by Shaykh Hisham Al Qabbani

The Opening of the Heart

aving attained the level of disciple, the seeker knows the Truth of Certainty. When the Saints of God witness that the seeker has reached enlightenment by passing the ten steps to discipleship, they will dress him or her with six powers. These are not powers that come from an external source, but rather they are unveiled from within the heart of the disciple. When they are opened, he will find himself dressed with them.

A light may be entirely concealed within a room that has no opening to the outside. However, if a door or window is opened, the light shines forth. If the room is filled with light, light will come out. If it is filled with smoke, smoke will come out.

Imagine that a piece of burning coal is placed with a great quantity of incense inside a container. If the container is small and the heat very intense, the fragrance of perfume erupts like a volcano when the container is opened. When a volcano erupts, it explodes up in the air hundreds of feet, spreading lava and ash everywhere, taking everything with it. A similar reaction occurs in the heart of a disciple after he passes the ten levels.

His heart is that small container with a fire burning inside. The perfumed lava is the love that rose in him from the Love of God, the Prophet  and the shaykh—the love that comes from annihilation in them. The intensity of the love in his heart and the immensity of the six powers in his heart explode into his surroundings, releasing that lava of love upon everything he touches. By permission of the Saints of God, and especially the shaykhs of the distinguished

Naqshbandi Order, these powers appear and thus many miracles may be performed. However, the shaykhs do not approve of showing miracles. They do not like to show off. They conserve divine blessings in order to help others, either in an indirect way, or in the grave during the angelic questioning.

At that point, when the angels ask such questions as “Who is your Lord?” and “Who is your prophet?” the disciple trembles with fear. Then the Naqshbandi Shaykh uses the Divine Power God has granted to him to loosen the student’s tongue, so that he can give the correct answer. That is when the student needs the Shaykh the most. He will also need the Shaykh to present him to the Prophet Muhammad as his follower, and to request the Prophet’s intercession for him. Only true saints have access to the Prophet Not everyone has access.

Those who have access to the Prophet take their miracles to him, and so the disciples of the Naqshbandi shaykhs are prevented from outwardly displaying their power. Other orders are different; they have their own way. 

If these six powers of the heart are suppressed by the bad characteristics of the ego, they will never be released. The ego’s selfishness cannot accept anyone except itself, not even the shaykh.

Saying, "I am your Lord, Most High".

The ego’s ultimate aim is to overthrow God’s dominion of the heart and for the ego to proclaim itself as lord. The ego wants to ride and control you, and it is able to suppress these powers in your heart. You cannot release them until you pass the ten steps of the disciple. Then it is as if you have been granted the highest level of clearance, for each of the ten steps is like a new level of security clearance.

For certain government services, you require security clearance. For example, while most people who work in the Department of Labor do not need such clearance because their regular duties are not sensitive in nature, many of those in the Department of Defense do. Without such clearance, you may only access unclassified areas. High-level government jobs require high levels of clearance. Applicants must be examined carefully before receiving this high-level clearance. Their family history and criminal records are examined, along with anything else that might make the candidate a risk. This information affects the level of clearance they are eligible to receive. Depending on the level of clearance, this research might go back as far as the age of five years.

The same is true in spirituality. When the disciple has achieved these ten levels, he is cleared to access classified materials. At that time, the disciple can access the six powers of the heart, powers that are found in the heart of every human being, without discrimination. Until you access them, these six powers are pressurized by the ego. The tyranny of the self is able to oppress you. All of this power that God put in your heart becomes suppressed in a small and narrow place, due to the very high pressure of selfishness and satanic influence. 

The pressurized place that holds these powers is a black clot in the heart.  

When you have achieved clearance through progress, that place becomes easy to open. When that pressurized clot is opened, it is like aerosol releasing a nice fragrance. Like the volcano, the heart containing these powers erupts, spreading love.

The six powers are of the heart are:

v      The Reality of Attraction (Haqiqatu ’l-jadhbah)

v      The Reality of Down pouring (Haqiqatu ’l-fayd)

v      The Reality of Focusing (Haqiqatu ’t-tawajjuh)

v      The Reality of Intercession (Haqiqatu ’t-tawassul)

v      The Reality of Guidance (Haqiqatu ’l-irshad)

v      The Reality of Scrolling (Haqiqatu ’t-tayy)

Every newborn child has these six powers, because every child is born innocent. The light of innocence is lost throughout life. God does not take it away; it is suppressed and pushed down into the heart as the child grows progressively farther away from his divine reality. A child may be raised by his parents in a situation contrary to his inherent innocence (fitrah). How severe the suppression of this light becomes depends on how the child is raised and how much the child is spoiled. As the child grows into adulthood, he or she may suddenly realize the importance of balancing the inner and outer dimension of his life, in order to release the spiritual power buried within them.

Maintaining balance becomes an integral part of the seeker’s discipline. It is very important to have the inward and the outward in harmony. A person’s outer behavior must match their inner reality, or else the six powers cannot be opened. In that case, they will continue to struggle.

When someone tries to disguise the disparity between their inner and outer realities, they make their outward demeanor appear noble to others. That person may claim to have permission to represent a saint and give guidance, or they may claim to have had a dream and received permission from the Prophet to guide people. Others may say, “I don’t need a dream. I received permission by direct telepathy from the Prophet to give guidance to people.” These are people whose pride and arrogance forces them to pretend they are leaders. Everyone has a different ego problem, but these are examples of polishing one’s outside while the inside remains bad. Such a person is a hypocrite and a liar. He is like someone whose inner core is iron, completely dark and cold, but who coats it with silver. That person has a heart that is silver-plated. If you knew that, you would never buy what he is selling. You would discard it because you would then know that you had been cheated. Others look and buy it because they are fooled and think that what is only silver-plated is really silver.

