6- UMMA Discussions on Early Islamic Mysticism- Sufi, Qur'an, Mi'Raj, Poetic and Theological...

7/27/2019 6- UMMA Discussions on Early Islamic Mysticism- Sufi, Qur'an, Mi'Raj, Poetic and Theological Writings by Michael S

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5-4-10In the Name of the Merciful...

From Muhasibi's Book on the Observance of the Rights of God

Preliminary Thoughts and Concepts:

Muhasibi was more concerned with the inclinations (khatarat) of everyday experience. How can we knowtheir source? Which should we follow?1

Ego-self (nafs). Enemy (Satan/Iblis). Deity-Allah. Surah 114.

Much of Muhasibi's text is a psychological examination of the way in which human beings can 'take

refuge' from the inclinations of the 'whispering snub-nose' (Satan) and the inclinations of the ego-self.2

On the Care for the Rights of God Most High during the Various Inclinations That Impact upon the Belief of the

Heart

I said: How does one care for the rights of Allah Most High when inclinations occur? And what are the

indications of such care? And what are the inclinations, anyway?

He said: One cares of them with confirmation. The indication of that is through knowledge of themotivations of the inclinationswhether they motivate the heart toward good or evil3

Inclinations, in my view, are the feelings that swell up in someone before one acts upon a thing. So the

questioner is asking how do we know if an inclination is okay?. Confirmation is confirming an inclination is

okay.

I said: Where do the inclinations come from and what are their kinds? That is, are they of one kind or

several?

He said: Their origin is either from the desire of the ego-self, from reason after its illumination by AllahMost High, or from the enemy. Thus there are three modes of inclination.

Elaborating on these three sources of inclination:

As for illumination of the Compassionate...'It is like a road on which are veils, with voices calling from the

lower and higher parts of the road; the voice from the higher part is the counsel of Allah Most High in the heart of

every Muslim.'4

As for the second form of inclination, it is an enticement, something that comes from the self...God Most

High also spoke (12:53) of 'the self that dominates with wrong.'

As for the third kind of inclinations, it is an embroidery, incitement, and whispering insinuation from Satan.

The Most High said (7:200): 'If you encounter an insinuation from Satan, seek refuge in God who is, indeed, The

All-Hearing, The All-Knowing.'5

It is incumbent upon the servant of God to find confirmation in a knowledge that will indicate the source

of the inclination. If he does not confirm with his reason and make his knowledge his guide, he will not be able todistinguish between that which harms him and that which benefits him. One of the ulama said: If you wish that

reason win out over desire, do not rush into an eager act without looking into the consequence.

How can we know the consequence? How can we know the after-life's consequence? Does it matter or is

all that matter is God's acceptance of an act?

1 p. 1762 Ibid.3 p. 1774 p. 1775 p. 178


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I said: What is confirmation (tathabbut)?

He said: Holding in check the ego-self during any action and refusal to rush into an action, that is, patience

before the action.

I said: If the ego-self agitates toward precipitous action, what is going to hold it in check?He said: One should remind it of the watchfulness of god over it, and frighten it with the coming of his

vengeance.

Muhasibi also mentions saying words aloud to remind one's self as well as thinking that tomorrow you willsee the day of judgment.

With reason, knowledge, and confirmation, one can percieve the harm and error within the inclinations

that motivate the heart. Otherwise one is never secure from accepting inclinationsfrom the insinuations of the

satan and from the enticements of the ego-selvesthinking they are from the Compassionate, Most Praised. Or one

might reject and inclination of counsel (tanbih) for the good, thinking it an enticement of the ego-self or an

embellishment of the satan.6

To clarify some of these issues I have taken some portions of Khomeini's Forty Hadith on whispers fromSatan.

