LETTER 24: THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE WAY

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate!

Brother Shamsuddin, may God help you attain the Object of your de sires! The fundamentals of the Way are set forth in this Tradition: My servant is diligent in approaching Me through supererogatory prayers, till I love him, and when I love him, I become the ear by which he hears, the eye by which he sees, the hand by which he holds, and the tongue by which he speaks. When God holds someone in special affection He behaves toward him in the same way as a kindiy mother does with her small son. She is ever on the alert for whatever might harm him. She is careful to attend to all his needs without his having to say anything about them. In truth, it should be known that, when God Almighty looks with favor on someone. He turns him into a focal point for the needs of the people: The dust trodden under his feet becomes a soothing ointment for the eyes, and a fragrant scent for travelers on the Way

There is a story that the people of Basra had come out of the city to beseech God for rain. Their prayers and lamentations produced not a drop of rain. Then a traveler happened to pass by. He saw the large crowd with upraised hands, closed eyes, and mournful voices. A sense of empathy arose within him. O God Almighty, by the secret which is in my eyes, send rain, he prayed. Immediately it began to rain. When someone from the crowd heard what he had said and saw what he had done, and noted that his prayer had been answered instantaneously, he followed the traveler to his house and said: O Sheikh, I have a request to make of you. Tell me he replied. What is that secret in your eyes, he asked, which made them able to offer an intercession resulting in rain? These eyes of mine, he replied, have seen Bayazid! You should know that the dust he treads upon becomes a collyrium for the eyes. His tongue also is like spring rain, producing life. Just as spring rain clothes the dead earth with a vesture of new life, and turns a thorn-infested tract into a rose gar den, so a word from the lips of Bayazid can bring back to life the dead hearts of men. And he spoke in such a way that his words came straight from the heart. Because his deeds and qualities had been unit- ed, his mercy and kindness could shine upon all. He was the sort of man who himself does not eat, but feeds others, who wears little himself, but clothes others. Nor does he pay attention to the wounds inflicted by others. Where there is oppression, he brings trust. He op- poses abuse with prayer to God and praise of Him. Do you know the reason for all this? It is because he is protected. Nothing except gentle breezes waft across the plain of his heart toward others. His compassion is like the sun, which shines equally on friend or foe. His humility is like the earth, upon the face of which all creatures tread. He takes in hand no lawsuit against another. No one could even talk of his anger toward his fellowman. All are his dependents, though he is beholden to no one. His bounty is like a river. He blesses his enemy, concentrating all his mercy upon his foe. Most men, though free, see everything from one viewpoint, but his outlook is universal. He ac- cords everyone equal treatment. A person who does not partake of this quality should not take a single step on the Way. He would be a seeker after money and fame, and the speech he uttered would be of no avail for, whenever God Almighty raises up someone, He raises him up completely, so that He gives him a tongue and hands and eyes and ears and a pure heart.

Unfortunately, you and I know orators whose very tongues and hands bear witness against them as, indeed, do all their members! They cannot retrieve a morsel they have already placed in their mouth, and yet they cannot remove the Sufi garb from themselves. Their desire is that the world should acknowledge that it is beholden to them and that the Friday prayer should be read in their name, to their own advantage. A man who throughout his life is unwilling to go into the bazaar wearing a sash or a simple vest or an ordinary hat, because he fears being disgraced in the sight of the tailor, appears to a perceptive person as a worshiper of self rather than a worshiper of God! By the same token, a man who sits in a hermitage and adorns himself with prestige and self-seclusion so that people might consider him a man of probity and pay attention to him is acting like a woman of ill repute who spends the whole day adorning herself in order to attract the glances of men.**

