by Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri

The path of Islam contains all answers needed, as one journeys in this physical world as well as the answers and guidance that emanates from the unseen. Human beings have the capacity of witnessing and correcting themselves as declared in the Qur`an.

The higher self within us is the closest to the divine light, which has gifted us the Ruh. In order to get that higher reflection we need the prophetic light and conduct as the ultimate reference point. At a practical level we need to refer to the must illuminated awakened human being close to us.

It is in this matter that we need to follow a living teacher or guide. The danger of being misled by the lower self and Shaytan is ever present. It is for this that we need a trusted and reliable reflection. Therefore the relationship between the teacher and the follower is an intimate one, based on unconditional love and service to Allah.

A truly courteous mureed is indeed courteous to himself and the job of the teacher is to ensure that this courtesy is to the higher self.

Hopefully this booklet will touch the hearts and the conduct for we are both intention and action.

Allah is the only One

• To be truly informed we must rise above the realm of form to that of nonform.
• Ugliness veils subtle beauty and beauty hides ugliness. It is all a matter of time or perspective.
• We always seek affirmation. Most of us look for it amongst creation and are often disappointed.
• The Creator however never lets down the sincere seeker.
• Meditation which leads to higher consciousness is like a skylight in the human cave which lets in the beam of hope and freedom from the lumination of the self.
• The Collector of beautiful objects is trapped by his collection. The lover of beauty itself has transcended form to meaning and attachment to freedom.
• Art lovers and Collectors have personal opinions and the lover of beauty is thrilled by higher knowledge.
• Success is founded on acknowledgement of defeat. When the self is conquered, the spirit announces its triumph.
• Chaos is order whose rationale and reason has not yet been discovered.
• The truth is nearer to you than you think.
• Outer security lies in familiarity and the deeper the knowledge the stranger it seems.
• When anger is directed at its real deep cause there can be deep change. Often it is directed at the apparent cause. This is like blaming the mirror for reflecting back one’s own image. One must not blame the messenger, but look at the message or root cause.
• There are two types of difficulties and problems:
  Type a) is a challenge to which to rise and look for a solution – it is a healthy way of life.
  Type b) do not relate to solutions, they are just blocks, obstacles or emotional grief. Leave them. Problems that cannot be tackled, practically or rationally or are beyond your capacity often require time to resolve themselves. Often our reaction to these situation are emotional and counterproductive.
• Success is merely a durable state of harmony as a result of expectations having been achieved.
• Outer success implies a smooth connection between expectations and results.
  Inner success implies a state of constant ease, peace and contentment irrespective of outer conditions and changes.
• Grief and suffering are experiences for which the antidote is its avoidance. The challenge is to reflect as to how that state came about in the first place. Attachments, expectations and perceptions are keys to this discovery.
• Your reading or understanding of any situation is much influenced by your inner state and condition.
• If you are curious as to how the subtle and unseen world works then study and
  understand how this manifest world works first.

Originally this book was written when I was living in the United States and had met many people with a strong spiritual thirst but who were completely engulfed in the competitive world of ambition and material excellence. I had realized that many of these people preferred an esoteric and less demanding path than that which I had been committed to.

This book was written mainly to highlight the truth that if you wish to nourish the heart and nurture the light within, you need to make structural adjustments to your way of life as well as the all-consuming material drive. This book is a challenge to our modern lifestyle that is out of balance.

Now it is being reprinted as the gap widens between the sustainable inner happiness and ever-increasing outer frenzy.

Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri
May 2001

by Mahmoud Ayoub, Ph.D
Professor of Islamic Studies
Temple University
Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.

Say: Were the sea to be ink for the words of my Lord, the sea would be exhausted before the words of my Lord are exhausted, even if We brought the like of it to add [thereto].

The Qur’an 18:109

The Qur`an is the transcendent Word of the Transcendent Lord, Creator and Sustainer of all things. With it, creation began when God took our covenant with the question: ‘Am I not your Lord?’ (Qur`an 7:172). With it, history began, when He announced to the angels: ‘Behold, I am about to set a representative (khalîfah) on earth!’ In it, history will continue its cosmic journey from the multiplicity of things and names to the One, when ‘the earth shall shine forth with the Light of its Lord’, and the eternal voice of the Ever-Living and All-Sovereign Lord shall challenge all creation: ‘To whom shall all dominion today belong?’ The resounding answer will then echo: ‘To God, the One, the All-Conquering!’ Yet, God in His infinite mercy willed that His timeless Word, the Qur`an, should enter into our finite history to shape and guide it to its fulfillment on a day when He alone shall be King and Master.