How many Shaykhs do we have like that around the world today, pretending to be something they are not? They are going to be questioned by God about how they cheated and deceived people. That is why a shaykh must be very careful to always say, “I am nothing.” If you do not know about something, admit that you do not know.

There was once was a son of a great shaykh who, when his father died, began to also don the garb of a shaykh so that everyone would come to him for advice. He never admitted, “I am not a scholar.” When people would come to him with a problem, he would nod his head as if contemplating the answer and say, “hmmm.” The student would wait and then ask, “What is the answer, O shaykh?” He usually responded, “There are two opinions on that.” Everyone was impressed by this answer and would never bother to find out what those two opinions were. They would hear this and go. However, one of the clever ones knew that the man was a charlatan. He asked the man a question in front of others, to which he gave his usual response, saying again, “There are two opinions.” This time, however, the answer exposed him, for the question that had been put to him was, “Is there any doubt in God’s existence?” 

This is an example of the state of scholars today. Do not fall into that trap of lying, or being a hypocrite. Do not be silver-plated, or you will be lost. Do not give lectures on the love of the Prophet  or on remembrance of the Divine when, in reality, you know nothing about these things. So many are like this; do not be fooled.

While the silver-plated person has an inner identity that is ugly, but maintains a nice exterior, there also people who do everything they can to clean their inner-selves, but who fail to improve their external appearance. Such a person may say, “I know that my appearance is ugly, but what can I do? At least my inner character is good. I do not lie. I might make mistakes, but I am careful not to do anything wrong.” This person has an interior that is silver, and an exterior that is iron. He is iron-plated. He is humble, and he does not cheat. He says, “I belong with the shoes that are left at the door. I know nothing.”

However, the best people are those who have polished their interior and their exterior completely. Such a person is one of the Righteous ones (siddiq). That person is not even like silver, but is like gold—inwardly and outwardly unchanging. That is the perfect one. That is what you achieve when you move through these ten steps of discipleship, clearing one level and then another, and manage to make your inner and outer realities equal. At that time, the volcano of the heart erupts to release the six powers, and the fragrance of them comes out.

As soon as you smell this fragrance, you begin to see what people cannot see and hear what people cannot hear. By smelling the fragrance of a flower, the bee can travel very great distances to reach what it needs and return. What makes the bee unique is that it receives inspiration, unlike any other creature. When the fragrance of the six powers opens, all kinds of inspiration will come to you and these powers will dress your external reality.

Decoding of the Realities

he six powers in the heart of the disciple must be decoded by passing the ten levels. A message must be decoded before its information can be read. In spirituality, there are many encoded messages, because we are always confusing messages through our bad actions. To reach the reality of these messages requires decoding. These messages are within the heart, but we have to be able to unlock them.

Once a student came to Sayyidina Bayazid ق and said, “O my shaykh. I was following you all my life. I was learning from you all my life. I never missed an association (suhbat). I never missed a session for remembrance (dhikr). I never missed a prayer. I served you with sincerity and piety, but I am not able to understand these six realities that you are speaking about. I am not seeing them and I am not feeling them.”

Sayyidina Bayazid ق said, “O my son, if you worship 300 years—let alone fifty years—you will never reach these realities, as long as you are carrying your ego with you.”

The disciple asked, “O my shaykh, is there a cure for that ego to be let go?”

The Shaykh said, “Of course, if you are willing to follow that cure.”

He said, “Please, tell me quickly in order that I will be able to cure myself.”

Sayyidina Bayazid al-Bistami ق looked at him, and said, "O my son, in order to get rid of this sickness—and there is no one without it—you have to hang a bag around your neck and fill it with walnuts. Go to where everyone knows you, downtown where the scholars congregate. Go with these walnuts and say, ‘O children of the community, I love you so much. Come. To anyone who slaps my face, I will give one walnut. Anyone who slaps me twice will get two walnuts.’”

This was to humiliate him, to bring his ego down. That disciple was a great scholar, and he was acting according to what he knew. But there are two different types of knowledge: the knowledge of paper and the knowledge of taste. They are very different from each other, the difference between reading about something and really tasting it. Someone who studies medicine must have an internship in order to understand what he has learned from books.

The disciple looked at his shaykh, not believing what he was hearing. He said to his shaykh, “Subhanallah! Glory be to God! Can you say something like this to someone like me?” By this statement, he meant, “I am a great scholar; everyone knows me.” The shaykh said, “Stop! You are committing idolatry (shirk) by praising God in reference to yourself.” For the scholar it was as if the thought of humiliating himself was such an amazement beyond the imagination- comparable to God’s wondrous power and creation.

How far we are from the Truth! How far we are from knowing ourselves! The Prophet said:

Whoever knows himself, knows his Lord.

Make an account of yourself and see if you have this sickness or not. How much ego everyone is carrying! No one can accept anything from anyone else. The ego is difficult, giving itself excuses.

Once there was a student of Sayyidina Jamaluddin al-Ghumuqi al-Husayni ق named Orkallisa Muhammad who spent all his life trying to please his shaykh and be a good follower. He learned how to behave with the shaykh from the preceding story of Sayyidina Bayazid al-Bistami ق and his disciple.