It is fitting that all a man's members should become tongues, and that his tongue should support his heart-but that it should be cut out with the sword of modesty if it ever wants to speak anything but the truth concerning Him! His heart also should become a mirror reflecting in front of him whatever has happened in his past, so that he feels tongue-tied! He is unable to say what he wanted to say, and he murmurs: Such a tongue is unable to make a single statement about God, and from that moment he ceases to talk. It has been said that everyone who comes out of his own home knows the way back so that, if need be, he can return home. The speech of such a person is not fully grounded in the Way! For a Sufi, the heart takes precedence over the tongue, while for a scholar, it is the tongue that has precedence over the heart. A Sufi is impelled to action by his heart. Orators, however, and those who pursue this world of ours are going along with staves. What are they doing? They are blind, for like a blind person each uses his tongue like a staff, striking the ground here and there as he goes along. In this way he shows that he is a blind man! (This saying is not acceptable to scholars, since they uphold only what is attested by Tradition. Yet it is a widely respected opinion of one belonging to the brotherhood of Sufis!) In sum, Sufis put their trust in their heart, rather than in their tongue. Do you not see that if what outwardly seems to be in fidelity springs from the fullness of a person's heart it is in fact genuine faith? For he who has been compelled to recant while his heart remains faithful (Q16:106) is still a believer. By the same token, the faith that proceeds from an evil heart is really a form of impiety. As God declared: Those people say: 'We bear witness that you are the messenger of God. And God knows that you are indeed His messenger, and God bears witness that the hypocrites are inveterate liars (063:1). The tongue is the master of the household of the Law, command and prohibition become known through it, and religion is pro- claimed by it. When someone becomes dedicated to God's work, then the tongue becomes something good. Do you not see that it was the nightingale of the rose garden of the Law who said, I am the most eloquent among Arabs and non-Arabs, and yet at the end of his work even he exclaimed: I cannot calculate the praise that is due You! Such was the extent of the Prophet's astonishment.

O brother, why should the person who displays eloquence in the stage of thanking God hesitate in the stage of Unity? A dear friend has offered the following explanation:

In love the best way to proceed Is to remember that you have erred! No wonder that in praising and glorifying You, Even the most eloquent speaker of both worlds was

dumbstruck! Normally a person' talks continuously about something he likes very much. But in the design of love it is only when a person steps be yond conversation and then returns to the world that he reaches Him! The beauty of those who are furthest from God are loudest in their remembrance of Him! appears to him:

If I were wise, I would talk less about You. I would close the path of conversation.

I would gather together a few scorched hearts.

And then I would weep over my talking and lament it

O brother, a man who has become a full-fledged believer is very precious indeed, but most people simply put their hands into the throat of faith and move them around a bit. Not everyone who reaches the king's door finds admission to his presence! Surely the idolaters are unclean (Q9:28). Purity of heart is a condition for ad-mission. In hell there will be many thousands of tongues that call upon God but not one heart that knows Him. You will see many thousands of eloquent tongues that have become mute, but you will not find a single heart in the clutches of the guardians of hell. O brother, you might not have this rich crown upon your head at the moment, but this is no reason to brand your heart with hopelessness! The Quran attests: God does not impose on any soul more than it can bear (Q2:286). The weight of the commands given to each is in accordance with his or her strength. If our heads are empty of any crown, while our hearts bear the mark of hopelessness, these misfortunes are separate and at least not compounded. If there is no step which befits religion then let us turn to shouting slogans by groups of ten, saying: No one would purchase people with afflictions like those whom God purchases. Who else would pay the price for you that He does? As the poet has observed,

Behold us, full of faults, and you the buyer: How shoddy the goods, but how generous the Buyer!

It has been said: If you turn to a sanctuary in your old age. I shall put every kingdom at your disposal; but if you follow my in- junctions during your youth, I shall make a way for you in the midst of the angels. Just as you know My right to command and prohibit, so too realize that your justification is dependent on My own generosity. I do not in any way hold the breaking of your promise against you. If you have been afflicted with any grief, I would wish to apologize again for it, on My own behalf. I shall tell you the secret of all that you have heard: God speaks out of His own generosity. It is impossible for His truth and generosity to have limits! If all the renegades and devilish people of the world, together with their offspring and dependents, were to be exalted to the utmost, and the eternal, kingly crown were to be placed on their heads-still His truth and generosity would barely have been tapped!

