ADAB
OF THE MUREED
By:
Hajj Mustafa Ali
About
the “Dhikr”
The Dhikr is made up of three of the
following stages:
-
Dhikr
-
Fikr
-
Himma
1.
Dhikr
Dhikr
has three degrees. The first is Dhikr by the tongue, than Dhikr of the heart and
lastly
Dhikr
by the ‘sirr’, the secret of being
ness.
We all begin with the
Dhikr of the
tongue, and it is represented by Huwa
(He) the Arabic pronoun of absence. It is the state of the common people. For
the wayfarer, it is only the first stage in his remembrance of Allah. The second
stage in represented by Anta (You) the
pronoun of presence. Here the mudhakkir
contemplates the presence of Allah, His Lordship and his heart and mind is
scintillating in its realization. The third is represented by ‘Ana’ (I) the
pronoun of Tawhid. Here the mudhakkir is no longer ‘doing’
dhikr but the dhikr has become him. He is no longer in the illusion of separation
from the divine.
Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri says: ‘Any
(other) awareness during remembrance of Allah is a hindrance to entering into
the realm of pure consciousness. Pure consciousness cannot be talked about. It
must be experienced. It is the state of being ness.’
Shaykh
al-Fayturi says:
‘What a wonderful thing! There you were looking for the dhikr! And
there was the dhikr looking for
you!’
Ibn ‘Ata-llah, may Allah be pleased
with him, says in his “Hikam”:
‘Do not abandon the dhikr because you fail to sense the Presence of Allah in it. Your
forgetfulness of the dhikr of Him is
worse than your forgetfulness in the dhikr
of Him. Perhaps He will take you from a dhikr
of forgetfulness to one with attention, and from one with attention to one with
Presence, and from one with Presence to one in which everything but the Invoked
is absent. And that is not difficult for Allah.’
2.
Fikr
All creational forms are manifest with
purpose and contain intentional meanings designed to reflect to the human being
aspects of themselves.’
Allah says in the
Qur`an: ‘There are
signs on the horizon and in the themselves.’
We have been created to know Allah, the
Reality. The path to His knowledge is through the experience of life as it has
been designed to optimize our journey to His realization. The creation is
nothing other than a reflection of ourselves. It is like, when a powerful light
is focused on a diamond, the light refracts outward through the facets of the
stone, displaying unique patterns. We are like that diamond, each one of us
unique and cut to the nature of the stone itself. The light is the source of our
consciences. It is one light, yet we experience its reflection in multiplicity.
The purpose of reflection is to
transcend multiplicity and witness Allah’s unity in the creation.
‘Allah says in the
Qur`an: “look out
in the creation you will see no fault in it, your eye sight will return back
tired in trying to see and fault in it”.
The first step to this
realization is to
come to know that you are the center of the universe; that all experience, no
matter how great or small, is within you. You
are the book that must be read, each moment of experience is another word, sign
and sentence, containing a meaning designed and directed at you, so as to bring
you to realization and intimacy with the Creator of all.
Make no mistake about it, you are the world. In order to reap the optimum
benefit from this experience reflection is required.
The depth and clarity of that reflection depends upon the purity of
heart. If the heart is full of yourself, expectation of the future, regret for
the past, fear and false hope, then the world will meet you with a reflection of
what your heart contains. If the heart is without all this mentioned above than
it has nothing other than the divine presence.
Allah says in a hadith Qudsi: ‘The whole universe cannot contain me, but the heart
of the one with Iman contains Me.’
As Shaykh Abdal Qadi
al-Jilani says:
‘The world is a market place which
will soon be closed. Close the door through which you see the creation and open
the door through which you can view the Truth, the Most Glorious and Mighty.
Close the door to earning and seeking provision from transactions, which apply
only to you, while you are in a pure hearted state and close to the innermost
secret. However, do not close that door on those transactions, which include
others, such as your family and those that depend upon you. Let the benefit of
that which you have obtained through your labor be for others. Seek that which
concerns you from the banquet of His Grace. Leave your nafs with the world, your
heart with the Hereafter and your innermost secret with the Master'
3.
Himma
Shaykh Muhammad Ibn
al-Habib says in his Diwan:
‘Whoever has got dhikr, fikr and himma will
in each moment rise above otherness. He will attain gnosis beyond his desire and
fast realise the secrets if existence.’
Himma
is born of knowledge and direct tasting of the benefits of dhikr
and inspiration from the words of the Shaykh. It is like after tasting a most
delicious drink you develop a taste for it and will search the bazaar until you
have more and more of it and you are annihilated in it. Himma
is pure energy and without it there is no achievable benefit.