The Qur`an, which we write in our books (masâhif), preserve in our hearts and recite with our tongues, was sent down onto the heart of Allah’s (Allah in Arabic means God) beloved servant and Messenger, Muhammad, may God’s blessing and mercy rest forever on him, his family and his righteous Companions.

The science of writing, understanding and interpreting the Qur`an has occupied the best minds of the Muslim ummah (community) throughout its long history. The fruits of these labors are contained in the vast literature of tafsîr (interpretation). The Qur`an, in its inner and infinite dimensions, is known only to God. Yet, to the Prophet and the chosen few of his followers, the veils were removed, and they were able to touch the inner mysteries of the Qur`an with their purified hearts and minds, ‘for none but the pure shall touch it.’ The righteous friends of God (awliyâ Allah al-sâlihîn), who purified their hearts in this ocean of knowledge, left for us allusions and glimpses to guide us in our journey (sulûk) to Allah.

Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri’s commentaries are dedicated to the task of making the Qur`an available to the men and women of the present age, that they may contemplate, understand and be guided by it in their daily lives, and in their spiritual quest. He has undertaken to present the Qur`an in Arabic, its original language, and to study its inner and outer meanings. The present work, in addition, presents the Qur`an in both its exoteric and historical dimension and its inner dimension to the Western reader. In the task of tafsîr (interpretation), standard works in this field will be used, but in ways that are relevant to the present age and its needs. This volume is the first of five volumes aimed at achieving this objective.

The Qur`an must speak to the condition of every age — this it can most effectively do through an inner and primary exposition of its revelations. Thus, through the reflection of Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri, as God shall illuminate his heart, the inner dimension of the Qur`an will be touched.

Say: Work! For God Alone shall see your work, His Messenger, and the people of faith. In Him alone do we trust, for with Him is right guidance, and to Him shall be our return.

The Qur`an 9:105

Bismi’llah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem (1)

Al hamdu lillahi rabb il alamin (2)

Hamd, is praise. Praise comes if there is knowledge. You can only praise something if you have knowledge of it. Knowledge of something is an aspect of experience. You praise the rabb, the lord-sustainer. Rabba, means to be master of, to have command over. It also means to raise and bring up. Rabb is the attribute of that entity which brings what is under its domain up to its full potential, towards the ultimate end which is huwa, He, because it has come from Him, from Allah.

We said that when you praise the Ultimate, you must have some knowledge of it. That knowledge could be that of avoiding the non-Ultimate, which is what we are trying to do now. The way to that knowledge is by avoiding that which is unreal, unconducive, unfulfilling; that which does not permanently rehabilitate our hearts.

Up to a certain point, it is alright to praise an aspect of it since we do not have complete cognizance of rabb. If we are true to ourselves, we aim for the ultimate in everything. We only want to praise the Ultimate.

Real praise belongs only to the Lord-sustainer, and that which sustains the foundation of Tawheed (Unity). When you say, Al hamdu lilla, you are only stating the fact that praise is indeed for Allah. Furthermore, you are only able to praise in the first place because you mirror Allah and His Attributes, since you are the created being, having been created by the Creator, Allah. When you abuse the use of hamd, instead of shukr, you reveal your own shatteredness, for if you have truly witnessed that, La ilaha il Allah, you will understand that Allah’s mercy comes not only in bast, expansion, but also in qabd, constriction, and you will recognize that above all else Allah is truly ar Rahman ar Rahim, so that every state reflects the mercy of Allah. This explains why it says: Al hamdu lillahi rabb il alamin, Alamin, encompasses all states, all worlds, in the seen and the unseen, in sleep and in wakefulness, here and in the hereafter.

The man of greater perception sees the rabb, Sustainer, even in times of constriction. To use hamd as an expression of a mood or feeling is shirk. Praise is for Allah at all times and under all circumstances. Hamd does not allow for the separation between you as a praise giver and the object of praise: you merely echo hamd.

