Wayfaring towards the Beloved

The Almighty Allah (swt) created man to worship; a worship which is based on knowledge and is as a result of knowing Him (swt). From the ways to know Allah (swt) is to study the universe, His divine books and finally to discover the self, the treasure which lies within every single one us!

There is no distance between the servant and his Master (swt) except the obstacle which he himself has placed and created by his actions which has veiled and distanced Allah (swt) from His servant as Imam Sadiq (as) in his supplication is reported to have said:

“The seeker after You has a near distance to You. And verily, You are not veiled from Your creatures unless deeds veil You from them! “

The Nafs is the main obstacle which creates veils between the servant and his Master (swt), and the one who has control over himself is someone who is able to overcome many of the challenges he faces on his journey towards Allah(swt) and is the bravest of men as the Commander of the Faithful is reported to have said:

“The bravest person is the one who could dominate over the passions of his self.”

So in order for man to fulfil his purpose in life and his creation he has to remove these veils and obstacles which he has and is placing between him and his Lord the infinite and absolute every single day and moment. Once he is purified and the veils are lifted and he has discovered who he truly is then his worship will be different than before and will taste the sweetness of communicating with Allah (swt) as Imam Sajjad (as) says:

“My God, who can have tasted the sweetness of Thy love, then wanted another in place of thee? Who can have become intimate with Thy nearness, then sought removal from thee?”

This article covers only a few points and instructions which is helpful in ones journey toward Allah (swt).

1. Having vigilant over the self (nafs). Which means one should over guard his heart from any sort of temptations. He should not neglect it even for a moment; for otherwise he would be deceived by his carnal desires.
2. One must be strict in guarding his self against committing any type of sin. During a period of twenty four hours he must fix a time for self scrutiny and with extreme accuracy should review his daily deeds and should seriously scrutinize his self as Imam Ali (as) is reported to have said: “Before being audited on the Judgment Day better self-scrutinize your deeds in this same world.”
3. To be in constant remembrance of Allah (swt) as it is reported in a narration: “Remembrance of God is the key to proximity (to Him).”
4. To keep vigil in nights in contemplation, worship, supplication and thinking. This practice is con­sidered to be from the most important acts of the wayfarer. In the praise of the virtuous Allah (swt) says: They used to sleep but little of night…. (51:17)
5. Eating only when he feels absolutely hungry. (5, 6 and7 are from the instructions of Imam Sadiq (as) to Unwan al-Basari.)
6. Whoever threatens you with abusive language, you should promise him good wishes and advice.
7. Whoever accuses you, you must say in reply: If you said it right may God forgive me and if you lied then may God forgive you.
8. One should maintain his ablution all the times i.e. whenever he terminates ablution he should perform it again. The Holy Prophet (s) is reported to have said: “The God-Almighty said: ‘Whoever after termination of ablution does not perform it again has been unfaithful to me ….

Finally and most importantly the wayfarer towards Allah(swt) should shut his eyes from looking at what is prohibited and is not beneficial; his ears should not listen to slander, vilification and obscene words; his tongue needs to be protected from the same kind of errors and the lips should be sealed from speaking what is devoid of benefit. The wayfarer should protect his stomach from unlawful and suspect things, and in the case of lawful things also he should not consume greedily, lustfully in a state of being oblivious of Allah (swt); and he should protect his feet and hands as well as his sexual organs from what is unlawful prohibited.

So it is essential for the seeker of Allah (swt) to change the darkness of ignorance of his heart into illumination by means of the light of knowl­edge, to attain the light of certainty (yaqin)by removing the darkness of doubt, to reach Tawhid by coming out of the darkness of polytheism, and to attain the light of faith by freeing himself from the perplexity of negation.(Adab al-Suluk: A Treatise on Spiritual Wayfaring).

Oh Lord! Be kind to us. Bestow upon us Your love and knowledge and guide us from darkness towards illumination.  If You, Yourself make us know You, we would certainly love You. Your Love would burn whatever falsehood, ignorance and arrogance which exist; rather the fire of Your love will burn down whatever veils exist between You and us. And we would become the way -you want Your friends to be.

By Mohammad Ehsan Rangiha

Credits: Pictures from flickr user Mohammed J