Th.B,.,okI SffiI [IilA[,[Il fi +h. pow.r of to work U.t^n ^^.o^ditiov'ral Love ,ni,nacles ''dito+'' ^r:':l ::;2::i' o'^d :: o theinfall;bl. o^.r.dy o th. rorl of th. rose l-lak ivnMoi di" ehishti "'id Shovkh

lnner Tradition$ Int mational One Park Stleet Rochester, Vermont 05767 www.InnerTrad itions,com Copyright @1991by Hakim abu-Abdullah Moinuddin al-Chishtiyya All righ ts reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or b y any means, electronic or mechanical, includint photocopying, recording, or by any information storate and ret eval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. DATA LTBRARY CoNGREss oF CATALocTNG-rN-PuBLrcllTroN Moinduddin, abu-Abdullah Ghu lam. . The book of Sufi healing / Moiruddin Chishti. cm. P. Reprint. Origrnally published: New York : Inner Tladitions Intemational, c1985. inlcudesbibliographi cal references and hdex. ISBN 0-89281-324-5 1. Sufism. 2. Spiritual healing. 3. Medicine,Arabic. 4.Metaphysics. I.Title t991 8P189.65.F35M65 613-dc20 91-14595 CIP Printed and bound in the United States 1098 Text design by Studio 31

In the name oJ God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful Praise be m God, the Chefisher and Sustainer oJ the |Iorlds; Most Gracious, Most Mercifuli Master oJ the Day oJ Judgment. Thee do we wonhip and Thine aid we seeh, Show us the st,ruight waJl, the wql oJ those on whom thou hast bestowed Thy Gtace, those who have not eamed Thine anger and who go not astray.

C-ontents Foreword by Abu AneesMuhammad Barkat Ali vii Shajarah,or Line of Succession, Sha ykh Moinuddin ix of Notes on the Transliterationand Pronunciationof Arabic Words xiii Preface 1 Prologue 9 1 What Is Health? 11 2 The Hierarchy of Creation L7 3 The Stationsof the Soul 25 4 Food and Health 39 of 5 Akhlat: The Four Essences the Body 45 6 Foodsof the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) 51 7 Herbal Formulasfor Common Ailm ents 65 8 Fasting:The Best Medicine 85 9 9alet: The Posturesof the Prophets 9L 1 0 The Soul of the Rose LLL 11 The Universeof the Breath L23 12 Tacwidh: The Meri ciful Prescriptions 131 13 Dhikr: Divine Remembrance L47 14 The Origin of Miracl es L49 15 The Keys of the Treasuresof the Heavensand the Earth 16 The Infallible Remedy 159 Appendixes I. The IslamicCalendar 165 II. Some Useful Short Srlrahsof the Holy Qur'an 767 III. The Divine Attributes 771 IV. Glossary 179 V. Bibliogr aphy 183 Index 187 155

v Therearc t*o *;ra, oJ Knowledge: the knowledge oJ rcligions and the hnowledge oJ the body, t tI [\ , d ,4 U At^JlCEoVrbaul C^t God has not cteated any illness without creating ako its curc, except old age,

Foreword Bismillah, ir-Rahmdn ir-Aahim Not eventhe highestdegree dedication worshipmay earnanybodythe of to claim of di vine forgiveness recompense any other form, yet there is or in one thing that ev erybodyshould make sure of, which shall not go unrequited under any circumstance Allah the Almighty, and that is the by selfless serviceto the ailing humanity. There is no other human act more favorably acceptable to Allah than helping the sick and the suffering creaturesof His. That is what Shaykh Hakim Abu Abdullah M oinuddin Chishti has endeavoredto do in presenting this BooL SufiHealing. of The subject being a difficult and rare one, there are not very many books in this b ranchof knowledge. Nevertheless is most heartening note that ' it to the author has taken great painsin bringingout this commendable work by dint of his unshaka bletrust in Allah and unswerving will to serve the humanity. He displaysample ev idenceof his vast knowledgein fields of multifariouskinds-theology, mysticism, I slamicSufism,medicine, hygiene, astronomy,and modern sciences. One wonders at th e depth and insight of his knowledge, essentially result of intensiveas well as extensive the study in subiects diversenature. He takesup different subjects of and separately then correlates and coordinates them to converge a centralpoint, namely on health,be it physicaland mental health or purificationof the soul.This he has done most logically and methodically.What part do snldt, fasting,tatuidh , or recitationof the Holy Qur'an or dhilcr Allah the Almighty in any other of f orm play in physicaland mental health or purificationof one'snafsT The answer is not very far to seek. The author has also endeavored dispeldoubts and misgiving sabout to IslamicSufism,a most misunderstood.subjectthe West.It is a tremendous in effort on the part of the author to vindicalethe cause Islamand Sufism. of Th e presentation additional of informationin the shapeof illustrations, list of he rbs with their characteristics ailmentswith their treatment,glosand sary of myst ical terms, Qur'anic verses aptly quoted, basic information about s.aldt, faslin g, dhikr,and so on, has made the book still more beneficial for the ordinary rea der. Indeed, TheBook Sufi Healing a blessing for the of is English-reading world population in general and fellow American and Muslim brethren of the author in particular.In creatingsucha fine book, lx

Hnling ol x I ThcBa,k Sufi the author has rendered a great service to the causeo f Islam in the sense to that, as Islam is the most natural faith, adherence its tenets and principles leading toward human perfection and establishingthe i. lir " o"fy course rule of Aliah the Almighiy on this earth' For Sufism in its purest form is nothing else but Islam and Islam only. f *iL the author still more cour age and determination to serve the causeof Islam and betterment of the ailing hu manity' Abu Anees Muhammad Barkat Ali Dar-ul-Ehsan, Faisalabad, Pakistan

ShajarahSharif of Shaykh Hakim Abu Abdullah Moinuddin r f . *-)-;)$\';r, lr& Attfir al'Mu'minln Hazrat cAli (r.a.a') $ Hazrat Khtttdja Hasan Basti oir ,-" Allah, The Exalted, The AlmightY Huzw Sat-ilar-i-Ka'indt Mulammail Muglafd ' The Holy Prophet of Islam (s.a.w.s.) KhzttdiacAb ilul-Wdhiil li' FuilaYl ibn AYad o'o Ibrahim ibn Adham oio Sailiq Mat cashi t: llta Namshdrt oto Abn Islhq Shami oal Abfr A\mail AbilEl Chishti ror Muhammail Zahiil Maqbal Chishfi caa xl

xii I Tlu Buk S iufi Haling Abtl YusalChishti olr Nasiruililin Chishti 'lo Matoilild Chishtr r'o Shaif Zinilani ; cVthrfldn Hatini Klwaia olo Ktutaja MuclnuilifrnChishti of Ajmer tlr Khttt Aja Qutbu tlilin Bakhtiy ht K-alci olo Mascttil Ganj'i Shakar Shaykh FatTituitiEn ltr Haztat cAl:auititincAIi Atlmail Sdbit ol Kalyar Hazrat Shamsuililln Turk of Pa,t iqat ooo Hazrat laldlutlihn Mahrnltil of Panipat llo Hazrat Almad cAbilul'Haqq Ranilauli Inkeja oto Haztat ShaYkh cAif of Ranilauli r'o Hazrat ShaYkhMuhammail ata cAb ttttl - Quililit s of Gqngoh ola Kabit-ul-Aulia Jalhluilitin Farlt{t Thanesar oto

Shniareh Shedl I xlll N izdmudihn Balkh Rahnumah & Abh Saciil Gangohi olr Muhammail Sailiq oto Mahammail Daciil otr ShahAbitl-Macdli aol Muhammail Saciil oot Saciil Shah Mullammail Sallm .a Shah clnayanlldh oio cAbilul-Kafim o'o Ilafi4 cAbllul-Ralfm ooo Hazrut Shdh Hassdn r'r Hafiz Husayn Shah lo' Muhammail Husayn & Muhammail Murtaza Ahmail lol sacid Safdar cAIi Shah Chishti & Haztat Abu Abilullah Ghalam Moinuililin 'ol

xiv I ThcBlr,kol Srfi Hulirg is A shajarah the record of the line of succession a shaykh.It tracesthe of spir itualgenealogy from the presentshaykh,backin the line to the Prophet Muhammad (s .a.w.s.), who first transmittedthe spiritualpossessions. genealogy from the $dbi riyyahline of the ChishtiyyahOrder The Sufi is India. of Sufis, headquartered Aj mer, Ralasthan, at Ones who carry on the Sufi teachingsare authorized by living shaykhs, who maintain a living link and authority over those below them. This au thority is granted by meansof formal initiation,and rights of succession are set forth in a KhildfaFNama,or Letter of Succession, duly signedand sealed the seni orshaykhsof the order. Hazrat Ni46muddin by Awliyi'(r.a.) explained the granting of Khilifat: "Khilafat is the right of him who has no aspiration in his mind to have it, and who possesses caqlsalim lsound \7) iudgmentl or maturedknowledgeto judgeall intricatemattersof the world (z) with strict impartialityand forbearanc e; who is an accomplished scholar; and (3) whose chestis full of divine love and wisdom." The shaykh serves as an indirect link with the Divine Power. The tabar rukdt muslafawl-the sacredrobes and relics coming down from the line of Chishti shaykhs-are conveyedto the shaykh upon KhilSfat. Hazrat Abu Abdullah Moinuddin i s the twenty-sixth successor the in line of Hazrat Khwaia MucinuddinChishu (r.a. )

Notes on the Transliteration and Pronunciation of Arabic lVords Arabic consonants are pronounced like English consonants,with the following exce ptions. ' f[ A simplestop in the breath. Pronounced like f] in tfrrr. klr Pronounced like rl in Scottish lochor Yiddish challah. b An h soundedwith a strong outbreath. dlr Pronounced like tl in tls. r A slightly rolled r. g An emp hatics soundedwith the tongue at the roof of the mouth. I { An emphaticd sounded with the tongue at the roof of the mouth. An emphaticf soundedwith the tongue at the roof of the mouth. 4 An emphaticsound betweenz and dh. f A consonant formed by constrictingthe back of the throat andpushing the breath outward. 3ft A sound like clearing the throa t, or like a French r. .4 A t soundfrom the backof the throat, like the c rn cou rt opposed as toccf. Arabic vowels are divided into long and short. The short vo wels a, i, u are pronouncedas in cat, andduty.They are not indicatedin translite ration by fit, any specialmarks. The long vowels are about twice as long ia dura tion the as short vowels, and are marked as follows: -aah as in father i eeas in seen 'u ooas in vou.

