LETTER 9: SAINTLINESS

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

Dear brother Qazi Sadruddin, may you be honored by God! You should know that commonplace saintliness is rooted in faith. Every person who embraces the Muslim faith becomes a member of the congregation of God's saints! Often, however, there is more than a suspicion that, along with this type of saintliness, there is sin and the commission of forbidden things. There are others who fulfill what is commanded and shun what is prohibited. People doing this should be counted among the saints. The various groups are like the squadrons of an army a special one in front, ordinary troops to the side, and a very special one in the center! These hand-picked troopers not only obey commands and shun prohibited things, but they also bring to heel their own desires. Their regard is not on what is due them, instead, whatever their Friend wants is the very thing they themselves desire! Giving priority to what He wants, they disregard their own desires. They understand what is idolatrous, since they know that the basis of all idolatry is connected with yielding to our own selfish desires. The Quran hints at this when it says: Have you seen him who makes a god of his own desires? (Q25:43). Here it is necessary to understand exactly what idolatry is in order to avoid falling into some fault in this matter.

One kind of idolatry is called manifest; it occurs when a person substitutes something else for God. This form of idolatry is forbidden by the very principles of the faith. May God preserve us from it! The second type is called covert; it occurs when a person considers something other than God as necessary and seizes upon that thing as desirable. Some say that, for Sufis, idolatry is to take note of the existence of anything but God! Others say that covert idolatry is Tanta mount to relying upon oneself in all circumstances, desiring with one's own power, and accepting advice and stratagems in any undertaking that comes up. Such covert idolatry is prohibited by the perfection of divine Unity, if not by the explicit principles of the Law!

When I fell into the abyss of Your Unity, the thought of no other came to me, neither of men nor angels, in Your Unity: I. a slave, gazed on You and became free!

Everyone knows that you need friends if you want to become great! It is fitting that there are groups of the elect, of common people and of those who observe command and prohibition. Beyond these, however, there is a special group worthy of becoming boon companions. And beyond these is the class that is fit for divine secrets. And beyond these comes the group of those on terms of intimate friendship with God. Here, if either party wants anything that belongs to the other, his inclination will be simply to give it, for the mutual usage of goods is such that everything is considered common. In this way, any trace of mistrust departs from them. There is an example of this in the Law. The venerable Sufis have said: There are commands for common people and matters of license for the elect, since the Prophet himself has condoned the latter. For example, he said to an Arab who had broken his fast in the month of Ramzan: Eat and also feed your wife and children! It is lawful for you, but not for anyone else. This was clearly an abrogation for ordinary people, he paid attention to the actual extent to which things are commanded or prohibited. But for foreigners he amended the Law, giving them permission to keep some of their customs, even in face of the claims of the Law and thus showing, in a special way, his friendship toward them. I am one of that elects who can do as he sees fit with respect to their possessions. A poem of Khwaja Sanai is then quoted.] There is no doubt that all prophets are equal in respect to prophecy, yet they differ from one another in the matter of grace, just as all believers, though on the same level with respect to faith, vary in Virtue. One group has attained only the common level, while others rise to a privileged rank. Anyone who denies this is denying what can be plainly seen. Consider an earthly king who has soldiers in abundance, men who are bound completely to his orders and dependent on him for their sustenance. Among them some are grooms, while others are carpet layers, doorkeepers, chamberlains, treasurers, cupbearers, army commanders, ministers, and boon companions. Still others reach such privileged positions that the king entrusts the seal of the kingdom to them, so that whatever such a person commands becomes the command of the king himself. The same is true of any prohibition or appointment he makes. All this is clear to an intelligent man.

Similarly, believers, with respect to their faith, occupy graduated, orderly ranks. When they are in these grades we have described, then each, in his position, is special, since there are people below him, but, at the same time, he is ordinary, for there are others above him. The particular rank of the saints becomes apparent when they have become the elect of God. This stage is attained when the apparent merges with the hidden and they become one. The elect neither oppose, think, nor discuss things with their inner selves. In seeing the Master, they forget about their own needs. They would not exchange their Friend even for both worlds. They are so immersed in gazing upon Him that the question of hope no longer arises, so immersed in fear of Him that they are afraid of nothing else, so immersed in love of Him that his absence makes them desolate, so immersed in remembering Him that nothing except Him enters their memory. Everything about them, visible and hidden, within the sphere of their spiritual powers, becomes so absorbed in the Friend that nothing remains in them except Him!

