The
Inner Meanings of
Worship in Islam
A Personal Selection of Guidance For the
Wayfarer
(Excerpts Only)
By:
Shaykh
Fadhlalla Haeri
Chapter
One
The Stages and Degrees of
Knowledge
... shari'ah is a
name applied to a divinely revealed system of laws consisting of
basic tenets (usul) and their various branches of knowledge (furu');
and that tariqah consists of adhering to them in a most
prudent, careful and consistent manner; and haqiqah is the
confirmation of the ultimate Truth behind existence by way of
illumination and witnessing, or through attaining certain spiritual
states.
...
the Prophet (may the
peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) is reported to have
said:
The shari'ah
is my words, tariqah my actions and haqiqah is my state.
Understanding is my capital, reason ('aql) is the basis
of my way of life (din), and love my foundation;
longing my mount, fear my companion, and knowledge my weapon;
forbearance my master, trust in Allah my helper, and
contentment my treasure; truthfulness my stopping place,
certainty my shelter, poverty my pride, and by it I am honored
over all Prophets and Messengers.
It is likewise said
that prayer (salat) as prescribed by the shari'ah consists
of service, nearness, and the reunion of lovers. The service is
the shari'ah, the nearness is the tariqah, and the reunion is the
haqiqah, while the word salat is a general term used for
all three.
The Relationship of
Revealed Law to Reasoning
It is said that
reasoning ('aql) will never be guided except by way of the
shari'ah and that the shari'ah will never be clearly understood
except by way of reasoning. The shari'ah and reasoning need each
other like the soul needs the body.
...
One of the
interpretations of Allah's words
'... light upon
light... (Qur`an 24:35)
is that they refer to the light of the shari'ah upon the light of
reasoning, because reasoning will not be illuminated except by the
light of the shari'ah.
...
Responsibility to the
Shari'ah
The responsibilities
of the shari'ah outwardly require that one must either arrive at
proper legal decisions (ijtihad), or, in the absence of
this knowledge, that one follow someone who does possess this
knowledge. This second process is referred to as taqlid.
The source of this knowledge are the Messengers and Imams whom
Allah has sent to guide mankind.
...
Imam Zayn al-'Abidin
said:
He who does
not have a wise man to guide him correctly will perish.
Imam 'Ali is quoted in
the book Nahj al-Balaghah ('The Peak of Eloquence') as
having said:
He who acts
without knowledge is like the one who travels off the path.
The distance he travels away from the path will only increase
his distance from the goal.
...
Our responsibility
with regard to the shari'ah is not merely a restricted observance
of the area of the various branches of the faith (furu' al-din),
but rather it encompasses the pathways of the heart and the
internal state of the believer in order that the remedy for the
self (nafs) be complete and that both the sensory and
subtler veils may be removed.
...
Stages and Levels of
Devotion
The purpose of verbal
confirmation and remembrance (dhikr) is to awaken the
heart, in that while one repeats with the tongue, the heart will
gradually take over and become the one who is in remembrance.
Likewise, the remembrance of the heart will in turn spur the
tongue on to dhikr. Thus the outer will aid the inner and
the inner will enhance the outer.
...
Sadr al-Din al-Shirazi
(known as Mulla Sadra, d. 1050 AH/1640 CE) divides men according
to the levels of discipline of the soul (nafs):
-
The first division: Those who discipline themselves
outwardly by way of the revealed laws, the shari'ah and by
performing the night prayers, fasting, giving alms in charity,
making sacrifices, observing religious celebrations and various
congregational activities, and so forth.
-
The second division: Those who discipline the heart and
purify it of impurities.
-
The third division: Those who dissolve themselves into the
Eternal Attributes.
-
The fourth division: Those whose self has vanished and
whose very being has been annihilated, whose wandering has
finished and whose sights are fixed only upon the Lord and nothing
else.
...
Obedience and Disobedience
...
Adhering to obedience and refraining from disobedience are among
the most important disciplines which enable the self to be
prepared to take on what is suitable for it of knowledge and the
states of knowledge of Allah, which is the desired goal.
...
The purpose of the shari'ah is to make the path to Allah smooth.
