translated & edited by G.N. Jalbani and David Pendlebury (Octagon Press 1982)
The meaning of sincerity is a correspondence between outward and inward. This refers to the truthfulness of states, not the truthfulness of words. It can come into existence only when the constitution of the heart is sound, and the heart compels the body to move according to its instructions. There is a well known saying: "When your heart submits, so also will your limbs."
The heart rules over the bodily members and by virtue of its love, it modifies their patterns of behavior. When this quality becomes innate in the heart and is maintained for a long time in close association with perpetual service, then a stage is created between these two attributes, and that stage is known as sincerity.
As a result, the disciple's body becomes submissive and he begins to show courtesy and deference in his speech and to treat all those who are associated with the Beloved as his own respected friends...
When perpetual service has been achieved it is then necessary for the spiritual guide to propound the value of training the bodily members and looking after them carefully so that through repeated practice the heart should progress by way of obedience to a positive love of such training, until eventually the door is opened.
The term passion is used to describe the preoccupation of the heart with various states such as shame, grief, repentance, aversion for the world; and it is implicit in this notion that the bodily members are likewise controlled by such preoccupations. When through perpetual service both this capacity and that of sincerity are created in a man, and the spirits of the heart are somewhat reduced in stature, then the various states which ensue may be attributed to god.
Because one's attention is turned towards god and because of the diminished stature of the spirits of the heart, it becomes more difficult to ward off these states; and the bodily members become more passive. As a result, fainting and other deranged actions are observed. This or that particular transport of passion represents a state; while the capacity for such transports, which is permanently fixed in the individual represents a stage. This stage is attained by eating less, remaining plunged in grief and awe, and turning one's back on finery, comfort and excitement.
The rapture of passion is further facilitated by the avoidance of association with other people, especially those who deny the existence of such a state; or at very least one should feel ashamed for such people.
At this point, however, there is a widespread error to which those who are unacquainted with passion fall prey. This mistake they make is this: even without the discipline of perpetual service or the imbuing of the intellect with conviction, the human temperament is susceptible to delicious melodies and well-measured cadences and is moved by them in precisely the same way that animals are.
This phenomenon is then considered an important affair and counted as one of the stages of the saints. Not a bit of it: god forbid! What would be the attraction of a stage which is common to both man and the animals?
But when the human intellect is wedded to perpetual service, it then remains to be seen whether the resultant offspring inclines more to the lower or to the higher faculty.
Patience, too , also depends on firmness of heart and is born from the union between this firmness and perpetual service. It is attained in the same way as the other stages. namely, when the intellect gains control over the heart and supports it whenever a show of patience is required. In addition one may bear in mind the reward reserved for the patient and the disgrace of the impetuous.
Trust is of two kinds. On the one hand, there is reliance on the promise of God which arises when divine inspiration or revelation filters through to the intellect from above in such a way as there is no possibility of doubt. But then there is a vice which resembles trust and which has commonly been confused with it. This vice manifests itself either in rashness and disregard for the consequences of one's acts, or else indulgence in luxury and neglecting all thought of livelihood for its sake.
Piety means abiding by the limits of holy law.
Love for the signs of god means that one should love... everything relating to God, including his saints. Some people call this love "annihilation in the prophet" or " annihilation in the spiritual guide".
Magnanimity and freedom signify that the heart is impervious to the impulses of the self, such as impetuosity, greed, and impatience.
The later Sufis, particularly those of the Naqshbandi school, detected yet another state of the heart and brought it to perfection. The ancient mystics were not familiar with this type of state, even though on rare occasions and in a haphazard way, something of that state also appeared in them.
I am referring to the impression which is made on the mind of the disciple-- the impression of a sublime objective.
To elaborate on this in greater detail: the minds of certain men have been invested with such a degree of aggressive and dominating energy, that whoever comes into their sphere of attention, appears by contrast to be inferior and of small account and is dominated and intimidated by them. If such a dominant individual comes into close contact with someone, then his own state of pleasure or grief invades that person.
