My shaykh sent me this article..I thought I'd share it with everyone



(Extracts from teaching of Grand Sheikh Muhaiyadeen Abdul Khader Jeelani R.A.)



Islam stresses honesty, charity, services and other virtues that form solid foundation. A moral, ethical and disciplined lifestyle is like a solid container that can hold mystical experiences without its leaking or dissipating. Sufism without Islam is like a candle burning in the open without a lantern. There are winds which will blow the candle out. But if you have lantern with glass protecting the flame, the candle will continue to burn safely.



You will not be a Muslim until you are like the earth ? both the righteous and the sinner tread upon it. You will not be a mystic until you are like the clouds - they share all things. You will not be a mystic until you are like the rain ? It waters all things whether it loves them or not.



One of the sayings of Prophet (S.A.W) analyzes the difference between human and angelic nature. Allah created Angels from intellect without sensuality, Allah created beasts from sensuality without intellect and Allah created humanity from both intellect and sensuality. So, whenever a person?s intellect overcomes his sensuality, he is better than angels but when his sensuality overcomes his intellect, he is worse than the beasts.



Sufis are those who have preferred Allah to every thing so that Allah has preferred them to every thing.



Sufi is absent from him self and present with Allah.



Any one can learn the outer forms of prayer and worship. You should seek to develop a heart that can pray.



Keep your hands busy with your duties in this world and your heart busy with Allah.



Faith is the friend who comes along especially when things seem to go wrong.



Faqir ? refers to a person whose heart is empty of attachment to anything other than Allah.



You can not see the back of your own head, no matter how intently you stare into a mirror or how quickly you turn around. Even the most clear sighted have blind spots. These places to which we ourselves are blind are often astonishingly visible to others.



The first stage of worship is silence. Do not commit yourself to lengthy discussions of religion. Such talk only succeeds in making religion a complex and confused matter. Allah has made religion easy and simple.



Happy are those who find fault with themselves instead of finding fault with others.

There are four stages of practice. Shariah is the religious law. Tariqah is the mystical path. Haqiqah is Truth and Marfia is Gnosis (Intuitive knowledge of spiritual truths).



First is the Shariah, which is the basic foundation for the next three stages. Trying to follow Sufism without following the shariah is like trying to build a house on a foundation of sand. Without an ordered life built on solid moral and ethical principles, Sufism can not flourish. Shariah means road, a clear track, a well traveled route that any one can follow.



Second is the Tariqah ? It literally means the path in the desert that the Bedouin would follow to travel from oasis to oasis. This path is not clearly marked like a high way; it is not even a visible road. To find your way in the trackless desert, you need to know the area intimately, or you need a guide who knows the destination and is familiar with the local land marks just as shariah refers to the external dimension of religion, the Tariqah refers to the inner practices. Shariah makes the outer day to day life clean and attractive. Tariqah is designed to make the inner life pure and clean. Each of these supports the other..



Third is the Haqiqah or Truth ? It refers to the inner meaning of the practices and guidance found in the Shariah and Tariqah. It is the direct experience of the mystical states, direct experience of the presence of Allah with in. Before Haqiqah, all practice is imitation. The attainment of Haqiqah confirms and solidifies the practice of the first two stages. Without the deep inner understanding that comes from experience, one follows the teachings and teachings of others mechanically.



Fourth is Marifah ? It is superior wisdom or knowledge of spiritual truth. This is the deep level of the inner knowing, beyond Haqiqah. More than momentary spiritual experience, Marifah refers to an ongoing state of attunement with Allah and with Truth. It is the knowledge of Reality, attained by a very few. This is the station of the Messengers, of the Prophets and the great Sages and Saints.



At the level of Shariah there is ?Yours and Mine?. This is law that guarantees individual rights and ethical relations between people.



At the Level of Tariqah ?Mine is Yours and Yours is Mine?. At this level, you are expected to open your homes, hearts and purses to one another.



At the level of Haqiqah ?There is no Mine and no Yours?. At this level, the advanced you are expected to realize that all things are from Allah. You are really only a caretaker and you possess nothing. Those who realize Truth have gone beyond attachment to possessions and beyond attachment to externals in general, including fame and position.

At the level of Marifah ?There is no Me, There is no You?. At this final level, the individual has realized that all is Allah, that nothing and no one is separate from Allah.



What is lawful at one level may not be lawful at the other level of understanding. For example, the outer practice of fasting is required by religious law, but according to Marifah, one of the essential reasons for fasting is to develop self discipline and to control the insatiable ego.

If a person is proud of fasting, the fast is technically lawful, but in terms of Marifah, the fast is a failure.

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The roots of conduct have four aspects.

Conduct with Allah.
Conduct with Self.
Conduct with People
Conduct with World



Each of these is based on seven principles.



Seven principles of conduct with Allah are

Giving Allah His due
Keeping His Limits
Being thankful for His gifts
Being content with His decree
Being patient with his trials
Glorifying His sanctity
Yearning for Him



The seven principles of conduct with Self are

Striving
Reducing fear
Enduring harm
Embracing spiritual discipline
Seeking truthfulness and sincerity
Withdrawing Self from what it loves
Binding it in poverty



The seven principles of conduct with People are

Forbearance
Forgiveness
Humility
Generosity
Compassion
Good Counsel
Justice and Fairness
Seven principles of conduct with World are

Being content with what is at hand
Preferring what is available to what is not
Abandoning the quest for elusive (Unattainable)
Hating over-abundance
Choosing abstinence (practice of refraining from indulging an appetite)
Knowing the evils of this world and abandoning any desire for them
Negating the evils? dominance



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Silence for ordinary people is with their tongues, Silence for saints is with their hearts and Silence for lovers is with restraining the stray thoughts that come to their inner most beings.



