils the Self.
Similarly, when people mention the "heart" they are sometimes referring to the coneshaped lump of flesh, while at other times they attempt to convey a mental faculty synonymous with the intellect.
However, what we mean here by [Heart] is that the spirits of the heart bear such mental attributes as anger and embarrassment, and in this the heart is assisted by both the intellect and the self.
The word "intellect" sometimes refers to knowledge, or the faculty which gives rise to knowledge, in this sense the intellect becomes merely an accidental corporeal property and not an eternal independent absolute. Elsewhere people speak of the intellect, but really mean the essence of the soul since its functions include understanding.
What we mean by intellect is the perceptive energy which imagines and verifies so that the heart and the self may follow its lead and a coordinating function may arise in the constitution of the perceptive faculty to which heart and self lend their support.
It has been established in the foregoing investigation that these three faculties pervade the whole body; however, the heart is rooted in the physical heart, the self is rooted in the liver, and the intellect is rooted in the brain.
In the same way, people at times, use the word "spirit" in the sense of the source of life; and sometimes they mean the gentle breeze which wafts through the body of flesh and blood. At other times they use it to refer to the angelic soul , which was created thousands of years before the creation of man.
What we mean by the Spirit in this context is precisely the heart after it has abandoned its baser impulses. When its affinity with the angelic and rational souls becomes predominant.
Similarly, the Secret is not ascribed any particular meaning either in common parlance, or in the Law. The word itself indicates concealment, but then each one of the subtle faculties is concealed. This is why people sometimes refer to the intellect and sometimes to the spirit as the Secret faculty.
What we intend to convey by the [Secret] is precisely the intellect after it has given up earthly inclinations and is governed by the impulses of the sublime world, thus attaining to the contemplation of the supreme manifestation.
In the course of our investigation it has been established that the Spirit faculty is supercorporeal but that its particular domain is the physical heart.
The Secret faculty is supercorporeal, likewise, but its particular sphere is the brain...
Because of variation in the technical terms used by Sufi writers, the intended meaning, may not be clear, and the text becomes difficult to understand. For example, when some Sufis expound on one of the states of the heart, they may go very deeply into the subject and then in the same breath, speak of a state of the spirit, as if it were an inner dimension of the heart. Again, when they discuss the love of the heart, they may take attachment, intimacy and attraction as its inner aspects. But all of these [attachment, intimacy and attraction] are states of the spirit, not states of the heart.
The same may be said of the term "certitude", which such writers have come to recognize as being a function of the intellect and from which they have derived a number of inner aspects. According to them the first stage is the knowledge of certainty, the second is the essence of certainty, while the third is the reality of certainty.
The thoughtful student should bear all of this in mind, and this avoids being confused by variations in terminology.
It should be realized that there is a strong bond between the heart and the self, as there is also between the intellect and the self. They are closely bound one to another like a hunting bow made of a combination of horn and wood woven together. By virtue of their close proximity, each component benefits from the special properties of the other. It is actually the property of the horn to become pliable when heated; but the wood also bends with it when it bends and moves with its movement. Solidity and hardness are the characteristic qualities of the wood; and indeed the horn also acquires these properties. Now when an adjustment of the bow is required, and it is desirable that this should be done in such a way as to maintain the balance which the form of the bow requires, then it is necessary that each of its characteristics should be attributed to its proper source, and that the extent of each modification should correspond to the strength of the original components.
Another analogy might be quicksilver, in which the characteristics of a liquid and a metal are intimately combined. Such then is the bond which gives rise to all the many mystical states.
As soon as pure sobriety , unalloyed establishment and absolute permanency come into being , then all these visions disappear and there remains neither ecstasy nor the ravings of the ecstatic. The Sufi is then indistinguishable from any other person.
Stages and States
... the term "stage" refers to an attribute which may be acquired by the seeker whilst on the path and which enables him to complete that journey. However, the term has a far wider range than this and embraces a whole variety of conditions, circumstances and capacities. A stage arises in one individual in one form and in a different form in someone else. The term "state" refers to the actual product of the stage: that is the particular mode in which it appears to someone in one particular occasion and according to his particular capacity. Hence, stage is regarded as an acquisition, while "state" is a gift.
For example, the abandonment of the requirements of the carnal and aggressive self is a stage , whereas the advantages arising from this -- namely, serenity and purity, and nobility of spirit-- these are a state.
