Milestones in the Journey to Allah
“But those most devoted to Allah…. (who do good deeds for no other reason)….but only the desire to seek the Countenance (Face) of their Lord most high.” 92:20.
The most important duty or the purpose of life is to realise or recognise Allah “Emaan”. Knowing just His name and praying to a concept we do not fully understand just to fool our conscience makes no sense at all. We need to know Allah intimately, and we need to experience Him.
“O you who believe! Do your duty to Allah, seek the means of approach unto Him….” 5:35
When Hazrath Gibreel (AS) asked the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family), what is ihsaan, the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) replied that you see Allah or at least think that He is seeing you.
Realising or seeing Allah gives a person total conviction in his faith. Everything about Islam is actually geared towards taking you towards this goal of realising Allah.
Islam does not tell us what Allah looks like or where we could find Him but instead it provides us with the directions that lead towards Allah and ultimately it is us alone that have to walk down this path to find Him.
We all know that Allah SWT is associated with absolute purity and cleanliness. Islam is all about purifying. cleansing, preparing and understanding ourselves so that we can get close to Allah. The process of purifying is not so much about physical cleanliness but more importantly it is about spiritual purification.
The first step in the path to seeking Allah is TRUTH. Be true to ourselves, be true in all our dealings, search for truth, submit to truth and stand up for truth. Being true to ourselves sounds easy, but it is extremely difficult.
Sometimes we pray and do good deeds but they are worth nothing because we do it for the wrong reasons. It is for this reason that it is good to pray to Allah alone at night, absolutely privately, without telling anyone. Private prayers such as these are generally sincere prayers because it is between us and Allah alone without anyone else knowing or seeing us pray.
The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) has said that Sura Fatiha is the essence of the Holy Qur’aan. It is “wajib” to read this sura in every rakaat of every “Namaaz”. This sura is all about asking Allah for guidance. “Show us the straight way…” With humility and tears in our eyes, we must earnestly and truly beg Allah for guidance in our private prayers.
Guidance is what Allah teaches us to ask for and this is all that we need to ask of Allah. Guidance. If we sincerely ask Him for guidance then He would guide us “on the path of those that have Allah’s blessings – on themselves…” In other words He would guide us to a Pir-o-Murshid (Spiritual Guide) who has Allah’s Grace bestowed on him.
“……Ah! How beautiful is their company.”4:69
These are the words of Allah describing the company of the pious people. Prior to this statement Allah says in this same verse: “All who obey Allah and the Messenger are in the company of those on whom is the Grace of Allah…..” 4:69
Here is the example of Hazrath Moosa (AS) quest of seeing Allah. He said: “O my Lord show (Yourself) to me, so that I might look at you. Allah said: By no means can you see Me (direct), but look upon the mountain, if it stays in its place when I descend on it then you will see Me. When Allah manifested Himself on the mountain it turned to ashes and Hazrath Moosa (AS) fell unconscious. ” 7:143
The story of Hazrath Moosa (AS) wanting to see Allah does not end here. Allah sent him a guide in the form of Hazrath Kizar (AS) but he could not follow the guide’s instructions and they finally parted company. (Sura Khaf). He did not have the patience to bear what he could not understand.
Similarly, we are never going to see Allah directly unless we go through a Pir-o-Murshid. Quite often there would be situations with a Pir-o-Murshid (Just like Kizar AS) where we would just have to have bags of patience and trust him.
Of a surety we would be tested and if we cannot trust him then like Hazrath Moosa (AS) the relationship would end at that point.
Not only would we have to trust our Pir-o-Murshid but we would have to grow to like and then finally love him.
Allah is associated with love. We have to love our Pir-o-Murshid, who is Allah’s messenger to us, to that point where we are prepared to sacrifice it all for him i.e. become “fana fis Sheik”.
This is the most difficult and lengthy process in the journey towards Allah. It takes years and it can only be done with the blessings that a Pir-o-Murshid spontaneously gives from the bottom of his heart. He would only do this when we please him totally and we would only be able to do this if we are true and sincere.
If in Allah we trust and He guides us to the feet of a Pir-o-Murshid, then there should be no doubts about him. There would definitely be things about a Pir-o-Murshid that we would not understand and it is at this time that we would have to have patience and pray that Allah makes it clear to us.
This process of having a Pir-o-Murshid for spiritual guidance is not something new but it is how the Prophet (SAW) taught his companions. They pledged allegiance on his hand (“Baith”) to him on many occasions—they grew to love him more than their children, parents and the whole of humanity.
When this happened then they reached the stage of pleasing and being pleased with Allah.
The Pir-o-Murshid is the spiritual guide who will guide us to realise and understand ourselves. Understanding ourselves leads to the realisation of Allah because Allah is very close to us. These are just two of the many verses that teach us this
“When my servants ask concerning Me, I am indeed close (to them)….” 2:186 and “…for We (Allah) are nearer to him (man) than his jugular vein.” 50:16.
The Pir-o-Murshid will teach us ways in which to control ourselves and perfect ourselves. By bettering ourselves and doing the spiritual exercises that our Pir-o-Murshid prescribes to us, we will purify ourselves and progress to higher stages in spiritual development such as Nafse lawama (“… the self accusing soul..” 75:2) and then to nafse mutmaina (“O soul that is at rest!…” 90:27 89:28.)).