The acts of devotion represent the journey of the seeker to Allah.
The obligatory actions actually draw all who perform them towards
Allah, to the expectation of His Generosity, to the all
inclusiveness of His Kindness and to the pervasiveness of His
Mercy.
...
The Remedy for the Self
In
the same way that a doctor or physician treats the body, the
Prophets, masters, and gnostic teachers are the physicians of the
self.
...
The Realms of the Self
There are three realms in which the self interacts: the first is
that of the senses, the second is of visions and insights with
which one perceives the unseen and the spiritual regions, and the
last realm is of reason or intellect ('aql), which exists
for the purpose of comprehending the realm of Lordship and Power.
...
The Beginning and the Return
The word 'beginning' here is considered to mean the original
natural state of the human being in which it was created by Allah.
The word 'return' here signifies its return to that original
state. Allah has said in the Qur`an:
The nature made by Allah in
which He has made man; there is no altering of Allah's creation.
(30:30)
I have created from before
when you were nothing. (19:9)
The original natural state (fitrah) was non-existent before
Reality brought it into existence. There was Allah and there was
nothing else with Him. That is to say, in the beginning Allah
brought creation into existence from complete non-existence and in
the end He will take it from the realm of this apparent existence
and return it to non-existence (in terms of time and space). Thus,
the end is a return to the beginning, and the goal we hope to
reach was already present at our starting point, as Allah says:
As We began the creation
thus will We cause it to return. (21:104)
Withdrawal and Drawing Near
It
is related in a divinely revealed tradition (hadith qudsi)
from the Prophet that Allah said:
My servant does not draw
near to Me with anything more beloved than by way of the
obligations which I have ordained for him. He may draw near to Me
with additional actions (nawafil) if I love him. If I love
him I become his hearing by which he hears and the sight by which
he sees. I become the tongue by which he speaks and his hand by
which he grasps. If he asks Me in prayer I will answer him, and if
he beseeches Me I will grant it to him.
The Journey to Allah
The soul of man is the means by which Allah has selected for him
to ascend and return to His Divine Essence. Mulla Sadra described
the stages of this journey of ascent, saying:
Know that the seeker among
the masters and awliya` has four journeys. The first
journey is from Creation to the Truth. The second is the journey
by Truth in Truth. The third journey is directly opposite to the
first because it is from Truth to Creation by way of Truth. The
fourth journey is the opposite of the second in that it is by
Truth within Creation.
The first journey is
completed by the lifting of the veils of tranquility, which are
connected with the self, as well as the lifting of the veils of
illumination, which are connected with the heart and the soul.
This is the ascension from the station of the self to the heart
and to the soul; then one proceeds onward to the Highest Goal. The
realms of the self, the heart, and the soul have within them veils
that lie between the seeker and Divine Truth, so on must pass
through all of these obstacles. After passing through these
realms, the seeker reaches the station of spiritual knowledge and
begins the second journey of annihilation into the Names and
Attributes of Allah so that he embodies the words....thus through
Him (Allah) one hears and by Him one sees and by Him one walks and
by His hand one grasps... (In Al-Hikam al-Muta 'aliyah fi Asfar
al-'Aqliyah al-Arab'ah)
The prayer of Shaykh 'Abd al-Salam Ibn al-Mashish, the well-known
North African Gnostic, is an example of a prayer made by a master
who has reached the highest stage:
O Allah! Let me be immersed
within the Sea of Oneness, deliver me from the mires of tawhid,
and drown me in the sea of Unity until I see nothing, hear
nothing, perceive nothing, feel nothing except through it. Make
the Greatest Veil of my soul and its spirit the secret of my
reality and its reality the sum total of my existence, by way of
the confirmation of the Primal Truth.
Revelation and Inspiration
Revelation differs from inspiration. True inspirations are
reflections of the prophetic revelations. Those who are following
in the footsteps of the prophets and seek insights and inward
inspirations must maintain outward precaution and acceptance of
the revealed laws of Islam. The world of the unseen opens up to
those who live in harmony with the material and seen world. This
can happen when the primal and natural codes are adhered to. These
are the Prophetic laws and the Din.