If, in love, you are despoiled of your qualities, you will go beyond yourself and become a lover! Some quality may appear and then disappear, so do not put any stock in it, lest you be ashamed!

When a person reaches this stage with respect to his desires for himself, the hold of his self, and even his spiritual and personal qualities, he becomes utterly lost to himself, he is rooted and fixed in the qualities and desire of his Friend! Everything he wishes is fulfilled, not because the desire of something other than his Friend has arisen in him, but because his own desire has become the desire of his Friend. Indeed, it is in him that the friend manifests His own desire and whatever makes its appearance is really the Friend's desire, not his own. People might judge that he wants something or other but, as far as he himself is concerned; it would mean that his Friend desired something in a special way. This privileged rank cannot be denied, and yet some say, It's your groundless boasting! It is not genuine! A poem follows.]

When they reach the stage under discussion, saints become aware that they are God's elect in accord with the famous saying The absence of any desire is the precondition of saintliness, and they see themselves as desireless. If saintliness requires a lack of self-control, then they consider themselves to have no say in their actions. All desires come from their Friend while they, of themselves, desire nothing, as the King of the Prophets has testified: If they swear by God, then what they want will surely be granted. But the presupposition of this is that they do not swear, yet if they do, they will get what they ask for in God's name. The Prophet was also indicating that although the saints get whatever they want, they actually do not want anything A poem follows.]

The regard of the saint is always on his Lord. The saint is protected from self-interest: therefore, pride does not enter him. In other words, all those who attain this stage do not become self-seekers since, at this stage, their attention is not on themselves. If the foundation of this stage is lost, however, then the whole work disintegrates.

As long as anything remains with you, you are in your own essence,

The Kaaba, due to your worship, becomes a tavern!

If anything emanates from your essence, you are still far off:

You are like a temple facing the Kaaba !

Saints have been despoiled of human qualities. A saint should withdraw from human company, for weeping is an antidote to fame! May they not be put to the test! In other words, let the people find nothing to reprove in them that might make them stumble! Dependency on other people comes from two things, their reproach or their praise, both of which are inimical to true religion. There is a mystery in the fact that anybody who venerates, as the sign of the soundness of his worship, becomes blind to any other than the One venerated. If pride is interwoven in this veneration, then a person has really seen his own soul, not God. He is venerating that, not God. Whenever hypocrisy is found along with veneration, mankind has been seen, not God. The person is venerating them, not God. Since he worships his own soul and mankind and desires things other than God, it is all deceit-A saint is protected from the evils of human nature and yet the form of his human nature remains rooted within him. Keeping himself untainted by earthly things does not occur simply by the fact that the desire of something is no longer in him. Nor is it sufficient reason for praising and blessing him for, if such were the case that is, that he had no desire for anything unseemly- this could simply mean that, from the beginning, he had been impotent and bereft of the means required for acquiring such things. Strictly speaking, it would not be an instance of something prohibited but of something precluded. How could he be praised, blessed, or given a reward for refraining from doing something he was unable to do in the first place?

For men, there is a reward for obedience to God and a punishment for rebellion against Him. Angels, on the other hand, do not have the means of disobeying: For them there is no question of abandoning rebellion or of practicing obedience. They can neither reward nor punish. Man, however, has a human nature and takes pleasure in the things he wants. For the common man this would mean that he prefers what he wants to what God commands. Saints, however, prefer the command of God to what they themselves desire. The difference, O brother, consists in this: You should not remain unaffected by the pain of this human condition and the impulse to escape it, but should not, at the same time, be without hope, for justice and grace are His qualities. He is just. He keeps watch over what He commands. He knows our weakness. And since His justice makes Him interested in His own commands, it is He who does the work of the people, from the first to the last! Since He also insists on showering his grace-filled glances upon our helplessness, our work gets done, our sins are transformed into good deeds, and our faults become virtues. What place is there for lack of hope? A destitute creature has said:

Do not be without hope today, O heart, for Tomorrow His glance will be on His own command!

O brother, whoever among us has been stained by the impurities of sin or has consented to forbidden things will be cleansed by water from the cloud of grace and benevolence Himself! Who can disgrace us tomorrow in the presence of the prophets and the saints, and the whole host of God's creation? A mature saint has said:

Even if a lover be captured by sin, Or become enamored of the cup of intoxication, still Why should he fear a multitude of blunders, For the Beloved is One who keeps secrets and veils sins!

