1 Practices of Muraqabah

Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid September 20, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat

Practices of Muraqabah: History and References Rābita of the Shaykh

Bismi-Llāhi-r-Rahmāni-r-Rahīm. Having spoken in some detail about the circles again, saving the admonitions and encouragements for another time, I want to return once again to the actual practices of muraqabah for a while with some history and references. Why should we sit in muraqabah / meditation? Everything in this physical world is a process of refinement and eventually repairing back to the infinite. We are born; we live; and we pass. In that process, we gain knowledge, capacity, and capabilities. [That process] is in itself in line with the symbol of a greater reality, one in which the passing (dying) is the transition from attachment to this world to attachment to the Infinite / Allah; hence, we get the statement, “Die before you die.”

Not only are apparently “real” things happening in life, but there is the acquiring of knowledge and the applying of that knowledge. Then there is the inevitable transition, past the limitations of this physical world, into another dimension. So too, this is something that can transpire on a day to day basis in muraqabah. For this reason, the maha shaykh of our orders (I’ll speak mostly of Naqshbandi Mujaddidi, but because of Abdul Bari Shah (ra) we are speaking of all the orders) know that ultimately this knowledge is about Allah and remembrance of Allah, which all orders, teachers, and teachings always agree upon. That’s why we perform dhikru- Llāh, make salawat, and recite Qur’an, but the most important aspect of the spiritual journey is muraqabah.

Just like a student sometimes finds it difficult to study – for whatever reasons, lack of interest in the subject, or lack of capacity or self-discipline – it’s also symbolic of

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Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid September 20, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat what happens on the spiritual journey. One has to find the discipline and the direction for the muraqabah. Certainly, one can live their life without it. Many people life their lives without attaining any of their potential, too. There is not a separation between muraqabah and day to day life. Muraqabah adds to your capacity, your knowledge, your understanding of the meaningfulness of your day to day life, but it’s not only what it is designed for. The origin of muraqabah lies in the hadith: “Live as if you are seeing Allah, and if you don’t see Allah, know that Allah is seeing you.”

The process of muraqabah is in a strange way learning how to wait. Allah guarantees to the one who is patient, who is waiting, who is attentive, that a certain security or knowledge will come to them. Muraqabah also means to protect. From our point of view, the meaning is a turning away from touching this world for a period of time, with a specific intention, and to take that time to nurture a spiritual aspect of life, or receive the spiritual guidance from our shaykh, and from the shuyukh, and from Rasūlu-Llāh, and from Allah. So too, though the subtle organs of perception (the latā’if ), after receiving instruction and guidance, we begin to move from the attachment to the worldly aspects of life, and we focus on the latā’if.

The muraqabah leads to knowledge both empirical and non-empirical. It paves a pathway to what we call accompaniment / maiyyat, or nearness to Allah. When we truly experience that detachment from the day to day worldly efforts and sit and wait for blessings, eventually we begin to feel some kind of activity in those latā’if, especially in the heart. It takes many different forms, and the forms are not that important, so there is no need to dwell on them. Indeed, we shouldn’t focus on them, thinking about the colors, forms, or sensations. But [we should] turn our attention to the Divine Essence that is beyond all forms and qualities, and sit for 30, 35, 40 minutes, and wait.

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Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid September 20, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat

It may be, as you know, that at the very beginning many thoughts come into our minds, as Hazrat used to say. Hazrat as you know used to say that you don’t know whether they are coming in or going out. We are not trying to focus our thoughts, not practicing vipassana yoga. We are trying to awaken our hearts. So we let them come and go and we wait, and eventually, a person drifts: ghunoodgi. I gave a series of talks on the ‘āyat in Qur’an on nu’as. We drift into other dimensions. I hope you know or have heard that there are other dimensions. I’ve said for 3 decades or more that there is a big difference between this drifting and sleeping. The drifting is a transformative state, which is a reflection of fana / annihilation. Mujaddid al-alf ath-thānī Shaykh Ahmad Farūqī Sirhindī (ra) said, “He (meaning Allah) comes and He takes you away.”