Book SuliHealing ol xvi ! The but Arabic has two complex vowels: ay, often prono uncedlike eye somein bay, and aa;,pronounced between cowand bost. times as All p rayers and sacredphrases have been transliterated accordingto a The Namesof iorm at that may help the readerwith pronunciation. special iod are capitalizedso as to be easily recognized.z{llnfrbegins with a letter *hose sound often vanisheswi th elisions.In such casesthe Name is indicated by the capitalizationof its first soundedletter: Ufrh. Names of ancient shaykhshave been written accordingto Arab ic transliteration. Contemporary shaykhs' spellings have not been standardized' Turkish, that find their derivationor maiorusageinPersian, Certainphrases transl iteration style. The sameis true or Urdu have not been set in Arabic of terms th at have becomecommonin English.

,x;; Preface Bismi LIdh ir-Rabmdn, ir-Ral.im Sub@n Alldhi wal-fomdu li-Lhhi wa la ilallu illa LIfth wa Alldhu akba All thanhs belong to Allah and all praise belong to Allah and there is tp deiE except Alla h and AIIah is Grca&r (than all tlmt we avfibe to Him). of I wish first to give thanks to Allah, Exalted is He, for the very excellence His creation,and for His mercieswhich exist and are bestowedin abundance upon His humanity. His benefits are epitomized in the creation, life, and teachingsof all of His prophets (may His blessingsbe upon them all), and perfected in the form of His last Prophet, t he master of humanity, chief of both the worlds, Hazrat Muhammad (peaceand bless ingsof Allah be upon him). To the extent that Allah shouldpermit and inform me, it is my intention principles human healthand of to set forth someof the general and specific well-being as they have evolvedwithin the practicesof the mysticsof Islam, generallycalledSufis in the West. While it is understoodthat for many re aders this book may constitute their first contact with some of these ideas,it i s sincerelyhoped that even personsof long-standingpracticeof the ' way of life c alled Islam, may find herein confirmation of their faith and Allah the AlmiShty! ) belief.M; sh|' Allah!(As it pleases There are two main purposes to this book: to reveal the health and healing practicesunique to the Sufis, anfto give some g eneral idea of the stagesand progressionsinvolved in adopting the Sufi life' cou ld have been taken with the subiectof Sufi Many possibleapproaches presented in English for the first time. It must be healing, which is being topic within the study of Islam, borne in mind that Sufism is a specialized and the healing pract icesof Sufism is an even more refined subiect. Obwould run into tens of viously the possiblematters which could be discussed thousands of volumes, not one! More over, there is a problem in presenting authentic Sufi practicesto a

2 I TheBook iufi Hcoliag of public that has perhaps obtained a distorted view of Sufism up to the present time. It is hoped that those whose impression of Sufis m is merely some vague perceptionabout "God and goodness"will learn from this bo ok that it is at once a,specificand practicalset of guidelinesfor achievinga hig h state of human evolution. In any event, the contents of this book are offered as one drop in the divine oceanof knowledge. Let us try to sort out the many con ceptions,definitions, and notions of the term "Sufi." One who has true knowledge of the subiecthaspresented in it thusly: There is one immediate condition of the soul (lnl), calledalghan Sufi parlance, which refers to the overwhelming ioy an d love one feels and reality when confronted with or granted a glimpse of the ve ry presence tears.While this condition to of God Himself.*One is compelled sheds weet no doubt comes and goes, the accounts are not few of pious personalities wh o were afflicted with this supreme joy for years on end. A second meaning of the word afghanrcfers to the sPiritual station (maqdm) the soul,characterized the o ne who has achieved of by true purity. of Sucha personcanbe saidto haveextinguis hed flamesor burning (afisr) the the variousappetites the ego (nals) suchan exte ntthat they canneverbe of to rekindled.Anyone enjoyingthis statusmay be referred to as a Sufi. More properly, he or shewould be called a walt(pl.awliyd'), meani ng"belovedfriend of God." People,particularly in the West, who casually refer to themselvesand others as Sufis do not realize the exalted Position of those who have of attainedsuchrefinementthrough the graceand blessings Almighty God' In fa ct, it would constitute a kind of unparalleledarroganceto Presumeto describe one selfas at the pinnacleof spiritualperfection.Sincetrue Sufis it would of necessi tyexhibit the height of humility and selflessness, is difficult to locate one wh o would admit to such a condition. The founder of the Chishtiyyah Order of Sufis in India, Hazrat Khwila Mucinuddin Chishu (r.a.),has spokenof the true Sufi as one who seesno evil, hears no evil, speaksno evil, and thinks no evil. Although there are more than 150 orders in Sufism, they are all united in one fact: that all participants, from novice to supreme master, are conformed in inward thought and outward behavior to the religious iniunctions of Islam,known as shancat. So me mistakenlyassert that Sufism is separatefrom Islam, that it is broad and open -minded,whereas Islam is narrow, static,backward,and oldfashioned. Not only is s uch a concept ignorant, but it does a tremendous disservice to those who are sin cerely seeking the right way of living, of guidanceto God. To those who may clai m that all paths lead to God, He has replied: If you don't know where you are go ing, any path will do. 'The pronoun for God in Arabic has neither male nor female gender. I use the con pronoun in English, ventional literate form, Hirn, only because there is no prop er genderless most certainly intending no offense to femininity.

PrelaeI 3 Literally millions of volumes exist which establishbeyondany possibility of doub t that Sufism took seeddirectly from Islam, was nurtured by Islam, and has reach ed maturity in Islam. Sufism, far from being separatefrom Islam,is the very soul of Islam expressed a conceptual in framework." The Sufis may be considereda spe cialclass of teachers within Islam, whose responsibility to maintainand transmit the hidden,deeper is knowledge (ciln) contained in the Holy Qur'an. There are t he commonly known (sing.muf;kan)and understoodteachingsof the Holy Book-called m ulkam1t which can be understood easily by anyone. Then there are those divine (s ing, mutashibih\ secretscalledmutashdbihit which were revealedby the Holy Prophe tMuhammad(s.a.w.s.) Hazrat cAli (r.a.a.), to who in turn conveyed this knowledge to others in an oral transmissionwhich has continued up to the present time thr ough the network of Sufi orders, or silsilas. The life of the Sufi is the life o f the spirit, a life adjustedand regulatedby the clear guidancefor humanity prov ided by God Himself in the Holy one confrontation Qur'an. Ultimately,the success ful is granteda personal with, and absorption in, the overwhelming reality of th e Creator, Owner, and Sustainerof existence: Allah. It is important to note that the word Allah doesnot mean "a" god or a Muslim god. Even Arabic-speaking Chris tiansuse the word Allah for God. We use the word Allah, first, becauseit has nev er been used to refer to anything except the One God. Further benefits attachedt o the Arabic letters and soundswill be elucidatedin this book, in shi'Allah (God willing). For the Sufis, the supreme object of life is to serve and obey Allah, thereby earningHis pleasure. bestows Just as the Creator indiscriminately sun, rain, and love upon all of His creatures, too doesthe Sufi strive to so love all of humanity regardlessof caste,creed, age, sex, color, religion, or nationalori gin. The stages Sufismrest upon the premisethat by constantrecollection of and r emembranceof Allah, one will, through the grace of Allah, eventually come to be effaced in the One Remembered. At the headquarters the Chishti Order in Ajmer, I ndia,there is one of street (more like an alleyway) that mns alongside the darga h, resting or place,of Hazrat Khwdfa Mucinuddin Chishti (r.a.).Along that street are sitting perhapsthree dozenmen and women at any given time,and from all outw ard appearances they are the dutcasts and most despicable beggarsof the world. B ut one look into their eyeswill reveala countenanceof supreme ioy and peace,of c ontentment, of complete reliance and trust upon Allah (tawwakul AllAh) to provid e all that they may need.Whether they eat or do not eat doesnot matter to them.T hey cannotevenknow if they arecleanor dirty. Every person who crossestheir path, be he criminal or saint, is given 'lt is beyond the scopeof the present book to deal fully with this issue.The int erested (University of North reader is referred to Annemarie Schimmel,MyslicalDi mensions Jslara oI (London, East-West). Carolina Press),and Dr. Mir Valiuddin, C ontenplalioe Disciplines Sufism in

of e I ThcBor,k 5$ Huliag the samegreeting-an exPressionof unrestricted love for that person and of the deepestprayer that the person may receivethe merciesand blessings Allnh! in, there is no end.SlbllinAltah!Sublrafl Allah. Once this cond itionsets SubllqnAuah! It was in this samecondition that the well-known Sufi Hazrat Mawlana of Rnmi (r. a.) found himself after completing the greatestsequence mystical To lhe Masnaoi. show that he was completely resigned poetry in the world, io the will of Almigh ty God, and that he lived solely by the permissionand by the blood of the human body, Mawlind, in the favor of God and "oi presence of a large gathering of nota bles, called for a physician (fakirz)' When the healer irrived, Mawlene ordered that incisionsbe made through all of his veins and the cuts be allowed to bleed until all flowing ceased. When this act was done and no more blood flowed, Mawla ne rose up and, after performing ablutions, entered his rose garden and commence dthe ecstatic twirling of the sacreddance.Mi shA'AltAhf Al-ftanduli-lJah al' IJa yyu! Al-Qayyiln! FarfdGani-i Shakar(r.a.),one of the saintsof the ChishtiyHazrat BEbd of in yah, has said that the first stepor stageof Sufismconsists knowledge and accessto the 18,000created worlds (cilamtn;sini. talcrn).No doubt. to arriv e at the threshold of such a state requires a commitment and level of worship th at most humanscannot even imagine. not It is relatedthat Almighty Allah has said :"My servantceases to seek nearnessto Me through specialworship, until I make hi m My favorite, and the the thus I become earswherewith he hears,the eyeswherewit h he sees, walks." handswherewith he holds,and the feet wherewith he This "speci al worship" is taken up in the form of voluntary prayers during the day, and als o extended worship and supplicationsthroughout that no the night. The mastersof the true path are unitedin their insistence superogatoryPrayers progress at all can be madewithout the middle-night (tahajjudl. By combining this specialdevotio n and obedienceto Allah, the Sufis to unlock the origin of miracles through whic h they gain access the attriqualities in their own characbutes of Allah the Almi ghty, and reflect these in ter and actions,to the extent possible human beings. or as the most prominent characteristic attribute of Allah is His Just for human ity, so, too, do the Sufis strive to spreadand bestow compassion this among the people.Of all serviceto humanity, that which is considered superior is the heali ng of the sick and suffering. Certainly the great proportion of Sufi shaykhs hav e been known for their ability to effect results in the realm of healing various ailments. Of course, it is Allah Who does the actualhealing,the shaykhbeingonly the agentfor the will of Allah, exalted is He! The Chishtiyyah Order of Sufis, one of the four largest in Islam, has carried on this tradition of serving the d owntrodden of humanity-the sick and ailing-for the pasteight hundredyears,ever s incethe foundingof the