Peace!

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

Dear brother Qazi Sadruddin, may you be honored by God! You should know that commonplace saintliness is rooted in faith. Every person who embraces the Muslim faith becomes a member of the congregation of God's saints! Often, however, there is more than a suspicion that, along with this type of saintliness, there is sin and the commission of forbidden things. There are others who fulfill what is commanded and shun what is prohibited. People doing this should be counted among the saints. The various groups are like the squadrons of an army a special one in front, ordinary troops to the side, and a very special one in the center! These hand-picked troopers not only obey commands and shun prohibited things, but they also bring to heel their own desires. Their regard is not on what is due them, instead, whatever their Friend wants is the very thing they themselves desire! Giving priority to what He wants, they disregard their own desires. They understand what is idolatrous, since they know that the basis of all idolatry is connected with yielding to our own selfish desires. The Quran hints at this when it says: Have you seen him who makes a god of his own desires? (Q25:43). Here it is necessary to understand exactly what idolatry is in order to avoid falling into some fault in this matter.

One kind of idolatry is called manifest; it occurs when a person substitutes something else for God. This form of idolatry is forbidden by the very principles of the faith. May God preserve us from it! The second type is called covert; it occurs when a person considers something other than God as necessary and seizes upon that thing as desirable. Some say that, for Sufis, idolatry is to take note of the existence of anything but God! Others say that covert idolatry is Tanta mount to relying upon oneself in all circumstances, desiring with one's own power, and accepting advice and stratagems in any undertaking that comes up. Such covert idolatry is prohibited by the perfection of divine Unity, if not by the explicit principles of the Law!

When I fell into the abyss of Your Unity, the thought of no other came to me, neither of men nor angels, in Your Unity: I. a slave, gazed on You and became free!

Everyone knows that you need friends if you want to become great! It is fitting that there are groups of the elect, of common people and of those who observe command and prohibition. Beyond these, however, there is a special group worthy of becoming boon companions. And beyond these is the class that is fit for divine secrets. And beyond these comes the group of those on terms of intimate friendship with God. Here, if either party wants anything that belongs to the other, his inclination will be simply to give it, for the mutual usage of goods is such that everything is considered common. In this way, any trace of mistrust departs from them. There is an example of this in the Law. The venerable Sufis have said: There are commands for common people and matters of license for the elect, since the Prophet himself has condoned the latter. For example, he said to an Arab who had broken his fast in the month of Ramzan: Eat and also feed your wife and children! It is lawful for you, but not for anyone else. This was clearly an abrogation for ordinary people, he paid attention to the actual extent to which things are commanded or prohibited. But for foreigners he amended the Law, giving them permission to keep some of their customs, even in face of the claims of the Law and thus showing, in a special way, his friendship toward them. I am one of that elects who can do as he sees fit with respect to their possessions. A poem of Khwaja Sanai is then quoted.] There is no doubt that all prophets are equal in respect to prophecy, yet they differ from one another in the matter of grace, just as all believers, though on the same level with respect to faith, vary in Virtue. One group has attained only the common level, while others rise to a privileged rank. Anyone who denies this is denying what can be plainly seen. Consider an earthly king who has soldiers in abundance, men who are bound completely to his orders and dependent on him for their sustenance. Among them some are grooms, while others are carpet layers, doorkeepers, chamberlains, treasurers, cupbearers, army commanders, ministers, and boon companions. Still others reach such privileged positions that the king entrusts the seal of the kingdom to them, so that whatever such a person commands becomes the command of the king himself. The same is true of any prohibition or appointment he makes. All this is clear to an intelligent man.

Similarly, believers, with respect to their faith, occupy graduated, orderly ranks. When they are in these grades we have described, then each, in his position, is special, since there are people below him, but, at the same time, he is ordinary, for there are others above him. The particular rank of the saints becomes apparent when they have become the elect of God. This stage is attained when the apparent merges with the hidden and they become one. The elect neither oppose, think, nor discuss things with their inner selves. In seeing the Master, they forget about their own needs. They would not exchange their Friend even for both worlds. They are so immersed in gazing upon Him that the question of hope no longer arises, so immersed in fear of Him that they are afraid of nothing else, so immersed in love of Him that his absence makes them desolate, so immersed in remembering Him that nothing except Him enters their memory. Everything about them, visible and hidden, within the sphere of their spiritual powers, becomes so absorbed in the Friend that nothing remains in them except Him!

