Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid November 1, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat

Aspects of Spiritual Semiotics and the Malamatiyya Every Moment/Waqt has an Appropriate Response

Bismi-Llāhi-r-Rahmāni-r-Rahīm. Words are extremely important. Words create concepts, obviously; and concepts drive what we think we understand. Usually, what we understand is what we want to understand, because it’s the tree we have decided to stand under. We usually understand things best what we prefer. I think in honor of our Persian heritage, I will speak a little more from the Persian Sufi point of view tonight.

Certain words convey certain meanings. We assume special meanings, which is why linguistics, semiotics, are very important, not just to a scholar, but to one who would understand Tasawwuf, too. To come to the core and meaning of words, as those words are used in an authoritative way, gives us some security in the meaning. If somebody says to you, “Such and such a word means something,” that’s one thing. But if it is said in the Qur’an, either directly or by usage, you should pay a little more attention to it, especially if the words are used in multiple ways. You should try to understand the reason why it is used in one way in one circumstance, and in another way in another circumstance – hence, the complexity of , Farsi, Aramaic, Hebrew, and other sacred languages that tend to be used in places of worship or in complex metaphorical ways.

When we speak of some of these meanings, some could not really be understood because they had a sacredness to them. That sacredness could only be understood if the individuals themselves pursued certain practices that would reveal the meaning, often after the fact. That is to say, one didn’t study in order to get the meaning of something. One studied, and then the meaning was revealed. The terminology became clear; hence, it was with certain words that were only clear by analogy or reference, like the word Sufi. Does it come from suf / wool, or saf/pure? But if you study Tasawwuf, you begin to understand what it means trans-linguistically, in a way. 1

Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid November 1, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat

Another word is , not an easy word to translate. In a way, irfan, as explained by the urufa, is that only those who are initiated into tariqah would understand their ideas. At least in their view, only the urufa were able to understand the concepts because of their study. We would all be surprised at how much we know because of our study, and your experiences on this path for 10, 15, 20, or 40 years. Yet someone just coming onto the path might understand definitions. If you turn your attention to what you really understand, vis a vis how you respond to circumstances (which is why I asked you to do the exercise about watching what you do out of preferences and conditioning), even the ability to reflect upon that demands a certain understanding of terminology. I don’t really mean this terminology; I mean an understanding of what these terms point to.

The urufa, unlike the knowledgeable people of other sciences, arts, social sciences and humanities, have an intention to keep certain levels of the meaning concealed. Not because it’s some secret society or cult, but because a person of real interest will make the effort to learn. The concept or principle of giving away everything, we know has a problem to it. What you give away loses value. Also, the urufa find means to keep meanings concealed by creating various usages for the terminology. Just as in the Qur’an, there are many levels of usages for terminology. The idea is you have a kind of enigma, and you have to solve the problem if you are interested. If you really want to understand, you have to go beyond what is written in the book or defined for you in the common patois / language.

There is also another aspect to spiritual linguistics or semiotics. It is found in the practices of the people of irfan. Some of those people we know are called the Malamatiya. If you are interested in that, read Yannis Tsoulis’s book that came out last year. The Malamatiya adopted certain kinds of ostentation or outward actions that would put people off; or say things that would make people doubt them, or accuse them. Instead of trying to gain a good reputation or name among people, they would try to do the 2

Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid November 1, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat opposite. People who are usually ostentatious do that to try to get attention and a better name, but the Malamati Sufis were trying just the opposite. They would do things to put people off, so that people would not inquire as to who they were and what they knew. There was another aspect to that, which was that by doing that, they had a very short path to the lawwama. They were constantly in a state of self-reproach . In order to be considered acceptable before Allah (swt) and to be unacceptable in the eyes of people was quite a philosophy, quite a mentality. But the inner purpose of that was to cure themselves of ri’ya/ ostentation and to cure themselves of their nafs ammāra. Well, it is not easy to practice that, I guess, unless you are a politician.