Ar-Rahman ar-Rahim (3)

The characteristics of the Lord whom we love and adore are ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, the all-beneficent, the all-compassionate. There is only mercy, but we do not see it because of our ignorance, expectations, and desires which only arise from the use of our intellect. Was the mercy not there when you were in your mother’s womb? You stayed there for nine months and yet you were unequivocally content. It is the mercy of Creation that we are able to die, so that there may be breathing and standing space for others to come. It is only we who interfere. It is the ego, the nafs, the vanity of expectation which frustrates and sabotages our recognition of Allah’s mercy. It is the evil I which we hear whispering in our ear. Shaytan is only a name. He too is from the Creator. If you know how to tackle Shaytan, then you would see nothing other than ar-Rahman. There is a cult in the Middle East of some two to three million people that worship Shaytan. They say that we know the Lord through Shaytan, and that at the Yowm al Qiyama, Shaytan will be forgiven because he has been testing all the good ones and the bad ones. They say he will be the first to be forgiven. If you see anything other than mercy, it is your own doing. It is your own expectations, desires and illusions. You yourself are the author.

Maliki yowm ad Deen (4)

Malik means owner, master. We come from the Owner. We own nothing, but are all owned. Yowm ad Deen: the day of the Deen. Yowm is not only a day, but also a span of time. Deen, life-transaction, finds its root in dana, to owe, be indebted to. It is the debt of man to want to recognize reality. It is incumbent upon everyone of us to know how to pay the debt upon us.

The deen with Allah is Islam. It is a life-transaction. Our way of behaving towards ourselves and towards others is deen. It is the way of correct transaction. But if you cannot discipline yourself, you cannot be of any use to anybody else. If interaction is not at least two-dimensional, nothing will work. You will only accumulate more wealth and cultivate more attachment. Eventually, you will be toppled over. Therefore, you have to exercise yourself in order to discipline yourself. The inner discipline begins with the outer discipline. This is the meaning of deen. The outer is easier because if you yourself do not stop from overshooting the limits, someone else will. It is the inner that is more difficult, so we start with the outer in order to gain the inner meaning. We go from the gross to the subtle.

Iyyaka na’budu wa iyyaka nasta’in (5)

Once you recognize that you are in love and you are worshipping the rabb, you admit it openly, we worship You and we depend upon You. If you are worshipping and you are in love, then you are in adoration. Abada, is to worship, adore, serve, and in its second form, it means to make accessible. You depend upon the Merciful. This is only meaningful if there is knowledge, for otherwise it can be considered a tyranny.

Ihdina as Sirat al-Mustaqim (6)

Show us the direct way. A straight line is the shortest distance between two points. A straight line is also one point traveling in only one direction. Therefore, you ask to be shown the most direct route towards this knowledge.

Sirat al ladhina an’amta ‘aleyhim
Ghayr il maghdhubi ‘aleyhim wa`l ad dalin (7)

Sirat al ladhina an’amta ‘aleyhim, is the way of those upon whom delight has been bestowed, not those upon whom anger burns, Na’ma is delight, happiness. There is no anger in this life. If you do not see mercy, then you have brought darkness upon yourself. Your ignorance is not the fault of someone else. If you do something inane and as a consequence harm comes to you, then Reality is angry with you, angry in the sense that you are not in unification with it. Anger implies a high degree of discontent on the part of one entity with another, which leads to severing of the relationship between the two.

There is only Allah. There is only Reality. Consequently, there is no place for superstition. It is you who decide whether Allah is angry with you. Rahma must encompass everything. Your loss is, in fact, within that rahma. The condition you are in is appropriate because you have brought it about by your heart. This is cosmos, not chaos. It is total ecology. As human beings, we are all occasionally at a loss and often unsure. It is for this reason that we have to keep healthy and correct companionship. Existentially, we need guidance.

Surat al Fatiha can be divided into three sections. The first section includes the opening line up to Maliki yowm ad Deen. It is an exposition of reality. You find yourself awakened suddenly and you say: I am in gratitude, praise to Allah, Who has these attributes. You are inspired after having been in wilderness and bewilderment, so you say, Al hamdu lillahi rabb al ‘alamin, out of contentment and sanity. In the next section, (from Iyyaka na’budu wa iyyaka nastain to Ihdina as-Sirat al-Mustaqim), you are the adorer, the abd. This now is transaction and demand. It is a request, it is action. In this section the heart cries out. The third part is like the echo of reality in order to confirm what you are saying and to answer your question.

