Beloved, know in
whose presence you sit; know who whispers these words into the
ear of your heart. If you hear me, know me; if you would know
me, you must enter. All of these words are in the way of
metaphors. With what voice shall I call you but the voice of
your own quest? You will see me with the eye of your deepest
yearning, if you see me at all. And if you are searching for me,
it is because I am searching for you. If you understand what I
mean, then let us meet face to face, hand to hand, and soul to
soul.
If you want to go to Damascus, you must find someone who has
traveled that way and who knows all the subtleties, the
difficulties, and the detours in the road; who has reached the
destination and knows every inn along the way. I am the way to
Damascus. I am the way. Where do you want to go? When I say that
I am the way, understand well who it is who is speaking to you.
The way is ancient and everlasting. All who are of the way are
possessed by the way and carried by the way, even while they
carry the way.
When I offer you my hand, look within this hand to see who
touches you, who holds you and who moves you. Know that I and my
Father are one, and all who have come before me and spoken in
this way, in spirit and in truth, speak to you now and offer you
the hand of holy union. This is a vow of the deepest marriage
and before you can commit yourself, you must know whom you face.
How would you know the guide for whom you have been searching if
he stood before you and spoke with you? Look within and without
for the source of this voice. From where does it come? Watch the
way in which he moves and by what is he moved? By what light is
he guided? Whose work does he accomplish? If he comes in the
name of the holy tree, taste the fruit to know what the tree is.
Listen to the heart of the message in every action of the life
of the guide. If it is al-Warith al-Muhammadi, al-Insan al-Kamil,
the perfected one, whom you see, he spends all his time working
in the way because he has no time; the time is God’s. In his
religion, there is no separation between people, male or female,
white or black, of any nation or of any race. In all this, in
every form there is no reality but the reality of God. In the
face of everyone, he sees the face of his beloved Allah. He
loves the poor and he is a prince of the poor (al-fuqara). He
himself is the poorest of the poor, and at the same time he sits
on the throne of infinite richness. There is no existence in him
to veil the existence of God. His cup is always empty, but
filled with the light of God and overflowing with His mercy. He
is moved by the order of God to go wherever His mercy is needed,
to the sick, the prisoners, orphans, widows, and to all who
quest after the water of truth.
All this movement of the slave of God is merely a sign from God
of the depth of His caring for His creation. Every surah, every
picture or chapter in the Qur’an begins with
bismi‘llah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim, in the name of God, the Most
Merciful, the Most Compassionate. The guide is the Qur’an
embodied. Read the holy text in the unfoldment of his life and
you can see that his every picture, every action, and gesture
begins in the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
There is no other meaning to the action of his life but that the
Creator wishes to manifest His mercy directly on the earth, and
to this end He moves His slave.
Know that the perfect slave is one with his Lord, and he is like
one immersed in a great sea who doesn’t swim through the sea by
his own effort or intention, but is borne with the sea and is
one with the sea. Many fathomless currents and hidden pearls are
contained within the depth of the sea; so vast and limitless is
the heart of the guide, because at once he is in the sea and the
sea is in him. When you look into the face of the guide, what do
you see? You see yourself. If you come to the ocean with a cup,
you drink by the cupful. If you come with a teaspoon your spoon
will be filled. If you enter and dissolve in the presence (al-fana`-fi-shaykh),
then you see truly, without limit, beyond form, who you are
facing and who you are whom he faces.
By means of a metaphor, a dream which is an awakening, see with
the eyes of the student (al-murid) who sees through the veil. I
am traveling through a remote village, on a long journey, when I
hear that it just so happens that my shaykh is in town and
receiving visitors. I go to a special area of the town where he
is supposed to be sitting and see there, the mat he is
accustomed to sitting on. I sit in my place on one side of the
mat facing him and, although no body is visible, I am sure I
feel his spiritual presence facing me. Then I see clearly that
he is looking at me. His eyes are dark and beautiful, filled
with mercy and light, like the eyes of his body; but these are
the eyes of his soul, and there is no face but the vastness of
space. Two times the eyes open and close. The first time, they
cast an immense shadow over the mat and myself and the ground
behind me. Then I can see behind me, through the back of my
head, the ancient stone domes of Jerusalem. The second time the
eyes of the soul of the guide open and close, through them pours
a vast sea, which enters into my heart and soul, flooding all my
being with love. Then he holds me with the arms of his soul and
gives me the teaching with the tongue of his soul.