Notwithstanding it, in proportion to their devilishness and the degree of Satan's domination over them,

they waste an entire hour and sometimes several hours in order to obtain what is an inescapable necessity, which in

the end remains unachieved! Should this matter be regarded as a result of Satanic insinuation and the work of the

accursedIblis who has put his reins on this wretch and concealed an obvious necessity from him, involving him in

many muharramatsuch as breaking thesalat, neglecting it, and allowing its time to elapse, or as something that is

inspired by inner purity, sanctity and God-fearing?

...Is it not a misfortune that one should remain for years negligent concerning the presence of heart and the remedy of

his disturbed mind, without ever thinking of taking a step in this regard, without regarding it as one of the significant

aspects of worship and without learning the way of acquiring it from those learned in the matters of the heart?7

In other words, in certain aspects, satan's inclinations can lead a person to repeat prayer over and over, or

portions of prayer, to try to make it perfect (thinking these doubts are something from God and to create piety)but

in he end it never gets achieved and keeps the person concerned only with the outter acts and not the acts of the

heart. This is due to ignorance and a lack of knowledge and understanding. As Muhasibi states:

No one can distinguish among these things except through knowledge and confirmation by reason.8

The healthy sight is like reason. The lamp is like knowledge. And watching where he is going is like

confirmationconfirmation through reasonthe seeking of illumination in knowlede and exposing whatever

inclination he experiences to the book and tradition.9

So when he encounters that thing that disguises itself(yaltabisa) and is ambiguous, he takes his time until

he knows. If he doesn't have knowledge, he is obliged to wait however long it takes, until he knows whether GodMost High would be pleased or displeased with his acceptance of the motivation that occurs to his heart. He does not

rush into action hastily without that knowledge.

Related to verses in the Qur'an that mention those who reflect, have intellect, don't reflect, don't reason...

6 p. 1797 http://www.al-islam.org/fortyhadith/26.htm8 p. 1799 Ibid.
http://www.al-islam.org/fortyhadith/26.htmhttp://www.al-islam.org/fortyhadith/26.htm


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On Preparedness for Death and Restraint of Expectation

Preliminary Thoughts and Concepts

Muhasibi's relentless meditation on death serves as a primary antidote to all the forms of egoism. Indeed,as Muhasibi's meditation proceeds, it could be said that egoism is, fundamentally, a forgetfulness of mortality.10

Human beings tend toward a length of expectation, toward the assumption that death and its moment of

accounting will be indefinitely postponed or deferred. This implicit denial of mortality leads the human intoegoism.11

Before getting into this section, what do you think makes someone morbid? Is mentioning death morbid?

Do you think about death? Does this society focus at all on death? If so, how do we prepare?

Muhasibi

-I said: Tell me about preparedness (isti'dad). What is it?

He said: Preparedness is of two kinds. The first kind is obligatory...This preparedness is the godservant's

sincere repentance of sins and errors...If he should find a sin still in need of repentance, he would not be ready to

meet his lord.12

As for the second kind of preparedness, it is an exertion of the heart and body beyond what is obligatory. It

is a person's giving up of what he possesses of the world, except that which has been put in his care.13

Nothing will motivate you toward preparedness for death and toward an end to procrastination more than

restraint of expectation (qasr al-aml).14

-I said: How can restraint of expectation be achieved?

He said:...For the spirit of the godservant is something borrowed and does not know when the owner will

send for its return. When one fears the appointed destiny, he cuts his expectation in the world and he awaits in it his

appointed time. And he awaits the coming of death.15

-I said: How does he attain fear of the appointed destiny?

He said: Through profound knowledge (ma'rifa)of the uncertainty of the appointed timeand knowledge

that the Appointer-of-the-time does not dispute with him, consult him, or inform him when he wishes to take his

spirit from him, taking into account as a lesson those who died before him.16

Knoweledge. No deals with God on death.

-I said: How does one attain that knowledge and understand its lesson?

He said: By continual remembrance and contemplation of the uncertainty of the appointed time and coming

10 Ibid.11 p. 18012 Ibid.13 Ibid.14 p. 18115 Ibid.16 Ibid.


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of death...and the remembrance of those who were taken by sudden death.17

Does continual here accord with our earlier discussion with whatmorbid is?