By associating with a Pir-o-Murshid one learns to spiritually converse better and we would understand things more clearly. In our progress we will come to the stage of learning about the Prophet (SAW) and we will grow to love him and we would submit ourselves to him.
A person at this level talks a lot about the Prophet (SAW). In comparison to becoming “fana fis Sheik” becoming “fana fil Rasool” is much quicker and becoming “fana fillah” is even quicker.
Through each stage the spiritual traveller or “arif” begins to realize Allah better and when he completes the last stage he finally gets to completely understand himself and this understanding leads him to understand Allah.
Allah is also associated with knowledge and by associating with a Pir-o-Murshid one gains knowledge about oneself and Allah. Getting guidance is actually getting knowledge. Allah describes Himself as “the Light of the heavens and the earth. 24:35.
This is the famous verse of Light which learned people have written volumes about. Imam Gazzali (RA) in his essay Mishkat Al Anwar states that light refers not to physical light such as the light radiated by the sun or the light that emanates from a light bulb but it refers to knowledge.
Logically, light is lower than knowledge because with light one cannot create knowledge but with knowledge one can create light.
There is yet another stage after “Fana fillah” and this stage is called “Baqua Billah“. The arif (spiritual traveller) has come to the end of his long journey. He has purified himself and made it worthy of being associated with Allah. He has fallen in love with his Pir-o-Murshid which led him to love the Prophet (SAW) and finally to love Allah and in the process he has gained knowledge which he used to kill his carnal soul.
“To Allah do we belong and unto Allah do we return.”
He merges into divinity. In everything, including himself, he sees only Allah. I do not exist – “Thohe thoo, Thohe thoo.” In ecstasy Mansoor Hallaj said “I am the Truth” Moula e Rumi describes such a perfect stage of man in his Matnawi as follows. 2647
“…..by God who knows the thought most deeply hid, who, out of the dust created Adam above all 2648 Who in his body of three cubits long, displayed everything that was contained in the tablets (of destiny) and (the world) of spirit. 2649 and He (God) taught Adam the names and with this knowledge he (Adam) gave instruction to the angels concerning everything that shall come to pass unto everlasting, 2650 So that the angels became beside themselves (in amazement) at his teachings, and gained from his glorifications (of God) a holiness other (than they possessed before). 2651 The revelation that appeared to them from Adam was not (contained) in the amplitude of their heavens, 2652 in comparison to the spaciousness of the range of that pure spirit (Adam), the expanse of the seven heavens became narrow. 2653 The Prophet (SAW) said that God has said, I am not contained in the jar of “high” and “low” (space dimensions): 2654 I am not contained in earth or heaven or even in the empyrean (la Makah) know this for certain O noble one: 2655 (but) I am contained in the true believer’s heart: oh how wonderful! If thou seeks Me, search in those hearts.”
The order of the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) becomes the order of Allah Al Quraan 4:80., Loving the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) becomes loving Allah, Al Quraan 3:31 when the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) forgives then Allah forgives Al Quraan 4:64, when the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) threw dust into the enemy then it was Allah that threw this dust at them and when the Prophet ( peace be upon him and his family) took the allegiance of his companions then his hand was on top and Allah said the Hand of Allah is above. AL Quraan. 48:10. In Quranic terms the Prophet ( peace be upon him and his family) became “The Lamp illuminated” Al Quraan 33:46.
When a mureed (disciple) interacts with a Pir-o-Murshid he would gain knowledge of Allah which would finally enable him to realise Allah with certainty. Not everyone–in reality, very few people will be fortunate to go through all these stages because it requires a lot of sacrifice and hard work.
People that have walked the path say it is a sea of fire and one has to drown in this sea of fire. When these people succeed, then they would be the gems of humanity and they would be the guides to the future generations.
If it is not in our destiny to be one of these chosen ones then at least we must seek them out, spend some time with them and aid them in their mission. Just as we respect and kiss a page that has Allah’s name on it we must kiss and respect the feet of such people that have the secrets of Allah in them.
At the very least Allah must save us from being those that envy and oppose them, those like Pherone, Abdullah ibn ubbay and the cursed Yazid:
“What kept men back from belief when guidance came to them, was nothing but this: they said, “Has Allah sent a man (like us) to be His Messenger.” Al Quraan 17:94
May Allah with the blessings of His chosen ones guide us all and increase us in “irfaan“, which is the knowledge of Allah. Ameen.
“But those who were blind in this world, will be blind in the hereafter…..” 17:72
They will not see Allah, even there. End.
Peace & Salutations upon Muhammad Salallahu Alayhe Wasallam.
Published by Anjuman e Waris e Mohammedi in 2010.
Anjuman e Waris e Mohammedi was founded by Dr/Hakim Hazrath Khwaja Sayed Shareef Ahmed Ali Shah RA, (lovingly known as Hazrath Poona Wale Shah Saib RA).
Author: Mohammed Hassan Gaffoor (WhatsApp +27 84 910 1486)