Beloved, know that the guide is the holy bride who wants to wed
you, but only her Beloved within you can truly embrace her. The
bride is your own original truth, which remains virgin and
undefiled beneath the veil of every presence. You cannot know
the guide who sits before you, if you do not know the guide who
is within you and is your own true being. Know yourself; call
this holy being into existence if you wish to know who sits
before you and instructs you in the form of the pretext of the
guide.
How do you become or realize the holy being that you are, for
whom the guide has manifest to reflect? Search about yourself,
my beloved, and know yourself well. What you truly long for, ask
for, so that you may receive it. Call to me from your inner
depth, so that I may meet you in that depth from which you call.
Again I say, drink and surrender; you take from this sea what
you give to this sea. Beloved, I await you. I put my heart, the
truth, under every foot. Know by what you are supported, by what
you are carried, on what ground you stand, and on what path you
travel. Beloved in the hajj, remember, you are walking on my
heart. Then be full of care with every step.
Sidi's
Poetry
The
Love of the Ecstatic
In
the abode of intimacy, in the garden of contentment,
the Beautiful One whilred in the dazzling cup
Beauty kept its promise
with continuos outpouring of purity,
The true companions of hope are with Jesus of the time
They
make wine out of the generosity of guidance
sweetened with Prophetic essences,
Their forms have taken on the garbs
of the night of ascension,
allowing the stars to descend from their orbits
to touch the Earth of the hearts of the friends of God.
Revelation and inspiration cry out in song,
calling the attention of a group inspired to love,
delivered from the trerasure chest of the Unmanifest.
Gabriel comes close, engrossed in his song,
his hands outstretched, carrying the discriminating light.
In
the insie of the Cave, in its inner most chamber
the spark of light sits in the personification of grandeur,
Whence the Ka'bah cries out in longing
with a force that pierces the veil of the Hidden World.
I
praise the Praise that is Manifest,
and that is the Healing for every soul.
Transcendence is contained within it,
veiling unity in the face of Beauty.
Glorifications are prostrated here in strength,
O Companion, love here melts
allowing a vision of the Beauty
that is so generous with Herself.
She
is unveiled,
the Face of Sanctity
that is forever pouring light into every cup.
She
gives,
and in Her giving She is manifest Generosity.
--The
Meadow of Poetic Truths,
Diwan of: Shaykh Muhammad Said al-Jamal
ar-Rifa'i as-Shadhuli
He
who loves Me, knows Me,
and he who knows Me, finds Me.
He
who loves Me, becomes inflamed by My passion,
I have killed him, so that I may bring him back to life.
And
he whom I have killed, I owe him a debt;
And to the one that is owed, I become that which is owed.
There is no difference between Me and him
because I am he and he is I.
--The
Path to Allah, Most High,
The Servant Who Has Need of Allah, Most
High: Shaykh Muhammad Said al-Jamal ar-Rifa'i as-Shadhuli
Fire
has been kindled within my heart and within my liver,
Longing for the Light of the Divine Self, the One and Only;
Then
in a unique way He bestowed upon me the Light of the Self,
Until I became absent from the unity of creation and became One;
I began to
witness Him in every descending order,
And His attentive care in proximity and
even when far apart!
--The
Secret of the Love of God,
Shaykh Muhammad Said al-Jamal ar-Rifa'i
as-Shadhuli
If
you only look at His rising light,
realize that the manifestation of His
Unity is hidden;
If you see this manifestation of Unity
your secret will become firm,
Even if the most experienced person with
sound logic would be perplexed;
For the one with true experience is the
one who receives by his love,
and is thus not affected by the
multiplicity of creation;
Diminishing of the glittering
multiplicity of creation is the rising of the Law of Unity not
its abrogation:
For She (i.e. the Essence of Unity) is
Existence and there is nothing but Her;
So become purified.
