Imam Ghazali's last word

Imam Ghazali woke up one early morning and as usual offered his prayers and then enquired what day it was, his younger brother, Ahmad Ghazali replied,"Monday." He asked him to bring his white shroud, kissed it, stretched himself full length and saying "Lord, I obey willingly," breathed his last.

And underneath his head rest they found the following verses; composed by him, probably, during the night.

        "Say to my friends, when they look upon me, dead
        Weeping for me and mourning me in sorrow
        Do not believe that this corpse you see is myself
        In the name of God, I tell you, it is not I,
        I am a spirit, and this is naught but flesh
        It was my abode and my garment for a time.
        I am a treasure, by a talisman kept hid,
        Fashioned of dust, which served me as a shrine,
        I am a pearl, which has left it's shell deserted,
        I am a bird, and this body was my cage
        Whence I have now floron forth and it is left as a token
        Praise to God, who hath now set me free
        And prepared for me my place in the highest of the heaven,
        Until today I was dead, though alive in your midst.
        Now I live in truth, with the grave - clothes discarded.
        Today I hold converse with the saints above,
        With no veil between, I see God face to face.
        I look upon "Loh-i-Mahfuz" and there in I read
        Whatever was and is and all that is to be.
        Let my house fall in ruins, lay my cage in the ground,
        Cast away the talisman, it is a token, no more
        Lay aside my cloak, it was but my outer garment.
        Place them all in the grave, let them be forgotten,
        I have passed on my way and you are left behind
        Your place of abode was no deweling place for me.
        Think not that death is death, nay, it is life,
        A life that surpasses all we could dream of here,
        While in this world, here we are granted sleep,
        Death is but sleep, sleep that shall be prolonged
        Be not frightened when death draweth night,
        It is but the departure for this blessed home
        Think of the mercy and love of your Lord,
        Give thanks for His Grace and come without fear.
        What I am now, even so shall you be
        For I know that you are even as I am
        The souls of all men come forth from God
        The bodies of all are compounded alike
        Good and evil, alike it was ours
        I give you now a message of good cheer
        May God's peace and joy for evermore be yours."

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Hazrat Rabi'a al-Adawiyya al-Qaysiyya (ra) - Quotations

Hazrat Rabi'a al-Adawiyya al-Qaysiyya (ra) -Quotes

 Indeed your days are numbered, for when one day passes, a significant portion of your life has passed away. And when that portion has fled, soon it will come to pass that your whole life has disappeared. As you know this, strive always towards the performance of good deeds.

Repentance is attained by the saints with the Divine grace and it comes from the side of God who enlightens the hearts of those whom He loves. Seeking a formal forgiveness is the sin for lying. If I seek repentance of myself, I shall have need of repentance again. 

 Seclusion is the soul's ideal preparation for reaching God. It is in the state of solitude that the soul contemplates on the attributes of God. 

The best thing for a servant who desires to be near his Lord, is to possess nothing in this world or the next save Him. 

I have not served God for fear of Hell, for I should be like a wretched hireling, if I did it for fear; nor for love of Paradise, for I should be a bad servant if I served for the sake of what was given, but I have served Him only for the love of Him and out of desire for Him. 

'O God, You are aware that the sole longing of my heart is to be totally surrendered to your command. The very light of my eyes is service to Your court. If it were up to me, I would never cease serving you, even for an hour. Yet you have caused me to be subject to a creature. For this, I come late to your service.'

Hazrat Malik bin Dinar (ra) has described Hazrat Rabia (ra)'s life-style as follows:


I visited the saint. She possessed a pitcher with a crack in it which she employed both for ablutions and drinking; instead of a pillow, she used a brick. There was also an old straw mat. My heart was anguished at the sight, and I pleaded with her, 'I have wealthy friends; only indicate it and I’ll see that they regard you favourably.' 'You are wrong Malik,' she replied, 'my Provider is their Provider too, isn't He?' 'Of course,' I replied. 'Do you imagine,' she rejoined, that He has forgotten the poor because of their poverty, while assisting the rich because they are wealthy?' 'No,' I answered. 'Since He is aware of my state then,' she went on, 'what need is there to remind Him? If this is how He likes it, my, wish is one with His.'




Hazrat Rabi'a al-Adawiyya al-Qaysiyya (ra) was a Mystic Sufi saint from Iraq. She lived during the 8th Century and was born in Basra, a seaport in southern Iraq where she spent the vast majority of her life. Much of her early life is narrated by Hazrat Fariduddin Attar (ra), a later Sufi saint and poet, who used earlier sources. She did not leave any written works herself.

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My Lord

Eyes are at rest, the stars are setting.

Hushed are the stirrings of birds in their nests,

Of monsters in the ocean.

You are the Just who knows no change,

The Balance that can never swerve,

The Eternal which never passes away.

The doors of Kings are bolted now and guarded by soldiers.

Your Door is open to all who call upon You.

My Lord,

Each love is now alone with his beloved.

And I am alone with You. 

Rabia al Basri

Hazrat Rabbia Basri Rahmatullahe alayha is one of the earliest mystic saints of Islam. She left her worldly life and devoted herself for Allah (swt) in Islam. She was a Muslim Saint and a Sufi Mystic (717–801 C.E.)