PrcleuI 5 order. A large herbal-medicineclinic is attached to the dargah premise s at Aimer, and all personscoming there (upward of sixty thousand per day) are p rovided whatever treatment they need,free of chargeor obligation.M6 sh6' Allah! If Allah touch theewith affliction, nonecanremoveit but He. (Qurhn 6:17) The aboveverse forms the basisof this book, which has been written to provide sp ecific means to attain a true health of the body, mind, and soul. For these sugg estionsto be put into practice successfullyrequires only the stateof being known as tawwakul Allih (trust in Almighty Allah). To inspire the reader'sconfidencei n the suggestionswhich follow, I have cited examplesof various Sufi personages p ast and present.All of thesepersons have derived their own example and inspirati on from that of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.), whose life has been aptly described "the Qur'an as lived-" The physical healing methods of the Sufis deriv e first from the Qur'an and secondfrom the traditions and actions of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.). Furthermore,there are many men and women of brilliancewho have developedthe knowledgesof physical medicine in the context of Islamic socie tiesand culture. Hakim Ibn Sina, Rhazes,and al-Suyuti are among thesemedical aut horitiesfrequently studiedby the Sufis. I have made little effort to rationalize or otherwise lustify the healing claims contained in this book, except to ident ify their source and origin, which in the end is God. In fact, materialistic ide ologies and scientific theoriescanneverbe sufficientto explainthe divinemysterie s. Nonetheless, these practiceshave proved effective and useful for an untold bu t very great number of personsand are in current use among the mysticsof Islam. At the sametime,it must be noted that what is requiredfor one to attain to the s tate of being of a walT Sufi-and utilizing the healingmethods or herein-is not t he same thing as reading this book. One who is sincerely interested in taking up a formal curriculum of study in Sufi healing must find an authenticshaykhor mas terand wholeheartedly submit to the advice offered. Some say that at least twelv e years are required for this training. The health practices fall into three cat egories:(1) those for the body, (2) those for the mind or emotions, arrrd those for the soul. The best and (3) preferred practicesare those for the soul. Howeve r, a person whose mind and soul are degeneratedor weak, may be unable to act upo n or be acted upon by a purely spiritual practice.In such a case,herbal remedies , food restrictionssuch as dieting and fasting, and similar modesare employed. P racticesfor the heart are also employed favorably in such cases,for they awaken, enliven,and disseminate various divine potentialities throughout the person. The practices for the soul are highly charged with divine grace and blessings, and if rightly applied, will never fail to bring results. It is a

of 6 I Thr Bcr,k 1ufiHtr,liq principle of nature that the spiritual always takes Precedenceover the material. began in My own study of the sciencesof Islamic mysticism (taqawwuf\ with my sh aykh, the late Hazrat 1968 with a written correspondence blessings, Begg(mayAlla h grant him the choicest MaulanaSufi Wahiduddin as many of such things as there are,imin!).Prior to his demisein Aimer in February 1979, our exchangeof letters had grown to some four thousand pages,which form the corpus of his teachingsto m e. During this period it was my good fortune to travel to Afghanistan, where I t ook up a formal course of. study of healing sciencesunder the guidance Sufi pers onages that beloved land.While there,I was initiated of of into the healing prac ticesof dream interpretation by Pir Syed Daoud lqbali, Sufis at Dehdadi,near Bal kh. leaderof the Naqshbandiyyah jurisprudence(/iql) and the science utilizing of The knowledge of Islamic (tacwldh) were conveyedby Haiii Shaikhvarious Qur'anic verses in healing in Shahrani, alsowhile I wasin residence Afghanistan. ul-Isla mNimayatullah ln April 1976, while paying my respects to the leader and supreme murshid(teacher) of the Chishtiyyah, at the dargahof Hazrat Khw6ia a the Mucinud dinChishti (r.a.),I experienced first of what was to become (karamat\. There, un der the directionof my continuingsequence miracles of that halteda sPontaneous a shaykh,I was ableto instigate particularpracfice wife in far-off Kabul-an e.'en t abortion which was being sufferedby my that was later termed a miracleeven by the attendingphysicians. Consequently,I undertook a vow to devote the balanceof my life to the duty of serving the humanity, for the sake of Allah Almighty and only for Allah. the sakeof Allah the Almighty. Ma sha' I In order to make this v olume useful to as many as possible, have presented wherever I could the origina l Arabic script as well as the transThe words shouldbe utteredin of literationan d translation variousprayers. for reasonsthat will becomeapparent in the followi ng pages' Arabic, for and expressed my A specialdebt of gratitude is hereby ackn owledged who has presentshaykh,SyedSafdarAli ShahChishti,of Lahore,Pakistan, for shared with me his spiritual possessions, which honor and favor I could never a dequatelyexpressmy appreciation. in One of the finest examplesand exponentsof th e idealsexpressed this volume is to be found in the life and personality of Sufi Abu Anees Muhammad Barkat Ali of Dar-ul Ehsan, Pakistan.His miraculous healing are legend throughout the world. experiences While I was involved in preparing t he final typescript of this book, in Bernard Glicksbergprovided me with great as sistance the mechanical production of the text and allowed me to work unhindered by various external concerns.He proved to be a friend in the truest senseof the word. Rabia Harris The editing of this manuscript was a specialchallenge. exert ed her knowledge of Arabic in conforming the disparate foreign language elements to one style. And Kendra Crossen discoveredmany opPor-

Ptcfutc 7 I tunities to clarify and enhance the text. Both of these gracious peo ple earned my respectand gratitude. The Arabic and Persian calligraphy was contr ibuted by Enayatullah Shahrani, Aishah Holland, Shaykh Shemsuddin Friedlander, a nd myself. The illustrations were the inspired work of Angela Werneke. A special thanksis due to LeslieColket,who managed masterfullycoordinate of to all the di sparateelementsof production. Abu Anees Muhammad Barkat Ali read the manuscriptf or errors of intent and reason,and Zafar HussainKhan assisted by resolvingtechme nical matters regardingSufisticterminology. My wife, Iman, listenedwith love an d concernto my ideasand efforts while I was writinS this book, and I must thank the All-Merciful for her endlesssupport and forbearance. Finally, I most sincere lythank my publisher, Ehud C. Sperling,president of Inner Traditions Internation al, Ltd,, of Rochester, Vermont, for his years of kind forbearanceand interest t o allow me the time and effort to complete this volume. May Allah the Merciful r eward them all with His choicest blessings! Amin!Amin!Amin! Wa ikhiru dacwini an al-\amduli-Ll5hirabbil-c6limin! cali Wa9-qalitu was-salimu rasilihil-karim! Rab banitaqabbal minni innakaantas-Samic ul-cAlim! cammi yaqifin. Subl.rina Rabbuka rabbul-cizzati Wa salimun calal-mursalin. Wal-lramdu li-Llihi rabb il-celamin! Ami"l In the end our claim is that all praise be to Allah, the and greetingsto the Pro phet (s.a.w.s.). Lord of the Worlds,and blessings Our Lord! AccePt from us this dutY! Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Hearer, the Knower! Gloried be thy Lord, the Lord of Majesty, From that which they attribute (unto Him)! Peacebe unto His mes sengers! Praisebe to Allah the AlmightY, Lord of the Worlds! Be it so! H.M.C. Dar-ul Iman Oxford,New York 13830

Prologue The philosophyof Sufism is best summed up in the words of the final kfufbaft (se rmon) of Hazrat Khwrja Mucinud&n Chishu (r.a.), which he delivered to his follow ers iust one month before his demise.The great saint said: Love all and hate none. Mere talk of peacewill avail you naught. Mere talk of Go d and religion will not take you far. Bring out all of the latent powers of your being and reveal the full magnificence of your immortal self. Be surchargedwith peaceand ioy, And scatter them wherever you are and wherever you go. Be a blazi ng fire of truth, Be a beauteousblossornof love And be a soothing balm of peace. With your spiritual light, dispel the darknessof ignorance; dissolvethe clouds o f discord and war and spreadgoodwill, peace,and harmony among the people. Never seek any help, charity, or favors from anybody except God. Never go to the court s of kings, but never refuse to bless and help the needy and the poor, the widow , and the orphan, if they come to your door. This is your mission, to serve the people. Carry it out dutifully and courageously, so that I, as your hr-o-Murshid , may not be ashamedof any shortiomirtgs on your parr before the Almighty God an d our holy predecessors in the Sufi order [silsilifi] on the Day of Judgment. In the following pages, my own humble effort is offered to fulfill this pious advi ce. It is for all people, and constitutes an expression of mv

ao I ThcBook SuliHaliry of unyielding love for the life and example of our belov edleader,the Prophet of Islam and saviorof humanity (s.a.w.s.). If you find the spiritual sparks herein to become uplifted, all praise, thanks, and appreciation belongsto Allah sublhnu tacafa, All-Merciful, wa the the All-Compassionate. If t here be mistakesor errors, the responsibilityis entirely my own, and I ask pardo n and forgiveness of my Lord.