-- He
Who Knows Himself Knows His Lord,
Shaykh Muhammad Said al-Jamal ar-Rifa'i as-Shadhuli
Sidi's
Biography
Sidi Shaykh
Muhammad Sa‘id al-Jamal ar-Rifa‘i ash-Shadhuli,
the Guide of the peace, the mercy, and the love to the
way of Allah through the Sufi path a guide of the Shadhdhuliyyah
Tariqah,
founded by as-Shaykh Ali Abu-l-Hasan as-Shadhili in
Egypt in the thirteenth century.
The Shaykh
is a descendent of the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah's peace and
blessings be upon him, through his ancestor, Shaykh Ahmad
ar-Rifa‘i. He was born in Tulkum in the Holy Land in 1935. He is
the spiritual inheritor through the Shadhili line from his Guide
and Master, Shaykh ‘Abdu-r-Rahman Abu-r-Risah of Halab in the
land of Syria,and is one who has kept Sufism alive and at work
as an institution and a school of thought and spiritual
knowledge. In 1997 he restored the 1000 year old Sufi Council
that served in the Holy Land. He is the Head of this Council in
Jerusalem and the Holy Land and has been a teacher and central
figure at the Masjid al-Aqsa or the Dome of the Rock for many
years.
The Shaykh has been living on the Mount of Olives in the
Holy City of Jerusalem since the year 1959. The teaching from
his spirit is very deep and for all those who have a heart and
who listen with this heart. His teaching sheds an entirely new
light on the reality of Sufism and the significance of carrying
this message to everyone in this time.
For many years the Shaykh has been a teacher at the
sacred sanctuary
of al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, which is linked for all Muslims
to the Holy House in Mecca in the tradition of the Night Journey
(al-Mi‘raj) of the Prophet Muhammad from the Ka‘ba in Mecca to
the al-Aqsa Mosque and from there to the heavens. He is well
known to many people both in Palestine and in other countries in
the world. Not only is he a teacher and counselor for all those
who come to be at al-Aqsa, but he is also its custodian, for
through his hand and leadership in these times this Sacred
Precinct has been preserved, in the face of many efforts to
destroy it, as a place of prayer for the Muslim people who come
from all over the world to visit the Holy City of Jerusalem and
to take the blessing of the praying in this Mosque. The Shaykh
has students and followers in the Holy Land as well as in
America and Europe, but it has only been since 1993 that the
order came to his heart to travel to visit other countries. At
the same time the order came from Allah for him to give
teachings to all those in every part of the world who are
sincerely seeking for the truth of their existence, the meaning
of their life, and to heal their wounds. Up until then, the
teaching had been reserved only for studyin his Zawiyah in
Jerusalem.
Shaykh Muhammad Sa‘id al-Jamal is a distinguished person
of international stature. For forty years he has lived in the Holy City of
Jerusalem and has worked consistently with great patience to keep the peace between the people
there.
He began his career at a very young age as an
uncompromising man of God, who had no fear of anyone but God,
and because of this took a stand facing governments any time
they tried to overlook God in their actions or disrespected
people's right to worship God. Being a judge of the courts, he
was a government employee, at the same time that he gave weekly
sermons in al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. He has been the
spiritual counselor to the people of the Holy Land and to all
those who have visited over the past forty years and has given
his life as a sacrifice to this work.
He makes monthly journeys all over the Holy Land to help
the poor and to make sure that everyone has food and clothing.
There are always lines of people at his home and at his office
because they know that they can find real help from him.
The Shaykh opened a Sufi Center in an old building on
the road to Jericho which holds the Prophet Moses' tomb, may the peace and
blessings of God be with him. This center became the head of the
Sufi operations of aid. It has also been used to rehabilitate
drug users and dealers.
In 1994 he made his first visit to America and has
continued to be invited here each year to give seminars and
teachings at schools and centers across the United States. The
Shaykh is not a teacher for a few following a spiritual path but
opens his heart to help everyone from any country or nationality
and he has helped people from all over the world. The real
beloved of God works for all those who are suffering and who
need food and clothes in all this world. He is a leader |who
helps to keep peace no matter what the cost and who serves
humanity without prejudice.
(Information courtesy of
Sidi Muhammad Press)
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