"My love to the children. May God, the unfathomable ruler of grace who is limitless love, give you His grace and the wealth of His Grace. May He give this to all of us. May His qualities and His actions come to exist within us. Just as God conducts His kingdom and just as He regards all lives, may we have those same qualities. May we do His duties and services in the same way that He does. May we do this with His grace.
Precious children, jeweled lights of my eyes, my own born created beings, who are as the body within my body, may all of us join together as one and focus on our Father. May we live as one family in the world. May we worship the One God. May we bow down to Him, and may we disappear into His intention. God must give us His grace.
Precious children, jeweled lights within my eyes, all of us must join together as one. Not only must we come to meetings, but we must join together in our hearts as well. We must live together and become one in our qalbs (inner hearts), and we must join together in what we see, in our thoughts, in our dreams, and in our intentions. We must exist without any differences at all. We must never see any separations in our actions or in our thoughts. We must reach this perfection.
Even in hunger, illness, and old age, may we live as one body and as one life. We must have the certitude to be aware of this unity. In the same way that God comforts all of creation, let us all establish this state within ourselves. This is the unity of the one family, one community, one heart, and one compassion. This is the love of God. May we establish this state.
We must establish this unity and make our hearts perfect. Unity is not the way we commonly speak of it. It is not the way that we look at it. It is not the way we claim it to be. It is not the way we do it. Our conduct, our thoughts, our speech, our hearts, our lives, and our bodies must be made one. In this way, we must reach the fullness in performing duty, and God's action must manifest. We must bring about that kind of heart within ourselves. Only if we develop that can we reach the state, the happiness, and the life of one family, the unity of brothers and sisters, and peace in each heart. Only then can we see tranquility. That will be the perfection for us and the completion for our hearts. That will be completion for the qalb and completion of God's grace. If we make that completion of grace perfect and full, then we will see peace in the life of man. We will see the completeness of the one family, and we can know prayer to the One God. That will be perfect prayer. We will be a perfect family, perfect brothers and sisters. As we progress, we will realize the perfection found in such a life. Until this state comes, we will never see perfection.
To worship God inside, we must see that God has formed the four religions as four steps. There is shari'at, tariqat, harqiqat, and ma'rifat. We are born, we drank milk, we at for our hunger and our illnesses, and we went to school. A few more years passed, we got married, and later we became old. All the while, we experienced desires and cravings, and we searched for materials and possessions. Everything we see in life is shari'at. It is all shari'at. Our whole life exists as shari'at. What we think of, what we search for, what we eat, what we imbibe, our searching for halaal and haraam (what is permissible and what is not permissible)--all that is shari'at.
In this life of shari'at, we must know what is right (shari), what is wrong (pilai), what is halaal, what is haraam, what is sifat (the manifestation of creation), what is Zat (the essence of grace), what is sharr (evil), and what is khair (good). All this must be understood. When we understand all this, we must accept only what is good, and we must avoid what is evil. We must avoid the sifat and accept the Zat. We must avoid what is haraam and take only what is halaal. We must exist in such a state.
After we take what is right, and once we have determination and certitude of faith in God, then our state becomes tariqat, which means we have our Iman firm, and we place God in our hearts. The first step is shari'at. After we have seen what is right and what is wrong, we must take what is right, have faith in God, and then build the proper (inner) mosque. First we must realize the shari'at of life. Next in the second step we must realize the One to whom worship belongs, and we must build the mosque in which He is accepted. We must build that mosque and perform the prayer of iman. There is not one to whom worship is due other than Allahu ta' ala. For creation, for questioning, for the day of resurrection, for the prophets, for the lights of God, for this world and the next world, God is the one who judges. No one else can give that judgment. This is what we must accept with determination, and then we must build the mosque accordingly. That is tariqat.
In tariqat, we have shakur (contentment) saying, Al-hamdu lillah (All praise belongs only to God). If we receive food we say, Al-hamdu lillah. If we receive no food, we say, Al-hamdu lillah. If we receive a beating, we say, Al-hamdu lillah. If we do not get beaten, we say, Al-hamdu lillah. If sadness comes to us, we say, Al-hamdu lillah. If sadness does not come, we say, Al-hamdu lillah. If we get a delicious rice dish or if we get only water, we say, Al-hamdu lillah.
Patience, sabur (inner patience), shakur (contentment), tawakkal-Allah (absolute trust in God), and Al-hamdu lillah--these are the prerequisites of iman. The second level tariqat, the state in which the certitude of iman exists within you, is the prerequisite to Īman-Islam. As soon as iman becomes perfectly pure, as soon as your determination is correct, then the state of Islam, or light, will exist. You will become the light. 'Lam' is light, the light of perfect purity. Light is pure. For that purity, patience, sabur, shakur, tawakkal-Allah, and Al-hamdu lillah are the pure food. They are the wage and the food given by God. At all times one must have sabur. If he gets food, he has sabur. If he gets less food, he has shakur; he is still satisfied and contented. If he gets even less, he has tawakkal-Allah, and if he gets even less then that, he says, 'Al-hamdu lillah.' This is Īman-Islam.
The first step is shari'at and the second is tariqat. First of all you must see what is right and what is wrong; only then can you transcend shari'at. In shari'at, you see the shadow forms within, and wherever you look outside you see the physical forms. That is the worship of idols. Inside, all the thoughts and intentions are shadow worship. What you see on the outside, everything, all of it, is idol worship, animal worship, monkey worship, donkey worship. Secondly, to see that only God is right, to have the determination of faith, and to accept only God, is the mosque built in the second step, the second mosque of tariqat. Your iman must be made firm, and you must build that mosque.