Surat al Fatiha is the most important Sura in the Qur`an. If it is completely absorbed, and if every word comes from a pure heart, you will cease to talk about opening and you will recognize that the vastness of Allah’s mercy is never-ending, so you can only strive to increase, for after the constriction of ignorance, there can only come the expansion of knowledge.

“Life is full and you contain all of it, in a meaningful form, in your very breast. That is the meaning of the tradition related to the Prophet from Allah that ‘The heavens and the earth do not contain Me, but the heart of a trusting believer contains Me.’ In other words, a believer has in his heart the sub-genetically encoded seed of the meaning of the entire creation.”

From “Living Islam – The Path of Unity” by Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri

October 7, 2001

Islam – submission – is easy. Witnessing and affirming that there is only One God is a reality accessible to everyone. This truth is encapsulated in the first phrase of the Muslim creed: ‘I witness that there is no god but God.’ The translation of the complementary second half of this testimony of belief, that ‘Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah’, is harder to decode. This is because through time its misapplication has clouded over its transformational dynamism.

From “The Elements of Islam” by Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri

October 14, 2001

In our traditions, simply asking for the knowledge of the Essence will get us nowhere. We have to seek the knowledge of God’s attributes, of God’s actions, of God’s laws, so that we may guard against transgressing them in this world. Guarding against falling prey to the pitfalls of following our own whims will protect us from the reaction born of wrong action which we call punishment. Punishment is part of the love of Reality for us. The entire creation is based on love. The pain we occasionally feel is because the balance has been disturbed due to our ignorance, because we do not know how to unite our expectations and desires with God’s decrees and absolute laws. We are bound to adjust to them, and that is the meaning of slavehood. We are enslaved to that truth, whether we like it or not. The sooner we submit to it – and this is the true meaning of Islam – the sooner we will come to know from our hearts where to stop and where not to venture. If we make a mistake, then we have acted upon a desire or whim.

The purification of the heart occurs degree by degree, and the way to this purification is by going against one’s own personal selfish motives, desires, expectations, and so on. This is called the struggle of the self, al-jihad an-nafs. Maintaining this jihad constantly, and keeping diligently to the shari’ah (the body of Islamic law) as it has come to us, one eventually ends up being the free man who is a true slave. If you are a slave, you have no choice. If you have no choice, you are free. Choice is confusion. Enslavement is fusion. There is no other way to this purification.

From In Pursuit of True Knowledge, “Living Islam – East & West” by Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri

October 21, 2001

The practice of pilgrimage has roots in the notion of inherent sacredness, which accounts for the universality of pilgrimage. Sanctity attaches to specific places in consequence of something decisive having happened there, for example, the Buddha Gaya near Benares in India, scene of Gautama’s enlightenment; Jerusalem (meaning the city of peace), the scene of Jesus’ alleged resurrection; and Canterbury where the archbishop Thomas was martyred. Any site of martyrdom (mashhad: martyrium) attracts pilgrims in its own right; witness the way pilgrims gravitate towards the scene of Hamza’s (the Prophet’s uncle) martyrdom at Uhud, or the city of Karbala which grew as a result of Imam Husayn being buried after he was martyred there.

From The Pilgrimage of Islam, “Encompassing the Five Schools of Law” by Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri

October 28, 2001

“The purpose of outer disturbance or affliction is to draw one closer to and make one more dependant on Allah alone, and thereby to increase one’s knowledge. In a sense, Allah is most exclusive. He does not want man, even occasionally, to think that he is depending upon anybody else. Yet it is courteous to thank the person who is the vehicle or means of help. This is the true inner meaning of the din, the life-transaction, as it is called in the Qur`an.”

by Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri

November 4, 2001

The human self (Nafs) resembles a hologram, which can reflect and reproduce ever-changing states and attributes. The range covers the lowest qualities to the highest Divine attributes. The Nafs can behave in the meanest and in contrast the most generous of ways. Fearful or courageous, patient or impulsive, stupid or wise, agitated or peaceful, ignorant or illuminated.

“From Ripples of Light” by Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri

November 11, 2001

Who is the Realized Being?

