SUFI WISDOM

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.