The majority of the urufa at the time of classical in Korasan, for example, were malamiya or malamatiya. You can imagine what it was like at that time. Some people even believed that Hafez was Malamatiya, because he used certain words and certain analogies, and he spoke a lot on the subject of giving the impression of doing things that earned people a bad name while being inwardly good and inwardly righteous. Here is an example: He said,

If you are an adherent of the path of love, worry not about bad name. The Shaykh of Shinan had his robe in pawn at a gambling house. Even if I mind the reproaches of claimants, my drunken libertinism would leave me not. The of raw liberties is like a village path. But what good would the thought of reform do to one of world wide ill-fame like me? Through love of wine, I brought myself image to naught, in order to destroy the imprint of self-devotion (the ego). How happily passes the time of a medicant, who in his spiritual journey keeps reciting the name of his Lord, while playing with the beads of his pagan rosary.

However, Hafez (I am reading from the commentary now) condemns the ostentatious cultivation of ill-fame and sanctimonious in the following: “My heart, let me guide you to 3

Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid November 1, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat the path of salvation. Neither boast… nor publicize your piety.” defends the Malamatiya in this way, “Behold, do not despise those of bad name. Attention must be given to their secrets. How often gold had been painted black for fear of being stolen or lost.” In any case, what was common among the urufa allowed them to wrap their concepts and ideas to convey the opposite of what they meant. Now instead of giving you a lesson about these people, I think it is more important for us to try to relate what it means to irfan, what it means to the sayr suluk. What it ultimately means is that in order to receive the highest fayd, the fayd al-aqdas, the effluent grace, the overflowing grace of Allah (swt) or the fayd al-muqdas, the holy, sanctified grace of Allah (swt) in the moment is to be prepared.

To be prepared means not to be distracted; and not to be distracted means to be focused; and to be focused on, always on, that which is not worldly. How do you do that? How do you do that? How do you achieve the rank of the urufa, if you are not Malamati, if you are not running through the streets half naked, or saying terrible things to people, or making a fool of yourself? By the way, the Hindus have a similar group of people, and then you have the masts. They would do things that would be obnoxious in order that they wouldn’t be distracted from their rosary, their japa, their name of God. How do you do that if you are one of us? How do you do that if you are one of the people working in the world, who have this discrimination? I don’t know. Good night. (laughter). That is the real challenge.

So the message behind this message, which Hafez was giving, or Rumi, is not just pointing out these people, saying, “Oh look. There they are. They are Malamatiya.” It is not just entering Khorasan 400, 500 years ago and saying, “Wow. Look at these people. What a degenerate place this is.” But they were all gold painted black. Practical irfan is grasped through the sayr suluk. What I called applied Sufism, we could call practical irfan. Even these terms are very important.

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Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid November 1, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat

I have spoken for many years on sayr and suluk, and this terminology. How do they relate to the human reality? How does it relate to the psychology, and the ethic and the principal life of a person who seeks knowledge and strives to remember Allah? One has to move away from the theoretical side of and Sufism to the practical side. Indeed, you can go back very far who practiced Islam differently, practically, and who were (before the term malamatiya came into existence) in effect, outcast from their societies. One of the most significant concepts in Sufism, which we have talked about many, many times, and bears to be talked about many times, is the concept of waqt. That is to say, every circumstances that a knower of Truth, that a seeker of Truth, that a /a, comes into contact with requires a special, unique behavioral response.

In other words, every circumstance has an ultimately appropriate response to it. How profound is that? Well, it trickles down to the very basics of human communication. “Here is something.” “Thank you.” Someone gives you something, you say thank you. That is the appropriate verbal response. You bump into somebody, “Excuse me.” That is the appropriate response. And it is linguistically built into our cultures. If you sneeze, you say, “God bless you.” [When you greet,] “Salaam aleykum.” “Wa’a lekum salaam.” How much time did the Prophet Mohammed (sal) spend on the appropriateness of responding to asalaam? Right? Why? What is the message? The message is that every circumstance has an appropriate response.

Why did I start this off with the malamatiya? Because by breaking that tradition, by doing things that are inappropriate, people were repulsed by them—naturally repulsed. Fake a sneeze (fakes a sneeze). “I hope you have a cold.” If everybody said, “Good. I hope you get sick,” you would try not to sneeze in front of them, wouldn’t you? Do you get it? Waqt we usually define as to seize the moment; but that particular state which calls for a particular kind of behavior is also another way of talking about waqt. The moment requires the right response, the appropriate response. Now, is that absolute? No. It is generalized. Because if you are an arif, and if you are an arif, why am I still calling you 5

Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid November 1, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat that? Because you are a Sufi, you are studying, you are striving for marifa, and it is an educated process. Well, you think, there is one appropriate response for everything. No, it is not true. There are generalized responses to everything, like “Salaam aleykum” “al- hamdullilah” etc., and then there are specific responses.