Peace!

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate!

Brother Shamsuddin, may God help you attain the Object of your de sires! The fundamentals of the Way are set forth in this Tradition: My servant is diligent in approaching Me through supererogatory prayers, till I love him, and when I love him, I become the ear by which he hears, the eye by which he sees, the hand by which he holds, and the tongue by which he speaks. When God holds someone in special affection He behaves toward him in the same way as a kindiy mother does with her small son. She is ever on the alert for whatever might harm him. She is careful to attend to all his needs without his having to say anything about them. In truth, it should be known that, when God Almighty looks with favor on someone. He turns him into a focal point for the needs of the people: The dust trodden under his feet becomes a soothing ointment for the eyes, and a fragrant scent for travelers on the Way

There is a story that the people of Basra had come out of the city to beseech God for rain. Their prayers and lamentations produced not a drop of rain. Then a traveler happened to pass by. He saw the large crowd with upraised hands, closed eyes, and mournful voices. A sense of empathy arose within him. O God Almighty, by the secret which is in my eyes, send rain, he prayed. Immediately it began to rain. When someone from the crowd heard what he had said and saw what he had done, and noted that his prayer had been answered instantaneously, he followed the traveler to his house and said: O Sheikh, I have a request to make of you. Tell me he replied. What is that secret in your eyes, he asked, which made them able to offer an intercession resulting in rain? These eyes of mine, he replied, have seen Bayazid! You should know that the dust he treads upon becomes a collyrium for the eyes. His tongue also is like spring rain, producing life. Just as spring rain clothes the dead earth with a vesture of new life, and turns a thorn-infested tract into a rose gar den, so a word from the lips of Bayazid can bring back to life the dead hearts of men. And he spoke in such a way that his words came straight from the heart. Because his deeds and qualities had been unit- ed, his mercy and kindness could shine upon all. He was the sort of man who himself does not eat, but feeds others, who wears little himself, but clothes others. Nor does he pay attention to the wounds inflicted by others. Where there is oppression, he brings trust. He op- poses abuse with prayer to God and praise of Him. Do you know the reason for all this? It is because he is protected. Nothing except gentle breezes waft across the plain of his heart toward others. His compassion is like the sun, which shines equally on friend or foe. His humility is like the earth, upon the face of which all creatures tread. He takes in hand no lawsuit against another. No one could even talk of his anger toward his fellowman. All are his dependents, though he is beholden to no one. His bounty is like a river. He blesses his enemy, concentrating all his mercy upon his foe. Most men, though free, see everything from one viewpoint, but his outlook is universal. He ac- cords everyone equal treatment. A person who does not partake of this quality should not take a single step on the Way. He would be a seeker after money and fame, and the speech he uttered would be of no avail for, whenever God Almighty raises up someone, He raises him up completely, so that He gives him a tongue and hands and eyes and ears and a pure heart.

Unfortunately, you and I know orators whose very tongues and hands bear witness against them as, indeed, do all their members! They cannot retrieve a morsel they have already placed in their mouth, and yet they cannot remove the Sufi garb from themselves. Their desire is that the world should acknowledge that it is beholden to them and that the Friday prayer should be read in their name, to their own advantage. A man who throughout his life is unwilling to go into the bazaar wearing a sash or a simple vest or an ordinary hat, because he fears being disgraced in the sight of the tailor, appears to a perceptive person as a worshiper of self rather than a worshiper of God! By the same token, a man who sits in a hermitage and adorns himself with prestige and self-seclusion so that people might consider him a man of probity and pay attention to him is acting like a woman of ill repute who spends the whole day adorning herself in order to attract the glances of men.**