One night, after making dhikr and praying the night prayer, everyone left and the mosque was closed. But Orkallisa Muhammad had hidden himself inside, behind a pillar. He was speaking to himself, like someone who speaks to his reflection in a mirror. In this dialogue, it was as if the body had one voice and the spirit another.

He said, “O Orkallisa Muhammad, you were never able to do anything. You always fail at what you touch. You failed and failed, until finally the shaykh pitied you and gave you money to buy a flock of sheep. You bought so many sheep and raised them until the sacred months arrived, but with every holiday in those months you sacrificed them in the Way of God until none were left. Your shaykh gave you money for the sheep in order for you to earn an income to help the community, but you went and slaughtered them all, and so you failed. Whatever the shaykh gives you to do, you fail.”

He was learning. He knew his self—the self that will destroy human beings. Never trust yourself and let it ride on you; you must ride on your self.

He continued, “O Orkallisa Muhammad, I make an oath that you are the worst of human beings, the lowest that anyone can imagine.” To show the sincerity of his oath, he added, “If I am not saying this with full conviction that I am the worst human being, then my beloved wife is divorced from me.”

With that oath, he was experiencing the reality of humility. He was genuinely accepting that he was the worst of human beings. At that moment, he heard his shaykh laughing, and he looked up and saw him. He said, “O my shaykh, you are here?”

Sayyidina Jamaluddin ق replied, “I was here from the beginning, O my son. Now I can open for you the six powers that are in your heart.”

Today, you have the Palm Pilot, and with its stylus you are able to bring up the information it holds. Such a stylus is not the same instrument that Sayyidina Jamaluddin al-Ghumuqi al-Husayni ق was using, but technology imitates the abilities of spiritual teachers. By moving the Finger of Witnessing in front of the heart of the disciple, the shaykh opened the six realities for him. He was uploading, bringing that information up into the awareness of the disciple. As that information was being decoded, the disciple was ascending and descending in the mosque. He was so very light, for heavenly powers were raising him.

The disciple said, “Is this part of the spiritual path?”

The shaykh replied, “Yes it is, but this does not come to someone until he humbles himself. If he keeps thinking that he is something, then he will never reach the reality that he is asking to learn.”

The taste of this world is going to vanish. When someone is in the grave, after some time the body decomposes. Thus, the taste of this world is also not going to stay forever. Those who try to taste from this world are moved by its difficulties and its temporary pleasures. In reality, it is only a rotting corpse that every dog is trying to take a bite from. This is our situation. Everyone now is fighting for this world.

The saints of God are fighting to reach the next world. In this world, they want the satisfaction of God. Others want the pleasure of the afterlife but they want to get it in this world. Instead of preparing for the next world, they are running after this world and finding its difficulties. When we run after the next world, these six powers will open in our hearts. However, as long as we run after this world, those realities remain rooted in the heart and never open, since they have not been decoded.

 

 

 

 

The Reality of Attraction    (Haqiqatu ’l-Jadhbah)

"Yet when the Servant of God stands forth to invoke Him, they just make round him a dense crowd."

The Reality of Attraction is like a magnet, and the magnet’s power depends upon how much gold has been achieved in your heart, how much fragrance was contained in your heart and how much of it you are able to release. Some disciples can carry more and some carry less, but all will be given that power. Sayyidina Muhammad al-Busiri ق said that either you are taking from the waters of the Prophet with your palm or with a pitcher. This power of attraction is not really how many people are attracted to you, but how much you are attracted to the Prophet , and if you are taking handfuls of knowledge or pitchers of knowledge from him as a true gnostic. As your attraction to that knowledge increases, so do your efforts to bring it from the Prophet’s heart to yours. This knowledge never ends; as saints are taking from the ocean of the Prophet the Prophet is taking from the Divine name the Knower (al-Alim).

And above every knower is a higher knower.

Before the opening of this power, why should people be attracted to you? Should they be attracted because you are this or you are that, holding a position in this world? The attraction of such people is not the Reality of Attraction; it is an imitation of the real power that God gives to his servants for their followers. The attraction given to worldly figures is like a plastic fruit, with no taste. What you see may be attractive, but it is tasteless.

The attraction of the saints of God is for the Prophet , who dresses them with a beautiful fragrance. Because you partake of that fragrance, the eyes of the Prophet will be on you. The mosque should be a place for the best ornaments, and one of the most important ornaments that you use when you go to the mosque is perfume.

The Prophet said:

Lovely to me are three things from your world: women, beautiful fragrance, and the refreshment of my eyes in prayer.

Through the Prophet’s love for them, God has honored women. They are the ones undergoing so much difficulty in this life, and they are the first to enter paradise in the afterlife by the intercession of the Prophet This is not the place to go deeply into interpretation, because the sayings of the Prophet can carry millions of meanings, just as in the Holy Qur’an, each verse can carry billions of meanings. Understanding depends upon how much you are inheriting from the knowledge of the Prophet.

“Prayer” is not from this world; it is from the Next World. But the Prophet  included it in this world to show that it is a means for his Community to be in a better position on Judgment Day.

What do “women” symbolize, if not beauty? When the Prophet includes women, he is describing the Manifestation of beauty (Tajalli al-jamal). God dressed the Prophet with the Reality of beauty (Haqiqatu ’l-jamal), the appearance of His Attributes.

The Prophet said:

God is beautiful and He loves beauty.