When we are sleeping, our soul is inclined to the lower self. It is like a “baby death.” We make analogies in dreams, but dreams have to do with this world. The highest of dreams may give you some light, but they have to do with things in this world, in the lower realms. In the state of ghunoodgi, the self goes to the higher realms and seeks its refuge in the rūh. In sleep, it seeks refuge in the heart. When we are in that state of drifting, we are not aware of our self. There may be some visions and experiences of the kashf, ru’ya, and what Hazrat used to call “thought projections.” We used to call them psychic phenomena, psychic powers. Some people call it distance seeing. We shouldn’t be caught up in that phenomena.

Mujaddid al-alf ath-thānī Shaykh Ahmad Farūqī Sirhindī (ra) said, “These experiences are there simply to please the seeker’s heart. The final destination lies ahead.” Hazrat Allaudin Attar (ra) said, “This meditation is better than the practice of dhikr of nafsi bat, or negation and affirmation. Through meditation it becomes possible to attain the station of the vice regency of Allah and the dominion of the physical world and the

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Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid September 20, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat in world of spirit. One becomes the khalifa.” There are many teachers, such as Turki, and Hazrat Khwajā ‘Ubaydullāh Ahrār (ra) who commented on the process of this state of paying attention, not just to Allah, but making rābita. Rābita is a sort of controversial subject, which is why I will deal with it. There is a dalil of rābita which comes from Qur’an: “Fear Allah, and be with those who are true in word and in deed.” Some people don’t understand rābita. We were instructed and guided that we don’t need to make rābita. Certain shuyukh of our line, the Khwaja Khwajagan, and Mujaddidi, and Shadhili lines would make rābita. There are no indications historically that rābita is not permitted.

What is it? It means turning one’s attention toward the face of the shaykh. Indeed, there are many reports from many of the imams, and other great people. One said that when visiting the grave of a wali, you have to turn yourself to the soul of that person who is in the grave and get the fayd from that individual. In fact, Imam al Hanafi said in his book Tadir Ulūm that it is necessary for a salik to make rābita. Such great notables such as Hazrat Jami in his Rubaiyat, and Hazrat Alam al Nablusi, and Jami as Sahir, and many others, Sharani and those scholars spoke of the necessity of rābita.

We cannot assume that these great luminaries were messing around with Shar’īah. They were not of the character or type of person who does that. They were scholars. They were alims, most of them. Many of them were hafez of Qur’an. They would know if that were wrong, and they wouldn’t do it. I don’t know people who deny the efficacy of it, but we were also taught that it is not necessary. There is a difference between understanding the efficacy of something and the necessity of it. Hazrat Hakim Maulana Ashraf Alif Thani allowed rābita. In his writings he gave a very detailed answer. He said, “Among the benefits he lists for this practice is how it enables the mureed to mirror the ahwal of the murshid.” Nowhere does he say it is

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Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid September 20, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat shirk or that it is not permitted. So too, Maulana Zakariyya Handalawiyya in his work, said, “Tasawwur of the shaykh is a practice, also termed rābita, as well as barzakh and wasita. It is a very important practice of the scholars on a spiritual path, and the scholars have illustrated its benefits abundantly. Some of the elders prohibited this practice, unconditionally. However, according to me, this is incorrect. For the practice of tasawwur of the shaykh is indicated in many narratives, so I do not understand those who have forbidden this practice unconditionally.”

Tasawwur and rābita are not exactly the same time. Rābita is, from our perspective, sitting quietly and contemplating the grave, realizing that the grave has come upon you and you are not ready for it. You have not prepared yourself, and now you turn to the shaykh and make tasawwur of the shaykh. You say, “Ah! Save me! I’m not prepared for this. If it wasn’t for you before me to save me, I would be of the lost.” That’s rābita with tasawwur. We have to go back and understand muraqabah if we are going to understand rābita. Raqiba means to observe and watch attentively, to heed and protect, and inspect. It refers, in terms of Shar’īah, to reflecting, and introspection of one’s own nafs / inner self with certain forms of silent dhikr in an attempt to bring the nafs in line with the commands of Allah Swt, with the ‘ālam al amr.

