LETTER 86: COMING TO TERMS WITH ONESELF

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

Brother Shamsuddin, may God honor you by making you an esteemed seeker! Anybody who has come to terms with himself and accepted his self is dead, even though he appears to be alive. Whoever lives in God, however, even though he appears to be dead, is really alive. Death is not the death of the body! Nonexistence is not the non existence of the body! Just as there is an apparent death, there is also a real one. Men are sunk in the sea of human nature. The prophets come along and, through their assistance, men are extricated from their plight. They then become submerged in the ocean of Unity, till not a trace from even one of them is left behind!

O brother, when the sun of Unity rises, certainly the lamp of your being, out of modesty, will flicker into nothingness! You will continue to exist since it is only with respect to appearances that you will be nothing. A lamp, face to face with the sun, for instance, would have no brilliance of itself 'All brightness would stem from the sun. Since no effect flows from its presence, its existence would be tantamount to nonexistence.

Someone might say that nothingness is the opposite of existence, and existence the opposite of nothingness, and that it is impossible for anything to both exist and not exist in something else. The answer would be that this whole discussion concerns the nonexistence of qualities rather than essence, for it is not the essence that changes but the qualities. It is not the creature that changes but its disposition! If the sun shines on water, it makes it warm. It is a quality of the water that has been altered, not its very substance. The substance of the sun produces a change in the qualities of the water but not in its essence! In this there is no coincidence of opposites. God himself has said about his enemies. They are dead, not alive, nor do they know when they will be raised up (Q16:21),

Strangers, with respect to God, appear to be alive, but are really dead, for real life means that a substance should abstain from its own life. That, however, is not within a person's power, just as tomorrow they will be desiring death, but will remain in the calamity of their own existence. Concerning the friends of God, on the other hand, it has been said: Those who are killed along the Way to God-do not number them among the dead, for they live through their Lord (Q3:169). A person should be ready to give his life at the head of the Way and walk along it stripped of his own life, so that this special situation might arise wherein they live through their Lord. Whoever, on the other hand, sets out on this Path, holding to his life, will be sent to Rizwan, the keeper of paradise. He will be told: Here is a guest for you! But whoever sets out along this Way after having sacrificed his life, and continues to walk in love, has to pass by no other intermediary. This group consists of friends who seem to be annihilated but who really live, while the other group is comprised of strangers who are seemingly alive but actually dead.

The condition needed for you to really exist is to pass by the whole world, to remain at a distance from yourself, to remove your heart from yourself, and to wash your hands of yourself, just as the Companions of the Cave did. Make a cave of your heart and, entering therein, pray four times God is Great! on your own behalf. Expel the dog of your animal soul from within you so that you might be dis played before the people, as was done to the Companions of the Cave If you look at them you would turn back from them in flight, and you would be filled with awe on account of them! (Q18:18).

A dead man cannot be punished. So much punishment and feat were placed within them that it was revealed to the king of the prophets that if a person were to see Him, he would certainly retreat in flight from the Wealth, having been filled with fear. When the sun passes that way, it shines softly and warms the dog that lies sound asleep at the entrance to the Cave of the Companions. Heavenly and earthly beings, and the angels as well, stand with their loins girt ready for service. They are carried away from themselves, and the whole of creation becomes lost in astonishment.

Whoever passes beyond himself, abandons himself, and takes refuge in God, discovering that God will make his face shine with that very goodness which He has granted the Companions of the Cave And if you yourself enter the very same court as they did, He will bestow upon you what He bestowed upon them. A disciple who is a seeker along the Way to God should be like Jesus, who never stayed in the same place. When He was traveling around from town to town, people asked him What is the reason for all this journeying? He replied: It might happen that a righteous man had once set foot in a place before I reached it and the dust of that place might then inter- cede for me! Yet if you were to gather all the pain of the righteous in one place, it would not be equal to the pain of Jesus. A supplicant treading the Way should be like this!

O brother, it is a while since this saying was heard: My treasuries are filled with service, if you can, acquire a particle of supplication! It has been reported that supplication is a tree that grew up in the garden of Adam and men. The angels were bold to say: Will You appoint in it [as your viceregent) one who makes mischief and sheds blood, while we are devoted to praising You? (Q2:30). But Adam in his indigence exclaimed: O Lord, we have wronged ourselves! (Q7:23)

It is related that Solomon, the son of David, was walking alone one day. An ant was speaking to its companions. Go back to your nests, it warned them; otherwise, the people of Solomon might come and stomp on you and destroy you! Solomon, upon hearing this, said to the wind: Place my throne here, for the voice of a supplicant has reached my ears. A sincere follower of the Path has said: It is related that Solomon sat for forty days at the entrance to that nest and said: 'Let everyone go about his own work, for I wish to be with this ant! Both Solomon and the ant were freed from their occupations. Two such people will have many things, both joyous and sorrowful, to talk about. They have taken life's measure, for they are really alive. We, on the contrary, are dead and completely incapable of such activity. If anyone is astonished that an ant could do all this, since it experiences no stress, nor will it have to render any account on the Day of Judgment, nor undergo punishment, then such a person might be asked to explain the purpose of the hoopoe of Solomon, or the dog of the Companions of the Cave! This will throw dust in the eyes of the impertinent!