If, in love, you are despoiled of your qualities, you will go beyond yourself and become a lover! Some quality may appear and then disappear, so do not put any stock in it, lest you be ashamed!

When a person reaches this stage with respect to his desires for himself, the hold of his self, and even his spiritual and personal qualities, he becomes utterly lost to himself, he is rooted and fixed in the qualities and desire of his Friend! Everything he wishes is fulfilled, not because the desire of something other than his Friend has arisen in him, but because his own desire has become the desire of his Friend. Indeed, it is in him that the friend manifests His own desire and whatever makes its appearance is really the Friend's desire, not his own. People might judge that he wants something or other but, as far as he himself is concerned; it would mean that his Friend desired something in a special way. This privileged rank cannot be denied, and yet some say, It's your groundless boasting! It is not genuine! A poem follows.]

When they reach the stage under discussion, saints become aware that they are God's elect in accord with the famous saying The absence of any desire is the precondition of saintliness, and they see themselves as desireless. If saintliness requires a lack of self-control, then they consider themselves to have no say in their actions. All desires come from their Friend while they, of themselves, desire nothing, as the King of the Prophets has testified: If they swear by God, then what they want will surely be granted. But the presupposition of this is that they do not swear, yet if they do, they will get what they ask for in God's name. The Prophet was also indicating that although the saints get whatever they want, they actually do not want anything A poem follows.]

The regard of the saint is always on his Lord. The saint is protected from self-interest: therefore, pride does not enter him. In other words, all those who attain this stage do not become self-seekers since, at this stage, their attention is not on themselves. If the foundation of this stage is lost, however, then the whole work disintegrates.

As long as anything remains with you, you are in your own essence,

The Kaaba, due to your worship, becomes a tavern!

If anything emanates from your essence, you are still far off:

You are like a temple facing the Kaaba !

Saints have been despoiled of human qualities. A saint should withdraw from human company, for weeping is an antidote to fame! May they not be put to the test! In other words, let the people find nothing to reprove in them that might make them stumble! Dependency on other people comes from two things, their reproach or their praise, both of which are inimical to true religion. There is a mystery in the fact that anybody who venerates, as the sign of the soundness of his worship, becomes blind to any other than the One venerated. If pride is interwoven in this veneration, then a person has really seen his own soul, not God. He is venerating that, not God. Whenever hypocrisy is found along with veneration, mankind has been seen, not God. The person is venerating them, not God. Since he worships his own soul and mankind and desires things other than God, it is all deceit-A saint is protected from the evils of human nature and yet the form of his human nature remains rooted within him. Keeping himself untainted by earthly things does not occur simply by the fact that the desire of something is no longer in him. Nor is it sufficient reason for praising and blessing him for, if such were the case that is, that he had no desire for anything unseemly- this could simply mean that, from the beginning, he had been impotent and bereft of the means required for acquiring such things. Strictly speaking, it would not be an instance of something prohibited but of something precluded. How could he be praised, blessed, or given a reward for refraining from doing something he was unable to do in the first place?

For men, there is a reward for obedience to God and a punishment for rebellion against Him. Angels, on the other hand, do not have the means of disobeying: For them there is no question of abandoning rebellion or of practicing obedience. They can neither reward nor punish. Man, however, has a human nature and takes pleasure in the things he wants. For the common man this would mean that he prefers what he wants to what God commands. Saints, however, prefer the command of God to what they themselves desire. The difference, O brother, consists in this: You should not remain unaffected by the pain of this human condition and the impulse to escape it, but should not, at the same time, be without hope, for justice and grace are His qualities. He is just. He keeps watch over what He commands. He knows our weakness. And since His justice makes Him interested in His own commands, it is He who does the work of the people, from the first to the last! Since He also insists on showering his grace-filled glances upon our helplessness, our work gets done, our sins are transformed into good deeds, and our faults become virtues. What place is there for lack of hope? A destitute creature has said:

Do not be without hope today, O heart, for Tomorrow His glance will be on His own command!

O brother, whoever among us has been stained by the impurities of sin or has consented to forbidden things will be cleansed by water from the cloud of grace and benevolence Himself! Who can disgrace us tomorrow in the presence of the prophets and the saints, and the whole host of God's creation? A mature saint has said:

Even if a lover be captured by sin, Or become enamored of the cup of intoxication, still Why should he fear a multitude of blunders, For the Beloved is One who keeps secrets and veils sins!

Peace!