1, What Is Health? Fot you God nbjectcd all that is in tbe heavens And on the eorth, aII Jrcm Him, Behold! In that are signsJor pople who rcflect. Qtr'an 45:18 What is health? When we talk about the human organism existing in a stateof heal th,we must first of all understand several interrelated questions. What is a hum an being? How did it come into existence? How is it sustainedin existence? And w hat is the purposeof human life? Without (or understanding answersto thesequesti ons at leastthe questions), the we can never have a satisfactoryknowledge of the real type of health we should be seeking.For without any criteria for what cons titutesthe proper functioning of a human being,how can we say that it evenmatter swhether we are ill or well? Just becausesomething feels "good" does not necessa rily mean it is of ultimate benefit to us. And conversely, simply because the at moment we seemto havepain,we cannotdismissthis experience as"bad," unlesswe und erstandhow and what the result of thesemomenrarysensations will be. Allah saysin the Qur'an, "There may be a thing decreedfor you that you do not like that is g ood for you; and things that you like that are not good for you." The great Sufi Imam al-Ghazzali(r.a.)expressed this ideaasfollows: "lllness is one of the form s of experienceby which humans arrive at a knowledge of God; as He says,'Illness esare my servants which I attach to My chosenfriends."' Thus, we ought not neces sarily considerillnessour enemy; rather, we to may see it as an event, a mechani smof the body, that is serving to cleanse, purify, and balance us on the physica l, emotional, mental, and spiritual planes. Considered from this perspective,a b out of flu, a cold, diarrhea, even some kinds of agonizing pain are friends, ena bling our bodiesto purge unwanted and potentially harmful toxic by-products of m etabolism.

ol rz I TheBrr,k 9tfi Haling Western medicine endeavorsto halt or impede the var ious eliminative functions of the body-to stop the urSe to vomit with stomachrem edies;to block diarrhea with potions; to end fever with aspirin and related drug s' Behind every naturai action of the human body is an inherent wisdom, a the bo dy to heal itself. In fact, no herb, food, or any mechanismihut "Uo-t other subs tanceor procedurecan do anything on its own to heal;it can only role. If your fi nger is cut, it is aid and assistthe body in its own self-healing it iodinethat causes to heal;it is the or not the stitchesor the bandage the skin itself that performs this miracle. When we think of illness,we almost always first think of iniury or acute are.realizingthat other pain as the first stage.But today many p eopleour feelings and thoughts, can become unaspectsof our mental world, illness and suffering,eventhough there may be nothing and cause baianced clinically "wro ng" with a person. This approach to health and diseasehas come to be Lnown as "h olistic." It is rather easy to understand the physical level The body lets us kn ow-by rn""rl, oi our sensePerceptions-sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell-and the vegetative faculties-when something is wrong, and we take steps to correct t he problem. The seat of the vegetativefunction-that work of the body-is the live r, sometimes is, the instinctive,life-sustaining called the Wheel of Life. All o f our physical functions are cued by the functions and enzyrnesof the liver. In Arabic, nalsis the word for the body and its appetites'Na/smeansall of the deman dsof the body-for food, for warmth, for fame and fortune (all of can these inclu de emotional needsor drives).All physicaldiseases be marked out by one or more o f thesephysicaldimensions. The word nafshas many meanings: breath, animal life, soul, self, a of person,essence, more.In Sufism,the progression the soulis descr ibed and which manifestsin human behavior of the nals, Ly consideringthe evoluti on 'fhe nafsiam-marfr the is ai one's entire character,personality,and behavior. is the condition commanding soul, which createsinordinate appetites.This of the rafs referred to when one occupiesthe station of egotism (maqdm an-nafs). are i n The behaviorsrecommended the Qur'an (sharical) meant to control and subdue the se inordinate appetities,leading the nalslo a more refined status.The soul that has beenentirely purified is callednalsilcrll,meaning "universal soul," which un ites with Allah in the final stage of Sufism However, even at the latest stageso f Sufi practice,one cannot assume of oneselfto be immune to the blemishes the so ul. The secondaspectof our existenceis the mind world, or let us say the emotion al and mental world. The mind is not entirely separatefrom the with physical fun cphysical body, but is part of and intimately connectedin the mind frequently ha ve an lioning. Moods and feelings that originate effect on the body-emotions suc h as anger, fear, or extreme ioy When one

Whot Is Hcdth? I 13 or more of these is experienced, blood pressuremay rise or fall, the body the sw eats,tears may come. Interestingly, some ailments or conditions that we have com e to regard as purely emotional have their origin in physicalimbalances. example is An severe anger. Psychologistswould usually attribute this to a condition of the mind or emotions. But according to the fibb system of the Persian physicianA vicenna, severeanger is one of the body'smost effective ways of dispelling exces s moisturein the areaof the heart.It is easilycorrected with diet. The realm of the mental world is called/itr in Arabic. In essence, /ilrr means meditation or deep-thought process. The third component of our existenceis the soul, calledthe rnfi. The rull is that which exists after death, which marks the end of both ph ysicaland mental life. The interaction of the three realms (or the activation of the physicaland mental realmsby the soul realm)is carriedout by meansof the spi rit.Many people use the words "spirit" and "soul" to mean the same thing, yet th ey are distinctly different and separate. The spirit is what activatesthe physic allevel existence, including thought processes.The word for this spiritactivator is nafas. is activated at the point of the breath. The point of the lt lips whe re in-breath and out-breath unite is the link between life and death. We can liv e without mental activity and without physical movement. But without breath, lif e ceases a very short time. There are peoplewho in live without mental existence .Although an electroencephalograph shows that their brain waves are not function ing, they may be kept "alive" by mechanicalmeans.They are called"brain dead," ye t they are still regarded as living; we do not bury them. This meansthat there i s something superior to this mental existence and physical existence. Such perso ns still have something left of life in them, and that something is the breath. The Sufis considerthat the breath of life existsand continuesby virtue of the id fia, or permission of God, the One Who has created us all. What we call the Crea tor-God, Allah, Yahweh, or whatever-does not matter. In His ultimately reality, God is one. He gives His permissionfor human life to exist in the first place,an d as long as that permissionremains,we may draw breath in and out. Regardless wh ich systemof healing we may wish of to apply, or how skilled the practitioner, E venif all the healersof the world came together, they could not counteract the i dhn.When the permissionis withdrawn, there is no more breath; life ceases. Inter esting casesbear this out. When a child is born, it doesnot breathe right away.S omesay the shockof the coldair startsit breathing.But not in every casedoes this happen. The Sufis would say that Allah sendsHis i/lz for that particular life t o commence.If He doesnot send His permission,no amount of spankingor technologic aleffort can force the baby to breathe.It will be a stillborn.

ol rt I ThcBook SuliHaling On the other hand, sometimes, despite every effort to end a life, the permission overrides human efforts A recent article in a medica l iournal iold of a couple who had informed their doctor that they did not want to The doctor suggestedthat the have children under any circumstances' husband u ndergo a permanent vasectomy,and so it was performed A few the months later the couplewas back, furious with the doctor, because wife pregnant. The doctor then offered to perform a free abortion to had become terminate the pregnancy. This p rocedure was done. Another month later, the couple sued the doctor for malpracti cewhen the woman discoveredthat she was still pregnant! Despitethe sterilization and the abortion, the idhnof God was that this particuiar child would be born. A nd so it was. Clearly, there is an Authority against Whom we have no real abilit y to interfere. Consider the nonmanifest realms-the world of dreams,of intuition , of abstract phenomena-and the many casesof people reporting encounters polterg eists, the like.No one in the West hasso far and with UFOs,demons, come forward with a fully developedconceptualframework with which to to The Sufis use the ter m ghnyb deal with these"other-worldly" experiences. refer to events that transpi re in the unseenrealms.This unseenrealm includesthe actionsof the soul. is The c enter,or seat,of the soul'sexistence the heart' With what do we sympathy, mercy, and all of the associate heart and soul? Love, compassion, dies,the grief of th e survivorsis When someone our religioussentiments' There is so It is actuallya physicalpain. The heart aches. felt in the heart. soul-relatedaspectsof the much terminology in our languageabout these do heatt. And no one can deny that these feelingsof love and compassion exist. No one is without them. In Arabic, the hea rt is calledqalb.The heart accordingto the Sufis is not just a physiologicalpump for dispersingblood about the body. It servestwo uitil, interrelated functions. One, the heart is the storehouseof divine -or" attributes; and two, it is the s eat of manufacture of the rafas-that lifeactivating force which enters with each breath, the breath that activatesall functions. physiological Thus, when the idh n, or permission of God, is drawn in, it goes immediately to the heart. In some manner, this idhnactivatesall of the divine and thesethen are carriedout into th e attributesin variouscombinations, body. ihe Qur'an informs that thesedivine at tributes are approximatelyninetynine in number and are what Allah uses as the me ans of allowing the human to function and work on the created plane of being. Fo r example.one of these attributes ls calledal-Ba{r, which means"the Perceiver." In other words, Allah sees everything at all times; there is the nothing that es capes view of God,not eventhe most intimatethoughts. This bnqirexistsas a potent ialitywithin us at all times,storedin the heart.

Whel Hcslth? h lrs When Allah sendsHis idhnin on a breath,and this is combined with certain sounds we utter, the potentiality will then travel through a semigaseous network called a humor. The potentiality moves along this network until it reaches the moist, crystallinelens of the eye. Once there, the potentiality uniteswith the physical part of the body and becomes actualityof sight. the Perception, total potential ityof al-BaEir, the alsoincludes suchthings as insight, our sensationof maiesty when viewing a panoramicsunset,and sirnilarexperiences. of theseperceptive All c apabilities includedwithin are the potentialityof perception. All of these ninet y-nine divine attributes,then, are stored within the heart. Thesepotentialities may be activated meansof varioussoundswe by utter in combinationto make words. T he three basicsounds the long vowel sounds i, i, and l. Theseare are of what the Sufiscall the universalharmonicconstants, and they are similarly used in all my stic paths that utilize sounds (otherwisecalledmanlras or wagfahs). We do not si ng or chant these sounds.Rather, they are voicedin the normal courseof our conve rsations. The word All-ah, an example, iust as is an elongation of the long vowe l sound of t, int rrupted once with the consonant of the letter l, which makes the s hape of the letter i with the tongue. Even animalsutter various combinationsof t hese three long vowel sounds. The owl, for example, says,"Hool" The pronoun for God in Arabic is Hi, pronouncedexactly the sameway that the owl utters its remem brance of the divine name. Allah has informed us, "Every creature in the Heavens and the earth glorifies His Name." The Sufi, knowing the Arabic tones and names of God, is able to attune to a cosmic conversation that is constantly going on t hroughout all of existence countless as creaturesutter their variationsof the di vine name. The use of these three constantsis not arbitrary. The long vowel soun d of d (as in father), a vibratory tone, travels downward and slightly to the as left from the throat and centers in the heart, thereby stimulating all of the d ivine attributes stored within. The long sound of i (asin machine) moves in the opposite direction,up the nasalseptum,and vibratesat the point of the pinealglan d,which is considered be a remnant of the third eye, a lightto sensitiveorgan. T he long sound of u (as in you) exists when uttered exactly at the point on the p ursed lips, the point of connectionbetween the in- and out-breaths. It is where our action meetsand intermingleswith the divine permission, the idhn. The Sufis use various formulas or combinationsof thesetonesto produce electrifying effects that are able in and of themselvesto unlock congested areas within the heart, t hereby releasing one or more potentialities. This alone accountsfor a considerab lenumber of miraculous cures.

ol 16 I ThcBook Srli Hcaling So the very words we use to make conversation are h ardly a random matter. When we say the word " eal" (making the sound of the long i), for example, we are actually stimulating the endocrine system's pineal glan d! The tineal gland receivesa vibratory signal that causesa seriesof ethereal sh ocis which go throughout the body, providing information to all of the physiolog ical functions. throughoutnature with what transpires eventsare in coniunction T hese germinative shocks through the soil which when the sun sends certain cause the seedto open and send out rootlets. The germinal center of the by seedis acti vated shocksfrorir the.sun.Likewise,variouscenterswithin body are awakenedby the undulations of the vibratory tones in the human these universalharmonic constan ts.The effects upon human health are profound. This interconnectionbetween the p hysicaland spiritual realms exists all through nature, of which humans are a par t. One might say that animals ur" rno." attuned to it; sometimeshorsesand other animalsgive a particular sound just before they die, and animalsnearbyknow the m eaningof this sound. Animals have greater awarenessof the unseen realms.Humans s hould have this knowledge, but they do not seek it. Humans are more bound to the physical plane. There must be a knowledge and consideration of the physical,men tal, and spiritual planesof existencefor there to be true health. By understandi ng eich of these planesof being, we can arrive at the correct modesof balancing and treating each one. If the subiect of diseaseis looked into deeplyenough,the origin of all illnesscan be saidto lie in the mind. There in of must be a though t or concept an illness order for it to exist.But what is of the mind? Somesay i t is a collection cellsthat havemany functionsand possibilities. But the Sufis a ttribute a Sreat deal more to the mind, as the iepository of the intellect,which God has given to humans,thus making them unique among all of the creation. Befo re this mind can be adequately understood,we first have to have a conceptionof t he entire universe, from life the most minute bacterial up to God. This is known as the hierarchyof creation.

2 The Hi erarchy of Creation God is the One Who eeated tor you AII that is on the earth. Moreove4 He tunrcd t o tlp heaven and fashioned seven havens with hannony. He isJull of krcwledge o:f all things. @thn 2i:17 The hierarchy of creation extends from the most minute forms of terrestrial life up to Allah. The constructionof this hierarchywas designed Allah by and is kept in form and balanceby His will. In general terms, the whole of creationis divid edinto two parts: the known world of our human creation (insin) and the unseen Q hayb) generally unknown world of the heavens. and The world below, as it were, i s the sublunary world, consisting of four elemental spheres: terrestrial,vegetat ive, the animal,and human kingdoms. These four componentsare arranged in ascendi ngorder of creation, so that the human being occupiesthe highest position in the order of the physical creation.This dimension governedby the rules of nature,wh ich is to say is the dominion of growth and decay,of life and death. Above this created world of human existence lies the realm of the heavens, which are eleven in number. Eechof theseheavens occupied is by angelic forms and ultimately is po pulated with souls that depart from human bodiesand earthly existence. The vario us realms of earth and the heavenscan be representedin their entirety in the acc ompanying chart. Each of the elemental spheres-the terrestrial, vegetable,animal , and human kingdoms-is composed two parts: an elementalsphereand an of interspa ce,with which it connects to the sphere above its own. Thus, the terrestrial sph ere connects with the second elemental sphere via the inl7

Bak ol SufiHuling 20 | Thc with the terrestrial organicworld. When the elementof water is combined sphere, the vegetative world is created. Likewise, the additi on of air to earth and water creates fire. When all these combine-earth, water, air, and fire-the human form is made up. The human kingdom is the interconnectio n to the heavenly realms. For by most humans,the first heavenis represented the moon: We first attain our strivings for the heavenly realms by viewing the moon. For those who occupythe dimensionof the first heaven,or moon, the moon is the f irmament and the secondheavenrepresentsa higher aspiration-Mercury is their heav en.And so on, up the hierarchyof the heavens. Humans occupy the highest placein the realms of createdlife, by virtue of one reasononly: Humans have been endowed with the faculty of reason, caql.The caqlis the creative, rational reasoning po wer of the mind, which neither plants nor animals nor water has. These lower for ms can only obey their instincts provided by the Creator. They are totally obedi ent to the one cannever"reason"with a deer.If one tries laws of nature.For examp le, regardinvariably bolts instantly and disappears, to approachone, it almost h uman. lessof the intent of the approaching This holds true even for those animal sthat humans have sought to control. Dogs, for example, have not taken well to e fforts to domesticate them. The more inbreeding that has occurred in a particula r breed, the Despiteefforts to makedogsinto pets,it is more neuroticthe dogsbeco me. not so infrequent that a dog will for no reason turn wild upon a person or s mallchild and kill him. usuallylosethe natural dignity of Animals that have been domesticated Animals of all kinds are marvelousin their natural terrain' But the ir species. in that element they have intact all of their natural instinctivebeh avior, which is required for their survival. The lion doesnot kill in the wild o ut of and the To malice. be a killer is the positiongiven to the lion in the cre ation, lion must do it. for Only humans have the capacityfor creativereasoning, the rational process which we decidewhether we are going to do a by decision-mak ing calledfree will. One can inform a human is thing. This process sometimes dan gerous will kill him; yet the human beingbeing that to do something and do it an yway. using his free will-can act contrary to all the evidence Animals have no s uch choice:A fish must be a fish. by are Our mental decisions accomplished the t aql,and it is byvirtue of this have been placedover all of the creation of the f aculty alone that humans sublunary world. When we aspire to something beyond the earthly existence,we move heavens, Most apparentto all are the zodiacal into th e realm of the heavens. which are seven in number. This is the realm of the plan ets,the first of which is the moon. Its color is from the four elementsmentioned , white and silver, and it is constructed olus ether.

The Hientchy ol Crcetbn | 2l The second zodiacal planet is Mercury, whose color is gray. God said that He mad e Mercury with the addition of His own fikr, His own deep meditative thought. Ve nus is the third zodiacalplanet, and its color is yellow. Venus governs the worl d of similitudes, of analogiesand metaphors, of poetry. Allah has informed us th at Venus was created with the addition of His khayal,or imagination. The sun, th e fourth zodiacal planet, is presided over by Israfil, the Angel of Resurrection . The Prophet (s.a.w.s.) reported to have related is that Israfil told him that the Angel of Death scans the faces of seventy thousand peopleeachday and, from t hese,choosesthose who will be called from earthly existence. This planet God mad e from the light of His own heart, the fount of God, the absolute of the heart: love. The fifth planet in the zodiac is Mars. Its color is blood-red.Azrael, the Angel of Death, presidesover this planet, which is createdfrom God'swafum, or d ivine decision. presided over by the archangel Jupiter is the sixth planetof the zodiac, Michaeland formed of the Light of Himmah-the light of Allah'sreflection . The final zodiacal planet is Saturn. Its color is black.Saturn, being the high est in the hierarchy, was the first zodiacalconstellationto be created. These fi rst seven heavens (presentedin reverse order, from lowest to highest) are descdp tively namedssmi'.The word sami'(heaven)is linked by sound to samdc, Arabic word meaning "ecstaticcontemplation."Each an heavenexists with a relation to both so mething aboveand something below itself. Theseheavens inhabitedby variousbeingso f the creation. are There are disembodiedsouls (having died already to earth lif e and awaiting the yawm al-qiydmmah, Day of Judgment)in one or other of the heav ens.All the or angelsexist in all of thesevariousheavens, depending upon their f unction and rank. In additionto human soulsand angels, Allah alsocreated iinns.W hereas He created humansfrom the four elements earth,water, air, and fire, He of made the jinns from "smokelessfire." The iinns, which are described fully in th e Holy Qur2n, can from time to time assume human form. Generally, they are harml essor favorably inclined to humans, but they can be malevolent. They have great effect upon h'uman affairs and frequently cause imbalancesthat we would identify as disease.A prime example is colic in infants, who are especiallyprone to the influence of iinns. Certain herbal substances recitations and are usedto dispelj inns. When the soul is extracted from human life, it begins to ascendthrough the se heavenly realms. So a person would always have consideration of a prior state , and also something to look forward to. This is the reality of the heavenlyexis tence. Thosewho believe reincarnation in havearrivedat their conceptsby only par tially understanding the entire creation of the heavens. When we arrive at the h ighest heaven of the zodiac,we are at the

22 I The Book SuliHwling of thresholdof the Throne of Allah, calledthe carsh. This is actuallya metaphoricai statement, no one could imaginesitting in or anywherenearthe as seat of Almighty Allah. This eighth heaven constitutesthe limit of the physicalconfinesof our un iverse.The universewe study with telescopes, laser beams,and radio waves reaches limit at this point of the eighth its heaven.Although science not arrivedat thi s barrier yet, it may in time, has Cod willing. There are 18,000createduniverses , which we know about only one, of the one we inhabit.The other 77,999 exist con tiguousto our own and have other functions that we do not know.aboutand never wi ll. Allah has said to all that He did not createhumanswith ihe capacity totally understand of His creation.But at the moment of death, when the veils are torn a way, each person will instantly see the whole nature of the heavensand the Incid entally, universeand will be astonished the ingenuityof God'sdesign. at He Allah has said that despitethe complexityof the heavens, has created the human body i nfinitely more complex!But for now we shall have to be This inspiresus to conten t to know that there is unimaginable vastness. power of our Creator,Who has insi stedupon many acceptthe majestyand thousands dimensions creation;we humans seeon ly one drop in this of of divine cosmicocean. The events of the eighth heavenare directedby Allah Himself;in the His When lower realms,Allah directsintermediari es accomplish designs. to events like shooting stars and meteoritesoccur in our zodiac,they are causedby actionsin this ninth heaven.The regular orbiting of our fixed planetsin the earthly heavens regulatedfrom this heaven. is The ninth hea venis the Crystalline, calledthe rarsl,meaningthe Throne is of Allah, the dazzle ment God's glory. This state of existence totally of beyondconception descriptio n. great Sufi oncesaid,"He who climbed or A no over the wall to the tnrsh, one e ver heard of him again." The tenth heavencontainsno planetsor stars and thus is calledthe originate, Starless Heaven.It is where the motions of all the other sp heres directly under the commandand decision Allah the Almighty. of The eleventh heavenis calledthe Empyrean, the Heavenof Heavens. or It is wholly luminous, not hing but pure, complete,overwhelminglight. Mawlana Rimr (r.a.) celebrated this r ealm when he wrote: "What do we carefor the Empyreanand the skies? Our iourney i s to the RoseCardenof Union." Allah has informed us in the Qur'an that when He d ecided makethe to prophecy. And, this, He creation,the first thing He made was t he soul of said, He made from His own light, or anr. In other words, for all of the prophetsAllah sent to earth with informationfor human beingsabout the nature of the creation,God made for them one soul only. He put this in 12o,ooo success ive human forms, both maleand female,someknown to the world, some not. Allah mad ethis unimaginably elegantsoul from His nlr,

The Hictatchy of Crution I 29 His own light. That is why the prophetswere able to have such amazing effect upo n the world: Allah gavethem the powersof illuminationover the world. Allah furth er saidthat "lf I had not created soulof prophecy, would the I not have createdt he world." After Allah createdthis soul of prophecy, it was so brilliant and lum inous that it began to perspire.And from this perspiration the soul of prophecy, of Allah madethe soulof the rose.This is why the rose has such a magnificentess ence and is calledthe mother of scents. Anyone who looksat a rosesmiles and is u plifted,and people over all the world honor and caressthe rose instinctively.Ind eed,the rose is the symbol of love itself. We can see from this chart or pathway of the evolution through the hierarchy of creation that humans occupy a relativ elylow point in it all; there are many levelsabovethat we cannot reachwith the p hysicalbody. After the earthly,terrestriallife, there are many additional stages , which of necessity must be traversedusing the vehicleof the soul.There is a st age beyond the Heaven of Heavens, past the Empyrean, called oifl, or the wedding to God Almighty. This alone is the goal of the true Sufi and the real meaning o f U ildha illa Unh-that one is content with nothinS except the ultimate and fina l union with the Beloved,the Owner, Creator, and Sustainer of all the Worlds. Yi f;ayyn! qayynm! Yn Every scripture and every prophet from the first have said t he same thing: that we are createdby a wise and loving Creator,and that the spec ial purposeof our existence to endeavor work our way backto Him. Our is to objec tive life is to regainunion with God, and everythingin our life is an in immense pageant designed assist in that lourney.That is why one who to us is active on t he Sufi path is referred lo as sdlik, the traveler. Everythingwe considerto be k ind, good,and desirable this life is but in the minutest manifestation the final , absolute, of incontrovertible acand tuality of those things which are owned by Allah and not by anyoneelse. (from This final and ultimate knowledgeabout all t hings is calledhaqiqat trtth). haqq, When we speakof love and say we want to be loved or to love someone, what we mean is that we yearn for that absolute love t hat will overwhelm us and burn us to ashesso that we die of love.One human canno tprovide such maiesticpower of love for anothei. It is only the Divine Beloved w ho can annihilateus. That is what the Sufi seeks, dies trying to achieve. or The iourney from a confused,earthly person to one united forever with the Divine Re ality is a long, complex, and difficult iourney. Therefore, the Sufis have elabo rated the various stageson this path and have developed various signpostsand mea suresthat can be used to identify where one is on the path. This chart of progre ssion the journey to the Belovedis called on the stationsof the soul.

The Stations of the Soul In its progression through life, the physical body passesthrough stages, from in fancy to youth, adulthood, and old age. Similarly, the soul palses through speci ficevolutionary stagesor stations. The Arabic word for such a station is maqdm n aqdndt).ltmeansa (pl. s.topqilg or resting place.But it has many other connotati ons that convey the full sense of what this stage may be: place of residence, dw elling, mansion, stay, dignity, office, state, musical tone, question. Indeed, t he occupation a maqim the soul is all of these,and sometrmes of by more. The sta tionsof the soul are enteredinto at the momentof birth, and the entire period of life is occupiedin one of these stations, although there may be changes from on e station to another.Theseare listedin ascending order as follows: Maqdm an-Nafs :The Station of Egotism Maqfrm-al-@lbz The Station of the Heart Maqdm-ar-Rll1tTh e Station of the Pure Spirit Maqdm as-SirrtThe Station of Divine Secrets Maqim n lQurbz The Station of Proximity (or Nearness)to Allah Meqdm al-Wigdl:The Station of Union (sometimes called the Divine Wedding with the Beloved) From the moment of birth, we are constantly striving to develop the soul, and progress in this effort can be marked out and measured bv referring to thesestages. Obviously,not everyoneattainsall of the stages. It is important to realizethat it is not the bodv as such that makes this journey, but rather the rill. The translationof rul is usually given as "soul." It can also mean the breath of God, the angel Gabri el, the Qur'an, revelation, or prophecy.

26 I The Book SuliHuling ol For the Sufis,the rn! is the essence life. It is not the physical of body or the brain and its thoughts and memories;nor is it the l ife processes. rirlhas The a distinct existenceof its own, which is derived from God and belongs entirely to God. When we ask someone what a pomegranate tastesl ike, he may well say somethinglike, "lt tasteswhat it tasteslike." That does not seema very satisfactory answer,but because pomegranate unique,its tastecannot t he is be related to anything else, hence this curious reply. And so it is with t he rnft. The rufi,or essence, be shown to existonly in relationto rhythm and can motif. Think of danceas an example.There is sucha thing as dance, but it doesno t existconcretely exceptin relationto the form of rhythm and motif. One can imag inea dancewith the mind, but for the danceto be actual,the motion and rhythm of dancersare neededto act it out. But the dance remains the essence. This is what is meant by essence, which the m{r is of perhapsthe supremeexample. The human so ul also requiresthis rhythm and motif to be manifeston plane.Remember the physic al that the rnf, or soul'sessence, not the same is thing as the spirit (nafas). The latter is the divine force that activates the physicalphenomenain the body, including mental processes. The rn! is more intimately felt and superior to the spirit. Imagineall of the things that havethe essence fire in them-the sun, of g reen wood, ashes,and so forth. All have the same essence, but they possess very different physicalforms, and each is at a different stageof evolution,a differen t maq|m. The absoluteof the essence fire is oart of of the rr.rr, light of Cod. or Every physical createdthing has its unique and characteristic balancebetweenh ot and cold, moist and dry, passivityand activity.We readin the everythingin its correctbalance." examFor Qur'an that Allah "has created ple, the blood is chara cteristically warm and moist. Anything that disturbs or changes that normal bala nced conditionmay leadto disease. The sameis true of our emotions.Our moodsare c onstantlyaffectedby eventscoming in via our sensoryapparatus. Take the senseof t ouch. If someone slapped you hard, your mood would almostinstantlychange. you ju mpedinto an If icy pool,again,your moodand emotionswould dramatically change. He aring is another example.Music can produceprofound effects on the state of mind. Calm, soothingmusic is healing.Loud, raucousmusic can makeone iittery. Yet thes e emotionalevents need form and motif in order to cause thesechanges. The effect of readingmusicalnoteson paperis not the same as that of listeningto a Breat sym phony. Some senses are more powerful than others. The physicalsenseconsideredto be the highestis that of smell.Somesay that smell is relatedto memory. For insta nce, when walking down the street,one can encountera scent,such as that of bakin g bread,and almost immediatelyit reaches the

