‘Adiyy ibn Haatim said: “The people destined for the Fire will be ordered towards Paradise until they come close to it and smell its fragrance, see its palaces and what Allaah has prepared in it for its people. Then an announcement will be made that they be turned away from it. There will be no portion for them in it. They will return in loss and ruin just like the ones before them. Then they will say: ‘O our Lord! If you had entered us into the Fire before You showed us what You have shown us from Your reward and what You have prepared for your friends and allies, it would have been easier upon us.’ Then the Exalted will say: ‘This is what I intended with you. When you used to be alone you would combat me (or show boldness to Me) with grave sins and when you used to meet people you would meet them with humility. You would show to the people other than that which you used to give Me from your hearts. You feared people but you did not fear Me. You honored the people but you did not honor Me, you abandoned actions for the people but you did not abandon them for Me. This day, will I make you taste a tormenting punishment as well as prevent you from receiving that reward.”

There are five signs of righteousness:

a gentle disposition and a soft heart, shedding tears of regret, ascetism and not caring about the world, being unambitious, and having a conscience.

- Shaqiq al Balkhi

Al-Hasan al-Basri was once asked:

“Why is it that we cannot uphold prayers at night?”

He answered: “You are shackled in your own sins”.

These are collected in al-Ghazzali’s ‘Ihya’ ‘Ulum ad-Din’ (2/195 onwards):

1 – ‘Umar bin al-Khattab said: “If one of you is blessed with affection from his brother, he should hold onto that as tightly as possible, as it is quite rare for one to be blessed with this.”

2 – ‘Umar also said: “Nobody is given anything besides his Islam better than a righteous friend.”

3 – ‘Ali bin Abi Talib said: “Tend to your brothers, as they are your sustenance in this world and the next. Do you not hear the saying of the people of Hell: {“Now, we have neither intercessors nor close friends to help us!”} [ash-Shu'ara'; 100-1]?”

4 – ‘Abdullah bin ‘Umar said: “By Allah, if I fasted all day without eating, prayed all night without sleeping, spent all of my wealth in the Path of Allah, died the day I died, but had no love in my heart for those who obey Allah, and no hatred in my heart for those who disobey Allah, none of this would benefit me in the least.”

5 – ‘Abdullah bin Mas’ud said: “If a man were to stand for seventy years worshipping Allah between the Yemeni Corner and the Maqam of Ibrahim (at the Ka’bah), he would still be resurrected on the Day of Judgement with those whom he loved.”

6 – Ibn as-Sammak said, on his deathbed: “O Allah! You Know that, even if I had disobeyed You, I loved those who obeyed You! So, make this for me a means of nearness to You!”

7 – Mujahid said: “Those who love each other for Allah’s Sake, when they smile at each other, their sins fall from each other, just as the leaves fall from a tree before the winter.”

8 – al-Ghazali said, commenting on the saying of the Prophet: “The strongest bond of faith is to love for Allah and to hate for Allah”: “Because of this, it is a must that a person have those that he hates for Allah’s Sake, just as he has friends and brothers that he loves for Allah’s Sake.”

9 – Abu Hurayrah said: “The slave will be brought between the Hands of Allah – the Exalted – on the Day of Resurrection, and Allah will Say to him: ‘Did you love one of my awliya’, so that I can join you with him?’“

10 – al-Hasan al-Basri said: “Being harsh against a fasiq brings you closer to Allah – the Exalted.”

God kindles the fire of love in the hearts of the chosen, so that their carnal selves are consumed. Once ignited the fire of longing never dies. That is the flame about which the Prophet said, “When God wills the good of his servant, He kindles a light of faith in his heart.”

When they asked him what were the signs of that fire, he replied, “Deviation from the abode of vanity; progression toward the Eternal.”

- Abu Sa’id, “Rabi’a the Mystic”

Funeral – English

I hope I will be that imperfect for the love of my life too.