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Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani -Quotations from Jala'al khawatir

Jala' al-Khawatir (The Removal of Cares)

The Fourty-Fourth Discourse
A certain righteous man is reported as having said: "The hypocrite [munafiq] remains in one and the same spiritual condition for forty years at a stretch, while the champion of truth [siddiq] experiences transformation forty times every single day."
The hypocrite is totally involved with his lower self [nafs], his passions [hawa], his natural inclinations [tab'], his devil [shaitan] and his interest in the things of this world [dunya]. He is committed to their service, from which he never takes a break. He is never known to disagree with their point of view, and he will never say a word to contradict them. His only interests are food and drink, clothes, sexual intercourse and the accumulation of wordly goods, and he does not care how he comes by them. He cultivates his physical body and his worldly affairs, but he lets his heart and his religion [din] go to waste. He tries to please his fellow creatures [khalq], but he gives offense to the Creator [Khaliq]. The longer his hypocrisy [nifaq] continues, the harder and darker his heart becomes, so he is quite unmoved and unaffected by any spiritual counsel [maw'iza], takes no notice of any admonition ['iza], and pays no attention to any reminder. Thus it is undoubtedly a fact that he remains in one and the same spiritual condition for forty years at a stretch.
The champion of truth [siddiq] cannot possibly remain in such a static condition, because he is entirely at the disposal of the Transformer of hearts [Muqallib al-qulub], immersed in the ocean of His power, so that one wave raises him up and another sends him down. He is moved this way and that by the operations [tasarif] and transformations [taqalib] of the Lord of Truth (Almighty and Glorious is He), like a feather in a windswept desert, like a fresh stalk [khama] in the farmer's field, like the corpse in the hands of the ritual washer of the dead [ghasil], like the baby in the hands of the wet nurse [zi'r] or the midwife, like the ball on the receiving end of the polo player's mallet. He has surrendered both his outer [zahir] and his inner being [batin] to Him, and he is completely satisfied with His management. Far from taking any interest in his eating, his sleeping and his carnal appetites, he is interested only in the service of his Lord (Almighty and Glorious is He) and in earning His good pleasure. This is why a certain righteous man once said: "As for the people [of the Lord], their approach to eating is that of the sick, their form of sleep is the sleep of the drowned, and if they speak it is only out of sheer necessity." How could they not be like this? In their hearts there is something that is quite invisible to others. They have ceased to be aware of anything apart from their Lord. They have absented themselves from this world, the hereafter, and everything else apart from Him. They have settled humbly at His door. They have rested their heads on the threshold of His doorway, in readiness to comply with His orders. They have become accustomed to being contented, to needing nothing. Fate and destiny [al-qada' wa 'l-qadar] are now their servants, and these two approach them in visible form and then carry them on their heads.
If you are not one of the people [of the Lord], they are the people you must serve. You must befriend them, sit in their company and draw close to them. Put your material goods at their disposal. Follow them by emulating their actions, not by repeating their words and saying how excellent and wonderful they are. Carry your righteousness [salah] in your heart; do not wear it as part of your outer clothing. Dress as ordinary people dress, but do not behave as they behave. 

For more information on this article please clink on the link below: 

http://www.al-baz.com/shaikhabdalqadir/Books_and_Text_of_Wisdom/books_and_text_of_wisdom.html

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Hafiz-Some Fill With Each Good Rain

There are different wells within your heart.

Some fill with each good rain,

Others are far too deep for that.

In one well

You have just a few precious cups of water,

That “love” is literally something of yourself,

It can grow as slow as a diamond

If it is lost.

Your love

Should never be offered to the mouth of a

Stranger,

Only to someone

Who has the valor and daring

To cut pieces of their soul off with a knife

Then weave them into a blanket

To protect you.

There are different wells within us.

Some fill with each good rain,

Others are far, far too deep

For that.

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Sufi heart with wings

The Symbol of the Sufi Message

by Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan

The symbol of the Sufi Message, which is a heart with wings, denotes its ideal. The heart is both earthly and heavenly. The heart is a receptacle on earth of the divine Spirit, and when it holds the divine Spirit, it soars heavenward; the wings picture its rising. The crescent in the heart symbolizes responsiveness. It is the heart that responds to the spirit of God, which rises. The crescent is a symbol of responsiveness because it grows fuller as the moon grows fuller by responding more and more to the sun as it progresses. The light one sees in the crescent is the light of the sun. As it gets more light with its increasing response, so it becomes fuller of the light of the sun. The star in the heart of the crescent represents the divine spark which is reflected in the human heart as love, and which helps the crescent towards its fullness. 

http://hazratinayatkhan.org/symbol.php

http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/index.htm

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Did I Not Say To You

Did I not say to you, 

“Go not there, for I am your friend; in this 

mirage of annihilation I am the fountain of life?” 

Even though in anger you depart a hundred thousand years 

from me, in the end you will come to me, for I am your goal.

Did I not say to you, 

“Be not content with worldly forms, for I 

am the fashioner of the tabernacle of your contentment?” 

Did I not say to you, 

“I am the sea and you are a single fish; 

go not to dry land, for I am your crystal sea?” 

Did I not say to you,

 “ Go not like birds to the snare; come, for 

I am the power of flight and your wings and feet?” 

Did I not say to you,

 “ They will waylay you and make you 

cold, for I am the fire and warmth and heat of your desire?” 

Did I not say to you, 

“ They will implant in you ugly qualities 

so that you will forget that I am the source of purity to you?” 

Did I not say to you, 

“Do not say from what direction the servant’s affairs come into order?”

 I am the Creator without 

directions. 

If you are the lamp of the heart, know where the road is to the 

house; and if you are godlike of attribute, 

know that I am your 

Maser.

Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi

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