The interesting thing is that a knower in the exact same state might have a different moment. Or an arif in different circumstances might have a different moment that requires of him or her a different behavior, and a different responsibility that goes along with it. So what is the issue? The issue is that you have to know what is appropriate. You have to know what is appropriate in the moment. What is the problem with that? The problem is that if you are not really a seeker, and you are only trying to appear to be one, or you are only trying to reinforce what you already believe, you will pretend that is the appropriate thing and you will defend it by saying, “Well, that is my moment, and that is your moment, and that is what I do, and you do what you do.” Everything that is wrong as well as everything that is right is attempted to be supported by the “truth.” (Shaykh recites Surah al-Kafirun.) Do you understand? So how do you discriminate?

You have to recognize the state as it descends upon you, or comes out from within you; but usually we say that the state, “as it descends upon you or comes upon you from the ghraib,” as well as the responsibilities that come along with every state. Every state has responsibilities. Every circumstance has responsibilities. Every decision has responsibilities. Every commitment has responsibilities. If you are teaching school, you have responsibility. If you are taking dance, you have responsibilities. Doing a website, you have responsibilities. Giving advice, you have responsibilities. Those responsibilities come from somewhere. It looks like it comes from my family, or my teacher, or my client, or whatever; but really it is coming from the ghraib for the seeker. I don’t want to talk about all humanity. It is true for all humanity, but I don’t want to talk about that right now.

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Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid November 1, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat

For the seeker, it comes to you for a purpose. And this is the most important point, tonight. It comes to you for a purpose. It has to be associated with your spiritual purpose. I so-and-so has the same circumstances that I have, which seems to demand the same kind of response, the difference is [you have to be struggling for a purpose]. If you have a relative or a friend who is struggling with something, and you are struggling with the same thing they are, you are both struggling with the same problem or issue, which happens often, you have to be struggling for a purpose. If you are on the spiritual path, if you are of the urufa, if you are practicing irfan, if you are a sufi, if you are on the sayr suluk, that circumstance has an appropriate meaning and responsibility that will lead you, step by step to higher and higher levels of understanding, greater and greater depths of humility and gratitude.

The other person is just dealing with the circumstances. They may learn something; they may not learn something, but it will be in dunya. That is why the malamati try to reduce those associations, so they can only deal with what comes to them for their sayr suluk, for their journey, for their Divine associations. So you have to be familiar with these waqt. And you have to recognize that each state that descends upon us from the ghraib, and the responsibilities that accompany it are unique, and meaningful, and precious, and valuable. Yeah, you are dealing with this issue. You have to make this decision about work, or about school, or about money, or about family, or about whatever. Yes, of course. But what emphasis do you place on that as strictly “the next issue I have to deal with, the next issue I have to deal with, the next issue I have to deal with,” or do you recognize it to be something that progressively has a spiritual responsibility, meaning a developmental process, where part of the sayr suluk will at least do this.

The first one will make you tired, and sick, and miserable, and be heavy; and the second one will eventually give you discrimination, and furqan, and energy, and understanding, and patience, and tolerance. That is the truth. The first one your mind will be crazy, going around and around. Solve this problem. Deal with this. It will be tied to your 7

Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid November 1, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat physical health, your emotions, your mental state, and it will burn up your intellectual energy, whether you are awake or you are sleeping. That is the truth. So you have to count your moments as valuable… the moment as valuable. Seizing the moment and knowing what that moment is really about. Yes, you have a problem. You have a decision to make. You have a pain in your back, or whatever it is. You can’t do this. You can’t do that. But if you are centered in your du’ā, in your meditation, in your prayer, and your language starts to sound like someone who is like that, like my mother- in-law, everything is linked to the same. You will then know how to deal with pain. You will know how to deal with disappointment and loss, with gain, with happiness.