It is fitting that all a man's members should become tongues, and that his tongue should support his heart-but that it should be cut out with the sword of modesty if it ever wants to speak anything but the truth concerning Him! His heart also should become a mirror reflecting in front of him whatever has happened in his past, so that he feels tongue-tied! He is unable to say what he wanted to say, and he murmurs: Such a tongue is unable to make a single statement about God, and from that moment he ceases to talk. It has been said that everyone who comes out of his own home knows the way back so that, if need be, he can return home. The speech of such a person is not fully grounded in the Way! For a Sufi, the heart takes precedence over the tongue, while for a scholar, it is the tongue that has precedence over the heart. A Sufi is impelled to action by his heart. Orators, however, and those who pursue this world of ours are going along with staves. What are they doing? They are blind, for like a blind person each uses his tongue like a staff, striking the ground here and there as he goes along. In this way he shows that he is a blind man! (This saying is not acceptable to scholars, since they uphold only what is attested by Tradition. Yet it is a widely respected opinion of one belonging to the brotherhood of Sufis!) In sum, Sufis put their trust in their heart, rather than in their tongue. Do you not see that if what outwardly seems to be in fidelity springs from the fullness of a person's heart it is in fact genuine faith? For he who has been compelled to recant while his heart remains faithful (Q16:106) is still a believer. By the same token, the faith that proceeds from an evil heart is really a form of impiety. As God declared: Those people say: 'We bear witness that you are the messenger of God. And God knows that you are indeed His messenger, and God bears witness that the hypocrites are inveterate liars (063:1). The tongue is the master of the household of the Law, command and prohibition become known through it, and religion is pro- claimed by it. When someone becomes dedicated to God's work, then the tongue becomes something good. Do you not see that it was the nightingale of the rose garden of the Law who said, I am the most eloquent among Arabs and non-Arabs, and yet at the end of his work even he exclaimed: I cannot calculate the praise that is due You! Such was the extent of the Prophet's astonishment.

O brother, why should the person who displays eloquence in the stage of thanking God hesitate in the stage of Unity? A dear friend has offered the following explanation:

In love the best way to proceed Is to remember that you have erred! No wonder that in praising and glorifying You, Even the most eloquent speaker of both worlds was

dumbstruck! Normally a person' talks continuously about something he likes very much. But in the design of love it is only when a person steps be yond conversation and then returns to the world that he reaches Him! The beauty of those who are furthest from God are loudest in their remembrance of Him! appears to him:

If I were wise, I would talk less about You. I would close the path of conversation.

I would gather together a few scorched hearts.

And then I would weep over my talking and lament it

O brother, a man who has become a full-fledged believer is very precious indeed, but most people simply put their hands into the throat of faith and move them around a bit. Not everyone who reaches the king's door finds admission to his presence! Surely the idolaters are unclean (Q9:28). Purity of heart is a condition for ad-mission. In hell there will be many thousands of tongues that call upon God but not one heart that knows Him. You will see many thousands of eloquent tongues that have become mute, but you will not find a single heart in the clutches of the guardians of hell. O brother, you might not have this rich crown upon your head at the moment, but this is no reason to brand your heart with hopelessness! The Quran attests: God does not impose on any soul more than it can bear (Q2:286). The weight of the commands given to each is in accordance with his or her strength. If our heads are empty of any crown, while our hearts bear the mark of hopelessness, these misfortunes are separate and at least not compounded. If there is no step which befits religion then let us turn to shouting slogans by groups of ten, saying: No one would purchase people with afflictions like those whom God purchases. Who else would pay the price for you that He does? As the poet has observed,

Behold us, full of faults, and you the buyer: How shoddy the goods, but how generous the Buyer!

It has been said: If you turn to a sanctuary in your old age. I shall put every kingdom at your disposal; but if you follow my in- junctions during your youth, I shall make a way for you in the midst of the angels. Just as you know My right to command and prohibit, so too realize that your justification is dependent on My own generosity. I do not in any way hold the breaking of your promise against you. If you have been afflicted with any grief, I would wish to apologize again for it, on My own behalf. I shall tell you the secret of all that you have heard: God speaks out of His own generosity. It is impossible for His truth and generosity to have limits! If all the renegades and devilish people of the world, together with their offspring and dependents, were to be exalted to the utmost, and the eternal, kingly crown were to be placed on their heads-still His truth and generosity would barely have been tapped!

Peace!