When the Prophet says, “I love women,” it means that he loves beauty. That is why saints often pray, “O God, allow us to marry the women of Paradise.” They are asking to be dressed by God’s Beauty, to which the beauty of the inhabitants of Paradise cannot compare. The Prophet went to the mosque dressed by His Beautiful Attributes, with beautiful characteristics.

Beautiful fragrance is from a heavenly source, and the highest fragrance is in the heart. The perfume that is pressurized in the heart is beautiful, and it is that fragrance that the Prophet was dressed with when he went to the mosque to pray.

When the Station of Attraction is opened, this beauty will begin to appear on you; the fragrance blowing from the heart like a volcano will ornament you, and then you will attract the sight of the Prophet. We say, “Give us a glance from your vision, (O Messenger of God).” A glance from him turns the sinner into one who repents, and raises you higher and higher. The Prophet can do this because he was given Intercession. If he sees goodness, he praises God, and if he sees otherwise, he asks forgiveness.

When you bring a magnet to a nail, the nail is attracted. You are a nail, nothing more than that. There are silver-plated nails today, like plastic professors and lecturers, and there are those neither silver-plated nor gold-plated, but pure gold; all are nails. When you pass the ten levels, you become a magnet, like the nail that has been rubbed by a magnet becomes a magnet.

Prophet Muhammad said:

When a group of people sit in a gathering to remember God, then His mercy covers them.

Who is His Mercy, mentioned in this Prophetic Tradition? God called Sayyidina Muhammad the Forgiving, Merciful one, Ra’ufun, Raheem. He gave him the power to look at people, and that is why saints stand up when Sayyidina Muhammad is mentioned in a gathering. While some people say not to stand up, in reality we are obliged to stand up at every moment, as we would in the presence of his Noble Tomb. His description of mercy as covering people means not only that it surrounds and encompasses, but also that it rubs. When people are remembering God, angels are rubbing people and dressing them from their angelic attire, like a magnet rubbing a nail. Then, because of your fragrance and beauty, the Prophet will look at you, and he will dress you with mercy. When he dresses you, you become someone who attracts others. You become a focal point to whom all are drawn, like a spotlight or searchlight, you become a beacon so that people can see. You become like a beacon that guides vessels in the ocean and in the air, a light in dark nights.

 

 

 

 

 

The Reality of Down pouring     (Haqiqatu ’l-Fayd)

And when they listen to the revelation received by the Messenger, thou wilt see their eyes overflowing with tears.

When you become a beacon, you must be filled with knowledge, or else what kind of beacon will you be? You must be filled by the reality of Downpouring, Fayd. Sometimes fog comes over a mountain and is something that continuously moves, covering everything. Such a fog is not something that stops; rather it is always rolling and moving, rolling and moving. Some goes and more comes. In South Africa there is a high mountain in Cape Town where this may be seen. That is what is called Fayd, a rolling power that descends from heavens.

If someone possess the Reality of Divine Downpouring (Fayd al-ilahi), there is more that comes than is already present, and it is always coming. Knowledge (ilm) is always coming. God gave knowledge to the Prophet – the Holy Qur’an. From the Prophet’s heart to the heart of the disciple will be sent the Divine Downpouring; through his shaykh it will be dressing him, and he will be raised higher and higher in knowledge. “And above every knower is a higher knower.” Where the disciple is raised depends upon his level.

The Downpouring increases our powers, and brings you, as Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili ق said, to the level of someone who has dropped this world from his eyes, and looks only for the Next World. But the Downpouring doesn’t come unless four manners are present:

1.      Respect for elders (al-hurmat li ’l-akabir). Here “elders” means the Saints of God, those granted to be sages. You have to respect them. The literal meaning of “elders” is also present.

2.      Mercy for the younger (ar-rahmat li ’l-asaghir). You have to have mercy for those who are beginners, and who are lovers. Do not have the look of superiority. Remember when Bayazid al-Bistami ق  tested his disciples, and they all ran away, except for one. When Bayazid ق approached him, he said, “O my shaykh, I have prepared water for you.” Sayyidina Bayazid ق said, “Where are your fellow disciples?” He said, “O my shaykh, I was busy for you; I did not notice.” Do not belittle those who have love, or look at them with disgust, but respect them.

3.      Be fair to yourself (al-insaf min nafsih). Be fair in blaming yourself. If your ego did something wrong, you have to punish yourself. If your ego made a mistake, you must make it go without eating and drinking, so that the next day it will not make the same mistake.

4.      Never give yourself an excuse (Adm al-intisari laha). There is no excuse for the ego. You must bring the ego down always, to make sure it cannot dominate you.

To achieve the Divine Downpouring you have to carry these four manners.

God said to Prophet David ¡, “O David, say to My sincere servants not to see themselves as great or knowledgeable, for if I judge them with My Balance, I would punish them without being unjust.”

The Prophet said:

If your sins reach to the sky and you repent, God would forgive you.

 

 

 

The Reality of Focusing    (Haqiqatu ’t-Tawajjuh)

 

The Reality of Focusing is the secret of these verses:

From whence so ever Thou startest forth, turn Thy face in the direction of the sacred Mosque; that is indeed the truth from the Lord. And God is not unmindful of what ye do.

Wherever you are, you must direct your face towards the Kahba; but this can be understood together with the verse:

To God belong the East and the West: Whithersoever ye turn, there is the presence of God. For God is all-Pervading, all-Knowing.

So the Kabah is where you direct your face, and where God is present. It is the most sacred mosque, where sins are prohibited. The secret of directing your face (sirr at-tawajjuh) is in focusing on that place where no sin is going to be committed. The Reality of Focusing means that you only direct your face where no one can commit sins. It is forbidden to direct your face anywhere else.

