LETTER 4: THE RENEWAL OF REPENTANCE

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

Brother Shamsuddin, may God bless you with the special blessing granted to the penitent! Many requests have come that something should be written on a variety of topics and that some warnings be given. I was also somewhat weary for a time, too, and this will account for the fact that a number of letters on the same topic were written in succession. They should be studied very carefully and the meaning of their contents verified with Qazi Sadruddin. The meaning of this injunction is simply that, since Qazi Sadruddin is there at the moment, consulting him will remove any difficulty you may experience. As far as possible, press on, for the real task is not to fail for a single hour in the task of renewing one's penitence for sin. Maintain a high resolve in this task, for it is Almighty God Who helps a man achieve genuine repentance. The basis of spiritual work is repentance, just as its crowning achievement is faith. Who travels this path? It is Faith! And who is it that bears this burden, if not Faith? Who cuts through the engulfing wilderness? Faith does! And who but Faith could traverse this bottomless ocean? The very sweetness you taste is that of Faith! To whom does this pain you endure belong if not to Faith? Who reveals the way of seeking? Faith! Whenever repentance appears, there too is Faith. Indeed, the sun of Faith warms each breast to the extent that it is penitent. It is as though the door to the threshold of repentance, once it is flung open, allows the sun of Faith to warm the interior.

The reality of repentance requires a radical shift in one's basic nature. Whoever commands a novice to undergo a forty-day retreat commands it for the sake of this change, in order that his very nature might be transformed. When he has been fully converted, he becomes another person, not in the sense that a different man appears in front of you but, since his qualities have changed, he too has changed. His essence remains the same, yet it hardly matters, for now a completely different faith, a real faith, appears in him.

Before his conversion, there had been nothing but conventional faith and movement of the tongue, as is the case with most people. On this point someone said:

How long will you worship God only with your tongue? That amounts to worshiping the air! Until you become a Muslim inwardly, How can you be a Muslim outwardly?

This lame-ass of conventional faith and empty utterances that you and I possess cannot suffice for traveling along the Way; nor can it bear the burden or cut through the engulfing wilderness, nor can it taste the divine sweetness. It would be like a mosquito trying to carry the load of an elephant! As the poet said:

Not everyone knows how to deal with wealth; Not every ass can carry the Messiah's weight!

Who but Rakhsh, for instance, could bear the weight of Rustam?

Due to the vast scope of this stage and the genuinely terrifying aspect of this work, O brother, you should not let yourself grow slack, nor allow aversion to show its face and tempt you to flee from the fray altogether! Recall the teaching of the prophets: Keep away from things that are beyond your strength! This fear should not be discussed, either in speech or in writing. No one, no matter what state he is in, should be fainthearted! Here terms like work make no sense, nor is there question of paying for what you get! For instance, we could cite cases of people who had been raised so swiftly from idolatry that the place of protestation before the idol was still warm and yet they went beyond the angels and the spheres of heaven, and were endowed with such virtues that even if men, jinn, and angels were to go in search of them, no trace of them would be found! Turning back, the men, jinn, and angels would ask What's going on What has happened here? The blessed ones would reply, He does what He pleases! (Q85:16). In His Presence, how and why carry no weight! Motive finds no entry here! Return these terms to the world of men from which they came! There they have meaning. May the Most High God grant my brother this vision of himself, exalting him beyond himself with the same mercy and favor shown to the Prophet and his descendants! Every time you feel low, take heart! O brother, the courage of real men does not descend upon just anybody. Neither heaven nor earth, nor throne nor footstool, nor even hell itself could bear the burden of this resolution of theirs! It has been said:

Neither the pain of hell nor the pleasure of heaven affects them

Members of this group have been so molded That they grasp only for the very presence of God, And what is not He they fling far behind!

The high resolve of these men is like a devout consummation, or a holy desert devoid of either inhabitants or their refuse, a veritable place of rest! Nothing holier than this can be created, just as no desert can match the expanse of the divine Unity. Such courage is not found at the Kaaba or in Jerusalem, nor does it revolve in unison with the heavens and earth. God be praised for this wonderful work, that a man can be sitting at home, feet tucked up under the folds of his robe, his head placed on his knees as he ponders the divine secret! Though it is beyond the boundary of such a high resolve, you cannot find it except in dust and water! In this sense it has been said that Sufism permits no stasis. Remember that water left to stand becomes stagnant! A man should retire to his own corner, settle there, and the divine secret will appear to him in both the realm of death and the realm of activity.

Rapid movement, as you know, appears different from what it really is. A millstone, for example, if it picks up good speed, could easily be taken as being stationary by a person glancing at it! Some friends asked Khwaja Junaid why he did not participate in musical assemblies. In response, Junaid quoted them the Quranic verse: You think the mountains are firmly fixed, but they will pass away like clouds (Q27:90). Because of its speed, you do not perceive my experience of ecstasy: How do you tell someone who has never seen it about the morning breeze?

