LETTER 35: THE PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA

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

Brother Shamsuddin may God's blessings be upon you! The pilgrim- age to Mecca pertains to both one's body and one's property. Sufis lay great stress on the pilgrimage. Visiting the Kaaba is undoubtedly a beneficial work, since it is really a visit to the Lord! Wonderful effects are assuredly a sign of God's blessing! The goal and desire of seekers who go on the pilgrimage is the Lord of the house, not the house it- self. This is a sort of pretext. The king of Gnostics, Bayazid, said When I went to the Holy Place and saw the beauty of the Kaaba, I said to myself: 'I have seen much better materials than those employed in the construction of this building! I desired the Lord of the house. I returned home. The following year when I reached the Holy Place, I opened the eyes of my conscience and saw not only the house but also the Lord of the house. I said: 'In the divine world there is no room for anything except God, in the world of the divine Unity duality is excluded. The Beloved, the house, and I would be three. Any- one who perceived duality would be an unbeliever, and yet I see three: How can I avoid being a heretic? I returned home. The third year, when I reached the Holy Place, the divine favor swept me into its embrace; the curtain of whatever is not God was removed from my power of discernment, my heart was illumined with the flame of mystical knowledge, my being was inflamed by the lights of divine il- lamination, and this saying filled my head: 'You have come to visit Me with an honest heart, and the One who is visited has the right to bless the one who visits Him! When I opened my eyes, I saw the light of Your countenance; When I listened, I heard the sound of Your voice!

For true lovers, the beauty of that house is a sign of the singles Beloved. What should he do? At least the house gives him some consolation, as has been said: Everyone who is prohibited from seeing the beauty of the Friend consoles himself with a sign of the Beloved. Maj- nun went around the house of Laila every morning and evening, kissing the dust of the door and walls while he uttered:

I walk around the walls of Laila's house; I kiss the one who lives in that house. It was not love of the house that captured my heart, But the one who was dwelling in the house!

They rub the dust of that threshold with this intention; they wail on account of the pain of their hearts; and they are hopeful that they might pass on from scanning the beauty of the house to catching a glimpse of the Lord of the house and being openly honored by Him. They say that when a lover knows that the object of his affections will come to him from that door and that his Desired One will pass

through that door, then if he has to remain in this fleeting world for a while or if there is a moment or two's delay, the Command is given, Go to the door of anyone you want, and run in the direction of whomsoever you want! If you touch the feet of the one who speaks to God, that is, Moses, he will not lift you up. If you place your head at the feet of Christ, he will not accept you. All who have life derive it from Him, and everyone to whom the world is due depends upon Him. To underscore this meaning, the Prophet offered the following gemlike directive: The pilgrimage should be considered as a better court than this world and all that it contains.

If the servant withdraws his affectionate concern from his wife and children and turns his gaze toward the divine court and, after many trials and difficulties have been overcome, sees the beauty of the Kaaba, then every mirror reflects the delight experienced at its beauty. Everything else passes away in the joy of that mercy. And if the gentle breeze of this condition is allowed to blow, and the veil of existence is removed from in front of him, he comes to the divine throne, the Kaaba of the hearts, which is revealed to him. And when the holy pilgrim begins to go around the exalted throne, he will find, at this stage, an indication of the delights of paradise about which he has read. And if his own glance passes beyond the multitude of things and what can be perceived and understood, and attains the vision of the Beloved, then he is indeed fortunate. His state is now far removed from what can be grasped and understood. This is the meaning of The courts of the pilgrimage are better than the world and all it contains. Indeed, it is better than the benefits of the world to come.

Likewise, the Prophet has said: Except for paradise, there is no more pleasing reward than the pilgrimage! In other words, when the lover, out of desire for the sight of the Beloved, departs from his wife and children and devotes himself completely to his heart's Desire, he will undoubtedly be honored with the robe of meeting, for it has been said that, if lovers had not been promised the vision of God in heaven, the remembrance of heaven would not have occurred to their enlightened minds, nor would any of them have turned their steps eagerly toward the heavenly paradise.

O brother, heaven is like an oyster in which is found the good pleasure of the beloved. A diver has to have great courage to plunge into the engulfing ocean and bring up nothing apart from a magnify cent pearl! A mystical poet has said:

Heaven is nought compared to the sweetness of divine union; On the path of lovers, there are many heavens! There is no such thing as heaven or hell for them;

When the bird has flown, snare and grain are both the same!