You must be on a sacred journey at all times, as if you are facing the Kabah, as if you are facing God. Your journey cannot be on the television; it cannot be in movie theatres; it cannot be accomplished by wasting time. If you desire to reach that reality, if you want to say, “I am a disciple,” then you must follow the way of the disciple. You cannot say, “I am a student,” and then do whatever you like to do. Then you are a student who is ignorant (jahl), and knowledge (ilm) is the opposite of ignorance.

In this world you are faced with choosing simple interest or compound interest. Loan sharks, all are cheating you. You are buying houses with compound interest, and so you may pay interest only for many years. There is also simple ignorance and compound ignorance. Simple ignorance is when you have ignorance of things, when you are ignorant in the affairs of life. If you are judged to be ignorant in business, in science, or in planting fields, does it really matter? Compound ignorance is when you are ignorant in the way of God, and that is dangerous. Compound ignorance accumulates, when sins upon sins are written for you. When you have compound ignorance, you know that you are doing something wrong, but still you insist on doing it. Simple ignorance relates only to this world. Your ignorance of how to make a chair does not count against you, but it is dangerous to not know how to pray.

When you have achieved the ten levels of disciple, and the Realities of Attraction and of Downpouring are bestowed upon you, you are dressed with heavenly decorations like a rainbow of beautiful colors. Then God directs you to His Face.

 

From any place, the Saints of God are seeing the divine presence, unlike common people.

With the Reality of Focusing, a person becomes a sign from among the Signs of God, a Sign of God moving upon the earth. When you move with that power, by directing yourself to God’s Face, by His permission and power and by the Prophet’s power and permission, you can reach anyone by telepathy, from heart to heart. Now dressed by God with that power, you may look after your followers, and guide them through their lives. Saints are ordered by a heavenly order coming from the Prophet to look at their disciples at least three times a day, and when they look at you they have to navigate. Today you navigate the Internet. There are also saints navigating a heavenly Internet, directing their disciples wherever they want.

There are higher and higher examples of this power. When we were young, my brother and I had traveled from Beirut to Damascus to visit Grandshaykh Abd Allah al-Fa'iz Daghestani ق without our mother’s permission, and the shaykh stopped us at the door and turned us away. We ran from his majesty. We returned the next day with permission, and Grandshaykh sent his servant to open the door for us. The previous day he showed us that he knew we were coming. When we went in, he explained that when saints look at their disciples, they do not give them sweets to make them feel happy. To make someone happy is easy. They look at them to create difficulties for them. When disciples carry difficulties, saints take from them their burdens and make them clean. If they don’t carry them, saints ask forgiveness on their behalf to make them clean.

Every time you face a difficulty, it is like a puzzle. Be sure to say, “My shaykh is testing me now, my Prophet is testing me now, God is testing me now. Now that my shaykh is looking at me, how will I keep myself?” Do not move like a windmill, which turns when the wind comes. Be like a pine tree; winter and summer it is green.

The ability to reach the first level of sainthood is given with the Reality of Focusing.

• At that time the Truth of Spirits (Haqiqat al-arwah) can be reached,

• beyond the Truth of Hearts (Haqiqat al-quloob) and

• the Truth of Secrets (Haqiqat al-asraar).

• When the fragrance comes with the Reality of Downpouring, you can direct that beautiful fragrance. The shaykh is able to communicate with his disciple. The disciple will begin to have a receiver, and he will pick up with it where the shaykh is directing him, and undertake his journey “to the presence of God” and “in the direction of the sacred Mosque.” When you reach the Reality of Focusing, you can communicate with anyone you want - without a cellular phone.

Fifty years ago, before phones were so readily available, I witnessed the famous Shaykh Ahmad Haroun of Damascus display this power. He was sitting with his followers, and needed something from one of his disciples in Aleppo, hundreds of miles away. Shaykh Ahmad Haroun unfastened his belt and lifted it to his mouth, and said, “Hello, I want you here. Bring the book that I need.” Then he hung up his belt. Five hours later there was a knock. When the door was opened, that disciple was there. He said, “O my shaykh, you called me and I brought you the book.”

How did Shaykh Ahmad Haroun do that? The disciple can hear the shaykh, and for Shaykhs this communication is simple, as for us normal people today communicating by cell phones is so ordinary. Technology of today is following the spiritual technology that has been present in all human beings but is manifested in those who are trained and given permission to use it.  You may have a cell phone but you need the cellular provider to give you access to the network, otherwise your phone is a useless piece of plastic. Once you have an agreement with one of these huge cellular companies you may begin to use their service. Similarly when the student is given initiation by the shaykh his chip is now linked to the shaykh’s. When the shaykh activates the code more and more powers of the heart may be opened. Such wondrous powers may be seen throughout the centuries even dating back to the Companions of the Prophet. (as illustrated in the incident of Umar ibn al-Khattab ¦ seeing and speaking all the way from Madina to Damascus in the chapter on the Reality of Scrolling described on page 227).  However, saints do not value such things more than knowledge. Knowledge is more important.

 

 

 

The Reality of Intercession  (Haqiqatu ’t-Tawassul)

Who is there can intercede in His presence except as He permitted?

None shall have the power of intercession, but such a one as has received permission (or promise) from (God) Most Gracious.