That’s why we begin with the transmissions of the ālam al amr (not the ‘ālam al khalq) – qalb, rūh, sirr, khafī, akhfā. This finds its justification in the Qur’an where it says, “Verily, Allah is ever watchful over you,” and “Does he not know that Allah is watching?” Overall, this muraqabah is carried out by allowing our mind to become clear of our thoughts, clear of everything other than Allah Swt, and then turning our spiritual gaze, attention, tawajjuh completely, exclusively, totally toward Allah Swt. Meditating on the fact that Allah Swt is always watching, always observant of every move that we make, every thought that crosses our minds. How

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Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid September 20, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat is that possible? Allah is as near as our jugular vein. How is that possible? Because wheresoever you look, there is the face of Allah Swt. How is it possible that when you jump into ocean, you get wet?

What is the transformative process? We have all this air. It wouldn’t do us any good if we couldn’t breathe. And we couldn’t breathe if we didn’t have lungs. The lungs wouldn’t do any good unless something transformative took place in the lung. Something alchemical has to happen. Carbon dioxide has to go out; oxygen has to come in. The blood has to flow through the lung. It has to be oxygenated and flow through the body, and keep the rest of the organs alive and healthy. That’s what has to happen. If any of those processes are interrupted, the body starts to fall apart, to decay.

Allah has created this symbolic reality in our physical body to tell us about this muraqabah. We don’t have to say, “Breathe, breathe, breathe.” We have an autonomic nervous system that makes us breathe automatically. In the same sense, we don’t have to say, “Muraqabah, muraqabah, muraqabah” for that transformative process to happen. We don’t have to say anything. We have to learn how to go on automatic.

First, you start manually. It’s like your car: you turn it on manually. You step on the gas manually. You put it in gear manually, and then it goes automatically into all the gears. That’s what happens. We meditate on the fact that Allah is constantly watching us; and with this kind of a mentality, it becomes established in us that we achieve this state of ihsan. Why ihsan? Ihsan comes from hasan. Hasan means beautiful. Why that word? Beauty is complete. Beauty is the ultimate expression of something in the physical world. Beauty is the penultimate physical expression of

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Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid September 20, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat

Allah’s perfection – a beautiful sky, a beautiful sunset, a beautiful ocean. Is that the reason why it’s called ihsan? Yes and no.

It’s also ihsan, because if you act as if you are seeing Allah, or if you know Allah is seeing you, the beauty of that, the fulfillment of that is so complete that there is nothing that is beyond it. When we are caught up in our thoughts, and Allah is watching over every thought and every move we make, and you know that, then it is the spiritual deterrent theory. If you know you are being watched, you will be careful about what you do. Also, if you know the teacher is watching, you are going to try your best. I used to go to India and all those people would watch how I prayed. I was there with my Shaykh, and new to Islam. I was scared. “If I don’t do everything exactly right, they will think I’m a fool, and worse, think that my Shaykh is a fool.” What was I doing? I was making rābita. I didn’t know it, but I was putting my Shaykh in front of me and thinking, “I better do this right. All these people who know him for all these years are watching.”

“I have not created the jinn or mankind except that they should worship Me,” Allah says. So we should worship with full reverence. The mahashaykh of Tasawwuf tell us that there is not just one kind of muraqabah; there are many kinds of muraqabah. There is the muraqabah where we contemplate that our heart is making du’ā all the time, and the words of dhikr are emanating from our heart instead of from our tongue – muraqabah duaiyya. Then there is the meditation of rābita that I told you about, where you think of death and the conditions that occur after death. You imagine the scenes of your soul being extracted from this body, your final ghusl, bath, and being buried in the ground. You contemplate that, and you make tasawwur.

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Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid September 20, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat

There is muraqabah where you sit quietly and imagine that Allah is watching you, and you contemplate, “Does he not know that Allah is watching?” You contemplate that in your rūh. There is the muraqabah of maiyyat. You imagine that Allah is with you all the time: maiyyat-i-hubbi in the second circle, for example. Allah doesn’t take any form, but you feel that Divine Presence. You contemplate that Allah is with you. These are all wonderful ways of muraqabah, wonderful stages and opportunities. They all lead us to the objective which is a refinement in our ihsan, no matter which line we do it through.