Peace!

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

Brother Shamsuddin, may God honor you by making you an esteemed seeker! Anybody who has come to terms with himself and accepted his self is dead, even though he appears to be alive. Whoever lives in God, however, even though he appears to be dead, is really alive. Death is not the death of the body! Nonexistence is not the non existence of the body! Just as there is an apparent death, there is also a real one. Men are sunk in the sea of human nature. The prophets come along and, through their assistance, men are extricated from their plight. They then become submerged in the ocean of Unity, till not a trace from even one of them is left behind!

O brother, when the sun of Unity rises, certainly the lamp of your being, out of modesty, will flicker into nothingness! You will continue to exist since it is only with respect to appearances that you will be nothing. A lamp, face to face with the sun, for instance, would have no brilliance of itself 'All brightness would stem from the sun. Since no effect flows from its presence, its existence would be tantamount to nonexistence.

Someone might say that nothingness is the opposite of existence, and existence the opposite of nothingness, and that it is impossible for anything to both exist and not exist in something else. The answer would be that this whole discussion concerns the nonexistence of qualities rather than essence, for it is not the essence that changes but the qualities. It is not the creature that changes but its disposition! If the sun shines on water, it makes it warm. It is a quality of the water that has been altered, not its very substance. The substance of the sun produces a change in the qualities of the water but not in its essence! In this there is no coincidence of opposites. God himself has said about his enemies. They are dead, not alive, nor do they know when they will be raised up (Q16:21),

Strangers, with respect to God, appear to be alive, but are really dead, for real life means that a substance should abstain from its own life. That, however, is not within a person's power, just as tomorrow they will be desiring death, but will remain in the calamity of their own existence. Concerning the friends of God, on the other hand, it has been said: Those who are killed along the Way to God-do not number them among the dead, for they live through their Lord (Q3:169). A person should be ready to give his life at the head of the Way and walk along it stripped of his own life, so that this special situation might arise wherein they live through their Lord. Whoever, on the other hand, sets out on this Path, holding to his life, will be sent to Rizwan, the keeper of paradise. He will be told: Here is a guest for you! But whoever sets out along this Way after having sacrificed his life, and continues to walk in love, has to pass by no other intermediary. This group consists of friends who seem to be annihilated but who really live, while the other group is comprised of strangers who are seemingly alive but actually dead.

The condition needed for you to really exist is to pass by the whole world, to remain at a distance from yourself, to remove your heart from yourself, and to wash your hands of yourself, just as the Companions of the Cave did. Make a cave of your heart and, entering therein, pray four times God is Great! on your own behalf. Expel the dog of your animal soul from within you so that you might be dis played before the people, as was done to the Companions of the Cave If you look at them you would turn back from them in flight, and you would be filled with awe on account of them! (Q18:18).

A dead man cannot be punished. So much punishment and feat were placed within them that it was revealed to the king of the prophets that if a person were to see Him, he would certainly retreat in flight from the Wealth, having been filled with fear. When the sun passes that way, it shines softly and warms the dog that lies sound asleep at the entrance to the Cave of the Companions. Heavenly and earthly beings, and the angels as well, stand with their loins girt ready for service. They are carried away from themselves, and the whole of creation becomes lost in astonishment.

Whoever passes beyond himself, abandons himself, and takes refuge in God, discovering that God will make his face shine with that very goodness which He has granted the Companions of the Cave And if you yourself enter the very same court as they did, He will bestow upon you what He bestowed upon them. A disciple who is a seeker along the Way to God should be like Jesus, who never stayed in the same place. When He was traveling around from town to town, people asked him What is the reason for all this journeying? He replied: It might happen that a righteous man had once set foot in a place before I reached it and the dust of that place might then inter- cede for me! Yet if you were to gather all the pain of the righteous in one place, it would not be equal to the pain of Jesus. A supplicant treading the Way should be like this!

O brother, it is a while since this saying was heard: My treasuries are filled with service, if you can, acquire a particle of supplication! It has been reported that supplication is a tree that grew up in the garden of Adam and men. The angels were bold to say: Will You appoint in it [as your viceregent) one who makes mischief and sheds blood, while we are devoted to praising You? (Q2:30). But Adam in his indigence exclaimed: O Lord, we have wronged ourselves! (Q7:23)

It is related that Solomon, the son of David, was walking alone one day. An ant was speaking to its companions. Go back to your nests, it warned them; otherwise, the people of Solomon might come and stomp on you and destroy you! Solomon, upon hearing this, said to the wind: Place my throne here, for the voice of a supplicant has reached my ears. A sincere follower of the Path has said: It is related that Solomon sat for forty days at the entrance to that nest and said: 'Let everyone go about his own work, for I wish to be with this ant! Both Solomon and the ant were freed from their occupations. Two such people will have many things, both joyous and sorrowful, to talk about. They have taken life's measure, for they are really alive. We, on the contrary, are dead and completely incapable of such activity. If anyone is astonished that an ant could do all this, since it experiences no stress, nor will it have to render any account on the Day of Judgment, nor undergo punishment, then such a person might be asked to explain the purpose of the hoopoe of Solomon, or the dog of the Companions of the Cave! This will throw dust in the eyes of the impertinent!

Peace!