The fully realized being is the one who has returned to the source of one’s origin, the pure state of divine unity. It is the original, adamic state, for Adam was originally in the pure and unified state in the Garden of bliss. He was given everything and had no whims, thoughts, or desires, manifesting only inspired and divinely guided continuous submission. He was in the realm of pure consciousness, the realm of joy and contentment.

Then a voice arose, a wave on the adamic consciousness of being, a whisper that cut through the state of pure submission. A different moment came about – the realm of our own existence based on opposite forces and energies. So Adam descended from the unified field into a realm of duality, a realm based on opposites where both right and wrong could be experienced. It is of course in this realm that the faculty of discrimination develops.

Adam was placed in this worldly condition in order to evolve in discrimination by being tested, so that he could develop towards a state of perfection equilibrium and contentment based on knowledge, differentiation and on a primal experience, for he was originally conceived in the Garden of absolute bliss.

Mankind, in essence, originated by command from the realm of divine unity, and has been placed in this realm of duality so that in every situation, he must discriminate between the two thresholds of good and evil. By this he may emerge, awakened from duality, and return to his original state.

From “The Journey of the Self” by Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri

November 18, 2001

Nothing in existence takes place unless there is a reason behind it. Our scientific endeavors and technical achievements have all progressed because of the search for cause and effect, building up the information base for what is now our contemporary, modern society, with its far-reaching programs probing further into outer rather than inner space. Whatever we pursue in our intellectual life, using our brain capacity, is based on a sharable pattern that we can understand within the context of a language or culture. Whenever we are shocked, disappointed, afraid, or uncertain, it is because a discontinuity has taken place in our thought pattern. If someone suddenly begins speaking in a language one cannot understand, there will be an immediate freeze in the communication. So discontinuity is what we do not accept or like, by our innate nature.

From Inner Meanings of the Qur’an, “Living Islam – East & West” by Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri

November 25, 2001

The month of Ramadan is a most difficult and the most easy and the most glorious month for the Muslims. Indeed, the Din of Islam is simply echoing all of that which were before it. The Din of Islam did not begin with the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) it ended, it was completed. All the prophets, all the messengers were prophets of Islam. They had to submit to the fact that we are here in order to leave, they had to submit to the fact that we are ignorant and that we are seeking knowledge. They had to submit to the fact that we are uncertain and that we are seeking certainty. They had to submit to the fact that we are insecure, seeking security on a personal level as well as that of a society. We are all in submission to these realities. The only difference is that some of us by that submission and that auba we get more and more tuned to the presence of eternal light and therefore we begin transformation rather than information. We all begin wanting to be informed but we all want to end up being transformed in the knowledge that Allah is in charge, that the glorious Lord and the Creator…… He has never neglected anything in existence because Allah’s permeates everything in existence known and unknown. Allah gives us constant opportunities for us to rediscover. Allah tells us in the Qur`an that he has created us all from one self and therefore equally in the eyes of God. We are all the same in the eye of Allah’s except according to our degree of abandonment according to our degree of detachment of less eagle, less of our animal self. More and more of the higher self which according to Allah’s is above the angels. We can be worse than the animals and we can be above the angels, this is the freedom we have.

From Eid Talk by Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri

December 2, 2001

Ramadan Reflection

Behind all, is a constant One
His radiance pales the shinning sun

But we do not see Him through our veils
Our lower self’s winds fill our sails

We spend our days chasing the shadow show
From hence life came we do not know

But soon death will knock at our door
And we will have to look some more

At where we have come and where are we going
And what our actions in this life are sowing

Is what we are doing leading to know Him?
Or are we following every passing whim?

To witness His names and attain true being
Requires awareness, the true art of seeing

It takes remembrance of the reality
For knowledge, light and solemnity

To lift the veils of the shadow show
To see things as they are and come to know

So take the mantle of doing without
And restrict the self and have no doubt

That from denial comes relief
To see the truth behind every leaf

For hidden within us is the universe
The Qur`an unveils it verse after verse

So rejoice it is Ramadan take to the fast!
For this month of barakat will not last

Soon the month of fasting will fly away
And all the habits that we have kept at bay
Will come forward to have their appetites display
Without restriction of the Ramadan day

But for all those of subtle light
Those whom have attained inner delight

Will make their fast last all the year
Making their lives so precious and dear

For they are the true ones that have found the treasure
That all life comes in a clear balance and measure

So seek His knowledge and turn away from the plight
To rejoice in the splendor of His eternal Light.