The Sretiontthe of Soul 127 nostrils, one has a flashbackto some childhoodmemory . The science of aromatherapyis basedupon the preeminence the senseof smell. Eac h of flower of naturehasits own rr.rf, essence. pure,naturalfloral oil may be A or flowers used for its antiseptic effect on a wound. The Sufis have classified according their effect upon the soul in its evolution toward God. to ruf but Eac hhuman beinghas a rr.r!, not everyperson's is the sameasthe sameas a saint. Some soulsare much more next one's;a sinner is not the refined than others. Every per son is born into the maq|mnn-nafs, station of egotism.This is or the inevitablef irst stop in life. The infant is entirely preoccupied with its need for physical satisfaction. wants food, or to be pickedup, and will It scream,cry, and spit to make its demands known. It is completelyunconcerned about the effects of its ow n actions.A baby will break an object considered priceless a treasureby an adult ,and will laughaboutit, at that! The body in its earliestdevelopmentcares only t o satisfy its animal desires-for food,affection, stimulationof all kinds.Since t his isa God-given condition, and a necessary one, infants and children are immun e from judgment and punishment.If a small child walks into a supermarketand knoc ks over a displayof bottles,no one saysmuch. Someone cleansit up. policemay be B ut let an adult do it-intentionally, as a childmight-and the called. In the stat ionof egotism,the facultyof reason and judgmenthasnot yet been developed. That c omeslater on. As a child grows, its parents,or the In societyat large,generallyi mpressupon it variouscodes conduct. other of words, the child learnshow to stay on a particulartrack of behavior.One who deviatesfrom that track will be confron ted with various uncomfortable restrictions. It may be normal and understandable small children to exist in this for just as they grow out of crawling and regur gitating state of egotism,but so, actions, too, their food, and developmature bo diesand smoothphysical do we expectthat a person'ssoul will evolveand grow out o f egotism. this evolutionary The Qur'an reveals properbehaviorfor conducting the progressionof the soul. The mode of living spelledout in the Qurhn is as-Eir-a! al-mustaqim: straight path. For the Sufi, the supremeand the called, sole obiec tof life is to attempt to iourney to God, and to do so in the most manner,antl t he quickestway aswell. Therefore, reasonable successful and path is actuallya st raight line-the shortestdistance between the straight two points, which measures the distancebetweenthe station of egotism Almighty Allah. and union with the Bel oved, Many peoplegrow into adulthoodand evenold agewithout everdepartan-nafs. Su ch people never ing from this initial stage of egotism, the maqfrm of stop deman dingtheir own way, the endlesssatisfactions the body. Taken diseases call we to the extreme,the whole rangeof emotionaland physical is chronic and degenerative a result of remainingin this station too long.

28 I The Book SufiHuling of insanity, weepingfor no reason, anxiety,self-doubt, selfishness, Fearfulness, de pression, paranoia, sexual perversions, and suicide-all are emotional when a per son lingers in it into connectedwith the maqiman-nafs, diseases adulthood. an-na fs sometimes can associated with the maq|m The physicaldiseases ones.But for the occur concurrentlywith the emotionalor psychological body, the end result of re mainingin the station of egotismincludesdrug blindness and criminal behavior,obe sity,hypoglycemia, abuse,alcoholism, and cancer. other eye problems,jaundice,hea rt attack, venerealdisease, propercontrolover one Theseconditions result from th e failure to exercise of or more of the nalsfunctions,or appetites the body. Som e readersmay and say that they know a very nice personwho had a heart attack. di sagree the Understanding further stationsin the evolutionof the soul will clarif y this matter fully. The method of escape-or progress-from the station of egotis mis to willpower, train and discipline ego and its drives.This meansdeveloping t he and responsibility, consideration, compassion, courtesy,amongother traits. it s When one succeeds gettinSsomecontrolover the ralsand leaves stage, in heart. a l-qalb, station of the or one arrivesat the mnqim The Arabic word for heart, qal b,refers to a wide rangeof magnificent intellect,kernel,marrow, cenmeanings: hea rt, mind, soul, understanding, part, core,genuine,pure. Even more interestingis that the ter, the choicest "permuting,""transmuting,"or "turning." For the Sufi, alsomeans word 4alb the heart is the meansby which all transformationoccurs goo dness; they feel Thosewho occupythe stationof the hearthavea basic al-qalb would good about themselvesand the world. A person in lhe maqam "l want to do only go odin the world. I lovenaturein all its forms.I accept say, by attitudetoward eve ryone. Oh, what a wonderlife is!"Judging this exalted would troublea person life , one might imaginethat no diseases problems or in at this stage.The reality is almostthe contrary.For persons the stationof physical still proneto both emotion al imbalances well as as the heart are and spiritualones.The emotionaland spirit ualailmentsincludethe inability to excesforgetfulness, fear of failure,certainty pesof hypocrisy, concentrate, and severeanger, depression, sive emotions such as severeecstasy, ioy, arrogance, and being inconsiderate others' feelings. of Des pite the positive aspects this station, it is still only the second of station o f the soul's progress.This stage can be a time of tremendous emotional upheavals ,including divorce or other relationship problems,and This is so because personf eelsa surgeof ecstasy, a financialdifficulties. the fresh and almost overwhelmin gexcitementtoward life. Many who have to been involvedwith the personbefore he o r she ascended the station of the heart cannot acceptthe changes they seein thei r friend. In fact, lossof friends is very common in this stage. problemsaffiliat edwith the stationof the heart. There are alsophysical

Thc Stotiont theSosl 129 of While those of the prior state were almost exclusively a degenerative of nature, the diseases ailmentsof this stageare chronicand acute.This is and so because bo dy is going through an internal cleansing, throwing off the a of toxicity and su perfluousmatters accumulated the prior stage.Thus, in diseases the station of th e heart includeheadache (especially of migraine), nausea, diarrhea,achesand pain sthroughout the body,irritability, general toxicity (skin eruptions,scalpproblem s), fever, and gallbladder and kidney problems. Whereasthe diseases the station of egotism were severeand often of incurable, conditions the station of the hear t are themselves kind of the of a self-treatment the body.Almost all are signsof one or more of the kinds by of healingcrisisthe body undergoes healingitself.Th is process in may not be pleasant, but it is beneficial. It is very difficult to continue to the higher stagesof soul evolution without a true shaykh.Under his guidance, one may move toward the next (station of the soul), by following vario us practicesto stage, maqdm ar-rul1 develop the capacitiesof mercy, compassion, consideration,and selfdiscipline a high pitch of perfection. to No doubt the sta tionof the soul is a blessed state,and anyoneoccupying it would appearto others as a personof great love and spirituality.But at the sametime, there remainphysi cal and emotional imbalances that become part of the mechanismby which the perso n strives toward God. These conditions deepenfaith. The emotional problemsof the nr aqam ar-r ll includ,e arrogance, pride,self-deception, of concentration, lac k giddiness, frivolous, a irreverent attitude to life, and sometimesthe habit of degradingothers. Note that these are the diseases this state, not the behavior of one of existinS in balancein this station. The imbalances may occur when the person has not yet evolvedto the point of being entirely immune to the appetites of the nafs. Once, when the great Sufi cAbdul-QadirJildni (r.a.)was alreadyconsi deredto be a great man of spiritualrank, he was approached a maniby festation th at identified itself as Gabriel, the angel of revelation.The manifestationtold c Abdul Qadir that he could now dispense with ritual cAbdul-Qidir reciteda versefr om the Qur'an prayerbecause his holiness. of (satan).This which exposedthe manif estationas a masquera ding shayldn demonstrates that the further one traVelson t he spiritualpath, the more certain one may be of insinuationsfrom the devil. Som eof the imbalances this stationare easyto control,somenot. One of of the more di fficult, and offensive,is arrogance.This is the raw, selfreferentkind of egotism that leadsa personto say,"I am better than others. I pray all day. I fast. I med itate,and look at all thesegarbagepeoplein the world. They're sinners!"This may be the truth in someform about certain people, but it is an injury to them, and it mars one'sown spiritualdevelopment to express It must be appreciated it. that eachpersonhas evolvedto a

30 I The Book SuliHaling ol particularpoint by the decision Almighty God. No matter how sunk into of the lif e of the world peoplemay be, they still have within them the spark of divinity. They alsocan advance, and it is the duty of a truly spiritualperson not to conde mnthem, but to befriendthem so that they might be led out of their misery and on to the right path of living. Some physicalproblemsare associated with the statio n of the soul. (from excessive Theseincludeauto-intoxication practices), breathi ng various kinds of nervoustremors, fatigue,corruptedappetite,and fever. There a re two forms of fever. The first, occurring in the stationsof egotismand the hea rt, is an intenseleat developed the body to refine by process superfluous and ou t toxic matters.The second kind of fever,occurring in the later stations,constit utesa deepspiritualcleansing, causing, as the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) has sa id,"the sins to fall off like leaves being shedfrom a tree." Thesefeversburn off impuritieson the soul level. Evensomeof the prophetswere subiectto frequentfeve rs.The holy people who experience fever at this level are not being correctedfor vile living habits.As one Sufi said,"In the beginning you repentfor wrong actio ns and sins;at the end, you repentfor forgetting God even for a second." is this It latter conditionthat is being treatedin the station of the soul. It can happ enthat personsin the stationof the soul skid off into lunatic behavior,especiall y they have no guide. They may fall into the most if destructive kindsof self-il lusion. One can never rest at any stageor assume that one will neverfall back. W hen it comesto a spiritual physicianor Sufi treating a person for a disease, now becomes it clearthat the saint and the persondwellingin the stationof egotismwo uld requiredrastically different modesof treatmenteven though they both may repo rt fever as the main symptom. The questionmay arisewhether a personmay overlapfr om one station into the next. This doesnot occur.A stationis a restingplace. suc h,once As one enters a station, one will remain until death or until retreating or advancing into anotherstation.There are,however,innumerable immediate conditi onsoccurring in each station, and these conditionsare called!al. Literally, fril means "change."It is linked by sound to fall, meaning an untying or unloosing, dissolving. this sense, meanswhen we loseour a In it senses, such is the extreme fervor of the Sufis during their recitations of dhikr,when it is not uncommonto seeone of the membersfall senseless to (truth) or macrifa, (ecstasy). the groun d, having glimpsedsomething o( laqiqah The fourth station is the maq1m as-sirr, stationof divine secrets. the The word sirr (pl.asrdr) refersto the greatestmyst ery,which cannotbe imagined, and even when experienced, cannotbe believed. it Th e word alsohas other meanings: coition, the middle or best part of anything, ric hest land, root, origin, and tomb. This is the stationreferredto bv Allah when H e said,"There arecertain