When you are established in the power of focusing, the Saints of God dress you with a higher power, the Reality of Intercession. [ Permission for Healing ]

With this reality you can intercede for people, inheriting as much of this secret as you can from the Prophet  Your inheritance depends upon your container. You may take as much as your heart can carry, but all saints may take from a single drop. The Prophet’s intercession is so vast that one drop is like an ocean. It is enough to drown the whole world. All saints are swimming in a single drop of intercession. Think about how much power God gave to the Prophet for interceding on Judgment Day. We are like babies in diapers.

You cannot understand the knowledge of the Saints of God, how they are swimming in that drop. How are you going to understand the reality of Prophet Muhammad ? Today, books are written about the Prophet , but they contain only the “knowledge of papers” (ilm al-awraq).

It is God’s overwhelming Mercy that will suffice for humankind’s salvation on the most dreaded day. And the embodiment of God’s Mercy is the God Messenger Muhammad r, whom He described in the Holy Qur’an as:

a Mercy for all creatures.

It is therefore our hope in the Prophet’s r intercession that is our firmest foothold in the Hereafter, not dependence on deeds, whose sincerity and perfection are undoubtedly lacking. It is only through the Mercy of God, as perfectly embodied in the person of His Beloved Prophet r that we can rest assured of safety and deliverance:

on the Day in which hearts and eyes will be overturned

The Prophet said:

I myself am the Beloved of God (Habibullah) and I say this without pride, and I carry the flag of glory on the Day of Judgment and am the first intercessor and the first whose intercession is accepted

And God’s Messenger r said:

My intercession is for the grave sinners of my community.

That power granted to the Prophet r is inherited by his spiritual successors, the saints (Awliya'ullah). The Reality of Intercession means that, in making prostration, the saint will not raise his head until his follower gains “clearance.” A person working in government cannot see classified material without clearance. In spirituality, you need “clearance” to reach “classified” material. That “clearance” comes from being clean, and the shaykh cleans you in that prostration. In that prostration, they bring all their followers and present them clean to the Prophet . For the saints of God, this is the reality of interceding for their followers.

God's Messenger r said:

None amongst you can get into Paradise by virtue of his deeds alone.

Even the good deeds of the seekers on the Way require intercession, for due to our ignorance, whatever we perform of good actions is marred by many forms of wrongdoing, secreted within them. That is why intercession is also needed by the follower of a saint for every deed he or she performs. Thus in their nightly prostration, with the Power of the Reality of Intercession, saints intercede for their followers seeking not only forgiveness for their misdeeds, but also interceding in order that their good deeds and worship will be purified, “perfumed” and presented to the spiritual presence of the Prophet . At that time—having been adorned by the spiritual power of the shaykh—the follower’s deeds and worship become acceptable in the Divine Presence.

One of the great saints, Khwajah Ubaidullah al-Ahrar ق, had a follower who reached such a level. He passed the ten steps and so had become more than a lover (muhib), more than a beginner on the Path (mubtadi) and more than one of the prepared ones (musta¿id). The first three powers had already been opened to him. He was experiencing the Reality of Intercession, and in that reality he saw that his shaykh was written among the people of Hellfire. He was amazed. He thought, “It might be that he is doing something wrong that I do not know.”

How could Hellfire be written for your Shaykh? At the first opportunity, Satan comes to the mind. Because of this, the disciple may see something done by the shaykh and think that it is a blameworthy innovation. If you do not understand something the shaykh does, admit to yourself that you are not yet in a position to understand, for Satan is always digging in our minds to bring out a bad smell.

That disciple saw on the Preserved Tablet (Lawh al-Mahfoudh) that his beloved shaykh was destined for Hellfire. So the disciple went into prostration every night and every day, praying, “O my Lord, take him from Hellfire and take him to Paradise.” After one year, he raised his head one day and saw that his shaykh’s name was taken from Hellfire to Paradise. He was very happy to have achieved his goal, and went to his shaykh to tell him the good news. Look at his arrogance! He went to the door of the shaykh, and all the disciples were there, sitting with discipline, majestic. Today we do not, since we are pampered babies. As soon as he entered, the shaykh—sitting with majesty—looked at him and said, “If you do not go back and return my name to where it was before, I will break you in half and you will not be my follower. Do not return until you change it back.” He saw his sickness. The disciple, when given a little miraculous power, imagined himself to be higher than the shaykh.

For one year he made prostration in the morning and in the evening. It took him one year to bring his shaykh’s name back to Hellfire, and he was so happy to see it there. He went back to the shaykh who was sitting with his disciples, and they were all in perfect discipline, unlike today. The shaykh told him, “Twenty-five years ago I reached the level you reached today, and I saw my name in Hellfire. I saw my name there, but I keep worshipping. Hell is Paradise for me if He wants to put me there. Every movement is by His Will. Training disciples for twenty-five years, I have seen it there and I never asked for it to be changed, although I am able to do so.”

Bayazid al-Bistami ق asked God to put him in Hell with a body large enough to fill it all, and his request was accepted. He wanted to sacrifice himself for the good of all humanity occupying all of Hell and blocking anyone else from entering. With their love for all creation, God’s saints may use the Reality of Intercession to save people from difficulties and punishment.