Your mother by Rashid Bhikha

Your Mother

Yusuf Islam

Who should I give my love to?
My respect and my honor to
Who should I pay good mind to?
After Allah
And Rasulullah

Comes your mother
Who next? Your mother
Who next? Your mother
And then your father

Cause who used to hold you
And clean you and clothes you
Who used to feed you?
And always be with you
When you were sick
Stay up all night
Holding you tight
That’s right no other
Your mother (My mother)

Who should I take good care of?
Giving all my love
Who should I think most of?
After Allah
And Rasulullah

Comes your mother
Who next? Your mother
Who next? Your mother
And then your father

Cause who used to hear you
Before you could talk
Who used to hold you?
Before you could walk
And when you fell who picked you up
Clean your cut
No one but your mother
My mother

Who should I stay rigt close to?
Listen most to
Never say no to
After Allah
And Rasulullah

Comes your mother
Who next? Your mother
Who next? Your mother
And then your father

Cause who used to hug you
And buy you new clothes
Comb your hair
And blow your nose
And when you cry
Who wiped your tears?
Knows your fears
Who really cares?
My mother

Say Alhamdulillah
Thank you Allah
Thank you Allah
For my mother.

My greatest Need is You

 

Your hope in my heart is the rarest treasure
Your Name on my tongue is the sweetest word
My choicest hours
Are the hours I spend with You –
O Allah, I can’t live in this world
Without remembering You–
How can I endure the next world
Without seeing Your face?
I am a stranger in Your country
And lonely among Your worshippers:
This is the substance of my complaint.

 

Rabia Al-Basri

 

My 1 cent worth of thoughts

 

How many times can we truly say that all we need is Him?

Can we honestly say that He is the rarest treasure in our hearts?

Can we say that our inconsistent and often far and between remembrance of

Him is the sweetest word?

How many hours of devotion to we spend with the Creator

who gave us all of our lives to worship Him?

Do we have the courage and humility to truly declare to our Lord

that we live ONLY for Him?

Do our deeds warrant us seeing Him?

Can we guarantee that our lives have been lived only for Him so much so that we are mere strangers and passersby in this strange world we call our home?

 

This poem was written by a woman Sufi poet who was born into poverty. But many spiritual stories are associated with her and what we can glean about her is reality merged with legend. These traditions come from Farid ud din Attar a later sufi saint and poet, who used earlier sources. Rabia herself though has not left any written works.

After her father’s death, there was a famine in Basra, and during that she was parted from her family. It is not clear how she was traveling in a caravan that was set upon by robbers. She was taken by the robbers and sold into slavery.

Her master worked her very hard, but at night after finishing her chores Rabia would turn to meditation and prayers and praising the Lord. Foregoing rest and sleep she spent her nights in prayers and she often fasted during the day.

There is a story that once, while in the market, she was pursued by a vagabond and in running to save herself she fell and broke her arm. She prayed to the Lord .

 

“I am a poor orphan and a slave, Now my hand too is broken.  But I do not mind these things if Thou be pleased with me. ”

 

and felt a voice reply:  

    “Never mind all these sufferings. On the Day of Judgement you shall be accorded a status that shall be the envy of the angels even”

One day the master of the house spied her at her devotions. There was a divine light enveloping her as she prayed. Shocked that he kept such a pious soul as a slave, he set her free. Rabia went into the desert to pray and became an ascetic. Unlike many sufi saints she did not learn from a teacher or master but turned to God himself.

Throughout her life, her Love of God. Poverty and self-denial were unwavering and her constant companions. She did not possess much other than a broken jug, a rush mat and a brick, which she used as a pillow. She spent all night in prayer and contemplation chiding herself if she slept for it took her away from her active Love of God.

As her fame grew she had many disciples. She also had discussions with many of the renowned religious people of her time. Though she had many offers of marriage, and tradition has it one even from the Amir of Basra, she refused them as she had no time in her life for anything other than God.

More interesting than her absolute asceticism, however, is the actual concept of Divine Love that Rabia introduced.  She was the first to introduce the idea that God should be loved for God’s own sake, not out of fear–as earlier Sufis had done.

She taught that repentance was a gift from God because no one could repent unless God had already accepted him and given him this gift of repentance.  She taught that sinners must fear the punishment they deserved for their sins, but she also offered such sinners far more hope of Paradise than most other ascetics did.  For herself, she held to a higher ideal, worshipping God neither from fear of Hell nor from hope of Paradise, for she saw such self-interest as unworthy of God’s servants; emotions like fear and hope were like veils — i.e. hindrances to the vision of God Himself.

She prayed: 

 ”O Allah! If I worship You for fear of Hell, burn me in Hell,

and if I worship You in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise.

But if I worship You for Your Own sake,

grudge me not Your everlasting Beauty.”

Rabia was in her early to mid eighties when she died, having followed the mystic Way to the end.  By then, she was continually united with her Beloved.  As she told her Sufi friends, “My Beloved is always with me”

 

Ya Rabb, I pale in comparison to her.