The Stationtol the Soul | 3l of my servants nearness me by meansof voluntary who cease seeking not to worship ,until I become the lips with which they speak, eyeswith which the they see,the earsby which they hear, the hand wherewith they hold, and the foot by which they step."The fortunate ones in the station of divine secrets can understand mechan isms which the whole universeis held the by in place. They have fully developedp owers of clairaudienceand can read the thoughts of others. Angels come to them w ith information from the unseenrealms. "What was One day someone askedthe Prophe tMuhammad (s.a.w.s.), all of this universecreatedfor? How doesit exist?"The Prop hetanswered, "I don't know the answer.I'll have to go ask the angelGabriel."So h e went "l and askedGabriel,who answered, dont know the answerto that, I'll have to go askAllah." So Gabrielasked Allah, then returnedand said,'Allah said, 'I ha ve createdthe skies and heavenssimply as a beautiful sight and an entertainmentf or you, and to createwonder and awe of My majestyand power. I want the blinking stars to uplift and delight you and cause you to marvel at My creation."' When A llah was askedhow He did all of this, Gabriel reported that He said,"I did not c reatehumans with the mental capacityto comprehendthe meansand mechanisms which I have done by this. Even if I told you, you would not understand.But at the inst ant of death, when the veils are torn away, you will immediatelyseehow it is don e,and you will be astonished My ingenuity.I am the bestof creators. at As compli cated and complexas I have made the heavens, have madethe I human body infinitel y more complex."The Prophet Muhammad(s.a.w.s.) who most certainly existed in the highest of stations, was able to receive this kind of information. The average person would never attain to this exaltedstateand favor of the Almighty God. the , The personsadmitted to the station of divine secretshave passed most excrucia tingtestsand are no longer seekingany egotistical aspectof human life. They do n ot desirefame, wealth, or excitinSsensations. They exist only for and by virtue of a very exclusive and intimate relationship with the Creator and the celestial population.Nonetheless, they are still human, and some physical and emotionaleve ntsdo occur on this planeas well. It is not correctto call theseevents"diseases, " reallylthey are rather imbalances sidetracks or that can cause one to descend from this stateor to languishin this stationand not continuefurther, to reachthe goalof Allah. The primary imbalances the station of divine secrets of includefa lseinterpretationof divine phenomena, irrationality,lackof interestin earthly li fe, incoherentbabbling,heart pain,and heart burning. At this point,it shouldbe e xplained that a personin one stationgenerally cannot leap severalstationsaheador above.A young child may be able to ride a bicyclewell, but certainlycould not p ilot a supersonic This is not iet. to demeanthe child or glorify the pilot. But a personwho has attaineda

3z I The Buk ol SufiHuling particularstationcanfunction in and understand any of the lower stationspilot, having riddena bicycle a child,couldcontinueto do so a s as iust as the an adult. The self-deceptionreferred to in this station of divi ne secretswould be a condition of this maqdm. a ldl would be the mode in which t his selfB* deception manifestsitself. Not everyonein this or any other stationwo uld experienceall of the lals thal could occur in that station. The physicaleven tsthat occur in the maqdm as-sirr fever, a senseof are difficulty in breathing,a nd sometimes sense suffocating. a of Theseparticular afflictionsoccurbecause arr ival at.this stagerequiresyearsof breathing practices. Imbalances can occur if t hese practices are done incorrectlyor excessively. Moreover,it is not uncommonat this stagethat one is bothered by eventsof the nonmanifestrealms.Interference f rom jinns is an example (althoughthey can bother peopleat any stage, eveninfants ).Or one may be carrying on certain kinds of relationswith disembodied soulsand become affectedby this interchange. thesecases, In variouskinds of spiritualprac ticesinvolving breathingwould be employedas remedies. For the Sufis,the main sou rceof breathingpractices the Holy Qur'an is itself. The various breath starts an d stops are marked in the text of the of Qur'an and employdegrees difficulty up through elevenlevelsof recitation. The vowels,in particular,are frequentlyelonga ted and held for more than a normal single beat in reciting. Although only a few personsas a practical matter can recite at the advancedlevels, it is possibleto find cassette tapesof suchperformances shaykhs by recitingthe Holy Qur'an. In t hesephenomenally stirring recordings, recitations one can hear sustained lasting up to two minuteswith one breathexpulsion, movementthrough and four and five oct averanges. Beyondthe station of divine secrets the maqdm is al-qurb. The definit ion of qurbis "nearness," it alsoconnotes but drawing near,approach, neighborhoo d, relationship, and kinship.One in this station indeedenjoysthe view of the nei ghborhood the Most High-that is, the highest heaven,conof carsh, Throne of the A lmighty. One occupyingthe statusof taining the or this station has a vantageof t his createdworld, but also glimpses into the next world, the world of other crea tedforms. At this stage there are very few imbalances difficulties,strictly in o r terms of healthand disease, thosethat do exist can be very severe. but One of the conditionsis excessive ecstasy. personaffectedwith this condition A is calle d majdhitb. Suchpeoplelosevirtually all interestin or connection with the world. They are in a state of joy at all times and do not care whether they sleep, eat ,or are clothed.They are divinelyintoxicated and absorbed in the Beloved. I met such a man once living out in the pastoral countrysidenear Paghman, Afghanistan. He was saidby his followersto be about 125 years

Thc Stttionsof thc Soul I 3J old. As I and my companions entered the high-walledgarden of his compound,we saw a smallman sitting hunchedover rows of pottedgeraniums. From time to time, he w ould pick a few bright red blossoms anJ eat them. He sharedthesetreats with squi rrelsand other smallanimalsthat scurried around him without fear. Later, upstair s in his room, he behavedin a manner that would alarm anyoneuninformed about thi s station.He never spokeclearlyor directly,but one could catch snatches his conv ersations of addressed the inhabitantsof the angelicrealms.Birds flew in and out of to the openwindows.As we were leaving,he offeredone of my companions a "gift ," which he held out like a treasurein his cupped palms.The gift turned out to b e a dirt-smeared, half-eatenpeachpit! Suchis the conditionof those in the statio n of nearness, who perceivereality on an entirely other plane. This state is int erestingand beautiful in its way, but it is not the goal. In fact, most shaykhsa re of the opinion that it is an inferior and undisirable condition. Some peoplei n this station do not speak.Casesare recordedof some who went for over twenty ye arswithout speaking, being so overwhelmed that they had no desireor ability to c ommunicate. Other difficultiesinclude forgetfulnessand genuineinsanity.The perso nforgets from one moment to the next what he is sayingor doing. Some of the prac tices-involving both breath and mental contemplation-are so profound and intense that the personmay lose his mind entirely. This is rare, however. Remarkable sim ilarities may be observed betweenthe conditions occurring in these latter stages of spiritual evolution and the behaviorof the mentally ill. In the East, many pe opleon the street exhibit such bizarre behavior that they would immediatelybe lo cked up if they did the same thing in the West. Yet a true diagnosisof their con dition-wouldrequire a consideration the imbalances the soul. of of ' A problemno t mentionedyet but commonto all of the stations(andyet more of a danger in the s tation of nearnessthan any other) is that of attributing divinity to oneself, Go d protect us from such a thing. And, although it is painful to even think of it, a related imbalance-the most severe-is disbeliefin God. The higher and further one risesin the evolutionof the soul,the more one is tested.People this level ha ve long sinceextinguished at their carnal desires and egotistic traits. But they frequently are very successful in leadingothers to the path of truth and righte ousness, and therefore are constantly being bothered by all of the malevolent fo rces-shayalin(devils), jinns, dayo (ghosts),and similar troublemakers. paree I h ave heard peoplesay that they themselves listen to God, or that thev have receiv edguidancedirectly from God. They ought to recall that the only means Allah has ever used to relate to humans is the angel Gabriel (with the sole exception Mose s,once).There are many warnings about of

tt I The Buk ol S'lfi Hwling assuming oneself to be adequatearmor against the delusionsof the evil ones, both human and nonhuman. The great shaykh Junayd (r.a.) said, "He who takes himself as a teacher has taken Satan as his guide." al-arb.il, unionwith or One more sta tion exists, and the Sufis call it maqdm Allah. Here God is your Beloved and you are the lover, and you are wedded together in Divine Unity for all time. This s tation, unlike all of those which precede it, cannot be attained by effort. Almi ghty Allah makes the decision and chooseswhom He will. The tradition relating th e manner of selection for this station is moving. It is quoted from the Holy Pro phet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.)on the authority of Hazrat Ibn Mascid (r.a.): Among the creaturesof Allah, there are three hundred peoplewho bear a specialrelationship with Allah and whose hearts are similar to that of the prophet Adam, peacebe upo n him. And forty whose hearts are similar to that of the prophet Moses, peace be upon him. Seven are those whose hearts are similar to that of the prophet Abrah am, peacebe upon him. Five are those whose hearts are similar to that of the arc hangelGabriel. Three are those whose hearts are like that of the angel Michael. There is one servant among the creatures of Allah the Almighty whose heart is li ke the angel Isrifil. When one servant dies, Allah choosesone from among the thr ee to 'replacehim. When one among the three dies, one from among the five is adm itted to his place.When one among the five dies, one from among the seven is adm itted in his place.When any of the sevendies,one from among the forty is admitte d to his place. When any one of the forty dies, Whenone from one from amongthe t hreehundredis admittedto his place. among the three hundred dies, one from among the peoplein generalis life, death, admitted.So, because them; Allah the Almigh ty administers of rainfall,creation,and rids humanity of misfortunes. All of the three hundred persons would be characteristicallysmiling at all times and would have no concerns whatsoever of the world. They do not need to eat, drink, or sl eep.They have transcendedhuman bounds and can soar-literally-anywhere they like, on earth and through the heavens. Only a few in human history have come to this status. lt is impossible to describe in words. It is the real goal of existence and involves the promise we each made to our Creator before we came into this l ife. These people are termed nnl'i (pl. swlivfr'), meaning "beloved friends of G od." They are the real vicegerents of God on earth. Generally, they are not know n to the world at large. The awliyd'are informed about and have accessto the mec hanisms to control and affect all human events, and it is they whom Allah uses t o unfold the divine plan on earth. The means they use are with the knowledge of Allah. Only one who has attained admittance among the three hundred or the lesse r numbers is properly termed a Sufi. All others are rather aspirants to Sufism.

The St,,tions th. SotI I 35 of By the time one attains the station of proximity there are no physical ailments left. The only physical event remaining is the mode by which one will die. Usual ly, people at this station do not die