 

 

 

 

 

The Reality of Scrolling    (Haqiqatu ’t-Tayy)

Scrolling the Dimensions of Space

The Day that We roll up the heavens like a scroll rolled up for books (completed),- even as We produced the first creation, so shall We produce a new one: a promise We have undertaken: truly shall We fulfill it.[21]

The reality of tayy, literally “to roll up” and reduce, is a jewel. When it is given, it is an ornament that enables disciples to scroll all over the world by means of the sacred formula, “In the name of God, most Beneficent, most Munificent” (bismillahi ’r-rahmani ’r-raheem). When disciples receive that jewel, they can move as they like in the dimensions of space. Because they suffered so much, God is generous with them. The spirit becomes free from the cage of the body. The bodily cage is heavy, pulled by gravity; the spirit is light, because it is heavenly. With that jewel, the soul is liberated, and the body is put inside the spirit. Then, like a rocket, the spirit can transport the body.

The spirit moves faster than the speed of light. Light moves at 300,000 kilometers per second. When the

1. use of thought (tafkeer, muraqabah) is purified, with nothing to disrupt it, it moves at greater speed.

2. The mind can reach the sun in one second.

3. The speed of the heart is faster still; the way to move through the heart is far stronger. Energy can move anything. A small engine can lift the heaviest loads. Now vehicles use fuels relating to the earth that are transformed by their seclusion deep underground. The spirit is related to heavens. God knows what that energy is.

Why do we look at the power of the spirit as non-functional? You can make use of it, by using the power developed by saints. When they travel, the spirit contains the body until they arrive, and the body emerges. We can accept this process with an airplane, even though centuries ago it would not have seemed possible. To accept this spiritual process requires a foundation of belief in the Unseen.

Using the energy of the spirit, a person may be at home and may move at the same time to Makkah. Witnesses may report their presence in Makkah, though they can respond, “No, I was here in the house.” Others may say, “You were in India.” High-level saints are able to be in 12,000 places at one time. Low-level saints can move and appear in two or three places at the same time.

When saints move through Oceans of knowledge, they also move their followers. Wild geese migrate in flocks, and they move for months, from one continent to another. So the shaykh will move, moving his disciples with him in flocks. He cannot leave his disciples behind when he approaches the presence of the Prophet. If he did, the Prophet would say, “Where are your disciples? I gave to you for the sake of those following you.” The saint without his people is not a saint. Who is the Prophet without his Community? A person must bring his flock with him, for the Prophet said:

Each of you is a shepherd, and each one is responsible for his flock: The leader is shepherd of his nation and accountable for them; the man is shepherd of the family of his house and accountable for them; the servant is responsible for the wealth of his master and accountable for it; and the woman is shepherd for the home of her husband and accountable for it.

For the Prophet , not only is his Community coming for Intercession, but all prophets from Adam ¡ go to him also. Every human being belongs to his Community.

The Reality of Scrolling moves mountains in space. Do not doubt it. With the space shuttle, some 2,500 tons of metal are going up and moving in space. If this is by the power of ordinary people, what about the power of the Friends of God? To them belongs the reality of scrolling universes, universes of knowledge.

God’s first order to Prophet Muhammad was “Read!”  The Prophet asked, “What am I going to read?” Iqra, “read,” can here be understood as “read these vibrations.” “Read in the name of your Lord who created,” means, “I created that from the Ocean of Power, Bahr al-Qudrah. Read that, O Muhammad. I am giving you the secret way to read creation. Read it and learn it. I am giving you that permission. I am giving you a language that encompasses all languages.” That is why the Prophet could hear the angel Gabriel when he revealed the Qur’an to him. What Gabriel gave to the Prophet , no one knows. What God gave to Gabriel, no one knows.

This earth is a small planet in this universe, yet it is emitting frequencies. Similarly, the sun is emitting frequencies. Scientists say that there are 80 billion stars in our galaxy alone, and that there are six billion galaxies in this universe. All of them are emitting different frequencies and vibrations. However, as God said in the Holy Qur’an, “you cannot understand their praising.”

As an example, suppose I tap on a microphone. That tapping creates a sound that has a wavelength and the wavelength moves throughout space, throughout the universe, and never dies. Physicists and engineers know this fact. If you have a receiver, you can pick up that wave. If you do not have one, you do not hear it.

We are hearing from billions of years, voices coming from the universe, because we have big receivers. We are hearing some things yet we are not able to hear others. If you have the right equipment, every voice could be heard because waves move around the entire universe.

When the Prophet Muhammad recited from the Holy Quran, that recitation became a wave that is ever-living and does not end. This is true, even from the point-of-view of physics. So, if that voice is there, why can we not hear it? Because there is something wrong with our equipment.

God and His angels send blessings on the Prophet.

They are praising the Prophet. Can you hear it? No. With what kind of sound are they praising? God said that everything is praising Him, but you cannot understand it. That means this praise is by means of voices, and voices means there is a language.  There must be a language of praise then.

Computers also “speak” many different languages, yet they often need to communicate with each other. To facilitate this, programmers developed software that translates one computer language into another, allowing computers that speak different languages to communicate with each other.

If a computer needs to communicate, what about this universe? How can the countless elements of the universe contact and communicate with each other? There must be a “software” for this, not an earthly one, but a heavenly “software” that can understand all the different frequencies and vibrations that God has given every creation in order that they may understand and communicate.