Men vary in their power of dominance : some possess it absolutely ; some do not possess it at all; while there are others whose power of dominance lies somewhere in between. This power generally appears when some such transaction as a discussion, an argument or a quarrel is taking place. The contagious effect of joy and grief is habitually associated with an interchange of some sort, or with some expression indicative of that emotional condition. Consequently, people do not recognize this as being an independent faculty separate from the rest; and thus they have no particular mental picture of its form and properties.
When someone becomes engaged in perpetual service and the various attributes of the heart, such as love, passion and longing, arise in him quite independently of anything said or done-- nor is any need felt for such a connection-- then this property of dominance, too, pervades all these attributes and takes up its allotted place among them.
Then, when such a person, imbued with this quality of dominance, turns his attention to a pupil and captivates his soul by virtue of his own aspiration and views his pupil's heart and intellect in the light of that aspiration, he is able to pour whatever attribute he chooses, such as love or conviction, into his pupil's mind. This is called the "impression of attention" and the "look of acceptance" .
... the act of attention coupled with the power of dominance which can infuse the student with one of the praiseworthy attributes is a blessing of immense value.
Stages of the Intellect
When the seeker passes beyond the stage of certitude which is associated with words and prayer exercises, beyond the stage of reverence for words and sounds, then it often happens that his perceptive and imaginative faculties begin to serve him. They fashion an image which has neither shape nor color nor dimension and provide conviction with an analogy by which to explain that image in detail. It is like the bond of affection by means of which the falcon, once released, may be brought back to its perch.
In some minds, certainty merely elaborates itself into an imaginary form. This is known as a representational illumination and can occur in either a waking or sleeping state. Revelation sometimes encounters an astonishing capacity to produce certain characteristic letters, movements, gestures and so on. These properties are sometimes of lasting effect and sometimes only characteristic of a certain stage. In order to acquire a detailed understanding of this subject it is extremely useful to disengage oneself from brutish nature and fix one's attention on the inferior angels....
At this point, popular mystics have fallen into a serious error, in that they have failed to understand the difference between subjective association and objective meaning. Association may be understood in this way: When a mystic hears a verse from he Quran or a tradition of the Prophet, his mind may switch to a form of knowledge which is other than the conventional meaning inferred by means of the commentary on the text and the illusions contained in it. In the case of an interior monologue, one thought attracts another, one thing recalls another. Such shifts of thought can occur both in sleep and the waking state....
There are also other shifts which may sometimes be interior monologue, sometimes the insinuations of the devil, and sometimes the promptings of the intellect. But in the case of the gnostic, all of this may serve as a real inspiration and a true education. Association is the product of the stage which the mystic has reached and the words which he hears... it arises through the intimate association of the listener's developmental stage with the words he hears . The main point about association is the transference of understanding, not the particular modes of expression. ... [The art of association] is an excellent and extensive science.
When the seeker has completed the purification of the self, the heart and the intellect and has gained the benefits accruing from this, the next requirement is the purification yet again of the self, this time in conjunction with the spirit and the secret faculty. The previous purification of the self was of a different type from that which is now required...
... the mischief perpetrated by the self is of two kinds: In the first instance, the individual pursues his own requirements, whether these be the natural desires of his temperament or those of his aggressive self. Hence, his intellect and his heart are disturbed and much of his time is spent getting tainted by these vices. The remedy for this is that the intellect should control the heart and the heart should rule over the self. From the combination of these two forms of control, the various developmental stages should result.
In the second case , the self has now forgotten its own requirements -- its carnal and aggressive desires. Search as you may, you will no longer find in the self any image of a beloved or any delight in sexual pleasures and however much you investigate you will not find in it any sign of love of dignity, or greed for wealth.
And yet a black pall of smoke rises up from the self which blots out the face of both the spirit and the secret; a cloud of dust is stirred up which soils these two mirrors. A bitterness proceeds from the self which spoils the sweet taste of the spirit and the secret. No matter how diligently he may search for the origin of that dust cloud, he cannot understand what it is; however much he applies his intellect, he is unable to work out where it came from. But the discerning gnostic is well aware that all of this is the work of the self whose viciousness never decreases even for a moment and that nowhere is there any respite to be found from the struggle against it.
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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