Those birds that fly in the atmosphere of the divine Being in the hope of approaching the Lord of eternity are like birds that, while they are flying, are free from all cares about food or snares. They have acquired what they wanted in the place where there is a description of love and earnestness. What can traditions about the pleasures of heaven, or the pains of hell do? Muhammad ibn Fazl says: I am astonished at those who seek His house in the world. Why do they not seek His manifestation in their hearts? He might be found in His house, or He might not, but His manifestation they can always enjoy. If it is a divine ordinance to visit a stone once a year and to cast one's glance upon it, how much more obligatory is it to visit the heart where He can be seen 360 times a day through one's inward glances! A visit to the heart should take precedence over the canonical pilgrimage! For us, defective from our birth, there is neither any place to visit, nor any heart. The dust of misfortune should be thrown upon our heads; we should weep over our wretched state and wash our hands of all tricks and stratagems. It has been well said:

I like the pleasures of morning, but my heart seeks nights of grief.

How can I make acceptable someone defective from birth?

A seeker should be a person who rejects self and worship of self. Let him consider his own faith as a sacred thread, account his own worship as worship of self, and consider himself a veritable Nimrod or Pharaoh. Let him remain far from any claim, since the carpet of the honor of the Lord is such that everyone who reaches the edge of it brings all his requests with him, all his assets are poured out, and his own perfections begin to appear as backsliding and his devotion as equivalent to sin. If he is the most eloquent man in the world, he will become dumbfounded! If he is the scholar of the age, he will find him- self ignorant. When you glance at His incomparable glory and honor, all creatures will appear as nothing. When you look at His kingdom and power, you will find all things that have ceased to be are still in existence. If God so desired, He could create one hundred thousand people like Muhammad every moment so that He could claim, I am your greatest and best Provider! (Q79:24) There is not the slightest diminution of His beauty and perfection. If He wishes, He could change all the infidelity and polytheism

on the face of the earth into an ocean of mercy. There is no lessening of the quality of His wrath. If He so desires, He could make all men prophets and saints, or He could simply consume them all in a moment of ire and keep them for all eternity in the quality of Her mercy!

O brother, where is knowledge when confronted by this power and might? What dignity can any latent or contingent being, since it is a creature, possess here? A man would be like a small boy who is sent off to school. When he returns home in the evening, he is asked what his teacher taught him that day. He replies, The letter a [a simple vertical stroke in Arabic and Persian] has nothing!

Peace!

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

Brother Shamsuddin may God's blessings be upon you! The pilgrim- age to Mecca pertains to both one's body and one's property. Sufis lay great stress on the pilgrimage. Visiting the Kaaba is undoubtedly a beneficial work, since it is really a visit to the Lord! Wonderful effects are assuredly a sign of God's blessing! The goal and desire of seekers who go on the pilgrimage is the Lord of the house, not the house it- self. This is a sort of pretext. The king of Gnostics, Bayazid, said When I went to the Holy Place and saw the beauty of the Kaaba, I said to myself: 'I have seen much better materials than those employed in the construction of this building! I desired the Lord of the house. I returned home. The following year when I reached the Holy Place, I opened the eyes of my conscience and saw not only the house but also the Lord of the house. I said: 'In the divine world there is no room for anything except God, in the world of the divine Unity duality is excluded. The Beloved, the house, and I would be three. Any- one who perceived duality would be an unbeliever, and yet I see three: How can I avoid being a heretic? I returned home. The third year, when I reached the Holy Place, the divine favor swept me into its embrace; the curtain of whatever is not God was removed from my power of discernment, my heart was illumined with the flame of mystical knowledge, my being was inflamed by the lights of divine il- lamination, and this saying filled my head: 'You have come to visit Me with an honest heart, and the One who is visited has the right to bless the one who visits Him! When I opened my eyes, I saw the light of Your countenance; When I listened, I heard the sound of Your voice!

For true lovers, the beauty of that house is a sign of the singles Beloved. What should he do? At least the house gives him some consolation, as has been said: Everyone who is prohibited from seeing the beauty of the Friend consoles himself with a sign of the Beloved. Maj- nun went around the house of Laila every morning and evening, kissing the dust of the door and walls while he uttered:

I walk around the walls of Laila's house; I kiss the one who lives in that house. It was not love of the house that captured my heart, But the one who was dwelling in the house!