Your prayer for someone will be passing through you like light passes through a crystal. One prayer will break into 100 facets for 100 people. “What about prayers for myself?” The light is for you; the light is coming through you. Got it? This is why the arif is called the ‘son of the moment.’ Seize the moment. Rumi says the following: “The Sufi is to be the son of the moment, O friend. Saying ‘tomorrow’ is not the convention of the way.” The moment, the moment – there is no mañana. In Arabic, in Farsi, waqt has the same sense, and is also linked to dam/breath. Ayshanaq is cash or value in the moment, currency of the moment. Hafez makes a lot of references to this cash of life, or of the moment as being valuable or precious.

As we know, people would say, “Oh, look at Hafez. He drinks wine, and he is at the wine house, and he does all these other stuff.” But he was probably a malamati. He was hiding his Truth except to those who could see it. But if you can understand every moment as meaningful and precious, then you understand why not only people speak in these analogical ways, in these hidden ways, in these symbolic ways, and ambiguous ways. Let’s listen to Hafez:

Whether I drink wine or not, what have I to do with anybody? I am the guard of my secrets and the knower of my moment. Get up! Let’s take a Sufis cloak to the 8

Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid November 1, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat

tavern and the theopathetic ravings to the bazaar of nonsense. Let us be ashamed of these polluted woolens. If the name of miracle be given to this virtue and skill, if the heart fails to value the moment and does nothing, now much shame will a moment bring in for us. (If you don’t value the moment, it will bring you misery. It will bring you unhappiness.) In a land at morning’s time, a wayfarer said this to a companion on the way, “O Sufi, the wine becomes pure when it remains in the bottle for forty days. God is disdainful of that woolen cloak a hundred times that has a hundred idols up its sleeves. I see not the joy of ‘ayshq in anyone nor the cure of a heart nor care for religion. The innards have become gloomy. Perhaps, per chance, a lamp may be kindled by some recluse. Neither the memorizer is alone with God during lessons, nor the scholar enjoys any knowledge of certainty.

You see how the denial of truth? He speaks in opposites. You can read the whole thing all over again, and read it in the opposite way. The outer becomes happy because, perchance, a lamp of knowledge has been turned out by someone of the world. You see, it is the same message. The person who thinks he is a scholar speaks with certainty, but the real scholar speaks with lack of certainty, is not certain. “Grab the pleasure of the moment, for Adam did not tarry more than a moment in the Garden of Paradise.” How long was Adam in the Garden of Paradise? A moment, and then what? Cast down from Paradise into this world.

If you read Khushari, then you even get some more understanding of this ‘son of the moment’ or ‘daughter of the moment.’ This is a person who is in a hal often, in a state. What is the priority as the spiritual priority is what the person attends to. And he uses waqt in a metaphor. He says it is like a very sharp sword. Meaning that the hukm, the requirement of each moment is to be decisive, to cut through what is extraneous. If you don’t do that, you get these accretions on you until the weight of the world is on you and it is fatal to you. You lose your way, totally. You are totally absorbed in the world, in the issues, in the sicknesses, in your problems, in money, in power, in influence, 9

Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid November 1, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat whatever it is—and it’s a fatal disease. If you see every moment as precious, every moment becomes a hal. If you act in an appropriate way in the moment, eventually all those hal become a maqam. You don’t fall from that state.

Can you imagine my mother-in-law changing the way she speaks? Can you imagine her forgetting how to make a du’ā for someone? Can you imagine that when she looks at someone she doesn’t just start reciting du’ā? Can you imagine her changing? Why? Because she has attained a maqam. Has she sat down and meditated twice every day, and gotten transmissions from Shaykh Abdur Rashid? No. There are other ways. Does she appreciate what we do? Yes, the ladies heard it who came the other day for lunch. You heard what she sees.

The state passes, but the position, the place, never changes. You get to the point where your states change: they come and go, but your station remains. Does that mean that a person like her feels no pain, has no worries or concerns, or doesn’t care what’s going on? No. The state passes, the maqam remains. That’s what you should all be striving for. Regardless of your irada/will, the heart of the ‘arif remains open, and the position / maqam the person attains or earns through their efforts will be their foundation. It’s been said that the hal are like flashes of lightning that quickly vanish. Let’s listen to Hafez again.

