SUFI WISDOM

"In Allah's garden you gather roses,
Being drunk with divine mysteries:
Hazrat Mehboob-e-Elahi -- the beloved of Allah,
O, how I long for the attar of your company

Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia (d. 1325 A.D.) represents in many ways the pinnacle of the Chishti Order of the Sufis. Hazrat Baba Farid, his spiritual guide, said to him on appointing him as his successor: "Be like a big tree, so that Allah's creation, the human beings in their vast multitudes, may find rest and solace under your shadow." This partly explains why he admitted so many (according to some, including Barani, too many) men into the Chishti order as his disciples. Another reason has been clearly formulated in this way: "History, nonetheless, bears out the wisdom of his open-ended policy . . . To far-flung areas of Uttar Pradesh, Rajastan, Gujarat, Bihar, Bengal and the Deccan, Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia sent able disciples well versed in the Chishti practices, yet sensitive to the needs of the local populace."

With regard to the Sufi path, Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia taught the following: "For a dervish, three things are necessary. They all begin with an 'ain' (an Arabic letter), i.e., Ishq (love), Aql (intelligence) and Ilm (knowledge). Let us discuss these three qualities one by one.

Sufism is, in its essence, the way of love. Love is considered to be a spiritual alchemy by means of which the baser qualities of a human being are transformed into higher ones. In this respect it suffices to say that Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia is known as Mehboob-e-Elahi, the beloved of Allah. Of course the spiritual status of a beloved is much higher than that of a lover.

'Intelligence' changed in the hands of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia into wisdom. His wisdom manifested itself in the shape of service to humanity. About him it has been said: "He was not a miracle-monger of the ordinary sort. He never flew in the air or walked on water with dry and motionless feet. His greatness was the greatness of a loving heart; his miracles were the miracles of a deeply sympathetic soul. He could read a man's inner heart by a glance at his face and spoke the words that brought consolation to a tortured heart."

About 'knowledge', the third faculty of a dervish, it can be said that Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia was one of the greatest scholars
of his day. He wanted to become a Qazi, but gave it all up in his pursuit of inner knowledge. After becoming a Mureed (spiritual disciple) of Hazrat Baba Farid, he lived in extremely poor circumstances. Seeing him, a former friend expressed great surprise as he remembered Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia as one who had begun a very promising career as a scholar. When Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia told all of this to Hazrat Baba Farid, his murshid (spiritual guide) suggested that he should recite the following couplet to his friend:

You are not my fellow traveller.
Tread your own path
May you be affluent.
And I downtrodden.

Then Hazrat Baba Farid ordered him to take a tray of food from the kitchen and carry it on his head to his friend. After doing so, he recited the verse. This deeply moved his friend.

One day, someone told a story of a certain saint who expired while slowly repeating the name of Allah. The eyes of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia, who was listening to this story, filled with tears and he recited this quatrain:

I come running to the end of Your street,
Tears are washing and washing my cheek.
Union with You -- what else can I seek?
My soul I surrender as Your name I repeat.

Nizamuddin Auliya (1238 - 3 April 1325) , also known as Hazrat Nizamuddin, was a famous Sufi saint of the Chishti Order in South Asia, an order that believed in drawing close to God through renunciation of the world and service to humanity. He is one of the great saints of the Chishti order in India. His predecessors were Moinuddin Chishti, Bakhtiyar Kaki and Fariduddin Ganjshakar. They form the initial spiritual chain or silsila of the Chisti order in India in that respective sequence.

Nizamuddin Auliya like his predecessors stressed upon the element of love as a means of realisation of God. For him his love of God implied a love of humanity. His vision of the world was marked by a highly evolved sense of secularity and kindness. It is claimed by the 14th century historiographer Ziauddin Barani that his influence on the Muslims of Delhi was such that a paradigm shift was effected in their outlook towards worldly matters. People began to be inclined towards mysticism and prayers and remaining aloof from the world.

I had supposed that, having passed away

I had supposed that, having passed away
From self in concentration, I should blaze
A path to Thee, but ah! No creature may
Draw near thee, save Thy appointed ways.
I cannot longer live, Lord, without Thee;
Thy Hand is everywhere: I may not flee.

Some have desired through hope to come to Thee,
And thou hast wrought in them their high design:
Lo! I have severed every thought from me,
And died to selfhood, that I might be Thine.
How long, my heart's Beloved? I am spent:
I can no more endure this banishment.