Ya Rabb, grant me the strength to overcome my own challenges.

 

Love,

 

Mummy Hestia

A blade of grass

 

Said a blade of grass to an autumn leaf, “You make such a noise falling! You scatter all my winter dreams.”

Said the leaf indignant, “Low-born and low-dwelling! Songless, peevish thing! You live not in the upper air and you cannot tell the sound of singing.”

Then the autumn leaf lay down upon the earth and slept. And when spring came she waked again — and she was a blade of grass.

And when it was autumn and her winter sleep was upon her, and above her through all the air the leaves were falling, she muttered to herself, “O these autumn leaves! They make such a noise! They scatter all my winter dreams.”

 Kahlil Gibran

The story resonates the truth about us and our relationship with those around us. We often think more for ourselves, our own comfort, our own well being and less for those who are experiencing hardship. We hardly ever notice that life comes to a full circle; it may be that in the future we might be facing the very hardship that others are feeling. When we do, do people chide us or do they bear sympathy? What makes grass better than a fallen leaf?

I want to be a blade of grass that welcomes leaves with open arms. For as long as I am a mere blade of grass, I can be trodden by a cattle’s feet. Oh Merciful One, increase in patience and free me from being indignant so that I may share my winter dreams.

Love,

Mummy Hestia

The Seed Market

 

Can you find another market like this?

Where,

with your one rose

you can buy hundreds of rose gardens?

 

Where,

for one seed

get a whole wilderness?

For one weak breath,

a divine wind?

 

You’ve been fearful

of being absorbed in the ground,

or drawn up by the air.

 

Now, your waterbead lets go

and drops into the ocean,

where it came from.

It no longer has the form it had,

but it’s still water

The essence is the same.

 

This giving up is not a repenting.

It’s a deep honoring of yourself.

When the ocean comes to you as a lover,

marry at once, quickly,

for God’s sake!

Don’t postpone it!

 

Existence has no better gift.

No amount of searching

will find this.

 

A perfect falcon, for no reason

has landed on your shoulder,

and become yours.

 

From Essential Rumi

by Coleman Barks

 

I love this poem and I love Rumi’s take on life. Centuries after this Sufi’s death, his words ring true. It is as if he has gained a complete understanding of human nature and Man’s inner struggle with himself as he travels along a path we call life.

I imagined one rose as one act of kindness which can have a multiplier effect such that it sets off a chain that prompts others to sow their rose gardens. I also take the rose as the benefit of one constant dzikr which triggers off hundreds of hours of inner peace.

 

I imagine one seed we plant in charity may sprout a forest vibrant with greenery and life. And one weak breath of istighfar when we are most tested can give us the courage that only Allah knows where it cometh from.

 

I imagine those fears mentioned as the fear of Man being so insignificant that if he were to disappear into the ground or vanish into thin air no one would notice.

 

I imagine the water bead as the insignificant me who is dropping into an ocean of truth where I originally came from trying to seek identity and meaning behind my existence. I fight it because this water bead has sinned and although it has still the form of water, I am no longer the same being Allah had intended for me to be. But He hears me, He heeds the waterbead’s frantic splash as she drowns in an ocean of nothingness. And He loves me. To Him I am still water, and water can be purified. Masyallah.

 

I see the act of giving up the very acts that trangresses Allah’s commands not merely a form of repentance. He does not need my repentance. He needs me to honour myself. He knows I need this and this is what I’ve been constantly praying for in life. He knows I need the reminders and actual physical loss to trip me into the path again.

 

When the ocean of Iman comes upon you and the waves lap around your feet, become one with it for you and the ocean are one. You cannot escape it. Your fear of being drowned in it are just that. Unsubstantiated fear.

I am trying to swim Oh Most Compassionate and Merciful One. Trying to keep afloat so I may reach the Sea of Tranquility. Help me drown my fears and insecurities. Help me deal with the undercurrents that divert me from you so that I do not end up in the watery grave; the abyssal plain beneath that overlies this ocean.

 

The falcom that landed is a sign from You. The falcon is strong, the spirit unyielding, the call almost haunting but yet this shoulder feels the burden of the blessing. That falcon will fly soon into the horizon. Only the spirit remains and the invisible rope lies.

Oh Merciful One,

 

Make this little waterbead strong. Make this little waterbead bond.

 

Love,

 

Mummy Hestia