A lightning flash from Leila’s house at dawn. Goodness knows what it did to the love-torn heart of Majnun! And Saadi says, “Someone asked, of he who has lost his son, ‘O enlightened soul, O wise old man, all the way from Egypt you smelled his shirt! Why could you not see him in the well of Canaan?’ Said he. ‘My state is like a lightning flash. A moment it’s there, and another moment it’s gone. Often it lifts me to the highest sky, and often I see not what is at my feet.’” Should a in his state persist, the two worlds will lie in his hands.

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Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid November 1, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat

These flashes of light, these moments of insight – some of us have them every day, because we have practiced for many years. Some have yet to have them; but when you have them, they transform you. Sidna Ali (ra) said,

He has revived his intellect, and slain his self until his bodily and spiritual bulkiness shrunk, and his coarseness turned into tenderness. Then an effulgence, like a brilliant flashing lightning, shone into his heart and illuminated the path before him.

And that’s what happens. You lose your way; you find your way. You become distracted; you become attracted. You can become assured that for every distraction, there is an attraction. That’s where you want to at least get to, and that’s where awareness in the latā’if takes you – [through] this doorway, and this doorway, and this doorway, and this transmission within this doorway. Ya Qahharu, Ya Jabbaru, Ya Mutaqabir – all these names and attributes take you there – this effulgence, these flashes of light. Life is qabd and bast. You know that. Physically and spiritually, every day we know that.

I should tie it together… I asked you to examine your preferences. I asked you to look at how often you opt out of your preferences every day. I didn’t put a value statement with that. Do you understand now? If your preferences are in alignment with the sayr ul suluk, and really in alignment with what Allah commands us and enjoins us to do, in alignment with the Qur’an, or the way of the Prophet (sal), or the great shuyukh, awliya-Llāh, then there will be certain signs, attitudes, reflections, intentions, tones of voice, whether you are understood or misunderstood. Because the other person is listening through their preferences. If the other person wants to interpret what you say we being negative, they will, even if you are being positive. You can’t judge yourself by that.

A person says, “Why are you so excited?” And you are just enthusiastic. Or, “Why are you not responding to me?” and you are just being pensive and reflecting. You can’t 11

Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid November 1, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat control that. It may frustrate you. It takes you off your thought process, off your track. But your preferences, you can control. If you can see them, then you can decide. If you see you are justifying your point of view, and you are not being open and receptive, you are not being patient, tolerant, persevering, patient, merciful, loving, kind… I don’t mean to your detriment. I don’t mean to be that way so people love you. I mean, just to be that way naturally, like my mother-in-law is – just naturally. So many people say to me, ‘You are always so nice to everyone, kind to everyone, and you help everyone.” I don’t sit there and think, “I want to help everyone.” I don’t sit there and say, “I really need to try to be kind to this person.” Although there are times… It’s just the way you are. Would I change that? No. Would I be more discriminating if I could re-do things? Probably, some things.

Do you understand where these two things come together, in preferences? Also understand why you could be malamatiyya. Understand how complex our life is compared to a malamati Sufi who just turns everyone off so he can be left alone with Allah Swt. I’m talking about an extreme malami. Then you have the malamis like Shaykh Ya Seen, who doesn’t do that, but who suffers no fools, either; who doesn’t put on the garb, so to speak. There are many reasons why each person’s opportunity is unique, yet there are certain things that tie it together. If you put on the garb, it can make you blameworthy. If you don’t, it can make you blameworthy.

Question: It seems that by approaching one’s practices in a type of way, it is like creating an architecture that one lives within. If one is successful, it’s a way to approach life and work, but also a structure that protects you. Am I understanding what you were saying?

Shaykh: It’s an interesting metaphor. Certainly, it’s true. But you have to construct it out of that which has been proven to be a sturdy material. You construct it out of the Qur’an. But look at all these people, like the Salafis, who use the Qur’an to construct an impenetrable fortress of stupidity. (And they are stuck in that). Yes, they lock themselves 12

Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid November 1, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat in a prison and invite you in. Or they send the troops out to drag you in. This is a total misunderstanding and distortion of the essence of Qur’an. Why? Because they don’t seek out the real meanings, the depths of the linguistics and semiotics. They don’t understand what we have been discussing at all. You have to be very careful, not with the material you build with, but with what it is you are designing.