I said: What is this uncertainty of the appointed time like that I should meditate on it in order to gain amore profound knowledge?

He said: You need only know that death has no hour known to the servant that he might fear that particular

time but be secure at other times.18

For the next number of lines al-Muhasibi lists possible times when death could comeusing broad lines

leaving no time out, simple reinforcing the line above: there is no way of being certain of when death will reach you.

So it becomes clear for the wise and knowledgeable in the order of God Most High that since death has no

known time, one can never be secure from it at any given time. If it does not come down at any particular period of

life one cannot be secure from it in childhood or maturity, in youth or old age. Since it has no particular cause, on

cannot be secure from it in health or in illness, in city or in desert, on land or on sea.19

Is his use of knowledgeable changing our understanding of what if means to be knowledgeable is? Is it

strange for us to be more fearful of, say, an airplane flight than a car ride?

In summary of the past discussion:

When his knowledge of this condition is deepened, then his expectation is shortened. When his

expectation is diminished, he keeps his heart in a state of wariness about death. When his heart is wary, he is on the

watch for death. When he is watchful for death, he hastens to be prepared for it and races to complete good works

before the angel of death can reach his spirit.20

It is also related that 'Ali, God bring him true compassion, said: 'Two things bring ruin: Desire and length

of expectation. Desire blocks access to the real (al-haqq), while length of expectation brings forgetfulness of the

finality (akhira).'21

This entire discussion is not for death in and of itself. It is for remembering that intense moment where you

are in front of your Lord and you see your deeds and you see Awe and Fear in their truest archetypes right before

you. It is for, as al-Muhasibi mentions, finality: when all things that we know cease.

I also found the last quoted hadith mentioned elsewhere in Imam Khomeini's Forty Hadith. I think it is

useful to bring this in to help clarify certain points with slightly different language:

`Ali (A) said, 'I am apprehensive for you on account of two things: submission to desire and cherishing of

inordinate hope. As to desire, it prevents one from haqq (Truth, righteousness ,God); and as to inordinate hope, it

makes man oblivious of the Hereafter.'

Exposition:

Literally hawiya means 'to love', 'to desire' and 'to become fond of something'. It may either be somethingcommendable or abominable, or it may be something towards which one is inclined as a result of natural urge. The

carnal self is inclined towards lust and desire, if it is not bridled by reason and the Shari'ah. But the possibility of

17 Ibid.18 Ibid.19 p. 18220 Ibid.21 Ibid.


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hawdbeing used here as a legal term (haqiqah Shar`iyyah) with a special meaning, as maintained by some scholars,seems remote.

The phrase gives the sense of repelling something, turning away, preventing or dissuading from something. But

here the verbsadda is used in the transitive sense of stopping and preventing. God willing, we shall discuss the two

evils and their consequent conditions: first, that of being prevented from the truth and from God; and, secondly, that

of obliviousness of the Hereafter. We implore God's assistance in this regard.

However, it is essential to mention here that unless man does not wake up to the fact that he is a traveller

with an unescapable journey lying ahead and a destination towards which he must move, he will not muster the

resolution necessary to reach his goal.

However, it is enough to say that one of the biggest obstacles in the way of the awakening that leads one to

forget his destination and neglect his journey and deadens his will and resolution is the feeling that there is plenty oftime for the journey, that if one does not set out today he may do it tomorrow, if not this month then the next and so

on.

Is this day by day theme common amongst us?

This prolonging of hope by you and me arises from self love and is the most masterly of the guiles of the

accursed Satan. Through it he distracts our attention from the Hereafter and keeps us from attending to its affairs.22

22 http://www.al-islam.org/fortyhadith/10.htm
http://www.al-islam.org/fortyhadith/10.htmhttp://www.al-islam.org/fortyhadith/10.htm

6- UMMA Discussions on Early Islamic Mysticism- Sufi, Qur'an, Mi'Raj, Poetic and Theological...

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