The ulema, the mahashaykh in each of these tariqah and practices are there, and all of these paths are a means. If we take the methodology and we practice it with sincerity, Allah accepts our efforts. Everyone who wants to understand Islam and their life is admonished to find a guide. We live in a time when not only is it difficult to find a guide, and not only are there very few people who wish to find a guide, we live a at a time when the Salafi are exhuming the bodies of the walis in Libya, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and they are distributing their bones out into the desert. It is an unparalleled time in history of the degeneration of Islam. The only way I think we can remedy the situation is through at-tazkiyat / purification of the soul.

I remember many, many years ago that I discovered rābita when I was a yogi. I didn’t know it was rābita. I just knew that I was having such a struggle in trying to understand myself, and the path, and what I was going to accomplish, not that I ever did understand it. I used to reach out to the hand of my first teacher, a yogi guru. I used to say, “What would he have me do?” And then I transferred that to Hazrat when I became a murīd of Hazrat’s. “What would Hazrat have me do?” That’s rābita. “I can’t make the decision for myself. If I made it, I wouldn’t do it. But if I make the effort to do it for the sake of my Shaykh, everything will be all right.”

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Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid September 20, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat

It’s imagining to be with the shaykh, imagining the face of the shaykh. Bahā’uddīn Naqshband said to Hazrat Khwaja Mohammed Parsa, his murīd, “[it is] to imagine his face for a time.” Khwaja Uhrār, the great saint from Samarkand, just like in the Shadhili practices. This muraqabah according to Shāh Walī ūllah of Delhi, is “the particular excellence of the Naqshbandiyya.” So we are not going to condemn it. We are not going to say that it is absolutely forbidden. As you progress through your contemplations, you realize that you need this maiyyat/ accompaniment, this madad / assistance, this touchstone. The way to that, to each of these shuyukh, is through our own shaykh. We can travel therefore to that essence, as if you are on a journey sayr-i-Llah, toward Allah.

In muraqabah we pay attention, concentrate, meditate, and then we contemplate. The first stage, concentrating of the mind, is preparation. I’ve given the example so many times of taking all the time to prepare the food, and then cooking the dinner, so it can be consumed. Some gave the example of sharpening a pencil; so that the second stage, muraqabah, is forming the letters, or wetting the brush. It is concentrating the mind, then forming the letters is the muraqabah. The third stage is writing all the words in complete sentences. These correspond to dhikr qalbi and nafi wa ithbat in muraqabah.

The principal difference between muraqabah and fikr is that the muraqabah is passive and the contemplation is active. When we go through the different niyyat, we are sitting in muraqabah and waiting. The niyyat is fikr / contemplation. You are adding the dynamic of that transmission. You are adding the dynamic to it and you contemplate it, waiting for the latā’if to attract the Divine Energy of that transmission. Hazrat Khwaja Qurb, the son of Khwaja Baqi Billah who is the Shaykh Ahmad Farūqī Sirhindī (ra) said, “Muraqaabah is leaving behind all one’s power and strength, turning from all states and attributes, waiting in expectation of the

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Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid September 20, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat encounter by longing for its beauty and being immersed in desire and love.” Now you understand why it is ihsan.

And Hazrat Shaykh Sahadin Khashali (ra) described how Junayd of Baghdadi was taught how to perform muraqabah. He said he was taught by a cat. One should wait with complete undivided attention, like a cat waiting to pounce on a mouse. You have heard my descriptions of driving the car, and waiting at the door for the beloved. The circles we have been talking about that link the essence, the ‘ālam al- amr, with the physical world, ‘ālam al khalq, are linked by a series of niyyat / intentions which carry with them various contemplations, like a map on this spiritual continuum, over this spiritual terrain, where one experiences certain manifestations of that essence as you travel through this physical and non-physical world, learning how to pass through these various experiences in life.