Ahmed Ibn Abu al-Hassan al-Nuri (d. 907 A.D.) was a famous early Sufi. He was born in Bagdad (in 840) where spent most of his life. He is the author of Maqamat al-qulub (Stations of the Hearts). He is famous for saying, " I love God and God loves me" (a'shaqu Allah wa-Allah ya'shaqun) . He is one of the earliest sufis who was clearly mystical as illustrated by his saying "Joining with the Truth is parting from everything else, as parting with everything else is joining with it".

His name "Nuri" means "Man of Light."Al-Nuri was devout and had an ascetic temperament. It is said that when he left for work in the morning, he would buy a few loaves a bread and then distribute them to the poor on his walk. He would then go to the mosque and pray until noon before arriving at work -- never having eaten food for himself.

But even with his compassion and his striving, at a certain point he became frustrated that he was still buffeted with desires and hadn't penetrated to inner mystical truth. He then made a firm resolve to follow God's will in everything and not to be distracted by comforts and desires. He was determined to confront every aspect of himself, even considering the possibility that his past striving and good works had been hypocritical -- a determination to remove all falsity and barriers between himself and God.

In this process, he began to recognize that the carnal mind, the grasping, false self, claimed a portion of everything the heart touched. Thus, when God sent him divine insight, this grasping identity stole a portion of it -- which explained the poverty of his mystical experience to that point. From that point on, he thwarted the false self at every turn. Even in service to others, if he found the carnal mind gaining satisfaction, he quickly stopped and sought new ways to help others. Al-Nuri said that through doing this he slowly discovered the way to true mystic insight.

Sheikh Al-Alawi was a Sufi shaykh in the classic Darqawi Shadhili tradition, though his order differed somewhat from the norm in its use of the systmatic practice of khalwa and in laying especial emphasis on the invocation of the Supreme Name [of God].

In addition to being a classic Sufi shaykh, Sheikh al-Alawi addressed the problems of modern Algerians using modern methods. As well as writing poetry and books on established Sufi topics, he founded and directed two weekly newspapers, the short-lived Lisan al-Din (Language of Faith) in 1912, and the longer-lived Al-balagh al-jazairi (Algerian Messenger) in 1926.

In his preaching and his writings, Sheikh al-Alawi attempted to reconcile Islam and modernity. On the one hand, he criticized Westernization, both at a symbolic level (by discouraging the adoption of Western costumes that lead to ego attachment) and at a practical level (by attacking the growing consumption of alcohol among Algerian Muslims). On the other hand, he encouraged his followers to send their children to school to learn French, and even favored the translation of the Koran into French and Berber for the sake of making it more accessible, a position that was at that time most controversial.

Although Sheikh al-Alawi showed unusual respect for Christians, and was in some ways an early practitioner of inter-religious dialogue, the centerpiece of his message to Christians was that if only they would abandon the doctrines of the trinity and of incarnation "nothing would then separate us."

The great size of his following may be explained by the combination of classic Sufism with engagement in contemporary issues, combined with his own personal charisma, to which many sources, both Algerian and French, speak. Sheikh Al-Alawi's French physician, Marcel Carret, wrote of his first meeting with Sheikh al-Alawi "What immediately struck me was his resemblance to the face which is generally used to represent Christ."

Another branch of the Shadhilia which has groups in Egypt, Indonesia, Turkey and America is the Shadhilia-Batawia founded by Sheikh Ibrahim al-Batawi, for many years professor at al-Azhar. He was a confrere of Sheikh Abdu-l-Halim Mahmud, Shaikh al-Azhar, who was very influential in the revival of Sufism in Egypt. Sheikh Ibrahim’s student, Sheikh Abdullah Nooruddeen Durkee has established the Shadhdhuliyyah-Baddawia order in the US. Sheikh Nooruddeen has translated and transliterated the Qur’an and has compiled two definitive books on the Shadhdhuliyyiah,Orisons and Origins.

the Shadhili-Darqawi-Hashimi is a branch of Shadhili-Darqawi Order , which is firmly established in both Damascus and Jordan. This branch of the Shadhili tariqa was established through Sheikh Muhammad al-Hashimi al-Tilmisani who, as a young man, migrated from North Africa to Damascus with his spiritual guide (murshid), who was a disciple of Sheikh Ahmad al-'Alawi . Sheikh Muhammad al-Hashimi received his authorization (ijaza) to be a murshid of the Shadhili tariqa from Sheikh Ahmad al-'Alawi when the latter was visiting Damascus in the early 1920s.