From Poems by Hajj Mustafa Ali

December 9, 2001

The Primal Pattern

Human beings are conditioned to:

Be healthy and well.

Seek and enjoy good food.

Seek comfort and ease.

Seek a clear and healthy mind.

To know what is needed and not to be kept in ignorance.

Have good relationships.

Give and receive love.

To be secure emotionally and materially.

To be content with the moment.

To be balanced between the opposites of:

Action and rest.

Challenge and idleness.

Giving and taking.

Outer action and inner peace.

Once the mapping of the self, heart and Ruh is read,
then a self imposed discipline will come about.
The seeker wants the Ruh to illuminate his actions,
this desire is the ultimate root of moral and ethical character.

From “Ripples of Light” by Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri

December 16, 2001

I thank Allah for His infinite mercies upon us. That mercies that are visible and the mercies which are invisible. The ultimate mercy of having created us in order to discover the reality behind all known and unknown realities. Allah and His eternal light. I tank Allah for enabling us to gather today to celebrate and rejoice for what is called Eid. Eid in Arabic is from the word that leads to the meaning of returning. ……
So that we return back and back to rejoice, and for us to celebrate and glorify Allah, and give gratitude that we have been glorified as human beings, so that we discover the world of the seen allowing the world of the unseen to impinge upon us and leading us into the next phase of life.

From Eid Talk by Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri

December 23, 2001

Once ten learned men approached ‘Ali and said, “We seek your permission for our putting a question to you.”.

‘Ali replied, “You are at perfect liberty.”

They said, “Of knowledge and wealth which is better and why? Please give a separate answer to each of us.”

‘Ali gave the following ten answers:

1. Knowledge is the legacy of the prophets. Wealth is the inheritance of the Pharaohs. Therefore knowledge is better than wealth.
2. You are to guard your wealth but knowledge guards you. So knowledge is better.
3. A man of wealth has many enemies while a man of knowledge has many friends. Hence knowledge is better.
4. Knowledge is better because it increases with distribution. While wealth decreases by that act.
5. Knowledge is better because a learned man is apt to be generous while a wealthy person is apt to be miserly.
6. Knowledge is better because it cannot be stolen while wealth can be stolen.
7. Knowledge is better because time cannot harm knowledge. But wealth rusts in course of time and wears away.
8. Knowledge is better because it is boundless while wealth is limited and you can keep account of it.
9. Knowledge is better because it illuminates the mind while wealth is apt to blacken it.
10. Knowledge is better because knowledge induced the humanity in our Prophet to say to God, “We worship Thee as we are Your servant,” while wealth engendered in Pharaoh and Nimrod the vanity which made them claim godhead.

From the Nuradeen Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 4, July 1981

December 30, 2001

(c) Contention and (d) Quarrelsomeness. Contention and quarrelsomeness are both based on discord and disharmony, and are therefore aspects of ignorance. These two vices cause intimacy and friendship to disappear, producing instead repulsion, separation, dislike, hostility and ultimately destruction and breakdown, for the entire world and its functions and the universe itself depend on familiarity, love, harmony and unity.

Quarrelsomeness is among those basic corruptions that disrupt the order of the universe. As such, it is one of the most abhorred and destructive of vices. Engaging in contention or quarrelsomeness is to preserve one’s own position while attacking another’s. It is essentially destructive and negative.

The manner of resolving a dispute is as important as the reason for it. Quarrelsomeness only brings about greater anger, which in turn casts veil upon veil over ignorance. Instead of illuminating the heart of the matter, the darkness of ignorance is reinforced. It must therefore be stopped. The remedy is to bite one’s tongue. Simply not to reply. Silence.

The treatment requires awareness and insight. The remedy can occur if one does not cling to a fixed image of oneself and one’s position and reputation. Once a person sees that what one is doing is causing greater discord and dispersion, then the process of reduction and of an eventual end to one’s pugnacious ways may occur. With that realization, one will only respond if it is of help or positive benefit to another, and if it upholds justice. This positive response will neutralize the contention, whereupon clarity will prevail and all will benefit.

From “The Journey of the Self” by Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri