Selection of letters of Mawlay al-'Arabi al-Im�m al-Darqawi radī All�hu anhu

[Attari.Rafique]

 

Selection from the letters of Mawlay al-'Arabi al-Imām al-Darqawi radī Allāhu anhu

I strongly advise you to follow the Prophetic Sunnāh and to remember your Lord whenever your state is constricted and whenever it is expansive.You should say the prayer upon you Prophet صَلَّى اللهُ تَعَالٰى عَلَيْه وَاٰله وَسَلَّم. This is because if you are like this, then you will truly be the slaves of Allāh. Whoever is truly the slave of Allāh is not the slave of his passion. He is a wali of Allāh. Take care, Again, I repeat - take care!

 

Be careful not to do anything to distract you from your Lord since there is nothing in reality excep Allāh. "Allāh was and there is nothing with Him, He is now as He was" Know that when a man has need of something, that is because of his ignorance and lack of knowledge. If it had not been for his ignorance, he would not need anything except Allāh. The Mighty Qurān and hadith of the Prophet both testify to this. Listen to the answer of the saint of Allāh, Sayyidi Sahl at-Tustari, to one of his murids who said to him, "Master - food!" He told him, "Allāh"... the Murid remained silent for a while and then said, "We must have food". He told him, "We must have Allāh". I say that, by Allāh, in reality we and others have no need except Allāh. If we are His, He is ours as in the past with others - He was theirs if they were His. I advise you to always keep together and to remind one another in your Path throughout your entire lifetime as those before you have done. Take care! Again, I repeat - take care!

 

Be careful not to try to hasten an opening as some of you and others seek to do. If you do that, you will miss the excellence of the path and its blessings, secrets, baraka and bliss, because when someone wants to pluck something before it is permissible for him, that results in him being deprived of it.

It is absolutely necessary that you keep together and have respect and esteem for one another. You should honour one another and have esteem for one another. Fulfil the contract of Allāh when you make a contract. Love one another and show affection to one another as the Prophet صَلَّى اللهُ تَعَالٰى عَلَيْه وَاٰله وَسَلَّم said. Be on your guard against being foolish and insolent and against treachery, dishonesty or abandoning the path. Allāh gives success. Know that concern for a thing is something immense. We and you have no concern except for Allāh's favour to us. The "man" (rajul) denotes the one who does not lack strength; is not lazy and does not slack off. He fights his nafs. He gives it a little of the things which it hates and are burdensome fro it until it is annihilated. "Annihilation is obliteration, disappearance, leaving your nafs, extinction," as the wali Sayyidi Abū'l-Mawahib t Tunisi said in his Qawanin.

Peace.

 

Faqir, the secret action is seventy times better than the public action, as is reported in tradition. Allāh knows best, but we think that the circles of dhikr which our brothers, the fuqara', hold public - standing and sitting in zawwiyas and in houses, in isolated places and inhabited places - is in the same position as the secret action since this age is in an age of heedlessness.

 

Heedlessness has overwhelmed people and taken hold of their hearts and limbs. It has left them deaf, dumb and blind. They have no intellect. Fervour for the deen has suffered in a similar way and thus making dhikr public and well known is better than concealing it, especially the circle of dhikr. It has great excellence and a clear secret since the Prophet صَلَّى اللهُ تَعَالٰى عَلَيْه وَاٰله وَسَلَّم said, "When you pass by one of the meadows of Paradise, graze there" He was asked "Messenger of Allāh, what are the meadows of Paradise?" "Circles of dhikr" he replied.

 

And the Prophet صَلَّى اللهُ تَعَالٰى عَلَيْه وَاٰله وَسَلَّم said "There is no group of people who gather together to do dhikr of Allāh, only desiring Allāh's face by that, but that a caller calls to them from heaven, "Arise forgiven! Your evil actions have been transformed into good actions," I told this to our brother in Allāh, the Sufi scholar and sharif, Abū'l-'Abbas Sayyidi Ahmad ibn 'Ajiba al-Manjari radī Allāhu anhu. He found it excellent and did not dislike it.

 

Peace

[Abdur Rehman]

 

 

[Tauqir Attari]

 

 

 

[Faizan-e-Mustafa]

SubhanAllah!

 

 

JazakAllah for sharing!