In the second step (which is also the religion of fire worship), the fire of hell says, 'Bring this, bring that. Bring me this, bring me that.' It demands things.
But you may say to the fire, 'Al-hamdu lillah, you must have shakur. Do not talk to me!'
'Aiyo!' it will cry. 'I don't have this! I'm hungry! Please give me this, please give me that!'
Again you must say, 'Have shakur, do not talk to me. I do not have time to talk to you.'
It will cry, 'Give me meat, give me fish!'
But you must say, 'Please do not talk to me. I do not have time to talk to you.' You must say to the mind, 'Do not talk to me.' Having determined faith in Allah, say, Al-hamdu lillah. Then continue to say, You have been born on earth and you consume the earth; you have been born in fire and you consume the fire; you have been born in fire and you give room to fire; you have been born to air, and you give food to air; you have been born to illusion, and you give food to illusion; you have been born to the clouds, to the seven kinds of colors, and you desire the colors. Do you not have any peace? You only have the qualities of wandering. The oceans become lands. You run here, the air pushes you there, and the wind pushes you over there. Even the water does not stand still; it goes over there. The fire burns everything, the wind blows everything around, and the earth is trembling. Have those qualities not left you, O mind!
You must have sabur and shakur and tell the mind to have sabur and shakur. To do this is tariqat, to make iman firm. Tell the mind to have shakur and to make itself peaceful.
"The third step is haqiqat, the religion of Injil, or Christianity. You must build this mosque. God is a beautiful, mystical thing. He is mystical and has a mysterious beauty. There is nothing which will not fall in love with Him when it sees His beauty. The heavenly beings, the angels, the celestial beings, the prophets, the lights of God, the earth, the sky, the lands, the nether worlds, all are submissive to His beauty. They fall in love with Him when they see Him. When they see His beauty, when they see His qualities, His actions, His duty, and His miracles, they all fall in love. When they see the miracle of His compassionate qualities, the 3,000 qualities of His grace, His good thoughts and His selfless duty, they all fall in love. When they see His compassionate gaze, when they perceive His sweet speech, when they see the beauty of the gaze of His eye, when they see the way He carries us, so beautifully, so sweetly, in our thoughts and in our dreams, in the way that He embraces us and gives us milk, when they see His state of love, everyone will fall in love with His beauty. Haqiqat is to merge with that Beautiful One.
Haqiqat means to merge with Him, to say, 'I am a slave to Your beauty. Your beauty alone do I want. I want Your bliss. I do not see anything other than You. There is no beauty other than Your beauty. There are no qualities other than Your qualities. I have seen no compassion other than Yours. I have seen no action other than Your action. There is no love comparable to Your state of love. There is no wealth other than Your unfathomable qualities of grace. There is no one else who can act with Your perfect actions. O God, there is no god other than You. I love You alone. I must merge with You.'
Build that mosque! These spirits--this pure spirit and that spirit--they are all just creations, and they will all change. He alone is the unchanging Beautiful One. He is the undiminishing Beautiful One. His mystery alone is mystery. His miracle alone is the true miracle. To be in love with the Beloved One, to be blissful with Him, to merge with Him, and to join with Him is Haqiqat. That is Christianity. We are speaking of the state of prayer, not the religion. It is not the religion. There are four steps of prayer which are the four religions: Zabur, Jabrat, Injil, and Furqan. But there is only one God to whom worship belongs, and there are these four steps for us to come to accept Him. Is in the third step that one merges with God. That is Christianity.
The next step is Furqan. Furqan is light, the light which contains no day and no night. It has no darkness. It is also called the state of ma'rifat. In a place without darkness, there is no time and there are no seasons. In a place without time, there is no age. In a place where there is no again, there is no death. In a place where there is no death, there is no birth. In a place where there is no birth and death, there is no time of questioning, there is no judgment. And in a place without judgment, one can eternally exist. That is ma'rifat, where the ten are transcended. Furqan means there is no day and no night, only the light of Allah's seven causal signs.
Sufiyyat
Next is sufiyyat, the place where one disappears into Allah. How does this disappearing take place? Allah is the mysterious treasure; He is the miracle. Actually, God is not a miracle, but a mirror. A miracle simply means magic tricks, and God is not that kind of miracle. He is a mirror. Everyone who goes before that mirror sees his own face. All the worlds can be seen in that mirror. Anyone who looks will see himself. Everyone can see his own surat, his own form, his own actions, his act, his shape and his clothing. He can see whatever he does, he can see whatever he wants. That is the miracle mirror. That miracle and that prayer is sufiyyat.
What is prayer? It is the mercury which is bonded to the mirror. Devotion ('ibadat) is how you can bow to Allah. That is how you can bond yourself to God. That is prayer. That is the mercury. And as soon as that place is touched, that is the miracle mercury of the mirror.
Are the two separate? No. When glass and mercury are bonded, the mirror is formed. Then the mirror becomes crystal, a crystal mirror. Then Allah, prayer, and Insan will be one. A t the time when they work together, the miracle occurs. Prayer is the mercury which must bond with Him. When that state is established, prayer exists."
"M.R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen- a Sufi mystic, can best be remembered for his efforts to bring unity through understanding to the faithful of all religions."
Copyright: Four Steps to Pure Iman
Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship Family Newsletter July - August 1997
"M.R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen- a Sufi mystic, can best be remembered for his efforts to bring unity through understanding to the faithful of all religions."