Similarly, the impression which an exhortation may create in the mind of a seeker and which may eventually bring him to the stage of repentance, this too is a state.
When it is in the fundamental nature of the Self to require the satisfaction of its base desires, it is indispensable that it should be purified through repentance and renunciation. When its basic nature is irresolute and impetuous in the pursuit of its own requirements, then the necessary remedy is to place it in the power of the aggressive self so that the individual may be stirred up against himself and may begin to dislike himself and sit in judgement on himself. Many a time we have seen that man begins to rebuke himself, take himself to task, and express his regret and shame. This happens when the aggressive self dominates the carnal self.
However, this effect cannot be achieved unless the point has been fully understood and has struck deep into the heart. We have often observed that certain sayings impress the heart and that the impression can last a long time. This happens when the heart is ruled by the perceptive faculty. It is for this reason that the greatest Sufis have considered the rebuke to be the key to repentance.
It may happen that the person sees the world's vicissitudes and suddenlyrecoils from himself and desists from sin. Or it may be that he hears the sermon of the preacher at an opportune moment and his heart suddenly turns towards him. Or perhaps through association with men of god he may slowly become inclined to straightforwardness. Here the rebuke may be gradual rather than immediate, and it may give rise to passion.
The real nature of passion is to effect a change in the heart such that it is totally transformed and its hold over the bodily members is destroyed. Sometimes this passion may take the form of falling unconscious, sometimes of tearing one's clothes, or making other involuntary movements. At times it appears as weeping and grieving, at times as a simple hatred of everything except reality and being drawn towards reality.
By rebuke we mean the influx of the intellect into the heart . Passion is a function of the heart, and the control which it exerts over the self.
Afterwards wakefulness ensues, and that implies both vigilance and awareness. It is thanks to the intellect that one is able to recognize
disobedience for what it is, and hence to show anger and hatred towards it.
The intellect proceeds according to the dictates of the heart and is constantly thinking of ways to meet its requirements. Consequently the individual is able to abandon disobedience, change his former ways, adhere to vows of obedience, starve his own self of its fraudulent machinations and obliterate its obstinacy.
Thus the heart subjugates the bodily members, controls their habits, and brings them under its own control and direction. After this there comes abstinence from those pursuits which, though lawful, nonetheless hinder the work of the heart. Whether the hindrance be an external one, such as a worldly occupation which takes up most of one's time and does not allow one to busy oneself with matters of ultimate importance; or else the hindrance may be a mental one such as the love of property and people, since such love and affection are a hindrance to the sweet remembrance of god.
Similarly, to spend one's time in conversation with people or to engross oneself in poetry or intellectual matters, are equally repugnant to the heart.
There then comes a phase of taking judicious stock of oneself, moment by moment; that is, remaining constantly aware of one's state to see if one's time is passing in negligence and sin or whether it is spent in actions of devotion. If the desired objective is being furthered, we should thank god for that and think hard for ways to continue this trend and enhance it even. But if the reverse is the case , then we should repent anew.
This, then, is what constitutes the purification of the self, regardless of whether it is accomplished at the outset, or after the heart and the intellect have been purified. All of this is termed repentance.
The stage of repentance may have different forms. It is rather like when a young man attains maturity and the desire for the female sex makes its appearance in him: little by little the requirements of love , such as expending time and wealth and self in its pursuit enter into his heart, so many varied indications of his love appear. In reality, however, love appears in man in one and the same form, and merely produces all these different conditions which, in view of their common origin, the intellect considers as one.
In the same way, when a man's carnal self is subjugated and it accepts the control of the heart and intellect, so many different states appear, all of which the wise have subsumed under the name of "repentance". Thus the stage of repentance is one, but it bears many fruits and states.
In subjugating the self, the heart is assisted by four factors: eating little, sleeping little , speaking little, and associating little with others. It is just as one would whip and goad a restive horse into submission.
from The Altaf al-Quds of Shah Waliullah
Shah Waliullah of Delhi
TRANSLATED BY G. N. JALBANI
REVISED AND EDITED BY David Pendlebury
The Sacred Knowledge is regarded as a fundamental text in both East and West by students of Sufi thought. Through Professor Jalbani’s rendering, the book shows how the 18th century mystic of Delhi discharged his task. In Waliullah’s own words, ‘The purpose behind writing this discourse is that only those problems pertaining to perception and the mystical unveiling are mentioned.’
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