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Showing posts with label Sufi Story. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sufi Story. Show all posts

Monday, February 1, 2010

How to please Allah

Hazrat Ibrahim ibn Adham, when he was still an emperor bought a slave and asked him a few questions. The answers so impressed him that he freed the slave and submitted himself to the path of God. He eventually became a spiritual King and obtained nearness of God.

The nature of the conversation is reproduced below for our benefit:

Hazrat Adham: What will you eat?
Slave: Whatever you will feed me.
Hazrat Adham: What will you wear?
Slave: Whatever you will give.
Hazrat Adham: What is your name?
Slave: Whatever you wish to call me will be my name.
Hazrat Adham: What would you like to do?
Slave: Whatever you will command me to do.
Hazrat Adham: Do you have any desire?
Slave: What does a servant have to do with desires?

There is something very important that we could learn from this conversation especially for those who aspire to please Allah and to obtain nearness to Him.

If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness, and fears - Glenn Clark

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Doorkeeper of the Heart


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 God, 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.

A story as related by Rabiatul Adawiyah.

I saw myself in a wide green garden, more beautiful than I could begin to understand. In this garden was a young girl. I said to her, "How wonderful this place is!"

"Would you like to see a place even more wonderful than this?" she asked.
"Oh yes," I answered. Then taking me by the hand, she led me on until we came to a magnificent palace, like nothing that was ever seen by human eyes. The young girl knocked on the door, and someone opened it. Immediately both of us were flooded with light.

God alone knows the inner meaning of the maidens we saw living there. Each one carried in her hand a serving-tray filled with light. The young girl asked the maidens where they were going, and they answered her, "We are looking for someone who was drowned in the sea, and so became a martyr. She never slept at night, not one wink! We are going to rub funeral spices on her body

"Then rub some on my friend here," the young girl said.
"Once upon a time," said the maidens, "part of this spice and the fragrance of it clung to her body -- but then she shied away."
Quickly the young girl let go of my hand, turned, and said to me:

"Your prayers are your light;
Your devotion is your strength;
Sleep is the enemy of both.
Your life is the only opportunity that life can give you.
If you ignore it, if you waste it,
You will only turn to dust."

Then the young girl disappeared.

In love, nothing exists between breast and Breast.
Speech is born out of longing,
True description from the real taste.
The one who tastes, knows;
the one who explains, lies.
How can you describe the true form of Something
In whose presence you are blotted out?
And in whose being you still exist?
And who lives as a sign for your journey?


Excerpts from Doorkeeper of the Heart Versions of Rabi'a by Charles Upton

If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness, and fears - Glenn Clark

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Tahajjud Rabiatul Adawaiyah



Rabiatul Adawiyah seorang sufi wanita yang sangat terkenal pernah bermimpi menerima suruhan supaya ia tetap mengerjakan solat Tahajjud meskipun ia sedang sakit.

Beliau menjelaskan bahawa ketika ia sakit itu ia tidak dapat sembahyang Tahajjud sebagaimana kebiasannya sebelumnya. Maka, untuk menggantikan amalan tersebut dia membaca al-Quran pada waktu siang kerana ia tahu bahawa membaca al-Quran sama pahalanya dengan berjaga malam dalam ibadat.

"Namun, setelah aku kembali sihat aku terus melakukan kebiasaan membaca al-Quran itu. Lalu pada suatu malam aku bermimpi berada di sebuah padang yang luas yang dipenuhi tumbuhan yang menghijau. Di tengah-tengah padang luas itu ada sebuah istana yang sa-ngat cantik. Maka aku pun pergi bersiar-siar mengelilingi taman yang indah itu. Ketika itulah aku terpandang seekor burung sedang diburu oleh seorang kanak-kanak perempuan. Aku asyik menyaksikan kecantikan anak itu dan burung yang diburunya. Aku tidak tahu mengapa ia melakukan demikian rupa.

Akhirnya aku berkata kepada anak itu: "Mengapa engkau hendak menangkap burung yang cantik itu. Sesungguhnya aku belum pernah melihat burung secantik itu. Bukankah lebih baik ia dibiarkan lepas terbang sesuka hatinya di taman ini?" Lalu anak itu berhenti mengejar burung itu. Sebaliknya ia datang ke arahku dan membawa aku pergi berkeliling di taman yang indah itu hingga kami tiba-tiba sudah berada di pintu istana yang besar itu. Anak itu mengetuk pintu istana sambil meminta dibukakan pintu, maka pintu itu terbuka dengan sendirinya. Dari dalam istana terpancar cahaya yang terang benderang. Kemudian anak itu mempersilakan aku masuk ke dalam istana. Alangkah cantiknya istana itu dari dalam, lebih cantik daripada dipandang dari luar.”

"Aku dibawa berjalan-jalan mengelilingi istana itu. Di bahagian dalamnya kami berjumpa dengan beberapa pelayan yang sangat cantik wajahnya sedang membawa bejana-bejana yang berisi wangi-wangian. Anak itu bertanya: "Hendak ke mana kamu semua, wahai para pelayan?" Mereka menjawab: "Kami hendak pergi berjumpa dengan orang yang mati syahid kerana terbunuh di lautan."

"Setelah diam sebentar anak itu bertanya lagi:

"Apakah kamu tidak mahu memberi wangian itu sedikit kepada orang yang ada bersamaku ini."

Mereka menjawab: "la sudah pernah mempunyai wangian tapi ia telah membuangnya."

Kemudian anak itu menghadap ke arah aku, lalu mengucapkan kata-kata yang indah. Setelah ia selesai mengucapkannya ia pun terus menghilang. Aku pun terbangun dari tidur.

Mimpi itu begitu mengesankan di hati beliau, kerana setiap kali ia menceritakannya ia akan menangis terisak-isak. Sejak peristiwa itu beliau tidak pernah lagi meninggalkan solat Tahajjud walaupun ketika sedang sakit sehinggalah beliau meninggal dunia.

If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness, and fears - Glenn Clark

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

A story of Rabiatul Adawiyah



Below is a story of Rabiatul Adawiyah who one day sent Hasan al Basri three things—a piece of wax, a needle, and a hair.

“Be like wax,” she said. “Illumine the world, and yourself burn.

Be like a needle, always be working naked. When you have done these two things, a thousand years will be for you as a hair.”

“Do you desire for us to get married?” Hasan asked Rabiatul Adawiyah.

“The tie of marriage applies to those who have being,” she replied. “Here being has disappeared, for I have become naughted to self and exist only through Him. I belong wholly to Him. I live in the shadow of His control. You must ask my hand of Him, not of me.”

“How did you find this secret, Rabiatul Adawiyah ” Hasan asked.

I lost all ‘found’ things in Him,” She answered.

“How do you know Him?” Hasan enquired.

“You know the ‘how’; I know the ‘howless’,” Rabiatul Adawiyah said

Note to readers - During our journey to find our trueself, once we have reach certain level-meaning of the words uttered by Rabiatul Adawiyah would become clear to us -  until then it will remain a mystery to be discovered, understood and hopefully experience.

Hassan al Basri was trying to ask Rabiatul Adawiyah about the secret. What he got is only an indirect answer from her. It is a secret that she wanted him to discover himself!

If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness, and fears - Glenn Clark