Some Other Points on Dhikr
In a typical session of dhikr the stages are as follows:
In the first stage the Diwan is being
recited. It contains instruction regarding the wayfarer’s journeying on the
path. In this stage the mureed’s state
is raised by the meaning contained within the Diwan, turning his awareness away
from worldly concerns. He is filled with longing to have direct experience of
the meanings contained within the diwan,
and is now ready to move on to the next stage of the dhikr.
The second stage is the Hadra
(Divine Presence). This can be in a sitting or standing position. It contains
the repetitive recitation of divine attributes. At this stage the mureed
is emptying his heart and purifying it with the Divine Presence. When the heart
is purified it reflects the attributes being recited. When this is done the
heart is emptied of all, other it now contains the meaning of the divine
attributes being recited. The mureed
is now empty of himself and ready to receive his portion of the divine succor from Allah.
At the end of the Hadra the mureeds are quickly seated, remaining still, poised to
receiving the Shaykh’s divinely inspired darse (teaching). This is the third
and most intoxicating stage of the halaqa.
Here the Shaykh inspires the hearts of the mureed’s with words
containing the transmission of his divinely inspired state. The mureed’s
himma is elevated and he takes away from this last stage a provision, for
his journeying further on his path of illumination.
Recommended
Wazifah for Mureeds
This
Dhikr is to be done after every salat.
The formula below encompasses the entire
panoramic path to Allah, in an ascending arch to His Presence.
-
Astaghfiru’ullah
X 40
-
Ma
sha Allah
X 40
-
Subhan
Allah X
40
-
Allah
X 100
-
Beginning
with Astaghfirullah (in repetition) one turns to Allah, seeking covering from
the results of wrong actions.
We repeat this formula visualizing our shortcomings.
We open ourselves to Allah’s divine mercy. We seek His covering us
directly from Himself.
We see our insignificance in the face of His awesome beingness and empty
ourselves of vanity and recognize our inability to affect
anything.
We beg Allah to wipe our balance clean and to come to Him without any
need for reckoning our wronging others or ourselves
-
The
second is Ma sha Allah! All is from
Allah, in Allah, and to Allah! In this stage of the
dhikr we look out with the hearts eye at all creation and will fully submit
to Allah’s total lordship over all. Our
own ability to seek Him is from Him. As the Shaykh says:
Oh
Noble and Generous Lord,
You
created these servants of Yours
And
brought them into being
Out
of a drop of fluid.
We
dare not presume to love You,
And
we could not have loved You,
If you had not loved us.
Had
You not remembered us.
We
could not have remembered You.
Just
as our loving You
Is
due to Your loving us,
Our
remembering you
Is
surely due to You remembering us,
And
to Your Divine Help.
We abandon any claim of power or determination. We implode ourselves in
His presence and escape from the labor of self-affirmation.
-
Next is
Subhan Allah! After handing all over to His divine Majesty and
Power, one can only look
out at all things with humility and awesome appreciation of witnessing the splendor
of. Allah’s creation. All the discernible intricate patterns of life, one
upon the other in a masterful web reflecting the divine unity. You are inwardly
intoxicated by the vision and at the same time held in place by the order of His
decrees.
-
Allah
It is self explanatory.
Dhikr After Salat
-
As’staghfirullah
althi la ilah ha il Allah hu er Rahman er Raheem, al Hayul ya Qayyum wa a tubu ilahy.
(5 times)
I seek covering from Allah, from the
results of my wrong actions. There is no God but Him, the all-Merciful the
all-Compassionate, the ever living the eternal. I turn to you.
-
Allahu
Akbar
(34 times)
Allah’s greatness in not quantifiable
and beyond any conception.
-
Alhamdu
lillah
(33 times)
Praise belongs to Allah.
-
Subhan
Allah
(33 times)
Glory is Allah’s. All is swimming in
His never-ending attention.
-
Ayat
al Kursi
(1 times)
-
Salat nabuwi
(3
times)
Allahuma
sali ala Muhammadin wa ahli Muhammad
(3 times)
Peace, blessings and connection upon
Muhammad and his family.
-
Sajdat
al Shukr (1 time)
Prostration of Gratitude.
All the above can be performed after
each salat period.
After
Fajr and Maghrib add the following:
In the
Sajdat ul Shukr, while still in
prostration, lift your head slightly and place your thumb and middle finger on
your forehead. Your fingers should be on both sides of the head in the place
where if you had horns they would emerge from there. Then recite the last ayat
of surat ul Hashir.
This was given to us by the late Shaykh
Osman Beshir Osman (R.A.). Whoever perseveres in this practice at fajr and
maghrib, they will be spared death from a serious illness.
Adab Between the Fuqara
Do not look for faults in each other,
there is no end to it, so don’t to it.
Our Prophet says: “Whoever covers the
faults of his brother, Allah will cover him from his own faults on the day of judgment”
He also says:
“If you start seeking
faults in the Muslims, you will cause dissent among them or you will at least
start dissension.”