Peace!

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

Brother Shamsuddin, may God bless you with the special blessing granted to the penitent! Many requests have come that something should be written on a variety of topics and that some warnings be given. I was also somewhat weary for a time, too, and this will account for the fact that a number of letters on the same topic were written in succession. They should be studied very carefully and the meaning of their contents verified with Qazi Sadruddin. The meaning of this injunction is simply that, since Qazi Sadruddin is there at the moment, consulting him will remove any difficulty you may experience. As far as possible, press on, for the real task is not to fail for a single hour in the task of renewing one's penitence for sin. Maintain a high resolve in this task, for it is Almighty God Who helps a man achieve genuine repentance. The basis of spiritual work is repentance, just as its crowning achievement is faith. Who travels this path? It is Faith! And who is it that bears this burden, if not Faith? Who cuts through the engulfing wilderness? Faith does! And who but Faith could traverse this bottomless ocean? The very sweetness you taste is that of Faith! To whom does this pain you endure belong if not to Faith? Who reveals the way of seeking? Faith! Whenever repentance appears, there too is Faith. Indeed, the sun of Faith warms each breast to the extent that it is penitent. It is as though the door to the threshold of repentance, once it is flung open, allows the sun of Faith to warm the interior.

The reality of repentance requires a radical shift in one's basic nature. Whoever commands a novice to undergo a forty-day retreat commands it for the sake of this change, in order that his very nature might be transformed. When he has been fully converted, he becomes another person, not in the sense that a different man appears in front of you but, since his qualities have changed, he too has changed. His essence remains the same, yet it hardly matters, for now a completely different faith, a real faith, appears in him.

Before his conversion, there had been nothing but conventional faith and movement of the tongue, as is the case with most people. On this point someone said:

How long will you worship God only with your tongue? That amounts to worshiping the air! Until you become a Muslim inwardly, How can you be a Muslim outwardly?

This lame-ass of conventional faith and empty utterances that you and I possess cannot suffice for traveling along the Way; nor can it bear the burden or cut through the engulfing wilderness, nor can it taste the divine sweetness. It would be like a mosquito trying to carry the load of an elephant! As the poet said:

Not everyone knows how to deal with wealth; Not every ass can carry the Messiah's weight!

Who but Rakhsh, for instance, could bear the weight of Rustam?

Due to the vast scope of this stage and the genuinely terrifying aspect of this work, O brother, you should not let yourself grow slack, nor allow aversion to show its face and tempt you to flee from the fray altogether! Recall the teaching of the prophets: Keep away from things that are beyond your strength! This fear should not be discussed, either in speech or in writing. No one, no matter what state he is in, should be fainthearted! Here terms like work make no sense, nor is there question of paying for what you get! For instance, we could cite cases of people who had been raised so swiftly from idolatry that the place of protestation before the idol was still warm and yet they went beyond the angels and the spheres of heaven, and were endowed with such virtues that even if men, jinn, and angels were to go in search of them, no trace of them would be found! Turning back, the men, jinn, and angels would ask What's going on What has happened here? The blessed ones would reply, He does what He pleases! (Q85:16). In His Presence, how and why carry no weight! Motive finds no entry here! Return these terms to the world of men from which they came! There they have meaning. May the Most High God grant my brother this vision of himself, exalting him beyond himself with the same mercy and favor shown to the Prophet and his descendants! Every time you feel low, take heart! O brother, the courage of real men does not descend upon just anybody. Neither heaven nor earth, nor throne nor footstool, nor even hell itself could bear the burden of this resolution of theirs! It has been said:

Neither the pain of hell nor the pleasure of heaven affects them

Members of this group have been so molded That they grasp only for the very presence of God, And what is not He they fling far behind!

The high resolve of these men is like a devout consummation, or a holy desert devoid of either inhabitants or their refuse, a veritable place of rest! Nothing holier than this can be created, just as no desert can match the expanse of the divine Unity. Such courage is not found at the Kaaba or in Jerusalem, nor does it revolve in unison with the heavens and earth. God be praised for this wonderful work, that a man can be sitting at home, feet tucked up under the folds of his robe, his head placed on his knees as he ponders the divine secret! Though it is beyond the boundary of such a high resolve, you cannot find it except in dust and water! In this sense it has been said that Sufism permits no stasis. Remember that water left to stand becomes stagnant! A man should retire to his own corner, settle there, and the divine secret will appear to him in both the realm of death and the realm of activity.

Rapid movement, as you know, appears different from what it really is. A millstone, for example, if it picks up good speed, could easily be taken as being stationary by a person glancing at it! Some friends asked Khwaja Junaid why he did not participate in musical assemblies. In response, Junaid quoted them the Quranic verse: You think the mountains are firmly fixed, but they will pass away like clouds (Q27:90). Because of its speed, you do not perceive my experience of ecstasy: How do you tell someone who has never seen it about the morning breeze?

Peace!