In the 10 latā’if, 3 transmissions in the first circle (13), 7 transmissions in the second circle (20); two transmissions in the third circle, and one in the fourth circle (23). Some say 26 stages, some say 23. Or we have seen them described as the 7 valleys. Moving from this physical world toward the dhat in this urūj (miraj/ ascension), symbolized by the ascension of the Prophet (sal) in his Night Journey. Before he embarked on that journey through the muraqabah, [there was] the recollection of the heart, which created this vehicle and the nafsi isbat (affirmation and negation of the lā ilāha illa-Llāh). Before any of us engage in that ascent, we need to have guidance.

When a murīd is ready to begin that first contemplation focuses on the ahadiyyat, the five contemplations of the well-spring of muraqabah, the contemplation of the qalb, rūh, sirr, khafī, akhfā, the five subtle centers of the latā’if. Each contemplation and meditation attempts to guide the fayd (the effusion of light) from the essence to

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Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid September 20, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat a specific latifa. Main mutawajjuh hoon qalb kiteraf, qalb mutawajjuh ko zat pak ki taraf. It is by means of Rasūlu-Llāh (sal), through the mahashaykhs of the Naqshbandi Mujaddidi, or whichever line the teaching is coming through, through the attributes. We begin this journey which circles around again to qalb, back to the first transmission in rūh, and then back to sirr, and then back to khafī and then akhfā and then nafs. Then to different circles, back in each latifa, again and again, until finally all are open, and the process becomes automatic. Our goal is to travel in the dhat / essence; not in the attributes, though we use the attributes.

In other words, we begin where the others end. We begin by traveling in the dhat, and then we travel in the essence, the ‘ālam al-khalq. Once we have traveled in the ‘ālam al-khalq, we don’t return there, except at the very end. What happens? We sit in nafs. You go through qalb, rūh, sirr, khafī, akhfā and nafs – all those transmissions. You don’t go through mā, nār, bād, and khak. These five contemplations are to give us an experience or emulation of the process of the messengers of Allah Swt, the different prophetic messengers: Sidna Adam, Sidna Nūh, Ibrahim, Musa, Daoud, Isa, and the Prophet Mohammed (sal) as our companions along the way. As we try to keep suhbat with fellow travelers, we also keep companionship / suhbat with the ambiyā.

We visualize ourselves in front of the Prophet Mohammed (sal) and receive the fayd / Divine Energy, connecting the golden chain of all of the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi, Qadriyya, Shadhiliyya, Chishtiyya shuyukh, through Prophet Mohammed (sal) and the ambiyā. Some of those who came before us made rābita of the specific prophets. Most said that you contemplate the Prophet Mohammed and use the shuyukh as your mirror for seeing him. Each of these subtle centers / latā’if receive the Divine Light and Grace from above the throne of Allah Swt. The goal for each latifa is to go to the origin and become lost / fana in that annihilation. Few people can do that.

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Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid September 20, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat

Some people have been able to do that. Some people find themselves in certain latifa, under the foot of a certain prophet. But until they are totally absorbed in that latifa, they don’t progress to the next latifa. We don’t do that. We return to the heart, to the latifa qalb in our origin. We move out of the circle of existence, the dayra incan / circle of contingency, and move to the next realm of the names and attributes, step by step by step, seeking the path, seeking the means in the path Allah Swt has given us through our shuyukh. This methodology, if we do it with sincerity, we don’t get tired. We don’t feel we are going down a dead end. We realize that what is happening is the path is unfolding before us.

Hazrat Adam (as), as you know, governs the first contemplation. The sifat are most concentrated in him, since he knew the names of things. We spend 10 months in the third transmission of the first circle, in the presence of that dhikr, observing Allah’s creation under the foot of Hazrat Adam (as). Having become firmly established in that, we now know, or it starts to become obvious to us, that the Divine Presence is everywhere, manifested in this creation. Those Divine Attributes are to govern our external life, while the essence is to govern our inner life. I’m not going to go on through the saints and prophets again. As we understand and travel through qalb, rūh, sirr, khafī, akhfā and nafs, there are certain attributes that are stimulated in us, and certain understandings that are available to us, if we avail ourselves of those understandings. We are not going to avail ourselves of those understandings unless we return to an understanding of the real benefit of muraqabah, and if we get some kind of a taste of the type of insight that is available to a human being.