They rub the dust of that threshold with this intention; they wail on account of the pain of their hearts; and they are hopeful that they might pass on from scanning the beauty of the house to catching a glimpse of the Lord of the house and being openly honored by Him. They say that when a lover knows that the object of his affections will come to him from that door and that his Desired One will pass

through that door, then if he has to remain in this fleeting world for a while or if there is a moment or two's delay, the Command is given, Go to the door of anyone you want, and run in the direction of whomsoever you want! If you touch the feet of the one who speaks to God, that is, Moses, he will not lift you up. If you place your head at the feet of Christ, he will not accept you. All who have life derive it from Him, and everyone to whom the world is due depends upon Him. To underscore this meaning, the Prophet offered the following gemlike directive: The pilgrimage should be considered as a better court than this world and all that it contains.

If the servant withdraws his affectionate concern from his wife and children and turns his gaze toward the divine court and, after many trials and difficulties have been overcome, sees the beauty of the Kaaba, then every mirror reflects the delight experienced at its beauty. Everything else passes away in the joy of that mercy. And if the gentle breeze of this condition is allowed to blow, and the veil of existence is removed from in front of him, he comes to the divine throne, the Kaaba of the hearts, which is revealed to him. And when the holy pilgrim begins to go around the exalted throne, he will find, at this stage, an indication of the delights of paradise about which he has read. And if his own glance passes beyond the multitude of things and what can be perceived and understood, and attains the vision of the Beloved, then he is indeed fortunate. His state is now far removed from what can be grasped and understood. This is the meaning of The courts of the pilgrimage are better than the world and all it contains. Indeed, it is better than the benefits of the world to come.

Likewise, the Prophet has said: Except for paradise, there is no more pleasing reward than the pilgrimage! In other words, when the lover, out of desire for the sight of the Beloved, departs from his wife and children and devotes himself completely to his heart's Desire, he will undoubtedly be honored with the robe of meeting, for it has been said that, if lovers had not been promised the vision of God in heaven, the remembrance of heaven would not have occurred to their enlightened minds, nor would any of them have turned their steps eagerly toward the heavenly paradise.

O brother, heaven is like an oyster in which is found the good pleasure of the beloved. A diver has to have great courage to plunge into the engulfing ocean and bring up nothing apart from a magnify cent pearl! A mystical poet has said:

Heaven is nought compared to the sweetness of divine union; On the path of lovers, there are many heavens! There is no such thing as heaven or hell for them;

When the bird has flown, snare and grain are both the same!

Those birds that fly in the atmosphere of the divine Being in the hope of approaching the Lord of eternity are like birds that, while they are flying, are free from all cares about food or snares. They have acquired what they wanted in the place where there is a description of love and earnestness. What can traditions about the pleasures of heaven, or the pains of hell do? Muhammad ibn Fazl says: I am astonished at those who seek His house in the world. Why do they not seek His manifestation in their hearts? He might be found in His house, or He might not, but His manifestation they can always enjoy. If it is a divine ordinance to visit a stone once a year and to cast one's glance upon it, how much more obligatory is it to visit the heart where He can be seen 360 times a day through one's inward glances! A visit to the heart should take precedence over the canonical pilgrimage! For us, defective from our birth, there is neither any place to visit, nor any heart. The dust of misfortune should be thrown upon our heads; we should weep over our wretched state and wash our hands of all tricks and stratagems. It has been well said:

I like the pleasures of morning, but my heart seeks nights of grief.

How can I make acceptable someone defective from birth?

A seeker should be a person who rejects self and worship of self. Let him consider his own faith as a sacred thread, account his own worship as worship of self, and consider himself a veritable Nimrod or Pharaoh. Let him remain far from any claim, since the carpet of the honor of the Lord is such that everyone who reaches the edge of it brings all his requests with him, all his assets are poured out, and his own perfections begin to appear as backsliding and his devotion as equivalent to sin. If he is the most eloquent man in the world, he will become dumbfounded! If he is the scholar of the age, he will find him- self ignorant. When you glance at His incomparable glory and honor, all creatures will appear as nothing. When you look at His kingdom and power, you will find all things that have ceased to be are still in existence. If God so desired, He could create one hundred thousand people like Muhammad every moment so that He could claim, I am your greatest and best Provider! (Q79:24) There is not the slightest diminution of His beauty and perfection. If He wishes, He could change all the infidelity and polytheism

on the face of the earth into an ocean of mercy. There is no lessening of the quality of His wrath. If He so desires, He could make all men prophets and saints, or He could simply consume them all in a moment of ire and keep them for all eternity in the quality of Her mercy!

O brother, where is knowledge when confronted by this power and might? What dignity can any latent or contingent being, since it is a creature, possess here? A man would be like a small boy who is sent off to school. When he returns home in the evening, he is asked what his teacher taught him that day. He replies, The letter a [a simple vertical stroke in Arabic and Persian] has nothing!

Peace!