I will give you an example from an architectural book on unity and development. It shows you the development of Islamic architecture, which is very interesting –where everything is placed. It shows you how the market is developed, where the living spaces are, and where the masjid sits, in the center. In order to go from certain areas in the sūk, the city/medina, in the walled city to others, you had to pass by the masjid. You had to pass by the vendors, etc. It was designed in such a way that it represents the human body, and the movement of the blood and breath in the human body, and how it gets its own sustenance. This is a great external, architectural reflection of the dynamic of life and the community of beings, and how the community needs to interact with each other every day, in order to do what you have to do every single day, in order to survive and thrive.

You don’t just get in the car and go to the store in Roanoke, a restaurant in Lynchburg, or to Trader Joe’s in Charlottesville. It’s all there. It represented the dynamic of day to day life, and all the actions, reactions, and responses. They needed to be more appropriate than they are today. You are passing these people every day, and working with them every day. You are interacting with them every single day. When you pass the masjid, if you haven’t prayed, the masjid’s existence is going to remind you. You are never far from the masjid, because it’s in the center. In some cities, there is a masjid here and there and over there. You are never far from the center. Translate that from the physical into the spiritual. Take that all as analogical, and translate that to the inputs coming in, the decisions that have to be made, the opportunities you have every day, and what are you going to assign them to ultimately, so that eventually, they immediately become assigned to something spiritual. “Oh, I just heard that so-and-so had a difficult day today.” And 13

Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid November 1, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat the first thing that comes out of your mouth is a du’ā. Not, “Oh, that’s too bad. What happened? Oh, we should make du’ā.” That’s better than not, but the first thing is the du’ā. It’s a pretty elevated state. Is it achievable? Obviously.

What’s the benefit? Now put it together with my two or three talks on community. What’s the benefit? Being in a positive environment, affirmation. It’s not a magical thing that if you have X number of people reciting, like we are reciting 360 Hizb ul Nasr, that automatically the sky will open up and blessings of light and money will come flowing down on your head. It’s to coalesce the response. If we do this enough, our first reaction will be to do these things. When that happens, there’s another level of harmony. Either you believe or you don’t believe that harmony begets harmony. Do you believe that misery creates misery? Well, then you should believe also that harmony creates harmony.

(Shaykh has everyone hum, while the Shaykh leads it.) You see how you have to move? Because you seek the harmony; you seek the tone. I change the input and you change the output. Did I tell you to do that? It was implied. You wanted to do that; you didn’t want to have cacophony or dissonance. You did it naturally. What is the difference in that, and in words and ideas? It is just remembering. Why does Allah say, “Am I your Lord?” So that you can say, “Yes, You are!” Why does Allah say, “Remember Me, and I will remember you.” Asalaam aleikum.

(ADDITION, not on audio. This comes from a Skype exchange with the Shaykh about this topic).

Question: It seems that in dunya we feel the pressure of time going on and running out, but as you spoke last night, the most satisfying and Real reality is the Moment. I really appreciated last night's suhbat.

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Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid November 1, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat

Shaykh: Make it simple....you have to have the ability to let things pass through you, even if they cause momentary conflict or frustration or aggravation. Seize the 'space' of peace that is always behind the events. That is what it means when you say, "It’s in Allah's hands". Then add to that the 'rules' of , the relationship of the mureed to the , vice versa, and mureed to murshid. Remember what and why that is important, what it is a model of, and the tajalli that accompanies it. Then remember the reason for the jamat/gathering, and the essence of the community (ummah) and the natural inclinations to serve one another.

But that service has to be more and more selfless, and a source of energy not enervating. It is enervating if it comes from ego or defensiveness, or has the hint of preference or arrogance, or if it is even validating one's existence on that service and not on the 'fact' that Allah created us for a purpose and we have our taqdir. That's the story in this suhbat.

Question: I wonder how one's purpose and taqdir would be different than the service you speak of?

It is not different. The question is how you 'choose' or choose not to choose, or align oneself more and more with Allah. I.e. Irada turned toward your refinement and overcoming the subtlities of nafs. “Dis-cover” your taqdir.

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