We wonder why wouldn’t people just strive to have that kind of insight, that experience? I have yet to come up with an answer. I don’t know the answer to that question. It’s the one question you can ask me that I will say, I have no idea. I can tell you about torpor, laziness, distractions, anxieties, fears, and worries. I

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Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid September 20, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat experience all of those. But I don’t experience the lack of desire to understand, and to move, and to seek the epitome of spiritual understanding. That, I don’t understand. I know all the blocks; I experience them every day. But I don’t understand why a person would not want to seek the knowledge and truth that is available. For that reason, I go back to my early days of seeking, before I was practicing Tasawwuf, before I was a Muslim. I remember, as you have heard me day many times, waiting at the mailbox, watching, looking out the window for the mail carrier to come to bring the lesson every week. Arifa can attest to it; she was there. We were always waiting for the lessons to come so we could sit down and spend a week with them, until we start to wait for the next one. We were memorizing them, doing absolutely everything that was in the lesson.

Now we have the technology, where people can call in on the phone [to be present at the dars]. You can go on YouTube [to view videos of my dars], or [view the streaming video] on the web when we do a webcast. Isn’t it amazing that the capacity and capability doesn’t seem to encourage many people to pick up the phone and dial, to change their schedule. To say, “Ah! The Shaykh is speaking tonight.” (Forget that I’m the shaykh, just say “the shaykh” Hazrat.). “Let’s eat dinner fast. Let’s not miss it. Let’s wait at the mailbox.” I don’t get it. I understand if it is me; I’m boring and I’m putting you to sleep. But I don’t understand the lack of interest. Someone should still say, “Okay, the heck with Shaykh Rashid. Let’s go find Shaykh so and so.” Find someone you are interested in, and dial them up on the phone.

Anyway, it’s not about me; it’s about what I’m telling you anyway. I’m just being a mouthpiece for other people and teachings, putting in my two cents’ worth—and you know what two cents are worth now, two mils. I’m not saying that to make anyone feel guilty, especially people who are not here and not hearing this so they

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Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid September 20, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat can’t feel guilty. Truly I don’t get it. The same people will jump in the car and help someone move, or go to a restaurant and sit for 3 hours, or sit and have a fairly useless discussion with someone, and convince themselves it’s useful, but not taking the 45 minutes or an hour it takes to join in suhbat. Sorry, but that’s what I have to say. The thing is… maybe this is the reason. If you really do sit and drift and awaken the latā’if, and you really do get the blessings of the ambiyā with each latifa, and you really do get the blessings of the Sifat of Allah Swt in day to day life, then you are going to know what you missed. You have created the standard which you now have to keep, because now you know what the treasure is. So it’s better to just avoid it and not find it out.

Of course, that’s ridiculous. When you started to pray, you probably didn’t pray 5 prayers a day, all exactly right, with all the sunnah and nafle prayers. You probably are still not doing that. Then once you started praying, you realize how easy it was; whereas, before it was so hard. “Why did it take me so long to get to the point where I realized it was no problem at all?” That’s what will happen when each latifa is awakened, because each one has an association with something else. I might add that this is the only way to really grasp what we call the Mohammedan reality. How else are you going to grasp the reality of the essence of Prophet Mohammed (sal), unless you pursue a path that takes you past his door, unless you know how to resonate with the Light / Nuri Mohammed? How will you understand that, from a history book, from the sīrah? Just another heroic figure. How do you experience that Nūr, or for that matter, any of the prophets? Allah gives us the answer. He says in Qur’an,

Those whom Allah in His plan wills to guide, He opens their breast to Islam. And those whom He wills to leave astray, He makes their breast

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Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rashid September 20, 2012 www.circlegroup.org Thursday Suhbat

closed and constricted, as if they had to climb up to the skies. So does Allah heap the penalty on those who refuse to believe.

That’s one of the answers, at least, to the question I still don’t understand. Salaam aleikum.

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