The world of self knowledge, the ability to see oneself clearly, spans the abyss of ignorance. Below its stretched length blaze the swirling fires of ego while fogs of delusion and self deception flow in from every side. In spite of the dangers, there is guidance to help us traverse that blade?s edge.



Those who have gone before have left signposts, teachings and writings that instruct us in ways that awaken, that train the capacity to remember, that enable us to hold ourselves correctly as we move toward the light.



There is a human tendency to overlook our own obstacles, to ignore them or deny their existence even when we have seen them clearly. Therefore, it is difficult for us to achieve and sustain spiritual clarity without someone other than ourselves leading us beyond our own ignorance.



Love, service and compassion help us re open out hearts and come closer to Allah. One of the greatest services that we can perform is to help heal the injured hearts of others. Our hands are made to lift up those who have fallen, to wipe the tears of those who are suffering from the trials of this world. A kind word or glance softens your heart and a every hurtful word or act closes or hardens your heart.



The sight of some one eating will not appease your hunger similarly; the spiritual experiences of others can not satisfy your yearning. Look to what you do for that is what you are worth. True labor means neither fasting nor prayer.



It is related that Habib (R.A) possessed a maid servant for thirty years. One he said to the maid, ?Hey veiled woman, Go and call my maid?. She replied, ?But, sir, I am your maid. Don?t you recognize me? ?. Habib (R.A) answered, ?During this time, I never dared to look at anything but Him, How then I should have recognized you??

The world is a place of preparation where one is given many lessons and passes many tests. Choose less over more in it. Be satisfied with what you have, even if it is less than what others have. This world is not bad ? on the contrary, it is the field of the hereafter. What you plant here, you will reap there.



Our Prophet (S.A.W) in whom wisdom was as clear as crystal, was asked, ?what is worldliness?? He answered, ?Everything that makes you heedless and causes you to forget your Lord.? Therefore the goods of this world are not harmful in themselves, but only when you let them render you forgetful, disobedient and unaware of the Lord.



If you want to live freely, borrow less. Avoid greed, for greed in itself is poverty.



The most ignorant among you is the one who does not learn from the changes in the world. The richest among you is the one who is not entrapped with greed.



Jealousy destroys good acts just as fire burns wood, Charity consumes sin the same way that water quenches fire.



Allah exalts the humble and humbles the proud. Avoid stubbornness, for it begins in ignorance and ends in regret.



Be kind to people whether they deserve your kindness or not. If your kindness reaches the deserving, good for you, If your kindness reaches the undeserving, take joy in your compassion.



For none of you will faith be rectified unless your hearts be made right, nor will your hearts be rectified unless your tongues be made right, nor will your tongues be rectified unless your actions be made right.



Two believers that lend to support to each other are like a pair of hands that wash each other clean.



One who suffers oppression and forgives the oppressor is the most favored for aid from Allah.



True wealth is not abundance in property but a generous heart.



Oh, Heart sit with some who knows the heart, Go under a tree which has fresh blossoms.



Go you, Sweep out dwelling room of your heart, prepare it to be the home of the Beloved. When you go out, he will come in. Within you when you are free from Self, He will show His Beauty.





Umar Abdul Aziz once wrote a letter to Hasan Al Basri (RA) requesting some brief advice that would serve to guide him. On the back of the envelope, Hasan (RA) wrote, ?Oh Commander of the faithful, If Allah is with you, then what do you fear, and If Allah is not with you, in what can you have hope??



To become a saint, change your character into the character of the children. Children have five qualities. If adults had the same, they would attain the rank of saints.

They do not worry about their daily bread
When they fall sick they do not complain and worry about their misfortune
Whatever food they have they share
When they fight or quarrel they do not keep grudges in their heart but make up quickly
The slightest threat makes them frightened and brings tears to their eyes





He who is intimate with worldly wealth will find his intellect destroyed, He who is intimate with people will become lonely. He who is intimate with work will be preoccupied and He who is intimate with Allah will attain Union.



Humility and self awareness are the pre requisites to wisdom. Action is final essential component of wisdom. Knowledge not acted upon is merrily a collection of facts. A donkey with a load of books is still a donkey.



Value the worth of five things before they are replaced by the other five conditions.

Value your youthfulness before your old age arrives
Value health before sickness strikes
Value your wealth before you become needy
Value peacefulness before hardship comes
Value life before death arrives



All wisdom is already with in us, All Love is already with in us, all joy is already with in us. Yet, they are hidden with in us until the heart opens.



The metamorphosis of caterpillar into butterfly is particularly good metaphor for transformation. At a certain point caterpillar feels impelled to wrap itself in a cocoon. Immobile, it begins to dissolve. There is no sense of the marvelous new life that?s coming, there is only the dissolving of the old and the deep fears that accompany this. The caterpillar literally turns into a kind of goo (thick messy substance) and only from that annihilation of old form can the magnificent new form of butterfly emerges. We can get a sense of this radical process of self transformation from those who have been through it and be guided those who can help us through this process.



As a man in his last breath drops all he is carrying, each breath is a little death that can set us free.



Life in this world is like a dream and our true life starts in the next world. Life does not end with death.







May Allah Subhanatala enlighten us and make us tread the straight path (Ahdinas Siratul Mustakheem) - Ameen!





Compiled by - an aspiring Faqir