That is why the Prophet Muhammad used to hear the praising of the mountains when he passed them. That means God gave the Prophet Muhammad that “software.” We know from the Qur’an that the mountains were praising in unison with the Prophet David ¡:

… it was Our power that made the hills and the birds celebrate Our praises with David.[28]

This means that God gave those who are eligible to receive such an understanding a very high level of intelligence. For intellectual powers we speak of “intelligence quotient,” or IQ. In spirituality, we do not speak of an IQ in this sense, but rather a spiritual IQ, ma¿rifatullah: gnosis, or consciousness of God. God gave some of His servants this understanding so that they could comprehend what was occurring around them and how the parts of the universe communicated with each other. That is why in a holy Prophetic Tradition, God says:

My servant draws not near to Me with anything more loved by Me than the religious obligations I have enjoined upon him, and My servant continues to draw near to Me with supererogatory works so that I shall love him. When I love him I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes, his foot with which he walks. Were he to ask something of Me, I would surely give it to him. …

“I will be the hearing with which he hears,” means, “I will give him ‘software’ by which he can understand what cannot be understood by others, that will allow him to see what cannot be seen.” He will be able to discern different frequencies, not just ultraviolet or infrared, but other frequencies that scientists do not know about. God will grant him sight and power by which he can see and hear these things. It means, “I will give him a special receiver to hear, by which he will hear what only a saint can hear.” He will hear the voice that people cannot hear because they do not have that opening in their ears. God will give him from that attribute the Hearer, as-Sami, as Sariyya ¦ heard Sayyidina Umar’s ¦ voice from Sham.

Ibn Umar ¦ said that his father, Sayyidina Umar ¦, was delivering a sermon on Friday. In the middle of his sermon, he shouted, “Ya Sariyya, al-jabal! O Sariyya! [look towards] the mountain!” Then he resumed his sermon and said, “He who stole a wolf, he oppressed,” which means, “He who fed and watered the enemy, he committed an act of oppression.”

Some people looked at each other in dismay. Sayyidina Ali ¦ said to them, “He will likely say (something) about this statement.”

When the people had finished the prayer, they asked Sayyidina Umar ¦ about the incident. He said, “The idea crossed my mind that the enemy aggressors had defeated our brethren and they would run towards the mountain. Thus, if the Muslims moved towards the mountain, they would have to fight on one side only, while if they advanced, they would be destroyed. So those words escaped my mouth.”

After a month, a messenger came with good news. He said, “The people of the army heard Sayyidina Umar’s ¦ voice on that day. We all went towards the mountain and God made us victorious.”

That miracle (karama) was a sign that Sayyidina Umar ¦ had two characteristics from true faith: The Reality of Hearing, Ilmal-Yaqeen and the Reality of Seeing, Ayn al-Yaqeen. The first characteristic is like one who has an audio tape. But when you have a video that is stronger—that brings you to the Reality of Certainty, Haqq al-Yaqeen. Sariyya ¦ and his troops were only able to hear from afar. They could not see Sayyidina Umar ¦, whereas Sayyidina Umar ¦ was seeing, hearing and speaking across the vast distance from Madina to Sham.

These people obeyed God and obeyed the Prophet. They truly followed the Sunnah. That “technology” is from 1,400 years ago, the time of the Prophet .  This power is based on the Prophetic Tradition in which God says, “I will be the vision with which he sees.” If you are granted this power, you can see the Prophet. You can see how he is moving, how he is speaking, how he is acting and then you can follow his example. If you cannot do that, then follow those who can. Not everyone can do that, only a few Saints of God can do that, like Sayyidina Abd al-Qadir Jilani ق.

Mawlana Shaykh Nazim ق says that whoever keeps to true spiritual exercises, if he can complete them, there may appear from himself many forms like himself. First, there may be three, then seven, each having the same shape and bodily powers, but each one able to be in a different place. Each one is independent, looking, acting and knowing. This power comes from completing the aforementioned spiritual exercises under the supervision of a Perfect Master (Murshidun Kamil).

Mawlana Shaykh Nazim ق relates:

Bayazid ق once prayed one Friday congregational prayer in 24,000 different places. He told the religious authorities in one place: “I was praying in 12,000 different houses of worship today.”

They asked, “How?”

He said, “By the power of the Lord Almighty. If you do not believe me, send people around to ask.”

They sat and waited until messengers returned, saying that he was seen in so many places. Bayazid ق later said, “I was afraid to say 24,000, so I only said 12,000.”

God says that, when one plants a single grain of wheat, it disappears into the earth and becomes seven ears, each ear with a hundred grains, 700 grains coming from one. If a person gives his body up, accepting to be nothing, God will grant him a body from His Divine Presence. Do not be surprised about God’s actions; He is al-Qadir, The All-Powerful. But no one agrees to be nothing. Everyone is asking to be something, to be, to be, to be, even in religion.

In the Sufi way, too, people desire miracles and heavenly visions. No one likes to be nothing. When agreeing to be nothing, you will be all things. The Palace of Unity is not open to those saying, “We are something.” You must enter into khalwah, seclusion, not thinking to come out finished, addressing to your ego and saying, “Don’t think that you are coming out able to do miracles. I am going to bury you. My shaykh will send the Angel of Death to take your soul.” Then it will be real seclusion. Otherwise, it is only training. For the first condition, the shaykh looks to the disciple to see if desires of the ego are still running in his heart. Ego must be finished there. Then such a person ready for death and all keys to treasures can be entrusted to him.

This body must be taken. Everyone will die. Some may offer themselves to death with their willpower. This does not mean killing oneself, but killing the ego’s desires. Then you are ready for Divine powers.

Let us take the example of magic. There are stage magicians who pull rabbits out of their top hats and use sleight of hand and optical illusions to fool people. But there are also real magicians, who use real magic. Did you not hear that God said in Holy Qur’an that he sent two angels teaching people magic? What is that magic; how does it work?